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November 7, 2014

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

It's been one of those dreary fall weeks with the rain coming down nonstop and the wind blowing all the leaves from the trees. Once in a while the sun peaked out from the clouds, but other than that, I have been staying indoors and reading most of the time.

We couldn't find any plays going on last weekend so the best we could do was go out to dinner at one of our local establishments. I had received a gift certificate for my birthday a while back and so we decided to indulge. The Rising Star Cafe in Wheeler has very good food and both Dave and I chose the halibut for dinner which was excellent. We finished it off with a lime tart for dessert.

The local telephone company which we use for our internet and other media devices, decided to "change" their system and so Dave spent a good two hours on the phone with the IT people this week trying to re-do our settings to work with their system. What an ordeal. Of the six devices we use to track email (really? six?) he was able to get five of them reprogrammed. They couldn't get e-mail to work on my antiquated "semi-smart" phone and so we ended up going up to the Verizon store in Warrenton on Sunday to see if they could help. Unfortunately, Dave forgot to bring his phone with him on this trip. All the information that we needed to hook it up is on that phone, so they couldn't do anything for me. They did give Dave some good instructions so that he was able to get it done after we got home. Anyway, since I seem to have the oldest phone they've seen in a while, they tried to talk me into an upgrade. I've been dragging my feet on getting a new phone and they just about had me convinced when we discovered that I won't be able to upgrade to a new phone until March. So, I have a few more months but then I guess I will have to give up and join the 21st Century and get a Smart Phone. I really don't need all the bells and whistles but in order to get some of the things I do want, I don't have a choice.

I mentioned that Dave forgot to take his phone to Verizon and so I have to tell a little story on him. He has been very frustrated because he keeps forgetting to take his phone when he leaves home. He toyed with the idea of posting something on the dashboard to remind him to take it with him, but really didn't want a note on his pretty new car. So he finally came up with this idea - a purple ribbon on the key. It's like tying a string around your finger to remember something. When he puts the key in the ignition, he sees the ribbon and it reminds him to get his phone. So far, it's working. He hasn't forgotten the phone since adding the ribbon. Hey - whatever it takes, right?

While we were in Warrenton, we had to make a stop at Costco for a few things. We ended up with a new "weather" station for the house. Our old one didn't work very well and Dave always had to climb up on the ladder to get rid of the cob webs where the spiders had decided to set up housekeeping inside the wind gauge. The new station has really got some new improvements on it and so far is working great. We haven't decided on a place to put the outside part yet, but I'm thinking it will be a bit lower than the last one so that if we do have to "de-spider" it, at least it won't be 15-feet in the air.

I fed the City of Wheeler on Monday night. No, really! Of the three employees that the city has, two of them are bachelors and they enjoy a good home cooked meal now and then so I invited them over for dinner. I made good old mac and cheese (comfort food for a rainy day) and they really dug in! This casserole is one of Dave's favorites too.

We managed to have a short work party in the city park on Wednesday. There was a window between rain drops and so I and one other hardy soul did a lot of clean-up in the park. Since I was wet and dirty by the time that was done, I decided to spend some time out in the yard at our place and got quite a bit of storm clean up and pruning done around here. Boy, I sure have to stay on top of things because the weeds will take over, even in the bad weather.

I wouldn't be a good grandmother if I didn't brag about my grandgirls once in a while - well, okay - quite a bit! We got reports from two of them this past week. Jordyn reported that she scored her first goal of the season in her final game. Since this is her first year of soccer, that means it was her first goal ever! Judging by the excitement in her voice, I think her entire season of scorelessness was wiped out in that one moment! Then, we got a phone call from her older sister Jadyn a couple of days ago, telling us about her report card. She's in Junior High for the first time this year and she wasn't sure how that was going to work for her "grade-wise". Anyway, she was absolutely bubbling when she called to tell us that she had all A's and B's! We're so proud of her. She has worked very hard to get herself up to this level and it's nice to see it's paying off!

We ordered a de-humidifier this week; we think it will be here sometime today. For years, I've been fighting a battle of moisture on the single pane windows on the back of the house. When we get to this time of year, there is so much moisture in the air that I have to get a towel and sponge to dry the glass. The answer would probably be to get thermal windows, but these are all cut glass decorative windows and it would take a fortune to re-do those as double pane. So anyway, I finally told Dave that I was tired of having to do windows every day in the winter and he found a single room de-humidifier online. I'll let you know how it works out.

Dave has been busy rehearsing his part in the production of Winston Churchill which is coming up next week. The producer keeps "revising" the various speaking parts so it has been changing constantly. I feel he will continue to change it right up till curtain time! That will be Tuesday evening at the local Recreation Center in Nehalem if you'd like to come see it.

We are going to be having our family picture taken on Tuesday in Portland and believe it or not - the whole family can make it! It is so hard to find a date where something isn't going on. We haven't had a family picture taken since Jaysa was a year old and Jordyn wasn't even thought of yet! Jaysa is now 9 years old and it's about time we updated it!

Beside chasing squirrels out of the beams on the roof and trying to scare off the doves that come in droves to eat the bird seed, we are doing just fine! I think those critters are actually helping us stay active!

Take some time to remember a veteran on Tuesday. If you have a chance, tell one "thank-you". I know I will!