Heart-warming moment on UK documentary series when a school teacher helped a student overcome his stammer. The teacher used the method from "The King's Speech" with success. pic.twitter.com/ZMNZjo41Q7
I am working on rejuvenating my Etsy site. I try for awhile, give up in frustration, go do something else, then come back and try again.
The project right now is trying to rearrange the images for my products to change the look and focus of my shop. It’s taken me a week of looking, saying a few (or more) bad words, and messing around, but I FINALLY found the way that I can move my images around – just the first step in a lot of things I would like to do.
For now, I’m going to cut off work on that and switch to birthday dinner mode.
I have about 10 minutes to relax with a cup of coffee before it’s time to make our lunch. Just in time – after getting the beef stew ingredients in the crock pot for our dinner and just after I’ve pretty much gotten the kitchen clean. The crock pot is going. The dishwasher is going. And now, after lunch, I’ll need to do what I can to clean it up again. This is why I’m such a slob. When things are clean, I just want to stand and admire them. When things are not, I want to ignore them and do something else.
The pest spray guy will be here between 3 and 5 this afternoon. He usually hits the earlier part of the time frame, so I’ll have until about 3 to try to move things off the floor so that he can have a chance to do a good job spraying for us. We’ve been doing pretty well on bugs this year, but I REALLY don’t want to ever worry about scorpions in the house again after being stung by one in our bed several years ago. It still gives me nightmares and makes my skin crawl.
HighlandLakes.com
Added to this, I saw an article about a “Red-Headed Centipede” that really got my attention. When we first moved here, about a hundred years or so ago now, I was sitting in my recliner watching TV. All of a sudden I detected movement on the wall next to me. A CENTIPEDE was crawling up the wall! EEEEWWWWWW! I don’t remember if it was red-headed, blond, brunette, or what, but I freaked out. I insisted the pest people come out the next day and spray for EVERYTHING, including elephants, and have had them come quarterly ever since. Since they’re really good, we hardly ever have bugs that we can see in the house. Every once in awhile, we’ll find a dead one in the paper traps the man leaves in good places.
Got to run fix lunch. Hope you’re having a fine day!
There is nothing to vote for or against in my county today, so I won’t be collecting and wearing a sticker such as the one above today. My SIL, who lives in Charlotte NC, is not only voting today, she is a poll worker for the first time! I applaud her motivation and energy to do this. I am always thankful to the volunteers who help with our elections here, and I always thank everyone who isn’t actively helping someone at the time I’m there. If you have an opportunity to vote today, I hope you take advantage of it.
Kelley Blue Book
Our 2006 Honda Ridgeline Truck looks mostly like this one, but we changed out the grill my husband didn’t like and ours is not nearly as shiny as this one after 17 years.
For the first time in that time, we put our mounted snow tires in the back of the truck and I drove it to the tire place in town to have THEM take the regular tires off, put the snow tires on, and air them up. It was two hours or so very well spent, in my opinion. We had trouble just heaving the tires into the back of the truck and rolling them from and to the place we store them in the shop. I’m really glad my husband honored his agreement to let the experts do the job this time.
I particularly noticed that the tire guy just picked up each tire and put it in the back of the truck like it was no big thing. I had to stop and tell him that I resented that a bit, but was grateful for his strength and expertise. We laughed together over it. The whole job was $32, so that was certainly a win/win as far as I’m concerned. Now we will be as able as possible to get down our driveway – and up again – if we have to – when it gets slippery this winter.
Navien Tankless Hot Water Heater
My husband stayed at the house while I went to get the tires changed, waiting in case the people who might deliver the tankless hot water heater our plumber ordered for us came. They called right before I left, so I was able to leave a check for the unit. The tankless is expensive, but we’ve learned the hard way that it’s no fun to run out of hot water when you’re in desperate need of a nice hot shower after working. We spent more on the installation of the current heater than we did on the unit itself, with a lot of expensive rules about venting and the use exclusively of stainless steel on the pipes. We’ve had the current unit, a Rheem, since July of 2014, so it has lasted almost 10 years with only one problem for which we had to call our plumber.
123RF.com
Since the new unit is about $1,000 more than the previous one, I’m HOPING that the installation will cost a lot less.
Ildar Abulkhanov-Getty Images-istockphoto
Today I’m hoping to weed the last 2 planter boxes in my square foot garden and cover them with tarps for the winter.
When we bought our truck, we bought a set of snow tires at the same time and had them mounted on wheels so that we could simply change the tires from regular to snow tires and back again when needed. We had everything we needed in our shop.
For 17 years now my husband and I have changed the tires twice a year – changing the regular tires to snow tires – and back again. It has become more and more difficult as we have gotten older – no surprise – but last time was so difficult that I was afraid we wouldn’t manage it.
We had a frank talk after we finally prevailed and agreed that it was getting to be too much for us. We’ve had ‘frank talks’ in the past about various things. When push comes to shove, we either remember the talks differently or are back to square one when actually faced with the subject again, the ‘agreement’ having flown away with the wind.
I saw that my husband had printed a reminder that it was time to change to snow tires.
I reminded him that we had agreed last time that I would take the tires to the tire place and have THEM change them out for us. (This still leaves us getting the wheeled tires out of the shop and into the back of the truck, finding the lug nuts and the special ‘thingies’ included in the nuts for the regular tires.
