Okay this is one of those weeks.
I had to call our reenacting unit’s insurance company - again - as it has been 3 weeks and we have not received the renewal of our insurance policy - and I paid them 4 weeks ago when I called to find out where the policy was.
I also had to redo their emergency list as we had a new member join and he had to be added, okay, I did not redo the entire list, just add him, but then I had to email out the list out to the board members - again, and print a new list for us and to keep in our HQ - again.
Worst of all this week is suddenly the computers were not working right. Emails did not go out. We had trouble printing. We had trouble scanning. Husband traced it to the Internet equipment. We have a modem from our cable co ($10 + taxes per month) and we have our own router. Husband decided that since the modem was replaced (due to problems) less than 2 years ago it must be our router.
Last Sunday we bought a new router at Costco. It looks like a space ship - no really, it looks like a space ship from Star Wars or something.
Monday we spent the day setting it up. Since it was so large it involved moving almost everything on the work area of husband’s desk. (He has a work table as part of it covered in papers and stuff - that luckily was not affected.) To do this I had to clear off my desk and throw the 2 piles (do and scan) into one pile on the floor on top of a pile of folders waiting to go to our reenactment HQ for storage in the file cabinets there.
Have you ever seen the wires from a computer twisted around each due to them being added into as time went along? Well, I have a computer, husband has two, we each have a laser printer (why two of them - one is color and the other scans) plus a couple of ink jet printers he has and a tape machine that can be printed with the computer. I spent a good deal of time under the desks pulling wires loose for this project. We even had to move husband’s computer - it is under his work table and I managed to disconnect something when I did this. I then had wires going over my desk in an attempt to get all the wires separated. We managed to get it all set up and fit all of husband’s stuff back onto the working part of his desk.
We went to activate the router. The instructions consisted of a card that said we needed to sign in using wi-fi to the company’s website to set up an account with them to start. Quite frankly at this point I thought, “hmmm, an account with them, stupid instructions, bring it back”, but not husband. We had to figure this out as with no router set up, we had no wi-fi (and without wi-fi we could not set up, yes, the router). We really don’t like to have things like this on our cell phones, but he managed to connect to the wi-fi from our cable co in the street using his phone. We managed to get through all the steps - until it told us that we had to print something from the cell phone by wi-fi - how? We don’t print with our cell phones. I wrote down the info instead. Huge space ship of a router, stupid sign up - I knew this was a mistake (an expensive mistake).
But then it was all set up and he was using it. After dinner I was down here on my laptop. The entire system was just as bad and just as slow. So - maybe it was the modem. Before going to bed we packed it up and I pulled the latest cable bill. Tuesday we went to our cable co - on our way out, the new cable bill arrived - of course. Luckily they are still at their location and the employee did not try to push their new system on us. We stopped for lunch and the daily trip to the post office to pick up mail at our box and then home to set up the modem.
The set up went fairly quickly - we have set this up several times, but when we were done the lights were not flashing in the correct colors and manner. So I got to sit on hold until a man answered - I don’t know if it is was their phone service (we don’t have phone service through them) or what, I had trouble understanding him. He looked up our connection and said that all was correct. Husband tried it and it seemed to be working better and quicker.
We decided that since the problem seemed to be the modem, we would return the router. We packed it up and did so on Wednesday and then we went to a computer store and bought a different router which was on sale - husband decided that a newer, more powerful router was a good idea. On the way home from the computer store we stopped in Walmart for some unrelated items we needed - the same router we had just purchased was $40 cheaper there - husband had looked online and the Walmart site had none other than from third parties. So, we bought it again.
I have to put out the newsletter for my embroidery chapter on the last Wednesday of the month. I had actually worked on it a bit on Tuesday - normally I do it all on the day it is due out - not much to do - I use last month’s meeting info to thank people who did stuff then in the thank you for last month section, I put in this month’s meeting info, I put the small blurb from the chapter president on the front page in the spot for it - most months I remember to change the month on the front page, I update info from our Region in the page(s) for same and ditto our National in the page(s) for same, and remove events and exhibitions that are past date and add any new ones which have come my way. After it is done I attach it to an email along with any other needed attachments (info about classes from Region or National, how to sign into new National website, etc.) and email it to the members. I then email a copy of it to other newsletter editors in our Region and to some others from National/Region who need a copy. Lastly I send a copy to the chapter’s email address with blind copies to an assortment of people who said they were interested in joining and members who have quit the chapter. (No really, it takes maybe an hour or two most months. Of course this month there are all sorts of things that went awry - including the chapter president writing a full page message as it is the end of her presidency. After working on it in advance I finished it about midnight last night.
Then I realized that I had to have the annual renewals (with checks for dues) for the chapter out to National and Region by May 31 - Saturday. Normally this is not that hard. Normally there is a list from National of the members they have - no list, no form to send to them with the payment. So, my solution normally would be to go to the members list in a database, sort it for the renewed members and print out the list of same. Problem - as of 2 months ago the database no longer sorts and I have to copy it over - item by item/person by person - to a new data base of some other sort (this one is very old software that I liked). But I don’t have time to do that NOW. So I sat and made up a list of renewing members by copying each item separately - member number, first name, last name of each person to a word processing program page. I then filled in a renewing page for a rejoined member as National needed all her info again. Then I filled in a new member form for a new member with her info. Then I calculated and wrote a check for their dues and wrote a cover letter for all this. (And I scan all checks written and the bill/supporting paper for them into the computer so I did that too.) I have a blank copy of the form to send to them with the calculation of the amount due and copied and used it. It asks for the name of “the current president” - uh, oh. We will be having a vote next week at our meeting and will have a new president - I put the woman who is the president now. I listed our new membership chair as same (and listed me as treasurer). In my letter I mentioned the changes and that the information about same would be sent after next week’s meeting and the election of the new president.
Onto the Region renewals - at least I don’t have to list everyone. I had a copy of the Region’s form, calculated what was due on it. There was a place for the membership chair’s info and I put in the info of the new chair. Wrote a check (scanned again) and a cover letter and I was done - 2 am. And I then realized that not only I had not posted to all of you, but I never did the laundry either!
Today we returned the router we bought at the computer store and set up the one from Walmart. For about 10 minutes it did not seem to work, but then husband figured out the problem and it is now working. Of course I had to climb under the desks again and sort all of those !!%%$ wires again.
I received an email from one of my fellow embroiders - the newsletter said that we are having an election - who is the candidate and who is the new membership chair? DARN! I knew I forgot something from the newsletter - I sent out an addition to it with who is running and the info on the new membership chair. (I had apologized in the email with the newsletter for any errors or omissions due to the craziness.)
As I write this the second load of laundry finished washing - first load should be dry - and I will when I finish writing this I will go down and switch loads before posting.
We have a 2 day event reenactment event this weekend - with setup on Friday afternoon, so I will fall even further behind.
I have to remember that we are expecting a copy of the insurance policy for the unit and - oh, I forgot - I received a new ATM card last week as mine is expiring, guess what? Yes, there was a problem and I had to go in to get a new one (they couldn’t do it by telephone). It was the wrong kind - the kind that rich people get. So I have to hope that shows up in the mail soon.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Yes, there are weeks like this and one just has to drop everything else and get stuff done, even if it means that one posts a day late. What else can one do?
Friday, May 31, 2019
Thursday, May 23, 2019
I FOUND SOMETHING THAT BROUGHT A SMILE TO MY FACE
You know that stuff that was so important when you bought it, then put it away and forgot completely about it? Well, I have mentioned that I collect teddy bear (and friends) stuff. I thought that I did pretty well with keeping track of what I have bought - after all, the teddys have their own room with a dresser for storage (shared with assorted Cabbage Patch Kids clothing),as well as assorted other pieces of furniture in the room. It was to double as guest room so there is a bed and night stand, shelving, closet and small cabinet. Some is storage, some is teddys and friends stuff.
In our studio, which is through an arch from our kitchen, we have 2 dressers from husband’s childhood bedroom. (A third is the one that teddys “use”.) One of them backs to the kitchen table and has our TV on top. It has a drawer (filled with embroidery floss and similar neatly organized in zip bags) and two shelves below the drawer. I presumed it completely filled with craft room “stuff”.
The other day I was looking for some towels that were kept in this cabinet maybe 25 years ago. They were towels that we bought to wipe sweat off of us when we came in from riding our bicycles and were in this cabinet to be convenient to use when we came in the kitchen door from bicycle riding. I thought perhaps they were still in the cabinet after all these years. So I got down on the floor and moved the empty plastic ice cream tubs stacked in front of the doors and the small sewing machine and opened the doors. The towels were not there. But, the space seemed rather empty to me. Hmm, storage space unused - what can go there?
I have an assortment of empty plastic containers (don’t we all) many of which are out on one of my 3 small kitchen countertop areas. These are ones I took out to use from the large plastic boxes at the bottom of the kitchen closet/pantry where the empty ones are stored. Why didn’t they go back into storage - well, I knew I would need them again and did not want to have to deal with getting them out of the bottom of the closet. I decided that this cabinet in our studio would be a great place to store some of them - while returning most of them to where they belong - and to store those large plastic ice cream tubs. (The ice cream tubs are terrific square storage boxes - bread, rolls, etc. fit in them rather well.)
