November 22

Walks on the beach for some more pictures and a trip to the playground.

Thanksgiving Nov. 21 in Lincoln City

David, Sherry, Matt, Katie, Nora, Nancy and I came together in Lincoln City for our Thanksgiving dinner last Saturday. It was early, but what is a few days to get everyone together.

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.Uncle David and Aunt Sherry

Nov. 6 Nuts and Web Pages

Nancy and I selling our wares.
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This week has been consumed with web pages and nuts. One of the ways Nancy's P.E.O. group raises money for their women's organization is to sell a variety of nuts. They buy the nuts in bulk and repackage them to sell. Most of the nuts are pre-ordered, and the rest go to various bazaars. The P.E.O. group uses the money earned to give grants, loans, and scholarships to women who are furthering their education. I enjoy picking all of the low hanging fruit (puns) with all of the organizing calls to the house "Hello, This is the nut house." or "Would you like to talk to the nut lady?" I found that Nancy was getting to the phone very quickly for some reason. The 700 plus pounds of nuts arrived by FED-EX. I put the pallet on my trailer for the ride to the re-packaging area and unloaded the cases of nuts. These women are very efficient - 6 hours and the nuts are in the one-pound bags and ready for delivery.

I spent the week sequestered in the office re-doing my Fat Elk Greeting Cards web site. I'm not quite finished, but the majority of the work is completed. I finished entering most of the data very early this morning. Now I found a few more things to fix in the light of day. I should have the site 98% ready by Sunday.

All Hollows Eve

We are staying home to welcome all of the little goblins tonight. Here is our Klamath Falls pirate. Cap'n Nora loves the outfit that Katie made for her. Matt took these pictures at a local park.


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Here's Nora practicing her barrel riding skills.

10/28 Lunch with Lee

We meet our friend Lee today for lunch at the Jade Tea House. All three entrees were excellent and the mudslide chocolate cookie was devilishly good.

10/27 Ragtime the play

Nancy and I went to see a very good play called Ragtime at Portland Center Stage. The play centered around the treatment of immigrants, blacks and workers in the early 1900's. We were very impressed by the strong storyline and the musical ability of the cast members.

10/26 CVHS 64 PDX reunion

During our 45th high school reunion I found out that some of my classmates live the Portland area. Tonight we bored our spouses about the good old days and caught up on the 45 years since we graduated (they were great sports). It only took about three hours and it was fascinating how each couple came to be in the Portland area.
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L to R >> Jim B, Janie & Steve, Nancy & Bud, Darleen B
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Jim, Janie and I are the grads from CVHS 1964.

10/23 Home for a while

The rain has arrived, the leaves falling, and the time for inside work has arrived.

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This is a picture I took on the way home last Tuesday. I talked Nancy into taking a 19 mile snake trail up to Lost Lake on the north side of Mt. Hood. I saw two cars in the parking lot and this guy trolling all by his lonesome on a seemingly deserted lake.

10/19 Nancy's 60th Birthday

Nancy wanted to be out of town for her birthday. Mainly, because a planned and successfully executed a surprise party with about 60 people on her 50th. I just don't think she trusted me to leave things alone. She wanted to spend a few days at Skamania Lodge in Washington. We relaxed by the big fireplace in the evenings, went out for dinner in Hood River and the lodge. We also toured up the Columbia gorge to see the sites. The weather was great, we had great meals and came home very relaxed.
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We also visited Beacon Rock.

Maryhill Museum

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Stonehenge WWI Memorial

10/16 Family Birthday Dinner

We started Nancy's celebration of her 6oth birthday with a dinner with David, Sherry, Matt, Katie, Nora and me.

Everyone rallied at the Renada house for porterhouse with cake and ice cream.

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Nora entertained.

9/30 - 10/7 Hunting Camp

We packed our camping equipment and guns for a week in the great outdoors. We had delicious meals and did most of our shooting of the bull around a camp fire. We saw lots of does and a few bucks, but the bucks seemed to evaporate about 12 hours before the season opened. We didn't even mind the low temperatures in the high teens once you got stalking around the woods. The daytime temps were a balmy 55. The evenings were clear with stars muted only by the full moon. The chorus of coyotes in the next valley, owls hooting a few hundred yards down our valley were the sounds we listened to around the camp fire. We never had any trouble finding our way back to the tent with everyone taking turns sawing logs throughout the night.

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. ................................................Scott Scott, Doug, Tim, Tim, Roger, Genaro, Bud

9/25 & 26 David's BD & Church Wine Tour

David celebrated his 33rd birthday at the Scappoose house. We had a great time visiting with David and Sherry's friends and Sharon (La Paz) was also there too. It is always nice to have time with David and Sherry.
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Our church sponsors a wine tour in the fall and raises money for different our out reach programs. This year we went to Hood River, OR . The vineyards are scattered between the apple, pear and cherry orchards. It was beautiful scenery that took our minds off of the school bus we were touring in for the day. We tasted several wines, bought a few bottles and I had fun taking pictures. A great time by all.

