Oregon Living 2020 – Blog #74 – Running Errands and Celebrating another Sept. Birthday

 

Tuesday, September 22^nd, 2020…… After walking and feeding butthead, I went out and picked some grapes and dropped them off at Teri’s shop for her customers. Then I went off and got my breakfast to take home. After that, I went out and worked in the yard. The tree next to the driveway was starting to get in the way of the car so I trimmed that back. I did the tarp thing in the truck again because I have Kirk coming over and he will be trimming the spruce tree in the front yard and that will go in there too. He made it over later in the afternoon, without any help today, so he and I worked with my chain saw and got everything down and loaded in the truck. I will go tomorrow with that load. I was done for the day! I cleaned up and made another chicken bake and watched America’s Got Talent. I think there are two folks (singer Christina Rae and poet Brandon Leake) that will finish ahead of my pick – Daneliya Tuleshova, but we’ll see tomorrow night. I also watched part of Dancing With the Stars but went to bed so I will have to catch the rest tomorrow.     

Wednesday, September 23^rd, 2020……  I got up early and got out with Rylee. I didn’t feed her this morning because she has been leaving most of it uneaten. She still gets her potty/poo poo treats and snacks so she won’t waste away!  I left after that and went to the mulch place again and unloaded the truck. Once that 10-minute-job was done, I drove over to Albany and went to Rodger’s and had breakfast. After that, it was only a short distance to Habitat for Humanity so I stopped in there. I didn’t see too much I needed or wanted until I went out to their yard. I found a gardening cart that I have wanted for a while. This one was $25.00 but the manager was outside and said I could have it for $15.00. Once inside, I got my 25% military discount and it was now only $11.25. A good deal all around!

I stopped at another place I like called Wheeler Dealers, kind of a Big Lots-type store, but they also have tools, rugs and gardening stuff, among other things. I was looking for mats for the back steps but didn’t see anything I liked and headed home. I worked on some more laundry until sis came by with her Cali. friend, Cheryl, who is up in Oregon looking to move  here in the area somewhere. They had gone to the farmer’s market in Corvallis and stopped here to see the place plus get some grapes to take home.  Later, I went up to Jack in the Box to get something for dinner. I was close on my AGT picks - I just wish Daneliya would have finished higher.   

Thursday, September 24^th, 2020…… The weather is kind of nice but we are supposed to be getting some rain soon. I got Rylee out and walked and then made my breakfast. I had a big package of bacon from Costco that I have defrosted and have been cooking the last few days. I needed to finish it off.  Right after that, I got a text from Teri asking me to breakfast. Dangit! Lousy timing!  We ended up meeting for coffee at Starbucks.  I went out and did some grocery shopping and then went to Ace Hardware to get some adhesive applicators and a throwaway trowel for my boat carpet project. I also found a really cute plant and dropped that off along with a card at her hair salon. She was working so it was a quick visit. We texted later and decided to go to a movie. We drove to Albany and went first to Big Lots. She is looking at new furniture. We went to Panda Express for take-out and ate in the car before going to the theater down the street. We chose Tenet just because there really wasn’t much to choose from. After we left, we decided that neither of us can recommend this movie.  I still don’t know 100% what the plot was about! Very vague and hard to follow. But it was a nice night out of my big old empty house.    

