Once again, our air conditioner stopped working this morning. After Dave got home from golf, he reset the breaker and it started working again. Now it is cool inside our house again. What will tomorrow bring? When we lived in Camas a few years ago, we didn't have air conditioning and we collected a supply of fans. Those fans are coming in handy during this heat wave.

Have any of you seen the new HBO series "No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency"? I've only seen two episodes when HBO was running a preview weekend, but I have read most of the books and enjoyed seeing the characters and scenes of Botswana come alive on the screen. I just finished reading the newest book in this series by Alexander McCall Smith, which was Tea Time for the Traditionally Built. It was a quick, heart-warming read. I like books that give me a glimpse into another culture.

What can I say? It's hot, hot, hot. Last evening we quickly realized that our air conditioning (heat pump) had stopped putting out cold air. Dave solved the problem by removing the old air filter and then replacing it with a new one today. Now the air works great, in fact, I have been cold all day, as long as I stay inside.

The first of my 3 meetings got cancelled, so I'm using the time to catch up on laundry from our trip. That is a big job, but it always feels good to get the motorhome all ready for its next trip. We have two more short trips planned. In mid-August, a weekend trip to Yakima for Dave to go to a state football referee conference, and at the end of September, a 3-night mid-week stay at one of our favorite state parks, Cape Disappointment. Yes, a trip in September! That's unusual for us because it's prime football season. Dave was able to carve out a few free days in order for us to make one last fall trip to the beach.

It's 12:45 pm now, and our thermometer reads 100 degrees. It's humid, too. Way too hot! Dave got the lawn mowed this morning at 7:30 and we got our exercising done inside while watching House Hunters. It makes the time pass more quickly. Now that we have a treadmill AND an exercise bike, we can both exercise at the same time and then switch machines.

We got home from vacation just in time to experience a heat wave in Vancouver, 100+ degrees. The heat is supposed to last for a few days and may set a record last set 30 years ago. Of course, our air conditioning (heat pump) was not on while we were gone, so our house was very warm. We went out for dinner at Round Table Pizza (pizza for Dave, salad for me) because we didn't feel like cooking. This weather is way too hot for me! Dave needs to mow the lawn but he'll have to try and do it early tomorrow morning while it's still relatively cool. What a way to end our vacation! Reality is setting in--I have 3 back-to-back meetings tomorrow.

Tonight is the last night of our vacation and we are at a very nice RV park (Casey's) in Westfir, which is near Oakridge, which is on Highway 58 east of Eugene, OR. Our site looks out the fast-moving Willamette River. There are lots of flowers in each site, which make this park seem very special. They also have an outdoor swimming pool which we used. The temperature here is in the 90s, so the swim felt wonderful. The park is at an elevation of about 1200 feet and it's supposed to cool off during the night. This was my first swim since my surgery, in fact, it was my first swim in several years and it was great!

The stargazing here at Diamond Lake is just awesome! There are no city lights to get in the way of the night sky, and the sky was totally clear both last night and tonight. Also, being at 5200 feet makes for an even better view. God's creation is so magnificent! We take it all for granted so much of the time. We had a wonderful view of the Milky Way. We saw at least 8 satellites in the sky, including one irridium flare. We plan to come back here sometime to view the Perseids meteor shower which takes place in August. I'll bet the view of the night sky is even better from Crater Lake!

Dave and I decided to drive back up to Crater Lake today. First we went on another bike ride to Diamond Lake Lodge. Then we made the trip to Crater Lake. We had lunch at the historic Crater Lake Lodge. We had a lovely corner table with a good view of the lake. It was worth waiting 40 minutes to be called to our table (the food was good, too!). While we were eating we saw a deer outside our window. After lunch we attended a ranger talk outside the Lodge. Then we walked down to Sinott Observation area which we skipped yesterday. It was well worth it and more impressive than both visitor centers, we thought. After another trip to Mazama Campground (had to check out the gift shop and market there ;) we headed back to our home away from home at Diamond Lake.

Last night we saw some incredible stars. Tonight after our campfire, we are planning on going to one of the boat dock areas to spend some more time ogling the night sky. Mr. Astronomy (Dave) will be our guide during this adventure.

Another great day of vacation! Today we drove to Crater Lake. I couldn't believe how beautiful the lake is!! Truly a site worth seeing. We stopped at almost all of the lookout areas around Rim Drive. We had lunch at Rim Village and then walked up to the Lodge. I am looking forward to tseeing the Ken Burns PBS series about National Park Lodges. We watched the park movie at the information center. We drove through the Mazama Campground to check it out. I bought earrings that remind me of the sapphire color of Crater Lake. We had great weather--not a cloud in the sky. Which was prettier, the sky or the lake? The lake wins!

We had a great day today with the Freemans. We rented a patio boat and went out on Diamond Lake for six hours. We didn't see any fish, but we saw lots of birds. We got windburnt and sunburned but it was worth it. We stopped for pizza afterwards so that we didn't have to come back to our RVs and cook. dinner We decided not to have a campfire tonight since all four of us were tired. Tomorrow we are driving to Crater Lake for the day.

