Oregon Living 2025 – Blog #43 – Drs. and Dentist for Me, and Birthdays for Family

 

Sunday, November 2^nd., 2025…… We got an extra hour’s sleep due to daylight savings time. We have several ‘smart’ clocks around the house that reset the time automatically, but, it was still necessary to change all the others. We have a LOT of clocks! Today we are going up to Salem to celebrate Baylee’s and Vikki’s birthdays at The China Gate restaurant there. Penny and Cherrelyn were going but Cherrelyn texted she was staying home because she thinks she has a touch of the flu. We stopped by and got Penny and drove to meet at the restaurant. We thought it was just us and them but NO, we found there would be over 20 people there. Vikki wanted a party with gifts for both of them so she invited everyone!  No worries, it was still fun.  We will be going back to the place again. They have 4-5 separate tables with tons of really good food!  They even have a hibachi grill where you can have them cook for you!

We had a good time but had to cut it short because we needed to get Penny back in time for her sleep study later tonight. Plus, we needed to go to our beginner’s class tonight. We stopped back home to feed the girls and were only  a few minutes late for the session. Shaun has a good class this year and they are picking it up quickly. We skipped the pizza afterparty and came home and rested form the day and watched some tv before bed.    

Monday, November 3^rd., 2025…… Busy morning - for me anyway!  I was up early because I had a follow-up session with my doctor (to go over labs). She said they looked good so nothing new to do. Meanwhile, Cathye walked and fed the girls. She also caught up with Cori, our neighbor, who shared some info about our neighbors. Our next door neighbor Jeff, (in the Victorian house on the end), passed away last month. Turns out the grandma, who had come to stay with the girls (18, & 19) has already left. Jeff’s brother who lives near Portland, is trying to manage everything from there but the kids are on their own. On of them has a 27 year old boyfriend, who is there too. Both Cori and us are available to help out but we want to stay away from the drama. Not sure next steps but we are hearing probate for the estate.  So, if anyone is looking for a nice house on a good piece of property, it may be available in the near future! Later in the day, I had my second appointment. It was finally time for to get my tooth extracted! Cathye dropped me off and went on to Walmart, across the street. I wasn’t put out for this procedure – only a local. The whole process took less than an hour and I was ready to go home. I had some bleeding for the rest of the day but didn’t need anything stronger than Tylenol for the pain. Because of my blood thinner, I struggled throughout the day to stop the bleeding. I think I went through a dozen gauze pads. But it was gone and I will heal!  We spent the rest of the day at home, taking it easy. I was told to sleep in an elevated position so I chose to use the adjustable feature on our bed and raised up my side. I managed to sleep through most of the night with no problems.   

Tuesday, November 4^th., 2025…… We slept in this morning and I took a pass on walking the dogs and did some mouth rinsing and cleaning. I did eat a regular breakfast so that was good. Later, we went off to class. Cathye went because she heard there was a bazaar going on instead of class. Turns out the sign was outside the senior center but was for a church just outside of town. So, she had to dance with us this afternoon!  It also turns out that this will be our last class for the year. We haven’t had great attendance and are lucky to get enough for one square most of the time! We will continue next year if there is interest. Later, Cathye made a soup with rice and veggies and ground turkey. It was good but probably won’t be on the regular menu for either of us! Tv until bedtime.    

Wednesday, November 5^th., 2025…… No rain so far but the winds are pretty strong. They say we will get a major storm later today but it looks like Lebanon is on the outer edge so it might be lighter for us. My tooth socket (upper left molar) feels a lot better today. No pain and the bleeding has stopped.  Cathye left this afternoon to take Jamie to lunch and to get a haircut. He asked about Thanksgiving so we will need to think about what we and the kids are planning for that. Last year we had a store bought turkey package that we didn’t care for so much. This time we may just go out depending on what Cherrelyn and the Salem group are doing. I stayed home today and worked on the blog and also on property taxes. They are due for us on the 17^th. So we need to get in gear to take them in before that. So, no big expenditures or trips planned for now….    

Later, we left to drive up to Portland area to meet up with Josh and his new girlfriend for dinner. Josh’s birthday is Friday but his girlfriend is visiting from Hawaii and will be leaving on Thursday so we wanted to meet her. We met them at BJ’s and had a nice meal. It was a fun night.

 

Thursday, November 6^th., 2025…… The weather is slowly getting colder and colder. Mornings have a real nip now when we are out with the dogs! Temps are supposed to get into the high 30s in the next few weeks. Yes, I am now officially in long pants for the winter! But there are those days (like today) when we go to the gym and I still wear my shorts! We did all that this morning and also went to Kristi’s for breakfast. Other than that, it was a pretty calm day.    

Friday, November 7^th., 2025…… HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSH!  Cat has Justin and Skylar coming over today to do some more work on the yard to get it ready for winter. Today the plan was for them to stop by the bark place and get a truckload of sawdust for the blueberries and the roses. They did that while I got to stay inside! I was asked by our Club president to head up the committee to write the new Club’s Policy and Procedure manual. I accepted  - because I already have that document built! All those years in the Rustlers (and even the Camping Squares) I was always on committees where we updated bylaws or procedures or something. I have a hardcopy of the old Rustler procedure manual. So, that will be my base document. Problem is that I deleted that file from my system. I can’t modify it so I will have to recreate it form the typed document. But I need to change it to suit the Lebanon Square Circlers so there are things to add and things to delete or modify. It will take me several weeks I imagine but that’s ok. I enjoy it!    

Saturday, November 8^th., 2025…… Today was our neighbor’s celebration of life service. The two girls came over a few days ago to tell us about it but Cori had already sent us a text with the info. We left and went there for the service. I can’t say too much about how much concern we have for those girls. As I mentioned above, they are 18 and 19 and are living at home. The grandmother was there only for a short time but has left them alone. Oops, not alone - they both have older boyfriends and also some friends staying there as well. We spoke to their uncles today. They live far away but are trying to figure out next steps. There is no will and since the girls are both of age they will most likely have to deal with this on their own. They are naïve to say the least and we hope they get some good guidance from some responsible adults and not the boyfriends. But, on the good side, it’s pretty quiet over there so far. We expected parties and noise but so far so good. At the celebration of life today, we neighbors talked amongst ourselves about what we expect to happen. But until then, we wait and see….