Friday, September 25^th, 2020…… Happy Birthday Teri!  I went over and got her around 8:00am and we drove to The Point for her birthday breakfast. It was a little overcast and rainy but then the sun came out for a while. After we ate, I asked her if she wanted to go for a drive. She said yes, “How about Eugene? We can go to La Z Boy. We took hwy 228 out of Sweet Home and decided to drive down Brush Creek Rd, where the Holiday Farm fire was. I guess it was on the other side of the ridge because we never saw any indication of a fire anywhere along that road, all the way into Springfield! We stopped at CosmoProf, a hair salon supply store, to check on some thingys (? sorry, brain fart!) for her shop.  And then, on the way to La Z Boy, we stopped by several furniture stores in the area. Then, suddenly, we needed to backtrack - because she discovered she was missing her glasses!  No luck so far. She called The Point and CosmoProf so maybe something will turn up.  We headed back and I dropped her off at home and went home to rest. She texted later that CosmoProf had found them in the parking lot and they looked ok. We will go back tomorrow to get them. Her kids took her to dinner but she called to ask me to meet them at Limeberry for frozen yogurt. I got to meet her daughter Jennifer, son-in-law Cody, granddaughter Olivia, and grandson Emmett. Cute kids – nice family. We had a good visit. The kids were talking about going to play laser tag tomorrow. I was asked to go but we’ll see....      

Oregon Living 2020 – Blog #73 – Dealing With Storm Damage and a Nice Dinner Out!

Friday, September 18^th, 2020…… Woke up to quiet this morning. Last night was exciting! Strong winds and thunder and sideways rain! The backyard flowerbeds were overflowed with water. I got up and showered and took Rylee out and found that all of the mulch along the driveway was now IN the driveway. The rains had washed it there. But no other damage. Sis sent me this pic of her neighbor’s tree, which broke off into her yard.

                                        

I asked if she wanted me to come over with my chain saw but she said Jesse would be doing that, it’s his tree. I was sweeping off the driveway when Rylee ran away from home – ok, she took off to go see Ollie, across the street. When I went to get her, I talked with Paul and Cori who showed me all of the tree branches they lost last night. It was a lot!  They are hosting a wedding reception in their backyard in a few weeks so they needed to clean up fast!  On the way back I decided to walk all the way around my house, just to check. I found this…

It was a nice bottlebrushy type shrub that was the one outside my bathroom window that I wanted to go out and trim back because it was hitting the house. Well, I don’t have that problem anymore!  So, I spent an hour cutting it back and then cutting it up in pieces for the trash. It looks better now…

I needed another shower after that because I was going out to dinner tonight. Teri’s birthday is the 25^th ,14 days after mine, so we thought we should do dinner right in between! I chose the Santiam Dinner Train but they cancelled that so I chose Eugene and found us a nice Italian place called Mazzi’s. Neither of us had been before so it was an adventure. It turned out to be a nice evening, although the skies opened up again on the drive down.  It cleared up after that and we had a nice drive back home.    

Saturday, September 19^th, 2020……  Beautiful day!  I am so happy to see clear blue skies again. They said today that there were no new fires from any lightning so that’s good. I heard that there was an 4.2 earthquake in San Gabriel in California. Glad it didn’t do any serious damage. I don’t miss those earthquakes!  I walked Rylee and found three more downed branches out by my mailbox. I sure don’t see where they came from even though one is three inches thick!  But I drug them out and cut them up and got them in the trash. I finished cleaning the mulch in the driveway using the leaf blower so that’s done now. I got a late delivery this afternoon from UPS. The Florida kids sent me this t-shirt.

I sent Krista back a thank you text and said they were missing the words “thinks he” on there 😊!!   I had leftover lasagna for dinner and settled in with my races for the night.      

Sunday, September 20^th, 2020…… I need to mow the yard but don’t usually work on the weekends and today was no exception. It was too wet anyway, so I made it a lazy day, only going out to walk butthead and then out to grab breakfast. I checked on my grapes and found they are only days from picking!  I’m gonna need some folks to give them to when I start picking, because I have a ton this year!  I watched the last day of the Tour de France and F1 and then some shows I have taped. I found Extreme Unboxing a few weeks back and I really like that show. Couples buy big boxes on pallets of reclaimed, returned merchandise, have it shipped to them, and resell what they can to make a profit. I would never try that but it’s fun to watch what they find in the boxes! I got caught up on those and taped some older ones to watch later. 

