Tell-tale clock

My clock chimes every quarter hour and I am so used to it that I tend not to hear it. Of late, however, I am made aware every quarter hour that I need a new battery. Ding squawk ding dong, ding squawk, squawk, dong.

Heads up!

As the officer's lights began to flash in my rear view mirror, I pulled over with the assurance of a life well-lived and a youth well-spent, so he could speed by to arrest some crazed drug felon wreaking havoc on the streets of Canby. Instead, he pulled ME over!

He'd been keeping pace with me through a couple of lights coming along 99E on the way into Canby from a very nice trip to Vancouver to play with grandkids. I'd been extremely careful to slow to the exact speed limit and kept it there, yet he didn't go by through the first light or the second. I had to turn left so I stepped on the gas a little, turned on my signal and changed lanes ahead of him and his lights flipped on. My life flashed in rhythm with his lights: I hadn't cut him off, hadn't sped, had used my signal appropriately, was driving with shoes on, had brushed my teeth and was wearing clean underwear. What else could it be?

I rolled the window down as he approached the car and he says "Are you Lynn?" Unbelievable! The name police!

He had run our plates as standard practice because our car is a kind that has made the top ten list of "most likely to be stolen" and discovered that though I was legally driving my car, I was doing so with a license that expired almost a year ago!

I ended up with a citation that will be rescinded when I show up with my renewed license,and the officer let me drive home (since Dick was hopped up on oxycodone) after discussing his relatives and our friends the Abbotts and what a good driver I must be to have been driving all this year with an expired license.

Since that fateful day, I have gotten my license renewed and have to say that the new picture is much better than the old one.

Also, I am positive that I did not get a license renewal form in the mail. I am on top of that kind of stuff. My advice to all of you, my friends, is check your license expiration date. I'm not at all sure that the DMV is holding up their end of things. And, if you have to renew, you need to show a birth certificate or passport and something with your social security number on it.

Memories of Summer

I guess we did have summer:

Tractor races while we were waiting for Mark to arrive in May

 The Rose Festival fleet as well as the huge barges on the Columbia in June.

A trip to the zoo in July as well as Sacramento and Yosemite.

Rocket launches in August and watching the lilies open.
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Rock hunting and rock painting in September

Home again for a breather!

Would a rose by another name still smell?

It was just brought to my attention that Weedeater is the brand name of a particular type of string trimmer and not an action verb. It's ok to say I need to weedeat my garden, for example. Or, tomorrow I'll need to do some weedeating. But what about yesterday? I weed-ate the front flowerbed just doesn't work. Neither does weedeated. Instead I've been avoiding the whole issue by another comment: Tony loves to weedeat and he sure has been keeping the yard looking nice. That works for me!

It's important what you call things. The right name makes all the difference. I can remember that my mom, who loved to dance, wouldn't dance with a really cute guy because his last name was Junk! Praise God I didn't have Lynn Junk to overcome!

This brings me to Funtime RV from whom we bought our trailer. We left the awning rolled out on the trailer last night so I went out this morning after all that rain we had to retract it. It worked fine but was too wet to leave rolled up so I extended it again and left it out all day to dry. This evening when I went out again to retract it, it didn't retract. When I pressed the button, nothing happened. (I'm a big one on things working when you press the button.) That's the problem that the Funtime folks were supposed to have fixed during the three weeks they had it sitting on their lot and we're not really excited about hauling it clear to the other side of Tualatin yet again. So I find myself asking myself, and now you, where's the fun in Funtime? Perhaps they should have called it Floyd's RV - there's no great expectations there.

Hatari

I was so excited to find Hatari even if it was a video at a garage sale today. I started humming the Baby Elephant March. I love that music. HOWEVER, my joy has turned to sadness to discover that the video was stored somewhere where it drew moisture and has molded into a solid chuck of unplayable tape. If it was me, I'd give me my money back. Hope they feel the same way.

It's too much to catch up with the past two months but a quick recap: Mark Douglas Meyer arrived on May 17th; trailer trip to Vancouver WA for the occasion; another trailer trip to watch the Rose Fleet departure and east to Pendleton, Heppner, Rufus and back; home for a few days then a car trip to Sacramento for the Masters World Track & Field Championships, Yosemite, Reno to see Michael, Sunriver to see Patsy, hit the Goodwill, quilt shop and a pawn shop! Home again for a while.

Fun stuff to do at Gram and Pa's

Mark's joined the family.

Joyce Taylor at the World's in Sacramento.

We watched athletes from 35 to 92 competing. That 92 year-old gal who threw the javelin was something else!

Pops at the River is more than just the Reno Philharmonic playing by the Truckee.

a walk around the yard

While it's true that farmers make hay when the sun shines, this farm gal does yardwork. Used to be that my mom and I would walk around the yard in the evenings looking at all our plants. Mother's Day is coming up so to reminisce I walked around the yard with my camera after a couple of days of hard yardwork.

I planted a clematis (accent on the 2nd syllable is what I prefer) in this tub along with some supertunias, pansies, and a grass thing. Please note the rocks arranged around the hostas which got chopped by the weedeater. If you look very very closely, the white spot on the lower right is a marker indicating where a lily was planted.

I dug a hole and partially submerged the tub that has water plants in it - water celery (if you need some, let me know) a waterlily, marsh marigold, and water iris, two goldfish and my cool insulator on top of a pot. For a long time I've been wanting to put my collection of sedums somewhere that makes sense so I've moved them to the end of this bed on the right. I've got a couple of tomato plants and a pot of lettuce center. Behind you can see some yellow lilies we just planted and part of my yard art. My intention is to spread barkdust lightly, Preen heavily, and then more barkdust in an effort to get some noxious weeds under control.

Sorry that Powder looks blurry - he's wagging his tail. This picture is called Under the Lilac - his favorite place to lay. I wish you could smell this gorgeous lilac. It's so fragrant.

We hired a couple of men to weed and spread barkdust. They did a great job weeding but the barkdust is a little thin. Note the flowerbed by the house. It hasn't looked that clean for several years!

 What do you think about this rhody? I may leave it in a pot so I can easily move it if it doesn't do well there. I'm particularly happy with my aralia to the right. I put it in 2 years ago and it's doing well. We just discovered that the hinges on the screen door are broken so if you come over, come to the back door.

 I like what's happening here. I've moved almost all of my red sandstone rocks that I got from my brother John's house to this bed. More barkdust needed but it's coming along.

To do list: paint fence! Thanks for walking the yard with me.

Here's a cute pair! I like Alex's buzz cut.

Consider the lilies

In an ironic role reversal I ran the weed-eater over Dick’s lilies reducing them to ¼ inch stubs.

He got interested in lilies last summer and in a never-ending desire on my part to encourage any bud of horticultural interest on his part, we ended up with quite a few.  But as bulbs die back and the weeds thrive and life goes on, I wiped them out with a few well aimed but unintentional swipes with the weed-eater.

I’ve lost a few plants over the years to a weed-eater wielding husband who takes anything green as a personal challenge, but it came as quite a shock to have to give an account myself!

Needless to say I’ve had to do a little payback in my flower shopping lately.