Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #19 – Rain and More Rain and Finally - Snow!

Sunday, February 24^th, 2019…...  We had nothing on our plate for today. It rained a ton last night! We have a river running through our yard! Rylee’s drag strip is now about 4 feet wide!

I took off to go get coffee/tea/breakfast and saw Oak Creek on the rise. It was just touching the road (S. Main St.) when I left. When I got back ½ hour later, it was all the way across the road!  I went back a bit later and took this pic.

They had just come out and put up the warning sign. Most of the cars were turning around (we did) but some were going through.  This creek runs behind our neighbor’s houses across the street and we noticed that Jeremy and Sabrina’s back yard now looks like a lake!  We had no plans to go out again, but if we did, there is another way to get to town, bypassing S. Main St.  Earlier, Jade, at Starbucks, told me that she and her boyfriend have both lived here all of their lives and they’ve never seen it like this!  Weather is coming in and on our 6 o’clock news, they showed a huge front coming in the next 24 hours just to the south of us. Eugene is expected to see 8-12” of snow. 3-6” are predicted in Lebanon so we’ll have to see how this goes…

Like I said, we just hung around the house and watched tv throughout the day and evening.

   

Monday, February 25^th, 2019……  The snow did come in last night. We woke up to everything white!

It continued to snow until 11:15am. I went out with a ruler and measured the driveway out in the open where it was smooth. It was right at 4”. The yard looked like it was over 6” but it really wasn’t. It just settled into the grass a bit. But either way, we didn’t go anywhere this morning.  Lydia had a 12:45pm appointment today at the doctor’s office in Corvallis (about 20 miles). Neither of us wanted to go out driving in the snow, so she rescheduled. I took Rylee out a few times to let her run a bit. She made a few laps and went through her water drag strip a few times. Each time we’d have to towel her down.

Tip: Don’t eat yellow snow…..

About the only productive thing I did today was getting around to spackling all of the holes left in the bathroom wall after installing the new towel bars last week. Lucky for me, the walls are about the color of the spackle so I don’t have to paint the room at this time. We hope to do more painting - of that and other rooms come summer.  The weather has settled down a bit. The large front came through and has now moved out.  It has stopped snowing and the forecast looks clear for the next couple of days. But it’s still pretty chilly out so we’ll see how long it takes for this batch of snow to melt away.         

     

Tuesday, February 26^th, 2019…... No change on the weather. I got up and going and took Rylee out for our walk up the street through the snow.  Kirk had texted and asked if we still had snow. He wanted to come over and do some yard work. Yeah right! He lives in Corvallis and said they had about an inch of snow there but it melted pretty quickly. I told him we have had no melting at all as of this morning. The day was cloudy and still too cold for that. When we got back from our walk, I walked out to inspect the yard. I noticed yesterday that the cage around our blueberry bushes was down. I wanted a closer look this morning. It is really down! Most of the uprights have collapsed due to snow accumulation on the netting over the top. Just too much weight and the whole thing came down. I have to wait until the snow melts before I can get to the netting to remove it and see what needs to be done. At least one of the bushes is bent over so we’ll see the total damage soon…

I ventured out on the snowy road to go get breakfast. Now remember that, up until mid-2017, we had lived all of our lives in sunny SoCal, so snow is something you had to drive to. We didn’t go up to Big Bear all that often so driving in it is something we don’t have a lot of experience in. But after I got on our street, which had tire paths from all of the neighbors/mail truck/newspaper vehicle, all I had to do was follow them and it was easy once I hit S. Main. I did actually see our first snowplow, although it was coming out of the McDonald's parking lot.

When I finished breakfast, I went out to the rv garage and checked things out. I started and ran the coach for a few minutes. I checked on the fridge and then turned on the tv and found I had some shows taped out there that I hadn’t taped in the house. Guess I will plan on spending some time out there soon to catch up on those. The rest of the day was spent doing chores in the house. Lydia did some laundry and I cleaned up my room (aka Rylee’s toy room!) and dusted it. It started snowing later in the afternoon. Later, we fixed tacos for dinner and relaxed and watched tv after our boring, oops, busy day! When we went to bed I checked and it was still snowing. With the snow already on the ground, we'll see what levels we will have tomorrow.    

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #18 – Running Errands and Dealing With Weather

 

