NOW WE NEED TO PUT EVERYTHING BACK TO WHERE IT BELONGS

In preparing for the old refrigerator to leave and the new one to come in - the first time - we had to make room for the crew to bring the fridges through the house.  Being lazy - plus going away in the middle - we left the house as it was after the first new fridge - until the second one was here and installed.

I am not so much talking about moving clutter as moving furniture and household items in common usage.  We have a small house. The new fridges had to come in the front door go to the left into the living room, close the front door, then double back in the opposite direction into the dining room through a doorway.  We took the floor mats out of the front hall - put in living room.  We have a standing chest for our good silver/tableware  - it blocks the doorway into the dining room.  It had to be moved - which we did, moving it further into the dining room.  A wooden box with husband’s reenacting gun stuff that is kept under the silver chest also had to be moved into the room.  We set up in the dining room a table which we take when go to reenactments to set up some stuff we put out for education and sales at events to put stuff from the kitchen/fridge on.  So this gave a wide pathway through the dining room into the kitchen.  What is on your fridge?  We have 4 magnetic pockets on ours - one each with stuff to take when we go out, one with pencils and pens (and emery board) and one with papers which we need in the kitchen - maybe a dozen recipes or package instructions and other items.  Magnets that hold our keys - 2 each.  Magnetic calculator.  Decorative magnets which hold small items.  On the front of the fridge we added 2 years ago a large dry erase calendar - we use it to keep track of TV shows we want to watch since seasons no longer run as long as they used to - held on with magnets.  Much of this went onto the table we set up in the dining room - the small magnets and the, oh, forgot to mention, the clippers I keep on the side of the fridge near the stove, held with magnets and potholders hanging on magnets went into a plastic basket that is normally next to the silver chest in the dining room - it normally holds items we have bought or received in the mail that we are concerned may have bed bugs and we need to heat in our Packtite heater until we have enough items to run it - this basket went into our studio behind the office with the magnets in it, and during the following week the items we wanted to heat were added.  (Doing laundry and running the Packtite as I write to you.) The food that did not actually need to be in a fridge - soda, condiments, beer (hey, we did not even know we had beer), and the like took over the one open kitchen counter area.  Our kitchen chairs were in the back room during the time(s) they were actually moving the fridges.  Things were so confused that the first time I went to cook after all this, I stuck my hand out (by habit) to grab a potholder - and there were not only no potholders - but no hook for them either and I could not for the life of me remember where they all went.  (I used a kitchen towel as a pot holder.)  If I had to write something down no pen or pencil, no paper?)  Leaving the house - where the heck are our keys?  A couple of days after the second fridge was put in place and we knew it was staying we started putting stuff back.  We also were adding back the soda, condiments, and such to the fridge - a little bit at a time to keep the temperature in the fridge from going up.  I filled plastic bottles with water.  It is recommended that the fridge be kept half full and we generally don’t have that much in it - and certainly we don’t now.  So bottles filled with water are going in.  We found out that the drawers stay a little warmer than the rest of the fridge, so husband’s insulin pens will go in there as too cold is more of a problem than them being a bit warmer than the food needs to be. 

Then it hit us.  Our reenactment unit’s big event at our headquarters would be on Sunday (this past).  We needed the table we had set up.  We needed access to 2 large box/benches that we bring for storage - and where the heck are the folding seats we have we bring with us?  So we did a lot of putting back quickly - the silver chest and goes under it, as well as what was on the table.  We broke down the table- the legs unscrew - and put the legs together in their carrier.  We took out the box benches to the middle of the room so I could sort through - make sure we had what we needed for this event and not bring things we did not - this including checking that we had money for change if we sold anything and setting my embroidery so I could work on the area I intended to stitch without taking out anything modern.  Husband packed a small loom he was taking with what he needed to work with it at the event.  This all went out into our van on last Friday - Saturday was to be rain and we did not want to load it all in the rain if we could avoid it.  Event went extremely well - hot day, but bearable, good sized crowd - no rain.  Everything from the event is back in place in the house.


