First a couple of updates on my last two posts -
In the July 30 post (2 weeks ago) I had mentioned that I was going crazy having lost an assortment of bear figures that I use in my “Teddy Village”. (Don't think it that crazy that I have this village – it is the only place I can “visit” without a mask right now, and it is cute and fun to do.) I have put off climbing under the bed in the spare bedroom (aka the Teddies room) both because of the logistics and because I feared not finding the bears there – and since my only thought was that they been tossed out – I could not take them not being there. I tend to put things in places that are logical when I put them there, but later do not come to mind when I am looking for them. Last night on our way to bed I was looking around again as to where the bears might be – and my eye fell on a large, thick white cardboard box (I am guessing that is the inner box that some computer peripheral came in) which I call “the hill”. It is used for skiing and sledding bears and in the past I would store those bears in it for the rest of the year. My brain started whirring. I touched the box – definitely something in it – but hadn't I seen the big skiing bear in the Christmas boxes when I looked there? I removed the teddy bears riding in a train setup on top of it (not winter – no skiing or sledding) and carefully turned it over, took it to my desk, and opened it. YES!! The missing bears. See – I put them where it made sense – right in the village itself in a safe storage box that I have looked at every day since they were stored! Today the bears in the box that made sense (and there was room for) and the musician bears for the summer concerts in the part were added to the village and the rest carefully stored in a marked box with the other storage boxes of bears for next time I need to use them. Oh – and my husband was right about two things (not unusual for him) – I did not throw them out and I would find them.
In the August 5 post (last week) I was talking about Hurricane Isaias – technically only a tropical storm when it hit this area. I explained how lucky we had been to get back our electricity that evening. Around here there are still people (8 days after the store) who still do not have electricity. Supposedly they are all suppose to have their electricity back by “11:59 pm” tonight, Wednesday. I am guessing that the tens of thousands still will not have their electricity back. In addition to electricity people have been without and some still are, without their natural gas. (Here is in run through underground pipes to areas were it is available and may be used by those using it for heating and/or hot water. We did not lose same and only use it for hot water.) Our local cable/Internet provider which also provides a good percent of landline telephone service, as well as our traditional telephone company which also provides all 3 services also do not have all of their customers back online yet. The stories one hears about people who have special needs and are suppose to have service to be restored quickly – people with medical conditions and are still waiting are especially upsetting. Also people have live lines down in their yards that as of yesterday (today's news will be out tomorrow of course) which is terribly dangerous. One man found an electric company employee working on someone else's outage and asked the employee to shut off the live line down in his backyard (dangerous both for someone or an animal touching it and dying or it starting a fire) was told it was a question of flipping a switch, but the employee was not allowed without a work order to do so! And this company was brought in (and seemed good as they are in a neighboring state) because the last company did such a terrible job during Hurricane Irene and Sandy! I hope that any of you who were caught in Isaias also, did not lose your utilities for too long a time and did not have the circus we have had here.
Now, as to actually dealing with clutter and disorder – I think I mentioned that back in March when we went through our pantry closet (actually 3 shelves in our kitchen closet) we found, among other items, a half gallon jar which had been filled with, per the lid) Bisquick. This is a good item to have as so many items can be baked with it. Problem was it was dated 2017! We did not toss it out as back then food was hard to find in supermarkets – but we did not use it either. In the interim we purchased new (smaller) packages of Bisquick. My husband suggested yesterday that I should dump it out and put new Bisquick in it and then we can easily use same. I pulled the jar out tonight and dumped it out, wiped it out and washed it. While doing so I looked at what else was on that shelf – in the back. I found out that I had 2 started containers of dried basil – I combined them and they are in the container which was in my spice cabinet. I found we have more sugar than we thought. Worcestershire sauce – almost a full bottle (well it is not something we use normally). Part of a bottle of vinegar. Interesting items to have and have available for use that we did not realize we had (or had so much of). I might even get some of the items on the dining room table into the closet where they belong.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
It is important to remember that we are more resilient than we think we are. Even those of who think we are weak can deal with and do amazing things when we have to. Whether as trivial as missing inanimate “friends” or something as major as no utilities, somehow one can get through it. When one thing after another hits us - Covid 19, hurricanes, loss of utilities – we can get through it. We take a deep breath and think about what to do to continue on and deal with the problem.
I hope none of you were hit hard by Isaias.
Thursday, August 13, 2020
COVID 19 #19 UTILITIES STILL OUT FROM ISAIAS, CLEARING OUT KITCHEN PANTRY AND I FOUND MY MISSING BEARS
Thursday, August 6, 2020
PREPARING FOR HURRICANE ISAIAS AND THE AFTERMATH
Well, like those of you along the east coast of North America we had an add on to our Corona virus fun yesterday – a visit from Hurricane Isaias. I hope any of you affected by it are okay – personally, your home intact and have electricity, etc again.
We were each about to run out of one medication – husband's last pill of same would be Thursday. Sunday night I called our pharmacy (at a local regular Walmart) and reordered what we needed on their computer. We did not need refills of everything as husband is taking less of his medications due to our eating less to stretch our trips out for food and I stop taking one pill in summer as my blood pressure drops too low in summer otherwise, but there was a good number of pills.
We also had to call and change our RV park reservation – due to the Covid - 19 situation we do not feel comfortable going – and add on not knowing what would happen from Isaias, we decided best to postpone as it had to be done by yesterday – the day of Isaias here. I left a message Sunday night for them to call us Monday. We have changed the reservation to be our July 4th trip next July – we hope.
Saturday we went out and took in the loose items. We have two small solar lanterns which hang from iron posts – took down the lanterns and posts. Our “Betsy Ross” flag is also on an iron stand – took that down also. We have 3 iron stands that hold pots of flowers – normally we buy 3 pots of geraniums in spring and they through the fall (and for Christmas we put artificial poinsettias, which we potted and we reuse annually in them) – they came in also. Also our garbage pail – all went into the garage.
Monday night I put 2 ice cubes in each of 2 small plastic bags and put one bag of cubes in each freezer – if one loses their electricity and the ice is still frozen, then the food is okay to use. We charged our electric lantern and took out candles in holders. We plugged in our cell phones (even the old ones with no service – they can still call 911 in an emergency) and our laptops – normally our cable company's wifi which runs through the wires in the street will work when electric out and we can use the laptops with it. I also dropped a very small flashlight in my jeans pocket – during and after Hurricanes Irene and Sandy they were of great help. (The ones that Harbor Freight used to give out free with coupons before they switched to the blue plastic lights they give out now free with coupons.) We went to bed Monday night, hoping we would not need any of our preparations. I also cleared the walkways in the house - so that we could around without tripping on anything. In the 18th century rooms were used for multiple purposes. Furniture was kept against the walls and what was needed for the purpose at a time was moved to the center of the room and used – then put back against the walls. In semi-darkness to darkness one could walk through the room without needing a light. I work with this idea making sure that one can walk from room to room and around the room where one needs to be without a light when there is a possible blackout coming.
Isaias came in overnight – sounded terrible. News and weather reports had said it should be out of our area by around 3 pm and headed further north. So when we were getting ready to make lunch at 2 pm, we felt better as there was only an hour or so left before it was gone. Then the lights went out and the TV went off. I called our electric company and gave our information. (Our electricity poles, generating facilities, etc are owned by a non-profit which contracts with a regular utility company to run the system. The company that was doing so, and had been doing so for a long time before, when we were hit Hurricane Sandy did a terrible job of not getting everything going again, but also there was a major lack of communication and a new company was brought in to do run everything for the non-profit – following I will be talking about the new for profit company which runs it all for them.)
We expected to hear back from them at some or several points as the message had asked what phone number to call us back with updates – which I had figured would be recorded messages. For lunch we had peanut butter sandwiches – from an unopened jar as the opened jar was in the fridge, while I eat mine plain, husband likes jelly on his – he put some honey on it instead and I used disposable plates so I only had to wash the utensils (we leave the drinking glasses out on the table from lunch through our prebed snack). We found one of our battery operated radios and put in batteries. Not knowing how long the outage would be, we turned off our cell phones and did not turn on any of our laptops (old ones were also charged). We opened the front door (left the glass storm door locked) and husband sat on a chair to read on his tablet while I read BBC History magazine sitting on the staircase. After awhile I went upstairs to open the mail which had been sitting for 4 days (to kill any Covid-19 virus on it) – I opened the curtains and put up the shade to see what I was doing. I then went back to my reading on the stairs. It was bright and sunny, but still a bit windy outside at this point. The NYC (am)news radio stations would occasionally mention out here on Long Island, but not much info. The few Long Island radio stations (also am – radio does not have FM) just kept playing music. So no info. No calls from electric utility. Internet in street was not working. This was extremely annoying and frustrating.
One of our next door neighbors came walking on our driveway. We opened the front door and yelled back and forth as we socially distanced. She has a friend at the electric utility. A tree was down on a wire. It was affecting 2000 customers on the circuit (in my mind – good thing – more customers affected, the sooner they repair – fix a one house outage and the number of customers restored goes up 1, fix an outage affecting 2000 customers and that one repair makes the number of customers restored go up 2000. But she was told by her friend that we would be back on – Thursday PM! She was walking the street making sure that everyone had called in their outage so the utility would be aware how many were out on this circuit. I told we had – and she shared the info above about the outage. Her young daughter was with her – we both said hello to her also . Then they went on their way to talk to the other neighbors. (We have no children, when one has children one knows other people on the street with children, due to the nature of living on a main road, it is not a small street where everyone knows everyone else.) I thought husband was going to break down and cry or pass out when he heard Thursday pm – I managed to talk him out of either. Just because we are 18th century reenactors, does not mean that we like to live in the dark and without air conditioning on a hot day.
