01-29FEB24 - Sultan, WA

Thursday, 01FEB, no rain, mild weather, not much done.  Friday after lunch Dan has ortho appointment to look at issues with right knee and hip areas.  Xrays show both areas in very good shape – no bone on bone, or arthritis; issues appear to be “muscle” related.  Dan given set of exercises for next six seeks and follow-up visit after that.  Then we are off to ferry to head to Rebecca and grandboys (this is first weekend of Raymond’s lengthy National Guard deployment).  After jiu jitsu practice dinner at Mod Pizza and back to their house for the night.

Saturday spent installing shelves in the Rebecca’s new greenhouse/garden shed.  Then securing shed to pressure treated foundation and anchoring pressure treated lumber into the ground.

Dinner was at very small place called Tiny’s Crab House, specializing in low country seafood boil.  A different boil than cajun crawfish boil, but very similar and delicious.  We shared crawfish, snow crab, shrimp, along with sausage, corn, potatoes and something new for us hard boiled eggs.

Lowcountry boil is a one-pot meal that features an array of seafood, sausage, corn, potatoes and Old Bay seasoning boiled in a spicy stock. It was originally called Frogmore Stew, named after the Gullah-Geechee fishing community in South Carolina (although it originated on St. Helena’s Island).

Tiny's House of Crabs (tinyshouseofcrabs.com)

Sunday, 04FEB, after breakfast, load up truck. catch the ferry and go home.  Weather good enough for Dan to do some mowing

Wednesday, 07FEB, quick decision to drive over to Pitre’s in Silverdale.  This is so someone (Dan) can catch Jaxson first wrestling match as a Middle School Varsity wrestle team member.  Idea is that Dan will pick-up Mason and the go to the middle school for the event (thankfully both schools right next door).  Rebecca would stay at work until quitting time.  Luckily Rebecca arrived right as Jaxson’s match started.  Better luck was Jaxson won on points; then Dan headed to Kingston ferry and home.

Thursday Corrie has AM PT, & errands.  Then Dan looks for professional real estate appraiser (not attached to a Realtor).  Seems that there are fewer and fewer independents in business.  Dinner was Indian food at Kadhai Indian Cuisine new in downtown Monroe.

Home - Kadhai Indian Cuisine (kadhaicuisine.com)

Friday AM, 09FEB, Corrie runs errands and then heads to Rebecca’s to spend weekend with Rebecca and grandboys for the weekend.  Dan stays home with dogs.

Saturday Corrie still at Rebecca & Raymond’s.  At noon professional appraiser arrives and tours our property and buildings in preparation for his written report.  Plan is once report received house will probably be sold☹  Sunday Corrie is back home.  Then we set out some snackies (of course that includes wings) and watch the super bowl.

Tuesday, 13FEB, early AM Corrie off to Jury Duty, leaving Dan to dog sit.  Luckily after 4 hours of jury instruction the perspective jurist are told that the perp plead guilty and they are released.  (real good luck because trial was supposed to take two weeks!)

Wednesday (valentine’s) not much done.  Thurs AM Dan heads into Seattle for annual RV show, mostly a waste of time☹  After two hours, catches Seattle to Bainbridge ferry, drives to Rebecca’s to spend the night; why?  Because tomorrow AM Rebecca and boys head to DC for weekend with daddy Raymond, who is deployed with National Guard.  Dan will drive them to SeaTac airport.  Then take their dog Roux to our house for dog sitting over the weekend.

Friday early AM Dan, Rebecca, and boys head to SeaTac airport for them to catch a plane to DC.  Dan heads backs to Rebecca’s house to pick up Roux the dog.  At the Kingston ferry terminal Dan finds out service down to one boat.  But beautiful weather during the extended wait.  Two hour trip becomes three.  Back home Dan learns heavy winds have been blowing for two days and will continue until tomorrow.

