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.

Hackers

We've been hacking and coughing for days and days.  The cold bug Bill shared with me is still hanging around.  It's actually a lot better, but I have asthma and it has been triggered big-time.  He still has the cough but he doesn't have asthma so even though he's still coughing, he's actually better than I am.  I'm getting there, it just takes a while.

It's been a busy week, even with the cold.  Bill has been thinking that he needed to get a second-hand car to drive, with the intention of parking the El Camino until at least the Spring.  It doesn't like winter and it hates icy weather.  But then Otter's car has been acting up and he's had to deal with it for her a few times.  It's still having the problem with the radiator/air/antifreeze, etc., that it was having earlier.  He thinks he knows what it is, but the weather was cold and rainy and then he was sick.  In additional, he took the El Camino to get something checked and since it's a 1976 it's kind of hard to get the part!  So, we decided it was time to just buy me a new car, Otter will get the 2008 I've been driving for a few years and he will get the 2002 that we sold to her earlier this year.  Sold being a not totally descriptive term!  Anyway, we went back to Enterprise this week and bought me a new toy.

We got a really good deal on a really nice car, it's a 2015 Chevy Impala (silver again) and it has less than 14,000 miles.  It still has the majority of the original warranty so we did not buy an extended warranty on this car.  It does not have the remote start feature, which I'm sure I'll miss in the winter, but it is bluetooth enabled and my phone is compatible.  I've enjoyed that feature, actually.  We got a very good financing offer and the payments will start in January.  When we first discussed buying a new car for me last year, I commented that I was tired of silver cars but apparently silver Impalas are just what we're supposed to have.  Not that I'm complaining!  It also has a sunroof, which I will use some but probably not that much.

The 2008 will officially be transferred to Otter and the 2002 will be transferred back to us, probably sometime next week.  We'll go to the insurance company and take care of all their needs in person, because it's going to be a little confusing.  Same thing with the tag and titles, since we are playing musical cars at the moment.

Otter and I went to the flea market at the fair grounds today.  Our favorite movie guy was there and he did his usual "discount and deal offers" which is part of why he's so much fun.  We usually buy a lot of movies from him.  Today, he had something that I've been wanting for a while but have never, ever managed to find:

This one is very rare.  Extremely rare, in fact.  He had it priced at $30.00, (which was already a very good price) but he let me have it for $20.00 with the stipulation that I buy another movie from him - which was already going to happen because I had another one in my hand and so did Otter, but he knew that - he's a lot of fun and he always makes good deals.  Then he gave us a free movie.

Bill's activities for today included replacing the faucet in the kitchen sink.  It started leaking on him this morning and when he took it apart the gasket basically disintegrated in his hands.  He went to Lowe's and found a similar one that would work and he had it installed by the time I got back from literally spending all day shopping with Otter.

I'm still coughing and actually have now lost most of my voice.  Which Bill probably thinks is a good thing, but I'm going to convince him that it is actually a bad thing!  Until then, we're watching animated Star Trek!

It Lives!!!

My oven, that is.  So, the non-traditional Thanksgiving Pizza is back on the schedule.  I'm going to the grocery store after work yesterday, so I'll be getting pizza fixins.*  I'm hoping the store isn't too totally crowded, but I simply have not had time yet this week.  I was Otter's transportation to/from work yesterday so Bill could keep her/his car here for the repair.  Then today I took his/her car for the oil change and picked her up at her apartment after work.  I brought her back to our house, with a couple of detours including the UPS box to get the stove part and also we stopped at Sonic for 1/2 price (or 2 for 1?) cheeseburgers.  I did offer to get dinner for Otter but she wasn't super hungry so she just wanted tater tots.

 

The oven part has been replaced, it wasn't too difficult but it took a little work.  It was almost a plug & play situation.  It works, so I'm not complaining!

 

While I was waiting at Chevy this morning, I got about a half a row done on Otter's blanket.  I'm thinking I can get it finished within the next few days, if I can just get the time to devote to it.

Sunday Snakes

No, not the reptilian kind with the forked tongues & scales. 

