Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #24 – Running Errands and Another Doctor’s Visit

 

Monday, March 11^th, 2019…... Nice weather again today. Storms are expected tomorrow. We’ll see. I got Rylee out and walked and then made myself some breakfast. Lydia was having some discomfort this morning so we’re staying close to home today. My sister was coming over for a few minutes. She was headed to Albany to go to Costco for new fluorescent light fixtures for her garage and then to a car stereo store to check on speakers for her car. But she wanted me to listen to it first. I found that the left door speaker is blown. I expect that they will sell and install a pair, which makes sense. Her gps speaker out of the dash is also pretty squirrely so she needs a new one there too. She called later and said that the fixtures at Costco were the same as she already has, so she just bought new led tubes. Also, she said that the stereo folks have set an appointment for the speaker install. Later in the morning, Lydia felt better so we took off to go to Walmart for a few things for dinner. We wanted something easy and decided on sloppy joes and tator tots so we got all of that stuff. They have a bakery chain up here called Franz, that most of the stores, including Walmart, carry. They have a really good potato hamburger bun that we like so we found those and we were done. Besides a few more walks for muttley, that was pretty much it for the day.   

Tuesday, March 12^th, 2019……  Rain last night and in the forecast. But it barely sprinkled on us when I had Rylee out this morning.  And then the sun came out for a while! But later in the morning, it hailed on us for about 3 minutes. Then it cleared up again and the sun came out again! Weird weather. It is supposed to rain more this evening. Don’t blink! Kirk worked at my sister’s this morning and then came over, even though it was hailing! We called him in the house to talk about future projects. Lydia wants him to order her a couple of fishing rod plants. We saw these at the Oregon Gardens last season. 

They are technically called Dierama Pulcherrimum. A few months later, she inquired at the nursery and they weren’t in stock and it was coming to the end of the season. So, we waited and will now have Kirk use his discount and get us a couple. He can also talk to them about the best place to put these in the yard. The weather broke and the sun came out again so he made quick work and got all of my downed blueberry netting cut away and all of the broken boards piled up for me to dispose of. 

Lydia was feeling really good today. We hope that continues….. She received a call today from the Infectious Disease Dr’s office, asking if she wanted to come in tomorrow instead of a few weeks from now. They wanted to discuss the blood work that has been done and to retest her blood. We’ll do that tomorrow morning. She got out some halibut for dinner. I peeled and sliced some potatoes and we cooked some green beans. She asked me if I wanted to watch the series premier of Master Chef Jr. tonight on tape delay or wait. We watched Guys Grocery Games which I had taped and then MCJr on her tv. 

             

Wednesday, March 13^th, 2019…... I got up and got showered and going early so Lydia could go shower after me and get ready. After my walk, my sister came over and she had Rylee out with her while I went out and got breakfast/coffee/tea. When I got back, Lydia was dressed and we left around 9:00am for her 9:45am appointment in Corvallis. Sis was leaving Quincy so she could go run some errands and then go home and bake. The oven drives Quincy nuts so it was good for her to be here.

Once we got to the Dr’s office there, she was in for over an hour. Like I said, they wanted to do more blood work. Dr. Leonard’s office had seen that she had tested for the CMV virus, which is cytomegalovirus (pronounced sy-toe-MEG-a-low-vy-rus). This is a common virus that infects over half of adults by age 40. Once it’s in your body, it stays there for life and can reactivate. Most people’s healthy immune system usually keeps the virus from causing illness. However, people – Like Lydia – with weakened immune systems can get it. The Dr. today said one of the symptoms is an intestinal issue. Bingo!  Dr. Leonard (her nephrologist) had seen this in her labs and had given her a 24-day medication, but that was back before she was on the lessor dose of anti-rejection meds. Subsequent bloodwork showed no signs, but she wanted a consult with an infectious disease doctor, and today was the first day we could get in. Today’s blood was drawn so that will check it again. They want her to do these labs weekly for one month. Not having it show up in the latest bloodwork means that the 24-day meds probably got it. Plus, the antibiotics may have helped in clearing up her symptoms. But to ask her, she still has discharge and pretty severe pain still. The colon wall usually doesn’t heal that quickly so this may take more time to sort out.  