Thursday, February 21^st, 2019…...   We had errands to run today. I got up and got ready for the day. While I was out with Rylee, Lydia got going. The weather is really nice with blue skies and no sign of rain! We loaded up the truck with the dog fencing as well as our four trash bags of recycle (glass bottles/cans/plastic bottles). We left the house around 9:00am. First stop was for breakfast at Rogers Restaurant in Albany. After that, we headed to the recycling facility close by and we split up and took a couple of machines. We each fed our two bags of bottles through pretty quickly. We walked out with a total of $61.00 cash. Next up was Lowes. When I was in Lowes last week, the clerk was telling me that corporate has recently gone through some re-structuring, including expanding their existing military discount program. Before, it was just for active and retired military, with id. Now it is open to anyone who has been in the service. Under her guidance, I was able to go online and use my DD-250 discharge papers and register with them for the 10% military discount. I wanted to test it today, so I bought some drywall screws and a couple more fasteners for the bathroom cabinet - and we got the 10%.  Given my medical discharge, I’ve never considered myself as having ‘served’. But I do have the discharge papers and that’s enough for them – and I’ll take it!  Not much saved today but it will come in handy down the road when we buy something expensive. Next stop was Target. Lydia had two gift cards and we found a small accent rug for the bathroom and a large decorator clock for the dining room. Now we just need to spring for the dining room table! Next, we drove to Corvallis and found Burst, the specialty candy shop downtown. Our realtor, Aimee, had sent us a Valentine’s gift card for free chocolate from there, so we just had to go check it out. I was a little disappointed to find it was only good for one piece of heart-shaped chocolate.  But they had a nice plate of samples out and the clerk was nice enough to let me eat most of it!  We bought a couple of other items and left. We heard they had a Walmart in Corvallis and we have never been so we drove by. Turns out it was just a Walmart Neighborhood Market so at least now we know. We also made another stop at Kmart. They are down to their last 11 days. They didn’t have a ton of stuff left but I bought a couple of watches to add to my collection and a drop hitch for my truck. Everything is 50-80% off. On the way home, we stopped by to drop off the dog pen and visited with Terri for a while. She’s finally picked out a name for her new little puppy – Meisha. She is only about the size of Rylee’s head and is so cute!  Once we got home (about 2:00pm), we fed the super pooper. You’d think she’s ok to miss a meal now and then. NOT!  Later, Lydia fixed fish and I cut up some of those little new baby potatoes to cook up with them. With some green beans, it was a nice quick meal. I cleaned up the kitchen and then we relaxed and settled in and watched tv until bedtime.      

   

Friday, February 22^nd, 2019……  The weather is nice again today. Something of note - we were watching our local (Portland) news the other evening, right after we had that really brief light snowfall. We wanted to see what was going on in other areas. They had reported that they had graupel falling in some areas. Huuh? Ever heard of it? Neither had us ex Californians either! Ok, now we were interested. They explained it and showed pictures and sort of compared it to hail. Hail is usually hard pellets of varying size, that can come down with force and sometimes will do serious damage to cars and such. Graupel comes down about the same size but it’s lighter balls of snow. If it’s heavy enough, it can still cover the ground, just like snow. So, now we know what to look for and we’ll know it if/when we see it!

But, back to today. As I said, it started out nice. So, I thought today would be a good day to go over and install the two ceiling fans she bought last week. They go in her two guest bedrooms. Once we removed the old light fixtures, we discovered that her painters neglected to drop the lights before they painted, so she found her ceiling paint and got a couple of coats up there that we had to wait on to dry.  But once that was done, the ceiling fans went up quickly with no issues. I went home and relaxed for the rest of the day. Lydia said she was going to Walmart for a few items for tonight’s dinner and something for tomorrow. I went to the auto section and checked to see if they had a battery for the Honda, and also to see if they had time to install it. They told me, “Nothing on the shelf but we might have one in back, but we are busy today. How about tomorrow?”  I hate fighting crowds on Saturdays but I might come back. I stopped by the electronics section and bought a couple of printer cartridges and then went and found Lydia, who was about done. She told me we needed to go to Costco so I will wait on the battery until I check there first. We got home and she started dinner early since neither of us had lunch. The rains came later in the evening so I’m glad we got all of our running around done for today.  

     

Saturday, February 23^rd, 2019…... It rained most of the night and into the morning. I waited on Rylee’s walk until the rain stopped, which was about 9:30am. While I was out, Lydia was up and dressed and when I got back, she had me get out the crockpot so she could get that going for dinner tonight. She said she was trying a variation of her pork chop and mushroom soup crockpot mix. This time it was chicken breasts and cream of chicken soup. Something new is always good! After that, we were ready to head out to Costco. I took out the battery in the Honda and loaded it in the Acadia. We texted my sister, to see if she wanted to go along with us.  We stopped by and got her and drove to Albany and once we got in the store, we separated and got what we needed. Lydia and I checked out and I got our stuff loaded up and then went to the tire section and found my battery. It was a better deal! They sell Interstate batteries, which I like better, and the price was only $73.00 ($27.00 cheaper than Walmart!) so I made the exchange and we were done. We dropped Penny off and headed home. Once we got the car unloaded, I had the new battery in the Honda in a few minutes. I had one more task - to put up the clock in the dining room. 

It is 26" wide but looks small on the wall! We have plans to add more pictures when we find them, so that will help. That was pretty much it for the day.  We relaxed and lounged around the house for the afternoon. Lydia cooked up some noodles and also some peas and carrots to go along with the crockpot chicken and it was really tasty.  Another keeper!  We settled in and binge-watched three taped episodes of The Blacklist before splitting up and watching our own taped programs before calling it a night.     

