Just the Facts

Going to my son's house was a nice little mini-vacation. I had to cut it short by a day because I had a pre-op appointment sprung on me, but at this point, I really want nothing more than to get this knee taken care of, so I simply returned a day early.

I got there Thursday, and the youngest girl was so excited to see me. The first thing she wanted to do was to show me her bedroom. She has made the move from a crib to a regular bed. Plus...there is a fish named Lucy sharing the room and this is something that I needed to see right away. Her vocabulary has grown by leaps and bounds since I saw her last, and that part is fun too, holding actual conversations with her. 

I met the oldest girl at the bus, and there was joyous shouts of "Grandma!!!!" and wide flung arms. 

The guest room is new too. It used to be the nursery, but now that 'baby' has moved down the hall, to the room directly across from her sister's room, which is where the old guest room used to be. New paint, new furniture, new art on the walls, new bedding and curtains. I was the first guest to use it, and it was a very comfortable room.

The competition was a long day, but fun, and another gold medal came home. She thinks that she is rich. 

The following day was too short, but I was on the road by noon. It was a windy day, and the trip was exhausting. Truck traffic was heavy and the wind was causing the trailers to veer. I hate that. I got home by six and was in bed by nine. 

The pre-op stuff went well. I have a knee replacement 'what to expect' meeting on the 8th, six days before the surgery. 

It was a beautiful day today. I spent the afternoon in the sun planting flowers at the new house. The cats meet us at the house now that the weather is nice. Spaying is in their near future. 

Tim got the bathroom ceiling painted, we got the paint for the walls. He decided against the darker wall color and we went with a lighter gray. Compromise is everything. 

Home again, home again. Stir fry for supper, 

Our local news had a reporter who was one of 100 reporters invited to tRUMP's first hundred days press conference. It was easy to see why. He interviewed Marjorie Taylor Greene to get her take on tariffs and the 'under represented people of Pennsylvania'. He talked about 'illegals'. He was enthusiastic. There was one side to all this controversy as far as I could tell. 

Meanwhile, the tariffs have resulted in a 49% drop in Chinese imports alone. This is expected to have a ripple effect. Layoffs at the docks, followed by layoffs for long haul truckers. They are predicting COVID level shortages on store shelves by the end of May. 

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/economics/product-shortages-empty-store-shelves-loom-falling-shipments-china-rcna202812

All properties in our county are being reappraised for tax purposes. We got our first appraisal back. They have determined the property value has increased seven-fold, which is crazy. This is an 1104 square foot house, two bedrooms, one bath. The average price for houses here is $87 a square foot. This is not a luxury house by any means. $138.000 is crazy. 

So that was today. Still burned out.

Yet another customer service adventure.

We have the grinder pump ready to go. Tim has to pick up 50 feet of 3-12 wire...or is it 12-3 wire? Once that's hooked up to the breaker box, our drains are ready to go. The water has been hooked up for some time now, but it has not been turned on in the house. Tim did not water coming in until there was a way for it to drain out. 

We're going great guns on the bathroom. We have gray tile for the floor and I finished putting it down today. The tile for the shower is 12 x 24 large ceramic tile that is lightly veined in gray, like marble (but it is not). The only thing that we need to buy at this point is the white beadboard for the bottom half of the wall and a quart of dark gray paint for the upper wall. The picture is not our bathroom, but just an picture shamelessly stolen to give you an idea of the look. 

We bought a MOEN shower/tub assembly. Tim opened the box to install it. Much to his surprise there were no instructions. I went online to their website. It asked for the model number, which I put in. I received a 404 message. Thinking that I had typed something wrong, I verified the number, typed it in again, and got the same message. Page not found. 

Looking around on line, I discovered that I was not the only one with the issue. So...I called the help line. 

Predictably, all their operators were busy.