After the Dr’s. we stopped at Roz and Ali and also at Bed, Bath, & Beyond, and TJ Max where we bought a few things before heading home. We found our friend, Brian’s, food cart now in operation at the old Mega Foods parking lot in town, so we stopped and got lunch from him. His truck is called Chau's Little Vietnam. His wife owns the nail salon where we go and we've tried his food at the BeerFest. It is the best!  We took it home and my sister was back to pick up Quincy and we spent some time with her before she left to go home. We rested and then later, I took Rylee out and put her on her rope, while I sorted out the wood from the netting from the blueberry bushes that Kirk had taken down yesterday and piled up for me. The weather was just too nice to stay in. We had blue skies and nice sun beating down. We are supposed to have 2-3 days of sun before the next rain. Yaay! My neighbor even was out yesterday with his tractor, mowing his lawn. He is on higher ground so he doesn’t have my soggy grass issues. I still have to wait but we’ll see what these next days bring…

Neither of us was hungry after lunch so we left dinner open. I had the rest of the sloppy joe mix and Lydia ate some of the leftover casserole.  We watched Survivor and then a few other shows before calling it a night.       

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #23 – Drying Out From the Snow and Rain & Hanging Around the House

 

Friday, March 8^th, 2019…...  Today the weather started out nice. They said we have rain coming and snow at the higher elevations. But it was still pretty cold. Everything was wet from drizzle last night. Even though our concrete parking pad and our asphalt driveway and the street were iced over and slippery, I still managed to get Rylee out and we did our walk with no problems. We had nothing on the agenda so we ate in and stayed in all day. I let Rylee out to pee and she saw Rick’s car coming home across the street so she took off. I had to chase her down. I am not happy!

The predicted rains came later in the afternoon and went well into the night. Not much came down but I’m sure the roads will be slippery again tomorrow. TV until bedtime. 

Saturday, March 9^th, 2019……  Sis and Q are coming over this morning. It’s still cold outside and we have more slippery conditions. There is black ice on the roads and the local radio station is saying that there are reports of cars sliding into each other in town. The sun came out early though so much of it was gone by the time we got up and going. I let Rylee out to run with Quincy and by the time we got them back in and dried off, and Q fed, Lydia was up and dressed and we were ready to go to breakfast. Sis drove us to Kevin’s, where we met Janice. We ordered and while we were waiting, I skimmed thru the little weekly publication, similar to our old Pennysaver, that was on a rack on their counter.  I noted that there was a yard sale going on today in Sweet Home. They advertised it as an everything- goes-old-farm sale. I wasn’t interested, but Janice was. So, after breakfast, I took my sister’s car home and she went with Janice to go check it out. Once we got home, we decided to head to Albany and do some shopping. We hit Big Lots, where she bought a couple of knick knacks for the bathroom, and Target, where she bought some more bath towels. We headed back home and rested for the day. I had a few races taped so I watched them and she did some laundry. She asked me what I wanted for dinner and I told her I was hungry for either pizza or panini sandwiches. I ended up choosing pizza. We had coupons so I went to Domino’s for their carryout special. It was our first time going to this location. But it’s close and we wanted to try it out. Turns out it was pretty good pizza but their counter service leaves a lot to be desired. I will give them another try. There is also a Pizza Hut here that we still have to try as well.

Early in the evening I went on the task to set all of our clocks so we were ready for the time change. That was our Saturday.    

             

Sunday, March 10^th, 2019…... Another nice day. The sun is out and temps are supposed to get up into the mid 50s, which is really good for March. I walked Rylee and found that all of the snow, even up in the foothills above us, is now gone. There was frost on the roofs of all of the homes when I was out with the monkey butt, but that will be gone as soon as the sun gets higher in the sky. I did a few maintenance items today - I went out to the shop and added salt to the water softener and then went to the rv garage and started up the motorhome and checked things out in the coach (and set the clocks in there too). More races today and a few more loads of laundry. We are still hanging around the house a lot. Lydia has finished her antibiotics a few days ago and now needs to see if her symptoms get worse or better. She still has plenty of cramping pain, especially in the mornings, so we only want to make short trips for now. Time is going to tell if she either improves or needs more antibiotics.

She decided to fix a casserole and got that going in the afternoon.       

