Busy Busy

This week, in the Luby household, was a busy, busy week. Considering my track record, I know I’m gonna shock you when I tell you I didn’t take many pictures. That’s just how busy we were.

Having said that, I do have a few things left over from last week. Let’s reach back and include those pictures now.

Early morning fog reflects a golden sunrise.

Do you remember all my issues with Cricut?

Cricut is an electronic cutting machine. You can cut everything from cloth, to paper, to vinyl, to balsa wood. It uses cartridges to tell the machine what shape to cut. I have a bunch of cartridges and I also have five that are just online. If I want to use one of those, I have to hook up to the internet and go to Cricut’s design space.

Cricut stopped supporting my model and I could no longer access the website, ergo, I couldn’t use any of the five cartridges there.

I was confused, upset, and angry, all in that order.

“You could still support it if you wanted to,” I told Cricut’s customer service. “You just want me to buy a new machine and the one I have works fine.” Cricut had two design spaces, one for the older models like mine, and one for the newer models. Then they did away with the older design space.

The rep assured me the issue was not their fault and offered me fifty dollars toward a new machine.

Even with fifty dollars off it would still cost me one fifty to replace my machine. I told them to stuff it.

I love my Cricut. I don’t use it often but one of my favorite things to make is accents for my stained-glass Christmas ornaments. Little hearts and stars and even numbers out of vinyl to commemorate the year it was given. They peel off if someone didn’t want them on theirs.

When you want to make something for friends and family for Christmas you start thinking about it in September, and that’s just exactly what I did. With the design space, I can add tons of sizes and shapes to one sheet of vinyl and place them for minimal waste.

I missed the design space.

Walking through Walmart a month ago I saw, on an endcap, a new Cricut and it was one seventy-nine. Hmmm. With fifty off that would make it one twenty-nine and that wouldn’t be so bad.

“If they send me the coupon, can I get it?” I asked Mike.

“Do they send it to you or is it something you have to use on their website?”

I contacted customer service at Cricut and asked for the fifty dollars they promised me and, “Can I use it at Walmart?” I asked.

Nothing is ever as easy as you think it should be. Mike was right. They don’t send you fifty dollars; they give you a credit.

“I’ll give you a code to use at checkout,” the heavily accented rep said.

The website had an Explore Air 2 for one sixty-nine. I put it in the shopping cart and when I checked out, the code only gave me ten percent off plus free shipping.

Not what I was promised.

Back on the phone I go and explain what I wanted all over again. This time another heavily accented guy told me they didn’t have a coupon code for fifty dollars off.

“I was told I could have fifty dollars off a new machine when I upgraded. I have the email where you offered it to me,” I told him.

After giving him my case number, and a conference with his supervisor while I was on hold, he came back on the line. “There are no coupons for fifty dollars off. But what I can do is give you a store credit. You can use that in conjunction with the ten percent off and free shipping.”

My new Cricut came and it’s mint green ’cause they didn’t have purple.

I put my old Cricut up on Facebook Rummage Sale and sold it for forty bucks.

“You should’ve gotten fifty,” Mike lamented.

“I’d’ve been happy with twenty!” To me, it’s not worth much because you cannot get online with it. All said and done my new machine cost me seventy-two dollars. I’m a happy camper.

I’ve not had a chance to play with it yet and it remains to be seen if I’ll even get any ornaments made this year.

Last week, I missed a picture of the pretty red winterberries.

And a Bondi story.

Bondi usually curls up in my lap at night while we’re watching TV. I take her out before we go to bed then she gets wound up playing with the cats. Sometimes it’s hard to get her to settle down again.

One night she walked across my pillow and up into the headboard bookcase. I thought she’d already cleaned out everything I didn’t want her to have but she came back chewing on something.

“What’s she got?” I asked Mike like he’d know.

I stuck my finger in her mouth and tried to swipe out whatever she’d picked up. I couldn’t feel anything but she started to chew again. Afraid I’d push it back into her throat if I probed any deeper, I stuck my finger in her mouth and shook her head. Nothing came out. And she started to chew again. The next time I went looking I pulled this out of her mouth. Bondi lost a tooth — and she wanted it back!

Most times you never find their teeth because they end up swallowing them.

I was playing fetch with Bondi. I try tossing her toys just as far as I can to give her a good run. We were playing with her squeaky banana when I got a little too much height on my pitch. Bondi saw me toss it but never heard it hit. She was so confused. It ended up on Mike’s car shelf. It’s a wonder I didn’t break something.

Early this week we made a trip to Dickson City. We needed some supplies from Lowe’s and Sam’s Club. I was enthralled with the morning sky.

The section of road that had been closed for so long is finally fixed and open. I didn’t get a picture worth showing.

The guy outside of Tunkhannock that had bees doesn’t have them anymore. All the hives are gone. I’d love to know what happened.

And I didn’t take any other pictures on that shopping trip.

At home, we’ve been busy busy. And not just busy busy, but working really hard busy. Old people shouldn’t work so hard! Both of us are sore sore! My elbow hadn’t recovered from the nail pulling episode and now it’s irritated all over again. Gone are the days when I only needed a night or two to recover. I suffered with a sore elbow for a week before I remembered we had this stuff and right now, it’s my best friend.

