“crashing into the picture”- Brigitte Alcalay Marcon – bbc.com
Good morning!
I got a new used phone yesterday. We were able to install the updates plus transfer my information from the old to the new. This morning we’ll go to our phone place for a SIM card, whatever records they need, and I’ll get a new phone protector.
Not sure what the rest of the day will hold. My to-do list is running off the bottom of the page. Some will depend on the temperature today. Other things I just need to plow through. I’m hopeful I can get some things checked off.
We just returned from running errands. When we got down to the bottom of the driveway on leaving, there was no mess and no bags of trash. HOOOORAAAAAAAY!
We’ve just finished putting everything away and will eat lunch soon.
Do to mysterious problems on one end or the other – or to the vagaries of the universe – my SIL and I have been worried because we haven’t heard from each other. Usually we touch base briefly daily. I figured she was busy, had an early appointment, etc., but she texted me on her phone yesterday asking if I was all right. I’ve been writing, but she wasn’t getting anything. I texted back to tell her we were fine, and then wrote more, finding out that she hasn’t been getting anything from ME, either. She tested our email after we texted and it came through fine. She’s going to catch me up when she has time. It’s good we have more than one way to communicate.
This may not seem like ‘happy dance’ territory for YOU, but for me, it’s HUGE.
I FINALLY found a holiday schedule for our trash service online. I’ve been looking for weeks and weeks without any luck. The powers-that-be were looking happily down on my head today, though.
I have bookmarked and saved the schedule now. I learned that our trash service for Tuesday will actually happen on Wednesday next week, due to Labor Day. THAT I can handle.
Now – if I can just get to the point where I’m not ‘jubilant’ each UN-holiday week that our trash has been picked up and we don’t have to re-gather our trash strewn all over the place…..
Okay. We came home from Lunch Bunch and, instead of messing around, I went upstairs and FINISHED going through the books on my shelves in our bedroom, cleaned the shelves and reorganized the books. So that mini-project is finished.
I also, while I was up there, put away the laundry I did yesterday.
I came down with a load of books from the project above, listed them on my donation sheet and put them in one of the bags going to the library soon.
SO –
my dilemma is –
do I dive into another project, since I’m finished with the other stuff early, or
do I reward myself and read my book for awhile, and maybe even take a short nap?
Last week I called to get our propane tanks filled up. (We have the main tank which is large and then a small one to bring heat to our shop.) It took me a full 20 minutes to get through the phone tree and then answer all the questions of the person in the call center.
I know that these are hard-working people, but I don’t understand why the people who TRAIN them can’t emphasize speaking in a straight-forward, simple manner as clearly as possible. (My husband hangs up immediately when he figures out he’s talking with someone in another country. He cannot understand them and quickly loses his temper.) I’m better, but I still get very frustrated at the canned speeches the workers must follow. The accent is heavy – with the em-PHA-sis on the wrong syl-LAB-ble and they ‘shotgun’ the canned stuff, understandably saying it as quickly as possible to get it over with. By the time I realize they have finished the canned stuff and finally asked a question, it’s hard to tune back in. Anyhow, by the time I finished ordering a fill-up for both tanks, I was exhausted.
The guy with the propane came yesterday. My husband went out to monitor the fill up. When he came back in, he was frowning. The guy only filled up the small tank for the shop. He said he hadn’t been authorized to fill up our main tank, so he couldn’t. We would have to call in again.
I gritted my teeth and called back yesterday. I have now ordered a fill up on the main tank (I THINK) and we have to wait another week.
Something that used to be so simple – a 5 minute call once a year – is now quite a challenge with the ‘improvements’ the company has made.
Last week I griped that our UPS driver left two packages on our robot at the bottom of the driveway instead of delivering them to us. He then reported that he left the packages “at the front door.” Since we didn’t know they were there, they stayed on the robot overnight. I finally went to check, since I was expecting the deliveries and there wasn’t anything at the door or the end of the garage, and found them.
I finally found an address I could use to email them. I provided the tracking numbers for both packages. I had done this before, but hadn’t received a reply, but I thought I would try again.