Saturday,17FEB, weather guessers are wrong and we have strong winds all day; not much done.  Sunday wind final gone.  Early evening Dan loads truck with Roux the dog and her stuff.  Drives around thru Tacoma to Rebecca/Raymond’s house to spend the night.

Monday, 19FEB, meet some classmates for lunch at Blazing Onion in Silverdale.

  

Then head to SeaTac 8PM to pick up Rebecca and boys.  Back to house and Roux; everyone into bed by midnight.

Tuesday Corrie more PT for repaired rotor cuff, and girls’ day out with Jan Formisano. Dan catches Kingston ferry and heads home.  Wednesday AM, 21FEB, Dan is off to Mercedes commercial vehicle shop in Lynnwood for routine service on RV; that evening heavy rain returns.

Friday Corrie runs AM errands.  Great sunshine day.  Corrie gardens, Dan picks up tree debris from all the wind storms so far this winter & then mows.  Saturday woke up to light rain.  After lunch head to Jaxson’s soccer game up in Marysville; great goalie game for Jaxson.

Sunday, 25FEB, light rain, temperatures drop, and wind picks up.  Monday wake-up to one inch of wet snow, around 10AM heavy snow starts and we are a little worried.  Dan shovels decks and temp starts to drop at dinner.

Tuesday wake-up to 3 inches of fresh, powdery snow.  Which requires Dan to shovel decks off again.  Corrie runs errands and goes to shoulder PT.  Light snows start at 2PM, off/on thru evening☹  Wednesday temps in the mid 30’s, with rain; end result is all our snow is gone by dinner.

Thursday, Leap Day, not much done, weather so/so.  Dan uses electric chain saw to cut last remaining pieces of downed big alder that recent wind storms felled.

01-31JAN24 - Sultan, WA (heavy ice & raymond deploys)

Happy New Year, ours start slightly on the wrong foot – twelve year old frig is making “noise”☹  Email and phone message left with local repair business (fingers crossed).  Turns out that Samsung frigs have different defrost modes that you can manually “force” to be run.  This info is not in the owners manual and you must surf the web to find out how to do it; AND all their control panels are different and you must know what two touch buttons to press at same time to start process.  Dan finally guesses/figures out the magic two buttons on our frig and runs a ‘forced defrost”.  Runs it four times and looks like problem solved?  Rest of day spent watching semifinals of college football.

Tuesday AM, 02JAN, is first of many physical therapy visits for Corrie.  Twice weekly sessions thru month to rehabilitate her shoulder from rotator cuff surgery.  Looks like Samsung frig is fixed (fingers crossed)?

Wednesday, 03JAN, whirlwind trip to Pitres in Silverdale and back to house; why?  Because tomorrow, 04JAN, is grandson Jaxson’s b-day.  And with soccer schedule, school, Corrie’s recovery from rotator cuff surgery, etc, etc, this is our celebration with Jaxson.  We pick him and brother Mason up at their house and off to Sportsman’s Warehouse to let Jaxson shop for fishing gear for his tackle box.  Then off to Chipotle (Jaxson’s choice) for b-day lunch; back to their house; and finally back to kingston ferry terminal and home.

Friday, 05JAN, Corrie has girls day out with Jan Formisano.  Even though we had just picked-up repaired ride-em mower, Dan has to run mower back to repair shop to fix one minor issue.  Saturday Dan goes to Jaxson’s soccer game in Marysville.

Sunday Dan goes to Mason’s soccer game in Redmond, Rebecca is there.

Tuesday AM, 09JAN, Dan takes Fiesta toad into dealer for new key “fob” to replace our non-working one.  In the old days if you had key issue you got a blank and had it machined.  Now the fobs’ have computer chips in them and any replacement need to be “programed” to the vehicle.  Of course our car and new fob don’t connect? Turns out fiesta & taurus are known for this repair issue☹  So we have one key/fob that works 100% and one that will start car but must lock/unlock car manually. Guess who gets one that works properly? (dealer only charges us for part, not labor)

Thursday, 11JAN, not much done.  Off-and-on snow from 11AM until 4PM.  By bed time temps have dropped to below freezing & forecasted to stay there for next 72 hrs.

