Oregon Living 2024 – Blog #30 –  Fires and Concerts - a Busy Week!

 

Sunday, July 21^st., 2024……  We slept in this morning. Ok, Cathye slept in.. I was up and had the dogs out and then loaded them up in the car and I took them home. I unloaded them and swapped out the Buick for my truck and went back, stopping for breakfast and coffee on the way back. When I got back, Cat had a lot done. We finished up the packing my truck loaded. We also got the lights and awning off the trailer and we were about ready. I was able to get Cat’s truck backed in and we got everything loaded in there. The drive back was pretty easy and we made it the whole 15 miles in no time! I backed the trailer in and Cat started unloading the fridge and the dirty clothes and straightening up the inside. I unloaded the trucks and we were about done. I think the only thing left out was the ice chest after I rinsed it out and left it to dry. We came in and rested for most of the day. I think we both fell asleep watching our tvs! Anyway, we had a nice Sunday.  John and Tammy told us this morning that they weren’t coming by. We have had several fires that are still out of control in Oregon (and Washington and California for that matter). They wanted to leave and drive east to Sweet Home and hoped to get over the Cascades and on to Bend before they closed any roads. While we were out yesterday, we checked on the fire that was burning around Diamond Lake, where we are going next week for our square dance festival with long-time friend and caller Michael Kellogg as the featured caller. The Trail Fire was just east of the lake and there were at level 3 (go now) evacuation orders in most of the area. Our RV park is at level 2 (ready to go).

Sadly, we got a message later from the festival that they would be cancelling the weekend. It made sense even though the fire was headed to the east and out of immediate danger, there was tons of smoke on the lake and the campgrounds. The dance would have been on the patio area outside the lodge. That wouldn’t help breathing! They contacted me later to ask if I wanted to roll over our ribbons for next year or get a refund. We opted to rollover. Next year our friends, David and Dawn Mee, will be featured caller/cuer. I will still need to check with our campground to see about cancellation policy.

Monday, July 22^nd., 2024……  No gym today and breakfast at home. First thing this morning, I was on the phone to the Diamond Lake RV Park. They were busy but called back later. She confirmed what we knew – the area was inundated in smoke. So, we cancelled our space. They will be sending a refund later today. Bummer…

Today turned out to be more relaxing than we expected. Since we didn’t have to scramble to load the bikes and the bike rack on the Honda, load the motorhome, shop for food, etc., we had a pretty easy day. The weather is again turning hot but those fires in our area haven’t affected us yet. There are more thundershowers w/lightning predicted throughout the middle of the state, so we are not out of the woods yet! Fingers crossed.  Cathye got a visit from Omalea and they headed out to The Point for lunch, while I needed to go to Lowes to get some more bags of rock salt for the water softener.  Later, they toured around the property on the Truckster and cat showed her our gardens. 

Tuesday, July 23^rd., 2024……  We slept in this morning and then took the pups out for their walk and then fed them. After breakfast, we were able to catch up on some shopping and Cat also got to go see Jamie and then Judy before she made it back in time for us to go help out at the square dance workshop. Later, Jo, our friend and fellow square dancer came by to pick up some tables and chairs for her game night this weekend. We had stopped by Papa Murphy’s for u-bake pizza and she joined us for that and we visited for a bit. Later, it was tv and spa and then bed.

Wednesday, July 24^th., 2024…… Since we were supposed to be relaxing in the motorhome at Diamond Lake this week, we find nothing on our calendar! So, we started a few projects around here. I needed to get my shop cleaned up so I spent a few minutes on that. I rounded up some sandpaper to put on the palm sander for Cat’s cutting board project. She had bought a nice piece of black walnut and she wants to sand it and use some cutting board oil on it to bring out the color. It turned out to have a pretty deep gouge down the center which I would need to use the belt sander to remove. No worries, that took a few minutes. I would need to get some finer grit sandpaper before she can continue. After that, I worked on the bar top. Since the board is narrower at one end, I needed to trim the bracket underneath and for that I had to remove it, which took some effort to brace up the wood. But, I got it done, painted and reinstalled with no issues. I also needed to sand down one section on the top that had sawcuts in it and was pretty rough. That took a few minutes but it looks good now. Cathye is still taking it easy. She gets out of breath pretty easily so she only does what she can and then rests. Today, she watered her plants and found she will need to deadhead her roses. Maybe later…

Nothing else today so we spent some time watching tv and relaxing. The weather is still pretty warm and since there is little wind, it feels hotter. As I posted the map above, the fires in Oregon are widespread, and we noted that there are two fires just above us in Sweet Home and Detroit Lake areas. No danger but we expect to get some smoke around here soon. But right now, we can only see the haze as we look east toward the Cascades and our air is clear.   

