Weekends And A Project

Happy Monday friends how are you? Did you have a good weekend? I finally talked Mark into doing a project that has been needing to get done for quite a while. More on that in just a minute.

Last week I discovered Downton Abbey. I don’t know why I never watched this before because lord knows all of my family did. One reason I didn’t was because we had satellite internet and it sucked rocks, I may have mentioned that a few hundred times. We did not have enough bandwidth to watch Netflix or Amazon Prime or anything.

We recently got fiber optic cable in our area and I have been enjoying some things I hadn’t been able to watch. I started watching the Downton Abbey series and I love it!!! I collect vintage hats and purses so it inspired me to get my hats out and try them on. Unfortunately a lot of the vintage clothes, including hats, run really small. I have a rather large head. I am sure it is because my brain is so big. So I can’t always wear the vintage hats and usually not any of the vintage clothes, although I do have a few vintage coats that I wear.

One of my favorite vintage hats. The netting is a little rough in places but still in pretty good shape.

I spent some of the weekend catching up on the Downton series and knitting. I also had a lot of walks with Scruffy and Molly.

AND NOW THE PROJECT:

Last year we had new French doors installed in our house. We had our deck redone and decided to add new doors while we were at it. I had always wanted the doors with the window blinds on the inside. How cool would that be, right? Maybe you have them and maybe you have never had a problem with them. I am happy for you. The doors were installed maybe in February last year 2019. We didn’t get to add them as soon as we finished the deck because the wrong ones were ordered and the doors had to be sent back and more doors were ordered. Anyway, the doors were installed and I loved them. No more cleaning blinds.

Well only after a month or two I noticed that the blinds inside the glass, on one of the doors, was not sliding up and down as easily. By October it was totally twisted and would not go up or down. I innocently ask my husband how to get the glass off to get it untwisted. “You don’t” he said, “we will have to get another insert for the door”. The doors have a ten year warranty.

This is the twisted blind insert. It is in the garage waiting for Mark to take it back to the Building Supply Store.

Mark called the building supply place to let them know what happened. They said we would have to call the supplier directly. Mark called the supplier and the supplier said “that never happens”. Mark is so much nicer than I am. He told the man it had happened and we could send a picture of it if he would like. The supplier pretty much blew Mark off and wasn’t interested in doing anything about it. Again, I tell you he is much nicer than I am. After I made several threats that involved me calling the building supply salesman as well as the supplier and possibly a large amount of money for bail, Mark called the store again and told our salesman what the supplier had said. He was furious!!! He said “don’t worry I will call the supplier and take care of this”. He did, and within a couple of weeks a new door insert arrived and was dropped off in our yard. This was just after Christmas.

I’ll admit I am somewhat muscularly challenged so when I tell you it was difficult for Mark and I to get the insert into the house it is an understatement. I asked when the deck builders would arrive to install the insert. Mark said ” we don’t need them we can do it ourselves” These are words that instill fear in my very being. The insert is actually the guts of the door. It was heavy!!! How are we going to put this in the door frame when we can barely lift it I ask my overly confident husband. “Oh it will be fine” he said “you’ll see it will only take a few minutes to pop the old one out and put the new one in.”

We didn’t want to break the new insert and we really didn’t have anywhere to put it so we just laid it on the rug in front of the French doors. The other insert with the twisted blinds was still intact. I would like to say we hopped on that project and got the door put in that very week. Nope. The door laid on the rug for several months. Kitty Kitty quite enjoyed it. The sun would shine in and warm the glass and she would lounge on it. We vacuumed and mopped around it. It kind of became a part of the living room.

Since Mark and I have had more at home time together we (I) decided it was time to install the insert. We carefully removed all the screws from the new door insert and got it ready to put in. We then took all of the screws out of the old insert thinking once we took the frame from around it it would just pop out. So we were standing by ready for it to come out and it didn’t. We wound up having to take these little razor blade things around the door frame to break the caulk seal. Using the blades was scary considering I am clumsy, we are quarantined and the nearest hospital is approximately 40 minutes away. Once that was done the insert came out pretty easy. Again the insert was really heavy but we got the new one put inside the door and the frame put back around it and all of the screws back in and it only took two hours!!! HA HA. But it is done and it looks great!!! I am not sure how long this one will last but I am skeptical. This one also has a ten year warranty and maybe the next one will only take a few minutes to install.

The finished project. When we got the new one in I ask where we would put the old one until Mark could get it delivered back to the store. He said ” well I guess we will just leave it here where we had the other one”. NO!!!! I ran to the garage to make room for the old one. It is so wonderful to have my floor back and blinds I can raise up and down again. I think Kitty Kitty misses the insert on the floor but not me!!

