Hi all. This prayer request comes from the brother of a friend of a friend of someone I kind of know. It doesn’t really matter how I know him. I just know this. A young man by the name of Tyler has been in a horrible auto accident, and is now in a coma. His brother has requested prayers.
Scott and I share our lives with Princess Nikki. Or is it Princess Nicky? Or Princess Nicki? Or… well, we never have, really settled on a spelling for her name – but that’s neither here nor there. For information how this little darlin’ came in to our lives, you can read about it here.
Perhaps I’ll just settle for Nikki. That spelling is as good as any.
Nikki loves the three of us. She dotes on me; she’ll bypass everyone else to greet me when we come home. I like that.
Nikki has her challenges in life. She’s a dear, sweet, timid little girl. Scott and I and Gary are her little family. But when anyone else comes in to our home, Nikki becomes very fearful. She barks ferociously, but prefers to do so from her hiding spot behind my legs! If Scott or I aren’t around to protect her, she will run and hide wherever she can, though preferably beneath our bed.
In addition to her fear, Nikki has some other little issues. Nikki does not like to be watched while she… does her business. We must turn our backs on her… but not too far… so that she can peacefully do her thing.
Nikki also does not like water, in any form. When it rains, it is very difficult for her to relax enough to… do her business. And, because of this, she really hates bath time. It used to be that we literally had to tranquilize her in order to bath her. We’ve overcome that, but bathtime is still a very stressful time for our little princess.
In my previous post, I told about the nearly 30 inches of snow we have on the ground (and are expecting another 7 in the next 72 hours.) Snow makes it very hard for our princess to go out to do her business. After the last big snow, it took her nearly 3 full days before she just could not contain herself longer. Fortunately, she found a relatively private location on our driveway on the other side of our car. When fresh snow arrived, we made sure to go and clear a path to the “dark side of the car” for her.
She has another issue. Her paws are ticklish. Because of this, she doesn’t like getting her nails trimmed. But yesterday, we finally had to do get her claws taken care of. We grind them with one of those “Peticure” devices. She doesn’t like this, either, but she does tolerate it.
Unfortunately we put it off so long (we could hear her anywhere in the house because of her clicking, clicking, clicking claws) that we discovered her dew claws had grown so long as to curl back on themselves. It even appeared that they had pierced in to her paw.
Nikki also is losing hair on her sides.
So, this morning, Nikki and I braved the –17 degree cold and visited another of her great fears… the veterinarian!
The visit was good and bad. The dewclaws weren’t as bad as we feared, easily trimmed, no surgery needed.
But, the hair loss has a rather nasty treatment. Our poor Princess Nikki must have her semi-annual bath tonight. And Thursday… and next Monday… and next Thursday… for a total of four weeks!
I’m not sure who dreads the baths more… Princess Nikki or her Daddy!
Hi all,
I’ve been a little out of touch. My laptop has developed some issues with connectivity, and for a while I couldn’t stay connected for more than a few minutes at a time. In the end, I had to completely reformat my hard-drive and reinstall Windows.
I’m still in the process of loading software, and some of the more important stuff has gone missing at some point (Microsoft Office 2003 & Outlook – my email package).
So, in case you’re wondering where I am, that is it. Of course, this doesn’t explain the long periods of time between blog posts. That’s a different issue!
Well, here’s something to add to the previous post.
As most of you know, last Spring, Scott enrolled to take college courses at UNO where he works. He’s seeking to complete his bachelor’s degree, and plans to pursue graduate work in Archeology. As an employee of the University, Scott gets a discount on his tuition and other expenses associated with his education.
When I got word at the dealership this a.m. about the brakes, I sent him a brief text message giving him the bad news.
So, just now I got a new text message from Scott. He tells me HE has paid for the brake work. It seems that even though he’s an employee, apparently the University made a mistake. They listed him as a Non-Resident of Nebraska, and as anyone with knowledge of college expenses knows, that equates to higher tuition.
However, there is an agreement that give residents of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, the same tuition rates as a resident of Nebraska (I think a few other counties over here get that as well.)
The University admin has discovered their mistake, and are reimbursing him $800 for the summer semester!
