Putting Off

What a weekend.  I have been dealing with the wife's emotional state that our friend has put her in. 

Most of that involves me not getting her riled up over this.  I have been drafting a response since she wanted my thoughts on her actions.  I don't take this lightly, so I have even spoken to others with more knowledge than I.  My response is already over two pages, I don't want it to get any longer for fear of losing my audience.  But due to the issue at hand I can't make it much shorter.  So I have spent and great deal of the weekend thinking, discussing and researching in order to have a cogent and yet effective response.  I won't send it without the wife's first reading it.  However she is putting off reading it and does not want to discuss it with me as it puts her in an unhappy place.  She gets frustrated with me as I tend to obsess and will talk about it randomly and she gets aggravated with me.  So I have set up a meeting with 1-2 others that can give her guidance, the same I sought out. 

She respects them and will not get aggravated with them like she will me.  No, it's not that she doesn't respect me, it's our familiarity with each other we can let down our guard and let emotions get in the way easier.  I am confident she will be pleased with my response, while not wishing we had to do this.  Without going into a lot of detail it is in regard to a religious issue and a soul is at stake.  This isn't and won't be easy due to the emotions involved.

We have also been putting off things around here at our house.  Cleaning and such mostly.  We also need to make a trip to the grocer, we are out of a lot of things we use daily.  Payday is Tuesday so we will go then.  The parents' move hindered most of that and then the friend issue, plus I have been pretty lazy anyway.  We have gotten behind in keeping the house clean or at least to an acceptable level for two slobs.  The yard has gotten pretty bad looking with the two hard freezes killing a lot of vegetation and the very high winds over a day and a half.  There are a LOT of leaves and limbs laying everywhere, even up under the patio and on the front porch.  So we will spend most of today getting the inside cleaned up, vacuuming, mopping, dusting and clearing clutter that accumulates ( I told you we are slobs).  I will wait on the yard work a few more days but will most likely clear off the patio and front porch.  It doesn't sound like a lot but I am already tired thinking about it.

Happy Trails

Random

My Mom and Dad got most everything moved to their new house.  I say house instead of home since I have no confidence they will be any happier there.  There are just a few items remaining to be moved.  Kim has gone over to help get things sorted out and put away.  Why did I not go?  Long story, but it is better for my sanity and theirs that I stay away.  Same for my brother apparently. 

Hopefully this is the last move.  Oh, they did hire pros to move them after all thank goodness.

On top of this a life long friend of the wife has put some emotional baggage on her even though she knows she is wrong.  It is tearing my wife's heart out.  She has tortured explanations to justify herself to my wife, none pass muster as far as I'm concerned but she has my wife doubting her own beliefs.  

I have quite a bit of yard work that needs to be done due to the recent freezes and very high winds.  

There are limbs and leaves everywhere that need to get cleaned up.  The air is very dry and my sinuses won't tolerate the dust that will be stirred up so I will put that off for a few days.

Happy Trails

Impressed So Far

Believe me when I tell you I was a huge skeptic in regard to the Donald and his ambitions for the White House.  I was convinced it was a huge scam to benefit himself alone.  And it well may be just that.  From what I see I am impressed with the actions he has taken in his first few days.  Signing Executive orders to undo some of the crap we have been saddled with by the previous joker.  Now I see he has signed another in regard to the huge pipeline from Canada the left killed.  I don't know the details but that is encouraging.  In fact I am more encouraged about what is taking place in DC than I have been since the Great Ronald Reagan was in office.  I even hear Trump invoking the name of God, although I believe that is just for show to keep the religious right in his pocket.  Maybe the seeds that Phil Robertson planted in his meeting with him may take root.  I pray they do.  I especially love how Trump and his administration is fighting back against the press.  They aren't intimidated by a biased lying press and aren't afraid to call them out.  It's funny to see how the press is flustered by this.  Maybe what's good for his pockets is good for most of the nation.

I finished my Amazon Fire cover a few days ago.  It was a complete departure from anything I have done before.  From design of it's utility (which I am not sold on yet) to the tooling I put on it and a couple other things.  It has many more flaws than I would prefer.  Some is due to trying new things and much more to the lack of working leather over the last few months.  The tooling on the front cover was much more ambitious than most of my previous work.  I adapted a design I found online somewhere to use on this.  It is not my design except for a few minor details.  I don't recall the name of the person that made the original design or he would get credit here.  I won't use it commercially to protect the integrity of the original design unless I can change enough of it to make it mine.

