Mc Donald's - Where Everybody Knows Your Name

Today is Wednesday so that means it is "Muffin Wednesday". We also have "Muffin Monday" and "Muffin Friday" every week. Our needs are few and they are simple. We enjoy going out to the Tumwater McDonald's every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to have English Muffins and coffee for breakfast. Wherever we are living in our motorhome we find a McDonald's for this routine. Here in Tumwater, though, this McDonald's is like our Cheers...."where everybody knows your name". The routine never varies. We pick up a copy of the USA Today newspaper when we are on our early morning walk and then we take it along with us to Mickey D's. We order the usual....3 English muffins (which we split), 2 senior coffees and honey to put on the muffins. I take along our own light margarine so we don't use the higher calorie stuff they have there. Here I am enjoying my morning paper.

Bruce thought it was "too goofy" to take pictures inside McD's so he was a party pooper. I got a picture of him anyway.

McDonald's all over the country seem to have their usual 'breakfast club' of seniors and here in Tumwater this is no exception. They usually sit to the right of Bruce and there are about 8 to 10 of them every morning. We've gotten to know some of them and one couple, in particular, goes to our church in Tumwater. They are Floyd and Shirley Ann and they are such nice people. Floyd had a bumper crop of tomatoes this year, so he brought in some to share with everyone. These are the ones that he sent home with us. They look delicious and we will enjoy them.

We really aren't into going out to full service restaurants much anymore. That is why we hang out at McDonald's from time to time. Small portions and cheap prices. We make sure to stay away from the burgers and fries, though. Those suckers can kill ya. The fries sure do taste good, though, and from time to time we yield to their temptation.

Until next time.....so long for now!

Washington State Does Have It's Share of Characters

We've called Washington state home for 15 years now. We really enjoy the life here, as long as we can get away for several months each year as fulltime RVer's in our motorhome. We have learned since arriving in 1994, that the Pacific Northwest, Washington in particular, has a lot of characters living here.

This all makes life here very interesting. Not that California, our native land, didn't have it's share of nuts or weirdos. Don't get me started on that! For instance, downtown Olympia has a lot of interesting folks there. You will see teens or young adults dressed totally in black with blue spiked hair, body piercings, and tattoos galore. Their clothing choices are most interesting....at least from my middle-aged standards. Our son brought some of these tattooed and pierced people home with him from time to time when he still lived with us. They were part of his poker club. They were nice kids and it was good to have them there. Dennis is past that phase now...not the poker, just the interesting people part.

Protesters in and around Olympia will gather at the drop of a hat to make their statements about some issue or other known to all who pass by. At one time we had a contingent of ladies dressed in black garb from head to toe standing on the corner at Percival Landing with signs. They were protesting the war by standing there all in black, never speaking a word or moving a muscle. I don't think it really made much of an impact on ending the war, but they were doing it anyway. Olympia is also home to The Evergreen State College with a student body that is anti everything. Our daughter, Stephanie, graduated from Evergreen in 2000 and she did it without protesting anything or tipping over a police car and setting it on fire either! She is way too normal for that school, but she did get her degree in Human Resource Management and has a very good job now.

Western Washington is especially liberal in it's politics. So, I thought it would be fun to show you 2 photos (below) that I took down south of us in Lewis County. This man's property runs along side of Interstate 5 at exit #72. He appears to be a right-wing conservative and his signs just bug the heck out of some of the citizens around here. During the Clinton administration he had a great time putting up his own version of a protest. During the Bush years his signs weren't near as much fun to read but he kept up the job. Now, during the Obama administration he must be in his glory again with fresh material.


This is the guy's stand on immigration.

Just thought I'd share a little slice of life from this south Puget Sound area with you. Never a dull moment.

Until next time......so long for now!

A Rainy Monday with Sunbreaks

Dawn arrived this morning, but you would never have known it for a while. We had a lot of cloud cover and rain right along with it. The alarm sounded and I shut it off while hearing the rain fall on the motorhome roof. Bruce asked if we were going to get up and walk in the rain, and I said "no way". We pulled the covers back over our heads and snoozed for another 30 minutes or so. We usually set our alarm for 6:30 and get right up for our 3.8 mile walk, which takes us about 55 to 60 minutes. Since moving into the motorhome though, we have no good place to hang wet rain gear so we've given up walking in a downpour. When we had our "normal house" we had a garage to hang our wet and drippy rain gear in until it dried. Now, we either wait until the weather clears up or we drive over to the Capital Mall in Olympia and walk indoors for an hour.



