WATER, WATER, EVERYWHERE - AT LEAST IN THE BASEMENT

 My apologies for missing last week's post.  After years of not missing any posts, seems lately my attention gets taken away and I forget to post or I am otherwise needed in the house and don't get a chance to write and post.  

Lest you think this is a unique situation to this blog, on the final Wednesday of the month I send out a newsletter to my embroidery chapter which includes the meeting notice for the meeting the following Tuesday.  Club used to meet on Wednesday and the newsletter/meeting notice went out a week before.  Location of meeting was changed and with it the day the group meets and I have not yet gotten into the habit of sending out the newsletter a day earlier so it would remain a week before the meeting.  Being the lazy person that I am, I write and post the newsletter  for them at the same time.  (I do send an email a week in advance to the other board members in case they have something to include.)

Today I dealt with all sorts of things online and then suddenly realized that their newsletter had to go out today.  It was put together quickly, but as completely as possible and went out today just before I started making dinner – all 3 versions of the newsletter, which this week were basically the same.  (One version to members, one to region of group to be sent to other newsletter editors in the region plus the head of the region, and one version I send to people (okay, ladies) who have asked about joining our chapter or used to be members and like to keep in touch.) Mostly all 3 versions are the same, but, for example, we normally have our June meeting at a specific members house before we break for the summer and I don't want to send her name, address, and contact information to everyone who has asked about our chapter, so only the member's version will have the info.

We are also dealing with water in the basement whenever it rains since Hurricane Ida earlier this year.  We never had this problem before (or at least never noticed it before) and it is now a recurring problem.  When it rains we check the basement and vacuum up the water with a wet/dry vacuum and then run our dehumidifier  - which would running anyway, but it is set at 35% dampness instead of its normal 70% dampness so it needs to be emptied much more often.  Yes – we had a large rain storm yesterday and will have another one this weekend.  We are hoping this is only a problem with needing new plastic covers over our basement windows (on the outside of the house) and the second window so far, thank goodness, does not seem to have this problem.

Husband has decided that we need to clear out a bookcase which stands in front of the window in question.  It is adjacent to his exercise bicycle and has his stereo, a VHS player, and some other similar electronics on top – so he is figuring out where we will moving these items.  The books on the shelves tend to be ones from when he was in college and of his field of study.  He figures that they can be donated – presuming we find someplace to donate them and go out to do so.  (If we do, I have some items I packed to donate just before the pandemic started and they will go out also.)  Another bookcase near by has books he plans to get rid of also, but thinks he can sell them online so they will remain for now.  

We can then move the bookcase and see what is going on behind it – as well as sort see to each side of where it was – behind a second bookcase and behind metal storage cabinets.  He has given me notice that he plans to work on this over the coming weekend.  Well, at least I know I have to finish up anything I want to do before then – such as pay any bills and write any letters I want to mail out on Sunday night (unless it raining again on Sunday night).  I know that there is some mail in our box at the Post Office and would like to post the outgoing mail from there and take out the mail in the box if we can, one in particular has me wondering what it is – looks like a card, addressed to me, and from someone I have never heard of in Washington state – and we live on the east side of the U.S.  Probably just a piece of fancy junk mail.

How do I know what it is our Post Office box?  No, I am not a psychic.  The USPS has a service which will send an email to one when there is mail at their address – including in their USPS boxes at their Post Office.  They will only send if first class mail and there is a scanned picture of that first class mail.      It does work well for us now when we are not going daily to our box as we did back in normal times.  (Back in normal times almost all of our mail was going to the box as more secure than box at our front door, especially when we went on a trip.)  We do not have to go to the Post Office unless we know there is something there to pick up (we can post outgoing mail at a local USPS collection box instead).

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Too much to do when doing nothing!

P.S,  The problem which I posted about when last I posted – the money from the loom we sold being taken back by the company it was paid through – has been resolved and we have the money back in our bank account.  It will sit there for a month before we touch it again!

Stay dry all!

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?