What did you do today?

[zannej]

If you hadn't mentioned circles I wouldn't have noticed there were circle patches. Had to really look for them. Looks good!
Tom, I wish I didn't suck at sewing. I always got the fabric stuck under the foot & it didn't want to move properly. I sew by hand (sloppily) bc I suck with using sewing machines. Got a handheld but it was too small to get anything of any decent thickness between & just kept bunching up the fabric.

It really bugs me that I have the knowhow & can plan things, but when it comes to execution I lack the dexterity. LOL.

Yesterday I finally got up & started cleaning the fridge & freezer. My brother helped with the fridge (freezer just took a little wiping down on inside & outside & was done fast). Pulled shelves and drawers from fridge, I scrubbed them and rinsed, my brother dried them and put them back. While I was working on a shelf or drawer he cleaned the seal and upper parts of the fridge. I set something to soak & went and scrubbed the very bottom of the fridge. My brother was motivated by being able to get more food. He commented that he should have cleaned the fridge out 10 years ago & it was way overdue. Still have the freezer side of it to clean (I got the upgright freezer) and the other fridge. Other fridge's brand new light bulb burned out already so I need a new one. Need to see if I can find a bright one. I believe it's a medium base. Will have to bring the old bulb with me for comparison and try to find one with good lumens bc the newer one was very dim.

Today we need to hit the bank, post office, and grocery store (so mom can pick out some food). They were out of a lot of stuff so we didn't have a lot of stuff to choose from. No eggs, no asparagus, etc.

Mom lost her balance and fell in her room while I was in the bathroom. I heard her cry out and heard a thunk. I asked "Did you fall?" and she called out "Yes, but I landed on the laundry basket, it broke my fall). It was one of those pop up baskets so it was soft. We both called for my brother but he couldn't hear us. I couldn't get around her to get behind her so I got the phone intercom thing to call him. She shouted to it "HELP, I fell down!" so I could hear him typing and scrambling to get up. He picked her up from behind and I stood in front to catch her if she lost her balance again, helped her to her bed. She wasn't hurt thankfully.

I've currently got a dog and 2 cats lying on me. Trying to get some sleep but I've been staying awake at night and sleeping in the day.

 

[Tom Picciani]

Yesterday we shuffled around a couple big TV's, giving a 47" to my sister in law's dad. So we moved the 55 into the office (front bedroom). Found that the power cable won't fit because the cross member on the stand is in the way. I ordered a straight 3 conductor power cord. Should be here today. The new TV comes October 20th. But I have a 32 in the kitchen and this one should be up and running by the end of the day.

 

[Floorist]

The battery is dead on my wife's Chysler. So I can either take half the stuff under the hood apart, or pull the right front wheel. I hate that car.

 

[highup]

That's the dumbest of the dumbest. Chrysler must assume customers are happy to go to a Chrysler dealership to have a battery changed.
If it feels any better I hate that car too.

 

[Floorist]

The newer ones have the battery in the trunk under the spare.

The 300 m is supposed to be a luxury car. My Nissa Versa, the cheapest car they make, has more room inside.

 

[zannej]