We got an email reply (!) that they had received our email and that someone would be getting with us. I thought, “yeah, right” Later on that day, I got a phone call from UPS!
The lady was nice. She commiserated with my problem. She said the drivers were personally responsible for their trucks, any maintenance, damage, etc., came out of their pockets. We agreed that since our driveway is long and steep, he probably decided it was too risky to try to drive up, though we’ve lived her for over 30 years and they have always delivered in the past. Fedex still does.
I did ask if there was anything else that could be done. If he would let us know we had a package, we could come down and get it. She suggested a lock box with a code might help. She said that usually an email is sent that a package has been delivered.
Though our problem remains, the fact that UPS emailed and then called is wonderful. Kind of restores my faith.
I finally found a place to email UPS yesterday, after getting totally frustrated trying to call and actually talk to a real person. Their phone ‘trees’ only allow you to say certain things and the default is to frustrate you to the point you give up.
UPS used to deliver things to us all the time. Yes, our driveway is steep and sometimes bumpy, but they delivered and we were appreciative.
Fedex delivers to us all the time, smiling and really nice on this same driveway.
I checked on a couple of deliveries online yesterday and found that UPS said they had been delivered – “left at the front door on WEDNESDAY.” I checked again, just to make sure, and also checked on both side of the garage. Nothing.
I told my husband that I was going to check around the bottom of the driveway, though I hadn’t noticed anything when I went to get my massage. We drove down, and sure enough, there were TWO packages sitting on the back of the robot we built at the bottom of the driveway right off the street.
The packages had been there all night where anyone could have taken them. Since we were forecast to get rain, it was particularly frustrating.
I guess the driver who serves us has decided that he is not going to drive up our driveway anymore. If this is the case, it would be NICE if he would call us and tell us he has left a package, emailed us, sent us a text, left a flag on the robot, a note in the mailbox, a carrier pigeon – SOMETHING.
I wrote to UPS, just as a formality, really. The last time I wrote was when they left a humongous box (70+ pounds) containing my husband’s new over $2000 heavy computer. My husband and I practically killed ourselves trying to get the box into the back of the truck and then out again at the house, in the house, and into place in our office. UPS didn’t even bother to answer my email, so I’m not expecting much this time, over two ‘inexpensive’ items. I just refuse not to say ANYTHING when people don’t do what they say they will do.
I downloaded this to my new Kindle this morning and have been pouring over it while I made a new system disc and new data backup disc for my computer.
This appeals to me because of the limit on ingredients and inferred simplicity of the recipes, particularly since I’m just trying to get started.
So far, I’ve started a notebook of generalities about the Mediterranean eating plan. It may very well be that I just collect recipes here and there and end up with a new lifestyle using their suggestions for healthy eating, but not-so-much their actual recipes.
My main concentrations are on
including LOTS more veggies,
some fruit – but mainly as a ‘dessert’ or substitute for sweet things,
a LOT less meat, (little red meat. Chicken and turkey are okay)
more fish, (twice a week)
more whole grains,
more nuts and seeds.
beans
less dairy (twice a week, rather than every day)
I’m a bit worried about the fruit. I love it, but it contains a lot of sugar – something we’re trying to avoid. We’ll see how our numbers do.
Of COURSE they want us to drink more water and exercise.
Our water department brought the bottle in a gallon bag with instructions yesterday afternoon. I read the instructions, filled out the form, except for the time the sample was collected, and put everything upstairs by my sink for collection last night.
The biggest problem is that water is not supposed to be used for a period of 6 to 8 hours before the sample is taken. Since my husband and I are like ships passing in the night to pee over and over during the night, we reminded each other that we needed to remember NOT TO FLUSH until AFTER the sample was collected.
I didn’t sleep well. I couldn’t get comfortable, kept waking up and checking the clock, or getting up to pee and remembering NOT TO FLUSH, etc.
The sample has been taken and is on the front porch ready to be picked up whenever the water department people get here. What should be a simple thing is sometimes more complicated than it needs to be.
UPDATE: Just as I was finishing this, our driveway alarm started going off. It was the water department guys coming to pick up the sample. Mission accomplished.
You’re as old/young as you feel – well, I’m about 110 this morning.
