'scrips and horses

I spent over an hour on the phone with Blue cross, CVS pharmacy, and the physician's assistant for my ortho doctor all because the new script was written "either generic or brand" for the pain killer Ultram.  The nephrologist I saw said, oh no, brand only.  He told me that the generic was not the same as the brand; that the generic is a steroid and hard on the kidneys, where the brand was neither of these things.  So when the ortho doctor was about to write the drug, we explained what the nephrology doctor said, and  so he wrote his script.  And damned he wrote "either", and BC/BS sent me this vague letter about coverage for the brand, since the generic was available.  Therefore, phone calls.  Hopefully the ortho doctor will re-write the order.  Meanwhile, what was used to fill the current  supply?  I dunno.

I have had a very sore pair of knees, after my jaunt at the mall.  I am in terrible shape from my last surgery, and it is hard to do much exercise solely in the bedroom, (no jokes, please)  I do them, but I don't see the progress the physical therapist says is there, in small increments.  So I keep doing the ones he told me to do, as well as the ones from the original therapists.  There are subtle differences, but I just do them all.  And seeing the mall nearly empty, of both customers and stores, was sad, although my daughter had told me how little was surviving there.  I got to admit, I buy everything on Amazon or eBay, instead of chasing around trying to find things.  The only exception is heavy stuff, like furniture.

God this is a poor post, whining on about my ailments.  I will tell a better story.

When I was about 12 years old, my grandfather borrowed a horse from the next neighbor for me to ride while we were there (WV) at the farm, on vacation.  I couldn't have been so happy before then, being a horse crazy girl living in a big city (Miami).  He was fun to watch even when I wasn't riding, and he apparently learned what I carried when I showed up (grain).  But toward the end the owner showed up to claim  him again, to move some of his cattle.  The thing was, he was hard to catch.  After Dan and my grandfather had chased him around a bit, I stepped up to the fence (me on the outside) he ran up to me, and I took hold of his halter (a bad thing to do, really).  And so the men came and claimed him, and were suitably impressed with my skill.  All due to horse food.  And my grandfather, a real tightwad normally, indulged me enough to buy a horse brush, and so I learned the old adage, that the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man (or a girl!).

Grandad borrowed the horse every year for 2 or 3 more visits, I thought of him as mine.  Until he was sold.  And so I learned (from Ben Franklin) the truth of " neither a borrower nor a lender be ".

Come to think of it, that horse was a blue-eyed paint, much like my Blondie horse.  I had her from 4 years old, to 26 years old.  The only equine I ever sold were the little pony and her two foals.  She was a mean pony, until you had a grip on her, when she gave up until the next time.  And neither of my kids could care any less about horses.  My son even told me he would never have horses because they were too much work.  He has a point.

Silence is golden

Our land-line telephone doesn't work.  It has a dial tone, after dialing it rings once, then silence and some pops and buzz, and nothing after that.  I called the phone company (on the cell phone), and described the situation.  The agent checked the line from her end, agreed that there are "issues" with the line and said she would send an email with information about a technician visit.  When the email arrived, it set a visit for this coming Tuesday, but there is therapy scheduled, and C's jury duty may raise its bumpy head, please no.  We won't be able to plan our schedule until we know about the jury call on Monday night.  All those idle citizens that leap at the $40 a day for every day they are on call, not everyone just postpones things and trots off to the courthouse.  Anyway, the lack of robocalls is amazing, no jumping up to catch the phone before the answering machine picks up.  Very quiet.

The damn stink bugs have once again put in an appearance, clinging to the windows (outside! thank god) and making crunch sounds when they are stepped on.  Hopefully I can get in the car and shut the door before they arrive in the car.  I have a horror of them, the only saving thought is that they are very slow and stupid, easily caught in a tissue, and although they fly, it is done very slowly and with much noise.

The old grey cat has still not been seen, I guess for certain she died.  I just wish we knew for sure that she is not suffering.

I am trying to straighten up the room, but not being able to carry much as I use my walker.  I don't need decisions, only someone to carry things from here to there.  So I sort on the bed, trying to avoid "churning", where what is in A goes to B, B things go to C, and C things go back to A.  Net result; zilch progress.

I wonder, if I donate stuffed animals to Goodwill, will they see the ear tag for "Melissa and Doug" and know this isn't a run-of-the-mill toy?  The single 10 inch rabbit cost $25, and I hate the idea that it will be dragged around by one ear.....

So hard to give things you love to someone else.  I should have thought this through when I bought the rabbit.  Maybe I will donate my new winter coat instead, never worn because it is brown.  Just...brown.  Very warm and puffy.  I'm pretty sure there is an unworn blue coat in the coat closet too, but I can't get upstairs to look.  We didn't have much of a winter last year.  At least, I didn't.  I was in rehab and nursing homes from July 2017 until February 28th in 2018.  My only trips out were in an ambulance to doctor visits, if the weather was cold they left the heater in the ambulance running while they packed me up.  I don't remember snow.