Happy Trails

Duplicitous

I watched the inauguration and listened to the Speech President Trump gave.  I thought is was a pretty good speech.  It appeared that he didn't need teleprompters that the other guy was addicted to. 

He had no notes either and he never stumbled with his message.  He knew exactly what he wanted to say and stayed on point even though he tended to repeat himself several times.  I was impressed.  

I watched to evening news also, what a freaking mistake.  that martha ratditz cam on and just went off on his speech claiming it was alienating.  WHAT?  Gimme a break.  Just because it isn't what you want to hear you go off on some stupid tangent taht was only said to divide and not unite like the President was trying to do.  Oh sure, if you don't want to work together and have no moral fiber, yeah that speech wasn't for you.  I couldn't take it anymore and shut the wench up.  I turned it off.

I sat and watched most of the inaugural parade too, something I don't ever remember doing.  It was pretty good and I am not a bog fan of parades at all.

I once again have hope for our country but also have concerns that the liberals and others will try their hardest to make this administration a failure.  Have you ever seen riots in our streets before just because a President is being inaugurated and you may not like him?  You NEVER see that sort of behavior from the other side, even though they get hung with labels of hate and racism.  How can they be so blind to their duplicitous nature?  Oh, that's right, you need grey matter to think with.

SMH

They Make Me Want to Puke!

Every stinking day on Yahoo and others websites I see all these articles about the outgoing administrations and their cronies.  I have never seen anything like it.  You would think that is the only news out there and the only thing anyone cares about.  From packing boxes being unloaded by movers at obama's new home to the crybabies that are losing their jobs and everything in between. 

Not to mention the crappy moves he is making in his last days, from pardoning multitudes of crooks (why do they always wait until the last days if they are so worthy and not right away?) to getting long time jobs for some of his soon to be ex-staffers.  

Then we have the news taking shots at the President-elect that hasn't even gotten in office yet.  They are hitting him harder than any previous President and certainly more than obama ever got while in office.  The lack of coverage of obama's screw ups has him delusional about how scandal free his administration was.  

Trump may drain the swamp (I have my doubts) but until the media gives everyone a fair shake we will never see any real change and accountability.  They only want to promote their agenda and tear down anything that opposes their view.  But you probably knew that already.

Yeah they have me all twisted.

Happy Trails

Funnies

I got nothing, here are some cartoons to brighten your day

Yeah, I know I'm warped.

Happy Trails

Waiting

I am sitting here waiting for the cable company to show up between 8 am and 9 am.  It is now 9:15 am and no sign of them.  Not even the usual phone call.  Our cable provider was Time Warner and they have sold out to Spectrum.  So I have been dealing with them off and on the last few days.  First was that the price of our service increased by 25$.  I got them to lower it to even lower than the previous price.  Are you kidding me?  Why not just give me that price to begin with instead of getting me all tight in the jaws and having to complain to two or three others before I get satisfaction.  

When they gave me the new price they also switched me over to the new coding they use.  That may a couple of the digital converters we had obsolete.  Consequently I had to travel in to town to get rid of that old equipment and get a new box.  Of course they couldn't get the stupid thing to work right out of the box.  They have to activate it over the phone for some unknown reason.  They couldn't get it to work.  The most annoying thing it dealing with Mujabur and her accent and the continual reading off a script instead of listening to what I was actually saying.  After about 30 minutes of this i finally gave up and told her good bye.

We were supposed to head to my parents house to help with some packing for their move.  Now I sit here waiting on this cable jack leg to show.  I wouldn't be surprised if they never show.  

As far as the parents moving, they have to be out by the 31st as my cousin has rented the house.  It has made my mother feel more pressure.  Since they are just moving across the street, she thinks this will be an easy move.  I beg to differ.  I think it will be much harder.  They will try to move things by carrying them across the street, 'since it's so close.'  They have already started and have made almost no headway.  They think they can rely on their housekeeper and a handyman to move most everything.  The housekeeper doesn't want to IMO and the handyman is a disabled  guy that is less than reliable.  They have already run into problems with this and they have just started.  This can get ugly.  It may kill my mother.