They gave the option of holding (approximate wait time was given as 4 minutes) or leaving a number for call back. 4 minutes did not seem bad, so I continued to hold. After 5 minutes, I received another message, giving me the option of holding (approximate wait time: still 4 minutes) or leaving a number for call back. I left my number. 1 hour and 22 minutes later, I hadn't gotten the promised call back. I went on their website and filled out a form. Model number. no instructions, can't access instructions on line, please advise. But when I hit send, it gave me a message. I needed to include a picture of the item. Since I was in the car, and the faucet was on the kitchen counter, I had to wait a few minutes, but as soon as we got back to the house, I took a picture. Before I could hit send, everything was lost. Just disappeared.

Tim said disgustedly, "Forget it. We are returning it." 

Because I am a stubborn woman, I tried their customer service line once more. There was a one minute wait this time, and so I waited. My call was answered. I explained the problem. 

"No," she said. "We do not include instructions in our products anymore. They are available on line."

"But I keep getting the 404 page not found response," I explained. "We're putting a bathroom together, and I just really want the instructions...that's all we need."

She asked for the model number. I gave it to her. She asked when it was bought. 

"Last week, at Lowe's," I said. 

"Do you have proof of that?"

I was a bit flabbergasted. This was an expensive faucet. It was not a clearance item. They had the item set up as part of a display on the way, and Tim had selected it from the display. It was one of several of the boxed items on the shelf.  

She jumped on my hesitation. "Do you have a receipt?" 

"Of course we have a receipt," I answered, and I was starting to get irritated. "Do I have the receipt with me right now? No. But this is a faucet purchased last week from Lowes!" 

She got irritated right back. "I'm trying to help you and I am trying to determine if the item is under warranty." 

I said, "I am not calling about a warranty. I am calling about instructions." 

She made some spluttery noises, and I said, "You know what? Forget it. We'll return the item to the store. I'm done here." 

And I was. 

I got an e-mail which included instructions along with the disclaimer "While these instructions are not for the assembly that you have, you can use them for your product." Except they didn't answer Tim's questions about our installation.

I replied to the e-mail, stating that the product was being returned and that we would never buy a MOEN product again. 

The reply came quickly: they offered us 75% off our next MOEN product. 

Yeesh. Marked as spam and deleted.

I'm all packed and ready to get up early tomorrow. I'm headed east for 4 days with my son and his family. I had to cut a day off the end of it, because of an unexpected appointment with the orthopedic surgeon, but I'm looking forward to this more than I can say. 

Good night!

My town: 

The Allegheny River is running pretty high. 

When we move, the town nearest to us has a post office and a church. Not sure how many people live in the town, but the population of the township is 450 people. 

What's Shaking?

 It has been an aggravating bunch of days. The new washer we installed was 'walking'. Vibrating itself right out of its place. We have never had a washer do that before. We thought we had the problem fixed by putting a rubber vibration absorbing mat underneath it. We were in a hurry, things to do, places to be, holiday weekend, etc, and then we received a phone call the next morning that the door wouldn't open. A mechanical issue on top of everything else?!!!! It was a brand new $1800 washer! 

So...although we were headed out of town, we turned around and went back to her house to assess the situation. 

The part that wasn't relayed in the telling of the story is that the door wouldn't open because the damned thing had 'walked' once again, and pinned the front of itself against a door molding. 

We simply didn't have time to trouble shoot it and spend a day working on it, so I said, "We're going to have to do this after the holiday. Can you do without a washer over the weekend, while we figure out what we're going to do next?" 

She said that she could. 

That thing has been hanging over our heads all weekend. We've installed many washers in many places, and we've never had this.

Today is Tim's birthday. He wanted to go have lunch at his favorite little restaurant in Pleasantville. They are only open until 2, but we had that darned washer to figure out and a carload of tools, since he wasn't sure what we would actually need to solve this problem, if we could even solve it at all. 

My guess was that it was not level. It's a front loader which we have not got a lot of experience with. Maybe they are fussier than top loaders. Tim was reading up on it while I was getting ready to go this morning. He said, "They say that there are four packing bolts that have to be removed. If they are not removed, it will cause a serious vibration." 

Now...surely it could not be that easy...