Dinner time was approaching and I knew we needed more than sandwiches. I went looking through our supplies - lots of cans of soup. I should mention that our stove is electric – no electricity, no stove. But we do have our other stove – in our RV. We have used it before during Hurricanes Irene and Sandy and some other electric outages. It is small, but it does have a 2 burner propane stove. I have actually only used it for situations like this – when we travel in it, we eat out. I had another thought – see if the Chinese take out place we use was open and take out dinner, but figured that husband would be upset at going out. I mentioned cooking the soup to him. He brought up the Chinese takeout, so we went with that. The place has only been taking orders online or in person – no telephone orders, but I called, explained and asked (and they know us) and they took the order and our credit card info by phone. As we were about to walk out to pick up the order, our telephone rang. Since the answering machine is not working and being concerned that there might be a problem with our order, I answered it. (We answered the telephone several times during the day – we now know who the hangup calls when they get our answering machine are from – all spam calls.) This call was not spam nor the take out place – it was my mother – who I have been trying to reach by telephone for a week! I explained that I had to talk very quickly and what we were about to do – she was surprised – she had known that we had a hurricane go through – and she lives where it is was the worst! Mom is in an assisted living so they always have electricity due to a generator (something we really need to get, a house generator which comes on automatically, but the price scares us) but I would have thought she would have heard the winds or seen something about it on TV?!
We picked up dinner and came home to eat it. I was using real dishes for dinner as did not want to deal with smaller paper tableware. I had tap water. Husband was drinking iced tea from mix and tap water (he hates drinking “warm water”). We had our soup and had started our main courses. I was figuring out in my head how I was going to see to wash the dishes – I had figured to bring over the battery lantern to the sink and leave husband with the candles. Mid first plate of food – the electricity came back on! How wonderful and lucky. We could use the air conditioning again – husband had been terribly warm – and lights – and TV! We did not open the fridge for cold drinks or the freezer for ice and left them closed until we had our nighttime snack, as we wanted them to get colder inside again.
The house has been put back together again. Seemed it was all behind us. Tonight shortly before I sat down to write this post however, the electricity went out again. I heard husband heading towards crying and wailing. As I calmed him down, I started calling the electric utility again – but in less than time than it took me to find, pick up, and memory dial them – it came back on again. I am figuring that they gerry rigged something yesterday to get our circuit back up and this was our transfer to the normal system we are on as it was so brief – as if it was turned off and then back on.
I should mention that we were lucky to reach the utility yesterday morning when we lost our electricity. Per the local newspaper people could not reach them by phone (apparently their phone carrier was having problems in addition to their own problems) or by their app. So now they are in the same problem as the former company.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Problems like this will happen. Plan ahead so when it does YOU know what you need to do. Know where your candles, electric lanterns, flashlights (last two being safer than the first) are. Charge your cell phones (and remember, as I mentioned, old cell phones with no service can still call 911 in an emergency so charge them also and leave them charging as long as you have electricity. Charge your laptops or tablets (even if you have no wifi available as we did not this time, they still can serve as a diversion) – but use your cell phones and laptops as little as possible in case you need them later. If there are children who are old enough – have a flashlight for each of them, it will help keep them from being frightened. Obviously have spare batteries for everything. A battery operated radio is a good idea for information.
I have an “accordion folder” (one of those large folders with sections) as my “grab and go”. When I reconcile a bank account the statement goes in it – and the last matching statement comes out and gets filed. I have copies of my computer data on DVD in it and update it monthly. Most recent paid bills for all our insurances. Copies of our small amount of stock info. Copies of house deed and car titles. Copy of marriage license. If we had to leave home in an emergency, I just grab this and go.
Water is rarely a problem here as our water comes from municipal water towers here. Having said that - we used to keep 3 gallon bottles of water in the basement and also some cans set aside for emergencies (apparently they were last changed before 2005 as we came across them in the early days of stay in place and that was the use by date on them, we are not using them, but husband made me keep them for now - “just in case”. When Hurricanes and Irene and Sandy were coming, we filled our RV water tanks (30 gallons of water) just in case. We did not do so this time.
Where my family lived we were relatively near the ocean and needing to live home in a large storm, in case of flooding in the area, became more and more common after I left home. If you live in an area where this might happen make sure you have a plan for what to take and who will drive what and know where to evacuate. (We live near the evacuation center so we are far enough inland on the Island not to need to do so. My mom did need to do so during many storms in more recent years (did not need to do so other than one time when I was still living there 40 years ago). I would tell her to come here, but she liked going to the evacuation center – “I see everyone I haven't seen since the last evacuation”. Make sure in advance that you have enough of your medications (as we picked up ours on Monday to be sure). If you have a pet, find out where you can go with them and have their things also.
Yeah, I know we have all heard this so many times – but DO you have a plan and know what to do? If not, start planning now – when you need to do so, it is too late.
Stay safe from storms and stay well from Covid- 19 all!
We were each about to run out of one medication – husband's last pill of same would be Thursday. Sunday night I called our pharmacy (at a local regular Walmart) and reordered what we needed on their computer. We did not need refills of everything as husband is taking less of his medications due to our eating less to stretch our trips out for food and I stop taking one pill in summer as my blood pressure drops too low in summer otherwise, but there was a good number of pills.
We also had to call and change our RV park reservation – due to the Covid - 19 situation we do not feel comfortable going – and add on not knowing what would happen from Isaias, we decided best to postpone as it had to be done by yesterday – the day of Isaias here. I left a message Sunday night for them to call us Monday. We have changed the reservation to be our July 4th trip next July – we hope.
Saturday we went out and took in the loose items. We have two small solar lanterns which hang from iron posts – took down the lanterns and posts. Our “Betsy Ross” flag is also on an iron stand – took that down also. We have 3 iron stands that hold pots of flowers – normally we buy 3 pots of geraniums in spring and they through the fall (and for Christmas we put artificial poinsettias, which we potted and we reuse annually in them) – they came in also. Also our garbage pail – all went into the garage.
Monday night I put 2 ice cubes in each of 2 small plastic bags and put one bag of cubes in each freezer – if one loses their electricity and the ice is still frozen, then the food is okay to use. We charged our electric lantern and took out candles in holders. We plugged in our cell phones (even the old ones with no service – they can still call 911 in an emergency) and our laptops – normally our cable company's wifi which runs through the wires in the street will work when electric out and we can use the laptops with it. I also dropped a very small flashlight in my jeans pocket – during and after Hurricanes Irene and Sandy they were of great help. (The ones that Harbor Freight used to give out free with coupons before they switched to the blue plastic lights they give out now free with coupons.) We went to bed Monday night, hoping we would not need any of our preparations. I also cleared the walkways in the house - so that we could around without tripping on anything. In the 18th century rooms were used for multiple purposes. Furniture was kept against the walls and what was needed for the purpose at a time was moved to the center of the room and used – then put back against the walls. In semi-darkness to darkness one could walk through the room without needing a light. I work with this idea making sure that one can walk from room to room and around the room where one needs to be without a light when there is a possible blackout coming.
Isaias came in overnight – sounded terrible. News and weather reports had said it should be out of our area by around 3 pm and headed further north. So when we were getting ready to make lunch at 2 pm, we felt better as there was only an hour or so left before it was gone. Then the lights went out and the TV went off. I called our electric company and gave our information. (Our electricity poles, generating facilities, etc are owned by a non-profit which contracts with a regular utility company to run the system. The company that was doing so, and had been doing so for a long time before, when we were hit Hurricane Sandy did a terrible job of not getting everything going again, but also there was a major lack of communication and a new company was brought in to do run everything for the non-profit – following I will be talking about the new for profit company which runs it all for them.)
We expected to hear back from them at some or several points as the message had asked what phone number to call us back with updates – which I had figured would be recorded messages. For lunch we had peanut butter sandwiches – from an unopened jar as the opened jar was in the fridge, while I eat mine plain, husband likes jelly on his – he put some honey on it instead and I used disposable plates so I only had to wash the utensils (we leave the drinking glasses out on the table from lunch through our prebed snack). We found one of our battery operated radios and put in batteries. Not knowing how long the outage would be, we turned off our cell phones and did not turn on any of our laptops (old ones were also charged). We opened the front door (left the glass storm door locked) and husband sat on a chair to read on his tablet while I read BBC History magazine sitting on the staircase. After awhile I went upstairs to open the mail which had been sitting for 4 days (to kill any Covid-19 virus on it) – I opened the curtains and put up the shade to see what I was doing. I then went back to my reading on the stairs. It was bright and sunny, but still a bit windy outside at this point. The NYC (am)news radio stations would occasionally mention out here on Long Island, but not much info. The few Long Island radio stations (also am – radio does not have FM) just kept playing music. So no info. No calls from electric utility. Internet in street was not working. This was extremely annoying and frustrating.
