The Pictures Have Been Taken Down, The Desk Is Clean.

I've shared this with some of you in past emails but now I'm making a formal, "world wide" announcement.  Thursday, February 1, 2007 is Linda's last day at work.  After 25 years at the health system (this time...I worked there two other times in the 1970's) and almost 46 years of working...I am a tired old lady and beginning Feb 2nd...I'll be retired!  I'm concerned about making ends meet financially but if I have to get a part time job, I will........but it will be at a job that's totally different than what I've done in the past.  No more call centers and no more headsets for sure!  I still can't believe this is happening, but I guess next Monday morning when my alarm doesn't go off...I'll begin to believe it.   My supervisor has organized a retirement party for me, which will be the evening of February 23rd in a local restaurant...if you'd like to attend, let me know and I'll see that your name is added to the list.

I have no great plans for travel, etc. (I know there's not going to be enough money coming in for much of that)  But, I do want to do a good spring cleaning here at my house and do some extensive work in the yard.  And it will be nice  not to have to go to work and be able to see my friends more.  I am blessed with many dear friends and I can't wait to call up this one or that one and say "hey, what cha' doing...lets go get some lunch."  

Anyway, that's my news...I will keep you posted as to how I'm doing with this new phase of my life. (I'm sure I'll do just fine.)

Until next time..........Linda

 

Last September I posted an entry requesting prayer for David the son of friends Ruth &  George and for my co-worker Susan.   http://journals.aol.com/lsfp1960/LindasWorld/entries/2006/09/20/prayer-request/1165.   I got a call from Susan today, she's been out on a medical leave this month, trying to recover from the radiation treatments she had for the lymphoma.  Anyway, last Friday she went for a post radiation treatment P.E.T. scan.  Her appointment to find out the results was today.  She called me from her cell phone to tell me that other than a very small spot in her left breast there was no sign of the cancer on this recent scan.   They plan to do an ultrasound on that spot, since it may just be dense tissue.  She was so happy and she wanted me to let everyone know that prayed for her..how thankful she is for your good thought and prayers.     And David, is about done with his chemo treatments. He is really a fighter and has such a positive attitude. He's blessed to have a very supportive family.  He's of course suffering some of the side effects of the chemo but has also been able to go to work from time to time. Even his work place has been supportive.  Like I said ...he's fighter.  Please continue to remember these two dear people.  Susan still has the suspicious spot in her left breast and David has far to go to be declared in remission.  

It was 55 degrees here today, but like I told Jeannette in the U.K......that doesn't mean a thing. We could have a blizzard on Saturday.  You just never know what the weather will be in the great Pacific Northwest.  Everyday can be a weather surprise !  

Until next time..........Linda

Sunny Saturday

It was a beautiful sunny day here is western Washington today.  I think the temperature got up to almost 48 degrees.  I know I had a sweatshirt on under my jacket and got too warm when I was driving around town.  After my breakfast with Judy, I did a little grocery shopping and then came home and worked in the yard.  I got my roses pruned (finally) and picked up some of the debris in my front yard. Whenever the wind comes up it gets littered with branches, etc not only off my cedar tree but apparently trees nearby.  I even found some Douglas Fir branches out there and the only trees like that I have are in my back yard.

It is a little cloudy out there right now, so I'm sure more rain is on the way.  At least I feel like I accomplished a little in the yard this afternoon.

My handsome, sweet son stopped by this afternoon.  He was out looking at & test driving vehicles.  He feels all the financial stuff from his Thanksgiving Day accident will be settled by the end of this next week.  He's still driving my brothers truck and is anxious to get it back to him.  It's been a real blessing for him to be able to use his uncle's truck and he's decided that he's going to get a used mid-sized truck rather than a car.  I think that's a good thing...every guy needs a truck.

Well, I'm going to go fix some dinner and feed this little whinny flat faced cat. You'd think she hasn't had anything to eat for days. Have a good evening...Linda

FRIDAY EVENING

The movie was wonderful...however, I would like to think Queen Elizabeth wasn't as unfeeling and cold when Princess Di was killed as the movie shows...but not living in the U.K. ...I don't know. Maybe some of you in the U.K. can shed some light on that.  It was a little difficult to watch all the news reels interspersed in this movie...brought back the events of those horrible events August 1997.  I can  remember being glued to the TV that first weekend and just sobbing...everyone was so distraught.

My daily weather email from KOMO TV this afternoon was interesting.  It mentions rain in Norway...