I'm talking about the plumbing kind.  This week's adventure was having to play plumber (well, Bill did anyway).  The a/c drain pipe in the garage was clogged up.  The clog was actually in the pipe between the a/c drain and the kitchen sink which caused both ends to overflow.  Bill discovered it when he went out into the garage to get another pachinko machine to bring in to work on.  There was water running down one side of the garage - the side the pachinkos were on, of course.  We had a rapid rearrange session, then he figured out where the water was coming from.  This was Wednesday evening, so we didn't do anything about it then.  Aside from turning off the a/c (it was cool that evening) and not using the dishwasher or kitchen sink, the dishwasher had just finished running and that is probably what caused the overflow leak.  Thursday morning's breakfast dishes were washed in the bathroom sink.  Bill talked to the plumbers at work and they told him that it was probably a clog and not anything more severe such as a broken pipe based on the symptoms, so he stopped on the way home from work and bought a pipe snake.  It did the trick, and we can now use the sink, dishwasher and a/c again.

I'm really glad that it was the other day and not today, because I don't think I could stand not having the a/c on in the house.  It's in the 80's, not extremely hot outside although the humidity is a problem for me.  The problem I'm having today is simply because I'm a 49 year old woman!  I haven't had a hot flash in several months and the one I had today made up for any that I've missed.  I've seldom been this miserable, it was very windy and cool this morning so I stood out on the back deck in the wind for quite a while.  Then I came inside and stood with my head in the freezer.  After that, I moved to the bedroom and turned the fan on high - and stood in front of it.  I am not looking forward to the next few years, if today's was any indication of what's on the horizon.

After I cooled down, we managed to make it to church.  Where the a/c was on and I actually got a little cold.  And enjoyed it!

I think I might get a hummingbird feeder up soon.  I haven't seen any yet, but we've seen quite a few birds suddenly appear and I expect them soon.

Otter and I went shopping this afternoon.  We both needed Easter dresses and also something to wear to her graduation.  We went to Penney's with the intention of hitting Dillards next, but we both found what we wanted at Penney's.  Love their sales!  My dress is a totally different size than I was looking for, I knew I'd lost a little more weight but I really didn't think I'd gone down any more in terms of clothing size.  Until I tried on the size I thought I would wear and it swallowed me.  The next size down actually is almost loose, but the size down from that would probably not work (yet) and I don't think that they had the next one down anyway.  No luck in the shoe department today, although we did try.  We both bought sundresses but mine has a shrug-type jacket.

Well, I guess that gives us an excuse to go shoe shopping this week.  Like we need one!

While we were out, we went to Lowe's and found a couple of plants.  Not much in the way of herbs, which is what Otter wants to grow this year.  She found a rosemary plant at the grocery store last week and would like to find another mint plant, probably peppermint specifically.  We bought 4 small jalepeno plants and a couple of lillies (forgot what kind) for the whiskey barrel.  We'll look at another store this week after school that usually has more edible plants than Lowe's does and see what we can find.

Then, we'll probably go shop for shoes. :)

Weather Forecast

This morning, it was 19 degrees at 7:00 a.m. The windchill was 3. It got into the 30's, but it was breezy.

Tonight, my attitude is LET IT SNOW!

I don't care how cold it gets, I have a working fireplace!

Now, I'm going to go join the coyote dog parked in front of it. It's warm there.

Updates

This is a pachinko machine, which is what Bill's current project involves. This is not one of his, I'll get pictures when he gets through cleaning & restoring them. See all the little dots in curved shapes on the face of the machine? They aren't dots. They are metal spikes, a couple of inches long. The machine in the picture doesn't have all that many. The machines that are currently sitting in my living room (2) and garage (1) have a whole bunch of little spikes. They are all somewhat dirty. Each one has to be cleaned individually with a q-tip. It's very time-consuming. Bill's been cleaning spikes for days now...

Anyway, he's having fun. And no power tools have been used! So I'm not complaining.

The roofers came back today and finished up. We had them install attic vents, there were a couple already and now there are more. They also cleaned up anything they missed yesterday and took the rest of the unused shingles. The roof looks wonderful. I'm just glad we were able to get it done this year, because we really didn't think it would happen since it's so close to the end of the year. But we simply did not have time when we realized that there was an issue with the old roof because that's when the rent house became vacant and most of our time was spent in getting it ready to sell. Now, we're just waiting on Monday for the final chimney work to be done.

