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 