Home again

Last Sunday the Spencers came for home church; Adam gave the lesson; I am impressed how much the older of the young grand children know of the Book of Mormon. Lunch followed and we enjoyed a quiet afternoon. In the evening, most of us took a seven minute walk to another ward member who is also a dentist - his office is less than a mile from Adam's office. In fact, on his road, over a two mile stretch, there are at least 7-8 dentist offices. Evidently there are about 80 dentists in the Medford area. We had a delicious dinner of smoked ribs; an enjoyable time was had by all.

Monday I was able to get out and run again, without any negative effects. Most of the day was spent working on the list of chores. By now, Savannah has been able to reduce the list from two pages to one.

Tuesday I had an appointment with the dentist to have a crown removed and replaced. It is nice not to have to have a temporary crown installed and wait two weeks for the crown to be made somewhere else and then installed. Adam has the fancy (i.e., expensive) machine that makes them in the office in less than an hour. During the wait, he removed an old filling that had lost its effectiveness and replaced it. And the new crown fits great.

I returned again on Wednesday to have another tooth capped with a crown. Again, the crown fits and I have had no adverse response to all this tooth work. My mouth may still be stretched out of shape, though. I am amazed that the boy that couldn't sit still (he still can't) as a youth, has the concentration to focus on the delicate work of dentistry in the small confines of people's mouths. And it is obvious that he enjoys his work. He has an impressive staff too.

I was able to run again on Thursday morning and survived. Still too many hills, but the weather was great.

Reasons for obtaining  a home warranty when purchasing a used home: The air conditioning was not functioning properly; the technician came out, found some problems and resolved them. I believe the entire cost was covered by the warranty. The house has a 75 gallon vented gas water heater; it had not been providing sufficient hot water, so again a plumber came out to investigate. Short story, it is into its 14 year of a 12-16 year life expectancy and needs some parts replaced. But as the plumber stated, he would probably be back in a few months to resolve additional issues caused by the age of the heater. He succeeded in convincing the insurance company to pay for the installation of a new water heater. They are not cheap, either. And did I mention that the dishwasher also leaks?

In the process of working around their house, I discovered that water runs up hill in Oregon. It must; why else would the contractor installed a four inch drain line running up hill? The 30 foot rain gutter on the back side of the house drained into a two foot section of drain line with a 5 inch incline before going into the sewer line. It didn't make sense to me; so it now slopes down.

Where I spent the previous two weeks:

Thursday evening was a sad time, saying good bye to all the children since I was leaving early in the morning. I enjoyed reading stories to the 5 and 6 year old girls - I now know why you don't put hot sauce on the dragon's tacos and that Goldilocks really visited the home of dinosaurs and not bears, among other great truths. Denali and I had fun fixing cinnamon cake for breakfast and going to Lowe's for supplies. Lisa was so cute; during the time I was there, she learned to come grab you by a finger and lead you where she wanted you to get her something. If it was to the frig, she wanted her milk bottle. Below are Lisa and Miley.

You may notice an addition to me; I started a Q-19 growth, which, if I can stand it, will continue until the St Louis Temple reopens. It has been 50 years since I had a beard!

Adam doesn't work on Friday's, but he was up at 5 am to transport me the 15 minutes to the airport. 15 minutes after arrival, I was at the gate waiting for my 7 am flight. The Denver terminal was a little more crowded, but still not a mass of humanity. Neither flight was more than 80 percent full and were uneventful. I find it interesting that they insist on distancing while in the terminal and boarding and deplaning, but once you are on the plane, you are elbow to elbow to others.

Kristy arrived about the time I was ready to be picked up in Springfield. Spent a quiet evening with their family. Katie and Aaron drove up in time for Isabelle and Katie to attend a junior prom (Izzie is a senior).

I left Saturday morning to return home; but first a stop at Menard's to purchase additional decking material. The boards come in 12 foot lengths, and with the tail gate down, only about two foot hung over. I used multiple straps to hold the boards together and then strap them to the truck. There was some shifting, but they all made it to the house. Dan helped me unload them.

On the way home, Miranda called to inform me that it was 85 degrees upstairs at the house and the AC wasn't working. I was able to call the AC company I use; Laban called back - he had several other calls ahead of me, but gave me a helpful suggestion:  check the condensation pump to ensure the reservoir isn't full, if so, it will kick off the unit. Turned out that Miranda's boys had unplugged the pump to use the outlet for other purposes. A simple fix. 10 days ago Miranda had started mowing the lawn, only to have the mower quit. In trouble shooting, I discovered there was water in the gas tank. After draining off about 1/2 cup water, it ran fine and Dan mowed the lawn (Yeah!).

Miranda's family is officially homeless; they closed on their previous house on Friday and will spend the week here until they close on their new one in eight days. Rebecca has tickets to arrive in town Thursday night and will hang out here initially.