Brrrrr!

Gracious, it's COLD! We've been cold for 3 nights (or maybe 4) in a row and this old person just isn't taking it so well! I haven't had the furnace checked out ($60!) and I haven't had the propane tank filled either so it's quite nippy in the house!



Last night I built my first fire of the season (gotta get more wood) and it really did make quite a difference in comfort! We (the 7 animals and I) have been going to bed between 8 and 8:30 just to be warm and last night because of the fireplace we stayed up until 10!



I'm trying to get the house a little more comfortable with sun light today. It seems to be working a little bit, but this time of the year I don't get much full sun on the house until late in the day. Yesterday I sat on the front porch from 5 til 6 and was comfortable for about 45 minutes. When the sun goes down it's mighty fast!



This afternoon I'm going to bake a little 8lb. turkey and that'll put a little heat out and then around 6 tonight I'll build a small fire. I'm trying to conserve my wood pile as much as possible. Then I should be able to stay up through Survivor!!!!! It's terrible, but I have turned on a couple of incandescent fixtures just for the heat and it does make a difference!



Tuesday work gave us all giant bags of mixed candy. When I say giant I mean really big, like 10 pounds! and, Carolyn gave me 2 bags of candy! I got a couple of oval orange-colored plastic tubs with handles at the Family Dollar Store for $1.00 each and filled one to over-flowing and took it to the nursing home that Mother's in and put it on the nurses station. Wrote on it Happy Halloween from JP (Mother). They were tickled! And, it made me feel good too! I'm going to fill little buckets for all of the Friday night ladies and that still leaves me with a whole unopened bag! Not sure just what I'll do with it. I'll figure something out.



I'm sure I mentioned that we are all going to dress up Halloweenishly (boy, that one drove spell check crazy! didn't even have a suggestion!) for dinner Friday night. I'm going to attempt to paint on a leopard face and wear my leopard pants and jacket. I've got a tail and ears that I made years ago and I'll wear them too. Keep your fingers crossed that it turns out okay, the face painting, I mean.



When I got to the nursing home Tuesday Mother was in bed for a nap, but not asleep. We visited for about 10 minutes and she was quite nice. It's amazing what a difference her medications have made! Her mind is quick now, just not terribly focused.

I voted!

Today before going to Tallahassee to see Mother I stopped at the voter registration office and voted! Feels good getting that done! Today was only day two of the two week early voting and it was actually quite crowded. I had to wait for 20ish minutes before it was my turn. I bet this election is going to see record numbers of voters! Yeah! I believe it is such a privilege to be able to vote!!!

Mother was in the beauty parlor when I got there today. Aleen was just finishing her up and she look very pretty. She recognized me as soon as I walked in (the last few times she didn't know it was me) and was quite happy. She had a talk with Aleen about having her color done and they settled on next week. I wheeled her about for a little while and then it was time to go into the classroom where she and 3 other ladies eat. Today was the first time in a long time that she didn't want me to leave, but they don't want us there during this meal. Not sure why.

Stopped at Publix on the way home. They had some featured calf liver and I bought a package with four slices and divided it into two and two when I got home...froze one package. So, for supper tonight I had liver and onions with rice and gravy and green beans. Talk about comfort food! I find it amazing, I cut the two slices in half and still have three pieces for tomorrow! and rice and gravy and green beans! Lucky me! Yum!!

The first good chill of Fall!

The weather was absolutely beautiful all weekend long! Clear blue skies, puffy white clouds and mid-80s for the temp. Cool nights, 50s. Then last night it got quite chilly! I turned both ceiling fans off Friday night and have been leaving the French doors open, but last night I put on socks, closed the doors and put a blanket on the bed! I was cold!

Wore a 3/4 length sleeve pull-over with a denim jacket to work! Love to pile on those layers! You can always shed some if you need to.

Tonight it's to get back down into the 40s, but it's not to go up too much tomorrow day. Yeah! I've already gotten out tomorrow's clothes...got some good layers!

If you don't watch Biggest Loser you can watch it on the web. Sure do enjoy that show. They always look so much worse than I do when the season starts and they always look so much better at the end! It's amazing!

I really need to expand the fenced in area. What I have now is 50'x50'x50'x50', but the majority of it is cement ( which I plan to stain or paint someday). These puppies need more room to romp in. Maybe they'd tire out some.

Oh! I almost forgot, I've finished 4 of the six dining room chairs and have the seat off of the 5th one. It's a MAJOR change! Looks good.

Will go see Mother tomorrow.

The first good chill of Fall!

I've done so much recently that you'd think I'd have something to show for it! My 3 main focuses have been rendering the dining room usable, organizing the side porch and working on my work room.

The dining room is getting there. The table and chairs are once more centered in the dining room under the wonderful new chandelier that the kitchen renovators installed for me. They also left greasy black hand and finger prints on the relatively white ceiling! I must get up there and see if I can do anything about them! and...today I recovered 1 of the 6 chairs in there. It makes such a difference! Adds a wonderful pop of color and ties in the wall paper with the chandelier. Just looks great!! Now only 5 more to go. May have to do 1 a day or something as my hands are killing me from using the stapler. I'll just have to see how it goes.

