Dominos

YouTube – MarDominoes

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.

A Small Pat on the Head

Giphy

I made it through the day yesterday without stuffing my face the way I have been. I’ll try to do it again today.

Another arrow in my quiver – I’m NOT going to loosen the fastening on my jeans to make myself more comfortable during the day. I’m going to keep them fastened, reminding myself that my overeating has CAUSED this discomfort, and that acting ‘maturely’ might relieve that if I keep it up.

I’m in this fight by myself, since my husband insisted we stock up on a bunch of assorted chips. Maybe a bit of frustration and anger will help me in my goal…

Each person makes a decision – or a series of them – when he or she wants to change, in the effort to STOP a bad habit or START a good one. I’m trying to look at all the excuses for what they are – smoke.

TODAY I will eat healthy meals and try not to eat anything in-between. I will drink a bottle of water if I get hungry, and I will do a good session of yoga this afternoon. Maybe I can earn another small pat. :0)

Tenor

Nice Thursday

My husband is working on all of our computers, trying to get them to “see” each other, share files, etc. This is causing daily changes to my computer and is quite a challenge for me, since I’m am almost a technophobe.

Today the type on this page is humongous, rather than the almost-too-small-to-work-with type I’ve been working with. I have no clue how to change it. Also, the way I find and save and use images here is completely different. When I ask my husband about it, he says he hasn’t done anything to change those.

So the sweet gif I found of a cat massaging a dog’s head that I wanted to use for this post to talk about the massage I’m getting this morning is saved somewhere not to be found. I thought maybe it was because it was a gif rather than a jpg extension, so tried to save a jpg. That didn’t work, either. My images aren’t all showing in the list and aren’t in alphabetical order, so trying to use anything is a real challenge.

He will be working on my computer again today, so I’m hoping things will eventually straighten out. I may also end up bald from tearing my hair out…

Making a Bit of Headway

1. My husband suggested that we might leave our 96-gallon trash can toward the bottom of the driveway, putting our bags of trash in the back of the truck as we have always done and putting them into the can and wheeling the can down to the street before pickup each week. Right before lunch we drove down to get the can. We wheeled it up to ‘behind the robot’ and I used a LONG bungie cord to secure it to the welded edge of a pole so it shouldn’t blow away in the gusty winds we sometimes have.
2. Since we’ve had some washing rains lately, my husband put a flat-bottomed shovel in the back of the truck so we could move some of the gravel ‘chat’ off the street and back onto the driveway. We discovered that a little of THAT activity goes a long, long way. We took turns, and it was really hard going, using the shovel to break up the chat and then move it onto the driveway. We lasted about half an hour before pooping out. This will take SEVERAL sessions when the weather is cooperative to complete.
3. We inadvertently paid Hot Rod Magazine twice answering renewal notices. Last month we got TWO copies of the same magazine. I asked my husband to see what he could do. I discovered today, when we got yet another notice that our subscription was about to end, that he had done nothing. Thankfully, he still had the two magazines. I got online and contacted their customer service people via the ‘leave a message’ thingie on their website. I gave all the info on the two subscriptions, as them to merge the two into one so he got only one copy each month, email him with a new subscription expiration date, and STOP sending us more notices to pay our bill. I thought it might be like throwing a bottle in the ocean, but he just told me he got an email from them saying they are ‘looking into it!’ Hooray!

Disappointed-Disgusted

Freepik

Pollster: a person who conducts or analyzes opinion polls.

Talking heads: people who appear in television discussion programs and interviews to give their opinions about a topic.

I’m feeling quite hostile toward pollsters and talking heads right now. The polls I heard about, and the ‘experts’ to whom I listened, led me to believe/hope/expect what DIDN’T come to be. Not only were they wrong. They were dead wrong. They should be hanging their heads in shame.

I don’t know what their methods are, but they definitely need to go back to the drawing board and remain silent until further notice.

Trashed Tuesday

India Today

MOST people fight over money, kids – important things. My husband and I have discussions over ‘trash’ and when to put it out – laughable to most sane folks, but an ongoing issue for us.

“I” want to put it out either the night before or first thing in the morning of trash day. My husband says, “They won’t pick it up until mid afternoon or later, so we can wait until we’re leaving to run errands.”

Last week he was right. We left it when we went for errands about 9:30 or so, and the can was still there, full, when we came back after 2pm. THIS week when we had left it and started to town, I noticed that the other trashcans on the way were empty, with the lids open. We missed them.

