Day 28: Facebook Flop? Sort of........

Although I've flubbed my 30 day Facebook Fast,(I know I have two days left) I have cut down on the amount of time I've been spending on it. I'm going to have to continue to battle I suspect. I'm using a site blocker in Chrome now. I'm fairly faithful to myself but at times I've  had to turn it off so I can go in and that is annoying because I don't want to. Honestly, I'm about ready to just chuck the whole thing. Let me explain.

I don't subscribe to newspapers. I do not have cable television or local television. I do not wish, desire, or covet either of these things. I had them for years. I suffered from severe depression and worry. I still battle those diseases. When I dropped those, I found life was not filled with a million negative images and words. I have not missed them.

Facebook, in my opinion, is worse. Particularly since it gives the impression that the whole world is insane. I don't particularly believe that but it looks that way on the inside. And the insanity is highly contagious. And keeping up with the news is worse than depressing. I'm not surprised that some folks go off the rails and start doing horrible things. A steady died of having the mess out there shoved down your throat all day, every day is unhealthy. The problem with this country... don't get me started.

I will keep using the site blocker and spend as little time as possible on Facebook.

So, what have I been doing this week?

• I've been finishing the crochet throw I've been working on. The skein of yarn you see on the throw is my last skein.
• Starting a crochet dress for one of Sarah's Barbie dolls. 
• Trying to repair a ceiling. Semi-successful.
• Researched all morning for a drywall contractor to replace said ceiling. 
• Called a dozen this morning and sent emails. No one answered or they didn't want the job. Mike started calling and got three appointments!
• Trying to find someone to do some masonry work. Got three bites.
• Contemplating the tall grass that needs mowing and trying to decide when to cut it. Not today as it rained again. Maybe tomorrow. 
• Watching Bones from the beginning on Netflix. While I crochet, of course.

• Working on River City Writers stuff: 

1. free seminars/workshops 
2. my short story for the anthology 
3. the agendas for meetings
4.  scheduling meeting places
5. creating in polishing my seminar presentation for July. 
6. Oh, On Thursday I took a friend to her doctor's appointment and Mike to his. 

My friend had a procedure that took from about 8:30 until about noon. Mike's appointment was for a final check of his leg. His appointment took just as long as that procedure! The office was bursting with people. We are usually in and out in 30 minutes. So all day at medical facilities but at least it wasn't for ME! The result is I am nearly finished with the throw.

I'm not sure I've been very productive, but I'm sure tired.

Day 26: Ceiling Problems

Day 25: Do You Ever Wish for an Uneventful Day?

Courtesy Pixabay

I know it sounds silly. On those days when nothing is going on, I'm so annoyed because there is just nothing of interest happening. Even this retirement thing is a pain. I've had the devil of a time trying to learn to be retired. You'd think it would be a breeze. It isn't.

So, I was going to repair the ceiling and wall in Sarah's room while she was gone and repaint the room. It was a simple job. Scrape off old paint, patch a few rough spots, sand down drywall mud, paint. Really, as home repairs go for me, this was a piece of cake. After all, I didn't have to reinvent the wheel. 

LIES! LIES! LIES! 

I started scraping the paint. It was old damage from when there was a leak that we were unaware of. It had bowed the drywall and caused the paint to begin to flake, although it never came off the ceiling. No biggie. I scraped off the first chip, maybe the size of a half dollar. 

That. Is. Mold.

I scraped off another flake, larger this time. Oh no. Crumbles of what appeared to be sand fell on my hand. Oh no. That's a hole. I scraped an area about 1 ft x 8 in. The hole you see near the wall is all the way through the ceiling and large enough to put a man's fist through. 

Now, this isn't my first rodeo, folks. If you're read this blog for a more than a decade, you know that home repair for my family is a unique and .... exciting event. I refer you to How to Install a Faucet

This was not going to be a simple project. This was major repair the required a 2x3 ft section of the ceiling to be replaced. Why so large? Because there is mold on the damaged section. I don't know how far under the paint it goes. Because the drywall bowed from the leak and although dry for years, it is still bowed. I won't be able to patch an unlevel surface with a small section of drywall. I have to cut a patch wide enough to fit between the rafters and long enough to eliminate the bowed section... about 3 feet. 

To facilitate this, Mike had to go in the attic to remove the insulation from the area. My insulation is blown in and it will fall all over us when we remove the section of the ceiling. It was about 150 degrees in the attic. My roof is low. Mike is 200 lbs. He was nearly ready to faint in the 15 minutes he was in the attic. 

I've already heard that he should have waited until night to do that. Unfortunately, I have to sleep and I doubt the attic would have cooled below 100F before 3 a.m. He can't go in my attic in the middle of the night without help and someone to supervise in case of emergency. So, we settled on a 15 minute time frame to get in and out. Of course the vents and supports and the low roof served as blocks in his passage. He's a big guy. We elected to remove only enough insulation to allow us to take out some of the damage drywall and then try to move the rest when we take out the ceiling. Fortunately, I learned some things during the process. 

