The Brotherson Family Website

The 2008-2009 school session is in full swing.  Molly got a great teacher and reunited with some classmates from her kindergarten year that are in her second grade class now.  Lindsay has quite the diverse class but seems upbeat that the kids will behave much better than last year.  Molly loves to ride the bus in the morning and has been doing an excellent job of getting herself up and ready for the day.

This weekend was full of tasks related to typical home ownership.  I filled in lots of nail holes in the walls and painted them once dry.  Carpets were shampooed as well.  I attempted to mow the yard when the cable that controls the gear for the self propelled drive system snapped.  Let me tell you, pushing a mower is tough work.  It is much more difficult than the days of using my dad’s lawn boy as a child — that mower was light and the new self propelled versions are quite a bit heavier.

While mowing, I noticed a giant hole on the side of the garage right up against the foundation.  Sure enough, some varmint dug it as there was dirt everywhere.  Coincidentally, Molly came running back inside one morning from her walk to the bus stop to inform me she saw an armadillo run into our bushes.  I believe that was the culprit.  I took the hose out and filled the hole with water, but no armadillo.  Satisfied that nothing was in there at the moment, I put two bricks in the hole and covered it back up with the dirt scattered about.

When I had our wax myrtles removed a significant empty spot was left in the elaeagnus hedge along the front of the garage.  I purchased a three gallon plant from Shades of Green and planted it this weekend.  After that I watered all the flowers including the crape myrtle I planted several weeks ago.

Then I set out to mow the back yard.  However, the last rain storm that came through two weeks ago took out one of our cedar trees.  It broke off the trunk about three feet off the ground.  Upon further investigation, there was twine tied around the trunk.  I surmise it was for holding the branches in during transport/planting and that the lazy incompetent landscapers that installed the tree for the original owners of our house neglected to cut the twine loose.  After five years of growth, the trunk expanded and the twine choked off the trunk causing a weak spot where it snapped.  For now I’ve got a silly looking half tree in the back yard but I can deal with it until I can have someone come take the rest out and grind the stump.

I thought for a while our downstairs A/C was going south as I could hear air flowing through the vents all weekend.  This was not something I needed.  After checking the thermostat to make sure it was cooling to the correct temperature for the twentieth time, I realized that the fan was set to ‘On’ instead of automatic and that the outside unit was not running, but the ventilation fan was.  That was a relief.

For the second time in my life I have a hematoma. Three weeks after the ‘attic incident’ I decided to go to the doctor. The prognosis is a hematoma. Recovery appears to be lengthy - but that’s no big deal to me. I’m just glad no permanent damage was done.

Many thanks to Jon Fishback, an excellent photographer and board of trustees member for Greyhound Pets of America - Northwest, who took pictures of Cayenne Padre racing in Multnomah, Oregon for providing these pictures to us. We have a hard time imagining the ‘other’ life Padre led before retirement. He was an awesome racer and now an even more awesome lifetime friend.

 

visit this album

I found the races that the pictures are of:

• June 20, 2004
• August 08, 2004

Molly is at Sky Ranch camp for the week. We will miss her but are glad to afford her the opportunity. She wrapped up swim lessons last week. Check out her photo album for pictures. Summer sure is going by fast.