Yesterday we went and visited my mom.  She has moved into what is called the “assisted living” building at the facility she has been in.  My sister’s plan had been for mom to go to same for a few weeks so mom would realize that she cannot be home alone and then move mom home with her and then into an apartment with aides.  Mom has liked it here so much that as of now we plan for to stay as long as the money can be found for her to do so.  (It is not cheap.)  It is the same group/agency as the one that runs the physical rehab she was in and it seems a wonderful place.  We had not visited since her move to assisted living until yesterday.  She has a small apartment - tiny main room with microwave and fridge and kitchen cabinets (no stove).  It is set up to put one’s own TV and attach to the cable.  It comes with a love seat and chair, as well as table and 2 chairs.  (My sister plans to bring the living room chairs from mom’s house and get her a drop leaf table.)  There is a good sized bedroom for one it is - another TV cable connection in same - she has a small TV for right now.  The bathroom has a walk in - no lip shower and seat to use in same.  Very nice, very modern, and housekeeping will keep it clean for her.  She has a key and locks the apartment when she leaves.  There are pull strings in case of emergency to get help.  Talk about an efficient setup that is nice.  Her meals are included so the cooking/fridge are just extra or if she wants to cook for herself.  The breakfast is served too early for her and instead they bring cold cereal and muffin for breakfast to her apartment.  There are trips - including shopping and entertainment trips that one can sign up for.  They will take her to the doctor.  Of course, she can go out with us whenever she wants and I am pretty sure she could call an Uber, Lyft or cab to go out if she wanted. Movies in a theater twice every day.  Other programs are in a large space which also functions for religious services.  My sister has decorating plans for it for mom with items from the house.  Husband and I were highly impressed. The halls look like one is in a hotel.  We were very impressed.  She has made friends already which is good as before she sat home alone.  The apartment is a model of efficiency and organization.

On the other hand the family now has to go through the house and deal with everything in it.  My sisters, their husbands and the adult children of one of them started last weekend.  (We couldn’t go as we were at the reenactment event.  I have to clear out the stuff left in the last bedroom I used in the house (and maybe in the other bedroom I used for awhile) and help with the rest of the house.  Since the house was hit by Hurricane Sandy the basement is empty.  I am actually glad of same now, as the toys down there would have been the hardest to go through and get rid of it.  I am not sure what is still in my old bedroom, but I think I can deal with it okay.  I let my sisters know that I embroidered a tablecloth when in high school and when I got married I could not find it  - I gave a description and told them that if they came across it to hold onto it for me.  I am lucky that one of my sisters has a plan for items that are not toss, donate or take - but try to sell as they are of value and will follow her suggestions.

Today the monitor we ordered for me came in.  I like it much better than the one we bought quickly at Walmart - it is squarer (more similar to my old one) and it can be turned vertical for when I am reading pages so I can see the full page.  We are not sure we may return the one we had bought for me or we may keep it in case we have another problem like this and need a spare monitor that is easy to move around. 

So last night - husband’s computer started shutting itself down while he was working on it.  We spent most of this afternoon pulling it out from under his work table, clearing off a space on the top of one file cabinets for it stay now.  We opened it and vacuumed it out.  (He read that too much dust in it would make it overheat and shut down.)  We then rewired everything so instead of connecting to the computer on the right side of his desk on the floor, it does on the left hand side of his desk on the file cabinet.  We may be getting rid of a printer that is rarely used and was where the computer now is.  Some small items have to be rearranged - including a label maker that may end up on top of our secondary printer and then be moved when that printer is needed.

Weather is very hot - over 91F today - and humid (thunderstorm tonight), plus everything we had to do - and I never even checked email yesterday - so we stopped at the supermarket while we were out and bought sliced deli turkey for us and potato salad for husband - added to bread in the house and turkey gravy we bought yesterday made a quick relatively cool dinner.  We normally have soup with dinner, but skipped it tonight.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Oh, so many this week -

Make dinner quick and easy, even if it costs more than normal dinner, when you need to.

Just because a facility is a care facility does not mean that it cannot be nice.  (Oh, I forgot, mom had her hair cut and dyed today - first time in year.  She looks 20 years younger than she did before - she is 90, but to be honest, husband and I both liked her hair better how it was.)  One has to be open to what help one needs as hard as it is to admit to needing it and moving to have the help.

Keep your computer clean - outside and inside.

Hurricanes have a good side - I hate to think what it would take to go through the basement and decide what to keep and what to get rid of. 

REFRIGERATOR AT LAST? AND ON TO THE NEXT PROBLEM

We arrived home last Friday night - much earlier in the evening than usual.  It was a combination of exhaustion, the heat, possibility of heavy rain later in the evening, and knowing that we might have to be up and about early on Saturday for the delivery of our new refrigerator.  Normally no matter how late it is when we arrive home we clear out all - or just about all - of the stuff in the RV.  This time we only brought in what we needed to have for the night and Saturday morning.  We did not want more stuff in the house - which was still discombobulated from when the new fridge had been delivered the week before.  There was no computer phone call with the time that the delivery would be made the next day as we were suppose to receive and had received the night before the first refrigerator was received.  Knowing that the crew also calls about half an hour before they actually come, we went to bed expecting a call the next day. 

