A.S.S.

Al$0 $a!t $ubstitue.  From here on out, known as ASS. I purchased a box of six in December for my nephew for Christmas. Well, I was going to keep a couple. I ordered online from here. 

They replied in an e-mail stating it would take 4 - 6 weeks to deliver. Ah, well. Not in time for Christmas but no big deal. I kind of forgot in January. I sent an e-mail in February. Waited two weeks. I called them and left a voice message. No return call.

Two days later I called again. The lady looked up my order and said they would ship it next Friday. I waited two weeks. Nothing.

I called again and left a voice message. I will call every day if I have to. WTF?!

My daughter saw the doctor last week. She has hypertension. At 21 years old. Crap! I have always had low blood pressure or very good BP. I used salt periodically but in the past five years or so I have craved it so much. I buried the salt deep into the back of the cupboard. She never adds salt to anything. She does however, eat too many frozen entreés and pizzas. And fast food. She refuses to cook. (I buried the salt so I would stop).

Food tastes SO bland. The reading material the doctor (or rather - nurse practitioner) gave her said - no salt substitutes. She is okay with that, but I wouldn't mind the opportunity if I only HAD the chance to try it.

I will go to the store and get another substitute for myself - but good gawd! ASS is on my shit list.

Hey, and what about the new terminology:  "She got salty with me."  When did "salty" become the euphemism for cranky or bitchy or nasty?  LOL! 

I am about ready to get really salty with ASS. I will make it my goal for the year. To harass the hell out of this company until I get my product. I am rather certain it is a little too late to go to my credit card and have it removed. It was billed to me in December after all. I don't know what the time limit is. It is more the principle of the thing, now. You want salty? I'll give you salty.

So, there I was in the grocery store yesterday reading labels. Sodium, sodium, sodium. Picking the cereal with the lowest sodium. Surprising. Ketchup and mustard - not as bad as we thought. I have always purchased my tuna in water - and I can still rinse it before adding it.

My daughter loves tuna noodle casserole. It is the cheese that is going to cause problems. I could not find any low-sodium cheese. I will keep looking at other grocery stores and specialty stores. I will mix half and half so we don't have a totally tasteless casserole. We also love nachos. The three ingredients that she likes are the cheese, nacho chips and the beef. I always purchase 96% lean ground beef, but it is the taco mix that may have the sodium. The cheese will also - but I am not certain we can even eat the nachos with a low sodium baked nacho chip. We can try. Or limit ourselves.

Stopping the canned vegetables. I only buy peas and green beans canned. I know you can buy low sodium but - no thanks. I am thinking baked beans will be a thing of the past for us. I'll go with the frozen vegetables. Or fresh, of course. Produce is lousy this time of year. And the prices just keep going up, up, up. Iceberg (head) lettuce was $2.00 each. Good grief. Head lettuce isn't the only thing hit hard. All greens are affected because of the weather this year.

I used to love grocery shopping. Now it is UGH.

In the gutter

I was determined to get my gutter/spouting replaced this spring. I called, got an estimate and told them "Go." When the guy called me with the estimate I said "I forgot to tell you about the building in the back."  At least I think that is what I said. I may have said "patio".  He said "Yeah, that is included in the quote." I said "Make sure you angle the drain so that it drains on the other side of the patio because right now it angles towards the sidewalk and when it overflows I have to walk in a big puddle of water. He said "Sure thing."

Sigh. Great.

They came. They left. I was at work. I came home - the house looked great but the garage was not done. Rats. I waited two days in case they were coming back. Nothing. I called.

A receptionist said "He is in Florida. But I do see where he has a note about making certain it angles away from the sidewalk."  She said he would get in touch with me.

A few days later she called and wanted to know if I would be at home that day. I said I can be there at 12:30. He called at 12:10 - he was running early. I said I could not be there for another fifteen to 20 minutes. He said "Perfect."  Strange because that would put me at my original time of 12:30. Whatever.

I expected to hear him try to weasel out of this. I could feel it. It is what I am used to hearing.

Sure enough. When he came (at 1:00 making me late back to work) he said "You said back porch."  Never in my ten years of living here have I called my garage/patio a back porch. I have a back porch. Sheesh! We went back and forth a few times about what I said and finally he just said "I can give you a quote on that building, now."  I said okay.

He measured and said "$120.00".  I replied "Did  you include the gutter along the back of the garage?"  He said "You just said 'patio'".  Jesus H Christ Mister, how long have you been doing this job?

He saw the look on my face and quickly said "Well, it is the same length, so it will be double. And he scratched on his paper and said "$360.00, but since there was some confusion, I'll knock off  $60.00 to make it an even $300.00."   My mind immediately calculated 120 + 120 = 360? Since when?

