September 2023

 Hello,

 It’s been an absolute crazy summer. So many subjects to cover, I didn’t want to wait until later in the year.

From the highs of selling our place 

to the lows of sudden loss. We lost Riley this summer, he was having such a difficult time just getting himself up. His hips that have bothered him since he was a pup, finally got to a point that his hips didn’t allow him to function. I miss him still to this day, such a wonderful happy dog and a loyal companion. Of course it’s not just me that misses him, Murphy lost his best friend. No thought of another dog, way to much chaos in our life to have to deal with a puppy. Goodbye Riley! 

Jacob also lost Tucker, a great dog and the absolute best retriever and catcher of a ball I have ever witnessed.

On a more serious note, I just lost my sister, Annie. She died of lung cancer, it came on quickly and she died peacefully on September 12. Although we didn’t see too much of each other, we had a bond between us that started along time ago when I helped watch after her two sons, Brian and Shad. both Brian and Shad were there at the hospital on her last day. I wish I had a picture to share, shame on me. She loved animals, always made a special effort to find abandoned pets a new home. She loved to paint and was quite good. Her favorite place on earth was the beach. I hope the boys chose to spread her ashes at the beach, goodbye sis!

I’ve got to admit, I’m feeling a little empty as Annie was my last sibling. An uneasiness creeps over me that mom, dad, JoLynn, Greg and now Annie are all gone. I’m so grateful for my family and look forward to spending more time with Jake, Em and Grace & Travis in Spokane during the spring and summer and Ben & Matt down in Palm Springs in the fall and winter.

On a completely and more uplifting note, things have worked out well here at Carole’s. It’s very nice of her we to offer her home to us. I like to think we have helped each other. I am looking forward to returning to our place in Borrego.

 The results of my shoulder replacement surgery could not have gotten any better. I’m now just over 3 months post op and at my last post op appointment, my surgeon called me a “rock star” because I have regained such good mobility, so quickly. I’m even starting to play some golf, I’m not as strong as I will be and I’m plenty rusty but it’s fun to get back out. I hope by the next post we’ll have sold Carole’s home and have our sights on a new home in Spokane.

Summer 2023

    Hello again, summer is here in the Pacific NW. A lot to discuss on this posting! I’ll begin with an updated medical, I am 5 weeks post op with my new shoulder. I can’t imagine the procedure going any better than it has, Chris has been wonderful, with my arm in a sling 24/7, she has had to shoulder (sorry for the pun) much of the responsibilities around the house and yard.. Don’t exactly know what’s ahead of me with regards to PT and continuing to strengthen my right arm, hopefully, I’ll get to abandon the sling! 

   It has been a very busy spring. As I mentioned in the last posting, we have put the house up for sale, we listed the house with Matt’s aunt, Roberta, she has been fantastic. Roberta and Kim staged the house for us and took some amazing photo’s for our listing page. I’ll include a picture of the for sale sign in the yard! Of course the real estate market is not good, interest rate are over 6% which affects the amount of buyers. To our advantage, it also affects the number of listings available because people don’t want to sell their place only to deal with high interests rates on a new home. We had 1000’s of people review the listing on line but only a couple of iffy possible buyers until we got a call from Roberta regarding a couple from Seattle. We knew right away there was some genuine interest, they drove over here from Seattle during the busy 4th of July weekend holiday just for a drive by. We went down to Carole’s as they ended up spending 4 or 5 hrs carefully looking at the property which concluded with Merle escorting them inside the house. They came back 5 days later with Roberta for another lengthy visit and then right after the 4th of July, we received an offer and we have accepted!

