All Messages
By Fauxpaws on Jul 5, 2019 at 10:52 AM
I just hope I'm able to talk to you if a big one hits the Bay Area! Yep, 3 years old now. Last year sis went and LA was in the middle of a horrible heat wave. Sis did not enjoy that. The kids' house was built in the 50s and doesn't have adequate A/C, so it was sweltering there most of the time. Sis stayed in a hotel however, as her daughter-in-law doesn't like to have anyone stay in their spare bedroom. Go figure. But Sis would prefer a hotel anyway and has found a nice one only a few blocks away. She figures if she stayed at the house, she'd go nuts dealing with D-I-L while her son was at work all day. She's probably right. I did see our little frog one morning last week when I went out just as the sky was getting light and he hadn't taken off yet. I'm always tempted to pick him up but I don't want to scare him away or make him feel unsafe. That's neato that you have another bird family! Seems that once they get that nest going they're bound and determined to get take care of the eggs or babies come hell or high water.
By Fauxpaws on Jul 5, 2019 at 5:06 AM
Seems like it could have been a whole lot worse. Several injuries but thankfully no deaths. I sure wouldn't want to own a liquor store out there. Seems like they always show one getting hit and bottles flying off the shelves in large quantities. Sis emailed me that all was fine with the family. They probably weren't even phased by it. She's flying there next Thursday for the little one's 3rd birthday and I hope all the aftershocks are over with, tho LA shouldn't have a problem. Still, she always talks about the earthquakes being one of the reasons she'd never move there.
By Fauxpaws on Jul 4, 2019 at 11:30 AM
We'd better not have any more problems. That was enough to last for a long time. Ah Becky! It'll be nice when you're finally able to get another companion. They make such a difference in our lives. I just saw a news flash that a 6.4 magnitude earthquake hit southern California. I'll have to see where it was - hopefully nowhere near my nephew and his family.
By Fauxpaws on Jul 3, 2019 at 11:18 AM
I'm hoping that's the last of our AT&T problems too. At least we were able to call the local tech guy after the first time instead of having to make an appointment over the phone and wait 3 or 4 days for someone to show up. That's great about your hair. The fact that it's growing back at all is nice. Elf has been shedding like crazy. Every day I pick up piles of fur around the house. I brush him 2 or 3 times a day but it doesn't seem to be doing much good. And of course he throws up a hairball mess about once a week. That's always a joy to clean up. Ah well, it's a small price to pay for all the joy he brings.
By Fauxpaws on Jul 2, 2019 at 12:32 PM
At least you only have to worry about energy and strength, and everything else is looking good. How's the hair coming along? Any silver ones sprouting? =) Once again we've been having AT&T problems. A lightning strike hit next to our house yesterday and tho our electricity stayed on, the AT&T system crashed. Our tech guy had to come out yet again today and hook up a new modem. He's been a real gem, making time for us every time we need him. We all got to talking about fantasy football (he plays, too) and yeah, we're looking forward to football. Damn, England scored and tied it up. Lindsey's taking a beating. This is a good match. I sure hope we win! Ah, okay, we just scored again. Go USA!
By Fauxpaws on Jun 30, 2019 at 9:31 AM
I don't think I'll miss the paper as much as the habit of going through it every morning. You're right that the news itself is just too depressing. I'm happy to hear that your appointment went so well! It would be nice if there was a way to get your strength back faster, but there's not much you can do about that. One of these days!
By Fauxpaws on Jun 27, 2019 at 5:56 AM
I can see how your mom has influenced your comfort with silence. That and living alone. Sis has always been a talker and never lived alone until Red died. I'm the opposite, having lived alone several times over the years and not much of a talker. Same with Chuck, so we get along just fine. We won't be getting a newspaper any more in a short while. They're going digital. We could still get the Sunday paper delivered but only if we also sign up for the digital news the rest of the week, and they plan on charging almost twice what we pay now. Forget it! There are plenty of places to get all the news we'd ever need for free. I'll mainly miss the Sunday paper, but they're supposed to continue delivering it to news stands and the like. Since I always get up early in the morning, I'm hoping I can just drive across the street to the EZ Mart and pick one up if I feel like it.
