Broken Bumpers and Broken Ears - DH is Not Having a Good Year So Far

So far it has not been a good year for DH. His January is filling up quickly, and between doctor, dental and assorted other appointments, his "days off" are turning into busier days than his days at work. His stress levels are through the roof. The latest chapters in the saga began on Monday. 

I took this photo of his back bumper in the morning after 
the accident. As you can tell, there isn't a bumper there, 
just broken brackets and shattered plastic. 

On Monday night we were in our respective vehicles in the store parking lot. Usually he backs the truck out first and I follow, but he was taking an unusually long time to get moving, so I began backing out. I park in Row 3, he parks in Row 2. As I was almost ready to shift to pull forward, I heard a horrid *CRUNCH* sound. Pulling slightly ahead, I set to Park and jumped out of my car. He was pulling his truck back into his space. I was furious - I just had my car fixed in April from a crazy incident that broke my antenna and required a full roof replacement. 

The underside of the broken bumper piece shows where 
it was sheared off from the actual truck body. It was a 
pretty serious pull that got that broken. The plastic 
is quite thick. 

Fortunately, Minion was fine, but looking at DH's truck, he was missing a part of his bumper, which was on the nearby ground. Somehow he hadn't seen me at all and had backed into my car. I have no idea why I was lucky enough to have no damage, I guess it was the right angles, but he lost 1/3 of his back bumper. 

The front of the broken bumper piece looks pretty good, 
actually. Still nice and shiny. But, it really isn't doing any 
good on my back porch. We'll get it replaced/repaired 
on the 11th-12th. 

I called the insurance company on Wednesday and he took the truck in to their recommended service center on Thursday for a written appraisal which has been submitted to the insurance company. I've scheduled him for Monday the 11th, first thing in the morning for the repair, and hope that it will only take them two days to do, although picking the car up early on Wednesday would also be fine. Still, it's just one more thing. 

I really don't understand how an ear 
tube could even move behind anywhere 
in the ear, but I'm no expert. I do know 
that DH has had ear tube surgery in the 
past and it was very painful for him. 
We'll know more once he's seen the 
ENT, but I'm really hoping we get all 
of the bad luck out of the way in January. 
It's turning into a crap year if we don't. 

Before the appointment at the car repair, DH had a doctor appointment with his audiologist. He's always had ear problems - lots of infections and five surgeries. He has an ear tube to help, but this time, when they checked out his ear, they said it looked as if the tube had slipped behind the eardrum. He has a new appointment now, with the ENT Specialist, to see what's really going on and if he needs more surgery. I remember the last surgery - miserable, pain-filled, and he swore he'd never do it again. I'm not sure what he'll do this time if that's what is recommended, but I'm also quite sure they can't leave the tube where it might have moved to. Total CRAP. Poor DH. 2021 is NOT turning into a good year for him so far. 

On that note, I'm out of here. I get the first of my extra days off today and I plan to enjoy it. I'm planning a sweater, so need to spend today getting measurements and working on samples. I'm also going to thoroughly clean the bathroom and shower, and wash the kitchen floor (both projects much needed). Have a wonderful day. Be kind, stay safe, and please wear your mask. 

Stay at Home - Day 45 - A Day of Effort

We were at the Toyota dealership at 8:00 am to get DH's truck serviced. For the first two years, his 6-month checkups and standard maintenance is free of charge, but we have to have it into the shop within a certain length of time. It was a long crutches walk to DH's truck to get it into the service bay (since he can't hear, and since the truck is under my name, he wants me to take care of the human-to-human interface). We went back home in Minion and then back out again two hours later when the truck was finished and ready for pickup. 

Shadow is a good looking truck, one that I wouldn't
mind owning, although nothing takes the place of
my Minion. 

It was a REALLY LONG HOP from my car, which I parked as close to the door as possible, to the service counter where we had to pick up the key fob and paperwork. Then an equally long hop back to Minion. DH was growling at me because I had some times when my broken foot was touching the ground. I'm supposed to be non-weight-supporting on this break, and I was doing a bit more "toe tap" which is approx 20-% pressure. By the time I got back home I was exhausted. I rolled myself into my comforter, put my leg up on my secondary pillow, and went to sleep for several hours. I was beat. 