Now comes the hard work of saying goodbye to this beautiful home with all the wonderful memories here. So many memories of friends over for drinks and dinners. so many family visits, many of them on long holiday weekends. We know we will never replace this house, but we’ll create new memories in Spokane. Chris and Carole leave for Spokane tomorrow. It’ll be Christal’s 3rd trip over and Carole’s first. Jim will show them 7 homes over two 1/2 days, I’m hopeful they’ll see something they both like. Meanwhile back home, more packing and cleaning. It’s a good time to consolidate, we’ve donated a lot to Habitat for Humanity and made several dump runs. Movers come Aug 17, closing date is Aug 25. We’ve made a lot of progress, I think we’ll be ready!

Family is doing good. Ben and Matt are busy making improvements to their new Palm Springs home. Ben is getting ready to run a marathon in San Francisco this coming weekend the day before his birthday! There could be a major change at work for Ben, that will have to wait for the next blog. Travis is hanging in there, working at Amazon and hoping to find a small place of his own. Jake, Em & Grace are great, they are excited for us to move over although Grace is not happy about me selling the tractor. On her summer break now, Grace will be going into the 4th grade this fall. On a very sad note they had to put Tucker down. That’s always so hard, this is Jakes first dog he owned. Tucker was a great dog, best catcher of a ball I have ever seen. He lived a long and happy life but he’ll be missed!

Well that’s enough for now. It’s going to be an early trip down to Borrego. Right now, the plan is for Riley, Murphy and I to head down on Sept 9, right after my last post op visit. Chris will stay here in Hoodsport with Carole until they leave either at the end of October or first of November. I’ll keep in touch.

Winter 2022

 Hello from Borrego, I’m a little under the weather this week, I’ve managed to catch a nasty head cold. With Covid still a very strong virus, I was naturally concerned but I’ve tested negative twice. We had a nice Christmas, low keyed but went to three parties at Jeff’s, Carole’s & Don’s.  Chris & I spent a couple days with Ben & Matt, wonderful food, plenty to drink and a nice pool/spa to enjoy. Murphy and Riley got to spend a couple days at the Grand Paw, where they played hard, got bathed and got their nails trimmed.

There is news to report…Matt has been appointed to be a judge! With the appointment he was also able to pick a location to serve. He could have stayed in Seattle but he and Ben love Palm Springs, so they have moved. As I’m wring this they are taking ownership of their new house. They are so excited.

Because they have moved, leaving us with no immediate family near Hoodsport, Chris and I are going to list our home when we get back with the hope of moving closer to Jacob, Em and of course Grace.

Travis and Anne are also over in Spokane, so it just makes getting together easier. We really want to spend our time up north watching Grace grow up. It will be hard to sell that home, it was our dream to have a custom built house and it is so beautiful there. It is not a favorable real estate market, interest rates have really increased. The nice thing is we don’t have to sell, if we don’t get fair market value, we’re both good with staying there. It will be interesting at this time, next year to see where we are. 

On top of all that, I will be going through shoulder replacement surgery when we get back (probably) in early May. Recovery time is 4-6 months, it could come right as we are trying to move.

Mom and I have gotten very comfortable with streaming (hard to believe). We do it both in Hoodsport and here in Borrego. We really enjoy the variety of shows we can watch, many of them we watch together.

In order to get “in shape” for this upcoming surgery, mom and Ben helped me to order an e Bike. I can’t walk much anymore, I’m hoping I’ll enjoy this and lose some lbs to get my bmi down where my surgeon recommends, that probably means 15 lbs or more in the 4 months we have left here. More to come on that!

We’ll, time to feed the boys, I’m starting to get some evil stares as the clock hits 4:30.

Bye for now!

Spring of 2022

 Hello again, I always take such a long time between posts. From the fall of 2020 through all of 2021 the country suffered through the Covid 19 and all the preceding variants. We are far from normal but in a much better place now. Vaccines are now common place, there are still those that refuse to be vaccinated and there are still deaths associated with this virus. Masks are voluntary many people still mask up, especially in public places.