Now I will leave you with a more cheerful item:

Touch ID

I have finally (I hope) mastered the use of the touch pad on my MacBook Air.  I am so very tired of tapping my ID every time I move from one app to another, this fingerprint method on identifying myself is one of the main reasons I got this new MacBook.  When I first started working out the how-to for this feature, I messed it up and shut down all access to everything.  C finally got it sorted, but I became leery of trying again.  But I really had no choice, I changed by MacBook password and didn't apparently write it down correctly (sigh) so off to youTube to find a fix.  It was a breeze to do, I really didn't need all the stress I felt, getting myself into the hole.  So I thought I would re-attempt the fingerprint ID, and it seems to be working, so far, fingers crossed (my it is hard to type that way ).


My site counter just went over 45,000.  I realize there are lots of blogs that get 45,000 in an hour or less,  but I bet there aren't many with a running blog for 15 years.  So if you are just browsing along here, you won't run out of posts to read very soon.  Whether what I write is fun or even OK, give it a trial.  My therapist says this isn't a blog but (jokingly) a memoir.  I re-read them myself, and sometimes correct or add to them too.

Why do I have so much time to devote to this?  Well, back in June of 2017 I made one of the stupidest decisions of my life; I decided to have my knee replaced because it was so painful, I couldn't even completely go around the grocery store without medicating beforehand.  I went home after a week in rehab, and that first night I fell, getting tangled in the wheelchair pedals, and ripped several stitches inside my knee.  So back to the ED to get surgery #2.  With it, I fell at least once a day, and sometimes more; the problem was that my knee buckled, and it moved forward or to one side, while the rest of me headed for the floor.  I had a new physician for surgeries #4, 5, 6.  But here it is 2 years later, still getting therapy twice a week, still falling (tho less than before) and still unable to walk without a walker.  My current goal is to get to using just a cane, that doesn't seem so hard of an accomplishment does it?  Most of the time between surgery #1 and #6  I was in the hospital getting IV antibiotics for the infection I caught.  Number six placed a new knee that works pretty well.  My first physician was caught in a prescription sting, and has more things to worry about than my knee.  My current osteo doctor is terrific, especially having to follow another doctor's mistakes.  Anyway, that is why I have so much time on my hands; I still can't climb stairs without great assistance, and am therefore relegated to the ground floor bedroom.  There is just so much reading, writing, sewing, knitting, and so on, I can do, thus I also sleep a lot.  No pain meds unless I am in dire pain.  If you are considering a knee or other surgery, ask yourself what you will do if you need 2 years of rehab?  And then think again.

Most of the above is detailed in earlier posts, but this is just a paragraph and if you find it boring you can just hop past it.

One of our old old outdoor cats has disappeared, and our guess is that she has gone somewhere private to die.  She must be around 16 years old, ancient for an outdoor cat.  We had made the garage a sanctuary for her and her buddy cat, cool in the summer (not too cool) and warm in the winter, as both of the outdoor cats were drop-offs, just appeared one day at feeding time.  I have only touched them a few times, and no one can pick them up.  We still have 4 indoor cats, all 4 pound kitties, 10 years old now.  When these are gone, and so is the horse (26 now), no more pets.  N used to call the horse a four-legged lawn ornament, which is pretty accurate these days.

Still no calls for C for jury duty, thankfully.  No repair on the Subaru, Monday is the soonest they can work on the brake, so I extended the rental car until Monday (instead of this past Friday).  The logistics of getting all three vehicles where they belong, reminds me of the fox, hen and corn puzzle.

Only more expensive.

Pill catastrophe

We have two cats, unrelated, that have hyperthyroidism that need to be pilled twice a day.  One is not happy with the process, but resigned.  The other cat is a pain to medicate, writhing and struggling, but maybe getting a little better as time passes.  I had a cat several years ago with what I believe is the same diagnosis, but she was impossible to get a pill down at all, never mind twice a day.  In the end, I had her put down, damn it.  It is always the one most loved that goes the first.

We had a car problem.  On Friday, as C was driving home, all of a sudden one of the rear brakes started shrieking.  He called the dealer as soon as we made it home, and they said to bring it in at 3 pm.  They checked it out, and determined that the rear pads, rotors, calipers, drum, is there any other part of a brake system? were in need of replacement.  But, of course, they lacked one of the parts.  C asked if it was OK to drive, and the tech said, "as little as possible".  When C told me, I said "rental".  So we now have a Nissan Rogue 2002 for the week.  Not willing to take a chance with brakes.  It is damned hard for me to get in, as the seat is higher, but getting out is a breeze.  Many visits this week that can't be rescheduled.  Sigh.

