Day 394, Flying to Oklahoma



Horizon to Portland



My started at 6am to get up and get ready to be picked up by Tracy at 6:40am.  I was awake before my alarm and Tracy was right on time.  I got to the airport and checked in with no problems. 

My flight went Redmond to Portland, then to Salt Lake and the flights were smooth and ontime.  When I got to Salt Lake, there was a monitor right by the gate and I looked up Oklahoma City and I had two hours to kill before my plane took off.  I walk from to the next gate and sat down several yards from the gate where I could plug in my lap top in and check email.  After about 30 minutes I looked at my ticket and it said my plane departed at 1:50 which was in 5 minutes.  I must have miss read the monitor getting off the plane and I had missed my flight.  I have no idea how I did this.  I'm a seasoned traveler, but the plane was gone.  I check with Delta and the next flight was 6 hours and I was booked on that. 



Salt Lake City International Airport



I spent 6 hours in Salt Lake airport and my flight departs at 7:20pm.  I will arrive in Oklahoma City at 11:18pm.  I lost one evening with my friends, but I guess in the long run it wasn't a huge deal, I'llstill  get there and I'll enjoy their company.  The current temerature in Oklahoma City is 105 and they have huge fires east of the city that has shut down the interstate.

Day 393, Tuesday

The air outside is smoky from all the forest fires burning just north of us around Madras and Warm Springs, but I still left the windows open.  It seems every year we have one big fire and there is at least a week when the air quality is really poor.

Today at work was more of the same, preparing for Leadership and trying to get everything lined up to start the program in a few weeks.  It's also Tuesday, so that means workout day with my trainer.  I actually really look forward to working out and it's pretty much the highlight of my day.

My trainer only had time for 45 minutes today, so I was done by 5pm.  I figured since I was in Bend I should stop off and see if they had started working on my trailer.  To my surprise it was back  outside and nothing had been done to it.  There seems to be more trailers in front of it and other priorties are taking place.  I guess I just need to be patient, but at some point you just have to say REALLY?!  I left dissapointed and headed to Safeway to by cat food.

At home I mowed the lawn, cleaned the house, vacuumed and got ready to go see my friend Robin in Oklahoma.  I went to bed at 11 and only left two windows open as the temperature started to drop and the low was expected to be around 32.  We always have a frost in August, so tonight is its last chance to freeze before September is here

Day 392, Monday, Ughh

It was your average Monday, with the exception of it was time for my routine visit to the dentist for a cleaning.  It seems like I was just there here, but it was actually 6 months ago.  Luckily, I have great teeth and I take good care of them, so the visits are relatively quick and pain free.

Following the dentist I had to drive to Bend to drop off some flyers for an upcoming event that we are sponsoring and turn around and head back to Redmond.  My morning was shot, and I worked through my lunch again!  My lunch consisted of some leftover trail mix from our golf tournament, which I ate at my desk.

Harvesting 40 acres of red wheat

After work I went to the feed store to buy some cracked corn for the chickens and I was starving, so I stopped off at Sonic for a burger.  When I got  home they were harvesting the red wheat on my parents 40 acres. On my side of the street my neighbor Steve was turning the fresh cut hay on his and my property.  I went in and changed cloths and went to move the wheel lines, so he didn't have to stop the tractor and could keep going.

It was great to see the combine cutting and processing the wheat and I had flash backs to the family farm in Iowa when my Uncles would be harvesting corn and soy beans.  There is something very humble about growing and harvesting something.  It was a slice of Americana right in my front yard.

Day 391, Church and chores

I had another great night sleep and I didn't have anything pressing to get up for so I laid in bed until 8am.  I was so content to just lay there and soak up the morning.  Even my two cats had no intention to get up and just laid there.

I finally got up and started cleaning up the kitchen and tossed in a load of laundry.  Church is at 11am and I figured I would take the Packard and then wash it when I go home.  I stopped and picked up my buddy Doug on the way and he had a belated birthday gift for me.  It was a incubator for chickens.  I guess I'm going to have to get serious about finding some hatching eggs now.  What a cool, unique gift.

Sunset on Sunday, August 28, 2011

After church I came home and it was starting to get hot, but even worse was the smoke from the forest fires was really setting in.  My sprinkler system was running so figured I should hold off on washing the car until the sprinklers were off.  I decided I would paint the window frames and shutters around the car barn and stain the potting shed in the garden instead.  I also realized I needed to do some major pruning on the apple tree in front of the potting shed and spent nearly an hour pruning trees.

