Monthly Archives: February 2025

What’s Next?

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If I was still counting days, this would be 175. Yes, it’s been a week since my last post and I have to admit that I feel like I’m falling down on my job. But, the journey is over for a while so I can relax a little, right? The problem with that is that I need something to write about. To do that requires me to contribute a little brain power to these efforts. Let’s see what happens.

First, there’s Max, who doesn’t have a problem with moving around a lot. Any time he gets outside, he plants himself close to his next possible ride. Close enough that he’s hard to ignore. It works, and he gets in his trips around town in addition to his walks around the block, so he knows we see him.

As you can see, there’s a travel trailer parked under the car port and, as far as I know, it hasn’t leaked. I haven’t had the courage to unlock the door and stick my head inside to find out. Maybe I’ll do that tomorrow.

While taking stuff out of the RV Max assumed one of his favorite positions. I think he was channeling Laurie and Pat, hoping they would show up. We explained to him that they aren’t here, but they think about him a lot. He sat on the back of that couch for an hour or so until we closed it up. Funny guy.

Monday I used my air compressor to blow off 6 months of dust that collected on the air cleaner filters on the furnace. It was pretty fuzzy so I did it when Diane was not here. Actually, it was part of the instructions that I do the cleaning after Diane exited the premises and wouldn’t be back for a while. Max doesn’t care about stuff like that so he was allowed to stay with me and watch the fun.

Also on Monday, Max had a bath. A shower, really. He’s not fond of getting clean, but he loves the part about buffing him off with a towel. He must have heard about the need for a bath because he escaped for a little while and came back partially covered in mud. My first impression was that he found some deer poop and had a good time smearing it all over himself. But, it ws just dirt and it came off easily with the shower wand. That made Jerrie happy.

On Tuesday, I think, Diane drove herself to town (Portland) for her CT Scan to see how things are looking with her lungs. I thought she had an appointment scheduled with her doctor but can’t find it on the calendar so will have to find out when that is. We both want to know if we’re going to be visiting Arizona again this year, or if we’re going to get a sauna instead. Might just do both. You will hear about it as soon as I know..

Diane got her hair cut a little bit on Wednesday. The last trim she got was in Coronado, I think, and I did a pretty good job. Made me proud. I offered to do it again, but she nixed that very quickly. That’s OK because Tracey is her friend and they get to talk which is good. Sometimes I go there and just sit in the waiting area and listen to them. They know I’m there because there’s no way to sneak into the shop. Most of the time they just let me stay as long as I want and sometimes I even get a haicut, too.

On Thursday Diane had a meeting with the church ladies, and Friday she had an eye appointment.

On Friday I also got to do something for Jennifer using the truck. I drove way the heck and gone into the woods above our house, but not far enough to encounter snow. We loaded up a free freezer and took it back to her house and got it installed in her garage. Jeran came along to do the heavy lifting while Diane stayed at Jen’s to watch cartoons with the Little’s. We all had a good time and I only got in trouble a couple of times for trying to help move that thing. To facilitate the transfer, we got a trailer from Don’s Rental. There was no way we were going to get an upright freezer high enough to get it safely into the truck. The trailer worked nicely. It turns out that when someone else does the heavy lifting, it’s pretty easy to get stuff like this done.

This morning Pastor Ingrid cooked pancakes at the church for whoever wanted to walk through the church door, so I went about 9-ish and had breakfast with a few people we haven’t seen in a while. It was a good visit, the pancakes were awesome. Thanks, Pastor.

When I got back Diane convinced me to take Max around the block once more, then I drove her and the truck to Scappoose so we could fill the truck’s gas tank, and she could get her Spring Rolls at Simms Restaurant. She’s been craving those things for many months and couldn’t wait for tomorrow. Sunday, after church is when we usually make that trip. It’s a ‘thing’ with us. I usually get Lomein with shrimp but having just eaten a late breakfast, I settled on tempura shrimp. They were really good.

Oh, and we also had egg flower soup. And tea.

That’s pretty much up-to-date as I can get so I’m going to quit.

See you next time.

Days 168 – Saturday – Still Home

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Saturday was spent fiddling with the truck, trying to make it run. I failed, but I did manage to get all the dash gauges lit up a couple of times, and made the system ring some bells. I don’t know what they signified, but I made it happen. That little bit of success gave me something to think about because all that happened when I connected my fancy battery charger and put it in “Car Start” mode. All that means is the system is jolted with 50 amps that should work to start the engine, kinda like jumping the battery from another vehicle, like we used to do when we were kids. Everyone had a set of jumper cables. I still do, but I’ve also got AAA. They’ve got longer cables.

