February Birthdays

The family gathered to celebrate February birthdays on Sunday the 26th. When ten adults and seven kids get together, little ones get passed from arms to arms, and the bigger kids head for the Great Room.  

Charis, Jonny, Valerie, and Reuben also wanted to visit the basement and watched a PBS Kids program on my TV while sitting quietly on my basement bed, the master bedroom being a construction zone for the foreseeable future.

Randy (age 70) really enjoyed the collage of his nieces and nephews I made for him. 

Nancy is Scheduled for New Hips

Nancy, Susan, and I made long overdue visits to Proliance ProOrtho Orthopedics in Kirkland.  Nancy had put this off for over four years.  Thankfully, Dr. Jeff Stickney determined that there was still hope that he could replace both her hips successfully.  We feel Nancy is in good hands as he is the chief of the department of Orthopedics at Evergreen Medical Center and the Managing Partner at ProOrtho.  This was her Valentine's Day news.

Physical Therapy will precede and follow the actual first hip replacement scheduled for Wednesday, March 29th.  While hip replacement is often an outpatient surgery these days, Dr. Stickney thinks Nancy will need a few days in the hospital.  Following this, we expect her to recover at Susan's house, perhaps through Easter.  A few months later, Nancy will receive her other new hip.

Nancy put off her own health needs to take care of so many things that seemed more urgent to her.  Hardwood floors, the new Library, new balcony decking, issues with the neighbors, the births of numerous grandchildren, and much more.  And I'm selfish enough to hope she can get the taxes in on time.

Devastating Earthquakes Strike Turkey and Syria

A 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck southeast Turkey on Monday, February 6th.  It was followed by a 7.5 magnitude quake the same day and hundreds of shocks continue.  Within the first week, the death toll had climbed past 34,000.

An olive grove was split by a 1000 foot long rift.

On February 20th, the ground was still shaking.  Turkey had one quake of magnitude 6.3, 17 quakes between 4.0 and 5.0, 49 quakes between 3.0 and 4.0, and 203 quakes between 2.0 and 3.0.

By the end of the month the death toll had passed 50,000.

Construction Next Door

Our west side neighbors began their major construction projects that are the culmination of a set of lawsuits.  The legal issues now behind us, thanks to various insurance agencies, their work can begin.

A replacement private surface water run-off pipe is being laid just west of our property line.  The fence between our properties was removed and a new one with a cement wall base is planned by the neighbors.  We are told it will be an especially tall fence.

A new wall between them and their north neighbors is also being built.

Art Continues to Go Up on Our Walls

I ordered a frame online and Don did a professional job of framing our Charles Russell print of Meat's Not Meat Until It's in the Pan.

Victory Breaks the Enemy Line went up on what we now call the Victory wall in the living room.  To that we have added the oak piece of the actual ship that Annie bought while in Great Britain.  The SLEIGHT steel door plate heirloom that is said to have been on a front door in England and was passed down from ancestors will go there too.  And a framed set of knots will complete the nautical theme on that wall.

My favorite art piece, Spirit of the Past, went up in the dining room on the 26th.  That east wall features Northwest Native art.

Annie began decorating the whole Great Room with posters.  (See the shot of Charis above.)  She also mounted three more large framed pieces on the west wall of the living room.  Our living room has taken on the feel of an art gallery.

Bits and Pieces 

Annie sent me this picture from her cell phone of Charis and me jamming on our guitars.  Annie and Charis have 3/4 size guitars.  We all have a long way to go to become proficient.  Valerie and Charis also love to dance while I sing and play.

More dog days with Luna were spent on the 16th to the 18th as Jean and Joel took Galen and celebrated their third anniversary in Leavenworth.   I took the time dog sitting to push ahead with more lecture preparation in the book of Jeremiah.

For my birthday, I bought myself a Black+Decker 20V cordless 10" chainsaw.  (My 16" wired chainsaw just wasn't cutting it.  It is hard to keep its chain tight.)  I fired up the new one on the 19th.  It's a timely purchase as we need firewood since our home heating system is just limping along.  I've been keeping the woodstove going every day.  I can saw wood for about eight minutes before I need to recharge the battery for four hours.  But eight minutes of sawing, then splitting with the maul, and stacking the wood is about all I can handle.  If I start early in the morning, I can recharge and saw more in the afternoon.  The contractor coming to check on our boiler system isn't scheduled until March 3rd.

I learned that my first girlfriend, Kathy (Finney) Hildebrand finally married long-time beau Bruce Anderson on the 15th, and that they are moving to a new home in Pasco.  She retired from working for the Social Security Administration at the end of 2022.

In the garden:  The garlic continues to flourish outside.  Hundreds of Evergreen Bunching onions are started on the end table near the wood stove.  Four varieties of tiny tomato plants have come up on the plant stand by the dining room window.  The Centiflor tomato growing under the basement stairs has fruit turning red.  And I have 36 Yukon Gold seed potatoes beginning to sprout in a box in the basement.

This month, Randy cashed in his 30-year Series EE savings bonds that Dad had given him.  The $15,000 face value on the bonds was worth just over $31,000 when redeemed.  Randy took advantage of this gift to purchase his new Toyota Camry.  He sold his old Camry for $5,000 and bought the new one for around $30,500.

He stopped by on the 28th to get some of my online assistance.  First, I scanned his renters insurance for 2023-24 and uploaded it to GPS Renting.  Then we went online to PEMCO to remove his old car and replace it with his new one.  He struggles to keep track of passwords, so I keep a password-protected list of them.

I got my own set of bonds out of the safe and calculated their value online.  Their face value of $15,000 makes them worth $31,104.  I need to cash them in as they are no longer accruing interest.  Unlike Randy, I have no specific plans for the windfall.

Grandparenting is Job #1

I take so many grandchild pictures that I'm
thinking of just putting many of them at the
bottom of my journal each month.

Kim Disher's visit the week Annie went back to work was a real blessing.