Oregon Living 2017 – Blog #86 – Jobs for my Sister and Baking at the House

 

Friday, November 17th, 2017…...  Sis slept well last night and she says she feels fine.  She even took Quincy out for her walk this morning. We took her out to breakfast at Shirley May’s and afterward she returned home to drop off Quincy and put away her stuff.  Then I met her at Walmart where she bought a new tv.  I brought it home for her and we started in.  The tv in her bedroom went to her guest room.  The tv in the living room went into her bedroom.  I had to modify a mounting bracket kit so we could mount it on her existing wall mount.  Then the new tv went into the living room.  I did a few other jobs for her while I was there and then left to let her rest and returned home to get Lydia so we could go to the grocery store.  We are having our realtor, Aimee, and her husband Jason, over for dinner on Sunday and we needed a few things.  That done, we stopped at Taco Bell for dinner and came back and unloaded the groceries and then ate dinner.  Then it was a night of relaxation for both of us.  I watched the first of the Nascar season finales.  This one was the truck series. She caught up on Scorpion shows. 

Saturday, November 18th, 2017…...  Saturdays are usually lazy days for us.  Today was no exception. We straightened up around the house and relaxed. They said no rain today and they were right.  But the sun never really came out at all so my grass never got a chance to dry out so I could mow.  Rain is on the calendar for the next couple of days so we’ll see….

Lydia fixed a noodle casserole for dinner.  I like these meals because they are great for leftovers.  She is also making an apple cake which she started tonight after dinner. But that is for tomorrow. Tomorrow, for our guests, she is making bbq ribs, crock pot mac and cheese, and hot buttered sourdough bread.  Penny is bringing baked beans.  Aimee and Jason are bringing salad. Even though I just ate, I’m getting hungry again thinking about tomorrow! 

I watched the second Nascar race.  Dale Earnhardt Jr. who owns Jr. Motorsports won his first owners championship in the Xfinity Series race. His cars took all three top positions in the championships.  Cool! Tomorrow is his last race as a driver when he retires from the Cup series. We finished up the evening watching tv and falling asleep. I woke up long enough to get this posted.

Oregon Living 2017 – Blog #85 – Dodging the Sprinkles and 1st Round of Chemo

 

Wednesday, November 15th, 2017…...  Today was supposed to be wet again. I wanted to go out and get a sheet of pegboard for another wall in my shop, but I couldn’t find a break in the weather.  So, we stayed around the house and goofed around.  Lydia didn’t get anything out for dinner and I offered to take her out but she decided to fix breakfast for dinner – so we had omelets!  Very tasty!  We watched the taped Survivor episode together and then split back to our own tvs and programs. 

Thursday, November 16th, 2017…...  This morning started out pretty early. Lydia was taking Penny to Salem for her first round of chemo.  The appointment was at 8:15 so they left here around 7:15. I have Quincy for the day.  I walked her in between the on and off sprinkles and then dried off her feet and fed her her breakfast. Then I took off to Jack in the Box and 7-11 to get my breakfast.  I came back and ate and then took off to Economy (Ace) Hardware to pick up a sheet of pegboard and some 2x2’s.   I managed to get them back without too much water on them.  I stored them away in the shop and headed out again.  We are looking for a tv stand for Lydia’s craft room.  We also need another tv for in there.  The one in there now will move to the guest bedroom.  We decided that one with a fireplace would be perfect for that room and for Lydia when she’s in there working on her crafts! I went to Home Depot and Lowe’s in Albany where we had seen them. Home Depot has the one we want but I want her there to make sure we get the right model.  I got back and walked the Quinzinator again.  This time we went out to check our creek.  There is a bit of water in it now since we’ve had some constant days of rain.  It’s only inches deep but it looks cool! 

Back to Penny - I knew that they were still in process giving her the chemo.  They administer a dose (into the port that they had previously installed) and she has to wait an hour or more before the next dose.  They did four so, it would be a long day!  She will come back here and spend the night as they said she shouldn’t be alone and most likely will be nauseous.  So we will be there for her if/when she needs us. Update – they texted later that everything was going well and she was feeling good.  They were done and would be heading home soon.  Another update -  I fixed myself dinner and let them know.  They decided to come home and fix grilled cheese sandwiches which Lydia got together pretty quickly.  The rest of the night was uneventful.  We watched tv for a while and Penny took her meds and went to bed.  It was a long day and a lot of stuff going on! We’ll see how she does tonight.  

Oregon Living 2017 – Blog #84 – Haircuts and Labs

 

Monday, November 13th, 2017…...  It was windy last night and we could hear some heavy rain but this morning it started out dry. Today was the start of a rainy forecast.  It was sunny for a while but very windy and then the skies clouded up and we got slight showers.  Lydia left for a doctor’s appointment and then lunch with my sister.  I stayed home and worked a bit in my shop. I made it back to the house before it started sprinkling.  I fixed myself some lunch. Lydia got home a few minutes later and missed most of the rain. We spent the rest of the day around the house.  We had leftover stew and biscuits for dinner and settled in to watch DWTS. Tonight is the semifinals. One more week after this.