Monday, September 21^st, 2020……  Today was mowing day! I did have to wait until almost 3:00pm because the grass is so wet, even with the sprinklers off for the last several days! So, I spent time doing laundry and relaxing. I am not mowing the field this time because it’s brown and not growing. But Walt had planted some serious seed grass in the yard and that is really thick!  Of course, I haven’t mowed it in some time due to the smoke and all. I got the big tarp out and put in the bed of the truck and then got the mower out and started in. It doesn’t take much to fill up the three-bag catcher on the zero turn and, after dumping many loads in the truck, it quickly got filled up. Sis came by to help with that. Then we wrapped up the load and took it to Central Bark (the mulch place) to dump. They charged me $12.00 because they said I had 1 ½ cubic yards this time!  Still a bargain because all I have to do is pull the tarp and everything comes out at once.  Easy peasy!  Or, so I thought!  Turns out the grass was wetter than it should have been and weighed so much we had to rake it out a bit at a time until we could manhandle the tarp, and get the rest. Once that was done, we came back home, sis left, and I cleaned up and then headed to Jack in the Box and got an ultimate cheeseburger and fries for dinner. And then it was Monday night football and some other taped shows until bedtime. Oh yeah, here’s another map of our fires.

Looks like the last map but since then, the news is reporting the holiday fire is 22% contained and the other two at around 15% contained. They are battling these as hard as they can. Of course, all of the fires going on in California are being fought courageously as well. I sure admire all of those heroes!  

Oregon Living 2020 – Blog #72 – Smoke and a New Chair

 

Monday, September 14^th, 2020…… Smoke report – still pretty bad, but the mornings have been foggy and that helps a lot. The temps have been down since there is no sun getting to us now. But they still say that the storm off the coast will come tomorrow night and bring rain which will help a little. We need the onshore winds right now to blow the smoke away, for sure! Poor Rylee doesn’t get her romps in the pool right now. I don’t know how smoke affects dogs, but I’m not letting her out in it, especially in the afternoon.  So, we continue to stay inside and wait it out. Since taking over Lydia’s Facebook account, I have found that I can easily waste away hours just watching videos and reading stuff – but I’m learning to scroll quickly now so that’s a lot better!  Lol!  I did venture out to Costco today, but really didn’t have to since I only had 4-5 things on my list. But I found other stuff, like a rug for the garage entry door and bbq lighters to stockpile away. It was easy in and out and I was home before the fog lifted. Now it’s just smoke out there!  Dinner tonight was a Costco chicken bake. Easy and fast. I watched the debut of Dancing With the Stars tonight (sure miss Tom and Erin!) and then went to bed.      

Tuesday, September 15^th, 2020……  This morning the smoke was a little better. I also had an appointment to go up to Tualatin to pick up my la z boy recliner which they had previously texted me was in.  On the way, they called to tell me they would be closed today due to the heavy smoke in their area. But since I told them I was on the way, they agreed to have me come on ahead and they would have it ready when I got there. They did and I got it home with no problems. I set it up and hopped in it and relaxed and watched the Tour de France. Later, I went to dinner with my sister at Dos Arbolitos. I wanted to have their shrimp enchiladas, which I loved the last time. This time, it was just as good. My new fav!  I watched America’s Got Talent and made my picks for the next five to go through. We’ll see…..

Wednesday, September 16^th, 2020…… I didn’t have much planned for today. Still too smoky to do much. But each day gets a little better. Folks have asked if we were near any of the fires so I took a pic of the map in the paper this morning.

 

You can see Lebanon there but we are in a valley and all of these fires are in the Cascades east of me, so I’m good.  Weather is changing and we are supposed to get rain tonight or tomorrow. Won’t be soon enough! I watched the tour and then cleaned up around the house a little. Janice texted and asked me to come over this evening and help move her couch out to her garage. She is donating it but they won’t come into the house so it all has to be out there. Sis met me there and, between the three of us, that didn’t take too long. I got a quick tour of her house and then headed out. I went over to The Growler to join Teri for dessert.  She was bored today too!  We spent an hour there, just talking and enjoying being out of our houses before saying goodbye and heading back home. The smoke was thinning out and I let Rylee out for a while to let her enjoy some play time. I came back in and watched the AGT results show. For some reason I picked the Bello Sisters for the next round – and darn if they didn’t make it. I got all five! My favorite is still Daneliya Tuleshova but I don’t think she will survive Christina Rae and Brandon Leake. Guess we will know next week at the finals. I also watched the preview of The Masked Singer, which was our favorite show. Lydia and I were doing ok guessing but I have to figure it out by myself now!

