Today has been a beautiful February day. I know the Groundhog probably saw his shadow today but today made me feel that Spring will come as it always does. I love the sun. I know all my children know I would love to live in a nice warm place all year around but I would not like to live there without my family. All in all this is a good place. The weather is usually mild. Of course, that was a little hard to remember when we had all that snow in December. So the picture I posted was another lovely Spring day. In the picture the driver is Dan, my youngest son, I am in the passenger seat. Dave Thompson, my second husband and Bruce, his son are in the back. This picture was taken in front of the Green River Village Apts. (Harkey Apts). Actually, you can't see our apt. from here. The picture was taken from our yard so you see the duplexes across the street. We managed 164 units. We were the managers there for over10 years. The complex was in the North end of Auburn. The units were all duplexes on J, K, L, & M Sts. NE and on M Place NE was the adult section which was all four-plexes. Managing apts. is a lot of work. I did all the bookkeeping and showed apts. Dave did all the maintenance. It is hard to believe now, but Dave and I used to ride our bikes on the Bike trail from Auburn to Kent. We both had single speed bikes. I had a wonderful little Schwinn bike that just rolled right along. We just took our time riding and it was so relaxing. I took care of Dan's boy, Daniel, when he was little. I had a basket on the front of my bike. Even though I had a car, I just loved riding up to Albertson's. After I started taking care of Daniel, I got a baby seat for the back. I used to ride all over town with him. Sometimes, I would ride clear to the Southend to the Library. This is before anyone thought about helmets. I never tipped him over once. Diane said she tipped Karyl over once when he was little.

I told you things wouldn't be in any particular order. I just wanted to write about my day today. I know all this must be exciting. I seem to come alive when the sun is out and it is warm. It got to 50 today here. I did my laundry this morning then decided to go to the store. When I came back, I decided to go get a Pedicure and Manicure. If I could have thought of anywhere else to go I probably would have. But I went through the Taco-Time Drive through and got me some lunch. I sat out in my lounge chair and read my book for about a half-hour so I could soak up some Vitamin D from the sun. I still had my sandals on from getting my feet done. When my feet started getting cold, I decided to come in. I feel like I am living the life of luxury Living over here with Debbie, Kent and Erik.

One story I am going to add is about our first winter at the Harkey Apts. The Duplexes on J and K street had no insulation around the pipes. (We didn't know that yet, but we were going to find that out very soon.) We had a snow storm and then the arctic air came in and it was bitterly cold. The majority of people on J and K and a few on L and M sts ended up with frozen pipes. It was New Year's Eve and the temperature warmed up just enough for the pipes to burst. We had water running everywhere. I called everywhere to try to get a plumber but every plumber already had so many calls they couldn't handle them all. So all Dave could do was shut the water off and we lost a lot of water before he could get around to all of them. People were so mad that they didn't have water that we got calls way into the night. Diane was over that weekend. It was getting so ridiculous we were almost laughing from Hysteria. One tenant came to our apt. and was so mad. He said how was he going to wash his hands after he went to the bathroom. (Diane will remember that. He didn't say it quite that politely.) Diane and I were playing Scrabble because there was no way we were getting to bed. We ended up giving him a big pitcher of water. The next day there was still no hope for a plumber for days, so Laif came down and helped Dave repair pipes. Bless his heart. I am so lucky to have such a good family.