February 24, 2019 – Unexpected Power Outage

         A bad habit recently turned out to be a God send.   I like chocolate, but in the last dozen years, I can’t eat it after 10:00 a.m. in the morning unless I want to be wide awake until 4:00 a.m. that evening into the next morning.

         It puts a real damper on my style.  I screw up occasionally and that is what I did on Wednesday afternoon.  I had a Lindt – Lindor Milk Chocolate Truffle Bar. [Future blog will tell you about my temporary job at Lindor distribution center in New Jersey.]

         As I was on my luxurious last bite, I remembered  the chocolate induced wide-awake problem I have.

         So, I planned ahead, I pulled out more fabric to mark circles and cut yo yo circles until about 11:30 p.m.  We had a cold front or a warm front come through with heavy rain and high winds most of the evening, which was still raging on as I changed into my pajamas.

         Still not feeling as if I could actually sleep, I turned out the lights and crawled into bed due more to sore shoulders and tired eyes.  I lay in the darkness and the storm's high winds and heavy rain alarmed me.  I wondered if I would have a roof by morning listening to the howling winds.  Seconds later, I was greeted by “BEEP” followed by lower lever beeping that stopped in 60 seconds.

         Instantly I knew we were out of power as the first loud Beep was the computer shutting down for lack of electrical power and the second series of beeps was the smoke alarm giving it’s warning that it was going on battery power.

         I sat up in bed and confirmed the power outage as we have security utility lights in the neighborhood and they were all out.  Grabbing my trusty Cobalt Blue metal flashlight – which is more of a weapon  - at 14 inches long and about a pound in weight – easily usable as a Billy club – I snapped it on and looked out the front windows and confirmed there wasn’t a single illumination via electricity in the neighborhood.  I padded barefoot to the kitchen, pulled the emergency numbers card off the refrigerator and dialed Duke Power.

        

         In the past I am usually the only one who phones in an outage and at this hour, I doubted many of my neighbors would call it in as they might be at work [we have several night shift working neighbors]. The rest would be in bed due to having school age children and having to get up early to get them off to school.

         As usual, the customer service representative in the outage department was cheerful.  She kept me on the line long enough to find out if there was an outage and how large it was and with an estimated time of returning to full service.  She put my phone in the cue to receive auto phone updates as the repairs progressed. One thing I can say about my electrical provider – they are top shelf with customer service and forthcoming with when things will be fixed.   They also follow-up and make sure things are right.  The first estimate was 3:15 a.m. given to me by Duke Power.

         I pad back to bed – I shine the flashlight beam to the ceiling and it simply lights up the whole house as if the ceiling light is on.  Crawling back into a bed that is still warm I am concerned at the expected 32-degree low temperature and our lack of auxiliary heat.  I’ve candles, I’ve flash lights, extra batters, I’ve several 5-gallons jugs of water, drawn last fall, stashed in the bathroom closet for flushing toilets as we are on well water, not city water.

         BUT, now that I decided to going “green” for the environment as I am now using a ZERO water thing, I am down to the last half gallon of bottled water.  I’ve used up my stash of bottled water and have not bought anymore . . . now an unforeseen problem for us.  We have only half of a gallon of fresh water left for making instant coffee, brushing our teeth, and washing our hands until the electricity comes back on.

         I am laying in the dark thinking about the small amount of fresh water we have in the house. I have a cat and dog that require water as well.  Of course, due to the chocolate awake-ness situation, I lay there worrying and start to feel the cold creep in rather quickly. 

         A few hours later, I am still awake and hear the phone ring and I pad to the kitchen to answer it with my trusty flashlight aimed at the ceiling easily lighting my way. The phone line is crackling so bad I can make out Duke Power, make out lines down, but I can’t decipher the time of repairs to be expected.

         I pad back to bed and check the thermometer – we are already down to 68 degrees from 74 in a matter of a few hours.  The storm is still raging on.  Gosh, how can any lineman work in driving rain and dark like this - they simply can’t.

         I receive another phone call in the early dawn hours.  It’s still raining; I make my way to the kitchen phone and Duke power expects to have the problem solved by 10:15 a.m.  I wake the dog up and send him out to do his business so that I don’t have to get out of my warm bed in a few hours.  The temperature is down to 64 degrees in the house.

