Category Archives: Life

Well, That Was Easier Than I Expected

Y’all know I’m a cat lady. Kenn and I have always had a mixture of both indoor and outdoor cats. There were always a lot of un-neutered feral cats in our old neighborhood. Since we always had food out for any critter (cats, dogs, possums, whatever) that needed it, it wasn’t unusual for mama cats to bring their kittens to us to show them a food source. Over the years we socialized and spayed/neutered countless mamas and kittens. Any that wanted to make their home with us were welcome, but they had to remain outside with occasional forays inside for some.

When we moved to The Cabin several years ago, we brought three outdoor cats with us: Nellie, Marvin, and Roscoe. We “inherited” an additional one since Stumpie was already hanging around when we moved in. However, being an outdoor cat comes with any number of hazards. We lost Roscoe to a systemic infection due to an injury; he was so aloof, we didn’t even know there was a problem until it was too late. We lost both Stumpie and Marvin last summer which left Nellie as our only official outdoor cat. Over the past few months, all of the extra cats that had started hanging around have moved on with the exception of Ghost, who is getting a little braver. However, having Nellie outdoors by herself has been killing me. Girlfriend is now thirteen years old and I couldn’t help but feel that she was a little lonely without Stumpie and Marvin.

Outdoor Nellie

Our previous attempts to move Nellie indoors hadn’t gone well, so I was a little leery of trying again even though I knew the move was in her best interest. However, things came to a head last Saturday. I was petting Nellie when I noticed an issue with with her right eye; it was cloudy and slightly enlarged. A closer inspection revealed damage to the cornea so, moving her inside became paramount. After a brief discussion, Kenn positioned one of our larger pet carriers under the carport so it would be there when an opportunity presented itself. I went out and spent fifteen minutes or so petting Nellie and then picked her up. She was never thrilled about being held, but much to my surprise, she allowed it. Even more surprising, I was able to walk her over to the carrier, place her inside, and shut the door without her freaking out. As far as I am concerned, it was a miracle!

Indoor Nellie

Nellie is now sharing my office with Molly, who is both my mewse and another senior citizen. (Molly is fifteen.) Things were a little tense the first couple of days, but are going better now. Nellie went to the vet on Monday and is now receiving an antibiotic ointment on her eye twice a day. We go back to the vet next Monday to find out how we proceed. More antibiotics? Surgery? Either way, she is now indoors and safe from marauding dogs, cars, etc.

On another note, are you familiar with the Nat Geo Wild show Critter Fixers: Country Vets? Those are our vets! Dr. Hodges and Dr. Ferguson are both great, as are the other vets and techs on their team. I guess using their veterinary services is one of my brief brushes with fame. Tell me about your brushes with fame!

I Missed the Memo

Okay, y’all. What the fox is going on with gas station etiquette? Apparently a memo went out seven or eight months ago – I can’t be more specific about the time frame since I didn’t get a copy – and states that it is now socially acceptable to leave your vehicle unattended at the gas pumps while you wander inside the associated store for a shopping spree or meal. As what seems to be the lone dissenting voice crying in the wilderness, I beg you, for the love of all that’s polite… please don’t do this!

After months of frustration with getting trapped at pumps, an eye-opening conversation with our son and daughter-in-law may have shed some light on the thinking behind this “trend.” We were at dinner with the kids and venting our frustration at, once again, getting trapped behind a vehicle. The kids glanced at each other and then admitted “We do that too.” They then hurried to add, “But, only if other pumps are available.” I have to admit, I temporarily lost my power of speech, which was probably a good thing – it meant I couldn’t yell, LOL. Once I was able to form words, I explained that it’s not a matter of if any other pumps are available, it’s whether anyone can get to those pumps around you, and more importantly, can anyone behind you get out?