One of our next door neighbors came walking on our driveway. We opened the front door and yelled back and forth as we socially distanced. She has a friend at the electric utility. A tree was down on a wire. It was affecting 2000 customers on the circuit (in my mind – good thing – more customers affected, the sooner they repair – fix a one house outage and the number of customers restored goes up 1, fix an outage affecting 2000 customers and that one repair makes the number of customers restored go up 2000. But she was told by her friend that we would be back on – Thursday PM! She was walking the street making sure that everyone had called in their outage so the utility would be aware how many were out on this circuit. I told we had – and she shared the info above about the outage. Her young daughter was with her – we both said hello to her also . Then they went on their way to talk to the other neighbors. (We have no children, when one has children one knows other people on the street with children, due to the nature of living on a main road, it is not a small street where everyone knows everyone else.) I thought husband was going to break down and cry or pass out when he heard Thursday pm – I managed to talk him out of either. Just because we are 18th century reenactors, does not mean that we like to live in the dark and without air conditioning on a hot day.
Dinner time was approaching and I knew we needed more than sandwiches. I went looking through our supplies - lots of cans of soup. I should mention that our stove is electric – no electricity, no stove. But we do have our other stove – in our RV. We have used it before during Hurricanes Irene and Sandy and some other electric outages. It is small, but it does have a 2 burner propane stove. I have actually only used it for situations like this – when we travel in it, we eat out. I had another thought – see if the Chinese take out place we use was open and take out dinner, but figured that husband would be upset at going out. I mentioned cooking the soup to him. He brought up the Chinese takeout, so we went with that. The place has only been taking orders online or in person – no telephone orders, but I called, explained and asked (and they know us) and they took the order and our credit card info by phone. As we were about to walk out to pick up the order, our telephone rang. Since the answering machine is not working and being concerned that there might be a problem with our order, I answered it. (We answered the telephone several times during the day – we now know who the hangup calls when they get our answering machine are from – all spam calls.) This call was not spam nor the take out place – it was my mother – who I have been trying to reach by telephone for a week! I explained that I had to talk very quickly and what we were about to do – she was surprised – she had known that we had a hurricane go through – and she lives where it is was the worst! Mom is in an assisted living so they always have electricity due to a generator (something we really need to get, a house generator which comes on automatically, but the price scares us) but I would have thought she would have heard the winds or seen something about it on TV?!
We picked up dinner and came home to eat it. I was using real dishes for dinner as did not want to deal with smaller paper tableware. I had tap water. Husband was drinking iced tea from mix and tap water (he hates drinking “warm water”). We had our soup and had started our main courses. I was figuring out in my head how I was going to see to wash the dishes – I had figured to bring over the battery lantern to the sink and leave husband with the candles. Mid first plate of food – the electricity came back on! How wonderful and lucky. We could use the air conditioning again – husband had been terribly warm – and lights – and TV! We did not open the fridge for cold drinks or the freezer for ice and left them closed until we had our nighttime snack, as we wanted them to get colder inside again.
The house has been put back together again. Seemed it was all behind us. Tonight shortly before I sat down to write this post however, the electricity went out again. I heard husband heading towards crying and wailing. As I calmed him down, I started calling the electric utility again – but in less than time than it took me to find, pick up, and memory dial them – it came back on again. I am figuring that they gerry rigged something yesterday to get our circuit back up and this was our transfer to the normal system we are on as it was so brief – as if it was turned off and then back on.
I should mention that we were lucky to reach the utility yesterday morning when we lost our electricity. Per the local newspaper people could not reach them by phone (apparently their phone carrier was having problems in addition to their own problems) or by their app. So now they are in the same problem as the former company.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Problems like this will happen. Plan ahead so when it does YOU know what you need to do. Know where your candles, electric lanterns, flashlights (last two being safer than the first) are. Charge your cell phones (and remember, as I mentioned, old cell phones with no service can still call 911 in an emergency so charge them also and leave them charging as long as you have electricity. Charge your laptops or tablets (even if you have no wifi available as we did not this time, they still can serve as a diversion) – but use your cell phones and laptops as little as possible in case you need them later. If there are children who are old enough – have a flashlight for each of them, it will help keep them from being frightened. Obviously have spare batteries for everything. A battery operated radio is a good idea for information.
I have an “accordion folder” (one of those large folders with sections) as my “grab and go”. When I reconcile a bank account the statement goes in it – and the last matching statement comes out and gets filed. I have copies of my computer data on DVD in it and update it monthly. Most recent paid bills for all our insurances. Copies of our small amount of stock info. Copies of house deed and car titles. Copy of marriage license. If we had to leave home in an emergency, I just grab this and go.
Water is rarely a problem here as our water comes from municipal water towers here. Having said that - we used to keep 3 gallon bottles of water in the basement and also some cans set aside for emergencies (apparently they were last changed before 2005 as we came across them in the early days of stay in place and that was the use by date on them, we are not using them, but husband made me keep them for now - “just in case”. When Hurricanes and Irene and Sandy were coming, we filled our RV water tanks (30 gallons of water) just in case. We did not do so this time.
Where my family lived we were relatively near the ocean and needing to live home in a large storm, in case of flooding in the area, became more and more common after I left home. If you live in an area where this might happen make sure you have a plan for what to take and who will drive what and know where to evacuate. (We live near the evacuation center so we are far enough inland on the Island not to need to do so. My mom did need to do so during many storms in more recent years (did not need to do so other than one time when I was still living there 40 years ago). I would tell her to come here, but she liked going to the evacuation center – “I see everyone I haven't seen since the last evacuation”. Make sure in advance that you have enough of your medications (as we picked up ours on Monday to be sure). If you have a pet, find out where you can go with them and have their things also.
Yeah, I know we have all heard this so many times – but DO you have a plan and know what to do? If not, start planning now – when you need to do so, it is too late.
Stay safe from storms and stay well from Covid- 19 all!
Thursday, July 30, 2020
CLEANING, AND ORGANIZATION OR ONE CAN LOSE ONE'S TOYS
Have you found that time is passing slowly and too fast at the same time? It does for me. Like many others staying home during this Covid-19 pandemic I had big plans for the time we would be stuck home and made a mental list of what needs to be to done in the house and also of what I wanted to get done in the house. Most of it involving either cleaning or organizing. I am still inching along.
I am not the best housekeeper in the world, but I used to be a lot better. When husband was working full time – and out of the house -- I had a set a housework schedule. I did housework on Wednesdays with the kitchen and the downstairs dusting and floors done on one week, then the upstairs bathroom, floors and dusting on the next, with the downstairs bathroom, dusting and floors on the next, the upstairs dusting and floors done again on the 4th week of the month. On months with a 5th Wednesday I would do tasks that did not need to be done as often.
Then my husband quit his job – it was not a spontaneous choice, we had discussed it, set up rules (me - “You cannot be with me every minuted of every day or I will kill you.” and “It is not vacation so we cannot eat out everyday.”) and so on. At first it all went as planned – we would eat lunch (at home) on Mondays and discuss the week ahead when I had things to do, he had things he wanted to do and when and what we do together or apart. Housework was still done on a regular basis. I still had several accounting clients so I was out of the house at least the equivalent once a week for work and he was working in his wood shop making items for us to sell at craft fairs. First mistake I made – I used to go out for lunch alone on Fridays. Mondays and Fridays I would run errands – and Fridays I would go out for lunch (inexpensively) by myself. I called it “going out for lunch with the office” as I was “the office”. First Friday he was home I offered for him to join me “this one time”. Guess what? Yes, Friday lunch out was added to our normal Saturday and Sunday lunches out and Friday dinner out followed along with our Saturday night dinner out and Sunday night take in Chinese food for dinner.
This was about a year before the economic problems of 2008. I lost clients as long time (and older) clients decided it was too hard to deal with their businesses, shut them down and retired. So I was home more (and getting less done). At the same time the price of gasoline jumped – high. Husband pointed out to me that it made no sense for me to spend money on the gas to drive to the supermarket and for him to spend money on the gas to drive to Home Depot – separately – when both were in the same shopping center.
Little by little this took over until we reached the point we were at before the pandemic – lunch out at Wendys 5 days a week, dinner out or Chinese food in – 3 day weekends, and spending almost all our time together. Somewhere along the way I stopped cleaning the house on Wednesdays – or for that matter – mostly stopped cleaning it altogether.
I have been trying to catch up on cleaning and putting stuff away since we have been stuck home. It is sort of working – not as regular as before, but getting done. Much time is still taken up not doing anything. We tend to stay at the table after lunch and watch TV a bit longer than we used to (or I would like). I am am trying to get back to how I used to get the work done.
Early in after Corona reared its head it dawned on me that if one of us became ill with it, we had no place for us to sleep separately. We have a spare bedroom – with a bed – which intended as a guest room and was used as same 3 times in the earlier years in the house – all 3 times by my niece and once also by her brother, my nephew (they were small children at the time and could share the bed). Since then my teddy bears have taken over the room – on shelves, pictures on the walls, sitting on the bed, and so on. There are also older video games and such stored in the room. Over the years our spare luggage and husband's out of season clothing moved into the closet in this room. My dollhouse that husband made for me when we were dating is in the room. Also in the room is spare things including a portable (analog) TV and a small wooden bench husband made (TV sits on the bench).
