shaunacarrick

What an adventure in home ownership! Plumbing work being done – day two.

Day one was mostly just getting all the ‘uck’ out from under the house in the crawl space under the kitchen.

Day two is replacing all the plumbing in the house as far as ‘outflow’. No leak coming in, but plenty of issues underneath where the washing machine, the kitchen sink and the bathroom fixtures all drain.

Right now the guy is finishing cutting out the bits under the sink and also attacking the outside hose bib, which is also under the sink!

They already cut out all sorts of stuff under the house, and the water is currently off so we are dry ‘camping’ for a bit.

Cats are NOT happy! They can’t go out, and the noise is not fun on their ears, I am sure.

It’s going to cost me just about everything I had put into a savings account. That was expected (thus the savings set aside) but it will mean that the rest of the month is on credit cards. Fortunately most of the rest of the bills are already paid, and I should be able to get what’s left playing ‘poker’ with the cards I do have open. SIGH.

December 1 is pay day and I’ll be fine – we have plenty of food and cat food and household supplies already stocked, but it will be ‘interesting’ for a few days. Renee is going to get the rest of the T-day foodstuffs, as she has that $ already from me.

Hopefully this will all be ‘done and dusted’ by about 5 pm today, then we’ll have shiny new plumbing that should last a good long time. After the new roof two summers ago and the new furnace a few years before that, all that is ‘left’ is a bit more electrical stuff inside the house when I can save up a bit more – nothing really serious, but some of the outlets really should be GFI’d and there are a couple of outside places that could use a check-up to make sure that they are safe. That can all wait until next Spring – it’s been a few years since the last time I had a round of ‘please fix these outlets’ and these last ones are the hardest to access, so it will take some planning as far as moving furniture as well as saving up some more funds. Fortunately I don’t think it will be nearly as expensive as this run of plumbing or the roof or furnace!

Aside from the foundation and the siding, the rest of this 100 + year old house is in pretty good shape. We’d like new carpet and flooring in the kitchen and bathroom, but that is a long way down the road. I am almost positive that there is asbestos tile underneath what we are walking on, so it will be a LONG time before I can afford the abatement! Maybe if I win the lottery. 

Time for lunch, I guess. Thank goodness for microwaves!

So, I'm adulting today. Whew. Completely cleaned the kitchen floor - which involves moving a LOT of different things around in stages. Small house/small floor space means we store things in odd ways - there's a chair in the kitchen to sit on for when either of us HAS to sit during chores. There is stuff stored under that chair in a bucket. Right now the chair is also being used to store jars for 'canning' - some filled, some still boxed up. Also a temp bucket for the watermelons Renee harvested last night. Had to stack a lot of stuff in odd places so I could get TO the floor!.

She's gone doing other stuff most of the day, so I had plenty of time to take it in sections and make a good job of it.

Got the biggest portion of the counter all cleared off and all the mouse poop in the corner cleaned up - using chemicals, of course, to discourage repeat visitation - and then put back. Trying to keep things in mouse-proof containers back there and make it not so much of a 'highway'. May have found the place the were dashing through and blocked that off solidly. We'll see.

Dishes done and I both fed the kitties their lunch and fed me as well. I think I need some more food, though - I've used a lot of energy, apparently. Lots of things in the fridge to make me a mid-afternoon snack, so that is not a worry. I might even hard-boil some eggs - been craving egg salad lately.

Laundry is now started. I think I am about done for the day. I took a couple of rest breaks while portions of the floor dried, so I am not completely exhausted, but I am running out of steam. Maybe tomorrow I can get to the vacuuming that should be done.

All in all, while it has been a pretty long day so far, I feel good about the end result - and no kitties were harmed in the process (sometimes they can get underfoot when sweeping is happening).

Off to cook, I think. Temps outside are lovely - cool and cloudy, with on again/off again rain showers but no thunder and lightning (very very frightening). Both doors open for breezes and airing out the house. Really feels like Fall (my actual favorite time of year).

I really don't post often enough - there is a LOT of little things I want to put down here.

First, I am not dying, just Very Tired A Lot. Medical stuff can be so draining. Many different tests are on the horizon, the first one being an in-clinic sleep study. The home study I did earlier this month was not great - I got woken up after just a couple of hours of sleep by a mouse crunching on something I could not see or find, at first. Took me 45 minutes of chasing and up and down and moving things in my room to finally find the errant muffin wrapper that had not gone into the trash can but had ended up under my dresser. Very Noisy and apparently quite tasty to a mouse.

Got that handled, and then went back to sleep, finally. Overall, I only had 2.1 episodes per hour, with 5 being the 'normal' benchmark, but my oxygen fell at some point (maybe more than once) to 86%, so with 90% being the lower limit for 'nothing severe', so an in-clinic study is next.