Then we’ll get the regular tires and lug nuts that go with them out and stored in the shop again once the job is done, but that is nothing compared to trying to muscle the tires off and on the truck rims.
My husband shocked me, agreeing. He added that he would listen for the people who are supposed to be contacting us regarding a new instant hot water heater delivery while I’m gone. Can you see I’m struggling to close my mouth?
HUGE relief! We’ll gather our trash in a bit, put that and the tires in the back of the truck. I’ll drive the trash down, get it set up by the road at the bottom of the driveway, get our mail, and head for the tire place.
Listening is becoming a lost art. Too many of us listen until we figure out we don’t agree with the ‘side’ the speaker is on and tune him/her out. People gather on the streets to shout over each other, waving signs. We prejudge based on a person’s appearance and our ears shut off.
The evidence is on the news daily. I watch shorter and shorter sessions of the news before becoming totally upset with the state of the world and seeking some way I can ‘escape.’
I have caught MYSELF being surprised when a talking head says something with which I agree after unconsciously deciding he or she represents an opposing view.
I have to tell you I was embarrassed when I caught myself yesterday doing this very thing. I admitted it to my husband, but my admission fell on deaf ears, as he seems to be more guilty of this than I. He will use the ‘fast forward’ on taped programs with our remote to get to the end of what a person is saying, not even giving the person time to make his or her point before writing them off. Knowing I’m not alone doesn’t negate my embarrassment.
Real listening, respecting another’s right to say what he or she thinks, especially when we don’t agree, USED TO BE one of the things that made our country unusual, strong, and special. Re-evaluating our beliefs, based on the latest facts to come out, USED TO BE another thing that could bring opposing sides together. I HOPE that we can get beyond this situation somehow.
Actually, I’m better today, but still creaky, crunchy, and corroded.
We’re still finding things in our house that are showing how long we’ve lived here – 36 years. I guess we can’t really gripe. Things are long out of warranty. Though we can’t replace EVERYTHING, we are replacing what needs to be, one thing at a time.
Last night my husband took Amber out for her last outing, then came back in, saying that the garage door wouldn’t close when he pushed the button. He had to decouple it from the electricity and close it manually. This morning he looked at the situation and the wiring for the control was corroded. He was able to fix it (hooray!), but we’re having to deal with something not working a lot these days.
We’ve almost replaced all the fluorescent lights – my husband is having to remove the old ballast transformers, rewire the fixture, and then we add the newly purchased LED tubes. This is due to the government requirement not to make our fluorescent tubes anymore. Same with the lights in our lamps. When we started switching the old bulbs for the new, we were told the new ones would last a lot longer – even years. Apparently our lamps didn’t get the memo. So far, we can’t tell a difference. The new ones just cost a fortune.
We’ve talked to our plumber about replacing our hot-water-on-demand equipment as soon as he can get to it. It’s trying to die. After looking at it, it’s the same corrosion, hard water type problem that is getting to everything else, even though we haven’t had it nearly as long. He cleaned it out as well as he could and we have our fingers crossed each time we need to reset the system. I keep reminding myself ‘one-thing-at-a-time.’
When I was reading some posts on X (Twitter) recently, someone asked, “If you could do away with one thing in the world, what would it be?”
Michael Crichton-Notable Quotes
I bypassed it, and then thought about it off and on the rest of the day. I’m still not sure. I thought, “Stupidity,” but then I wondered, ‘who would be the judge?’ I would certainly be thought stupid by some others, and so would be signing my own erasure.
Unsplash
Then I thought, “Hate,” but then I thought, “I” hate people who hate and do what I consider awful things, but it MAY depend on what is being done and why.
Psychological Healing Center
Then I considered, “apathy,” but we certainly have more than enough people jumping up and saying things they have to later try to take back or doing things that hurt others and can never be made right.
I’ve been fighting with my WordPress program all day long. I hit some awful combination of keys and inadvertently made the viewing screen unusable, as far as writing anything. One word would fill up the entire screen. I couldn’t even tell which page I was on, much less where I was on the page.
Of course, the chat help people weren’t available today. I couldn’t figure out how to email them, or to explain the problem in a way an expert could help me fix it.
I’ve worked on it, then given up in defeat countless times today. At least it gave me a reason to brave the heat and strong sun to do more weed tree weeding in my current project area. I would work out there, get overheated and tired and come back in, rest, try to fix the WordPress problem again, then do it all again.
A few minutes ago I sat down once again. I looked across the top of my screen again and suddenly saw a ‘400%’ I hadn’t noticed before. I went up to it, changed it to ‘100%’ and my problem was fixed. Ahhhhhhh!
When I caused the problem, I had been trying to change an ‘n’ to a Spanish ‘n’. I had looked up the procedure and it said to hit ‘control’ then ‘shift’ and then ‘n’. When I did that, I got 99 screens one on top of the other of my email screen PLUS the unusable WordPress screen. Needless to say, this non-technical person will just forego the change in the artist’s name the next time I try to share his work with you.
