The Sunday Scene

[CathyS]

I've been doing all the stinky jobs every second day. Doing the litter boxes every second day and having it on my schedule has been working. Now I want to divide the stinky jobs. Garbage cans will now be done on the days I'm not doing kitty litter.

I did an inventory on the chest freezer. LOTS of tomatoes! (8 bags is a lot of us) Dh brought in 2 massive red peppers this morning and now they have been chopped up and they are in the freezer. I also found a half bag from last year.

LadyM tell your ds that my dd is paying $3000. per month to live in a 600 Sq. Ft. condo in downtown Toronto. Yesterday she told me they found a 1000 Sq. Ft. top half of a small house on the east side of Toronto. They plan on moving between now and Christmas.

[Harriet]

Dd26 came, bringing late breakfast from fast food, and worked more on clearing out here. But she just brought her car and had to go from here to her new dmil's house, so yet another weekend in which the bulk of things just don't change. She did fill her backseat full, including an extra-large utility tub of items. She clipped Tobias' claws for him.

The power went out while she was here - evidently widespread. We didn't get to do a few things we meant to because of that. In fact, she never knew it came back on, because it did so while she and I were greeting her brother's family outside.

Ds and family came over after church in the 4 wheeler and ddil took out my stitches. This is the eleventh day, so just at the right time. Gave the kids popsicles! Listened to their report on Promotion Day at their Sunday School. Heard the report on ds' travels to WI.

Need to follow Cathy to complete kitty potty chores. Visitors the other day complimented on what a fastidiously clean cat we have and it's true that he keeps himself a well-groomed Esquire kind of tuxedo guy. Plus, I disguise any view of his potty area well. But you do have to keep after the litter.

Mmmmmm... banana bread
Mmmmmm... pancakes
ya'll make me hungry.

Twins', ouch, ouch, feel better.

[Lady Maverick]

paying $3000. per month to live in a 600 Sq. Ft

***Jaw dropping*** WOW. I know prices are different in various parts of the world but sometimes I forget how big of a difference.
DGS27 is renting a home with a yard (fenced). It is located in middle of the city in a nice quiet neighborhood. This little house was built in their backyard for their mother to live in. (the mother died). The 630 sq ft house has 4 rooms - living room, kitchen, bedroom and bath. DGS27 pays $575 rent a month plus utilities.
I can only guess that wages are also different in various parts of the world. DGS27 has what is considered to be a good IT job (for this area) making $18 an hour.

DGS18 called at 10pm last night to chat while he was driving 3 hours to his destination. I love getting those long calls and getting caught up on his life happenings. DGS18 told us about a 20 year old family friend that struggled to find an affordable place to live in their town. He is living in a spare room at their home. I didn't ask if the friend was paying rent.

I made a couple family size boxes of shells & cheese. It is 100% processed food so the teens will be happy.

bittersweet - The thought of your banana bread brings back some good memories. I love the smell of it baking. Enjoy!

[bittersweet]

Wowsers, Cathy!!! The housing prices in Toronto are beyond outrageous!! How on earth do people afford it? The prices here are high, but - as far as I know - they're nowhere near as high as that!!! I expect that the prices are higher near downtown, but just wow!! I know they're also very high in Vancouver, but I'm not sure if they're quite that high!

I need to leave in about half an hour to go pick up a couple of things and then off to visit dMum.

[CathyS]

Harriet it's so important to not become "nose blind" to the litter box(es), which is why they are now on my schedule. I came inside from being out of the house for s few hours and P U !! It really stunk. Plus the garbage can in the bathroom is the nastiest smell in the house, so I need to really keep on top of that as well. Dh doesn't mind if garbage cans are piled high. What a difference doing things 3 times a week instead of twice makes to the odor level.

[Ramblinrose]

Taking a break… I am 85% done. Oh my I am filling our big garbage bad with so much trash and I have several boxes and bags ready for Goodwill.

I am making sure every thing has a proper home so my office will stay neat. This house only has two room closets, two small hall closets and one master bedroom closet making storage really difficult. Anyway it was good to keep downsizing. If I didn’t think it was something my son would like later dawn the road, put it went. Keeping that thought in my mind really helped as I worked on my closets this weekend.

