|
Page last updated on 2/2/25
|
2025 ARCHIVE JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER |
|
Way Back Machine 2001 Ramblings 2002 Ramblings 2003 Ramblings 2004 Ramblings 2005 Ramblings |
January
1, 2025
- I will begin
my new year
complaining
about
commercials on
TV. I hope you
all
investigate
anything you
may see on TV
in a
commercial
that interests
you. Example -
HomeAglow. No
one in any
world in this
universe or
any parallel
universe would
do that
without a
catch, and
HomeAglow has
many 'catches'
- it sounds
too good to be
true and it
is. I will beg
all humans to
research
ANYTHING they
plan on doing
- or to
investigate
any human you
may hire or
service you
may employee.
Big Mom sigh.
That goes for
the Rocket
Money app. Are
the younger
people in
America so
stupid that
they don't
keep track of
their money?
If I had a ton
of
subscriptions
open that took
tons of money
out of my bank
account every
month, I WOULD
KNOW. Don't
you humans
check your
bank accounts?
Do you know
there is a fee
to use Rocket
Money? Sigh.
Ok, I'm done
now...
January 4, 2025 - Geez, I started my New Year by complaining about commercials? What is next - shaking my fist at squirrels that come in to my yard? Maybe I will start to write letters full of complaints to the government. Who knows. Get off my lawn... My boys will be over tomorrow to have Spaghetti pie and hot fudge cake for my youngest son's 32 Birthday. That is always his meal of choice. Oh, and garlic cheese biscuits too. I forgot to pick up the hamburger for the pie, so I will have to make a run in to town today. Duh on my part. We've had some snow and it is nice and cold here. When I woke up and checked the weather, it said it "felt like 0 degrees" with the wind chill. Now it is up to 6 degrees! Already a heat wave. My BFF called last night and it was a hoot. We started talking about life, the universe, and everything in a serious manner then meandered over to the concept of the Universe and how big it is and how small we are, then it got to the point where we were laughing hysterically (which we always end up doing) and I peed myself a little (ok, a lot). When we get to laughing like hyenas it doesn't matter what she says or I say, it just makes it all funnier. She and I could NEVER work together EVER as we'd be thrown out of the building by noon. There is a lot of history with us two, and we've both evolved as humans over the decades - sometimes for the good - sometimes for the bad. Nonetheless, we've kept open minds the last decade or so and have learned more things than ever before. It was a successfully fun Friday night. My grandson - oh my! My daughter sent me a video of him eating spaghetti with some cheese, and she got him to say CHEESE and he said it so proudly and with gusto. His face was covered with sauce and cheese but you could tell he liked what he was eating. I have watched that video a mere 50 times, I swear. He recovered from his illness finally and is back to being a very curious 1 year old. She sent another pic last week of him barricaded in his play area so she could work and another pic of him with a bowl of Cheerios and you could see the trail of Cheerios behind him. It is such fun watching him grow. I have said it 600 times, but geez - I wish they lived closer. I do so enjoy the times she calls and I have "Dinner with Grandson" via video. I told her he eats like a starving Viking warrior. Knock on Wood, my heat pump/split units are still working. I didn't want to say it, because of all the trouble I've had with them since they installed them...I have perhaps jinxed myself but the gentle heat in waves is nice. Norman is still sleeping - once I got up he took my warm bed. He is not a fan of this cold weather, so his urge to go out and have zoomies and play ball and be all stupid are not as high as in the spring and summer. Oh, he still has them, mind you. He zooms around the yard when I take out the Herby Curby and when I bring it back up. I keep the garbage can in a position to protect me in the event he judges the drive by gallops incorrectly. This morning when I sat down at my desk, I found a hardened string of Norman slobber hanging from my desk shelf. It was rather fascinating to me. Hahahahaha. Then it dawned on me - where is there NOT a hardened blob of his goo in my house? They are everywhere. Off I go I suppose to do something productive. Back to full time work next week. Ugh. That is always hard after having two weeks with time off in the middle of the week. We kick in doing deep dives in the new software too. Another UGH. Que Sera, Sera I suppose... January 8, 2025 - Soooooooo, funny story. Besides just baking a spinach mushroom pizza ON the cardboard just now and wondering why it was so hard to cut (until I figured out the cardboard and was thankful I did not attempt to eat said cardboard) I had said last time I posted that my heat pump was still working. Well, I did indeed jinks myself! Ugh. Last night, all night, and all day today it was 55 degrees in the house. The thing stopped working. Again. There have been many "Agains"... When I first noticed it was getting chilly in the house last night, I reset the breaker to see if that would help, but it did not. I sent a service message on the website of the people that installed it for me expressing my feeling up being irate and frustrated. It was pointless to call the emergency line since they couldn't have seen at night