I'm glad my vehicle's batteries can easily be changed.
Ended up being a lazy day & didn't go to the bank on Monday, which was fortuitous because Tuesday was the day they were drilling out the safety deposit boxes (bank branch is closing). They were supposed to call us so we could come get our stuff but never did. We just happened to go in right when they were clearing them. So they pulled ours for us & we emptied it. Had more stuff than we'd thought. I had to buy a plastic bin for it all. Some of my dad's medals, his old passport, family wills, baby shoes, old medical records, and a special edition Border Patrol gun (in a fancy wooden box). I commented that I was going to refrain from opening the box with the gun inside the bank & the employees thanked me. They said they had found weird stuff in some of the boxes before, but didn't go into detail.
Mom is trying to transition over to have the money that gets automatically deposited put into the other bank across the street as well as set up the bills that get paid by her checking account at the closing bank to come from the other bank. But our electric company told her she had to come to their office in Deridder (a few hour drive) in person to change over where the $ is being paid from. I intend to call them to see if they will allow the transition over the phone given there's still a pandemic (and it's a waste of gas to go all the way there). She still needs to get her military ID renewed at Ft Polk as well.
My brother started his practicum for a certification in teaching EFL. The lady he is shadowing is 75yrs old & he said she's very nice. He's going to watch how she does her teaching for 20 hours and then she will let him do some teaching for however many hours are required. He enjoyed his first day. There was a woman from a country that got hit with an earthquake so she was asked questions about whether or not she remembered it. Teacher was unaware that it was a traumatic event. The lady said her house was undamaged, however, she'd been at her friend's house when it happened & the wall collapsed and killed her friend right in front of her. She got choked up about it. On the funnier side, there was a Vietnamese woman who kept saying "eat the cat" instead of "feed the cat".
My friend's mom was apparently trying to screw him out of ownership of the house & had gone to ask about getting the deed & was told the city still has it and is claiming ownership despite them telling my friend he co-owns it bc he's been paying the taxes. The city has no claim to it bc the taxes were paid, but they are holding on to the deed. I had my friend record the conversation on his phone, I was there as a witness, & he took a photo of the receipt (as well as kept the receipt & kept it in a special folder) to prove he paid the taxes & that he was no co-owner. City is trying some underhanded bs. My friend said if either his mom or the city try to kick him out, he's taking everything we put into it: metal roof, carpet, vinyl plank flooring, cabinets, tub/shower, lights, & even the kitchen sink. None of that was there before he moved in & started fixing it up. A lot of the stuff was put in after he paid the taxes & should have been granted ownership. But, the upside is, it means his mom can no longer threaten to kick him out. She was trying to pull her BS with him today (wanting a lift). She's got an extremely jealous boyfriend who gets mad if she gets dropped off by anyone other than my friend, his fiance, or me. So she gets picked up or walks to a place to get picked up by men she cheats on her boyfriend with & then wants my friend to give her a lift back. A mutual friend said she needs to either stop screwing around or she needs to let her other men drop her off & deal with the repercussions. In the past 20 years, my friend's mother has spent only 4 hours with him (not involving car rides or when she was sleeping at his house). She comes over, drops off her dogs to be watched, and leaves to go do drugs, drink, & mess around. Then she wants him to give her lifts or let him borrow his car (which is now broken down after she last used it) at his expense. She constantly used the house as leverage (saying she owned it and could kick him out). Anyway, Thursday we are going to City Hall to sort out ownership. Hopefully we won't need to get a lawyer involved. I'm hoping he can own it outright since she hadn't paid any taxes in years despite having collected rent & having essentially stolen the $600 he gave her to pay the taxes. Which he then had to come up with another $600 to pay them. At least he now gets homestead exemption from the Parish, but city still overcharges & refuses to send out notice when taxes are due or how much they are.
Another meanwhile, he left his phone at home while he went to work & when he got back he had a bunch of messages about his grandfather having locked himself in a hotel room, they couldn't get the door open, and the grandfather was covered in his own excrement. He needs to go back to a care facility, but we suspect he's playing it up to try to guilt my friend into letting him come back-- it's not going to work. His fiance got rejected for a job while pending trial for the now misdemeanor "simple battery" & he is going to have to start working fulltime. The fiance is desperately trying to find some other job far away so she can avoid taking care of her own baby. If she could find herself a sugar daddy, we're certain she would run off & leave my friend & the baby.
She had wanted a baby so badly that she was screwing around with other guys to try to get pregnant. We're not sure this kid is even his. We think she fudged the timeline on when he was conceived bc the baby was much more developed than one that was 10 days early. But, that is something that may have to be dealt with further down the line if a paternity test is ever done.

 

[Floorist]

Has anyone ever tried unplugging the US and plugging it back in?

 

[Tom Picciani]

Has anyone ever tried unplugging the US and plugging it back in?

Yes, 1965. Power outage that took out entire east coast. Created a mini-baby boom.

