February 8, 2025 - Ah, bless-ed Saturday. A down day. Good.

Yesterday when I got home from work, Norman met me at the door practically jumping into my arms (which doesn't work when you are a 140 Great Dane, really). I wasn't sure what the problem was until I heard water spraying. The water heater is in my little bathroom, and one of the connections had a severe leak. There was now "Lake Kitchen" and "Bathroom Lake" and the carpet in the living room was soaked. I went in to turn off the valves on the water heater and I got soaked. (That did not work, so I had to go upstairs to turn off the main water valve.) My water is rusty, so there was a lovely orange coating on the bathroom walls. It soaked the toiled paper and everything in said bathroom. Sigh. If you need to inspired to do a thorough cleaning in a room, I suggest just having a massive leak as an inspiration. My youngest was supposed to fix the vent pipe that goes up through the roof (that kept falling off) but he got sick. I think yesterday when that vent pipe fell out again, it hit the one fixture and cracked the pvc pipe which caused the bathroomgeddon. 

I called my poor neighbor who does construction work and asked him if he had a recommendation for a plumber that does emergency visits. He pondered and said, "I'll just come over" and he did. He assessed the situation and said that he could fix it. He brought over his big shop vac, too, to suck up the water on the floors and such. Mine is a little shop vac and could only hold a gallon at a time... So, he ran to the hardware and got what he needed. He fixed the pipes involved and then he put in a new vent pipe and used screws to secure them so that doesn't fall again. I am blessed, really, to have him as a friend and neighbor. It's like God said, "Man, your house is a piece of crap, best we have a talented construction worker move in next door..." I used to feel bad when I would ask him for help and he would swoop it to fix my problems, but now I just appreciate the hell out of him. He is truly a godsend. We all need help sometimes. I will be cooking food for the boy this week. He deserves it. I slipped a little money in his pocket, too. I mean, an emergency plumping call would have been that much at least.

I missed the afternoon of work because of this - only doing things here and there when I could. I didn't feel bad about that, either, really. I've been putting in so many hours I am allowed to have emergency time out. I can make up stuff this weekend, but really, I don't feel like making up for anything.

With the creation of the new lakes, there were many rugs to wash. In one batch, the washer ate one of the rugs. It just shredded it. That was fun cleaning up, boy howdy. Sigh. I have finally caught up with all the laundry generated from yesterday, though. So I have that going for me. That washer is still on warranty so I'm calling them on Monday. Some of the settings are not working anymore an no doubt the brains of the thing are taking a crap. I miss the appliance that were built to last, ya know?

My youngest son just sent a picture of his hose busting. He has a small glacier out on the side of his house. I texted back, "Geez, you gotta put hoses away for the winter..." I am such a supportive Mom. Duh. I am sure he is aware of that fact now without my rubbing it in. I hate when I state the obvious to a person in a position that really doesn't need to hear it. I texted him again to say "We both have had our share of water-geddons" but it auto corrected to 'watermelons' so we both had a good laugh about that.

Yesterday in the afternoon the furnace company I used to put in my split unit called. (The owner/boss). He said that he was researching what he sold me, and that unit is only good to 5 degrees, then they tend to shut down. He offered to replace it with the next size up that will work with my indoor units and hoses and such for just the difference of the price between what I bought vs the newer one that is good to -18. I told him I would take him up on that offer. I assume he is not going to charge me for labor since due to the installation errors (that we both mentioned during the call) there was already so many issues. So in spring, I will get a bigger main unit. He apologized. I told him that at least he's trying to make it right. It also made me feel better about humans.

I guess that is all I need to update you all about. I will tell you how I felt when I was getting soaked yesterday - I had a good half hour of self pity - and all I could think was, "Geez, I barely recovered from my cancer when my husband got cancer and went through so much and I had to do everything - lawn work and hauling him back and forth to surgeries and UofM and all, and work full time during all that stuff and..." Wahhhhhhh. Poor Sandy. Would I like cheese with that whine? I got over my pity party quickly. Life is what it is and you just have to carry on. You keep putting your left foot in front of your right foot, repeat. (On occasion falling down.)