We are back from South Shore Picnic Area. We took our comfy chairs and our books and found a nice shady spot to sit by the water. There was a nice breeze there, so we didn't have to worry about mosquitoes. We saw lots of blue dragonflies, though. Now we are back in the air-conditioned motorhome waiting for our friends, the Freemans, to arrive.

We are back from today's bike ride. The hill out of the RV park is a doozy--fun on the way down, but I had to walk back up. We rode to the Diamond Lake Lodge, where we reserved a patio boat for tomorrow afternoon. We love patio boats--they go at the slow speed that we like. I know, we are geezers! Today's path took us through Diamond Lake Campground where some of the sites looked wonderful and were right on the lake. But alas, none of those sites have hookups, and we are wimps and need hookups. I got at least one mosquito bite on the bike ride, even though we sprayed ourselves with bug stuff before we left. Today's ride was 6.8 miles round trip.

For those of you who don't know where Diamond Lake is, we headed south on I-5 for 190 miles until we got to Roseburg, OR. Then we headed east on Highway 138 for about 70 miles until we climbed to 5200 feet and got to Diamond Lake. It is located about 1/2 hour north of Crater Lake, where we are heading on Friday for a day trip. Lots of RVers who want hookups stay at this RV park because it's the closest park with full hookups to Crater Lake, and it has the advantage of being on Diamond Lake, too.

We've been watching a helicopter dump water on a forest fire near Crater Lake. Their staging area is not too far from here, but the fire is quite a ways away. Yesterday afternoon we were driving around Diamond Lake and a flagman stopped us at one point while the helicopter went overhead pulling it's water ball.

We arrived at Diamond Lake RV Park around 3:45 pm. We left home at 9 am this morning. It's hot here--88 degrees! The park is at 5200 feet elevation. Hopefully it will cool down by evening. For now, we are glad to be inside the air-conditioned motorhome. I don't have cell service here, so if you need to call us, call Dave's cell phone. We do, however, have free wifi at this park, so that's why I can update this blog. Yay for computers!

In the morning we are leaving for an RV trip to Diamond Lake, Oregon. We are staying at the RV park there for five nights, and then on to Oakridge, OR for one night. The park is only 1/2 hour from Crater Lake. Dave has been to Crater Lake before but I haven't. There's an 11-mile paved bike path around Diamond Lake which we hope to ride while we are there. Because Diamond Lake is at a higher elevation than here, we are hoping to escape the heat wave which is supposed to happen here later this week.

Today I completed another step on my journey. This was my last day at the cardiac rehab classes at the hospital. I completed 7 of the 12 weeks. I feel like I've learned a lot and am well on my way to being able to do the exercise program all on my own. They gave me a certificate of completion even though I cut the program short by 5 weeks. I was the only one at the class who had a heart valve replacement. Everyone else had suffered from a heart attack or by-pass surgery. But the knowledge that I gained was still good. Today I learned how to work with weights. It didn't add steps to my pedometer, but I sure was tired after session using the weights!

Last evening I noticed that one of my front teeth was rough on the inside. I eventually looked in the mirror and saw that it had a small chip missing from it. I don't know how that happened. We are going on vacation next week (camping) to Diamond Lake in Oregon, so I wanted to get the tooth taken care of right away. I was afraid that a filling wouldn't work and that I might need a cap or a crown, or something like that. So I called today and got an emergency appointment (more $$) for this afternoon. My regular dentist at Cascade Park Kasier Dental was able to put a filling in the tooth, so I am (hopefully) all set now.

Besides my tooth being chipped last night, I had another minor problem. While I was cleaning my ears/earrings with the special solution, the nut that fits on the post fell off of one of the earrings. I felt it fall and I found it and Dave put it back on for me. At first he put it on too tight and wow, did that hurt! He was able to loosen it so that my ear wasn't as squeezed. I worried the rest of the night about it falling off again. After my dental appointment I stopped at Craft Warehouse and bought a bag of earring nuts so that I will be prepared if I lose it again.

Dave finished assembling the new treadmill while I was at my cardio rehab class. We both tried it out today, 30 minutes for each of us. The treadmill has a plug in for an ipod, which is nice, also a built-in fan, which is a necessity for me. It also has a built-in heart monitor, so we can check the intensity of our workouts. So far we are very happy with our choice. The model we bought also works with ifit cards (www.iFit.com) which can be purchased for specialized workouts.

My cardio rehab went well today. I always wonder how I'll do on Monday mornings, but today was a good workout. The class today was about heart valves, so I was interested in that topic! I am the only one in the class who had a heart valve replacement. Tomorrow is will be 11 weeks since my surgery. It's amazing how good I feel and how much exercise I am able to get now without feeling short of breath. It encourages me to push myself even harder.