Thursday, September 17^th, 2020……  Didn’t rain last night. They say it will be here tonight, along with high winds.  We have grey skies and it’s really muggy right now. That’s a good sign rain is close! I didn’t do much again today. Tour de France and some other races I had taped. Pretty boring day. Poor Rylee hasn’t been allowed in her pool with all of the bad air outside. I threw another chicken bake in the microwave and had a quick meal.  I watched the Nascar Truck race and then called it a night.  BUT, I didn’t call it a night!  The winds really picked up and rains came, along with thunder, which made Rylee pretty nervous. We eventually settled in will wait until tomorrow to see how we did.  Stay tuned....

Oregon Living 2020 – Blog #71 – Smoke and Fire!

Thursday, September 10^th, 2020…… I went to bed early and went right to sleep! I woke up this morning feeling rested. Yaay!   Smoke is still all around here but lessened a bit this morning.

I got out and walked and then fed butthead and then left to go to the lab to give blood ahead of my upcoming physical next week. Once I was done with that, I stopped and picked up breakfast and took it home.  About 2 hours later, I was shocked to see an email file with a link to my lab results!  I opened them and found that everything was looking good. I feel great and have no issues for next week. Although I do want to ask about some path to take to help restore my sense of smell, which has slowly been fading over the years. My meds (asthma, gerd, cholesterol etc.) have side effects that I have experienced over the 30+ years, and loss of smell being on them, so maybe they can help me.

I thought I would work on the boat carpeting today but that won’t happen. I didn’t want to go out because of the smoke, so I stayed in and worked some more on photo editing for Lydia’s slide show. Still no plans on anything right now. Nothing is opening up in California so I can’t even think about doing anything there for a while.

For dinner tonight, I fixed some burritos and also made orange glazed rolls for dessert tonight and for breakfast tomorrow. Then it was tv until bedtime. I did go to bed early but didn’t sleep hardly at all. I was up several times and watched tv in bed for a bit and that helped.  

 Friday, September 11^th, 2020……  I slept in a little later this morning and when I got out of the shower and got dressed, sis was here with Quincy for their walk. We planned dinner tonight. I went out and got breakfast and coffee and then spent the rest of the smoky day inside the house, mostly on Facebook and also getting birthday wishes via text messages. I heard from the kids and several others throughout the day. I have been overwhelmed today with all of these wonderful birthday wishes!  Thank you so much to friends and family. You have helped make my day very special. To top it off, we went out to Pizza Schmizza for a nice dinner!  Interestingly, with all of the good food there, not one of us had pizza! 

It was a good day.        

Saturday, September 12^th, 2020…… Slept way better last night. I got up and dressed and walked butthead and then made coffee and fixed myself some scrambled eggs for breakfast!   This is another smoky day so I’m staying in again. Today I had the Tour de France to watch plus last night’s Xfinity and today's Cup and Indy races, so I had plenty to keep me interested!   For dinner I had leftover Chicken Alfredo Pasta from last night.       

Sunday, September 13^th, 2020…… Still tons of smoke out there!  They say the rains are coming but now it’s expected Tuesday morning instead of Monday evening. Can’t get here soon enough! At least the heat is gone for a while. It was down in the high 40’s when I went out with Rylee this morning. Pretty soon I’ll have to switch from AC to heat!  I went out and picked up breakfast and coffee and then went home and settled in for the day, watching more tv. I did go out and ran the motorhome for a few minutes. I always walk around the rig and check things out but did so quickly this morning to get back inside and out of the smoke. I stayed inside the rest of the day and fixed myself a light dinner and called it a night.  

