Well another week gone - and nothing much done of what I planned to do. Husband had plans.
We have a solar outdoor light fixture that we bought at least a year ago - if not two years ago - at Costco to put up in the backyard. We have electricity back there and at one time husband put up a light, but he cannot deal with heights - could not back when put the put the light up (nor can I deal well with heights) - but it is worse now. The fact that we are both on the short side and have to climb up higher to reach what others can reach adds to the problem. The light he had put up has not worked in a long while and we did not want to climb as high as the old light to replace it. So our logic was that we would buy a solar fixture and replace it by putting the solar fixture lower down the wired fixture. The fixture has been sitting in our dining room since we bought it waiting to be put up.
When we had our garage finished we had electricity added. You know the idea of ask around and find someone friends recommend? We hired a contractor who had done work several times for husband at his job and were extremely happy with. Our garage - not so much. To leave out the extensive details, the (supposedly) licensed electrician the contractor had hired did the wiring rather oddly. The outlet boxes inside the garage move as they are not attached to the studs. He put in 2 circuits - but rather than put half the outlets on one and half and half the lights on one and the other half on the other - all the outlets are on one circuit and the lights he put in were all on the same circuit. The air conditioner - which we added later is also on one of the circuits. (The ac installer said he never put one in a garage before.) Oh that reminds me - the garage is husband’s wood workshop. We did have the electrician put in a light next to the side door into the garage (something added when we had this work done - before there was only the large front garage door) which has a switch and a front spot light which has its own switch. We have replaced the front spot light a few times - high up, but not as high as the light on the back of the house - when the motion detectors have gone bad. Well, in the garage there are work lights - the two long flourescent bulbs type. The front two are hung from the inside of the roof - one of them, for unknown reason, much further towards the center of the garage and therefore much higher up. This fixture has been flashing and not really coming on, also for about a year. We had a box with 2 of the LED replacement bulbs for this particular type of feature, but could not reach the fixture to replace them.
The latest problem was that the light next to the side garage door stopped working completely. Husband decided that something had to be done as he could not see in the backyard at night to go in and out of the garage, there was no light there for security, and he was getting a headache working in the garage.
So while I am planning to work on tax returns for clients and for us, he was planning to work on lights. He bought a fixture to replace the one next to the side garage door. He then turned to the question of being able to reach things high up without fear of falling off a ladder. He found a ladder of about the right height that had platforms for the two stop steps and we set out to buy one. We had to go to one of major home store chain stores and then three of the other home store chain to find and buy one. It was really worth the cost - but it did take a lot of time over 2 days.
He was able to put the new light next to the side garage door. He then figured he could reach the bulbs in the fixture inside the garage and was going to buy a pair of LED ones - I surprised him with a box of them that was in the basement and it was done (and I don’t have to worry about breaking them when I move the Christmas boxes around).
That left the solar fixture that has been here for years. Problem is that where we planned to put it he decided after research, was not the place to put it. He finally figured out where to put it - reachable, facing the sun, and lighting up the backyard. So yesterday we put it up. The light fixture first and then the solar panel. Biggest problem was that where he put the light is where our TV antenna stands in the backyard. I was in constant fear that he would lean back or fall back and the long metal prong of the antenna would be through his head. He managed to avoid it and it is all in place. It apparently needs to charge a few days before we can test it.
Tonight - after dinner - I finally got to start the first return. It went easier than I thought with the new forms. It is not finished yet, but done enough that I am not worried about it. (Client lives on the other side of the country and I want to mail it out to her Monday if I can.) Meanwhile I have heard from a client who normally gets an extension - same this year as he is away until after April 15. Another client, a friend, contacted me last week - she has a return from 2015 that needs to be done or she will lose her refund from same. Problem is that she has no access to her house as there is a problem with a support wall and the ground may fall away. Luckily I have enough of her 2015 info (from when we filed the extension) to do a fairly correct return - but I sent her a form that will have IRS mail me copies of the forms sent to her by banks, etc. from that year’s return just to make sure. I am still waiting for other clients to mail their info to me. I keep wondering if I will hear from the client who disappeared to do her taxes. I really worry about her.
I have kept up on laundry - clothing load in the washer as I write and will go in the dryer as soon as my - yes - cell phone rings to tell me that the wash load should be done. I also need to do a load of towels afterwards.
Husband is again hoping and planning to go away Friday for the day - but it looks like rain again. We need a gift for my mom for her birthday on Sunday - she will be 90 and my sister is having a dinner for her. No ideas of what to get for her. I was going to embroider something, but husband talked me out of it. He doesn’t like the idea of giving her gift cards for the supermarket she goes to either (I don’t normally give gift cards, but I am stuck for ideas.) I had actually hoped we will go away as we maybe we can find a PA Dutch food item to bring her back as a gift.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
One cannot always do what wants/needs to do when one plans - especially if there are others involved in one’s life. One can only do the best one can and not go crazy about it.
The timer in the cell phone just went off. So I will copy and post this when I come back up from switching loads. Okay laundry switched - now I can post.
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