Another Day in Paradise

Years ago (just after WWII and yes, years before I was born) my grandfather built a house and with that house he included a solar water heater. My grandfather was such a future thinker, but that’s a post for another time.

I have often wondered why solar energy isn’t more prevalent in our country and the world today. I just read about something that I think is totally awesome as I haven’t heard about the BP Solar Decathlon until now.

Sponsored by BP, twenty teams have been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy to compete in the 2007 Solar Decathlon. These teams will participate in a competition to design, build and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered home. Here is the cool part - in October (this week as a matter of fact) all of these homes will be transported to the National Mall in Washington, DC where they will form a solar village and compete in contests to determine an overall winner. Each participating entry will be judged on criteria including style, innovation and efficiency.

BP has sponsored the previous Solar Decathlons also which were held in 2002 and 2005. Supporting the Solar Decathlon is part of BP’s larger commitment to the promotion and use of alternative energy. I think this is totally awesome and I wish I could be there to tour the homes and look at the exhibits. I wonder what they do with the homes after the exhibit is over. I’ll have to do some more research to find out.

For example, I was surfing around and ran across Blogging for Bitter Women. The linked article started out humorous but by the time I finished reading I was giggling out loud. Warning: if the correct words for certain parts of the body that everyone has (but some people take exception to) offend you don’t click the link. haha!

That’s just one article on the blog, I enjoyed other posts and have added it to my feed reader for my midnight readings. A girl has to have a hobby!

I don’t have a Living Will or Durable Power of Attorney. I did make a Last Will and Testament years and years ago and named my son as my sole heir. That was before I married my present husband and I read somewhere (probably some legal book) that when someone marries it makes the will null and void. So I guess I really don’t have one. Hubby and I have an appointment with an attorney next week to make our wills and such. We also have to talk to him about issues with my mother-in-law’s estate.

The Old Lady always said she had taken care of everything so that my husband would not have a hard time when she died. She did have a prepaid cremation policy and written instructions for the cremation and services, etc. She wanted one song sung at the graveside, “Amazing Grace”, one prayer and that’s it. She didn’t want services in Florida but wanted them in Iowa instead. So that part was pretty easy. Well, easy so far. The services won’t be held until the spring so that means hubby will have to fly to Iowa for that. I might even go to Iowa this time, but knowing myself the way I know myself I doubt I’ll make that trip. (I didn’t fly up for his father’s funeral in 2004).

The problem now is that we can’t find her will. We found a copy of a will she had made in 1993 but we cannot find the original anywhere. We really, really didn’t want to have to go into probate and I’m still hoping that doesn’t have to happen. Thankfully all the money was already in my husband’s name, either as beneficiary or as co-owner of the bank account. There isn’t a money estate, there is only a property estate which is her home and car. I hope the lawyer will be able to help us with this.

I think this lawyer should be a pretty good one. He represented my ex-brother-in-law’s wife during their divorce and really cleaned out the brother-in-law. I always said that if I needed an attorney this guy is the one to go to. I hope everything turns out to our benefit.

I was talking about McDonalds the other day and someone asked me about this video. Prepare to be grossed out.

Edit 09/25/07:

Ann from Feeding Time at the Zoo left this comment regarding the video. I’m not sure how many people read comments here so I thought I’d link it so it gets a bit more exposure. The only thing I take exception to is “be careful whose bandwagon you jump on” because I don’t really care for McDonald’s regardless of what anyone says, pro or con. I don’t like it - but I don’t mind if others do.

Pholph’s Scrabble Generator My Scrabble© Score is: 11. What is your score? Get it here.

When my mother-in-law was in the hospital my husband and I each downloaded a game to play on our cell phones. Hubby downloaded a chess game and I downloaded a Scrabble game. I beat the computer on my first try! (on easy mode, hehe)

While I was looking at other games on the Verizon website yesterday I noticed that the Scrabble game uses air time to play. Uh oh! I didn’t realize that when I downloaded it. I’ll have to pay more attention to that if I get another game. I don’t like to get the ones that use air time. Oh well.

I’ve always had a problem doing “what is expected” and my mother-in-law’s death is no exception.

When we got the call at 3:15am Friday morning we didn’t rush to the nursing home. I guess some people would have. My husband had been there at 8pm the previous evening and had brought her a vanilla shake from Wendy’s. They had a good conversation and hubby said the MIL appeared to be doing well. So what would be the point of rushing to the nursing home? None that we could see. We still don’t know the cause of death but I’m 99% sure it was her heart. She had heart surgery in 1962 and at that time the doctors gave her 10 years to live. I guess she showed them!

