Oregon Living 2025 – Blog #49 – Dealing With The Rains & Seeing the Family Again!   

 

Sunday, December 14^th., 2025…… Today was a lazy day. We had nothing until the class tonight. So, we slept in. When we did manage to get up, Cat wasn’t feeling well. She had a stuffed up head. Not sure where that came from but she decided to take it easy all day. I was the one to head off to class while she stayed home and took it easy. They needed angels so I was busy and danced in every tip. No after party for me. I came home and checked in on her. As I said a lazy day.

Monday, December 15^th., 2025…… Cat’s feeling fine today. So, we walked and fed the girls and then headed off to the gym and then to Kevin’s for breakfast. After that, we went over to Safeway to get some groceries and a gift card for a present. I went out and painted the wellhouse. It is still pretty cold here so it took a while for the first coat to dry. But I was able to get the second one on and I was done. The only thing left to do is paint the corner trim and nail it on.   

Tuesday, December 16^th., 2025…… We were out and had the dogs walked and fed and I ate leftovers from yesterday. While I was working on last week’s blog, Cathye came in and we looked over our calendar for this week and next. The kids are going to be busy on Christmas so our dinner will be a little light. We made plans to go up there on Friday. We will take pizza and bring our gifts to leave there. Actually, we are giving them clothes for now. After Christmas, we will be taking them all to the Portland Zoo for the lights and animals. Later, she left for a bit, taking gifts over to Lyn and Judy and then stopping at the store for items for tonight. She is hosting her annual girl’s night Christmas party. I think they will have 8 total. After I finished up with my blog notes, I went out and painted the trim pieces for the wellhouse. Once I get them installed, it will be ready to take out and install. Yaay! 

The girls’ party went well. They asked me to come in and read the Christmas Left/Right game for their gift exchange. I think that went well too!

Wednesday, December 17^th., 2025…… This morning we were up and out with the dogs and then left to go pick up Penny. We headed off to Albany. First stop was Elmer’s for breakfast then on to Costco. We didn’t need much but Penny had a list. She got everything and of course we found stuff!. After we got out and headed toward homed, we dropped sis off then headed home. I went out and attached the trim pieces and it is ready!

Cat tried to pick up one end and said it was heavy. But she said she would try it since all we had to do was walk it 15 feet to the truckster bed in the garage. But not today because it was raining pretty hard all day. They say we will have more and more rain and flood watches are in place in the lowlands. We’ll have to watch and see what we get in the next few days.   

Thursday, December 18^th., 2025…… Today was massages. So, we were able to sleep in a bit. The weather is terrible!  We had gusty winds all night. Plus, steady rain. Some light, some heavy but it just seemed to never stop. The area out back that we used to call Rylee’s dragstrip is getting some water in it now. The raised bed area next to the house which is now gravel is starting to fill up and water is pooling there now. Our house is on a foundation and we have a crawl space under it so water can come and go. Problem is that we have thick clay base and drainage is really slow all around the property. We have French drains to route the runway and all of the roof runoff out to the ditch by the street. If everything works we will be ok.  Later, I left for my massage appointment. When Cat got there later, she said she saw a tree down in front of a house out on So. Main, just around the corner from us. It was huge! The thing came right out of the ground roots and all and smashed into their house. I’m guessing the house is now unlivable. I told her when I went by there earlier, everything was ok. I am so glad we don’t have major trees around our house. Those that we do have are smaller and shouldn’t be an issue even if they fall.   

Friday, December 19^th., 2025……  Late last night we had the worst of it. We are good to go I think. What got pooled up has now drained away so we’re good so far. I think the worst is over, at least for us. When we walked the dogs it was dry and just a little breezy. No damage for any of us on the block that we could see. We fed the girls and then left for the show. I had bought us tickets to see Avatar down in Eugene. I chose the 3-D showing and also got us the action seats. We had never tried those before!  When we got there, we had popcorn and soda already delivered to our seats. I had tried that pre-order delivery as an option too!  It was so cool!  We settled into the (heated) recliners and turned on the motion seats and put on our glasses. It was very cool!  When they were flying or swimming, the seats moved with the action. It would also shake and rattle whenever there was an explosion or something. I asked Cat after it was over and she said she enjoyed it. The movie was good too!  Nothing going on after so we made the drive back home (with little rain) and settled in for the day. We only had a brief rest before it was time to feed the dogs and head out again!  This time we were driving north to Salem to pick up the kids from school and join them at their house for the evening. They will not be coming down here for Christmas so we had to do it early. We took the gifts for them and visited with the whole family before ordering pizza for dinner, then they opened their presents. Cathye got them clothes to wear when we take them to the Portland Zoo after Christmas. She bought us all (and Josh) tickets for Dec. 30^th. for the Christmas lights at the zoo. We can’t wait for that since the littles haven’t been there before. Here are pics from the night…..

Once we got home, it was time to rest and watch a little tv before calling it a night.       

Saturday, December 20^th., 2025…… Today Cathye goes to her paint party with Judy, Kristi and Lynn. So we will not be going up to McMinnville with the Club for a class level dance tonight. McMinnville is about 70 miles for us so that’s ok, especially since the weather is unpredictable. I needed to head off to do a little shopping and did that while she was gone but stayed home after that. Once she got back and showed me her painting, 

we were in for the night. Tv and bed.