We sure could use that chimney tonight! It was 18 degrees this morning, I think it got to the mid-20's this afternoon. Very cold. Looking out the window, it looked like a nice day - blue skies, just beautiful. However, looks can be deceiving. And they were! Tonight will get to 12 degrees. Just thinking about it makes me feel cold. There was a little breeze, just enough to make the cold feel worse. Especially to my asthmatic lungs! The dry, cold air is also affecting another problem. I keep trying to have nosebleeds. They are a normal occurance for me, not frequent but they do happen from time to time. I don't like them!

The hamsters seem to be doing just fine, now that they are on their own. Both are still friendly, both wheels are being used and they are active and seem happy. They just live alone now. When Otter had pet mice, they usually got along great. One one time was there a problem. Usually, when introducing a new mouse to the existing cage we would have to watch them and occasionally there would be a spat or two while they adjusted. But it only took a little while, then they got along great. One time, the dominant mouse killed a new one. But that was the only problem. With hamsters, they almost never accept a new cage mate although if they are raised together, certain breeds will generally be fine together. Usually, that is. Otter's are not the same species, although they are both dwarf types (small) and both of their species are supposed to get along with cage mates provided that they are raised together. But Helena and Nadine seem to be much happier as singles. We heard lots of chirping from Nadine this morning. She was happy, and I think she was singing. Happy little furry.

Banging Over My Head!

We have a roof! They came out yesterday and got started immediately, and then today was icy this morning then rainy so we didn't think they would be able to work. But by early afternoon, it was warm and dry enough for them. The final part of the roof was done this afternoon, it was a little misty but not enough to be a problem. There are still a few finishing touches, but the roof is essentially finished. I really only had to listen to a couple of hours of hammering, poor Bill had all day yesterday to deal with!

The chimney people didn't even try, Bill talked to them this morning and they have scheduled the completion for Monday. Because it will take several hours, they didn't want to start in the afternoon. So, no fireplace use yet. Which is a shame, because it is COLD and getting COLDER! But we'll be patient. It's going to be mid-week next week, probably about Wednesday, before we can use the fireplace. Frasier and I have our spots already staked out, all I have to do is show up with a blanket and head in the general direction of the fireplace and that dog is right there with me.

Bill's got a new project. Several years ago, probably shortly after we got married which means nearly 25 years ago, he bought a pachinko machine. Go look it up on google if you don't know what one is, but it's similar to pinball. He built a cabinet for it, and it's basically lived in the garage ever since. He has discussed selling it at times, I think he even put it out in our last garage sale but nobody bought it. He's decided that it's time to start playing it, he's going to build a different type of cabinet and it will eventually be brought into the office. He's going to put it where the remaining former e-Bay shelf sits. And it's going to have company. He's bought two more this week, they all need various degrees of work but it's all stuff he can do. Pachinko machines are not rare, but they are not made anymore or at least not too many are. He's having a lot of fun with this, he had been looking for a new project and now he's found it.

At least this project won't involve power tools!

Hamster Tales and Other Stuff

Hamster tail, get it? Yeah, I know. It's a bad pun. But I think it's a cute one. This is not one of Otter's hamsters, by the way!

Lots of stuff going on around here.

To start with, the title Hamster Tales refers to the fact that Otter's hamsters have now decided not to get along. It happens sometimes, they have been raised together which usually will work out. But hamsters are by nature solitary animals and sometimes they will simply stop getting along and once that starts, they seldom go back to being peaceful occupants of the same cage. Otter's two girls have been fine, just the occasional spat, since she got them. However, as of last night, it's all changed. The smaller one has always been the more submissive of the two. But last night she apparently decided that a change of command was in order. She kept attacking the larger one, and it wasn't just a spat. They were seriously fighting. We kept separating them and every time they got back into the cage, the smaller one (Helena) would attack the bigger one (Nadine). We finally realized that they were going to have to be in different cages if we wanted them both to stay alive. A few months back, Otter bought a smaller cage which was attached to the larger cage with plastic climbing tubes. We took them apart and blocked the openings, she had a second water bottle and a second, smaller food dish that came with the smaller cage. This morning, we tried to put them back into the same cage and Helena started another fight so we put her back into the smaller cage. This afternoon, we went to Petsmart and bought another wheel as well as a larger food dish for the second cage. The cages are now seperate and both have wheels, good sized food dishes so they don't have to be refilled every day and water bottles. The larger cage had a climbing tube set up that went to a smaller room and a second climbing tube to an area that can be accessed via a lid on the top. We moved the climbing tube set up with the smaller room to the smaller cage, since Helena was pretty much the only hamster that used it. Nadine has always climbed up to the access area so she's still got it and Helena has the one she always used. Among other things, they are not the same type of hamster although they were sold as the same. But that's not a major deal.

