Problem solved?

It's Friday morning and the roofer has just been. Observant chap that he is, he noticed the bottom of our downpipe at ground level had somehow been squeezed virtually flat, and, as a result, it was blocked with debris, meaning that when we get really heavy rain - like we did on Saturday night and Monday, and when we were in USA - the pipe just backs up with water, which then cascades down through our bedroom window. He sawed off the bottom section and proved his point:

He went up on the roof - brave man! - and checked the flashings etc and there was a small bit of damage caused by the water backing up, so he fixed that as well. Job done - hopefully.

I went on another longish cycle yesterday and when I came back, I noticed there was activity on the old Tor-na-Coille filling station site. It's been the subject of various planning discussions etc, but agreement has finally been reached and the development is going ahead at last, so they were erecting the advertising sign yesterday. I stopped and spoke to Alan Buchan, who told me they have sold one already. The price is £325K for a 2 bedroom, 2 storey town house style. The timing is not ideal from his point of view, given the current downturn in the Oil sector, but at least the site will be tidied up now - albeit all the trees are coming down:

A day of rest for me today, I think. Jo has got her swimming this afternoon, but I've had 3 days in a row of exercise and that's enough for now, I think. Relax until this evening's Headbang sounds like a plan.

Fringeless

Well we never made it to Edinburgh this year. As we went to bed on Saturday night, with the rain lashing down outside, all of a sudden, water started pouring down the inside of our bedroom window and we had to rush to get towels - and eventually buckets - to minimise the damage.

It brought to mind our return from USA when we noticed that the inside windowsill in our bedroom was warped a little by water ingress. Initially we put this down to heavy rains when we were away and the windows weren't securely shut, but we later noticed that all the family photo frames on the windowsill in the front room downstairs, immediately below our bedroom, were also water damaged.

It was as recently as March that we had some fairly extensive work done on our roof etc, and the current leak seems to be coming from the same area.

With the forecast for more wet weather, we decided we could not risk going to Edinburgh on Sunday morning, so our tickets for 7 shows - and our train tickets, which I'd just booked a few hours earlier - were all wasted. We couldn't even get hold of any roofers or our insurance brokers or insurers on Sunday, so had to wait until Monday to make these contacts. The earliest the roofer can come is Friday morning!

Sod's law, Sunday was an absolutely glorious day, but it rained again on Monday when I took this short video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVZOkcJv1_A

We compensated ourselves by finally using the voucher I got from my replacement on my retirement for a meal at Raemoir House Hotel on Sunday. It was lovely:

So instead of walking the streets of Edinburgh, rushing from show to show on Sunday and Monday, we virtually did nothing - apart from the dinner above. Monday was so bad that I couldn't even get out for a compensatory cycle, but I managed to do this yesterday (Tuesday) - and it was a long one - approaching 40 kms. I was completely gone by the time I got back home, some 4 hours (including a coffee stop) after I'd left.

Of course, Tuesday afternoon was spent through in Inverurie as usual.

For those that haven't noticed, I've been busy again with my Chronicles. After 5 months' of inactivity here, I've now posted three times in the last 10 days. I'm now half way through 2001 - not long to go until I catch up with this blog diary, which started in March, 2007. The link to the Chronicles - and all my other blogs - is on the sidebar at the right of this blog.

Coming up, it's the second of this year's Headbangs on Friday night and then next week, it's the last official week of our midweek golf - and it's a busy one. I'm playing at Trump on Monday for the first time, then it's the last night of our Summer Quaich at Banchory on Wednesday, followed by the Terry Edmonds' Memorial at Aboyne on Friday. On the Sunday immediately after that we head to Boat of Garten for what will be our 60th outing in our 30th year of going there. Whew.

Eve of Fringe

We're taking the train down to Edinburgh tomorrow for our 2-day binge at the Fringe. Four shows tomorrow and another three on Monday, then back up the road on Tuesday morning, in time to get to Inverurie to pick up Luca from school as usual. I made a last minute decision to book the train, having earlier ruled this possibility out - it saves any hassle with parking anyway.

Been catching up with golf a little this last week, having missed much of this season. Seniors on Monday, our usual Summer Quaich group on Wednesday and then the annual trip to St. Andrews on a glorious Thursday. This only left room for a short cycle on Friday afternoon - need to get more miles in soon. I had planned to go out on Tuesday morning with Keith Gray, but it was a bit damp so Keith suggested we go to the gym and pool at Kippie Lodge instead.