As I stood on the ladder with a light stuck through the hole so he wouldn't waste time searching for the area, I figured out how to repair this with the least amount of trouble and without having to go back into the attic to do it. And it will be perfect. In fact, if the section is longer than I anticipate, It will be no problem, except I'll be the one having to hold the thing up. I'm not sure how that's going to work. 

Mike lay on the couch with a wet cloth wiping himself down and drank 32 oz of water. It took half an  hour for him to recover. We went an got lunch. He did his laundry at my house and before he went home, he stuffed a plastic bag in the hole to keep the heat from coming through. 

I am going to write. Tomorrow, we're going to work on the ceiling and I have lunch with my writer friends. Thank goodness! Thursday, Mike goes back to the orthopedic doctor to see where he stands. (No pun intended.) Friday, I hope we're done with the ceiling. 

I'll think about the next step after that. 

Day 19: Facebook What?

The Blahs 
I will admit I fell off the wagon this week. I've had so much pain in my hands and a hideous headache all day yesterday that all I could do was sit and stare at the computer, which didn't really help at all. I finally took sumatriptan around noon and it finally cleared out around 5 p.m. I lay in the recliner for three hours with something over my eyes and an ice pack, both of which did not help. I had Pandora set to Relaxation music. I've used it several times and it is amazing. Still, I'm not sure if it was the medicine or the weather but the headache left. It rained around the same time.

Spending Money
Today, I had a dental appointment for a cleaning this morning. Cha-ching $200. No dental insurance yet. They told me dental insurance was nearly useless since it didn't pay much and if it cost me more than $400 a year it would be a waste. Well, yeah! But what if i need a root canal or extraction or whatever!

Balanced Diet is So Important
You may have noticed the sandwich in this post. That is my lunch. And breakfast. I didn't eat before going to the dentist. I just want to point out that this is a completely balanced meal. Bacon, lettuce, tomato, bread. All four food groups plus whatever mayo falls into... maybe dessert. I was famished and remember again why you shouldn't skip meals. But it was good.

Fastbook What? Flop?
I pointed out in my title that this is day 19 of the Facebook Fast...  which has rapidly degenerated this week. I've been on Facebook too much, particularly since FAST denotes not getting on at all!  My state of mind has not been good. The weather has been pretty much horrible most days - hot, wet, cloudy, hot, wet, cloudy. Too uncomfortable to go out for long. My hands have been very painful and made any writing and even crochet painful. the headache presented visual problems. Yard work was out of the question. I was exhausted for days for some reason. I mean several days. Yesterday was a monster headache  that even my pill had trouble with most of the afternoon.

Light at the End of the Tunnel
I was finally able to continue work on the crochet throw I'm making for someone. It is really coming along and is so pretty. I really like the Hobby Lobby yarn "I Love This Yarn". It comes in a lot of colors and is so soft and warm. I found out this is called Seaspray

I've used three skeins and it is already about 24 inches deep. I have three more skeins left. The width is probably a yard and a half. I think it will be a perfect t.v. lap throw.

That about wraps up the morning. It is 1:35 p.m. now and I'm headed for a nap. I've started needing one about this time every day and I've decided to stop fighting it. I was going to write but since the better part of the day is gone and I'm feeling sleepy, I'll wait a few hours to get to that.

Have a great Humpday and hope the rest of the week is downhill. For those of you in Texas and other areas affected by Bill, do we need to send a boat? I have some duct tape and a tarp.....

Day 17: A Bit of This 'N That

Today has been one of those days when nothing got done. I mean really nothing. My sister's car had to go to the shop at 7 a.m. and Mike, bless him, came over and we picked up her car and took it to the shop. We both came back to my house and both of us crash landed. He lay down on the sofa and I went back to my bed and slept until 10 a.m., something I never do. Aside from the oddity, it was great sleep. The problem is, I slept two hours yesterday afternoon and went to bed around 11:30 last night, so I shouldn't have been that tired.

If you saw yesterday's video, you know I spent my time crocheting and watching Netflix. I'm watching CSI:NY. I watched it the first season it was on but stopped in the second season. I think that is when Jerry died and I turned off the cable. Although CSI: Las Vegas is my favorite show, I never cared much for the NY one and I absolutely hated the Miami show. Still I love Gary Sinise in anything so, I'm going to watch it again. It passes the time when I'm tired.

I had a lot of problems with my hands yesterday. Could hardly crochet. It stormed late in the evening and my hands were better this morning after I got up the second time. They've begun hurting again this afternoon and a brief shower began a little while ago. So unstable weather, as usual is a factor in inflammation.

As for today, after we both woke up, we kind of just hung around trying to figure out why we were so tired and then we went to Sonic for lunch. Mike has shopping to do today so he brought me home and went off to do that. I spent the rest of the day reading until I finished the book I had started yesterday. Then I messed around with my photos, posting some I forgot about.

Sarah is having a good time at her Dad's. I can tell when I talk to her, however brief the calls are. She's just so busy.

I'm going now to download a new book and work on my crochet. I keep thinking I'll work on my writing but at the moment, I just don't want to do that. The crochet is going well, but it is difficult with the pain in my fingers. I suspect that is another pleasure that is soon to be gone.

Good night to you.