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #17 – Taxes & Vet Appointments and Projects Around the House

 

Monday, February 18^th., 2019…...   The weather was nice again this morning. I took Rylee out and then headed out to get cash from Walmart. We have a few appointments today. Lydia has to go do the next round of labs. We also have our appointment to get our taxes done later this morning. And I had made an appointment for this afternoon with the vet to get Rylee’s nails clipped. I have been doing them since we got her and she’s really good with me and it’s not an issue - but I want to see how close they cut them. I am always afraid to cut too much and make her bleed.

We took our tax papers with us and I drove her to labs. We left there and met up with my sister at Kevin’s for breakfast. After we ate, she left to take Quincy to the vet and we left to go to the tax office. I had been doing our returns for many years, but last year we used a tax service because we had to file for two different states. Our return is really simple this year and we probably didn’t need to have someone do it for us. But I wanted at least one more year to see how it goes.

     

Ok, back from Claudine, our tax lady…. She gave us some homework. We need to provide her the records for our monthly medical insurance payments as well as monies paid for any prescriptions. It’s not for itemized deductions, for which we never had enough medical to claim in the past. Turns out that Oregon gives credit for medical insurance and prescriptions paid. That’s a substantial item in Lydia’s case and will definitely reduce our taxable income, so we immediately got home and went to work gathering and/or ordering the documents. Claudine was quick to ask and that will save us money. I told her that’s why we pay her the big bucks! Sad news for us, she’s 81 and on oxygen and she says that this will most likely be her last year working. Good news for her though. She still travels and if she can get her insurance to pay for one of those portable over-the-shoulder oxygen tanks, she’ll be unstoppable!  We got all of that done and headed back home. Then it was relaxing for a few hours before we had to take butthead in for her nails….

When we got to the vet’s office, Rylee was interested in everything!  The assistant took her back and then brought her out a few minutes later. They had no issues with her and did a great job and cut her nails way farther back than I normally do. Now I know how to cut them. But going there was only $16.30 so we may go back….

Once we got back home, I went to work on the Honda battery. I took the terminals off and cleaned them and used the charger again and started and ran the car for a while. But after I turned it off and started it a few more times, it ran down again. Next stop – Walmart.

Lydia said we were eating leftovers tonight. I chose the chili. Lydia had the pork chops. We watched the finale of America’s Got Talent. We each picked our five choices to go the finale. I got three, Lydia got two. I chose both Shin Lim and Darci Lynn who finished one, two. I wanted it the other way around.   

   

Tuesday, February 19^th., 2019……  This morning was dry and clear. We are supposed to get rain later so after our walk, I went out and cleaned up the yard while it was dry enough to walk out there. I went and got breakfast/tea and then later, we took off to go get our hair cut. Once we got back, I jump-started the Honda and took it to Walmart.  I told them I had bought the battery there a year ago and it has gone bad. I showed them the receipt that I had put in the Honda’s glove compartment. Then, I got my ‘duh’ moment. The guy took one look at the battery and said it wasn’t sold at Walmart. It was a Duramax battery, sold at an auto parts chain store. Now, I can honestly say I was confused to say the least!  What happened?   I came home and checked the Acadia.  Nope.  Then, I looked at the truck and it all came back…. Last year, the truck battery took a dump. I took the bad battery out of it, put it in the Honda, took it to Walmart, bought a new battery, brought it back and installed it in the truck!  I just used the Honda to go back and forth. I still don’t know why I put the receipt in the Honda! So, it turns out that the new Walmart battery is in the truck and is working just fine.  But now I need to buy a new battery for the Honda! Duuuhh! Later, Kirk came over and we gave him a task for today. We wanted him to trim that bottle bush that bangs against our bathroom window in the wind.

Today was Lydia’s appointment with her Nephrologist. She is at her Lebanon location today so not much drive time. I took her because she wanted me to meet Dr. Leonard and ask her any questions I may have. She was very thorough. They are trying very hard to balance the kidney meds against the antibiotics and she explained it’s a fine line.  We’re also waiting for the transplant team in Portland to call to set up an appointment with them. Dr. Leonard wants them to review her functions and said they can run more specific tests, especially in the area of familial blood matches. Lydia is ok with all of this because if/when she needs any further support, they will have all of her stats and know her and her case and be ahead of the game in her treatment. We left there and decided to go ahead and stop for take-out for dinner. Bigfoot Grille has recently reopened, under new management, and we wanted to stop by and see what they had to offer. Right now, they are just a burger joint, so we ordered a couple with a side of onion rings plus donut holes for dessert and headed home. Once we feed the eating machine, we enjoyed our meal. We have a menu for next time in case we want to order ahead. After dinner, we both changed into sweats and relaxed and watched tv until bedtime.  The storm came in later in the evening and we got more rain and more wind. But no banging noises coming from outside that bathroom window.    

     

Wednesday, February 20^th., 2019…... HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYLEE!   She’s one year old today! I guess she’s no longer considered a puppy. But she’ll always be our puppy!

