A GOOD FINANCIAL RECORDS SET UP CAN HELP WITH OTHER ORGANZING ALSO - SUCH AS WHICH AIR CONDITIONER ARE THESE INSTRUCTIONS FOR AND DO WE STILL HAVE IT?

 Did you ever buy something because it seemed like a great idea to help with organizing, not use it right away and forget about it?  

Well, one of the places we go to in Pennsylvania is a farmer's market which is also a general merchandise/flea market.  Most of the vendors are out doors, but there are some buildings with indoor vendors.  For decades and decades there was an indoor vendor who sold tools and related items – he finally retired and sold his business to someone else.  The new owner has expanded the type of items he sells and sells household items and office supplies (and I am sure I have mentioned – I love office supplies, used to play with them as a child and still think of them as FUN).  He is buying at auctions and such so he has a big assortment of items.  I always make sure to go through his office supply aisle carefully.  

When going through his booth this past Friday I was suddenly reminded – a few years ago I had bought a package of tabs to put on hanging folders which one would print the name of the folders by running it the tabs through one's computer.  (These are made by a well known label company.)  I had completely forgotten about these labels.  When we came home I checked and the package was exactly where it belonged – in the plastic stacking trays file holder next to where our printer had been (and our latest printer is) – this holds assorted items to run through the former copier, now printer next to where they are located.  One problem I have been having with going through these hanging folders is that I could not keep track of which ones I have been through and which I have not – plus since the labels on them face forward and this is the bottom drawer of the file cabinet – and add that I wear eyeglasses so when I bend down to read the file labels – my eyeglasses swing out of line – if not off my face – I get confused and start going through folders I have finished with.  

I started printing these new tabs for folders that I have been through – easy to read as name points upwards on the file folder and easy to see which files I have been through.  

One of the folders I went through this past week held instruction manuals for large appliances in our house – air conditioners, refrigerator, dehumidifier, and similar.  I put several instruction books into the recycle pile to get rid of them and then across one which was confusing.  

It was a manual for an air conditioner (we have individual through the wall units in our house).  It was dated as a June 2008 purchase.  I looked up at the unit in the office – not that one.  I knew we had just purchased a new air conditioner for our bedroom last year – this was not that unit, but it could be the one which was there before and had been removed.  The air conditioner in the smallest bedroom (the one most of my teddy bears live in) dates back to the former owner, as does the one in our studio.  It was not for a portable air conditioner, so that left out the one we normally used in the living room or dining room which died last year. Before that we had window unit in the living room, but that had come from our old apartment – and would have been purchased in the 1980s.   Hmmm, There were pictures, but several different ones.  Old bedroom a/c made the most sense.  I asked husband if I was forgetting any air conditioners.  I was – the one in his wood shop (garage).  We were not sure what year we bought same.  We were trying to figure it out – keep as from old bedroom unit or keep as from current garage unit?  I suddenly had a flash of sense!  I use Quicken for our financial records.  I looked up 2008 and in July 2008 – I paid for the air conditioner we had replaced last year in our bedroom.  So it was the one from the old bedroom unit and it went into the recycle pile.  

It is amazing how much keeping good financial records (especially ones which can easily be searched) can help with general organization.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -  

Keeping good financial records is important to do for many reasons, including one's income tax – figuring out which major item was purchases when or how much it cost is part of that.  

How are YOUR financial records?  There are many programs which help with keeping track of where your money goes.  Using the computer to do so takes only seconds when you make a deposit or write a check.  It helps at the end of the year when you do your income taxes as well as making a valid budget to follow in future years – what you spent last year can be looked at to figure out what you can/should spend in this or future years.

DECORATING FOR CHRISTMAS - MISSING HOOKS?

 This past week, I have been dealing with the inside the house Christmas decorations.  Just to refresh your memories – last year time got away from me and 3 days before Christmas I told my husband that we were not going to have our decorations up – particularly not our Christmas trees.  He was actually glad to hear me say this as he had realized it the week before and was afraid to mention it – if he had I would have been bound and determined to get it all set up.  I ended up taking out the small tabletop tree we set normally setup in our studio and decorate with some of the ornaments we have made over the decades, and setting it up on husband's weaving work table which is in our dining room.  I store our ornaments in 4 boxes starting with the nicest ones and ending with the fill in ones.  I pulled about 25 ornaments out of the nicest ones (and had the most sentimental value) and used them on the tree.   Nothing was cleared out of the room from his weaving – basically the loom room never became the living room and the little tree sat in the midst of the weaving.  In the days after Christmas I did take out some of my small stuffed Christmas/Chanukah animals and put them on the sofa and my Christmas teddy bear village was setup after Christmas (I don't think it has ever gone up before Christmas Eve) but that was it.  My husband reassured that “next year” we would get everything setup again.

Well it is next year.  Since we are stuck in the house due to the corona virus we really want to decorate and take our minds off of it and other miseries of this year.  I put out a good deal of the small decorations and then started on the trees over the weekend.   It was all going well.  I have to set up all 3 trees at the same time as the ornaments we have made are shared between the two and ornaments we have received from our membership in Colonial Williamsburg are split between the main tree and one in our dining room.  Both the studio tree and the dining room tree are due to having too many of the same type of ornaments on the main tree – and this being a way to have all of the ornaments out while not overwhelming the tree with them.  (My teddy bear village was started in much same the way – I set up a small tree with some of the teddy bear ornaments from the main tree and the village grew from that.  

I was putting ornaments on the main tree – running into the studio to put some there – and doing well.  My husband had been helping me, but had to go to work on the computer.  I suddenly realized that I was almost out of hooks.  I should have some in the first box and some in one of the later boxes – and I had not found the second bag of them.  As I was about to start the fill in layers – glass balls in various colors that I stick behind the main ornaments wherever there is an empty spot and then some small ornaments and icicles I put over the ornament also to fill in – and I had no more hooks – I also had never found any of the longer hooks and had 3 nice ornaments sitting there waiting for the longer hooks.   I have now being looking for two days for the missing ornament hooks.  Today I went through the boxes of ornaments for the teddy village looking for the hooks for same – figuring that perhaps somehow I stored the hooks together last year since the main tree had not been set up.  NONE there either!  

Not being able to finish the main tree makes me sad enough, but not being able to decorate the teddy village tree – well, is heart breaking.  In addition to not going out shopping this year due to the pandemic, I use soft hooks that are not sold around here – I buy them when we go to Pennsylvania on trips, so it is not a case of run out and buy some more.  I guess I will end up using paper clips to hang ornaments – but the reason I like the soft ones I they can be made shorted and longer as needed as they bend easier and then can go back to how they were.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

I again wish all a happy holiday of the season – whether yours is Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanza or my teddy bears holiday of the winter solstice.
Let us all work hard to stay well so that, hopefully long before, this time next year life will be back to normal and we can worry about the normal petty problems of the holidays instead of trying to make sure we survive Covid-19.  Let is be in our rear window long before then.

