Oregon Living 2024 – Blog #42 – Mowing, a Cardio Follow-up, Seeing WICKED, Buying a New Rug, and More Dancing!

 

Sunday, October 13^th., 2024……  Weather is nice today! We have rain expected on Tuesday, so I want to mow today. I left to go get breakfast and coffee while Cathye walked and fed the dogs. She headed off to church and I worked on getting last week’s blog finished and posted. After that, I had to run up to the station to get some more gas for the mowers. I usually fill up 4-5 five gallon containers in one trip, but since we will probably only get to mow one or two times before the season ends, I only got one container. I also had to get our diesel can filled up. We are hoping to be able to get the burnpile going in the next few weeks. Right now they have ban on fires so we have to wait on that.

I got started on gassing up and moving the mowers out and had all of the gloves, back braces, etc. out for both of us. We have started wearing the back braces lately, just to help with the bouncing and jarring on the rougher areas of the lawn and field. When Cathye got back, we walked the lawn and found it was still too wet to try to mow. We could, but last time we did, we clogged up the bagger with wet grass and we don’t want to do that again!  So, we came in and enjoyed the rest of the day lounging around until it was time to go to the beginners class.  During class, I kept track of the Dodger game one against the Mets. We won! Pizza after, then spa and bed.

Monday, October 14^th., 2024…… Today was a busy day! We thought it was time to start cleaning up for the winter. I started by putting the area bug zappers away, then we put the cover on the Shasta. While we were out there, I started up the truckster and we towed Rylee’s pool over to the flatbed trailer and turned it upside down to store for the winter. We waited an hour or so and came in and rested. I worked on my spreadsheet for our cruise. Still plenty of time, but I needed to gather up what was paid for, what has a deposit on, and what we still need to pay for. That will help as we will begin securing the flight, hotels, and of course, the cruise itself. We did eventually go out and got the lawn mowed. There are some really soggy areas and we did some damage but I think it will come out of it alright.  Once we were done, I rinsed the mowers off, we came in and rested for a bit. Later, we cleaned up and, after I put the mowers back in the garage, we left to go to Dos Arbolitos for a nice relaxing dinner. Pacifico for me and a blackberry margarita for Cat! Very relaxing! Back home, we settled in and I caught up on the Dodger’s game 2. Not so good. The series is tied 1-1. Good luck to them tomorrow. We caught up on some taped shows. Survivor and then spa and bed.  

Tuesday, October 15^th., 2024…… We didn’t have too much on the agenda today. We both need to get our clothes together for next week at Osprey Point RV park.  Since we are heading up to Seaside on Friday for a two-day square dance festival, we need to pack clothes for that as well. But, neither of us did any of that today. We went to class and took some more orders for badges. When we got back home, I immediately went online to order them in hopes that they will be delivered before next Tuesday. We won’t be here but if they come in, I can get them to Lynn to take to class next week.   

Wednesday, October 16^th., 2024……  Today was a cardiologist appointment for me. I had a 10:00am appointment and since we slept in a bit this morning, and the appointment was in Corvallis, I showered and left Cat to walk and feed the girls. The visit went really well. The ekg they did in the office confirmed I was in normal sinus rhythm, which I have been for almost a year now. I chose to have the ablation so they could permanently fix the ‘electrical’ issue with my valves so I could go off the amiodarone completely.  Maggie said I was now off that one. Yaay! Next up would be the Eliquis (blood thinner). She is hesitant only because of my age. I guess they want older folks to have thinner blood, which helps circulation. But she will be consulting my pcp and they will discuss that as well as the thyroid meds I am also on. I’m guessing that once the labs are done in Feb., she will have a handle on if the procedure helped the thyroid numbers or not. BUT, Maggie did say that I can get another tattoo!  She said many folks ask. She said I can go off the Eliquis 3 days before the tattoo and then go back on it afterward. Yaay! This is the next one planned for my right forearm…

After the visit, I stopped by and got breakfast for me (Cathye ate earlier) and came home for the day. We would leave later in the evening to go to dinner before the Club board meeting and then the bylaws meeting to follow that.  Well, as it was getting close to leave, I got a call from the bylaws chair, asking where I was for the bylaws meeting! Turns out it was before the board meeting!  When we got there, they were almost finished. Oh well, I didn’t have too much to add as we are wrapping it up anyway. The only problem would be talked about later at the Board meeting, when we discussed how to get the revised bylaws out to the Club. Some want everyone to have paper copies. I agree that our new members would need a copy in their new Club packet, but since we already have the bylaws on our website, I maintained that if the members were interested in the updates, they could see them when we publish the new one online. Not sure how that ended.  The other thing that happened at the meeting, was Cat volunteered us to chair the New Year’s dance!  Not something I wanted to do, but by the time we got home, we had a rough idea of how we wanted to do it. Theme (Black and Silver Dance) and we came up with some thoughts about the food. More on that as we get going.         

