Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #155 – Test is Done!

 

Thursday, December 20th, 2018…...  Lydia woke up in time to start the second half of her pre-test liquids and finished that with no problems. We left the house about 8:00am to drive to Corvallis for her 9:00am procedure. I got her checked in and they ended up taking her in a little early. I then took off to go get something to eat. It didn’t take too long before they called me back. She was done. The tests couldn’t have been better! While they did find extreme irritated bowels (from the diverticulitis), there were no polyps or anything else that they were concerned about. They said they did need a biopsy and they took that for testing. She does have a scheduled appointment as a follow-up the first of the month and hopefully that will now be routine. They did give her a new prescription for more antibiotics which we will pick up later today. Hopefully, that will clear up her issues and she will be back to normal soon! We stopped by Starbucks for her tea, and then McDonald's and I got her lunch. She’s feeling back to normal except I’m sure she’ll sleep a lot today and tonight. My sister came over to check on her and visit a bit. Then Lydia started making dinner (chicken burritos) while Rylee and I went and picked up her prescription. She was tired but stayed awake while we watched the Survivor finale and reunion show. But after one episode of the Gingerbread House Baking Contest she was ready for bed and called it an early night. We're ready for Christmas now!  

Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #154 – Drs. Appointments and Back to the Grapevines 

 

Monday, December 17th, 2018…...  Today we had two things to do, or should I say Lydia had two things to do… She took off around 8:45 for her appointment with the gastrologist. They needed to check with her and make sure she was able to have her Thursday colonoscopy. Her symptoms have lessened so it’s a go. It started sprinkling early so I didn’t go out this morning after I walked Rylee. But just a bit later the weather cleared up and the sun came out and it was a beautiful day. While Lydia was gone, I took Rylee out to the shop with me. But she saw activity across the street at Ollie’s house and she was gone! The neighbor from behind Paul and Corie’s house had come by to see if her dogs were ok. Seems he heard what sounded like a dog stuck in an animal trap. Everybody’s animals were ok so we figure it was an injured coyote. There have been cougar sightings in the area recently. Or maybe a coyote had killed a fox and that’s what they heard. Anyway, Rylee played with the dog they brought with them and Ollie came out and all three had a great run around the yard! I brought her back home and, since the weather was nice, I went out and trimmed some more of the grapevines. When I finished filling the barrel, I came in. My sister came by to drop off some cheesecake and after spending time out there with me, went in to visit with Lydia, who had come back from her appointment and was reading up on the paperwork they gave her about her procedure.  Lydia was on the phone because she forgot the time and missed her mammogram. They got it rescheduled for next month so she’s good. 

The rest of the day was uneventful and we ate and then watched tv until bedtime. 

       

Tuesday, December 18th, 2018……  Only One Week ‘til CHRISTMAS!  This morning we had some actual rain! It came down pretty hard for about an hour. So, now our low-lying backyard grass is now really waterlogged! The French drains help but they filled up from the downpour.  Needless to say, I didn’t take Rylee out for her walk as early as I usually do. I ate breakfast and read the paper and watched tv for a while. Later, the skies cleared up and the sun came out again. I got Rylee out and Sabrina was also out walking Camo, the English bulldog from up the street.  Rylee is now close to 70 lbs and Camo is just 60 but he’s a very aggressive 1 yr. old and even though he’s fixed, he still has his urges. Rylee just wants to play and doesn’t understand why he doesn’t want to play face to face (if you know what I mean).  She always ends up laying down and playing submissive (this time right on the wet road) and I’m done with that so I split them up and we continued with our walk. Later in the day, the skies clouded up again and it started in again. This storm is supposed to be very weak but is pretty good-sized and will hang around for a few days, so we’re not drying out again until Thursday.  Lydia took some shrimp out of the freezer and baked potatoes to go with it and we ate and watched our programs until calling it a night.

     

Wednesday, December 19th, 2018…...  I wanted to go to Lowes and/or Home Depot Albany this morning to get some new towel bars for the master bath. We’ve changed out all of the drawer pulls and need to now do the towel bars. Walt has three different styles one of which is oak, so we need to change that out. I took Rylee out and then let her run with Quincy who was visiting. Later, when they went back home, I followed them and helped my sister get her new safe put in her house. It’s a Christmas gift from us but she picked it out on to Amazon and just had it delivered direct to her place. It came last week. It’s not that big but we had to dolly it in so I wanted to make sure she didn’t do it by herself. Christmas came early for her this year! I stopped on the way home and got breakfast and brought it home. Lydia is on a restricted diet prior to her colonoscopy tomorrow so she just ate some toast. She takes a pill today to help start the process. Then later, she will take the liquids required and you all know what happens after that! So, she is staying close to the house. I want her to help choose what style of towel bars we will put in so I’m going to wait until we can both go together. So, I’m sticking around the house with her. The weather is kind of icky today. No rain yet but the skies are cloudy. If it warms up a bit, maybe I’ll go out and work on the grapevines some more.  

