We got our mail, left the trash for pickup, and went to the grocery store. My husband thought the snow tires we put on yesterday looked low, so when we came home, we drove the truck out to the shop so we could check the tire pressure.
And that’s where the frustration began. The air pressure tools we have are not cooperating. They don’t want to attach to the tire pressure “thingie’ on the tire the way they are supposed to. My husband is trying to do something to fix that problem now.
Since I’m useless in that situation, I decided to use the time to finish repainting the wart-hog that was damaged recently while on display. That is now finished again, and when it’s dry, we’ll hang it up on its storage hook with the rest of the decorations for the mailbox.
I’m planning to drive the truck down to the bottom of the driveway this afternoon and start the painting refurbishment on our greeting robot. That’s IF we can get the tire pressure problem checked and fixed and IF the weather will cooperate.
I hope that your day is without huge challenges.
UPDATE: It’s an hour later. My husband tried to fix the tools we have and was unable to. We have been back to town to buy a tire pressure gauge. The auto store didn’t have a replacement for the tool we had. My husband is checking and filling the tires now. He will probably try to find one on the net when we finish lunch.
THING ONE – The spray container of the stuff I bought awhile back to kill mold/algae/fungus/elephants.
THING TWO – the actual gallon container for the rest of the magic stuff.
I bought this ‘stuff’ particularly to treat some of our yard art – and in particular, the “Greeter Robot” at the bottom of the driveway. He is much too big and heavy to bring in for any type of refurbishment, so cleaning and repainting will have to be done down there.
It would SEEM that a gallon container of something – anything – would be easy to find. ALSO easy would be the finding of a large spray container. And yet the ‘elves/gnomes/and other mysterious critters have made finding whatever you’re looking for a character-building exercise around here.
We came through our severe storm last night well. It’s truly gorgeous outside and I haven’t found any damage yet. It’s a PERFECT day to drive down to the bottom of our hill and hose down the robot -IF I could FIND the magic stuff….
My husband is quite handy, saving us lots of money. I’m very grateful that he can look at something, figure out how it works, then figure out how to fix it. If he can’t, I’m confident we really do need to hire a real expert to repair it or buy a new one.
Recently I griped because it was getting almost impossible for me to reach up and turn on the reading light by my chair in the living room. He looked through several drawers, finding new innards for the lamp. He installed the new one for me that afternoon. We bought more spares the next day. You can’t ask for better help than that. Every time I now just reach up and turn on the light, I smile. He’s getting a bit tired of me saying, “Hey, look! I just turned on my light!” :0)
Yesterday we drove down the driveway to get our mail and found the front to our mailbox not only open, but hanging askew. We discovered that the rivet that held one side had either failed or had been damaged by something. When I saw it was a rivet, I figured we would have to replace the mailbox.
When we got home we had lunch and then my husband announced he was going to try to fix the mailbox. He and Amber, our dog, went out to the shop, got parts, and drove down the hill.
When they came back after half an hour or so, he said he thought it was fixed. He drilled out the failed rivet and replaced it with a fancy nut and bolt. I’ll look at it today when we leave for Lunch Bunch.
I’ve spent much of my life waiting. Waiting for Christmas morning. Waiting for school to get out for the summer. Waiting for my husband-to-be to get out of the Marines and come home. Waiting for school to be finished so I could start teaching. Waiting to get my Master’s degree so I could run my own reading clinic. Waiting for babies to be born. Waiting. And while I waited, I wasn’t really in the moment.
When the worrying gene was passed out, I got my share and then spent a lot of time nurturing and polishing it. I lost sleep. I didn’t eat, couldn’t eat, then over-ate in an effort to exert control over things not up to me. 99% of things about which I worried didn’t happen. This fact, plus the fact that I KNEW in my head I had no control, didn’t stop me from worrying. And while I worried, I wasn’t really in the moment.
It has taken me a long time, but I am finally living in the moment. I still wait, but I LIVE while I’m waiting. I may worry, but I LIVE while I’m worrying. I take the time to not only notice things, but really appreciate the beauty around me – how beautiful the weather is; I’ve come to treasure each time my 95 pound yellow lab, Amber, gets her top half in my lap while I’m trying to type a blog post, licking my face, making me laugh. I stop by my husband’s chair in the living room on the way to or from – or both – taking the time to kiss him on the head, hug him, and make him smile. I take time to play in my art room, smiling like a kid with fingerpaint, trying something new and having FUN whether I do something reasonable or just make a mess. :0) I can insulate myself from much going on in our world today, doing the little I can to help a bit – trying to protect those I love from the bad consequences (about which I worry) and ignore what I can.
