One of the joys of starting to blog again is reconnecting with some of my favorite bloggers. I’m happy to know most of you are still hanging in there, in your respective little corners of the world and I’m enjoying reading about what’s new in your lives. I had several blog topics in mind, but as they required research, and I didn’t have time this week, I decided to share a couple of posts from other bloggers which made me laugh, because I’ve been in need of a dose of humor lately.
It’s been a frustrating few weeks, nothing major just a lot of minor irritations – like why do things always break in threes? I didn’t live in my house for a few years while I was taking care of my mother (I have stairs, she does not) and then recuperating from heart surgery, (I was too short of breath to handle the stairs and after she went to a nursing home her house needed to be cleaned out before being sold), and my house was perfectly fine. I only live a few blocks away, so I would slip home and check on it for insurance purposes, and I have really good neighbours who kept an eye on things. And it was fine all winter, (as if it knew I was grieving), not a single peep, but maybe inside my house was slowly simmering with anger at being abandoned that long, because now that I’m home again and feeling better, it’s been nothing but bad behavior.
I had a new dual hot water furnace/tankless on demand water system installed last fall as my current boiler was 30 years old, and when I went into the furnace room, where I keep excess kitchen stuff, there was water on the floor right under where a valve had corroded, an old red valve which I’m sure came with the house as it was an issue before, so after spending $10,000 couldn’t they have replaced that part too? The furnace was still under warranty, so the owner of the company came out and fixed it himself, with a $25 part and many apologies. When I went to take a load of clothes out of the dryer I noticed the top of the dryer was wet from a pipe leaking overhead, right where the plumber connected the dishwasher during the kitchen remodel, which was only five years ago. It was a new valve then but it looks corroded as well. I don’t have hard water and I do have a maintenance plan under Reliance, for plumbing, electrical, A/C and furnace so today they sent someone out, but it was not covered, of course not – $315. I got a new fridge and stove in April, something I had been meaning to do after the kitchen remodel – the fridge is great, but the (extra large) oven is very temperamental and takes forever to heat up. I debated returning it within 30 days as per the Maytag guarantee, but the store talked me into keeping it, saying it’s a learning curve and the new convection types need to calibrate themselves initially. Meaning I guess that the more you cook, the better it regulates itself? The problem is I don’t cook that much, at least not in the oven, so it’s like starting over every week. So some days things turn out just fine, and other days the same dish is undercooked and takes twice as long. Plus, the small burner, the one I use the most, doesn’t seem to get very hot. I wish I had returned it, but it’s too late now, and a model with a smaller oven went up $700 in price the next week due to the tariffs.
Having exhausted their three strikes and you’re out(side) limit, the house demons moved onto the garage. On Wednesday last week, the one and only day when it was warm enough to need the A/C in the car it didn’t seem to be blowing cool air, which meant a trip to the garage yesterday. (All is good, the air is frigid now and my bank account is minus $170, but it could have been worse.) Then last Thursday when the weather finally got warm enough to plant all the stuff I bought in early May, the forest fire smog moved in, resulting in an air quality alert to stay indoors! (Don’t blame me, I don’t live in the northwest, but there are already 225 out of control fires, twice the normal number, and it’s only June!)
So I decided to stay inside and watch a movie only to discover that Netflix is not working, it won’t even launch. I know I’ve been negligent in updating the software but after trying everything, I finally called them only to be told my ten year old perfectly fine 55 inch TV is too old and is not supported anymore, so I must buy a streaming device stick in order to connect, or just get a new tv when they’re nothing wrong with this one, and I hardly ever watch TV. I ended up watching the movie on my 13 inch laptop, which is not the same viewing experience, but am thinking of canceling, as for $18 a month there’s nothing on Netflix anyway.
Then my grasscutter told me bees/wasps were trying to get into the crevices between the bricks at the back of the house in front of the hose faucet, (and didn’t I have that problem before – see Revenge of the Wasps). Hello duct-tape, until I see if they return. It’s been so cold it’s not even bee season yet!
