A Brief 11-Day History of Recent Oregon Events

Posted on April 20, 2015 by Jerrie Cate

April 10th

We’re going to another softball this afternoon in Parkrose to watch the St. Helens JV “A” team play. Lydia has been playing 1st base and alternate pitcher with Brooklyn. Seems to work well. Their last game, on Wednesday, Brooklyn pitched 3 innings, and Lydia pitched 2. The final score was 26-0 when it was called after five innings. I know, you aficionados of the sport will report that max runs allowed in five innings is 5 so the final should have been 25-0, but I counted all of them. After two innings it was evident the other team were very new to the sport and were having serious problems catching the ball and hitting our pitches. Our varsity also won, 11-0 after five so the school we played needs help.

I mowed the yard yesterday but didn’t vacuum, thinking I’d get that done today. But, the grass didn’t dry out enough to get it all done so I only got the front and back yards cleaned up. The lower 40 is just a mass of chopped grass. Panzee loves it down there and rolls in it whenever she goes out. Diane isn’t at all happy that Panzee loves the loose grass, of course, because it sticks to her fur. I also burned up a large portion of the pussy willow tree that was lying around the burn pile in pieces. Took a while to get it going but once I did it burned nicely while I mowed. Today I continued the process and didn’t even have to use a match to get it going again because the ashes were still burning hot. Literally. A bag of shredded paper covered with some really dry branches from the old cedar tree barrier was all it took. Then I started dragging all those enormous branches to the pile and let her rip. Every once in a while I’d stop by the pile and work my way around the pile, shoving the branches into the smoking hot cinders. Oner of these days it will all be gone. I hope.

I also hope I’ll get the old RV road worthy … and the old pickup running reliably … and my desk clean … etc … one of these days.

Really late in the evening, Bob & Steffani showed up out of the blue. Apparently they were evicted from Idaho for a few days for some sort of unsubstantiated violation of an obscure rule regarding people who have nothing to do but complain about things no one else cares about because of their insignificance. As written, the law is intentionally vague which allows law-abiding citizens to cause situations where normally law-abiding citizens to be evicted from the state without the need for the accuser to provide even a tiny bit of evidence of the infraction. Only in Idaho, you think, right? Well, none of that is true as I’m sure you know. So, just disregard all of it.

But, Bob and Steffani did show up right about 10 pm demanding a room for the night even though they knew the room was reserved because they had confirmed it a week previously with one of their many expired Visa cards: 4180-8099-3286-2788 exp 02/11 secret code 2123. You can forget that, too, because I’m pretty sure I just made it up.

The reason for the visit was the Eastern Oregon University softball schedule that reported their daughter, Maryssa, was playing in a game against Concordia University in the morning at Concordia University. Complicating the scheduled games was the rain which wasn’t a problem when the schedule was created. Still, there was hope.

April 11th

After being forced to remain awake well beyond our normal bedtime the previous night, and then, to ensure our guests were properly cared for, we had to arise earlier than normal to prepare ourselves for the ensuing day’s events. With the games scheduled to begin at 1100 hours it was necessary to find sustenance in a timely manner in a way that didn’t sully the pristine condition of our kitchen which is only used for special occasions. This not being one of those times, we collectively agreed to partake of the succulent menu choices available at the Kozy Korner Kafe, one of our favorite eateries suitable for relatives of the lower order.

After enjoying a better than normal breakfast composed of various parts of, and issue from, various animals normally found in barnyards and fenced pens, it was brought to our attention that the 1100 game had been moved to 1300 because of the rain. It had also been moved from Concordia’s field to Sandy High School, 20-30 miles closer to Idaho. It was moved again to a later hour but I can’t remember which one. I do know it was late enough that Jennifer, who works on Saturday, and the entire family would be able to attend the entire double-header, both of which EOU lost. It was readily evident that the losses were allowed because of the coach’s unwillingness to make use the talents she left languishing on her bench while the opposing coach rotated virtually every player on her team into the game at some point to ensure they all had playing time. “What a concept,” a statement that was whispered by one of us and overheard by all, pretty much says it all regarding the stubborn, biased, misguided efforts of a coach who was in a position requiring a lot more ability than that with which she was currently equipped. So sad.

After the game we all went our separate ways to our homes.

Another significant event of the day was that Jeran officially turned 15. To emphasize this milestone in his life he managed to shoot up to a six-foot elevation and the odds are he will continue that trend. We all agree he’s going to be the tallest member of his family. Cedric will be next, then Daniel, Lydia, and Jennifer in that order. If that changes I will let you know.

April 12th

This was a totally routine day for us with the one incredibly random event that caused us to sleep well beyond our normal arousal time thereby making it to church on time pretty much impossible. So, we donned clothes that we normally wear outside the home, collected Diane’s Mom, Jean, then went to lunch. I honestly cannot remember where we went for this repast. It may very well have been a lunch at home. I can only attribute this memory loss as a testament to old age and/or early onset dementia.

April 13th

This day I spent rebuilding the mower deck on our old lawn mower. The blades, which I’ve sharpened at least three times, were all bent, causing an uneven cut. Also, due to the fact that I typically ran the mower far too long and fast in tall grass, the left most blade, from the perspective of one who is driving the mower, stripped the star-shaped thingy on the end of the pulley mechanism that spins the blade thereby making it necessary to over-torque the bolt holding the blade on in order to ensure the blade spun at all. Not a good solution for doing a good mowing job. So, I went online to Sears Parts Direct and ordered three new spindles, which arrived Saturday, and installed them on the already dismantled and clean mower deck. Apparently I cleaned the deck on Sunday and promptly forgot about it. But, there it was, laying in the back yard, just waiting for me to go to work.