Friday wake up 28 degrees.  Reiner road is iced, but we go grocery shopping anyway.  When home Dan shovels decks in way of doors and stairs.  Frig repair tech not willing to drive up Reiner road.  Hi temp during the day 20 degrees, dropping to 14 degrees at sunset and gusty winds in excess of 30 mph.

Saturday 13JAN, wake up to temps in the teens and gusty winds all day long.  Winds finally die down late evening.  Tomorrow’s forecast is for temps in the teens all day.  Sunday morning temp is 17 with no wind and raising to 20 by bedtime.  Last two days of sub freezing weather good time to do taxes😊  Sunday sunshine and great view.

Monday starts at 22, goes to 32, then 25 at bedtime.

Tuesday, 16JAN, wake up to 22, 35 by dinner.  By bedtime freezing rain and temp dropping to 31 and will drop more.  Roads should be treacherous tomorrow?  Wednesday AM wake up to sleet falling and everything covered in thin layer of ice Our road not in best shape but we put truck in 4-wheel and get Corrie to orthopedic surgeon and gets great news about excellent progress.  Do some grocery shopping and drive home in constant rain at 33 degrees.  Get home to no power, but that is quickly fixed.  Rain gets heavier and temp drops, and turns to pretty heavy wet snow.

Thursday AM temps right around 32 degrees; temps stay there all day with off/on light freezing sleet and heavy gusty winds.  Significant ice build-up on tree branches; added weight has already damage some.  Also drooping branches have “narrowed our driveway in one spot.  So dan took battery powered pole trimmer and removed several branches.  Short power losses thru day are a real headache☹  Finally had to start generator around 830PM.

Friday, 19JAN, wake up in early, early AM, to find generator ran out of fuel; but power back on, so no big deal.  Then load up truck and take Edmonds ferry to spend weekend at Rebecca & Raymond’s.  Saturday after breakfast off to grandboy soccer games.  Dinner was a “farewell” dinner for Raymond who once again deploying with his National Guard unit on another lengthy deployment.  Departure should be next weekend but there may be no time for lengthy goodbye, so we said our good-byes now.

Sunday quick breakfast, load up truck, and catch Kingston ferry to Edmonds and drive home.  Thankfully all the snow and ice is gone😊  Takeout for dinner.

Monday not much done; clean up tree debris from ice & wind.  Tuesday AM, refrigerator repair man shows up at 6PM and works till 8PM.  Turns out Samsungs are notorious for cooling tower freezing up.

Wednesday, 24JAN, take Bella in for vet eye specialist check.  Check-up is okay but will be on lifelong meds to prevent reoccurrence.  Eye problem probably caused by kidney “issue”.  Thursday Dan heads to luncheon with CGA Classmates who went to CG Academy with him way back 1970 to 1974.  On the way home Dan picks up more meds for Bella.

Friday AM pack-up truck and head to Rebecca & Raymonds  Thru afternoon preps are made for Raymonds deployment and then they all head to airport hotel for his 5AM flight.  We stay in house to dog sit the three dogs.

Saturday AM, 27JAN, take care of dogs, pack up truck and head to Woodinville for Jaxson’s soccer game.  We meet Rebecca and two grandsons at the soccer field (they spent night in airport hotel).  After game we have pizza at local pizzeria; then head home to veg out.

Sunday at lunch Dan takes off to Issaquah for Mason’s soccer game (mom Rebecca also in attendance).  On drive home Dan gets call from brother-in-law Tim Tompkins; Tim is in the area to help his mom with some family issues.  Decision is for Tim to come by the house for dinner.  Great but short three hour visit before Tim takes off see his sister Lori.

Month finishes quietly with not much more done.  Corrie nearing end of shoulder PT and Dan has unplanned visits to primary care (nothing major)🙃