Friday

My day was very quiet as well as nice and warm. I spent three hours at the river but forgot to take my book. I would have stayed longer if I had had the book but as it was I lost another sinker so I also lost interest. No sign of a fish anywhere on the river. . . .I have to mention that I really noticed a lot of geese flying south today, I can not remember that many in any other year, I hope they are making a comeback. I would like to see thousands rather than hundreds making the trip every day. I stopped by the market on the way home and bought some fried chicken thighs and potato salad for dinner. Actually there is enough for two dinners. I also stocked up on ice-cream. I still have two peaches left in the fridge and I love sliced fresh peaches and ice cream.

The rain is to begin tomorrow, I did get several drops on the windshield as I was driving toward the river today. The roads were wet at one point but I was spared the wet stuff all of the time I was out. The radar picture at the moment shows no rainfall between here and the coast. That works for me!

http://www.youtube.com/celford52
http://cliffordaelford.blogspot.com/

Thursday

I had lunch about 11:30 today before driving to the bowling alley. I was very pleased with my results; 144-161-162 for about a 155 average. Those are the kinds of scores I truly feel I am capable of on a regular basis. My hope is that I can continue scoring like that into the future.. . .After the bowling ended I stopped by Ron and Carens for a visit and to give Ashton another chess lesson. I left about 4:30 and planned on stopping at the market on the way home to pick up some more ice cream but decided at the exit to not bother. I will be kicking myself this evening while my Thursday night commercials are on. However, I do have some really good chocolate cookies here that will go perfectly with peanut butter and a glass of milk. I will not go hungry!

http://www.youtube.com/celford52
http://cliffordaelford.blogspot.com/

Wednesday

My day was nothing to write home about, the river is quite stirred up but I drove down there with my book without knowing so I sat in the nice sunshine for three hours anyway. It would have been a great surprise to have caught a fish but that was not in the cards.

I started Dostoevsky's THE IDIOT and got to page 9 after three hours. I have to mention that the introduction, written by Joseph Frank, was 41 pages long. That took a long time to read because he had to impress the world with every big word he could think of to introduce the book. I am glad that Dostoevsky wrote for the masses.

I was home shortly after 3PM and had O'Reilly on at 5 after eating an apple and cheese. I have started work on the 160 or so pictures I have taken since Alaska, the most are flower pictures taken in Early September.

The 'cousins' get together in Olympia are among the group also. My flash was not working properly that day because there was too much light coming in those very large windows so most have to be deleted. I know how to remedy that and will try to remember next time. It is most difficult to take a snapshot when the light is behind the subject.

I had the same problem Sunday when taking pictures of Danika at the grape stomp. She was about ten feet above me and I had to shoot into the sky to get her picture stomping grapes. I will edit them best I can and hope to salvage something out of the day.

Tomorrow is Bowling day, I hope to do really well but you know how that goes!

http://www.youtube.com/celford52
http://cliffordaelford.blogspot.com/

 

Tuesday

I woke up much rested and felt I had some life in me this morning. After posting the last part of my Alaska pictures on YouTube I ate lunch and drove to the bowling alley. My results were not good 125-149-128-82. In other words, rather poopy. I was home by 2pm and was lucky to have not encountered rain. The rest of the day will be spent doing a lot of nothing, perhaps reading, but that will be about it. Doggie is feeling fine but hates to go out when it is raining. I tried to explain it to him, but that does no good. Happily he is smart enough to use the 'bed pads' I have put down near the front door. He's a good boy, good for a dog anyway!

Other than that is has been a slow day, I think I will continue reading for a while and perhaps download my camera. It is time to start on the pictures I have taken since getting back from Alaska.

http://www.youtube.com/celford52
http://cliffordaelford.blogspot.com/

Monday

I hate to admit it but today was a non day as far as getting anything done is concerned.

I felt like a slug all day and the longer I put off accomplishing anything the worse I felt.

It is all my fault but I am using the weather as an excuse, these dark, rainy days are just not part of my enjoyment creating id. I did get part four of the Alaska trip started but soon found that my heart was not in it. I also attempted to make some chess moves but realized right away that I was not concentrating, it is like my brain shut down. I mean, more than usual, of course. I finished reading THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD, a story written after Dostoevsky spent four years in a Siberian prison in the 1850's. Since then I have started POOR FOLK,the first book he published. Very dark stories , not to mention the fact that the subjects are extremely dark in themselves.

This evening my favorite comedy commercial shows are on TV so I will attempt to stay up through them. I also considered going to the bowling alley but could not make myself get cleaned up even to do that. I sure do hope that Mexico idea works out so I can find some sunshine this winter, this dark, cloudy stuff is nothing but a big BOOO. Perhaps tomorrow I'll wake up feeling better about it all, wish me luck!

Sunday

. I left the house [sans doggie] about 10AM to attend the St. Josephs Wine Festival near Canby, Oregon. Took many pictures of the folks attending who were friends and family members of Terri’s family. We all had a great time although the music was so loud we could not carry on a conversation. After sitting through that loud, rhythmic ordeal until about 4PM we drove over to Aunt Jeans and had a bar-b-Que. Way too much food, as usual, lots of tasty wine and tons of conversation. I dropped Terri off at the Church about 9PM and arrived home a few minutes after 10. Doggie was happy to see me and ate his dinner after I stirred it up for him. It had been sitting there all day but he did not eat until I arrived home. Crazy pup! I failed to post this report of my daily doings because of the late hour so that is the first thing I did after getting up this morning. Had a big rain storm to drive through going down yesterday but it was clear coming back. This morning I see the rain has returned, no surprise there, after all, this is Washington, the Evergreen State!

Saturday

I worked on my YouTube pictures again this morning, they will be posted in a few more minutes, I tried once but something went wrong. I also spent four hours at the river today, Tim was there since 7AM and had caught nothing. He did get a trout before the day ended [at 2:30 for him] but I was skunked by 4pm and went home to work on my YouTube presentation Number Three. I discovered when attempting to upload this one that I am now allowed to enter items longer than 15 minutes and considered blending part three and four into one 25 minute clip but decided against it.

I will post part three and start on part four shortly.

I also posted an open letter to the Jiffy Lube powers that be in Houston. [See below] At the same time I mailed the letter by US Mail this morning. Chanel Two in Portland may be interested in my plight but I have to wait and see if they get in touch with me next week. They may not be interested in small potatoes like me.

Open Letter

Office of the President

Jiffy Lube International

PO Box 4427

Houston, Texas

77210-4458

 Dear Sir,

 On February 16, 2011 I had my 1994 Thunderbird serviced by your Kelso, Washington Store. They sold me on the idea of flushing out the radiator and installing new coolant. During the flushing process they failed to open the lower petcock on the radiator. None of the debris they had promised to remove ever left the radiator. It all packed together in the bottom of the radiator and after driving about 100 miles the car became dangerously overheated and left me stranded on the side of the road. I had to pay to be towed to R&R Motors in Castle Rock, Washington where it was determined that the terribly overheated  engine was badly damaged but repairable.
       The cost of those repairs amounted to $2281.45.

I expect your company to make good on this.

       I went back to your manager in Kelso and found him to be very sympathetic. He made copies of his original invoice and the one I had from R&R Motors and forwarded them to the Portland Oregon office of your company. Nothing was heard from that office. Twice more during the summer I went back to Kelso and each time the manager was most unhappy that nothing had been done so he again sent copies to the Portland Office.

       By September first I was getting tired of being ignored by your people so I painted a 6 inch lettered sign on the back of my Thunderbird reading JIFFY LUBE SUCKS. I drove into the Kelso Store parking area and asked the manager to see the sign. He immediately ordered me off the property. I have since then been doing my daily running around with that sign on my car. It is my intent to continue driving with that sign as it is. Perhaps you may want to look into this unhappy customers complaint, no one in Portland seems to give a big rats a… I have been waiting seven months.

    Thanking you in advance for your very professional help. Kelso invoice #11021600314177.

