March 14, 2025 - One of my friends noticed I had not updated this things for a long long time. Jane, thank you!

It is 75 degrees out currently. I have my windows open and the heater(s) off. Norm is upset by this because he wants out but once he's out he wants in because he gets hot in the sun. I have the most fancy-boy, delicate flower of a Great Dane EVER. Sigh. We're supposed to get a thunder storm tonight, so Norman will NOT be happy and he'll be trying to crawl into bed with me. He can't fit. Good Luck there, Norman!

Let's see, what can I catch you up on in Sandy's Life??  Work Wise, they've pushed the go live date for our project to August 1st. Seriously. I am heartbroken. I want this to be done, I really do. Sigh. I have 160 hours of unused vacation to use by May 11th, but that won't happen now, will it. Even if they are nice and roll it over for me, that would make my vacation time at 360 hours. I can 'sell' them one week, so that is 320 hours. Technically I could take 40 days off in a row!! I wonder if they would keep rolling it so I can get paid to NOT work for a year or so - lol. I started there the summer of 1979. I think I'm going to buy myself a TShirt that says, "I've worked for this place for 46 years and all I got was this TShirt and and a drawn out implementation..."

A couple of weeks ago I washed a Poise pad in the laundry. Those things EXPLODE and produce so much debris. (If you are bored, this may be something fun for you to try.) I loaded everything in to the dryer and would clean out the filter every 10 minutes until it was relatively clear which took forever and it made these huge filter sized quilt blocks that rolled right out of the filter. I chalked that act of OOPS up to old age and/or being over worked, but this week I DID IT AGAIN!!!!!!!!!! What the?!?! Kids, it's time to put me in a home!! Really, I should have saved all those 'quilt blocks' from before and I could have had a lovely fluffy white blankie that would have been the envy of all my friends.

The other morning when I let Norman out for potty duties, across the road in the field there were deer, and a herd of turkeys, and a bunch of geese. For the rest of the day I would sing, 'TURKEYS, DEER AND GEESE..." to the tune of Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves by Cher. This is how my brain works...Everything is a song to me. I can't carry a tune, but I often bust out in song - I just can't help it and it is usually accompanied by interpretive dance. (I gave this talent to my daughter, too - and we'll often sing/talk and it tickles me to no end.) I tend to break out in song in the implementation meetings as well, so people are used to it - but once when I did it, someone said, "Wow, Sandy - that was actually pretty good!" hahahaha. Once in a while - I hit a good note.

I had overflow pizza cheese on the bottom of my stove. When it cooled off, I got my little super duty scraper and was cleaning it off when I ended up shoving said scraper into a hole/vent. Down it went. Until I got it out (as it was now down where the burner was) I wouldn't be able to use my stove. There was a weird screw in the bottom panel. I took a picture of it and sent it to my boys. I asked them if they had that type of drill bit. (Hint Hint - come save your Mom...) My youngest replied "I'm sure Dad had one of those somewhere and if you can't find it, ask Justin." I am not running to my next door neighbor about a damned screw! I was selfish, thinking that I do so much for that boy that he would swoop in and fix it for me. Sigh. I slept on it and got over being mad. I went out to the shed and found that type of drill bit, and I got the screw out. It took me 10 minutes to figure out how to get the plate out, however. It was latched in there good. I found my scraper, and then it took me 10 more minutes to finagle the plate back in. When I went to screw in the screw - It went flying and I'm sure it is down where the scraper was, but I said, "Screw it!" The plate is in there good and I wasn't taking out again! At least I didn't bake plastic and the screw found its freedom.

So, that is my excitement over the last few weeks. Not much to report, huh? I'm not dead yet, though - so I have that going for me. Norman has his vaccination updates this month. The furnace company is coming on Monday to upgrade me to the next sized outdoor unit that can handle temps up to -18 degrees. I am very glad they offered to do that after all the issues I've had with it since it went in.

Now, if a beer and doughnut truck would just careen out of control into my front yard tonight, that would be great.

March 18, 2025 - The further adventures in Sandy Land...