When we finished our errands, we stopped at the bottom of the driveway and put the full can back into the bed of the truck to put back in the garage until NEXT week.

The reason that this is a larger deal now than it used to be is that the trash company gave us a can they want us to use. Their truck guy can pick it up and empty it into his truck without leaving the truck. This saves the company having to pay two men to ride on the back of a trash truck, picking up bags of trash or emptying non-regulation cans by hand while a third man drives the truck.

I would just handle this myself, but I cannot get the empty, much less full, trash can into or out of the truck alone without hurting myself. I found that out the hard way the first time we tried to use the can, two weeks ago. We got it into the truck together, but my husband waited while I got it out at the bottom of the drive. I strained my back somehow and am still working on getting it straightened out. We agreed that this will be a two-person job from now on, and he actually got out and put the can in place this morning.

NOW, since we’re living with our trash another week, he has agreed that we’ll put it out when we first wake up next week. HOPEFULLY that will be early enough.

Good Morning!

Brenda Metheny

Happy Wednesday!

We started our day off at around 1:30 a.m. this morning when Amber started barking. She did this two or three times before she finally settled down for the rest of the night. The next thing we knew, our driveway pad alarm went off several times in succession early this morning, usually indicating a vehicle. We got up and dressed, but when we checked outside on the garage pad and then at the front door, there was nothing.

CuriOdyssey

We tried, but failed, to catch raccoon #8 overnight. That was probably what had Amber barking. The trap had been triggered. The seed was all gone, but no one was inside the humane trap. So we’ll set it again tonight and hope for the best.

There was a wildfire between Fort Chaffee and one of Greenwood’s neighborhoods north of us yesterday. Fire departments from several surrounding towns helped to try to contain the blaze. About 35 homes were evacuated. The fire is about 80%+ contained this morning. No damage to houses. No people hurt that we know about. Scary.

The Christian Index

I’ve had TWO character-building exercises over which I have been victorious so far this morning –

• I was trying to call in a refill for one of my husband’s medicines, but the pharmacy was having some kind of a phone problem, then I got a recording, and FINALLY reached a real person and was able to request our refill. Only took about 5 calls over 90 minutes, but I prevailed. :0)
• I was attempting to pay some bills online yesterday. When I tried to log in, I was told my username or password was “incorrect.” I fought with it several times, finally deciding to give it up until today. Sometimes these things heal miraculously, and so I had hope. No such luck. They still didn’t like me this morning. I finally went through the process of saying I ‘forgot’ my password, jumped through several hoops on proving I was who I was, including a text sent to my phone, and was finally put onto a page where I could change my password. THEN I fought with all the requirements they had on a new password. I finally passed muster, was let into my account, and was able to pay the bills. WHEW!

We’ll do errands in awhile, but nothing exciting going on today – I HOPE. I’ll be very happy if I can do what I’d like to do with no drama. I would LIKE to continue painting my Christmas presents for friends, do some vacuuming, and read my current book….

Happy Wednesday!

The Saga of the Phone Line Continues

123RF

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….

Not Just “No,” – HELL NO!

PC Magazine

My husband decided he HAD to have a new computer – to upgrade a bit, to switch to Windows 11. I told him to go ahead, as long as he opted for the offer to pay a bit more and have nerds put the computer together for him with Windows 11 already installed, compatible parts already installed so that he would just have to change out the hard drives, etc.

Since then we’ve been in ‘computer Hell.’ There is no nicer way to say it.

It started with UPS ‘delivering’ the humongous, HEAVY (75 pounds +) box by simply leaving it at the bottom of our STEEP, graveled, 650+ foot driveway. We practically killed ourselves getting the box INTO the back of the truck, THEN unpacking as much as possible, having to remove two dog gates in order to get it into the house and into the office. (We asked for, and received a refund for the extra we paid for expedited delivery.)

The computer was as my husband ordered, so mostly he has been fighting with software. Right now, the fight is to get an email program that will work the way he wants it to.

Since my husband and I are both older-than-dirt, changes and technical stuff are becoming much more difficult. An added problem is that my husband had a couple of strokes in the past two years, and he has more trouble, though he has mostly bounced back. He has been reduced to asking ME – the woefully incompetent tech person of our duo – for help. This is a lose/lose situation for me. If I can’t help, he gets more frustrated and angry – a really uncomfortable situation. If I CAN help, then he’s upset because I could do it, and he couldn’t, making him depressed.

A real character-building exercise for both of us.