Dinner time, bye for now...

attic and trash

We (mostly C) have been stripping the attic.  It has taken place beginning with
Christmas of 2018, with the credo of "anything that comes out of the attic doesn't go back in".  So as the boxes and whatever makes it down, it goes in one of three piles:  keep, pitch, donate.  Donate is mostly bound for Goodwill, but nothing that is nasty, which rules out clothing.  The pitch pile is the largest, and three trips to the transfer trash site have already made the pick-up truck handier than the trunk of a dozen cars.  The keep pile is very small, and goes into the storage unit nearby.  Eventually it will end up in the other two piles, but not now.  Here are examples of what went where:

Keep:  microscope, brass weights for a balance in a lovely wooden box, a small
Christmas tree,  a rocking chair, a section of a modular couch; one of my mother-in-law's oil paintings, surprisingly nice; photo albums; tons of yarn; wreaths and wind socks; old functional cameras that have slowly been sold to KEH camera store; my collection of fountain pens; the cross stitch kits; ceramic glazes; sewing machine and fabric, thread, etc.; taxes, computers (at least 5); for now, R's stuff, until they can be winnowed.


Pitch:  all the baby furniture and car seats, that don't conform to modern safety regs; school books, notes, awards; ( and the books cost a fortune too); 8 track tapes; paperback books; ancient sleeping bags; tents in awful shape; all the nasty clothes; my wedding dress (45 years old), an evening dress (was I ever that thin?), all yellow and Krispy; most of the toys and games and stuffed animals; bowling trophies, all my riding ribbons (photo of the pile); bowling shoes; boxes of "stuff" that were never opened when we moved here 35 years ago; film cameras that are broken; do-dads and souvenirs that I don't even recognize; the list goes on and on.


Donate:  stuffed animals that are still in perfect condition (and there aren't very many);  a few (3) collector's dolls, that were my mother's weak spot and I wish I had given them to my aunt, and then it would have been out of my hands; guitar; keyboard; a huge electric oven, used once; a reel-to-reel tape recorder with tapes; a vinyl to CD machine, used once; all the vinyl records (4 boxes) to a collector in town; books and books and books, to the library (hardback only); the other oil paintings, they are in nice frames; bowling balls (eventually); jigsaw puzzles, never opened; it is hard to find stuff that isn't worn, damaged, or not intact.

It makes me tired just looking over this list.

It's not here

And it's not there either.

I hate to look for things more than anything.  When I put things away, or find something that is out of place, I think, "Where would I look for this first?" and that is where I put it.  Sometimes it is great, other times it's "Where else would I look for this?"  These organizing books are everywhere, and so are magazines and TV shows, and each one has a similar outline.  When C took a truck load of good stuff to Goodwill, he said there was a looog line waiting at the drive-up door, he left and came back later.  The Goodwill people said it is all due to the Marie books.  I, at least, am pacing myself (from a distance, as I still can't climb stairs very well.  Or at all. )

My friend P says she looks in two places, and then buys another.  I see her point.

Ever since I took my old and new MacBook Air to the geek squad for them to do a migration, where everything on the old drive goes on the new one, I have been frustrated at how frequently every thing asks for user name and password.  Over and over.  First it will ask for user and PW when the application starts, and again after it has started but not saved.  And my PWs are Long, 10 or more characters, so I don't just whip it up.  Sometimes I have to do it the next time I start the app again too, hence all my PW books are written in pencil.  And all my pencils have arrow erasers, too.  I am glad they did the migration, well worth the $100, but why did they need a pw again and again?  And why won't the new Air ask for it only once?  There must be a setting I am overlooking.  I have a book just for this model of Air, but I haven't read it thru.

I saw the nephrologist on Friday, but he had no new ideas to try to reduce the swelling in my feet and legs.  Again he said I need compression socks that go clear over my knees.  I will have to make some calls tomorrow (Monday) to find some that are large enough.    At least he didn't poke my ankle and say,   "Huh..  They don't feel swollen to me" like the last doctor did.  I mean, with my legs downhill the top of my feet look like the shell of a turtle.  Round.

I bought two of the InfiniKloud drives that are supposed to back up your computer with a "single click".  For me, it was many steps, and then it did -- nothing.  So I sent it back, fortunately to an address in CA and not in China.  I didn't even unwrap the other drive.  I still don't have a refund, even though it was delivered on the 19th.  An ill-omened date for me it seems.  I have left it all to PayPal to sort out.

XPO to you too

I can't believe the mess this mattress purchase has made.  The one we were due to get on July 25 Was finally listed as Lost.  Amazon said we could get a refund to spend on Amazon.  Order another bed.  I said, no, I wanted this one, and to reorder this one.  I mean, two mattresses couldn't both disappear, right?  So, number two seemed OK; it was scheduled for delivery on Aug 19th.  The truck driver even called and said they were on the way, and that they would give us a call 30 minutes before they arrived.  We were home from midnight to midnight, and never got a call, never mind an actual delivery.  So I called the carrier, XPO, the very same carrier as last time.  First the story was that the item never reached them from Amazon.  This is the same story they used with bed #1.  I explained about the phone call in the morning, and after a great amount of time as my blood pressure rose, she passed me to another agent.  She had the new story that the truck broke down, or the driver got sick, or or or... So I asked for her manager.  I at least got someone I could understand, but the story was the same, except that they had the bed in the warehouse. I suggested they shove it on a truck and zoom it to us... they are only a 40 minute drive.  She said, they only come to our town on Mon Wed Fri so it would have to wait until Wednesday.  I am afraid I completely lost my cool.  I said, now I'm sure you are honest, but someone between your warehouse and my bedroom is enjoying my first bed.  And I don't mean to be crabby, but I have had it.  I suggested they rent a U Haul shove my mattress into it and hit the road.  I will pay for the U Haul.  Oh she said, I don't have the authority to do that, like I'd asked for her bank account number.  She swears it will be delivered Wed, early, so I won't have to cancel my therapy,  ho ho.  I must sound really stupid I guess,  anyway she hung up on me.  My guess that when Wednesday rolls around, we will go to therapy at 1 o'clock, and they will call then.

