wooooo weeeee i am tired

So I worked my 40 hours early last week, so i could take off at noon and drive up to the city.  I met my work friend B, we had sushi at one of our favorite places, downtown.  It was delicious.  Especially since it has been 11 months since our last sushi!  We had sushi here at this same place Oct 2019 when I had finished my 6 months of work last year.  

Then I spent the night at my Aunt's house and bright and early Friday I went to my dear grandmother's old independent living apartment to start moving her stuff to her new place.  She is moving from a facility to a traditional apartment, but she is right  next door to my aunt (her daughter).  

I completely filled my large SUV 3 times and took to the new place where I had to open 2 fire doors each trip (one with a key) all by myself and go down one flight and up one flight at new place.  It is a nice place where she is going - i just worry it will be so much for my aunt to be her sole caretaker, meal prep, laundry, etc.  But since it is her mother, she did not want to move her to skilled nursing.  So, we bought a baby monitor, an automatic doorbell that rings and flashes a strobe light (my Granny is almost deaf and blind) and we bought a riser for her toilet and bunch of LED light bulbs and night lights.  I moved all her clothes, knick nacks and utility closet.  

At 5:30 I drove back north to where i used to live and I got to see my good friend and went out to dinner with her and her daughter/daughter's family.  It was nice to see them.  They had steaks, even the kids - a 7 year old and a 11 year old - eating steaks.  It was something.  I had shrimp and a baked potato and took most of mine to my aunt.  

Saturday there could only be 2 people at my grandmothers place + movers, so I went up to my friend's farm and picked apples.  2 cousins were there at new place to help organize.  The planning was that my sister and I would finish what the movers did not get on Sunday before i went home.

These are the apples I picked Saturday.  I had a nice time catching up with my friend and his 4 dogs.  He has 200 acres and enjoyed the visit too.  He got us a pizza for lunch.  From Caseys - so good!

Sunday, my sister met me at my Granny's old apartment and helped me with all the kitchen and bathroom stuff, all the pictures on the wall, the window sheers.  On, and her African violets.

Then my cousin and I went and bought the toilet riser, door bell, baby monitor, lights, etc  And I bought her a huge about 3 foot tall clock that we hung right over her TV!  We did some organizing and unpacking and my aunt served her some yummy home made vegetable soup.  Then, i finally got on the road to go home about 5:00.  I got home about 8:30pm.  Man, did my bed feel good!

Here is a picture of my new fountain, it is in the courtyard right outside of our living room/bedroom and it sounds nice.  

It has turned pretty cool here.  I am just getting ready to go for a walk before i start processing (cut up and core) some of the pears and put them in the freezer.  

To help my aunt I have informed the old apartment I am handling my grandmother's account, i wrote them an e/mail yesterday hoping they would waive the 60 days notice and not charge her a month's rent ($1900+) because my aunt did not have 60 days notice when she received word that they could move her mom in to the apartment next to her.  The office manager called me today to ask about the issues i eluded to.  My grandmother fell several times and they never informed us, my grandmother would tell her daughter.  The call button worked off and on and one time after she pressed the button for help, the woman came to assist, then said "I will be right back" and left, never to return!  There were at least 2 times my grandmother was not served any food while being quarantined in her room.  I realize these things happen, now it just depends on how they handle know that we have informed them.  I explained that my aunt called several times and was not getting call backs from people (so she said).  I am not sure how many times/how long she waited for calls back, but i know that does happen.  So, the woman I talked to said she would let us know.  I know much of this is due to covid (my grandmother declined markedly due to her state of mind not having visitors and having hard time feeding herself - all they were feeding were sandwiches, so she could not really open cans of soup or fix herself something if she wanted somethng else).  But, I just don't understand not letting my aunt know about the falls, the office manager said it is not the facility's job to notify family about falls (?).  But it IS their emergency button that each resident depends on (?)  It felt like she was being very defensive and I did not even get the their policy not to let family in to help residents, but they would let hired care people to get in.  When we hired an independant 3rd party in to stay with my grandmother, she FELL ASLEEP WHILE SITTING WITH MY GRANDMOTHER.  UGH, maybe it is just a lot of factors that all came together in a bad way, but i am praying that my grandmother does not have to pay another month ALONG with the cost of this latest move + the $2,500 "community fee" she had to pay to get into this place that she planned to stay longer than just one year.  

Hope you all are well out there and not too isolated.  We are all going to have a long winter.

