Month: March 2018

This post includes news on health issues; it might get boring.

I am on medication for Type-2 diabetes and it was time for my annual check-up. The doctor decided to change my prescription a bit and added a triglyceride-reducing compound called gemfibrozil. I had a severe reaction to this addition; after three days of discontinuing any medication I can barely walk, even after taking a prescription pain medication that consists of Tylenol and codeine. Sitting is not too bad but getting up and down is difficult — and forget about bending over for anything. I am hurting and it shows. I’ve missed a couple days of work so far and may miss more.

The forced idleness is also hard to take as there is so much to be done this time of year. I have not finished “the shower from hell;” once I got the compression ring in place a leak developed behind the shower head and I have not had a chance to pull it out and complete the repair. For another week we are using the small “coffin” shower in the other bathroom.

The lawn is about ready for a first mowing; it gets “tufts” that are longer and makes the lawn look a bit ragged until I can get it mowed.

Last weekend I had moved the RV trailer, chipper, and utility trailer from our neighbor’s yard to ours and all items need attention to get them ready for summer use. The RV is sitting out on our driveway, partially blocking access to the garage so getting a car in and out is a bit of a challenge. I am frustrated that I can’t get out and work on these tasks!

The other big news is that Pam has (more or less) retired. Or, as she says, is now “unemployed” until she applies for her pension at the end of the year. Her final day of work at the community college was last Thursday. Over the course of her dozen-plus years she evaluated 17,029 incoming student transcripts. Her section took Pam out to lunch and presented her with a few small gifts. My guess is that Pam will be greatly missed in the next several weeks!

That’s it for now.  Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

It feels mighty strange realizing I don’t have to pack all my weekend activities into the weekends any more. I suspect having the luxury of time will be a learning curve for me.

Felicity has suggested I consider joining her in England this Fall for a vacation, to dovetail with a several-month house sit she has arranged.  This prospect is very attractive, but highly dependent on how the new budget I’ve figured out in theory actually works in fact. Still, I sometimes get caught up in “what ifs” and daydream about locations I might like to see on a return visit to the U.K.  On one of my internet searches, I came across a lovely high tea table (in Scotland!), complete with champagne.  Love it. Something to ponder.

Happy Trails.

 

I have several small items to report on this week, including a plumbing horror story and receiving two new household items.

Last time I noted I needed to change out the tub/shower faucet in our main bathroom. I knew this would be a nasty job, as the working area is very small and this place uses plastic plumbing (which requires specialized tools I do not own).

For starters, access to the back of the shower in the main bathroom is through a closet in the master bathroom:

In this photo you can see more of the plastic lines and fittings:

Note that in this photo the line running up to the shower head is disconnected. The reason:  I had to order a crimp tool and crimp rings to make the connection water-tight. I tried other methods, including small hose clamps, but could not keep the top fitting from leaking. The crimp tool and rings are on order from Amazon and should be here in a few days. Hopefully I will be able to finish this job once those items have arrived.

In the interim we have been using the shower in the master bathroom. This one we call “The Coffin” as it isn’t much more than an RV shower, very small. It needed some work (hasn’t been  used except for storage in years), particularly on the hot water side, but thankfully I’d accumulated enough small parts to make the repair. I hope in my next post I’ll be able to report a completion to this whole episode!

A few other upgrades were completed this week. We’ve been talking about getting a bulk water dispenser for awhile, to help save costs and reduce the amount of plastic we recycle. Pam uses bottled water for a variety of cooking purposes, plus as drinking water for the indoor cats and dogs. I drink bottled water while commuting and when I’m out on ATV and motorcycle trips. Bottled jug water runs about a dollar a gallon (and includes a lot of plastic recycle), refilled bulk water is thirty-nine cents a gallon locally.

Looking on-line, I found a unit that appeared to would fit our needs. Brand is Primo and the dispenser is available from a few different sources; Pam had a discount coupon from Bed, Bath, and Beyond so we ordered the Primo through them. Our local grocery store carries the empty jugs (5 gallon) so I bought one and filled it. Here is what the working dispenser looks like:

We calculate the savings in water cost will pay for the dispenser in 3 – 4 months.

Another household upgrade involved replacing our aging Hoover vacuum cleaner. While it still works, and we still have a few bags for it, the vac is definitely on the way out. Pam has commented — more than once! — that she would like to try a Dyson [animal hair] vac because of the amount of dog and cat hair that accumulates in our house. (3 dogs, 6 cats) Newegg Company, known for their lines of electronic and computer gear, put out a sales bulletin that featured  refurbished Dyson vacs so I ordered one. This is one of the “ball” vacuums (a bagless model) that Dyson is known for:

In its first use the Dyson picked up quite a bit of material and seems to be easy to maneuver around furniture. Here’s hoping this investment gives us good service for a long time.

A rain/snow mix is in the forecast for today along with several upcoming nights below freezing, but generally the weather is typical for this time of year and during the next week conditions will improve. Buds are beginning to appear on the lilac trees and I look forward to seeing those blossoms, providing a late freeze does not wipe them out (as it unfortunately did last year).

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

Woo-hoo — the 100 tulip bed (AKA Mary Lynn’s Memorial Garden) now has about 60-65 bulbs total poking through. Much as I suspected, when I walk to that end of the lawn to check on bulb growth, it usually triggers a wave of sadness. I miss my friend and frequently ponder her loss.  Grieving is a tricky thing.

