I thought I’d do a quick summary of our trip before getting into detailed posts. After all, all I had to do was copy and paste most of the info from a FB post. What was I thinking? This is WordPress – it doesn’t do easy. Instead, it converted every individual line of the copied text into a separate paragraph. Ugh. It probably would have been simpler to re-type everything rather than fix the resulting mess, but I’m hard-headed so I did things the hard way. Anyhoo, here is the promised summary:
Trip Length: Twenty-five days and 4,505 miles
States Visited:
North Carolina
Tennessee
Virginia
West Virginia
Ohio
Indiana
Michigan
Wisconsin
Minnesota
Illinois
Kentucky
All of the states we have visited with our camper.
Places visited:
New River Gorge National Park
Babcock State Park (West Virginia)
Cuyahoga Valley National Park
The House from A Christmas Story
Indiana Dunes National Park
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
Castle Rock (St. Ignace, Michigan)
Mackinac Island
Tahquamenon Falls State Park (Upper Peninsula of Michigan)
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
Apostle Islands National Lakeshore
Atomic Antiques (Madison, Wisconsin)
The Bronze Fonz (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)
The Kaskaskia Dragon (Vandalia, Illinois)
Great Lakes:
Erie
Michigan
Huron
Superior
We’re only missing Lake Ontario!
I’ll break the future posts out by state, assuming I survive grooming (aka shaving) Kota, our long-haired cat. Wish me luck!
I don’t what happens, but every year, usually in the July time, frame I get behind on reading the posts by people I follow and my own posts become rather haphazard. I made it until August this year before this happened. (Go, me!😂) I’m actually just getting back into the swing of things so some of y’all are going to start seeing likes and comments on older posts.
August seemed to turn into a circular discussion on the following:
Are we going on a road trip this year?
If so, are we going to stick to the route we’ve already discussed or change it up?
If we stick to the route we’ve been discussing, do we want to add any additional stops to what we already have planned?
When it comes to these types of discussions, we can absolutely beat the topic to death. Discussions seem to come to an end when I reach the point where I just really don’t care any more, LOL. So, what did we decide?
We did go on a trip.
We stuck to the route we had already discussed.
We only added one or two stops at kitschy roadside attractions and those were added on the fly.
Selfie on the shore of Lake Superior
We’ve now been home for a week and are starting to get back into the swing of things. We’ve caught up on sleep and laundry and consoling the cats, now I’m getting back into the routine tasks like vacuuming, dusting, etc. We got home just in time for the government shutdown so Kenn hasn’t been able to go back to his part-time job yet.
I’ll be posting more about our travels over the coming weeks. Now, it’s time to go scoop litterboxes. Whoo hoo! (I miss our cats dreadfully while we’re gone. I do not miss scooping poop.)
I tend to be an organized person, although I’ve relaxed a lot in retirement. However, I still find it annoying when I can’t find something – especially when I just had it and I haven’t moved from where I was working. Pro Tip: always check under the cat. (Of course, now that Roxie is a member of the family, things go missing more often; the girl is a total kleptomaniac.)
Roxie, aka Klepto Kitty
We are currently trying to find the biggest item we have ever misplaced. Actually, we didn’t misplace it, we’ve never known where it is.🤷♀️ The Cabin is our third home, but the first to have a septic tank. The general rule of thumb seems to be that a septic tank should be pumped out every three to five years; as of August 5th, we have been living here eight years. Kenn and I have had a few discussions about having the septic tank checked/pumped, but then it slips our minds. However, we have finally taken action. (Go, us!) We had someone come out last week, but the ground was too boggy to do much. He’s supposed to come out again this Friday, but what with regular rainstorms, I’m not sure that the ground will be much better.
Kenn contacted the previous owners of The Cabin and asked about the location of the septic tank. They gave him a rough idea of its location, but he wasn’t able to find it. Before the technician was scheduled to arrive, Kenn said he remembered us getting a hand-drawn diagram of the location of the septic tank when we closed on the house. Of course, neither of us could find the closing paperwork. So much for my organizational skill! (I found the paperwork for our first two houses with no problems.🙄)
Kenn has become friends with the owners of the local pawn shop. (How’s that for a non sequitur?) He stopped in at the pawn shop for a visit and asked if they knew where their septic tank is; they did. They also gave Kenn a tip. It turns out that we can get a copy of the latest septic tank inspection from our local… health department. I thought we might be able to locate the information on the Tax Commissioner’s website, but I was wrong. Getting the information from the health department would have never even crossed my mind. Kenn gave the health department a call yesterday, and they have already sent him some information; he also got out and did some digging and is pretty sure he found the septic tank. According to the paperwork from the health department, the original 1979 septic system was replaced and relocated in 2001; the location of the “new” system matches up to what Kenn found. He has also flagged the location so we don’t “lose” it again.
What’s the biggest (or most important thing) you have misplaced?
Cooking and baking are not my forte. I didn’t learn how to cook as I was growing up. I used to watch my grandmother cook, but somehow, as a child, it never dawned on me that cooking was a life skill I needed to grasp. None of the adults in my life ever said “Hey, this is something you need to learn.” As a matter of fact, by the time I reached my teens my mother had announced that she wasn’t going to cook anymore… and she didn’t. Fortunately, my father stepped up to the plate and kept us from starving, LOL.
I did most of the cooking the first few years of our marriage and then Kenn took over. Between the two of us, we kept our family fed. However, I am a much better cook now than I was prior to retirement and it’s mostly due to Hello Fresh. We subscribed to Hello Fresh shortly after I retired. We get two meal kits each week which mean that there are two fewer meals to plan. (Yay!) The kits have also given me a chance to try things I otherwise wouldn’t have. I have learned that I enjoy the prep process or mise en place if you will; I find the chopping, slicing, and dicing relaxing. I have learned that roasted vegetables are easy to make and delicious to eat. I can also now successfully cook rice. Kenn has learned that sweet potatoes aren’t so bad. I can even “wing it” now. Need to cook pork chops without a meal kit or a recipe? No problem. I can whip up a glaze or just use one of the many gourmet (flavored) salts Kenn has gifted me.
Baking is another story. I’ve never done a lot of baking. Baking is far more scientific than regular cooking; you can’t just substitute an ingredient on the fly without possibly ruining the whole recipe. Kenn finds it amusing that even though I don’t bake, baking shows are favorite shows to watch. However, there was one item I baked regularly: a poppy seed cake. I got the recipe from a co-worker probably twenty-five years ago and it became a staple in our household. However, starting several years ago, every attempt to bake a poppy seed cake failed spectacularly. I bought a thermometer to make sure the oven was cooking at the correct temperature; it was. I bought a couple of different pans; neither helped. I wondered if the ingredients of the cake mix had changed somehow so I tried a few other brands; no change. I finally just gave up. Until yesterday.
I didn’t manage to center the round cake on the square plate.
The display on our range failed which meant we had no way to control the oven so we had a technician come out to give us a quote on repairing the faulty item; between the $109 diagnostic fee and parts and labor, it was going to cost over $700 to repair our existing range of unknown age. We decided to purchase a new range and to splurge on one with an air fry feature. An unexpected bonus is that the new range can function as a convection oven. I decided I’d try my beloved poppy seed cake recipe one more time using the convection oven. It worked! True, the cake isn’t as brown as what I’m used to, but it tastes amazing, so I’m calling it a win. I am so happy to be able to add this cake back to my repertoire for family gatherings, potlucks, and so forth.
How do you feel about cooking and baking? How did you learn?
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?😂
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?
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.
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?
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.
Linda Lou's Life 