Good Intentions Meet Reality - LOL

I had every intention of being on the treadmill this morning, but my thigh muscle is still bothering me, so I'll give it until Friday, swim my usual Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday, and give myself this one additional day to recover and heal. It's a LOT better, but I think that being on the treadmill might set me back in my healing. Friday gives me a few more days to heal, and my swimming exercises my muscles quite differently than the treadmill does. 

I always have my hands on the side bars when I'm 
using my treadmill. I'm also fast-walking, not 
actually running. I'm not allowed to have that much 
impact on my crappy bones, but getting some is 
actually a good thing, so we thread the needle for 
what's good and what's too much. 

I wanted to re-do the master for a reporting sheet that we use daily at the shop, so I brought a copy home to reproduce. I was certain that I had a type-font ruler here. But, I was mistaken. So, I'm taking the form back to the shop with me, and I'll have to see what I can do off the cuff on my laptop instead. I had a clean master copy of the form that we used for years, but it's disappeared *sigh*. It's not the end of the world to reproduce the form, but it's a lot harder to do without the font-size ruler at hand. If I can find one that doesn't cost a lot, I might buy it on Wednesday. 

I used to have a typefont ruler. The fact that I can't find 
it isn't a surprise - I haven't needed it for many years. 
But ... I need it now. So, I'll end up buying a new one 
because it's rather essential for what it does. 

I made one of our favorite dinners last night - a request from DH who wanted my pork loin. It's easy enough to do, although I do have to be careful when basting the roast in the last hour of cooking - the glaze that I baste with is sugar based, and if that falls onto the oven door, it can be a total PITA to get scrubbed off. So I always use a sheet of foil that I pull under the baking pan when I'm applying the glaze every 10 minutes during the final stages of the roast. The one time I didn't do that took a LONG time to get the drippings cleaned off my oven door and base. I learned quickly. LOL

I love making my braised pork loin recipe. It's 
easy - it starts out in the crock pot for several 
hours and then finishes in the oven where the 
glaze is applied. It cleans up quickly, it tastes 
fabulous, it's a total winner. 

So, not a lot else to discuss. I'll be pulling our trade beads off our Etsy sales offerings at DH's request. He wants to have them available back in the store again, and I'm absolutely fine with that. We'll leave the Swarovski crystals up for the time being, but eventually we will pull those listings also. 

So, not much else to chat about today. I hope all of you have a wonderful Monday and I'll be back tomorrow - hopefully with a bit more to say on my way to the swimming pool. Slava Ukraini. 

Dreams and Snow - One is Inescapable, the Other Is Unachievable

Once again I'm dreaming of a new set of cookware. Every year the set of titanium cookware I've been dreaming about goes on MAJOR sale, but it's still VERY expensive, and I simply don't have the extra cash to buy it. As usual, I've chosen the set that I want, and as usual, I'll dream about it for a few days and then shelve the dream again for another year. I know it's healthier to use titanium for my cookware than my the old stainless steel with Teflon coating (micro-plastics are NOT healthy, and Teflon coatings are micro-plastics in your food). But, to get the full set I want in titanium would be close to $1000 and I just don't have the money right now. But a girl in the kitchen can dream, right? 

When we get a solid snowfall, it's a PITA to get our very long 
driveway shoveled. I'm just grateful that the storm hit over 
Saturday night because I had the tine to deal with shoveling on 
Sunday without trying to get everything done in 30 minutes to 
get to the gym on time. 

My next door neighbor was a total sweetheart yesterday, he snow blowed the bottom third of my driveway for me before he headed to church. He texted me that he snow blew the street part of my driveway so we wouldn't get stuck if we were coming or going. I texted him back, thanking him VERY much for the kindness since it still took me over an hour to get the driveway shoveled. 

It's a lot faster and a lot easier to snow blow the snow away 
than to shovel it. However, our snowblower is quite large 
and intimidating, and just getting it out of the garage is a 
task. I just looked at it carefully and decided I would skip 
it and shovel instead. A lot more work and a lot harder on 
my body, but the shovel is very understandable. 

Shoveled? You might be thinking what about the huge snow blower that we have in the garage? Well, although DH has taught me how to start it several times, I'm totally intimidated by that machine, I can't even get it out of the corner of the garage to start it up. No ... it's me and my little green shovel tackling the driveway, and we had 6" minimum of snow all the way down. A LOT of snow to move. It took me more than an hour to get it cleared, and I was thankful every step of it that Chris had been kind and taking the time to help me out. 