We drove over to the Tumwater McDonald's (our favorite hangout) for "muffin Monday" and coffee. It was a holiday and no issue of the USA Today available so we took our books to read while we ate our breakfast.



After coming back from breakfast, I made a post on my new blog and then we just hunkered down inside and watched some more of the rain through the window. We began to see some sunbreaks appear and figured we'd take our walk after we ate lunch.



After eating lunch, we got our walking shoes on and grabbed our umbrellas. This is how the sky looked at that time. Iffy....to say the least.

About 1/2 way through our walk the rain began, but it was a light sprinkle that was easily taken care of with our umbrellas. This was typical western Washington weather. We made it back home before the rain got too heavy. Within 20 minutes of getting back to the motorhome we once again enjoyed some sunbreaks. Bruce killed some time doing his bank statement on the computer while I finished reading my book from the library. I was reading Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich. I love her books about bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum. They are laugh out loud funny.

Tomorrow morning Bruce gets to go to the dentist for the first phase of his dental work. Lucky him. Annie and I will stay at home.

My new blog will journal my efforts to lose some weight and maintain that weight for....well, forever I hope. Check it out if you feel the urge.

http://www.myhealthylivingthruweightcontrol.blogspot.com/

Until next time.....so long for now!

Finished Room by the Three Stooge's Painting Company

It turned out to be the Three Stooge's doing the painting work in Zoey's bedroom after all. The kid's plans were changed and Darin joined Bruce and I as part of the painting team. When we got to their house Saturday morning, Stephanie had already taped off all the woodwork and Darin had laid out fresh tarps and taped them to the carpet so they wouldn't shift as we walked on them. We learned the hard way to do that when we had painted Mackenzie's room.

Bruce began by removing the wooden blinds from the 2 bedroom windows while I got the 2 paint trays ready. Bruce was selected to be the ladder guy once again. Since he is smaller and shorter than Darin it makes sense. Bruce paints the top half of the wall and cuts in at the ceiling with a small brush while Darin paints from the middle of the wall down to the baseboard. I use the small brushes and go around all the trim work and cut in as close as I can.

Here's Darin doing his part on the other side of the room from Bruce. Things went very well this time and there were no paint spilling mishaps. I kept the bucket of soapy water handy but we only used it once and that was on a very tiny little drip.

I stepped out into the connecting bonus room and snapped this photo of all the furniture and stuff they stored there while the bedroom was being painted. Sheesh! What a lot of stuff.

After we finished the first coat, we ate lunch. By that time it was dry and we began a second coat. Stephanie bought paint from Home Depot and it had the primer and paint combined. It worked very well. Here is the finished room with Zoey's bed still sitting in the middle of the floor. It has to dry for a couple of hours before we do anything else.

This morning (Sunday) we went over to check out the new bedroom. Stephanie had placed the furniture back in it's proper place and everything was done. Here are Mackenzie and Zoey sitting on the freshly made bed. When they had first moved in 1 1/2 years ago Zoey wanted her room painted yellow. Grandma and Papa bought her a bed comforter and sheets but we never got the walls painted. By the time we all got around to having time to paint the bedroom, Zoey had changed her mind and wanted lavender. Fortunately, there are little lavender flowers stitched all over the comforter and it still goes nicely in the room.

Another view of part of the bedroom...minus people.

Grandma and Zoey have a little hug for the camera. Zoey is happy with her new room, so the rest of us are happy. Mackenzie is happy with her new blue bedroom, so the rest of us are happy with that, too.

Grandma and Papa are happy that these 2 projects are finished. We are now retiring from the Three Stooge's Painting Company. Of course we are not retiring from everything.....we have signed on to go over and stay with the girls for 3 days while Stephanie and Darin take a little trip to Las Vegas. That begins in a couple of weeks. I'm not sure that Papa and I are up to the task of the girl's schedules, but we will do our best.

Until next time....so long for now!