First a couple of updates on my last two posts -
In the July 30 post (2 weeks ago) I had mentioned that I was going crazy having lost an assortment of bear figures that I use in my “Teddy Village”. (Don't think it that crazy that I have this village – it is the only place I can “visit” without a mask right now, and it is cute and fun to do.) I have put off climbing under the bed in the spare bedroom (aka the Teddies room) both because of the logistics and because I feared not finding the bears there – and since my only thought was that they been tossed out – I could not take them not being there. I tend to put things in places that are logical when I put them there, but later do not come to mind when I am looking for them. Last night on our way to bed I was looking around again as to where the bears might be – and my eye fell on a large, thick white cardboard box (I am guessing that is the inner box that some computer peripheral came in) which I call “the hill”. It is used for skiing and sledding bears and in the past I would store those bears in it for the rest of the year. My brain started whirring. I touched the box – definitely something in it – but hadn't I seen the big skiing bear in the Christmas boxes when I looked there? I removed the teddy bears riding in a train setup on top of it (not winter – no skiing or sledding) and carefully turned it over, took it to my desk, and opened it. YES!! The missing bears. See – I put them where it made sense – right in the village itself in a safe storage box that I have looked at every day since they were stored! Today the bears in the box that made sense (and there was room for) and the musician bears for the summer concerts in the part were added to the village and the rest carefully stored in a marked box with the other storage boxes of bears for next time I need to use them. Oh – and my husband was right about two things (not unusual for him) – I did not throw them out and I would find them.
In the August 5 post (last week) I was talking about Hurricane Isaias – technically only a tropical storm when it hit this area. I explained how lucky we had been to get back our electricity that evening. Around here there are still people (8 days after the store) who still do not have electricity. Supposedly they are all suppose to have their electricity back by “11:59 pm” tonight, Wednesday. I am guessing that the tens of thousands still will not have their electricity back. In addition to electricity people have been without and some still are, without their natural gas. (Here is in run through underground pipes to areas were it is available and may be used by those using it for heating and/or hot water. We did not lose same and only use it for hot water.) Our local cable/Internet provider which also provides a good percent of landline telephone service, as well as our traditional telephone company which also provides all 3 services also do not have all of their customers back online yet. The stories one hears about people who have special needs and are suppose to have service to be restored quickly – people with medical conditions and are still waiting are especially upsetting. Also people have live lines down in their yards that as of yesterday (today's news will be out tomorrow of course) which is terribly dangerous. One man found an electric company employee working on someone else's outage and asked the employee to shut off the live line down in his backyard (dangerous both for someone or an animal touching it and dying or it starting a fire) was told it was a question of flipping a switch, but the employee was not allowed without a work order to do so! And this company was brought in (and seemed good as they are in a neighboring state) because the last company did such a terrible job during Hurricane Irene and Sandy! I hope that any of you who were caught in Isaias also, did not lose your utilities for too long a time and did not have the circus we have had here.
Now, as to actually dealing with clutter and disorder – I think I mentioned that back in March when we went through our pantry closet (actually 3 shelves in our kitchen closet) we found, among other items, a half gallon jar which had been filled with, per the lid) Bisquick. This is a good item to have as so many items can be baked with it. Problem was it was dated 2017! We did not toss it out as back then food was hard to find in supermarkets – but we did not use it either. In the interim we purchased new (smaller) packages of Bisquick. My husband suggested yesterday that I should dump it out and put new Bisquick in it and then we can easily use same. I pulled the jar out tonight and dumped it out, wiped it out and washed it. While doing so I looked at what else was on that shelf – in the back. I found out that I had 2 started containers of dried basil – I combined them and they are in the container which was in my spice cabinet. I found we have more sugar than we thought. Worcestershire sauce – almost a full bottle (well it is not something we use normally). Part of a bottle of vinegar. Interesting items to have and have available for use that we did not realize we had (or had so much of). I might even get some of the items on the dining room table into the closet where they belong.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
It is important to remember that we are more resilient than we think we are. Even those of who think we are weak can deal with and do amazing things when we have to. Whether as trivial as missing inanimate “friends” or something as major as no utilities, somehow one can get through it. When one thing after another hits us - Covid 19, hurricanes, loss of utilities – we can get through it. We take a deep breath and think about what to do to continue on and deal with the problem.
I hope none of you were hit hard by Isaias.
Showing posts with label lost electricity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lost electricity. Show all posts
Thursday, August 13, 2020
COVID 19 #19 UTILITIES STILL OUT FROM ISAIAS, CLEARING OUT KITCHEN PANTRY AND I FOUND MY MISSING BEARS
Thursday, January 24, 2019
WEATHER AND ORGANIZING
Another week already?
We had a cold and messy start to this week and spent the end of last week and the weekend getting ready. I mentioned last week that we were expecting two storms. I had cleared the walking areas of the house so we could walk in dim light if we had a loss of electricity.
The first storm dropped an extremely small amount of snow overnight from Thursday to Friday. At 6 am when I looked out the window the street was clear, but the driveway and sidewalks were white - but a minor amount. By the time we went out around 2 pm, the snow had melted and was gone and it was above freezing.
The second storm was much more problematic. It was to be Saturday night into Sunday morning - and worst of all, extremely cold weather was expected to follow it. Starting on Friday the information jumped back and forth - one weather report from the reporter my husband trusts was that the storm would come in to the north of us and we would not have more than a trace of snow. His next report was that the storm was headed further south and we would be getting 6-8 inches of snow. The next - he the storm was north of us again and we would get a trace to 3 inches. All versions included freezing rain, sleet and then finally after hours of same - rain. When the temperatures then dropped after the storm (we made it down to 7 degrees Fahrenheit) the mess would freeze so it would dangerous to go out on Monday and there would be (the dreaded, especially by husband) downed electrical lines and loss of electricity.
