Oregon Living 2022 – Blog #46 – Heading Off to Arizona!

 

 

Sunday, November 13^th., 2022……  My back feels somewhat better today. I think rather than a pulled muscle, this is more of a pinched nerve or sciatica. We got out with the dogs and walked and fed them. Cathye had made burritos yesterday and made extra while she was at it. So, I had those this morning. We watched a couple of Rick Steves travel shows before she left to go to church. I did my blog and got it posted and then settled in and relaxed and watched tv the rest of the day. Later, we both worked on our packing. We leave Wednesday morning for our trip to Arizona. We have reservations at The Tombstone Hotel where we will base for the first 3 nights (Wed-Fri.). Mary (Cath’s sister) and Jim’s reception is on Saturday, in Benson, just a few minutes from there. Then we will move to Tucson, where we will stay Saturday and Sunday.  We get to visit with Frances and Kyle and family on Sunday. It will be a short trip, but packed in with fun things to do. More on that later…

Cathye made dinner and we settled in and watched tv until bedtime.        

Monday, November 14^th., 2022……   Good night’s sleep for me last night. My back feels really good!  Still a twinge now and then when I overextend, but all in all, it feels better. I was up and going at 6:30 to make my 8:00am acupuncture appointment. I made it with no issues and got that done and wrote the check to the engineer for the deck plans. When Russ was here Saturday, he said he was having more issues with that guy on his other jobs in regards to overdesigning and seismic requirements – things he’s not dealt too much with in the past. I think he’s ready to move on! Anyway, I need the guy to make the one page amendment to substitute on the project. Seems that Russ can’t find the 8x8 post material anywhere!  You’d think that the lumber capital of the nation would have an ample supply of wood!  But they are rarely used and not in stock in most lumber yards. Custom cutting them would be cost prohibitive!  Funny thing because the posts holding up the house are 6x6’s. The guy who came out and walked the job must have thought they were 8x8’s because they are wrapped with 1x’s on all sides (making them look bigger than they are!  Russ says he can use steel posts and still wrap them so they would look the same. He says the engineer just needs to make a one page amendment and the city inspector will use that when the time comes. I said ok so we are good to go. Then I remembered that I hadn’t sent the engineer’s check so I got that in the mail today!        

Tuesday, November 15^th., 2022…… We are doing last-minute packing today. Plus making sure we have everything Penny will need for the dogs when she comes over tomorrow. I think we’re ready. We have to leave here at 6:00ish tomorrow for the trip to Portland PDX. We’ll park in the long term lot since we’ll only be gone 6 days. I did have a dental appointment this morning and that went well. Just cleaning and x-rays today.

Wednesday, November 16^th., 2022…… We were up early this morning and quickly walked and fed the dogs. We loaded up the luggage and headed out about 6:00am for our 10:00am flight. There was lots of traffic in the metro area even on the 205 which skirts around the city. But we got the truck parked and shuttled in with a little time to spare. Cathye had pre-checked us in so we went straight to TSA. Well, I got detained! I was sent back to ticketing. It turned out that Cathye had misspelled the last name on my ticket! But they got it corrected and I headed back through security and made it in time. Our first flight was to Seattle, which took maybe 1 hour total. We made the connection and got in to Phoenix with no problems. We shuttled out to the rental car area. Cathye had suggested we try another rental company this time.  I normally would use my National’s Emerald Club. It’s super convenient and I get great cars, but it’s a little pricier than she thought prudent. So this time I had booked at Thrifty. I rented an economy car and we did get to choose ours. I chose a KIA Soul, which was an excellent choice!

It was very comfortable and roomy inside and had a bit of power. I would rent one again.  It took us 2 ½ hours to drive to Tombstone. But we stopped at Cracker Barrel for dinner. CB is not in Oregon so it was a nice treat! We checked in to The Tombstone Hotel about 9:30pm and settled in and had a nice rest. We had lost an hour with Mountain time.    

Thursday, November 17^th., 2022……  We went to the hotel’s waffle breakfast bar this morning. It was ok. We drove 5 min. to old town Tombstone and parked. 

Not crowded at all. First stop was the town courthouse. It was really cool and was very grand for its time.

