Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #120 – Taking Down Christmas & More Trip Planning

 

Thursday, Dec 26^th, 2019…… It turned out to be a busy day for me. I started out with getting Rylee walked and tea going for Lydia.  Then I headed over to my sisters and we left to head to Albany. We stopped at Rogers and had breakfast before hitting Lowes, Home Depot and Walmart looking for on sale Christmas items. I found three more Carole Towne houses for my collection. They were marked down 75% so I went nuts!  Couldn’t pass that up and that was the reason for my trip today!  Home Depot was a bust but we found other items we couldn’t pass up at Walmart. I also got my 2020 OR fishing license while there. Once we were done and back, I stayed at Penny’s house and we put up the last string of outdoor patio lights and wrapped up that project. Once I got home, I fixed Lydia a turkey sandwich and then started bringing in boxes for the Christmas stuff. I started on that and Sis came by to help. We got everything off the tree and all of the Christmas Village stuff boxed back up. I still have the tree to take down and box up plus outside lights to get down and put away. I also have the stars in the windows to store away plus all of the boxes to get back on the shelves in the shop garage. Lydia heard back today from the folks doing the ultrasound biopsy. They set it up for Jan. 20^th, the day after we return from Calif. That made the Jan. 2^nd ortho appointment unnecessary. That one got rescheduled later in the month. So, we are still on track to make the SoCal trip! Yaay! I worked on laundry for the rest of the afternoon and threw pot pies in the oven for an easy dinner. Lydia made herself a salad. We watched tv until bedtime.           

         

Friday, Dec 27^th, 2019…… Tough night for Lydia last night. She was up several times and ended up taking a hydrocodone to lessen the pain so she could sleep. She’s been really trying hard not to overmedicate. For the most part, her days are only Tylenol. She only uses the hydro or oxy at night when and if she needs it.

The weather here has been pretty good for the past week or so. No rain until last night. And it was out of the area when I got up this morning. It’s still chilly though. I know it’s winter down south too but I sure hope we get some warm sunny days while we are there! After breakfast, I started in on the rest of the laundry and while that was going, I worked on the Christmas decorations. I got the tree down and boxed and put out on the back porch. The other boxes followed that.  Then I went out to the front porch and started out there. My sister came over and together we got everything down and boxed and out to the garage and up on the shelves. I take pictures of the racks before I take the boxes down so I can make sure everything goes back easily. It worked well. We moved out the tractors and while they were outside, I hosed all of the grass and debris off of them before we put them back. Shoulda done that sooner!  Then, we came in and rested. I forgot to mention the new ladder display I had built for the Christmas village. That is still in place in the house. I will break it down tomorrow and it will be stored, probably up in the loft area in the front entryway.  Sis brought Q over and left her so she could go run errands. I settled in and watched more bowl games today. Later, I heated up ham, sweet potatoes (Lydia), scalloped potatoes (me), and green beans and we had a nice meal. We settled in and watched our shows (and football) until calling it a night.  

Saturday, Dec 28^th, 2019…… Cold again today. I was out and had Rylee walked early. I headed off to get coffee/tea/breakfast. Sis came by so she could help me with the ladder display. I took it all apart and she handed it to me and I put it up in the entryway loft area, where it is out of sight. Lydia had planned on going out to the rv and taking inventory of things before making a list for the trip. But, she felt nauseous while in the shower so I had her stay in the house and rest for the day. I vacuumed where the tree and ladder display were and I was done for the day. I spent some time reviewing the trip plan for next week. We leave next Friday. I needed to make one more reservation for the LA/Orange County area on the return part of the trip. We settled on Long Beach, primarily for the location to the kids. I have a reservation (made online) in their system at Golden Shores RV but still need to call on Monday and finish it with them in person. I watched the two semi-final bowl games plus a few others before turning over to my taped shows. Lydia spent most of the day watching a few of her programs she had taped in our bedroom. That is the receiver we will be taking with us for the bedroom tv in the rig. There is already one in the rig for the front area. We choose not to have the Directv genie system. While it allows viewing on any receiver in the house, you cannot remove it from the room. We both tape most of our shows on either her living room receiver, or my office receiver. But Lydia can tape shows on any of our four other receivers in the house/shop. On this trip, she wants to take our bedroom unit because she has shows on that one to catch up on while we are out. Since I was watching tv most of the afternoon, I forgot to get something out for dinner. So, I went out and got her a taco salad from Taco Bell and I went over to Stick a Pork in It to get a couple of their stuffed potato balls. Unfortunately, he didn’t make any for today’s menu so I ended up across the street at Jack in the Box and got a burger. I tried their egg rolls for the first time and found them to be very tasty! We settled in and watched tv until calling it a night.          

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #119 –  Getting the Scooter Ordered and Then Enjoying A MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Monday, Dec 23^rd, 2019…… This morning, after walking Rylee, I had one chore to do – go check on the progress of Lydia’s knee scooter!  I drove over to the medical supply company and asked them where we were on it. She looked it up and confirmed what I thought – it was not approved by our insurance. She would submit it again but she said I could pay up front and then get reimbursed later – maybe! I asked her how much it would cost and she said $120.00. I was going to spend that on one online so I said ok. BUT – when she looked it up she found that the entire request that had gone through the system and been denied – was for a WALKER! Duuuhh!  No wonder it was denied. She called the warehouse and they could have a knee scooter delivered by 11:00am but the same thing applied – she would turn it in again and we could hope it would be approved – but, if I wanted it now, I would have to pay the price upfront. This time it was almost $300.00. I pretty much stormed out of there before saying something I shouldn’t. I did tell her to be sure not to send us anything for a customer review! I went home and we ordered one from Walmart.com which was $120.00 and with an extra sheepskin pad, and will be delivered before year-end. We also got refills from her doctor for pain meds which we would need in hand for the upcoming trip.