Back in March the small floor space in the room was covered in bears and their things and the TV/bench. In April when the thought of one of us needing to sleep in there came to mind, husband could not take any mention of either of us getting ill (not that he would be happy to hear about it now – but then it was no mention to be made. Instead I told him that I had space in the trunk under the teddy bear village in the upstairs hall that used to be used for Christmas storage and I wanted to store items floating around the spare bedroom in it. This process cleared out space to be able to get next to the bed and I also found stuff to use for the teddy village. I thought I did a great job of making the room usable.
Two things this past month made me realize that I did not do such a good job. When our bedroom air conditioner was not working I offered for husband to sleep in the (single) bed in the spare bedroom and I would make myself up something to sleep on the floor next to the bed. He walked into the room and glanced around. “Ummm, it will need a lot of work – it has not been dusted in years and if we slept in here we would get sick and be sneezing like crazy. Also there is not enough room on the floor for you to sleep and me go to get up and go to the bathroom without stepping on you. Not going to work.” Okay, I tried – now I know I have to go in there and give the room a good cleaning. Even worse for me, though, I had to move the teddy bear village to store in the trunk under it. I had stored away the bears in the Christmas set up in the village to do so. Well, now it was July and I went to set up an Independence Day village of bears and came up missing a bear that had been out for the Christmas village. (These bears are figurines and small plastic toys not stuffed toys.) As I looked for her, I realized that other bears were missing also. I have looked everywhere for them – I cleaned up all of the packing, bears, and stuff that are used for the village during the year. I went to the basement and unpacked and repacked all of the bears in the 3 medium sized boxes of bears from the Christmas setup. I even took the village apart again and emptied out the trunk under it – no missing bears found. My next step will involve clearing out and cleaning up the spare room some more. At this point the only 2 things I can think of is that I shoved a box of bears under the bed or (horrible to think) I threw the box out! So at time in the coming week we will see if the TV in the room still works and then – whether it does or not – we will move it and the bench out of the room so I have the room to lie down and look under the bed and hopefully find a box of missing bears with other items that I know are stored under there.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
I guess husband was right about not enough room for me to sleep and him walk in and out of bed if I cannot lie down and look under the bed. I hate it when he is right. Then again, if I had been more careful when I took the Christmas village down – I would know where the missing bears were.
I am not the best housekeeper in the world, but I used to be a lot better. When husband was working full time – and out of the house -- I had a set a housework schedule. I did housework on Wednesdays with the kitchen and the downstairs dusting and floors done on one week, then the upstairs bathroom, floors and dusting on the next, with the downstairs bathroom, dusting and floors on the next, the upstairs dusting and floors done again on the 4th week of the month. On months with a 5th Wednesday I would do tasks that did not need to be done as often.
Then my husband quit his job – it was not a spontaneous choice, we had discussed it, set up rules (me - “You cannot be with me every minuted of every day or I will kill you.” and “It is not vacation so we cannot eat out everyday.”) and so on. At first it all went as planned – we would eat lunch (at home) on Mondays and discuss the week ahead when I had things to do, he had things he wanted to do and when and what we do together or apart. Housework was still done on a regular basis. I still had several accounting clients so I was out of the house at least the equivalent once a week for work and he was working in his wood shop making items for us to sell at craft fairs. First mistake I made – I used to go out for lunch alone on Fridays. Mondays and Fridays I would run errands – and Fridays I would go out for lunch (inexpensively) by myself. I called it “going out for lunch with the office” as I was “the office”. First Friday he was home I offered for him to join me “this one time”. Guess what? Yes, Friday lunch out was added to our normal Saturday and Sunday lunches out and Friday dinner out followed along with our Saturday night dinner out and Sunday night take in Chinese food for dinner.
This was about a year before the economic problems of 2008. I lost clients as long time (and older) clients decided it was too hard to deal with their businesses, shut them down and retired. So I was home more (and getting less done). At the same time the price of gasoline jumped – high. Husband pointed out to me that it made no sense for me to spend money on the gas to drive to the supermarket and for him to spend money on the gas to drive to Home Depot – separately – when both were in the same shopping center.
Little by little this took over until we reached the point we were at before the pandemic – lunch out at Wendys 5 days a week, dinner out or Chinese food in – 3 day weekends, and spending almost all our time together. Somewhere along the way I stopped cleaning the house on Wednesdays – or for that matter – mostly stopped cleaning it altogether.
I have been trying to catch up on cleaning and putting stuff away since we have been stuck home. It is sort of working – not as regular as before, but getting done. Much time is still taken up not doing anything. We tend to stay at the table after lunch and watch TV a bit longer than we used to (or I would like). I am am trying to get back to how I used to get the work done.
Early in after Corona reared its head it dawned on me that if one of us became ill with it, we had no place for us to sleep separately. We have a spare bedroom – with a bed – which intended as a guest room and was used as same 3 times in the earlier years in the house – all 3 times by my niece and once also by her brother, my nephew (they were small children at the time and could share the bed). Since then my teddy bears have taken over the room – on shelves, pictures on the walls, sitting on the bed, and so on. There are also older video games and such stored in the room. Over the years our spare luggage and husband's out of season clothing moved into the closet in this room. My dollhouse that husband made for me when we were dating is in the room. Also in the room is spare things including a portable (analog) TV and a small wooden bench husband made (TV sits on the bench).
Back in March the small floor space in the room was covered in bears and their things and the TV/bench. In April when the thought of one of us needing to sleep in there came to mind, husband could not take any mention of either of us getting ill (not that he would be happy to hear about it now – but then it was no mention to be made. Instead I told him that I had space in the trunk under the teddy bear village in the upstairs hall that used to be used for Christmas storage and I wanted to store items floating around the spare bedroom in it. This process cleared out space to be able to get next to the bed and I also found stuff to use for the teddy village. I thought I did a great job of making the room usable.
Two things this past month made me realize that I did not do such a good job. When our bedroom air conditioner was not working I offered for husband to sleep in the (single) bed in the spare bedroom and I would make myself up something to sleep on the floor next to the bed. He walked into the room and glanced around. “Ummm, it will need a lot of work – it has not been dusted in years and if we slept in here we would get sick and be sneezing like crazy. Also there is not enough room on the floor for you to sleep and me go to get up and go to the bathroom without stepping on you. Not going to work.” Okay, I tried – now I know I have to go in there and give the room a good cleaning. Even worse for me, though, I had to move the teddy bear village to store in the trunk under it. I had stored away the bears in the Christmas set up in the village to do so. Well, now it was July and I went to set up an Independence Day village of bears and came up missing a bear that had been out for the Christmas village. (These bears are figurines and small plastic toys not stuffed toys.) As I looked for her, I realized that other bears were missing also. I have looked everywhere for them – I cleaned up all of the packing, bears, and stuff that are used for the village during the year. I went to the basement and unpacked and repacked all of the bears in the 3 medium sized boxes of bears from the Christmas setup. I even took the village apart again and emptied out the trunk under it – no missing bears found. My next step will involve clearing out and cleaning up the spare room some more. At this point the only 2 things I can think of is that I shoved a box of bears under the bed or (horrible to think) I threw the box out! So at time in the coming week we will see if the TV in the room still works and then – whether it does or not – we will move it and the bench out of the room so I have the room to lie down and look under the bed and hopefully find a box of missing bears with other items that I know are stored under there.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
I guess husband was right about not enough room for me to sleep and him walk in and out of bed if I cannot lie down and look under the bed. I hate it when he is right. Then again, if I had been more careful when I took the Christmas village down – I would know where the missing bears were.
Thursday, July 23, 2020
COVID - 19 # 18 HAVING SERVICEMEN IN THE HOUSE
Last week since I diverged to the car accident clean up I did not finish the story of our bedroom air conditioner replacement from the week before.
We purchased the air conditioner from a local appliance store that has been around “forever”. We have purchased air conditioners from them before, as well as other appliances. I do not really like them as I think they overcharge and they don't seem to understand how our state sales tax applies to air conditioners. If we were not in the corona virus situation, I would suggested to husband that we should shop around before buying, but since we are that in situation – I said nothing as we needed to resolve the matter quickly.
In our state sales tax does not apply to things which are are “capital improvements” to one's house. For those who might not understand this, a capital improvement becomes a permanent part of one house – a window (new or replaced) is a capital improvement, a window shade or curtain is not. If one buys an air conditioner and sticks it in their window opening it is not a capital improvement as one can easily remove it from the window and the house would not damaged from doing so. The exact same air conditioner if it is installed through a hole in the wall, as our is, – a permanent installation – is a capital improvement. In both cases it does not matter if it is a new unit (and new hole in the wall for the permanent install) or a replacement unit (even if through an existing hole in the wall). If one only replaced part of the air conditioner it would be a repair not a capital improvement whether the air conditioner was in a window or through the wall.
So basically- we should not have paid sales tax on the new air conditioner, but we were charged sales tax. This has happened in the past when we have replaced air conditioners (all through the wall) from this store and is one of the reasons I don't like this store. I have argued in the past to no avail and did not want to get excited and make a fuss this particular time, so after one questioning of the salesman, I went did not make a fuss. (His story was that there is sales tax except on the first air conditioner installed – I did double check at the state tax website that there should not have sales tax on the air conditioner, and I downloaded the form from the state tax website to apply for a refund of the sales tax we paid.
I will say that I am giving the store (employees) the benefit of the doubt that they are not trying to rip off customers and they actually think that they should charge the sales tax and are sending it to the state when they send in the sales taxes they have collected. I hate to think (though I do) that they are knowingly charging sales tax which they should not and either keeping the sales tax collected themselves or are charging the sales tax and sending it to the state as it is too much trouble for them to bother to deal with sales that should not have sales tax charged.