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #22 – A Trip to Portland and a Date Night

 

Tuesday, March 5^th, 2019…...  I woke up about 5:30am this morning and got up and ready. While I walked Rylee, Lydia got up and got dressed and ready for our day. We left the house and drove the 100 miles up to Portland for her meeting with the digestive health team. The drive was uneventful and we got through the usual bogged-down areas with little problems. We only missed the turn to the medical center once so we thought that wasn’t too bad! We found the underground parking and made our way to the sixth-floor offices and checked in. We met with a nurse, then a physician’s assistant, and then with Dr. Herzig. He had already consulted with the transplant center in the area (not sure exactly where they are located) and was ready for Lydia. He did a great job, first listening to her complete synopsis of her history and past and her present condition and then, after an examination, explaining about next steps. He recommends that we wait until the antibiotics have worked their magic and then, once off those, see if she can sustain with no symptoms. If she can, he wants to see her (or do a telecon) and close the case. If not, we will look into scheduling surgery. He explained the complications of colon re-section surgery and the lengthy recovery time. He said he’s pretty sure it’s diverticulosis and wants to see how she does after the antibiotics are done (which is sometime this week). He’s glad to hear that the pain has lessened since her anti-rejection drugs have been adjusted and agrees that the antibiotics are likely now starting to work. He’s almost ruled out Crohn’s Disease and any forms of cancer because all of her lab reports show no changes in her numbers. She still needs to do regular blood and urine lab testing to make sure the kidney functions maintain the same numbers. All in all, it was pretty good news. Time will now tell what the next steps are…

After we left there, we drove back toward home and stopped at the Cracker Barrel in Tualatin for lunch. We haven’t been for a long time so it was a nice treat, especially after such good news. We also stopped by the nice sized Cabela’s right next door. I didn’t buy anything (this time!). We got back home a few minutes after Penny got there from her appointments in Salem. She’s doing well and everything is on schedule. She had fed Rylee. Kirk was just leaving so I caught up to him to give him his check for last month. He also has borrowed my trailer for a while as the one he was using is needed by the owner. I have plans on rebuilding my trailer but not until later this year, so I am glad to see it being used. We settled in and relaxed from our morning adventure.

Later, we had leftovers for dinner then settled in and watched tv until we were too tired to stay awake after our early morning outing.        

Wednesday, March 6^th, 2019……   I didn’t sleep well last night. Guess going to bed early wasn’t the right choice. Anyway, I was up at 3:30am and got settled into my chair in my room and turned on the tv. We keep the heater set at night to come on only if it gets below 65º, so I needed to turn it up a bit and then I was ok with a light blanket in my chair. Of course, Rylee left our warm bed and came in with me and slept on her blanket in my room. But, she was ready when I got up at 7:00am to feed her. Then I was up for the day. Nothing planned today. After I got showered and dressed, I walked Rylee. It was barely sprinkling when we left and I got back without getting too wet. Rylee doesn’t care!  We have some weather predicted but they don’t know if the light rain in the forecast will turn to freezing rain or what they call a “mix”. It is supposed to snow at the higher elevations. Our neighbors say that, in our area, the snow we got in February in itself, was unusual, but in March it would be extremely unlikely. We’ll see. Either way, we didn’t do too much. I went to Starbucks and got us coffee/tea while Lydia made bacon and eggs. After that, we stayed in and relaxed and did nothing.

Later in the day, it did snow. But the temperature was 36º, and even though it came down pretty heavy at times, nothing stuck to the ground. We’re watching to see if it snows later this evening and then it might stick. As we’re told, this is strange for March…

Tomorrow is trash day so we cleaned out the leftovers and stuff from the fridge and I took out the container amid the snow flurries. It wasn’t too bad. I learned my lesson last week, having to lug the containers over the snow. While I did that, Lydia started dinner. Tonight was Survivor, then we watched our own taped shows until bedtime.  

