The air quality is really bad from the fires…

 August 11 2026

Monday

Liberty came in, fed the dogs, and got me some coffee and breakfast, and then we did some personal care and a nice, relaxing hot bath. She got me dressed and up in my chair; she went home for the day. The air quality was really bad, so we couldn't really do anything, so we just hung around. It was a great day!

We are hoping their little dog, Chaos, will get along with my dogs soon, but he just follows them around and barks at them. My dogs are afraid of him even though they go up to my dogs' kneecaps. They have another dog called Mayhem, and she is very sweet and loving.

Ashlyn came in, and we did some meal planning; she is going to make some cod, some chicken, roasted vegetables, asparagus, chicken salad, and Chia pudding. It is so nice to be able to pick anything I want, and Ashlyn makes it diabetic-friendly for me; I feel like I'm going to a fancy restaurant every night.

Brooklynn put me to bed, and I caught up on my blog and deleted some emails, watched a movie, and then fell asleep.

Tuesday

Amy came in and gave me a nice relaxing massage; I kept falling asleep on her.

Liberty came in and fed the dogs, got me some coffee and breakfast, then got me dressed and up in my chair. Brooklynn and I kind of worked out a schedule of what we were going to do, but since the air quality was so bad, we didn't get to do anything. I was kind of bummed because we were gonna go to the waterfalls, but for me especially, it's not a good choice because of my weak immune system.

We decided we might as well eat dinner early, so TJ cleaned off my brother's Blackstone, seasoned it, and then made hamburgers; they were so good! We also got curly fries, tater tots, and regular fries, but I just had salad. I love how they always do everything as a family. I thought he would feel uncomfortable tagging along, but I really like hanging out with them!

Mya came in, fed the dogs, and put me to bed. Maya is Brooklynn's cousin, so we all hung out in here with some fresh air. After Mya left, I played around on the computer and cursed the fires.

Wednesday

Haylee came in and fed the dogs, got me some coffee, and got me dressed and up in my chair. We were supposed to go to the beach today. The air quality was bad here but supposedly better at the beach, but I didn't wanna take a chance and make everybody leave early because the air quality was too bad for me to stay out in. It just seems like all the plans that we had went down the drain.

Naomi came over to help me out with the dogs; Kona is really good off-leash, but once she put a leash on her, she's a snarling, vicious, barking girl. Naomi was gonna help me out with some techniques to keep Kona from barking, so we braved it and went outside. Of course, there were no dogs around, so we'll try again next week.

Brooklynn and her family went home, and I hung out here with the dogs just playing on the computer until Haylee came back. We weren't going to be doing anything, so I had Haylee put me to bed, and then when Brooklynn and her family came back, we just hung out. They all slept in the living room and in the family room.

Wednesday

Haylee came in, fed the dogs, and got me some coffee. I don't know if it's my new meds or the smoke from the fires, but for the last couple of days I've been feeling really yucky. I decided to stay in bed because I can't really go outside or do anything anyway. I worked on my cookbook pretty much all day.

Haylee came back, fed the dogs, fed me, and got me some more coffee. We did some personal care and a nice long hot bath. I'm still just not feeling very well, but it seems like the meds are working, so I will wait it out. She put me back to bed, and while we were doing personal care, my family came home. I saw a bunch of pictures that they posted, and everybody seemed to have a great time.

I got caught up on my blog; I was about three days behind, and I'm always afraid I won't remember what happened.I talked to my brother for a while; he put on my CPAP, and I went to sleep while watching a movie.

Thursday

Haylee came in, toileted and fed the dogs, got me 2 cups of coffee and some breakfast, got me dressed and up in my chair.

I went out to the kitchen and hung out with my nephew, my niece, and the two kids. They went to Sunriver and had a great time; I could tell by the pictures. They went to Portland for a birthday party, so I came back to my room and hung out with the dogs. I wanted to take them out for a cruise, especially Kona because she has so much energy, but I'm afraid of being out in this air because of the fires; it says people with compromised immune systems should be careful.

TJ and Brooklynn came over to put up my sunshade on the back porch, but there wasn't anything to hook it to, so I think we'll try putting it out front and find something smaller for the back. They took the rest of my Verizon electronics back so they wouldn't charge me for it.