RV, VAN AND OLD PAPERS

Another week, another post.  Mom had 2 surgeries within a week and is now back in her apartment at the assisted living facility.  We will taking her Friday back to the doctor who changed her pacemaker for a checkup and I have to make an appointment for same with the doctor who did her cancer surgery as well as with the one involved with her leg scan as it still has not has been discussed with her.  We did squeeze in appointments with our doctor for us last week – dealing with mom, we had forgotten to make same until the doctor refused to renew our prescriptions because we were so late in doing so. 

Friday we drove to Pennsylvania and picked up our RV – the batteries are working and the entire electrical system was checked and was fine.  Husband is concerned about driving such a distance alone (as I probably mentioned when we had to drive it there) and also concerned about driving alone in the dark – the combination of the two, even more so.  We kept calculating when to go and what to do coming home.  We figured out that we had two choices – both involved trying to get the dealer as early as possible, having lunch at Wendys very quickly and starting home.  In one version we would immediately drive home, this way we would miss Philadelphia rush hour and hoping to avoid rush hour from NYC headed towards our home. The other version involved again leaving immediately after lunch to avoid the Philadelphia rush hour and driving to near the Golden Corral in New Jersey that I am sure I have mentioned before.  We would then go to some stores in that area to spend some time, then have dinner at the Golden Corral and then head home. With this version we should avoid the rush hour from NYC to home, but would be driving in the dark home from Golden Corral.  We figured we would decide after we picked the RV and while eating lunch.  The golden morning time to leave home and head off Long Island for us seems to be 8:30 am – we are following at the end of rush hour and are before the construction work on two of the major roads starts.  We we were out at 8:20 -since we were driving only our van, we did not have to waste time backing the RV out of the driveway (a process that involves walkie talkies and me standing in the middle of a 4 lane road road that has traffic that all speeds – which is why it a problem to begin with.)  We had figured we would get to the dealer between noon and 1 pm.  We got there just after 11 am.  We picked up the RV - “schmoozed” a bit, gassed up the RV and the van for the trip back, spent about 15 minutes having lunch and started home – confident that we would miss the rush hour traffic at both cities.  We did fine in PA – no traffic, NJ not bad almost no traffic.  One very quick stop at a rest area for me to use the facilities – so fast, I left my cell phone in the RV and husband waited out there so we did not have to shut everything did – I ran literally both ways and we were off again.  Then we hit Staten Island  (NYC) and there was traffic, but it was not bad – 15 minute part of the trip maybe was 25 minutes.  We then crossed the bridge to Long Island.  The limited access roadway we have to taken home was BAD.  How bad?  The signs on the bridge said not to exit to it, to exit to a local street that allows later connection to the roadway – which we take anyway.  It took us 2.5 hours to the dealer – it took us 5 hours home – and that was with arriving in NYC at 3 pm.  Another day of our lives – gone.

But the RV is home and working properly again – so all is well – right?  Driving home husband found that the brakes were squealing so today they were at our mechanic again.  He said they were okay to use – a problem sometime down the road as there is rust. 

Wait a second, have to run to the basement to switch laundry loads and check the heat in the PackTite.

Back.  Normally I have a load of clothes, a load of towels, and a load of bed linens each week with a load of jeans every few weeks.  With all this going on, I have not changed the bedding in a couple of weeks – no time to do so and saves a wash load (yes, I think ewwww also, but it will done soon).  This week I have a load clothes, a load of sweatshirts and nightgown – I bought 3 new ones and have worn a few of them and they don't fit in the general clothes load, a load of towels, and a load of jeans.  I also have a load of white reenactment clothing (much “small clothes” - undergarments, all of which are white) from our last couple of events and a second load of the rest of our outfits – next time we will need them is December and I want them clean so I don't have to run at the minute to wash them – some of the pieces need ironing also.  Just put the general clothes load into the dryer and the sweatshirt load into the washer. 


At the same time I have been going through the bags of stuff from the family home.  Being a crazy person who had bed bugs. I fill (lightly) our PackTite heater with some of the stuff and heat at it night – mixed with whatever fabric or paper items we have in addition to be heated.  Then the next afternoon I go through the stuff from the house after putting away the stuff from our house that was added in.  Today I went through the papers from our wedding – 40 years ago.  All of the response cards & envelopes – shredded, set up invitation with all the papers which were included and put it in the shoebox that I have as a “memory box” of the stuff I am finding and want to keep from all this, shredded the other invitations, tossed out the other response cards (no names, etc. on them), I kept the blank envelopes for the invitations – can always use larger envelopes, have set aside the unused response envelopes they do have my parents and name and address, but I will see if labels will cover same and decide if we are keeping them or they are being shred, shredded the receipt for the wedding (what a waste of $8,000 – I was right, we should have just gotten married & not bothered with a wedding), and shredded the seating charts and other papers.  I kept the box that it was all in.  Good box.  Apparently there is much more than my stuff in what my sister set aside for me – work papers of my dad's and other financial stuff.  I have a found a certificate given to my other sister when she graduated from high school (she is 55 now).  I scanned it, emailed it to her and asked if she wanted the certificate or what.  I found old bank statements and similar of mom's and even some of dad's (he died in the mid 1990's).  I found a dividend check for $4.50 that was never cashed – I will see if it can cheaply somehow be replaced – but 1994 was a long time ago.  More to do tomorrow after the current load is heated – this load also has some yarn husband bought for weaving project to sell and a new sweatshirt that I bought  - both today. 

At least every year I go through the papers from 10 years before and get rid of almost all of them – 25 years is a long time to keep bank statements and a check.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

So progress is being made on the stuff from mom's house. I am trying to keep up on household chores – dishes washed after dinner and after night snack (only meals we eat home).  Obviously laundry being done.  Towels changed and into the laundry.  (If only I did not hate changing the bedding and folding same after it is washed even more than more than cleaning toilet bowls – I figured it out – my arms are too short to deal with sheets easily.)

Any suggestions for my family and me about dealing with all of the stuff from the house?

YET ANOTHER WEEK OF NOT GETTING ANYTHING DONE

Another week gone by and little to show for it – again.

Husband had planned for us to go to a quilt show in Pennsylvania last Thursday, the first day of the show.  We normally will go to this and other shows from the same company on Thursday as it is less crowded and items are not sold out – not that we normally buy anything there.  While we both have done quilting, we go for something to do and because there are no other sewing or embroidery shows in this part of the country and I do sew and hand embroider.  Since we – and our RV – really need a trip we had planned to stay overnight and go to the farmer's market we like in Lancaster on Friday. 

