As seemed to be our luck lately, our plans to return to Wisconsin for the holidays did not go without one final hiccup. On Monday we went about our business of last-minute shopping and errands to get ready for the trip. Rick printed boarding passes, we packed luggage, and we made sure the garbage hit the curb that morning. When we returned from shopping that afternoon, we noticed that Gladys felt "sticky" like the old doll was having a hot flash. Oh, oh. Rick checked the thermostat, and the humidity in the house was close to 70%. He fiddled with the temperature, waiting for the air handler to send in some cool air. The key word is "waiting" because the fan never started and the system never delivered air movement of any kind. Great! If the system which was new only 2 1/2 years ago was going to break, why could this not have happened three days before this?
We called in a service man who, thankfully, promptly came. He and Rick worked with the system, noting that shutting it down and rebooting it did not have positive results. Error codes kept coming up, and although the system had power to the motor, the motor itself would not start. He said that we needed a new motor for the air exchanger. The good news is that the motor would be under warranty; the bad news was that the service calls and labor to replace it would cost us money.
That night we slept under a ceiling fan as the humidity slowly rose in the house. Steve had agreed to meet another service man the next day so that we would not have to rebook our flight and incur hundreds of more dollars to fly home at a later date. We are eternally in his debt and will gladly reciprocate if his property needs our watchful eye and help when they go back to Wisconsin in the spring or any time in the future.
To make a long story short, when the second service man came in, he reset the codes, and Steve reported that the system was working fine. He checked the house today also, and all systems are still running... for now. Since we saw the system fail three times in a row, Rick called the service center and talked to the owner. We agreed that something still may not be right with the system, so before Steve and Chris leave for the holidays, they will shut the system down. Gladys may get a little hot under the collar, but at least we know that nothing will freeze while we are away. We cannot ask any more of Steve and Chris. They have been wonderful. We will deal with any air handler problems when we return to Florida.
The next day, we have arrived safely in Wisconsin, and sadly the weather is living up to the "frozen tundra" moniker. Our journey home started early on Tuesday, December 10, when we heard our neighbor leave for work at a little before 5:30. We knew the airport Shuttle service would be around to pick us up by 7:10, so we arose early to have time to prepare for the trip. Showers, breakfast, medications, and final packing saw us ready by 6:30 a.m.
Miraculously, the Shuttle arrived a little early, and in the end we were thankful that it did. One woman was already on board. We received an automated call that the Shuttle would arrive in five minutes, so we locked Gladys, took our luggage, and waited at the end of our driveway. Our first indication that this trip would not be worry-free occurred when we saw the Shuttle driver slow down about four houses from us, looking for an address, when two people with luggage by their sides were clearly visible through the driver's windshield. Sheesh! Did he need a billboard, even? He crept up the street, helped us load our luggage, and we were off... at less than the speed limit. He was more concerned with looking at his company message monitor than he was in looking at the road through the windshield.
Our Shuttle ride took us away from the airport to pick up one more couple. They lived in a huge apartment complex with multiple look-alike buildings with tiny address plates. We wasted over 10 minutes just trying to find the right building. By this time, we were very frustrated because long stop lights, heavy morning traffic, and going less than the speed limit meant that we had been aboard the Shuttle for almost an hour. Added to those frustrations was the fact that the people had not walked to the entrance of the complex where we easily could have picked them up and been on our way. In fact, they had not even hauled their luggage outside as the Shuttle service requests. The drive had to go in, drag their luggage out, and get them boarded. How inconsiderate of them! By this time, the other woman and we were starting to get time urgency.
As we started to drive into Tampa, the driver kept getting more and more messages on his company monitor. Soon he was paying much more attention to those messages that promised extra fares for him than he was in watching the road. At one point, he had to slam on the breaks to avoid rear-ending the car in front of us. Thank God we did not get in an accident because we had little time to spare. The first woman on the Shuttle asked if he could go to Frontier Airlines first because she was now down to an hour before her flight to Denver, and she still had to print a boarding pass. As we approached Frontier's gate, I saw Southwest's gate two doors down the line.
"We'll get out here, too," I said, "since Southwest is just down the walk a bit." I figured that we could walk to Southwest far more quickly than the driver could make another stop and reopen the back to get our luggage. We were never so happy to get out of a Shuttle in all of our lives.
Once at the airport we were amazed to have our boarding passes quickly scanned and highlighted that we had pre-boarding approval. When we got to the check-in lines, we were directed to one line while others behind us were direct to another. While they had to remove shoes, unload electronics, and do all of the usual TSA checks, we were told to keep our shoes on, to simply put our luggage through the scanner, and to walk through a small scanner ourselves. OK. No beeps sounded, no one did a full body scan of me, no one checked my insulin Pod or questioned that I had 12 Pods with batteries in them in my luggage. We picked up our luggage and were on our way. While this was hassle-free for us, I really did not feel comfortable with the "security" measures to insure my safety. I was innocent, but were others who got the same pre-boarding approval?
After a slight altercation with a man who could not read boarding signs, we were aboard the plane. Thankfully, the plane was only half full, so I took a middle seat, Rick took the aisle seat, and no one was sitting next to me coughing or sneezing or trying to infect the whole plane. Thank God. The flight was smooth, I was tired and actually fell asleep for about 20 minutes, and we landed almost on time in Milwaukee. We left 80 degree weather only to arrive to 5 degrees above zero with a wind chill factor of -12. Hmmm. Why did we come to Wisconsin for the holidays?
Snow was on the ground and blowing a bit, so we had some concerns as to which highway we should use to drive north. We chose I-43 since it is less congested and a shorter drive, but it does have the potential to ice and have drifts since it runs along Lake Michigan. We encountered strong winds and a few flurries, but a couple of hours later we were once again in Green Bay.
I tolerated the flight well; however, by the time we got home, we were both exhausted. Rick had the added burden of driving north, but I was refreshed enough from my plane nap that we decided to take the rental back to the airport. Yesterday was the first time since mid-summer that I actually drove a car. I found that I can now drive without pain, so as long as I am not overtired, I can once again get from point A to point B by driving myself. I still would not want to drive for hours at a time, but I felt good about getting some of my independence back.
I have no qualms about the flight back to Florida in January. I know I will not have problems as long as my medications do not give me new side effects. We now just need some down time, away from all people, to try to relax and decompress after what has been an emotionally and physically painful late summer, fall, and early winter. While we did run into a couple of problems with the house in Green Bay, Rick was able to get them reconciled today, so we are hoping for a peaceful couple of weeks. I pray that will happen.
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Sunday, December 8, 2013
December in Dunedin
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| A glowing boat in the distance participates in the Holiday Boat Parade. |
Yesterday we ventured out to Lowe's and bought a little garden wagon to help with the yard work. We have determined that the patio I unearthed in the back yard a few years ago really is in pretty rough shape. Now is the time to take it out in the chunks that it has broken into and haul it to the dump. First, however, we have to get rid of the cement patio set. In its day, the set contained three benches around the table. One of the benches was in pieces when we bought Gladys, and the second bench is missing an intact pedestal, so we are down to a single bench. The table top and benches are not in the greatest
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| Cracked and uneven blocks make for a not- so-inviting patio in the back yard. Anyone want a concrete table and bench for free? |
This morning we took time out to remeasure the yard for the fence, taking into account where the posts would have to be positioned to accommodate the eight-foot panel sections. Rick calculated how many posts, panels, and gate kits we would need. Then we tried to estimate how much gravel, cement, cement tubes, and other building supplies would be necessary to complete the job. His original estimates were pretty accurate. We would like to come back in January, spend that month prepping the site and painting the south side of the house, and then putting up the south side fence. That will give both us and our neighbors some privacy back after two years of adjoining back yards.
