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.       

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #110 – Insurance, Motorhome Work and Getting Pain Managed

 

Monday, Nov 25^th, 2019……  God, I hate insurance companies!  As I mentioned before, we have switched our UHC PPO to a UHC HMO. Well, I got the welcome/confirmation call on Friday. They couldn’t tell us why Lydia’s hasn’t come through yet. I have to notify Boeing by Tuesday so they wouldn’t continue deductions on our old PPO, so I wanted to get this resolved. I made a call direct to the number that called me on Friday. I was transferred a few times and eventually found out they were not holding it up – Medicare was. It seems they show Lydia as a dialysis patient, even though she was only on it for 8 weeks back in 1998!  They will not provide insurance if the person is currently on dialysis. Back in 2017, when we were with the UHC HMO they required a letter from her doctor stating she was a renal patient, with her own working kidney, not requiring dialysis.  Bottom line after a lot of complaining is that we have to again provide that information to get her authorized and processed. We have calls in to both her current nephrologist and our current physician to get a letter generated that we can fax in to them. Sucks but we need to get er done! 

I went out this morning and got breakfast and once we got all of the above calls completed, I headed out to work on the ladder project out in the shop. I had to add some more support for the plywood shelves on the ladder because I bought plywood sheets that were too thin and they were curved (aka bowed) too much to use as is.  I was trying to keep it all light but should have bought thicker plywood for the shelves. I can always change them out later if need be. I turned on the tv out there and since I had just bought more propane bottles, I was able to turn my Mr. Heater Buddy on and got the chill out of the room. That works well but I think that I might just try the stove that is in there next time. I haven’t even fired it up since we have been here but I am getting so much firewood recently that I need to get that thing going and use some of it for a change! I hadn’t saved many newspapers (for kindling) but I will take them out of the recycle and that should be enough for the rest of the season. I spent a few hours and got 90% done of what I wanted completed. I will go out again this afternoon but came in to rest and eat something.

Ok, it’s later now and I didn’t make it back to my project. Lydia’s nephrologist’s office called back and said that the doctor had made up a letter and signed it.  We decided to just go there (she was in the Corvallis office today) and have them fax it for us. I brought the cover sheet I had made up with the UHC reference numbers and Lydia’s info and put them together and had the office send it off.  I will have to check in tomorrow with UHC and see that it is in work. We decided to stop at Arby’s on the way home for dinner. Once we got back, we had to feed our poor starved puppy. We settled in and later watched Dancing With the Stars. I really didn’t care who won and just wanted fair judging.  But I was surprised that Ally didn’t win, or score better than third. I was also not surprised that they have decided to not have the show in the spring, choosing to do the next one in the fall. I think all of the folks either moving on or getting voted out early has taken it's toll on the ratings.     

Tuesday, Nov 26^th, 2019……  Today I had to get moving early. I had an 8:00am appointment in Albany to drop off my motorhome for the scheduled brake job. I got going around 7:00am!  I had asked my sister to come by and pick me up at the Home Depot across the street from Peterson Trucking.  That way I didn’t have to hook and unhook the tow car. Meanwhile, Lydia took off to get her mri done. I got the coach parked and they checked me in and I was done and went over to HD to wait.  A bit later, Sis picked me up and we headed home, stopping by her place on the way so I could help her a bit with an excel spreadsheet she was working on. When she brought me back home, Lydia was already here. She said they dressed her in scrubs and put her into the machine. It was only for her foot but they have their procedure to follow. No results yet. She said when she got home, she called her doctor to let him know she had done the mri plus she wanted to ask for some pain meds. Last night we were both up most of the night. She had taken some Vicodin but they really didn’t stop the pain and wouldn’t allow her to sleep. I even took monster puppy and went off to my chair to allow her to try to relax. Didn’t help. They called back later to say that they had phoned in a prescription to Walgreens. We’re waiting for the pharmacy to call so we can get her meds.   

Meanwhile, I went back out to the shop and finished up adding the support lumber to the shelves. They no longer bow. I came in and rested for the day. Walgreens called back and said they needed authorization approval from the insurance company before they could process the order. They also had to check back with her doctor so see if it could be filled using a generic brand. So, no relief for tonight.... 

Later, I made ravioli and sauce and cheese bread for us for dinner. I had her try Tylenol pm which turned out to work well and she was able to sleep most of the night.

