Oregon Living 2026 – Blog #3 – Spending Money & Mid-Winter Dancing Festival!

 

Sunday, January 18^th., 2026……  Sunny today but still cold. We were lazy this morning but eventually got up and going. 

Cathye walked and fed the pups while I went and got us breakfast. Janie had called so I was able to talk to her while I was heading out. She said they want to plan a trip up here but, after hearing about the 29° temperature here this morning, she said she will wait until it warms up!  The rest of the morning and afternoon was spent just hanging around the house. Cathye is happy to wrap up in her blanket on the couch and veg for the day!  I worked on my blog and watched motocross and football. Later, we dressed and headed over to the senior center for our class’s graduation party. We had pizza and played a few games with the new students. My dancer friends will know what this night entails!....  It was fun for all.

Monday, January 19^th., 2026…… This week we needed to start our planning for the upcoming Mid-Winter Square Dance Festival. It’s always at the Linn County Fairgrounds and we have had our ribbons for a while now. We also have made rv reservations months ago. We started getting our clothes together to take out later. They have a Rock around the Clock theme this time, so Cat bought a few things from Amazon. She packed her poodle skirt and Mary Jane shoes. As for me, it will be pretty tame. I wore levis and white t-shirts for most of my teen years!  Later, we went out to dinner and talked more about the weekend plans. I had taped the college playoff championship and got to watch most of it before joining her in the living room for a couple of our taped programs. We started watching Best Medicine and found it hard to get into at the beginning. But after we saw more, we found it compelling and will watch the next one! we may have to get into it. We did like Will Smith’s new series Pole to Pole. It is very well done and very informational and entertaining. I have already got the series on my to recording list!  

Tuesday, January 20^th., 2026…… Today we went out to do a few things on the coach. One thing I needed to do was wash the front windshield. There was junk on there from our last trip back in June. That also meant I wanted to test the batteries and the slideouts. Yep, one wouldn’t work!  I went to bed thinking about what might be the problem. I came up with rationale that I would need to get new coach batteries. They were last replaced over 8 years ago and the coach hasn’t been used all that much since. So they are constantly in a maintenance level on the built-in charging system. That is not good. So, I started looking online for pricing for deep cycle rv batteries. About $800-900 for six of them! I also could have a motor issue on that slideout but at least I will have new batteries. I went out and pulled out the battery trays and took pics and got numbers of the existing batteries.   

Wednesday, January 21^st., 2026…… Today would be a very busy one!  I was up and out early and walked the dogs then went out to look at batteries. I found what I wanted at O’Reilly Auto Parts here in town. They had a decent price plus I got a 10% military discount. He had to order two more and would have them all together around 12:30pm. That worked because I had to take my sister to Corvallis for her after surgery checkup. We got that done and stopped an got lunch and went back to her house. I helped with a couple of things then went back home. I had my cardiologist follow up appointment at 4:20pm back in Corvallis, so I had time to take the old batteries out of the two pull-out trays

and then go get the new ones. The bill was a little over $700.00!  I got them installed pretty quickly and found that they had enough power to get the bedroom slide back in. It was slow so I still think I have a motor problem but at least it’s in so I can now drive it to the festival tomorrow. I know it was a pricey bill – but at least that task is done! 

Thursday, January 22^nd., 2026…… This morning we were up and going early. Temperature  got down to 27° last night and there Is more of the same expected through the weekend. It was rather chilly when we walked the dogs!  After that, we fed them and then I went out and got the coach out of the garage so we could finish loading it. We would normally leave around noon with Cathye just driving the Buick with the dogs (no need to hook up the Honda for 15 miles!). But she got a notice that her medications were being delivered and they can’t be left outside for any length of time. So, we decided to just wait. It was after 2 when she said to just go ahead and go there and she would come later. That worked for me because this would be the best weather to set up the rig and everything. I got in and got parked pretty quickly. The slides went out fine but only put the bed slide out about 5-6 inches just to be careful. It would make it tighter in the room to get around the bed and Rylee would have a slightly smaller place to sleep on the floor back there but that would still work. I got the satellite dish up and going after a few minutes and got the heaters going. When we are hooked up to 50 amp electric service, I can push the electric aqua hot button to heat the water. But when we are only on 30 amps, like this weekend, I have to push the diesel aqua hot button which runs a separate burner and fan motor. I plugged in the little space heater to heat up the living area and I tried the furnace on top of that and it worked and I had the coach at 75° in no time!  Cathye finally got there later in the afternoon (with the pups) and we were all set up. Tonight was the trail-in dance, which was an add on for $20. The caller is good but usually calls too fast for Cathye to enjoy, so we passed on going in for that. We walked the dogs and visited with our neighbors, Toni and Mo. There will be a total of 7 rigs of us from our club camping here together.   

