OK So it's Tuesday

And I don't really have a lot to talk about, but I am going to try to get back into the blogging thing!

I don't want to upset Froggy, after all!  :)

I was looking back over some of the stuff I posted in the past.  This year has not been very busy at all, especially compared to last year.  The last 3 or 4 years, we were dealing with Bill's job/hell-on-Earth situation and then last year had a lot of car/Otter/Otter's roommate/Otter's multiple moves happening.  But this year has been fairly calm.  Which is a Very Good Thing.

The Presidential election is in a very short few weeks.  I will be so glad when it's over!  It's one of the dirtiest I can recall.  I'm not impressed with either of them.  I'm not normally quiet about who I vote for, but this year I may be.  It's just not a good choice, either way!

I like this one:

And this one:

But I think I have a better choice:

Maggie Moo & Babbicat!  (Babbiecat is J's cat).

Yes, I am Still Here!

Just beating Froggy to it, now you don't have to nag me!!  :)

Miss Maggie Moo went to the vet today.  It was time for her rabies and distemper shots, plus it's been two months since her last "read alignment" and that is about how often she needs them.  As usual, she also get her claws trimmed.  Because this was a shot day, she also got an exam and the vet thinks she's actually very healthy and doing very good.  She doesn't quite look her age, she is still a "young" older dog and that's a good thing.  She does have slightly yeasty ears again, so she has an ointment which I will start using on her ears tonight.  We'll see how that goes!  She weighs 34 pounds.

When Otter got the 2008 impala from us, she also got the remote that goes with the car.  The remote had come apart on me a couple of times but then I forgot about it.  It came apart a couple of times on Otter and I looked on eBay to see if I could find another one.  The idea was to take the guts out of her remote and put them in a newer one.  I found a couple but they were either more shipping cost than I thought it should be or the feedback on the seller was bad.  Then we all kind of forgot about it.  Until yesterday morning, which Otter texted me that the remote had come apart again and this time the chip that makes it all work fell out.  She realized it when she was at home as she was unlocking her door, and she thought that it fell out when she was checking her mail because she had used it to lock her car when she got home from work.  She looked for the chip around the mailbox and she retraced her steps but couldn't find it.  Well, it was green and it probably fell in the grass so that's not surprising.  She had the key so she could still lock/unlock/drive the car.  The most that someone would have been able to do would be to start the car but without the key it wouldn't be driveable and it would only run for 8 minutes anyway.  I called Chevy about a replacement.  $150 - $250 for a replacement, or $60 to rewire one if she got a used remote and they wouldn't guarantee it if it didn't come from them.  She was thinking she'd get a used one but then she went back to the mailbox area one more time to look.  And she found the chip!  It was still green and still in grass, and we've had rain, so it was surprising a) that she found it and b) that it still works.  She put the remote back together and was trying to figure out how to keep it together but still be able to open it up when she needed to change the battery.  Then I remembered that I had a car years ago which had a burglar alarm and the remote had a pouch that held it.  I looked online and found a few, and today I ordered her one.  It should be here by the middle of next week.  She will put the remote in the pouch and then it attaches to a key chain but it should keep the remote from coming apart; if it does manage to open up it won't be able to move apart enough for the chip to fall out and the chip won't fit through the opening anyway.  I ordered one for myself as well, maybe it will make it harder for me to accidentally hit the trunk release button!  I did that a lot at first, not so much anymore but I still do occasionally.  I actually have two remotes but I only carry one at a time.  Bill has the 2nd key to my car but he didn't want to carry the remote because his keychain is already pretty heavy.

OK Froggy - I managed to blog this week!

Timelines!

I'm putting the 2002 Impala timeline on here so that I don't forget it

Otter started driving that car as her main transportation after she moved out of our house, that was October 2014.  She and Bill basically shared it, I picked her up and took her to work a few times depending on her schedule mostly.  Winter hit early and Bill really did not want to drive the El Camino because it is basically a giant sled on icy roads so Otter and I managed to get her to work on the days when he needed the car.  After we got through the bulk of the winter, we basically just left the car at her place and she drove it on a mostly daily basis.  (She didn't actually become the owner of record until April of 2015.)