I have mentioned in past posts that over the years husband has become more “weather phobic” due to changes in the weather in our area and is terrified of big snow storms, ice storms, and hurricanes. This is the result of having multiple huge snow storms for this area (sometimes 24 inch or more and then 2 days later another one) and repeated humongous hurricanes. So I go along with his fears and his ideas of what to do to make him feel better.
In the case of winter storms we make sure that we have extra food in the house, some of which is things we would not normally spend money on. In this case, for example, we had a bought a large (expensive) chicken pot pie the end of the week before. Husband during the week asked me to make it for dinner. I looked at him and said “I am saving it for the weekend”. He thought a second and said “Good idea!”. We bought deli turkey on Friday - we could have for lunch or dinner while in the house.
Then we started on the fear of electricity loss. One of his fears is that the water pipes, especially in the basement will freeze. This was not something that was mentioned much - if at all - in this area until we started having weather much colder than normal a few years ago. We put foam insulation on the basement pipes - but the pipes to our clothes washer and the basement sink are attached to the wall and we cannot fit anything behind them. Husband sets up a space heater in the basement near these pipes when it gets bitter cold. Last week I cleared away the assorted laundry and cleaning chemicals that are kept the platform which holds our basement sink so that they would not be near the heat. We also took an indoor/outdoor thermometer I use in the basement for a Packtite (trademark) heater which kills bedbugs and set it up so the “outdoor” part was on the pipes so we could see how cold the pipes were. At night we opened the cabinet doors under the bathroom/kitchen sinks and left the water dripping in same and the basement sink. Biggest problem with his fears this year was that the news reporters were constantly talking about wires will be coming down.
We were lucky and the storm did pass to the north so we had no snow, just the freezing mess. We stayed in through the worst of the cold through Monday - finally going out for lunch and a bit of shopping on Tuesday. Today it made it into the 40s Fahrenheit.
Luckily for once in recent years during these storms he was (relatively) happily on the Internet instead of pacing, biting his nails and staring out the window. I managed to catch up on a variety of small things to get done on the computer and in our office - you know that all that relatively unimportant stuff that really needs to get done. I even put together the mailing to our reenactment unit with their renewal paperwork.
I still have not received the W2,etc. forms I requested from IRS - not that under the closure of the government I thought I would actually receive them. I had planned to file them online if I did not receive them - but since I have not been able to file the annual return for our reenactment unit online (the only way that form can be filed) - I am concerned that I will not be able to file them online. So today while we were out we stopped in at an office supply store and I bought packages of the forms - I have 50 W2s so that I can prepare ONE of them! The other forms involved buying 10-25 forms. Hopefully I will be returning them if I can file online or receive the other forms by the end of this week. I plan to go to the client next week (I had planned on going this week until we had this weather - it will raining most of the rest of the week - hit and if the forms are being filed by mail, I need to have them with me when I go to her so she can sign the cover forms.
I now have to start taking down the Christmas tree decorations and the tree. We need them down so that husband can warp his loom for his next weaving project. Also, if we take the tree down and move the storage for the weaving (yarn and finished pieces) back to the living room I will have my area of our studio in the back room back. I will leave the decorations up until the tree is finished - and maybe a bit longer- they look so nice. (I think I mentioned that before all this weather we did take down the outside lights - the battery candles in the windows and the battery lit wreath at the door are still in place and still lit.)
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
When one faces one’s fears - whether husband’s fear of what the weather will do or starting to work on clearing a specific space in our house - one generally finds that what happens is not as bad as one fears. While I always say that every day starts a new year - a new year has started, pick something that needs work and start on it. Whatever you get done - it is that much less left to get done. Whether it is a drawer or a box or a room it is one thing that is done.
I also wanted to stay I would love to hear from some of you to hear what you are doing or what your problem in organizing and decluttering is.
We had a cold and messy start to this week and spent the end of last week and the weekend getting ready. I mentioned last week that we were expecting two storms. I had cleared the walking areas of the house so we could walk in dim light if we had a loss of electricity.
The first storm dropped an extremely small amount of snow overnight from Thursday to Friday. At 6 am when I looked out the window the street was clear, but the driveway and sidewalks were white - but a minor amount. By the time we went out around 2 pm, the snow had melted and was gone and it was above freezing.
The second storm was much more problematic. It was to be Saturday night into Sunday morning - and worst of all, extremely cold weather was expected to follow it. Starting on Friday the information jumped back and forth - one weather report from the reporter my husband trusts was that the storm would come in to the north of us and we would not have more than a trace of snow. His next report was that the storm was headed further south and we would be getting 6-8 inches of snow. The next - he the storm was north of us again and we would get a trace to 3 inches. All versions included freezing rain, sleet and then finally after hours of same - rain. When the temperatures then dropped after the storm (we made it down to 7 degrees Fahrenheit) the mess would freeze so it would dangerous to go out on Monday and there would be (the dreaded, especially by husband) downed electrical lines and loss of electricity.
I have mentioned in past posts that over the years husband has become more “weather phobic” due to changes in the weather in our area and is terrified of big snow storms, ice storms, and hurricanes. This is the result of having multiple huge snow storms for this area (sometimes 24 inch or more and then 2 days later another one) and repeated humongous hurricanes. So I go along with his fears and his ideas of what to do to make him feel better.
