svcharm: 2024-09-01 In Bend, Oregon helping and visiting Kris's parents

The weather in Bend has been nice, cools down below 50 every night, and up to mid 70s and higher during the day. Very dry here and much much cooler than we are used to. Feels strange to have multiple blankets on the bed, as we have used nothing but a sheet for over a year.

The week has been spent doing projects and visiting.

Started with working on Norm's tractor which had a flat tire he wanted to put air in. Couldn't do that because we had to move the tractor out of the shed, but it would not start. Norm had a trickle charger on the battery, and Kris checked voltage and it read 12.6 volts. Norm has had an issue with pack rats, who had chewed the tractor wiring before, so he assumed that this may have been the case again. To sum it up, the starter, instrument panel, fuses, ignition switch, safety foot switch have all been thoroughly checked out on the tractor.

To quote Sir Arthur Conan Doyle "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth". So yes, it was the battery the whole time, and with a new battery the little tractor fired right up, and we could move it out and fill up the tires.

Of course there was a stuck and corroded needle valve on one tire that needed attention, but that was quickly addressed.

With the tractor project complete, it was time to mow the lawn. Norm has a rather large reel mower, the kind large manicured lawns would use. He has neither. Under 2000 sq ft of rough lawn, but he likes the mower.

Complex reel mower with three independent reels to mow less than 2000 sq ft lawn. Yes, hang your head and shake it in confusion

After that it was back to the tractor to replace some worn hydraulic lines, which went smoothly.

During all this Dean has been helping off and on, but mostly staying with Kris's mom who has dementia and panics sometimes when she wakes up from a nap and doesn't know where anyone is at.

Dean deserved and needed a break, so we left the folks at home and headed in for a nice lunch out at a small Mexican restaurant that has been in Bend for 25 years, same spot, virtually the same menu. Los Jalapenos serves great food, and mostly Spanish is spoken inside.

Dean is holding up his fingers for 25, but sorry backwards. Great food in a small little place.

Next day was more projects. Norm has a roof over the porch with corrugated PVC panels for shade, but a hail storm put several holes in them. He was going to replace them, but at $37 each, we suggested a better fix, using waterproof tape to patch them up. Removing and cleaning and patching the panels was a full day of work for us and Norm.

Holes in panels caused by hail.

Of course, while the ladders were out, the gutters needed cleaned as well.

After fixing the deck ceiling panels, we had to do a through cleaning of the deck, and also all the deck furniture.

While here, we have also taken over most the cooking and cleaning as well.

Kris cooking up a traditional family breakfast of Welsh Rarebit.

One thing Kris's mom Deedy still can somewhat do and enjoy is playing a card game called "Hand and Foot". We have spent many hours doing that, although Deedy's vision is quite bad, so Kris has to read out the cards to her frequently.

With Norm's major projects done, it was time for Dean to tackle our new, but temporary car. Kris had heard the brakes squeal a bit, and we noticed that one time had only 4 of the 5 lug nuts. Dean took off all the tires and checked all brakes, but in the process two more wheel bolts sheared off, so we replaced three wheel bolts, and got new lug nuts for those. Unfortunately the lug nuts at the auto stores were larger than the other ones on the car, so a quick trip to the local Les Schwab, where they gave us three of the correct sized lug nuts to match the rest of the tires. They also checked the tires to tell us which battery in the Tire Pressure Sensors (TPS) were not working. Found out 3 out of the 4 are not working and at $80 per tire to fix the light on the dash will stay on for low tire. There was no charge for all of this, but we donated the $14 we got from taking Norm and Deedy's cans and bottles to the recycling center.