Back to Oregon for the Election & Treatment

I’ve never really been very involved in politics and maybe that’s the problem with too many Americans and that led to a place where we ended up in a country that could not only elect a fool like Donald Trump but that such a large percentage of our population could embrace his values. 

There was no doubt that I was going to get back to Oregon in time to fill out and turn in my ballot. I’m sure I’m wrong but in my lifetime I don’t ever remember the country being led by so many hateful crazies. The main step was getting rid of Trump in the last presidential election but despite getting rid of him his hateful rhetoric is still being spewed by to many Americans and particularly too many elected officials. 

The election didn’t get rid of all the “crazies” but hopefully it was a start. I’m just glad I got back and voted. 

I also wanted to be home for Donna’s birthday but we ended up doing nothing until a day or two later. She had the farrier out for her horses and he was here all day along with the rain. 🤷‍♂️ She, Brandi and I went to TJ’s a couple days later. Then I had my treatment the next week. 

For Veterans Day Smitty and I went to IHOP for their free Red, White and Blue pancakes. By the time I paid for our coffee and left a generous tip we had a $22 free breakfast. 😃 The company and the conversation is worth it every time we get together. I wore the USS Oriskany shirt Stacie sent me last Christmas. 

I wasn’t feeling in a real good place with the holidays coming up. There are just to many shared memories and traditions that I miss. So I decided to get an earlier than usual start getting my tree up. It’s a good thing to because it took me three days to get it up and decorated especially after it fell over when I was almost finished and the majority of ornaments fell off. 😂. I redid it, made the best of it and have had it on every day since I finished. 

I managed to do two races within 5 days. The Sunday before Thanksgiving I did the Run to Stay Warm downtown at Riverfront Park. There were 402 finishers just in the 5K. It was really cold, low 20’s when I left the house and only mid 30’s by the end of the race. I was surprised to win the 70-74 age group. 

The second race was another tradition that Smitty and I share, The Turkey Stuffer in Springfield on Thanksgiving Day. It was also cold and foggy but I’m glad I did it. There were almost 1100 starters. Smitty wasn’t one of them but him and Denise did a race in Lincoln, CA where they went for the holiday. I didn’t win my age group in this one, 6th of 9 but I was faster than Sunday’s race. 

I think it was the first time that I ever went to a restaurant for Thanksgiving but that’s what we decided to do. It worked out really well. The food was good and there was plenty of it including chicken tortilla soup to start. I even had leftovers the next day from my to go box. It was definitely a relaxing way to have a Thanksgiving meal. Even Gregg came. 

And of course lots of football including a disappointing Patriot’s loss on Thanksgiving night and a disappointing University of Oregon loss on Saturday. I got Charlie a new Christmas blanket and he cared less about who won or lost.