Part of the site preparation involves removing the shrubs that were planted way too close to the house probably back in the 1960s. Yesterday we cut down an unruly schefflera arboricola that thought it was a tree. As you can see by the
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| A monstrous stump will need cutting and perhaps yanking out with the truck to make room for the new fence and gate. |
Our calculations show that the hibiscus next to the house under the guest room window also will have to be either removed or relocated so that our gate mechanism will work. I will try to transplant that, but if it is too much of a pain, I will just purchase new. The one under the window is not the healthiest that I have seen, and Chris told me that the one she tried to transplant did not survive. I will not deal with that until January.
While we were watching the parade last evening, an elderly couple was chatting with us. The woman mentioned that Dunedin was holding a local Art Guild art show today in the downtown area. After lunch Rick and I ventured downtown for a look. Keep in mind that the temperatures are once again above average in the low 80s and that a delightful breeze is blowing through cloudless skies. The art ranged from "you really have the guts to call yourself an artist?" to some watercolors that were very good. However, while they were reasonably priced, most of the pieces were quite small and nothing that we wanted to purchase. We know that some spectacular art shows are scheduled for the spring, so our quest for reasonable but original art will have to wait until later.
Tomorrow will be dedicated for the most part to getting the house in order for when we are gone and packing a few things for the flight back to Wisconsin. I really am not looking forward to ice, snow, and cold temperatures (wind chill in Green Bay was -1 this afternoon and snow was falling!), but at least the familiarity of the weather pattern will put me more into a Christmas spirit. I'll be happy to be back with family and to meet with a select few friends, yet somehow I think returning to sunshine and warmer weather after the holidays will not be too hard to bear in January.
Friday, December 6, 2013
Blinds, Beaches, and Boats
The weather forecaster tonight said that Tampa reached a new high temperature of 84 degrees today -- a full 10 degrees above the average 74 normal temp. We watched the weather in Green Bay climb from 3 degrees this morning up to a balmy 10 above by noon. I literally shiver to think of what the wind chill factor was today! For all that this area does NOT put me in a Christmas spirit (palm trees strung with lights and poinsettias blooming in front yard gardens is still strange...), I assure you that the weather in the 80's is not hard to take. I ache much less and we actually can walk around outside.
We ventured out this morning with the intension of dropping paperwork off at my new rheumatologist's office, only to get there to find the door tightly locked. Duh! That's right. At that point I remembered that the office is only open Monday through Thursday. At least I had a chance to learn how to get there; from the outside, at least, it seems to be a nice place. I will finally meet the doctor in January when we return to Florida.
From there, we ventured to Lowe's, and after two trips, we ordered blinds for the rest of the house. We took advantage of both a sale and a Lowe's coupon to get 30% off of Bali 2" faux wood blinds for the kitchen, guest bedroom, main bathroom, and Florida room. As the picture of our bedroom windows shows, they are nothing fancy, but they do have the beach theme that we want throughout the house. With the sales and coupon, we actually can complete every window in the house for less than Budget Blinds wanted to sell us two shades for the front doors! We'll have lots of blinds to hang once we return in January.
When we were watching the news at lunch time today, I had to smile. The TV is full of Christmas events including entertainment in the Tampa arena. How that entertainment reflects that this area is full of octogenarians! The big draws: an evening with Yanni (be still my beating heart...) and a one-night-only performance by Barry Manilow (oh, puh-leeze!) Maybe that's why I love Florida; I feel SO young in comparison.
We went to Sand Key Beach this afternoon since the weather was so nice. We had to get in a short beach walk before we returned to ice and snow, and we certainly wanted to avoid the beach crowds this weekend. Although it was windy, the people swimming and sunbathing in bikinis were not uncomfortable. Remember, though, that the temps are unusually warm. Had they been at the normal mid-70's, I think that swimmers would have to be very brave, and sunbathers may have been wearing a bit more. Since I am ultra-sensitive to the sun, we did not stay too long, and I made sure I wore a hat (even though I HATE hats!) Being on the beach in December was fun, though.
Dinner this evening was provided by Eli's, the best BBQ smokehouse in Dunedin. Our beef brisket sandwiches were melt-in-our-mouths good. We bought them mid-afternoon because Eli's many times runs out of meat before closing time, but they were delicious reheated in the microwave. And no, Bonnie, I did not buy a little sweet potato pie although they were available. I did, however, think of you when I saw them.
After dinner we drove down to the Marina. They are setting up for a Marina tradition that takes place tomorrow. Each holiday season, boaters at the Marina decorate their boats and have a holiday lighted-boat parade out into St. Joseph sound, under the Dunedin Causeway, and back to the Marina. Then the crowds that are gathered watch as the official Dunedin Christmas tree is illuminated in the city park. We will avoid the park and crowds tomorrow, but we do intend to see the whole aquatic parade. Our hairdresser, Vicki, told us to park on the Causeway to watch the boats from there. She said we can even stay in the car if we want to avoid all people. We'll go early for a good parking space and see how crowded it gets.
Tonight we took a preview walk around the Marina since very few people were out. The attached pictures show just some of the efforts that boat owners were taking to be a part of the parade. OK, so they are trying. People do not seem to decorate their homes here with as many lights as we do in the North, but they do have their own unique way of celebrating the holidays.
We ventured out this morning with the intension of dropping paperwork off at my new rheumatologist's office, only to get there to find the door tightly locked. Duh! That's right. At that point I remembered that the office is only open Monday through Thursday. At least I had a chance to learn how to get there; from the outside, at least, it seems to be a nice place. I will finally meet the doctor in January when we return to Florida.
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| Clean, simple blinds add to our "beach" motif. |
When we were watching the news at lunch time today, I had to smile. The TV is full of Christmas events including entertainment in the Tampa arena. How that entertainment reflects that this area is full of octogenarians! The big draws: an evening with Yanni (be still my beating heart...) and a one-night-only performance by Barry Manilow (oh, puh-leeze!) Maybe that's why I love Florida; I feel SO young in comparison.
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| Shorts and shades to go along with the sand on Sand Key Beach. |
Dinner this evening was provided by Eli's, the best BBQ smokehouse in Dunedin. Our beef brisket sandwiches were melt-in-our-mouths good. We bought them mid-afternoon because Eli's many times runs out of meat before closing time, but they were delicious reheated in the microwave. And no, Bonnie, I did not buy a little sweet potato pie although they were available. I did, however, think of you when I saw them.
After dinner we drove down to the Marina. They are setting up for a Marina tradition that takes place tomorrow. Each holiday season, boaters at the Marina decorate their boats and have a holiday lighted-boat parade out into St. Joseph sound, under the Dunedin Causeway, and back to the Marina. Then the crowds that are gathered watch as the official Dunedin Christmas tree is illuminated in the city park. We will avoid the park and crowds tomorrow, but we do intend to see the whole aquatic parade. Our hairdresser, Vicki, told us to park on the Causeway to watch the boats from there. She said we can even stay in the car if we want to avoid all people. We'll go early for a good parking space and see how crowded it gets.
