Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #137 – Another Hospital Trip!

Saturday, October 27th, 2018…...  Not a good day. The plan was to wait until my sister got discharged, then go get her. She will need Lydia’s care in treating her while she’s here. Only problem was Lydia didn’t feel well this morning. She got up and made it to my chair in the living room. I knew something was wrong. I figured it was another bout of uti. I made her throw on some clothes and we went to the er. It is a 3.8-mile trip and we got there and got checked in. No lines, no waiting. They ran all of the tests and even did a cat scan. She has a urinary tract infection but also has discomfort from her diverticulitis. They admitted her a few hours later. I had made one trip home to feed the dogs and then finally left for the night to allow her to get some rest. Meanwhile, my sister has decided to stay one more day in the hospital. She was able to get up and walk on her own but still felt she needed some more time. Plus, I would be the caregiver now so she wanted one more day with the nurses there.  So, I was at home with the dogs…

                             

Sunday, October 28th, 2018…...  This morning I did my doggie duties. Walked and fed both pups and then ate breakfast and then headed off to the hospital (with clean undies) to visit with Lydia for a while. She was feeling much better and was getting ready to order lunch. The plan was for me to stay there with her and wait until sis called for me to come get her. They had one more infusion and she could leave in about an hour. So, I came home and let the dogs out and grabbed a drink and then headed up to Salem.  I timed it correctly and they were about ready to release her. They brought her down and we drove back home and got her squared away. Her friend, Janice, dropped by and they visited for a good while. Then I headed out to get dinner and after that fed the dogs then went back to see Lydia. Again, she was doing better yet. The doctor said maybe tomorrow she could go home. But they still had some labs to run and wanted another night. I got home later and everyone got settled in and we all relaxed from the busy day.    

Monday, October 29th, 2018…...  Today was a little like yesterday, but only one hospital to make runs to… Penny said she would just want toast and sausage and she could heat those up, so I took off and got breakfast and coffee for both of us. I already had walked the dogs. Quincy gets the ‘west 40’ walk/run, then I let the beast out to torment her for a while and run a bit. Then I bring Quincy in to feed her and while she eats, I take Rylee out on our street walk. Once all of that was done, I headed off to visit Lydia. The Dr. was in and again, said he wanted the test results before final release. I came home and rested for a bit then made some reservations for camping when we make our trip south next month. Later, I got the call that she needed one more shot and she could come home. I left the house early and went to a tire dealer here in town to check on tires for the motorhome and then went on and got her and now she’s home!  We ended up the day with me going to get dinner (Taco Bell) and her prescriptions from the pharmacy. We ate and then fed the dogs and then relaxed and watched DWTS before going to bed.

Saturday, In the ER.....  not good!

Sunday, resting in her room.....    a lot better!

Sunday evening, having dinner.... ready to go home!   

Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #136 – Bummin’ for Our Dodgers but We’re Through the Next Successful Surgery!

 

Wednesday, October 24th, 2018…...  Today’s projects included going to Batteries+Bulbs in Corvallis to get a new halogen light for the floor lamp in my office. I walked Rylee and then went and got breakfast/tea/coffee and then waited for Lydia to get ready. She wanted to go to Bed Bath & Beyond and that was right next door so it worked out for both of us! Yesterday. When Tim and Dana were here, I brought up the service call we both had turned in to Pioneer Doors. I called them twice and Dana called them once to come out and make an adjustment to the large garage door on the rv garage. It seems to need adjustment at the upper range of motion. I am pissed that no one has responded. They told me that last week they saw the son, Cory, at Economy Hardware and he said he wasn’t given the message from his dad, who Dana spoke to the week before that.  Cory told her he was coming the first of this week.  But as of Tuesday evening, no Cory! I am expecting at least a call from him scheduling this. I am not happy!     

We have one more day before the rains are coming. They predict about 3 weeks of off and on showers. I still need a dry day to get the last cutting on the lawn. Looks like I’ll miss that for now! We went shopping at Safeway and when we got home, I got a text from Dana that Cory had been there and to check the door that he adjusted. I did and it works fine now.  We’re not sure which time we were gone that he came, but the main thing is, it’s now fixed! Yaay! Later, I watched game 2 of the world series. The Dodgers lost another one. They move to LA for the next three so I’m hoping home field will work for them!

                             

Thursday, October 25th, 2018…...  No baseball today… I got up and walked Rylee before the rains came. It wasn’t a lot of rain today, just off and on, but it went on for most of the day. They are saying this cell is here for today and tomorrow and there may be a break by Saturday. We take my sister in for her surgery early tomorrow morning, and she will be here with us recuperating for a while so I’m not sure of our schedule. Lydia will be major caregiver and I get Quincy duty. But I hope to get some time so we can get the mower(s) out and get the lawn done between showers and everything else.  