First Day of Fall

 

I had the most yummy salad today for lunch.  It was chopped lettuce and greens with an egg, cold salmon, cherry tomatoes and a sprinkle of edemame and toasted pumpkin seeds.  Plus I crushed up a handful of tortilla chips and a tiny sprinkle of crunchy jalepeno crisps.  Now I need a nap.

We turned off our AC finally this week.  I have a new fountain (I will post pictures next week).  So, now we can enjoy the fountain sounds even from inside our house.  But I keep thinking that either it is raining or that I left some water running somewhere, LOL.  It is in the high 70's during the day, maybe just into the low 80's and in the 50's at night.  Nice weather!  I opened all the windows and ran around and cleaned all the window sills, they get so yucky.  Dirt and flies.  Ew, too much information.  Esp on the north side of the house, the moisture.  The north side of our house now looks really nice since I scrubbed off the mildew this summer.  We are also getting a nice steady rain today and the humidity is 93%.  I scrubbed the range hood really good this morning and worked up quite a good sweat.  Speaking of sweat, I sat in my office all afternoon yesterday and was comfortable without even opening a window, but when i did yoga last night in the sitting room and the door closed to keep out the dogs, I was really sweating and started shaking, thinking what is wrong with me - then i realized - we turned off the AC Sunday!

I have been having so much trouble with my right knee!  Then I lowered my desk chair - it is already better.  It has been so bad for a couple of weeks i was thinking of making a doctor's appointment.  Now that I am working and back to sitting up to 8 - 10 hours a day, it really makes a huge difference!

We finally got our new bed.  We are loving all the room we have now, going from queen to king.  It isn't as crowed as i had feared.  I really want to get rid of the side tables and attach lamps over the headboard on the wall, but DH thinks he needs his drawers for storage.  Maybe next spring i will work on convincing him.  For now, i am just enjoying having essentially my own bed - we went for the twin base, and we can move the head or the foot up.  I love watching tv in bed, so i LOVE our new bed.  

I caught a cute picture of my 2 chi's sitting on my lap yesterday.  It is rare to catch them close to each other.  They like the 2 big dogs more than they like each other.  Chihuahuas are sort of temperamental...shoking huh?  I had to just look up how to spell temperamental, I had no idea the first A was in there!

The other evening, we went for a ride in the convertible to enjoy the pretty weather.  We were a little late getting back, after dog feeding time.  DH says, well Penny (the big pup) will be chewing on something by now!  Sure enough, we get home and she got into my yard and there was a single strand of yard going from the living room, out the back doggie door, through the patio area, out the fence and strewn all around our back yard!

Sure am loving this bit of rain.  Save me from watering this week before i have to drive up to the city.  I worked Sunday so that i could take off Friday to go up and help my aunt move my grandmother.  She is moving into an apartment right next door to my aunt, so my aunt can take care of her.  At 101 she still insists on living alone, so i hope this works out.  It will still be a lot on my aunt making sure her mother eats.  But, it is what they have decided and i am being supportive.  I am helping pack/move Friday, then picking apples at my former colleague's farm, then Sunday my sister will join us to help organize/unpack after.  The movers are moving big stuff Saturday - not much just a few chairs and bed/dressers.  I will be happy to get it over with - not nearly as happy at grandmother and aunt!

This is a picture of our weeping blue atlas cedar that we planted where we took out the huge crepe myrtle.  

before

after

Well, enjoy your first day of Fall!  See you next week.

Another Before and After and My Weekend River Exploring

 Well, I had a great weekend!  It was filled with rivers and exploring and meeting new people.  It was so fun.  I have met some really nice women (and a few men) in the hiking club I joined Jan of 2019.  I have been really blessed to find this group.  My DH likes to relax and stay home more than i do, and now that we have 4 dogs, one of us pretty much needs to stay home.  Now, I have told DH several times, if he makes some friends and wants to kayak or golf more, then I would be happy to stay home with the dogs too.  But so far, it is mostly me who explores and i am grateful.

A few weeks ago, one of my hiking friends said she was going to Southern Missouri to kayak and wanted to know if I was interested.  Well, I decided I should go before it gets cold and enjoy some time on my kayak!  The Chief first game was Thursday night, and since I had to get up at 4am, I went to bed and did not get to watch the game.  

