DAY ONE AWAY FROM HOME

Well, last night was the beginning of our crazy joyride while repairs to our home start today. I spent yesterday doing laundry and packing, Hubs packed the pickup and we headed out – the night was warm, but not sticky warm like it had been earlier in the week and the sky was actually BLUE instead of hazy with heavy smoke and ash clouds; things appeared promising:

Clear skies ... looks like the smoke and ash is being blown away.

So far the ride is anything but joyful. We arrived at the local Hotel to find the desk clerk arguing with lodgers because several rooms had been double-booked – Bob & I looked at each other with a look that said, ‘Let’s hope we have a room tonight and that our room has not been double-booked’: it wasn’t and we sighed a sigh of relief because we were all tired and Hubs and I just wanted to get our stuff unloaded and hauled to our room as soon as possible, get baby boy settled comfortably, and veg out before bedtime. The relief was short-lived … our room was on the 2^nd floor – up 2 flights of 8 stairs each. Now, this may be okay for younger folks who have younger knees; for old folks like us, it wasn’t so great. We had a home 6 years ago that had 12 stairs out front & 12 stairs out back – we sold it because our knees couldn’t take that ups and downs several times a day anymore: I miss the huge garden I had and the chickens I enjoyed … but I do not miss the stairs!

And here we were faced with 2 flights of 8 stairs each with just as many trips to the pickup and back before we could even think of resting for the night. We did it in shifts, managing a climb of 64 steps a piece between the 2 of us PLUS the original 16: we were POOPED by the time we got everything shifted from pickup to room and called it a night. 

Our knees are on fire this morning. And people keep knocking on our door looking for their friends! It’s like, ‘If they are your friends, you should KNOW the door you are looking for – stop knocking on ours! Our knees H.U.R.T. and every time you knock we have to shuffle over there to tell you that you have the wrong door” >:-P Hub’s bad knee is swollen to twice its size, mine just ache. Hubs and I do go on vacations, but they are carefully planned and we know we can call off the vaca and go home whenever we feel like it (as in gone too long from the home base). The longest we have EVER been away from home base was recently when we took the trip across America from Washington State to Vermont for a 14 day round trip rescue mission – the situation is a bit different here today. This Hotel hiatus was not our idea, and someone else (a rotten Insurance Agent who does not have our best interests at heart) is in temporary control of our lives – we don’t like it … any of it. This is NOT ‘a vaca’, it’s an invasion and entrapment.

We have no choice but to {make the best of it}, but I gotta tell you, it’s gonna be hard. We all want to be back home where we can do our thing in our own space as noisy as we please and in familiar surroundings. I suppose you could say we are lobos hopelessly out of place with little desire to conform to the jungle we find ourselves in.

 This is gonna be a loooooong 31 days.

Harvest Wreath

Fall is in the air along with heavy hanging wildfire smoke. Today I had some spare time, so I hung my Harvest Wreath and Harvest Welcome Sign at the front door; Fall is my favorite time of year, so I kinda go all out … Hubs draws the line at halloween though, so I have to be careful with what I do by way of celebrating Fall. These things are safe …

Harvest Wreath & Harvest Welcome sign

I bought this wreath about 4 years ago at a Harvest Bazaar in Oregon. I was a vendor there, and this was the first concession I ever made to spending my profits: I liked it and had to have it. And it didn’t cost much.

This Harvest Welcome sign is 24 years old, but it still looks new; I have carried it from pillar to post since we left Cathlamet 22 years ago and have hung it every year regardless of the home we had as we moved about. It is a 4-Season Welcome Sign so all the seasons are covered ;-)

