Tricia's Musings

We lost another good neighbor

Tricia — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 01:10:40 +0000

One of our neighbors passed away last week. He’d been diagnosed with cancer and had been sent home to be cared for by his family when it was discovered that his cancer was too far advanced to help.

I think it was August when he was sent home and he was given about two months to live at that time. It looks like he lasted longer than the doctors expected, but I don’t think his last months were very good.

He was an elderly man in his 80’s. Luckily he had his family constantly around him to comfort him and help care for him. I’m going to miss him, he was a good man.

We don’t have too many elderly neighbors left! When we first moved here pretty much all of our neighbors were in their 70’s or 80’s. Now they’ve either moved away to live with family, live in a retirement home or have passed away.

I guess we only have two older neighbors now.

The older lady closest to us is becoming a bit like my former stalker elderly neighbor Sofie. She calls us a few times a week to come over and help her with things around the house. Things like changing her vacuum bag for her, or checking out some strange noise she’s heard.

I feel bad for her because she has really bad arthritis in her hands. I think she just started getting some special treatments for rheumatoid arthritis from her doctor, but it will take a while to work if it’s going to help her.

It’s strange how the neighborhood is changing. I know all neighborhoods change, but I don’t think it will be as friendly once all the older folks are gone. I’ve said many times that living on our street is kind of like living in a one street small town (good and bad in that way because everyone knows your business). Now the new people moving in don’t seem to be quite as friendly.

Anyway … I don’t know if we’ll get a new neighbor in the house owned by my neighbor who died or not. One of his daughters had lived with him on a permanent basis. Perhaps she’ll just continue to live there or maybe in the spring we’ll see a for sale sign on the lawn.

Has your neighborhood changed a lot since you moved in?

There’s a big ding in our new TV stand

Tricia — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:48:26 +0000

Crap! As those of you who have been reading my posts this week know, we’re getting our new TV this weekend. Well … my husband decided to put the stand that we bought for the TV together this evening so we’ll be ready when we get the TV.

The stand is heavy! When we brought it home last weekend we had to get a guy from the store to help put it in the car, and then once we got home my husband got one of our neighbors ( a really big guy!) to help carry it into the house.

So now my husband and I were unpacking the heavy massive thing, in the kitchen on the ceramic tiles and one of the front legs has a huge ding in it!

I guess if it were at the back of the stand it wouldn’t be so bad, but the dent is right at the front on this stainless steel leg. It would look awful if we didn’t replace it!

Luckily the guys at Best Buy said that we could just bring the defective piece in and they’ll replace it with another one. I’m thankful we don’t have to try to repack the box that took us half an hour to open and bring all the parts back!

Chris just drove to the store with the bad TV stand leg. Hopefully he’ll be back soon so we can get this thing together and off my kitchen floor!

Don’t you just hate when something you’ve purchased is damaged?

Finally rearranged the living room

Tricia — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:13:00 +0000

Remember that mini-renovation project that turned into a bigger job that I told you about last week? Well, my husband and I finally finished it!

You see, in preparation for our new TV my husband and I decided that we wanted to rearrange the living room. Sounds simple enough, right? The only problem was the electrical outlets where the TV was going to go in the “new arrangement” weren’t hooked up! We’d disconnected them a few years ago when we were doing other reno projects in the room and never hooked them back up.

So my husband had to rehook up two electrical outlets and we put baseboard molding along that wall. We still have to put baseboard molding around the rest of the room (and finishing putting the Tin ceiling in too!).

We did finish the electrical hook up and the baseboards, but we didn’t rearrange the room because that’s when I started getting sick with this terrible head cold. Yes I still have it! Luckily it’s not quite as bad as last week, but now I’ve got fevers with it, so I’m hoping it’s not about to turn into pneumonia or something. Sigh.

Yesterday we got word that our TV will be ready for pick up on Friday, so since it was my husbands day off and I was feeling ok we decided to get to work and rearrange the room.

I’m now sitting on the opposite side of the room typing this post on my notebook computer and it feels weird! We used to have the loveseat and couch close together sort of in an L-shape but now, I’m on one side of the room on the big couch and my husband is on the other side on the loveseat.

Let me tell you, rearranging all that furniture wasn’t an easy task!

We have really big living room furniture! We have a large leather couch, love seat and an easy chair. Plus we also have a 50″ HDTV and a big dog crate in the room. The living room and dining room are connected (we knocked down walls when we first got the house) so it’s like one big room, but of course we do have a dining room table so it’s two rooms in one big room. The actual living room is about 15 feet wide by 20 feet long. Not a lot to work with when you have big furniture. LOL

We moved the big couch, easy chair and love seat around several times before we finally found just the right spots for each of them, We thought the TV was going to go on the opposite wall from where it had been, but we discovered that it looks much better in the corner by the window on an angle. Yes, it blocks the window just a little bit, but this configuration works best.