         I wipe the wet dog down and crawl back into some warmth still in my bed and this time I actually fall asleep as the chocolate awake-ness has worn off.

         The dog wakes me again, as he is awaken by the neighbors going off to day work.  I dig out the little battery lanterns and place them strategically in the kitchen and living room.

         Luckily we have a gas stove and I light the match as I turn the  gas burner on under a saucepan of precious water that I measured out by the cupful; four cups to make two cups of drip coffee. 

         I blow out the old-fashioned wooden match and watch the curl of the smoke spiral up slowly.  It’s been a long time since I’ve smelled a burnt match – sort of comforting in a way – we’ll have hot coffee at least.

         My husband is awake. I’ve brought cozy throws to toss on our respective easy chairs to take off the chill; we are down to 60 degrees in the house and it is still raining hard.  We cherish our one cup of hot coffee and pour out more of our precious fresh water for the cat and dog with their breakfast.  When the bottle is empty, my husband says,

         “Where have you moved the rest of your bottled water to?”

         “That is all we have, now that I’m on the Zero Water thing.”  I smile at him and shrug my shoulders.

         “We’ll have to go out and get several gallons . . . .” he replies.

         Duke power auto-call rings, I answer it, “ . . . power anticipated to be restored by 1:15 p.m.”  I feel like I am going to freeze to death by then.

Moral of the story:

I at least attempted to go GREEN –  now with the exception of enough bottled water for drinking during power outages.

        

        

        

        

February 23, 2019 – Times flies by when it rains

         I have no idea how many days it has rained since September, but I would say it is close to 80% and I glance out in the large fields as I travel around the county running errands and shopping looking for half built Arks. Yesterday’s newspaper said we received 4.5 inches of rain in the last week.

         Of course with all this rain I am behind schedule on my updating a few rooms, but then, when you are retired – do you really have a dead line that can’t be extended?

         I prefer to work when I have natural light – sunshine streaming in.  I want to take items out to the shed that don’t seem to have a home at the moment in this house that I need to re-think – keep, toss, or donate.  I’m not ready to think that hard and want to just stack them up and decide on their fate on a warm summer day with the sun streaming into the shed, with the car trunk open waiting for items to be tossed in with abandon. 

         BUT, it is so wet and muddy, it is slippery walking to and from the shed and I am sick of cleaning up the muddy floors time and again.

         But, I can list the successes I’ve had in the last 60 rainy days:

         I got my butter colored paint on the walls, the new floor in the formal living room and hall, the fresh new baseboards installed, painted and caulked, my bookcases put together and put in place and re-stocked with books. When the sun shines – that rooms just “smiles” at me with brightness.

         On the list of things to do this year was to swap two vehicles and get a newer truck.  Mission accomplished; now I have an automatic truck that I can drive instead of waiting around for my husband to drive the old standard truck. 

        

         I haven’t been able to drive a standard for the last 15 or so years and it has put a damper on my “go get something” that required the truck.  Now, even when my husband is in the middle of mowing the lawn and I think I need mulch or bricks or something ‘right now’ . . . I can hop in the truck and get it myself.

         I am much more impatient than I used to be these days – I think that comes with retirement.  But, then, I’ve never been the hurry-up-and-wait type person.

         Sitting in traffic yesterday on my way to turning in a vehicle plate, I happened to notice a sale announced on a community sign.  I rarely look at that sign, but the word COZY simply jumped out at me from eight cars stopped at the light in front of me. Where is all this traffic coming from in the pouring rain I wonder, and I notice Cozy winter clearance sale, Bamboo Sheets, 181 Duke Street.

         I have no clue where 181 Duke Street is, yet it does sound familiar.  I didn’t want to back track to my house for a map and then I started to think, as in think-outside-the-box.  Maybe if I ask someone at the tag place, she would pull her smart phone out of her back pocket and look brilliant.

         DAH! I now have a smart phone and I have a map application and it worked perfect down at Nag’s Head, why not use it here and be brilliant all by myself?  TA DAH – that was simple . . . key in the address and up pops a map with a red balloon and it shows me the landmarks. The place is just 9/10th of a mile from here - that is doable.