So, of course it poured on Thursday – here and there.  We changed our trip to just go for the day on Friday to the quilt show, but drove there in the RV so it was driven and would keep the engine and RV batteries working properly. 

Husband's sister has self-published a book and somehow managed to get a local bookstore to give her a reading/signing event on Thursday night.  Since we were home, husband decided to go to the signing – in heavy rain.  We could not figure out where to park – hard to see in the rain – and ended up 3 blocks away.  I am “made of sugar” - when I go out in the rain, I get sick. 

So Friday midday a cold hit me.  Luckily it is a relatively light cold and will soon be gone.  But husband is a hypochondriac and does not like me touching things that he will touch or eat when I am sick.  We ate out as usual on the weekend.  Monday night we had reenactment unit meeting and bought deli sliced turkey for dinner.  But last night, Tuesday, dinner needed to be cooked.  Understand, husband is, or at least was when we cooked more elaborately, a better cook than I am.  But he is out of practice, was worried about the batteries in the RV (which are still not right) and an oil leak under the RV, and I have stand there and step by step tell him how to cook and where things are – so dinner and clean up (done by me with plastic gloves on) took forever. 

In addition our reenactment unit has an event this Saturday that originally husband said we were not going to.  Now not only are we are going, but he found out he can sell the items he has been weaving.  So he (and thereby also I) are involved with getting ready to do so – we have not done a craft show in 10 years and this has to be setup differently and we have never sold items he has woven before so we do not a have setup at all for same, let alone one that will pass for a country fair.  So we are running around trying to put together a setup and also finishing the woven items.  Finishing them consists of washing and drying them and then cutting the start and end threads and doing something with the fringe ends.  Not something that can be quickly done for about a dozen scarves and table runners.

He also decided that we need to be able to take credit cards – something I agree with – so he filled in the required info to be able to take credit cards from Paypal. We have an account with then that we use for online sales that exists for about 10 years, so we are not strangers to them, it should be easy to get a card reader and use with our existing account.  As of today – a week after he filled in the info – we still don't seem to have the account for sales with a card reader and they seem to be sending the wrong card reader.  The day after he originally gave them the info and we saw that there were problems he signed up with Square – who we had never done business with before - and we were able to immediately sign up and pick up a card reader at one of an assortment of stores locally that sell them.  So much for loyalty to customers by Paypal. 

So I have not get anything done as we were away and we have been trying to get everything done for Saturday (which to our minds mean that it will rain Saturday and the event will be canceled or they will have it and we will not go due to the rain). 

In addition I have the cold, plus a couple of weeks ago I started having pains that we think are from my lifting the last analog monitor we got rid of – the pains come and go depending on if I lift something else heavy – and last night I was terribly ill after dinner so I have not been of much help, particularly since husband will not let me lift anything “heavy” which has much lighter threshold than it does for most people.  (I am not sure how we will be able to setup Saturday as he will not let me carry any of the setup or the weaving and we cannot park close to where the reenactment unit is setting up.

I was suppose to take my mom to the doctor this week – but had to speak to her about when she is available to go so I can make an appointment, so I had not done so, plus I did not want to her give her my cold – so I called tonight to check her schedule and will try to make an appointment for next week.

I also have to go to client this week or next. I would greatly have preferred this week as she is in Manhattan and next week the U.N.  will be in town and it will be a travel and security mess, but she is also older woman in her 80s and I did not want to give her my cold either. 

Oh, and the RV battery is not keeping its charge so we were “playing with it” all week and now our car mechanic has it – he fixed the oil leak and will see what he can see about the batteries tomorrow.  (Husband spoke to RV company that installed the new batteries – batteries have warranty, but does not cover labor and we will need to leave the RV there for at least a week – ouch, at $100+ per hour… - plus we will have to drive both RV and car to New Jersey, come home with car, when it is fixed drive car to NJ, pick up the RV and then drive both home – and tolls for each vehicle for each round trip is about $30 – so the tolls alone are almost $100, plus the gas.)

So I have gotten some computer work done I managed to trace and resolve problems in the posting of our Etsy sales and fees – mostly only have fees, few sales – from using their new payment account that handles both fees we pay and sales we make (terrible idea from an accounting point of view).  I did scanning of tax return recently finished for client.  That sort of thing. 

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Sometimes one just has to go with the flow of what is going on.  Great to get stuff done, but when life has other plans – don't go crazy, just go with the flow and catch up when one can.

RVs, Cars, Mom, and Work

I have not made it back to the family house since 2 weeks ago to finish up, heck, I haven’t even had a chance to try calling mom to just talk to her.  I have been busy taking care of my husband. 

No, he isn’t sick, but he has been going crazy over our RV and its batteries.  Back towards the end of July I mentioned that we had ordered new RV batteries and then had to drive down to New Jersey and spend part of the day getting them installed (by the company which ordered them for us).  We thought that would be the end of dealing with the batteries. It was not.   

To explain the problem with this - our RV (a Chevy Express Van converted to a very small RV) has the regular battery under the front hood which does all the “car” type things - like starting the engine.  We also have in a cabinet which opens to the outside two more batteries - similar to those in golf cart.  These run all the electrical RV things, when turned on, if the RV is not plugged in and the engine is not running - like while the RV sits in a parking lot all day while we are somewhere.  (Well most of them - we cannot run the RV air conditioner unless plugged in or the engine running.)  There is a small electrical panel on a wall in the RV which lets us check how much water in the clean water tanks, how much is in the dirty water tanks, how much propane we have in it’s tank, and how well the electricity is doing.  (It also has the switches on it to turn on the RV batteries to allow them to be used and to turn on the water pump so water works out of the sink, toilet, etc.)  The top light for the batteries on this panel lights up and is green when the RV batteries are charging while the RV is plugged in or the engine is running.

In addition to the green charging light showing that the RV batteries are charging, husband has a small device to plug into the cigarette lighter to check the voltage of the engine battery or into a similar receptacle he had put in so he could check the voltage of the RV batteries.  This had been low for the RV batteries, which is why we replaced them - especially since they were 2 years passed their expected life. 

However, after the RV batteries were replaced, the green light still was not lighting up.  That meant the RV batteries were not charging.  We do not have an RV dealer near us to go to about any of this (hence the trips to Pennsylvania and New Jersey to get work done).  Husband was going crazy about this.  Over the past month and a half we paid out something like $4-5000 that we do not have to fix the three vehicles.  He needs to get a tooth added to his denture as one fell out - probably another thousand dollars.  Between being upset that the RV batteries are not charging, not knowing where to go about it, and not being able to pay to find out what is going on, he was rather despondent and depressed. 

