Toilet Ring

I have a couple of inexpensive toilets...one in my art room and one in the shop. They don't stain. I have two expensive toilets in the house. The immediately developed a red line at the water level. I tried everything to get did of it but nothing worked . A woman told me to pour a two liter bottle of Dr. Pepper in and after a while, wipe it with a dryer sheet. Well, it worked! Sprite would have looked better, though!

Toilet Ring

I have a couple of inexpensive toilets...one in my art room and one in the shop. They don't stain. I have two expensive toilets in the house. The immediately developed a red line at the water level. I tried everything to get did of it but nothing worked . A woman told me to pour a two liter bottle of Dr. Pepprt in and aftrrt a while, wipe it with a dryer sheet. Well, it worked! Sprite would have looked better, though!

Skunk

I heard a couple of shots from my neighbour's property and then smelled skunk. The wind has been blowing from that direction for two days. The smell isn't as bad, but it's still there!

Plumbing Problems

We had a plumber come today. He did several small things and one big one. The shower in the guest bathroom wouldn't work. Now it does and he didn't have to tear out the wall:) Our shower wasn't very forceful, more water coming out of the tub faucet than the shower. He replaced a plastic gizmo and now it closes properly. He would have fixed a dripping faucet except I told him wrong on the phone so he brought the wrong thing. He'll come back, but what he did today was wonderful.

More Seeds

It's easier to buy seeds, mostly, but some I try to collect every year. Dichondra Silver Falls is a ground cover that is fabulous in hanging baskets and flower boxes. It is easiest to buy the plants in the spring, but expensive in the numbers I want. So I spent pad of today trying to extricate seeds from the dried foliage I saved from last fall. I thought the seeds might shake free when dried. But they don't. So I painstakingly felt for the small lumps and got a few. I'll try for more tomorrow.

Seeds

It's a little early for starting seeds so I'm only starting some. I'm labeling the ones I'm planting and making the labels for the rest. It's an easy task for a rainy day.

Raymond E. Feist

Audible has Feist's Riftwar Saga. I'm listening to Magician Apprentice. I've read it before, but they only recently got it on audible.

Depressing

I guess I'm through watching Lethal Weapon. I liked it for a while but I'm about tired of crazy depression. That isn't entertaining.

Sunny Day

It hasn't rained or snowed for a couple of days so Larry went down to try to extricate the gator from the mud. He got it out, but the wet seat still had ice inside that crunched through when he sat on it. He came back with wet, cold pants! But the gator is back where it belongs:)

Still Home

I didn't volunteer today. I have a cold and don't think it would be good to spread my germs to people who are already sick!

Inside

Yesterday the pencil sharpener and colored pencils came. They had been held up due to bad weather.

Wet Ground

People with heavy cars who didn't have a problem with the snow, had vehicles sink to their axles in the soft ground that was left when the snow and ice melted.

Neighbors Checking

Two neighbors checked on us this morning. A wild-looking man was wandering down the road a little past midnight and disappeared in front of our property. One set of neighbors pulled up in the driveway and blew their horn and knocked on the front door. We slept through it all. I don't know where the guy went, but he didn't do a home invasion of our house. I asked why she didn't call the police or sheriff and she just shrugged her shoulders.

Finally Out

We finally got out of our snowbound yard. The road to the highway had a couple of icy, slushy patches, but we made it safely. Both of us needed prescriptions filled and a few things from the grocery store. When Larry went in to get his prescriptions filled, the pharmacist told him somebody had called the police and asked them to pick up her medicine. The policeman came and got it. They wondered if they were going to get paid, but said a couple of days later when the woman could get out, she came and paid. Larry got the gator stuck in the mud while I slept. We still have snow and ice in patches, but it is soggy wet everywhere.

Maybe Tomorrow

It was above freezing most of the day. We still have snow and ice, but it is shrinking. I hope tomorrow it will be clear enough to pick up my prescription and a few other things.

Above Freezing

It got a little above freezing today. It melted a little of the ice and snow but we just got a lot of long icicles which were sort of fun to break off in front of the door to the greenhouse. It's been a week since we've been able to get out of the driveway. At times like this I think about a heavy four-wheel drive vehicle. But it's a lot cheaper to just stay home.

Power Outage

Today we lost power for a little while. It snowed this morning for a short time. I guess we'll be snowed in until the weather warms up. We are lucky that we're warm enough. The paper last week had an article about a woman who was found dead from the cold. There must have been more than cold because it seems like if I didn't have heat I'd go stay with somebody who did until I figured something out.

More Snow

It was five degrees when I tucked in last night and eleven when I got up. It's snowing again.

More Snow

The snow was still pretty deep although some spots had started to thin when we got about four more inches. It's 11 right now. We don't usually have much snow, but we have plenty now. The cardinals came up to the bin where Larry stores the back oil sunflower seeds he uses to feed them on the platform feeder. I guess they pay attention.

More Inside

Nothing to clean, no reason to cook, so I colored again today. I'm out of the twistable green, so I dug out an exacto knife to sharpen the other colored pencils.

Boring Day

There's snow and ice everywhere so I tried to interest myself in chipping away ice and snow so I could at least get my car off the carport. I didn't do much. I put on my golf shoes with knobs on the bottom so I might not slip going down the hill for the shovel. I didn't slip, but I didn't shovel much. The rake wouldn't work. It just kind of combed the snow and went over the ice. The shovel worked ok, but was very slow. So I colored in one of my coloring books:)

Falling

When somebody big falls, it is awkward to try to help. I finally just put a chair nearby so he could haul himself up. He was lucky he didn't break anything. He didn't lose consciousness or he might have cracked his head.

Snow Cream

Snow, half and half, vanilla, and Splenda made my snow cream this morning. It snowed until after dark yesterday. But this morning the snow was still thick and powdery enough. Low carb treat every few years happens.

I also had poppers today. Six jalapeño peppers, halved with the veins and seeds removed, filled with a large package of cream cheese mixed with bacon bits and topped with shredded cheddar made four servings.

Baby Steps

It was sleeting this morning when I woke up. It turned to snow next and snowed all day. Larry thinks we got about four inches but I think it was closer to six because the single layer of tires I put at the end of a flower bed to keep my neighbor's 4-wheeler out was completely filled in around them. I swept the snow off the carport pretty regularly and dusted the snow off my car so it wouldn't have a chance to turn to ice. I've figured out that flat-footed, small steps keep me from falling on wet, snowy, or icy concrete, mud, or ice on a slight incline. Well, it's working so far. Happy snow day!

Thursdays

Thursdays are frequently busy for me. I feel energetic because I volunteered Tuesday and Wednesday so I get up ready to go on Thursday. I cooked for the refrigerator today and cleaned some. Poppers, sesame seed chicken with bacon, jello with sour cream, bacon, onion, pepper, and eggs for five days. I like the copper skillet I'm currently using. The thing I hate most about scrambled eggs is cleaning the skillet. I've used nonstick skillets which didn't work well for long (and I don't know how long the copper skillet will stay nonstick, but so far, so good), and black iron. I figured as long as the nonstick wasn't working anyway, I might as well use black iron and not use that one for cornbread.
We are supposed to have ice and snow. Sometimes it's a long time before we can get out of our driveway when we have ice under the snow. But it's in the low sixties, so even if we have ice and snow, I don't see how it can stick to warm ground. But it is supposed to get really cold again, so maybe. Anyway, we should be all right.

Bernard Cornwell, Starbuck Chronicles

Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series is well written and interesting. The characters, settings, and plots are well done. I'm currently listening to the Starbuck Chronicles. There are only four because the Sharpe series started being televised and he concentrated more on it...that's what he says, but honestly I think writing about a Civil War character just had to be too depressing to continue. He does a good job. There are good and bad people on both sides and people of conviction on both sides, but it is seriously depressing.

Pencil Tree

The gift shop had a prelit green pencil tree.  We sold it at silent auction. I bought it. So next year I will be able to have a Christmas tree without moving furniture. We haven't had a tree for the past two years because putting up the tree we have requires moving furniture. I don't know where to store the tree; right now it is on the couch in the art room. But I'll think of something!

Better

I sent off an order for seeds a couple of days ago. The greenhouse is ready for planting in February. My cuttings are alive. We must be better this year than this time last year because last year I didn't order seeds. I couldn't bear the thought of planting the seedlings. Larry felt awful and I was doing pretty much everything. I'm still doing some of the things he used to do, but he's so much better. So, the seeds are ordered and the flats are ready for them:)

Electronic Weather Stations

We have two of these electronic weather stations. We had one on purpose and liked it a lot. It gives the temperature inside and outside. But it stopped working. So Larry bought another one with larger display numbers. Then he got the first one to work so I put the outside one in my greenhouse. I can sit in my chair in the living room and check the temperature in the greenhouse:)

Winter Activity

January is a good time for me to do inside things such as clean out under the sink cabinet. It isn't fun, but it's over for this year.

Stuff off the Floor

I've spent a couple of days trying to get stuff off the floor so I don't have so much to move for the electronic vacuum to get everywhere. A couple of trips to the basement helped. Throwing some stuff away helped. It's a good idea. I don't know why I waited so long to have that particular idea.

Electronic Books Organized

I have a lot of electronic books, both on Kindle and my iPod. I kept the order on my Kindle for a while, but a couple of years ago I started putting them by author in a little notebook. That worked, but became disorganized as an author outgrew its allocated space. So I'd have another author in the middle of an author's output. So I bought a box to hold index cards and started transferring authors onto index cards and putting them in alphabetical order. To add to one, I just have to find the last index card to see if there is space on it. If not, I can start a new card and not have to worry about it lapping into another one.

Electronic Vacuum

My new electronic vacuum came today. I got it charged and ran it for the first time. It did a good job. I was glad to have one again. I had a Roomba for years. This one is a Deebot and is a little different, but good. Its bin is larger than the other one. It ran for a long time. It got caught once on a threshold but made it the next few times without trouble. It crammed itself under the library table and I had to get it out. It immediately wanted to go back under, but didn't wedge itself in that time.
The worst thing was that it wants a meter clearance on each side where it charges, so I had to do some moving, but it's ok.

TMI

Yesterday the lady serving lunch asked how I was and I said I was fine. Then I asked how she was and she said she was sick and going to the doctor as soon as she got off work. I didn't want to hear that the woman serving my lunch was exhaling germs with every breath. I was telling a friend today (the worker was absent today) and she said where they ate yesterday, the woman in charge said they had no water and the cooks weren't able to wash their hands! I guess we're working on building our immune systems.

Free Stuff?

I'm getting notice of free stuff on my email. I am deleting it because I didn't ask for free stuff. I also marked it as spam.

New Year's Resolutions

I plan to keep to !y low carb diet and exercise. I put my little trampoline, a ball, and three pound weights in the greenhouse as well as a simple peddler. I hate exercise, but that's my plan.