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).

Just Catching Up

Last week when we were moving Otter, Bill was sneezing and coughing but we thought it was just the very strong wind we were dealing with.  However, it turned out that he actually had a cold coming on.  A cold which he then shared with me!  I've been fighting it since sometime on Saturday, it hit me when we were attempting to get the last of Otter's stuff moved.  Otter and I had made an attempt on Friday, but it was raining really hard so we put it off until Saturday and we invited Bill to help then.  She had to go to work on Saturday, so it was just Bill and myself.  Otter had discovered that there was an access point through the basement/laundry room which has a door through the firewall - so we could have moved everything on Wednesday without ever going outside in the wind and also she & I could have moved more on Friday when it was raining!  It meant more steps, but it would have been worth it!  Anyway, Bill and I made a few trips with the heavier boxes and qot quite a bit done but he was sick and I was coming down with it.

On Sunday morning, Otter picked up a friend of hers who had been unable to help on the actual moving day.  I met them at the old apartment (and was promptly lectured by both girls on not overdoing it) to finish up.  They let me vacuum both bedrooms and clean the fridge out, but they did not let me do much else.  In fact, they sent me home with instructions to get well!  I did give them lunch money.  They got everything finished and got the cleaning done.  Then Best Friend was able to stay overnight with Otter and they got a lot of her things unpacked.  Otter was called in to work a few extra hours on Sunday evening, also.

When I left, I brought Otter's car home with me because the temperature gauge was acting up again.  I was nearly home when the "low coolant" indicator came on.  Bill checked it and he thought that it had more air in it, which it did, but that the problem might be a loose radiator cap.  We drove it a little bit and it was fine, then he drove it to work yesterday (Monday) and today (Tuesday).  This morning, the low coolant light came on again and another light that we had checked before.  I'm going to take Otter's car back to her in the morning on my way to work and get my car back from her.  She is off the next two days and isn't planning on going anywhere, unless she has to get groceries or something.  On Saturday, Bill is going to take her car to the shop we've been using and have them check it.  Then we'll see what they say.

When Bill and I got home from her apartment on Saturday, I went straight to my pjs and parked on the couch.  I pretty much stayed then until Sunday morning when I got up to go back to her apartment.  After I got home on Sunday, I did the same thing.  And that's where I pretty much stayed.  I called in yesterday, I had hardly any voice left and have been coughing my head off.  I stayed home today, I am coughing less but my ribs still hurt from it.  It is a cold, but it has triggered my asthma.  Which is normal.  I'm going to attempt to go to work tomorrow, for one thing I need to go switch cars with Otter, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to stay all day or not.  Mostly, I've been parked on the couch with a blanket and a beagle for the last couple of days.  Although at the moment, the beagle in question is now laying on her back with all 4 feet in the air!

Kind of like this!

Happy Thanksgiving! And More. (EDITED)

Hopefully everyone is having a safe and Happy Thanksgiving.

Just because Maggie Moo wants to say hi:

This picture is from a few days ago.  I came across this bandana in my craft stuff and Maggie looked kind of happy when she saw it.  So I tied it around her neck and she was very happy.  I left it on her for a long time and she seemed quite content.  She was eager to go out in the back yard when I took this picture, that's what the look on her furry face is about.  "Hurry UP!  I gots stuff to do!"

She attempted to get a squirrel this morning.  I let her out in the back yard and she was about half-way across the deck when she spotted a squirrel all the way across the yard, in the shady corner behind the shelf.  She went from slooooow mid-step to full warp speed the second she spotted it, and evidently she thought she could actually catch it.  But it was already too late, the squirrel saw her before she saw it and it was up on the fence and running down the top to safety before she was even off the deck!  Silly doggie. :)  By the time I was able to call her name, she was already half-way across the yard.  She is fast when she wants to be.  She was not happy that I wouldn't let her go after the squirrel, but he was long gone by that point.  Not that I would have let her get it, but she is a beagle and that is the instinct.

