Be Careful Out There! It's Icy!

So much for leaving work early yesterday, to get home safely on the icy streets.

The washing machine repair man (another story) was parked in our driveway, so I parked across the street. I was almost across when I slipped and fell backwards. The back of my head hit the pavement and bounced.  

I lay in the middle of the street, yelling for help until a neighbor heard me. Soon, there were three neighbors around me. Two (I think) helped me up from the street and walked me back to the car, as one went to get The Husband.
  
I do not remember The Husband driving me to the hospital or the check-in process at the ER. We arrived at about 4pm (?) and I was not called back to an exam room until 7pm (?). One of the neighbors was smart enough to send an ice pack with me to the hospital. Thank goodness. I went through an entire box of tissue in the waiting room as I sobbed from the pain. I was taken for a head CT before being taken to the exam room.

Fortunately, the head CT did not show any signs of a brain bleed. I had a knot the size of my hand on the back of my head, my jaws hurt, my neck and shoulders hurt and I was dizzy, dizzy, dizzy.

We got home and one of the neighbors had shoveled part of our sloped drive and put down ice melt. So, so sweet.

I had bed spins last night. I hate bed spins. 

Swelling of the knot went down significantly over night, due to regular ice packs. My head is so tender and hurts to touch. I have just a slight headache, not too bad. Neck and shoulders hurt. Jaw really hurts when I eat. I think I knocked it out of alignment. Probably means a visit to the dentist and/or chiropractor in the future. 

I told The Husband I woke up in the middle of the night and all I could think of was the old Hee Haw song:

Gloom, despair and agony on me!

Deep dark depression, excessive misery!

If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all!

Gloom, despair and agony on meeeee! 

Dizzy, dizzy am I. The Husband won't let me walk anywhere by myself.

Between spraining my ankle last month, banging my head this month and The Husband not feeling well, I'm about to throw in the towel.  

Be careful out there!  It's icy!

Flowers

The Husband was recently in the hospital and received 

this lovely arrangement of flowers from my place of employment.

They were delivered on January 20th.

They were still beautiful on January 27th.

And here are the final few on February 1st.

We have certainly enjoyed this bouquet. 

I need to get in the habit of purchasing flowers for us to enjoy.

Do you purchase fresh flowers for your home?

P.S. The Husband is doing fine now.

Winter Decor

Today, January 18th, I packed away the last of the Christmas decor. 

Fortunately, it had been staged in the basement, so it was out of sight.

Today, I also decorated our mantel for winter.

I have a small collection of winter paintings and pictures.

A few pine cones.

I'm glad I have until March 20, 2015 to design my Spring mantel!

Coats to be Donated

On Saturday, I tried on several of my jackets that I have not worn for a while.

 

Several of them have now been donated.  

I'm consolidating my remaining jackets/coats/capes and 

scarves/gloves/hats into one closet.

I've had a donation sack in my clothes closet for the last year that I put things into when I:

1) Try a piece of clothing on and then take it off because I don't like how it looks. 

 

2) I purchase a new clothing item and before it hangs in my closet, 

an item has to be taken out for donation.

I feel quite happy with my donation/organization efforts.

I'd love to be as disciplined and minimalist as people who have only 

33 items in their closet, but I have a way to go before I hit that milestone!

How about you?

 

Are you cleaning out your closet in 2015?

Watch Your Step, #2

A short update on my twisted ankle:

• Multiple x-rays revealed no fractures or breaks.
• My three middle toes turned black.  Can you say "Attractive!"?  My toes are now green and yellow.
• The top of my foot, the side of my foot, my ankle and half way up my leg turned purple, then black, then green.  They are all still green.
• There's a strange lump on the top of my foot.  It's not hard, it's squishy.  It HURTS to touch and is preventing me from wearing regular shoes. I'm wearing sandals in January!
• My foot and ankle swell every day.  Today, Saturday, I've laid around most of the day.  The swelling is down significantly.  
• I'm planning to lay around on Sunday.

Do you have a twisted ankle story in your past?