I strained the upper part of my thigh 
while shoveling yesterday and it hurts! 
It's better today than it was yesterday, but 
it's still complaining. *sigh* I sometimes 
really hate getting old. LOL

But, with all of the shoveling, I strained my thigh muscles in my right leg and they're hurting right now. I still have to shovel out the front of the shop. Hopefully Kevin, a local Native guy who show blows for my next door neighbor (and always makes it just that little bit more to get a coming and going pass for me at no charge) was doing his thing yesterday. If so, I'll only have to cut in a walkway from my door to the street so that customers can access the sidewalk without having to walk in the street. I hope I'm up to doing that. I'm hurting today from yesterday's exertions. 

So, on that note, I'm wrapping this up, drinking a nice cup of tea, having breakfast, and heading out to the shop. I don't want to try and shovel rushed - I'm not really able to be "Speedy Gonzalez" today. Have an excellent Monday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

It's The Day After the Time Change - Did You Remember to Reset Your Clocks, Etc?

DH and I had a LONG day at the shop yesterday, finishing up the things we needed to send to Travis before today's deadline. But, despite losing things, measuring and remeasuring again, and raised voices, we persevered, and I had everything uploaded to Travis last night with permissions granted for him to see the photographs. Now, if the permissions actually work, I'm finished with that. The store has never looked cleaner, but we're all packrats and I'm quite sure it will accumulate junk quite quickly once again. *sigh*

We're not hoarders, although we do have WAY too much 
stuff. We can still park the car and truck in the garage, 
and we have places to put our stuff. But we have too much 
stuff, and a good clean wouldn't be out of the question. 

Yesterday was also when Daylight Savings Time kicked in again for our area of the nation. DST is rather odd - it's not universal. There are places that never change their clocks, so when DST is in effect, and you cross the border, your watch is one hour off and you need to remember that. One state that doesn't do DST is the State of Arizona, but the Navajo Reservation, also mainly located in Arizona, DOES do Daylight Savings Time. It can make for some unexpected delays sometimes to find places that are open in the mornings. Since I used to do a lot of traveling through those areas, finding and purchasing stock for the store, every once in a while I'd get tripped up, having to wait an hour in the car for a place to open because I was an hour earlier than the time zone they were in. 

The state of Arizona doesn't observe Daylight Savings 
Time, but the Navajo Reservation does, and they take up 
a good deal of the Eastern part of the state. So, I could 
go to a Trading Post and it would be open at 9 am, but go
to a small town and the businesses would be closed for
another hour. 

But, I live in a state that has (at least for now) the practice of Daylight Savings Time, so my clocks, etc were changed over the weekend to be appropriate time for my zone. My watch is always a bit of a PITA, but if I get it close enough to my computer or laptop with the correct program running on it, it will recognize the program and automatically change the time for me. It's easy, but I always feel a bit out of synch on days when we change the time by an hour - forward or back, makes no difference. 

Resetting the time on my digital watch is actually quite 
automatic - the watch does all the work - but I have to be 
within a certain distance of my laptop, which also must 
be turned on, for the watch to automatically reset itself 
to the correct time. 

So, because I'm a bit off from the time switch, I'm calling today's blog post finished. Time for me to get moving and head to my shop to start making messes once again (and recapture the stuff from my desk that was simply piled into a box for the photographs. Have a great day and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

 

Shelves and Cellphones - A Double ARGH!

DH and I spent most of yesterday at the shop working on photos for Travis. At one time we had three full shelving units completely emptied for less-than-great photos (you can't really do a lot with photos in a four-foot wide aisle with 96" tall shelving"). We tried to assemble a new shelf downstairs to use for the photographs, but they're a total PITA to get together and it just wasn't working well. So we abandoned that idea and just emptied the shelves for poor photos. 

We have two different types of steel shelving - industrial 
and commercial. They're configured a bit differently, and 
each company who makes them makes them slightly 
differently. Some are as old as 50+ years - original to 
Jim's Dad's business way back when. It's a LOT of 
shelving. 

What a job, and what a mess! I'm quite certain things are out of their usual order now, and it will take some reshuffling of merchandise until I can find beads easily once again. We understand why Travis has us do the photography, but it would have been SO much easier to take a single good pic and say "Shelving like this in either 6, 7 or 8 shelves, 6-8 feet tall." But no, we're supposed to photograph EVERYTHING, and the deadline to submit all of these to Travis is Friday. We have a LOT of photos on DH's phone, and he still needs to send all of them to me so that I can send them to Travis. I'll be running that through with him today. 

