If you read my blog last week, you know that on Tuesday we had the tow truck out to pull the car out of the yard, where it had slipped when Wayne was trying to get up the driveway. Well, we had a successful trip out on Wednesday afternoon, where on the way out we only had troubles in our own driveway and a bit getting up to the main road on our road. So we ran our errands, and then after we had pulled back into our road, Wayne decided we should go to Yacolt to get our mail, which we hadn’t received in about a week. I pointed out that our mail was usually just junk mail and said I wouldn’t bother, especially as he hadn’t decided to do this while we were on the main road and could have just kept going in to Yacolt. However, Wayne decided to turn around in the neighbor’s driveway on the corner, which wasn’t shoveled or plowed but was fairly level. And of course, he got stuck again. We almost made it out once, and might have done if we had swapped drivers and he had pushed at that point, but he kept backing further and further down the driveway toward the house, which had a slight upward slope to get to the road. Of course, we got more and more stuck. So, I finally called the tow truck, picked up my cup of coffee, left my phone with him, and walked home, since Wayne wouldn’t leave the car in someone else’s driveway. It’s a good thing I did, too, because Luke really needed to go out. Wayne got home about an hour later.
It has snowed every day now for almost three weeks, although some days it hasn’t snowed a lot. Down in the valley they don’t understand, because it’s been raining there for almost two weeks instead of snowing. When driving to our house, we go through the valley, which has almost no snow, and then we turn in to the first minor road after the highway and see an inch or two of snow on all the pastures. Then we drive that road and another one, and as soon as we turn onto the road the leads to our little neighborhood road, we see four or five inches of snow everywhere. After not having gotten very much more for a few days, this morning I woke up to another inch or two. However, this fell on dry pavement, because Wayne had managed to shovel two ruts all the way down to the road, and a turnaround area by the garage, so I am determined to go to art class for the first time in two weeks.
As for my other classes, I made it out on Saturday for tai chi, although the middle part of our driveway, which had not been shoveled yet at that time, was very slippery and I almost slid into one of my landscaping boxes. Then, by the time I got home, Wayne had shoveled all the rest of the driveway, at least in the ruts made by the tires. Yesterday Maja and I also got out for our senior fitness class. We understand from the weather report that the snow level is supposed to move back up to 3000 feet and ours will melt this weekend.
A week ago, my sister invited us to Crab Feast. When the two of us were visiting my brother in Seaside a few weeks ago, I suggested that she and I get together periodically for coffee or something, because since she moved into town I never see her. She told me she likes to go to the pub periodically and she’ll invite me when she goes, but that has not materialized. Instead, she sent a text from the pub to invite us to Crab Feast, which we would not have known was going on. So, on Friday, the day before, I texted to ask her what the plans were, and she texted back that she had changed her plans without further explanation. It was a little mysterious.
My brother and sister-in-law had been planning to drive up to Seattle for my brothers’ birthdays, which are four days apart, and I had suggested I go up there at the same time. However, last time I saw them, they had plainly forgotten my suggestion, and I didn’t bring it up, because I had learned my nephew dropped out of college and was back home, so I assumed they wouldn’t have room for me. My Seattle brother always posts his Wordle score against mine and on Sunday he wrote instead, “Sue surprised me.” I asked what he meant, but before he answered me I realized that her changed plans probably meant that she forgot all about us and drove up to Seattle on impulse. Then I was a little disappointed to have missed all the fun again. And sure enough, that’s exactly what she did.
In any case, Wayne and I went to Crab Feast on Saturday. The crab was delicious as usual.
My latest haul from British Library Women Writers series
In other news, I received a big box from the British Library Women Writers series. The Crime Classics people have been sending me a book or two a month, but since fall I received nothing at all from Women Writers. I let my contact know, and he tried to send me everything I had missed. Riches!
On the other hand, I learned some very sad news from Dean Street Press. For years I have been in touch with Rupert Heath, one of the founders of the press, who periodically sent me review copies. Lately, too, whenever I published a review of one of their books, usually from their Furrowed Middlebrow line, his wife Amanda sent me a nice comment. Rupert mentioned on Facebook some time back that his wife was ill, but I hadn’t heard anything else. This week, I learned that Amanda had died and that Rupert had become ill after her death and also died. I am so sorry! They both seemed to be such nice people. I had just sent Rupert an email and wondered why I didn’t hear back.
On one of our walks this week, which were few because of slippery footing, Luke and I saw four ducks in the pond. The other day I saw two. These seem to be a different breed of duck than were there a few weeks ago.
This week the county reports 222 new cases of Covid for a total of 112,051. There has been only one more death, for a total of 1047. The rate of new cases per 100K population is up 3.8 to 46.7.
If you read my blog last week, you’ll know that I missed my Tuesday exercise class because of snow and that I had also decided not to try to get to art class on Wednesday, because we were snowed in. Last week it snowed all Tuesday night, all Wednesday, and finally stopped snowing Thursday afternoon. I am not sure how much snow we got, but it was probably at least a foot. We had two sunny but cold days on Friday and Saturday, cold enough that nothing melted, and then it started snowing again, on and off, but it got warmer, so that snow melted somewhat during the day (although not enough to make our driveway even close to clear) and then refroze at night.