I looked up the side effects of my new medication, and just as I thought, headache and an upset stomach. It says that it should go away after about a week or so, and I hope so because although I love the results of the medication, I don't like the side effects. I could handle it for a couple of days, but I would rather not deal with that long-term.

I worked on my cookbook. I don't really feel like doing anything, but I also don't want to do nothing. ChatGPT said I could take some Zofran for my upset stomach, but Zofran has a tendency to make you constipated, so that would kind of be defeating the whole purpose of the new medication? So I will just suffer in silence and hope it goes away.

He got cold inside my room, so I went outside to sit in the sun until Mya got here. It feels so good to have the sun on my face. I try not to do it too much because I don't want my face to end up leathery like my aunts'. She had a great life and went camping a lot, just clean living.

Mya came in and fed the dogs, then let them out to go potty. We washed my hair over the tub and put a mask on it. After I got into bed, we did a mask on my face, my lips, and my eyes. I just love hanging out with this girl, and I'm really gonna miss her when she goes back to college at the end of the month.

I did some nuzzles on Reddit to wind down a little, I deleted some unwanted emails, I watched some YouTube cop videos while I worked on my cookbook until I fell asleep.

Friday

Liberty came in and showed me a picture on her cell phone of two positive pregnancy tests! She is pregnant! It sounds like her and Brooklynn are going to have their babies around the same time; it's so exciting! She got me some coffee, more coffee, and breakfast! I went out to say hi to everybody, and Mackenzie told me that they were having dinner tonight for Stanley's birthday. I had already made plans with Haylee to come in and do some personal care, so I was really bummed put me in my chair and put together a new cart I got. A wheel fell off of the other one, but this one is much nicer. She hooked me up with Kona, and we went out for our 2-mile cruise. There was a yard sale down at the end of the block and an estate sale down at the end of the block on the left. Kona and I cruised by to see if they had anything worth going to. I couldn't really see, and I know I would never go there by myself, so I texted Brooklynn to see. She texted me right back and said she and her husband were on their way. I found some toys for the kids and a couple of metal baskets for succulents. I saw the idea at a birthday party at my niece's mom's, and they looked awesome! We didn't go to the estate sale because Mackenzie said the stairs to get in were too steep, and I wouldn't be able to get in. I think I'm going to love the summers here because we have been going to a lot of yard sales and I love them! When I looked in Santa Cruz, my uncle and I would go to yard sales, and I really missed it!

I took Dude out for his 2-mile cruise, and I think that's what he's been wanting. The last couple of days he's been staring at me in the room and whining. The door is open so he could go out, and he has water, so I don't understand what's wrong. Sometimes I wish I could read their minds and see what they need. I also love to hear what they think about me and everybody else…I think!?!

Just as I got comfortable in my room, Haylee came in; she fed the dogs, put me to bed on my side, and we did some personal care and then a nice long hot bath. She put me back to bed, let the dogs out one final time until Stanley came in at 9:30 PM, and then she left. I caught up on my blog and watched some YouTube cop videos before I went to sleep.

Saturday

Brooklynn came in, fed and toilet the dogs, got me some coffee, one more cup of coffee, and some breakfast. I'd already eaten all my breakfast casserole, so I had chicken, vegetables, and half a bagel with cream cheese. I know, I know…I shouldn't be having a bagel, but I'm human? I only had half? I just can't imagine my life without bagels. Check out me dressed and up in my chair, and I was able to take the dogs out for their 2-mile cruise before it got too hot. The rest of the day I spent in the front yard with my brother and the kids, in my room with my pack, and out on my back porch, where I always just feel awesome!

Mya did the evening shift on Saturday night because Brooklynn had a family dinner to go to. Mya told me that after this month she won't be able to help me out anymore on Tuesdays and Thursdays or any other days because she's going back to college. I love how driven and motivated this girl is to reach her life goals. I am really going to miss her!

She fed the dogs and the cat, and put me to bed. We did a lip mask, an eye mask, and a face mask; the face mask was so cold! If I ever get overheated again, I'm just going to have somebody put one of these face masks on me, and that will cool me down real quick.