This was taken as i was about halfway to my friend's house.  Since she does not have a truck, we took DH truck and she is on the way anyway.  About 45 min from me.  I got to her house about 5:15am and we loaded her kayak and were about 3 more hours away.  The rest of the group camped Thursday night and did one river Thursday, but we missed that river.  So, on Friday we met them at another river and we had about 9 kayaks and 1 canoe.

This first river was plenty of flow, but had low spots that acted like rapids due to the rocks and logs being flowed over quickly.  There was enough water to float, but one did have to pick our route and be aware of all the submerged rocks.  The sound as the water rushes over obstacles is loud - it sounded much worse than it was.  There was one place on this river where we went down about 3 feet on a "ledge" water fall - I was lucky enough to be in the middle, so a few of the other paddlers pointed out the best route and I made it through just fine.  I was too excited to take a picture of that particular area though!  Oh, and I did get to see an otter exit the river and run across the gravel bar into the woods.  It was cool!

Some of the group camped in tents and a couple had campers.  Few of us like my friend and I rented a cabin (a dry cabin), but at least it had AC!  It is still in the 80's during the day, but cools at night...yet this time of the year it is still pretty humid.  Even though it was 80's or so during the day, the water we were on was mostly spring fed - so the rivers were COLD!  I did not get in.  But i was in tank and shorts the entire time - we had mostly overcast skies, and just had a brief sprinkling one day, so we put our rain jackets on for about 20 min and then the sun came out for a little while.

During one of my earlier kayak floats this summer, I saw a gal with a dry bag that had big handle, like a tote bag, so I looked for one on Amazon.  I ended up getting one like a backpack, so can put most of my gear in one bag and keep it all dry.  I also got a waist pack to put my phone and my money/keys in that will stay with me and won't get lost if i end up in the river.  I can keep a jacket and a long sleeved shirt in case I need more coverage or get chilly.

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After floating Friday, my friend and I were pretty tired since we were up so early, so we fixed a quick and easy meal in electric skillet, showered and went to bed.  Next morning, Sat, we did another river and it was a beautiful float.  

It was mostly sunny on Saturday and this river had more water, again cold and spring fed - so we did not get in (on purpose).  Luckily, none of us were dumped either.  This river was a little more crowded, as it was bigger and it was Satuday.  But it was still a very nice float and I managed to stay in the middle of the group and have some peace and quiet to study the flora and fauna.  Saturday, we saw some birds, lots of butterflies.  We really enjoyed this cave.  We could get about 10 kayaks a time in the cave and paddle around in the dark - it was a little eery.

Saturday evening, we put together all our food and had a smorgasboard.  It was nice.  I still went to bed pretty early, because Sunday we were up early to pack for immediate departure after a shorter trip.  Friday we floated slightly over 10 miles, Saturday 8 miles and Sunday we only did about 5.  Sunday we were ready to head home after our final river, at about noon.

This last river, was the one that I found had more "strainers".  That is an area where the river either changes direction or has a feature that traps logs and roots to gather and then creates an obstacle for river navigation.  This particular strainer was a tree caught over on the left side and facing upstream with much of the main trunk/limbs still exposed, so when I about ran into it, the tree about took my head off!  After this, I asked one of the other paddlers with experience what did wrong and she said that i mostly did everything correct, sometimes, you just get caught up.  I probably should have paddled away sooner than trying to turn away at the last might (you want to keep your nose pointed downstream, so you don't get tipped over) and then when I hit the tree I pushed off (which is evidently wrong) but by trying to push away, I was at least properly leaning toward the object, instead of away.  When you lean away, your opening goes low and water gets in, flipping the boat.  I got away just breathing heavy, but breathing!  My strategy of following the experienced kayakers and going where they were going had served me pretty well, all weekend.  I think in the spring (sans pandemic) I will take a class for some formal instruction and learn some technique.

Anyway, all in all, despite it being such a long trip and being up so early every day, I was so glad I went.  But, GLAD to get home to my DH, my dogs and my own bed.

These last few photos are of my guest room make over.  I have 2 guest rooms, one we have set up like a sitting room, with a sleeper sofa and my office and in between the sofa and chair - I have room to do my yoga.  The larger one, we have a queen bed and couple of chests and a couple of new pieces of furniture from IKEA where we can now fit twice as many sweaters, sweatshirts, fleece and flannel and blankets/throws.  It is a little busy, but we need it to be roomy enough for guests but functional.

This was the room as it was in the listing when we bought it.

And now, it is a little more crowded, but our guests have a large queen and satellite TV!  And I can do my treadmill in there on really hot or cold/rainy days.  I love it.

