Happy Thanksgiving

“What kind of Thanksgiving dinner is this? Where’s the turkey, Chuck? Don’t you know anything about Thanksgiving dinners? Where’s the mashed potatoes? Where’s the cranberry sauce? Where’s the pumpkin pie?” – Peppermint Patty

Because we are still firmly ensconced in the AirBnB we decided that instead of trying to find a really small turkey or do a turkey breast we picked up a couple of Cornish game hens. We used to do these as a regular meal a long time ago, but stopped for some reason, and remembered them fondly. We did a couple of baked potatoes along with corn for me and carrots for her.

Either our memories are faulty, possible, our tastes have changed, also possible, or they have started breeding these hens to be more like turkeys because the breasts seemed overly large in comparison to the rest of the bird and it tasted pretty bland. Turns out we really missed the mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing and apple pie flavors. We may have to search out a local restaurant next week that is serving a Thanksgiving-like meal…

February’s Average Snowfall Total

From yesterday morning to this afternoon we had snow fall in the amount the equivalent of February’s total average snowfall – 6 inches – in November.

Shortly after it started we took a small drive downtown just to see what was what and to check our mail at the Post Office. It had barely started to accumulate, maybe an 1/8″, but the roads were getting pretty slick. We came home and parked the Mini. The photo above is what it looked like 24 hours later. And now 12 hours later it still sits there unmoved.

We did go out and spend an hour shoveling a path to the car to brush off the snow covering it. Because it is parked on grass we also shoveled off a path to the street down to about an inch or so to allow me to back out if needed. I hope it is not needed though, the roads have been packed down to a super dense icy consistency. The high performance all season tires on the Mini would be able to handle a little bit of snow on the grass okay, but the roadway, not so much. Looks like a set of dedicated snow tires is in our future…

Rental Issues

When we first moved into this AirBnB a month ago the front doors were very sticky. Both the storm door and the main door had to be yanked or pushed fairly hard to open. We lived with it for a few days and then, tired of the kicking and yanking, complained to the host. She promptly relayed the issue to the owner and within a day he came over, tightened the screws on the storm door and shaved some of the front door to make things right. Both doors were then just a little tight, not perfect, but a darn sight better than before.

The dishwasher was never screwed into the counter top. Donna tried to live with it, but after a week of the thing tilting dangerously every time the door was fully opened we contacted the host who contacted the owner who showed up a day or so later and added the screws. Not long after that Donna asked them to see if they could find a silverware basket that had bottoms in more half of its compartments. It took a few days, but the host did deliver a complete basket.

The main source of heat in the place is a large gas heater centrally located in the main room. It has a rudimentary thermostat control that consists of a dial numbered one through ten. It has an electric fan to circulate the warm air controlled by a knob with 5 settings, low & high constant, off, and low & high when the gas is lit. We would manually control the thermostat and left the fan on low at all times to create a white noise to cover the traffic sounds of the street out front. About three weeks in the fan quit. The gas burner part still worked, so we weren’t going to freeze. We notified the host who passed it along to the owner and a couple days later he came over and “fixed” it.

We were not home while he was working on it, but arrived back just as he was finishing up. He told us he oiled the motor and it was fine now. Later that evening when the heat kicked on, the fan did not, even though the knob was set at Low/Auto. I tired various settings and the fan would never start running. We miss the white noise, but as long as the fire works we will just let this one ride.

Then there was the infamous power outage day – Wednesday the 13th

Yesterday morning after throwing a load of clothes in the washer and adding detergent, the washer wouldn’t start. I went outside to see if a breaker had tripped. Nope. Came in and tried to plug it into a different outlet, still not coming on. Tried a different cycle with still no joy. Contacted the the host who got back to us an hour or so later to say that the owner would be over shortly. He came over and fiddled with something and couldn’t get it to work. He said, “We’ll get you a replacement later today.” “We have several used ones in storage, we just have to find one that works.” Late evening we get a text, that it will be Saturday morning around ten before we get a washer.

This morning at quarter to 10 we get another text, it’ll be more like 11:00. We had a couple of morning things planned so we opted to head out and do one knowing we’d be back by eleven. When we got back to the AirBnB a few minutes before eleven o’clock the host and owner were muscling a washer in through the front door. It would go through the storm door, but they had to take the main door off its hinges to get the machine in. Even though they knew the washer worked before they brought it over, they hooked it up and ran it through a complete cycle here just to check everything out again. While that ran, they took the old washer out, loaded it onto their trailer and put the front door back on.

After they had packed up and left, we closed the front door and it took a heavy shove to get it closed. Somehow just taking it off and putting on the hinges, we are right back to where we started….sigh.

One Month In

We arrived in Klamath Falls a month ago today.

We are still stuck in that awkward time between agreeing on a price and actually taking possession of the house and the big hold up is the bank’s appraisal, there is a 4 week backlog. At this rate we will have to get lucky to get into the house by Christmas. We have agreed to extend our stay in the AirBnB until 12/21. The Host wrote back saying she was going to block off the place until the 5th of January, just in case we need longer.

Both the rental car and the Mini were returned to their respective homes this afternoon. On further troubleshooting it was determined that both the #2 and #4 cylinders were reading bad. Because we had the coil pack on #1 replaced in May and now #2 & #4 were acting up, we agreed to go ahead and change the coil pack on #3 because sure enough in a couple weeks that probably would have started acting up as well. Add in the cast of the rental car for a week and are out over $600.

Over the weekend I developed some pain in the upper left of my mouth. It really didn’t feel too bad, until this morning when the pain increased to about a 3 of 10. I though maybe it was time to see a dentist. There were 10 listed that were in our dental insurance network. Several were a little too far away so I eliminated them. There were two practically next door to each other, not far from our favorite grocery store, so I called one of them hoping I could get to see the doctor this week. The receptionist said, “We just had a cancellation for 4:00 PM. Would that do?” I said, “See you then.” They took x-rays. After the dentist took a look them, she then poked and scraped and prodded around the two bad teeth. She said’ “I don’t see anything obvious, maybe it is just a sinus infection.” She prescribed an antibiotic and said if it doesn’t clear up in a week, call me. Then she added, “And call me if it does work.”

We have had a fairly mild November so far here, but things are about to get real with highs in the 40’s and lows in the upper teens to low 20s. And next week leading up to Thanksgiving there is a good chance of a bit of the white stuff.

Quick Sat/Sun Recap

  1. We spent some of Saturday morning standing around in the chilly Washington rain watching the nieces play around in a skate park.
  2. We spent most of Saturday afternoon standing around in the chilly Washington rain watching the nephew and the nieces burn American flags.
  3. We spent a bit of Saturday night eating generic pizza with the whole fam damily while one niece had a football party and the nephew and Troop 28 celebrated the flag retirement ceremony.
  4. We spent most of today driving home from Granite Falls, Washington.
  5. We spent almost all of the afternoon and most of the evening watching the NFL on TV
For items 1 & 2 see my Instagram feed @mistermiata. Re: #4, we did what we used to do when coming back from Florida, about the same distance, leave at 5:00 AM on a Sunday, making the trip bearable.