Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Nothing going on from July 15 just found

It's been a couple of weeks since I've posted anything.  It's about time I did something. 

I've been busy downloading some new kits to make pages with. One of my favorite designers had a great bargain going on in one of her stores. I bought the whole shop for $25. and believe me that's been a great time for me. She is really a fantastic designer and her kits are so easy to work with. I've picked up a number of them for Halloween and some for Christmas too! I mean, it's a scrapper's paradise to have the run of the whole store.  Kinda good thing I have a large external hard drive to store things on.  For anyone who's interested here's the lady's web site:  http://www.twilightscraps.com/index.php?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=113

I'm settled into my new living quarters. I'm sharing an apartment with my Grand daughter "Bridgit" and her daughter Olivia. We're saving to buy a house of our own with a fenced in yard for the little dog we have. Her name is 'Serenity' but she's anything but serene. She's a little Chihuahua who has lots of hair and she does look pretty funny some days. She likes to chase my cat and doesn't quit even when she gets slapped by Mrs. Beasley. Pictures of the two of them.
Little Miss Serenity. She's grown a little bit but she's still only 4 pounds.

Mrs. Beasley hasn't changed much. She was born in April of 2002 and I believe she's doing a kitty menopause cause she is really grouchy. Doesn't get along with anyone and even takes little bites of me.

Back at last

 Had a major crisis on Thurs. when at about midnight on Wed. we had an outage. I was sitting on the front steps trying to get my lungs adjusted and cooled down. Then at 2 am when the power was restored to the block (I was still awake) the lights on the boxes controlling our big TV starting flashing and going out and then coming back. I finally fell asleep around 3 or so and was wide awake at 6 am. Lights were still flashing. I didn't turn on the tv but I did try my computer. It would come up and then flash black screen and then come right back to what I was doing. we fussed with it all day Thurs and finally Bridgit called one of her surrogate dads. She talked to his wife and Steph drove Kenny over here. 

He came over and checked things with his meter but we aren't sure what he was seeing. He finally called another surrogate Uncle and he agreed to come over in the morning. I went to a friends house that was A/C'd and slept in her recliner. Then Friday am Kenny showed up and picked me up and came up here again to meet with surrogate Uncle Jim. Jim is an electrician with the school district so he could be trusted and after a few measurements, and taking the panel apart, he said to call the city that we were getting bad power from the pole. This is a Friday morning. First Bridgit called the landlord and Uncle Jim explained what he thought was "bad power" from the pole.

The landlord called the city dept in charge of incoming power from the pole to the house. They managed to snag a crew finishing up a job and diverted them to our house. They looked at the meter panel on the outside of the house. Took the meter off and opened up the panel. Discovered that the "???" (can't remember the name of the line) was burned out by the power surge coming back on Thurs. in the early am. Since that was the line burned out it was our (Meaning the home owner) responsibility to fix it. Now this whole time [several hours] Bridgit was on the phone with the landlord who lives in Seattle and calling the certified electricians on the list of names the city maintenance crew had given her and finally found one who could come out and look at it. The city crew had cut the incoming power from the big pole to the little pole on our house earlier so he just got right to work.

But there had to be one last glitch: A permit was needed, so he went to city hall to get the permit, and the clerk at the desk wasn't going to issue it because of the forms needed, so said electrician called Bridgit and told her the clerk wouldn't do anything till Monday. He gave her the phone number of the clerks desk and Bridgit called her directly and it was a sight to listen to from this end. Bridgit calls them "a come to Jesus talk" and she doesn't use them very often but when she gets stressed and worried about me she will be the proverbial Mother Hen. After her tirade, the electrician came back with the proper permit and proceeded to fix the incoming line to the house. Then Bridgit called the city back and the clerk said an inspector had to sign off before thee power could be turned back on. Of course it's Bridgit making this call to get the power restored and she reminded the clerk that the electrician we used was their own already approved and certified contractor so the power could be on and the inspector could come by on Monday for the final sign off. 

Must have been the same clerk cause the city crew came back just before their end of work day at 3 pm and they restored our house to normal. Just one stressed out Bridgit and the landlord was very impressed with how she got things done on our end and all he had to do was give his billing info to the electrician. She never told him that between the calls to the landlord and city and electrical contractors she finished off a bottle of wine. 

Friday evening was a breeze. We were ok in the house, and Bridgit was just mellow enough to be calm.  And the reason Bridgit has so many surrogate Dads and Uncles is because her biological father died when she was only 2 yrs old. These men are group of buddies who ran around with him in the 80s. She has 2 surrogate Dads and a whole passel of surrogate Uncles.  It was a pretty rough time for all of them and they vowed that would look after his little girl and they are doing just that. 

I realize this was a pretty long post but I was telling a true story and I didn't want to mess it up. You can laugh cause I sure did from where I was sitting and knowing I was the cause for the 'come to Jesus' talks that were done. She reminded the clerk that her grandmother was a 20 year veteran, and former Hanford worker who was on Oxygen 24/7 and if they didn't get the power restored to run her concentrator she was going to call the TV stations and tell them how the city was treating a veteran, let alone a 75 yr old senior citizen. That got their attention real quick.  I'm proud of her but sometimes she gets a little overboard.

Now I'm back to normal. Making pages with my replacement software.
A lovely mother of 2 charming kids whose pictures you will see now and then here on this blog.

Great Grand daughter Kaddie from 2010 with her siste Mia.


Lovely mother to Kaddie & Mia..

Moe at Liz's wedding. If there is a baby in the area she'll be finding it. This one is Lucca.

Mow and husband Phil at Liz's wedding.

Beautiful QP by Mat from Miriam's Scraps.

A dear friend from my 6th grade era who found me through her daughter finding my name and now we talk almost every day. And she sure surprised me by being in New Zealand now. 
Time to get ready for my errand run to the bank and grocery store.

Have a nice day Hugs to all.

Sunday, August 16, 2015

It's been awhile

I noticed my last post was July 12; a whole month ago! Well, all I can say is it's been so hot my brain couldn't think of anything to post about except heat in the 100s.  today it's going to be in the mid 80s which is fine with me. We have 2 stand up fans, 2 double window fans, 1 small fan, 1 Ionizer and I portable air cooler going 24/7. Can't imagine what our electric bill is going to look like. If it weren't for going down to Lorene's to do some laundry, or going to the many doctors offices I've been to, we wouldn't have any relief at all.  The total energy man came by and did an assessment/estimate for the land lord to put in different A/C-heating combo. It'll get him a tax break and us some cooler air.  When you have a lung problem of any kind, (my COPD/Emphysema and Olivia's Asthma & whatever Bridgit has also) it makes breathing in extremely difficult. We have survived and the end is near.

One day last month (July 20th to be exact), I sat here in this un-airconditioned house waiting for the delivery of the new floor tiles for about 4 hours. Then after he had loaded everything (10 heavy boxes) and I had locked up the house and headed to the bus with my "cadallic walker". I thought since it was a back track from the bus stop to our house I'd leave by the other end of  our block. All of McClellan is confined to this one block. We are the 4th house on this side and our number is 1801 and then there are 2 other sets of numbers the 1701s and the 1901s. Doesn't make much sense to me but hey, I didn't set up the numbering system.

 Anyway, I went to the corner and turned right and then promptly got lost for over 45 mins in 104 degree heat pushing my walker. I had my oxygen and a bottle of water but I managed to get a case of 'heat stroke' or so I was told that I did. A 3 day stay in the hospital and I was diagnosed with a small heart attack and low potassium. Had to have 3 transfusions of the plasma with electrolytes in them and 6 horse sized pills of potassium. They didn't do the 'cardiac stress test' since the one doctor decided that I'd already had the equivalent of their treadmill test walking around for 45 mins in 104 degree heat. And even after a cool shower and resting in the recliner for about 4 hours  I asked Bridgit to take me to the ER. The chest pressure was making it difficult to breathe again. So we did and they decided I needed to be their guest for 2 more nights.  Best thing is they brought me ice cream whenever I asked for it.

Now I'm going to start making more scrapbook pictures. I had to buy another copy of my program and it arrived yesterday. I'll save this draft and actually post it after I'm done playing with the new version of Scrapbook factory deluxe.

Ashley with her 2 grandmothers who went to Oregon for her graduation from Chef's school.

A little day out and a tour of the pirate ship "The Lady Washington". At least it looks like a pirate ship and the crew all look like pirates in the dress code. No eye patches nor parrots on board. 

Lorene taking a selfie at the beach in Oregon after her daughter graduated. It looks like Ashley's getting wet for the first time and it looks cold.

Mia and Devin on the Lady Washington.

Lorene's 3 daughters together again and very happy.

Olivia went camping with her Grandpa Kenny and Grandma Stephanie. They even got her mother to go and spend some time in a tent and the other niceties of roughing it!!

Well it's time to get our act together and go to Lorene's for dinner. Ashley the new Chef's school graduate is cooking dinner and we are all set to be amazed.

See you again in a couple of days.