Of course, that $800 pays for the brake work. I find the coincidence of the timing rather interesting. Discovered and remedied on the same day as unexpected expense.
Some might say that is not a miracle and that the timing is merely fortuitous. But I have learned over 5 decades that it is precisely in the fortuitous that miracles are to be found. Sure, every now and then a miracle occurs that simply transcends the capability of science and reason to explain. I suppose spitting in the dust, and using the resultant mud to cure lifelong blindness is one of the latter. But I have discovered that far more often miracles CAN be explained by both science and reason. It’s the fortuitousness of the occurrence that makes it a miracle and that proves to me God’s hand is involved.
Yes, I’d love a BIG miracle. An army of angels setting up camp in my front yard would be nice. The sudden appearance of a ton (as in specifically 2000 pounds – 32,000 ounces) of gold in my living room would be mighty nice, too. Perhaps coming home to discover that a brand spanking new house has miraculously appeared where my 1910 Bungalow now stands… yeah, pretty awesome. An overnight breakout of world-wide peace and the sudden end of all drought, resulting in the complete end of world hunger, coupled with the immediate disappearance of all forms of disease – those would be even BETTER “Big” miracles.
But, that’s really not how life generally happens, is it? It’s the sudden appearance of $800 when $800 is needed, even though it comes from a totally mundane and easily explained source…. Those are the kind of miracles I tend to expect. God never seems to let us down.
Thank you God!
As we enter the 11th month without a job, Scott and I have started to look at how we can reduce expenses. Over the past year we’ve slowly been cutting our expenses, buying less, taking time to evaluate need versus nice to haves, that kind of thing. But now it’s time to roll up our sleeves and knuckle down to cost cutting where possible.
The first thing we looked at was our utilities. There really isn’t a lot of savings to be had in the water/sanitation department. Sanitation is a fixed rate for all residents of the city, anyhow. Water we’ll work on, but we don’t expect a huge saving there either. We’ll be more careful to see to it that the dishwasher is totally full before washing. Same for laundry. We’ll pay on time (if we pay by a given date each month, we save about 10%). But again… our water bill is only about $25 a month.
The electric bill was the next to be evaluated. Over the past 3 years, we’ve been converting all our lights to the newer style fluorescent bulbs that are supposed to last longer and use far less electricity. We’ll keep that up, even though the bulbs are a lot more expensive… they last longer so it evens out. About all we can do here is to recommit to making sure no lights are left on when we are not in the room. Frankly I’m the worst offender here. Lights on the main floor and upstairs are no problem. I’m very good at turning those off when I leave a room. But the basement is a different story. I go down there for a purpose… namely, to do laundry or get a tool. When I come back up, my hands are usually full. The light by the washing area frequently gets left on all day. Once upstairs it’s easy to forget it’s on. No more. I’m going to make a huge effort to get those turned off. I’m thinking about getting one of those motion sensor switches. It’ll turn the lights on automatically as I head downstairs, then after 15 or 30 minutes will shut them off. It’s worth looking into.
The gas bill was next. This will be a little easier to cut down. We’ve traditionally kept the thermostat set at 73 to 74 in the winter. Because of Gary’s issues, we’ve liked to keep the house a little warmer, and frankly, I enjoy it warmer too, in winter. But not now. We’ve set the thermostat to 68 for December. When January hits, I may well drop it down to 66. In turn, we bought Gary a warmer comforter for his bed… well, HE bought the warmer comforter. We gave him our electric heater from the camper, but have asked him to only use it when it gets too cold for him. I’ve committed to washing our clothes in cold water, only using hot or warm for certain loads. We hope to see the greatest savings in the gas department.
Next we hit the Cox Cable bill. Cox provides our TV, Internet and telephone. We turned off our land line. Saved something around $35 per month. We cancelled HBO, Showtime & Cinemax. Another $25. And we’ve had two old converters setting around for far too long which will save another $10.