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| Simple but elegant wreath and lights. |
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| This guy turned his boat into a floating, fairy-tale castle. He has been working on this one for days. |
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| Another view of the floating castle. |
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| Even an open float-boat is decked out for the holidays. |
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Productive Day
Today was a productive day, both from a personal, healthcare viewpoint and from a moving forward with our remodeling perspective.
The day started at Morton Plant Hospital where we took 10 minutes to arrange to have records sent to my doctor at Mayo. She actually called me last evening and helped me adjust my medication schedule. We were surprised when she said that all of my symptoms -- chills, shaking, headache, and fever -- could have been a reaction to one of the medications I am on rather than having any bacterial or viral cause. Sadly, I will slowly go back on the same medication and be back at the same dose that gave me problems just as we get to Christmas week. I spent Thanksgiving in the hospital, and I really do not want to have a repeat performance at Christmas time! We'll see...
After that, we made a trip to the millwork shop and ordered all of our interior doors. They will come in just as we get back in January, so we will have plenty to do inside the house if the weather prevents us from painting the exterior of the house in January. Painting outside in January. Hmmm. Do you know how strange that sounds to someone who grew up in Wisconsin? I understand that our northern home was covered in three inches of snow just this morning while we were riding around in air conditioning because the temperature topped 80 degrees today. The United States really does cover all climates and temperature ranges.
From the millwork shop we went to my regular doctor here in town who referred me to an area rheumatologist. I also talked to the rheumatologist's office in Wisconsin to coordinate appointments with her for late spring. Having two homes is wonderful, but coordinating healthcare in two states takes a great deal of time and energy.
After lunch and a little rest, we drove to Lowe's to see about blinds on the front doors. As mentioned earlier, there was no way that we could afford $1000 for blinds. Funny thing. We talked to a designer that we have worked with in the past, found the exact same solar shade material that the other guy tried to sell us for $800, and ended up ordering those shades with the same roller and chain drive for less than $240. Will Gladys have the best on the market? No, but she will have something equally as beautiful and functional for far less the cost. She may not have the fanciest dress on the block, but the old girl will look pretty darn good with what we hang on her front doors.Those blinds, too, will be delivered in January.
By the time we got back home, I was pretty tired. As always, I tried to avoid close contact with people while still functioning to get my life and our remodeling business completed.
We took many positive steps today to get our lives back on track, and those accomplishments have given us both a sense of power and productiveness. We'll be glad to continue that progress in January as we start to work on putting all of the pieces into place.
The day started at Morton Plant Hospital where we took 10 minutes to arrange to have records sent to my doctor at Mayo. She actually called me last evening and helped me adjust my medication schedule. We were surprised when she said that all of my symptoms -- chills, shaking, headache, and fever -- could have been a reaction to one of the medications I am on rather than having any bacterial or viral cause. Sadly, I will slowly go back on the same medication and be back at the same dose that gave me problems just as we get to Christmas week. I spent Thanksgiving in the hospital, and I really do not want to have a repeat performance at Christmas time! We'll see...
After that, we made a trip to the millwork shop and ordered all of our interior doors. They will come in just as we get back in January, so we will have plenty to do inside the house if the weather prevents us from painting the exterior of the house in January. Painting outside in January. Hmmm. Do you know how strange that sounds to someone who grew up in Wisconsin? I understand that our northern home was covered in three inches of snow just this morning while we were riding around in air conditioning because the temperature topped 80 degrees today. The United States really does cover all climates and temperature ranges.
From the millwork shop we went to my regular doctor here in town who referred me to an area rheumatologist. I also talked to the rheumatologist's office in Wisconsin to coordinate appointments with her for late spring. Having two homes is wonderful, but coordinating healthcare in two states takes a great deal of time and energy.
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| Soon the front doors will have solar shades for privacy in the | evening and shade during the summer. |
By the time we got back home, I was pretty tired. As always, I tried to avoid close contact with people while still functioning to get my life and our remodeling business completed.
We took many positive steps today to get our lives back on track, and those accomplishments have given us both a sense of power and productiveness. We'll be glad to continue that progress in January as we start to work on putting all of the pieces into place.
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Roadblock, Recovery, and Remodeling
November was a terrible month. As mentioned before, while we originally should have been in Florida for Halloween with the intension of using the gorgeous weather in November to paint Gladys, we instead spent the first 15 days of November at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. After the successful trip down here, we were ready to relax and do a few, small remodeling jobs before we returned to Wisconsin for the holidays.
As you read in the last blog, Thanksgiving Day started well with an invigorating walk and a relaxing day. However, by early afternoon, my body started to betray me once again. I got a terrible chill and started to shake like a person with essential tremors. By the time I was writing the previous blog, my hands were shaking so badly that I had to retype many words since my fingers double-tapped letters. Thanksgiving dinner was in the oven, the rolls were cooked, and the cranberries were ready to go.
By dinnertime, I was freezing and I could not control the shaking. I ate a quick meal (Rick only ate half of his), and then he insisted on taking me to the hospital. While we have a small hospital in Dunedin, we chose to go to Morton Plant Hospital just up the street a bit in Clearwater. That was an excellent decision. By the time we got to the hospital, the chills were worse, the shaking was slightly settled, but I had a fever of 100.2 degrees. While that may not sound high, for me it is. My normal body temperature is 96.4 degrees, so I was heating up quite nicely. Isn't it strange that a person can feel cold with a fever?
Upon hearing my recent medical history, the ER doctors went into full "this could be sepsis" mode. Blood tests, vitals, and two IVs (one in each arm!) later, I was admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of an "unknown infection." Since my immune system is now compromised, I was given a private room on the post-surgical floor.
I stayed in the hospital from Thanksgiving until December 1. Thus, you can see that the last part of November was not any better than the first! During that time, I had 19 tubes of blood drawn, two nasal swabs to rule out various types of flu, and so many bags of IV antibiotics that I lost count after 10.
The doctors let me continue to take the Prednisone I am on, so my muscle aches did not come back. However, they took me off the Imuran that suppresses my immune system to give me something internally to fight the still-unknown infection. They sent me home with a strong oral antibiotic once my blood counts returned to normal, but now I have to coordinate with Mayo to see at what dose I should resume my Imuran on Thursday. The fun never ends...
Rick and I were both surprised that after only a couple of weeks on the Imuran, my immune system is so compromised. We know that Imuran takes about three months to be fully effective, so I thought I had a little more "grace time" before hiding away from everyone and everything. Boy, did I get that wrong!
I now know that I have to avoid all crowds which is a good excuse for me NOT to go to the mall to do any Christmas shopping. That's OK. Either I can order online along with billions of other Americans or I can send Rick out to shop. Giving money at Christmas also works. Sadly, church is out for a while and I only go out when necessary, so I will have to be content to stay close to home with just a few outside visits.
This roadblock to my recovery is behind us, and I have learned a few valuable lessons. The doctor told me to avoid crowds and anyone who is even THINKING of being sick. However, I should "live life" by doing what I can and by choosing who to be around. I will be with family and friends this holiday season... as long as no one is actively ill. Stephanie is coming home for Christmas, and I cannot wait to see her. I will go to the Court House on December 23 to witness the official, legal adoption of my grandson, and I will celebrate with family afterwards. I will accept my friend's invitation to her house, and I will meet with other friends as planned. I just have to protect myself to the best of my ability and pray that everyone stays healthy... including me! DM is something I have to learn to live with, so the learning curve begins.