I really pushed hard to finish deep cleaning the master and guest bathrooms upstairs yesterday. I rested in-between sessions, but over half the day was spent up there. I washed the whirlpool tub, then really scrubbed the redwood surrounding it, something that hadn’t been done in a long time. I then pulled up the rugs and the sticky things keeping them from sliding and hauled them into the bedroom. I washed the baseboards, then vacuumed the floors. I washed the floors, then put the sticky things and rugs back down. Finally, I vacuumed the rugs and put things back where they belonged. Things look and smell good now.
I started stiffening up right before bedtime last night, didn’t sleep well – unable to get into a comfortable position – and ended up reading downstairs for an hour or so early this morning. I’m still stiff and sore this morning. My poor old body seems to have really noticed all the bending over double, getting down on hands and knees, hauling of heavy rugs, etc.
Today I’m going to take it easier, only planning to gather trash and vacuum the tiled areas on the first floor today. I’ll also plan to do a long, slow yoga session this afternoon to see if I can get some of the kinks out. :0)
“When you feel overwhelmed with too much to do and too little time, remind yourself that all you can do is all you can do.” ~ Brian Tracy
I have been a list-maker all my life. Most of the time the lists keep me on track, keeping me from forgetting things – something I do more as I become ‘more wise’ each year. :0)
From time to time, my lists swamp me. I try to do the most important things first, and that helps. It makes me more productive, but doesn’t do much for the ‘feeling’ of inadequacy running underneath.
And things that come up in the natural course of life sometimes keep me from being able to check ANYTHING off my list. An example is yesterday, when my husband brought me an incredibly dirty pair of jeans that had yet more rips in the legs. He wanted me to fix them. I’ve been trying to get him to buy several pairs of jeans to replace ones that are very worn, but these are his ‘favorites.’ I ended up using iron-on patches, then washing the jeans, then having to sew the patches on where the patches were trying to curl up. My husband pronounced them, “healed,” smiling, but one day there won’t be any denim left to put the patches on…
Today my priorities will be to get more errands done, do stuff OUTSIDE this afternoon since it’s supposed to rain again tomorrow, and see how it goes.
dontworry-crushslim.tumblr.com-Weight Loss and Fitness Hacks
The cavalry is coming sometime today! I talked to my Lunch Bunch friend, Kay, yesterday. (Actually, she called to check on US after we had to miss Lunch Bunch last week due to the pile of crusher dust in the driveway.) She talked to her husband, then they talked to their pastor, and she called to give me the name and phone numbers of two people who might be able to help us.
I talked to Jeremy, who actually CAME yesterday, driving his truck up to the pile in the driveway and walking the rest of the way up. He says he can help us!!!!!!
He will come today, he says, rain or shine, and flatten out the pile of crusher dust. It’s a good thing he said rain or shine because –
this is the forecast for us today. (We’re just southeast of Fort Smith in the middle of this image). I think that he has informally adopted us because he spoke several times of our being stranded up here. He is truly a NICE guy who has already gone the extra mile for us.
The plan at this point is that he will fix things enough so that we can drive up and down the driveway at will. Then he will bring an estimate of fixing the driveway in a more permanent fashion that will last a little while.
I thanked him profusely for coming out yesterday. I slept better last night, knowing that help is on the way. It was really starting to bother me that no one could get UP the driveway, either, like fire trucks, ambulances, police…
When Jeremy is able to free us, we will make a celebratory trip to town (weather permitting) and try to catch up on some of the errands we’ve stacked up in a week’s time.
We wanted to get our trash down to the bottom of the driveway this morning for pickup, but as I told you, we’re trapped up here, with a humongous pile of crusher dust in the driveway at the point we wanted the guy to spread it on down the driveway. It is impassable.
SO – my husband backed the truck down about 1/4 of the 650 foot+ steep driveway. We each took a trash bag and started walking down to the bottom. I have seriously thought about buying some football cleats to wear when trying to walk up and down our driveway. The gravel rolls, making it really hard to walk without falling on my head. I walk down on the edge on one side where there is a bit of grass for more traction.