Someone told us years ago about using horse liniment for Mike’s achy knees. If you Google it, it says some may contain DMSO and aren’t safe for people. DMSO can cause skin irritation if applied topically. This brand’s only active ingredient is four percent natural menthol. It has a bunch of other inactive ingredients but DMSO isn’t one of them. I’m not telling you to use it, I’m only telling you that we are.

“So, what are you working on?” you ask.

We are working on our exercise studio.

We brought five rolls of insulation home and worked on putting that up. Because this was an old building and because the builders weren’t especially fussy about where they put studs, some of the bays are fifteen inches apart, some are twenty-four. Some are sixteen and some are twenty-five. Like I said, they weren’t all that fussy.

Mike meant to buy the twenty-four-inch-wide stuff but opening the first bundle we realized we’d only bought the fifteen-inch stuff.

“We’ll just go sideways with it,” Mike suggested rather than taking it back. And it really works better for us anyway.

We went as far as the five rolls would take us then switched to putting the boards back up. The first thing we had to do was power wash the years of grime off the boards. I was stunned by the beauty of the boards once they were clean.

Reclaimed lumber may not be for everyone but it suits me just fine — and with the price of lumber today, it’s a lot cheaper!

We finished the first wall and mounted the TV. Mike can watch the news while he’s on the treadmill and my girls and I’ll have it for workout videos.

Will miracles never cease?

Mike came up with a suggestion.

“Peg, I was thinking. We could use metal on part of the wall if you want.”

I was absolutely floored! Whenever we’ve seen people incorporate it into decorating, Mike hated it.

I closed my mouth and acted like it was a perfectly normal suggestion for Mike to make. “I’m okay with that.”

In the upper barn we have two pieces of old roofing, sixteen-feet long and one shorter piece.

The short piece, full of character, found a home above the door.

We still have a lot to do but can’t do any more until we get more insulation.

Bondi! Bondi! Bondi! My little sneak-thief.

I don’t want to have to kennel her forever. I’m hoping she’ll figure out she can’t be around when we’re working and go take a nap or entertain herself or something. My method is to keep her out of the area we’re working in. She sat at the door, looking at us through the panes of the French door, and whined for a while. I ignored her. Then she went away. Then she came back and whined some more. Then she went away again. Later I discover a tube of triple antibiotic gel with teeth holes in it on the bedroom floor.

“Where did you get this?” I hold up the tube and ask Little Miss Innocent as she sits at my feet giving me those doe eyes.

An image flashes in my mind’s eye.

There’s a box of stuff on the floor in the bathroom, stuff I don’t have anywhere else to put and don’t really want to throw away. It’s kinda sorta behind the trash can. Nearby is a cushy chair, our Miss Rosie chair (because she gave it to us) where Macchiato lays a lot. To keep Bondi out of his food, his dish is on the chair with him. Bondi was nosing around, looking for dropped morsels, and found the box. She pulled a comb out. I took it away from her, put it back, and distracted her.

Now, a few days later, she must’ve been checking the floor for food and found the box again. She’s not good about hiding evidence and I followed a trail of comb, hairbrush, eyelash curler, and dental mirror back to the box. The antibiotic gel was in there along with a tin box of band aids. Remember when band aids came in tin boxes? Yeah, that’s how old some of this stuff is. I pitched the gel and didn’t even bother to Google it. Once again, I sent up a little prayer and hoped she wouldn’t get sick. She didn’t. Thank you, God.

Speaking of God…

Y’all can pooh-pooh my beliefs in God and heaven and hell if you want to. If I’m wrong, I’ve got nothing to lose. If you’re wrong —.

I wrote the Thank you, God, line and another image flashed in my mind’s eye. An image of me, standing in the kitchen, praising God for a blessing He bestowed upon me — when I didn’t even ask for it, at least not this time anyway.

Then I thought I’d share that unasked for blessing with you but I couldn’t remember what it was.

Bring it to my mind, God, and I’ll share it.

I got up to get a cup of coffee, hadn’t gone more than eight feet, was just reaching for the water spigot, when it came to me.

You know how unhappy I was when we got home from vacay and I saw pictures of myself? A picture is worth a thousand words, so they say, and there’s no denying how much weight I’ve gained.

“I used to be the skinny girlfriend,” I cried.

October seventh, my youngest, most handsome brother’s birthday, was the day I started a diet. That was a coincidence, by the way. Totally not planned. But it gives me a chance to show you my baby brother, his wife Eunice, and their son Jacob. I just think they are the most beautiful family ever!

Anywho…

A diet is just as bad as anything else you do to lose weight. If you don’t stay with it, the weight comes back on, usually with a few more pounds for spite.

“What’s your diet?” I hear you ask.

All I’m doing is counting calories using an app on my phone called My Fitness Pal. You answer some questions and it’ll tell you how many calories you should eat each day to lose weight.

I’ve attempted several times in the last few years to lose weight and had little success. But each time I started I’d ask God to help me.

Oh, I don’t blame God for my failures. I blame myself.