In the case of winter storms we make sure that we have extra food in the house, some of which is things we would not normally spend money on. In this case, for example, we had a bought a large (expensive) chicken pot pie the end of the week before. Husband during the week asked me to make it for dinner. I looked at him and said “I am saving it for the weekend”. He thought a second and said “Good idea!”. We bought deli turkey on Friday - we could have for lunch or dinner while in the house.
Then we started on the fear of electricity loss. One of his fears is that the water pipes, especially in the basement will freeze. This was not something that was mentioned much - if at all - in this area until we started having weather much colder than normal a few years ago. We put foam insulation on the basement pipes - but the pipes to our clothes washer and the basement sink are attached to the wall and we cannot fit anything behind them. Husband sets up a space heater in the basement near these pipes when it gets bitter cold. Last week I cleared away the assorted laundry and cleaning chemicals that are kept the platform which holds our basement sink so that they would not be near the heat. We also took an indoor/outdoor thermometer I use in the basement for a Packtite (trademark) heater which kills bedbugs and set it up so the “outdoor” part was on the pipes so we could see how cold the pipes were. At night we opened the cabinet doors under the bathroom/kitchen sinks and left the water dripping in same and the basement sink. Biggest problem with his fears this year was that the news reporters were constantly talking about wires will be coming down.
We were lucky and the storm did pass to the north so we had no snow, just the freezing mess. We stayed in through the worst of the cold through Monday - finally going out for lunch and a bit of shopping on Tuesday. Today it made it into the 40s Fahrenheit.
Luckily for once in recent years during these storms he was (relatively) happily on the Internet instead of pacing, biting his nails and staring out the window. I managed to catch up on a variety of small things to get done on the computer and in our office - you know that all that relatively unimportant stuff that really needs to get done. I even put together the mailing to our reenactment unit with their renewal paperwork.
I still have not received the W2,etc. forms I requested from IRS - not that under the closure of the government I thought I would actually receive them. I had planned to file them online if I did not receive them - but since I have not been able to file the annual return for our reenactment unit online (the only way that form can be filed) - I am concerned that I will not be able to file them online. So today while we were out we stopped in at an office supply store and I bought packages of the forms - I have 50 W2s so that I can prepare ONE of them! The other forms involved buying 10-25 forms. Hopefully I will be returning them if I can file online or receive the other forms by the end of this week. I plan to go to the client next week (I had planned on going this week until we had this weather - it will raining most of the rest of the week - hit and if the forms are being filed by mail, I need to have them with me when I go to her so she can sign the cover forms.
I now have to start taking down the Christmas tree decorations and the tree. We need them down so that husband can warp his loom for his next weaving project. Also, if we take the tree down and move the storage for the weaving (yarn and finished pieces) back to the living room I will have my area of our studio in the back room back. I will leave the decorations up until the tree is finished - and maybe a bit longer- they look so nice. (I think I mentioned that before all this weather we did take down the outside lights - the battery candles in the windows and the battery lit wreath at the door are still in place and still lit.)
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
When one faces one’s fears - whether husband’s fear of what the weather will do or starting to work on clearing a specific space in our house - one generally finds that what happens is not as bad as one fears. While I always say that every day starts a new year - a new year has started, pick something that needs work and start on it. Whatever you get done - it is that much less left to get done. Whether it is a drawer or a box or a room it is one thing that is done.
I also wanted to stay I would love to hear from some of you to hear what you are doing or what your problem in organizing and decluttering is.
Thursday, August 9, 2018
ACHOO!
Achoo! Last week I was feeling fine. Then it happened. You know, you wake up with a scratchy throat and wonder - is it a cold or did I just sleep on my back with my mouth open and annoy my throat. Then the coughing starts - and you still hope it is a just a scratchy throat from sleeping on your back, but you are pretty sure it is not. Once the sneezing starts and your nose is clogged... My husband lives in fear of me having a cold. He is a bit of a hypochondriac so he won’t let me do anything if I might “spread the germs” to him. But he doesn’t want to do what he is not letting me do either. Everything takes longer to do as a result and wastes time. Don’t worry - you can’t catch the cold.
He doesn’t want to cook (although he used to love to cook and is the better cook). He doesn’t want to do the dishes. but he doesn’t want me to do either as I will get him sick. The first night he made dinner - ham steak that we shared and a packaged macaroni with mushrooms - add to boiling water and let cook - and canned soup. I did the dishes afterwards with disposable plastic gloves on. One night he was on the computer with a client and I asked if I should make dinner or wait for him and he told me he was busy - so I made dinner and he ate it, but not happily. Then the weekend came and cooking was resolved as we eat out Friday through Sunday nights. This week he cooked dinner on Monday. Last night as we were trying to figure out what to have for dinner a rain storm hit. I mean A RAIN STORM HIT. He received a warning on his cell phone - I did not, although my, no cell service for over a year as it was not working for Internet or phone service and I had to switch, Blackberry received a notice. (I keep it charged for it games and camera.) We had major lightning and thunder for about 2 hours - remember I have fired a reproduction 18th century cannon - the thunder was like cannon fire. We lost our electricity - one of husband’s other great fears. We stood/sat with the front door open watching “the show” . We live on a main road. A UPS truck went past to the right, then to the left, then two of them passed our house, then another one and so on. Assorted emergency vehicles passed the house in both directions with lights flashing - police, ambulances, fire trucks, a couple of electric utility trucks... Cars kept driving in the mess, some would pull over a few minutes and then go on. I am a pretty fearless driver (scared husband the few times he had to drive with me as the driver) and I would have pulled over. Sooo, what will we eat? I was thinking - we have rolls, peanut butter - crunchy and smooth, jelly - strawberry and Ikea ligonberry, American cheese, mozzarella cheese - no problem. I suggested this to him. NO! We cannot open the fridge or his insulin would go bad. (Well, technically if it got too warm it would still be good for 42 days, but I was not going to argue.) Luckily the rain let up around 10:30 pm. We got in the car and drove to a nearby supermarket and bought more rolls and cold cuts for dinner. On the corner passed a 7-11 shut down do to lack of electricity, employees seemed to be sitting in cars in the parking lot. We got home and were getting ready to eat and - the lights came back on. Apparently we were in the largest outage area so we were put back quickly. I honestly do not remember a thunderstorm with so much or such loud thunder with rain that heavy for so long.
Tonight we took in Chinese food - simple right? Not really. The place we took out from for decades (while I was waiting for the gas company to come and turn on the gas in our first apartment I went and took out from this place for lunch - I did not even have tableware, dishes, glasses, etc in the apartment - I did have a borrowed bridge table and 2 borrowed bridge chairs) has changed. The original owners ran it for a long time - we knew their children, I remember hearing a car stop short in front of our apartment and the father coming running to the corner because his younger daughter had been riding her bicycle and just missed being hit by the car. When he died his older daughter would come home from college on weekends to help her mom. Then the son took over for awhile - even though he really wanted to be fishing - and the place often had fresh fish due to same. Eventually the place was sold - to the son’s sister in law and her husband. They were also nice and the food was the same and we kept going there. Earlier this year we went there and the husband was not there and an older woman (I presume one of their moms) was cooking. The food was not good. We tried another place and were not happy with them. We went back to them figuring maybe it was the change in cook. But the last time we took out the soup was too salty to eat and all the dishes were wrong. We don’t know what happened. This is the place we called on our way back from our 5 hour trip in July, 2017 to get dinner made before they closed - http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2017/07/treading-water-5-hour-trip-to-nowhere.html So, we never know where to take out from and as a result we don’t. We receive an assortment of fliers from take out places and I keep them. One recently caught husband’s eye and he had been planning to try it - so tonight we did. Very nice people and food. Three street parking spaces in front of the 4 stores was the only parking. Then, since I was sick, husband did not hand me the food to hold on the trip home, he put it in a plastic laundry basket we keep in the back in the car, he did not put anything against the bag to hold it. Yes, the bag went on an angle and was soaked when he took it out of the car. After dinner we had to wash the vinyl cover I keep in the car, the basket, and back of the car. We will go back again - and I will hold the bag.
In the middle of all this I had to go to Manhattan to a client for work - I should have gone last month, but she had a cold (could I have caught this cold over the telephone :-) ). So I went yesterday. I packed a zip lock bag with sucking candy, lots of tissues, and an old prescription bottle with one dose of the cough medicine I am taking. In another zip lock bag I had a small bottle I filled with water. Did I mention the temperature yesterday was over 90 degrees Fahrenheit? Luckily I did not need any of the items.
As a result of this normal housework and keeping things in order are only done if absolutely needed. Instead of changing the bedding, I changed only my pillowcases. I suggested he change his, but he said it was okay to just leave them until next week. I had to talk him through changing the hand towels. We were in the downstairs bathroom - “Where are they?” “In the cabinet under the sink - see those 2 whiteish towels? Take them and the green dish towel below them.” (I put out a green dish towel each week in that bathroom to use for quick clean ups of water around the sink - it matches the bathroom.) Upstairs? “Which towels?” “The yellow ones.” (I figured yellow was bright and he would easily see them.) “You mean these yellow ones?” They are the only yellow ones we have.
Last week I had washed and dried the clothes the night before I got the cold. A load of jeans were in the dryer drying overnight. So we had clothes for the week. I did not wash the towels or the bed linens. Good thing I have 2 weeks of towels plus one extra set for up and down. I was trying to figure out how to mention to him about the laundry when he brought it up. I put the clothes in to wash. He will put them in the dryer - with me talking him through it - and then bring them upstairs afterwards. He brought up last week jeans load when I put in the load to wash. He says he will fold the laundry. I normally pull out his shirts as I put the clean, dry laundry in the basket to take upstairs so that they do not need to be ironed, as I put them over the top of the other clothes and if he does that, and sorts mine from his, I can deal with my clothes and he can deal with his or leave them in the basket and pull them out as he needs them.
Hopefully either this cold will be definitely over with or he will give up by Monday so life can return to normal.
On the other hand, I had some extra time in the office as we came home quicker in the afternoons. I managed to shred all of my 2008 records - other than few I kept such as the checks written that year for our income taxes - 3 tall kitchen bags plus, worth of shredding. I then packed my 2017 records into the same box, relabeled it, and put it back in the closet - ah, room to fit papers in file folders again.
I also had time to transfer my 2017 computer files to my archive file and make 2 DVD copies of the revised archive files. I still have to change my back up files so that the old files are gone from them, but that will happen as I make backup files.
I went through an assortment of old computer instruction manuals sitting on a shelf in the office - why? I needed space for 2 magazine holders. I pulled a number of the manuals - mostly from programs or hardware that I had - and I will put them out over a couple of weeks with the recycling. I still have a stack for husband to go through - understand this are DOS or pre Windows XP software and hardware that I cannot figure out what or where it is. The magazine holders fit nicely in the shelf now with room for the manuals for computer things we are actively using.
The office floor is a mess due to my cheapness in not wanting to waste extra garbage bags when doing shredding and pouring from one to another - as well as throwing handfuls of shreds from one bag to another. I had planned to vacuum up the shreds - but then caught this cold - maybe tomorrow I will get to vacuuming.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
One gets ill. It happens. I am glad that it only a cold so all it has been is inconvenient. In the larger world it is nothing, just an inconvenience. I am happy that is not serious and by next week either I will be better or he will give up trying to do things for me so he does not catch the cold. (I have never pointed out to him that I touch the light switches and so does he.)
Try to do as much as one can without overtaxing one’s self - this will vary based on what is wrong with one.
I leave you with a final achoo! If I rambled too much - will, hey! I have a cold! :-)
He doesn’t want to cook (although he used to love to cook and is the better cook). He doesn’t want to do the dishes. but he doesn’t want me to do either as I will get him sick. The first night he made dinner - ham steak that we shared and a packaged macaroni with mushrooms - add to boiling water and let cook - and canned soup. I did the dishes afterwards with disposable plastic gloves on. One night he was on the computer with a client and I asked if I should make dinner or wait for him and he told me he was busy - so I made dinner and he ate it, but not happily. Then the weekend came and cooking was resolved as we eat out Friday through Sunday nights. This week he cooked dinner on Monday. Last night as we were trying to figure out what to have for dinner a rain storm hit. I mean A RAIN STORM HIT. He received a warning on his cell phone - I did not, although my, no cell service for over a year as it was not working for Internet or phone service and I had to switch, Blackberry received a notice. (I keep it charged for it games and camera.) We had major lightning and thunder for about 2 hours - remember I have fired a reproduction 18th century cannon - the thunder was like cannon fire. We lost our electricity - one of husband’s other great fears. We stood/sat with the front door open watching “the show” . We live on a main road. A UPS truck went past to the right, then to the left, then two of them passed our house, then another one and so on. Assorted emergency vehicles passed the house in both directions with lights flashing - police, ambulances, fire trucks, a couple of electric utility trucks... Cars kept driving in the mess, some would pull over a few minutes and then go on. I am a pretty fearless driver (scared husband the few times he had to drive with me as the driver) and I would have pulled over. Sooo, what will we eat? I was thinking - we have rolls, peanut butter - crunchy and smooth, jelly - strawberry and Ikea ligonberry, American cheese, mozzarella cheese - no problem. I suggested this to him. NO! We cannot open the fridge or his insulin would go bad. (Well, technically if it got too warm it would still be good for 42 days, but I was not going to argue.) Luckily the rain let up around 10:30 pm. We got in the car and drove to a nearby supermarket and bought more rolls and cold cuts for dinner. On the corner passed a 7-11 shut down do to lack of electricity, employees seemed to be sitting in cars in the parking lot. We got home and were getting ready to eat and - the lights came back on. Apparently we were in the largest outage area so we were put back quickly. I honestly do not remember a thunderstorm with so much or such loud thunder with rain that heavy for so long.
Tonight we took in Chinese food - simple right? Not really. The place we took out from for decades (while I was waiting for the gas company to come and turn on the gas in our first apartment I went and took out from this place for lunch - I did not even have tableware, dishes, glasses, etc in the apartment - I did have a borrowed bridge table and 2 borrowed bridge chairs) has changed. The original owners ran it for a long time - we knew their children, I remember hearing a car stop short in front of our apartment and the father coming running to the corner because his younger daughter had been riding her bicycle and just missed being hit by the car. When he died his older daughter would come home from college on weekends to help her mom. Then the son took over for awhile - even though he really wanted to be fishing - and the place often had fresh fish due to same. Eventually the place was sold - to the son’s sister in law and her husband. They were also nice and the food was the same and we kept going there. Earlier this year we went there and the husband was not there and an older woman (I presume one of their moms) was cooking. The food was not good. We tried another place and were not happy with them. We went back to them figuring maybe it was the change in cook. But the last time we took out the soup was too salty to eat and all the dishes were wrong. We don’t know what happened. This is the place we called on our way back from our 5 hour trip in July, 2017 to get dinner made before they closed - http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2017/07/treading-water-5-hour-trip-to-nowhere.html So, we never know where to take out from and as a result we don’t. We receive an assortment of fliers from take out places and I keep them. One recently caught husband’s eye and he had been planning to try it - so tonight we did. Very nice people and food. Three street parking spaces in front of the 4 stores was the only parking. Then, since I was sick, husband did not hand me the food to hold on the trip home, he put it in a plastic laundry basket we keep in the back in the car, he did not put anything against the bag to hold it. Yes, the bag went on an angle and was soaked when he took it out of the car. After dinner we had to wash the vinyl cover I keep in the car, the basket, and back of the car. We will go back again - and I will hold the bag.
In the middle of all this I had to go to Manhattan to a client for work - I should have gone last month, but she had a cold (could I have caught this cold over the telephone :-) ). So I went yesterday. I packed a zip lock bag with sucking candy, lots of tissues, and an old prescription bottle with one dose of the cough medicine I am taking. In another zip lock bag I had a small bottle I filled with water. Did I mention the temperature yesterday was over 90 degrees Fahrenheit? Luckily I did not need any of the items.
