The sounds of the kitchen continue on and some light quilting talk :)

Monday, January 09, 2017 @ 10:20 am

Good morning.  This is us and we’re finally getting to the productive part of the day.  Well, as productive as writing gets for us.  Ooh-rah!  We have one worker guy here for the kitchen who is finishing the dry wall job.  His name is Chase.  And, then after we’ll have the taper/mudder guy coming in named Ben.  Whoops spoke too soon, Chase is gone and Ben expected.  It’s about 10:30 am now.  Just saw Rich and he’s going to take a 15-minute nap, and then we’ll talk 10-15 minutes and then he’ll leave.  I guess he’s going to do dinner with his business partner in Ohio. 

I am feeling MUCH better than yesterday.  We literally slept most of the day.  Part of it was the cold and part of it was working so much on Saturday with the girls.  We did a LOT for the kind of work we’re used to doing.  I had the chance to finish the part we were on, but I left a little, because when I started …

Whoops mudder is here it’s now 10:36 am that was quick.  We’ve gone over a few things with him and Rich may or may not be getting his nap – he got another phone call though we set Alexa for 20 minutes.  We’ve got some relaxing music on – soft pop this morning.  More male songs this time.  That’s a nice change, especially, when you’re with people you don’t know.  They come, they go *sigh*.  This person is a little funny.  He’s not real clear, but inside you think he’s a mad genius.  Hehe at least we HOPE so!  He was just standing on our counter – so, we told him that the counter to the left of the stove wasn’t attached.  Don’t know why not … Just something discussed in the process. 

Ok, where were we … sleeping – that’s it, we were sleeping a lot!  Don’t feel like going over the hours, but there were periods of sleeping 2-3 hours between being up, but there was more sleeping than being up.  Sort of hard to let go of an entire day like that.  Rich was still busy.  He did things with the Christmas stuff, and then he did some outside stuff we asked about.  I haven’t looked out front to see if the pumpkin is gone … might be worth it?

Darn!  Pumpkin is still in the front yard.  I don’t know why he’s hanging onto that – it’s WAY past the first of the year!  Maybe if we had our yard done, they would remove it.  It’s hard for Rich to understand me when I do something, but sometimes waiting for him to do it is the worst.  Maybe I will do it while he’s gone … tell him the health inspector was by.  Yeah that will do it!  Same red bag of chips is there too … maybe a year now?  He’s not in a real rush.  *sigh*

Change of subjects. 

What’s Next?

There’s someone working quietly in our kitchen.  Wish the job were done!  Oh, we’ve been here already.  Let’s pass on that subject then.  Must be strange to walk in someone’s house and start messing with their walls.  Not even a relationship built except are you Ben?  Ok, 20’s password – you’re in!  We usually rest the dog next to us between him and me.  I feel most comfortable that way.  I’m not sure of the dog, but his opinion … well, yes it does count.  I know guard dog isn’t one of his things, but in a pinch – got no one else to do the job!  This worker is more like left over from the 60’s hehe nice.

Not getting too started yet.  Page 1 ½?  What kind of blogging is that?  Ok, he’s more interesting than blogging now.  We must practice not stopping to watch.  He moves around a lot.  Kind of a small wiry guy who is older, but has tons of energy.  Quick!  Bet you he has a lot of interesting stories.  We should wait for him to talk first though.  He has been asking what to do here and here.  Could hear the irritation in Rich’s voice – you should ask Jeff he is the contractor with all the answers.  Jeff is only going to be here to Wednesday though – because Thursday he’s going to Vegas with his son who is playing baseball.

Hmm, asked to use the wash room already.  I hope that is going to be ok.  We told him already, but sometimes you figure they are checking out the place.  I don’t think Jeff knows this person – he has a good reputation from the drywall guy.  I think he smokes – he just put on his coat – might be getting something, maybe he’s just cold, or he could be going out to get something/have a smoke.  Dear Rich is leaving at the same time.  Don’t want him to see if the guy turns out to be “a bad one” … no that is not going to happen – worst of it is he’s a smoker and is out there having a good breather.  Of bad substance.  We’re hoping that smokes is the worst of it.  *sigh* Did we mention 60’s? 