Fortunately, since I live a Four Hour Drive from the VA sleep clinic, in Helena, I can utilize the shiny new Mission Act (new name, slightly different program, same idea of doing 'in-community' care) to request - and get! - the study done here in Billings, instead. The only downside is it can take over 80 days to get it scheduled, rather than the probable 3 weeks to get into the VA clinic. I'll take waiting. :-)

Other medical news is just today - eye exam. Also via the Mission Act, so in town. Same clinic I've gone to for a few years, now, just different paperwork. Still no cost to me, thank goodness. New prescription - and a BIG change for my right eye. Enough that it is now considered a 'complex' prescription, with a negative 4.50 reading, so the lenses (both of them) are now free and the frames I like are less than the maximum the VA allows, so again no cost to me. If the change had not been that much, I would have likely had to pay around $100 or so for the 'extras' on the lenses - UV and anti-scratch and Transitions to go with the Progressive bifocals - as that would be the difference over the VA allotment. Since 'my right eye has gone to shit' I don't have to pay a thing! Also have a very small cataract forming, but nothing to do except monitor it, for now. See the Dr in a year and see what it does. I'll get my new glasses in 10 days to 2 weeks, so in good shape after that.

Still waiting on the mammogram in-town to be scheduled but that should happen soon (request went in at the same time as the eye exam).

Now for the 'fun homeowner games'. First, NEW ROOF in June has held up Extremely Well. Very Happy with the result. We have had some hellacious storms this summer, and the one last night and the one last Saturday were enough for the local insurance companies to declare them catastrophic and bring in more people all over the place. We are talking 71 mph wind gusts last Sat and 67 mph ones last night. Last night was impressive - almost an inch of rain in less than an hour, accompanied by 1.5" diameter hail - deep enough to make drifts - in some parts of town. Roads were rivers for a time in the Heights and some parts of the northern part of town. Down here on the south side it was windy but not much of anything else, thank goodness, for both of the storms. I know of a LOT of folks who are having some SEVERE damage to be taken care of. Community of Shepherd, which is North and East of Billings, got HAMMERED last Saturday - the school lost almost all of it's windows the week before school started, along with a lot of other damage. The window fixes alone will be keeping the glass shops busy for at least a year, by some estimates (windshield and house).

Second, the city has had my street torn up for most of the past month +. They have replaced the main water line down the center of the road, and finally did the complete re-paving just the past two days. Not gonna be done with this stretch for another few days, apparently, but we went off the above-ground temp water (not metered, but still city treated) two weeks ago, so that was progress. Will be nice to be able to park in front of my house again, instead of shoehorning into a borrowed spot off the alley with my North neighbor. She's super nice about that, but I know she would like to have her whole parking area back, too!

Back to the weather - with the rain we had yesterday (almost an inch) and the .04 we got after midnight with an additional storm that rolled through in the wee hours, we have now surpassed our yearly average rainfall amount, and we have not had the fall rains yet! Average this time of year should be a little under 10 inches, we are well over 13 inches and counting. So, overall it has been a WET year. February was also brutal - 21 inches of snow, WAY more than average, and Very Cold all month - average temp was 12 degrees, which is WAY below the average low temp for that month. We were below zero FOR HIGH TEMPS most of that month.

Orchestra is going to be starting up in the next couple of weeks - got officer's meeting and annual potluck/business meeting to get going then full rehearsals after that. No idea what our conductor has in mind for schedule or music, yet. We'll see how it goes on Thursday when the other officer and myself meet with him to hash out the year.

SCA is trundling along. Still doing lots of heraldry at all levels - Society through local - and have some fun things to finish up this month. Also have something quite hideous in mind for an event the end of October. Our Baroness is hosting a 'Bad Garb Ball', with clothing and music to be 'inspired' by all those horrible movies we all groan about. My roommate and I have (we hope) come up with a devilish way to showcase the Baronial arms in inflatable pool things, along with a partially denuded artificial christmas tree for the laurel wreath. Gonna be so bad it's good! :-D

The best thing I can say is that, on occasion, I get spurts of energy and can do more than five minutes on my feet before I HAVE to sit or lay down. Still using a cane outside the house almost all the time, and the rollator for assistance when called for.