I'm hoping that the photos are the last major hurdle that we'll need to go through. No guarantees, of course. But it's a dream - LOL. 

I forgot to recharge my cell phone overnight. It's next 
to me, plugged in now, and it's now up to 19% from 
a total 0%. *sigh* That was how exhausted I was last 
night. I was absolutely BEAT. 

And, just to make things even better ... I forgot to recharge my phone last night, so it died while I was on my final meditation (good thing that was a short one). I have it recharging now, and will plug it in to continue charging as soon as I get to the shop. It's very rare for me to forget to charge overnight, I must have been totally exhausted. So, have a great Monday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

It's Monday and We're Back to a More "Normal" Schedule

I found my opal-embellished crystal and gold chain, so I'm breathing a bit easier today. It wasn't too far from where the pendant was found, but for some reason or other, I simply hadn't found it in my first run-through (or 2nd, or 3rd - LOL). Whatever reason, however, it's all back together again. 

What was lost is now found. I'm quite relieved, my 
Lady and the Moon, amethyst crystal and gold 
chain is quite important to me. It's all together once 
again and I'm very happy. 

I worked yesterday - we were photographing items that we couldn't take care of during the business day. But we got them done. DH needs to send them to me, then I'll get them into the format, and our photographs will (mostly) be complete. We got home and decided to have Chinese for dinner - Moo Shu pork - yummy! Of course it put two pounds on me for this morning, but I consider it worth it and those two pounds will quickly be gone. 

I do love my electronic bathroom scale. It's just about as 
accurate as my previous mechanical scale, but it's quick 
and easy and has large numbers so I don't have to wear 
my glasses. LOL - The perils of growing old. 

I stayed up late to watch the closing ceremony for the Olympics. We were still working at the shop when they were originally broadcast, so I caught the redo. Since I stayed up until 10:00 am, I decided to skip my treadmill today and sleep in until 5:00 am. I can't be late to the shop - I have too much that has to be done before I open the doors this morning. 

I adored that the closing ceremonies were held in an 
amphitheatre that is 2000 years old and still used today. 
Think about it, those of you who live in the USA. Two 
thousand years old and still being used! Fabuloso! 

So, I'm cutting this short, hoping that all of you managed to catch some of the Olympics (which were absolutely MARVELOUS to watch), and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Olympics? - Of Course! We're Totally Olympics Addicts

We're entering the final week of Winter Olympics competition. I haven't been able to watch as much as I've wanted to - I've been super busy framing items or generally working in the shop. We're even there on Sundays getting things together, taking photos, and DH working on the inventory in the computer, getting rid of all zero entries (and there's a lot of those). We both love the Winter Olympics, and have had very little actual time to be able to watch them. Still, a week left means lots of fun things to watch whenever I have some time. That's a totally awesome thing.

We were glued to the curling last night - not the doubles from 
earlier - this was the team competition and we totally rocked 
tossing those rocks down the ice sheets. Very well done, USA! 

I've got a stack of bills in front of me. I need to take a quick peek at my checking account balances, and then get onto the computer and get them paid. It's a lot easier and faster to pay things digitally than writing and mailing a check, but I still have to make sure I have enough money in my various accounts for the payments. A minor detail, but an important one - LOL. 

We have a lovely JD Challenger original that 
needed reframing, so I got to work on that 
yesterday afternoon. It's nice to work on a Sunday
 when I don't have to deal with customers and 
can actually spend a few hours on what I 
need to accomplish. 

I started reframing a JD Challenger original watercolor yesterday. It's a BIG piece - very heavy, and he did the original framing himself. That's both good and bad. For some unknown reason, he felt it necessary to triple-mat the painting, and even though he built an extra-deep frame to accommodate it, it's still a VERY snug fit. I'll have some issues with potential cracking in the frame backing when I'm trying to get the nails set for the new minimal backing I purchased yesterday afternoon on a quick run to the art supply store. I had nightmares all night about putting the damned thing back into the frame upside down, so I'd better check that out before fastening everything together - LOL. 

I had four green peppers that needed 
stuffing and baking. They turned out 
great - very tasty. I use non-dairy cheese 
in my salads and cooking, and used the 
last of the cheddar on them. Yummy! 