That old charger didn’t work, but I wasn’t surprised. It has resided in the battery compartment of the RV for a few years and has been subjected to all kinds of toxic chemicals during that time. I’m sure that wasn’t good for the little buttons that makes it tick. Sometimes they would work, sometimes they wouldn’t, so I figured it was beyond my ability to fathom any other reasons for its to malfunctioning nature.

With this knowledge I took a trip to O’Reilly Auto Parts and got a new battery charger. One that has a 250 Amp kick instead of the measly 50 Amp I had. It also has wheels so I can drag it around and keep it off the ground. Also, it’s too big to fit in the battery compartment so it won’t be breathing all that bad air. It’s staying in the garage.

To make a long story short, it worked. I was able to get enough juice in the battery to the point where the system determined that it was still alive and responded to the button that starts everything. It cranked up and purred like a kitten. I was so happy.

I believe the problem about the battery going dead was caused by the automatic levelling system that lives on the back axle of the truck. There are air bags back there connected to a small compressor that only knows two things; 1) The air bags are low on air, and 2) The air bags have too much air. Actually, the compressor doesn’t know anything. It simply responds to the external stimulus supplied by a magnet, a proximity switch, and gravity. It’s that simple.

The compressor is connected to a switch that is connected to the frame in such a manner that when the air bags deflate, a magnate moves up, or down, in relation to a stable sensor that triggers the electricity to the compressor. When weight is added to the truck bed, or a trailer is attached, the compressor pumps up the bags until the rig is level. When the weight is removed, air is released to make it level. Simple system. The problem is that there’s no way to turn it off. It’s on all the time. So, when it sits idle for 5 months that bag inflation/deflation status is controlled by the weather. In this case it was mainly cold so it was constantly pumping the bags up and did so until the battery was totally drained. That’s my theory.

If I’d had a brain before we left, I should have disconnected the battery, but I didn’t. I suspect I could have installed an on/off switch on the compressor, but that would have been too easy.

The good news is that I can still install the switch, and the truck is back in action. I’ll put that on my TODO list. All I have to do is find it. I think it’s in the garage somewhere..

Our children are happy about the resurrection because they have things they want to move, and the truck is what they need. I’m happy to oblige.

Here’s proof of life for the truck:

I’m happy to report that the snow we outran to get home, has come and gone. Max thought it was fun for a while, as did we, then it went away and we’re OK with that. Here’s the new look around the house.

The creek is a little higher right now because of the melting snow in yonder hills. You can see Max getting reacquainted with the boulders that protect the stream bank. He remembers them all.

Now I’m done.

Day 169 – Sunday – Family Reunion

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Today was for celebrating family. Diane said so. It’s the beginning of our monthly gathering to replace the more infrequent gatherings we’ve done for one holiday or another. She figures, and I agree, that as we get older, we need to do these things more often as long as we’re able.

I don’t have any group photos, but I’ve got these:

Here’s Jeff, the father of our Hill Children:

This is Jerrie Anne Diane, our youngest granddaughter.

This is Baylee with Jasper on her shoulders:

Cedric was hidden behind Baylee in the above photo. I luckily got him in frame later. He’s a hard guy to pin down. Cedric is normally the one who wears his little brothers out, but he had help from his cousins today.

Here’s Gilligan:

This is Diane, Lydia, and Jennifer – 3 generations of one branch of our family tree:

You can ignore Jerrie on the left of that last photo. She was introduced earlier.

This is Daniel and Jasper:

Here’s Siah, the youngest:

Now I’ll tell you who is missing: Jeran, Tiana, Heather, and Elisabeth. By my count, that’s 15 people and a dog.

I always have good intentions of capturing everyone in at least one group photo, but this one got away from me. Then some folks left before I realized my failure. I’ll get them next time. I guess I was too busy just watching everyone. Could be, too, that my brain hasn’t recovered from the faceplant I participated in while in Lodi.

Yeah. Let’s blame it on that.

It was a roaring good time made better by Diane’s Sloppy Joes, and her 30 lb custom made Mac’n’cheese.

As with all family events of this nature, no one went away hungry.

As I type this, the calendar tells me that it’s really Tuesday, not Sunday so I’m obviously running a little behind schedule. I’ve decided that I will stop this rigid daily schedule of info sharing and just scribble something when the mood strikes. It’s much easier that way because being on a daily routine makes it necessary to make stuff up when nothing happens to write about. This is true.