Anyway, I got down to the bottom with my bag, then took the smaller bag I had brought in order to gather several days worth of mail from our box. I started up and saw my husband trying to gather stuff. His bag had ripped, spilling stuff all over. I went up and we gathered it up, and each took part back down the driveway. We got things bagged up for the trash men and started up again. It’s MUCH harder to walk UP the steep driveway than come down!
I had to stop three times on the way back to the truck to catch my breath. Since thunderstorms are imminent, the humidity is fierce today, too. I guess this is showing me I need to do this much more often in my efforts to get healthier – if it doesn’t kill me first… :0)
The truck is back in the garage now, safe and sound from the coming storms, which are forecast to last until about 2pm today and then start up again this evening. Oh, GOOD!
wildremoval.com
We caught raccoon #6 overnight, OF COURSE, when we are unable to get out to relocate him. We’re trying to decide if we should simply let him out of the cage or what.
Another piece of news is that our dog, Amber, was barking like a nut at our trailer we have by the shop. GUESS WHAT! We have a mama SKUNK and her babies under there. My husband managed to get Amber back in the house without her getting ‘skunked,’ thank goodness. We’re not sure what to do about the skunk family, either. This may have happened before, but we’re not aware of it.
The rain has started. It’s quite dark and ominous-looking now. I’ll close the garage door soon, but we’ll leave our front and back doors open as long as we can so we can enjoy a possible cool-down as the storms move through. It would be good if we don’t get any damage from the storm. We have enough on our plate already, thank you very much.
Ever since we had crusher dust delivered last Thursday, we’ve been stranded on top of our ridge line. Because the driveway was wet, the guy with the truckload of material was unable to really ‘tail-gate’ the stuff as he drove down. It just basically came out of the truck and onto the driveway in ‘piles.’ Until we can find someone with a tractor, front blade, and time to help us, we’re stuck up here.
I talked on our chat program with our son this morning. I was able to tell him that other than being a bit aggravated, we were fine. We have food, water, a comfortable house, power, and even a dog and cat for company. We can do all our usual things EXCEPT get down – and back up – our driveway. It we have to have a problem, this is about the best kind of problem we could have.
One of the men I contacted yesterday called me back today to say he was unable to come up with anyone who could help us. I thanked him profusely for taking the time to contact the people he knew and then call me back. People are really nice and go the extra mile sometimes.
We still have a CHANCE that one of the people I contacted will be able to help. He said he would try to arrange something after church.
We might have an interesting time if we CAN’T get someone to help us today. All next week is supposed to be rainy, starting as early as late this afternoon. Fingers crossed the stars come together to get someone out here. So we wait. Fingers crossed.
Life is hard these days. Harder, I think, in many ways, than it’s ever been. Not only are there differing opinions on almost everything, but the opinions quickly escalate into divisiveness, factions, name calling, and hate. There seems little we can DO about any of it.
I find my own personal reactions vacillate from being appalled at the actions of sick, hate-filled people, grieving about the innocent lives lost or forever changed, and frustrated that the problems are caused by problems so complex that they are almost impossible to solve. I’m numbed by the mindless spouting of rhetoric on all sides that hasn’t changed since I was a teenager. The actual problems are so much deeper that people are scared to really examine the causes or possible solutions.
I alternately listen to and read everything I can, then get depressed and avoid exposure to any more news than I HAVE to. I escape with reading, music, time outside in my yard and garden, time in my art room, time on the computer, etc. I get “huggy,” – worried that things will get much worse. I clean things. I re-organize things. I chop things down. Anything I CAN control.
What it boils down to, I guess, is each of us caring, doing something if we can, and coping with whatever is happening. The picture at the top says it better than I – “Life would be better if we wore more tutus…”
My ‘sweet’ husband and I are at loggerheads once again over a topic we have ‘discussed’ several times before – changing the tires on the truck from regular tires – to snow tires – and back again.
It’s time to take the snow tires off and put the regular tires on again. My husband always wants to do this ourselves in the shop. This saves us money. We can schedule it when it is most convenient for us. We know how to do it and have done it countless times.