Penny came over a couple of times today. One, to drop off some things and then the second time to bring Quincy and her stuff over. She wanted to take us to dinner tonight. So, we went back to her place so she could put her car in her garage and out of the weather. Then we took off for Sweet Home. She had heard about the Downtown Lounge, on her neighborhood website, so we went there. We had seen it many times, right on the main road through town, and thought about stopping in but never did.but never went in before. It’s really just an old downtown bar, but they served food and we hadn’t been. All three of us chose hamburgers of some sort. They were very good! Plus, the beer was cold!  This place is now on our list and we will be going back! We made the 15-minute drive back home and settled in for the night and watched tv. Penny had to do some pre-surgery procedures before going to bed so she went to do that. Later, Quincy and Rylee found their beds and we all tried to sleep. Tomorrow will come early!

Friday, October 26th, 2018…...  Everyone was up at 4:00am! I got ready and Lydia got up to let the dogs out. It was super dark out so they just went potty and then came right back in. Lydia stayed to watch the dogs and we left the house about 4:45am and got there in time for her 5:45am check-in. The plan was for me to drop her off and then come back home. The surgery was going to be 6 hours or so and then recovery time and the Dr will call me when he’s done, then she will call me once she gets up to her room and then we will go visit. I got the call at 1:19pm that everything went well and that she was in recovery now. We decided to wait a few hours so we could feed the dogs and then eat then headed up there. She looked pretty good for someone in surgery for 6 hrs.!

We stayed only a short time so she could get some food and then rest for the evening. We headed back and let the pooches out and gave them some time to run. I was able to listen to the Dodger game on the way home and watched it at the end.  I mean all the way to the end. 18 innings! But, we won!  We sure needed that game! On to tomorrow. It was a long day and Lydia we were ready for an early bedtime!

Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #135 – Getting a Few Projects Done..

Sunday, October 21st, 2018…... It was a quiet night last night. Rylee was pooped from her houseguest and crashed early and slept through the night. Lydia got up and fed Rylee and I slept a few minutes longer. She eats then comes looking for me to play with her. We do that for a few minutes then I shower and get dressed and then I take her out for our walk. I came back and Lydia had fixins out for omelets so I headed off to Starbucks to get her chai tea and my coffee. We had a nice breakfast and while I cleaned up, Lydia went off to shower. My sister was coming over later with Janice, who wanted to see our place. Penny will be staying here after her surgery and Janice wants to come visit her.  They did stop by and Penny gave her a tour. Afterward, we went back to our lazy day, watching tv and kicking back. Lydia made dinner and we watched tv until bedtime.    

                             

Monday, October 22nd, 2018…...  I had a few things on my plate today. I got up with Rylee again at 7:00am and let her out then fed her. I showered and went out to get breakfast. I went to Albany because I was looking to go to Burcham Metals to see if they had some angle iron in stock that I could use to make shelving beams for the three uprights I didn’t use from the Costco shelves I put up last year. I saw them on Craig’s List yesterday but they weren’t posted today so I just passed on that. I went to Roger’s for breakfast then went over and checked in with Habitat For Humanity to see what they had new. By the time I got home, it was time for the next project I had planned. I hooked up the cart behind the tractor and put on my lifting belt and went out to the woodpile out in the field. Walt had felled a tree way back when and since the logs were too heavy to move, he just left them there. My sister wanted some of them to use for seating and flower pots at her house but when we when to get some, they showed signs of rot, probably from termite damage. Walt added pallets and other misc. debris to the pile and I just wanted to clean it all up.  I decided that I would just try to dispose of the logs by throwing them into the woods and then bringing out the pallets to cut up and use as firewood. My sister was over the other day and we threw all of the smaller pieces over the creek so I only had about 25-30 to do. The trailer was perfect for that!

One more load!

I was able to load up 3-4 logs and then take them out close enough to dump. Some I could chuck out but some had to be rolled. It took some time and labor, but, with a few breaks, I got it all done. I stacked up the pallets and other lumber to bring back in close to the electrical plug in the back of the rv garage so I could use my circular saw and cut them down a bit. I will come out tomorrow with the truck and load those up. That was enough for today. I came in and took some Aleve and rested for the day        