Gads, I have to finish this later, my blood pressure is rising again as I write this...

OK it is now Thursday and!!!
I have my bed.  They came around 10 am yesterday, whisked the old mattress away, and brought in the new one.  It couldn't have taken them 10 minutes all told.  And yes, they called first, mainly for directions.  The new mattress feels incredibly good, and should be good for 20 years like the last one, though I don't expect to last as long, myself.

I bought a Crane tabletop fan to replace a very small fan that tries its best to blow hard enough to make a tissue flutter, but doesn't.  The new one was inexpensive, whisper quiet, and has three levels of speed.  So far the lowest level is fine.  Made in the USA, too.


                                                                     

Found money

OK, here is the story.
I have been merrily buying this and that, bread maker, mattress, house washing, new MacBook Air, and so on.  I don't check my statement, I just use bill pay for all the bills that aren't on autopay.  And there is a reasonable amount left each month, and so it goes.  But one day last week, I printed out the statement for June 1 to the current date.  And casting an eye, I saw a very large deposit from early June.  There were two deposits for that date, the other one was for less than $50 where C had deposited it.  The huge amount, was not mine.

Now comes the difficult part.  C insisted that I call the bank and tell them of the error.  I demurred, but lay there all night wrestling with my conscience.  In the morning I called the bank, and they were quite blasé about the whole thing, so I asked the teller, would you have found this error if I did not tell you?  She said, no, probably not, unless the customer started a search herself.  She said, the woman (name on the deposit information) must have a big enough balance that this $$$$ shortfall did not show up,  from early June to August.  I asked her, will the teller who mixed these up be fired, whatever.  She laughed and said Oh no, this happens all the time.  Which made me kind of sick to my    stomach.

So the moral is, keep those little slips the teller hands out when depositing money, checks, whatever.  There may be an error in either direction, and that slip is all you have to prove you did (or did not) hand over the money, and that it goes in your account.

And my halo is only a little brighter, but it is there.

Robocalls

I have been mega annoyed at the number of "spam" phone calls we are getting.  I buy stuff on line, but I always use my cell phone number, which I never answer.  I do check the messages.  Anyway, there are some vendors (?) that use real live people.  Here are examples...

"Grandma?" I find these really annoying, I have no grandchildren and I would like to shine them on, but it is too much effort.  You'd think they would realize that this ploy has been exposed in magazines and on line.

"click"  The ones that promise an excellent virus protection and a free puppy.  When they pause for a breath, I ask, Have you ever heard of Malwarebytes? "click". Guess they did recognize the name of a great anti-virus program.

This is the best one, and I may have already covered it here before.  I am too lazy to look through hundreds of pages to find out, so if you have heard it before, just pass on by.  I got a phone call, offering all kinds benefits, and when he paused for a breath, I said, "Don't you feel the slightest guilt at working over the confused elderly to take their money because you spun some sort of lie?  Money they may need for groceries, etc."  And the caller shouted, really shouted, "You cannot speak to me this way!  You are NOT my mother!"And then he crashed the phone down.  My ears rang for several minutes after that tirade.  My guess is that his mother DID chastise him.  Regularly.

A friend has caller ID and a really persuasive child's voice.  She answers using that voice, and when she gets tired of acting like a 4 year old, she says, wait, I'll tell my mommy about you"  And then she puts the phone down, screams "Mommy!!" and leaves the phone off the hook until the caller gives up.  Some are really patient.

We used to get 2 or 3 calls like this a day.  Now we get 10 or more every day, sometimes back to back.  For me to answer the phone means I have to grab my walker, hobble over to the phone (it is not far, but I usually have a numb bum) and answer just as the answering machine picks up, and they hang up.  Maybe that was Publisher's Clearing House calling to tell me I'm the big winner?  Or my sister-in-law, we keep each other in stitches?  And they are wasting my time and stealing the use of my phone, which isn't cheap anymore.