The chimney repair started today. It's a 2-day job. The roofer called Friday evening, he had an opening in his schedule so he was going to start today as well. Billyboy was off work today and also tomorrow, for the chimney work so he told the roofer to come on. The chimney crew left around 5:00ish, they said that they hope to be able to finish up tomorrow but honestly, it might not happen. Because we might get winter weather. The roofers did the back of the house and the side/garage area, they stripped the previous roofing material off and put the felt/membrane down, then the shingles. They did not get to the front of the house yet. They did it in stages in case they weren't able to finish it all because of the afore-mentioned winter weather possiblity. Both of them are planning on being back tomorrow, if it's at all possible. Otherwise, it will be sometime later on in the week or possibly Monday for the chimney and I'm not sure about the roof schedule, but it's similar. The way that the roofers did their job today actually worked out very well, in case we do get bad or wet weather. But we can't use the fireplace yet, it will be 24 hours after they are all done anyway. I just hope that the winter weather holds off enough or is mild enough so that the chimney at least can be finished up tomorrow. The roof can wait a few days if it has to, I'd prefer not to have to wait but it's ok if it can't be finished up tomorrow. I hope that they finish soon, there is a very large truck parked in my driveway and piles of roofing shingles & supplies stacked in the front yard!

I spoke with Virginia tonight. She is doing pretty good, she said that she's been so busy with the kids & moving into her mother's house that she hasn't really had time to process everything. But she's finished up with moving, and now she's trying to get the kids back into a routine. She hasn't been sleeping too well, which is probably normal. She said that she knows it hasn't really hit her yet, but she is coping as much as she can at this point. She misses her husband badly, but she knows that he is with their daughter and that they will all be reunited some day. She wanted me to tell everyone again how much the prayers mean to her.

I have another prayer request, along with continued prayers for Virginia. Miss Dorothy, who I had requested prayers for in the spring when she broke her hip. She has come down with pneumonia and is hospitalized. She's doing very well, I talked to her today, but she is 93 and that makes her more fragile. She'll probably go home tomorrow, but I would still like to ask for prayers for her. Her husband, the young old boss EL, had it a few weeks back. He's doing great now.

Goodnight!

Mid Week Ramblings

It's only Wednesday, but it should be at least Thursday by now! It's been quite a week already.

I can't believe it's nearly Thanksgiving! Where did the summer go? Oh yeah, it went to the rent house and a lot of company. And a rock garden, even though that was actually a fall project. The next Fall project is actually two: move more irises! And Otter's tulip bed. We have to get the bulbs pretty soon, then we can start getting the bed itself ready. Getting it ready entails weeding, and it's got plenty. Then, we have to "stir" the dirt up a little and treat it with mineral oil, liquid soap and water so that gophers and moles will leave it alone - moles disturb the dirt in their search for grubs to eat and gophers eat bulbs! We usually treat it once or twice, about a week apart, then about a week after the second treatment is when we plant the bulbs. Since I have seen evidence of mole activity in that part of the yard, we might even treat it 3 times.

The rent house was an interesting experience. The selling of it, I mean. We got it listed and got an offer within 4 days. That was good, and faster than we expected. The stress came from the fact that it took 2 months to close because the buyer's mortgage company kept dropping the ball. They lost part of his paperwork, then they had to re-do some other paperwork and there was a waiting period after he signed it, stuff like that. The process of getting it ready to sell was somewhat stressful, but it was more that it was harder work than just getting it ready to rent. Since we wanted to sell it, there were things that we did that we might not have done otherwise. Such as replacing the front screen door, there was some work Bill did to the bathroom floor and that sort of thing. But the hard work paid off, so I'm not complaining.

