Terry and Cathye's Blog: Oregon Living 2023 – Blog #15 – A Quiet Easter, Hitting the Gym, & a Deck Party!

Sunday, April 9^th., 2023…… HAPPY EASTER! & HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUTCH! We slept in a bit before showering and getting ready for church. Because it was raining and because we had dressed for church, we didn’t walk the dogs this morning. But they were ok with going out in the back for a while. We fed them and then headed off to church. They were serving breakfast beforehand. There is a parishioner in the church who owns the local supermarket in Sweet Home and she (and her late husband) for many years have provided all of the food (bacon, eggs, pancakes) for a wonderful breakfast! It was yummy! After services, we headed home and relaxed for the day. Later, Cathye went over to Lona and Misty’s who were having a few friends over for dinner. I stayed home with Butthead and Princess and watched my races. I had leftover steak bits and Red Lobster biscuits for dinner. A nice quiet Easter.

Monday, April 10^th., 2023…… Today was gym day. Monday and Thursday for now. More rain this week. But they say we will get drier days and this weekend may even get up into the 70s! Yaay! We made the rounds on the treadmills and bikes, then hit the machines. I showed Cat how to use a couple of them and she did a few reps after me and we were out of there! We headed to Kevin’s for breakfast but he was closed so we went over to The Appletree. Not my favorite but ok. After that, we came back to the house to rest for a bit. Turns out we stayed in most of the day and watched our own taped shows because it was wet and cold outside. Cat has made Mondays ‘girl’s night’ here. She has Lona, Misty and Robin over for dinner and spa. She made beef stroganoff from the leftover steak and they brought salad and a dessert. Yeah, I do get to eat – so I am ok with it! They hit the spa and then headed home. We watched tv until bedtime.

Tuesday, April 11^th., 2023…… Sunny weather this morning! Don’t know how long it will last, but Yaay! We both had a few things on our agendas today. But first we were up and walked and fed the dogs. Cat made breakfast and then I headed out. I took the Acadia in for an oil change. I still had miles left on the odometer before I needed to get it in but we had a headlight out. A few years back, I tried to replace one on this car and found that you need to access it through the inner front fender and must remove 6-7 screws and then try to contortion fit your hand up in there to get to it! I gave up and took the car in to the oil change place and they changed it. So, I went yesterday and bought the lights from Walmart and took the car in for the oil change this morning. It took a few minutes longer to get in and out, and cost a few bucks more, but now I have two brand new headlight bulbs installed! We can make the drive to San Francisco and have both headlights! Cathye had her own tasks. She went and saw Jamie and gave him his allowance and then took him to lunch. They met Lona at The Appletree and ate. Jamie loves the patty melts there. She also had to stop at the vet to get Jama’s flea meds and while she was there, made an appointment for Rylee’s yearly shots. We go Friday for that. All this time, the sun was out. But when we both got back from our outings, the rains hit. It lasted for a few hours and then the sun was out again. Later, I went out and made a count on material for a couple of raised planter boxes. They will look something like this…

I hope to use the remaining pieces of deck board for the outside of the box but we’ll see if I have enough. Later, we had leftovers for dinner and then settled in to watch tv and hit the spa before calling it a night.

Wednesday, April 12^th., 2023…… After walking and feeding the pups, we left for Albany. The job today was to go to Elmer’s for breakfast, then go turn in our cans and bottles, and then hit Costco. All went well and we were back home in record time. I went out to the shop to work on my project. I already had the dimensions of the new planter box written down, so I just needed to find the wood and cut it to size for all of the pieces. We had seen the one pictured above at a local business here in Dallas and I wanted to make ours the same, complete with the through-bolts which I thought was a great idea! I will be using the old deckboards for this and hopefully can also use the new decking to finish it off. I got all of the legs and uppers cut for the sides. Cathye will have to give me the final decision on the depth but I was able to assemble both sides. They are pinned for now until I can go get the carriage bolts, washers and nuts. The weather is turning a bit. No rain. Mostly sunny and temps in the high 50s and low 60s. Cold for my Cali friends but it feels so good to us right now! We can go outside and work in the yard and in the shop! Cathye has been working on her plant layout for around the deck. I told her I needed to make the turns sweeping so I can mow without getting into a corner. So, she layed that on paper. Later, we had spaghetti and after some more time in the shop and yard, we came in a watched tv. Tonight was Survivor and The Masked Singer. Didn’t get The Lamp (Melissa Joan Hart) or the Dandelion (Alicia Witt). No worries – it is still fun to watch and guess!

Thursday, April 13^th., 2023…… We headed out together for the gym. I think we’ve figured out our routines now so we can finish up about the same time so we only need one car. Of course, we had to go to breakfast after. Today we chose Kevin’s. Yummy as usual. We stopped at Walmart on the way home to get supplies for the party on Saturday. We are having some people over for a bbq on our new deck! I thought I knew how many were coming. Turns out I was wrong! Cat has mentioned it to several others I didn’t know about until this morning! Of course, some may or may not show up. Possibly 19 of us if everyone shows. And that means we need to have enough burgers for everyone. No worries, we have a bag of chicken wings and legs that we will cook up as well. We needed other items and took care of that at Walmart. We got back in time for Adam’s meeting with Cat. They were going over the plans for the deck landscaping project and came up with a timeline for this portion of the work. Later, we headed off to the dog groomers to drop off the girls. We came back and rested for a bit until we got the call to go get them. She always adds bows for both dogs and since Rylee’s only lasts for a day or two, I needed some quick pics!

Penny came by later and dropped off Mr. Quackers! She and I have followed ‘Charlie the Golden’ on Facebook for many years now. Charlie has his collection of stuffed animals and she posted that she gets them at Walmart around Easter time. Penny had found this guy at Walmart in the after-Easter-sale bin and he was only $5! You can see that this a true big-dog toy!

But Jama would still love to get her teeth into it! Later, I made a trip to Wilco and bought enough hardware for the planter box. I got both sides bolted up and just need to figure the final width and I can go on to assembly. No hurry though. Dinner and tv and then spa time and then bedtime.

Friday, April 14^th., 2023…… This morning we had the girls out and walked and fed and we were working around the house and yard prepping for our party tomorrow. We were supposed to meet Cherrelyn and Penny for lunch at Schmizza but Cherrelyn texted that she wasn’t feeling well. No worries – the three of us went anyway! After a nice meal, we followed Penny back to her house in my truck and we loaded up some palm fronds that her gardener had cut and piled up. Penny asked if I could take them for the burnpile so we made quick work on loading them up, hauling them back home, and adding them to the pile. Hardly made a dent! Still too wet to burn right now so that will have to wait a few weeks.

Saturday, April 15^th., 2023…… No rain this morning. It is supposed to be clear and nice and warmer. Temps in the mid-60s. That’s perfect – except that the sun took forever to come out! We spent most of the morning cleaning up and bringing out coolers and recycle and trash bins and drinks, and in general prepping everything for later today. We had that done and came in and cleaned up inside and then rested until the afternoon when Cathye had to go to the Albany train station to pick up Josh and Taitum. They are staying the night with us and will go back up home to Portland on the train tomorrow afternoon. Tate is in Portland now, staying with her brother there for a while and working for the same company. They got back and had some time to kill so they jumped in the spa and relaxed for a bit. Later in the afternoon, everyone started showing up. I had the bbq going and the chicken on first. Burgers followed that. We ended up with 12 as the final count. Misty, Lona, and Robin had come from a birthday party so they had eaten already. I think everyone enjoyed the food. I had no complaints! We sat out around the fire pit and enjoyed the afternoon sun and evening sunset. It was a really fun day!