Today was a really good, busy day. To start it out, the dogs got me up about 0650, which was OK because I guess I was ready to get up. At least they thought so. They ran down the outside stairs, then right back up to the back door to wait for their soft food. When they try this routine, I go out and make them go back to the yard for a little while to ensure they at least make the effort to relieve themselves. They both hang their heads, knowing they’ve been legally busted, and trot back to the yard, looking back a couple of times to make sure I’m still watching.

Then I dish up their food and stand back.

After eating my banana and taking my first two pills of the day, I sit myself down on the couch, read a couple of paragraphs of my book, and fall asleep until Diane gets up around 1000. Maybe 0930. Somewhere in that zone.

We had to get up early because we were meeting the ‘Three Jerry’ group in Portland. We spent a couple of hours eating Chinese food, talking, telling stories, lying, laughing, then parted ways to do “other stuff”.

Jerry T is carrying a particularly heavy load this week. You may recall him from an older blog as the husband whose wife, Lynn, was killed at Portland Meadows when a horse got loose from its tether and kicked her. Very sad. Lynn’s Mom lived with them and Jerry was her official care taker. She’s developed severe dementia over the past year and quit eating last week. She’s still home, but Hospice is involved, and now it’s just a waiting game. He’s quite a fellow, is Jerry T. Not many people, let alone men, would assume responsibility for their Mothers-in-law like he did. Gotta love that guy.

On the upside of the lunch, Cindy A, an original PT Club member, found time to leave her business to have lunch with us. We haven’t seen Cindy in about 5-6 years, at least. It was good to see her. It was also wonderful to see our friend Vie. She always brightens the day for us.

We were also blessed with the presence of Brian C, son of Jerry and Nelda C. Never met him before today. He’s a nice young man who is currently attending PSU (Portland State University) where he was robbed today. Nice. Whoever did it just took the cash from his wallet while he was working out. That would be another reason why I’m not compelled to exercise. People rob you. Anyway, it was nice to meet him.

After the farewells, Diane and I headed for the airport to meet Deena S, from Provo, Utah. She’s a loan officer for a bank which is doing a no cost VA refinance for our home to lower the rate from 5.99 to 3.25%. Deena’s been working really hard to do this because we started talking about it last June. We pretended that she flew to PDX from Provo just to do this. That’s not true, of course. Things just worked out which was good for me because I just wasn’t comfortable giving so much personal knowledge, over the internet, to someone I’ve never met. Now, all’s good. Bottom line is, if the appraisal works, we’ll save a ton of money. Really! A ton of money. They weighed it.

After saving all that money, we stopped by IKEA to see what they had in the way of bed headboards. Nothing appealed so we went to COSTCO, stopping at various furniture shops along the way. Turns out we went to the only COSTCO in the world that doesn’t have furniture. It was a sign that we were not supposed to get headboards today, so we didn’t.

Now I only have three days to finish patching the holes in the church stairway, re-glaze the bedroom windows without breaking any more of them, mow the lawn, get the gas tanks out of the D22 Winnebago, get my truck started, put the two spare bedrooms back together for the house sitter who is coming, and two other things I can’t remember. Not all will get done, of course, and I’m bound to pick the wrong three to work on.

Wish me luck.