Installing the spindles required me to obtain new bolts from ACE because 8 of the 12 bolts holding them on broke when I attempted to retracted them. They just snapped right off. To ensure I had the proper size bolts, I tried one of the salvaged bolts on the new spindles and discovered that the new spindles didn’t have threads in the holes. They were just, well, holes. Thankfully, I had a solution and, oddly, I knew exactly where it was in my messy basement shop. It is a tap set that I purchased at one sale or another with the thought of it coming in handy one day and that day had finally arrived. Luckily, I had the exact tap necessary to all me to install the new bolts. It was a splendid success story. I also reinstalled the front middle wheel on the mower deck which is apparently necessary to keep the deck from plowing into ground at each little rise in the landscape. It’s been that way for a long time now and I just hadn’t been motivated to find the correct sized shoulder bolt that would allow me to reinstall the wheel. ACE didn’t have them and the local Sears store didn’t carry them the last time I looked. So, when I went to Sears to purchase new blades I looked for that shoulder bolt and, oddly, they had them. It wasn’t a cheap stop because those blades, of which I needed three, cost $27 each. It was a shock because it’s been a long time since I bought new blades for the mower.

Once it was all put back together I reconnected the deck to the mower and wound up with one extra cotter pin and could not readily find an empty hole in which to insert it. I strongly considered just firing up the meow to see what would happen, but visions of metal parts flying around discourage me to the point where I laid down next to the mower and searched all the parts I had removed in order to remove the deck and finally found the missing hole on the rod that connects the front of the deck to the mower and allows one to adjust how far down the deck tips while in use. It was one of those cartoon moments where you search around, calmly looking at things and suddenly your eyes go wide and your vision impulsively zooms in and out on the target a couple of times. I could now start my test with no fear.

I attached the grass catcher tube and headed for the front yard as soon as the air compressor was able to supply enough air to fill up the front tires which are always going flat. Perhaps I should replace them, too. And the grass tube which has had more than it’s share of contact with the lower fence, and other immobile objects, making it necessary to bind the two halves together with duct tape.

Considering the efforts involved with getting the mower back into proper shape, I vowed to be more careful in the future and carefully mowed the front yard, twice. Once on 5 and once on 4. The results were spectacular – the cut was nice and even and new blades vacuumed up all the cut grass just like it did when it was all new. I was immensely pleased because I was able to restart my new grass pile around the burn pile in the lower 40.

It’s interesting about the grass pile. I’ve been dumping grass clippings in the same 20 foot long area for the past 7 years and have never needed to move to another spot. All the grass just keeps sinking into the ground. I’m sure there’s some pretty rich soil down there, but I really have no need for rich soil. Perhaps we should have a garden.

April 14th

Other than working on stuff I can’t remember, I facilitated another rendition of our Church Council meeting. We talked about a lot of churchy type stuff that probably wouldn’t mean much to any of you. So, I’ll just let this day go.

April 15th

Three significant things for today – big brother Jim had his 78th birthday, the IRS relieved me of a bucket of cash, and St. Helens JV team waxed Wilsonville something like 21-0. It was good to have the game end the day, making the IRS gift more tolerable. The JV 1 team is totally indomitable so far. They haven’t lost yet. They can hit, and their defense is awesome.

April 16th

Had coffee with church friends at 10 am then went directly to the golf course for another bad round of golf. Still had a good time with friends.

April 17th

Today was a bit difficult because I had to go to the VA clinic to shed some blood at the hands of one of my favorite phlebotomists. That, alone, isn’t all that bad, but it was for a fasting lab meaning I had to stop eating before midnight last night. I did them one better and quit eating at 8 pm. I remembered to not eating anything in the morning and just held off the hunger with water until Diane got up and got me to the lab around 1030 or so. My phlebotomist used one of those new little tangly tube things and inserted the needle in a painless manner that, surprisingly left a lovely bruise.

After being phlebotomised by a pro, we began a semi-slow trip to Sandy in preparation for another JV softball game. This one was a little more tense because Sandy scored first and showed us a surprisingly good defense and good pitching. Lydia played 1st base and reported to the team that whenever a Sandy made it to first base they would jam their elbow into her back. She mostly shook it off until one girl hit her so hard it knocked her a few steps off-balance. That was incentive needed to pick up the game and whittle away at that 1-0 lead. An increased effort on defense and more concentration in the batter’s box which resulted in a 7-2 win for our girls. Not a blow out, like they’ve normally had. It was a solid team effort that should serve them well going forward.

April 18th

This day was the high light of the week because we got to attend a wedding. Making it even better, it was at the beach. Better still, the weather was fantastic. The bride, Noydena, is like another daughter for us because she and Jennifer have been great friends since middle school. Another “better” because the groom, Mathieu, and Noydena went to their Junior Prom together in high school. So, this is like a fantasy finale to an old romance. Very poignant, when it’s all said and done. Being Scottish, Mathieu and his male family members all wore kilts. It was a fun affair even though we had to get up at 0600 so we could leave by 0700. That was brutal.That’s Noydena and Mathieu on the rock, and the bride’s Mom, Sandy, expressing her excitement about being included in the shot.

Next is a photo of the Walter’s kids enjoying the beach. The little tiny one, way out to the left, is Jean in a swim suit. A brave person because, though the day was perfect, the water temp was hovering around 48 degrees. Normal people would have sunk and drowned, but not Jeran. Lydia is the in the white shorts, and Cedric is way off to the right, getting away from the water like a smart person should.

April 19th

A typical Sunday for us except for the WELCA meeting on the end. I tried to stay out of it, but couldn’t seem to do that and wound up being the guest speaker for some reason. Then we went home.

April 20th

This is the big one, the reason I saved it for last. Today is the 47th anniversary of marriage to my best friend ever. We’ve been mostly happy all that time, and we’ve travelled a lot of places. The best part is that we did it together. All of it. And that makes it all excellent. With that in mind, I must terminate this in order to end it on a positive note. Not that there was a bad moment today, but that the longer I drag this out, the more potential there is for something bad to happen.

So, good night.