It is my opinion that it’s a good idea, with our advancing ages and decreasing strength and other health problems, for us to put the tires and the lug nuts into the back of the truck. I would drive the truck to the tire place. Settle in the waiting room with a book, and read while THEY change the tires, air them up, put the snow tires in the back of the truck. Then we can put the snow tires and their lug nuts back in the shop for the next time.
I’m the gofer on this project. I guide him and the truck into the shop. I then go to the back of the shop and roll the tires out, one at a time, grab the bag of lug nuts, find the tools necessary to take the tires off and put the other ones on. My husband does the heavy lifting, using the jack, then sitting on a stool, loosening the lug nuts and handing them to me, then pulling the tire and wheel off, passing it on to me. I roll that one out of the way and roll the replacement to him. He really struggles, but boosts the tire up and gets it on the “spokes’ (for lack of the correct term). I hand him the correct lug nuts for the replacement tire. He puts them on and tightens them. We do the same on the other side.
He then backs the truck out, turns around, and we get the other end in the shop and repeat the process, replacing the four tires. He drives the truck outside the shop, pulls the air compressor tire inflater thingie out there, airs up the tires while I roll the tires we took off back to the back of the shop and store them, then store the special lug nuts that go with them, put the tools away, and start moving things back in place that we had to move in order to get the truck in. When this project is finished, even with yoga, online stretches, Tylenol and the heat pad, my back hurts for a couple of days.
So, we’ve had the discussion. It seems to be a matter of pride for him. So guess what we’ll be doing tomorrow? Wish me luck.
This rainy, gray weather is bringing out my sloth. I would really like to go back to bed, snuggling into the covers. It’s almost time for us to go and relocate the raccoon. Hopefully that, and another cup of coffee when we get back, will get my motor started…
This is an excellent day to stay in. According to Finagle’s Law of Dynamic Negatives, though, we will head out in about half an hour to ‘relocate’ a raccoon we caught in our humane trap overnight. He/she had not only been eating each and every seed we left for the birds in the feeders, but trashed one feeder and dumped the suet blocks onto the ground below the deck. We had the trap set for the past two nights and were successful last night. This is the 2nd raccoon we’ve caught and relocated this season.
We will put the trap and raccoon in the back of the truck, get our mail as we go, then drive out behind our home about 5 miles or so to the creek that runs under the road and let him/her out, giving him/her a second chance to play and frolic and eat ELSEWHERE
THEN we’ll fill up the bird feeders once again and hope that he/she is not part of a huge raccoon family…
I did a LOT of good stuff yesterday. I was busy all day, used my time well, got a LOT of things checked off my to-do list. The problem is that I have more to add to the list each day than I checked off, so the list seems to be growing exponentially.
I’m TRYING to choose the highest priority items each day, thinking if I can get THEM checked off, I’ll be making headway. That’s a reasonable goal, but ALL the things are ‘priority.’ :0(
The HIGHEST priority today is OUTSIDE – my veggie garden maintenance and tomato pruning – because we have a stormy forecast for both tomorrow and Tuesday. And while I’m doing these highest priority items, I’m constantly reminding myself that my daily exercise – taking care of myself – ranks right up there, too. My house looks at me with its sad face because anything more than daily necessities there are taking a backseat to all the other stuff…. UGH.
I found this quote I like –
“The only thing more important than your to-do list is your to-be list. The only thing more important than your to-be list is to be. “The best way to get through any challenge is to step back, look up at the sky, breathe deeply in and out, smile if you have to…then dive in.” “To-do list : to-do list!”
It may seem a small thing, but I’m feeling empowered.
The timer to the irrigation system for our veggie garden ‘went wonky’ the other day, probably after a storm. At any rate, it wasn’t working. My husband, who has, for years and years, been the technical expert and fix-it person around here, said, “Maybe we can find the old one.”
I stopped at the timer several times over the last week or so, trying to reprogram it on the fly. To say I was unsuccessful is an understatement.
I finally made it a priority to find the paperwork and see if I had directions on how to program the thing. A backup would be writing down the NAME of the timer and looking it up on the net to see if there was an online set of directions.
Luckily, I found the paperwork and it did include directions!