She washed my hair and put a hair mask on; we weren't really sure of the directions because I think it was written in China. I was going to look it up on you after I got back to bed and see if we did it right, but I forgot. Also, we already did it, so if we did it wrong, it's too late to correct it?

She went home, and I caught up on my blog, deleted my unwanted emails, watched a couple of cop shows on YouTube, then worked on my cookbook for a little while before I fell asleep.

Sunday

Brooklynn and I decided to try a new place for Sunday morning breakfast; it's called Sybil’s Omelets, and as you can tell by the name, they do mainly omelets. I decided to get a sausage, pineapple, and black olive omelet; they were a little heavy-handed on the pineapple and very light-handed on the sausage, but it gave me a good idea for future morning meal planning. I could just get a bunch of toppings and have whoever's on duty that day make me an omelet; I could have a different omelet every morning. I can't imagine not having Ashlyn's breakfast casserole; it's my favorite breakfast of all time!

Brooklyn saw a yard sale on Craigslist, so we went to check it out. We got a lot of Barbie dolls and a Barbie car, some random toys, and Noris' first bicycle. I have a feeling she's really going to love that! Luckily, they were home when we got back, but they were just leaving. I can't wait to see the expression on their little faces. All that we got there was under $20; we got a lot of stuff!

My neighbor down the street was also having a yard sale, so we went down and checked that out. I found some metal baskets that I want to use for succulents. I saw it done on a table at a birthday party we went to, and it looked awesome! Of course, the lady who had the birthday party has 10 green fingers, and her garden looks amazing! I'm starting to love our weekend yard sale adventures! I was always afraid to go to yard sales, especially by myself; I always felt obligated to buy something. When I go with Brooklynn and TJ, I don't feel that way as much. I really love looking at all the stuff, whether I need it or not. I need to start collecting some books because when my brother and sister-in-law move out, I will have a lot of bookshelves in the family room.

I just know this is going to be an exciting week…

 Monday July 27 2026

Monday

Haylee came in and fed the hungry hounds. At first, I panicked a little because normally Liberty does a double on Mondays; I wasn't sure how to bring it up, so I asked her if she worked tonight, and she said, "No, Liberty works a double on Monday," and I said, "Today is Monday," and she said Yeah. Then she said that Liberty was supposed to go to a wedding, and then it all came rushing back, and I was so relieved.

She got me some coffee, and boy, did it taste good! She reminded me that she needed to leave at 10 AM, so she got me dressed and up in my chair. I was feeling a little off, so we took my blood pressure, and it was high, so I took half of a clonidine. I went out to the kitchen to say hello to Stanley and Shilo. Haylee hooked me up with Kona, and we went for our 2-mile cruise. The clonidine made me a little bit more drowsy than I thought it would, and I actually fell asleep, then startled myself awake and decided I'd better go home. I watched a little bit of TV and kept falling asleep, so I decided just to go into my room and hang out with the dogs. I kept drifting off to sleep, leaning back in my chair, so I just went with it. I took a little nap. I woke up kind of chilly, so I went outside, sat in the sun, and fell asleep.

It turns out that Haylee was going to do the evening for Liberty as well, so I asked her if she wanted to come in early since she had to leave for a Zoom meeting at 6 PM. We got done just in time; she sent me up and went off to join her meeting.

I watched a couple of movies, caught up on my blog, deleted emails, and tried not to fall asleep. I went to sleep.

Tuesday

 Amy came in and gave me a nice relaxing massage. We usually switch off between the top and bottom parts of me, but the top part is still really sore, I think, from getting up so much. It's so relaxing I have to fight the urge to relax and go to sleep.

Liberty came in and fed the dogs, got me some coffee, got me dressed and up in my chair. I used to procrastinate a lot and not get up until later in the morning, but I love getting up early; I always have. It gives me more time to cruise the dogs before it gets too hot, sit outside, and enjoy the family. Unfortunately, I won't be going too far today because, again, my chair didn't get charged; we've tried charging it two times so far, so I'm starting to believe it's not the charger but my chair.

David and Melissa came by to drop off their three boys and go to Costco; Shilo was here as well.

I met the new gardener, Moses, a sweet guy who knew an awful lot about gardening, and he told me his plan.

