Somewhere East of Life

Down to the wire here with Mom's retirement. It's her last day today. I've got in with her yesterday and today in the mornings to help clean out her office and computer. I'm picking her up one final time tonight.

She's finally excited for it, but I think it's still a bit bittersweet. She'll miss her co-workers I'm sure. I don't doubt she'll keep in contact with many of them.

This weekend was hell for us here in Boise. We've been having an abnormally hot June. Normally our hot month is July. Oddly everything this year has been moved up a month weather wise. Saturday had a high of 105F, and Sunday got all the way up to 110F. We don't have central air conditioning either, so it's been interesting. We normally do okay with the cooler diy thing, but when it doesn't cool all the way off at night on the hotter days it just stays hot all day.

Luckily my basement bedroom is a bit cooler overall than the rest of the house. We've had dinner in here a few nights, and always cool down in the evenings too. I'm going to have to rearrange my bedroom to make it more like a recreation room so it'll be more comfortable for us down here when we want to hang out in the cooler part of the house.

Not much else is going on. I've got a few things to update on my computer today, then I'm going back this afternoon to help Mom out again. More on this later.

Hope you all are staying cooler than I am!

Trying to keep cool
It's been super hot here lately, well hotter than it usually is this time of year at any rate. I rather fear for the hottest part of the season next month. I may just melt.

I've been using this nifty little device since last year to cool our house since we don't have central air. We used to have air conditioners in the windows, but removed them after figuring out it was costing us an extra $75 a month just to run them. We have a swamp cooler too, but it doesn't work quite as well as it should considering the air is so very dry here.

What I ended up using was a styrofoam cooler. Weird, I know. But it works. You filled it with frozen bottles of water. Then you add in two u-bend pipes on each side of the top (for the outflow), and a big circle cut out in the middle (for the inflow) which you direct a fan in it face down. Cold air blows out each little pipe. Could work better in a smaller place than mine, as this is an open floor plan space. But it generally keeps the place about 15° cooler on average. Not too bad. If you're interested, I got the idea from a video from the Household Hacker on Youtube.

It's an ugly thing, but if it keeps me cool I'm happy. I had a picture of it, but can't seem to get my Google Drive to show the picture I uploaded correctly so I can transfer it to the laptop. Ah well.

Garden when you can
Between the hot weather and the morning migraines, I've been having trouble doing any gardening. Usually I'd do it in the morning when its cooler, but those migraines I usually get in the morning lately have made it difficult. I've ended up doing it quite late in the evening instead. It's not as hot as it is during the day. Because it stays light out so late now, I can get out there anytime between 7 and 9 and get a bit done. Depending on how I'm feeling, it may not even be more than 5 minutes some days. But every little bit helps. I've managed to clear out two beds that way. Working on a third now.

Into the homestretch
My mom's retirement is finally getting closer. We go in on Saturday to finish cleaning out her office to make room for the new guy. Then on the 25th is her retirement party. I think she retires officially at the end of this month, whenever the pay period for that ends. She's definitely ready to call it a day already.

~

That's about it for now. I've not had the time to set out and do much these last few weeks. I've had two root canals done now. I go back next month to finish one, then get a crown put in mid-way through August. Fun times! Hope you all had great weeks. :)

My mother and I had a relaxing weekend. It was a three day weekend for her due to Memorial Day on Monday. I think she rather needed the rest. The closer she gets to retirement means more and more work for her to finish out her projects before she leaves her position. She's rather exhausted.

We've been trying to clean out all of our storage rooms and get rid of furniture we don't need. It's been a long process though as we've both been up and down health wise. We took a break back in December due to us both being sick all the time. We're better now, and with retirement looming on us, we're trying to work as fast as we can to get it done before she retires. That gives us a month.

So, for this week I've got to finish spring cleaning and rearranging the living room. We're considering a move to Wyoming in a year or so, so for now we're also taking this spring clean as a chance to go through everything we own (room by room) and get rid of the excess as we go. I've set a timeline for the end of the week for the living room as my Mom has a co-workers tall son coming in next Saturday to help us short folks change light bulbs, and also help us move in her oversized plants from her office.

Pfft. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. I've got some plants and seeds to get in the ground too since the monsoon has moved on.

