Happy Memorial Day!

It’s cool, damp and grey with scattered showers forecasted throughout the day: another typical spring day in the Northwest! I think this has got to be one of the wettest and coolest springs here since I got here 31 years ago. I sure hope that doesn’t mean we’re in for a string of scorchers (like last weekend) later on just to average things out. One of the ways we can tell it's spring is the rhododendrons are blooming, adding a nice splash of color to the backyard.

This is a shutdown week for me. I don’t go back to work until 2 June. The Solar and Flat Panel divisions of the company are very busy and not affected by the shutdown. A couple of our Mfg Engineers along with the buyer and planner are doing vendor visits for the Solar Division this week. They’re helping them ramp up to meet demand. A win-win situation for all involved. I don't have anything special planned for this week, just cleaning, straightening, yardwork (when it's not raining) and the like. We're thinking of taking in the IMax film about going down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon at OMSI. I think we've talked R into coming along. Despite living here all his life he's never been to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) and he's never seen an IMax film. I figure with the 360 degree view this is as close as we will get to rafting through the Grand Canyon with out getting wet.

Saturday, R came over with Gabby to help me take out the pool heater, pump/filter and the spa bubble blower. It wasn’t as difficult as we expected, it only took a couple of hours and one trip to the hardware store for a couple of pvc pipe caps.

Before

After

And of course we couldn't do anything without proper supervision

We got scolded a couple of times by a mama robin who has taken up residence in one of the nests under the deck recently. We'll have to be careful going in and out of the patio door for the next several weeks.

Here's the best I could do for a picture of a hummingbird at our new feeder. I had to use the extreme zoom on the camera and of course, the bird it using the feeder on the opposite side from where I was but you can see it's tail at least.The feeder is just outside the window to the computer room. Sometimes I'll be at the computer and they will hover in front of the window and I swear they are looking right at me trying to figure out what I'm doing. They are voracious eaters, I've had to refill the feeder four times in the couple of weeks since I put it up.

hot, Hot, HOT!

I feel sorry for all the people that live east of us. We are in the midst of a bubble of HOT air passing over us causing record highs: 92 at the airport, 100+ in several areas around us. As a matter of fact, the low last night was 56, which was the high for last weekend. It has cooled off some today; only suppose to hit 88 this afternoon. But, this little heat wave is moving east. I’m sure it will hit the mid-west in the middle of next week. In the mean time it will cool off and start raining again here. The forecasted high for next Tuesday is only 54 degrees. Back to the cold, wet spring we’d been having right up to this little break.

This morning we went out to the car dealer we ordered the new truck from and got our old one back. It seems that the factory refused to accept the order for my new truck. They don’t have enough parts to build more 2008 Frontiers. They aren’t scheduled to build any more before they switch over to the 2009’s in September. I’m just SOL! So, we got the old truck back. It seems that it’s been sitting on the car lot for two months, just collecting dust, waiting for the deal for the new vehicle to get sorted out first. This is a bummer! I ordered what I wanted instead of settling for what they had. I didn’t really have a plan B. We are starting all over again, two months later, except we know we can’t get what we want! This will require some thought, some cogitation and some readjusting our expectations. Maybe we won’t get a truck, rather some other type of vehicle. P has been saying that she’d like a car with automatic transmission… Like I said, this will take a while to figure out what we are going to do.

I have one more week to the long Memorial Day weekend, and the shutdown week after it. We don’t have anything special planned, except to prepare for and have a Garage Sale at the end of the week We have been going through closets and cupboards already, but we will be going through the house, top to bottom. After 23+ years it is time for a lot of this stuff to go. Our plans call for moving to a smaller house in the future. It is time to downsize. What doesn’t go in the Garage Sale will go to the Goodwill. We hope to pull in a tidy sum from the sale and should have one heck of a charitable contribution deduction on our taxes next year. It’s all good, right?

It’s time to freshen my drink. We are celebrating Janet’s birthday this time. Seeing as she is many miles and several states away, this will have to suffice for now.

Happy Birthday Janet!

It's been a quiet week...

It’s been a quiet week, with just Scott, me and the dogs. I came home everyday at lunch to let Shakespeare out of the den to do his “business” and run around some while I have my lunch. The only problem was/is that it’s been wet most of the week. Shakespeare is so happy to see me that he runs around some and then come over and jumps on me. I’ve had dirty paw prints on me every afternoon when I returned to work. I have to do some wash today if I want clean pant’s for work this week.

Yesterday I took the boys for their walk first thing, got it out of the way. They BUG me when they realize I’m not going to work, follow me around everywhere, watching my every move. “Not going to work, Dad? Good! Take us for a walk, NOW!!” The weather was cool but nice in what little sunshine there was. I waited until after 10 to start in on the lawns. Scooping poop, pulling dandelions, trimming with the weed wacker and actually mowing the lawns, it turns into a big production. The sky was turning very dark by the time I finished and sure enough, it started sprinkling when I was having lunch half an hour later.

I packed up the boys around two and drove to the other side of town, through half a dozen rain showers, to R’s. Gabby and Shakespeare started in with the playing and rough-housing right away. Bailey tried to stay out of the way until they calmed down some. R fed me drinks and dinner. He’d put up a hummingbird feeder right out side the door to his deck several days ago. He gets a lot of activity. The dogs going in and out and chasing each other all over the backyard must of spooked the hummingbirds, but we did see a number of them before the day was over, pretty cool. It’s surprising all the different colors they have. R told me the feeders are on sale, now that he’s already bought his, and I picked one up. I just have to figure out the best place to hang it so we can see it and can get to it easily. R says he has to refill his feeder every three or four days, a cup and a half of sugar water at a time. They’re thirsty little birds.

P called me while I was on my walk with the dogs this morning. Two leashes, the kind that extends out to 16 feet, listening to my ipod when my phone buzzes in my pocket. I was able to pause the ipod and answer it in time. I had two leashes in one hand and the phone in the other with the ear bud handing down, swinging all over the place as we walked down the street. It was a little awkward especially when the leashes got tangled and the dogs trying to go in different directions. I had to tell P to hold on a couple of times while I sorted the dogs, the leashes and the lamppost out. Obviously I should have had my Bluetooth hands free ear piece on like you see so many people wearing these days. Maybe next time… P and DJ are on the road, taking the long way home. They were outside Sacramento when P called, on their way to the coast. They’re going to see a lighthouse tomorrow and then head north towards Portland. They won’t get back until Tuesday afternoon. We’ll sure be glad to see them back home again!