             

Thursday, March 7^th, 2019…... No snow (or rain) at all during the night. I slept way better than the night before. But turns out, Lydia didn’t. She said she got up to pee about 1:30am and was restless and awake so she went in to her room and watched tv. I guess Rylee took her place on the bed. I didn’t wake up until about 3:00am and saw the light coming down the hall and I could see she was up. I got up and checked on her, then went back to bed. She woke me briefly when she came back to bed about 4:00am. Later, neither of us wanted to get up but butthead made sure one of us did! I let her out and waited and then wiped her paws at the door and then went back to bed. She stayed off our bed and slept on her blanket in the corner until 6:59am when she jumped up on the bed to get me up to feed her. Now I was up for good. I got showered and dressed and let Lydia sleep. But Rylee bugged her to play so now she was up too. She went in and made herself an egg sandwich and I went out for my morning breakfast run. I stopped and got my Jack in the Box breakfast burrito and coffee/tea from Starbucks. After breakfast, I was planning on heading over to Albany to Petco to buy a new dog leash, but I wanted to check online first. I found a couple of sellers on eBay and Amazon that had what I wanted and they were cheaper than Petco or PetSmart. So, I didn’t go anywhere. Later, I took Rylee and went out to the shop and finished dismantling the recliner. I got everything sorted and scraps in the trash and/or recycling, and got the work table cleaned and the floor vacuumed and then we came in for the day. I was relaxing and ate a light lunch and Lydia came in and asked about dinner. Did I have any preference? If not, she said she could cook spaghetti or we could go out. We opted for The Spaghetti Factory in Corvallis and fed muttley and headed out around 3:45pm. We like to go early. We got seated by the window overlooking the river (Willamette River). The Oregon State rowing teams were out practicing going up and down the river. That was cool!  We had a nice meal and then headed back home. The weather today had been off and on drizzles but hardly enough to wet the ground. It started to clear up in the afternoon, and when we left the house, it was nice and sunny. So, our dinner date out was very pleasant. We got back home and got the dog walked again and then we settled in and watched tv until calling it a night.        

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #21 – Dealing With the Snow, and Dealing With Taxes

 

Saturday, March 2^nd, 2019…...  Rylee got me up super early this morning (2:30am) to go outside. She investigated the grass and remaining snow piles a bit before doing her business and coming back in. But I was able to go right back to sleep. Guess I was tired! She woke me up about 6:30am and wanted out again. This time for number two! We played a bit and around 7:00am I fed her her breakfast. We didn’t have much on the agenda today so I went back to bed and tried to go back to sleep. No way! She eats and then wants to play! So, I was toast!  I got up and showered and dressed and then took her out. We still have a lot of snow up and down our street. But it was all on the side so walking was easy. We have winds coming in from the west with really cold air so it was more than just chilly this morning. Rylee doesn't care but I bundle up with earmuffs and a scarf and gloves to stay warm. Lydia had gotten bacon out and once we got back, I finished cooking it.  After eating I cleaned up the kitchen, and we rested for a while, then started in on cleaning up the house. I got the vacuum out and did the floors and the carpets, while Lydia changed the bedding.       

Sunday, March 3^rd, 2019……  I got to sleep in this morning! Lydia got up and let Rylee out then fed her. I stayed in bed and got a few minutes more sleep. After walking her, I left and got us breakfast. This was going to be a typical Sunday for us – a lazy day. We spent most of it watching tv. I did go out to the shop for a while to work some more on dismantling my recliner. Since it is broken beyond repair, my plan is to recycle the wood and metal and dump the material in the trash and not have a bulky carcass to dispose of. Problem was that the shop has been too cold to be out there for any length of time, unless I start the Buddy heater. Today I was only going to work on it for a short time so I didn’t bother to warm the shop. I also got Rylee out for a run. Even though most of snow is gone (it’s only still around in the areas that don’t get much sun) the ground is still real soggy so I don’t want to tear it up too much. So, we found the driest area and only played for a short time. She was ok with that and spent the time exploring and smelling everything that has melted after the snowfall. We went back in and I relaxed and watched my Nascar Cup race. Later, Lydia fixed steak with pasta and veggies and we watched Guys Grocery Games and got caught up again.        