It does make the room feel a lot bigger, but it’s going to take some getting used to!

Do you ever rearrange the furniture in your living room or bedroom? If you do, do you find it feels a little strange for a few days?

I’m so ready for this head cold to go away

Tricia — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 01:09:26 +0000

Well I’m still feeling like crap today, unfortunately. My head feels like it’s blown up to twice it’s size, I’m dizzy and my nose is stuffed. At least my nose isn’t running as much nor are my eyes tearing as much as yesterday. Maybe my decongestants are finally starting to work, or perhaps the cold is starting to get a bit better?

I think I’m just going to rest this evening and hope that I get a good sleep tonight. I haven’t been sleeping well all week, so I’m do for a good night’s sleep. Chris and I need to look for life insurance, so maybe I’ll put in some time on the computer and look for a life insurance online quote or something. Or like I said, maybe I’ll just relax … I can’t do that tomorrow.

At the moment we’re trying to patiently wait for a call from Best Buy. We bought a Plasma TV two weeks ago but it’s been on back order. Since we bought it they keep telling us every few days – it’ll be in on Monday, it’ll be in on Wednesday and so on … the latest was that it would be in today. Hopefully it is.

If our TV made it to the store we’ll pick it up tomorrow and then probably spend a few hours setting it up, hooking up our home theater system and of course finishing rearranging the living room. We did start that last week, and we managed to get the small renovations finished that we started, but when I started to get sick with this darn head cold we put rearranging the furniture on hold until we get the TV (or at least until this weekend). Hopefully I’ll be feeling a little better by tomorrow … especially if our new TV does arrive.

I’m miserable with a head cold

Tricia — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 21:45:26 +0000

OMG, I have a massive head cold. I’m absolutely miserable!

I can’t remember when I last had a cold, but it has to be 13 to 15 years ago! Yeah … somehow I lucked out and didn’t catch one for years, but I think I’m paying for that now. Sigh … cough cough sniffle.

My brother was here just after Christmas, he’d come to Toronto because my niece was getting married on the 30th of December. He’d had a cold earlier in the month when he was in the city on business and as it turns out he either still had it or got a new cold just as he was leaving Vancouver to come and stay with us at the end of December.

So I think he’s the one who passed on a cold to my husband and I. Darn brother!

I was sniffly last week and I thought that maybe I’d get past this with just mild cold. My husband had the sniffles too and his cold got worse towards the end of last week but was pretty much over after a day or two. I somehow still thought mine might not get worse.

I was wrong … wrong wrong wrong!

On Monday afternoon I got a bad fever, felt really tired and my sniffles got worse. By Tuesday my nose was running like Niagara falls! I think I’ve gone through at least two tissue boxes on my own.

Last night I went to the drug store to get some more decongestants and a nasal spray (which aren’t really helping much BTW) and my eyes were so blurry I almost walked up to the cash with a box of adipex diet pills.

I thought my cold would be better by today … especially with the nasal spray that I added to my arsenal last night but if anything it’s worse! My nose is running constantly, my eyes are tearing and my vision is blurred. I’m also dizzy when I get up and I’ve got pressure at the top of my head – probably from stuffed up sinuses. I’ve also barely slept in the last four days.

I’m miserable!

I hope that once I get over this cold I luck out and don’t get another one for another 10 to 15 years!

Don’t you just hate head colds?

A small project turns into a big one Sigh …

Tricia — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 23:14:02 +0000

Well … it looks like our stalled renovations might finally be starting up again. I kind of hope it is, but it’s off to a very slow start.

It all started last night. You see, about a week ago we bit the bullet and bought a new TV since our almost 6 year old DLP TV seems to be dying. Naturally, the TV that we’ve already paid for isn’t in stock at the store. It was supposed to be in last Monday, then this past Friday and now they are saying it won’t be in until Wednesday. Sigh …

Anyway … yesterday we decided to go to the store again and look at home theater systems because the one that we bought with our DLP TV has also stopped working (the Receiver blew). We figured we might be able to work a deal at the store since the TV we ordered isn’t in and we were right- we got about $150 off the system.

So … last night, we get home with our new Home theater system. Too tired to start fiddling with it and hooking it up to our current TV, DVD, PRV and other accessories. However, my husband did ask me if perhaps I wanted to rearrange the living room and put the TV in a different area of the room. He remembered that I’d wanted to rearrange things once our renovations were done.

Earlier today we started figuring out where our current TV (soon to be replaced with new Plasma) will go in the new room arrangement as well as where our big couch, love seat, easy chair and the dogs crate will be moved.

