Week 29...

Youngest 7pm:  I'm headed out to longboard.

Me: State Forest?

Y: Nope. Service Road.

Me: Good choice, it's getting dark and the bear sightings are really multiplying. You should be okay down there though, there's only been one sighting down that way.

Twenty minutes later, the local PD puts out an alert via the book of faces:

Bear sighting on service road, PD and department of Natural Resources in route, avoid the area.

I sent Youngest a text, which given that I have android and he has apple, I have no idea he's read. By midnight, when he still has not returned, I send another all good? text, to which I still get no answer. One thirty am he rolls in...

Me: Dude. I thought you were a bear snack. What the hell?

Y: My bad. We didn't see him though, but we did look for him.

*sigh* And still, it's not the most dangerous thing he's done in the last few years. 

Otherwise, this week's been a series of small technological challenges.  

First, Youngest's phone suddenly stopped charging.  We tried different cords, outlets, plugs, and nothing.  Brought it to the phone place and it charges right up. We bought a new block and now it's fine, but all the other things are charging with the old cords/blocks, so I have no idea what happened there other than shelling out $21.

We have an electronic keypad on the back door. Over the years it's been easier than everyone carrying keys. For a few days I heard random beeping like someone was coming in, but no one was home but me.  Youngest was sitting at the table and saw the lock actually turn itself to the locked position, and then unlock again. Freaked him right out.  New batteries seemed to fix it for now, but the other batteries weren't that old to begin with. 

The light on the fridge that's been out for three years is suddenly working again. And the door randomly opens. The brand-new dish washer didn't start when I know I hit the button, but then starts perfectly a hour later. Radio stations changing in the car. There's more, mostly small stuff, weird and annoying. If something's not in retrograde I'm gonna need a ton of sage and patience.

When I'm not dealing with the undead or hunting bears, I've been working on small craft projects. Youngest's steamer trunk is coming along, today I did the gold leaf details on the latches while the cat gold leafed herself, so that was fun. Hubs and I also picked up a bunch of mahogany planks someone was giving away for free, so tomorrow's project is rebuilding the missing tray for it from that. Youngest is thrilled with how it's coming out, and I'm secretly loving that he's involved in the process.

That's all for now, pictures to follow as projects get done.

As long as technology cooperates.

Week 28...

Sister: "I only watch the news to see where the black bears are"

Me: "I'm not worried.  They are super cool, but you just have to leave them alone."

Sister: "Well I don't want to run into them.  I mean look at me, I'm a bear snack."

*two weeks later*

I'm sitting on an old metal chair at a local farm with the cat on my lap, waiting patiently for our number to be called.  Unable to shell out another $100 for a vet visit, Keeks and I found ourselves at the monthly low cost clinic for her rabies booster. It's beautiful here, quiet, nothing but the occasional nay of a goat or cluck from the chickens. This is one of my favorite parts of town. The farmhouse out front is easily 150 years old as are many of the homes on this street. It has been maintained, but the barns have started to wane and show their age. The family that owns the property loans out the old grooming barn to the Vet as finding places has become increasingly difficult. The Vet is well known as he had an active, 30+ year practice before his wife insisted he retire. About ten years ago he started the low-cost clinics twice a month as a way of getting out of the house, and thus far it seems to be keeping both of them happy.

The humidity has finally given way, if only for half the day, before the torrential rain moves in this afternoon. The breeze thankfully keeps the bugs away. The hay fields are overgrown, no doubt waiting to be bailed in the next weeks, and sold to one of the many active farms in town as feed. The chickens appear to be free range. It's probably good the bears haven't made their way to this side of town yet. Bears, I should mention, are not common here, and when they do emerge, they are usually gone in a few weeks.  These three have been wandering these 40 square miles for about two months now. Amazing creatures, not that I'd want to see one at this moment, cat on my lap, livestock running amuck around me.  We'd be a smorgasbord of flavors for them. 

The ping of my phone breaks through the peaceful moment. A text from my mother.

"Across the street, look on the hill of the neighbor's house"

Me: "So Awesome. You'd better not invite my sister over, apparently she's a bear snack"

Her: "LOL"

Me: "Youngest thinks it might be Yogi.  You should put a picnic basket out."

Her: "Maybe..."

I don't think she actually put a basket out, though given that it was trash day in my neighborhood, there were plenty out for the other two bears who have been seen down by our house (we live about 30 minutes away from each other) My sister, however, lives less than 3 miles from my mother and I have not heard from her. I should check in soon to ensure she's not become a lunch-able. 

Week 27...

 

Shhhh... be vewerrry, vewerrry quiet... we're hunting for wabbits....

While out on our walk this past week these two were particularly brazen and just hung out paralyzed in the road for a good 15 minutes while we watched. Thankfully the girl's completely devoid of prey instinct or I'd surely have gone flying. The excitement must have been a bit much for her though as she had another seizure at 3am that morning.  To be honest, after scouring the web, I'm tending to lean more towards CHF than seizures (they look exactly the same) and in the end, it doesn't matter.  Our girl's time is limited, and if she wants to stare at bunnies, leap at crows, or play chicken with a chipmunk, I'm more than happy to let her.

Fourth of July was a washout.  The boys saw friends in the morning, then stacked some commander decks to go play Magic the Gathering at a newly found local tabletop gaming shop. Not going to lie, watching them go off and do something together they haven't done since they were 12 makes my heart all squishy. The Hubs and I hit the grocery store in the morning to replenish a few things. Seventy eight dollars later we left with ONE bag of groceries. *sigh*

I laid the floor in the laundry/bath downstairs while the rain fell.  It looks lovely, and I'm a bit sad that everything's coming to a halt. I've put myself on financial lockdown until some changes can be made to right the ship.  The dog's vet bills are crushing us, so I broke down and took a small loan to cover emergency bills as she has these episodes. I've found some more things to sell on marketplace so hopefully they will sell and I can bank roll that money as well. 

