Early morning again

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Does one and a half hours' more sleep last night count as an improvement? I suppose so, but I wish I could have slept in until after 3 am. Hence yet another blog entry.

Apparently the gas engineer is going to arrive first thing this morning - good luck Jo with the negotiations. She's got a lot on her hands just now - she was working away for over 20 hours yesterday - cleaning, visits to the tip and the store, plus cooking. No ironing however - that's planned for today - if she can find any spare time.

On top of that, there's the downstairs WC project - the sparky arrived last night and wired up the new shower, so all that's needed now is for them to finish off the half cladding on the walls, then get a floor covering down.

Then there's the kitchen, of course. We still have to get some more glass splash-backs and the wooden uprisers - Jo's thinking of using John Lewis, if she can get there tomorrow. Taylor's have the order already for the floor covering, then we'll have to get Davie, our painter, back to do the walls and ceiling. I paid the deposit yesterday on our new kitchen table, so hopefully that's under control now as well.

After the central heating, kitchen and WC are finished, the next project is the utility room. We kept back some of the old units from the previous kitchen and intend to have those fitted. The work is once again being done as a "homer" by Ross' pal Dan and his colleagues, so we'll have to wait for the WC to be finished first. I'm looking forward to eventually getting the house back to some semblance of normality again - we're tripping over everything just now - including a full size drum kit that's in the downstairs computer/games/work room. It takes up a lot of space but hopefully we'll be able to move it on soon.

At least we don't have the old Merc in our driveway now. It's nice that the three of us can all bring our cars in and out without having to do any shuffling around. Jo borrowed Isobel's power washer before we went away, intending to give the driveway a good blast to get rid of the marks left behind by the Merc after - what was it? - 3-4 years, rusting away on our driveway?

So you can see that retirement for Jo is not quite so cosy just now, with all these projects going on!

I'm hoping to have a game of golf again tonight - if I can stay awake until 5 pm. Forecast's not too bad - shorts perhaps? Sadly, after tonight, we only have 3 Wednesdays left of our midweek "Summer Quaich" season - after the end of this month, it's too dark to get a full round in after work.

I've got a lot of golf to catch up with in August. On Saturday, it's down to Johnstone for the Cochrane Castle Invitational with Brian, then, on Tuesday, I've got a corporate invite to Meldrum House, followed on Friday by the 2nd attempt to play our Midsummer Outing at Tarland - the first one got called off half way round when a huge thunder and lightning storm hit us back in June. Brian's going to play with us there too as it's Banchory's Invitational on Saturday and he's coming up for that - hopefully we can squeeze a bed for him OK!

Got a trip to St. Andrews on Tuesday 21st, then 5 consecutive days of golf from 30th August - Glenbervie (corporate), Aboyne, Banchory, Grantown and Boat of Garten. Will I manage it all? Probably not - but that's the programme anyway.

September's busy too - but I won't bore you any further with all the details, save to mention that the middle weekend is our return Hill-walking trip to the Lake District. Now, unlike last year, I haven't managed to do any of the "training" walks at all this year. Will need to try out the knees before then, that's for sure.

Talking about knees, do you want the latest on my various health conditions? No? Well here it is anyway:

1. Dentist next Tuesday to hopefully do something with the tooth I broke on holiday.
2. As we were leaving Grants Pass on Sunday, I tripped down the steps leaving the trailer and sprained my ankle. It's getting better, but it's still very tender - will it affect my golf?
3. My new orthotic wedges were fitted just before we went away and seem to be OK, but, on holiday, I was mostly just wearing flip-flops, so it was quite an adjustment putting proper shoes (with wedges) on again - my calves have been aching since I reverted on Sunday.
4. I lost count of the number of head knocks I got on holiday - going in and out of cars, trailers etc and banging on cupboard corners. I seem to have lost some of my spatial awareness when it comes to bending down - the top of my head is full of scars and broken skin. Is this an age thing or is something else going on?
5. It's my annual health check next Wednesday and we've got a new provider this year - Nuffield Health. So far, they seem to be much more modern and well organised beforehand. I've already filled in an extensive online questionnaire about my medical history and now I've to complete a detailed report of my diet for 4 consecutive days - every meal, drink and snack - quantities/weight, type, cooking method, brand etc. And, of course, there's the horrible ritual of the 3 stool samples to provide as well. My main concern has to be my rising weight and lack of exercise however. Why did I arrange this for just after a long holiday in USA? Answers on a postcard please.
6. Got my 6 monthly check-up with my cardiologist at the end of the month as well.
7. Jo went to the Doctor's and Chemist yesterday  and picked up our regular monthly drug supplies - I'd run out on holiday and had to share some of Jo's beta blockers and statins.