Oh, and yesterday, Gordon Ramsey would have been proud of me. I had four green peppers in the refrigerator that I needed to get stuffed and into my refrigerator for meals ahead. So I started working on that, and managed to streamline everything together to have it put together and in the oven within 15 minutes. And it's damned tasty! We were going to get Chinese take-out last night, but when I got there to order my Mu Shu Pork, they told me they were working on a HUGE order and it would be 45-60 minutes before my little order could be cooked. I left without food and returned to eat one of the peppers I had made (which is why I can say they're really tasty). 

Italy is doing a fantastic job hosting the Winter Olympics 
this year. The games have been fabulous - exciting, 
entertaining and top-class competition. 

So, I'm wrapping this up and heading to work. Have an excellent Monday, enjoy the Olympics today if you're watching, and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

I'm Glued to the Olympics

The Winter Olympics are my favorite Olympics, even though I dislike the cold and snow in real life. Nonetheless, the sports are far more interesting for me. I was an ice skater, and a horrible skier - most definitely NOT my sport. I suspect if I had better equipment, I would have enjoyed the experience much more. But, at least I learned how to ski on decent mountains - the mountains around the Aspen/Snowmass area - some of the best slopes in the world. 

Aspen Highlands Mountain actually is the 
Southern border of the town. At the very 
bottom of this image, you can see a speckled 
semi-circle - that's houses. That's Aspen, at 
least the Southern edge.  

I'd rather have a sheet of solid ice, however, and a set of blades strapped to my feet. I've always enjoyed ice skating, and with DH and my larger family all being ice hockey people, it's a good thing I was on skates from the time I was a small child. Most people spending the summer in Aspen, Colorado would be hiking the mountains or kayaking down the rivers. I went to the ice arena on the Western side of the town and learned how to skate for ice dancing while one of the professional ice show tours summered over in the town. 

The Ice Capades summered over in Aspen for 
several years in the late 1960's and early 1970's. 
I took skating lessons in ice dancing from a lovely 
man who had a Great Pyrenees dog named 
Charlie. It's typical of me that I remember the dog 
and forget the teacher's name - LOL. This was in 
the day of school figures too, so I spent a lot of 
hours going around circles on one edge or another. 

But, I'm totally addicted to the Olympics in general, and to the Winter Olympics specifically. I remember watching the broadcast of Jean Claude Killy ski down the slopes at the Grenoble games in 1968. No color broadcasting at that time, and the TV my parents had at the time wasn't the greatest, but I was totally glued to it for those Olympic games. I've been a fan ever since, and the Winter games really appeal to me. I suppose growing up in an area with skiing, skating and other winter sports available every winter didn't hurt, but I wasn't a super athletic person as a kid, so I didn't actually participate in any winter sports. LOL 

Jean Claude Killy was my first crush as a kid. He 
was a very good looking young man, and he won 
three gold medals in the Grenoble games - for 
Downhill, Slalom and Giant Slalom. A wonderful 
skier throughout his life. 

But, I'm getting ready to head off to the shop. We have SO much to do before we close. I spent several hours working on the latest items to pass onward to Travis and got that taken care of while watching speed skating yesterday, so I've done the next step, and I'm onward to the next one now. One step at a time - that's the only way to make it these days. Have an excellent Monday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

It's Cold, ICE Kills Again, and We're Continuing Onward

Today is Monday, it's -12F outside (so just a BIT chilly!), and ICE is still in Minnesota creating havoc. The last person that ICE killed was a Veteran who worked at the VA Hospital and yes, he had a weapon on him, he had a concealed weapon permit and always carried. He didn't raise his weapon towards anyone, he was attempting to assist people who had been tossed to the ground. That's three unjustified deaths that I lay directly at Trump's doorstep. To say I'm angry is an understatement. I'm angry, I'm filled with sorrow, and I'm seriously upset. My state has become a battleground in a battle it never asked for. 

It's slightly warmer, but still sub-zero - so VERY cold. Anyone 
who's homeless hopefully found shelter, but the shelters will 
have to empty for the daylight hours and people will, quite 
literally, freeze to death under culverts and on park benches. 

In other news, however, I need to get my next payment out to Travis for our business liquidation. Last time Chickie was at the shop to help me over the bumps in the road. Today it's her day off, so she's not at the shop, but I had her write me out step-by-step directions so that I could get this accomplished. Next week I need to upload a five-minute video walk-through of what a customer would see if they came to my shop. I'm learning a lot of new things that I never anticipated learning - LOL. 