                 

Monday, March 4^th, 2019…... Still waiting to receive the year-end summation records from our mail-order pharmacy so we can complete our taxes. Lydia called OptumRx last week and they were going to re-mail them but the nice lady there was able to give us the totals over the phone so we could use that for our input. I made a quick spreadsheet with that and the rest of our medical totals for last year to take in to Claudine. She has everything else done so I expect she will call us later today to pick up the returns. Of course, I had to walk butthead before I did anything! She enjoys her walk but would rather have Quincy come over so they could play. They came over this morning and she was happy!  Since we stayed at home most of yesterday, I took Lydia (and my sister) out this morning for breakfast. We drove to Sweet Home and ate at Skyline, which we always enjoy and haven’t been to in a while. While we were sitting there, we made plans for tomorrow. Penny has a Dr’s appointment tomorrow in Salem. We drive to Portland early for a 9:00am appointment with the surgical team. They want to do a consult and an exam prior to any surgery. They have scheduled March 21^st as the tentative surgery date. We have to go to Portland because they have a kidney transplant center there and they will be brought in for the consult. Lydia has been doing better each day so we think the antibiotics are finally starting to clear up the infection. She still has discomfort prior to and during bowel movements but she says its way better than it was. After the tests tomorrow, they should be able to determine next steps. So tomorrow, Sis will bring Quincy here so she can come back here after her appointment and take care of both dogs at one time.

Once we got back from breakfast, I waited til the mail was delivered (yep, got both sets in one day!) and then took the documents we have, plus my spreadsheet, back to Claudine for her to factor into our return. She said no problem, and took my spreadsheet only. The documents go back to me and are support docs only and I will keep with my paperwork.

Later in the afternoon, while we were on the phone with our friends Janie and Rick, I missed a call that the returns were ready. I jetted back to pay and pick them up. I forgot that Lydia needed to sign the return so I called her and she had to come down as well. But it was worth the time and effort because we got a refund (from Federal) this year! Yaaay!  But it turned out all of the medical didn’t total enough for the state after all. But that was ok - we only ended up paying them a whopping $5.00!  So, now we are done with that task for a year!  We went back home and fed Rylee then decided we would go get dinner so we went right back out and went to Oregon BBQ. Note – if/when you come up to visit, please remind us to have Oregon BBQ while you’re here. It’s not fancy but it’s the best! It’s all take-out there so we ordered and brought it home and ate and then finished the evening watching our programs until bedtime.        

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #20 – A Return Visitor and Running Errands

Wednesday, February 27^th, 2019…...  Cherrelyn comes into town later today. She is coming up to spend a few days with my sister before heading up to see her son who lives in Beaverton. We are going to pick her up from the shuttle station in Albany. The weather here has been interesting and snow on the ground for days is a first for us up here. Last year we only got two snowfalls – one was only a dusting of 1 inch and the other was 4 inches which melted away in less than a day. This year we’ve had at least three snowfalls already. The first was about 4 inches and was gone in a day. This last week it has snowed several times and we still have probably 5 inches on the ground. This afternoon it stopped and the sun actually came out so are hoping we are done for a while. We went and picked up my sister and then drove to the shuttle place. We only waited a few minutes before the bus showed up. We headed back to Lebanon and stopped at Pizza Schmizza for dinner. Nobody had pizza – we ordered salads and wings – all really tasty. We dropped off the girls back home and headed back to rest and watch tv. We watched the 2-hour finale of The Masked Singer. I found I was really anxious when they revealed the final three. We have been doing really well in figuring out who was under the masks. Out of the 12 contestants, we only missed on 2 - the Hippo (Antonio Brown) and the Monster (T-Pain). The others we guessed - some from the clues and others from their voices. We both enjoyed the series very much and will watch next season.  

Thursday, February 28^th, 2019……  No snow last night. But this morning when we went out on our walk, we found the cold weather overnight had changed things. The slushy parts froze over so it was pretty slippery. The top layer of snow had a crunchy crust on it. I had forgotten to take the trash out last night so I found it was hard to roll the containers over thick crusty snow! Have to watch that! After we got back, we visited with Cherrelyn and my sister, who had brought Quincy over for her run. Turns out it was not a run - trudge was a better term. But Rylee hardly noticed and she played and ran through it like the puppy she is! 
Later, we headed off to the hospital lab, or as we are now calling it, the vampire lab, so they could draw more blood from Lydia. We decided to stop on the way home at Kevin’s and have breakfast. After that I was good to go for most of the day. We are headed over to my sister’s house for dinner. Janice will be joining us. Once we got back home, I let monster mutt out again for a while then read the newspaper. Lydia asked if I wanted to watch last night’s Survivor so we did that. She also had taped the Elvis special with celebrity singers doing a tribute and singing all Elvis songs. We both enjoyed watching that! I went in and worked on my bills for a few minutes and got next month’s payments in my register. I went out to check on the trash containers and found they were still full. My neighbor says it happens and to leave them for tomorrow. He said snowfall this late in February only rarely happens. He reminded me that since we are outside the city limits proper, we are considered country, so we do not get Oak Creek Way plowed in the event of bad weather. He said one time, several years ago, that they had 18 inches on the street. He made it to his driveway and another neighbor only made it part way down our street before bogging down. But that was rare indeed. We only get an average yearly snowfall of around 5 inches. We just got it all really close together this year. He doesn’t expect we’ll see any more snow this winter. We’ll see….