If I live another hundred years or so, I may have this!
Today was the first Lunch Bunch since our waitress, Susan, retired. We are all happy for Susan, giving her a good send-off last Friday, her last day, before she started taking care of her grandchildren. She has spent many years working hard, getting up early to go to work, do the prep necessary before opening the restaurant, making pizza dough, cutting up veggies, all the things that need to be done to have the place run smoothly. She’s still getting up early every day, but now will fill her days with life flowing from the plans of the grandkids. She grinned from ear to ear last Friday, clearly relishing the change of focus for her life.
So today we gathered once again. Mikey, our other treasured waitress, took our orders. We talked about the fact that SHE kept feeling that Susan was “just on vacation,” and would be back at work soon. WE kept thinking she would come out from the back, drying hands on her apron, smiling and joking with us.
One Green Planet
Things change and we must change with them. Susan has our permanent invitation to join us at the table for Lunch Bunch. We HOPE she’ll take us up on that some Friday very soon. Happy for her, sad for us, resistant to change…
We had carefully scheduled for the garage door technician to come between 12:00 and 2:00 today to install the door seal we couldn’t install ourselves.
JUST as we were getting ready to leave for Lunch Bunch, the tech called, saying he was on his way. My husband said he would stay home to meet him.
When I got home after Lunch Bunch and errands, there was no seal on the garage door. My husband said the tech was unable to install it but said he could order one for us. It would be $354 plus labor plus tax. My husband said, “No,” and paid him the $50 for the service call.
I have now written an email to the online store from which we got the door seal, asking if we can return it.
So we’re wincing a bit from
the fact we bought the wrong seal from Yeagers and had to return it,
couldn’t install the seal we ordered on the net,
may be out the $75 we paid for the Internet seal,
paid $50 for a service call that had no results
and have decided that we will try to ignore the fact we have no seal on our garage door.
Definitely a case of one hesitant, but well -meaning step forward and SEVERAL irritating steps back.
It’s difficult to stick to a diet when there is another person involved. I KNOW. I should be strong enough to make my own decisions and not eat even though my husband is, but it is what it is.
Saturday we were good. We didn’t do snacks and we both enjoyed less of a smirk from the scales. Sunday I was all set to continue that, but my husband asked me mid-afternoon if I would fix him a bagel with cream cheese. I did that, and, of COURSE I also had a snack….
Sometimes we enjoy no-sugar-added ice cream before bed. I was being strong, and then my husband was beside me with a chocolate ice cream bar…
AND – to top it all off – I was downstairs reading at 2:30 this morning, not able to sleep, and had a snack….
So the sweet animal in the picture above and I are both feeling stuffed and guilty this morning.
I am determined to make TODAY a good day, though, eating right and doing my exercises, drinking lots of water, etc. I will ask my husband to help me be strong – NOT bringing me things I shouldn’t be eating, and I will try to be sleepy enough to sleep through the night so I won’t be tempted by the fridge calling to me… :0)
I’m afraid for all the good people trying to get out of Afghanistan. My heart breaks for those left behind. This is an unending nightmare from which we will probably never recover. We have all lost so much already. People in pain over the situation, the incredible lack of planning, bad decisions, broken promises, loss of life, the desperate prospects on trying to get out, what we’re leaving for the people behind. Incredible bravery in the face of all this.
The people in Tennessee are trying to pick up the pieces after the devastating flooding. Relentless wildfires in California continue to wreak havoc. Ida is bearing down on the Gulf Coast today.
Each of us reacts on a personal level to all happening around us. Things boil down to each of us handling things in our own little world the best we can, plus reaching out to try to help others. The cliche’ is that ‘we’re all in this together.’ Our world is small enough that things happening across the world affect us. As we have painfully seen, a virus starting far away is lethal to people all over the globe.
We need to concentrate on being aware of what is going on, protecting ourselves and those we love the best way we can, and reaching out to others – if not able to help – to at least show we CARE. We can’t put our heads in the sand. We can’t just simply close off. We have to be as strong as we can and be there to do what we can when we see a way we can help.