So that's about it - pretty extensive, huh? The product of lack of sleep - I hope I won't be filling in my time with too many blog posts like this one.

Home again

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Long journey, but it went well - no travel problems, just a fairly long (planned) stopover at Seattle. We both had a good few hours' sleep in Business Class, although it was like the Marie Celeste - we'd never seen so many empty seats on a plane.

The house is a shambles, of course - the new downstairs WC had just been fitted out the day before and there was dust everywhere downstairs - and then there were the 2 leaking radiators, one of which was causing a drip down from the bathroom to our back sitting room so we've now got a bucket gathering drips. Scottish Gas have excelled themselves again and I've written a complaint letter. Another engineer is due out in the morning. Is there no end to it all?

We stayed up till 10pm, feeling quite proud of ourselves, and we both soon conked out - but only until 1:30 am. Jo had to get up - she wasn't feeling great and there were too many things she knew she had to do in the house. I stuck it out in bed for another couple of hours, but never got back to sleep, so I got up, had breakfast, then headed to the office.

Nothing was open of course. I couldn't even get a paper - not even at Tesco Extra - the store is open 24 hours, but no papers until 6 am. I considered going in to Bannatyne's, but it doesn't open until 6:30 am. So work it was. At least it gave me a chance to catch up with the holiday backlog.

Back to routine now - until Saturday anyway. I'm due to go down to Johnstone and play in Brian's Members' Invitational at Cochrane Castle.

Cade's birthday greeting

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

We tried to put this on the camera that we gave to Cade for his birthday but something went wrong, so here's the video greeting -  http://youtu.be/KN1QR7Ikye8

and the photo:

End of holiday

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

It's our last day in GP before we head home tomorrow (Sunday) - and it's been a hot one - unusually, the only time this year the temperature has been in triple digits. Most of the time it's been low 90's, which is fine by me. When it gets to 105 F, as it did today, it's difficult to do much.

Thursday was the day we took the boys down to the Family Fun Center (sic). We shopped for Moose Munch at Harry and David's for 10 minutes beforehand but then managed to spend 3 hours - triple what we'd planned - at the FFC. Go-karts, crazy golf and squirty boats were followed by nachos then some indoor games for the boys:

Friday, of course, was the big birthday party. A few of Cade's friends came over for a sleep-over and Scott's parents, sister Laramie, her husband Vic and 2 lovely young boys, Davis and Lincoln, all joined in.

Today (Saturday), once Cade's pals were gone, we drove down to lovely Ashland and, as usual, had lunch in the Standing Stones brewpub followed by a lovely shady walk through Lithia park, where we all cooled down in the stream:

Of course, we also had to take the obligatory family photo at the front of the house before we headed home:

So that's it for another year. We've already put in our requests for resorts for next summer, but it looks as if we might have both our girls back in Scotland for Christmas 2013 - that would be lovely.

Vortex

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

As we had promised Cade, we took a return trip to the Oregon Vortex, aka the House of Mystery (http://www.oregonvortex.com/). It had been some years since we'd been there - I recall it was the year my pal Syd was over here staying with us, and I guess Kelly was here that year too. On that occasion, it had all escaped me a bit - it seemed all smoke and mirrors - just optical illusions, I cynically thought.

This time around, however, I felt there was definitely something else going on - it's difficult to put your finger on it. Finer minds than mine - including Albert Einstein, no less - have attempted to rationalise the forces that are apparent. It's all about what they call the earth's terralines, intersecting at this point and creating a vortex, or whirpool type effect.

Anyway, there are strange things going on there - you can feel it. Horses and other mammals don't enter the area, although birds, insects, snakes etc are not put off. The guide demonstrates by using a simple spirit measure - as in woodworking, not ghosts! - that surfaces are level, but when people move a few feet, it seems as if they are getting not just taller, but also noticeably larger. It's uncanny. Jo was used in one of the demonstrations:

Jo didn't move - but the guide did. Jo has her eyes shut and is measuring where the guide's shoulder came up to, to try to measure the guide's apparent increase in size in the second picture. It's not as obvious in the above photos as it was in person, but if you look carefully, you can see there is a definite 2-3" of difference in his height.

This was further demonstrated by putting 2 people at opposite ends of the planks and then getting them to swap places. A plank of wood was put on their heads to demonstrate the change in the slope:

 

I wasn't quite standing square on to them, which is partly why the planks they're standing on look as if they are sloping up to the right - but it was measured all over and it was definitely level - although I'm not sure what level is in this area - it's weird.

Anyway, enough of that. It was interesting - it even kept the boys amused for an hour or so.

When Scott came home from work, we had a quick plate of Jo's lentil soup and then headed off to Applegate River GC again where there was a weekly Texas Scramble going on. We played with Paul, a scratch golfer who's planning on trying to make a belated attempt at playing the Tour. He hit the ball a good distance but his chipping and putting weren't quite up to standard - in fact, Syd's short game - at the age of 73 - is better than his.

Anyway, we tied for first place at 6 under for 9 holes - pretty good. We had to play off with another team to see who would win the money. It was nearest the pin from 100 yards, but we lost, so picked up 2nd place and $9 per head - not bad we thought.

Lucy's home made Watermelon Martinis, with added blueberries, washed down our doughnuts and was our consolation when we got back to Delsie Drive about 9 pm.

Today is another lazy day at home - hence this blog. Cade has still to choose what design he wants on his birthday cake - we had offered to take him to Albertson's today, but he's not ready yet, so we'll leave that one for Lucy. Tomorrow we're heading down to Medford again. We've promised the boys some time at the Family Fun Center, but have told them the trade off is that they come to Harry and David's (http://www.harryanddavid.com/gifts/store/home) with us without complaint. That's where we buy our holiday gifts - especially Moose Munch!

Holiday update

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

It's Monday morning and Scott and Lucy are back at work so we're at home with the boys. We have to take Braeden to the Orthodontist this afternoon - Lucy will meet us there - just an adjustment to his braces - nothing to worry about.

It's Cade's birthday this coming Friday so we've got his present to buy - possibly today.

What else has happened since my last post? I can barely remember - it's all a bit of a blur, but thank goodness I do at least remember to take photos of most places we go - the digital date and time records are very helpful.

Thursday evening late, Scott lit the pit fire and we had lovely 'smores and toasted marshmallows as darkness fell. On Friday morning, some of my hearing at last returned and, with Lucy off work, Jo and I took the chance to take a stroll down to the river in the morning before it got too hot. We spied some lovely properties and picked out the ones we would buy!

Lucy then took us for a treat to http://yogurthut.net/ where we gorged ourselves. You get to choose which flavours, toppings, sauces etc and can mix and match as much as you want. Jo was in heaven. This was Braeden's choice:

Scott, Cade and I played 9 holes at Applegate River GC on Friday night - and, because we left it late and it had cooled down a bit, we were able to walk the course - that was good fun.

On Saturday morning, we took the truck downtown and visited the weekly market there, then walked down to the park to see the classic cars - it was Back to the 50's weekend in Grants Pass. It brought back memories of watching American movies when we were young and we could only dream about the apparently magical land that was America that seemed so glamorous and different to post war baby boomers like us. There were a lot of replicas as well as originals there - plus some quirky ones too. Here's a couple of examples that we stopped at:

We had lunch at Tap Rock, overlooking the river and the departure point for the Hellgate river cruises.

Sunday was a busy day - Scott. Cade and I were heading for an early morning, beat the heat, tee time at lovely Quail Point - but not before we devoured Lucy's Egg Bake for breakfast - that set us up well for the day ahead.

After lunch we headed down Applegate Valley and sampled a couple of the many vineyards there. Schmidt Family Wineries was first - and what a beautiful spot it was:

Scott was driving and Lucy was getting a bit tipsy on the samples, so we only did one more - Troon Winery - the wines were better here, but it wasn't quite as pretty as Schmidt was - although it did have lovely views of the valley beyond the vines:

Burgers on the BBQ last night - lovely.

That's all for now, folks.

Anniversary

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

It was Scott and Lucy's anniversary yesterday and they went out for a sushi meal after work as we and the boys finished off the scraps from the 3 previous barbeques. When they got back, Lucy - the most famous cocktail maker in the West - served up some pretty alcoholic Mai-Tai's:

Today we took the boys to the lunchtime performance of Brave in 3D - they seemed to enjoy it OK - as did Jo. Then we picked up Lucy at work whilst Scott went to get Buster from the Dog Dentist - he had 4 teeth removed today - they were growing in the wrong way.

Guess what? BBQ time again soon - steaks tonight! It's getting near 5 pm now - official opening time for a beer.

Tuesday

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Another excellent BBQ last night - wild salmon, caught and frozen by Scott's Dad, Bill.

After dinner, Scott put Cade through some pre-season conditioning for his football, finishing up with this stint on the trampoline - http://youtu.be/yVSDxI37AYQ

The dogs? I haven't shown them yet, have I? This is the lovely Buster late last night in the garden:

Yes - that's Scott in his jammies beside him.

Holly was lollong around on Jo's knee:

This morning we took the boys down to Medford so that I could get a book at Barnes & Noble. Their treat was to suggest where to go for lunch - they chose Tin-Tin's all you can eat Asian Buffet, where Cade scoffed his way through plate after plate of clams, with a few pieces of sushi to accompany it. That boy sure does have adult tastes.

Tonight Jo's preparing dinner - a ham roast and tatties.

My head is healing nicely, but not my ear - may have to see a Doctor.

Back "home" in Grants Pass

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Our travel here from Idaho ended up fine, but it was a little eventful. We left our apartment in Idaho just before 6 am, which should have been good time to get us to the airport before 7:30 am - a full hour before our flight was due to depart.

We thought we could figure out the road back to the airport OK, and hadn't bothered to print off a map. After all, if we got stuck, I had the Maps app on my i-Phone - but it wouldn't work - I couldn't get a connection. We got to Spokane OK, but had to stop and ask directions to the I 90 - the road to the airport. Those directions were less than accurate, but Scott sussed it out eventually and we did get there before 7:30 am in the end.

No bags to check in - Scott and Lucy were taking them in the truck - and security was no problem, so we were at our gate with loads of time to spare. I noticed there was another flight to Seattle leaving at 8 am - half an hour before hours - and remembering our connection in Seattle for the next flight to Medford was a little tight, I thought I would make enquiries. "Sure" the Alaskan Air attendant said and handed us new boarding passes - "good idea - your inward flight is running half an hour late due to storms in Seattle".

We boarded the plane - which was a large jet, unlike the little prop job we were booked on - and got ready to depart. Captain's voice - "sorry for the delay, but we hope to leave shortly - there's storms up ahead and Seattle airport has got backed up a bit." About 15 minutes later, the plane, which was half empty, suddenly started to fill up. I guess they had decided to cancel the 8:30 am flight and decamp the passengers booked on that one on to the 8 am flight - just as we had done.

Eventually we got going but had to circle Seattle for a while as there was a bit of a queue of planes there waiting for the thunder clouds to pass so that they could land. Even when we got down on the ground, there was no gate available for us to park at, so we had to sit and wait at the end of the runway. Eventually, we did get a gate, but still we had to wait on the plane as there weren't enough ground staff available to get the loading deck out to the plane.

By this time, we had less than 15 minutes before our flight to Medford was due to leave, so we had to find the correct gate quickly and then literally run a few hundred yards. Can you picture the sight of the twa old folk attempting to jog?

We made the plane OK - in fact, we weren't quite last on - and it left its gate more or less on time, but then we had to sit and wait in a queue of planes waiting to take off after everyone had been backed up by the earlier thunderclouds.

In the end, we were only 15 minutes late getting in to Medford, where Jo and I jumped in an airport taxi and headed for our favourite pizza bar - Kaleidoscope - for lunch. We phoned Grants Pass taxis and asked them if they would pick us up. I had to negotiate a price - $75! Our driver was a character and the 30-40 minute journey to Scott and Lucy's passed fairly quickly.

We said hello to Holly again, and met up with Buster for the first time - they were both a little nervous of us at first, but soon came round. Scott, Lucy and the boys eventually got home from their 11 hour drive not long before 5 pm. Lucy rushed to the store and bought a chicken and quickly rustled up a lovely chicken pie for dinner. It was nice to be back here again.

On Saturday, Lucy, Jo and Braeden headed for Medford - Costco and Target - and Scott, Cade and I jumped in his vehicle, also heading due west to play 9 holes of golf at Quail Point. Here's Cade teeing off at one of the short holes:

We've been treated to Scott and Lucy's excellent BBQ's the last 2 nights - ribs on Saturday and rotisserie chicken last night.

Lucy made pancakes on Sunday morning and Scott and I played 18 holes at Dutcher Creek in the afternoon. They're both back at work today so Jo and I are at home looking after the boys.

I've had a bit of medical misadventures since I arrived here. First of all, my ear got blocked with wax and I tried to fix it, and, as usual, made a mess of things and now I'm getting ear drops and trying to clear it up. I'm deaf in one ear now - and it all feels a bit unreal - like you're not part of what's going on - merely an observer. Then I banged my head on the corner of one of the cabinets in our trailer and made a hole that Lucy had to treat for me. Then, yesterday, I broke a corner off one of my teeth and now have a sensitive hole and a ragged edge which is scraping against my tongue. I hope they clear up soon and I don't have to visit the dentist and/or doctor whilst I'm here.

Last few days in Idaho

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

On Tuesday Scott took us down to Cabela's (http://www.cabelas.com/) huge outdoor/hunting/fishing store and we met up with his Uncle Mike there - Scott's Mum's elder brother. We then went for a tour round the Buck Knives (http://www.buckknives.com/) manufacturing plant.


A few minutes away was another lovely lakeside town with its own city beach - Coeur d'Alene:

Mike invited us round to his for a BBQ yesterday (Wednesday) but we managed 9 holes of golf before driving down there:

Mike and Sue have a lovely cosy garden, with lots of lovely plants and water features:

Today - our last full day here before dawn departure tomorrow - has been spent mostly on site at the Rec centre, but Jo and I went for a walk first of all. Here's a panorama of the first half of our walk round the golf course and the resort:

That's all for now - next stop Grants Pass.

Idaho

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

For the older readers - I keep thinking I want to sing out "Ivanhoe-oh-oh" when I say Idaho. (Check out UK TV programme theme tunes of the 60's you younger ones).

Scott and I played racketball yesterday morning. Quite an experience for me - and a 4-0 thumping too (although 2 very close games). I couldn't get the hang of the bounciness of the ball - especially when it came off the back wall - it ran away from me! Mind you, it has been 2 knee operations and 2 heart procedures since I last played Scott at a racquets game - squash. It must have been 6 or 7 years ago anyway - as that's how long we have been without our courts at the Tor-na-Coille, where we last played.

We had thought about a game of golf yesterday but never got round to it after the racketball, then a late lunch. Instead, Jo, Lucy and I set off round one of the lake/golf course walks. I didn't time or measure it, but it was probably 3-5 miles. We stopped to take a photo at the millpond of a lake:

Scott drove us to another golf resort for dinner last night - very nice too - and today we headed for the Water Park - http://www.silverwoodthemepark.com/. It had roller coasters too, but the boys weren't interested - they are both water babies and we spent more than 6 hours there - and they were never out of the water.

Jo's not one for high adrenaline pursuits but she did manage two and a half laps of the Lazy River, plus a little splash in the Wave Pool. See if you can spot her in the crowd striding out towards the waves:

Now relaxing on the decking with a beer, G & T and a large bottle of Pinot Noir!

Seattle to Idaho

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Sitting here in our timeshare in Northern Idaho - we've had some overnight rain, which persisted through breakfast, but it's clearing up now and I'm sure it'll be another hot and sunny day, but I thought I'd take a few minutes out to do a quick blog posting. Facebook has a number of photos etc on it, so I'll keep this short.

Seattle was great and it was nice to meet up with Scott's cousin, Mark. We did the standard "Duck" tour  in the amphibious vehicle - every tourist city in the world seems to have these now. Here we are at the start:

25 bucks this official photo cost us - I had to swallow hard. Our driver, Captain Chaos, was good and certainly got Jo going. She started complaining about the music as we boarded the Duck, but, within 5 minutes, she was up there dancing away, swinging her arms above her head.

We did the Underground tour - pretty interesting and some funny stories, well told. We also spent time at the fountain next to the Space Needle (from the 1962 World's Fair) - mostly waiting for the big fountain to explode:

The flight through to Spokane on the Washington/Idaho border was quick and easy. We had lunch there until Scott and Lucy arrived in the truck to pick us up.

Our first full day in Idaho was spent at the pretty lakefront town of Sand Point, up towards the Canadian border. Nice day all round and we finished it - as we did the day before - with another great barbie on our decking overlooking the golf course, courtesy of Scott - and Lucy, of course. They sure know how to BBQ - lots of practice, I guess.

On our way

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Waiting just now at T5 for our flight to Seattle. Lucy, Scott and the boys are leaving home about now - it will take them about the same time to drive as our flight.

So what have I been up to then? Twice cancelled golf last Wednesday & Thursday, but I played Friday at Banchory and then we were on our Summer Tour down to Dumfries & Galloway - and, boy, did we get lucky with the weather. Friday had been nice in Banchory - 22 C and playing in shorts - but when we drove down on Saturday morning, from about Dundee onwards, it was pretty miserable until we got to the Borders. By the time we teed off at Southerness it was a beautiful afternoon and shorts were in order again. In the end, I played in shorts 4 days running - that's the first time for a while.

On my way down south, we stopped off at Hamilton to have my orthotic insoles/wedges adjusted. So that's them fully fitted now - and so far, so good - no great pains in the right knee yet, although the wedge in the left foot is pretty prominent. Walking the streets of Seattle might be a tester.

Ross is at home - and has a million jobs to oversee when we're away. Good luck, son - and well done to Ross for getting down below his target weight of 12 stone 7 lbs. Now on with the exercise regime!

Bye for now.

A day at work with Luca

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yesterday was my day with Luca - I took him in to our Aberdeen factory whilst Jo had a bit of a day off, getting her hair done. He was pretty good and Michael and Francis entertained him for a while to allow me to do a little work.

We did a quick factory tour with him as well. We had to take one of our visitor coats and cut off half the sleeves and the bottom half of the coat before he went in to the production areas:

We shared my tuna and sweetcorn sandwich for lunch - Luca washed his down with a glass of Irn Bru. He wanted to draw, so I gave him some paper and out came various shapes of animal:

Did you correctly guess what they all were? Luca told me, but I'm sworn to secrecy.