Around 7pm I started washing the Packard and then the Mercedes and finally the Rolls.  The sun was setting as I started on the Rolls and the clouds were beautiful.  It was like a picture from the old west movie and it was absolutely breath taking.

I finished up with the car around 9pm, I then cleaned up the garage and went and closed the chickens up for the night. 

It was another great day.

Day 390, Terrebonne Car Show

I slept great with all the windows in the house open and clean sheets. I was so comfortable and hated to get up, but I  had a car show to go to.  The registration for the car show starts at 8am and I had already preregistered but I wanted to get there so I could find a place to park in the shade.

My timing was perfect and I got there at 8:05am and the spot I wanted was still available, so I backed the Packard into a spot under a tall poplar.  This is one of the bigger car shows and there were over 250 cars in attendance.  I entered the Packard for judging under the category of "Best 40's" and all those who entered a car could vote on cars in various categories.  For those came to see the show they could vote for their favorite car in the category of "Peoples Choice".

To my surprise there was another Packard in the show and it parked 5 cars over from me.  It was a 56 Packard Caribbean Convertible and it was huge.  It was great to see another Packard and to have Caribbean was pretty cool.

Two Packard's in the winners circle

At around 2:30pm I was notified that I had one an award and asked to move my car to the winners circle.   The big Packard Caribbean was also asked to come to the circle, so it was great to see the only two Packards get recognized.  We parked are two cars next to each other and then waited for the awards ceremony.

At 3:30pm they started handing out the awards and my Packard took 1st in Class for Best 40's and the Packard Caribbean took 1st in Class for the Orphan class.  Orphan cars are those who's parent company is no longer producing cars and is out of business.  It was fun to show people the car and to be able to let many see a Packard for the first time.

The lawn fresly mowed as the sun sets.

It was a long hot day and by the time I got home it was 4:30pm.  I needed to mow the lawn, so changed into some grubby shorts and jumped on the old John Deere.  When I was all done the yard looked pretty good.  I have a ton of chores to do this weekend, but for now I was done and ready to call it quits for the night.

It was a fun day and I enjoyed every minute.  It was a perfect summer.

Day 389, TGIF

Fridays really are the best day of the week.  You can't help but be in a good mood and I was so ready for the weekend.  I was extremely busy working on the upcoming leadership program and the day flew by.  I hadn't taken a lunch and by 3pm I was starving, so I phoned out for a lunch.

After work I headed home and I was so ready to put my feet up and even take a nap.  I was so tired, so I laid on the couch and took a quick twenty minute nap.  I was awoken by my parents calling to see if I wanted to go dinner and of course I said yes.

We went out to a new restaurant that I have not been to yet and probably will never return to.  My parents ordered small pizza and I ordered Lasagna.  After an hour and half we finally got our meals.  Something was obviously wrong in the kitchen, and they said they would adjust our ticket, which they didn't.  It was bad service and not worth the time.

Back home I put clean sheets on the bed and was ready for a good night sleep.

Day 388, Thursday workout and the Lodge

It was another busy day at work and the entire day flew by.  I had my workout at 4:15pm and my mother took her own car, because I had to go to a meeting after the workout at the Sons of Norway Lodge.

The workout was another good one and I was dripping with sweat once again by the end of the hour.  We focused a lot upper body, shoulders and cardio.   I was beat by the time we were done. 

The lodge meeting was at 5:30pm and the Lodge is just four blocks down on the same street as the gym.  Only 4 of us showed up for the meeting, so it was nice that we could move pretty quickly.  Norwegians however love to talk, so it was still after 7pm before I got out of there.

Christmas before Labor Day.

Since I was in Bend, I decided to stop off at Costco for a much needed bag of M&M's for the office and some cranberry juice for at home.  I was shocked to see that the Christmas decorations were already out.  It's not even Labor Day!  All the lights are LED, which I just can't stand.  I want to support the environment, but I get the eco-friendly Christmas blues, looking at LED lights.  By the time I got home it was a little after 8pm and it was already getting dark.  This is the third day in row that the chickens have had to spend the entire day inside.

The chickens are not happy and are only about 1 to 2 eggs a day.  I'm not sure the little buggers are worth keeping if they don't produce.  It might be time to fire up the BBQ.

With all the lightening the night before there are lots of little fires burning around Oregon and the air was smokey.