We decided to get out the lasagna from the freezer and get it eaten before we left. It was just ok. Neither of us was very hungry so we ate lightly on it. We finished up the evening watching our programs before calling it a night.    

         

Tuesday, Dec 24^th, 2019…… Today’s agenda was set for us. My sister was coming over for Christmas eve and will spend the night. She made a couple of trips with gifts and food. We are having salad, turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, deviled eggs, and rolls tonight. I got the eggs boiled and cut and the filling in and refrigerated. Sis and I cut up the green beans and got them going. She put the small white meat turkey in the crockpot and we waited for all of that to cook. We had to move the turkey to the toaster oven to finish browning. But it was worth the wait! Yummy!

Tomorrow we will have ham and sweet potatoes with the leftover beans, eggs, and rolls. We have two different pies for dessert. 

Wednesday, Dec 25^th, 2019…… MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!  We slept in a bit longer this morning. I got Rylee out and walked but she was really wanting to go play and run with the Q dog. She found her runway and I had to wipe her down. When we all got back in the house, we settled in and opened our gifts.  

I made mine and Lydia’s breakfast (we ate light) and my sister went home to visit with her neighbors a bit. She ate a quick breakfast and took a shower while there. When she got back, we facetimed with both Jeff and Krista and the grandkids and also with Randy and Maryanne. Sis did the same with Tim and Tamara. They all had a nice Christmas. Later, Sis and I got everything ready for dinner. Lydia came in once or twice and checked the progress and added her own touches where needed. It was a really good meal and we were stuffed! After that, we settled in and rested for the afternoon. Into the evening, my sister left to go home with Q and get into her jammies and rest.  later, into the evening, we snacked a bit and then watched tv and then called it a night.

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #118 – Rains, Reservations, and Running Errands

 

Friday, Dec 20^th, 2019…… No appointments or anything else scheduled today. The winds hit us hard yesterday evening. I have the Christmas ornament and tree boxes out on our table on the back porch and they were blown off to the deck. The rain was constant but pretty light most of the night. But guess what? – it has now given monster puppy her drag strip again! There is one area out there, just past the grassy yard, in the back field that collects water and with this last series of rains, she now has enough to attract her to it. I went out with her this afternoon and she romped in it until she collapsed in total fatigue. I hosed her down and dried her off and she was good to go. The good part is that the temps are back up. Today it was in the 60s most of the day. Very unusual for us this time of year – but no complaints.

Lydia is doing better. I went out and picked up the prescription for the lidocaine cream. She’s used it before, and although this used to help a little to ease the neuropathy in both feet in the past, it really doesn’t help too much with the level of pain she has now in her right foot. She’s getting used to being off her feet now but still wants to be up and around, so that’s good. I worked on the rv trip coming up. We are planning to take three days to get to Indio. The first day we need to get up and over the Siskiyou Pass (in southern Oregon). It’s only 4300’ but it can be tough if it snows.  So, I plan to drive over and down to Redding. If the weather cooperates, we should be ok.  I still need to make reservations but at least I have the mileage and cities worked out. I fixed us spinach ravioli with pasta sauce for dinner, along with garlic bread. We watched our own shows until calling it a night.       

         

Saturday, Dec 21^st, 2019…… A lazy day. The rains – actually just sprinkles - are back today. I went out this morning with Rylee and had to put on my rain jacket. No biggie – I was good. Just had to wipe the monster puppy down. It was a good chance to throw all of her doggie towels into the wash. I then headed out and got breakfast. I stopped by Walgreens and picked up the second part of Lydia’s prescription that had come in last night. I asked Lydia if she needed anything and she asked if I could vacuum again today. I took care of that and then rested for the day. There is a lot of football going on today and tomorrow so I’m good. We still have to watch the All in the Family/Good Times live show that we have taped but that is something we can do any time. In between games, I paid some bills and got caught up on my spreadsheet. Then I sat down and made all of my rv park reservations for our Jan. trip down south. Then it was back to the football games for the remainder of the day.

I asked Lydia about dinner and she was hungry for Chinese food so I went to Wing Ming     and picked up our dinner. She got chicken chop suey and I got some eggrolls.  She liked her meal but I was disappointed and we tossed the rest of the eggrolls. We ended the evening watching tv until bedtime.       

Sunday, Dec 22^nd, 2019…… Sundays are usually quiet for us. Today was no exception. I never moved a vehicle. We stayed in most of the day. The weather is rainy but its only a drizzle. The standing water has had time to recede into the lawn, but it’s still really mushy. Rylee doesn’t care though. I worked a bit on installing Kaspersky on Lydia’s new laptop. It was more of a transfer really from the old one. I was surprised I could do that! Of course, I watched football most of the day. We had eaten a late lunch so we had a light dinner. I fixed us tuna sandwiches. We watched tv and relaxed until bedtime.   

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #117 – Annoying Lydia’s Doctor & Running Errands

Tuesday, Dec 17^th, 2019…… Weather is turning colder! It was 31º when I took Rylee out at 8:00am for our walk! I fixed scrambled eggs for breakfast and we hung around the house most of the day. I did go grocery shopping again. I had to go get Kirk a gift card at Walmart so I picked up a few things. More fresh veggies and some lemon juice. They had slippers that I liked so I got those for Lydia because she has been wearing hers out. Still no resolution for the scooter order. The ortho physician’s office says they never received anything from the pharmacy, so they asked for their number to get this resolved. Kirk came by today and worked on weed control. I let butthead out for a bit then brought her in while he sprayed. He also weed whacked around the shop so I don’t have to worry about that til spring.  I gave him his Christmas card and gift card since he will be out of town next week. Even though we had no rain, it was cloudy and overcast with temps in the low 40s.