Ok, no working on the grapevines today. No much rain but I decided to wait until another day. I fixed my own dinner as she is on a restricted diet for tomorrow. Around 5:00pm, she started in on the liquid assignment. Later, we planned on watching the taped finale of Survivor but she transitioned to watching tv in the bedroom to be closer to the toidy! She ended up falling asleep early. Besides, she has to be up at 5:00am to start back on the other half of the liquid.        

Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #153 – Christmas Wrapping and Working on the Grapevines

Friday, December 14th, 2018…...  Nothing planned for today. I went and got us coffee/tea and came back while Lydia was making scrambled eggs w/mushrooms and ham, for breakfast. Even though the forecast was for rain, the skies were clear and it was nice and sunny, so I went out with my clippers and started in on cutting back the grapevines. I worked out there for about an hour and called it for the day and came in and rested. The weather changed pretty quickly. It got windy and then the rains came in. I was going to call Kirk and tell him not to worry about coming to work here today but when I looked outside, he was already out there in the blueberry cage – complete with raingear – working away! Oh well!  The short shower turned to sprinkles and then stopped a few minutes later.  Lydia got a call that her new glasses were ready so we took off later and drove to Albany to pick them up. Since we were already out, we decided to just stop at Arby’s and have dinner before coming back home and settling in for the evening.    

       

Saturday, December 15th, 2018……  Neither one of us had anything on the agenda for today. I took Rylee out for our walk up and back on the street, while Penny brought Quincy over and had her out in the field. The pups hooked up later and ran for a while. Sis left Q here while she went out and did some shopping and then went back to her house to bake. Quincy freaks out when the oven is running so she got her day at the ‘spa’ at our place. We left her and Rylee to their naps while we took off and did some grocery shopping at Walmart. Lydia has found another recipe she wants to try and I’m her test dummy so she needed some things for that for tomorrow. Sis came by and got the Q dog and Lydia wrapped the last of our gifts and that is now done. Later, we had dinner and watched tv until bedtime.    

   

     

Sunday, December 16th, 2018…...  The rains were due back today (and forecast for tomorrow and Tuesday as well). It’s normally just light showers and/or sprinkles but it’s still considered a rainy day! I got Rylee out for her walk and it was just cold but no rains yet. But it's coming... No worries, it’s Sunday and I only went out once to go get us breakfast. Then it was football and Christmas movies (you figure out who watched what!) all day and into the evening. Lydia made her new dish tonight. It was called 'Mexican White Trash'. It is a casserole made with chicken, tortillas, cream of chicken soup, rotelle tomatoes, sour cream, dorito chips, cheese, taco seasoning, and milk. I liked it. We did get together to watch the Pentatonix Christmas special we had taped before calling it a night.  

Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #152 – Drs. Appointments and Dinner with Friend/Family

 

Tuesday, December 11th, 2018…...  This morning I wanted to go get some drywall to put back on the shop wall. The skies were grey but there was no rain forecast for the morning hours, so I took off and headed to Lowes and got one sheet of drywall. I got home and immediately started in on cutting the new panel. I had the old piece so I could trace that out to get the size and the electrical outlet cut out in the right place. It went in pretty easily and I got the thing screwed in and now everything was closed up. The rains did hit us later in the afternoon but it was only a slight drizzle and didn’t last long. We did have some strong winds though, so I had some cleanup to do in the yard. The backyard is still really soaked and it’s squishy to walk on. So, we leave that alone and don’t walk out there except to pick up after super pooper. Kirk changed his day to come by from today to Friday, which is fine with us.    

       

Wednesday, December 12th, 2018……  This morning I got up early. I walked Rylee and then my sister came over with Quincy and dropped her off for the day. She took Lydia with her to the doctor’s in Salem and then they did some shopping. I headed off to Economy (Ace) Hardware to get some joint tape and joint compound to finish up the drywall and got back and got that finished in short time. I let the pups out to play while the mud was drying. The girls got home a bit later and sis took Q home for the day. Our plan was to each feed the dogs at 4:00pm and then meet up for dinner at Pizza Schmizza at 4:30pm. We had invited Terri, the owner of Rumors (where we all get our hair cut), for dinner with us. We had a nice meal and a good time. Then it was back home to kick back and watch tv until bedtime.