Tuesday, October 23rd, 2018…...  Today was another day with a few tasks. We ate breakfast in and then I sat down and got my voting done. They don’t have voting polls here. Everything is mail-in. The ballots came in last week and we have until election day in November but I wanted to get it over with. I got that done and then got Lydia’s enveloped stamped and ready for when she votes. She ended up doing that later in the day so we had both of those ready for tomorrow’s mail. I went out and got my circular saw going and made quick work of the pallets and other misc. junk that I will probably end up just throwing in the trash when I have room. It all got piled up and that task was done.  Kirk came by and, among other things, finished up my dead leaf pickup project. So, that was done.  Later, Tim and Dana brought by a 12-ft. pressure-treated 2x8 to affix to the transition area where the cement approach meets the asphalt driveway. I told him the cement is cracking in that area, and he wanted to put a temporary fix in there for now.  He has asked a local welder, my buddy Scott, to make up a steel plate to attach there.  They will get that going and get back to me. Later, we took off to go to James Gang Pizza for dinner. They had the Dodger/Red Sox game on, so we watched that while we ate. When we got home, I watched the rest of it before changing to my taped shows. We lost tonight. I know the Red Sox are going to be tough – I don’t think it will be easy, but maybe we can pull it out. Go Dodgers!     

Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #134 – Frost, an Estate Sale, and Guests for Dinner

 

Thursday, October 18th, 2018…...  Not much on the agenda for today. I did my usual street walk with Rylee. My sister was here and had Quincy out in the field at the same time and snapped a couple of long-distance shots of us walking…

I ran a few errands but for the most part it was just hanging around the house and not doing much. We had two frosts a couple of weeks ago and it looks like it wiped out a few shrubs and one small tree. Lydia thinks it’s in the honeysuckle/jasmine family. The leaves are all black now and it looks dead. I cleaned up the first bunch of leaves and we’re watching it closely now. The grapes are also wiped out. But it’s end of season so I should be able to trim it back and it should be fine for next season. I have two battery-operated irrigation timers out in the islands and one in the blueberry cage that I will need to bring in soon. Last year I had some out there and they froze and cracked and I want to save these from that fate.

Lydia is feeling a little better. Between the shingles relapse (no rash this time – just nerve pain in that area) and her diverticulitis, she has been suffering but with the antibiotics she’s on, it’s getting better each day.  

We ate a light dinner and settled in to watch our programs and then called it a night.

                             

Friday, October 19th, 2018…... Nothing planned for today and Lydia was doing ok, so we decided to take a car ride and head up to Salem for the Home Improvement Show at the fairgrounds. We didn’t leave until about 11:15am so we fed Rylee early. It didn’t say dogs were allowed so we didn’t take her. We got up there about noon or so and parked at the entrance. We saw the entry sign but it said that they weren’t going to be open until 3:00pm today. Bummer! We had previously heard about it on the radio and they didn’t give hours. I checked the fairgrounds website but didn’t dig deep enough to check if hours were posted. Oh well, we will have to go another time. We headed back and stopped at a new Home Goods store in Salem and picked up a few things we were looking for. We decided that, on the way back home, we would go past a house in the Salem area that we had looked at back in January (2017) when we came up to check out winter in the NW. We only drove by back then but we had seen pictures of the inside layout on the web, and it looked promising. It had 4 acres and a nice red barn and was tucked away in a nice little community on Pudding Creek Rd. out in the country. Problem was we weren’t ready to seriously look at that time. But it would have been a contender had it been available when we came back in May to buy. We drove down the street and then turned around and stopped out front. The lady was leaving and stopped and walked up to our car to see what we were doing there (now that wouldn’t happen in SoCal!). We quickly assured her we weren’t stalking her, just that we had an interest in the house back when and that it really looked good since they moved in. They had painted the barn and added an rv structure to the end of it, like we would have done.  We continued on home but stopped at a bazaar in Lebanon that two ladies have every year. They make crafts and Lydia bought some of these homemade Oregon items to give as presents to her lunch ladies when we head south to California. We finally got home and rested until we left to go meet my sister at Tony’s Tacos for dinner. They were celebrating their first anniversary and combo plates were half price. Penny has befriended the owner and they were nice enough to give her and I Tony’s baseball caps. Very cool. The dinner was excellent and we went home full. Later, Penny came by and dropped Quincy off for a sleepover. She was leaving early tomorrow with her friend Janice, to go to Salem and hit a flea market and then the outlet mall. Quincy has no issues with being at our house, unless you call being constantly pestered by the monster mutt an issue! But they do eventually settle down and have figured out sleeping arrangements. Quincy uses the guest room and Rylee sleeps with us so everyone gets a good night’s sleep.       

