Let’s do a quick recap of yesterday: we worked outside in the heat and humidity for about three hours, then prepared to drive to Lowe’s for curbside pickup of the air conditioner that we had to buy (unplanned $$$). Before we left, Don tried starting his car again (it hasn’t been starting consistently) and it started, so I suggested dropping it off at the service station on the way to Lowe’s. He did. (More $$ for repairs on the horizon) And he spoke with a mechanic who wasn’t wearing a mask; fortunately Don was. Then we got in the car, drove to Lowe’s and waited for an employee put the A/C in the trunk of my car. It didn’t fit. Normally, we use the CR-V for this kind of thing. So we tried to figure out how to secure the lid to the trunk so we could transport the unit. We had no other options. After several ideas (none of which worked) Don thought that we could probably make it home with the trunk open because the A/C unit was wedged in and wasn’t going anywhere. I drove slowly in the parking lot and the lid seemed pretty secure. As I headed for the exit, I picked up a bit of speed (we were watching the trunk lid in the rear view mirror) and all seemed well. After I got on the main road, Don told me to stop because he couldn’t find his glasses. Long story short, we retraced our steps, looking everywhere for his glasses, along the road, in the parking space, in the trunk, under the seat of the car. We never found them. He thinks he put them on top of the car, forgot about them, and they fell off. It was strange that there wasn’t a trace of them anywhere. We even went inside Lowe’s to see if anyone had turned them in. Don wears progressive lenses and so we had to order a new pair over the phone. ($$$$$)
At the end of the day, I was in a very bad mood. Don needs to be more attentive and present because he is forgetful – a lot. He’s always been that way. He’s working on that, per my tersely worded suggestion.
Anyway. I didn’t get around to answering comments and if you don’t mind, I’ll not answer yesterday’s comments. I’ve read them. But I have to write out some checks today (oh, joy) and deal with the annual ant invasion and, most importantly, remind myself of my blessings, which is always necessary, but especially so after a day like yesterday. (Don being at the top of my blessings list.)
Forgot to show you the fern! She’s back where she belongs and is doing well.
Happy Thursday.
Oh my! What a day you had!
I went to the eye doctor yesterday. I wore a mask, the staff wore masks. They wiped things down well. Then in comes Dr…no mask!
I should have asked him to put one on but I didn’t.
So sorry about Don’s glasses. I almost lost mine a few days ago. I took them off when I was shopping because my glasses kept fogging up and stuck them in the outside pocket of my purse. When I got to my car and took my purse out of the cart they fell onto the pavement. Luckily I heard them fall, but I almost stepped on them.
The fern looks so lush! I finally got a couple of pots of impatiens planted and a couple hanging baskets. We are still drying out from the last heavy rains and more rain is in the forcast for later today. Ugh! The mosquitos love it.
Hope you are having a better day today. Stay safe.
Having a better day, yes, but it’s raining here as well! Ah, well. Stay safe, Marilyn.
Oh no! I’m sure you have checked already but were you driving the one doing all the driving, if so, could Don have left them at the service station? Last year my son did a similar thing, he wears a single hard contact lens in one eye for a medical rather than a sight problem and it’s costly.
He collected it from an optician in another town and put the small bag containing the lens box (which also had his name and address on it!)on the car roof and drove off. This was in a multi storey car park so it would have been crushed in minutes😬
Weather is very pleasant today. I’ve noticed bumblebees going in and out of a small gap in the woodwork above the kitchen window. Male bees don’t sting and they’ll be building a nest in case a queen bee decides to inhabit it. Often they don’t, all that hard work! I’m just going to leave them alone.
Happy Thursday
No, I don’t think so, as he remembers taking them off because they were steaming up in the humidity – this is at Lowe’s. I wish the were at the gas station! Thanks Dee Dee. Stay safe!
Claudia, one time I drove off with my umbrella on the top of my car. Another time, I’d set a second set of keys up there. We eventually found the keys (they had slid with the vehicle movement) in that well where the windshield wipers are (but we never did find the umbrella). My husband did this with a pair of HIS glasses and we also never found those, and I think the problem is because the lens glass and brown/gray/black tones of most eyeglass frames just blends in too much with asphalt/pavement. (Repetitive problem with both him and me on this topic, where we must have our hands full, we’re trying to get in the driver’s seat and set things on the top of the car for ‘just a moment’ while we attempt to get organized, and the glasses et al get left right where we put them; so, I dunno, forgetfulness, distractedness, hurriedness; whatever. My husband also drove off once with his briefcase sitting on the trunk lid. And I did it with my cell phone, which got smashed to smithereens.
