Oregon Living 2023 – Blog #26 – Celebrating With Family, Birthday Wishes, & Another Trip for Great Grandma!

 

Sunday, June 18^th.., 2023…… HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!   All of us were up and going around 9:00am. Cat and I already had the dogs out and walked. I fed them while Cathye made breakfast. We made sure Josh and Tait had everything packed up in the truck and we headed out. I think we will be gone most of the day so I asked Sis to come over once to let the girls out to pee. We made the drive up with no problem. It did rain a bit on the way up though. Usually around Wilsonville (about 15 miles S of Portland) the I5 bogs down. There are not enough on/off ramps in that area to support the growing population around there, so it is always hit or miss, depending on day of week and time of day. Like I said, we made it up ok and got to Tait’s place and got parked. Tait moved into an apartment less than 2 blocks from Josh. We got her new treasures unloaded and wheeled up to her door. Her place is about the same as Josh’s – tiny - but it fits her purpose for now. Josh told us his lease is up in July and he has an offer to move in with some friends in a house in Beaverton and is most likely to move. That puts Tait up there by herself, which we don’t like, but she has made many friends already and is in a pretty secure building and since she’s very cautious, she seems comfortable. After we toured her place and saw the amenities, we headed over to Josh’s and dropped off his stuff. He has the Bofeili e-bike that Cat gave him but the throttle assist is not working, so we loaded that up so we could take it home to check out. He still has the mountain bike I gave him so he can still use that to get around as needed. After getting that done, we drove around the corner to Heroes Café to have lunch. Both Cat and I had the flatiron steak. It was so tender and delicious!  We all enjoyed our Father’s Day meal! We said our goodbyes and headed back home. It was great to be able to spend time with the kids and we’re glad they are close enough to see whenever we want!  The drive home was terrible!  We hit that Wilsonville area and stopped!  It was also the same on the other side of the Highway!  We will have to consider this when we head up through here in a few weeks on our way to Seattle and the cruise ship!  We got home and rested from our busy week.         

Monday, June 19^th., 2023…… Today is Juneteenth…. Post office is closed and some businesses also are closed today. Our gym is 24/7 so we got that workout in, then headed to breakfast at Kevin’s. Definitely open!  When we were there, I got a call that the bagger for the new mower (mower is scheduled for the 28^th) will be delivered tomorrow. I also added armrests (shipped separately) that are supposed to arrive tomorrow as well. We had rain here yesterday and forecast is for more today, but it was just cloudy in the morning when we walked the dogs and then went to the gym. When we got back, I went out to the rv garage to address the mess in there. After the yard sale, we have cleaned out 99% of the stuff on the storage racks in there. I just wanted to rearrange some of the other things and get them up on the shelves. Cathye helped with that and then went on to tend to her flowers. Because some of them are under the deck, they needed watering. She leaves for Phoenix on Thursday so I will need a list of what I have to do to water everything out there. For the rest of the day, we hung out around the house. I did go online to Cinemark Theatres to make reservations for next Fri afternoon. Bill and Treasa and us are going to see Indiana Jones. Turns out there isn’t a real need for reservations up here but if the theater gets crowded, we know we have reserved seats and they are where we want to sit!  They come in next Thursday, prior to our cruise which starts on Jul. 2^nd.  We had an early dinner of leftovers and spent the evening watching tv. And then hitting the spa.  We did get more rain later in the evening but it let up and I think this storm is now out of the area.  We are not expected to see much rain for a while.

Tuesday, June 20^th., 2023……  HAPPY BIRTHDAY TREASA!!   Of course we had to call her to sing to her! 