“The world is too much with us…” ~ William Wordsworth
My heart is in my throat as I watch the latest on Afghanistan on TV – helpless to do anything – afraid for U.S. citizens, the Afghan people who have helped us for 20 years, Afghans at risk, women and children who will be left there to live under Taliban rule the best they can, and, of course, our men and women in uniform trying their best, under incredibly awful restrictions, to try keep everyone safe and make it out of there alive. I watch all I can, then come in here and try to calm down and catch my breath. A truly terrible situation. The coping mechanisms about which I wrote yesterday aren’t helping much today.
With all the pain and suffering going on in our world today, I’m conscious of trying to stay emotionally afloat. I thought you might be having some trouble from time to time, too, and thought it might be good for us to share ways that we try to cope. These are some of the things that help me – in no particular order. I hope you’ll share what helps YOU.
Writing this blog. I love finding things that I think are heartwarming, amazing, or wonderful to share.
Trying to learn new art techniques and trying them in my art room.
Working in the yard and/or square foot garden and taking pictures of successes.
Reading books by favorite authors and/or discovering new ones.
Refurbishing our yard art and working on making Christmas presents for friends.
Discovering new websites and reading articles giving me new information and new perspective.
First, we got up over an hour late because the power went off during the night and scrambled our alarm’s brains. I wish sometimes I could ‘reboot’ my own brain as easily as I rebooted the clock. It’s fixed and working fine, now. Mine, not so much. The biggest concern on our getting up late today was getting poor Amber outside to pee. She was fine, thank goodness.
Second, we pass our office on the way to the kitchen. Everything was off in the office – no Internet – nothing. Also, our heat and air system for the house was off. Our UPS in the office was screaming LOUDLY – driving me nuts in a matter of seconds. My husband couldn’t HEAR it! We decided to TRY to ignore it and handle our morning chores and then figure out what we needed to do.
We finally figured out that there was no problem with our heat and air. We were on the generator for power. That runs everything EXCEPT the heat and air. My husband got frustrated with me because I was climbing the wall over the UPS still shrieking. I was threatening to rip all the electrical cords out of the wall to make the shrieking stop. I left the office figuring I would try to find some ear plugs, if nothing else.
By the time we finished the morning chores and had gathered the trash, I noticed immediately on coming back in that it was QUIET. The generator had gone off and the regular public power was back on. THAT meant the a/c was functioning again – thank goodness! AND the UPS was happy and quiet again.
My husband is still working with the TV to get it functioning again, but that seems to be going okay.
SO – UPS is quiet, a/c is ON, Internet is working, TV is in good hands. HOORAY!
Kind of strenuous way to begin a Monday, but it’s all good now – AND I found some ear plugs! :0)
I finally re-lost some weight and this morning entered new territory – okay, only .2 of a single pound, but we have to take our wins where we find them, right?
I am trying to take one day at a time, rather than looking at the whole of my goal at once. One day at a time, one pound (or less :0) ) at a time.
I’ve done well this week on my exercising, as well. Monday I did 3 short sessions with my weights and then my regular yoga stretching session. Yesterday I did 25 minutes on my elliptical trainer and then my yoga. Today is weights and yoga again.
I’m having trouble drinking all the water I’m supposed to. I am TRYING to drink 4 bottles a day. I’m a coffee-holic, so I’m trying to make myself wait to have another cup until I’ve downed another bottle of water. Sometimes that is successful. (I just got up and got a bottle of water from beside the chair in the living room and will try to sip while I’m typing.) I’m hoping that my body gets used to all this water, rather than feeling as if my eyeballs are floating as I run to the bathroom. (can THAT count as exercise, too?) :0)
I’m feeling more motivated as I move onward and downward on my efforts to lose the lard.
I made it through the 3-minute dumbbell exercises with Denise Austin – barely. Then I rested for quite awhile and did other things. I have just finished another group of exercises with the weights, and plan to do one more group before I give myself a star on my calendar.
I will go and do my yoga stretches in a minute – as soon as I finish this post.
It would be NICE if I could learn to love exercising. It would be WONDERFUL if I had a rush of endorphins. It would be even better if my body had an easier time getting through this stuff. Best of all, I’ll be happy if my tape measure gives me some pats at the end of this month. It would be terrific if I end up stronger, more flexible, and feeling good.
For the moment, though, I’m just working for a star or three on my calendar for the day- a sign that I’m TRYING to take care of myself. I have a chance for 3 stars today –
I am at the awkward stage where I would like to try something new in my art room, but I’m feeling intimidated.
