Saturday, Sept. 8

Up at 7:30, and after breakfast, Hubbie and I went for a bike ride, gathering dogs along the way...seven altogether. It was a cool morning, with a brisk wind that provided resistance enough that we had to pedal hard against it. Made it feel like the road was uphill both ways.

Before we left, Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house, and she diced onions, carrots, celery, and banana peppers for Drogon Soup. When we returned from our ride, I sauteed the veggies in olive oil, then added a can of sodium-free diced tomatoes, a couple of cans of low-sodium beef broth, and a couple of cans of low-sodium chicken broth, along with spices, and let the mixture simmer for a couple of hours. Then I added a collection of leftover veggies, macaroni, and meats from the freezer.

While the soup cooked, Mother and I worked on sympathy greeting cards for Caring Hands Hospice. Before and after lunch, we made two sympathy cards, and one get well card. Took us a while to make one of the cards, because I ruined it at the last minute. I'd put a rubber stamp greeting on the front, then washed the rubber stamp to use in doing a greeting inside the card. But my hands weren't completely dry, I guess, when I picked up the card, so I smudged the greeting.

I covered the card in green paper, rubber stamped a rose design on white cardstock to put on top, and then Mother used sticker borders to outline the card. This time, I successfully rubber stamped the greeting on the front.

Our lunch of Dragon Soup, with crackers and peanut butter was very good. It promises to be cool the next few days, so this soup and the salmon chowder will be welcome.

After we finished the greeting cards, Mother went to the couch for a nap, Hubbie watched a football game on TV, and I went upstairs for a shower and to get dressed for the day. It was already 2 p.m. by this time.

Later, I accompanied Mother back to her house, taking a serving of salmon chowder along, so she could have supper while we went down to the river around 5 p.m. to watch the Rubber Ducky Regatta, since I'd bought a "Duckument" (ticket0 in hopes of winning the grand prize of a Bad Boy lawnmower.

The ducks were launched by dropping them from the highway bridge into the river, where they floated down to the dam. The first one to cross over the dam and float down to a yellow rope near a sand bar was the winner.

We arrived at Riverside Park around 5 p.m. Parking was at a premium, but we found a space in a restaurant parking lot, and walked to park...good exercise for me. In the festival area, we stopped to watch a group of women doing Zumba dancing exercises. I was surprised to see that my doctor was among the large group of women gyrating to the music. Took several snapshots of her.

Then we moved on to the lawnmower races. Various city officials competed on Bad Boy mowers, with the mayor and a judge coming in first and second. The "race course" was constructed of hay bales fashioned into a sort of obstacle course. Hubbie thoroughly enjoyed this event.

Following that, we strolled down to the river to watch the Rubber Ducky Regatta. The ducks had already been tossed into the water by the time we got down there, but it was fun watching the 3,000 duckies float basically enmasse down the river. But there were a few that escaped the huddle and raced far out ahead.

When they'd gone about halfway to the dam, we walked down to the finish area to watch them cross under the yellow rope finish line, and then we left the festival.

Before returning home, we drove out to the airport to snap a few photos of damage to a hangar...high winds from the thunderstorm last night blew the hangar out onto the highway. The first that I knew of this damage was around 10:30 last night, when Daughter-in-Law, who saw a story about it on TV news, called to make sure we were all right. We were watching a mini-series movie that ran into TV news time, so we missed the story.

At home, we had a supper of salmon chowder, with cheese and crackers, and then watched a one-hour show before watching our favorite college football team play to a stunning loss. We were expected to win by a wide margin, and instead lost by only three points. The game started at 6 p.m., but we waited until 7 p.m. to watch it on DVR, so we could fast-forward through commercials.