A TRIP NOT TO THE PARK - SNOW, SNOW, SNOW

 Well, as of now all of the Christmas decorations are not only down- but stored away.  

We were lucky and the snow storm which was to come through on Tuesday (yesterday) was just rain which ended in the early morning – and the temperature went up into the 50Fs!  What a pleasant day!

Husband was upset, as usual, about the storm due to come in tomorrow (Thursday) – very upset.  I looked out and the saw the sun, felt the (relative) warmth and suggested to cheer him up - “Let's go walk around in the park.”  He was concerned that the snow from prior storms might not have been cleared or that the park might be soaked and did not want to go.  I suggested as an alternative we take a drive.  He thought about and agreed.  We got our “going out bag” - holds masks, bag for mask, hand sanitizer, plastic gloves, plastic sandwich bags (as alternative to gloves for me), and spray bottle of alcohol and started out.  

We drove to a different, nearer park and all looked well cleared.  BUT whenever we had to stop – at red light or otherwise – the car was surging – he would need to shift the automatic transmission into neutral to stop it.  So home we went – now very upset, so much for a nice day out.  This is apparently the sort of problem which is either a US$200 repair for a switch or thousands for a new transmission.

We have a driveway which is shaped like an “h”.  We keep the car at the foot of the long side of the “h”  (RV at top part) and our van on the grass, well really dirt, all the grass died, between the bottom legs of the “h”.  All extremely organized, this way either car or van can be driven out – if the van is being driven before we go out the car is put on the curve of the “h” so we can the van back in place.  He was concerned that if the car did not drive next time, we would be stuck and not able to get the van back in place – so we decided to switch the two on the driveway.  First he paced out that the wheels of the car would be on the bricks that the van's wheels are on – yes, they matched okay.  Then he drove the van off the driveway and parked in the street in front of a neighbor.  Then he had me get in the car to drive it so he could direct me.  I am actually the better driver – no, really, he would say so even more than I do, but I have not really driven the car since the first Wednesday of last March.  I have driven a couple/few times to or from our mechanic who is 4 blocks away, when we have needed to take one of our vehicles to him and it was too cold or wet to walk home (if going there or walk there if picking up), but that's it.  I did fairly well with the driving, but did not end up on the bricks.  We did not figure into this that the ground had melted after being frozen and wall sheer mud.  In going back and forth to get the tires on the bricks – I was getting stuck in the mud and the tires were throwing mud up.  When husband asked me to open the passenger door so he could talk to me – well, I had forgotten how to do so!!  I did open that window and by the time he asked again, I had found the button on the dashboard (I could have sworn it was the door near the armrest – that must have been our last car).  He had to shovel the mud around so that there were not deep cuts in it when it freezes back.  He then had to go and drive the van onto our driveway – which involved driving it to the next street and back.  We will take the car in for it to be looked at next week – after the ground freezes again!

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Apparently we are in time where anything that can go wrong - will do so.  Try to figure out what can happen and what you can do if does.  Hopefully your problems, like ours, while perhaps terribly annoying (and possibly expensive) will not of the type which threatens health or life or financial security.  We have to learn to “roll with it” as much as we can.  

I hope all and theirs are stay well and survive this winter weather – especially those in areas such as Texas which are not used to winters like this.

FACING SILLY FEARS AND GETTING THINGS DONE

 Over the decades I have developed an aversion to the telephone phone.   We tend to get very few phone calls other than spam calls or calls from companies we deal with who annoy us about something.  I mean very few phone calls – less than 10 or maybe even 5, a month.  If the phone rings we freeze in place until we hear on the answering machine who is calling.  One problem is that I have learned if something is going on with my mom my sister will send a text unless it is a serious urgent matter – then she calls so that adds to the problem.  I also do not like making phone calls – needed ones or personal ones.  

I currently have a number of calls which have to be made.  I started earlier this week on Tuesday with a call I should have made in late September.  I telephoned our doctor's office and made an appointment for us to have flu shots.  Yes, we know one can go to a chain pharmacy and have the shots, but husband is needlephobic and the last time he had a shot (over 40 years ago) he passed out.  So he was worried about both the lack of privacy when getting a shot at a chain pharmacy and also if he passed out they might call an ambulance and he did not want that.  So the doctor's office it was.  Neither of us has had a flu shot before.  As always, he over read up about the shots making him more concerned. We are very concerned about going out in general, let alone a doctor's office due to Covid-19, but that was the very reason we decided to get the flu vaccine.  We went today.  We were told to wait in our car and telephone when we were there.  We presumed that we would wait in the car and then go into the doctor's office which would be empty of other patients – or perhaps one going in or out.  We were surprised that when we were called to come in there were about 15 people spaced out around the waiting room (it also serves a second doctor).  Luckily the shots went well.

I also have to call – since last month – the post office where our box is located.  I need to check with the very nice fellow I have been speaking with there about if our missing our bank statements were returned to the banks due to printed notations on them – related to letting the sender know if the address changed.  I also want to talk to him as we have now had 3 items returned to the senders – two items mailed to our businesses by our state tax department and one from a credit card company and figure out why these items were returned (and what else might also have been returned).  In addition we had actually gone to the post office late one Sunday night to see if the missing mail was in the box.  It was not, but 4 pieces of mail which should have been forwarded were.  I keep putting off this call, but I really have to get it done with.  

My embroidery chapter will be renewing its meeting room next month – though the rooms are closed and we do not know when they will reopen.  The chapter president who, unlike husband and me – has been going out – when to look at meeting room in a different park which she heard was larger.  Our room has been getting a bit tight and with the idea of maybe needing to social distance on our return (hopefully some time next year) to physical meetings, she had gone to look for other rooms from the same park system and found one.  She is not a resident of the area served by these parks and I am.  She and the woman in charge of the meeting rooms have been conversing by email and including me.  I suddenly realized that the form has to be notarized which means a trip, in person, to the bank - uh oh!  So I emailed the woman from the parks department and asked if there was going to be any allowance on the notarization this year, pointing out that they have my notarized signature from several past years and I was still residing in the same house.  (I am swearing that I am resident of the township.)  She sent an email back asking to talk to me on the phone.  I told her I would call tomorrow.  My stomach is turning over with dread, not over what she will say, but making the actual call.  (My neighbor works in real estate, if I do need the notarization, I will ask if she is notary, if not, I will have to deal with going to the bank for same.)

I have other papers on my desk that I need to make phone calls for, but forget what they are.

Plus Sunday nights I try to call my mom while I am cooking dinner.  I generally cook a frozen dinner on Sunday nights and do not need to do anything while it cooking.  Mom tends to call me at dinner time – generally just as I am about to start cooking on a night that I have to be active to cook the dinner and it is a problem.  So, I have taken to calling her either on Friday nights (I make a similar type of dinner then) or Sunday nights.  Mom either does not hear the phone, does not have enough time to get to the phone before it stops ringing. It rings 4 times and then either the voice mail from the assisted living residence or the answering machine put in by family for her answers.  I have taken to calling her several times in a time in a row to let it keep ringing longer, but even then she often does not answer.  I know she is okay because if she was not, my sister would have been contacted and she would called me.  

Now, I have been very good at calling banks to check that deposits (both mailed by me and automatic) have been received and also checking how much and when payments are due on credit cards and other bills as I currently mailing out payments sooner than normal and do not always have the bill in hand when I need to pay it – or since incoming mail is problematic these days since the corona virus stay at home started and we had to have the mail forwarded from our box to our house, to check that I am correct that nothing is due on the bill.  It seems to be the actual talking to someone that upsets me.  (I learned in the first months of stay at home to call about balances due and such late night as fewer people are calling then.  In early April one bill I kept calling about and the calls were not even  accepted to wait, I was able to reach the company (for a live person) at 12:15 am. )

I especially do not like make telephone calls when my husband is in the room.  He will tell me what to say and correct me (when I am not wrong) if he hears me making calls, so I have to make them when he is elsewhere in the house – which is not often these months.)

So I have been barely getting work done this week – too  busy putting off making the telephone calls.  Hence why this post is out a day late.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Everyone has something they REALLY hate to do.  We all know that we have to do them and get them done with or the problem will be even bigger.  What do you hate to do?

TODAY IS A START OF A NEW YEAR - DON'T WAIT FOR JANUARY 1

 It is time for my annual mention that a new year starts every day.  Everyone decides at the end of the common (Gregorian) calendar year  - December 31 – to make resolutions – to lose weight, to go back to school, and for most reading this list – to get organized, get rid of the clutter in the house and clean the house.  

But every day starts a new year and can be used the opening to make a resolution or attempt to make a permanent change in our lives.  Over the past week it was the start of the Jewish new year. The Jewish (religious) calendar starts with a holiday called Rosh Hashanah, which in literal translation means head of the year.  We eat sweet things to look forward to a sweet year to come.  It is followed 10 days later (which are called the Days of Awe) by another holiday called Yom Kippur (which means Day of Atonement).  It is a period in which Jewish people look back at the year which has passed and pray forgiveness for their “sins” – large and small and then fast on Yom Kippur and spend the day (in normal years) in the synagogue praying and asking forgiveness of God – having already spent the 10 days asking forgiveness of those around them for sins, slights, and related against those around them.  We also ask God to write us into the Book of Life for a good year to come (and boy do we all need that right now).  Understand that we are making resolutions to be better in the year to come – same as one makes resolutions to do so for December 31.  

The Chinese calendar's new year is between January 21 and February 20 – like the Jewish new year the day varies over different dates in the common calendar as the number of days in these calendars is not 365 as they are lunar calendar (12 months of 28 days each) with no annual adjustment for the difference between in the number of days between the lunar and solar calendars.  (We have leap months instead of leap days, an extra month added every so many years.)

Similarly the Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar – in this case there is no adjustment for the difference between lunar and solar calendars so dates and holidays in the Islamic calendar as it rotates through it's 12 month cycle will annually fall at different times during the year.  

Okay, I know – you did not expect a class in calendars, but my point in this is that one does not have to wait for January 1 to decide that THIS is when you are going to make a change in your life – any day of the year can be your new year to make a resolution to change something about your life and start getting rid of clutter and getting organized  - and yes, even start doing better at the dreaded cleaning.  

Pick something to start with – it may not be what bothers you (or your loved about you) the most, but pick something and start doing it – today.  I won't say, as many do, that doing something on a regular basis makes it a habit, but instead each day deal with what you have picked to do.  When you get to the point where you think you have it control – it is another day and pick something else to do.

Right now – in the middle of writing this post I have to run down to the laundry (I heard it beep) and transfer the clothing to the dryer and throw in our Covid-19 face masks to wash in a separate load.  I will be right back, don't go away….  Okay, I am back.  

So don't wait for January 1 – start now by doing one thing new or change how you do something now – today is the start of a new year (and of course you can instead start tomorrow if you need to plan – it is the start of a new year also).  After all, you are probably home due to the corona virus pandemic anyway – might as well get something organized and get some rid of some unneeded stuff.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Our lives are very different than they were last year at this time.  Take the gift (and yes, every day of life is a gift) of the time you have and do SOME THING with it.  Work on getting organized – or ignore organizing to spend quality time with those you love.  

As I posted last week, my husband has recently decided that we should take a walk at a local park.  I would much rather be home getting work done, but I understand his need to go out and do something, anything.  It is just the two of us (and all the others also out walking or fishing or sitting or playing) as walk – not briskly, but not just strolling around the park.  Of course I have things waiting for me to do, but being with him and doing something he feels he needs to do is more important at this time.  We have all been reminded of what a precious gift life is.  Let us not waste our time here and do something for or with and spend time with those we love.

 

COVID 19 #23 TAKING TIME OFF - IT'S A WALK IN THE PARK

 Husband does not like being in the house all time and has been getting very antsy about it.  He saw a post online of friends (a married couple that we went to college with) walking in a local park.  It started him thinking.  

He decided that if went for a walk in a park in the afternoon (we don't do mornings, especially now) during the week while children are in school and people are ate work, there would not be a big crowd of people at the park.  

He at first talked about the park our friends had been in, then decided he wanted to go a nearby park that he went to as a teenager and in his 20s to fish – not that he planned to fish.  I have been to this park with him before and as it was so important to him we would go.  We took our masks and my bug band (I get bitten by bugs when I go out and this was a park) and set off.  

There were a number of people at the park – it is also sort of a boat marina – but not overcrowded.  The sky was very overcast which might have cut back on the number of people out that day.  We spent about an hour there walking around and it made him rather happy to be out and about.

We watched boats out on the water.  Some people were fishing off the pier – when he would fish here, he would fish off the beach – that is not longer allowed.  We walked the path through the park.  There were benches along the path (not that we would sit on one right now) and as we walked I noticed that they had small plaques on them – not large ones – the sort that makes me think the town “sold” the benches – meaning these plaques placed on them – as a fund raiser for the park.  We read a couple of them as walked along, on our way back we stopped read most of them.  A lot of them were placed there by people who must come and sit there and sit there often or in memory of someone who did so from what was written on them.  One of them had an Irish flag taped to it.  

There is a fitness trail along the path and we looked at the various things to do for it along the way.  Even if we might otherwise be tempted to try some of the exercises suggested, we were too concerned about Covid-19 to touch any of it.  One of the things to do involved two high parallel bars – not sure if to hang from and chin up or hang from and walk across with one's hands – but it would be impossible for either us to do either as there was no way, even with jumping up, either of us could reach the bars.  

There was a paved spot in the park and husband was curious what it was.  I looked and noticed a small hilly area adjacent to it and commented that it must be an amphitheater – not remembering one from when he was there before, he was not sure so we went there and he agreed that it must be one.  

People there mostly had masks had on and had them on properly covering their nose and mouth.  They also mostly kept their 6 feet distance – other than mom's with children in carriages who would walk next to each other and take up the entire width of the path with no way to pass them when one was behind them or when was one was approaching them from the front.  We ended up walking onto the grass to pass a few of these pairs.  

It was a nice quiet day out.  He feels he needs to get out and walk more – so tomorrow we are going to the park our friends went to and take a walk there.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Well, as much as I like to stay in, I guess we do need to get out and have some exercise.

Have others been getting out for exercise also?  What have you been doing?

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.