Happy Trails

Irritants

The wife uses Quickbooks to keep track of her business finances.  Since things have been pretty slow lately she hadn't used it since Oct. 2 when she filed her State sales taxes.  She attempted to do the same today and wouldn't you know it, she could make it work.  She admits she is technically challenged and will have me try to fix things.  This time I failed.  At least it seemed so.  After several attempts to make it work I got on the phone and called them.  Apparently one of the Win 10 updates made her version obsolete.  Also the company that owns Quickbooks no longer supports her version. 

We got it in 2010.  Consequently we had to update by buying new software.  That stuff ain't cheap.

So after about an hour and a half she was back up and running.  What a scam.

The washer drain also had issues again.  Several tries over the last couple days with Liquid Plumber got the drain going again.  I know I will have to eventually call a plumber.  I suspect there are roots in the lines despite my using copper sulfate at least once a year.  I also had an electrical issue that I couldn't figure out.  I had drained our hot water heater as I do several times a year due to our extremely hard water.  When I do this, I turn the breaker off to the hot water heater.  A couple hours later Kim tells me there is no hot water.  OK, I figure I must have forgotten to flip the breaker.  Nope it was on yet I was getting no indication of power on my volt meter at the hot water heater.  Not good.  So I run out to the breaker box again to satisfy myself that the breaker was in the right position and I just missed it.  I flipped it back and forth just to make sure I wasn't seeing things.  Went back and the water heater is doing it's thing again.  Maybe the breaker is going out or something had gotten lodged in the contacts and came loose when I flipped it.  I don't know.  I do know we have hot water.  Yeah, a new breaker is a good idea.  I will wait anyway.

The joys of being a home owner.  Ah well it certainly could be worse.

Happy Trails.

The Great Texas Blizzard

I stole this from the book of faces.  It pretty much sums up the attitude about cold weather in the Southern part of the State among the natives.

No we didn't get any snow, and not even any precipitation in my neck of the woods.  But evidently we just missed some ice.  There were 4 major intersections that have elevated bridges near us that had to be shut down due to ice.  It is an annual occurrence (almost), having to shut down highways since we don't know how to drive on ice.  Some might say we don't know how do drive on anything.  The local authorities over plan and overreact to icy conditions here.  I know this from first hand experience having been a road hand for over 30 years.  It's funny and exasperating to see them at work at the HQ they set up for these 'disaster' events.  Each year they reinvent the wheel and everyone wants things 'their way' as if they know more than the others. The jockeying for influence is a trip.

They get criticized mercilessly for whatever actions they take and get blamed for shutting down roads for not much at all.  They have also been drug over the coals for not reacting fast enough.  A fatal accident on icy roads brings out the trolls.  No one seems to understand that your safety is no one's responsibility but your own.  I could go on and on but I'm sure you get the picture.  The public has no idea how much time and resources are put into just planning for an event like this.  It will never be perfect.  

We have some vegetation damage again.  It was below freezing far to long for our measures to save everything.  But 'we will rebuild.'  It will give us a chance to make some changes to the landscape and clean up overgrown areas.  There will be some good come of this IMO.

This week they are predicting near Spring like temps.  So that will allow us outside to start the clean up of the dead vegetation.  Today, though, I will start on a cover for my new Kindle Fire.  I don't really have the right leather for this, but I do have a really expensive piece I had been saving.  It is much thicker than what I usually use, by as much as 3 times.  I plan on tooling it a bit and hopefully it will turn out OK.  Pics when I'm done.

Happy Trails.

Grrrr

I have been dealing with a new Rx provider for all our meds.  I get 90 days worth since it they are maintenance meds.  I had obtained some at the local pharmacy as I didn't want them sitting in the mailbox enduring the 100+ degree heat in the summer.  Changing from one company to another is a PITB.  This new company no longer covers the 'brand' meds I have been taking for years.  I can still take them if I want to pay out of pocket.  But at the price they charge for diabetes meds that ain't gonna happen.  So I will need to have all my meds changed over to other brands by my doctor.  Not a big deal except the folks that handle that for him always screw it up.  Always.  I will need to go in to see him before my usual 6 month visit in order to get the scripts so I don't run out.  Then in September my medical insurance company changes.  I hope my doctor is on their network, otherwise I will have to find another doctor.

Have a new dentist too.  Went Monday for a cleaning, something that is very important for a diabetic.

That was the most thorough exam I have ever had.  I think we made a good choice.  We are trying to do this without insurance.  The cost of the insurance over the year outstrips the cost of regular visits. 

