Seasoning: A bit of this and a bit of that

The water in the kitchen sink still isn't working. I did use the sprayer attachment while I was doing the dishes right before the water stopped running. In thinking back, that's what happened the other time, too. Except it started working again after about a half hour. I cleaned everything out from under the sink, have been turning those shut-off knobbys on and off but nothing, no water comes out. Guess I'll have to call a plumber.

This morning I go to my new employer to "sign up" with the Social Security Card and all. Then they will schedule a time to train me and then I can sign up for shifts and actually work. It's been so long that I'm just a bit nervous about it. Plus this is a completely new job, I've never done this type of work before. So it should be interesting and exciting.

Right after the new employer I have a counseling appointment today. I had started going only a week before I got fired (talk about good timing!) because of all the stress. After getting fired I went every week for the rest of that month. That horrible termination letter that I was handed at the final interview said that I would have health coverage until the end of the month. But the counseling appointments were denied by my health insurance even though they happened during the same month. A dentist appointment was also denied by my insurance. I ended up having to pay the dentist myself but the insurance finally did kick in for the counseling appointments. It was several hundred dollars and I had absolutely no source of money at the time. So it was a good motivation for me to convince them to pay out! Now I only go to the counseling appointments every three weeks. Even so, it seems to come up quickly. Seems like I just went to one!

I haven't heard anything about Open House yesterday. The Real Estate agent was going to call me right after but he didn't. I'm assuming (sadly) that maybe nobody came to the Open House again. That R.E. company doesn't advertise very well. Probably barely anyone even knew that there WAS an Open House. I'm still hoping some people walked through it, but am doubting that.

Well, it's Monday and the season's are changing today. What is your favorite season, and why?

Open house before the Open House

I had an open house this weekend, on Sunday. The realtor hasn't even called to let me know how it went, so probably nobody came. Actually, I had an open house BEFORE the open house! Let me explain, and I swear that the old saying (from a country song, I think) that "If I had no bad luck, I'd have no luck at all" certainly seems to be operating in my life since last spring.

It was early on Sunday (yesterday) and, as I rolled up the window blinds I noticed a fat, Sunday paper sitting on my front porch. I'd been planning to go to pick up a paper later, as my subscription has long expired and it's too costly to renew. Wondering what the ethics of such a thing might be, I went out into the porch/entryway thing, opened the front door and with difficulty, bent to get the paper. One of my feet was still inside the porch and as I rocked back with my weight, my foot and leg went right through the floor! It was a small hole but I fell in up to my knee and the falling, broken board crashed through the ceiling tile of the bedroom down below! Now I had a shortcut to get downstairs that was right inside the front door. The realtor's lockbox is on the front door, so it wasn't like I could close off that entryway and have them come in downstairs.

You could see right into the bedroom my son used to have. I had just cleaned it up on Saturday because the kids had left it somewhat of a mess last weekend, with apologies, because they had to drive the several hours back home to get to work on time. I could see his desk, the nice red futon with pillows, his queen-sized bed with comforter all smoothed on. It was pretty weird but disconcerting too--I had an open house in a matter of hours. There wasn't anyone I could call to repair the floor and ceiling in that amount of time and I didn't have the money to pay them, anyway.

Even though I've disposed of lots of my stuff, I still am something of a packrat down in one part of the basement. So I went down there to figure out how I might temporarily cover up the floor. I found the metal back of a computer, which was the right size, and some old floor tiles. So first the thin metal back went over the hole, to prevent anyone from falling in, and then I covered it with the large floor tiles. It didn't look too bad. the change of flooring material was obvious but at least there wasn't a hole to see into the bedroom.

For the ceiling downstairs I actually had some ceiling tile. It was too large so I had to cut it to fit and get it up in those pesky little hanger-things. It made an even bigger mess once I was done with all of that and I had no vacuum cleaner. The vacuum I had used previously was my son's and he had asked for it back. So the last time I went to visit him (also with the little washer and dryer) I had brought him his vacuum cleaner. I did still have a mini-broom and dustpan so used that to clean up all the dust and debris in the bedroom.

The weird thing is that this house is a nice house, really! The little country house wasn't so great, and the house before it even worse but this one is a well-kept up, good house. And none of the other houses ever had the floor give way! Go figure. It's getting late, so I must go to work. Have a great day!

Cold shower

The last time I was mowing the lawn, I was trying to knock down the tall grass on the strips around the driveway. The lawnmower kept stalling and I kept making it continue until--surprise--it started smoking and died! Guess I pushed it too far. Hope I didn't break it as I certainly don't want to have to buy a new one when I'm trying to sell the house and move to an apartment!

So the next morning (Thursday, yesterday) I was taking my shower and I noticed that the water was getting cooler and cooler despite my turning down the cold tap. After I had dressed and started to do the dishes, even the hot water was cold! But I was running late (well, not really late, but later than usual) so I had to hurry out the door, worried about why the hot water heater wasn't working. I was turning the key in the back door when I saw my lawnmowing attempts and made the connection!

My lawnmower is electric. I've never used a regular, gas-powered one. For years we used a manual push mower, even for our huge yard in the country. Until my son complained and I finally bought this electric mower. We got rid of the push mower when we sold that house, too bad, for if the electric mower is broken, I could have used the push mower. Anyway, the electric lawnmower stalling and dying flipped the electrical circuit off. It's on the same circuit as the hot water heater (a bad choice) so the heater went off, too. So I had to reset the Ground Fault whatever and then go back upstairs to the electrical box to flip the switch. By the time I came home last night I had hot water again, so no cold shower again today!

This morning I need to go out to the storage shed and load the washer and dryer into the jeep. If I can't do it by myself, a co-worker has volunteered to come home with me to help this afternoon. But I want to try it myself first. I'm really looking forward to seeing my son and his girlfriend again! Hope you have a good day and a great weekend!