Mya came in, fed the dogs, then put me to bed! Had a bunch of packages from Amazon, so she opened them and put them away. She cleaned up; did some organizing. I always love the way my room/Bathroom looks when Mya leaves.

I deleted some unwanted emails, and that's about it. I just watched a movie until I fell asleep.

Wednesday

Haylee came in and fed the dogs, then got me some coffee. I went out to the kitchen to have a 2nd cup of coffee and to eat. I love to see who's here in the morning, but no kiddos today. Stanley was sitting in the family room all by himself. Before Haylee left, I had her hook up Kona, and we went for a 2-mile cruise. Instead of just going up and down the street and having to turn around every time we see a dog, I decided to take her to the school a block away up the hill. When she's off leash, she doesn't even bother with the dogs; she likes her ball and to stay with her people, but when the leash goes on, she becomes a barking, snarling dog hater. I guess it's not just dogs but squirrels, cats, and one time she tried to go after a deer; I guess the restraint makes her more powerful in her mind. We went around the track about six times, and I think that's 2 miles unless I lost count, which is entirely possible. I think mostly I wanted to see if I would be able to latch the gate, go in, and close it before we did our cruise, and I did it!I was so proud of myself, and no one was around to see; that's OK. I just wanted to see for myself that I can do it. The opening mechanism on the gate out front broke again; the handy guy came out and welded it back on, and it broke again. I'm trying to find something that the kids won't be able to open, but I will. I think pretty much if I can do it, the kids can do it. I took dude out, and we just went up and down the street because I don't have to worry about him going after any dogs; he's a good boy!

I came back, and the pack and I hung out in the bedroom, where it's nice and cool. One good thing about having my bedroom at the back of the house is that there are a lot of established trees for shade; my room is always pleasant. I took a little nap, and the pups rested from their two-hour cruise.

Haylee came back in, put me on my side, then we did some personal care. I had a sandwich, which shot my blood sugar up to 200. I need to figure out how to get my blood sugar down to a manageable number again. She gave me a nice relaxing bath. She put me back to bed, and I did some managing things on my computer, then watched movies until I fell asleep.

Thursday

Haylee came in and fed the dogs, then got me some coffee. I wasn't really feeling very well, and then we took my blood pressure, and it was high. We took it again, and then I decided to take half of a clonidine. I thought about staying in bed, but I needed to keep getting up in my chair at least. Once I have a clonidine, I'm pretty useless and don't have a lot of motivation to go do anything. After Haylee left, I did take both dogs out for a 2-mile cruise. Kona went to the school around the track, and then Dude went up and down the street; we ran into our friends. They just got back home from the doctor and were sitting outside having breakfast and coffee. I let them enjoy their breakfast but came back by to talk to them for a little bit when they were done. I noticed that the daughter was really short, like she was slightly annoyed with her mother, and boy, do I remember that. I love my mom dearly, but sometimes she would really get on my nerves. I would always tell myself that next time I was going to just calm down, relax, and listen to whatever she had to say, even if it was negative, but I wouldn't make it past three or four minutes. Sometimes I really struggled.

The driveway was getting really warm, so we decided to head home. Moses was here finishing his final cleanup and repairing a lot of the sprinklers; he is a dedicated man and loves his job. Especially when he's in the shade!

I hung out outside with Stanley, Janet, and Shilo until it was too warm, and I came inside to cool down in my room. Tried to take a little nap, but with the dogs running in and out the door, it was impossible, so I caught up on my blog so I won't have to do it tonight.

Brooklynn texted me to see if the dogs and I wanted to go on an adventure at Mento Brown Park; of course, we jumped at the chance. It was really hot; usually there are some shaded paths, but this time there were none, and unfortunately no water for Kona to jump in and cool off. She was running after the disc so hard her mouth was frothing. There are a lot of watering places for the dogs, but I think I need to start bringing water for her.

We got back home, and I waited anxiously on the back porch to see if Kona would actually come out and jump in the pool that we got her; she did not. She was panting so hard on the way back that I would've sworn that would be the first thing she did, but she just lay on the cold bathroom floor panting.

All of my family is going away this weekend; Brooklynn and her family are going to stay here with me, so we were planning on what we were going to eat, watch, and do while they're gone. It sounds like probably not a lot of sleeping but a lot of having fun!

