Merry Christmas!

I awoke this morning and realized that I am experiencing regional culture shock.  The weatherman said that the temperatures would reach as high as 38 today, and I thought that 38 sounded really warm.  Well, Toto, we're not in Florida anymore!

The sun has been missing for most of the time that we have been in the North, yet the temperatures have been mild enough to allow the precipitation to come down in the form of rain.  The little snow that we received upon our arrival last week has all melted, save for a tiny mound at the corner of the driveway.

Thankfully, the rain rather than snow allowed Stephanie to arrive safely from Minnesota, so we are very happy about that.  We are looking forward to celebrating Christmas with her and with Lindsay and family tomorrow.

We have been blessed with many things this past year: Owen's adoption into the family, regained health and strength, two beautiful homes that we continue to improve, and most of all the love and support of all of our family and friends.

Merry Christmas to you all!  Have a wonderful, prosperous, blessed new year.

White Christmas?

According to the weather report this morning, Wisconsin has a 90% chance of having a white Christmas this year.  While I have to admit that the snow helps get me into the holiday spirit, I would rather have Stephanie (who arrives Christmas Eve) and nephew Jon (who arrives at my sitter's house Christmas Day) home safely before too much more white stuff accumulates on the ground.

Our trip home was uneventful except for the snow flurries that turned into a downright snowstorm as we drove home from Milwaukee.  We had snow for about half of the way home, and until today have had an already-white landscape.  The temperatures today started cold but have risen as the day wore on, so much of the snow has melted. Not to fear.  Snow is predicted for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (Christmas Eve) of the coming week, so I am sure that we will have more than enough snow for the holidays.

We were a little perturbed with the dusting of snow that we received upon our arrival only because our snow service came and shoveled us out.  I did not think that we even had two inches of snow, yet when we got up on Wednesday morning, our driveway and porch had definitely been shoveled.  They had better not charge us more than $10 for that job, or I will protest.  They are not supposed to shovel at all unless we have at least two inches of snow to remove.

The last two days have been busy.  We went to the grocery store and meat market, spending over $200 just to stock the refrigerator for the next couple of weeks.  We finished our Christmas shopping, walking carefully to avoid ice patches in the parking lots.  I hate the cold weather! We have put up the tree, decorated the rest of the house, baked three kinds of cookies, frosted some of the cookies, wrapped the gifts, and started to clean the house.

The lights of the Christmas tree overshadow
the gifts beneath it.

Owen is coming over tonight to "help" frost some cookies.  That ought to be fun.  I am sure that eating (or at least licking off the frosting) will be a part of that venture, too.

We are now pretty set for the holidays. Our stockings are hung on the half wall (since we do not have a fireplace or internal chimney) with care.  I am glad that we only have six in the family, since I have run out of wall room!

The homemade crocheted stockings await Christmas Day.

We wish you all a very relaxing Merry Christmas and a wonderful new year!

Life Goes On

Rick keeps saying that perhaps we are too old to be remodeling Gladys.  I don't believe that is true for two reasons:  we have made progress with the remodeling this year and we feel better when we are out working on projects.  We have done an incredible amount of work on this house in the past three years, and the work that we have done in just the past two months shows that we still can do the work.  Even this morning, though both of us are now in pain from our injuries, he admitted that he felt better when we were out digging holes and pouring concrete.  He is just frustrated right now that we could not finish the fence, as he had planned, before we go North for Christmas.

Yesterday I woke up more stiff and sore than ever.  I thought that by this time I should be feeling better, so I finally listened to Rick and went to MedExpress in town.  They are an urgent care facility similar to an ER, but they were less busy and better suited to what I needed. (The earliest I could get into my doctor's office was in February.)  Rick and I both agreed that he should have gone to MedExpress instead of the ER a couple of days ago.

The PAC who saw me ordered X-rays to be sure that nothing was cracked or broken.  The X-rays confirmed that her guess was right; however, she said that when I fell on my shoulder, I probably slightly dislocated it.  The shoulder has popped back into place (as confirmed by the X-ray) but I had multiple contusions that were just going to take a long time to heal.  She prescribed Neproxin and a muscle relaxant, also telling me to use heat to help the knotted muscles relax.  Sigh.  Here I am again, screwing up my muscles.  I have to admit that I keep trying to stretch the muscles in the arm so that it does not freeze while still keeping within pain tolerance.