As I write this, we are still in Borrego but only for a few more weeks. It’s been a nice winter and we spent 4 days or so with both Ben & Matt in Palm Springs and Jake, ‘Em & Grace here in Borrego, we really enjoyed both visits. This past summer we spent 4 days with Jake & family on the Oregon coast, really had fun (Jake needs a mini-van)! We had several great visits with Ben and Matt (yummy food) and even had Travis & Anne spend a few days with us. One of the highlights last summer was learning how to grow sunflowers, we really enjoyed them out our bedroom window, Ben has already planted 36 new starts for more sunflowers (and maybe some sunflower seeds) this summer. 

Chris finally retired last fall and by now is getting comfortable in retirement, that just isn’t as easy as one might imagine. It’s hard to let go, its hard to see the money stop coming in and it takes time getting comfortable with how to spend the time. Chris is very involved in the ladies golf here at the Roadrunner. While she isn’t a big golf fan, her responsibilities have helped keep her busy and she has met a lot of ladies. 

I continue to run the men’s group (Coyotes) here in Borrego and I also enjoy that responsibility. My golf game is good, not great but I do have my moments. On Dec 13th I shot a 70! That’s the lowest score I’ve ever shot. I’ve never even shot par before let alone shoot 2 under.

Murphy is now almost 3 and still a handful. Riley keeps hanging in there, he’s 10 now, not in great shape but still good enough to go for an occasional walk. Both the boys will enjoy coming home and having their back yard and freedom to roam around.

After the major kitchen project last season, we’ve not done much in the way of improvements down here. Back in Hoodsport, I spearheaded a fiber-optic cable install in our development. 

As a result, we now have high-speed internet both at home and here in Borrego. We have officially cut the cord. We have purchased smart tv’s for both places and we now are “streamers”.

Ben and Matt set everything up for us back home. In addition to new tv’s and new sound, they installed programmable light switches and thermostats that will allow us to program lights and temperatures remotely, sounds cool, hope Chris & I can figure it out!

Another change, I traded in my truck. Much harder than it should have been. With Covid, many things like computer chips coming from China were in short supply, this really affected the auto industry. Love the new truck, I’m still trying to get use to the RED! 

 As far as our family goes, not much change. Travis and Ann are living in Spokane and seem happy, they both recently started working for Amazon. Jake & family are also doing well, Grace is great!!! As she gets older she still keeping her charm but we are having even more fun now with her. She recently taught me how to talk to her via our apple watches (walkie talkie). She continues to be very active in sports and school activities.

Looking forward to returning home, temps are in the mid 90’s here (hotter than normal). Maybe I’ll try another post in the fall.

Our past winter down in Borrego

 Hello again, we had a nice winter down in Borrego. We are still subject to the affect of Covid 19. Masks are required in any business and its become the norm to wash and sanitize after any outdoor exposure. I have to give San Diego County and the state of California credit for their organization and distribution of either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines. Chris and I were vaccinated in March with the Moderna.

We managed to finish our kitchen (thanks to Jeff) and we redid all the floors. It really looks nice and we are very happy with the finished look.

We didn’t do to much outside but we did manage to plant an orange tree and 3 plants in the backyard. I’m hopeful we’ll be able to enjoy oranges when we return next season.

The dogs are good, Murphy is still a pain as he is working through his “puppy” stage. In February we were invited to spend 4 days with Ben & Matt in Palm Springs, we had a blast, it was a nice getaway from Borrego.

We did some FaceTime with Jake, Em & Grace but not nearly enough to satisfy the need to see them in person. Now fully vaccinated and back home, we are hoping to see them in the next couple of weeks. Grace played her first t-ball game last night, she was awesome, - go Dodgers!

Not sure if I mentioned this on my last posting, a friend Jay was moving away from his Lake Cushman home and I bought his small aluminum boat. If I can figure out how to tow it and run it I’m looking forward to enjoying some lake time with Chris. Might even drop a line or two in the water. Jay gave us quite a bit of fishing gear!  

We also got the house painted before we left. We made a slight change in the color, opting for a slightly darker Reddish/Brown. It turned out great and quite happy with how the house looks. 