 

[zannej]

I ended up doing very little except feeding the cats & mom and some light cleaning. I'm waiting to hear from my friend on when he wants to go to City Hall to confront them about the deed to his house. If it's not in his mother's name anymore, he should own it outright since he is the one who paid the taxes & she didn't pay the taxes for many years & he paid when he was told he'd lose the house if he didn't pay. The lady at City Hall said his name was now on the house, but I don't think the city can co-own the house if the taxes are paid in full. So, something hinky is going on. I also need to get the inspection sticker renewed on the CR-V.

My aunt is driving me a little crazy. She's a very active and motivated woman who likes to get things done. Right now she's decided that she wants us to move & she's been pressuring my mom to just ditch the house and buy a new one somewhere. She means well, but it's stressing me out. I want to get the place fixed up & I was hoping to live here for a few more years at least, but she's trying to get us to move within the next year. It's just not feasible. She's offering to come down and help clean up, but I hate it when other people touch my stuff. It doesn't mean anything to them but it does to me. It really bugged me that she wanted us to get rid of all my dad's tools and ditch everything in the workshop. I know I'm a procrastinator, but I have plans to build stuff. I guess part of the problem is that my father build the cabinets here, we put together the sheds together, we built his desk together, he built the shelves in the various rooms. I wouldn't have stuff he built to take with me (since it's all built-in) and I feel like I'd be leaving a part of him and our memories behind. I know it's just objects, but my memory sucks so they represent memories for me. At one point he had said he wanted this to be our forever home. Unfortunately, its hard to manage when I don't have support to keep things clean. It was great when he actually helped me with the fridge- but he was motivated by wanting to get food to put in it. The main motivator is if there's something in it for him. Even then, he doesn't always realize that cleaning up after himself would be a benefit to him. He keeps complaining about how messy the house is but he won't do anything about it. He also gripes about how small his room was and how he got "screwed" by getting the smallest room. Well, they hadn't planned on him living here forever & he did move out at one point (was unable to get a job or take care of himself so he came back) & Mom wanted to turn that in to her craft room. She'd been talking about how she wanted things to be when he moves out, but now my aunt is trying to get us to move out asap & it's giving me anxiety. I don't normally get anxious, but it was giving me arrhythmia when she kept pushing.

So, my mind is all over the place right now & I'm trying to focus & get myself together to be productive.

 

[Don Monfils]

I found a new use for my Milwaukee cordless leaf blower today...
Two times I went out to my job trailer to get some thing and there was cat in the trailer
My next trip I grabbed the leaf blower and gave him a blast...
I didn’t see him again the rest of the day

 

[Floorist]

Bought a lot of 95-5 hamburger for $3.50 a lb. We have about 50 lbs. now. It is so lean you have to add oil to fry it.

 

[highup]

I found a new use for my Milwaukee cordless leaf blower today...
Two times I went out to my job trailer to get some thing and there was cat in the trailer
My next trip I grabbed the leaf blower and gave him a blast...
I didn’t see him again the rest of the day

It would be cruel if you included the two steel plates.
This would relocate the cat to your neighbor's yard. ...or to a friends yard in another state.

 

[highup]

Bought a lot of 95-5 hamburger for $3.50 a lb. We have about 50 lbs. now. It is so lean you have to add oil to fry it.

If it's not greasy enough to swallow, I won't eat it.
My cousin gave me some from their ranch. We made burgers out of it..... BBQ burgers. It seemed so dry.
Did something next time that made me taste good. I think high heat, short cooking time and kept them slathered in Worcestershire sauce.
I think I overcooked them first time.

 

[zannej]

Took my friend to City Hall. Good news: City doesn't own it, they just were mistaken & forgot to check the records that taxes were paid-- taxes will be delayed & not due until late December now. Bad news: Even though my friend paid the taxes & his mom had all but abandoned the property, she still has her name on it & he's only listed as "care of" so she can still steal it out from under him. He thinks she was trying to put it up as collateral for someone else's bail *again*. She's done it before & he ended up having to pay the bail for her skeevy boyfriends in order to keep the house. They said the only way he could get the house now was if she donated it to him. We joked about getting her drunk or waiting until she's high & getting her to sign it over.

They had BBQ at a food truck outside Tractor Supply (I was grabbing hay with molasses for the cows). It smelled so good but they weren't done cooking by the time I left. Only one of the cows was around when I put the hay out. Not sure where the other one was.