Oh, and yesterday afternoon I took a whole Klonopin (.5mg) to calm me down. My doctor had prescribed a few pills when I was going through bad anxiety last year. I have not taken them (except for two times I took half a pill)  but felt like I deserved it yesterday. HOLY CRAP has my ability to handle that stuff fallen as I get older. It did relax me. I did feel better, but last night I slept so hard I didn't get up for my normal two trips to the bathroom. There was clean up issues this morning for me. Hahahahaha. I used to be able to drink every night, now I can barley stomach a Miller Lite. Getting older takes away some superpowers. Smile.

February 18, 2025 - Ahhh, let's see. What can I complain about today? Seems that is all I post about lately is my complaints.

The furnace guy emailed this morning to tell me to heat the house up as much as I could stand today since it was supposed to get so cold tonight that he was sure the split unit would shut down. He offered to run me out some space heaters. I emailed back and told him I already had purchased three after the last disaster, but thanked him nonetheless. I wanted to say - "Can you pay for all the extra dollars my electric bill will show I used?" but I did not. I did mention how I can't wait for the bigger/better unit. (Catch 22 - they will wait until it is warmer before they install that...) Kind of ironic.

I went to start my car tonight to run it like I've been doing - but the emergency brake is frozen so it won't let me start the car. UGH. Come on, Ford. It's practically NEW - and I NEVER use the emergency brake - why is that hosing up? I searched the internet and  the helpful AI said, 'If the emergency brake (also called the parking brake) in your 2023 Ford Escape is freezing, the most likely culprit is ice buildup on the brake components due to cold weather." DO YOU THINK!?!? I either need a garage or a different model of car that isn't a wimp. I have a chiro appointment I really really want to go to tomorrow at 4:20 - I will try to start it through out the day. Wish me luck. My first thought was to put a heat lamp under there - but NO - I see no other newer car owner heating their parking brakes with a lamp. Needless to say, I am sick of this cold weather. I am ready for something resembling spring. My BFF had issues with her battery when I had my first bout of bad car luck and she had to hire a tech to come out and change it - because you couldn't get to her damned battery like a normal human. She has an Escape, too, and it was practically installed under the front of the hood area where she couldn't get to it. We're cursed, I tells ya!

Work has been interesting. My poor coworker and dear friend had such a bad infection in her face the last two weeks. She got a wisdom tooth extracted and that thing got infected. Her face swelled up so badly! I felt so bad for her. She went back to the oral surgeon and he drained it for her and put her on strong antibiotics and pain meds and disinfecting rinse. She has to go through a draining session at least once a day to keep it drained. She goes back on Thursday for another check up. Her brakes are not frozen, but her poor poor face!! She lost 7 pounds in two weeks because she couldn't eat solid food. I told her that is no way to go on a diet...

None of us have had it easy lately. I am frustrated at our current republican administration, even though most of my friends think it is the best thing to happen EVER. Clean up is always good, but you can do it in a humane manner and not act like you're on acid and too much sugar and meth and it helps if you speak in complete sentences that make sense. I am still convinced that all the fired government workers will be able to work in the fields once they send all the migrants back home or to a detention center where no doubt they are being treated like crap. I feel scared for us all. Who knew so many humans in this country had so much hate for so many people. This makes me utterly sad. I have led such a sheltered life. My love for everyone and everything has been beaten out of me.

Norman is attacking the treats I just gave him. He has to bark at them for 20 minutes before he eats them. Makes complete sense. Duh. I caught up on laundry after work in case the pipes freeze, so I have that going for me. Maybe I should shower, too (although I don't think I will be going anywhere until spring...) It should take no time at all for my hair to dry with the heat up like it is. I will turn it back down to my normal 69 degrees in the living room and 65 in the bedroom before I go to sleep. If I'm lucky, I'll wake up to 55 degrees. That's pleasant enough, right? I put blankets in front of the bottom of the doors to help with any drafts. I miss sleeping with Norman now since I got the smaller bed. That dude was a built in heating machine...

I am off. Remember to hug someone you love and reach out to friends you miss.