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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!

Thursday, May 14, 2020

Oregon Living 2020 – Blog #37 – No Visiting Yet & Spring Has Sprung!


Sunday, May 10th, 2020…… Happy Mother’s Day!  Turns it not so much for Lydia. She is isolated from me for now. She does not have her phone charger so she is checking to see if I can bring it to her. Meanwhile, I have her room phone number if I need that.  They still say that tomorrow they should be able to allow in visitors as our Governor has a plan in place to reduce restrictions starting this Monday, and that would be on the list. Both kids know where she is so no shock when they call her today. She says she is feeling ok, just weak. She still has a fever and is a fall risk so she’s back on a bedpan for now. She is resting today and trying to recover. I am glad she has the care that I can’t give her for this.
Meanwhile, I hadn’t planned on working on the yard today to pick up the grass but the weather is now showing rain later this evening and my window is closing.  So, I headed out and got that job done and the grass piled up. Sis came over and got it all bagged up. Since the lawn was not super long, we only had 12 bags this time and she made quick work of it.
I rested after that and hung around the house for the rest of the day. Dinner was leftover pizza.      

Monday, May 11th, 2020……  Still no visitors allowed in hospitals here in Oregon. So, I took off and drove there and dropped off her phone charger at the front desk. I called her to let her know that I was there and to expect it to be brought up. She is doing just ok, with pneumonia found in her right lung. We’re still not sure how she got it, but irregardless, she is in good hands there in dealing with it. She is tired and winded and hasn’t had much sleep. They have her on fall risk alert because she is very weak on her legs.  Meanwhile, me and the butthead are here at home. I walk Rylee and play with her and try to stay busy. The rains aren’t here yet so I took advantage by doing the rest of the sanding on the trailer. I think I got everything that I can reach with the sanding wheel on the grinder. Next, I will have to use a dremel or similar to get into the smaller areas to knock out the rusty spots.  After that, I need to prime everything. Sis came by and took a picture of me working on the trailer and one of Quincy and Rylee “social distancing” in the yard.


I had the rest of the stroganoff for lunch and made ‘wienie rolls’ for dinner. That is a hot dog, with chili and cheese, wrapped up in a flour tortilla. Tasty and different. And easy!  

Tuesday, May 12th, 2020……  Lydia’s creatinine was back up over 2 yesterday so her kidney doctor has recommended that she go back in for dialysis. She said they did that yesterday. Her doctor has told her this morning that her number is now back just below 2, but to be on the safe side, she will have to go back to twice-a-week for a while at the dialysis center when she gets home. Governor Brown is waiting for requests, by county, to be allowed to re-open and both Linn (our county) and Benton (Corvallis) counties are among those requesting. There is a list of requirements to be met before anything is granted. Slow but safe. I get it.  
Kirk and his helper, Carter, came by today. I have asked him to double up their hours for a while so they can really get into weeding. My flowerbeds have taken off with the spring weather now here! Also, the weeds match that growth as well and are overwhelming everything else!  They need some attention asap. Funny, when I was outside working, it was overcast but still nice and dry. I talked to Kirk and then told him he had a dry day today. Oops, I jinxed it!  The skies opened up and it poured for about 3 minutes. Kirk ran to the shop and Carter hid under a tree out in the field. But, like I said, it only lasted a short time and then they were back at it again. My bad!
With the shutdown, we have been ordering online like crazy. I have decided to add dvd players to the tvs in each room and we needed 2 more. Those came today from BestBuy.com and I got them installed. Lydia also got in some clothes she ordered from Blair. That’s something for her to do when she gets home again.    
Not much else happening. I have received some calls about Lydia and gave them the latest info. Her phone is on and folks can call her. If she feels up to answering, she will definitely talk to you.
I wasn’t too hungry and decided to just put a chicken pot pie in the oven. Turns out it was good timing and hit the spot an hour later. I watched tv and then went to bed. 
     
Wednesday, May 13th, 2020……  Not much progress for Lydia today. She still has trouble breathing and when she moves around at all, she starts coughing. I feel so bad for her…
Today was a cleaning day for me. Or rather, half a cleaning day for me. I dusted and vacuumed and that was about it. I have some laundry to do but I will probably work on that tomorrow or Friday. Rains are off and on this week. Today, it is sprinkling so not too bad. But that limits my chores to indoors today. I was planning on going out to the flowerbeds and cleaning up the edges of them a bit. There is no transition from the grass to the dirt/bark and the grass is creeping over and becoming ragged.


I need to work on that. But it’s too wet today. Later, I made some tamales for dinner and called Lydia. She will be trying to watch The Masked Singer but I am taping it just in case. I watched it and then part of the Survivor 3-hour finale. On the Masked Singer, I missed out on guessing The Rhino. I wouldn’t know his voice but when Jenny first guessed Barry Zito last week, I agreed based on the clues up til then. I ended up cutting Survivor short as it was getting late and I was tired. So, Rylee and I headed off to bed.    

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