Watch Your Step!

These are the steps into our kitchen.

Notice how the steps curve?

Notice they are wide on one end and narrow on the opposite end?

We've lived in this house almost 12 years.

I know you must be careful rounding the curve, watch your feet

and stay close to the wide end of the steps.

I forgot all of that Tuesday morning.

I had my arms full of stuff, wasn't careful and missed the bottom step.

I landed in the floor with a twisted right ankle.

The Husband came clattering down the stairs,

"Are you alright?  Are you alright?"

"I don't know.  Let me sit here a minute. Here, take this."

I handed him all the stuff in my arms, because I didn't drop any of it.

I managed to stand up and then became light headed.

I hobbled to a chair and sat for a few moments until my head cleared.

I got up from the chair and my left knee started hurting, as well as my lower back.

  

Year end in Human Resources is always very busy.

The person who has the same system access as me and could have done my work, 

also had a long list of tasks to complete.

I had no option but to shake it off and go to work.

The Husband suggested I take the re-usable ice packs with me.

Thank goodness, I did.

I managed to keep my ankle and knee iced for most of the day

and also managed to do the work that needed to be done.

I'm ready for the pain to be gone now.  

Who has a magic wand to wave over my foot and knee to get rid of the pain?

P.S. Happy New Year!

Dishwasher Saga - First World Problem #1

Did I tell you about living without my dishwasher and garbage disposal for 5 weeks?

No?

I lived without my dishwasher and garbage disposal for 5 weeks, which included Thanksgiving.

Thank goodness we did not host this year.

The dishwasher started leaking in early November. The Husband called for service and it was scheduled for November 10th.

The service man could not fix it on-site. It needed to go to the shop. He couldn't remove the dishwasher the day he made that discovery.  He had to schedule another person for that job.  But wait, the service man forgot to schedule the removal/pick-up.  Days later someone finally came and took the dishwasher.

Waiting.

Waiting.

Waiting.

Dialing the phone:

"What's up with our dishwasher?"

"The part we ordered came in broken.  We have to order another one.  It will be another week."

We thought, "Thanks for not calling us and giving us an update."

Waiting.

My phone buzzes.  I read a text from The Husband that the dishwasher is being installed. Hip, Hip, Hurrah!

I arrive home from work and The Husband is standing in front of the dishwasher. The top drawer is full of water.  WHAT???!!!

The guy installed the machine, turned on cycles for both dish drawers and left!

The bottom drawer made a horrible noise and the top drawer wouldn't drain.

I grabbed the phone and called the service department. I was less than happy when they answered. There was run around about not being sure if they could schedule someone out the next day to fix the unit and I told them the service manager needed to phone us to discuss. I was very vocal regarding why the installer left without ensuring both drawers finished the wash cycle and performed correctly.

We received a phone call the next morning and The Husband told them they needed to send a technician out, not an installer.  A couple of hours later, a technician appeared.

Final result, a piece of plastic was caught in the works of the bottom dish drawer.  It was removed and it worked fine.  The problem with the top drawer was the plug from the drain line in the top drawer into the garbage disposal line had not been removed.

Basically, it was shoddy installation work.

I posted this comment on Facebook on December 12th

We finally have a working dishwasher again. We've been without (and without the garbage disposal) since Nov 10th. I am so glad it is fixed. I know those 2 things are not necessities because I grew up hand washing dishes and we didn't have a garbage disposal until I was a teenager. But I am THRILLED to have them again!

I realize this is a total First World Problem.

What was so frustrating was the lack of communication about the status of the repair and then the shoddy installation work. Customer service isn't what it used to be.

I'll have another customer service story for you in a few days.  That issue lasted months!

How do you handle poor customer service?

Text to My Work Group This Morning

"Believe it or not...

The door to our detached garage will not open all the way.  Steve crawled in to disconnect the opener. See his feet?  

But he still can't get it open.

I'll be in as soon as this problem is solved :-)

LOL

{pause}

Now the door won't open at all.  My car and my husband are trapped.  Oh, nooooooooo! Stupid detached garage!

