Scorching the World

Tom was a little stiff this morning from working at Tanya’s rental yesterday but still went to help Tanya do “just a little finishing up” in the morning. I refused to go with him in protest. Instead, I took myself clothes shopping. I haven’t gone clothes shopping all during the pandemic and felt entitled for making it so long. Plus yesterday, Tom told me he wanted to take me to buy clothes today. He loves taking me clothes shopping even though he needs new clothes way more than I do. I only went to one store – Salvation Army – but found quite a few things. It was fun except that the dressing rooms were closed so it made it hard to really know if anything fit.   I got home shortly after lunchtime and. Tom got home about 5 minutes later.   He told me that Tanya had one thing she needed to do with Cannon right then, and   then she and Todd were going to take Tom, Trina, and I out to lunch to thank us for all our work. By then I was already getting hungry, but didn’t ea...

He still could hardly find a comfortable position to sleep all night, and alternated between the bed and the loveseat. Poor guy! But this morning, his hips and legs felt so much better he went out first thing to water around the yard. I considered following him everywhere to make sure he didn’t do anything dangerous, but I had to do Clean Queen, so I made sure he had his phone with him.   He did rest a little during the day, but at 3pm he had arranged to go help Tanya in the rental again. I had forbidden him to do anything else there, but he ignored that so I went with him to make sure he didn’t do anything that could make things worse. The Clean Queen day was essentially over, so I thought it would be ok.   As soon as we left home, I started getting CQ messages and phone calls, pretty non-stop. When we got to the house, Tom dove right in, trying to do whatever was still left to do. It was clear I would not be able to keep him from working, so I left him there to do ...

  He hardly slept last night because he was in so much pain. He is used to being in pain and never complains unless it is almost crippling pain. He had a hard time being comfortable in bed, so several times in the night he moved to the little loveseat we have in our room. After a while that would become uncomfortable and he would come back to bed. We didn’t get much sleep. I didn’t even have to fight him to get him to take it easy. He really couldn’t walk without help, so I stayed with him all day in our room. I bought in meals and helped him though the day. It’s so sad to see him like that.   We feel so blessed that he wasn’t injured worse. It could have been so much more serious!

Tom always spends some time in the yard before heading to Tanya’s rental. Today is supposed to be the last day there. I sure hope so. He has lots of other things he needs to turn his attention to that he has ignored for the past few weeks. He was watering all around the yard and I was doing Clean Queen. He unexpectedly appeared at our bedroom back door asking for help. I was in the middle of a Venmo transaction, but he said he had fallen down and needed help. He had tripped over something while backing up and fell on his side, scraping his leg and arm, and hitting his head, shoulder and hip pretty hard. He could hardly walk or move and was covered with dirt.   I helped him remove the dirty clothes, clean up the wounds, and get in a comfortable position. He was hurting so much in his shoulder and hip that he called Kaiser to see if they wanted to take x-rays. They set him up with a video dr appointment for 11:50am. He talked to that doctor who said his tetanus shot is current,...

Tom went to Tanya’s rental again and spent ALL DAY there again today. He says he can finish tomorrow. He feels that Tanya is being very picky about tiny things that don’t matter in a rental, but we aim to please, so he keeps going back. I spent the day doing Clean Queen. It wasn’t so many hours, but it was constant. Every time I tried to exercise or leave the computer, I would get another text of phone call that would sit me back down at my desk.   About 5pm, Tom came home and we went out to the livingroom. Trina was trying to decorate for Geneva’s party. When she saw us she said, “I need help.” I joined and we called for help from Dexter and Trevor and managed to get all the decorations up before the graduation ceremony started. Chris arrived just as we finished and the ceremony was about to begin.   The graduation ceremony was a live broadcast that Trina projected to the TV. Not surprising, Geneva was about 10 minutes late to it and I don’t think she listened to a ...

Tom thought he could just be at Tanya’s rental until early afternoon, but ended up staying until nearly 6pm. All that’s left to do is paint all the interior doors and touch up everyplace where she had put a little piece of blue tape. Whoever painted last, many years ago, over-sprayed the walls so that there was beige on the edges of the ceiling, so Tom has gone around and painted all those areas. Tanya thought most of them needed done better, so he has had to do them again. It involves up and down the ladder for hours. He figured the doors took an hour each and there are 10+. I wanted to go help, but I worked about 6 ½ hours on Clean Queen. I also did a load of laundry but not much else. One prospective buyer wanted a report showing jobs with how much they paid with how long we worked at each for the past 3 years.   At night we watched an episode of The Chosen for FHE. Tom, Trina, and I love it but the kids really aren’t into it at all.   And then we got to watch day...