Oh, I’ve been absent minded at times, as well. This is a pattern with his glasses, however, and he wears progressive lenses which are quite expensive.
You might try cinnamon for ants. Sprinkle where you tend to see them
and around perimeter of cottage. It worked for me but I still reapply every spring. Good luck. E
Thank you, Elizabeth. I’ve tried cinnamon many times. They just find another way around it and come right on in the house! Stay safe.
I think I live on an ancient ant hill. A walnut orchard was once here, and my house was planted in that very dirt, plus we are adjacent to a hillside; there are a lot of bugs. Lots of creepy-crawlies. My husband has tried every ant deterrent; any number of organic remedies. When worse comes to worse, he will use a ant spray (not Raid; it’s something he sprays with a jug that has a wand) around the perimeter of the house but we have to be really careful/uber-careful of pets and wildlife. I can’t have it (any kind of spray or odorous application) in the house (who can?) because I have asthma.
We have been INUNDATED with ants in the past few years where I live in SoCalif due to severe drought, when I guess they look for water. I feed feral cats so I have to put their outdoor food bowls in trays of water so that the water can act as a moat, drowning ants before they can get to the food; and where I feed can’t have any plants or trees around or the ants can jump from a leaf or branch into the food dishes. Ants invade my entire neighborhood of 50 homes but especially we who back up to the hillside. The houses are 65 years old and have suffered all kinds of ‘settling’ and of course we have ground that tremors, and earthquakes do a number on a house with all kinds of little separations and cracks where ants can get in, even though we’re on a raised foundation.
The only thing that has finally worked is that we buy a truckload (that’s a joke) of the little narrow, plastic-y strips called “Terro Liquid Ant Baits”. They’re basically a ‘syrup-y’ borax solution, or so my husband tells worried me. We put them all over the inside of the house. We put them outside the house. They have no odor. They’re very small bait traps. When we have a huge bunch of ants, we’ll set those little plastic strips wherever we see the ant trail, right where they are, and it might take a couple of days, but then you’ll see the retreat. And, yes, you will also have dead ants in and around the traps.
We also seem to spend an inordinate amount of time vacuuming up the ants indoors and then ditching the vacuum cleaner bag. And we’re especially careful about food spills and making sure food items are securely closed up; tight lids, etc. We don’t let trash/garbage collect for long in the kitchen waste can (securely-lidded can) before we take it out to the larger City trash containers outdoors. I don’t like being the ant murderer, but there just comes a point where it’s you, or them. Every room in the house is just TOO much.
Six bait stations to a box/$17 per box; you just have to make the investment, realizing it’s just gonna be a summer expense. That’s Walmart’s price; read the recent, positive reviews. You can get them online and have them shipped out for home delivery. But I think you can get Terro baits anywhere, like probably any hardware-type store. Or garden center. Terro has a website. Again, it may take 2-3 days; be patient; but these baits do not fail us! I never would have known about them except for my across-the-street neighbor who was at his wit’s end a few years ago. Thing is, next time we go thru the major endeavor and expense of putting a fumigation tent over the house for termites (something you really should do [from the companies who specialize in this] every ten years in SoCalif although it’s very disruptive, like moving, for all you have to do to prep and then leave the home for a few days; cannot enter; and it has to be done anytime you have a sale of a home here), it’ll temporarily kill all the ants … but they’re relentless; they’ll come right back; it’s the environment and, of course, summer is their season.
We use Terro and happen to have some baits on hand. It was recommended by a pest technician.
Oh my…what a day! And, expensive no doubt! Unfortunately, we all have those days. But…yours was unusually unlucky. Sigh. Hang in there!
Love that fern…so luscious. Hope today goes much much better for you! ;)
It’s rather a low-key day here as it’s raining. We’re both wiped out from yesterday and not in the greatest of moods. But we’re not in bad moods, either. Stay safe!
You poor thing! It just goes to show it doesn’t pay to leave the house. I guess spending all those $$$ is possibly good for the economy, but there are so many more pleasant ways to spend them. And shouldn’t we all have learned by now not to set things on the roof of the car “just for a second” and yet we (maybe I should only speak for myself) do it anyway. Hope today is peaceful restful and full of joy for you and Don.
I’ve done it with gas caps. I remember losing one once because I drove off with it still on the roof. Thanks Christy. Stay safe.
That was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. I think you need to go to Australia.
But the fern. The fern is gorgeous!
