Scorching the World

Today is supposed to be called black Friday because it is one day of the year when merchants’ books are in the black, making money. But now it is an excuse to do big sales for a whole week or more. One thing is for sure – it isn’t a day one would want to go to a store unless you are insane. We did need to go to a grocery store, but it wasn’t crowded at all, so that was good. Trina had planned to take Christian shopping at 6am for all the things he never gets around to buying on his own, like shoes but he didn’t wake up in time to do that. Tom and I were super tired and woke up slowly and later. We did some on the computer then did our scripture study before going into the house to make breakfast. Tom made his potato and sausage burritos with scrambled eggs. He needed a lot of help because almost everything he needed to do that in the house was in the studio, so I had to keep going back into our room to fetch necessary ingredients, pots, bowls, spatulas, etc., etc. It is funny to li...

Of course we woke up early, so I got the turkey in oven then began making rolls. I made 3 cookie sheets of rolls. When I checked my phone at 7am I saw that Trina was in Bakersfield already! Wahoo! That meant they would be here by 9am! I worked on the rolls and then at  8:40  was going outside through the driveway to get something when I realized there was a car there! Pettus’ had arrived and we didn’t even know they were here! Trina and Trevor had gone in the house through the front door and Geneva (Jay) and Dexter were still getting out of the car! We were so excited! We had all of them come in through our door so they could see our little apartment, then we let them get settled in the house. I put out the lemon bread and deviled eggs for them to snack on until we were ready to serve dinner at 2pm. While we waited for time to finish dinner preparations, Trina, Tom and I watched the Macy’s Day Parade. I don’t love that as much as I used to because they don’t focus on wha...

Tom had to work today instead of yesterday, and the boss wanted him there by 6am, so he got up and out of the house super early. I had a slight headache in the night, so I stayed in bed after he left. It felt good. It was the first headache I’ve had since we moved into the studio, so in the middle of the night I had to remember where I stashed my pain meds. I started preparations for   Thanksgiving and for Pettus’ arriving tonight. I made the green bean casserole, a pie called “Hawaiian Millionaire pie, made deviled eggs, prepared the stuffing, and removed seeds from a pomegranate in prep for a baked apple dessert that I plan to make tomorrow. I listened to 2 podcasts while cooking, which made it way more interesting! Tom got home from work about 11:30, so he had time to eat and change clothes. We had 10 people come to clean today! We were afraid nobody would come because they are all getting ready for company or leaving to have Thanksgiving somewhere else, but these faithful p...

When we bought our new fridge for the studio, we knew that even though it has an ice maker, there wasn’t water going to it, so there would be no ice. But after it got installed, Tom kept thinking about it and decided it wouldn’t be too hard to run a water line over to it. It’s only 10 feet from the sink, so not a big deal. Usually Tom works on Tuesdays but this time his boss told him to work on Wednesday instead of Tuesday so the stores and restaurants would have sufficient sausage for Thanksgiving weekend. So Tom decided to work on the water line for the fridge today. He went to a couple of hardware stores to get the supplies, then spent several hours drilling holes in the back of the cabinets to put the line through. It was mostly hard because of our age – hard to get down low enough and reach far enough and use muscles in that position. But he succeeded and we rejoiced greatly! We now have ice in the fridge. It doesn’t have a water dispenser, but it has ice! Tom’s amazing. We had ...

We actually slept in until 6am! Tom had been awake around 4 but was able to fall back to sleep. I had an appointment at the audiologist at 7:15am. I figured we were supposed to be 15 minutes early, so we had to hurry to leave on time for that. On the way, Tom asked to verify what part of kaiser the appointment would be in, and when I checked, I found it was at a community medical center on Shaw, about 10 minutes further than we planned for! Good thing I checked! When we got there, it took a little while to find the right office in the complex but eventually found it but it was closed. There was a sign that said it opened at 8:30am, but another sign that said if you have an appointment before 8:30am, the office will open for you at your designated time. We had 10 minutes to spare, so we stood outside and waited. It just so happened that the audiologist that my appointment was with was Giselle Warren, who is a good friend of ours from the Spanish ward. She’s so cute! She ran a bunc...

Of course Tom wanted to make breakfast for our little visitors. (They had come to spend the night and see their accommodations and check things out before they move in at the end of December.) The kids are so cute and the parents are incredibly nice. They had forgotten to bring Sunday clothes, so Tom loaned Ben a shirt and tie, but everyone else were going to be in their nicer traveling clothes, so Kira, the mom, made a midnight run to Target and got some Sunday clothes for the kids and herself. They all looked so cute. Church was good – the parents just went to Primary with the kids since it was their first time there, then we met back at home afterwards. We talked some but they needed to leave before 2:30 so Kira could get a live scan for her school. (Wish Trina and Chris had been here to do that for them.) They paid us the rent for January and the security deposit and filled out the rental application and rental agreement before taking off. After they left, Tom and I got a n...