  

Wednesday, Nov 27^th, 2019……  We didn’t have anything going today. I had to make a run to Walmart to get a few things for dinner tonight and tomorrow, plus I needed ink cartridges for the new printer.  The weather here has turned again. There is a major storm that is hitting the northwest and well down into California. They are expecting snow in Portland. We are in the Willamette Valley and the elevation here in Lebanon is only 340 ft. and snow levels are down to 1200 ft. so they say we are ok. But it’s still in the 30s this morning expected to maybe get into the high 40s. So, when I get out to the shop later, I most definitely will get the furnace going!   As mentioned, there was a problem with the insurance for the prescription that the doctor called in to Walgreens yesterday so they were going to get back to his office for a possible alternative. This is probably because Dr. Wimmer isn’t her regular doctor and he most likely prescribed a name brand drug, which won’t be approved without authorization. Hopefully, they will work that out and we can get these meds today. Meanwhile, nothing back yet about the motorhome. They would like to get it done today and out of the shop but the guy said if they needed air valves or new brake drums or something they didn’t stock, it likely wouldn’t be done today.

After my Walmart run, I headed out to the shop. It was actually warm enough out there to only need the buddy heater. I got the first coat on the new wood I added. Hopefully, I have enough paint for the second coat on those. Then, except for assembly, I will be done. Lydia didn’t hear back from her doctor on the meds but the pharmacy called and is waiting for the authorization for insurance. She has had to wait in the past for authorization for her specialty anti-rejection drugs so this is not unusual. Walgreens pharmacy is closed tomorrow but the Tylenol pm worked well last night and she will use that again. She did get a call today from an orthopedic surgeon office in Corvallis to schedule a consult (Dec. 10). Obviously, the mri results are in but the girl didn’t know anything other than to make an appointment for Lydia. After that call, Lydia made a call to Dr. Wimmer and asked if he could tell her what they found. But, with the holiday, we most likely won’t hear back until next week.  I was back in and relaxing after my work out in the shop. Later, Lydia sent me to KFC to pick up dinner. But, guess what - the pharmacy called and said they received approval to fill the  prescription and it would be ready in 30 minutes. I went off and picked it up. Later, we settled in and watched Survivor. The Masked Singer was a repeat I guess because of the holiday tomorrow. We both stayed up later than normal and Lydia took her meds a little before calling it a night. We'll see how it goes tonight....          

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #109 – Finally, Mowing & Other Chores

 

Friday, Nov 22^nd, 2019……  It was cold again this morning, but I still was able to get out and get Rylee walked without freezing to death in my shorts!  As long as I can keep my ears and hands and chest warm, I seem to be good to go. Plus, the sun popped up as I was out so that helped! I called this morning and got an appointment to get the coach in to Peterson Trucking for the brake job. They will also lube the chassis and find and fix the bad valve, or whatever it is, that’s causing the air to drop the coach on the right side. I am set up for early, early next Tuesday so they will have that day and Wednesday before they close for the Thanksgiving Holiday. The brake job is no problem and they seem to think the air leak should be easy as well.

I went out and got breakfast/coffee/tea this morning and then later in the morning we took off to Albany to go to Target, Lowes, and Kohls. We got everything we were looking for and headed home. I ate a quick lunch and went out and got the tractors started and running. My sister came over and took one out and did the field while I tackled the lawn. It was still pretty wet and we have chunks of wet grass to go out and pick up tomorrow. But at least the mowing is done, probably the last time this season. I need to get a battery for the newer tractor plus maybe get them both in for blade sharpening, etc. The Husqvarna may have a bent blade or maybe needs an adjustment because it gouges on one side when you make a turn. But I won’t worry about any of that until just before spring.  

I came in and cleaned up and my sister headed back home. Later, neither of us was hungry so we just snacked and skipped a cooked meal. We both watched our programs before calling it a night.     

Saturday, Nov 23^rd, 2019……  A few things on the agenda today. Sis had asked me to install another grab bar in her guest shower so after walking and feeding Rylee, I texted her to get a time. I didn’t hear back so I took off to go to Lowes again to get some more lumber for my ladder project. On the way back she texted that she was good to go anytime. So, I just stopped by on my way home. We got the bar installed and then I helped her put her Thanksgiving stuff away and we also worked on her computer for a bit. She wants to install Office but doesn’t need all the bells and whistles and isn’t keen on paying for the service each year. I found a reduced fee for an older version that is lifetime so she will be installing that. Before I left the house, Lydia had me get out some tri-tip for dinner but while I was at my sister’s we talked about going out to dinner. We chose Taqueria Dos Arbolitos so the tri-tip will be for tomorrow. It was margarita time tonight!  Our bingo friend, Lois, had told us Thursday about blackberry margaritas so we tried those and liked them!  I was stuffed and felt uncomfortable for a bit before all of that big meal (and alcohol) wore off. But it did make me sleepy and by the time I was ready to come to bed, Lydia was already there and fast asleep!  