Travis is sharp, and hopefully will do well with 
our very eclectic shop. No guarantees, of course, 
but I have confidence that he'll give us our 
greatest chance of success. 

DH has been busy working on the shop. He's moved and repurposed sales displays, set up a new art stand for prints (we have a LOT of prints for sale), and things are starting to look really good. We've always been a store divided - Native American art on the one hand, the supplies used by our Native American (and other) customers such as beads and jewelry making materials on the other. There's overlap, but not a huge amount. Still, that's the store that we developed over the decades, and it's the one we'll have to sell off within a very short time. I'm pinning a lot of hope on Travis and his methodology. He's costing us a lot of money, but if he comes through and we're successful in liquidating the store, he'll be worth every penny. 

Travis' book is our bible, so to speak. Everything 
is detailed in it, and sure, we could have just used 
the book to progress, but we really needed someone 
to guide us a bit more, so we hired him. I'm really 
hoping for the best. 

So, I'm going to bundle up and brace for the cold. That cold is also part of living in Minnesota. We had an unusually warm and mild winter last year, and it's not quite that nice this year - LOL. Have an excellent and safe Monday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Our Furnace (Boiler) at Home Isn't Working and It's -8F Outside - Life Can Suck Sometimes!

 As all of you know (probably - LOL), I live in the Frozen Northlands - Minnesota, to be precise. Yesterday, our old boiler which provides heat to my house, decided it was on strike. *sigh* I contacted my furnace repair guy (yes, I have one of those who keeps my shop furnace functional) and he'll get back to me as soon as his schedule is set for today, to let me know when he'll be able to come out at take a look/fix my home furnace. I have zone heating in this house, but right now, it's qualifying as "frigid", "more frigid", and "ACK - Damn Cold". We have my small space heater in the computer room and that's where we're spending our time. 

It's cold outside (currently -8 F degrees), and since I have 
no functional heater inside, we're cold in here too. Nowhere 
close to as cold as outside, but not comfortable either. 

DH is the lucky guy who will get to stay home until after my furnace guy has been here. It's reasonable, because he's also the guy who'll get to write a check for the repair. Meanwhile, I'll head to the shop and try my best to be functional with about three hours of sleep. I got to sleep just fine, but the constant clicking on and off of the boiler trying to switch on awakened me in the very early hours and I moved to the computer room. There's no place to be prone in that room, but I sat in my chair, turned on my space heater, and at least I was cozy, if sleepless. I'll be a wreck today, but hopefully will return to a warm house after work tonight. 

It would be nice to just toss another log onto the 
fireplace, but since our flue needs a good cleaning 
before we light any fires (and I have a family of 
squirrels who have been living in the upstairs 
chimney for generations now), I don't light any fires 
any more. 

In some ways it's too bad we don't live in the days when we'd just toss another log onto the fire in the cave, in other ways it's damned nice to have electricity (even though Tesla's electrical ideas were WAY more efficient than Edison's). We all rely on electricity so much, and even though we often have fall backs available, they're far from convenient. The last time our heat died at the house was more than 20 years ago and I sat near the downstairs fireplace and fed it with wood. The flu needs a cleaning, however, and I don't want to roast the squirrels who nest in it every year, so a fire is really a last resort for me this time around. 

Time for a nice, hot, cup of tea. 

So, I'm signing off and going to make myself a nice, hot cup of tea. Have an excellent Monday and I'll be back tomorrow - hopefully with heat and a bit more than three hours of sleep. Slava Ukraini. 

Running Late, So Just a Quick Post About the Minnesota Blizzard

Just a really quick post. We got a blizzard yesterday, so the family get-together has been rescheduled for Wednesday instead. We ended up with 6"-7" of snow here at the house, and I just got in from shoveling most of it (DH actually got the snowblower started and did the last third of the driveway for me). We have the third day of our four-day End of the Year Blowout Sale going on today. The roads should all be plowed, and we shouldn't have any access issues, so I'm hoping for good sales today. Saturday was a good day, Friday was a bit slow, but still OK. We have today and tomorrow, and then we're done for the year. 

This could easily be DH - our snowblower is yellow like this, 
and he often wears a red parka (although he's usually wearing 
a blue one when he's working on the roof or snowblowing). We 
were clearing just about that much snow away this morning 
from yesterday's blizzard that dumped 6"-8" over the Metro 
area. 