I want to try 2 new techniques: impasto painting and acrylic pour painting. My mouth is watering. My dreams are full of efforts to try. And yet I’m still stalling. I have the materials I need. I’ve watched videos. I’m old enough now that feeling intimidated isn’t ‘cute’ anymore – if it EVER was. If my efforts are a complete failure, I can simply throw them away…
Today I’m going to do two things –
THING ONE – I’m going to clean off my drafting table, prepare it for acrylic pour painting, and gather my materials.
THING TWO – I will watch several videos on YouTube so I’m more clear on what I’m trying to do.
Short answer: I lost an inch off my hips and a half inch off my thighs since the last time I measured, a bit over a month ago.
Total loss to date since my heaviest: 30 pounds and 28.7 inches.
Ongoing focus:
IF I eat in-between meals, have plenty of ‘approved’ snacks READY
Concentrate on my exercising, since it seems to be yielding results
Monitor scales, but don’t look to them for applause
General: We are eating carefully at lunch, and then eating a frozen meal from either Real Food or Stu’s Clean Cookin’ in Greenwood. We are happy with the variety, and we’re eating controlled portions.
I’m trying to do a session of yoga stretching daily, plus work with weights M-W-F, plus a session on the elliptical T-Th-S – unless I’ve been outside doing yard work. Then all bets are off.
Yesterday my husband triumphed over the problem we were having with the Vette. (The Service Department at the Chevrolet place had quoted a price of $450 plus tax for the new part and then $500 for the labor of putting it in. THEN they told us, after keeping the Vette there for two weeks, they couldn’t get the part. It had been discontinued.)
My husband found the part we needed on the net, if we needed to order it, and bookmarked the page. He also found a video, with lots of positive comments, on how to get the part out, rewire it, and fix the problem. He has worked all day for three days, ending up with two hands and one arm totally bruised, bashed, gouged, and a bit swollen, plus really sore ribs from trying to hang over one side of the Vette and work to try to remove 6 screws holding the part in. Once the part was finally out, the factory had sealed it. He finally was able to pry the top off and clean up the inside. He soldered the 4 wires, put the part back together temporarily, installed it in the Vette (NO problem going back IN) and tested. IT WORKED!!!!!!
Now that he is over the hump on the problem, (knowing it is solved, and for a total of $10,) my husband can relax a bit from his “do it or die” mode of the past 3 days. I convinced him to take today off and REST. He is so sore that he seems happy to do that. He’s in the living room, drinking coffee and watching TV now. :0)
He will need to get the part out, seal the box again, then reinstall it. He’ll need to reconnect the things he had to disconnect to get to the part. But none of this will be the pressure-filled, impossible position, HARD work he’s been doing. Then he’ll be able to move the Vette from the shop to our garage.
He told me again how much he loves that car. (We bought it years ago when finances were really tight. I really wanted him to have his dream car. The smile on his face made it worth whatever we had to do to get it.) He’s still smiling. :0)
Several years ago my husband bought our 2003 Corvette on eBay. Yeah, that’s right. Nuts, huh?
He flew to Kansas City with a cashier’s check, a letter from the lady at the bank, and her phone number, in case it was needed. He drove it home.
He has smiled ever since.
He LOVES this car.
Recently, we started having messages pop up on the dash, indicating all kinds of problems, including “check engine,” for which we called, made an appointment for the Chevrolet Service Department in Fort Smith to look at it. Two weeks later, they finally called, said we needed a new ‘whatever module,’ and it would be $450 plus labor, but they couldn’t get one. The part had been discontinued.
We brought the Vette back home yesterday. My husband got on the net and was able to FIND the part we needed – $148.00 – but even BETTER – found a video by a guy who showed how to FIX the module we had! My husband had the tools needed, and he decided he would try to follow the video. There were about 100 comments from people thanking the man for making such a good video and helping them fix the problem.
So the Vette is in our shop now. This is a fix that does NOT require the whole front end be taken off, but my husband said it may take some time. I made him PROMISE to take lots of breaks, drink water, plus come in and rest from time to time.
Even with that promise, having lived with the man for 52 years now (and loving him longer than that) I know he’ll decide to act like he’s still in his 20’s working himself into exhaustion unless I play bad guy.
I will go out and keep checking on him. I’ve taken him a bottle of water this morning and watched as he turned on the a/c in the shop. I will check on him again in about an hour before I leave to get a haircut, and then I’ll insist he come in for lunch and a rest. Then I’ll go out there with him and start cleaning another yard critter.
