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Lebanon, Oregon, United States
We are Terry & Cathye Kinkelaar. If you've followed my blog in the past, you know that Lydia, my beautiful wife of 52 years, and I made the lifestyle choice to move to Oregon in 2017. You've seen my posts about losing her in May 2020 to cancer. Although I was left alone, I am pleased to say that I have found happiness again. In April 2021, I met Cathye, who also lost her longtime husband in 2020. Well, we fell in love and were married in April 2022. So, if folks are still interested, I will continue to post here as we move forward with our lives and adventures!

Saturday, March 23, 2019

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #27 – Removing Moss and Another Trip to Portland


 

Wednesday, March 20th, 2019…...  We actually got to sleep in a bit this morning. We got Rylee fed and then she came back to bed after gobbling up her breakfast. But, instead of playing, she was content to lay down at the foot of the bed, so we took advantage and got a few more minutes to rest and doze for a bit. My sister came over with Quincy and Lydia got up to let Rylee out to run while I took a shower and got dressed. She made a call to the surgeon’s office this morning. She wanted to let them know how she was doing. The report is that not much has improved since coming off of the antibiotics. She is still toying with the colon resection surgery but she wants to see if he recommends another round of antibiotics or maybe just scheduling it. The physician’s assistant called back later in the afternoon and took down some more info to pass on to the dr. who will call back tomorrow or Friday.
Today, Kirk was coming over for most of the day to work on powerwashing the moss off the house. After breakfast, I got my ladder out and positioned on the shop, where he will start first. I got out my power washer and got the water hose and electric hooked up. He got there and got started. I chose the shop because it is not as steep a pitch as the house. He spent quite a bit of time on the shop and the pressure worked well in removing all of the moss. But I saw it was going into the rain gutters. I have an issue with that because the downspouts go into a closed system that goes into underground pipes that channel everything out to the rain ditch way out (125’ or more) by the street. I don’t want to force anything down there that might get clogged up. So, I had him wash it down close and then straight off the side of the roof, avoiding the gutters. That worked well so all he had to do was use his blower and send it off to the grass, where I can get it when I mow. After a short break, he moved on to the house. He had another job to do today, so he only did about a third - the garage and my office on the west end of the house. We got everything cleaned up and Kirk left. Lydia had said she wanted to go to dinner.  I chose The Depot in Albany for scallops. It’s not fancy but it’s my favorite seafood place in the area. We got back and fed monster puppy and let her out to run for a bit before coming in for the night. We watched Master Chef Jr and got all caught up on that and then moved on to watch tonight’s Survivor we had taped, before calling it a night.              

Thursday, March 21st, 2019……  This morning we planned on heading back to Albany to go to Lowe’s. But first we stopped at Elmer’s for breakfast. Yummy!  Lydia wanted some more plants and I was looking for a dryer flexible vent exhaust line for my motorhome garage. We also looked at new vanity light fixtures for the master bath. She also found and bought some more colorful plants for the yard. Oh boy, more work for me!
The rain was back today. The weather report shows a few small cells offshore for the next couple of days. During the drive today, we saw only sprinkles that barely got the ground wet. We had seen a report on the news yesterday about the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival in Woodburn. We went last year (Rylee’s first outing!) and it was gorgeous!  But the late winter has screwed up the expected peak bloom so the fields look barren. They will still have the festival but they won’t have the crowds this time. We’ll pass too. Lydia heard back from the gastrologist. They have an opening tomorrow so we’ll head up there.  
     
Friday, March 22nd, 2019…... This morning we got up and went to get coffee and then to meet my sister at another one of Linda’s estate sales. They opened at 7:45am and the cars were lining the street and the house was full of folks looking for bargains when we got there. Lydia and I hardly ever buy from one of these sales. The little company Linda works for always prices everything on the higher end. They expect all of the good stuff to go on Friday at the higher prices (which is good for the sellers). On Saturday they mark everything down to half price IF you spend $25.00 or more. We met up with my sister and talked a bit before we left. I asked her to feed Rylee if we don’t get home from Portland in time. As I mentioned, we didn’t buy anything and left to go to breakfast. Penny joined us at Kevin’s and then afterward, we came back home and Lydia got ready and we headed up north. We had plenty of time so we took Hwy 99 instead of I5. The GPS routed us there with no issues. Not much on the physical exam side, the dr. visited with us for the most part. Lydia told him that on Monday she was ready for surgery but each day from that she has been feeling a little better. He is not in a hurry nor wants to push surgery any time soon. Even though he wrote her a prescription for more antibiotics, he would rather she go as long as she can without because the cycle starts over again. She needs to go without (if she can) so he can get read on if she’s healing or not. We both felt that it was a great meeting and worth the long drive. He did discuss her diet and made some recommendations about eating a higher fiber diet for a while which is easier on her system. He wants her back in a month for a flexible sigmoidoscopy. That’s the mini version of a full colonoscopy. She only needs that because her issues are in the lower section of her colon. After getting out of the underground parking structure and back on the street we headed back home the same way we came up, but decided to stop in Salem at Olive Garden for ‘linner’ and then headed home. Penny was still there after feeding Rylee. She brought Quincy and they played for a while and that gave monster puppy some exercise for the day. We ate a few cookies for dessert and we were good for the night, which we spent watching our programs.      

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