Well, I have nothing more to add currently so off I go.  Take care, there are lots of crazy people out there!

computers and bread

I corresponded with Small Dog Electronics about my problems with my MacBook (where I bought my last 2 laptops), and they said it would cost $65 to crack it open for a quick see and then repair might run $200 - 300, he said that was too much to invest in such an "old" computer.  I bought it as a refurbished model and have used only 40 GB of  240 GB, so I will feel no remorse if I broke it.  I will get a new (not refurbished) one.   It is 4 years old for me, but is a 6 year old computer for specs.  I have the latest OS and lots of space - 240 GB, so it is something else wrong.  I need a new 'puter.

Yesterday my poor feet actually fit in my pair of hush puppies, not comfortably mind you, but a significant improvement.  The key is to keep them up as much as possible, and put pressure after the up-on-sitting.  Hence the need for a laptop that doesn't make me want to throw it out the window.

It is 2 am now and I am back to bed.  I will finish this tomorrow.

I got a new MacBook Air at Best Buy 2 days ago.  Right off the bat I crashed it, so all it would do, wherever I went and whatever I did, it would say. 'user name?  Password?' and I was ready to take it back to Best Buy.  But C took a look, and over about 3 hours got it back in shape.  The problem, partly, is due to the Touch ID button, the one that is supposed to keep you from having to lookup these things.  It doesn't work for most of the applications, as far as I can see.  However, I at least don't have that damned rolling ball icon that the old Air had 90% of the time.  Maybe the book I ordered will simplify some of the questions I have.

Meanwhile I am checking out cookbooks for the bread maker that I got on eBay a week or so ago.  I made one loaf of bread that was so solid it could have been used for a polo ball, because the yeast was about one year old.  At least.  So when C went to the grocery store, there was no bread flour, but he did get the yeast, so I will give that a try tomorrow.  The bread maker is far more advanced than the old one, as well as being bigger.  I don't think it will fit in the cabinet where the old one is.

When I first began making bread (manually as well as by machine) my sister, as usual, felt the need to outdo me, and bought a bread maker (Update:(or took my mother's machine, which she used every couple of days)  Of course she never looked at the manual, she just dumped the water, flour and yeast in and pressed "start".  When it began smoking, she realized she put the stuff directly into the baking chamber, never wondering what the pan was for.  So what did she do?  Clean it out?  No, she threw it away.  In a dumpster.  And called me to find out what my "secret" was.  My sister, bright she never was.  She's been gone 15 years now, also due to an act of stupidity.  But that is a long story and I can't see the purpose of dragging it all out now.  But still, how dumb...

This is not one of my better blog efforts, so I will end here.  Hoping all of my readers are having a calm peaceful weekend, Bye!

Amazon

Well the mattress that was scheduled to be delivered on the 25th of July, after ordering it on July 5th, is apparently missing.  How can a shipment of a king sized mattress be missing?  you ask.  Just what I said to the customer agent at Amazon yesterday, the 30th.  It is not at the carrier XPO so the "out for delivery" is clearly wrong.  So it was reordered, now due Aug 19th.  We had, foolishly, pulled everything that would be in the way out of the way, and now it all has to be put back and then removed on the 19th.  They offered me a refund to select another Amazon bed, but I did all kinds of selecting over days to settle on this one so I reordered.  Lucky me, eh?

I have just finished an hour of grueling therapy, and my legs feel like noodles.  The therapy guide is very encouraging, and that is a big change from the previous place.  Then is was more of the same every session, and no feedback on my progress, if any.  Maybe before snow begins I will be done.

We are having problems about the new neighbor's dog, barking and charging at the old old cats.  If he gets into the field where the horse is, barking and chasing, that will be the end of him, I think.  I remember one other family, this was several years ago, who owned a Doberman, Ernie.  He was friendly and would play fetch until your arm gave out.  But unfortunately he grabbed anything in the yard and tore it up (kids' toys), chase the ball when someone was playing basketball, would chase and knock down the small kids, tear up picnic stuff, plates and food if it was within reach, and on and on.  When he got very pushy, one of the other neighbors would tie him to the owners' front door knob when they were letting him run loose while they were gone.  They did this over and over, the woman would say "Oh, everyone loves him, he wouldn't hurt a flea".  Finally came the day, they got home to find Ernie's collar tied to their front door.  The last time anyone saw him.  Everyone sighed in relief, and no one ever knew who did what with Ernie.

New PT

I started with a new physical therapist last week, and he was very encouraging.  He scrapped some of the exercises I had been doing and added several that will target specific problems.  I am pleased that he will be addressing the swelling in my legs and feet.  Maybe eventually I will be able to wear real shoes again, and not just these slippers.

R joined us for dinner a couple of times last week, and we had a nice confab too.  She uses quarters in the washers, and so last night C and I went through the jar that N had used, which had never been touched since he passed, and sifted out all the quarters.  There are a lot!  Probably several hundred dollars' worth.  She will have to carry it, it is a heavy sucker.  I'm betting she buys a washer/dryer soon.  Update:  She bought a washer and dryer, they delivered it Friday (the 13th) and even hooked it up.  She immediately ran a load of towels!

