Friday-9:30am

Good Morning!

I have lots of sky pictures today. 

Or cloud pictures, I should say. 

Not many glimpses of blue sky.  But some.  ;) 

There is new construction going on all around.  Across the field they are digging up earth... 

...and off to the right, too. 

They're building more garages over by the new apartments. 

And I don't know what all the mess and stockpiles are for behind our garages across the street for the new apartment.  It's all "progress", right?  A lot of peeping, roaring engines, and hammering...

...under moody, chilly autumn skies. 

This morning I see peeks of sky.  It was 40 degrees (4 C) when I woke up.  Windy.  My direction--so had to finally close the bedroom window during the night because it got a little too nippy for me.  But I do so love this change of season.  Energizes me. 

Karma, on the other hand, is sleeping more.  She's been cuddling with me, in her brown cat bed, or hold up someplace snoring.  Feels like winter is creeping down from the north. 

Okay, I called Cashwise yesterday to find out the details of how to use the new EBT scanner system before I placed my order for delivery today...and they had to send them back!!  No scanners!  So I still couldn't order groceries this month, either!  But...it just so happened that Caroline had a meeting and had switched to Thursday/yesterday...and it just so happened that because of all the issues recently with Cashwise Delivery that Caroline and I had talked about her taking me shopping (or buying groceries without me if I wasn't able to go that day)...and it just so happens I had my yearly review on Monday (changed from Thursday) and got that approved!  It's a switch up--no extra hours for me or anything.  Caroline just wouldn't clean that week and do shopping instead.

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So, the timing actually couldn't have been more perfect.  If Caroline had come on her regular day I would have had to wait two weeks.  So, Caroline ended up going to Cashwise yesterday and doing all my grocery shopping for me!!  Used my big white cart in the garage to haul it up here.  She has done shopping for many of her clients over the years so they know her at Cashwise and there is no issue about her using my card.  TaDa!!  So, if they don't have the scanner thing figured out by November, at least now I don't have to worry because Caroline could always go for me.  Whoohoo!!  What a relief!  :)

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Today I ordered my new Brother sewing machine (praying it ships well), kitty litter, "pour over" coffee paraphernalia (for when I'm over at Dagan and Leah's), and a couple toys for Ian from Amazon that were on Ian's wish list.  (Grammas need to buy toys once in a while, right?)  All supposed to be here by the end of next week.  I pray they don't ship any breakables with the 40 lb bag of kitty litter like they have before.  Amazon shipping practices can be quite strange sometimes.  

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And...I ordered sets of erasable pens and highlighters for my new planner from Jet Pens.  Pilot FriXion pens are so strange.  Bought one to try several months ago.  They erase with this hard plastic-y eraser on the end of the pen.  Dents will show from where you pressed into the paper when you wrote, but it will take the ink away.  In fact, I recently heard that the ink will disappear with heat--say a heat gun or hair dryer or sitting in the hot sun--and will reappear if you put it in the freezer!  Cool!  You know I'll have to try that.  I would have been crazy for these when I was a kid.  I'm so tired of scribbling or crossing out changes all over my planner/calendar, you know?  But...I am also a notorious color-coder and use highlighters...so erasing wouldn't quite do the trick for me, right?  Come to find out they now have Frixion highlighters!!  (And markers and colored pencils, too, I guess.)  Whoohoo!! 

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Oh, the little things in life that make me soooo happy.  Even if the pens and highlighters don't erase perfectly (I'll let you know), it will look better to my OCD-eye than all the scribbled and crossed out changes, for sure!

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Anyways, just a quick hello.  Karma's sleeping in the sun.  I'm off to toast an English muffin!!  Have a super weekend.  :):)

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"No matter what accomplishments you achieve, somebody helps you."

Althea Gibson    

Tuesday-9:30am

It's a nippy Tuesday morning at 45 degrees.

The wind howling against the building woke me up.  Sounded like winter.

Last Saturday it was 87 degrees and I had to run the AC when Dagan and Leah came to work on the desk.

Sunday was a damp 62 and so chilly I had to close up the place.  You just never know from day to day around here--LOL! 