Last Saturday we came home from visiting my mom at the rehab center and had some time before we would leave for dinner and a movie. Husband went upstairs to his computer. I decided to see what I could store in the cabinet. I moved away - again - the ice cream tubs and sewing machine and opened the doors. There was more stuff in the cabinet than I thought there was - it was all shoved to the back. Unused VHS video tapes (yes, we still have VHS recorders and a Beta recorder also), the accessories to the handheld electric mixer - I did check that they were to my current one, not the one that died and we got rid of (and replaced with the new one), our pasta maker (don’t use it, but figured it is a really good dough mixer - I am guessing that when I figure out where to donate stuff again, this might go along with the deep fryer we never use which is stored in another of husband’s dressers in the studio), and some other stuff - of husband’s that needed to be kept.
I found 3 small legged pieces of plastic that have square holes in them, some sort of packaging stuff we held onto I guess, which would make nice benches for my bear village - if I found some small loose soda bottles (the ones I have are permanently in a small tub of ice) they could be used as holders for same also. Those went upstairs to the teddy village stuff.
I also found the cardboard box from when I used to do ceramic painting kits. It had small pods of paint - dried out, the brushes I used to use (clean and usable), and the cloth I used to clean the brushes (kept for now). I also found an ice cream box with purchased acrylic paint bottles in it. The bottles are old and I had put them in this box just over a year ago when I found that I still had some of those ceramic painting kits, but the paints were no longer good (those ones in the pods) and had pulled out paints to paint a kit - which was one of the items in front of the cabinet doors.
I also found a small (maybe 3 inch tall) teddy bear dressed as a carpenter pin that was something to be painted. Hmmm, without the pin back he would great in the village to wander around looking for things to fix. I pulled him out and opened his packaging. There was a list of needed paints and instructions for what to paint which color and in what order. Oh, boy, right up my alley and I need to do something creative and have been, as they say, “blocked”. No embroidery no small bears that I came with an idea to make. This is just what I need and he has been patiently hiding in the cabinet waiting for me to remember him.
We have a lot of acrylic craft paint bottles with assorted colors. I went through them about 5 years ago and tossed the dried up ones, but who knows if the others have dried out since then? Tonight I started looking for the colors I needed per the list. Using a napkin and several cotton swabs I tested the colors I found that seemed to match what I need for him. I found almost all of them, but needed some light colors that I did not have. I did find a bottle of white paint and figure I can add some to darker colors and get the colors I need. I hope to start painting tomorrow.
I took the small cardboard box from my earlier project to get rid of the box and see what was in it. I went through the pods that with the dried paint - all of the pods were dried out. I kept the ones that had the least paint in them and will try cleaning out as the pods can be used for mixing small amounts of color and storing them short times. I tossed some paint bottles that the paint seemed to be dried in. And then I found ----- the carpenter had a friend! There was a Santa pin in the box also to be painted! He will wait for now, of course.
While the cabinet was not as empty as I thought it was, I did manage to get the stack of empty ice cream tubs into it. I rearranged what was in there so that more would fit in - not the sewing machine unfortunately - it is too tall for either shelf. I can get a medium sized basket and store some of those plastic containers in it for more convenient access to them.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
It is amazing what one can find when one starts going through “stuff”. If one goes through items that are sitting around one will find surprises. One will find stuff to toss or donate and make room for what one needs to store and one might find some hidden items that one has forgotten one has that bring a smile to one’s face.
In our studio, which is through an arch from our kitchen, we have 2 dressers from husband’s childhood bedroom. (A third is the one that teddys “use”.) One of them backs to the kitchen table and has our TV on top. It has a drawer (filled with embroidery floss and similar neatly organized in zip bags) and two shelves below the drawer. I presumed it completely filled with craft room “stuff”.
The other day I was looking for some towels that were kept in this cabinet maybe 25 years ago. They were towels that we bought to wipe sweat off of us when we came in from riding our bicycles and were in this cabinet to be convenient to use when we came in the kitchen door from bicycle riding. I thought perhaps they were still in the cabinet after all these years. So I got down on the floor and moved the empty plastic ice cream tubs stacked in front of the doors and the small sewing machine and opened the doors. The towels were not there. But, the space seemed rather empty to me. Hmm, storage space unused - what can go there?
I have an assortment of empty plastic containers (don’t we all) many of which are out on one of my 3 small kitchen countertop areas. These are ones I took out to use from the large plastic boxes at the bottom of the kitchen closet/pantry where the empty ones are stored. Why didn’t they go back into storage - well, I knew I would need them again and did not want to have to deal with getting them out of the bottom of the closet. I decided that this cabinet in our studio would be a great place to store some of them - while returning most of them to where they belong - and to store those large plastic ice cream tubs. (The ice cream tubs are terrific square storage boxes - bread, rolls, etc. fit in them rather well.)
Last Saturday we came home from visiting my mom at the rehab center and had some time before we would leave for dinner and a movie. Husband went upstairs to his computer. I decided to see what I could store in the cabinet. I moved away - again - the ice cream tubs and sewing machine and opened the doors. There was more stuff in the cabinet than I thought there was - it was all shoved to the back. Unused VHS video tapes (yes, we still have VHS recorders and a Beta recorder also), the accessories to the handheld electric mixer - I did check that they were to my current one, not the one that died and we got rid of (and replaced with the new one), our pasta maker (don’t use it, but figured it is a really good dough mixer - I am guessing that when I figure out where to donate stuff again, this might go along with the deep fryer we never use which is stored in another of husband’s dressers in the studio), and some other stuff - of husband’s that needed to be kept.
I found 3 small legged pieces of plastic that have square holes in them, some sort of packaging stuff we held onto I guess, which would make nice benches for my bear village - if I found some small loose soda bottles (the ones I have are permanently in a small tub of ice) they could be used as holders for same also. Those went upstairs to the teddy village stuff.
I also found the cardboard box from when I used to do ceramic painting kits. It had small pods of paint - dried out, the brushes I used to use (clean and usable), and the cloth I used to clean the brushes (kept for now). I also found an ice cream box with purchased acrylic paint bottles in it. The bottles are old and I had put them in this box just over a year ago when I found that I still had some of those ceramic painting kits, but the paints were no longer good (those ones in the pods) and had pulled out paints to paint a kit - which was one of the items in front of the cabinet doors.
I also found a small (maybe 3 inch tall) teddy bear dressed as a carpenter pin that was something to be painted. Hmmm, without the pin back he would great in the village to wander around looking for things to fix. I pulled him out and opened his packaging. There was a list of needed paints and instructions for what to paint which color and in what order. Oh, boy, right up my alley and I need to do something creative and have been, as they say, “blocked”. No embroidery no small bears that I came with an idea to make. This is just what I need and he has been patiently hiding in the cabinet waiting for me to remember him.
We have a lot of acrylic craft paint bottles with assorted colors. I went through them about 5 years ago and tossed the dried up ones, but who knows if the others have dried out since then? Tonight I started looking for the colors I needed per the list. Using a napkin and several cotton swabs I tested the colors I found that seemed to match what I need for him. I found almost all of them, but needed some light colors that I did not have. I did find a bottle of white paint and figure I can add some to darker colors and get the colors I need. I hope to start painting tomorrow.
I took the small cardboard box from my earlier project to get rid of the box and see what was in it. I went through the pods that with the dried paint - all of the pods were dried out. I kept the ones that had the least paint in them and will try cleaning out as the pods can be used for mixing small amounts of color and storing them short times. I tossed some paint bottles that the paint seemed to be dried in. And then I found ----- the carpenter had a friend! There was a Santa pin in the box also to be painted! He will wait for now, of course.
While the cabinet was not as empty as I thought it was, I did manage to get the stack of empty ice cream tubs into it. I rearranged what was in there so that more would fit in - not the sewing machine unfortunately - it is too tall for either shelf. I can get a medium sized basket and store some of those plastic containers in it for more convenient access to them.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
It is amazing what one can find when one starts going through “stuff”. If one goes through items that are sitting around one will find surprises. One will find stuff to toss or donate and make room for what one needs to store and one might find some hidden items that one has forgotten one has that bring a smile to one’s face.
Thursday, May 16, 2019
SOMETIMES FATE IS HAVING FUN WITH ONE
Last week I said that I was finally catching up a bit. I should not have said so “out loud”. Fate had more in store for us.
Thursday morning my mom - 90 years old, still living alone, and having problems recently - telephoned me. She needed something she had in her garage and could not carry it into the house as it was too heavy. Could we stop by later in the day and bring it in for her. “Sure.” Oh, and could we bring her a burger to eat as she did not have food (which I took to mean in her house). “Sure”. We went to Wendys for our usual lunch and planned to buy a burger for her before leaving and bring it to her. I told husband I was going to pick up some groceries on the way to her house to hold her over. I knew that on Saturday she was going to my sister’s house for the weekend to go have and have her hearing tested and for Mother’s Day. I telephoned her and said that we would also bring some deli turkey, what kind of bread would she like and what else could we bring. “I have plenty of food in the refrigerator.” Huh? “Mom you said that you had no food!” “Oh, that is up here in my bedroom. I am too frightened to walk down the stairs.” OH BOY! We bought the burger and drove to her house.
