How Does Your Garden Grow?

Doesn't Petunia look adorable with her Queen of Hearts petunias?

Wild Morning Glories aka Devil's Weed

A tiny tomato in and indoor pot

Himself watching the perimeter drain being unclogged

The smoke plume turned the sky other worldly as if we were on Mars. 

The new birthday banner to celebrate the July birthdays

Blueberries that were turned into muffins

Somebody should weed the Hydrangea

How does your garden grow?

Monet and Me

are admiring the new front doors installed by our Nephew

Monet shows off the fancy lock. Like lots of things, it requires an app to work from your phone. You can also gain entry by using a fingerprint, passcode, or if the electricity and the Internet fail, you can use a key.

Monet is showing off the fan window and the fact the mullions are embedded inside the glass making glass cleaning a breeze.

The Nephew also fixed the storm door and now it closes and locks properly.

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. The Nephew-in-Law installed new shower light/fan.

2. I made brunch with a sausage and apple strata. The Eldest and I had mimosas, too

3. I finished the January junk journal!

4. The Eldest was cuddling Calli and asked her, "Who is my fluffy, little princess?" Calli meowed back Me

5. Teague picked me up after my doctor's appointment, and we went out to breakfast.

How was your week?

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. Good news, bad news. The new front doors arrived. The bad news, the company mixed up the doors. New doors ordered and will be installed in the Spring. 

2. The pantry is still organized.

3. We went to Beef's Qi Gong and Reiki Circle. Teague went, too.

4. Boot shoes that I liked went on sale.

5. Invited by a friend to attend his Fall Prevention Exercise Class via Zoom. 

How was your week?

TBT Reprints from CJ's Whine and Cheeze

  In 2003, Ma had a stroke. Dad was her full time caregiver until he he had a car accident that totaled the car. So in 2006, I became their chauffeur among other jobs.

At the time, to deal with the stress of running two households and working, I kept a blog entitled CJ's Whine and Cheeze. Egged on by some friends who enjoyed the first read through, you'll see your part when it comes by.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

The Plumber and Meals on Wheels

I was acting out the ear visit blog for Himself. "Oh, by the way, I volunteered your services at Ma's."

He eyed me suspiciously.

"Their toilet's not flushing."

"What do you mean, 'not flushing'?"

"It doesn't flush. Something's wrong with the handle. I think the chain fell off."

"Did you lift the lid to the tank to check?"

I huffed deeply and looked to the heavens. "Looking inside the toilet tank is not a Little Princess job."

His turn to huff.

"I told Dad about the problem, but just in case it's more involved, I volunteered you. I'll bring meals on wheels, and we can go for a visit on Sunday, and you can fix the toilet," I said brightly. I spent Saturday making two poor man's lasagnas. One to take and one for the girls to heat up. I knew they would prefer to stay home with the Xbox, computer, and cable tv rather than a visit to Grandma's where they don't even have a toilet that flushes, let alone cable.

Sunday morning, I called, just in case the toilet had been fixed. Dad answered the phone. "Hi, it's me. Did you fix the toilet?" I knew what the answer was going to be. After I hung up, I grabbed Himself armed with his tools, and my lasagna, and we headed down the Pike. We stopped at the store, the nice, clean, modern, grocery store, two miles from the folks' house. We did not stop at Market Basket. I picked up a loaf of Italian bread, bag of salad, cherry tomatoes, soda, and a lemon meringue pie to top off dinner.

Ma was happy to see us, happier to see Himself as the toilet was not in flush condition for at least five days. I didn't want to think about what they had been doing in those five days.

Himself lifted the toilet lid and braved the inspection inside the tank. "It just needs a new handle," he informed us. "It's a five minute job."

I held my breath because I've heard five minute jobs before. I followed him out to the car.

"It's not going to take the two of us to go buy a toilet handle. You're running away!"

"Damn straight, I am. After you told her it was only a five minute job, I didn't want to stick around to hear another chorus of the "He's Stupid" song. By the way, did you bring the epoxy that you used to fix the crack in our toilet?"

"No, it just needs a handle. What?"

"I didn't say anything," I looked out the window.

We returned from the big hardware store with the toilet handle. I set the table, dumped salad into bowls, and held my breath waiting to hear the exclamation, "Horse's Patoot!" Dad came in from church, pleasantries were exchanged, and we could hear the happy gurgle of a flushing toilet.