Today Diane is going to Portland, all by herself, to get a CAT Scan, then later this week she will visit her doctor for the results and to find out which kind of sauna would be the best alternative to a trip to Arizona. Yes, stuff like that makes my head hurt a little too.

See you next time.

Day 166/167 – Thursday/Friday – Home

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These were decompression days. Most of it was spent trying to remember how the remotes work for the huge TV in our living room. It seems so odd to watch TV on such a big screen. For the last 5 months or so I’ve been guessing about what I was seeing. That got worse when I did a face plant which also bent my glasses all out of whack. Don’t think I mentioned that side benefit from falling down. Anyway, it’s a brand new world we’re in and the remote issue isn’t new. It was just waiting for us to pick up where we left off last August.

The main issue is the sound bar. I believe I conquered the sound bar problem on Friday. If not totally, it’s good enough.

Max got his first walk round his neighborhood on Thursday and he surprised me with his recollection of the yards where dogs lived that he always barked at. He didn’t skip a beat.

Jeff came over early and scraped away some of the snow in our front walk.

He did a lot with the driveway, too, and Max showed his appreciation.

Max adores, Jeff and vice versa.

Here’s a look upstream on Milton Creek. Looks pleasant, and it really is, but when the snow starts melting it will get pretty rowdy.

Here’s where Max stands guard to ward off water born predators. He’s either really good at it, or there just aren’t any becasue we’ve never been bothered by anything that came out of the creek.

Actually, you can see he’s looking up which is a dead giveaway that he’s looking for squirrels. There are many who live in the trees that surround us and he’s chased all of them at one time or another.

Hope everyone is safe and warm.

Day 165 – Wednesday – Going Home

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We got up this morning filled with anticipation about our trip home. We’re a day early because of the weather which was ominous for anyone traveling up I-5. The snow was due to arrive on Thursday and we did not want to have anything to do with that with all those angry drivers out there wanting to get wherever they plan to go at anyone’s expense but their own.

Since I’m writing this on my home computer, you can trust me when I say we made it home just fine. The drive wasn’t one to talk about other than it was safe and we didn’t run into anyone. And no one ran into us. That’s a win-win.

Getting home was awesome. We just parked the rig, took Max in the house, and didn’t do a thing the rest of the night.

Big sigh of relief.

I don’t have anything to add, so I’ll just share a couple of recen photos we received.

This our granddaughter Lydia with her youngest brother Siah:

This is Lydia with her other brother, Jasper. He’s a year older than the youngest:

Day 164 – Tuesday – Moving East to Coburg

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Max was cold this morning.

Diane’s wearing his favorite coat because she’s cold, too. It was 29 when I got up this morning. That was outside. Inside it was a numbing 39. You’d think that smart people would leave a heater running through the night, right. Well, I’ve read too many stories about those things catching on fire. As for the propane furnace, they kill people in the night, too. So, we just let thing go natural and deal with it. Besides, once everyone is up the furnace warms it up quickly. That’s true unless you’re me, and you get up 3 hours before Diane, and you really do not want to turn the furnace on until she gets up. That’s not because I’m afraid, honest. It’s because it’s the kind thing to do. The furnace is noisy.

The drive from Highway 101 to I-5 was without incident. We did it at 55 mph most of the way and the bus performed perfectly. Not once on this trip has it overheated. Though I haven’t previously mentioned that issue, it’s been on my mind every step of the way.

We got to Armitage Park in Coburg around noonish. Since we are only staying one night, and we were in a pull-thru, there was no need to unshackle the car from the bus. For some odd reason we may never understand, I did it anyway. We had no plans to go anywhere so it’s perplexing that my mind allowed me to do that. Now I’ll have to put it all back together in the morning.

Max got to play in the dog run for a while and made a couple of new friends. Since I forgot to take my phone with me, a punishable error, I didn’t get any photos. Trust me when I say he got in a few zoomies that he’s been missing since last summer.

We don’t have a view of the southern sky so no satellite connection tonight. We do, however, have access to Netflix, and the Dish DVR for recorded shows. So, we watched old stuff, had a simple supper, then went to bed, anticipating our early arrival home tomorrow.

Only two hours to go.

Day 163 – Monday – Florence, OR

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When I got up this morning it was about 3 degrees outside and maybe 22 inside. I was astounded that our pipes (hose) didn’t freeze up. I could only attribute that miracle to my inability to read the thermometer properly. Actually, that’s just a lie, one of many I will make this day. It was probably closer to 30 degrees. Still, it was this cold . . .