Good luck with the ants.
I need to go to Paris!
Thanks so much – that fern is now three summers and two winters old. It’s doing pretty well! Stay safe, Jeanie.
I wonder when you CAN go to Paris again, Claudia. Have you thought about it? I have; a lot. How so many people maybe just retired and had their once-in-a-lifetime trips planned, only to be in limbo now; parked at the curb. All those Paris street scenes, which both you and I have been lucky enough to see with our own eyes, and indeed sit in the bistro chairs of sweet little cafes, watching all the passersby. I wonder when it can ever happen again; will we ever return to that kind of freedom completely? Can it ever be the same? When you think of big cities and how people mingle, gather and crowd each other, while enjoying so many wonderful amenities…is that gone forever? What will things look like, two years from now; three years. I can’t imagine what you and Don must shake your heads over, when you think of all the times you’ve both gone into New York City for work and play. But we’re all on hold, the whole world. It seems that post-Covid, it may be a very different world.
Oh, of course. We might not be able to afford it – that is the more likely scenario – but things will get back to normal. When, I don’t know. It might be a few years.
So sorry you had such a bad day, Claudia. Why are some days like that??? Praying for a better day for you and better days ahead.
I don’t know, but I sure don’t want a repeat! Thanks, Jenny. Stay safe.
sorry that you and don had such an expensive day yesterday (i would feel super-grumpy), but i am glad you can see/give thanks for all your blessings! hope today is an easier, brighter and cheaper day.
am sure you’ve already thought of it, but i am wondering … might don’s glasses be in his car at the service station?
i’ve heard caring for ferns can be tricky, but your boston fern is beautiful and looks very happy.
good luck getting rid of the ants! i’ve had ants here, too. i know they climb, but up nearly three stories?!? i use two different kinds of liquid traps at the same time (one is terro brand) and that seems to work as long as i set the traps out early, before i even see an ant.
hope you can sit outside and enjoy the flowers and nice weather. it’s supposed to rain here and i hope it does!
kathy in iowa
No, he is pretty sure he had them at Lowe’s. As he was trying to secure the trunk, he took them off because they steamed up in the humidity. Anyway, he’s already ordered new glasses and we’ve paid a deposit, so we’re stuck with the new ones.
I use terro as well. It’s the best I’ve found. We sat on the porch, but it’s been raining all day so our time out there was limited. I hope you’re slowly feeling better, Kathy.
I should have read all the comments first. I just did my big piece for Terro, but you’re already using them!
xo
Hi Kathy….just wanted to know if you are feeling better. Hope so!! ;)
kathy, how are you feeling?
We have these days…amazing…I wore those little reading glasses with contacts when teaching. I had pairs all over the classroom. The kids thought that was so funny…and joked often. I haven’t worn contacts during virus. alas..
I used to wear readers as well, but now I have a prescription. Stay safe, Brenda.
What a horribly expensive day for you both. Claudia, I admire your honesty about
life and that is one of the many reasons why I am a faithful reader of your blog.
Thank you Lea. Might as well be honest! I think it helps others to know they are not the only ones who have that kind of day. Stay safe, Lea.
Sending you hugs, Claudia. Such an expensive bad day. My husband is absentminded and has been this way the entire 45 years of our marriage. It is very trying on my patience at times. I’ve decided that he must have attention deficit disorder.
If I had a penny for every time Don has misplaced his glasses in the house, I’d be a rich woman! I feel your pain, Lily. Stay safe!