I’ve told him that he gets no rewards for how quickly he finishes the job. HOPEFULLY, he will do this fix as if it were a hobby, rather than a matter of life and death…
He bought several Chevrolet manuals when he bought the car, but they weren’t much help this time. We’re grateful that he found the part, if needed, and hopefully a way to fix the problem – thanks to the wonderful man on the Internet.
I FINALLY got back to the 30-pounds-off-since-my-heaviest mark this morning! HOORAY!! Thanks again to Maria, who suggested in her blog – FlowingWatersArt.wordpress.com that big goals should be broken down into more doable chunks. I haven’t met my “doable chunk” goals for the three weeks I’ve been trying, but my motivation is high, and that’s the more important thing right now.
I’m building good habits – watching my portions, eating healthy snacks, drinking THREE to FOUR 17.9 oz bottles of water each day (my eyeballs are floating as I run to the bathroom), exercising, etc.
I’m doing yoga stretches and abdominal exercises every day.
This week I started exercising with 5-pound weights- Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I do a pretty short session – enough so my arms are definitely feeling it, but I’m not incapacitated on doing my normal activities. Monday and Wednesday I did two short sessions with the weights during the day plus my yoga.
Yesterday I found a 3-minute video on the net. The lady was using 3-pound weights, so I switched to those and exercised along with her. She was doing different things than I was doing with the 5-pound weights. My arms felt pretty ‘used’ when I finished, but this is a good addition to what I’ve started to do. I plan to do a session with the 5-pound weights and another with the 3-pound weights with the nice lady MWF next week.
I feel good that I’m taking one day at a time, making short-term goals that seem more achievable, am moving and exercising more.
Short term goals are –
Work to try to lose 2 lbs in the coming week
Check off my exercises each day (giving myself gold stars :o) )
Drink 3 to 4 bottles of water daily
Work toward the idea of earning “Bear with ’40’ on his chest” in the near future.
Realize that I’m working to lose the lard and get stronger – that ANY progress toward that goal is a victory and should be celebrated.
FIRST – My husband said I should write this blog post!
SECOND – I was right TWICE yesterday and he acknowledged it!
We took one of our vehicles for diagnosis and service first thing yesterday morning. I told my husband I would follow him, since when senses of direction were passed out, I was AWOL. I can get lost in a paper bag. He said I KNEW where the place was – at the curve of two streets in Ft. Smith. I told him that the company had been sold and they had relocated to the autopark, wherever that was. He got angry, so I let it go and told him I would follow him.
We got to the place he said. There was a big sign that has been there at least a year that says, “We moved!” and gave the address at the autopark. We wound around and around, finally making it to the autopark. We made it in time for our appointment, and he said. “You were right.” as we drove home together.
We changed our TV provider recently. That meant a lot of changes, and as we age, we seem to learn the new procedures with less and less grace. The biggest remaining problem for us with the new system was that our whole DVD collection, taped on a system called, “Synology” was gone. Since my husband got rid of the DVDs as we taped them on this, it was really upsetting.
My husband has been working with Microsoft – who did an update recently that disappeared our access to the program, and the tech support from Synology, trying to solve the problem.
Since I am amazed that my computer works at ALL, my function at these times is to keep my mouth firmly shut rather than voice what are probably inane suggestions.
This once, though, I told him that I THOUGHT I remembered that we accessed the movies through our Playstation. He blew this suggestion off right away, irritated that I interrupted his train of thought. This was two or three weeks ago.
Finally, we were able to access the collection through the Media Player on Roku. This was a really good thing, but he is still not satisfied, since it’s not coming through our main system, but an add-on. I finally suggested that we get on the Playstation and see what it showed. My husband did that, a pained expression on his face. There – right in front of us – was “DS218” – our movie collection! We immediately accessed a move and watched it.
When the movie was over, my husband looked at me and said, “You were right.”
Last night, he said, “You need to write a blog post about this.” I told him I was marking my calendar – that first – he said I was right twice, and second, that he wanted me to tell others about it. We agreed that since we are now considered, “Elderly” by many (though not close enough that we can punch them in the face for saying that) that we need to work together when we have problems – listen to each other more and consider that the other might have a point.
Words to live by. MAYBE I’ll be right again sometime… :0)
I was out in the shop cleaning our “emu” yard critters. My husband came out and said, “You have to come. The garage door is on fire.”
I leaped up, trying to get my head on straight about what I needed to do. I asked my husband if he had called the fire department. He said “no.” He said the alarm was going off. I asked him if it was the smoke alarm or the burglar alarm. He didn’t know.