Max didn’t care. He happily donned his gay apparel and escorted me around the campground. He was excited to be here because he heard something about this being bear country. Cougars, too. He loves new things to smell.

Speaking of smells, it’s always as great finish to our morning walks when we open the bus door and are greeted by the wonderful smell of freshly brewed coffee. It’s pretty awesome.

Today we visited a couple of Florence Thrift stores, as well as their Goodwill Store. The big purchases were a couple of squishy toys for Max. He loves it when we do that. It’s fun to take him shopping, too, so he can pick the toys he wants, but he stayed home this trip. On a thrift store trip in Tucson Diane ventured out alone while Max and I stayed home and rested. When she returned, she said she got a couple of new ‘friends’ for Max as she set here plastic bags on the floor. She left the room and Max got down from wherever he was sitting and stuck his nose in the bag containing many items and pulled out his gifts, one at a time, and decided it was play time. I may have mentioned this previously, but it was amazing enough to mention it again. He knew which items were his.

Amazing.

We’ve both been wanting as good seafood meal to commemorate our trip but the chosen venue on the wharf was serving only chowder because their coolers were on the fritz. So, we went looking for a replacement and settled on the Krab Shack.

On the way inside you could tell right away that it wasn’t a restaurant because there was a sign “This isn’t a restaurant” on the door. I returned to Diane to discuss our options, and we decided to buy some crab and make our own Louies.

I returned to the Shack and bought half a pound of fresh Dungeness crab. I would have bought a whole pound, but figured at $60/lb., half would do just fine. And it did.

The rest of the day was building the salad so we could park ourselves in front of the TV and watch a Noovie, or two, to finish the day. Or maybe another couple episodes of really old NCIS episodes. Whatever we did, it was relaxing.

Hope everyone had a good day.

Stay safe.

Day 162 – Sunday – Elks RV Park Florence, OR

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We drove to Florence with no mishaps the, following the GPS, we drove a few miles beyond the city to the RV Park located in the country somewhere. It was one of those moments where you feel like you’ve accomplished your goal, then you pass it by, looking over your shoulder as it fades away into the distance. You want to reach back and grab it so it won’t get away. But it does, and you must move on down the road.

Eventually, we made it to Mercer Lake Road, and were rewarded with a sign leading to the elks park. It’s like a surprise because just when you think it’s never going to reveal itself, there it is. We pulled into the area, stopped to check in, and Hayden came to meet us and get it done so we could park.

The park has nearly 50 sites and there were very few in use so getting a spot wasn’t a problem. That’s good because it’s first come first served. As it turned out, #19 was open and it was about 50 feet across the parking lot from the office. An added benefit was it has sewer. Not many of them do. That was a good thing because we needed to dump.

Hayden is a character, and we got along great. He’s a retired Army Sgt Major. He said the job of managing the park was his first trip off the mountain in the last 20 years where he lived on a farm with his wife. He said he didn’t have to leave the ranch because his wife did all the shopping. With his new job for the elks, he said dealing with people is a newly acquired skill since he sold the ranch and moved down to sea level. He’s a great guy and reminds me a lot of our friend Larry, right down to the mustache.

Another added benefit it space #19 is that it has a southern exposure which means we have access to the Dish satellites. That’s very good because it was out intention to watch the super bowl this afternoon. So, the first thing I did, after getting the bus hooked up, was dial up the satellite and get it connected. It did all that and the reception was excellent.

Diane chose to cook since I’ve been driving a lot lately and she figured it would be a nice break for me. It was indeed. She made us ham, sweet potatoes, green beans, and cherry turnovers. It was pretty awesome.

Just before we sat down to eat, Diane paused the Dish just as the pre-game festivities started. That way we could sit and watch it together. It was paused for about 30 minutes and was working really well through the festivities, and through most of the 1st quarter of the game before it just froze. It was very perplexing. None of the remote buttons worked and I eventually had to restart the Dish receiver. That was the only way to get it going again. Start over.

Thankfully, the picture came back and we had missed about one quarter. When it froze the Eagles were up 7-0. When it came back it was 17-0. All we missed was another TD and a FG by the Eagles. We were surprised that KC hadn’t scored yet. Then, after watching their offense get pushed around by the Eagles it was evident why they hadn’t.