I was ready to serve the main course, and I was getting nervous. At least ten minutes had elapsed with Himself ensconced in the bathroom. I approached the closed bathroom door, and listened. There was the rush of water, but no "Horse's Patoot!" I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. "Is everything ok in there?"

He opened the door. "Yeah."

"Good, let's eat."

We had a nice lunch and stayed for a short visit as Himself had to work on a project for a text book publisher.

Dad walked us to the door, and we all eyed the crumbling stairs. "I have some bricks and when it gets a little warmer, I'll fix the stairs."

While starting the engine, Himself was mumbling. He backed the car out of the driveway and we waved goodbye to Dad.

"What are you mumbling about?"

"He won't even lift the lid to the toilet tank to see what's wrong, and he's going to fix the stairs!"

I laughed. I didn't even breathe that maybe lifting the lid to the toilet tank wasn't a Little Prince's job either. "Hey, what took you so long in there. I thought you said it was a five minute job."

"It was less than five minutes. I was trying to stall so he wouldn't catch hell all afternoon."

"Yeah, she's going to be singing the "You're Stupid" song like the anvil chorus all afternoon.

"Course, I don't blame him. When I'm 88, I don't want to be bothered with home maintenance."

"I hope we get one good son-in-law out of the deal to do the work."

"The hell with that! I have no attachment to the house. We're going to move into a condo where I don't have to worry about maintenance, shoveling, mowing."

"Sounds good to me, though I'll miss the sunroom."

"Maybe we can find you a patio with a southern exposure."

NB: No tomatoes were injured, maimed or murdered during this production.

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week

1. When you don't want to cook, chicken stir fry over ramen is quick and easy

2. 2 Old ladies are going on the road again at the end of the month

3. A long talk with my cousin. She's been ill so it was good to catch up

4. The washer was fixed

5. This week I received birthday greetings galore and a cute video of the grandniece and nephew singing the birthday song sent by their mother.

How was your week?

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. Attended the annual family gathering and met the two grandnieces.

2. I saw a bluebird pair in the backyard. The female flew towards the woods and the male stood guard on the corner of the sunroom roof.

3. I asked the florist to trim the stems for me so the bouquet would fit in the vase at the cemetery. She trimmed them perfectly

4. On the way to the cemetery I saw a man walking along that reminded me of dad with his Bermuda shorts and knee socks.

5. The washer repairman said the leak was from the soap dispenser. It would take a week or so to get the part in. I can still use the washer and I don't have to go to the laundromat. the Little Princess is very happy.

How was your week?

T Stands for Refreshing

 

A potential heatwave (3 days of 90 oF  + temperatures) started on Sunday. Himself had asked A ,the young man, who helped out with shoveling the driveway if he could take care of cutting up the large branch that fell on Friday and cutting down a small-ish tree

I went out to ask A if he wanted something cold to drink. I had water, Mountain Dew, and Pure Leaf Ice Tea. A asked for water and I had the ice tea. 

What's your beverage of choice when the temperatures skyrocket?

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. Father's Day greetings for Himself and then take-out from Outback

2. Finally got around to having a consult for new exterior doors

3. After Himself used the car, he set the radio to the classical music station I like to listen to so it was already when I went to work.

4. Hazy, hot, and humid weather just the way I like it.

5. Perfect weather for a Raspberry Lime Rickey

How was your week?

T Stands for Miss Adventure

 

Here she is. Miss Adventure. Looking all sweet and innocent like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth. What did she do, you ask?

Miss Adventure gave me quite the scare.  I had taken a nap and when I got up, it was kitty dinner time. I got their dishes and opened up a can. Calli is usually the first to come running, but no sign of her. Quill was pacing in the kitchen and seemed a little agitated.

"Who wants supper?", I called. That usually brings her running. "Go to places." and I brought the dishes to their feeding stations. Quill followed, but he circled back to the middle of the kitchen.

I went to look for Calli in my bedroom. We had taken a nap together. I thought she might have gone under the bed or to a hidey-hole. I called and called her. No Calli.

Quill was still pacing in the kitchen. Now, I live in a dollhouse. It's not that big and two rooms are closed off  to the kitties. (the office/studio and The Eldest's room). I looked around the living room and dining room. The Eldest helped.

