Oregon Living 2023 – Blog #5 – Birthday Wishes, More Inspections, & More Permits!

 

Sunday, January 29^th., 2023…… HAPPY BIRTHDAY RANDY!  His 50^th!  Wow! We had plans to fly down to SoCal to surprise him but they’ve both been sick so we ran out of time to get a good airline rate. But he’s back to healthy again and was able to go out with his friends for a bike ride today. We kept missing him by phone but he texted back and we shared our thoughts on his special day! Today was playoffs, auctions, motocross and other taped programs for me while Cat went to church. But when she got back, we headed over to see her friends, Paige and Debbie, who live right on the Santiam River a mile or so from my sister. They have several dogs and their English cream just had a litter of 9 puppies!  So, we had to go see them!  They only have two or three promised out at this time. Price is $1000-1200. But the most important thing for them is that they go to good homes. We don’t have the time or reason to have another dog so we just played with them and visited with Paige and Debbie for a bit, then headed back home to rest for the day.

l had taped the playoff games and didn’t miss anything. Problem was both teams I wanted to see win (49ers and Bengals) – didn’t! It will be the Eagles and the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. Oh, well. My Broncos and her Packers weren’t in it anyway!  Should be a good game though!  

Monday, January 30^th., 2023…… Jeff is out of town and Russ must have decided to take a day off because there was no work on the deck today.  We walked and fed the dogs, ate breakfast, then headed over to Albany to GNC, Hobby Lobby and then on to Costco. All of that took us into the afternoon. But we had no plans anyway. We are now working on plans for our one year anniversary coming up in April. We thought about many destinations but decided to combine family into this one. So, we’re going to go to Missouri in late April or early May. We plan to fly in to St. Louis, go see Michael and Crystal, then tour around Hannibal and St. Louis. My old work friend, Nancy, lives enroute so we’ll plan to stop and spend some time with her and Bob while we’re close by.  We’re searching out airfare and hotels as well as dinner cruises and tours (Mark Twain House and cave, STL Arch, Budweiser etc.).  Of course we are also honing in our Alaska cruise in July!  We have three shore excursions booked. We are now tracking their website to see if they are posting any info on ship entertainment at night while we are at sea. So far, nothing. Bill and Treasa have finished their booking and secured their flights to and from Oregon, so they are ready too. It will be a fun trip!   

Tuesday, January 31^st., 2023…… This morning we were up super early and fed the girls and left the house. I had a 7:00am meeting with my dr. as a follow up. We have been monitoring my blood pressure, heart rate, and pulse ox every day and gave that to her. She says everything looked good. She ran another ekg and that looked ok as well.  I am now turned over to the cardiologist for more follow up.  We left there and stopped for breakfast at Appletree and came home for the day. Russ was here by himself and worked on the deck for the spa. Turns out they will have to remove the first run of deckboards they made to tighten them up so that the run across the whole deck lines up. We also discussed the upcoming inspections. Electrical rough in and final on the Build are both scheduled for tomorrow. The electrical should not be a problem but the guy doing the roof and structure inspection is a loose cannon. He has already tagged the gas lines I had Russ run under the deck for the firepit and bbq (he says that requires a separate permit) but we are hoping he will forget that and buy off the items on the existing permit and be done.

Wednesday, February 1^st., 2023……   Another cold but dry day. The sun was out early but it didn’t get out of the 40s all day. They say the rest of the month will be in the 50s so we’re hoping for that!  The guys continue to work on the deck boards and trim boards. They have had to make some adjustments to align everything and that means less progress but we’re glad they are working on quality which we will see forever!  

The electrical inspector was here and gone and was super happy with the electrical rough in. But the other inspector didn’t show.  Russ either called or texted him (not sure which) and he told me that he still wasn’t happy about the gas lines being run without a permit and that is holding up the job. Long story short – I will have to go get a separate homeowner’s permit for that task – and pay the county yet again! – before he will come out and inspect the overall job and give an ok on the final. It’s tough when you have to deal with these county inspector primadonnas!  But overall, it's going smoothly on the jobsite so far and we’re getting excited! Cathye made spaghetti for dinner and we settled in and watched tv until calling it a night.        