Oregon Living 2020 – Blog #70 – Good Days and Bad Days

 

Sunday, September 6^th, 2020…… Didn’t sleep well last night. I think it’s a combination of the heat and things on my mind.  But I still got up early. Go figure!  I got Rylee out and walked and fed. I was planning on going to the store for tomorrow’s dinner but after checking in with sis, I think everything is covered. I did go out and pull out the old ‘revival tent’ to set up. This thing has been used for many, many years for multiple occasions and has made it up here. I didn’t have any reason until today to set it up. There will be five of us for dinner tomorrow and while the table on the porch is ok for three up there, it needed to be moved out in the yard where we could spread out more. I got it all moved out there and hosed off and wiped down and left everything to dry while I got the parts and pieces for the tent going. It’s really easy – if you’ve done it a few times – so I managed to get everything done by myself. It’s 12’ x 24’ so that will give us enough room to have the table plus some nice chairs to relax in under the shade. Temps are supposed to be in the 90s tomorrow so we’ll see if we can even use it!   After that, I came back in and relaxed and watched tv for a bit, then cleaned up the house and made sure I had all of my items ready for tomorrow. Good to go!    

Monday, September 7^th, 2020……  The weather is sketchy but I put the tablecloth out on the table anyway and everything was ready. They said we could expect severe wind this afternoon, but right now it was just getting hot! 

Today it would be me and the girls - six of ‘em!   Rylee, Quincy, Penny, Cherrelyn, Teri, and Janice. I was outnumbered by far!  Guess I need to behave. Yeah, right!  This time I decided to do something Lydia had done with the ribs in the past – bake them first. I followed her instructions and had them going around 2:00pm. The scalloped potatoes were also my responsibility so I had that ready to go as well but that could wait. Everyone showed up around 4-4:30pm and I had the ribs out and resting by then. After everyone got their drinks going, I went out and fired up the bbq.  Sis had brought veggies to grill so it worked out. The center two burners weren’t on so the ribs got indirect heat in that spot and finished cooking.  But the outside two burners were perfect for the veggies!  Of course, now was the time to add the bbq sauce, for slathery wet ribs - which everyone wanted. 

We got all of the other items ready and settled in. They all decided it was way too hot to even consider eating outside so we moved the party into the dining room. Everything was excellent. Of course, the wine and beer and tropical drinks also helped and made for a fun afternoon! 

 

As we ate, we could see the sky outside get heavy with smoke. The winds were blowing in all of the smoke and ash from the fires to the northeast of us.  They said this would last well into the night.  After cleaning up later, everyone said their goodbyes and headed home while sis and I took the tarps off the tent, fearing they would sail away later. I can take the frame down tomorrow. I came in and rested and watched tv until bedtime. A good day with good people!  I needed that!         

Tuesday, September 8^th, 2020……  Last night was an adventure!  The winds howled and Rylee couldn’t settle in and relax. It was after 10:00pm and we were trying to sleep but kept hearing all kinds of noises. She had to pee but I didn’t want to let her out because of the smoke and the winds.  But she needed to go so I got up and let her out on her rope but stayed out there with her. She barked when she noticed this pink thing – which was her empty pool that was waaay waaay out in the field and I guess it spooked her. When we got back to bed, I found out that I need to have Kirk’s guys trim back the shrub that is outside my bathroom window because it was slapping the glass pretty hard. That bothered Rylee too. But around midnight it settled down and we were both able to sleep.     