Cat is running.  Now scolding.  Pretty sure she’d rather have us move her box, but she has to just go for it while he’s out – you know smoke/go to the bathroom break?  Dog is like – but, see dog is not crazy – reward him with a piece of cheese?  Just lying down here peacefully.  He’s addicted.  Thinking at least two smokes.  I remember the paces.  Ahh, there he is … probably smell him – looks like he has his lunch too … don’t know if that’s happening, but it is reasonable.  Looks a healthy size.  Better to eat in here, rather in cold car.  That’s a good us, right?

We grabbed some cheese because we don’t like to eat-eat in front of people working with us.  I don’t know if this guy is going to handle CNN with my lunch.  Why are we worrying so much?  Maybe, just don’t have a handle on it yet.  He’s trying to figure out me and this place, it’s a little more worrisome now because Rich has gone.  We did run into the other room while he was out to take our 11 am medicine.  It’s now 11:17 am.  Good timing.  I like the song that’s on … the music reminds me of MASH.  It is gentle, but beguiling.  Hehe – how’s that for a review? 

Ok, we’re hearing music, that’s good, right?  Reminded me to plug in our phone.  Yes, that’s right … sometimes people have lives that are just like this!  One little tiny thought to another.  And, they are then hung in series of paragraphs.  Don’t like it that the guy is hammering on my walls – that can’t be good, right?  I know, I know just a process.  Get used to it! 

Ahh a break-in conversation … he said he forgot his tape … And we just said, uh huh … and you’re a smoker too, right?  He looked at us sheepishly, but then told the story that’s probably going to haunt him his entire life.  He got in an accident and he said he was dead 30 minutes.  And then from tip of his head to toes, he told us about 10 - 12 things that had to be fixed.  He had been off cigarettes 10 years, and then started again because he was out of things for a year recovering and there was nothing to do.  We let him know we smoked 25 years, and now have been off it 10 years so we had some understanding where he was.  I hope he can go more that 10-15 minutes without a smoke.  This could be a long journey.  I wish we could tell him it’s ok to work and smoke, but we can’t afford to have smoke so close to us, especially when Rich is out and we’re so close to a gas station.  Can’t afford to pick it up again.  Let’s hope for the best.  He is nervous.  Maybe he’s going to calm down after a bit.  Taking too long just to get tape … he’s having another smoke or two.  Not sure how to deal with this … we’ll talk to Rich tonight when he calls.  We’ll know better then.

I don’t want to get this guy in trouble, but that’s two smoke breaks in 45 minutes.  It’s now 11:30 am.  We’ll keep an eye on it.  Otherwise seems like a nice guy.  House already smells like a smoker though … shhh, patience.

What else could we talk about?  Something about … I know, we could mention that we went sewing on Saturday.  It was very nice.  Emily wasn’t there, but hopefully, she’ll be there next month – February where we celebrate the three birthdays of CS, Emily, and Linda.  Hmm, that’s odd.  The picture I put up for my sister for her birthday yesterday is gone.  I wonder why she erased it.  Had to be that – no other reason it could be gone.  It was a picture from the sewing – with her and the twins, and we wrote happiest birthday and put some hearts on the picture and thanked her for spending the day together.  Don’t know why that might be offensive.  We sent her a short note.  We want to know why she did that, or at least what she’ll say about it. 

Hmm, made up thing – didn’t see it and wouldn’t remove it.  Only way it could be gone was to remove it.  She said to repost, but I don’t know what the problem was the first place, not going to redo it.  Just frustrated.  Moving on.  It really was a nice picture.  I still have it, just frustrated.  Others had already commented on it saying happy birthday – not something that can or should be replaced.  Just frustrated. 

Anyway.  The trip to WI for the quilters was good.  Conversation covered the board, everyone had something to talk about going on in their lives.  Most of my conversation was about the renovations and how tough it had been.  Everyone there has been watching our facebook so the pictures were out there and everybody had the gist of it … just they gave me time to blow off some steam and fill in between the lines.  So, that was nice.  Everyone had their time.  We had soup and salad from Olive Garden.  I just ate my soup and had part of the salad right before dinner.  And, then we finished the salad yesterday before dinner.  It was still good.

