“Keep Your Eyes Peeled”

Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.

"Keep your eyes peeled"  -- Those four words are ones I use many times when traveling from our kids’ home to our little cabin when it’s dark.  I want two sets of eyes looking for deer along the sides of the road.  This dark road is loaded with them and it is very, very dark.  Thus, another reason we hate to stay out late because the driving is difficult.  Thursday night I said the same thing to Terry but deer isn’t what we found broadsided across the road.  As a matter of fact he saw it first as we came around the corner.  We’re lucky we didn’t hit it.  There was a car across the road that had just been in an accident.  The occupants were still inside.  You never know what to do in situations like this.  What if I was by myself?  I would have been scared to death to stop.  However, Terry was out of the car before we had even come to a full stop.  

In the meantime Terry helped the two dazed 16 year-olds out of their car and on the ground away from the vehicle. There was no cell reception in the area.  I turned around and drove to a house to have them call for help.  By then at least another car had arrived with headlights.  It seems the back tire blew and the driver lost control of the car.  It slammed full force into a tree and spun around.  Both boys were taken by ambulance but will be eventually heal and be fine.  There was no doubt that they had lots of broken ribs, collar bones and who knows what else.  However, the boys were lucky. 

Once the ambulances had left we knew there was no going straight through with the car still across the road and we'd have to take the long way around.  There were more dark roads ahead but thank goodness for our GPS.  We would have had no clue how to do it without the directions from Garmin.

One thing this has helped us realize again is that every car should carry emergency blankets, pillows, flashlights and flares.  That’s on our agenda today. 

That was the just ending to a very, very long Thursday.  We started it by attempting to clean out closets while getting ready to head south for the winter.  Next on the agenda was a trip in to Vancouver to see my 93 year old Aunt Jenny.  She seemed in pretty good spirits but it’s obvious she’s not quite as sharp as she once was but then who is?

After we left we headed on over to my brother’s place in Portland. He was trying to drum up extra cash so in order to help a little we had agreed to buy a bike from him. We don’t need a bike. Terry only likes bikes when they come equipped with engines. The good thing about it is that we have a garage to store things like this ….. at Lee’s house. So far we have left lots there including an air compressor, an ATV, propane tanks, a trailer and now a bike.

After that 100 plus mile trip to bid our goodbyes, we still had planned on moving the motorhome from it’s summer storage place close to our daughter’s to our son’s driveway.  That wasn’t a long drive …. about two miles.  We wanted full hookups to clean it out, stock it up and get it ready for the road.

Next came some cleaning out of closets.  After all if we hadn’t worn those things all summer why haul them with us.  Bags were loaded in the car and the buckets came out for washing down the bathroom.  Then … came the brakes.  It was a little text from Sabrina wanting me to pick up Mike from school so Lee wouldn’t have to …. another 40 miles round trip.  My response to her was “Aargh” but I went.

We still weren't done for the day.  It was definitely a long one but we still had a soccer game to go to at the high school.  We want to go to the home games.  Normally we have two games but Sandi wasn't playing Thursday.  However, Jordie was.    It was another one of those double overtime ones and it didn’t get over early.  Whoever said that winning isn’t everything and that how you played the game was more important had never been to a varsity game of any kind.  Winning seems to be the only important thing.  It was a good game and they won so we were happy.

It was also a very long day by the time we crawled into bed ... a very long day.  The good thing is we did get a lot accomplished.  We also decided on a route south but I’ll share that down the road.

‘Tis a busy life on the road.

Crab Salad and Soccer Games

Friendship... is not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything.

I love a good salad.   I think one of the best salads I’ve ever had was a couple years ago and served in Tucson, AZ at Choice Greens with Jim and Sandie.  It’s a restaurant that specializes in chopped salads.  You order everything you want in it and they make it.. Fantastic.  Another great salad is the Crab BLT on the menu at Elmer’s Restaurants in Oregon and Washington.  Usually I make a point to visit there a few times each summer just so I can order one.  Elmer’s serves local foods and even offers fresh Pacific Northwest seafood. Nummy.  The other day we made another visit and guess what I had ….. a Crab BLT salad.

School is back in session and with school comes all the high school sports.  Thursday we were in the stadium to watch our granddaughter,  Sandi, a sophomore, play in her first high school soccer game on the JV team.

Jordie, our other granddaughter,  is a senior at the same school and is on the varsity team.  Well, she’s kind of a senior.  She’s actually also a freshman at a junior college so I’m not really sure what she thinks she is. 

With both girls at the same school, there was no running back and forth between schools to watch them.  Thank goodness for that.  We even kept our same seats in the bleachers.

Sandi’s the one kicking the ball.

This evening was an especially long one.  The referees were about 45 minutes late.  Instead of the first game starting at 4:00, it didn’t start until closer to 5:00.  It was a good game though with the ending score … zero to zero.

The varsity game didn’t start on time either especially since they played on the same field and needed the same referees.  At the end of the game the score was also zip to zip.  Since it’s a varsity team one team had to win so they rolled over into overtime.   Then, they went into double overtime.  The other team finally scored  :~(  but it was another real good game.

Jordie’s the one in the white T-shirt ---- number 6

Terry got a new gift today.  This is one of his first birthday presents.  He has quite a list of a few more he’s going to get but those will come along next week

Check out his new   MAN  CAVE  sign on his shed.

Here it is September.  We thought the temperatures would be cooling off but today it was 93 degrees!  That’s way warmer than I want it to be.  We certainly don’t want to head south when it’s still that warm here.  Fall is just around the corner … isn’t it? 

Tomorrow we have a little barbecue shindig going on here.  I bought ribs to put on the charcoal grill.  Now tonight I read because of the dry conditions no charcoal grills could be used.  Hmmm.  I have to figure this one out before lunchtime tomorrow.  The interesting thing I’m still not even sure who is coming and who isn’t.  We still had to buy the food so it could be interesting.  Will we have way too much or will we even have enough?  Hmmm…. don’t you love it!

‘Tis life on the road.