By Fauxpaws on Jun 26, 2019 at 4:24 AM
Well, yesterday was another day best forgotten. I had an eye doc appointment which should have taken half an hour but lasted two hours. Plus we had more AT&T problems for most of the day before our tech guy could come back out and fix them. As for sis's birds, her friend was not the original owner, but he had a pet store way back when mainly dedicated to birds and he knew the elderly lady who had owned both birds from birth. When the birds were around 20 years old, the lady became too old to care for them any longer and gave them to Robert (sis's friend). He's had them for 20 or 25 years but is now moving to a new home where he won't have room to keep them. So it's pretty much the ideal situation for sis, as she will probably outlive them. BTW, the macaw's name is Magic and the cockatoo is Cashew. They both talk, but they haven't been around people much in the last few years. As much as my sis likes to yak, I"m sure she'll get them talking again pretty quickly. =)
By Fauxpaws on Jun 24, 2019 at 12:45 PM
Yep, no falling allowed. =) At least you'll be bulletproof again one of these days. I was a little worried about the soccer ladies today, actually allowing Spain to score a point and tie it up. We had a stormy Sunday afternoon. Funny thing is just when things were getting calm again the power went out. Go figure. The good news is that the temperature had dropped from high 80s to 61 by then, so we were able to open up the house and stay cool until it finally came back on. That was a rare lucky break. My sis told me today that she's adopting a macaw and a cockatoo of all things. A friend of hers has owned them for about 30 years but has found himself in a situation where he no longer has room to keep them. The two birds are very close buddies and he didn't want to separate them, so when he approached sis with the idea, she was thrilled. She certainly has enough room for them. He's even providing the cages and will be around to help with any questions or problems I hope it goes well.. I can't wait to meet them next time I'm down there.
By Fauxpaws on Jun 21, 2019 at 6:24 AM
Railings make a big difference, as I found out with my knee. I still always use our railings even tho I'm walking fine, but the last thing I need is to slip and fall and have to have my knee repaired. Don't want to go through THAT again! And a fall for you would be just as bad in its own way, especially as you say living alone. Do you keep your cell phone with you? That would come in handy if you did fall, unless of course you landed on the phone and it broke. Our soccer ladies are doing great. I hope they win it all again. Maybe after this they'll finally start getting the pay they deserve.
By Fauxpaws on Jun 20, 2019 at 12:08 PM
Yes, we needed a new TV. The old one was truly dead after only 10 years. Seems they just don't make 'em like they used to. That seems to apply to a lot of things we buy any more, especially electronics. I suppose that's the price you pay for advanced technology. Nice that you were able to take care of the sprinkler problem. Also that you're getting around somewhat better. Sounds like it's still pretty tough going for you tho. How many stairs are there from the garage to the house?
By Fauxpaws on Jun 19, 2019 at 12:43 PM
The AT&T guy came out this morning and said yep, it was something in their equipment. He checked everything and swapped our our cable/DVR box and the TV worked fine. I'd asked him to check the cable that ran through our yard as they'd never buried it He was appalled that it had never been buried and called in a request right away and then checked all that out. Meanwhile I'm looking at the TV and damned if it doesn't start messing up again. He did a few more things and then hung around for a while just in case. It was fine so he left but gave me his number, said if it happened again he'd come back replace all the inside cables. So far, so good this afternoon. So no leg strength, eh? I can sort of relate from when I had my knee replaced. Just getting out of a chair took a lot of arm support. I even built up a little muscle in my upper arms. For a while, anyway. They're back to their puny shape again now, of course, but I still don't sit on the floor or ground anymore.