   

     

Thursday, December 13th, 2018…...  Lydia had some agenda items today to take care of. First up were labs. Her nephrologist has changed her cyclosporine (anti-rejection) meds to a new brand and wanted to get a new reading on her levels. So, she took off early for that. Next up was her gynecologist appointment in Corvallis. But that was not until later in the day.  I went out and sanded down the drywall and cleaned up, then moved the rack back into place. Now all that is left is to load it up. It’s really a nice luxury to be able to have places to put everything and be able to keep the shop neater. I drove Lydia to her appointment and we took monkey butt with us for a car ride. Once we found the place and she went in, I took Rylee out to walk around the block. We got back and only waited a short time for her to come back out and we scooted home to feed Rylee and make dinner. We ate while we watched two taped specials – CMA Country Christmas, and Darci Lynne.  We also watched the last Christmas Light Fight. Then, we each watched our own shows until bedtime.

This was the other night, in my office. Rylee would rather play than watch Guys Grocery Games…  

       

Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #151 – A Little Rain, and a Lot of Sun!

Saturday, December 8th, 2018…...  Rylee let us sleep in this morning. When I say sleep in, I mean she gave us about 20 minutes extra time before she crawls up your face to get you up! I got up and fed her and got showered and ready to go out. As forecast, it rained a little last night. A light rain, just enough to give everything a good soaking. But this morning it stayed away and it was definitely warmer (it was 40º but that’s a lot better than 26!) so the morning walk with the big ole white dog was pleasant. Sis came by with Quincy and Rylee joined them after they had their walk out in the west 40. I cleaned monkey butt up when they came back then left and got us breakfast - Starbucks for coffee/tea and McDonald's for yogurt parfait/oatmeal/egg McMuffins.  The girls at Starbucks always call me by name since I come in so often (I know their names too!) and today, they gave me a personalized Christmas card!  How nice!  After I ate, I went out to finish up on the racks. I got the last of the wood slats cut and installed. 

Then I cleaned up the shop and came in to rest for a bit. I had one more item on my Christmas list to go get, so I took off and got that done and came home.  Lydia was still working on laundry. Fun stuff! Rylee is bored and always wants to play. She brings me toys and then challenges me to take them from her! We end up running around the house until I’m worn out! Of course, she wants to be with me when I’m out in the workshop and I always try to let her have time outside, especially when the weather is nicer, like today. Forecast is for rain (in some degree) on and off for the next week, so we’re out there when we can. I came in and read my email and found that my doctor sent me one, and that sent me to the referenced lab report parked in MyChart, our medical communication venue. My bone scan results showed a slight improvement compared to the last one done late in 2016. He wants me to continue on my once-a-week Alendronate pill. But I had stopped taking that one because it was causing severe joint pain, especially in my knees, so now I have to ask him if we can try something else instead. I sent him a message and I should hear back next week… 

Lydia got the rest of her chicken dumpling soup out of the freezer and we had that for dinner. After I cleaned up the kitchen, it was resting and tv for the evening - although she still had clothes going in the washer and dryer, so she had to keep on top of that chore.     

       

Sunday, December 9th, 2018……  Today was really a do-nothing day! Lydia got up with Rylee and let her out and then fed her. I actually got to sleep in today! Yaay! I did get up (around 8:00am) and got showered and then took her out for her walk. It is supposed to drizzle today but it was still dry when we went out so that was good. We ate in this morning and just spent the day laying around the house. The rains started about 10:00am and it was sprinkling on and off for most of the day. Needless to say, we had an anxious, frustrated puppy who wanted some quality time outside! But I managed to roughhouse with her around the house several times and that helped wear her out a bit during the day so we were good.     

   

     

Monday, December 10th, 2018…...   The weather today was supposed to be more rain. When we woke up this morning and I let butthead out to pee, no rain, but it was super foggy! I was thinking about breakfast and I came up with going out to Kevin’s. I texted my sister and she met us there. We had to go early so Lydia could drop me off back at home and still make her 10:00am appointment with the optometrist in Albany. No problem. All was good. She made it!  The sun came out after the fog burned off and it turned out to be a really super nice sunny day!  I went out to the shop and moved the new shelving rack out of the way and tore the drywall off of the north wall. Well, only about two feet up but it was still an eight foot long piece. I needed to find and repair a leak in the PVC water line that ran through there to the spigot at the front of the shop. The water was turned off going to that spigot and it has never worked since the day we moved in. The rack would be going in to block it – so now was the time to take care of it. I ended up putting in a longer piece of pipe than I planned, thus the large hole. But at least I got it taken care of. Tomorrow (if I can sneak it in between showers) I will go get the drywall and get it pieced back in there and taped and mudded. Lydia got back and she rested for a while in her office with the drapes closed because she was still dilated from the eye doctor. She had said that we needed to go grocery shopping and later in the afternoon she felt fine and we went to the store. I was hungry since I didn’t have lunch. That’s a bad thing to do – go grocery shopping when you’re hungry! We spent more than we wanted but we ended up with a well stocked shopping cart and now have meals planned for a while now. Among other meats, we bought Lloyd’s bbq pulled pork and also got some brioche buns and had sandwiches for dinner and watched tv while we ate. We actually got all caught up on Guys Grocery Games tonight! We are taping Reba’s Country Christmas but will get to that another day.  While we were watching tv, Lydia got a call from her 'lunch ladies'. They were out having their Christmas party dinner and they passed the phone around so each of them could talk with Lydia. She sure enjoyed that! If we had been able to make that rv trip down to Calif., she would have been there to be with them all. But, this was the next best thing!     

Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #150 – Colder Weather and More Shopping

Wednesday, December 5th, 2018…...  Today was my day to run errands. I got my dog walking duty completed then took off. My job today was to go get some lumber to finish my shelves. I stopped and checked Home Depot but Lowes was cheaper and the selection was better there this time so I picked up what I think I needed and headed home. Lydia hung around the house and got some laundry ready. The weather here has turned cold! But no snow yet. It’s funny – when it rains the winds coming in with the showers are warmer so the low temps stay in the forties. But when it’s clear and sunny, the winds get colder, so the morning temps can get down below freezing. This morning it was 27º when I took Rylee out!  Brrrr!  So, I am no longer in my shorts. I have two pairs of jeans with flannel lining and I broke them out of hibernation and for the last couple of days have been wearing nice warm flannel now, at least for the morning walks. It does get into the mid to high 40s and that’s comfortable for me now. I have already made the rounds and covered the water spigots so they don’t freeze. The temps in the rv garage have stayed well above freezing so we don’t have to winterize the coach during these cold winter mornings.  We just won’t be using the rig for the rest of winter! Later in the afternoon, we decided to drive down to Eugene to do a little shopping. We were going to take monster mutt with us and take turns going inside the stores but when we stopped on the way at my sister’s house to help her unload a piece of furniture from her car, we decided to leave her there so she could terrorize, oops, I mean play with Quincy. We got our shopping done and drove back to Lebanon. When we got to town, I dropped Lydia off at the grocery store to get a round steak and tortillas for steak burritos, while I went on to get Rylee from my sister’s. Then we went home and got dinner made and watched yet another few episodes of Guys Grocery Games while we ate. Still not caught up! We’ll get there but we can only binge watch a few episodes at a time.  

       

Thursday, December 6th, 2018……  I walked Rylee then took off again for Albany. Today I was looking for a couple of things at Harbor Freight and then I wanted to stop by Habitat for Humanity. I was looking for some plexiglass and this was stop one before I hit Hobby Lobby or Michael's. I found what I needed and the piece was only one dollar! I completed my stops at Lowes and got cup hooks. I am working on the upper entryway window. Walt had left us three lighted stars and all of the hookups to hang them in the window. (You can see these in the photo of the house lights I previously had posted.) I replaced one that had bad bulbs last year. The other two worked fine last year but this year one of them had a few bad bulbs. I had already bought two new stars (actually bought three so I have a replacement) but wanted a better way to hang them. The plexiglass I bought I cut into two-inch strips and mounted the stars to these. Then I drilled them to hang on cup hooks or nails so they would hang straight and not spin around. I finished them in the workshop and brought them in and got everything hung in the window. Looks a lot better now. 

Lydia had gone off with Penny to do some shopping in Albany. Plus, they each had a gift card from our realtor, Aimee, that allowed them to go get a free plant from Garland’s Nursery. Garlands is between Corvallis and Albany and they came back that way so they could stop and get that done on the way home. When they got back, we decided that tonight it would be leftovers for dinner.  We watched our recorded shows until bedtime.        

   

     

Friday, December 7th, 2018…...   This morning I got on all of my cold weather gear, and took Rylee out. It was 29º. I brought in the morning newspaper and then took off and got coffee/tea. Lydia had made us pancakes and sausage for breakfast and we finally sat down and watched Garth Brooks’ special from Notre Dame Stadium while we ate. We have always liked him and his shows do not disappoint. We had gone to see him years ago at his concert at the Hollywood Bowl.  In the paper this morning, was an article posted about the Capitol Christmas Tree. It was lit yesterday by Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, assisted by an Oregonian resident. The tree was cut from a US Forest area just outside of Sweet Home, probably 20 miles or so from our house. So, we had a connection with it and watched the news as it was loaded and took off on a convoy to DC. The 10,000 ornaments on it (and the 70 other smaller trees that are in offices nearby), were also made by volunteers here in Oregon.

