Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #36 – Doggie Duty & New Phones

 

Tuesday, April 16^th, 2019…... This morning when I went over to feed Bailey and Lucy, I found they had cleaned up their plates! Lucy, the little Yorkshire Terrier, was really happy to see me! She is the curtest little thing and won’t leave me alone until I give her some attention. Bailey is a little standoffish and he never left his place on his chair. Yesterday he followed me around and I gave him a pre-treat of chicken before I put the plates down. But today, he was content to just sit and watch. I got all of that done and left there and got coffee/tea/breakfast for us this morning. The weather is really nice today. We have sun and warmer temps. It is still in the low 50s in the morning but it got into the 60s later in the day. I went out and got my chain saw out, ready for the apple tree removal project, only to discover I didn’t have any bar chain oil for it. I didn’t make a trip yet to go get it but may go later today or tomorrow.

Kirk came by and we decided not to continue on the moss removal project for the house today. He had finished and shop and has about ½ of the house done. Since we have nice weather, but he has limited time today, he wanted to do some more work on the flowerbeds to finish them up. His deal with me is to give me x number of hours a month, his choice, to get to my allowance of $200.00.  He does his Lebanon work on Tuesdays, including my sister’s house before me. He is also starting now with Lou, doing the same type of arrangement, so he can do us both in the same day.  He wants to come back on Saturday to do the moss work, which is ok with me. He finished up with us and headed down there to work for the rest of the afternoon. I walked Rylee down there again and checked in with him and that gave Rylee a chance to get out again in the nice weather.

During the day, I got two deliveries – one from UPS, the other from USPS. Each delivered one cell phone. Now remember, these were ordered at the same time! Go figure! I’m guessing one location didn’t have both, so they had to come from two different ones. No worries – we got ‘em! I have instructions on how to download all the data and files from our old phones and transfer them to our new ones, but we are going tomorrow to the Verizon store to have that done for us. Hey, we’re old! Let someone else do the work!

Later, my sister came over with the dog. She leaves tomorrow for her trip to Utah to visit Jody and we are keeping Quincy here. She had gone to the egg ranch and brought us our ‘order’. Boy, it’s great to have farm fresh eggs!  We fed the dogs here then left after a bit and stopped by to feed L & B and then went from there out for dinner. We chose the Point out on Foster Lake. Penny insisted on treating us. Thanks, Sis!  On the way home, I made a slight detour and toured the fishing spot that I found there last year. It looks good so now I’ll plan on hitting it soon!  After we got back, Sis went back home and rested before her zero-dark-thirty shuttle transfer tomorrow.

Later, I went online and found a hotel room for our April 26^th meeting with Lydia’s doctor. We’re going up on Thursday (4/25) and staying so Lydia will be going through the ‘prep’ work there and that will make it easier for her. Her procedure isn’t until 4:00pm so we’ll stay another night (Friday 4/26) and drive back home on Saturday. I’m glad to get that reservation done! Quincy had found her place on our bed until we settled in and displaced her. She ended up on the couch and was happy. We were done for the night.     

Wednesday, April 17^th, 2019……  Today was a busy day! I had FOUR dogs to feed. But first I got Rylee out for her walk up the street and then back in the house.  Then, the Q out for her walk (and poop) in the field, and finally, Lydia let Rylee back out to let them run together for a while. I dried both of them off and made them their breakfast before we set out to Lou’s to take care of Lucy and Bailey, on our way to run some errands. We had packed our new cell phones. First stop was Walmart for a couple of items but most importantly, cash, for breakfast at Kevin’s. That done, we stopped by the hospital for Lydia’s Wednesday blood draw. Then we drove to the Verizon store in town. There were only two girls working but they couldn’t have been nicer! It took a few minutes to get everything into the system and the download/upload process started. Since we had a few minutes to kill, we left and went to the Wilco store in the same center and bought a few things, including the bar chain oil for my chain saw, and when we went back, both phones were done. I was impressed because everything came over. We will have questions going forward because these Note9 phones do SO much more than our old Note 2 and 3!  We both got chargers with the phones of course, but we also bought a wireless charger that will go on the kitchen counter that either of us can use when needed. We came home and rested for a while then it was time to feed the dogs again. Lou was due back this afternoon so I was done over there, but we still had our two to take care of. Once they were let out for a while, we then headed off to the shuttle stop to pick up Penny’s car. Lydia drove it back to her house and put it in her garage. We left there and went by Taco Bell and picked up dinner. That was one busy day for us!