So on Friday we didn’t go to the funeral home and didn’t go to her house to look for important papers and we didn’t go to the nursing home to pick up her belongings. We stayed home and didn’t go anywhere at all. We made numerous phone calls to family and her friends and just chilled out. I imagine most people would think that was weird but my husband was freaking exhausted from the long hours he had been putting in with his mother and the stress he has been under for so many years now I felt like he needed a day off. It was worth it too.

So on Saturday we did go to her house to look for her pre-paid cremation policy (finally found something that looked like it) and went to the NH to pick up her stuff. I got kind of creeped out at the nursing home. The receptionist only had the MIL’s purse at the front desk and didn’t know where her clothes and other personal items were. doh! You’d think they would have a system in place to handle this. The receptionist asked us to go and ask the nurse at the nurses station that is directly across from the room the Old Lady was in.

Ya know, I’ve been fine and dandy throughout all of this but when we stepped off the elevator it hit me really hard all of a sudden. I suppose it was because the last time I stepped out of that elevator I walked into the Old Lady’s room and there she was, babbling and bitching and complaining in all her glory. I had to choke back tears and at first thought I should just wait at the elevator. I did manage to pull myself together and went to the nurses station with my husband. I guess my morbid side couldn’t help it but I looked into the room and saw that there was another resident there already. Of course there would be, this nursing home is only a 113 bed facility and is one of the best in the county. It did creep me out though.

The nurse had no idea where the MIL’s stuff was so she sent us back down to the receptionist. *sigh* LOL, so much for best in the county! Truthfully though, I’ve been to a few NH’s that family members were in and while I firmly believe there are no good ones, this one really is a higher caliber then the others I’ve seen. So they got on their walkie talkies to housekeeping and her belongings were delivered to us straight away. Not that she had anything of value, but hubby had taken our atomic clock to her to use and we really did want that back.

Next stop was the funeral home. This is the fourth family member that has been cremated at this mortuary. My mother in 2000, my brother in 2004, the old lady’s sister in 2005 and now the Old Lady. I figure I’ll be the next one but that’s morbidity for another day. The mortuary was pretty easy. All we had to do was provide information discuss a few things. We are not holding services in Florida. My husband is shipping her ashes to Iowa and will fly up in the spring to hold services at that time. I guess is weird and not what is expected that we aren’t having services in Florida but we don’t want to so that’s that.

Today we plan to go to her house and start sorting through things. I’m a big fan of procrastination but I know the sooner we get started the sooner we will be finished. Blah.

I’ve said this before and it is always a long time before I change my mind, but I plan to never eat at McDonald’s ever again. It was after 8pm before the Old Lady got to the nursing home last night and it was about 9:30pm when we left. Hubby and I had not had dinner yet so we just drove through McDonald’s. Bleh. The food wasn’t terribly bad but I’m paying for it today with an upset stomach.

Maybe if I put it in writing this time I’ll remember why I don’t ever want to eat there again. I started to file this under “Fine Trailer Park Dining” but we have much better vittles in the trailer park than I got at McDonald’s last night. So I guess it is just another day in paradise.

I’ve been away from the internet for about three days. I wouldn’t think three days is such a long time but the internet moves so fast it seems like you can blink and miss so much.

Keeping first things first I’m very happy to say that our son arrived home from Iraq this past Thursday. (That’s why I’ve been away from the net for a few days.) He has a 15-day leave and then he will be going back to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

I was Blog of the Day at PayPerPost which was pretty cool although I didn’t do anything special to be chosen for this. The Blog of the Day at PPP is a random pick of over 50,000 blogs so I guess it really is kind of cool to be chosen.

Another reason I’ve been away is that I’m just not into blogging right now. LOL, I shouldn’t feel bad or guilty about that because as far as I know there is no real law that says I have to. Well, there is the blog police that say “you have to blog every day to have a successful blog!”. blah. Maybe I don’t care to have a “successful” blog. Maybe I’m successful enough by doing things the way I want to and ignoring the blog police (you know, like the John Chow’s and Darren Rouse’s and their ilk)? This is my space and I’m not out to win any awards for jibber jabbering about my boring life.