Mom was upstairs. I went up and walked down her down the stairs step by step. She sat in the kitchen and talked to my husband while she ate the burger. She thought it was wonderful. (She had never been to Wendys before she went there with us a couple of months ago and had been surprised at how good their burgers were - this is not an ad for Wendys.) I looked around her kitchen. We had been there on Monday and while her house always has stuff around - don’t we all - the kitchen had been clean and neat. This time - only 3 days later - there were dirty dishes and the like all over and food out and rotting. I washed the dishes, etc and tossed the garbage.
I then suggested to her that she go to my sister’s house early (based on conversations with my sister I knew this was okay) and she would mostly not have to deal any stairs while she was there. She agreed. We then started packing clothing for her - she told me which drawer to get clothes to pack - “why are you bringing so much, I am only going for 2 days?’ “No mom, it is at least 4 days.” She has started sending her laundry out to be done and there was a sealed package of it which had been returned clean to her. I took that package also - despite the towels and bed linens also in it - the more the better. We took her medications - complete bottles and weekly box. We took both of her walkers and her cane - none of which she has been using, but has started to. All was thrown in plastic bags.
My sister met us and we got mom in. Our thoughts were that she can no longer live alone and we would keep her at sister’s house bit by bit until we managed to get her to agree to stay. That night we had call from my sister. Mom could not get up the sofa - even with help - and kept falling asleep so they were at the hospital near my sister. Mom was there for at least the weekend. There was a decision that one of her meds was too large a dosage and it was cut back - it was making her too groggy. She had been scheduled to go to a psychiatrist on this past Monday to deal with the meds, I called and canceled it as the hospital had dealt with them and if she was going to be living a county away, she should have a doctor out there. I also called her regular doctor and canceled an upcoming appointment, explaining the situation and saying that we would tell the doctor handling it out there to call him about it.
We spent Mother’s Day at the hospital. (All three of us daughters, our husbands, and her grandchildren were there at varying times - even without planning it.) I joked to someone yesterday - maybe this was her way of making sure everyone visited her for Mother’s Day. She was transferred to a rehab facility on Monday and they are working with getting her walking better. We still have to figure out where she will be going on a permanent basis. We have not talked to her about it. (No, she doesn’t even know I have a blog - so she does not read it so she will not know about any of this.)
Yesterday I had to go my client in NYC - what a mess - somehow she had bounced checks - from customers and then as a resort her checks which had paid bills - and had several situations with customers credit card payments and cancellations. (Client is not much younger than mom.) I was ready to scream between what had gone on with mom and what was happening at client. I work at client on a desk maybe 2 feet wide and 18 inches deep and it filled with all sorts of stuff around the edges - so I couldn’t spread stuff out to work. Her vault is behind the chair I sit and she seemed to need to open it - and open the door more fully than normal and was constantly hitting the back of my chair. Oh, and I had left earlier in the morning to go to her to deal better with the overcrowded parking garage - and it still took almost 2 hours after I got there to get a space (and I really had to go to the bathroom when I pulled into the garage and had to wait) so I had about an hour less than I planned and needed to do all of this. I actually took photocopies of many things to go over them again here at home.
In the middle of all of this, I heard husband’s ring on my cell phone - in my brief case on the floor in a plastic bag (concerned about bed bugs in the place) beside me. I was about to scream, but knew if he was contacting me it was IMPORTANT. He had gone out for lunch in our van and after lunch at (yes) Wendys, it would not start. He called the auto club and they got it started and he drove to our mechanic to be looked at. Our RV was already at our mechanic for the annual state inspection. The RV was finished so he drove it home and left the van. He had texted me to bitch about all this. My response “Much the same here.” I got an apology from him.
I have made arrangements to forward her mail to my sister. In the interim until that starts we are going to her house and picking up her mail. Today I said to husband that the weather was nice (rain tomorrow as it is most days lately) so I wanted to drive to mom’s house and pick up the mail and make sure that there were no packages of stuff she had ordered before all of this there. He was not happy about the time it would take, but agreed. Only junk mail of course, but lots of it. I think my mom gets more mail in a week than we get in a month - lots of catalogs and strange magazine offers. On the way home we stopped to gas up the car as I had used up a lot yesterday and we are thinking of a day trip to PA on Friday.
As we drove home from the gas station (closer to mom than us), which we have used before, the car started acting funny when we were stopped at lights. Sooooo, we picked up the van and left the car! There is a new fellow working for our mechanic (I met him once, husband met him twice as he was there yesterday) and we went in and explained. I also told him that we do not normally have serial car work done. :-) So far the costs for the vehicles have not been bad, hope this one is not expensive.
In between all of this I have managed to catch up a bit more - the “to do” pile is getting noticeably shorter. The “to scan” has gotten slightly taller though. I have managed to get an email out to a friend who husband told me had posted on FB that she needed a source for food trucks for an event - told her about a large event in that area and they must know who comes to their event. I also scanned in the “who is bringing what to the June luncheon meeting” of my embroidery chapter - both because I intended to send it to the membership and because one of the members who had not been at the last meeting to sign up had asked. Scanned and emailed out to the members. Hopefully there are more of us coming and I am not the only one bringing something other than some sort of salad.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
We never know what is going to come our way. Unfortunately it tends to be problems more than solutions. Each item has to be dealt with - to overlook it will make bigger problems down the road. When I am ready to scream about everything I think about all of those with much larger problems. Mom is aging and needs more help - but she is still with us. My client is driving me crazy, but she is a nice person and I do like working for her - most of the time (and we need the money). The vehicles are driving us crazy at this particular point in time - but they normally run fine and don’t end up costing a lot of money for repairs. New rule - van will be driven at least every Wednesday as if it had been driven more often than twice a month or so, it might not be having problems lately. I am not a “Mary Sunshine” but I know that the problems we are having are not as bad as others have and we can deal with them. And they give me something to write about. What do you think are the chances we will go to PA this Friday?
Thursday morning my mom - 90 years old, still living alone, and having problems recently - telephoned me. She needed something she had in her garage and could not carry it into the house as it was too heavy. Could we stop by later in the day and bring it in for her. “Sure.” Oh, and could we bring her a burger to eat as she did not have food (which I took to mean in her house). “Sure”. We went to Wendys for our usual lunch and planned to buy a burger for her before leaving and bring it to her. I told husband I was going to pick up some groceries on the way to her house to hold her over. I knew that on Saturday she was going to my sister’s house for the weekend to go have and have her hearing tested and for Mother’s Day. I telephoned her and said that we would also bring some deli turkey, what kind of bread would she like and what else could we bring. “I have plenty of food in the refrigerator.” Huh? “Mom you said that you had no food!” “Oh, that is up here in my bedroom. I am too frightened to walk down the stairs.” OH BOY! We bought the burger and drove to her house.
Mom was upstairs. I went up and walked down her down the stairs step by step. She sat in the kitchen and talked to my husband while she ate the burger. She thought it was wonderful. (She had never been to Wendys before she went there with us a couple of months ago and had been surprised at how good their burgers were - this is not an ad for Wendys.) I looked around her kitchen. We had been there on Monday and while her house always has stuff around - don’t we all - the kitchen had been clean and neat. This time - only 3 days later - there were dirty dishes and the like all over and food out and rotting. I washed the dishes, etc and tossed the garbage.
I then suggested to her that she go to my sister’s house early (based on conversations with my sister I knew this was okay) and she would mostly not have to deal any stairs while she was there. She agreed. We then started packing clothing for her - she told me which drawer to get clothes to pack - “why are you bringing so much, I am only going for 2 days?’ “No mom, it is at least 4 days.” She has started sending her laundry out to be done and there was a sealed package of it which had been returned clean to her. I took that package also - despite the towels and bed linens also in it - the more the better. We took her medications - complete bottles and weekly box. We took both of her walkers and her cane - none of which she has been using, but has started to. All was thrown in plastic bags.
My sister met us and we got mom in. Our thoughts were that she can no longer live alone and we would keep her at sister’s house bit by bit until we managed to get her to agree to stay. That night we had call from my sister. Mom could not get up the sofa - even with help - and kept falling asleep so they were at the hospital near my sister. Mom was there for at least the weekend. There was a decision that one of her meds was too large a dosage and it was cut back - it was making her too groggy. She had been scheduled to go to a psychiatrist on this past Monday to deal with the meds, I called and canceled it as the hospital had dealt with them and if she was going to be living a county away, she should have a doctor out there. I also called her regular doctor and canceled an upcoming appointment, explaining the situation and saying that we would tell the doctor handling it out there to call him about it.
We spent Mother’s Day at the hospital. (All three of us daughters, our husbands, and her grandchildren were there at varying times - even without planning it.) I joked to someone yesterday - maybe this was her way of making sure everyone visited her for Mother’s Day. She was transferred to a rehab facility on Monday and they are working with getting her walking better. We still have to figure out where she will be going on a permanent basis. We have not talked to her about it. (No, she doesn’t even know I have a blog - so she does not read it so she will not know about any of this.)