The rains last night made for a chilly morning. It was raining when we wanted to go for our walk so we waited a bit. I fixed breakfast and did some bill paying. Later, when the drizzle stopped, I took butthead out.  We did our walk and she got her treats. I started to work on the cabinet in the bathroom and got that installed with little issues. It’s 20 some inches wide and there was only one wall stud centered in that span, so I had to double up on the screws to make it stable. But it looks good and Lydia went to work filling the inside with toilet paper. She wants to go shopping for cutie items to put on the shelf.

I got out the outside dog pen we used when Rylee was little. Terri, was does our hair, has a little Pomeranian puppy and we are loaning it to her for her yard. I have 16 panels and we are using 9 of them as barricades for the sides of the front and rear porches, to help keep critters from living under there. But the 7 remaining panels are more than enough for that little pup to use. Besides, her backyard is small so this will fit. We will take to her tomorrow.

Later, I headed out to pick up deli sandwiches for dinner. When I came out of the shop, there was snow on my windshield! It was just enough to hit the ground and then melt but it took a few minutes to get the fog cleared up so I could drive. But I made it home with no issues and we settled in and watched Guys Grocery Games, then Survivor, and finally The Masked Singer. Two celebrities (Lion and Rabbit) were unmasked and I guessed both of them. I think I know who Peacock and Bee are. I have no clue for Monster, though. I think he is some sort of hip-hop talent, or maybe a black rapper or possibly a comic. That’s too millennial for me to know who it is.   

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #16 – Dinner With Friends and Work on the House and the Honda

 

Friday, February 15^th., 2019…...  We woke up early this morning – or rather Rylee woke us up early. She wants her breakfast! I got up and took care of that and just stayed up. I showered and took her out for our walk then went and got breakfast/coffee/tea. Lydia is feeling better. I think she’ll still be taking it easy for a few days. I had a few things to do today. I needed to address the dead battery on the Honda. I added water to the cells and jump started it. I drove it around and parked it. We’ll see if it starts or not tomorrow. Then I worked on the bathroom cabinet. Lydia has decided that she doesn’t like the thing free standing behind the toilet. So, I cut the legs off and then painted over those cut marks to match the cabinet. It will get mounted to the wall, I think a little higher up than it was. I won’t work on it again today but it should go up with little effort.  We are heading out to dinner tonight with Janice and Penny. We’re going to McGrath’s, a fish house in Corvallis. They came over before 4:00pm and we headed out. I drove. We had a nice meal 

and then went next door to Kmart. This store is going out of business at the end of the month. They didn’t have much left but we all found something we couldn’t leave without. They are even selling all of the racks, shelving, fixtures, and everything in the back warehouse. They had three rolling ladders (like the ones you see at Lowes or Home Depot) and I am looking for one for my rv garage. But it turned out that all three of them had sold stickers on them. Damn – missed out!         

Saturday, February 16^th., 2019……  Weather is better today. Nothing but a few sprinkles now and then. Still not sunny though. Quincy came over this morning and played with Rylee after we got back from our walk. While she was out there, she made her drag strip run through the water! My sister hosed her down and we dried her off and she was good to go!  I spent most of the day watching tv and relaxing. We did go to Walmart later and did some grocery shopping. Our Walmart just remodeled and added more Scan and Go registers. They added some with belts so you can scan more than a few items. We tried it and with a bit of help on the produce sold by weight, it went well. Lydia got stuff for chili and got that going right after we got home. She spent some time on the phone with her sister (Frances) while the pot simmered. She used our Oster french door oven to make a batch of cornbread. She’s still getting used to that thing and got the top a little crispy. But it was still delicious. The chili came out really nice, given it wasn’t on the stove all day like she usually makes it. I took super pooper out for a run/walk and then checked the Honda on the way in. It started but after I shut it off it wouldn’t turn over the second time. It was getting late so I left it for the night. Next step is to clean the terminals. If it’s the battery itself, I will need to find the Walmart receipt in case I need to return it.  We watched our programs until bedtime.

     

Sunday, February 17^th., 2019…... Even though the weather was nice today (sunshine and blue skies), the only time we left the house was when I took Rylee out for our morning walk. Lydia made omelets for breakfast and after I cleaned up the kitchen, we spent the rest of the day just relaxing around the house. Of course, I have to keep muttley occupied. She’s always coming up to my chair with that ‘come on Grampy, play with me!’ look on her face. We play with her toys and I let her chase me around the house until I get tired. We need a few more sunny days so the lawn can dry out. Then we can go out and play on the grass. I watched my taped motocross race from yesterday and then some of the pre-show before the Daytona 500. I let the race tape for about an hour before starting it. That way I can fast forward through all of the commercials. The truck race on Friday and the Xfinity race on Saturday were wreck-fests. I expected more of the same for the 500. I called it right. But it was entertaining. We ate a nice dinner and settled in to our taped shows and then called it a night.       