I was a total wreck after two trips to the truck
dealer. I curled up on my couch with my bad leg
on a pillow and crashed for several hours. 

It's been a day where I've been successful staying off my bad foot approx 80% of the time, but not 100% by any stretch. Still, I'm trying my best. I see the ankle doctor on Thursday morning and maybe I'll get some good news. I could sure use some right about now. 

I want to thank ALL of you who were kind enough to send me birthday e-cards, messages, and texts. I always feel so honored by my friends throughout the world and my life is enriched by each and every one of you. Thank you SO much. 

On that note, since I have no intention of passing negativity through my posts, I'm going to sign off and wish you a belated wonderful Tuesday. I have every intention of being back tomorrow, so please Stay Safe, Keep Your Social Distancing, and Be Well. 

Cuts of Life - Not Always A Bad Thing

Thanks for all of the kind wishes. The finger is healing, and it doesn't hurt at all (which is a very good thing). I've had it bandaged except for changing to new bandages, and I've been wearing a glove in the shower to keep it clean and dry. I'll replace the Band-Aids again early this morning and I might be able to start keeping it open to the air during the night depending on how it looks. It was such a ridiculous thing to happen and I'm super annoyed at myself - just a stupid accident. 

The flexible fabric style of Band-Aids actually are too strong
for my skin. I have a real hunt to find the plastic strip versions
since they aren't as popular, and I buy them whenever I can
find them since I'm always needing a Band-Aid for one
place or another. 

I've been emailing with my possible tattoo artist and we're going to set up a time outside his usual hours for a consult. I told him I didn't want him losing paying customers for the sake of a consultation because that really wouldn't be fair to him. He concurred, so we'll start hammering out a schedule later this week, figure out a mutually agreeable time, and I'll hopefully get in to see him in early November. My private goal is for this to be completed by Solstice, but I'm really not operating under a specific time deadline of any type and won't rush for the sake of a fake deadline. 

We've only had the truck in for service once since we bought
it last year. It's been a good truck, although there are certainly
things I would change in the next vehicle. If Mazda had still
made a truck, I probably would have gone with that brand. I
do love my Mazda CX-5. Still, the Toyota truck is doing exactly
what we needed it to do. 

Today we have to take the truck in for servicing and they'll also install the cover to the truck bed for us. I bought the cover for DH for his anniversary gift. He had been wanting it, but just didn't have the time or ability to get it purchased. I wanted the truck bed protected for the winter, so ponied up the cash since it was our 40th wedding anniversary. Of course, his gift to me was half the cost of my tattoo, so we might be close in terms of expenditure. 

My copper is cutting well in my Sizzix BigKick
diecutting and embossing machine. I picked this
up years ago on sale, and it's my major workhorse
for my holiday cards. I can't imagine being without
one of these. I use it year-round in projects and
with a variety of materials. 

Yesterday morning I started cutting out the copper for my ornaments in my holiday cards. It's working really well. Since I have to take DH to the car dealership and then bring him back home for the day - truckless, so he'll be working in the house for the day - I won't have any time this morning to cut more copper. Still, I'm quite pleased that my concepts for this year's holiday cards are coming together. Next bridge to cross will be the card interior. I want it two-layered and fancy-cut. My edge cutters work, but they're fussy and don't always work as well as I need. I may have to switch to fancy-edged scissors instead of a cutting blade. 

Fancy scissors for scrapbooking ( which I NEVER do) are in
my cabinet. I've used them for cards in the past, but mainly
have them for metal clay. Still, I can use them if my larger
sweep cutters don't work. I'd rather use the blades than the
scissors, though. It's a lot faster, and there are 50 cards and
four edges for each card. That's a LOT of cutting. 

So, onward we go. Life progresses and we check out the scenery on our personal roller-coasters of life whenever we have the chance. Take a few minutes today to go outside and take in a deep breath. Feel that? Hear that? That's life, and beauty, and the change of seasons all around you! We're all so fortunate to be sharing this wonderful day. I'll be back tomorrow. 

A Tale of Two Trucks

This will be short and sweet today because I finally got a good night's sleep and thus, am running a tight time schedule to get to the pool on time this morning. Today's post is a tale of two trucks, and I'm starting with one that bothered me for a week. 