I read over them carefully, took them with me out to the outside standing faucet. I followed the directions as carefully as I could and it seemed to show I had done it.
I set the timer in the house for the time it was supposed to start watering, then went out to see if it did, in fact, start. It DID! It watered for 10 minutes as I had programmed and then shut off. HOORAAAAAY!!!!!
I – almost the least technical person I know – or have ever met – programmed the irrigation system.
We are cornering the market on character-building lately. This time it’s trying to get a phone line rehung that fell down into the yard during the last storm.
After the storm we initially called our electric company, Arkansas Valley Electric Co-Operative, because we weren’t absolutely sure whether we needed help with electrical lines or phone lines. The company sent a service man right over. We couldn’t have asked for better response time. He confirmed that the lines were phone lines, and told us the phone company would need to come out and fix them.
It took us forever (3 or 4 days) of talking to person after person at our current phone company, AT&T, before someone mentioned that the two phone lines we have now were actually installed years ago by CenturyLink.
My husband got mad at this point and was up on a two-story ladder propped up against a telephone pole, trying to rehang the line. He finally gave up on one of the lines because even with that ladder, he couldn’t get up high enough. That didn’t stop him from trying to rehang the 2ND phone line. He had to cut down the branches of a tree in order to get access to the line and managed, after getting bitten by the tree several times, scratching up his arm badly, to get the line hung.
I spent another day trying to contact CenturyLink. This was iffy, since we are no longer their customer. They finally gave me a repair ticket number. Nothing happened, so I contacted them again and they said they had no record of the ticket number. They finally found it, and told us the technician would be out to the house yesterday between 8 and 5. We had to stay home to be sure we were here to receive him.
A little before 5, I contacted them again. The lady said to give the tech until 7pm. We did, but no action.
My husband stayed home from Lunch Bunch and errands this morning so he would be here if the tech showed up. He didn’t.
I contacted CenturyLink again. She told me the ticket was marked, “completed.” My husband went outside to double check, and the line was still down. I told the lady that and she has now generated ANOTHER repair ticket with a “commitment date of 4/23.”
And so we wait again…. I wonder if ‘character’ SHOWS, like building muscles….
I feel as if I’ve finally won the lottery this morning.
After two-plus-days of being shuffled from one ‘service agent’ to the next, repeating my problem from the beginning, having to provide all my personal information, account numbers, etc. over and over, being cut off, etc., I FINALLY found from about the 20th person at AT&T that our phone lines were actually put in by CenturyLink. I contacted them via chat, talked to Sara in customer service, who transferred me to Dana, in repair scheduling, who actually scheduled a repair technician to come out to our house next Thursday. She gave me a ticket number. I offered to pay for the service call, since we’re not a current customer, but she said there would be NO CHARGE. I took care to fill out their rating thingie after the chat ended, praising both of the ladies involved by name, and the company in general.
(My husband got so angry over the past two days just listening to MY end of the previous conversations that he was determined to go out and fix the lines himself – JUST the thing I was trying to avoid! Only the fact that the two-story ladder wasn’t tall enough to get to where one of the lines needed to be attached stopped him from trying on one line. I came in to try again on connecting with someone who could help and found neither our home phone or my cell were working! I panicked because I knew my husband might get into a dangerous situation on the 2nd downed phone line, but I managed to find the emergency button pendant thingie I got when we had ADT put in our security system. I hung that around my neck and went out to see if I could help. He was cutting down branches from a tree where the 2nd line was tangled, so I came back in to find the phones working again, and so got back on to fight with our problem. He got the tree branches down with loppers and a chain saw, managing to scratch up his arm pretty badly. He said he got the 2nd line back up. I did what I could to clean his wounds, and told him about the tech coming Thursday. He was pleased because he conceded it was beyond him to fix the 1st line.)
We solved a couple of other things yesterday, too, so we’re feeling exhausted, but still standing. We have Lunch Bunch in about an hour, plus a couple of errands after, but otherwise are hoping for a very quiet, calm day – at least until the storms are supposed to start, sometime after sunset.