Clifford A Elford

Kelso, Washington

98626

Friday

.   Spent the morning on my Drive to Alaska pictures, part three. It will be about 12 minutes long, about the same as Part Four. I had no idea I would end up with so many pictures but I like them all so I left them in. I guess I did toss out about one hundred that were really no good. This afternoon I was at the river for four hours reading and fishing. No fish but that’s OK, I enjoyed the quiet and my pet Eagle that has been flying around that bend in the river for several days. I was home in time to watch O’Reilly on TV then dash off to Caren and Ron’s for dinner with the boys. Ribs, my favorite vegetable with corn on the cob and peas. Very tasty sour dough bread too. I was home at 8PM and posted this before hitting the hay and dreaming about the big salmon I am going to catch tomorrow.

Thursday

Bowling was not so good today, 124, 140, 139. I have to do better than that! That is as bad as loosing two fish in one day. Speaking of which, I hope to score better at the fishing hole tomorrow.  

Wednesday

 We enjoyed a beautiful sunrise around here this morning. Sadly, red sky in the morning means sailors warning so that means the barometer is sitting at 992 and on its way down. My weather site claims a 20% chance for rain tomorrow for the Kelso area. My plan is to be bowling so hopefully there will be no rain on the alley. This morning I finally posted my Alaska Trip Part Two pictures on YouTube. I also discovered the correct address to get into the site. Try http://www.youtube.com/celford52 and see if it works for you. One day soon I will start Part three and with luck I will be able to finish with that amount of space. If not I will have to break down the remaining pictures in to two ‘parts’ and do it that way. . . . .Went fishing this afternoon, no fish but it certainly was a nice day to sit on the river and read. I was home and all cleaned up by 4PM. I was in a hungry mood too.

Tuesday

 I bought some ice cream yesterday, I needed it to go with the peaches I had purchased last week, I found this peach was on the really 'ripe' side but the ice cream made up the difference. There are more fresh peaches here but I had to eat that one or throw it out the next day. . . . I will watch 2 1/2 men again next week but I am not too pleased right now. I think maybe Charlie had a lot more to do with the writing on the original show, something is missing, it did not ring my bell last night. None of the actors appeared 'the same' as before. There is no 'life' when Alan and the new guy have the scene. In my mind something is not right. Probably just me.

2 Broke Girls followed and I turned that off before it ended; but I did wait for a commercial break before doing so. That says something, perhaps I may give it another chance too, it would be better with fewer commercials. Most TV would though.

            My plan is to go back to the fishing hole again tomorrow. Today I had two strong strikes and on the first one I lost my lure as well as a 6oz sinker. That turned out to be an expensive strike. It could have been worse though; the fishing pole fell out of the pole holder before I could get to it and it was lying in the water when I finally grabbed it. The fish was long gone by then but had he been solidly hooked he could have easily pulled the pole into the water and down the stream with him. The second strike was not very long after the first but again I got to the pole too late. I am getting slower and slower when it comes to getting out of the chair and to where the pole is anchored. I will change that starting tomorrow.I will sit closer since there is no way I can run any faster than I have been. I spent five hours down there today, I hope the weather holds so I can spend that much time tomorrow.

Monday

It was foggy and cool this morning but things changed for the better as the day wore on. By 5PM things were looking good and I should have taken the doggie for a walk but never did. I ran out of Warfarin yesterday and had to go to the Pharmacy later today to get another supply; it was after 4pm when I got home and too close to the O'Reilly show on TV to leave the house. I went to bed early last night and read on my book; 'The House of the Dead'. It tells of his experience in a Siberian prison for four years around 1850. The Socialists came along 70 years later and took lessons for how to run prisons. It is a very dark and joyless read, but being Dostoevsky it must be read slowly and carefully to pick up on all of the between the lines stuff.. . . . I spent a couple of hours on the phone with Comcast. I had lost access to my email [again] and had a heck of a time getting things back on track. Their technicians are fine people but the system stinks. I hate going through computers on the phone trying to get to a living person. Anyway, that has been my day. I hope your day was a lot better.

Sunday

I made no effort to go fishing today, it rained a lot and the sun did come out about 4PM but not early enough for me to get excited about going to the river.

I practiced bowling for six lines this afternoon. 164-156-153-158-143-138-not too bad for a beginner. It is hard for me to beat a 152 average but I will stay at it and see how well I am doing this time next year. My league average is about 140 so I made myself look good today.

After bowling I stopped by to see Caren and Ron. They fed me dinner but I didn't stay too long because they had company and I wanted to get home to my reading and puter work. I have yet to put the Narration on part two of the Alaska pictures. I am waiting for the mood to strike me but so far it is not happening.

I attempted to contact Eva and Pepik on Skype but there was no answer so they may have been out to dinner after enjoying a nice day in Prague Country.

Saturday

I never did get to the fishing hole today, it felt cold and damp, a great day to read my book and take a nap. That did not please the little doggie a lot, he likes to get out and go walking, this was just not his day. This is one of those days when I have to be very conscience of what I am eating because I can add about a pound an hour if I am not careful. I may get back to my picture program before the day ends; I have yet to turn on my chess games to see what needs to be done there. This will end up as a do nothing day, I suppose. The sudden change in weather has shot me down, I guess,

This definitely was not a good day to be holding a backyard picnic but I have heard that good weather is supposed to put in at least one more appearance before the month is out. Perhaps the Grape Stomp in Oregon on the 25th will have a warm day to celebrate.

Friday

Friday. . .  .Drove to Beaverton today and had lunch with Terri. Borders is all closed up so we stopped by the local Powell Book store and discovered they also sell used books so I got carried away and spent $15 on three books by Dostoevsky. I had already read Crime and Punishment but have been thinking about it lately and decided to wade through it again. We had drinks at Ava’s after having visited Washington Square for a long walk through the mall. I was home by 9PM just in time to save the dog from starving to death. His words, not mine. I didn’t even turn on the puter until Saturday morning to post my daily doings regarding Friday. I hope you are all doing well!

Thursday

 Fall is definitely in the air today, if this keeps up I will have to go back to long sleeves again. I hate when that happens! I started on Part two of my Alaska pictures this morning; I am catching on but still goof up often enough to take a lot of time. I went bowling and got a 95 on the first line. I did lousy with the second line until about half way through and ended up with a 167. The third line ended with a 131 score and an average of 131 for the day. After bowling I stopped by Safeway and bought some more fruit and bug spray. I filled my gas tank at the Safeway pump and was granted a price of $3.53 per gallon just because I am such a nice guy. I then drove by Jiffy Lube and backed in again so the manager [he was in this time] could get a good look at the sign in the window of my car. He got sort of warm and ordered me off his property. I left quietly after telling him I was on my way to Portland tomorrow. I don't know what effect that will have on him, I suppose none. I do know he does not like my little sign. My hope is that he calls the people in Portland who are supposed to be working on this problem and explain to them what I'm doing. . . . . Thursday evening again and a couple of my favorite comedy commercials are on so I will be sitting home and enjoying that.

Wednesday

I worked on my pictures this morning, the new Part One is now posted and the original one has been removed. I like the new one better. It used to be that when I posted something they would produce an address I could paste on YouTube but for some reason I can't find that address anymore. Just try to find it by going to Google, celford52.

ChiChi and I left for the fishing hole a bit after noon fully expecting to catch a salmon but it never happened. I will not give up though! There are still a bunch of salmon out there just waiting to grab my lure; I just have to be there when they are! It will happen! I know! I did get in some reading; the weather was just right for that sort of thing today. I did feel that September is moving toward fall though, yuk! I was wearing my blizzard suit and had it unzipped down to my waist line, the sun was hiding behind thick clouds so I was not too warm by any means. I will spend more time on the pictures this evening while I am waiting for bowling day to come tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Things have been quiet on Pleasant Hill and I am feeling good, that is always nice.