Today the furnace company came out to swap out the outdoor unit (that couldn't handle cold weather) with a bigger one (which is good up to -18). They uninstalled the first one. Then they realized they needed a bigger bracket to hold the new one. They went back to the ship to get that. They came back, started to install the new unit, and one of the brass fittings broke. The one guy came in to tell me. "We ordered a new one, but it won't be here until tomorrow or Wednesday. So, you can either use space heaters tonight or we can reinstall the original one." I told them to reinstall the original one. I didn't want to use space heaters all night. I don't trust them, to begin with - for short periods of time, sure, but NOT all night., Sigh. They did - they reinstalled the first one and I have heat. I can't believe my luck on this whole thing. I would not recommend this company nor the Daikin products to anyone. Maybe they have install 100s as they've said. Maybe my situation is the odd man out. I am just not happy, however. I don't feel defeated, at least. Carry on is all we can do, right? But DAMN...

The 20th of this month is the 3rd anniversary of losing my husband. The time has literally flown by. Sometimes I feel sorry for myself because everything is 'up to me now' but those bursts of self pity don't last long, since I was taking care of everything four years before he died, too. I miss having him to talk to, though, but I am pretty sure he is out in the universe enjoying the quiet. We are all energy and energy has to go somewhere when our body poops out, so may he be happy in this beautiful universe. I did kind of hope he would haunt me a bit - because he could fart and it sounded like someone was stepping on a duck and it would make me laugh hysterically. I can't tell you how many times he would do that in bed over the years and having me in hysterics to the point I couldn't breath. Our first date he belched the alphabet to me - and he had me at Aburpppppppppppp. (I lived a very sheltered life, apparently. I laughed so hard back then I ended up throwing up!)  Since 1980, expulsion of gas has always been a huge entertainment factor in my family's life.I still keep an ear open for the duck fart though in case he does a drive by... (My youngest tries his hardest to fill the void...)

The work project has had some huge bumps as of late. I won't discuss it. I don't want to. I just pray and am accepting all donations of prayers that we live through this whole thing...

I'm on my last jar of salsa. I wonder if I'll stop now - and the whole salsa phase will be over. Fresh veggies would taste so much better, after all. We'll see. I made if four times in February and one so far this month. (Proper term for what I make is my version of Pico de gallo, but I call it salsa and like that one commercial, "I eat that s@#t on everything...


March 23, 2025 - There is a huge peregrine falcon living in the woods to the east. IT IS HUGE. I've seen eagles the last two years around these parts (which we never saw before) but now we have a gigantic falcon. They used to be on the endangered list but now they've come back in numbers. Good for them, but DAMN they are huge. (I am stressing and overusing the word HUGE, I know, but he's HUGE...) I saw one on the tree at the fence line out back and couldn't believe it. I didn't even need binoculars to know what it was. I know they like to eat other birds like pigeons and mourning doves, but I fear for my neighbor's cats if they get too hungry. That goober could take off with a small dog! They are, as stated, HUGE. I am pretty sure they are moving to areas like this because around here there are lots of woods still, but housing developments have taken so much of their places in the greater tri-state area. They have to live too. My daughter sent us a picture of a coyote in the parking lot at a store she was at the other day. They have to eat too, even in Chicago. Normally they only come out at night, but it was daylight and the coyote was eating something in the parking lot someone had thrown out. Humans squeeze the wildlife to extremes, I fear.

Tomorrow is my breast cancer check up at the cancer center downtown. I have been going every six months since my surgery. I hope they tell me now I can go once a year. The cancer I had wasn't able to be detected by the touchy feely method, after all. Seems like since my mammograms are down to one a year now that they could go to once a year for the in house breast exam. I am happy, however, that I have insurance that helps me pay for these things.

I had xrays at the chiropractor on Friday. I've been going to him since 1984, and that was the last time he took xrays. He showed me the pictures. My hips are cockeyed and I have the top vertebrae swinging around a bit. He was thrilled. "I should have done this a long time ago! I can fix those things!" He was like a little kid at Christmas. Good, put me back in line, my dear!

Norman has his yearly vet visit and shots tomorrow night. One less thing to worry about after it is done, but getting him in and out of the place is always a challenge. He loves a car ride, but he hates the vet. Catch 22 for Norm, but he gets those cool freeze dried liver treats so he can buck up and be a man.

My BFF bought me and sent me light up tennis shoes!!!!!! They are quite cool. You can even recharge them with a USB cord! I tend to run after little kids in the stores and such who are wearing the light up shoes (have all my life since kids started having such things) and now adults can be all cool like that. I keep thinking that when I wear them I should have a theme song playing....I think we should all go out and get light up tennis shoes. We all need something to brighten our days lately.