WIN: Today we WON a little because my husband was able to fix the window that is part of a 3-window set in our dining area. Yesterday, after the storm, we noticed that there was a GAP between the central window, and the window on the left. It was actually blowing the cafe curtains above the trio! We were too tired to deal with it yesterday, but we tackled it today. I took down the cafe curtains and rod because you can’t open the windows, otherwise. My husband saw that it was in the track on the bottom, but not on the top. He opened the window on the left, then used his hand to slap the top of the window back into the track on the top. Problem solved. It’s still a mystery why the window got OUT of the track, but we’re declaring victory and moving on.
X96
LOSE: (so far): Yesterday we found two lines down in the side and back yard. We weren’t sure whether they were power lines of some kind or phone lines. We had power and we had phone service, so this was an aggravation, rather than a huge problem. I called our electric company, Arkansas Valley Electric Co-Operative, described the problem. They sent a man right out. The problem was, the lines were phone lines, so he wouldn’t touch them.
Yesterday afternoon I chatted with a lady from AT&T online. She said a person would call within 15 to 30 minutes to set up an appt for a technician to come out and fix the problem. No one called. I got on chat again this morning. She said a supervisor would call me. He did, but after having to explain my problem for a third time and giving them information, including my first grade report card and thumbprint, he kept trying to reach the people who could help me, a 2-minute-hold each time for 6 times. He then tried to get me to get another cell phone to add to my account “while we were waiting for him to get through to the people.” THEN we got cut off.
I dropped it and my husband and I fixed the window. The phone rang and it was the guy from AT&T again, saying he was unable to get to the people and that he had left an URGENT message and that they would call me back. I’m still waiting.
MEANWHILE, my 79-year-old husband is fighting me, saying HE can get out our two-story ladder, prop it against the telephone poles, and re-hang the lines. So far, I’m threatening him with death….
I told you that my husband agreed to let a solar panel guy come to the house in answer to an email talking about a government program for free residential solar panels. I researched it, read to my husband that there WERE no ‘free’ solar panels, etc. He wanted to hear the guy out anyway.
The guy was here for about an hour and a half this morning. I had him send the offer to my email so I could print it, and give me his card, telling him that we “needed to discuss it.” After he left, I said, not only ‘No,’ but, “Hell, no!’ Of COURSE my husband wanted to do it.
He gave me all his reasons. Some of them I agreed with, others not so much. He asked me for MY reasons to NOT go with it.
the offer started off ‘free,’ then went to ‘none of their financial people would probably go with reverse mortgage situations’, then ended up being an ‘up-front one-time payment of $42,450 (give or take.)’
I told him that we needed any extra money we could pony up for unforseen events that might occur, and that, even with inflation, we could pay a LOT of electricity bills for over $42K.
I then threatened him with hiring our ‘man-of-all-good-works-with-large-equipment,’ who just HAPPENED to come up the driveway yesterday to see if we needed him to do anything, that he had a backhoe and could probably did a large enough hole in the back yard that would be perfect for my husband. And that could be done BEFORE my stress level erupted.
Surprisingly, my husband remembered years ago when we were at loggerheads about what to do with a stocks profit windfall. My husband wanted to buy more stock. I wanted to pay off the house and cars. I won that battle, and he has told me several times since then it was one of the best decisions we ever made. He told me if I really didn’t want to do this, that would be the end of the discussion.
THAT’S one of the many reasons he’s a keeper. The man I married is still in there, though sometimes he is buried a bit. I thanked him for listening to me, and caring what I thought.
The backhoe expert can wait awhile on the hole…
Now I’ve just used my ‘1a warm-up and workout,” and “weights video” to calm myself down. I’ll relax a bit and then do my yoga. I’m exhausted, but I am SOOOOOO relieved. :0)
We’ve had a long, hard day. Bottom line, we couldn’t make our private network work. His computer can’t see mine, and vice versa.
SO, he made me a CD of the main program I need on a daily basis. We’re going to stop beating our heads against the wall – and each other – and move on for now.
We’re both exhausted. So each of us will do our own thing for a bit and then share dinner and a quiet evening.
Long story shorter – My husband got a new computer with Windows 11 on it. We share files and some programs across a private network. His computer can see ME, but I can’t see HIM, so my computer activities are really cramped right now.