The view from our back window on Thursday morning
I don’t know if my Thursday exercise class took place. It was bad down in the valley, too, so I doubt it. People stuck in town on Wednesday night took hours to get home, and my brother and sister-in-law had come up to Portland for a doctor’s appointment but decided to white-knuckle it back to Seaside instead of staying. That’s just as well, because they would have been stuck there for a day or two.
My tai chi class was cancelled on Saturday, ironically one day I could probably have made it. We decided to go out on Saturday and make a run to the store, because it was supposed to snow at our elevation again the next day, and so it has, every day since then until today, although it didn’t snow that much yesterday, just on and off in small amounts.
On Friday afternoon, Wayne was out shoveling the steep part of the driveway, and a neighbor came by. He went home and then came back with a snowplow attached to his truck and plowed our driveway up to the level part. I’m sure he would have done more, but Wayne probably wouldn’t let him. Generally, after snow we just drive in and out with our all wheel drive, but sometimes we can’t get back up the steep part of our driveway if it’s too slippery.
On Saturday when we drove in to town, our main road was fairly icy and had plainly not been treated, but all the other main roads were in good condition. We did some shopping and stopped off at Christine’s to drop off some peach pie that I made while we were snowbound. That was our only outing all week, and then it started over, with Maja and I deciding not to try to make our Tuesday exercise class and me cancelling art class today.
The snow doesn’t look that deep, but our driveway was plowed on Thursday and this is the snow that has fallen since. Plus, Wayne has been shoveling to try to get the car out. Here is our car, stuck, and Luke’s tail
One of the reasons I didn’t try to get to class today is because on Monday, Wayne took the car out to the mailboxes (we only got mail on Saturday of all these days) and in trying to get the car back up the steep part of the driveway he ended up sliding off onto the grass and got stuck. On Tuesday, he went down twice and fooled around with it while I tried to tell him that road service is included in our car insurance. Finally, Tuesday afternoon he came up and said he had made it worse and called a towing service. The car is now back in the garage. I probably could have gotten out this morning for art class, but people this morning are reporting lots of black ice, so I’m glad I canceled. However, I have to get out today or tomorrow for some lab tests, so we decided to go out this afternoon, since there is supposed to be another storm, including snow at our elevation, tonight and tomorrow.
Instead of being soft and easy to walk in, our snow is now heavy and slippery. Luke has done some running around in it, but it is getting harder and harder for him to make headway, so we haven’t been for a walk since Friday afternoon. Poor puppy. Also, I have to worry about slipping and falling.
That’s really been it this week, thinking about snow, dealing with snow, being snowed in. Just yesterday we spent the entire afternoon inside watching mystery shows except when Wayne was out with the tow-truck guy.
And here are our Covid statistics for the week. Total number of cases is up 213 to 111,829. There have been 5 more deaths for a total of 1046. The rate of new cases per 100K population is down 2.6 to 42.9.
We had snow forecast for Monday night, and sure enough, when I took Luke for his late night outing, we had about an inch on the ground. In the morning, I took one look outside and turned off my alarm and went back to bed. Later, Maja said she was going to exercise class and asked if I wanted to come, but I was still in my nightie working on my blog, so I said no. A little while later, she chickened out. We had about two inches of accumulation, and I’m sure it would have been safe if I had driven, but not if she was driving her car, which has does not handle well on slippery roads.
It being Valentine’s Day, I was curious what would happen at home. Wayne did very well this year, though. He bought me some Dove chocolate truffles and the only problem was he couldn’t remember where he put my card. I gave him a card and a huge bar of dark chocolate. Later, we went out in mid-afternoon and got fast food, because the only rule is I don’t have to cook. Next door to the fast food, we noticed a new Thai barbecue place, so that looked promising.
Last week was more exciting than this one, but I realized when I sat down to write this that I had forgotten to post my article last Wednesday. So, you’ll be getting two in a row. Most of the week I just did my normal things, went to class, and saw Duchess and Christine on Monday morning. I was very tired after my trip to Seaside the weekend before. At Christine’s, Luke actually chased Duchess around the backyard, so he was obviously feeling energized.
I learned a few days ago that my best friend from college is coming to visit in March. That will be fun.
I’ve noticed that Wayne’s use of firewood this year has been a little eccentric. Usually, we heat the house mostly with our wood stove and only use our heat pump once in a while in the winter. However, this year, with the cost of firewood so much more expensive, he’s been using it more restrictively. But his method defies my logic.
A few weeks ago, when we had several weeks of above-average temperatures, he was running the stove all day, even when I suggested that we didn’t need it. However, during the last week, the temperatures have gone down to average for the time of year, which means lows in the 30’s and highs in the 40’s, and he has not been making a fire some days until 6 PM or so, and I’ve been freezing. Worse, he seems to make it later on colder days, although today the high was 41 and he started one about 1 PM. I can’t figure it out. Of course, I could make a fire, but I have been lazy lately.