         Yes, Smart Phones are Smart and it makes the users life easier.  I no longer think they are a waste of money, I’ve been won over – only took a year or so.

         After returning the license plate, then returning a wood stain that was the wrong the shade and replacing it with another shade at Lowe’s, I stopped for one bag of groceries.  Next, I slipped into the discount store to pick up a couple gallons of water for future power outages [future blog about that].  Then, I turned my attention to finding my way to 181 Duke Street not even knowing what kind of store or outlet it was other than it had Bamboo Sheets and I was in the market for new bed sheets and towels.

         By the amount of vehicles jockeying into the parking lot and the many women trooping into the building, it gave me the impression – this was an actual sale, the type of SALE that's advertised in capital letters.

         Towels, sheets, pillows, mattress covers, comforters, blankets, a sundry of items that an old-fashioned “white sale” at a large department store would display. I was delighted shopping in a rough factory building with poor lighting and little heat. $5 for a set of 200-count Full sheets? $20 for a set of Bamboo Sheets.  Gel bed pillows for $8.

         Rarely do I have shopping prowess like this so I pulled out my Smart phone again and advised my friend, the one who is the shopping-sleuth bargain hunter of all time, of my find and she advised me that the towels were wonderful as she had been there at a previous sale.

         That was all I needed . . . confirmation that the towels would be wonderful.  I filled up my shopping cart and checked out.  WOW – major savings – and I found hotel quality FLAT sheets that I can now TUCK in instead of breaking my fingernails with those too-tight fitted bottom sheets.

         Best part, I didn’t need a coupon and I didn’t have to drive out of the county.  That was my type of shopping – saving money and saving time.

I hope your rainy days have been as productive!

February 18, 2019 - The purloined wheelbarrow

        I sniff the air as I step out of my mansard-roofed home at the head of the Somerset Heights subdivision that borders against the best-known Botanical garden in the county. It is a fine morning after a long, sleepless night, and I proceed with my daily constitutional walk circling the posh subdivision.

        My walk almost complete, I notice my next-door neighbor, a slender blonde socialite carrying out trash.  How convenient of her to be hauling last night’s dinner party trash to the curb just as I am passing by her home.

        “Company coming?” I quip.

        “No company has departed,” she answers glancing up as she unloads the liquor bottles from a tablecloth bundle into a cardboard box at the curb.

        “Departed you say.  Are you just neatening up or are you wiping away all traces of a murder?”

        “The neighbor’s warned me about you saying you read too many murder mysteries.”

        “Did they?” I smile at her as I poke the box with my walking stick.

        “They say you have us all under constant surveillance.”

        “It is true, I must admit.  I watch, and I watch, and I watch, but mostly I am disappointed.”  She arrogantly tosses back her hair to look at me.

        “You old bat—”

        “Until last night.”

        “Excuse me?”

        “Oh, still playing the fine lady with your high society manners.”

        She shakes the tablecloth free of cigarette butts onto the pavement and starts to fold it. 

        “I counted twelve guests going into your home last night, yet only eleven guests coming out.”

        “Get lost you old bag.” She turns away, tucking the cloth under her arm.

        “I was disappointed until I recognized an intermittent squeaking around 3:30 this morning – then I was most delighted that my vigilance paid off after all these years.” 

        I couldn’t help but press a knowing smile on my face and watch her shoulders tighten.  She abruptly turns to speak to me, then decides against it, and moves quickly toward her front door. I call loudly to her,

        “If you’d returned my wheelbarrow, I might not have given it a second thought, your twelve guests arriving but only eleven leaving.  It didn’t take me long to find it at the far end of the gardens.”

        She glances back to stare at me as she walks slowly backwards up her front walk.

        “What are you accusing me of?”

        “I’m not sure how you will ever forget that squeaking wheel that pierced the darkness last night during, shall I call it a nocturnal escapade.”

        The blonde recoils with a gasp at the swarm of arriving police cars. 

        “You purloined my wheel barrow to move the body from your back patio to the Botanical Gardens.  Your biggest mistake was not having the decency of returning it to my potting shed.”

        “We found the body, just like you said we would.”