Thursday, October 17^th., 2024……  Today was busy!  A little rainy this morning. We had a few deer make their way through the yard. Rylee saw them from our window and I was able to get a shot next to the ‘moose’. You might need to zoom in.…

We have to be in Portland for our 1:00pm showing of Wicked. We left to go eat breakfast at Kristi’s and then came back to let the girls out before we left. We wanted to leave early and have time to stop by NW Rugs in Beaverton to check out area rugs. A year or so ago, we ordered an 8x10 rug from Wayfair for the living room. It’s polyester and thin and light so it shows dirt.  Well, we are now wanting to get a 9x12 and something in wool that matches better with the one Cat bought last year at an estate sale. That one is in our entryway. I had made arrangements for Penny to come over to feed the girls and let them out. We plan on taking Josh to dinner after the play, so we needed to adjust when she comes so they dogs could be let out. It worked out ok. We found NW Rug and looked around. Cathye found one she really liked. 

If you know me, you know I like to shop around. But when I saw her face, I knew she would not like anything we found after that!  Since we were tight on time, we told them we would be back later. We left and made our way to the parking structure and then met up with Josh and went in. Cathye had bought the tickets 6 months ago and the show was sold out!  It was their second day in Portland and since this is a Broadway production, we couldn’t wait! Our seats were just off-center in the orchestra section, but towards the back. The show was pretty pricey and $200.00 per ticket for where we were was ok. The folks in the front section (aisles a – z) would pay over $600.00 each! Yeah, no! Our seats were fine and the show was amazing. We knew the plot and we were able to follow the witch’s journey from birth as Elphaba Thropp to being the Wicked Witch of the West. All of the actors did an amazing job. We especially enjoyed Galinda, the Good. Yes, she would change it later to Glenda. Anyway, the show was great and worth the price. 

After we got out, we walked to House of Ramen for a delicious meal!

After that, we made our way back to the rug store and made the purchase. The guys were able to fold and load the rug into the back of the Buick and we took Josh home then worked our way back home. It took a while but we had a nice sunset!...

Tyson told us it would be ok to leave the rug folded up overnight because it was wool and it would be fine. We got back and parked the car, let the dogs out, and then went to bed.  Fun day!   

Friday, October 18^th., 2024…… Today was busy too!  We slept in and then went to work changing out the rugs. This was the old 8x10….

We decided to just use it on the back porch. It’s not an outdoor rug, but we can use it out there this winter and should be ok for a season.  I got a cart from the shop, and we unloaded the new rug from the car and brought it around to the front door and then brought it in and got it set up. I think it looks great!

By then, it was time to take the girls to get groomed. We just got them picked up and back home before it was time to go to our rv club meeting at the senior center. That was a mess! We did make some plans for future outings, but there is no leadership and not a lot of organization. We’ll see how it goes next week when we go to the campout. Once we were done with the meeting, we went home and waited for our new prospective landscaper to come by to give us an estimate. Adam just doesn’t have the time (or desire) to work the hours we need. He’s busy with apartment and retirement home work, so we need to move on. We liked Trey, who will begin next week with a crew to clean us up for the end of season. Later, we fed the girls and had dinner. Then I got dressed and we went to the alliance Plus dance in Albany. Cathye likes to go watch and I sure enjoy the plus level dancing. We stayed until about 9:30, then left come home. Straight to bed.  

