Sunday, February 12, 2023

Oregon Living 2023 – Blog #6 – Permits Bought Off & An Early Valentines Gift!

 


Sunday, February 5th., 2023…… No football today – unless you want to count the new “pro bowl events”. I taped them but couldn’t watch all of it.  I think they should just select the all-stars from the teams and honor them with paid vacations to Hawaii or somewhere and not play football. But Nascar is back!  It’s an exhibition race from the LA Coliseum, but that’s ok.  I’m glad the season is starting! We walked the dogs and fed them and left for the morning. We drove down to Eugene and had breakfast and then went to see 80 for Brady. It was a cute movie and very funny. I’m not a Tom Brady fan and it highlighted one of his comeback super bowl games, but Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno, Sally Field and Lily Tomlin did an excellent job so it was still a fun movie!  We got back home around 1:30pm and settled in for the day. I watched some races and worked on my blog and Cathye got her tax papers together.

Monday, February 6th., 2023…… Russ and Jeff got here early and went to work on the gas leak issue. They had to make another run to the store to get the bubble spray that is designed to find the tiniest leaks in the line. That worked!  They quickly spotted it and it was close to the bbq valve so it was relatively easy to fix. Now we wait for the inspector. They went back to work on the trim boards and layout for the upper section of the porch. It took some high level math and calculating to make the adjustments to make the porch boards come out even. But I think they got it right.  The inspector came by later in the morning and signed off on both the final building and gas line permits. Only the electrical to go!  Meanwhile, Cathye worked on her pension folks today. She needed to change the name on them for item number one. But she also hasn‘t received two of them yet. We were expecting hard copies but are finding that some of these places just post them online and you are required to log in to your account and print them yourself. But she still needs to contact each one of them to get her name changed. Some want just verification over the phone – others want a copy of our marriage certificate. Go figure!

Tuesday, February 7th., 2023…… Today the rain was mostly off and on! While we were out on our walk and right when the guys got here immediately it started to rain! No worries – they just put on their raingear and went to work!  They were really close to closing in all of the deck. They have to leave the border area on the upper level open for the electricians. We will try to get them here asap. I called and they said they would try to fit us in to their schedule and could be here as early as tomorrow. We also had a few appointments today. We both had massage appointments for 11:15am and 12:30pm and then Cat had her gastro consult at 2:45pm in Albany. We managed to work all of that in and were actually early for the gastro appointment. They spoke and after hearing about the pain that Cathye is in pretty much constantly now, concluded that she needs to get an appointment for a consult with the gastro surgeon. She turned it in and said they should call to schedule in the next day or so. When we left there, we stopped by Arby’s and had ‘linner’. We got back and fed the dogs and rested for the day and evening.   

Wednesday, February 8th., 2023……  The electricians were here at zero dark hundred this morning!  They had to use their headlamps!  I got dressed and came out and called them ‘ninjas’. Even though it was super early, we are glad to see them so I couldn’t get mad. But they squeezed us in this morning and wanted to get started and work to get as much as they could done so they could move on to their next job. They drilled and ran the lights for the stairstep lights and got 90% of that done. They have to wait on one piece of fascia board that Russ needs to go get later today. They also got the spa wires run through and were ready for the final connection. I had Russ and Jeff help me push the spa out of the rv garage and around on the driveway and up a makeshift ramp to its final spot on the deck. Yaay!  Before they left, Scott and Harley said they will be back one more time to do the final. We can’t wait! 




Also, early this morning, the surgeon’s office called and she gets in to see him in 13 days. That was their earliest. That or we could check with either Corvallis or Albany offices and hope they could see her sooner. But since this one would be in town, she opted to wait it out. She headed off to Walmart and I went out to clean up the rv garage where the spa was. I will need to reinstall the spa cover but I think I will want to touch up the paint on it beforehand. Later, we settled in and watched tv and rested for the day. 

Thursday, February 9th., 2023…… We had an appointment to take the dogs in for grooming this morning, so we were up early and had them walked and fed. Once we took them, we had some time to work around the house. The housekeepers were coming tomorrow so we needed to clean up a little around the house. The guys were here and are working on getting the trim around the edges all dialed in. They are doing a really nice job!  We still need to come up with a plan for the base for the gazebo. When I laid this out, I didn’t plan for the steel columns to be where they are so the 13’ for the gazebo length will not fit on the deck now. Here's a catalog pic so you can see the legs and the size...

So, Russ and I are redesigning it to extend areas on the sides of the stairs so it will work!  We got the call to pick up the girls and we went to do that. Then we went to work getting our bags packed for tomorrow. As my early Valentine’s gift to Cat, we are going to drive out to Spirit Mountain Casino. I got us a room for Friday night. We’ll get there and Cathye can go crazy! She is a slot junkie and loves to play for hours on end. By having a room, I can hang out and know she is down there having fun and she knows I’m comfortable just kicking back and relaxing in the room. I remember days past when I would want to spend hours in a casino – but I guess all things change and I just don’t have that desire any more. Penny is coming over to stay the night with the dogs. She is also watching her neighbor’s house and feeding their dog, so she will be going back and forth. We were ready!

Friday, February 10th., 2023……  Russ wasn’t coming today. We were up and going early. I needed to make a run to Walmart to get a few things so Cathye fed the dogs. I also brough back breakfast.  We ate and then waited for a bit until Virginia got here. Turns out she had a small crew – one other person and one more came later. We left the house to them and took the dogs and went out to the motorhome to relax and watch tv out there for a bit. Then it was time to leave. We took off around noon and headed up the back way. Spirit Mountain is off of hwy 22 west of Salem, about 67 miles.  I drove us in the back way and we got there around 1:30. Check-in wasn’t until 4:00pm but our room was ready so we got lucky. Once we were unpacked, we went down to the casino and Cat went right to work!  We played for 30 minutes or so and then took a break for linner. We decided to have French dip sandwiches and beer at the brewery in house.

I headed up to the room and she went back to her fun. She would text every few hours to let me know how she was doing – sometimes up and sometimes down – but she was enjoying herself. She came up to take a break later in the afternoon but then headed back for more slots.  

                       



Saturday, February 11th., 2023…… We slept in and checked out around 10:00am. We went back into the casino to hit the coffee house but the guy seemed to not be interested in helping get us in and out, so we left and just went over to the beverage bar in the casino and made our own coffee to go!  Plus, that was free!  We left the casino and drove to Dallas (about 10 miles) and went to one of our favorite places, Tater’s, for breakfast. Even though the wait was 30 minutes, we were ok with that. We got back on the road and drove back home, stopping at a roadside business in town that sold planter boxes. We liked the guy’s construction techniques – these were built to last! – but they were pricey. What we found would cost us around $170.00.  But he can build-to-size so we will keep him in mind. I got his card and will need to get final measurements if we decide to order later. We got back home and saw butthead and the little princess and played with them for a bit, then unpacked and settled back in. Our housekeeper had written us a note saying she is charging us more now.  No advance notice. So, we will be calling her and cancelling her service. Cathye has decided that she can do cleaning and dusting and I can do the vacuuming. Maybe later we will look for another person, but for now, we will do it ourselves.         

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