We have a really good mechanic and he tries to help us as much as possible even though he does not know about RVs.  The fellow who used to work for him (retired) was even better at figuring all this out.  Just in time for us - the fellow who had retired decided that he needed to work part time as he was going crazy retired.  We called them and explained.  I was suppose to go to work this past Tuesday, but husband was soooo, upset about all this - and Tuesday was when they could take the RV - I made the work appointment for Thursday (tomorrow) instead. 

The engine battery was also low and was replaced (had another year and a half to go on it).  But it the voltage was still low.  There is a device, called a separator, which lets the engine battery or the RV batteries charge alone when needed.  It is apparently a simple electrical switch, but not generally available.  We had talked about ordering one to have it if needed and with all this going on, last week we did.  It came in this past Monday. 

Tuesday we were ready to go out for lunch and had not heard about the RV, so I asked if he wanted to stop by on the way to lunch and then suggested we put the separator in the car. 

The fellow who worked on it was on the verge of replacing the alternator as he still could not get the system to the correct voltage.  He was looking online for which of their suppliers had one for our RV that was good and not crazy expensive.  We all went out to play with the RV.  The fellow had not known about the light panel to show the RV batteries were charging.  We showed it to him.  They used this voltage meter and that in this place and that.  Then I asked - can the voltage going through the separator be checked?  Ah ha!  Voltage going into the separator - right - voltage coming out - low!  We brought him the separator and the voltage on each side was the same.  Solved!  Husband was so relieved to see the green light on the panel light up!

So, if I had not stayed home with him to comfort him, we would have paid out more big money for an alternator and still not resolved it.  (Makes me wonder if we needed any of the batteries, but that is water under the bridge.) 

In the process of all this - we have driven out to almost the end of Long Island to charge all the batteries.  Since we do this after dinner we can go and return in about 2 hours.  I have lived my entire life on this (long) Island and have been out as far this (or further) maybe 10 times, 12 at the most on the north shore.  Five of these times - including these two times - have been to charge the RV batteries.

So I lost 2 nights of being able to do things in the house. I am going to my client 3 days later than I planned - and there is a possibility of thunderstorms.  Plus the day lost while he was too upset to be home alone and all the time we were outside in the RV playing with the batteries.

In addition, my sister had sent me a text Monday evening asking me to go to mom on Tuesday as she was meeting with the physical therapist and would have to sign papers.  Unfortunately it must have come in while I was out of the kitchen - after leaving my phone on the table while cooking.  I did not see the text - due to all of the above mess - until half an hour after the end of the of the time range of when I was needed there!  So poor mom was there alone because of all this mess. I sent a text to my sister explaining and apologizing, but have not had a chance to call mom.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Our time is limited.  If we need (or want) to do one thing, we cannot do something else at the same time.  Our loved ones are the most important reason for choice to be made.  I am not sure if I had the text in time if I would have picked going to my mom or staying with my husband to make sure he did not go over the edge.  When I apologized to my sister, I also told her that next time something must be done on such short notice, to call to make sure I knew about it and did not miss another important text. 



                       

THE REFRIGERATOR SAGA CONTINES -

Well,, they delivered the new refrigerator on Friday. We had to set up the inside of the fridge “we don’t do that”.  I asked to have it leveled as it was to the eye extremely out of level.  When I put a small jar in it, it rolled quickly to the back of the fridge.  “It cannot be leveled.  The only way to do so is to remove the feet and then it will be sitting only on it’s wheels and when you try to open the door, it will roll instead of opening.  Husband leveled it after the crew left.    I telephoned the store shortly after the delivery crew left - we had found 3 big black lines on the front of it - not the door, the fridge itself.  The delivery manager was not there - apparently he left for the day before 3 pm - and I was told that he would telephone me back - “first thing in the morning”. 

During the evening and overnight we were checking the temperature in the fridge with a remote read thermometer.  It would suddenly jump to 45 degrees Farenheit, then drop to 32 (freezing) in the fridge.  There seemed to be no way to adjust this huge variance in temperature to below what husband’s insulin can be stored at and to over the maximum temperature food can safely be stored at. 

I waited until 9:30 am the next day and then called the manager as he had not called me.  He did not seem to know anything about my call.  He apologized as I explained the original problem, our dissatisfaction with the delivery, and that the temperature varied so greatly - continually.  Husband had checked and this - and most - refrigerators are suppose to have a temperature range of 34 to 44 degrees F.  He also told me that the delivery crew is only suppose to bring in the fridge, put on the doors, plug it in, turn it on - and level it.  Anything else we had to do.  Nice of them to tell us this when we bought it - if my 90 year old mom had it delivered she would not be able to deal with setting up the inside and would not be able to use the fridge until one of us came over and set it up for her - I am sure many other people would have similar problems.  I told him that they refused to level it - and the story about how it could not be leveled.  As to the problems with the refrigerator itself, he would exchange it, but they were out of that model.  I asked why they could not get one from one of the local locations of their store (a major national chain) - “it doesn’t work like that” was his reply.  I could have another one of this model delivered in a week - a week?!  He checked with his appliance manager and she had the other two models (from other companies) in stock and we could get one of those delivered.  Since neither of them had been acceptable - which is how we picked this one - we had to go in and remind ourselves of what we found to be problematic with the others.  We dressed and went in to the store.  After looking at the other 2 models again - neither would work (including that one of them was too tall).  So, we have to deal with this one for a week. We left the RV plugged in and its refrigerator running.  Coincidentally, we were going away this week, so we were only home until Tuesday morning, making dealing with this fridge a little easier.   

Monday night we emptied the RV fridge and unplugged the RV.  Biggest problem was husband’s insulin.  He gets them in what are called pens - they look like big pens.  He puts a new needle on the pen each time he uses it.  The insulin pens cannot go below 36 or above 46 in temperature when they have not yet been used.  Once they are used they do not go back in the fridge and can go to a higher temperature.  They can be at the higher temperature for 42 days maximum.  I figured that 2 pens left in the box plus the one already in use would be used in less than 39 days - so the pens are out of the fridge.  We then packed the RV with everything needed for the trip.


Tuesday we added the last items, turned on the RV battery and started the RV fridge.  Problem was that the light that shows that there is enough electricity in the battery showed that there was not enough.  After debate about canceling the trip - and we would be out the amount paid for the RV park site - I suggested that we go ahead going on the trip.  It was Tuesday and we were going to a farmer’s market during the day and we had planned to go a local major crafts festival that we go to annually on Wednesday. I pointed out to him that we could drive down, stay overnight and if the batteries were still not charging, come home on Wednesday and we would have gone to 2 places we were looking forward.  With the RV battery off we started on our trip.  When we were in NJ we stopped at the first rest area and checked that the batteries were being charged.  They were. 
                                           
Why did we have this problem?  First, the batteries are beyond the normal life - they need to be replaced  - between buying them and having them installed it will cost over $1000 and we keep putting it off.  Second - apparently running the RV’s electrical system on our home electric system at 20 amps does not have enough “juice” to recharge the batteries and to also run the RV fridge. 