Today (Saturday), I was at Pittodrie with Malcolm Grigor, who had a spare ticket. A good 2-0 win for the Dons was spoiled a little by the news coming through from Tynecastle that Thistle had been hammered 3-0 by a rampant Hearts. It's going to be a long season for the Jags.

I missed a Face Time call from Kelly on Thursday when I was on my way to St. Andrews. Jo was at her hairdresser's so we both missed out. Kelly did send a quick snap of her and Miller, however:

Today's Times Travel section had a feature on Oregon:

This provided me with a reminder that, having now arranged our big flights next year, we need to get the rest of the holiday sorted out - including hopefully a return to Newport Coast again.

I've also done another Chronicles posting - http://renshawschronicles.blogspot.co.uk/.

We're back - again!

Yes - no sooner are we back from USA than we were off again last week - this time to London - but more of that later. Before we went, we managed to book our big holidays next year. Unable to find any Air Miles flights to West Coast USA online, I eventually phoned BA. Initially, the girl also struggled to find anything, but eventually she came back with an option of flying in to Vancouver and flying back from San Francisco. It was a little earlier than we would ideally have liked (1st June) but I felt we had to take it. On the way out it's "only" World Traveller Plus, but it's Business Class on the return leg.

Having fixed that and used up all our Air Miles, it was time to book our Australian trip - and we would have to spend some cash. We decided to try Emirates from Glasgow for a change - and it cuts out one flight, touching down in Dubai and flying from there all the way to Adelaide. Business Class also means they send a driver all the way to Banchory to pick us up and take us back home again. We leave in January, but, having booked this, we then got the news that we may have another grandchild on the way in May!

Carole invited us over to Inverurie last Saturday for dinner as a kind of belated Father's Day treat - and very nice it was too. On Sunday afternoon, Jo and I went along to the Banchory Beer Festival on a beautiful afternoon. There's more about this on my Ale blog (http://iansaleadventures.blogspot.co.uk/) but here's a photo Jo took:

Gary brought Luca along on Sunday evening and he spent Monday/Tuesday with us before we went to London. He was his usual creative self, drawing "Jo's Garden":

and here he is, bug-hunting:

Our theatre trip to London went well. Flights were fine, Tube was OK and the hotel was good, as were the two shows, the first of which was Sunny Afternoon - the Kinks' story:

That evening we went to Olympia for the Great British Beer Festival:

The following morning we took a stroll through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park:

Peter Pan

 

Albert Memorial & Albert Hall

Household Cavalry exercising

Nice lunch near Covent Garden, then round to the Aldwych Theatre for Beautiful, the Carole King story:

Great show, after which we walked round to Mayfair and had drinks in an old haunt of mine, the Guinea Grill. Dinner was at an Italian restaurant in Gloucester Road, just round the corner from our hotel:

On Friday morning we walked along to the Natural History Museum, but the lines were too long, so we did the V & A instead, having coffee in the garden cafe:

That's me up to date again - and I've also done another Chronicles posting - http://renshawschronicles.blogspot.co.uk/

We're back

The journey back home was fine, but the usual sleep pattern problems emerged. By the time we got to Aberdeen, where Gary met us, then took him to Inverurie and went to Tesco for a quick stocking-up of essentials, it was 7 pm by the time we stepped in to Arbor Court.

We trotted off to bed about 10:30 pm, hoping to get a decent night's sleep, but it wasn't to be. 2:45 am was when I woke up. I lay there until 5 am and finally had to give up trying to get back to sleep. Some breakfast, then I decided to test how my legs were to see if I could join the usual Thursday cycling group - which I did, making it up to Finzean and back without any problems.

I had my physio in the afternoon and I've been signed off now, but with clear instructions to carry on with the exercise regime. Apparently I'm not co-ordinating my knees and hips properly - I probably never have done - and that's why the lateral movement in golf is giving me more pain than any other type of exercise - all the strain is being borne by my knees.

Had my first pint of real ale for a couple of months when I met Keith Gray at the Legion later - and we were then joined by Ken Page, Archie Cook and Jas Bhagrath.

