Hi all.... Not much has been happening here the last few days, but RAIN RAIN RAIN and more RAIN. Had me starting to think that September is not gonna be a fun month if that's all it does is rain, along with Typhoons. It rained from Saturday till Tuesday night. Did have a few shorts spurts where it stopped a bit yesterday morning and afternoon, but I actually never left the house on Monday or Tuesday.
CJ's work trip went well and he met a nice young Japanese man who is very excited to work for an international company and can speak English quite well. Yeah! He too had sunny weather down by Nagaskai and says it is gonna be a nice place for me to visit when he has to travel there again another time.YES!
I of course sat way tooooo long on this chair at my computer the last 2 days trying to get kid lists and Honduras padrino information organized for 2009. My feet actually felt a bit swollen I sat so long. Oops!
Had some long phone visits with the extended family back in the states while I was sitting as well. They seem to be doing pretty well overall, but a few chronic health issues being diagnosed for some and hopefully some new and exciting opportunites for others. More later on that when things start to happen for them.
Hey,do all of you know about SKYPE? If not you should check it out. I talked for 2 hours for FREE on my computer to the relatives computer. You can also chat by typing only-kind of like instant messaging, or you can even get a camera and see them while your talking. It is kind of fun, but you have to make sure you comb your hair, get dressed or take a shower daily so you won't scare them like I did. haha
You can also open an account and put money in it, so you can call land lines or cellphones from you computer and that cost 2 cents a minute. It is SO worth it!! We can have family phone conferences with both Kalen in IL ,Graham in MN and CJ and I here in Japan all at the same time. But the camera doesn't seem to work to well for us, if we have more than 2 areas talking at the same time.
This week at night CJ and I are hoping to get dates and planes in line for our first visitors to come visit us here in Japan. We are hoping we can get CJ's mom over here in October and then I am pretty sure Kalen, Mike and Graham will be here for Christmas. I think my gal pals from MN/Honduras Donna and Michelle will come in April or May after I get back from my trip to Honduras and hopefully see the cherry blossoms in bloom. Yoohoo! Who else?
So,today when I wokeup I was VERY HAPPY to see it was finally sunny and so I did a bit of housework and changed the bed linens, hung the futons to air out in the sun and fresh air. Opened up all the windows and aired out the house. Picked up the dead leaves up out of the pebbles in my Japanese garden. Hung my green bell chime out on a tree limb that I got in Kamakura and then darn if I didn't realize I forgot to put the daily science project out last night before bed.
Shoot,now I have to have this big bag of plastic bottles and cans sitting around the house for another whole week till next Wednesday. :-( UGH! It gets a bit smelly and just no real space for all this recycling we have to do. This is when I wish I had a garage. I think of having some containers outside,but there are so darn many cats in this neighborhood I don't know if they will get into it or not and I don't really want to be picking up old garbage that gets strewn around everyday. Um..what to do? :-)
I also went and got more groceries and a new pillow for CJ. He said he had this awesome pillow when he was gone and it had beads in it. So I think I found one,lets see if it helps at all with his snoring? :-)
It was so nice to see all the big bright yellow sun flowers blooming and Morning glories glistening in the sunlight down by the pool plaza and fountain as I walked past. Stopped at my favorite bakery and got 2 frosted cinnamon raisin buns for breakfast tomorrow and a loaf of french bread. Figured I had better stop early as they sell out of everything everyday. It is so funny to walk by later in the day and see the 3 people who work there, standing in the shop with 3 loaves of bread sitting on the shelf yet to be purchased. I always wonder if they sold everything before closing time do they just close up and go home, or do they still have to stay and do kitchen work. They do have delicious stuff, that's for sure. Yum! I took a different side road to the store and saw this big moth hiding in the hibiscus tree and 2 very sad dried up and left for dead bonsai trees. I to be honest have not seen many of those yet. I see larger hedges they cut that same way, but not minature ones.
Back home I got dinner prepped and now am up here folding more laundry and doing computer work for home. As I sit here now,at dusk of another day gone by, I notice how all the cicadas are singing again and the crows too. I actually missed that the last couple days when it was so wet and quiet. They all were asleep or hiding out somewhere I guess, as I heard nothing but the rain and fog horns from the bay. I wonder where do they go or what do they do when it is raining out? Hum?
Anyhoo,I best get this closed up for tonight and my last papers taken care of before CJ gets home and I have to finish making supper.
Hope you are all well and know I think of you all often and hope your enjoying my Emails too. I am sorry I send so many sometimes, but those are the ones I think are just TOO GOOD not to pass on. I get plenty more that I don't send you,if you can believe that, so be happy.
Take care and drop me an Email or comment on here and let me know what you and yours are all up to. Enjoy your labor day weekend and the begining of a new school year.
Oh yeah by the way I almost forgot.... Speaking of school and rain. Check out this story from another guy that CJ works with. His family (wife and 2 elementary age kids) just moved to Shanghai, China 2 weeks ago now I think it was. Here is their baptism by fire story CJ got the other day on Email.
Subject: Thought you might find this amusing (it will be for us in a year or so)
The kids had their first day today at school. A real disaster.
Rain and floods everywhere--total gridlock with cars stalling in the water.
No raincoats or umbrellas yet in the Johnson household. Susan walked in
from the bus stop completely soaked at 7:30AM (cardboard box didn't
holdup). The school emailed parents around noon to pick up the kids since
most teachers couldn't make it and parts of the school were flooded. It
took Susan three hours to get there and by then, the kids were already
heading home on the bus to an empty house. She called in tears saying she
hated this f***ing place. So I asked Henry Wu to give me a lift home at
3:30PM to receive the kids but couldn't get out of the parking lot so I
walked home (about an hour walk). I was half way home until it started
raining again and Susan called to say she would beat me home. Mr. Mi picked
me up at a bike shop where I almost bought a bike to get home but they
wouldn't take Visa. All this on top of a three hour ride for the kids to
school. And two hour ride home.
Who wouldn't want to live in Shanghai?
YIKES..When I hear that I know it would be much different moving here with kids.
We hope to have dinner with them when over there next week and so it will be fun to swap stories.
Tomorrow, I think I may go on a little exploration on my bike perhaps or walk somewhere I have not been yet? I will have to wait and see what the weather is like.
I hear CJ unlocking the front door
More tomorrow
KJ and CJ
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