Oldest returned to college on Wednesday night.  Only six more weeks to go until he's home for a while. His federal aid did come through and was enough to cover his master's program, which is great because I didn't have to cosign for him, and the interest rate is 2.5-4%. The push is on now to find enough space for all his stuff to move back home.

I know it seems like I get a lot done around here but most days it's a struggle.  Now that my guts have been put back together, my regular doctor (who I love) started me on Ozempic to get my T2Diabetes in check. (I have two conditions that cause insulin resistance, which in addition to the T2D made me a good candidate) There's been a lot of talk about it on the news as the miracle drug for weight loss, mood, serotonin, etc.  Let me tell you, as with every medication, there's another side to it.  Has it helped my cravings? Absolutely. But, I do still have to regulate self-control on portion sizes. This week is the first week I'm stepping up past the starter dose and I've already lost two pounds a week for the last four weeks. I have another month at .5mg and then another at 1mg, repeat, until I level out at 2.5mg.  It's my understanding that the real impact is seem at 1 mg. I've been really lucky thus far, as they only major side effect I've incurred is the tiredness.

But this is no normal tiredness folks, it's takes me out at the knees from Sunday to Tuesday. It has improved my sleep, and my joint pain is much better, as I've let go of a lot of water retention. But.... it's a struggle to get anything done on my days off.  And then there's the needles.  They are super fine so they don't hurt, but I've stabbed myself disposing of the used one, forgot to take the cap off and wasted a whole dose, and injected straight into a flexed muscle which bled like crazy.  I'm a mess I tell ya. I'm hoping the tiredness levels out as time goes on, and that the nausea doesn't make an appearance as the dose goes up. We shall see. But the thought of this being available without prescription, in pill form, over the counter is scary folks.  I can completely see this getting misused, and people screwing up their whole body in the hope of a magic cure-all. Course, most people have been doing that for years already.

I'll keep ya posted... 

Week 26

When I met my husband he drove a Monte Carlo. He drove that car until one day, he drove it to the top of the hill just shy of our mechanic's shop, and coasted it into the parking lot, where the engine block promptly broke in half. No lie. His next car was a Grand Prix, which he drove until it needed $4K worth of engine work which wasn't worth doing.  Seeing his frustration, I told him I was going to Walmart and drove his car to the dealership instead.  He called two hours later to see where I was, and I told him he should probably get over here as he was buying a new truck. He came and drove off the lot in his new to him Toyota Tundra.

I mention this because he drives his vehicles into the ground.  The Tundra has long been paid for and only has 130K miles on it, so God willing, it has a long way to go still.  Sadly, having come off the Vineyard Island, the bumper had no life left in it.  The rust had eaten two holes in either side and recently it had started to eat it's way through the top. 

It's upside down in this picture, but you get the idea. It was rough.  So, for his birthday, I bought a new one.  On Sunday, we installed it. Or I should say my mechanical guru of a nephew installed it, as he was the one on the ground getting rust all over him, and the Hubs and Oldest just made sure it didn't fall on him. We've never towed anything, so we got rid of the tow hitch as well. Halfway in, my nephew mumbled something about maybe we should have watched a Youtube video beforehand, but nonetheless, I think it turned out as expected.

It took about two hours, and unlike last year's birthday gift of the shed that took 4 months to complete, he had this gift installed in two weeks. There was also talk amongst them about buffing out the paint and headlights, but that's a project for another day.

Speaking of paint, while I was at Restore (the Habitat for Humanity's resale shop) getting the vanity for the half bath, I noticed they had recycled paint. I hate painting, so I've become quite the paint snob, only buying the good stuff so I can do as minimal coats as possible. However, the laundry/bath downstairs is a small room and I didn't want to spend $90 for something no one but us will ever see, so I decided to take a chance. 

The company they get the recycled paint from is a women owned company about 20 minutes away from the store.  They get corporate donations, and create custom colors, reusing paint that would otherwise be disposed of.  They have about 20 stock colors, so if you're not super picky about a shade, you can usually find what you need.  I wanted a soft gray, and I jumped in with both feet over the weekend. 

It's as good as the expensive stuff, has no odor, and only took two coats on unprimed drywall!  All that for the bargain price of $23!!! And that sign I made from stuff I had hanging around the craft room for years, so I guess that was a bargain too.

Let's see what else happened? Walls are up and the layout has been fully established for the toilet/sink placement as you can see. I am slowly working on some board and batten removable panels for pipes we need access to on occasion.  Next thing to purchase is the toilet, which despite my best efforts, I can't find for less than $650, so that's gonna be a bit.  Since we're expecting rain and the paint is done now, I think the floor is the plan for the fourth since not much of anything else will be happening.

Oldest is home for half a week.  He's been getting back into playing Magic and he and his brother are getting along really well. He graduates in 6 weeks and then he's remotely earing his Masters in Structural Engineering from home. Lord help me, I have no idea where we're going to put all his stuff. Youngest is working two jobs now, rarely scoring a day off from both. His plan is to see where he lands for a mortgage in December, and then he/we will start looking for a place of his own. 

Today is the third of July which is a HUGE event here.  The fireworks have been going off nonstop, and the road is packed with cars lately.  Getting through town takes three times as long as it should. And in two days it will all be over.  

The four-legged kids are also getting along lately, so I'll leave you with this one last gratuitous pic....

"Come on... Get up!!!  There's mayhem to make!"