Oregon Living 2024 – Blog #42 – Mowing, a Cardio Follow-up, Seeing WICKED, Buying a New Rug, and More Dancing!

 

Sunday, October 13^th., 2024……  Weather is nice today! We have rain expected on Tuesday, so I want to mow today. I left to go get breakfast and coffee while Cathye walked and fed the dogs. She headed off to church and I worked on getting last week’s blog finished and posted. After that, I had to run up to the station to get some more gas for the mowers. I usually fill up 4-5 five gallon containers in one trip, but since we will probably only get to mow one or two times before the season ends, I only got one container. I also had to get our diesel can filled up. We are hoping to be able to get the burnpile going in the next few weeks. Right now they have ban on fires so we have to wait on that.

I got started on gassing up and moving the mowers out and had all of the gloves, back braces, etc. out for both of us. We have started wearing the back braces lately, just to help with the bouncing and jarring on the rougher areas of the lawn and field. When Cathye got back, we walked the lawn and found it was still too wet to try to mow. We could, but last time we did, we clogged up the bagger with wet grass and we don’t want to do that again!  So, we came in and enjoyed the rest of the day lounging around until it was time to go to the beginners class.  During class, I kept track of the Dodger game one against the Mets. We won! Pizza after, then spa and bed.

Monday, October 14^th., 2024…… Today was a busy day! We thought it was time to start cleaning up for the winter. I started by putting the area bug zappers away, then we put the cover on the Shasta. While we were out there, I started up the truckster and we towed Rylee’s pool over to the flatbed trailer and turned it upside down to store for the winter. We waited an hour or so and came in and rested. I worked on my spreadsheet for our cruise. Still plenty of time, but I needed to gather up what was paid for, what has a deposit on, and what we still need to pay for. That will help as we will begin securing the flight, hotels, and of course, the cruise itself. We did eventually go out and got the lawn mowed. There are some really soggy areas and we did some damage but I think it will come out of it alright.  Once we were done, I rinsed the mowers off, we came in and rested for a bit. Later, we cleaned up and, after I put the mowers back in the garage, we left to go to Dos Arbolitos for a nice relaxing dinner. Pacifico for me and a blackberry margarita for Cat! Very relaxing! Back home, we settled in and I caught up on the Dodger’s game 2. Not so good. The series is tied 1-1. Good luck to them tomorrow. We caught up on some taped shows. Survivor and then spa and bed.  

Tuesday, October 15^th., 2024…… We didn’t have too much on the agenda today. We both need to get our clothes together for next week at Osprey Point RV park.  Since we are heading up to Seaside on Friday for a two-day square dance festival, we need to pack clothes for that as well. But, neither of us did any of that today. We went to class and took some more orders for badges. When we got back home, I immediately went online to order them in hopes that they will be delivered before next Tuesday. We won’t be here but if they come in, I can get them to Lynn to take to class next week.   

Wednesday, October 16^th., 2024……  Today was a cardiologist appointment for me. I had a 10:00am appointment and since we slept in a bit this morning, and the appointment was in Corvallis, I showered and left Cat to walk and feed the girls. The visit went really well. The ekg they did in the office confirmed I was in normal sinus rhythm, which I have been for almost a year now. I chose to have the ablation so they could permanently fix the ‘electrical’ issue with my valves so I could go off the amiodarone completely.  Maggie said I was now off that one. Yaay! Next up would be the Eliquis (blood thinner). She is hesitant only because of my age. I guess they want older folks to have thinner blood, which helps circulation. But she will be consulting my pcp and they will discuss that as well as the thyroid meds I am also on. I’m guessing that once the labs are done in Feb., she will have a handle on if the procedure helped the thyroid numbers or not. BUT, Maggie did say that I can get another tattoo!  She said many folks ask. She said I can go off the Eliquis 3 days before the tattoo and then go back on it afterward. Yaay! This is the next one planned for my right forearm…

After the visit, I stopped by and got breakfast for me (Cathye ate earlier) and came home for the day. We would leave later in the evening to go to dinner before the Club board meeting and then the bylaws meeting to follow that.  Well, as it was getting close to leave, I got a call from the bylaws chair, asking where I was for the bylaws meeting! Turns out it was before the board meeting!  When we got there, they were almost finished. Oh well, I didn’t have too much to add as we are wrapping it up anyway. The only problem would be talked about later at the Board meeting, when we discussed how to get the revised bylaws out to the Club. Some want everyone to have paper copies. I agree that our new members would need a copy in their new Club packet, but since we already have the bylaws on our website, I maintained that if the members were interested in the updates, they could see them when we publish the new one online. Not sure how that ended.  The other thing that happened at the meeting, was Cat volunteered us to chair the New Year’s dance!  Not something I wanted to do, but by the time we got home, we had a rough idea of how we wanted to do it. Theme (Black and Silver Dance) and we came up with some thoughts about the food. More on that as we get going.         