I don’t actually have this hole in our back yard, but one about half this size is what I mentally picture from time to time when my husband and I are having a disagreement…
I won on the latest ‘discussion’ of whether Amber should be wearing her cone or not. Her surgery was Wed. This is Saturday. She’s supposed to wear it at least a week, if not two, so she doesn’t mess with the stitches on her arm or paw at her eyes. End of discussion? NOOOOOO. Just the beginning. After I went outside to contemplate the hole, my husband finally relented, so Amber is protected from herself again. Fighting over things that shouldn’t be issues is exhausting.
I read Intermittent Fasting for Seniors by Norah Halstead recently, since I’m trying to put together things that will help me lose and then keep off my lard. Norah’s book made me want to learn more – specifically, more details of what to do and how to make it work.
I’m now reading the 8 Hour Diet. It expands on the idea of intermittent fasting, zeroing in on the time I had chosen from Norah’s book, where you fast for 16 hours and then eat during an 8 hour time window. I’ve been doing this for several days now, even without more information, and the scales began to notice this morning. The smirking was less, enabling a small smile to appear on MY face. I’ve been bouncing around about 10 pounds off lately, and this morning I have almost 12 pounds off. I feel that I’m working a 1,000 piece puzzle, but the pieces are finally beginning to come together.
I’m about half way through my first reading of the book. I’m dog-earring pages to read later (like success stories) because I’m already convinced that this might help me in my efforts. I’m digging for the meat – the details these two men are providing – that may lead to success for me. I’ll share more as I go, but thought I would go ahead and recommend this book in case you are considering intermittent fasting.
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Craftsman – Lowe’s
We have a push weed whacker similar to this. I’ve been planning to use ours to do a major clean-up around our garden. It’s WAAAAAY to wet to do it now. I was just walking Amber and came in with not only my shoes wet, but my jeans about half way up to my knee! Waiting till afternoon seems good, but the temperatures have been climbing into the 90s – too hot for me to do much. I’ll give it a try, but I may have to wait until the afternoon temperatures moderate a bit more.
I hope that you enjoy this last day of September. I’m hoping that October brings us some good fall weather.
Did you hear me yelling yesterday? I’m still gritting my teeth though my husband heard me loud and clear.
He let Amber out yesterday. I was working in the house and all of a sudden I heard Amber bark – to get IN. I found my husband in the office at his computer with his headphones on.
Amber had pulled out another stitch while she was out unsupervised. She hadn’t lost the cone. We had discussed the fact that I thought we should take her out on the leash until she was healed and the cone was gone. My husband scoffed, and I pressed the point that she could run through the tall stuff on our property and irritate her wounds, if not pull out stitches.
When I confronted him yesterday, he said that he hadn’t agreed with me and thought the supervision was unnecessary. THAT’s when the yelling started.
The end result is that my husband was unimpressed, I was livid, and Amber is all right. She isn’t bleeding and the wound seems to be un-irritated and still healing. I tried to bandage and wrap it again yesterday, but the wound is right at her ‘elbow’ and it wouldn’t hold. (The wrap the VET put on it didn’t hold, either.) So I guess we’ll just hope for the best.
This morning my husband had taken Amber out – on the leash – and she had taken care of her business without incident.
Sometimes the idea of a hole dug for my husband in the back yard sounds awfully good…
Two days ago she came in with swollen eyes. Yesterday the swelling was down and she seemed to be improving. This morning I called the vet’s office and we saw the vet first thing.
He gave her a shot and gave us some cream to put in her eyes twice a day. The only diagnosis was, ‘she got into something.’ (with our yard and Amber’s personality, it’s a question of which hole did she NOT put her nose into, or which stand of weeds did she NOT run through, or which critter did she NOT confront. )
The rest of the exam was concerning, though. We pointed out a knot on her front leg and a lump on her belly. The vet wants to remove the knot. He isn’t concerned about the knot itself, but the healing that is needed for sutures after should it continue to grow. The lump on her belly is a fatty tumor. He’s not concerned about that, either.
What we DIDN’T notice was a lump on her neck. He IS concerned about that. We will take her in first thing Monday morning for a fine needle aspiration of that neck lump plus removal of the knot on her leg. The vet is concerned the lump in the neck may indicate cancer.
I’m concentrating this weekend on getting the cream in her eyes about 4 pm and 8pm today, twice tomorrow, and then getting her to the vet by 8:30 a.m. Monday (remembering to bring her in on an empty stomach).
I’m trying to be an adult about the possibility of cancer. I’ll try to keep busy the rest of the weekend, and do my worrying when we know what we’re dealing with.
When we were out leaving our trash down at the bottom of our driveway a couple of minutes ago, a truck went past us, waved and then turned RIGHT at the intersection. Then ANOTHER vehicle went straight on that road, THROUGH the intersection.
Why is that wonderful? Because it means that the BRIDGE is finished and open for traffic! We drove down to the intersection to see if the big portable road sign and barricades were gone and they WERE!
That means that tomorrow we’ll have a celebration as we drive over the new bridge on the OLD, shorter way to town!!! Woo HOOOOOOO!
I’ll try to take some pictures of the new, finished bridge tomorrow.
We have a paper that comes out every two weeks, I think. It’s free and I get it when we go to Lunch Bunch. I was FLOORED when I read one article on the front page, listing a bunch of stuff about which I was not aware that is or will happen in our little town of Greenwood.
THING ONE – I’ve told you about the bridge between us and town being completely taken out and replaced. It is finished for all practical purposes, but the barricades are still up and it isn’t open for traffic, so we are still having to go to town a back way that is much longer and aggravating.