A Shameless Plug For Chevrolet

Posted on April 3, 2015 by Jerrie Cate

At this time in space, 1225 pm, we are nearing Sacramento, home to one of the lovely California Kathies, one our way to join fellow divers on I-5 North. It’s a beautiful day, currently 73 out there. When we got up this morning it was 20 degrees in Fallon but it quickly warmed all the way to 45 before we embarked on this next to last leg of this current voyage. When Kathie reads this she might be a little miffed that we didn’t stop to talk, but we have a mission to accomplish that can’t be influenced by stops visit for any length of time. It’s not that we don’t love her lots, it’s just that she recently returned from Hawaii and I’m sure she’d be talking non-stop about that trip. She used to live there, too. Now, don’t get me wrong. We LOVE Hawaii. We just need to make it to Medford before the sun goes down. Not knowing what the traffic might be like going North so just don’t want to take a chance. So, Kathie, please forgive us for zooming on by. Truth of the matter is, I’m not driving, as you may have suspected, and have absolutely no control over the driver. It’s my job to point out the pretty things along our route that I think she may want to briefly look at, keep my mouth shut, and hand her whatever she wants. So, that’s exactly what I do because I do not want her to have to stop the car to punish me.

Today I thought I’d try something a little different and utilize one of the nifty features of Diane’s new car. It’s got wi-fi and works as a hot spot, like Starbucks, for up to seven devices. I’m using six of them right now – two phones, two iPads, and the laptop. I’m doing that just so a bunch of people traveling along with us can’t hijack our signal and use it for nefarious “things”. It’s kinda neat because it’s connected to AT&T, which is our cell provider, so I can simply add it to our data plan once the free three months have expired. Interesting to have a car on the cell phone data plan. Should make the monthly bill interesting, too.

In the past 25 minutes Diane skillfully maneuvered us through the incredibly complex array of freeway ons and offs where I-80 and I-5 meet. Most of the time interactions like that are frightening beyond belief, but not this time because I just wasn’t paying any attention. My Navigating responsibilities have been reduced to the task of ensuring our destination has been entered into the car’s brain before we head to a specific destination. You might find it interesting to know I can do this more than one way. The easiest way is to open the RemoteLink app on my iPhone, enter our destination and upload it to the car. Then, when we start car up in the morning, the destination downloads and gets us on the way. If I don’t do that, then I must enter in manually in the car. I can do this by pushing the appropriate buttons. I can also talk to the navigation system and tell it where we want to go. That method is tedious because she, Bessie, tends to mess stuff up and we wind up arguing. It has never ended well, yet, so I try to get the destination downloaded.

Other neat things on the car that I’ve fiddled with is the Driver’s Information Console (DIC – I didn’t make that up) which can be set to provide a lot of distracting information to the driver. One of them is the speed alert. I set it for 80 yesterday but we didn’t make it ten miles before I was severely directed to turn it off. That’s because every time the designated speed is obtained the car beeps a few times and my driver got tired of hearing it. I should have set it to 100 instead. She would have still heard it, but not as often.

The DIC, I really didn’t make that up, will also, if the driver is interested, display an accurate rendition of a speed limit sign for the current location. Diane never looks at that, though. She checks the tire pressure frequently, and the overall mpg which, for the first 1317 miles, is 27. Not bad. On this current stretch of the trip we’re averaging 31.2 mpg. That’s while running along at an average speed of 65+ (mostly 80).

Boring stuff for most of you, I’m sure, but I’ve got nothing else to do. I did pause to check all the devices and see that all their batteries are charged so I should unplug them for a while. Maybe I’ll read some of my book. See you later.

Oh, before I go I have to share something I heard on the news last night … Don’t know what station it was, but the reporter told us that a certain lake had “… six drownings this year, 3 of them fatal.” Had to stop and think about that. I guess the three fortunate ones were dragged back from the dead by a handy people who knew CPR.

Naval Air Station Fallon, Nevada

Posted on April 2, 2015 by Jerrie Cate

Greetings from NAS Fallon. Diane just finished this leg of the trip home, 390 miles, in a record 7 hours with only 3 stops along the way – one to pee, one to eat, and one for gas. Interestingly enough, the gas stop was only our 4th fill up on the trip and the last one was a short tank just to ensure we could make it to this destination.

The trip from Las Vegas to the point where we got gas was excellent! The car got over 31 mpg, the best gas mileage we’ve had on a car in a long, long time. Then the highway turned to two lane and 70 mph. Most of the people in front of Diane weren’t going fast enough so we wound up passing all of them, eventually. During those short bursts of thrilling power it was verified that the Impala will easily got 110 mph. When the gas is floored, as Diane often did, I noticed that the car shifted to sixth gear around 95 mph. Needless to say, Diane is a happy camper. Me? I just sit there calmly in the passenger seat fiddling with my electronically gear. Since we now have in-dash navigation, I’m useless in that capacity. So, I guess I should just probably stay home in the future. I’m no longer needed. Well, there are those times when I have to carry stuff to and from the car, so guess I’m handy for some things.

NAS Fallon, as some of you may already know, is the US Navy’s premier air warfare tactical training center. Consequently, during the day the sky can be quite exciting. Sadly, this trip we won’t be here long enough to enjoy the pilot antics. Home beckons and we must go. Next stop is Medford.

Sweet dreams …

Richard Petty, PT Cruisers, and Las Vegas The Show

Posted on April 1, 2015 by Jerrie Cate

Today was especially hard for me because I thought my entire life was perfect in all aspects the, out of the blue, Diane told me she’d had enough of my shenanigans and wanted to be set free. So, I went down to the jail, paid her bail, and did just that. Her court date isn’t until, like June 1st, so we’ll have to come back and see what happens. Things were fine until she went to see “Thunder From Down Under.” You know, all those naked Aussies dancing and such. It was girls night out and she apparently had a really good time. It is an unspoken deal between the two of us that I will never asked what happened and she’ll never tell. I, on the other hand, had a very sedate evening sitting in our room, watching all the pretty lights until I got tired and had to go to bed. Alone. That was the first time in a very long time. Like years.