Otter's internet was not transferred after all yesterday.  The company had both her cell phone and J's, they also (obviously!) knew which apartment they were transferring from and which apartment they were transferring to.  The guy called her (she was at work) about 20 minutes after 5:00 and she told him that someone was at the apartment they were transferring from.  Then that was the last she heard of him.  At about 8:20, she called me so I could look up the office number for her and I gave it to her but I also told her to call him back at the number he called her from.  He said that he'd gone to the apartment but nobody was there so he left.  IF he even went at all, he went to the one that they are transferring TO and never to the one that they are transferring service FROM.  He never called either one of the phone numbers to say he was there or to ask where anybody was who might be waiting on him - both things he was supposed to do if he got there before J was at the old apartment.  I told her she should call him back again and remind him of all that, and demand that he get back and do what he was supposed to but she didn't have enough time on her break and is going to call the office Friday.  She's going to give them an earful, and it's going to be her version of *RHTW.  She is going to tell them that they need to get out there tomorrow afternoon, but who knows if they'll do that or not.  They will get it switched, it's just a question of when and if they will do what they are supposed to.

Because we originally thought we would still be moving furniture today, at least that was the probable plan if it had rained like it was supposed to do, we didn't really have anything in the way of Thanksgiving planned.  So J and Otter have gone with J's dad to visit his family outside of Tulsa.  Otter texted me earlier, they were giving her a tour of haunted sites in the county that they are visiting.  I think she was really enjoying it.  I have a frozen lasagne in the freezer and some garlic toast, Bill and I are going to have that tonight as our Thanksgiving feast.  I did get to Braums and managed to snag one of the two strawberry cheesecake ice cream pies they had left, so we even have dessert.  We have already gotten into the pie, we had a very light lunch and decided we needed dessert. :)

When she moved out of our house, she left her stackable shoe shelves and I used them with my craft stuff.  Bill bought a tall plastic shelf unit, like the ones we have already.  He put it in the office/pachinko/junk room.  He claims he's going to get a little more organized in there, but I'll believe it when I see it!  Anyway, I decided to get one for my craft stuff.  I put it together and put it in the room, but I haven't had time to really get it organized yet.  My stuff WILL be organized!  I'm also going to be able to get the sewing machines out of the closet and sit them on it and possibly some (or maybe all) of the fabric/sewing stuff - although quite a bit of the sewing and fabric related stuff is Otters and it may be going to her apartment at some point.  She said she wanted the shoe shelves since I'm not using them anymore, so I took them over to her new apartment this morning.  Nobody was up yet, so I left them in her living room.  Along with a hammer that Bill is loaning her and some wood.

When we were moving her furniture yesterday, Bill was moving her bookshelf and it kind of had an accident.  It's wooden and very heavy, about 6' tall and we bought it out of surplus and a local school district when we first moved into our old house when Otter was 2.  It has always been in her room to hold things and she's been using it lately as an actual book shelf.  It's huge and she also has more books than it can hold, which actually is a Good Thing.  Anyway, Bill got it (with the dolly) out of her old apartment, down the stairs and across the sidewalk to the door to the other side of the building without a problem.  But then he stopped to rest a minute and check his cellphone to see what time it was.  It was windy and cool, and as soon as he stopped and took his hand off of the bookshelf there was a very strong gust of wind and the bookshelf went right over.  It landed flat on the front and it landed hard.  It wasn't broken, probably due to the sturdy construction and solid wood, but there are a couple of places where it looks like part of it tried to separate at the top corner and bottom where the feet are.  It can be hammered back into place, but she only has a small hammer so Bill loaned her one of his (many, too many) hammers and also a few pieces of wood to use as hammering blocks.  She may also wind up using them as shims to secure it because when she and Bill put it in place, it looked like it was leaning to the front.  They moved it to another corner and it wasn't leaning.  She asked the apartment office about that, and they said what we thought - it's an old building and it's quite possible that there may be some settling.  Not enough to even be worried and the building is structurally sound.  But the bookcase may need a little support under the front if she decides to put it where she originally wanted it.