And the there’s the deck….I was scrubbing the mildew off it again (it faces north and doesn’t dry out), something I clearly remember doing last November (the ambulance came when my Lifeline detected a fall and I didn’t hear the phone), and some of the wooden structural boards under the Veka-composite-decking-which-is-supposed-to-last-forever, are rotten – they’re soft and soggy in maybe in about ten places. The company went out of business long ago, so I don’t know who I can in get to fix that, as most deck companies don’t want to be bothered with small jobs like that. It’s so hard to find a handyman these days, it might be better just to move.
Maybe that’s what’s what the house is trying to tell me! It’s time to downsize into something smaller and less work, with a wee bit of a garden, not a big lawn which has been overtaken by creeping charlie. (We’ll leave the gardening update for another blog, but I’ve already replaced nine of the twenty dead-or-dying Knock-Out pink rose bushes which are at the end of their life span.,…okay I admit some of them might have died of neglect.)
And just to top off last week, the hinge on my eye glasses broke on Friday afternoon, ten minutes after the eye place closed. It doesn’t look fixable, leaving me with a pair of progressive bifocals I got last summer but could never wear, and an old pair of readers from five years ago. (Update -the new ones will take two weeks.)
So I needed a dose of humor and Kate’s sassy three cats from Views and Mews by Coffee Kat, always make me smile. I think it’s a great idea to have a cat write your blogs when you don’t have time, and if I ever get a cat I want a tuxedo cat like Sasha, who has personality plus, and told me she is in fact a Pulitzer prize winner!
And then there’s Dave’s humorous travel post, (of Life in A Word), which reminds me of why I should be content staying home for the summer keeping my house company, until both of us are in a better mood. It’s been so long since I’ve stayed in a Marriott I’m sure I have zero status.
Hope everyone else is having a good week!
thehomeplaceweb 
Joni, my heart goes out to you. Life tends to deal us several blows at a time, so I hope you will be able to enjoy a respite soon! The frame of my spectacles broke this week too and cannot be repaired. Our medical aid partially covers a new pair every two years, so I have had my eyes re-tested and chose new frames. Wait ten days … I can’t! I need to meet my Norwegian granddaughter at the airport in the next town before then. Get out to my car in the pouring rain … and it wouldn’t start. Our section of town has been without piped water for a week now … the way I see it: the sun is shining weakly this morning, my arthritic knee is feeling a little stronger today … and, so far, the donkeys haven’t ripped open the bags of rubbish put out for collection. There is much to smile about 🙂 🙂 🙂
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I decided to have my bifocals redone too, at a cost of $105, with the lines instead of the progressive lens stuff. I just couldn’t adapt to it as I don’t wear them all the time, and the bottom part for reading was useless. I paid $300 for them. I have no coverage for glasses. Yes, when I think of you having no water, (and was it electricity sometimes too), I know my problems are small compared to others in the world, so I try and think positively – at least I have the money to repair them…..one of the benefits of old age and a lifetime of saving, I guess. Plus I don’t have to worry about donkeys!!!!!! Just racoons here!
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Thanks for the shout out and I’m glad Sasha made you smile. She’s always barking (even though she’s a cat) orders here. We’ve had a spring sort of like yours only maybe not quite as much stuff going wrong. My husband is getting older and less agile so we would love to find a reasonable handyman to help out. They are a dying breed.
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Thanks for allowing me to share your blog Kate!
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You’ve certainly had a tough week. And being told you need to buy a new TV, well! I think many of us have moved to the new Smart TVs, because that’s the way of the future. Glad you had your laptop running to watch a show.
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I do have a Smart TV! I bought one of the earliest ones, a super deluxe Sony that was $2,000 with 4K high def, which was new at the time, from a indie store that only sold TV’s and had top line stuff, (not like those Best Buy chains stores which sell cheaper and plenty). It was so new that it only came with 2 icons, and I had to have the store install the rest of the features. But yes, it is now out of date, but the picture quality is still great, so I guess I’ll get a streaming device and get someone to set it up. I still get TV cable, as it comes with my Cogeco TV/Phone/internet package, and the internet part is reasonable. I still need a landline for my Lifeline, as the newer Lifelines that work anywhere off cell phone towers, don’t work well here as I live too close to the river, and the US towers interfere. So yes, I know most people don’t do that anymore, but I like to watch the local and national news on TV, (and occasionally CNN), otherwise I could live without it. Otherwise, with all those streaming choices, Prime, Disney, Hulu, etc. it’s just a waste of money for me.