This morning it was so thick with smoke that you almost wanted to wear a mask! Sis brought Quincy over here because her house was making all of the creaking noises in the wind and even with drugs, Q was restless most of the night. Plus, she would want to be outside today with all the creaking and popping and she wanted her to enjoy a relaxing day inside here on my bed, so she brought her over. We did manage to pull apart the frame to the tent and got that all stowed away before she left. I took off and made a breakfast stop and then drove to the Walmart in Albany to look for some metal tumblers I wanted. The Walmart in town only had two the other day and the Albany store had cases on their upper shelves so I got lucky and found what I wanted. I also bought some more kitchen towels so I can cycle out the older worn out ones I have now. I found colors I was looking for and bought two packages of those as well. I also hit their fishing section and got a few more items for my tackle bag. The whole time driving there was eerie. It was so dark and gloomy from the smoke. But after I came out of the store, I noticed the sky was a bit lighter, so hopefully it is clearing up a bit.

I got back home and settled in and relaxed for a few minutes then went out and retrieved butthead’s pool, and put enough water in it so it wouldn’t go bye bye again and freak her out. Of course, she helped me with the water and I had to dry her off before we could get out of the icky air and back inside to cooler temps, where I spent the rest of the day. I didn’t have lunch but did have me some nice leftover ribs and scalloped potatoes for dinner. Plus, eclairs for dessert. Teri came over and helped with the feast. Yummy!       

Wednesday, September 9^th, 2020……  I sure don’t know what to do about not sleeping. It’s not physical. I guess there is so much going on in my mind that it’s hard to relax. I took some Tylenol pm and that helped but I am still tired today. So, I just hung around the house and didn’t do much of anything. Plus, we still are inundated with smoke from the nearby fires. I checked in with Tim and Dane, who live in Sweet Home, to see if they were in any danger. They are ok.  Louise is down near Grants Pass, where fires have even closed down the I-5, and I have texted her but haven’t heard back. They are saying we have 35 fires going on in Oregon right now, none of which are even close to being contained anytime soon. The skies here are an orange color its very dark all day, like dusk would normally be.  I don’t want to sleep during the day because that won’t help at night so I got up and ended up doing laundry and then, later, fixed more of the ribs.  I have my annual physical and flu shots coming up next week and tomorrow I go in for labs for that. I tried to stay busy until settling in and watching the AGT results show. They are in the semi-finals and will move 5 of the 11 into the finals tonight. I got all five right.        

Oregon Living 2020 – Blog #69 – Getting Chores Done & Enjoying the Tour de France

Wednesday, September 2^nd, 2020…… This morning when I was out with Rylee on our walk, I took a picture of the contrails heading south from PDX.

 

There were twice as many as in this pic! I also snapped a shot of the front yard, taken from the street, looking over the front island. This is after mowing.

I think it looks pretty good, especially this late in summer, with zero rain so far.  Seeing this reminds me that I have a couple of projects to do – the trees up by the house need to be cut back. The one on the left has a sucker tree of a different kind, growing up through it. That’s a Kirk job. The other one is up against the house but I can get that one from the ground, and will do that when it’s cooler.  Always a project! 

I finally received notice that Lydia’s pension has been adjusted and I have received all of the back pay for that. So that means that I now have all of my estate changes (beneficiaries, checking, pension, SS, etc.) all completed!  I’m still working on the Letter of Instruction that my estate attorney recommended and that will complete that task!  Phew!  

Later, I had TGIFridays honey bbq wings for dinner. It was the first time I fixed them. I even had to toss the wings in the sauce like they do at Buffalo Wild Wings!  It was tasty and I will definitely be getting some more of those! I watched the first part of the Tough As Nails finale but saved the rest for tomorrow.        

Thursday, September 3^rd, 2020……  Nothing on the agenda today. Plus, it’s going to be in the high 90’s today, so I won’t be going out much. After taking Rylee out, I did make an early run to Walmart to get some things, among them some new kitchen towels and also am entry rug for the back slider. After I got everything put away, I did some laundry, washing those new towels along with others I gathered up. I also sat down at the computer desk and did my checkbook and did my worksheet so that’s all caught up.  Rylee got two runs out in the pool before lunch and a few in the afternoon.  I watched the rest of Tough As Nails and the Tour de France. I had a couple of sandwiches and some chips and then some fruit cocktail for linner. Then it was tv until bedtime. Randy called and we talked for a long time. It’s always nice to hear from him. I think he’s planning another trip up here before Christmas. Cool!  I also talked with Sandie, who calls me regularly to check in and see how I’m doing. I like to hear from everyone and am glad some folks have put me on their call list.   