But...I am happy to say that it was. He sat down with the owners manual, read where they would be found, climbed back there to have a look, and lo...there they were. He removed them, Deb tossed her weekend of laundry in and we started up the machine. This time, we waited. We sat right there and watched it through the whole cycle until it began to spin. 

Smooth as silk. 

If we said it once today, we've said it a dozen times..."Oh, I'm so glad that washer is figured out..." and we are. Best birthday present ever! It was sorted out so quickly that we met up with my sister and brother in law and had lunch out. We ran to the Mennonite Grocery and picked up a few things, and then came home. 

It's been a quiet night. Tomorrow, we'll hit the road running once again. We're putting the bathroom together, which is exciting. The Township employee is coming to put the electronics back in the grinder pump for the sewage system (each property has its own grinder and pump which pushes everything into the main line). Since our property sat vacant for some years, the electronics were removed and will be replaced Wednesday morning. We will be able to hook our drains into the system. Yay!

Tim has this crazy idea that we can get the bathroom done before my knee replacement, and I can recuperate there. I don't know if all that can happen before the 14th of May, but we'll see. We've got all the stuff to get it done. 

It would be nice. 

You know what else is nice? We've got a ten day forecast and no snow predicted! 

Our Easter was nice too. I hope yours was as well.

Good Friday

 We headed up to Levi's to buy some lumber to finish Tim's shed for "that which is of vital importance and cannot be gotten rid of. And furthermore, it can't be stored in the garage because...just because". 

We started out of town and the new washer we installed yesterday had a door that would not open. So. We turned around and went back. 

We got that sorted. 

We turned around and headed back into town, but there was a big sale going on at one of the historic houses going out of town, and Tim saw a cabinet that might work in the basement for small things"That are of vital importance and cannot be gotten rid of. And furthermore, it can't be stored in the garage because...just because."

It turned out that the cabinet would not work because it did not have shelves.

Luckily, it was not a wasted trip...he found a turkey hunting vest that came with a free hat. He also found a ceramic coated cast iron skillet that I did not want but he did. 

I wandered off, looking and did not see anything that I really wanted. There was a lot of art, and there was a painting of the Battle of Bunker Hill/the Death of General Warren, which, of course, is the man our town is named for. I played his grieving mother at a historical presentation once. 

But while the house we live in now is grand enough to pull off a print like this in an ornate frame, it would probably look kind of silly in our rustic little cabin. Plus it was $75. Those two things. 

There was a lot of gorgeous furniture, but I went right on by. Because I know I've got gorgeous furniture to get rid of. 

And while I was being so sensible, I walked past table after table of interesting things, and I noticed this tote which contained a 12 place setting of these. And I told myself quite firmly that I needed dishes like I needed a swift kick in the pants. But I couldn't help noticing that they matched the kitchen. They were marked $5 for all, which I was sure could not possibly be correct.

While I was staring at them, having a very sensible conversation with myself, Tim walked up with his turkey vest and the ceramic coated cast iron skillet which I had specifically said that I did not want, since I have a nice cast iron skillet (albeit without the ceramic, which was  orange, which did not match with the kitchen anyways). He said, "I think this skillet is from Belgium." 

He said, "What? Did you want those dishes?" 

I said, "They are pretty. They do match with the kitchen, but no, we don't need them. I'm sure that $5 means does not mean the whole box," but just that quick, Tim said, "Let me ask." 

The man who was not in charge scurried off to ask the woman who was in charge, and came back to say, "Yes. My wife says that is the price for all of it," and so it was done. 

Tim said, as we were driving away, "The tote will come in handy and the dishes will look quite nice with your new silverware," (which I also needed like I needed a kick in the pants, but that didn't stop me then, either.)

I'm not sure what is happening to me, people. 

We got to Levi's only to discover that the sawmill was closed. It was Good Friday. I'm sure he thinks we are heathens. 