Long story shorter. we’re fine.
My husband has had a series of small strokes starting in 2019. Most of the time he’s his usual ornery self. Sometimes he has confusion. He has a lot of irritability. He has a bit of trouble talking – sometimes more than others. He was taking a nap and the alarm went off. He came to get me.
I got the alarm to be quiet. The display said the garage door had been breached. The garage door was completely open, as it usually is this time of day. No fire. My husband then told me that ADT had called. I asked what he told them. He said he told them to “___ off.” When my mouth dropped open, he said, “I told them we didn’t have a problem.” I clarified – so no one is coming? He said, “no.”
He went back to his chair to try to sleep. I came into my office. All of a sudden, the driveway alarm was going off. I went to the garage, but then heard our front door bell ringing. I ran to the front. It was a policeman.
I went outside to talk to him, embarrassed. ADT had sent him out because whoever had answered the phone was ‘surly’ and unable to provide the verbal code. I explained our situation briefly and apologized again for wasting his time. He was very nice. I was embarrassed, but kind of relieved that if we HAD had a problem, ADT would have called the police and they would have come out. Nice to know.
When I went back in, my husband wanted to know who was here. I explained that ADT had sent the police when he couldn’t give them the verbal code on the phone. He waved his hand at me, waving off the problem. I told him what the code was again, and will do so again this evening. He was more interested in telling me he thought the cat, who gets up on top of the open garage door, had probably set off the system. That may well be true. I’m not at all sure what we need to do about THAT…
We got a return code from Amazon for the printer cartridge package – which meant we had to drive to Ft. Smith to the UPS Store. My husband decided he wanted to take the Vette. We got to Greenwood and the ‘check engine’ light came on. We talked about it, and decided to go back home and regroup.
My husband thought we should just each take a vehicle and we could leave the Vette at the service place in Ft. Smith. I reminded him that we had to have an appointment the last time we needed them to look at things. We called and are now scheduled to take it in next Wednesday morning.
We got into the truck and started out again. Of course the “70% chance of rain” kicked in. We had lots of traffic, pretty heavy rain, road construction, etc., but we got to the UPS Store and left the package with no problem. My husband thinks he ordered the right printer cartridges this time, so hopefully that will soon be a PAST problem.
On the way home, we decided to try the new Waffle House that opened recently in Greenwood. We each had a “hashbrown bowl with sausage, egg and cheese.” It was good, but we decided that the next time we go, we’ll order ONE of those and two bowls. It was too much food and was pretty expensive for a breakfast or lunch for us. Dividing one order should work just fine.
It’s STILL raining two hours after we started out this morning and shows no sign of letting up.
My husband is going to use the diagnostic tool he has for automobiles and see if it will tell us why the Vette is displaying the ‘check engine’ light.
This was a classic book when I was a child. It’s all about striving – trying to reach a goal. The little engine kept striving, all the while saying, “I THINK I can, I THINK I can…” finally reaching the top of the hill due to never giving up and his fierce determination.
I’m ‘thinking I can’ now, on DAY 5 of my new regimen of eating right, raw veggies and a bit of dip for an afternoon snack, a bottle of water, and yoga each afternoon in an effort to lose my lard. I lost a bit yesterday, so that’s encouraging.
I also FEEL a bit better due to the yoga. Some of the positions are getting a bit easier. I’m able to slowly stretch a bit more. Some things will take some time. WHEN I make it to Monday of next week – with my daily yoga practice – I’m planning to add some work with dumbbells to my yoga practice Mon, Wed, and Fri.
We’re all still going through a very stressful time. It’s hard to try to get to whatever the ‘new normal’ is without at least a twinge or two about risk.
I’ve chosen to read as much as I can about what is going on in the world around me – reading as many different sources as I can find – decide what I want to do, and just do it.
Life is too short to live in fear of everything. I’m going to die of ‘something’ at whatever time I do. I can only take whatever precautions I think are reasonable and get on with it. I don’t want to miss the rest of my life because of fear.
Our heat index this afternoon will reach the triple digits, so I’m going to get our to the shop pretty soon to continue work on refurbishing the ‘turkey’ yard art critter I started yesterday. I’m hoping he can go back out to his place at the base of a tree beside the driveway by the end of the day. I forgot to take pics of the ‘before’ on the turkey. He was basically just super dirty and desperately in need of new paint. I’ll take pics to share when he is back in place.