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Actually the movie I watched, was Joy – the history of IVF. I like British movies – it was about the first test tube baby and the scientists behind it. I really enjoyed the fashions and hair styles of the 70’s – like a look back at my youth!
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Good grief the house demons are besotted with your house. I’m sorry and feel your pain. I wish I knew how to go about deciding when to downsize, but like you we keep paying for all demonic house events to be fixed. So good to see you back to blogging, btw.
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Thanks Ally…..I hope to make my next posts shorter with less drama. It’s hard to make decisions like selling, as there are still many aspects of my house I love, even though it is becoming too much work….esp. the yard….but on a nice June day I look at it and think, I would really miss this!
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So sorry you’ve been through all this, but your anthropomorphizing, which I always encourage, made for a very interesting and fun post. May you have a period of tranquility now.
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Thanks Annie! I have to admit anthropomorphizing is a new word to me – I had to look it up! I suppose you could say my house has bad energy at the moment, according to the Japanese art of feng shui? I’m hoping to have a very quiet peaceful summer, so relaxed that I’m bored….unlike last summer when I ran back and forth to the nursing home every day to feed my mom, as they had no staff, and in my spare time cleaned out her house! There’s something to be said for a normal life with no drama!
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You’ve earned it! Stay well.
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I feel for you Joni and, as the old saying goes “when it rains, it pours.” House maintenance demons are bad enough, but car demons, TV demons and even eyeglass demons have made your life a nightmare. The post is funny how you have presented it, but I know it is not funny going through it.
And the glasses … well, I have progressive lenses and about four or five years ago, I needed new glasses and they use an outside lab for eyeglasses, so you can’t keep your frames and order lenses that are simply fitted into the old frames like the former eye doctor did – nope, you have to order totally new eyeglasses – ripoff! So I fix them by keeping my former pair of glasses as spare glasses and take them in when it’s time for new glasses. But one year, the optical assistant said “we can’t do that for you – you have to order new glasses.” All the prior optical staff was gone, either retired at the onset of the pandemic, one was on maternity leave – so she was a newbie. So I got the new glasses … grrr. I tried them out there and they seemed fine, but once I had them on at home in front of the computer, things were blurry. I took them back a few days later and said “I can walk with them, but sitting at the computer, I can’t see at all, everything is blurry and I actually feel dizzy, so I think they are not my prescription and the lab mixed them up.”
She checked and it was the right prescription. They were NOT nice about it saying “you have to find your viewing spot and move your eyes up/down and not move your head – it is your fault.” I never wore the glasses and should have returned them, but I figured, they won’t take used glasses back and so I wore the old prescription. I told the eye doctor about it the following year and took them and said “these were useless” and he said “maybe it is because the frame is curved – it interfered with your vision.” So I stick with my glasses style, worried to try anything new and be saddled with something I can’t use. Annoying and I have optical insurance, but it only pays partially on eyeglass frames, plus my lenses are beveled as my eyes are bad, so they bevel the glass to make it thinner, plus I have blue light computer tint (easier on the eyes), but still. It’s annoying … I’m already dreading when I get cataract surgery, then you go through trying out different eyeglass prescriptions as you get used to your new vision.
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I’m not happy with my eyeglass place right now, but I had a new girl there, and she has attitude. If they had explained to me last summer that you had to wear the bifocal progressives ALL the time in order to get used to them, I would have just gotten the bifocals with the line, which is what I’m having remade. On Monday, the same girl, but that night I tried on mom’s old bifocals and the line was right where the girl put it, but I could see it when I watched tv, so I went back on wed, and got another clerk and said I think you have to move the line lower, as these will just be predominately for watching tv and possibly for driving, but not really for reading as I find the bottom space useless for that. They tell me you are supposed to move your head/eyes from side to side while you are reading to focus it? So she drew the line lower. So if I hadn’t gone back, I would have ended up with another costly mistake. They don’t listen and/or ask enough questions – it’s not a one size fit all thing. I have zero coverage.
