Busy Weekend

In keeping with our “never a dull moment” theme…we had another busy weekend around here!

More Water Damage:
Last week we had a major rain storm (more rain in one day than we usually get all month). Toward the end of the week Darin went downstairs to get something and noticed that the tack strip in the hall way (where the carpet has been removed from the May bathroom flood) was wet. Mind you, this tack strip can only get wet from the other side of the wall….so it was not a good omen. Apparently we had managed to leave the window open in our guest room and the big rain just came right in! Our gutters were actually totally overwhelmed by the rain and we had sheets of water coming down all the way around the house during the storm. So, those sheets of water plus the overflow from the downspout on the corner adjacent to the window well managed to find their way into the bedroom. The carpet was soaked, piles of dirt and debris etc. So, Friday afternoon we pulled the carpet and will likely end up removing most of the wall board etc in that room to prevent any possible mold problems.

Darin found a really cool set up at Lowe’s for re-routing downspout water and got that installed though and got the gutters cleaned out. So – barring further torrential rains with downstairs windows left open that should take care of the most obvious source of water in to the basement. Of course we were expecting company for the weekend so since the damaged room was our only guest room at the moment we had to do some quick swapping around and empty the other bedroom aka “temporary storage room” and make it into a guest space again.

Blackberry Festival and Darin’s big race!
This weekend was the local Bremerton Blackberry Festival and Saturday morning Darin ran the 5K race. This was his first race since grade school field days and he managed to run the entire thing without stopping to walk once! He reports that this is the longest distance he has ever run without stopping so I am SO proud of him.

Here he is with his race number.


And, lap 2 (it is a one mile course that you run 3 laps of)


This is the video of Darin at the finish…I apparently have to buy an upgraded version of Quicktime video in order to rotate this video…very annoying but I had to include it anyway.


The local Navy Chief Petty Officers (150 – 200 of them) run the race in formation so that was also fun to see. They started after all of the other runners.


After the race we went to the festival and listened to the Smiling Scandinavians play polka music while we ate Swedish Meat balls, blackberry pie and blackberry ice-cream. YUMMM. All of the blackberry products (scones, blackberry filled doughnuts etc) are the best part of this festival. Saturday night we went back and watched Kelly Thibodeaux and Etouffe play some Louisiana “Swamp Rock” (and we shared a blackberry scone topped with whipped cream and blackberry syrup).

Watson Runs away again!
Sunday evening just after Tim & Megan (on their way from Spokane) called to tell us they were in Gig Harbor we discovered that Watson was missing. He apparently got out while Darin was unloading some stuff into the Garage. Darin jumped in his car and headed up the hill and our neighbors Keith & Jessie headed the other direction while I stayed at home in case we got a call (he is tagged now!).

Fortunately, Darin found him just about ½ a mile away laying along side the road. Unfortunately, he had eaten/rolled in something extremely dead, stinky and vulgar. However, he was home, safe and banned to the backyard for the evening.

Company:
Tim & Megan arrived from Spokane about 5:45 and Todd joined us for dinner at the boat shed. After dinner we all went to visit Aunt Velma. She seemed VERY glad for the company and we managed to get the photo below of Aunt Velma, Todd, Megan and Darin.


Monday we cooked breakfast at home and Tim, Megan and Darin headed south to Gig Harbor so Darin could give them a tour of the RCD shop. It was really nice to have Tim & Megan here – it had been almost a year since they visited last.

Watson Seizures:
About an hour after Darin had left for Gig Harbor, I was in my office researching a project online and heard a bunch of activity in the living room – it sounded like Watson was playing with something but wasn’t quite right. So, I called him to come and he came jerking down the hall – almost like he was startling over something. He went jerking past me into the laundry room and stopped and looked at me but didn’t seem like he could make his legs move to come toward me. I finally got him to come down the hall into the living room and called Darin to come home. I then called our wonderful neighbor Jessie to come and be with me and she came right over.

We sat on the floor with Watson for about an hour and tried to keep him calm while he twitched and jerked. I was certain this was the beginning of the end for him and that the cancer had spread to his brain. There was even a couple of times where his breathing slowed and his eyes closed that we weren’t sure if he was just resting or on his way out. Then, just before Darin got home Watson jumped up (prior to this we didn’t even know if he would be able to get up again) and went back to the laundry room and basically begged for food. I gave him a couple of kibbles to make sure he wouldn’t choke and then ended up giving him two scoops of food. This seemed to slow the spasms some but after he was done eating and headed back down the hall he had a spasm that took him all the way to the floor. Jessie and I got him to his bed and were just sitting down next to him when Darin arrived home. Watson got up again (spasms still coming less frequently than before the food) and went outside and begged to have the ball thrown. We decided that even if he was dying that he would die happy if we threw the ball for him so did that for a bit before forcing him to stop and go back in the house.

About ½ an hour later the spasms increased in frequency and severity again so we decided to take him in to the vet. They actually thought that he might have been poisoned from whatever he ate on his run-away adventure and did lab work etc. Fortunately, his liver and kidney function are just fine so they don’t really know what caused the seizures/spasms and by the time we got all of the lab results they had stopped. They sent us home with a muscle relaxant and anti-anxiety medication as well as an anti-seizure med in case they got really bad but he hasn’t had any problems since. So – it could be the progression of the cancer or could have been just something he ate that tweaked his central nervous system for a while. In either case, he’s home and doing fine – although he did seem extra tired last night and pretty much slept the entire evening.

Baby Nephew on the Way!
We have a new nephew due on Thursday of this week so yesterday evening after all of the dog excitement, I managed to design and make a little bunting for him that he can wear in his car seat this winter. (Picture below). I also stitched some ribbon to several cotton diapers to be used for burp cloths. If this is John or Carmen reading the blog you have to hide your eyes and not look at the pictures below until you get your package in the mail! I haven’t pressed out the seams yet so it looks a little funky around the edges but you can get the general idea. I modeled this sizing after a 3-6 month size sack gown so I hope it fits him at least most of the winter.



USS Kitty Hawk:
This aircraft carrier came in to Bremerton this morning through the channel just a block from our house. It came in for its decommissioning at the Bremerton Naval Shipyard. I got down to the park just as it came around the corner and managed to capture a couple of pictures before starting my work day this morning. It was a pretty impressive sight gliding through the water – the group of us watching in the park were in a very quiet and somber mood as it went through. Here is the article from KOMO News.




So….that is the “quick” re-cap on our Labor Day weekend. It’s a good thing we had three days off work to take it all in!!

We are sending special thoughts to all of “our” kids – starting school today.