Well, that’s about it, I always forget something but I think I’ve hit the high spots.

   

The spring, summer and now fall with Covid 19

 Greetings from Hoodsport,

With out a doubt the biggest story and impact on us is dealing with a new virus transported into the US from China. I’m not going to get into too much detail but this virus has forced everyone to stay close to home, wear masks and sanitize everything. It also forced all the trips we had scheduled to be cancelled. Chris and I had a trip planned to Scotland, she had another trip planned this fall to Greece with Carole and it appears that her planned trip to Australia next spring will also be cancelled.

Murphy and Riley are now buddies. Murphy like most puppies has provided quite a challenge, chewing up our bushes and tearing into the yard. Overall he is a good dog and a welcomed member of our family.

One of the highlights of the summer was adding an outdoor kitchen.

We have already had a lot of fun cooking outdoors both Matt and Jacob have taken turns with the BBQ & Komodo. Speaking of Jake, we had Jake, Em and Grace over for the 4th of July and had a blast (literally)!

Not being able to travel has forced us (me) to focus on the yard and I’m pleased with how things look. We still have two large projects left, hopefully, the house will get painted next week and then in a few weeks after that, our roof will get some attention.

Ben and Matt came over a couple of times and while it’s a little different this year to have guests, we had a good time and as always treated to the best food. Ben was commissioned to create a painting by a sister of one of his good friends, she is moving into a new house and this painting will certainly be a focal point. I have a picture of the painting but can’t pull it up.

I played plenty of golf, my game could be better. It was a slow start to good weather here in Hoodsport but he summer was dry and warm.

Well its time to begin planning for Borrego. Before leaving Borrego in the spring, we began to start remodeling the kitchen in our little place. My friend Jeff Johnson volunteered to take charge, unfortunately when the Covid struck, Jeff had to pull back from the project due to his pre-existing condition that made him vulnerable to Covid. Thank god for Merle, he jumped in and we got half of the kitchen finished. Jeff has called me a couple of times this summer and he’s ready to start again this fall. It may all culminate with a new floor as well since the new cabinets don’t cover all of the existing flooring and Murphy managed to eat a couple of sections of the exposed floor. 

                                                           

I’ll post another update sometime from Borrego.

Winter 2019

Hi again, typing this from my new I-Pad Pro. It is December 28th, yesterday was birthday #65. I’m officially an old geezer. A lot of changes since my last post. I’m now retired. Management wanted me to manage the parks in addition to the golf course as a “recreation manager”. It would have meant a full-time position giving up my winters down in Borrego and it just wasn’t that important for me.
   We lost Cooper this past summer, it was hard to have him put down, many things were still working but he had stability issues and his quality of life just quickly deteriorated.

Of course we will miss him, Riley naturally was depressed and doing nothing without his buddy. Chris accidentally ran across a cute picture on a Facebook website and after following up, we purchased our next family member, Murphy.

 Chris had a particularly tough summer, she did an amazing job caring for her mom. We were hopeful that we could bring her to Hoodsport to live with us and although we tried, it became clear that she was more comfortable in Vancouver where her friends and medical care was.  We lost grandma this fall. We did get the opportunity to have most of our family up for a weekend with Luella, she enjoyed the chance to visit with everyone. I’m glad that happened. 

Grace started school this year, amazing! 

Travis left Wisconsin and now lives in Spokane, he’s enjoying being closer to family and see’s Jacob from time to time.  

Ben and Matt had great years and love living downtown Seattle. Ben had a very interesting work year from filming two commercials (New York & Los Angeles) to opening up new Reserves in New York & Chicago. We just spent Christmas with them and Matt’s family in Palm Springs.

Almost forgot, I won the club Championship at Lake Cushman, something I never thought would happen. What’s special about that is the championship is gross, no handicap involved. Pretty Cool.

I think that is it, Obviously got more pictures to download, maybe I’ll try to do this more than once a year.