Hunker down Monday PWYC

[LadyMaverick]

We have INTERNET again! DH can now watch TV. The noise level has returned to normal in our home since the kids are on their phone talking non-stop with friends while playing online games together.

That puts us back to having all utilities working (except 1 bathroom is still frozen). Doing extreme winter weather is a challenge but doing it without utilities is a total PITA. We are keeping our home about 10 degrees cooler than normal in response to the plea to reduce utility usage. Someone said the wind and solar farms aren't producing in this weather so they have switched to using 100% fossil fuel. I'm curious what the northern people use and why they don't seem to struggle like we are to keep utility supply to meet the demand?

Lunch is meatball sliders which is a family favorite. I'm making a pot of vegetable/meat soup for myself. The big pot of soup only has 900 calories so I might eat the whole thing!

I need to bring my files up-to-date.

[CathyS]

Ack! I need to get back into paperwork, but I wasn't motivated. Now I am. My brother is supposed to be coming over this coming Friday. He will be in the area doing something with his work, so he wants to drop in seeing as he will be driving right past the north end of our street twice.

[Nancy]

LM we are ok grateful for heat & etc. Codes are diff, here I think have to dig under 3' for water & sewer line to have them to be under the frost lines.
Heat tape is widely used under mobile homes, lots of home have supplimental wood heat heat source fireplaces & wood stoves.

I have cleared off the driveway. So I can get out when it is better out. It is lighter in weight than wet melty sluch.
The driveway is already melting.
Snow stopped and sun came out fo r a bit.
The guy up the steet was using a snow blower.

Lots of people have plows on 4 wheelers like we had at the farm. It sold fast in the middle of summer when we let go of that. Took less than one day.
Plow truck have not been by yet on our street they wait till it stops to do that.
Saw the power co. Truck drive by I waved.
I have 4 wheel drive on both rigs have never used it just stay in till it melts.

The dog went out with me and I saw her under the deck I guess it is too deep for her now.
Had the last of the crock pot soup, need to think about what kind to make up next.
sun is out.

I turn lights out when I leave a room.
Have on an extra shirt.
Heard some say to run dishes or clothes on auto setting in the night.

I have shoveled a path fo r the trash can in the morning.
Driveway is cleared off.

Then at three snow started on again and has not stopped it is 7:00 suppised to no t stop till 11:00 a m. It will be 32* out by then.
We have two more inches apx. 9" now.

[Twins' Mom]

I am really sleep and might nap. The rain is coming down outside! Wishing for snow!

[LadyMaverick]

I got a chuckle from something that happened at lunch. We were all gathered in the kitchen while I was dishing up everyone's plate. I was surprised when I heard DGS14 voice talking to me. It sounded like he was standing next to me.
I paused & asked, "C1, is that you?"
He replied "Yes, Nana. It is me"
I asked, "Where are you?"
He replied "I'm in DS12 pocket"
LOL.
DS12 had his phone in his pocket set on speaker mode.

For the first time in history, they have declared us to be in Energy Emergency Alert (EEA) level 3. This means they start turning off our power for 1-2 hours (rolling blackouts). They are not giving advance notice. For people with generators, this just moves the demand from electric to the natural gas utility. I wonder how the gas company will respond? Turn the gas off for an hour or two? It feels like they are playing whack-a-mole with the utilities.

[DeeClutter]

Dh brought home a box of papers, pictures, etc that had been put in the POD. So, I quickly went through them. I also had a plastic bin of papers out on a shelving unit (temporary) in the great room. So, I quickly went through that and recycled almost everything. I put all the pictures into that & dh put it out in the garage. DD will just chuck it 'after' dsonil goes through it -which will probably be never. HOWEVER I did find one piece of paper that may (or maybe not) be important. It was a whole piece from an insurance company to dsonil's mom dated 1/1/2018. On the bottom still attached is a check for $658. Looking at it there was $50 held back for Federal Income tax. DD and I sort of think it's a paper that her MIL may have misplaced. She may have contacted them to have it replaced. Either way dd's job now is to see if it's a valid check or if there was ever one cashed for that amount. Check was only valid for the 6 months, but if it wasn't cashed at all that money is still somewhere.

They also brought home lots of jewelry that all has to be looked at for value. She was known for buying lots of jewelry and watches. Hence the $60,000 she still owed to credit cards.

They will all be very glad to have this over with. Seemed like a good idea at first for dbil to run an estate sale for them -which he readily agreed to. But, he has been an absolute bear to deal with. The sale is running this Thursday, Friday and Saturday. They plan to take their trailer and move anything left on it Saturday and bring it home to do their own sale in a few weeks. They then can have the POD picked up. Doesn't want to pay another month's rent on it.

[Elizabeth]

Hi everyone! I have been AWOL for a while. I kept trying to CUOP but never got finished, so I gave up and jumped in where I am at. No word yet on te job I expect to get and I found out the other woman's job is being listed as an internal posting, at least at first. If no one applies and is satisfactory from a pool of 12.5K employees, it will be posted externally.