So far, so good. Thursday night to Friday morning sleep - woke at 3:15 am - just half an hour later than the night before. I was representing Banchory at Royal Aberdeen in the morning. What a tough place to start playing golf again after a long break - it was embarrassing. I enjoyed going to the pub on Friday night, however - it was nice to see everyone again.

Finally, we managed to sleep in on Saturday morning. In fact, Jo didn't get up until almost noon - she was mortified.

Other than that, not a lot to report. It seems Braeden's op went ok - although we haven't actually spoken to Lucy yet. It's officially Cade's 15th birthday tomorrow (Monday) - and he's sitting his driving test!

The effects of the wet July in Scotland are all too evident - everything is green and overgrowing, but at least the flower displays at the War Memorial are looking good:

That's not the case across the road at Luca's favourite hill - remember when it was Bonnie Banchory?

Tomorrow, it's more golf for me - I'm double booked for a Seniors match in the morning, then it's the delayed annual outing to Balmoral in the evening - it was due to be held when I was away, but the other guys never got round to doing it - hence my double booking.

It's already noticeable that the nights are drawing in a bit - there's only 4 more weeks of evening golf left this season - I feel this season has kind of passed me by.

Need to start organising our next trips to Oz and USA as well. It's definitely getting harder to do - I'm convinced they're cutting back on the Air Miles/Avios benefits.

Pre-birthday party

Most of Scott's family made it over yesterday for Cade's early 15th birthday party - sister Laramie, partner Rick, sons Davis & Lincoln plus Bill & Karen - Scott's parents. Corn on the cob and hot dogs and, finally, once the boys had finished in the pool and hot tub, the cake:

Braeden, Lincoln, Bill, Karen, Cade & Jo

Cade, Lucy, Braeden, Scott, Laramie, Davis, Rick & Lincoln

Lincoln and Davis just out of the pool:

Earlier on, Lucy returned from her 18 mile run - preparation for her first marathon in 7 weeks - glistening with perspiration:

Many houses in USA (as they do in other countries) display their national flag, but it was refreshing to see a neighbour taking a slightly different, less nationalistic, tack:

World Citizen, it says

Lucy has commented on the tall umpires chair outside a local store, and how she thinks it would be nice in their back garden so she could sit and oversee the boys in the pool:

Maybe the (water)boys are past needing this level of supervision now Lucy?

So today (Monday) is our last full day here. It appears we are getting out just in time, judging by the forecast temperatures for the rest of the week:

We're ready for cool, damp Banchory!

Sunday morning post

Lucy's off for a run with the dogs and Jo and I will be going for a walk soon. Today is Family Day - we're not here for Cade's 15th birthday next week, so everyone is coming over this afternoon - 15 of us in all, I think.

The remainder of Friday was fairly quiet. We went out and met Scott for lunch at Goodness Gracious - nice place. Croque Monsieur for me and Lucy and Broccoli soup for Jo:

Lucy made fajitas with the leftover steak for dinner.

On Saturday morning, I felt a bit more energetic than I had done the last couple of days and so, partly inspired by watching Chris Froome tie up the Tour de France, I went out out for my longest bike run of the holiday - 49 kms round over Robertson Bridge and back. I had forgotten how long it was - I had done it last year. I checked my times for some of the stretches and they're definitely better this year - that's encouraging. The fire season is in full swing on the west coast but, thankfully, nothing round Grants Pass yet, although the danger levels are still high:

We went to the park downtown afterwards to look over the Classic Cars on show for the Back to the 50's weekend. Lucy had some shopping to do, so Jo and I were then dropped off at Griess Family Brews.

Shopping done, it was time for an early dinner, as Cade was again taking part in the Classic Cars parade through the town in the evening. We went for a Thai meal - and very nice it was too - and then it was over to Cade's friend's house where he - and Braeden - were dropped off.

We went back downtown later on to watch the parade, looking out for the boys in the black and white car:

Braeden looks happy - and you can just see Cade sitting beside him.

Time for my shower.

Thursday action

Cade's football training was so short yesterday (Thursday) that I barely had time to get back to Delsie Drive before he texted to say that it was over. Just as well I hadn't gone for a cycle.

As usual, we popped in to Haggen's after training to buy Lunchables for Cade and Braeden. The Fedex delivery duly arrived so we hot-footed the latest insurance check over to Scott at the hospital. Fingers crossed all's well this time.

