WHY ARE WE ROTATING THE DVD PLAYERS FROM ONE ROOM TO ANOTHER?

 Well at least I am back on schedule and on time this week.

Today we did some electronics organizing.  Huh?  Well, my husband told me that we needed to switch DVD players around the house.  I have learned that when he comes up with an idea such as this, it is much easier to just to go along with him and not ask why we are doing this.  

First we took out the DVD player which we use in the kitchen (it is actually located in our adjacent  craft studio – there is a large squared off arch between the two rooms so while obviously being two separate rooms they more or less continue into each other.   Our kitchen table is in the front of the arch (blocks part of the arch and part is still walk through – only place to put the table in the kitchen and it is a small table) and our kitchen TV is actually in the studio on a dresser in same, so we can watch TV at the table.  The DVD player is on top of a chest of drawers in the studio which is next to the dresser, but away from the arch.

We took the kitchen DVD player upstairs to our bedroom.  We then took out the DVD player in the bedroom (I put it on my chair in our office, across the hall from the bedroom) and we setup the DVD player from the kitchen in the bedroom – so far relatively easy.  Turned on the DVD player and it came on.  

We then went to our office and started to take apart the DVD player in same.  This was a bit harder than other two.  The DVD player sits on top of 6 foot tall bookcase.  The TV in the office sits on the highest shelf within the bookcase (which shelf is about 2 and feet tall in space above it).  There is a small hole cut in the back of the bookcase behind the TV for the wires to drop down behind the bookcase and come into the shelf.  AND to be seen while sitting at our desks the TV has to be pointed down – so there are small rectangle blocks under the back of the TV's base.  While I held the TV so it did not fall off the shelf – husband unplugged the wire from the back of the TV, climbed on a step stool, and pulled the wires out of the back of the bookcase and removed the DVD player from the top of the bookcase.  I set that DVD aside on my desk and brought over the DVD player from the bedroom for which the process was reversed – it was put on the top of the bookcase, wires had to be found hanging behind the bookcase and brought into the top shelf through the small hole (hardest part of course finding the loose hanging wire) and then the wire from player to TV plugged into the TV and the electric cord into an electric extension already there.  Turned on the DVD player and it came on.  

Back to the kitchen.  We now setup the DVD player from the office in the studio/kitchen and made sure it came on.

Now I finally asked the big question - “Why the heck did we do this?”  Turns out that one of the players does not take a USB drive and one of the other players also runs Blu Ray discs.   So the object of this project was two fold – we now have players  which take USB drives in 2 places he wants them and we have the player which runs Blu Ray in the kitchen.   

One problem was the need to do major dusting as we did this – on the drives themselves, the TVs and the shelves and other spaces where all of these items sit.  Husband did not wait for me to get a dusting cloth and instead started using paper towels – which, of course, are not that great for dusting.  

Part of the this plan, I am guessing, is that he got a hard drive for Christmas which records off the TV/cable and he has been recording some TV series which are on too late for him to watch and he will be able to plug the recorder into the 2 boxes which take USB and they are now both located where he would want to watch those shows and the Blu Ray is probably in the kitchen to be able watch same when we have our Covid substitute Saturday night movie dates while eating take out Chinese food – aka our Covid substitute Saturday night dinner out.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Sometimes something makes sense to one person and does not make sense to others.  

This is true for husband's need to rearrange all of the DVD players and my need to use the dining room and good china, silverplate tableware, and good glasses for holiday dinners even thought it is just two of us.  

If your significant other feels a need to do something that is is not a major problem/expense and what he/she wants to do makes no sense to you – humor them and help them with what they want to do.  And if you feel the need to do something like this – they should humor and help you also.  One never knows when a small change which seems to make no sense is actually a great idea.

TWO WEEKS OF CLEARING SNOW

 Somehow this week got away from me, so this is just a short post a bit late - my apologies.

We have been dealing with shoveling snow for 2 weeks have the possibility of more.  Over the past 2 weeks there have only been 2 days we did not go out shoveling snow.  

Today we went out to work on the snow around our small RV.  (It is what is called a class B - a van, in this case a Chevy Express, made into a rather small RV.)  It sits at the top of our driveway and is not driven except on trips and when needed to drive it to keep it in good shape so we have not bothered to get rid of the snow around it.  (We have driven it on 2 hour round trips three times since the start of the pandemic to keep it doing and it really needs more driving.)  

Why clear it now after it has sat for about 2 weeks since the biggest storm?  Problem is that the storms which are coming are to be ice and mixed precipitation.  If the electric lines come down – we need somewhere to warm up and to cook.  We have used the RV in the past for cooking and watching a bit of TV after hurricanes took out our electricity.  It has a 2 burner propane stove and a propane furnace  - one of the places we ALWAYS clear of snow right away is the center of its back bumper as that is where the propane is turned on and off, perfect to use in an emergency.  

But while we could get to the propane to turn it on – the snow still covered a good part of the RV's doors.  Husband was very nervous about the coming storms, so we went out and shoveled enough snow from the sides of the RV to be able to open all of the doors – just in case we need to go in it to keep warm or to cook.  

We carried part of the snow being moved to our backyard to get rid of it.  Since we had cleared a path to back yard to do this, I also cleared the snow in front of the garage entry door in case we need to go in the garage.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Prepare in advance for bad weather you know is coming.  We even had our Saturday night “dinner out” substitute – Chinese takeout these days instead of our normal Saturday night dates – tonight, Friday as we are pretty sure we won't be able to go out tomorrow night – and if we can, well, a second date night is never a bad idea.

PREPARING FOR HURRICANE ISAIAS AND THE AFTERMATH

Well, like those of you along the east coast of North America we had an add on to our Corona virus fun yesterday – a visit from Hurricane Isaias.  I hope any of you affected by it are okay – personally, your home intact and have electricity, etc again.

We were each about to run out of one medication – husband's last pill of same would be Thursday.  Sunday night I called our pharmacy (at a local regular Walmart) and reordered what we needed on their computer.  We did not need refills of everything as husband is taking less of his medications due to our eating less to stretch our trips out for food and I stop taking one pill in summer as my blood pressure drops too low in summer otherwise, but there was a good number of pills. 

We also had to call and change our RV park reservation – due to the Covid - 19 situation we do not feel comfortable going – and add on not knowing what would happen from Isaias, we decided best to postpone as it had to be done by yesterday – the day of Isaias here.  I left a message Sunday night for them to call us Monday.  We have changed the reservation to be our July 4th trip next July – we hope.

Saturday we went out and took in the loose items.  We have two small solar lanterns which hang from iron posts – took down the lanterns and posts.  Our “Betsy Ross” flag is also on an iron stand – took that down also.  We have 3 iron stands that hold pots of flowers – normally we buy 3 pots of geraniums in spring and they through the fall (and for Christmas we put artificial poinsettias, which we potted and we reuse annually in them) – they came in also.  Also our garbage pail – all went into the garage. 

Monday night I put 2 ice cubes in each of 2 small plastic bags and put one bag of cubes in each freezer – if one loses their electricity and the ice is still frozen, then the food is okay to use.  We charged our electric lantern and took out candles in holders.  We plugged in our cell phones (even the old ones with no service – they can still call 911 in an emergency) and our laptops – normally our cable company's wifi which runs through the wires in the street will work when electric out and we can use the laptops with it.  I also dropped a very small flashlight in my jeans pocket – during and after Hurricanes Irene and Sandy they were of great help.  (The ones that Harbor Freight used to give out free with coupons before they switched to the blue plastic lights they give out now free with coupons.)  We went to bed Monday night, hoping we would not need any of our preparations. I also cleared the walkways in the house -  so that we could around without tripping on anything.  In the 18th century rooms were used for multiple purposes.  Furniture was kept against the walls and what was needed for the purpose at a time was moved to the center of the room and used – then put back against the walls.  In semi-darkness to darkness one could walk through the room without needing a light.  I work with this idea making sure that one can walk from room to room and around the room where one needs to be without a light when there is a possible blackout coming.

Isaias came in overnight – sounded terrible.  News and weather reports had said it should be out of our area by around 3 pm and headed further north.  So when we were getting ready to make lunch at 2 pm, we felt better as there was only an hour or so left before it was gone.  Then the lights went out and the TV went off.  I called our electric company and gave our information.  (Our electricity poles, generating facilities, etc are owned by a non-profit which contracts with a regular utility company to run the system.  The company that was doing so, and had been doing so for a long time before, when we were hit Hurricane Sandy did a terrible job of not getting everything going again, but also there was a major lack of communication and a new company was brought in to do run everything for the non-profit – following I will be talking about the  new for profit company which runs it all for them.) 