I hope all of you are safe, sound, bundled up (if appropriate for your weather and temperatures) and able to spend some time with friends and/or loved ones over this holiday season. I'll be back tomorrow, but I've got to get going. Shoveling the driveway took a serious chunk of time (before DH finally came out and snowblowed the final 1/3 which included the plow scree, so I was happy for the mechanical assistance). Enjoy your Monday. Slava Ukraini. 

Time - It's Not Really My Friend Today

I'm on time, but I'm running late. Have any of you ever had days like that? I was slightly delayed because I took a bit more time for my morning meditation, but also making the bed up took longer because the blankets were all messed up. Then I got onto the treadmill, about ten minutes later than usual, and thought, "Maybe I'll shorten my workout a bit because I'm running a little late". But, I also chose scenery that would keep me interested and feed my homesickness for the Southwest. I ran through Utah and Arizona this morning, and no, I didn't cut it short at all. 

Apparently rare earth metals have been found in the deserts 
of Utah. This fabulous landscape may become trash as 
developers and mining companies rush to purchase plots 
and start mining. We currently purchase our rare earth 
elements from China. But this large deposit may be the 
saving of our computers and the death of our landscapes. 

I took my usual length of shower, except DH came down while I was in there and I was slightly delayed getting out of the water. I dried off and got dressed, and my pants were fighting me - LOL. I finally got upstairs to make my tea and the teakettle (we have a new one - our old one died a week or so ago) took FOREVER to get the water even simmering. (I suspect we've been filling the new kettle a bit more than necessary. It's a much larger kettle than we used to own). 

DH destroyed our tea kettle when he was dealing with 
ice on the roof a couple of weeks ago. So, he bought 
us a new tea kettle at Wally World - a Mr Coffee 
brand. I like the teakettle, but it holds a LOT more water 
than the old one, and takes much longer to come to a 
boil (or even a simmer). It's going to take a while until 
I determine how much water to have it in for my morning tea. 

Finally I got the kettle simmering enough for tea, made my cuppa and my travel mug, and headed down to write this blog for the day. It's 6:45 am now, and I need to leave no later than 7:30, and I still need to eat my breakfast. So, all of those small delays have made a short post a necessity today. 

They are on their way! My domestic holiday cards are 
being mailed on my way to work today. My internationals 
were mailed last week. I'm a bit late, but not TOO late - LOL. 

It's mid-December, my international holiday cards were mailed last week, and my domestic cards are going out today. I hope you have a wonderful Monday, and that your day isn't quite as rushed as mine is already trending. I'll be back tomorrow, hopefully with a post that has a bit more "meat" in it - LOL. Slava Ukraini. 

It's Monday - Hopefully I Can Be On Schedule This Week

In two hours (more or less), we'll be talking with Travis again, and hiring him to help us close the store. I'm terrified in many ways ... this is a HUGE decision, and it's a VERY costly one. We'll be paying him $1000's of dollars by the end of all of this, but I think he'll be able to run the sale the way I really wanted to - without the dog and pony show of my previous contacts. The downpayment alone is more than the cost of my first new car. *sigh* 

It's always a bit scary for me when we're making large 
financial commitments, and hiring Travis to oversee our 
End of Business Sale event is one of those expensive 
commitments. I'm hiring him because I think he can do 
the job better than anyone else I've investigated and/or 
interviewed. 

We're also open on Sundays now - two Sundays remaining. We rarely get customers on those days, and had nobody yesterday. It really all depends on the weather more than anything. Yesterday was clear, but it was damned COLD (and I suspect this Winter will be a cold one, based on our first few days of the current cold snap). I'm still trying to get my holiday cards sent. If you normally receive a card from me but have moved to a new address over the past year, please message me and update me ASAP. I'm hoping that all cards will hit the mail no later than the end of the week. 

I'm late getting my holiday cards into the mail, and I 
apologize for that. I'm hoping to get them into the mail 
this week. I'll be sure to let you know. 

I'm already looking forward to the pool tomorrow. Rumor has it that Meg might be able to return to swimming soon. I'm hoping that's the case - we usually share Lane 2 until Rosemary finishes her workout, when Meg moves over to her lane and my lane-mate is open for the next swimmer - usually Joleen. We're a little family, in a way, gathering at the doors before they're unlocked, swimming together, then getting dressed and heading out for work or whatever. We run into each other at the grocery store or the local discount shopping store (usually Target), and it's a bit like an extended family, in a way. Sisters of the water, or maybe, Sisters of the Sweat - LOL. Ir's hard to tell that you're sweating while you're in the pool, but I'm quite sure I do.  

