Living in a Forest

 House sitting for a friend.  Gorgeous yard.

I Love Clouds

 I LOVE them.       

I love finding shapes.

I love finding them in the sky and surrounding the hills.

I like watching them change colors.

Clouds are beautiful.

Living Conditions part 4

 Didn't turn out what I had expected.  Still not through.  But closer - I suppose.

Spent the majority of yesterday bringing items from the shed and back room to find a new home

the back room is still in disarray - even moreso than the counters pictured above.

Janeen Lowe

 

I saw the date and

realized I have a friend who

has a birthday today. 

It has been a very long time since

I called her my friend. 

I don’t know why we fell

out of touch. Nor do I

know why I feel

compelled to create this post.

Happy Birthday, Janeen –

Hope you are doing well.

the chocolate here won't kill you

No Apps, Thank You

                When I had my brick phone my son Tony added an app that he thought would be beneficial.  I started getting all kinds of text messages about things that I really didn’t care about and asked Jaime if she could remove it.  Eventually all the unwanted messages stopped also.  I don’t want apps on my phone!  I want my phone to be a phone.  Yes, being able to receive text messages and taking pictures are nice bonuses but really not necessary.  I don’t need the website.  I don’t need apps to clog up my system.

 

         Richard and I had gone to Staples.  An overly enthusiastic employee attempted to give me tips on how to save money if I install their app onto my phone.  I whipped out my flip phone and showed it to him.  When Richard joined us I excused myself to use the restroom.  Apparently he talked Richard into putting the app on his phone.  I don’t imagine it will be living there for long.

The Art of Darning Socks

               I didn’t realize that darning socks is still practiced – and evidently has been upgraded to being performed on the sewing machine. Really?  When I have a hole in my sock, I will just by a new pair.  Forget the darning thing.  I have seen it performed and am certain I could figure it out, but it seems more work than it’s worth.

          I wear cheap socks – not a lot of fabric or weight.  I don’t really care for the expensive ones or handmade or bulky socks.  Richard had purchased a couple of pair for me and Jaime.  I admire the thought – and although the socks are cute seem impractical to my feet.  

The sage are mine and the black are Jai's

For one thing there are multiple threads which always manage to catch on my toenails.  They hug my leg too tightly for another.  I have many pair that do that. I prefer my legs to breathe.  I prefer cheap socks or a bamboo fabric (also comfortable).

Short and Sweet

         In the Church of Jesus Christ there is a meeting in which members of the congregation are encouraged to make their way to the stand to bear their testimonies.  This meeting takes place once a month – usually the first Sunday of each month.  General Conference also falls on the first Sunday of the month and so testimony meeting gets moved to either the last week of the month prior or to the second week (depending on the ward or stake).  In the South Umpqua ward we have held testimony meeting the week prior – except this year.

On March 26 we had stake conference – which is a geographical boundary made of up several wards

April 1 and 2 was General Conference (which is when the meetings are broadcast world wide)

April 9 Easter program

Thus our testimony meeting was not until the 16^th of this month.

          I recall sitting through a many of sacrament meetings as a youth in which testimony meeting especially seemed to drag.  Either a person would make his/her way to the stand and drone on endlessly or else there was such a lull of space in between each testimony that the silence often seemed to account for a longer amount of time.

          There were several things on my mind.  Jaime had made a surprise visit.  I am so grateful to have her so close to home.  I have also grown a lot due to the “Come Follow Me” program in addition to my current living situation – becoming more tolerable I guess and feeling like I have become (and continue to become) a better person as I compare my own faults to the scriptures direction on how to improve.

          During the week I had asked for the Spirit to be with me that I might express my thoughts without detraining from the testimony’s purpose.  Bishop had announced that we keep our testimonies short and sweet – which this ward members seem to be really great at – and there are rarely lulls or distractions like some meetings of my past.

          I mentioned how the “Come Follow Me” program has assisted me with my current living situation and how grateful I have been for the examples each have given me.  I was then prompted to sit down. 

          “But I still have more to say,” I thought.

          I sat down without expressing my gratitude for Jaime and being at a close distance.  And so I am expressing it here.

The Cat We Share

         We have had cats in our yard. 

They come and go.  

Before Jai went to college she would name the cats: 

“Ghost”, “Blanco”, “Midnight”, “Venom” . . . 

all which have vanished over the years.  

Currently there have been two tabbies – 

one yellow and one black and tan.  

Ally calls the black one “Pudding”.  