THING TWO – Now it looks like just as this bridge is opening and we can enjoy getting back to our normal route to town, the main road to town is going to be barricaded by another thing.
The powers that be have long discussed a bypass that would go past the ‘square’ in town, easing the bad traffic that happens twice a day due to people trying to drive through Greenwood from towns to the east – with people trying to get to work in Fort Smith – plus the traffic caused by kids trying to get to, or leave, school by buses and what my husband calls, “Mommy traffic.” This has been a pie-in-the-sky thing for years. Apparently, Phase I of the bypass will START before the end of THIS YEAR! This will obliterate the intersection of Hwy 10 and Hwy 96 – an intersection we have to go through to get to town. Oh, GOOD!
I read a lot about it online yesterday, studying maps provided. They said it is due to start in November – no estimated end date. This would mean that the back way we’re having to take NOW wouldn’t be possible, NOR our normal route to town. We’ll have to take a rural road that goes into pasture-type land behind our house and WAAAAAAAY out to HWY 71 South and then BACK to GREENWOOD…. to tell you I’m not looking forward to this is a vast understatement.
THING THREE –apparently, they’re going to build a new medical center to replace the one where our primary doctor is, from just off the square in town to out on HWY 71.
THING FOUR – likewise, they’re going to build a new library to replace the easy-to-get-to one in town out to HWY 71.
THING FIVE –They are going to build a new Senior Center – you guessed it – out on HWY 71.
They say this will be more ‘convenient’ for people living in South Sebastian County. I have to admit feeling a bit selfish. I like things they way they are. The only one of these last three that won’t affect us yet is the Senior Center. I may be as old as dirt, but I’m not old enough to go there to do anything yet, and may never be. :0)
I guess that’s the list. I’m still feeling pretty shell-shocked. Too many changes in too little time.
I have to tell you that I’m pleased with myself for handling the problem of our pharmacist retiring and sending my husband’s prescription to Walgreens – something that meant we would have to drive to Ft. Smith once a month. I asked our doctor to call the prescription in to Humana. They did that, and I got confirmation today that the med is on its way. HOORAY.
I hope that you are able to handle the changes happening in your life – whether they are simply small and irritating, intimidating, or even scary or life-changing. Try to handle one thing at a time and try not to feel stressed. We can do this.
Well, I left the house, retrieved my delivery of three boxes of Fiber One Cereal from a box UPS left on the Robot at the bottom of our driveway, got our mail, went for my haircut, and made a quick stop at the local grocery before heading back. When I got home, I checked to see if the barricades were still up on the road that is our usual route to town. They were, so the bridge is not open yet.
It was past time for lunch, so my husband and I hurriedly got things together and ate. He wanted to watch a football game after lunch and I fell asleep in my chair. When I awoke, I finished the book I was reading, and now I’m here, trying to catch up on my computer stuff. And that is the sum total of my accomplishments today. Zilch – nada – nothing.
I’m going to finish up here and then see if I can sneak up to my art room for a few minutes, but no promises. My husband has needed my attention a lot lately. Example: He wanted to buy a book for his Kindle. Amazon sent him a code. He forgot how to get it, and so brought the phone to me, angry because Amazon had ‘hidden’ the code from him. I showed him again to use messages and there was the code….
I’m looking forward to tomorrow, where there is nothing on our list for errands. Hopefully, I can catch up on at least SOME of the stuff that has piled up, waiting for my attention.
I’m feeling hostile and angry this morning. Yeah. Bummer.
I noticed the other day that the descriptions on my items on my Etsy page weren’t showing. I assumed it was a glitch and wrote a reminder to myself to check it out again later.
I put some new stuff on Etsy yesterday and discovered that my descriptions were still missing. The page on the right was simply empty. I had a picture, price and then reviews by customers underneath.
Sometimes my computer is wonky and things will show one way on one browser and another way on another browser. I use Firefox, so I checked my Etsy site using Chrome. Same problem. I tried rebooting my computer. Same problem.
I went through a long process and finally found a way to contact a real person on Etsy. I got on chat. She immediately wanted me to send her a screenshot of the page. I tried, but due to being inept on computer stuff, I was having trouble. So while she was checking on her end, I was trying various stuff trying to send her a picture. I finally managed to send her something, emphasizing that all the pages had the same problem.
After a bit, she came back on and told me that Etsy was ‘experimenting’ with moving the descriptions down on the page under the reviews. I checked my page and did, indeed, find the description. I checked several other pages and found the same thing. So the descriptions are THERE, just not where the shop owners or customers are expecting them to be. I asked if this would magically heal itself when the experiment was over. She couldn’t tell me.
So, part of me is relieved that the descriptions didn’t just go to LaLa Land, but the other part is hostile because
I think Etsy should have told the shop owners involved that the experiment was being done and what that entailed, how long it would last, etc. rather than causing me panic.
I think the experimenters should also have told the people on chat so that they would be in the know and could have told me what was going on right away, just in case the above notice had been ignored, saving THEM a bunch of hassle.
I think they should be putting a notice on Etsy about the change so that customers aren’t inconvenienced. They want to get in and out quickly. If they can’t find information reasonably quickly, they go elsewhere.