Of course, we have the heat pump on for when the house gets too cold (for a long time, Wayne kept it off), but because of the windows in the living room, that room is considerably colder than where the thermostat is located in the hall. Anyway, today we can’t have a fire because of bad air quality in the valley.
We had a usual week, with Maja and I back at exercise classes and me in tai chi. I have had an injury to my right leg for a while now, and Tuesday was the first day that it didn’t hurt during our sidestepping exercise. It didn’t bother me at all until we had to stand just on that leg for an extended period.
Saturday was supposed to be the ending party for those completing the tai chi Introductory class in December, not that we actually did so, because the last two class sessions were abruptly cancelled. Back in December, we were supposed to sign up if we were going to come (because the party was on New Years Eve morning) and they were going to have pastries. However, by the time they got around to our delayed party in January, they had decided not to serve food. They were having the party during the Continuing class, which is before the Introductory class (which I’m retaking), and there was supposed to be a business meeting, too. It stopped sounding interesting to me, especially when I was told they would be “orienting” the new graduates. I didn’t want to be oriented or attend the meeting and I didn’t think I could handle three hours of tai chi, so I decided just to go for my regular class. This will be my third stab at Introductory class, and I’m going to try to attend every class so that at least I will have seen every move of the 108 demonstrated and learn it in order.
Our smidge of snow
Anyway, about ten minutes before I was due to go to class on Saturday morning, it started snowing, which had not been forecast. On my drive to class, it was still snowing, and it was quite a flurry, although it was not accumulating on the road yet. I expected that by the time I got to the valley, it would be raining, but it snowed almost all the way to class. Then when we were doing tai chi, I saw it snowing pretty hard through the windows. When I got out of class, it was raining, and there was no snow on the ground, but on the way home, the last road had a bit of accumulation, with some cars driving really slowly, and there was still snow at home. In fact, it stayed on the ground all day until it started raining in the evening.
In art class on Wednesday, our teacher was ill, so instead of moving to one of the principal figures in my painting, I painted Christine’s shirt. I hope Oksana is well this week, not just for her health but because I am running out of unimportant things to paint.
The only other thing of interest I did was take Lukey over to visit Christine and Duchess on Monday morning. We had our usual little snack and a nice chat.
Lately, we’ve had ducks on the pond almost every day.
This week the county reports 18,111 positive cases of the virus total with 259 active cases. It appears the last couple weeks as if the numbers are going down. I hope they stay there. We have had 221 deaths, and our rate is 209.8.
We are no longer housebound. On Wednesday, I looked at the snow and concluded that we had driven out safely before when it was that deep (about four to six inches), so I put Luke in the car while Wayne was napping and drove out. I had no problems doing this, and aside from our little road, all the roads were clear. Our little road was a bit iffy, but people had been driving in and out the entire time, so it was fine as long as you stayed in other people’s ruts.
I drove into town, picked up my library books and a coffee. I checked to see if Christine was busy, and she was, so I drove home. Wayne had cleared the bottom of our steep slope up the driveway first, but even with that running start, I was unable to make it back up, the snow was so slippery and wet. I tried three times and then just left the car down on the cleared part. Wayne didn’t even realize we’d been gone. Later on, he walked down there with the snow shovel and shoveled the rest of the sloped part of the driveway. Then he drove the car back up into the garage.
Over the next few days, he shoveled a bit every day and eventually cleared the entire driveway. Even though it didn’t snow again after Valentine’s Day, it didn’t get warm enough to melt the snow very fast, and the rain that was forecast was mostly a dismal drizzle every day. This Saturday and Sunday, though, it was sunny, so Luke finally got to go out for a walk. I took one of my hiking poles with me the first day in case it proved slippery, but by that time, our road was down to the gravel again in the ruts.
On Thursday, then, Wayne was able to take Luke as usual for Doggy Day Care, and I picked him up. I also placed a grocery order and went and picked it up on Friday. Those were our exciting outings.
On Saturday, I passed my niece and her husband on the way out in their car when Luke and I took our walk. She said it was the first time she’d been out of the house in over a week. They were just going to get groceries, but by that time, getting groceries seemed exciting. I walked up to their house and found my sister out in the yard, so we had a natter. It was nice to see some faces besides Wayne’s and Luke’s.
I had been oblivious to most of the news. Frankly, Wayne and I got tired of hearing about the snowstorm in Portland, so we weren’t paying attention to the news from Texas. I saw a Facebook post from an ex-coworker who had filled her bathtub with snow to flush her toilet and just thought that she had water problems, as she lives in Dripping Springs, which despite the name, has had them off and on for years. It wasn’t until Friday or Saturday that it all sunk in, so on Sunday we spent quite a bit of time on the phone calling our Texas friends to see if they were okay. One friend in Austin had a pipe break when the power was off, but she luckily only had a power failure for a few days, and she was able to get the plumber friend of a neighbor over to replace pipes, since all the plumbers were busy. He replaced six pipes. I have always felt it was ridiculous that in Texas they not only don’t do a good job of insulating homes, but they put the pipes in the attic. Guaranteed to ruin your house if they break.
