Dogs

Dogs come in all shapes and sizes and it seems no matter what, there is a dog-shaped place in our hearts for each one of them.  My heart is heavy tonight for the loss of a member of the Bayfield Bunch.  My sincere condolences to Al, Kelly, and Pheebs on the loss of little Motormouse.  She kept us all entertained and I always loved seeing her share a breakfast burrito with Al.

We also got some bad news this week regarding our Poppy dog.  She was at the vet about a month ago and we were told she was pre-diabetic.  Doc thought we could get it under control by watching her diet and getting some weight off her.  We were so pleased when she had lost 7 pounds.  We thought we were doing everything right.  Unfortunately, it was full blown diabetes and not our careful diet that was causing her to lose weight.  Her blood sugar was over 400 and normal is 100, just like it is for a human.



Diabetes in dogs cannot be regulated with a pill; They must have insulin.  She had her first two injections today and did not seem to mind but her blood sugar is still high.  Here are some of the considerations we are weighing in regards to Poppy’s situation.


It is almost impossible to monitor her glucose levels by testing her blood.  It is hard to get blood from a dog except from their footpads or their ears – neither is a good option.  So we have the old fashioned strips that test her urine.  These are not nearly as accurate as blood tests so we are playing a guessing game to some extent.

We will NEVER be able to leave her alone or even with a housesitter.  Insulin therapy carries the inherent risk of low blood glucose and that can be life threatening and needs immediate treatment.  Her food will always be the same, at the same time of day, and in the same amount.  We will need to adjust her insulin dosage based on her level of exercise and how well she is eating.  It will always be an estimate and risky.



The vet said it is pretty much inevitable that she will lose her vision.  With dogs it is not retinopathy that causes blindness, but cataracts.  He said the cataracts develop from high blood glucose and can totally eradicate their vision within a month.  It is not reversible.





At this point we are not ready to give up on Poppy.  We know she is elderly.  We are not sure how old she really is but we have had her for over twelve years and they said she was 2 or 3 when we got her.  We will see how she responds to treatment and how well we can manage her disease.  The vet said she also has some fused disks in her back and her lung function is not as good as it could be – just old age, not a disease process.  She also has an infected foot from licking it and I am concerned about the healing process there.  Diabetics do not heal as well as non-diabetics, and this sore is not yet healing as we had hoped.  She is on antibiotics for that. 


I was thinking back to the dogs we have had in almost forty years of marriage and it hasn’t been that many.  The only one we have had to put down was our first dog, Sheba.  She lived to a ripe old age but had cancer and it was the kindest thing to do.  Then we had Gidget who was also old, had a seizure and passed away at home.  Then there were Rusty and Poppy.  We tend to have dogs that live a long time I guess.  We already knew that Rusty was not going to last too much longer but I really thought we would have our Poppy dog for several more years yet.  She is the best travel dog ever and is always ready to go.  We are definitely going to go ahead with our planned trip later this month and she is going with us.  Rusty will stay at home where he is more comfortable. 



It may be that our decision to treat Poppy is a selfish one.   It has been obvious lately that she hasn’t felt well.  I just put it down to old age.  We will see how the insulin regimen goes and if it is not in Poppy’s best interest, then we will have to rethink our plan.  I know she has already had a long (in dog years) life and she has enjoyed that life to the fullest, but I can’t let her go yet.  I know all you pet lovers out there understand.

We are again kid-less!  Corbin went home last night and we took the grand girls home this morning.  Our daughter and SIL met us in Salem (half-way) so that was a blessing. Glad we didn’t have to make the round trip to Portland.  We also got a new battery for the Fit and it is starting just fine.  Now we just need to get some rest tomorrow then get busy on getting Therapy ready to roll and see if we can get Poppy regulated enough to go on a trip.

Last Day With the Grands and Amazon Prime

Today is the last day of grandkids week.  We didn’t get as many hours in with all the grands as we would have liked but we did what we could. 

Today we went to pizza at Roaring Rapids on the river.  After all the rain we have had, the place has definitely earned its name.  Here's a picture I took last October when Rick and Paulette stopped by on their way to California and next to that a picture of what the river looked like today.  In the summer, the Willamette is a popular river for fishing from a drift boat or just rafting for fun, but I sure wouldn’t do it now.



We managed to burn off some of the kid’s energy in the arcade.  They gravitated to the air hockey game and had a great time playing various versions of two against one.  Just look at that puck fly.