Thursday, July 25^th., 2024…… Cathye has a rash which is bothering her so she wanted to go to urgent care to have it looked at. Since her current doctor has the responsibility for urgent care in his office, Cat had a chance to ask him about her ongoing issues with being out of breath and tired. Her stress test is coming up but he has decided that she would not be able to hit the higher heart rate numbers in her present condition so he is rescheduling it to be a chemical stress test. That’s next Monday. They decided that she could get a walker to help out plus he would authorize a disabled plaque, which he signed off on. So, she headed off to the DMV to get that. When she got to the counter, she noticed that neither the doctor nor his assistant checked off on a permanent or temporary plague. So, she filled in permanent!  Yaay!

Today we start a series of concerts. Tonight, Cat will be meeting up with her girls at Monteith Park in Albany to see and hear Tower of Power in concert. I have no interest so I will pass. They picked her up and headed over to Subway to pick up sandwiches for their dinner. Misty had already gone over to the park and set out blankets to reserve space. Cathye would tell me later that they were close up to the stage. She thought too close when it came to the sound! But she said they had a good time and the old band members still with them did a great job.

Not her favorite music but she was out with her friends and enjoyed the evening.     

Friday, July 26^th., 2024…… We both slept in this morning. Cathye was still pretty tired from her late night out. Weather is still hot. We do get a nice breeze west to east so we are happy about that. Cooler air and no smoke. But we would pretty much be staying in all morning to watch the Opening Ceremonies of the Paris Olympics. We enjoyed it but it was way different from others!  Later, we would leave for our next concert. Tonight was a fundraiser at the Mennonite Retirement Village in Albany. They had a bbq dinner and concert featuring a Peter, Paul and Mary tribute band. We joined up with some square dance friends and we all got in line for the food. The place was super packed. This facility reminds me of Leisure World and Laguna Woods in SoCal. They have this huge lawn area and set up tents and a mobile stage for the trio. Like I said, we waited in line for a long time and when we finally got to the food, all they had left was the meat (pulled pork and/or brisket) and watermelon. But, we took it to our seats and enjoyed it just as the trio took to the stage.  The concert was really fun! Most everyone (all of us goobers!) knew the classic P,P&M songs and sang along. The cover did well and all enjoyed the show.

We made the drive back with no issues and hit the spa before calling it a night.  

Saturday, July 27^th., 2024…… Today was nice. Temps are starting to cool off a bit. They say we will get a break in a few days with temps going down to the high 70s. Nice! The girls like walking in the mornings so I took them out while Cat slept in a bit more.  Our neighbor had texted me earlier to let me know that he just finished spraying out by his ditch so we could avoid that with the dogs when we went out. No worries, we just used the other side of the street. Later, I went to town to the new Harbor Freight which just opened here. I bought a hammer tacker and the sandpaper I needed. It will be nice to have them so close! I chose to mow today since the weather was cooler. They say we could get some rain tomorrow or Monday so I joined all of the neighbors and got it done. I did all of it by myself so Cat could take it easy. Later, she left for a memorial service in Sweet Home. Both she and Judy knew the family of the young man who was killed a few weeks ago at the Foster Lake dam from a crash in his truck. The plan after that was for Cat to go on to Eugene and meet up with the girls at a fund raiser to Haiti, which they all united for. But she decided that she would not be able to get there in time so she stopped by Pioneer Park to visit with Corey and family, who were camped out for the weekend. After that, she came back in time for us to head off to the park at the Lebanon library where The Oaks Retirement Center were holding their annual Alzheimer fundraiser. Since Jim had Alzheimer’s, this is near and dear to Cat, and she has supported it for many years. The concert was a Heart tribute band called Barracuda.  We set our chairs out and went and found food at one of the catering trucks there for the event. The concert was not as moving as we expected. I guess we both didn’t follow Heart that much because we only knew 2 or 3 of their songs (What About Love, Magic Man, and Barracuda). They did those well, but for the most part, it was a lot of heavy metal music. 

Once we got back home, we watched some tv (and caught up on the day’s Olympic highlights) and then crashed for the night.  Wow, three concerts in three days!