It was an ok day for Lydia. She still is having a lot of pain in her foot but being off it for the past few days has helped a lot. Tomorrow we go to her Nephrologist scheduled appointment. It’s literally just down the street from the senior center so if she feels good enough to go to bingo beforehand, we can just go from there. We’ll see. Tonight’s dinner was fish sandwiches and after that we caught up on some of our taped shows.   

         

Wednesday, Dec 18^th, 2019……  We both slept well last night. Lydia does tend to wake up a few times because she has been sitting in her chair off her foot for the biggest part of the day. She only takes the prescribed drugs either early on before bed or in the middle of the night when she feels pain in the foot. They help her go back to sleep and in the morning, she was resting comfortably (aka snoring loudly!). I was up and going before the sun rose. I was showered and dressed and I had Rylee walked and fed before 7:15am. We have lots of rain forecast for the latter part of the week. But it was for the most part, dry today - until the evening. Lydia spent most of the day resting and taking phone calls from friends. She said she was doing ok and was wanting to go to bingo so we headed out about 12:30pm and got set up in the room. I brought her over an extra chair and used a stadium cushion we keep in the car to help support her foot. We played the entire time and she said she was fine. We had to take off right after though to make it to her doctor’s appointment. This was actually the first time I have ever met Dr. Leonard. I think it will be my last! I liked her and all but I think I was a little overbearing and overwhelmed her with concern about how long each evaluation has taken in the progress to get a diagnosis on her foot. Dr. Leonard is a kidney specialist and cannot speculate about what is going on in there, although I did get her to say she does not think its neuropathy because it’s only in one foot. She is certainly a talented lady and very concerned about her patients. She and Lydia communicate well and she certainly does not need me to get in the way with my badgering questions.

Once we got out of there, we detoured by KFC to pick up dinner. While I was waiting for my order, the Lebanon police came in, answering a complaint call from one of the store managers. It seems that a transient family in an old beat up rv was parked just outside their lot and as the manager drove in to work, he caught a whiff of something terrible smelling, and saw the guy dumping his raw sewage from his tank right on the ground!  We didn’t stay to see what happened but they had everyone out of the rv for questioning. I’m guessing they will be, at a minimum, cited for pollution, with a hefty fine and with a notice to appear. (Note - they were not in the space the next morning so I expect they hightailed it out of the area!)

After dinner, we settled in to watch Survivor and The Masked Singer. Turns out I had Wayne Brady but I thought he was The Rottweiler. The other two were folks I didn’t know so, we were 0 for the final three. This year, out of 16, we only got 6 right.  We watched part of the Survivor Reunion Show but quit and called it a night because it was getting late.            

Thursday, Dec 19^th, 2019…… Rains have come. There are several large storms coming in over the next several days. There are flood warnings posted for the Portland area. Our forecast calls for lighter rains down here. But even though the weather wasn’t cooperating, I still had some errands I wanted to run today. Lydia was doing well and after I made us bacon and eggs for breakfast, and cleaned the kitchen, I took off. I went in to Corvallis to Bed Bath and Beyond to pick up a cutting board she wanted for the rv. Then I made the circle back via Albany where I stopped in at the jewelry dept. at Fred Meyer to check on a watch I had in for a new watchband (still in work). Then I went by Petco to pick up some treats and toys for Rylee and Quincy for Christmas. After that, I headed over to Costco and got some supplements and more Tylenol.  Last stop was back in Lebanon where I went in to Walgreens for another prescription pickup. When I got home and unloaded everything, Lydia said she wanted to go to Safeway for some light shopping before her haircut appointment. We got her a scooter and made it through the store quickly and got everything on her list and then headed over to my sister’s (who lives just a minute or so from the store) so Lydia could see her ‘Charlie Brown’ Christmas tree all lit up. We visited a few minutes then took off to Rumors where Lydia met up with Teri, who cut her hair. We were the last call for today so she went ahead and cut mine too (which doesn’t take too long!).  It was only around 3:30pm when we left there but even though it was still early, we remembered that I hadn’t gotten anything out for dinner for tonight so we stopped at Jack in the Box and got burgers to bring home. We watched the rest of the Survivor Reunion show from last night and the finale of the The Great Food Truck Race. Then I moved off to my room to work on the blog and then watch my programs until bedtime.   

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #116 – Chores Around the House and Dealing With Doctors

Saturday, Dec 14^th, 2019……  No rain this morning, and it was actually pleasant when I took Rylee out for our walk.  Except she found a pile of poop left by our neighbor’s dog. She wanted to gnaw on it but I quickly dragged her away and picked it up. I got her back home and fed and then got Lydia her breakfast and tea. She had a pretty good night and we had nothing on the agenda today so she could relax and stay in her pajamas and take it easy. I went out this morning and disinfected the rv fridge. It had sat for a few weeks when it was in the shop and was shut off and closed up so it had little fuzzys in there that needed to be cleaned up! That didn’t take too long and that was it for my tasks for today. I hung around the house and watched tv and played with butthead a bit outside. The grass is wet again from the rains so we try not to slosh out in it. I take her out to the field where she can run and smell and try to find the field mice. I had ordered a seat for Lydia to use in the shower and it came today so I got that assembled and it’s ready for her tomorrow.  I asked Lydia what she might want for dinner and she said pork chops so I got those out to defrost. Later, I cooked them and also made up some mushroom gravy and mashed potatoes and corn and we had a nice filling meal.  We each watched our taped programs before calling it a night.    