After we got home, we resumed our somewhat normal routine. Basically, I do what I can and then watch Rick work. He has been a saint. Not only does he take care of me, he also takes care of the groceries, errands to the store, driving to doctor's offices, and almost everything else. I know how hard that can be, yet he never complains. We are both tired by the end of the day, so we are willing to accept that what we accomplished that day has to be good enough.
One of the great jobs completed happened on Sunday after we returned from the hospital. As mentioned earlier, we can put construction and yard debris out to the curb for pick-up each Monday. With that in mind, Rick tackled taking down the rest of the north side fence. I watched. The yard certainly looks different without the half-falling-down rotten wooden fence. We cannot wait to get the new fence up, but that will have to wait until we return in January.
The good news is that on Monday Rick was able to clean up the fence line and get most of the bags of leaves, sticks, vines, and small trees out to the curb before the city came around. Almost everything is gone!
We are sure that the city will now be watching our house. In Dunedin, you cannot legally put up a fence unless you take out a permit. The city will do drive-bys to make sure that we have the correct permits before we start construction. Let them waste their gasoline because we are not about to take out the permit until after the new year. For one fee, we then will have a year to put up a new fence. The fence will probably take us a month or two to complete (one to two posts and panels a day), but that is OK, too. Actually, we cannot put up a fence until we get the south and north sides of the house painted since the posts will go right next to the house. That's the problem with remodeling: everything has to be done in the right sequence, and everything is dependent upon something else.
Another question is what to do with the fence. We have to go around the tree on our yard, so Rick has been making "test" post holes to see how far we have to go out and where the roots of the tree (like everywhere!) will interfere with the posts. Right now, our yard looks like a 200 pound gofer has been trying to take up residence.
Of course, since I am trying to avoid people, I was in contact with too many yesterday. Rick ran to the store, and not more was he gone than the doorbell rang. Standing on my doorstep were two Jehovah's Witnesses asking me about my belief in prayer. I told them the truth, avoided getting within 10 feet of them, and told them to pray for me. Hey. It can't hurt, right?
We had two men from Budget Blinds come in to give us a bid on putting blinds on the front doors. While we love the light we get through the doors, privacy is still a bit of an issue at night, and in the summer when we are not here, we would like something to block the intense sun. Our cooling bill last summer was up about $10.00 a month since we put the doors in. The men measured, showed us samples, and came up with an estimate that shocked us both. We were figuring about $500 for the two doors, and their final bid came in at $1000. A grand for two blinds? Are they kidding? Not in this lifetime. Rick and I will look further. Lowe's and Home Depot, here we come!
After little contact with the neighbors so far, we ran into our neighbor man from the north. Since we just took down the fence, we ended up having a long conversation with him, too. I tried to stand back to not get exposed to anything. So much for limited contact with others!
Today, after coordinating records and doctors' appointments in two states, we both went for badly-needed haircuts. I was a little concerned because my hairdresser, Vicki, sniffled all the while she was cutting my hair. However, I also know she smokes heavily, so I am hoping the runny nose was smoke-induced rather than viral. Thank God I am still on an antibiotic. Vicki removed enough hair from the two of us to stuff a small pillow; I must admit that we both look and feel better.
After the haircuts, Rick finalized plans for ordering our doors. He is hesitant to order them in case something would prevent us from coming down in January, but I am determined that we will come. Keep praying, folks! He will order the interior doors either later today or tomorrow. Then this winter/ spring we can paint them and install them before we go home in the late spring.
Our plans are still ambitious despite the roadblocks we faced with my recovery. We'll get as much done as possible and go forward from there. I had a good, productive day yesterday doing small jobs around the house, so I know that I am going to get better. I just need to try to have the patience to let myself get there.
As you read in the last blog, Thanksgiving Day started well with an invigorating walk and a relaxing day. However, by early afternoon, my body started to betray me once again. I got a terrible chill and started to shake like a person with essential tremors. By the time I was writing the previous blog, my hands were shaking so badly that I had to retype many words since my fingers double-tapped letters. Thanksgiving dinner was in the oven, the rolls were cooked, and the cranberries were ready to go.
By dinnertime, I was freezing and I could not control the shaking. I ate a quick meal (Rick only ate half of his), and then he insisted on taking me to the hospital. While we have a small hospital in Dunedin, we chose to go to Morton Plant Hospital just up the street a bit in Clearwater. That was an excellent decision. By the time we got to the hospital, the chills were worse, the shaking was slightly settled, but I had a fever of 100.2 degrees. While that may not sound high, for me it is. My normal body temperature is 96.4 degrees, so I was heating up quite nicely. Isn't it strange that a person can feel cold with a fever?
Upon hearing my recent medical history, the ER doctors went into full "this could be sepsis" mode. Blood tests, vitals, and two IVs (one in each arm!) later, I was admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of an "unknown infection." Since my immune system is now compromised, I was given a private room on the post-surgical floor.
I stayed in the hospital from Thanksgiving until December 1. Thus, you can see that the last part of November was not any better than the first! During that time, I had 19 tubes of blood drawn, two nasal swabs to rule out various types of flu, and so many bags of IV antibiotics that I lost count after 10.
The doctors let me continue to take the Prednisone I am on, so my muscle aches did not come back. However, they took me off the Imuran that suppresses my immune system to give me something internally to fight the still-unknown infection. They sent me home with a strong oral antibiotic once my blood counts returned to normal, but now I have to coordinate with Mayo to see at what dose I should resume my Imuran on Thursday. The fun never ends...
Rick and I were both surprised that after only a couple of weeks on the Imuran, my immune system is so compromised. We know that Imuran takes about three months to be fully effective, so I thought I had a little more "grace time" before hiding away from everyone and everything. Boy, did I get that wrong!
I now know that I have to avoid all crowds which is a good excuse for me NOT to go to the mall to do any Christmas shopping. That's OK. Either I can order online along with billions of other Americans or I can send Rick out to shop. Giving money at Christmas also works. Sadly, church is out for a while and I only go out when necessary, so I will have to be content to stay close to home with just a few outside visits.
This roadblock to my recovery is behind us, and I have learned a few valuable lessons. The doctor told me to avoid crowds and anyone who is even THINKING of being sick. However, I should "live life" by doing what I can and by choosing who to be around. I will be with family and friends this holiday season... as long as no one is actively ill. Stephanie is coming home for Christmas, and I cannot wait to see her. I will go to the Court House on December 23 to witness the official, legal adoption of my grandson, and I will celebrate with family afterwards. I will accept my friend's invitation to her house, and I will meet with other friends as planned. I just have to protect myself to the best of my ability and pray that everyone stays healthy... including me! DM is something I have to learn to live with, so the learning curve begins.
After we got home, we resumed our somewhat normal routine. Basically, I do what I can and then watch Rick work. He has been a saint. Not only does he take care of me, he also takes care of the groceries, errands to the store, driving to doctor's offices, and almost everything else. I know how hard that can be, yet he never complains. We are both tired by the end of the day, so we are willing to accept that what we accomplished that day has to be good enough.
One of the great jobs completed happened on Sunday after we returned from the hospital. As mentioned earlier, we can put construction and yard debris out to the curb for pick-up each Monday. With that in mind, Rick tackled taking down the rest of the north side fence. I watched. The yard certainly looks different without the half-falling-down rotten wooden fence. We cannot wait to get the new fence up, but that will have to wait until we return in January.