Tuesday, November 14th, 2017…...   We decided to go out to breakfast this morning.  Lydia had labs so we went there first.  We chose Kevin’s this morning because they have a barber shop next door I wanted to try. After we ate I went there and Lydia took the car and went a block north to her quilt shop.  I had a few folks ahead of me but when I was done and started walking towards her store, she was leaving and picked me up. We were planning on meeting my sister for linner and we wanted to go try The Tangent Inn.  According to the paper, it’s a new restaurant recently opened in Tangent, which is about ten miles from us, and boasted big burgers. She got back from her doctor’s appointment but we were still full from breakfast so we had her go run her errands and then come to our house later.  She picked us up and we headed out. The place was very nice.  Since it was early, we sat in the bar area.  I had a beer and the mushroom w/swiss burger and baked beans.  Lydia had the blue cheese burger and coleslaw and Penny tried their house special, called the Tangent Burger and fries. Her burger was huge! 

That’s fried cheese on the bottom and was 8” around! We liked the place and will go back. After pigging out, we headed back home and she dropped us off.  We were in for the night and watched tv and went to bed.         

Oregon Living 2017 – Blog #83 – Veterans Day Saturday and a Lazy Sunday

 

Saturday, November 11th, 2017…...  Today is Veterans Day. Please be sure to thank those served this great country!  This morning was gorgeous!  It rained during the night but when the sun came out the skies were full of white clouds! It was still a little chilly (52º) out when I went to get the paper but it is warming up now.  There are dark clouds out over the mountains way in the distance but so far, still nice here….

Lydia and Penny are heading out this morning to the Heritage Mall (in Albany) to do some shopping.  I have dog watching duty.  She and I will go out later for her walk.  Right now I’m going out to program the third Genie remote that I just got for the garage doors.  This one is for the truck…..  Ok, so that’s done now.  Each vehicle has a remote that opens any of the three garage doors.  I’m not sure yet what we’ll end up with for the rv garage when that’s built. There will be another garage door on that one too… I also worked on running a switch for the dust collector system.  It’s in the garage part of the shop and I currently have to walk out there to turn it on an off so I’m running a cord over to the work shop area on the workbench to mount a switch for convenience. Ok, so now that I have taken a couple of subfloor panels out, I can see this is bigger than I thought. I need to put some more thought into this one. I walked Quincy and then Lydia and Penny got back a bit later and Penny picked up her pooch and went home.  They ate while they were out so I fixed my taco leftovers for my dinner. We cleaned up the house a bit and settled in to watch tv before going to bed.     

Sunday, November 12th, 2017…...   Another lazy Sunday.  Lydia did do a couple of loads of wash but it was a very quiet day here on the ranch…. Early afternoon she fixed up a beef stew and got it simmering for our early dinner.  I watched races and football throughout the day and mixed in one trip out to the shop to think more about my electrical plans. Like I said, a lazy day….

Oregon Living 2017 – Blog #82 – Plumbing Repair & a Well Care Visit

 

Thursday, November 9th, 2017…...  Today started out super early for me.  It started yesterday in fact.  My sister was out yesterday afternoon on the second walk of the day for Quincy and she said there was water coming out of the wellhead out in the west end of the property.  I went out and found one of the 1 ½” fittings coming out of the pump was cracked.  I got on the phone and called around and finally found a plumber who could come out this morning.  He had to go get a fitting that he didn’t have in his van but went to work and dug down to readjust the pvc pipe which was pushed off a bit by a tree root (which probably put enough pressure on the fitting to crack it).  That done, the new fitting went on and he was done.  He had to work in the rain and wind so that was tough!  Not cheap but something I didn’t feel comfortable tackling myself. But there was a tiny problem. It started when he drove his work van (his choice) out to the site.  He got stuck in the wet grass and I couldn’t pull him out with my truck.  AAA won’t go off road onto fields with their vehicles. He ended up calling his dad who has a four-wheel drive truck and he got him out. Back to the job – he had to work in the rain and wind so that was tough!  Not cheap but something I didn’t feel comfortable tackling myself.

After the plumber left, we decided to drive to Albany and run a few errands. We got back and watched the rest of the CMAs we had taped.  We had had lunch in Albany (Arby’s) so we just nuked a couple of hot dogs for dinner. We finished the night watching tv and working on the plans for tomorrow.

Friday, November 10th, 2017…...   We had one of those well patient home visits this morning. Our new medical insurance here in Oregon is with United Health Care and they have been calling us to get this set up.  They wanted to go over our meds and make sure everything was working well for us.  We each spent some time with the rep. (Emily) but she did talk more with Lydia, given her history. It went well but took over two hours!...