                                                                                                

Sunday, Dec 15^th, 2019……  No rain this morning and none predicted until Wednesday. Yaay!  I got Rylee out and walked and came back in and read the paper. Lydia was already up and in her chair, so I made her some tea. This morning I decided to try breakfast again. I had picked up fresh eggs, mushrooms, spinach and a zucchini when I went shopping so I decided to use them for another omelet. I used the copper chef skillet and this time it turned out way better than the last one! I used the bigger skillet and made mine scrambled eggs with all of the above fixins. Yummy!  After breakfast, I got out her big box of meds so she could make up her daily doses for her two-week supply box. Then she got into the shower. The shower chair worked well for her but after she got out, she bumped her heel and it shot pain into her foot. It took a lot out of her mood until she got her feet elevated again and some Tylenol in her.  We settled in to watch tv today. Football for me and Christmas movies for Lydia. The pain meds have been working to somewhat relieve her pain, but they also leave her drowsy and they upset her stomach a little.  Sleep and rest are both good but I just wish she felt better so she could get into the Christmas spirit. With all of this going on, she feels helpless and I know she’s bored most of the time from just laying around. When we get the knee scooter, she might be able to do more and keep her mind busy. We were both full from breakfast so we had some apples and grapes and cheese and cashews for lunch. I made an early dinner. It was just chicken pot pies but it was easy and filling. We finished up the night catching up on taped programs.     

Monday, Dec 16^th, 2019……  Nothing on the agenda today. We still have a few things to get for Christmas so we discussed how to make that happen. Plus, we need to each get ourselves something from Randy and Maryanne (while they are buying something they want from us) for the facetime video on Christmas. We’ve already completed the gift exchange we have going with Jeff and Krista and the grandkids in Florida. With the kids involved, it’s better for us to buy and send gifts. We have received each other’s packages and they are under the tree already. As I said, no rain in the forecast. Lydia only wanted tea and cereal so I took care of that and then I headed out and got my breakfast and coffee. I called the medical supply company to check on the scooter. They told me they had sent another document to Dr. Tedesco, required to be completed in more detail and signed in order for insurance approval. Lydia called Dr. Tedesco’s office as well. She wanted to let them know they had a fax to respond to plus she has not heard back about the second fluid draw that is being done by a third party. They were supposed to call us direct to set up an appointment but we have not heard yet, thus the inquiry. Later, I headed over to my sister’s house to install party lights around her back fence. We got that done pretty quickly and I headed back home for the rest of the day. Oh yeah, I saw her Charlie Brown Tree that she cut down from the forest!  Here’s a pic she took…

I relaxed for the afternoon. I got a call for a survey about the recent service work order from Peterson Trucking. I was not shy about telling them how I felt.  They had over $1100. listed on the invoice as “diagnostic” and I thought that was an error. When I went to pick it up, they said they adjusted it but they added on additional charges for labor to re-install the correct valves after they put on the incorrect ones. That was not right and I told them so!  I don’t expect them to do anything but at least it felt good to let them know how I felt!

Later, I started dinner. Tonight was soft shell tacos. They were pretty easy to make and we had a nice dinner. I watched Monday Night football and my other shows until bedtime. Lydia napped much of the day so she stayed up a while longer and watched tv and came to bed later.  

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #115 – More Lab Work and the Motorhome is Done!

 

Wednesday, Dec 11^th, 2019……  Lydia had to go do labs this morning. I did not hear back about the motorhome so I called them again. The air valve that they had been waiting on was the wrong one and they had said they had the new one and would be installing it yesterday. But apparently that didn’t happen because when he called me back this morning it wasn’t in. So, I cancelled my tire install and will just have to wait. Now I was able to drive Lydia to do the labs. I parked out front and picked up a wheelchair from the lobby and helped her in and we got through the rooms and got the blood drawn and I got her back in the car. We stopped by the medical equipment place here in town to turn in the prescription order for the knee scooter but the place was closed today for employee training of some kind. No worries, she’s not walking on the foot any more than she has to – only to get in and out of the car and to the bathroom. We stopped by Tony’s Tacos and I got her breakfast and got her back to her chair to relax from the outing. She was in a lot of pain and had to fast for the blood draw but now she could take some Tylenol and rest and get some sleep. My sister was here to drive me to the truck repair place and Lydia to the labs but she wasn’t needed so she went back home to eat and shower.  She came over later to get Quincy and since Lydia was under her blanket and pretty comfortable and said she would be fine, and since we weren’t going to get the rv, we decided to go to the senior center to play bingo.  So, we took off. When we got back, Lydia said she had a nice nap but it was close to dinner and she was getting hungry so I headed off to Walmart to pick up stuff for spaghetti and got back and cooked that. Her nephrologist called while we were eating and said she was concerned about her creatinine level being too high. So, she will have to go get another blood draw on Friday to compare and double check her numbers. So, another trip out and more punctures coming!

She also said she saw in her files the prescription for the analgesic cream that the ortho surgeon had sent in today (it showed up in the e-chart). She doesn’t want her using that.

We ate dinner and then later watched The Masked Singer. We guessed the Leopard (Seal) and knew that the Thingamajig (Victor Oladipo) was an NBA player but I don’t follow the NBA so much, so I didn’t know who he was.       

