Sunday, February 28, 2021

It Comes in Threes

  

That’s what they say about trouble.  In my case it’s more like inconveniences and not really trouble.  It all started about a week ago when our water was shut off.  There was a tag left on the door stating that it was cut off for non-payment.  No way I thought, as I always pay our bills on time.  Then I read the tag a little closer.  It was not my address and not my name!  The water cut off order was for a different home owner at a different address.  Now I understand mistakes happen, but to not even match the name and address was a bit much.  Our house number is large and prominent on the front porch.  The person that did this was either randomly cutting off water or couldn’t read.  I immediately called our small-town water department and explained the situation.  The lady I spoke with was very understanding and promised it would be corrected as soon as possible.  She did seem more than slightly aggravated with the man that did it and I sensed this was not his first mistake.  Our water was cut back on in less than an hour so no harm was done. 

The second of the three was a few days later when I received our charge card bill.  We just use it for online purchases and I usually pay it off every month.  As I was checking over the bill I found one $40 payment made to Apple.  We do not use Apple products at all so I knew that charge was not made by us.  I called the charge card company and explained the situation.  They said it was a fraud charge and canceled that card number so it would not happen again.  The $40 was refunded to our account and they sent us new cards with a new number.  So, thanks to our card company no harm was done.  However, that card was listed with multiple companies for automatic payments.  You know, companies like Netflix, AAA Auto, and things like that.  I spent one afternoon changing the card number with a whole list of companies online.  Not a terrible thing, but an inconvenience.

The third of the three was just a couple of days ago when suddenly my main email account stopped sending and receiving email.  I have a gmail account associated with Blogger but my main account is what I use with all our bills and anyone we do business with in addition to family.  This has been really aggravating as I still have not been able to completely get it corrected.  I updated the account with the service provider and finally got it working on their website mail program and on my phone.  I can send and receive mail now.  The problem I’m having is that I can not get it to work with the Outlook email program.  Outlook is the program I have always preferred to use for email.  I’ve spent two days on it and I’m so frustrated I’m just going to leave it alone for now and use the web mail.  Hopefully I will eventually figure it out.  I know I must sound like I’m complaining, but overall I am grateful to only have these types of inconveniences and nothing really serious.

I do have one piece of good news.  Tom and I have appointments to get our first Covid vaccines this Wednesday.  I had us signed up on three different vaccine lists and just this evening I received an email offering us an appointment this week.  I was able to schedule it online tonight.  This is what they are calling a “mass vaccination event” so there is no telling how many people will be there or how long we will have to wait.  Whatever the situation, I am so glad we will finally be able to get the first shots.   

I hope everyone is well and happy.  I can’t believe it’s been two weeks since I posted.  I’ve got to do better than this!  I’ve just had nothing to write about.  I’m going to work on that.  Take care everyone – Spring is coming!

 

Zeus and Sophie

 

 

Sunday, February 14, 2021

Cold Weather, Birthdays and Birds


Last week I wrote about how so many of us were headed into the deep freeze with all this cold weather.  Well, I guess we got there because temperatures have continued to go down in many parts of the U.S. and many other countries as well.  It is currently 0 degrees F here and was below 0 last night.  I’m not complaining though because I have friends in Minnesota and Canada that have temps of -40!   

We braved the cold last night to celebrate my granddaughter’s 25th birthday.  Originally, we were going to do that last weekend but heavy snow postponed the celebration a week.  We met at a popular Indian Restaurant for dinner and then went to my son’s house for a bit.  It was wonderful to see family as that is a very rare occurrence these days.  We will be fortunate to see everyone again next week as we will be celebrating my grandson’s 19th birthday.  Gavin and Annika have birthdays that are less than two weeks apart making February a big birthday month for our family! 

I always feed the birds here but in this extremely cold weather I try to have a little extra for them.  We get a nice variety of birds year-round so today I thought I would try to get a few pictures.

 








 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine’s Day today!  Tom gave me some chocolate covered strawberries and a beautiful red rose!  Have a good week everyone!

 





Sunday, February 7, 2021

A Cold and Snowy Weekend

 

Like many other areas, we have headed into the deep freeze for the next week!  Our high today was 15 Fahrenheit and that is about the warmest we will be for at least a week.  We’ve also had snow today and expect more over the next several days.  It is February after all and such weather is expected, so we will just hunker down at home.  I’ll make some homemade soup and may even start a new jigsaw puzzle.   


I had my first appointment with my new doctor this past week.  I like him and he seems to be a good doctor.  There’s just one thing, he appears to be younger than my kids!  I know, as we get older that happens but it just seems so, so weird!  Is it just me or does anyone else feel that way?

Last week my granddaughter, Annika had a birthday.  She turned 25.  How does that happen so fast?  We were supposed to celebrate with her at my son’s house Saturday night but they rescheduled due to the snow.  Maybe next weekend. 

As you can see there’s nothing too exciting around here right now.  Well, maybe one thing.  Our local football team, The Chiefs, are playing in the Super Bowl again tonight.  I am really not a sports fan but it’s hard to live in the middle of “Chiefs Country” and not be a bit of a fan.  Their stadium is about 15 miles from our house and we are surrounded by fans here.  Tom loves all football but especially our local team.  He is really excited about the Super Bowl and is planning on making his “once a year nachos” for the game.  I call his nachos that because they are not the healthiest and reserved for special occasions! 

I hope everyone is well, happy and staying warm!