Water Damage

While Hurricane Harvey was tearing things up down South of us, a flooding on a smaller scale was taking place here at home. Unbeknownst to us, while in town enjoying a pizza for Hub’s birthday … the water line to the ice maker in the ‘fridge sprung a pin-hole leak and flooded the entire kitchen floor while we were out having a good time. It went unnoticeable until around 10 p.m. that same night when I went to the ‘fridge to snag a piece of left-over pizza and I and saw 2 puddles on the floor near the ‘fridge: ‘hmmm’, I thought. ‘Did Hub’s unknowingly spill something while passing through?’ So I wiped the puddles up and was just getting ready to ask Hubs if he had gotten something to drink when he passed through the kitchen and remind him that he had to be careful with spills on the wood flooring. Instead … when I took a step forward I noticed that puddling quickly rose up between the flooring and flooded each place my feet had just been – ((((ALERT! ALERT!!)))) My mind was registering in a flash that this was something more than a simple absent-minded spill! So instead of shooting a query down the hallway to Hubs, I shouted instead, “Hon, get in here and look at this floor! NOW!” Even as I shouted and heard his feet hit the floor, my mind’s eye could already see the floorboards lifting and $$$$$ flashing before my startled eyes.

Oh man! This was NOT good …

As soon as he reached the kitchen and I pointed to the floor and showed him how the water rose up with every footstep, he said, “The ice maker sprung a leak – this is exactly why I hate ice makers” (we had kept the refrigerator that was in the house when we bought it & it had an ice maker in it; we don’t really use an ice maker, but it was part of the package). Our eyes met and we knew the floor was toast. NEW FLOOR gone in a heartbeat; we had just had this floor laid 2 months ago. So Hubs pulled the ‘fridge out and walked behind it to inspect the damage … a pin-hole in the tubing was the culprit, and the entire floor behind the ‘fridge was swimming in water. Hubs shut off the water valve and we grabbed paper towels and started trying to sop up as much water as we could; we did a pretty good job of it in a little under 2 hours. The floor wasn’t leaking anymore water around midnight and Hubs said we’d done as much as we could – he went to bed. But we knew the flooring would have to be pulled; and I knew the cupboards flanking the ‘fridge would also have to be trashed because water was flowing out from under them as well as the floorboards.

The next day our nephew, who is a contractor with his own business, came to inspect the situation and told us that what we had assumed was true: the floor was saturated, but there was no way of knowing the real damage until they started tearing into the floor. Yesterday was the telling. The fellas came early and got right to work moving the ‘fridge out of the kitchen and into the livingroom before getting busy tearing up the floor:

Heavy water damage in the kitchen - new flooring had to be pulled; only 2 months old.

As the flooring came up it was obvious that the entire floor would need to be pulled, not just the small area around the ‘fridge as we had hoped – the water damage had covered 3/4^th’s of the floor, so at that point they pulled the entire floor. Every board had a high water damage reading. The back wall was inspected and it has been saturated too; it may have to come out as well …

Even the kitchen cupboards along the back wall had to come out and will have to be replaced - they were custom built 20 years ago and are unmatchable. The new ones will be white.

This is what the back wall cupboards used to look like ... and the original floor too; we had put wood flooring down over the linoleum before we moved in June 30th, 2017.

We all put a lot of time into making sure the new flooring would match with the blonde cupboards - all that time and $$$$$ gone in a tiny pinhole leak!

It became necessary to section off the entire kitchen so I would not suffer an environmental asthma attack – the plastic sheeting would have been put up later on, but with us still in-house, it was necessary to put it in place earlier: those poor fellas were then working the rest of the day in what amounted to a stuffy greenhouse when the plastic sheeting was taped in place and zipped shut:

Kitchen has been quarantined while everything is drying out.

It has been ‘a week’ here and we are more than ready for the Sabbath Rest! So we are kicking back and relaxing over the weekend and with any hope we can face the coming week with optimism and calm hope that things will start looking up around here.

Disappointed Tulip Run

We made a tulip run to Mossyrock this morning because I want to get my front flowerbeds planted with eye-popping color for Spring display. I set out to purchase and bring home Tete a Tete Daffodils and Red Riding Hood Tulips today because they are short stemmed (they will not be broken when the strong river winds blow) and colorful. DeGoede’s had the Tete a Tete’s, but not the type of tulips I was looking for  … and no short varieties anticipated in the ordered shipment from Holland (WHY are the ordering bulbs from HOLLAND anyway, they have their own production!); so major disappointment there. But we enjoyed watching their giant koi at the Koi Pond they have:

KOI – these fish are HUGE and really pretty with bold coloration.

