April 2008

    April showers are supposed to bring May flowers, but what does an April hail shower bring?  Or several, for that matter.  What an odd first week we had for April - a couple days dry and sunny near 60 degrees, mornings at or near freezing, sun breaks mixed with periods of heavy rain or hail showers.  Perhaps Ming the Merciless has been playing with the weather dial again.  Where's Flash Gordon when you need him?

    Anyhoo, I spent much of the first week ill with lots of congestion.  The girls only had sniffles here and there.  On one of the nice afternoons, I took them down to the cul de sac to ride their bikes.  I got Ellen on video tape riding on her two wheeler.  For the weekend, we didn't end up doing much.  We ran some errands on Saturday, the girls got hair cuts, and Ellen did some piano practice for her first performance in 2 weeks.  She has 2 pieces that she needs to learn and play from memory.  She threw a huge fit when we had her practice it correctly.  She is able to do it when she wants to.  In the afternoon, Phoebe had a birthday party to go to, but we were all invited.  I worked on figuring out how to lay out Ellen's science fair project on the display board while everyone else took naps.  We weren't able to start on the experiment, but Ellen was just as happy to get to draw and color the headings for the different parts of her display.  On Sunday we didn't have a lot to do.  Just Ellen's practice and science fair work.  Plus I dropped off my commuter bike at the shop for a spring tune up, and I picked up our tandem from getting it's spring tune up.  When I got back from the bike shop, Ellen and I worked on creating our model for her science project on the lunar eclipse.  Using the globe that she got for Christmas, playdough to create the moon (that's no moon, it's a space station), and my maglite to simulate the sun, we laid out a piece of paper to record our findings by holding the moon a distance from the "earth" around an arc (not to scale) with circles which Ellen painstakingly created with a compass to color in the shading of the simulated eclipse.  It turned out pretty well.  Then I helped her type it up while she laid it out and pasted it to the display board.

    Tuesday night, April 8, was the girls' first soccer practice of the season.  Ellen and Phoebe are on the same team, and one of 3 pairs of siblings on the team.  The coach is one of Jada's former student's parent.  It was quite chilly (45 degrees-ish), and it rained with 15 minutes left in practice.  Phoebe cried a couple of times because she wasn't able to score on Ellen.  I missed most of the brief practice on Thursday, but I showed up in time to hear the kids suggestions for the team name of "screaming panda's" or something like that.  We left the practice (along with several other team members) to go to the science fair.  There were lots of great exhibits from Kindy all the way up through 5th graders who were the only ones required to present them.  There were no awards given out, but all participants received a ribbon to wear all day at school.  If I had been thinking, I would have brought the video camera to have Ellen talk about the exhibit. 

    The weekend of the 12th and 13th delivered us summer-like weather with temperatures in the low 80's!  We decided that we would try to ride out to see Grandma at her facility in Forest Grove instead of driving, so I plotted out our course on MapMyRide.com and found that it was 40 miles round trip.  (I really like that site.  It allows me to pick a route, map it out, and it will show me mileage and elevation. I can save the rides to my profile to call up later.  Until GPS is more reliable with longer lived batteries, it's a great tool)  We hadn't attempted that much yet.  However, Jada and I had both been going to the gym again finally this week, and I've done 600 miles of just commuting by bike already this year.  How bad could it be?  On the way out, we rode past a church near us where a bunch of tandem teams were parked (we saw the tandems still on cars in some cases) but we didn't stop to see what group it was.  We would encounter them later on the way home, but we didn't think to ask them who they were so we might ride with them later.  Anyway, we made it out to Forest Grove in good time and visited with Gram for about 40 minutes out on the patio so she could get some nice sun.  Then we headed back into the wind.  That was a little slow...ok, a  lot slow.  We were sapped.  As we were coming up Farmington near Jenkin's Estate well inside the wide shoulder on that road, a well meaning motorist decided to slow down suddenly on a 45 MPH zone with cars behind her to express her opinion about the safety of us riding on that road.  I thanked her for her opinion with out pointing out the irony of her little safety lecture being given out a moving car window holding up traffic.  I'm sure it wouldn't have mattered.  About 3 miles down the road, we got a flat.  I couldn't find the puncture, but it took us almost 30 minutes to change it just because I have to unhook the rig and disconnect the drum break before I can pull the wheel off (oh, of course it was the rear wheel).  However, there was a nice couple out washing cars near where we were working who offered to take us home if we wanted.  We thanked them very much for their kind offer, but I always carry at least 2 extra tubes for just such a circumstance.  The safety impaired safety instructor not withstanding, we had another afternoon of smiles, friendly waves, and the occasional cyclist ride up to chat for a bit.  But we bonked hard at the end.  Our hill was too much for us for the first time in 8 years.  We made 3 houses from ours before we stopped and walked it the rest of the way.  It was probably about 10 miles too far for our first long ride of the year, but we still mostly made it.  We've gotta get a move on since Monster Cookie ride is in 2 weeks, and I have Reach the Beach in May.

    Sunday morning was spent helping Ellen practice piano.  She has her graded performance on the 19th, and she didn't get a lot of practice time with soccer and the science fair this week plus the cycling on Saturday.  So we spent the morning working on her 2 performance pieces.  We did a bit of a rest time for the girls.  Phoebe slept.  Ellen didn't.  Jada ran an errand while I rested on the couch for about 30 minutes.  When Jada got home, I started on the yard work while the weather was still holding today at 68 degrees.  I was able to mow, edge, and trim the hedge.  Then we took the girls over to ride bikes at the school.  Ellen was able to ride a longer way on the play ground.  She fell a couple times and skinned her knee, but she didn't cry or scream.  She popped back up, but she was done by then for the day.  At home, it was time for the usual Sunday night chores before bed.