Verizon was next, our cell phone carrier. I had hoped to drop the data service, and just use our Blackberries as phones, but Verizon won’t let us. We would have to turn them in and get new, less functional phones. I use my blackberry for a lot… calendar, notes, info on Dad, and a heck of a lot more. But I did turn off the annoying “Voice2Text” feature that converted all my voice mail into text messages. If the caller had good enunciation, that was great. But it had to be impeccable enunciation! I’d get messages like “Sky Derrick hits Marlborough. Can you come church the cow broken. (???) chairs charity (???)”
That translated to: “Hi Eric, it’s Carla. Can you come to the church now? One of our vendors spilled tar on the stairs, and they’re dirty. They need to be cleaned.” And just so you know, Carla has pretty good enunciation!
We also cancelled the insurance on the two phones. So we’ll end up saving maybe $25 there.
Finally, we took a look at our grocery and dining out expenses. Oh, my goodness. When I look at the trends over the past 11 months in groceries and restaurants, it’s hard for me to see how I’ve lost weight (a good thing, of course) or how everyone else has stayed thin! We actually spent over $1000 in one month, though most months were down around $700. For three people. That’s just ridiculous. Over all, in the past 10 months, we averaged $23 a day in combined groceries and eating out. We set a budget of $70 a week for all three of us. Hopefully we can stay with that!
One of the reasons for high grocery bills for us was we bought groceries daily for that night’s dinner. And Scott has LOTS of meetings at church, so we tend to eat BAD food on those nights. No more. We’re shopping for 2 weeks at a time, now, and Scott gets to take leftovers on days he is going to be home late. Our first shopping trip on the new plan, for food for next two weeks, we did quite well! $105 for the two weeks. How it turns out, however, remains to be seen. I imagine we’ll need to supplement here and there (we’re already out of milk, and running low on bread.) Still $35 for two weeks of incidentals ought to do it.
And then… our austerity program comes crashing down. Like a house of cards, one of the bottom cards gets pulled out, and WHOOSH! The whole thing collapses.
This week we had to do a bunch of vehicle servicing. The camper needed winterizing. That was expected (and actually budgeted for). The pickup needed an oil change… that’s okay. Today, it’s the Buick’s turn. It also needs an oil change… in fact it’s way overdue (2+ months overdue). That’s okay. Still within our new budget guidelines. Then, they drop the hammer. Over the past month, we’ve noticed the brakes were deteriorating… they were mushy. When we stepped on the brakes at anything over 35 miles an hour they… I don’t know how to describe it, really… they pushed back… They’re anti-lock brakes and you could REALLY feel the pulsing of the brakes. We never had problems stopping… but it just was rough.
And that’s because both the front AND the rear brakes are completely shot. Rotors are all but gone. We need NEW rotors, new brakes. Not counting the oil (and air filter) service, we’re facing over $600 of brake work.
So, December ain’t gonna be so austere, after all… well, actually, yes, it WILL be austere. But not cheap.
It’s been a good Thanksgiving Weekend.
Thursday morning, I made up three batches of Rum Balls for a Christmas Party Scott and I are having next month. I think I was beginning to get drunk just from inhaling the fumes! I finished with just enough time to shower then head over to Dad’s to pick him up for the family Thanksgiving at my cousin’s home. On the way we stopped to see a friend who had borrowed our air compressor and nailers.
The dinner itself was fun, Missy, Jim, Uncle Lyle, David & Sylvia, along with Andrew & Scott & Becka (Andrew & Scott are Lyle’s grandsons, Beck is Scott’s wife) and Scott & I… oh, and Scott & Becka’s three children. It’s so funny to gather with the Stroms… every single one of them looks cut from the same mold… the Kelly side of that family has pretty strong genes. One look at one of the great grand kids, the grand kids, or any of the Strom kids and you just KNOW they came from the Kellys!
Friday & Saturday, Scott and I knuckled down to finish some long standing projects around the house, and to putting up the exterior Christmas decorations… good thing, as Sunday it started getting cold!
Sunday we put in our normal 5 hour stint at church, then stopped on our way home for our traditional breakfast at Village Inn. And it is from that meal that the title of this entry hails. As we were walking toward the cash register I glanced at the bill… OH MY GOODNESS! Our waitress gave us BOTH a senior citizens discount!!!!!! Village Inn’s “Senior Citizen’s discount” is for those aged 60 and older!