Another friend in Houston did not suffer any breakage because she turned off her water. However, she was without power or water for quite some time. She was lucky enough to have a next-door neighbor with a generator like ours, so that nice lady invited her over to get warm and even to have a shower. She said she was sleeping with every blanket in the house and a down sleeping bag one night when the power came back on, and she got so hot she had to get up and return her bed to normal. Once power was steadily on, she got her brother out to help her turn her water back on.
I had several sightings this week of four ducks in our pond, although I haven’t seen them today. Finally, most of our snow is gone, with just little piles of it here and there. It started melting when the rain came in earnest, beginning on Sunday. It rained all day long, so Wayne and I spent the entire day watching TV and reading.
The other thing that happened was that Wayne finally got a message from our health care clinic with his invitation to get his first vaccine. He has an appointment for this coming Sunday. My second vaccine is later today.
This week the county has had 17,164 cases, 656 of which are active. Number of deaths is up to 186. Our rate per 100,000 is 401.23. It does seem like numbers are slowly going down, but I don’t want to speak too soon.
Last Tuesday night, you might remember that I got an appointment for a vaccineon Thursday. Then, on Wednesday I started to worry about it, because the confirmation email I got was worded as if they thought I was a Legacy Health employee. I looked back at the original invitation and the registration pages, and they looked as if they were for regular people, so I thought that perhaps they had forgotten to reword their original confirmation email from when they were vaccinating employees. Still, I was a little worried that I would get there and be sent away.
So, on Thursday evening I left fairly early to drive the half hour to the medical center. The Salmon Creek hospital also has a medical office complex at the same address, and because of the wording of the email, for some reason, I thought I was going to the medical building. So, I parked behind the medical building and walked up to the back door. It was locked, and a sign said to go to the main entrance. So, not seeing a good way around the building, I moved my car to the parking garage, which is across the entrance from the medical building and next to the hospital. Then I walked across the entrance driveway to the medical building again, only to find the door locked. I guess by “main entrance,” they must mean the hospital, although why they don’t say that, I don’t know. In fact, in all of their communications, they made no distinction between the hospital and the medical office building. Luckily, there was an employee in the front hallway, and she came to the door and told me to go to the hospital.
When I walked into the hospital, the registration for the vaccine clinic was right there. I had to stand in a short line to register, and then they gave me a plasticized card to write my name and date of birth on in dry erase marker (which they cleaned off as soon as I got my vaccine and used over) and told me to take a seat. I think I had been in my seat about 30 seconds when they called our group and herded us into a series of elevators, three people to an elevator. We went up a floor and got into another, longer line, and stood in line about five or ten minutes before getting our vaccines. Then we were told to sit in the hallway for 15 minutes to make sure we didn’t have side effects and then walk around the corner and register for our second vaccination. After I placed a to-go order at a Thai restaurant nearby, I got up and walked around and made my appointment instead of waiting, and then I walked back and sat down for 10 minutes. I was glad I did it that way, because by the time I left, there was a long line to make an appointment. I think I might have been there for a total of 25 minutes, depending upon whether I was still early when I got to the hospital. It all went very smoothly, and I have an appointment for my second vaccine at the end of the month. Neither Wayne nor Christine has heard about their first vaccine, and I only mention them because they are both Legacy patients, like me. So far, I am the only person I know of in this area who has had a vaccine, besides medical personnel and care facility patients. Of course, that probably reflects how few people I know here, but really, we don’t hear much about people getting vaccine appointments.
To go on with the medical theme, when I visited my nephrologist last month, she asked me about my heartburn medication, which was changed from Zantac to Pepcid last year after Zantac got pulled from the market. I confessed that Pepcid didn’t seem to work as well, that I was conscious of a slight feeling of discomfort. I’m not even sure that is an accurate description. It’s more like I am aware of that area in my body, which I wasn’t when I took Zantac, if that makes any sense. Well, she changed me to Omeprazole. I found that Omeprazole didn’t work at all, so I contacted her, and she told me to take a double dose for two weeks and then go back to a regular dose. That worked better, but it was still worse than the Pepcid, and then when I went back to the regular dose last week, well, watch out. On Thursday, just before I was due to drive over for my vaccine, I actually thought I might be having a heart attack, it felt so bad. This was after a couple of nights when I had to take Pepto Bismol to go to sleep. When I tell you that I never had bad heartburn in my life (except for one unfortunate incident involving airplane food) and was put on the medication because of other symptoms, you’ll understand how shocking this was to me. A couple days before this incident, I messaged my nephrologist and told her the Omeprazole wasn’t working, and she said that since neither drug worked for me, I should go back to my regular doctor about it. On Friday, I went back to Pepcid myself and left a message with my doctor’s assistant, hoping he could just call me back and tell me what to do. He told me I probably needed more tests and asked me to make an appointment, which I did for Tuesday morning. Actually, the Pepcid works so much better than the Omeprazole that it makes me wonder what I was complaining about.
