Scorching the World

First thing in the morning I went back on Amazon and decided on a gift for Cai and got it ordered. She will get it on her birthday. Gotta love Amazon!  Unfortunatley I didn’t think to order one for Cannon, so now I have no gift for him. I hope I can find one in Costco when I go in the morning, His birthday is tomorrow, but because we are isolated, we probably won’t be seeing him. Tom spent most of the day working on the garage, “finishing up” and yet at the end of the day it still isn’t quite finished. So many little details. I was tired of that game and spent most of the day doing computer work and watching tv. I think I’m getting tired of being inside and alone plus I didn’t sleep good last night again – I woke up at 1am and didn’t go back to sleep for several hours. So fun getting old. I keep thinking of the blessings of the self-isolation, like the money we save from not going to the movies, not going out to eat, and saving money on gas because of  not going ...

Knudsens decided they better obey instructions to leaders and not meet with anyone for Church or anything else, so they didn’t come for breakfast, Sacrament meeting, or to spend the day having fun with us. So sad. It’s called protecting the old people. So we had the whole day alone. I got dressed for church first thing but Tom waited until we were ready to do our Sacrament meeting. A guy who is going to install our new flooring wanted to come over to show us something and said he would be here right after he had breakfast, so we didn’t want to start our meeting on the chance he would interrupt it. We waited, while fasting, until 1:00 in the afternoon. We watched Church videos, watched You Tube videos about this upcoming conference and preparing for it, and stuff like that. Finally decided to just start. It was a very special little Sacrament meeting all by ourselves. I played the hymns and we both sang (as much as I could sing while playing), we each said one of the pra...

I had no appointments scheduled for Clean Queen today! It was Lilian’s idea and I was so happy. No phone calls, no urgent appointments, no crises! So nice! Tom and I started on the garage right after breakfast, around 9:30 am and worked until about 8pm! We scraped the walls smooth, then put mud on all the nail holes, then we painted the walls and ceiling, then put up narrow boards over the seams of the ceiling sheetrock. We didn’t quite finish, but we got SO MUCH DONE! It was so nice to not have to worry about Clean Queen while we worked! We took a little break for lunch and a rest, but other than that we spent the rest of the day on the garage! It looks so much better! Monday we can do just a few things to finish it up. So fun!  But we are sure very, extremely tired. I ache all over. Towards the end, I could hardly keep myself moving. I don’t know how Tom keeps working so hard! He always does way more than I do and just keeps going!

There were a few smaller pieces of sheetrock that we still needed to put up. It was super hard without the lift that we had yesterday. We cut the larger piece in half to be able to handle a half sheet instead That was still hard, but at least we could manage it. We did take a break for lunch and a rest, but other than that, we worked on the garage from after breakfast until it was getting too dark to work. We moved things, rearranged things, and finished piecing the sheetrock on the ceiling. It was hard, but it felt good to get exercise while accomplishing something huge. I only had one major crisis with Clean Queen, but managed eventually to work it out. Actually, there were two crises and then I had to do payroll so I was still working after 9:30pm. Again, I left the phone in the office when I finished and declared myself done with it, but got another call and had to go back to it. Sometimes it never feels like I’m “off work”. Lol We watched a Tom Cruz movie after we ca...

I can’t believe the digitizing is done – well, mostly done. Tom has a few currently open files on his desk that I don’t dare digitize and toss, so I’ll wait until he is finished with those. All the others are finished. It “only” took 4 days. It wasn’t hard, but it was long. Tom has wanted to improve the garage ever since we moved in. Part of that process was to move huge cabinets from the side where they didn’t leave room for me to get out of the car on the passenger side, to the front of the garage where they aren’t in the way. He did that, I think, at Christmas when he had grandchildren to help. Now he wants to put sheetrock on the ceiling, and the whole thing needs painted. And then he will organize and make it all pretty. Or at least that last part is my plan. So yesterday he bought all the supplies and rented a sheetrock lift so whenever I wasn’t doing CQ, I helped. It isn’t easy because there are a lot of things that are in the way that he has to cut around, and measuri...