So, for all you out there who read my blog… go buy stock in Nivea! Because I intend to sleep in a pool of Nivea skin moisturizer starting tonight!
60. Ha! I’ll show her!
(And our waitress, just so you know, wasn’t a high schooler, either, she was at least our age!!!!) Maybe I should just credit to her as an attempt to be nice?
An Idea, an idea… my kingdom for an idea!
That’s what these past two months of silence have been like. I mean, sure I’ve been doing lots of stuff… but none of it has seemed to be something I want to write about. This past week, I’ve opened my “Live Writer” every day. And every night I close it, nothing written.
It just seems that nothing has been weighing on me, or inspiring me to write about it.
Over the past two months, since I blogged last, I’ve been on the run. Of course, I’ve been to interviews… no luck. I’ve been to Scottsdale for a wonderful family reunion. I’ve developed a system for actually keeping the Hays-Strom household clean… something rather remarkable in and of itself!
But none of that says to me “Sit down and write about this.” In deed, what’s being written right now is an attempt to jump-start my creative juices. And I’m going to be NEEDING those creative juices!
After a recent email to my family filling them in on my life, my job search, and Dad’s health, my aunt wrote me to tell me that she felt I wrote the most wonderful letters. And she suggested I take a writing course. And I jumped at the idea. I start next Wednesday. (And here’s a public THANK YOU Aunt Jeanie, for not only complimenting my writing, but making the suggestion AND then, topping it all off by paying for it! You’re a very special lady, and I really really hope you know that.)
“A Writer’s Guide to Descriptive Settings” is the class I’ll be taking. If it goes well, I may very well invest in another class.
My writing has taken me in some rather exciting directions. Elsewhere out there in the “blogosphere”, a wonderful lady, a published author, whom I met online through conversations with a mutual friend, picked up an article I wrote some months ago and published it. Another blogger in England picked up the piece from her and posted it with commentary. A very lively conversation ensued between the 3 of us and several other people. One of those has even suggested I write a book! Right now, that seems a bit unlikely to me. But who knows?
I’m reticent to post that article here, or even tell my readers (all those thousands and thousands of you out there) where to find it elsewhere. I’ll have to think about that.
It’s been a little too long since I posted last. There’s really no reason. I just haven’t felt too much like posting!
Throughout the summer, I’ve been working on trying to find a new job. Of course, I’ve also had a little health concern, but it turned out to be pretty minor. At the time, though it was extremely scary! In July, I had an episode of pericarditis that was extremely painful, and sent me to the ER to find out what was going on.
Then, of course, was the trip to Wyoming for Rendezvous which I wrote about in 6 postings early in August. Late August, everyone in the family had a run-in with the summer cold, but that too is pretty well over and done with.
This past weekend, the Labor Day weekend, Scott and I joined 2 of our best friends, Royal and Jonathan, for a camping excursion. We were joined by two other men, friends of Royal and Jonathan. I’d like to hope that now they’re our friends as well.
We picked a local state park, actually the Louisville State Recreation Area down along the shores of the Platte River, in Louisville, Nebraska. The park was packed, as you’d expect over the Labor Day Weekend. There are at least 255 campsites at this park, most of which are for RVs. We chose to leave the trailer in storage and do a little old fashioned tent camping in one of the tent restrictive sites. Scott and I guessed that there were probably over 1000 people camping.
We set up our compound over two sites; our compound consisted of our three tents and a dining fly. Most of the weekend was spent sitting around the campfire. James and Phillip did a bit of fishing and bike riding. Royal retreated to his tent periodically to do some reading. Jonathan jogged, or tended the fire, or swam. Scott and I just sat around, either napping or chatting.
Other friends came down to visit from time to time, Carla & Sharon, Frank & Kent – with Frank’s Mom. Marcus came for a visit, as did Michael.
It was a nice, lazy way to spend the weekend, just reconnecting, somewhat, with nature. I didn’t take any pictures, but I’ll bet the others did. I’ll see if I can’t update this blog later with some of those photos!
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