Saturday, April 24, 2010

4/26/10 Kookmore Earth Day Clean Up

*Walks in slowly and sinks onto couch*
Well, Mr. Blog,
It's been a long, long day.
At 8:30 I went out to look for Bill Evans to help him set up
for the Kookmore Earth Day park clean up. It was so cold and the
wind was howling down the street, but it was really sunny so the sky
looked like one of those time-lapse movies you see on the Discovery Chanel.
I didn't see Bill so I just started picking up litter around the road and down
in Darcy's bioswill. Poor thing. I can't believe they put in right in front
of her house so Chad can't park his boat in the driveway because
if he backs out the boat lands in the bioswill.
Man that's a big bioswill. It is about one hundred feet long
and twenty feet wide like a giant half of a Quaker oatmeal tube!
It looks cool now that it is full of weeds and mud.
Bill showed up at nine and told me he changed his mind about
running two crews and canceled worked behind our house.
He gave me a ride down the road to the other side of Trail Walk
condominiums where the crews had started last week.
You should have seen the garbage! I filled three huge bags
with cans and beer bottles and other trash.
Leslie, the Kenmore event planner, had the table all set
up for volunteers to sign in so Laurie and I didn't have to do it.
By around ten I saw Liz Mooney-Meyers, Lee and Sam McCravey,
David, Laura, Matthew and Steven Thayer, Camille and Simon Burton,
Trevor Keegan, Michael Collison, Ryan Gilmore. There were several
dozen people I didn't know that turned out to work and you should
have seen it! Chainsaws roaring, trees getting hacked up, everyone
buzzing around filling up sacks of trash like some crazy Easter Egg
hunt without candy. It was one wild morning!
I only lasted until eleven 'cause I'd been picking up litter
down by our house the last two days and was getting worn out.
You would not believe the cute t-shirts Bill Evans brought for
everyone! White with an OFFICIAL City of Kenmore logo on the front
and a pretty light green Earth Day 2010 with a plant logo on the back.
Real 100% cotton of a high quality and thickness too!
I LOVE MY T-SHIRT!
So I socialized and went home and rested a second and I
decided to get my errands done at the Dollar Tree.
It was so sunny that I walked and then stopped at Starbucks
for a small jolt and what a surprise I had. One of my
old Hawaii Starbucks cards had $4.00 on it!!! Woo hoo me.
That gave me such a buzz I decided to walk to Saint Vincent De Paul.
Looks like the remodel is done and I found some hideous looking
shorts and a cute looking romance novel.
Then I looked at that blue sky and decided to walk on down
our brand new sidewalk to Radio Shack.
Well that nice Chris got the back off my Timex with a razor blade
and got my new battery in and I was happy as a clam.
But I had a problem Mr. Blog.
I didn't have enough energy to walk the half mile
back home. I rested against the new fancy-pants
swirly fence at the corner of 68th and SR 522 with my arms
draped up over the top holding me up.
I closed my eyes and let the sun shine on my face.
Luckily, that is the world's longest light and when I heard
the beeping, I sauntered across and down the bike trail.
It was so chilly and windy that the trail hardly had any bikers
so it was pretty safe going. I admired the new trees and fences
and abundant weeds along the parking strip and was home
in about ten minutes.
I unloaded my wares and did some organizing
and jumped in the shower.
I put on my flowered sun dress because I wanted
to show off my new flip-flops but I had a big fashion
problem. My top ribbon on my new flip-flops is navy plaid
and every sundress I own has a floral print. UGH.
So Terry came out of his man cave and said,
"Ready to go?" And I told him I was starving.
I drove us out to Canyon Park Goutback Steakhouse
and our favorite waitress, Barbara, seemed really down.
She was trying to fake it but we could tell and I wished
I could have handed her a check for a million dollars and say,
"Take the day off."
We both had steak and King crab legs.
I don't think I've ever had crab legs before in the shell
but the meat was out of this world!
My steak was perfect but Terry's was rubbery.
I thought he was exaggerating but he gave me a bite
and it was like steak-flavored bubbalicious gum!
Poor thing. He works so hard and the kids and I bleed
him dry daily and he got a bad steak.
I felt horrible for him.
I would have sent it back but he is too nice to do that so
we just accepted the fact that one time in the ten years
we have been going there, he got one bad steak.
After dinner we popped over to the Bothell QFC so
Terry could pick up cash and then went to Gary's Exxon for gas.
Then home sweet home!
I have had an orange for dinner for two months now so that
dinner made my eyelids drop right down to my ankles in a
heartbeat. But I really wanted to tell you about my pleasant
day and the fun and excitement of working with my community
to clean up the new park for Earth Day.
It just meant a lot to me to see people I have known
in Kookmore a decade or more and make our town
beautiful. I love Kenmore Mr. Blog.
Ciao!

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