There isn’t anything we did today that deserves a whole title to itself, but it was fun day. There was rain and there was sunshine and when it wasn’t raining, we ventured outside, and when it was raining we worked inside. We got to take a walk in the morning again before the rain started. Love that!   It is amazing how many things we can find to do in our house while we are quarantined here. So yesterday we rearranged the office, and as I tried to work at my desk this morning, I realized it wasn’t going to work at all. My desk is a sort of side table; it’s only about 18 inches wide – or rather – deep. Before it was not against a wall, so it was fine that it wasn’t very deep, but now that it is against the wall, it isn’t deep enough. It was totally uncomfortable to work at. Suddenly my chair wasn’t even comfortable either. Tom knew I would want to fix the problem immediately, so we looked around and he found an old door outside. It used to be a closet sliding door, but w...

We managed to go for a walk first thing in the morning. We love it when we have time to do that! The rain held off long enough to get outside and get some fresh air for a little while. So nice! While we were on  our walk, we dropped off a gift for a neighbor who is getting married and had to cancel the bridal shower because of the mandatory quarantine in California. We didn't knock, but I texted her later to tell her it was on her doorstep. Later in the day, she texted me back to thank me for it, then told me there was something on my doorstep! When I looked, it was a loaf of fresh, homemade bread! There was a note of peace and encouragement, sharing their love with us even though we are all stuck in our own houses, we can still feel and share each other's love and strength! So nice! I so wish I had thought of that! I worked on the 2 nd drawer of Tom’s files, taking details from the files to complete the excel file. It is very slow work. In the afternoon he took pity...

Tom has been telling me for many years that he was going to retire soon and that when he did he would need all of his files in a digital format instead of handing over 3 drawers of messy paper files. He seemed pretty serious about it this week, so I decided to start making an excel list of all the mobile home parks in their designated area, which is pretty much from Los Angeles to way north of Sacramento, and from the coast to the Nevada border. There are about 1610 parks. I’m taking the details from the files and filling the missing blanks on a list I already had. Then I scan the park maps and put them in a file. The first day, today, I did the whole 1 st drawer. It took all day. Sadly Clean Queen is very slow, so I had plenty of time. I work in the office until I can’t sit n the chair anymore, then move to the family roomsofa where I can sit in a different position and watch tv while I do it. We found the flooring we wanted at Lowe’s, which is still open, so Tom went there...

We are receiving so many instructions constantly, and they change constantly. The governor has issued a home isolation mandate. We aren’t allowed to leave home except for emergencies or if you have written exemptions. I think we can go get groceries, hardware stores are open, some only for pick up, but no gatherings are allowed. Then there are instructions from the area authorities, the stake leaders, and the bishops. Each ward bishop seems to have a different opinion on whether it is ok to have the Sacrament at home. Everyone says we should not have the Sacrament with friends or family. We really like having Tanya and family come over, but it is clear now that it probably isn’t allowed. These restrictions are supposed to end at the end of March, so we might make it till then. But today we had a nice little Sacrament meeting with the Knudsens. We had an opening hymn, prayer, sacrament hymn, Tom and Todd administered and passed the sacrament, Tom gave a little talk, then a clo...

I’ve been saving up to put a flooring over our stupid stamped cement floor. I would sure like to have a floor that looks clean when it is and that is a little more durable than paint. I had gone to Lumber Liquidators last week and identified a flooring that I liked and wasn’t too expensive, and took a picture so I could remember which one when I was ready. Their total price was more than I had so I knew I needed to save more. Then Tom found a guy that will install the flooring for was less, so I realized I could afford it. This morning I convinced Tom I was ready. I looked at Lumber Liquidators online to see if I could go in and buy it, but of course I couldn’t. The store is closed for COVID-19. I checked to see if I could order it if I have it delivered. The answer was yes, but it would cost $1200! I about fell over. And was super sad to realize I can’t do it until the shut-down is over. Bummer. But Tom called the guy, and he came over and measured our floor and gave us an i...

Wasn’t sure if he was supposed to go to work today at all. The Governor issued a mandated state-wide shut down. Nobody is supposed to leave home unless they have a job that requires them to be there. Anyone who has to go to someone’s house has to have a letter of authorization from the government. Wow. That sounds so weird to say and we are living it. So when Tom was finally able to talk to someone in the office, they told him theirs is a company that is authorized to go to people’s houses because they improve utilities. So he left for the Bay Area. He knew he needed to have some kind of letter, but he couldn’t wait for it. Later, he told me that there was an email with a special letter to take to the residents so they know the company is approved to do work. He needed to have that, so he asked me to find a Fed Ex office near the park where he would be going so he could have me send it to him and he could print it. I did that and when the office sent a letter for Tom and ...