Rick, meanwhile, is driving himself nuts by wanting to be active.  We drove down to the Marina and walked down Victoria Lane to check on the new, massive house they are building.  Rick had to stop twice when his leg buckled, so we did not venture far.  We watched masons lay brick for a while and then headed back to the Marina.  While we relaxed on a bench, I noticed a large fin suddenly break water at the mouth of the marina.  Then a second fin appeared, but this time the dolphin to which it was attached fully arched out of the water.  His companion followed suit, and we watched the two of them play for a few minutes in the calm waters.  One even turned on his back, sticking his snout into the air as he did the backstroke back out into St. Joseph's Sound.  What a treat!  We usually do not see dolphins that close to shore.  They made us both smile which is something we have not done in the last few days.

Today Rick cleaned up eight weeks' worth of accumulated paperwork in his office while I cleaned both bathrooms and washed two loads of laundry.  I also dry-mopped the floors as a way both to clean the house and to stretch my arm.  The house looks better, and Rick's office is once again visible after removing four small garbage cans full of papers.

A walk around the block felt really good to me but rather painful for Rick.  He went out to get some lunch and to buy some materials necessary to finish a small Christmas gift he is making.  I am content to spend the rest of the day here, letting my shoulder and back rest.

Are we too old to remodel the house? Not in the least.  Yes, we have to be careful when we work, but there is no reason that we cannot continue with our labors.  People far older than we have done much, much more.

Is luck on our side?  Not always.  We actually took the wishbone from the Thanksgiving turkey today to make a wish.  We each made a wish and then pulled the wishbone.  It was very dry so it shattered, leaving both of us holding short ends while the main connecting point flew away from us into the air across the kitchen.  OK, nobody will get his or her wish.  That's all right. Shakespeare once wrote, "If wishes were horses, beggars would ride."  Dreams are not fulfilled by wishes; they are, instead, fulfilled with determination and actions.  Once we return from the Holidays, we will continue to pursue our plans and dreams for Gladys.

Down But Not Out

Rick was bummed out waking up today because this was supposed to be the day that we almost finished with the posts for the fence.  Of course, since he tore his hamstring yesterday, I strongly discouraged his continuation of digging holes and pouring cement.  We are down, but not completely out.

Instead, we took a short drive to the post office to send in our check for $115.00 for snow removal for November.  That much snow already means that this could be a long, cold, expensive winter once again... but we are still glad that WE are not doing the freezing or the shoveling.  Afterward, we added gas to the car, then headed to Whole Foods for a little shopping.

I have to admit that while I am into healthy eating and good food, the prices that Whole Foods charges for some items are just ridiculous.  I guess I am not rich enough to be THAT healthy.  We did buy some tri-colored pasta (spinach, wheat, and white) that will pair with meatballs and spaghetti sauce for dinner tonight.

We cleaned out the back yard by carrying the last two boxes of panels and one set of panels into the garage.  Those bundles were not heavy, so the two of us could handle them.  Then Rick cut up the pallets with the SawsAll, and we carried them to temporary storage by the garage.  They will go out to the curb on Monday. Rick seemed to walk all right as he was doing all of this; my biggest project will be to keep him down enough so his body will heal.  The back yard looks so big now, and I cannot wait to start to add plants and landscaping to the blank slate of the back yard.

The back yard looking toward the south.

The back yard looking to the north.  We have lots of room to design and
to landscape it into an inviting, relaxing area. 

Rick had called Steve to ask if he would be willing to unload the seven bags of concrete from the back of our truck.  He and Chris came for a few minutes to complete that task, and Chris brought us some delicious shortbread for dessert.  Thank you for the goodies!

We used today to clean up the yard so that the grass will not completely die. We wanted to get a clear vision of what we have to work with in the future.  I am excited to see what we can do with the blank canvas once the fence is completely finished in January.

