Thursday, June 28, 2018

140 OTD again today. Come on 130's!

Started a new bible study with my women tribe here. Nice to get back to fellowship with them!

Need to meet with our (mine, now I guess) financial planner today and complete the life insurance paperwork. Oh Joy! I guess it will be when the money comes in!

Still have tons of boxes from the service to unpack and decide what to do with all the stuff. So many awards. I hate to throw them out, but that is probably what I will do with most of them. Maybe keep the really big ones!

Memorial flowers are dying, so need to dispose of those too. My house is still very fragrant with the star gazer lily arrangement I had made, that one still looks nice!

Still waiting to hear if my leave will be approved and if I will get short term disability. Fingers crossed!

Miss Bonnie, sorry about your beautiful kitty! (((Hugs))) to you!

Devon - 10 days and we get to see puppy pics!!!! Yay!

Must be a heat wave across the Nation. Will be in the high 80's here today and in the 90's in days to come!

As Shel says.....find your recess and I will add.....at the beach or some other cool place!

Garbed Weight: 155.4

I have a plumber coming this morning to change out the fill valves and flappers on all my toilets. The flapper on one has gone bad and the fill valve on another. If I've learned anything in my 25 years of home ownership, it's when one thing on a toilet goes bad, the other toilets in the house will follow in quick succession. After a $600 water bill after the last flapper failure while on vacation, I'm taking no chances. But the quote the plumber just called me with nearly made me fall over. I have changed flappers myself, but contorting right now is not in the cards and it needs to be done before I leave for MI. And I could have watched a lot of YouTube videos and done the fill valves myself too, but again contorting and desire are low right now. So I will cough up the fortune. Plumbers must be richer than bankers these days!

I also have a handiman lined up to fix my side gate that is falling apart. The builder used nails to put together a really heavy, wide wood gate. Of course it's all pulling apart now! Had they used screws I would be able to get in my backyard from the driveway... too bad the hsndiman wouldn't do the toilets too. I tried.

Last will be an electrician to change out some light switches for outdoor lights for fancy WiFi ones that can turn on with the sunset and install a new front light to replace a really ugly one I've hated for 13 years. I'm feeling motivated these days.

Breathing is easier now. Tylenol and a heating pad are keeping it so.

Hope you all are feeling motivated too!!

Isn't home maintenance fun (not)!

It is essential for me that people who actually know what they're doing make all my home repairs. I can handle an Allen wrench, pliars, a Phillips screwdriver, and a wine bottle opener. But that's it.

Good on you for attending to home repairs Cecily. Good trades people are hard to find. Pay the plumber (like "pay the piper"). Worth it. ds

He was confused why I would want to replace the ones that are currently working. Being away so much of the year and having too many toilets so they don't all get used a lot means the plastic parts fall apart in my experience. I just don't want something to fail while I'm not here and have no one notice for weeks until my friend comes by to check on the house. One plumbing site I read said the fill valves should be changed every 5 years. Mine are 13 years old, so it feels like time. So yeah, painful, but worth it.

Have you ever considered turning off the water at the shut off valves while you are away? Just a thought.

I have, but it's hot and dry enough here and I'm gone long enough that the traps in the sinks, showers, and toilets dry out fast and you end up with sewer gas entering your house. It's easier to just have someone come in and flush and run the faucets every month!

Oh, boy! The sewer gas problem. Know it well.

Our house was built to house my husband and me (on one floor) and my mother, her caregivers, and offices for myself and my assistant on another floor.

These days, I sometimes forget to go downstairs and flush ALL the toilets and run water through all the sinks and showers. And I have paid for my forgetfulness.

If anyone wonders what we're talking about, sinks and toilets have S-shaped drain pipes where water is trapped, and tha****er seal keeps sewer gas from floating into the house. But when the sinks, toilets, etc. aren't flushed, the water in the drain traps can all evaporate, the sewer gas rises into the house, and PHEW!

Greetings Purple People

Its purple Thursday again. Time to listen to Prince music. Bonnie150 happy birthday and congrats on the gift of 150 from your scale. I too am at 150 but coming from the other direction. Not so good.

Yep, last night's national news reported the heat wave. I thought about all of you in the midwest and how hard those stinking hot days can be. Thats why we moved here. It rarely gets to 70 here in the coastal zone. But 10 miles inland is another story. So we stay in our little niche.

Paula we are glad to hear you are back with your bible study tribe. Best thing for you. Wishing you luck on your leave/work requests. Make the finance person do the work for you - thats what they are for. (word to the wise: be wary of investing in any annuity products).

Liz, glad the deck is done. Ours is scheduled to be power washed and stained later in the summer. I have positioned all the flower planters on it so I can't see the rest of our messy yard.

BB glad the work at home suggestions are helpful. I was thinking your DH should just go take a 20 minute walk after work and then come home like he is coming from an office. But you got that. And if I had a pool thats where I would be.

Well DH has a cold and I fear I am getting it. Zinc lozenges to the rescue though I am not so sure they work.

Studio board meeting today (read: bored). We always have an agenda but do nothing but digress and it drives me nuts. I have more than once asked that we stick to the agenda but it does no good. Stream of consciousness.

DH was watching creepy sci fi last night so I went in the other room and started watching a show called Big Fat Summer or something like that. It was about a group of SMO people who went to a beach resort designed for them to experience beach and water sports without fat shaming or judgement. Interesting to watch these people try paddle boards and kayaks and men who were able to take their shirts off and women who were able to remove a beach cover up. Then they went to some little secluded beach where little pigs came into the water and swam with them. Looked like fun. Not sure where the resort was but it looked very Carribean. At the end of the show they went to the regular beach with other people, having gotten over some inhibitions. Not sure what I learned from this except whatever your body status is, don't let it rule what you do. Then I watched 600 lb life. This stuff still fascinates me.

Hope everyone is planning a fun July 4th. Get out there and burn some meat. Diane S