The plan at this point is that I'm going to the grocery store in the morning and Bill is going to take the El Camino to get the oil changed and also to get something checked on it.  If his car is going to be there for a while, I'll bring him back home.  If it's a quick thing, he'll either wait at the mechanic or walk around the grocery store with me - they are in the same shopping center and so is Otter's store.  She has to work the Black Friday opening and when she gets off work, I'm going to meet her at the old apartment so we can see about getting what is left moved.  I could tell that she and J did manage to get quite a bit moved after we left yesterday, but there is still more there.  When I talked to her about 8:30, I woke her up when I called her and she said she wasn't awake enough to think, much less converse with any sense!  I told her to go back to sleep, she worked her behind off yesterday with moving and then she had to work until midnight last night, getting the store ready for Black Friday so I think she deserved to sleep in a little bit today.  She couldn't remember how much was still at the old place but she thinks we may be able to get the rest of it moved in one afternoon, it's boxes and probably trash bags with stuff but all the furniture is moved already.  We hopefully will be able to get the cleaning done tomorrow afternoon as well, but she doesn't have to work on Sunday so that is our second plan of attack if tomorrow doesn't work out.  A lot of it depends on the weather, the rain that was supposed to start yesterday finally arrived this morning.  It may be strong rain but it might not be steady.  It could be off and on, and it could be heavy at times.  Sunday is supposed to be dry I think, but we want to get it done as quick as we can.  The apartment office said that they won't change the lock until Monday so she can have all weekend, but we don't want to wait until the last minute if we don't have to.  Also, we want to go to a local museum that has a really fun Christmas tree exhibit.  We haven't missed too many years of the museum exhibit and it's only there for a very short time, so Sunday is probably our only chance this year.  J has to work, otherwise he would go with us.

Hopefully, the El Camino is a minor issue.  The engine temperature light came on yesterday when Bill was on the way to Otter's.  He checked and there was plenty of antifreeze, the radiator was not leaking and the system seemed to be working.  The car had plenty of time to cool down but he said it came on again when he was on the way home (we took separate cars since I went earlier than he did) so he's going to ask them to check it when he gets the oil changed tomorrow.  It is very probably the sensor itself going bad, the car is a 1976 model after all and it is probably the original part.  But it is still odd/funny that out of three cars "we" have, two of them have similar issues!  My car had better not decide to join the party the other two are having!

**EDIT:  I turned the oven on about 4:30 for the lasagna, and I turned it off about 5 minutes later when the electricity went out!  We looked out the front door and it looked like it was at least our neighborhood, so I called the electric company.  I was the first person calling, so they couldn't tell me what/why/how long.  I opened the freezer long enough to toss the lasagna back in.  We waited a little while, then we decided to go in search of a restaurant that was actually open and had power.  The police department already had an officer out to direct traffic at the intersection closest to us, but there were lights on a little farther than that so we knew it wasn't very widespread.  We wound up at a Taco Bell, because they were open and had power.  Most of the actual restaurants and fast food places that were in the area with power were closed.  But it was still good and kind of fun, even if it wasn't what we expected to be doing on a rainy Thanksgiving night.  We were gone about an hour and when we got back the power was back on.  I looked on the news station website and I think it was a squirrel that caused the outage.  Maybe Maggie Moo had the right idea this morning?!!!!

Still Here!

Just up to my neck in stress!  

We figured out what we're doing as far as insurance goes, although it has been un-fun getting to this point.  I did the research and picked a plan which would work for Otter and me, Bill will be able to get insurance where he works.  It's not the best plan, but it's ok because it will bring the cost down enough so that we can actually afford the plan for me and Otter with our current carrier.  But yesterday, they nearly convinced me that it would be a mistake to stay with them.  We called them and went through the entire application process and were just about done, when the girl who was helping us realized she had put the wrong zip code and she wasn't able to correct it so she had to transfer me back to an actual agent.  He then basically tried to bully me into getting the government assistance to pay for it - which will NEVER EVER EVER happen, and then he lied to me and told me that the plan (which I had already picked out and was happy with) was not available and in fact, never had been.  He then informed me that they didn't have anything at all in that price range and he was very rude.  *RHTW then told him to cancel the application and that we would probably be going elsewhere entirely.