We expected to hear back from them at some or several points as the message had asked what phone number to call us back with updates – which I had figured would be recorded messages.  For lunch we had peanut butter sandwiches – from an unopened jar as the opened jar was in the fridge, while I eat mine plain, husband likes jelly on his – he put some honey on it instead and I used disposable plates so I only had to wash the utensils (we leave the drinking glasses out on the table from lunch through our prebed snack).  We found one of our battery operated radios and put in batteries.  Not knowing how long the outage would be, we turned off our cell phones and did not turn on any of our laptops (old ones were also charged).  We opened the front door (left the glass storm door locked) and husband sat on a chair to read on his tablet while I read BBC History magazine sitting on the staircase.  After awhile I went upstairs to open the mail which had been sitting for 4 days (to kill any Covid-19 virus on it) – I opened the curtains and put up the shade to see what I was doing. I then went back to my reading on the stairs.  It was bright and sunny, but still a bit windy outside at this point.  The NYC (am)news radio stations would occasionally mention out here on Long Island, but not much info.  The few Long Island radio stations (also am – radio does not have FM) just kept playing music.  So no info.  No calls from electric utility.  Internet in street was not working.  This was extremely annoying and frustrating.

One of our next door neighbors came walking on our driveway.  We opened the front door and yelled back and forth as we socially distanced.  She has a friend at the electric utility.  A tree was down on a wire.  It was affecting 2000 customers on the circuit (in my mind – good thing – more customers affected, the sooner they repair – fix a one house outage and the number of customers restored goes up 1, fix an outage affecting 2000 customers and that one repair makes the number of customers restored go up 2000.  But she was told by her friend that we would be back on – Thursday PM!  She was walking the street making sure that everyone had called in their outage so the utility would be aware how many were out on this circuit. I told we had – and she shared the info above about the outage.  Her young daughter was with her – we both said hello to her also .  Then they went on their way to talk to the other neighbors. (We have no children, when one has children one knows other people on the street with children, due to the nature of living on a main road, it is not a small street where everyone knows everyone else.)  I thought husband was going to break down and cry or pass out when he heard Thursday pm – I managed to talk him out of either.  Just because we are 18th century reenactors, does not mean that we like to live in the dark and without air conditioning on a hot day.

Dinner time was approaching and I knew we needed more than sandwiches.  I went looking through our supplies - lots of cans of soup.  I should mention that our stove is electric – no electricity, no stove.  But we do have our other stove – in our RV.  We have used it before during Hurricanes Irene and Sandy and some other electric outages.  It is small, but it does have a 2 burner propane stove.  I have actually only used it for situations like this – when we travel in it, we eat out.  I had another thought – see if the Chinese take out place we use was open and take out dinner, but figured that husband would be upset at going out.  I mentioned cooking the soup to him.  He brought up the Chinese takeout, so we went with that.  The place has only been taking orders online or in person – no telephone orders, but I called, explained and asked (and they know us) and they took the order and our credit card info by phone.  As we were about to walk out to pick up the order, our telephone rang.  Since the answering machine is not working and being concerned that there might be a problem with our order, I answered it.  (We answered the telephone several times during the day – we now know who the hangup calls when they get our answering machine are from – all spam calls.)  This call was not spam nor the take out place – it was my mother – who I have been trying to reach by telephone for a week!  I explained that I had to talk very quickly and what we were about to do – she was surprised – she had known that we had a hurricane go through – and she lives where it is was the worst!  Mom is in an assisted living so they always have electricity due to a generator (something we really need to get, a house generator which comes on automatically, but the price scares us) but I would have thought she would have heard the winds or seen something about it on TV?! 

We picked up dinner and came home to eat it.  I was using real dishes for dinner as did not want to deal with smaller paper tableware.  I had tap water.  Husband was drinking iced tea from mix and tap water (he hates drinking “warm water”).  We had our soup and had started our main courses. I was figuring out in my head how I was going to see to wash the dishes – I had figured to bring over the battery lantern to the sink and leave husband with the candles.  Mid first plate of food – the electricity came back on!  How wonderful and lucky.  We could use the air conditioning again – husband had been terribly warm – and lights – and TV!  We did not open the fridge for cold drinks or the freezer for ice and left them closed until we had our nighttime snack, as we wanted them to get colder inside again.
The house has been put back together again.  Seemed it was all behind us.  Tonight shortly before I sat down to write this post however, the electricity went out again.  I heard husband heading towards crying and wailing.  As I calmed him down, I started calling the electric utility again – but in less than time than it took me to find, pick up, and memory dial them – it came back on again.  I am figuring that they gerry rigged something yesterday to get our circuit back up and this was our transfer to the normal system we are on as it was so brief – as if it was turned off and then back on. 

I should mention that we were lucky to reach the utility yesterday morning when we lost our electricity.  Per the local newspaper people could not reach them by phone (apparently their phone carrier was having problems in addition to their own problems) or by their app.  So now they are in the same problem as the former company. 


 THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Problems like this will happen.  Plan ahead so when it does YOU know what you need to do.  Know where your candles, electric lanterns, flashlights (last two being safer than the first) are.  Charge your cell phones (and remember, as I mentioned, old cell phones with no service can still call 911 in an emergency so charge them also and leave them charging as long as you have electricity.  Charge your laptops or tablets (even if you have no wifi available as we did not this time, they still can serve as a diversion) – but use your cell phones and laptops as little as possible in case you need them later.  If there are children who are old enough – have a flashlight for each of them, it will help keep them from being frightened.  Obviously have spare batteries for everything.  A battery operated radio is a good idea for information. 

I have an “accordion folder” (one of those large folders with sections) as my “grab and go”.  When I reconcile a bank account the statement goes in it – and the last matching statement comes out and gets filed.  I have copies of my computer data on DVD in it and update it monthly.  Most recent paid bills for all our insurances.  Copies of our small amount of stock info.  Copies of house deed and car titles.  Copy of marriage license.  If we had to leave home in an emergency, I just grab this and go. 

Water is rarely a problem here as our water comes from municipal water towers here.  Having said that  - we used to keep 3 gallon bottles of water in the basement and also some cans set aside for emergencies (apparently they were last changed before 2005 as we came across them in the early days of stay in place and that was the use by date on them, we are not using them, but husband made me keep them  for now - “just in case”.  When Hurricanes and Irene and Sandy were coming, we filled our RV water tanks (30 gallons of water) just in case.  We did not do so this time. 

Where my family lived we were relatively near the ocean and needing to live home in a large storm, in case of flooding in the area,  became more and more common after I left home.  If you live in an area where this might happen make sure you have a plan for what to take and who will drive what and know where to evacuate.  (We live near the evacuation center so we are far enough inland on the Island not to need to do so.  My mom did need to do so during many storms in more recent years (did not need to do so other than one time when I was still living there 40 years ago).  I would tell her to come here, but she liked going to the evacuation center – “I see everyone I haven't seen since the last evacuation”.   Make sure in advance that you have enough of your medications (as we picked up ours on Monday to be sure).    If you have a pet, find out where you can go with them and have their things also. 

Yeah, I know we have all heard this so many times – but DO you have a plan and know what to do?  If not, start planning now – when you need to do so, it is too late.

Stay safe from storms and stay well from Covid- 19 all!

COVID 19 #8 - FOOD BUYING

Husband is getting serious about our needing to buying food.  Last time we went food shopping was in mid March.  As far as I am concerned we have plenty for another couple of weeks.  He was looking at BJs (similar to Costco in case you don't know BJs) website to order from them as he had a coupon for free delivery.  It is a nice company.  Periodically, in normal times, they put the chicken patties we buy on sale and we go and buy the 3 pack of packages.  We also normally buy our gas from them as it is much less expensive (when gas was still an expensive thing compared to right now) than the other stations.  There are few Costco stores which have gas stations here and they are not conveniently located.  But it is rare we find anything else to buy from them.  There are only two of us and many of their food items are in packages which involve cooking the entire package at the same time and would be months worth of the particular item for us. 

But the seem to meet his current criteria – they will deliver, they seem to have time slots available in a reasonable time frame (any place else he looked at is a 6 week wait), and they seem to have food items that he thinks would be good to have.  As we sat at our desks this afternoon he was reading off the foods which interested him.  I told him to make a list of what looks interesting – in this case, peanut butter (2 huge jars in a package, he does not normally eat same, and I am only eating it as we are eating lunch home and want to leave the better lunch foods (such as canned soup) for him.  I am not sure if we will actually get to another jar of peanut butter and how long the 2 jars will last us – years, a decade?  And BREAD!  We normally do not go through a lot of bread, often do not even any in the house and he has always refused to freeze bread.  He looking at buying “2 or 3” packages of 2 loaves each.  I am guessing we will sit and draw up a list of what we would buy from them tomorrow and figure it out.  My attitude has mostly been through all of this whatever he needs to feel secure as long as it too not far out there. 

Back in November the weekend before our last food shopping trip we had picked up Chinese food from  our normal place for the last time also.  We picked it up on Friday night and the wife told us that they would be open the next day and then would be closed until April 1.  Both of us thought that we would go back the next night and take out again as it would be a couple of weeks before we could go there again – and eating in restaurants, still open for eating in at the time, we did not feel comfortable going to.  Of course then our brains kicked in ' Why are they closing for 2 weeks?  Is someone sick?  We did not go back the next night.

