A Terrific Tuesday

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

We were in a cloud for a long time here. Now I can at least see as far as the river (about 2 city blocks away.) Can't see any of the city to the west.

Just did a mile on the treadmill while reading links from Facebook.

I'm s2s, bed is made, laundry on the drying rack is folded and put away and the next load of laundry to be hung up just buzzed. So poof!

[Elizabeth]

Good morning all! I did not have dinner with friend, she did not want to get out in the cold because she has been ill. I got library books, yarn, and groceries. My plan was then to go home and get stuff done, but I got a call from a friend, who is having a hard time. She is a new widow and her husband had done absolutely nothing in the way of estate planning. At least her name was on the deed to the house (but not the mortgage). He had no life insurance beyond what was automatic at his company, and she cannot afford to keep the house. Yesterday, she found out her job was posted and they are looking for her replacement. She can't get a loan for a more affordable house without a job, and rentals like to see income as well. I ended up standing in the grocery aisle talking to her for about an hour.

When I did get home, there was not much time to do anything. I have a terrible smell in my refrigerator and freezer. It could be due to a sample from a sick cat I had to store, but that was weeks ago, so it seems late for that. The freezer has been cleaned. I found one item that I threw out, but did not find any item that smelled bad there. I cleaned the fridge shelf that had the sample (bagged well, of course). If that does not do it, I will clean the rest of the fridge as soon as I can.

More car grief: my dashboard has 5 lights behind it. Two of them have been out for a while, forming a pattern of on, off, on, off, on. It made the dash dimmer obviously, but I could see everything. Now, the leftmost light is out, and I cannot see the gas gauge or the temperature gauge. Very annoying. I am hoping I can replace light bulbs without removing the dash. If I do have to remove the dash, I will also get them to fix the turn signal, which works, but does not turn off after a turn. I have been manually turning it off.

I started my new niece's stuffed cat on the train this morning.

Thank you Lilac for mentioning checkbook balancing. It reminded me I need to transfer some money to cover the grocery check from yesterday.

ETA: Decided not to transfer money. If all checks clear, I still have $2.69. I get paid Friday and do have overdraft protection in case of bad arithmetic, so I should be ok.

[Twins' Mom]

And going again. I think Moses needs a trip to the vet - he has a sore on one of his back ankles that he won't let me near. Given that I'm away tomorrow and then Friday afternoon - Sunday afternoon I should probably have it looked at. Last night I did round up a dog sitter for the weekend. Had been strung along w/o an answer from first choice since Sat p.m. so called the next choice and got it squared away.

This round:
-call to cancel insurance on dsis' house
-call to turn off electricity in dsis' houses
-hang up delicates and start a second load
-make bank deposit slip for my bank, will have to go in at dsis' bank
-walk the dogs

After this I will head out to bank and grocery.

And the checkbook discussion reminds me that I haven't been able to log in to mother's bank accounts since their interface changed. I need to try resetting the password and then will probably need to call about it. Says system is unavailable.

[Elizabeth]

I had a meeting scheduled, but the organizer said I really did not need to be there, so I left. I looked up what is entailed in replacing dash board lights. It is supposed to take about 2 hours. After considering the cost of two hours worth of mechanic's time + cost of rental car to get me to work, I have decided to open Elizabeth's Own Car Shop. Won't be tonight, I have DD12 for Girls' Night Out. I think I will see if she wants to shop for a cabinet for her porcelain baby dragons (and other breakables).

[Dove]

It's snowing here in Doveland . So beautiful. I'm thankful I don't have to drive anywhere in it today.

I'm several days behind here so just jumping in where I am. Drinking some hot cocoa & taking a break from packing up Christmas decorations. Started yesterday & have been steadily plugging away at it this morning. Only have the living room & tree left to do.

Over the summer I splurged on several large clear plastic storage bins with clamp on lids & moved all the decorations from smaller cardboard boxes to these. This is my first year enjoying the new system & I'm very happy with it. It has saved me lots of time. The bins are close to twice the size of the boxes so less trips up & down the stairs, & they are only a little bit heavier. I used a large marker & computer paper to write what room each bin is for, & slid it into the box on a short end so it shows through. The boxes were packed pretty tightly but the bins are nice & roomy so nothing is getting squished. The lids are grooved so they stack, & because they are all the same size they fit so nicely against the wall in the attic.