Our house is a mix of small and quaint and function.  I am still getting rid of stuff, replacing with stuff that suits our new life now and improving the look and function of our possessions.  I am OK with keeping stuff that we LOVE, has value or works for us in some way (function).  Anything not fitting these categories I am slowly getting rid of (selling or donating).  I have listed several more pieces of our motorcycle gear and another 2 coats we don't need anylonger, but haven't sold any clothes in quite a while.  

Last picture is a mural on an old grain silo in a little southern Missouri town, called Monett.  It was pretty cool and it getting quite a bit of attention!  We waited behind a man from Nebraska to get photos and behind us were a daughter from Oklahoma and her folks from Texas.  Enjoy!

It's September but Still Feels Like August

 So, I am not sure exactly what i was so busy doing last week, but it did seem like i was busy everyday with more than just work...that last weekend after my last post my sister and i ran up to the city to see my Grandmother.  All we could do was sit outside and so we brought our own chairs and planned to just be able to visit with her 1 person at a time, but the woman working the front desk let my sister and i visit with her in the lobby and my aunt was there too.  My Grandmother is looking good, alert, but very thin.  My aunt said she was down to about 93 pounds.  She is very small anyway - like 4'11".  But she was in pretty good spirits and enjoyed the visit.  It was awful not getting to hug her.  I took her choc chip cookies and tomatoes.

Then we finally broke down last week and subscribed to Dish satellite TV.  I figured as long as I am working and with winter coming and continued numbers of Covid 19 increasing in my state, we will just pretty much plan on staying home and staying safe, so let's get something to watch on TV!  I do have a couple of driving roadtrips and a couple of long weekend kayaking/hiking trips with a small group, but DH will appreciate having something to watch.  We had that done Wednesday and the Dish customer service setting up the service and the technician who came out and did the wiring and setup was great.  So far, we are really enjoying it.

Then, we got a wild hair and decided to get a king size bed and sell our Queen - so we did that last week.  We ordered our king - and decided while we were at it to get the adjustable kind - i LOVE watching tv and reading in bed.  So, we had some back and forth with the bed store saying the bed was on backorder, no it's coming tomorrow!  Etc.  So we sold our old bed quickly to get it out of the way and the couple paid for it last Thursday on Venmo and then came to pick it up on Sat.  We also sold our guest room mattress (used less than 20 times) and will move our old tempurpedic into our guest room.  I will show picture next week and include my guest room makeover!  We got my Ikea order Monday last week and put the furniture together and finished the guest room Wed.  It looks so nice and i can store twice as much clothes.

The garden still producing tomatoes, i have made salsa and given several jars away.  I have had tacos, nachos and taco salad, made stewed tomatoes and put some in vegetable soup.  My peppers are still growing too, so i decided to dry some.  They were all green and now that they are drying, turning yellow and red.  Very pretty.

My sister and i talked plants and gardening while we were driving, so i am putting together a succulent sampler plant for her from my little growing collection.

My husband and i are both enjoying this cypress vine that is growing in the lava rocks behind my trash container, next to my ivy topiary.  It is also called Cardinal vine.  It is so fine and dainty, but it is anything but timid - once it grows, you will never get rid of it!  But it is pretty.

I really am loving my ivy topiaries.  One on each side of our shop/covered car port.  It was so much metal and concrete, we knew we wanted plants on each side to break up all that metal and concrete, it faces west, so i wanted something drought tollerant - plus i can leave it out there all year and it winters fine.

This is a picture of my sweet little girl chi, Chili.  She has such a cute face.  But she is not a friendly dog to strangers.  During the time the satelite installer and the people who bought the bed were here, we had to keep all the dogs outside and they were not crazy about that!  They are so spoiled!

Right now for the next week until our new bed arrives, we are sleeping on our old mattress, on the floor in our master bedroom - good luck keeping all the dogs off the bed right now!  It is only about 15 inches off the floor!  Even the 2 chi's can get right on it now.

Well, i guess i better get back to work.  No rest for me on this Labor Day, i am working so that i can take off this friday.  I am going kayaking with a couple of girlfriends about 4 hours away.  We are going Friday, Sat and a little float Sunday before we drive home.  It is going to be so fun!

I hope you are having a great Labor Day, and staying safe.  Maybe having something good to eat, on the grill or not.  I know thought it is hot and i am ready for cooler weather, I am not altogether ready for summer to go either.  See you next time.