Thursday, February 2^nd., 2023…… This morning I was up and moving early. I had an 8:00am acupuncture appointment and I left early to get myself some breakfast and coffee beforehand. Once done with the appointment, I drove over from Corvallis to Albany to go to the Linn County Courthouse to the building and planning department. I explained why I was there. They pulled up my address and saw the updated info from the inspector. Yep – he showed it as red-tagged for the entire job until I got a permit for the gas line!  So, $114.00 later, I was done and on my way!  I asked for an inspection for tomorrow. When I got home, I gave Russ the permit and told him what they said. So, today Russ would reinstall the shutoff valve above deck for the bbq so the inspector could see it. He may or may not require a 24-hr pressure test on the new line so we are ready to attach that gauge if he asks for it (odds are he will!).  Meanwhile, the guys continued on the deck. Today they laid in some additional structural framing for the upper deck. This is not really required for the Fiberon deckboards but it will make it the same as the lower level and provide the same feeling when it’s walked on. When they left end of day, it was ready for inspection!  We had leftovers for dinner and hung around the house and watched tv until bedtime.   

Friday, February 3^rd., 2023……  No rains today! Yaay! It even managed to get up into the low 50s today. That’s actually good for here in February. The guys were here and were working on the upper crossbeams from the old porch. There was a little wood rot on the carrier post so they removed and replaced that. It carried down to the old porch beam so they removed a few feet and sistered in new pieces which will be planed and painted the porch color. 

We have decided to paint the house but leave the new portico as is and just clear coat it. You can see the difference in the pic above. The house and porch trim will get new white paint whenever we decide to paint the house. That won’t be this year, so for now, the area they just worked on will be touched up. The inspector showed up. I went out to meet him and he turned out to be pretty nice!  But he immediately asked about the pressure gauge for the gas test, as in “Where is your pressure gauge?”  I explained that in California, they bring them and install them themselves. I said I assumed he would bring it and install it and test it. Probably not true but he bought it.  It needs to be sealed and hold 10 lbs. of air pressure for 15 minutes.  He said he would stop back on Monday and that was the only thing he needed to see to buy off the whole job. Russ and Jeff left right after that and got a few more parts for the beams they were working on and brought back the gauge and installed it. Before they left, they put 20 lbs. of air in the line. 

He said he would be back tomorrow to do some more work by himself and would check it then.     

Saturday, February 4^th., 2023……  This morning the weather was just ok. It had rained last night. Typical light showers but the wind was really heavy. It managed to blow water all the way under the new roof and made it to the old porch so everything was wet for the dogs when they went out! Russ must have decided not to work today because he was a no show. I checked the gauge and texted him that it was down to zero air!  He will have to scramble on Monday to find the leak and fix it before the guy shows up! We ran some errands but for the most part, just stayed around the house. We did laundry throughout the day and watched tv. Early to bed.  

Oregon Living 2023 – Blog #4 – A Lot of Progress This Week!

 

Sunday, January 22^nd., 2023……  We’ve had off and on rain this last week. Yesterday, we had a few nice showers. But it’s supposed to be dry this week. John showed up this morning to finish up his roofing job. He has a 50-mile drive (from a little town north of us called Aurora) but he still was here before 8:00am. Sunday was the only day he had to finish up this small side job for Russ. He was here most of the day but when he left, we were thrilled with his job. Everything matches and it looks like it’s part of the roof. Meanwhile, we spent a cold dreary day here at home. Well, Cathye did go off to church but when she got back, she settled in under her blanket and rested for the day. She had stayed for the church potluck and brought me home a plate with lasagna, meatloaf, green salad, and potato salad and apple pie. So, needless to say, I was full and didn’t want dinner!

I am close to booking our shore excursions for the cruise. I will share more on that as we get closer to July. But we wanted to get everything booked because prices fluctuate and even went up since last month! Treasa and Bill are booking theirs as well this week. Tv until bedtime.     

Monday, January 23^rd., 2023…… No rain today. We are still going through cold temps this week though. It was 33° this morning when we took the dogs out! There was a little frost on the ground and some slick spots we had to avoid, but overall it was a nice crisp morning walk. I’m feeling back to normal and Cathye is dealing with the stomach issues but doing well too. The electricians showed up this morning. At 7:15am!  Both Russ and I had a conversation about romex vs conduit under the patio roof. He spoke to the guys and they said they can’t do romex due to ‘wet’ conditions and said the inspector would never pass it. Plus it would cost us again to have them undo it and use conduit. So, easy choice - conduit it is! They got to work, first walking through the job amongst themselves for a game plan, then went to work in the house garage, where they laid the conduit all the way from the circuit box

And down through to the crawl space.  Then they were outside on the deck drilling and running those lines both under the old deck and out into the new space.

Of course, I have complicated things because I want switches for certain items on the outside, others on the inside. On the wall to the outside where the patio deck lights are now, they had to remove one of my three-ways for the lights over the tv (which we didn’t use) which will now be the on-off switch for the security light way out on the end. The fan under the patio needs to be on a switch out there so that was also set up. Toward the latter part of the day, they crawled under the house and got the lines run for the spa and the rest of the lights. At the end of the day, they had the rough-in completed. They won’t come back until Russ gets farther along so they can use the deck to get up to the rafters and complete the job. I also have to get the spa set in place so they will have to come back again for that as well. Meanwhile, Russ and his guy have got all of the blocking in and are ready for the deck boards, which will be here on Wednesday.  I, for the most part, just hung around the house. Cathye had to make a trip over to Albany to go to the Social Security office to clear up an issue. Back last May, she went there and got her name changed and got a new social security card. But her last year’s statement came in last week and it was under McCracken. Turns out they messed it up. They told her for some reason that their systems didn’t talk to each other! Anyway, it’s fixed and we’re good to go.     

Tuesday, January 24^th., 2023…… Still really cold here!  Temps in the low thirties and no sunshine so it’s not warming up much during the day!  Cathye needed to go over to her old trailer park to drop off a note. When she ordered the stair lights through eBay, she missed that they would be delivered to her old address, so I wrote a note to ask that whoever may receive them gives us a call to pick up. She stayed and her and Judy (who lives in that park) went off to have lunch together. I stayed here and watched the deck progress. The guys finished up the starburst at the end of the deck. I think it looks awesome!

Tomorrow the decking will be delivered. Yaay!   

Wednesday, January 25^th., 2023…… We got up early and walked and fed the girls and then went off to Kevin’s for breakfast. He was closed so we went to Shari’s.  Not even close but it would do in a pinch!  After that, we came back and hung around the house. Cathye made a run to Walmart and I worked on my chandelier project for her office. I had already asked the electricians for some advice since this thing is super heavy. He looked at the box and made recommendations. So, I took off this morning to go get a mounting brace from Lowe’s. Problem is I can’t seem to get the old one out!  I’m thinking it’s screwed in between the ceiling rafters. So, now it will be Corey’s job to crawl up there and work with me to get it removed and the new one installed. Maybe next week.  I cleaned up the mess I made (we have blown-in insulation in the attic) and settled in to watch the Barrett-Jackson auction I have recorded. The guys ended the day after removing the old deck boards. Poor Rylee. She is so confused now because there is no floor out there! At the end of the day, the new Fiberon deck boards and three buckets of hidden fasteners were delivered and staged. Later, we had our favorite mac and cheese (from Costco) and watched tv until bedtime.        