Hope you all are having a wonderful day!

[Harmony]

Sounds like a good system, Dove.

Read through, but just can't reply to much right now. I'm beyond stressed. NOBODY HAS TO READ ANY OF THIS, I'M JUST READY TO EXPLODE...

Ran out to jobsite, the one that's way way out there, the one I get lost each and every time I go. I could explain why north south east west does not work, and why road names do not work (same as subdivision names and sometimes one or the other are on the street signs) and how long roads are one name at one end and change to another at the other end. I'd just bet there is not another place like this in all of florida. Hopelessly lost this morning. Back and forth. If I'd explain it all, anybody who knows any of this part of Florida would be able to pinpoint me.

It's at least the 3rd time in the past couple weeks I've been lost out there. GPS wouldn't help, it tries to take us a totally different direction....sometimes my gps doesn't help at all, I feel like it is a companion that I am taking along with me. If it doesn't want to go the way I know I should, it has a one-track mind trying to get me to go back its way...redirect, redirect, redirect, ad noseum (sp?).

Then I had to go another place way the other direction and lug in big huge metal pieces all rusty, and the big burley men inside the shop just watched me struggle...

Bad accident on the way back from that had traffic going from 3 lanes to 1 and volunteer standing watching instead of directing cars.... and other place had big road construction going putting both directions into 1 lane, wait wait wait wait...

I am so stressed I am dizzy. Almost fell over getting up. I hope I'm not getting sick.
I have things of my own I need to take care of and I can never seem to do it. Never have time or energy to exercise, take care of my health and eyes,

Tried to simplify and get rid of volunteer job at church and they made a dinner they expected me to go to in next town at an earlier time...it just never seems to quit. DH sick and stuck on island with limited transport back and forth has meeting at church....nobody understands our life. NO BODY.

I'm going back to bed.

(Felinefriend) I hope you feel better soon. It's good you canceled the procedure. You need to be well first.

[FelineFriend]

THANK YOU, EVERYONE, who gave me Get Well Wishes! It's so NICE of you! ♥

The Children's Mucinex is so wonderful, to help, too! I really like it. We had 2 unopened bottles, from Costco, but I never used it before. They state, on the pkg. if you have Thyroid problems or any other certain medications, to first ask your doctor. I asked my nurse, the Dr. said it was okay, which delights me. I'm so glad DH prompted me to not do the colonoscopy this week. I would have brought my germs, to the hospital, and may have made the Dr., nurses, other healthcare workers AND patients sick. They don't "need" this bug, but don't know yet if it's only a virus or what, yet. Will find out in a few days. But I'm glad others won't be getting ill from me. DH said he felt, the way I was coughing, feeling, and all, how the colonoscopy would have taken way too much out of me. True! I'm glad I listened to him.

I got up at 8:50 a.m., and it's super thick fog here! I can't believe it. I did s2s, dressed, breakfast, medications, coffee, started writing a thank you card, to a lady for sending me a b-day card, when the UPS man arrived. My Dfriend, in Virginia, sent me Dr. Phil's new book, released yesterday, for Christmas, called "The 20/20 Diet." The UPS man got back into his truck and shouted for me to wait and how he has a small other package for me. He brought out an Omaha Meats cooler, so DH came to get it, and carried it in the house for us. I got a "kick" out of the UPS man saying a "small pkg." Dson/Ddil ordered us:
- Gourmet Jumbo Franks,
- 2 pork chops,
- 2 Filet Mignon Steaks,
- 8 Steak Burgers,
- Stuffed Baked Potatoes,
- 4 Chocolate Lava Cakes.
Everything is dry frozen, we have it all in the freezer, and it's going to be a pleasure to enjoy these treats.

Harmony, I'd be so ANGRY! How in the world do they expect people to know what street is what and how to find their destinations.

Dove, How much snow is expected at your house? Snow's so pretty when it covers trees, I think.