Technorati Tags: blog of the day

Our daughter-in-law (M.) is holding up pretty well since her mother’s death this past Sunday. She lives 100 miles from us so we don’t get to see her very often. My husband did make the drive Monday and spent the day with her. She has a LOT of support from family and friends so that’s one positive thing in her life now.

Our son T. called last night from Kuwait where he was still awaiting a flight. At least now I can say he is out of Iraq so this is good news. I’m not sure if he will be sent to Camp Lejeune before they fly him home or if he will be coming straight to Florida. I hope he gets home soon.

How in the world can someone confuse “he called from Germany” with “he is waiting for a plane out of Iraq”? I just don’t get it. My husband told me T. called from Germany. I thought he was on his way home from Iraq but now I find out he is still there waiting for a flight.

I keep asking my husband how the information got miscommunicated but he just says it was hectic at our daughter-in-law’s house today and it was just a mistake. This bites.

T. is my husband’s son from a previous marriage but I consider him to be “our” son.

I know that our daughter-in-law M. put in a few phone calls to the Marine Corp last night regarding her mother’s death but I honestly didn’t think they would let him come home, but we have word that he will be coming home from Iraq in the next day or two.

We think he might be staying in the states for good because they told him to make sure to pack everything he owned. I’d think he would do that anyway, but who knows? I hope and pray he does not have to go back to Iraq. He has been there two times. That’s enough.

He is already on his way and called from Germany to let M. know his status. I’m sorry he is coming home for the reason he is coming home. Thank God he is out of Iraq and on his way home.

Added Note: He was still in Iraq when I wrote this - there had been a miscommunication.

When the phone rings at 2am it is never a good thing. The ringing cell phone is even worse. There are only a few people that have my husband’s cell phone number. I knew something bad had happened as soon as the phone rang.

My husband’s daughter-in-law (M) was calling and my first thought was my step-son (T) in Iraq but it wasn’t news about our son. I was shocked to hear that M’s mother Mona passed away last night. Suddenly. Just like that. Gone. She died of a brain aneurysm without warning. It happened at around 5pm yesterday and she passed away around midnight.

My husband is on his way to M’s house now just to be there for her and to help in any way he can. M told me last night that she has always heard that God doesn’t give you more than you can handle but she just doesn’t think she can handle any more. Her Dad died when she was 7 and she lost her 2 month old first born and now her mother. It is a terrible tragedy for our son and daughter-in-law and our extended family.

We haven’t visited the butcher shop since May 26 (I date things before I put them in the freezer) and our freezer was becoming pretty bare. I made a big list and called in our order and hubby went and picked it up. Among other things I had ordered 2 chuck roasts. When we were unpacking and labeling the meat and putting in the freezer we found that we had 3 roasts instead of 2.

Hubby mentioned that the check-out lady thought we were missing a roast when she rang up the order and ran to the back and brought out another roast. We only paid for 2 but we wound up with 3.

I called first thing this morning and let them know what happened and that we owed them for one roast. The lady was very nice and said not to worry about it and that we didn’t owe for it. I thanked her and told her that we really appreciated it.

Even if I had had the slightest inkling to keep quiet about the extra roast I certainly would not have, especially with this meat market. Several months ago my mother-in-law and I went into the shop to buy some meat and my MIL left a bank envelope on the counter with about $50.00 in it. I don’t remember now how they tracked us down. Oh yeah, I do remember. I had called in an order that time too and they still had the list with our phone number on it. They called and asked if we were missing an envelope with money in it. I thought that was very nice and extremely rare that they would go through the trouble to track us down to return the money. I don’t think many people would do that in this day and age.

If you live in or near southeast Tampa and don’t know about Apollo Meats you don’t know what you’re missing. We really love that butcher shop and haven’t bought meat at the grocery store in a few years now. We bought several of the $1.50 bacon wrapped tenderloins with our latest order and I’ll be broiling a few tonight. Yum.

My telephone plus internet was out of service from Thursday until Sunday. Actually that wasn’t such a bad thing - I got caught up on a lot of chores I have been neglecting.

My computer is fried. I’m using a loaner computer which limits the things I can do online. I haven’t decided whether to try to have my computer repaired or whether to buy a new one. I’d like to do both. I could repair mine and put it at my mother-in-law’s house to use while I’m there and also buy a new one for my house.

My mother-in-law went to the emergency room Saturday evening at 6:30pm. Hubby and I didn’t get home until 4:30am Sunday. She really should NOT be living alone anymore. She vetoes any solution I come up with (fixing up her spare room for me and letting me sleep there at night) and I veto any solution she comes up with (I think she wants to come live with us). This situation is putting a lot of stress on our family life.