This morning, once I got her released, we went to visit Pat & Pat at their Worldmark condo on the southern part of the Las Vegas Strip so we could tag along with them to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway where he was going to make a few laps in a NASCAR race car. He was signed up to participate in the Richard Petty racing experience.

It was a special event and we were honored to have been invited to witness his experience and share in his joy. Diane, Short Pat, and I even got to participate, as observers, in the training evolution but we didn’t get to wear fire-retardant suit like Pat did. I, personally, felt cheated on that note because there were dozens of them just hanging there. Wouldn’t have hurt if they let me wear one, just for fun. But they wouldn’t.

The training took place in the infield of the speedway which was quite a treat for us all because it’s such a huge place. Also, since it’s right next to Nellis AFB, we were treated to numerous F-18 fighter jets flying over as they practiced take off’s and landings. Pretty impressive. Diane loves that sound. Makes her swoon.

Once out at the track, each of the drivers posed next to a Richard Petty 43 car before moving on to their assigned vehicle. Our Pat was the first one out since all the other drivers opted for the additional ride along with the pro driver to get the real feel of the track.

Then one of the drivers cranked up one of the cars on the track. It’s the one they use to take drivers on a fast ride, like 165 mph, before they do it themselves with a ride along driving coach who has a kill switch should things get out of control. The sound of that car cranking up was an attention getter on a large-scale, especially since it was only about 10 feet away from us. Very thrilling. Diane had to sit down.

Then Pat got in his assigned car and flashed a thumbs up before starting the engine and entering the track for his attempt to hit all the gates and make the 1.5 mile trip as fast as he could.

There was another fun looking car at the track but no amount of whining by Pat would have made it possible for the professionals to allow Pat inside the car. I don’t blame him. I wasn’t signed up to drive, and I ever whined a little. Looked like it might be a lot of fun.

Once the ride was over, Pat exited the car and staggered back to our side of the barrier that kept us out of the pit area. Actually, I don’t think he walked at all … he kinda floated back with a really silly grin on his face which let us all know he’d just experienced the thrill of a life time. And we were there to see it. Below Pat and Pat share a moment in history that won’t soon be forgotten.

Watch of the drivers got a video of their ride from inside the car, and I also took video of him each time he flew past us on the front straightaway. He was moving along very nicely. When it was all done he learned that he’d set a new track record for rookies of 155.3 and was immediately offered a sponsor so he could go pro. What an honor. He turned them down because he didn’t want to spoil the thrill of that initial ride and didn’t want to make it a job. Once it’s a job, it’s no long fun. It’s work.

We left the track and headed back to town. On the way the girls did a search for a nice place to eat. They came up with an Italian place called Norman’s, or something like that, that was a little ways out of town, away from the strip. It was very authentic and the food was delicious. I had my forever favorite spaghetti ala carbonara. It’s really great stuff. Diane had raviolis, Tall Pat had spaghetti and meat balls, and Short Pat had tortellini. We were all well fed and thoroughly enjoyed the meal and the visit with Pat and Pat.

Then we monied back to Worldmark and retrieve Diane’s new Impala. Sadly, it was time to bid adieu and go our separate ways. But, we know we will see them again soon once we’re all back in the Portland area.

Here’s where we stayed. It’s one of the newer Travelodges recently acquired by Hilton and added to their expanding list of properties that we can use in our travels.

Last night was festive over at the Gold Coast Casino where we had our PT Banquet. The food was good, the service was excellent, and everyone had a really good time. One of the more interesting events, in addition to the many PT related stories people told, was that one lady, from Colorado, who bought two $10 tickets for a 50/50 raffle, won on both tickets. She got 1st prize of $350, missed on the 2nd place $225, and one 3rd place for $125. Not a bad night. What incredible luck.

This evening we went to see “Las Vegas, The Show” which is one we’ve seen on a previous visit. We chose to go again because it’s magnificent and we recommend it to anyone who has a notion to visit LV. Another draw was the theater is just around the corner from our hotel. Seriously, right around the corner.

Now we’re back in the room and will pack before retiring with the intention of embarking on our homeward journey tomorrow, a day earlier than originally planned. The lady at the front desk was ecstatic when I told her she could have her room back a day early. We need to do this so we can make it back to St. Helens in time to attend Easter service at our church.

So, I bid you farewell and have to point out that today is April 1st, and only part of what you’ve just read is true. You’ll just have to decide for your self which part.

Good night.

Viva Las Vegas !!

Posted on March 31, 2015 by Jerrie Cate

So, we’ve been in Las Vegas since last Friday (28th) which you may all assume is the reason for delaying this entry. You’d think we were out running the strip with the rest of the party crowd, adding to our collection of those girly cards that are given freely available to anyone, even children, to accept those evocative gifts. It’s evident that many folks aren’t happy that their children accepted those cards by the number of them littering the sidewalks and street. I’ve been collecting those cards for years and have successfully gathered 998 cards with unique renditions of very pretty girls with very little, or no clothing, no two alike. I feel that’s quite an accomplishment considering that most of the cards are duplicates. I haven’t collected any this trip, yet, but I’m after those illusive two needed to round my collection up to 1,000. I actually saw one that I needed, but it was in the street and I figured Diane would frown on me picking it up, so I sadly walked on by, watching it disappear in my peripherals as those unconcerned people revelers around me nimbly walked over it, grinding it into the pavement making it totally useless for a valid collection destined to become very valuable.

But, no, that was not the case. Instead we’ve been spending most of our time gazing out the window of our room at the millions of lights illuminating the pointy end of Nevada. Here’s part of what we can see from our room on the 54th floor of the Elara.

Quite festive. We can see, from left to right, Aria,The Cosmopolitan, Rio, Bellagio, Planet Hollywood, Caesars Palace, Paris, The Mirage, Treasure Island, Trump, Wynn, Palazzo, Encore, Ballys, Venetian, Harrah’s, High Roller Ferris Wheel, and the Stratosphere. Granted, we can’t see the fronts of them all, but enough to make for a pretty dramatic night sky.