We bought a treadmill today, Proform I-series 785E. We bought it at the Sports Authority store at Cascade Station in Portland, near IKEA. Now Dave has to put it together, then we have to start using it. We looked at elliptical machines, too, but ultimately, we both decided that we preferred the treadmill. I didn't use to like treadmills, especially the manual one we owned years ago. But now I am used to using the treadmill at my cardiac rehab classes and I have discovered I like the new, modern treadmills which also have programmed workouts. I am not even able to do program 1 on this new treadmill, but it has an intensity adjustment so I can tone down the intensity of the program. It gives me lots of programs to work towards doing! We also own a Schwinn Airdyne exercise bicycle, so using both machines will give us some variety. We are mostly concerned about having workouts in the winter or when the weather is too bad to walk and bike outside.

Tonight is the Freedom Bowl Classic football game, sponsored by the Shriners. Dave is one of the referees at the game, which will be held at Kiggins Bowl. This morning we went for a bike ride around our neighborhood.

Last night we watched a Netflix DVD called "The Family Man". It stars Nicholas Cage and was made in 2000. It's a predictable, happy-ending movie which we had seen before, but we enjoyed it anyway. I'm also enjoying a BBC series which my friend, Jackie, recommended, called "House of Eliott".

I'm reading Lisa See's new book, Shanghai Girls. The story begins in 1937 in Shanghai. So far I'm enjoying the book.

Tonight Dave and I went to the "Five Guys Named Moe" free concert at Esther Short Park in Vancouver. It was an enjoyable experience, but we decided to leave at intermission in order to get some things done tonight.

This afternoon, with my friend Cindi's help, I decided to go to the mall to get my ears pierced. I've avoided it for 57 years, but I've been thinking about what I could do to have a new focus other than food. I decided that earrings could be something to buy as a souvenir instead of looking for bakeries and candy shops. Hopefully I won't regret this decision. I have to wear these diamond studs for at least six weeks, so I won't need to go earring-shopping just yet.

It was back to cardiac rehab today after missing the classes on Friday and Monday. The workout felt good. Wednesdays are "weigh-in" days, and I was happy to see that my weight was down 3 pounds since last week. Weight loss is agonizingly slow, but I am determined to stick with it. It's simply a matter of eating less and exercising more. My diabetic hemoglobin A1C level went from 6.9 to 6.0 during the last three months, so that's good progress, too.

Dave and I went for a 6-mile bike ride this morning. Then this afternoon I had my usual weekly tea-date at Starbucks with two of my long-time friends. Last Friday, our good friends, the Harwoods, came to visit us at Mallard Creek. On Thursday I am having lunch with another long-time friend. Life is good!

We are back home now from our long weekend trip to Mallard Creek Golf and RV Resort. Our house is still here, despite all the neighborhood fireworks which we were glad to miss. We went to the fireworks in Lebanon and the display was great, well worth the fee of $8 per car. We didn't get caught in the traffic jam after the fireworks, which was even better.

Because of being a golf marshal at Green Mountain Golf Course, Dave was able to use his reciprocal comps to play free while he was at Mallard Creek. That saved us over $300!

There was an accident on I-5 north (south of Woodburn) on our way home. It delayed us a bit, but not too bad. The weather finally cooled off today, so it's too bad we had to leave today. But it makes for nice weather for unloading the motorhome.

Dave played golf early again this morning in order to beat the heat, and I went for a walk at nearby Waterloo County Park. I discovered that they have installed an 18-hole disc golf course there. We'll have to try it sometime when it's not so hot.

This afternoon we headed for the hills and drove to Sweet Home, OR, and then east on Highway 20. We went all the way to Sisters, OR, where we explored the town and found a nice city park that allows overnight camping. We'll plan a trip there sometime in the future. I especially liked the fact that the town is easy to bike around since it is so flat. On the way to Sisters we stopped at Suttle Lake and sat by the lake for a while. It was very windy there!

Now we are going to have a late dinner in the RV and then maybe head to the fireworks display in Lebanon.

Dave had an early tee time this morning and I just got back from my walk. It's only 81.5 degrees, but I am dripping with sweat. Good thing our motorhome has two air conditioners!

We are sitting in our motorhome, viewing the pleasant area surrounding us at Mallard Creek Golf and RV Resort in Lebanon, Oregon. But it's hot here--92.8 degrees. We are here for a few days of fun and relaxation. When it cools off a bit, we will actually go outside the RV and get some exercise.

This morning I had another echocardiogram. This one will set my new baseline now that I have the new mechanical aortic valve. It's a St. Jude's valve, in case anyone is interested. The echocardiogram technician, Elton, said that when I had my last echo on April 8, I was in heart failure. Twenty days later, I had the surgery to replace the valve. Now that's all just history.

I got some fasting lab tests done while I was at the clinic. I am hoping for good results!

I might have overdone it again with yesterday's bike ride. I had a lot of chest pain during the night. I hope I can do my cardio rehab exercise today. If I take Tylenol I think I will be okay. I am so anxious to get back to normal with my bike riding, but I guess I need to take it really slow.