So, the NEXT time he wants to get a new computer, I’ve told you my answer at the top.

PNGkey

Happy Wednesday

Our wisteria is starting to bloom!

We have vines stretching all the way to the driveway to the left of this picture. My husband has been trying for years to have BLOOMS all the way across. We’re making progress on it each year.

Yesterday I ate right, stayed under my calorie total for the day, stayed under my carb total for the day, exercised with weights, did my yoga, cooked for an hour, cleaned, etc., and guess what – I GAINED .2 lbs. Bummer. This is a character-building exercise for sure. I’ll simply keep on keepin’ on and hope for the best.

aramananatural.es

I’ve been making phone calls most of the morning, following up on things, confirming others, asking questions, etc. The thing I’m coming away with is that you MUST be your own advocate. Everyone is in their own personal world, worried about their own problems, understandably. These DON’T include whatever they told you would happen, wouldn’t happen, shouldn’t happen, etc. Unless you make notes and follow up, it simply DOESN’T happen/or DOES – whichever is worse. You can’t depend on other people. You MUST do it yourself, and KEEP after it until whatever it is is done. Sometimes I would definitely trade my ‘adult’ hat for a happy, carefree ‘child’ hat from my past.

I’ll make sure to get outside for part of the afternoon. It’s going to be in the 60s and there is lots of sunshine to play in. Will you get outside, too?

Wish

WoodlandManufacturing.com

I am continuing to tweak my eating habits in my determination to lose the lard. This has become a “character-building exercise” and SHOULD be listed on the list of exercises you can log each day on cronometer.com.

I had already switched my mid afternoon snack to raw veggies and a bit of dip. Now I’ll try cutting back the AMOUNT of that. I’ve been eating some no-added-sugar ice cream (a small amount while my husband has more with strawberries.) I’ll try to not have that.

Now that the weather is cooler, I’ll try to get started again on my elliptical trainer in the garage, doing a session before lunch.

Hopefully, the tweaking and moving more will get my body’s attention…

Bogging Down…

victoriacolemanartist.com

I’ve been working steadily all day trying to reach my friends to give them the new email address. Then I started on all the websites that have the old address. What a headache!

One good thing – I’ve talked to people who mean a lot to me today – via the new email and my phone. That’s a good thing despite the frustrating reason for it.

I’m going to take a break, get outside and prune my rose bushes. Then I’ll do another session.

I just LOVE the painting by Victoria Coleman above. It really captures exhaustion well, doesn’t it.

Character-Building Exercise

iStock

I wrote a quick note to you yesterday telling you my email was hacked. THEN I found out, from phone calls from loved ones, that emails were being sent out saying I needed help and to send $500 asap. (As if I would DO that…)

So, with hostility and frustration, with visions of boiling whoever is behind this in oil, I have closed my email account, opened a new one, and am writing or calling everyone I can think of to let them know my new address.

Truly a character-building exercise, and NOT how I wanted to spend the day. Sigh.

End of Rant. :0/

Best Laid Plans…

123RF.com

I was going to get a big list done today, but my plans went awry.

I was getting ready to go out to the garage to put in my 35 minutes on my elliptical trainer. My husband wanted us to go to Walmart and get some glue, so I switched gears, grabbed our Walmart list and we headed for town. We DID manage to leave our trash at the bottom of the driveway and get our mail on the way. We got what we needed at Walmart, even though my husband was in the mood to wander around. Since we get very little entertainment these days, I tried to be patient.

By the time we got home, it was time to fix lunch, so I did that. Then I started getting ready to go to Rags & Roses to change out my products and rearrange the booth. My husband got a reminder on his computer that he was supposed to check the oil in the generator, so he went out to do that. Just as I was getting ready to go out the door, he came in, saying that we needed to get another battery for the generator. He insisted we go back to Walmart.

We took the old battery in and left it in a receptacle at the customer service desk where indicated, found a replacement battery and brought it home. We had a bit of trouble getting the new one in, but finally managed to get it hooked up and tested. Then we ran a quick test on the generator and it was good.

My husband went to put a tool back in the well house and decided he wanted to start the propane-powered gas heater in the well house to keep our pipes from freezing. (We have a small electric heater that turns itself on when it gets too cold in there, and it was on. ) He had a bit of trouble getting the pilot light lit and the heater on, but we finally prevailed.

On the way back to the house, we saw that the new pvc pipe we use on our irrigation system on one of the planters was broken in two. We thought about tackling replacing that, but we were just too tired at that point to care much.

