October 2022 – Meandering on the Way

October 25, 2022October 25, 2022

Meandering on the Way — October 18-24, 2022

Tuesday, October 18, 2022

It was a three ring circus around here in the morning. J the builder, G the plumber and Z the plumber’s assistant were all here, plus A the cleaning lady. The bathtub was moved to the front lawn. E and A did windows; E did the outsides while A did the insides. M helped with screen removal and then escaped for a while by going off to Lowe’s to get landscape adhesive and stuff.

Loud pounding and power tool racket all day. Things went quiet around 5:30, but then the non-construction activities began. M made a quick dinner so we could finish eating before E’s Zoom yoga lesson that started at 6:00. Then, at 6:55 or so, E left for her in-person book club meeting just across town. She eventually found her way back home a little after 10:00. What a day.

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Our friend Rick passed away today, after having been in a coma for some time. Just three days ago, his beloved Dodgers were ignominiously eliminated in the first round of the MLB playoffs. We can’t help seeing a connection.

Friday, October 21, 2022

The weather is still unseasonably warm and dry. Our friend J came over today, bringing a son and a granddaughter along. E took them all out to pick apples. Six-year-old S didn’t pick many but got very involved in the sorting once the apples were down.

In other outdoor news, M transplanted an ailing dogwood to a less sunny location. If it survives the trauma, it might do better next year.

Inside, it was another day of pounding and grinding, but progress was made. Drains and feed lines are in place, meaning that all the under floor work is done.

Saturday, October 22, 2022

Andrea’s father died today. E is involved in notifying people of her generation, both here and in Spain. Here’s one of the photos that she included with her announcement.

Sunday, October 23, 2022

M is putting the Boxster up for sale on Autotrader. He knows that fall is not the best time to sell a convertible, but he trying anyway. The ad is here.

Cloudy and a little damp today. Good.

Monday, October 24, 2022

Rainy and cold today. Excellent.

We thank everyone for helping us to identify that yellow stuff that we found in the forest. It’s called Fuligo septica, slime mold, or dog’s vomit. It has a striking color, but it doesn’t seem to have any pretty names.

E continues to be involved with correspondence regarding Roberto’s passing and in helping A with arrangements.

October 18, 2022

Meandering on the Way — October 7 to 17, 2022

Friday, October 7, 2022

Went for little hike today on the Baker Creek trail. We saw this on the ground. What is it? Anyone know?

Saturday, October 8, 2022

We spent the morning planning an overnight trip to Tumalo State Park, which is about three hours east of us. The idea is to drive over there tomorrow afternoon, camp for the night in a yurt, go for a hike along the Deshutes River in the morning, and then return home that afternoon. Our camp menu includes grilled cheese sandwiches and soup for dinner and pancakes with maple syrup for breakfast. We did a little bit of packing and preparation today–with more to follow tomorrow morning.

Then, in late afternoon we got some bad news about our good friend R. An email from his daughter informed us that he was in the hospital. He is in a coma and not expected to recover. R’s wife passed about a year ago; they had been together since college. After her death, R’s health declined. Yeah.

Sunday, October 9, 2022

A little discombobulated this morning. We finished packing for the trip, but also spent a couple of hours at the hospital. Very sad, yet meaningful to have a chance to say goodbye to R, whether he was listening or not.

Left town around two in the afternoon.

Monday, October 10, 2022

It’s often hard to sleep in a strange place, and M was out for a walk at 5:00 AM. Here’s how the yurt looked then.

A few hours later, things were brighter. Here’s a video from inside the yurt.

After breakfast we hiked alongside the river for about two miles, heading upstream toward the city of Bend. The trail continues into the city for those who want to go that far. But the first two miles might be the nicest. The river runs through a narrow canyon.

The biggest trees are ponderosa pine, but there are also junipers on the riverbanks along with thick stands of deciduous trees and bushes. This is high desert country, so riverbanks are the only places where you see this much green.

We weren’t the only travelers on the trail.

Here’s our lunch spot back at the campground. Forget any rumors you may have heard about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, single malt scotch and Dove chocolate. Here’s what we really ate: just plain water and a small bag of crumbs.