                                                                                                

Thursday, Dec 12^th, 2019…… Today was another day to wake up early and not be able to go back to sleep. I went back in to my office and got my blanket and turned on the tv for a few hours. When I did get up, I showered and walked and fed Rylee and made Lydia some tea and cereal while I waited for the motorhome guys to call. They did about 7:15am so I called my sister to give me a ride there. I called the tire people and they were good for me to come in after that. After she dropped me off, I asked Penny to drop off the prescription for the medical knee scooter on her way home. Picking up the coach was a little tough because it started raining and got worse as I got going. Plus, I had to stop at a station and put some fuel in it before heading down to Coburg. The ride down was in pretty decent rain but when I got there, it had let up. I was able to nose right in to their work bay and they immediately got started. I had them pull out two of the newest batch of tires. I didn’t want tires that have been on the shelf for a year. These were only a few weeks old. They got them done in less than an hour and I was back in the rv garage before 1:00pm. Lydia was doing fine and had made herself a sandwich and was resting in her chair when I got home. My sister came by to get more lights for her tree and checked on Lydia. She and her made plans to go to get take-out dinner tonight from Pizza Schmizza. We all wanted wings and salad so later, she called in the order and picked them up and came over. I called her our Meals on Wheels! 😊.   We had a nice meal and (except for the dent in my wallet for the motorhome) it was a good day all around.        

Friday, Dec 13^th, 2019……  Lydia’s 2^nd blood draw was this morning so I got Rylee walked and we headed out. The plan was to go in at 8:00am and then meet up with Penny at Kevin’s for breakfast. I got her in and after she were done with labs, we headed over and joined my sister for breakfast. It had been a long time since we had been there and I miss it. Lydia was able to prop her foot up on the opposite chair and made it through with little issues. But she was uncomfortable and glad when we got back so she could rest her foot. Later, she heard back from the med. equip. pharmacy and they had her scooter request in for insurance approval. So, it’s not ready yet, but at least it’s in progress. We put together a grocery list, working only 3-4 days out this time, and I took it and headed out to Walmart. The list was short and I made quick work of it and was back and had everything unloaded and put away and was done with that task. The weather has been pretty cold but this afternoon the winds picked up and it really made it easy to stay inside and take it easy. I fixed hamburgers for dinner tonight – quick and easy, and we spent the evening watching our programs until bedtime.            

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #114 – Dealing With the Pain & Still No Real Answers

Saturday, Dec 7^th, 2019……     Pearl Harbor Day.  Please take some time to think about this date in history and remember also the 2,300 plus men and women we lost that fateful day. We have been there and toured the Arizona Memorial. Very moving… There was an interesting article in our paper this morning about a recently deceased USS Arizona survivor - a gentleman by the name of Lauren Bruner, who had passed away at 98 in September. He had arranged to have his ashes interred on the ship. The Navy began interring Pearl Harbor survivors on their old ships back in 1982.  There are 3 other surviving men from the Arizona but they have chosen to be buried so this is the final time they will bring down ashes to this ship. The wrecks of only the Arizona and the USS Utah remain in the harbor, so survivors of those ships are the only ones who have the option to be laid to rest this way.  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RAYMOND! 

Lydia slept well last night. Phew!  I did too, until about 5:30am, when I got up to pee and couldn’t go back to sleep. I went in and turned on the tv and it occupied my time until it got light out. I showered and then took Rylee out. We did get some rain last night but it was light and only sprinkled on us this morning. I went out and got breakfast/coffee/tea. Before Lydia could get going, I moved all of the dirty laundry out where she could sort it. Then she re-trained me on the washer and dryer and I got the laundry going and worked it most of the morning. I watched some football while things were going so it wasn’t too bad. In between all of that, I vacuumed the house. She got dressed but only lounged around today. Pain is manageable right now. I fixed her some lunch and later we watched our taped episode of The Great Food Truck Race and then all of the four Blacklist episodes she had saved up. We forgot about those. We also finished the CMA Country Christmas show that we started the other night.  

I got all of the laundry done and she folded everything and I got it put away. Next up will be a solo major grocery shopping trip. I work from lists so she will have to start one of those….

Nothing back yet from the motorhome shop….

We had dinner (from KFC) and then finished up watching our own programs until we headed off to bed.

                                                                                                

Sunday, Dec 8^th, 2019…… Both of us slept pretty good last night. For Lydia, the pain was manageable and she said she got a bit more sleep than she has been getting. For me, I slept well but woke up at 5:15 and couldn’t go back to sleep. I put on some clothes and took Rylee out then came back in and showered and made us breakfast. This morning it was egg sandwiches – a more manageable task for me – and they were tasty. We missed out on calling Raymond yesterday but did so this morning. He is nine now and when they were up here, we could see him shooting up. He will be tall like his dad. We had nothing on the agenda today. So, we caught up on some Christmas movies and I watched football and my taped Mecum Auctions.  The weather here is gloomy and cold. We have one day of sun predicted for tomorrow, then a new storm comes in and we will be wet for the rest of the week. We did hear back from Aimee, who sent us the pics from the Santa shoot. They turned out pretty good. If you look closely, you can see Lydia is in one slipper on her bad foot.....

We had KFC chicken sandwiches for lunch and ate a late dinner/snack and watched tv until bedtime.     

Monday, Dec 9^th, 2019……  Lydia had a pretty laid back day today. Nothing planned. We stayed around the house and rested for the most part. I made egg sandwiches for breakfast and she wanted bacon and eggs for dinner so I fixed those. Nothing special but it filled us up. We are waiting for tomorrow so she can get to the orthopedic doctor appointment. Maybe they can give us a heads up on what she's dealing with. We finished up the night watching tv - another Christmas Light Fight - and then turning in early. . 

