I'm Back

     I know...  I know...   It has been some time since I have sat down to write my weekly blog.   What can I say?   The past three months have been a learning curve for me.   When you work for a living, you can't wait until some day when you can retire.   Retire and spend some quality time making saw dust.     But, after more than two years of retirement, I couldn't wait to get back into the work place.   An opportunity came up for me this spring to do some seasonal work for Pioneer Research.    I jumped on it.  I shut down all the wood working machines and put aside all my wood working habits (all except the "shopping on line" part).  I wanted to be back in the paycheck mode. (Let's say little paycheck mode.)   I was ready and I enjoyed it.    (The first three days anyway.   After that, I couldn't wait to retire once again.   What was I thinking! )    I ended up working for Pioneer for 11 weeks.   Great people.  (Most of them were kids - Like in their thirties).  

Brian, Cari, Blair, and Judah

 
Then there was our vacation time.  The first part of May, we took a train trip out to Spokane, Washington,  where our youngest son, Brian, and his family are living.  We spent eight days with Brian's family and had a nice time.   It has been eight months since we had been together and you can not believe how much kids can grow in that short of time.   You know that diet plan that I talked about as being one of my New Year's resolutions?  Well, 8 days in Washington state did not help.  Food was good.   Weather was good.   Scenery was good.   Being with family was great!

Pam - Me - Amtrak

      Pam and I always wanted to do a train trip.  It was different. It was interesting.  Maybe we'll do it again someday.  I kind of like the train better than flying.   More room.   Less security.  You can get up and walk around.      The only problem is that it takes longer.    It was a 32 hour trip so we were pretty tired by the time we reached Spokane which happened to be three in the morning.    We were suppose to travel through the mountain area with a little sunlight to make the view easy on the eyes, but early in the trip there was a car accident on the tracks ahead of our train.   This caused a three hour delay for this trip.     We arrived at the mountains just as the sun was starting to set.    That was a big disappointment, but other than that it was a good trip.

If I could only escape.  If I could only pounce on that bird.  If  I
only could lose weight...    

   I was surprised at how many comments I had received about not keeping the "Dag Wood Shop Notes" blog up to date.   I'm sure everyone has been sitting on the edge of their chair waiting to see what my next wood project was going to be - although it seemed that there were more questions and/or concerns about how that dang cat was doing.    Well when we left for Spokane we heaped the cat dish full of cat food and piled the litter box as high as it would go.   I asked my niece, Erin, to check on the ornery thing once in awhile.     When we got back home guess what? Yep... still alive... (Darn. What does it take anyway!)

    We have a couple of wood project stories to tell so plan to get started on those next week.    Stick with me.