Yesterday I had to go my client in NYC - what a mess - somehow she had bounced checks - from customers and then as a resort her checks which had paid bills - and had several situations with customers credit card payments and cancellations. (Client is not much younger than mom.) I was ready to scream between what had gone on with mom and what was happening at client. I work at client on a desk maybe 2 feet wide and 18 inches deep and it filled with all sorts of stuff around the edges - so I couldn’t spread stuff out to work. Her vault is behind the chair I sit and she seemed to need to open it - and open the door more fully than normal and was constantly hitting the back of my chair. Oh, and I had left earlier in the morning to go to her to deal better with the overcrowded parking garage - and it still took almost 2 hours after I got there to get a space (and I really had to go to the bathroom when I pulled into the garage and had to wait) so I had about an hour less than I planned and needed to do all of this. I actually took photocopies of many things to go over them again here at home.
In the middle of all of this, I heard husband’s ring on my cell phone - in my brief case on the floor in a plastic bag (concerned about bed bugs in the place) beside me. I was about to scream, but knew if he was contacting me it was IMPORTANT. He had gone out for lunch in our van and after lunch at (yes) Wendys, it would not start. He called the auto club and they got it started and he drove to our mechanic to be looked at. Our RV was already at our mechanic for the annual state inspection. The RV was finished so he drove it home and left the van. He had texted me to bitch about all this. My response “Much the same here.” I got an apology from him.
I have made arrangements to forward her mail to my sister. In the interim until that starts we are going to her house and picking up her mail. Today I said to husband that the weather was nice (rain tomorrow as it is most days lately) so I wanted to drive to mom’s house and pick up the mail and make sure that there were no packages of stuff she had ordered before all of this there. He was not happy about the time it would take, but agreed. Only junk mail of course, but lots of it. I think my mom gets more mail in a week than we get in a month - lots of catalogs and strange magazine offers. On the way home we stopped to gas up the car as I had used up a lot yesterday and we are thinking of a day trip to PA on Friday.
As we drove home from the gas station (closer to mom than us), which we have used before, the car started acting funny when we were stopped at lights. Sooooo, we picked up the van and left the car! There is a new fellow working for our mechanic (I met him once, husband met him twice as he was there yesterday) and we went in and explained. I also told him that we do not normally have serial car work done. :-) So far the costs for the vehicles have not been bad, hope this one is not expensive.
In between all of this I have managed to catch up a bit more - the “to do” pile is getting noticeably shorter. The “to scan” has gotten slightly taller though. I have managed to get an email out to a friend who husband told me had posted on FB that she needed a source for food trucks for an event - told her about a large event in that area and they must know who comes to their event. I also scanned in the “who is bringing what to the June luncheon meeting” of my embroidery chapter - both because I intended to send it to the membership and because one of the members who had not been at the last meeting to sign up had asked. Scanned and emailed out to the members. Hopefully there are more of us coming and I am not the only one bringing something other than some sort of salad.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
We never know what is going to come our way. Unfortunately it tends to be problems more than solutions. Each item has to be dealt with - to overlook it will make bigger problems down the road. When I am ready to scream about everything I think about all of those with much larger problems. Mom is aging and needs more help - but she is still with us. My client is driving me crazy, but she is a nice person and I do like working for her - most of the time (and we need the money). The vehicles are driving us crazy at this particular point in time - but they normally run fine and don’t end up costing a lot of money for repairs. New rule - van will be driven at least every Wednesday as if it had been driven more often than twice a month or so, it might not be having problems lately. I am not a “Mary Sunshine” but I know that the problems we are having are not as bad as others have and we can deal with them. And they give me something to write about. What do you think are the chances we will go to PA this Friday?
Thursday, May 9, 2019
CATCHING UP - THREE STEPS FORWARD AND ONE STEP BACK
I have been trying hard to catch up this week on everything since, I guess, the beginning of March. Things are getting done, but then, of course, new things pop up.
I actually have the stuff on my desk down to 2 piles - to do and to scan. The to “enter” pile is gone - yay!
I managed to lower the to scan pile today - I scanned in the tables of contents for 5 issues of a history magazine I read. (I scan in the table of contents of magazines we keep for research. This allows me to either search all of the tables of contents in a file to see if there are any related articles to a specific subject or to “page” through all the tables of contents without having to take out all the magazines.) I also quickly scanned in the instruction manuals for the two new outdoor light fixtures that we bought and installed. Again, easier to find the instructions in a scanned file than by going through all the instruction books. I deleted the instruction manual of light fixture that one of these replaced as it stopped working right and was tossed out after being replaced. The other is a light in a place where we never had one before. I marked the instruction books with the year and will put them in a file to toss at the end of next year, so I will have them for now if anything comes up and they have to be returned. The replacement light is next to the side entry garage door and I scanned an enlarged copy of how to adjust the light (it is motion triggered), which husband sealed in plastic and we have put it in the garage for convenient access if needed.
My embroidery chapter is in the middle of the renewal period so I have that out in the “to do” pile as I will have to forward the dues collected for our National and our Region to them at the end of the month. I also have not finished dealing with the renewals for our reenactment unit (also in the “to do” pile) - I have a few new members who I have to add our to our list (already sent their dues to the National of same so if they went to a National event they will be on the list of unit members). I then have to make the membership lists for both groups for our members to use. This is especially important for the reenactment unit as we have events coming up, as well as our monthly meeting and the unit commander needs the new members info so they receive their notices.
I renewed medications for myself and my husband - we need to do so quarterly. I waited a bit longer than normal due to everything else going on and our weekly boxes when filled by me last Saturday night were short some pills, that have now been added. (I keep an additional week of pills laid out in our travel pill boxes so I could have pulled the needed pills from same if we had a problem getting them. I keep the travel boxes filled as it makes it easier if I have a cold or such and husband has to fill the regular boxes that we use in the house for our pills - they are counted and sorted and he just needs to put them in the house boxes. Houses boxes are in individual boxes - a weekly box by day for each of us for morning bills - in our bedroom - an lunch and dinner box for each of us in the kitchen, and a bedtime box for husband in the kitchen. The travel boxes are one set of boxes with separate sections for the times of day and can be removed from the tray which holds it. I put all of the pills for both of us in each day’s box so that pulling out the box has all our pills for the day - as opposed to the boxes we use in the house where each box has a week’s worth of pills for one of us for a certain time of day. (I hope that makes sense.)
We are also in the middle of dealing with insurance for our reenactment unit. One is an accident policy for our members (we do have black powder guns being used as well as an open fire at events) which, after discussion with the rest of the board during the year, we checked and we are increasing the very low coverage we had before. That bill should be here soon as it is due this month. The other policy is a liability policy for the unit. We have been looking for a new insurance company. The one we had up to last year is no longer writen in our state as of last year. We found this out at the last minute last year. We found an alternative last year when we needed to find one extremely quickly. We wanted to see what else was out there now that we had a chance, plus we figured that additional companies might now be writing policies in our state now that the company we used to have was no longer doing so - and they would have had time to start doing so. Much effort and time has been put into this - mostly by husband - and after all this, the policy we found last year, is still the only alternative.
We did have a call from mom the other day asking us to come and do a favor for her. She had gotten a delivery of a new paper shredder. It had been left in front of her front door - so she could not open the door, so could we come and please bring it in for her. We did so and husband also set up the shredder for her and made sure it worked - that took just over an hour.
Husband also had us finish dewinterizing the RV water tanks. This takes time to fill the tanks repeated times - first time with bleach added to the water and which is run the water lines of the RV, then let sit and then let out through the clean water let out (as opposed to having to let it all into the dirty water tanks and then dump those tanks - which cannot be let run into the street, as clean water from the clean water let out can be done). The tanks are then refilled with plain, clean water and let out the clean water let out several times to get rid of the bleach taste/smell. Wet job and time wasting, but needs to be done.
Today husband had a new project for us to do. We siphoned out the gasoline in the snow blower into a gas “can”. That gas and the gas left in the other can were poured into our cars for use. The snow blower was then allowed to run to use up the gas in it. If this is not done the gas in the snow blower goes bad over the summer and it cannot be started in the fall/winter for checking that it works and for us.
But these odd tasks are getting done and the piles on the desk are going down.
I also paid our business credit card bill today - out in the mail tomorrow and tomorrow afternoon our will pay our main credit card bill and it will go out in the mail on Friday - when we will also transfer money from savings to checking to cover it. (The money to the business checking account to pay the business credit card was transferred last week.) All bills are paid in full every time. (Well 2 exceptions over the decades which had specific reasons not to pay in full.)
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
If you fall behind - slow and steady will get you caught back up even if new things pop up that have to be done.
I actually have the stuff on my desk down to 2 piles - to do and to scan. The to “enter” pile is gone - yay!
