The intent was good. But doing it was, well… delayed. I should have written sooner. The last post left off with a broken car. As it turned out, they totaled my Taurus. Then it was a matter of arguing with the insurance company about value. Without going into the gory details, it is enough to say that they won. Their offer wasn’t too awfully bad but they wouldn’t budge either. So I settled and bought a new car. Here it is.
It is a 1995 Buick Regal. How’s that for going backwards? It has a number of good things going for it. It only has 84,000 miles (only a few more than the Taurus), it is in good shape, the price was right, and – most important – it was my sister’s car. After Doris died, Bing drove it a little but he also had a pickup to drive. Finally he came to the point in his life when he realized he shouldn’t drive anymore and he sold both vehicles. We bought the car Saturday morning, June 8. And that chapter in my life came to a close. Saturday evening the next chapter opened.
Jana, Korak, Josiah, Lilly, and Jeyanthi arrived about 4:30. We were very much looking forward to seeing them again. Phase one of their visit was only 3 days. Monday evening we took them to the airport (in their van) to begin their vacation in Boston. But Sunday afternoon and Monday Korak dug a ditch for me to put in pipe to irrigate my garden. We put part of it in while he was here and then I finished it between rain storms. Ginger went with them on this trip.
While they were gone Joyce and I went to the coast to see the Sand Castle Contest in Cannon Beach. We camped for 3 days at Fort Stevens State Park (extreme NW corner of Oregon) and scouted the area for things to see and do because another camping trip was coming up in July with the grandkids. While we looked around I was invited to participate in firing a cannon at an old artillery battery location near the park. The battery was an army installation during the Civil War and thru WW II that protected the mouth of the Columbia River with giant mortars. I was the powder carrier. There was a certain procedure to follow, part of which required me walk backward so my body protected the cannon powder from enemy fire. To be interpreted: in a real battle I would be the enemy’s favorite target!
The family returned on Wednesday, June 19 minus Korak. He went back to LA to work for a couple weeks. For the next 2 1/2 weeks we did a lot of “family fun stuff” like picking the neighbor’s cherries that hang over onto our side – Josiah helped make a really good cherry tart.
And of course we made several trips to McDonald’s so the kids could climb and slide on the play equipment.
Playing in the water was always fun with most of our daytime temperatures in the high 80s. Jey loved wearing her tutu – even in the water.
Korak returned on the Fourth of July with a family friend. Mason is a year younger than Josiah and we have all kind of adopted him into the family. Sunday afternoon (July 7) we headed for Fort Stevens State Park again for 2 nights of camping. Mason had never been camping before so we had to give him this wonderful Oregon experience. In this picture we have guests who now live in the Portland area but used to live in Los Angeles and attended the same church as Jana and Korak. They came out for Sunday evening to visit. Around the circle (L to R) we have Joyce, Korak, Jana, Jeyanthi, Mason, Josiah, Lilly (almost hid), Judy and Mark.
We also played on the beach, went to Fort Clatsop, and, of course, made smores. The weather was “okay” – temps in the 60 and low 70s but NO RAIN!
Back at home Korak and I raised my shed to put a pressure treated 4x4 under it – hopefully to preserve it for a few more years. This simple chore took us most of 3 days. We found the main 4x6 timbers it was sitting on were rotted so they got replaced. While we were at it we set the whole thing on concrete pier blocks and tried to level it. We didn’t do a perfect job but it is better than it was. Next summer I’ll put a floor in it and have a really good storage shed.
This is not a very good picture of the garden but it does show that things are growing. We have eaten radishes, carrots, zucchini, lettuce, yellow crook neck squash, green beans, and two tomatoes. We have more squash, corn, tomatoes and onions coming.
They all left for home on Saturday the 13th but on Friday we made one last family adventure. This time to Enchanted Forest – a whimsical play land built around children’s nursery rhymes. Here we have the kids at “there was a crooked man who built a crooked house” and the whole gang intent on watching Pinocchio.
And since I’m writing the blog I must include this picture. Don’t you love it?
Oh, okay. One more picture.
Love ya. Blessings. I’ll try to post sooner next time.
2 comments:
here it is August 2013 and I have finally sat down long enough to read
(backwards) and catch up on your life. Loved reading your stories and full of humor always, you are quite the writer!
I hope this can go through last time I was on blogger (June 2012) I got so disgusted of all the changes, I quit my blog. So I'm trying to get back to it and catch up but we will see.
alright, it looks like it went through. I'm encouraged.
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