I got a recycling bin last week and put it out Tuesday night for the first time. It felt good. I have put a great number of boxes out for recycling and I've taken recycle things to the dump. (They have special bins for certain things). But, it really did feel good just putting it out front!

Nancy and I have talked about needing to sell Mother's car. The sooner we do it the better the profit, but I guess that's dependent on actually be able to sell it. It's a 2008 Lincoln Town Car, I think. Anyway, it is a 2008 and you'd think it'd be easier to sell it in '08! Nancy broached the subject to Bert this week and he's dead set against it! He told Nancy that he really believes that Mother will "snap out of it"! and he wants her car to be there when she comes home! Oh, so sad!

Had dinner with the ladies last night. Always fun! I love being the youngest for a change! Had fried shrimp, cheese grits, cole slaw and hush puppies! Wonderful! Brought home a slice of pie to die for, Cool Whip, coconut, chopped pecans and caramel in a graham cracker crust! So good! Brought home enough left-overs that I had everything for breakfast and again for lunch today. Yum! Sure hate that it's all gone! Week after next is Halloween and we're all going to dress in costume for dinner! Fun! Oh, they finally pin-pointed me down on joining the Founders Garden club. I am.

I'm thinking this quietly as I type it in: The puppies seem better. A couple of times this past week I actually caught them doing something and swatted them pretty good with whatever was close at hand. Also, they've pretty much chewed up everything. They did a number on the bench that I bought to use as a coffee table. I can make it usable, but it just pisses me off when they do things like that! I coated it with hot sauce and that's working for now.

Guess I'd better go, no puppies in sight and it's mighty quiet!

It was one of those days!

Have you ever had one of those days when everything happens wrong? Well, today was one of those!

It all began before I left the house this morning.

When I got up this morning the puppies had torn up one of the last of the dog toys all over the bedroom. Fuzz and stuffing everywhere! Calmly picked it up.

Put the gate up between the back hall and the dining room as I was leaving for work. Saw I'd left the kitchen light on. Stepped over the gate right smack dab in the middle of a fresh, steaming, smelly pile of poop. Tossed purse to the table, grabbed the shoe and hobbled to the kitchen. Used the hottest water the pipes could produce and the sprayer and got the poop out of all of the grooves on the shoe.

Scrubbed the sink with Comet.

Only worked until 10:30 this morning. Then it was off to Tallahassee to see Mother.

I was closer to Hwy. 27 at work than I was to Hwy. 90 which is the usual way I go to see Mother. But somehow it made more sense to me to go Hwy. 27. Wrong! Because of the time of day and traffic and the fact that I was on the opposite side of town, it took me almost twice as long to get to the nursing home. Mother was in a group activity when I got there and I watched for about 15 minutes and left. I didn't want to upset the apple cart.

Stopped at Publix on the way home. They were out of my cigarettes.

When I got to Monticello I went to Fred's and got my cigarettes.

Since I was on that side of town I decided to go home the back way and stopped at Leah Jane's to get some more things out of the yard. Couldn't pick up the bird bath, but got 2 large pots of asparagus ferns and tossed them into the back seat.

Got home and opened the back door of the car to take the ferns out and a rather large green and gray snake fell out. (Use your imagination here.) After hopping around for a while I decided to try to reach over the cats that had circled the snake and take my groceries in.

As soon as I opened the back door I knew that I wasn't going to be a happy camper...there was cushion foam in large chunks all over the dining room and into the living room and the fresh aroma of puppy poop. Now I got home about 30 minutes earlier than I usually do from work and the distruction had already begun. I think they decorate for me. I'm glad I was early! After tossing the dogs out I started in on cleaning up the mess and found the remote for my TV under a mess of foam. The end that you point toward the TV was gnawed. Pointed it toward the TV and pressed "on"...nothing.

You know, at this point I'd about had it! I left Shirley and the puppies in the yard (which I have never done before) and took my remote to Radio Shack. Well, wouldn't you know it they didn't have one that was compatable with my TV! Said I'd probably have to go back to where ever I got it (Thomasville) and get one there. I moaned and groaned and the fellow said why didn't I let him check the remote out for me. It turned out that he was able to unstick a chewed button on it and said it should work. Got home, it DID!!!!

When I backed out to go to Radio Shack the snake wasn't in the carport. He rode there and back under the car somehow, 'cause he fell out when I got home!

Thank goodness, the remainder of the day has been rather uneventful. The snake got into a flower bed and seems comfortable, the puppies haven't done anything else that I've found and I'm having wonderful leftovers for supper, so no cooking! And, Biggest Loser is on tonight! All's right with my world for now!