Her friend, Molly, who lives next door has 

claimed the cat as hers and calls the cat “Muffin”.  

The cat does not live at either house and yet 

both girls have claimed the cat as her own.

         It’s not a farel cat exactly. 

Rumor has it that she/he belonged to a family 

who recently moved but failed 

to take the cat with them.  

I don’t think said family really did 

abandon him/her.  I think the cat is 

well taken care of at different houses 

and tends to hang around.  But what do I know?  

We don’t have a cat as we have two dogs who 

like to torture cats.  

At least our dogs look like dogs.  

The dogs that live at the house next door 

look like two giant wolves.

         Clair has promised Ally that if 

ever they move they can take Pudding 

with them.  Really?

The Latest Scam

           Our son Randy is a safety inspector who makes more money than he knows what to do with.  Recently, Richard has started taking classes in order to become a safety inspector also and has been putting in applications for jobs.  One company texted on Easter Sunday to say they had availability and would like to interview him using the internet.  Okay, I get it.  After 2020 many have relied more upon technology for interviews using zoom or facetime or whatever.  Monitoring a lengthy questionnaire does not qualify as an interview in my opinion.

          I was bothered that the “interview” was to take place on Easter day.  After all, he had just received the text message. Usually one will set up an appointment and not just willy-nilly create a spontaneous message through text. We had gone down to Ashland again as Jaime had left her wallet in the car and figured she would need it before we visit with her in a month.  I think he saw Sunday as just an average day and didn’t seem to care about it being Easter.

          So he decides to do the “interview” which I didn’t really feel good about and would have at least waited until Monday – the fact that the company was willing to compromise any Sunday but especially Easter made it feel like a company would be self-oriented and not care about employees.  I don’t know how many questions Richard had answered before he was asked for bank information so the company could be certain about direct deposit.

          Fortunately, Richard did not provide the “needed” information but instead entered that “by law I cannot provide the information until I have already been working at your company”.  After more prodding on the company’s end, Richard typed in “I will not answer anymore of your questions as both you and I know this is a scam.”

          It infuriates me because not all desperate job hunters are wise enough to stop feeding information.  Just like jobhat – asking over a hundred questions ( including social security number) in their “application” .  When a person is filling out the application he/she/they does/do not yet have the job and does not need to provide social until he/she/they has/have the job. I hate that people will prey upon the weakness of others.  I hope they are all caught and crucified at their own expense and not that of the taxpayer.

          Job Seeker Beware!

Living Conditions part 3

 All the flooring that we had put in had done less than two years ago has been to be replaced.  Once again – are you kidding me?  Just fix the kitchen not the entire flippin’ house.  But no.  Thus were we down to no useable kitchen but had three days possible that the five of us might have to share a toilet.  Oh, no.  That didn’t sit well. Initially the insurance company was going to issue a 28,000 dollar allowance to pay for temporary housing and food that would supposedly last four months.  Four months?  Are you kidding me?  The water damage wasn’t only the floor but ALL of our kitchen cabinets would have to be replaced as well.  What a nightmare.

The insurance company talked Richard into staying in the house rather than use the money on temporary housing (which we had looked into and had come up with pricing) for the five of us (wait a minute – did I say that I had no intentions of sharing a bathroom?  Why couldn’t we just sent away the other three?) which didn’t surprise me.  

I had believed that we would be stuck with the expenses as I had absolutely no faith in the insurance company (and even less now)  The kitchen and lack of counter room has been a problem.  Hated the toilet sharing - but at least it was only a couple of days that we were without toilet and not the going on four months of no counterspace in the kitchen. But nobody was allowed to shower for those two days until Richard and I left to go out of town.  

I told Clair she could take her shower while we were gone and what a fun experience that must have been.  I don't think she realized how claustrophobic one may feel in our poor excuse of a shower (see here) But there bathroom now has a new toilet and are able to use a wider amount of space for their shower.