For dinner, we got steak and shrimp.  It also had steak fries and rice pilaf.  It was a good meal, but we didn’t eat all of it – saved some of all of it and had it later that night when we got home – Rich had the bread and something else?  I forgot, but he finished some stuff after we got home and we had gone to bed.  He stayed up calming down after the trip with a show.  It was nice to have him around … Mark and him connected, but Mark said he looked busy (probably looking at a lake), although Rich said he’d cleared off a space thinking that Mark was going to sit down.  Eh, then Mark went home and out to work, and Rich did his errands.  He arranged the trip for he and the guys in May by visiting the lodgings and checking out the lake which was only an hour and a half or so from where we were sewing.  And, he also checked out “the lamp doctor.”  I guess that was an interesting trip.  He just said it was costly, but at least the light is going to be fixed.  We’re so excited.  It is the one my Mom left.  I’m very excited about it, we might have to wait until the February trip to pick it up.  We’ve waited this long.  Doing great. 

I am leaving out all the conversation the girls had – out of their privacy.  That be a good Ann, but as to us, we worked on our art project.  We finished doing all the sewing down of blue clouds/sky, and we did half of the easier black buildings.  That is simple sewing, but tiring as to bringing the fabric back and forth.  At the end, we got too tired to finish.  I think we realized it was an hour or two before the 9 pm time Rich said we’d have to pack up and go.  I was happy he was letting us stay that long.  So, we thought we’d just pick up the sewing and work on the cutting.  We knew we didn’t have the strength or composure to hold on to the bulky material, so it just seemed right.  It gave us time to take it all down though we were in a daze.  Not functioning properly. 

By the time everything was stacked up and we sat down, we checked the clock and it was already 8:45 pm, and we thought – with 15 minutes left, we just would listen and hold on to the shore.  But, about 9 minutes to 9, Rich came in with the Cart and we were like – we have NINE minutes left!  He was a little pushy – that’s fine he said, I’ll just put all this in the car, then he came in and he was like – I’ll just bring Dakota out for the bathroom and the car is warming up.  I knew he’d pretty much called the game, so we got up and did all our hugs.  We missed the girls already, but we were out of the conversations – just holding our head up.  So, it was a good time to leave.

I was up and down on the way home.  Out of nowhere, we’d sit up and start singing along with the 50’s music, but then we’d be out of it again.  We usually have problems on the way home with Rich with restless leg syndrome.  Yup yup … we’ve been tested for it positively.  *sigh*

I think we said later, that it was straight to bed.  We’d try to remember things to tell Rich about, but I think we were just a dazed doe in the headlights.  Everything was discombobulated.  We might want to learn how to build up more endurance for the next trip.  I heard that all the other girls left around 11 pm, when Mark got back to pick-up CS.  Don’t know if I could have done those hours without a short 30 to 60-minute nap.  I do miss those times staying at the hotel when we can go straight to sleep, but it is more a dream to have Rich do the driving.  No matter how you cut it … it’s a long trip. 

Good guy!  He made it a half an hour without a smoke – he just went out and its noon.  He seems to be pleased with the project so far – or at least progress.  Now he’s getting to a point of finishing one thing before taking the break and it is nice and calm between us – just the music and we’re both working – we’re up to page 6 now, seeing some signs of REAL writing.  It’s still journalistic, but at least feeling like our minds are moving in the same direction.  Plus, we’re understanding each other as to the workloads.  He definitely knows what he is doing and he knows I’ll talk when asked, but am not going to interrupt him while he’s busy, being in the zone.  I think he said something about it being peaceful here.  I hope so … that’s the way we like it!

So, sewing was all good.  I think we’re done with that for now.  We could set things up in the sewing room again and get things in place in case we were ready to take something on, but the biggest thing would be to get the box out for stuff to cut.  I have no idea if we have the sticky stuff on that’s going to be enough for the job.  I think it’s going to be a big part, but if we get ourselves prepared, maybe we can set up these next three nights without Rich to be doing the cutting of Lake Michigan.  Wouldn’t that be something if we could make real progress between Saturday sews?  I think we could honestly find the quilting shop we’d stopped at before so we could make the next object – not overly difficult, but again … it be a nice trip for the both of us.  Probably a little balance too with Rich there to keep us from spending anything except the ONE piece that we’re missing.  Then again, it would be something to just take off on a trip!  Ok, ok shhh don’t get yourself excited.  We still must be here for the workers, especially with Rich gone.  Maybe not going is more inspirational to get the art quilt done.