Elizabeth, It's so GR8 how you have your own car shop! I inherited a corner curio cabinet, which is in my spare room, and it's so nice for tiny breakables and collections. Dsis told me, when she used to run her own housekeeping business, how all homes had collections, but the homes, which displayed their collections all together, like on shelves, in baskets, or on window sills, looked more clean and tidy, compared to the homes, which displayed their collections all over the house, in a haphazard fashion. She told me, she's not against collections, but if you display them apart from each other, it adds to a more cluttered look. Also, I'm reading a book, by the Messies Anonymous founder, Sandra Felton, called "Organized for Life." She states how she learned that "Cleanies" or homemakers who were on top of things, were average, and had lives of their own, and a clean orderly home, would stop collecting, when they had too many on a window sill (or wherever) and they stopped. They didn't want/need to be overrun with too much stuff. I thought that was smart, too. I decided then and there, how my collections ARE enough! It's a good thing, as Martha would say, to organize collections together.

Oh, Twins! (((Moses))). I hope he can get help and get healed soon, too. How old is he?

(((Nancy))), I hope your sniffles go away soon!

I'm going to run and "see" if I have enough dark LOL for a load, b/c DH helps with laundry. But I might not have enough to wash.

Have a TERRIFIC TUESDAY, Everybody!

TTFN.

[Harriet]

((Harmony)) Well, we certainly understand that you are RIGHT, even if we don't get all the particulars. You are EXACTLY right.

A lot of focus work here today.

Although the tree stand (too heavy today with back twinge on my mind) is still at entryway, one of the boys can manage that for me when they deal with the tree, which is out on the lawn. Actually, I'd bet dd16 is strong-backed enough to do all of this when she gets home, if I give her some garden gloves - hmmm... ...

My Christmas storage boxes are lined up along the master closet high shelf (dusted first), C 1, C 2, C 3, C 4, C 5. Yep, had to go over to an additional box this year! Tried to avoid it, but my perfect annual packing just finally wasn't going to work any more! Somebody needs to invent trans-dimensional engineering, like the Tardis, so my boxes will be bigger on the inside than the outside.

Let the hens out to enjoy the sunshine for a while. I sat in the lawn chair and played bodyguard.

[DeeClutter]

I understand, Harmony. Had a dickens of a time trying to find db's address on our GPS. They live in a development -nice one at that- but it was hard to find on the GPS. And on the way there (a week ago or so) it was telling me to turn left (now). I was at a light and obeyed. Dh and dd started yelling at me -"where are you going?" -as traffic was coming toward me. It was a one way 3-lane street. Luckily I was able to immediately pull into a driveway which conveniently took me to the other side of the building and out on the correct street. I was looking too! Very thankful we didn't end up in one of those one-way crashes. Hope things are going smoother for you as the day goes on.

Haven't had any more to do today on our annual reports. Hoping I get some more in today or tomorrow.

Slept great until 2:50 am. Then I was awake till nearly 6. Dh woke me at 8 as we were to meet his db/dsil for breakfast at 9. I've decided that I really don't like breakfast any more. At least not at the restaurants they want to go to -nearly none of which would be my choice. Wondering if we can talk them into lunch once in a while.

Snoozed a bit this afternoon.

Harriet, DD loved the entryway and was particularly happy to see the placement of my Mom's doily as she came in the door. Today, so far, I've done NOTHING.

Talked to ds-A last night briefly. He's pretty 'down' because they really haven't had much snow (I know -good for him, bad for others). Wouldn't be so bad but he has about $150k out in bills that just don't seem to come in. Its always a tough time of year for him. Holidays and taxes come first for most people. He said money is just trickling in and if he had a good postal day, it would go a long ways in making him feel better.

[Sadie]

Hello Dear Ladies,

Another COLD day here.

Had lots of ambition. . And I need to get back at things. Spent an hour doing stretches and exercises. Washed a load of Dbrother's clothes. Made lunch. Unloaded DW.

Need to put Dbrother's laundry away. continue loading DW and cleaning kitchen.

Dee-How is your dson that had shoulder surgery?

Kathryn, I wondered how people in apt building fared during power outages.

Yes found that GPS is not always reliable too. Remember one time I went with DH and it kept taking us through all these neighborhoods until we got to the right one. I said wouldn't it have been easier to stick to the main road until we got to the right turn off? Yes and we took the main road back, despite the GPS wanting us to wander through neighborhoods again.

Gotta tear myself away and do----something.