Stormy

It was a wild ride home tonight, but not the worst I've been in. I went into Portland this afternoon to take my cousin into the Doctor (it turns out she has walking pneumonia). I then took her to the grocery store and pharmacy before finally getting her back home and then stopped by my brothers. It was 6:30pm and dark when I headed home and the storm was hitting a little earlier then predicted. It was already getting pretty windy and pouring rain, but my route wasn't too bad because at least all the lights were still working. I could hear on the radio that several roads around the Portland area had lights out and trees falling. They predict 60 mph winds through the night and the coast was already having 100 mph winds with 30 foot waves. It's supposed to let up by morning.

Having lived here all of my life I can say that it's pretty much normal to have this happen a couple of times each fall or winter. Every few years we have one that's a doozy and causes a lot of damage. November set a new record for rainfall. The previous record was set back in 1942. Needless to say the rivers are high and there's been some flooding. Tillamook (along the coast) always seems to get the worst of it. It's a low lying area and has a lot of dairies and they had quite a bit of flooding and lost some cows.

Oregon's terrain and winter weather is definitely demanding respect right now. There are 3 experienced climbers missing on Mt. Hood and this latest storm is continuing to hamper rescue efforts. A California family got lost on a forest road (wrong turn) while traveling through Oregon and got caught in a snow storm. They had been missing for about 10 days before they were found and the father had tried to walk for help and died. Two other families got stuck or lost while Christmas tree cutting and were found safe. Last month a little boy went missing in the Crater Lake area just as the snows had started and I don't think they found him. We don't like to hear it or think about it, but it happens every year just as the drowning's do in our lakes and rivers.

Thanksgiving weekend brought that home to our family and friends. Our nephew bought his first house this summer and wanted to host the family get together. His mom & dad and the rest of us brought the food and we had a good time. He proudly showed off his home and his new fishing boat. On Saturday my brother-in-law, nephew and two of their friends went fishing on the Willamette. The boat capsized and they hung on to the little bit of hull showing above water. The water was only 47 degrees and the river was running high, fast and full of debris. My brother-in-laws best friend let go of the boat in an attempt to swim for shore and did not make it. They still have not found his body. The other three were rescued after about 30 minutes and my nephews core body temperature was 93 degrees. They were all sent to the hospital and warmed up and checked out. The friend that was lost was a great guy and very well liked. He will be missed.

Painting

Last summer Big Bear and K built us a new shed in the back yard and used the horizontal hardiplank siding that we're thinking of using on the house. The house was built in 1971 and has the vertical t-111 that was so popular in the seventies. It's in desperate need of paint and the old aluminum windows need to be replaced as well. We can't afford to do the windows or replace the siding right now so we may have to just go ahead and paint it. What I'd like to do is make the windows bigger and put the horizontal siding on. It would give the house a whole new look.

In the meantime I've decided on the colors I want. We hadn't painted the shed yet so I've used that as a way to try out my colors to make sure I really like them. I picked a medium grayish blue for the siding, white for the trim and burgundy for the doors. With the shed getting full sun most of the day and me not being a morning person I wasn't getting very much done on it, but it's nearly done now. I have a little trimming to finish on the blue and some touch up on the white and now that the cooler weather has arrived it will be a race against the rain.

The house has a lot of brick across the front and it needs some repair, but I do want to keep it. I've always liked it and it's very unique. One of the bricks is light gray in color and the other is pink with burgundy flecks. I'm hoping it will look good against the darker blue. The current color is a lighter blue with no trim color and pink for the doors. Very much in need of repair and updating, but I'm sticking with my bent for color and in particular blue. I don't like the baby poop browns they're using on all the new housing and don't want my house to look like everybody else's anyway.

Big Bear sanded the front door for me and I put 2 coats of the burgundy on it with 2 more to go. It's darker than I originally wanted, but I think it'll work.

The rain arrived while I was painting the front door, but it's under a corner overhang so that was no problem. It was a problem for a poor honeybee though. I went back to my painting and he eventually dried off enough to take off.

Steve Irwin dead at 44

My sympathies go out to his wife, children and close friends. They have lost someone they knew and loved deeply.

The world at large also mourns for we have lost a larger than life personality that deeply believed in what he was doing. His commitment and compassion for animals and the environment along with his hyperactive antics certainly made his documentaries entertaining to watch and made him a household name as "The Crocodile Hunter". He is probably Australia's best known figure and will be sorely missed by all, but especially by those at the Australia Zoo in Queensland.

He was filming a new documentary or series on deadly sea creatures when he was stung by a stingray. The news has said that the stingray's barb went into Steve's chest and his heart and that he probably died instantly. His friends and co-workers tried desperately to revive him, but to no avail. Yes, he took risks, but that's what you do when you live life large and believe in what you do. He accomplished a lot, we just wish he could have been around a little longer.

Miss Kitty is happy

D and K arrived home on Friday. Miss Kitty was hiding under the bed, but after a bit D managed to coax her out. Miss Kitty wanted D to pet her, then she wanted out, then she wanted back in to be petted, then she wanted out and so it went, back and forth. I think she just wanted to make sure the door still worked. ;-) On Saturday they took Big Bear and I out for a very nice dinner as a thank you for taking care of their place while they were gone.