Hit the Pause Button

The day dawned very cool and cloudy, but we did not have to contend with any rain today.  We were out on the worksite early, adding a post on the north side and the first post in the gate wall on the south side.

We marked the post on the north side as our measurement pole, making sure that the other post was lined up height-wise to the post we had transmitted earlier.  When Rick dug the post hole on the south side, we added the measuring tape in the same place.  Then Rick dug a deep hole and put in the post.  Nope.  Too high.  He dug down more and put in the post.  Nope.  Still too high.  He dug more and put in the post.  Oops.  Way too low, yet the tape measured just perfectly according to the transit.  What gives?  I looked at the north side post and then at the south side fence.  Duh!  Of course the south post was too low-- we had stepped down the north side five inches from the south side for the last three panels, so we were trying to measure the south side with the stepped down measurement from the north side.  That snafu just shows that a person should not put up a fence while still half asleep.  Once we had the correct measurement for the south side, we added lots of stones to bring the post up to where it should be.  OK, so the post has a lot of good drainage.  At least it is level with the rest.

We have "turned the corner" on the south side of the house.

A one-board wide panel gives us the corner and
post on which to hang the gate.  Tape at the top and
boards under the bottom help keep the post level
and plumb while the cement dries.

Once the south and north side posts were cemented in, we cleaned everything up and went in to shower by 11:00 a.m.  Rick excitedly talked about putting in possibly two posts tomorrow which would mean that we only had one more post the put in on Thursday.  I know that he wanted to have the fence completely finished before we flew north for the holidays, but that just was not to be.

One more panel on the north side reaches toward the street.

After lunch, we loaded two "extra" posts into the truck to take back to Home Depot.  We knew that we needed to buy one more cap, one more set of wall brackets, and seven more bags of cement. When we got to Home Depot, the "returns" line snaked out the door.  Apparently lots of people are spiffing up their houses before the holidays because I saw lots of "extra" supplies (like boxes of wood flooring) being returned. A long wait rewarded us with cash back to our charge account and a short trip to pick up the supplies we needed.

Rick drove the truck around to the loading zone so the early twenty-something man there could help him load the seven bags of cement.  Rick stepped up into the bed of the truck, and the man handed up the first two bags of cement.  As Rick stepped over to take the next bag, he cried out "Ah-h-h!" as he gripped the back of his leg. He took a step, and his right leg bucked beneath him.  As the man loaded the last four bags of cement into the truck, Rick somehow climbed down and limped to the truck.  He told me that he could drive although I offered to do so.  (Some people are SO pigheaded!)  He drove home, using his right leg on the gas pedal and his left for the brake.

When we got home, we transferred to the car, and I drove him to Morton Plante Hospital. The ER at Morton Plante was very busy, and since his condition was not life threatening, we waited while others who were more ill were taken first.  That was OK.  We expected that.  However, when we finally got into the ER treatment area two hours later, he was escorted to a cot in the hallway where he was told to get into a gown and to lower his pants so the doctor could examine him.  We were both dumbfounded. A doctor came, did a cursory examination, and said that Rick had torn his hamstring muscle, and that there was nothing we could do but go home and rest.  He offered pain medication which Rick refused.  Never again will we go to Morton Plante if we have an emergency.

I was supposed to go to the doctor today to have him look at my shoulder, but since we were sitting in the ER, I cancelled my appointment.  The doctor's office called back later; I told them to forget it.  If nothing can be done for a torn hamstring, I am sure that nothing can be done for a torn shoulder.  We make quite a gimpy pair.  Athletes who tear a hamstring are out of the game for four weeks, and that is what I would like to see Rick do... just REST for the next four weeks. Time to hit the pause button on the fence and the chores.

My fear now is that he will have a tough time flying home comfortably.  We leave in a week and a half.  If I can get him to rest and ice his leg, he may be healed enough to at least walk without too much pain. At least in Wisconsin we can really relax since we will not have a fence tempting us to dig holes or to put in posts. I think for Christmas this year, we'll put Advil in each other's stockings.

Cool Day, Hot Soup

The only good thing about yesterday is that we went to church.  I don't know about others, but at least in church I can find peace because no one can hassle me, nothing can break down, and God forgives even my meanest, darkest thoughts about contractors.