Then we got home and the Wii games that I ordered yesterday afternoon from Amazon had arrived!!  I cannot say enough about Amazon Prime.  Not only do you get free shipping no matter what the cost, it is the FASTEST shipping I have ever received from Amazon.  Now that is only items fulfilled by Amazon so if you go to an off-site store that handles their own fulfillment, you might have to pay.  I don’t think I have purchased very many items that were not fulfilled by Amazon so it’s not a concern for me.  I also love the fact that I can get tons of movies and older TV shows for free with Amazon Prime.  For $79 annually, I think it's a heck of a deal. 

So back to the new Wii games.  I bought several Dance games and the kids have been at it ever since we got back from the pizza place.  It sure uses up some energy and it’s good for them.  Here’s a short clip of them dancing – they didn’t know I was filming but they were sure having fun.



And with that we bid a fond farewell to Spring Break at the grandparents…but summer break will be here before we know it.  It’s been fun, now I’m ready for a nap!!!

Krecklow Kiddie Kastle

Things are pretty quiet around here today and that’s a good thing!!  Bekah has gone to visit her other Grandma and Corbin and Anna are busy on the Wii.


Yesterday was another story.  Have any of you been to a roller skating rink lately?  We take the grandkids to our local Skate World every time they come to stay and they always seem to have a great time.  Here I caught three of them taking a break.

That’s Corbin, Bekah, and Brendan.

Anna would hardly get off the floor so I had to catch her in motion.





Now, while the kids are having a great time, it is not so great on the old folks!!  We knew it would be bad as we have been there many times, but yesterday was just too much!  This is what Russ looked like after two hours locked in the madhouse and it’s about how I felt!!





I don’t want to fall into the bear pit by criticizing modern music but, my goodness, there’s just so much “Noise” we can handle.  We both felt like we had been beat up on by the time we got out of there.  Of course they keep the music loud and pulsing so the skaters have something to skate to but it just wears on our nerves.  So next time, only the older ones will go skating and I think it will be a drop off/pick you up later type of deal.  By the behavior we observed, I think that’s what most parents do.  If I ever catch my grandkids behaving like some of the kids in the skating rink yesterday, it will be the last time they go.


I can remember going skating when I was a teenager.  Most of the music was organ music and it was mellow yet rhythmic.  We still got plenty of exercise and we enjoyed ourselves immensely.  Many danced to the music and it was beautiful, with twirls and moves that you don’t see in today’s roller skating rinks.   I think the mellow music also kept emotions under better control as there was not the yelling and screaming and running full tilt through the roller rink that we witnessed yesterday.  Music does set a mood and if the management of the rink wants high energy, out of control skaters, they pretty much got what they wanted.  I know, can’t go back, but sometimes I do wish …


Anyway, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!  So today is a good day to mellow out and relax a bit with a somewhat quiet day at home. 


We are still trying to figure out why the Fit won’t start.  Russ had the charger on the battery and it says it has a full charge but it is deader than a doornail.  Can’t use it as a toad if it won’t run!!  We are planning on delaying our April trip for a week to give us time to get that figured out and get Therapy ready to roll.  I somewhat optimistically thought I could load the motorhome this week while the kids were here but that just ain’t happening.  So, we’re flexible and will probably roll the second week in April.


So that’s the news from the nuthouse – over and out!

It’s Been a LONG Week!

It’s been a week now since the big snowstorm last Monday night.  There are still piles of snow in some of the parking lots around town but other than that things are pretty much back to normal.  Gotta keep the family up to date on all our doings so this is pretty much a family post rather than a travel one.  Got some cute videos though!!

We are still planning (weather permitting) to take off on a trip when we take the girls home this coming Saturday.  Stay tuned for more actual Travels in Therapy.

We spent the latter part of last week shopping, cleaning, and fixing food for visitors on Saturday.  John (Red) brought his daughter and our daughter’s girl down from Portland on Saturday.  The other two girl cousins wanted to come over and visit since they are spending spring break in Florida and would not have another chance to see their cousins.  Then John and Joni wanted to meet Joel’s wife so Joel and Annette came over with their four kids.  It was a full house for sure!  We had eight of the grandkids here.


It was great to have such a group and they all seemed to have fun and enjoy lunch.  The new grand daughters fit right in and seemed to enjoy themselves too.

As always, I tried to entice Cailin to show me her latest tune on the piano.  She was kinda having a bad day and made a couple of SMALL mistakes but I enjoyed it anyway.  Uncle John was keeping rhythm on Cailin’s new guitar.



John and Grandma thought her song was fine but she was not happy with it.  So John asked her to do it again.  She was just having a frustrating music day!  I guess she got tired of us bugging her because this is what we got the second time.  Watch the devilish little grin on her face.  John sure enjoyed this tune!!