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| The rest of the north side fence is gone. A chain-link fence still surrounds the neighbor's property, but it offers neither household much privacy. |
The good news is that on Monday Rick was able to clean up the fence line and get most of the bags of leaves, sticks, vines, and small trees out to the curb before the city came around. Almost everything is gone!
We are sure that the city will now be watching our house. In Dunedin, you cannot legally put up a fence unless you take out a permit. The city will do drive-bys to make sure that we have the correct permits before we start construction. Let them waste their gasoline because we are not about to take out the permit until after the new year. For one fee, we then will have a year to put up a new fence. The fence will probably take us a month or two to complete (one to two posts and panels a day), but that is OK, too. Actually, we cannot put up a fence until we get the south and north sides of the house painted since the posts will go right next to the house. That's the problem with remodeling: everything has to be done in the right sequence, and everything is dependent upon something else.
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| The holes around the tree are "Rick holes," not rat or gofer holes. This tree will be a challenge. |
Of course, since I am trying to avoid people, I was in contact with too many yesterday. Rick ran to the store, and not more was he gone than the doorbell rang. Standing on my doorstep were two Jehovah's Witnesses asking me about my belief in prayer. I told them the truth, avoided getting within 10 feet of them, and told them to pray for me. Hey. It can't hurt, right?
We had two men from Budget Blinds come in to give us a bid on putting blinds on the front doors. While we love the light we get through the doors, privacy is still a bit of an issue at night, and in the summer when we are not here, we would like something to block the intense sun. Our cooling bill last summer was up about $10.00 a month since we put the doors in. The men measured, showed us samples, and came up with an estimate that shocked us both. We were figuring about $500 for the two doors, and their final bid came in at $1000. A grand for two blinds? Are they kidding? Not in this lifetime. Rick and I will look further. Lowe's and Home Depot, here we come!
After little contact with the neighbors so far, we ran into our neighbor man from the north. Since we just took down the fence, we ended up having a long conversation with him, too. I tried to stand back to not get exposed to anything. So much for limited contact with others!
Today, after coordinating records and doctors' appointments in two states, we both went for badly-needed haircuts. I was a little concerned because my hairdresser, Vicki, sniffled all the while she was cutting my hair. However, I also know she smokes heavily, so I am hoping the runny nose was smoke-induced rather than viral. Thank God I am still on an antibiotic. Vicki removed enough hair from the two of us to stuff a small pillow; I must admit that we both look and feel better.
After the haircuts, Rick finalized plans for ordering our doors. He is hesitant to order them in case something would prevent us from coming down in January, but I am determined that we will come. Keep praying, folks! He will order the interior doors either later today or tomorrow. Then this winter/ spring we can paint them and install them before we go home in the late spring.
Our plans are still ambitious despite the roadblocks we faced with my recovery. We'll get as much done as possible and go forward from there. I had a good, productive day yesterday doing small jobs around the house, so I know that I am going to get better. I just need to try to have the patience to let myself get there.
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!
We told ourselves that today would be a relaxing, down day, and so far we have been able to just stay around the neighborhood and chill out. It feels great. I awoke with a headache, so about mid-morning we went out into the 40+ degree weather and tried, for the first time this year, a walk around the block. It felt so good to get out! I made it around the block with no problem, although I must admit that I took a nap this afternoon. A loving family, a new grandson, understanding friends, supportive prayers, and the ability to nap when I want to do so. I have much to be thankful for!
Tuesday evening turned out to be a rather wild day in Florida. Storms were predicted, and they came in during the early evening with very strong winds. Unknown to us, we actually had tornado warnings for Pinellas County. Hmmm. A tornado. In Wisconsin, that is a part of living in the state. When the warnings come in, one just watches the TV and the clouds outside, and then heads for the basement if threatening weather appears. But a tornado in Florida? That is something we had not considered since we have no basement into which to retreat should threatening clouds swoop down. After some thought, I guess we would have to retreat to the more enclosed areas within the house -- either the tiny coat closet in the hallway or the bedroom closet in the guest room. We have the security of the wind-resistent windows and doors, so I think we would be safe; however, a tornado is something I had not really thought about before. We have already determined that if a hurricane heads this way, we will just get out early. A tornado, however, does not give that much advanced notice.
The only consequence we had from the storm was to wake up early to the sounds of our charging phones beeping loudly as we lost power in the house. After we both took quick showers before the 50 gallons of hot water in the water heater cooled, Rick drove to McDonald's to get us a fast, hot breakfast. By the time he arrived home, the power was back on.
I struggle each day with the desire to do many things around the house, and then find that I do not have the energy to do much at all. I threw in a load of laundry, and then watched Rick vacuum the whole house. Terrazzo floors are fantastic, but we could vacuum each day to keep them clean. Maybe that is a good thing. With carpet, the dirt just sits there, undetected. At least with the terrazzo, we can see when we track in dirt and sweep it up, making the house cleaner. After he vacuumed the main debris, I dry-mopped the whole house to pick up the dust. At the time, it felt good to exercise. Last night, I ached all over. Maybe I over did the cleaning a bit.
Rick and I had found an area rug for the living room at the furniture store, but it was both too large and way too expensive for us. Steve suggested that we look at rugstudio.com. He has had good luck with their products. We actually found the rug that we saw in the store; however, we are still not sure we can get it in the size we want. We are going to wait until we have the sofas in place (probably sometime in February) and then determine the size of rug we need. The good thing about the rug online is that it was about half price from the rug displayed in the furniture store.
Later in the afternoon, we went to Home Goods to look for some decorative jars for the bedroom. Rick needed something to hold his spare change, and I wanted an enclosed container for the lancets I use when I test my blood. We found two jars that we liked, so we bought them. While we were there, we also found another rug -- for one-seventh of the price of the furniture store rug -- that may be a contender for the living room in the future.
Another stop yesterday was to a millwork shop that we have used in the past. We got the laundry room doors there last year with the intension of replacing the other room and closet doors in the house with the same style of door.
The current doors in this house are terrible. They have probably all been in the house since it was built in 1960, and as hollow-core, cheap doors, they are all starting to delaminate. For now, we have glued them back together and slapped on a fresh coat of paint to clean them a bit, but they still look pretty tacky.
We had to wait for our saleswoman for a while, so she suggested that we go to their new showroom and look around. In the showroom we found Paul working. He is one of the partners for the shop. We started to tell him about our problems concerning bedroom closet doors. The current doors are 1960 original doors, and not only are they short on the bottom part to make room for much-needed storage on the top part, but also they are falling apart and do not really fit our modern lifestyle. Rick talked about closing off the upper part, but we badly need the storage space it provides since we do not have a basement in this house.
Paul said, "I had the same configuration in my house. Why don't you take out the whole frame, keep the storage shelves above, and just put in two eight-foot slide-by doors? They are a tall and majestic, and they look great in my house."
We had not considered larger doors, but we think that with a little rebuilding of the structure and frame, we can have the closets that we want internally with the matching, clean look of new closet doors on the outside.
Our door budget took a bit of a hit because we also decided to order pre-hung doors instead of trying to strip the original frames. I am afraid that they may contain lead paint, and I do not want to deal with that hassle or health-hazard right now. The bid came in, naturally, at twice the price of our original budget, but that bid includes the four slide-by closet panels for the bedroom closets. Rick has to figure out a bit more on the engineering side of rebuilding the interiors of the closets, but we are excited about the potential results.
