COQUILLE DIARY AUGUST 2001:

8-2:  I have been picking blackberries from the very large bush in the back yard.  The bushes are very stickery but the berries are not Himalayan.  These berries do not have seeds in the fruit and are very sweet.  I have about a gallon of them. Husband is worried about how I will clean them.  I will freeze them individually on a cookie sheet and once frozen, will roll them gently on paper towels and then quickly rinse in cold water, drain and freeze on a cookie sheet.  Once frozen I will keep them in an empty milk carton or maybe a zip lock plastic bag.   These make fabulous blackberry cobbler.  

Mom and Bertha Jones (sister Ellen's MIL) are coming to the coast to can some tuna.  They may be here a couple of weeks.  I have freshened up the guest bedroom and set up cross ventilation, I purchased screening and have tacked up a bunch over the door onto the sun deck.  No one goes out there but it is a good fire escape or as it has been used in the past, a good route to move large objects upstairs that will not fit up the stairs.

Charlie is going to drive Mom's truck over after they get here to pick up the china and stuff when they were considering purchasing a place here in Coquille.  Mom does not want to stay on the coast longer to return with Bertha and will ride back with Charlie.

All of the kitties are becoming acquainted.  Jubiliee and Knappie are in the basement.  

Mom called from Coos Bay on the 12th and they were going to drive over.  I invited them to have some fresh black berry cobbler.  Mom's was a bit tart and asked for more sugar.   The other ladies politely declined extra and did not mention that the cobbler topping was not completely cooked.  I put the thing back in the oven for another 20 minutes and it turned out much better.

Mom and I went shopping the next day at BiMart for a big capacity canner and glasses and lids etc and dragged all that stuff to Bertha's place.  They had  purchased two large tuna and the hacking slashing and canning began.

Mom and I went to the County Fair in Myrtle Point and toured the very very large dahlia display, they were the size of dinner plates.  I got cotton candy, Mom got nachos.  It was fun.

There was enough fresh tuna left over that we brought it back home to be broiled, fixed up cole slaw for supper.

Charlie showed up a couple days later and he and Mom packed up and left the next morning. Mom called to let us know that they got home ok.

8-27: Me and the CFO from work drove to Lincoln City for a Medicare workshop.  There was also (ahem) a nearby casino to which we contributed some nickels and it was fun.  The motel was very near the surf and I listened to it and it sounded wonderful.

While I was away Tim lost his wallet and we went through gyrations to go to DMV to replace that. He remembered that he had a blank check in the wallet so we stopped into the bank to close the account.  They told me the bank officer who handled that bit of business was in Coos Bay and they made an appointment to get that account closed.  As we walked out of the bank, we just rolled our eyes at each other and drove to another bank in town and opened a new account with a few extra benefits such as direct deposit and electronic bill pay.  Sign us up!

Anyway drove to Coos Bay to get the license taken care of.  The place was practically empty and we were out of there in under thirty minutes. Cool.

My computer at worked died yet again.  The computer kid told me that the internal power thingie had died dead and my work is  backing up somewhat alarmingly.  

PC fixed, celebrate!!!

G'night folks

COQUILLE DIARY JULY 2001

COQUILLE DIARY JULY 2001:

7-2:  Well I was certainly wrong about the dark thirty flight out of North Bend.  It was packed full and they were asking for volunteers to take a later flight. Nope.  I want my seat.
Got into Boise about 9:30 am and Mom and Richard picked me up.  Thanks!!

Mom and I didn't do much that week.  I purchased  a "Leappad" sort of a computerized book that reads to Anthony.

Got to Emmett and went to take a peek at the kids house.  It is a very nicely kept modular home, nice big back deck, lovely parking, nice shade trees.  I don't like the ditch in the front lawn but it is good for irrigating.

The rest of the time we went out to places to eat.  I visited with Barb Whelan for dinner and had a huge case of the giggles.

Visited a couple down town antique shops, purchased an Emmett Cherry Festival hat for Tim.  I will probably wear it more than he.

Caught the plane to go back and got into Portland early enough to catch the very next flight that was just leaving.  Tim had already left so I had a short wait for him as he always likes to get there early.

7-9: Oh joy visit to dental hygenist.

The kids are moving from Sonoma, over nighted in Winnemucca and got into Emmett about 5 pm.  They are determined to sleep in their own beds as soon as possible.  Ma Berglund taught us all well.  Get the beds set up first thing. 

Well, we got a refund check from Unca Sam, MUCH better than last year.  