Later, we fed butthead and then loaded her up in the car and headed over to Penny’s for dinner. It was nice. She fixed chicken with pesto and zucchini and a cheese sauce and a nice salad. Janice brought over healthy donut holes for dessert. Everything was very good. Rylee always likes going over to visit with Quincy. She knows where her toys are kept and spent part of the time dragging them out one by one. After a nice visit, we came back home and settled in for the night. We did bring Quincy home with us for a sleepover. Cherrelyn and Penny are heading to an estate sale and will leave early tomorrow morning, so I get dog walking duties.

                 

Friday, March 1^st, 2019…... This morning the sun came out and everything was really pretty! I showered and got going early. I took both dogs out on the property and let them run. I found the snow deeper in the west forty, which has higher, thicker field grass. Rylee had no issues (must be her webbed feet!) but the Quince was sinking down with every step and almost tripped a few times. The snow in the back field was no problem and they soon got their footing and had a good run. Of course, butthead found her drag strip to run through again and again!  But I was able to bribe her with treats and made her lay down enough times in the snow to help rinse the dirt off of her belly. We plan on letting her run wild tomorrow and then put her in the tub for her bath. Later, once we got them dried off and back in the house, Lydia fed Quincy and I took off and got breakfast/coffee/tea and brought it home. The dogs crashed

and after that, I took off again. This time I drove to Corvallis to the neighborhood Walmart Market. We bought Sam’s bottled water from Walmart a few weeks ago but our local store was out of it the other day and I remembered the Walmart market in Corvallis and went there to check. Turns out they did have some so I bought four cases. I also stopped at the Kmart in town. They are down to their last three days and the store is almost empty. I went there to buy a queen heated mattress pad if they still had any left. They did. It was 50% off so not a bad deal. I headed home and the girls were back from the estate sale and came over to visit and to pick up Quincy. We all sat around for a bit. Later this afternoon, Cherrelyn is shuttling back up to PDX and her son, who works close by, will pick her up when he gets off of work. We took some pictures 

and then said our goodbyes and then spent the day just lounging around the house. As I said, the sun is out and the snow is slowly melting away. By tomorrow it probably will be all gone, except the spots that don’t get any sun. We both ate late lunches so we just snacked instead of having dinner. Of course, super pooper got her dinner right on time! Then it was watching tv (Nascar truck race for me and taped shows for Lydia) until bedtime.          

   

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #19 – Rain and More Rain and Finally - Snow!

Sunday, February 24^th, 2019…...  We had nothing on our plate for today. It rained a ton last night! We have a river running through our yard! Rylee’s drag strip is now about 4 feet wide!

I took off to go get coffee/tea/breakfast and saw Oak Creek on the rise. It was just touching the road (S. Main St.) when I left. When I got back ½ hour later, it was all the way across the road!  I went back a bit later and took this pic.

They had just come out and put up the warning sign. Most of the cars were turning around (we did) but some were going through.  This creek runs behind our neighbor’s houses across the street and we noticed that Jeremy and Sabrina’s back yard now looks like a lake!  We had no plans to go out again, but if we did, there is another way to get to town, bypassing S. Main St.  Earlier, Jade, at Starbucks, told me that she and her boyfriend have both lived here all of their lives and they’ve never seen it like this!  Weather is coming in and on our 6 o’clock news, they showed a huge front coming in the next 24 hours just to the south of us. Eugene is expected to see 8-12” of snow. 3-6” are predicted in Lebanon so we’ll have to see how this goes…

Like I said, we just hung around the house and watched tv throughout the day and evening.

   

Monday, February 25^th, 2019……  The snow did come in last night. We woke up to everything white!