We saw the jail and then the gallows in the courtyard.  Only seven people were hanged there. One other was sentenced to a term in Yuma Territorial Prison for life but a group of vigilantes came to the courthouse and busted him out and hung him from a telegraph pole. Western justice!  We were ready for lunch and headed over to the OK Café & had buffalo burgers which were amazing!

Then we drove 30 miles to our next outing. We were headed to Kartchner Caverns. We chose the ‘big room’ tour which was 1 ½ hours and a mile walk.  We had time beforehand so we went to their discovery center and walked through that. No camera are allowed in the caverns so we had to shoot the replicas in there.

We also tried out our ‘bat hearing’.

We met up with the tour guide and got the briefing and history. The tour was excellent and we will definitely go back again to do the other section of the cave next time. We drove back to our hotel and rested for a bit, then headed back to town for dinner. We chose Big Nose Kate’s to eat. Now this place was awesome!  These places in town are authentic and not replicas and this place was no exception. Of course they have added to the ambiance with a lot of decorations and pictures and such. It was really cool! After that, it was time for our ‘Gunfight and Ghosts’ tour!  Our guide

met the 7 of us on the tour outside on one of the street corners and gave us all either heat sensors (Cathye) or electromagnetic sensors (Terry) and off we went for our 1 ½ hr. tour.  We hit the gallows and Cat saw the heat readings drop as she scanned up to the top of the gallows and also the tree where the telegraph pole once stood. My meter went off where a little Chinese girl had fallen to her death from a second story building.  Since we all got ‘hits’ or ‘readings’ on our devices, folks believed. 

Let’s just say she did an excellent job.  I’m still a skeptic but she made believers of probably 4 of the 7 on the tour. Home to bed after our long but fun day!

Friday, November 18^th., 2022……  The main reason we made this trip was to attend Cathye’s sister Mary’s and Jim’s wedding reception. We already knew they wouldn’t be able to celebrate because Mary had covid and was really sick.  She had intended to cancel the party, which was being held at her old mobile park just outside of Benson. But her cousin Nancy, who also lives in the park decided to have it anyway. She said she would pick up the tab for the cake and the band. Cathye’s Aunt Dolly and Uncle Paul also live in the park so we decided to just go visit with them and Nancy this morning and then we could skip the party since we didn’t know anyone besides these guys. We had a nice visit with Dolly and Paul. They are both in their 80s so she was glad to be able to spend some one on one time with them in their home. Nancy came by later so we saw her too.  After that, we drove back home and ate leftovers in our room and rested a bit. Later, we drove back in to town and got on the trolley for a tour around the town. After that we got ice cream and walked around the shops and stores. We bought some souvenirs and then went in and toured the Birdcage Theater and saw the gambling tables and bullet holes and even the old town hearse! We eventually found an old vintage photo studio and had a pic showing us as the mean gunslinger visiting one of his ladies in the saloon.

I wasn’t too keen on the idea of any of this but it actually turned out to be one of my favorite things we did on this trip! After that, we hit the Crystal Palace and split a ribeye dinner and then had more drinks up on the upstairs balcony and watched the sunset and took pics up and down the street.

We came back to the room and changed into our swimsuits and hit the spa. It was a nice experience even though the temps outside were in the low 40s!  We leave early tomorrow.     

Saturday, November 19^th., 2022……  We checked out of our room in Tombstone and headed out to Tucson. We are booked in to the La Quinta Inn just east of the University of Arizona campus, but will check in later this afternoon. We stopped Since we decided to forgo the reception which was this afternoon, we found we had all of the day open. So we had more time to visit. This time with my side of the family. Lydia’s sister, Frances now lives in Tucson. She moved there a few years ago to be closer to her son Kyle, his wife Tiffany, and their three kids, Hera (8), Cora (4), and Luke (1). We decided we wanted to go see the Biosphere 2, which is just outside Tucson. A little history – back in the early 90s, they tried an experiment where a group of scientists tried to stay in an enclosed environment for 2 years, sustaining only on what they had and could grow. It was pretty much a failure and they had to evacuate due to dangerously low oxygen levels. They rebranded the project as an environmental experiment. Now, they are working trying to understand natural and human-made ecosystems and sustainability and quality of life under simulated conditions and controls. We bought tickets for everyone so they could go too, except Kyle – who had to work. We met them there and started in. The girls had a great time and ran around and enjoyed the time out. Both of them are smart and picked up on everything and understood the concept of the controlled space so they enjoyed their time there too! It was really fascinating, but I don’t think I could be enclosed for any length of time like those folks were!  We took pics as we went…

Once we were done with the tour, we followed Tiffany back to their apartment where we waited for Kyle. After a short visit, we went out to dinner. They chose Mexican and it was tasty! 