As a result of this normal housework and keeping things in order are only done if absolutely needed. Instead of changing the bedding, I changed only my pillowcases. I suggested he change his, but he said it was okay to just leave them until next week. I had to talk him through changing the hand towels. We were in the downstairs bathroom - “Where are they?” “In the cabinet under the sink - see those 2 whiteish towels? Take them and the green dish towel below them.” (I put out a green dish towel each week in that bathroom to use for quick clean ups of water around the sink - it matches the bathroom.) Upstairs? “Which towels?” “The yellow ones.” (I figured yellow was bright and he would easily see them.) “You mean these yellow ones?” They are the only yellow ones we have.
Last week I had washed and dried the clothes the night before I got the cold. A load of jeans were in the dryer drying overnight. So we had clothes for the week. I did not wash the towels or the bed linens. Good thing I have 2 weeks of towels plus one extra set for up and down. I was trying to figure out how to mention to him about the laundry when he brought it up. I put the clothes in to wash. He will put them in the dryer - with me talking him through it - and then bring them upstairs afterwards. He brought up last week jeans load when I put in the load to wash. He says he will fold the laundry. I normally pull out his shirts as I put the clean, dry laundry in the basket to take upstairs so that they do not need to be ironed, as I put them over the top of the other clothes and if he does that, and sorts mine from his, I can deal with my clothes and he can deal with his or leave them in the basket and pull them out as he needs them.
Hopefully either this cold will be definitely over with or he will give up by Monday so life can return to normal.
On the other hand, I had some extra time in the office as we came home quicker in the afternoons. I managed to shred all of my 2008 records - other than few I kept such as the checks written that year for our income taxes - 3 tall kitchen bags plus, worth of shredding. I then packed my 2017 records into the same box, relabeled it, and put it back in the closet - ah, room to fit papers in file folders again.
I also had time to transfer my 2017 computer files to my archive file and make 2 DVD copies of the revised archive files. I still have to change my back up files so that the old files are gone from them, but that will happen as I make backup files.
I went through an assortment of old computer instruction manuals sitting on a shelf in the office - why? I needed space for 2 magazine holders. I pulled a number of the manuals - mostly from programs or hardware that I had - and I will put them out over a couple of weeks with the recycling. I still have a stack for husband to go through - understand this are DOS or pre Windows XP software and hardware that I cannot figure out what or where it is. The magazine holders fit nicely in the shelf now with room for the manuals for computer things we are actively using.
The office floor is a mess due to my cheapness in not wanting to waste extra garbage bags when doing shredding and pouring from one to another - as well as throwing handfuls of shreds from one bag to another. I had planned to vacuum up the shreds - but then caught this cold - maybe tomorrow I will get to vacuuming.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
One gets ill. It happens. I am glad that it only a cold so all it has been is inconvenient. In the larger world it is nothing, just an inconvenience. I am happy that is not serious and by next week either I will be better or he will give up trying to do things for me so he does not catch the cold. (I have never pointed out to him that I touch the light switches and so does he.)
Try to do as much as one can without overtaxing one’s self - this will vary based on what is wrong with one.
I leave you with a final achoo! If I rambled too much - will, hey! I have a cold! :-)
Thursday, March 8, 2018
PREPARING FOR EMERGENCIES
As I write this we are on the tail end of nor’easter - our area is the only area still getting snow and rain, but then again we have had a lot less snow than most other areas. For those of you who do not know what a nor’easter is, think of it as nontropical hurricane. There is wind. The storm is rotating so that the winds come from the north east (hence, its name). There can be heavy rain or heavy snow - or a mix. This is our second nor’easter this week and there is a possibility of a third one on this coming Monday (which would make 3 in 10 days). The first one was just rain, but had wind gusts up to 70 mph in some places. This one had wind that was not as bad, but had the snow and there is a problem as the ground is so saturated in some areas that the wind can easily take over trees whose roots were flooded by the first one. Tens of thousands of people who lost their electricity in the first storm, still do not have their same back from then - plus the those now without electricity. They hope to have those who are still waiting from the first storm back on electricity by Friday - a week since they lost their electricity.
Husband got through last week’s storm relatively well. In case you don’t remember he has become “weatherphobic”. He is terrified of our losing our electricity - and therefore heat - and of digging out from snow - due to several years of repeated huge snow storms (20 inches, two days later 20 inches, repeat) and 3 extended blackouts after hurricanes within 2 years of each other - and in one case the electricity came back on finally and the next day we had one of these nor’easters and lost it again.
Our biggest problem with last week’s storm was that late that night he noticed a strange light on our 3 in 1 in the office that the fax has no phone line. So I telephoned the phone company and made an appointment with their computer to have our phone line fixed. I was lacking information from the computer call and called back the next day (all this calling being done on my mobile phone of course) to get additional information - some of which matched and some of which did not match what the computer told me - no one has to be home/someone over 18 must be home, repair will be done by 8 pm (what start time is one of the reasons I called)/the repair will be done between 8 am and 5pm and so on. I had specifically answered NO to being texted so of course the phone company kept texting me - glad I don’t have the plan that charged me 25c a text as there have been a lot of them. I called my mom and told her. I emailed my sisters and the president of my embroidery chapter and told them - all told to call on my mobile. The appointment was for - Wednesday, today. My embroidery chapter was to meet for the month - Wednesday, today.
We do a variety of things to prepare ahead of a big storm. If it was summer we would have filled our RV’s water tanks, but this time of year we can not do so as pipes and valves might freeze. It was to be warm enough both times so we did not have to worry about the pipes in our basement freezing though - or we would have plugged in an electric heater to keep them warm.
