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January 4, 2019
IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!
Happy New Year!!
We made it through another holiday season. Boy, it sure went fast. But it seems like this post-holiday week has gone by really, really slow! The weather has been rainy and windy for most of the time, so I have been cooped up in the house. When I wasn't reading, I managed to get all my Christmas decorations down and put away for next year.
We did have a couple of nice cold days and I was able to get outside and finish raking up the remainder of the leaves in the yard. We haven't had frosty temperatures until this week but I noticed that I have a Rhododendron trying to bloom. What's with that? Also the daffodils that I had planted last fall are peeking out of the ground. I hope we have an early spring.
We decided that it would be fun to go to Tillamook and have Chinese food the other night. We don't like to drive at night, but cabin fever was starting to set in, so off we went. We had a wonderful meal at the Chinese Garden but on the way home, the wind and rain were so bad that one of our windshield wipers blew right off the car! Luckily, it was on the passenger side because Dave wouldn't have been able to see with the way the rain was coming down. We made it home okay and the next day called Ford Service to make an appointment to have it fixed. They had replaced the wipers only a couple of weeks earlier. It turns out that this had nothing to do with the wipers being replaced. The mechanism that moves the wipers stripped out and allowed the wiper on the passenger side to fly off into the gale. It was just a coincidence that the mechanism failed just after installing new wipers. Naturally, they had to order the part and so today we go back into Warrenton to get it fixed.
Speaking of cars, my Jeep needed to have an oil change and also the liftgate support wasn't supporting the liftgate any more. Every time I would open the back, the thing wouldn't stay up and it would fall down and hit me on the head! So while we were in the area, we made an appointment to get that done. The Jeep place and the Ford place are right next to each other. The Jeep is almost 11 years old but it still runs like a top and I just love it for hauling stuff around and running errands. It only has 110 thousand miles on it because I usually only drive it to Tillamook and to the pool. We take the Ford when we go to the city.
We got a surprise phone call from our CPA the other day. It seems that they are fed up with the way the tax code keeps changing - to the point where they don't think it is worth their time to try to keep up with everything. So, they are going to concentrate on other areas and not do taxes any more. They recommended a different firm, but Dave decided he would try to do them himself this year. He already buys the TurboTax program so he can do the 1099's for the people he hires for Trail Blazer broadcasts, so he's going to try to use that program to do our taxes. I have my doubts, but I told him to go ahead and try it if he wants to, just don't expect me to hang around waiting to help! I already gather all the information we need to get our taxes done, so, as long as he doesn't come across any unexpected problems, he MIGHT be okay. But I keep reminding myself that the CPA decided things were too crazy in the tax world, so what about the poor guy trying to do them for the first time himself? I'll keep you posted.
Our feral cat has been acting strange lately. I have always had to leave the back door open while he eats his food so he has an "exit" just in case he needs to run. Anyway, the other night when it was so stormy out, he didn't want to go outside after he ate and lingered around. So, I shut the door and for the first time in his life, he decided he wouldn't mind spending the night in the house. He curled up under the dining room table and didn't move until morning. I don't blame him, it was really nasty out. Besides, they have begun demolition on the old house next door and we think that's where he sleeps. I'm sure that has affected his routine. But all in all, he really isn't as feral as he used to be and is starting to trust me a little bit.
For the third year in a row, our granddaughter Jadyn has traveled to dance in one of the football bowl games. This year, Lara and Jadyn flew to San Diego so Jadyn could be one of a group of dancers from all across the country to participate in the halftime show at the Holiday Bowl. It ended up raining on them, but they had a great time anyway. That's such a wonderful experience. Here is a link to the video of their performance.
We had a nice work party on Wednesday. It had been awhile because it seemed to rain every Wednesday but didn't this week. So a bunch of us (including two newbies) got out and cleaned up the park. We pruned, cleaned up the beds and planted some spring bulbs. It really looks great down there and was glad we had a good crew to help. It makes it go faster.
Well, for the dull week we had, I did manage to write about a few things. I hope you have a happy and healthy new year.