The main reason for making Las Vegas our vacation destination this trip was to join a group of old folks with whom we’ve become acquainted over the years because of our mutual fascination with the Chrysler PT Cruiser. The 109 in attendance, including us, still own PTs, and a large number of them drove their vehicles to the party. The notable exception was our new friend from Sydney, Australia. Pretty cool that he came all that way to visit with us. There were lots of folks from Canada, and the US East Coast, too. This event was the brain child of our friend, Rick, pictured below with my bride, Diane.

This gathering was for breakfast at the Gold Coast for which we had to leave our warm beds at 0500 Monday morning. It was good. Rick, Rick, and Pat had microphones and went around the room giving everyone a chance to introduce themselves. Once some of them got the microphone, however, they were compelled to share some pretty involved stories about their love affair with the PT. Pat Chase, who is, oddly, the current husband of Pat Chase, gave an impressive dissertation on the PT Cruiser from its concept to production, and all the emotions associated with that little car during it’s production run from 2001 through 2010. In another 15 years our 2005 convertible will be a classic. Can’t wait for that. The downside of that is that I’ll be 86 and the state of Oregon probably won’t let me drive it.

The remainder of Monday’s activities for us, after breakfast, was to find a car wash so we could get the bugs scraped off the front of Diane’s new Impala. I found one really close to the Gold Coast that is strictly a hand wash facility. They did an outstanding job and made the car look awesome. This is the new ride …Monday night 58 of us took a 3-4 hour ride on The Big Bus tour of Las Vegas with Kate as our tour guide. Had it not been for her interaction with our crowd of old folks, the trip would have been kind of ho-hum, “look at all the pretty lights” instead of the incredibly detailed, historically correct narrative of every building or vacant lot we passed. She even gave us some pretty interesting back ground of many of the questionable people we passed during our travels. Kate is extremely funny and could easily, in my estimation, excel as a standup comic. Perhaps she is one of those already, but that wasn’t mentioned. She was, however, the Witch in “Wicked” and played all over the west coast for considerable amount of time.

Kate has a commanding presence and we all fell in love with her during that 3-hour tour. What a gal. Here she is making friends with one of the many Ricks who made the trip from Oregon. One of the other Ricks is sitting right there to the right in front of Linda. The other Rick, our leader, was sitting up front.

Sadly, the Rick pictured with Kate injured his knee on the way up the steps to this seat and had to be carted away in a wheel chair at the end of the tour. We trust he will be fine, eventually, but don’t have a prognosis at this time. He was taken to one of the local hospitals, of which I found there are many in the area.

Here are a few of the places we saw along the way down the strip.

Then we headed for the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino on Fremont Street.

We’ve been there many, many years ago, before it evolved into what it is now, so we weren’t prepared for the incredible transformation that’s been made in that area. It’s pretty amazing.

Outside the Golden Nugget, Fremont Street is totally covered with a curved video screen that stretches over 300 feet. Below the screen, for the entire length, stretched 3 zip line wires on which people whizzed by overhead.

When we first got there it was displaying random graphics which were very pleasing. As we walked through the crush of people on the street, we were smitten with all the pretty lights and the great attitude of the crowd. We didn’t encounter any attitudes at all during our circumnavigation of this amazing venue. About halfway around all the lights along the street, and those advertising the various facilities, were extinguished and the overhead display lit up along the entire length of the street and the sound was cranked up as we were entertained with a Bon Jovi concert of epic proportions. It was mesmerizing and incredibly fun to watch. Even for an old guy like me.

Inside the Golden Nugget all the lights are covered with these incredible artsy creations and all I could think about was how I’m so happy I don’t have to change the light bulbs in them. Pretty, but really sharp on the pointy ends.

Also inside the Golden Nugget is the Shark Tank. A swimming pool surrounds the tank and you can see a tube running through the center of the tank. That’s the end part of a water slide that starts a couple of floors above the tank and through which people fly, probably with their eyes closed. Kinda freaky.

Prior to the evening festivities, we wandered around the Miracle Mile Shopping portion of Planet Hollywood where Diane found a hat shop. She loves hats and looks great wearing pretty much anything on her head.

That’s pretty much it for yesterday. We had a terrific time and are looking forward to the evening festivities today. We’re having the Old PT People Banquet (OPTPB) at the Gold Coast. Should be a hoot.

Prospector Inn & Casino Ely, Nevada

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Jerrie Cate

Greetings.

We had a very pleasing visit with Jim & Donna over the past two days while we gathered our strength for the trip south to Las Vegas. While with J & D we mainly just visited and ate. Fortunately, I had sent our desired menu ahead so Donna could get all the necessary food for our stay, so we ate really good. We also visited really good.

Thursday morning Jim forced me to get up early so I could accompany him to Burger King where he meets with fellow friends from his church, gee, every Thursday morning. I’ve been to these event on previous visits so I knew what to expect, and actually remembered some of those fellows and they remembered me. It was a jovial group. Just for fun, I’ll share that one of the guys who used to participate in these meetings was the original drummer for Paul Revere & The Riders. Remember those guys?

Once we got home Jim broke out his compressor so we could pump up Diane’s car tires. On the trip from La Grande it was discovered, by way of the DIC in her car … that’s the Driver’s Information Console … that the tires all had different amounts of air in them. The first tire I checked was the driver’s side front. When I spun the valve cap off the rim it flew out of my hand from the pressure of the air escaping from the tire. It was readily evident that there was no valve core installed on this tire and the only thing keeping air in the tire was the valve cap. Interesting. It’s a brand new car and things like this aren’t supposed to happen. It had to have been done intentionally.

We drove it over to EDMARK Chevrolet so they could fix it They were very nice about it and took care of it very quickly. They were also a bit flabbergasted as to how it could have happened. What they failed to do for us was balance out the pressure in all the tires so We plan to attach that problem in Las Vegas.

While we’re out resting foreign places, Daniel and Jennifer and chaperones for Lydia’s birthday party at our house. That’s the way it is … we leave, they have parties. Hope they’re having a great time.

