September already....

So the end of summer vacation is at hand. Jon is running and his first meet is tomorrow night. A reporter for the Salem newspaper came out and did an interview with him and brought along a photographer. Kind of nice to see the bigger papers taking notice of his accomplishments. He has worked hard for four years, training almost year round.

Cody will be starting middle school next week! Wow how the time flies by. Last week Cody had some friends from church come over and they camped out up at the campsite. They had a blast. They cooked their own dinner and breakfast, picked blackberries made s'mores and were just boys. What fun they had.

Last Sunday Lorelei and I took the boat down to the river and went out for an afternoon of fishing and photography. I drove the boat and it gave Lorelei a chance to concentrate on photography and she got some cool shots!

Below a Great Blue Heron eyes our approach.




Below: Another interesting one she took.


Not to be outdone, I did manage to get an Osprey with his dinner.





Here's me looking serious trying to locate some more wildlife for Lorelei to photograph. According to her this IS a picture of some wildlife.





We didn't catch any fish but we had a great afternoon. Next week we kick off a new school year.

Glynn Jr.

Summer is winding down.....

So it seems like I have been doing nothing but working on things. Jon's car had a few little issues that I think we have worked out. The Honda got new rear brakes. The boat trailer got new bearings on both axles. The fuel pump on the outboard has been rebuilt. I hope things stay in one piece for a while.
Wow....the end of August already! Adam started classes last week. We had a big rib dinner before he headed back to his dorm.






Cody down at the swimming hole at the river.



Of course Queenie had to tag along.



Sunset last week in the Willamette valley. That is the coast range in the distance.



We have been eating lots of fresh cucumbers and tomatoes. The plums are ripe. Lots of wild blackberries now and our Gravenstein apples are ripe. Lorelei has been making cobblers, apple crisp and freezer jam. We still have blueberries too! We will be eating apples and pears through November.

Jon starts cross country practice today! He has only trained sporadically during the summer. This year will be an interesting one.

Summer is winding down.....fall is in the air and the salmon are starting to run in the local rivers. It doesn't get any better than this.

All of the August pictures are HERE.

Glynn Jr.

Oregon Coast vacation

We had a fun vacation over at the Oregon Coast. We rented a house near Pacific City. It was 5 days of fun, (although we had our share of mechanical problems on this trip). Adam drove his truck and followed us over. His truck was acting up a bit (I think it's the fuel filter). Then the Expedition got stuck in 4 wheel drive low range.....yikes. Luckily the ace mechanics we had along on this trip were able to figure out a fuse had blown and we got out of 4 wheel drive. Our cheapie cell phone was not turning on (after repeatedly removing and installing the battery it worked). My little outboard motor was losing fuel pressure (I think it's the fuel pump) and on the way home one of the bearings on the boat trailer went out, we were nearly home and we limped into the driveway with the wheel about to fall off. Wow....other than that things went smoothly.......

Below Jon and I give Adam some last minute surfing advice. We suggested that his three skeg setup would be more conducive to a flat bellied paddle start as opposed to a side shifting deep water start.
Adam kept saying that I know as much about surfing as I do Ultimate Fighting! Ouch that hurt.


He took our advice and was up and surfing in no time.



Adam's fan club was there to record the action.


Meanwhile I was able to provide some food for the table.



Cody was hungry and decided to try "sun a la mode"


Adam and Jon discuss the surf conditions....


While Lorelei runs on the beach.....






All of the pictures from our vacation are HERE

Glynn Jr.

Ultimate Fighting and Jon gets a car!

So a few months ago I decide that I want to try Ultimate Fighting, so I have been in training. So in my first match I go up against this 7th grader. Man was she tough!



Ok, so I'm kidding, more on that later.

So we have been looking for a car for Jon. We made him the same deal we did with Adam. We go in halves on a vehicle and help with any fixing up that needs to be done and in turn it gets used by the family until he goes off to college. This helps out the household by not needing to drive the Expedition (gas guzzler) sometimes. We wound up with a 1990 Nissan Sentra with supposedly 124,xxx original miles?? It looks clean and drives great, so time will tell if we got a good deal.
Jon has been working at various jobs to earn money for his half of the car and his insurance. He is currently working with some farmers near us picking cherries (actually he shovels ice onto the cherries for delivery to the processing plant). They have to pick (they actually shake them off of the trees) early in the morning, so Jon is up about 4:30 and gets home around noon each day. He has also worked some for a family in town which every year he helps them with yard and house maintenance. He has also cut firewood.
Below, Jon's new car:


The weather around here has been down right HOT! We usually don't complain about an occasional 100 degree day, but multiple days in a row over 105 now that gets to be a pain. Two evenings in a row it was 91 degrees inside the house. It's suppose to cool down this weekend and next week we are vacationing over on the coast so we are looking forward to that!

So back to the first picture:
Well I have had several spots on my face, chest and back that were "suspicious" so at Lorelei's urging I went in to see her doctor. Amy is a nurse practitioner and really knows her stuff. She froze one spot on the side of my temple (now that one really stung) and took (3) biopsies. Yep, one of them came back positive for the slow growing cancerous what ever it is (Lorelei is the expert on this subject) so I get scheduled to have it removed. Lorelei was due to have a check up so we scheduled a "doctor date" together.
So Monday night I am playing basketball and I catch a mean elbow to my left eye. It starts to swell and turn all kinds of cool colors. On Tuesday Lorelei and I head to the doctor. Amy's first comment when she sees my eye "so did you make Lorelei mad?" Amy this day has a medical student with her getting some on the job training.

First Lorelei gets checked out and it's decided that one of the moles on her stomach looks suspicious and a spot on her face needs frozen so out comes the "silver can of pain" and I watch as the giant stainless needle is aimed at Lorelei's face. Lorelei winces and a few seconds later it's over. Then they get out the real needle and numb up the spot on her stomach and Amy slices off the mole and into the cup to be sent off for testing.

Finally it's my turn. I am feeling a little left out especially because my appointment was suppose to be first and so far Lorelei was getting all of the attention. So I take off my shirt and get into the chair and a third nurse comes in to assist. So they are numbing me up and Amy starts cutting. To my surprise Lorelei stands up and is watching! Only for a moment though and she sits back down.

Amy says that the incision should take about 4 or 5 stitches and is explaining how to take care of it so as to minimize scarring. Of course I open my big mouth and say "hey I told the guys I was getting at least 6 stitches" and "I was kind of hoping for a big scar". Amy says "would you like us to make it look like a bullet or a knife wound?" Of course I agree that that would be cool.

On Wednesday I pull off the bandage and wow! I guess Amy took me seriously because the incision is about 2-1/2 inches long and there are 10 stitches! All you guys and gals out there who love to be out in the sun or the tanning booth. Anything I say may not change your mind, but I can tell you that skin cancer is very real and it is like many other ailments of today in that it is very preventable.

We are on vacation this week! Yea.....We will be staying close to home. Full report next time.

Take care all,
Glynn Jr.