I live across the street from the campus of a small, private Christian university. Although most students park on the campus (I think their parking permit costs $200/school year), many others park in front of their dormitories and still others commute and park on the street. There is a short section of road where parking is allowed, but most of the road in front of my house is restricted parking - no parking from 8:00 am through 6:00 pm. Illegal cars parking in that section occurs daily, especially at my house since mine is the first house after the permitted parking zone. I'm not ashamed to say that I contact the police often to issue parking tickets. Usually a single ticket is enough to teach the lesson. 

The police tow rig (a pretty impressive set-up) had that illegal
truck rigged and towed within 10 minutes. Finally, after a
week, it is gone! 

Last week, Wednesday, the 12th, a large black pickup truck parked too close to my driveway in the illegal zone. It was ticketed on Thursday, but nothing happened. Other cars came and went, other tickets were issued, but the truck sat there. It had Nebraska license plates, so I could tell at a glance that it was the same vehicle. On Tuesday the 18th I contacted the police, hoping for a solution. I reported how long it had been parked illegally, that it had already received a ticket, and that it had not moved at all in almost a week. The police placed a larger notice on the windshield, and yesterday afternoon, this happened ... SUCCESS. The truck is gone. Maybe it was stolen, maybe it was abandoned, or maybe a student will have a very expensive impound fee, but it's gone and I'm SO happy. 

Shadow is home. It's a tight fit, less than four inches between the
front bumper and the drying wood and extension ladder, but it
fits and it seems happy. Crowds aren't always bad - LOL. 

I'm including one more photo for you in this truncated entry today. Here is Shadow, comfortable in its new home yesterday morning as I was leaving for the gym. Sorry about the reflections in the photo, but you can see - it's a bit of a tight fit. Still, it works. We may have to do some shifting - move the snow blower from one side of the garage to the other. DH will check that out today as he fine tunes things. But I'm very happy, my (our) pickup truck is home and looking VERY happy. DH is thinking it might become my pickup after two-three years and he'll drop down to a sedan. We'll see. I'd love that, but the mileage won't be as good for me, and I do love my Minion. 

So there you have it - a quick Tale of Two Trucks. I hope you have a phenomenal Thursday and that everything goes smoothly for you. As usual, my plan is to be back tomorrow. Huzzah! 

Shadow Is Home and the Garage Is Crowded

Just a quick post today, although I never seem to be successful with that idea. DH and I met at the car dealer's at 6:30 pm last night. He drove Ghost, all cleaned up and beautiful. He said that he hadn't seen the car that clean since he got it from me so many years ago - LOL. It looked darned good for a 25 year old car. I brought the title, we had the insurance cards and a checkbook, and the new truck was parked just outside our salesman's window. 

A little darker grey color and this would be a good photo
of what we ended up getting. I'll try to take a photo or
two of the car today, if I get a chance. 

Doing the last of the paperwork for the trade-in was easy, they offered us $300 and we took it. We weren't going to quibble at that stage, and it was pretty darned fair for such an old car. Joshua went over the interior features, helped get our phones synched to the truck, and made sure DH knew where everything was. We got the truck bed mat installed, checked out the lights, looked under the hood, and found out how to get to the gas tank - all important things. 

There were a LOT of pieces of paper to sign. DH decided to go ahead
with the eight-year 100% covered extended warranty. I think he
probably made the right decision with that. All in all, it will give
him some peace of mind at a relatively reasonable cost spread
over the eight year period of time. 

Joshua checked with finance and there were three people ahead of us in line to purchase. Apparently that was quite unusual for a Tuesday. My luck! We didn't get into finance until after 8:00 pm! It only took about 15 minutes for us to sign a bunch of paperwork and DH to write them a check. Apparently I'm the primary owner of Shadow - what fun! I'm sure it's because Ghost's title was under my name, but it's only fair since DH is the primary owner of Minion. 

The view of the rear is pretty nice. The lights are clear
and easy to see, and turning signals are very evident to other cars. 

I followed DH home last night - Shadow looks darned good from the back view - and guided him into the garage. He had spent hours yesterday cleaning not only Ghost, but also the garage, making sure that we would have room to park the two cars. It's a lot tighter getting in and out and between the cars, but they do both fit. We'll have to be careful not to scratch them if we're carrying something that might hit one or the other car, but we both fit, and we can both get into and out of the cars. A total win/win. 