Week before last husband decided that we should pick up Chinese food for dinner – it is a small place and would be much safer (in his mind) than going to a supermarket and he would not have to eat my cooking for one night, well two nights, which will make sense soon.  I tried calling them a week ago on Sunday night.  The phone alternately kept ringing or was busy.  We figured that they must be terribly busy and were no longer taking orders for the evening.  During the following week I telephoned during the day and spoke to the wife and they were open, though closing 2 hours earlier than before – which should not have affected us when I called.  We decided we take out on Friday night and we would buy 2 meals plus extra rice.  (Husband has found out how nice rice reheated in boiling water so the grains expand big and it is filling.)  I tried telephoning them – again it was either ringing or busy.  This time for some reason my cell phone would cut off the call as I waited to see if they answered the phone after 4 or 5 rings “the party is not available”.  So we tried using our land line – we don't normally make outgoing calls with it as it has no included minutes (why pay for same and for unlimited cell phone minutes on my phone when we can just pay for the latter and use my phone for outgoing calls and the land line for incoming calls.)  This time when I called a message -“This party does not accept calls from hidden telephone numbers.”  Husband was starting to panic.  We went upstairs and called on his Magic Jack line (he has for business).  We got through to the place and found a message telling us to order through their website.  We did so – technically through a third party site accessed through their website.  It was fairly easy and straightforward to order with – even had a place for husband to specify bok choy instead of broccoli in both main dishes.  Paid through the site with our “use online, by mail and by telephone” credit card. 

We then went downstairs to prepare for the adventure that we anticipated was to come,  Husband had read to wipe down food containers coming into the house with alcohol wipes – we only have one – old – package of same, so I cut 2 paper towels in quarters and found the spray bottle of alcohol in the basement – we use it while making sure we don't get bed bugs again.  I put all of this together in the kitchen on the counter near the door.  I then pulled out an assortment of plastic containers and a bowl.  He had also read that the food should immediately be put in one's own containers and the restaurant's containers be throw out outside.   I took our masks, 2 plastic sandwich bags (I use them as disposable gloves – cheaper than same and we have a lot more of them and they fit my small hands better) and 2 plastic shopping bags and we set off.  Our idea was that I would go in and he would wait in the car.  I would open the door to go in and then out with one of the bags and have the other one on my hand as I carried their shopping bag to the car. We would then put their shopping bag(s) in ours so theirs did  not touch our car floor. 

When we arrived in their parking lot I noticed 2 things – lots of people with masks on waiting around outside the store and the door was propped open. I walked in to give them my name and found out why they had closed for 2 weeks.  The inside had been converted to non-contact pickup!  Oh, did that make me feel good.  Over their counter was a plexiglass wall with a small slot opening for ordering menus to be passed out to people and then returned for those ordering in person.  Were there had bee a walk through from the customer area to kitchen was filled in by wood making a door with a trap door in it and a shelf attached to our side of the wall with a railing around the shelf.  I started to wait off to the side and noticed a sign that if one had ordered one should text to a phone number, wait outside, and would be called when ready.  I went back out and texted my name to the number with the info we had ordered online.  I then figured out that was not enough info.  I texted additional info as I waited after explaining to husband what was going on.  People waiting did not have, to put it mildly, the best concept of staying 6 feet apart – or they had no idea how far 6 feet is.  One woman came up and started approaching me (I always look like I know what is going on – I inherited same from my dad.)  A woman started coming closer to me  - about to be too close.  I told her to stop she was coming too close and she did though seemed to not really understand.  I answered her questions.  As I stood their waiting it occurred to me that I should have included the order number in my text.  I texted again, apologizing that I had not done this sort of thing before.  Finally my cell rang and it was my turn.  I went in.  A young woman I had not seen there when things were more normal held up their copy of our order, pointing at our name, and I shook my head yes.  She passed the bag through the trap door and after it closed I picked up the bag – wearing one of the sandwich bags on my hand.  When I got to the car husband was waiting with our bag and we put the bag of food in it and drove home.

I stopped in our small side porch with the bag.  I took out an item with the second sandwich bag on my left had and wiped with it down with a piece of paper towel soaked in alcohol.  I then passed it through the door and husband transferred the contents to a plastic container in the kitchen.  (Most of the containers are old soup containers from the same place, from when life was normal.) We kept doing this until all of the food was in containers, except the main dish we were having that night was in a big bowl. 

Oh, what a treat!  Soup and big main course. No cutting back on what we would normally have as a meal to make the food last longer.  After they cooled down soon and we finished eating the rice and second meal were put I the refrigerator to keep them until we were ready to eat the food on other nights.  Last night we had the second meal.  We will definitely pick up again and pick up for one meal now that we know it is safe enough to go there.  - Yum.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

We are fortunate enough to be able to continue to pay for our food. But I never thought the luxury of a full meal instead of smaller than we normally eat meals would be so wonderful.  I guess it is true that when one is deprived of their regular life, the little normal things mean a lot.

Please continue to stay inside if you are in area with these rules.  I would like for all of you and your loved ones to continue to be well.

HOW WAS YOUR FIRST WEEK OF THE NEW YEAR - I CAUGHT A COLD

So here we are, a week into a new year.  Hard to believe.

First, something I heard on TV, that is very true.  Many of us date things in this format – 01/01/20 for January 1, 2020.  Do not use the 20 on it's own for the year.  Why, when you have always done this?    Well, if you write 01/01/20, the year part of the date can be changed in the future to any year in this year in this decade – such as 01/01/2021  or 01/01/2029 – see what I mean – in theory the date would not run out for 10 years on say a blank check or memo note, etc.  So instead date things as 01/01/2020 to avoid problems.

So how has your organizing, cleaning, etc. been going this year?  Mine not so much.  I managed to come down with a cold last week – not anything major, just enough to make me miserable.  Husband is  a hypochondriac.  So when I get sick he does not want me to touch anything – I even get my 2 liter soda bottle with an X on it so he does not touch it.  Biggest problem is cooking and dishes. 

We normally eat lunch out so that is easy.  But he does not want me to cook dinner with my germ covered hands.  When we were younger, had more money and there were more places at which we could afford to eat dinner, we would go out for dinner or bring stuff in.  Not really a choice any more other than the weekly dinner at Ikea, at Wendys and at the Asian buffet.  One night in a week we can deal with deli turkey (even though we ate same 5 times in 2 weeks while doing the event with our reenactment unit in the last 2 weeks).  But night after night?   We brought in Chinese food one night  - husband looked around for the paper goods – something new for us, we never used to have paper plates, bowls, cups, etc. as we considered it wasteful – last year he bought all of these for use in our RV and we had used them last time I had a “bug”, but when I finally was able to clear out the dining room – it all went out to the RV.  He found plastic plates in the basement – intended for craft use – and there is plastic tablewear in the secretary in the living room.  But as he unpacked the Chinese soup he was upset about not having a paper bowl for the soup – my suggestion - “there” is a stack of previous soup containers brought in – all washed and ready for use – he was not happy, but it did the trick.  He keeps saying that we need to replace the (non-working) dishwasher if just for when I am sick.  (I had figured out that it took me the same time to wash the dishes, etc as it did to load the machine and then rewash what did not wash – plus reading about the new machines they seemed too much work with the need to clean filters and other things.  (Our original dishwasher came with the house or we never would have had one – though we did replace that one once.)  My solution is to put on disposable plastic gloves when I wash the dishes.

We were not sure if we were to have snow today (report changed constantly and TV news did not agree channel to channel) so we made sure that we had lunch for today and dinner when we shopped yesterday.  (I used to be organized – read the store circulars, had a shopping list, bought stuff on sale and used the saved coupons – but now with him along – we food shop just about day by day and due to changes in the coupons available and what we can eat and use – coupons that match what we buy are rare.  I still have a shopping list, instead of being a paper on the fridge (if we need more – add it or we won't have it) it is in my cell phone – the other day I tried to remove an item as bought it – and the entire list erased itself and since it can only synced automatically – the computer version was pffft also.  Luckily husband managed to bring up a list from the day before for me.  Some things really are better on paper.

It did not snow enough to matter, went out for lunch and tonight we were having turkey sausages with macaroni (pasta – he is Italian by background all types of pasta are called macaroni).  He is cooking as I am sick.  Despite my hinting “am I cooking tonight or you?” about an hour before dinner, we did not get downstairs to cook until about 20 minutes before we would normally eat dinner.  I was out of tomato “gravy” (sauce to you and me).  I had mentioned this when we picked this dinner and he said “no problem”.  So we are very late starting to make dinner and he has to make “the gravy” - something he actually taught me how to do from his mom's recipe (which for some reason is simpler and quicker by about 5 and a half hours than the recipe his sister makes which she says is how their mom made it.)  He should know what he is doing since he taught me – right?

“What do I start first, the gravy or the water for the macaroni?” he asked.  “Heating the pan for the sausages” - my reply.  I tell him which (cast iron) pan to take out - “you need the one without the ridges.”  He starts to take the one with the ridges – the one that last time I used it, filled our kitchen with smoke and the smoke detector would not go off for hours and I have still had not had a chance to clean it http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2018/07/not-in-pennsylvania.html  He took out the correct pan and put it on the stove – turned on the burner for it to heat.  Then I had him start the water to boil – I have to tell him which pot for which food.  Then we started making the gravy.  I make 2 large cans of tomatoes with 2 small cans of tomato sauce.  Lately I have been using one large can of petite diced tomatoes and one of puree – gives him the pieces of tomatoes and also a thicker liquid than if I just used the tomatoes.  “What do I add to it?” - Sheesh – he taught me – and I point him to the spice cabinet (built by him to fit our apartment kitchen, but fit perfectly here also – noticed that I need to clear it out as there is a lot of stuff that we have not used in decades and will not use again, such as “Mrs. Dash” - I mostly just stick my hand in and pull out what I need – showing him where, made me notice this – new job to do.  Macaroni added to the boiling (no salt no oil) water.  “What now” -he said exasperated.  I told him to take some water on his finger and drop in the pan - “If it dances it is ready”.  It did and he added the sausages.  Now, it took him longer to add the items to the gravy than it would take me to cook the gravy, so we are even further behind.  Next though, was to heat the leftover half can of soup for him to have soup before dinner. 