This time things are different. I don’t know why. All I know is that it is. If I want a slice of Miss Rosie’s famous Banana Nut Bread or a serving of gelato, I budget for it. I’ll eat fewer calories someplace else. I know that if I eat the Nutty Buddy then I can’t have popcorn — horror of horrors! That would be like the end of the world for me! Not really, but I absolutely love my bowl of nighttime-TV-watching popcorn. Sometimes I have that Nutty Buddy anyway and depending on what else I’ve eaten that day, I might only be able to have two tablespoons of popcorn — with no cheese sprinkled on top!

I am measuring and weighing EVERYTHING! I figured out the calories and portion size of the spaghetti I made. That was a quite a feat, by the way. You weigh the hamburger. Measure the onions. Calories are listed on the sauce and noodles. After it’s made you portion the whole thing out. That means a dirty measuring cup between food and service. After dinner, the rest is portioned into freezer bowls.

Calculate all the calories, divide by number of cups, and I have my calories. It’s a job but a necessary job if I’m going to be successful. Mike is supportive and even grateful. He’s asked me to portion his food also.

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

I came home from vacay weighing (and I’m not proud of this) weighing one seventy-four. Today, I’m at 166. 17 days, 8 pounds. Not fast, but I’ll take it.

I hadn’t planned on telling you any of this. I planned on showing you after, just in case this turned out to be another failure. But when I was standing in front of my sink, realizing how many fewer calories a day I’m eating, it dawned on me that I haven’t been plagued with hunger. One of the reasons may be because I stopped thinking about food all the time. I think what I’m having for breakfast and don’t think about it again. I plan what’s for lunch and let it go. I do something else.

And I know that the Lord has blessed me, too and I thanked Him.

God knows what I need and loves me enough to give it to me, even when I don’t ask — and He loves you too.

I haven’t been walking Bondi very much. For one thing, we’ve been busy busy. For another, she just had that operation.

But I did take time and walked her around the pond one day after Mike was done working for the day.

Smudge came with us.

Look at all the Cedar Waxwings! I love the Cedar Waxwings! They’re such a beautiful bird (not that you can tell that from my picture.)

The sun going down behind the trees.

Winter flowers. These are the dried remains of Goldenrod. The red blurry thing in the background (which I think looks kinda cool) is the barn with the sun shining on it.

The barn in a more focused shot. The trees aren’t all that pretty yet, at least, not here. But I have high hopes!

I didn’t think birds ate Bittersweet because I usually have berries on the vines right into the next spring.

Not so, according to the internet.

Two of the most common eaters of Bittersweet are Starlings and House Sparrows. “Invasive birds eating invasive berries,” one site says.

Another site says they’ve found berries in the stomach of Cardinals. The berry is hard and not easily digested by the birds. So, it comes out pretty much the same way it went in and that’s how it spreads.

The wild hair of the Virgin’s Bower. That’s the way my hair looks most mornings.

My two giant puffballs are gone to seed.

Then I found another smaller one hiding under the leaf litter. I stepped on it, helping to spread the spores, and hoping for a bumper crop next year.

Mid-week our roofing material was delivered.

Using spray insulation on our roof was the worst (and very expensive) mistake we’ve ever made. Yeah, it might seal up all the air leaks, but it also creates condensation. Now, for a solution, we’re stuck putting a new roof on. The only good thing about this is that Mike and I are able to do the work ourselves.

We stood a bunch of the sixteen-foot purlins against the old mill and once on the roof, Mike could pull them up.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t that easy when it came to the metal. Mike had to lift each piece up then I could pull it onto the roof and screw it down. It was just a lot of up and down for Mike and that’s hard on him.

This is what we accomplished in one day and the reason we are so sore.

The next day, and every day since then, it has rained and there’s no way we’re getting up on a wet slippery roof.

We decided to run to Sayre and get more insulation.

Road pictures.

Going through Towanda, the school kids have painted windows for Halloween. All I can say is we have some pretty talented kids.

We went back to work in the exercise room. Mike calls it an exercise room, I say exercise studio because it sounds classier.

Mike did most of this wall himself on Saturday while I was working on my letter blog.

There were a couple of times he asked me to come and hold something for him and I did. I also didn’t shut the door and the little sneak-thief came in, too!

Mike put a two by four on the ceiling to hold the light. The spray insulation hung too low so Mike scraped it off. I was holding one end and was helpless to do little more than watch as Bondi stole a lump of freshly fallen insulation and went trotting out of the room. A few minutes later she came back for another. I knew I’d have a mess to clean up. Tearing things apart is something Bondi likes to do and she decimated those insulation clumps. I just hope she didn’t swallow too many. Should I say another little prayer?

A little later I was working on the computer and Bondi came into the kitchen carrying a receptacle cover.

Uh-oh, I think. Someone’s not gonna be haappy! I sing-song in my own head sometimes. I traded Bondi a treat for the cover and on my way back to return it, I picked up a receptacle, too. I’m not the only one who forgets to shut the door.

The weather looks rainy for next week so we may get this room done sooner than we’d planned — and the roof not as soon as we’d planned.

Let’s end with another sunrise picture I took this week.

With that, let’s call this one done!