Volunteer.Gov

It is a very quiet morning in the visitor center at Fort Vancouver.  Nine visitors in two hours.  I would much prefer being busy to this.  That is one reason why we are going to move the trailer to our driveway in Canby this week.  Our new house has so many tasks on its "to do" list that we need to spend more time there in order to get them accomplished.

That being said, this is a good place to work.  The work is easy. The set-up for the volunteer is close by and all needs are there; 30amp service, water, sewer, and garbage.  Free laundry facilites are provided as well.  It is a metropolitan area so shopping is unlimited here in Vancouver, as well as in Portland acrtoss the river.  This area is a treasure trove for exploration, whether it is the coast of Oregon or Washington,  the mountains of the Cascades, the Columbia Gorge, or the deserts on the eastern parts of both states.  If you have thought about being a VIP (Volunteer In the Parks) this would be a good place to start.
    http://www.nps.gov/fova/index.htm

Monday Morning at the Fort

After a rainy Sunday morning, today dawned clear and cool.  This is the view looking Southwest out the window of the Visitor Center here at Fort Vancouver.  If you look carefully, you can see the actual fort in the distance with the I-5 bridge connecting Washington and Oregon is behind it.  This is our last week here with tomorrow, Tuesday, being the last workday.  We will still be volunteering for the Lantern Tours which happen on Saturday nights.  A time for some living history funT

a Trip around Mt Hood

Yesterday we drove completely around Mt Hood.  Starting at Portland, driving up the Columbia Gorge on Hwy 14, crossing over into Oregon on the Bridge of the Gods, and then up to Hood River.  We then took Hwy 35 south, through the orchard areas of Parkdale to Mt Hood Meadows and then onto Hwy 26, up to Timberline, and back to Canby.  The weather was spectacular, lots of sun,  temps in the low 70's, and because it was a Wednesday, not much traffic. 
   We enjoyed colorful trees, good roads, local fruit, tall mountains.  The day was great.

Autumn

    It's here.  The nights are cool.  Days are shorter.  School is going at full steam.  Football is in the air.  The trees are decorating the area with reds, yellows and oranges and littering the ground under them.
   Mollie and I are enjoying walks at the fort, scuffing through the fallen leaves kicking them aside as we pass.

How's the "Move In' coming?

   It's coming along, but thanks for asking.  The guest bedroom is finished and made up, ready for guests.  (That makes my wife happy.)  We decided to paint it the same color, Yellow, as the guest room in our Eugene house.  It is a bright and cheery color that we both like.
   Today I donated our desk to the Kiwanas Retail store.  It was a nice one, but way too big and clunky for our small bedroom/den.  Our new house has a small built-in desk in the kitchen area so we will be using it a lot.  Speaking of our new house, it's getting there.  The two bedrooms are done, the den is mostly done.  ( Too many books) The family room and living room are closer to being done.  The big question is how to arrange the furniture/ where to put things.  Some of our furniture will fit nicely, others will be more a challenge.  My wife is a sentimentalist so getting rid of anything is difficult.  " Aunt Mary gave this to me when I was five."  or some such thing.  Memories are attached to many items we possess for no other reason.
   I put an add on Craigslist to give away moving boxes and the telephone rang in less than 15 minutes.  Craigslist is an amazing tool.  Atfer they have been loaded we are headed to Costco to purchase some shelving for the garage so that we can empty the storage unit.  That will be another milestone.

October

Well, I'm back on.  Where have I been?  Three things.

1)  We have been busy emptying the two storage units.  The smaller one we emptied first and were out as of the end of September.  The bigger one is nearly empty.  "Nearly" meaning that we could get it cleaned out in a day if we had the floor space in the garage.  All of the heavy furniture is in the house, thanks to a friend with a pickup with a liftgate.  What a great thing!  The unpacking continues......

 2)  The government shutdown has changed our schedule.  In September we worked Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, which gave us four days to do other chores.  However we didn't get possession of the house until the middle of the month.   The first thing we did, while the house was empty, was paint.  I painted the laundry room, our bedroom, and the third bedroom (the den).  I am working on the guest bedroom right now as well, with more painting to come.  It's not my favorite activity, but the results are worth it.  New paint makes it our place.  Colors?  sunflower, beige, beige, yellow, in that order.  I'm using Craigslist to get rid of the boxes.

3)  We lost our long time best friend last week.  We had known Mac since 1980 when we lived in Roseburg.  He had been in increasingly poor health, but had gone to the doctor with chest pains on Monday and died in Veterans Hospital the following Tuesday.  The last straw was Luekemia.  Services were last Saturday.
Good Bye, Mac.  You will be missed.