Oregon Living 2023 – Blog #49 – Seeing Family Off, a Hectic Thanksgiving, & Then Her First Dance!

 

             

Sunday, November 19^th., 2023……  Mary leaves tomorrow so she wanted to go spend some time with her son so she was gone for most of the day. She said she also went to visit an old friend as well. We hung around the house until it was time to head off to church. Today I went with Cat. They have a Thanksgiving dinner after church and it was delicious! We got back home and rested for the afternoon then headed off to our class. Afterward, we went to Gametime for the afterparty. Then home to take a dip then off to bed.

Monday, November 20^th., 2023…… This morning we had plenty of time. We walked and fed the pups then rested for a bit. Mary was already packed and ready to go. Her flight out today wasn’t until 1:00pm. She wanted to be at the airport around 11:00am. So we left around 9:00am to drive down to Eugene for breakfast and then it would be on to the airport. I chose Prairie Schooner this morning. We like the food and Cathye likes the gaming!

We enjoyed a nice meal then headed off to the airport. After saying our goodbyes, we headed back home.  We had a lot of fun with Mary here. They spent some quality time together and she saw all of her NW family. But, I’m sure she was happy to be heading home. When we got home, we did some laundry. We needed to make over the guest room for Randy and Maryanne who would be coming in late tomorrow.  I took the Honda out and saw that the check tire light was on. I brought it back home and added air. I checked all the tires and found I needed more in the left front than the others.  I just hope that it was just low.  

Tuesday, November 21^st., 2023…… After walking and feeding the girls, I went out and got us breakfast and coffee. The tire light went out (phew!).  While I was at Starbucks, I texted Randy to check on his arrival time. He told me first off that Maryanne would not be coming up. He also said he was struggling with a back that was out. So he had a decision on his own. It was either drive up here by himself - which he probably would need an overnight stop to do - or stay home and rest. I helped him decide. Since he needed to be back to work on Monday, I explained that it would be a quick turnaround with a whole lot of driving, and that he should stay home and rest his back. Both Josh and Tait were invited but Tait was invited to join her boyfriend and his family and Josh is spending time at his new place with his buds, so neither of them will be coming down. So, it will be Jamie, Cherrelyn, Penny, Corey, Vikki, and Brandyn and Bailey plus us for dinner. We have a 19 lb. turkey so we’ll now have some serious leftovers!  We drove over to the senior center for our afternoon square dance lessons and then came back and had a nice dinner and watched tv until we went out to the spa and then to bed.

Wednesday, November 22^nd., 2023…… Pretty cold here still. 36° when we took the dogs out this morning. I had a few things on my agenda today. But first Cathye had me running to Walmart. She is baking today and needed a few things. I came back and rested before my task. But before that, I needed to run back and get another item she forgot. No worries!  I was then able to get out and jack up the truckster and pull the tire and wheel. When Corey was last here he worked with a flashlight well into the dark. I guess he didn’t notice the flat tire on the Cushman. I saw it was flat and got it removed and took it to Les Schwab. It was really tweaked on the rim and when I showed it to them, we noticed that it had a large hole that was not repairable. So, I have a new tire ordered.     

Thursday, November 23^rd., 2023…… HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Cathye and I both were up early this morning (5:00am). We got the roaster out and got the turkey going. I went back to bed and slept for an hour or so, then got up and showered. Cathye needed celery and onions for the stuffing so she went out to get that while I showered and then walked the dogs. When she got back, she said 1) she saw a lady face plant in the Safeway parking lot (they had called paramedics), 2) McDonalds said after she was in line for 10 minutes that their grills were out, and 3) the check engine light was back on on the Buick!  Heck of a morning. Regarding the Buick, this is the second occurrence for that light. I took it in last week to O’Reilly auto parts and the scan showed it was an emissions error. They said it could be a sensor or a canister and reset it. If it occurs again, I should take it in. Well, it was back on again this morning, so now I will have to!  Penny and Cherrelyn got here early and helped us get everything set up. I went and got Jamie from his care facility. We waited until Corey and family got here. The turkey was cooking slower than we expected, so it was just getting done around dinner time. We both found that we each like to have dinner early and we set the time at 1:00pm. So, if we were a little late, it was ok.  Dinner was wonderful! We all ate too much!

After that, we all found spots around the house and relaxed and watched tv.  Brandyn and Bailey braved the cold and went outside to run around. Folks all finally left and we spent the rest of the day resting and relaxing after the long day.     

Friday, November 24^th., 2023…… BLACK FRIDAY!  Did we got out shopping?  No way! Neither of us has anything on our Christmas lists this year. We have nothing else we want or need to get that would cause us to have to go out today and get into the shopping frenzy. So, we hung out around the house and enjoyed the quiet.  I did stop by the GMC/Buick dealer in town where we bought our Enclave. As mentioned, the check engine light is still on and I needed to get it serviced. They ran a diagnostic and, yes, it is emission related. We can still drive it but I made an appointment to take it in next week. Next trip out was to Walmart for fixins for chicken pot pie. Cat has a new recipe she wants to try out. I will gladly be her guinea pig! That done, we were in for the day. We have been watching the weather to see if we can get enough sun to dry out the lawn so we can mow at least one more time this season. Temps got up today (high 50s) with a full day of sun, but nope, still too wet.  

Saturday, November 25^th., 2023…… Today is Cat’s first dance!  The alliance here in our area really does a good job in scheduling beginner’s dances. Each club that had a September class will host a dance. First up was tonight at the Silver City Squares in Silverton. That is about an hour’s drive for us. They had a ham dinner (extra $4.00 ea.) at 6:30pm prior to the pre-rounds and then the dance at 8:00pm. Earlier, I had received a call from The Square Circlers Treasurer that my Club badge was in!  So, we went and got that. I hope they know what they were doing when they let me in the Club!  Later, we picked up Lynn (Judy still had family in town) and made the drive to the Bethany Christian School gym. I must say we were impressed!  The club there has recruited about 50 home-schooled kids to learn square dancing as an extra-curricular activity. The other clubs in the area also have children and teens so we were definitely outnumbered!  The meal was ok and we also took advantage of their clothing sale where Cat got some belts and a dress for cheap! The first tip had 16 squares on the floor!  That’s impressive this day and time in the square dance world!  Cathye and Lynn were a little intimidated. Rightly so, since those kids are sponges and learned quickly. But, aside from them, the girls held their own, and enjoyed the experience. The caller (Ian Craig) was used to the younger group and called a faster tempo, which didn’t work too well for the adult group. So, our squares broke down quite a bit. But, Lynn and Cathye got used to the speed and did better or as well as the other adult dancers that were at their level with their clubs. We only sat out one tip so Cathye could get a picture of the dancers from up at the top of the bleachers.

Next up on Friday is another kid’s group in Salem. They also have Ian as their caller so we expect more of the same fast tempo there too.  But the girls will only get better as they get more floor time. We left a little early and dropped Lynn off and got back home at 11:40pm. Long day and we were both tired from the fast pace so I think we crashed pretty quickly.