It continued to snow until 11:15am. I went out with a ruler and measured the driveway out in the open where it was smooth. It was right at 4”. The yard looked like it was over 6” but it really wasn’t. It just settled into the grass a bit. But either way, we didn’t go anywhere this morning.  Lydia had a 12:45pm appointment today at the doctor’s office in Corvallis (about 20 miles). Neither of us wanted to go out driving in the snow, so she rescheduled. I took Rylee out a few times to let her run a bit. She made a few laps and went through her water drag strip a few times. Each time we’d have to towel her down.

Tip: Don’t eat yellow snow…..

About the only productive thing I did today was getting around to spackling all of the holes left in the bathroom wall after installing the new towel bars last week. Lucky for me, the walls are about the color of the spackle so I don’t have to paint the room at this time. We hope to do more painting - of that and other rooms come summer.  The weather has settled down a bit. The large front came through and has now moved out.  It has stopped snowing and the forecast looks clear for the next couple of days. But it’s still pretty chilly out so we’ll see how long it takes for this batch of snow to melt away.         

     

Tuesday, February 26^th, 2019…... No change on the weather. I got up and going and took Rylee out for our walk up the street through the snow.  Kirk had texted and asked if we still had snow. He wanted to come over and do some yard work. Yeah right! He lives in Corvallis and said they had about an inch of snow there but it melted pretty quickly. I told him we have had no melting at all as of this morning. The day was cloudy and still too cold for that. When we got back from our walk, I walked out to inspect the yard. I noticed yesterday that the cage around our blueberry bushes was down. I wanted a closer look this morning. It is really down! Most of the uprights have collapsed due to snow accumulation on the netting over the top. Just too much weight and the whole thing came down. I have to wait until the snow melts before I can get to the netting to remove it and see what needs to be done. At least one of the bushes is bent over so we’ll see the total damage soon…

I ventured out on the snowy road to go get breakfast. Now remember that, up until mid-2017, we had lived all of our lives in sunny SoCal, so snow is something you had to drive to. We didn’t go up to Big Bear all that often so driving in it is something we don’t have a lot of experience in. But after I got on our street, which had tire paths from all of the neighbors/mail truck/newspaper vehicle, all I had to do was follow them and it was easy once I hit S. Main. I did actually see our first snowplow, although it was coming out of the McDonald's parking lot.

When I finished breakfast, I went out to the rv garage and checked things out. I started and ran the coach for a few minutes. I checked on the fridge and then turned on the tv and found I had some shows taped out there that I hadn’t taped in the house. Guess I will plan on spending some time out there soon to catch up on those. The rest of the day was spent doing chores in the house. Lydia did some laundry and I cleaned up my room (aka Rylee’s toy room!) and dusted it. It started snowing later in the afternoon. Later, we fixed tacos for dinner and relaxed and watched tv after our boring, oops, busy day! When we went to bed I checked and it was still snowing. With the snow already on the ground, we'll see what levels we will have tomorrow.    

Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #18 – Running Errands and Dealing With Weather

 

Thursday, February 21^st, 2019…...   We had errands to run today. I got up and got ready for the day. While I was out with Rylee, Lydia got going. The weather is really nice with blue skies and no sign of rain! We loaded up the truck with the dog fencing as well as our four trash bags of recycle (glass bottles/cans/plastic bottles). We left the house around 9:00am. First stop was for breakfast at Rogers Restaurant in Albany. After that, we headed to the recycling facility close by and we split up and took a couple of machines. We each fed our two bags of bottles through pretty quickly. We walked out with a total of $61.00 cash. Next up was Lowes. When I was in Lowes last week, the clerk was telling me that corporate has recently gone through some re-structuring, including expanding their existing military discount program. Before, it was just for active and retired military, with id. Now it is open to anyone who has been in the service. Under her guidance, I was able to go online and use my DD-250 discharge papers and register with them for the 10% military discount. I wanted to test it today, so I bought some drywall screws and a couple more fasteners for the bathroom cabinet - and we got the 10%.  Given my medical discharge, I’ve never considered myself as having ‘served’. But I do have the discharge papers and that’s enough for them – and I’ll take it!  Not much saved today but it will come in handy down the road when we buy something expensive. Next stop was Target. Lydia had two gift cards and we found a small accent rug for the bathroom and a large decorator clock for the dining room. Now we just need to spring for the dining room table! Next, we drove to Corvallis and found Burst, the specialty candy shop downtown. Our realtor, Aimee, had sent us a Valentine’s gift card for free chocolate from there, so we just had to go check it out. I was a little disappointed to find it was only good for one piece of heart-shaped chocolate.  But they had a nice plate of samples out and the clerk was nice enough to let me eat most of it!  We bought a couple of other items and left. We heard they had a Walmart in Corvallis and we have never been so we drove by. Turns out it was just a Walmart Neighborhood Market so at least now we know. We also made another stop at Kmart. They are down to their last 11 days. They didn’t have a ton of stuff left but I bought a couple of watches to add to my collection and a drop hitch for my truck. Everything is 50-80% off. On the way home, we stopped by to drop off the dog pen and visited with Terri for a while. She’s finally picked out a name for her new little puppy – Meisha. She is only about the size of Rylee’s head and is so cute!  Once we got home (about 2:00pm), we fed the super pooper. You’d think she’s ok to miss a meal now and then. NOT!  Later, Lydia fixed fish and I cut up some of those little new baby potatoes to cook up with them. With some green beans, it was a nice quick meal. I cleaned up the kitchen and then we relaxed and settled in and watched tv until bedtime.      