Saturday, October 19^th., 2024…… This morning, we had haircuts and left to go to that. When we got home, Cathye spent the day working on cooking. She made casseroles for our campout and then later, she worked on her famous sliders for the dance. I got the bike rack installed on the Honda and Cat helped me load the bikes. I parked the car in the shop garage so it would right there on Monday morning when we hooked up to go. Both of us worked on loading our clothes for the week. Square dance clothes and shoes were stored away too.  Later, we would feed the dogs then eat dinner and then head off to our Club dance. We left early and met Grace, who unlocked the door. The three of us were the only ones there. We had assigned folks for the door and table and also for the kitchen, so Cat and I went to work, setting up all the tables and chairs. We had another club visiting tonight, so we needed a few extra chairs and tables. The dance was fun! Our schedule up to now is one Plus tip at 7:15pm, followed by Rounds until 7:30pm, when the dance started. The Club voted this week to change it to alternating Mainstream and Rounds, and every third tip Plus. Tonight, the Independence Wagon Wheelers came with 16. Nice!  I danced the Plus tip and while I rested, Cat got Frank to dance the first Mainstream tip with her. We alternated dancing and sitting out, which worked well for Cat. We both spent some time visiting with our guests, which was fun.  We also worked on the New Year’s dance, recruiting committee members, and coming up with menu thoughts. Right now, we are planning on us doing a spiral ham (or two) and the Club members will be assigned to either: potato casseroles, green bean casseroles, and desserts. Salad maybe….

After bidding goodbye to our guests and cleaning up, we got home around 10:45pm. So we played with the dogs a bit, then let them out and went straight to bed.      

Oregon Living 2024 – Blog #41 – A Nice Party Night and Square Dancing Starts Again!

 

Sunday, October 6^th., 2024……  Mary, Heather, and Charleigh were up early this morning. Cathye made breakfast and we each ate on our own. Except for Mary, who left to go visit her son, Justin. They went to Kevin’s for breakfast.  We all had no plans for today so after Mary got back home, we all just hung around the house. Justin came by as well. Charleigh had given her aunt Cathye one of her glass blowing pieces. It was really cool!

I spent some time trying to get the blog caught up, so I was in my room pretty much the whole day. I watched the Nascar race while I worked. We had to leave for class at 6:00pm so the kids packed up and left before that for their drive back to Seattle. I think Mary has a late flight out tonight so they were in no hurry. We cleaned up and then headed off to class and then to the Pizza Hut after that.     

Monday, October 7^th., 2024…… Today was gym day and then breakfast at Kevin’s. We had the dogs walked and fed and then headed out. I had another bylaws meeting this afternoon so I left Cat and went to that. Afterward, we had pulled pork sandwiches for dinner and then watched Dancing With the Stars before hitting the hot tub before bed.   

Tuesday, October 8^th., 2024…… The weather has really been nice so far this week. We’ve had temps in the mid-70s. It was nice for our walk this morning.

Cathye has a sleep study consult appointment this morning in Albany. Because she may run late, I needed to stay back so I could go on to our workshop to hand out the new badges. On the way, I stopped by Harbor Freight to pick up some more sanding discs for the bartop. At the workshop, I handed out, and collected, for the new badges and took orders for more. They really liked them! After the workshop, we stopped by Walmart to pick up a few things.

Wednesday, October 9^th., 2024……  We didn’t have anything on our agenda today, so after walking and feeding the girls, we left to take the 27-mile backroads drive up to Stayton to have breakfast. We like the drive and also like to go to the Covered Bridge Café when we are in the area. It was as good as usual. When we got back, we worked a little around the yard. Cathye’s goal is to get all of the flowers and shrubs deadheaded or pruned back. She needs to coordinate with our landscaper to see his schedule. By agreement, he comes and goes on his own schedule to work the allotted hours we prepaid him for. Problem is he doesn’t always come when we need something cleaned up. She is looking at another service but we will get our hours out of him first.  My main project now is to sand down the bartop. The epoxy we poured last month was a big miss! It has tons of bubbles and washed out areas so I have to start from scratch! The orbital sander doesn’t work too well since the epoxy is pretty thick. So, I switched to my belt sander. It works well, but takes time to get through all of the thick resin coating. I work on it until the sander gets too hot, then I quit for a while. I’m about a ¼ done so far!     

Thursday, October 10^th., 2024……  Another quiet day here. The weather is all over the place. The nights are down in the 40s and the days can get to the 70s. Most days have been overcast in the mornings with sunny skies later in the day. Light rain showers come and go once or twice each week. We were up and out later than usual this morning. It seems that we are sleeping in longer and longer each day. Maybe it’s the change of seasons! Yeah, let’s go with that! We walked the dogs and then went to the gym and then to Kristi's for breakfast. I waited until it warmed up a bit outside and then worked some more on the sanding project. I am now about ½ done! I had to change out the belt on the sander twice, but I am making good progress now. 

