Oregon Living 2024 – Blog #2 – A Vet Visit & Dealing With the Weather!

 

Sunday, January 7^th., 2023…… We got up pretty early this morning. Crystal was already up and going. Remember – she’s still on Missouri time! We all went out and walked the dogs and then we fed them and Cat started breakfast. After we ate, Crystal got her bags in the back of the truck and left for her 113 mile drive to Roseburg. The plan is to come back here on Saturday and spend a few more days with us.

Later in the morning, we got dressed and headed off to our dance. The dance wasn’t until 2:00pm but we had to be there at noon to help unload and set up all of the square dance clothes. Grace, our coordinator, was ready with instructions on how she wanted the trailer unloaded and where it was to go!  We had others there as well and got it completed in quick order. We also set up the tables and chairs for the dance. Reminds me of our old times in SoCal at the Rustler dances!  Folks started showing up early because they were told that you could get two tickets good for two items for free!  Everything else was very well priced (to move!) and Cathye ended up finding a few other things and using one of my tickets as well when the sale started. As for the dance, we have learned it is better to go to a full blown mainstream dance than to dance with a roomful of other beginners!  We had more trouble with the newer dancers and Cat needs an occasional hand (or arm) from someone experienced to aid her in getting through the calls. But it was fun anyway. Next week she graduates. More on that later. After everyone left, we needed to clean up. A few more Club members stayed around and we got everything packed up and stored back in the trailer. We were done and headed back home and took off our shoes and rested for the night! Of course the spa sure helps!  

Monday, January 8^th., 2024…… HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIS!  She’s almost caught up with me in age now! 😊  Yeah right!  We will be going to dinner later this afternoon. We walked and fed the pups and then headed off to the gym. On Mondays we go to Kevin’s for breakfast. Today was no exception. We got back home and kicked back for a few hours. Cathye has a dental appointment so after lunch (and brushing again) she headed off for that. When she got back, we did some work around the house and then rested for the day. Later, we changed and left to go over to Penny’s. I told her I would help put her Christmas stuff away before we took her to dinner. We got all of that done and drove to Sweet Home to The Point, where we met up with Cherrelyn, who lives close by. We had a great dinner and then said our goodbyes to Cherrelyn and drove sis back home. We finished up in the spa. It was raining at this point. The spa is under cover but the wind was blowing so hard it felt like we were getting rained on! I bought a towel warmer last week and we have been using it and really like it!  It sure helps with the chilly air when we get out!  

Tuesday, January 9^th., 2024…… The only thing on our calendar today is our square dance class. We were in no hurry to get up this morning. We didn’t take the dogs out because it was raining pretty hard. We thought we would get a break in the weather to take them out, but it didn’t happen this morning!  We left around 12:30 and went to class. Cat’s graduation is this weekend. She still feels a little intimidated and these Tuesday workshop classes help her so much. Charlotte is really good on working on those calls that give the new dancers trouble. Each of the students has something. This Tuesday session is not associated with the Club. It is open to help all dancers. So, we also get a few folks not in our club who come for practice as well. Some don’t drive at night so this is about all they get to do. We all have fun and it gives us all a chance to practice and enjoy the activity. We made arrangements for some of us to caravan to the next beginner’s dance this Saturday in Corvallis. We now have a full car.

We got back home and ate soup for dinner and then Cat went and got Jamie and took him to get a haircut. Once back, we were in for the evening. Tv until bedtime. The winds were whipping pretty good when it was time to go to the spa so we decided to pass for tonight and went to bed.  

Wednesday, January 10^th., 2024…… More rain but we couldn’t go walk anyway because we barely had time to feed the dogs before we had to leave with Jama for her vet visit. She got her shots and Cat also asked for and got some trazodone for dogs for when she gets anxious.  We came home and hung around the house. The sun came out and I decided we should go take a drive. Cat was ready! We drove up to the Scio fish hatchery (I had never been) and made a large loop to get back home. It started raining when we were getting close to home so we timed it just right!  After dinner, Cathye went to a town council meeting. Judy is working on a project to address the rate increases happening at her (and Lynn’s) mobile home park. They present tonight to see if they can get some assistance to address the increases. Since Cat has lived there, she can speak to the subject and how the rate increases have and are going to affect the residents, some of which can’t afford and would be forced to move in the short term. I stayed home and watched the dogs and tv. She got home and said it went well. Judy was well prepared and the council said they would get behind their efforts and offered support. Sounds promising but I don’t think anyone knows how this will end, especially at this point in time, but at least they are trying to do something! Tv and spa until bedtime.          