In the old days when husband went out to work and I did the preparation (and he was not terrified as mentioned above) I would fill the gas tank in my car. I actually did this whenever something happened or was going to happen. After hearing of the 9-11 attacks, I filled my car tank. Gas prices announced to go up, I filled my car tank. Storm coming, I filled my car tank. Husband used to laugh at me until the gas (petrol) stations either did not have gas or could not pump as they had no electricity after Hurricane Sandy - now he makes sure all 3 vehicles have enough gas in them when a storm is coming.
In the summer I tend to keep refrigerated food at close to minimal amounts so that if we lose electricity we do not lose much - we had to dump out what was in our fridge and freezer 3 times in just over a year due to hurricanes. In the winter I tend to keep more in the house as I am concerned about snow coming and not being able to go out for food - and if it is cold enough we can put the refrigerated food in plastic boxes outside in the cold. But, whatever we have, he goes shopping. This time I got him to go 2 days before the storm, instead of the day before when all the rest of the panickers are shopping -lines are long and food short. We went in and bought cans of soup - we can always use them - and a bit of “snack” as well as milk (we needed it anyway) and hot cereal (ditto). No lines. When we walked out he looked a bit relieved - we could probably live a month on what was in the house anyway, but if it helps him feel better...
When something like this is going to happen we plug in everything to charge it. The lantern from our RV is brought into the house and its batteries charged (it also takes regular batteries). Our laptops are left plugged in to charge. Our mobile phones (including my old one that I use as a PDA) are left plugged in to charge. This time it was even more important to have the mobile phones charging as the house phone is down.
So, we finished making ready - much of it to reassure him.
Now, remember, the storm was coming today - today is, believe or not, the same Wednesday that the my embroidery chapter meets and the phone company was coming to fix our telephone!
Yesterday afternoon I telephoned the chapter president (I am also an officer) to ask about canceling the meeting - as schools were already canceling for today. She was surprised to hear how a big storm was coming (as she was last month) and had planned to wait until evening to decide about the meeting. She agreed we should cancel it and I sent out an email to the members. I thought we should call them also (8 calls for each of us would taken care of it) but she said no - they would have the email and/or would call her or me - I reminded her that they could not call me and I hoped they would call her if they had a question.
I have mentioned that I do my laundry on Wednesday and Thursday nights. I washed and dried all waiting laundry last night - Tuesday. If we lose electricity we would at least have clean clothes and towels for 2 weeks. It has not been folded, but, hey, one can fold without electricity.
This morning I woke early and dressed and went back to bed - as we were not sure when - or if (since there was to be the storm) the phone repairman would come or if he would be ringing our doorbell. I am not a morning person and this is how I deal with anyone who is coming early or makes an “be there sometime during the day” appointment. Later in the morning while still in bed I got still another text from the phone company asking if the problem was resolved (I got about 3 of these since the request for repair). Husband picked up the house phone to see and there was a dial tone - a buzz on the line, but that could be do to the storm. A short while later I got a phone call - hung up after 2 rings - also from the phone company and I called back and spoke with a nice fellow who called the house and made sure our phone was working. One problem down - I hope.
When we got up for the day husband started to panic about what we would eat this evening if we lost the electricity. I opened the refrigerator and took out the bread, peanut butter, “American cheese”, and jelly and put the piece of mozzarella cheese and package of cream cheese that we have on the top shelf next to where the refrigerator door opens so they could be grabbed quickly if there was no electricity. I showed this all to him and reassured him. I also reminded him that we have sterno and I could cook soup in the porch. He then remembered we could cook in the RV if we needed to and felt better. The food is still sitting next to the fridge and I will put it away before we go to bed tonight and will unplug everything sitting and charging.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Make sure you are prepared for emergencies.
If you won’t eat canned meat - don’t buy it. Think ahead of what you might need.
I made sure Saturday night when I refilled our pill boxes for the week that we had enough medications.
If you have a baby make sure you have whatever you need for the baby - the same for a person who needs care in your household -even sanitary items if it might be “that time of the month”.
I paid all bills due out before the middle of next week and transferred enough money to pay them and have some cash in the checking account and made sure we had some cash at home (not much - what we have for the week plus and extra hundred dollars) just in case.
I had finished a business tax return for a client which has to go out by next Thursday. I go in to do her books, write the tax checks and help her sign the forms and put them in addressed envelopes to be mailed out right away when I am there. I had not copied and assembled the returns. It dawned on me that if there is another storm on Monday - and who knows what is coming after that - I might not get to her in time to send out the returns. So, Monday night I copied and assembled the returns and wrote instructions - including that I plan to be there to send them out and would call her if I was not able to be there and to help her deal with them. They went out in yesterday’s mail to her. I will call tomorrow to check with her about it.
Think about what you and your family needs if you can’t go out or have no electricity for a few days ahead of time so you know what to do and you don’t panic if something is coming.
Husband got through last week’s storm relatively well. In case you don’t remember he has become “weatherphobic”. He is terrified of our losing our electricity - and therefore heat - and of digging out from snow - due to several years of repeated huge snow storms (20 inches, two days later 20 inches, repeat) and 3 extended blackouts after hurricanes within 2 years of each other - and in one case the electricity came back on finally and the next day we had one of these nor’easters and lost it again.
Our biggest problem with last week’s storm was that late that night he noticed a strange light on our 3 in 1 in the office that the fax has no phone line. So I telephoned the phone company and made an appointment with their computer to have our phone line fixed. I was lacking information from the computer call and called back the next day (all this calling being done on my mobile phone of course) to get additional information - some of which matched and some of which did not match what the computer told me - no one has to be home/someone over 18 must be home, repair will be done by 8 pm (what start time is one of the reasons I called)/the repair will be done between 8 am and 5pm and so on. I had specifically answered NO to being texted so of course the phone company kept texting me - glad I don’t have the plan that charged me 25c a text as there have been a lot of them. I called my mom and told her. I emailed my sisters and the president of my embroidery chapter and told them - all told to call on my mobile. The appointment was for - Wednesday, today. My embroidery chapter was to meet for the month - Wednesday, today.