Now our house is rather, ahem, “casual” – as in my dresser has all manner of bric a brac and other items on it. In addition our rooms are small. The day before the air conditioner was to be installed I cleared off the dresser (left the clock , my eyeglasses holder and my day of the week pill box). I packed it into a large plastic box (husband was nice enough to remove scarves he wove that were stored in the box so I could have it. I wrapped the items – most being breakable – in two of my worn tee shirts and some spare underwear and socks to keep them from breaking. In the hallway at the top of the stairs – an area of limited space – I have my teddy figurine village and I was concerned that since the area is small one of the installers might bump into the village – so its “residents” were stored in the same box as the items from my dresser and the “buildings” were moved to the table in our living room that husband uses when weaving (at his suggestion).
That night we took clothes for the next day out of our closets and then moved our night stands to in front of the closets and pushed my dresser along its wall towards the closets to give the installers the most room possible by where the air conditioner would be placed. In doing so my lack of vacuuming the room was obvious, so we had to vacuum. We also pushed our bed to husband's side of the bedroom as far as we could – against his dresser and a bookcase – he had to get into and out of bed at the foot of the bed – had to vacuum under the bed also. Prepared for coming adventure we went to sleep.
Now, in addition to fear of catching Covid-19, I am still terrified of having bed bugs again. It was an exhausting and expensive process (1/3 of our income for the year) to get rid of them 11 years ago, and we have been very careful and worked hard to avoid having them again. Service people who walk in and out of people's houses can easily pick up bed bugs at one house and bring them to their later stops and this was not just someone coming in the house - they were coming in our bedroom! So the next morning we covered our bed with 2 plastic tarps that we normally use on the bed in our RV when it made it up (in this case to keep the bed clean and so anyone looking in would not see a bed in the van).
When the installers came husband opened the front door. (We had rearranged our vehicles on the driveway the day before to allow them the most access to the house we could.) The main installer walked in – he did have mask – sitting below his nose – but no gloves. Husband made a comment about the mask and it was put into proper place, but when asked about gloves – he said they don't use gloves. (If me and another time I would refused the air conditioner – but we were stuck.) Husband dealt with showing him where it was to go, etc. I stayed downstairs as I felt myself getting upset with virus and bed bug fears. The assistant installer was outside unpacking the new air conditioner on the driveway – his mask was around his neck as he breathed and sweated all over the air conditioner. When the main installer went out to him he said something and the assistant's mask was put on properly. I am under the impression that if nothing had been said – the masks would not be on or at least not properly on.
I stayed mostly towards the back of our living room breathing deeply in an attempt to keep from being upset over people in the house. It worked – more or less.
When they were done and left husband sprayed Lysol on the air conditioner, wherever they had been working or put their equipment down, the covers on the bed, etc. We moved the furniture back into place. It took me well into the next day – as I put the pieces back on my dresser before I stopped feeling in a panic. The teddy figurine village took another day before it was put back together.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
When something is unpleasant (such as having people in our house – in general and especially right now) one has to go ahead and get whatever it is done and over with.
We purchased the air conditioner from a local appliance store that has been around “forever”. We have purchased air conditioners from them before, as well as other appliances. I do not really like them as I think they overcharge and they don't seem to understand how our state sales tax applies to air conditioners. If we were not in the corona virus situation, I would suggested to husband that we should shop around before buying, but since we are that in situation – I said nothing as we needed to resolve the matter quickly.
In our state sales tax does not apply to things which are are “capital improvements” to one's house. For those who might not understand this, a capital improvement becomes a permanent part of one house – a window (new or replaced) is a capital improvement, a window shade or curtain is not. If one buys an air conditioner and sticks it in their window opening it is not a capital improvement as one can easily remove it from the window and the house would not damaged from doing so. The exact same air conditioner if it is installed through a hole in the wall, as our is, – a permanent installation – is a capital improvement. In both cases it does not matter if it is a new unit (and new hole in the wall for the permanent install) or a replacement unit (even if through an existing hole in the wall). If one only replaced part of the air conditioner it would be a repair not a capital improvement whether the air conditioner was in a window or through the wall.
So basically- we should not have paid sales tax on the new air conditioner, but we were charged sales tax. This has happened in the past when we have replaced air conditioners (all through the wall) from this store and is one of the reasons I don't like this store. I have argued in the past to no avail and did not want to get excited and make a fuss this particular time, so after one questioning of the salesman, I went did not make a fuss. (His story was that there is sales tax except on the first air conditioner installed – I did double check at the state tax website that there should not have sales tax on the air conditioner, and I downloaded the form from the state tax website to apply for a refund of the sales tax we paid.
I will say that I am giving the store (employees) the benefit of the doubt that they are not trying to rip off customers and they actually think that they should charge the sales tax and are sending it to the state when they send in the sales taxes they have collected. I hate to think (though I do) that they are knowingly charging sales tax which they should not and either keeping the sales tax collected themselves or are charging the sales tax and sending it to the state as it is too much trouble for them to bother to deal with sales that should not have sales tax charged.
Now our house is rather, ahem, “casual” – as in my dresser has all manner of bric a brac and other items on it. In addition our rooms are small. The day before the air conditioner was to be installed I cleared off the dresser (left the clock , my eyeglasses holder and my day of the week pill box). I packed it into a large plastic box (husband was nice enough to remove scarves he wove that were stored in the box so I could have it. I wrapped the items – most being breakable – in two of my worn tee shirts and some spare underwear and socks to keep them from breaking. In the hallway at the top of the stairs – an area of limited space – I have my teddy figurine village and I was concerned that since the area is small one of the installers might bump into the village – so its “residents” were stored in the same box as the items from my dresser and the “buildings” were moved to the table in our living room that husband uses when weaving (at his suggestion).
That night we took clothes for the next day out of our closets and then moved our night stands to in front of the closets and pushed my dresser along its wall towards the closets to give the installers the most room possible by where the air conditioner would be placed. In doing so my lack of vacuuming the room was obvious, so we had to vacuum. We also pushed our bed to husband's side of the bedroom as far as we could – against his dresser and a bookcase – he had to get into and out of bed at the foot of the bed – had to vacuum under the bed also. Prepared for coming adventure we went to sleep.
Now, in addition to fear of catching Covid-19, I am still terrified of having bed bugs again. It was an exhausting and expensive process (1/3 of our income for the year) to get rid of them 11 years ago, and we have been very careful and worked hard to avoid having them again. Service people who walk in and out of people's houses can easily pick up bed bugs at one house and bring them to their later stops and this was not just someone coming in the house - they were coming in our bedroom! So the next morning we covered our bed with 2 plastic tarps that we normally use on the bed in our RV when it made it up (in this case to keep the bed clean and so anyone looking in would not see a bed in the van).
When the installers came husband opened the front door. (We had rearranged our vehicles on the driveway the day before to allow them the most access to the house we could.) The main installer walked in – he did have mask – sitting below his nose – but no gloves. Husband made a comment about the mask and it was put into proper place, but when asked about gloves – he said they don't use gloves. (If me and another time I would refused the air conditioner – but we were stuck.) Husband dealt with showing him where it was to go, etc. I stayed downstairs as I felt myself getting upset with virus and bed bug fears. The assistant installer was outside unpacking the new air conditioner on the driveway – his mask was around his neck as he breathed and sweated all over the air conditioner. When the main installer went out to him he said something and the assistant's mask was put on properly. I am under the impression that if nothing had been said – the masks would not be on or at least not properly on.
I stayed mostly towards the back of our living room breathing deeply in an attempt to keep from being upset over people in the house. It worked – more or less.
When they were done and left husband sprayed Lysol on the air conditioner, wherever they had been working or put their equipment down, the covers on the bed, etc. We moved the furniture back into place. It took me well into the next day – as I put the pieces back on my dresser before I stopped feeling in a panic. The teddy figurine village took another day before it was put back together.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
When something is unpleasant (such as having people in our house – in general and especially right now) one has to go ahead and get whatever it is done and over with.
Thursday, July 16, 2020
EVEN WHEN THE CORONA VIRUS IS ABOUT - THERE ARE CRAZY DRIVERS WHO SHOULD BE ARRESTED
I digress from corona virus posts this week. We live on a 4 lane mainly main road, which is residential at this point along the road at least two or three miles – the speed limit is 40mph. Unfortunately drivers tend to treat the speed limit as a suggestion they don't like. Across the street from the house next door to us (to the south) is a small local residential street which comes into our road – it does not continue across to side. In the 30 or so years we have lived here I can easily recall 6 accidents which have happened at this intersection – when speaking with my “new” neighbor (only here about 6 years) she remembers 3 accidents just since she has been here, so 6 in 30 years is a low estimate.
Husband and I were involved in one of the accidents. We were stopped in the left hand lane waiting to turn left into the small street at in early evening, with car lights and turn blinker on. Our side of the road had no traffic at all, while the other side had a flow of traffic. Before he could turn a car came speeding up our side of the road and hit us full speed in the rear of the car. Luckily no one was hurt – our car, however, was totaled - the rear of the car was in the back seat – good thing no one was sitting there. Another accident propelled a car coming from the street across from us onto our lawn – husband was out just in front of the house taking down our Christmas wreath (due to which I will always remember this happened on Good Friday, hence why I need to be better organized). Luckily the driver braked before hitting him and our house. So we really know about accidents here.