I’m still feeling stupid I had such a bad time trying to GET a Screenshot and then put it where the chat person could SEE it.
Not a happy start to my day. I’m old enough that I should be USED to feeling stupid by this point, but I still avoid it when I can…
My husband has always been our fix-it person. He can look at something, figure out how it works, see why it ISN’T working, and FIX it. This has saved us untold money over the years and won my admiration years ago, since “I” look at things with a glazed look in my eye and think, “Magic.”
He is still able, to some degree, to do this. Two years ago, however, he had a stroke. And then another one later. He has recovered largely, but has trouble typing and intermittently has trouble speaking, etc. He is many times looking at ME, the most non-technical person on the planet, to figure out why something isn’t working and fix it. We’re in big trouble…
Last night he wanted ME to reprogram our two irrigation system controllers in the well house, switch them to ‘manual’ for a test, and then switch them back. Tonight we’ll work on where the water on the floor in the well house is coming from.
This morning he mentioned that there was a red flashing light on the floor under the dishwasher. When we turn the dishwasher on, there is a red light that shines on the floor showing it is on. (This is the one that is flashing now when the washer is NOT running.) I got out our paperwork, but there is no troubleshooting information. I got on the net and looked up ‘troubleshooting’ for our make and model of dishwasher. The only information I could find readily was information on cleaning the filter. Since I didn’t realize we HAD a filter, I figured I should start there. :0)
I actually found it, removed it, washed it and put it back in. The light was still flashing. I held the ‘start’ button for 3 seconds, in effect resetting the system. The flashing light went off. MAYBE cleaning the filter and resetting the system was all it needed. Fingers are crossed, but the jury is still out at this point. I’m declaring victory, though, until the flashing light starts again…
We just finished changing out the fluorescent tubes for LED T8 tubes and rewiring the fixture in my art room. We had the easiest time yet, with absolutely no problems – no accidents, no harsh words, no bloodshed. :0)
I spent yesterday afternoon moving stuff out of the way and putting the ladder under the fixture so it would be ready. I did well because the ladder went right where he needed it to work as comfortably as possible.
After we did that – in record time – I showed him one of the lights that is attached to my drafting table. In moving the table a bit to get it out of the way, I broke the plastic thingie that the light fits into in order to attach to the table. :0(
Thankfully, we had another one in the shop. I was able to put the replacement part on myself – with some fumbling around – but he doesn’t need to know that.
This afternoon I’ll work on getting my art room back together. If I can get that done, I’ll continue working on the Christmas presents for my friends, sort my new marker collection, and more!
Since it’s raining off and on, this is a good ‘stay-at-home-and-be-happy-we’re-dry’ day.
We had a good time at Lunch Bunch. Kay and Bud were there. Bud seemed touched that we remembered his birthday with a card. He said one of his thermometers read 116 yesterday. Our shop thermometer read 110, and the one under the deck roof showed 108. UGH. It’s ‘only’ 97 right now, but we’re under both a ‘Heat Advisory’ AND an “Excessive Heat Warning.” Not sure why we rate both, but it does get your attention.
Dreamstime.com
We’re still having to drive miles out of our way to get to and from town since the bridge between us and Greenwood was taken out completely and is being replaced. We drove past our driveway on the way home so we could go check out the progress.
This stock photo gives you an idea of what is going on, but our road is completely closed off. There is a HUGE hole where the old bridge was taken out and they are working on a 3rd of 3 humongous concrete supports that go all the way across the road from one side to the other. There is a big tractor/digger/crane beside the hole which is dug far down below where the old bridge was. I’m not sure what happens after they get that 3rd support poured. I don’t have a clue how they will go across from one support to the next – in line with the road… I’ll try to take some pics next time we go.
We’re home for the day now and I’ll start my projects for the day as soon as I finish this. Stay cool and hydrated.
If you’re a parent, grandparent or teacher, you know that ‘quiet’ may not be a good thing.
I had that feeling right after breakfast this morning. I sat down at the computer with my cup of coffee, but my husband didn’t come into the office. I couldn’t hear the TV, either. That, in and of itself, wasn’t worrisome, but I got up and checked and his chair was empty. The dog was out, too. Ominous.
I looked out at the shop and my heart stopped. The tall ladder was propped against the side of the shop with the people door open. I tried to walk calmly out there, but I was scanning the shop roof as I walked. I didn’t see him up there.
I found him in the shop, getting ready to come out. My heart started beating again, but he wasn’t finished. We got a new whirligig for the deck lately and my husband had attached it to the railing. He decided that he wanted to move it from there and hang it from the wood that ran around the outside of the deck roof; hence, the ladder.
I carried the Makita and the screws. He carried the ladder. I held it steady while he went up, handed him the Makita when he had the end of the whirligig where he wanted it, climbed the ladder behind him to put the screw on the end of the Makita. He ALMOST got it to work, but the screw fell into the grass never to be found again. We did it again, and this time, it worked. He added one more screw on the other side of the hanging thingie and handed me the Makita. I held the ladder steady while he came back down. We took things back to the shop and he said, “That’s it for me for the day.”
As we walked back to the shop, he told me the project went much easier because I was out there. I quietly mentioned that it would be good if he let me know what he wanted to do before he went out there, so that I could help. He said, “I thought I could do it.” I smiled and said, “Do you want me to put that on your tombstone?”