I spent a couple hours digging in the dirt and planting bulbs for next spring. Crocus, grape hyacinth, daffodils, tulips and iris. I know that they are usually planted in fall but according to the advertising, it said that I could plant them as soon as the danger of frost was over in the spring. So. I guess that means that they establish over the summer. I don't know, but it will be a good experiment. 

We worked on Tim's shed for a while, but then it began to rain. 

We put everything away and headed for home. The rain stopped by the time that we pulled into town. Natch. 

We had a return to post and after the post office, we stopped in at Lowe's because Tim wanted to price shower/bathtub controls. He knew what he wanted. He'd seen them in Titusville, but wanted to compare the price. "We won't buy it until Wednesday though," he said. We have property taxes to pay next week.

While he was looking, I was looking too, and I shouldn't have been, but I found columbine plants on clearance for $4 each, and it reminded me of Weaver and how she loved her aquilegia. I stood looking at them. Tim found what he wanted, and decided to use the Lowe's card, which would delay the payment until after the taxes were paid. I said, "Well...if we're going to do that...," and grabbed two columbines and two salvia plants. 

I can't wait to go back up and dig in the dirt some more. This day made me very happy. At least for the next week, temperatures are supposed to remain warm. 

Senator Van Hollen's trip to El Salvador was very encouraging. His press conference was very plain spoken. We need plain speakers right now. He says that more senators will be headed to El Salvador. 

Senator Murkowski is saying it out loud too. 

I am encouraged that people like Jerome Powell are speaking up. Public Health groups are speaking out, calling for RFK Jr. resignation. Some officials in that department have left rather than violate their own ethics. People are speaking out. 

So must we. 

Who's a good boy?

Let's have a nice story today: 

Not My Day

 So...I had to get a new picture for my driver's license, and so I did. My wallet was in another vehicle, and we were headed out, and so I put it in a safe place intending to put it in my wallet once it was retrieved from the other vehicle. 

Yeah. I know.

It will turn up. 

Today has been a frustrating day. A washer in a tenant's house needed to be replaced. It is a small house. She is a person with small decorative touches EVERYWHERE. The good news is that nothing was broken. The bad news is that the new washer doesn't fit in the space that the old washer fit into. 

In the process of trying to make this happen, I got my fingers smashed but good. Interesting phrase. Did you ever stop to think about it? It was not good. I almost cried. 

It sleeted and rained through out the day. Seemed to rain the very worst when I was out in it. 

Tomorrow we have snow in the forecast. We also have 'plan b' for the washer.

Compromising

 I really do want to be clear that my 'dilemma' for lack of a better term, was not whether I should replace the knobs. I knew that eventually I would replace them. It is just something that I did not need to do right now, not really. 

But the beige didn't match, and that bugged me. Everything else was so perfect...but the knobs did not match. 

And it was stupid, because when Tim and I married, I lived in a house with a kitchen that was functional. It was always something that we wanted to do, but we had five kids between us and Tim felt very strongly that kids needed to go to college, or at least some sort of vocational school, and so that was the priority. 

Tim is a machinist. a precision machinist. That was a pretty secure job until Reagan's NAFTA sent those jobs overseas to be done by other machinists in other countries who would do the job for a fraction of the cost. (Think Mexico or Eastern European countries). That began a long period of layoffs for him. At one point, he was laid off from 3 different machinist jobs in one year. 

So...yeah...the kitchen took a back seat. Keeping a roof over our heads, raising kids, cutting firewood. Those were hard working years, but we did okay. We both kind of saw the writing on the wall, and managed to get our house paid off before things went entirely to hell. 

And in his frustration, Tim said, "I will never depend on a company for my living again." 

And that's when he got into buying fixer-uppers.

We moved into town probably about 2010 or  '11, and we live in a hundred year old house. And it is a nice old house. Don't get me wrong, it needs spruced up outside, but it's a gorgeous place on the inside with all the quirks of an old house. No closets for one thing. Doors on every room. The kitchen needed updating too. Old cabinets. Limited electrical outlets. A design that probably was just fine a hundred years ago, but today...well...it just doesn't work. Tim talked about a new kitchen...but...well...it didn't happen, and I didn't push, but we made an awful lot of nice kitchens for tenants and for home buyers. 