Lane visit and CVHS reunion

I had a great visit with Bob, Christina, Michelle, Lisa, Mary Lou and T.J. We all were able to watch Michelle compete in a cross country race. I would share the pictures, but I only shot video and I don't know how to post that yet. Bob, send me a good picture.
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Several high school friends joined Bob and I at the CV house and reflected on old times. Bob knows many of my friends younger brothers. I also picked up my long time friend Rick for the reunion and we visited several friends we both knew from our time in CV. I was also able to see our old neighbors Bill and Doris. On the way to the airport I stopped by cousins Bill and Vira's for a nice lunch before boarding the plane home.

9/18/09 Chula Vista High School 1964 Reunion

I joined classmates for some great times catching up on our lives over the last 45 years. I enjoyed the great conversations and how our lives have paralleled each other in many ways.

Bill and Tom were team mates on the football team. Bill went onto play for the University of Arizona, I played for N. Arizona and Tom joined the Navy and went to N. Arizona in the early 70's.

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I also found two classmates that live less than 30 minutes from me. Jim, Janie and I, plus our spouses will be dinning on Monday.

September 4

Matt, Kattie and Nora joined us for a weekend in Lincoln City. We went for a little boat ride on Devils Lake between rain showers.

August Overview

The month was busy with meetings and lots of little jobs around the house. We went to the Oysterville Jazz Festivial . The trip included a fishing trip in the rolling Pacific and I caught 5 nice coho salmon for the boat. We only get to keep two.
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Bruce holding some fresh filets




















We made a short trip to Klamath Falls to visit Matt, Katie, and Nora.








Nancy and Pam had a booth at the Oregon City Open Air Antique Fair at the end of the month.

July 28 Back home

We arrived home from La Paz and rested up for a couple of days from our wonderful vacation. The garden was going great and our friends enjoyed harvesting our genuine organic vegetables.



We have been busy with the mundane activities of paying bills, weeding, collecting the mail and all those many things you must do to get back up to speed around the house.

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Nancy's educational organization P.E.O. had a garage sale on the 7th and 8th at our house. It is amazing how much money you can make at 25 cents to a $1 an item!

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We went to early church on the 9th and then eased our way over to Lincoln City for some relaxation. We celebrated our anniversary with a seafood dinner at a restaurant in Depot Bay. Our table overlooked the ocean, where we could watch the fishing boats racing a fog bank back to port and see a whale feeding about a 1/4 mile off shore.

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Some days are full of little joys.

July 26th

We went to a gringo cultural event in downtown La Paz in the evening. An aspiring author read from her third unpublished book and did astrological reading for all of the signs of zodiac. The readings proved to be a great conversation starter at the restaurant after the reading, but soon moved to other topics. We were able to talk to Al and Maria more and we will get together with them when they visit Oregon in August or September. Maria's daughter and son-in-law (Dayna & Peter) live near Phil and Linda and go to their church. It is a small world.
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Sharon and Bill wanted the wall around the bar-b-cue to be painted a different color to match the new tiles they had just installed. We wanted to do something to show our appreciation to them for inviting us to stay in their home. They gave us the green light to change the paint color while they were on vacation.

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Top - The original wall.

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Middle - Bud smoothed the wall and painted the base coat.

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Bottom - Donneley paints the sunflowers.

July 25th

We went to visit some shops today with Donneley. There were treasures everywhere, but none we wanted to bring home. Nancy and I are inside this afternoon with the air conditioning keeping us a pleasant 82 degrees.

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Nancy and I went to the Buffalo BBQ this evening for lovely dinner. We were serenaded with a beautiful love song by a guitar band with singers that travels to different restaurants during the evening. We arrived for dinner just at sunset and there was lots of room, within 45 minutes all of the tables were full. The cool of the evening is when La Paz starts to come alive.

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Most of the restaurants cook over open flames and coals.
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Here are some interesting signs.
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The first one is on a port facility dock.

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The second one is my kind of shopping place. Nancy went to look for clothes and I went to the nearest factory store with free samples. The samples were smoooooth.

July 24th

We had heard about the beautiful new golf course that recently opened on the Mogote peninsula (Misiones de la Paz). The site includes a complex of condos, tennis courts, and white sand beaches. Driving to the area is long and frustrating, so we took the electric boat shuttle that leaves from a dock at the end of the Malecon. From the beautiful waiting area we rode a golf cart to the course. We were able to rent clubs to use at the driving range, chipping area, and putting green. The highlight was a delicious lunch in the shade of a palapa at the restaurant.



Paraiso del Mar is located across the bay from where we are staying in La Paz.

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Notice the road runner in the shade of the bench.

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This morning we went to the local weaving factory. There you can watch the craftsmen spin the cotton or wool into thread, and weave a rug or blanket on the huge looms. The factory is built of cinder blocks and concrete, and has a metal roof. With no air conditioning, it is a true "sweat shop."

We ended the evening with a delicous meal with Donneley in her lovely home. We also met Al, Maria, Larry and Bonnie.