We kept the fridge off until after we plugged in to the electricity (30 amp) at the RV park at night - warm soda.  Today when we out we again shut off the fridge to let it keep charging.  On our return tonight we again turned it on after plugging in.  Since tomorrow we will be in and driving around, we will live the fridge on and probably do so again on Friday when we go to a different farmer’s market and then drive home.

Yes, we will get home extremely late Friday night - really extremely early Saturday am - and then have the new fridge for the house delivered on Saturday - with the possibility of a very early am delivery.

So, early last week we were getting up, going down, and checking the temperature in the RV overnight after going to bed.  Wednesday night I had 3 hours sleep as I woke up early for work.  Thursday night we kept waking up in anticipation of the delivery coming.  Friday night I was up all night checking the temperature of the fridge - I slept an hour and a half in 3 separate half hour naps.  I was up early in the morning waiting for the call from the delivery manager and then making the call to him instead. Saturday night we continued to wake up all night to check the temperature in the fridge.  Sunday night I went to bed and had trouble falling asleep.  Monday night we went to bed after finishing packing and the woke up 3 hours after I fell asleep to go on the trip.  Today, Wednesday, we woke early to go to the crafts festival - so 4 hours sleep for me.  Friday we have to again wake early (for us) as we have to dump the dirty water tanks and be out of the site we are in by 11 am.  Then, anticipating the delivery on Saturday I probably won’t sleep - plus we have to unload at least part of the stuff from the RV when we get home, and possibly need to wake up as early 7 am for the new delivery.  This all works out to about 2 full nights of sleep over the week and a half that this is going on.  I hope husband plans to sleep in a bit tomorrow.

In addition our house is in a state of disarray. In order to clear room for the refrigerator to be brought in and placed in placed, we had to move things in our front hall (into the living room) the dining room, and the kitchen.  Part of this went into our studio behind the kitchen.  I have not been able to find even a pen and paper at times as nothing is where it belongs.         

Oh, and I tripped and turned my foot on my way home from work last Thursday - luckily that was the only injury from the fall and the foot felt better the next day.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

Some matters take much more time to resolve due to the problems that arise in dealing with it - and with life.   If needed a quick cry - and then hopefully a hug from one’s significant other - then same cries and you hug them.  That is life. 

Hopefully the new refrigerator will work properly.

For those in the US  - Happy 4th of July.THE REFIR

A WEEKEND IN THE 18 CENTURY, A LUNCHEON, AND OTHER TIME CONSUMERS

Another week already?

Friday we spent the afternoon with our reenactment unit setting up for a relatively large scale event.  It is one that we started last year.  We invite other units to join us.  We have the use of the restoration village I have spoken about before.  We set up near the building that we interpret at Christmas time a “British army camp - with officers in the building.  In the same general area the “American civilians” (us) are located.  At another restored house that happens to be behind this house on top of a rise, is the “American army”.  To visitors this other house is a quite a distance away on the road, but for our convenience it can be reached by walking through the woods between the two, while not being seen from where we are.  While we are not setting up at the other house, it still takes quite awhile to set up.

Saturday and Sunday was the event - so the entire day - both days - was taken up with the event.  Saturday night we got home and I threw the cups we used during the day (period looking cups are used and we each have/bring our own - ditto dishes, and tablewear, but we had not brought anything other than cups with us Saturday as we were not staying for dinner at night) into the sink and went upstairs to change in modern clothes.  When I got back downstairs the kitchen sink and the counter on either side of it was covered in ants!  I managed to get rid of the ones I saw and washed the cups - as husband’s cup was also covered.  After we had dinner we found more ants.  I had just put the kitchen back together from a prior attack of ants!  So, again, I checked and washed off each item around the sink - such as the dishrack - and stored them on the one small section of counter that is on the other side of the kitchen.  Husband went looking online for what is food safe to get rid of ants.  He found out that one can spray a 3/1 vinegar/water mixtures, let it dry for 30 minutes, blot puddles, and let the rest air dry.  Seems to be working so far.  I have moved items back to the counter top, but still am not using the space.  When I wash dishes I wash and rinse an item, dry it and put it away immediately and then on to the next piece.  It is exhausting.  Oh, and I am using paper towels for washing instead of a sponge or steel wool pad, as I can toss them out after each session of washing.  Sunday not only did we have the event - everything had to be packed afterwards.

I was looking forward to tomorrow, Thursday, when I had nothing to do and could breathe - ha ha!

Monday afternoon, husband decided that we had to get gas for our car, as we had not done so on Sunday as we normally would, and also had to check the oil in the car.  So we drove out to where we go for both, which took most of the afternoon.  When we got home we went through the stuff we brought back from the reenactment and I had put in closed plastic bags and checked it for ants - only found one. 

Tuesday we ran some home errands - shopping and such and also bought some deli turkey for me to make light sandwiches to bring today to my embroidery chapter for our annual luncheon meeting.  Everyone makes some sort of salad, I can’t eat salad unless I know that I am going home right after, so I bring the sandwiches so I have something to eat.  We discuss what we want to do next year (September to June) at our meetings and any regular business.  I had planned to run a lot errands as I won’t have a day out alone again until September.  I realized on my way back from the meeting today, Wednesday, I had forgotten to bring the soda bottles to put in for recycling - 5 months worth!  Oh, well.  I did our banking and the banking for the embroidery chapter. 

Oh, I also had forgotten that I did have to send a list of members to our region and had planned to do it Thursday (tomorrow) when I would have a chance to breathe - but....  my sister contacted me and needs me to go to my mom on Thursday as she cannot go then.  She has been visiting mom just about every day even when the rest of us are going also, so I could not say no.  I managed to get the list out by email yesterday. 

Monday night after husband fell asleep I heard a chirping - I presumed it was the downstairs smoke detector (upstairs is a 10 year detector) and figured they usually chirp for a couple of days so we would take care of it Tuesday.  I heard it again Tuesday morning, but then it stopped.  Husband went crazy trying to figure out which device was beeping as they all tested fine.  He decided it was a telephone in the office and we bought a new one - but that one still works fine.  (New one will be returned.)  This morning I heard the chirping again and Robert heard it also.  While I was out today he figured out that it was the smoke detector downstairs and replaced the battery. 

Oh, and Friday he is planning a trip to Pennsylvania - if it finally does not rain on a Friday this week.  (Well, last Friday it did not rain, but we did have the event to set up.)

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
                   
Again, one must take life a day at a time.  I know that at some point this craziness will stop and I will be able to catch up - okay, in the back of my head I realize life may remain this crazy for ever, but I sure hope not!