Tuesday, Dec 10^th, 2019…… Weather is getting colder now. The predicted sunny day (today) didn’t happen!  They say the sun was shining in other areas of the valley but not for us! After walking Rylee, I took off and got us breakfast. But before I pulled out of the driveway, I called Travis at Peterson Trucking to check on my motorhome. Travis has moved on to another job for the county so Rob looked up my workorder. They have everything almost done and will finish up the last of that today. It will be ready for tomorrow but since I want to take it straight down to Coburg for tires, I need to coordinate that. Plus, Lydia’s appointment with the ortho surgeon is today so I will wait. I called and got a tire appointment and I will pick up the coach on Wednesday and then go for the tires. Penny and Janice came over this morning to drop off Quincy and pick up my truck. They were headed off to the forest east of Sweet Home to cut their own Christmas trees. They both have permits and they just need to enter the designated area and they are each free to cut and bring out their own trees. Meanwhile, we got ready and headed out to Corvallis to the doctor’s office. This is a new place for us so we left early so we could find it and maybe get a wheelchair to get her in and up to their office. The doctor reviewed her symptoms and viewed the mri. They need more tests but they don’t see any fractures. That would have been the easy solution with at least a recovery time to look forward to. This is the other scenario - they are now looking at three things – neuropathy, arthritis or a tumor. Since it has been 12 weeks with this and no relief, they have to add the tumor risk but her other symptoms make that only a slight possibility. She has had fluid build-up in her feet and ankles for many years due to her transplant that has weakened the tissue in both legs. They can see (and showed us) the areas of edema on the mri. This is where everything hurts. They also can see arthritis on her bones and tendons and connecting tissue. They tried a biopsy (that really smarted and caused her to shed tears!) and didn't really get any fluid.  After that, they decided to add another appointment for her at another office to do another try, this time using ultrasound. We will get that scheduled tomorrow. He has prescribed a strong cream (cbd cream doesn’t help) that he is certain will give her some relief. He also wants her off her feet as much as possible so he has prescribed a knee scooter to help her around the house. We won’t know much more for probably a couple more weeks. All of this sets up a decision for us – can she make the trip down to Calif. after Christmas? We stopped for dinner on the way home and talked about it but we need to discuss this more. Once we got home, Lydia took some more hydrocodone and tried to get the throbbing down to a manageable level so she could go to sleep later. We watched The Blacklist and then The Masked Singer.  We don’t watch SNL and even though we’ve heard of Ana Gasteyer we didn’t know her well enough to make the correct guess. After that, Lydia said the pain was calmed down and she was ready to sleep so we headed off to bed.          

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #113 – Bingo & a Photo Session

Wednesday, Dec 4^th, 2019……  The day started out ok. Temps in the mid to high 30s. I never thought I’d say that would ever be comfortable weather! But I was good to go. I guess I’m getting used to it now!  I got Rylee out and walked and fed and then headed out to get breakfast/coffee/tea. I had one more thing to do regarding decorations - the snowflakes. I went up into the alcove and put those up there and also did the front windows. I think we are done decorating now. Today was bingo. Lydia opted out of mahjong yesterday because she didn’t want to sit for a long period and have her ankle swell. But today she took her shower and then decided to go give it a try. I know it was hard for her but she wanted to go. She sat there and enjoyed herself for most of afternoon and got through the pain and actually won a game!  But she was hurting when we left. Afterward, we stopped by and picked up some poinsettias from Teri, the lady who cuts our hair. I got her back home and she took some Tylenol and rested her leg and tried to relax for a while. I went out later and picked up dinner and we settled in and watched Survivor and The Masked Singer before calling it a night. They unmasked The Butterfly. I didn’t guess this one because I was not familiar with Michelle Williams so we had no clue. But we have gotten six of the ten so far and we think we know who three of the last six left might be.     

Thursday, Dec 5^th, 2019…… Nothing on the agenda today.  The weather is back to yucky. We actually had a nice sunny day yesterday but today it is overcast and/or foggy.  Today was not a good day for Lydia. She is still under severe pain in her foot. It hurts when she walks (so she has been trying to stay off of it) and it also hurts when she’s in bed – more of an aggravating pain that won’t go away no matter what position she puts her leg in. We have the adjustable bed and she has her feet elevated as much as she can but nothing really helps. I googled neuropathy and found that she has advanced symptoms which is causing the pain she is describing. But since the doctor has seen the mri and thinks it’s a stress fracture, there may be some treatment available when we go in next week. Meanwhile, I am trying to get her needs taken care of. Sometimes I go get us breakfast, sometimes she just wants toast or an egg sandwich, which I can do. Today, she pretty much stayed in her jammies all morning and only got dressed after noon. We didn’t go anywhere but she wanted to dress anyway. I guess that’s a good sign. I went and got us Jack in the Box burgers for dinner and we settled in for the night and watched our programs until bedtime.   

Friday, Dec 6^th, 2019……  No rain yet, but it’s supposedly coming later tonight. I decided to try omelets for breakfast. Not my strong suit!  They sure didn’t look right but they at least didn’t taste bad. And they filled us up.

Today was picture day. Our realtor, Aimee’s office does an event each year at the Carousel in Albany. They have refreshments and photos with Santa. This was last year’s….

We were planning to go but it didn’t look good. Lydia does much better when she stays off her foot, plus she can’t ride in the car for any time. So, she said she would pass this year. But, later in the day, she felt like going. I told her we could put her in the back seat so she could elevate her foot during the ride. She got dressed and we hung around the house and had lunch and dinner early. My sister and Janice came by and we fed the dogs and then we headed off to town. I dropped Janice off at the Jeep dealer, where she had her car in for service and then we headed over. This time we took monkey butt because Aimee said dogs were allowed in the building and in the photo room. We went in and parked Lydia and got signed in and only had to wait a few minutes before we could get in for the photo shoot. They took several shots to get Rylee to pay attention and face the camera.  They even took a few with just her and Santa! I will post them as soon as we get them from the photographer.  We only stayed a bit longer for refreshments and then we headed back home. Lydia said she was hurting but she took her meds and went off to bed to elevate her foot and was in for the night. When I went in later, she was sleeping comfortably. I must have been tired because I fell asleep in my chair, watching tv, which I hardly ever do.

