Updates

So, it still looks like the first part of next week before we can get a fan motor for our heat pump. But these gas logs keep the den/living area so warm that I haven't noticed the lack of heat. We still have heat in our bedrooms. So, its not a huge imposition. We have snow coming tonight, but we will be warm and toasty. Maybe a little TOO toasty. I like my house on the cooler side. Not freezing cold, but about 68 suits me fine. These gas logs can't be set to a certain temp, but we have some heat so I am going to shut up.

The insurance adjuster came by this afternoon. They are definitely going to fix the roof. Possibly a new one altogether?? We don't know that yet. They are sending a contractor over to get a better assessment of the situation. But apparently all we will have to do is write a check for our deductible and the rest will be taken care of. When, we have no idea. The contractor won't even be able to come out and take a look until early next week. Apparently there was so much damage related to this wind storm that they are swimming in claims. It would be awesome if he decided that the whole thing was so screwed up that we have to have a whole new roof, but if it gets fixed, then I will be satisfied. We will see.....

And since Hayley asked about the kitties, they are doing fine. Omen is almost completely healed and the meds keep her from scratching so much. She is taking steriods, twice a day. And even though this is our cat with an insatiable appetite, if you try to hide a pill in her food, she will NOT eat it. I've tried everything, even her favorite treat: canned chicken breast. Nope. Not even that will make her eat something with a pill hidden in it. I can't see how she knows its in there. I thought I hid it so well. So, twice a day I have to hold her down, and force a pill in her mouth. And then hold her mouth closed until she swallows. She hates it, and she struggles to get away. And then afterwards, she looks at me so sadly, like she is thinking "Why are you being so mean to me?" It breaks my heart. But she has to have this medicine so I keep torturing her. Poor thing. And Vixen is fine. I swear she watches the whole scenario with Omen with glee, laughing that its NOT her having to take the torture. I will be so glad when we have finished with this whole course of meds.

Anyway, we are getting ready for the snow tonight and tomorrow. I stopped at the grocery store on the way home from work and fought my way through the throngs of people acting like it is the end of the world. We are off on Monday and Tuesday, so we are settling in for a long weekend of restful bumming. We both deserve it after spending the past couple of weekends playing plumber in our attic. We aren't quite sure how our roof is going to hold up with so many of the shingles missing, but there isn't a whole heck of a lot that we can do about it.

Matter of perspective

On the one hand, over the past 2 weeks, we have had a busted water heater, holes punched into the ceiling, an injured cat, a roof situation (the wind storm yesterday completely destroyed our roof and its going to have to be replaced), a computer crash (Bruce's gaming computer....yikes!), and tonight? Our heat pump on one side of the house is broken. (Sound familiar, Lori? LOL)

On the other hand: We caught the water heater before it flooded the house. The ceilings are motivation for the painting that needed to be done anyway. The cat is healing nicely (although giving her the meds...scary). Bruce ordered a new motherboard and is back in computer land again. The roof needed to be redone after 15 years and a half dozen or so hurricanes, and now insurance might possibly cover at least part of that. The adjuster comes out to take a look tomorrow. And the heat pump? Its only a fan motor, and while it might be the first part of next week before it can be fixed (parts have to be ordered) at least its not a terribly expensive repair. And we still have heat in the bedrooms, and gas logs here in the living area, so it won't be too terrible.

I guess I can count myself lucky? Its all how you choose to look at it, I guess.

Allergic?

Omen, our pretty little striped tabby cat has had an allergic reaction to a new collar. We think...not absolutely sure. We noticed a few days ago that she had been scratching her neck and had a slightly bald spot underneath the collar. I immediately took it off, thinking that would clear it up. But when I got home today it was worse. She has scratched it to the point that its raw and the bald spot is growing. The collar wasn't too tight or anything because we check that frequently. I guess it was just something in the material of the collar??? I say that only because the rest of her fur is thick and healthy, and her skin is clear as well. No fleas (they never go outside). I read something about food allergies, but wouldn't that be all over her body? This is just too localized.

So, we have wrapped her neck up with gauze and sports tape. She really really really hates it. I think she is hating us too right now for torturing her like this. I called the vet, but they couldn't see her until tomorrow. So...she is going to have to wear the gauze/tape collar for 24 hours. We seem to have gotten it wide enough that she can't get to the raw spot...for now. She keeps trying though. Poor little thing. I hate to see how miserable she is. Hopefully they can do something to help this clear up. I feel so guilty. I bought this pretty little pink collar, with a pink bell because I wanted her to be gorgeous and all I did was injure her. And that is it for collars. We have tried every single kind on the market, and none of them have worked out. Mostly the cats bite them off of each other...they know how to work the safety releases and can get out of them in no time.
This one actually had a buckle, like a belt, although it did have an elastic break-away safety connection. I took Vixen's off, too. She hasn't had a reaction to hers (although its identical), but I don't want to risk it. No more collars for kitties. My cats will go naked from now on!!!!

Super Bowl

Super Bowl? Not watching it. I know, I know...it makes us weird (husband isn't watching it either). But neither one of us cares one whit for football. We don't watch basketball, or baseball, or hockey, or golf, or tennis either. Did I leave anything out? Because we just don't enjoy watching sports on TV. Like at all. I don't even watch the Olympics. Shhh...don't tell anybody. Its like blasphemy or something, but whatever.