I think I MAY have solved the problem of continuing to receive a medication for my husband at a price we can afford.
We reached the ‘donut hole’ for the first time in our medical coverage. We would need to spend another $7500 this year in order to make our way out. If we DO spend that much, paying for prescriptions won’t be the largest problem! The prescription price for this med had quadrupled!
I reached out to our supplemental coverage and they agreed they could provide one month of the medicine before we actually reach the donut hole. I reached out to AstraZenega, filled out the form for financial help, only to be told on the insurance page – almost the last page on the form – that we didn’t qualify because we had supplemental coverage.
Since our doctor says this is the only medicine that will do what my husband needs, it’s important that we get it. I was told they no longer provide written paper prescriptions. I wrote again, explained that I can found a possible source we could afford, but we needed the paper prescription. Otherwise, my husband would have to do without the medication. She answered today, saying it would be waiting for us at the front desk. She also warned us that many places will not accept paper prescriptions anymore.
I thanked her profusely. We will pick it up tomorrow and start the procedure to see if the source will accept the prescription or not. It’s always something, but at least in this case, there is hope.
The last couple of days have been challenging. I’m a reasonably calm person. I won’t say, “nice,” because it’s hard to judge from the inside. But I have found that most people don’t have trouble dealing with me.
I have been on my last nerve the last couple of days with my husband. The idea of a hole in the back yard dug by my friend with the backhoe beckons.
Friday we were driving home from errands and it was so hot the dash cam was hanging from its cord when we got in the car. I put it back up and we started home. My husband wasn’t happy with its ‘attitude’, though, wanting it to tilt downward more. I change the thing three times as we drove. He suddenly pulled to the side of the road, yelled at me, and did it himself. I did NOT bite him in the leg, although I have to admit I thought about it.
Later when we were converting fluorescent fixtures to accepting LED tubes, he had trouble getting the legs of the step ladder to close. He started acting like a two-year-old having a tantrum and I told him I would handle it. He looked at me as if I had sprouted another head and then threw up his hands and said, “Okay, YOU do it!” and left the room. I did it and put the ladder back in the garage.
Later, he asked me what happened with the ladder. When I told him, he went to the garage to check, obviously not believing me. He came back inside, saying nothing. Later, he asked me how I got the legs to close. I explained what I did. He looked at me a minute and then went back to reading.
To his considerable credit, this is a man who has fixed things his whole life. He can look at something and figure out how it works, figure out why it isn’t working, and figure out what to do to fix it.
In the past couple of years he has had two mini-strokes. He is doing remarkably well, but he has trouble speaking at times, has difficulty typing, and gets frustrated with stuff like smart phones (which I have to admit are smarter than both of us together). Most of the time he handles the changes very well, even with humor. A lot of the time you can’t tell anything has changed.
The biggest thing I’M seeing is the change in temperament. He has to ask me to figure out how to change which chime sounds on the driveway detector, and this HAS to be frustrating for him.
We’re trying to get the lowest price possible on a medication he takes. We’re in the “donut hole” on Medicare for the first time ever, and the price for this med skyrocketed. I found a place where we could get it more cheaply. He said he would rather write the manufacturer because he saw a deal they were offering. Several days have past and we haven’t heard from them. I asked him about it and he said he had heard from them and put it in his important folder on the computer. When I read it, there was nothing about the special price. He didn’t remember telling me about any prices. So now I’ve written our doc to ask her for a prescription so we can get what he needs.
Whole new “ballgame” and it’s difficult to deal with since I’m older than dirt.
We have the first floor now almost completely converted from the old-style fluorescent fixtures, ballast transformers and tubes to the new-style LED tubes. We put fluorescents everywhere when we built because we liked the fact that they last a long time and give a really good amount of light.
We just learned that the tubes we have been using will no longer be made starting this August (!) so we really had no choice. My husband ordered a box of LED lights (count of 30). He got antsy waiting for the delivery, so he went to our local Yeager’s and bought the 6 tubes they had that were the color we had ordered online. We laboriously put the six in and then the box of 30 more arrived.
We have now finished the kitchen (above). Last night my husband sneaked in and converted the one in the pantry. (He said the last two tubes were “calling to him.”)
The only fixture left to be converted on the first floor now is the back bathroom, beyond the utility room.
Yesterday we spent all day converting these three fixtures in our office. We worked well together. In fact, my husband complimented me on what a good job I did helping him, anticipating which tool he would need when, etc., plus “helping him stay calm.” He cooperated with my insisting we take breaks, hydrate, eat lunch, etc. and this, I think, helped both of us a lot.
I’ve been having to flip the switch in the office 5 or 6 times each morning in an effort to get all three fixtures lit at the same time. Now, one flip and the room is ablaze in light! I keep finding myself expecting a light to suddenly go off. :0)
The tubes are expensive, but the regular fluorescents weren’t cheap, either. They are supposed to last 50,000 hours. They use less energy. They allowed us to get rid of the ballast transformers which were failing. Even though the conversion is a lot of work, these tubes may last longer than we do. :0)
We have another box ordered, but we have agreed (at least right now) to replace the upstairs tubes as they fail, rather than continue the race we’ve been on lately. Having been married to this man 54 years now, I know that this agreement will probably last until the delivery of the box of tubes, but at least I’ll get a break until the 20th, when the delivery is estimated.