Last Friday night we heard 3 horrible sounds, even before opening the door we knew there had been an accident. Due to the virus we did not want to walk outside, but when we saw the rear of a car in front of the house to our south and heard the horn blaring, we knew and called the police. Since the only thing around here that brings neighbors out and together is a car accident, a crowd quickly assembled (most without masks if I may add same). We decided it best to remain in the house due to the crowd and watched through our open front door. Now, as far as we knew the 2 cars collided in front of the house to our south. Police (several cars) came - volunteer fire department ambulance and volunteer EMS ambulances came. Since after some time the ambulances left unused we presume no one was seriously injured. It took several hours before the cars were towed away and all was quiet.
We noticed that there were large pieces of debris in the cut of our driveway and we were concerned that our van parked on the driveway parallel to the street was not hit. We looked through its windows from our door and the windows all seemed intact. I figured if we found out the next day that there was damage, we could call the police and get the info about the accident – safer to stay in and not risk getting corona virus. The tow trucks finally came – the front car was put on a flatbed truck. The rear car was to be towed on the tow bar of the tow truck. The driver had trouble getting the car positioned – he ended up dragging it by the rear end to in front of our house and then grabbing the front. The law here is the tow company which picks up the car(s) must clean the debris. When we had our accident the debris was shoveled up from the road – this fellow barely swept it to the curb. When the tow trucks left it was after midnight and we decided to wait until the next day to check the van.
The next day being Saturday I went out to bring to in the mail. I was to check the van for damage and see if we had “anything” to clean up from the accident. OH MY!!!!!!! The entire front of our property was covered in pieces of car ranging from most of a license plate holder to under 1” big as well as most of the two windshields!! Our driveway (which is a semi-circle), the sidewalk, the “right of way” grass at the street and the street itself were all covered. I went back and told husband and we went out to work on the mess.
We started by picking up the larger pieces and putting them in a garbage bag. We moved onto using a broom and snow shovel (use broom to push onto the shovel) to clear the smaller pieces and glass bits – starting in the street and then the sidewalk . We got to a point where all the pieces we noticed and the sections of glass that had stayed on the middle layer of plastic that was attached to it were picked up and thrown out. When all we had left (we thought) were the tiny pieces of glass all over, husband thought to get his shop vacuum for us to use. He did most of the vacuuming.
It was in the high 80Fs that day and sunny. Husband was bending over as we worked – when he bends over he gets dizzy. We reached a point after a few hours that he was rather unwell. I got him settled in the house with air conditioning and a cold drink and went out to clean up our cleaning up.
Our van is parked on the dirt in the semi circle of our driveway (this allows our car to be driven in and out of the driveway easily and the van can be also be driven in and out of our property through using the ends of the driveway and the dirt semi-circle). Under the van in the dirt was a lot of glass. We had decided that if we got all the grass except that under the middle of the cars – clear of glass in line with the tires we would pull the van straight forward and then be able to vacuum the rest of the glass. That was where we left off. I put away the vacuum, broom, snow shovel and put the second started garbage bag next to the mostly full one at the curb – almost all of which were from the accident.
As I walked with the various tools to the house I found other pieces and had added them to the garbage bag before I closed it. In front of our garage – which is the opposite corner of our property from where we thought the accident had occurred – I found yet another small piece of debris – I was concerned as our neighbor on this side has two young daughters- one of them only 3 – and was worried that debris might be in their yard and one of the girls touch it or step on it and get hurt or the 3 year old might even put it in her mouth. I knew they were not home and figured I would call the next day. Husband had to go up to sleep before dinner due to how sick he felt.
Next day was still in the 80Fs so I told husband to move the car and then go into the house. I found much glass and small pieces of debris where I would swear there was no more the day before. I vacuumed the dirt and then had him come out to check a spot he told me had glass to make sure I had gotten it all – ha ha ha! We were still finding pieces of glass today (Wednesday) that we somehow missed and yesterday saw a glint of something shiny and found another piece of car less than 1” big while we were outside putting the vehicles back in place from having our air conditioner installed yesterday. On Sunday when I vacuumed as I went back into the house I found a two good sized chunks on the neighbor's lawn (to the north with the 2 girls) and picked them up and added them to our bags.
I was unable to reach her by telephone and when I went out Monday to get the tarps we use as covers on our RV bed during the day while traveling to cover our bed in the house while the ac work was being done, the neighbor was out with the girls and her husband. I explained about the pieces I had found and picked up and suggested she check her side of the fence for debris. We have not really seen each other during the pandemic and standing 6 ft apart we talked about the accident.
It did not occur where the cars ended up – I sort figured this based on the debris field. She had the accident on video. A friend had been parked in the street in front of her house and a car came roaring along – in the parking lane – doing what had to be 60 mph at least and hit the parked car, pushing it front of our house and hitting it again and continuing to push it to the front of the neighbor on the south's house hitting it once again on the way! Neighbor was surprised that the driver was not tested for alcohol or drugs and was allowed to leave. I also found out that I had wrong phone number for the neighbor and we also traded email addresses.
The neighbor to the south emailed us the morning after the accident as she had not seen us standing in our door as she was standing in her door, to tell us we probably had a mess to clean up as they had at their house.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK – One cannot control what happens by the acts of others. Be careful driving and parking to try to avoid crazy drivers. One should be prepared to clean up the major mess left behind on one's property. Luckily this time no one was hurt badly (though the driver should have been tested at the very least and probably arrested) – who knows what will happen next time.
Stay safe and stay well.
Husband and I were involved in one of the accidents. We were stopped in the left hand lane waiting to turn left into the small street at in early evening, with car lights and turn blinker on. Our side of the road had no traffic at all, while the other side had a flow of traffic. Before he could turn a car came speeding up our side of the road and hit us full speed in the rear of the car. Luckily no one was hurt – our car, however, was totaled - the rear of the car was in the back seat – good thing no one was sitting there. Another accident propelled a car coming from the street across from us onto our lawn – husband was out just in front of the house taking down our Christmas wreath (due to which I will always remember this happened on Good Friday, hence why I need to be better organized). Luckily the driver braked before hitting him and our house. So we really know about accidents here.
Last Friday night we heard 3 horrible sounds, even before opening the door we knew there had been an accident. Due to the virus we did not want to walk outside, but when we saw the rear of a car in front of the house to our south and heard the horn blaring, we knew and called the police. Since the only thing around here that brings neighbors out and together is a car accident, a crowd quickly assembled (most without masks if I may add same). We decided it best to remain in the house due to the crowd and watched through our open front door. Now, as far as we knew the 2 cars collided in front of the house to our south. Police (several cars) came - volunteer fire department ambulance and volunteer EMS ambulances came. Since after some time the ambulances left unused we presume no one was seriously injured. It took several hours before the cars were towed away and all was quiet.
We noticed that there were large pieces of debris in the cut of our driveway and we were concerned that our van parked on the driveway parallel to the street was not hit. We looked through its windows from our door and the windows all seemed intact. I figured if we found out the next day that there was damage, we could call the police and get the info about the accident – safer to stay in and not risk getting corona virus. The tow trucks finally came – the front car was put on a flatbed truck. The rear car was to be towed on the tow bar of the tow truck. The driver had trouble getting the car positioned – he ended up dragging it by the rear end to in front of our house and then grabbing the front. The law here is the tow company which picks up the car(s) must clean the debris. When we had our accident the debris was shoveled up from the road – this fellow barely swept it to the curb. When the tow trucks left it was after midnight and we decided to wait until the next day to check the van.
The next day being Saturday I went out to bring to in the mail. I was to check the van for damage and see if we had “anything” to clean up from the accident. OH MY!!!!!!! The entire front of our property was covered in pieces of car ranging from most of a license plate holder to under 1” big as well as most of the two windshields!! Our driveway (which is a semi-circle), the sidewalk, the “right of way” grass at the street and the street itself were all covered. I went back and told husband and we went out to work on the mess.
We started by picking up the larger pieces and putting them in a garbage bag. We moved onto using a broom and snow shovel (use broom to push onto the shovel) to clear the smaller pieces and glass bits – starting in the street and then the sidewalk . We got to a point where all the pieces we noticed and the sections of glass that had stayed on the middle layer of plastic that was attached to it were picked up and thrown out. When all we had left (we thought) were the tiny pieces of glass all over, husband thought to get his shop vacuum for us to use. He did most of the vacuuming.
It was in the high 80Fs that day and sunny. Husband was bending over as we worked – when he bends over he gets dizzy. We reached a point after a few hours that he was rather unwell. I got him settled in the house with air conditioning and a cold drink and went out to clean up our cleaning up.
Our van is parked on the dirt in the semi circle of our driveway (this allows our car to be driven in and out of the driveway easily and the van can be also be driven in and out of our property through using the ends of the driveway and the dirt semi-circle). Under the van in the dirt was a lot of glass. We had decided that if we got all the grass except that under the middle of the cars – clear of glass in line with the tires we would pull the van straight forward and then be able to vacuum the rest of the glass. That was where we left off. I put away the vacuum, broom, snow shovel and put the second started garbage bag next to the mostly full one at the curb – almost all of which were from the accident.