We are thankful for the progress and decisions that we have made so far, so we are looking toward putting the plans into action when we return after the holidays.
We told ourselves that today would be a relaxing, down day, and so far we have been able to just stay around the neighborhood and chill out. It feels great. I awoke with a headache, so about mid-morning we went out into the 40+ degree weather and tried, for the first time this year, a walk around the block. It felt so good to get out! I made it around the block with no problem, although I must admit that I took a nap this afternoon. A loving family, a new grandson, understanding friends, supportive prayers, and the ability to nap when I want to do so. I have much to be thankful for!
Tuesday evening turned out to be a rather wild day in Florida. Storms were predicted, and they came in during the early evening with very strong winds. Unknown to us, we actually had tornado warnings for Pinellas County. Hmmm. A tornado. In Wisconsin, that is a part of living in the state. When the warnings come in, one just watches the TV and the clouds outside, and then heads for the basement if threatening weather appears. But a tornado in Florida? That is something we had not considered since we have no basement into which to retreat should threatening clouds swoop down. After some thought, I guess we would have to retreat to the more enclosed areas within the house -- either the tiny coat closet in the hallway or the bedroom closet in the guest room. We have the security of the wind-resistent windows and doors, so I think we would be safe; however, a tornado is something I had not really thought about before. We have already determined that if a hurricane heads this way, we will just get out early. A tornado, however, does not give that much advanced notice.
The only consequence we had from the storm was to wake up early to the sounds of our charging phones beeping loudly as we lost power in the house. After we both took quick showers before the 50 gallons of hot water in the water heater cooled, Rick drove to McDonald's to get us a fast, hot breakfast. By the time he arrived home, the power was back on.
I struggle each day with the desire to do many things around the house, and then find that I do not have the energy to do much at all. I threw in a load of laundry, and then watched Rick vacuum the whole house. Terrazzo floors are fantastic, but we could vacuum each day to keep them clean. Maybe that is a good thing. With carpet, the dirt just sits there, undetected. At least with the terrazzo, we can see when we track in dirt and sweep it up, making the house cleaner. After he vacuumed the main debris, I dry-mopped the whole house to pick up the dust. At the time, it felt good to exercise. Last night, I ached all over. Maybe I over did the cleaning a bit.
Rick and I had found an area rug for the living room at the furniture store, but it was both too large and way too expensive for us. Steve suggested that we look at rugstudio.com. He has had good luck with their products. We actually found the rug that we saw in the store; however, we are still not sure we can get it in the size we want. We are going to wait until we have the sofas in place (probably sometime in February) and then determine the size of rug we need. The good thing about the rug online is that it was about half price from the rug displayed in the furniture store.
 |
| A square jars holds change while the round one works for my lancets. |
Another stop yesterday was to a millwork shop that we have used in the past. We got the laundry room doors there last year with the intension of replacing the other room and closet doors in the house with the same style of door.
The current doors in this house are terrible. They have probably all been in the house since it was built in 1960, and as hollow-core, cheap doors, they are all starting to delaminate. For now, we have glued them back together and slapped on a fresh coat of paint to clean them a bit, but they still look pretty tacky.
We had to wait for our saleswoman for a while, so she suggested that we go to their new showroom and look around. In the showroom we found Paul working. He is one of the partners for the shop. We started to tell him about our problems concerning bedroom closet doors. The current doors are 1960 original doors, and not only are they short on the bottom part to make room for much-needed storage on the top part, but also they are falling apart and do not really fit our modern lifestyle. Rick talked about closing off the upper part, but we badly need the storage space it provides since we do not have a basement in this house.
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| The bedroom closet doors are held together with glue and paint. They need to go. |
 |
| The guest bedroom has the same configuration, so they also need to be replaced to match the other doors that we want in the house. |
We had not considered larger doors, but we think that with a little rebuilding of the structure and frame, we can have the closets that we want internally with the matching, clean look of new closet doors on the outside.
Our door budget took a bit of a hit because we also decided to order pre-hung doors instead of trying to strip the original frames. I am afraid that they may contain lead paint, and I do not want to deal with that hassle or health-hazard right now. The bid came in, naturally, at twice the price of our original budget, but that bid includes the four slide-by closet panels for the bedroom closets. Rick has to figure out a bit more on the engineering side of rebuilding the interiors of the closets, but we are excited about the potential results.
We are thankful for the progress and decisions that we have made so far, so we are looking toward putting the plans into action when we return after the holidays.
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Furniture, Water Softener, and the Old Oak Tree
Monday dawned with a list of chores to complete around the house. Since we had to wait for the tree service man to arrive, I started the laundry. Did I mention how much I appreciate all of the hard work Rick did last year to enclose the laundry room? In this house, instead of having to go down a dozen stairs to a laundry room in the basement, I just take the laundry down one step into the clean, beautifully-tiled laundry room. What luxury!
I planned to dry-mop the bedroom and to sweep down the cobwebs outside, but remember what I mentioned earlier about plans? Well, before I could do either of those tasks, the tree service man arrived. We have used Jeff's service in the past, and he is authorized to evaluate trees for the City of Dunedin to see if the tree warrants removal.
Jeff took one look at our leaning live oak in the backyard and said, "I can almost guarantee that there is a 99.9% chance that the city will NOT give you a permit to remove that tree." He declared the huge tree very old but healthy with well-grounded roots holding it in place. He also reassured us that in the unlikely event that the tree DID fall on the neighbor's house, we would not be liable for the damages. What hangs over on his property is apparently his problem. Since the house is currently in an estate trust, and thus vacant, we have no one to worry about at the moment.
Jeff's news has presented us with another turn in the road. Removal of the tree would have allowed us to build our fence behind it with a straight fence across the back of our lot. Now we will have to reconsider the configuration of the fence. I hate the idea of building the fence with a "bump out" to accommodate the tree, leaving it in a no-man's-land between the neighbor's chain-link fence and our vinyl fence, but we may have no choice. Our other alternative is to build the fence straight across to as near as we can to the tree on either side, and to try to fill in the "gap" with bushes like oleander or hibiscus. Rick wants the bump-out; I need to study the area more. The fence question is something we will have to face this spring.
After Jeff left, we went to the furniture store to try to figure out the sofas. We had taken some fabric home to see how two Temple sofas would work, and we found a fabric that we liked. We also selected a fabric that would work for pillows, although neither of us was greatly thrilled with our choices. Rick, in particular, was very hesitant. He was not sure about the fabric, the cushion construction, or the pillow choice. I want to stay with a neutral sofa, terra-cotta accents, with yellow and aqua tones for sub-accents. We found a fabric that would work for the Temple sofas and a terra-cotta --although plain-- fabric for the pillows. Rather boring, but functional.
I just feared that Rick would not be happy unless we looked at some higher-end sofas. He found two stores in Tampa that carry Sherrill which is the brand that we have at home in Green Bay. He reasoned that if we added a couple of hundred dollars more to each sofa, we could have better construction, better fabric, and a better frame than the Temple. I knew at that point that he was not going to be happy with the Temple unless the Sherrill came in at thousands of dollars more than the Temple.