Our daughter in Oregon City, Merry, got to pick out her new puppy on Saturday.  His name is Ricky and he will be going home with Merry in about a week.  Their other dog is Lucy so it should be a crazy twosome!!  Lucy was supposed to be Merry’s service dog and was about 6 months into training when it was discovered she had hip dysplasia so that was the end of Lucy’s career as a service dog.  Ricky comes with guaranteed hips and a 2 year health guaranty so maybe she will have better luck this time around.

Sunday we flat ran out of gas and did nothing more than we had to!  Sure wish I had the energy I used to have.  So today I took three grands (Anna, Bekah, and Corbin) out to pizza and miniature golfing.  Not too hard on me and they seemed to have a good time.












So that’s about it today from the all the monkeys in the zoo.  Hope you all are having a wonderful spring break – unless you already had it last week!!

The Day After

The snowfall last night was just a dusting added to what was left on the ground – and that was fine by me.  We had errands to run today and didn’t want to traipse through a mountain of snow.  We had a dry day and bits of blue sky from time to time and the temperature almost hit 60F!  Good enough for me!

We still had plenty of snow to deal with.  We live here…



…and Therapy lives in our driveway!




Our goal for the day was to lay in supplies (FOOD) for the grandchildren due to arrive on Saturday.  They are teenagers (or nearly) and even girls can really put it away.  Nothing wrong with these kids’ appetites!  While we were out we couldn’t resist taking a few pictures of the aftermath of the storm.

We were surprised at the number of limbs we saw on the ground or hanging by a thread.  It seems the flowering cherry trees took the worst of it.  We saw very few that did not have damage.  Seems the wet, heavy snow combined with the many blossoms was just to much weight on those fragile branches.









That’s just a small example of what we saw all over town.  Saw one tree down on a fence but all in all, the damage was not too bad.

We were glad to see a few daffodils survived.



And the neighbor's John Deere came through in fine shape. (That’s for you, Sam!)




Eugene, OR does not own a snow plow.  About the best we can hope for is a blade on the front of a dump truck but even that is not needed very often.  I think no one was really prepared for this storm and so no blades were attached to dump trucks.  Negotiating the center turn lane could be a little dicey!



The river was running high and swift from all the snow run-off.



But the shrubs managed to hang onto their blooms.




Welcome to Glacier Bay, OR. (come on, just use your imagination!)



Complete with glaciers!




After all this fooling around with snow pictures, we were hungry and headed for Costco.  At least Costco got hold of some type of plowing equipment as their parking lot was in fine shape.



Loaded up on Costco Dogs and about a zillion dollars in groceries, we headed for home.  Just a couple more photos and then I’m done with the snow!!

This is a seasonal pond (read mud puddle) that is the inside of a freeway off ramp cloverleaf.  Enlarge and you can see the tire tracks from some doofus running along the edge of the pond.  Lucky he didn’t get stuck.  And yes, that is still a little ice on the surface.



And for those who REALLY need direction on how to stay safe…

Ya Think???

Thanks to all who responded to my Hwy. 395 question yesterday.  I feel much more confident now and I am sure we will enjoy our journey along that highway.  We are planning to take the grand-girls home to the Portland area on March 31 and just keep going along I-84 to Pendleton and then down 395.  So unless we get heavy snow in the gorge, that’s our plan.  Probably take about a month to explore and just enjoy being in Therapy!


A BIG thanks to Russ for doing all the photography for today's post (except the photo of you, of course!).  You da best!!

Highway 395–Pendleton to Mt. Vernon– I Have Questions???? And a bit of SNOW!

I have driven a lot of Hwy 395.  As a child I rode this highway regularly from San Bernardino, CA to the Owens Valley (Bishop, Lone Pine) and on north to Reno, NV.  It seems it was the only route we traveled for our annual summer vacation.  Russ and I have also traveled that portion of Hwy. 395 many times.  I think that is my favorite highway, for a relaxing and scenic drive.


But now I want to travel a portion I have never been on.  For all the years I have spent in Oregon, I have never traveled the section of Hwy. 395 from Pendleton to Mt. Vernon.  I was all excited about this but after reading a motorcycle blog about this section of the highway, I am having second thoughts.  This fellow went on and on about how this highway was a roller coaster with tight hairpin curves just made for motorcycle riding.  Okay, that sounds great if you’re riding a motorcycle.


I know it would be no problem in the car but driving the motorhome and pulling a car may be a different story.  If anyone has traveled this section of highway with a motorhome or pulling a trailer, I would love to hear from you.  I’m not afraid of a bit of a challenge but at our ages I don’t want to be stupid either!!