Friday, January 23^rd., 2026……  Last night it was a little cold in the bedroom!  I will have to remember to turn the space heater towards the bedroom tonight! We had breakfast and were out early to explore the dance halls. I had a beef with one of the vendors – the club jacket guy. Last year we gave him a $50. deposit on two jackets and didn’t hear back from him. I didn’t have his contact info (duh!). So, I was ready for a fight!  But he remembered me and apologized saying he was heavily medicated last year and just plain forgot!  So, we started from scratch and I filled out another order form, noting that he has $50. already.  I hope we are good now. We danced a little in the afternoon and then more in the evening. Our Club was partly responsible for getting them to have a new dancers room for recent graduates. It would only be on Friday evening, so we spent some time there helping out. I’m not sure if they got enough dancers so it probably won’t happen next year, but we tried. Later, we went to the registration booth to work our scheduled hour there. We were selling dance ribbons and giving out ribbons as will call. We ended up the evening dancing in the Mainstream hall where Cat can dance. I did get a chance to go over to the Plus hall and danced a couple of tips there before we called it a night.       

Saturday, January 24^th., 2026…… We don’t work the booth again until 6:00pm tonight, so we had all day to play We went to dance a bit, then shopped at the vendors booths. I found a shirt that I liked but didn’t buy anything today. The ‘experienced clothing room is in another part of the complex but we didn’t go there last night when they opened because it’s super crowded. We did drop over there today and believe it or not, I found 6 shirts that fit me! Monkey arms and all!  They were only $5. each so we were happy!  We did go back to the vendor hall and Cathye and I both bought shirts from the one vendor we like so we supported both operations!  Later, we fed the dogs and then headed off to Pop’s Branding Iron, in town for a group dinner. Our Club reserves the big room in the back and I think I counted over 40 there for dinner! After a quick tip to earn a pops badge dangle, we all left to come back. We had to make it in time for our stint at the booth but after that, we were done for the evening. Again, we hit both halls and danced a bit, and rested a bit. They will also be holding dances tomorrow morning so we didn’t overdo it tonight!  Here are pics from both Friday and Saturday....

                                                               Little beggars

                                             Me in the beige shirt in the Plus Hall

                                                     Poodle skirts all around!

                                                          Cathye with Frank

                                                                  Resting up!
 

  

Oregon Living 2026 – Blog #2 – Another Week of Health Care

 

 

Sunday, January 11^th., 2026…… Today was more tending to Penny. Mostly for Cathye though. I went over and visited for a bit and took a few items over to Cat. Penny is doing ok. But still in bed most of the time. She has Directv like us, so Cat is able to go in and tape shows she likes so she can pass the time there. They go once a day for infusions. Turns out Penny has mrsa. Skin to skin contact or touching contaminated items is how it’s contagious. So, most of her friends who have signed on to come over to either visit or help – now aren’t coming. Cathye (and Maraglee) have to be really careful and wear gloves and wash constantly. I was there working on her tv signal in the bedroom and washed after touching her remote. But hopefully it is being curtailed with all of the daily rounds of antibiotic infusions. Only time will tell.

I have included some pics from the slight snowfall we had here a few days ago. For some areas with higher elevation, they got some snow to stick as you can see.

But for us, we got nothing that stayed on the ground.