Thursday, January 11^th., 2024…… More cold weather in the forecast. We are hearing (and seeing) on the news that they are starting to get snow at lower levels. Of course the rains are now bringing snow to the higher elevations, something that’s appreciated by the local ski resorts and chalets.  But we haven’t seen anything here yet. Temps in the Willamette Valley (where we are) are dropping and they think that next week will be the coldest yet. We are keeping an eye on today’s weather from here to Portland because we are headed up there this afternoon for another play. Tonight is The Lion King, which we are both looking forward to seeing! The show isn’t until 7:30 tonight but we are going up early, to allow time to stop somewhere to eat before the show.

Ok, it’s later now…  We made the 100 mile drive with little issues and went to a little Ramen Shop for dinner. It was really good!  We both especially liked the flavored eggs! After a nice meal, we made our way to the parking structure across the street and waited a few minutes for the doors to open. The Keller Auditorium is really nice but older. The seating is a bit more spacious which I like. We hear that they are soon to be underway with construction on a new complex which will replace the Keller. Back to the show. The play was excellent!  We had good seats on the main floor so we didn’t miss anything. They had the characters come down the aisles and it was spectacular!  The main characters were perfectly cast and they gave an amazing performance. Cat says this is one of her top three plays so we will be talking about this one for a long time.

 

We got out and made our way back home with no issues. We pulled in the garage at 11:43pm and let the girls out then headed immediately to bed.       

Friday, January 12^th., 2024…… Needless to say we slept in this morning. We didn’t get out of bed until almost 10:00am! I think that’s the latest to date! But we really didn’t have anything to do today. We hung around the house and watched the weather reports. We have a huge storm coming in and this one is cold! As I mentioned, they have been getting snow at Mt Hood and in the higher elevations, but this one they say will hit even our valley. There is a lot of activity on Facebook about preparations beforehand. There are also businesses, schools, and community services that will be closing. Later in the day, we heard back from our local square dance clubs saying that they will be cancelling their dances both Saturday and Sunday. We were supposed to go to Corvallis on Saturday but that got cancelled. They have also decided to postpone our graduation class/dance until next Sunday. But today was still clear with just a little rain so Crystal managed to make it back up from Roseburg. She changed her flight and will be with us here until Thursday when she heads back home to Missouri. I need to go online and book the shuttle to PDX. The girls planned to go out to Cat’s potting shed to prep some beds for seeding, but they got lazy and spent the day watching movies. They hit the spa and then watched more tv. I was occupied with my taped car auctions. The only time either of us left the property was later, when I had to go pick up a prescription from Walgreen’s. Tv and spa and then bed.    

Saturday, January 13^th., 2024…… We woke up to a snowy view. Most of it was icy sleet but later it stuck to the ground.  So, we just let the girls out to do their business and then stayed in. Cat made breakfast and then after a short rest, they started in on a canning project. They are making blackberry jam today. This is the before they started!

 

Once they got going, they had a great time!

 

While they were doing that, I was tasked to check in online for Cat’s upcoming jury duty. The instructions said to check in the weekend before but when I did I found out that her start date is not until the week of Jan. 22^nd. So, her info won’t be there until next weekend. Oops!  The timing sucks because on the 25^th. we move the motorhome to the fairgrounds for our square dance festival. Now we hope she doesn’t get called in but we’ll see. Even if she does, she can always just come and go from the rv. 

Back to the weather – we got more sleet as the day went by. It was a good decision to cancel all of the square dance events because we weren’t going anywhere! The girls watched tv in Cat’s office and then decided to make a mixed fruit pie. Crystal did the lattice crust and it looked perfect!  

Meanwhile, I watched football. There were two games today, two tomorrow and two on Monday. I also went online and got Crystal’s shuttle booked for Thursday. We made plans to leave early and have breakfast on the way. Later, I went in to watch tv and found that Crystal had already gone to bed. She has a sciatica that has been bothering her. I’ll give her a muscle relaxer tomorrow if she doesn’t feel better. Since the weather is below freezing out there, we decided not to go out to the spa tonight. We watched a couple of programs than went to bed.