Thursday, October 17^th., 2024……  Today was busy!  A little rainy this morning. We had a few deer make their way through the yard. Rylee saw them from our window and I was able to get a shot next to the ‘moose’. You might need to zoom in.…

We have to be in Portland for our 1:00pm showing of Wicked. We left to go eat breakfast at Kristi’s and then came back to let the girls out before we left. We wanted to leave early and have time to stop by NW Rugs in Beaverton to check out area rugs. A year or so ago, we ordered an 8x10 rug from Wayfair for the living room. It’s polyester and thin and light so it shows dirt.  Well, we are now wanting to get a 9x12 and something in wool that matches better with the one Cat bought last year at an estate sale. That one is in our entryway. I had made arrangements for Penny to come over to feed the girls and let them out. We plan on taking Josh to dinner after the play, so we needed to adjust when she comes so they dogs could be let out. It worked out ok. We found NW Rug and looked around. Cathye found one she really liked. 

If you know me, you know I like to shop around. But when I saw her face, I knew she would not like anything we found after that!  Since we were tight on time, we told them we would be back later. We left and made our way to the parking structure and then met up with Josh and went in. Cathye had bought the tickets 6 months ago and the show was sold out!  It was their second day in Portland and since this is a Broadway production, we couldn’t wait! Our seats were just off-center in the orchestra section, but towards the back. The show was pretty pricey and $200.00 per ticket for where we were was ok. The folks in the front section (aisles a – z) would pay over $600.00 each! Yeah, no! Our seats were fine and the show was amazing. We knew the plot and we were able to follow the witch’s journey from birth as Elphaba Thropp to being the Wicked Witch of the West. All of the actors did an amazing job. We especially enjoyed Galinda, the Good. Yes, she would change it later to Glenda. Anyway, the show was great and worth the price. 

After we got out, we walked to House of Ramen for a delicious meal!

After that, we made our way back to the rug store and made the purchase. The guys were able to fold and load the rug into the back of the Buick and we took Josh home then worked our way back home. It took a while but we had a nice sunset!...

Tyson told us it would be ok to leave the rug folded up overnight because it was wool and it would be fine. We got back and parked the car, let the dogs out, and then went to bed.  Fun day!   

Friday, October 18^th., 2024…… Today was busy too!  We slept in and then went to work changing out the rugs. This was the old 8x10….

We decided to just use it on the back porch. It’s not an outdoor rug, but we can use it out there this winter and should be ok for a season.  I got a cart from the shop, and we unloaded the new rug from the car and brought it around to the front door and then brought it in and got it set up. I think it looks great!

By then, it was time to take the girls to get groomed. We just got them picked up and back home before it was time to go to our rv club meeting at the senior center. That was a mess! We did make some plans for future outings, but there is no leadership and not a lot of organization. We’ll see how it goes next week when we go to the campout. Once we were done with the meeting, we went home and waited for our new prospective landscaper to come by to give us an estimate. Adam just doesn’t have the time (or desire) to work the hours we need. He’s busy with apartment and retirement home work, so we need to move on. We liked Trey, who will begin next week with a crew to clean us up for the end of season. Later, we fed the girls and had dinner. Then I got dressed and we went to the alliance Plus dance in Albany. Cathye likes to go watch and I sure enjoy the plus level dancing. We stayed until about 9:30, then left come home. Straight to bed.  

Saturday, October 19^th., 2024…… This morning, we had haircuts and left to go to that. When we got home, Cathye spent the day working on cooking. She made casseroles for our campout and then later, she worked on her famous sliders for the dance. I got the bike rack installed on the Honda and Cat helped me load the bikes. I parked the car in the shop garage so it would right there on Monday morning when we hooked up to go. Both of us worked on loading our clothes for the week. Square dance clothes and shoes were stored away too.  Later, we would feed the dogs then eat dinner and then head off to our Club dance. We left early and met Grace, who unlocked the door. The three of us were the only ones there. We had assigned folks for the door and table and also for the kitchen, so Cat and I went to work, setting up all the tables and chairs. We had another club visiting tonight, so we needed a few extra chairs and tables. The dance was fun! Our schedule up to now is one Plus tip at 7:15pm, followed by Rounds until 7:30pm, when the dance started. The Club voted this week to change it to alternating Mainstream and Rounds, and every third tip Plus. Tonight, the Independence Wagon Wheelers came with 16. Nice!  I danced the Plus tip and while I rested, Cat got Frank to dance the first Mainstream tip with her. We alternated dancing and sitting out, which worked well for Cat. We both spent some time visiting with our guests, which was fun.  We also worked on the New Year’s dance, recruiting committee members, and coming up with menu thoughts. Right now, we are planning on us doing a spiral ham (or two) and the Club members will be assigned to either: potato casseroles, green bean casseroles, and desserts. Salad maybe….

After bidding goodbye to our guests and cleaning up, we got home around 10:45pm. So we played with the dogs a bit, then let them out and went straight to bed.