After walking and feeding the dogs and eating breakfast, we started in on our errands for today. Ok, most of them are Cat’s!  Cherrelyn’s car is going in for service and we volunteered one of ours, so Cathye took the Honda and went over to Jamie’s to drop off his computer, which we had stored here, and then make an appointment to get her truck detailed before going over to Cherrelyn’s to get her. We would have taken two cars and dropped one off but I have to hang around today for that bagger delivery from Home Depot. They said arrival date is 6/20 between 9:00am and 3:00pm. This is the triple bagger I ordered for the Cub Cadet which is shipping before the tractor. Same thing with the Cub Cadet armrests – they are shipping separately, also expected today.  I am also still waiting for the bagger to arrive for the Craftsman mower. That one was ordered the 2^nd of June from a third party company (on the east coast!) and I checked in with them this morning. All I got from their recording was that ‘it has been shipped’. Because the invoice says it “usually ships in 7-10 business days”, it is probably on a rail car and then will have to go to a transport hub for trucking to me.  I called and waited out their recorded wait time and found out just that – it’s in transit!  Meanwhile, Cat got all of her tasks completed and brought Cherrelyn back here and she visited a while and then she took off to run her errands.

Ok, it’s later now and I got the bagger delivery. The guy backed in and while we were talking, I asked a question about Home Depot and how they used third party trucking. He looked confused and that caused me to ask where the bagger was shipped from. He looked at the delivery document and said, “Shelby Ohio”. I was shocked! This was the Craftsman bagger that I had just called about this morning! Anyway, we got it unloaded and I opened it and started sorting out the parts. I’ll put it together and install it tomorrow. Yaay!   

Later, I got a text from Home Depot that they were running late and delivery would be on Wednesday. But, again, I was shocked and happy to see a van pull up and two guys pulled out the Cub Cadet bagger! Wow!  I stored that box away.  Of course, the Cub Cadet is still scheduled for delivery on the 28^th. ! Oh well!   Later, we spent time working on getting a few things sorted out for our cruise. Dinner, tv and spa before bed.

Wednesday,  June 21^st., 2023……  The only thing on our calendar today was mani/pedis. But that isn’t until 5:00pm. So, we were able to sleep in a bit before getting up and going out with the dogs and then eating breakfast. Cathye and I went out and got the drain opened up on the spa. We wanted to change the water, clean the filter, and wipe down the tub.  After that, Cathye went out to run some errands and I went out to the shop and worked on putting the bagger on the Craftsman tractor. It is very similar to the one on my zero turn, so I was familiar with the components and got everything together and installed pretty quickly. 

While I was working on that, another delivery came via fed ex. This one was the armrests for the Cub Cadet. I added it to the bagger box since I don’t have that mower yet. Cathye went out to water all of her plants. She has this routine down. She will be leaving tomorrow evening so I asked her to write down all of the watering I will need to do while she’s gone!  After doing that, she worked on some of her packing. She needed to pick up a prescription so we went and did that. We worked on some more gathering of stuff for our cruise. It’s hard to believe but we’re getting close! Bill and Treasa arrive here next Thursday and we leave on that following Sunday. We ate a quick bite then headed off for our appointment. That took an hour and a half but it’s one more thing done before the cruise. We got back home and relaxed and watched some tv before going out to the spa. Then bedtime.       

Thursday, June 22^nd., 2023…… We were up at our usual time and got showered and going. We walked the dogs, fed them, then left to go to the gym. After that, we headed over to Kristi’s for breakfast. We were done just as Penny came in the door! She knows we go there after our Thursday workouts but she mistimed it. We stayed for a few minutes talking to Reese about his new 57 chevy, which is now parked outside the diner, then left to run some more errands. We still have a few things that didn’t make it out to the yard sale that we wanted to donate, so Cat and I loaded them up. I left to go drop them off. We try to go to Teen Challenge when we can. It’s also only about 5 minutes from the house. It took longer than I thought to make the drop. There was only one person working the door and she was on a knee scooter, so I would have to muscle off the items myself. There was a lady there in her truck by herself, so I helped her unload too. Once I got back home, we rested a bit, then we went back to the carport and took the cover off of the Shasta trailer. We are going out to Rally on the River a few days after we get back from our cruise and we want to clean up the trailer and stage it so all we have to do later is just hook it up and go! 