to fix anything. The owner saw that email and emailed me back. He stated he could not express how sorry he was for all these issues. He was going to send someone out as soon it was daylight. I emailed him back to state it was 55 in the house and I was cold, so I appreciate him sending someone out. I was still cold. Norman was confused and cold. He woke me up at four a.m. whining. Dogs don't understand technical issues. I got out my huge 'bear' housecoat and put it on. I covered him up with blankets on the couch. He went back to sleep. I just started work since I was up anyway. So, if you want to say something that you think may jinx yourself, don't say it. Trust me on this one. "And Mary kept these things and pondered them in her heart..." I will do that next time for sure. January 12, 2025 - Last night I fell asleep on the toilet AGAIN. That does just one thing - causes your legs to go to sleep - cuts off circulation from your butt to your feet. At one point I felt myself tipping forward and abruptly woke up and attempted to stand up. That wasn't working because I couldn't feel my legs, so I sort of fell towards the sink. I caught myself, swearing at myself the whole time, and pushed myself back. I fell back on the toilet. I grabbed the bars we put up for my husband when he was so bad off and slowly stood up. I moved my legs until I could feel them again. I have to find a way NOT to fall asleep on that damned toilet. Maybe I need to turn on the light when I do night pee runs, huh? That would keep me awake I think. Duh. Living alone is going to kill me, I am pretty sure. I had made beef and noodles earlier this week and have had that every night for supper since, even with giving a bunch away to my neighbor. It was good, mind you, but after four days - THAT IS ENOUGH. Tonight I fixed myself some shrimp with Linguine noodles and garlic and broccoli.That was a nice change of pace. This afternoon I was feeling lonely and worthless, so I decided to take out the recycling and the garbage. Then I decided to sweep the floor. I used my old vacuum. (I got myself a newer one because the one I had just wasn't sucking well.) The old one has a longer hose to reach under things, so I did my sweeping while Norm attacked it constantly. I decided I would clean out the bagless tank. It was dirty! I cleaned that out and on top of the tank was a switch I had never noticed before, so I flipped it. FILTERS!? I DIDN'T KNOW THAT THING HAD FILTERS!! I washed/cleaned those out too. They were beyond dirty. Must have been a half a pound of dirt in the one! Cripes. Maybe I didn't need a new vacuum after all. I will see how the old one works once everything is all dried out. What ever you do, Sandy - don't read the manual....duh. Next week we go full tilt into 'Phase Two' of the implementation. If you don't hear from me in weeks, I'm either drowning in work (or I am dead on the bathroom floor. Half a dozen of one...) I have stopped working ungodly hours because I was burning out. Now I will work my 9 hours or so and stop. I can only do so much. Our whole team can only do so much. We're doing our normal jobs on top of learning a whole new system. It's been frustrating and draining. I know a year from now we will look back on this and laugh, but right now no one feels much like laughing. Norman had every toy he owns out in the middle of the floor today. I was not paying him enough attention apparently. He doesn't much like the snow, so him playing outside will have to wait. He wants to chase his ball so badly, but it gets packed with snow and he won't pick it up. Poor Norman. I did throw all those toys for him this afternoon and he would fetch on one for a while, then switch out. He is like having a toddler, I swear. He turned 5 this month! Can you believe that! It's been five years. Time is zipping by so fast!! The snow plow man came today and did my driveway, and Norman didn't stop barking the whole time he was here. Defending Mom from the snow plow, he was. I texted the gentleman before he left and told him THANK YOU and he wrote back that "he was late, but he would never forget me..." and "I have two Great Danes of my own. Love those guys..." so it was obvious he saw Norman slobbering up the front window while he plowed. Hahaha. I ordered myself two space heaters in case (the thing that shall not be named) stops working again. It is supposed to get quite cold this week then start warming up for the weekend. I don't want to get as cold as I did the other day. Neither does Norman! I also ordered myself a new floor lamp for next to my desk and my reading chair. That will be nice to have better lighting. Have a marvelous week! January 17, 2025 - A hawk just swooped in to a very busy bird feeder area of mine, and everyone flew off in a panic. One sparrow hit my kitchen window and went down. The hawk was very interested of course, and everyone has to eat, but I went out to check on the wee one and the hawk flew off. I petted the sparrows head for a bit. It got up, hopped around, looking up at me like, "What the hell just happened?" Poor little dude. I stood out with the wee until it was able to fly away on its own. He won't be dinner tonight. My apologies to Mr. Hawk. Speaking of my birdies - I had my neighbor scavenge me a piece of plywood (4 x 5) for the end of the dog pen. In the winter I put the bird feeders in the dog pen else the deer eat all the seed up... This way now they