By Fauxpaws on Jun 18, 2019 at 4:35 AM
Well, the TV crapped out 2 more times yesterday. Fortunately, before I hung up from the last call to AT&T I asked the tech what he had done to fix it and was it something I could do here. So he gave me instructions and they actually worked. They can't send someone out until tomorrow but at least if we want to watch TV before then we'll be able to. So did you work on those sprinklers yesterday or is that still on the "to do" list? How's your energy level now? Are you seeing improvement? Our tree frog was soaking in the bird bath this morning. We hadn't seen him for about a week. Maybe it's a good omen that our recent hassles will soon be behind us. =)
By Fauxpaws on Jun 17, 2019 at 6:41 AM
Yeah, you should really get a new TV for your couch time. Chuck did buy a new one Saturday afternoon. We set it up and it worked great all evening. Then yesterday morning I turned it on and after about 2 hours it started screwing up. The picture kept breaking up and freezing. So I had to call AT&T again and after about an hour and a half the tech got it working. But it went out two more times and I ended up spending all morning with AT&T. Since then it's been working fine but I still made an appointment for a tech to come out and check our cable lines and equipment. Also on Saturday Miss Dallas called to say she and her hubs were in town and wanted to come over that afternoon. Chuck said Sunday for dinner would be better, so they were here all evening. I finally just told them good night and went to bed. Geez, I hope that's the end of my annoyances for a while and I can start writing better news. =)
By Fauxpaws on Jun 15, 2019 at 11:25 AM
We did find some good food on our little trip. Breakfast was great of course, since we were at a B&B. We just snacked at lunch and then went to a really nice Italian/Steak place for dinner. We were going to try something different the second night but ended up back at the Italian place. Having to work at gaining weight is a problem I would imagine a lot of people would love to have. Sucks that you aren't enjoying it. We've had a couple of not so enjoyable days around here. Thursday morning I got up, read the paper and watched a little news, made my daily phone call to my sister and then ate a little breakfast before going outside to work on our massive weed population. Chuck got up a couple of hours later, came outside and asked me what happened to our water. Apparently we didn't have any. I had no clue, as we'd had some earlier, but I must have used up what was in the pipes. Chuck got dressed and checked the water meter, dug down to where the main pipe was connected to ours and found that the connector had come loose. Finding a plumber was a major hassle but we finally got one to come out and he fixed it right away. Yay. Yesterday I went back outside to work on the weeds again and I must have overdid it this time. After I came in and took a shower my lower back (which pretty much always hurts these days) seized up and I could hardly move. I took 2 muscle relaxers and conked out for a couple of hours, only to wake up and find that our TV had quit working. No sound, no picture. Chuck tried every trick he knew to get it going but nothing worked. I called AT&T but the wait for a techie was an hour so I called again this morning when they weren't so busy and got someone in 5 minutes. We were on the phone forever trying everything she could think of but finally concluded it was probably the TV and not their service. So Chuck's out looking for a new TV now. I didn't go because my back is still in knots and I knew I'd get whiny. He'll find something, I'm sure. I just hope it works. =)
By Fauxpaws on Jun 12, 2019 at 5:44 AM
So...my pal Susan called me Saturday to say she and her friend Teri were going drive up to Eureka Springs Sunday and asked if I would like to go. Of course I did! We drove up Sunday and came back yesterday. Stayed in a really nice B&B, the weather was great and we had a good time. It was a nice, unexpected break. I see it's getting pretty toasty out on the west coast, while here we've been cool and dry. I'm sure all of that will change soon enough. How are you feeling these days? Getting your strength back?
By Fauxpaws on Jun 7, 2019 at 12:54 PM
That wouldn't be good at all if you couldn't get to fresh water. Do you keep an emergency earthquake kit? Or maybe just some water? Yesterday it rained pretty much all day and our tree frog spent the entire day on our balcony. Once of twice every hour he let out a few 'croaks'. We never did see him out there, tho. I'd imagine he was holed up under the grill cover. Sis finally got hit with a really bad storm yesterday evening. It blew in really fast and she barely had time to get the horses in the barn and fed. She's not sure if it was a hurricane but said it sure felt like one. She's got a bunch of large tree limbs and probably a few trees down as well as several fence posts knocked out, but no trees fell close to her buildings thank goodness.
By Fauxpaws on Jun 5, 2019 at 9:29 AM
From what I read it looks like the Hayward Fault is overdue to erupt again fairly soon by all estimates - like 30 years. Gee, I don't think I'd want to be living too close if and when it does. We haven't seen our little tree frog since the two mornings in a row that I saw him in the birdbath but we do hear him about every other day or so. For an itty bitty frog he sure can deliver a loud croak. For some odd reason we seem to see him more often when it's been raining. You would think it would be the other way around. Maybe he has another mini pond to soak in somewhere nearby.
By Fauxpaws on Jun 4, 2019 at 4:34 AM
I'll have to look up the Hayward Fault. You don't here much about that one, but it sounds pretty scary, especially for your brother and his family. Good to know you're as safe as it gets around there at least. Our coyotes are still roaming around in the woods behind our house. There's one out there right now yipping and barking. The other day we had an entire pack of them going at it and it was so loud that my sister could hear it over the phone - and the door to the balcony was not even open. Yesterday I saw a sign posted at the entrance to our neighborhood that said "Lost Cat". I would imagine the coyotes got that one. I wish people would take better care of their pets and keep them indoors!
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