LadyM… when my son turned 14 we rearranged our home for him. In my previous home we all slept upstairs in two bedrooms. It was my then husband idea that we switch my sons room to the front of the hose where he had his own bedroom and use of he front living room. He also had his own entryway … front door…. Out of the house.

To make sure he came home before curfew I used a trick my friend taught me. She set her alarm clock for the time her son needed to be home and he had to come in, kiss her good night while she was in bed, and turn off the alarm before it went off.

Later when my son started to drive and had friends spend the night, I made everyone turn their keys over to me so they couldn’t leave the house once they were in. They knew I would do mom patrol sometime in the middle of the night and if they kept a spare set of keys to sneak out during the night, they knew they could never spend the night with me again. Never had it happen

I have about 45 minutes worth of work to do so I need to get started. I want this done so I can put my feet up

[Lady Maverick]

DS16 has a friend here following him around as he is working on vehicles. This friend doesn't come over very often so I'm not sure how long he will last staying up with DS16. It is 106F (feels like) outside but DS16 works & plays in the heat all the time and it doesn't bother him. His friend isn't used to the heat so probably won't last long. What is DS16 doing? I'm not sure but do know that he ....
** Took battery out of 1989 pickup and took it to nearest auto store to test it. The battery tested bad and was under warranty so DS16 brought a new battery home, and now the pickup starts without a problem.
** While in town he picked up 15 cheeseburgers from Braums to restock ready-to-eat food in our refrigerator.
** Found the dip stick loose in another pickup which made the oil come out? I didn't understand that, but I am not mechanically inclined so I just nod. DS16 bought some oil and now that pickup has correct level of oil.
** DS16 attempted to use JB Weld to repair the hole in the driveshaft. He didn't expect it to work but he wanted to try. It didn't work.

[Nancy]

Neighbors had a power surge not sure why but they had a lot of issues it effects two homes that I know of.
Mine is okay but they had to turn cable stuff off and do something mine was out briefly while they did stuff there.
Cable brain box too called some thing diff. there's got fried.
and his automatic sprinkler brain controller not sure what it's called, and their oven mic. not sure if the main one was effected or both.
Then the power co. came and did something there too.
So my power was out briefly and I had to reset clocks on oven & mic. & in the bed room.
Checked freezer it was okay.

I was cleaning up the kitchen when it went out, counters look good, I cleaned up after cooking adventures this morning.
The dishes are put away and soup is in jars now. It looks so much better now in the kitchen.
I did room by room while the power was out and made sure tech. stuff was up and going and another walk about in the basement
happened.

So a not boring day here.
Forgot to put one of the squashes in the soup so will do some thing with that one too.

-----
My inerds are back to normal. Yea!
I have refilled the coffee pod holder / carousel.
Trash has been dumped.
Feels more like I"m back on track today than I have been in a week or two yea!

[CathyS]

So... I asked my husband... and his "40 plus years as a mechanic" says...

if the dip stick is in the bottom of the block, it might be coming up and out that way. Is it possible to buy another dipstick? It might not be the right dip stick for that make and model and...

Using a "product" to try to fix the driveshaft will make it go out of balance. "Better to just buy a new drive shaft if you can" He said to try wreckers and resellers.

We are having salmon casserole tonight.

[Lady Maverick]

Nancy - Hopefully the electricity will stay on and play nice. Glad you didn't have a problem with your electrical devices.

Cathy - Thank you for the information!

We are choosing to let DS16 experience the pain of his youthful decisions. He currently is working on 3 vehicles that he has broken down. The driveshaft broke because it fell out when he raised that pickup up to look cool. OR it might have fallen out because he decided to buy a used axle and install it with friends. He didn't listen when mentors told him it was a bad idea so now he is experiencing the pain and frustration of having broken vehicles. DS16 still thinks it is necessary to "roll coal" every time he goes somewhere in a diesel pickup. It might be impressive to a 16-year-old but to an old person like me it looks like a good way to blow up your old pickup that has already lived its best life and is barely hanging on. DS16 plans to buy a used driveshaft and install it, but he keeps spending his money on junk food, going to rodeos, fairs and the girlfriend. So....we are just sitting over here letting him experience the consequences of his driving & spending choices. We expect DS16 will eventually get tired of having broken vehicles and start driving them in a gentler way.