Oregon Living 2020 – Blog #88 – Spending Money & Dealing With the Shutdown Again

 

Wednesday, November 18^th, 2020…… Sis came by this morning with Q and they stayed for a while. I asked her to help me look at Lydia’s jewelry and pick out a pair of earrings for me to send to my friend Sandie. I wanted her to have something from Lydia besides the material that Frances had taken down to her when she was last here. Sandie made potholders and clutch purses out of them and sent some back for me to give to my ‘girls’ up here. We found a couple of pairs of earrings and a matching bracelet that I think she’ll like. Lydia wore them a lot. We also found a sweater to send to our friend Lois in Albuquerque. I still have a few things to bring down to Lydia’s friends in SoCal whenever I can get down there for the celebration of life. Doesn’t look like it will happen this year and it may be that it won’t even happen until mid-2021!   Bummer – but there’s not much I can do about that! After that I went out and removed the two ‘starter’ batteries from the motorhome. I brushed them off and got the size and cca number that I needed when I go price shopping in a few days. I came in for the day and later, fixed some hot dogs for linner and then settled in and watched tv. Tonight, was two episodes of The Amazing Race and an hour Masked Singer. I didn’t guess either of the two that were unmasked tonight. I had only just heard about the singing doctor from YouTube (Dr. Elvis Francois) and wouldn’t have guessed him anyway. I have changed my guess on The Seahorse. I first thought it was Carrie Underwood but now I think it might be Patti Loveless. Of the nine revealed so far, I only have guessed two correctly. For the record – for the remaining seven, here are my guesses and my confidence levels – Sun (Leann Rhimes 90%), Popcorn (Tina Turner 50%), Crocodile (Nick Carter 50%), Seahorse (Patti Loveless 90%), Broccoli (Kevin Smith 50%), Mushroom (Jordan Fischer 65%), Jellyfish (no clue so far). Right now, I think that The Sun is my favorite to win, followed by The Crocodile and then The Jellyfish. But at 2/9, my chances aren’t all that good!  We’ll see….

Thursday, November 19^th, 2020…….  Today the weather is cooperating – at least for the time being! I got Rylee out, walked and fed. I have a few things to do today. One is to go looking for batteries for the rv. I started out with coffee at Starbucks and breakfast at Jack in the Box and then hit the post office to mail that package off to Sandie. Then I hit Napa, Advanced Auto, and O’Reilly Auto Parts. The best deal was at Napa because they will give you 20% off your order if you use their ‘bag sale’ and buy three or more items. I found shop gloves 3/$10.00 so I bought two of those and got my 20% discount! I came back home and got my old batteries loaded up and turned them in to save on the core charge. I used dollies and rolling seats to move them around because these batteries are huge and HEAVY!  I went ahead and installed them and got that buttoned up. I rested for a few minutes and then headed back out again. This time I went to Central Bark and placed an order for 4 cubic yards of ¾ stone to be delivered tomorrow. This is for the area adjacent to the rv pad, right in front of the carport, that is several inches lower than the concrete pad next to it. It is hard to back the truck or the boat into the carport down there while having to make that 4-5 inch transition to and from the concrete pad. I asked for, and got, my military discount so it made it cheaper ($130.00 delivered) for this as well. I set it up for delivery tomorrow.  I got back home and rested for a while and caught up on one of my new favorite game shows – Master Minds. Later, I went and got Teri and we went to a late lunch (linner for me), in between her customers for today. Since everything in the state is now take-out only, we chose Big Town Hero for sandwiches, to take back to her place and eat. I hung around until her next client showed up and then came back home. I fed Rylee and settled in for the evening. 

Friday, November 20^th, 2020…….  There is a slow-moving storm they say is coming in, but not until late Sunday, so we are looking at a few days of possible sunshine!  Yaay!  I doubt it will dry out enough for one more mowing before the season ends but I will be ready just in case. Randy is planning on coming up next week. I know all of the west coast is virtually in a shutdown now and under travel restrictions but he is driving by himself and will stop for gas and fast food and will drive probably half way and stop for the night (or maybe pull over and sleep for a few hours), so he shouldn’t have any problems. I hope he comes because it will sure be nice to see him!  This morning, I got up early and walked Rylee and then made myself some breakfast. I took off for a short drive just because the sun was out and it was a beautiful day! I needed to be back by 11:00am to be there when they made the rock delivery. I drove to Scio by the back roads. Nice. I got back in plenty of time for the delivery. Cody showed up on time and I asked him if he could split the drop in two places, which he easily did. I gave him a tip and he was on his way. I came in to warm up. It was sunny but nippy in the shade. I will wait until the sun hits that area before going out to move some rock…

Teri stopped by. She was out between customers to go pick up a clock she found on Marketplace and it was right around the corner from me!  She played with Rylee and we visited for a few minutes before she had to leave to go back to work. I went out and took pics of the rocks before I began my task.

I need to spread the stones out to make the transition from the cement slab to the carport a bit smoother. I think I got too much rock but I will make it work!  I spent an hour out there and got a small portion of it distributed and then came in for the day. I fixed myself dinner and caught up on some of my taped programs until bedtime. 

Saturday, November 21^st, 2020……  Cold again this morning!  It was 38º at 7:45am when I took butthead out for our walk! The sun is due out later this afternoon so I am not going out to work on the rocks until then. I spent some time getting my bill spreadsheet up to date then settled in and watched some college football games and also did some vacuuming of Rylee’s furballs which are all over the house!  Lois’s gift of my stick vac made pretty quick work of those. Sis came by on the way back from an errand. She was ready to help with the rocks but I think she was happy when I told her I wasn’t going to do any work out there today because it was still too cold. It turned out that it stayed in the mid-30s all day.

I knew that Teri had her daughter-in-law coming in this morning and she was doing a cut and color on her hair. She texted me later that they were done and Brandi was heading home. I asked if she had plans for dinner and she didn’t so I asked if she wanted to go to Arby’s in Albany. I hadn’t been in a while and take-out is about all we can do since everything is restricted at least that for the next two weeks.  We drove there and then got our dinner and went to a local park and ate.  I drove her home and came back and let Rylee out and then settled in to watch the night football games and then some taped shows. I had soda for dinner so I guess the caffeine gave me enough of a boost that I wasn’t sleepy until late into the evening. But eventually I went to bed and fell asleep.