Tom had bishopric so he left early. I got pretty sick from the dinner yesterday, so I hadn’t slept well or much at all, so I got up very slowly and was barely ready to go at 9:30. We were supposed to pick up the lady we’ve been teaching with the missionaries, but Tom said we wouldn’t go unless she answered our messages. She didn’t, so we went straight to the church. We got there fairly early, but it was still hard to find an empty bench where we would have room for the Pettus’. We save them room on our bench and they got there just before the meeting started. It was a really good meeting. The two youth speakers did great jobs, both of them. I wish I could remember their names but I don’t know them yet. Then the high council speaker used lots of stories in his talk that made it much more interesting. I thin it held all the kids’ attention. Plus, this time, for the first time in over a year, we got to sing!!! It was not easy with a mask on, but it still felt good to sing. We weren’t al...

We didn’t got to Tanya’s rental like we had hoped because we found out Cannon and Kaden had a recital at 11am. So we got things done at home before heading over to the place. It was held at a Steinway piano store in a back room. It was cool just walking among the gorgeous pianos! There were only about 10 kids who played, and each one only played one number. The beginners are always first and seem to all start with the same songs. Then Kaden and Cannon I guess were more intermediate. They played things that were more impressive and both did very well. I was impressed because in spite of hearing them play at their house and at ours, I haven’t heard them play that well over the past year since the last recital. From there Tanya and I went to Costco so I could get some groceries and Tom and Todd went to pick up a fridge from Lowe’s to take to the rental. Both cars had to stop at our house on the way so we could change clothes and pick things up, then we met in Madera.   We only w...

  Tom went to Tanya’s rental and spent all day painting again. I stayed home and spent all day doing Clean Queen. Today was only 5 hours, and seemed way less hectic so several times I thought I could go help Tom, but then something would come up to keep me at the computer. I did take breaks to exercise regularly, and I watched a couple of movies while working.   Tom had the kids help pick lemons yesterday, and today took them to Gabby at our favorite fruit stand. In exchange she gave him a bunch of apricots, a mango, and more fresh delicious peaches. He made sure to show the kids the “fruits” of their labors! So delicious!   Chris went down to Corona to be there when a repair guy came to fix the hole in the shower from the runaway bullet. He reglazed the whole tub enclosure so now you can’t see any evidence there was ever a hole. Then Chris stayed down there to do more repairs. He has been painting baseboards and even bought and installed a new vanity! We’re so pr...

  I have started putting both my phones on silent at night, then check them as soon as I wake up, which needs to be by 6. There are always messages by 6am and today they started early. Tom left for Tanya’s rental, and I kept working on Clean Queen. The phone and work stayed constant for 6 hours! When Tom got home, I was still working. It was so constant that one time when I went to the bathroom, I received 6 text messages while I was gone. Mercy. I don’t think I have ever worked so many hours. I had thought that when it slowed down in the afternoon I would be able to go join Tom again, but there was never a slowdown.   Tom and I had planned to go to lunch with our friends, Sandy and Jim Thompson at 11, but I realized I couldn’t leave my phone, and I didn’t want to make Tom quit working on the rental in the middle of the day, so I called her and arranged to go sometime on a Saturday.   At 11am, the time we would have been leaving for lunch, someone rang the doorb...

Clean Queen took much of the morning, but I did manage to clean the bathrooms and the stove and exercise. The most exciting part of the day was that our new bar stools arrived! Now we have stools that swivel and go up and down. Ziona said they look like barber stools, and Dexter said they look like store furniture. Tom has always wanted a matching set of bar stools that swivel, so he is a happy camper. They were supposed to arrive between 2 and 6pm so I was shocked when they arrived at 2:15!!! Such happiness!   In the afternoon Trina went with me to join Tom working on Tanya’s rental. On the way we stopped at the fruit stand and bought strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and Gabby, the owner, threw in a bag of very ripe peaches for free. All of it is soooo good! Delicious! Tom, Trina, and I snacked on the peaches while we worked.   I focused on putting down painter’s tape so Trina could go along painting without interruption. Tom worked on lots of things – paint...