have a wind break from westerly winds. (Thank you, Justin!) Norman barked at it for 10 minutes when he saw it and he wouldn't go near it. It is comforting to know that I am protected from random pieces of plywood that might show up to attack me. I ended up having to bungie cord it to the fence since the wind kept knocking it over. What a FRICKEN WEEK!! My brain is all used up. I am grateful for a weekend re-charge. I should work tonight and this weekend but I doubt I will bring myself to...I need time away from it. We'll see how I feel after a night's sleep. Maybe I will work a little, maybe I won't. I'm at the point where I have so much to do that I don't know where to start. Sigh. Spinning in circles - PFFFTT. Twice this week someone ran a stop sign when I was attempting to turn left (and they had a stop sign too...) ARGH. I am grateful my breaks work so well, but mad that people are in a mental coma when driving that they don't realize what they are doing. My cousin had the same thing happen to him. Going out is getting more dangerous. I have Ford coming to get my car (a 2023 Escape) and fix it. The thing keeps going into battery saver mode so you can't use the remote start. (What is the point of remote start in the winter if you can't start the car remotely!?!?) Plus my front passenger side tire has had a slow leak for two or three months and I'm getting sick of putting air in to it. I believe all that is still under some form of warranty. This battery thing happened in November of 2023 right after I got it, too. I googled the issue and it seems many cars have this issue. Faulty workmanship? Anyway - someone is going to fix it or give me a bigger damned battery. This is dumb. After work last night I fell asleep in my lazy boy and slept hard until my daughter called me. Thank goodness she did! I did NOT want to fall asleep so early and not do my night chores. After I had 'dinner with Grandson' via the video call, I got up and did my dishes and folded laundry and picked things up. (Then I couldn't get back to sleep until 10 p.m.) Having dinner with my grandson is always a treat. He still eats like a starving Viking but interacts with me on the video. He attempts to give me food he doesn't want which is adorable, and when I don't take it, he throws it on the floor. Kinda darned cute. He sees Norman in the call, and will say "DOAWWWWG' which cracks me up. He is saying more and more words, too. (At least trying to!) I am off to do my night chores and go back to reading the Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien (stuff he had written and his son put it together after he passed away). I am at the part of the book where he is explaining how all the rivers flow and it's killing me, since it way too much info on rivers as far as I'm concerned, but I will continue forth. January 22, 2025 - Ah, it's almost bed time and I am glad. It's been a longgggg day. My bathroom light fixture isn't working. I thought I blew a bulb - but it's the whole fixture. Sigh. I hauled an old lamp in there because I am not good at pooping in the dark. I got up at two a.m. to pee and it was freezing in here. (Or seemed to be...) My first thought was - NOT AGAIN! NOOOOOOOOOOO!! The kitchen was at 50, the living room at 55, and it was 53 in the bedroom. The units in the house were still trying. I used the hand held controller to test for errors. There were no errors. It was obvious the unit I bought just can't keep up with the -25 temp last night. I covered Norm up with a blanket and then covered myself up with a blanket and attempted to sleep for a few more hours. I didn't even really get upset, to be honest. It was like, "Oh, NO!" and I just tried to sleep. I must say, I did feel 'sick' though. I couldn't tell if I felt sick because of stress or really sick sick. I turned on a space heater in the bathroom so those pipes didn't freeze and had one in the living room going. When it was time to wake up, I woke up. I emailed the furnace company to explain my theories. The owner wrote back and agreed it was just a too big load for the size of heat pump we got. (And after researching - heat pumps do have issues with extreme cold. Hindsight is 20/20.) He said he underestimated how cold it may get (because, really - the winters here the last few years have been very mild per say...) I hope his underestimating means I'll get a discount if/when we upgrade the thing? Cross yer fingers. Anyway - I turned off the bedroom unit and just let the living room unit run to try to catch up. When it actually got up to a proper temperature, I turned the bedroom one back on. The whole downstairs is back to 69, even in the kitchen. Phew. Still - I no doubt looking at another adventure of an upgrade so I need to start extra money saving now. I should have kept my shitty old furnace. At least that worked (even if I was sure it was going to kill me with carbon monoxide fumes...) After all that fun, work was very stressful. Not enough hours in the day to do everything. Nope. But I didn't stress too much about that either. It's more like I'm in a coma and just slogging forward in life. After work, I went to get in my car and go to the chiropractor because boy howdy did I need it for all the stress in my neck. The car didn't start. Errors were popping up all over. Failure in my emergency brake...other bells and whistles were going off. I wasn't going anywhere. I have an appointment for next Tuesday