So, in summary: my week is going to be super busy. Hope you all are going to have a good week!

I've been having a lot of fun trying to get my garden prepared. It is finally warming up here, so that doesn't leave me much time to get my seedlings in the ground. I truly adore this time of year. I love watching things come to life and bloom.

 

I've been bring my time to rethink my life lately. Mostly because of my health, but it has required me to examine some of my goals.

 

For example, children is one issue. I have finally come to accept that physically it will not happen for me. I have not quite closed the door on adoption, but I know it is a far off goal.

 

As for the rest of it it's just a matter of rethinking how I'm going to approach my future career. There's a lot of things I can't do anymore because of my physical conditions. That has been the hardest, letting go of a dream.

 

For now I'm taking it one day at a time.

This lady did an adorable parody of Psy's "Gangnam Style" song. She did exactly what I thought the first time I saw it: horses.

 

Kandee Johnson Kan-gnam parody

 

Btw, all but two of the older kids in the video are hers. Her mother filmed it. It was quite the family affair!

I've been watching the news lately to catch news of the fires in colorado springs. I grew up there,  and I've still got family and friends that live there. I think between my sister, mother, and I we've been driving them all just a wee bit insane. Luckily they've all been fine so far (though my uncle solved the dilemma by going on a boating trip).

 

As for the rest, I've been trying to get caught up, and keep up with chores around the house. My mother is finally doing better now that she's going back to work half time.

 

As for me, I've just been laying around today nursing a migraine and making orders on my phone for beauty tools. I thought a few brushes, makeup setting spray, hd powder, and a few new lip products to try.

 

Now if only I can convince myself I really need to get up and start my day...

I find it absolutely interesting that when we change with the times, we so quickly forget the past. Of course recently it has been something for less serious for me; take my new phone for example. I found I had to get something off of my old phone and then I went back to try to use it and I had completely forgotten how to work the controls.

 

Bear in mind my new phone has touch controls. I kept trying to tap the screen of my old phone, cursing all the while . "What are you doing?" my mother asked me with laughter in her voice. It was about that point that I realized exactly what I was doing wrong.

 

Doh!

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Big thanks for reddwarf75 for the profile gift. It's absolutely adorable!!! *gloms* ;D

Yes, I'm alive.

No,my computer is not.

Yes, I'm sick this weekend (have been for a few days.) Yes, I'm also getting better.

No, I'm not sad about that (all the better reason to hibernate during the Halloween season). You can't believe the amount of shows I've been going through on Netflix. Between no computer (my Mom's is available, but it's unbelievably slow), and being sick, it's about all I have to do.

Yes, my old Xbox has finally kicked it (the old one, not a 360). It was my last working DVD player able to be hooked up to my TV.

Yes, I still have my wee little portable one and have also been making use of it this weekend.

Reason #2 I've not got much to do: my Mother is out of town for the next 10 days.

Oh yes, and I'm trying to play plumber at home. My toilet broke. It took me 3 days to work off one bolt and the water hose to get the tank off the bowl. Have yet to try and do the rest of it.

No, I'm not sad I didn't take up plumbing as a profession. I'd never make it. LOL

Yes, that's about it for now. I'm off to finally start the Vampire Diaries and Merlin series on Netflix. Yay!

Back to trying Melatonin. Been trying to do without any sort of sleep aid for awhile now, but ever so often I just can't sleep without something.

Had an odd experience with Half & Half today (if you don't have it where you live, it's a dairy product that's half cream, half milk). I think it was tainted. I opened a fresh bottle and it tasted almost like almonds. Very odd for a milk product. Didn't taste right, so I only drank half and threw the rest of my tea out.

Didn't toss the Half & Half though, because it wasn't sour. Just... off. Thought maybe it was just me, so I asked me Mom to test it tonight, and I got it out and it smelled bitter. Not sour yet, just... a bit like an almond-sweet buttermilk. I ended up pouring it right out. It was really thick like full fat cream.

So, so weird. I reported it to the store I bought it from. Not sure what to think. Tried to Google some reference on the smell, but nothing came up.

Bah. Short update for now. More later. Off to head into the basement so I can attempt to cool down.

Hope everyone else isn't melting where you are!