We considered enrolling along with Bill at his employer's insurance but I got online and checked up on what he told me.  And discovered that he was lieing through his teeth.  I called them back again - and talked to someone else.  She couldn't quite figure out why he told me what he did, then she figured out that even though I had told him repeatedly that it was for 2 of us, not my husband but just me and my daughter, he thought I needed to insure all three of us.  Although at the time, he told me it was just for the two of us.  I told her that I was interested, but she also helped me to find an even better and cheaper plan which meets our needs.  However, Otter was not with me anymore (she was at work) and they had to be able to ask her if she was enrolling since she's not a minor anymore.  So, they got the process started and then they suspended it so we could finish it today.  I went over to her apartment after work, this time I took my computer in case they needed to email me and it took about half an hour.  They called me when they said they would and it was easy.  I'm going to call them tomorrow and request the proof letter we need showing Bill's lack of insurance effective 1/1/16 and then he can finish the enrollment at work.  I'm also going to complain about the idiot agent from yesterday, I did get his name.

That's one stress fairy vanquished.

There are more.  Otter's move in next Wednesday.  The day before Thanksgiving.  She has to work the night before and then the late afternoon shift on moving day.  We have a 60% chance of rain.  It's out the door, down three flights of stairs, across the parking lot/grass area, in the door, back up three flights of stairs and into the new apartment.  We are going to try to get it all done in one day, but it might not be possible to get the old apartment cleaned so I may well be going back over there on Thanksgiving Day itself to finish up the cleaning.  She has to work Black Friday.  I'm probably going to spend Black Friday collapsed on the couch!

That's another one at least tamped down to manageable.

We got the booth finished up last week.  We basically built it from scratch and this time we've done more with the booth itself.  We took the machines up there one day last week and the store opened last Friday.

Bill built the booth sides with peg board.  The boars across the back and one side are to give it enough strength to hold pachinko machines in cabinets.  There are also boards on the back side which are not visible,they are between the 2x4's that make up the frame.

He used light hog wire across the top of the booth.  It's bolted down.

He strung Christmas lights across the top.  Each booth has electricity access and he has a timer so that the lights are only on when the store is open.

We bought two packs of kites at the dollar store a few years back and I found them in the closet the other day.  He attached them to the top and also used paper Japanese lanterns.  Since this picture was taken, he added two red lanterns between the blue ones.  He was going to insert small lights inside the lanterns but he didn't like the way it looked so he went with the Christmas lights instead.

The sign is a plywood board with a plastic car wrap type label.

Since this picture was taken, two of the machines have been sold.  They were sold off of our website, but that didn't happen until after we'd carted them up to the booth.  They were in my living room for weeks and weeks and not a bite, but as soon as they were out of the living room (and my way!), two of them sold.

The view from the front of the full booth.

Bill has a poster on one side which explains what pachinko machines are, also there are pachinko balls, board feet (for support for table top machines) and how-to restore dvds.  Also our business cards and a free information flyer.  The bulletin board at the top has pictures with the progression from before restoration to after.

Now, we just need someone to come buy machines!

Now, I'm just waiting for the rest of my stress fairies so I can beat their heads in!

Running on Absolute Empty

Or at least that is what it feels like!

We're working on getting the new booth ready and the new antique mall.  That has taken up a lot of time.  It looks like it will be mid-week before we can actually stock the booth.  Bill put the pegboard sides up last week and installed the support boards to hold the wall-mounted machines.  We went up there Sunday and installed the metal mesh top on the booth.  Bill's going to decorate it more than we have done with our previous booths.  The mall owner thought that people would be able to build booths last week and stock them last weekend, but she's never really dealt with contractors and construction.  So, while we were not at all surprised at the delays, she was!  That has taken up a lot of time.