So eventually we had dinner.  I got sick – I won't say it was his cooking… Then to wash the dished I put on disposable gloves and washed them – they are air drying now. 

My embroidery group met today.  I did not go.  I thought and thought about where I could sit in the relatively small room we meet in and not infect all of the other members, then realized that the proper thing to do was not to go.  So last night I telephoned the group president and told her and that I would email the treasurer's report to her and to the secretary.  I wrote it and emailed it.  This afternoon I checked my email – I had sent them both the January 2019 minutes instead of the treasurer's report – so now I will email to the chapter members. I have to stop messing up and needing to do things over and over. 

I had planned on running errands today that are easier to run without husband, but since I did not go to the meeting – we were together – he actually did not complain about the errands, some of which annoy him.   We went to our reenactment unit's bank and I redeposited some cash as I had needed to take out some cash and we needed less than we thought.  I also got a copy of the cash check as we have a grant and the cash was for part of the costs of same and we need to submit all copies of all checks, deposits and a lot of other paperwork – with a check sending back the excess of the grant money to the non- profit which gave us the grant and when I got home later I emailed copies of everything I had to the member who got us the grant and is handling the paperwork. Hopefully something done on the first try.   

We went to our bank vault – I keep my “offsite data backup” in it.  I used to make a data backup once a month and send to work with husband and he would bring home the one I sent with him the month before.  When he quit his job, I needed an alternative – our bank vault became the alternate.  (I use 2 USB flash drives – one is at the bank, other is here to update the next month.)  We got one of the “platform” employees that is good and I figured, okay husband won't be getting upset. But when we went to go into the vault area with the employee – we had to wait as other employees were in there on bank business – that annoyed him. 

Not doing laundry tonight (I start on Wednesday nights and continue into Thursday – Friday if needed) due to my cold – I figure to give it another day of recovery before I start.  Since the washer and dryer were not being used, husband washed a scarf he finished weaving  ( just a minute – I have to double check that he shut off the water to the washer – afraid if the hose breaks it will make a mess in basement, so we keep the water to the hose shut off when not in use. …… He did shut the water off, but did not push in control of the washer to make sure it was off. 

So how was your first week of the new year?

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Treat the new year as a new opportunity for a clean slate – but don't go crazy trying to change everything at once – change one small thing and keep at it – then when that is going well – change another and continue and so on.

I'M LATE, I'M LATE - SORRY

Sorry I am late in posting.  Third time since I started posting this blog.  We have had a full couple of weeks - while still seemingly getting little done. 

My mom was ill a week ago Tuesday at 4 am and we had to run to the hospital with her.  Since we go to bed around 4 am - the call came just as we had gotten into bed - we were terribly tired while at the hospital.  My sister and her husband came and saved us and let us go home.  Husband had tried to sleep out in our car - lack of sleep always hits him harder than it does me - and as result of not being able to sleep reached the point where not only was sooooo exhausted, he was also in pain from trying to sleep in the car.  Basically that Tuesday was a gone day.  Wednesday was still off as we were so off physical schedule - but as you know, I did manage to get my post out on time.

On that Thursday, day before Good Friday and the start of Passover, we went to my mom’s house as she was worried about her mail - most of the afternoon gone.  We finished shopping for 2 holiday dinners and that evening I started cooking soup for us for Passover. 

Friday we ran some errands and then I made dinner for me; husband picked up a Chinese main dish - shrimp - as it was Good Friday.  I made vegetable soup for him and chicken for me - and added what I cooked on Thursday - matzoh balls to both soups.  After Passover dinner, I cooked a chicken for Easter dinner - Brunswick stew and put it in the fridge to keep.

Saturday and Sunday between all the normal things we do I worked on the newsletter for my embroidery chapter which had to be out on Wednesday. (Normally I write that Wednesday afternoon and then Wednesday night I write my post.) We also went to church Easter morning and I cooked the Brunswick stew with the previously cooked chicken. 

In the middle of all of this husband decided that we had to dewinterize one of our two fresh water tanks in the RV.  This consists of letting the water out of the tank, refilling it and adding bleach to the new water and letting it sit.  We then emptied and refilled the tank twice over the several days we worked on it. 

I was looking ahead to what I had to do in the coming week - impossible!!  Mostly I had 4 days - what is now yesterday (Thursday), today (Friday) and next Monday and Tuesday to: go to client in Manhattan, do her books & payroll taxes, take my mom to the doctor (on whichever day of the four doctor could see us), meet up with a member of our reenactment unit to get some government paperwork done at the agency involved, and prepare to give a talk at my embroidery meeting this coming Wednesday.  On Sunday I did the payroll tax form for my client (she took no salary this past quarter) and mailed it to her for her to sign and mail out when she comes back to work after being on a vacation so that it will be out timely even if I don’t get there timely.  I mailed it out to her on Monday.

Tuesday we drove to Pennsylvania.  The system in our RV which lets us pump out the “used” water was not working right last time we went away (end of August) and did not work at all at the start of November when we tried to winterize.  Husband made an appointment and the first date available was this past Wednesday.  But we had to be there at 8 am!  Two states away.  This should be a two to two and a half hour drive, but we never know what the traffic will do  - and we would be traveling (half asleep due to the very early hour and no or minimum sleep) during rush hour.  Husband started to panic.  The RV dealer said to us that we could drive down overnight and hook up electricity outside their building - which we have done in the past - but an entire night without a bathroom?!  I let it roll around in my head.  I came up with the idea of staying at a nearby RV park the night before - if we could find one.  Husband did find one and that is why we drove down on Tuesday for a Wednesday appointment.  We had to check in at 4 pm and left at 10:30 am to get there.  We got stuck on the same two roads in our state that we normally get stuck on.  Why do we go that way?  If we go the alternative ways either we are driving north a good distance to go south or we are driving through midtown Manhattan - something we avoid with a car, let alone an RV (and which would soon be a very expensive idea do to a new toll coming to drive in Manhattan).  So we have to go the way we go. 

We were finally past the delays here in New York and about to get onto the New Jersey Turnpike.   Easy to do - we have done it more than countless times.  We got off the road at the exit to the Turnpike and when we approached the toll booths - we were directed away from them to a side road - there was an 18 wheeler truck - cab and trailer - lying on its side blocking the booths.  Now we have to figure all this out.  I looked and we had been directed into an industrial park - and one we have been in several times as there is a venue for conventions and we have gone to quilt, woodworking, and toy train shows there. (Heck, I won a judges prize for a doll there.)  Relieved that I knew where we were - and there were lots of free parking lots with space to pull into - I suggested husband do the same.  He kept driving around as he could not figure out where to pull in and his two (yes, two) GPS devices were arguing over what we should do.  Now they are both trying to get us back to the entrance to the Turnpike, but husband has the idea in his head that one or the other will save us.  One of them is preprogrammed by him and if we miss a point on the map he entered will keep sending us back to that point until we drive through it.  Husband is going on and on about never getting “there” as we don’t know how to go to.  I point out to him that we know that one way to where we want to go is to get back on the road we were on and head west - just the longer way.  After about 15 minutes of him driving around I managed to get out a map - yes, a paper map - of the state and figure out how to get to the next entrance to the Turnpike on the streets.  I find a parallel major road - US1 - which will take us South to where we need to be and then we take a state road - Rte 18 across to the Turnpike and get back on.  Husband does not completely trust me on this.  I tell him to get back on the main road in the same direction we were going.  We end up getting back on it going back where we came from.  Between me and the two GPS devices he manages to turn around.  I get him off the road onto US1.  The GPS that needs to go through specific points continues to try to get us to turn around - he finally managed to get that one shut off.  The other one figures out that we are heading towards the next entrance and starts giving us directions to it.  He is now happy that he knows where we are going - even though the GPS is giving him the exact same route as I told him - and he did not trust!

I should explain that we have traveled to Pennsylvania or elsewhere beyond it at least 10 trips a year - for almost 45 years.  This is not driving in a totally strange area.  Even as we headed down US 1 towards Rte 18 as we got close I pointed out to him - “Look, that is the Wendys where we had lunch last year when we went to that quilt show.”  As we got closer -  “Look this is where we used to drive to get to that nice Japanese restaurant for dinner.” (After all the quilt, etc shows in the area.)  So I am comfortable with all this and know we will get to where we are headed.  He is still not so sure.  We find and get on the New Jersey Turnpike.  Strangely I cannot find any information about what happened to the truck and why it turned over.  There is nothing in the news for a turned over truck on that day - lots of others, but not even any in same month.