Saturday, October 20th, 2018…...  I got up right at 7:00am with a nose in my face telling me it was time! I let both dogs out one at a time and then fed Rylee. Quincy has her walk, then eats breakfast so I followed that routine.  I follow the same example that my sister does. Quincy walks and runs around in the west forty and does her business. We finished that walk and I signaled to Lydia to ‘release the kraken!’ and Rylee runs out and harasses Quince until she will run and play with her. Once they are tired, I bring them in and feed Quincy. Then I took off to go to Linda’s estate sale. She works for a service that handles your entire estate sale. They come in, sort through and set out everything and mark it for the 3-4-day sale. They have staff (like Linda) who takes money and keeps track of everything. I got there and parked way down the street. This was a seven-acre property with barns and sheds and tons of stuff. Problem was everything was in terrible shape and all of it was overpriced. Even when they have the last day sale and mark everything at ½ price, it was still too high. I passed on everything and came home.  Then we set out to clean up the house a bit because Penny, Linda, and Chuck were coming over later for dinner. Lydia went to the store and got everything she didn’t have to make lasagna. Penny brought the salad and Linda brought an apple pie. We had a nice meal and set around and relaxed. The Dodger game was on so we kept an eye on that throughout the evening. The Dodgers scored mid game and held on to take the win. They will now go against the Red Sox in the World Series starting Tuesday. It was a nice evening!  

Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #133 – Baseball and a Dr's. Appointment

 

Tuesday, October 16th, 2018…...  We had two things planned for today. Get our hair cut and Lydia had a Dr’s appointment. Instead of Rylee’s walk, I took Quincy out by herself for her walk in the field and then let Rylee out to join her so they could run and play. After breakfast, I went out to the rv garage and pulled the pigtail cord that goes from the towbar to the Honda. I had noticed last week that it was in need of repair. I taped all of the cracked areas then wrapped it in a plastic sleeve and got it reinstalled. I also wanted to check the fridge. I keep it plugged in and checked the temps. Works fine but I had put a soda in and some water in the freezer. The water was frozen as expected but the soda was too. The temp was turned up too high so I lowered it and will check it tomorrow. When Lydia was up and dressed, we took off get our hair cut. We stopped by my sister’s house to help unload a tool box she bought at her friend’s yard sale last week. We also wanted to invite Linda and Chuck to dinner. Lydia set that up for Saturday. We headed home for lunch. Kirk came by and dropped off the tractor and did a couple hours’ work. Penny came by and got Quincy. The only thing left for the day was a Dr’s appointment for Lydia. Her diverticulitis was back. The nurse practitioner got her set up with antibiotics and she was back home pretty quickly. We had dinner and watched tv until bedtime. I stayed up late watching the playoffs. Dodgers won in 13 innings! Yaay!

Wednesday, October 17th, 2018…...  Another lazy day. Rylee got us up early but I let her out, fed her, then went back to bed for a while. No plans. I went out and got breakfast and then picked up Lydia’s prescription from the pharmacy. She’s doing ok but she’s taking it easy and not straying too far from the facilities for a while. Been watching the playoffs. Dodgers are doing ok and won again today and are ahead 3 games to 2. They play in Milwaukee on Friday. We had a nice lunch and I watched the game.  The rest of the day was spent kicking back and watching more taped tv and playing with Rylee. She is so energetic but that’s good for me. It gets me up and out more now. Neither one of us was really hungry for dinner so we decided to just eat the leftovers we had from the last two days.         

Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #132 – Coastal Trip and a House Guest

Saturday, October 13th, 2018…...  Both of us slept well last night. I didn’t want to get up, but butthead made me! I fed her and showered and walked her. Neither of us had anything on our plates today so we just hung out around the house. Lydia made a trip to pick up her prescription and stopped at Walmart for a few things but that was it. We had a relaxing day and evening. I watched a few races and then the Dodger game (2). We won! Yaay! Lydia has a ton of her Hallmark shows/movies to watch so we relaxed and then went to bed early.

Sunday, October 14th, 2018…... Nothing planned today either. So, we loaded up super pooper and took a drive. Lydia said, ‘let’s go to the coast’, so we headed south to Eugene and then took hwy126 to Florence. We found a park and let Rylee out to explore. We didn’t take her in the water because we didn’t bring any towels to dry her off. Maybe next time. But at least she got to stretch her legs and smell some coastal smells and play in the sand. We brought her food so she got her lunch and then we packed up and continued on north up hwy101. On the way up, we saw a ton of places we’d like to come back to. We made it to Newport and then stopped for ‘linner’ at a sea food drive-thru. I went in and figured out what I wanted (shrimp and chips) and then came back out to the car to stay with Rylee. Lydia went in and ordered and brought it out to the car. Once we finished eating we started back east on hwy34 and got home and fed our pooch her dinner. She immediately went to lay down and slept for the rest of the evening and then through the night. We had a few cookies for snacks and settled in and watched Dancing With the Stars Juniors and then our own recorded programs before calling it a night.      

