Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #76 – New Lawn Sweeper and Drywall is Done

Thursday, May 31st, 2018……  This morning I decided to go to Albany and make my Habitat For Humanity visit.  I like to look around and see what they get in.  I used to go every week but haven’t gone that often since we got butthead and I’m working on her training and keeping her occupied. I also needed to hit Lowes to pick up my lawn sweeper. I got up and showered and dressed and took Rylee out to get the paper.  That’s leash walking time.  She’s doing really well. I can’t wait for her to get all of her shots completed so I can take her out for longer walks. Lydia is feeling better so I was ok to take off. But first I went out and got breakfast and Lydia’s venti chai tea latte (with 6 pumps chai) and brought that back to her. Then I took off and got my errands run.  When I got back, they were there working on the drywall again.  Tim has a tough time getting the panels up by himself.  Dana is too short and doesn’t have the strength to muscle those panels.  But he has a system and it works and they make good progress even by themselves. They should finish the drywall tomorrow. I worked on putting the lawn sweeper together then we met my sister at Ixtapa’s to buy her dinner because today was her last scheduled day of radiation! Imagine riding over 100 miles 25 times for this 12-minute treatment! Hopefully, she’s done with all of that and can concentrate on recovery from the treatments. She looks very sunburned and I can’t imagine the discomfort and itching she is going through. But she’s tough and will handle it well.      

Friday, June 1st, 2018……  First day of June. We’re now in countdown to Maui.  We leave on the 20^th so only three weeks to go!....  Lydia went to bed after I did last night and decided to just let Rylee sleep on the bed with us.  It was fine and she got up with her this morning and let her out with no issues. I was up and online early this morning. I had to authorize the transfer of funds out of my account to cover the next to last progress payment to Tim & Dana. I pulled out enough to pay the last payment as well. To date, the work left to do:  inside - final electrical (Thursday), finish drywall, install garage door, blow insulation in attic, and tape drywall. Outside - paint, install rain gutters, prep and pour concrete approach, prep and pour 16 x 48 guest pad.  I’m not sure how long all of this will take but they should be close or maybe even done before we leave on the 20^th.  

Today we decided to go to Salem and exchange some items at Sears.  My sister has an appointment with her surgeon today so we all went together. We even took muttley with us.  She likes to ride in the car and doesn’t get sick like Bailey did. That’s a plus! While we waited for Penny to get out of the drs. I took Rylee out for a walk around the grounds so she could pee and poop. Success on both levels! I gave her some water and treats. Once Penny got out, we drove over to Sears. We took turns going in so one of us was always with butthead in the car. We then made a quick stop in Albany so sis could drop off a document at the local social security office and then headed home.  We fed monkey butt and then we left to go eat linner at Pizza Schmizza. It’s on Main St. in town and on the way, we passed the many chairs that folks had set out to reserve their spots for the Strawberry Festival Parade tomorrow. We’ve seen many of these small-town parades on our travels around the country so we have no desire to go to this one.  But it’s a big deal for the locals though.  They have a crew that makes a giant strawberry shortcake (which they claim is always a world record) for folks to eat. They also have a carnival at the local rec area (Cheadle Lake).  Again, we’ll pass. Tim and Dana were still working when we returned so I spent some time with them. They got all of the drywall in and screwed down. Monday the drywall tapers will be here to do their thing. Interesting process but more on that on Monday. Insulation for the attic is scheduled for Tuesday or Wednesday. The electricians will be back on Thursday.  So, all is moving smoothly as this job gets closer to a finish. We spent the rest of the evening getting caught up on tv shows and both of us went to bed early.