  Tom left about 8:30 to go work at Tanya’s rental. I wish I could work with him all day; we might have been finished by now if there were two of us. Tanya can’t spend much time there because she works and has kids to deal with, so she appreciates everything we can do to help. So Tom was there all day again. About 4pm I went over to help again, but needed more blue tape before I could do more baseboards. He decided to go with me to buy it and while we were gone, Trina arrived to help! How fun!   So Tom kept working on the ceilings and tops of walls, and Trina and I did baseboards. I went around and put on the blue tape above and below the baseboards, and she painted and removed the tape as she went. With two of us working on it, we still only got half of the living room, the hall, and two door frames done. It is slow going.   Tom was so tired, he was starting to get a headache. Fortunately, we had an appointment with the missionaries at 8am so we needed to leave...

Tom went to Tanya’s rental first thing again. He was there all day. About 4pm, I realized that my Clean Queen work was pretty much done for the day, so I went to join him. He is touching up paint on ceilings and the tops of the walls at the ceilings. Both the walls and the ceilings have overpainted onto each other and need cleaned up. It is slow work and tiring having to get up and down the ladder every couple of feet. The living room ceilings are vaulted, so he had to bring his biggest ladder meant for picking fruit to be able to reach it.   I worked on baseboards. They look awful, and a fresh coat of white paint makes the whole room look cleaner and so much better! It is also slow going. I have to put down tape on the floor, then guard the wall to not get paint on it, then scoot along the floor every few feet. But it sure is easier than climbing the ladder over and over.   We got home before family home evening. Trina watched The Chosen for FHE, but none of the kids ...

It was nice after working so hard yesterday to have today to rest. I didn’t sleep very well because my hips were aching all night, so we slept in quite a bit – until 7am! Unusual for us. Hahaha I cut Tom’s hair before we got ready to leave. This was our ward’s ward conference, so I was there on an official capacity, not that it makes any difference or that anyone knew. Lol Chris took Geneva and they sat by us, but the rest of the family stayed home so they could watch their old ward/stake special multi-stake conference with Quentin Cook. She said it was really good.   Our meeting was really good, too, but Geneva left at least once during each talk. We had two special numbers, too – one was much better than the other, but it is nice to have music in Sacrament meeting today. Speaking of today, this was the last week we are on the quarantine schedule. Starting next week. We will be back to the two-hour block. SWEET!   We had agreed to meet at Tanya’s for lunch today. I ...

Tanya’s renters moved out of one of her rentals after being there for many years. She used to have a property management company that was supposed to take care of the house and make any repairs needed, but when the renters moved out, she found that the management company had done a very shoddy job. She decided to take over the management of her rentals. The house needed many repairs and a good deep-clean. She is painting the whole things, switching out all of the hinges and doorknobs, repairing holes in walls and gouges in the flooring. She has to replace the dishwasher and fridge, and many, many other things.   Tom has been going there all week to refinish all the cabinets in the kitchen, but I couldn’t help during the week, so I got to go with them today. Trina also got her whole family to go help, so we became a good crew. As soon as we all got there, Tanya assigned everyone a job and everyone got busy, Ziona and Trevor were in charge of removing all the switch plate cover...

Tom planned to go to Tanya’s rental first thing this morning. He woke up well before 5am and was ready to head out by 6:30, but wanted breakfast first. Everyone in the whole house but us were asleep, and I didn’t want him to wake them up by making breakfast. So he did stuff outside until about 8:30-9 when people were up. Then things kept delaying him until it was too late to go and get back before the guy came to measure our front door at noon so he waited for that. The guy still hadn’t come at 12:30 so we decided the way to make him come would be to take a nap. So we got a nice little nap, but the guy still hadn’t come by 1pm so Tom called the company. They pointed out that the window for the guy to come was between 12-2pm. We all know that if a service person is supposed to come within a 2 hour window, they will come at the end of said window. And sure enough, the guy came right before 2pm. He was here about 10 minutes, then we were free to leave the house.   By then, it wa...

I didn’t work Clean Queen much today. It was nice! I only worked about an hour, but it took all day. I received texts/phone calls from 6:30 my time to about 9pm my time. Crazy. Easy but constant. Tom did all the things that I would have done with him if I weren’t tied to the computer. He worked at Tanya’s rental, working on the kitchen and bathroom cabinets all morning. He got home in time to go out with the missionaries, then when he finally got home to relax, Caeli called that her truck was smoking or had steam, not sure which, so he left to help her for several hours.   When we went to Lowe’s to order a new front door, we bought something I have wanted for decades – keyless entry! We got one for our back door and one for our new garage walk-in door. Tom didn’t have time to install them yesterday, so he said he would do it today, but I decided to see if I could.   I installed the one on the back door, but it didn’t work and it also wouldn’t close. So sad. I try to ...