Which brings me to a happy thing last week. Friday was the next to last day of the County Fair (Called MontanaFair, but not the State Fair). One of the local service groups sponsored all military, veteran and first responders to come into the fair free of charge - still have to pay for food and rides, of course, but free entry for two per person AND if we had wanted to we could have seen the PRCA rodeo that night for free, as well! If we had known we each could have a 'plus one', we would have changed the timing a wee bit and taken the two youngest kids from our North neighbor so they could enjoy the fair. I'm turning into 'Aunt Jacquie' and Renee is becoming 'Grandma' next door. All good, and if we can do it next year we will. Both of us used our rollators so we could sit down as needed, and that worked really well. Saw all the exhibits we wanted to, and had a little bit of 'fair food' as well. We went in rather earlier than necessary - parking can be an issue, but they open up a REALLY LARGE area just for handicapped parking for the fair - and stayed until the free meal (also by the same sponsor group) before the rodeo started. Was good - roast beef sandwich or polish sausage in a bun along with beans and potato salad and macaroni salad, with cookies and such after. Typical big feed stuff, very tasty for the masses.

Then, last Saturday was the first big storm, but the fair was spared a lot of it as it hit late in the day and kind of skirted the area they hold it in.

Today was also a Mouse Rodeo, in spades. We've been able to hear (and see on occasion!) more than one mouse in more than one place in the house most of the summer. Finally figured out WHERE they were hiding, at least one spot, just this morning. Started out with me hearing the 'usual noises' and then spotting TWO mice trying to get into the wrapper for some crackers that were in a bowl. Got the crackers into a ziploc and sat back down. Not ten minutes later, I heard more noises. Moved my chair to see around the corner and there, on the stove, is a large package of lemon cookies (sandwich kind, generic). One of the cookies is moving across the black glass top of the stove by itself! it starts to move UP the control panel front and I then see the mouse trying to drag it into the small crack under the control panel that is apparently their highway to wherever. I jump up and the mouse drops the cookie and disappears - all I saw for sure was the tail going 'zip' into the backside of the control panel.

I told Renee she HAD to come SEE what had happened. I showed her the little mouse nibble on the cookie, and she promptly put the rest of the cookies in a large mouse-proof container. She then pulled the stove out from the wall into the middle of the kitchen. Very prominent mousehole in the corner of the wall and cabinet -it's an outside wall - and she said 'we'll fix that!'.

After some cleaning (it is always frightening what is under appliances you don't move often!) and then some expandable spray foam into the hole - left it to cure for several hours first - we put the stove back against the wall. Also tried to 'mouse proof' several other things. Still can hear them squeaking and making noises, but it does seem to have at least kept them from using the stove as a freeway. Yesterday was really bad, as we could hear them squeaking from a couple of places in the kitchen WHILE Renee was in the room. Sounded like either a koffee klatch or an a capella choir rehearsal!

Anyway, we are going to be seriously trying to get the mice rounded up and out of here before winter. Our two cats will alert on them, but don't seem to be interested in catching them any more! SIGH. Guess they are retired.

SO, that has been most of my summer, really - lots of 'hurry up and wait' for the VA, doing all the day-to-day stuff and the occasional Mouse Rodeo.

Renee's 'sauce garden' has turned out to be Well Endowed with tomatoes and etc. She is now planning on making tomato sauce sooner rather than later! Also, other garden/yard projects are getting tackled as she has the 'oomph' and time to do them, weather depending.

Looking forward to fall - I love the cooler temps and the smells of September!

Seems like FaceBook is being stupid - more so than usual - so will post update-city here for a while.

For those not on FB - My van decided to overheat last week, I was able to get it fixed (to the tune of $1200) and paid for it by playing 'credit card poker'. Awful but possible. This was necessary as my roommate was scheduled to go into the hospital on Monday for a full right knee replacement and I had to get her to the hospital, be able to go to and from and also run errands (groceries, etc) as well as get her home and generally be her 'hands, feet, chauffeur and go-fer' until she heals up some more. She won't be able to drive herself for 30 days, and has appointments for PT and other things well before that, so I need to have wheels. Period.

Six hours after getting the van back, it had issues and actually was boiling over when I was trying to park at my house. On a Friday night.

Sat am I called the dealership where I get it worked on. It's a two-sided place - Honda on one side - open on Saturdays - and everything else on the other, NOT open on Saturdays. The Honda service guy told me to call a specific Tow company in town to get the van to them, and he had a loaner Honda Civic for me. Great. Only problem I could see was that it is a 'full size' (HA!) sedan, meaning really hard for me and my roommate to get in and out of - especially after getting a knee replaced!

So, Mon we got her to the hospital and checked in. While she was under, I was in the waiting area and talked to the service folks I usually deal with. They had nothing bigger to loan me, and were going to try and see if Enterprise had something bigger I could use as a rental until my van was done. Big problem - there is a National Basketball Tournament in town right now - NAIA Division 1 Women's Championship. Big deal for the city, and also a big draw on rentals. SO, no rentals available - at all.