Early Sunday morning we discovered that our refrigerator was not cooling correctly.  The boxes in the main part of the refrigerator was "sweaty" and the boxes in the freezer were covered with a light frost.  Uh, oh. The refrigerator is less than two years old since we bought it in January of 2012, and we have probably run it about 9 months total since that time.  We set the controls to cooler and went to church.

After church we went to the store to pick up a bracket to "plug" a hole left in the post next to the tree since we had to raise the bottom rail to accommodate the roots of the tree.  As we were about to leave the parking lot of the Home Depot in Clearwater, the Home Depot in Largo called to tell us that our special order U-Channels had come in. We need the U-channels to finish the panels next to the gates, so we could not finish them without the channels.  We were about 5 miles away, so we decided to eat lunch out and to pick up our order before we went home.

After a delicious lunch at Culver's, we picked up our U-Channels at Home Depot.  Would anyone care to tell me why eight U-Channels, which when nested within one another probably take up 4 square inches around at most, came in a box that was 12 inches square?  The package weighed over 4 pounds on the shipping label, and the plastic U-Channels weighed probably less than 6 ounces total.  Why do we waste so much cardboard and materials in our packaging -- to say nothing of the money that it costs to ship them?

When we got home, we discovered that our refrigerator was up to 60 degrees in the main compartment.   Out came the portable cooler for some of our necessities, and the rest of our refrigerator contents we took to Steve and Chris' house.  (Thank you both for your generous use of your refrigerator!)

Rick got on the phone to call a repairman.  We quickly learned that to have repairs covered under any kind of warranty, we needed to have someone certified by GE.  A call to them informed us that we would probably have to throw out what food we could not keep cool, and that the earliest a certified repairman could come to our house was next Saturday.  Seriously?!?  A week later???

Once we had the refrigerator empty, it started to cool down.  We monitored it overnight, and this morning everything was back to "normal."  We think that maybe we had too much food in the freezer and that somehow blocked a vent or overtaxed the compressor.  We returned to Steve's house to get our food, and we resolved that if the refrigerator continues to work well, we will cancel our Saturday appointment and focus our energies on buying a small chest freezer.  We could fit a small one in the garage, and that may serve us well.

Today a cool, hard drizzle has spoiled most of our plans for doing anything outside.  I am still really sore from my fall, so I called the doctor's office at 8:30 this morning to see if I could get an appointment.  I was told that Sheila, the nurse, would have to call me back.  The time is now 2:34 p.m. and I have not heard from Sheila.  I think it is time to find a new doctor.

The crappy weather today did not stop us, however, from moving forward with our fence plans.  We picked up some boards that we had to build into a U-shape sleeve to slip inside the corner posts to use next to the gates.  The wood is needed to support the screws that will hold the hinges for the gates and the latches to keep the gates closed.  We had to rip some of the boards down; thank heavens that we had the Festool saw available.  The whole task was not difficult, but it took us much more time than we has thought it would.  In the end, though, we have four posts ready to support our gates once we are ready to build the gate walls.

The refrigerator continues to run well today.  Go figure. The lesson learned is that we have overstuffed our freezer, and each evening from now until we go to Wisconsin next week, we have to have a meal from the freezer.  Tonight, in honor of the continuing miserable drizzle, we will have white meat chicken and rice soup (thanks to Schwan's Foods) that is heating up in the crock pot as I type.  Hot soup on a cold night.  My idea of true comfort food.

Problem Solved

We have worked for the last two days to find a solution to our problem of how to put the fence next to the tree.  Neither of us really wanted to waste fencing to go out around the tree and to "box" it in, but there was no easy solution.  However, went two half-wits put their heads together, we actually came up with a solution using our one whole brain.

We got up early yesterday to start with the south side post.  Just as we were getting going, Rick got really crabby, so I quit working.  If he wants to be a jerk, he can work alone.  I came in and showered while he finished that panel himself.

