Oregon Living 2023 – Blog #46 – Enjoying Halloween and A Visit With the Portland Grandkids

 

                              

Sunday, October 29^th., 2023…… We are doing great health wise. Cathye still has a cough that keeps her up at night. But other than that, we are good!  We slept in this morning. No church today. So, I took her to Elmer’s in Albany for breakfast. She hasn’t been outside in a while, so she enjoyed the morning! It’s still cold though. We are wearing hats and gloves and – yes, I am in shorts - but will wear sweatpants for the morning walk!  Temps in the 30s for that. Today we relaxed and watched tv most of the day. A lazy Sunday. Until it was time to go to our square dance lessons! Cathye has been watching videos (teaches and workshops) to go over all of the calls on the Mainstream level. She is starting to feel more comfortable about the calls now. But having missed last week, she is not sure about the new ones. They give us a weekly list so at least she can go find them and review them on tape. We had a late lunch and then waited until it was time to head out. She did really well on the first go round. Charlotte reviewed the calls from last week and she had them down. The problem came with the second session. I think she got tired and her concentration went away for a bit! She missed some of the easier calls. And having a corner who is also new and confused doesn’t help.  😊  But she did great for the next one and I think she is really getting it now!   I turned in my application so I may be a Club member before too long.  The class only goes for 20 weeks to get through Mainstream level so she’ll get to join soon too!  We went to the after party and enjoyed the group camaraderie.  When we got hone, we skipped the spa and just watched tv for a bit before bed.    

Monday, October 30^th., 2023…… Today was Costco day. Also gym day. So, we walked and fed the dogs and then headed out for our morning adventure. After the gym, we went to breakfast at Kevin’s and then drove over to Albany and got the Costco run done. We are having a little Halloween party tomorrow night so we needed some stuff for that as well. Where better than Costco!  After we got home, we had our Costco chicken for lunch and she cut up a bunch for sandwiches. The rest went into a pot for soup for dinner. Yum!

Tuesday, October 31^st., 2023……  HAPPY HALLOWEEN!  There will be no square dance class today at the senior center because they are having a Halloween party. That’s ok, we have work to do to set up our place for our own party! We were up and out with the girls and got them walked and fed. The weather is supposed to be chilly but dry tonight so we put back all of the chair cushions and such. We set up some decorations and got ready for later. Then we could relax for a few hours. Penny and Judy and Lynn came by. Cherrelyn was going to another party with friends in Salem. So, we just had a small group. But – everyone came dressed. Here is the group….

And our potluck feast!....

We ate and then Penny left to go help out her neighbor give out candy. We get zero trick or treaters here but they come by the carloads in Sis’s neighborhood. She said last year there were over 400 kids out in costume. Anyway, we settled in and visited and had some drinks and enjoyed spooky music and it was really fun!  After they left, we watched our taped Dancing With the Stars show. They were doing a Halloween Horror Night. We were shocked to see our name on National TV! One of the celebrity dancers - Alyson Hannigan - had a short video where she showed how she decorated her house. She acted in many horror movies and said they gave her items from the sets, which she puts out in her yard as decorations. One of which was a headstone, showing a beloved daughter of Charlene and William Kinkelaar

Not sure why these names were chosen to be used in a movie set but they are real. I don’t know them but searched Google and found they were from Bellflower, Calif. And she was born on Sept. 11, 1931. Wow!   Small world!

Wednesday, November 1^st., 2023…… We have found that we are sleeping in longer lately. Not sure if it’s because it’s darker longer in the mornings. That will change this Sunday though. Anyway, we were up and out with the dogs. The weather has really changed in one day! Yesterday it was clear, sunny and very cold. High temp got up to 54°. Today it is cloudy and yet warmer. It was 62° when we walked the pups this morning!  More rain in the forecast for tomorrow and they are now saying that it will be a larger front, bringing in up to 2” of rainfall each day.  Well, November IS the wettest month for Oregon!  Around 10:00am or so, Cathye left to go meet up with Omalee. They were going to see Killers of the Flower Moon. 

Neither David or I had any interest so they had a girl’s day out! I stayed home and watched tv and took care of the dogs. When she got back she said it was an ok movie, just sad and very long (3 hrs. 26 mins). TV until bedtime. We watched all of the latest Survivor episode (1½ hrs.) so we decided it was too late and skipped the spa tonight.

Thursday, November 2^nd., 2023…… Today is gym day and breakfast!  We got up (yeah, later than usual again!) and got going with the dogs.  We left after that and hit the gym. We were in and out really quickly as neither of us socialize – just do our workout routines and go! We went to Kristi’s and enjoyed a great breakfast and then went by Jamie’s and gave him his money and paid his rent for the month. We didn’t have anything going until later in the afternoon. We fed the girls a little early and let them out for a bit. Then it was time to head out for an evening with Ron and Teri. We went to their house in Albany and then headed into town. We parked in the downtown area and walked around a bit. A lot of the stores close at 5:00pm but we found a few open. We even found Caesar the no drama llama!

Then we went over to Grazing Oregon for drinks and dinner. This is a new place that specializes in high end charcuterie boards. We chose a couple of boards, one a starter. They made a point in telling us about everything on the main plate and where it came from (some from Europe!).

The food and drink was excellent and the night was great! It is always fun to spend time with these guys.   

Friday, November 3^rd., 2023…… Happy Birthday Vikki!  Not too many things on the agenda today. Corey was coming by to do some more work in the gardens. Later in the evening, we are going to the Albany train depot to pick up Josh and Tait who are coming in from Portland to visit us for the weekend. We have tickets for Les Misérables tomorrow afternoon as gifts for their November birthdays.  After walking and feeding Butthead and The Princess, we made a trip to Walmart to pick up a few things. The train wasn’t due in until 7:00pm. so we had some time to rest throughout the day. We fed the dogs and ate and watched tv until it was time to go. The train was only a few minutes late and we were quickly on the way home, stopping at Wendy’s to get them some dinner. Tv and catching up until bedtime.  

Saturday, November 4^th., 2023…… The plan today included breakfast, bazaars, and a trip to Penny’s to have Mr. Techie. look at her laptop. We walked and fed the dogs then left to meet Penny at Kristi’s. After that, Tait and Grandma took off to go to the Christmas Bazaars in the area. Jodsh and I followed Penny back home and he spent 30-45 minutes working on optimizing her system. She just needs to let some updates download and she should be good to go!  Thanks, Josh! We got back home and rested and the girls showed up a little later. We had a few minutes before we needed to head south. We have tickets to the 2:00pm matinee of Les Misérables at the Hult Center in Eugene.

The kids had never been to this venue before so it was a new experience even before the musical. Cathye was only able to get 4 seats together in the lower balcony. So we had to hike up the stairs to our seats. As you can see, we were waaay up there!

The play was very well done and the sets were amazing. But the singing was the highlight!  When we got out, we decided to skip the traffic and find a local place to have dinner. I had already asked Penny to come feed the dogs so we were in no hurry. We found 2 Towns Ciderhouse and enjoyed a nice meal. We got back home and watched a tape of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, w/Chevy Chase. The kids had mentioned that they had never seen it!

Time change tonight. We get an extra hour’s sleep which is good for us because we have to have the kids at the station for their 6:15am train!  We set a few of the clocks back (most now change automatically) and set an alarm for tomorrow and headed off to bed.