Monday, October 15th, 2018…...  Today we slept in. Rylee was rarin’ to go! I walked her and went and got breakfast then went out to work in the shop. Lydia had bought new dishes (Mikasa from Costco) and we packed our old ones in the boxes so I had to find a place for them on the storage racks in the shop. I moved a few things around and got that done. By then Lydia was dressed and ready so we took off to Albany with our bottle/can recycling. We ran them through the machines and got $57.40. On the way home, we stopped at Walmart and picked up a few things. My sister came over this morning and brought Quincy but she came back later to talk. She has a Dr’s. appointment tomorrow in Salem and had already asked me to come over and take Quincy out tomorrow. But she thought about it and came by to ask if Quincy could stay the night here. That way she gets a good night’s sleep and I don’t have to go anywhere. Besides, Quince likes to run here. She went off to run some errands and then came back later. We fixed dinner and then took the pups outside to run a bit before coming in for the evening and settling in. Quincy still wants to get up on both our bed and the one in the bedroom, and even though Rylee can get up there, they are getting along really good now. So, when we went to bed we just left it up to them where they wanted to sleep. Rylee came in with us and Quincy stayed in the guest room and then moved over to our couch before morning. I got up about 3:30am (and went to the bathroom) then let them out one at a time to potty. All was good and everyone had a great night!    

Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #131 – Urgent Care and Lawn Mowing

 

Wednesday, October 10th, 2018…...  Rylee had a little accident last night. I had let her out before bed but she didn’t go potty/poop. Sometime last night she got down off the bed and did her business on the living room carpet. We will make sure she goes tonight! I woke up and cleaned it up and then showered and took her out for her morning walk. Then I headed out for breakfast/coffee/tea. My project today was to work on the mailbox. I went out and removed all of the stuff from the post and prepped it for paint. I had gone to the Home Depot and had them match the bronze color of the mailbox so I could paint the post to match. I got two coats on it then upgraded the mounting pad for under the new box, while is bigger. I also put two coats on that and left it all to dry overnight. Tomorrow I will re-install all of the hardware and the newspaper box and take a picture. Lydia came in and told me she was heading to Urgent Care. She thinks her shingles are back! She hasn’t broken out but there is still sharp pain. When she got back, they told her that it was nerve remnants from the shingles. If you’ve ever had them, you know this happens. They sent a prescription for cream to the pharmacy but she had enough at home to use today. Poor girl! Something is always bothering her! But she’s tough and will get through this.  Oh yeah, forgot yesterday, so here is a pic of the trailer I just bought and fixed up. It will work well for moving things around the property.

I have some tree stumps out in the back field that I can now move. I finished up for the day and called it and came in and rested and had a late lunch. Later, Lydia came in my office and told me she was tired of lying around the house and wanted to go to Ixtapa for dinner and that it was her treat! So off we went. I was still full from lunch so I ordered a small burrito plate. It was just ok. We came back home and settled in and watched our taped tv programs until bedtime.       

Thursday, October 11th, 2018…...  No problems with Rylee last night, but I couldn’t sleep so I got up to work on this blog for a bit….

This morning I got up early and got going. After walking Rylee, I went out to check the grass. It was still too wet from the morning dew to mow. The temps are in the 70s during the day and no rain is expected for the next seven days. But it still gets down into the low 40s at night. The weather meter showed 38º this morning so I knew the dew would be there. But I was able to go out and get the mailbox installed.

The lawn was still too wet. But I was able to get out the string trimmer and cut back some of the edges that the mower can’t get to. So, I was ready for later in the day. Lydia  didn’t need to be on the tractor, bouncing around and rubbing the seat back and my sister was coming over anyway to help with the mowing, so later, when the grass was dry, she and I got started. Since I have another week with clear weather, I decided to just mow the lawn and not the field. I will try to do everything next time and will cut it super low because we think we are getting close to the rainy season when we won’t be able to mow anymore.  We wrapped up everything and even got the clippings picked up and put in the trash. Thanks, sis, for your help! Lydia made dinner and we sat in my room and watched some Guys Grocery Games episodes to get caught up a bit. Then we went to our own programs until bedtime.   

Friday, October 12th, 2018…...  We didn’t have much planned today. Rylee got her walk and then I took her out with me to the shop and tied her up so I could work on my screen repair. I got it installed with no issues but I guess the frame must have bent because when I went to reinstall it, it wasn’t sliding right on the tracks. I made some adjustments but if we can’t live with it, I will switch it out for the bedroom slider, which works better. I came in to have lunch and rest a bit and watched some of my taped Mecum auction episodes and then went back out and cleaned up from the work today. Later in the afternoon, I came in and watched the Dodger game (1). They lost today. Maybe tomorrow will be better.      

Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #130 – Saying Goodbye to our Visitors and Trailer Shopping

Sunday, October 7th, 2018…...  I sure slept well last night! Not only did the fireball help, but super mutt decided to sleep on the guest bed with my sister, so we had plenty of room! Rylee did come in about 5:00am and I got up to let her out and then she came back to our bed until I got up to feed her. Penny got up, made coffee, then took Quincy out for her walk. I showered and got dressed and then took Rylee out for her walk. The girls in the motorhome eventually made their way into the house and got cleaned up a bit. The plan today was to leave around 9:00am and head to Shirley May’s for breakfast. We got everyone loaded up and headed there, only to find out it was closed! So, we drove out to Sweet Home and went to Skyline to eat. We wanted to show them Shirley May’s, but oh well, it still turned out ok. The meal was really good. We drove up to Foster Lake and worked our way back home from there. The girls went back to Penny’s to shower. They came back and got Lydia and went to Walmart and then out to Grandpa’s Farms to get a couple of pumpkins. Lydia made a noodle casserole for dinner and a lemon cake for dessert and we all had another nice meal. Cherrelyn and Penny went home for the night. Maryanne stayed with us in the guest room.  

Monday, October 8th, 2018…... Today was a really early day for us. Ok, only for me! Maryanne had a plane flight home leaving Eugene Airport at 7:00am, so we had to leave at 5:30am, and I was the one taking her. So, I set my alarm for 4:30am so I could shower and put the coffee on. We both got up and everything went smoothly. Lydia was awake enough to get up and come say goodbye. My plan was to drop her off and then go do some errands around the Eugene area. It was hard to Maryanne go, given that she was only here for four days. But she has a life back home and needed to get back to work. After our hugs, I first headed off to Jerry’s hardware to look at a few things. I was getting hungry so I next headed off to The Kozy for breakfast. The sign said they were open but the lights were only on deep in the restaurant and the doors were locked. I didn’t want to wait so I headed back north and stopped at the Pioneer Inn, just off the I-5 and highway 228. Tim and Dana said they had really good breakfast. They were right, it was tasty, just a little too pricey to make it a regular stop. I was so close to home, I just kept on going. The other Eugene stops would have to wait for another time. I got home and rested for a while before going out and cleaning up the workshop a bit. While I was in the house, I found a listing on Craig'sList that had a trailer for sale that fits on the back of my garden tractor. So, after cleaning up the shop, it was after 10:00am so I called. He still had it and was located in Sherwood, just south of Beaverton, and I arranged to go see it. Lydia went with me. We got up there and still had time to go to Baja Sonora for lunch. After that, I drove to his address and looked it over. It needed air in both tires but was worth the $25.00 he wanted for it. We loaded it up and headed back. After unloading it and checking it out, it was time to head to Bigfoot Steakhouse and meet my sister and Cherrelyn for dinner. She leaves tomorrow so it was our last night with her. Penny treated. Thanks sis! Afterward, we came back home and kicked back and watched Dancing With the Stars and then called it a night.       

Tuesday, October 9th, 2018…... Today, Cherrelyn was heading back to Kingman. They came by to get Lydia to go with them to the shuttle stop. Cherrelyn’s flight was round trip to and from Portland and the shuttle is the way to go to get there. Afterward, Penny had a pre-op appointment in Salem and Lydia went with her for that. After saying my goodbyes, I walked Rylee and then headed out to look for tubes for the trailer tires. I hit Harbor Freight and then Wheeler Dealers with no luck. I came back and got the tires and drove back to town to Les Schwab Tires and had them put on there. That done, I came home and got them re-mounted and the cotter pins back in. I rolled the trailer out and gave it a good cleaning. It was missing the wooden rear gate, so I made a new one and got it painted to match and left it out to dry. I was done for the day. Sis and Lydia got back and I loaded Penny’s rocks into her car for her and came in and rested. Lydia had a late lunch but I skipped mine so I was hungry. Lydia fixed a quick Birdseye packaged pasta and chicken meal and that was it for us. We settled in and watched tv until bedtime.      

Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #129 – RV Work Wraps Up and Partying at Home!

 

Thursday, October 4th, 2018…...  Today, Maryanne was due in. She was flying in to Eugene this evening (6:30pm). The plan was for all of us to go get her and then stop at Coburg Pizza for dinner on the way home. I was still waiting for delivery and was skeptical that I would be able to get everything done and get back in time. Even though Chuck had the fridge removed and the cooling unit out and everything was ready,

we still had to get the new one. The part was being trucked in overnight from Spokane and wasn’t due in until later this morning. So, I took off again and headed to find some Kmart stores. If you don’t know, they have been systematically shutting them down all across the states, but I went anyway. The first one was closed but I found another one close by that had signs up announcing their Thanksgiving timeframe closure. I have rewards points and had $13.00 I was going to lose next week. So, I found a dress shirt, some t-shirts, and a nice water-resistant winter jacket ($60.) all of which were 40% off. With my discount, I spent just over $30.00 for everything!  We need to check to see if/when our Corvallis store is closing. I got back and found that the unit was delivered and he already had it installed and was just now making all the connections.