Thursday, January 26^th., 2023…… The guys were here early and got to work. Today, they hope to add all of the additional floor joists to the old patio. Plus, they have another nice black metal feature to add to the other end of the roof truss. They had the ladder up ready to start that project, but, they shocked me when I saw they were adding structure all around the edges of the new deck!  I asked and was told it was because since we are doing a ‘picture frame’ wrap on all of the edges, he needed to support the area so he can nail and the fascia in.  Duuh!  The picture frame is called Expresso and is just like it sounds – dark brown. The main body will be a much lighter color called Tuscan Villa. The darker color will also be at the fascia all around the deck plus at the step down to the second deck level to make it easier to see. It will look good we think. But the best news was that he was ready to start laying the deck today!  I didn’t think it through but it made sense to do all of the picture frame edges first. That way they can just lay in the other colored deckboards in between. This is what they ended up with before it got time to go home for the day….

All of the metal columns will be wrapped with wood which will have a finished edge down to the deck. You can also see the electricians rough in for the receptacle that will be on that column.  Needless to say, we are thrilled to see all of the total progress at this point! I think tomorrow they will have the rest of the decking done – at least for the lower level. The inspector was called to do the final on the structure. That is the only thing on the permit because a permit is not required for the deck. He found a couple of things he wants Russ to address but also asked about the rough-in for the gas lines that were put in for the bbq and the fire pit.  They are out of scope of the permit but he can make a fuss if he wants to. Russ and he don’t get along so this could go south in a hurry!  We’ll address that later. Meanwhile, poor Rylee just can’t grasp the fact that she can’t be out on the porch right now!  She just stands or lays at the slider and looks out.

She even tried jumping down between the joists and had trouble turning around to jump back up into the house!  I can imagine her thinking, “Hey, get this done so I can go out on my porch again!” Hopefully, this will be over soon. Later, we fed the girls and then left to go meet Ron and Teri for dinner at Seeds. It’s nice to get out with another couple now and then and we made plans for more nights. Maybe game night next time! Back home and tv until bedtime.

Friday, January 27^th., 2023…… It rained a little last night. So, that means the temps go back up. Yeah, I know, that sounds crazy. But the rain clouds kind of work as an insulator to raise the ground temps up a bit. But that doesn’t work in the higher elevations where they are getting snow. As mentioned before, we are at around 340 ft. above sea level here so we won’t get it unless it’s under extreme conditions.  But the rains held off today and the guys were here and got going early. They made great progress…

and got all of this done by end of day!  It feels so good to get to this stage now that it looks like a deck finally!  Material for the upper deck got delivered late in the day, so they won’t get to that until next week but we did put out a piece of plywood up there so butthead can come and go again!  She’s happy!  She likes to sit out and survey her domain. Now she can do it from her new deck!

 

We decided to go down to Eugene to see 80 for Brady!  Even though he’s not my favorite player, we still love comedy. But it doesn’t come out until next week, so we had to put that on hold for now and so we just stayed home.

Saturday, January 28^th., 2023……  This morning we were up and had the dogs out and fed and decided to do a road trip down to Eugene for chicken fried steak at The Prairie Schooner. Russ had mentioned that he might come over for a few hours to work by himself but we didn’t expect he would. Turns out he did!  He got the section completed where the bbq will go. He has removed the bbq line and covered it with decking. He also did the same for the fire pit access.

Since he was gone when we got back from Eugene, we didn’t get his thinking but I think he’s hoping that when the inspector comes back, he will see that we removed everything and just sign off on the permit. Then we can reconnect the lines at the end of the job. We’ll talk on Monday. We settled in for the rest of the day and watched tv and kept warm. Soup for dinner and more tv until bedtime.  

Oregon Living 2023 – Blog #3 – A Few Procedures & A Lot More Progress on the Deck!

 

Sunday, January 15^th., 2023……  Weather is still rainy and cold. We took the dogs out anyway and dried them off and gave them breakfast. They still like their time outside with Grammy and Grampy.  They love the rain!  Well, Rylee does anyway! Cathye headed off to church and I hung around the house today. John came back today and had to work in the rain. He discovered that he had to remove and reinstall the flashing around the skylights because he didn’t look at the directions for this particular brand! Dumb move which took several hours to fix. Even with everything else going smoothly, he still only got 3/4's of the roof completed and will have to come back – but it will be next weekend because he has regular work schedule this week. 

