May 9, 2005

We've been here a week and this is the first day of "bad weather".  It rained last night starting about 7:00 and was still going this morning; maybe a total of 1/8 of an inch.   It takes several minutes of being outside before you realize that it's raining.  But, the sky is gray and you can't see the mountains.  Just saw four Bald Eagles soaring over the bay.

We left the Bay Area a week ago last Wednesday about noon and got as far as Mount Shasta, CA.  Caught the tail end of a small storm, but all we saw on the road was wind.  That night it rained heavy but we were stopped.  Next day we drove through to Longview, WA and got to Joy and Wayne's house about four o'clock.  Spent Friday with Joy and Wayne and continued North on Saturday.

Met with the real estate lady about 2:00, did a walk-through, and took possession.  The house was everything we wanted and more.  The only problem we had was trying to get the camper into the driveway.  The gardens were a bit overgrown and the camper scraped on both sides.  But we did get unloaded and comfortable by evening.

On Sunday we met with the homeowner, and had a list of questions that all got answered.  One question was whether we could trim the driveway, and the rhododendrons.  After assuring him that I knew what I was doing, he gave

permission.  I'm not sure that he would have conceded so quickly if he saw what I did.  It's easier to ask forgiveness that it is to ask permission.  After he left I started trimming and by the time I was done I had generated a full pick-up load of cuttings.  But it looks really good.

Before we left the Bay Area, we bought and installed a device that would allow us to connect our cell phone to our computer so that we could use the Internet.  It worked in Mountain View but when we got up here - nada.  Monday we went to town and signed up at the library, looked around, found several "thrift stores" and stopped at Radio Shack.  Turns out that Radio Shack has the franchise for Verizon and we were able to contact to Verizon and fix the connection.  We had been able to check our email at the library so all I did that evening was to check that the connection worked. It did.

Tuesday night I tried to go on line and the damn thing didn't work.  I called Verizon and they suggested that I call on a landline so they could check the cell phone while I was on the phone.  Wednesday, I concluded that would be difficult and called again.  Guess what, it wasn't necessary.  They were able to fix the connection and I was able to collect and send email that night.  Next night I tried again and it was broken.  I called Verizon again and found that they closed down at 11:00.  I called again, after 9:00 PM and before 11:00 on Friday, and got the "customer service call" from hell. Two hours of waiting, stupid questions, transfers that disconnected: and then it was 11:00 and they all went home.

Tried again the next morning and got through to a "techie" that knew what he was doing.  Maybe he knew too much.  He sent me off in a completely different direction and I ended up with some strange looking program that seems to work.  I think the new program is even slower.  The original was advertised at 14.4 kbps.

By Tuesday, we were pretty well settled in.  So, we drove to the city of Mount Vernon to buy stuff at Wal-Mart and Lowes.  Bought a new garbage can and some pvc pipe to use as a mounting for Nancy's flag.  She bought a banner as soon as she new we were going to spend time at the beach.  We brought the banner and it flies in front of the house.

This last weekend was the annual Camano Island Artists Studio Tour.  59 artists opened their studios at various places all over the island.  We thought this would be an opportunity to see the island, see some art and get into places we wouldn't normally visit.  It took us two days to cover the tour, Friday and Saturday.  Some of the art was pretty good.

Saturday night was a very high tide.  We have too many logs on our beach (flotsam), so we followed the local tradition of pushing the logs back into the water so that they might drift onto someone else's beach.  Sort of like musical chairs.  It's a lot's of hard work, but we'll see what we get back in return.

The local "sport" here is crabbing.  Dungeness.  The season will start July 1st through September something.  Crab pots came with the house but I have to buy

a license, but I haven't gotten to it yet.  I checked out the beach and there are clams here.  Lots of mussels, but no oysters.  I need to understand the local rules before I harvest any of that stuff.

While talking to the homeowner, Bob, he said that he usually lets the lawn dry out in the summer.  I like lawns, so I bought some seed and overcast he lawn.  We'll see what comes of it.  I also planted some flowers and vegetables in some empty planters that were lying about.  We bought a Fuchsia while we were in Mount Vernon.  The Fuchsia is hanging at the corner of the porch and is doing well.

Nancy has been out checking out the local fiber arts scene and has visited a couple of groups.

The plan was to come up here and rest and maybe we'll get a chance to slow down this next week.  Cindy and Terry are due Tuesday of this week. So, maybe not.

We'll have Sheila and family and Cindy and Terry back for the Memorial Day weekend and celebrate Cindy's birthday.  Ryan and Tracy won't be coming over - later in the summer after school's out.

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