Did I tell you I HATE automatic Windows updates? For some reason they always cause us problems. We can’t NOT do the updates, but it’s sure a pain to deal with the havoc they generate. Yesterday it was one of our printers that suddenly won’t print plus our personal DVD computerized collection isn’t opening as it should. My husband fought with it most of the day yesterday to no avail. He wrote Microsoft and is hoping they have some help for us. He also talked to our son via a conference call, in Thailand. Hopefully, answers will come today.
Tomorrow at Lunch Bunch we’ll celebrate the birthday of one of our core members. Our friendship – going on 20 years now – is priceless.
My husband has been celebrating the lack of rain lately. He’s been praising the ‘brown and crunchy patches of grass in the yard, meaning he has to mow less. I told him to enjoy it while he could. Rain is due this weekend.
My spring garden is about to come to an end. I got what is probably the last of the yellow squash, leaving only sweet onions. I’ll probably pull the onions soon, leaving them to dry on the trailer bed and clean up the garden. On the good side, though, we had the first two ripe tomatoes of what I hope will be a wonderful season. My husband and I shared them for lunch yesterday. They were delicious. I hope we get enough that I can share them.
Every year about this time I wish we had been able to build the pool we wanted when we built the house. Since we’re on top of a ridge line, we had to do a lot of blasting to build a house amid all this rock. We blasted for the septic tank, the basement, and then blasted the whole back yard for the pool. We ran out of money before we got to the pool, though, so it never got done.
I worked every summer from the time I was 14 through college teaching swimming with my 6th grade gym teacher to make money for college. I really miss the great exercise I got. I tell myself that if we had a pool, I would go out and swim every possible night before bed. The reality of that would probably be that I would gritch and moan about having to get my exercise cleaning the pool, rather than getting to swim in it. I would have to fight for space to swim laps, having to dodge raccoons, opossums, squirrels, and other critters I don’t want to think about who thought we had built the pool for THEM…
We did our errands and I went out to the shop to work on the Farmer Robot.
I replaced his ‘hands,’ having found an old pair of work gloves. I stuffed the fingers with plastic peanuts and the palm of the hands with plastic bags. I drilled a hole in one side of the gloves so I could screw them onto the arms – having learned the hard way that if you don’t do that, the hands ‘disappear.’ I then wrapped some duct tape around the bottom of the gloves – also having learned the hard way – that if you don’t, wasps make nests in the gloves.
I laid him on his back in order to be able to glue new eyes in and have them stay on, instead of falling off before they are dry. When I eased him down onto his back, water came streaming out! Apparently he filled with water during all the heavy rains we’ve been having. I left him on his back and finished painting the lower part of his overalls and legs.
Later today I’ll turn him over, seeing if more water comes out, and also so I can paint the lower part of his back and legs. When I stand him up again, I’ll use duct tape around his neck to keep as much water out as possible, then tie the bandana back on.
My husband will use our truck dolly to give him a ride from the shop to his spot on the right side of our driveway pad against the house. When he is back where he lives, we’ll take pics to show you.
I’ve almost finished the 2nd piece in our metal critters refurbishing project. There are 8 more in the shop, with more to come.
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,I think I told you that we got fiber optic Internet and TV when we finally got the opportunity recently. We’re very happy with the Internet. There is much less lag time than there used to be. The TV, however, is VERY upset when the system goes off, in a sudden power outage, for example. It takes forever (seemingly) to get to the point where it is up enough that our remotes again work. We decided to get a UPS that will live in the entertainment center with the TV plugged into it. Our power outages are of very short duration. We have a generator that comes on when the public power is out. It switches on by itself when it detects the public power is off for a certain amount of time. It switches off again when it senses we have public power back. A couple of mornings ago, our power went off and on several times in succession. I thought we would never get the TV back again.
The UPS we ordered came this afternoon and my husband hooked it up awhile ago. Now we’re waiting for the TV to resurrect itself and be able to watch TV again. Fingers are crossed that we have this small irritation solved now.
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I find it almost impossible to believe what a gorgeous day we’re having. It is normally in the mid to high 90s with a heat index in the triple digits. Right now it’s sunny and 78 degrees F. with a light breeze. Stunningly beautiful!
I am thinking we should have a word that describes my husband and me trying to deal with new technology “DOOFAD.” (A person who is the personification of being DOOFUS.)
Yesterday we were lucky enough to finally get fiber optic Internet and TV service installed. The Internet is great – much faster with nothing new for Doofads to learn. The TV service is a ‘whole nother ball of wax.’