 

The weather is starting to get warmer and warmer here now. So, we were overheated from our task and came back in the house to rest for a bit. Cathye showered and then left to go run some more errands. She got hungry and stopped for a quick bite.   Needless to say, she wasn’t hungry when she got back so I made myself some ham and cheese croissants for dinner. Her flight wasn’t until 8:45pm and it was leaving from Eugene, and she could go straight to TSA, so we left around 6:45 and took our time driving down. We stopped at Walgreens and tried to get her prescription but the car line was too long so I’ll go get it tomorrow. I got her there and said goodbye and headed back home. It doesn’t get dark up here until around 9:30 or so I didn’t have to drive in the dark. I watched tv for a while, then went in the spa for a while before calling it a night. I asked Cat to call or text me when Chris picked her up from the Mesa airport. It was around 11:45pm or so but that’s ok - I needed to know that she was ok and headed to their place.        

Friday, June 23^rd., 2023…… Cathye texted me this morning as I was out with the dogs. She managed to get some sleep and sounded good. They didn’t have too much planned today. The family – and the new grandbaby – would be coming in on Saturday for a party. I think even Mary and Jim will be coming in from Tucson to visit as well.  Pics as she sends them.

Meanwhile, I was working on a few things here. I did some cleaning and rearranging some photos on the walls and in the nooks/cubbies in the living room. We are now getting a good balance of both Cat’s memories and mine!  I did receive four more boxes from Florida. This is the last of the boxes (I think) of Jeff’s personal things that Krista is sending me. This time, among miscellaneous other things, I got more of his collectables and all of his photo albums. I think Randy and Cherrelyn will want to take a look through them to see if there’s any that they may want.  I found some that I will save and add to the family photos. I found some leftovers for dinner and settled in and watched my Barrett Jackson Auction that I had taped. They are in Vegas this Thurs – Sat.  It’s amazing the money people have to spend on cars. There are folks that buy some at the auction and sell some at the same time!  Anyway, it was a quiet night for me and the pups. I hit the spa and then, after talking a bit with Cathye, went to bed.   

Saturday, June 24^th., 2023…… Today was party day in Glendale AZ!  Of course, the main subject was Olivia!  She is so cute! Great Grandma spent some quality time with her and now big sister Sophia, as well as the other grandkids all day. Her sister, Mary, and husband Jim, came up to visit. Jim had never met this side of the family so that was fun I’m sure! Here are some of the pics from the day and the week…

I also captured a pic from FB that daughter Terisa in New Hampshire, posted of Felix. He is so cute!

I had a few errands to run today. We never did find that missing earring so I went into Albany and ordered a replacement. This time, I made sure to get the screw-on backings. Given that  that’s a special order, they won’t be ready for probably two weeks, so she won’t have them for our cruise. I guess I should have gone in sooner, but we were hoping the lost one would turn up before now!  I also spent some time working on the flowerbed watering system. We are having a job walk/estimate on Wednesday for a refresh of the existing irrigation system. I inherited a mess from the previous owner and have been just getting by each season, repairing and adjusting broken and clogged lines. Of course the deck addition played havoc, plus most of the lines are now covered over in bark mulch! It’s time I had a professional come in and assess the damage and give us a quote to get everything working correctly and efficiently again. In the meantime, I re-installed the timers we use for the areas that aren’t on a system. We have hoses with in-line timers to help us water on a daily schedule. So, the blueberries, Cat’s island garden, and the area out by the driveway are all on timers. Weather is getting hotter by the day. Temps in the low 80s today and will hit 88° toward the end of the week when Bill and Treasa get here. More tv and a call with Cathye, then spa time and then bed. She flew via Allegiant to get the best fare, but you have to go in via Mesa.  She has a 12:30pm departure so she and Chris will be on the road by 10:30am. From there, it’s a two and a half hour flight into Eugene.