My new bed is due to be delivered Thursday.  The current one is at least 20 years old, but it is only recently that I noticed all the lumps and bumps in it.  My only fear is that the mattress will be too thick to give access to the bookcase headboard.  It is not an insupportable problem, we have plenty of bookcases to pick up the slack.  I'm betting that the current mattress cover and waterproof cover won't fit, we will see.  I already bought new sheets, that are sized to fit a 16" thickness mattress.  I think the current ones are only able to fit a 14" mattress.

A few months ago I filed for and received "missing money" from WV, the source is just "Google".  So yesterday I looked for my sister-in-law in MI and KY and found $ in both.  I "claimed" them both, filled out some information and printed the forms, and mailed them to her to complete.  Not huge amounts, but still, it will buy some groceries, etc.  She couldn't do them by herself, because she doesn't have a computer or data line.  Heavens!!  I didn't think there was anyone that was without even library access.  And speaking of computers, my MacBook Air is starting to get very unreliable, even just going to my email listing gives me the spinning wheel, and the only cure is to turn WiFi off, then turn it back on.  The same is necessary when I am trying to look at the news, or even if I shut the lid momentarily, and it is irritating the crap out of me.  It is not the router problem, because the other two computers work fine, I even put the MacBook right beside the desktop one, and the result is the same.  The local computer guys went out of business, leaving only Geek guys at Best Buy.  I am not sure that they work on Apples, I may have to send it out.  I would have to delete all my passwords, etc.  Grrr.

Oh yeah, the before and after

I'll leave you to figure out which is before and which is after the power wash.

summer??

I can't believe it is mid-July already; it seems I was just admiring the tiny leaves on the trees, and putting the windows on the car down to catch the breezes.  Yesterday the high was 90 degrees and it felt totally accurate.  I have been buying lightweight sweaters now while the prices are down.  Last spring I had either long sleeved shirts, or heavy sweaters, so these light weight sweaters should be just the in-between top.  I hope.  It is hard to think of winter now.

I went to the hospital for an ultrasound last week, they are way less painful than a mammogram.  I walked miles as they have reorganized all of the ground floor, and the next day I could scarcely stir from bed, I was so sore.  The results were fine, re-do in 3 months.  I went to the podiatrist yesterday, and we had to wait over an hour to be seen; we waited until the last patients had been called, and C muted the TV.  It was tuned to soap operas, right then showing the "Bold and the Beautiful" and I am amazed by the number of people who watch it.   I should have brought my Kindle, but the battery is getting weak at holding a charge.  I am currently working on a pair of old Barbara Hambly fantasy books, paperbacks, R had them for months, and are now beaten to pieces.  She ordered new/lightly used copies, and gave mine back.  I think she should have given me the newer copies, and continued using the beat up ones.  I'm sure the thought never crossed her mind.  She's doing OK in her apartment, and last night was the first dinner she cooked on her stove.  Meanwhile she has been microwaving, rice cooker, or cereal for dinner.  The laundromat isn't far from her place, but she has already used up the quarters I gave her, it is $1.75 per washer.  I know she is going to want to buy a washer and dryer, each apartment has a little alcove for hooking them up, but we always bought ours from Sears, which is pfffft.  So I can't really recommend a brand/model.  They're probably all made in China anyway.

Good Omens

I've been watching Good Omens, based on the book by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman on Amazon Original.  It is really a hoot, although I may be prejudiced by having read the book years ago, and so I  have a vague notion of how it progresses.  I hate to binge watch things, I'm saving for one episode a day, 6 episodes in all.

And speaking of binging, I have once more cruised eBay for likely purchases, mainly clothes, but also odds and ends.  I can't get up to go on an actual shopping trip, so I make do with virtual shopping.  It makes my wardrobe all one-of-a-kind; now if I could only find somewhere to wear them.  My last delivery was wrong, not the top I won.  It is the wrong brand, sleeves, no pockets, no button up closure and on and on.  The only thing that matches is the color:  bronze/gold.  It is also too small.  So the seller is going to send me the correct top and I can keep the wrong one, no refund.  Works for me.  I can't wear it unless I lose weight (some) but I hate to mail things out, wrapping, addressing, traveling to PO, paying, and sending the tracking number to the seller.

R has moved into her apt., and I notice a few things there that were originally here.  It doesn't matter, I have 'way too many things, just sitting.  She is buying a lot of things; yesterday she got a nice red couch and the day before she equipped the kitchen.  I would have recommended a larger microwave, and gotten some plastic containers for left-overs, and some plastic wrap too.  Ah well, no one asked me for my opinion.  The red couch was liberally sprinkled with dog hair, but R took my dust devil hand vacuum to it and it looks fine now.  Unfortunately the appt. previous renters were smokers, and she is having to double-clean every inch of the place.  Basically, it will fade with time, and she is the one who complained (and complained) about cat hair here, so now she has a new target.  When we cleaned her bedroom, it was astonishing how much dust and fur was under her bed; not a dust bunny, this was more like a dust kangeroo.  Basketball size, it completely filled the vacuum bag twice.  Apparently, she *never* vacuumed her bedroom.  Every flat surface was *coated* with dust/fur.  So having her clean now is quite amusing.