Tuesday

 The lunch with the high school gang went well today, they were interested in hearing about my little tiff with Jiffy Lube. They do not expect much will come of it though, three of them mentioned problems they had with the company and nothing was ever done for them. I expect the same will happen to me. Jiffy Lube expects me to give up and go away before they get around to anything. . . . .After lunch I stopped by the bowling alley [I couldn't resist]. I really surprised myself with 151-153-146-156-125-195. I was doing a good job laying that bowling ball right on the spot and when I hit the spot correctly all else falls into place. I felt tired during the 125 game so I decided to really concentrate hitting the spot and did very well on the last game. On the way home I drove through the Jiffy Lube parking lot very slowly. I had done the same thing on the way into town. I don't know if anyone noticed, perhaps not. I'll try it again next time I get into town. I will leave the sign on and if I drive into Portland Friday for lunch it will be there for all to see. That will be fun! My original plan was to go fishing this afternoon but I stopped by to see Caren and Ron after bowling and did not get home in time to go to the river. I already have plans to be down there tomorrow, I feel lucky, I think tomorrow will be the day I get my first salmon of the season. I bought four new sinkers the other day, four of them cost me $7.23. Can you believe that? I think I will find a way to use rocks as sinkers. At the end of the day I posted my new Part One of my Alaska Drive. This one contains new naration and panorama's that were not included in the original Part One.

Monday

. I was interested in seeing the sunrise this morning but the fog was a bit too thick so it never happened. I awoke during the night with the moonlight just streaming in. At dawn were a lot of clouds in the sky and I am sure the sun shining through would have created some beautiful colors but no such luck. I worked on my pictures for another hour or so and now have the first 13 minutes ready for narration. I may get at that tomorrow.

Lunch at noon then a trip to the river for some more reading and relaxing. There were a lot of fishermen on the river today but I never saw a fish anywhere near them. I was home by 4PM; hungry already. Today I put on another coat of paint on my cute sign on the back window of the car. It is really bright now! I will be driving it into town tomorrow when I go to lunch with the gang. I will be sure to park it where all the folks driving by will be able to see it.

Sunday

I was awake about 5:30 but my bedroom window does not look out on the wonderful sunrises around here. The sunsets are usually nice and some are really beautiful but most of the time I miss those too. I think I fell asleep and got up after 7:00. Par for the corse for this kid.

I spent more time on my Second Part One of the Alaska pictures. Another day or so and I will be removing the original part one on Youtube and replacing it with the better presentation. It has all of the Panoramas I had forgotten the first time around. After lunch I drove into town and bought a new bedroom telephone, the old one I had has a dead battery and the replacement is not to be found because of the age of the telephone. Now I have a new phone by the bed and a slave to that one installed in the bathroom. It only cost me twice what the battery would have cost had I found one. While in the store I also bought a tube of that paint that is used to write messages on windshields; For sale, prices, and stuff like that. I wrote JIFFY LUBE SUCKS on the back window and drove to the bowling alley.

I bowled 6 lines and the best was 144 and the worse was 88. I was trying out new delivery positions on the alley and aiming at the spot rather than attempting to knock over the pins. Hitting my spot is my biggest problem. Each time I hit the spot with 10 pins standing I get a very well placed ball. Oh, well, more practice.

After leaving the bowling alley I drove to Jiffy Lube and parked the car by backing in so they could see the art work. The manager was not in so I asked them to tell him that the guy with the 94 Thunderbird had stopped by. At the same time I pointed at the car. Their jaws dropped and one of them laughed. I told them I had been driving around Longview all morning and now I was headed for Castle Rock. They promised to give the manager the message.

Saturday

 This morning I finished my chili; I filled several two serving containers and put them in the freezer. Now I am set for a long time with stir fry and chili to chose from. This afternoon I went to the fishing hole but caught no fish. I think I had a strike but he did not stay on long enough for me to react. The pole was about 60 feet away at the time; I'll get him next week. I saw a small one jump a couple of times; must have been a Silver because the Chinook don't come out of the water very often. This did turn out to be a great day in the sunshine, doggie was happy and it did a lot for my general mood also. I was home about 4PM with an appetite but for some reason I sat down and fell asleep instead of eating. That is rare for me. Eating almost always comes first with me! Still no news from Mazatlan, darn it!

Friday

 My day went especially well, my little brother stopped by this morning. He was in town Wednesday while I was in Portland but I never got his phone message until I got home Wednesday night. He took me to lunch, he is nice that way, but then he is my brother. After lunch and a nice visit we stopped by to see Caren and Ron for a half hour or so. Before getting to lunch we visited with Melvin and that reminded Leonard of the Salmon he caught at the fishing hole a couple of years ago. We had a nice time 'catching up'. Leonard left town about 2:30 and by 3PM I was at the fishing hole reading my book. It was not too cool today, about 80 I would guess. No fish but the 'being there' was good enough. I was home at 6PM having missed O'Reilly; I will turn that show on at 8PM and enjoy a bowl of ice cream while watching it. I started my laundry at 6:15 this evening and I have to finish my chili so I will be busy for a while. I had a good day.

Thursday

 I left the house at 9:30 for my doctor appointment. That turned out well although my PSA is 4.7 and that could be considered serious except for the fact that cancer of the Pancreas has already been ruled out. I went shopping for a while before arriving at the bowling alley at 11:30. By the time I had eaten a hamburger the crowd had arrived and I found myself bowling with the same team as last winter. Last winter Verda was a standby but this year she is a full timer. She is the one who put me on to Nancy, her lifetime friend who volunteers at the tourist center in Mazatlan. She told me she talked to Nancy last night and that Nancy is actively searching for a place for me to rent for two months while the snow blows around here. I do hope she is successful. I bowled 135-166-133 for a 144 average. That is the average I will start out with for this season. I hope to work my way up to 154 by the time season ends next spring. After arriving home at about 3:30 I put together another batch of chili, I can tell while it is cooking I used too much Tomatoes sauce. That does not mean I won't eat it. I will just make a note not to use a lot of that stuff next time. I made myself the same note last time but forgot to read the minutes of that meeting with myself before starting this pot full. That is life, I guess, at least around here!

Wednesday

It was 62 degrees out this morning when I looked at the thermometer, that is a good sign that it could reach 90 today. Winter is just around the corner and we just now get decent temperatures.

I had a blood draw this morning, a fasting one at that. The results are on the Internet but I have not yet signed in to read them. I had a lunch date with Terri in Portland so I ate very little  before getting there. After lunch we drove to the zoo and found a nice shade tree to set under and visit. She is planning on her Hawaii trip and I am planning on going to Mazatlan. I hope all works out best for both of us! After enjoying the shade tree for a while we drove to Ava’s in downtown Beaverton for a cold drink. We were there about an hour before deciding to stop by  the closing Borders store. Their prices are now 60% off the regular price and for today it was an add’l 15 %. I did buy a book after about an hour of searching the stores dwindling supply. I delivered Terri to the church about 6:30 and then headed for home. I got back in time to scoop up some ice cream and slice a fresh peach before O’Reilly came on.

Tuesday

 The Melville wrote to say that they only had one large unit available for the period of time I wanted to be there so that is no longer a possibility, I have not yet heard back from Nancy who is looking for affordable accommodations for me; everything is in limbo at the moment. . . . I did get to the river today and hooked into a small salmon but the sinker got stuck between some rocks and while I was trying to use him to knock it loose he walked [swam] off with my lure still in his mouth. I could see it as he wiggled away. He was almost played out and I could have netted him quit easily but he won the battle. It was fun, I will try again one day soon. On the way home I stopped by the store and got my red beans so I will start the chili one day soon. I found more pictures that belong in Part One of my Alaska Trip so I will be re-doing that project and putting it on YouTube after removing the present part one. That will happen eventually, no telling when. . . . This was a great day to be at the river, I hope the weather holds until I get to Mexico in January.

Monday

.I had to go to the market today to get some red beans so I could cook up a big pot of chili and on the way I stopped by the bowling alley. My results were 122-160-140-157-116-162- that amounts to a bit short of 143. I felt pretty good about that. I then went to the market for the beans and by the time I had finished marching up an down the isles the final total came to $75.05. After I got home I found that I had forgotten the beans. I had forgotten to take the grocery list with me and the beans is the only thing on the list I did not get. I'll stop by the Castle Rock market tomorrow and get some.

The rest of the day and evening was spent reading and watching the boob tube.

Sunday

My day went pretty well. Bowling scores were just peachy-keen. 115-122-144-166-155-154. that is almost a 142 average and had I done better on the first two lines it would have been much higher. After bowling I stopped by to visit with Ron and Caren for a while before returning home for an afternoon of lazy. I am watching 'No Country for Old Men' but it has commercials every 9 minutes so I am quickly loosing interest. I will hang on for a few minutes more and see how it goes.

I phoned an American who volunteers for the Mazatlan Tourist Center and got lots of new idea about going down there in January. She is going to call me back as soon as she gets more information. This idea is starting to look very doable, I may even become excited about it all! Alaska Airlines flies there and she says it works well for her each time she flies back to California to visit family. She has a daughter who also volunteers at the Tourist Center who graduated High School in Castle Rock.

I also contacted the Melville and asked them for rates from January 15 to March 15. No answer yet but they may all be taking a day off on Sunday.

Saturday

This has been a nothing day. I worked on my pictures for a while but for some reason lost interest in a very short time. I then read for a while and fell asleep. Woke up hungry and had lunch then grabbed the dog and drove to the fishing hole. The book I took with me had lots of pages to go but after reading for a few minutes the book ended and the rest of the pages were notes the Author listed. I have read books shorter than his list of notes. Fishing was a nothing experience and I even lost 6 ounces of perfectly good sinkers. Sinkers are expensive any more! I should find a way to use rocks, they are much cheaper. Doggie and I got home about 4PM and pigged out for the remainder of the day. Roy showed me a kitty door that he installed in his garage many years ago. I am trying to teach ChiChi to use it but he is afraid of the darn thing. So it goes around here.

Friday

 .This turned out to be a lazy day for me, I did get the car washed but that was about it. After washing the car ChiChi and I drove to see Caren and the boys but she was not home when we got there so we visited with the three of them. Ron is doing much better, the cast is to come off his arm before long and he is looking forward to that. I spent a little time trying to teach Ashton to read but he got bored with that after about 30 minutes. Not too bad for a 5 year old. It was that or chess and I forgot to bring the chess board with me so that was the choice he made.. . . I did also cut up a bunch of stir fry Veggies to put in the freezer. So now I have something to eat for the next 8-10 days. A couple of hours were spent on my Alaska pictures, still trying to decide which ones are good enough to use, I will be using a lot that are not really great but they will help me tell the story.

Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday/Thursday. . . . . .I did not arrive home until after 11PM last night, way too late to post anything on the blog. This morning I got started too late even to turn the puter on so here I am Thursday evening trying to get both days reported. Wednesday Terri and I ran off to Silverton Falls to take a few pictures and that was after we had stopped at a couple of Flower Farms to see what they had growing. We walked through acres and acres of flowers. I must have snapped 200 pictures, some of which will turn out fine but many others will not because of the cloud cover we had to contend with. I believe the most interesting part of the day was watching a wedding couple near the foot of the two hundred? foot waterfall posing for pictures. The couple was walking around in the water, barefooted and the man taking the pictures was positioning himself as well as he could wearing his street shoes in water well over ankle deep. The wedding dress had to be a mess. It was hard to tell because we were at the top of the falls looking down on the proceedings. They certainly were making memories down there! After leaving there Terri phoned Aunt Jean and Ben to see what they were up to and Jean invited us to stop in for Stir Fry and we stayed way too late. It had turned out to be a fun day!

This morning, Thursday, I got up late and had a hair appointment at 9:45 so I rushed to that then returned home long enough to make a survey of the refrigerator, noting the shortages on a grocery list. I then rushed to the hospital lab for my Protime check, 2.6, and got to the bowling alley in time to order a chili dog and a dinner salad. I barely had time to finish that when our annual bowling meeting started. After the meeting and the paying of our annual dues the team I am on decided to do some bowling. It took almost three hours to bowl 2 lines each. I had a 120 and a 148. It was three o’clock by the time I got to Safeway to purchase enough to  stock up the fridge. I had some cookies and milk while watching O’Reilly, that was dinner, before finally sitting down here to get this little report off to you all. Terri has a little family gathering in Hawaii this December so she feels perhaps she may not be able to go to Mazatlan with me after all. I am thinking of January, February and March or part of those three months. Anybody out there want to share expenses and go along? I will have a small apartment with two double beds, Oh, yes, I snore quite loudly these days, keep that in mind. I have no idea what the Airlines charge but I was told by a friend that it is about the same as flying to the east coast. . . . .  I have not heard back from Jiffy Lube, he told me he would call Monday or Tuesday. That was 4-5 days ago. You best not do business with that company.

Tuesday

. I received a response from Veronica Tostado in Mazatlan, Mexico today. Do you believe that name? It is just tooo funny! She apologized for sending the rates per Peso and putting the Dollar sign in front of it. So it turns out the 9400 Peso apartment will cost $751.00 per month. That split in two is not bad. The renter must also pay utilities if staying more than a week or so. I guess the real expense will be airline tickets. Food can't be considered because we gotta eat even if we stayed home. . . . I got that email right after ChiChi and I returned from our one hour walk. He was really ready to go once he discovered what was happening! I had spent the morning working on my Alaska Pictures and broke from that at 2PM for lunch. We left the house shortly after 3:00.

I actually wore a sweatshirt and was happy to have it on. Boy, I will never get used to this Cowlitz County weather!

Monday

. Today was laundry day at my house, I also found that the comforter that I took on my drive to Alaska also fits in my washing machine so I got that cleaned up and ready for the next adventure. I turned my bedroom around a bit this afternoon. The bed is now placed in one of the corners. I feel that gives me a little more room to wander around in. I am not sure it will make the vacuuming any easier, but no bother, I don't vacuum that much anyway.. . . . I got a response to my information request from The Melville in Mazatlan. The lady quoted $9400.00 per month. I doubt Verda paid that much so I wrote back for clarification. I asked if perhaps they meant to say 9400 Pesos. More on that when I get the answer. I found myself getting out of breath while pushing the bed around this afternoon, the doctor always asks me about getting out of breath; now I have something to report when I see him on the 8th of September. . . . .I spent a lot of time working on my Alaska pictures today, I have edited more than half of them and could place them on Youtube but I am going to wait until all of the editing phase is wrapped up before moving on. . . . .Gave some thought to fishing today but got lazy instead, never did take a nap though; that's sort of rare for me.

Sunday

....The weather was cool around here this morning but it changed a lot by noon. I was lazy until close to 1PM when I decided to hit the road and get my bod to the bowling alley. I threw 5 lines and one of them was 157 and another was 105. I don't recall what the other three were but it all worked out to a 133 average. If I had not slumped so bad during that one game I might have had good scoring day. After bowling I phoned Verda and asked if she wanted to go to lunch. I told her I wanted to pick her brain regarding the place she stayed for a few weeks during last winter in Mexico. She brought a brochure from a place called The Melville [boutique-hotel] in Old town Mazatlan. I have sent them an email requesting information about rates and availability. Verda told me she paid more than $400 per month but she feels a two bedroom would not cost a lot more than $800. If that is the case it still works out to $400 per person. It will be interesting to discover what the actual cost will be. She also gave me the name of her American friend who lives across the street from the Melville who knows an honest taxi driver for delivery of friends to and from the airport. I am interested to see how far this little search goes.

I was back at the house by 5PM to feed the dog but he is still too used to Hamburgers in the afternoon to jump right into his dog food bowl. It will be all gone in the morning but he will not let me catch him eating it. He wants me to think he is starving. Lots'a luck, little doggie! I ended up having a late lunch today so I am not sure I will have popcorn this evening. Perhaps if I find a really good commercial free movie I might break down and pig out anyway!

Saturday

The fish were not biting today but the time at the river was really relaxing. Doggie got in my lap and I laid the book down before falling asleep for almost an hour. We sat in the shade and the temperature was just right. Very few boats came by so it was really quiet for the full three hours we were there.. . . . Certainly not anything else to report, came home and turned on NASCAR about 5PM. . . . Tomorrow I will be going to the bowling alley to see if I can break the 140 average I have developed.

Friday

The reunion of cousins went well. Donald, Kenneth and Coya each brought their spouse. Aunt Coral was there with Mary and Caren arrived with a new baby to hand around. The little girl is only a month old and never made a fuss about a thing during the entire stay. Caren left a bit early because the baby had a doctor appointment this afternoon in Longview. Ron had stayed home with the two boys. The rest of us visited until 3PM. That is when we all called it a day. The drive both ways was nice and quiet, the car is running like a top these days.