Thanks, guys! After that, we came back home to check in to our hotel and rest for a while. We liked the spa and pool area so we changed into our suits and relaxed in the spa for a bit before calling it a night.  

    

Oregon Living 2022 – Blog #45 – First Snow!, Paying Taxes, Painting, and Emergency Plumbing!

 

Sunday, November 6^th., 2022……  Time change today!  I was up this morning, changing some of those clocks that do not auto set – funny, the stove clock changes automatically! Still have the cars to do when we use them next.  The weather here is getting colder. That front that has come in has some arctic air behind it and they say lows will drop around 37°.  It was drizzling when we took the dogs out this morning, but not too cold. It can’t get cold yet – I still have my shorts on!   Cathye headed off to church and I went out to get breakfast on my way to my sister’s house. She had asked me to come by to fix a few things and to set her clocks. I got what I could done but I found I need to go to the hardware store and get some hinges for her cabinet doors. Once that was done I came back and rested and watched my race. I looked out the window and thought I saw heavy rain.  BUT, it was snowflakes - huge snowflakes!  Temps were still in the mid-thirties, and it wasn’t sticking but it was pretty!  I took a video and then captured a screenshot. If you look closely, you can see the flakes in the dark background! 

Like I said, it didn’t stick. But Cathye was out in it (about 20 miles from home), so I was a little worried it would be heavier in the foothills around Sweet Home. I texted her and she said she was just seeing it and would proceed carefully. She called a few minutes later to let me know she was pulled over because there was a heavy flurry and she wanted to be extra careful because the Honda is not 4-wheel drive.  But she pulled in a few minutes later and all was well. We stayed around the house the rest of the day anyway so no worries. Russ got back to me and said that the drain cloth was working as it should and not to worry. We also discovered that the back sliding door was off the track. It has been super hard to open and close lately and I checked it out. I can’t lift it on my own and I think it needs a new track anyway so we will check that out on Monday. Luckily, there is a window and door store about a mile and a half from the house and we will plan to go there tomorrow. Pretty much a jammie day after that!  The Masked Singer was on tonight (because of the World Series) so we watched that. There are supposedly 22 masked singers (not counting duos and trios) this season. They only have 2 or three new masks each show so this is why we do not like the format.

Monday, November 7^th., 2022……  Rain again this morning. It started out light, but as we got dressed, it got heavier and we decided against the walk this morning. Cathye let them out for a quick romp in the yard and they did their business there.  We had an agenda this morning. We decided to go to Kevin’s for breakfast, but stopped first at LR Windows. We made a flexible appointment for them to stop by on a service call which they may be able to squeeze in as early as tomorrow since we are so close to their shop. After breakfast, we drove to Albany and paid our taxes at the courthouse.  On the way back, she said she needed to hit Kohls to return a top. We did that and headed back.  Once we got back home and settled back in, we discovered that it was Josh’s birthday. He’s the grandson in Portland. We thought about driving up there this afternoon to see him and take him out but decided that she would go tomorrow or Wednesday. But we also decided that we missed the boat this morning!  Since the sliding door folks might be here tomorrow, we needed to go back to Albany today and get the hinges for my sister. We made the drive there again, and went to Lowes and got the hinges. After that, we went by Sherwin Williams and got a gallon of paint. Cathye has decided that she wants to paint her office. She chose a color to compliment the new drapes and we even took one panel with us so they could color match it. We got all of that done and got back and Cat got stuffed salmon out and in the oven. We ate and then finished up the night watching tonight’s Dancing With the Stars episode before calling it a night. 