   

Friday, February 22^nd, 2019……  The weather is nice again today. Something of note - we were watching our local (Portland) news the other evening, right after we had that really brief light snowfall. We wanted to see what was going on in other areas. They had reported that they had graupel falling in some areas. Huuh? Ever heard of it? Neither had us ex Californians either! Ok, now we were interested. They explained it and showed pictures and sort of compared it to hail. Hail is usually hard pellets of varying size, that can come down with force and sometimes will do serious damage to cars and such. Graupel comes down about the same size but it’s lighter balls of snow. If it’s heavy enough, it can still cover the ground, just like snow. So, now we know what to look for and we’ll know it if/when we see it!

But, back to today. As I said, it started out nice. So, I thought today would be a good day to go over and install the two ceiling fans she bought last week. They go in her two guest bedrooms. Once we removed the old light fixtures, we discovered that her painters neglected to drop the lights before they painted, so she found her ceiling paint and got a couple of coats up there that we had to wait on to dry.  But once that was done, the ceiling fans went up quickly with no issues. I went home and relaxed for the rest of the day. Lydia said she was going to Walmart for a few items for tonight’s dinner and something for tomorrow. I went to the auto section and checked to see if they had a battery for the Honda, and also to see if they had time to install it. They told me, “Nothing on the shelf but we might have one in back, but we are busy today. How about tomorrow?”  I hate fighting crowds on Saturdays but I might come back. I stopped by the electronics section and bought a couple of printer cartridges and then went and found Lydia, who was about done. She told me we needed to go to Costco so I will wait on the battery until I check there first. We got home and she started dinner early since neither of us had lunch. The rains came later in the evening so I’m glad we got all of our running around done for today.  

     

Saturday, February 23^rd, 2019…... It rained most of the night and into the morning. I waited on Rylee’s walk until the rain stopped, which was about 9:30am. While I was out, Lydia was up and dressed and when I got back, she had me get out the crockpot so she could get that going for dinner tonight. She said she was trying a variation of her pork chop and mushroom soup crockpot mix. This time it was chicken breasts and cream of chicken soup. Something new is always good! After that, we were ready to head out to Costco. I took out the battery in the Honda and loaded it in the Acadia. We texted my sister, to see if she wanted to go along with us.  We stopped by and got her and drove to Albany and once we got in the store, we separated and got what we needed. Lydia and I checked out and I got our stuff loaded up and then went to the tire section and found my battery. It was a better deal! They sell Interstate batteries, which I like better, and the price was only $73.00 ($27.00 cheaper than Walmart!) so I made the exchange and we were done. We dropped Penny off and headed home. Once we got the car unloaded, I had the new battery in the Honda in a few minutes. I had one more task - to put up the clock in the dining room. 

It is 26" wide but looks small on the wall! We have plans to add more pictures when we find them, so that will help. That was pretty much it for the day.  We relaxed and lounged around the house for the afternoon. Lydia cooked up some noodles and also some peas and carrots to go along with the crockpot chicken and it was really tasty.  Another keeper!  We settled in and binge-watched three taped episodes of The Blacklist before splitting up and watching our own taped programs before calling it a night.