Then we headed back home and tried the local stores with no luck (Wilco, Lowe's, Winco, ect.) – Home Depot did have bulbs, but their choices were limited. I bought 2 boxes of bulbs that will give me color, but again, not what I had my heart set on …

Tete a Tete Daffodil bulb's in the forefront - Giant Crocuses and Ranunculus in back.

We thought that perhaps Tsugawa’s Nursery in Woodland might have some bulbs in, but (((NO))) – after spending an hour locked in miles ahead and behind of bumper-to-bumper traffic on the freeway due to “road work ahead” (which we never did SEE evidence of) we arrived there harried but hopeful only to hear that they would not have any in until late September either. Major bummer. I mean we hit EVERY POSSIBLE STORE that {might} sell bulbs IN FIVE COUNTIES and came home disappointed. I did, however, find what I am looking for ONLINE after dinner, so that is how I will finally get what I want. I mean, if it is going to take the nurseries 3 weeks to get their shipments from Holland (and this from nurseries that GROW THEIR OWN TULIPS – fields of them in fact!!), then I might as well shop online, order online, and have them delivered straight to my door …

Red Riding Hood Tulips

Firespray Tulips

… Hubs would prefer that anyway; I like road trips and buying local. But if the ‘locals’ are not willing to work with their customers, the customers will go elsewhere – they all pretty much lost this customer to the cyberspace highway. I’ll still be taking road trips, but for sight-seeing only from now on. Needless to say, I am not happy with the nurseries I frequent several time a year; I really do not understand local businesses that outsource their product instead of selling to locals, making the locals wait weeks, and sometimes months for insourcing items. It’s ridiculous  >:-(

DeGoede Tulip Fields: one would think they would happily sell locally … they used to because I have bought tulips bulbs from them in the past. I don’t know why they changed policy, but they lost me as a customer after today.

On-the-Road Anniversary

This year – today, on our 43^rd Anniversary we have been married for 15,695 days/376,680 hours/22,600,800 minutes; which is over 1,356 million seconds … and by now we pretty much know everything there is to know about one another …

Wedding Pic; 1974

There are no gems associated with this Wedding Anniversary, and no material gifts associated with this Wedding Anniversary. There is, however, one theme assigned to this Wedding Anniversary, and that is travel: a location visit. So we hit the road early in the morning and spent the day revisiting places from our early days together.

We decided (actually I decided and Hubs went along with it) to head off to Seaside. On our way we stopped at the Sunday Market in Astoria because I was curious:

There really wasn't much to see; it was pretty disappointing. Most vendors were selling the same stuff packaged a bit differently.

This macramé art was interesting ... but not enough to purchase it.

Interesting shaped musical instruments. But neither of us are musicians ...

A goat on a leash strolling along and gawking at a dog dressed in pajamas!

Batman hats; yarn crafts always catch my eye.

Baby spuds - seed spuds actually, offered at an outrageous price. No doubt 'organic'.

This Eagle was nicely done, but the sticker price was sky-high; we do not carry that much moolah on us.

Well, I’ve done the Sunday Market and my curiosity was sated – I don’t think I’ll go back. There really wasn’t that much to interest me; a lot of vendors, but not a lot of variety or realistic options. There were many junk hawkers, and many ‘unique’ artsy stuff, but MPO is that there really was nothing worth parting with a $ for. So we got buckled in again and melded into the bumper-to-bumper traffic to Seaside where our plan was to stop by the Aquarium straight off, stroll the boardwalk, and then find the Elephant Ears and enjoy a delicious sugar-high from the sticky sweet delights ;-)

Finally made the Seaside Aquarium. Baby boy likes it here.

A tent-city has sprung up on Seaside's beach. Apparently it's another bicycling event. I am not a fan of bicycles on the roadway for any reason, so that event did not interest me in the least.

A 'tentacle' pen - how cute is that?

The seals are such little beggars …and impatient too for their stinky snacks.

The finned beggars are such hams ... we were soaked from head to toe by the spray kicked up with their silly antics as they vociferously barked loudly, slapped themselves so hard we hurt for them, vigorously splashed water, and openly begged for fish bits.

A Giant Pacific Octopus.

A big Wolf Eel.

Cool sand art.