Friend got a call from his grandfather that the insurance company had paid my friend for the grandfather's stay at his house & the grandfather wanted half of the $. My friend hung up & blocked his number, then called the insurance company to ask if some of the $ was supposed to go to the grandfather & they said "No". Said it was all to compensate my friend for taking care of the grandfather for those weeks. It's almost enough to cover the replacement of the bed, the carpet, and the carpet pad. I doubt the insurance will pay for the actual cost of replacing stuff though. I told my friend to hold off on getting an expensive mattress that she's going to outgrow.

We unsuccessfully tried to fix the water supply for the kitchen sink. It's a weird setup with 3/4" PVC pipe with a 3/4"slip to 1/2" male threaded PVC coupling. They didn't have brass fittings in that size & the sharkbite ones they sell online are not in stock locally & are more expensive than a new hose. Got the only 1/2" to 1/2" faucet supply line at the store & it didn't fit the coupling. It's too shallow & won't grab anything but the first thread on the coupling & then goes crooked. I think maybe it needs to be flipped around but it might be identical on both ends. Right now one end is tethered to the sprayer & I can't remove it (arms too short & I'm too fat too squeeze into the cabinet). Will see if friend can flip it around tomorrow. Worst case I can go to Lowes tomorrow & get the hose with larger ends & more threads.

I got a tool bag for some of my tools that were in a plastic bag at my friend's house. He's borrowing them for now but I wanted to get them all gathered up in one spot & make sure the bag couldn't rip or spill. I managed to fit most of them in there. Grabbed my drill bits while I was over there so I could use them at home.

Successfully installed a latch on my pantry door to keep raccoons & cats out. It's not pretty & doesn't match the house decor, but it works. Now I need to clean up the pantry, get rid of all the ruined stuff, and restock it. Also cleaned some counters & cooked for mom (microwave only). Still need to find and wash all of my pans & utensils. May need to buy new spatulas. But at least I accomplished something.

 

[highup]

Carpet One warehouse guy is on vacation. I'm filling In as needed. Mid afternoon I go there to look for 13 boxes of vinyl plank. Thought it was in stock goods, but found out after a 20 minute search it was behind other pallets and it was a custom order. Had to move 3 pallets out of the warehouse so I could get those out and put onto the customers truck.
Delivery guy showed up with 4 more pallets of stuff...... I stored those outside too to make space for them later in a way that they wouldn't interfere with me getting a roll of carpet out of the pile. I need to make five cuts for an installers job on Monday.
I need this roll.
The warehouse guy is a smart cookie and very organized. He knows the entire warehouse like the back of his hand.
He makes this job look easy.
Pray for me.

 

[Tom Picciani]

The roadster is done. Unfortunately it doesn’t run. A piece broke inside the chassis and it would destroy the car to get at it. But I think it’s a pretty nice display piece.

 

[Floorist]

It looks good.

 

[highup]

The roadster is done. Unfortunately it doesn’t run. A piece broke inside the chassis and it would destroy the car to get at it. But I think it’s a pretty nice display piece.

Darn, and I was going to send you a remote contol unit I don't use any more.
Google Image Result for http://www.stonkknots.co.uk/images/lightpull_barrel_hemp.jpg.
That's pretty neat Tom. Definitely a mantle price. You probably wouldn't want to handle it much anyway.

 

[Tom Picciani]

Darn, and I was going to send you a remote contol unit I don't use any more.
Google Image Result for http://www.stonkknots.co.uk/images/lightpull_barrel_hemp.jpg.
That's pretty neat Tom. Definitely a mantle price. You probably wouldn't want to handle it much anyway.

No, I was never a fan of playing with models even if they were meant for it. $40 and 3 weeks, too much into it to risk breaking it.

Going to look at some other brands of these models. Amazon has a few producing them.

 

[Tom Picciani]

Passed by Field of Screams today on way home. It’s a cornfield with people trying to scare you. Line of traffic 1/2 mile long and we’re a month away!

Ranked in top 10 horror amusement places in country.