Just catching up

Friday was my night to have dinner with the ladies. As always it was very good and much fun! The nicest thing about it was how we all dressed...in our fall clothes! We all looked so warm and fuzzy!

I sat on the computer almost all day yesterday playing a new game I found, Peggle Nites. Simple and totally captivating! Gotta watch it! It's hard to get much done that way!

Left home at a quarter to seven this morning and headed to Tallahassee. It wasn't quite as cool as its been the past few days, but cool enough! The fog was funny. It was very heavy at ground level about up to the hood of my car and perfectly clear above. There was a stretch of road where the fog pretty much covered it and the going was a tad slow. It burned off as soon as the sun came up.

Nancy and I went to The Village Inn again. They do know how to make breakfast important! Good food and brought some home!

After breakfast we "did" Walmart. I'm in the process of weather stripping and had run out, so I got some more. It's quite cheap for such a good fix. I also found some self adhesive bottom of the door strips. I'm hoping all of this will help this winter. Got some jerky and puppy chow, too.

Things at work are okay. Now that I'm really part time I find that what goes on there takes on much less importance. Funny how that works. I get up three days a week and put in 15 hours at one place and another 1-4 hours at another. And then I'm my own person. Getting the house in winter order and just order in general is a joy. If I ever finish all of my "home improvement" projects then I have a million and one other projects waiting in the wings. I'm enjoying looking forward to them!

The poor yard has really "gone to hell in a hand basket" as Aunt Maude used to say. We haven't had rain in 3+ weeks and I'm really not watering much at all (money you know). I had the fellow who mows my yard mow the pitiful garden spot, so that's gone, thank goodness and 'most everything else is dying in pots. You'd think I'd be upset by this and on some level I am, but mostly, it's a funny relief. Gets me!

Hold your breath, the puppies are better. Not good, better.

Gotta go put a bird in the oven.

Baby, it's cold outside!

We in Florida do tend to become accustomed to the oppressive heat and humidity we live with 6 or 7 months a year, so when there's almost no humidity and the temperature is in the mid 50's we are COLD!!!! That's how it is this morning...WONDERFUL!!!

Just yesterday the two space heaters I ordered from Lowes were delivered. I won't be unboxing them today, but the thought did flicker through my mind. Fuel cost this coming winter have been on everyone's mind lately. I know it's a topic of conversation at some point at every gathering. We don't have natural gas available here which would be my fuel of choice. And, even though a fire place is wonderful, the range is limited and it does require a lot of tending and cleaning. I figure that I've been able to keep up with my electric bill this summer and shouldn't use more electricity with a couple of those oil filled radiator-type heaters. And, of course, bundling up is easy enough...and I do have wool socks.

I checked the gauge on my propane tank yesterday and there's a little less than 45 percent in it. I'm thinking that I'll have it filled soon and that WILL be the only time this winter. For the past 3 winters that I've been in the house I've had the tank filled 3 times each winter and have kept the thermostat on 62 degrees. I read an article on the net that suggested keeping the thermostat on 50 degrees and using space heaters. These radiator-type heaters are supposed to be energy efficient and safe to run. I'm going to have to have several outlets replaced because plugs won't stay in them...that's another expense, but one that I need. And, the furnace uses both propane and electricity!

I have had puppies up to HERE! This has been a horrible week for both them and me. Monday when I got home from work I walked in to a mess. The puppies had torn a hole in the orthopedic pillow I use in my chair and there were chunks of foam everywhere. Tuesday morning they brought in a dead bird and played tug of war all over the living room. I found the mess as I was leaving for work and had to call in and tell them I'd be late. Was only 20 min. late, but that matters to the pay check! Then when I got home I discovered that I'd left the gate down from the dining room to the back hall. They had gotten every pillow off of the bed and had completely torn up 2 throw pillows and had pulled the stuffing out of the main pillow I sleep on! There was stuffing from the bedroom all the way to the front hall! Not only that, but puppy poop was mixed in with it! Yesterday they completely uprooted a blueberry bush and were running around the fenced part of the yard with it. I whacked both of them with the bush and replanted it (raving all of the time) and liberally sprinkled pepper around it. Poor bush, it'll be a miracle if it makes it! When I got up at 5 this morning the first thing I saw when my feet hit the floor was pillow stuffing all over the bedroom. Another throw pillow bit the dust. It's not like they don't have toys and dog chews, etc. They have many of both...maybe too many?

I did try to find a home for Maggie when she was tossed into my yard...in fact tried for several months. I probably should have taken her to the Humane Society then, but they were so crowded. Now they are talking about having to euthanize to reduce the number of animals...don't know what to do. As angry as the puppies make me, I'm so attached to them and they to me!

Didn't visit Mother this week, nor will I next week. Nancy and I are trying 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off with the visiting. Mother's in a routine (she's been banned from the dining room again) and doesn't know who we are when we visit (she visits like with a stranger), nor does she remember being visited. Nancy and I both find the visits quite stressful, so we're trying this for a while. Of course, I feel guilty because I really COULD visit.