  

Sunday, Nov 24^th, 2019……  No races or anything to watch today, so after our morning walk and breakfast and reading my newspaper, I spent most of the day watching football and making up my binder for next year’s races, and auctions. I can locate the schedules for all of these online and print them out to tape into a binder. That makes it easy to reference to make sure I get them all recorded. Lydia is still hurting and has been good about staying off her bad ankle/heel. She’s experiencing a lot of pain (which we know is typical of a torn Achilles) and has been real good about taking her pain meds.  90% of the time, she can manage it with just Tylenol but occasionally she needs a Vicodin. She goes in on Tuesday for her MRI. We needed to cook that tri-tip today. We invited my sister to come over. She brought the salad and veggies and we had a nice meal.  Later, after she left, we settled in and watched tv until bedtime.

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #108 – An Expensive Lesson and a Free Turkey Dinner!

 

Tuesday, Nov 19^th, 2019……  Rains came last night. We don’t get much, just enough to make everything wet. I had an appointment for service for the motorhome. Since I couldn’t move it, I was sure that the brakes were locked for some reason. Plus, I have a sway on the passenger side so there is an air leak somewhere that I needed to have looked at. The tech, TJ, got here about 1:30 and went to work.  We tried everything from the top, including shifting back from drive to reverse and couldn’t get the brakes to release so he crawled under to try to disconnect and work them loose. Long story short – the wheels have to come off so they can get to the hubs and work them loose from the outside. He said that since the coach hasn’t moved in months (remember – I start the motor up each week and run the systems but didn’t think about moving it at all) that would cause them to rust over even when stored inside. He ran out of time so he will be coming back tomorrow with some more equipment to jack up the wheels and pull the tires. 

Hopefully, that will be that. We’ll see…

After he left, I came in and moved clothes from the dryer for Lydia so she didn’t have to get up on her bad heel. She had already gotten fish out so she fixed that for dinner. We settled in and folded clothes and watched tv until we got tired and went to bed.  

Wednesday, Nov 20^th, 2019…...  I was up early and had everything done before TJ showed up. I was his first call but he didn’t get here until 9:30am. It took all of the morning and into the afternoon before he had the wheels and the drums off. 

As he predicted, we discovered that because it had been sitting so long, the shoes had been encrusted onto the drums.  He actually had to chisel off the stuff on the drum. He got everything operational and put back together and I moved the coach forward and back to double check. I will need new brakes immediately and will set that up for next week. Unfortunately, for now, because I had what they call emergency road service (which is over twice the shop rate, plus mileage), I had to shell out over $1800. for something I could have prevented all along.  I go out to the garage every week and start the coach and run the systems but I never thought about moving it at all, which would have prevented all of this. With new brakes coming, it will be a pretty expensive lesson!  While I was doing all of this, Lydia headed off to play bingo. She didn’t win but she said the lady sitting in my chair did. Dam!  They told her they missed me. But we will be heading back tomorrow for their pre-thanksgiving (free) turkey dinner.

Later, I helped her fix tacos for dinner and, while we ate, we got caught up on some Guys Grocery games before later watching The Masked Singer and Survivor. They revealed one more identity - The Flower was Patti Labelle, which we had guessed/figured out a few weeks ago.      

  

Thursday, Nov 21^st, 2019……  The weather turned again today! No rain, but the chill is back! Yesterday, it was in the 40s in the morning but today it was 29º at 4:45am when I let Rylee out to pee/poop! There was frost on my trash cans and the grass is all white from frost. It is supposed to get to 54º today but we have to see if the grass dries out before we can mow.

