A week's worth of tales

It's been about a week since I last posted anything in regards to how we're doing, so I guess today's the day. Believe it or not, I've been somewhat busy this past week.

But prior to this week, now that we actually have a water faucet that I can connect a hose to, I washed our pickup for the first time since I drove it through a car wash in Tualatin last September. Believe me, it really needed a wash. I don't know if some of the dirt will ever truly come off. It think some of it is embedded into the paint itself now. After the wash, I could see quite a few scratches and such that we're hidden...

This Monday I picked up a lawn mower that I had ordered. It's a... manual reel mower. Why on earth would I get something like that, you ask? Because I don't like gas-powered mowers and all the costs and maintenance that go into one. I don't like having to breathe exhaust fumes while mowing.

The model I got is a Sunlawn LMM-40. It's about as maintenance free and environmentally friendly as a lawn mower gets. I used it and was quite happy with it. Some of the grass in the back was quite high, so even afterwards there are pockets of them sticking up. I need to get a string trimmer (which I need anyway to trim the edges) and whack off the tops so that the mower can be used on them more successfully.

While mowing though, I got bitten by a bunch of noseeum flies. My lower arms are covered now with little red circles that can itch like crazy. I've been using Benadryl topical ointment, hydrocortizone ointment, and taking Benadryl orally to try to keep myself sane. It's especially bad at night when the itching wakes me up. Benadryl taken at night seems to help reduce the itching, but I have a problem in that when I take it, I don't sleep well at all. The itching seems to be a bit better today, so I hope it will go away in the next day or two. I need to spray on some bug repellent the next time I mow.

Grandpa Tom could not locate a satellite signal at our house. He tried the big 9-feet dish but still couldn't find a signal. The good news is that the equipment at the church is now working. Since we have to tape the programs anyway (our time zone is so far away that all the broadcasts are over by the time our time zone comes around), that isn't too much of a big deal.

We discovered that one of the church members here (who currently doesn't attend regularly) used to know Grandpa Tom, Gummy, and Elise when Elise was a little girl. Grandpa Tom and he were in the Army together in Virginia. (Cue up, It's a Small World After All...)

This week we also started bringing up boxes and unpacking. So instead of the basement filled with boxes (well, it still is) we have a house full of stuff, on the floor, waiting for a home. We still have a large quantity of boxes at the church that we will need to haul back to the house. My (very ambitious) goal is to be completely unpacked by the end of September.

Yesterday morning, our kitty Stripey paid a visit to the hospital. Not as a patient, mind you, but as a visitor. It was "take your pet to the hospital" day and Stripey was one of a number of pets from town to pay a 15-minute visit for the residents to enjoy. The residents and staff may have enjoyed it, but from what I hear (from Elise, who took him there), Stripey was more than ready to come back home.

I got a call last night from Elise asking me to put a bit of the "good" rice (which our my aunt mailed late last year) in a Ziplock bag for an exchange student from Japan. Apparently the one thing she really misses is good rice. The usual stuff just isn't satisfactory to a discriminating palate.

Her host drove her to our house this morning and I gave her the rice. I went out to converse a bit with the girl in (my ever diminishing) Japanese. She came here originally for two-years in college, but apparently has decided to stay for a full four years. She is returning to Bellingham on the ferry tomorrow.

We are nearly out of bread, so I suggested to Amy that she make the bread. She's gotten to where the bread is in their pans, rising. We'll know in a couple of hours how they turn out.

We are definitely starting into an autumn weather pattern. We've had fog, rain and showers, mixed with periods of sun. Daytime temperatures are in the low 60's now.

I spent a few hours today putting together tomorrow's sermon. I have it a bit easy this week because this Sabbath is Abuse Prevention Emphasis Day and the North American Division provides a prepared sermon that can be used as-is, or adapted. As with the previous few prepared sermons that I've used, I've chosen to adapt it so that about half of the sermon tomorrow is original content.