So, we finished up our water heater plumbing this weekend. They tried to call me into work on Saturday morning, but I didn't answer. I had enough of work this past week, and we had all of this work still to do. And its done! Hot water all over the house! This evening we went out to Olive Garden to celebrate our victory. And thanks to the Super Bowl it was not busy. We got a table, got served and were back out of the door in record time. It was delicious, too. I had some chicken with cheese pancotti thing. I hadn't heard of that pasta, but it is basically pyramid shaped ravioli. Yum. Thank you Super Bowl, because our Olive Garden is usually a mad house on weekends.

Speaking of mad houses? That would be our grocery store on the way home from Olive Garden. We decided to pick up a few things that we are going to need this week because I really detest having to run by there after work. I am either sweaty from having stopped at the gym, or I am in a hurry to get home and relax. Twice a week, I am rushing to get home and change for that evening yoga class that I love so much.
But you get the idea. We try to pick up everything we need for the week on weekends.
Sunday evenings are usually pretty dead in there, but tonight it was packed. Beer and chips were flying off the shelves. I hope all of you who do the whole Super Bowl thing have a good time tonight. May your team win (I have no idea who is playing...LOL). We are watching movies and ignoring the whole thing.

Rain Rain Go Away....

Its going to rain again tomorrow. They are predicting it to be torrential. This has been the wettest winter I can remember. Water is still standing everywhere from the ice storm this past weekend, and the downpour that lasted all day on Tuesday. Honestly, I don't see where anymore of this wet stuff is going to go. Its a little unsettling, because I lived here back in 1999 when we had some serious flooding. Luckily we are on high enough ground that we didn't get hit with that kind of devastation. But there was no electricity, gas pumps, ATM's, trucks coming in to restock grocery stores, and worst of all.....gasp....restaurants were all closed because the water supply was contaminated. No ice, no way to wash dishes...I almost had to cook. Yikes! I hope it doesn't come to that. Maybe just having these few days between each storm will give it time to soak up and not overfill the Tar river.

And while all this rain is awful, Erica is forecasted to get up to 28 inches of snow this weekend. What the heck is going on? I would be eternally grateful if you all would just send us some happy thoughts to get us through until spring. Stay warm, stay dry, and have a nice weekend!

Weirdest Dream

I had the weirdest dream last night. And for some reason it was really vivid and it stuck in my memory even after waking up. Bruce and I had bought a new house in Maryland. (I have no idea why I would dream that specific place other than I have been talking to my friend Julie a lot lately and she lives in Maryland...?) The house itself was a 2-story typical American home in a typical suburban neighborhood. Very nice, nothing over the top. But in the back of the house was this unbelievable indoor/outdoor pool. Half of it was inside in the huge sunroom filled with plants and statues. And then you swam under a partial glass wall and were outside in this beautiful outdoor pool area. It was spectacular and more like a luxury resort pool instead of what you might find in a regular home.

So we had moved in and were getting settled...and I noticed that our front walk had these black horizontal lines going down it. Spray painted graffiti lines that made it look like a railroad track. And while I was inspecting this strange thing, this large FBI truck pulled up and starting unloading dead bodies onto our walk. Laying them on each of the lines. I was so freaked out. I was frantically asking the FBI agents what the heck was going on, and they explained to me that this is where they brought all of the unidentified bodies to have their pictures taken for the media so that the families could hopefully see it and identify them. And apparently it was the "national" spot, meaning bodies from all over the country were brought to MY sidewalk, photographed while stretched out over these lines, and then loaded back into the truck and taken away to a morgue. I was so creeped out. I wanted to move out of the house immediately, even though I had been so happy and thrilled with the pool.

I have NO idea what this dream was about. It left me unsettled even after I woke up.
Maybe I have been watching way too much earthquake coverage lately. And I know I have been upset by the discovery of that young girl's body in Charlottesville. You know, the one that went missing from the Metallica concert last fall. Right there in my daughter's town. I had been hoping and praying for a happier ending. I guess I just let things get to me. Things that I have no control over or that don't even really involve me or affect my life. I have a whole lot of trouble not feeling empathy for the awful situations of other people. Maybe I should take a break from watching the news for a while. Geez.....

Victorious

This is what my house looked like when I woke up Saturday morning. Unfortunately, it was almost all sleet/ice with a thin layer of actual snow underneath. It was NOT good snowman-making snow...and I was a little bit disappointed in that. But the good news is that even though the trees and power lines were heavy with ice by late afternoon, we never lost electricity. I was so grateful.



I did get the chance to wear my bright shiny GREEN boots though. And that made me happy. I know you are all seething with jealousy over these things.

And there is more good news, too. We have HOT water. ALL over the house! Everywhere! And Bruce and I did it ourselves. We were victorious. It was a long, and arduous journey, and we had many fails (we think it was due to a bad batch of flux...if you know what that is. I didn't before, but I SURE do now). But it got done, and no more holes appeared in our ceilings. Bruce put down more flooring up there, and it helped a whole lot. The only thing not done is the 2nd new water heater is not installed. It was bought to replace the one old one still up there, but the old one is working (at this moment in time), and we? We have had enough of that for right now. I was nothing more than a glorified plumber's assistant. But I learned a lot. Like when we get ready to tackle the second new heater, we will be using a brand new batch of flux. Flux is important. I think the second round of plumbing will go much faster and more smoothly since we are seasoned and experienced. Also? This heater is located in a wide open area that doesn't require contortions of the body to get to.
Maybe next weekend....?

I ended our long day of miserable plumbing fails (we just got finished TODAY) by making a big ol' pot of turkey and rice (with lots of celery and onions....yum).
It was turkey and broth that I had frozen from our leftover Christmas turkey dinner, and it was delicious.

Maybe things are looking up? I am going to be optimistic that this new week is a much better one than the last.