We continue on our trip.  While the area near the RV dealer is a relatively new one for us, we have been going there since 2011 and early on in owning the RV there were a lot of problems with it and we might have made a couple of dozen stops there to have it worked on, often while going to Lancaster as this is on the way.  We have also been going to a local cultural fair annually for about 20 years which I had figured out was relatively near to this one - same exit from the Pennsylvania Turnpike going opposite ways after exiting it.  We find the RV park.  Space is good  - about 4 rows from the “bathhouse”.  We then left and drove for dinner in another area of Pennsylvania.  (Husband was getting the most of things he has missed from this trip.)  Then back to the RV park and set up for the night as it is suppose to rain.  Luckily it is not bad rain. 

We are up early (for us) the next morning.  I had not fully made the bed the night before as I knew I had to get it apart quickly the next morning.  I took all of my bed linens and put them in one large plastic bag and ditto his.  I then took apart the bed (two banquette type benches are the base of the bed).  We dropped the RV off for repair and asked them to change the oil in the generator as it is about the time to do so and then to change the “dump hose” as long as it will be taken apart anyway for one we think we like better.

We spend the next several hours in their parts department shop, looking at the new Rvs, walking to a nearby shopping center - Home Depot, Staples, a dollar plus store and lunch at (yes) Wendys.  While eating lunch I see the RV being driven back to the office from their shop and we head over.  It was done.  Twice the cost husband had anticipated, but it is working again. 

We then set off to the Lancaster area for dinner - stopping at a local store as it is too early for same.  After dinner we stop at a Walmart there - their Walmarts are larger than ours and carry different items.  We then start home.  It is basically the same time we would normally leave for home on one of our trips.  Normally we would home around midnight - 12:30 am.  The plan was for me to send out the prewritten newsletter for my embroidery chapter when I got home and I had planned to write and post to all of you here on my blog.  Somehow it took us to 2:30 am to get home and we don’t know why - no traffic, no extra stops?  We took out only the items that had to come out as we needed them in the house and the “snacks” we had brought with us.

Well, so why didn’t write and post on Thursday?  Thursday we unpacked the rest of the stuff in the RV - and I cannot find my Diabetes meter, but it has to be there or her and we have a spare, so I am not going to go crazy over it.  I sent out all 3 versions of the embroidery chapter newsletter.  I had planned to write the post and send it out that evening.  But when evening came - I forgot all about it!  So here I am writing to you two days late!  Forgive me. 

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

Whether one gets diverted from the road on a physical journey or from their journey to getting better organized it happens.  No need to get upset with yourself.  Just pick up where you left off and continue. 

ALMOST A FIRE

I was taught to be very careful when cooking, My mom’s stove (an electric one) had 1 2 3 heat settings on the dial.  I was taught never to walk out of the room if a burner was set at 2 or 3 and never to walk out of house when the stove was on (unless in either case someone else was in the room to watch the stove).  After we married, in our apartment we had a (natural) gas stove/oven combination which scared the heck out of me as I was always afraid that it would blow up.  I had to light the oven with a match to use it and was always sure that would be the last thing I did. (I actually once smelled gas outside the apartment as we were going out, called the gas company and when we got home later we had no stove.  I telephoned to have it turned back on per the note left.  When I asked, I was told that this all stemmed from a woman who had smelled the gas leak in the street and called them - hey, that was me.) 

When we bought this house there was a gas stove/range combination also.  I was not happy about that.  I was even more upset when I was sure I smelled gas when we were in the house for later visits before we bought it.  I was again right.  Rather than get the unit repaired, we bought an electric stove/oven unit and had the kitchen wired for it. 

Last night I made for dinner a pot pie we had bought on sale (we bought a few of them on sale - these are small production ones, not the major brands ones). I, of course, had forgotten to go down and put it in the oven to bake and therefore did so an hour late.  Husband really likes these pies so he did not complain. I bake it in an oven which sits on the counter (uses 1/3 of the counter space we have).  I carefully pulled the oven away from the wall and the stove and removed some plastic storage items sitting next to the oven to the other side of the kitchen.  I lined the pan with foil to keep it clean. 

In the interim while it was cooking I set the table, laid out our pills for dinner, etc. I would have thought nothing of walking out of the kitchen while the baking was going on, but in this case I stayed in the kitchen.

I made a can of soup for us to share as a first course.  I split the can of soup before cooking it and use two small pots to cook it.  It is worth cleaning the extra pot as it is much easier to split the soup as it comes out of the can and husband likes more water added to his soup than I do.  As the pie went into its last ½ hour of cooking, we sat down and had the soup.  After I poured the soup into our bowls, I put the pots on the stove.  The burners for the soup had been shut off and I also made sure not to put the pots on the burners they had been on as the burners were still hot (electric burners take a short while to cool down after they shut off).  As I said, I am very careful.

When the pie was done cooking, the countertop oven beeped and I took it out and put the pan on the stove - on the larger burner in the front on one side which was cold.  We had the very nice pot pie for dinner. 

After dinner I normally have a cup of tea for dinner. I normally cook it on the rear smaller burner, but I had moved the pots onto the baking pan and had put it on that rear burner, so I put the pot of water on the front, larger, burner to boil it and turned on the burner.  I went back to the kitchen table - 5-6 feet away - and started reading the newspaper (TV was on for husband) while I waited to hear the water boiling. 

It dawned on me that it was a bit long for the water to take to boil and something smelled wrong and notices small bits of black floating around the room.  I had turned on the wrong burner!!  I had turned on the burner with the pots and baking pan!  I shut it off and using pot holders moved the burner with the pots still on it to another burner that was cold.     

Luckily I caught it before we had an actual fire.  The stove was covered in soot and the pots looked burned.  The foil I had put in the baking pan was what seemed to be the black wisps flying around the room and the pan had a mark that went through it.  I never did have tea.  Husband suggested checking inside the oven to make sure all was okay there - I carefully put my hand on the front of it first to check that it was not hot before I opened it. 

When they cooled a tiny bit, I put the pots and the pan into a dish pan of cold water to finish cooling them off.  I was surprise that the pots and the pan (even the foil stuck to the pan) cleaned so easily.  The pan though rocked when I put it on a flat surface, distorted by the heat.  After I was done with pots and the pan, I started on the stove.  It cleaned up much quicker and easier than I thought it would.  I took apart the burner that all this happened on to clean it and found when I took out the drip pan that the foil liner in the drip pan had mostly melted.  This had been the source of the black wisps floating about.  I immediately pulled the liners in the other 3 pans - too dangerous (despite this not happening in the past 30 years) - and threw them out also. 

Today husband was able to mostly get the baking pan to stop rocking by leaning on it.  The kitchen no longer has a burning smell.  Unrelated to all of this, we took in Chinese food for dinner tonight (easy way to deal with Ash Wednesday for husband).

Something we realized later in the evening when I boiled water - with the same pot I started to do so to make tea - later in the evening for some hot cereal before bed. The smoke detector had not gone off.  (For a reminder of a past cooking incident that did set off the smoke detector see - http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2018/07/not-in-pennsylvania.html    )   

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

Well two of them actually.  Be careful when cooking - even if you think that you are being careful - be more careful.

If you have foil drip pans in your stove - TAKE THEM OUT.                   

CHRISTMAS ALREADY?

As I write this post it is just less than a week to Christmas.  This has been a mixed up year and I am soooo behind.  I am hoping that we will have the big tree in the living room for our presents.   Okay, I know we will have the tree as in between writing this post I am bringing up the pieces of the tree from the basement and putting them in place - but will it be decorated and how much will it be decorated?  I have already put down the stand, added the pole and the tree top to it.  I am now going to put in the first of the wedge shaped sections.

Why I am so late this year?  Well, as mentioned last week, lately I seem to need to do almost everything twice.  In addition to what I mentioned last week - on Thursday a gift we had ordered for husband’s niece - a Barbie doll that is a mermaid and lights up in the bathtub as Walmart, our go to source for purchasing just about anything, does not carry it in store stock, so we had to order it for her.  The doll shown on Walmart’s site was the traditional Caucasian, blonde, blue eyed Barbie.  Unlike other Barbie dolls on the page there was no choice of “color’.  When the doll arrived it was African-American in features - not the doll we had ordered.  The doll had taken 2 weeks to come - and even if we could reorder her, we had no way of knowing if we would receive the Barbie pictured on the page on the website.  Niece actually asked for this doll and her mom had not tried to buy it for her as we were doing so.  No one wants to disappoint a 9 year old.  (Okay, even though according to her mom she asked for this, I know fully well that there is a good chance when she gets this doll, it will be glanced at and tossed over her shoulder lost in the excessive gifts from her mom and (dad’s mom) grandmother. So we both went online and I managed to find out that Target claimed to have the doll in stock at several local stores.  I printed out the information from the two stores we were most likely to get to.  We paid $13 from Walmart - the doll was listed as available by order, pick up at the store or buy at the store for $15, so not much more.  We went to one of the Targets.  To my surprise we did not have to find an employee and plead that the doll which we expected not to be on the floor - or it would be same as the one received if it was on the floor  - is suppose to be in the store and please, please find us one - the doll was out on display in abundance.  We selected one.  We then looked at the shelf and the price was $21 - not only more than the price online for Target, but also $1 over the list price from Mattel.  Husband started to panic.  I took the doll and my printout and went to the service desk.  I explained - employee told me that just because the price was shown on the website (even if it said buy in store) does not mean that the store price is the same as the online price - and even different stores will have different prices for the same item (please remember that when you shop at Target in the future, as well as the shelf price was over the list price), but she would match it (so I didn’t bother to point out to her that their shelf price was more than list.)  Almost finished - we then had to go stand in line at Walmart and return the doll received from them.  Another day gone.  (Putting in the second section of the tree. - right back.)

