Oregon ‘23

Oregon ‘23 June 11, 2023 OREGON

  Our week in Portland was busy with events and people.  Sunday morning services at church brought back a lot of good memories.  It was great seeing our friends and fellow Christians once again.  It was good to hug our grandkids and see how they had grown.  We drove down to Newberg and spent the night with Rick and Mona, Debby’s brother and family.  We were proud to see that Violet, our Niece was also graduating from high school.  Unfortunately, her graduation party and actual graduation ceremony was at the exact same time as Dawson’s event.  We love Violet but would have to participate in Dawson’s graduation, as that is the reason for our road trip.  We have been active in the life of Dawson since the day he was born when we held him at the hospital.  It has been fun watching him grow up into a wonderful young man.  We have been with him through the days of growing up that included soccer, baseball, basketball, camping, hiking and fire building.  I taught him how to build his first fire when he was three. I would have liked to have taken him hiking and backpacking more, but he was more interested in just staying home or playing sports. But he was so much fun as a little tyke and we have so many good memories of him and his three brothers.  We also did things with them; especially enjoying camping and taking trips to the beach.  All the boys loved playing basketball and playing in the state championship playoffs.     Dawson had a great graduation party.  We arrived in Portland early enough for Debby to organize and help with that event.  Dawson asked for several dozen Little Smokies dogs for his friends.  I helped Debby by helping prepare the tiny hot dogs.  I think I made nearly 100.  We had a lot of other snacks, too.  We tried to take photos of all the guests.  Hopefully, we were successful.   Dawson said he wasn’t going to college this year.  He wasn’t sure what he was going to do.  Perhaps he will work part time and attend nearby Clackamas Junior College, until he decides what to do.  In the meantime, we were busy visiting everyone and enjoying our vacation.  It was great seeing Dan and Ami once again.  She has been like a daughter to me.  I love her like my own.  Our Great-Granddaughter, Melody, is the love of our life.  She is so smart, beautiful and has a great sense of humor.  Her personality is independent, having a strong will and a mind of her own.  She and our grandson, Aaron, will be driving back to Arkansas with us.  We have some adventures planned for them.   The week went by rather quickly.  Sunday morning came and Debby dropped me off at the airport.  I would be flying to Bakersfield, California to spend a couple of days with my cousin, Ann Wood and her husband, Bobby. Ann has Macular Degeneration like me.  Her’s might be a little worse than mine and it’s certainly different. She has had no organized training on how to better use her remaining vision and I thought I might could help her.   My reason for this visit was to try to help her with her mobility and to use magnification and OCR (Optical Character Recognition).  I brought an OCR device with me to loan her and see if it will work for her.  She will need to practice a lot but I believe it will help her with seeing pill bottles, paperwork and photos.   I also want to work with her as she uses the cane.  The blind cane is very helpful with checking the space in front of one walking for any obstacles or hazards.  With practice, confidence increases as the blind becomes more and more self-reliance   Bob and Ann picked me up at the airport about noon and we drove to their home.  Bakersfield appears to have grown a lot since my last visit here to see my grandmother in 1967. They have a beautiful home with an amazing backyard.  There are so many plants and flowers surrounding a well-manicured grass lawn that looks more like a putting green on a golf course than a backyard.   We spend the next couple of days getting reacquainted as we had not seen each other for more than 60 years.  She was a lot of fun to talk to and get to know.  She is in her 80’s but very sharp and spry.  It was a lot of fun reminiscing about common stories and things we still remember.  I had never met her husband, Bob.  He was also fun to get to know.  We went out to eat a couple of times.  For the most part, I worked with Ann learning to use the OCR reader, the cane and her iPhone   As planned, Debby, Aaron and Melody showed up Tuesday afternoon.  They left Portland Sunday afternoon and drove to Bakersfield via Yosemite National Park, where they spent some time checking out that beautiful place. Aaron was our designated driver.  Debby is not too keen on driving busy roads. But even worse, she isn’t too keen on letting me drive, either! Mike