        “That’s her, officer,” I waved my walking cane at her as his men advanced.

       

NOTE:

This is a little essay after a “dialog” training at my monthly writer’s class. I was given the prompt “neighbor”.

If you own a squeaky wheelbarrow – you know it’s distinct sound on a hot summer night.

Hope you enjoyed.

February 7, 2019 – Bumped into something interesting.

         I was browsing the internet looking for self-luxury ideas.  I like the idea of pampering myself and I was wondering if I might be missing some simple, inexpensive pampering idea that I could easily incorporate into my life.

         You know the idea – living large without spending much.

         Get your car detailed.

         Buy new insoles for your shoes.

         Upgrade your showerhead.

         Switch to quality toilet paper.

         Learn to cook something delicious at home.

         Learn to mix your favorite cocktail at home.

         Upgrade to quality in your bedsheets and bath towels.

         Buy beautiful soaps.

         Adorn your home with fresh flowers.

         Simple things that won’t cost you a fortune.

         On my prowl to see what things I can do to give myself a boost in the LUXURY department on a skinny budget I came up on Tonya Leigh’s website entitled “LA MAISON of French kiss life.  Where Women Live with Elegance, Style & Joie de Vivre.”

         If you subscribe to her you will get weekly inspiration on how to French Kiss Life!

         Once you sign up you will receive The French Kiss Life Manifesto.

         I think the manifesto alone is worth signing up for.

         It is a great pep-talk of items to do daily or incorporate in your life to improve it.  Who doesn’t want to improve their life?

         Tonya also suggests you ask your dearest friends to join.  That is nice, the more the merrier.

         https://tonyaleigh.com/

         Check it out and see if her subtle inspiration is to your liking, or, if you are already being “good to yourself”. 

February 6, 2019 – What is the point of having nice things if you are afraid to use them?

         The theory currently flaunted by the Infinity Luxury Car commercial got me to thinking about the concept of quality and luxury in the context of “Less is more” and “Less is better” as long as the LESS is LUXURY.

         Below are links to the Infinity commercials in case you missed it.

         To recap if you haven’t been paying close attention to the voice over in the commercial:

         “The Rules of Luxury:

         Look, but don’t touch.

         Touch, but don’t use.

         Use, but don’t enjoy.

         Enjoy, but don’t show it.

         If you are going to follow one rule, make sure it’s this one - Luxury should be lived in.”

         It is a new year – 2019 – Shouldn’t you enjoy the luxuries you have accumulated. What are you saving them for?

         Don’t say:  “When I get a life,” because you’ve already got a life.  Life moves on even when you are overworked and your job sucks the lust of life out of you, or if you are not the right dress size [in your mind] or when you don’t have enough money [when will you have enough?] or when __X__ [insert any excuse you come up with.]

         The Infinity commercial talked to me [and possibly to you] and gave me permission to enjoy all the small and big luxuries of life – now – not later – now. 

        

         I am worth it – aren’t I?  I got this far. It is time to take some of the sweet before it becomes bittersweet.

        

Luxury should be lived in.  Take it to heart, put it in action today.

         Touch those delicate dishes.

         Use that expensive crystal for your everyday wine.

  

         Enjoy your cashmere sweater – no need to save it for best – aren’t you worth wearing your best today, and every day?

         Don’t save anything new – wear it right away.  If it is ruined, you can buy another that you might like even better.

         Have you got something tucked back in the closet you are saving for some special occasion?  Well, don’t save it, tear the tag off today and wear it now.  Make every day a special occasion.

Enjoy the luxuries of life now, because life does have an expiration date.

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/d8ay/infiniti-winter-sales-event-laws-of-luxury-t1

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/d0N7/infiniti-winter-sales-event-rules-of-luxury-t2

February 5, 2019 – I am back – computer reconnected

         The living room that once was my office is back to a residential living room.  It is my writing and reading nook now.

         I’ve the computer in one corner – and I must say the cables and plugs make for a spaghetti junction.   I’ve a few things not hooked up yet - like the speakers and the printer – but I can at least get on line and check my emails and blog.