On Monday morning I got up earlier than usual because I had a fairly early appointment to have my nose debrided again. Shortly after 7AM, the phone rang. It was Vancouver Clinic telling me they had to reschedule this appointment for later. They made it for the same day at 12:30. It’s a good thing they called so early, because it takes almost an hour to get to that particular clinic, which is in far eastern Vancouver. Vancouver is a long, thin city stretched along the Columbia. It’s shaped sort of like a piece of spaghetti, so it can take a lot longer to get to some parts than others.
I went in at 12:30 and the nurse looked at my nose and had the doctor come in and debride it again. (This time she called it “debreed.”) They told me I probably didn’t need to come in again for that, but that I would have to come in about three weeks from now because my nose was going to heal with a little button shape on it (I don’t think it’s what they mean by a button nose), and they would have to sand it down. Ouch! That’s because the skin graft died, I guess, or at least most of it did.
When I asked about the rescheduling, the nurse told me that the second dose of the vaccine is particularly hard on young people. They had all had it last week, and four girls called in sick. She said that they don’t have any extra people, so if someone is not there, they all have to do double duty. So, they moved all her appointments to her lunch hour so that she could help out with what the sick girls were supposed to be doing. If this makes you wonder whether I had any side effects from the first vaccine, I’ll tell you no, just a bruise on my arm.
We have found a good barbecue place (very hard to find here) on the way back from that clinic, so I picked up barbecue and took it home for linner after my appointment. We have found that we don’t often want both lunch and dinner anymore, so we sometimes have a late lunch/early dinner, which we call linner.
Monday must have been medical reschedule day, because later on I got a call from the doctor’s office telling me they had to reschedule my appointment to discuss my heartburn, so now that’s set for Friday. I am glad to say that because I put myself back on Pepcid, I feel okay.
Gosh, I hate talking about medical stuff, so I would imagine that this has bored you silly. Let’s talk about something else.
Yesterday morning Fedex delivered a big package to Wayne. It turns out he ordered a great big pump, saying that if a forest fire came near, we could pump water out of our pond to keep the house wet. Wayne sometimes complains that I spend too much money, but I have noticed that while I tend to buy books in packages of $35 a pop (to avoid shipping fees) from Amazon, when he spends money, it’s always on things that cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. Now he’s feeling rich because he got a small part of his legacy from his brother, and he has probably spent more than that much. So now we own yet another expensive thing that we will probably never use. Maybe if the pump will work for draining the fountain so we can clean it out and get it working, it’ll be worth it, but I doubt it. The pumps he bought for that purpose turned out to be insufficient.
The remnants of just a few minutes of violent hail in our front yard
I am beginning to think that this year we will not get any substantial snow, because it’s already February. The snow that was forecast for five days in a row last week didn’t really materialize except for some stuff that lasted only a couple of hours. Yesterday, however, we were driving out to PNW Best Fish Company to pick up fish and chips when we were caught in a violent hail storm about 20 minutes from our house. Earlier in the day, it had slushed at home. That is, something was coming down that was halfway between rain and hail, causing a small bit of accumulation on our deck. In the afternoon, thundershowers were forecast, but what we got was this really fierce hailstorm that suddenly appeared and in no time had accumulated ice on the road. When we passed through it, we met sun and melted slush. When we got home, although we saw no sign of it except when we returned back through the area where it had originally hit, it had clearly also been through our neighborhood.
Then last night I got up with Luke, and thinking he needed to go outside, I looked out to what appeared to be a lawn covered in snow. Water was pouring down from our eaves, though, so I thought perhaps the “snow” was an optical illusion of the grass in the darkness. Luke wouldn’t go out, so instead of putting on my boots and going out with him, I called him back into the house. This morning, however, I saw that it had indeed been snow that was almost completely melted, but the roof was still covered and there were patches of snow all over the lawn. That’s funny because although snow was originally forecast for today, the forecast had changed to rain.
Hiking opportunities did not abound this week, because it rained almost every day. In any case, when I sent out the hiking message last week, I got a response from my niece that she might be able to go on Friday, and then Maja said that might work for her. I started trying to find out on Thursday if this was going to happen, but the only response I got was from Maja, who said she could not go. By Friday morning, I still hadn’t heard anything, so I made plans to go over to Christine’s with Luke around 10:30. Then I got a typical message from my sister, which announced that she was going after lunch with the kids and where she was going. I thought I probably wouldn’t be back from Christine’s by then, and I don’t believe in changing plans unless there’s an emergency. So, it worked out that Luke and I didn’t get to hike this week. I probably should have had more patience, but I had something I wanted to take over to Christine’s. In any case, it bothers me a bit that my sister always announces when and where she is going, often with very little warning, even though I’m the one who sends out the invitation to hike every week. Maja and I always have a bit of a consultation about when and where we want to go.
I met my sister walking on the road on the way home from my Monday appointment last week, and she told me that she was planning to walk it Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays . I told her I would come along but I was just bringing lunch home (the barbecue). So, she said she would let me know when she was ready to go each day. She actually did on Wednesday, and Luke and I walked with her even though it was raining a little bit, but I haven’t heard about it since then.