Friday, September 4^th, 2020……  Much cooler today.  It is supposed to only get into the 80’s so that’s good. We have fires going on in Washington and in Oregon (over the Cascades to the east of us), but so far, the smoke has been staying away from our area.  Fingers crossed. I got up early this morning and got the monkeybutt out for her walk, then headed off to Kevin’s for an early breakfast and to meet up with Teri, who had to be at work by 9:00am. It was quick and I was back home and had the Tour on and got caught up on that. I needed to go out to get Penny’s lawnmower out of my potting shed so I could take a picture of it. It’s going up for sale. It’s in storage here because Kirk does her lawn now, so it will be going up to Cherrelyn’s son in Washington. We just needed to show him what he’s buying. I also drained the regular gas out of the pressure washer and replaced it with non-ethanol, like I was told to. It fired up and I finished the cleanup out in front of the shop garage. It sure looks better now!  That was the extent of my day. Because I ate a nice big breakfast, I held off on lunch and had an early dinner.  Sis called on the way home from Costco. She got ribs so we will be having a bbq here on Labor Day.  I will need to wipe down the patio table and chairs in case we want to eat outside, but that’s only a small task and I’ll be ready.   

Saturday, September 5^th, 2020……  I only had a few things to do today. But after walking Rylee, I decided to just hang around the house. I did give her a bath though. This time I took her into the shower and used the shower chair, which I could adjust down to sit on to help reach easier. That went well and now she looks clean and smells good again. But I’m sure it won’t be long before she gets out in the yard and gets dirty again!  I watched my races today and that kept me inside where it was cooler. I found a package of cooked shrimp in the freezer so I opened that and cooked mixed it with some rice and had a quick and easy dinner, with leftovers for tomorrow. More tv until bedtime.

Oregon Living 2020 – Blog #68 – Saying Goodbye & a Very Nice Outing!

 

Saturday, August 29^th, 2020……  Today was flight day. We were both up early and Frances stripped her bed and had the towels and sheets in the laundry before I got back from my walk!  I would have done that!  But, I still had the dogs out and walked and fed before sis got here to go to breakfast and to the airport with us. We got all of Frances’ luggage in the car and went over to Sweet Home for breakfast. Being a Saturday, Skyline was pretty full, but we managed to get right in. After a nice meal, I drove us down the back way and into Springfield because we had plenty of time to get her there to check in. The Eugene airport is like Long Beach so there is not much traffic and you can get through tsa pretty quickly. We said our goodbyes and then headed over to Jerry’s hardware to get some rock salt bags before we headed back home. I also stopped at Tractor Supply to see how (manager) David was doing after his knee surgery and to get an extra key for the zero turn. They also had a doggie bed that was priced right (plus I have my military discount there!) so I bought that too. We got home and Penny put the sheets and towels in the dryer and then left and took Q back to her place. I hung around the house for most of the day, just taking butthead out for a romp in the water and watched races and day one of the Tour de France. I put the enchilada package in the microwave and enjoyed a nice dinner.  I texted Teri to see if she wanted to take a day trip tomorrow to go to the dahlia farm up in Canby.  She said yes. 

Sunday, August 30^th, 2020……  I picked up Teri around 9:00am and we headed north through Salem to Canby. We stopped at The Original Pancake House to have breakfast. I had never tried their specialty apple pancake so today was the day!  It was humongous!  

