Oregon Living 2022 – Blog #8 – A Last Goodbye & A Belated Valentine’s Gift

 

Sunday, February 20^th., 2022……  HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYLEE and BRANDYN!! Brandyn is 8 (birthday was on the 12^th) but his bd party is today. Rylee is 4 now. Hard to believe. We had a few things to do today. Cathye headed off to church. I was going to work on my blog which I was behind on. When she got back, we did some shopping and then got ready to go to Sweet Home. Brandyn’s party was being held over there at Sankey Park. This is a nice little park in town and has the Weddle covered bridge nearby. So, we knew we could take the dogs there. It was cold and windy when we got there, but when we took them out for a walk, Rylee wanted in the water!  It was like ice but she just sits down and looks at me. Ahhh! She had fun and I had a towel so we were good with that.  We walked the bridge and explored with the pups and then got back to the party. After a bit, we weren’t planning on staying long so we had Brandyn open our gift first. He was happy! We loaded up the dogs and headed back home. I had already started watching the Daytona 500 and went back to the taped show and finished 90% of it before we settled in to watch the closing ceremonies at the winter Olympics.     

Monday, February 21^st., 2022……  Rain again last night. It was super cold and drizzly this morning when we had the dogs out, but no more rain was expected today. The cold front is definitely here and they say snow is expected if the rain clouds come in to the area. Only 5% chance of that but either way it will be cold here for a few more days! We took off later to go stop at Kevin’s for breakfast and then on to Albany for our Monday trip to see Jamie. After that, I drove us into Corvallis to check Batteries and Bulbs because someone said they work on e-batteries. I checked but they don’t do that there. We stopped at a bike shop and the guy told us that he only knew about online battery exchanges with one or two companies (which I had already found). Even though we now have two new bikes, we will still fix up the folding bike to sell. Still need to check to see if it’s cost effective to replace the battery or just mark it down and sell as-is. When we got back, Cathye got a text from Pedego that the fenders were ordered and hers and mine will be shipped here as agreed.  Sweet!  Dinner tonight was a test. We are looking at feeding those coming up from Calif. for our wedding. Cathye tested a spaghetti bake tonight.  Turns out we didn’t have spaghetti noodles so we substituted macaroni salad noodles. It was ok but didn’t turn out as expected so she says she will probably try something else.      

Tuesday, February 22^nd., 2022…… Cold again this morning. No rain – just cold temps. My truck was outside last night and had a nice coat of ice on it this morning. No worries – we just use another vehicle until it thaws out!  Cathye had an eye appointment this afternoon. I was going over to replace a faulty two-way light switch so I headed off to Wilco to pick one up. Penny had a dental appointment so we waited until she texted that she was home before going over. Meanwhile, we both worked on getting text messages out to those folks from whom we hadn’t yet received rsvp’s, reminding them to at least give us their choice of meal so we can get that finalized. Of course, another one came in the mail today just after I texted!  We got the text from sis and headed over. She was doing fine after her visit. Cathye brought over some of our spaghetti bake for their opinion and Penny and I shut the power off and changed out the switch.

Problem was that it did nothing different!  I’m stumped!  She said no worries – she could use the other switch on the other wall. Next time we have an electrician around with some time she will ask for him to look at it.  Later, Cathye headed off to her eye doctor and I stayed home and worked on my checking account and bill spreadsheet. We had take out (Carl's Jr) for dinner and then relaxed and watched some taped shows until calling it a night.      

Wednesday, February 23^rd., 2022…… Even though the sun is out today and there are no clouds in sight, it is still really cold!  I went back to shorts a few weeks ago and don’t want to switch.  So far, I’m good but we’ll see…

Cathye went off to SHEM and I worked out in my shop on pegboard. I pulled down the one I hung in the potting shed and set it up in my shop so she could put her own color on it. I now have more than enough space on the walls for hanging tools and such!