Later, he started it up and ran it on gas to burn the ‘new’ off it. It was working and immediately we could see that it was starting to cool as it should. I had a talk with both Ed and Chuck and we decided it might be best that I stay one more night. That way we could get the true readings and see if we had it fixed or not. I knew it was going to be ok but decided to stay anyway. That way, 1) I wouldn’t have to maneuver through the tight streets at night, and 2) I could get out before most of the morning commute got going. So, I headed out and went and found a pizza joint and brought dinner home to eat. I had a few shows taped to watch before settling in for the night.

Meanwhile, Lydia and Sis were planning on heading down to pick up Maryanne. They had a nice meal and headed back to drop Lydia off and then go home to rest and settle in for the night.  

Friday, October 5th, 2018…...  I woke up early. There is rain in the forecast and even though it wasn’t due in the Portland area until 10:00am or so, it was supposed to be a lot colder beforehand. Well, it was!  I ended up plugging in the electric heating pad on the bed but it was still cold when you had to get out of that bed! But, as I said, I woke up early and got going. I had the rig road ready and I even moved it out to the street and hooked it up before they opened. I settled my bill. It was $2100.00, which was $2000. for the cooling unit and $100. for an air conditioner shroud that I needed to replace (and they had in stock).  Pretty much what I expected to pay and I was relieved they didn’t kill me on labor and the cost of getting the expedited and higher priced unit! I got out of there about 8:15am and made my way through the narrow streets with no issues (and no rain) and headed downtown on I-84 and then on to the I-5 and made it home (it did rain all the way) at 10:05am. and got the car unhooked (thankfully the rain stopped) and the rig stowed away in the garage and then went in to see Rylee and then take a shower. I was done for the day! Lydia was gone when I got home. She had left to go to Penny’s and they visited and toured and shopped. They came home and then left again for Corvallis. They got Lydia back in time for her to make her long-scheduled nephrologist appointment (still doing well) and then she stopped by to get me to go to Penny’s for dinner. She had crock-potted pork chops and made mashed potatoes and green beans and we had a tasty meal. 

We left after a bit and came home and rested and watched tv until bedtime.               

Saturday, October 6th, 2018…... The girls had plans today. They wanted to go to Chuck and Linda’s yard sale to see if Penny’s help was needed (no). They ended up scouring the property for interesting rocks. Yes, rocks! Cherrelyn, Maryanne and Penny all brought bags of them here. They took them out and washed and scrubbed them. Penny’s will stay up here but we got the task of transporting the rest down with us in the rv when we head south later in the year. I gave them grief but we have plenty of room in the cargo bay so no worries. The rest of the plan was for them to head back home, clean up and get laundry and clothes out, and then stop and get dinner and bring it back here. We will eat and then sit around and spend some time with our friend Fireball and enjoy the evening!  Cherrelyn and Maryanne will stay here tonight. Their plan is to sleep in the motorhome. So, I prepped it and got the space heater out if/when they need it. They talked Penny into staying too. She will sleep in our guest room. Will report more later….

Ok, the Fireball was a hit! We (everyone except Lydia) enjoyed our spirits and we had a great time, laughing and talking until it got too late to stay up. Penny went to bed. The girls headed out to crash in the rig and Lydia and I called it a night.      

Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #128 – Getting Motorhome Ready and Getting RV Work Done

 

Monday, October 1st, 2018…...  Kind of a slow day for both of us. We didn’t have too much planned. I took off to go to Albany to check on some leashes from Dollar General. Turns out there are no Dollar General stores in Albany but I did stop at Wheeler Dealer and bought a couple of new dog collars for the monster mutt. Then I headed off to Sweet Home to the Dollar General there. We had found and bought a couple of large-dog leashes at DG to use as spares and to have in the cars just in case. These are the retractable type and have ribbon type material rather than a cord. They were only $7.00 and we bought them out (2) before so I wanted to check other stores. The Sweet Home store had one and I bought it, so we are good for now. The rest of the day we straightened up the house and vacuumed and then called it a day.

Tuesday, October 2nd, 2018…...  After walking Rylee, I took a trip out to get breakfast/coffee/tea and then went out to prep the motorhome for my trip tomorrow. Cherrelyn, our ‘adopted daughter’ has finally made plans to come up to visit all of us and she arrived today. She shuttled down from Portland and Penny went to pick her up. They went to Penny’s to get settled in and then came over for dinner. We gave her the tour and ate a nice meal. After a nice visit they headed off and I finished getting the motorhome out and the tow car hooked up. I plan on leaving early, early tomorrow morning.