Now we get to concentrate on stuff around the house. The chimney repair is the first week of December, it should take a couple of days. I'm not sure if repair is the right word, it's not that the chimney is broken - it's more that it wasn't constructed quite right and we're going to get that fixed. The roof is next after the chimney, but we might not be able to get it done this year. The chimney has to be done first because we really don't want people climbing around to fix it, on new roof slats! Or tiles, whatever they're called. We're just running out of daylight, as far as the roof repair is concerned.

Now, I think I'll go surf the 'net for a while and then go watch tv. We've been watching a very well done mini-series on The History Channel. WWII in HD. It's very good, color footage of WWII that has not been shown before and it's in chronological order. Otter is really enjoying it, she said that it's making a lot of things fall into place for her because she wasn't sure of some of the timeline. There wasn't too much on D-Day in this series. I always look for Dad in anything that deals with D-Day. I've seen him once, it was while he was still with us and he was surprised that he was shown but I think he was glad about it. I can't remember the exact name, but it was a major mini-series and I'll eventually think of it.

A Few Things From Sunday

First, a couple of furry things. Maggie was on her way to Otter. She was hurrying as fast as those short legs would let her. She is really devoted to her person.

Fraiser was standing at the corner of the deck, he was watching something but I never could see what was holding his interest. Although he's had quite a few barking at squirel sessions lately, so he might have been hoping to see another one on top of the neighbor's garage like yesterday. He was looking in that general direction.

Froggy, here's your finished tree! This is the one I bought for you before you came to see me. It was originally a kind of cream color and was sealed with an opalescent color, then it had gold colored beads draped around it and was kind of ugly! It's now the appropriate color and sealed with a clear glaze.

FutureJediMom wanted to see what the Farm Scene looked like. This is it! It's back on the side of the shed, we painted this side this morning and it turned out great. But it looked empty without the farm scene. The farm scene is pretty heavy, it's ceramic and is probably about 3 feet long or maybe slightly longer. I am not sure exactly when we painted it for Dad, I think it was after we moved (1978) but I don't really remember for sure? Froggy or Toadly, any ideas? Toadly, you weren't even there - you were off somewhere with the Navy but you might remember. I did quite a bit of touch-up painting to it when we brought it home with us and periodically it gets checked for chips, etc.

Otter had a really good driving session today, she drove us over to her grandparents. She did great.

After visiting her grandparents, we went to the pumpkin patch. We try to visit it each fall, it's not really a pumpkin patch. It's more like a petting zoo where they also sell pumpkins. They have Indian corn, assorted gourds, piles of pumpkins, a hay maze that is totally enclosed and in the dark, various animals, pony rides, they had camel rides today, and a snack bar. We didn't eat anything at the snack bar, but I did buy a half pound of fudge for Bill. We fed the animals, the goats were their usual silly selves. The fun part was watching the chickens and turkeys, they reminded me of a feeding frenzy of sharks. There was also a squabble between one big tom turkey and one small chicken. I'm not sure who actually won, neither of them seemed to be hurt but the chicken left the dust-up with a turkey feather in it's beak! They also had cavies, which are basically big rodents. Like bigger than the beagle. The almost look like large, small-eared rabbits.

The rest of the day has been filled with laundry and cleaning house. Otter and Bill are currently watching the movie that Otter rented and we watched yesterday. She wanted to see it again and Bill decided to watch it with her. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the one from a year or so ago that stars Johnny Depp. I still don't like him, but he is very good in the role. It was actually a better movie than I was expecting, I had heard that it wasn't very good but it was. The story is slightly different than the version from several years ago with Gene Wilder.

It's very windy today, we could get rain the next couple of days. Maybe, they never really know. Sometimes they do manage to guess right, so we wanted to get the shed finished up today. Bill finished up at the rent house on Friday, so we didn't have to go back there today and could concentrate on the shed.

While he was at the rent house on Friday, the tenant asked him why we were painting the garage now. Apparently, they thought that we might be going to kick them out! Bill explained to them that we were going to paint it before they moved in last year but that his injury kept us from getting it done then. Then it was too hot, then winter, then rainy spring, then hot summer again and since the weather is nice now we figured we'd better get it done while we could. They are good tenants, they pay their rent on time and they take good care of the place. He told them that as long as they pay rent, they can stay as long as they want and if they are ever interested in buying the place to just let us know. We hope that they stay for a long time, it looks like they will. They have a young child and two dogs and they seem like nice people.