"Where's Calli?" I asked Quill.

"I don't know." (It was very distinct and the Eldest heard him clearly, too.)

I went to the sunroom and to my horror saw the screen door was open. Not wide open, but open enough for a kitty to pass through. Either Himself left the screen to the sunroom open, or Calli was able to open it. I have a feeling she figured out how to open it.

Mitty, the first cat we had, was expert at opening the Eldest's bedroom door. He would headbutt it a few times until the bolt would slide from the lock. 

I went outside and called her. No white kitty in sight.

Himself was nearby filling pots.

"I would have seen her if she came out."

"No, you wouldn't. Your nose is buried in the pots."

Back inside to get the treat bag.

"Who wants cookies?" That always brings her running. No Calli. Where could she be?

The Eldest went down the basement and looked through the window that looks out under the sunroom.

"I see her! She's in the corner."

My worst nightmare! The clearance from the ground to the sunroom deck is about 6 inches. I got down on hands and knees and called.

"C'mon Calli. C'mon Baby."

Eventually, I saw a little white paw, but she wouldn't come out and there wasn't enough of her showing to make a grab.

.I went inside and brought out her food dish. She poked her nose out, I made a grab at her scruff but she wriggled free.  🤬 Either she was very scared or something under the sunroom was very interesting to her and she did not want to leave.

I moved the food dish back a few inches and kept calling her. Eventually, she realized it was past supper time. She poked her head out and I pounced on her. I was able to her hold with one hand and with the other reach under her front paws and scooped her up.

I told her she was going in and she said No! But since I had a firm grip, she had no choice. Quill was very happy to have her inside. He kept sniffing at all the weird and different smells emanating from her.

I'm just lucky Quill didn't decide to follow Miss Adventure because I don't think I would have been able to wrangle the two of them.

They have lived with us for four years and this was the first time one of them made a run for the outdoors.

Himself will be heading to the hardware store to buy a hook and eye for the outside of the screen door. He'll be able to go outside and can unlock the door when he wants to go in, but Miss Adventure won't be able to pull another Houdini.

It took us a half an hour to find her and another half hour to get her out from under the deck. After all that excitement, a cup of tea to settle my nerves.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Whatcha Doin?

 

Since I'm on Enders Island, I'm not waiting to entertain the plumber as he installs a different kind of sediment filter and hopefully, locates it in a spot where it's easier to get to.

Whatcha doin?

The Friday Five Good Things.

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. Himself had trouble with the sediment filter when he went to change it. It started leaking so a plumber was needed as we had no water. Problem was all the plumbers were either busy or on vacation for the holiday weekend. Or they wanted to charge a ridiculous emergency fee. Fortunately, we found a plumber who came out a couple of hours after the initial call and only charged a very reasonable service fee.

2. We Enjoyed the family gathering at the Grand-Nephew's 3rd birthday party

3. A team effort. Over the weekend Himself fried eggplant. I put the eggplant together to make an awesome eggplant Parmigiana

4. I purchased a ship to store item at Kohl's. There was an app to use for the pickup. A service person in the area said the app might give me issues, but I had not problems and the app worked just fine.

5. Thursday play day with Teague. Lunch at Five Guys and then ice cream at the Dairy Queen.

How was your week?

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Who was the one who put all their Winter things away and brought out their Spring and Summer clothes? Or the one who said it wasn't a bad Winter. At least we didn't get a lot of snow? Well, thanks a lot, pal, because you jinxed it. Winter is making a come back

A red sky morning

I'd rather have a glazed donut instead of a glaze of ice

The ice was like concrete and hard to scrape off

After the first pass on and salt on the front walk. One of the best home improvements we did was to have the stairs at the house electrified.

The salt did its job on the walk, and the electricity melted the ice from the stairs. Safe and dry to walk on.

Cold kitty

Ice encased rails. In the background, Calli watches me take a photograph

Fire and ice

Another red sky morning.

I know, Dedo. I know. Hang in there, only 115 days until the Summer Solstice.

Aw, 🤬

The Friday Five Good Things

Quill

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. I received a Valentine from my Reggiment '17 (year long calligraphy class) tablemate.