With the scare and restrictions that the Corona Virus has caused, I ended up with absolutely no appointments for our cleaning crew today. I’m sad that I couldn’t get anything, but at the same time, it was so nice to sleep in, knowing that there were no CQ emergencies! Tom and I even went on a long walk, which we never get to do anymore! So nice! We both stayed home all day. Tom tried to get together with the Knudsen kids to go play tennis since they are out of school, but Tanya said they were being safely quarantined in their house until the end of March. So sad. I have to say the Corona Virus is taking away a little of the fun times. But we are healthy and happy, and have everything that we need, so we are not complaining! I was able to spend a long time talking to Anne about the Clean Queen budget. I keep thinking the finances require someone who knows how to do a business budget and how to allocate the expenditures correctly. But we combined our brains and figured a few th...

I’ve been in total and complete denial that Tom has diabetes. Things like that don’t happen to us. We are healthy! He has had no symptoms. Even after he had his physical and they told him he had it, we didn’t believe it. We had just finished a box of See’s candy and figured his sugar was just elevated from that. Surely with time, they would figure out that the test was a fluke and Tom is fine. But Kaiser gave him a testing kit. He was supposed to go there to a class where they would show him how to do the blood test, but all classes at Kaiser have been canceled. Instead, he had a phone consultation to walk him through it. It was a little tricky figuring out how to make the tiny machine work, but we got it all figured out with the help of the nurse on the phone. He tested at 172 on the first home test of his life. Normal is supposed to be around 100 first thing in the morning. So I guess I have to accept the fact that this is true. My husband has diabetes and will have to moni...

It rained all night so when we woke up the pool sure was full! It continued to rain all day. Now we have a nice lake in front of the house, and the pool only lacks a couple of inches to overflow. I wonder where the water will go if the pool gets too full. It’s just silly because just last week we ran the water in the pool for 2 days to fill it. Too bad it didn’t rain then! Now we need to drain some out! Tom almost stayed home all day but finally went out to run some errands in the evening. He had planned to work but had a phone conference call in the morning, then some work emergencies after that, so he never made it out. I had some major Clean Queen emergencies that took most of the day to resolve. People are afraid to have anyone come in their home, so many are canceling their appointments. I have one day this week with no appointments, and don’t have enough appointments to fill the rest of the days. Cai called and we got to chat for a long time. I love talking to her! ...

Ok, so normally we start with Tom having Bishopric meeting at 9 or so? This was going to be his first one and since there was no church, they scheduled it for later than average. Then we normally have Church 10-12, and I visit another ward during or after our meetings. Then we have choir practice, and go home for lunch. Then I have an afternoon stake meeting, and at 5:30 we have stake choir practice and go from there to the Spanish outreach Sacrament meeting at 7, getting home around 8:30pm. That’s what a normal Sunday is like. Today there were NO meetings because of the COVID-19 virus; all large organizations are cancelling large meetings, or any meetings with groups. So for the first time in my life, I didn’t have a meeting to go to on a Sunday. I’ve missed Church before like when we’re traveling or when I’m sick, but other than that, I don’t ever miss church! We got permission from our Bishop to have the Sacrament in our home and invited the Knudsens. They had been t...

We were able to sleep in until nearly 8am! A record day! Tom and I both had errands to run in the late morning, but in different directions, so we decided to just go our separate ways. We really never do that, but it was good we did or combined it would have taken all day. I went to a thrift store for some more casual clothes; it seemed like all I have in the closet is office casual – not entirely appropriate for yard work or cleaning house. First I went to Lumber Liquidators because they are having a sale. I wanted a price on getting new flooring but need an estimate to know how much to save up. They had a good price, and some flooring I liked but I will need to save for a long time before we’re ready to do it. There was a thrift store next door that I hadn’t seen before, so I decided to go in and check it out. I walked out with 9 tops and a jacket for $20. Pretty fun! Then I went to Walmart to get a few things and found the store in chaos. Most of the shelves are empty ...