The panel is high-tech, but not overwhelming. I think he's
going to like having a pick-up and his FIRST new car! 

I finally had a chance to grab some dinner at 9:00 pm and actually managed to get to bed by 9:30 pm, less than 1/2 hour later than my usual. If it had been much later, I might have blown off the pool today, but I'll just be a bit tired in the water. I'll wake up. 

So, success. I'll examine the paperwork carefully today, reading through every line. If everything checks out, I'll file it and call this adventure finished. Then it's time to start researching Medicare plans and which health provider we want to choose. That's coming up quickly. *sigh* No rest for the wicked (or the very good). Have an excellent Wednesday and think positive thoughts. I'll be back tomorrow. 

Politics - Boring and Getting Vicious

When I was young, I was actually interested in politics. I'm old, so the earliest time I understood or entertained any opinion about politics was the Nixon/Kennedy debates on television (I liked Kennedy because he looked nicer - I wasn't even five years old so no depth of scope there). I don't remember much about the actual debate, just one small snippet of memory, the way early memories often are. 

I like this old Goldwater for President t-shirt
because it actually requires a bit of thought
and some basic knowledge of chemical symbols. 

In elementary school I supported Goldwater. Again, this wasn't because of any depth of feelings for the candidates or the issues. No, I supported Goldwater because a local campaign pin for him was super cool with flecks of "gold" floating in a bubble of liquid. I'm pretty sure the "gold" was pyrite, aka fools gold, but it looked pretty cool. Although I still own a lot of miscellaneous stuff from that era of my life, that campaign button seems to have been lost to the sands of time. 

This McGovern & Shriver political poster is totally
indicative of the times. This was Vietnam, this was
Kent State, riots, burning buildings and helicopters
being shot down. This was the era of the dinnertime
war and it had a tremendous impact on us. 

My next foray into political waters was working for George McGovern and Sargent Shriver's campaign while in high school. I was an activist in high school, like many of my generation. We were too young to vote, but truly despised Nixon. Unfortunately, Nixon won in a landslide and Shriver retreated back into the curtains of history, known more as a Kennedy relative than a presidential mover and shaker. 

On August 4th, 1974, Nixon resigned the office of the
President. Gerald Ford, his vice president, stepped
into the office and as his first act, pardoned Nixon. 

In college I worked on multiple archaeological sites during my summers. (I am a trained archaeologist, having achieved a master's degree in the field, but the point in time I'm thinking about was during my basic college days.) At this particular time I was on a field school in the middle of the desert of New Mexico and the radio in the cook tent was interrupted with Nixon's resignation speech while I was helping to wash the dishes after the evening meal. The entire camp listened quietly and then burst out in unanimous cheers at Nixon's resignation decision. Finally, what I had wanted two years earlier had come true and "Tricky Dickey" would be out of office. 

I voted for Anderson in the campaign of 1980. I liked his
ideas and wasn't fond of either candidate put forth by
the major parties. It was a good vote - I think he would
have made a fine President. 

Over intervening decades I stayed local - voting in every election of course, but focusing more on who would actually impact my life directly instead of from Washington DC. I had my candidates, usually voting Democratic, but sometimes voting outside of standard political parties and once - and only once - actually voting Republican! I know - a shock to me too. 

Our campaign commercials for the midterm elections
are vicious and rather vindictive. I can't imagine why
anyone would want to run for public office these days. 

Why this long post about political interest? Because I'm really bored with politics now. It seems every day it's a new crisis, a new speech, a new decision that will destroy a new group of people. It seems that all many of my Facebook friends can talk about is politics - the current, the future, and sometimes the past (guilty as charged, at least in this blog post). We have the midterm elections coming up in November. I want them here and gone already, because the commercials are angry and vindictive, not just throwing mud but cascading mud from earth-moving machinery. Politics right now sucks, and it's never-ending. When one campaign ends, the next ones begin. I've had enough, time to get on with real life instead of slinging mud. 

We're picking up the truck tonight. It's going to be a rainy day, so I guess we'd better figure out the wiper controls, lights, and also how to put gas into it. We don't have a bed cover yet, but did opt for the bed mat. We'll get a cover ordered soon. Have a truly fabulous Tuesday. I'll be back tomorrow, hopefully with something more interesting than politics. LOL