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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!

Wednesday, December 4, 2019

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


 

Sunday, Dec 1st, 2019……  First day of December! Christmas is in the air! Wow!
I have noticed that folks up here tend to really celebrate the holidays. A lot of houses get decorated for the 4th of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and, of course, Christmas.
The big news for today is SNOW! We had a news alert last night (our local stations via Directv come from Portland). They said a cold front was expected to come in late Saturday night and snow level could get down to 500 ft. in Portland. We are at 340 ft. here but the map showed snow all the way down throughout the Willamette Valley - which we all in the middle of – so we kind of thought we might see some this morning, especially up in the foothills around us. Turns out there was nothing up there this morning. We only got some black ice on our street.  The dew on the blacktop and asphalt street freezes during the night and makes it slippery until the temp gets up above freezing.  This morning it was no problem, just water in one of the low spots coming out of our neighbor’s driveway. But the drainage ditch, which always has water in it, was frozen. Rylee doesn’t care – she just walks through/on it!
My sister came over later today and put most of the ornaments on the tree for us. Thanks, Sis! She also helped me assemble the shelves on the ladder project. The whole thing was very wobbly so I had to put additional screws into it.  I guess the engineer (me) just screwed up his design!  But the screws helped and it is almost ready. Lydia relaxed in her chair and watched most of our work. She feels ok during the day but she is not getting out of her chair too much (except bathroom visits) and because she is resting her foot, that is keeping the swelling and the pain down. She will still call tomorrow to find out what the mri showed. We watched tv the rest of the afternoon and then I went out to James Gang and picked up a pizza for dinner.  We settled in and watched tv until bedtime.                                                

Monday, Dec 2nd, 2019…… This morning the driveway was a little slippery when I took the monster puppy out for our walk. It was early and cold but I made it ok. Since there was no rain, an hour later everything was dry. After I went out and got breakfast/coffee/tea, I spent some time finishing up the ladder project. I did some more touchup on the paint and have added the fake snow blankets on each shelf. I stopped so I could go out and work on the outdoor lights. It took a few trips out there so I could come back in and warm my hands but I got it all done. Lydia heard back from the doctor. Her mri shows a stress fracture and a lot of edema. She already has an appointment scheduled (12/10) with the orthopedic surgeon but Dr. Simmons said they will probably only do a drain and remove fluid. I’m betting that since they found that fracture, she will be in a bigger boot after that. We’ll see. Later in the day, I heard back about the motorhome. They replaced the rear brakes and also found the air leak(s). The parts are 4 days out and not cheap. I’m looking at $3500. for everything. A lot more than I expected. Plus, I will still have to spend $1200. for front tires next week.  But I have to have it operational to make the trip down south in Jan. At least we are done with our Christmas shopping. Lydia already got her new recliner and I have a new laptop being delivered to her on Wed. or Thurs.  I have my contracted carport job coming up soon and that’s my Christmas present.   
I fixed spaghetti for dinner and we settled in and watched The Great Christmas Light Fight which starts tonight. These people are crazy about Christmas. Some of them start working on their displays right after the 4th of July!  Nuts!  We enjoyed the first group of four houses because the one in Portland won!  I guess we’ll have to make a night run up there to see it.  
      
Tuesday, Dec 3rd, 2019……  No rain but still cold. My sister came by with Quincy and Rylee got to run and play outside for a while. Sis goes through training with both of them out there for their treats. When she came in, we fed the dogs and then she left Q and took off for the day to go to her doctor’s appointment and some car maintenance and some shopping. Meanwhile, I finished up the village and got everything staged and plugged in. With this new layout, we still have room for more houses, which I can shop for when we’re out.


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

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