I looked at him with that 'You are a real piece of work' look. I smiled (the one that does not reach my eyes) and quipped "I'll pass."  He said Okay. We did NOT shake hands and he left.

Seriously. First of all let's say he was correct and thought I meant the back porch. As a person who installs gutter/spouting on buildings, would he not have said when he called me with the quote "Ma'am. Did you also want a quote on the garage in the back?"  As a businessman - why would you not try to drum up  more business and at least offer to include that building? I mean 'come on!'.

Secondly, when he did measure the "patio" why did he just quote me the front of the garage? "Patio, smatio" - there is STILL a gutter along the back of my garage! He has been doing this for over 30 years! He just assumes I want one piece of gutter on my garage/patio after I got my entire house done?  Okay, okay. This time I probably did say "patio" but good grief!

Yesterday I get a phone call from the office. A guy (I don't know if it was the guy I spoke with or not) said he talked to Mr. (Company last name) and he said to tell you we can do that other building for $200.00.

I said " Okay, do it."  Done. BAM!

Let's get this little nightmare over with.

I can't deny that I smiled all day about this. The joke is probably on me, though. Folks I spoke to said that I paid way too much to have the house done. What do I know? Don't burst my bubble!

Getting pulled over

There was no doubt this little tyke was the hit of the party Saturday evening. I need to get a shot of him in his duds. His mother dressed him up in a little golfer outfit. The dinner was at a restaurant at a Golf Course. Huh. Not a one of us golf. One nephew used to. Eh...

We had a great time. We were loud. There were 17 of us and two children. There was plenty of drinking. The drivers did not imbibe or only drank a couple. Such as I. One beer and I was like - give me ice water from now, on. I did taste my daughter's drink. Grey goose and vodka. Uh, no thanks! Yech!

On the way home I was to drop sister 1954 off at a bar and my daughter was anxious to get back - she had plans to go out and meet friends. We were chatting. At one time I looked at my speedometer and thought, "Oh, I am such a granny driver."  I thought perhaps my daughter would say something eventually. I really have slowed down even more since hitting the deer in 2009. Everything I see alongside the road is a potential deer.

So, I was very surprised when I was the one pulled over. I saw his lights in my rear view mirror. I pulled over immediately and glanced at the tail lights of the car in front of me. My first thought was 'I wonder what the guy in front of me did.' My second thought was 'I wonder what is going on that he (the patrolman) has to rush lights flashing.'

I giggled and said 'He is after ME!"  Like I was some giggly girl in high school and just found out a boy liked me. Good gawd!

He said I was doing "65" in a "55" zone. I said "Sorry, we were probably chatting and I didn't realize."  I could find my drivers license. I found an old registration but could not find proof of insurance to save my life. He said given the state of my car he was certain that I had insurance and let me go with a written warning.

Both my sister and daughter said there was no way it was ME doing 65. The more I thought about it the more I realized that they were right. I am a granny driver. I don't even go the speed limit. My daughter said he must have "clipped" the guy in front of us. Things were not so funny, then. What if he had given me a ticket? What are they now $120. Ten dollars for every mile over the speed limit? $100? I would have been pissed.

I had not been passed. In fact, I recall somebody pulling out in front of me shortly before the straight stretch. Ah, well. I did NOT get a ticket, but it un-nerves me to think that I can get a ticket because they "clipped" someone else.

And for ONCE sister 1954 did not have a beer with her in the car. She manages to sneak one in her purse from the bar almost every time.

I dreamt that the same guy pulled me over again. I killed him - with a machete knife and I was trying to get rid of his head.  OMG! WTH?! WTF?!  How angry WAS I?

A new Grandma

Sister 1956 with her darling first grandchild.

My sister has waited a long time for a little girl. She always was ready to watch my daughter for me when she was little and now she has a baby girl of her own. She had her son in 1978 and he has become a father for the first time. To say she is ecstatic would be an  understatement. She deserves every nanosecond of this bliss.

More than 20 family members are gathering for dinner tomorrow night. (Not counting wee ones). Sadly the wee one pictured above will not be able to make it - she is also a "first" grandchild on the Mommy's side and has relatives coming in from out of state to meet her.

I gave the restaurant warning. I asked, but they are not going to open up the back dining room for us, so we will be placed out in the middle of the regular dining area. The poor people around us - because we are a loud group. I will take cake. Maybe balloons. We have 8 (or is it 9) birthdays in March. I need to charge the camera battery.

Makes me SO angry

This is a picture of some sort of decoration I had hanging from my porch or patio this past summer, or perhaps the summer before. I didn't check the date of the image.