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #15 – Drs. and More Drs. on Valentine’s Day

 

Tuesday, February 12^th., 2019…...  Today was rainy and cooler. My sister had a couple of doctor’s appointments and I drove her up to Salem for those. We thought we might get some snow flurries but it wasn’t cold enough for that. When we left it was just sprinkling and it did rain on us most of the day, but no snow. I took her to the first stop at the hospital and then we drove around and stopped at Big 5 before heading to the second appointment. We had enough time to eat beforehand so we stopped at Firehouse Subs for lunch. Thanks for lunch Sis!  When we got home, Rylee was ready and waiting! I played with her and my watch flew off my wrist! I found that the watch band had come apart and we couldn’t find the missing piece. This is my Boeing 40^th anniversary watch so I will definitely be looking for a new band for it. Lydia had eaten lunch and wasn’t too hungry and since I had a nice lunch, we decided to just make some egg salad sandwiches for dinner. Plus, she had just got some nice fresh ranch eggs from my sister. They were tasty but boiled fresh eggs are always harder to peel! We tried the ice water thing and that worked but still not easy….  After dinner we watched the last of our taped Guys Grocery Games and then watched our own taped shows before going to bed. 

Wednesday, February 13^th., 2019……  Nothing planned for today. I was going to go over to my sister’s and install the ceiling fans but she had appointments today and was in no hurry. So, I installed the new towel bars in our master bath. There were four of them so it took a few hours, but was pretty easy to do. The only task left in there is to install the cabinet above the toilet. I will do that tomorrow.  Lydia had picked out the freestanding style but now thinks she wants the thing wall-mounted. I’ll put it in assembled and let her think it over and decide. She didn’t get anything out for dinner so I made a Jack in the Box run and got us dinner. We cleaned up the house a bit and did the fridge cleanup as well because tomorrow is trash day. Then it was tv until bedtime.

     

Thursday, February 14^th., 2019…... ♥♥♥♥♥♥ HAPPY VALENTINES DAY ♥♥♥♥♥♥ !!!  It wasn’t for us! It started out ok. I took Rylee out in the rain and then got back and changed shoes and then fixed breakfast. Lydia headed out to do a requested rerun of her last blood test. They didn’t like the numbers. She said she had some pain in her side but drove herself there. When she got home, she wasn’t feeling any better so she called her Nephrologist (Dr. Leonard) to tell her about it and said she was going to the ER to have it checked out. They have lowered her cellcept in an attempt to get the antibiotics to work to help clear up her diverticulitis. The labs from Monday came back with a lower count than the dr. liked. That’s why the retest. Lydia felt the pain might be the start of a rejection - and that’s not fun – so she went to have it checked out. We got there and she got through triage and into a bed really quickly. We explained the situation and they ran another set of labs and found that the kidney is functioning like it’s supposed to and the numbers looked good. So, they sent her home with follow up with the nephrologist. That made her feel a whole lot better. Dr. Leonard’s office called back later in the day and said they had seen the er reports and want her to go back again on Monday and do the same labs again so they can compare. Plus, she will be going on Tuesday to see Dr. Leonard for her scheduled appointment. So, the day did get better!  But we stayed around the house and didn’t do anything special for the day! I did install that cabinet but it’s not secured yet. That can wait.

Later in the day, I helped her cook and we had a nice quiet dinner and spent the evening relaxing. 

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #14 – A Little Snow and Colder Temps

Saturday, February 9^th., 2019…...  No snow. Just a lot of rain last night. Our back lawn is a mushy swamp!  The field behind it is different grass and is a bit higher so out there is not as bad. Penny came by with Quincy and Lydia let Rylee out while I took off to get breakfast/coffee/tea. My favorite stop is always at Starbucks, where I always get chai tea for Lydia and sometimes coffee for me. They are always so friendly and sometimes we talk about the upcoming day. Jade asked about my plans for today. I told her not much planned and I mentioned my blog. I gave her a card with the blog site on it. Maybe she’ll check it out sometime.

Sis left Quincy for the day. She fed her and left and Quince always gets up on our bed and vegges out for the day.  After their morning run, Rylee leaves her alone and they both rest in separate rooms. As I said, I had no plans. I did go out to the shop to start to take apart the broken recliner. But I didn’t fire up any heat so I didn’t stay out there too long. By the time I came in and settled in, Lydia had started dinner. Once we ate, I only had to let monster puppy out once or twice and then it was time to go to bed.  We let super pooper out for one last pee and found that the snow was just starting up!

Sunday, February 10^th., 2019……  I woke up around 12:30am and went to the bathroom. Then it was butthead’s turn. The snow was only about an inch at that time but it was coming down hard enough to scare Rylee. She didn’t even leave the porch. We went back to bed and she woke me up about 3:30 so I knew she had to go NOW. It had stopped snowing but there was probably 2” on the ground. She managed to do both businesses and then I wiped her down and we went back to bed. This morning the snow had totally stopped, but it left a nice white canvas out there! I got showered and took the monkey butt out for her walk. She totally now loves the snow! Plus, she’s found it tastes great!  We saw tons of deer tracks and what I thought were tracks from a dog that went right through our front yard! But I don’t think Ollie was here this early. Next, I thought cougar but now think they were too small and could be just coyote tracks. It was only one but, still – in our front yard! We don’t want coyotes here! That’s why I bought my new pellet gun!