I was woken by someone ringing our doorbell and pounding on the door at 7:30 am.  I was unsure if it was the delivery as no one had called and was physically too exhausted to get up and look out the window.  At 9:30 am my alarm went off. I telephoned the store and was told that I was not on the delivery list for the day.  (Glad I didn’t force myself out of bed at 7:30.)  The delivery manager who told me this seemed to have no memory of who we were and what was going on.  He put me through to the appliance manager.  She remembered us, but it was as if we had not been told the week before that it would be delivered on Saturday - the day I was calling her.  She told me that she had the fridge and it would be delivered the next day - Sunday.  (Quite frankly we were surprised that they deliver on Saturday or Sunday - it used to be week days only.)

The time frame for the first refrigerator to be delivered was 11:30 am to 4:30 pm. We figured that there was a delivery time which ended at 11:30 am and one that started at 4:30 pm. We were called and told that the time range was 12 pm to 5 pm.  Lunch was problematic - there was food in the basement freezer and some packaged food in the house - but we had not had a properly working fridge in over a week and a half and did not really have food in the house for the lunch, but we figured we could hold out  - and what were the chances we would be one of the last deliveries of the time frame? 

We woke up before noon and dressed and went into our home office to work on our computers, sort mail that arrived while we were away, catch up email etc.  Around 3:00 husband said that he really needed to eat something as his blood sugar had dropped.  Crackers were not enough - so I made him a can of pea soup.  I had a small individual applesauce.  We went back upstairs.  Now, I did get work done - I managed to transfer files to a DVD for my annual archiving of last year, caught up on email, etc.  At 4:00 the phone rang.  It was the delivery company’s computer again - delivery was now to be 4:30 pm to 8:30 pm! 

I telephoned the store - they had the same info, but they did give me a phone number for the delivery company.  I called same - 3 times as the first two times I was dropped off hold.  I got a nice woman named Becky.  I explained that entire saga- damaged refrigerator delivered, having to wait a week for a replacement, delivery not set up for the day before as we would be told, the change in time at the last minute, we are both Diabetics and have not eaten and are becoming ill...  She went and checked.  There had been a problem on an earlier delivery that set the crew back 90 minutes!  She also told me that there were 4 deliveries ahead of us so it would be an hour to an hour and a half before they came and we should be able to go out and eat something.  I thanked her.

We did not go out for lunch as we did not trust doing so.  Glad we did not.  We received a call around 5 pm that they would be here within half an hour.  Husband went outside to wait.  Good thing.  The numbering is odd on the houses here plus depending on the GPS it can show us up the street or about 5 + blocks of where we are.  Husband saw a truck stop about 2 houses up the street from us with the men in the truck looking confused and he waved them over. 

As opposed to the first crew which was just the other side of perfunctory - meaning a little short of same - this was the type of the delivery we expected (other than the time problem).  Two friendly delivery men. Robert had explained to them that they were taking back the same model that we had recently received because of damage.  They came in and measured the doors again.  (The last one came in, so this one had to - they were twins.)  The one in charge looked at the damage and shook his head that it had been delivered like that. They took the old one out.  They unpacked the new one.  The one in charge called husband over - there was a scratch in the freezer door of the new one - he and we had the same idea - the freezer doors were switched.  They brought the new fridge in.  They removed the plastic wrapping from it.  It was plugged in so all knew it was working.  They saw that it was not level and leveled it.  (The prior crew had told us it could not be leveled when we asked them to do so.)  They did not set up the inside, but I had been told by the manager that they are not suppose to do so.  If this crew had come with the original fridge and same had not been damaged and had worked right - I would be just as happy with this store as I was after I bought a washing machine from them.  (Which is why we bought from them again.)  We tipped the two men - husband is not one to tip for deliveries and such, but we agreed that they did that good a job - especially compared to the last crew.  After delivery and setup the fridge is suppose to sit set at the middle range for 24 hours without opening and closing the door or putting any food in it.  We shut it off and set up the shelves inside, put in the remote thermometer and shut the door.  We went out for a much needed dinner at the Asian buffet we go to.

It is more or less working properly.  Apparently it is suppose to go up and down more than our older fridge to keep the proper temperature - although not as much as the first one did.  It is also suppose to do so less after it is filled - it is suppose to be at least half filled and food added a little at a time.  We have put a lot of bottles of water (made by us, not commercial) in it to add food to it as we have not yet been food shopping and even then, do not have a lot of food in the fridge at any one time in hot weather (in case storm takes down the electricity), and not that much in the winter either other than at certain times as there are only two of us.

