Stormy West Coast

It's been miserable all up & down the west coast the last few days.  I feel so bad for the people in the little town of Fernley, Nevada which is 30 miles east of Reno.  A ruptured levee sent a frigid wall of water from a rain-swollen canal into the high desert town early Saturday, flooding hundreds of home and forcing the rescue of people by helicopter and boat.  The newspaper said as many as 3,500 people were temporarily stranded and an estimated 1,500 ended up being displaced from their homes. Flooding is the same all over, it can take lives of people and animals, it damages homes and businesses and wrecks havoc on the day to day business of life.

We had wind and rain here again last night and I guess some areas nearby had snowfall this morning. None here at my house however.  And right this minute...it's really cold out there but there's no wind & no rain.

My brother and sister-in-law took me to dinner for my birthday at the Olive Garden this afternoon.  I had this yummy chicken with an apricot sauce, served with broccoli & asparagus and of course their famous salad and garlic bread sticks (yes Lisa, I did have one for you!).  We had a nice visit, my brother and family only live about 10 miles from me but they have such busy lives, I talk to them on the phone from time to time but don't see them that often.

Since it wasn't raining when they dropped me off, I quickly changed clothes and headed outside to put the yard waste can out for pick up tomorrow.  Also got some things out of the freezer in my one storage shed and decided to put the Christmas tree away for another year.  I was afraid that task was going to be difficult because since I took it out of the smaller storage shed the end of November, I've obtained a very large, heavy item. 

 My neighbor down the street that moved to Arkansas, had an old wringer wash machine that she got from some friends several years ago.  Her intent was to plant flowers in it and put it in her yard.  When she was moving, I spied it, asked about it and she said if you want it, you can have it. So we proceeded to load it (on it's side) onto my red wagon and brought down to my place.  We backed the wagon into my smaller shed and shut the door.  Well, that had to come out before I could put the Christmas tree away, so today, I pulled the thing out (it's still on it's side in my wagon) and put the tree away, covering it completely with a light weight plastic and then just pulled the wagon backwards into the shed.  It was all easier than I thought.  The big job will be when I take it off the wagon, to set it upright and start filling it with dirt.  I'm sure it weighs at least 100 pounds or maybe more.  Anyway, that's not for a couple months yet. I'm thinking sweet peas might be pretty growing in it, coming up and winding around the wringer part.  If  I do plant sweet peas, they should be planted the end of  February or first of March.

I heard a rumor the the Seattle Seahawks won their football game Saturday, beating the Washington Redskins 35-14.  (The loosing team cames all the way from Washington D.C. to get beat.) Now the Seahawks have to go to play the Greenbay Packers (Wisconsin).  I'm not a fan of professional sports but I guess everyone here in Washington state is happy for the Seahawks.

I hope everyone, has had a good weekend.  I hope you've gotten at least one task done (for me it was putting away the Christmas tree) and had some good times, too.  Until next time........Linda

P.S. I had to add; I used a wringer washing machine in my younger years.  In 1962, (my daughter Julie was born in Dec 1961) we moved into a house with a wringer washing machine in the garage.  There were two laundry tubs out there and that's where I washed diapers, baby clothes and all the other laundry.  I had clothes lines in the garage for the rainy days and clothes lines in the back yard for drying on sunny days.  During the coldest part of winter, we did drain the machine so it wouldn't freeze up and I had to go to the Laundromat to do laundry.  But I won't be doing any laundry in this latest one...I am very thankful to have a washer and dryer right here inside my house that I can use anytime of the night or day~ spring, summner, fall or winter.