I’m having a grumpy day. I’m still feeling the stress about spending the whole day yesterday doing really laborious and possibly dangerous stuff, not finishing until well after dinner.
I’m delighted that the used air pump we got for the bed seems to be working and the mattress held the air pressure last night. In fact, the mattress was a bit TOO firm. :0) I’ll adjust that tonight.
LightUp.com
We changed out the tubes in one 4′, 4-tube fluorescent light fixture in the kitchen, taking out the old T12 (I think) tubes and putting in the new LED T8 tubes. We finally got it accomplished, but it took all afternoon.
When we were both tired, my husband decided he wanted to put the big thermostat in the master bath window. I got in there to find he had torn a hole in the screen trying to do it and was busily trying to make another one. A ‘discussion’ ensued and I finally got the thermostat. I stood on the whirlpool tub and shut the top part of the window that shouldn’t have been opened at all. I opened the bottom part and slid the thermostat in where it belonged. My husband realized this morning what he did, so now the replacement of the screen is on our ever-growing list.
The replacement battery for my Dyson isn’t working. It ISN’T a ‘Dyson’ battery, but that shouldn’t be a problem. My husband is looking into the problem, seeing if there is another, more powerful one we can try. Apparently, he didn’t look at the actual Dyson replacement batteries, to see if they are affordable, so hopefully, he’ll do that today. He is also working on trying to get the old air pump for the bed to work. If he can do that, we’ll have a backup.
5News
My sweet cousin/friend Murray has just moved to Fayetteville AR and is in the 105-109 degree part of this. Welcome to AR, Sweet Murray!
We are in the 105-115 degree part of this in Greenwood, just southeast of Fort Smith. I think we have at least one more day of this ‘intense heat warning’ before we move to ‘just-plain-too-hot’.
If you’re in the super hot warning areas, please be safe.
I may very well be bald as an egg by the end of the day. My husband is on a tear and it’s impossible to stop him without completely decking him – though I’m thinking about that as I type.
We got the new/used air pump we bought on eBay today. My husband disappeared, when I thought he was in his chair reading, and took the old one out, put the new one in, and it WORKS! We just now went up with soapy water to see if we could find any leaks in the mattress. We didn’t, after extensive testing, so we’re suspecting that the leak came from the connections to the failing air pump. We are now letting the mattress dry before we try to put the bed together again, put on fresh sheets, etc.
I have the washer going to wash the mattress pad and then the sheets we took off, or I DID. My husband came in and announced, “The washer isn’t working.” Since it was when I left it, I got up and checked. ‘SOMEONE’ had pushed buttons – putting it in a waiting state. When I asked him, he said, “Well, it wasn’t working, so I pushed some buttons.” I got it going again.
Then I saw the stair lights were on and figured out he was upstairs again. I went up to find him with one of the new LED tubes in his hand, looking around. I finally found out he was looking for his glasses. I pointed to his shirt, where they were hanging on his front. He had the good grace to look sheepish, but I asked him why he was up there with the tube. He then said he was going to put in one of the new tubes in the kitchen.
We had a ‘discussion’ at this point, since he told me earlier that we were only going to tackle one of the project things today and were already in the middle of the bed project. He said, “Well, that’s drying and we can see if this tube stuff is going to work. I objected, since I am usually there to receive the old tubes and hand him the new. AND this will be a matter of taking the ballast transformer out, rewiring, and THEN putting new tubes in. I told him I really didn’t want to get into that today.
He said, “That’s fine. I can do it myself.” After growling to myself (I think) I mentioned that if he was going to do this, he should do it in the utility room where the only ceiling light we had only had one dim tube working.
I’m giving myself a chance to cool down mentally a bit and then I’ll go check on him. It used to be that we could do our separate projects, if needed, without even thinking about it. This is no longer the case and I find I may need to check on eBay to see if they have any used brains with an extra supply of patience for sale.
We go for our 6-month teeth cleaning this morning. I’ve always been afraid to go to the dentist. This fear intensified when my my mom was diagnosed with oral cancer and died of it.
Each time before we go I have a recurring nightmare about our driving in the Vette, going to the dentist. (My husband puts on the gas when I would put on the brake in any given situation. The Vette makes this tendency worse.)
In the nightmare, my husband has another stroke while driving. I’m trying to steer the car to the side of the busy traffic and get it stopped while he is fighting me, but steering the wrong way and putting his foot on the gas harder and harder. Then I’m trying to get us help – and having to drive the Vette to follow the ambulance.
The fact that I’m an adult seems to have no bearing on my fear of the dentist. I tell myself I’m a wuss and should be able to get over this doesn’t stop the nightmare the night before or the tension of having to ride in the Vette to Ft. Smith. Should I enter a contest for Drama Queen?
The only thing worse than this is having to do it with what I consider super small type fonts.
Yesterday I signed up for a 6-month membership at a site designed to help pre-diabetics (me) and diabetics (my husband is Type II) manage their condition better – better information, diet plans, exercise advice, menus, etc.
