We’re in Keiser, Oregon

 

Sunday, April 6, 2012                                                                                                                                              Lorraine’s report

Hello once again from Chuck and Lorraine, finally back on the road. If you remember, Chuck took a job to work back at his old refinery, BP, but with a contractor called Brinderson, that works for BP. We headed back north and on November 4^th we pulled into Joe and Alice’s extra lot, not leaving until this last Friday, April 4^th, exactly six months in that one place. Thanks to Joe and Alice for letting us rent it so we didn’t have to move every two weeks, we appreciated this a lot!

What a winter we survived; it was a La Nina year, second year in a row, and we had record rains, cold spells with the northeaster out of the Frasier River Canyon, too many cold, wet, gray days to count.  On January 18^th I went to the market about 3 miles away at 1 pm and the temperature was 11 degrees out with the Northeaster blowing 30 mile per hour, making the wind chill about 20 below zero.

And after Norma and Rob left in mid January to go to Quartzsite and places south, January felt like it was a hundred days long to me. February was at least fifty days long, and March was unbearably long for me. I missed the blue sunny skies of the southwest, even if the friends there said it was windy.

Mt. Baker, our snow capped dormant volcano had record snow falls this year; the third most snow fall on record. From the Bellingham Herald, “Mt. Baker Ski Area east of Glacier recorded 27 inches of snow in April, making the total snowfall for the season 804 inches, or 15 percent more than average.” The snow up there meant tons of rain down here in the low lands. Our rivers are running way high, and if the snow melts too fast they will flood the low lying areas.

Spring finally came around the 3^rd week in April, and I think the entire population of this area was overjoyed to finally see the sun for more than a few hours at a time. In fact April had 4 weekends in a row where the sun came out for the whole weekend.

Chuck started working the turnaround a lot earlier than they anticipated because of the fire at the Crude Unit on February 17.  Chuck’s unit when he retired from BP in 2007 was the Crude Unit and he could see the area from the coverage on the TV. It was fortunate no one was injured; we were home that day doing taxes, when we got a call about the fire at BP, we could see the smoke out the front window of the coach.

Chuck was a planner for the work Brinderson was doing in the Reformer Unit and once the turnaround started he worked many many long hours. I never knew when he would be coming home. Most of the time, he went in by 4:30 am or so; some days he would come home anywhere from 6 pm to 10:30 pm. He would eat, take a shower and go to bed; then get up the next day and do it all again. One week he had 91 hours, the next 87 hours, way too much for most men.

On March 27^th Rick and Joy came back north so she could go back to her job. They had lots of fun south and both looked so tan and relaxed. Then on April 6^th Rob and Norma and Barb and Dennis came back north. Barb and Dennis stayed for a week and Rob and Norma were here a bit longer. We all went to Bob’s for Easter Sunday Brunch. It was nice to see our friends again and we enjoy our time together.

The day after Easter, I woke up feeling not too well and it went down hill from there. I had picked up that horrible stomach virus that was going around the county here. I still am getting over that virus.

Chuck came home on April 14^th with the cold virus that everyone at his work and the entire county had. A week later he was starting to get better and I woke up on April 22 with his cold. So not only was I still fighting the stomach flu, I had picked up that nasty cold virus. On the 9^th of May it will be a month and I am still fighting both viruses, but I feel I am getting better a hair at a time.

Chuck worked his last day April 27^th and was I ever happy for him to be done. We are both tired, but happy to be out of Blaine.

I missed our granddaughter, Kaitlyn, 7^th birthday on April 15^th.  When I made the airline reservations 2 months earlier, I had no idea I would be too ill to travel.  I was so sad to miss it, but Kaitlyn being the trooper she is, said it was okay and for Nana to come when she was feeling better. It made me cry.

So now we are heading to our daughter, Susy’s and Kaitlyn’s home to have another party for her, since I didn’t send Kaitlyn her presents.  We hope to be there for Mother’s Day.

Chuck has had the oil changed at Speedco by Portland, and we need to order 2 new tires for the front of the rig, and some new batteries. Hopefully, this will happen tomorrow.  Then we head south again.  I forgot to say we are in Salem, staying at the Keizer Elks RV Park.  It’s $17.00 a night for full hookups.