I managed to lower the to scan pile today - I scanned in the tables of contents for 5 issues of a history magazine I read. (I scan in the table of contents of magazines we keep for research. This allows me to either search all of the tables of contents in a file to see if there are any related articles to a specific subject or to “page” through all the tables of contents without having to take out all the magazines.) I also quickly scanned in the instruction manuals for the two new outdoor light fixtures that we bought and installed. Again, easier to find the instructions in a scanned file than by going through all the instruction books. I deleted the instruction manual of light fixture that one of these replaced as it stopped working right and was tossed out after being replaced. The other is a light in a place where we never had one before. I marked the instruction books with the year and will put them in a file to toss at the end of next year, so I will have them for now if anything comes up and they have to be returned. The replacement light is next to the side entry garage door and I scanned an enlarged copy of how to adjust the light (it is motion triggered), which husband sealed in plastic and we have put it in the garage for convenient access if needed.
My embroidery chapter is in the middle of the renewal period so I have that out in the “to do” pile as I will have to forward the dues collected for our National and our Region to them at the end of the month. I also have not finished dealing with the renewals for our reenactment unit (also in the “to do” pile) - I have a few new members who I have to add our to our list (already sent their dues to the National of same so if they went to a National event they will be on the list of unit members). I then have to make the membership lists for both groups for our members to use. This is especially important for the reenactment unit as we have events coming up, as well as our monthly meeting and the unit commander needs the new members info so they receive their notices.
I renewed medications for myself and my husband - we need to do so quarterly. I waited a bit longer than normal due to everything else going on and our weekly boxes when filled by me last Saturday night were short some pills, that have now been added. (I keep an additional week of pills laid out in our travel pill boxes so I could have pulled the needed pills from same if we had a problem getting them. I keep the travel boxes filled as it makes it easier if I have a cold or such and husband has to fill the regular boxes that we use in the house for our pills - they are counted and sorted and he just needs to put them in the house boxes. Houses boxes are in individual boxes - a weekly box by day for each of us for morning bills - in our bedroom - an lunch and dinner box for each of us in the kitchen, and a bedtime box for husband in the kitchen. The travel boxes are one set of boxes with separate sections for the times of day and can be removed from the tray which holds it. I put all of the pills for both of us in each day’s box so that pulling out the box has all our pills for the day - as opposed to the boxes we use in the house where each box has a week’s worth of pills for one of us for a certain time of day. (I hope that makes sense.)
We are also in the middle of dealing with insurance for our reenactment unit. One is an accident policy for our members (we do have black powder guns being used as well as an open fire at events) which, after discussion with the rest of the board during the year, we checked and we are increasing the very low coverage we had before. That bill should be here soon as it is due this month. The other policy is a liability policy for the unit. We have been looking for a new insurance company. The one we had up to last year is no longer writen in our state as of last year. We found this out at the last minute last year. We found an alternative last year when we needed to find one extremely quickly. We wanted to see what else was out there now that we had a chance, plus we figured that additional companies might now be writing policies in our state now that the company we used to have was no longer doing so - and they would have had time to start doing so. Much effort and time has been put into this - mostly by husband - and after all this, the policy we found last year, is still the only alternative.
We did have a call from mom the other day asking us to come and do a favor for her. She had gotten a delivery of a new paper shredder. It had been left in front of her front door - so she could not open the door, so could we come and please bring it in for her. We did so and husband also set up the shredder for her and made sure it worked - that took just over an hour.
Husband also had us finish dewinterizing the RV water tanks. This takes time to fill the tanks repeated times - first time with bleach added to the water and which is run the water lines of the RV, then let sit and then let out through the clean water let out (as opposed to having to let it all into the dirty water tanks and then dump those tanks - which cannot be let run into the street, as clean water from the clean water let out can be done). The tanks are then refilled with plain, clean water and let out the clean water let out several times to get rid of the bleach taste/smell. Wet job and time wasting, but needs to be done.
Today husband had a new project for us to do. We siphoned out the gasoline in the snow blower into a gas “can”. That gas and the gas left in the other can were poured into our cars for use. The snow blower was then allowed to run to use up the gas in it. If this is not done the gas in the snow blower goes bad over the summer and it cannot be started in the fall/winter for checking that it works and for us.
But these odd tasks are getting done and the piles on the desk are going down.
I also paid our business credit card bill today - out in the mail tomorrow and tomorrow afternoon our will pay our main credit card bill and it will go out in the mail on Friday - when we will also transfer money from savings to checking to cover it. (The money to the business checking account to pay the business credit card was transferred last week.) All bills are paid in full every time. (Well 2 exceptions over the decades which had specific reasons not to pay in full.)
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
If you fall behind - slow and steady will get you caught back up even if new things pop up that have to be done.
Thursday, May 2, 2019
CATCHING UP A BIT
Yesterday we took mom to the doctor and it worked better than we anticipated. One problem was that the medication she had been placed on is out of stock - everywhere. I spent a good part of Sunday afternoon calling pharmacies. The doctor called the pharmacy he uses. None. But his pharmacy suggested a compounding pharmacy. If you don’t know what this is - it is a pharmacy that mixes medications as needed. For example - a child has to take a liquid medication but won’t take cherry flavor medications - they can mix up the same actual medication with a different flavor. In our case they can mix up and make pills for mom of the medication she can’t get - at a price of course, and insurance not accepted. Worth the extra money for her to have medication - plus they delivered it to her today so we did not have to get it and then travel to her to give it to her. We also have an appointment with a specialist for 2 weeks from now and that doctor will be better able to adjust her medications.
Night before last (Monday night) husband printed up the pictures of samplers that I had found for the talk I gave today. I spent last evening putting the photos into plastic holders and printing up information about them - each one had a paper in the back explaining about the picture - and a number for the order they should be in (in case I dropped them). Some had only a descriptive title and date - others had a full page of information. I then had to write up my treasurer’s report and an agenda as I was not sure if I or the secretary was going to run the meeting since neither president or VP would be there. I also printed up a membership list for the membership chair as it is renewal time for our group.
When I finished the talk this morning - which was very well received - I felt so good. I had gotten through the mess of everything one after another by staying calm and getting each day’s work done and preparing the night before where we could. We have another problem coming up with Sunday, but we have ways of working around the problem - and if we know in advance that it is going to rain on Sunday and where we are to go will be canceled - that would resolve the problem.
On my way back from the meeting today I went to the post office and picked up the mail - only one ad, as we did not get to our box yesterday. I then went to the pharmacy and picked up husband’s prescriptions as one has to be refrigerated and we also had to go and buy food that also needed to be kept cold and did not want to have either sit in the car as we bought the other. I then came home and we went out for lunch and shopping.
I had the rest of this afternoon through Saturday to catch up. I went through one of three piles on my desk - scan, enter into computer, to do. I first worked on the paperwork from some new members in our reenactment unit - two of them also joined our national group and now their paperwork is done and ready to be mailed to national.
I paid some bills for us and worked out what money has to be transferred where to pay them. I did some other small tasks that needed to be done. The to do pile is now down to one thing to do.
I normally put out the garbage from the kitchen on Sunday night for Monday morning pickup but did not have a chance to do so. I put it tonight along with our upstairs garbage which would normally go out on Wednesday night (tonight) for Thursday morning pickup.
Husband is finishing up a weaving project and has had a section of the kitchen in use by him, but he moved it all so I could go down to the basement and put in a load of laundry to wash.
I actually feel with all of this as if I accomplished something!
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
Tasks in general tend to work out better than one fears in advance. If one goes ahead and does what one needs to do - it is amazing how well it all can go sometimes and then one is done with whatever the original problem was. Go ahead - start the task and see how it goes. Doing nothing is generally not an option and it will probably work out better than you think it will!
Night before last (Monday night) husband printed up the pictures of samplers that I had found for the talk I gave today. I spent last evening putting the photos into plastic holders and printing up information about them - each one had a paper in the back explaining about the picture - and a number for the order they should be in (in case I dropped them). Some had only a descriptive title and date - others had a full page of information. I then had to write up my treasurer’s report and an agenda as I was not sure if I or the secretary was going to run the meeting since neither president or VP would be there. I also printed up a membership list for the membership chair as it is renewal time for our group.
When I finished the talk this morning - which was very well received - I felt so good. I had gotten through the mess of everything one after another by staying calm and getting each day’s work done and preparing the night before where we could. We have another problem coming up with Sunday, but we have ways of working around the problem - and if we know in advance that it is going to rain on Sunday and where we are to go will be canceled - that would resolve the problem.
On my way back from the meeting today I went to the post office and picked up the mail - only one ad, as we did not get to our box yesterday. I then went to the pharmacy and picked up husband’s prescriptions as one has to be refrigerated and we also had to go and buy food that also needed to be kept cold and did not want to have either sit in the car as we bought the other. I then came home and we went out for lunch and shopping.
I had the rest of this afternoon through Saturday to catch up. I went through one of three piles on my desk - scan, enter into computer, to do. I first worked on the paperwork from some new members in our reenactment unit - two of them also joined our national group and now their paperwork is done and ready to be mailed to national.
I paid some bills for us and worked out what money has to be transferred where to pay them. I did some other small tasks that needed to be done. The to do pile is now down to one thing to do.
I normally put out the garbage from the kitchen on Sunday night for Monday morning pickup but did not have a chance to do so. I put it tonight along with our upstairs garbage which would normally go out on Wednesday night (tonight) for Thursday morning pickup.
Husband is finishing up a weaving project and has had a section of the kitchen in use by him, but he moved it all so I could go down to the basement and put in a load of laundry to wash.