Next stop was Fish Hatchery Park's Nature Trail - a fairly short loop of about 3 kms during which we picked some berries. Cade ran part of the trail to make up for the lack of exercise at training earlier on. Jo acquired a new walking stick which she clung to as she threw stones in to Applegate River:

We moved on to Applegate River Golf Club where we hit some balls on the range and bought some drinks. The boys turned down the offer of Polish Dogs for lunch - instead we stopped at a little Thai drive-through hut for Thai Teas and Pot Stickers.

Scott must have been happy that he finally got his insurance check sorted out - he stopped off at Cartwright's on the way home from work and picked up three dozen huge oysters for the BBQ:

- and that was only starters! Mountainous steaks followed. What a feast.

I finished the book Gary left with me, so that's 5 down now:

Perhaps not as many as I thought I might read on an extended holiday. Still, I was tempted when we were bookstore browsing in Ashland last week on the very day Harper Lee's latest novel - her first for 50 years - was released, to buy it. The shop owner said the book was flying off the shelves, so I took the bait - not only for the new release, but I thought I should catch up with the original To Kill a Mockingbird, which, although I know the famous film, I've never read the book:

So that's my next two reads sorted, but I've still got the following after that - if I can get them in my suitcase, that is:

Friday today - feeling tired. Lucy's out for a run with the dogs and I thought I was due a cycle, so I got ready but then just sat down again and did this blog instead. Going to be a lazy one, I think.

Jackson County Fair

So, as I said earlier, we travelled down from GP (Josephine County) to Central Point (Jackson County), just north of Medford, for the first day of the Jackson County Fair on Wednesday. The similarities between this and the agricultural shows in NE Scotland were obvious.

Sure, there were rides and food stalls - lots of them - but the focus that day was on cattle and pigs. We watched some Junior pig "herders" (that can't be the right word, can it?) - swineherds is probably the correct term - in competition. If there's such a thing as a beautiful pig, then it was present here. They were manicured and presented like Miss World. Here's a view of the action:

Drinks had to be had - Shave Ice was favoured by the boys:

There were other exotics there to view as well:

Not many ventured close.

We had watched the morning TV, which told us about a butterfly show, where you could interact and feed them, so we went along:

Me photographing Jo phographing me feeding a butterfly

Interesting - and fun. We popped in to Harry and David's afterwards and then grabbed some food at Panda Express for the boys before heading home. Pizza for dinner at night.

Thursday morning update

We're getting ready to head out to Fish Hatchery Park to walk the nature trail - and hopefully pick up some berries on our way. Yesterday (Wednesday) morning, I put Lucy's bike in the back of the Mazda when I took Cade to football practice and cycled from there out to Tom Pearce Park and back along the trail there:

The wild berries at the side of the trail were ripe so I picked a few and took them back in my water bottle and Jo and I had them for breakfast.

I kept the cycle short as I needed to be back in good time, in case Cade's training was cut short, but, sod's law, it was an extra long session, including an extended session up and down the bleachers at the stadium:

Cade was bathed in sweat and exhausted when they finished, but he recovered pretty quickly and joined us on our trip down to Medford for the first day of the Jackson County Fair - but more of that later.

On Tuesday we had lunch out on the decking overlooking the Rogue river at Tap Rock:

Jackson County report to follow - have to dash now as we're doing a mercy delivery of Scott's check, which again arrived today by Fedex - don't ask.

Tuesday morning despatch from GP

Late Sunday afternoon, we suddenly took the decision to visit the local Crow & Bear winery (http://crowandbear.com/), which is on one of my cycling routes. It's very young - their vines won't produce sufficient quality and quantity of grapes until next year, so, for now, they are taking in wines - and beers - from their son's place in California, amongst others.

The tasting room was nice and we tried most of their stuff. Lucy liked the Chardonnay and ended up taking a growler full home, whilst we bought a bottle of the Primitivo. We decided to fill my growler with their Saison ale, but it ran out, so we ended up with just half a growler - but it was free.

We posed outside:

Monday morning was back to work for Scott and Lucy - and back to football training for Cade. I drove him there and picked him up afterwards, and we then went along to the DMV (like our DVLC) and picked up some leaflets for Cade to study prior to sitting his driving test soon after his 15th birthday in a couple of weeks. We'll miss his birthday this year, but there's going to be a family party this coming Sunday, just before we leave.