The weather was much warmer than I had expected it would be but I am not complaining. It was good for my soul to soak up some warm sunshine, good stuff, that vitamin D. I was home about 4PM and had sliced apple and cheese for a snack before O'Reilly came on. It was a good day. Perhaps I will go fishing tomorrow, with such good weather it would be a shame not to.

Thursday

I left for the bowling alley about 11:45, the doggie was unhappy because I didn't ask him to go along. I did leave the door open to the garage so it was possible for him to get outside if he had a need to. I started off really well with bowling but slowly went downhill after the first game. The 176-146-104 did produce my average so I didn't have a lot to complain about but I was not too happy with the fact that I could not continue releasing the ball as well as I had in the first game. More practice, I'm afraid! After leaving the bowling alley I stopped by Jiffy Lube to fight with them some more about that radiator they destroyed last February. The Regional Manager in Portland had told the local manager that it was all taken care of but in fact it was not and he has since left the company. Now the local manager has made copies for the third time of all the paperwork and is to send them to the new Regional Manager. So the process starts all over again. Jiffy Lube is not a great company to do business with, I think. I got home about 3:30 and had some apple and cheese with my famous trail mix. Later today I'll have some peanut butter and cookies with a glass of milk. About bed time I am guessing. I am bringing my weight down a bit and would like to see that continue. Good luck with that.

It was toasty warm here today, I just love it!

Doggie is not complaining one bit but I remember last year about this time he was developing 'hot spots' ; so far that does not seem to be a problem for him.

Wednesday

. Terri and I drove to the beach today, actually to Astoria first for lunch then a hike to the top of the Astoria Column. This was our fourth attempt to see the view from atop the large circular stairway structure. It amounted to about 160 steps of [I felt] larger than usual dimensions. The view was spectacular and as you might have guessed I forgot my camera. Luckily Terri had remembered to bring hers but the battery was dieing. All worked out fine though and after leaving there we drove to Cannon Beach for a long walk in the sand before Terri bought us some ice cream and we sat on a bench watching people walk by and occasionally petting a little doggie as the crowd ambled by. After leaving the beach we drove back to Beaverton and visited the Borders store. They are in the middle of going out of business and it was a sad time for us because we had spent many happy hours there in the past four years. I guess we didn’t spend enough money because they filed  bankruptcy a few weeks ago. Another  victim of the electronics age. We parted about 8pm and I drove home to a delighted little doggie. I had left the door to the garage open while I was gone and Roy had adjusted the large door to a height that ChiChi could use so he had the run of the yard while I was away. I had my Chocolate cookies with peanut butter and a glass of milk and went to bed. Never even turned on the puter to post this until Thursday morning.

Tuesday

I think the flea shampoo works really well when it is used properly. In the past I have failed to follow directions and allow the shampoo to kill the bugs before starting the rinsing part of the procedure. When in doubt, read the instructions, good advise.

I had the car at R&R Motors at 8:15 this morning and they got right on it. The motor unit inside the door has a chipped tooth in one of the gears and that was the reason It would not rise and fall like a good window should. I also had the oil changed so all should be good to go.

After leaving R&R I drove home and fixed some lunch before loading the dog in the car and going to the fishing hole to catch up on my reading. It was a nice day at the river, warmer than yesterday and very quiet except for a boat or three that came by around 3PM. I stayed two hours and decided that was enough for the day. After getting home I watched History channel until O'Reilly came on then turned the TV off as soon as that was over.

Monday

For some reason I found myself running a bit late today and it was after noon before I got to the fishing hole. I had to stop at the 4 corners store to buy a new fishing license. Dang thing doubled in price from last year. $16.75. I wonder who's pocket that is lining? There were other fishermen on the river and none of us caught anything but I did have a good book so it worked out fine with me. I was expecting the fog to burn off and let the sun through but that never happened. I took a sweat shirt with me but never put it on, some of those breezes that came roaring by tempted me though. I doubt the temperature ever went above 72 all day. I left the river at 4PM and came home to eat something before watching O'Reilly and settling in for the evening. All in all it turned out to be a good day, they usually are though, except for the lack of sunshine. The flea shampoo did not do really great on the dog so I have run water in the kitchen sink to put him through that ordeal again. He knows running water is a bad sign so he is hiding under the bed as I type this. He is smart when he wants to be. After I get the car out of the shop tomorrow I may stop by the fishing hole and try it again. I had fans running inside all day but have turned them off earlier than I did yesterday, oh, oh, the doggie just walked in the living room, gotta go!

Sunday

This was a good day for me; I finished with the detailing of my car before it got too warm out and got in some reading before leaving for bowling practice. My results were not too bad considering it has been a while since I have had that type of exercise. My scores were 138-149-134. That works out to a 140 average. I can improve on that and when Thursday arrives I will put my best foot forward and see what happens. On the way home I stopped at Safeway and bought some ice cream along with a bunch of other stuff. I am set for a while, I think. I watched TV this afternoon thinking I might fall asleep but that never happened so I turned to the computer and continued with the editing of my Alaska pictures.

That is fun but it does take time and can be messy when I 'lose' a picture occasionally. Such is life.

Saturday

. . . .I kept my promise to myself and completely emptied that car of everything possible before going through it with a fine tooth comb cleaning and polishing. It was fairly easy working inside because I did not replace the front passenger seat until after  the cleaning was completed. The trunk is looking good too. I eliminated a bunch of unnecessary stuff that I had been hauling around for no reason and made room for my bowling ball again.

Washing the car was next on the list but that was some time after I watched an hour or so of Fox News and sort of recovered from the previous workout. Washing the thing was not too easy, the wheels were a true mess. And that was after running through three car washes during the trip. After the car was shining again I went inside and spent more time in front of the TV. When the mood struck me I loaded the washing machine and started my laundry. That was fun and by the time I had complete the job I laid down to ‘read’ and woke up over an hour later. This afternoon turned out to be nice and warm, Summer has arrived, folks! I have been told the salmon are entering the river so things are working out peachy-keen in my life. Perhaps tomorrow I will try my luck at bowling and wait until Monday to go to the river for those fish. My investments have hit almost bottom but I find pauperism is not too hard to accept. The fishing hole is still there and the gas tank is full, can’t beat that!

Friday

Friday, Just arrived from the great trip to Alaska. I added more than 6,000 miles to my odometer and had a ball in the process. Doggie was really excited to be home, he was beginning to suffer from cabin fever being in that car for hours at a time. I made it to Fairbanks, Anchorage, Denali, Homer, Palmer, Valdez, Tok and too many other places to mention. The weather was wonderful and awful. The high temp I remember on the trip was 73 and the low one morning was 43. That changed when I got back to Vancouver, Canada, the high there was 86 two days ago. The car is filthy and that is after being washed three times during the trip. Tomorrow I will clean it up and thank it for doing such a wonderful job on the trip.

Right now it is almost bedtime, I will start regular postings tomorrow. G’night.

Wednesday 7AM

I'm out the door, be back in 2-3 weeks.

Tuesday

The new tires are on the car and they are very quiet, the car is running as well as when I first got it. Having those rattles removed really helped my heart! It feels like a new car going down the highway. I was home about 3PM and installed my bed and loaded most of my stuff in the car. It should not be a lot of trouble getting away in the morning, doggie and I are both ready to hit the road. I will be staying with Sharron and Virgil tomorrow night and will begin the serious part of the trip the next morning. Right now O'Reilly is coming on TV so I am going to tune him in and get something to eat.

