Lovely, Bloomingful June

My hollyhocks are over eight feet tall already!

Evidence of a career

This weekend, I also went through some "teaching stuff" while I was tidying up the garage. I fondly recalled the times I had used the posters and signs in my classroom when I taught fourth or fifth grade. They were the last of the items I thought I might use in my new position as a Literacy Facilitator.

 Alas. 

I know that the programs that are currently "in vogue" have their own posters and signs. It was bittersweet to resign them to the recycling container.

Change.

 A lot of that going on lately.

Oh, the Irony

 My ten year old  Camry, let me down.

I was going to my mom's last Monday night to pick her up for the Sisters In Crime meeting in Portland.

Driving on SR 500, at 55 mph, I suddenly had no power under my right foot, and I immediately thought, "What do I do? Do I pull over to the side? Smash down on the throttle? What?"

I spied my turn off and steered in that direction when my car just as suddenly allowed me to accelerate. I thought "Strange..." and continued on my way, all be it at a much more sedate pace because I had acceleration when I pushed the pedal down twice as far as usual and then went jerkily down the road.

We drove Mom's car to Portland, I drove it home and to work for two days.

AAA picked up my car at Mom's and took it to the Toyota store. There was no code, and the car drove normally, and the service representive said that there were a myriad of parts they could start changing, but did I really want to do that? And that I should come in if it "did it" again.

Wednesday night after work, I picked up a friend who drove my Mom's car back to her house, and I drove my car.  
It was on our way back, that my Camry started acting up again...It was decision time, go back to Mom's and get her car, or try to make it back to the Toyota store before it closed.

I was determined to get my car fixed so I lead footed it to the Toyota store with 10 minutes to spare.  After checking it in, I inquired about the shuttle being available.  Silly girl, it had already made its' last trip.  Did they have loaners? No.  Rentals?  Yes!  Lucky me.  I got to drive a 2014 Corolla for 2 days while they fixed my throttle.  Yeah!

 I received 2 pieces of mail from Toyota during the week. On Monday, the dealership manager (in a general mass mailing)  told me they would like to buy my car.  In Thursday's mail, I got a check for $29.86, my settlement as part of the class action suit against Toyota for the accidents involving Toyotas that surged and killed people.

I am happy to report my car is back to normal, I didn't sell it back to Toyota, and I am cashing the settlement check tomorrow!

Pop's Rocks

 This weekend, I decided to tidy up the garage.  Under the garden bench, I pulled out this box.  It was nice to remember that my dad also collected rocks, and here was his treasure. I opened it up and smiled. Besides the rocks, there were two pieces of beach driftwood.  (not pictured,  sorry cousins!)

I took them out of the box and added them to the flower bed next to my front door. 
It pleases me. I think Dad would be pleased, too.

A Mayhem Mystery

One of the 8 foot sunflowers in my yard was found laying on the neighbor's lawn. The evidence suggests it wasn't squirrels this time.

The next morning, I found that my swimming afternoons were over.

No footprints or fingerprints were found to implicate the culprit...

It's a Wonderful Life

July First
I remember it well. Mom and Merril and I were on the sand at Cannon Beach. A perfect day!

It's Amazing

These are tallest Hollyhocks I've ever grown! I'm often 5'8"and the flowers on the stems are just beginning to form!