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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!

Saturday, May 30, 2020

Oregon Living 2020 – Blog #42 – Details and More Details, & Some Really Good Family Time


  

Tuesday, May 26th, 2020……  Tough night for me last night. Rylee helped but she looks as sad as the rest of us. It’s amazing how dogs are. She slept on Lydia’s side of the bed as if she was holding her spot.
I worked a bit this morning on Lydia’s checking account. I have her bill pay process down now but wanted to double check and see that everything is up to date because she paid everything last week from her phone from the hospital but I needed to log it into the checkbook. I will be changing things as time goes on but for now this works. Hospice called me today to check in to see how I was doing. With everyone here, I am doing ok. I go to the mortuary tomorrow. Being me, you probably already know what I’m about to say. I have been thinking about all of this for a long time (in my head - didn’t make any notes) about all of the things I would need to do. I know I will miss something. Last night we went through her meds. I didn’t count but there were tons of them! The hospice folks took what they brought and we will be taking the rest to the police department for their disposal bin. I have to wait until I get copies of the death certificate before I can start to work on the required notifications, but I need to cancel her auto refill prescriptions today. Lots more to do but all I have is time. 
The girls started in today on the closet and the clothes and purses in there. They both filled bags and also pulled some out that Maryanne and Krista and the grandkids might like. Everything else went back on the shelves and racks for now. I am ok with everyone getting what they might like, but I don’t think I am ready yet for bare racks and shelves. The boys pulled out the 4 crates of photos and framed pictures. We barely got through one box!  It was good for me to do that – and helped trigger some great times. Penny and Maryanne found a bag of Grandma’s costume jewelry and spent time sorting and bagging these for a future yard sale. We ordered and picked up pizza for dinner.  Long day!

Wednesday, May 27th, 2020……  I had my meeting with the Funeral Home this morning. Since I plan to have a celebration of life in SoCal later this year, all I needed to do at this time was pick out an urn. I owe them an obituary article for the local newspaper, which will let the locals know she has passed.
Then it was time to take a drive!  Randy had told me about his ride last year up to the Blue Pool, which is up in the cascades. We had the girls change their shoes and we loaded up in the Acadia and headed up. It was a beautiful day and the drive was nice. We parked and hit the 2.2-mile trail. Randy rode this on his mountain bike and said it was ok and he only had to get off his bike for short periods when it was too steep to ride.  Yeah right! The first part was easy and then we hit the rocky craggy path that wasn’t too bad but harder than some wanted! 

But I think the walk was worth it! Check out this beautiful place. It really is that blue!



There were some brave souls who hiked down the trail and got into the freezing water. You can see some of them on the rocks because they couldn’t stay in the water at all.  Not us! We were content to watch. While walking in, I talked to a redneck dude who was walking out. He said he jumped from the rocks (maybe 60 feet) into the water. He said it was cold but was really upset because he lost his phone. He said the 35 ft. deep pool made it impossible to dive down to get it back. Duuhh!  Once we got back to the car, we finished out the loop and ended up in Eugene and chose The Roadhouse for dinner before heading home after an exciting day.            
     
Thursday, May 28th, 2020……  Jeff headed up to another Harley Davidson store, this one in Tigard, and Randy and I worked on cleaning up the fallen tree that is blocking the ‘west 40’. I should say Randy worked because all I did was mow the high grass around it so he could get in there with the chain saw. He made pretty quick work of everything and was done. Now Chuck can come in and mow next week. Meanwhile, the girls worked on cleaning up the clothes in the dressers and then started in on the motorhome. I am ok with it being cleaned out and they made quick work of getting her things out so they could go through it all. I have tons of clothes, hats, shoes, and sandals that I always leave in there, but Lydia always brought all of her items out each time so there wasn’t much there. She did keep her visor collection which you can see here. One in every color!


I heated up pizza for lunch and hung around the house, waiting for the medical equipment to be picked up this afternoon. I sent in an obituary to the funeral home to be used in the local paper.  

Friday, May 29th, 2020……  We all headed off to Elmer’s in Albany for breakfast this morning. Randy and Frances were heading back to Calif. from there. They were a huge help in all of this, especially for me, and I’m so glad everyone made it here in time to say their goodbyes.
After we got home, Penny went home to clean house and rest for the day. Jeff and I took off and drove to Eugene to go to Cabela’s. I took him the back way through the farmlands and ranches and woods. We had a nice drive. When we got home, I took a shot at round two of the photo collection. I have four full plastic crates of pics but then I remembered all of the albums in our cabinet in the bedroom. Wow, this will take a while! I only managed to get through one. Sis came by with dinner from Dos Arbolitos and after a bit she went home and I stopped to rest and watch tv until bedtime.        

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