So Monday afternoon after picking up the mail at our box - from over a week - and lunch out at Wendys, we came home and I was ready to start catching up on work at my computer.  Our bank statements, as well as those for our business and for the two clubs of which I am treasurer had all come in and I planned to work on them.  ( I had caught up on email on Sunday while we waited for the delivery.)

I turned on my computer.  Some message went past too quickly for me to read.  I then tried to go to the Win XP virtual machine in my computer to catch up and sync my Organizer entries in my old Palm Centro with Organizer - but the computer would not switch to the XP side.  Husband came to figure it out.  Unfortunately I have been having problems with my old, analog monitor recently and it decided to die in the middle of this.  We managed to turn my computer sideways and hook it up to the monitor from husband’s second computer - hanging on the wall on his side of the office.  He fixed the computer problem.

He had been looking for a new monitor for me.  I really did not want a digital one, but that it is all there is.  The big problem was that unless we were going to rearrange a good part of the office, I needed a small monitor - about 18 inches across - or it would not fit.  There were two candidates he had found.  One was Walmart and one was from Staples - but the latter had to be ordered.  So Walmart it was.  We went in to a local Walmart.  We found the monitor we had been looking at - on our trip last week we actually had a chance to see it running and it looked okay.  We also found one that he had not seen anything about that was smaller.  He looked it up online on his cell phone - well rated and only US$60 (plus sales tax).  We decided to go with same.  It could be returned and at that price if we decided that I should have the other monitor (it can be turned vertically which might be good for me when reading full page things such as IRS manuals), this was cheap enough to keep as a spare emergency monitor around the house.  We took it to the electronics desk - it was $90?  Husband pointed out that it was $60 online - we were told that we had to ask for a price match (to Walmart’s own online price).  He walked away in reference to a call he had taken.  Husband checked and he told him that we should take it to customer service and buy it there, asking for the price match.

This Walmart is in the middle of being updated.  The entry now has a gate that when closed only lets one into the store, not out, and when open bings when one someone walks out.  Plus there is a security device on the box - how do we get to the service desk - without security descending on us?  He decided that he would stay inside of the entrance and I should go out, get in line and explain and ask what to do.  I walked over to the first register aisle (empty of customers) and walked out and got on the service line.  I was 3rd in line.  But there were problems with everyone ahead of us.  Finally after he watched people walk out the entrance, set off the alarm, and have nothing happen, he met me at the line.  We bought it for the online price and started home. 

My old monitor sat on a small plastic shelf, which I do not want to get rid of.  (I keep my 2 external hard drives for backup under it, as well as it having sections to hold both kinds of paper clips, pencils, pens, etc. ) Apparently the old monitor bent the shelf and the new monitor rocked.  We finally got it balanced and working.  I then ran to cook dinner and add some items to the refrigerator after shutting off the computer.

Yesterday, Tuesday, we finally went for our annual eye exams.  We were due last November - back when husband’s shoulder was in pain and we could not go that far.  Since then this and that has happened, so it took until now.  (All was good at the appointment - thank you for asking.)  We drove home afterwards despite the drops in our eyes. 

On arriving home I helped husband set up our portal air conditioner in the living room so he could finish a weaving project on his loom and went upstairs to try to catch up on computer - and pay a bill.  I had trouble seeing anything on the screen - it all seemed overwhelming (husband had changed the settings to make the icons larger - something I really did not need or want).  Colors were too bright.  The white was too bright.  I figured it was all related to the eye drops.  I managed to work around it - checked email - first time since Sunday, paid the bill, etc.  Husband later changed the icon settings back for me.

So today when we came home from a couple of errands I was ready to go to work on my computer and get work done.  It was still too bright - the white too bright, the colors too bold - and I am talking about type - not pictures.  I ended up switching to my distance glasses (normally use reading glasses - as I am doing now with my laptop - when working on the computer) and pushing my seat back as far as my arms could reach.  He spent a good deal of time - dinner was late tonight - trying to get to the colors and white so that they are not too bright/bold for me, but not so that the white is grey either.  Not sure if he/we are done with it with yet.

And he does not understand why I say - change is never good.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

For some reason change is easier for some people.  There are people who look forward to something new - new clothes, new car, new computer, new household appliance, new house, going someplace new on a trip.  Are you one of them?  Or are you like me - someone who wants everything to stay as it is and has trouble adjusting to change?