Later, we watched Survivor and then the Amazing Race which started tonight. I think we will sleep well tonight!    

             

Thursday, April 18^th, 2019…...  The weather couldn’t have been nicer the last couple of days. Temps yesterday actually got into the high 70s! Yaay!  We need a good run of this so I can get that dam lawn mowed! The nights are not as cold now either. We went from the 40’s to the 50’s at night. With the temps so nice, it was time to shed blankets on our bed. We always have the thermostat turned down to 65º at night and like to sleep cooler, with blankets as needed. Better than an overheated room! We have two lightweight cotton blankets and each of us has a flannel ‘throw’ to use as needed. Well, since the new temps, those have now gone away. Next step is to go to one blanket but that might be a while yet. Rylee got us up early and we let both of them out for their duties, then went back to bed. But an hour later, around 6:30am, Quincy came into our room, looking for me to get up and going. OK! I got showered and repeated the process from yesterday. Rylee sure is happy, but I find I’m glad not to have to take care of two dogs full time.  I went out and got breakfast/coffee/tea and we relaxed and ate.

As I said, the weather is NICE! I decided to go out and take care of the apple trees today. I filled up the chain saw with the bar oil and ran a cord out there (this is an electric saw), and got going. I have three trees, one larger one and two smaller ones. It was really pretty easy and I got everything done in about 20 minutes total, but I split it up and came in and had a cold soda after the big tree. I left the main trunks, which I will tackle another time.

The brush got piled up and I will get to that another time as well. Most importantly, I now have access to the grass below the trees. The first cut will be from the weed-whacker and then from my small gas walk-behind lawnmower. It’s still really soggy out that way, but the good news is that these last two days have really helped with drying out the rest of the lawn. Rain is forecast for tomorrow but the weather reports all say not until later in the day, so I think I will go out early and weed whack the tight areas in preparation for mowing tomorrow afternoon. Fingers crossed!

We heard from Utah today. Looks like someone got their In&Out fix!!

We have spent some serious time both yesterday and today working with and learning our new phones. The difference between our old generation models and these new ones is quite remarkable. It does take some getting used to but I have mine working the way I want it to and have all of my standbys where I can easily view them. The camera quality blows me away!  Lydia is still messing with hers and wants to go back to Verizon and ask them some questions. Hopefully, that will help. We are also looking into turning the old phones in. Sarah, at Verizon, told us they take old non-tradeable phones and scrub them and donate them to women’s shelters and such. We liked that. When we made the transition, they ran a program called smart switch, which just cloned everything to the new phones, so right now, our old phones still have everything on them except the phone accessibility. I liked that because now we can see what we had and where it is in the new screen views.

Both Quincy and Rylee are doing well. They get along fine and Rylee doesn’t pester her all the time, like she does whenever they visit. They each have their own sleeping place at night but last night we were surprised that Q came in and got up on the bed with us, - and yes, including monster puppy!  But she relaxed and went right to sleep. We thought she might have been scared from sounds or something in the house. We’ll see what happens tonight. During the day, we can let Quincy out in the yard, on a rope, and let her enjoy some time lounging in the sun, which she does at home. Rylee got her time outside earlier, with me, when I was working on the trees.  

Lou called me after he got home yesterday evening and thanked me for caring for the dogs. He said he really enjoyed the trip and the race. I didn’t ask him how his daughter did but will later. Lydia asked me if I had lunch (I had not) and since she had not, we had an early dinner.  After we ate and I got the kitchen cleaned up, we took a walk with the dogs and I showed her the new ‘treeless’ area. She also checked one section of her tulips. They are looking good!

We got back in and settled in for the evening and watched our programs until bedtime. Let’s see what happens and if we have another ‘two dog night’ tonight!