It still is another hit to the wallet I wish we didn't have.  But we went without for almost 2 years and I paid the price of the neglect.

The weather has been pretty nice, in the mid 70's the last few days, but tomorrow we will get another cold blast with some significantly lower temps.  They will be low enough to kill off the rest of the tender outdoor vegetation we have planted, if I don't do a better job of covering them than I did last time.  We lost a lot of plants that survived much colder weather before.  The wind found the weak spots in my work at covering them.  So next spring we will see if we need to replant or not.

Today I will spend getting ready for the colder weather bring some more firewood up from the stack and Kim says she will make some sort of soup she wants to try out.  I'm game for that.  Drained the hot water heater and quite a bit of limestone came out, not as much as last time.  I need to do that every 3 months but I most often go longer.  

This time of year the cedar pollen goes crazy.  There are many rich allergists in this part of the State. When the wind blows there is so much pollen it looks like smoke and your vehicles get very dusty.  I am not allergic but I know many that are, Kim is very allergic and we live right in the middle of that crap.  It's a miserable time of year for those folks.

Picked up my deer meat yesterday and got about 28-30 lbs.  Was going to make chili right away but Kim wants me to hold off so she can make that soup.  

Happy Trails

The New Year

New Year's eve was OK for the most part.  Kim had a really good day at the resort finally.  She has only worked four days since the end of summer so this was certainly a great thing for us.  We played games with the Grandkids and I read to them.  The game was 'Life.'  I know that is a really old game and I had never played it prior.  But it turned out to be pretty fun with the Grands.  I read to them from a book I bought online.  It is one that was an introduction for me on Texas History when I was in third grade.  I already knew a considerable amount about Texas, we all did back then, but this book piqued my interest even more.  So I thought might be a good thing for the Grands.  It is fiction, I don't think a non fiction book would work as well for their age.  Johnny Texas, can it have a better name? It is out of print but I found quite a few used ones online.  So I picked one up.  The oldest seems to be following pretty well, but the Grandson seems to get bored after a bit.  He has a lot of energy at 6 years old and this may be a bit to slow for him.  Anyway, I am enjoying it and maybe one day they will remember this time.

It did not rain as I had hoped for on NYE.  It was pretty quiet, more so than usual up until about an hour before midnight.  Then the racket started to get heavy.  Yes, midnight was as bad as it's ever been and went on for another couple hours.  I can live with the midnight celebrations but two hours after?  That is a PITB and totally inconsiderate.  I know some of the biggest offenders have dogs too and don't understand how they can put them through that.  Jack Wagons.

I got in the way of Buster's jaws the other day.  Totally my fault.  The UPS guy delivered a package on the front porch and Buster went nuts doing his job keeping us alerted and safe.  Usually when this happens I put him out back so he won't be tempted to run out the front door as he has in the past. This time I got lazy and made him go over to the wife instead while I was just gong to reach out the door and pick up the package.  Well he was much to amped up from that bad guy being on his porch.  I didn't see him turn and come to the door as I opened it and he charged out.  I grabbed him and in his excitement he got my forearm.  Bled like a stuck pig and hurt like heck.  He got me good.  You might think he shouldn't have done that and I agree totally.  But I also knew how he zones out when he is protecting us.  I have had similar things happen before but nothing like this and it is rare.  Even though it pissed me off I totally blame myself. 

A lot of folks have said things about how bad this past year was and are looking forward to a better 2017.  Not sure why they think this one was worse than usual.  It does seem there were a lot more celebrity deaths that made the news.  Several big names recently made it seem worse maybe.  The electioneering was certainly remarkable and may have added to that sense of 'bad.'  I am not sure I agree that it was worse than most others in recent history.  While looking at it from a personal standpoint we can all point to various things that stick out for ourselves.  Financial woes, health issues, deaths in the family etc.  It's all a matter of perspective, what affected each of us personally will determine how we look at the world.  For us, we have had better times financially, especially with Kim's business changes this last year.  Our health is always a concern these days but we neither one had to have surgery or anything remotely close.  My parent issues and the frustration there were probably the biggest stress for us, and it isn't over yet, as they are in the process of moving again.  All in all it's just life to me, I don't break it down year to year most of the time.

Kim has a BIG birthday number coming up this year.  I was teasing her that she would officially be 'old.'  She wasn't having it.  She has never had a party for her birthday since we have been together, so maybe this is the year.  I have a little less than 2 months to figure this out.

Happy Trails