Originally Lowe’s told us our fridge would be delivered between 11am and 11pm. We laughed at that. If they came at 11pm, we would be sound asleep. Later they updated that they would be here between 12 and 4pm, so we went to clean the church. We almost forgot to go, so I texted the guy in charge and let him know but he arrived the same time we did, so he didn’t care that we were running late. Everyone else was standing at the door waiting for him! Tom doesn’t believe in leaving until all the jobs are done, even if there are a lot more people there helping, so we cleaned the chapel, then helped with other little things and left in under an hour. We stopped on the way home at Lowe’s, our other home, and bought a replacement kitchen faucet. The one we have only let a very small stream of water through, which is frustrating! We found one, but Tom wanted to check for other options. I would have been in and out of there in 5 minutes, but we took about 15 so Tom could talk with an associate ...

At least for Tom, they are very long. We got a few things done before he left for work at 6am. He was told he would have extra stops today so the restaurants and grocery stores that he delivers to would be stocked for Thanksgiving. He worked hard and fast to finish in time for the temple cleaning, but knew he wouldn't have time to come home for lunch or to change clothes. I had yoga at 8:45am and Tanya joined me today. I like when she’s there, then afterwards she came over to watch tv and grab a nap. She has a new job working security at the airport and right now it is graveyard shift, so she was pretty tired. To go to the temple, I had to wear my temple cleaning white scrubs and bring my temple clothes, Tom’s bag with white scrubs in it, our temple bags with our special temple clothes and robes, our gym bags with gym clothes and supplies, Tom’s white shirt and dressier pants, and my purse. It was a whole lot to carry by myself. Sadly, I forgot to bring a dress and dress shoes ...

We got up again at 5am. I guess this is the new normal. We sure get a lot done in the mornings this way! We were supposed to meet Tanya at 9 at the credit union to help her buy an investment house, but later she texted that she is recalculating to make sure whether it is a good investment. She sure did want that little house, but decided the margins were just too tight. I had a nail appointment at 10:30 and Tom had a dentist appointment at 10 but there was no way to combine our trips to Fresno. We both had errands to run before coming home, so we met back at home for lunch. It was nice to not have so much moving and packing to do, finally but that made it harder to actually define what I actually did. I know Tom spent some time working outside. It got up to 75 degrees today, so he was a happy camper! I finally sat down to figure out how much we spent on the dentist and on payments to dental insurance, compared to how much the insurance paid of our bills. It was quite difficult ...

Before leaving for the temple I swept, mopped, and Tom vacuumed the whole house. He also cleaned the intake vent in the hall and the sliding door tracks and cleaned a few other places I had missed when dusting. It sure seems like there is always more to clean! I wish I could just hire Clean Queen to come clean for a few hours! I also decided to trim my hair. Neither of my friends who cut hair are available right now, so I decided to chop it off. We had 9 people to come to clean. Everyone who comes and all the workers and presidency who are then when we go have become such good friends. Wonderful people serve in the temple. I have mentioned Jim Kellogg who makes ice cream and puts it in the freezer for anyone who wants it. We thought he had quit for the winter because there hadn't been any for a few weeks, but there was a bunch today. There was caramel, which was so delicious - lots of flavor without being too sweet, and our other fav is red hots, which tastes just like the cand...

The goal today was to clean all the shelves, cabinets, and drawers in the house. I decided to start in the kitchen, which was obviously the biggest job. I am aware that some people clean their shelves, cabinets, and drawers regularly, but it sure looks like I’m not one of them! We both started cleaning at 5am, then Tom left for work at 6:30am. He had several errands to run after work, so he didn’t get home until after 12 noon. I worked on the kitchen the whole time he was gone. Holy cow there are a lot of shelves, cabinets, and drawers in the kitchen! When he got home he wanted to work in the yard while it was still light outside. That window of light is really limited now during daylight savings! It gets dark so early. While he was outside, I finished all the rest of the shelves, cabinets, and drawers in the rest of the house. It didn’t take very long, probably because the quality and dedication to absolute cleanliness went down as I got more tired. There was a bunch more of stu...