Image from depositphotos.com

Winding your way between vehicles “abandoned” at random gas pumps may be easy when you drive a small car; when you drive a Toyota Tundra, not so much. When said Tundra is pulling a travel trailer, even less so. Those of us driving RVs or towing travel trailers don’t have the luxury of backing up from a pump at a busy travel center, at least not without risking serious problems and possible (probable) accidents.

The worst incident was at a small travel center (I think it was a Pilot) the morning of the last leg of our trip home on our 2023 road trip. We pulled up to a pump, and there was a car at the pump ahead of us. We didn’t immediately notice that no one was pumping gas, and when we did, we just assumed they had run inside to get a receipt or something. After a few minutes, two teenagers came out of the convenience store and climbed into the back seat. Grandma then got out of the passenger seat and headed inside. Now, it takes a few minutes to fill up a thirty-eight gallon gas tank, but even after that amount of time, no driver appeared. I got out and took a picture of the license plate, intending to go inside and have the driver paged. While I was doing that, Kenn handled it with a phone call. In a few minutes, an annoyed lady walked by carrying a bag and drink from the fast food store inside the store. She seemed to be embarrassed about having been paged, but I felt no sympathy; at this point, we had been finished and unable to leave for somewhere between ten and fifteen minutes. Did Embarrassed Woman move into one of the six or more parking spaces easily available from her location? She did not. Kenn went and knocked on her window and asked her to please move as we would like to leave and had been trapped behind her car for some time. What was she doing? SHE WAS EATING HER SANDWICH. WHILE STILL SITTING AT THE 🤬 PUMP! She got huffy, but she moved.

We had a similar incident a few days ago at a small Love’s travel center. We pulled in behind a car, which I initially thought was empty, but then saw someone in the driver’s seat. We filled up and were ready to leave only to be unable to do so. Why? Rude Dude was just sitting there scrolling on his phone while there were several easily available parking spaces in front of him. Fortunately, other vehicles left the pumps next to us so we were able to do some jockeying and get around him – without hitting him with our travel trailer – but, geez. Just move your car, people!

Even though I’ve only highlighted a couple of incidents we’ve had several over the last few months. Maybe I’m too Southern for my own good, but I can’t figure out why so many (including my kids, apparently) suddenly think this behavior is okay.

Have you gotten trapped at a gas pump?

What Did You Do That For?

I’m hopping into my time machine for this week’s post. All of the trials and tribulations poor Suzassippi has encountered during the renovations of her home (especially her recent painting perils) brought this memory to mind.

Many years ago, we decided to paint the dining room at our last house. We had even gone so far as to buy a powered paint roller which was actually kind of neat. It consisted of a bucket into which to pour the paint which was then pumped through a tube and into the roller so that you could paint continuously without constantly needing to stop and reload the roller. It also had a handy shoulder strap for easy carrying. The whole contraption worked great… until it didn’t.

Image from depositphotos.com

Using the power roller was a one person job so I was in the dining room merrily painting away while Kenn was somewhere else. Meanwhile, I was blissfully unaware that the vibration from the pumping process was slowly loosening the seal. (Duhn, duhn, duhn.) I learned what was happening only when the bucket plunged to the floor with no warning. The impact caused a lovely spray of light blue paint to arc out of the bucket, across the dining room, into the living room, and onto the couch. I was still standing there staring in stunned disbelief when my loving husband walked into the room, surveyed the scene, and asked, in all seriousness, “What did you do that for?” Y’all, I love my husband, but he was lucky I didn’t throw the remainder of the paint on him at that point. Probably the only thing that saved him was the thought of having an even bigger mess to clean up. (Painting is also now a project that I do alone, LOL.)

What are some of your home improvement mishaps? And, what did you do that for?😂

Finally!

Kenn and I love our home, which we have named The Cabin. We’ve lived here for six and a half years and sometimes I still can’t believe it’s ours. While we will probably never own a cabin in the mountains (a dream of mine), our house is the next best thing; the only thing missing are the mountains. Even though we may don’t have mountains, we do have four acres of mostly wooded property and the north Georgia mountains are just a few hours away.