Both of us fell asleep in our chairs.

Now it’s too late to go to the booth in town, too late to do my elliptical trainer in the garage, and too late to do my yoga practice.

SO –

I will write this day off as far as trying to get my list done and hope for more success tomorrow.

Acceptance

SayingImages.com

Thoughts on a Friday 3-20-2020

Wild and Wonderful

Well, yesterday I called and told my friend Kay that my husband and I had decided that we would stop going to Lunch Bunch on Fridays until the coronavirus pandemic calmed down. We are in the high risk group for the virus, so we’re trying to limit contact as much as possible. This was a really hard decision because Linda, Kay, and I (plus various others) have met for lunch every Friday for almost 19 years now.

This morning I discovered that the governor of Arkansas has ordered all restaurants, bars, and gyms in Arkansas closed until further notice. (Restaurants can offer take out.)  Schools will remain closed through April 17th. I also learned that we have to make an appointment if we want to enter the lobby of our bank, though the drive-thrus and ATMs will be functional. City Hall and the Police Department buildings are closed to the public, too.

I have to tell you that – as worried as I am about the virus – I’m MORE worried about the economic effects of all this, and the changes that are being made in the power of the government as we try to get through this. I hope that we are able to get a handle on testing, possible medicines and equipment that help people suffering with the illness, and protect those trying to help the ill as soon as possible.

This being said, here are things that are NOT being cancelled –

Lisa Parkhurst Blaisdell via Ginger Charles

Our Leak

 

 

This shows you the piece of pipe that the plumber cut from about 2 feet or so down. It was pretty heavy PVC pipe and was squashed under the weight of a pretty big rock. The plumber said he thought the pipe just finally ‘gave up.’

 

 

The is the yard mostly put back together now. We will add some bags of potting soil to the hole when things dry a bit and then spring, warm temperatures, and sunshine will do the rest of the repair.

The rock doesn’t look very large in the photo, but it’s at least 18 inches long about about 12″ wide. It is so heavy it will take my husband and I to roll it, end-over-end until we can roll it off the civilized portion of our front yard.

We will find out tomorrow what kind of ‘adjustment’ the water department lady can make. I hope it isn’t so much we have a real problem paying it.

Fingers crossed!

A Challenging Day

Jeff Jett via LinkedIn

When we got up this morning, I thought it would be a quiet day.

It’s cold, gray, and rainy today, so I have to fight wanting to curl up under my throw in my recliner and nap the day away.

We had our quarterly bug spray at noon. If you’re looking for a dependable, wonderful group of people to handle all your bug spraying needs, try Tri-Hill Pest Control in Fort Smith, AR.  Their phone number is (479) 782-2847. They come treat our home quarterly. At one point, we had lots of scorpions. YES! It was really awful. They got them under control for us. Now supposedly spiders are overrunning everyone, but we haven’t seen even one – and NO scorpions. Since it’s rainy. our wonderful sprayer said he would schedule a return visit in a day or two to treat the outside.

Before he arrived, I got a call from our water department. We had gotten several bills lately that were higher than usual. We thought it was probably leftover charges from when our son was home (our bill usually doubles) – and then we had a leak in our well house that our plumber came and fixed, so we thought it might be leftover from that. I just paid the last bill, so I was surprised when the lady at the water department called me, saying from our usage, we must have a leak somewhere. She said the company had been trying to find the source and that something ‘pinged’ when they passed our house. She suggested that we contact a plumber.

I called Travis Hawkins, our long-time wonderful plumber. (479) 461-8347.  I actually got to speak with him directly, rather than having to leave a message. He is so good that he stays quite busy. He told me that as soon as the rain stopped, he would be over and try to find the source of the leak. I just noticed the rain had stopped – at least for awhile – and Travis was driving up the driveway. Have I told you that I think he is worth his weight in gold?

My husband showed him a place in the front yard where we had standing water. The whole yard is wet, but this was almost like a shallow lake in comparison. We now have a big hole in our front yard. Travis actually found the source of the leak – a big PVC pipe that runs across our front yard. There was a humongous rock or boulder between the soil and the pipe. He has gone to the hardware store to get the supplies he needs to fix where we can SEE the pipe just caved in on itself. (Apparently, this is another perk from living in one place for over 30 years. – they use different, stronger stuff now.)

The lady at the water department said that when the leak is fixed. we should bring the repair receipt in to her office and she will adjust our bill. I’m not sure what that actually MEANS, but we will be grateful for whatever help she can give us.