February 2015 is when we put the two front tires on it and had the front end alignment done.  Both were necessary, the tires were bad but the front end needed to be aligned very badly and especially when we put the new tires on it so they didn't wear in spots.  Sometime after that, the "check engine" light came on.  I'm not sure exactly when but I think it was before the title was transferred to her name.  We had it checked at the auto parts store that does that for free, they thought maybe it was the sensor so Bill replaced it.  It went off but then it came back on again after a little while.  They checked it again and thought that maybe the new sensor was not good so they exchanged it.  It was off for a while then it came back on.  We had it checked at the local repair shop when they did an oil change, they couldn't find anything but they did reset the light.  After a while, it came back on.  At that point, the car was  still not titled in Otter's name.  I was driving it one day, I think maybe my car was getting something done and Otter let me borrow it.  The "check engine" light was still on and then it had another warning about checking the engine but it was a different warning and potentially very serious.  We took it to Chevy then.  And that was the last time we went to that particular dealership because they lied to me about a lot of things but they did at least say that they checked and the engine was ok so they thought the sensor was just bad and that unless it did specific things, the car was safe to drive.  So Otter had the title transferred into her name in early April.

The car seemed to be fine, the engine light stayed on but it never did anything else.  When the oil was changed, the repair shop would reset the light but it would come back on after a while.  She drove it through the spring, summer and early fall with no problems.  There were a couple of times when she went out of town and left it with us since she didn't want to leave it at her apartment complex and Bill drove it then.  It acted fine.

The first part of August, I don't remember but it was within the first couple of days of the month, she and J were at our house and it was parked in our driveway.  Bill noticed that the radiator seemed to have sprung a leak.  Bill told her when she got the car that we would take care of any repairs for her for the first year - at least "normal usage" repairs but Otter always takes care of things so we weren't worried!  He replaced the radiator and it seemed to be fine.

Then on November 1st (or maybe 2nd?), she was on her way home from the not-quite-next-door little town that J lives in and it was about 9:00 at night.  That's when the temperature gauge suddenly shot up to the dangerously high reading and she pulled over so she could call us.  We got there and Bill checked it, it did not look like it was overheating but it was still warm.  He drove it home and she rode with me.  He had to pull over a time or two, on the turnpike where there are no lights!  She took my car home and we kept the 2002.  I took it to the local repair shop the next morning.  They decided that it still had air from the radiator being replaced, which was a logical thing to think.

It drove fine for a couple of weeks, then the temp gauge started to run hot again and the "low coolant" light came on.  At the time, Bill (and the neighbor who is a mechanic plus the mechanics at the local shop) all thought that it was probably just more air working it's way out of the system because Bill was able to get more air out of.  It kept doing it and he kept "burping" it.  But when it didn't stop and the temp gauge sometimes went all the way up, Bill thought it might be the thermostat.  Again, so did all the mechanics!

We had been discussing buying Bill a used car to drive so that the El Camino could be parked over the winter like we usually did with it.  But then he was afraid that we would be buying somebody else's problem so we decided to buy me a new car and then he would drive the 2008.  Except that Otter's car was still acting up and we decided to offer her the 2008 in trade for the 2002.  She decided to take us up on the offer so we went back to the title agency.  She had the 2008 transferred to her and we had the 2002 transferred back to us.  We bought my new car and Bill drove the 2002.  It worked fine for a while, but then it started acting up again and each time it was worse.  Everyone agreed that it sounded like the thermostat so he decided to have another chevy dealership look at it when he got the next oil change and they were also able to do the ignition recall issue that the first chevy dealership said couldn't be done.  That was a couple of weeks ago, the last Friday in January.  That is when they determined that it was a cracked head gasket - something that the first chevy dealership probably should have seen and that just convinced us even more that we were right to not use them anymore.  Especially since they claimed to have checked the car over and the problem would have been evident!  In hindsight, we probably should have just gone to the 2nd chevy dealership at that time.  Since the repair was going to cost just under $3,000.00, we decided the car was not worth that much.  Which it really wasn't.

When the "check engine" light came on might not be when the head gasket cracked, but it was probably at least beginning to leak at that point.  When it actually cracked is probably when the radiator leak happened, because of the air/coolant being forced through it under pressure and at high heat.  It basically cascaded from one problem to another and none of it was "textbook" for a cracked head gasket which is why everyone thought it was the thermostat.  We were pretty surprised when it turned out to be the actual problem with the head gasket.  The car itself would only be worth $1,500.00 on a good day and in better shape.