We have not driven our RV since August as we have not been able to go on a trip.  It was having trouble starting when we did maintenance things to it (such as running the generator every month) and husband has been pushing for trip so we were going to drive to Lancaster, PA for a farmer’s market, some other shopping, and dinner for the day on Tuesday.  Then we were just too exhausted.  So we drove it just to drive it (we could wake up much later and not need to pack any “going out of state stuff”).  We drove it for about an hour headed east on the Island we live on. We then drove it around out there (it is the both the fancy tourist end of the Island, as well as the agricultural end of same) for a while.  We finally ended up at larger Walmart out there - both so husband could look for some things he has not been able to find and to make a rest stop.  (We had lunch at the start of the trip.)  We then drove home.  It was the start of rush hour - which mostly is in the opposite direction as we are going, but there are a lot of people who commute in the opposite direction - and an accident on the main highway we were on.  We are limited in the highways which we can on which we can drive the RV as it is over height for many of them.  Husband was thinking of getting off the highway where we were and we knew the roads.  I quickly calculated and decided that the back up was after where we would get off  - by one exit.  I was right.  We stopped and refilled the gas tank in the RV and now it can rest for awhile.  Another day gone.

I have to go to a client for the month - I was hoping to have gone today, but she had a doctor’s appointment, so it will be tomorrow - the expected busiest traffic day of the season, of course.  Either day - it is another day gone. (Just put in the 3rd section of the tree.)

In addition to all of this and my exam (which I finished with a grade of 85 last night, thank goodness), we will be short of time from now to Christmas as our reenactment unit will be doing the candlelight event at the local restoration village.  It sounds like a short time - event starts at 5 pm and ends at 9:30.  But we have to start dressing before 3 pm to leave at 3:30 to get there by 4 pm (and driving with rush hour traffic on Friday, the first day of the event) to start setting up.  Then after the event ends we will need to close up, so we will not be out until 10 pm, drive home by 10:30, start dinner going and change to modern clothes and start eating dinner by 11 pm.  We have done this event for at least a decade now and we know how to plan ahead.  Today we mailed out payment on all bills due before December 27 - no need to go to the post office or bank (we took extra cash and transferred money to cover bills today).  In buying food for Christmas Eve dinner today, I did forget to buy for dinner the 3 nights of the event - hot dogs for him and chicken patties for me - come home, put up canned soup and dinner, change clothes and start eating by 11:30 pm.  Husband said he would go tomorrow while I was at work to buy same - and some deli turkey breast for Friday night.  We treated ourselves to dinner out tonight as we normally would go out on the weekend for dinner and will pick up takeout tomorrow night.

In and between all of this I have put up the decorations in the dining room and most of them in the living (I have not have the energy to move furniture to put up a double length swag of artificial roping across the back living room windows with an embroidery piece of mine in a hoop in the center of the swag (where it goes back up to the top of the window).  So everything on the table below it is in disarray. 

Our Christmas tree and lights, skirt, and some of the ornaments are stored in the box that the tree came in - under the staircase in the basement.  Two of our other trees, Christmas decorative figures and some other related items are stored on top of the box.  Of course to get to the box everything in front of it has to be moved.  After we came home from dinner I began sorting this all out.  I moved what is kept in front of the box and the items stored on top of it.  I then pulled out the stand and the pole - need them first of course - and a junk bath size towel (you know - the ones that are not good enough to use, but too good to toss, and great for things like soaking water from a small flood or such).  I put the towel down on the wooden floor first - it keeps the floor from getting scratched if we need to move the tree from where it starts as well as making it easier to do so by dragging the towel, while holding the tree upright.  Oh - it is not this easy - I spent part of last night moving husband’s table that he uses for various weaving related purposes into the studio (what should have been our family room) and wedging it (it is a gate-leg, so it folds down narrow) between my studio worktable and chair.  I then carried in 7 boxes of yarns and finished woven pieces.  (And arranged them in the right order for access to what husband might need while it is all shoved back there.)  I put the top of the tree in place.  The instructions said to do this last and we did so for years (closer to decades).  We are both short and doing so involves reaching across the spread of the bottom tree sections - not something either of us can do without a ladder, which is a rather shaky way to do so.  2 years ago it occurred to me to try putting the top in place and seeing if I could still put the bottom pieces (8 wedge shaped pieces) in place - I could and I now I assemble the tree this way.  I am now in the midst (between lines/ sections of this post) of bringing up a section of the tree and a zip bag or two with a strand of lights in each.  I discovered that the way to deal with the down and up the stairs for each section is to stretch it out a bit as the sections are heavy and the stairs long.  (Going down for another section right now - my fourth of the eight.)  Back again.  We found that we have to put the sections on so that two which sit opposite each other go on one after another - then the 2 that form the two cross pieces to same, then fill in opposite ones in the holes in between them.  If the sections next to each other are put on together - the tree gets too heavy and starts to fall over (yes, we found out the hard way - been there, done that) so the spacing of putting them in is important.  I should have the entire tree up before we go to bed.  Not sure if I will get the lights on tonight - or tomorrow night.  Spacing where it is located seems good.  It is a small area, but I can walk around the tree, except for the side facing the window and will deal with that from the sides.  We originally would set up the tree in the back, right corner of the room, but the front center works better - and only one piece of furniture needs to moved (and this crazy year past, it was never put back). 

A few years ago I came up with an idea for turning on and off the tree.  We have several electric cords which allow something to be plugged in at one end (which is also what plugs into the electricity) and at the other end there is an on-off switch.  I use this and run the cord up through the tree and it just sticks on the side of the tree that is not as easily seen (away from the room entrance and near a wall) and we just stick our hands into the tree there and turn the lights on or off.  This year I put a 3 outlet plug into the cord before the tree and we can also plug in our light up bear (he wears our Santa hat) so both will go on at the same time - we always forget to light him.  (Off for section 5 - it will face the window behind the tree.)

I have four large plastic boxes with ornaments in the basement also - behind the 2 empty decoration boxes and the 2 full Teddy bear village Christmas village.  They will come up when I am ready to use them. The ornament boxes are labeled one to four.  The ornaments in box 1 are basically the ones I want to put on the tree first and the ones in box 4 basically the ones I want to put on last.  There are also other ornaments which are kept in the tree box and some in other places.  Some of the ornaments will end up on the studio tree - it is decorated with only ornaments we have made - although there are plenty of those also on the main tree.  There will also be a tree in the dining room.  It gets the ornaments we receive as donors to Colonial Williamsburg - but some duplicate ones will go on the main tree also.  There is also a small beaded tree which I made - it is stored decorated, but some always fall off in transit and need to be replaced.

I had cleared out the dining room of extraneous stuff before decorating it.  Unfortunately RV stuff that ends up in the dining room in RV use season which I took out and left in the RV for the winter, had to be brought back in when we went on the trip - good thing.  The back of the RV (remember this is a Chevy van conversion not a huge RV) has two seating benches opposite each other on the sides and they convert to the bed by filling in the area between the seats with wooden boards and sliding the seat cushions and seat backs into the space.  It is set up as the 2 seats for the off season with the bedding in knotted closed huge plastic bags on one of the seats and the seat backs on the other seat.  We have driven before with them like this with no problem.  During the trip we heard NOISES from the back, Normally we hear noises from the back and we just figured it was because things that are normally packed full when we travel so that items don’t shift around were much emptier.  When we stopped at the Walmart out there - everything was lying in the area between the benches - luckily nothing broken - don’t know why.  If I had not taken the items back into the house as I did - they would have been broken.  So again, I have to repeat doing something and I have to take the items back from the dining room - again - and store them in the (stationary now for some time to come) RV.

At some point - even if it is on or after Christmas - I will set up the other 2 trees down here that have to be decorated.  I will, hopefully finish the living room (or just put out my embroidery place and forget about the roping for this year).  I will also change the teddy village from fall to winter - this is something that I normally do on Christmas Eve or afternoon or after same.

Do I over decorate?  Yes.  But we don’t really buy each other gifts (or otherwise get them) and Christmas day dinner with his sister and her family is not fun.  Mass, the focus of the holiday is an hour.  So other than participating with our reenacting unit in doing 6 nights (3 this week and 3 next week) of interpreting a 1740 house at the event mentioned, decorating is just about all of our holiday. Oh, and of course there are some Chanukah decorations mixed in for me.  (Going down for piece number 6, right back.)