Today was Turkey day at the senior center. We had picked up our free tickets a couple of weeks ago. Lydia said that when she was at bingo yesterday, she could smell the roasters going throughout the center as they were pre-cooking the turkeys for today. They started serving at noon, seating was 11:30am. We stopped by at 11:00am and picked up Janice because my sister was going to meet us there after her morning Drs. appointment. We got in line and got in and seated. There were over 250 people there for the meal. Sis joined us and we had a nice meal. Lois. One of our bingo gals, joined us at our table. They served the full shebang - turkey, with mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, stuffing, corn, and a roll. Plus, pumpkin pie for dessert. They had the Albany High School Choir there to serve everyone. We only had to leave our seats for coffee and/or apple cider. Afterward, they performed a few songs acapella. Pretty good. All in all, it was a fun day!

Once we got back home, we didn’t want to do too much the rest of the day. I guess it was the tryptophan! We did go out later to Walmart and did our grocery shopping. We also added cold cuts from their deli for submarine sandwiches for dinner. I tried to stay awake after dinner but I had an ache in my ankle and took a couple of Tylenol pm around 8:30pm so I went to bed super early and didn’t even hear Lydia come in later.     

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #107 – A New Recliner & New Insurance

 

Saturday, Nov 16^th, 2019……  We had a few things to do today. First up, after our walk and breakfast, was to clean out the chairs in Lydia’s room. These are the old chairs we used to have in our motorhome. They are older now and not as comfortable so it was time to replace them. The lazy boy chair we ordered last week was ready for pickup today. So, I moved them out and cleaned up the space. Then, we headed off in the truck to Eugene and made the pickup. We stopped in Brownsville on the way home and had lunch at the Brownsville Saloon. We were a little confused because we actually wanted to eat at the Blue Point Grill. It turns out that this is a false front, created for the movie Stand By Me, which was filmed here.

We had passed it many times and saw cars parked out front and thought people were coming out from dinner. Turns out the saloon next door actually expands inside into the Blue Point area. There is a pool table and video machines in that area inside. They serve food so that’s why we saw folks coming out after eating. I had a mushroom swiss burger and Lydia had a fish sandwich. They were both excellent!  We got back home and I unloaded and moved the new chair in. Lydia was tired and achy from the trip so she wasted no time in crashing in her new chair!

I got the old chairs stored in the shop. We were going to donate them to Goodwill or Habitat but they are both leather cracked and scratched, so I will just cut them up for firewood/trash. Once we were done, I headed off to my sister’s house to help her get down her Christmas stuff that is stored in the overhead racks in her garage. Then it was back home to rest for the day. Lydia got out chicken pies and we had those for dinner.

Sunday, Nov 17^th, 2019…...  Nothing on the agenda today. I had watched the first two Nascar races Friday and Saturday. They both crowned the Truck and Xfinity series champions. Today was the final Cup race. But first was the F1 race. Plus, I had football games to watch. After lounging around, I needed to get up and do something, so I went out and worked on the ladder parts. I wasn’t going to paint but I sanded down the pieces and flipped them over prepping them for the first coat on that side. The Cup race was excellent for the first two thirds. Then it was pretty much over as three of the top four drivers made mistakes. Kyle Busch won his second title. I didn’t care who won but just wanted to see a good race. It will be next year (Feb.) before the new season starts. Lydia had me go out and pick up dinner. We ate and watched tv until bedtime.   

  

Monday, Nov 18^th, 2019……  No rains yet this morning. I got Rylee out and walked and then fed early. We had an appointment today. Today was health insurance day!  When we were in Calif., we had a supplemental program, after Medicare (through Boeing), with Scan. Scan was not available here in Oregon so we chose a United Health Care HMO.  That was for our first full year up here (2018) and was comparably priced with Scan. We were ok with that. For 2019, Boeing discontinued the UHC HMO and we had to move over to a UHC PPO, which was considerably more expensive. For 2020, their enrollment premium was even higher, so we started looking outside the Boeing network.  We found that we could go to a United Health Care HMO, close to what we had in 2018, for even less than what Boeing was offering. So, once we were able to look everything over closely, we signed up for that plan. We both feel relieved to have that over with. After that, we were free for the day so I went back out and painted the first coat on the back side of my ladder project parts. Lydia made chicken for dinner and we settled in to watch Dancing With the Stars. I am ok with whoever wins but was kind of shocked that James Van Der Beek went home so early.  

