Week before Christmas, snowing almost every day

After LCMC closed the clubhouse on December 11, I played golf three or four times. I think the next golf will be down south with Rick. Today we really got hit, probably 4-6 inches, had to get the generators out and placed in the pump house and next to the house. The dogs are enjoying the snow, hard to play ball, the ball sinks into the snow and makes it difficult for Riley and Carter to find.

Todays our 32nd wedding anniversary, we want to have dinner tonight at Robin Hood to celebrate, I hope the snow changes to rain so we can get out of here.

We had Luella and Bob spend a few days last weekend, we have Ben & Matt coming over on Friday and Jake and Em are coming on Saturday to celebrate Christmas. Jake is bringing the standing rib roast, his contribution to the holiday.

Big day this coming Saturday!

What's the big date? Riley's birthday - he turns 1 on Dec 8. Today is Wednesday, nice day, I played 18 holes of golf just 2 weeks after the carpal tunnel surgery (got the stitches out on Monday). Played under control and despite pretty soggy conditions I shot an 80 and it certainly could have been lower if I putted a little better on the front nine 3 putting 3 straights holes after landing on each green in regulation. Needed a little more club then normal but I was quite surprised.

Cleaned out the culvert on lot 11 yesterday, no fun but was necessary. All the leaves and crap is going into the pipe that feeds into the property. Raked out all the leaves and other debris and built several small cofferdams.

The boys are being good, we are trying to get outside and get a good walk in on the nice days. Riley is leaving both christmas trees alone.

I've put together a new play list on Rhapsody as Dave Matthews, Graham Parker, Dwight Yoakum and new guy Phillip Phillips have new albums (do we still them albums?). I'm sure it will be part of the music I'll use on my trip down south (73 days & counting).

Saturday there is a Christmas party at the golf course, nice to hear that Dennis & Carletta are now planning on attending. They are having a raffle for a free membership, that would be nice to win! It should be fun after golfing there all year, we are getting to know quite a few of the members. The locals are all up in arms because the LCMC has made a decision to close the club house from Dec 11 - March 1 and the rates are going up.

Last week of November

We had a great Thanksgiving, good weather and great company. Jake, Em & her dad, Chris spent Thanksgiving with us and Ben & Matt came over on Friday and spent the night. Lots of good food and football this weekend. For once I feel like I didn't over do it. I had plenty of goodies but in lower volume.

On the Tuesday prior to Thanksgiving I had the Carpal Tunnel surgery performed at Mason General and as far as I can tell, everything is progressing normally.

Ben, Matt, Chris & I uncorked my beer I made and surprisingly enough it was very good, a honey wheat beer - that was a fun project.

We put up two Christmas trees this year, we put the second tree up in the loft. It's nice for Chris because its a room she spends a lot of time in.

We got heavy rains on Wednesday which caused local flooding. I found out that we have a blockage in one of our 12" pipes, I'm sure its an accumulation of debris that comes down from lot 11. Chris, Charlie and I tried to get it cleared but had little luck. I need to call a Roto Rooter kind of company to clear that drain.

Since my last entry, Carol & Jeff have left for warmer surroundings, as I write this they are in Bakersfield, CA getting ready to head to Borrego Springs in a couple of days.

It's nice outside but kind of chilly, I plan to do a little work out in the yard, cleaning up some of the annuals that have finally died after the first good frost of the season. I've got a meeting to attend this evening up by the golf course where they are addressing upcoming memberships fees. I need to get together soon with Steve to go over what the heck I should be doing as President of the men's club.

Beautiful Early November Day

Three straight days of blue skies - NICE! Made it out to the golf course today and this past Tuesday and didn't play too bad (86 -85). Cartpath only means humping it out to the balls each shot, I suppose its good for me. Barack Obama was reelected on Tuesday, first time I can remember ever watching most of the evening returns.

I had an appointment Wednesday to get ready for my upcoming carpal tunnel surgery on my right hand. The hospital was thorough, blood draw, EKG, chest x-rays and lots of paper work filled out. I've got one more day of golf planned for tomorrow before I go on the shelf.

I trimmed several plants back and finished the garden shed redo this past weekend. After the surgery on the 20th, I'll need about 3 weeks to heal which will put me well into December. I'm not counting on to many more golf outings based on normal weather patterns before heading south in late Feb.