SIGH.

Also, diagnosis on what is wrong with the van - timing cover letting coolant out as fast as they poured it in. 8 hour repair job - and have to get the part (or parts) in first. Another $1200 estimate. The Honda side wanted their loaner back - and passed on the 'is she keeping it clean' query to the gal I was talking with. I had to reassure her I was not off-roading or anything stupid - just to and from the hospital, with a couple of grocery store stops in addition.

EVEN BIGGER SIGH. All we can figure is that my address - south side of town, in the 'poorer' section - makes the Honda folks think I am not 'worthy'. Pfui.

ANYWAY, I had to be able to get roommate home today (Wednesday). Actually got her into the car, drove to the VA to get her post-surgery meds filled (free that way!) and then got her home. Managed to get her all situated, made another store run for a couple of things - like ICE for the 'polar care' machine that pumps cold water around her knee - and then waited for the mail. Expecting a check from my sister to help with the new repair costs.

Did not come today - so hope tomorrow! - and then drove the loaner back. Stopped to fill up and also get two more bags of ice, in a cooler I got from the garage on purpose to keep the ice less melty, and turned it in. The folks I usually deal with were super nice and not judge-y at all. Thanked me for filling it up and got me a courtesy ride home (with the cooler).

SO, home. Roommate is doing AWESOME - able to stand, maneuver to the pottie and then back to her room (it's a whole six steps!, but around a corner) with only minimal assistance. She can put the ice thing on her knee by herself. I will be the one changing out the ice, obviously, but she can do all the rest.

Speaking of rest, I hope I can get some better sleep, now that she is home and I am not having nightmares of strapping her to the roof, like the Beverly Hillbillies, to get her home! :-P

Just have to get that $$ in the bank so I can pay for the repair - and that repair had better hold! Her PT and other appointments at the VA start on Monday and I am the one to take her there and back. In the van will be MUCH easier - we know she can get in and out.

As for me, I am struggling with my own health issues. Nothing horrendous, just chronic this and that which make being the 'helper' a bit more challenging. We are both just working through things. I get to be the 'chief cook and bottle washer' for a while, so that will be entertaining - she is a much better cook than I am!

I can cook, it's just not as 'adventurous' as some, and blander than most, given my particular allergies/sensitivities. She and I are actually used to that and discussed how to manage that already. She'll 'spice up' her plate of whatever when I cook and it'll be all good.

To make things more entertaining, her son moved up here almost two years ago from Colorado Springs. He's sleeping in my living room - we put a bed in there, and it is his area. There's a small curtain hung to give him some light/sound block from my room, but until we get something more substantial built he doesn't have a LOT of privacy. He works full-time as a cable installer, working for a company contracted to Spectrum. Gets good hours mostly, and is really good at his job. Having him here the past couple of winters has been very very very helpful - he can shovel snow and help with outside things that are a struggle for us old, broken women. :-) We would be using his truck for things, but this past month's SUPER COLD has killed it - he's still trying to get it running again. He's mechanically inclined, I'm NOT, so it's on him to fix it. Might be able to this weekend, on his days off (Sun and Mon) since he has done some serious trouble-shooting and things he has narrowed down why it won't start/keep running.

ANYWAY, HUGE update here.

I'm off to lie down for a little bit - I need to rest, too! - before fixing dinner for kitties and us.



SO, we keep on keeping on.

So, not been posting much anywhere. Still a stay-at-home person. Started Social Security this summer, so that is a bit more $$ each month. Enough to keep me going and eventually maybe get a bit ahead. (HAH!)

Had the weirdest dream last night. Don't usually write them down (or really remember them) but this one combined SCA with orchestra!

Was part of a committee entertaining some big-wig in Drachenwald (Europe for the non-SCA folks) and decided my singing was not up to par. Since I don't sing, not surprising my brain would do that. Went and got my flute (which normally does not go to SCA events with me, but in my dream it was all put together and just sitting on a couch) and started doodling a bit. Suddenly I was playing 'Flight of the Bumblebee'
from memory (I've never really ever looked at the music that I know of) and doing a pretty good job of it! The person being entertained was impressed enough to leave - that was apparently the goal - when he was satisfied with whatever the performance was, he'd leave and we had done our job - and then I basically woke up.

Weird.

I worked on orchestra stuff yesterday, in preparation for the upcoming fall season, but I have NO intention of doing any solo work!

Anyway, it was weird enough I remembered it and was able to write it down here.

Well, since the people who I read the most (and look forward to reading) all seem to have come over here, I'm here too.

Still living vicariously through others - being essentially home-bound (mostly due to weather right now) I don't live a very exciting life.