Oregon Living 2025 – Blog #6 – Two Birthday Dances and a Birthday for Robin!

 

Sunday, February 2^nd., 2025…… No rain this morning – yet. It is forecast for later this afternoon. Cat got the dogs walked and I went and got us breakfast. Cathye already has her cake wrapped and ready so when she got back from church, she changed and we headed over to help set up for the dance. Today is the Lebanon Square Circlers’ 76^th Birthday Dance. We expect 80 or more today, but with the weather, we’ll see.

Ok, it’s later now. The rains and the colder temps have kept the people away from our dance this afternoon. We had a lighter turnout for our dance but it was still a fun afternoon!  We had a few leaders for activities for this dance, and one of those was Rachel, who filled up 200 balloons with either sayings, dance tickets, or money inside. You paid $1.00 for a balloon and picked it out of the playpen, then put your name on it and pinned it to the wall for the dance. At the end, we all got our balloons down and popped them together. We bought 5 balloons and Cathye got a $5.00 bill so we broke even! Rachel spent a lot of time on the project and it turned out to be a big hit!  Our Club’s round dance cuer, Jackie (and her husband Bill) have already left us and moved to Nevada to be with their kids. So, today we had our first look at Sandra Pinion, our new cuer. She did a great job and will be now doing all of our dances and workshops for at least the rest of the year. We had plenty of cake left. Here are some pics from the beginning of the night…

Rod and Ginger

Once we finished helping with the cleaning, we slid out the back and came home and fed the girls. After that, we settled in and caught up on some taped shows.   

Monday, February 3^rd., 2025…… Today was the gym and breakfast. Kevin’s was closed so we went to Appletree. Not my favorite place but at least we ate. On the way home, I dropped Cat off at her old mobile home park. She was riding up with park residents to the state capitol in Salem for a show of solidarity for the park. They, like many others in Oregon are now subject to a continuous rent increase of 10% per year. Given the fixed income from the seniors living in these parks, they will eventually be unable to pay the space fees and will be forced to give up their homes. I think Cathye said they had around 100 folks at the rally, which was represented by council for both parties. No decisions yet of course. But they did succeed in getting much needed tv support, and, when it was shown later on the news, I could see Cat and her friends in the audience.  While she was gone, I caught up on my weekend races and worked on my checkbook. Funny, I write maybe a dozen checks a year now but I still have it in my head that I have to keep a ledger of monies in and out of the account. They are available in my app but I still want to write them down! I also caught up on my blog for yesterday and today.     

Tuesday, February 4^th., 2025…… Today I have an 8:00am appointment with my doctor. I think it is just a follow-up from my physical/wellness check late last year. I headed off and got there in time to check in. Turns out it was for labs for my thyroid level. When I went in for the blood draw last week, they didn’t have my order so I didn’t do anything else prior to today. I had fasted this morning, so they did labs on my way out. I also had her sign my consent form for the Sydney Bridge Walk. She thinks I will do fine. 

Later, I got lab results back. No major issues. She is upping my thyroid med. and wants more labs in three months. We went off to class today and we both danced the whole afternoon session because we only had enough for one square today. We came home and ate leftovers for dinner. Tv and bed.   

Wednesday, February 5^th., 2025……  Today was our haircut appointments. We were up and out and had the dogs walked and fed and ate before we had to go (10:00am). That was the only thing we had to do. But we want to stop at Walmart on the way home to pick up stuff for dinner tomorrow. We are having our friends, Rod and Ginger, over for Cathye’s Turkey Pot Pie. We needed the peas and carrots and I bought some beer.  She already has everything for her cherry cobbler.  Later, we went to Dos Arbolitos for margaritas and tacos. We are still trying to get caught up on our taped programs so we settled in for that before bed.  

Thursday, February 6^th., 2025…… We were up and going early this morning. When I first let the girls out to pee, I saw snowflakes falling!  Nothing stuck and it only lasted for a few minutes, then stopped. We walked them with no issues. We left and hit the gym and then Kristi’s and then it was back to the house to clean. We both worked on laundry, and while that was going, we split up and she did dusting and cleaned both bathrooms, while I vacuumed the house and dusted my office. Forgot ice cream for tonight, so I headed off to get some. Our egg supplier was at the Mexican restaurant last night and said she would have eggs for us today after 2:00pm, so I also stopped and got those on the way home. Rod and Ginger came by at 5:00pm and we had a nice meal and a nice evening. Ginger is a long time dancer. Rod and Cathye went through their beginner’s class together. Both he and Cathye are going to the Plus class starting this Sunday. Of course we will only be able to go the first three weeks before our cruise, and she will miss a bunch. But we think it will still help her to at least get some classes in now.  

Friday, February 7^th., 2025…… Nothing on the agenda for today. So, we slept in and then took the girls out and fed them and ate leftovers from Kristi’s for breakfast. Cat spent some time trying on dresses and stuff for the dinners on the ship. We have two formal nights and we have those already. But we both needed to pull out nice clothes for the dinner seating we have with our group each night on the ship. Like I mentioned before, we will most likely have to do laundry on the cruise, but if we can pack it (and keep everything under 44 lbs.), we can wear it! Cathye is an expert at packing and is showing me how to roll my clothes instead of stacking them in folded up. She bought a vacuum bag kit from Amazon and we tried it yesterday! 

You can use the attachment and suck the air out and the bags are reusable!  So, we can take it all with us and seal them for the trip back as well. The good thing is that we will have lightweight clothing because it’s summer in Australia and New Zealand. Today, it was 77° in Auckland and 79° in Sydney. Yaaay!  Today it got up to 45° here in Lebanon!  We have to remember to pack our swimming clothes. I just ordered some new water shoes online. Should be here tomorrow. Both countries are very strict in their codes for travel into their environment. We were advised that all shoes must be very clean and scrubbed and they will inspect packed bags on entry. They don’t want foreign soil on their soil! My watershoes are %$#@ ugly so I needed a new pair.

We also got confirmation today for payment for the Princess Plus package on the ship, which we recently had our travel agent add for us.  It includes gratuities, alcoholic drinks, wi-fi, spa package, as well as other perks. We hope to be able to take advantage of all of this because it was pretty pricey!  The main reason was for the wi-fi so we can communicate via Facebook. That said, I am still hesitant in hauling my laptop around, just so I can post, so I will have to think about that. In the past, I normally make notes and then write it all up and post when we get home. We may do that this time too. We’ll see.  

Saturday, February 8^th., 2025…… HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROBIN! We had a few things on our list for today. The weather is off and on. There are scattered showers around and we got hit with them throughout the day and evening. We left the house and drove up to MacLeay Country Inn, about 10 miles east of Salem. We were there for Robin’s 70^th birthday party!  It was a great time and we all had fun. The meals we each chose were not that good though. Cat had coconut shrimp and the shrimp was a little overcooked. I ordered chicken fried steak and they really oversalted the gravy. So much that I couldn’t finish it. No compensation – they said they would advise the cook! The others, for the most part, had steak, which they all said was excellent. So, we will go back and try it again sometime. We left early enough so we could come back and feed the dogs and then get dressed for the dance tonight. We went to Sweet Home for their Birthday Dance. It was a pretty good crowd and we had a great time. The weather cooperated and we got back home with no issues. We watched tv and then went to bed.