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2018…...  I got up at 4:00am and got myself ready and took off about 5:00am and headed north. My appointment today was at Laurelhurst Distributors to have the motorhome refrigerator tested to confirm that I needed a new one or not. The drive was ok and I got there about 7:20am (they opened at 8:00am) and got parked and unhooked the Honda. They immediately moved it in and went to work on it. They reset the fault codes and got it running. And it didn’t trip to the fault code. Yaay! Next up was to test the actual cooling ability so they hooked up thermostats to track the temps. I had to wait that out so I took off and went to McDonald's to eat breakfast and have some coffee. I drove around a bit and checked out the area. This is the Mt. Tabor district of Portland. It is actually a fairly high hilly area, just east of the city. Laurelhurst Dist. was established in the mid 80s and they made the wrong choice for an rv shop. The streets are tiny and Burnside St. is also a narrow street but it runs 20 miles or more east/west so it’s always busy. Ed, the owner said he didn’t plan on working on rvs, they just were a distribution center, but evolved into more service than they wanted. It was tight getting in and I needed to find an exit route to get back to the I-84 when I left to go home. More on the tightness of these streets later…. I went back and checked on the status. Still working and it needs more time. So, I took off again. This time I headed north and crossed the Columbia River and into Washington. I drove around a bit and then worked my way back. When I got back, there was another motorhome next to me with huge damage to the right side. Turns out he was coming in for something else and got hit by a car on the tight streets. Probably three grand in repairs!  I went and checked in with Chuck, the service tech, who gave me the news. It wasn’t cooling at all! The cooling unit would need to be replaced. He also said they didn’t have one. I was stunned!  I said Ed made it clear he would get me taken care of in short time. When we spoke on the phone weeks ago, he asked me to stay the night because it had to run for 24 hours plus he didn’t have security for the coaches on the lot. He wanted me in and out asap.  I only planned on being there one night. So, they agreed to go through another distributor (and pay their higher price) to get the unit delivered tomorrow. Either way, I had to stay tonight. I got everything set up 

and then took off for dinner (Wendy’s) and then drove around some more and then came back and settled in for the night. I was able to get my Directv dish up and going so I watched tv until bedtime.          

Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #127 – Beer and Baseball!

 

Saturday, September 29th, 2018…...  Today was Brewfest! We already had tickets and we decided to go around 1:30pm before it got crowded. As I mentioned before, we couldn’t get the vip tickets (sold out) so we got the general admission, which were $20.00 ea and got you three tokens each plus a 4 oz tasting glass. We each bought three more tokens for $5.00 ea and went in. Turns out that was the better deal! The vip tickets were $45.00 ea this year and got you 6 tokens plus a free t-shirt and vip seating for the music and the food. We didn’t use the seating last year. The only thing missing was the white screen-printed t-shirt. I had paid for the extra tasting tokens so sis decided to buy me a t-shirt. Mine was grey this time and nice. Thanks, sis!  We used out tokens wisely and made sure we got the types of beer each of us were interested in. I found three places that didn’t even ask for my token. I found that if you can get them talking they sometimes forget to ask!  It worked three times so I was way ahead of the game today! Midday, we stopped by the food trucks and ate. My sister went to Stick a Pork in It and got us a specialty dish I wanted to try. It was a deep-fried mashed potato ball with ground beef or pork in the middle. It was excellent! She also got us a corn on the cob which we always enjoy. Meanwhile, Lydia went to the Vietnamese truck that is owned by Danny, the husband of Jenny, who owns/runs the nail shop we both go to (Danny works there too). We tried his noodle plate with teriyaki chicken. It was the best thing I have eaten in a long time! His homemade soy sauce was made with little salt and his teriyaki sauce was homemade and tasty as well. We ate, and then made the second run of the booths, and used up our remaining tokens, one way or another - re-trying some we liked and finding others. Either way it was perfect! We did get a few sprinkles once during the day but not enough to stop anyone plus it made for a nice cooler day. Lots of fun! The only thing we missed out on was taking Rylee! We didn't remember any pets there last year but they are allowed. Oh well, next time!

About 4:00pm we made our way out. We had picked up Penny beforehand so Lydia drove and dropped her off and then we came home and kicked back the rest of the day. I know I zonked out because I was wide awake at 11:00pm and ended up staying up and watched tv until after midnight!          

Sunday, September 30th, 2018…...  Today we had nothing planned. We both slept in and thankfully Rylee didn’t press the issue too much. Lydia was the first one up and let me have a few more extra minutes of sleep. But we had nothing planned today anyway. She got her naps in during the day and I spent it watching Nascar races and cycling races. I also watched the last games of the regular baseball season. The Dodgers were in a position to either win or tie for the division or at least clinch a wildcard berth. Turns out they won and ended up tied for the division and will play the Rockies tomorrow for that. We ended the day not doing much but still ended up going to bed at our normal (10:00pm) time tonight!