We picked out some flooring before the insurance had even approved us.  It was on sale.  We had to make a purchase.  I believe the flooring remained in our living room for over a month before it was slowly installed (did I mention that the contractor seems to have a hard time keeping employees?) and had gone down from four days a week to only one and then a few weeks without.  Turns out there was only one guy doing the floors for how many ever projects they have.  I don’t know if other clients are as nice as we are or if the reason employees are quitting is because they don’t need to put up with the abuse that I’m certain they are getting (they are just the messengers doing their job – they don’t choose where the contractor sends them)

Richard is to the point where he is fed up and has been less than pleasant to the workers trying to finish the job that they had personally not started.  I understand his frustration and reminded him not to take it out on the “kids” that are coming in.  I don’t really know how old they are but seem to be younger than the last ones who came out.  I wonder if the company is being sued if we would be able to hop on the band wagon.  We paid for a job that still hasn’t completed (though all of the initial replacement has finally been done - well of the floor that is) 

And then there’s the matter of the cabinets still.  And who knows when that will happen.  Hopefully before Jaime returns home from college but I’m not holding my breath.  The contractor had another call to report a fire damage that had taken place at the cabinet makers.  We thought it bogus as he had lied to us about other situations, but turns out there was a small fire that did some damage to the needed equipment used for finishing (he made it sound as if the entire structure and business had been burned to ashes) and so everybody in line for cabinets is now on back order. (How frustrating for the contractor as well as how many ever clients)

Living Conditions part 2

 Welcome to our 2023 nightmare

kitchen

  

our front room in January

kitchen

we had used the table for maybe six
weeks just to have it all full again.  

no counter room

front room

after the demolition they brought in a laundry sink
which we are still using BTW

front room Jan/Feb

Living Conditions part 1

 Doesn’t appear that I have posted anything about the refrigerator or our disastrous issue STILL at hand. I had created a post about our situation – though not the fridge specifically.  It was posted on February 16, 2023.  I had it up for a day before I took it down.  The title had given away the name of our insurance company as well as their logo smashing a house.  But as they still hadn’t paid anything, I took it down temporarily. 

We have since collected a partial payment which is better than nothing but still not enough and we do plan on changing insurance companies (Richard thought he would save money by bundling, but I was happy with our former company and hope that they will take us back because I really am not impressed with the one that we are with currently) and also have a problem with the contractor – but that is another post of itself.

So let me now take you on the beginning of our “living conditions” journey:

We had purchased a brand new refrigerator probably ten years ago.  When we  moved from West Valley to Myrtle Creek we had brought our fridge with us.  When we lived on Jenny our fridge lived in the garage.  We used it but not the automatic water dispenser as it was not hooked up to the waterline. 

We did hook it up to the hose when we moved to tri city.  With each move that poor refrigerator seemed to take a beating.  We were looking at fridges in August of last year but were having a hard time finding one with the dimensions that would fit the allotted space.  Since the pandemic started companies have stopped making the smaller refrigerators and all fridges that are currently manufactured have are 36 inches wide.  Our allotted space is 34.  And we’d need it even smaller than that in order for the fridge to breathe – which the one we had was not.  That may have been what caused it to fail completely. 

The signs were there and we had been looking, but once Biff and his family moved in we had stopped looking – until the second Wednesday in January of this year.  Richard and I were already on our way to the big city of Roseburg when Clair called fearing her position of bearing bad news.  I think she and Biff had the worst of it as they were assigned clean-up duty while Richard and I diverted our plans and ended up at an appliance store that had some dated fridges that were less than 34 inches. 

Most of the items from the fridge itself cook be salvaged and had been moved into the back fridge (the one we had reserved solely for drinks because the fridge itself had only cost 5.00 and so we didn’t know how reliable it would be) but everything in the freezer had been left at a 56+ temperature and had to be thrown away.  They had filled a black trash bag with rotten food.  It makes me gag just to write about it.

A week later our obviously smaller fridge arrived and Richard hooked it up – but couldn’t quite figure out the hose (though he had the ability with the old fridge . . . don’t understand what had happened) thus he called the plumber to assist.  But when the fridge was pulled away from the designated area it was discovered that there was a large area of water damage that had accumulated over the years (probably the source of the initial water damage found in this post) .  https://beneaththewraps.blogspot.com/2022/08/we-are-so-blessed.html

The plumbers called a company that had worked on our house prior to our trip to California.  They worked under the house to restore to being dry.  The insurance company told us that they do not pay for “under the house”; our initial one did.  Anyway, the source of where the water had come from remained unknown until the fridge incident – which was in the opposite part of the house; it hadn’t occurred to any of us to look there as the source.

Anyway, though we felt we had been cheated by the contractor I did like the employees.  We learned that the company had/had a new owner who may not have the experience needed to run the company.  I hear they are down to only three employees.  Everyone else who had worked on our house (and there have been A LOT) have quit.  Lack of communication?  I would highly suspect that has a lot to do with it.  I want our former insurance and their contractors to serve us again.

I never did feel good allowing them to do what they did.  Too late now.  Will post “progress” pictures tomorrow.  Meanwhile . . . well, you’ll see . . .