Tuesday, November 8^th., 2022……  ELECTION DAY!  We have mail-in or drop-off ballots, or voting booths (all are your choice). I guess that is a problem in other states but I understand that Oregon has been doing it that way for a very long time with no complaints. We’ve done it ever since we moved here. Cathye has too so we’re good with it. I’m just glad to be rid of all of the backstabbing campaign ads on tv!  Record rainfall for this time in the season. This last storm hit California too so you know it was a large front that hit us! You can see snow now up in the lower Cascades (about 40 miles east of us). But the good news is that we will be able to dry out in the next few days before the next rains come. Maybe we can burn. We have been calling the burn hotline number for our county (Cathye has it in her contacts!) but it’s always been a no-burn day for us – unless it’s raining! We’ll keep trying though.  Later, I found that there is a troupe touring around that I have been interested in and will be at the Whiteside Theater this Friday. So, I went online and got us tickets. We are going to see Super Diamond, a tribute group to Neil Diamond. More on that later….

Wednesday, November 9^th., 2022…… The weather has cleared up in the last few days. No rain in the forecast. But the days are still chilly. We have to start thinking about covering the water spigots around the house and yard again since we are getting temps below freezing at night. But I can still paint inside the house! So, today was spent moving the furniture and getting the trim taped up in prep for paint. But first I headed over to Penny’s and got the hinges installed on her doors. That went quickly and I came back and started in on the taping and got that done with a few breaks in between.  

Thursday, November 10^th., 2022……  Cathye baked this morning while I painted. I got the first trim coat and roller coat on and then rested for a few hours to let that dry. Later, Cathye headed off to go visit Josh and take him out to dinner for his birthday. She also took the lasagna and birthday cake that she had made for him. Meanwhile, I got the second coat on the walls and was done with that. I waited until later in the day to pull off all of the painter’s tape. I had taped off the 4^th wall, which Cat has decided to keep as an accent color. l discovered that I will need to touch up where it bled over. Problem was that Walt never left any paint cans here so I will need to color match it. The good thing is that we have one of those painter’s ‘color wheels’,

which I can use to match the color. I drove back to Sherwin Williams in Albany and got a can. I remember the good old days when the paint stores and Lowes and Home Depot would give you small 3-6 oz bottles or cans of samples of the paint for touch up work (or just to try out as a room color). Most all of the samples I have gotten lately have been one-quart size! Plus, the cost of a quart now is about what a gallon used to cost. Inflation!      

Friday, November 11^th., 2022……  Today was the concert in Corvallis. But first up, I needed to get the touch up done and get the furniture moved back in. I managed to get that project done but I guess I must have pulled a back muscle while I was doing all of that taping and painting. My back was really hurting!  I spent the day resting and using lidocaine patches and muscle relaxers. I have to get back in shape to be able to get on a plane next week!  Corey came by to do some work on the yard. He brought his new girlfriend, Vicky.  They were here to work on our landscape. Cathye had called another guy who came over a few days ago. We really liked him and wanted him to do the winter cleanup now and maybe continue on in the spring with weekly maintenance. Problem was he texted back his quote for the project and it was waaaay too high for us to consider!  She has asked Corey and he said he and Vicky could use money right now and would be glad to take on the project. While they were out working, I rested up and stayed in the house until we left to head to Corvallis for the concert. We got there early and got front row seats. I guess that was ok but we didn’t expect everyone to get up in front of us to dance!  As I said, we saw Super Diamond. They are a Neil Diamond tribute band from San Francisco. Formed in 1993, they consist of vocalist Randy Cordeiro, guitarist Chris Collins, keyboardist James Terris, bass player/keyboardist Rama Kolesnikow and drummer Vince Littleton.  This guy was amazing!  He calls himself ‘Surreal Neil’.  He sure didn’t look like Neil, but if you closed your eyes, you would swear Neil Diamond was right there singing live!  

As I said, everyone was up and dancing, even Cathye. I felt pretty loose and nothing hurt so I got up and danced a few numbers myself! That probably didn’t aid in my healing process – but I couldn’t resist!  We left happy and talked about the show all of the way home!  We were sure glad we went!