We listened carefully to the tech explaining the new system. He was bored because he has to say the same stuff over and over, so he went fast. My husband asked how we could get a 2nd remote, and we lucked out that he just went to the truck, got a 2nd remote, brought it back and programed it for us. He left and the fun began.
Long story much shorter, we managed to choose a group of favorite channels and set some programs up on the DVR. We figured out how to get back and forth between the regular TV and Hulu. Somehow my husband got closed captions turned on and gave up on getting it off again. I fumbled around and finally found the place and turned it off.
We THINK we’re reasonably set up at this point, but still have a lot to go over in the book and learning to use the remotes better.
After another hour or so, We have our old services cancelled and we will send their equipment back today.
Today a tech from ADT Security Systems came because our system was chirping, was signaling low batteries, etc. I got online and discovered that ours was a model that required a tech to change the batteries. He came first thing this morning. I had to admit to him that when I couldn’t get the chirping to stop, I unplugged the system for awhile. He figured out that the ‘low battery’ was on the emergency pendant I can wear to get help that comes with the system. I had forgotten about the pendant, plus the fact that it was connected to the security system. DUH. He changed the batteries in the pendant, then in the main system for good measure. He checked everything out, went over security codes with me, etc. I feel stupid, but I’m glad I got the refresher course.
*A good idea for patient teenagers – be entrepreneurs in offering to help DOOFADS deal with new equipment, trouble shoot problems, and explain over and over again how to set things up and use them. :0)
After waiting and watching for what seems like forever, wonderful people are coming this afternoon to install fiber optic Internet and TV!
We came to Arkansas in 1986 so that my husband could take a job in Fort Smith. We built our home here on top of a ridge line in 1987, happy to have a place to ourselves, some privacy, room to breathe, and more. We’re about 4 miles from the town of Greenwood. The fact that we’re here provides some character-building aspects, too.
One of those is Internet service that has been pretty awful. We’ve changed to whatever is the best we can do the whole time we’ve been here, but you can only imagine how happy we are to finally get into this century. :0)
This afternoon we are supposed to have real Internet where we could actually stream something, were we so inclined. We might see fewer circles revolving while a picture struggles to emerge. I might not have to wait to see the half-sentence I’ve typed, or may not have to wait after I’ve pressed a button for something to happen.
I can’t wait to see the differences.
I’ve heard that others who have also gotten this service recently are very pleased with the Internet, and that the TV portion of things still has a few bugs. I’ve reminded my husband, since he has even less patience than I, that we may have to be patient when working the bugs out.
Whatever happens, I’m delighted that we’ll have NEW and DIFFERENT experiences and possible issues!
I made it through the weekend of cooking out and countless chances to indulge. I didn’t LOSE any weight the past four days, but I didn’t GAIN any, either. I will chalk it up to the PLUS column and just consider it a DELAY in my progress.
Today we are having pretty much non-stop rain, so my outside exercise of weeding the garden and finishing dismantling the greenhouse will have to wait. I’ll substitute my yoga stretches this afternoon.
I’m hoping that in another week or so, I will have a firm grasp on watching my portions in order to lose the lard.
We have just returned from Lunch Bunch and a trip to the grocery store for Memorial Day weekend goodies.
It will be interesting to see how I come through this. Since last Monday, May 17th, I’ve lost 5.4 lbs. I would like to continue that trend, NOT gain it all back this weekend!
At Lunch Bunch today, I ate HALF of my lunch, bringing the other half home. I can cut up the remaining chicken fingers for a meal-sized chef salad in the coming days.
My husband talked with GREAT enthusiasm about cooking out a LOT this weekend, starting tonight, where he said he really wanted a steak and baked potato. We have agreed that we should be able to enjoy TWO steak and baked potato meals from what we have previously eaten in ONE sitting.
He also really was hungry for kielbasa on the grill. (We grill this along with a lot of veggies.) We will be able to get TWO meals from that, as well.
Finally, he really wanted grilled hamburgers. (Are you getting the impression that I’ve been mistreating my husband?)
We will cook a full platter of these, and they should serve us for THREE meals.
If our weather is cooperative, we should be able to cook three nights, garnering delicious food for 7 dinners. We’ll also have a chef salad dinner from the chicken fingers I brought home today. I’m HOPING that being really careful with our portions, plus eating a bit lighter at lunch, will get us through this holiday weekend at least at the same place we are now, weight-wise (if not a bit less) with big smiles on our faces.
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