The news told me to call my mother

Honest, the TV news tonight really told me to call Mom.

Sure, I'm paraphrasing a tad. "If you're feeling stressed, skip the massage and call your mother."

A study out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that girls' comfort hormones (oxytocin) increased and stress (cortisol) decreased just by hearing mom's voice.

Oh, yeah, I have her on speed dial!

Duh-oh, oh no!

Rats, darn. Good news is that the cement ramp, replacing the front steps, was poured Thursday, and the "exposing" part of the exposed aggregate was finished Friday.

I took Mike to a class on making rain barrels Thursday night. And that is where the "Duh-oh, oh no" part comes in. And I KNEW this: we want to use a rain barrel to capture part of the rainwater coming from the roof, and use it in the flower gardens. This helps make up for our big impervious footprint, where rainwater can't filter back into the groundwater systems like it used to. During this class, they reminded me of what else I already knew that can help: use pervious surfaces.

We should have asked the contractor to use pervious concrete (also known as porous concrete).

Pervious concrete looks sort of like Rice Krispie treats, so it looks a lot like exposed aggregate. Water drains right through it instead of (in our case) runnning down the street and into Salmon Creek.





Maybe I should go out to the worm bin and beat myself with one of the red wigglers. Oh, wait, that wouldn't be kind to the worm.

Group pic (mostly) from Kooza

J, Di, N8, B3, C, B1, Gma, Gaarbacca : ), Mike

Escheatment

Escheatment is when property (money) is sent to the state for safekeeping, held in trust, because the original owners/claimants can't be found or checks go unclaimed.

One of our county departments couldn't get a city to take a $150 check (long story) starting in 1995. So after reviewing controls many times in this county department, we convinced them in 2006 they really had to escheat the money to the state.

We did another review yesterday. The check to the STATE never cleared.

So how do you escheat another check to the state because the money was never "claimed?" We've gotten a good laugh out of this one.

Note: we know the City's current finance manager, who changed jobs from the county, so we think the county department can work with her to finally take a check and clear the original transaction completely.

Do

Mike's progress has been very good the last few days. On Monday he was suddenly up on the walker quite a bit -- yes! And this evening he was talking about being able to get himself to the physical therapy appointment tomorrow. Um, no, I don't think we're ready for that leap yet (no pun intended).

Overall scorecard:

Movement: improving
Pain: well managed
Sleep: still a bit out of whack

So the next milestones I imagine are walking unassisted, carrying something (like taking a plate from the counter to the table or hey, from the table to the dishwasher), stairs unassisted, longer distances (perhaps walking all the way through Costco).

Go Mike go!

Don't

A few days ago in the guest bath, "Please don't be reaching for the towel bar as a grab bar. This bathroom isn't set up for you to use."

Today I hear "crash," which is just giant sirens in my head at this stage of recovery, followed by, "I'm okay."

So yes, you guessed it, he grabbed the towel bar AND the paper holder, pulled everything down. Evil eye from me, and from him "I'm SOR-ree." I just put the whole mess in the tub, deal with it later. "This bathroom isn't set up for you."

Missed Birthdays

"The legends of missed birthdays"

Legend #1:
In a great Northwest land lives a wonderful Grandmother who we will call Gma. She has several grandchildren, but we focus on the third, "B3."

Gma and Gpa were pilots, so they had the opportunity to travel quite a bit. In the winter they would often go to Mexico and camp on Baja. (That's the peninsula south of California, for those who need a reference.) In the summer and into fall, they would travel to British Columbia and camp next to one of the wonderful wilderness lakes. (B.C. is in Canada. Google "Canada" if you need to know where it is. Then sue your former school district.)

When you vacation in Canada, they say you are "on holiday" which can be a bit confusing to us Yanks at first. But Gma and Gpa usually traveled around the holidays: Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day. July 4 is not celebrated in BC of course, but July 1 is Canada Day -- and they sing "my country tis of thee" with different words, so strange ; )

Grandchild "B3"s birthday is around Labor Day, and she would feign exasperation, "You're ALWAYS gone on my birthday, Gma." This year, for the first time, B3 will be on a trip during Gma's birthday. Sounds like Cat in the Cradle! Google those lyrics, too, if you need.

Legend #2:
In the 70's, Gma's grandpa-in-law put together a family geneology book, and Gma did all the layout and calligraphy for it. Lots of beautiful but tedious work.

At the end, after printing I believe, we all realized she put the wrong birth year on her youngest child!

And so end the stories of "missed" birthdays.

Oh wait, there is one more:

Legend #3:
When Gma turned 39, a big surprise birthday party was put together. Family and friends came from far and wide. Gpa distracted her away from the house for a few hours, and when they got home she assumed all the cars were some other neighbor having a big party. Then when she saw her brother-in-law skulking around the garage, her first thought was "Why is Tom here and why is he trying to hide behind the car?" Lots of fun.

Later she asked someone (I think Aunt Char), "So why did you do all this for this birthday?"

"Well," Char answered, "because it's your 40th."

"NO I'M NOT, not until next year!"

Oops.