Saturday, November 12^th., 2022……  This morning when I got up and took my shower, I knew something was not right.  No, not my back - I had low water pressure!  I had experienced this once before when a sprinkler line burst and was shooting out water. We got dressed and walked the dogs and I checked out all of the faucets before we left the yard. Nothing. After we got back, I went out to the well and found the problem. A few years ago, Penny had noticed a lot of water pooling around the wellhead and that was a burst pipe. Since we have experienced a few days of freezing temps, I thought it might have happened again. Sure enough, there was water shooting out from under the well cover. Same pipe!  Cathye called her plumber, who had worked on her trailer, not knowing I was on the phone with Russ, asking him to refer a plumber. He said he could fix it himself and would be right over, so we told Shaun we’d get back to him if needed. Russ and his worker got here and I showed them the problem. They went out and got the parts and fixed the leak in quick order. I paid him and they left.  We were back in business!  Corey and Vicky came over again, this time with Brandon and Vicky’s daughter (Bailey). They are both good workers and got one side of the flowerbeds along the driveway done. Even Brandon and Bailey were out helping a bit. Cathye had let Penny know about my back so she came over to help her put the furniture back in place in Cat’s office.  Penny left and the kids finished up and left and we settled in and relaxed for the rest of the day. I fell asleep in my chair in my office and woke up and decided to just go to bed early. I slept for a few more hours then got up for a while to sit and watch tv with Cathye. Once we finally went to bed, I slept through the night. The back feels a bit better.  

Oregon Living 2022 – Blog #44 – Halloween & Looking For Landscapers

 

Sunday, October 30^th., 2022……  We slept in this morning. Cathye decided not to go to church today so we hung around the house and had breakfast and walked the dogs. I watch races and football and/or baseball on Sundays and Cathye didn’t have any other plans so we pretty much stayed home all day.                 

Monday, October 31^st., 2022……  HAPPY HALLOWEEN!  We got our permit for the deck today!  Russ called and said he had gotten the email from the city building department (guess they chose to notify the contractor and not me!) and that it was ready for pickup. We were already out heading to Albany anyway for breakfast and then to Costco, so we just went by the courthouse and picked it up. We headed to Costco and finished our shopping. But I made a detour to the tire department first. I have an appointment to take the car back to them on Thursday.  I have a tire alert on the Acadia.  I already know that one of the sensors is out because I have added air to that tire and it still stays on.  I’m going to have all of them changed out because the car is 12 years old and once one goes…

Later, Russ came by and picked up the plans.  I worked on my blog and Cathye fixed us a quick ground turkey and rice dish. It was yummy! We hung around the house watching tv. We didn’t expect trick or treaters because it was rainy but we had a few candy bars in case the neighbor kids were out. Nobody was, so it was a big zero for us. No worries, it was just another quiet night watching tv!

Tuesday, November 1^st., 2022……  After walking the dogs this morning, we decided to go to Kristi’s for breakfast before going to get our haircuts. We had a nice meal and had some time before our appointments so we stopped in at Jamie’s to pay his rent and pick up his phone. The one he has now is through Lively and is on a month to month contract. Problem is it doesn’t ring loud enough for Jamie to hear so it needs to be replaced. We were planning to take it in to Verizon and add it to our family plan. But when we got there, we found out that his state assistance guy had brought him a Cricket phone! When Cathye listened to Jamie explaining it all, she was confused so she’s on the phone now talking to Peter to find out what is going on and what is best going forward. Ok, it’s later now and she said they decided to go ahead with this other phone because it was free. I don’t understand that (some kind of state program) but they decided to work it through and see what Jamie likes. Stay tuned….

Wednesday, November 2^nd., 2022…… We have an appointment scheduled today with another landscaper. Since Mario up and quit, and Fernando doesn’t seem to be able to find help, we have started calling around looking to see who’s out there. Cat made several calls, one of which was to Angie’s list, and she is getting responses. Funny note:  She had two calls and scheduled a meeting here but got a call back saying they “didn’t think it would work today because of the snowstorm”. What snowstorm? Further conversation discovered that two companies based in Klamath Falls (way down in Southern Oregon!) had intercepted her Angie request. I don’t think they can service us from that far away!  I remembered that I had a guy (Alan) mow the west 40 for us way back when but backed out because his mower wasn’t big enough. He still does the lawn across the street for our neighbors and I knew he also did landscaping, and I had his name in my phone from before - so I called him. Even if he couldn’t do the landscaping, maybe he had a referral for us. He came by today and walked the property with Cathye. He said he’s already let folks go for the season but will get back to us with us if/when he gets a crew.