I probably won’t be around as much as I have been in the past until our home life settles back down.

Lightning struck my computer (yes, I have a surge protector) so my computer is broken. I have tried everything I can think of to get my husband’s computer connected to the internet but to no avail.

I had to use a library computer to tie up a few loose ends.

The Verizon Fios repairman is supposed to come tomorrow between 8am and 6pm. I sure hope I don’t hear a knock on my door at 8am!

At any rate, I’ll be out of commission for who knows how long.

Darn, I miss my spell checker! I’ll have to check this when I come back, hehe. I found out the definition of “lightening” though by checking Dictionary.com:

noun Medicine/Medical. the descent of the uterus into the pelvic cavity, occurring toward the end of pregnancy, changing the contour of the abdomen and facilitating breathing by lessening pressure under the diaphragm

That isn’t the type of “lightning” I was talking about, hehe.

Hubby has been on vacation all week and we’ve just been cooling it. There is a ton of stuff we need to do but he is stressed with work and taking care of his mother so I’m not pressing him to do anything but relax. We had a nice dinner at the Old Lady’s house on the 4th and as simple as it was I don’t think it would have been any better if it had been prepared by a graduate of the Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts (http://www.twincitiesculinary.com/).

Our dinner was very simple. The main course was a 2.5 chuck roast slow cooked in the oven with onions and carrots. My husband fixed mashed potatoes, I fixed cole slaw, the Old Lady cooked the roast and a few other side dishes. The roast was especially good. We have been buying our meat at Apollo Meats for a few years now after getting some bad ground beef at Publix so many weeks in a row. bleh. When we complained to the manager at Publix he said that ground beef is “supposed to be brown in the middle”. Maybe he should tell that specification to the meat markets in the area because we have never gotten ground beef that is brown in the middle from the butcher shop. heh

Sometimes I think I live in the stone age. For example, I never even had a PayPal account until a few months ago. If I couldn’t purchase with a credit card online, I just didn’t purchase. Another thing I’ve never owned is a camcorder. I was thinking about this yesterday while watching the news on TV featuring some of the Fourth of July celebrations that were going on around town. It seemed like everywhere I looked there were camcorders out and people were having fun video taping everything. I wonder if they plan to put their videos on YouTube, hehe.

One good thing about Saturday is that I don’t have to make the daily Old Lady call *evil grin* since my husband calls her instead. My husband is in the living room watching This Old House and procrastinating about calling her so even if I don’t make the call I have to yell “CALL YOUR MOTHER!”, hehe. He needs to get up off his butt and stop fantasizing about architectural classics and come back into the real world.

I keep hoping he will see something on This Old House that he might actually want to build. I don’t think we’ll be using many architectural classics here in the trailer but it is fun to dream.

I have good news about my pump, yay.

The only thing that was wrong with it is there were ants gumming it up. Seems a nest of ants was looking for a dry place and they were attracted by the electricity of the motor. After a few squirts of my wasp spray (couldn’t find the ant spray) and $75.00 the repairman had my pump working again.

Seventy five dollars seems like a lot for 5 minutes of work but I guess it is better than buying a new pump or drilling a well. I’m glad the guy was honest - he could have said anything and charged for a lot more than a service call. Whew.

The well guy told my husband he will be here today but he hasn’t made it yet. I sure hope he shows up or I’ll definitely have to take a bath at my mother-in-law’s house.

I’m glad we decided a few weeks ago to freeze a couple of gallons of water to use in case the pump or electricity went out. I took one gallon of “ice” out of the freezer this morning and it is about half way thawed out. Brrrr… I just washed my hands using freezing water. I’m glad I was able to though!

I really, really didn’t want to take the Old Lady to the doctor and dentist today. Of course, I really, really don’t want to go anywhere any other day either but that’s a different topic.

My husband woke me up this morning at 7:45am and said “I hate to tell you this but the well is out again.”

So I reckon I have the option of going to his mother’s house to shower but you know what? I don’t freaking want to do that and I’m not going to do it. I called her at 8:30 to tell her I won’t be able to take her. She was pretty good about it because she really wasn’t up to it herself. She will be rescheduling her dental appointment and I can take her to the doctor tomorrow.