for my tire and my stupid battery anyway - but now I'll have to pay for a tow truck to haul it in. I am stranded. I don't like that feeling. My boys are doing a grocery run tomorrow for me, though - that will help. I came in and called my local Ford dealership to see if they had a tow truck, but they do not. I will find a number for my local tow truck person tomorrow. It's a relatively new car - hopefully most of the crap is still under warranty. I can't do laundry because the lines to the washer are either frozen or blocked with rust from being frozen. I will have to have help diagnosing that - as someone would have to be upstairs and the like. I have a space heater out in the laundry room attempting to thaw out anything that needs to be thawed out. Wish me luck there. Trouble shooting any thing in this old house is like playing twister whilst drunk. Nothing is standard nor right nor flush nor NORMAL. Sigh. The kids told me tonight they think that my husband kept everything working in this house by sheer will power. They suggested we summon him in a seance to fix everything. Smile. I doubt he'd come back around for THAT! He did his time in the mines - now it's my turn. So, there you have it. Stuff going wrong. Stuff DOES go wrong. I remind myself I am not homeless, even if my house is acting up. I am not starving, that's for sure, as you can tell by my girlish figure. I can work from home as long as we keep power. So not all is lost. Maybe the sun will come out tomorrow? One must have hope, I must remember that. I posted this quote as my background picture on my PC, "We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope." - Martin Luther King, Jr. January 25, 2025 - I have a pot of chicken veggie soup simmering on the stove. I will be eating it for a week, even after bumming some off on my neighbor, but it just sounded good to me. It sounded good to me when yesterday but I was too lazy to make it. So, all worked out after the Wednesday that defeated me (but I had not really given up. "Never lose infinite hope!" but I had kind of given up...) Thursday I was able to do laundry again because it heated up just enough to thaw those lines out in the laundry room plus having the space heater out there woke up some stink bugs that proceeded to bombard me. The heat was working and the house was at a decent temperature. When I took Norm out I tried my car and it started. And the bathroom light issue - well... My youngest son came over after work to check it. He tested the bathroom light fixture and said it was getting power just fine. "Did you put in a new bulb?" he asked. "Well, duh, of course I did!" Then he said in the kindest, most loving voice I've ever heard emanate from a man, "Did you try a third bulb?" That statement hit me like a truck. Why, I don't know - maybe it was just the way he asked, I guess. I had NOT tried a third bulb. I had just assumed it was broken and bad and I'd have to have it replaced. I didn't even ponder using a third bulb and I had given up too soon. I scampered to the bulb area and grabbed another bulb. Well, what do you know? I WORKED. That was a valuable lesson - always try a third bulb! Bulbs in a cupboard forever will go bad. I wish I had recorded how he said it - it was almost like a verbal hug. Norman has been happier that his paws are not falling off from the severe cold. He played with his 'brothers' this morning when they came back with me after breakfast. He loves my boys. I think his favorite is my youngest son who would stay at the house with all the trips we had to make to University of Michigan for the surgeries and the like when my husband was so sick. He has 'respect' for my youngest one. He loves my oldest son, too, but too much because he will sit on him and Norm tries to crawl inside his skin and personal space means nothing to Norman when it comes to my oldest son. I am off to tend to my soup. Have a good Saturday! January 26, 2025 - Happy Sunday. That soup turned out really good! I am glad I made it. Maybe I WON'T share it! Hahahaha When I took Norman out to poop, the wind was blowing (wind chill is only 15 degrees, so it's like a heat wave) and I noticed my Herby Curby was making a whistling sound, singing to me the song of it's people. I am glad I can't hear that in the house, I believe that would drive me nuts! My BFF texted me yesterday about her day being like my 'defeated day' - the water wouldn't work and her car wouldn't start and she was going to hook up a battery charger to it, but she can't figure out how to get to the battery as it has some weird cover on it and she couldn't charge it. I felt bad for her and I felt her pain. They survived the hurricane, and all this terrible cold is just insult to injury for them. I wish I could fix all our issues. I wish I could 'blink' like Jeannie on 'I Dream of Jeannie' and just fix all things broken and wrong. However, I do not posses that ability. I told her to try a third bulb... I am sure that was no comfort to her at all. I am off to work for a while, then maybe take a nap. Next week is packed with meetings all day. It's going to be a hard week, work wise. Learning this software will be a challenge and by Friday of last week, we were all used up, mentally. I know I've been overloaded when I can't form complete sentences. On Thursday my dear friend and coworker got me out of an infinite verbal loop by saying, "Sandy, use your words..." hahaha |