Oregon Living 2024 – Blog #3 – A Cold Start to the Week Before the Thaw & Saying Goodbye to Family

                                        

Sunday, January 14^th., 2023…… More sleet last night!  We now have a white blanket of hard pack on the driveway. We don’t plan on driving today so we hope it will diminish a little tomorrow. The girls went out and worked on planting in the potting shed. It wasn’t exactly hot as it has no insulation, so I had to go out and start up the buddy heater and put in in there. They said it was comfortable when they went out there about 30 minutes later. I watched a couple more football games and motocross and only went out with the dogs. A lazy Sunday. The girls decided to make a tamale casserole for dinner. Crystal said she liked it but it wasn’t a ‘keeper’ for us. But we did get to eat the pie for dessert! Tv until bedtime.  

Monday, January 15^th., 2024…… The plan today is to try to get out on the road. We want to go to the gym taking Crystal with us as a guest. Then the plan is to go on to Kevin’s for breakfast afterwards. Our driveway is frozen hard and is very slippery! One or two of the neighbors have been coming and going so we knew our street and the main street into town would probably be ok. And we have a 4 wheel drive truck. Problem is that’s the one vehicle we don’t have room for in a garage, so it’s been outside all of the last few days and it’s got a lot of frozen snow on it. When I went out to the truck and couldn’t even open the door, I knew we weren’t using it!  We waited a bit and had breakfast at home instead. After that, we finally got the door open. But the ice was so thick on the windshield and all of the other windows, we gave up.  Later, the sun came out so we ventured out in the Buick. I took it easy out of the driveway and took my time getting down the road. We had no issues and went to Walmart.

 

We needed stuff plus we just wanted to get out of the house for little while! After we finished up, we got back home ok. Later, the sun did help and we got most of the windshield on the truck cleared but the area where the wipers are located is still frozen solid. Crystal wants to take it tomorrow to go up to Salem to visit with a family member. We’ll see because another ice storm is predicted for some time tomorrow. We hung around the house the rest of the day and I fixed tacos for us for dinner. The girls played sous chefs and prepped the fixings. It was really good. Later, we played Mexican train

before Crystal got tired and headed off to bed. I went in and watched Monday night football and Cat caught up on some of her programs. We braved the weather and went out to the spa for a bit before coming in to bed.        

Tuesday, January 16^th., 2024…… We are still dealing with frozen conditions here. Temps are high in the 20s. Yeah, that’s too cold! The driveway is frozen solid in ice! But we have no plans to go out so we’re good. We let the girls out then fed them and Cathye made breakfast burritos.  Ok, it’s later now. Today is another blizzard watch. This last ice storm has caused power outages all around us. We are on a different power grid so we have had power all this time. Also, we don’t have too many trees that could cause damage but we are keeping an eye on them. I heard from my sister that she was holed up at her house. She has power and is ok. Cherrelyn was not so lucky. She is roughly 22 miles from us and on different city power which she has been without since yesterday. She texted us later in the evening that it was back on. But she had 43° temp. inside. Makes us glad that we have reliable equipment. But a frozen tree falling in the right spot could change that for all of us! We heard that the senior center would be closed and that class was cancelled. No worries. We are glad to be inside! Later in the day, Crystal made an apple crisp for dessert. Cathye made chicken wings and fried potatoes and green beans and we filled up and only ate the dessert several hours later when we played another round of Mexican train.      

Wednesday, January 17^th., 2024…… The freezing temps are over for the time being. It is supposed to get up into the low 50s today. The snow on the roof and the gazebos is now washing down with the rain. We got up and dressed and fed the dogs. No walk today. But we did take off to take Crystal to Kristi’s for breakfast. The roads are slushy but we managed to get through it in the Buick with no issues. We were supposed to go for haircuts today but Dianne called and postponed it til tomorrow. I was also supposed to go to Corvallis this afternoon for a follow up appointment with my cardiologist. They called and changed it to a video call instead. That works too. I am still in normal sinus rhythm and have been since my short AFIB bout in November. The amiodarone that they prescribed for me back then was supposed to help prevent going into AFIB but apparently it also puts you back into normal sinus rhythm, which happened to me.  The girls left to go to some vintage stores. Crystal also plans on going to UPS to mail some things back to MO. But she decided to wait to go until after the vintage shopping adventure, just in case something else has to go back with her!

I went online and got connected and got my appointment taken care of. The video calls are easy but I still prefer one on one. I have a few more instructions and actions going forward. I need to go get an eye exam as this medicine is known to affect vision. Also they want to monitor my labs but that will be taken care of shortly when I do those for my upcoming physical next month. She also said I could benefit from a mouthpiece for sleep. My sleep has been pretty standard these days. Cathye says I don’t snore as much now. I will not do a cpap even if they prescribe it!   But I will go get that apparatus. I need to call to get an address and set up an appointment.  The girls got back and showed me their purchases. Crystal was able to get everything in her suitcases. UPS told Crystal the price to ship the guitar. They said they would have to re-box the case and the total came to almost $300.00!  So I suggested that she just check it as one of her two allotted bags, and take the smaller of her suitcases as her carry on. We ate dinner and watched tv and then went to bed earlier because we need to get up early in the morning.             

