October 15 through 21

[chochiyo_sama]

Saturday, October 15

I had a very quiet day after a refreshing shower first thing in the morning.  It was chilly, but I had a visit from Rachelle and Sophie who is three.  They were here from Souix Falls visiting Lily.  The little one, Chloe was taking a nap, so Rachelle had walked Sophie up to the park across the street from my house.  They walked over here, and I was glad to see them as I had an 18” Disney Animator doll that I decided to give to Sophie. I had begun collecting the 14” ones—I have Snow White and Rapunzel, and I had ordered Elena of Avalor, but after I had paid for her, the seller discovered that she no longer had an Elena.  So she told me to pick whichever doll was on her website instead.  However, the Cinderella doll I picked was not in the same scale.  She was a lovely doll, but I just do not want another scale of doll.  So, I decided to give her to Sophie.  She was delighted with the doll.  I told her that “Cindy” loved to go to the park and play on the playground equipment, so she immediately wanted to go back to the park and let “Cindy” go down the slide. 

I was glad that the doll would have a good home.  Hopefully this will set her on the path of loving dolls. 

I had been collecting garbage and recycling to take out to the bins, so Rachelle took my big bag of recycling out to the blue bin.  I gave them a pocketful of peanuts in the shell to take to the squirrels in the park. 

After they left, I caught up on my DW entries.  I should have spent part of the day working on my Artists’ Way book, but I was just not in the mood.  I sorted and started my laundry—and discovered that Leah had peed on one of the towels in the dirty clothes basket.  I ran it through the washer three times along with the scrub pad for my new mop.  There was no pee smell by the time I finished washing it repeatedly.  I have to take Mom to Walmart one of these days, so I will buy another litter box when I go there to put in the laundry room which is where Leah hangs out most of the time. 

Mom has been wanting to go to Walmart for at least two months, so I promised her I would take her this coming week.  Probably on Thursday since the appraiser is coming on Monday, I have to take her to Albert Lea to get her covid booster on Tuesday, Wednesday she has Bible study, and Friday is the day the groceries get delivered.  When I go to Walmart, I like to go as early as possible—if I can get there before 8 am, there is always a close parking space, an electric cart that is fully charged, and very few other shoppers cluttering up the aisles and not using common sense during a pandemic.  I used this protocol long before covid pandemics reared their ugly heads.  When I was teaching, I was usually getting my groceries by 7 am on Sunday mornings.  I was always home again long before 9 am. 

Once it got dark, my idiot neighbor to the east terrified my cats for at least an hour by shooting off some kind of loud explosive fireworks.  Poor little Oliver was terrified.  Peaches always gets scared of loud explosive noises as well.  I wish those ignorant butt hole neighbors would move out to the country where their noise and rude behavior would not bother so many people.

That went on till nearly midnight.

 

Sunday, October 17

DeAnn and I had a good Zoom meeting even though we really did not refer much to the Artists’ Way book.  Most of the things we discussed did connect with the content of the chapter—so we were both okay with the direction the meeting took.  We mostly talked about the home improvement activities we were involved with as well as her career possibilities and my continuing plans for utilizing my talents, among other challenges and activities.

When we wrapped things up, I spent quite a bit of time cuddling Oliver.  He is a very affectionate little creature.  He is a good snuggler, except for the fact that he still has claws and the “kneading” habit where he just pokes his little toe nails into my flesh spasmodically.  That is what they do to make their mother cat let down her milk, so it is a very loving and intimate activity.  But it also hurts and snags my clothes.

While I was Zooming with DeAnn, Lily texted me that she was out walking and wondered if I would like her to drag my garbage bin to the curb.  I was glad to have it done so it will be empty for the next week.  I have been throwing out a lot of trash lately.

I did a little more tidying up around the house since the appraiser is coming Tuesday at 9:30 am.  I want the house to look as good as possible, even though I know that they are not judging my house keeping.  Just the value of the house.

 

Monday, October 18

I got up early and started working on the house.  I bagged up the stinky garbage in the bedroom—the stink came from the uneaten portions of Peaches’ soft food.  After a week, that garbage stinks.  I have a small garbage can with a lid to keep the stink in as much as possible.  I did not want my bedroom smelling like rotting cat food, so I tied up the bag and gathered up the bathroom and living room garbage and cleaned the litterboxes and tied all that garbage up in the bag till I can get it in the garbage bin outside.  I was hoping Mom would bring the bin back to the house after I took her to Albert Lea for her shot this afternoon.  I left both doors open for a while to air out the house.  Lots of nice fresh air.

I swept the floors in the breezeway and the kitchen.  I started washing my laundry. One of the cats had knocked over a plastic drawer thing that I kept some of my Tonner doll shoes in, and the shoes were all over the floor.  Probably my little acrocat Oliver.  I picked all those shoes up and put them back in the drawers.  I look forward to the day when I can move most of my doll and craft stuff to the basement where it will not be so helter skelter and less likely to be knocked off things by rampaging cats. 

Then I settled in to sort through a lot of the stuff stacked up by my recliner—a lot of recycling and garbage got dealt with. 

By then, it was time to get my stuff together and pick up Mom to take her to Albert Lea to get her Covid booster shot.  I had received my new license tabs in the mail, so I took them and a damp paper towel out to add them to my license plate.  I put the back one on as I went around my car to get in.  I figured I would put the front one on in the parking lot by the clinic while Mom went in to get her shot. 

They had set up their Covid testing and vaccination site in the old Pamida store on the far southeast side of Albert Lea.  I had not been in that part of the town since I was a small child.  Mom went into the clinic, and I started texting my friend Mary as I had not responded to some of her texts yet.  I figured I had plenty of time because they make Mom wait half an hour after the shot due to her allergies to penicillin.  They feared that she might possibly have a reaction to the vaccine. 

However, they asked her if she had experienced any adverse reactions to the previous vaccinations, and when she told them no, they told her she could go.  So, I did not get the chance to put the front sticker on. We decided to get malts at DQ on the way home, but we had forgotten that the main road to that part of the city was all torn up with road work.  The last time the alternate route we had to take to get there took us on a 20 minute detour.  I knew we could get there much faster going in from the east, so we worked our way around until we could go past Mrs. Gerry’s salad factory and the new High School.  I don’t know a lot about Albert Lea, but I DO know that particular back route. 

We were able to get our hot fudge malts and take the back roads back home.  We did not use the interstate at all today. We used the route that took us past Geneva Lake and through the tiny village of Geneva, past my grandmother’s old house and our old farm house on the county line. 

The malt was delicious, and before I dropped Mom off at her house, she dragged my emptied garbage bin back to the house and wiped off the license plate with the still damp paper towel and put the other sticker on the front license plate.  I was glad to get that done.  She also noticed that the guys who sided my house had moved my flower pots to the side of the house and put them under the new ramp to the deck so they would not blow away.  I took her home, then came back to my own home where my kitties were overjoyed to see me back home again.  There was much showing off!

Later in the afternoon, I called my niece Cora to see how she was feeling after her bout with Covid. She said she still had a sore throat but otherwise felt pretty good.  She bemoaned the fact that she was really behind in her schoolwork.  I asked if she had gotten the package from Amazon with the Lindor Chocolate balls in it, and she said she had received them and that they were delicious.  I told her I suspected they would heal Covid with their deliciousness, and she said she thought they really helped.  LOL.  She is quite a kid.   

I was really tired by then and didn’t accomplish much more.  I needed to get to bed earlier than normal as I wanted to get up early enough to get a little more done before the appraiser comes tomorrow.

 

Tuesday, October 19

I got up quite early and went right to work.  The first thing I did was clean the litterboxes again so everything would be fresh and clean.  Then I hauled the garbage bag outside to the bin.  Before the appraiser got here, I started working on the hideously filthy stove top.  The grill on top of the stove is obscenely heavy.  It was all I could do to lift it off the stove top.  I was still scrubbing on the stove top when the appraiser arrived.  He came in and chatted briefly.  Both Peaches and Oliver rushed over to greet him.  He was very gentle and patient with his furry admirers. 

He spent quite a bit of time outside, measuring the house and looking everything over.  When he came in, he asked me some questions about the siding and the deck—when it was done, for example (two weeks ago it was finished).  Then he asked about the garden shed—whether it was just on the ground or whether it had a concrete foundation.  I had to tell him I did not know since I had never been in it.  I told him to feel free to look.  I had no idea if there was even anything inside the shed.  I told him if it was filled with gold bullion, I would share it with him half and half.  LOL. He came back in and told me that all that was in there was an old rake and some battered pieces of down spouts.  No gold.  Bummer.

Then he went through the house measuring everything and taking pictures.  I told him when the patio was laid (2019), when I replaced the toilets (2019 for the upstairs toilet, 2021 for the basement one), when I put in the water softener (2018), when I replaced the refrigerator (2020), and so on.  We talked about the fact that this house was once gutted by fire and totally remodeled from the studs out.  He looked in his records to see when that was.  I thought it was probably back in the 1990s or before, but he said that the records showed that $89,000 of remodeling was done in 2012—That was a LOT more than I paid for the place almost five years ago.  He said that was probably when the place was redone since a fire would have required a significant amount of money to fix. 

Then we talked at length about our cats.  I told him I had just taken in two rescue cats, and he told me how he had taken in a little feral kitten who showed up in the alley behind his office building.  It was just a tiny little thing, and he used to go out and check on it during his breaks, bringing it food and talking to it.  He started to worry about winter coming and began to think of catching it and taking it to an animal shelter, but one day, when he went out to check on it, the little guy charged at him like a rampaging buffalo, climbed straight up his leg to his chest, looked him in the eye and mewed.  He took him home that night and the cat has been with him for eleven years now. 

I think I began to love him just a little at that point.

I had told him about Stewart and how he had died and how I still wasn’t over it.  I told him I had spent about $4,000 trying to save him, but I could not do it.  He told me how his little guy had gotten sick and started to lose weight.  He said that the cat seemed to want to eat, but he just couldn’t.  Sometimes, he would take food in his mouth, but it just dropped out of his mouth again.  He took him to five different veterinarians in Faribault, which is where he lives, but none of them seemed able to help him.  One vet noticed his gums were inflamed and decided that he probably had bad teeth.  So, they pulled out about half his teeth and put him through a lot of pain and it still didn’t help.  The poor cat continued to decline.  He then decided he would take his cat up to a cat specialist in Eden Prairie which is a suburb of the Twin Cities.  Finally that vet figured out that the cat was deficient in one of the B vitamins. Once he got the supplemental vitamins in him, he immediately began to improve and was the picture of health within a couple of weeks. 

He said he is still disgusted by the ignorance of  the other vets and how much his poor kitty suffered before his troubles were solved.  He asked if I was sure Stewie died of pancreatic cancer, and I said, “That’s what the vet thought it was, but there was no autopsy to tell for sure.”  He thought perhaps Stewie had the same vitamin deficiency.  Wouldn’t that suck the big weinie—if my Stewie’s death was totally preventable with just a vitamin supplement?  It makes me want to cry.

Well, too late now.

I must say that I have very fond feelings toward that appraiser.  His name was Mark or Matt.  I’d have to check the card he gave me.  Anyone who would take care of his cat that sweetly is a good man.  He said he ended up paying over $7,000 just in vet bills to save his cat’s life.  And he spent a ton of money on every type of food he could find to try to tempt his little man to eat.

I told Lily the story, and she thought perhaps this could be a romance for me.  LOL.  I said, “Well, maybe if I was 20 years younger!  He’s a lot younger than me!”  He was a nice man—and I would be happy to be a friend of his—but romance?  Yeah.  I don’t think so. 

Lily is a hopeless romantic.

He was here from around 9:30 until after 11 am.  I hope the appraisal comes through quickly and that I can get this refinance taken care of so I can pay the contractor for the siding and deck.  I hate owing money.

I didn’t do much the rest of the day.  It was a sunny and lovely day—a little chilly, but sunny.  Oliver and Peaches both required a lot of cuddling and snuggling today.  Oliver and I had a nice long nap in the afternoon with him sprawled across my chest, purring and snoring at the top of his lungs.  He is such a sweet little boy.

 

 

Wednesday, October 20

I washed and folded a bunch of laundry.  I made tomato soup for lunch.  I have been hungry for it, and I made it with a little half and half instead of just plain milk.  Lily brought me a couple pieces of her banana bread pudding that she had made for her visiting family who didn’t show any enthusiasm for it.   I thought it was very good.  It had a caramel rum sauce over the top of it. 

We had a nice chat about her family’s visit and what they accomplished for her.  She had picked up my mail for me and there was a lot of it—mostly catalogs and junk mail. I had a bunch of broken down cardboard, and she asked if I would save boxes for her since she is sorting out stuff for a rummage sale.  I told her I had three of the big sturdy boxes Ross delivered groceries in and she could have them all.  They are so sturdy they are hard to break down. 

So she loaded them into her car and took the broken down boxes out to the recycling bin for me. 

I appreciated that very much.

We had some good rain today—mostly in the middle of last night, but throughout the day we had drizzle and mist.  I put some of the stale unsalted sunflower seeds out on the deck railing and was visited by a pair of blue jays.  They apparently love sunflower seeds.  They are such pretty birds.

 

Thursday, October 21

I got up before 7 am as I had promised I would take my mother to Walmart today.  She has wanted me to take her to Walmart for months.  Before I left, I sorted all my bills out of my big bag of mail and put them in my purse so I could write them out and drop them in an outgoing mail box while I was in Owatonna.  I put my daily pills in a bottle in my pocket as the heart medications give me diarrhea within half an hour that goes on for about four hours.  It is no good trying to shop when you have to rush to the bathroom every 15-30 minutes.

I picked my mother up and we headed to Walmart.  We both stocked up on all the stuff that we have not had access to during this pandemic crap.  There is a lot of stuff that Lerbergs does not carry.  I bought five totes to store some of my stuff in—three large ones to store yarn and fabric and two small ones to store my Denis Bastien LeeAnn dolls in.  I stocked up on some of the vitamins and supplements that I take because I can get them cheaper there than I can off Amazon.  I got a big tub of Vaseline as I put that on my feet every morning to keep them from getting rough and cracked.  I bought another litter box and a small box of cat litter for the laundry room.  I am hoping Leah will use that rather than peeing in my basket of dirty laundry when she is too anxious to leave the laundry room.  I bought a couple bags of Halloween candy even though I am not sure yet whether I will be allowing kids to trick or treat at my house.  I bought some cheap butter for baking, some Scrubbing Bubbles for cleaning the shower, a little tub of grape tomatoes, 5-6 Lunchables which are nice for an easy meal when I don’t feel like cooking, a loaf of French bakery bread, a box of crullers, two 6-packs of Diet Coke, 7 bottles of 20 oz Diet Cokes, 3 cans of roast beef hash, some shredded mozzarella cheese, a package of sliced Swiss cheese, and a giant package of Charmin toilet paper.  I am probably forgetting some stuff, but oh well.  I ended up spending over $200 as I am stocking up for the winter.  Who knows how long it will be before I go to an actual store again.

When we left Walmart, I moved my car out of the handicapped area and parked toward the back of the parking lot and wrote out my bills.  I got a $1,300 bill from Service Master from the basement clean up.  Insurance paid almost $3,000, but that was my deductible.  I thought may  be I had escaped that since it took me so long to hear I had one to pay.  I just got it in the mail yesterday, yet, while I was in Walmart, I got a call from them asking when I would be paying it.  I told them it would be in the mail by the end of the day.  Blood suckers.

When I had the bills ready to mail, I drove them up to the outdoor mail box and dropped them in.  From there, we went through the McDonalds drive through and got egg and sausage mcmuffins and orange juice which we ate on the road home. 

I dropped mom off at her house then headed home.  I had done something to my knee, which made it really hard to walk, so I didn’t even try to carry in my stuff.  It was cold enough outside to keep my groceries fine, and I had to go to the bathroom.  I texted my brother and asked if he would mind stopping by after work and carrying in my stuff.  I offered to pay him, and he responded “Don’t be silly.  I can do that.” 

Lily called and asked if she could come over and have me look at something online.  She had seen something on Facebook about Dr. Charles Stanley (a TV preacher she and my mother love) selling CBD oil, claiming it was a “miracle from the Lord” and that it had completely changed his life by eliminating his pain.  I found it suspicious as I had seen something very similar on Facebook only those claimed that Keanu Reeves, Norman Reedus, and Kevin Costner each were selling it.  Other than the religious elements, the wording was the same.   So, I looked up the Charles Stanley Ministries website where there was a banner proclaiming that Dr. Stanley had nothing to do with selling CBD oil and that he did not have a personal Facebook page.  As I suspected, it was a total scam. 

Lily was totally freaked out, telling me that she had almost bought that stuff without checking with me as she was sure Dr. Stanley was trustworthy and her hips and shoulders were hurting her so bad.  I told her to avoid buying anything through Facebook unless she ran it by someone else first.  Not everything on there is a scam, but there are a ton of scammers there. 

So she was very grateful that I had saved her from getting involved in something that might have resulted in scammers getting ahold of her credit card information.  She visited a little while, and I gave her a bag full of the local papers, some catalogs, and the box that my Mr. Clean Magic Eraser had come in.  I had told her about what a good product that was, and she was interested in trying it.  However, her memory is not very good, and so having the box to put in her purse would help her get the right thing.

I had a small bag of recycling—mostly junk mail and plastic bottles, so she dropped that in my recycle bin on her way back to her car. 

I am so glad I can help her with stuff like that.  When she goes to her family about it, they humiliate and shame her for being “dumb enough” to fall for that stuff.  I don’t judge her or scold her.  I just help her and show her how to find out if they are scams or not.

Poor Lily.

When he got back from work, Jack came over and brought all my stuff in.  Then he stayed a while and we had a nice chat about the state of the nation, all the lunatics running loose in it at this time, and how much he wants to retire.  He cannot turn in his paperwork until November first, but he is chomping at the bit to be done.  The new warden is an incompetent, vengeful asshole, and Jack is just sick of dealing with him.  He has been a teacher at the Federal Prison in Waseca for many years he enjoys working with the inmates and is good at it, but the administration and the red tape is a massive pain in the ass. 

When he left, I ate a Lunchable for my supper.  Then I watched Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.  Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was on next, but I was too tired to stay up and watch another.  So, I recorded it on the DVR to watch later.

 

 

 

Comments

[cmcmck]

Funnily enough there was a 'Cindy' doll here in my youth which was a UK equivalent to 'Barbie'.

[the_godiva]

You need this:

https://smile.amazon.com/Natures-Miracle-Cat-Urine-Destroyer/dp/B085ZJL1RM/ref=sr_1_7?crid=3775TW2HQQZI0&dchild=1&keywords=natures%2Bmiracle%2Burine%2Bdestroyer&qid=1634974434&rdc=1&sprefix=nature%2Caps%2C189&sr=8-7&th=1

It neutralizes the urine with enzymes. Plain detergent doesn't really do it properly.

Is there no one to call about the assholes? Can you call the police and say you think your neighbors are shooting off guns? Fireworks sound like guns. Sorta. Here we have laws about noise after 11pm or before 8am.

There are little rubber knobs you can glue on the tips of their claws. It's temporary and doesn't hurt them. If he'd allow you to do it.

We only put registration tags on the back. I have a special license plate not that not only locks my plate from getting stolen but also has a little window that covers the tags so they can't be stolen either. People are fucking thieving pigs.

I'm getting my Moderna covid booster on Nov. 18 at Kaiser.

So you didn't have your toilet taken down to the basement and put a new high rise one upstairs? Pity. You could have gotten the insurance to pay for that.

Did he tell you how long the appraisal will take? I think it's about 2 weeks. He has to check comps in the area. You're lucky that property values are high now and interest rates are low. So your house will be worth more and you'll pay a lower rate on the loan. Just make sure you leave 20% of the value as equity. Hopefully you can pay off the work and still to the bathroom and maybe even the stair chair.

I am starting to stock up a bit as well. With the supply shortages I want to make sure I'm not short something I can't get. After 18 months I've finally found a jug of ammonia. I wanted it to make my own windshield wiper fluid but couldn't find ammonia anywhere.

Those magic erasers are great but they aren't magic and they don't always get the job done. We cut them in small pieces and use them to lift watercolor paint in my watercolor class. You just have to be careful you don't also peel or damage the paper.

I wouldn't trust any CBD oil unless you are getting it from a very reliable source and not even then as if it is just the hemp stuff it's useless. The best way is to go to a dispensary and talk to someone that is knowledgeable about what exact product can help with exactly what your problem is. That's what I did with Ramses. I went to MedMen. In California when they legalized marijuana they found more seniors than young people were buying cannabis and that more people were buying it for their dogs or pets. The funny thing here is that my vet couldn't prescribe or recommend it. He could only answer my questions about it, which were mostly will it hurt him and will it interact with any of his other meds. No to both so I asked the MedMen employee about exactly what I should buy for him and dosages. Turns out 2 drops was his limit. You have to work up to it and once he reached 2 drops he was OK but 3 drops made him loopy. Can't say if it helped his pain or increased his appetite but it didn't hurt him so I like to think it helped.

So Jack is finally going to retire? About time. He can get a job somewhere else doing the exact same thing. Do they have juvenile detention anywhere near by? He could probably teach night school through the community college. Adults wanting their GED or immigrants studying for their citizenship or people trying to improve their education to get better jobs.

I heard they are planning on an Indiana Jones 5. But for me 4. And no mention of Mutt or Shia LeBeouf. Call it Indiana Jones 4: there were no aliens.

I binge-watched a lot of stuff. Two seasons of Restored with Brett Waterman, Building off Grid, then got caught up on my shows. I've been watching them on the iPad except for CBS. I have to watch that on the laptop. BTW I think you had the wrong HBO subscription. I have HBO Now on the iPad. That is the good one and costs the same. But you can go back and watch anything you missed, plus it has the theater release movies. I'm going to watch Dune this weekend. The new one.

This year I'm watching NCIS, Young Sheldon, Ghosts, Bull, The Blacklist, The Rookie, New Amsterdam, The Connors, SNL, Seth Meyers, Colbert, A Million Little things and This is Us if it comes back. Not sure if it's renewed or not. They canceled NCIS: New Orleans and I'm not watching the new Hawaii one. Only Murders in the Building is only on the app. It was great and they are already renewed for a second season. I think What We Do in the Shadows is also only on the Hulu app. When Nature Calls is over and it wasn't that good.

PBS has a lot of stuff but it's staggered. Call the Midwife is on now as is Grantchester. But they will be done soon and something else will be on. I watch a lot of PBS. Finding Your Roots won't be back until next year. This Old House and Ask This Old House.

On HBO I watch Bill Maher and John Oliver. I also got to see the original UK version of Ghosts. the third season was this year, just a few months ago so hopefully there might be a fourth. It also gave me a chance to see what episodes the US version might be stealing and how they might be different. On TBS I watch Full Frontal with Samantha Bee because Miracle Workers is done for the year. On SYFY I watch Alien. On Peacock I watch Escape to the Chateau because they won't let me watch the rest of The Lost Symbol without paying for their subscription so fuck them. DIY has Restored and Building off the Grid. Discovery has Homestead Rescue and HGTV has Property Brothers and Houses with History. You'd like that. They take really old houses and fix them up. You'd like Restored with Brett Waterman too. He takes houses from Victorians to mid-century modern and her removes all of the horrible remodeling and puts them back as close to what they originally were as he can. During demolition he finds all sorts of clues as to what used to be there. Sometimes he even finds original things in attics or basements. I have a subscription to Acorn TV and watch Doc Martin, Midsommer Murders and right now Manhunt. I'm hoping they might bring back The Yorkshire Vet and maybe Miss Fisher or Agatha Raisin.

AMC used to have Hell on Wheels but it's over. They have all the Walking Dead programs now and I know you watch those. They also have Meerkat Manor. I used to watch that religiously until Flower died. Then they changed narrators and I lost interest. It's all pay to upgrade now so I deleted the app.

TNT has The Alienist. I heard they were going to make a third series but haven't heard anything since. So many things that were planned were dropped during Covid.

I used to watch Vikings on the History channel but it's over. I still watch Dr Pol but now I have to watch it live with the Spectrum app. Still like to tune in to the Puppy Bowl once a year on the Animal Planet app.

I could probably watch a lot of these on the laptop but it is so much easier to do so on the iPad with an app. Even paying for Hulu, Acorn and HBO I still watch more shows on the iPad than I ever had when I had cable and cheaper too. Plus I can go back and watch previous seasons and shows I've missed which I couldn't do with cable. Some of the apps let you watch live like TCM and PBS.