Last Friday - Errands and Canyonville

          Summer is coming to an end and Jenna will be returning to school on Wednesday.  Her job at the blueberry patch has ended for this season.  On Friday morning Roland asked if I wanted to play a game.  It always surprises me when it is his idea.  He asked if Jenna had left the house and I said that she was still here and so he asked her to play also.

          First, we played Sequence.  Baulderdash is Roland’s favorite, but I think Sequence may be a close second.  We played two games.  I won the first and Roland won the second – but Jenna had gotten in two wins earlier in the week.  We then played a game of Blokus and then a never-ending game of Monopoly.  Neither Jenna nor I were willing to sell or trade specific properties to Roland and he was never fair about the amount anyway.  We would make jokes as we moved our pieces around the board.  It was one of the few times I have enjoyed myself while playing Monopoly

          Roland said he wanted to go to the bank and I wanted to go to the post office to mail a calendar to my sister – not that she needs a calendar this early or wouldn’t be able to purchase her own but I wanted her to have it.  Jenna and I had opened up a savings account for her and she asked if I could deposit some more money into her account.  I reminded her that we’d be going to Canyonville Pioneer Days later on.  Roland suggested that we just all go to the bank together and go to the celebration from there.          

 I knew she would be bored out of her mind and offered to let her run to the post office while I put her money in the bank.  I told her to pay the smallest amount, but she did not even ask.  She sent it priority mail which cost me more than I had anticipated.  I wish she would have handled it in a different way. Oh, well.  Kayla received the calendar on Monday. She is definitely worth the cost.

We went to the Pioneer Days in Canyonville and enjoyed ourselves. I saw a friend I had made through the school system and was able to introduce her to Roland and Jenna. It was a productive day entertainment-wise.

Let’s Go Bowling

          Though Roland did want to take care of some projects around the house and yard, he didn’t wish to spend his entire vacation laboring.  He wanted to spend money going to shows, seeing sights, or something else that would qualify as a vacation. Last week on Monday evening he decided that we should go bowling for family home evening.  We decided to go to Nickle Bowl – but along with half to most of the businesses in Myrtle Creek, Nickle Bowl is closed on Mondays.  Thus we went up to Roseburg.

          The last few times we’ve gone, I have always chosen a lighter ball.  My wrist doesn’t appreciate the extra weight of a bowling ball.  Also, the holes seem more spread out on the heavier balls and I have tiny hands. Whenever we bowl either Jenna and I will make the request to have bumpers as it will prevent us from getting from 10 – 20 gutter balls. 

Bowling always reminds me of other times I have spent at various bowling alleys. When my own family had gone bowling, I remember how Kayla would somehow put a spin on her ball and appear to be coaching it.  She would move her arm from one gutter to the other to guide the ball to move from one side to the other.  It somehow worked!  It was as though she were acting as a voodoo doll for her ball.  Even when she turned around, the ball would appear to do the same thing.  It was like an unbelievable magic.

          I don’t recall whether it had been Corey or Kayla, but one of them let the ball go before the pinsetter had finished – not that either one of them threw hard enough to damage it.  Or else the pinsetter would hit a wiggling pin and knock it down causing it to knock down other pins. For the most part, I have happy memories. 

When Roland and I were first dating, I remember Tony having set up ten pop bottles at the end of the hall.  I don’t recall what kind of ball he used to knock the bottles down.  I smiled at his desire to bowl. 

          PE was always a requirement as part of the high school curriculum.  There was always a choice offered for different physical activity classes.  For example, I had signed up for modern dance.  Corey took a class that introduced sports such as bowling and golf.  I don’t recall what the name of the class was as written in the catalog.  Mom and Corey always referred to it as “wimpy gym”.

January 2005

          When I was serving my mission in Woodbridge, there was one preparation day that my companion decided to go bowling.  We were horrible.  One member asked us how horrible.  I said that the best we did was 254 (or whatever it was) and she said that was great.  I said, “Not when you consider we played two games and I just totaled up all four scores together”

          We had the choice of bowling per game or bowling for an hour.  We saved three dollars by bowling for an hour and were able to get in two games each.  We made jokes about the lane itself #13 that had problems returning balls over 14 pounds.  Roland traded his 15 for a 13 which still got stuck, but Jenna’s did not get stuck and she had a 14.  I had a 10.  The final scores were:

Jenna: 91 and 102, 

Roland:  102 and 114

and my 80 and 85

          We got something to eat before returning back to Myrtle Creek.  Construction blocking where we needed to get on the freeway.  Rather than continue south, Roland went back north to get on before taking the ramp back south.

Change in the Weather

         

          Though it rained and the temperatures remained cooler during Roland’s staycation, it hasn’t been the same this week.  Tuesday got to 104 though yesterday was not as bad.  All day it appeared to be overcast with little promise of rain.  By 10:00 yesterday morning it was already too warm and the temperature rose up from there and didn’t start going down until after 8:00 – even though there was sign of actual raindrops that made a pathetic appearance and left again. There was a heaviness in the air that felt murky and seemed to distort my vision.

          I’ve taken so many pictures of the sky – trying to capture its brilliance.  I have two or three point-and-shoots that I use and of course, there’s my cell phone which is a flip phone and does NOT capture anything brilliant.  As I said before, I think a lot of it has to do with having the opportunity of seeing the sky this summer as we have not had a lot of summers when so much sky remained smoke-free.