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #106 – The Good and the Bad

 

Wednesday, Nov 13^th, 2019……  Today we had a few things on our list to do. I got Rylee out and walked and fed and then I made ham and egg and cheese sandwiches for breakfast. Then I headed out to prep the motorhome for my trip tomorrow to get new tires for it. I pulled in the slides and disconnected the water and my satellite connection. All of the tires are lower than I like but I think it will be ok to drive the 40 miles down to Coburg. While I was doing all of that, Lydia had an appointment with the dermatologist to get a second helping of their freeze thingy for the wart on her toe. That only took a few minutes and we were both back in the house and ready for bingo in the afternoon.  Yep, today was bingo day at the senior center. Well, not for us as it turned out! We just contributed. But it’s fun to play and the folks there are friendly and nice. They will play next week but we will be dark for the Thanksgiving week. We are also going back on the 21^st for their free pre-thanksgiving dinner. On the way home we stopped at Walmart to get stuff for beef stroganoff for dinner. Once we got home from that and rested a bit, it was time to eat. Lydia got everything together and after dinner, we settled in to watch the Masked Singer and Survivor. We taped the CMA’s to watch tomorrow. I was really lucky – I had a dumb guess that the Ladybug was Kelly Osbourne. I was confused when she was talking because she tried her hardest to sound like she was from down south somewhere. That threw me off but I thought I picked up a bit of a British accent here and there and because of the famous family clue, I started thinking about Kelly. I tried to picture it was Kelly when she sang. Plus, I remembered she mentioned she had kicked a few tires in her youth.  I admit it - I got lucky and got it right. I have guesses for one or two of the others but don’t have a clue about the rest.   

Thursday, Nov 14^th, 2019…... Well, it turns out that today was not a good day. Lydia had her appointment for her foot and I had one to get tires put on the front of the motorhome. For me I went out and started the coach and let it warm up, buckled in, released the air brake, and shifted into gear and tried to drive off. Problem is I couldn’t! After a bunch of minutes trying to figure this thing out, I gave up and shut it off. I can hear air hissing around the back tires. I am sure that I have an air line leaking. This issue has been going on for a long time now, even in California. The right side of the coach would lean an hour or so after I shut down. It was worse yesterday.  Plus, low air won’t let the brakes release so it won’t move.  So, I came in and told Lydia, then took the truck and headed out and drove to Lassen RV to try to get an appointment. I found out they do not work on chassis and engines but they sent me over to Peterson Trucking across the street who service both Cummins and Cat. I explained everything and the guy said he thought it was an air box or a leak in the line to the air box. We set up a service call for next week. I headed home and called Lydia on the way to see when she was going in this morning. She was there and would talk to me soon. When she got home, she said they x-rayed the foot again and nothing is broken. But the doctor is pretty sure she has a ruptured Achilles. He will be scheduling an mri to confirm. He gave her a boot that limits movement of the area and said there is not much to do except stay off of it and rest. If the mri shows a rupture, that most likely will mean surgery. Stay tuned….

She got home and made lunch and has been resting most of the day.  I went out to the shop and continued working on my ladder project. I got all of the pieces cut and sanded down, ready for paint.

Later, we had dinner and watched tv until bedtime.

  

Friday, Nov 15^th, 2019……  Today was gloomy. The forecast says we will get significant rain later tonight. But it did rain last night a bit. Not enough to wake us up but enough to put water in the ditch out front. Rylee likes her water so it is always a problem keeping her out of it when we are on our walks!  Lydia is doing ok, but when she moves wrong, even in the boot, it causes pain. But she was doing well enough to go to her nail appointment. She needed to have some ingrown toes worked on and had made this appointment just for that. When she got back, she said when they did her toes, they had to be careful not to move her foot wrong. But she was good to go. The rains turned into light mist and then quit altogether and the sun came out for a while. Oregon weather! It was nice enough for me to want to go out and work some more on my ladder project. I headed off to the hardware store and got a quart of red paint and started in. I got everything disassembled and spread out. I put the first coat on one side. There are a lot of parts so it took me a while. I got cleaned up and went back inside and was done for the day.  Earlier, I had taken out the lasagna from the freezer and we cut it up and had part of it for dinner. We had also frozen the sourdough so we had some of that as well. We watched our programs until bedtime.