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Take time to enjoy the holidays.  We often spend so much time decorating, shopping, cooking (maybe some cleaning if people are coming), etc. While I , obviously, go overboard in decorating, I also understand that time to enjoy ourselves and rest is also needed.  I push to get it all done, but if it is not, I am not going to be upset with myself.  The first year that we were married we did not have a tree for a variety of reasons (none financial).  I decided that husband needed something.  I bought 2 large sheets of brown oak tag and some paints.  I painted a fireplace opening and fire on one and painted the mortar of bricks (see I bought brown oaktag so I would not have to paint bricks - just the mortar between them) for the sides and chimney area of a fireplace.  I then tied them to the back of one of his mom’s old kitchen chairs (we had a few of them to use as we had not bought kitchen set yet - table was a bridge table borrowed from my mom) so it would stand.  We set it up for years until it fell apart some time after we moved into this house.  It was simple, but served its purpose.  (Going down for tree December 20, 2018 piece number 7.)

I hope that all of you have a good holiday season - I hate to say Happy or Merry as I know that many people do not.  Try to remember what is important and know that the rest will work itself it out.  If not everything you plan gets done - it is not a failure, it is just how it is.  Something will always go wrong - last year I misplaced a gift card purchased for husband’s niece (same one we got the Barbie mermaid for) and it did not turn up until I started changing the teddy Christmas village into the summer village (for the first time - as in the past the village has only been done for Christmas/Winter).  So now we have a gift card to use at a store we don’t shop at.  But we gave her cash last year and we are sure that some day we will find a use for the card - maybe a DVD before they stop carrying them?  But after going crazy looking for the card last year (and positive I threw it out somehow), I put it aside and went on with the holiday.  (I will go down for the last piece and close up downstairs after I post this - see it wasn’t so bad.)

THANKSGIVING IS HERE AGAIN

For those of you in the U.S., Thanksgiving is tomorrow, at least as I write this (by the time you read this, it is probably today or yesterday for you).  Rather than retell the story of organizing for Thanksgiving past, I will post links to my prior Thanksgiving posts at the end of this post.

This year is rather worse than even most recent years.  Until this past Monday we were still debating - cook dinner or go to an Asian buffet (they do put out a turkey for carving - and each person carves their own serving). 
On Monday we bought our turkey.  It is from the same specialty supermarket that we bought from last year and the year before.  Due to our letter about our problem last year  with the turkey not being fully cooked (the breast was blood raw) after following their directions, they sent us a gift card for about 3 times the price of the turkey.  So this year’s turkey (and next year’s and part of the year after’s turkey) was free.  Due to the warnings this year about problems with turkeys and salmonella, I was concerned about putting the turkey - even though it is still in its packaging - on the right hand top shelf of our refrigerator, the only one tall enough to hold the turkey - even though it is lying down.  So I was going to put it on one of my platters - but then realized that they are pottery and might absorb any leaks and any salmonella in the leaks.  I thought and thought where I might have a large enough glass plate to hold it.  So it is sitting on a lovely large dessert serving plate that we received as a wedding gift.  (Yes, we have used it to serve dessert over the decades.)  That left 2 small corners at the front of the shelf to put anything on it.  Husband, a few weeks ago, had decided that the caffeinated diet soda he has at lunch made his shoulder/arm feel better.  So we have a started bottle of decaf soda and one of caffeinated soda in the fridge.  I put the decaf one on the right corner of the shelf.  I then went to put the caffeinated one on the left corner of the shelf - I had forgotten that one of the reasons I hate this fridge (even before we bought it, but it was the closest to what I wanted that we could find in the emergency situation of our old one - around 30 years old - dying) is that the light bulb is in the front of it - in the middle of the fridge and one cannot put anything tall there - so the soda bottle could not go there.  I managed to balance it - 3/4 of it on the center of the shelf and the front end sticking off.  I warned husband - so he would be careful not to knock it off the shelf  - and made him repeat to me what I said - so he cannot say I did not tell him.  Of course right after this, he stopped drinking soda and switched to ice tea, so I have been drinking the decaf soda to get rid of the extra bottle.  It is down enough that the bottle can lay on a lower shelf as there is so little soda left, it does not reach the neck of the bottle while it is lying down.

Yesterday (Tuesday) we went out shopping for the other things we need for the dinner.  Of course the stores (we went to 2 different supermarkets and a Walmart) were jammed and out of things.  I am annoyed that since we waited this long items - milk, stuffing, eggs and such - that I would normally buy in Walmart as they are cheaper there, had to bought at the supermarket and we probably blew at least $5 on the difference.  (I think I have said that I am cheap.)  We had to go out again today for items we did not find yesterday - another Walmart and a different supermarket.  I never did get the mixed (green) beans I wanted.  Somehow everything we picked is what he wanted, the mixed beans were what I wanted - plain green beans it is. 

I have not cleared out the dining room yet.  Nor have I cleared off the kitchen counters to have room to work.  I guess whatever is in the way in the dining room will be pushed to far end - hey, it’s only us, I would like it nicer, but between dealing with his shoulder and the RV winterizing mess (which will be continued next week) I am soooo behind in getting ready.  In reading my prior Thanksgiving posts (I found I already repeated myself at least once, and not repeating myself was why I read them) I was reminded that I have to go to the basement, move all the boxes of Christmas decorations in front of the very small closet that has our gas meter, a blanket cut in half for reenactments (in sealed plastic bags and rarely used kitchen stuff and get the platter for carving out and wash it.

I don’t know if you go shopping on Thanksgiving or Black Friday, we do not.  Never found anything worth getting.  I have to wonder if people buy new TVs every year as that always seems to be the big draw.  Then again, as I have mentioned, we do very little gift shopping, as well as little shopping for us.  For us if we are shopping something needs replacing or there is something very new (and not expensive) that husband has decided he needs.

Remember that what you buy has to be paid for and you don’t want to be in debt forever for something that is gone in a year or two or less.  Also - everything you buy has to be stored - either by you or the person you give it to - think about that when buying items for yourself or as a gift. For example husband decided last week to buy a chair at Ikea. It is a small kitchen table chair and it has a low back and is smaller than our regular chairs.  He had noticed the chairs at Wendys where we have lunch are more comfortable for his shoulder and arm - after jokes about maybe since we go there so office we can borrow/rent a chair from them, he decided to look in Ikea after dinner last week.  Now, we are the type of people who can shop for a package of hair pins for a week or two, but he sat in several chairs and then announced one was perfect (and “only $39") and we bought it and assembled it that night and he loves it. This left me with the chair he used before (and hopefully will again).  It is now in the dining room against the wall (we keep furniture against the wall in the colonial “room at rest” manner) - out of the way until we need it again and looks decorative.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

Those of you in the U.S. - have a nice Thanksgiving. 

All of you - think before you shop during the holidays (and in general) before overspending or buying unneeded items which will quickly be unwanted - by yourself or as gifts.  One of the movie theater chains we used to go to had a trailer to sell its gift cards for holiday gifts.  It has people receiving gifts that were not appropriate and of course those who received their gift cards were happy.  I will never forget one sequence - a man receives a sweater as a gift.  The sweater is huge - his arms are lost in the sleeves and the sweater covers him to below his knees and he is so sad and upset and shaking his head.  You don’t want to be the person who gives a gift like that!  (And no, I am not pushing movie gift cards.)

Prior Thanksgiving posts -
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2015/11/thanksgiving-and-other-holidays.html
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2016/11/
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2017/11/semi-unorganized-thanksgiving.html

I WAS FINALLY CATCHING UP A BIT AND...

Well, here I am again, posting a day late.  Did I forget?  Did I play games with my computer again?  Was there a blackout?  No!  But please forgive my late posting - again.

I had a tax return to finish for a client - (USA) deadline for late filing on extension of individual tax returns is October 15.  This particular client tends to file on extension every year, but usually I get his information and prepare the return earlier in September.  This year he did not contact me until mid September to set up an appointment - which was a week or so later.  He lost his wife late last year and has been in and out of the hospital himself - he was going back in the day after he gave me his info.  Even now, the return is finished and out to him, but I need to discuss his final estimated tax payment for 2018 which is due in January 2019 before I can fill in and send him that file.

My embroidery guild chapter needed someone to teach some stitches at the October 3 meeting and I got volunteered - I had to do prep for the meeting and try out some stitches to see what I would teach - and have some samples of it for the members to see what they looked like. 

I finished same in time for the meeting and was finishing teaching the first stitch when my cell phone rang with my husband’s special ringer.  I figured it was a text message - he never calls me as he only has 100 minutes a month (and almost every month ends the month with none of the minutes used) and while they were stitching I opened the message - only to find that it was phone call from husband.  I called back (must be important if he called) and he told me that he did not feel well - his arm hurt which pain killer OTC pill should he take.  I told him and went back to teaching.  In 5 minutes - 10 at the most - he called again, just this side of crying about how bad it was and it was his left arm.  That set me panicking.  I explained, made my apologies, grabbed as many of my samples as I saw (plus my other stuff, including a piece - the raised work butterfly - that I had brought in for “show and tell” and ran out the door.  We live maybe 5 minutes drive from the meeting.