          My allergies have been acting up – as though our yard has turned into a field of poinsettias or chrysanthemums – both of which I’m allergic to.  Actually, there are few plants that I’m NOT allergic to.  But I would say poinsettias and chrysanthemums are the worse.

        The forecast for the rest of the weeks has us in the mid ’80s and upper '70s.  I would like to see it kick down to 72 or below. I did not notice a breeze this morning in Tri City, but when I got to the pool (only about five minutes away) there was a wind blowing what felt more than just four miles per hour.  It knocked off my hat.  It felt nice, but not in the water.  I returned home without going to class.
        Jenna said it rained last night.  Apparently I missed it.  How is the sky able to send down rain when the air is so hot?  I hope that this morning's wind is a sign of cooling down the temperatures.

A Very Short Post

The movie we had seen on Wednesday was The Art of Racing in the Rain.  Good movie.  Lot of symbolism and parallels – and I know I didn’t get it all.  Funny how it had rained that day. It was only drizzling when we had left the house.  But as we neared Roseburg, the rain fell more rapidly. I had left my phone for Jenna and wasn’t able to call my friend who teaches the water fitness class to tell her to come join us if nobody showed.  She said she had one student attend.

          Wish we would have had the rain this week.  Yesterday was 104.  That is 34 degrees warmer than it should be.  I preferred last week’s weather to this week’s forecast.  Wicked weather.

Wednesday

          Every third Wednesday the Roseburg cinema reserves a theatre for the senior members of the community to see a recent feature.  The theatre doors open at noon during school but at 9:00 am during summer.  Roland decided we would head to the theatre, return to the house after the movie ended, collect Jenna and go and see Crater Lake. 

Before the movie started there was the education and ticket drawing.  My ticket (or Roland’s ticket – I had them both) won a coupon for Lighthouse Bakery and Café which neither of us had been to or had even heard of for that matter. 

Crater Lake got cancelled as it was pouring.  I was more excited about the rain than my disappointment in seeing the lake again (neither Jenna nor Roland have ever seen it in person).  Roland had heard that admission to the park would be free on Sunday.  By the time church had ended, Roland just didn’t feel like making the trip.  Thus they still have not seen it.  I don’t think Jenna cares however.

          We had also planned on going to the farmers’ market.  I don’t know whether it got cancelled or not.  We forgot about it.  We’ll have to try again next week.  Jenna announced that the activity for young women’s had been cancelled but I believe it was made up for the following night.

          We played three rounds of Sequence before Roland excused himself to research some business whatever.  Jenna and I played one round of Scene It.

Changing the Yard

Roland had asked the missionaries if they could assist on Monday.  As they had other obligations that day, they came to help on Tuesday.  Unlike the missionaries who had assisted with Jenna’s fort twelve years ago, the elders who are currently serving this area wore their street clothes as they were bond to get dirty.

        Jenna was so excited when we came home from church one day and discovered a waterfall in the backyard. Roland had diverted the water to run across the yard and toward the water drain.

  After a year his diversion was wiped out somehow and the water would flood our driveway whenever it would rain hard. The reason Roland wanted assistance was to cut into the clay (that is what lies beneath the hill in our backyard.  It isn’t the kind of dirt designed for growing plants) and fill up the hole so that the water doesn’t come into the yard at all.  Thus he built a rough version of a beaver dam to plug up the hole.  I didn’t get any pictures as it is still a walk up the hill.

Three of Danny’s brothers came to assist on Thursday.  Jenna took several pictures of them laboring (the eldest of the three worked harder than the other two put together and so there are more pictures of him; I did not ask permission to share any photos and that is why I post with backs as opposed to faces)

Last Week

            I would rather spend time with family than on the computer.  Some weekends I rely on whatever posts may be in my draft folder and figured it would be the same during Roland’s stay-cation and so I decided I would write things down and hope that I would remember what it is I thought of to post.

            I misplaced the little spiraled notebook that I thought was in the car but cannot find it.  I ended up writing down thoughts in three notebooks and back of envelopes (whatever happened to be handy at the time).  Roland’s vacation started last Monday. 

He had gone out to clean up the yard.  The skies were overcast and the temperature was inviting.  I went out to assist while it was still nice – surprised that he was out there in the coolness as he tends to wait for the absolute hottest part of the day.

            We cleaned up the yard a bit.  He pulled down some decayed trees and we cut up a hose to fill our garbage can.  Amber wandered into the yard (I don’t know who the cat belongs to or if it even has a name, but I call it Amber because that is the color of her eyes) and he told me that we had one food left to give her.

            Roland is kind as he is thoughtful about feeding the birds and stray cats that come around.  We have purchased birdseed and cat food.  He is allergic to feathers and I have been allergic to cats.  The cat food box was empty and Roland told me to give the cat some milk.  I didn’t give it a lot.  I don’t think adult cats are supposed to have milk.  I think she’s somewhere between the adult and kitten stage.

            It was hot in the house or maybe just felt that way because it was in the upper 50’s outdoors and probably in the upper 60’s or 70’s inside.  I didn’t think turning the air conditioner would be useful but Roland insisted.  So we left the air on so that it would be cool when we went back inside.

            I don’t know how long we worked before Roland decided to call it quits.  We went inside and watched TV.  I started to play games on a kindle I had inherited from a friend who had upgraded.  Thus far I have only used it to play games.

            Roland surprised me when he offered to play some board games with me.  I think we were playing Scrabble when Jenna returned.