I actually feel with all of this as if I accomplished something!
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
Tasks in general tend to work out better than one fears in advance. If one goes ahead and does what one needs to do - it is amazing how well it all can go sometimes and then one is done with whatever the original problem was. Go ahead - start the task and see how it goes. Doing nothing is generally not an option and it will probably work out better than you think it will!
Saturday, April 27, 2019
I'M LATE, I'M LATE - SORRY
Sorry I am late in posting. Third time since I started posting this blog. We have had a full couple of weeks - while still seemingly getting little done.
My mom was ill a week ago Tuesday at 4 am and we had to run to the hospital with her. Since we go to bed around 4 am - the call came just as we had gotten into bed - we were terribly tired while at the hospital. My sister and her husband came and saved us and let us go home. Husband had tried to sleep out in our car - lack of sleep always hits him harder than it does me - and as result of not being able to sleep reached the point where not only was sooooo exhausted, he was also in pain from trying to sleep in the car. Basically that Tuesday was a gone day. Wednesday was still off as we were so off physical schedule - but as you know, I did manage to get my post out on time.
On that Thursday, day before Good Friday and the start of Passover, we went to my mom’s house as she was worried about her mail - most of the afternoon gone. We finished shopping for 2 holiday dinners and that evening I started cooking soup for us for Passover.
Friday we ran some errands and then I made dinner for me; husband picked up a Chinese main dish - shrimp - as it was Good Friday. I made vegetable soup for him and chicken for me - and added what I cooked on Thursday - matzoh balls to both soups. After Passover dinner, I cooked a chicken for Easter dinner - Brunswick stew and put it in the fridge to keep.
Saturday and Sunday between all the normal things we do I worked on the newsletter for my embroidery chapter which had to be out on Wednesday. (Normally I write that Wednesday afternoon and then Wednesday night I write my post.) We also went to church Easter morning and I cooked the Brunswick stew with the previously cooked chicken.
In the middle of all of this husband decided that we had to dewinterize one of our two fresh water tanks in the RV. This consists of letting the water out of the tank, refilling it and adding bleach to the new water and letting it sit. We then emptied and refilled the tank twice over the several days we worked on it.
I was looking ahead to what I had to do in the coming week - impossible!! Mostly I had 4 days - what is now yesterday (Thursday), today (Friday) and next Monday and Tuesday to: go to client in Manhattan, do her books & payroll taxes, take my mom to the doctor (on whichever day of the four doctor could see us), meet up with a member of our reenactment unit to get some government paperwork done at the agency involved, and prepare to give a talk at my embroidery meeting this coming Wednesday. On Sunday I did the payroll tax form for my client (she took no salary this past quarter) and mailed it to her for her to sign and mail out when she comes back to work after being on a vacation so that it will be out timely even if I don’t get there timely. I mailed it out to her on Monday.
Tuesday we drove to Pennsylvania. The system in our RV which lets us pump out the “used” water was not working right last time we went away (end of August) and did not work at all at the start of November when we tried to winterize. Husband made an appointment and the first date available was this past Wednesday. But we had to be there at 8 am! Two states away. This should be a two to two and a half hour drive, but we never know what the traffic will do - and we would be traveling (half asleep due to the very early hour and no or minimum sleep) during rush hour. Husband started to panic. The RV dealer said to us that we could drive down overnight and hook up electricity outside their building - which we have done in the past - but an entire night without a bathroom?! I let it roll around in my head. I came up with the idea of staying at a nearby RV park the night before - if we could find one. Husband did find one and that is why we drove down on Tuesday for a Wednesday appointment. We had to check in at 4 pm and left at 10:30 am to get there. We got stuck on the same two roads in our state that we normally get stuck on. Why do we go that way? If we go the alternative ways either we are driving north a good distance to go south or we are driving through midtown Manhattan - something we avoid with a car, let alone an RV (and which would soon be a very expensive idea do to a new toll coming to drive in Manhattan). So we have to go the way we go.
We were finally past the delays here in New York and about to get onto the New Jersey Turnpike. Easy to do - we have done it more than countless times. We got off the road at the exit to the Turnpike and when we approached the toll booths - we were directed away from them to a side road - there was an 18 wheeler truck - cab and trailer - lying on its side blocking the booths. Now we have to figure all this out. I looked and we had been directed into an industrial park - and one we have been in several times as there is a venue for conventions and we have gone to quilt, woodworking, and toy train shows there. (Heck, I won a judges prize for a doll there.) Relieved that I knew where we were - and there were lots of free parking lots with space to pull into - I suggested husband do the same. He kept driving around as he could not figure out where to pull in and his two (yes, two) GPS devices were arguing over what we should do. Now they are both trying to get us back to the entrance to the Turnpike, but husband has the idea in his head that one or the other will save us. One of them is preprogrammed by him and if we miss a point on the map he entered will keep sending us back to that point until we drive through it. Husband is going on and on about never getting “there” as we don’t know how to go to. I point out to him that we know that one way to where we want to go is to get back on the road we were on and head west - just the longer way. After about 15 minutes of him driving around I managed to get out a map - yes, a paper map - of the state and figure out how to get to the next entrance to the Turnpike on the streets. I find a parallel major road - US1 - which will take us South to where we need to be and then we take a state road - Rte 18 across to the Turnpike and get back on. Husband does not completely trust me on this. I tell him to get back on the main road in the same direction we were going. We end up getting back on it going back where we came from. Between me and the two GPS devices he manages to turn around. I get him off the road onto US1. The GPS that needs to go through specific points continues to try to get us to turn around - he finally managed to get that one shut off. The other one figures out that we are heading towards the next entrance and starts giving us directions to it. He is now happy that he knows where we are going - even though the GPS is giving him the exact same route as I told him - and he did not trust!
I should explain that we have traveled to Pennsylvania or elsewhere beyond it at least 10 trips a year - for almost 45 years. This is not driving in a totally strange area. Even as we headed down US 1 towards Rte 18 as we got close I pointed out to him - “Look, that is the Wendys where we had lunch last year when we went to that quilt show.” As we got closer - “Look this is where we used to drive to get to that nice Japanese restaurant for dinner.” (After all the quilt, etc shows in the area.) So I am comfortable with all this and know we will get to where we are headed. He is still not so sure. We find and get on the New Jersey Turnpike. Strangely I cannot find any information about what happened to the truck and why it turned over. There is nothing in the news for a turned over truck on that day - lots of others, but not even any in same month.
We continue on our trip. While the area near the RV dealer is a relatively new one for us, we have been going there since 2011 and early on in owning the RV there were a lot of problems with it and we might have made a couple of dozen stops there to have it worked on, often while going to Lancaster as this is on the way. We have also been going to a local cultural fair annually for about 20 years which I had figured out was relatively near to this one - same exit from the Pennsylvania Turnpike going opposite ways after exiting it. We find the RV park. Space is good - about 4 rows from the “bathhouse”. We then left and drove for dinner in another area of Pennsylvania. (Husband was getting the most of things he has missed from this trip.) Then back to the RV park and set up for the night as it is suppose to rain. Luckily it is not bad rain.
We are up early (for us) the next morning. I had not fully made the bed the night before as I knew I had to get it apart quickly the next morning. I took all of my bed linens and put them in one large plastic bag and ditto his. I then took apart the bed (two banquette type benches are the base of the bed). We dropped the RV off for repair and asked them to change the oil in the generator as it is about the time to do so and then to change the “dump hose” as long as it will be taken apart anyway for one we think we like better.
We spend the next several hours in their parts department shop, looking at the new Rvs, walking to a nearby shopping center - Home Depot, Staples, a dollar plus store and lunch at (yes) Wendys. While eating lunch I see the RV being driven back to the office from their shop and we head over. It was done. Twice the cost husband had anticipated, but it is working again.
We then set off to the Lancaster area for dinner - stopping at a local store as it is too early for same. After dinner we stop at a Walmart there - their Walmarts are larger than ours and carry different items. We then start home. It is basically the same time we would normally leave for home on one of our trips. Normally we would home around midnight - 12:30 am. The plan was for me to send out the prewritten newsletter for my embroidery chapter when I got home and I had planned to write and post to all of you here on my blog. Somehow it took us to 2:30 am to get home and we don’t know why - no traffic, no extra stops? We took out only the items that had to come out as we needed them in the house and the “snacks” we had brought with us.
Well, so why didn’t write and post on Thursday? Thursday we unpacked the rest of the stuff in the RV - and I cannot find my Diabetes meter, but it has to be there or her and we have a spare, so I am not going to go crazy over it. I sent out all 3 versions of the embroidery chapter newsletter. I had planned to write the post and send it out that evening. But when evening came - I forgot all about it! So here I am writing to you two days late! Forgive me.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
Whether one gets diverted from the road on a physical journey or from their journey to getting better organized it happens. No need to get upset with yourself. Just pick up where you left off and continue.