While we were in the furniture store on Monday we received a call from the plumber that we had asked to the house to give us a bid on a water softener. The water in Florida is very hard. Supposedly, Dunedin has the softest water in the area, and that is not saying much! A water softener will help save our appliances and my skin, so we somewhat feel that it may be a necessity. When Rick first contacted the plumbing firm, the man he talked to estimated that we could get a softener for between $1400 -$1600 installed. OK. We had that in the budget. They talked about the unit that we wanted, and the man said that he had an identical unit in his house that served him well.
When an estimator came to the house, he declared that we would need a larger unit for the house, and he detailed how we could bring the water from the front of the house where it enters the structure (weird, huh?) to the softener that we want at the back of the garage. When I asked why two people who were here only part of the year would need a larger unit, I did not hear a logical reply. When we received the call at the furniture store, the estimator said that he had been able to "just squeak your bid under $2500 at $2495!" Such a deal! Say what? He has got to be kidding! How did a reasonable estimate suddenly increase by $1000, especially when Rick found the original unit that we wanted online for about $500. Needless to say, we are not going to accept an outrageous bid for a water softener. We want to go to the plumbing place and asked to see an itemized estimate. I will not put in a larger unit, and if the majority of the bill is for labor, then we will plumb the whole thing ourselves and have the firm come in to just make the final connection to the whole-house main line. Another alternative is to call a different plumber for a new estimate. Did I mention that we hate working with contractors in Florida?
Meanwhile, back to the saga of the sofas. Today (Tuesday) we decided to wait until Tampa traffic settled down and then visit the furniture stores in the area that handled Sherrill furniture. Traffic in this area is bad, and it increases even more once the Snowbirds return. I swear that half of Ontario winters in Dunedin; even the Toronto Blue-Jays have their training camp down here. And traffic going into and out of Tampa each day is horrendous, so we had to wait until at least 9:30 to venture into the city.
The first store was located only 17 miles from our house, so the drive there was not too bad. We knew the minute that we walked in that the furniture was more upscale than the Temple dealer. We sat on various sofas, finally finding a couple that "fit" us. One of the problems with the Temple furniture had been that the sofa we would have purchased was not on the floor, so we could not get a "feel" for it. For those of you who are less than 5' 5", you know what I am talking about. I am only 5' 2", so finding a sofa small enough to fit my frame is a real problem.
However, we did find a sofa that we liked. It is a Henredon which is a step up even from the Sherrill line. Yes, each sofa will cost us about $350 more than the Temple would have, but we found an excellent fabric, cushion construction that we like, an exceptionally well-built frame, and even pillow fabric that will bring in my terra-cotta, aqua, and yellow. Rick is happy, and I am happy. We found some other accent pieces, but I did not buy anything more once the tax, fabric protector, and delivery fees were added to the bill. Was the final total more than we had anticipated? Yes; however, we reasoned (rationalized?) that we had been willing to spend $2000 to get the tree removed, and since that did not happen, we had some budget money that we could put toward comfortable furniture. The sofas will take approximately 12 weeks to get here. I tried to talk the salesman into a "buy one, get one free" scheme, but he did not agree with my desires. Rick said that if the house someday starts to slide into a sinkhole, I can grab whatever I want, but he is going to drag the sofas out of the front door!
We spent most of the day working on this furniture choice, and I am glad that we are finished with that decision. We did not get home until after 4:00 p.m., but I feel that we spent the day well.
I hear rain outside right now which is far better than the snow I know our family members are experiencing in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Thursday is Thanksgiving. The weatherman predicts "the coldest Thanksgiving in a decade" with temperatures "only in the low 50's" the whole day. I think I can hack that. We will miss being with family for the holiday, but we will make our own celebration here and take advantage of the day (and day after since I am not crazy enough to ever shop on Black Friday) to just stay at home and relax. After all that we have done in the last four days, I think we deserve a little break.
I planned to dry-mop the bedroom and to sweep down the cobwebs outside, but remember what I mentioned earlier about plans? Well, before I could do either of those tasks, the tree service man arrived. We have used Jeff's service in the past, and he is authorized to evaluate trees for the City of Dunedin to see if the tree warrants removal.
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| So the huge, old tree gets a pardon from the city. |
Jeff's news has presented us with another turn in the road. Removal of the tree would have allowed us to build our fence behind it with a straight fence across the back of our lot. Now we will have to reconsider the configuration of the fence. I hate the idea of building the fence with a "bump out" to accommodate the tree, leaving it in a no-man's-land between the neighbor's chain-link fence and our vinyl fence, but we may have no choice. Our other alternative is to build the fence straight across to as near as we can to the tree on either side, and to try to fill in the "gap" with bushes like oleander or hibiscus. Rick wants the bump-out; I need to study the area more. The fence question is something we will have to face this spring.
After Jeff left, we went to the furniture store to try to figure out the sofas. We had taken some fabric home to see how two Temple sofas would work, and we found a fabric that we liked. We also selected a fabric that would work for pillows, although neither of us was greatly thrilled with our choices. Rick, in particular, was very hesitant. He was not sure about the fabric, the cushion construction, or the pillow choice. I want to stay with a neutral sofa, terra-cotta accents, with yellow and aqua tones for sub-accents. We found a fabric that would work for the Temple sofas and a terra-cotta --although plain-- fabric for the pillows. Rather boring, but functional.
I just feared that Rick would not be happy unless we looked at some higher-end sofas. He found two stores in Tampa that carry Sherrill which is the brand that we have at home in Green Bay. He reasoned that if we added a couple of hundred dollars more to each sofa, we could have better construction, better fabric, and a better frame than the Temple. I knew at that point that he was not going to be happy with the Temple unless the Sherrill came in at thousands of dollars more than the Temple.
While we were in the furniture store on Monday we received a call from the plumber that we had asked to the house to give us a bid on a water softener. The water in Florida is very hard. Supposedly, Dunedin has the softest water in the area, and that is not saying much! A water softener will help save our appliances and my skin, so we somewhat feel that it may be a necessity. When Rick first contacted the plumbing firm, the man he talked to estimated that we could get a softener for between $1400 -$1600 installed. OK. We had that in the budget. They talked about the unit that we wanted, and the man said that he had an identical unit in his house that served him well.
When an estimator came to the house, he declared that we would need a larger unit for the house, and he detailed how we could bring the water from the front of the house where it enters the structure (weird, huh?) to the softener that we want at the back of the garage. When I asked why two people who were here only part of the year would need a larger unit, I did not hear a logical reply. When we received the call at the furniture store, the estimator said that he had been able to "just squeak your bid under $2500 at $2495!" Such a deal! Say what? He has got to be kidding! How did a reasonable estimate suddenly increase by $1000, especially when Rick found the original unit that we wanted online for about $500. Needless to say, we are not going to accept an outrageous bid for a water softener. We want to go to the plumbing place and asked to see an itemized estimate. I will not put in a larger unit, and if the majority of the bill is for labor, then we will plumb the whole thing ourselves and have the firm come in to just make the final connection to the whole-house main line. Another alternative is to call a different plumber for a new estimate. Did I mention that we hate working with contractors in Florida?
Meanwhile, back to the saga of the sofas. Today (Tuesday) we decided to wait until Tampa traffic settled down and then visit the furniture stores in the area that handled Sherrill furniture. Traffic in this area is bad, and it increases even more once the Snowbirds return. I swear that half of Ontario winters in Dunedin; even the Toronto Blue-Jays have their training camp down here. And traffic going into and out of Tampa each day is horrendous, so we had to wait until at least 9:30 to venture into the city.