Even if we're swimming, I'm pretty sure we're still 
sweating at the same time - it's a workout! LOL

So, I'm wrapping this up. It's going to be a busy day and I'll be relieved/terrified when we've agreed to pay Travis his fee and get this "Closing the Store" show on the road. It's going to be a hell of a next six months. LOL

 

Yesterday Was a LOT of Work, But Now Our Gutters Are Ice-Free

Good Monday and Happy December to all of you. I'm cold, I'm tired, and I'm already OVER Christmas, even though it hasn't arrived yet. DH is already awake, about an hour early, I was too cold to run on the treadmill this morning, so I'm without exercise until tomorrow's swim, and I have a day of working with DH without a Chickie buffer. So far, the day truly sucks. 

I'm SO over the holiday season already, and it's 
only December 1st. ARGH! I'll be counting 
down the days until Christmas when we'll actually 
have a day off again. From this point on, we're even 
open on Sundays for limited hours. 

We spent a lot of time yesterday melting and breaking the ice and leaves out of the front gutters of the house. They should have been cleaned out no later than last week, but he didn't have the energy. So he paid for it yesterday when we had our first truly cold day, with a snowfall of more than an inch, and some nasty winds. The gutters, which he had hoped to clear out fairly easily, were frozen solid. That meant I was on stove duty, boiling water in the kettle and one pot, which I then would bring out to him as he was perched on the ladder. It took well over an hour, but he finally did get the gutters he needed cleared, so we're now set for the remainder of the winter. 

If we didn't melt the ice buildup in our rain gutters, we would 
end up with ice dams like this one, which would, eventually 
cause flooding in our home. NOT ACCEPTABLE. So, 
DH was on a ladder doing what he should have done a week 
ago in much warmer temperatures - clearing the fallen leaves 
and other debris from the gutters so that we don't have ice 
problems. 

I finally, after more than a year, had a chance to try out my automatic snow shovel. It's basically a snow blower in miniature. It actually works fairly well, although it's only tossing the snow ahead of it. I'm bringing it over to the shop. I think I'll have more use for it there. I'll have to get everything shoveled from the front of the store when I get in today, so it might be put into use immediately. I have a lot of older customers, and I don't want them breaking their legs by slipping on ice. 

I have a mini snow blower shovel very similar to this one 
that I purchased last year. I didn't use it at all (cancer 
took control of last winter), but I plan on using it this 
winter at the shop. It won't do everything, but it should 
be quite helpful. 

Adding to everything else, it's really cold today - not sub-zero, but single digits. A bit over two weeks ago, we were in the garden and only one week ago or so, we were raking the last of the leaves and putting everything away in the shed. Winter had no intention of waiting around this year. She's come, and she's going to stay a while (rather like an uninvited house guest - LOL). So, I'm going to wrap this up, grab some breakfast, and head over to the shop. I don't like being rushed when I have to clear snow before I open. Have an excellent Monday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

It Was a Beautiful Weekend and We Got a LOT Done

Sunday was a beautiful day - sunny, no wind. It was on the cool side (some would say cold, but we're in Minnesota - LOL).  DH started the day out working at the shop, so I went over also - I'm the one running the tumbler to get everything shined up, he's going through the inventory, item by item, repricing and retagging. I was going to try to get some computer work done for our After Thanksgiving Day sale days, but I ended up working the tumbler instead. I'll do the sale flyer today. It won't take long. 

Looking South, you see the patio stretching out 
before you. The row of tomatoes and peppers 
that were lining the patio are completely gone, and 
only the wired-in planter remains. That will have 
to stay outside for the season - there's no room left 
in the shed (which you can see on the upper 
left - light brown which lighter framed doors. 
The cantilevered structure in the rear center is the 
woodshed that DH designed and made several 
years ago. It's actually three sections, each 
roofed separately with the center section higher 
than the two sides. The whole roof slants to 
resist rainfall and leaf fall. 

When we got home, DH changed into work clothes and started raking the front yard. He's MUCH better at raking than I am, and had it cleared and stacked at the edges of the ravine quite quickly. Then he moved to the lower back yard, and then the upper back yard. I helped as I could, once I found our second large rake. I knew we had a second one, but it wasn't hanging. Turns out it was in the garden shed - who knew! LOL

Here's the rest of the patio area - the wrought-iron table has 
been put away in the shed, along with the four chairs and 
umbrella. All that remain are bags of soil and those can 
stay outdoors for the winter. We'll probably bring the 
fertilizer into the shed, but not necessarily. You can 
easily see the two lobes of our "castle walls", and the back 
curved wall in this photo, with our beautiful maple centered 
along our fenceline. It's a nice yard and we spend a lot of 
time in it during the warmer months. 