So...it's worked for us, and now we are building our own house. We've been collecting things for the new house for a long time, and now, at last, all those pipe dreams are coming to life before our delighted eyes. 

After 27 years, I have a new kitchen. Well. Pretty much new. The cupboards are reclaimed from someone else's tragedy. A tornado dropped three trees on his house and since he never liked the lay out of his kitchen, he decided to use the insurance money to fix the house and to build his own dream kitchen. We got his old cabinets for $500. 

(He left the knobs on the doors and drawers.) 

But yeah. I scrubbed all those cupboards out and they look good as new. We had an Amish carpenter build the sink cupboard to match the existing cupboards and it does. The appliances are new. The design is my own. We picked our color and our countertop. We have a antique butcher block to move inside the house when the ground is dry enough to let the tractor close enough to bring it through the sliding doors. Looks something like this: It will be my kitchen island. 

Guess What? Ellie K's comment reminded me! She told me the story about her butcher block before, and it triggered my memory that I'd written about my butcher block 5 years ago, when I got it. An old very popular restaurant had closed in 1996 after a family tragedy. After the owner died, the contents were sold. I stood in line with over a hundred people. I wasn't even sure that I would get in on the first wave of people, but I did. I went straight to this table, picked up the tag and went straight to the cashier and bought it. I got in at 9:15 and I was on my way home at 9:45. It was so very crowded, and it was in the early days of covid when no one was quite sure what we were dealing with. The crowds made me nervous. This is our butcher block though. I'd forgotten that I wrote about it, let alone had a picture. It has been standing patiently down at the old house, carefully wrapped and waiting for us to get around to building that darn house we'd been talking about. 

Above it will hang another auction find: 

Once the windows are trimmed and my shelves up, and the microwave bought for in the corner, the kitchen will be pretty much done. 

And then we'll be putting the bathroom together. 

All this to say, with all we have to do, I felt very silly about wanting new knobs for the cupboards. I mean, I'm a very lucky woman, and we've got a lot to do. 

But they didn't match, and it was just one of those things. One of those ridiculous things. It is surely something that I could have done at some point in the future. There was no need to do it now. None. 

It was Mary Moon's comment with a link to some gorgeous knobs that got me doing some internet looking. I looked at stainless steel ones. I just felt like they needed to be more organic, if that makes sense. I mean, I spent hours looking. I found some beautiful ones that I wanted something awful, but they were almost $5 a piece. 

In the end, what I came up with was a compromise. I got these. For $30, I got 35 of them, and the important thing is that they match. I'm not going to be groaning to myself every time I look at that kitchen. They match. They'll work. They will keep me happy until such a time as I don't feel guilty about replacing them if I still want to. 

I spent this morning putting up the brushed nickel trim around the ceramic tile. Tim picked it out, but he didn't like it after it was up. I'm not sure why. I think it looks just fine. 

I also had a doctor's appointment this afternoon. I was surprised that the visit was recorded. Probably because I argued against the medication. I hadn't been rude. I'd made it very clear. I told them that I thought they were being unnecessarily forceful about the medication. I made it clear that I'd only had one high A1C reading. I made it clear that everything that I'd read is that medication should only be used after two high readings AND after it was determined that it couldn't be controlled by diet and exercise. I mean, it's moot now. My readings are once again in the normal range, which indicated to me that whatever was going on could obviously be controlled by diet and exercise. 

She agreed that I'd done great. She was pleased with the labs. She was pleased with the weight loss and she agreed that I was taking it very seriously. She also said that most people 'struggle'. I guess that explains it right there. I guess that we reached a compromise as well. She understands that I am not 'most people'. I understand that she doesn't mind being proven wrong, and that I don't need to feel bad about sticking to my guns with her. So. That's good. 

We're having a thunderstorm. I do love a nice thunderstorm. On that bright note, I'll log off and get supper dishes done.