My thoughts and prayers go out to those who continue to get this horrible weather and are in much worse a situation that we are.

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. 

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.)

GLAD THIS MONTH IS OVER

This month has a been a bit too much.  I will be glad when it is behind me.  Just this week, to give you an idea.

I did get my mom to the doctor yesterday for her checkup yesterday after needing to change the appointment a few times.  I told her to make sure to blame me to the doctor and his staff so they would not be upset with her.  She has a pacemaker and was past due to have it checked, as well as having her blood, etc. checked.  Mom is 89.  She still lives alone in our family house and still drives.  She hates to ask for help; I keep telling her to call me when she needs to go somewhere she doesn’t want to drive to, but until now she has refused to call me.  In this case she had a problem due to construction near the doctor’s office when she went there earlier in the month as she cannot walk distances and would have had to park too far away.  Hence why she called for a ride, I could drop her off if there was still a problem, park and come back, etc.  All was good, although blood work will, of course, take a day or two.  We had lunch together afterwards for about 3 or 4 hours.  We had been headed for a kosher deli - I had to park 4 stores away from it - mom was impressed with my parallel parking, something I just take for granted.  But as we inched along, we (she) stopped at a pizza place and while stopped looked in and thought how nice it was - should we go there instead?  I was not looking forward to a overfilled, overpriced (especially since I knew she would insist on paying) turkey sandwich (least fatty of the meats there).  So I jumped at the change - less for her to walk, lighter meal, and much less expensive.  We each had a cheese slice and diet soda and sat and talked and talked.  (I write like I talk and she talks more and longer than I do.)  It was between meal times and the place was empty or I would have not have stayed, taking up the table as long as we did.

We did go to the Long Island Fair last Sunday to do an embroidery demonstration - and to visit friends we only see at the Fair.  One woman used to be the Supervisor of the Juvenile section for decades and had to give it up due to eye trouble, was not at the Fair last year at all.  (She continued to volunteer after she gave up the Supervisor position.)  I was so glad that she had her son drop her off for a visit.  She was sitting in the Juvenile section and as soon as volunteers heard she was there, we all stopped by to see her.  She is 90.  I was so glad to hear that she was basically well - she had vision problems, which is now mostly blindness and now has hearing problems, but she is the same always in all other regards.  After the day, which was the last day of the Fair, was pick up of entries - my three dimensional butterfly embroidery shocked me and won second prize.  I had seen the lovely and involved pieces that it was competing with when I dropped it off and figured that I would get an honorable mention due to the technique.  That is one project that sat for decades finished.  Now to pick another one to finsih. While at the Fair I was also able to check in with someone who is a mutual friend of a friend who moved to South Carolina and find out the couple in SC survived Florence with no problems.

I was suppose to go to a client this week.  I called her yesterday (while mom was seeing the doctor) to go there Thursday.  The client said it was a problem and could I come on Friday.  (Glad she did not say today as we were suppose to have horrible rain - yes, there was rain, but not as bad as they said.)  I called her today to say that I could come on Friday, but she didn’t really want me there then, either (even though she had suggested it).  Apparently they are filming a movie at her location and her cousin who keeps her company is ill - besides, she tells me, she has had no business all month, so there is little for me to do.  So, I will be going there in 2 weeks and do the September and October work at the same time.

In my mind this was great.  I get another day to catch up on stuff - the bathrooms REALLY need cleaning.  But no, when husband hears that I am not going to the client on Friday, he suggests that since he wants to go to Pennsylvania on Saturday for a wool show, we could go down on Friday for the day and stay overnight.  So, the bathrooms will wait a little longer.

Today was the day I write the newsletter for my embroidery chapter and send it out by email.  I managed to get that done after dinner - normally done in the afternoon, but there was other “fires” to put out then.  I send out 3 versions of the newsletter - the basic newsletter is the same, the email with it changes - one to our members, one to prospective members and one to the other newsletter editors in our region and our region director. 

This coming Sunday we were suppose to go to a reenactment event with our unit, but the unit is backing out of it as too few members can go and the place is changing what it said about our setup. 

Now in addition to writing to all of you, I am doing our laundry.  Will go and change loads between writing this and sending it out.  Dinner dishes were done before the newsletter.  Kitchen sink area is setup with dish towels over the dish rack, the front of the sink, the windowsill behind the sink, and the pots drying on a towel next to the other side of the sink - so husband can come and wash his hair in the sink.  The dishpan I use in the sink is out on a counter with items waiting for washing before we go to bed.  ( I made instant diet pudding for snack - the items needed for such are most of what is waiting to be washed.)  But no - I still have not thrown out the bad eggs.

And next week I am suppose to teach new stitches (my choice) at the embroidery meeting!
                                       
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

Sometimes it seems that what must be done in terms of larger projects and appointments is coming too often, too much and too fast.  Take it one project at a time, that is all one can do.  Things will get done.

BACK AND FORTH - TWICE - ON THE SAME TRIP AND FALLING BEHIND

Late again posting - sorry. 

We did go away last Thursday and Friday.  When I telephoned Wednesday afternoon to make the reservation the woman I spoke with, was rather odd about the entire thing.  The spaces I asked for were not available for two nights - we had decided to stay through Saturday.  When I asked if any of the spaces were available just for the one night, Thursday there was still confusion.  I finally worked it out and reserved one of the spaces for Thursday night and figured that we would ask what was available for just Friday night when we checked in - just in case something was available that would work for us.  I made sense to me that Friday would not be available even though Thursday was as Friday is a weekend night and more people travel.

Our trip down was fine - better time than the usual mess.  As we drove down husband suggested, which he acknowledged was crazy, that we drive back again on Tuesday of the following week for the day.  We have not been to the farmers market that is on Tuesday most or all of this year and different vendors are there from the Friday market.  The idea hit me, I suggested that we drive down Monday and stay until Tuesday. This would relieve the problem of possibly getting stuck in traffic on the way and arriving too late to have enough time at the market.  (Mostly we have lunch and walk around, perhaps buying some small items we need or see, good shop at Tuesday market to look for bears for my village and I have not been there since the village went to year round.)  Plus, if we use the toilet in the RV it has to be dumped at the RV park.  It needs to be 2/3 full minimum, to dump so that there is enough force, so Friday morning we were going to have to fill the tank (having only stayed one night) to dump the tanks.  By coming back, there would be double in the tanks when we dumped and it would fill faster.  The weather promised to be nice for Monday and Tuesday and I would make the reservation when we checked in.