We hope Richard and Sandy have fun on their Hawaii trip this week, will miss Sandy and my Friday night get together.  Also, to Mark and Sue, I asked for prayers for you and your health problems, also for Manuel and Connie, from my new church.  I love my new church, and hopefully it helps you both.

It’s nice, but kinda scary to be riding in the big rig again. Not used to all the traffic yet. 

Until next time,

Lorraine

5/6/2012                                                                                                                                                           Chuck’s report

It’s been awhile since we’ve last posted, I think it was around Christmas time last year.  We haven’t posted because we haven’t done much, I’ve been working and Lorraine’s been taking care of me and doing her thing. 

I started the temporary job in early November and finished up in late April.  The original plan was to start work in November and end in late June but the refinery had a big fire in February that changed the work plans.  We started the maintenance period earlier than expected and therefore ended earlier too.  It was a good thing too as I was getting very tired for sure.  My boss asked me on Wednesday when I expected my last day to be and I said I sort of expected him to tell me, ha.  Anyway, we agreed that Friday 4/27 would be my last working day and I left shortly after noon, finished at last. 

I think I worked 54 out of 60 days at the end, most of them 12 hours/day.   Way too many for an old man but everyone else was working the same so at least I had company.  We were only allowed to work 19 out of 21 days and I had the Thursday and Friday off just before Easter.  Come to find out, we were all told to take off Saturday and Sunday also so I actually had 4 days off in a row, made it hard to come back after that break. 

They had to hire lots of folks from out of the local area because of the work load and of course they brought all the illness and bugs and shared them with us.  I was lucky, I only caught a head cold for a week or so but lots of folks were much worse off.  In fact, Lorraine is still not 100% from all the stuff she was fighting but at least she’s getting better. 

We didn’t do much visiting with friends and family during our time back home but did manage to see Joy/Rick when they got back from their trip down South for the winter.  Later we got to visit with Barb/Dennis and Norma/Rob when they returned from down South too.  I was tired and probably not much company but it was nice to see them just the same. 

We spent a week getting things done after I finished work.  Lorraine paired down on some of the stuff in the coach and we hauled two loads to Goodwill and put a couple things in the shop.  I didn’t try to sell my little work car until the last week but no luck so it went back in the shop until we return later this summer then it goes on Craig’s list. 

Boy does it feel good to be free and back on the road again.  We left Friday and stopped for the night at Rochester at a casino where the normal results happened i.e., I lost and Lorraine won.  We left there Saturday and I had the coach serviced at Speedco while Lorraine shopped at the Outlet Mall in Woodburn, Oregon. 

I was getting the coach ready to travel on Tuesday before we left and had an issue with it not wanting to start.  I’ve been doing some research and I think the starting batteries are getting old and need replaced.  I also want to replace the two front tires and we want to get this finished while we are in TAX FREE Oregon.  I need to do some checking tomorrow to find the tires and batteries so we might be here a couple more days. 

Lorraine was scheduled to fly down for our grand daughter Kaitlyn’s birthday on April 15th but she was too ill to fly.  Kaitlyn was 7 so she is old enough to understand but none-the-less she wants to see her Nana and get her birthday presents so that’s where we are headed.  After that our schedule is open, only requirement we have on our agenda is to renew our driver’s licenses in South Dakota before August.  Other than that, we don’t have any firm plans until mid July when we have doctor visits once again back in Bellingham. 

It’s good to be back on the road!!

And now for a few pictures, didn’t have too many to pick from so there won’t be too many this week. 

 

Mount Baker in the background and wintering white swans in the Skagit Valley.

 

Lorraine’s Christmas Cactus and snow at our place this winter. 

 

We did have some partly cloudy days with nice sunsets too. 

 

Richard and Sandy’s new grand daughter and proud parents. 

 

Joy and Rick after their winter trip. 

 

Norma and Rob after their trip. 

 

Nephew John and his son Joey.                 Niece Kerri and husband Paul. 

 

Kerri’s kids Rose, Joshua and Patrick. 

 

And that’s it for now.  Maybe we will get back to our normal blog schedule of once a week but that remains to be seen.  But I will send out a note when we do update next time.

Thanks   Chuck