Swimming in it

After Luke and I buried Milo, we both had two drinks. I didn't know his two drinks consisted of quadruple shots of Congac. I had two Rum and cokes and relaxed on the couch while Luke took a bath. Uh, I mean took a swim. He fell asleep with the water running in the tub. I was watching a Gene Kelley and Judy Garland movie made in 1943. After a while I realized the water had been running forever. I got up to investigate and found the hall carpet in an inch of water. The bathroom had an inch of water also, but it was falling into the floor a/c vent. I hollered from Luke to turn off the water. But he was doing a good impression of ignoring me. I finally got the water off. He dried off and disappeared to his room. I laid every towel and spare blanket I had on the water soaked carpet and started peeling the wet carpet back so I could remove the water logged carpet pad. I am glad I acted fast as the floor is particle board and was just waiting for a chance to swell. Swelling particle board floors do nasty numbers on toilet plumbing! I removed all the wet pad and placed two box fans on the floor and propped up the wet carpet as best I could. Then I left it to dry as I moved the fans and carpet around for a week. I now have $40 worth of pad and no time (it seems) to install it. So the carpet is dry with no pad and the bathroom floor is bare waiting for me to install linoleum. I had a roll of linoleum from 5 years ago when I replaced it in my bathroom. I had the foresight to buy enough for the front bathroom then, as I knew carpet is nice in a bathroom, but hard to get dry. Luke really drove that point home!

Since Milo died I have had a long suffering viral infection brewing. I took 5 days off work and blood work and even a cat scan taken. I had to drink barium sulfate suspension for the cat scan. It didn't really taste bad, but I thought it would. The surprise of the day was the cat scan technician told me I was to have an iodine injection. He added I may smell a burning in my nose, or a feeling like I peeped in my pants. Great, I have been running to the bathroom all week to prevent just that thing and now I feel it as the iodine goes in my arm. Wow! Talk about an icky feeling. You know it is bad when you call to make a doctor's appointment and the receptionist doesn't ask what is wrong, but asked........."Are we seeing you for the same thing?" That is bad. Three times in 7 days. I can't wait until I get that bill. Not to even mention the copay for the cat scan. I told a co worker what all I was feeling and she told me to ask my doctor for a prescription for nerve pills. Nerve Pills I asked? Me stressed? With all I have went through in the last three months, I might need to take pills for my nerves. But I don't want to take any pills. Just get me feeling well enough to get some seat time on the Big Red Beast.

Which I did on the 27th. But only shortly. I have been getting Dad's log slicer (Mom called it a slicer instead of a splitter and the name stuck with me), his generator, and his Troybilt tiller running to sale. The generator is running. I haven't touched the tiller yet, but I spent around 5 hours trying to get the log slicer to run for more than 4 seconds. In the past we always had to prime the engine with fuel in the spark plug hole 3 or 4 times. Then it ran, but only in full choke. We sliced firewood with the engine running in choke as long as I can remember. So I got fed up with it not running longer that a few mements and loaded it on my lawnmower trailer with the front end loader of the Big Red Beast. I have been meaning to replace the broken 2x6 loading ramp I have on the trailer with 2x10s, but haven't yet. So it is on and off the trailer with a loader or forklift. In the photo below you can see the broken ramp that doubles as a mount for the stop light bracket

So I will be taking the log slicer into Top Flight to get it running longer than I can hold my breath. Hopefully their summer rush on repairs is over and they will work on it. In the spring they get so busy getting equipment sold, they don't have time for repairs on other brands.

So the shirt I am wearing above says it all for the log slicer. "Take a hike" is what is says. It is time for the pro to get it running! I wash my hands of it. Really, taking the slicer to the dealer is just an excuse for seat time on the Big Red Beast. After loading the slicer, I took the Mahindra for a Sunday afternoon drive.

Check back later to see if I get the Troybilt tiller running, or just run over it with my 6520. Until then.................hugs, Brandi

Working my fingers to the bone

This last Tuesday at work I really tore and bruised my body up. I had to install an additional grounding wire to the water drain mast in the back of the aircraft. The drain is for the aft lavatory sink. It is heated to keep it from icing up and having chunks of ice drop off the airplane. The mast is just about directly under the aft lavatory. On our older airplanes, it was easy to get to this location. But this was on one of our new airplanes, a Boeing 737-700. It's lavatories are vacuum operated and have no water tank under the toilet seat. But it has a huge tank in the aft baggage compartment right where I needed to crawl. So with the toilet tank and the huge drinking water tank back there, I had to crawl and twist my body between them to reach the drain mast. Then crawl back in on your side as you have to bend your body as you crawl back, while using one arm to pull yourself up with the passenger floor support beams. Once you reach the mast, you either work while laying on your side with one arm, or on your belly using two arms. This is all done with fresh air from an air hose blowing on you as it can become claustrophobic without it. I tend to get claustrophobic rather easily, so I had a co worker in the baggage compartment make sure no one disconnected my air hose. He also handed me tools that I needed. No matter how many tools you crawl in with, you always need more! I had some cuts and small bruises on my forearms, but the large black and purple bruises on my hip and thigh followed the next day. This and getting less than 7 hours sleep each day really made me cranky all week. But the rest of the work week was easy and I sailed through it to the weekend.

The weekend started off with a shortage of sleep, as I took a two hour nap on Friday and then got ready to take Mom to Angel's to get a pedicure and her hair washed and styled. After we took Mom back to the nursing home, Christina and I went to Carter's Country to order a Ruger LCP for myself. LCP stands for Lightweight Compact Pistol. It is small enough to wear in a garter holster on my thigh. This purchase will be a welcome relief when I don't want to carry my large holster bag and cannot find anything cool enough to wear a holster concealed. Now I can wear cool skirts and still be able to defend myself or loved ones. Friday night found me tired and not able to stay up long. So I went to bed early and really slept well. Which was good as Saturday night, Christina and I went out on the town. We really were party poopers as we ate Mexican food and then had only a couple of drinks at a local dance hall/saloon before calling it a night. But it was fun to get dressed up for the evening and I really enjoyed Christina's company.

Today it was back to visit Mom and Dad. Their bird and squirrel feeder's were getting low on bird seed and corn, so we refilled both feeders. I was really surprised to see a squirrel lifting the corn feeder lid not long after we refilled them. Squirrels can be smart when it comes to getting corn!

Today I got to use the Mahindra's 511 Backhoe for another dreary job. Luke had Milo, his cat of eleven years, put to sleep. Milo has been losing some weight since Buttons arrived and the today when I woke up, I found her laying on her side. Cats don't do that.

So I dug another hole near the Cedar tree where Sneaky and Rascal are buried. Luke had just got to Willis Animal Clinic before they closed to have Milo put to sleep. Luke and I were all sad as I filled the hole with the hard dry dirt. We are beginning to think Buttons brought some virus into this house. I also think Phoebe and Buttons are immune to it, but it took down Sneaky and Milo. So I will be taking Buttons and Phoebe to the vet in Conroe that looks after exotic pets. Yes, ferrets are considered exotic pets. But not to me. Lions, Tigers, and Bears are exotic to me! Stop back later to find out about how our front bathroom was turned into a swimming pool. Also, I have loaded a few new photos. You can view them here.
hugs, Brandi