Remember I said that it had been suppose to rain there on Tuesday?  When we arrived in the general area we saw lots of fields (this is farm country) with huge puddles- almost pond size in them.  We went around to several touristy we go to in the area and then around 5:30 pm went to the RV park to check in.  We paid for our space for the evening and reserved the same space for Monday night.  It is a fairly small RV park along a stream.  As we were walking out of the office the employee said “Oh, if the space is too wet, just come back and we will give you another one.”  Huh!?  Apparently they had trouble from the rain on Tuesday.  As we drove to our space we were driving along the row of spaces facing the stream.  We saw what they meant - the spaces had MUD in them.  Our space is in the next row so we were concerned.  We drove to the space and it seemed mostly okay.  I got out of the RV as we do a few things when we arrive at a space at the start of a stay there.  First husband will back in (rare that we get a “drive through space”) and we will find the level spot.  I guide him.  This time I checked that the actual space was dry - it is gravel and the gravel looked different, very light in color, apparently washed in the flood.  I saw mud on the sides of the space, so I walked to the back of the space and it was not muddy there - where we have to walk to hook up the electricity and the TV (and water if we hooked up same), so it seemed okay.  He backed in, we found the level spot and marked it with markers he made.  Although we have been in the space numerous times, when we arrive there we check the electricity to make sure it is functioning properly and we did so and went off again. 

Well, now I understood why there was confusion about reserving a space when I called the afternoon before.  Apparently the general area did not just have rain, it had RAIN!!!!!.  FLOODING RAIN!!!!!   As we went around over the rest of the two days we saw the result of flooding in many places.  At the Friday market there was mud on the foundations of buildings and pavement.  One building, which had flooded badly once in the past, had obviously been flooded as there was no merchandise on the bottom 3 shelves of the fixtures - tossed out as it was soaked.  There is an auction in a room at the end of one building.  I have never seen it closed.  It was closed and through the wall I could hear fans running trying to dry the room. 

If any of you are from the Lancaster, PA area - I hope that you were not hit by the flooding. 

Friday night we returned home.  I did not unpack much of the RV.  I left my clothes, the snacks, the towels, etc.  Husband insisted on taking his clothing into the house.  After 2 days, I repacked the RV on Sunday night for the drive down on Monday.  By then it was much dryer, although some of the space in the RV park needed work on them and were still closed. Understand, we were away for 2 days, 1 night, then drove home for 2 nights, 2 days, and then back again to Pennsylvania for another 2 days, 1 night and then home - and I won’t bore you with the local traffic mess on the way home last Tuesday night.  Of this time, we spent the equivalent of over half a day traveling forth and back and forth and back again.


I am behind in everything I was suppose to do the last few weeks.  I notice this when I went to change towels Tuesday night. I normally change all the towels on Monday, then change the bathroom towels again on Thursday and the kitchen towels on Wednesday and Friday.  The towels are all assorted - I had Monday bathroom towels out downstairs and Thursday ones upstairs.  (No, I am not that anal.  I put blue hand towels upstairs and green ones downstairs on Monday and another color on Thursday - as I have 2 sets of each color and all my other ones vary in color by pair.  This way I can tell by looking if I forgot to change the hand towels.)  I went to change husband’s weekly hair towel and 2 of the 3 were in the laundry and I was pulling the third one to wash.  My pillowcases are either white (2 sets) or beige (1 set) I have 3 white towels and a beige one on the bed.    I forgot to do the laundry last night.  I have been keeping up with washing clothing over the past several weeks of colds and travel, but not the rest of the laundry. 

So right now clothing is being washed (a day late).  I spent last night writing and rewriting the newsletter for my embroidery chapter.  I had figured to write it quickly as it usually does not take long.  We are starting our meeting year and I had not heard from the chapter president with her president’s message.  We are doing a project for most of the year and I had to figure out how to write up what we are doing at the meeting.  (I also list information from our national and region, as well as giving list of related exhibitions and events in a travelable area - this takes up most of the newsletter).  In addition we are doing a “stitch in public” that we do every year and I wrote a page to encourage someone other than myself and the chapter president (and husband who joins us) would also come with us.  I then found out, in reply to an email I had sent, that the chapter president had sent the info - apparently when I downloaded my email - from 3 days - it did not download on most of my email addresses.  When I downloaded it again after hearing from her, it all downloaded.  Her president’s message included this info for the meeting.  So I had to fit in her message, splitting it to the meeting information and get rid of what I had written.  Then send out 3 versions of the newsletter (members, prospective members, and other region newsletter editors).  So last night was gone - which is why I did not get a chance to write this post then.

I have a piece I am entering at the local three county, county fair - huh?  Our local fair, which dates back to 1842, is the legal county fair for 3 counties.  It is held at the restoration village I have mentioned before where there is an exact copy of the original fair grounds from photos) and is held in the style of a late 1800s fair, with many of the volunteers dressed in period dress.  The heart of the fair are the art, craft, needlework, sewing, baking, canning, fruits, vegetables, flowers and the like which have been entered by people from the three counties. 

I used to enter several items each year including an angel cake.  Lately it has been one or two items and no more baking - as there have been less entries they cut some categories all around, including angel cake.  I have one piece to enter this year - if I finish it.  I have about one or maybe two more nights of stitching it, then I need to assemble it and then husband has to have time to frame it for me.  I keep Thursday nights (which means 11:30 pm to 2 am Friday) for stitching and other crafts for me.  I have not had a chance in at least a month to do so.  I planned on tonight finishing the stitching.  Obviously I will not as I am writing this post and have other “must to do” items for after this.  If I don’t finish it, it will be entered next year.  I am not going to panic over not getting it done in time. I am a procrastinator, I know this and try to push myself to finish ahead of time.  When husband was still working I would drop off our entries while he was at work.  One year on the day the entries had to be in, I called him at work and - in a panic - asked where the craft wire was in the house, I was still finishing a doll I was making of Theodore Roosevelt and he needed eyeglasses.  He on the other hand, would have his entries done in July!

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

What must be done gets done.  What is nice to do or one wants to get done, may or may not get done - and that is okay.  We can only do a certain amount and cannot kick ourselves for not getting everything done.  

NOT IN PENNSYLVANIA

Remember over the past few weeks before I told you that we were going away this week and the work involved in preparing our RV for the trip?  Well, we’re home - not away.  Why?

I printed out my list of what has to be done to set up and pack the RV.  We put the mattresses (actually pieces of the mattresses as each half of the mattress is made up of 3 pieces) in the RV.  I pulled out stuff that was in the RV for the winter that is needed to pack it - food storage boxes, fabric shopping bags to carry stuff out to and back from the RV, and so on.  I also have some stuff to do because it has not been used since last year - such as change the refrigerator baking powder holder (to keep it from smelling - same as a box of same in one’s home fridge - but I get the one that goes on inside the fridge with a suction cup as the box would probably fall over as we traveled around and make a mess).  I checked that we had hand and dish soap and shampoo.    You know -the sort of stuff you have at home and never think about needing on a trip - unless you have an RV. 