We had snow yesterday and today, but no power outages that I am aware of. It has pretty much melted from my yard. More is expected Wednesday and Thursday, but not tomorrow. It looks like impending snow outside.

This weekend Elizabeth's Own Handyman service installed a door knob and insulated the patio doors. Elizabeth's Own Secretarial Service typed up DD19's senior project: 39 pages hand written, 13 pages typed. I was planning on typing the minutes for the animal org, but ran out of steam after that. By the way: DD18 is DD19 as of today. My traveling companion friend is in the hospital with very high blood pressure. xBFF is convinced it is due to her covid shot two weeks ago, but I when an 85 yo with a history of high blood pressure meds gets high blood pressure, it is not a shock.

I am cooking sauerbraten in the crockpot because I was curious about what it was. It has a very strong smell. Not unpleasant, but definitely noticeable. I hope I am not cooking 2.5 pounds of something I won't like. I am making it GF so DD can try it.

Loved the news from Ramblinrose! Dental problems are the worst and we see it in not only the stray cats and dogs, but owner releases as well. Charlotte and Joe Briggs both need dental cleaning, but neither is a crisis case. Benjamin had all his teeth extracted due to stomatitis (unfixable in cats, treatable in dogs, not sure about people).

[lucylee]

That is just fascinating about the horses, Rose. Amazing how they look after each other.

Happy birthday to Elizabeth's dd!!!
And WTG on all the Elizabeth's Own services... I need you to start an apprentice program here.

Oh, (((Dee)))... I know you will ALL be so glad to have all this estate stuff over and done with! If I'm not prying too much, I'd be interested to know if the estate sale brings enough money to make it worth your trouble. Dbil thought about doing that with dinlaws' stuff, but in the end, we decided not to and just let an independent dealer buy what he wanted, then took a few small loads to a local auction. I was very disappointed in the amount of money it brought, but I'm also disappointed that ds & ddil let some pieces of furniture go which they could have used now. Some things I might have tried harder to speak up for instead of letting dbil just have them, also, IF ds/ddil thought they could use them -- but they said they didn't want them and I certainly didn't have space for them.

(((LadyM))) -- I hope the rolling blackouts don't give y'all TOO much trouble.

So far, our power has stayed on. We had a few flickers around 3:00 pm, and since then, everything has been fine. I know other areas of our county have not been as lucky, and I am very, VERY thankful for our warm house tonight. I cooked supper early, just in case, but since then, I have baked some cookies and we took ds/family some. DH just HAD TO get out and see for himself if the roads were bad. I know. He is crazy. BUT -- the roads here were not bad at all.
The trees are covered with ice, and ds has a large branch across part of his driveway. His driveway makes a horseshoe in front of his house, so he was able to get into his garage, but he will need his father-in-law & his chainsaw to help him get this cleared. Several people reporting trees down on FB, but so far, so good here.
If it doesn't rain anymore, and I don't think it is supposed to, ds will not have any problems getting to work tomorrow. Schools are closed tomorrow though, and so is the bank -- which is unusual.
I'm still concerned about ds/ddil/dgd making it to Big City for dgd's rheumatologist appt Wed. but maybe they won't have to go early -- I forgot to ask what time the appt is. By Wed. afternoon, we are supposed to be back in the 40s.

Twins, maybe you'll get some of this before it's over.

Is it supposed to continue into Harriet's area, too? I hope Harriet checks in soon. I know they must be so busy with all that's going on in her household and her dd's.

I am beginning to wish fervently that I had put gas logs in our fireplace when we built. I was just stupid and stubborn. I am certainly glad dmom has them!
DS has them also, but his have not been turned on since dmil was living. I'd be kinda scared to try them without someone professional checking them out.

Well, I think I can easily mark 15 min. "quality time" off my list for today! Laundry + baking cookies. I feel very accomplished.
I also (finally) put the rearview mirror back in dh's truck, made dh a haircut appt, and texted with friend in another town.
I also spent some "fun time" reading and I plan to spend the rest of the evening doing just that!

[Harmony]

Our electric - I'm not sure if it's just gas powered facility or what. There are some atomic facilities though I don't know any close to us. They just built a big electric generating plant that's 100% solar but I don't think it services this area. Maybe they are just used to us consuming more with our hot temperatures? We have an on-call system which people can sign up for. They have the ability to turn off our hot water tank, our heater, and our air conditioner for an hour or 2 at a time. We get a small rebate every month for signing up for that. They are supposed to turn those things off when the usage is too high (not individually but on their grid). They come and install some sort of circuitry. We've had it in this house and in the last house too but I've never known it to be turned off.

Did some sewing this afternoon. I made a case to cover my wedge pillow I put up in back of my bed regular ones. Kinda like an upholstery job. I made the pattern and cut it out of nice soft white cotton and sewed it up. Turned out kinda nice.

Well that's my big accomplishment for the day.