{pause}

He's out!

"

He phoned Tulsa Overhead Door and they said they would send someone out.

I Uber'ed to work. 

Text from The Husband at 12:49pm:

"Cars are out. I'll keep you updated.

{pause}

New springs and new rollers. $300.  Works like new.

"

Of course it does!

Life and Stuff

Life and stuff just happens. You know that is true, correct? Posts here at Cindy's Clipboard are now very random.  I'm trying to do better. We'll see how that works!

The Husband and I participated in the second "Dwell in the IDL" tour on Sunday, 11/09/2014.

We have worked the majority of our corporate careers in downtown Tulsa.  We are thrilled classic, Art Deco (and other) buildings in Tulsa are being converted to living spaces.  

We will probably end up in an apartment in one of these buildings when we decide to downsize and sell our 100 year old home...which is just one mile away from many of these places.

We are going to host a great "living estate sale" one day!   :-) 

How about you? Are you thinking about downsizing sometime in the near (3-5 years) future?

Where would you end up?  

An urban environment?

A retirement community?

In your home state? Or, a retirement state (Florida or Arizona)?

2014 HGTV Dream Home

Are you entering the giveaway for the 2014 HGTV dream home?

I am!

Spider!

The Husband worked in the yard recently.

Mowing, weed-eating and edging.

While he was cleaning out the window wells for our basement,

he found a spider.

A big spider.

Our great-nephew, Nathan, would have been very exicited to see this guy.

We live in Oklahoma.

Anyone know what kind of spider this is?

The Peacock Room Revisited

A couple of years ago, I wrote here and here about our guest room.

Since that time, I've added a few more peacocks to the room. 

Just a few. 

Despite the fact The Husband thinks I'm too obsessed with peacocks,

I'm going to continue to bring these beauties home with me!

The Thing To Do The Day Before Thanksgiving

If you have followed me on Twitter and Facebook for a while, you may remember that on July 1, 2011 (one of the hottest days of the year) I tweeted that I had just accepted delivery of our new snow blower.

The Husband unpacked it and carefully stored it away. He had vowed to be prepared if we have a repeat of the snow of February, 2011. No more spending 16-18 hours over two days shoveling the driveway and the sidewalk!

He fired it up this morning and it works just fine. Bring on the snow, Oklahoma. He's ready for you!

Managing The Basement

I spent yesterday morning working in our nine zone basement. Zones are:

1) Laundry
2) Wrapping Station
3) Food & Household Goods Storage
4) Yard Sale Storage
5) Seasonal/Holiday Decoration Storage
6) Cindy's Cupboard Storage
7) The Husband's Workbench/Small Tool Storage
8) Family File Storage
9) Remainder of The Husband's Mother's belongings (primarily photos & paperwork).

Yes, I'm that person who has nine zones in the basement. Don't you?

Given that we live in Oklahoma, I am grateful that we have a basement. Most Oklahoma homes do not have them, even though we live right smack dab in the middle of tornado country. Why? Who knows. But, I'm happy our house has one!

Since opening Cindy's Cupboard, I have purchased a number of holiday decorations at estate and garage sales -- St. Patrick's Day, Easter, July 4th, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. I have not placed out of season holiday decorations in Cindy's Cupboard, but brought them home to the basement.

I decided that I will store newly purchased decorations near my existing decorations during the year. Approximately 3 months prior to the holiday, I will evaluate the entire collection to determine what I will keep for home use and what I will put in the Cupboard for sale 2 months prior to the holiday.

Yesterday's effort was to ensure all the holiday items were grouped together and stored with the existing decorations. Come September 1st, I'll be able to "pull the trigger" on Halloween decorations.

I love it when my basement is organized!

How do you manage your holiday decorations?

Scenes From A Lead Paint Work Area

As I mentioned here, the work on the house is ongoing. Following are a couple of scenes from today.

I've never had the skull & crossbones posted on my house before. With duct tape, no less.