Monday

 I spent the morning finishing my Sand Carving pictures and loading them on the You Tube Site. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oeewpa21L5o. Now the computer is free to start again with my Alaska pictures once I return from my trip. Today was the day that Caren and Ron visited Barb’s place for the last time. I arrived a bit earlier and took a stroll around the property. They went through the house and retrieved all that Barb had intended for them to have. I have a lot of good memories after living there for  7 years. It is difficult to say goodbye but that is what the visit amounted to for me. The new owners will soon be taking over and we will all move on, it’s a life thing. . . I promised myself last night to watch a movie and have a bowl of popcorn but I ate too much other junk food to do that so I will try again tonight. I am feeling a bit hungry and I am sure popcorn is not the best thing for me but what can I say. Brother Leonard phoned me this afternoon and wished me a nice trip to Alaska, it was nice hearing from him. He had watched the YouTube presentation and told me I did a good job. He is a good brother. Believe it or not I gave some thought to driving in to the bowling alley to try my skills again but went home and took a nap instead.

Sunday

I washed the doggie this morning after I had breakfast and worked on my YouTube pictures until about noon when I had lunch. After lunch I decided to go to the bowling alley to confirm that I am as bad a bowler as I think I am.

I was right, I bowled 6 lines with an 84 being my starting line. The next three were all over the place but by the time I got to the fifth I found my groove, such as it is and got a 144. I could not let that stand so I continued with one more just to see if I could improve and I did. My sixth line was 149. The more I bowled the more I realized what I was doing wrong and by the end of the session I felt pretty good about how I was doing. Now I must remember how to throw that ball when I get back in 3-4 weeks. Winter league starts again September 8th. I am hoping I can work up to a 150 average by next spring.

On the way home I filled the gas tank so it will be ready to go Wednesday. Tuesday I have the new tires put on the car then I'll come home and start packing for the big trip. I plan on popcorn and a movie this evening but before that I may attempt to post the first half of my Sandsation pictures on YouTube.

Saturday

 I got in the mood to continue on my Sandsations pictures but made so much work out of the project I doubt I will get it finished before leaving for Alaska next week. I am feeling much better health-wise and intended to visit the fishing hole for a while today but time just slipped by too fast. Tomorrow I plan on practicing bowling for an hour or so and that may help make up for the fact that I got no exercise at all today. The weather in this neck of the woods is not too bad, may have gotten to 80; certainly is nice, I'll say that. Anchorage was 69 today, expecting 49 tonight. They are having lots of rain this season.

Friday

ChiChi and I were tire shopping most of the morning. After lots of looking and pricing the decision was to buy four new Cooper tires right here in Castle Rock. The work will be done Tuesday afternoon and doggie and I plan on leaving Wednesday morning for the big trip North.

My plan after shopping was to stop by the fishing hole and help clean it up for the new fishing season. Things just did not work out that way; I found myself not feeling well and could tell the chest congestion was trying a comeback so I took the doggie home, had lunch and took a three hour nap. I was feeling much better when I awoke and turned on O'Reilly. Laura Ingram was sitting in his chair so I lost interest after a half hour and decided to get things caught up on the puter.

I did get my laundry caught up yesterday so the 'packing' part of my trip is going to be quite easy. I will be able to get all of that done Tuesday afternoon and install my sleeping arrangement before loading the car. If all goes well I will be arriving in Abbotsford, BC in the early afternoon Wednesday and spend the night with Sharon and Virgil.

My hope is to be back no later than the 26th because I do not wish to miss the Henion Family Get-Together in Olympia on that date.

Thursday

I am feeling much better today. If I were so inclined I could use my bowling results as an excuse to feel next to pretty bad but I won't take the trouble. I bowled 88-114-124. There is no way I am going to worry about it because I knew while I was there that I should have stayed home. Not because I was sick but because I was not feeling well enough to really give a darn how the bowling went. My muscles refused to cooperate with my brain so I just did the best I felt like doing and forgot about it. I was slowing improving my score and that is the most I can say for my results.

After bowling I stopped by Safeway then drove home. When I pulled in the garage I found Roy had the way blocked with a love chair he was trying to find a place for. I agreed to place it in my living room. He also had a small bedside table that needed a home so I put that next to my bed. One of these days I will get on the ball and rearrange furniture in the living room.

I'm really happy with the results of the work done by R&R Motors. The car is quieter than it has been in the past couple of years. Next week, if not before, I am going to put new tires on it and that will quiet it even more. My Cousin, Sharon and her husband Virgil phoned to let me know they are expecting me to stop by as I cross the border into Canada. She also reminded me that ChiChi needs up to date Rabies shots, which he has, and to not try to carry firearms into Canada. I assured them that there was no problem on either count.

I had eaten a large Burger earlier in the day so when dinner time rolled around I just had sliced apple and an ounce of Cheese. I think the lunch was just too much for me and I hardly touched the French fries that came with it.

We are enjoying very nice weather around here today, I'm sure it got above 80 degrees, not too shabby for Cowlitz County. Bring it on! I would like to see summer last until at least next May.

Wednesday

I had a long day today but it was fun for me. Not the best thing for Ron but he was in good care as he went through his surgery ordeal. He arrived at 4:30Am for the drive to Clackamas and it was a bit after 5:30 that we parked in the garage down there. The doors did not open until 5:45 so we enjoyed the day brightening while we shivered on the cold steel benches they have available. He was called by the nurse at 6:15 and the 'track' of his progress flashed 'Surgery' at 7:30. I relaxed and may have even fallen asleep a few times until 8:30. That was when I discovered I had not eaten for four hours so I walked to the cafeteria for some much needed bacon and eggs. I arrived back at the waiting room about 9:30 and relaxed for another hour before I noticed the 'track' said 'Recovery'. It was not long after that that I was called to the recovery room, Bay 19, and found him alive and well,wanting to get home. He showed me an Xray picture of his left thumb that showed the joints fused together and held in place by a stainless steel bar and four screws. His hand was wrapped from the tips of his fingers to the elbow and he was feeling good because he was feeling nothing. While he was getting released I visited the pharmacy for him and picked up some pain meds he will be using for the next week or so. We were on the way home before noon. However we were not on the freeway more than a minute when he wanted to get off and find an Espresso. We got lucky and found one in a most unlikely place near a side street. He jumped out of the car and returned with an Espresso for himself and a hot chocolate for me. It was really a good hot chocolate too! We then hopped back on the freeway, me driving , of course.

By the time we got to Kalama his bladder was bursting so we had to get off on a side road and found a little restaurant in a RV Park that allowed him to relieve himself. By now the pain was reminding him of the same previous surgery on the other hand. He popped the cap on the meds I had picked up for him and took one, I think it was one, then decided he wanted to make a stop in Longview to buy a pocket knife he had spotted a few days ago. It was my feeling that the pain meds were getting to him but I drove to the store and he went in to make the purchase. I will be interested to see if he remembers any of this after the meds wear off. It was in the neighborhood of 2PM when we got him home. After things settled down Caren drove me to R&R Motors and I picked up my car. The rattle has been fixed [a loose bolt] and the oil pressure sender is working well enough but there is a chance the gage is haywire. I'm not going to worry about it, tests show that I have plenty of oil pressure. There was no charge for any of the above so Chris, who does the work took it upon himself to change the oil because he knew I was getting ready to make my drive to Alaska in a few days. I'm glad that was done, next on the list is a new set of tires before I start burning rubber in a Northerly direction. The oil change came to $52.00 so it was a cheap day. Those are the best kind, you know.

I expect to be feeling pretty good when I go bowling tomorrow, I would like to do well, at least better than last week, which was not too bad!

Tuesday

I am feeling much better today and I must say it feels better to be feeling better. I have spent the last four days with nothing but rest and lots of fluids on my mind. I knew this morning that things were much better but since I had no other plans I spent most of the day being lazy. I did get a shower and that perked me up a lot too. The computer was never turned on all day, I am behind on my chess games and my email but that is a small price to pay for getting better.

I delivered my car to R&R Motors this afternoon so it will be there in the morning when they start looking for that rattle and the oil pressure sending device problem. Caren picked me up and drove me home; early tomorrow Ron is stopping by to pick me up so I can drive him home from his one day surgery he is having in the morning in Portland.

Perhaps you have heard of the Balloon Boy, well we have a Closet Boy in the family. While in Long Beach this weekend little Colt walked into a closet and turned the dead bolt against his favor. He was unable to turn it back to unlock the door so the maintenance man had to be called to open the door. That is when the problems really began. The maintenance man discovered he did not have a key to that dead bolt. In the meantime little Colt was screaming his head off in that dark closet. It turns out the door had to be removed in a very ungentlemanly way to rescue the little guy. All is well now and Colt seems to be doing just fine.