After lunch, we talked about the fence near the tree.  Rick had some ideas about how we could bridge the gap, and I had an idea of how we could cap off the end.  We needed to get a post into the ground as close as we could to the tree without damaging any large roots.  We found the "sweet spot" a couple of feet from the tree, and then ran the rails straight through the post so that it was supported on both sides.  Actually assembling the whole thing was a bit of a struggle, but in the end everything worked out well. My idea of using gate components close to the tree helped support the boards with a neat appearance. We like that the top rail is still level and that the bottom rail was able tuck itself tidily behind the root.

The top rail balances through the post and ends near the tree.

As we were cleaning up, we worked together to pull a tarp loaded with soil to dump it in a low spot in the yard.  I was dragging my corner across the indentation in the yard where we took the old patio block out and did not realize that I was near the raised lip at the edge.  I caught my heel on the raised yard and because I was pulling backwards on the tarp, BOOM, down I went.  My head hit the ground so hard that it bounced (maybe it really IS full of fluff, like Winnie the Pooh's head!), and my left shoulder took the worst impact of the fall.  My doomsday husband immediately started to talk hospital and concussion, but I never saw stars or passed out, and I was able to get up off the ground and to walk straight.  My shoulder is still killing me today, but I have full mobility to it.  I think I just bruised or strained the muscle.  I don't know what I have against my muscles, but we do not seem to be getting along very well lately. Hopefully it will heal in the next few days.

Today we had planned on going to church to help with the holiday decorations, but my sore muscles put a stop to that.  Rick said that we would take the day off and take it easy.  Yeah, right.  This morning we went to the drugstore and the grocery store before going to the Farmer's Market downtown.  We talked to a man about a couple of Christmas presents he is making for us, and then we got an education on honey.

The local honey dealer told us that with each season, bees take in the nectar from different flowers.  The nectar, in turn, causes the bees to produce different flavors of honey.  The spring honey was very mild, the summer honey had a buttery aftertaste, the fall honey was a darker, heavier taste, and the winter honey was dark and maple-flavored.  We liked the summer the best, so we bought a small squeeze jar in the shape of a bear (like I remember from my childhood).  Then the honey vendor had us taste a cinnamon honey-- thick, rich, sweet, and spiced with cinnamon.  He said that his wife cuts up apples, put the slices in the microwave, and then drizzles the cinnamon honey on top.  The result: a "baked" apple sweetened to perfection.  Needless to say, we came home with a jar of cinnamon honey also.

After lunch, Rick just could not resist getting back into the fence. So much for our day off. The only good thing about working today was that we did not have to use any cement.  He came up with a slightly different plan for the south side of the tree.  We could not get as close as we did to the north side because of the root configuration, but in the end, the panel turned out all right.  That panel is a combination of rails and screws on the back side with a support board to the ground.  In both sections of fence, we can make further moderations as the tree grows.

The fence gets as close to the tree as the roots will allow.
We just cannot fight Mother Nature; she wins every time.
We'll plant bougainvillea or other shrubs to bridge the gap.

We are happy with the results even through I am not happy at all that we could not just take one day off, as planned.

Tonight we are going to the beach to watch the Dunedin Holiday Boat Parade.  I addition to a marching-through-the-streets parade, Dunedin also has a floating parade where boat owners compete for prizes as to who has the more grandly decorated and lighted boat.  We want to leave early this year so we will pack a picnic supper and set up our chairs on the seashore to get a good view.  Only in Florida...

Nosey Neighbors

We have begun marking the days by looking into the back yard to note how many more panels of fence  we can see.  We are down to two a day, but today we ran into some problems.

Yesterday we added two more panels.  We had to step down the north side fence since the drop from the back corner to the front gate is nine inches.  We brought the fence down five inches with the hope that when we get done landscaping, the drop will not seem that drastic.  Even spreading out some dirt under the higher panels helps the eye to even out the view.

One step down will help us deal with the sloping landscape.

A second post on the lowered side today further helped to minimize the look of a drastic drop.  If we did not do this, our gate would float so high in the front that we would have no privacy at all.

With this second lowered panel, we now block the view of
our north neighbor's yard from our back yard.