First thing I thought when seeing the lift (named Falcon 125) was too bad it was not the Millennium Falcon.

Later in the day, I thought it looked like a praying mantis.

More scenes tomorrow...if you're lucky!

Renting Sounds Good Right About Now

I've posted here many times about projects on our 95 year old house. We started another project a few weeks ago that I've not yet shared with you. I wanted to wait until it was completely finished before posting any pictures.

A project that should have taken 3 or 4 days at the most is now in it's third week. Coordinating different contractors, obtaining suitable materials, workers not showing up, as well as the lovely roof replacement project have all combined to delay our latest (unnamed) project.

The latest problem was unveiled with the removal of the gutters, revealing rotten fascia boards. Before new guttering can be installed, all the wood must be replaced. While this discovery was not unexpected, it's still disheartening and will be expensive. *

As I always say, you can fix anything. It just takes time and money. We'll spend a bit more money and, in due time, I'll reveal our finished project!

Edited to add:
* When I said the repairs would be expensive, I was right. Of course the house tested positive for lead paint, which means the contractors have to follow strict rules when doing this work resulting in additional labor costs. I guess I'll have to harvest our secret money tree soon.

New Roof

We had a new roof put on our old house. It took just two days for the roofing company to complete the job.

On Day 1, they began with the detached garage and the shed by removing the old roof (layers over ancient wood shingles), and then added new decking and shingles. The cool temperature, combined with a constant rain meant they ended their day at 3:30pm.

Two crews showed up at 7am Saturday morning (ouch) to start on the main house.

Up and down the ladders they went.

See how ancient the roof is?

Nice new decking:

The dumpster was full at the end of the day.

Early Monday morning the dumpster was removed. Good-bye old roof!

This week new guttering will be installed.

If you are in the greater Tulsa area and need a new roof, we were extremely pleased with this job by Collins Roofing.

What You Do NOT Want To See First Thing In The Morning

What I saw when I came down the stairs to the kitchen. Notice anything wrong?

Mmmm.

I have to bend over to get to the bottom of the sink. I didn't have to do that yesterday.

I don't think it's supposed to be like this.

Thanks goodness the sink held the water and the granite didn't crack. Needless to say, I was on the phone to our contractor first thing.

Sigh. Dealing with this is not what I planned to do today.

P.S. Did you know soaking pots, pans, racks, etc. in water with Cascade will loosen the most stubborn of baked on gunk? It will. It works well on oven racks, which is what I was soaking when this happened.

Update:
My sink is now back in it's proper place, with a healthy re-application of bonding agent and some snazzy new braces. The contractor claims it won't even move in a tornado. Let's hope he didn't curse us this tornado season with that statement!

Closet Cleaning

Since the first of the year, I have spent a couple of afternoons going through my closet and drawers and filling bags with clothing to donate to Goodwill. I donated several large bags as a result of those efforts.

I am encouraged to continue on the quest for a well edited wardrobe by being a faithful reader of Susan Wagner's blog, The Working Closet. This post encouraged me to be even more ruthless than I was earlier this year. I spent a couple of hours today making decisions about what to keep, donate or discard. I ended my efforts with another 3 large bags to donate.

Obviously, I've been in denial about a lot of the clothes living in my closet. :-)

I have dozens and dozens of empty hangers and it feels as if my closet can breathe now. I have more decisions to make, but at least I can now see the remaining clothing on the hangers!

How about you? When's the last time you cleaned out your closet?

Silly Bird

How do we know it's spring at our house? Why, we have a robin repeatedly flying into one of our windows. Don't you have one?

The bird sits on the fence and stares at his reflection in the window. He then tries to scare away the "other" bird by flying at it, only to hit the window. The bird will hit the window multiple times a day. The target windows are directly behind our favorite chairs in the living room, so we hear every single hit.

This has happened 3 years in a row, on the same side of our house. When it first happens, it is amusing. However, it rapidly becomes annoying.

Is it possible it is the same silly bird each year? It could be, based on the information on the lifespan of robins found here.

Silly bird.