Waiting for siding for the chimney

As much as we love The Cabin, like all homes, it comes with it’s share of not-so-fun stuff. Y’all know what I’m talking about – the unexpected expenses that can hit without warning. Last year we had several of those. One of the most unexpected was having to replace the siding on our chimney. The Cabin, including the chimney, has wood siding. Last summer we went through a couple of extremely rainy periods. During one of those I saw something I couldn’t identify on the deck and went out to see what it was. “It” was a soggy piece of siding and insulation that had fallen off the chimney. Once things dried out a little, Kenn got out to see how far the damage extended. The answer was: pretty much all the way up the chimney. We are experienced renovators, but this was far beyond our capabilities. Fortunately, one of our youngest son’s friends works in his father’s construction business so we contacted him for recommendations. (We’ve know this guy forever. We watched him grow up and he was one of the herd of boys we frequently had at our house on weekends.) Bryce came out on his free time, removed the old siding, reinforced a couple of areas, re-framed everything, and dried it in. He finished in mid-August 2023.

Then began the search for siding. We had no idea getting siding was going to be such an arduous process. Bryce recommended the company that does siding for his dad, but we just couldn’t get things coordinated with the owner. We then had to put the process on hold while we were on our road trip. Once we got back, we (or rather, Kenn) took a deep breath, and began the process of calling contractors and getting quotes. Once again, this was much harder than it should have been. Some people came to the house, took measurements, and never gave us quotes. One would only do unfinished wood siding; we would have had to pay yet someone else to stain it. No thanks. My “favorite” was the day we had two different contractors coming out a couple of hours apart. The first one ran a little late and was still here when the second contractor showed up early. The second guy completely lost his shizz because someone else was here. He went on a rant and refused to even give us a quote because we were obviously “only looking for the lowest price and that would not be him.” I’m assuming he charges more for his mind-reading capabilites since he had no idea what we were actually looking for. However, I can promise him that he will never get any business from us and I will make sure to tell others looking for recommendations how unprofessional he was.

It took until November before we finally found a good, responsive contractor. They gave us a quote and multiple siding options to choose from. We ran into a few delays. The first siding we chose had been discontinued. The second option was available but there were some supply chain issues (some weather related) so the materials didn’t come in until last week. As promised, they put us on their schedule as soon as the materials came in. There were a couple of small glitches that got smoothed over quickly and most importantly, WE NOW HAVE SIDING ON THE CHIMNEY! Here’s hoping this is the last repair we will need to make for a while.

Six months later, we have siding!

What are your favorite – and least favorite – parts of home ownership?

Croc Around The Clock

A lot of campers (people who camp, not the equipment used to camp) have a dedicated pair of “shower shoes.” Shower shoes are the ones you wear to and from the bath house; they’re easy to slip on and off and dry quickly if they get wet. Heck, if you don’t want to stand on a possibly sketchy shared shower floor, you can even wear your shower shoes while you shower.

I have been using a pair of flip flops as my shower shoes for several years. They’re… adequate. Honestly, I don’t like flip flops. Never have. I hate the thong between my toes and if the path between the camp site and the bath house isn’t paved, flip flops live up to their name by flipping dirt and debris onto my clean feet. Ugh. I tried using a pair of hiking sandals but those suckers take forever to dry when they get wet. However, I had an epiphany during our road trip last fall. Crocs! Crocs would make the perfect shower shoes. (Many thanks to the unknown person whose Crocs were peeking out of their shower stall at the Vernal, Utah KOA.)

I have never owned Crocs. Let’s face it, they aren’t exactly things of beauty, but they get rave reviews from a lot of people – especially medical professionals. I’m hardly a clothes/shoe snob, so Crocs it is. I also knew the perfect pair to buy. Last year, I got an excited text from my daughter-in-law: “Did you know that they’re making Lisa Frank Crocs?” I did not, but, they are adorable (as are all things Lisa Frank) and I surprised my daughter-in-law with a pair for her birthday. Now, I had the perfect excuse to get a pair of my own!