We were up and awake by 5am. It continues to be a problem that Tom wakes up around 3 or 4 and tries to not wake me up so he tries to hold very still. He finally did get up and went into the house and played pool for about an hour until he thought I might be awake. I keep telling him he can get on the computer or something with a low light and I’ll sleep through it, but he won’t do it. We’ll see what happens when going into the house is no longer an option. Anyway I was up by 5 and got busy on stuff. My goal for today was to finish moving everything out of the house, then Tuesday and Wednesday I can focus on cleaning the house. So we both carried things from the house either into the studio or into the garage. On Saturday we had moved everything from all over the house into the kitchen area, so we didn’t have to go searching for things and it was easier to sort where things went. SO MUCH STUFF! I thought I was good at not accumulating stuff. So we got everything out of the house b...

Same as every morning. Tom woke up early and tried to hold still while I tried to ignore his wiggling and we eventually got up about 5 or 5:30. By the time we were in Sacrament meeting, we were both ready for a nap. Of course, we couldn’t sleep because it was the Primary program which was delightful. So cute. It was pretty well done, and we now have a good size primary, compared to past years. (Good size for us – not compared to other wards.) Sunday School was good. The teacher Heather Fisher always uses an interactive method, which is nice. She’s a college teacher, so she knows what she’s doing, and she always emphasizes things that are way different than I would have. I had a meeting with the ward activities committee to make more specific plans for the Ward Christmas party. It will be nice, I think. Tom wanted to visit some of his assigned ministering families so he left to do that while I was in my meeting. I got a ride home with Linda Moses who lives in the area just north...

Tom wanted to help clean the church at 8am, but we woke up so early we got a lot done begore he left. I got busy on my own things and was surprised when it was already 9am and he returned. Tanya had asked if we could join her at the little house she is trying to buy to meet an electrician. There were other tradesmen who were supposed to come give estimates, but they all canceled or postponed. It was interesting talking to him/listening to Tanya talk with him and hearing what things need repaired. After he left, we sat in Tanya’s car and discussed stuff about the house and her job and our studio apartment. Then we went our separate ways. I stopped at Lowe’s and bought a 2”x2” board to be able to stack my spices nicely on their new little shelves. Then I went to Save Mart to get groceries and a turkey for $.19/lb. but I had to buy $50 of groceries to get that price. I had a hard time finding enough things we needed to meet that quota. I was also looking for something to get for Tod...

Tom woke up about 3 or 3:30 but stayed in bed and tried really hard to go back to sleep or at least hold still to not wake me up. He finally was able to go back to sleep about 5am. I can’t sleep when he’s awake because he wiggles a lot but I was wide awake about the time he fell back to sleep at 5. We are quite a pair! I got busy after he left for work at 6am. I stayed busy fixing things like the pictures on the wall and my spice bottles – you know, important things until time to leave for Yoga at 10am. Ginger is a wonderful yoga teacher but I sure see my limitations with weak muscles and lack of balance that come with age. Still, it was a great workout. It was only about 60 degrees when we started, and Ginger ended about 10 minutes early because it was starting to rain. (we do yoga outside on a mini soccer field.) It was raining pretty good as I drove the 5 minutes home, but when I left for the temple, the sun was shining and there was almost no sign it had rained. It was a really...

Tom was up a lot in the night with diarrhea but woke up feeling much better! I thought he would be weak and in need of naps to recuperate today, but nope!   He was busy all day and didn’t even get a nap. So glad he’s back to normal! The goal today was to finish the little cabinets around the microwave. It feels like we’ve been working on them forever – at least a week. I don’t know why they are so complicated, but maybe just because Tom isn’t really a finish carpenter, so everything has to be figured out one step at a time. Before we could get started, our friend whose truck died needed to borrow Tom’s truck again, so we drove separate cars down to south Fresno, dropped it off, and ran errands on the way home. It should have only taken less than an hour, but we were gone till close to noon. There is a lady to occasionally sells tamales near Walmart so every time we go to Walmart, Tom wants to drive the few blocks to see if she is there. Today was the first day she was, so Tom...

I got a notification on my phone that Amazon had delivered an order very early this morning. I appreciated having those things so early in the morning, but I hate that it meant some poor driver was out so early just for me. Nothing is so urgent that a driver had to be out before 5am! We got a new shower head, so Tom replaced the old one, and now we have good water pressure! Hooray! Now we can wash our whole body instead of a tiny part at a time. One of the things was an over-the-door rack, which I assembled while Tom worked on shelfs. I hung it over the front closet door and I filled it with canned foods. Unfortunately, canned foods are too heavy for that door so now it won’t close. I’ll have to switch the cans for something much lighter to go there. It’s a great solution, but we have too much extra food. We are going to have to stop buying in bulk! Another thing I ordered was a smaller jewelry box. I love the jewelry cabinet Tom bought me many years ago, but there just isn’t roo...