Otherwise, I hard-boiled some eggs and made a keto sausage/eggs/cheese back for our dinner tonight. I also did a Windows 10 update on my computer, then FINALLY figured out how to do a backup of the operating system with the recent changes, then backed up my data.

It’s not even mid-afternoon yet and I’m exhausted.

I’m glad we don’t usually have days like this.

Victory!

Fifth Estate

I have worked all day, but I have finally done the majority of the work needed on our tax prep. The spreadsheets I made helped a LOT. They are all totaled and printed now, and I have the supporting documents in ordered piles now. I just finished saving the spreadsheets for 2020.

I’m doing a small victory dance now – since all is ready – as soon as we get a few more documents – to bag it up and take it to our CPA. HOOOORAAAAAY!

Soon I will start entering the data for January 2020 on the new spreadsheets. I’ve also figured out some time-saving things I can do to make getting the supporting documents in order more quickly next time.

I figure I’ll have this down to a science by the time I’m about 106….

Whine and Cheese

Sound Cloud

If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you know that I should get an award for procrastination. I’m an EXPERT in putting off things I hate, coming up with mental and vocal excuses that are truly impressive. My biggest area has been in bookkeeping/tax records. I keep folders, but don’t do the actual putting things down or organizing until push comes to shove and time is running out.

THIS year, I decided that I would do my bookkeeping and tax records at the end of each month. It wouldn’t take a lot of time and I would be up to date, just needing to do totals on the spreadsheets before tying it with a bow for our wonderful CPA.

I have been really good (for me) on keeping up with this. I got behind, though when health issues took obvious priority, so I was going to start on August yesterday, and then dive straight into September.

When I brought up a spreadsheet, a bunch of data was gone! I looked at the other spreadsheets and found the same thing. I got out my backups and ran them. The data wasn’t there, either. :0(

SO – It looks like I’ll have to redo about 5 months of records. OH, JOY.

“No good deed goes unpunished.” (Source in question)

I will grit my teeth and try to get August done today. THEN, I’ll tackle one month at a time until everything is back and caught up. THEN – I will print a copy of each of the spreadsheets AND make a backup!

And the character-building exercises continue….

Prepare

About Signs

Having a health scare is just that -scary.  Trying to get help for it is a character-building exercise at a time you’re under great stress. Once the initial hurdles have been jumped over, another of life’s realities rears its ugly head – you have to take charge, doing whatever is necessary to get the help needed.

Yesterday was a case in point. I have almost no tongue left because of biting it so many times while I was on the phone making my way through the bureaucratic maze, trying to get tests scheduled and appointments made.

I had been told we would receive calls regarding where and when we should show up for tests and referrals to various specialists. I was given a card with a phone number to call in case that didn’t happen. I was to use it if I didn’t hear anything in a week.

When I called the number on the card, I found that the ‘referral department’ doesn’t actually handle referrals – they give you phone numbers to call – one of which was the ‘scheduling department.’ It turned out that the scheduling department didn’t actually schedule the tests, they ‘authorized’ them. I received another number to call to actually schedule the tests.  The finally scheduled group of added tests will help the specialists figure out what is needed and who should do it.

You get the picture.

It’s bad enough to go through the health scare. The problem is compounded when you finally realize that even though you HAVE TO go through the maze – endure the system – in order to get help, you are your own best advocate. You have to steadily, persistently, keep pushing until you actually get the needed tests scheduled, the actual appointments scheduled to see the specialists, get the results of those, the plan of attack to fix the original problem, the guidance on how to best care for the person who is sick and isn’t in a position to deal with this.

We are thankful. Our son – who lives and works in Thailand – wanted to come to help. He did and is here. He is keeping us calmer, more able to slog through the mazes, phone trees, delays, frustration, attitudes, and emotions, actually injecting some much-needed humor, as well as calm strength.

Good News – Bad News

123RF.com

I already told you that two of the fourteen planters we built around the yard collapsed. We’ve been trying to get bricklayers to come and give us estimates on rebuilding them for us. We have the brick already, waiting on a pallet. We already have concrete bases ready to receive the brick.

GOOD NEWS – Today I finally got a call. Because of all the rain we’ve been getting, one of the guys we’ve been trying to reach called and got directions to come give us an estimate!

