Oregon Living 2025 – Blog #12 – A Week of Projects and Recovery

 

Sunday, March 30^th., 2025…… After a tough first few minutes in bed, I gave up and went in to my room to use my recliner again. I had already taken some Tylenol Pm and followed that up with some Nyquil. Once I got settled in, I fell asleep and got the best night’s sleep I’ve had in a long time! I woke up this morning feeling that I had some energy and didn’t seem to be coughing as much. Fingers crossed! After a shower, I went to get us breakfast (Tony’s breakfast burritos) and coffee (Starbucks) while Cat walked and fed the girls. Then it was rest and tv for the morning and afternoon. I felt a lot better and Cat said so did she. Later, we left to go to dinner with Cherrelyn and Penny. We took them their gifts and we had a nice meal at Pizza Schmizza. After a bit, we all left and we came home for the rest of the evening to work on the blog and watch our taped programs until bedtime.

Monday, March 31^st., 2025…… Nothing on the agenda for today. The weather is not too bad. It rained yesterday for most of the day but it’s lightened up for the most part today. The forecast for the week is rain on and off up until Thursday, and from then on, it’s supposed to warm up and dry out!  We are still about half recovered. Cathye maybe more than me. I’ve lost 15 lbs. and I think some stamina as well. Just tired most of the time. Of course the coughing wears me out. But it’s lessor each day. We worked on some small projects around the house. Cathye is working on her scrapbook and has been ordering things online like stickers and such. She had over 300 photos printed that she is cutting up for the book. Lots of work but it is looking great so far!  Tv and bed. No spa - we have not been diligent on maintaining the spa since we’ve been home, so we now decided to drain it and clean it and refill it. That will have to wait until the weather gets a bit warmer.

Tuesday, April 1^st., 2025…… We both have haircuts today. Oh yeah, I am feeling so much better!  I have been able to sleep at night now so that helps. I have a delivery today from UPS. I gave up on my old printer and decided that, rather than spend a fortune on ink cartridges, I would get a new one with eco tanks to help save ink. I ordered it online from Costco and UPS will deliver it today. It was at the house when we got back from our haircuts. I wasn’t up to going to the sq dance workshop today, but Cathye did. I stayed home and rested and set up the printer. So far, so good! Cathye had a rough time at class today. She said she struggled with direction from a few dancers and got upset with them. I enjoy the challenge at this workshop. There are folks who only go on Tuesday afternoons and don’t dance anywhere else. They need the attention and I’m happy to help. We have Club angels, like me, who try to help. Sometimes they get a little nasty in direction, which is a pet peeve for Cat!  That happened to her today. She says she just wants to do the calls and move on. So, she may lose interest in going there in the future!  We ate a light dinner and watched tv until bedtime.

Wednesday, April 2^nd., 2025…… Weather is cooperating again!  We are already seeing signs of Spring around the yard!  We have several flowers blooming

 

and we have wanted to mow to get the grass down and then work on the garden beds again. But it is still too wet to start any of those projects right now. We need several days of sunny skies to help out!  We also are taking the time to walk around the house and see how the house paint is doing. This winter didn’t help any and the rains have taken their toll on some of the areas. So, we are now rethinking our plans for the summer because we need to get the house painted. Of course nothing is easy. We have some dry rot areas that will need work, and areas around the windows that will need to be replaced. We will start next week to get bids. Cathye is also working with our landscaper that we had last year to clean up for the fall. He will be coming out tomorrow to talk more about what we need and hopefully, we can develop a plan going forward.

Thursday, April 3^rd., 2025…… We were up and going early this morning. We had the dogs walked and fed so we would have time to go meet our neighbors for breakfast. Rich and Linda met us at 9:00am at Kristi’s. They had previously been to New Zealand and were curious to see what we thought. We had a nice meal and visit. We took two cars because Cat had an appointment with her doctor this morning, and I drove the truck over to Lowe’s to get some more bags of rock salt. I got back first and unloaded and came in. Cat said she had a great visit and was doing well. No issues and he told her she looked to be on the road to getting back to before her log covid hit her. Our landscaper came by and brought his pit bull pup. Three years old and all muscle and fun!  He and Rylee had a ball running and playing in the yard. He and Cat worked out a plan for maintenance and will start tomorrow. Meanwhile, I was busy with running battery chargers on the truckster and one of the mowers. They will trickle charge tonight because we want to use the truckster tomorrow to work in the yard.  

Friday, April 4^th., 2025…… We slept in a bit but got going with the dogs and then ate our leftovers for breakfast.  I found that one of my battery chargers is no good because it failed to charge the truckster. So, I needed to use the other one and start over. Cathye went out to prune up some shrubs and clean out her raised bed. She started out with the wheelbarrow but we decided to wait until the truckster was available to haul the mulch to another location in the yard. I got the mower running and out and put the tow wagon on it so we could continue while the truckster was charging. We managed to get 5-6 loads moved from the raised beds to the blueberry cage. 

It was tough to back the trailer in, so we went back to the wheelbarrow. A little while later, our guy showed up and dropped off a helper who, for today, is going to spray all of the weeds around the house, driveway cracks, and French drain. We decided to do about half the work today and called it when we were pooped out!  We changed and went to J&C barbeque and split a ribeye with drinks. It was a nice reward for our labors today!  Tv and bed.     

Saturday, April 5^th., 2025…… Today we have a lot of things on our plates. Cathye has Omalea coming over for lunch, so we needed to vacuum and pick up around the house. We also needed to set the patio furniture back out. I think we are good to go now with the weather and winds. Trouble started this morning when I checked my afib device. It shows me back in possible afib!  Damm. I checked it three or four more times and got the same readings.  So, when Cathye got up, I told her and we talked. It makes sense since I haven’t been up to par with energy these last few weeks. I try to use the testing device at least two or three times a week. I should have checked it sooner. So, she decided to just meet up with Omalea for lunch and let me rest. I still want to finish the raised bed and may do that later if I feel better. There is nothing really obvious except that I might feel light headed when I stand up. That has been the case this past week. And I just don’t have the stamina to do much. I will get a message to my cardiologist on Monday, but in the meantime, I will continue to monitor myself. Later, Cathye called and said that David was also with Omalea, and did I want to join them?  So, I drove to Ixtapa and had a nice lunch and visit with them. After that, Cathye left to go up to Salem to help Cory and Vikki move into their new place. They were here the other night and borrowed my landscaper trailer and they also had a rental van, so they had everything there at the new place. Cathye says it’s nice and almost new. Hopefully, with everyone living there, it will work for them.  When she got home and rested, she decided that she would make brownies for the Hippie Dance tonight. Later, we got dressed up and headed over. My plan was to take it easy and just visit tonight, which I ended up doing. We did win the best couples costume award and I tied with another guy for the best male winner.

Later, when we got back home, Cathye was tired and went to bed, while I stayed up for an hour more to watch Mecum Auctions.  Last week I was frustrated because Mecum broadcasting moved to ESPN+, which I don’t have and don’t want to pay the $126.99 per year to get!   But, I discovered that they were rebroadcasting the episodes days later on You Tube, which I do already have. So, for the last few days, I am getting caught up on the Glendale auction.  Finally got sleepy and headed off to bed.