Later, I came in and worked on this blog and also went online and ordered my Christmas gift from Lydia and Randy/Maryanne.  We had Marco Polo(ed) with the kids last week and they had an idea for a gift exchange this year, Since we won’t be together, and rather than play gift card exchange, they proposed that we (along with Penny) go out and get an item that we want for ourselves, and wrap it up and put it under the tree. On Christmas day, we will Marco Polo and each record the opening of these gifts from them and them from us. My gift from them is what I ordered so I won’t spoil it by saying what it is.  We have a dollar limit, so that is why my gift is combined with Lydia and Randy/Maryanne. This new gift idea is something different so we’ll see how it goes….

I took butthead out and tied her up by my shop so she could be outside. By this time it was up to 39º. She has more than enough hair to keep her warm and so she loves just being out there. I cut some of the 2x8 lumber for the shelves on the new rack. I stopped for lunch and never went back out there to work – only later when I shut down everything and closed the door for the night. My sister came over to bring the Q dog to play with muttley. She went out all white and came back with black paws! They do have a lot of fun though and Rylee needs the exercise and the playtime. I had fixed myself some mac and cheese for lunch and wasn’t hungry for dinner so Lydia made herself a little meal. We settled in for the evening and watched tv until bedtime.   

Oregon Living 2018 – Blog #149 – Dinner With Sis and Janice, Lunch With Kirk and Then off to Church!

Sunday, December 2nd, 2018…...  Not much going on today. We ate breakfast in today and just kicked back and watched tv all day. We are going over to my sister’s house for dinner tonight. Taking Rylee. Wow, she gets to go on two car rides in two days!  Wooo woo! She has asked Janice to come over and she has stuffed salmon on the menu. We are bringing veggies. Not sure what kind yet…..

Lydia went to the store and got butter beans. Nothing fancy, but one of my favorites. We were told that Janice wanted to wear her ugly sweater tonight so we decided to do the same. So, we headed over a little before 5:00pm and got our doggie unloaded and she ran around a bit in the front yard. She met Gunner, the black lab puppy from next door. They didn’t get too much of a chance to play but maybe another time. Janice came by later without her sweater. She felt so bad she went home and changed! She only lives around the block so it wasn’t a long drive.  I think I won!

We had a nice meal and sat around and talked and had a few drinks. It was a nice evening. Rylee even took a break to rest next to Janice for a minute or two….

Sis asked us to take Quincy home for another sleepover. Quincy has been restless at their house lately and she said she needed a good night’s sleep. So, we loaded both of them up and did another car ride back home. Q sleeps on the guest bed and Rylee sleeps with us so all we were all going to get a good sleep.     

       

Monday, December 3rd, 2018…...  Last night was uneventful. Like I said, we all got a good night’s sleep! I took Quincy out for her business/walk/run and then we let Rylee out to run with her before bringing Q in for her breakfast. Lydia had a dermatologist appointment this morning and she headed off for that while I watched the pups. They had crashed so it was a good time for me to do my first-of-the-month bills. Yuuuck!  My sister came over later and got Quincy and I left to go to the lumber yard to look for some material for the shop racks. I wasn’t ready to pay the price at either of the two lumber yards in town. I will head to Albany maybe toward the end of the week.

Oh yeah, here is the pic we had taken the other night at the carousel…

We ate leftovers and watched The Great Christmas Light Fight – or at least part of it – before calling it a night and heading off to bed.  

   

     

Tuesday, December 4th, 2018…...    Today we are headed over to Corvallis to lunch with Kirk and then over to his church to see their nativity scene. We met him at Block 15 and enjoyed a nice meal. Then we followed him to his church parking lot. I said nativity scene. I should have said, scenes! The church has been doing this for many years. In fact, we went on the 25^th anniversary of folks setting up nativity scenes in their parish hall. They have over 200 individual nativities set up. Many from folks in the US but many are from other countries. They did a great job!

They also had a little game you could play. They had 20 items on a find list and you could go and check off each item on this ‘scavenger’ list as you spotted them. Some items on the list were: a diamond shaped manger, an angel holding a red heart, a nativity in a matchbox, a green dragon. Between the three of us, we managed to find all 20, plus the bonus, a single donkey! As I said, it was a lot of fun and we plan on going again next year. We got back home and rested for the day. Lydia made omelets for dinner and then we watched the rest of Christmas Light Fight before going back to watch our own taped shows.