Saturday

. . . .It was really foggy this morning so I expected that to burn off and the sun to come shinning through. No such luck, I’m afraid. It was cold most of the day but little rain fell, or snow, goodie, goodie. Watched a SiFi movie on MGM Channel. I didn’t like it, poorly done and lousy acting. It reminded me of the long ago Saturday afternoon Serial Movies that we used to see in the theatres. . . . I just realized that tomorrow is a holiday so I suppose I will not be bowling. I’ll change my plans to Monday for that. . . . I wish you all a very happy New Year! 

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Friday

. . . . Another quiet day on Pleasant Hill Drive. Got a few sprinkles but no really cold weather. I fixed a stir fry for dinner, I’m getting pretty good at that! This evening I watched a couple of commercial free movies and was in bed by 9PM. No exercise today, I’m sorry to say.

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Thursday

. . . I had more fun shopping than bowling today. And I am not at all crazy about shopping. My bowling scores were 142-110-122, yikes!  Oh well, I guess I won’t be turning pro for a while. But that’s OK, somebody has to be here to feed the dog. I watched football this evening, the Washington/Baylor game was fun and I enjoyed the chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter I had while that was going on.

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Wednesday

 .  .  .I walked for an hour again today, the rain was steady all day, and it was dark out all of the time. At 8AM headlights were still needed and by 4PM it was time to turn them back on. I am looking forward to bowling tomorrow, it causes me to get out of the house and move around a little. I think another stop at Safeway would be in order also. I have heard that the weather is to clear over the weekend, that will be a good thing. The temperature was not bad today, my thermometer was reading 52 at noon.

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Tuesday

.  .  .  .  . . I have no idea what I will post on my blog tonight; I have done nothing all day except eat and nap. Watched a good movie on TV and read for a while. I did walk for an hour though so I don't feel the day was entirely lost.

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Monday

Day After Christmas. . . I went bowling today. For all of the good it did me. 163-151-103-137-106-120-. I think that works out to about nine points below my average. The good news is that quite often when I don’t do well at practice I make up for it during league play. If that holds true this week I will do well on Thursday. Gotta’ be positive about important matters such as these! After I got back home I had a small lunch and spent over an hour on the computer working out some chess moves. Later in the day I watched football commercials between the plays. Fun. It was raining again by bedtime, I think that is going to become an every day thing since winter has arrived.

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Sunday

Christmas Day. . . .The drought has ended, again. I drove into town expecting the bowling alley to be open but it was not. So I ended up enjoying a nice drive in the rain. I gave some thought to washing the car when I got back to the house but the Temperature had dropped to about 36 and I felt that was too low for such business. It was warm and toasty inside so I decided to sit back and soak up some relaxation for the day. I ate too much I suppose, but that will not keep me from popping up a bowl of popcorn to enjoy while watching some football this evening. Terri phoned me from Hawaii this afternoon, I was really happy to hear her sweet voice, she is a very nice lady, I kid you not.. . . .  Ron gave me a Toy R.C. car for Christmas so this afternoon I removed it from the package and installed the batteries. I swear to goodness my dog knew exactly what I was up to the minute he saw that thing on the living room floor. Needless to say I chased him all over the house with it until he hid in the bedroom. I then parked the thing right at the bedroom door and he stayed in there for over two hours before working up the nerve to scoot past it and jump into my lap.

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Saturday

Christmas Eve Day.. . . . I had all of my computer stuff all caught up before 8AM this morning. Part of that reason is that it is weekend in Europe and my chess playing friends don’t bother me much on weekends. It was still very dark out this early, lots of rain up north so perhaps there were a lot of heavy clouds covering the sun. I noticed we missed the rain from north of us. That pleased me! I arrived at the Teigen’s a little after 4PM and after Pizza and some conversation we commenced opening gifts. The two boys had the time of their lives!

It was a great Christmas watching those two! Colt, three years old did a great job tearing the paper off the gifts but he handed them to his mom to open the boxes underneath. He opened the Rockin’ Mickey and was set for the rest of the evening, it was a long time before he became interested in any of the unopened gifts stacked up around him. Caren had a very good spinach dip; I didn’t think  liked spinach dip until I tried that. I was home just as the second half of the football game from Hawaii  started. It was a fine evening, I was really happy to be there.