We had to move the Santee golf trip to April because of hurricane Sandy postponing some meetings for the guys. that should be interesting, the weather in April should be considerably warmer then what we are use to and the days will be longer as well.

Jake, Em & her dad Chris are coming over for Turkey day, that should be fun. might be a little challenge to find a bed for everyone since we only have 2 bedrooms but I know we will make it work.

Since the weather is suppose to be nice, I'm planning on hanging Christmas lights up on Saturday before the surgery.

Chris and I are planning a date night tomorrow - the latest James Bond movie "Skyfall" comes out and we'll go into Olympia to see it and grab Chinese food.

Should have taken before pictures of the garden shed, I'll snap a picture of the finished work and attach it to this posting.

Late addition, shot a 75 today, I have no idea where that came from but it's a great way to end things if I don't play next week and the surgery is the following week.

Will the sun ever come back?

It's only been a few days of rain but the cold damp weather has definitely set in. I made a list of fall and winter projects this morning. It's Saturday and I should be excited about watching the dawgs but the game against the Beavers is on the stupid Pac 12 network and is unavailable.

I only have a couple of weeks until I'll be leaving for South Carolina. I would like to get in some practice time before I go, I hope the weather will cooperate.

I published this blog to mark the official start of the rainy season. Its been really nice weather since mid July, I shouldn't complain but this year there was no gradual transformation, it went from sunny and mid 70's to low 50's and rain overnight.

Some of my end of the year projects (some weather dependent) include; dividing the yard into sections and doing a final weeding, isolating and cutting down the alders as things thin out, moving a half dozen plants in the back yard now that they have grown up, they need better spacing & turning off the water supply to the two sprinkler manifolds (I'm turning the watering over to mother nature).

As I look back on the accomplishments outside, I am quite please where we are after just two summers.
The lawn looks good, we fenced the back, moved the unsightly propane tank out behind the garden shed, created a roadway behind the shop to help gain access to the hillside, completely revamped the stairway leading up from the back yard to the well house, built the fountain outside the front door and planted probably 20 new plants and trees. Plenty more to do including both hillsides on the northwest and southeast sides of our property. I'm sure within a week or two I'll cut down plants and get rid of the annuals as we make way for winter to move in.

Late October

Weather seems to dominate the blog as we are getting cooler, wetter and losing daylight at an alarming rate. Still I got 3 rounds of golf in this week and finished my fall project - the steps leading up to our well house. I also managed to spread 1 & 1/2 loads of 3/4- gravel around the steps, along the side yard and re-graded the driveway!

Took Chris and Carole to the airport last Saturday, they are in Italy and having a blast. The dogs have been good this week and we can now leave Riley indoors without something getting broke or unexpectedly eaten!

Donna invited Jeff & I over tonight for pot roast dinner so I've got to run. I throw more up on the blog later, here's a couple of snaps tonight.

October 1

Just a few misc thoughts. September was an incredibly nice weather month, little or no rain, I'll try to remember that when the gloomy skies and rain comes. I had an ambitious month planned and I got most of my list accomplished. First, I had a physical complete with blood work and I got very good news back from that. I think we have the thyroid medicine now at a level where it should help me. I've continued to keep the weight off and very slowly taking the lb's off. I had a lot of dental work done including some oral surgery that should keep my teeth healthy. Today I am scheduled to see an orthopedic doctor to examine my right hand where I have had numbness (probably carpol tunnel).

I'm in the middle of my stair project out back, should get some 3/4- today from Kennedy Creek and that will help dress up the first half of the stairs. I've reseeded some of the yellow spots and started the new grass up above on the top of the property - it's coming in good thanks to cool morning and evenings and sunny days.

One of my neighbors nominated me for president of our men's club up at Lake Cushman, it should be interesting for the next couple of years to be more involved in the set up and running of the league. I have met several guys up there and many stay throughout the winter, so if the weather allows us to play, I should have a good opportunity to play golf this fall/winter.

Chris is getting ready for her try to Italy, a couple weeks after she gets back I'll be heading to Santee for  my golf outing with Kerans, Zimmerman and Gilbreath. Riley's leg seems to be getting better, he hurt or strained it chasing a deer. Just took the two dogs in for exams and shots and the vet told me that Riley's 10lbs overweight! We'll work on that this fall.