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #112 – Getting Decorations Up & Motorhome Sticker Shock!

 

Sunday, Dec 1^st, 2019……  First day of December! Christmas is in the air! Wow!

I have noticed that folks up here tend to really celebrate the holidays. A lot of houses get decorated for the 4^th of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and, of course, Christmas.

The big news for today is SNOW! We had a news alert last night (our local stations via Directv come from Portland). They said a cold front was expected to come in late Saturday night and snow level could get down to 500 ft. in Portland. We are at 340 ft. here but the map showed snow all the way down throughout the Willamette Valley - which we all in the middle of – so we kind of thought we might see some this morning, especially up in the foothills around us. Turns out there was nothing up there this morning. We only got some black ice on our street.  The dew on the blacktop and asphalt street freezes during the night and makes it slippery until the temp gets up above freezing.  This morning it was no problem, just water in one of the low spots coming out of our neighbor’s driveway. But the drainage ditch, which always has water in it, was frozen. Rylee doesn’t care – she just walks through/on it!

My sister came over later today and put most of the ornaments on the tree for us. Thanks, Sis! She also helped me assemble the shelves on the ladder project. The whole thing was very wobbly so I had to put additional screws into it.  I guess the engineer (me) just screwed up his design!  But the screws helped and it is almost ready. Lydia relaxed in her chair and watched most of our work. She feels ok during the day but she is not getting out of her chair too much (except bathroom visits) and because she is resting her foot, that is keeping the swelling and the pain down. She will still call tomorrow to find out what the mri showed. We watched tv the rest of the afternoon and then I went out to James Gang and picked up a pizza for dinner.  We settled in and watched tv until bedtime.                                                

Monday, Dec 2^nd, 2019…… This morning the driveway was a little slippery when I took the monster puppy out for our walk. It was early and cold but I made it ok. Since there was no rain, an hour later everything was dry. After I went out and got breakfast/coffee/tea, I spent some time finishing up the ladder project. I did some more touchup on the paint and have added the fake snow blankets on each shelf. I stopped so I could go out and work on the outdoor lights. It took a few trips out there so I could come back in and warm my hands but I got it all done. Lydia heard back from the doctor. Her mri shows a stress fracture and a lot of edema. She already has an appointment scheduled (12/10) with the orthopedic surgeon but Dr. Simmons said they will probably only do a drain and remove fluid. I’m betting that since they found that fracture, she will be in a bigger boot after that. We’ll see. Later in the day, I heard back about the motorhome. They replaced the rear brakes and also found the air leak(s). The parts are 4 days out and not cheap. I’m looking at $3500. for everything. A lot more than I expected. Plus, I will still have to spend $1200. for front tires next week.  But I have to have it operational to make the trip down south in Jan. At least we are done with our Christmas shopping. Lydia already got her new recliner and I have a new laptop being delivered to her on Wed. or Thurs.  I have my contracted carport job coming up soon and that’s my Christmas present.   

I fixed spaghetti for dinner and we settled in and watched The Great Christmas Light Fight which starts tonight. These people are crazy about Christmas. Some of them start working on their displays right after the 4^th of July!  Nuts!  We enjoyed the first group of four houses because the one in Portland won!  I guess we’ll have to make a night run up there to see it.  

      

Tuesday, Dec 3^rd, 2019……  No rain but still cold. My sister came by with Quincy and Rylee got to run and play outside for a while. Sis goes through training with both of them out there for their treats. When she came in, we fed the dogs and then she left Q and took off for the day to go to her doctor’s appointment and some car maintenance and some shopping. Meanwhile, I finished up the village and got everything staged and plugged in. With this new layout, we still have room for more houses, which I can shop for when we’re out.

Lydia is still hanging out, trying to stay off her foot. When she talked to her doctor yesterday, he told her he would send in another prescription – this time for oxycodone, which is one step up from her previous prescription. She will try one tonight. Kirk came by today and did some leaf removal and general cleanup. Most everything is dormant but there are still weeds he can pull. I only had to finish up my bill spreadsheet for the month and I was done for the day. I did go off to Walmart to pick up stuff for dinner. After that, we watched Brad Paisley’s special and part of the CMA Christmas Special before we got tired and called it a night.     

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #111 – Our Unusual Thanksgiving Feast & Getting Ready for Christmas

Thursday, Nov 28^th, 2019……  HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!  Hope everyone enjoys the holiday and finds many, many things to be thankful for this holiday. We were not going to do the traditional turkey this year. Since we had the nice meal at the senior center, we decided to have bbq ribs, scalloped potatoes, brussel sprouts, salad, and apple pie for dinner. Penny is coming over at noon to help us put everything together. The weather is still pretty cold up here. When I took Rylee out for our walk this morning, the sun was just coming up over the Cascades. It was 25º !!!  Cold enough to snow but the skies were bright blue.  There is no rain in the forecast and they say we will get have sun and all day with a high of 53º. Lydia took Tylenol pm last night but woke up early with pain enough to make her take one of her new pills. Actually, they were the same as what she already had from her Calif. doctors- hydrocodone acetaminophen. The old meds had expired and the one she took last night was enough for her to get some sleep. But she needed Tylenol when she got up. After the usual morning tasks, I spent time getting the ribs and potatoes out and prepped for the oven. Then I took down all of the fall decorations. We needed the dining room table so that helped. I have already gotten down all of the Christmas stuff. Lydia says that because we will be leaving for SoCal right after the holidays, she won’t be doing the decorating to the nines that we are used to seeing. I’m still doing the outside lights like last year. I already have the nails in so it should go up (and down) quickly. At noon, sis got here and we already had the ribs in the oven and cooking. These are the Costco packaged ribs and we have found that following the directions yields terrific results. Once we got the brussel sprouts and the scalloped potatoes done, we were ready and settled in for a nice meal.