I'm getting hungry now, so I guess it's time to head for the kitchen and make an early dinner. We never had lunch today. It's not quite 4:00 and I'm starved! Broiled pork chops, rice, brown gravy and whichever canned vegetable I grab is today's menu. With any luck, I'll have leftovers for tomorrow. But I kind of doubt it. Otter and Bill both love pork chops!

Tree Frogs and Paint Brushes

I have a list of things I'd like to get done. It has things on it like cleaning off my craft shelves, "organizing" Bill to get the garage cleaned out a little more - at least so Otter can get to her work bench without risking life & limb climbing through the debris, stuff like that. It did not have "repainting the backyard shed" on it. But Bill decided to repaint the shed now, while we still have decent weather. He also had a power washer that he borrowed from our property manager, which he got to use at the rent house when he repaints the garage. So he decided to take advantage of the fact that he had a toy to play with. So he power washed the shed last night, and we got started painting it tonight. We just got the front done, the back and one side are fine but the one remaining side needs to be repainted. Just the front which faces north and the side which faces east. The two sides that got the most wind this year! It was like they had been sand-blasted. So Bill painted the bulk of the front and I did the detail work. Bill said he might get home early enough tomorrow from the rent house to paint the remaining side of the shed, but most likely that is what we'll be doing Sunday.

The side that still needs to be painted is where I hung my ceramic farm scene. The same one that we all painted when I was in high school and gave to Dad for Christmas one year. Or it might have been his birthday or Father's Day. We all worked on it, it took a couple of weeks I guess. When it was finished and we gave it to him, he really liked it. He had it out on the back porch. When he died, I asked for it and then I brought it back to OK with me. It was in need of repair, so Bill fixed it for me and made it a little stronger. Then I touched up the paint and put a coat of sealer on it. Then we hung it on the east side of the shed. When I went to take it down yesterday before the power wash, there were two tree frogs behind it. I sat it down gently, then I picked up the tree frogs to relocate them. They didn't like it, but they seemed to tolerate me holding them. I put them on a tree and they were fine. But when I went to pick up the farm scene, I discovered a third tree frog on the back. That's the one that apparently was angry at being disturbed! My next stop, after I relocated him to where his buddies were on the tree, was to go scrub tree frog pee off of my hands. Ungrateful little hopper! Frogs don't usually pee on me, but I guess that the toads and bullfrogs in the yard forgot to tell the tree frogs that I won't hurt them.

Bill got the garage power washed at the rent house, and he'll go back tomorrow morning to actually paint it. While he had the power washer, he also hit the oil slick that just magically appeared on the driveway, right where he parks his van.

We had to shut the dogs back in their small yard this evening, they usually have the run of the yard when we get home and all night. But we were really afraid that we'd find two dogs stuck to the side of the shed! At least one of them would have had to go investigate the wet paint. And that would have been a disaster!

Is it spring yet?

We're still a tad bit on the cold side - I think we actually made it above freezing for a brief time today. But it was just a tease, and now we are back below 32 degrees. But it's been sunny so that the snow has melted in some spots and the icy roads are greatly improved. The city finally got around to sending the plows out to the roads in our area. I went to a funeral yesterday morning and it took me 45 minutes to get about 12 miles. Then we ran an errand yesterday evening and the streets had been scraped sometime after my morning trip. Figures!

Bill's spent a lot of time today with his head in the toilet. No, not what you think! The high dollar toilet has a leaky valve and we have been to Lowe's FOUR TIMES today to try to get a part that works. Problem is that this particular toilet is apparently a very exclusive style and most places don't carry the parts it needs. Bill found one on eBay for $100.00 - the part, not the toilet. The guy at Lowe's suggested a couple of places in Tulsa that might have the part, because I really don't want to spend $100.00 on a leaky valve! Just for grins, when we were redoing the bathroom in January we priced that style toilet. They ain't cheap! Let's just say that several hundered dollars would be in the ballpark. Someone gave it to us when we were still in the old house, they were remodeling and didn't like the toilet because the flusher is on the left side so we took it off their hands.