I think we will be having Words with the new neighbors about their dog.  It was in our yard, barking at the cats, the horse, our car, etc.  C. shouted at it to "go home" and it ran away, but the neighbors were outside and heard him, and the next time he was outside they kept him on a leash.  Err, the dog, not C.  I have hopes they will fence in the back of their lot.  No more dogs for us, and probably no more cats either, once these are gone.  Once the horse is gone, we will probably move too, somewhere in town and probably a mobile home which is step-less.

Bluff

Well OK, someone up there called my bluff.  The toilet was still leaking, only this time at the juncture of the tank and the bowl part.  The plumber came and replaced the seal between the two parts, put in a new supply line, etc.  No leaks as of this morning.  Guess I won't need that port-a-potty after all.  No charge for this trip.  The throw rugs now need to be washed, and that should be the end of the squishy underfoot.

I had a hell of a time getting dressed this morning.  C picks out my clothes as it is damn near impossible for me to get in the walk-in closet because it is more like a sidle-in because it is too full.  Anyway, the pants he laid out were a pair of jeans, but when I put them on, the top button was missing, so the pants wouldn't stay up.  I sidled in, and this next pair of jeans just didn't fit (too small).   So for jeans number three, I found a new pair that zip and button.  I put on the shirt, and the three tiny ribbon roses at the top were only holding on by a thread; needle and thread time.  Finally, I was dressed.

I found the missing earring, it wasn't on the floor (which would have propelled it into a black hole) but on the table that I use for my Apple notebook.  All this time looking in the wrong place.  My Mom would have said, "If it was a snake it woulda bit you."  I'm still not going to wear them, they pull right out at the slightest tug.

It is in the 80s today, so I only had one brief foray into hot between two air-conditioned places.  When I lived in Miami, back in the Dark Ages, air-conditioned cars, homes, or a lot of businesses were unheard of.  And of course, the solution to cool off was to stand under a hose, in the shade, until you were cool.  Or until someone bigger wanted the hose.  We wore flip-flops, and the only times for hard shoes were the church for good shoes or old battered ones for roller skates that fastened with clamps and tightened with a special key.  Otherwise, flip flops or barefoot.  Don't know how we survived.

C is pleased, his new computer is working fine.  This is the replacement for the new one that would not turn on.  I think Dell needs to polish up its quality control dept.  and I will see if they charge him twice.  Meanwhile, he is saving the boxes.  I remember when, not that long ago, we would buy parts and assemble the computers ourselves.  The first readymade computer came from Gateway, in those black and white boxes that looked like a cow print.  They folded years ago I guess.  I used to see the boxes piled up in the hallways at work, followed by mighty swear words inside the office.  Somewhere I have a screen polishing figure that looks like the Gateway logo, probably a collector's item by now.  Does anyone remember 8088/16 ?  That CPU was regarded to be lightning fast.  This was before the internet, the only host connection I had was .edu and you could browse, slowly, through various sites.  I remember the one site that was used to tell the grad students up on the third floor if the coke machine on the ground floor was empty, saving them a long walk.  Computers come and go, but graduate students stay the same.

I read where one could link your blog to your facebook page, to drive more traffic/pageviews to the blog.  The only problem with that is my facebook link has my actual name, and that would disclose my name here as well.  So no, if I had it to do again I would change my facebook page to a pseudonym too.

Time is slipping away, so bye for now.  Here is BC, surveying her world.

Plumbers

Well, we had a pair of plumbers out twice for the commode to be reset with no leak at the bottom of the bowl.  Each visit was $250 and did not clear the problem.  I called a different plumber this time and he totally reset the entire unit, and so far (knock on wood) it is  OK.  His bill was $250 also, making a grand total of $ 750.  If this doesn't fix it, I will buy a port-a-potty to put in the back yard.

I have been working on my clear-out for this room, and I have things I don't remember getting.  The first biggie is a suede full-length coat in a pretty shade of blue, stuffed in a plastic bag in the top of the closet.  It still fits, is from Roamans, and I swear I never wore it, although I have a dim recollection of buying it.  It is a swing type, no fasteners to keep it closed, and may be why I never wore it.  That was back in the days when I never returned anything, while now, if it is wrong somehow, zipppp, back it goes.  Too late for this coat!

The other thing I found is a pair of opal earrings, still in the jewelry box, I think Mom gave them to me.  At one time I would wear a pair of earrings night and day for several weeks, and opals don't hold up to soap and water for very long, if at all.  These were in a coat pocket.  I check every pocket now and have in the past bought a pair of jeans on eBay that had $20 in the pocket.  I dithered about returning it to the seller, but they were washed in a load of jeans laundry and it could have been from some other pair.  My daughter found it in the washer and she didn't want to share...😀

The white cat Dottie is doing better, eating and using the box, in the blue bedroom where we have her isolated, so she won't get hassled by the other cats.  She sleeps a lot, but doesn't seem lethargic when she is awake.  Hope all is well now.  She is 10 years old, not old for an indoor cat.  The feistiest cat is 16.