It went to an auction last Thursday.  It did sell, for more than we thought but not for very much.  Which is fine, it's out of our way now and we don't have to worry that Bill (or Otter) will be stranded on the side of the road again.  I think the buyer probably bought it for parts.  It's an older car with over 150,000 miles on it after all.  I still see several of that body style on the road, it was one of chevy's best selling vehicles.  They did get it right with that car.  It just wore out, basically.  But when we bought it, we intended to drive it until it wasn't driveable anymore and that's pretty much what we did and for many years.  With regular maintenance, cars can last a long time and we certainly feel like we got our money's worth out of it.  Otter is very happy with the 2008, she said she actually likes it better than the 2002.  I'm very pleased with the 2015 and Bill does like to drive the El Camino but he is also thinking about selling it and then getting another car to drive.  That probably won't be anytime soon, if he actually decides to do that.   But then again there are still times when we need a truck, so he really doesn't know what he wants to do.  I just wish we had realized much earlier that there was a serious problem and what it was.

Safe!

The groundhog is safe from the stewpot for another year.  Guess the groundhog stew fixins* can get put up for another year.  But I can get them out at a moment's notice, rodent - you better get ready to run if we get socked in by a late winter snow.  :)

We decided to send the 02 Impala to a local auto auction.  We cleaned everything out of it last night and then I got the vacuum and cleaned it up after work today.  I gave Otter the floor mats from the back, she didn't have any back floor mats in her car.  The jumper cables will get put in the trunk of my car.  Most of what was still in the car after we got it back from Otter was things like a few ice scrapers and some misc. stuff that was thrown out.  We get whatever we get from it, if it sells.  It's not a big deal if we don't get much or if it doesn't sell because we'll donate it if it doesn't sell.

Car Trouble

We've finally gotten an official answer on what the problem is with the 2002 Impala that was mine, then Bill's, then Otter's, then ours.  Bill's been driving in since it stranded her on the side of the road in October.  Everything that he's wondered about and our neighbor (who is a part-time mechanic) has wondered about have been related to the thermostat.  Bill talked to the repair shop we've used and they were also stumped.  They wondered about the cooling fans, but Bill replaced those a while back.  It was a logical guess, given the way it was acting.  They never actually saw it for the issues it was having, beyond "burping" the radiator - which it probably did need.  It acted fine for a while after that, then it started acting like it was overheating and having some other related troubles.  That's when we traded cars with Otter, she got the 2008 and we took the 2002 back.  We didn't take it back to the repair shop at that point because Bill kept thinking it was minor and then he finally just decided to take it to Chevy - but the repair shop would probably have had no trouble diagnosing the problem, we just never took it back there.  So I'm not complaining about them!  We have used them when we needed to and will continue to.  It may be a while, the El Camino hasn't been driven much since it's last oil change and the '15 can go much further between oil changes than cars used to.  Otter's car has brand new tires, the repair shop put them on when it was my car last summer.  I don't remember how old the El Camino tires are but I don't think they are too old.

Bill took the 2002 to Chevy last Friday.  He asked them to do the oil change it needed and they also were able to do the recall issue - unlike the first Chevy dealership!  In hindsight, we probably could have skipped the oil change although it wasn't terribly expensive and it isn't really a big deal.  But I do wish Bill had not stopped at the gas station on the way home from Chevy on Friday!

The problem turned out to be fairly serious.  And fairly expensive.  It has a cracked head gasket.  Which is probably due entirely to normal age and wear.  It's a 2002 and it's well over 100,000 miles - I think it may be closer to (or over) 150,000 miles.  The repair estimate is just under $3,000.00.  The car itself is probably worth about half that, or maybe less.  So, since Otter has a safe car (the 2008), I have the new car and Bill has the El Camino to drive, we've decided it's time to tell the '02 goodbye.  I think we're probably going to take care of that this week, we know someone who has an auction for used cars and that's probably our best bet.

It's been a good car and we very much feel like we got our money's worth out of it.  Otter learned to drive in it and I enjoyed it when it was my car, then Bill drove it for a few years so we've gotten a lot of use out of it.  It's just not worth spending that much on it.