Saturday morning (before it got too hot) Karma enjoyed the sunshine.  This is what I can see of her when the porch door is open...ears, back feet, and tail. 

McFamily arrived Saturday evening.  Had me a lot of Gramma time, of course.  Grammas are happy to hold babies whether awake or asleep.  :) :)  I think they finished up around midnight.  TaDa!!  Way smaller than my old one...and yet actually has more storage space! 

Karma came out of the bedroom after they left and checked everything out.  I dug out some packing plastic film from the trash for her to claim.  Dagan had thrown it all away like a good son.  ;)

I think the keyboard drawer that Karma is cuddling up next to will probably go on after all.  Never put it on the old desk, but I thought it could make a perfect tuck away spot for my planner or letters in progress.  Leah thinks they can still add it, so we'll see.

Oh!  Had a strange sighting in the parking lot.

I haven't seen a mohawk for decades!  LOL!  Are they coming back?  Or is this young guy just a retro-individualist? 

It took me a couple of days to slowly get things into the desk.  I keep rearranging and tweaking...and have a ways to go yet.  Over time I will finally settle on where everything should go...and I still have empty space to work with right now.  Whoohoo! 

My new planner starts tomorrow!!  Yes, there's my trusty thermal mug for T-Stands For Tuesday, too.  Hi, ladies!  

Since I can't use but the end of my big table now because of the cracked base, I moved all my writing materials over to the new desk.  That left some room under the AC there for something... 

...so I cleared off the art table last night!!  These messy mats never got cleaned (I know-hard to believe) and were buried under various piles of stuff over the last few weeks.  I need to clean the table and mats off as soon as my cranky back will cooperate.  Whoohoo!!  Got my art table back!  I feel the urge to spray and slop paint...soon!  ;)

I just spent half an hour trying to get a video from Leah's dropbox on to my blog.  Nothing I do seems to work.  Bummer.  Mama got the best video of Ian and said I could share it.  All I can see is a black box with arrows in a circle.  I'll see if it magically transforms into a video or not when I go to publish.

If it doesn't, I'll keep trying to figure this out.  Meanwhile, I'll try a couple pictures from her dropbox.

Whoohoo!  These worked!
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I have to post this as a test to see if the video worked...be back.
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Well, that was a total waste of 20 minutes to download.  Just a weird, annoying bouncy picture.  Sorry.  Had to delete it.  At least the photos worked.  I need help with videos from dropbox, I guess.  I'll have to try to google that.
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Anyways, happy Tuesday!  :):)
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'Tis a lesson you should heed:
Try, try, try again.
If at first you don't succeed,
Try, try, try again."
William Edward Hickson

Friday-10am

Good Morning!

The end of the week has arrived.

Was fascinated by this golden yellow cloud one evening. 

We've been having cool fall days up tlll yesterday when some 80s heat has returned...for three days, they're predicting. 

Well, I definitely got to spend some time with Ian on Wednesday evening.   

Got a few pics of him before he came out of his car seat to sit with Gramma all evening.  

We chatted and he took a short nap again (slept right through the hammering).  Love having my arms full of baby!  ;) 

First, though, Dagan and Leah made three trips to leave the desk next to the dumpster.  The garbage truck had just been there during the day so wouldn't be back for a couple days.  Perfect timing. 

They were careful with her, too, since we left all the hardware stuck in the flat boards and we were hoping somebody would want her.  I taped the picture of what she looked like whole to the inside of a drawer so it wouldn't blow away. 

Then Dagan and Leah worked for a couple hours at least putting the desk together.  This kind of furniture comes in a thousand pieces, as you know, and takes forever to put together.  They got this far and Ian was ready to call it a night--LOL!

There's still a lot to go... 

...but they got the hutch put together. 

Tentatively planning to make it over this weekend to work on it again. 

Leah and Dagan checked out the cracked base on my table and they forbade me to sit at the side and made me move everything down to the far end of the table. 

Leah said she'd have to take the base apart and try to metal-strap the wood together.  Will depend on how these small legs are attached at the bottom.  Not sure when we'll be able to do that.  I will be doubly glad when I have my new desk so I'll at least have a designated safe spot to write.  Now I'm wondering...how can I sew without a useable table?  Not enough room on the new desk.  Would the new sewing machine fit okay on the very end of the table?  Will sprawly me be able to stand the confinement?  Hummm....things seem to just remain out of whack lately--LOL!

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Karma hid under the bed most of the time they were here.  She came out for a while to smell and paw the baby backpack but was so jumpy, hissy and crabby that I just shut her in the bedroom.  After they left... 

...she had to smell everything, of course.

Every sound had poor Karma jumpy. 

No wonder she's been barfing a lot lately.  I think she's quite stressed over her home being asunder.  Her window spy perch had to be taken down now, too, because we can't even give her the opportunity to get up on the table at night while I'm sleeping, as cats are wont to do when they're not allowed someplace.  She weighs 20 pounds and Dagan and Leah are convinced she could crack the base further just by jumping up on the table.  Probably true...but I hated to take that away from her, too.  I can tell her it will all be better soon, but she only understands English as far as it pertains to her food and cuddle time.  Karma has highly selective language comprehension.  ;)

The absolutely wonderful news, though...

the following foggy morning...

the desk was already gone!  TaDa!! 

So very happy!!  

I hope they appreciate my wooden friend as much as I have over the last 15 years.  I do get attached to certain inanimate objects...well, and plants, too.  Hey, I even talk to my beeping microwave...and we're not even close.  ;)

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So anyways...that's what's happening in my little corner of the world up here in Fargo.  Things are very slowly heading back toward normal.  Patience has returned to me.  I'm giving Karma extra cuddle time and checking online every day to make sure Century Link doesn't charge me that huge fee (so far, so good!)  We've got a little Indian summer for a couple more days and I had lots of sweet Gramma time this week already.  I'm definitely not as cranky as I was...and Karma still is--ROFL!  But right now...she's snoozing in the sunlight.  Even crankiness doesn't normally interfere to any noticeable degree with her beauty sleep.  ;)

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Hope you have a restful, restorative weekend!!  :):)

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"The man is happiest who lives from day to day and asks no more, garnering the simple goodness of life."

Euripides

Tuesday-10:30am

Good Morning!

Yes...

...I was up for another sunrise.  Kind of a misty, foggy one...but a sunrise. 

But, I must warn you--this is a cranky, cranky post.  

First, look what's still here.  *sigh*

Rejected repeatedly.  

Right now I am waiting for a call-back from the Habitat For Humanity outfit up here.  They're my last resort.  The thrift stores won't take it because it is too big and taken apart...despite the fact I told them all about that in detail on the phone. 

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I learned that the drivers have the final say-so as to whether items are in good condition and sale-able.   The problem is that the desk is so big it has to be taken apart to move it and they don't want to put it together so that people know what it looks like and then take it apart again when somebody buys it--and it takes up a LOT of room in the store.  So it is not considered sale-able.  I have a large printed off picture for them of what it looked like together but that hasn't made a lick of difference.  Just like telling them the desk was in pieces in the first place.  *sigh* 

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I have had the desk on freecycle for quite a while, too.  I finally got an email Sunday from a couple who wanted to have pictures, but they never even bothered to get back to me.  So, if nobody wants her before Wednesday night...we're going to haul her down by the dumpster and hope somebody will take her.  Either that or the garbage truck will.  One way or the other, the tentative plan is for Dagan and Leah to come over Wednesday night and put the new desk together for me.  And that means some gramma-time with Ian!!  ;)

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The good news is somebody on freecycle did want Fern. 

Miss Fern was gone in a flash with a smiling lady holding her high in the wind. 

Miss Karma was not happy with the new table arrangement until I pulled her TV-tray-spy-perch close enough so she could use the table as a pillow again...

...while I have been working on letters and...

...organizing my new planner to start October first! 

Oh, T Stands For Tuesday folks--note the trusty coffee mug above.  ;) ;)

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Okay--here comes more ranting.

I thought I was finally done with Century Link, right?  Well, I got a letter in the mail yesterday saying that now that I cancelled my land line service that my internet fee was going up because I couldn't bundle anymore!!  Yup!  They only disconnected one and not both like they said they would.  Annoying.

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So, I waited on hold for another fifteen minutes to get that straightened out, right?  And this guy says...in passing...that I might get charged an early disconnect fee of a couple hundred dollars.  WHAT!!  My year is up on the 24th!!!  OMG!!!  They were supposed to disconnect both of them on the 17th...that's just one week before my contract is up!!  I was talking to the man on the 22nd!  Good Lord!  

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Let's just say I went off on him...Minnesota Nice style, of course.  I raised my voice and said things like...Are you kidding me!  Are you telling me that people have to disconnect on the absolute exact day their contracts expire or you are going to soak them for early disconnect fees?!  And we're at your mercy for scheduling!?!  What if it falls on a Sunday?!  And if I went over a few days you'd say it was an early disconnect fee for my automatically renewed yearly contract, right!?  Is that what you're telling me!?  Is that actually what you are telling me??  No one mentioned this to me when you were supposed to have taken care of disconnecting both services last week!!  I had better not be charged any fee for this after I waited and waited and put up with your crappy service for a full year!!  (That's right--I said "crappy service" right to him.)

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He backed off...BUT...he just said things like he didn't think they would charge me...and they shouldn't charge me...but he never flat out said I would not be charged.

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I think I hate Century Link.

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So now I am going to call my bank today to see what I can do about stopping a possible undeserved charge if they do try to pull that on me.  Sadly probably nothing that wouldn't cost me a big stop payment fee and could possibly prevent Century Link for crediting me back what they owe me now.  

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And all this means that I don't dare order my new sewing machine until I find out if Century Link can actually screw my life up any further.  *sigh*  Don't you just hate dealing with indifferent corporations?  I couldn't sleep at night if I worked for places like that.  I know people need jobs and they are just following company policies and scripts...but...well, it's just so sad.  Whether they realize it or not, it is eating at their souls.

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Well, sorry about another Century Link rant.  You know it takes a lot to set me off, but they have been riling me for the last several weeks over this disconnect business.  My sympathies to anyone who has no other options and is forced to deal with them.  That's all I can say.

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 Meanwhile...Cashwise has gotten in their EBT scanners for the delivery drivers and I am going to be a guinea pig come October.  They still don't have some of my staples listed (been over two months since the switch and they are supposed to have a whole team working on the new site) and I still can't stand the new website.  I foresee numerous issues with this scanner program from what little I've been told.  For example, how can I tell them exactly how much I am going to use on my EBT card ahead of time when I have no clue what they will be out of or what produce or anything that has to be weighed will actually cost?  People on EBT cards are usually having to play it close to the vest, you know?  

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Note: Leah even wrote them a long email citing the numerous flaws in the new website and threatened to switch to the local competition (who are more expensive) after being a customer for 25 years.  No lie!  It is that bad.  It is not just born-in-the-50's-me being less computer savvy.  The old website was bad, but this "new" one is just terrible!

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Well, I will finish up with some happy news!  I don't have any new pics because last time I saw Mr. Ian he was in my arms the whole time (big smile), but I do have Ian news.  Last Friday Ian was on his belly on his colorful mat...and rolled over on to his back!  Leah said after cheering and such she put him back on his tummy and eventually he did it again!  Twice in a row!!  Only 3 months old!  Hasn't done it since then, but that's one for the baby book, eh?  Not that Leah has a baby book, as such.  She keeps track of things like this on her laptop.  Times have changed.  ;)

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Miss Karma chases the sun if it is around in the mornings.

Sorry for being such a crab.  I'm usually fairly patient, but the whole Century Link experience, shall we say, has been building up for a year...and the Cashwise website mess has been going on for almost three months now...my place is in chaos...and my stupid sciatica has come back for a long visit.  That's all I can say.  We all have bad days.  I've had quite a few in a row--LOL!  I know it's not the end of the world.  Small potatoes, actually.  All you can do is laugh, right?  ;)  

This too shall pass.  

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I hope your life has been going smoothly--LOL!  And if it hasn't, as life often buckles on us now and again, that the bumpy ride will be a short one.  :):)

Happy Tuesday!!

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"Whoever gives thanks for all circumstances receives new eyes and discovers things never seen before."

Otto Betz