Sunday Afternoon

Hi there, I hope everyone has had a good weekend.  There's water falling from the sky here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest today.  I put all my hanging baskets out on the patio so they could get a good soaking from Mom Nature.  I did water the front lawn & shrubs yesterday evening with the sprinkler but not for very long.  I just had a feeling that the weather guru's in Seattle were finally going to get it right and we would indeed get some rain today.

I am hoping it clears up a little by Tuesday, because that's going to be Puyallup Fair day for me.  It's "old geezer" day and this next week is the last full week of this year's Fair, I figured it would be a good day to go. Actually cool temps and very light rain would be fine, as most of the Fair exhibits are under cover anyway. And the cooler the better, when you're in all those buildings with lots of other people. 

I worked out in the back yard for about 4 hours Saturday afternoon.  I pruned a lot of the shrubs back there, including my lilac tree.  I know this isn't the best time of the year to be pruning but with the cooler temperatures, I'm sure they'll all be fine.  I not only filled up my huge yard waste bin but have a sizeable pile of debris that will go into it after the trash collector comes and empties the bin, Monday morning.  I asked Bob to bring his little electric chainsaw over, and cut off 3 branches off one of the fir trees back there.  All three are low and I have to dodge two of them, when I mow the lawn and the third one is laying on the fence that separates my yard from the yard of those noisy neighbors of mine.  That's all I need is to have the fence fall down because of my fir tree.  Yes, by the way...they serenaded me again yesterday with their very loud and obnoxious music while I was back there working.   It was very special...........NOT !!!!

Bob has gone over to Seattle again to visit his friend Stuart.  He was over there Friday (the day of the surgery) until about 10pm and then again yesterday until about 7pm.  He came thru the surgery good....but is in a great deal of pain.  He has one of those little things where you push the button when you need more pain meds into the IV.  Lucky him, of all the surgeries I've had...I had to depend on Extra Strength Tylenol, as I'm very allergic to all the good stuff.   They say they are sure they got all the cancer but will be running some tests in the next few weeks to be sure.  It's not known yet if he'll need radiation therapy.  They not only removed his bladder but also fixed a hernia he's had for at least  8-9 years.   I used to tell him that he should have that hernia fixed, as it could kill him too but he'd never go to the doctor.  Now it's done.

My friend Barbara left yesterday with a friend of hers for Ireland.  They flew out of Seattle-Tacoma Airport very early Saturday morning for New York and then were going to fly to London where they'd spend 3 days, before meeting up with their tour group for their trip to Ireland.  I can't wait until they get back to see the pictures...however Barbara (unlike her friend Linda) is not much for taking pictures.  So hopefully her friend Celeste will take some.  Barbara's 65th birthday is September 19th and she thought she was so smart booking this trip so she'd be gone over her birthday.  But I was one jump ahead of her...I took a card and a little gift over to Celeste and she has it packed away in her suitcase, so on Wednesday...where ever they are...she'll get it anyway.

I haven't been to Curves since before I went cruising.  Remember, I hurt my knee back the first of August and I tried Curves once and I just couldn't do it....it was too painful.  Then the day I got home from Alaska there was a letter from the Curves location I was going to saying they were closing, effective immediately.  The dumb woman running that one wasn't making her lease payments and she got evicted !!!   I talked to several of the gals on the phone and everyone was so upset.  I loved that place..it was close to my house, and located so that if I had to go to the store I could do that conveniently on the way home.  She was nice enough to send us a transfer form and locations of other Curves in the area.  I went looking for one this afternoon and I drove forever and never did find it.  So then I went to another one (I'd peeked in their windows before and thought it looked very small) and actually went in and looked around.  They are closed Saturday's and have weird hours the other days of the week but I guess that's where I'll end up.  It is small, all the machines are sort of all bunched together but I did see some familiar faces in there today, gals from the one that closed...so it may not be so bad. 

I have a pot of vegetable soup on the stove...it's that kind of weather.  And now I should get out the vacuum cleaner and do a little stiffing up around here.  Working in the yard the last few days, I've really tracked in on the carpet.  

 My one big project for this fall is to wash down all my kitchen cupboards with the Murphy's Oil Soap and then install new hardware on my cupboards and drawers.  I had to buy 29 new handles just for the kitchen.  I also bought new ones for the built in china cupboard in the dining room and then some more for the cupboards down the hall.  I didn't buy the same ones for all because I wanted a variety of styles.  When this mobile was built, they put the same ugly green linoleum thru the whole thing as well as the same hardware on all the cupboard doors and the drawers.  I've already changed out the ones in both bathrooms, when I painted them several years ago.   It's been 6 years the end of this month that I've been here in this mobile home community and I do love it.  I still have some changes I want to make but all in all...I feel it's my comfortable little home.

Until next time.......Linda

P.S. if you have a Coldstone Ice Creamery in your area, Go to www.coldstonecreamery.com and sign up for free ice cream on your birthday.       

P.S. #2  I have one skylight in the roof of my mobile.  It's in the hallway that goes down to the bedrooms and past the main bathroom.  Lately, every morning I've heard this thumping & bumping around on my roof and finally I discovered it was 3 big crows up there pecking around for bugs or whatever.  Well, the other morning I was walking down the hall and looked up at the skylight just as one of them took a "big crow dump" on my skylight.  I could not believe it !  Of course that particular day it was in the 80's so the "dump stuff" got cooked real good.  Now even after the rain.....it's still there.  I guess maybe I'll ask my son or Bob to go up there one day with some soapy water & the hose and clean it off.  Stupid crows....of all the places to "dump."