Tom was up in the night so much that when he came back to bed around 5, he slept until after 8:30am! He never does that. I kept going in to check to see if he was still breathing! By the time he got up, it was too late to get to Laurel’s class.  I got up at 5:30 because my Clean Queen phone was calling me so by the time he got up, I had exercised, worked on the computer, cleaned leaves out of the pool, and written in my blog. Tom went to work today, but was local, so he was gone from about 9-6, which included a grocery store run for me. I played mostly. I had some Clean Queen off and on through the day, but mostly I played with painting on white tiles with permanent markers. It’s fun because if I mess up or don’t like it I can just wash it off and start over. It was so beautiful outside, that I had the back door open all day and went outside to do some of the painting, listening to the water running into the pool. So nice! It has been nice like that for a few weeks; I...

We didn’t have the water run all night, although it probably would have been fine, but after taking showers this morning, we turned it back on. By the end of the day the pool is almost half full. Tom “worked” from home today. He probably put in 5 minutes of work and we love that he still gets paid! He has talked to his bosses about that, and offers to go to part time or quit, but whenever he does that, they give him more incentives to stay. They love him. We had an appointment at 10am in Madera to finalize and pay for our funeral arrangements here. All we need here is a funeral home in charge of preparing the body and sending it to Utah, yet it cost a small fortune! I couldn’t believe how expensive it is to die. Maybe we should just wait for the Millennium and skip all that! We weren’t finished there when it was time to go to a funeral at the chapel in Madera, so we left the guy to finish his paperwork so we could just sign when we came back afterwards. We were actual...

Finally! Last Saturday when the Oldsmobile was parked in Fresno, Tom got a call from a guy who sounded very sketchy. He was sort of mumbling but said he was interested and was going to look at it closer. Tom was afraid he was going to break in and steal the radio or something, so he ran down there to meet the guy.  By the time he got there, the guy was gone, so we didn’t think anything more about it. This morning the guy called back and sounded a little more sober. He asked Tom to meet him at the same place because he wanted to buy it!!! So Tom took all the documentation there to sell the car, but told me to wait and see if the guy really bought it before I went to pick him up. So exciting when he called and asked me to go get him. The guy came with the money and now the Oldsmobile that we’ve been trying to sell forever, is GONE!!! There was great rejoicing! At home Tom worked mostly outside and I worked mostly inside. He worked on his car and finally got it to start!...

Tom and I had no problem waking up this morning in spite of losing an hour of sleep. It felt like a normal Sunday morning. We had to take separate cars to Church because I was visiting another ward after our meetings ended. Tom went to choir practice but I had to miss it. I gave Sandy a ride to the Woodward Park ward. They had a very small group in Relief Society but good lesson and discussion. I gave Sandy a ride home to her house then went back over to the stake center for my 2:30 MCM meeting. I was about half hour early, but it wasn’t enough time to go back home. I had brought an apple for lunch but it wasn’t very good, so I only ate half of it. The High Council room where we meet smelled like onions. President Tucker commented on it, and the missionaries confessed that it was probable from their lunch. President Tucker said, “someone gets to eat lunch on a Sunday?” I said, “I had half an apple,” and he laughed and said, “I had some M&M’s. It was a good meeting. I ...

Tom and I got up early enough to help clean the chapel even though we hadn’t been asked to help this week. Tom just likes doing it. Tom drove the Olds so that after we cleaned, we could take it to park it in a prominent place. Hope springs eternal that someone will want to buy it. We had breakfast when we got home, then Tom started working outside. He worked on his Comet and on the yard. It was beautiful weather, so it was pleasant to be out there. Actually it sprinkled a tiny little bit – I saw the drips in the pool, but when I asked the Alexa, she said it was not raining. I thought that was funny. I had a couple of hours of Clean Queen, of course, and practiced piano a little and exercised some. We both got naps, but not at the same time. When Tom was in a mobile home park a couple of days ago, they gave him a bag of fresh produce that got left there. It had celery, an onion, 3 potatoes, and an eggplant. Tonight I decided to cook the eggplant. I dabbed it in egg, then r...