My mom was ill a week ago Tuesday at 4 am and we had to run to the hospital with her. Since we go to bed around 4 am - the call came just as we had gotten into bed - we were terribly tired while at the hospital. My sister and her husband came and saved us and let us go home. Husband had tried to sleep out in our car - lack of sleep always hits him harder than it does me - and as result of not being able to sleep reached the point where not only was sooooo exhausted, he was also in pain from trying to sleep in the car. Basically that Tuesday was a gone day. Wednesday was still off as we were so off physical schedule - but as you know, I did manage to get my post out on time.
On that Thursday, day before Good Friday and the start of Passover, we went to my mom’s house as she was worried about her mail - most of the afternoon gone. We finished shopping for 2 holiday dinners and that evening I started cooking soup for us for Passover.
Friday we ran some errands and then I made dinner for me; husband picked up a Chinese main dish - shrimp - as it was Good Friday. I made vegetable soup for him and chicken for me - and added what I cooked on Thursday - matzoh balls to both soups. After Passover dinner, I cooked a chicken for Easter dinner - Brunswick stew and put it in the fridge to keep.
Saturday and Sunday between all the normal things we do I worked on the newsletter for my embroidery chapter which had to be out on Wednesday. (Normally I write that Wednesday afternoon and then Wednesday night I write my post.) We also went to church Easter morning and I cooked the Brunswick stew with the previously cooked chicken.
In the middle of all of this husband decided that we had to dewinterize one of our two fresh water tanks in the RV. This consists of letting the water out of the tank, refilling it and adding bleach to the new water and letting it sit. We then emptied and refilled the tank twice over the several days we worked on it.
I was looking ahead to what I had to do in the coming week - impossible!! Mostly I had 4 days - what is now yesterday (Thursday), today (Friday) and next Monday and Tuesday to: go to client in Manhattan, do her books & payroll taxes, take my mom to the doctor (on whichever day of the four doctor could see us), meet up with a member of our reenactment unit to get some government paperwork done at the agency involved, and prepare to give a talk at my embroidery meeting this coming Wednesday. On Sunday I did the payroll tax form for my client (she took no salary this past quarter) and mailed it to her for her to sign and mail out when she comes back to work after being on a vacation so that it will be out timely even if I don’t get there timely. I mailed it out to her on Monday.
Tuesday we drove to Pennsylvania. The system in our RV which lets us pump out the “used” water was not working right last time we went away (end of August) and did not work at all at the start of November when we tried to winterize. Husband made an appointment and the first date available was this past Wednesday. But we had to be there at 8 am! Two states away. This should be a two to two and a half hour drive, but we never know what the traffic will do - and we would be traveling (half asleep due to the very early hour and no or minimum sleep) during rush hour. Husband started to panic. The RV dealer said to us that we could drive down overnight and hook up electricity outside their building - which we have done in the past - but an entire night without a bathroom?! I let it roll around in my head. I came up with the idea of staying at a nearby RV park the night before - if we could find one. Husband did find one and that is why we drove down on Tuesday for a Wednesday appointment. We had to check in at 4 pm and left at 10:30 am to get there. We got stuck on the same two roads in our state that we normally get stuck on. Why do we go that way? If we go the alternative ways either we are driving north a good distance to go south or we are driving through midtown Manhattan - something we avoid with a car, let alone an RV (and which would soon be a very expensive idea do to a new toll coming to drive in Manhattan). So we have to go the way we go.
We were finally past the delays here in New York and about to get onto the New Jersey Turnpike. Easy to do - we have done it more than countless times. We got off the road at the exit to the Turnpike and when we approached the toll booths - we were directed away from them to a side road - there was an 18 wheeler truck - cab and trailer - lying on its side blocking the booths. Now we have to figure all this out. I looked and we had been directed into an industrial park - and one we have been in several times as there is a venue for conventions and we have gone to quilt, woodworking, and toy train shows there. (Heck, I won a judges prize for a doll there.) Relieved that I knew where we were - and there were lots of free parking lots with space to pull into - I suggested husband do the same. He kept driving around as he could not figure out where to pull in and his two (yes, two) GPS devices were arguing over what we should do. Now they are both trying to get us back to the entrance to the Turnpike, but husband has the idea in his head that one or the other will save us. One of them is preprogrammed by him and if we miss a point on the map he entered will keep sending us back to that point until we drive through it. Husband is going on and on about never getting “there” as we don’t know how to go to. I point out to him that we know that one way to where we want to go is to get back on the road we were on and head west - just the longer way. After about 15 minutes of him driving around I managed to get out a map - yes, a paper map - of the state and figure out how to get to the next entrance to the Turnpike on the streets. I find a parallel major road - US1 - which will take us South to where we need to be and then we take a state road - Rte 18 across to the Turnpike and get back on. Husband does not completely trust me on this. I tell him to get back on the main road in the same direction we were going. We end up getting back on it going back where we came from. Between me and the two GPS devices he manages to turn around. I get him off the road onto US1. The GPS that needs to go through specific points continues to try to get us to turn around - he finally managed to get that one shut off. The other one figures out that we are heading towards the next entrance and starts giving us directions to it. He is now happy that he knows where we are going - even though the GPS is giving him the exact same route as I told him - and he did not trust!
I should explain that we have traveled to Pennsylvania or elsewhere beyond it at least 10 trips a year - for almost 45 years. This is not driving in a totally strange area. Even as we headed down US 1 towards Rte 18 as we got close I pointed out to him - “Look, that is the Wendys where we had lunch last year when we went to that quilt show.” As we got closer - “Look this is where we used to drive to get to that nice Japanese restaurant for dinner.” (After all the quilt, etc shows in the area.) So I am comfortable with all this and know we will get to where we are headed. He is still not so sure. We find and get on the New Jersey Turnpike. Strangely I cannot find any information about what happened to the truck and why it turned over. There is nothing in the news for a turned over truck on that day - lots of others, but not even any in same month.
We continue on our trip. While the area near the RV dealer is a relatively new one for us, we have been going there since 2011 and early on in owning the RV there were a lot of problems with it and we might have made a couple of dozen stops there to have it worked on, often while going to Lancaster as this is on the way. We have also been going to a local cultural fair annually for about 20 years which I had figured out was relatively near to this one - same exit from the Pennsylvania Turnpike going opposite ways after exiting it. We find the RV park. Space is good - about 4 rows from the “bathhouse”. We then left and drove for dinner in another area of Pennsylvania. (Husband was getting the most of things he has missed from this trip.) Then back to the RV park and set up for the night as it is suppose to rain. Luckily it is not bad rain.
We are up early (for us) the next morning. I had not fully made the bed the night before as I knew I had to get it apart quickly the next morning. I took all of my bed linens and put them in one large plastic bag and ditto his. I then took apart the bed (two banquette type benches are the base of the bed). We dropped the RV off for repair and asked them to change the oil in the generator as it is about the time to do so and then to change the “dump hose” as long as it will be taken apart anyway for one we think we like better.
We spend the next several hours in their parts department shop, looking at the new Rvs, walking to a nearby shopping center - Home Depot, Staples, a dollar plus store and lunch at (yes) Wendys. While eating lunch I see the RV being driven back to the office from their shop and we head over. It was done. Twice the cost husband had anticipated, but it is working again.
We then set off to the Lancaster area for dinner - stopping at a local store as it is too early for same. After dinner we stop at a Walmart there - their Walmarts are larger than ours and carry different items. We then start home. It is basically the same time we would normally leave for home on one of our trips. Normally we would home around midnight - 12:30 am. The plan was for me to send out the prewritten newsletter for my embroidery chapter when I got home and I had planned to write and post to all of you here on my blog. Somehow it took us to 2:30 am to get home and we don’t know why - no traffic, no extra stops? We took out only the items that had to come out as we needed them in the house and the “snacks” we had brought with us.
Well, so why didn’t write and post on Thursday? Thursday we unpacked the rest of the stuff in the RV - and I cannot find my Diabetes meter, but it has to be there or her and we have a spare, so I am not going to go crazy over it. I sent out all 3 versions of the embroidery chapter newsletter. I had planned to write the post and send it out that evening. But when evening came - I forgot all about it! So here I am writing to you two days late! Forgive me.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
Whether one gets diverted from the road on a physical journey or from their journey to getting better organized it happens. No need to get upset with yourself. Just pick up where you left off and continue.
Thursday, April 18, 2019
KEEP ON TOP OF CHORES AND APPOINTMENTS BY SETTING UP REMINDERS
Another week, another post. This is actually good for me. With the exception of, I think, two times since I have started this blog several years ago I have not missed posting on what is Wednesday night to me and Thursday (very) am to everyone else. (12:15 am Thursday as I start to write this, for example.)
Do you have trouble doing tasks which have to be done over and over on some sort regular basis? I did, well I still do although I am much better at it now. I use my mobile phone to help with this as I do for many other things.
At the start of the year (actually usually just as December is ending for the coming year) I will go through my Lotus Organizer and put in repeating tasks for the coming year. I have quarterly repeating tasks - such as doing payroll tax forms for clients or extra computer backups. I have monthly tasks - monthly computer backups, setting up new spreadsheets for our craft business to keep track of inventory (even though we have had no sales since December - I update the spreadsheet monthly anyway) and changing the sponges I use for cleaning. I have weekly tasks - laundry, changing towels - kitchen and bathroom, changing the bed, regular weekly data backup, and so on. I also have daily tasks - for example - check email - yes, I need a reminder for this. I do not need a reminder to wash the dishes from dinner and later at night from pre-bed snack as I do them as we finish the meal. I also have annual reminders - these I set up to repeat for 5 years (I am thinking of 10 years next time) - birthdays, anniversaries, when other tax forms are due (for clients & us), and so on.