While I was out on my walk, I took this pic of the front of the house.

We face north so most of this snow will hang around even after the backyard melts. I have a 2x6 out in front of the rv garage as a transition piece. There was 2-3” of snow on it so we did get a bit more than the last snow.  Last year we had one snowfall at 1”. This is the second snowfall so far this year and the most we’ve seen (so far).   After we got back in, Lydia made breakfast, but stopped for a bit so we could call and wish Bill & Treasa a HAPPY 40^th ANNIVERSARY!  We talked for a bit and she told us she was hanging around the house recovering from her recent knee surgery. They’ve had their share of snow too (they live in Springboro, OH) but it’s just rainy there now. They get more snow plus their temps get down into the single digits and sometimes lower. Brrrr!

I spent my day watching tv. Motocross was taped plus the Nascar season is getting started.  That kept me entertained. Of course, Rylee wants out every ten minutes. When Lydia is sitting in her chair, she can keep an eye on her and I also get up often to let her out. She’s made yellow snow and ‘poopsickles’ several times just this afternoon!

  

Monday, February 11^th., 2019…... No more snow. What we had on the ground yesterday was gone by day’s end. We did get some high winds and a bit of rain throughout the night. It was sprinkling when I took Rylee out for our walk this morning.  The winds were blowing and it was enough to get my pant legs a bit too wet, so I changed. Lydia had labs to do this morning so we headed off for that around 9:00am. Since we were out, we decided to stop for breakfast. We chose Kevin’s and it was very good, as always! After we got home, I went out to the shop and worked on dismantling the old recliner. It was raining off and on and I decided to shut down and came back in between showers. I was in for the afternoon. I changed out of my jeans and put on my sweats and relaxed in my recliner and watched tv.  But it turned out that Lydia didn’t get anything out for dinner and we didn’t want leftovers tonight, and she was hungry for Mexican food, so she decided that we should go out to Ixtapa’s. Yep - I changed again and off we went. Dinner was good and we both ate a lighter meal. Nothing else planned so we came back home and I let muttley out to pee. The sprinkles continued through the evening but that was fine - we were done for the day.  We watched a couple more Guy’s Grocery Games and before turning to our delayed tape of America’s Got Talent. 

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #13 – Dealing With the Cold and the New Meds

Wednesday, February 6^th., 2019…...   Nice weather for sleeping! I wanted to just stay in bed this morning but Miss Alarm Clock likes to keep me on a schedule. So, I got up and fed her and then went back to bed for a few minutes. After she eats, she wants to play so I mean a few minutes! I got up and got showered and dressed and took her out for our walk. Quincy was already out in our field and Rylee doesn’t care for a long walk once she sees them out there. She pooped and turned around and started pulling me back toward home. I brought her back and got barely in the driveway and let her off leash to go play with the Quince. Of course, she ran through the water again and again so my sister hosed her off and I had to dry her before she could come back in the house. You’d think the cold water would bother her. NOT!  After that, I took off and got breakfast and coffee/tea and came home to relax for a bit. After lunch, Lydia had a nail appointment and took off for that. I only had one item on my agenda for today so I went out and started the motorhome (I do that weekly) and let it run for a while. I also check inside and outside of the coach just to make sure everything is in order. All of the systems are good to go. I will need to air up all of the tires but I will have them do that when I take it in the next few months for the front tires I’m planning to buy. I ran the tv in the rv for a bit and checked to see what I had taped out there that I might need to watch. Good on that as well.

When Lydia got back, we cleaned out the fridge. Tomorrow is trash day and we don’t run any food in the garbage disposal so we just have to toss it in the trash. Lydia fixed dinner and I took the cans out and then closed up everything for the night.          

Thursday, February 7^th., 2019……  Still really cold out! We wanted to take Rylee and head out for a drive somewhere today but the sun didn’t come out and it didn’t warm up at all. The frost stayed on the ground and it’s still nicer to just stay inside. So, that’s what we did. We did go out and pick up Lydia’s prescription plus stopped across the street at Walmart to get a few things. Tomorrow is supposed to be the same with more snow possible at the lower elevations.  The news this evening said snow is probable for the entire Willamette Valley starting Friday night and lasting through the weekend. We are ok with food so we don’t need to go out for anything. This was just to get a couple of items while we were out. Later, I started dinner while Lydia went back to get the last of the prescriptions (they were out of stock on one item and it came in this afternoon). We had fish sandwiches so dinner was easy. We watched the Masked Singer. I had zeroed in on The Raven as a talk show host last time but didn’t know which one. When one of the judges guessed Rikki Lake, we both knew that’s who it was even before she got unmasked.  I think I know who the Rabbit, the Peacock, and the Bee are.  I’ve told Lydia but I won’t post here in case you are playing along in the guessing (text me and I’ll share). I’m still piecing together clues for the Monster, the Alien, and the Lion. But if they turn out to be new gen millennial pop artists, I probably won’t have a clue. I missed on Antonio Brown, but I got Tommy Chong, Terry Bradshaw, Margaret Cho, and Tori Spelling. Some I got from the clues, but for Chong and Bradshaw, I figured out by voice and mannerisms.            