Monday, January 16^th., 2023…… Since today is MLK holiday, the guys didn’t show up. But we’re not sure their next steps anyway. There is no material for the deck frame here so they will have to wait on that for now. Meanwhile, we wait. Cathye goes in tomorrow for a scan so she is on a restricted diet today. They want to take a look at her gall bladder, which may be the root of her gastro pain.     

Tuesday, January 17^th., 2023…… Busy day today. Cathye's scan is in Lebanon at 7:30am. Pointe Pest Control will be here sometime today. We both have haircuts starting at 10:00am. No worries. Cat took off and was gone maybe 45 minutes. Then I went out and got breakfast for me. She is still on her restricted food intake. Tomorrow is her endoscopy/colonoscopy. She starts her fluid purge this afternoon, so I’m on my own for meals today.  If you’ve ever had one or both of these procedures, you know the prep is worse than the procedure! But she’s a trooper and followed the rules with her diet today and started the liquid at 4:00pm. It was pretty tough but she got through it well. Next stage is tomorrow at 5:00am!  The guys were here early and worked on bolting the roof beams down. They also dug four more holes for sono tubes. These are for more concrete pads to support the extra weight under the spa area. Tomorrow they will pour those. 

Wednesday, January 18^th., 2023……  We were up and going around 4:30 this morning. Cathye finished off her ‘yummy’ drink and actually felt pretty good. We left for Corvallis around 8:00am. I was not allowed in the place with her so I only got to drop her off. I did go to breakfast and run a few errands in the local stores in Corvallis, then settled in and read and then napped in the car. They called later and put the doctor on speaker. Everything went well. There are a few problem areas to be addressed with the gastro people on her visit there next month. But, she feels like 100% just to get it over with. I know how that feels! After we left there, I had to take her to Starbucks for a chai latte and an egg and cheese sandwich. As I said, I had breakfast, so I drove across the street and hit Arby’s. I guess she was still hungry when she saw the Hawaiian Bun Fish Sandwich and had me order one for her. We ate and drove back home. When we got there, we saw the guys had poured the concrete in the last of the tubes and called it a day. We also saw a large load of pressure treated lumber was delivered and unstacked. Yaay! Tomorrow they will start the framing.  We both were tired from the lack of sleep, so we rested for the day. Later, Cat ordered a pizza for dinner. We watched some of our taped programs before calling it a night.     

Thursday, January 19^th., 2023…… Great sleep last night! She’s back to feeling ok. She will be dealing with her gastro pain but right now can go back to the meds she had to quit for the tests so she hopefully that will help get her back to normal again. We walked and fed the dogs, then drove up to The Point in Sweet Home for breakfast. The gastro office called to go over what her doctor told us yesterday and asked how she was doing and didn’t seem to be concerned about getting her in sooner. They mentioned her gall bladder and said they will focus on that as the potential problem and will go over treatment and next steps at her appointment. The guys were here early and got the beams positioned and leveled. It’s not complicated, but they are working hard to make sure it’s 100% right which I appreciate! This is about mid-day.

And this is end of day.

We left before they were done because we had to take Jama in to the vet for her scheduled checkup and shots.  Once we were done, we came back and fed the girls and fixed dinner and relaxed for the rest of the day. I heard from Treasa that she had booked their flight here and back before and after our cruise in July. It will be nice to see them and spend time here since Bill has never seen our place. We still need to coordinate and then finalize bookings for our shore excursions. More on that as we decide…. Meanwhile, Cherrelyn is headed down to California to help out a friend and also to see her dad, who is having some medical issues. Fingers crossed….     

Friday, January 20^th., 2023…… Nothing on the agenda today for us. We expect to see the deck underlayment done today.  Turns out they got 90% of it completed!  Cool!  

We made our 50% payment for the electrical work today. Russ is not licensed for electrical in Oregon. We have some issues about conduit vs romex which really affects their estimate! Will solve that when they come on Monday for stage one. We have already ordered the low-voltage stair lights, which will be here next week.  I went online and looked at security lights. I think we will settle for just one with three moveable lights for the peak of the new patio roof. That will help keep track of butthead when she heads out to the far reaches of the yard! We originally wanted can lights under the patio cover but since it will be left as open rafters and clearcoated, we now want to change that to an outdoor fan w/light out there. We want a tropical look so we’re also online looking at some with leaf-shaped fan blades.

We had Penny and Jody over for game night. They brought Mariglee, Penny’s neighbor to join us. We opened up wine and fireball and had some light snacks. We played Mexican Train for a few hours. It was a really fun evening!

Saturday, January 21^st., 2023……  As mentioned in earlier post, the roofer did not finish last weekend. So, we thought he might be here today. Not!  The guys didn’t work the weekend either so today nothing got done. Cathye had an urge to go see the King Tide today. I wasn’t as enthusiastic as she was so she called and Lona said she’d like to go. They left and were gone for most of the day. She posted these pics….

I watched the two playoff games and relaxed. I’m also working on installing a new ceiling fan for Cat’s office. I unboxed it and was surprised how heavy it is! Here is a pic of the one she wanted. It's a chandelier/fan and is really cool looking!

 

Because of the weight, work came to a halt.  I’m now anticipating having to beef up the support in the ceiling to support that monster!  Hopefully, I can get that done from below with a rafter mounting bracket. Anyway, it’s on hold for now…

I went online and placed orders for both the security light and the patio fan. Both are scheduled for delivery either tomorrow or Monday.  

Oregon Living 2023 – Blog #2 – Birthday Wishes for Friend and Family & Good Progress on the Roof!

 

Sunday, January 8^th., 2023…… HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIS! The plan today is to go out to Willamette Vineyards for lunch and relaxation. Cherrelyn put the thing together. We will share in the cost. We walked and fed the dogs. They sure like the morning walks and all of the smells!

Later, Cherrelyn came to meet us at sis’s house and we left in my car with the birthday girl! We had to leave before 11:45am to make our 12:30pm reservation. We have indoor seating so if it rains, we’ll be ok. Penny did not know where we were going until we got close. She has been many times and directed me to the parking lot and we headed in. We had a table next to the window. It was very cloudy and rainy but the view was still nice. We each chose our favorite wines and entrees. Cat and I each had steak. The girls got hamburgers. All the food was terrific and the wine was very tasty. The only problem was the service! We asked twice for water, my table charcuterie plate didn’t come out until right as the meal was served, the server seemed to be on Zoloft she was so not even there, and no birthday celebration! Needles to say, the tip reflected her poor performance! But otherwise, the day was wonderful!  Penny and Cherrelyn said they enjoyed the whole experience.  Cathye is a lightweight on alcohol so she had a REALLY nice time. We got back home and crashed for the rest of the day. Fun day!

Monday, January 9^th., 2023……  Work continues on the deck!  The guys are here now all day so they make some progress each day. Healthwise, I am doing great!  We check and chart bp and pulse ox a couple of times each day. Nothing out of the ordinary. The Holden monitor results came back. They show continuing afib (not unexpected) but the numbers coincide with my bp and heartrate on our chart. The doctor has discontinued the water pill and potassium because my lungs and heart are clear now. I am still on the beta blocker as a preventative. Echo is this Saturday.   

Tuesday, January 10^th., 2023…… HAPPY BIRTHDAY SANDIE!  We walked and fed the dogs and then checked in with the guys before heading off to Albany for breakfast at Elmer’s and then on to Costco. After we ate, we called and wished Sandie a happy birthday and then headed in to get some stuff at Costco. When we got back, they had the fascia and rafter tails all cut. Next step is the roof. After they left, we talked about changes. While we were at Elmer’s, we noticed the ceiling in there. They had tongue and groove above the rafters. So, when we got back, we made a change order. Instead of exposed plywood under the roof, we are opting for the tongue and groove. The original plan was to paint all of the new wood a regular white, which will be the color of the trim on the house (whenever we make that commitment to paint!). Now, since the tongue and groove is so pretty, we are thinking about leaving it and just clearcoating everything!  We were able to get that info to Russ and he got us a new quote for the upgrade. Turns out he could place the order for delivery first thing tomorrow! Yeah! We will take the hit but I think it will be much better than plain plywood.    

Wednesday, January 11^th., 2023……  We were right!  They delivered the load of t&g and it looks beautiful! 

They went right to the install and got it going.

At the end of the day, they had half of it done!  You can begin to see what it will look like from underneath!

Thursday, January 12^th., 2023…… The goal for the deck work is to get the roof ready for the roofer (subcontracted) to come in on Saturday. The guys finished up the t&g and installed the four skylight framing. That makes a BIG difference and lets in a lot of light which we wanted.

Friday, January 13^th., 2023…… Not much work going on today outside.  Housecleaning comes today so the inside would get done!  The guys came in for a few minutes and finished up some trim work. The plan changed from Russ doing the underlayment and skylights to the roofer doing all of that on Saturday. We waited until the girls got here to do the housecleaning and then we left them alone and went out for a breakfast road trip. Since we had plenty of time, I wanted to drive us either south to Eugene to The Prairie Schooner or north to Salem to The Original Pancake House. Cathye chose north so we split the giant apple pancake!

It is surprisingly not overly sweet and has a lot of egg so we had our protein as well!  After that, we drove back home. Like I said, not much done on the roof but the house looked great!  Those girls always do a terrific job! We hung around the house for the day and then Cathye asked about dinner. Well, since we were going to have leftovers, I asked her to go on a dinner date. It was time for seafood and we were heading south to Eugene. This time I got to choose and picked The Fisherman’s Market in downtown Eugene. Parking was tough but we got lucky and got a spot. Cat got a call from Corey and while we were talking to him in the car, a guy walked another man over to the steps of the restaurant. He looked a little shaken up. Then another guy followed with a bicycle that was broke in half. Apparently, he got hit just to the north of us!  We went in and passed them by and he seemed to be awake and alert. We found out later that he had robbed some store across the street and fled on his bike right out into traffic and got hit. While we were waiting for our dinner, we saw the paramedics and the police tending to him and the traffic congestion he caused.  We said that he was lucky to be alive but stupid and would be in cuffs and hauled off to jail!  We got back home and let the dogs out and then watched tv until bedtime.  Busy day!

Saturday, January 14^th., 2023……  John is the roofer and came in this morning around 8:00am. We were just getting up and going. The girls went out to greet him and both did their business and since it was staring to rain, we skipped our walk. I went over a few things and asked a few questions and he got going. He was by himself but said Russ was coming by to drop off something. He got the tar paper, drip edge, and flashing all installed and the edge course in place. We pretty much left him alone for the day. Later in the morning, Penny came by with Jody. She is in from Utah and visiting with sis for a few days. I stayed with them until they left and then I had to leave for my echo. I had received a text reminder yesterday that caused some confusion but I cleared it up with a phone call. I thought I was going to the Lebanon Hospital Imaging Center but the message said Albany General. Good thing I saw that! I had to leave a little earlier to drive to Albany but I timed it right and made it and signed in and got the echo done. The girl was really nice and the whole procedure only took about 35 minutes. They are not allowed to give any results but I was reassured that things looked ok. She said she wasn’t worried and said that if there was an issue (like a blood clot or something), I wouldn’t be allowed to go home! I stopped and got myself lunch and then drove back home. At the end of the day, John had about ½ of the work done and said he would be back tomorrow. He is slow and meticulous which I like. Just sorry he has to work on a Sunday! Not much to see so pics will come tomorrow.