Anyway, I get blood drawn this morning. The procedure where you can't eat or drink anything but water for 12 hours prior. And, I wake up at 4 a.m. I was awake at 3:30 but finally gave up and got out of bed at 4. So here I sit at the computer for over two hours. No coffee, nothing to eat. I am the type of person who cannot eat when they first get up (not many folks can). But within an hour to two hours I am hungry.

And, coffee. I really, really want my coffee. I love sipping my coffee reading all your blogs.

About the time I am supposed to go and get my shower I could really go back to sleep.

It makes me SO angry! And, of course - today is a long day. I have plans after work with the girls from the office to go out and eat. This is where I get giddy and goofy. From sleep deprivation. Some people get grouchy or quiet when they get tired. Not me. I am liked some over-wound toy on crack.

On a brighter note, the downstairs toilet is fixed. No more running water noise. The plumber told me a story (which made me realize partially why they might charge so much).  He said one time he got a call that a lady had water in her basement and could he swing by on his way home.

He got to the house and he said that lady had 3 feet of water in her basement. He said it covered the first three steps. Holy cow! He had turned my water off at the main, and I pointed across the basement to it and I said "You had to wade through three feet of water to turn it off?" He said Yes. I said "Weren't you afraid of getting electrocuted?"  He said 'Yeah, but luckily the electric had all shorted out by then.'

Aw, hell no! You couldn't get me to walk through water not knowing if I was going to get shocked or not. NO THANK YOU! He also mentioned that she had somebody finish her basement and for whatever reason they had covered up all the drains. And really? To work with toilets and sink/bathtub/shower drains. It is gross. Gross, gross, gross.

Well, my head is beginning to ache. My eyes are seeing spots and I am so sick of drinking water. I have to drink lots of water- it makes it so much easier for them to draw blood. Remember that if they have trouble getting blood from  you. Drink lots and lots of water the day before and the morning of the drawing. It really helps. Of course, I had to pee twice during the night which may be why I am up so early.

Random

I picked a random photo out of my stash today. This one was taken at a lake about twenty miles from my town.

I am still progressing in the home improvement area. I had new gutters and downspouts put on my house. They forgot the patio, though. When he quoted me - we spoke of the patio. He said that was included. I will call today and we will see. Sigh. I do not believe I got his name. Let's see if they renege. That is what I am used to and expect from places like this. I have little faith and hope.

I called the city back. They said "Yes, they are coming back to grind the tree stumps."  I called because I honestly could not remember if that was their responsibility or mine. If it was mine, I wanted to get it done.

Next, is the leaky bathroom toilet. This is the water valve that is so old and rusted I cannot turn it any longer. I can hear water running when I am in the upstairs bathroom and it is driving me insane. I hope to hear from the plumber today.

Then, the sidewalk. Once the stumps are ground down - I will get a new sidewalk or repair the current one.

Then what? Oh, yeah. Pull up all the carpet on both sides of the basement and in the downstairs bathroom and have some sort of realistic flooring put in because in a bathroom and basement there is going to be the chance of water. Always! Carpet down there is just silly.

Who knows? Maybe I won't stop there. Maybe I'll re-do the upstairs bathroom. I have been wanting to for a long time. We have a window in the bathroom - so no shower upstairs. We have a tub, of course. But - pink fixtures. Sink, tub and toilet are pink. I can work with that. But the lady who owned the house before me. She added even more pink. The walls are pink with rose bouquets on them. Arrgghh! So much pink! It nauseates me. I will offset the pink with color that complements the pink fixtures - not compete with them.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch

Another sister is enjoying her third grandchild.

Sweet baby girl

The latest edition to the family. Born about a week ago. My sister's first grandchild.

Procrastination

Procrastination can have its good side. I guess. It worked for me, this time.

I told all of you my washing machine broke, right? I was running a load of laundry and I turned to go upstairs and I heard "click" and the water stopped rushing into the basin. What? I thought. That was too soon! Years of using the machine and doing "full" loads I knew when the water should turn off. That was too soon.

I walked back over. I pushed, I pulled. Nothing. I checked the breaker box. Nope. Did not trip a breaker. Damn! I pulled all the clothes out and into the utility sink. I told my daughter to bail out the water and I went on into work that day.

Well, I was going through a lot. The sewer backup, etc. I watched a video on how to change a timer in the machine. I put off purchasing one. I was not real sure where to purchase it anyway. (You should know by now that I don't ask for help from brothers, etc - I try to do it myself, first. I will ask - it is just my last resort.) So a week went by.

