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No longer on the river and, again, an empty nester. Back to living on Fleming Island and making some more friends!

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Sort of a bummer, but then, not so bad!

Good evening, all! Mom, if this color is too hard to read, just let me know and I won't use it again. We must take care of our Mums, particularly if she is a faithful reader of this site!
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The moon is reflecting on the river and looking soooo lovely. When I came in a minute ago, I barely needed the light on but felt I'd better since my heater is in the room and didn't want to fall over it. The temps were quite warm today, sorry to report to the snow-bound people up north, right around 74 for the high temperature. Don't worry, though, it isn't going to last very long, but Lynn might have one warmer day when she's here. I can promise her no snow, however! Sunday our high is expected to be 70 on the head, good football weather. We are going to miss hearing a special speaker at Bible study Sunday, a representative for our Synod's Central Africa Medical Mission. She is a nurse who works directly with the natives, treating their earthly ailments while sharing the Word with them. Our congregational/voter's meeting is also that day and again, I will miss that, all for going to the Packer/Jaguar game. I'll tell you this----one or both of these teams had better put on a fabulous show for us!
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Well, my appointment with the attorney went well, it was really good to see Nancy again, as well as her assistant. After we got caught up on family and all that, we got down to business. Our job today was to "answer" the petition I received last week and now the work really begins---where I must gather the dreaded financial information to fill out the official paperwork portion of all this----AGAIN! Ugh! I kicked myself all the way home for having a messy desk and disorganization but then, who knew? It is not really something anyone else can help with either because only I know if it's trash or keepable, or if it's private information not to be shared, that type of thing. "Come, Lord Jesus!"
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Once back home, I had another appointment, this time with my friend, the plumber. There were a few things needing a plumbers' hand, or tool, as the case might be, including replacement of a shut-off valve under the sink in the guest bath. NOT an easy thing to take care of, though, because it appears that in order to access the pipe, located in the back of the vanity, the entire cabinets and sink have to come out, too! Of course they do! Ugh, again! When they are working on this project, the water for the entire building, or at least the "tower" that houses the units above and below mine, must be shut off. Since we cannot see a date or age on the water heater, no one can tell me how old it is, but it looks wretched. Steve thought it might be on its last leg due to the rust dripping down the sides, but I believe that may have come from the old A/C unit which is above it. The A/C unit has been replaced but the drips remained. While we are at it, I am replacing the toilet in the guest bathroom, since all the others have already been upgraded to the "comfort height" elongated bowl-style potties. Nothing is too good for my guests! I told him the other toilets came from Lowe's and were called "John-in-a-box" and cost about $100---I hope he can find one close to that price or I'll go get one from Lowe's myself! A couple years ago Justin and I bought a toilet for use in one of the places he was living and then they moved out! Talk about planning!
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Our little birthday dinner was a huge success as Leanne was totally blown away having a tablefull of people to celebrate with. She said no one in her family even called on her birthday but her church family certainly did! Leanne was so excited, her feet didn't touch the ground and all we were doing is having dinner at Cracker Barrel!
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Joanne left me a phone message to say she lost track of time (again!!!) when making her special mashed potatoes and promised to clean up the kitchen when she got home later on. What should have been a simple recipe turned out to kick her butt and trashed the kitchen! I cleaned up a little bit but the dishwasher was still running when I got home from the attorney's office. When she did get home, I had a dish of her mashed potato casserole and it was totally yummmmmmmy! Too bad it was such a pain in the @##$% to make! My mom used to be that way when she was baking---always flour and such flying around the kitchen. I don't think she was like that when cooking, only baking. My habit is to have a sinkful of hot and sudsy water into which to place my utensils after using them, no matter if they are going into the dishwasher or not. It's my kitchen, I can do what I wish!
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Tonight I am so tired, probably a little bit stress-relieved and feel like I might go to bed early. The bulk of the cards went out in the mail this afternoon before I headed to Cracker Barrel, plus I tried without success to deliver the presents for my "adopted" foster child at Kids' Net. I couldn't find the right suite number over in the area known as the "monkey farm". I'll need to reference the e-mail to find the right suite number and make my delivery tomorrow sometime, after scrapbooking, perhaps. Monkey Farm is what this area is called because monkeys used to be raised there, and now many of them (or their descendants) live at Silver Springs Park in Ocala. The chimps were used in Tarzan movies and for other ventures, not sure about the astronaut thing, though. Varying opinions of that, but it's fun to speculate. No monkeying around here this evening----it's time for sleeping!
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Today we are doing better watching the clock

Right off the bat I am thinking about my dear friend this a.m. because I chose the font called "Georgia", who is Linda's sister! God morning, Linda!
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I am up and dressed for the day, watching the minutes tick by as I wait to head downtown to see my attorney. Part of me is excited, again, because I haven't seen her or her assistant in over four years since this deal was hammered out the first time. I did keep a little in touch with Loretta as her sister lived down the street from me on Doctors Lake. Going over my numbers yesterday made me think back to buying that house and how much I loved it. I actually wept when Joanne, Justin and I went to see it. The realtor who had it listed was so glad when the offer was accepted because she knew how much I loved the place, saying I was "cute" when looking at it. Don't know about the cute part...
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Of course, the storms of 2004 totally washed away, in every fashion, the joys of living on the lake since the costs to restore and clean up the mess storm upon storm were just too much to tolerate. My now downstairs neighbors lived on the same street as me during the storms and they got clobbered a whole lot worse than did I, taking a "hit" of over $100,000 damage to their property which is NOT covered by home owner insurance. Nothing detached from the home is covered, and if something attached is damaged, the deductible is huge, a fixed percentage of the property's value. Ouch! And that is why they moved here, right at the same time I did!
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We'd taken enough of a beating on the lake so we moved to the river and got beaten up again with the seeming endless "special assessments" for our building. Just exactly what is so special about them??? Next year will be another larger assessment, at least one, to pay for repainting and caulking the entire building, to hopefully put a finger in the dyke of the leaks we continue to experience when it rains. The unit two floors above me has recently had its patio replaced and we are all hopeful that the leaks which affected us below theirs will be cured and we won't have to worry about that any longer.
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Mmm, I am enjoying my leftovers from yesterday's lunch. That Jackie---she is so funny! Somehow or another things get by her, and then she is surprised when it occurs to her or she hears about something. Like when Judy R. was coming for a visit---one way or another she didn't seem to know about this. I was stopping cars on the street to tell them about my friend coming but someone with whom I spend at least two days per week was the last to know??? Anyway, before I even finished what I was going to eat, Patty, our personal waitress, dropped off a to-go container for me in which to put my food. Jackie saw that and said, "Oh, that's why you don't order from the children's menu! You take your food home with you!" Mom used to always mention this when we ate out with the church family and others, but it seemed like new news to Jackie. Because I only have me to take care of, I can get a couple meals out of my take-along boxes, as only single folks can do. Those who must cook and prepare for a husband or a family simply can't think this way. Yes, I eat many meals outside my home, but yes, I eat the leftovers if I am not out eating with my friends!
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Speaking of which, the plans I had for dinner here tonight are scrapped----I ate up all my leftovers! No, just teasing about that. Several of the invitees are sick, having respiratory problems or stomach ailments so I have postponed the dinner. Not to worry, I had another invitation waiting in the wings with some church ladies, my usual Tuesday night gang. We are doing something special because one of them has a birthday needing to be recognized----shhhhh! It's a surprise!
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Thanks everyone for being such good commenters on my recent blogs!