Thursday, October 13, 2022

Lots of warm clear days lately, great days to get outside and hike, work in the garden, or just snooze in the sun. We’re pretty sure that these nice days used to come in September, at least around here. The way we remember it, October days used to be much cooler, mostly cloudy and mostly damp. We worry that this change can’t be good. What is this doing to the flora and fauna? What will become of them? What will become of us? Is the world careening toward disaster? Maybe yes, maybe no, maybe something in between. Nothing like a nice fall day, though. Gotta go for that walk.

But speaking of worry and disruption, we found in our driveway this morning a potent and unmistakeable omen, one that points to hard times ahead. Change is coming; and at least for a month or two, it won’t be pleasant.

Friday, October 14, 2022

We went out to visit our friend L, who has five acres on the edge of the Coast Range, about twenty miles southwest of Corvallis. We took a walk on her newly created forest path, then toured the rest of the grounds.

The big room on the left is a screened in porch.

L likes to find things and arrange them. This “room” isn’t actually part of the house…

Saturday, October 15, 2022

Both of us did yard work today. We also cleaned up the patio and did a few other preparations for having people over. M went to the middle eastern grocery and got some Mehmet Efendi Turkish coffee. (He also got some Loacker Quadratini, but we don’t imagine that the guests will get any of those.)

Sunday, October 16, 2022

Time for the 19th Annual Greek Fest, which we celebrate by eating too much Greek food and then–just for balance–having a cup of Turkish coffee. Of course you can’t drink Turkish coffee at a Greek church party–that would be crazy. So after our group of friends finishes eating at the Fest, we buy some Greek(ish) desserts to take out and everyone comes over to our place.

Monday, October 17, 2022

Work continues on the bathroom project. You can see that there are still a few rough edges.

There’s not a lot of room in here, so we’re trying to save space wherever possible. One idea is to mount the bathtub vertically instead of horizontally. It seems like such an obvious idea; we’re wondering why no one ever thought of it before…

October 7, 2022

Meandering on the Way — October 3 to 6, 2022

Sunday, October 3, 2022

Meandering on the Way has been on hiatus for a while because we were busy doing some pretty boring stuff. Besides a bunch of medical and dental visits, we’ve been focused mostly on organizing the destruction and subsequent renewal of one of our bathrooms. Not that anything has actually happened yet–just a lot of planning and a lot of choosing this and selecting that from among roughly 700,000 options. Just for the record, here’s what we’re trying to make go away.

E has been giving this room the stink eye ever since we moved in.

Monday, October 3, 2022

E’s cousin L came to stay at the Oregon coast for a few days and also had time to give us a visit on her way back to Utah. We met her in Portland today, and brought her down to Corvallis. But first, we had a great dinner with the Andees. L and A hadn’t seen each other for a few decades, but they seemed to recognize each other right away and had a nice time catching up.

Here are L and her Dad along with a previous version of A.

We also got the latest news about the Andees’ food truck, which is scheduled to go live on Oct. 24. More on that another time. And speaking of food, we ate at a place called ParkStone Wood Kitchen + Taps. It’s in Cascade Station (near the Portland airport) and it’s wonderful.

Tuesday, October 4, 2022

Today we took L hiking at Beazell Memorial Forest. It was a lovely fall day, sunny and cool. We stopped for lunch about halfway through the South Loop.

Though both E and L are smiling, it’s pretty clear that neither of them is about to give up her grip on that bar of chocolate.

It’s amazing how well the two cousins get along, especially considering that they have such totally different styles…

Wednesday, October 5, 2022

In the morning we had time for a quick turn about the boardwalk at the Jackson-Frazier wetland just at the edge of town. As we pulled into the parking lot, E thought she saw something moving in a nearby field. All M and L could see was a dark lump. Then the lump moved. But what was it? It wasn’t until we got out the binoculars and the zoom lenses that we could tell.

By noon it was time for L to catch the airport shuttle for the first leg of her journey home. Before leaving town, the shuttle passed through a part of the OSU campus. At that point L texted us and said that she had just got a glimpse of another Oregon creature: an OSU Food Service delivery robot. She didn’t have a chance to get a photo of that one, so we’ll include a picture from our friend J, who once happened upon a whole herd of the critters.