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Friday

. . . . I did get my French toast cooked and placed in the freezer. I ate a slice of it with a glass of milk for lunch. Pretty good groceries, if I do say so myself. Mel and Tippy dog stopped by for a while to drop off some Christmas gifts from them and Billy. The sun was out shortly after 1PM. The temperature got to about 50 today, not bad for this part of the county so near Christmas. I did walk for an hour too. Mel came back early afternoon to bring ChiChi a bone that is almost as large as he is. There was almost enough meat on it to make a pot of soup.

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Thursday

My day was good but my bowling was really awful 118-128-96. I have no idea what the problem was but I could do nothing right. I finished my Christmas shopping and wrapped and delivered my last gift today. I also stopped by Safeway for more groceries, all fresh fruits and vegetables by the way! I have not eaten any ice cream for more than a week but my weight still stays too high, life in the big city, I guess. After bowling I stopped by to deliver Billy his gift then went to Teigen's to do the same. Caren was very happy for the flowers that I had ordered earlier. Caren had delivered some of Ron's gifts to me a few days ago and I wrapped them for her and delivered them today too. I told Ron that all the gifts that filled the trunk of my car had his name on them except the two for the boys. Caren heard me and said nothing so I told her I probably confused Ron but I didn't lie to him. She thought that was funny, I don't think Ron reads my blog so it will be interesting to see if he really believes all of those gifts were really from me. I guess Caren and I are pretty bad.

Well, Thursday evening, so I will watch some commercials then get to bed. I have no plans for tomorrow but it is time to prepare some more French Toast to put in the freezer so that may be a chore to do. I hope I can force myself to walk for an hour too. I have to exercise away that Burger and fries I had for lunch before bowling.

Wednesday

. . . .It seems the trouble I was having with my voice yesterday has cleared up. I certainly hope it stays that way. There was no frost this morning, I am beginning to think we may be having a nice stretch of weather for this time of year. As soon as I say something like that Mother Nature will come along and shoot me down. Really foggy this morning so I was expecting the sun would come out by noon and it did clear a little but not completely. I am happy to report that I walked for another hour today, I say that in case my doctor is reading my blog. Just another quiet, Pleasant Hill day!

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Tuesday

. . . .When I woke up this morning and ChiChi came running to greet me I discovered I was getting a bit of bronchitis. It slowly got worse as the day progressed until I decided to try a Halls lounges. That seemed to help a little. We will see how I feel tomorrow morning. My laundry is all caught up again. I discovered that walking for an hour does not hurt at all. I don’t know where it came from but suddenly I decided to force myself into it. After the walk I had lunch, folded clothes and did some reading. Of course the reading always leads to napping so I accomplished that too. It has been a good day!

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Monday

. . . . .I have enjoyed a very quiet day; got my reading caught up as well as any sleep I may have missed in the past month. The most exciting thing that happened was this evening after dark. When I let ChiChi out I always open the kitchen door to the garage rather than the front door. From there he uses a small cat door Roy had put in for his cat several years ago. I then push the kitchen  door back to the almost closed position [but not latched] so the cold air stays out but he can, by pushing against the door, open it and return to the house. After I fed him this evening I let him out and he was gone long enough for me to completely forget about him. After a while I became aware that he was out there barking his fool head off but I was interested in O’Reilly so I ignored him. All of a sudden there was a great crash behind me [that is where the door is] and the dog came rushing in. He must have been running at full speed when he smashed his little body against that door, he then skidded on the linoleum attempting to gain traction as he headed at a fear filled gallop toward the couch. I thought for sure a mountain lion was behind him. He jumped up on the back of the stuffed couch and began to bark like crazy out the window. By then he had my attention so I jumped up to look out the window too. I saw nothing, it was darker than a coal pit out there. I walked to the door to close it and as I did so he thought I was interested enough to follow him out through the doggie door and continue the investigation. He took off like a shot guessing, I suppose, that I was right behind him. No such luck, doggie, looking out the window I watched him running toward the edge of the parking area barking again. I never saw what his problem was so I reset the door and left him out there. He came back  a few minutes later all at peace with the world. Silly dog. Just another exciting day in Pleasant Hill. The rest of the evening will be used to watch my Monday night commercials then off to bed to read myself to sleep.