I'm glad I'm feeling better because I am still planning on feeling well enough next week to begin my trip to Alaska. I also want to go bowling tomorrow and have a good day at that before leaving for another extended stay on the road. Winter Bowling league begins on September 8th and if all goes the way I am hoping some of that time will be missed because of a long trip to Mexico. Do you think that can happen? We will just have to wait and see, I have to check with my doctor about that 55% Kidney Function test first. Got to see how he feels about my going.

This was a good day, I'm up and walking, can't beat that. I also have an appetite, that is a good sign too.

I have recently been very lazy but I know it has been for a good cause, well worth every boring minute of it!

Monday

 I decided when I got up this morning that this would be another lost day. I have done nothing more than the absolutely necessary all day. I think the rest I am getting is helping me beat this thing and I don't mind being just as lazy tomorrow. I had wanted to go bowling but decided that would have been a silly thing to do. Doggie wanted to go walking both yesterday and today and I hated to turn him down but I can not see that helping me at all. I feel things are getting better, I will be fine in a day or so.Hope hope.

Sunday

. I have not been feeling in top form today so there was not a lot to mention when I sat down here to deliver my daily report. The sun was out and the weather was nice and warm, that made me feel a lot better than I would have. I spent a few minutes editing the pictures I took yesterday but the excitement was not there so I gave that up and read myself to sleep several times. I hoped to go bowling but that didn’t happen either, we shall see what tomorrow brings.

Saturday

. I left the house at 9:30 to drive to Long Beach and enjoy the Sandsations. I have never been up close to so many sand carvings. The crowd was having a good time and there were a lot of people making up the crowd. A lot of them also had their dogs, I had no desire to take ChiChi and I am happy I didn’t. He does not get along well with other dogs and a few of them down there felt the same way. I took more pictures today than at any other event I ever had my camera at. I feel some of them will come out just fine and a few that I really want will not. Too often I found myself shooting into the sun and that is not good. Ron and Caren were there with the boys, the boys were having a ball in that icy Pacific water, brrrrrr. I took pictures until the tide got too close, it would have been fun to have stayed around and watched the carvings bite the dust but I felt it was time to get my body home. I have a very deep cough that comes on every half hour or so so I am going to baby myself a bit and see if I can get that to go away. I got home about 5:30 and got some stir fry in my tummy before sitting down at the puter and recording my active day. The weather was great, 76 at the beach and about 86 here at home. Bring it on! I’m loving it!

NASCAR is on this evening so I am going to post this then pig out in front of the TV for a while.

Friday

I spent most of the morning working on my pictures of Oregon Lighthouses. It was shortly after lunch that I got them posted to YouTube…………….http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hR2rocyj4Zk

Check them out. ChiChi and I walked for an hour today, the weather was nice, and that has been rare around here this month. I have developed a cough, have no idea where that came from. I am considering going to Long Beach tomorrow to get pictures of the Sand Castles before the tide comes in. We will see how I feel about it in the morning.

Thursday

  I had an appointment with my Kidney Doctor this afternoon after bowling. I also had my Protime check while I was there. My Kidney function is at  55% and the doctor told me that is to be expected because the medicines I am taking to keep my heart strong does a job on the kidneys. I don't know which one will give up first, the kidneys or the heart. It is what folks with congestive heart failure are confronted with. I am just going to keep on keeping on as long as possible and take one day at a time.

My bowling scores were not too great at 144-144-138 but it does show consistency. I would be happy if I could be above 150 on a regular basis and break 200 once or twice a month. I think more practice will help that a lot.

I helped Melvin get his boat out of the water this morning. Another fishing season has ended. As far as boat fishing is concerned. Just about two weeks more should see the salmon enter the river, I plan on spending time trying my luck but that will be after my drive to Alaska. My next Protime check is August 18th and I expect to be home by that time.

After getting the boat back to the Mels place I stopped by Bernita's place for a haircut then had a light lunch before starting for the bowling alley. The lunch turned out to be too light so I had a hamburger while bowling then fixed a light dinner at 4PM when I got home. It was not long after that that O'Reilly came on TV so my computer time today was limited to this evening. I will get my chess games caught up tomorrow morning, I expect.

I considered some practice bowling yesterday but I got busy with my picture project and let it slide. I am sure it would have helped.

I am happy with some of my Lighthouse pictures but none of them are really 'winners'. The sun was not out much and that takes a lot away from good pictures, especially for amateurs who usually don't have any idea what they are doing. It was fun trying though! My editing program cleans things up a lot and put some color in the scenes that I never saw there before. I really like the Panorama feature of the program, that is something new I am just now learning. Also, using captions on the actual pictures rather than narration is an improvement. I just have to remember to write down more info about each picture I take as I travel along.

This weekend is Sandsations at Long Beach, since it is going to be a nice day I am tempted to drive down and take pictures of the sand sculptures. That would be fun to post on YouTube too!

Wednesday

Happy Birthday, Caren!. . . . I was up and out early for my blood draw. I then had breakfast at the hospital cafeteria while waiting for my bladder to fill so I could leave a sample. I stopped by Safeway on the way home and after leaving there I dropped in on Jiffy Lube to check up on my claim for damages concerning my radiator. The Manager was not in so I will try again tomorrow. I also made an appointment with R&R Motors for next week. That rattle they had fixed last month is back and I want the car in top shape before starting out for Alaska next month. The rest of the day was wasted away on the computer. Never did go walking, the weather was really good for it though.

Tuesday

.Spent a good share of the day working on my Oregon Coast pictures. I hope to get that posted to YouTube in a few days.

ChiChi and I did our 45 minute walk today, the walk was nice but the breeze was a bit cool and threatening rain. We got in a nap this afternoon, well deserved. Terri had Laprascopic [spelling?] surgery so she is healing quickly and feeling good. More tests to come later though so she is still on pins and needles about her future. I posted first pictures of my trip on YouTube this morning: Type in celford52 on your Google browser and you will find a link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v​=wRCiZ4xjC-g This one might work too. Today I will start on the Oregon Coast part of the trip. Oregon did not have really nice weather but I did get to see all of the lighthouses. A couple were from great distances but I did get pictures. It was a fun trip and I am looking forward to Alaska next month.

Tomorrow I have doctor appointments and blood draws, the usual checkup stuff then Thursday I get to try bowling again.

Monday

I had the laundry room buzzing by 6AM. My laundry is now all caught up and ready for  the next big adventure, probably Alaska. I also had a one hour nap before lunch so it would seem my sleep is all caught up too. I loaded my pictures on to the computer this morning and am in the process of making two more presentations to put on YouTube. The first one is pictures of the East side of the Cascades and Yosemite Park. The second one will be pictures of the lighthouses on the Oregon coast from south to north. There are only eleven lighthouses so most of the pictures are of the rocky coast and waves rolling in. During the whole trip I ended up with three really nice pictures, that is a bit below my average but not bad. ChiChi and I had a nice walk to the river and back. I was surprised it took only 40 minutes today, it usually takes an hour. The weather was overcast and warm but still I wore a sweatshirt. Perhaps the temperature got to 70 during our walk.

Sunday, One week later

 Sunday. . . I arrived home at 9PM last night. I showered and went to bed immediately. This morning after breakfast I put my car back in order and washed it before going back to bed and getting some more sleep. At 4PM I drove over to Caren and Ron’s to get my doggie. He seemed happy to see me and was really excited in the car coming home.  I have posted the Cardboard Regatta on You Tube. Thirty or forty pictures I took a couple of weeks ago in Longview. Cardboard boats are fun to watch, some of them sink right away and a lot of them do a good job of racing around the lake. Check it out. I got a note from Terri, her surgery went well but it is not yet known if the doctors have removed all of the cancer. Lets hope so!   On my trip I added 2750 miles to the odometer and had no trouble with the car. Another rattle has developed though, it sounds a lot like the same ball joint I had repaired last month. I will have it looked at  before starting out to Alaska in August.