BAD NEWS –  The bricklayer was really nice. He even put up with Amber greeting him when he opened the truck door, covering him with kisses. I finally got her into the house and we looked at things. His estimate for the job was $700. That’s too steep for us, particularly since we’ve already had to buy the bricks.

SO – when the monsoon is finally over and it looks like we’ll have several dry days in a row, we’ll go to the local hardware store and buy umpteen bags of Qwik-Crete and will rebuild the planters ourselves. Even though we don’t know what we’re doing, the other 12 planters we built some 30 years ago lasted, so maybe we’ll do well enough again.

I’m excited about getting them functional again and deciding what we’ll plant…

Hello!

everyday feminism

Things are very awkward – using laptop, external drive saved from my regular computer, and all the patience I can muster – but I seem to be functional on posting on the blog again. :0)

We shipped my defective motherboard to the manufacturer this morning. It’s still under warranty, so they’ll either repair mine or send us a new one. Help is on the way!

I figured out this morning how to transfer my camera pictures to the laptop, edit them, and get them into my blog picture folder, so I’ll post a couple later today.

Since everything is different on the laptop, the mouse is built in and has an idiot trying to use it :0), things are a bit challenging, but doable, with a lot of concentration.

I’m glad to be back, however hobbled my gait. I hope you’re doing well, too.

More later.

Another of Life’s Character-Building Exercises

eighthrising.com

My husband is the technical person, handling computers, all things electrical, a LOT of things online, fixing things, etc. He was the one who figured out how we could cancel our satellite TV and save a lot of money. But, as he ages, his temper gets shorter and shorter – and – I admit I’m describing myself, as well.

Yesterday we had a power blip. Though the electricity was off for such a short time a lot of our things didn’t notice, it took us the rest of the day to deal with things that WERE affected.

We like DirecTVNow. All of a sudden, it wanted us to sign in with our user name and password. This is a really aggravating, laborious process of searching for one letter at a time, making our user name seem endless, and our password almost impossible due to the fact ours is quite complicated for safety concerns. I told my husband I would do the input if he would get me the password.

To make a long story shorter, we couldn’t get DirecTVNow to accept our password. My husband went into the office, then came back saying, “I deleted our Roku account because it wouldn’t take our password.” It turned out that he had confused the Roku and DirecTVNow accounts and had been giving me the Roku password. Now the account was deleted, so that meant ALL of our TV related accounts were toast.  His reaction to the problem and his temper in deleting the CORE of our TV watching ability was done in a fit of pique. He then decided to divorce himself from the problem – saying, “I don’t know,” to all my questions and not showing any interest in helping –  which had me tearing my hair out, and – at one point – going out in the back yard to yell a bit. (I wonder what the neighbors down in the valley think of the crazy woman who shrieks once or twice each year.)

I finally created a Roku account in MY name, and then got on my husband’s computer and added each of the programs and channels we had before, laboriously going from the living room to the office and back again, jumping through the various hoops each required.

We are both still alive and the TV stuff has been restored.

If you heard my head exploding or my shrieking last night, don’t be alarmed. Things are back to what passes as ‘normal’ around here.

It truly amazes me that the person I love most in the world is also the one who drives me completely nuts!

Changes are DIFFICULT!

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It seems that life is providing several character-building changes to us lately.

• I’ve already told you that our much-loved dental hygienist and her husband were killed in a plane crash last month. We lucked out that our dentist, Dr. Wes Moore, was able to find another very competent, physically and emotionally gentle hygienist to take care of us.
• Today we learned that our wonderful family practice doctor has left the Greenwood practice and has relocated to Russellville AR., an hour and a half each way from us. :0(   We are just devastated. We’ve looked up information on the new doctor coming in October, and have decided that we would like to try her. I called the clinic and they said someone would call us about it. Our doctor was compassionate, and provided samples of the blood sugar medicine my husband needs. Since this very likely will stop, I’ll need to research possible sources of this very expensive medicine. Humana doesn’t cover it, and it’s $550.00/month. To say I’m freaked out right now is an understatement. My husband glibly says, “I’ll just take it until the samples run out and then stop.” (I’m trying not to deck him.) He understands, but doesn’t really absorb, the fact that his body will do really bad things if he doesn’t take the medicine that helps control his blood sugar. So the search starts now…

I feel that the rug has been pulled out from under us several times lately. We’re trying to deal with things the best way we can, but one of the things about getting older is that you stiffen up and don’t bounce quite as well as you did when you were much younger.

I’ll try to focus on all the positive things in our lives – and we have a BUNCH of them.