Happy Trails.

 

 

I’m going to start with something old, going back to the fall of 2009. Pam and I had stayed at a bed and Breakfast in Estes Park with the aim of spotting some of the area’s elk. I was able to get a 32 second clip (using my Flip recorder) of a bull elk calling for his harem. There is wind noise on the video but if you listen carefully you can hear the elk bugling.

[cincopa A4KACNuZi8HD]

Elk bugling is an annual event that draws many visitors to the Estes Park area every fall.

Moving ahead to now…

We have begun taking mulch off the flower beds as both iris plants and tulips are displaying a few inches of growth. While we expect more winter weather, the forecast is to have a 70 degree day this next Wednesday. Many nights are staying above freezing so it is time for the mulch to come off.

I drove up to Sanderling on Sunday just to check out the shed and utility trailer. I also wanted to see how much snow was left on the place. (Not much, soil appears fairly dry.) Temperature got up to 41 degrees but a chilly wind was blowing. I walked parts of The Lot and left some bread products [at different places] we’ve been saving for the chippies and squirrels. It was good to be back in the high country but it will be a while yet before spring reaches those elevations.

Our bath/shower faucet is giving us grief again. The last repair held for a few weeks but the faucet began leaking again. I am going to have to replace the faucet assembly, not a job I am looking forward to mainly due to the cramped quarters and age of the plumbing.

Good news: Pam’s niece Lilly is out of the hospital and beginning her recuperation. We hope this progresses OK but Lilly has been very ill and the healing will take an extended amount of time and effort.

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

The tulips are starting to burst through in the 100 tulip bed.  At about 40-45%  of tulips breaking ground so far, looks like it will be a lovely show.  Bittersweet – every day when I go to check on the progress of the tulips, I think of my friend and how she will be missing spring this year.

House hunt location:  I am currently keying in on Grinnell, Iowa.  Felicity and I did an overnight there when she was scouting college locations (she eventually decided on Beloit College in Wisconsin).  Fields and I are comfortable with the energy and activities (and politics) of college towns.  As luck would have it, there are some lovely older homes at reasonable prices in the Grinnell area. (Also looking at Montezuma, across the interstate and to the south of Grinnell.) We drive by on the interstate on our way to the Midwest in May, so why not stop and look around?  The list of towns to drive through becomes longer each week.

Happy Trails.

 

Wow. It has been a very quiet week for us. Here is a rundown on various items I’ve mentioned in previous posts.

Colds: Both of us are recovering (fewer coughs) but our energy levels are not yet back to 100 percent. After nearly 3 weeks of this, you would think we would be over it but we don’t recover as fast as we did 20 or 30 years ago.

Cats: One of the cats we had taken to the shelter, Fonzie, had to be euthanized as he was diagnosed with having feline leukemia, a fatal disease for cats and contagious. While not a “favorite cat” and just an occasional visitor to the feeding station, it was still sad to have his life end like that. The other cat, Cloudy Day, had a dental and is on a medical treatment plan for a urinary infection. She is not adapting well at the shelter, so is scheduled to return to us when her meds are completed. So much for that cat roundup.

Weather: We have had a few warm days (low 60s yesterday) but are looking at receiving 1 – 3 inches of snow by tomorrow (Sunday) morning. Wind has also been an issue with gusts hitting 40+ mph. On the other hand, a few tulips are beginning to show growth so Spring can’t be that far off.

House hunt: We are tentatively planning a trip to the Midwest in May. We want to check out some territories Pam has identified as potential retirement areas as well as visit family and friends. Pam is currently surveying Iowa along the Mississippi River, and found a house at 500 NW 1st Street  Elkader, IA, 

Another interesting town is Dyersville, Iowa, home to Ertl toys and the baseball field used in the movie “Field of Dreams.”  Although somewhat out of our current price range, we both liked the property at 604 9th Avenue SW in Dyersville.  The house hunt continues — southern Michigan is also on the current radar.

Work: I received a 3 percent pay increase and, while that does not sound like much, it was the maximum allowed by our County Commissioners (who control the County budget). At least it’s something; Pam is moving to part-time hours so we’ll have to see how the budgets work out under that arrangement. I finished the final tweaks on our intranet web page, a 70 hour project that turned out well and with which I am quite pleased. I am now configuring a new “ticket” system that will handle Help Desk requests as well as purchasing requests for the organization. It is a big project.

Speaking of projects: I am “older than dirt” it seems. A local lumber yard used to have a spring sale every year. Pam called them to find out when this year’s sale was scheduled, only to find it had been replaced by “Senior Tuesdays,” where I would qualify for a discount due to my age. Chagrin at being a senior citizen is offset by the savings but that doesn’t seem like an equitable trade-off. However, yard projects await, so I’ll take the 10%.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

I’m looking forward to Spring, this year in particular, as I’m interested to see how the 100 tulips I planted in the “Mary Lynn Memorial Garden” will bloom. We always experience two Springs, one here on the high desert and then another in the high country when we open up Sanderling for the season.

Hey [Tabitha’s mother] Deb, wanna weigh in on what it’s like to live in Iowa? Property taxes seem a bit high (a common thread in the Midwest).  Politics seem a bit “red state” (another common thread in the Midwest, sadly…Fields and I are definitely “purple state” material).

Happy Trails.