We had a great Mexican dinner and are currently in back in our room resting up for a good night’s sleep. After dinner, however, Diane used the $3 gift card we received upon checkin, to try her hand at the BIG slot machine. The wheels went round and round and she almost won $10 million. Missed by a hair. Funny thing.

Now I must stop and watch Grimm.

Another Road Trip

Posted on March 24, 2015 by Jerrie Cate

Tuesday

Here we go again, another road trip just when I thought we were all done with those, at least until the Winnebago gets fixed. But, this “thing” in Las Vegas popped up and we felt compelled to go. It’s kind of like an international convention of PT Cruiser “people” we’ve met throughout the years. The instigator was Rick, the guy who dreamt up the Tualatin Valley Cruiser Club waaaaay back in 2000. As luck would have it, Diane and I are charter members of the group. We only know the core group of people, unlike Rick who has been in communication with all the foreigners, like those from the east coast, and from other countries, and knows them all by name. This gathering is an opportunity to put names with faces and just have a good, relaxing time. That’s for everyone else, you know, because Diane and I have to work. Since we drive pretty much everywhere we go those who outnumber us decided that it would be a great idea if we hauled everyone’s extra luggage so they wouldn’t have to pay extra to get it there. It kind of made sense since we had the Buick SUV which had plenty of room so, in order to avoid unnecessary bloodshed, we agreed.

Everything was going swell, right up until today, the first day of our trip, when we traded the Buick in for an Iimpala. We did that this morning, kinda on our way out of town. Seems like a dumb thing to do, right? Well, it sorta was but it wasn’t totally done on impulse. There was considerable thought and effort involved that led to this transition.

First, the Buick passenger seat only moves back and forth. It doesn’t go up and down and the the seat portion doesn’t tilt. The driver’s seat does all that, but I’m not allowed to drive so I had to sit in that relatively immobile seat for thousands of miles, like 94 thousand of them, with my leg hurting so much my hip hurt, too. Another drawback with the Buick is it doesn’t have proper chicken handles that I like to use when my arms act up and need a little traction applied. Oh, the Buick has them, but they are mounted on the window pillars, too far out of reach for them to be of use for anything other than hauling ones self into the vehicle. Proper installed chicken handles are located above the windows where one can reach up and grab it without thinking. So, not having one of those available for all those miles my arms suffered immensely. I endured because Diane loved that Buick, and I don’t blame her because sitting in the driver’s seat is pretty comfy.

Another aspect about the Buick that concerned me was its advanced age. True, it’s only six years old, but it’s got those 94K miles on it and I thought the prudent thing to do would be to trade it in while it was still in good shape and still under 100K miles. Made sense to me, so I started a campaign that got Diane to reveal to me that her next dream car would be a white diamond Impala with interior in any color other than black. I visited the local Chevy dealer numerous times over the years discussing cars, getting to know the salesmen, the manager, and eventually the owner and it paid off yesterday when Diane voluntarily drove by the dealer to look at the Impalas they had on the lot. There were only two of them – one red and one black, both with black interior. She loved the black one a lot, but it really needed to be white. Hearing this, the owner, Michael, and the manager, Jeff, got busy searching for the dream car. Michael found one in Madras about noon yesterday, made a dealer trade, then sent a driver to drive it home but we knew he wouldn’t make it back until after the dealership closed for the night.

So, we went home and emptied the Buick, Diane packed a bunch of clothes and filled a bunch of bags while I downloaded the Impala owner’s manual to get a head start on what all those buttons are for. I got through the whole thing around midnight when Diane thought it might be a good time for me to wrap it up for the night. So I did. But I couldn’t sleep until I got up and proper myself up on my recliner.

Long story short, we got the car about 10 am, they got the Buick, and we parted ways. Steve handled all the paperwork. Then we (Diane) drove it home to load all that stuff into the trunk and back seat. Amazingly, it all fit and Diane could still see out the back window.

Then we left, and made it all the way to Scappoose before we decided we probably should eat lunch before heading East. Faultiness’ was the choice. As we sat down to eat I noticed I had a phone message from Steve so I called him back. Turns out he still had our Driver’s licenses and hoped we weren’t all the way to Pendleton already. Since we were just 8 miles away, he jumped in a car and brought them to us. What a guy.

Then we ate and left town.

The trip to Pendleton was awesome. I pushed tons of buttons, paired our phones to the car, listened to Diane’s phone music on the radio via bluetooth, and called the OnStar lady to get directions downloaded to our Pendleton stop for the night. Diane confirmed that getting the car was a great choice. Not only does it have a new warranty, it has chicken handles in the correct spots, and my seat is very articulated.

Now we’re down for the night because we must rise early so we can be in La Grande by 10 am to watch Maryssa play softball. I’ll see about getting photos of the Impala tomorrow, but it’s really just a car so not a big deal. Just because it pretty much drives itself, is its own wi-fi hot spot, and can talk to us doesn’t mean it’s special.

Random Wounds

Posted on March 13, 2015 by Jerrie Cate

Well, I did it again. I unintentionally harmed one of my favorite body parts while I was working to get the front replaced on the old Winnebago. I don’t think this injury is terminal, but it was for sure frightfully painful and an epic sphincter check.

Picture this … I’m standing about half way up an 8 foot step-ladder attempting to push this fiberglass cowl thing into position where it rests on top of the roof and rests just above the windshield. I’m stretching my little arms to position the piece and give one last little push that causes a similar reaction to my left foot which is the only foot on the ladder. My right knee is positioned precariously on the brace at the bottom of the windshield so when I pushed the ladder out I had a total of about 4 milliseconds to determine my fate and the fate of the roof part I had been working on for the past few days. It was either let go of the part, and hope it didn’t break to smithereens when it landed, then grab something sturdy to keep from breaking something in the vicinity of my legs, arms, or chest. Giving this situation careful consideration I determined a compromise was in order.

So, I pushed the roof part up and away from me, toward the roof, which opened up the area directly above the windshield which is imbedded in a sturdy steel frame. As I pushed I simultaneously rid myself of the ladder which left my feet with nothing but air. I intuitively bent my wrists in search of contact with something sturdy and found that bar of sharp steel I mentioned. It caught my left arm about an inch up my arm from my wrist and slowly pealed a few layers of skin into a barrier that stalled my descent enough that I could get my right knee off the windshield and put my foot on the bumper. Once that was accomplished, I released the pressure on my left arm and took a glance at the damage as I stepped to the ground and ran screaming to the house like a little girl about how bad it hurt. What I saw during my brief assessment of the wound was a nasty scrape and that ridge of multiple layers of skin pealed into the barrier I mentioned.

Once in the house, and I didn’t really scream like a little girl … I didn’t even scream at all … but it truly did hurt a great deal as I clasped it to my chest, looking for Diane so I could share, and get some help. Standing over the kitchen sink, in case it was gushing blood, I uncovered my arm and held it over the sink. It didn’t drip a bit and for that I was happy. No stitches would be necessary. It was just a nasty scrape which I could deal with.

Diane got a super sized band-aid, smeared it with antiseptic salve, and applied it over the wound. I can’t wait until tomorrow to see how many colors it will be. Should be festive. Right now it’s just a little swollen and very, very tender. Showering will be a challenge, but it must be done. Diane said I smelled pretty bad. Guess I better check my shorts, just in case.

Golf and Other Important Stuff

Posted on March 10, 2015 by Jerrie Cate

Wow! It’s been 9 days since my last entry. I must have been really busy, you’d think. At least if I was you that’s what I’d think, but I’m not so I don’t. But, I do know what happened on some of those days. Not all of them, just some.

One thing, for sure I remember, is that I went golfing twice. Those Peal brothers, and my lovely bride, are trying to wear me out by making me go golfing once a week, rain or shine. The up side of that is that I’m actually getting a little better. That’s true even though I’ve taken a vow to count every stroke I take. That wasn’t always the case as those of you who read this regularly know. There are plenty of Mulligans and gimmees in my past. Then I decided to quit that because, really, who cares? I just smack the ball, go find it and smack it again. Somethings I smack it pretty good, other times I don’t. But, it’s fun.

During today’s round at the links I had to use a cart because I developed terminal knee pain yesterday while working on the motor home. I could hardly walk yesterday because my left knee hurt so bad and I couldn’t figure that out because it wasn’t swollen at all. But, it hurt horrible, like a for real 10 on that pain chart docs like to use. Today it’s better, but now there’s swelling. Perhaps whatever’s causing the pain is working its way to the surface and once it’s free it will eat my knee cap. Maybe that’s what it’s already doing because it’s the knee cap that hurts. So, I have a parasite that’s eating my knee cap. That could be what it is for sure. If it still hurts tomorrow I might just see about getting a doctor’s appointment for a professional opinion.

The motor home … Since the days have been so nice, I thought it would be a good idea to rip the front right off that sucker. Doing that involved removing about 3 dozen screws of various sizes then expending a great deal of effort to overcome the death grip provided by the incredible amount of various kinds of sealant that held the fiberglass cowl in place above the windshield. It’s been leaking at the seam where the fiberglass meets the aluminum roofing material. Of course I had no idea what I was doing when I dismantled everything, but I did it anyway. It’s OK because Diane’s used to me doing stuff like that. I take things apart. Generally, I get them back together again, too, and most of the time they work better when I’m done. Not always, but most of the time. If I remember, I’ll let you know how this one works out. I have confidence it will work out well because the alternative will involve a divorce lawyer if I don’t get Diane to the beach pretty soon.

Now I must stop and prepare for a good night’s sleep. I have work ahead of me tomorrow. One, for sure, it the motor home, but a new one developed on my way to council this evening. I replaced the headlights on the PT this afternoon and that involved a lot of effort to release those crummy little plastic push thingies that hold the fender well liner to the body instead of screws in some places. I was able to remove, and reuse three of the 20 I tore out and, of course, I didn’t have any spares. Who does? Like those are parts I make sure I have in stock, right? Well, I don’t. So now I must go buy some because the fender well plastic inserts are flopping around making all kinds of racket that I don’t like. That means I must drive slowly to NAPA tomorrow for the missing parts. Hopefully that’s the cure. Or, maybe I destroyed something during the headlight install.

Did you know you have to take the grill out of a PT to replace headlight units? News to me, too. That, and loosen the fascia. It’s huge hassle, but it’s done. Almost.

G’night.

The Subaru, American Legion, Class of ’62, & Hump’s

Posted on March 1, 2015 by Jerrie Cate

Thursday 2/26

The peanut brittle sugar rush is finally over and I’m thinking semi-clearly now. Diane will disagree, but I am. Really. I am.

Today I ordered a replacement debit card from the Navy Federal Credit Union because the one I had quit working. Totally. I’ve been hanging on to it for a year or so, babying it along because it still kinda worked, but yesterday I finally put an end to it by ripping in half. Actually, it was already torn a bit, right down the magnetic strip on the back, so I just helped it along a little making it necessary to make today’s call. Amy told me it would be in our mail box shortly.

Yesterday I listed our 1996 Subaru on the local Columbia County Buy Sell Trade Facebook site and couldn’t believe how many folks are interested in it. One guy even paid me a visit so it could look at it in the dark. He used his smart phone screen s a flashlight and looked it over then took it for a drive. I didn’t go with him because I was in my PJs’ already and didn’t want to get dressed. I just stood outside in my jammie bottoms and a T-shirt waiting for him to return. I wasn’t worried because he left his car, with the engine running, and with his wife sitting in the passenger seat playing with her iPad. He didn’t introduce us before he drove off so I didn’t talk with her. He was gone about 10 minutes before he returned and drove off after declining to assume responsibility for the rig. That’s OK because there is still someone out there who will. It’s a good little vehicle, and cheap at $1800. Just don’t need it.