Ta da!

My Crocs arrived in late October and have been languishing in my closet ever since. (I know, I know. I need to go ahead and put them in the camper so I’ll have them for our next trip.) However, since they are still easily accessible, I’ve been getting some use out of them while I’m recovering from my sprained ankle; they provide arch support and are easy to slide off and on, therefore not hurting my poor foot. I wore them to the doctor’s office last week when I went in for x-rays and all of the nurses loved them! I’m looking forward to adding a splash of happy to our travels with these shoes.

So, Crocs. Yes or no?

Brace Yourself

Last night, as we got ready for bed Kenn asked, “Is this what we’ve come to? Mouthpieces and braces?” The answer it seems is yes. Yes, we have. Kenn has been wearing a mouthpiece for his mild sleep apnea for several years. (A mouthpiece works better for him than a CPAP.) The braces are a new addition.

A couple of months ago, Kenn began complaining about pain in his right thumb. He has a touch of arthritis in that thumb but the pain level was much higher than usual. On cold days, he would come in from work and sit next to the wood burning stove with a heating pad on his hand. For an early Christmas gift, I gave him a hand brace that can be heated or cooled and it seemed to help. (Such a romantic gift, right?😂) A trip to the doctor and a steroid pack also helped for a time. The pain started returning a couple of weeks ago and last week, Kenn announced that he felt what appeared to be a cyst at the base of his thumb. Another trip to our general practitioner resulted in x-rays and a referral to an orthopedist since the issue was with the soft tissues of his thumb. The orthopedist diagnosed Kenn with a trigger finger. (Or, maybe in this case, a trigger thumb?) We are familiar with trigger fingers since Kenn had surgery to correct another trigger finger many years ago. Fortunately, no surgery for his thumb at this time. Instead, the doctor prescribed a brace for him to sleep in that will hopefully cause an improvement over the next few weeks.

Image from Amazon.com

Also, a big shout out to the orthopedist’s office. They told Kenn that since he hasn’t met his deductible this year, getting the brace through them would cost over $200 but that he could order the exact same brace from Amazon for roughly $30. The brace arrived yesterday and he slept in it for the first time last night. Here’s hoping that it will fix the problem with no surgery necessary.

My brace is also a new addition. Saturday evening I curled up in the recliner to read and watch Kenn play video games, like I usually do. He shut down and headed upstairs to shower while I read a bit longer. When I decided to go upstairs, I got up to turn off the lights as one does. However, I failed to realize that my left foot had fallen asleep. With my first step, my left ankle rolled and I crashed to the floor. For a moment, the pain was overwhelming and I wondered if I was going to faint. Once the light-headedness faded, I retrieved my miraculously unbroken tea mug, managed to get to my feet, turn off the lights and climb the stairs to our bedroom. By this point I was pretty sure nothing was broken (in spite of the crinkling/cracking noises I heard when my ankle rolled) but my foot was already swollen. When Kenn finished his shower he said, “I thought I heard a crash. Are you okay?” The answer was a resounding “No!” followed by multiple assurances that I did not need to go to the emergency room.

I spent most of Sunday in the recliner with my foot elevated with ice packs balanced on it. We seem to have an assortment of elastic bandages but most weren’t giving me the relief I needed. When Kenn went out to pick up a few groceries he stopped by CVS and picked up an ankle brace for me.

Image from CVS.com

This brace has worked wonderfully. It stabilizes my ankle, provides compression, and supports my arch. As a precaution, I saw our general practitioner this morning. Per the x-rays, there are no breaks; I just have a nasty sprain. (My poor ankle. My left ankle is already weak from a couple of sprains as a kid and now I’ve damaged it again.) Now to decide if I’m going to go in to work tomorrow or wait until Thursday.🤔On that note, it’s time for me to go take more ibuprofen, elevate my foot, and apply an ice pack.