Wayne and I finished all the episodes of Death in Paradise. Although we know the tenth season is out, it’s not on Britbox yet. We then decided to watch the old episodes of Prime Suspect, because I had a sense that perhaps I hadn’t seen them all. Now I’m not sure, because I looked it up and saw that they didn’t do a series every year. It seems to be just as good now as when I first saw it, except now you notice the production values. On Monday night, we decided to watch an episode of All Creatures Great and Small, so that we could compare it with the new series. I had never watched the old series, but Wayne used to. We decided that the new series, while similar, is better.
That’s about it for this week. I feel guilty that I have been so dragged down by the rain lately that I haven’t made sure Luke gets out for a walk every day. To be fair to myself, Luke doesn’t want to walk in the rain, but that shouldn’t stop me. He has lately started to just sit up at the top of the driveway and watch me go instead of following me out onto the road. Usually, if I just keep going, he eventually follows, but one day last week I got all the way to pond, and he was still sitting at the top of the driveway. So, I have resorted to the leash again. I am hoping that this phase won’t last long, because it was nice not to have to take the leash on our walks.
The first tai chi class went well aside from us all being locked out when we first got there. The instructor said they hoped for four or five people, but there were 16 of us. We learned the first five moves. Maja wasn’t able to go with me but will go this week. They called me on Tuesday to tell me that if Battle Ground schools are closed today, we won’t have class, but there’s just a late start. On Monday night we got a couple of inches of snow up here (although not in Battle Ground) and Tuesday we had more. Wayne also said he might go, but as usual he has copped out.
On Thursday night at art class, I drew my pigs, which will be my next painting. My teacher told me I should do a furry animal after finishing my landscape. Almost everyone in my class picks cats, dogs, horses, or wild animals like foxes and tigers. I thought it would be nice to do a barnyard animal. I looked at pictures of cows and pigs and picked some pigs sleeping in hay. I completed transferring the drawing onto my canvas a few minutes before clean-up time, so I did not begin painting it.
Lucie, John, and Sue on the beach at Seaside
On Friday, Sue picked me up and we loaded up some things that John and Lucie left and drove to Seaside. We arrived about noon in pouring rain. In fact, it was raining so hard when we crossed the bridge to the south of Astoria that we could barely see where we were going.
Haystack Rock from south of Cannon Beach
John and Lucie’s cottage was built in the 1930’s and is very nice. It has cedar shake siding and has two bedrooms downstairs and an attic with three twin beds upstairs. It is small but a lot larger than the apartments we looked at here and well lit and pleasant. There is a little sun room where Lucie sits in the morning reading her book. Luckily for me, Sue volunteered to sleep in the attic. The staircase from there to the little bathroom below it is very narrow and steep, and the ceiling slants so that you can bang your head on it. I was sure I’d fall down the stairs during one of my many nighttime trips to the bathroom. I had been trying to figure out if both of us could sleep in the guestroom bed, but it is pushed up against the wall, making it difficult for the inside person to get up in the middle of the night.
The cottage was rented furnished, and it is furnished to the max. There is very little room for any of John and Lucie’s things, and it is also full of kitsch with a seaside theme. Lots of shells and starfish around the place. Not very good paintings of water. And so on. However, it is comfortably furnished and the decor isn’t overly annoying.
I took this picture at Oswald West just north of Manzanita.
After we ate lunch, we walked the three or four long blocks to the sea. We had heard warnings of king tides and sneaker waves on the way in, and I tried to impress on John and Lucie how serious this was by telling them about a man and his child who were dragged out to sea the summer before, but John and Sue still went pretty close to the water. Lucie stayed well back with me. We walked along the ocean for a while. It was very windy and rainy, though, so after a few miles, we turned around and went home. John said they had already started a habit of heading out whenever it stopped raining. They had only had one day so far that it didn’t rain. (During that same time period, we had none.)
That night, Lucie made us a delicious dinner and we finally got to watch Amadeus, which I brought from home.
The next day when we went back down to the ocean in the morning, the tide was so high that the beach we had been walking on was completely underwater. We went down to the promenade and checked out the ocean from several viewpoints, before going to breakfast at Pig n Pancake. When we headed south to drive around the point below Seaside, the road was blocked off, so we had to go back to Highway 101.
We spent the day exploring a bunch of stops along the highway south of Seaside and looking at the ocean from different angles. Only once did John and Lucie go down to a beach, but it was at a tight cove, which is not a good place to do it under these conditions. Most of the time, we were looking at views from up high. We went down to Manzanita, and as we were going there, we encountered several ambulances. Later, we found out about the man and his two children who were pulled out to sea right when we were in the area. His little girl drowned and his little boy was never found. I feel so sorry for that family.
In the evening, we went out to dinner at one of the fish restaurants in Seaside, and we went to bed fairly early. The next morning I got up early and was thinking of taking a shower but was worried that it would wake up John and Lucie, who shared a jack and jill bathroom. I’m glad I didn’t do anything, because John got in the shower that morning and found the water not going down. When he got up, he saw that water had flooded up from under the toilet. We had to get the property manager to call a plumber. It turned out that the bamboo roots from the hedge on that side of the house had clogged up the pipes. The water was turned off for some time, and during that time, I had to walk several blocks down to the public toilet. However, I’m sure that will soon be fixed, and I’m glad they are so happy in their new home.