  

Friday, February 8^th., 2019…... Just a dusting of snow here this morning. No black ice so the roads were fine to drive on. We left a little before 9:00am to meet my sister for breakfast. We wanted to try J&C BBQ. They had a food/catering truck before and have moved into an old café here in town. They serve breakfast and so we went there this morning. The food was really good. The prices are kinda high. I had chicken fried steak, 2 eggs, hash browns, toast for $15.95. When you think about it, I guess that’s not too much higher than the other places up here. But they also have a lite menu so we’ll check that out next time. Plus, we need to come back and try the bbq. Thanks for breakfast, Sis! Lydia is on her new meds and they cause her some bathroom issues so we stayed close to home today. The breakfast trip was the only time we left the house. Also, heavier snow is predicted in the valley this weekend. I spent some time gathering up my files for taxes. Even though we have a nice simple filing this year (one residence), I think we’ll still go to our tax lady because she knows the state better than we do.  

Turns out we had no more snow today. Lydia made her squiggly noodle casserole and since I skipped lunch, I was ready when it was ready! Terrific as usual, plus I have some left over for lunch tomorrow! We ended up the evening watching our taped programs and then went to bed early.      

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #12 – Super Bowl, A Surgery Consult, and Baby’s First Snow!

Sunday, February 3^rd., 2019…...   SUPER BOWL SUNDAY! I am rooting for the Rams. Not that I like the Rams (I’m a Broncos fan), but I don’t like New England and they should lose to everybody! Also, Brandon Cooks, who plays for the Rams, is an Oregon State graduate. My neighbor, Lou, knows him pretty well. I think NE will dominate the game but I have a little hope. We’ll see…. They have a couple of the bars and pizza parlors here in town having parties, and the Elks in Sweet Home will do one too, but I always try to stay at home for the Super Bowl so I can watch it without any interruptions. Lydia made steak sandwiches out of the tri-tip so dinner was easy and good.

The game went about the way I thought it would go, except that scoring was tough for both teams. The Rams held tough for the first half but couldn’t score. You can’t keep the Patriots at bay for an entire game. The trio of Brady, Gronkowski, and Edelman just were too much for the Rams to defend. I guess they now all get to go to Disney World!   

  

Monday, February 4^th., 2019……  We had a pretty good rain last night. And it was cold. But it didn’t snow - at least not on us. There is a hill back of our house, I’m guessing about a mile away that was covered with snow this morning when I took Rylee out for our walk.  We are supposed to have a few days of colder weather. Cold for us, but not near as bad as the Midwest, so I consider us lucky.

I spent some time online this morning looking for towel bars for our master bath. We have some we can buy from Home Depot but before we do that, we want to see what else is out there.  Lydia also found a wall clock for the dining room at Fred Meyer that we can buy on Amazon for way cheaper, so we looked at those while we were online.   

Today was Lydia’s consult. We liked Hanna, the physician’s assistant, who met with us and she reviewed Lydia’s history and asked all the right questions. Then she explained all of the possible scenarios for the future. After talking with her, the best plan as it stands today is to go ahead and fill out the necessary forms for surgery for the future.  But they want to wait until they can consult with their Samaritan kidney transplant team specialist for advice on possible alternatives, one of which might be a temporary reduction in dosage of the anti-rejection meds she has been taking for years. The gastro doctors seem to think that those meds are blocking the effectiveness of the antibiotics to treat the diverticulitis. If that is an option, it might avoid surgery. If that is not advised, then it is likely that the surgery for a colon re-section will take place. They said it would be probably in March sometime. Recovery is 6-8 weeks so, that means any travel plans we were contemplating can’t be made until the recovery is complete. Lydia is good with either option – she wants this to go away!

We got back home and relaxed for a while, then heated up leftovers for dinner and then watched our taped AGT until bedtime.    

       

Tuesday, February 5^th., 2019…... I got up around 3:30am to pee and Rylee wanted out. Guess what? It was snowing! Baby’s first snow!  Once I got back to bed, I wasn’t in any hurry to get up. When we did, Rylee ventured out slowly at first, then decided it was one big ice cube to lick!  But thankfully that stopped after a bit. It had dropped about one inch on the ground overnight. Although it had stopped snowing (nothing in the forecast today) it wasn’t going anywhere. So, I waited until around 11:30am to take pooper dog out for her walk. We found out that Rylee is really NOT a white dog! Compared to snow that is. You can actually see her in the snow.