Yesterday morning I went downstairs to take my shower. It takes a while for the water to warm up so I looked at the washing machine and I went through the steps of the video. Unplug the cord from the outlet. I looked at the outlet and I looked at that little red "reset" button.

Go on. Laugh. I did.

The Atlantic and Chilé

You know, I am not real certain where the Atlantic ocean becomes the Pacific ocean, but I did look up a map of Chilé. There is not a whole heck of a lot that touches the Atlantic ocean but what do I know?

It's my yard....

....and I can cry if I want to!  Why did they have to cut both of my trees down? Why?!  It is too late to say anything, now. What is done is done. My neighbor said if he had not been home he thinks they would have taken his huge oak tree, too. He confronted them and they only trimmed a few branches.

This pic made me laugh

A few weeks ago I was browsing images in Google and for some reason this picture came up in my search. I have no recollection of what I was searching for at the time. I liked this one and saved it. It makes me chuckle.

Schools are delayed/closed today due to heavy snow. I took the dogs out and it seems okay to travel now,  we received a very wet inch or two and the weather URL does not state that our area is going to get any more. Temps are above freezing so I think we can travel without the worry of ice on the roadways.

Sigh. So it is off to the showers for me.

Architecture

I have decided for my next job - I want to work here. I have no idea where "here" is. I just like the building. LOL!  There is a school that I go to and when I leave, I have to shoot out this little back alley and this day I decided to snag a picture of the building.  Found it. Superb Industries.

On the home front  - ha! My washing machine died last night. Ain't that the way? One thing after another? I had just watched a National Geographic documentary about Hurricane Sandy and all the flooding and mud mess those people had to deal with, so when my washing machine died, I said to myself "It could be worse."

The tree has been cut down. Four branches have been cut off from the other tree. They almost took the wrong tree. I told them it was the tree with the roots as big as a barrel forcing the sidewalk to push up like the roof of a house. I am hoping they come back to grind the stump. I can't recall if the city said they would do that or not. Seems to me like I would have mentioned it since that is the key to stop the roots from growing.

Discovered the reason for my lack of energy and headaches this past week-end. And the super migraine on Friday. Thank-you Mother Nature!

The bar back then

Maybe 2006? When  my niece lived with us and my daughter had friends over and they all congregated in the basement.  OMG! I just realized that somebody hung that Happy Birthday sign upside-down. LOL!

I sort of had a meltdown last week. I was tired and overwhelmed. I felt like things were moving too fast and I did not or could not deal with any more. I wanted all those guys out of my house. The noise, the smells, the stress was too much for me. I was wiped out all week-end. I planned to move stuff into totes and out and into the garage. To prepare for the next stage which is to pull up all carpet on both sides. I had water damage on the other side a couple of years back and I never did get it taken care of.

Nothing happened over the week-end. I was wiped out. The migraine monkey hit me hard on Friday. I had to take two Imitrex to get it out. I met friends Friday evening and I felt wonderful but hit a blinding snowstorm coming home. The meeting with my friends fell flat. They chose a restaurant that was so crowded and so dark. The waiter said they could not do anything with the lights because they are on an energy saving plan and they have no control over it. Everybody was tilting their menus towards the window to read them.

Most of my friends are struggling and either out of work or had to take a job that is way below what they were doing for the past 25 years. The company we had all worked at and met at folded. To hear them struggle and try is so depressing. We are all over 50, now. I got out in the mid 90's. They stayed. They were on unemployment for a while. Some received free schooling. Some did not qualify. I have no idea how that works.

I awoke Saturday morning with a smashing headache. Not a migraine but a huge pain in the back of my head. I swallowed three Advil every four hours to keep it at bay. I can work with a sore back and sore arms and sore legs. You just rest for a bit and the soreness fades and you can go again. Not so with a headache. Bending, lifting, hauling - you cannot do it with a headache. Any movement starts the pounding. Sigh.

Screw it. I guess there is no hurry. I am not going anywhere.

Bar none

The bar is gone. That is an orange/rust color paint on the floor (kind of looked like that carpet). They cut the carpet back to the furnace block because that was really all that was damaged. The rest of the carpet is damaged too - but that is because of my pets - not the drain.

The claims adjuster gave me the idea to paint the panelling instead of pulling it down. I have researched this and it looks like a great idea.

The flooring. I have not even begun to research that. All in good time and you know - you will be with me every step of the way.☺   (Smiley face = hold the Alt key down and press the number one on your keypad. Numlock must be on).   ☺   Wait - no it doesn't!   LOL!

After reading my post, I realized you could not even see the smiley faces. So I went back in and high-lighted just the smiley face and changed the TT (truetype) font to largest on the first one and large on the second one.