Some good news was that while we were there, Nancy texted John inviting him and Lucie to attend Mark’s 70th birthday potluck in early February. That made him very happy. Maybe we’re all going to put the latest unpleasantness behind us.
Sue and I drove home about 11 on Sunday morning. It was supposed to snow in Yacolt later that day, but we really didn’t get much. However, we got a lot more on Monday night. It was a little slippery going down to town to do our usual errands on Tuesday, but when we got to Battle Ground, they had no snow.
Lukey was very happy to see me when I got home. Wayne said he spent most of the time looking out the window.
I noticed earlier in the week that we had a couple of ducks in our pond. I’m surprised. It seems rather late. We haven’t had nearly as many geese migrating overhead. Now they are gone, so perhaps we were just a short stop on their journey. Wayne saw two does in our orchard the other evening, so that’s two wildlife sightings in one week.
This last week has been strange because Enzo’s was closed, so there were no puppy activities. In addition, my pack walking ladies were all busy and so were my hiking friends. It was super cold earlier in the week, so I wasn’t good about getting out to get exercise. Now, it has warmed up a little.
Mischa looking very much the young lady before our tree
We treated Thanksgiving Day as a regular day except that my great niece, Mischa, came over to help me decorate the Christmas tree. We got it up and I put the lights on the day before. That went much more quickly ever since I switched over to the small LED lights. Before, I had LED lights that clipped onto the branches, and it usually took me several hours to get them all on. (I like lots of lights.) Now, I just drape them over the branches, and it takes me about 20 minutes.
Similarly, working with Mischa makes the decorating a snap. When I lived in Austin, it used to take me an entire weekend to decorate my tree, with lots of rest stops. Now with her helping and me in better shape, we finished the tree in an amazing two hours. Then we had lunch and played dominoes for a while before Mischa went back home.
On Saturday afternoon, I went with Shawn and a friend to Randy’s Christmas concert with the Portland Choir and Orchestra. This year, they played with the Big Horn Brass, and they had an impressive sound. However, I missed the bell ringers they’ve played with the past two years. Afterwards, the four of us went out to eat, and then Randy had to return for the second performance. Unfortunately for all of us here, Shawn and Randy are moving to Utah early next year.
I look this picture around 7 AM on Sunday. It’s just the front lawn and the driveway with a bit of snow.
Sunday morning, we awakened to our first snow fall, just a dusting of snow. Sunday was our non-Thanksgiving dinner, so I got up early to work on the turkey. It snowed just a bit again around 11:30 that morning and then proceeded to melt.
In mid-afternoon, we had 13 people to dinner. We had a very nice time, eating turkey, dressing, and all the fixings. Considering I had prepared only a small portion of the food, I was amazed by how tired I was when everyone left. I was just trying to get a load of dishes that my sister had rinsed off into the dishwasher, but I really wanted to just collapse into a chair.
This week, all the puppy events are back in force, so Luke and I went to class on Monday night. Unfortunately, he had a case of diarrhea when we arrived at puppy play on Tuesday and was sent home. I should have tried to make up for this by taking him for a walk, but I got too involved in writing Christmas cards. However, Maja and I are taking him on our hike today.
Wayne’s project to expand the hanging capacity of the guest closet hasn’t progressed very far. It has resulted in two trips to buy more parts, and one day he spent a lot of time down in the basement planning it out. However, he turned on a heater down there yesterday because he said it was too cold to work, which I took as a good sign except he never went back down to work. I hope he’ll do some today while I am out. My brother and sister-in-law have made it to Taos so far on their slow journey out here, and I have been waiting to clean their room until I see how much mess Wayne has made in working on his project. At this rate, he’ll be halfway done when they arrive.
I took this picture on Sunday, when we still had lots of snow and it was sunny. Everything was sparkling. It was beautiful. The picture doesn’t convey how the light sparkled off the branches. Too bad.
I don’t know if the media has dubbed our recent storm snowpocalypse or if it was one of my funny brothers, but that’s what our family has been calling it. After the relatively modest snowfall I reported on last week, the snow began falling on Friday evening. Within an hour we had about an inch. It snowed all night long, and we awakened on Saturday morning to what looked like at least a half foot of snow! The official measurement for our area was three inches, but it was at least six inches deep on our driveway.
All our Saturday activities were cancelled, and aside from taking Luke out into the snow, where he had fun playing, we stayed home by the fire. I tried to help someone who had slid off the road near our pond, but I wasn’t able to get him out. I was trying to instruct him on rocking his truck, but he couldn’t do it. I went back up to the house when he decided to walk in to the house he was visiting and get help. It was our neighbor having a Native American ceremony, so there were lots of people there to help him, and later on I saw that the truck was gone.
It continued to snow on and off for the next couple days. Sunday was bright and sunny with little melting, but the snow sparkled in the sun. Then Sunday afternoon it started raining and then snowing and then raining again.
