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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!

Thursday, March 19, 2009

"Hot as a Pancake"

The above expression was used at the Building Committee meeting I attended tonight and really made us all laugh. The Chair, Mike, was telling about a client he has right now, waiting to get his sun room installed, and it is not happening fast enough. He said the guy was "hot as a pancake" about it, which just tickled our funny bone. Oh, good! We found a reason to laugh during a Building Committee meeting!!!!
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My handyman, Butch, arrived this a.m. only moments before I had to leave for Bible study so I could only get him started before heading out the door. He is the cutest little fella, on his second or third career, and is even shorter than I am! He can do it all, though: he can do the plumbing, electrical, drywall, painting, and carpentry work plus do all the hauling up and down the elevator. And Butch calls me "sweetheart" which I really like. Justin said I call people that, too, and I call him "Sweets"....no wonder I like it!
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My drive over to Victory was a bit delayed because I stopped to let the maintenance lady, Connie, know about my renovation in case there was an interruption in water service when Butch shut the water off or, God forbid, another leak situation!!!
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The church doors were all locked but Pastor heard me at the door and came running to let me in. Although the video had already started, I was not the last one to come in. We are following a program from the "Focus on the Family" group, discussing today, "Who Is God?", from "The Truth" series. It is sooooooooooo good, interesting but quite deep, but still "learnable" for us lay people. The professor who serves as instructor is an excellent teacher and I feel like I am a college student on Thursday mornings!
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On the way over to Victory, I got a phone call from Ellen, my neighbor whose husband died suddenly in late January. She is trying to recover and re-gain her footing after his death and we were going to perhaps get together today for lunch, her first time out. I like it that she reaches out to me, since no one else in the building has been able to speak with her. She is living away from The Palace right now as it is hard on her to be around his belongings and such. Unfortunately, she had a doctor appointment which was going to interfere today but she plans to keep next week open for us. And she wants to have some poolside time as soon as the weather improves, and I am also up for that!
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The afternoon found me busy on the computer working ahead on the church newsletter and downloading photos from my memory card. I had over 350 photos stored on it so they needed to be removed to the computer. When I got home, Butch showed me the make-shift plumbing he discovered when taking the wall apart. One pipe in the wall was secured with a hose clamp!! The water supply for the hot water was so brittle that it nearly snapped off in his fingers. He said it would not have been long before it let go and then we'd really have trouble!!! I am so glad I decided to go ahead with this project and get that creaky plumbing taken care of before it affects my downstairs neighbors!!!
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When Justin came over after work, he was totally bummed out because his co-worker/friend was told that tomorrow is his last day. He felt the guy should have been given a bit more notice than one day. I hope the fella comes in tomorrow so Justin can at least give him a proper send-off. Now Justin is the lone go-fer guy left and will have to do all the grunt work. Today they moved a mess of furniture from a model home which was sold. Oh, good, a sale!!
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He helped me to get a bunch of my rooster and chicken collection together as Joanne is having a yard sale at her church, the perfect place to donate them. I had made up my mind to not collect them any longer and to free myself of some of the things taking up space. I did keep some which had special memories for me especially the ones given to me by Joe, our trim man. He gave me many gifts and I still have them all, including two stuffed roosters and a ceramic one with measuring spoons as the tail! Justin had given me a stained glass lamp rooster which I wished to keep and perhaps even find a place out here in the rooms to plug it in.
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The deal we made was for him to clean my black doors which he thought would be much easier than it was, and for that work, I would get him some new shorts and a pair of shoes. I probably did end up with the "raw" end of the deal but I am more satisfied with having clean doors than he is with new shoes, I think....We placed the order this afternoon before he went over to pick up his carpool buddy. The purchases are being delivered here because it is better than at his student housing place, and I am cool with that. Just brings him back to his mama one more time! We had planned on having lunch with some church friends on Sunday but he doesn't want to wait until after our congregational meeting. Nuts! He said we will try again for a week where less is going on------like, when exactly??????