Miracles

Sometimes miracles do happen 

    I called X Finity again today.  Got a different lady. 

    I told her our landline was working, but it was not our number.  We can call out, but not in.

    I also told her I have been dealing with this for over a month and was getting pretty frustrated.   I did not yell, or belittle people, just stated the truth.

    She told me that they sometimes assign a temporary number when they are converting a mobile to a land line.  I told her the land line worked for 3 days, then didn't work.

    She promised service would be restored by 9 a.m tomorrow, May 4.

    I told her tomorrow is May 3, but I will be happy if it is restored May 4.

    Then I realized that she is probably in a country where it was already May 3.

    We went to a retirement party.  

    Either when we came home or before we left, the phone rang!!!  Nobody was there, but it rang.  So I called home on my mobile.....home phone rang.  Jackie called.....home phone rang.  I used the home phone to call Jackie....call went through.

    A miracle!!

    The retirement party was for our friend Renee, who just ended a long and successful career at NIU.

    I actually talked to people!  Most of them I knew, but I even talked to a couple of people I did not know, which is a pretty big step for me.

    When I got home my plan was to do a little stuff outside, but my nephew and niece were e on their way to Rockford from points east and they stopped off for supper.

    It was great to see them.  Their mother, my sister in law, is moving from an assisted living apartment to a room in a memory care unit.

    There was a lot of dark humor, but underneath it all is a lot of worry and sadness.

    Julia and Emily came over for supper too, and we all had a great time visiting, telling stories, and laughing.

    The outside chores?  Never got done.

    But there is tomorrow.

Peace and Love

        Especially Peace

Beth brought this in from the back yard.  A rib??

The wooden beds are going......eventually

When your friends realize you need special care and parking.  The really strong young guys who got Jackie in the house were a big help!

OMG

Well,  that was short lived

    Our land line was working fine last Sunday.

    Jackie could call me on it.  I could call on it.  We could use it.

    Last night we could not use it.

    So I called my XFinity friend and explained what happened.  She transferred me to Russell in their tech department, because she could not see any problem with the line.

    I talked to Russell for over an hour.  He eventually said he was passing the issue of our land line up the ladder to a higher tech person.

    He said the process should take about an hour, and then my land line would be restored.

    After an hour, I called our home line.  I got a message that our message box was full.

    OK, so I called Jackie's mobile and asked her to call me on the house phone.

    She did, and the call went through.

    But then I looked at the screen that gives the number of the caller, it was not our number!

    I called that number, the one that came up on the phone, and was given a message that that number was no longer in service and I should call the company's main number.

    What the hell??

    When we call from our home phone number, it shows as a different. number!

    I was just too tired and frustrated to call again.

    We started work on the new raised gardens.  Julia, Emily, Sheri and I moved one garden bed to another.  It was not fun.

    We had pizza and wine to mark the finish of one bed being filled.   3 more to go,

    Beth came in from the back yard today with a bone in her mouth.  Don't know where it came from.  Looks like part of a rib.  She was very proud of her find.  She was not happy I took it from her.

    I scoured the back yard but did not find any other bones.  

    Weird.

    But that seems to be going around lately.

Peace and Love

        Especially Peace

phase 1

Phase 1 of my Top Secret Project is done 

    Friend Sheri came over today and we put together the final 3 planters.

    Phase 2 starts tomorrow.

    We are going to take one of the planters, put it in position, and see how hard it is to fill it from another planter.

    Anyone with an hour or 2 and an extra shovel is welcome to stop over  after 4:30 and toss some dirt.

    Of course, that all depends on the weather.

    The pit of my brain is telling me, "This is nuts.    You are almost 78.  You should not be expanding your work, you should be contracting it.  What were you thinking?"

    What I am thinking is these are going to be the most expensive tomatoes and carrots ever grown in this universe.

    But when it is done, all I will have to do is go out every other day and spend countless hours weeding.  

    But it is too late now.  I have crossed the Rubicon.

    We have a cleaning lady every other week.  We pay her.  She did not come today because she was sick, so I started cleaning the house.  I asked Jackie if I get the money for cleaning.

    Long and short answer: NO!

    Oh well.  

    One of the gas stations in town is at  $4.49..........holy crappers, Batman!  

    I have a feeling that is going to be considered cheap by next fall.

    Hope I am wrong.

Peace and Love

    Especially Peace

dominoes

 Sometimes one thing leads to another

    Back in the day, that was a belief held by  the political leadership.  The belief was. that if a country fell to communism, the countries next to it would also fall.  Like dominoes.

    Ain't necessarily so.

    I have an unopened set of dominoes.  I bought it because it has been years since I played, and I. thought Jackie and I could play sometime.  But I never opened them.

    I never found my thrill on Blueberry Hill, but Fats did.  He was a successful Domino.

    I have always marveled at people who set up elaborate domino configurations, either made of dominoes, cereal boxes, bricks, whatever.  Then they hit one and the rest go racing around the design, falling perfectly from one to another.

    I finished mowing the yard today and boy, was I cold!

    Temperature was in the lower 50s, and in the fall that would have been pleasant.  But today it was cold and raw.  I may have windburn on my face.

    I thought the yard needed sweeping because there is a lot of cut grass.  I got out the catcher, then the dominoes started falling.

    To reach the actual sweeper that tows behind the mower,  I had to move the car.  Then I had to move the pieces to my Secret Project.  Then I had to move a sample of my secret project.