It probably took us 2-3 hours to get everything raked up and the yard bucket filled (which won't be picked up until next Spring, but it's covered and out of the way now). He then started working on the patio - getting everything put away properly into our storage shed. It's rather like a Chinese box puzzle - everything has a space, and everything must go into the shed in order to leave room for the table and chairs, etc. We pulled up the dead plants (mostly tomato varieties for my container garden) and I did bring the small pot of Oregano indoors. It fits fairly well on my over-the-sink shelf. I'll put a label onto it to remind me to water it regularly. 

Black Friday and Small Business Saturday mark the beginning 
of our holiday season. I guess I'll have to grab my staple gun 
and replace the garlands for one final time. *sigh* I really hate 
putting them up and taking them down, but it has to be done. 
I also give up my Sundays to work at the shop. Ick! We're 
only open on Sundays from noon until 4:00 pm for three Sundays 
only, but still ... *sigh*. 

So, it's the beginning of Turkey Week, which ends at midnight on Thanksgiving Day when we jump into our Holiday Sales season. It's NOT my favorite time of the year because it's hectic, and we work a lot of extra hours. I'll be sending an email reminder out to our customers late today, and once again on Thursday. The biggest sale we hold every year are for the Friday and Saturday following Thanksgiving, but we still have to decide which Sundays in December we'll be open for limited hours. We rarely get much for sales on those days, but it's important to be open, I think. Have an excellent Monday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Too Bad None of You Are Close Enough To Be My Masseuse

It was a busy Sunday, but at least the weather was good and it wasn't super cold. DH went to the shop to work on some stuff and he was gone until mid-late afternoon when he went out to rake. I raked leaves for about three hours until my back gave out. I've been in pain ever since. Nothing much to be done about that, just let things be and it will calm down again. But I didn't get as much raked as I wanted. I should have looked for the leaf blower in the garage, but I'm not really sure how to use it and what, specific, engine it attaches to - it could be one of two different lawn systems that DH owns. 

We've got a leaf blower that fits onto one of the two possible 
motor sets we own, but I don't know which one it fits, nor 
how it operates. So I'm stuck using manual labor - a rake. I'm 
good with a rake, but I wrenched my left lower back while 
raking yesterday and I hurt. The last few loads were really 
difficult for me to get down to our dumping ground. 

But, I did what I could. I tried the treadmill this morning, but only managed about 15 minutes before my back twinged again, so I stopped right then and there and I'll try to borrow one of the high stools that we have at the shop for the day so that I can perch a bit instead of stand all day. 

We have several high stools at the shop, I'll 
have to grab one of them for perching or I 
won't make it through the day. DH will be at 
the computer for the day, so I won't be able to 
sit at that chair, and there aren't any other 
seating arrangements I can use. 

It's a left, lower back twinge, below the waist but above the pelvic bone, and it hurts. It hurts to sit, it hurts to stand and I assume it was hurting while I slept, but I was too exhausted to pay any attention - LOL. Just one more thing in my life - LOL. I'm sure I'll be fine in another week or so. 

My lower back pain is on my left side, around 
the waist area and doesn't extend farther 
down (fortunately). Of course, at the waist 
level, it gets affected by every movement. GRRRR

For those of you who picked up playing "Arrows" on your phones, did yours turn to a black background with colored arrows over the weekend? My world is suddenly much more than black and white - LOL. I'm totally addicted to this game - it's challenging, and it doesn't take forever to do a round. I've always been attracted to puzzles like this, so I'm very pleased I found it when I was looking for a new phone game. The colored version, I think, is a bit easier in some aspects. You can follow an arrow through its' shape with greater ease. All I know is I'm on level 718 and I've only been playing it for a bit more than a week. *sigh* Addictions! LOL 

Arrows switched to a black background with neon colored 
arrows over the weekend. I don't mind it, and in some ways 
it makes things a bit easier, but it was quite a shift from 
the B/W version I'd been used to playing. I still recommend 
it, though. It's keeping my interest and I'm into the 700 levels 
now. LOL

I'm going to wrap this up, grab breakfast and head to the shop. Have a really excellent Monday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini.