The Day that Goes Wrong

We had quite a day today. We managed to continue working, but everything that could go wrong seemed to do just that. 

I built the cabinet for the bathroom. It was IKEA, Godmorgan. We got it, along with the bathroom vanity a couple years ago, when they were being clearanced out. We got the vanity, the sink, and the cabinet for $360. 

Bonnie wanted to know about the set up under the sink, so I took this picture from my old post. It's from IKEA's website. We bought it in white, of course, but it has drawers underneath.

So Tim was working on plumbing, and I was in the livingroom putting together the matching cabinet, listening to a true crime podcast. Those things are addictive. Or maybe it is just me. I don't know. But I was listening to a podcast and assembling the cabinet. I'm really impressed with this furniture. It is so perfectly engineered. Everything fits together as it should, and it comes with a 10 year guarantee, and honestly, in 10 years we will be looking at 80 and won't much care. Anyways, I've gotten myself all off track. 

So I was putting together the cabinet and feeling as if I understood why kids love Legos. 

  

When I was finished, I cleaned up the bathroom light fixture to install. Tim was working on the bathtub/shower controls and he tested the shower and bathtub to make sure nothing leaked. When he was satisfied, he went down to the basement to turn off the water. I gathered up all the drop cloths and rags that we'd been using to sponge down the tile in the bathroom, and headed out the front door to hang them to dry. I heard a commotion. Tim had turned off the wrong water control and we had water spraying all over the bathroom. He tore back down to the basement and turned off the correct switch this time, and came back up the stairs. I was sopping up lots and lots of water. Even worse some small parts on the water valve had shot out. We found everything save one small spring. I think it went down the drain, actually. 

Tim was very frustrated. The good news is that although it was a lot of water, we got it all up and no damage was done. I said, "Well...I needed to get the floor mopped anyway."

We hung the cabinet, but it took frustratingly long time because it was being hung in an awkward space to the right of the sink, on a short wall. If we had not been rookies, we would have known to hang the cabinet before installing the vanity. Live and learn. 

Tim had to buy a new 'cartridge' for the bathroom valve, whatever that means, which irritated him.

We came home and worked to get some preparation done for the move, but  we both felt like we accomplished very little of our to-do list and we were a bit tired and cranky.

After supper, we heard that a boy was walking along the bank across the river from our house. He fell into the high river and was swept away. They mounted a water search and rescue, but he has not been found and now it is dark. 

The day before Mother's Day, and somewhere in my town a mother is not celebrating. 

Our irritations seemed quite ridiculous in light of the tragedy. 

Step by Step

 

Got the vanity in today. I really do like the sink a lot. I did the building of the vanity while Tim did the plumbing stuff. 

Tomorrow, he will hook up the bathtub/shower combo. I will be building the matching cabinet that will hang to the side of the sink. We'll get that hung, put the light up over the vanity, hang a mirror. 

Go us. 

Oklahomans have voted in a curriculum change. 

It has been chilly here. Freeze warnings tonight. 

Catching up again.

 Well...today was a big day: 

Not sure what my sister will do now that I'm not going to be walking over regularly to use her bathroom. She can always come over and use mine. I surely would not begrudge her. You will note the window right next to the toilet. I was very opposed to that. I argued that. It did me no good. You can bet  your bippy that there will be privacy film on the lower part. 

We are building the vanity right now, and will hang that tomorrow. It's quite exciting to see it all coming together. All these things that we've been collecting are being dragged out from their storage places. Some of them have been stored so long that I can't even remember them. 

Senility makes life so much more exciting, don't you think? 

I started out the day sponging down the bathtub surround again to smooth out the thinset. Tim is very unhappy with the large scale tile. He thinks it is too large for the space. I'm okay with it. We're sure not ripping it out. He's already making plans for it "if it doesn't hold up". (Note to self: Don't let him take a hammer in the bathroom.)

I've been promising to show Dave my plants. I have 20 tomato plants and 12 pepper plants. They all look happy. I've got a dozen cucumbers started inside. They look happy too. 

I had my 'class' today for the knee replacement stuff. They want us to have a walker, which we can rent from the hospital. I hadn't even thought of a walker, but we stopped by Goodwill, and we got one that looks brand new. It was marked $15.99, but had a half off tag, which means it should have been $8, but somehow, it wound up costing $4.99. So. Good news there. I told my sister about it and said, "It's really something that will be nice to pass forward when I'm done with it." Turns out her youngest son, who was badly injured in Iraq by an IED is going to have a knee replacement in the near future. "Tell him he can have my walker..." 

One thing that surprised me was that they said I'd need home health care for 2 or 3 weeks. I surely did NOT like the sounds of that. I was envisioning people who come into your house and sit around all day doing your house work and keeping an eye on you. How do you take a nap if you're tired with a stranger in your house? And let's face it: I'm just not comfortable with the idea of strangers in my house, period.

My sister laughed at me. "They're not talking about home health aides. They are talking about a nurse who comes in, makes sure that you're okay, reports back to the doctor if there are any issues, etc. 20 minutes, tops, and they are back out the door." Made me feel better. That I can live with. 

As Tim and I walked into the hospital, church bells began to ring out across the town. They went on and on. I said, "They are probably celebrating the new pope." 

He'll continue on the work of Francis, which is encouraging to me, although I'm not Catholic. 

He's not reticent about his views on the current American politics. 

Pope Leo XIV, the first American pontiff, has quickly established himself as a progressive leader in the mold of Pope Francis, championing immigrant rights and social justice. He has been outspoken in his criticism of right-wing U.S. politicians, particularly Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance. In a widely circulated post, Leo XIV declared, "JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn't ask us to rank our love for others," directly rebutting Vance's attempt to justify restrictive immigration policies with Christian doctrine. Leo has also condemned Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and criticized his administration’s collaboration with El Salvador on deportations, highlighting the moral cost of such policies.

This progressive stance has sparked a fierce backlash from the American right. Far-right activist Laura Loomer was among the first to denounce Pope Leo XIV, labeling him a "WOKE MARXIST POPE" and accusing him of supporting "illegal aliens and open borders." Loomer specifically pointed to Leo’s support for Dreamers and his condemnation of Trump’s use of the term "bad hombres," calling it "racist". Other MAGA-aligned commentators, like Sean Davis of The Federalist and strategist Joey Mannarino, have echoed these criticisms, accusing Leo of pushing a globalist and leftist agenda that undermines national sovereignty and Catholic tradition.

Despite this right-wing outrage, Pope Leo XIV remains steadfast in his advocacy for immigrants and the marginalized, urging the Church to "build bridges" and "receive with open arms everyone-everyone-who needs our charity, our presence, our dialogue, and love." His leadership signals a continued commitment to social justice, even in the face of intense conservative opposition.

(Cue the cries of 'separation of church and state!' from the same people who want to put the ten commandments in every classroom.)

Interesting side note: He went to Villanova University, just outside of Philadelphia, not far from where I've got family. 

I read this today:

It reminded me of this: https://www.reuters.com/business/bill-gates-give-away-fortune-by-2045-200bn-worlds-poorest-2025-05-08/

I hope that everyone has a good weekend. 

Back, Bathrooms, and Hummingbirds.

Today started out kind of jumping around. First of all, I really tweaked my back moving a shelving unit Saturday. It wasn't that it was all that heavy. I think that I just twisted wrong. It initially hurt, but working in the damp and cold aggravated it something awful. With a bad right knee and knotted muscles on the left side of my spine, I was really in a pickle. I had to lift my legs with my hands to get into the car. 

I tried to avoid making things worse the next day, but predictably, that did not work at all. I pulled in a lawn chair to 'back butter' the tile for the bathroom, but even reaching those out to Tim did not help the situation. 

Tim bought a heating pad for me, and I used a lot of Ben-Gay, but by bedtime, I have a confession. I had one temazepam left from the last time that I twisted my back wrong, and lord knows how old that was, but I took it anyway. I went to bed with my heating pad. 

I am pleased to say that when I woke up this morning, I certainly wasn't 100%, but I could move, albeit slowly and carefully, taking special pains not to twist anything. 

Tim had to go to the reassessment hearing. We bought a house for $30,000 5 or 6 years ago, and they appraised it at $138,000.  We are honestly confused by this. We expected an increase, but it is a 1140 square foot, 2 bed, 1 bath house that they listed  as being a two family dwelling (how that mistake was made is not clear). They also said that it had a fireplace. It does not. It is a very old house which sits over a hand dug earthen basement. The basement is not a useable space at all. It's sole purpose being to access the drains and pipes of the house. 

She made the changes, but the thing she was most interested in was the neighbor's house. Like us, he owns multiple houses, which are poorly maintained, the porches covered with garbage and debris. The woman taking the notes at the meeting advised Tim to take those pictures to the next meeting, that they will certainly impact the property values of our houses. This neighbor has long said that he is friends with an official on the zoning committee and so he will never be cited. I guess, in the end that turned out to be good news for the neighborhood. 

So. Tim felt better. 

We had to get down to the new house right away. Tim had set a trap for the raccoon. We caught one, but that very night, another helpful raccoon wandered in to do a quality assurance check of the cat food at 3:30 AM. Tim set the trail cam up to keep an eye on the livetrap, and sure enough, there was something in the trap this morning. It was Tiger, who I hadn't seen for a while. 

When we got there, he meowed at us. We opened the door to the trap and he followed me into the garage to get breakfast.

Then we got to work. We finished the tiling. Tomorrow, we will grout it. 

Tim did grout the floor. I did manage to make myself useful sponging the excess grout with him later. 

I heard Tim talking in the living room. A humming bird had managed to get itself inside. I picked him up gently and carried him outside, and was delighted that he sat on my fingertips for quite a while looking around in an unbothered way. Finally he flew off, straight up to the very top of a huge pine tree. 

It is not a good picture because it was a quick snap with the phone. 

I sent it to my sister who lives within sight of the new house. She didn't know the hummingbirds had returned, so she was delighted too. 

This is her picture from last year. She was sitting on the porch enjoying a sunny evening, and this fellow flew down and landed on her toe. He sat and watched her for quite some time. 

I will close with a laugh. 

or this...

We bought the bead board that will go around the bottom of the bathroom walls. We will install that tomorrow, and then we'll be ready to put in the bathroom 'appliances'. Pretty excited about that. 

oh...and I bought the shower curtain today. 

Food for Thought

Shorty

 

Incredibly helpful neighborhood raccoon faithfully shows up at o'dark-thirty to feed cats. 

Today we worked on tiling the bathroom. The green is water proofing on the cement board. The gray is the color of the bathroom. We are about 1/2 way done with the job. Tim is upset that it is not perfect. We will finish the tiling tomorrow, grout it. Then on to the next project.  

I meant to take pictures of my happy pepper and tomato plants for Dave. They are not in the ground yet. We don't plant our gardens until the end of May. Tomorrow, I will try to remember to do get pictures of my plants though. 

Catching up.

 It has been a busy week. I got back from my son and daughter-in-law's house and was up the next day for a early morning pre-op appointment at the hospital where I am having my knee replacement. Such an efficient set up. You sign in, and you go from the nurse who does your history, to the anesthesiologist who asks his questions and tells you about the general anesthetic and also about the nerve block they use that makes the first few days bearable. Then down the hall for an EKG, a chest x-ray, down to the lab, and then you are done. Before I even got home, they were calling me to ask if I wanted to attend a 'what to expect' class a week prior to surgery. I took them up on that. 

Only thing was that for whatever reason, the chest x-rays needed to be done again, so I had to go back Wednesday. 

And then I had a pre-op appointment this morning, with my own doctor, which I don't quite understand since they pretty much just asked me the same questions that I'd answered at the hospital. Indeed, they are the same questions that I answer at the beginning of every doctor's appointment. They also are not at all involved with this surgery.

I did find out about the whole recorder thing. It's a speech to text thing that types up the office visit. It allows her to go back through and pick out the pertinent details instead of requiring her to type as she talks. She is a slow typist, she tells me. So. That explains that. 

One thing that came out of this meeting is that Monday, when I was at the hospital pre-op thing, my blood pressure was 98/53 or some such thing. I made a mental note of this. It certainly explains some difficulties that I'd been having. I brought that up today. My weight loss has reduced my blood pressure enough that I've halved that medication, which made me very happy. I've lost 4 more pounds since my last visit. 

So...we're working on the bathroom right now. I painted it. I think I told you that I wanted it dark. Tim wanted it lighter. Interestingly enough, we got a Benjamin Moore paint. The first thing is that it covered beautifully with just one coat, unlike the Magnolia Home Paint we got for the kitchen, which required two coats. The best part is that when it dried, it was not as light as Tim wanted it, although not as dark as I wanted it. It compromised for us. 

The shower controls are in (spoiler: Not Moen, who has been sending me coupons and discount offers like crazy. Amazing what happens when you say you'll never purchase another product from them. Another spoiler: those coupons will not be used. I may not have mentioned it, but I am a little stubborn.)

Tim waterproofed the cement board around the tub. Tomorrow, we'll be able to install the tile. 

I've gotten all my bulbs and seeds planted in the flower garden. Yesterday, I planted 4 shrubs. Two of them I am not at all sure about, but the other two look pretty healthy. I planted my peppers and tomatoes sometime back. I just transplanted them from their little trays into larger cups. They look quite healthy and happy. I took two trays of cups to the greenhouse and I'm expecting great things. My starter trays are full once again with cucumbers and jalapenos. 

I filled in a ditch. 

We've got a coon or something in the garage. He is strong enough to pull the lid off the garbage can and he helps himself to the corn. We have the trail camera set up. 

Some hero tore down the Ultra Maga sign along the highway coming into town.