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December 30, 2016
IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!
Well, we made it through Christmas! We spent Christmas Eve in West Linn with our daughter, Lara's family. Everyone was getting excited and after Dave read them "The Night Before Christmas" which is a tradition with them, they were snuggled in their beds by 10:00 p.m. The next morning though, we could hear footsteps on the floor above us at 7:00 a.m. and all the excitement of opening presents. After breakfast, we headed down to Salem to have dinner with our other daughter, Leslie and her family. It was a fun Christmas and Santa was good to the family.
We came home on Monday and brought the rest of the family with us. That part hadn't really been planned, but since we were all together on Christmas, we talked everyone into coming down to our place for a work party. We had all of the main floor stripped, but needed help taking down the rest of the sheet rock and removing the piles of old flooring that was stored upstairs. Monday was that rare day when everyone was available. With the help of ten people (five adults and five granddaughters), we managed to get it all done in three hours! That included Leslie stepping on a rusty nail and having to go to Urgent Care for a tetanus shot! We also had to take a time-out when my two daughters discovered a couple of rats that escaped when their lumber pile was torn apart! I don't know who was scared the most, the rats trying to escape the screams or the girls screaming. And there was a LOT of screaming! To make matters worse, just then someone tripped over the extension cord that was powering our lights. So not only were they running from the building screaming, "Rat", they were doing it pretty much in the dark! It was pretty exciting there for awhile!
Thursday, Dave and I loaded up two trailer loads of broken sheet rock and other debris and headed for Cart'm to the dump. We got most of the mess cleaned up but we still have about two garbage cans to empty. We ran out of energy before we could make a third trip. But then - after getting our second wind - Dave and I took the lumber that the family had taken out of the attic and hauled it down to Kahrs' burn pile. We decided we'd better do it then because it's going to be cold and wet for the next week or so. Anyway, that's behind us so the rest of the week we spend cleaning up the church - again.
I have been waiting all week for the temperature to get at least into the high 40's so I could paint. It takes so long to dry otherwise. Tuesday, it got as high as it was going to get for a while so I put the rest of the preservative on the decking that Dave is going to use for the flatbed trailer. Dave still wants to paint the frame of the trailer before he puts the decking on so at least now, I am a step ahead of him. The problem is that the temperature is going down, not up. The paint he's using needs to be applied at 50 degrees or higher. He figures it may be June before he gets a chance to get it done at the rate we're going!
We finalized our trip to Phoenix for the end of January. My nephew is getting married and my sister Jeanne will be there from England. We were going to drive down but it would take us three days down and three days back and with hotels and meals, we figured it would be cheaper - not to mention faster - to fly. We got some cheap tickets on Southwest Airlines and we had enough rewards points to pay for a rental car for the time we are there. So I am glad we decided to fly, even though Dave isn't fond of airports and especially having to deal with the TSA. I am looking forward to warm days after all this cold weather we have been having and enjoying some real Mexican food.
One last question for 2016: What's the deal with calendars? We have always received more promotional calendars than we need - until last year. We had almost none in 2016! We actually had to buy a couple just to fill spots that usually have calendars. So, I figured they'd be scarce again this and planned to grab free calendars wherever we could get them. Instead, this year we have calendars all over the place! I guess you can never plan on free stuff. There are three calendars we really look forward to each year; the Northwest Steam Society, featuring many of our favorite steamboats, the special calendar prepared by our daughter Lara, featuring some of our favorite family scenes, and our newest favorite from Applecross, sent by Dave's cousin Alison in Scotland and featuring the amazing photography of her husband Ali. All three calendars are in readiness, ready to turn over that new page on the new year.
We don't have plans for New Years Eve and will probably be in bed before 2016 is over, but that's okay. We haven't made it through a New Year's celebration in years. I have made one resolution this year and that is to try and stay healthy. Happy New Year everyone and I'll be seeing you next year!