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I’m not crazy about my eye doctor either … and the place I went to for years closed down suddenly when the owner had health issues – but there were other eye docs there, plus my contact lens doctor and specialists who visited twice weekly. They did not open for about 10 years, but a different group of doctors came in. I like that I can get a retinal scan and no drops but I understand the new place also does this – I’m conflicted. And this guy is an optometrist, not an opthalmologist which I always went to. They did not believe what I said about those glasses and acted like it was my fault. At the beginning of the pandemic my new glasses kept losing the lenses as they didn’t cut one big enough – very slipshod work and good think I had my old “spares” – I hope they fix you up with minimal costs to you Joni.
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Sorry, I forgot to mention the humor – I follow Kate and I think I told you about her blog and you would enjoy it and you followed Dave and told me likewise about his blog. 🙂
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Yes, you were the one who told me about Kate, and I told you about Dave, as he comments on Brilliant Viewpoint’s blog, I think that’s how I found him. We all need humor these days, the world is in such a sad state.
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Yes, it is … I know people say not to listen to the news, but you must listen or watch the news to keep up with what’s going on in the world. I found Kate from a fellow blogger Anne who also pointed me in the direction of Ally.
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Oh my, I completely relate to this endless run of maintenance and fixes, Joni. I forget when it was you stepped away from blogging but it took us the last three years to sell our house in Colorado, and we’ve lived in South Carolina in another house all of that time. I now believe the old adage “an empty house is not a happy house” because we had a lot of long-distance maintenance challenges, not to mention the ever-present concern about squatters and/or theft. Thank goodness for a neighbor who kept a constant eye on the place and alerted us to the occasional need for repairs. Very happy to be down to one house again. Thanks for the re-post of Ambassador Aspirations. It was the kind of experience that made for easy writing. The words spilled out of me pretty much the same way they went down at the hotel.
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3 years! Oh my, that was not fun. My mother’s house was easy to sell, we just sold it as is, but my nephew sells real estate and knew someone who owned a construction company who was interested in a fixer-upper, so we were extremely lucky. It was only 25 years old but needed new flooring and new fence/deck etc and was out of date. The guy who bought it gutted the whole thing, put in new everything, bathrooms, kitchen, removed two walls and opened it up and it looked great. He flipped it 5 weeks later, but I can’t see how he could have made any money at it, as we got a good price, but I suppose it kept his work crew busy in March during their slow season. I was tempted to buy it back – more people would renovate if it could be done that quickly, but it usually drags on and on….
I didn’t really worry about my house being broken into, as my neighbourhood is really safe, and I’m in a small village outside a city – one of the reasons I stay here, as if I moved into the city which I will probably do as I get older and can’t drive, the crime rate has crept up with all the homeless/addicts even in nice neighbourhoods. Just before I moved back home I had the maids in to clean my house and the back door neighbours saw someone in it and called the police! So when I went over to pay them, a policeman came up and said he was looking for me and my heart dropped, but then he looked at the car with the maid’s logo on it, and said your neighbours reported your house was being broken into! We had a good laugh about that.
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Well I, for one, am thankful that the plumbing demons have settled on your house. I realize this is selfish of me, but if they are at your house then they’re not at mine. And they’ve been at mine plenty over the last few years, so I’m happy to be rid of them for awhile.
The tech obsolescence thing is really irritating. But a Roku streaming stick should be an inexpensive fix. We have used those for awhile now.
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Yes, I’ll probably get a Roku or an amazon Fire stick, not sure which yet. I checked the outlets at the back of the tv and they’re all in Japanese so I hope I have the right connection, as it was one of the earliest Sony Smart tv’s, and I paid a lot for it at the time, $2000. I know my brother had a hard time loading the Netflix software onto my mom’s as all the taskbar stuff was in Japanese – it took him 2 hours. That’s the only tech demon I have left to deal with…..until something else happens which it will!
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Sounds like you’ve had Murphy’s Law hit you–the home edition is always inconvenient…and expensive! I guess the solace is that once things are fixed, they should stay functional for years?
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The A/C is working too well now…..I think that might have broken after I posted it. Reliance finally found a subcontractor who would go up in the attic, and now it’s like it never shuts off…..or maybe it’s just too hot out.
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