  

Before we ate, we called Randy and Maryanne and then facetimed Jeff & Krista and the grandkids. Except for Krista, everyone seems to be doing well. J&K have a houseguest – one of the girl’s friends, who is having trouble at home and is staying with them now. They are not given any financial assistance so something has to give soon! Krista is still off work (three weeks) dealing with her illness (uti). Her mom came in from Indiana last week and will be there for a few more days. R&MA are doing well. They showed us – via their tablet - their house full of dogs and cats.  They have a tenant who rents a room with them so they had a quiet Thanksgiving at home. We discussed Christmas and hope to get together (via social media) then.         

After our meal and cleanup, I spent most of the day watching football and relaxing. The girls watched their own shows and the dogs napped. Later, after sis went home (she left Q for the night) we snacked and then I let Quincy out to pee and poop and took butthead out again for another walk before we relaxed and watched tv and finally called it a night.

Friday, Nov 29^th, 2019……  Another freezing morning. It was 22º at 7:15am w/frost on the ground. Here’s a pic I took while on our walk….

And a couple from sis as she came back this morning to walk Quincy….

No plans for Black Friday shopping. We did that many years ago and choose not to fight the crowds – although Black Friday crowds here are about the same as a normal day of shopping down in SoCal! Still, we are using amazon and whatever.com for a lot of what we are buying. We have the same thing going with the kids as we did last year. Each of us buys something we want for ourselves and we will wrap them and put them under our trees – then on Christmas morning we facetime or marco polo or whatever with them and we open those gifts then. It’s really the same as asking for something and having it bought by them and brought over and put under the tree. Plus, it’s way better than gift cards! Anyway, we will be doing it again this year.

Lydia has been doing ok. She is not going out anywhere (except for doctor’s visits) because being on her feet causes swelling (and pain). The pain meds are working when she uses them but she’s trying to get by with Tylenol as much as she can. She’s really tired of just sitting around and wants to go out. We will probably head out later tonight to the fairgrounds. They have a drive-thru Christmas display that we heard is pretty good. I think we’ll plan on going to the show a couple of times as well. Maybe next week. We like the lounge chairs at the theater in Eugene and that will help her as Lydia did finally get her 'welcome' call from UHC. They will be getting her insurance card out to her in a few days. So we are now good to go for next tear!   Whew!

I spent most of the day bringing in all of the Christmas boxes and staged them on the back porch.  Before that, Lydia came out and we eliminated some of those that have items we won’t be putting out this year.  I was going to start on the outdoor lights but got lazy. Tomorrow. We had a late lunch today so when it came time for dinner, we each heated up a piece of the tri-tip and that was all we had. We fed Rylee and headed off to get sis and go over to Corvallis to the fairgrounds. The Pastega Family has been putting up a Christmas display for many years and they have combined with local businesses and it has moved to the fairgrounds where there is more room. They have canned food bins set out for donations for the local shelter. We thought they would have a bin for money donations but we saw nothing and no one was there. The road winds around and through the fairground exhibit buildings and they have done a nice job with themed vignettes with Christmas music to match. It was really fun and comfortable since we didn’t have to walk anywhere.

We got back home and Lydia put her feet up and watched tv and tried to rest before taking more pain meds and going to bed. She was sound asleep when I came in a bit later.         

Saturday, Nov 30^th, 2019……  I had a few things to do today, which involved Birthdays & Christmas. We are sending a package off to the kids in Florida so I needed to get that ready. My sister has added a few things as well. This package includes birthday gifts for the girls who are turning 17 in Dec. Turns out Lydia had already taken care of the task of getting everything in and all of the cards signed as well and everything is ready to mail off on Monday. The second task was putting up the tree and getting the lights put up outside. I started on the tree, which is pre-lit. I think my sister will be coming over to assist decorating it this year since Lydia can’t stand on her feet too long right now. After setting up the tree, I brought in everything else and got it all out of the boxes and ready for Lydia to direct me as to where she wants it set out. Next up was the outdoor lights.  I rested and waited until the sun came out and it got a bit warmer. But it stayed cloudy and really didn’t warm up and was still super cold out on the front porch, which faces north and never gets any direct sunlight anyway. So, I decided to wait another day.  

I thought I might hear from Peterson Trucking today about the motorhome but the call didn’t come in. They said they would only have a skeleton crew working Saturday, so I wasn’t surprised.  I’m in no hurry so next week will be fine with me. I got my boat tags in the mail yesterday so I went out and put them on. Like car tags in Oregon, these are also good for two years. Not a bad deal!

So, most of the day was spent inside where it was nice and warm. I watched all of the college games – some really exciting, others not so much. I have one more race on tomorrow - an F1 season ending one. There are three more Mecum auction dates next Fri.-Sun. and I will have all of my scheduled shows for 2019 completed. Lately I have been stuck on watching MASH reruns. I think I have gone through over 65 shows since I started taping them. I know it ranks as one of the top five series I have enjoyed over the years.

We heated up leftovers again tonight. This time it was bbq ribs and brussel sprouts and scalloped potatoes and apple pie. We had cooked two full racks of ribs for Thanksgiving and even though my sister took some home to freeze, we still had a bunch and have frozen them in portion bags for whenever we want a quick meal. I let monkey butt out just before bedtime and we all headed off to bed.