    The week of the 14th was busy.  Jada had lots of meetings after school.  I had a team building down at OMSI on Tuesday, but I made it back in time for a very cold soccer practice.  Thursday, Jada and I went to the Kindergarten round up at her school since she's a Kindy teacher, and I was there representing Phoebe who is going there next year.  It seems so soon.  Friday afternoon, Jada went away for the night for the OEA convention at Jantzen Beach, so I picked up the girls from school, and I took them out for dinner. 

    Saturday, the 19th, was a busy one for us.  With Jada gone, I got the kids ready for Ellen's Junior Festival in Newberg.  It was where Ellen performed her 2 pieces she had been working on for a judge.  Ellen did a very good job (they didn't allow photography or video during the performance), and she earned a gold ribbon.  I don't know if she was even as nervous as I was for her.  Phoebe also did a great job of sitting quietly for the whole time.  On the way back over the hill between our valley and Newberg, we encountered quite a bit of snow, but the roads were ok.  It was mostly just a fog and a nice flocking for the trees.  Once home, I spent an hour trying to get into the Parks district registration to get the girls registered for summer camps, which I did finally.  Then we were off again to take Ellen to a writer's work shop for 3 hours.  Ellen really enjoyed herself, and it was right up her alley.  During that time, Phoebe and I prepared the things for dinner (pizza, of course) so we could throw it in the oven when we got home from picking Ellen up again.  It started hailing quite a bit while we were waiting for dinner to finish, followed quickly by a bit of snow, rain, and finally sun breaks.  It does appear that we got spring and summer last week, and went straight back to winter.  Jada was able to make it home just before bed time, and we both went to bed early from exhaustion.

    On Sunday, Jada had to take off again for the last part of her meetings, so we went out to breakfast and then went our separate ways.  She to her meeting, and we to OMSI.  We decided to do some different things than just going to the discovery science area (which is where the kids stuff is all located).  We spent quite a bit of time making flying objects out of paper cups and testing them out on the fan tables.  Then we went to the physics lab to play with some electricity on the Vandegraff generators.   We built towers and tested them on the earthquake tables.  Then we went to the chemistry lab and learned about how how well different packing peanuts break down.  This was when we learned that they were doing a big Earth Day topic around OMSI where you participate in different experiments or lessons and get a stamp on a passport.  So we started going around to all the different places to get the stamps.  We learned about different wind power options in the Technology Lab, replanted basil plans in the Life Science lab, looked at bacteria under the microscope in the Biology lab, and by the time we were all done they received a maple tree seedling to plant.  We haven't figured out where to plant those yet, but we re-potted the basil into one of the clay pots that Phoebe and I made in her clay class.  By the time we got home, we were all tired even though the girls claimed they weren't.  They ended up sleeping until almost 4pm.

    The week of the 21st was the first week of soccer games.  Tuesday's game was played in wet and cold conditions.  Only Phoebe got to play after Ellen through a huge fit over piano practice time.  Her temper continues to be a concern as she can't seem to calm herself down.  Amazingly enough, neither of them got sick.  Wednesday night, we were supposed to move Jada's mom to her new assisted living apartment.  However, to keep the long story short, we were told the moving company we used last time who did a great job moving her out of her last apartment could do the move Wednesday night.  They kept pushing back the time due to another job they were on to Thursday morning.  They still continued to not show up, and I finally had to find another moving company while I sat at the storage unit for 3 hours waiting.  Meanwhile, Jeannie moved into her new, empty apartment.  We got the stuff there thanks to the other company, and I got her bed setup and few other things done while there.  Jada went back later to do even more.  A huge thanks to Laurie's mom, Barb, for coming over to baby sit on short notice Wednesday night when we were still clinging to hope that Portland Moving Services would eventually send the truck over.  Thursday night the girls had another soccer game, this time it was dry, but still in the 40's.  Papa came to watch.  Phoebe does much the same as Ellen did at her age...not much.  She doesn't pay much attention to what's going on around her.  Mostly she dances or plays with the mud.  But she has fun all the same.

    The last weekend of April was shaping up to be a pleasant one weather wise.  It hit 70 on Saturday.  We went to Gateway Bicycles to order our quad (that's a bicycle built for 4).  They measured both Jada and I to send in to Santana who will be building the bike.  It'll take about 8 weeks so we should be able to have it ready before Cycle Oregon weekend and the tandem rally vacation we're signed up for in the US San Juan Islands.  Probably even before Mandy's wedding, but we probably won't bring it.  Sunday morning was the Monster Cookie Metric Century Ride that the Salem Bicycle Club puts on every spring as their first major event.  We're not members, but we still like to ride it.  Plus the weather couldn't have been better for the first year we brought the kids with us on the ride.  The girls got lots of compliments once again, and they weren't the only kids there either which was nice to see.  We had lots of peanut butter and jelly bagels, fruit, cherry tomatoes, and of course cookies at the rest stop.  We didn't do the metric century (that's 62 miles for those of you set in your English measurement units) this time.  Since the weather has kept us from getting out much the spring together, we only did the 32 mile half metric century.  It was still tough, and quite enough for us.

    The weather went back to cold and rainy for the last 3 days of the month.  This included the girl's soccer game on Tuesday night where they played through a downpour while the sun was shining creating a brilliant double rainbow with a temperature of 45 degrees.  Everyone played through it with big smiles as if it wasn't raining at all.

    On some sad news, Savannah didn't come home Wednesday morning.  She still wasn't back Wednesday evening.  I haven't found her yet, but that doesn't bode well.  Ellen definitely seemed concerned as we looked around the house.  As I write this, she still hasn't come home, and we haven't had any luck finding her yet.  We're very sad.

Journal Entry: May 2, 2008