As I walked with the various tools to the house I found other pieces and had added them to the garbage bag before I closed it. In front of our garage – which is the opposite corner of our property from where we thought the accident had occurred – I found yet another small piece of debris – I was concerned as our neighbor on this side has two young daughters- one of them only 3 – and was worried that debris might be in their yard and one of the girls touch it or step on it and get hurt or the 3 year old might even put it in her mouth. I knew they were not home and figured I would call the next day. Husband had to go up to sleep before dinner due to how sick he felt.
Next day was still in the 80Fs so I told husband to move the car and then go into the house. I found much glass and small pieces of debris where I would swear there was no more the day before. I vacuumed the dirt and then had him come out to check a spot he told me had glass to make sure I had gotten it all – ha ha ha! We were still finding pieces of glass today (Wednesday) that we somehow missed and yesterday saw a glint of something shiny and found another piece of car less than 1” big while we were outside putting the vehicles back in place from having our air conditioner installed yesterday. On Sunday when I vacuumed as I went back into the house I found a two good sized chunks on the neighbor's lawn (to the north with the 2 girls) and picked them up and added them to our bags.
I was unable to reach her by telephone and when I went out Monday to get the tarps we use as covers on our RV bed during the day while traveling to cover our bed in the house while the ac work was being done, the neighbor was out with the girls and her husband. I explained about the pieces I had found and picked up and suggested she check her side of the fence for debris. We have not really seen each other during the pandemic and standing 6 ft apart we talked about the accident.
It did not occur where the cars ended up – I sort figured this based on the debris field. She had the accident on video. A friend had been parked in the street in front of her house and a car came roaring along – in the parking lane – doing what had to be 60 mph at least and hit the parked car, pushing it front of our house and hitting it again and continuing to push it to the front of the neighbor on the south's house hitting it once again on the way! Neighbor was surprised that the driver was not tested for alcohol or drugs and was allowed to leave. I also found out that I had wrong phone number for the neighbor and we also traded email addresses.
The neighbor to the south emailed us the morning after the accident as she had not seen us standing in our door as she was standing in her door, to tell us we probably had a mess to clean up as they had at their house.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK – One cannot control what happens by the acts of others. Be careful driving and parking to try to avoid crazy drivers. One should be prepared to clean up the major mess left behind on one's property. Luckily this time no one was hurt badly (though the driver should have been tested at the very least and probably arrested) – who knows what will happen next time.
Stay safe and stay well.
Thursday, July 9, 2020
COVID 19 #17 SIMPLE THINGS IN NORMAL TIMES TAKE PATIENCE AND UNDERSTANDING NOW
I have been writing about our lives under the current corona virus pandemic as it involves organizing in a totally different way than normal. What were simple things to do before this past March when this started in our area of the U.S. - such as running out of bread and needing to buy more – has become things which take much more planning and organizing to deal with. I know that those reading my posts are going through similar problems and I hope that those in the areas now being hit hard by the virus and their loved ones (as well as the rest of you) are well and safe and stay that way. I had intended to post once or twice about the subject, but it seems to have become a series and will stay that way for awhile – dealing with emergencies being more exciting to read about than how I do my laundry or do (or do not) clean my house.
We have separate “through the wall” air conditioners in different rooms of the house. The one in our bedroom was not doing well at the end of last summer. But rather than buy one right away and have most of the warranty run during the winter when the air conditioner was not running, we figured we would buy one in the spring – ha ha ha. We need to have the air conditioner installed for us as it is not something we can do – especially since the bedroom is on the second floor. Since I am generally cold I have been fine. Husband though is feeling terrible while sleeping and waking up from the heat.
When we realized this air conditioner was not working, other than as a fan, I suggested we bring up the “portable” one we have for the living room. This is a device about 3 and half feet tall and weighs 68 pounds – it can be rolled around to where it is needed and attaches to an approximately 6 inch tall plastic piece which expands in width to fit the window and is placed in the bottom of an open window and the window is pulled down on top of the plastic piece. We managed with both us lifting, to carry it upstairs – one step at a time. We set into the window and did a proper installation of it in the window, sealing it into the open window. We turned it on – and – it did not work either, except as a fan! We took it out of the window and pushed it into the spare (teddys') room as we are not sure we can get it back downstairs.
In the interim we have tried various solutions – using the dehumidifier from the basement – blew hot air out the side and the basement really needed it back as it started to smell of humidity. (Also took both of us to carry up and then back down – 2 flights of stairs, but somewhat lighter than the portable air conditioner.) 3 different fans – the one we use in our RV works best and is what we are using. I even tried the early version of air conditioning - “air cooling” putting frozen bottles of water in front of the fan – worked a bit, but the water was melted before the hot morning (overnight being cooler in the room). We had thought to put the bottles in a baking pan on a thick towel so there was no wet mess on the table or floor to deal with. He ends up turning on the other 2 air conditioners upstairs (in office and spare bedroom) in the morning to avoid getting sick and he is worried that he will “use them up”.
This past week the temperatures went up and seem to plan to stay up – we ae heading into the 90Fs late this week into next week. I looked for alternatives. I suggested husband sleep on the twin bed in the spare bedroom and I would make up a bed on the floor for me to sleep on, so he would not be alone. He point out – politely – that the room would need a major cleaning – dusting and vacuuming at the very least as it has been years since we (I) bother cleaning it as all it is used for is bears, dolls, and their friends sitting around. In the 31 years in the house it has been used as a guest room 3 times – and that was over 15 years ago. So that idea was out.
We were left with one solution. It is a solution that in normal times (and for normal people) would be no problem – we need to buy a new air conditioner. Now for me having someone come in the house, let alone the bedroom brings up major fears of getting bed bugs again – we had them 11 years ago and since then live our lives so as to avoid getting them again (hence our little RV for traveling). Right now – we are both terrified about having someone come in the house – especially the bedroom – but there is no other choice. (I thought about sleeping in the RV – but we would need to either keep the generator running – burning gas and putting out fumes next to the bedroom of the little girl next door or plug it into to a 30 amp outlet – and do not have one.)
So Monday husband called the local appliance store we have bought our air conditioners from before and priced the one he saw online. Tuesday we put on our masks and went in and bought it. Their ad said “next day delivery”, but that is not case when it has to be installed – they are coming next Tuesday – a long hot week away from we bought it – but that will give me a chance to clear out the bedroom so we can move furniture for them to get to where they have to work and have room to do so. We plan to push the bed to the other side of the room the night before and cover it that day with plastic tarps we use to cover the RV bed days when we are using the RV (so it does not look a bed from outside). We have been assured that they take all precautions as one of the employees died from the virus – very reassuring or it means that they may have caught it from him?
And since, as it is said, it never rains but it pours – Sunday night we dropped our RV to have the mechanic figure out what the noise in the car air conditioner/heater was. (It was excessive leaves blown in by neighbor's gardener disposing of THEIR leaves by blowing onto our property as the driveway with RV on it is next to the fence between us. (Hopefully this problem will end as the neighbor is filling in the fence with plastic slots – but then we won't be able to blow our snow onto the property.) When we picked up the RV Monday night, we left our car – it needed an oil change – and as we drove it there, we found it needed a new headlight. We picked it up Tuesday night. So, of course, a reminder popped up on my computer calendar – our van needed to have the state inspection done by the end of the month. So we just dropped it off for same and an oil change – as we pulled out of our driveway the brakes were not right… The mechanic (and his staff) are very nice and very capable and honest. What we have been doing is dropping the vehicles off late night when no one is around. Since we don't want to go and leave the keys (or we could leave the vehicles also) during the day – we want it “contactless” we put the keys in an envelope and throw it in a slot in the building when we leave the vehicle. When it is finished he calls us and I pay with a credit card by phone (paid the RV and car on one payment) and he leaves the receipt and keys hidden in the vehicle (we have spare sets of keys so we can get in). He has been very nice about this.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
All these normal problems that are handled so easily in normal times take a bit of a workaround to figure out how to deal with right now. It takes patience and understanding by everyone involved to work it all out and luckily right now – people are mostly willing to do so.
Stay well and safe.
We have separate “through the wall” air conditioners in different rooms of the house. The one in our bedroom was not doing well at the end of last summer. But rather than buy one right away and have most of the warranty run during the winter when the air conditioner was not running, we figured we would buy one in the spring – ha ha ha. We need to have the air conditioner installed for us as it is not something we can do – especially since the bedroom is on the second floor. Since I am generally cold I have been fine. Husband though is feeling terrible while sleeping and waking up from the heat.
When we realized this air conditioner was not working, other than as a fan, I suggested we bring up the “portable” one we have for the living room. This is a device about 3 and half feet tall and weighs 68 pounds – it can be rolled around to where it is needed and attaches to an approximately 6 inch tall plastic piece which expands in width to fit the window and is placed in the bottom of an open window and the window is pulled down on top of the plastic piece. We managed with both us lifting, to carry it upstairs – one step at a time. We set into the window and did a proper installation of it in the window, sealing it into the open window. We turned it on – and – it did not work either, except as a fan! We took it out of the window and pushed it into the spare (teddys') room as we are not sure we can get it back downstairs.