 

Meanwhile, I hung around the house and watched football and motocross. I also have my binder together for 2026 races. I have F1, Supercross, Indycar, all three Nascar levels, as well as all of the auction scheduled for Mecum and Barrett Jackson. Since I chart all of the players on both The Masked Singer and America’s Got Talent, I made spreadsheet for them as well. This took some time but I’m ready!  I also have separate books each for the seasons of Dancing With the Stars, Survivor and the Amazing Race. Don’t know what to say!   

Monday, January 12^th., 2026…… A quiet day for me. After I walked and fed the dogs, I went to the gym and then stopped and got breakfast on the way home. Later, Cat came home for a bit to take a shower. Afterwards, we visited for a bit and I left with her to go back to Penny’s to pick up some papers she needed copied and to get her grocery list. Then it was back there for another day or so. I worked some on getting the yard sale stuff organized in the rv garage. I wanted to try out both of the vacuum cleaners to see if I liked them better than mine. I hated one (it will go back for sale) and liked one (it stays for now). I still want to go get a brand new one for the house and will get to that soon. I did finally get another replacement debit card for the one that got hacked, so I’m good to order things again! The rest of the day was spent catching up on my blog, working on paying bills, and then watching MNF.    

Tuesday, January 13^th., 2025…… Today is haircut day. I left to go met Cathye there. She was coming from Penny’s house after taking care of her this morning. We left there and Cathye came back home for the day. Penny has a slew of volunteers that will be taking her to her infusions for the next couple of weeks. But because of mrsa, not all of them will be doing it. So, the schedule got changed up a bit. The weather is still pretty cold. Today it was a low of 32°, so I was glad we have the doghouse installed over the wellhead now! But I will still be keeping a close eye on it, especially since we don’t have any warming trends coming up soon.  I was out in the shop and had a fire going in the stove and then went to work on the alcove lights. I had made a backboard earlier to help hold up all of the stuffed decorations we line up on the alcove edging. Well, after the removal, I decided to improve on the style a bit and add the lights directly to it. That will make it easier to  install next time. I tested it and then stored it back up in the alcove out of sight for next time. Then I could also put the ladder away for the year!     

Wednesday, January 14^th., 2026…… My mri is scheduled for Jan. 27^th. That said, they wanted a pre-meeting to ascertain my health and to see if there were any red flags. That meeting was today. Since the procedure will be at OHSU in Portland, and I am over 75 miles away, I qualified for a telecon meeting, so I didn’t have to drive up there. The video call took about 30 minutes and she said she saw no red flags for the procedure. Of course I wouldn’t have had to go through this process if I consented to just do the normal version of the mri. But, I can’t get into that machine and have fought for this total sedation version. That means anesthesia so they have to screen me before that. I guess I answered correctly because it’s a go for the 27^th. The only thing I need to do beforehand is that cleansing procedure. Yuuck! Once the call was done, the only thing we had on the agenda for today was our massages. Cathye took the first appointment so she would have time to take sis to her infusion. Problem was Emily was not there!  Turns out she had the wrong day on our calendars. It was tomorrow! So, I relaxed at home and caught up on my taped programs.  

Thursday, January 15^th., 2026…… Still freezing at night!  But no rain. We actually had sunshine today!  I just wish the grass would dry out enough to mow. I just need it dry enough so the mowers won’t bog down in the muck!  So far, no go! I walked and fed the girls then took off to go to the gym and pick up breakfast for me. Cathye and Penny have worked out the schedule today so we can go to our massages. She goes first and then I will go and then take her to infusion while I’m out. About 1:30pm I got a call from Emily asking where I was. I told her Cathye was taking the first one today. I was wrong!  I called her and she said she would call Emily and go in. She ended up taking both appointments and got 90 minutes and I got zero! I picked up Penny and took her to her dr’s appointment on time so at least I got that right! We picked up her prescription and had enough time to make it to her infusion. It’s only a needle push and usually only takes 10-15 minutes total.  After we were done, I took her home and Cathye came and took over.

Friday, January 16^th., 2026……  Today, Cathye would be staying home for the night. She did get all her chores done over there before coming back here. Then she left to go off to her luncheon. This one was with her old coworkers in the healthcare world. She had a nice visit

and came back with a Philly cheesesteak sandwich for me for later.  

Saturday, January 17^th., 2026…… Tonight was our normal Club dance. Penny needed Cathye to run some errands and do a few chores this morning but she got all of that done and was back in time for us to dress and go. I got to stay around the house and watched my Broncos game. Yaay we won!  But I would find out later that my QB, Bo Nix, broke his leg and is now out for the rest of the playoffs. That’s a bummer because he is the catalyst for this team!  I don’t expect them to go any farther in the playoffs now.  

 The dance was nice. We danced a bit and rested a bit. I danced a few plus tips and Cathye got in some mainstream with me and Frank as well. Since we are going back there tomorrow night, we didn’t have to do anything to the hall so we were able to leave a bit early. We got back home and I watched the second NFL game (Seattle vs San Fran.) I had taped before calling it a night. We are not using the spa much these days. It is just sooo cold going out and coming in!    

Oregon Living 2026 – Blog #1 – A New Year Begins – With Hospitals and Birthdays

 

 

Sunday, January 4^th., 2026…… A quiet day so far. The weather is pretty much the same as last week. Cold and rainy. It rained pretty hard last night so Rylee’s runway is pretty full this morning. We still go out on walks unless it’s raining so we did this morning. Cathye left to go take care of Penny. She’s having issues from her rehab on her shoulder and is pretty stiff and sore. Today, Cathye went over to help her with her shower. She stopped and got us breakfast and coffee on the way back home. Meanwhile, I fed the dogs. Cat got some pics from Terisa from FB of her and Daniel and Tait skiing (on their family's property), and going to the Science Museum. Cool!  He is growing up so fast!

It was football and taped shows for us the rest of the day until it was time to head over to class. They have learned all of the calls and will graduate next week so they are in review now. Next up for all of us is the big dance of the year here in Oregon – the Mid-Winter Festival here in Albany. We are already registered and have an rv space for the motorhome. Soon I will need to go out and make sure the rv is ready for the weekend.  

Monday, January 5^th., 2026…… Today we were up and going early. We walked the girls and fed them, then took off for the gym and breakfast. Cathye went over to help Penny with her shower. She is not doing well after her rehab. She needs help because she is in pain form the workout. When she left there, she headed off to Albany to run some errands. While she was still out, I got a text from Maraglee, Penny’s neighbor. She was taking Penny in to the er because she could see the suture area was red and swollen. I headed over there immediately and Cathye met us there too. They did a lot of tests and discovered that she has a severe infection in the area.  After consulting with her surgeon in Corvallis, it was decided to send her over to Samaritan Hospital in Corvallis, so the doctors could work on her there. We left to go home and she called later to say she got checked in and they were doing more tests. They determined that they would need to go in and remove the infection and would plan on doing that sometime tomorrow. in the night.

Tuesday, January 6^th., 2026…… After breakfast we left for the hospital. Still no word on surgery. She said a slew of doctors and attendants and hospitalists, etc. were in and out all morning!  They told her that her surgeon is planning on staying late and would do it tonight. She called later to say that they had some emergencies and would have to reschedule for tomorrow. So, she tried to sleep.        

Wednesday, January 7^th., 2026…… Surgery is scheduled for today! We went there and waited with her until they were ready to go into the operating room. The doctor came in and gave us the gist of what they were doing. He said he would call us at home when he was finished. Later - I think it was a total of four hours in surgery – he called and said everything went well. They replaced all of the items they had installed previously. That way, he thinks they won’t have to go back in again. We’ll see. This time, she will be on antibiotics for a while just to ensure there will not be another bout with infection. Again, we’ll see. We went to bed.      

Thursday, January 8^th., 2026…… HAPPY BIRTHDAY PENNY! Can’t believe I said that!  Since she will be spending it in pain and in a hospital, I can’t imagine it being a fun day!  It is super cold this morning!  Brrrr!  We waited until this afternoon to go over to Corvallis. It was raining when we left the house but as we got down the road a mile or so, it turned to snowflakes!  They melted when they hit the ground and we made it ok.   We took her some apple fritters and a couple of cake pops. She is still in some pain after the surgical block wore off. They gave her some meds and she is doing ok. She said she is scheduled to be released sometime after 11:00am tomorrow. We already have a plan for Cat to go back with her to stay. We asked her to come here but she is more comfortable in her own bed, watching her taped shows and relaxing in quiet. So, Cat will spend a few days staying there, like she did last time.  

Friday, January 9^th., 2026……  Cold morning. Brrr… We are still waiting for Penny to give us a call to let us know when to come get her. She called later to say they would be keeping her another day at least. Her infection is still being heavily treated and they wanted to get a plan together for health care after she leaves them. She may be able to get them to come give her the antibiotics at home with home care people, but she’s not sure yet. Either way, it will be tomorrow. Meanwhile, we decided not to go to the Plus dance in Albany tonight. I am just lazy I guess. Besides, Cathye hasn’t learned Plus yet (she starts a class in Feb.) and also the college playoff game is tonight!

Saturday, January 10^th., 2026…… We are going through the wait and see game again this morning!. They say she is going home today and she feels that will happen. But she says they aren’t doing home health care. Insurance or something. They are planning on having her go in to the Lebanon hospital every day for a week or so (?) to get an infusion of antibiotics. With that in mind, they installed a pick line for that. Then she was able to call and I went to go get her. I had time so I stopped on the way and picked up her prescription from the pharmacy. Cathye had her bags packed and was ready for the call to come to her house to meet us there. I turned her over to Cat and left to come home to take care of the dogs. So – we have a plan.  Cat did ask if I had wanted to go to the Sweet Home dance tonight. Obviously, she couldn’t go – but I was good to stay home too!    

Oregon Living 2025 – Blog #51 – Ending the Year

 

   

 

Sunday, December 28^th., 2025…… The weather is still pretty chilly this morning but no rain so far. As I mentioned, Heather and Charley were gone when we got up, headed out to breakfast and then back up to home in Seattle.  After walking and feeding the dogs, we ate our leftovers from yesterday, settled in, and spent the morning staying warm. Around noon, I went out and met Cherrelyn and Penny, who came by to help us with the wellhouse. Yes, it goes out there today! It wasn’t as hard as I had anticipated. We got it loaded on the truckster with no issues and I drove it out there and staged it and cleaned up around the area. I backed up close and the three of us (Penny is still nursing her shoulder) lifted it up and over the existing box around the wellhead. It isn’t exactly level but for now it’s good! Penny got a bunch of pics of the crew…..

 

Thanks to everyone for their help!

Cherrelyn left right away and went back home to watch her Steelers game. After a little time to visit, Penny left and we rested for the day. No class this week so we had the whole day and evening.      

Monday, December 29^th., 2025…… Cathye had me up and going this morning to go get my flu shot. I had made an appointment yesterday to go to Walgreens in Albany, so, after we walked and fed the dogs, I took off for that. When I got back, we started in on the task of taking down some of the Christmas stuff. Cat likes to keep things up for a bit, whereas I like to get it down and stored asap. I guess she agreed with me this year and started packing things away. For the most part we got a lot of the little things put away, including all of the items from the alcove. I am rethinking how to modify the railing I just built to incorporate the lights next time. Hmmm.  We did leave the tree up and will take that down in a few days.     

Tuesday, December 30^th., 2025…… Today it was rainy and cold! Temps are now in the low 30s in the mornings. We walked and fed the girls. I got a call from the vet checking on Jama. I told them she had some swelling around the main cut on her neck, plus she was bothered by the ones on her butt by the tail. She said to bring her in and gave us a time later in the afternoon for that. When we got her there, they treated the wound and wrapped her in a compression bandage and had us leave it on for 24 hours. She gets the stiches out next week so hopefully she’ll be ready for that!  Later, we changed into warm clothes – including ugly sweaters! - and headed north!  We would be meeting the kids and Josh at the Portland Zoo for the evening!  We took Josh’s gift – yes, an ugly sweater! – and gave it to him there. I paid for our parking at the kiosk and we met up with everyone and headed in. We took all of our pics on Cat’s phone because I forgot to charge mine! 

The kids had a great time and the little were really good too!  They were bundled up and were in the carriers and mom and dad each had one. Cat would take over later and said it was easy to walk around with that arrangement!  After walking the whole thing, we called it a night and left the kids with the elephants and headed back home. The drive was nice and the rain kept away for the whole night so it was the best. Except for one thing which I will talk about more later…..      

Wednesday, December 31^st., 2025…… We slept in this morning and then got up with the girls. Or rather I was up with the girls!  Cat slept in even longer!  We ate breakfast and did some more work on the Christmas stuff. But mostly we just hung around the house. Cathye went off to Walmart to get salad fixings for our dance tonight.  Later, it was time to get dressed up for our New Year’s bash! If you remember, last year we were the chairs for our club’s New Year’s dance. This time, it was a co-op from the Alliance of Clubs in the area. But, it was decided to have it at our senior center because we had the best hall. This year, we volunteered to come in and be on the hall setup crew as well as chairs for the sparkling cider toast. We  met at the agreed time and found that the hall was already set up!  Turns out Brittany and Jimmy had come in early and found the hall open and just started in!  They put out all of the tables and chairs for the meal plus lined up chairs around the dance floor. The rest of the team started in on decorating the tables and the walls, plus the food team got their tables set up and ready for the crowd. Later, we served a buffet dinner. With the other clubs involved, we had plenty of food. It would turn out to be a great night of food and dancing and celebrating. Turns out we were competing with the teen club up in Salem, so we had a smaller turnout than we had hoped for. So, we had plenty of sparkling cider for the toast. We did that at 9:00pm to celebrate east coast time. The dance lasted until 10:00pm and then we helped clean up and then slipped out to head back home. We watched some tv then went out to the spa with our own champagne to toast in the real new year!  

Thursday, January 1^st., 2026…… HAPPY NEW YEAR!   We slept in this morning. Actually, I was up and let Cat sleep. I walked Rylee (Jama would not leave the bed either!) and fed her then made coffee and breakfast. Cat stayed in her pjs all day. She watched the parade, which I had taped, while I watched last night’s playoff game and then the day’s bowl games. That took up most of the day, so we didn’t do much else.   

Friday, January 2^nd., 2026……  I was wakened by a text message at 6:45am this morning. I knew it wouldn’t be good…. It was from my bank. Turns out my debit card was hacked!  Yet again!  I knew right away it was from the parking meter at the zoo!  Or else it was the cocoa I bought inside. The zoo is cashless and they have ATMs in the park where you use your cash to get a temporary credit card to be used while there. That makes it a prime mark for hackers to use whatever they can to get into your account. I was also hacked a few years back when we parked to go on a river cruise in Portland.  For this one, they denied a charge in New Jersey and I confirmed it wasn’t me. So, they automatically close the card. I have had this happen to me several times as I’m sure you have read about already. I am learning that I needed to remove the auto pay features for my utilities (Directv, Verizon, gas, etc.) from debit cards and have them deducted from the bank account directly. I have most of them done now but I still will get a notice from others that my payment was denied.  Bummer!

We spent the rest of the day loading up the totes with the Christmas decorations and getting them out to the garage floor. We’ll get to the rest of it tomorrow.     

Saturday, January 3^rd., 2026…… This morning we got up and going and walked and fed the dogs. I wanted pancakes so I volunteered to take Cat out to Denny’s in Albany. We had a nice meal. They have a special apple pancake combo that I tried.

It was very good. With what we couldn’t eat, I will have leftovers for tomorrow! When we got home, we concentrated on getting all of the decoration totes up on the rack in the garage. I had to move two of the mowers but we got it done pretty quickly. We ended up giving the kids three totes worth of decorations so we have plenty of room there now. The only thing left for today was our regular Club dance. It was voted on at the last board meeting to go ahead and hold our scheduled dance even though we would be there three days earlier for New Year’s.  We were on the ‘no’ vote side, so when it came time to dress and go, we made the decision to just not do it!   We stayed in for the evening and relaxed and watched tv.