The first store was located only 17 miles from our house, so the drive there was not too bad. We knew the minute that we walked in that the furniture was more upscale than the Temple dealer. We sat on various sofas, finally finding a couple that "fit" us. One of the problems with the Temple furniture had been that the sofa we would have purchased was not on the floor, so we could not get a "feel" for it. For those of you who are less than 5' 5", you know what I am talking about. I am only 5' 2", so finding a sofa small enough to fit my frame is a real problem.
However, we did find a sofa that we liked. It is a Henredon which is a step up even from the Sherrill line. Yes, each sofa will cost us about $350 more than the Temple would have, but we found an excellent fabric, cushion construction that we like, an exceptionally well-built frame, and even pillow fabric that will bring in my terra-cotta, aqua, and yellow. Rick is happy, and I am happy. We found some other accent pieces, but I did not buy anything more once the tax, fabric protector, and delivery fees were added to the bill. Was the final total more than we had anticipated? Yes; however, we reasoned (rationalized?) that we had been willing to spend $2000 to get the tree removed, and since that did not happen, we had some budget money that we could put toward comfortable furniture. The sofas will take approximately 12 weeks to get here. I tried to talk the salesman into a "buy one, get one free" scheme, but he did not agree with my desires. Rick said that if the house someday starts to slide into a sinkhole, I can grab whatever I want, but he is going to drag the sofas out of the front door!
We spent most of the day working on this furniture choice, and I am glad that we are finished with that decision. We did not get home until after 4:00 p.m., but I feel that we spent the day well.
I hear rain outside right now which is far better than the snow I know our family members are experiencing in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Thursday is Thanksgiving. The weatherman predicts "the coldest Thanksgiving in a decade" with temperatures "only in the low 50's" the whole day. I think I can hack that. We will miss being with family for the holiday, but we will make our own celebration here and take advantage of the day (and day after since I am not crazy enough to ever shop on Black Friday) to just stay at home and relax. After all that we have done in the last four days, I think we deserve a little break.
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Little Turkeys and Rotting Fences
This morning dawned with a predicted "cold front" coming through the state. Ha! To those of us raised in the North, a cold front means that when you step outside, the -30 degree weather sucks the air right out of your body, making moving, breathing, and even thinking slightly painful. To Floridians, a cold front means that the temperatures today dropped down to the low 70s! What wimps.
We went to church this morning, and we were again greeted very warmly. The congregation is small (only one child went to the front for the "children's lesson"), and because many in the congregation are elderly, never once did the Pastor ask anyone to stand. That was all right with me this morning as I was rather tired. The service lasted a bit long, but it gave me enough time to rest so that I had energy to shop and to do a little around the house after lunch.
We stocked up for our Thanksgiving feast by buying a small -- although still expensive -- Butterball turkey breast. I might try it in the crock pot this year if I can find a good recipe. If not, I have an almost new oven that will work just as well. Rick and I also went to Kohl's and bought a new Cuisineart Griddle/ Grill/ Panini machine. That will replace the old George Foreman griddle that definitely has served us well in the past but is now ready for retirement. I like the new machine because all of the grill pans just pop off and can go into the dishwasher. Not only is that easier but also much more sanitary in the end.
We were delightfully surprised yesterday when Lindsay sent us "first Thanksgiving" pictures of five-month-old Owen. He is the new love of our lives, and his shirt says, "Everyone is Thankful for Me." We truly are. He makes us smile, renews our faith in discovering the world all over again, and keeps us happy that he has joined our family. His adoption becomes final in December, and that is the greatest Christmas gift that this family ever will experience.
This afternoon Rick concentrated on starting to remove the rotting north fence. Steve and Chris had
each put back one section after it blew down twice, and when we looked out this morning, that same corner section was down, leaning against a small bush, and taking out a branch on the bush in the process. The Saws-All and a little muscle power made short work of the first sections of the fence. Having the cooler temperatures also made the job much more enjoyable.
In this city, we can only put out construction debris and yard waste on Mondays. They do collect garbage on Thursday also, but that is just for regular garbage cans. By taking out four sections of fence today, we had about as much debris as they would pick up on Monday. We'll take out the rest of the fence over the next week, stacking the sections so that the second and then last third go to the curb in the next two weeks.
Rick said that he felt good getting back to work on the house. I know that my medical limitations has totally changed our viewpoint on remodeling the house, but today renewed my faith that we can still make progress.
I did a little and feel pretty good this evening. A little light exercise is good for me, so I have to keep that up each day as I slowly regain my strength. Tomorrow, unless it is raining, I would like to take a broom and sweep down the soffits and sills of the house. We have cobwebs everywhere, so a good sweeping will begin the process of clearing the house for paint. I would imagine that while I am doing that, Rick will take another crack at taking down more of the fence.
We are making progress. While we may not move as quickly as we have in the past, we are still moving forward, and that is the greatest feeling in the world.
We went to church this morning, and we were again greeted very warmly. The congregation is small (only one child went to the front for the "children's lesson"), and because many in the congregation are elderly, never once did the Pastor ask anyone to stand. That was all right with me this morning as I was rather tired. The service lasted a bit long, but it gave me enough time to rest so that I had energy to shop and to do a little around the house after lunch.
We stocked up for our Thanksgiving feast by buying a small -- although still expensive -- Butterball turkey breast. I might try it in the crock pot this year if I can find a good recipe. If not, I have an almost new oven that will work just as well. Rick and I also went to Kohl's and bought a new Cuisineart Griddle/ Grill/ Panini machine. That will replace the old George Foreman griddle that definitely has served us well in the past but is now ready for retirement. I like the new machine because all of the grill pans just pop off and can go into the dishwasher. Not only is that easier but also much more sanitary in the end.
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| Owen's first Thanksgiving outfit and pose. What's not to love? |
This afternoon Rick concentrated on starting to remove the rotting north fence. Steve and Chris had
 |
| Rick removes a section of fence from a rotting fence post. |
 |
| The Saws-All easily cuts through the wood to separate the fence into sections. |
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| The sections come down, one by one. Since two could not cut at the same time, I sat in a chair. Every good job needs a supervisor! |
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| Once Rick detaches a section, he cuts it in half to carry to the curb. |
each put back one section after it blew down twice, and when we looked out this morning, that same corner section was down, leaning against a small bush, and taking out a branch on the bush in the process. The Saws-All and a little muscle power made short work of the first sections of the fence. Having the cooler temperatures also made the job much more enjoyable.
In this city, we can only put out construction debris and yard waste on Mondays. They do collect garbage on Thursday also, but that is just for regular garbage cans. By taking out four sections of fence today, we had about as much debris as they would pick up on Monday. We'll take out the rest of the fence over the next week, stacking the sections so that the second and then last third go to the curb in the next two weeks.
Rick said that he felt good getting back to work on the house. I know that my medical limitations has totally changed our viewpoint on remodeling the house, but today renewed my faith that we can still make progress.
I did a little and feel pretty good this evening. A little light exercise is good for me, so I have to keep that up each day as I slowly regain my strength. Tomorrow, unless it is raining, I would like to take a broom and sweep down the soffits and sills of the house. We have cobwebs everywhere, so a good sweeping will begin the process of clearing the house for paint. I would imagine that while I am doing that, Rick will take another crack at taking down more of the fence.
We are making progress. While we may not move as quickly as we have in the past, we are still moving forward, and that is the greatest feeling in the world.
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