Oregon Living 2025 – Blog #45 – Dealing With the Cold and Helping to Get Better!

 

Sunday, November 16^th., 2025…… A pretty quiet day. Temps are in the 40s most of the time. Some 50s but the nights are now getting down in the 30s. No snow yet. Rains are coming every few days and other times it’s just overcast and gloomy. I had absolutely nothing planned. I took some muscle relaxers last night and I plan on doing that again this morning and just chilling. Cathye came home to shower and we talked about her day. Penny is doing really well and she said she will be ok by herself. So, Cat will come home and stay here again! Yesterday Cherrelyn came by her house and we all got to visit. Next door neighbor Mariglee is back from her trip and is looking in on her as well. The plan is for Cat to go back 2-4 times a day to help with bathing and also getting her sling back on when she does her scheduled exercises and to fix her a meal if she wants and clean up as needed. So, we hung around the house until she had to go back over. The last trip I went with her and we visited for a while.   

Monday, November 17^th., 2025…… Cat took off to go take care of sis while I walked and fed the dogs. Then I left for the gym to workout. I did all of my machines but took it easy on those that worked my back. When Cat got there I was about done.  We left and met up again at breakfast after.  This afternoon, Cat has to go take Jamie to the local pizza parlor. Seems he signed up for a free luncheon and that comes with the price of sitting through a presentation promoting LifeFlight helicopter evacuation service. This is offered here and works for those folks on farms who may need to get medical help quickly.  You pay a fee (monthly or yearly?) and they will respond as needed. But Jamie is in a support home in town and this really doesn’t apply to him at all. But – he will get a free meal  - so he’s in! And poor Cat has to go with him there! 

Ok, she’s back now. I guess he got what he wanted – free pizza!  Cathye said he paid attention to the sales pitch (as did she) but managed to get out without getting signed on for anything! Plus, Cat brought back pizza for us and an individual size to take over to Penny’s.

Later, I worked on my blog and some more on the procedures manual and then, later in the evening after she got back from her 6:00pm run to Penny’s, we spent time catching up on some of the taped shows we always watch together. Last night it was Dancing With the Stars (yes, hurray, Andy finally got voted out!), the finale of The Golden Bachelor (we were sad for Cindy but happy he got Peg). Tonight it was Survivor and The Amazing Race.

Tuesday, November 18^th., 2025…… Cathye went back over to Penny’s after we walked and fed the dogs. I had made coffee and she heated up my leftovers from Kevin’s and then left. Today was bath day. I worked some more on the blog and then added some more to my procedures manual. Our Board meeting is tomorrow so I want to be able to say it is done. I need to ask some members to be on the committee and then get some meetings going for next steps. Cathye got back and we hung around the house for the rest of the day and evening.

Wednesday, November 19^th., 2025…… Nothing on the agenda today except for the board meeting later tonight. We vacuumed and then that was about it. I redid a few items on my manual and then printed a master copy. We also got an update from Vikki about how her and Corey and the kids are doing. We haven’t seen Vikki and Corey and the kids in a few but some folks aren’t up to date so she posted a nice item about how they are all doing. Baylee is excited to be getting back into cheer and Brandyn is running cross country and will be going into wrestling soon. Corey is putting in a lot of hours at Walmart. The littles are doing great!  Both are eating solid foods now. And both are crawling!  Watch out guys, they’ll be off walking soon! Here are some of the pics she posted….

 

Later, We headed off to the Chinese restaurant and then remembered it was closed for remodeling and the meeting was at Appletree. The meeting went well. Turns out my item wasn’t on the president’s agenda. I was a little put off so I decided not to bring it up.  We came home and watched a little tv then went in the spa before calling it a night.

Thursday, November 20^th., 2025…… I was up early this morning. I had an 8:00am doctor’s  appointment in Albany this morning. This one was with my urologist. Last week I was only successful in finding out that my prostate mri was being held up at OHSU only because the hospital didn’t have specific direction as to what anesthesia the doctor wanted used! You would think someone would have the initiative to make a call to get this little item resolved! They said they would be in contact with the urologist. So, when I got there – and had filled out the forms and given a urine sample, the nurse (Lydia) said this was a follow-up after the mri!  Well, I was a little upset and let them have it!  This whole process started back in July for a simple (ok, not so simple) mri. She said she would contact them and get it straightened out. I got my copay returned and went home. Later that evening I got a call back from Lydia saying she made all the arrangements and the hospital in Portland would now be working to get me on the schedule. They are up to December timeframe so they will be calling me in a week or so to firm up. Wow, talk about full service healthcare for seniors! Not! 

Later today we both went off to our massages. My back is better but still tight. Emily said she could feel how tight my lower back was - but I felt good afterward. Cathye followed me and then brought home teriyaki from next door. too. We needed to add chemicals to the spa tonight so we had to skip it for now. Tv and bed.

Friday, November 21^st., 2025……  Penny has been going back and forth to Penny’s all week but she is doing so well that the neighbor can just come and go to help with her sling and she can use the icepack by herself. She goes in for a follow-up on Tuesday. No dances tonight but I would pass anyway because I don’t want to do anything to tweak it again. I think I just need a few more days. We left to go off to Costco. Cathye said this will be another expensive trip because she is stocking up the fridge and cupboards plus picking up the turkey and trimmings for Thanksgiving. Yep, we got stuff? I think we managed to get out with only $312.00 today!

Saturday, November 22^nd., 2025…… We decided to head out to Kohls and Lowes and then hit a couple of Christmas bazaars on the way back. We went to Lowes first. We are looking at getting a new fridge. Ours is fine but we want to change it out. I found that our make and model is selling on FB Marketplace for $300-500!  Plus, the ones we are looking at are going to be on Black Friday sale. Anyway, we saw the price at Costco yesterday. Free delivery and all.  Lowes was the same price but I think get my military discount there, even on sale items. ?  We have to look into delivery (think the latest ad I saw said it was free delivery and install). We will wait until the first of the month (unless the sale goes away). The next stop was Kohls. Cathye needs a new dressy formal type for our Club’s New Year’s Eve Dance. She found that and we also found a new Christmas tree. Ours is second hand and has served us well for many years now, but some of the wired-in lights are out now so it’s time to look at a new one. We have several gift cards and the usual 30% off coupons as well as member points accrued. So, we found one and got it for virtually nothing!  It will sit in the box on the back porch till just after Thanksgiving.

Tonight was the first of the area’s beginner’s dance level dances. We thought about going but I changed my mind later in the afternoon. I think I will try the class on Sunday night for a little dancing to see how I feel. We stayed in and watched some of our taped shows then went into the spa before bed.