The east side post went in with only a few minor root removals.  We learned today that we were lucky to find a fairly clear area for the post since the next one closest to the tree is not that accommodating.  If we could use the full eight foot section, the post would be nestled right next to the tree; unfortunately, that area underground is filled with foot wide and deep roots that Rick is unwilling to disturb.  He says that the tree will just continue to grow and will dislodge the post in a couple of years anyway.

This panel is almost as far as we can get to the tree without
cutting out some major roots.

I do not want to build the fence out around the tree because it will cause a weeding nightmare and will take away the whole idea of having the tree in our yard.  If we build around it, we also will create a very awkward plot of land in the southeast corner of our lot.  I would rather try low palms or something like a bougainvillea that we can somehow attach to a trellis.  If all else fails, perhaps big pots of flowers... anything to block off the neighbors!  If you have any ideas, let us know!

The splayed roots of this tree are causing us unwanted decisions.

Everyone has a noisy neighbor, but since the houses behind us are all vacant right now, those peeking over the fence are not human, but they are rather pretty.  I will welcome this kind of nosey neighbor any time.

Pretty blooms peek to see who is making all of that racket
on the other side of the fence.

Only in Florida (Chapter 2)

This week started on the south side with just one shorter panel before we would have to turn the corner into the wall. That was all right with me because I was tired anyway, and we wanted to take time to figure out the gate panel for that side of the house.  How did this yard get so large?

The final south side panel shuts off our back yard from
the neighbors.

The gate panel turned out well.  We are pleased with the results, and because the company came up with a better design, we probably will not have to order out a cross bar piece to keep it from sagging.  We did, however, have to order out some extra U-channel pieces for the smaller panels on each side of the gate.  We won't be able to finish the gate ends of the fence until we come back from Wisconsin in January.

The  final short panel completely closes our yard off from the neighbors on the south side.  They are really wonderful people; we have no problem with them whatsoever. Gladys is shaped in such a way, however, that our entire Florida room juts our behind the main part of the house.  Since it has windows on all three sides, we have no privacy in that room at all unless we pull down the blinds.  By having the fence up, we will be able to let the sunshine and fresh air in but also have the privacy we desire. We also want to give their our neighbors the same privacy if they want to have friends over or to have a party in their yard.

After the backyard work was complete, we went to two different Home Depot stores to order the U-channels.  Then we purchased 30 more 6- pound bags of cement mix. A slight chance of showers was predicted for today, so Rick unloaded all 30 bags onto a pallet in our garage.  I wish I could have helped more, but 60 pounds is almost more than I can carry.

Another "Only in Florida" Moment: As a treat, we took a short drive downtown to see some of the Christmas lights. Only in Florida will a city decorate their lampposts with wrapped gifts under palm trees!

Getting into the festive spirit takes some adaptation in Florida.

Today we had no choice but to only put up two panels, and that was fine with both of us.  We will now change to two-a-day for the next two days.  A few roots gave Rick some trouble in the next east-side hole, but they were nothing that the SawsAll with a pruning blade could not handle. Even more challenging than the roots, sadly, is the orange clay that we are encountering about two feet down on the east side.  The clay is so sticky that when Rick brings the post-hole digger up, I have to take a garden spade and scrape it off.  The work is tedious and frustrating. Maybe I should mold all of the sticky clay together to make a Florida "snow" man.

The north side soil starts as black dirt but changes to gray sand about two feet down.  The sand is as easy to dig through as the clay is hard.  We have about four panels to go yet across the east back side and five on the easier north side.  We are just glad that two more panels surround our yard.

Our corner continues to grow on the north and east sides. 

This afternoon our shower contractor finally contacted us and came to see why we were upset with the shower.  He agreed to buy more tile and to fix the shower floor.  I am concerned because he wants to add another floor on top of the one already there, extending the drain to make the tiles look and fit better.  My concerns are that the floor will then cover another inch on the bottom row of tile, and that the drain is already extended and the tile contractor still will not handle the job correctly.  Sigh.  Sometimes we cannot win for trying...

We doubt that we will have the shower resolved for another month yet.  We hope to have most of the fence done before we leave for the holidays.  If we can come back and have nothing but the gates their surrounding panels to erect, we will be very happy.