AAA to the Rescue

Just 2 days ago I signed up for triple A roadside service.  We are going to Alaska on the Alaska/Canadian Highway in July-August 2009.  I thought having a dead battery, run out of gas, flat tire, and tow service might be nice.  

Well, Saturday we finished our shift at the Portland Temple and found that our hybrid had a dead battery.  There had been a buzz alarm when I left it earlier, but I ignored it.  It often does that and most of the time I can't figure out what it is trying to warn me about.  This time it was that I had left the headlights on.  Our Avalon has an automatic headlight turn off and I thought that the gadget-laden Camry had the same.  It doesn't!

Janeil got the owners manual out and we figured a jump start was needed.  We called AAA which happened to be just down the street.  They said the service vehicle would be there within 40 minutes.  They were there in about 10 minutes.  The driver hadn't ever jump started a hybrid so he looked for the battery under the hood. As shown in the attached picture, it is in the trunk. So he hooked up the jumper cables according to the owner's manual diagram.  He said it was a strange way to hook it up.  It worked and we were on our way.

Is there something to be learned from this experience?  Well yes, old dogs can be taught new tricks.

Michael's Craft Store Treasures

When the Grandkids visit they have been building creations from the Lego sets.  Now the possibilities have been expanded with projects that cost one dollar each.  My favorites are the model vehicles.  There are 15 different ones that include trains, planes, boats, trucks, dozers, buses  and cars.  The kids can customize the paint jobs with some tempura paints. 

Then there are 5 different doll house cabinets.  Brenda's girls painted theirs with flower accents.  

There are 16 different bird house  designs to be painted.   The church (school?) and the windmill are my favorites.  

There are 14 different kits that can be glued and painted.  In memory of our pioneer ancestors there is a Mormon Trail covered wagon (the oxen and family were sold separately).  The only Olsen girl died crossing the plains.  

There is also a tall sailing ship named the Emerald Isle in which both the Olsens and Fugals sailed across the Atlantic Ocean aboard.  Two of the three Olsen boys died and were buried at Sea. 

 The last set are 13 wooden 3-D puzzles.  This assortment includes a spider, a frog, a swan, 3 dinosaurs, a helicopter, a koala bear, a squirrel, a skeleton, an antique auto, a penguin pair, a seahorse pair,and  a dolphin (shown in photo).

It has been fun trying these out myself.  We will have a craft table at the 2009 Camp Alpine family reunion and the kids can take home whatever they build.

Our little corner of Heaven

If you go for a walk over to the pond you might see wedges of a thousand geese at a time which fly overhead each day.  They roost overnight 15 miles to the south at Finley Wildlife Refuge and then fly out midmorning en mass to eat the tender shoots of rye grass in the fields surrounding Corvallis. Plus you'll see Mallard ducks swimming on the pond and further on the beavers are busy cutting down trees. (But we've never seen one, just the results.)




The original owners of our home were of oriental ancestry and had a great talent for landscaping. There is a tree in the front yard they had pruned to look like an umbrella. We are trying to retain that shape.

The backyard has a succession of flowers which bloom during the spring. The daffodils have just ended and the tulips are in full splendor, and next come the lilacs and iris.  

We had a birch stump which rotted and has some cool fungal conks so I added it to the landscaping.

Our bird feeders have been very popular with the birds.  The lawn in the backyard consists of islands of grass surrounded by a sea of pebbles (round river rock).  I hide polished rocks among the pebbles and the grandkids treasure hunt to find them. They can take 3 home with them.