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #105 –  Shopping for Both Tires and Medical Insurance

Sunday, Nov 10^th, 2019……  Another relaxing day. The weather is actually getting warmer. Mornings are still cold (in the high 30s low 40s) but the days are getting up to 70º. Problem is the clouds hang around until well into the afternoon making it still too wet on the grass to mow. I got butthead walked and fed and then headed out to Walmart to get bacon for breakfast. We just made bacon sandwiches but boy were they delicious and hit the spot! After cleaning up the kitchen I put on my flannel pants and stayed in the house the rest of the day. There are two more weekends of races left in the Nascar season. After today, the champions in all three classes will be crowned after Miami Homestead next weekend. Motocross, Indy Car and IMSA seasons are already over. F1 season has two more races but they already have crowned the season’s winner. But I always have football to watch. Lydia made tamales for dinner and we settled in and watched our programs until bedtime.  

Monday, Nov 11^th, 2019…...  This morning I wanted to go get some more prices for the motorhome tires so after walking and feeding Rylee, I headed over to Albany. FMCA’s website showed two Michelin dealers – one in Tangent and one in Albany. The Albany store has recently changed hands and doesn’t know anything about the program – strike one. I found the address in Tangent but there was no tire store there. Strike two. I’m not out because I pretty much made up my mind already anyway. I had spent some time researching on the web for my model Bridgestone tires as used by rv owners. The reports coming back were pretty good for that tire so I came home and called and made an appointment to get the coach in on Thursday for installation. Plus, these tires are about $130.00 cheaper for each tire over the Michelins. Considering I will be buying six more in the near future for the back, that’s considerable savings.

We also spent time today looking into our medical insurance for next year. We have always gone through the Boeing program for our medical, having to choose from the plans they have available to Oregon residents. The first year up here we had several choices from HMOs as well as PPOs, but, for some reason, most were discontinued and the only two offered to Oregon Boeing retirees this last year were Kaiser HMO and United Health Care PPO. They dropped UHC HMO (which we had) and we were forced to pay a way higher premium for the PPO. Granted, there were very little out-of-pocket expenses with the PPO, but the monthly premiums were hard to deal with. With the next year’s signups coming due, Boeing sent out their plan premiums and of course, they went up again. Significantly! So, we are researching the possibility of going out of their program and finding our own plan. Once we leave Boeing insurance, we can’t go back, so we’re trying to figure it all out.  We are Medicare with a supplement so we have calls in to Medicare agents as well as other supplement providers.  We even have a UHC agent coming next week to sit down to help us with our questions. Stay tuned….      

Ok, now for the good stuff!  Tonight was Dancing With The Stars. I already had picked my two candidates for elimination – neither of whom was Sean Spicer. I figured that the voters would rise again to save him once more. Boy was I happy to see him in the bottom two. About time! I think America finally gave up on voting him all the way to the end. They finally saw that for sure he couldn’t dance. Once he was before the judges, it was an easy vote for them to say goodbye. Now, finally, we can see the contest for what it is supposed to be.

   

Tuesday, Nov 12^th, 2019……  Rain is coming after a long record drought period for Oregon in the fall. We are supposed to get some late tonight. Kirk is out of town this week and next, but Cooper came over and pulled weeds from our flowerbeds today. I spent a few hours working on the village ladder project. I still need to determine the length and width of the shelves and buy those, plus get the paint, but it’s coming along. Here’s another pic of what I am doing – this one is using an actual ladder but looks more like what we are going for and shows the village houses like we already have. More to follow on this as well….

Lydia went to her mahjong game today and commented that the weather was nicer today. She said her foot was still hurting but actually came out and looked at my project and gave me some more direction. She also had met with Cooper to make sure he was pulling weeds and cutting back on the plants for the season. Later, we went out to Chinese for dinner. Our favorite place (Wing Ming) was closed for this and next week so we went to Ma’s Chinese instead. It was also pretty good so we were ok with that. We got back and I worked on the blog for a while. Lydia called Jeff and talked about Christmas gift exchange. Last year Randy and Maryanne came up with a good plan. Each of the four of us would go out and spend whatever you want and get a gift for yourself. On Christmas day we would Skype or Marco Polo (or whatever video chat we used - don’t remember) and each would share what they got. This way, we are not passing gift cards through the mail or online, like we had been doing in the past. It worked so well with R&MA and us, that Lydia called Jeff and Krista and explained what we were doing and asked if they wanted to participate this time as well. She’s on the phone with them now, but It sounds like it’s a go!