That done, we went about our day.  We headed out to Eugene to visit their Kohls. Lydia was looking for a particular brand of jeggings and the Albany store didn’t have any. We got what we needed and then decided to go to the show to see Murder on the Orient Express.  But when we tried to park we couldn’t find a space.  School’s out and the mall was packed! We will go back when it’s not so crowded. So we headed back home, stopping at Harbor Freight to get an item that was on sale today. We also stopped at Walmart to get stuff for tacos for dinner.  We ate early and stayed in for the evening and watched tv.     

Oregon Living 2017 – Blog #81 – Penny’s Minor Surgery and Moving Joe!

 

Tuesday, November 7th, 2017…...  Today was another appointment for my sister.  We took her to her Kaiser doctor’s facility in Salem to check in at 1:00pm. She got her port installed today. They call it minor outpatient surgery but they still used anesthesia so it took several hours total. Lydia stayed with her for some of the wait before they called her back for prep, then she came out and we went off to kill some of the time.  We went to Mors, which is a furniture store up here (very similar to Living Spaces), to look at dining room tables.  We found one we really liked but we have more comparable shopping still to do. We also went up to Keizer, a small community just north of Salem to look around. Joe and Maryanne told us they have a nice Elks lodge up there with an excellent campground.  We were heading back down one of the main streets in town and we saw the lodge off on a side street.  They were right – it is a really nice rv park.  Looks like a regular campground with full hookups and room for 40+ rigs! We headed back and got back to the medical center and were walking in when Lydia got the call that Penny was just wheeled into recovery.  We met with the aides, who went over the after-surgery instructions with us.  They said she should not be home alone so we said she would be staying with us for the night.  A few minutes later, we were heading out.  She hadn’t been allowed food all day so we stopped at Applebee’s for dinner before stopping off at her place to pick up clothes for the night and next day plus Quincy and her doggie bed.  Once home, we walked the dog and settled in to relax and all of us calling it night pretty early after the long day.    

Wednesday, November 8th, 2017…...  Penny said she slept ok last night.  They have a catheter line up by her neck and the bandage bothers her when she moves her head so it was hard to find a comfortable position to sleep.  She can remove the bandage tomorrow so that will help.  I got up early and walked the dog and then showered and we took off to Sweet Home and had breakfast at Skyline.  While we were there, Tim and Dana, our new contractors, came in for breakfast.  They gave us an update - the plans are currently in work by an engineer.  We will get a copy and then they will go get permits. Still on track for a December start date. After breakfast, we came back, got the dog, and took them back to their house.  Skies are turning gray. Rain is coming again and is supposed to last several days. I did manage to get my tiki moved from laying out in front of the shop to standing up in my covered woodshed which is attached to the shop.  It won’t go into its final position until we can get funds to get the backyard turned into a patio/gazebo/bbq/spa area. Might be a while so Tiki Joe got relocated!  Lydia has been doing laundry and working on dusting and I spent some time in the shop digging out fall decorations so we kept busy today!  She fixed pork chops and rice for dinner which were very tasty and after cleanup, we watched Survivor and part of the taped CMA awards before heading off to bed.

Here are a few pictures. We have a neighbor cat who likes to patrol our yard.  He was outside this one morning and a deer happened by.  They were as close as five feet from each other and neither seemed concerned!..... 

My grapevines after pruning..... 

Our realtor’s office took family pics at their fall office party.  This one came out pretty good....

Oregon Living 2017 – Blog #80 – Hanging Around the House and Doing Yardwork/Cleaning

 

Sunday, November 5th, 2017…...  Lydia wasn’t feeling all that well yesterday (stomach issues) so we didn’t do very much.  She’s much better this morning but we decided to stay in today and relax. Plus, I guess that I still have that mentality where I do most of my errands on the weekdays when it’s less crowded out there and relax on the weekends.  It’s not crowded anywhere up here anytime but I can’t break my old ways! 

The weather is changing up here now.  We’ve noticed that the days don’t get higher than 70º and most days are cloudy now rather than sunny most of the day.  Nighttime temps have been dropping as well.  We’ve seen it in the high 20s but most mornings it’s around 40º until about noon when it warms a bit.  For those who know me all too well – yes, I am still in shorts all of the time!  But I have switched to shoes and socks rather than sandals plus I’ve purchased a few new flannel shirts to wear when I need long sleeves. I’m sure I’ll have to transition to long pants before too long.  

As I said, we hung around the house today.  I didn’t go outside at all except to go get the Sunday paper.  Lydia fixed smothered chicken for dinner and we relaxed for the night.

Monday, November 6th, 2017…...  Today was chore day.  I went out to the yard and cut back the grapevines and pulled the last of the apples from the trees.  The leaves are completely gone from the vines and with the cutting and raking I filled up my trash can for the week!   Meanwhile, Lydia decided to work on our bathroom wiping down the tub (still haven’t used it!) and the surrounding area plus the counter tops and swiffering the floor.  She came out just as I was finishing up so we could go grocery shopping.  While we were out, we decided to just go eat out.  We went to Ixtapa for Mexican food. We came home and put the groceries away and warmed up the house a bit a watched tv for a while