After we left the Aquarium and gorged on our deep-fried Elephant Ears drizzled with sickeningly sweet (but utterly delicious!) thick maple syrup, we drove to Longbeach and ate burgers at ‘The Corral’ burger bar drive-in: the same little place we used to eat when we rode the Harley on our dating forays 43 years ago.

Then heartily stuffed and totally worn out, we drove back home.

It was a good day, and Elohei was gracious to us - and with us all day. We feel blessed in every way, and thankful for us IN HIM because our relationship with Him is why we have marked 43 years together today; on our own we would surely have screwed things up beyond repair: but Elohei is faithful to keep us faithful when we commit our lives to His care and Will. 

43 years together are great, but we have no doubt that 44 will be better :-D

THE PAST 3 WEEKS

The 1^st week we were all suffering some sort of summertime cold, so just laid around the house and did as little as possible; and we even managed to take a “fresh air day” outdoors when the temperature spiked and we felt energized enough to enjoy an outing to Willow Grove Beach.

The 2^nd week we spent a LOT of time snoozing and rebuilding our strength which was returning slowly, but steadily.

And this past weekend we felt up to an invigorating road trip for a change of scenery and fresh alpine air. Saturday was bright and sunny around 9 a.m. and I thought a drive to Tipso Lake in Cayuse Pass would be fun; but once we got there we saw detour signs telling us that the Pass was closed due to wildfires. Well darn >:-P So we changed course and thought perhaps a scenic drive up Sunrise Trail on the backside of Mt. Rainer past Cayuse Pass would be fun too … so off we drove happily anticipating our rebound adventure – and were sharply disappointed to find a freeway worthy traffic jam at the base of Sunset Trail. After waiting half an hour as traffic crawled one car at a time every 15 minutes, we pulled a U-turn and decided to enjoy the Sunrise Trail another day. The last option to salvage something of our unplanned road trip was a visit to Box Canyon in Mt. Rainer National Park, but when we arrived at the Toll Booth, the entrance to Mt. Rainer Park where Box Canyon is located was jammed bumper to bumper with cars too; but we’d come this far after a 3 hour drive one way, and were determined to see SOMETHING and have an adventure SOMEWHERE around this mountain; I love Box Canyon anyway, and even though it was not where we had planned to be when we left home, it was enjoyable just the same:

AUGUST 19th. Cayuse Pass was closed due to fires, so Tipso Lake was not visited. Tried for Sunrise Trail and was not able to make that either because of heavy traffic.

AUGUST 19th. This is crazy! We visit this mountain every year (several times a year) and have NEVER seen such a long line here; there were so many cars above that the Lodge staff were turning cars away because the parking lot is stuffed. We left for Box Canyon. 

AUGUST 19th. Unbelieveable. The traffic jams at every point are ridiculous. It has got to be the influx overflow from the out-of-state-lookeylou's flooding our State to view the eclipse Monday. Also saw on the message board that Lifetime Senior Passes will now cost $10 whereas they were FREE until recently. Hubs has a free card, I will have to pay for mine 18 months from now - I just hope they do not go up in price between now and then ...

AUGUST 19th. Box Canyon. Prehistoric glacial landscaping.

AUGUST 19th. Box Canyon. Ancient prehistoric glacial scored basalt. Vandals have defaced most of the scenic rock; I hope they are fined heavily for the damages they have done.

AUGUST 19th. Box Canyon. More prehistoric glacial handiwork.

AUGUST 19th. Box Canyon. I LOVE it here! My favorite view; if I could, I'd build a cabin right here in this spot and just drink in the scenery every day.

AUGUST 19th. Box Canyon. This bridge is very high over the steep, tight rushing water Gorge below.

AUGUST 19th. Box Canyon. Everywhere we looked was evidence of the storm damage; it must have been a doozy.

AUGUST 19th. Box Canyon. The high winds that blew these trees over must have howled through here like a wild banshee.

AUGUST 19th. Box Canyon. Crazy times ...

AUGUST 19th. Left the Loop Trail and are back on the main roadway that passes over the glacial water gorged Gorge below.

We have thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and loved the time spent indulging our need for fresh air and wide-open spaces.