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #104 – Shopping and More Shopping

 

Thursday, Nov 7^th, 2019…… No rain up here yet. Portland weather news says it’s a record 13 days in October/November so far. And it looks dry until Saturday or Sunday. But it is still pretty cold. Sis has Quincy in her winter jacket. Rylee is still warm. Sure wish I had her thick hair! We did our walk and then we decided to head off to breakfast. We picked up Penny at the senior center where she left her car. We went to Shirley May’s and then from there we headed over to Albany to go to Big Lots and Home Depot. Lydia has seen placemats for the new dining room table and some other Christmas items she wanted to check out. Next stop was Home Depot. I needed to buy some 2” dowel for my ladder project and Lowes was out the other day. I got that and we headed back home. That was the end of the tasks for the day. It was too cloudy and overcast most of the day for me to want to go out and mow the lawn. So, I didn’t!  Maybe tomorrow.      

Friday, Nov 8^th, 2019…... I got up early and got in the shower. By the time I was out and dressed, sis was already here with Q - and Lydia had let Rylee out to run with her. So, I took off and got breakfast/coffee/tea. I missed out. Yesterday Starbucks were giving out reusable red coffee cups. Probably nice to have but no biggie.

I needed to go back online and do some research and review the process for buying tires for our motorhome through FMCA (Family Motor Coach Association – an RV network we have a membership with) so I can get an idea of what I want and get some prices before heading out and shopping around. 

Lydia asked a few days ago if we could go out on Friday someplace for clam chowder. We chose Eugene and Newman’s Grill for that and decided to go early for ‘linner’.  But first I wanted to stop by the Lazy Boy showroom and see what they had going on sale for Veteran’s Day. Lydia needs a good recliner for her room and we know Lazy Boy furniture. Our two recliners and our sofa and loveseat in the living room plus the recliner in my room are all Lazy Boy. Turns out most of the items were on sale and marked down. She found a recliner she liked and there were several fabrics to choose from and some you could have custom made.  She really liked the one on display so we just ordered one like that. It will be in and scotchguarded and ready for pickup next Saturday. We then left and went over to Newman’s for a nice linner. On the way back home, I stopped and got gas and then went next door to CGF Tires.  FMCA has a plan in place, cross country, for dealerships to sell Michelin RV tires thru them which passes the price savings to its members.  They have expanded that program to include passenger tires as well as adding Hankook and Continental tires to the list.  They sell me the tires and I pay the agreed upon price from FMCA. Using this process, the dealership gets more tires sold, even though at a discounted price. CGF was listed as a Continental participant and it was on the way home, so I decided to stop. CGF sells 99% Bridgestone and very few Continental but since FMCA just recently added Continental tires to their program, it’s new to the dealers. They will order as required. I met with Lexie, the girl at the counter who had never heard of FMCA. She had only been there four months so she got one of the other guys to help. He said they could get my tire size ordered and would follow the process. While we were talking, Lexie asked if she could quote a price for the same tire in a Bridgestone brand. Turns out it was the same specs and she could get it for me even less than FMCA. I got the quote in writing and left. I still want to check with the Michelin dealer in Albany tomorrow or next week before I decide. We got home and fed our poor starved puppy!  Then we settled in for the evening and watched our programs and races before calling it a night.

Saturday, Nov 9^th, 2019   Today was gloomy to say the least. I slept in and showered and got ready for the dreary day. I was planning on going to Albany but got lazy. I hung around the house. Lydia called Krista, our daughter-in-law, who is in the hospital, to see how she was doing. She was diagnosed this week with Lupus. Right now, she has an infection in both her large and small intestines and they are hitting her hard with antibiotics, all of which Lydia has experienced before. She also called our friend, Treasa, in Ohio, who is also in the hospital. She has a bleeding ulcer and they have her on meds and are running all sorts of tests. Get better soon - both of you!  I also heard from our friend, Janie, about plans being made for meeting up with everyone before the RV rally we are going to in Indio in January. I still am planning our trip down so this can now be factored into our planning. I was glad to get that info. So, with all of that going on, we decided to stay home for the day and relax. We each spent the time catching up on small projects. I hung a couple of mirrors – one in the mud/laundry room, and one in my shop bathroom. Lydia straightened up her craft room/tv room.  After that, I watched my races and she slept in front of her tv for most of the rest of the day. We had leftovers for dinner and then it was more tv before bed.  A quiet Saturday!   

