A Lazy August Day

Actually, it hasn't been such a lazy August day. I've been spending a few days with my cousins, Joanne and Gordon, in LaConner while we wait for the insecticide to dissipate. The exterminators came to our townhouse on Friday to do a second spraying to eliminate the bird mites. We all left for 3 nights to minimize exposure to it. The first time around we seemed to do OK returning after 3 nights away, so we are repeating that. I am grateful to my cousins for taking me in again. It is beautiful here in LaConner. We are right on the water, the Swinomish Channel, and can watch the boats go by. The weather turned sunny--it probably has reached 90 degrees in this afternoon. There is a pleasant breeze here, so the heat isn't too bad.

I can always count on getting enough exercise when I visit my cousins. Joanne swims almost every day with her friend, Aleta, at Shelter Bay. I joined them last night, then again this morning. The three of us do a series of water exercises for an hour. We do both aerobic and strength training. Tomorrow we'll swim in the morning to avoid the crowds when the sun heats up. Joanne and I also went to visit Cousin Charlie where he works at a bookstore in Mt. Vernon. He seems very happily employed there. We toured the Mt. Vernon farmers' market as well as the rest of the downtown area. We went on to visit Joanne's friend Betsy, then the Burlington Mall, and finally Costco. Joanne says she hasn't had time to sit down and read for a long time. I believe her. Tonight we'll relax by watching a video.

Son Phil successfully finished his quarter at WWU and got moved out of his apartment. He's going to be renting another, smaller apartment while he attends fall quarter there. Tally will be able to join him. Phil is getting oriented to Seattle. His questions about getting around the city remind me that we never did spend much time there as a family as he was growing up. He avoided going over the bridge from Bellevue to Seattle. I understand. I often would not go into Seattle for weeks when we were living in Bellevue. It feels more like home for us because we lived there before.

Lunch with Renate

Today I got together with an old friend, Renate. She and I worked together for 11 years as psychologists in the preschool program at Lake WA Schools. We faced many challenges together and had fun together working with a dynamic team of specialists. She is going to work just one more year before retiring. We talked over old times, our friends and family. For a little while I missed working, but not for long. She talked about how hard it has been to keep up with the work load. That reminded me of why I retired.

Update on Project 60. Yesterday I found 7 pieces of fabric totaling 12yds. to donate to the ASG yardage sale. When I finally can put away my fabric stash in my loft, I am likely to find more. I did go through some sewing books today and found 13 books to get rid of. Instead of giving them to the ASG sale, I may see if son Phil wants to sell them on ebay. I checked and saw some of the titles listed. Next I'm ready to start in with my clothing in bags in the garage.

Project 60 Day 2

Alas! I thought I was going to have to struggle a bit to find 60 things to donate. Here I'm into Day 2 of my project and I've pretty much reached my goal. I went to work on the fabric in the garage, all clean and transformed. In just 2 hours I found 38 things from my stash to donate to the ASG yardage sale: 17 patterns and 21 pieces of fabric. The total yardage for today is 51 yards. Just like our other possessions that I gave away to family, I find it easy to donate fabric that will go to friends and people who will appreciate it. As friend Helen G. pointed out, I can always visit it again at the sale and can even buy it back if I miss it. I have decided to take a lesson from a marathon runner I met on Diamond Head a day before the Honolulu Marathon. He had run marathons in every state and had even started to run marathons on every continent, including Antarctica. I asked him what he was going to do once he met his goals. He said with no hesitation that he would just start all over again. That is what I'll do. Now that I've reached 60 things after only going through about 1/5th of my possessions, I will just keep going and see how many times I reach 60. There are 3 possessions that I do plan to take great care in donating--my mother's wedding dress, my wedding dress, and my great aunt's china cabinet. I will work with the Snohomish County Museum on those items.

I spent last night in the loft upstairs that had the only visible mite infestation. We have not seen any mites there at all, but they are hard to spot. I wanted to see if I would get bitten during the night. I did get 1 bite, which isn't too bad. I was hoping for none, though. I'm thinking that the second spraying of insecticide in 10 days is probably necessary, although I have reservations about using such products. I'm going to sleep on the lower level until after the second treatment. If there are still mites after that, then we need to consult again with the pest control expert. By the end of this month, I hope that our lives will be back to normal and that the loft will be useable. It should, in fact, be better than the first time I moved my things in. I am thinning down enough things to make it less cluttered.

Project 60

I am working on my Project 60. I'm going to donate 60 things in honor of my turning 60. I've gotten off to a good start. Today I took about 30 things to the Goodwill. I think I might go over my goal. Here is a photo of what I took in. My donations include hangers (about 20 padded), a small set of silverplate flatware, 3 salt and pepper shakers, 3 lamps, 1 picture frame, 2 extension cords, a laundry basket, 3 sheets, a set of towels, a plastic storage bin, 2 mixing bowls, 1 casserole dish, 1 pizza stone, 3 clock radios, a reading lamp, a cooking pot, and a mattress pad. I appear to be half-way to my goal now, and that isn't even counting the hangers or silverware individually. I will get going on my clothes and fabric to complete my special project.

Back at Home

I said good-bye to my cousins at noon, then headed back to Seattle. I had a great weekend with them and felt refreshed. Highlights of the weekend included going swimming with Joanne and her friend at Shelter Bay, attending my little cousin Josie's 5th birthday party, watching a bicycle rider attempt to go 1,000 K in 24 hours, waffles for breakfast, movies at night, and a few long walks. Sunday we went to Bellingham, parked at Fairhaven, then walked on a trail to the downtown area. We had beautiful views all along the way. Afterward, we had dinner at Busara, a Thai restaurant near Phil's that has never disappointed me. This morning Joanne took me on a walk with Rita and Louise, her two old friends while Gordon went off to the gym. We went to Padilla Bay, then to the Farmhouse for coffee. The weather was beautiful and the company charming.

Now that I'm back at the townhouse, I'm busy trying to get our lives back in order. We still have to leave our bags of clean clothes in the garage until after the second spraying in a couple of weeks. I'm trying to pull out only what we need in the short-term. So far the smell inside is tolerable and I haven't seen any live mites. I'm eager to put this behind me!