The El Camino did have an issue, the part was hard to find because it's a 1976 vehicle but Bill was able to fix it himself.  We usually park the El Camino through the winter because it is basically like a giant sled when the weather is icy.  We may still get another used car for Bill, but not at the moment.  We'll worry about that later on.

In the meantime, at least now we know and we don't have to worry about it.

Shaky Situation

There have been a lot of earthquakes over the last 24 ish hours.  I haven't felt any of them, but they have been felt in my area and I think into Kansas.  At about 10:30 last night, Bill was still awake and he felt the bed shaking for a couple of minutes.  Twice!  I slept through it all, but from the reports on the news this morning they were pretty big quakes.

We've been busy this week.  We have company coming this weekend, so we cleaned the carpet in the guest/front/craft/YARN room.  Which means that Maggie Moo is not allowed in there are the moment.  She is not amused!  Bill moved the futon out into the living room and got the carpet cleaner going on Tuesday evening.  The cleaner has a fairly pleasant scent, but it was just enough to send my already iffy allergies over the edge.  He also cleaned the carpet in our bathroom, which for some reason didn't actually work - there are now spots in there that we couldn't see before he cleaned it.  Anyway, because my allergies were on overdrive he suggested I sleep on the futon in the living room that night and since I couldn't breathe through my nose at all when I got even close to our room I decided to take him up on the suggestion.  Maggie seemed to like having me in there.  She showed her happiness by snoring all night long.  Loudly!  Wednesday morning, I vacuumed in there again since the carpet was dry and then Bill put the futon back in there that evening.  Maggie has been blocked from there since then.  She's not pleased.

We have a fairly good chance of winter weather on Saturday but it could also just be cold and rainy.  Sunday is supposed to be very cold.  Bill brought in a load of firewood.  So far, we've only used the fireplace once this winter.  By this time, we've usually used it several times.  Today was overcast and grey, the forecast was literally "gloomy" and they were right about that.  But gloomy makes me think of one thing only:

Love me some Eeyore!

But I don't like gloomy weather.

Bill's car was acting up yesterday and he finally decided to just call Chevy and talk to them.  He told them all the things it's doing and what he's done so far, they said that they would like to look at it and to plan on leaving it there a couple of days.  It's kind of got everyone stumped.  That will probably happen next week.  Of course, today it was fine with no problems whatsoever!  I drove it when I went to the grocery store tonight and it acted perfect.

Otter's cell phone had a problem, the "end" key wasn't working.  So we took it to Verizon yesterday and had them check it.  She was going to go early in the day since she was off but since the account is in my name she asked me if I'd go with her in case there was any issue with her name not being the primary on the account.  I went over to her apartment yesterday after work and we went to the closest store.  They did need me to be there, so I'm glad I went.  The phone is no longer under warranty, but because we pay for the insurance on the phones (learned that lesson the hard way!) they said that she could exchange it for a new one.  They arranged to have it shipped to us and said it should be here by Friday or possibly Saturday.  But it was apparently shipped overnight because it arrived at the new mail box place today.  She can either activate it herself (they emailed instructions) or she can take it to the store and ask them to do it for her.  I'll get it to her tomorrow, I didn't have time today.

Most of the reason I didn't have time is because Bill had ordered 30 boxes he uses to ship pachinko machines in - they are big boxes.  They arrived today.  On a pallet and weighing a whole lot!  They were shipped to the new mailbox place - but the pallet wouldn't fit in the door.  They wound up leaving the pallet of boxes outside their door but it was plastic wrapped which was a good thing because it was rainy.  When I got home, Bill and I took the El Camino back there and got the boxes on their pallet.  It literally filled the entire bed of the truck and he really couldn't see over the top of them when he looked out the back window.  The boxes are now stacked in the garage.  I went to the grocery store after we got home from getting the boxes.  It rained while I was in the store and I'm really glad that the boxes were already home and inside.  He has to buy them and they are not cheap.  But he has to get strong, sturdy boxes for the pachinko machines.

And just because he's so much fun, one more Eeyore!

I thought this one was appropriate.

2015 Review

2015 is just about over.  And I am glad.  It's been a hard year, although I haven't (and won't) posted about most of the issues we have had to deal with.  Very possibly, 2016 (for reasons not being mentioned) could well be a continuation.

There have been some good things, it hasn't been all bad.  I really don't mean to gripe.  But I guess I am!

Anyway:

January

Very cold month with some winter weather.

It was very stressful for Otter because Roomie lost her job right before Christmas 2014 and January was the first of over 3 months that Roomie was without a job - and not looking very much, either.

Michael's had yarn on sale and I added to the stash!  (Always good.)

Froggy started planning her trip to see us.

The Teenager's health suddenly took a turn for the worse, he was weakened by a bug and while he did recover from the illness, he never got his strength back and although we didn't realize it at the time, it was the beginning of the downhill turn for him.

We celebrated our 30th Wedding Anniversary, this year we had pizza!

February

We switched internet and email providers.

The stupid groundhog saw his shadow!

I had what I first thought might be the flu, but then realized it was "just" a cold.

This month saw the first issues with Frasier; he fell in the kitchen and couldn't get up.  We had to help him up but he was sore and stiff for days.  The vet thought he might have age-related issues, probably arthritis in the mix as well.  But he was always a happy dog when J came over!

Otter was really getting concerned about Roomie and the lack of a job.

The Teenager and his lovely bride celebrated their 78th Wedding Anniversary and were one of the featured couples on the Today Show!

Snowy weather.

22 years since we moved from TEXAS.

On February 27, the world lost one of it's shining lights in the form of Leonard Nimoy.  We're still mourning this one.  LLAP!

March

The month started with having to replace tires on the car that Otter was driving, as well as a front-end alignment.  $1200.00 was Chevy's estimate and it was also the last time we actually used that particular dealership - and they are under NO illusions as to why.  It was a M.A.J.O.R. moment for *RHTW.  We had the work done at a local shop for about $500 less than Chevy's estimater.

The vet suggested we start Frasiser on pain pills, which did seem to help but he didn't need them all the time.

I came down with another cold!  I literally sneezed all the way to work one morning and by about 8:15, I was feeling miserable.

We had more winter weather.

Otter was overjoyed when we discovered Green Apple gatorade!

I started crocheting a poncho for Otter, which took me a while to finish.  I had a lot of interruptions!

The dogs had their "beffday" and we spoiled them with plenty of treats - in hindsight, I'm glad we gave them so many extra treats.

We got several boxes of Girl Scout cookies.

The dry air caused me to have a few nosebleeds.

We decided it was time to talk to the minister at the church we'd been attending, we had to reschedule the appointment we had so we didn't actually talk to them this month.

Otter turned 23!

There was a tornado that struck a very nearby, next-door to Tulsa town.  It was bad.

My glasses broke in 2!  Bill had to glue and tape them back together so I could at least go get them replaced the next day.

We had to replace our insurance, thanks to NObamacare.

April

Our new insurance company took 2 premiums and *RHTW had a few "fun" phone calls with them.

One of the bright spots of this year happened.  Otter had her annual lung recheck and we feel like we have received a miracle - it's gone!  It never really goes away, but hers is as close to not being there as it can possibly be.  It is a true Blessing and we are so beyond thankful for this.

Otter gave Roomie a "no job, move out" date.  Amazing how motivated she got when that happened and she suddenly found a job.

Otter officially became the owner of a 2002 Chevy Impala.

The electric company messed up our yard and also cut the phone lines.

The hummingbirds showed up this month.

My precious dog, Frasier, one of the most special pets I've ever had, left us on the 23rd.  He was one of those rare, once in a lifetime dogs.

May

Otter proved that yes, she is very much her Father's Daughter.  She the cut palm of her left hand and had to get stitches!  I think she got 4.  She was a typical Redhead and bled a lot.

Maggie Moo was sick, the vet thought she had another UTI and the medication helped her pretty quickly.

Stupid electric company kept at it!

Bill was rear-ended in his work van - it was not his fault in any way, he wasn't hurt.

Maggie Moo was scratching herself silly - and driving us nuts!  The vet said she has allergies and put her on zyrtec - which didn't work too well but then we tried it later and it worked fine.

Bill's sister got married!  We went to TEXAS over Memorial Day weekend for the wedding and it was really nice.

Rain, Rain, Rain!

I had my one and only migraine of the year.

It was one of the better months of the year.

June

Otter went to Dallas with J, his mom and some of their friends.  They went to a convention and debuted their "Joker and Harley" gender switched costumes.  Which were very well-received.

We decided to get rid of the landline phone, since it was out more than it was working.

We decided to try an automatic feeder for the Magginator, it works very well.

Maggie met two other beagles when we went to get her annual shots.  Then she met a wolf!  Luna the wolf lives in our neighborhood and she is absolutely gorgeous.

The electric company was still being stupid!  I made a pest of myself, or actually I let *RHTW deal with them - and they finally decided to send out a repair crew, which was a company they contracted with and the repair crew foreman was appalled at how bad the damage to our yard was and how tacky the electric company was being about fixing it.

After they fixed it, we realized that our house was not getting the electric current it was supposed to and I had to place an emergency call to them.  I started the call but *RHTW finished it.

Froggy and her daughter came to see us, which was a bright spot.

Bill's birthday!  For 6 months, he was older than me.  He got bacon for his birthday meal, which made him happy.

My vacation started and the first thing was Maggie the Wonder Beagle getting stuck under the shed.  That should have been our first clue that it was not going to be a good week.

The Teenager was pretty sick in June.  The last time I actually saw him was right before I went on vacation at the end of the month, he was weak but he was very mentally clear and it was actually a fun day with him.  But in hindsight, I think he knew something was coming and from what he said and how he said it - I think he was telling me goodbye.  When I was on vacation, he had to be hospitalized for pneumonia and he was recovering from that when he had what was probably a stroke.  That was actually in July.

July

The frame holding the driver's seat in my car (the 2008 impala) broke and we had to buy a replacement seat at a salvage yard, then put the seat from my car on the frame of the salvage seat.

The next day, the brakes on the El Camino basically failed and Bill had to replace them.

Otter and Roomie decided to move to a 2-bedroom unit.  Otter was cautiously optimistic about it, since Roomie was working again and she hoped that it would work out but she was also pretty sure that when that lease was up she would suggest that Roomie find her own place.  They moved on the 31st.

On July 8, the Teenager had the probable stroke.  It was overnight and he was most likely asleep; he never really woke up from that and that is actually a blessing.  On the 12th, he left this life behind.  He was 98 years, 9 months.  This was one of the worst things that happened this year, at least from our perspective.  But we know exactly where he is and that we will see him again.  Until then, we'll all miss him terribly.

August

This month literally started with Otter's car having issues.  The radiator ruptured and we had to replace it.  It was just the beginning of trouble with that car.  It spent more time at my house than it did at hers!

But she did get a pretty good raise at work so she was happy!

Bill saw the dermatologist for his annual visit, the spot we thought might be a skin cancer on his nose turned out not to be but there were a couple of very small ones on his hand that the doctor froze off.

We finally met with the pastor at the church we'd been visiting.  And we knew almost immediately that it is not the place for us.  That was very disappointing.

We put tires on my car, the 2008 impala.

I was sick, it was a bug that was going around but it took me a few weeks to really recover from it.

We closed our booth at the antique store.

The Bluebell plants reopened!

September

Labor Day.

Bill came down with the mega-bug I'd had.

Otter and I got our flu shots and I spent most of Labor Day weekend dealing with my reaction.  Which wasn't as bad as some years have been.  But the reaction hit me within 2 minutes of getting the shot, I got my shot at 5:30 and at 5:32 I was suddenly freezing cold.

Then I came down with a cold.

I crocheted purple baby caps for a local charity.

There was a lunar eclipse, we could see it from the back yard and it was very pretty.

It was pretty obvious that Otter was under some stress, she was having problems with Roomie and was very upset over the situation.  She wasn't sure what she could do, as Roomie was on the lease but she really regretted moving to the 2-bedroom unit, although at the time it was a good decision.  But she knew that she would not renew the lease (or any lease) with Roomie when it was up.

October

We went to the State Fair in Tulsa, we took J along with us and we had a fun time.  We were tired but it was an enjoyable day.  I discovered that I am a sheep magnet - they are evil!  They know I'm beyond extremely allergic to them.

We had a lot of the typical "persecution" because of the TEXAS/ou game the first weekend of the month.  Then TEXAS won!

Roomie lost her job.  Or at least she admitted to Otter that she'd lost it, the actual time that happened might have been in September.  But it was a major retailer and she was fired, she would not say why but this particular store does not fire employees unless they have very good reason.  She claimed to have gotten another job at a fast-food place and probably did, but we're not totally convinced that she kept it longer than a couple of weeks.  When she told Otter that she'd lost the job and got the new one, Otter told her then that Roomie was going to have to find her own place a) when the lease was up or b) immediately if she lost the fast-food job.

Because Otter was expecting to have to move when the lease was up, she did a little looking for other complexes that might be a little cheaper but nobody expected Roomie to do what she did:  move out and attempt to do it without giving Otter any warning at all - but Otter caught her packing.  It was a very ugly, nasty situation and I'm not going to detail it here because it was already detailed.  But it was bad, however it could have been much worse.  There was very heavy *RHTW involvement.

The Teenager would have been 99.  We had cupcakes at work to celebrate and remember him.

The 32nd anniversary of when we met was on the 14th.

Bill decided to get another booth for the pachinko machines.

We put Maggie Moo back on the zyrtec, she was scratching again and had caused a little bald spot above her tail from it.  She had a slight case of Bald Bobo!  But the zyrtec helped her a lot more this time.

It rained.  A lot.

One morning was really strange:  The sunrise was brilliant in the east, it was dark and cloudy in the middle area and then there was a huge rainbow in the west.  All at the same time!

November

Our "lovely" insurance carrier sent us a letter with a $400+ increase in our monthly premium.  We made a lot of changes that took weeks.

Otter went to a Dias De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) festival with J and his mom in his not quite next door to Tulsa neighboring town.  She left rememberances for the Teenager and my aunt we refer to as AJ (who Otter was named for).

That night on her way home, her car acted like it was overheating and we had to go get her.  About 9:30 at night, in almost the middle of nowhere, dark and very isolated - but J and his mom came to wait with her until we got there.  Bill drove her car home, although he had to stop a couple of times, I brought her home in my car and then she took my car on home with her.

For the next few weeks, we dealt with her car acting up and she had my car quite a bit.

In the midst of all the car issues, Otter moved to a one-bedroom unit in the same complex.

Bill got a bad cold.

Then I got a bad cold.

Thanksgiving was a little different, we wound up at Taco Bell because it was the only place we could find open when the power went out!  That was the first of several times we got a senior discount!

We finally got our Bluebell ice cream!

There was a hard rain storm and then we saw a double rainbow.

The new booth store opened up.

The El Camino developed a problem with what is probably the thermostat but the specific part is pretty much unavailable.  It is a 1976 vehicle, after all!  It's going to spend the next few months in the driveway anyway, like it usually does in the winter.

We started discussing Bill buying a 2nd hand car to drive in the winter, since Otter had the 02 impala he used to drive.

December

We realized that Otter's car was becoming a serious concern and it was not a car we were comfortable with her driving any longer.  We bought a new car for me, a 2015 impala.  Then we traded the 2008 to her and she gave Bill the 2002.  The 2002 is still acting up, it is probably a series of cascading problems that keep causing other things to act up and it may well be that the car is just worn out.  But in the meantime, Bill will drive it and she has a car that she can trust.  New tires and in very good shape, she should be able to drive it for several years.  I am very happy with the new car, but we really did not want a car payment yet.  However, it was a good decision.

Otter and I went to the mall to Christmas shop one evening and had a very interesting encounter - I didn't mentioned details when I blogged about it, but we almost literally ran into her first boyfriend - and his girlfriend - and their two very young children!  He was a real jerk when he and Otter broke up and at one point we had to tell his dad to reign his son in or we would call the police - which explains why the former boyfriend would not even look me in the eye when we saw him.  Otter said that she's extremely glad that she dodged that particular situation, and she hopes that the idiot boy treats his baby mama better than he treated her and also that he's finally learned to be faithful.

We decided to put up a Christmas tree so I went to Hobby Lobby and bought another artificial tree.

We still had to deal with the cold bug we got in late November.  Even up until right before Christmas.

Then Bill came down with another cold which I thought was the flu at first.

We finally got actual winter weather, much later than usual.

There was a lot that happened, it wasn't all bad and most of the really cruddy stuff is not being mentioned.  But this has been a fairly bad year.  We do realize that it could have been worse, and there have been some good things.  But the main thing that defines this year is the loss of a man who was like a father to me and that Otter considered to be another one of her grandfathers.

Here's to 2016 and hopes that it will be a good year for everyone!