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #103 – Buying a New Pressure Washer & Drs. Appointments and Bingo

 

Monday, Nov 4^th, 2019…… This morning I had my plans and Lydia had hers. I was heading off to Lowes to go buy by pressure washer. I already had figured out the one I wanted and I found it on sale in their pre-Black Friday ad, so I figured it was a good time to go get it. Plus, I already had several Lowes and Visa gift cards stockpiled up waiting for a sale. I also got some lumber for a project we want to complete before the Christmas holiday. It will basically look like this ……

but will be for all of our Christmas Village to be displayed. I got about half of what I needed and headed home. I put the pressure washer together, added oil and gas and fired it up!

  

It has way more psi than the electric Harbor Freight model I had been using around here.

I ran a test on some of the dirty area next to the rv shop and then put it away for the day.

I needed to spend some time working on the front porch lights. I replaced the old fixtures and installed the ones I recently got at Costco. They look similar to the old ones so I didn’t bother to take any pics. I think that I will go ahead and buy two more and replace the two on the garage side. You might remember my posting in the past that I replaced those with some we found at Costco last year. But these we just bought are new to Costco and turns out we like them way better so we will replace them as well. Maybe my sister wants the ones out there now since they are almost new and are led.  

We have been cleaning out the freezer so Lydia fixed more salmon for dinner. I used our guillotine slicer to cut up some potatoes to fry with the fish. We watched the usual terrible results of Dancing With the Stars. Another good dancer went home, leaving Mr. Spicer alive and ready to try next week’s dances. It’s interesting to watch how Tom Bergeron is handling this. He was the one who openly said before this all started that it wasn’t a good idea to get political contestants on the show because it would be a partisan vote and not based on talent. Even head judge Len said that even though they keep trying to throw the guy out of the boat, the public keeps throwing him back in!  If this keeps up, he could win the whole thing. That would be two times in a row and I think that could do the show irreparable harm.   

Tuesday, Nov 5^th, 2019…... Today, Lydia had a morning Drs. appointment in Albany and I drove her to that. Her last visit to our doctor here in town was for blood in the stool. They discovered it was just hemorrhoids, and they had her schedule a procedure for banding. I waited outside and she came out a while later and said the surgeon examined her and thought they weren’t bad enough to warrant any surgery at this time. He wants to see her next set of labs to see what her iron levels are and then he will decide what to do from there. We came back home and sis came by and she used our food sealer to separate and bag several packages of steak into smaller portions for freezing. Kirk dropped off Cooper again this afternoon and I had him go out and clean up some broken limbs on the tree out in the front by the driveway. Kirk dropped off his (actually my) work trailer because he is going to be out of town for the next two weeks. Cooper will go out while he’s gone and do some of the scheduled work but will just work out of the truck. Later, they went way out to the far end of the property and used the string trimmer to cut the field grass that butts up against our far neighbor’s fence way out at the end of the ‘west 40’.  Tonight, was another night for leftovers. Lydia had the fish and potatoes and I ate the spaghetti. We each watched our programs and then called it a night.   

Wednesday, Nov 6^th, 2019…...   Usually, before I head off to bed, I try to let Rylee out to pee and/or poop beforehand. If I can get her used to that schedule, maybe she won’t wake me up in the middle of the night to go out.  It has been working but it turns out that when one of us gets up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, that triggers butthead to want to go too!  I don’t think we can change us so we are dealing with it with her. This morning we discovered that neither of us had to take her out. I remember getting up last night but she stayed in bed and didn’t pester me. I hope that lasts!

Today, we had a few things to do. Lydia had to go have her blood pressure checked. She’s always been so good about taking her meds but for some reason she didn’t get her felodipine ordered and had missed it for a few days so she needed to see if that was an issue. No worries – it was good. Later, we went to play bingo again. Penny brought her neighbor MaraGlee this time. We had a packed house!  Lydia won two times, one of which was the last game which was Blackout. That paid $3.50! Big bucks! We left there and came home. I didn’t eat lunch so we fixed tacos and ate early. We watched the Little Mermaid, which I had taped. And then we headed off to the living room to watch Survivor and the Masked Singer. Last year we did pretty well guessing the stars behind the masks. This year, not so much. We got Johnny Weir and I got Paul Shafer. We both missed on Laila Ali but my sister figured her out.  Our problem is that we don't know anything about the others. We missed on Tyler Ninja Blevins, and Dr. Drew.  We did know enough to guess both Sherri Shepard and Raven Symone.  So, we are four for seven. Not bad but we're only guessing from here on out. We think we know who The Flower is. I can only narrow down The Thingamajig to a basketball player. We also have guesses for The Leopard, The Ladybug, and The Tree but I won't print them here in case you're playing the game too.