In the end, we were happy the Eagles won. It was more fun to watch than many of the previous SB games because there was a lot of scoring. Most of the old games were all about defense and kinda got boring when no one scored. Since we were rooting for the Eagles, this game was right up our ally.

After the game I took Max for a long walk in the woods. He was very appreciative. We walked all over the place until my feet got cold enough that I couldn’t feel them. I suspect Max’s feet were numb, too, so we went back to the bus.

That was the day. It was a good one. We will be here for two nights to recover from all the arduous driving we’ve been doing. Jennifer, our daughter, has been following us and sent a text that “… we’re only 2 hours away so why is it taking so long to get home?” She added that”…we could have driven down and had dinner with you.” Funny girl.

Everybody back home has been concerned about the knock I took on my noggin and questioned my ability to drive safely since the accident. But I’m doing just fine. Diane has confidence in me to get us home safely, so that’s what I plan to do,

That’s the spot!

Day 161 – Saturday – Sunset Bay State Park

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It was another nice drive up Highway 101 then it got bad for the last 15 miles or so. We had to leave the highway and finish the transit on really narrow roads. Fortunately, the was very little traffic so that wasn’t a concern. I just slowed down and went slow. That made everyone happy.

Alas, we finally made it to our destination safely and got parked nicely on the second try. The first try almost added a palm tree to the things I’ve run into over the years.

For lunch, we pulled off the road about an hour from journey’s end and had PB&J sandwiches again. That used up the remaining bread. It was getting old and making it go away was a blessing. Half my sandwich was a heel, which I like. The exact location for our stop was Nesika Beach, in the Gold Beach area.

There are very few happy campers in the park, so we are not crowded at all. It’s pretty much empty, actually. It’s a little bit scary out there in the dark.

Not much to share here other than the fact it took a long time to get here on the little wiggly road the GPS chose.

Day 160 – Friday – Harris Beach State Park Brookings

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I took Max for a long walk this morning and didn’t get a drop of rain on me. Now that we’re almost ready to wrap things up here in Eureka, it’s raining again but it’s OK. I’m almost immune to getting wet and worrying about it. The key word here is “almost”. I’m not a fan of having rain pouring off a roof, down my neck. Makes me very cold just thinking about it.

The trip up Hwy 101 was very nice and actually beautiful. The sky was clear, it didn’t rain and traffic was sparse. Pretty much a perfect travel day. We got to our evening stop between 2-3 pm and Max was excited to be parked. While I worked on setting things up, Diane tethered him to the picnic table and when I gave him an option to get in the bus he just laid down. That’s “no” in Max’s language. I understand. It was very pretty out and he’s been couped up for a few hours.

About halfway here we stopped at a Rest Area and made PB&J sandwiches. I also ate two carrots. It was a good lunch. Eating lite like that made it easy to plan for a big supper in town.

After a brief search we settled on Catalyst Seafood. I dished up Max’s dinner then we headed down to the restaurant. It was a good choice. Diane had fish and chips and I had a crab salad with a bowl of chowder.

After we got back, I took Max for an extra-long walk because he deserved it. We made a circuit of the A loop stopped about a hundred times to analyze the bouquet of odors assaulting his nostrils. He’s very serious about things his nose tells him.

Here’s the view from Harris Beach State Park Space #20. It’s very stunning. There’s even a southern exposure so Dish works perfectly.

Here’s something fun. Did I mention that the light fixture in the bedroom leaks? Yup, when it rains, it drips. One more thing to fix one of these days. It’s a 12VDC light so I’m not too concerned about it. I think I know how the water’s getting in but I’m not going to investigate it until we get home.

Another interesting bit of info is that I’m pretty sure I cracked a rib this morning when I sneezed. For some reason I tried to suppress it and I was bent a little in the wrong direction. Consequently, when the sneeze happened anyway, I was subjected to an extremely painful stab in my back, left side. The pain actually went all the way around, under my left arm and across my chest. It was explosive. Since then, I cannot take a deep breath without recreating the pain. Neither can I blow my nose, or cough without severe pain. If I’m not careful about how I move my arm, like reach for something quickly, it feels like something is not connected properly and I get the pain again. In between those bouts of pain there is no pain, and I forget that it will happen again if I’m not careful. And, I always forget that it’s going to hurt again. I need a chiropractor. Until then, I’m just going to do a lot of sucking in my breath from the pain when I forget. I don’t know, yet, if I can lay down without moaning a little.

Time to stop so I will leave you with our first Oregon sunset since last summer.