We've had a very laid back weekend. Did a little bit of yard and garden stuff on Sunday afternoon. Gave the neighbor some tomatoes and they in turn gave us some apples (hopefully I'll get around to making a pie with them). Today Big Bear put new air filters on both vehicles and even washed them! I did some painting - I'm trying out some prospective house colors on the shed. I figured that painting the new shed with the colors I had picked out was a good way to make sure I liked them before buying enough to do the whole house. I'm happy with the blue (medium grayish blue) that I picked for the siding and the white for the trim, but am not happy with the color I picked for the doors. I wanted a burgundy and that's what it looked like on a small chip, but it's way to violet/magenta. Luckily I painted a bench on the patio first to try it out when I saw how magenta it was. Even though it darkened a lot once it was dry it's still not the color I was after. I'm going to have the store add some more black and brown to it and see if that does the trick.

Tomorrow I'm going over to a friends to help her tie some baby quilts that she donates to a hospital. Maybe I can actually remember to take the paint with me and get the color corrected.

Blogging?

My how things change. A few months back I knew virtually nothing about blogging and now I'm hooked. Oh sure, I had heard of it and knew it was a web log or journal or diary written by anyone who wanted to do one and read by anyone who wanted to take the time to do so. I just couldn't figure out why the average person would want to do that.

I figured it was more for people who wanted to voice their opinion on issues of the day, or politics, or for writers or businesses, etc. I found it kind of odd that people would write about their day to day lives and even odder that someone who didn't know that person would want to read it. What I didn't realize was how interactive it can be and how much I would enjoy "getting to know" people through their written words.

There are so many different types of blogs and the serious and informative ones are certainly important and have their place, but the ones that I have come to enjoy the most are the ones written by everyday people who have a gift for telling stories of everyday life in such a way as to make you laugh, or nod in agreement or feel emotion of some kind because it's stuff you can relate to. I've never been much of a writer, but I have thoroughly enjoyed setting up my page and learning lots of new stuff in the process and meeting lots of great people. The bonus is it's making me write. Because how can you have a blog and not write?

Willamette River Pictures

This is Portland from the Willamette River. The river divides Portland east and west and runs north and south. It is the only river in the USA to begin and end in one state. It starts in the Cascade mountains and ends at the Columbia which then flows to the Pacific Ocean. Of the navigable rivers that run north and south it is the second largest in the world, the largest being the Nile in Egypt.

The Rundown

Saturday 8-19 - D and K leave to visit their kids in Kentucky and Pennsylvania. Big Bear and I are in charge of keeping an eye on their place, watering flowers and checking on Miss Kitty. She is an indoor/outdoor kitty who is used to being outside during the day, but will be kept indoors for the two weeks they are gone. They live on a very wooded 2.5 acres so leaving enough food and water out for two weeks is not an option (all kinds of critters would be up there eating it and it would be gone in a day). Besides the food issue, she has a wound on her side (probably another animal) so we wanted her in the house for safety and to keep an eye on the wound. Miss Kitty is a very skittish cat, but a very loving and gentle cat. She was a stray that somebody threw away as a kitten and it took D 6 months of feeding her on the deck before she allowed D to get close enough to pet her or let her into the house.

Sunday 8-20 - We make our first visit to water, etc. and Big Bear promptly lets Miss Kitty escape out the back door. There's no getting her back so we finish the watering and head home.

Monday 8-21 - Big Bear feels bad about Miss Kitty and stops by their place on his way home from work. He sees her but she won't come near him.

Tuesday 8-22 - I go over in the late afternoon and in addition to doing the watering I take my dinner and just sit around for awhile hoping she'll show up. She'll usually come to me, but I was there nearly 2 hours and never saw her.

Wednesday 8-23 - D calls and I do not want to answer the phone and tell her we lost Miss Kitty. She calls again and I answer and face the music. Big Bear gets home from work and is really stressing about it. I tell him stressing about it isn't going to do any good and we'll wait until evening to try again since that's more likely to be when she's used to coming in. We go over and I have Big Bear stay in the house so he doesn't frighten her and I go outside with a handful of food to see if I can find her. Well, what do you know, as I exit out the garage there she is. She scurries off and looks at me from a distance. I bend down and dribble some food out of my hand while gently calling her. She comes over to me to get petted and I scoop her up and head into the house. She was much more interested in the attention than the food. All is well and I call D to tell her.

Thursday 8-24 & Friday 8-25 - The weather is cooler and Miss Kitty inside so no need to go over until Saturday. Friday morning I went to my TOPS meeting and Friday afternoon Big Bear and I joined our son & DIL for a cruise down the Willamette River on an old sternwheeler followed by dinner at our local pub & grill. A very enjoyable afternoon. I was taking pictures like mad when suddenly the camera quit. Dagnabbit, the battery was dead and I hadn't brought the spare. Oh well, from then on it was just enjoy the ride.

Saturday 8-26 - Went over to D's place and did the watering and checked on Miss Kitty. I couldn't coax her out from under the bed. She obviously does not like being cooped up in the house all by herself, but I could tell she's been eating so will assume she's O.K.

Albums In My Collection

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These are some of the albums (and cds) that I've enjoyed over the years. It's an eclectic mix of new and old and various styles. There's so many more I could add, but I had to stop somewhere. I still have my original St. Pepper's album from 1967.