Today I heard water running, and not the kind like from a faucet. It was more like a very loud spraying sound. It sounded like someone was taking a shower with the water on full force. My dog can’t take a shower by himself, of course, and he and I were the only “people” in the house. I walked in the bathroom only to get body hit, head to toe with a full heavy spay of water. The line right above the shut off valve to the toilet had sprung a major leak. Leak? Heck, it was a multiple jet spray, to say the very least. I was able to get to the shut off valve and now will no doubt have to pay a fortune for someone to come fix it. Needless to say, I am not happy.
Donations
Where I live, there is what is called “The Free Store”. People drop off donations of everything from household items, clothes and just about anything in gently used condition. They are only open one day a week and it gives the less fortunate people a chance to get some items for themselves and family. I cleaned out my closets, drawers and cupboards this week and didn’t realize how much stuff I have accumulated. I thought about having a garage sale, but then also remembered the hassle of my last one. It just wasn’t worth it. I also thought about giving the items to one of the used stores in the area, who’s name I won’t mention here, but I once did that and saw a shirt I had donated (which I had gotten new for 4.00) marked with a 6.00 price tag. I didn’t like the fact that these people had jacked up the price like that in a second hand store. So, I have all my things bagged and boxed up and am taking it to the free store today. This way, at least maybe someone will get good use out of the items and not have to pay for them, as I was giving them away in the first place.
Dreading grocery shopping
I have been procrastinating going to the market and grocery store and running the errands I have to do. Grocery shopping, even for one person scares the hell out of me anymore. I have noticed, as everyone undoubtedly has, that grocery prices are soaring and there doesn’t seem any respite in sight. I so feel for people who have to feed families of two or more. It’s nearly impossible to eat healthy with the prices as they are. What kicks butt is “Lady Michelle” (and I use that term loosely anymore) raves about eating healthy and our kids having healthy meals such as hers do. I’m sure those two girls indeed have healthy meals. Umm.. DA…they are the President’s children and have free access to all these healthy tidbits of nutrition. Normally I don’t speak like this about politics the President, no matter who he is, or in a negative nature about issues concerning our “Leader”. I have had enough though. I could go on and on and fill pages now about issues I’ve kept my mouth shut about. But for now…I have to write a grocery list that will not drain my bank account. I seriously doubt if I’ll be eating as healthy as I used to be able to though.
Old dog new tricks?
My little brother is still trying to teach me about web hosting. I sometimes am a really slow learner when it comes to the tech stuff pertaining to the computer. Hence, I have been reading up on and studying everything he has been kind enough to keep repeating to me, writing notes for me and also giving me all sorts of little tips and what not, for basic advertising for my small business that if I ever learn, will indeed boost my income considerably.
Recently I’ve been checking out and learning about web hosting ratings. Apparently from what I have gleaned from this issue, is that it is a pretty important part of this whole process. To be honest, it is really helpful and is written in a way that I, even not being a computer geek, can understand.
While looking at various options, prices and tech support, I being the person I am…clicked on Fat Cow Green Hosting. Reasons? Well, in all honesty I liked the silly name. Then I got to reading about the ratings, the fact that there was unlimited disk space and traffic, lots of free stuff, like domain and set up and also it was inexpensive…right in my budget range! With the help of my little bro, I should be able to figure all this out. Time will tell. As I have said in previous posts, I’m learning. Slowly but surely and finding all of this quite interesting, if truth be known!
The Aunts.
I have two Aunts that I am called to visit occasionally. It’s more like a summons than an invitation though. Don’t get me wrong, I love them both dearly and have some really great childhood memories with them, but sometimes these summons are rather scary. I never know what I’m walking into when I get there. This time it was about my financial future. Mainly in stocks. Well, not mainly but I also discovered The Aunts had really been busy learning the computer when they started talking about online trading.
I must tell you that I know absolutely nothing about any of these fancy words they were using to take care of my financial future, but it was kind of interesting to hear these little elderly ladies sounding like CEO’s of major corporations. Stock trading I found really interesting, since one of the Aunts had invested in a cereal company’s stock years ago and I must admit, it has done very well. So that subject I indeed listened to.
One can only drink so much tea while listening to The Aunts and also looking at financial reports, and also worrying about in one or the other were sick and “preparing me” for the news. I grabbed a beer out of the fridge, (They knew I was coming and prepare of course…lol!) and sat back down at the table to hear more about IRA accounts, since they both were on a roll! 🙂
A friend coming to visit!
A dear friend who I’ve known for nearly 25 years is coming for a visit. His daughter is graduating this month and though they live so very far away from one another, he wouldn’t miss this for the world. He loves his daughter so much. He will be flying into Chicago, as that is where his brother lives and will then drive to Michigan. Problem is, no transportation and renting a car is another problem, since for his daughter’s graduation present, he wants to buy her a good used car. That way, he will have transportation during his stay, and then give her the car before he leaves. I thought it was a great idea, as there are a lot of people he would like to visit, and places to go. His brother told him about looking at used cars in Chicago. He could buy one there, drive here and not have to rent a car to look for a car. Makes perfect sense to me!
Breanne my friend’s daughter, is the outdoorsy type of young lady. And she is always on the go. She loves to travel and in her old car, I can remember her coming to visit me last year and it looked like she had packed that little car as though she were going on a year long vacation around the United States, instead of on a two hour drive to stay here for week. I had to laugh when she even pulled out a waffle maker, because she wanted to make me “her famous Breanne waffles.” I suggested to her father that he look at something like a Cheverolet Avalance because it’s roomy, looks great and in the QT I called his kid to find out what she really wanted. I’m sneaky like that! 😉
Bless my friend’s heart. Though he loves his daughter so much, he has no clue how girls that age are, and certainly believes his “little girl” is still that…a little girl. Boy do I have news for him. He will soon learn that she indeed is her own person and has unique ideas. She and my youngest daughter are the same age and are great friends also. They both will have their new to them used cars, and I’m excited for this visit.
Gate house for sale?
After all the damage that had to be fixed some weeks ago in the Texas cottage, I’ve been thinking about selling. I’d like to get a place somewhere much warmer and perhaps on a beach. I’ve always loved the ocean, sunshine (of course) and the ocean, though I won’t go into the ocean above my knees since I once was circled by three sand shark some years ago, on the Gulf of Florida. THAT sort of, to say the least, turned me off on going in to swim. Sooo, I’ve been looking into Dallas real estate, and the going prices of homes, cottages and vacation homes.
I’m going to hate to sell in a way, as it’s such a beautiful place with horses to care for and ride and all the roaming trails and other perks of escaping to there if I want, but looking into Dallas homes for sale, I realized that this place I could make a profit on and have enough money for a decent other get away, easily. I know I’ll miss it, but I also think it’s time for a change.
When I started looking at the Dallas homes for sale, I also did some calling to the real estate people. Talk about some really friendly helpful people. I was totally surprised…pleasantly so. The folks I spoke with are great! They don’t see a problem at all with the sale of my place. Since I basically have a “Texas” motif and furnishings, wall hangings and even dishes, I asked if all of that could be included in the sale, (all except the personal items I want to keep) and the answer was yes, and it would bring the price up even more, since it would be furnished. So, I’m going to wait and let these nice friendly professionals do the leg work and their job for me. It’s well worth it!
Serious Contemplation.
I’ve seriously been thinking about getting some property in Florida. I lived there some years ago, and never miss the chance to go back, when I have the chance and I can get the time to go. I have quite a few friends who live there and I’ve been asking around about some places there, and have found quite a few that I’d like to look at. My niece wants to go down with me for a vacation for her 18th birthday, and I’m thinking it would be nice to take her and show her around where I used to live, and in the process, check out some places. A lot of people don’t like going to Florida in the summer because it is so hot and the storms are a bit iffy. But heck, the weather is iffy all over the world now. I’ll let you all know if we decide to take our little vacation. Right now, I’m checking out real estate online.
Car fix its.
I used to love to work on my own cars and trucks. Even in my teen years, I tinkered with the old vehicles at the farm and tried to get them running. Learning by watching, listening and by a whole lot of trial and error. I still can work on cars and even my old 84 Bronco truck, as long as it’s not got all the computerized stuff in it. If so…I’m screwed.And I happen to have a truck that indeed has the computerized “everything” in it, as I needed a newer vehicle to drive that was super dependable.
It’s hard to find a good honest mechanic who won’t take advantage of a woman. I don’t care what anyone says. Surfing the net I found a great link and these great people there will even do sorts of trouble shooting for your common auto repair and maintenance, if something is going wrong yet, you don’t know what to do about it, AND don’t want a repair person to tack on all sorts of other charges on things you don’t really need fixed, replaced or messed with. A great source of knowledge, and help. Especially for a woman.
Recently I had a bad experience with a auto repair shop that cost me a small fortune, which is why I decided to click around the net and see what I could find. I don’t mind this being a sponsored post at all, especially when I find a great deal of info and service. 🙂
Moving Day
A friend of mine is going to move, so she went to her local movers to get some information about the dates, and the size of trucks she would need and all of the moving stuff, I have always hated to do over the years when I moved. I personally have always just recruited a bunch of big guys I know, with big pick up trucks, and had a beer and pizza party for all the helpers later, let them camp out and called it a move.
Elise of course, is different than I am. She is so organized it drives me nuts. I swear she even has her thumb tacks in little containers with a sticky tag on them and labeled, buy color code. And this move was going to be a big one, across State. No big burly guys with pick up trucks for her!! Nope, she went and got her first, local moving quotes, then decided to do some more planning. Such as if using the local mover was a good idea. It turns out, she did her planning much better than I thought…or ever would have thought, even knowing her so well. I usually got boxes at the local grocery stores, or the liquor stores because they have great boxes with the bottle separators in them, so I could pack up breakables and not have them clinking together. Then the other belongings I just put in boxes figureing, I have to unpack the stuff, and put it away anyway, so it didn’t matter what when in which box. Elise is not me. While she was getting moving estimates I sort of was folding her towels and sheets, pillowcases and such. But NOT just throwing them in boxes, as she hadn’t come home with the “proper” ones yet. She called and said she was going with the long distance movers, and that she would get back to me. Oh…she did mention not to touch her kitchen…LOL!
My friend came back to her place from getting her moving estimates, she was very please and showed me everything online. Good Lordy, they do everything for you. I don’t know if I’d like a bunch of people packing up my things, but we’ll see how Elise like this smooth move. She is getting excellent rates, I must admit.