Tv tonight was The Masked Singer that we had taped. Neither of us knows any of the new age singers these days, but it is still fun to watch!

Friday, October 11^th., 2024…… Yep, slept in again this morning! We walked and fed the fur babies then ate leftovers from yesterday. There are two clubs dancing tonight and tomorrow. We are choosing to go to the one tomorrow so Cat invited Mike and Cheryl and Frank and Marianne over for dessert and to play 2500. It’s our new favorite game! I got the task of dessert and chose to make my ice cream sandwich dessert. I chose to use cut-up bananas this time. Never tried that before! When I went to Walmart to get everything, I also found caramel topping so I put that on too!  It goes into the freezer and then we brought it out and they scarfed it up! Frank and Cathye won the two games of 2500 but we all enjoyed the evening. While we were playing cards, I kept track of game 5 of the Dodgers and Padres playoff. Yaay! We won!  Next up are the Mets!  

Before everyone left, we headed out to the front yard to see if we could see the Northern Lights. Cheryl got some great pics early this morning...

When we went out, we could see a little of it and the phone picked up just a bit more, but we have trees and houses directly north of us, and it was early so it wasn't nearly as nice....

Saturday, October 12^th., 2024…… Tonight was the Sweet Home Club dance. We worked some more around the house. I sanded and then helped Cathye take out her cherry tomato plant, which was about done for the season. We took extra time to check each branch and also combed through the dirt, hoping that she had lost her ring while picking tomatoes last week. No luck. We each took breaks and watched some of our taped programs. Later, it was time to clean up and get dressed for the dance. Sweet Home is about 15 miles from us, up hwy 20 towards the Cascades. We go there a lot and the drive up the Santiam River is really pretty. The dance we fun. We get an average of 2-3 squares at the Club dances around this area, and since the Squarenaders have just recently started hosting dances again, the 2 ½ squares wasn’t too bad. Shaun called and that made it fun as well. Back home and instead of hitting the spa, we (ok, Cat) chose to watch the Golden Bachelorette. We each have our favorite guys that we hope get her attention. They are all still in it.     

Oregon Living 2024 – Blog #40 – A Lost Ring, a New TV System & Harry Potter Saturday

 

This has been a frustrating week!  I had written up all this week – up through Thursday only to find it didn’t save! I have searched every file in my computer and finally gave up!  So, this is the week as I can remember it…..

 

Sunday, September 29^th., 2024……  A quiet day. Cathye went off to church and I worked on the blog and watched races and football. Except for later when she came in and said she had lost her ring! 

After searching everywhere around the house and outside, we came to the conclusion that she had it when we went to the dance on Saturday. She remembers taking it off in the car to put hand lotion on. If it was on her lap, she might have lost it in the car. Nope. Or when she got out of the car. Or maybe when she was changing shoes to dance. Or maybe on the dance floor. She also remembers putting money in the offering jar at church this morning. She called Ted at the church to be on the lookout for it. She also contacted the person who collects the monies and she looked. Nope. A bummer of a day. But we headed off to our beginner’s class and pushed on. We got some new dancers both last week when we skipped and tonight. Hope they all stay with us!  We went out to Pizza Hut for the afterparty then went home and hit the spa before bed.

Monday, September 30^th., 2024…… The plan today was to go to the gym and then to breakfast. After we left our workouts, we drove to Corvallis for breakfast. But before that, we stopped by the church where we danced on Saturday night. We walked the parking lot. Nope. The church office was closed but I left a flyer in case they find it or someone turns it in. She also shared it on her own church’s Facebook page in case someone found it there. Tv and spa then bed.   

Tuesday, October 1^st., 2024…… Cathye had a meeting with Julie at her church this morning. I worked on the Directv boxes in preparation for tomorrow when they come to install the upgraded system. We have had these boxes for well over 12 years now and they are starting to give us some problems. These boxes are outdated and can’t be easily replaced so it was time to get the newest system. I went off to the workshop and took the box out of there to turn in. I went to Cat’s office and brought that box out to the shop. That will be the only one remaining from the old system and I will use it out there plus I can take it with us in the rv when we travel. The newer Genie system from Direct doesn’t allow for that. As I was working these, I am hoping the new system uses the same power cords because if not, we will have to move furniture in every room for the new plugs. With Cathye at her church, I took off to class.  I have the order form for the new badges and took orders. I got 10 this first go round. Cathye came by later and helped make a full square so we could dance. We left there and came home to rest.

Wednesday, October 2^nd., 2024…… I got a text message at 7:45am this morning from the Directv guy, who said he was 45 minutes out. So, we got up, showered and dressed. Cat walked the dogs and I waited for him. He got here and got going. Jose was very knowledgeable and was easy to work with. He made quick work on each of the rooms and, yes, they all had their own plugs! The only problem we had was his work order showed one more install than we needed, so it took some time for him to communicate with his office to get that right. While he was here, Cathye left to take Jamie to lunch. As she was coming back and he was leaving, the system went out, telling me we had one box not authorized! Crazy! I had his number from this morning so I was able to get him back and he went back to work on the phone and finally got everything worked out. We are good to go!  It will take some time to learn the new remotes but we’ll soon have shows taped. I spent some time working on my shows and Cat will need to do the same.     

Thursday, October 3^rd., 2024……  Cathye has a pulmonary breathing test this morning so I went with her for that. After we were done, we went to Kristi’s for breakfast and then stopped at Walmart to pick up stuff for chili for dinner on Saturday. Mary is in Seattle today, visiting her daughter Heather and grandchild Charleigh.  They will all be coming down tomorrow evening for our Saturday pumpkin carving and dinner with us and Corey’s family. Penny and Cherrelyn will be here too.

The weather is better today. Temps will be in the 70s, so I decided today’s the day to pour the epoxy on the bartop! I did a final sand and did a tacky cloth on it to remove the dust. 

The directions were pretty easy. You need to mix equal parts of the resin and catalyst and since I will be using all of one package, that was easy. Then you have to stir and stir for 5 minutes to mix all of it together. I spread it all in a row on the top and then Cat and I used rollers and foam brushes to spread it out all over the top and sides. It looked great. I did have to use a hair dryer on a few bubbles. It needs to sit 24 hours, then a steel wool scratch to prep for the final coat.

The problem was when we went out later in the day to check it out, we discovered patches as well as a ton of bubbles!  I ran my sander over one area and discovered that I will have to sand it all down back to bare wood and start over. Oh well, at least the sides look good and will be better with a second coat on them.  

Friday, October 4^th., 2024……  We worked on cleaning the house today. Heather and Mary and Charleigh plan on waiting until Charleigh’s glass blowing class is over at 9:30pm and will drive through the night. It’s about a five hour drive so we won’t see them until tomorrow morning. We got the guest room ready for Mary and the motorhome set up for the other two. I left lights on and the heater going in the rv because temps are getting into the 40s at night here now.  We watched some taped programs and hit the spa and then went to bed.

Saturday, October 5^th., 2024…… I was up to pee around 3:30am and had the dogs outside. Heather’s car was in the driveway and Mary’s door was closed so we knew they made it ok. Mary said later that Rylee didn’t make too much noise when she came in. She just whined with Mr. Quackers in her mouth and wanted petted. Jama was with us and never moved!  Later, when those of us in the house were up, we decided to go to Kristi’s for breakfast. Heater and Charleigh met us there and we had a nice meal. Today was Harry Potter Day as well as a vendor sidewalk sale down Main St. We were finished before they all set up, so we all came home. I stayed behind and the girls all took off.  Cat said later that they shopped

then met up with Corey, Vikki, Brandon, and Baylee and they had lunch at the Harry Potter restaurant.

I managed to catch up on my taped auctions. I wanted to start sanding but when I did, I found I need to get the belt sander out and that will have to wait. I already had all of the tables out.  I added my power tools in case they wanted to use them when they all carved the pumpkins. Once they all got here, the pumpkins got a makeover!  

Cathye had her chili on early and once the cornbread was done, we took a break and ate. Then it was tv and rest before everyone left. I went to bed before the others but they had the tv going and it was loud for me to sleep until Cat came in later. It was a nice day.     

Oregon Living 2024 – Blog #39 – Recovery Continues, a New TV and a Busy Week!

 

Sunday, September 22^nd., 2024…… Both of us are feeling pretty good, but these last few days have been busy, to say the least!  So we decided to take it super easy today. Cathye skipped church and we won’t be going to either beginner’s class today and this evening. That meant we would be hanging around the house and watching tv. Cat did do laundry but I was pretty much resigned to my chair. I have bruises that are darkening a bit but no real issues. I think Cathye’s new meds are helping her. She doesn’t get tired as quickly as before but still feels it. She goes in tomorrow to see her gp. Later in the evening, we finished the Golden Bachelorette and then went on to watch the third Harry Potter movie. Cat has been enjoying them so far and is now hooked!      

Monday, September 23^rd., 2024…… The weather is ok these last days. We got up to 79° today. Not bad for the first day of Fall!  Because of my restrictions, no gym all this week. Cat and I headed off to Kevin’s for breakfast, then to her Dr.’s appointment this morning. He listened to her issues and made some prescription changes. But he also will be giving a referral to a pulmonologist as well as a sleep study program.  

Tuesday, September 24^th., 2024…… No square dance workshop today. There is a seminar on Fall Safety for Elders. It’s 4 hours and have interactive testing and such (foot clinics, hearing tests, etc.) so they will be using our square dance room for that today. This morning we headed over to Walmart for our vaccinations. They have finally starting scheduling up here and Walmart had availability for today. I had checked off 4 vaccines: rsv, flu, pneumonia, and covid. Come to find out we are both good on the rsv and the pneumonia, so it will be only a double ‘cocktail’ today! We got that done (one shot in each arm!) and then did some shopping while in the store. We have burnt out our old toaster and got a new one today. Later, we watched the third Harry Potter movie. If you’ve seen the series, you know they got darker and darker as they went. Well, the ‘dementors’ were too much for Cathye, who ‘Does Not Like Scary’!  So, we stopped it in midstream. We watched Tim Allen and Kirstie Alley in ‘For Richer or Poorer’ which I found on demand. That is one of my favorite movies and she enjoyed it too. Plus, it took her mind of ‘scary’!  

Wednesday, September 25^th., 2024…… Cathye has been sleeping well these last few days. I know that will help with her issues. For me, the crotch bruises are still there and still look dark purple but seem to be fading a bit. I am still on light activity with no lifting or exercising. No spa either until tomorrow. We walked and fed the dogs, then headed off to Salem for breakfast and an assignment. Last month Cathye was asked by Corey to serve custody papers to his ex-wife, who said she would accept them only from her (third party I guess!) with no issues. That done, she needed to go to the Salem courthouse and sign an affidavit that she did that task. We combined the morning with breakfast at Sybil’s in Salem. Later today, both of us had places to be. I am helping with our Club’s bylaws review, and Cat was going to a craft class. Both of these are at the Senior Center so we will cross paths briefly. After that, we came home and immediately fed the dogs and then left with Penny to Casa de Reyes in Sweet Home. It was Cathye’s late birthday party! We met up with Cherrelyn and had drinks and dinner.

They made Cat wear a sombrero and do a tequila shot!....

After we got home, we were able to watch tv for a bit then we hit the spa before bed. It was so nice to be able to get back in there again! So relaxing!

Thursday, September 26^th., 2024……  The weather here is nice these days. We will get an occasional shower cell maybe once a week that passes through and sometimes we get substantial rain. But other that, it has been really nice. Temps in the high 60s.  We had the dogs out and walked and ate breakfast This morning I worked on some more correspondence with my local badge maker. We have been back and forth via email with design and quotes. I think we have a plan. Here’s the black and white prototype….

They will be a little pricey because he will have to paint the green leaves on each one by hand. But since we don’t pay for our workshop classes, everyone seems to be ok with the one time cost.  Later, I headed off to my massage appointment. Since Cat was going through her surgery, Emily has postponed her massages for a few times. She gets to go back next month. Yaay! I got there and when she asked about my health, and I told her how I was doing after the ablation, she decided to go lightly and cut the time to ½ hour. We had leftovers for dinner and watched tv until spa and bed. The Masked Singer, Dancing With the Stars, Survivor, and Golden Bachelorette are back so we have plenty to watch. We have a new tv coming tomorrow and next week they are coming to upgrade our Directv system. Whatever is on our dvd recorders will be lost when we swap them out, so we are trying to watch everything each of us has taped.   

Friday, September 27^th., 2024……  The tv will be delivered today!  Yaay! We had shopped in Costco and found what we wanted but ordered it from Costco Online with free delivery. That thing is heavy and cumbersome so they can deliver it! Meanwhile, I had some work to do. I moved my tv out of my office and put it in the shop, replacing the smaller one out there. The one in the living room went into my room, so now we have the spot ready in there for the new one. It is somewhat bigger so I had to run longer hdmi cables for both the tv and the dvd player. It was harder than I thought, since the previous owner installed ports in the cabinets and walls for cable routing. It was pretty much impossible to snake the lines, so I had to drill some new holes. But it’s ready!  For now, we will use the sound system on the tv until we decide if that will work or if we want to put in a soundbar.  Later in the afternoon, they delivered the tv. It was super easy to unpeel the carton and get the stand installed on the tv. Then it was just a matter of hoisting it up on the entertainment center top. Once that was done, we were good to go! Start-up menus completed; we were in business! 

Next week the guy will exchange the DirecTv boxes and we will be good to go! Still watching our shows to get caught up.

Saturday, September 28^th., 2024…… A busy day. We had 6 things on our list today! First up was patio furniture moving. I moved some of the stuff from the back deck to the front porch, replacing it with the powder-coated chairs we had done a few months ago. Cat wanted to get them under the deck roof, out of the upcoming weather. 

Next up was housecleaning. We got that done and then headed off to the Tomato Festival at the Senior Center in town. They do this every year and you can sample over 100 varieties of local-grown tomatoes. 

It was crowded and I lost patience in the tasting line, but we both made it through. They also had booths/tables with local vendors, but we didn’t buy anything. We did take some tacos and tamales home for lunch though! Next up was mowing. That took 1 ½ hours and was more work than we wanted. Problem was two-fold. I set the mower blades down a little lower for today. As we get to the end of the season, we try to cut the grass way back to avoid a jungle out there during the rainy season. That would have been ok, except we didn’t wait long enough this afternoon for the grass to dry out! That made for some soggy cuttings that got caught up in our baggers and mowers.  That made for extra work but we got it all done! After cleanup, I started in pulling down the fall decoration bins from the garage. I put them on the back deck and Cat will take her time setting them up next week. We had time to rest and have dinner before we showered and dressed to go out to Corvallis to dance with the Corvallis Squares. They had moved to a new location and we found that and met up with our friends. A light turnout for their banana split dance but we had fun!  Cathye hasn’t been dancing much these past few months, but she did excellent tonight and had more energy! Back home later and bed. Like I said, a busy day!    

Oregon Living 2024 – Blog #38 – Happy Birthday to Cathye and a Successful Surgery For Me!

 

First off, here is a pic from our dinner last night at Gametime that I forgot to include in the last post....

Sunday, September 15^th., 2024…… A pretty quiet Sunday. I was feeling pretty good from the jump yesterday. Randy said he was good too. Fun day. The kids and I went off to Appletree for breakfast before they headed back home. I think he said they would be stopping one day to ride Alsea trail and then go down the coast. Like I said, pretty quiet day. Cathye went off to church and I watched races. 

Monday, September 16^th., 2024…… The weather has been turning a bit these last few days. The mornings have been in the 50s and we are getting some showers. That helped the grapes though! They are delicious! We have been cutting some and taking them to give to friends at class. Sweet corn is also in here so we have been getting ears from local sellers. Hermiston Watermelons are about done. They are from Hermiston Oregon, out in the Columbia River basin. They are still coming down with them for local sale but now use a smaller truck. They are the best and are very tasty!  Cathye’s cherry tomatoes are also going nuts! We go out and pick some fresh every day!      

Tuesday, September 17^th., 2024…… Cathye was feeling good so we headed off to our workshop this afternoon. We have been talking about giving the group a name and we were all asked to come up with our choices. I brought several to the group and they chose one of mine. Our little group is now called Late Bloomers! We all liked the name since our Club theme is strawberries. I found some clipart that shows strawberries on the vine in bloom that we liked. We also discussed getting badges and I was asked to come up with a logo and talk to the badge maker up in Beaverton. Back home later, we had dinner and settled in to watch tv. Cathye has expressed interest in seeing the Harry Potter series. We watched the first one and she really enjoyed it. I have all of them on dvd so we can watch more later.  

Wednesday, September 18^th., 2024…… Since both of us have lab orders from our doctors, today we headed off together to the hospital to get that done. After that, we went to Kristi’s for breakfast.  Later this afternoon, I headed off to Corvallis to my appointment. When I was doing a follow up with my gp, she asked how things were. I mentioned that I was still trying to get some answers about my lack of smell. So, she gave me a referral to an ENT office and that was today. The dr. checked everything and didn’t see anything alarming but also nothing that would cause this to happen – except some smaller than normal nasal passages and just old age. He wants to put me on prednisone for 5 days and also wants me to do an MRI just to eliminate tumors and such. Very rare. Problem is, I don’t want to go into a tube! Even with a sedative, I don’t think I can do it. Waiting to hear from scheduling to discuss further. Once I got home, we were in for the day. But later, we did get some exciting news. Corey and Vikki facetimed Grandma to let her know they were pregnant! Don’t they know what causes that? Anyway, happy for them since they have been trying for a long time.   

Thursday, September 19^th., 2024……  Haircuts today at 10:00am, so we headed off to breakfast at Kristi’s beforehand and made it to Dianne’s place with a few minutes to spare. After that, Cathye would be going off with her friends to Silverton to celebrate Cathye’s, Lona’s and Judy’s September birthdays! But, as it turned out, a couple of them weren’t feeling well, so it got postponed. We would find out a few days later that Lona has covid so that turned out to be a good choice! Later, we planned to head over to Albany to meet the 7:50pm train from Portland & pick up Josh and Tait who were coming in to celebrate Grandma’s birthday with her. Turns out their train was super late and wouldn’t get in until midnight! Since I had to do that special pre-surgery shower before bed, I stayed back and she went alone.  The plan is for them to work from home tomorrow while Cathye stays with me during surgery. I expect to be released early afternoon, and depending on how I am feeling, I will go to dinner with them.     

Friday, September 20^th., 2024……  HAPPY BIRTHDAY CATHYE!  It was a busy day for both of us! It was my scheduled ablation surgery day. When they called to schedule, this was the only day that I could get in. So she was ok with that. We will make it work! After I got up and did the second shower and got dressed, we left for the 6:30am check-in at the Corvallis hospital. Turns out this would be a long day. I got in the prep room and was in the operating room around 8:30am. I won’t go into the details but everything went well. Just went on longer than they had told Cat. So, she was more than worried! But, after I was out and in recovery, Penny stayed with me because I needed to rest and make sure there was no bleeding and I could walk ok before they would release me. Meanwhile, Cat went back home where the kids were. Corey and Vikki and family came down to celebrate with her and Josh and Tate. Given the numbers and the time of day, they decided to forgo going out and instead they ordered pizza. Cathye also wanted to work on her special project with the grandkids. She had seen a video on Facebook about a person putting fabric paint on her arms and then hugging her grandchild. “Something to remember me by,” she said. “Hugs from Grandma! She bought 7-8 sweatshirts and Corey, Josh and Tait got theirs today! It was really sweet to watch the video. Here are a few pics of that and the day for both of us…

Saturday, September 21^st., 2024…… I am feeling pretty good this morning. I still have bandages on the two areas on my groin area where they inserted the lines. They said they were able to go in via the venus veins and not the large arteries in the groin. So, maybe the area will be less sore. I am bruised in that area and will remove the bandages later today after we get back from seeing The Cascade Chorus performance this afternoon. I also plan on going to our Club dance tonight. I know I am not allowed to dance, so we will just visit for a bit then head back home. 

Ok, it’s later now. We went to the chorus performance. It was really fun. The group up here is small but they put on a pretty good show and the quartets were good too. I got used to going to see barbershop in California where Ken is in his chorus (Orange Empire Chorus). Turns out that one of the guys up here said he knows Ken. He said when he was down visiting in SoCal, he was lucky enough to guest sing with the Masters of Harmony, one of the top choruses in the world. He also knows some of the Orange Empire guys and said he thinks he remembers Ken.  I had called a number on their website and I think I spoke with a gentleman named Bob Martindale. Might be him. Anyway, Cathye enjoyed the show. They had a feature guest quartet (Timeless) who were really good and had an exception lead. They said they were singing at District coming up next month. Best of luck.

Here are pics from that part of our day…

This last one is when they asked all past members and other singers to come on stage for the final song

Later, we headed over to the Club dance. The Lebanon Square Circlers dances from September to June, and this was the first dance of our season. We didn’t stay too long but it was fun to visit even though we didn’t dance!  Home and tv later. We watched the first half of the Golden Bachelorette. I was happy to see that they chose Joan from the Golden Bachelor. She was our favorite last season. Cathye enjoyed seeing all of the senior gentleman vying for her affection! It will be a fun season!  We cut it short because we were both pretty tired from the day.