 

We both shared it and with her bacon and eggs, it was way too much!  I took half of it home for tomorrow. Once we left there, it was only a short drive to Canby and I followed the gps and got to Swan Island Dahlia Farm. I’m not sure how many acres are there, but we walked through most of it!  The flowers were amazing!  They don’t really have a fragrance, but there so many different varieties and they are really pretty – even for a non-flower guy like me!  I think the guy there said they grow over 350 different ones!  We took several pics....

 and then went to the counter and bought three bunches (see below).

After leaving there, I took us over the Willamette River on the Canby Ferry and we kept driving past the I-5 and went on into the town of Lake Oswego. Talk about a ritzy community. There really is a lake and it’s huge!  But you can’t get to it because it’s all private and every piece of waterline has a house on it!  And I mean everything! Big bucks here!

 

Once we left there, we stopped in Salem on the way back to visit with Teri’s mom. She currently has a motorhome at the Salem Elks club campground. We had a nice but short visit as we had to head back home because we both had dogs to care for.  I dropped her off and headed back home and ate a couple of items from my recent burrito delivery! A bit later, she texted and dropped by with the flower arrangement that she had made from half of what we bought. 

The lavender ones are Mikayla Miranda and the yellow ones are Sun Kissed and the third bunch was the greens to go with it all. She did a great job! We filled up a gallon container of my well water and she took that home with her and I settled in to catch up on my races. It couldn’t have been a better day. The weather was great and it was fun to be out and about again.   

Monday, August 31^st, 2020…… Today was mowing day. I needed to wait a bit for the dew to dry up on the lawn. So, I watched the Tour de France that I had on tape. This was day 2 of a 21-day race across France. These guys are the most amazing athletes on the planet!  I sure don’t see how they can go that fast for so long!  And climb up mountain roads that are hard even for a car! Anyway, when the grass dried up, I texted sis that I was going out to start. She came over and did the back field with the tractor. I sure like this new mower!  This time I set the height down a half an inch lower than normal to get a shorter cut. Turns out I got a LOT more grass than I thought I would!  I quickly filled up the triple bagger and actually got everything clogged up to the point that I had to stop and clear it out before dumping.  Lesson learned! Check it often! Once we got everything mowed, we cleaned up the equipment and put everything away. Sis went home to shower and I came in to start to watch today’s Tour (day 3) and then showered. Not much else on the agenda so I got caught up on the race and then later, heated up another container of the chicken lasagna that I hadn’t put in the freezer. After that, I had the apple pancake as dessert!  Then it was tv until bedtime.        

Tuesday, September 1^st, 2020……  Sis came by today and dropped off Quincy. She was headed off to Junction City to visit a friend and both Kirk and Linda were coming today to mow and clean at her house so poor Q would have no place to relax. No worries – she enjoyed sacking out on my bed all day! After feeding them, the first thing on my list of things to do today, was to go to Albany and pick up the plastic sheet for my boat windshield. I stopped at Jack in the Box and got breakfast and then went to get the piece. I got back and immediately assembled it because if it didn’t fit, I would need to have another one cut. But no problem! It went back together and I pop riveted everything back and it’s ready to install after I get the carpet done.  Kirk and his guys came here in the afternoon and worked on my driveway area, cleaning up some dead foliage and spraying for weeds. It’s an endless task, even through the summer to keep all of the weeds down!  I’m sure glad he’s here because I would be overrun otherwise. He unloaded his new mower here just for the afternoon and they took the empty trailer off to get a load of mulch for the next client. I was in the house relaxing and didn’t even hear him come and pick it up later in the day.

Tonight was another leftover meal. This time I had the chicken pot pie. The rest of these are in the freezer for another time. Earlier, at lunch, I also finished up the last of the Ramona’s burritos that Frances had brought me. We both have checked into ordering online and having them delivered with no luck so far, but I have one more outlet to check. I finished up day 4 of the Tour and then watched America’s Got Talent. I didn’t find too many acts that I cared for but five of the eleven will be going through to the semi-finals, so I will have to pick before tomorrow night’s reveal.