I just saw an entry on Facebook reporting that smelling Rosemary will increase one’s memory by 75%. After considering that astounding bit of news for a while I figured it must be good information because it caused me to remember the time I did that in the third grade and got slugged by Rosemary’s older brother. Lesson learned. Don’t smell Rosemary.

I made a quick fly by at the Kozy Korner Kafe to see if any of my fellow MELCA members were there for our weekly Koffee Klash. I was informed by Kerri, our favorite waitress, that I was the only one who showed up so far. Armed with this bit of knowledge, I vacated the premises so I could return home and embark on one of my many abandoned projects. Not finding anything interesting enough to hold my attention for more than a couple of minutes, I decided to take advantage of another beautiful day and mow our yard. I didn’t do it all because I didn’t want to. I did just enough to make it pretty from the street which pleased Diane. So now our house looks kinda like Hong Kong when viewed from the harbor – it’s really nice and attractive, but once you get past the glitter of the front you enter a maze of clutter that’s astounding. In Hong Kong that happens about two blocks into the city, but at home it’s just a quick trip around back.

In the evening I attended our weekly Post 42 American Legion meeting. It’s been pointed out to me on a number of occasions that I really should attend these meetings since I’m the Sgt. At Arms. Along the way I picked up Mac, a WWII sailor, who doesn’t drive at night. Mac is 88 now and doing quite well. The meeting was pretty normal with the majority of us voting to raffle off another weapon this year. Last year we raffled off an AR-15. Lots of folks oppose those kinds of raffles thinking it promotes idiots to wander into a school and start shooting kids, but the reality is those folks probably have easier access to weapons than the one we raffle. Plus, they are deranged and not to be trusted. We were also mesmerized by Doug, our Financial guy and the Post Secretary, reading the past minutes as well as the current state of our finances. His voice has a hypnotic effect on me as he recites the numbers on the page before him, sharing all aspects of our efforts down to the penny. Makes it hard to remain alert for possible trouble like I’m supposed to but I did it.

Bought a new Sony sound system for our main TV so Diane could hear people talk. It was cheaper than hearing aids.

Friday 2/27

I attended one of our many informal gatherings for the Scappoose Class of 1962 for lunch at Fultano’s in Scappoose while Diane took her Mom shopping and to lunch. Diane was invited, as all spouses are, but she wanted “Mom Time” which was a good idea. One can never get enough of that.

Here’s the group who showed up. I used the pano setting on my iPhone to take the photo so the sizes are a little skewed.

Left to right: Eva, Sam, Mary Ann, Delores, David, Jim, Virgil, Darrell, Evelyn, Judy, and Harold. The gal on the end is Jim’s wife. She’s much younger than all of us. We’re all 70, you know, and she’s probably only 63-64. Just a spring chicken.

I ate way more than my share of everything and was pretty much stuffed the remainder of the day which caused me to not remember anything that happened after the meal. I don’t even remember driving home which would, no doubt, concern Diane had she known about it at the time. Learning now is too late and I’m sure she won’t be upset at all.

Saturday 2/28

The last day of February. Wow! I realize it’s our shortest month, but it still went by faster than normal. We spent a few hours of it, sun and all, driving back to Best Buy with the new, broken sound system to trade it in on one that would, hopefully, work for longer than a day. For some reason the original one got stuck in Protect mode and wouldn’t reset. So, Best Buy swapped it out for a new one. Just took two hours for the round trip plus 30 minutes or so to convince the Geek Squad that they weren’t going to fix it.

Mowed the church lawn and power washed Floyd’s mower in the afternoon. Mowed for 2 hours and power washed for 1. Brutal. But it’s really clean now.

Sunday 3/1

Diane jumped up exclaiming it was quarter to 10! and she was still in her jammies. So was I, but I knew I could change quicker than she can so I lingered here at the computer then got in trouble when she zoomed past me to the Buick all dressed up for church.

After the service we took a nice long drive Clatskanie where we had lunch at Humps Restaurant. We all had great meals that were almost too much for some of us. Diane’s Mom got a plain turkey sandwich …

Diane had a hot turkey sandwich …

And I had a chicken fried steak, two eggs over easy, hash browns, and toast …

As you can see, mine came on two (2) normal sized plates which had all the key points associated with a culinary challenge for normal people. I, however, have instituted portion control in my diet which means I can eat pretty much any size portion of anything that strikes my fancy, which this did. So, I ate everything on both plates and actually felt I had room for a piece of pie for dessert but Diane wouldn’t let me order one. She made us leave in the midst of congratulatory exclamations from all the waitresses in the restaurant. Apparently finishing one of those things is a rare thing, worthy of note. Eating a piece of pie on top of it would have been excellent.

Once done with lunch we went down Highway 30 towards Astoria for about 3 blocks then made a left on Highway 47 toward Vernonia. Out goal was to visit the Elk Preserve that’s out near Mist, Jewel, or Berkenfeld. None of us could remember exactly where it was, but that’s were we headed. The preserve, by the way, is where all the free elk in the greater NW go during elk season. They know when the shooting starts that this is the place to be and they show up by the hundreds. It’s quite impressive. Sadly, we never found the preserve, but we did pass a couple of small elk herds along the highway so it wasn’t a total waste of time. We saw a bunch of elk. Also saw a bunch of big and little cows, horses, goats, and donkeys. It was a regular circus out there on Highway 47.

After wandering around in the woods for about 3 hours, we arrived home right at 5 pm, the time I had an appointment with Misty who was interested in the Subaru. Sadly, Misty didn’t show up, but John was there, with Jeff, our son, and he said he’d take it. So, the Subaru is no longer for sale. John’s going to come get it tomorrow and drive it home whether or not he has a valid driver’s license. Then I’m going to go visit the water department and see if I can find out why our newly installed water meter reports that our water usage has tripled over the last bill. It’s not leaking on our side, so I can only believe that the new meter, which I was told is more sensitive than the old one, measures water in different units that the old one. The bill went from $132 to $370. Something’s terribly wrong in River City here and I’m going to find out what it is.