Otter's move is actually going to be Thanksgiving week.  It was supposed to be the week before that, but the apartment office said that it will be Thanksgiving week.  Probably the day before Thanksgiving, actually.  I took her a bunch of boxes and she got several at work, she's been packing and I'm going to go help her pack sometime in the next several days.  She knows which apartment, it is in the same building but it's at the other end and on the back side of the building.  It's going to be a case of "out her door, down three flights of stairs, across to the other side of the building, in the door and up three flights of stairs then into the new apartment."  In other words, exhausting!  She will sign the new lease sometime that week, and is going to ask about getting the keys the day before she will be moving because she is probably going to have to work at least part of moving day.  We may see about hiring a couple of people through someone I know through work, because it's going to be hard to find people to help move the day before Thanksgiving!  If we are not able to get everything moved and the 2-bedroom cleaned in one day, we'll finish up on Thanksgiving itself.  Probably the cleaning is what will be done on Thanksgiving.  I'm thinking that we might have either frozen pizza or maybe a frozen lasagna for our actual Thanksgiving meal.  We were going to have an actual Thanksgiving this year, last year was the stove thermostat having to be replaced and then Otter's dental adventure keeping us from a traditional meal and we thought this year might work out.  But then Roomie moved out and all that...  Maybe next year?

Bluebell is back in the area today!  I had plans to go get some this morning, but I should know better than to actually plan anything because hardly anything has gone according to plan this year.  Last night, sometime after 9:00, I got a call from Otter.  She had gone to a not-exactly-neighboring town to visit J and to go to the Halloween party he and his mom had.  She was on her way back last night when her car started acting like it was overheating.  We're talking very small town, the kind that rolls up the streets and turns the lights off when the sun goes down and that is not too far off from reality!  She hadn't gotten very far, but she was afraid to drive any longer so instead of going back to J's, she pulled into a parking lot and called me.  The restaurant was closed for the night and it was pretty isolated.  We got on our way immediately and then she called J.  He and his mom came to where she was at and stayed with her until we got there, which we really appreciated.  It took us 30 - 40 minutes to get there and that was on the turnpike which is the fastest way.  Bill looked at the car and he could tell it had plenty of antifreeze, but it didn't look like the coolant was getting to where it was supposed to.  The car had cooled off at this point, it never got extremely hot so there probably isn't any engine damage but he was concerned about getting it home and we didn't want Otter to drive it anyway.  So, Bill drove her car, she rode with me and we brought her car to our house.  Bill stopped one time on the turnpike, of course there were no lights out there!  He said the heat gauge was going up again but he didn't wait for it to get too high.  He could still see that there was plenty of coolant, but he was thinking that the water pump might be the issue at that point  After letting the car sit and cool for a while, we started back on the road and he was able to drive it to our house without it getting too hot.  It was well after 10:00 last night when we got back, and she took my car home.  J bought her a microwave, which is now at my house since she didn't want to leave it in the car overnight and was really too tired to carry it up the stairs.  She'll pick it up from us in the next day or so.

Bill took her car to work today, it seemed to run fine.  He talked to our neighbor who is a part-time mechanic, he talked to the mechanic at work and we both talked to the mechanic at the shop we've been using.  The consensus is that the thermostat is probably bad, or at least it had a bad moment.  It might be that it was a one-time thing, but it might not be.  If it is the thermostat, it has to be replaced.  We drove it around tonight and it was fine.  I'm taking it to the shop in the morning and they'll check it out.  Then, depending on what they say in terms of how long it will take, I will either get it fixed right then or I'll have to bring it back the next day when someone can come get me so I can get to work - or Bill may take the day off so he can take care of it.  The thermostat has been replaced once - by the shop we used before we went to Chevy, the shop that we realized were a bunch of crooks which caused us to go to Chevy in the first place.  At that time, they were owned by a national company and had a good reputation.  But Bill had to take the car back to them a couple of times to get it checked because he didn't think the new thermostat was working right.  After that, they were purchased by their manager and that's when they were dishonest in the extreme which is why we went to Chevy.  The manager eventually sold the shop back to the national company that owned it before, but we will never go back there anyway.  There really isn't any reason to think that they would fix it again, unless we wanted to pay them, and they are not going to have another chance with us.

And we still have to get the pachinko machines to the booth sometime this week!

Maybe I'll actually get my Bluebell ice cream tomorrow!