    I realized that before doing anything, which explains why the dead grass is still on the lawn.  Plus, I was cold and did not feel like riding the mower around any more than I already did.

    It also partially explains why I have not used my battery powered mower to mow between the existing planters, because that was behind the pull behind sweeper.

    Thus the first domino did not fall.

    Everything is still in its place.  I am still chilly, a full 5 hours after getting off the mower.

    I just put my morning load of laundry into the washer, which means at 9:30 it should be ready to go into the dryer.

    That means I will not be folding towels tonight, instead I will wait until tomorrow night to fold them, which means I will delay doing something tomorrow night involving laundry.

    Why?  Because that is the way I roll.

    And that's how the dominoes fall.

Peace and Love

        Especially Peace

busy, busy, busy

We had quite the day today 

    A crew from the landscaping company was here about 8.  

    The took apart the stones on the deck.

    When I signed the contract, one of the requirements was that there be no dog doo in the work zone.  I discovered why today.

    The guys took the pavers out and laid them in the grass in the same pattern that they took them out.  When it came time to relay the pavers, the operation was simple because they just put them back where they originally were.

    The soil was compacted, and gravel and sand were spread and leveled.  Then the pavers were put back, the joints filled with sand, and the job was done.

    They were finished by 3!  The foreman called me to tell me they were done, but we were coming back from Jackie's doctor appointment in Sycamore.  He told me to stay off the deck for at least 1 day, preferably 2, to give the joint compound time to set.

    Later the office manager called to make sure I was satisfied with the job and that the work area was ship shape.

    With Jackie's appointment, we combined 4 other errands to make the trip worthwhile.

    We had Julia pick up Beth because I was not sure how she would react in the house by herself with the guys working on the patio.  So I went to pick up  Beth and grab some cardboard for the new planters.

    When I got home I decided to mow.  Mistake.

    It was cold.  I did not finish.

    The grass is long.  I should have run the lawn sweeper to pick up the cut grass. But I didn't.

    I have not trimmed anywhere yet and it shows.

    After an hour of mowing I quit, made supper, and had a hot tea.  

    I am just now warming up....it's been almost 2 hours.

    If it doesn't rain tomorrow I will finish and sweep the yard, but the forecast is calling for showers.

    We'll see.

    And yes, I am tired.

    Hopefully we can get to bed earlier than last night and watch/listen to the Cubs in bed.

Peace and Love

        Especially Peace

awww. stop!

Jackie gets 2 "scam" alls a day on her mobile 

    Same number.  She does not know the number so she does not pick up.  The caller does not leave a message.

    Twice a day.

    I am not sure how to block the number.  I mean, I know how to do it, but I am not sure that I know.  I don't want to screw up her phone.  When one of the girls comes over we will have them do it.

    I thought I should answer it and start saying how glad I was to get your call and then talk non stop until they hung up.  I think I could do that.  But why risk saying something that could be used against me in a court of law.

    Our forecast for today was rain in the morning, followed by storms and possibly severe storms in the afternoon.

    The guys redoing our patio called about 8 and said based on the forecast, they would not be coming today but will come tomorrow instead.

    I said I understand totally.  

    We had thunder, lightning and rain about 11 but nothing this afternoon.  In fact, the sun was out for a while.

    Isn't that how it always works?

    If they had come, it would have poured.  

    Mother Nature is a fickle creature.

    I often ask our home pod for the forecast.  If the pod says rain, I always ask what time will rain.  The pod answers "there is no rain today."  Every time.

    If that is a sample of AI, we are in big trouble.

Peace and Love

        Especially Peace

behind door number 3

Our land line is back in service 

    No longer will people get a message that the Verizon customer has been disconnected.

    I got a call from a Comcast person this morning.  The call went to voicemail because I did not know the number and my phone screens calls.  I know, it is a pain.

    Anyway she told me her name was Sol (pronounced Soul) and she was calling to try to resolve my land line cancellation/reactivation issue.

    In sum:  I went to the store in DeKalb and dropped my home land line for a mobile line.  Julia and Emily and Jackie said no, so I returned the phone.

    I was told it took 4 days for the mobile line to be activated and they could not do anything until the line was activated.  So I went back later, returned the cell phone, and was told it takes about 4 days for the land line to be activated.

    That was about a month ago.

    I called twice, and was told the land line had not yet gone through the portal.  11 days ago they told me 48 hours and it would work.  It didn't

    The lady today took a lot of time working on this.

    What it came down to, in terms I can understand, the land line office handles land lines, the mobile office handles mobiles.

    There is a door between the offices.  

    My initial activity saw the land line info go through the door to the mobile people.  The transfer back from the mobile to the land line seemed to hit a closed door that was locked on one side.

    Sol today was able to unlock the door and allow the info to move back to the land line office.  She even called me on the land line and I could answer!

    I then asked her if I was going to be charged for the month I could not use the phone.  She said that was a billing issue.

    Just hope that door opens.

    We had a  big dog on our porch today!

    It was being walked and broke the leash an d took off.

    The dog was in our back yard and finally came to the people calling it.  

    At one point it came towards me and I reached out to pet it and the lady said not to, because the dog has been biting lately.  She showed my the bite marks on her hand.

    So I put my hands behind my bak and let the dog smell me.

    I believe it was a Rottweiler.  I am not sure, but I was going to be safe.

    They got the dog into a car and took it back home, wherever that was.

    Possible severe weather tomorrow.....time to hunker down.  Our weather radio will be busy!

Peace and Love

    Especially Peace