You don’t know how glad I am to hear this, if glad can be the word. I’ve been living with this extreme absent-mindedness with my husband for thirty years and I’ve decided as well that he’s either ADD or in the spectrum as they say (high functioning). He of course worries it’s always early-onset Alzheimer’s but he’s been to doctors about it…and, no. He checks out fine, for as much as they can test. I keep telling everybody and reminding him that he’s ALWAYS been like this; he was even this way in college. But for as much as you adore them, it does indeed put extra burden of responsibility on the other spouse. As I’d said in another comment another time to Claudia, I follow his breadcrumbs and have had to shadow him, or he’ll leave on the oven, the grill, the garden hose, leave yard gates unlocked, cars unlocked, the front door unlocked, windows. I’m a worrying sort anyway, so I really have developed OCD-style habits because I’m always having to check up on where he’s last been, and I can never be the first one to bed. I have to do the final checks, even when we leave to go someplace. He notoriously leaves the garage door open, which is on the street, and our town has recently had a rash of burglaries, so it’s not a small thing. He feels badly about all of this but seems powerless to change. Just before he retired, and I felt it was due to stress on the job, he lost his keys four times in four months, so I can’t even tell you how many times overall we’ve had to change the locks on our house. I tried to give him a small tape recorder to leave himself messages or reminders. If he puts it on a calendar, even on his phone, he forgets to look at it. Or he looks at it and promptly forgets. Also just before he was retired, he’d routinely miss meetings. On the one hand, he’s brilliant, and he had a long, stellar career; but, on the other hand, his memory and focus is poor. I have to leave him notes about things all the time to keep him focused. It can really test one’s patience (mine!) but the other side of it is that I just get so concerned for him … and I’m getting older myself to where I don’t always remember everything anymore either; and these are days with Covid that often further usurps our concentration in general; just too much on everyone’s minds. He’s the one of us who goes to the stores now (or the bank or wherever, on the few trips ‘out’) and I know how careful he wants to be for me (because I have about every co-morbidity for complications from the virus) but I’m often on edge about it, hoping he doesn’t slip-up when it comes to his mask, disinfecting/sanitizing, distancing, etc. Because it could have a really bad consequence, healthwise, for both of us.
Don isn’t that absent minded. I want to clarify that. It’s just with certain things, like his glasses and sometimes with his driving. He often helps me find something I’ve misplaced!
I can’t reach the roof of our vehicle, so fortunately I can’t lose anything there, but I can misplace things in so many other places it borders on chaos, at times. Sorry to hear you may have to replace Dons specs. We are also battling the ants – we’ve had them every year since we’ve moved here in 2016 – so frustrating. And I love your fern – it’s beautiful. The sideboard that it sets on is really nice too, although I think I can picture the raw wood painted a periwinkle color, or a lime green or even an orange color. I think it would really set off your fern even more beautifully. Hope tomorrow is much better and much less costly. Extra expense is the last thing any of us needs right now – or anytime, for that matter. Hugs – it will get better. Ranee (MN)
I guess I should have said hopefully today is much better.
xo
I like it the way it is, as we have a lot of natural wood on the porch and I like that look. Part paint, part weathered. I like the plants to be the splash of color (except for my little touches of turquoise!)
Thanks so much, Ranee. It’s a quiet day here. It’s raining and we’re both rather tired. Stay safe!
Hi Claudia,
I had that same issue with an AC a few years ago and ended up taking it out of the box and it fit right in. I was so worried that something would be wrong with it and I wouldn’t be able to return it because I didn’t have the box! It worked fine and still does.
I hate the mask thing. They are hot and almost claustrophobic, not to mention the glasses steaming thing, but they are a necessity we need to get used to them the same way we did with seat belts! I remember hating them too!
Hope you are enjoying a break today!
Kelly
The new a/c unit is working well. We have it on now, as it’s rather humid today! Thanks, Kelly. Stay safe!
Oh, what a day. Loved how your $$$ signs increased as the day went on. One good thing is that those sort of things happen in 3’s and it appears you had all 3 in just 1 day, so that must mean it is over for you. Hopefully. And glad the AC install was easy and it works well. The humidity really drains me. It sounds like we are going to have a lovely weekend of upper 60’s to low 70’s and sun.
Your Gov signed the order to say all store owners can require masks now. Hopefully most will do that. Not very many do here. It is like the wild west here. Unreal. We don’t feel safe at all to go anywhere. So we stay home to stay safe!!
Thank goodness for Cuomo. I watched people go in and out of Lowe’s yesterday and everyone had a mask on except for one young guy. I wanted to slap him.
Thanks, Chris. Stay safe.
Sorry about Don’s glasses. When my sisters were in elementary school they both broke their glasses due to carelessness. One put a bottle of ink in her bag right on top of the glasses. The other one placed her books on the glasses in her book bag. Years ago we purchased a TV and it would not fit in the trunk. A lady suggested we take it out of the box. It did fit. Hope today is a better day for you and Don.
Marilyn
Thank you, Marilyn! Stay safe.
Oh you’re so funny, Claudia! I’m so sorry you had so many $$ issues yesterday, but it’s so good to see you’re like we are! Almost 50 yrs of being married & the past couple of years have been at times, exasperating!! Funny little things that happen that drive me crazy!!?? I guess we’re just VERY fortunate to still have our partners :)) We’re also lucky enough to have the resources to resolve them.
Hopefully, as the days pass, things will improve.
Got to see our 6 month old granddaughter yesterday & that definitely made the world feel right for at least a couple of hours…
Enjoy your a/c. You certainly deserve it!!!!