He was upset and in a panic.  I looked up the symptoms of a heart attack - yes, pain radiating in the left arm, even without chest pain could be a heart attack.  Now, husband and I are the type of people who avoid doctors as much as they can, but we were both worried.  Question became which hospital emergency room to go to.  We have a large hospital which was owned by the county until it sold it, but it still serves the purpose of the county hospital near us.  Further away there is a Catholic Diocese run hospital.  I suggested same, despite it being maybe 10 minutes futher away as we had been “happy” with two other hospitals so owned - one for his cataract surgeries and one when his mother had heart surgery - and if he needed same, he would be transferred to that hospital, one of the top in the country, if we went to this hospital, plus our GP is associated with it.  Why a question as to which one to go to?  Well, his mother died at this hospital and that sticks in his mind.  I pointed out that while it was the same building, it was a different hospital now, with new ownership (had been a private hospital owned by doctors before).               

He made sure that he had his medical insurance cards (we are both on Medicare  - me as of this month, him as of last year) and we were off.  He had to drive as he has motion sickness - which is also why an ambulance, which we thought to be overkill any way, was not in question. 

When we arrived I remembered a problem with this hospital - most of the parking is at the rear of the building far from the doors - and the emergency room is at the front. We looked in the small lot by the emergency entrance - no spaces.  I had him stop the car and get out and I drove it and parked it at the rear of the building - at least the parking was free, at the county hospital they charge - and should not for so many reasons.  He actually went in alone without complaining or whimpering.  (He does not like to do things alone.)  I had figured he would be waiting for me, but he had the good senses to start things going.  I parked at the rear of the building, and ran (well as close to running as an overweight, out of shape 65 year old woman can run without having a heart attack herself) around the side of the building, in the entrance (halfway to the front) and started following signs while briskly walking - emergency luckily was a red sign with white writing and easy to spot to see which way to go.  I got to the front of the building and it ended?  I saw an elevator and pushed the ground floor button and then ran out and followed more signs - arriving at the emergency waiting area just as they were taking him in. 

 I was impressed with the computers on wheeled stations so that the staff could come to the bed and do the computer work right there.  Staff was nice and understanding.  While one employee settled him into the bed, the nurse took info from me - she was rather impressed that I had a list of our meds (they only needed his of course) in my cell phone.  Based on the errors we made in info while trying to recall things while in panic, I will also enter in additional info, including family history for both of us as we forget when they asked that his mother had heart surgery as well as his cataract surgery and to mention that he is allergic to most raw fruit and many nuts.  I did remember that he was allergic to penicillin ,but he insisted no - and that I was allergic to same.  He has always said that he was allergic to penicillin to me and I am allergic to sulfa meds.  (“Aren’t sulfa meds penicillin” he asked me later when we were discussing this.)

Once he was settled in, it became wait and wait.  Staff and the woman accompanying the patient in the curtained area next to husband all were constantly upset that I was standing and tried to get me to sit.  I prefer standing as it hurts my bottom to sit for long times (I lost weight there) and we were concerned about -yes - bed bugs.  Standing for an afternoon is nothing to me, but it kept bothering everyone - and I was less in the way in the tight quarters of his area standing than sitting and could more easily get out of anyone’s way. 

We had explained that he had excruciating pain in his left shoulder radiating down his left arm and that we were concerned if it was a heart attack, as well as what it was if it was not.

They did blood work (something husband fears and it was not done well - there was blood on the sheet).  They hooked him up to a machine.  A man came and took him to X-ray, not knowing it was around the corner in the same room I asked if I could follow along - husband asked me to stay with him the entire time, which I had expected and planned to do.  They did other things in a flurry of tasks.  Then it became wait.... wait....wait...  

We had arrived around noon.  It became 2:30 - our normal lunch time.  Neither of us had eaten that day as the 2:30 meal is usually our first of the day.  We are both Type 2 Diabetics.  I can do passably well not eating, but he needs to eat or his blood sugar drops.  He said he was okay.  By 3 pm he was heading into trouble.  I went to the nurse and explained and asked if they had some orange juice which is what he usually will have if he has a low - and she gave him same and offered turkey sandwich, which they have in a fridge in the unit.  So he had a bit of lunch.  (I had sort of thought that he could not eat, which is why I asked for the juice, just in case surgery was needed.)  I thought of running out and looking for something for me (we have cheese cracker packages in the car - figured some place to eat in the building or at worst, Burger King was 3 buildings over on the road). But I decided I felt okay and waited. 

Over the afternoon we were told his blood tests were okay.  Later we  that he would be moved to an observation section where he would wait until they did a second set of blood tests as they needed to compare them - ok, makes sense.  I asked the doctor who told us this, about checking about other reasons for the pain he was in - “We have to rule out a heart attack first and then look at muscular-skeletal reasons.”  Okay, makes sense. 

It took an hour or so before he was transferred to the observation section.  This was a room with larger curtained areas where one could move about (me - not him, he was again hooked up).  After he was settled in and we knew that nothing would happen for awhile, I nervously asked him about leaving for about 15 minutes to run back out to car and get cheese crackers to eat.  He said it was fine and that I should check for a cafeteria in the hospital.  I went back out a little more leisurely and checked the lunchonette type restaurant in the building - $8 for a burger?  Did not see if that included fries or something, but would only not want same anyway and $8 a bit high on the budget, so I continued the car.  As I had walked through there was a photo exhibit - it reminded me that husband had exhibited his cut paper art works in the hospital (before his mom died) several times.  I went out to the car.  On a chance, I drove the car around to the front of the building and found an empty space in the small lot in the front near the emergency room to make leaving easier.  Problem - only one package of cheese crackers in the car.  I guess I did not replace them when we (okay I) ate them in the past.

So I took the package back with me and ate the crackers.   They brought him dinner - lunch? at 4 pm - the Diabetic diet - macaroni in tomato sauce, spinach, diet pudding, diet ginger ale, and coffee - artificial sweetener on the side of course.  He ate the macaroni and spinach.  Eventually they came and took the second blood tests - and had to stick him all over again, I thought the tube they left in his arm would be used, but no they had to stick him again. Those tests came back fine.

So, I started asking what they were going to do next about the pain.  No, they were done - he should go to his doctor or an orthopedist about that!  So we spent 8.5 hours there and left with a couple of holes in arms, papers, hungry stomachs, and the pain in his arm still there.

He had trouble falling asleep last night - did not do so until 6 am - so when he finally fell asleep I let him sleep since he had not had a full night sleep the night before, hoping when he finally awoke he would feel better.  No, it may even be worse.  So tomorrow we will go see our regular doctor, who hopefully will be able to help him. 

I ran out today and ran the most pressing of the errands I was suppose to do yesterday such as transfer money so I could mail out bill payments due out.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

1 - Be prepared.  (Even if you are not a Boy Scout.)

I know what medications we each take, but was getting confused and the list of same in a memo in my cell phone helped.  The personal and family histories in the phone would have been of great help.

If I had remembered to replace cheese cracker packages when we (I) ate them, I would have had  more of them to eat as a lunch - and not have been shaking with low blood sugar when we got home. (We ended with me going out and picking up Chinese take out for dinner, as it was too late to cook - and we got foods he did not need to cut.) 

Have something on your cell phone (or tablet) to keep you busy - without wifi as there was none.  I spent the time in the observation area playing cards on my phone.  (The TVs did not work in either room.)  While in the observation room he spent his time annoying his sister with text messages telling her where he was and why and NO she should not come or send her husband.  (I have not mentioned it to my family yet.)

We thought we were prepared, well I thought I was prepared for both of us, but we were not.  If I had been the patient, he would have had even more problems. 

2 - Simple things can be complicated and one needs to keep thinking and come up with ideas quickly. 

He needed his insurance cards and had to juggle it out of his pocket while being hooked up to machines - I took the wallet from him and shoved it in my pocket for the rest of the time we were there and added his cards back to it for him.  (He would not give me his cell phone to hold except during the X- rays.) 

When he went to eat the turkey sandwich we asked if he could/should take his pill that he would normally take with lunch - nurse checked and the doctor said yes.  He tried to wrangle his pill box out and was getting frustrated.  We both take that same medication.  I told him to stop and pulled out my box and handed him one of mine - I took one back from his supply later.  Much easier than him trying to get it out.

Eating the meal they gave him was a bit hard as the tray table was too far from him no matter how I positioned it.  He is a sloppy eater and did not want to drop food on himself.  I finally figured out to turn the tray 90 degrees so it could stick off the table and still have enough tray on the table not to fall off.  This way the tray stuck out so it covered him lap.

3 - Go with the flow

Yes, it is a trite expression, but there was no other choice.  We were there - I could not run the errands I intended.  The soda bottles and donation items will wait.  The visit to our bank vault to exchange this month’s data backups for last month’s - well, last month’s will work until next month’s goes in.  Nothing to do to change the situation - just go along with it and be glad that he did not have a heart attack and hope that the doctor can help (easily) with the pain in his shoulder as he is currently pacing the kitchen as he is trying not to take the next OTC pill until closer to bed time.  Oh, I forgot to mention that he found one of our old kitchen chairs the most comfortable thing to sit on and has planted himself on it (I brought it over for him from our studio) at our kitchen table in front of the door to the basement and blocking the path to the pantry closet and the downstairs bathroom. This making doing chores very hard to do as I either have to climb over him or ask him to move.  Last night’s laundry is being done tonight.