We do a variety of things to prepare ahead of a big storm. If it was summer we would have filled our RV’s water tanks, but this time of year we can not do so as pipes and valves might freeze. It was to be warm enough both times so we did not have to worry about the pipes in our basement freezing though - or we would have plugged in an electric heater to keep them warm.
In the old days when husband went out to work and I did the preparation (and he was not terrified as mentioned above) I would fill the gas tank in my car. I actually did this whenever something happened or was going to happen. After hearing of the 9-11 attacks, I filled my car tank. Gas prices announced to go up, I filled my car tank. Storm coming, I filled my car tank. Husband used to laugh at me until the gas (petrol) stations either did not have gas or could not pump as they had no electricity after Hurricane Sandy - now he makes sure all 3 vehicles have enough gas in them when a storm is coming.
In the summer I tend to keep refrigerated food at close to minimal amounts so that if we lose electricity we do not lose much - we had to dump out what was in our fridge and freezer 3 times in just over a year due to hurricanes. In the winter I tend to keep more in the house as I am concerned about snow coming and not being able to go out for food - and if it is cold enough we can put the refrigerated food in plastic boxes outside in the cold. But, whatever we have, he goes shopping. This time I got him to go 2 days before the storm, instead of the day before when all the rest of the panickers are shopping -lines are long and food short. We went in and bought cans of soup - we can always use them - and a bit of “snack” as well as milk (we needed it anyway) and hot cereal (ditto). No lines. When we walked out he looked a bit relieved - we could probably live a month on what was in the house anyway, but if it helps him feel better...
When something like this is going to happen we plug in everything to charge it. The lantern from our RV is brought into the house and its batteries charged (it also takes regular batteries). Our laptops are left plugged in to charge. Our mobile phones (including my old one that I use as a PDA) are left plugged in to charge. This time it was even more important to have the mobile phones charging as the house phone is down.
So, we finished making ready - much of it to reassure him.
Now, remember, the storm was coming today - today is, believe or not, the same Wednesday that the my embroidery chapter meets and the phone company was coming to fix our telephone!
Yesterday afternoon I telephoned the chapter president (I am also an officer) to ask about canceling the meeting - as schools were already canceling for today. She was surprised to hear how a big storm was coming (as she was last month) and had planned to wait until evening to decide about the meeting. She agreed we should cancel it and I sent out an email to the members. I thought we should call them also (8 calls for each of us would taken care of it) but she said no - they would have the email and/or would call her or me - I reminded her that they could not call me and I hoped they would call her if they had a question.
I have mentioned that I do my laundry on Wednesday and Thursday nights. I washed and dried all waiting laundry last night - Tuesday. If we lose electricity we would at least have clean clothes and towels for 2 weeks. It has not been folded, but, hey, one can fold without electricity.
This morning I woke early and dressed and went back to bed - as we were not sure when - or if (since there was to be the storm) the phone repairman would come or if he would be ringing our doorbell. I am not a morning person and this is how I deal with anyone who is coming early or makes an “be there sometime during the day” appointment. Later in the morning while still in bed I got still another text from the phone company asking if the problem was resolved (I got about 3 of these since the request for repair). Husband picked up the house phone to see and there was a dial tone - a buzz on the line, but that could be do to the storm. A short while later I got a phone call - hung up after 2 rings - also from the phone company and I called back and spoke with a nice fellow who called the house and made sure our phone was working. One problem down - I hope.
When we got up for the day husband started to panic about what we would eat this evening if we lost the electricity. I opened the refrigerator and took out the bread, peanut butter, “American cheese”, and jelly and put the piece of mozzarella cheese and package of cream cheese that we have on the top shelf next to where the refrigerator door opens so they could be grabbed quickly if there was no electricity. I showed this all to him and reassured him. I also reminded him that we have sterno and I could cook soup in the porch. He then remembered we could cook in the RV if we needed to and felt better. The food is still sitting next to the fridge and I will put it away before we go to bed tonight and will unplug everything sitting and charging.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Make sure you are prepared for emergencies.
If you won’t eat canned meat - don’t buy it. Think ahead of what you might need.
I made sure Saturday night when I refilled our pill boxes for the week that we had enough medications.
If you have a baby make sure you have whatever you need for the baby - the same for a person who needs care in your household -even sanitary items if it might be “that time of the month”.
I paid all bills due out before the middle of next week and transferred enough money to pay them and have some cash in the checking account and made sure we had some cash at home (not much - what we have for the week plus and extra hundred dollars) just in case.
I had finished a business tax return for a client which has to go out by next Thursday. I go in to do her books, write the tax checks and help her sign the forms and put them in addressed envelopes to be mailed out right away when I am there. I had not copied and assembled the returns. It dawned on me that if there is another storm on Monday - and who knows what is coming after that - I might not get to her in time to send out the returns. So, Monday night I copied and assembled the returns and wrote instructions - including that I plan to be there to send them out and would call her if I was not able to be there and to help her deal with them. They went out in yesterday’s mail to her. I will call tomorrow to check with her about it.
Think about what you and your family needs if you can’t go out or have no electricity for a few days ahead of time so you know what to do and you don’t panic if something is coming.
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