And now in other news… I woke up fairly early this morning – about 4:30a.m. to be precise, and thought the sky had cleared.  It seemed so bright outside that I thought maybe I had left the porch lights on.  I opened the curtain and looked outside and this is what I saw.





Oh yeah, it’s springtime in Eugene, OR!! 





Poppy loves the snow and she got right to work on her snow angels.  She wanted to build a snowman too but I reminded her it really helps to have opposable thumbs if you’re going to attempt that task.





Rusty can’t get down and roll around anymore but he still enjoys the snow.  He loves to sniff and trudge around in it but his main interest is always the pool.  I worry that with his decreased mobility he is going to misstep and fall in some day but he is happiest when he can stare at the water.  He got down the deck steps to the pool but I had to carry him back up.  I wonder if he looks at that water and remembers his younger days visiting lakes and beaches?  He very reluctantly leaves his poolside vantage point when I tell him to come back inside.





It snowed most of the morning, really coming down hard at times.  It was garbage day and I feel sorry for the poor garbage men…although, really, all they do now is push buttons and the big robot arms come out, grab the can and dump it into the back of the truck.

















At least Therapy is warm and dry in her little cabana.






I pretend to hate the snow, but really, when I am safe and warm at home, I love seeing it come down. We get snowfall so seldom here in Eugene that it always brings somewhat of a festive atmosphere around town. It never lasts long enough to get annoying so we have it pretty good here. It’s a nice break from constant RAIN – which is what it is doing again now!!! Guess our unexpected and exciting snow storm is over. I can only hope spring will not be far behind.

I Can’t Top This

Okay, I had a blog planned for tonight, but after reading this one, there is nothing I could write to top it.  You men may not understand but for the ladies, it is one of the funniest things I have read in a long time.  If you need a laugh, read the Quinn’s Awesome Journey about her adventures in Mexico.  OMGoodness!!  I can only imagine!!


I’ll be back tomorrow when I quit laughing.

Daffy Down Dilly

As a child I loved the poems of Robert Louis Stevenson and as a mom I often read them to my children.  One of his shortest ones goes like this:

Daffy Down Dilly
Has come to town
In a yellow petticoat
And a green gown

He was, of course, referring to the annual Daffodil Festival held each year in Junction City, Oregon!  What foresight he had…

So this weekend we visited the festival.  Although there were fewer daffodils blooming along the road than we have seen in the past, the bright yellow blossoms brought some color to the otherwise gray day.



Many years ago, the women of the town planted daffodils all along Fergusson Road.   The flowers have multiplied over the years and some years, when it is warmer, there is quite a thick display of color along the road.

The festival itself is at the Long Tom Grange.  There are the usual food and vendor booths – a mini fair if you will.  The festival was started as a fund raiser and the ladies of the grange baked wonderful huge cinnamon rolls and sold them for that purpose.  We have not been out to the festival in many years but I really wanted one of those Long Tom Grange cinnamon rolls so we decided to visit.  I bought two of the rolls but when I got home and was researching the festival, I found that the rolls were now baked by Market of Choice in Eugene!!  I’ve been HAD!!




In 2003, the Junction City School District was struggling for funds.  That was when the Men of the Long Tom Grange decided to do a calendar and sell it to raise money for the schools.  The men on the calendar all posed NUDE and, although estimates vary on how much money was raised, it was certainly more than they had hoped for.  Now some of those old geezers have passed away and some enterprising person has started a website that is a virtual graveyard for those nude models.  You can find your favorite deceased naked guy here.  They were still selling memorabilia from that adventure so I guess it is still raising funds for the schools.  Yee-Haw!



I saw something I wished I had had a few years back when we attempted to have a Hawaiian Luau in our backyard.










I’m sure our pig roast would have turned out much better than it did!

There was a horse drawn wagon giving rides for $2 a head.  They made a slow loop around the grange parking area (whoop-de-do).  We passed on the ride but the horses were nice looking.



What are you looking at?  Go buy a ticket!




Was it muddy out there?  See for yourself.



There was a lady there with llamas…



…and alpacas.  The alpacas were not on their best behavior!  I stayed well away as I didn’t want to get kicked.




This lady was spinning alpaca wool.



Remember the picture we got the other day of the llama in the field with the sheep?  Here’s what that is all about.



A large tee pee invited children to come inside and listen to the Native American storyteller.



And a musician entertained with his plucking and strumming.  Notice the propane heater?  It was NOT a warm day.  And, yes, that is the remains of our early morning snow fall there around the tee pee.



So, while it wasn’t the most exciting festival I have ever attended, it was a good break in routine and provided some interesting things to see.  And that, my friends, is the end of this tale.