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Sunday

. . .  . My bowling results made me happy again160-145-175-167-140-129- Pretty close to a 152 average. Not bad for me. After bowling I stopped by the dollar store and found another book to add to my collection of unread books and three book CD’s for a dollar each. I usually don’t buy their CD’s because they are mostly novels but these were history so I couldn’t turn them down. Forty six degrees out today, not bad but I think it is about 75 in Hawaii. This evening I tried to watch Football but nothing held my interest for long so I switched to a movie; that turned out sort of boring too. I put the movie on pause and fixed some popcorn, that helped a little. After the movie I posted the blog and went to bed to read myself to sleep.

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Saturday

. . . .I cooked up a pot of beans today. Tasted pretty good, if I do say so myself. I added some red chili pepper and that helped it a lot, the garlic did too. Never did walk today, just lazy, I’ve been feeling fine. My Christmas wrapping is all caught up, finished in fact. I have several to deliver in the next few days, then I can relax again until next time. The sun was out this afternoon. I did not say warm, just out. Radar shows no serious precipitation in the area. That pleases me. Cousin Sharon phoned today but I must have been taking trash out at the time. It was the only time I was away from the phone all day.

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Friday

. . . I drove into Castle Rock this morning to take pictures of the historical sign thanking Barbara and other officials for their aid in making the street restoration in town possible. Stopped by Teigen’s for a few minutes then went by Mel’s place for a gift delivery. Tippy was chasing chickens and pulling their feathers, A new cow has arrived, came in from across the way by accident or her own design, she is eating her full of very fine grass and has the field all to herself. Mel will be doing some fence repair, I suppose. I had lunch, read and napped, oh, forgot to mention the sun was out most of the day. That was nice, got to about 46 degrees. Went to bed early and read myself to sleep then woke up about 1AM and remembered I had not posted the blog for the day. So, here it is!

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Thursday

.  .. ...My PSA test came out much better this time, 3.1 which is a mite high but OK considering how I would have felt had it been up from last time. Another dodged bullet, goodie, goodie. After seeing the doctor I stopped by Safeway for milk and stuff then went to the bowling alley. I was very hungry and ordered a burger with fries about the time bowling started so my first game was pretty bad. I then did much better in game two and ended up with a 145 average which is a bit better than my 139 league average. The scores were 104-188-144. I walked out of there feeling very good. I had intended to stop by Teigens and Mels place but after getting home and putting the groceries away I was just too lazy to go out again. It rained here during the night and it looks like that may continue for a while. I am glad it was not icy out, that is a good thing.

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Wednesday

. . . . Since I had my lab work done yesterday I had no reason to go out of the house today. I was able to force myself into walking for an hour; that was my total accomplishment for the past 24 hours. I read a lot and took a nap, played with the dog and ate too much. My weight is hovering around 200 pounds and I will talk to the doctor about that tomorrow. I think the problem is water retention. Barbara had the same trouble and that was caused by her heart not being strong enough to do its job. I suppose that is my problem too. It goes with my other heart related problems. Always something, darn it!

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Tuesday

. . . I drove into Longview this morning for a PSA blood draw [it was at 4.7 3 months ago] and the outside temperature was a balmy 25. I then drove home for some breakfast and time on the computer before meeting the ‘gang of 52’ for lunch. We all had a good time at lunch, telling lies and eating too much. Typical ‘guy’ stuff. I drove by the bowling alley on the way home with bowling in mind but after seeing so many cars in the parking lot I decided to go on home. After arriving home I packaged up a couple of things that needed mailing for Christmas and took them to the post office. Natalia, the lady in Mazatlan whom I will be visiting next month likes Tillamook cheese so I asked about sending a pound to Mexico. It would have cost $21.05 to send first class. Never mind. I will carry a couple of pounds down there in my suitcase when I go. This evening was O’Reilly time and getting caught up with my chess games on the Internet.

Three years ago tomorrow we had 14 inches of snow on the ground at Barbara’s place. There is no chance of that happening again, is there?

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Monday

. . . . All day I have felt like there is something I am supposed to be doing. I am thinking that must be an easy thought since I have done absolutely nothing as it is. This evening I will watch the Seattle football game on TV and remember how Barbara never missed a game without good reason. Tomorrow I will have lunch with the ‘gang of 52’ but have no further plans. Looks like two lazy days in a row. Not too bad for a retired guy!

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