Resurrection

My poor poor little neglected blog!

Instead of saying that I have been too busy to write, I choose to say that I’ve been on blog sabbatical for the past 6 months. Now I’m rested and ready to write. (It’s not completely true, but my life is calming down enough that I can spend some time on personal improvement and enjoyment.) As London Tipton says “yeah me!”

So let’s see what’s been going on in my life while I’ve been on sabbatical:

I’ve been working on a committee exploring the option of a county-wide metropolitan park district. (We met almost weekly for most of that time.) Unfortunately, although it is a good idea, the economy is such that it not the right time. (I think we’re either 3 year too early or too late.) There is still some serious interest to pursuing a North County MPD and so we’ll see where it goes from here.

I have also been part of a citizens group who opposing the Bonneville Power Administration BPA’s proposed new substation and new high voltage power lines. They want to build the 10-15 acre substation right around the corner from my house and the biggest power lines in the industry running from it across Kelso / Lexington down to Vancouver / Portland. So far we’ve been somewhat successful, they are looking to move it to a less populated area. However, I am still very concerned about the exposure to the high EMF levels and the risk of cancer. The citizens group would like to have them bury the lines or shield them better. There is a public meeting in Castle Rock on August 30th.

I am also the co-chair of the Finance Counsel for my parish. Unfortunately, we have not had an active Parish/Pastoral and Finance Counsels for the last 5-6 years. Which means there hasn’t been a working budget in all that time for our parish and our sister parish. It was a very, very difficult process, and after many, many difficult meetings we were able to create a balanced budget. Unfortunately, in order to do that we had to slash staff levels. That was such a horrible experience!! I felt sick for weeks!!! The one silver lining to come from this was that we were able to make sure that our parish was able to at least have our own clerical staff – even if it’s not full time.

In February, I was appointed to the County’s Parks Board for a 6 year term. I’m very excited to be on the committee! It is something I applied for 5 years ago, but they didn’t have any positions open for the North County area where I live. They finally did and now I’m able to participate. (Unfortunately, the park’s board meetings are on the same night as my bunco group. I was pretty bummed to give up bunco. They are a very fun group of women and I really enjoyed it.) I came on at a very fortuitous time. We have been working on our 20 year strategic plan for the county’s parks system. (Not sure we will have a parks system in next year - let alone in 20 years, if we don’t get a dedicated funding stream. Currently, the county is down to only ONE parks ranger to do all the maintenance and upkeep for all the 17 parks properties. They call him the Lone Ranger.) Hopefully, with a comprehensive strategic plan in place, they will be able to apply for grants too keep the department open.

My kids and I are actively fundraising so that we can go on pilgrimage to the 2011 World Youth Day in Madrid, Spain with our church youth group. Due to a number of factors, our group got a late start on fundraising, so I’m not sure we’ll get enough money. We’re sure making a valiant effort!! So far, we’ve sold raffle tickets to a gorgeous quilt, ran a rummage sale and rented the parking lot for KHS graduation, did a plant sale, held car washes and managed a raspberry patch. W.

Bipolar Summer – can’t decide if its going to be hot or cold. The highs are either in upper 60's or in the upper 90's. Don't like the extremes. Just give me 75 degrees. It's perfect.

Well, off to work

For the want of a nail....

You've heard that old saying... For want of a nail, the shoe was lost...For want of a shoe, the horse was lost. And on it continues until the entire kingdom is lost because of something so small and insignificant as a little horse shoe nail coming loose.

Well, I had a shoe nail incident today. My second oven (absolutely decadent I know, but a huge selling point for me when we bought this house) has been having trouble heating up. (Basically, it won't.) So I called my buddy, Lowell at Lukken Electric (Say that out loud. "Lowell at Luck In Electric" It's very fun to say.) As I was saying, I asked Lowell at Lukken to come out to the house and look at it. By the way, they are fabulous!! I highly recommend Lukken for any appliance repairs or parts you might need. They have been able to fix almost all of my appliances that have had problems and when it's not in my best interest, he'll tell me to "stop repairing it" and that I "should just replace it." I appreciate that kind of customer service and honesty.

So Lowell's crew came out and diagnosed the problem with my little built in oven. Sigh....

For the lack of a clock, the oven was lost.

Yep!!! There is some little interface 'master chip thingy' in the clock (which works very well by the way) that must be functioning properly or the heating element won't turn on. Well, it should be a very simple fix. Just get the new part and slap it in there. Except GE doesn't make my oven any more or those parts. RATS!!!!! Since it's a built in appliance, I'm looking at between $800 - $1,000 to get a new one installed. All I could think is that I will have to go back to being like all other mere mortals and really coordinate my cooking for Thanksgiving dinner. Because although I love my 2nd oven, I can't afford it just right now.

Right before I talked with my friend Lowell at Lukken, I learned from the "Roof Doctor" that to repair the flashing around my chimney so that it won't leak any more will easily be $700 - $1000. (If they don't get in there and find a lot of problems - which could get very spendy very fast!!!) So I'm saving my pennies (what few are left after this very expensive 1st week of school!!!!) so that I can get my roof fixed before the Winter storms hit.

So since I'm in cheap mode right now and would REALLY like two ovens if we have Turkey Day at my house, I talked to Lowell about trying to scavange on the internet and around for another GE oven profile clock. So he gave me a parting "good luck" and promise to keep his eyes open for the part number which is..... WB27K5040. So if you happen to run across one, let me know I would be eternally grateful and you will have a favored seat (and your own basket of Grandma Sutton's rolls) for any and all major holidays!