Thursday, November 3^rd., 2022……  Rainy again today. BUT, this time, the temps have really dropped. We are getting mornings with 39°! There is no snow predicted for this low-lying area but they say Mt Hood up by Portland and maybe some of the mountain passes in the Cascades east of us could see some snow this next week.  We still get the dogs out though, rain or shine, for their walk and today was no exception. After breakfast I left to go get the tire sensors installed on the Acadia. I also wanted to go to the courthouse to pay our taxes, so I brought that paperwork. I had a 10:00am appointment and was a little early but they were open and took the car in right away. I had an hour to shop and walked around with no direction or list. I ended up with a pair of sweatpants for me (later I found they were too small so Cathye now owns them!) and some dark chocolate treats! I got the car and headed home, only remembering that I missed going to the courthouse when I was almost home! Maybe tomorrow!  We got a call back from Alan later in the day. He doesn’t have the workers now to do the fall/winter cleanup. Of course we were disappointed but he did give us another company who might be interested. I went to their website and sent them a request for an estimate. We’ll see if they follow up or not.      

Friday, November 4^th., 2022……  Housekeeping today so we were up and out with the dogs early so we could pick up around the house before the crew got here for the 9:00am start. Cathye went and got us coffee and breakfast (thanks sweetie!) and I took the dogs out to the motorhome to set us up out there. It was about an hour and a half later and we were back in the house. Then Cathye said she decided to get out of the house for a bit and she was going to go spend the day shopping with Lona. I had an appointment with Pointe Pest Control again today. I requested they come back out and finish the garages. He had missed them last week because we were out and the doors were closed.  He showed up a little early and I explained my problem and he quickly went to work out in the garages.  But he said there was nothing he could spray around food for the little moths we have been experiencing in the house. He agreed that they were from larvae from flour, grain, oatmeal, pancake batter, etc.  We just needed to remove the source. We had already searched the cabinets and found no signs. We had also already cleaned out the lazy susan in the bottom corner cabinet.  We didn’t find anything but it was a great opportunity to get rid of any outdated cans or boxes. We filled up a trash can for sure! We kept looking, this time in the spice and cooking sauces in the cabinets across the kitchen. We found them in a sealed jar of cashews. All we saw was that they had reduced the remaining cashews to dust and made a colony. Funny, the jar was sealed tight!  That wasn’t the source but that quickly went out to the trash!  Hopefully, we will find it soon!

Saturday, November 5^th., 2022……  Today was a bizarre day! Oops, I meant a bazaar day!

Cathye had called Penny and they planned their day.  A few returns, some shopping at the big box stores, and before that, they wanted to hit the local Christmas bazaars, and boutiques around town.  I was home with the other girls! The rains have been off and on this week. Sorry, SoCal, I wish we could figure out a way to get some of it down to you guys (although I hear you did get a pretty good drenching a day or so ago!). So, I was not going to be working too much outside today. I hung around the house and watched tv. Nascar season ends this weekend and I had Friday’s truck race on tape and then I watched the Xfinity division race today after that.  Cup finale is tomorrow. Motocross and IndyCar are already over. The only things left are two more F1 races the next two weekends. The World Series didn’t interest me too much as I am not an Astros fan! I watched hoping the Phillies would come out on top – but it wasn’t to be! The girls got back later in the afternoon and showed me all of their treasures. I have curtains to hang and pictures and such to hang as well. They both said they already have a good start on Christmas gifts already!  Later, we settled in and watched the weather. The excavation for the deck is doing what it’s supposed to do. The fabric is designed to let water through, but not debris. It is but very slowly. I don’t like that the water pools up out there.

I need to call Russ and find out if he’s concerned. Tv until bedtime. We’re all caught up now on Dancing With the Stars. I still don’t like that it’s only on Disney+ but at least it’s commercial free!  Plus, we are really enjoying the competitors this season. Even Tyra is semi-tolerable!