On Monday morning, we ventured out for the first time, to take Luke to Puppy Play and Train. We hadn’t plowed or shoveled our driveway, and our drive down the driveway was interesting. Because it had rained on top of snow but the snow wasn’t gone, it was slippery on our little road in front and on the first couple of main roads, but once we crossed the river on our way to Battle Ground, the roads were suddenly clear. We ran some errands and had breakfast, then picked Luke back up and drove home. By then, it had been raining all morning, but the snow was still on the roads up in our part of the county, so it was much more slippery. We finally failed at driving back up our driveway, which has a good slope at the start, probably more than 30 degrees. We ended up slightly off the driveway and had to walk up it. Later, though, after it had rained a while more, Wayne took the shovel down and got the car out. Yesterday it was rainy, but it is a mark of how much snow we got that we still have lots. Today it’s supposed to stop raining and become partly sunny.
The Lewis River from the Moulton Falls bridge after our first snowfall on Tuesday. If you look closely at the right middle of the picture, you can see a shower of snow falling from a tree.
To return to the earlier part of the week, last Wednesday my hiking friends and I took our default hike when it is rainy or slippery to Moulton Falls Park. It was a very cold day, much colder than this week, and we had that snowfall the day before. We went to the park because we were afraid of the footing, and we were very glad we did. It was so beautiful! It was a sunny day, the river was high, and the snow was showering down off the treetops into the river in lovely falls. We met several people there, and everyone was talking about what a nice day it was. My numb fingers turned warm after a few minutes of hiking. To read more about this hike, see my post on Fat Girls.
In art class, I got to do a fun thing. I had painted my buildings, and we wanted to do a glaze on the right side that would put everything in shadow. I think the result looks really nice. This week I’ll probably go on putting details into the other buildings, particularly the ones in shadow.
This weekend, my friend Deb and I had tickets to a play at the Magenta Theater, a Vancouver community theater that I had seen a poster for at art school. However, with snowpocalypse, neither of us felt like we could venture in for the show, although it was not cancelled. They nicely rescheduled our tickets for this coming Saturday. The play is a Jeeves and Wooster, which should be fun.
On the not so nice side, we got news of an unexpected tax amount that we owe the IRS. It’s a long story, but the sore point for me is that I feel we were robbed in the first place. We are being taxed on an amount of money we never received, and the taxes are going to be huge. It has to do with an insurance policy my husband took out twenty years before we were even married. So, on Monday we had to go down to our credit union and see about a loan. That’s depressing, because we were pretty much out of debt except for our car loan and some incidental credit card charges. Sigh. At least the credit union lady was very helpful and nice.
After we learned about that, we tried to cancel our deal to get a new roof, one that only Wayne thought we needed. However, they told us we would have to pay 40% of the cost if we cancelled, which is just ridiculous, especially considering they already had the shingles in stock. So, aside from the snow, it wasn’t that nice of a week, and we are getting a roof that I didn’t think was necessary to begin with.
Here’s a view of our orchard on Tuesday morning. The road off to the left is the single-lane gravel road into our neighborhood.
All week we had snow forecast, and each day they put if off for a couple days later. Finally, on Sunday afternoon we had a little snow, and by Monday some had accumulated in blotches. But when we awakened on Tuesday, we had the winter wonderland that seems to be almost the default when we have snow here. Luke had never seen snow before, and he humped his back and sort of hopped around in it like a demented rabbit. He got pretty wild, in fact. I think that meant he enjoyed it.
Luke running around by the pond
I took him around the property, and I intended to walk him down to my niece, Katrina’s, house, since I knew the kids had a snow day. However, when we went out, I realized he had his regular collar on, not his prong collar. He is off-leash around our property but not allowed on the road without his leash. But I can’t handle him on a leash without his prong collar as he is very strong, and he pulls.
Later on that day, Luke and I drove over to visit the kids. They were delighted and threw on their outdoor clothing. Luke was bouncing around in the snow so much that when the youngest went out, he bounced into him and knocked him over. However, I made the mistake of trying to go inside the house to visit with my niece. Instead of playing with the kids, he stood by the front door and looked in. This is a problem with him. We can’t let him out and have him occupy himself. He keeps waiting for me or Wayne to come out. Once one of us is out, then he occupies himself very well, but he wants company. We tried to see if he would run off and play with the kids, but I finally had to go out with him, and by then the kids were doing their own thing.
Last Wednesday, my sister and one of my hiking buddies and I tried to go for an easy hike out in the Yacolt Burn Forest. However, the signage at the trailhead was confusing, and we ended up on the wrong trail. The one we went on was mostly uphill, but luckily it had lots of switchbacks, which made it easier for me than if it had just been straight uphill. I could still have gone on when we had to turn back, because our friend had a vet appointment that afternoon. It was a nice day, and we saw some good views. If you’re interested in it, you can read about it on Fat Girls. When we got back was when we realized that the trail was actually closed for construction, but we didn’t notice anything going on while we were on the trail.
In art class, I started putting details on the buildings in my painting while my sister began working on her first oil painting. She says the medium is very different from acrylic, and I know she sometimes finds it frustrating. But she says she thinks she’s going to like it.
And that’s about it except that my niece, Áine, received her first acceptance to college yesterday. Yay!
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