Saturday

. . .I spent the morning packing for my trip. The biggest part of the job was removing the passenger seat from the car so I could install my bed.

The packing itself was easy-five minutes, tops. I also had  phoned the Merlin Heart Monitor Company to tell them I would be out of town for 10-12 days. The same for the Day Link monitor that keeps an eye on my weight, sleeping habits and water retention. The Day Link machine is a scale that also asks questions via a computer hookup and transmits the answers to the nurses who monitor such things. Most interesting. I monitor my BP and furosemide intake.. . . . It is a shame that Terri is unable to make the trip; she is on her way to Hawaii for surgery because of  a lump on her intestine. That was a last minute change in plan!

This afternoon ChiChi and I walked for an hour and later in the day I delivered him to Ron and Caren’s place for a ten day visit. I hope that goes well, I will know more when I return around the 20^th. Caren had steak for dinner so I stayed for that, good job, Caren! Thanks!

Friday

.Today for exercise I chased the vacuum around the house and filled the washing machine for its weekly load. Later, when I checked the dryer I found the heating unit had failed so Roy offered me his dryer. He said he would get mine back into working order while I am gone next week. I took my wet laundry to his place for drying then had lunch. After lunch and putting the dried clothes away I took a much needed one hour nap. I did some reading later in the day and took out the trash during one of those lucky breaks in the clouds when the sun came out. Never did get ChiChi out for a walk, the temperature was just right for walking but we didn’t walk. My bad.

Thursday

  Bowling was extra fun today because the first three balls I threw were strikes! the scores were 151-147-154.

I was pretty perky as the day wore on, it felt good to be in the groove and doing well. Our team won the three games and except for one guy on the other team I was the high scorer. He was only 30 some points ahead of me so the two teams were well matched. On my way to bowling this morning I dropped ChiChi off with Ron, Caren and the boys. Again, he laid an egg on the dining room carpet while my back was turned. Crazy dog, he's going to see God one of these days. Caren drove him into town with her today and she said he did really well. She was also able to hold him and pet him. I'm glad to see him getting used to others. . . . Terri's biopsy did not turn out well so she is going to miss our drive South next week. She has an appointment with a surgeon in Hawaii and is leaving Portland on Saturday. I will head South on Sunday to see an ex-brother in law and his wife in Palmdale before driving to Sun City to see if an old friend is still alive. She must be ninety and is blind. I have not heard from her in a year and fear bad news when I knock on her door. My plan after that is to drive back the coast route and take pictures of the eleven lighthouses in Oregon. I will not be staying long at any location so it will be a fast trip as far as I know right now.

Wednesday

Wednesday. . . .I delivered ChiChi to Caren about 10AM. We went walking for about 15 minutes before I turned around to get back to the car for my drive to Beaverton. The doggie was not happy to see me go but Caren said he calmed down after I got out of sight. She said the day went well with him and I will take home over there tomorrow while I go Bowling. I arrived at Borders in Beaverton a bit after noon and took Terri to lunch. She had not yet heard her biopsy results so we drove over to Ben and Jeans for an afternoon visit. While we were there the lab called to tell Terri that the results would not be competed until tomorrow. They are to phone her when they are ready. I got back to Caren’s place about 8:15 and visited for a short time before driving home. After getting home and feeding the old dog I enjoyed the fresh strawberry shortcake Caren had given me, isn’t she nice?

Tuesday

Tuesday…….Doggie and I drove to the fishing hole again today. No fish but I did get my daily exercise shoveling sand out of the sitting area. There is still a lot to shovel and when I get the sitting area cleared the fire pit [it is at waist level] and the cupboard [same level] will need to be shoveled off. I was home and hungry at 3:30. The weather has turned comfortable, I hope it lasts until next June. It was in the high 70’s at the rivers edge.

Monday

 ChiChi and I didn't get to go walking today. I captured him this morning and gave him a much needed bath. There is no need for me to leave him with Caren and Ron while so dirty. After he was almost dry I put him in the car along with my fishing pole and we drove over to the fishing hole on Larsen Lane. He proceeded to get sand all over himself but what else is new, he's just a dog. . . . While there I decided to start cleaning out the steps leading down the dike to the river. I was really surprised that it only took about an hour to complete the job. The work went really fast and though I stopped several times I never really did get tired. I started cleaning out around the fire pit too but about that time Mel arrived and we visited until I began to realize I was getting hungry and it was time to get home. Doggie and I arrive home about 3:30 and ate some cheese and apple with a small handful of home made trail mix I have on hand. That will hold me until later in the evening when I raid the freezer for a couple of scoops of ice cream. I caught no fish, of course.

Sunday

I went bowling this afternoon, 100 115 124 133 and the last line I don't remember. I do know I averaged 118 for the five lines. That may mean I will do well on Thursday. After leaving the bowling alley I drove over to Ron and Carens to pick up doggie. I took him over there to help him get acquainted so when I leave him with them for 8-10 days he will not be able to complain that I left him with strangers. He slipped out of his leash once and Caren had to put on leather gloves to capture him and put it back on. She held him for a while and one time after she removed the gloves he did clamp down on her hand but not enough to hurt. She was patient with him. I also sat with Ashton helping him learn chess, he surprised me by setting up the pieces without any help from me. That is good considering he has done it only once before..... As I was walking out the door Ron gave me an apple fritter that I inhaled on the drive home. Those things are really good, that is why I don't buy them at the store. Well, it is time to pop my Sunday evening Popcorn so I'll call it a day.

Saturday

 Ron and Caren were taking Ashton and Colter to the Cardboard Boat races at the Lake today and asked me if I would like to meet them there. I arrived at about 10:45 along with the entire population of the county. Thanks to the cell phone I was able to find them but once the races started I wandered off to take pictures and never saw them again. Those boats are supposed to be made of cardboard but I did see some of the paddle wheels with thin plywood paddles. I captured a lot of exciting moments with the still camera but next year it would be a good idea to get it all on video. The boat from the Longview PD sank and left 6 cops swimming to shore, that was fun. I will have a good time putting together a short presentation to publish on YouTube. One problem I had was discover at 12:30 that the batteries in the camera died. I then inserted the two rechargeable batteries I had brought with me and found them to also be dead. It took me 20 minutes to walk to the car for fresh batteries and return. After the races ended I drove to Caren and Ron's place to return the food containers they had sent me home with last time I visited. Caren printed out a Potato Pie recipe for me to try and Ron gave me enough meat to make several dozen of the pies. I doubt I will use that much meat in a year. They are butchering again soon and need the room in their freezer. I no longer have a lot of room in my freezer. Caren is a good girl! I also talked to them about leaving ChiChi with them during the trip to So. Cal. and the lighthouses we are going to visit. They were OK with the plan and we decided it might be a good idea to get the doggie used to different surroundings so I am going to take him over there tomorrow and drop him off when I go bowling. I think it would be a good idea to do that several more times before leaving for the trip South...... My original plan this morning was to stop by the bowling alley after leaving the boat races but I was not in the mood so I will make up for it tomorrow. I ate a 50 cent slice of pizza and a Pepsi while I was there. It cost five dollars. I sure hope it went to a worthy cause.. . . After getting home and making room for the frozen meat in my refrigerator I read for a while and relaxed. The temperature got to above 80 today, It is a shame to have to wait until summer is half over before it gets warm around here. Did you know the longest word in the English language is Quitchurbellyachin? Perhaps I'm wrong about that.

Friday

I feel OK about my bowling Thursday, I feel I am learning a bit more each time I throw the ball, it just takes a lot of throwing to get to the point that one throws it exactly the same each time. If it is done perfectly those pins come falling down! Getting it perfect time after time is very difficult. That was yesterday's exercise, today ChiChi and I walked down to the river and back. That took an hour and I started out with the wrong shoes on and realized it as soon as I got to Pleasant Hill Road [300 feet] but like the nut I am I continued. My poor toe was really complaining when we got back an hour later. I am really happy I have the Icy Hot gel to smear on that foot when I get home. All will be fine by bedtime and for the next few days I will remember and wear the correct shoes when walking. I am going to make sure I take the correct shoes on the tenth when the trip to take pictures of the light houses on the coast begins.