July 21 Heat Wave

Even the Northwest is not immune from the heat wave that seems to be blanketing the entire country. It's been talked about on the news for days now and has definitelly arrived here in Oregon. It's 11:00 pm and still 80 degrees. The forcast for tomorrow is 102 degrees and 103 on Saturday and 98 on Sunday.
Believe me when I say that we do not have very many days like that around here and consequently have never felt a great need to put in air conditioning. After a few days of record high temps though it just doesn't cool down enough at night to get the house cool. The house just gets warmer and warmer whereas it would normally cool down to 65 at night.

Needless to say I will be spending lots of time in D's pool over the next 3 days or in my sons air conditioned house.

Everyone - Please be sure to drink lots of water and tea and stay as cool as possible. Sustained periods of really hot weather are not to be taken lightly and are especially hard on the very old, the very young and the ill. The normal amount of liquid that you would drink in a day is not near enough. You should probably triple it and make most of it water rather than pop and the like. And don't forget your pets. Make sure they have plenty of water and protection from the hot sun. I have a kids plastic wading pool for Sadie to play in.

Maybe one of these days my husband and I will actually have the money and get around to remodeling this aging little ranch house of ours.

My Garden

Here are the latest pictures of my garden. The cyclone fence makes for a great trellis for the morning glory. I was thrilled to discover that there was such a thing as an annual morning glory, not at all invasive like the stuff I remember my father yanking out when I was a kid. Our past two winters have been mild enough that this is actually its third summer. I originally planted a blue one too that was larger and looked like the morning glory I remember, but only the purple managed to winter over. I've included one of my favorite pictures from that first year. Next year I plan on planting more of it in a variety of colors.

Too Many People

Will people please stop moving to Oregon, or at least not to the Willamette Valley? And how about every one who moved here after 1970 pack up and move somewhere else. This is some of the best farm land there is and it's all being covered with houses, shopping malls, roads and freeways. I used to be able to travel anywhere during the day with almost no traffic at all. Now its bumper to bumper almost anytime of the day and any road you choose to take.

This little tirade was brought on by an article in Saturday's Oregonian which says to expect 1.25 million more people in the Portland Metro area in the coming years. It doesn't say exactly when this will occur, just that the numbers now say that the population increase expected in earlier estimates will be here 10 to 15 years sooner than originally thought. It goes on to say that this is equivalent to squeezing an additional 450,000 households, or two cities the size of present-day Portland, into a metropolitan area that is already 80 percent developed. I guess this is what comes of Portland being listed as one of the most liveable cities several years in a row. It won't be for long.

Grrrr. There's already too many people, and they're expecting more? I am really showing my age, I'm starting to sound like an old person, wanting the good old days back. Where's Tom McCall when you need him? He was the governor of Oregon back in the 70's. He used to say come and visit, but don't stay. We even had bumper stickers that showed a map with I-5 going around the state instead of through it. And those of us born here refer to ourselves as native oregonians.

Maybe I need to move to the Midwest. There's plenty of open space there, I know because I drove through mile after mile of it last summer. But I love Oregon. I was born here. I grew up here. It's green and the climate moderate. But then again, I could probably be happy most anywhere, I think.

Well, thanks for letting me get that off my chest. You all probably have similar feelings about your location or you figure the more the merrier. And even if we ourselves didn't move to a particular spot, somewhere up the line one of our relatives did.

Where Does It All End?

My goodness, there are just not enough hours in the day. I keep finding more and more spaces I would enjoy visiting and being the easily side tracked person that I am I find myself lost in reading/viewing and suddenly 2 hours have gone by and then I find it's been 3 or 4 or 5 days since I've been to some of my favorites. Am I going to have to put myself on a schedule? Do I have to make a list? Do I need to restrict myself to only the most recent entries? That'll be the day! I've never gotten along too well with lists and schedules (you know, that discipline thing). Maybe I'll give a calendar another try and actually get something done around the house ;o).

Don't Wait

A blog friend of mine on msn spaces had this on her site and I really liked it. I don't know if she wrote it or not.

Don't Wait

When there's a chance_____take it.

When there's a game_____play hard.

When there's a bridge_____cross it.

When there's an enemy_____stand guard.

When there's a tear_____let it run.

When there's a score_____cheer loud.

When there's a silence_____take time.

When there's a wave_____ride it.

When there's a song_____sing it.

When there's a fight_____stand up.

When there's a reason_____don't doubt.

When there's a cloud_____see heaven.

When there's a frost_____set fire.

When there's a flower_____see beauty.

When there's stairs_____move higher.

When there's a race_____push hard.

When there's a smile_____don't fade.

When there's a space______fill it.

When there's a star_____just stare.

When there's a moment_____don't lose it.

When there's a love_____hold tight.

When there's a past_____share it.

When there's a shadow_____cast a light.

When there's a way_____lead it.

When there's a grip_____hold on.

When there's a day_____start new.

When there's a life_____live on.