So that is most of my weekend. How was yours?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

The Backroads Of East Tennessee

Hello friends and happy Friday. I am back at work a bit but still working from home a lot too.

The weather today was just perfect. Temps were in the low 70’s and bright blue skies. A light southeast wind was blowing just enough to make the air feel warm and soft. I decided I needed a drive.

I started out at the Flag Memorial we have in our small town of Madisonville and from there to some backroads to see all the spring greenery. For all of you local folks the other pictures were taken on Ballplay road, Scenic River Road and Fairview Road. My mama used to say the best thing about spring was all the different shades of green that you see everywhere. Just look at these pictures and you will see how true it is.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

The Sound of Silence

Hello friends and happy Thursday? are you finding that the days are sort of running together? And unless you are homeschooling children have you noticed how quiet it is? It usually is quiet at our house but it seems like just knowing that you are not going to see anyone or go anywhere makes the silence even louder.

I have been working from home and getting a lot of things done at home that I don’t usually have time for. It’s sometimes the little things that never seem to get taken care of and when you have extra time on your hands, at home, they do.

I have been doing a lot of cooking. We haven’t had take out in weeks. I have to say I feel better not eating a lot of take out. I have cooked a lot of meals. Tuesday I made an amazing meat loaf and today we had the leftovers for sandwiches. Well it will actually last for a few days. I made sourdough bread and cookies. I needed to use up some milk in the fridge before it went bad so I made a coconut cream pie. I still had more than half a gallon of milk that needed to be used so I am making chocolate pudding to put in the refrigerator. This is probably not a good thing but I just can’t stand to think of anything going to waste.

Homemade sourdough bread.

The morning air is soft and I sit outside and drink coffee and then eat my lunch outside as well. It is so wonderful!!! Everything seems to have slowed down. Every time I sit down the fur babies clamor for a spot on my lap. I hate the reason that we are forced to stay at home but yet I am loving being at home. I am respecting and enjoying the quiet. I feel humble.

Scruffy loves having mommy out on the deck with him.

A perfectly beautiful day. Only about 72 degrees and the air feels so soft.

Scruffy and I have been doing many walks throughout the day. We love it!!! We enjoy checking out all the flowering trees and shrubs.

The Dogwoods are blooming and they are beautiful!!

The Butterflies are everywhere

I think this is a hawk feather.

I have been knitting and just finished these socks. I am getting a lot of knitting done.

My irises are blooming!!!

I hope you are hanging in there and enjoying being at home as much as I am. Let’s just wait this out and do the best we can and things will get better. I truly believe this.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

Do You Always Have A Plan?

I feel strange writing this post about making plans. HA!!! With COVID-19 many many plans have been changed. I am sad thinking about the plans that have been in the making for months, years or even a lifetime. Yes these plans have been changed.

Graduations have been cancelled, weddings and vacations have been postponed. Life itself, it feels like, has been put on hold.

Case in point my nephew Tyler was supposed to graduate from High School this year. It has been canceled. There may be some type of service later but the initial graduation service will not be held. I ask him if this bothered him and he said ” not at all”. I said “well it bothers me and your mom and your grandmother”. Ahhh youth they seem to handle things so much better than us oldsters.

Then I think about the people who are fighting for their lives or who have lost loved ones because of this virus. I am sure they would love to have only a disruption or cancellation in their lives.

Anyway, think back to a time before COVID-19 and think about things getting back to normal, whatever that may be, and ask: Do you like to plan things? Do you always have a plan or do you just let things happen as they may?

I think I am as spontaneous as the next person. My husband not so much. He doesn’t like to have things sprung on him at the last minute. I don’t mind having that happen, well most of the time anyway. I have noticed though, if I don’t do some type of planning I tend to let things slide and not get them done.

For instance, if I have a day off with nothing to do except clean house and buy groceries, that will be all I get done. If I make a “plan” to do a little more, even if the plan is in my own mind, then I tend to do that. I discovered if I leave things to chance then there is a good chance it won’t get done. Do you ever do that? Do you find you have a limited amount of time to do something and there is just a small window of opportunity to do it? And you think ohhh just one more episode of this show I am watching, just one more chapter of my book, just another row of knitting, well you get the picture. And then before you know it the time to do what you needed to do has come and gone. Whether this is by chance or unintentionally by choice.

If someone wants to get together on my day off. I may be about 70% on the fence about whether or not to do it. Yes I know I will have fun and I need to get out of the house but as my day off approaches, hanging out at home looks pretty good too. If I pick up my phone and message them and concrete the plan I know I will do it. Once that is done I am a whole lot less likely to bail on them. I have made a commitment.

So do you like to plan things? or just let things come what may? is that being spontaneous or unprepared? Just asking.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!