Jan's Journal

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March 6, 2020

IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

Happy March!! The weather has been teasing me, some days it is nice and sunny and some days it is raining and hailing! I did manage to get outside and get my snow peas planted and a little pruning done. I also worked in the city park trying to keep ahead of the weed population.

Jan and Dog

After putting up posters all over Wheeler, I finally got a call from the owner of the "lost" dog that I found. I was just about ready to give him away to a friend of mine when I got this frantic call from the owner who lost the dog. Apparently, he escaped while he was outside doing his job and wandered his way downtown and then circled back around to our house - which was a good jaunt for the little guy. Anyway, I enjoyed keeping him as he was pretty well trained and didn't bark too much. However, he didn't make any points with me with his peeing on the rug and on my bed! I had to remind him to go outside to do his business. His owner was so happy to get him back and I'm glad it turned out the way it did. The cats were happy to see him leave and once he was gone they double-checked every room to make sure he wasn't going to jump out and scare them.

Dog

We went to a "Leap Day" party on Saturday afternoon. A friend of ours is about to retire and she wanted to celebrate. So we went over to their place for awhile and tried not to eat too much food that they had prepared. Why didn't we eat much food? Read on, dear reader!

I have been doing a lot of cooking this week. Luis' crew was down for several days, still working on different projects down here (including some of ours) so I have been preparing lunches and dinners for them all week. I don't know if they like my cooking or are just starving to death, because there are no leftovers after they eat. I have been trying to cook things that they would like such as fish tacos, pork roast and chicken. I have also been baking cookies and pies which they really enjoy. So they were working on the 29th and we had to get back so I could prepare dinner for the gang and then eat with them.
Rigo

One of the Cubans is a friend of ours and is very mechanical in his thinking. This week, he helped Dave get the steamboat working again. There are some things on the engine that Dave needed some help with. Rigo has no experience with steam engines but with Dave's guidance and Rigo's ingenuity, he was able to get the engine to turn over. It was much appreciated. The other Cuban, Diosmar, was equally happy to see the engine run, even if only briefly. As Dave says, it hasn't run for over six years, so "baby steps" to get it back to where it needs to be.
Another of Luis' guys is a roofer and is working at our place, sealing in the cupola on the church. During a rainstorm, the rain blows through the louvers, causing the floor to get wet. It really makes a mess and since Dave uses the upper floor of the church much more now, it just makes more sense to close in the cupola.
We also had an area around the side entryway where the rain water makes it all muddy because it is on a slope and in a narrow space between the fence and the house - meaning we walk in the same spot all the time. A couple of the guys made a brick platform for us where the muddy place is, using some old T-bricks that we had laying around. So they have been doing a lot of "little things" for us. They all left on Wednesday and won't be back until next week, so I get a reprieve from cooking for a few days! We celebrated with Dave taking me out to lunch on Thursday.

Eagle Eyes

We have a busy weekend coming up. We have tickets to go see the "Eagles Eyes" concert Saturday evening. It's a cover group doing old Eagles songs and it sounded like fun. And then Dave is going to see the Mel Brown Quartet on Sunday afternoon. Both presentations are put on as part of the North Coast Recreation District WinterFest. The reason I'm not going to the Sunday afternoon concert is because we are hosting our Second Sunday Soup gathering that evening and I want to spend the time getting ready for that. I am making Clam Chowder and the others are bringing salad and dessert.

I went to the grocery store and the shelves are bare of antiseptic and cleaning items. I guess people are taking this Coronavirus seriously. We are planning a trip to Seattle next weekend and we now thinking we might possibly cancel, as that area seems to be the hotbed for the virus - at least here in the Northwest. We really don't want to take any chances, but we still have a week to make up our minds.

I will close with that, so take care of yourselves.