After about 12:30pm the sun peeked out through the clouds and it warmed up enough to melt it slowly away. By 3:30pm it was gone! We saw on tv (on our Portland feed) that they were having tons of trouble up there. They had way more snow and colder temps than we did and they had black ice during rush hour. They just kept getting more and more reports of accidents. You’d think folks up there would have learned to drive in it by now! Back here at home, we had no place to go so we just waited it out and watched tv and worked the jigsaw puzzle for a while.  Later, Lydia got a call from her dr. They want her to do a new round of labs so she had to drive to the hospital to do that. But she said the roads to and from were dried out and she had no issues. I helped her with the defrosting of the pork chops (yeah, I know – big job!) and when she got home, they were thawed. She did get a call from her Nephrologist. Turns out she was the first call the surgeon’s office made on her behalf. After conferring, the decision right now is to reduce the dosage on her anti-rejection meds. Dr. Leonard agrees that it might be blocking the antibiotics. She’s called in a prescription for the lessor medication.  Lydia fixed the pork chops with mushroom gravy and the rest of our smashed potatoes from the other night.  After dinner Walgreens called and she went to the drive-thru and picked it up. Once she got back, we relaxed, watched tv and then called it a night.    

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #11 – A Little Shopping, Setting up a Consult, and Picking up my Chair

 

Thursday, January 31^st., 2019…...   This morning we decided to head out to Albany for a little shopping. My sister wanted some items from Lowe’s and I needed a belt for my sander. We picked up Penny and went to Shirley May’s for breakfast.  Turns out all three of us ordered the same breakfast – three eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast. But the girls only wanted two eggs. Shirley asked me if I wanted their extra egg? "Sure", I said. So, my meal was now served with five eggs! After the predicted cholesterol jokes, I proceeded to eat up everything on my plate! It was perfect!

After that filling meal, we headed on over to Home Depot and then to Lowe’s and then back to Home Depot. The weather is changing for us. I know the folks back east are dealing with record cold, and we are lucky it’s just cooler for us right now. It was 33º when we left Shirley’s and my car beeped a warning that there may be ice on the roads.  But the sun was trying to come out and the roads were fine.  We made the rounds with no issues. My sister bought two new light fixtures for her hallway and I installed those for her and then we left to go back home to feed the butthead. I went out and installed the new belt on the sander.  It was still chilly out there and since I didn’t have any projects to work on, I came in and we kicked back for the rest of the day. With that big breakfast under my belt, I skipped lunch. Lydia hadn’t gotten anything out for dinner so I went to KFC and picked up dinner and we ate (I had a super light meal) and watched more episodes of Guy’s Grocery Games that we had gotten behind on again.        

Friday, February 1^st., 2019……  Sprinkles are back again. Nothing strong at all – just enough to wet the ground. Rain is coming tonight and tomorrow, so the temps were up to 45º this morning when I walked Rylee. They say that next week the temps are expected to drop and the snow levels will be lower. They may come down to 1000 ft. (we are at 340 ft. here in Lebanon) so we’ll see. I went to Walmart after our morning walk and got syrup and sausages for French toast. While I was out, Lydia got her call for the surgical consult. It is setup for this coming Monday afternoon. She’s feeling better this week, with only a few cramps now and then. They said they will run a few more scans but just meeting with the surgeon will ease her mind in case they might need to operate.  We also called the kids in Florida. Their new golden doodle puppy, Maddie, has had some complications from her recent spaying. She’s back in the veterinary hospital but they said she’s doing better today. We know how they feel and wanted to call to check on them. It’s tough when a dog is not feeling well. On a lighter note, I also got a call from La Z Boy that my chair is prepped and is wrapped and sitting in the back room ready for pickup tomorrow. We are planning on heading down early in case the rains come in. Yes, I have my tarp already in the truck! I spent the morning taking the old chair out to the shop. I may leave it out there for a bit but I don’t think I want to keep it in the shop where it would get dirty. Besides, it’s really jacked up - maybe I’ll just dismantle it and toss the pieces in the woodpile, recycle and trash. I came back in the house and got the vacuum out and got my room done.  I kept going and vacuumed the rest of the carpets and sucked up all the little ‘Ryleedevils’ floating around on the wood floors. Jeff texted and gave us a heads up on uploading Google Duo on Lydia’s cell. It allows real-time video between Apple and Android phones. Once installed, he called and we got to see Maddie, relaxing at home now. She’s doing well. We had a nice talk then Lydia got dinner going. We had tri-tip with a cauliflower/broccoli/cheese casserole and smashed potato dinner and watched tv until bedtime.     

      

Saturday, February 2^nd., 2019…... Light rain (drizzle) again last night. We managed to get out this morning for my walk with Rylee in between the sprinkles. Then we took off to drive down to Eugene (30 miles) to pick up my chair. We left early enough to stop for breakfast and then stop by Jerry’s Hardware before heading over to La Z Boy. As promised, it was sitting there all wrapped up. The wrap was enough and there was no rain around so I didn’t need the tarp. I covered it with the cargo net and we headed back home. I just had to back up the truck into the garage and unload it and Lydia and I manhandled it into my room and I was good to go!

Lydia took off and went to Walmart and got stuff for spaghetti and when she got back, we both relaxed until dinner. We knocked out a few more episodes of Guys Grocery Games while we ate. Then we spent the rest of the evening watching our own taped shows before calling it a night.