Last Thursday we plugged the RV into the house electricity to make sure the batteries were fully charged.  They are old and we should have replaced them, but that has not been in the budget, so we have to make sure they are charged, so that the fridge in it will keep working when the car engine is off when we are parked somewhere.  (It does also recharge while we are driving and while it is plugged in at night in the RV park.) 

On Friday I suggested to husband that I would makeup the bed while the RV was plugged in so I could run the air conditioner as it was soooo hot out - and inside is like being in a car that has not had ac on and even hotter.  He reminded me that it could not be put on if the ac was plugged in at the house as the amperage was not enough, but - he had wanted to turn on the generator and make sure it was working.

So we turned on the generator - horrors, it turned on fine - but the microwave clock did not come on.  You may be thinking - who cares about the microwave clock of all things.  There are two things that will not work in the RV unless it is plugged in at full amperage - the ac and the, yes, the microwave.  If the microwave light was not on - the generator was not transferring electricity to the RV.  We turned the generator off and husband climbed under - again - and found that the fellow who worked on it had turned and left the connection switch off.  We turned on the generator and this time the it was connected and working.  I started making up the bed - a 45 minute minimum process as I have described before and husband walked out to let me work.

He was back shortly.  There was oil coming out of the generator.  Whether something was broken, or the plug was loose, or the fact that too much oil had been put in it - something was wrong.  He ran inside and called the shop that had changed the oil.  Well, 4:30 pm Friday - they would be glad to help on  - Monday morning, when we scheduled to be on our trip.  Husband made the appointment.

I suggested that we could set up the RV except for the last minute things, take the RV to the shop, come home, add the list minute things (or we would have to wake up even earlier to put them in and secure them in place) and go on our trip.  Husband was not happy with this idea, as it is very hard to back the darn thing off our driveway  - I have to stand in traffic and tell him when to back out and he has to do it quickly - and he did not want to do it twice in one day.  I went back in the RV and did a quick set up of the bed as the generator was running and oil was still coming out of it.  I only did the mattress set up, then we stopped the generator - I brought the pillows into the house to deal with them.  It will be a lumpy set up in mattress as I was not able to smooth out the sheets properly - I will deal with it when we travel in it.

The more husband thought about it, the more he did not want to leave after going to the shop again.  But - if we cancel the reservation we have to pay for it any way.  In addition as the weekend went along, the weather became extremely hot and thunderstorms while we would be there.  He panicked even more. 

I decided to suggest that we go one day during the week - whichever day seemed to be the best weather - for us to go to the annual folk festival (crafts) that we want to go to (we can go there and home the same day, we have done so in the past) and try to move the reservations to next week.  He agreed.

As I was about to do so I realized that there was problem with going next week - we had money coming in this week and it had to be transferred to checking to pay our “big” credit card bill which has to be mailed out the 10th.  Darn!!!!! 

I then suggested the week after - which seemed okay all around - we have a reenactment the weekend after it, but would be home Friday night and the reenactment is Sunday. 

So this past Saturday I telephoned the RV park and explained that we had a reservation for Monday and we have had a problem with the RV and it could not be worked on until Monday.  Could we please change the reservation to 2 weeks later - and I was told it was okay - the same space was even available.  Now, I may find that they are not applying our deposit to the changed trip, but if so, well that is how it is.  Hopefully we will get credit for the deposit.

So now we are home for July 4th.  Something which I do not think has happened since we were married - and maybe before.  With nothing to do.  For “excitement” we went to Barnes and Nobles today. 

Earlier in the week I was trying to think how to make today more July 4th ish.  He has hot dogs for dinner around once a week so I moved them to today.  We don’t have an outdoor grill.  I have not been able to eat hot dogs for a few years, so I figured I would make my Thursday night turkey burger in an elongated shape so it would fit in the brat rolls we had in the house and I figured he would use for the hot dogs.  We had some frozen fries I would make for him.  When I went to make dinner I suggested that I use a cast iron pan with a grill that I had not used in awhile to cook my burger and his hot dogs to make them more like being grilled outside. (Normally he has me boil his hot dogs.)   He told me to do one that way to try it. 

I put the grill pan on the stove to heat up.  I started making (canned) soup.  I checked how much fries there were.  Suddenly the kitchen was full of smoke and the smoke detector was going off.  The grill pan - with no food added - was burning whatever was on it and the smoke was heading through the house.  I turned off the burner, opened the back door (next to the stove) and fanned the smoke a bit with the door - this usually will direct smoke out the door if something like this happens.  I turned off the ceiling fan - same.  I turned off the soup.  The alarm kept going off.  I would push the button, it would stop, and then start again.  I am 5'1" and have to stand on my toes on a chair to reach the button.  I stayed up there pushing the button over and over.  In between I would jump off the chair and try putting the ceiling fan on or off.  After 10 minutes of this I texted husband upstairs for help.  Between his hearing not being what it was and the fact that he was in a room on the other side of the house - which is not that far as the house is small, but he had the air conditioner on and the room door closed so he did not hear the alarm going off. 
He came down and took over the spot on the chair, pushing the button over and over.  We could not clear the smoke from the air.  This is one  of the new alarms with a permanent battery, so we could not pull the battery or the alarm would have to be thrown away.  We tried covering it with a shower cap.  (The RV is small and if one cooks in it the smoke alarm goes off and people put a shower cap over it to keep the smoke out of it when cooking - and it works, as cooked in it after a couple of hurricanes when we had no electricity in the house for the electric stove there.)

Finally about 45 minutes later the alarm stopped.  The house still reeked of smoke.  The pan was on the floor in the porch.  Dinner should have been cooked and ready. 

I turned the soup back on.  I boiled his hot dogs.  The fried potatoes had been cooking during all this in the toaster oven.  But what about my dinner?  I was not going to try to cook my burger in any of my pans and add more smoke to the house.  I ended up cooking frozen vegetables for me for dinner - vegan for tonight.  My burger is wrapped in plastic wrap for dinner tomorrow night.  I have the grill pan soaking water to try to clean it.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

No matter what one’s plans are they may go awry.  One just has to be able to think and deal with the problems so that they are in some manner resolved. 

We will go on the trip later than we figured - but this will probably be good as it will not be as crowded then - and husband hates crowds.  Hopefully we will have a day that is nice to go for the one day trip - and as husband scowled over the cost of the tolls - I reminded him that when we go that way the tolls are much, much lower as we are going to a different area  - maybe 1/3 of when we go to where we usually go.

Dinner was late (and we missed the start of the PBS “Capitol Fourth” on TV), but we had dinner and the show was rerun after its showing so we saw the start afterwards. 

None of this is earth shattering  - just an annoyance - and I had two stories about trying to be organized to tell you this week.