We are. And we have wonderful partners. I’m sure there are times I drive him crazy as well!
So glad you got to see your granddaughter!
Stay safe.
Dear Lord do you sound like my husband and me, he being the one, my much beloved, who is SO forgetful, always has been and it’s getting worse with age. I’m so sorry you had such a stressful day! It was bad enough just being ‘out there’ in the world, and then with all the day’s complications. Sometimes life just doesn’t get easier, does it…
…like, we bought this new frig and it’s not local, the thing has to be shipped cross-country; we sort of had our verbal skirmishes about it because I’d prefer to buy local (I’d never heard of this online company where he found the frig although I could see the inside of their warehouse when we asked for photos of the appliance), and my husband did what I do NOT prefer and that was give his debit card info to a ‘live’ human on the other end of the phone which I just do not think is safe (if you get hacked, and the debit card is of course attached to your bank account, the thief has already taken your money by the time you and the bank know what’s going on; debit cards don’t offer the same fraud protection; with a debit card, your personal money is on the line; with credit cards, it’s the card issuer’s money); then, we watched the bank activity and they entered the charge for the frig as a debit, then a credit, plus three other weird/odd charges which made no sense, I worried all night long as to what the heck was going on and even phone-transferred some of the money out of the account for protection; but, in the end, our bank info via the debit numbers went thru at least three people’s hands and it was a lot of phone calls, so I was going nuts and it resulted in my husband taking an unexpected trip to the bank this morning and canceling his debit card to get a new one (with me saying, “what did you learn from this; what is the lesson” and he agreed he has to be careful with the debit card, and I know I got a little paranoid over the whole thing, but it’s just that my influence from all the things I’ve read is that you’re better off ordering online with a cart and credit card in terms of limits of liability would there be any ‘funny business’ going on, human-to-human although of course people in businesses like that are supposed to be bonded, but we had a neighbor who was convinced she’d even been breached at her own bank, so I’m probably ‘way OVER-cautious to my husband’s false sense of security with a halo on his head and an angel on his shoulder; he always thinks he’s the exception and not the rule, that bad things happen to other people, not him).
Wasn’t it Gilda Radner, the comedian, who said, “It’s always something.”
I know you have to be cautious, but we’ve never had trouble using our debit card, either online or via the phone. The bank is liable for any errors. Stay safe.
Hi Vicky, I am a long time, if 10 years is long time to you, I’m a long time reader. (It is a very long time for a blog to run.)and this is a top notch Blog!
I thought I might just horn in and let you know,I have found certainly, I tried to use reliabley
is that even a word,? and I found most certainly A debit Card with your trusted bank is very reliable and in some cases better, more safe than Credit cards. just thought I’d relay that.
it used to be the opposite as you now believe, not any more.-My humble findings
Judy A
Thanks for your opinion, Judy A. I appreciate that you did indeed ‘horn in’! And I send you my best regards.
My fear is probably somewhat founded/grounded in ignorance so I probably should go in one of these days (not Covid days) and talk to my bank manager so that I can improve my understanding! I’m hyper-sensitive to all this stuff right now because, shortly after Covid erupted, we were notified by the credit-watch company we pay for every month (identity theft protection company) that it appeared we’d been hacked; that we were a victim of identity theft; that someone tried to take a loan out, or get a credit card in our name. Initially, not much was known and of course all these companies were on reduced staff due to the virus, so it takes much longer to get business done and to also get thru to operators/representatives to get answers & info. Anyway, as it turned out, with our protection company consulting at length with the company who’d seemingly attempted to run a credit check (on our credit report) for the potential thief (our credit was not frozen at that point, and we were remiss to have not gotten that done previously, as we’d been told we were part of the Equifax and Quest Labs breaches; Target, too; and I think Macy’s, although I hadn’t shopped there in a long, long time), nothing could connect the dots; this other bank said they hadn’t approved a card or a loan and didn’t have any info on us at all, but that was the link according to our protection agency, so the determination was that it was some sort of mechanical error. But it was unnerving enough to make us instantly freeze our credit with all three credit reporting agencies and be on the (red) alert (to the protection agency’s advice); so again, I’m extra edgy about these sorts of problems/issues, which probably but understandably clouds my judgment (as it’s been a fairly recent and fearsome dilemma).
Claudia, Try cornmeal for your ant problem. My sister swears by it . Just sprinkle over the ant hills and where ever you see them.
Sandy
Thanks, Sandy. Stay safe!