Quantum Mechanics Joke:
A neutron goes into a bar and orders a drink.
Bartender bring the drink and the neutron askes, "How much?
Bartender says, "For you? No charge."
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

COQUILLE DIARY JUNE 2001

COQUILLE DIARY JUNE 2001:'

6-1:  Charlie called they sold the condo.  They plan to move to Emmett and go into the Chimney Sweep business.  I may be visiting Emmett more often.

June 6: incredibly busy day at work.  It is very difficult to FIND a particular dictation especially if a doctor requests a report.  So I had to scramble to find a couple x-ray dictations, do a birth certificate after interviewing the Mom and doing several other tapes.  Phew!!
Looking forward to vacation to Emmett.

6-15:  The kids made an off on a three bedroom house and it is near schools etc.  Good location  They are all in a kerfluffle to go back to Sonoma and close and move.  Oh what fun.

6-23:  took the dark thirty flight out of North Bend for my week long vacation in Emmett.  I will cover that in July yakity yak.

G'night folks.

COQUILLE DIARY MAY 2001

COQUILLE DIARY MAY 2001:

May 2: Couple book reports:  "Kiss of Shadows" By Laurel K. Hamilton.  Book set in present day reality as we know it but includes all things fey, fairy, goblin etc.  Main character is Meredith, girl detective.  She is on the lam from her Auntie who is Queen of the Unseelie Court.  She is in serious danger of being killed because Auntie has named her as heir or her evil, wicked, bad and nasty son.   Who ever has the first baby within three years gets the crown.  Not good news as the fey are not very fertile.  Meredith must choose four possible  sperm donors from her Aunts guard who have just been released from 800 years of celibacy.  She picks 3 and a goblin to go back to Hollywood and maked babies.  Fairly good plot and hoo boy is there ever sex. 

The other book is Broken Sword. a tale about Kind Arthur, 12 knights of the round table, Merlin, The Holy Grail, The Hell's Angels , New York City is set between 12th and 21st century.  Battle of Good and Evil.

Day at work: The time clock ran out of ink, so had to scribble in time. Cpu  is ok and still working, so I rebooted, wiggled some wires and worked for a while. Computer kid determined it only needed a new power cord. Fixed!! 

About 2 pm I experienced a gastrointestinal disaster, forced to go home to address the situation and return to work much refreshed.  Erk.

Walmart shoppers will soon be able to purchase Walmart brand of wine.  There have, of course, been many suggestions, the winner is Nasti Spumante.

Used mileage plan to book trip to Boise.  It will be a short vacation but Mom and I can wear ourselves out just running around locally.  So, look out, Emmett.

I received an email from a relative:
Sad news Friday May 4, 2001:  Larry LaPrise the Detroit native who wrote "The Hokey Pokey" died last week at age 83.  It was especially difficult for the family to keep him in the casket. They's putl his left leg in....

Would someone please invent the air conditioned blanket?  Please. Weather got up to 78, hence the wish for blankie AC.

5-25:  Senior Moment?  Could not get a print job to work at Joyce's station, so we gave up and printed it out on my printer.  I left Joyce a note that her printer was not working!!!  She said that the printer did not have PAPER in it.  Duhhh

Second senior moment.   Office supply person called to let me know my order had some in.  What order?  Went to check it out, there were three plastic bins sitting there.  I double checked.  I ordered these?  Yep.  Well, crap I wonder what I wanted with them.  Maybe I can put incomplete charts in them?  Got a call later.  Supplie officer was mistaken those crate things WERE for some other department.  Phew!  Senility staved off for a few years.

There is an attempt at Union organization going on at work.  The nurses already belong to Teamsters.  I don't see the advantage myself, the trickle down theory works well. What ever they get, we get an echo of it.  So no biggie.

That's all for May.

G'night folks.

COQUILLE DIARY APRIL 2001

COQUILLE DIARY APRIL 2001:

4-5:  Sent off the taxes to Fed and State.  Got an odd automated call from some state senator wanting all good citizens to refuse their kicker.  Which is sort of some kind of pay out from the state when a certain amount of money is in the "bank" and gets paid back to the tax payer.  Um, this is bad how?

4-12:  Brother Jim called saying that he was thinking of being a mechanic at a floating lumber camp along the Alaska coast.  Job is not full time but it will keep him occupied.

4-16:  Another dental visit, another molar pulled. 

That  is all for April.
G'night folks.

COQUILLE DIARY MARCH 2001

COQUILLE DIARY MARCH 2001:

Back to work: First week got the end of the month statistics almost done and about 60 charts coded and tagged for signatures and sent off to the doctor's boxes for completion.  