So, who wants to sing Soft Kitty to us?

A Promise to an Unknown Neighbor

Look at me posting on a Monday! Actually, look at me posting at all, LOL. I’ve been posting on Thursdays but that hasn’t been working for me recently so I’m switching to Mondays instead.

Several weeks ago Kenn came home and announced that he had a surprise for me. He then handed me a beautiful stack of colorful bowls. “I know you’ve always wanted some colorful mixing bowls and I found these at an estate sale.” This man loves estate and yard sales and I love that he knows me so well. I have wanted colorful bowls for years. I have an eminently practical, totally boring, set of stainless steel bowls that I’ve had forever. I have a newer set of clear bowls with colorful lids that are closer to what I’ve always but still not quite there. My new-to-me bowls fit the bill perfectly.

My new bowls

The bowls weren’t in a box but they had the original corrugated cardboard dividers and looked like they had never been used. This made me sad and of course I had to wonder why not. Were they a gift that was appreciated but unneeded? Did they get stuck in the back of a cabinet and forgotten about? (Hey, it happens. Side-eyes the Christmas goblets in my kitchen cabinet.) Or, maybe they were wanted and loved but too heavy for an elderly woman to use. (The estate sale was held at the home of an elderly woman a couple of streets away.)

So, dear unknown neighbor, in honor of you, I will love and use these bowls the way you were unable to. The colors make me smile and I think of you (and how heavy they are, LOL) each time I pull them out of the cabinet.

What do you do with unwanted gifts? Hide them? Regift them? Donate them?

Calendar Girl

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. Why bother when I’ll just break them, probably before the end of the month? However, there is one thing I love about a new year: calendars! Yes, I am a calendar girl. No, not the Neil Sedaka variety, just a girl who really, really loves calendars.

Image from depositphotos.com

Prior to retirement, I always had three calendars at my desk, even when I was in a cubicle. I had a wall calendar, a small Daytimer, and a page-a-day calendar. My wall calendar varied from year to year, sometimes it was video game themed, other times it was inspirational quotes or snarky toys. My page-a-day calendar was always a Christmas gift From Kenn; he knows me well so I don’t remember ever not liking his choice.

Now that I’m retired, I’m down to two calendars: a wall calendar in the bedroom which is where family birthdays and anniversaries are listed, and a second calendar that gets posted on the fridge monthly and lists appointments for both humans and felines. I’ve developed a definite fondness for the Note Nook calendars by Lang; these are the calendars I use for the fridge. Not only do I love the colorful scenes, the “pockets” give me a place to store the appointment cards in case of one of those “I didn’t know I had an appointment that day” discussions.

My mother-in-law and I may not have had a good relationship, but she did do one thing for me that I have continued with my own daughter-in-law and potential daughters-in-law to be. Our first Christmas as a married couple, my mother-in-law gave me a calendar with all of their family’s birthdays on it. I greatly appreciated it and did the same for my daughter-in-law her first Christmas with our family; she loved it so much she asked it I would continue the tradition every year. An excuse to buy another calendar every year? Sign me up! I gave my youngest son’s partner her first family calendar last year and asked if she would like for me to do so again this year. She said yes! I start calendar shopping in October and enjoy choosing calendars that I think match the girls personalities and interests. This year I gifted my daughter-in-law a Bluey calendar. For those of you without young children, Bluey is an Australian animated preschool series. However, the show seems to be as popular with adults as it is with kids; the Bluey calendar was sold out on Amazon and I got one of the last ones available from Calendars.com. (Whew!) Almost daughter-in-law is as much of a nerd and critter lover as the rest of us so she received a Movie Cats calendar. She was thrilled!

For a couple of years post-retirement, I invested in Happy Planners. However, I haven’t really used them so I didn’t get one this year. It turns out that, for me at least, a planner is just an excuse to buy a lot of stickers, LOL.

Any other calendar/planner lovers out there?🙋‍♀️