I also will add various events as I find out about them. I know that our reenacting unit meets monthly on the a certain day of the month - I set up the meetings on my calendar (both in the Organizer and my mobile phone which keeps a separate calendar as it does not sync - the Organizer is synced with my old Palm Centro which I carry around the house as a PDA). When the events schedule is set up for the year I add those to both calendars also. My embroidery chapter has a “fiscal” year - the meeting year runs from September of one year through June of the next year and as soon as I know the meeting dates - again a specific day repeating each month - they are added to both calendars. I add appointments I make as I go along. I add trips we make reservations for to the calendar - I start the year with the one for our July 4ish trip already in the calendar as we have to book a year in advance to make sure we get the RV space we want - and we are generally not there on July 4 itself - we are not happy with the RV park and the area we visit being that busy.
What do you do to keep track of when to do things or what your plans are? When I was younger I was able to keep much of this in my head, but I no longer can. (Heck, I put down a check today and 10 minutes later could not remember where I put it down - finally remembered.) Having a reminder ring helps one stay on track. I am about to go upstairs as I am backing up my desktop computer for the month (did the quarterly back up while we had dinner) and the reminder just went off in my mobile phone to see if it if the backup is done - it was not finished when I checked half an hour ago. Be right back - feel free to talk among yourselves, get a snack, or make a bathroom run while I check........ No not done yet. I reset the reminder for another half an hour. But, the laundry will need to be shifted between washer and dryer - and another load put in the washer in 2 minutes, 24 seconds.
See how this works? Trust me if you just try to remember to do everything - it does not work. Don’t just use reminder on your mobile phone for personal stuff - use it for work also. If you work at computer at work (or home) you can put the reminders on it instead - or also. If you are low tech - and I find nothing wrong with low tech (I am the first one to scream if some company or government agency says that something has to be done by computer or with a mobile phone, not for me but for others - well sometimes for me as I prefer the privacy of not having any number of things on my cell phone for security) use a paper calender and an alarm clock to remind you - or even a timer if you have to go back to finish something. Darn laundry reminder has gone off. Be right back.......
Back again. You need to decide what you need to be reminded of. Some items all you might need to do is to put them on the date(s) or day(s) of the calendar so you will see them to do them. Others you might need to have an alarm go off to remind you to stop what you are doing and do what you are suppose to do. (My backup and laundry have sound reminders to remind me.)
Yes, sometimes life gets in the way (or you just really need as a personal matter not to do something on the day you have it scheduled) and things do not get done. I admit to not changing the bedding yesterday as I normally do on a Tuesday (gasps are heard “she did not do something on her schedule after she said to schedule things so you remember them). My elderly mom had a problem that started extremely early on Tuesday morning. Monday night to us and we had to run to help her just as we had changed and gotten into bed - at 4 am. By the time we were back home - and then only were able to do so by the grace my sister meeting us at the hospital with her husband so we could leave (and they had slept as normal people do from earlier in the evening). I had sent my husband out to the car for him to sleep but that had not worked. It was 10 am by the time we finally were able to go to bed. Husband, exhausted, fell asleep. I could not, while waiting to hear from my sister what the findings were about mom. After text messages and telephone calls I was finally able to fall asleep - for about an hour. When we got up for the day it was late in the day even for us and I just had no energy to deal with the bed and said to myself the very unladylike “F it”. (Mom was given a prescription to try for the problem and is staying with my sister at least through the holidays, which for us will run through next week and we will figure out what to do to keep her safe and well - she is 90.)
THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK -
1 - Use your technology to keep you on schedule or a paper schedule and clock if you prefer to use same.
2 - Realize that things occur which will throw you off schedule - it is called life and one never knows what will happen. Just get back on schedule as soon as you can. (And schedules are not written in stone - if you never get to do something, such as write your blog post on Tuesdays, you can move it to another day - Wednesday, for example the day you actually post it.)
3 - I wish you a good holiday with those you love.
Do you have trouble doing tasks which have to be done over and over on some sort regular basis? I did, well I still do although I am much better at it now. I use my mobile phone to help with this as I do for many other things.
At the start of the year (actually usually just as December is ending for the coming year) I will go through my Lotus Organizer and put in repeating tasks for the coming year. I have quarterly repeating tasks - such as doing payroll tax forms for clients or extra computer backups. I have monthly tasks - monthly computer backups, setting up new spreadsheets for our craft business to keep track of inventory (even though we have had no sales since December - I update the spreadsheet monthly anyway) and changing the sponges I use for cleaning. I have weekly tasks - laundry, changing towels - kitchen and bathroom, changing the bed, regular weekly data backup, and so on. I also have daily tasks - for example - check email - yes, I need a reminder for this. I do not need a reminder to wash the dishes from dinner and later at night from pre-bed snack as I do them as we finish the meal. I also have annual reminders - these I set up to repeat for 5 years (I am thinking of 10 years next time) - birthdays, anniversaries, when other tax forms are due (for clients & us), and so on.
I also will add various events as I find out about them. I know that our reenacting unit meets monthly on the a certain day of the month - I set up the meetings on my calendar (both in the Organizer and my mobile phone which keeps a separate calendar as it does not sync - the Organizer is synced with my old Palm Centro which I carry around the house as a PDA). When the events schedule is set up for the year I add those to both calendars also. My embroidery chapter has a “fiscal” year - the meeting year runs from September of one year through June of the next year and as soon as I know the meeting dates - again a specific day repeating each month - they are added to both calendars. I add appointments I make as I go along. I add trips we make reservations for to the calendar - I start the year with the one for our July 4ish trip already in the calendar as we have to book a year in advance to make sure we get the RV space we want - and we are generally not there on July 4 itself - we are not happy with the RV park and the area we visit being that busy.
What do you do to keep track of when to do things or what your plans are? When I was younger I was able to keep much of this in my head, but I no longer can. (Heck, I put down a check today and 10 minutes later could not remember where I put it down - finally remembered.) Having a reminder ring helps one stay on track. I am about to go upstairs as I am backing up my desktop computer for the month (did the quarterly back up while we had dinner) and the reminder just went off in my mobile phone to see if it if the backup is done - it was not finished when I checked half an hour ago. Be right back - feel free to talk among yourselves, get a snack, or make a bathroom run while I check........ No not done yet. I reset the reminder for another half an hour. But, the laundry will need to be shifted between washer and dryer - and another load put in the washer in 2 minutes, 24 seconds.
See how this works? Trust me if you just try to remember to do everything - it does not work. Don’t just use reminder on your mobile phone for personal stuff - use it for work also. If you work at computer at work (or home) you can put the reminders on it instead - or also. If you are low tech - and I find nothing wrong with low tech (I am the first one to scream if some company or government agency says that something has to be done by computer or with a mobile phone, not for me but for others - well sometimes for me as I prefer the privacy of not having any number of things on my cell phone for security) use a paper calender and an alarm clock to remind you - or even a timer if you have to go back to finish something. Darn laundry reminder has gone off. Be right back.......
Back again. You need to decide what you need to be reminded of. Some items all you might need to do is to put them on the date(s) or day(s) of the calendar so you will see them to do them. Others you might need to have an alarm go off to remind you to stop what you are doing and do what you are suppose to do. (My backup and laundry have sound reminders to remind me.)
Yes, sometimes life gets in the way (or you just really need as a personal matter not to do something on the day you have it scheduled) and things do not get done. I admit to not changing the bedding yesterday as I normally do on a Tuesday (gasps are heard “she did not do something on her schedule after she said to schedule things so you remember them). My elderly mom had a problem that started extremely early on Tuesday morning. Monday night to us and we had to run to help her just as we had changed and gotten into bed - at 4 am. By the time we were back home - and then only were able to do so by the grace my sister meeting us at the hospital with her husband so we could leave (and they had slept as normal people do from earlier in the evening). I had sent my husband out to the car for him to sleep but that had not worked. It was 10 am by the time we finally were able to go to bed. Husband, exhausted, fell asleep. I could not, while waiting to hear from my sister what the findings were about mom. After text messages and telephone calls I was finally able to fall asleep - for about an hour. When we got up for the day it was late in the day even for us and I just had no energy to deal with the bed and said to myself the very unladylike “F it”. (Mom was given a prescription to try for the problem and is staying with my sister at least through the holidays, which for us will run through next week and we will figure out what to do to keep her safe and well - she is 90.)
THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK -
1 - Use your technology to keep you on schedule or a paper schedule and clock if you prefer to use same.
2 - Realize that things occur which will throw you off schedule - it is called life and one never knows what will happen. Just get back on schedule as soon as you can. (And schedules are not written in stone - if you never get to do something, such as write your blog post on Tuesdays, you can move it to another day - Wednesday, for example the day you actually post it.)
3 - I wish you a good holiday with those you love.
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