"Dear Linda,

It's another rainy day around Seattle, but if you think it rains often here, you should see some other parts of the globe. I received an e-mail today from someone in Bergen, Norway who found our past Web article about the rain streak we had last January when Seattle had 27 days in a row of rain. Bergen is currently working on a 94-day streak of days with some sort of rain, but is looking for their first dry day in 3 months this Sunday. Our tiny four-day rain streak might have to wait a little longer than Sunday to be broken...but not much longer. Tonight will see continued scattered showers under cloudy skies, with lows dropping into the mid-upper 30s. Saturday will start with areas of rain -- with the steadiest rain north of Seattle, and then scattered showers Seattle southward. All rain/showers will taper off as we get into the afternoon for a brief quasi-dry respite. Highs will reach the low 40s. Another wave of light rain returns Saturday night and into Sunday as we get brushed by a system going into British Columbia, making for a day probably a lot like today, but maybe not quite as wet. Highs will stay in the low-mid 40s. For Monday, it looks like a band of rain just stalls off the northern coast, but a few fringe showers might clip the northern Olympic Peninsula, but the rest of the area should remain dry. Beyond Monday, the forecasting models go into disarray. (It's been a while since they've been all over the map, so we'll give them a pass this time.) It still looks generally dry for Tuesday and Wednesday -- perhaps even mostly sunny on Wednesday, but the amount of cloud cover is in question both days, so we'll go partly sunny on both days with temperatures climbing into the upper 40s. It's even more difficult to pick out Thursday and Friday and into the weekend, where the models range from mostly sunny to rain at times. In fact, as an example, for Thursday, it either has a pretty good storm moving into Anchorage with strong winds and heavy rain...or the storm is 1,200 miles offshore and it's a somewhat sunny day up there. We're going to pull the meteorological equivalent of a white flag and just call for scattered showers on both Thursday and Friday to hedge our bets. We'll see how that shakes out as the time draws closer. But either way, we're pretty sure it's not going to start a 94-day rain streak :) Have a great weekend! Updated Friday 3:45 p.m. more...

Sincerely, KOMO 4 Weather Producer Scott Sistek" Saturday morning, I'm meeting my friend Judy for a birthday breakfast.  Actually it's my birthday breakfast.  Since she's remarried we don't see each other very often, so getting together for each other's birthday is a special treat.  Her birthday is the middle of September, but I hope it's not that long until we have a time together again. Until next time......Linda

 

FRIDAY~A DAY OFF & OFF TO THE MOVIE

I love Friday's...my day off.  I hope it warms up a little before I go back to work on Monday. It's just barely above freezing this morning, but most of the snow (in my area at least) has melted. Although, as I was taking the garbage can out to the street last  night, I noticed there are still a few slippery spots in my driveway.

My thoughts are with the people in U.K and Europe this morning who have been pounded by the severe winds the last day or two.  So many people killed and injured...it's really sad.  And some of our journal friends have had property damage as a result of the wind.  Hopefully, the wind will blow its self out soon and all will be calm. 

I am so excited this morning....the movie "The Queen" has finally arrived at the big theater up the street from my house.  It was in town before at the sweet little private theater in town, but always in the afternoon when I was working.  So Barbara will be here a little after noon and we'll head up there to watch the first showing today.  Actress Helen Mirren plays the role of Queen Elizabeth II  (flawlessly...the critics are saying.)  I'm so happy it's finally arrived to the local theater complex (15 auditoriums for watching movies at this one.) 

Happy Friday...Linda

Some Recent Snow Pictures From Western Washington

These pictures have been featured in The New Tribune the last few days. 

http://www.thenewstribune.com/photos/galleries/story/6326578p-5515065c.html

Weekend Assignment #148: Cats or Cheese?

 From John at ;

http://journals.aol.com/johnmscalzi/bytheway/entries/2007/01/18/weekend-assignment-148-cats-or-cheese/7019  Weekend Assignment #148: Cats. Cheese. There's only enough room on the planet for one of them -- and you have to decide which stays and which goes. Which do you choose and why? Now, you ask, why cats and cheese? Well, why not? People like cats; people like cheese. They're generally considered to be unrelated. Having to choose one over the other sort of gives you insight into your soul, about what's really important to you. Or, alternately, it's just fun to consider. Really, let's not pretend we're doing anything too deep here.

For charity's sake, when we say "cats" we mean domestic cats; lions and tiger and cheetahs and such will still be about, so you don't have to worry about taking out a whole bunch of endangered species. When we say "cheese" we mean all cheese, even the stuff that comes out of aerosol cans and/or is spelled "cheez." It all goes.

Extra Credit: what's your favorite breed of cat and/or type of cheese?

 

It's no contest !  Cat's paws down.   Cheese doesn't look up at you longingly, winding in a circle 8 pattern thru your legs.....cheese doesn't try to snuggle with you in bed...cheese isn't soft and warm when it lays on your lap....cheese isn't waiting by the door when you come home after a long day.....and cheese doesn't love you unconditionally.

 

My Extra Credit:  my favorite breed right this moment is the Exotic short hair and that's because I have one.  But in the past I've had a very loving 25 lb Maine Coon, several Siamese and some just plain cats.  All have been sweet natured and brought a lot of love, enjoyment and comfort to our home.

 

Exotic Shorthair cats are featured in the March 2007issue of Cat Fancy magazine, on your news stand now.

 

Linda and Gabi Lin

Tags: http://www.cfainc.org/breeds/profiles/exotic.html