 Here is Dottie:

Odds and Ends

Let's see:

The silk outfit I thought was undeliverable showed up.  We found it in the weeds at the end of the driveway, rather like someone pitched it out of the window.  Included was the other mail for that day. I think the lady doing the trace knocked someone loose to check for the package.  It had no sign of having been opened.  It's a puzzle.

The new neighbors do have a dog, and he barks.  A lot.  Hopefully they will put up a fence at the back of their property.  I don't think Smudge will try to get friendly (fed) by them, with a dog at the back door. There are two boys, both pretty young.  They are still carrying stuff into the house.

R has a date of June 21 to move into her apartment, but she has made no effort to box up or organize stuff she will need to have.  I have moved a bunch of times, several across the country, but has she asked me for my opinion?  No.

C caught a teeny tiny mouse in the floor vent in his room.  It is amazing how much noise one small mouse can make from inside ductwork.  I fear there is a whole family somewhere in the duct work.  C took the mouse down to the grass outside, where it looked around as if to say, what is all this green stuff?  I think it will be a nice meal for a wandering snake.  So far no further noises in C's room.

Dottie went to the vet and the diagnosis is still unknown; the vet wanted to do X-rays and an ultrasound, for really big bucks (thousands).  Instead the working diagnosis is inflamed digestion.  So more pills; the work they did for this was $200+.

We have the have-a-heart trap set in the garage for a week or so, but no takers so far.  Maybe  the possums don't like peanutbutter...

The pressure washing guy gave me an estimate and put us on the schedule.  Should be done in a week or so.  This rainy spring and now summer makes everything grow, including the algae.  It is really visible.  If I think of it, I will take a photo of before and after washing; the cleaning includes something that retards the re-growth for at least a while.

My goal for tomorrow is to clear everything off the flat surfaces, put it on the bed, and then sort it.  Once I get it sorted, I will ask C to help me with stowing it all back where it belongs.  Maybe not all of it in the first pass, but every bit helps with clearing.  I have read three books on downsizing the family home, and it is daunting.  They all say to start with the closet, but I know me; I would never make it back out alive from there.  One of the books is Marni  ____ (don't remember her last name) a professional organizer in Japan.  All I could think while I read it, was, gosh, they don't have much space, and they don't have much stuff.  It is her idea to clear from the bed, I will have to see how that goes.

That's it for today, I hope I haven't bored you to tears.  Here is a smile:

Bad Dreams

Today is our wedding anniversary, it would have been 49th.  We were tossing around ideas for #50 about how to celebrate it, but no made plans.  Now I guess I will light a special candle in front of the cremains and try to be upbeat.  I really don't need to focus on loss, this isn't doing me or anyone any good.

It's getting better every day

This last week have seen multiple financial crushes, hopefully that is all for the near future.  The HAU (home septic unit) blew the motor bearings, so that needed to be replaced; $$$.  The trip to the vet for Dottie came to >$400.  C is badly bummed because his brand new (just arrived today) Dell computer won't turn on.  A very basic task, don't you think?   I spent the majority of the day looking online at CA king mattresses, wow, they cost the earth!  I'm not sure how I would describe the softness/firmness that I want, we will have to go and bounce test a few models at the mattress store.  Damned if I will pay more than $1000 for one.  The current one is all lumpy and sags when I sit on the edge, it is more than 13 years old, it replaced a leaking water bed.  We just turned it a few weeks ago, so now both sides are worn down.  One of my 'scrips has once again been denied, we go through this every time I try to refill it.  I see the doctor tomorrow (GP) who will hopefully write a refill for more than one month.  The house pressure washing guy is due to leave an estimate tonight, more expense.  The mildew/algae really shows up on the cream vinyl siding, and our pressure unit is just too weak, and really I want it done thoroughly by someone who knows what they are doing.
Update:  The doctor did write for a 30 day supply of Ultram (not generic as per Dr. Diab (rheumatology).  However the insurance will only cover 7 pills, so I am picking up the cost myself..... VC is really bummed himself.  My silk outfit is MIA, and I spent hours on the phone to get a trace started with USPS.  
The new neighbors are all moved in I guess, the uhaul truck is gone.  So far, at least, they don't have a dog.  I hope they notice Smudge is hanging out and feed him, I've only seen him once here, the other cats must have chased him away.  We will feed him if he comes here, but I am not setting up a breakfast bar for coons, possums, and all the cats in the neighborhood.  There are possums in the garage tonight!  


The MRI I had on Tuesday came back with the expected anomalies, but no sign of cancer.  I was dreading the process, but really it wasn't bad.  I kept  my eyes closed (in the future I will get a cloth to drape over them) and counted to 60 really slowly, three times, and I was done.  20 - 25 minutes altogether.  No claustrophobia to mention.

Hope all of you are having a relaxed and pleasant weekend.