So I got my wish - I don’t have to go out today. I’m wondering if the well will fix itself if I wish it. *wish wish*. Nope, still no water. dang. The pump/well guy should be out sometime this afternoon. I hope it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

I’m kind of embarrassed to say where I found them, hehe, but I don’t wear makeup everyday and I guess there is no shame in that. I found my glasses in my makeup bag. Why I put them in there is a mystery to me. I guess I was picking everything up and putting it away (see, I do clean the clutter once in a while) and grabbed them in my haste. I can see much better now!

I can’t believe I’ve lost my glasses for for this length of time and they are right here in my house somewhere. When I first lost them my husband said “well, I guess you’ll just have to start cleaning up the house until you find them”. I wonder what he meant by that! lol (as if I didn’t know the clutter is getting pretty thick around here).

I haven’t seen them since May 25th. I remember the date because that is the day I took the Old Lady to the doctor. I was wearing the glasses when I wrote the post that day but lost them before I got in the shower. I only need them for reading but I do need them. *sigh* I’m wearing the $2.00 drug store specials now. I’ll probably cause myself some serious injury if I don’t find them or get myself to the doctor and get new ones. I need new glasses anyway because I’ve been having trouble reading with my current ones. dang.

Today is my birthday and when I went to bed last night I thought it would probably be the first time since I’ve known my husband that he has forgotten. And I thought I really didn’t care (which shows me what I get for thinking, heh).

When I woke up this morning and came in to turn my computer on there was a birthday card, a bag of peanut M&M’s, and a bag of Starburst candy (my favorite) sitting beside my keyboard.

Why do people cry when they are happy? I don’t know the answer to this but I do know that my eyes welled up with tears and I got a big lump in my throat. I’ll call him at work later to thank him. I don’t know what I ever did to deserve a man like this but I sure am glad to have him.

My step-son spent 7 months in Iraq from August ‘05 - March ‘06 and he is being deployed again tonight.

The Old Lady’s friend-across-the-street (Louise) told my husband that her church wants to send packages to some of our service men and women stationed in Iraq and asked my husband what kinds of things they should send. LOL, hubby told her the things they want most of all is cigarettes, M&M’s and porn! Do you think the church members know where to buy porn? I bet they do! haha

Seriously though, he did say that but he quickly amended the list to include things like socks, toiletries and snacks and a lot of other things I can’t think of right now. Our son hasn’t even left the country yet and my husband has his first care package packed and ready to send out. He taped up the box before I had a chance peek in. I wonder what he put in it.

It is true that I met my husband online but I didn’t meet him on the internet. Now how could that be? Well, I met him before the graphical interface known as the World Wide Web was invented. I used to run a dual node online BBS (Bulletin Board System) and my husband was one of my users. To make a long story short I needed a date for a friend’s birthday party/hog roast and had already met my husbands best friend. The best friend suggested I invite his best friend (my present husband) and the rest is history.

The online dating scene sure has changed since I was a single and looking. These days there are tons of websites devoted to dating and hooking up. Just for kicks and because my single step-son has been on the prowl lately I looked at some of the dating sites on the web now.

Two of the more prominent sites seem to be eHarmony and JustSayHi. The thing that stands out about JustSayHi is that JustSayHi is 100% free. The people at JustSayHi thought a real good free dating site needed to exist so they built it. When they say “free” they mean it and no credit card is required to join JustSayHi.

Like I said, I have already found my man so I’m not in the market for an online dating service. If you, however, are single and looking I recommend checking out JustSayHi. It can’t hurt to look, can it?

I knew what was up when I saw him reaching for his keys on a Saturday night. “I have to go out for an emergency run”, he says, “maybe I’ll get some ice cream while I’m there”.

I say “if you love me you’ll get a flavor I like… but if you REALLY love me you’ll buy ice cream with peanut butter in it”… (I hate peanut butter ice cream and won’t eat that flavor and don’t really need to be eating sweets on Saturday night anyway. I’m trying to watch my weight, “trying” being the key word here)

He brought home chocolate. I think he loves me. I guess he doesn’t REALLY love me, or does he? hehe… yum yum… Breyers Chocolate…

I realize my posts are disjointed and sometimes don’t make total sense, but it will just have to be that way until I finally recover (if I ever do) from whatever ailment it is that makes it hard for me to communicate sometimes. All in all, I’m sure the services of a good therapist would help the process, but how does an agoraphobic get themselves to the therapist in the first place? That’s one thing I’ve always wanted to know. LOL