I had booked a round of golf at Grants Pass GC yesterday afternoon at 1:15 pm - their twilight time. I played the first 3 holes with Doug, a local member who was heading for the range for some practice before his buddies arrived. He seemed a nice guy. We swapped grandparent stories - amazingly, he had 15 and I'm sure he wasn't any older than me!

After Doug left for the range, I was all alone on the course and could scoot round at my own pace. I started off playing two balls off the tee, but I soon discovered why none of the locals play at this time of day. We were back in triple digits again and it was exhausting work. My golf suffered - I had lost what I thought I had learned on the range the other day. The blisters on my fingers that I gained  at the range didn't really help either. My hands have got soft from not playing for the last 6 weeks - I'm going to have to try to get some kind of game back for our return to Scotland next week.

The golf club had obviously heard I was coming and had put out the balloons for me:

We had our first hamburger of the holiday last night. We still can't believe Gary, who wanted to experience everything American when he was here, didn't fancy this iconic US meal.

Today (Tuesday) looks like being a real lazy one. Scott's been waiting for his large check settlement from his insurance company - he even came home at lunchtime yesterday to collect it - or so he thought. Several phone calls later, he was promised that it would be Fedex'd to him today, so we were on our alert this morning. Sure enough, the doorbell rang mid-morning and everyone - Jo, Cade and Braeden - all immediately sprung up to answer it, but by the time they got there, the Fedex guy had gone, leaving the check on the doorstep!

Not sure what we'll do for the rest of the day now.

Penultimate weekend in GP

Gary and Luca are back home now - and probably exhausted after their marathon journey. We were all up before 4 am on Saturday morning to say farewell. Lucy drove them down to Medford and she then went for a long run before heading in to Costco when it opened at 10 am.

Scott went over to the coast to help his Dad pour some cement, whilst Jo and I decided to go back to bed, but neither of us could get to sleep again so we just got up. It would have been an ideal chance for me to watch the Open from St. Andrews, given the 8 hour time difference, but, sod's law, the weather there scuppered that plan.

I suggested to Jo that we go for a walk so we drove up to Cathedral Hills and walked the Outlook Loop trail there. It was classed as a "more difficult" trail - not the most difficult, but not the easiest. It was up and down and Jo had to occasionally stop for breath:

We've both put so much weight on that we badly need as much exercise as we can get. Map My Walk app failed me, but we were on this trail for about an hour and a half, so it was probably between 4 and 5 miles long. There was a bench at the high point, overlooking Grants Pass, so we stopped there:

We were still home before 8 am. Cade and Braeden were still sound asleep.

I went out in the afternoon in the car - initially just to get the potatoes that Lucy forgot, but, once out, other things came to mind. Anti-histamine pills for the bite on the my arm, then off the liquor store to get some G & T, followed by a visit to GP golf club, where I booked a time for tomorrow (Monday) and hit 100+ balls on their range. It had been a while since I'd played and, sure enough, this session produced 3 blisters, which, in turn, meant the next trip was to the pharmacy. I chose Wal-mart and I thought I'd take the chance to look at their frames for glasses. I got a new prescription for my driving glasses last year, but hadn't done anything about it yet. I didn't see anything there, so I popped in to adjacent Fred Meyer, but they didn't have an optician department, although I did spot a cheap pair of trousers, tried them on and bought them - a snip at $20.

Last stop was Wild River Brewery to fill up one of my growlers. The afternoon had gone. We had Costco ham for dinner, then all went off to bed to catch up on lost sleep earlier this morning.

Today (Sunday), Jo and Lucy went to mass and I headed off for a long-ish cycle. I made it to Fish Hatchery County Park, which had some lovely trails - a nature trail for walkers only and a general one for horse riders, cyclists etc. I missed a turn and ended up on the walkers only trail - it was a bit tricky in parts for the bike, but it was worth it:

Scott and Lucy are back at work tomorrow and that thought, along with the heat, which today is threatening triple digits again, meant none of us were very enthusiastic about doing anything this afternoon, so we're all just hanging, as they say here.

Gary may be home, but the freezer still has evidence of his visit:

There's still a chunk of the giant bottle (a birthday present from Scott and Lucy) left. I wonder if it will still be there when and if Gary returns some day?

On our last evening of every holiday we've had in Grants Pass, I've always taken a family photograph, but this year I thought it would be appropriate to do it before Gary and Luca left: