Really, That Long?

On Thursday morning I called around looking for a doctor to get a tetanus shoot and to establish a relationship with. I’ve got a few prescriptions that I’m going to need refills of in January and I think our old doctor in Aiken is eventually going to catch onto the whole I’m just visiting in Oregon thing.

My first call was to the Adult Medical Clinic at the local hospital. They were listed on the BCBS of Alabama website. When I called I was informed there were three doctors and only one was accepting new patients and the next available appointment was in July 2020! The nice person who answered the phone said I might try something called Cascades East, when I called them they said the waiting list is 6 months! I had them send me the forms to get on the waiting list.

In the meantime we could avail ourselves with the services of Basin Immediate Care, a walk-in clinic that takes anyone who can pay or has insurance. So guess where we spent 2-1/2 hours on Thursday afternoon getting a tetanus shot and a band aid?

This afternoon we had a shiny new 3/4 horsepower, kevlar belt drive garage door opener with two remotes and a wireless keypad installed. So much smoother and quieter that the old chain drive unit. Now it has got us thinking about replacing that old heavy wooden door. When the installer took the old unit down we looked at the date of manufacture on the sticker and it read 1995. Twenty-five years, so it had a pretty good life, but who knows how much longer it would have noisily gone about doing its job if I hadn’t accidentally killed it.

Fixing Up Our Christmas Present

Neither of us had any presents under the Christmas tree (which we don’t have anyway) this year because all that kind of money is going into furnishing and resupplying the one big shared present, 1025 Pacific Terrace.

The last owners of our new home were only in it for 2 years. I’m mildly curious as to why, but whatever. In those two years I don’t think they ever really cleaned. They must have done some sort of quick clean before they left because the place was habitable when we moved in, but a deep clean, not so much. We are on our second box of Swiffer cloths removing dust and cobwebs from nooks and crannies in every room. We are also on our second container of Clorox wipes removing various stains and dirt spots from the walls and ceilings. In the Master Bathroom there were lots of black hairs stuck to the walls and ceiling from the previous owner blow drying her hair.

I have replaced between 15 and 20 light bulbs throughout the house. I don’t know what the reason, to conserve energy or just plain laziness. I betting it was mostly the later because there was a burnt out bulb in almost every 2-light fixture. The light on the front and back porches had bulbs, but the one on the pole in the front lawn for the stairs didn’t. The light in the bottom of the microwave that illuminates the stove top was out. The light on the garage door opener was burnt out and this was vexing because the garage is really dark when we get out of the car at night.

On Christmas Eve I decided to replace the bulb in the garage door opener. It worked fine using the wall switch, but when the garage door would go up and down the light would flicker like a strobe light. I opened up the light compartment again and noticed the the bulb socket was held in place by some tabs, thinking maybe it was loose wire I pressed the tabs and pulled the socket out from the opener body. FLASH! CRACK! It was a loose wire and when I pulled the socket out the two wires touched and shorted out. Now we have to manually open and close the door until I can find someone to install a new garage opener.

I don’t think the previous owners used the two car garage for cars. I have been sweeping out dust and cobwebs from all over in there too. There was a long bench along one side of the garage that I decided to take apart today to make room for the imminent arrival of the Miata (supposed to be sometime this week.) This thing is big, about 2 feet wide and 8 feet long. Sturdy too, it is made up of 2x4s and half 1/2 plywood screwed together with deck screws. There are about a a dozen nails in one end. I figure whoever made it started hammering it together and realizing that that would be an awful lot of work, then switch to screws. I was about 90% through disassembling it when I accidentally stepped on a nice long nail. OUCH! Went right through the sole of the sneaker, my sock and probably a 1/2″ into my foot. Direct pressure stopped the bleeding after about 5 minutes. Thought it might be a good idea to go to the Emergency Room , but then thought of the cost, so just cleaned it out with some alcohol and dressed with a band aid and some polysporin. I’ll try and get a doctor to give me a tetanus shot tomorrow even though the nail was clean and shiny having spent who knows how long inside that 2×4…

I think I need to reassess my handyman qualifications…

Its That Time Of Year

Please accept – with no obligation, implied or implicit – my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable tradition of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your preference.

In addition, please enjoy a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2020.

39,000 Planks of Plastic

We have had a hectic week, (and for the last couple months, they have all seemed hectic) we have moved all our stuff, which includes what we brought with us and what we shipped to us and what we have bought since being here, out of the AirBnB and into our new home. I must have taken a dozen 5 mile round trips. Two of which were ferrying one mountain bike at a time with the front wheel off and the Mini’s hatch bungeed partially closed. Somewhere on one of these trips the Ladybug crossed the 39,000 mile mark.

Tuesday we had the cable company come in and install two cable boxes and the modem for the internet. One in the bonus room downstairs and one in the living room. The living room is hooked up to our new 43″ Samsung UHD Smart TV (that just fit inside the Mini’s hatch) that will eventually get mounted above the fireplace. The downstairs hookup will be for our old 50″ Samsung Regular HD Smart TV, when it gets here.

Also on Tuesday we visited a local flooring place and picked out the new “hardwood flooring” to replace the carpet in the 3 bedrooms. Thursday they dropped off the materials to let them acclimate themselves to their new home and 2 nice young fellows spent the day ripping out the old carpet and padding. Today they were back to actually lay the new laminate planks in the three bedrooms. It is all finished except for the 1/4 round molding in one room that will be finished on Monday next.

This morning while those two guys were sawing and banging we ducked off to do the closing on the house. Here in Oregon it was done at a title company’s offices, not a lawyers office like in South Carolina. Maybe because of this it seemed very low key. No real estate agents, no seller, just us, a banker and some sort of clerk. We went home for lunch and then this afternoon went out to Walmart and bought a small folding table and two folding chairs because we were tired of eating, sitting on the floor. We were also tired of sleeping on an inflatable mattress, so on the way back from Wally World we stopped at a local bedroom store and bought a nice new queen sized Serta memory foam bed and a new bed frame. We knew we needed a mattress because we tossed the old one away before we left Aiken. We didn’t need a new bed frame because we did bring one, but Donna feel in love with one while mattress shopping (and I did really like it too.) It will be delivered tomorrow.

We have also had an estimate for a new roof sometime this week, which we knew the place needed it after the home inspection (we offered $8k on the house less than asking knowing this), and will get get done sometime in January. We have also arranged to have someone come over and measure for some nice new vertical blinds to replace the old wood slat ones in the living and dining rooms. And I have also not detailed the tens of trips to Home Depot, Walmart and Fred Meyers buying other odds and ends.

Bring A Trailer

The fodder for my Track, Daily, Crush posts come from a website called Bring A Trailer, well this past Monday the CTBNL got loaded onto a trailer to be brung to Oregon. It should be here either just before or right after Christmas.

Track, Daily, Crush

The Welcome to Your New Home Edition. As of Monday, December 16, 2019 at 9:00 PM pacific time:

Track Daily Crush
1964 Porsche 356C
Race Car		 2008 Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera 1981 Pontiac
Bonneville Safari
Nothing says race car like a Porsche 365c. The livery is great and I really like the font used on the numbers.
 		 Exotic, rare and fast. This “battleship gray” color will make me the envy of every sailor in the United States Navy. The only reason to want this is your parents had one, they let you borrow it on prom night & you lost your virginity in it.