Oregon Living 2026 – Blog #5 – Booking our Cruise Excursions, Finally Mowing! and Our Club’s Birthday Dance

 

 

Sunday, February 1^st., 2026…… A pretty quiet day. The freezing weather is pretty much gone – at least for a while anyway. The rains have come in and have gone through, but we still can’t get to the lawn mowing. The good news is that they are saying no more rain until the weekend, so if we have several warmer dry days this week we will be able to mow later in the week. Cathye walked and fed the dogs while I went out to get us coffee and breakfast. It’s a Sunday thing now I guess!  Not much on the calendar today. Cathye went over to help Penny shower and then they went shopping at Walmart. Penny is trying to get out and that was good for her. After a bit, she got her car out and drove it over her to see the dogs and just get out of the house. She said it’s still tough to drive with one hand but she is trying!      

Monday, February 2^nd., 2026…… Today it was walking and feeding the dogs, then the gym, then breakfast at Kevin’s. Later, we made a run to Wilco because we needed dog food. Jamie’s home called Cat and told her that she would like her to get Jamie a new mattress for his bed. It’s a hospital bed (long twin size) so she will need to go online and order one to be delivered. They said they would be able to dump the old one so that’s good for us!  He should get it tomorrow. The rest of the day was spent working on balancing checkbooks and paying bills and working on the cruise. In the last couple of days, they opened the excursions for booking. We have already figured out what we want to do in each port. In Sitka we are doing the best of Sitka which takes us to Fortress of the Bear and the raptors tour. In Skagway, we are doing the White Pass Railroad and Klondike Highway tour. In Juneau, we have already done the Mendenhall Glacier tour, so we chose to do the underground mine/gold panning tour. The last port is Victoria and we have booked the Butchart and Butterfly Gardens tours there. I got confirmation on all of these so the rest of our friends will need to follow suit quickly to assure they get the tours they want.    

Tuesday, February 3^rd., 2026…… We have nothing on the agenda for today. I have already sent a request in to my urologist for an appointment. Cathye has talked to Cheryl, who told her that it was over a month after Mike’s mri that they got things going. She said they have to coordinate with other doctors (heart, gp, etc.) to figure out next steps. So we wait….

Wednesday, February 4^th., 2026…… Cathye has been helping with Penny’s recovery period. Showering, grocery shopping, medical appointments, etc. but for the most part, it’s pretty easy now. I think she’s done with her antibiotic infusions now. Peny’s driving a bit but still is going slowly and needs time to recover. But that’s progress!  

Thursday, February 5^th., 2026…… We are mowing today!  Well, at least we thought we were! When I got outside with the dogs, I saw that it had rained last night! When we walked them later, we saw it must have just been the fog that got everything wet. So, we waited until the afternoon and checked the lawn again. We are good to go! Cat’s mower had a dead battery and I had it charged up and it started once but not the second time. It’s a new battery so I think I’ll have to get it in to be looked at. We got the black tractor started and she used that. It took a little extra time for both of us because we had to get through the higher grass. But we got it done. We did choose to skip the back field for now though. It still looks ok. We still have the clippings on the lawn but that’s way better than what it looked like before!

We cleaned up and rested for the afternoon. Turns out we timed it perfectly because later that night we got rain!   

Friday, February 6^th., 2026……  Today was busy, but not until the afternoon.  We had the dogs out and walked and fed and then we took it easy for the morning. Later, we decided to split up. Cathye was asked at the last minute to take Lona to the airport in Eugene. She is heading out to spend time with her family in AZ. She needed to be at the airport at 4:00pm. We were supposed to meet up with Teri and Ron for dinner at 5:00pm, so I stayed home to feed the dogs while she took Lona to lunch and then drop her off. I left to meet her at The Honey Hole in Halsey. That worked out because that is on the way back from Eugene so Cat could make it by 5. We had a nice meal and a great visit with them. We had never been to that place before and found we liked it. We shared the French dip, which is a house favorite and was very good and tender. We will be going back!  We each drove back home and we settled in to watch the Olympic opening ceremonies, which I had taped. Entertaining. We are looking forward to watching the Olympics. And of course the Super Bowl this Sunday. But we would have an issue.  More on that later.   

Saturday, February 7^th., 2026…… More rain today. But at least we are missing the winter blast that the east is getting!  As, I said, we have an issue with the Super Bowl. A few years ago, the Club’s executive Board decided to have our special dances (new dancers dance, birthday/anniversary dance, etc.) on Sunday afternoons so people could drive there and back home in the daylight hours. That would pose a problem because our birthday dance this year is on Sunday afternoon (2:00-500pm). Yep, opposite the Super Bowl!  Oh well!  I can tape the game. So, we had nothing to do today except Cat had to make a cake for the strawberry shortcake being served tomorrow. Other than that, it was pretty quiet for us. Olympics for the most part.