I spent several minutes trying to read a ‘free gift’ booklet as an introduction. I finally figured out a way to enlarge the font so I could read it without my glasses (and worse – a MAGNIFYING glass) to better see the diagrams. I thought about writing a nasty note, and then figured they would probably refer me to an optometrist…
My take-away from all this is happiness that I am in good enough health to LOOK for ways to improve it, and the smarts and determination to figure out how to make the information I found work for me.
I’ve now added the site to my computer, signed up, and also added the app to my phone. I ain’t dead yet. :0)
Yesterday my sister-in-law (and more importantly, friend) told me about an incident where she exercises. A lady in the class was really ugly to another lady my SIL likes. The really sad thing is that it wasn’t necessary. My SIL was able to defuse the situation, but you can’t ‘unhear’ ugly, hurtful things.
When a person is being ugly for religious or political reasons, I just don’t understand the motivation. Being ugly will certainly never change anyone else’s mind on a subject. Being ugly to someone else can only be done to hurt the other person, and I don’t see a good reason for that, either.
Maybe I’m missing something, but life is too short for this. Keeping your mouth shut, unless it’s in the defense of someone else, is a good skill to practice – I think of it as a character-building exercise.
We’re home from my haircut and now I’m feeling newly confident about not ending up in Lower Slabovia while trying to get home from town. We’re having to go the back way because the bridge between us and town is completely gone now, with only a huge hole and a backhoe in the bottom of it. It’s been years since we had to go the back way. The last time there wasn’t even a street sign at the turn off and I just drove right on past it.
I asked my husband to drive me to the hairdresser so that we would be lost together if we didn’t get back. It is amazing what has happened to that part of Hwy 10 since we were last there. There is a whole housing addition going up with either duplexes or triplexes. There is another sign further out about ANOTHER new housing addition. On the other side of the road, the place that used to be a gymnastics place is now a Crossfit place. There is now a new auto sales place right before our turn-off to come home, so it’s now easy to see where we are.
Now I’m not worried about getting lost or having to go even more miles out of our way in order to get back home the next time I’m out. Confidence is very important to me, particularly on how to get where I’m going since my sense of direction skill was given to someone else when I was born. :0)
This is one of the two receivers that go with our new driveway detector that my husband installed yesterday. The system is solar-powered. The detector is along the driveway and both of the receivers go off when someone drives up. They make a very pleasant noise, but one that gets your attention. (I heard the one in the office even though I had headphones on, listening to YouTube when our plumber drove up.) We really like to be warned when someone is coming up, rather than just having someone ringing the doorbell or knocking on the garage people door, so this is a really nice problem my husband solved.
Rheem Tankless Water Heater
THING TWO:
Our plumber’s assistant came about a week ago and tried to light the pilot light on our regular backup hot water tank when our tankless system was showing ’13’. He was able to light it, but it wouldn’t STAY lit. He turned it off, so we were safe, but we were without hot water.
A person our plumber knows and trusts who works on tankless water heater systems came to look at ours. He cleaned contact points, and tested, and then was able to start the system. It worked for a minute or so and then the dreaded “13” displayed again. He said that the system needed to be flushed out. He called our plumber and told him what he had found.
Our plumber came yesterday and flushed out the system. He got the system to work, but told us it looked like things were on their last legs. He puts in a system that he trusts and says it’s the best one he’s ever found. So now we are contracted for him to order and install a new system for us in two weeks or so. Meanwhile, WE HAVE HOT WATER for the first time in a week! No more cold washcloth ‘baths.’ No more cold hair washes in the kitchen sink. I smiled and sank all the way through my gloriously hot shower and hair wash this morning. :0)
When I got to my computer and phone this morning, the first thing I did was text our plumber, thanking him for providing us with hot water and wishing him the best day ever.
The NEXT problem is the failing air pump on our mattress. My husband is handling that one, so I’m trying to be patient and keep my mouth shut….
Right now it feels as if my husband and I are in the middle of this with dominoes falling in front of us, ready to knock us over, and the speed is increasing.
It started with our Sleep-Number-bed-competitor air pump beginning to fail. We have now submitted our paperwork to see if we’re still under warranty for help. Of COURSE, they are not making the bed we bought anymore, and we’re not sure if replacement parts are available.
Following this closely, my cordless vacuum is no longer charging. I keep it on the charging station, but it only works a minute or so and then quits. We THINK we found a compatible replacement battery, and we’re supposed to get that tomorrow.
Various fluorescent lights aren’t coming on when we flip the switch. Sometimes they’ll come on if we flip the switch several times. Sometimes the lights will come on LATER. We’ll be sitting there and the light just comes on after not working for half an hour or more.
We had no hot water this morning. We have a tankless water system. My husband checked the read-out downstairs and it said ’13.’ We have no clue what that means. He reset the system and we’re hoping that solves the problem.
Two of the six veggie planter boxes we built several years ago are failing. The bottom actually fell out of one of them, dumping the soil alternative on the ground. The other one is sagging visibly, ready to fall in at a moment’s notice. I’ve removed the Mel’s Mix from one of the planters, and will tackle the 2nd one probably tomorrow.
These are just the things that come to mind as I type. I’m sure others will occur to me after I finish this. I wish I could just hit the ‘off’ button as I do when I’ve chosen a movie on TV that turns out to be a real loser, or the ‘delete’ button when a Kindle book is appallingly bad. Sadly, real life is a series of character-building exercises, and I feel I should have had at least a class or two in how to handle it better.
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