Thursday, February 24^th., 2022……  The weather is still pretty chilly. We keep watching the temps in SoCal and see they are enjoying 70s and higher. This is about the only time of year that I am a little envious of them! But I wouldn’t trade this life up here for anything! We both layered up and went out to work in the shop. Cathye painted her pegboard (teal) and I started filling in and rearranging things on the shop walls. Then she worked for a bit on her plants 

and then came in and cleaned up and headed off to Albany. Even though she has already bought two wedding dresses, she is still not 100% decided on either, so she headed off to a new place she heard about in Corvallis to see what they had. Meanwhile, I was cleaning out my fireplace in the shop and discovered that my shop vacuum was not filtering the dust very well. It needed a new filter, so I stopped what I was doing and drove over to Albany to Home Depot to pick up a couple. I got back and went back to work on my rolling ladder

and saw Mario, our new landscaper, drive in. He was early for a rototilling job Cathye has him doing out in the back island. No worries – I got him set up and he was working away when she got home. He did a terrific job in tilling in the peat moss we had spread out last week. Now she can plant out there when it’s time. We are also going to be hiring him to take over for Kirk. All of my attempts to contact Kirk since the first of the year have gone unanswered. The only response we heard about what that he had texted Penny that he was working by himself now, but hasn’t come by to work for her either. Aimee, our realtor, has been trying, unsuccessfully, to contact him too!  It’s not like him to do this and we hope everything is ok with him and his family, but some communication would be nice – there’s really no excuse to totally ignore us!  So, we are moving on and will have Mario come by twice a month. So far, he is a courteous and knowledgeable gentleman and we hope to continue with him if he is prompt and fair with us.  

Friday, February 25^th., 2022…… Not much going on today. We walked the pups and went out to Kevin’s for breakfast. For the rest of the day, we just stayed home. Cathye finished up sorting through all of the boxes from the mobile home that were stacked up in the garage. With her stuff and my stuff, we have built up a pretty large pile for the yard sale!  We will be having that but not until after the wedding and rv trip after. Speaking of those subjects – I think we have plans almost completed for that week. We now know who will be rv’ng with us afterwards, so I can look into mapping out a trip plan for us. We are going up to the Columbia River basin and then east as far as Coeur d’Alene, ID.  I still have reservations to check in to and the trip plan to send to the group, so I need to get on that asap.  We also had some light packing to do. We leave tomorrow for the weekend.

Saturday, February 26^th., 2022……  We were up early and had the dogs walked and fed. We were headed out. Penny will be coming over to spend tonight and tomorrow night here. We are headed down to Central Point (just a few miles north of Medford) to attend a memorial mass for my late friend, Dick Deemar, who passed in January. I made reservations at the La Quinta Inn. It is about a three-hour drive down there and the weather was mostly dry but overcast. We did hit a few showers, but for the most part, it was an easy drive. We found our hotel (check-in was later in the day) and then drove to the church. It was a very nice service and reception. 

We left, checked in to our place, then went over to Sharon’s home for a nice visit with her. 

We had plenty to eat at the reception so when we left, we headed back to the hotel for the evening. They had an indoor spa, which we took advantage of – but only after hitting Walmart for bathing suits because we forgot to pack those! Anyway, it was a nice end to a long day!   

Sunday, February 27^th., 2022…… We slept in and got up and dressed and checked out of the hotel. We walked across the parking lot to Shari’s for breakfast, then headed off for the second half of our trip. This was Cathye’s Valentines gift!  I had booked a night at the Driftwood Shores Resort in Florence. This place is right on the beach and Cathye had picked it out as a nice place to try. The drive over to the coast from the central valley is about 60 miles, so we were in no hurry. We stopped at the elk observation area for a few minutes. Some cows were out feeding but no males in sight. So, we took a selfie 

and continued on our way. Like I said, we were in no hurry. Ok, she was!  Because part of the adventure was a visit to the local casino! Cathye is a slot lover and I think has players club cards from all of the casinos in Oregon!  So, she knew about 3 Rivers Casino in Florence!  I knew where it was but have never been so I needed to stop and get my own players club card. We stayed there a few hours and went through more than a few dollars. Both of us held our own but both of us gave a little money to the casino in the end. We drove up the coast and found our hotel but check-in time wasn’t until 4:00pm so we went down to the bay and had linner at Moe’s seafood. We thought it would be crowded but since it’s offseason for them, we got right in and seated and had a really nice meal. 

Afterward, we went to the hotel and checked in and went to look at the pool and spa. The spa was out of order but they said they had heated up the pool so we tried that. Not hot enough! But we found that if we kept moving, it was ok. After that, we headed back to the room and showered and relaxed for the evening and took in the view from our balcony. 

The lady at the desk said to keep an eye out for whales, as they have started migration and were seen just offshore, feeding on krill, and since we were on the 4^th floor (of 4) we might get lucky and spot one or more. We didn’t but still had a nice relaxing time. More in the next post....