3-5:  Nice surprise. Mitch and Carla stopped in for part of their honeymoon.  We had dinner at the Mexican place.  I had pollo enchilada con mole.  The best mole I have ever had.  We then went home and played Scrabble.  They continued on down the coast to Ashland to try to catch some Shakespeare.

Book report:  Rosamund Pilchard "Coming Home"  It is worth reading the book simply for the gardening joke.  At one point a conversation revolved around some plants.  The narrator asked what those were and the gardener shrugged, "When I don't know what something is, I just say Inapoticum Forgetanamia".  I had to read it several times before I got the giggles.

Got an email from Charlie the house deal on Dean Street fell through.  Oh well.  They are still going to list the condo.

Chatted with Charlie, they are thinking about house hunting in Payette, Idaho.

Got a hair cut.  The girl cutting my hair kept snipping and snipping until the salon owner wondered by and asked her if she was going to use Butch Wax to style my do.  Oh well, I can always wear a hat or lots of lipstick and earrings to look less butch.

Noise abatement project at work.  A carpet was laid in the hallway to cut down on some of audible conversations that people in ICU can clearly hear in the nurses station.  "The patient is circling the drain"  that kind of chat  Eerk.

Jeez got an email from Monica K former boss woman from Barrow. She developed double vision symptoms and has been diagnosed with cavernoma.  That is where an actual hole is opening up in the brain, as I understand it.  The only solution is surgery of some sort or perhaps an exotic laser treatment called a Gamma Knife.  A better description of a cavernoma is that it is a sort of aneurysm and can hemorrhage and that is a bad thing.  University of Virginia has the gamma knife.  Update: Walter Reed will not do anything unless she has further symptoms.  Well that sucks.

JOKE:
A sweet young thing got a telephone call from her grandmother and asked her what had happened. Grandmother told her that her grandfather had died suddenly.

She rushed home to grieve with her grandmother and asked her what happened.

"Well" sniffed her grandmother, "He died while we were having sex on Sunday morning."

"Sex!" exclaimed the young woman, "Isn't that awfully risky at age 94?"

"Oh no!" sighed her grandmother "That's the day we always have sex on Sunday in time to the church bells.  In with the dings. Out with the dongs".  And she sobbed, "If that damn ice cream truck hadn't gone by he would still be alive!".

Well that finishes up March.

G'night folks.

COQUILLE DIARY FEBRUARY 2001

COQUILLE DIARY FEBRUARY 2001:

2-8:  The kids got back to Sonoma okey dokey, Anthony left all of his computer games here. Wonder if I will be able to master them?

Tough week at work:  Blew up a keyboard.  The shelf it sat on collapsed and I had to jury rig something with a board and a pipe.  Joyce's computer committed suicide.  The computer kid came and determined that the PC was repairable. He replaced something thank you very much.  He took the cover off to vent heat from the machine.  This will make Joyce very happy, she runs several degrees cooler than the rest of us over heated humans.

There was a murder in February. A woman and her mother were discovered shot to death.  The husband and gun were missing. Cops arrested him in Reno.  The husband went a little nut and also shot the dog and the cat too.

Taxes just completed the, owe Unca Sam and State of Oregon some bucks because I had defaulted on a 401k loan.  It was not awfully painful but perhaps we will get on the other side of the refund business next year.

2-14:  How appropriate Valentines Day injury.  A couple came into ER who each had injuries in their buttocks.  The injuries turned out to be B-B sized pellets that had been shot into their backsides whilst they exercised out doors connubial bliss in the bed of the pickup truck.  Perhaps the temptation to take a pot shot at rising moons was too much.  It was a bright moonlight night so perhaps night vision goggles were not required.

Husband ordered a pink cyclamen.  It came with several blossoms and potted in a silvery aluminum bucket with handle.  Very pretty.  I hope I do not kill it very soon.

2-19: President's Day is not a holiday at CVH. 

The wedding was a smash.  I ran around with the wedding party picking up bits and bobs here and there for decorations.  Sadly Mitch's grandmother died that day of cancer.  The ceremony was a blast. Jordan Berglund was ring bearer, Rachel Ecland was the flower girl. Uncle Paul walked Carla down the aisle. The minister mentioned that the wedding was celebrated on Dad's birthday and he would have been 84. 

We were in charge of loading presents in the van and delivering them to the house, got that done.  The married couple spent the night at The Four Seasons downtown.  We all met the next day for breakfast and chit chat  So much fun. We took off and headed home.

2-28:  Watched TV coverage of the 6.8 earthquake, the "rattle in Seattle".  Have to blame it on the dancing which got rather spirited when they played The Hokey Pokey.

Okay that was a lot of Feb in February. Well except for the weird murders and the pot shots.

G'night folks.