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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!

Sunday, May 17, 2020

Oregon Living 2020 – Blog #38 – Household Chores, Phone Visiting, and Nascar is Racing Again!



Thursday, May 14th, 2020…… Today started out good. After walking Rylee in the sprinkles, I fixed myself some bacon and eggs for breakfast, watched the rest of Survivor (happy with the result), and then called Lydia. She sounds 100% better today. They said she is recovering from the pneumonia slowly but she says she feels good and her voice is not labored like yesterday. Good day so far…
Today was laundry day. I was given another set of guidelines for Lydia’s ‘delicates’ and applied that process today on her stuff. No worries. Got it. I also finished up vacuuming. Yesterday I did the hardwood floors and today it was the carpets. Before Lois moved out of state, she gave me a nifty stick vacuum that I have found makes quick work of getting all of Rylee’s ‘fuzz balls’ sucked up off the hardwood easily. Today, I got the Dyson out and did the bedroom carpets. Meanwhile, I am looking at a new Shark Navigator or Rotator vacuum so I can retire the old Dyson. I still need to get the whole-house vacuum system serviced but that is not a priority.
Today, Governor Kate Brown held a press conference where she released all but three counties in Oregon to go to phase one of the normalcy process to begin to re-open Oregon. Our counties are now allowed to open restaurants and hair and nail salons, and such, provided the appropriate screening and distancing protocols are followed. My favorite place is Kevin’s, where there are only 9-10 booths/tables and a small counter in the 8’x20’ eating area. I don’t see how they will be able to make any money if they can only operate half of that!  But I will go by and see.

Friday, May 15th, 2020……  I got up early and got Rylee out and walked. Today was supposed to be sunny and nice – we are in between storm cells. Then I headed off to Jack in the Box and got my breakfast burrito and mello yellow drink. I got back home and ate and then called Lydia. She didn’t answer. I called my sister because today she and I had decided to make a Lowe’s run. I needed spray primer for my trailer and carbon monoxide plug-ins for the house, and she needed to get some 1x6’s for her patio posts. She dropped off Quincy here and we went back to her place and took 4 bags of grass clippings for her bin. I checked the style of wood we needed (rough cut cedar) and then got a call from Lydia. She said she had doctors in and was busy with them when I called. She is having a difficult time with the latest chemo pill, which has kicked in fully now. She has flu-like symptoms, a fever, mouth sores, diarrhea, and she’s always tired. In short – miserable. I sure wish I could be there with her right now!  She will be going to dialysis again today. That, along with Lasix, is what they are doing to try to get more fluids off her.  We left Penny’s and headed off to Albany to Lowes. Her friend Janice is now working there but was in the garden area so we did our own shopping and got everything bought and loaded and then drove over to that side and visited with her a bit before heading back home. Sis had a pulled muscle in her back and wasn’t wanting to do any work today on the posts, so we just dropped them off and headed back for her to get Quincy. She went home and I went out to prime the trailer. Funny, with the primer and fender paint, plus the bedliner coating paint, I will be close to what I spent to buy the trailer in the first place! But it needs to be done and is still a bargain. I got my project completed and came in and cleaned up. I also got another pair of shoes today in the mail. I have found the most comfortable tennis shoes at the best price! These I found online for $18.59 including shipping! True, they are not great quality and come from China (I spray them with Lysol immediately just to feel safe), but they are super lightweight and fit me well. I now have black, brown, gray, and white.


I wanted to get as many as I could before they go away! Oh wow, I just looked them up and they are now $28.00 and most sizes are out of stock. Good for me!  I finished up the day making bacon sandwiches for dinner. I have a large double-pack from Costco and thawed out half so I want to eat them up asap. Thick cut and delicious! They make excellent sandwiches. I called Lydia again to check to see if her spirits were better. They were. We discussed a lot on this call. I worry about her and she worries about how I’m doing. I think I made her feel better, at least for now. Then it was tv programs until bedtime.  

Saturday, May 16th, 2020……  Not much happening today. I ate breakfast in and stayed in most of the day, except to walk/run the butthead. I still had some vacuuming to complete so I did that this morning. The rains are coming so I can’t do much work on the trailer.  I can and did go in to the shop and got out those accompanying parts that I had previously disassembled and prepped them for primer. But I want to paint these outside and will do that another time. The rains did come later. I ended up staying in most of the day but did go out to pick up dinner. Tonight, was bbq from J & C BBQ, which I called in. I ordered the pulled pork with pit beans and coleslaw, all of which are really good. Then it was more relaxing and tv until I got sleepy and went to bed.
     
Sunday, May 17th, 2020……  Nothing on the agenda today. After our walk, and a visit with my neighbor Lou, I made a run to Walmart. I wanted to pick up a few things and mostly wanted mushrooms for an omelet for breakfast. I got everything out and got the eggs cooking and realized that I wanted to sauté the mushrooms first so I left them out. Oh well, tomorrow I can do them. I waited until about 11:15am or so to call Lydia. She said she was asleep yesterday when I called her at 10:00am. She hasn’t been sleeping all that well lately so I wanted to wait. She said she did sleep ok last night but still was having issues with everything. She still has a fever (101º) that she can’t shake. I know she’s miserable. She said they will be doing some kind of pulmonary test on her tomorrow. After a bit I said goodbye so she could rest (after she did another bit of business). I hung around the house because it was live Nascar racing today! I had it taped but watched it just after it started. It was interesting to see them all wearing their masks before the race. They limited the number of support team members in order to keep everyone safe. No grandstand attendees either. I think the sporting world was watching because this is the first of its kind to get going again and they can learn from Nascar and hopefully successfully open their particular sports again.
I fixed the last of my bacon for sandwiches for lunch and so I wasn’t hungry when dinner time came around. I had some cheese and crackers and called it good. I finished up doing some work on my checkbook and then watched taped programs until bedtime.  

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