2. The Home Depot delivery man kindly carried the 10 bags of salt for the water softener into the garage instead of leaving them in the driveway.

3. The Eldest's next traveling lab tech assignment starting April 3, will be at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston! Hopefully, we'll get to see her a few times.

4. Calli's new trick if I'm sitting to come up behind me, stretch up on her hind legs and pat me with her front paw. She lets me know she wants attention and a cuddle After watching Calli, Quill is doing this, too.

5. Thanks to my Lady for blogging about her experience renewing her license. It made me go look at my license to see that it expires this Summer

How was your week?

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. Sunday morning we smelled heating fuel oil. When I went to the utility room, there was a small puddle on the floor under the oil tank. The on call heating tech arrived quickly. We had spread some kitty litter to dry the puddle. He found 3 pinholes underneath the tank. He spread more litter and said he would talk to the boss about rearranging the schedule so we could get a new tank installed the next day. The oil tank in the basement was original to the house and just like me is over 60 years old.

2. The oil techs arrived early and replaced the tank and cleaned the utility room.

3. We had no Internet service while the techs were here. It took us many hours and a call to tech support to figure out someone had unplugged the service box.

4. The smell from the oil leak has finally dissipated.

5. The lawn guy showed up and mowed and then more leaves came down.

How was your week?

Well, Well, Well

The day before I was to leave for my trip, no water. Not very good. A call to the well company to find the tech had 2 or 3 other households to take care of before he got to us. 

I removed the lighthouse cover from the well cap and waited.

The night before we had some strong thunderstorms that rolled through. Quill and I were in the sunroom when lightning struck close by. The boom made us both run into the house. We lost electricity for about 20 minutes. The solar battery backup kicked in and I reported the outage to the electric company. The well circuit had tripped and we couldn't get back on.

When the technician arrived and I told him about the well circuit breaker, he knew exactly what happened. We were struck by lightning. We were the 5th household in the surrounding towns that had the same problem.

When he opened up the well cap, he showed me the wires on the left going to the well pump that were fried. The underside of the cover was charred and he said there had been a fire as well. He said we were lucky the bolt went through the well, shorted the pump, and then headed through the ground away from the house.

We were also lucky there was enough wire for him to cut the charred part and to splice new wire. If he had to pull up the pump, they charge by the foot. Our well is 440 feet deep and the last time 20 or so years ago when the pump had to be replaced it cost $7 or $8 per foot. I can't imagine what the cost has gone up to now!

Anywho, he had the wires connected and water running within a half an hour. He even gave us a bit of a discount because we had to wait all day for him to arrive.

All's well that ends well.

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. The well tech quickly repaired the pump wiring in the well and

2. I got to take a shower before leaving for Ogunquit

3. Perfect day at the beach, but it was magical at night when no one was on the beach. We waded in the water, watched the stars come out. Jupiter was so beautiful.

4. We had ice cream for supper. I had Black Bear which was raspberry ice cream with chocolate truffle

5. We walked the Marginal Way

How was your week?

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Ugly buglies on the squash plants. The bugs look like white stink bugs.

The heat and humidity

taking their toll

Finally morning glories where they are supposed to grow

Clematis

A bumblebee enjoying a pepper flower

A squash

One of the snowball bushes looking like the pride of Morticia's garden

A wish and green grass. Grass is always greener over the leach field

A lot of New England is in severe drought. The ash trees are stressed and dropping leaves a month before they usually turn and drop.

Strong thunderstorms rolled through and brought much needed rain.

But it wasn't needed in the sunroom

This bucket was joined by 4 other pots and pans. I think we need a bigger boat.

If the leak in the sunroom wasn't enough, yesterday morning as I was taking a shower, no water! I'm glad I had pretty much finished and hadn't washed my hair. Himself went downstairs to see if he could figure out the problem. He found the circuit breaker had been tripped. He reset it and it tripped again. 

A call to the well company. Turns out two other households had the same issue. During the storm, there was a lightning strike that was very close. Quill and I were in the sunroom and we both jumped and ran into the house. Maybe the well got struck by lightning.

Fortunately, Himself has been emptying the water from the dehumidifier and putting it into empty kitty litter containers to water the garden. Not today, the water is being used to flush the toilet. The joys of country living.

How does your garden grow?