Thursday, January 18^th., 2024…… As mentioned, we were up at 5:00am this morning! Crystal had everything ready and we got on the road pretty quickly and made it to Elmer’s in Albany for breakfast. We had plenty of time to eat and still get her to the bus pickup spot at Comfort Suites. It sure is easier to drop someone off there where they can shuttle up to Portland and be dropped off right at the terminal door. It saves us a trip as well. We waited with her for the shuttle to arrive, then said our goodbyes and headed back. We stopped at the gym and did our regular workout before heading home. We then needed to leave to make our rescheduled 11:00am appointment for haircuts. We got there and were informed that we had the time wrong. It was 1:00pm!  Oops! So we headed off to Walmart.  We have a couple square dance friends coming over tonight for dinner and a visit and Cat is making chicken pot pie. We needed a few things for that. We went back later and got our haircuts then headed back home to rest a bit and straighten up the house before prepping and then starting dinner. No worries – we had plenty of time! Later, Cheryl and Mike came over. We had a nice dinner and visited for a while. They both have been dancing for some time and shared a lot about our new club’s history. Of course, I shared my years of fun too!  Cathye can see that this is a great activity and she can see us in it for a great long time. During the evening, we got a text that Crystal had made the journey ok and was safely home with Michael by the fire!  After a nice visit we cleaned up a bit then hit the spa and then headed off to bed.  

Friday, January 19^th., 2024…… The weather has eased up a lot in the past few days. Although those up north in Portland and the Columbia Gorge as well as those in Roseburg and points south are still seeing snow, we are in the valley between them and the weather has warmed up quite a bit.  No more snow and the roads are all fully open. Of course the Coastal and Cascades are still getting some snow and those roads are still being plowed. The Portland news always covers I-84 heading through the gorge because it’s a major trucking route east and west. We see that they are still having issues with the roads. A slow warm is coming so they will eventually get things going again.  Meanwhile, we are doing well. We had the dogs out and walked, then I needed to leave to make the first of our massage appointments today, Cathye would come in later, after me.  We met and kissed and she went in and I went home and ate breakfast and got started on some of my to do list.  Since there was no rain or snow today, I went out and started up the motorhome and checked the airbags. All was good. We will load it up before I close the slides. We leave on Thursday morning for the Mid-Winter Square Dance Festival. We’ve never been and they say this is the biggest square dance event in Oregon. They tell us they get folks from all over the state as well as from Calif. and Washington. We are lucky. It is held at the Albany fairgrounds, which is only 14 miles from us! So, it will be a short trip. Cathye has outfits ready for the three days. We just need to get the rest of our stuff together.         

Saturday, January 20^th., 2024…… We slept in a bit today. No rain and the temps are down again. But, we still walked the dogs. After that, we fed them and Cathye made breakfast. The plan today was to: 1) check online to see if Cat has to report for jury duty next week, 2) clean house, and 3) head out for our new dancer dance tonight in McMinnville. I went online and found her site. She got lucky for week one – her juror number was not on the list to report this week. But we will still need to check this coming Saturday for week two. That is good news for now. She doesn’t have to worry about balancing jury duty with dancing this week. Since we did a pretty thorough cleanup for our friends last week, we had a pretty easy time getting the housework done. We spent the rest of the day resting and watching tv. Later, we ate an early dinner and fed the dogs. We dressed and headed out to pick up Lynn (Judy has family visiting), then stopped by the senior center to get Rod and Ginger, then made the 66 mile drive to the McMinnville Grange hall for our dance. It was a long drive but we made it ok. The dance was well attended. We are seeing the same folks from other classes now, and have made friends with them too.  It is always nice to go to the other dances and meet new people. We all talked about the sad news. Over the last three weeks, we have lost two of our local callers. Leonard Snodgrass and now Ian Craig have passed. Both had heart attacks. We didn’t know either of them other than dancing to them, but still, it was sad. Leonard was the Club caller for this club today. Bruce Lowther was asked to call the dance and will take over their beginner’s class.  There was also another older gentleman who has also passed. He used to be a caller (40 years around here) and has been in a care facility for some years now. Plus, just before we drove up here today, we read on FB that the last of the couple who owned and operated the Salem Dance Center has also passed away. Truly beacons of the area. Anyway, we had a great dance and everyone kept the energy up. When the dance ended, they had refreshments and announcements in the lower section of the building. What a nice facility!  After a light snack and a short visit with our friends, we loaded up the car and drove back to the Senior Center and dropped off Rod and Ginger. We got home at 11:49pm and headed off to bed after letting the girls out. It was a long but fun day!  Tomorrow we do it again – twice!  There is an afternoon dance in Salem and then Cat’s graduation later in the evening.