After they left, Mya put me to bed and took my vitals. My blood pressure was good; it was really high this morning, and I had to take half of a clonidine. My blood sugar was 95?? What? I probably should've taken it again because I didn't eat that much for dinner, and it was already up to 200; that's more like what it has been for the past several weeks.

After my lunch, I fell asleep briefly, finished catching up on my blog, deleted some emails, and watched a couple of movies before I fell asleep.

Friday

Today is going to be a hot one! 90-something degrees! A good day to get up early, take the dogs for a jog, come back and sit in the shade by the waterfall, and go to bed early. Liberty came in and fed the dogs, got me some coffee, and then took the dogs over to Naomi's for some obedience training and fun!

When Liberty got back from taking the dogs, she got me up in my chair, and I went to the kitchen to get some breakfast and another cup of coffee. My nephew and his family were back from their camping trip, and I didn't get much time last night to talk to them, so I wanted to hear how it went. It sounds like they had so much fun, and the kids are getting to be that age where they also have a great time. I gave them a ride on my chair, then they all went outside to play.

Liberty left, and the dogs and I hung out in my room until Haylee, my evening caregiver, came in. We did some personal care and a nice relaxing bath. She made my bed and put me back to bed and then went home to get ready for her evening hanging out in the bar; oh, to be that young again! I only hung out in a bar a couple of times, and it was pretty cool, but I always preferred to drink at home alone.

I looked up some seeds on Amazon so I can make my backyard beautiful. Liberty is going to set up a job system for me and hopefully take care of my plants and flowers.

I started listening to an AI storyteller, and for some reason I just love the stories. I hope there are other series. If I watch a movie, listen to a book, or do a puzzle, I just don't have a very good attention span, but for some reason these stories grab me, and I can't let go of them.

Saturday

Brooklynn came in and fed the dogs, then reset that everything in my room shorts out breaker. About two or three hours before it was time to wake up, anyway, my computer shut down because I blew a breaker. I figured an electrician is not going to put in too many plugs if it's not safe?? I'm starting to slowly come around to the idea that white people just don't understand it.

Brooklynn went home, and Cruz and I headed off to Oregon Gardens. I love the gardens! I was hoping it would be a good time to see all the artists' work with their junk art! I love that stuff! I decided to take Dude and Kona with us. I know that Dude would be a gentleman, and then there's Kona; it's the first time I've taken them out together on a leash, attached to my chair, into a new place. I wanted to go early because I thought there would be fewer dogs there until I could get Kona to cooperate. I was hoping she would see how well dude is out in public and try to change.

We stopped on the way home and got some tamales. We saw a stand at an intersection on the way and swore we were gonna get some on the way home. I hope they're good because they cost FIVE DOLLARS a piece; I can only assume they are the best tamales  I ever had.

Cruz went home, and I took a short nap before Mya came in. I was really tired, and it's been a long week. If I fall asleep, she lets me sleep and finds something to do.

Sure enough, Mya put me to bed, and I fell asleep right away.

Sunday

Brooklynn came in, fed the dogs, then got me some coffee and breakfast. She got me dressed and up in my chair and then went home for a while. My wish is that the rest of my family went on their yearly vacation to Blairsdon; they've been going as long as I can remember. Brooklyn and her family are going to stay with me for a couple of days until they come back on Wednesday.

I opened my bedroom door just to see if the dogs would go out and cruise around in the house or come back and stay with me in my room; they came back and stayed with me in my room. It was actually really nice to cruise around the house when there was nobody here. Usually when I get cold, I go out and sit on the back porch, but I was trying to move a box out of my way, and I just moved it more in my way and knocked down the opening clothes rod for the window shade outside.

We went shopping to get some dinner for a couple of nights; we got stuff to make pizza, hamburgers, and all the fixings, chips, and snacks.

We took the dogs over to Mento Brown Park for a little romp, then came back and made some killer pizza. We were going to use the pizza oven, but we figured it would just be easier to do it in the oven. It was kind of cool because they always cook as a family; everybody does their part and has fun!

Brooklynn put me to bed, and then I guess they all watched a movie in the living room while I worked on my cookbook. I can tell this cookbook is going to take a while, but when it's done, it's going to look really nice. I watched a movie and then fell asleep.