We work on it a long time yesterday with no success, so will continue that today. I’ll get back here as soon as I can.
The rain started early this morning. We avoided the possible severe weather, though, thank goodness. It’s still rainy, though we’re due for a break in the rain until ‘downpours’ this afternoon. An inside day, for sure.
Happily, I pushed myself yesterday, doing three sessions of weed whacking to clean up the edges from my husband’s good lawn mowing. We almost look like someone cares!
Since we have a cool front along with the cloudy, rainy weather, I’m cooking Keto Chili tonight from Suzanne Ryan’s Simply Keto recipe book. I feel I have a good start now on my renewed effort to lose the lard. My scales are noticing my efforts this week. :0) Today, since I can’t work in the yard, I’ll try to add some time on my elliptical trainer in the garage along with my afternoon yoga stretching session.
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A good thing: my husband agreed to try using a cell phone again, mainly because he wants to be able to receive verification codes on HIS phone rather than mine. We went to AT&T yesterday, and the two nice people there got the new phone added. The guy showed my husband how to get rid of the stuff he doesn’t want on the phone, so now he’ll quit bothering me about the stuff on mine… PLUS, the lady helped me make it so I can again take pics with my phone and email them to my computer for use on the blog again. (I haven’t been able to make it work since I had to change my email address.) The final great thing was the guy suggested I call ‘611’ on my cell to ask them if they would waive the extra fees associated with adding another phone. I was to ask for the Loyalty Dept. I did and they DID give us a credit toward our next bill. Yea!
Another good thing: I spent a long time on the phone this morning, trying to get the status on some wire transfers we did lately. The nice lady was able to confirm one was ‘good,’ and is researching the other to find out what’s what. It’s good to find competent, polite help when you need it.
My husband is trying to make his new computer work. It’s together physically now, but he’s having trouble adding software. My contribution is to keep my mouth firmly shut. Some access to things we share aren’t working yet, so I’m modifying my activities until they do again.
Sometimes I feel as if I’m on my last nerve. The past several days have been like that. I’m having ‘whine’ with my cheese today.
My husband is trying to drive me crazy. I love him, but I’m actively thinking of hiring a man to use a backhoe and dig a hole for him in our back yard.
Just one example –
He doesn’t want a cell phone. I’m listening to music on the computer. Suddenly, I realize he’s talking to me. I stop what I’m doing and turn to him. He wants to know if we have “What’s App”. I tell him, ‘no.’ I ask him why he’s asking me. He tells me someone wants him to pay them using the app. Then he gets mad when I tell him I haven’t added it to the phone. I leave to go to the other room since I’m tired of him ranting at me. I get comfortable in my chair and fall asleep. He wakes me up, asking me what my passcode is to my phone. I tell him. I drift off again. He is back, telling me my passcode doesn’t work.
I get up and come into the office, put in my passcode, get the phone working for him. I get busy on the computer. He asks, “how do you get messages on this thing?” I stop what I’m doing and show him again where the messages thing is, push it and pull up his message. A bit of time passes, and he asks me, “do we have “what’s app?”
I guess you can tell by my posts that I’ve been enjoying listening to a lot of music lately. Music is magic, in my opinion, transporting us to another place, either taking us back to where we were when we first heard it, making aches, pains, concerns simply drop away, or take us to the place the singer takes us in a new song, or their take on a classic that makes us hear the words in a different way.
I’m lucky because I have a lot of coping mechanisms that give me some relief from the hostility and frustration and helplessness I feel about what is going on in our beautiful world or to keep me calm in the face of any unpleasantness or concerns I feel about what is going on in my personal world.
Music – if I’m outside by myself, I sing. Inside, I watch music videos with my headphones on, or listen to songs on my MP3 player
Reading – I’m in the middle of “Forgotten in Death” by J.D. Robb, “Life Force” by Tony Robbins, and listening to a video on Cryptocurrency.
Art – finding it on the net and sharing it with you, or playing in my art room
Animals – playing with our dog, Amber, and our cat, Abby.
Exercise – yoga stretching
Gardening – getting my veggie garden going and working in my flower planters
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