         One picture should do you – you’ll get the idea of the floor color and the wall color and the last minute things I am working on – a new shelf.  I’ve a partial wall between the dining room and this living room that has needed a little curio shelf up at the top for years and I am working on that now and tomorrow morning I will finish the transom doorway bridges between the different flooring.

         I am waiting on new bookcases and a loveseat that I have ordered, and then it will be just about finished.  When the bookcases arrive, I will decide where to re-hang all the pictures.  Different wall scape – so I will have to study it for a bit.

         I love the brightness of it.  I imagine my cat and I will curl up on the loveseat and read together often.

         It’s good to be back . . . I will do to some serious writing for you in the near future.  It's fun to have a brand new room!

February 1, 2019 – I will be going “dark” for a few days

         Next up is moving the computer to another room so that I can do the flooring – which means – nothing in the room in order to accomplish that project.   So, I’ll be off line for a couple of days.

         Yesterday, I painted the big wall – half of it I painted from the scaffold.  I will honestly admit my knees were a bit wobbly by the end of the high wall painting.

         The scaffolding saved me moving a tall ladder every two and one half feet of wall for about 20 linear feet of wall. It also saved the stair stepping up and down a tall ladder countless times.

         I must admit, standing on the scaffolding was a bit scary.  I imagine if one did it often enough they would get used to it.  I have two more rooms that have this high center peak, so I suppose I will get used to it in the future.

         Today I spent most of the day cutting and fitting the new baseboard that I will put in place after the floor is put down.

         All of this is sort of fun – for a woman to do.  It is something that is not in our usual job descriptions, like baking a pie or making a pot roast. But, I was brought up with two older brothers and I learned the difference between a flat head and a Phillip’s screwdriver when I was about eight years old.

         I have tackled a lot of minor home repairs and do-it-yourself projects over the years.  Of course, painting was the first one I tackled and now I find that not that many women I know paint.  Usually, they hire someone to do it for them.  I’m too cheap or maybe you prefer the phrase frugal.  Why should I pay someone to do something that I can do well? 

         During one of our corporate moves, we ended up in an old two-story rental house in the historic section of Rutherfordton, North Carolina.  We had a nice landlord. We were between houses and we affectionately called the place, “The Big House”.  It made the new landlord smile as we could see the brand new county jail from the kitchen window.  So, our calling it The Big House had a double meaning and he got the inside joke.  He had eyes that twinkled when he was amused.  He was the best landlord we ever had.

         Back then, I didn’t have a single problem finding the pale yellow that I repainted the kitchen in that big old house.

         The landlord was a good sport.  I said, “I want to paint.”

         “What color?”

         “Yellow in the kitchen, polo green in the small bathroom, white in the upstairs bath, French blue in the living room and taupe in the dining room.”

         “Sure, at your cost,” he said with a big smile – wondering if I would actually be that ambitious.  [Didn’t I surprise him!]

         The place hadn’t seen paint in at least two decades and the plaster walls were riddled with cracks.

         I called my Dad and asked him how to fix the cracks in the plaster. 

         When I told him what I wanted to do Dad said,

         “Daughter, you need a really good ladder – has to be fiberglass . . . .”  I’ll send you a check for a quality ladder – don’t start fixing the cracks or painting until you get that ladder.”

         “Yes, Dad.” 

         Over the next several weeks Dad and I had many discussions on how to fix cracks and what type of paint and many other “how to fix” things.

         Back then we had one of those DVR cameras and I took a before video and an after video fixing up that old house. Mom and Dad got a big kick out of it that Christmas when I sent it up to them.

         Many friends said to us,

         “It’s a rental – why are you wasting your time?”

         “Because we have to camp here between selling one house and buying another and this place is hideous.”

         The only redeeming quality of that big old house was the landlord  allowed our cat and dog - and it had an extra bedroom to use as a storage unit so we didn’t have to “unpack” everything from the attic or basement from our previous house.

         That paint made the place “livable” and it was a smart move, as we had to camp out much longer than we expected between one house and the next.

         I remember I did all that under $250 – in fact, I recollect the figure as $238 – but that was then and the cost of paint has drastically changed since then.

         Just the other day when I came in with gallons of paint, my husband asked,

         “What did that cost you?”

         “You honestly don’t want to know.”