In the interim we have tried various solutions – using the dehumidifier from the basement – blew hot air out the side and the basement really needed it back as it started to smell of humidity. (Also took both of us to carry up and then back down – 2 flights of stairs, but somewhat lighter than the portable air conditioner.) 3 different fans – the one we use in our RV works best and is what we are using. I even tried the early version of air conditioning - “air cooling” putting frozen bottles of water in front of the fan – worked a bit, but the water was melted before the hot morning (overnight being cooler in the room). We had thought to put the bottles in a baking pan on a thick towel so there was no wet mess on the table or floor to deal with. He ends up turning on the other 2 air conditioners upstairs (in office and spare bedroom) in the morning to avoid getting sick and he is worried that he will “use them up”.
This past week the temperatures went up and seem to plan to stay up – we ae heading into the 90Fs late this week into next week. I looked for alternatives. I suggested husband sleep on the twin bed in the spare bedroom and I would make up a bed on the floor for me to sleep on, so he would not be alone. He point out – politely – that the room would need a major cleaning – dusting and vacuuming at the very least as it has been years since we (I) bother cleaning it as all it is used for is bears, dolls, and their friends sitting around. In the 31 years in the house it has been used as a guest room 3 times – and that was over 15 years ago. So that idea was out.
We were left with one solution. It is a solution that in normal times (and for normal people) would be no problem – we need to buy a new air conditioner. Now for me having someone come in the house, let alone the bedroom brings up major fears of getting bed bugs again – we had them 11 years ago and since then live our lives so as to avoid getting them again (hence our little RV for traveling). Right now – we are both terrified about having someone come in the house – especially the bedroom – but there is no other choice. (I thought about sleeping in the RV – but we would need to either keep the generator running – burning gas and putting out fumes next to the bedroom of the little girl next door or plug it into to a 30 amp outlet – and do not have one.)
So Monday husband called the local appliance store we have bought our air conditioners from before and priced the one he saw online. Tuesday we put on our masks and went in and bought it. Their ad said “next day delivery”, but that is not case when it has to be installed – they are coming next Tuesday – a long hot week away from we bought it – but that will give me a chance to clear out the bedroom so we can move furniture for them to get to where they have to work and have room to do so. We plan to push the bed to the other side of the room the night before and cover it that day with plastic tarps we use to cover the RV bed days when we are using the RV (so it does not look a bed from outside). We have been assured that they take all precautions as one of the employees died from the virus – very reassuring or it means that they may have caught it from him?
And since, as it is said, it never rains but it pours – Sunday night we dropped our RV to have the mechanic figure out what the noise in the car air conditioner/heater was. (It was excessive leaves blown in by neighbor's gardener disposing of THEIR leaves by blowing onto our property as the driveway with RV on it is next to the fence between us. (Hopefully this problem will end as the neighbor is filling in the fence with plastic slots – but then we won't be able to blow our snow onto the property.) When we picked up the RV Monday night, we left our car – it needed an oil change – and as we drove it there, we found it needed a new headlight. We picked it up Tuesday night. So, of course, a reminder popped up on my computer calendar – our van needed to have the state inspection done by the end of the month. So we just dropped it off for same and an oil change – as we pulled out of our driveway the brakes were not right… The mechanic (and his staff) are very nice and very capable and honest. What we have been doing is dropping the vehicles off late night when no one is around. Since we don't want to go and leave the keys (or we could leave the vehicles also) during the day – we want it “contactless” we put the keys in an envelope and throw it in a slot in the building when we leave the vehicle. When it is finished he calls us and I pay with a credit card by phone (paid the RV and car on one payment) and he leaves the receipt and keys hidden in the vehicle (we have spare sets of keys so we can get in). He has been very nice about this.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
All these normal problems that are handled so easily in normal times take a bit of a workaround to figure out how to deal with right now. It takes patience and understanding by everyone involved to work it all out and luckily right now – people are mostly willing to do so.
Stay well and safe.
Thursday, July 2, 2020
COVID 19 #16 AN EMERGENCY DURING AN EMERGENCY
Emergencies arise even during emergencies!
Last Wednesday my husband's (upper) denture broke in half. He still had a tooth in the front that was his, but had been trying to leave him and apparently, as he puts it, “it acted like a wedge as it moved and split the entire denture in half”.
This would be a problem in the best of times, but right now – when the thought of going to the supermarket sends fear through us – the thought of going to the dentist to have it replaced sends worse fears through us – someone touching his mouth during the pandemic…
To top it off we no longer have a dentist. Our long term dentist (he was my dentist before we started dating in the 1970s) retired in 2018. We are not the best at dental health as most of our actual teeth are gone and fake ones replace them and therefore do not have a new dentist. Last December husband lost another tooth in the front of his mouth. We needed to have it replaced quickly as we were doing a craft demonstration the coming weekend and he would not look like someone that one wanted to buy a higher end woven item from if he was missing a tooth . For information about that see - http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2019/12/real-estate-tax-exemption-paperwork-and.html
Not only the general fear of going to the dentist, and the fear of doing so during the epidemic, but also financial fears faced us. While we knew we could charge the work, we only have the money that is in or will be in our checking account when the credit card bill comes in to pay our bills. In normal times in an emergency we could go and make a withdrawal from husbands small IRA, but that would be another trip out in the world of Covid- 19 and we don't want to go out more than we absolutely have to. Also we had not met the dentist last time – only his staff – staff and did not know if would be understanding or not.
I telephoned the dentist's office and explained. We were given an appointment on Saturday morning (and not too early for us to deal with) as the tech who makes the dentures would be in that day. Husband worried about surviving until then both in terms of eating and being nervous. He has an older denture and used that for the week. (I had offered to cook only soft food if he needed.) I was told that he had to come in alone. As I was discussing this with the employee and that it was a problem, he said he understood and could go in alone. We were texted forms to fill in – basically Covid-19 disclaimers in case husband came down with it.
Friday night neither of us really slept at all in fear of the appointment to come. We drove there Saturday morning and I telephoned the office. An employee came out and took his temperature. They told him to wait and then a brief time later she came back and took him in with her. I sat in the car and played card games on my cell phone. He telephoned me to discuss the options he had been given – fix this denture or buy a new one. We went with “fix this one” for now – if nothing else when he did get a new one, he would have a more complete spare for emergencies.
He was done and out a short time later and we drove home – and I went to back to bed hoping to still get some sleep – that was not to be. Now in 2 weeks we will know that we are okay.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK – Often when we are afraid the fear is much more than the situation calls for. We know this, but it does not stop us from being overly afraid of things and we tend to over think and overplan them. (By we I mean my husband and I.) I find that in the end generally it all works out – in this case as we hoped, other times it works out in ways we had not hoped for or had not thought of, but everything always works out someway and somehow in the end.
A very good and safe fourth of July to all – even if you are not here in the U.S.
Last Wednesday my husband's (upper) denture broke in half. He still had a tooth in the front that was his, but had been trying to leave him and apparently, as he puts it, “it acted like a wedge as it moved and split the entire denture in half”.
This would be a problem in the best of times, but right now – when the thought of going to the supermarket sends fear through us – the thought of going to the dentist to have it replaced sends worse fears through us – someone touching his mouth during the pandemic…
To top it off we no longer have a dentist. Our long term dentist (he was my dentist before we started dating in the 1970s) retired in 2018. We are not the best at dental health as most of our actual teeth are gone and fake ones replace them and therefore do not have a new dentist. Last December husband lost another tooth in the front of his mouth. We needed to have it replaced quickly as we were doing a craft demonstration the coming weekend and he would not look like someone that one wanted to buy a higher end woven item from if he was missing a tooth . For information about that see - http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2019/12/real-estate-tax-exemption-paperwork-and.html
Not only the general fear of going to the dentist, and the fear of doing so during the epidemic, but also financial fears faced us. While we knew we could charge the work, we only have the money that is in or will be in our checking account when the credit card bill comes in to pay our bills. In normal times in an emergency we could go and make a withdrawal from husbands small IRA, but that would be another trip out in the world of Covid- 19 and we don't want to go out more than we absolutely have to. Also we had not met the dentist last time – only his staff – staff and did not know if would be understanding or not.
I telephoned the dentist's office and explained. We were given an appointment on Saturday morning (and not too early for us to deal with) as the tech who makes the dentures would be in that day. Husband worried about surviving until then both in terms of eating and being nervous. He has an older denture and used that for the week. (I had offered to cook only soft food if he needed.) I was told that he had to come in alone. As I was discussing this with the employee and that it was a problem, he said he understood and could go in alone. We were texted forms to fill in – basically Covid-19 disclaimers in case husband came down with it.
Friday night neither of us really slept at all in fear of the appointment to come. We drove there Saturday morning and I telephoned the office. An employee came out and took his temperature. They told him to wait and then a brief time later she came back and took him in with her. I sat in the car and played card games on my cell phone. He telephoned me to discuss the options he had been given – fix this denture or buy a new one. We went with “fix this one” for now – if nothing else when he did get a new one, he would have a more complete spare for emergencies.
He was done and out a short time later and we drove home – and I went to back to bed hoping to still get some sleep – that was not to be. Now in 2 weeks we will know that we are okay.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK – Often when we are afraid the fear is much more than the situation calls for. We know this, but it does not stop us from being overly afraid of things and we tend to over think and overplan them. (By we I mean my husband and I.) I find that in the end generally it all works out – in this case as we hoped, other times it works out in ways we had not hoped for or had not thought of, but everything always works out someway and somehow in the end.
A very good and safe fourth of July to all – even if you are not here in the U.S.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)