I wasn’t ready to wake up when the team leader, Jessica, called me on a video chat at 6:30 our time. I hope she didn’t hear me tell Tom, “You are supposed to come back to bed with me, not bring me a phone.” I thought it was a text and was surprised to find Jessica on a video call with me straight out of bed. But it was 7:30 in Utah, so it was not an unreasonable time for her to call. From there I had constant calls, texts, and emails. In-between calls and such, Tom and I got in a good workout. We are determined to improve our health! Tom worked on his car and the yard. He was really hoping to have the Comet running today, but after he assembled all the new stuff and tried it, there was coolant squirting out from the gasket or something, so he came in very discouraged. I just laugh because this is what he wanted to do, so he has to be happy about all the work and setbacks and successes together. It will be fine. We did manage to escape everything long enough to go mid-day ...

Tom left fairly early, so I had to whole day to myself. I hardly got any Clean Queen calls/texts, so I spent the day making more grocery bags. I made 5 new ones; I like the pattern I have now and can make one in about an hour. I don’t know what I’m going to do with them, but they are fun to make and I’m using up fabric, so it’s all good. I was glad when Tom got home about 8:30, safe and sound. He saw three bad accidents; I am always very happy he wasn’t part of them.

Every since Tom replaced our newish water heater with an electric water heater, we have had no water pressure in the kitchen. The water comes out in a very slow, small flow. It is frustrating for the one sink that we use more than any other in the whole house. I’ve complained almost every day about it. Tom has taken the faucet apart twice to try to unlodge whatever is restricting the flow, but nothing has worked. He really hates working on it because it’s so hard for him to get under the sink and look upward. He had some spare time today – or at least I convinced him that this was more urgent than what he had planned, so we took the faucet apart again. We tried to blow back through the faucet, but there was one pipe where no air went through at all, that was inside the faucet itself. So I made a run to Lowe’s and purchased a new one, we installed it, and suddenly we have fully running water again! Hooray! That was the most exciting thing that happened all week!

Tom got to stay home today, which is pretty rare for a Monday. He thinks that as his company transitions to the new programs he will have more days at home. It’s so nice he can get paid for working from home. He tried to work on his Comet, but couldn’t get the new parts to fit so he was pretty frustrated by the end of the day. My Clean Queen schedule for tomorrow fell apart and I spent all morning trying to get people to answer the phone or texts so I could get someone to take the appointments. It was very stressful and literally took all morning but I finally got enough appointments. It was actually only about 1 ½ hours of work, but it took all morning to be stressed about it, yelling at my phone for people to respond. Tom kept telling me that it always works out eventually and turned out he was right. I made a run to the grocery store to get what we would need for refreshments, and cleaned and dusted to get the house ready for our FHE group. Tom had invited 4 or 5 couples b...

The Jerry Hadley, husband of Carol, a childhood and lifelong friend of Tom’s died this past week after long battle with cancer. We are glad he is no longer in pain, but so sad for Carol. The viewing started at 10am so we left as close to 8 as I could get ready. I had some Clean Queen to do before I left and prayed there would be no emergencies while I was gone all day. It is hard to have the cleaning crews working on Saturdays – I’m just not able to stay home and always be available like I try to be during the week. They had decorated the whole building, almost. There were bunches of pictures in both foyers, with a slideshow running in the main foyer. The viewing was set up in the Relief Society room, and Carol stood next to the body, with her hand on his face. She was smiling and seemed so at ease; I just don’t know how she could do that. She was there for a couple of hours as the constant stream of people passed through. They have been serving for many years in the Hmong branch...

Clean Queen dominated my day today. We are always scheduled to help clean the temple on Fridays, and still, just minutes before time to leave, I was answering emergencies. We had two teams, so that is double the work. There was an emergency while we were in the temple, but I managed to take care of it after we got out. We are there less than an hour, and it is still hard to not be AVAILABLE. I had scheduled a tax appointment for right after the temple, so we went there and took care of that. We have to send in an amended return for this year; we’re using H&R Block, so it will be fairly easy. We hope. I had several texts and voice messages during our short tax appointment, and I took care of those as soon as we left. I continued to work until nearly 10pm. Sometimes I think an 8 hour a day job might be less work. Not really, but sometimes I wonder.