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April 22, 2016
IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!
Surprise! I made it here on time after all. Last week, I thought that I may not be able to post on time because we're on the road, but it worked out just fine. So here's what's happening in our lives.
We left for Portland on last Friday as Dave had to get his blood draw for his PSA test. We are delighted to report that his PSA level has dropped from 0.37 to 0.31, which is great! We'll see what his oncologist says about that when we see him next week, but we think he'll be happy too! After the test, we headed over to West Linn before the afternoon rush hour began to spend the night with Lara's family. We always try to time it so we miss the traffic mess, because living at the Coast we have gotten used to not dealing with so much traffic (unless it is tourist season).
On Saturday, we left Lara's and headed back to Hillsboro where we met up with Leslie and Jason to watch our granddaughter, Paige play her soccer game. The weather was perfect and I wasn't prepared for all the sunshine. My arms got a little red before the game was over. Paige's cousin, Taylor and her husband Malcolm came with their two children, so I got to hold their 3-month baby boy, Carter. He is such a cuddler and their little18-month old daughter, Aliyah is so cute too - such a lovely family.
We had three hours to kill before our next event on Saturday which was Jaysa's gymnastic event so we spent money at Home Depot. I bought some flowers and herbs and Dave got a new Nest smoke detector for the house. All we've ever had is one detector for the whole house, and Dave has wanted to upgrade our fire and CO2 detection for quite some time. But instead of just getting one new detector, we now need five - at least according to the fire code. That wouldn't have been so bad, except that Mr. "We need the latest technological stuff" wouldn't settle for anything less than detectors that talk to us and to each other. In addition, they'll talk to the smart phone too. That all sounds like a good idea until we realized that all that technology adds up to $100 per unit! So, we made the decision to go with the installment plan. We bought one, with the promise that we will build up to the five we need - one at a time - as we can afford them. After that purchase, we finished our rounds at Bi-Mart for more flowers and then ate an early dinner at one of our favorite places, The Reedville Cafe.
Jaysa's gymnastic event started at 4:30 and was over at 8:30, a long time for anyone - let alone two senior citizens - to sit on a bare steel bleacher bench. But, it was worth every minute and we are so glad to finally get to see her perform. She placed fifth in her individual events scoring over 9.0 or better in each of them and finished with a ninth place overall. She posed for us with her friend Anni and all their medals. We are so proud of her.
Since we were in Hillsboro, we decided to drive on home after Jaysa's competition instead of driving back to West Linn. We got home around 10:30. We figured we were half way home already and then I could take advantage of the nice weather and get some of my weeding done the next morning. Also I was busy planting all the flowers that I had purchased over the weekend, so the place is beginning to look like summer around here. Besides, it was 10 degrees cooler at the coast than in the valley, although the temperature was still in the 80's. This is April, right?
It was busy around our house on Monday. We had hired a painter to paint the outside and the trim on our house and he came on Monday with his pressure washer to begin to get the house ready. He also caulked around all the windows and replaced one of the deck posts that was ready to collapse from rot. On Tuesday, he came by with some paint samples to show us what the finished product is going to look like. It is going to look so much better. He will start to paint (weather permitting) by the end of the week.
I was just about ready to start supper on Tuesday when I got a call from my Uncle Harry. Well - sort of uncle. His first wife was my father's sister. She died a number of years ago, and he has since re-married, but we keep in touch. Anyway, he and his wife Marjorie were in Wheeler to check out the location for this summer's family reunion. They were concerned that the park would be too rough for his scooter. We invited them to the house, I stretched our meal into enough for four and we invited them to stay for dinner. We had a nice conversation and I think we convinced them that the reunion location will be okay for everyone.
Wednesday, we took off on our road trip to the Bay Area in California. We spent our first night in Dexter, Oregon with some good friends of ours that we have known for 50 years. We first met Ed and Diane when we lived in Oakland while Dave was in the Navy. After we moved back to Oregon, they did the same and they live in a beautiful area east of Eugene. We've kept in touch all those years and it is always a great visit with them. Whenever we get together, we always have to get the old Yahtzee game out. It's a decades-long tradition with the four of us and it can get pretty cut-throat! I showed Diane my on-line game of Yahtzee where I have been playing by myself, practicing for when we got together again. They have a lovely home in the woods and she showed me her beautiful flowers. It was so nice and quiet there and we enjoyed watching the birds and huge squirrels that Ed takes pleasure in feeding.
The next day we said our farewells and headed south on the next leg of our journey. We crossed Mt. Shasta and noticed that Shasta Lake had really risen since the last year when we drove through. It was nearly dried up then. They had a nice snow fall last winter which they desperately needed. We spent the night in Red Bluff and then today leave for Oakland and San Lorenzo to visit with some old Navy buddies of Dave's.