The wall we want to put the TV on has two electrical outlets, but they aren’t hooked up. We had moved them around a few years ago when we were doing renovations ie fixing drafts where the baseboards had been, taking out walls in the living room dining room area, venetian plastering the walls, opening up part of the ceiling to fix up drafty areas and so on … When our renovations stalled we never did get around to reattaching the electrical outlets or putting the new baseboards and quarter round on in the living room dining room area. It was just hidden behind the couch.

Now what we need to do is re-hook up the electrical outlets and attach them to the wall above the area where the baseboard will go. Then put the baseboard and quarter round on the wall where the TV will be.

It’s really not that big of a job, but my husband was tinkering around for a few hours figuring out the electrical work and now he’s out buying two new electrical outlet boxes and some items to help attach the baseboards to the wall.

Some of the baseboards are already cut to the correct sizes … you see we were almost done finishing up our living room dining room area when my husband and I both fell sick at approximately the same time (back in 2004/2005) and that halted our reno in it’s tracks.

Hopefully, when my husband gets home we’ll get to work with the electrical outlets, the baseboard and rearranging the room. Oh and of course setting up the new home theater system. Thankfully my husband has the day off work tomorrow so if we don’t finish up we’ll have tomorrow to work on things as well.

It’s a start! If we complete this job at least one part of our living room dining room will look better and then hopefully we’ll move on to attaching the baseboard and quarter round in the rest of the area, as well as finally getting the tin ceiling up! Yeah … then after oh … maybe 7 years my living room dining room reno will finally be done!

It figures we’re starting up renovations just when we get a brand new TV … we’re going to have to either finish things before the TV finally arrives, or make sure it’s covered up when we’re working. I’m sure there’s going to be plaster dust and maybe even saw dust floating around. Hmm that reminds me, I’d better stock up on allergy relief meds as well!

Funny how rearranging the set up our our living room might have finally got us started on our renovations again … a small project turns into a bigger one in the matter of an hour or so. At least we have just about everything we need to complete the renovations in the living room dining room. Hmm … maybe our basement will finally start to clear out a bit once all the reno material (wood, baseboards, tin ceiling tiles etc) starts being used and we’ll have a basement we can use for something more than laundry and storage. Believe me, the basement if full of stuff and looks awful.

Maybe I’ll take some before and after pictures and post them as we work on our renovations. I’m so happy that it looks like we’re finally getting out of our renovation rut, I’ve been embarrassed by the unfinished look of our main floor (especially after working so hard on our renovations the first few years we were in the house).

No sign of our awful renter neighbors leaving any time soon

Tricia — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 02:33:30 +0000

I haven’t written about my awful renter neighbors for a while …

It doesn’t look like they’ll be leaving anytime soon, much to my dismay. Well .. unless they’re having trouble paying the rent again, that is. Hey, I can hope!

I am worried about them though! We’ve heard from friends of ours that used to live in the same apartment building as our renter neighbors (a few apartment buildings over the last several years) that they often don’t pay the rent or their bills and they have a history of drug abuse.

I’m pretty sure the stories about them using illegal drugs are true as they often look out of it when we see them on the street, especially lately! They also look older than the ages they told us they were when they moved in in September. They’d told us they were 31 or 32 but man, they look like they’re 10 or more years older, especially lately!

Every time we talk with the guy next door his eyes are slits and red rimmed and he seems confused or out of it. My husband and I don’t talk to the woman next door very often, but when we do she’s pretty much the same.

I feel bad for their kids. They have three of them – all girls and the youngest is about 2 years old. I’ve actually never even see the 2 year old, but my husband just saw her for the first time this week. It can’t be a good environment for them moving every few months because of unpaid bills and or rent and with parents that stay up all night possibly doing drugs. The best thing they can do for themselves and their kids is to perhaps check into a good drug rehab.

Anyway … if they manage to keep paying the rent they’ll be our neighbors until August, but I have a feeling that they’ll either get kicked out or move out before that. Remember how they were stealing my internet bandwidth in November because they must have had their cable canceled? Well, They are on a satellite TV and internet system now (Bell) and I’d bet $100 but that that will be cut off soon.

Do any of you have undesirable neighbors? Ones that concern you or ones that make you concerned for their kids?

Hunger pains or too much acid in my stomach?

Tricia — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 01:52:51 +0000

I’m still suffering from that hungry feeling that I talked about yesterday. It seems that I’m hungry within only an hour or two of eating a meal.

I don’t know what’s going on … am I really hungry or do I just have acid in my stomach that’s causing hunger pains like feelings? I think it’s hunger, but I do suffer from acid reflux so I suppose it could be acid too .. I have been taking my antacid medicine (Zantac and when it’s bad Pariet), but it doesn’t help the hunger feeling.

Last night when we finally ate dinner I felt a bit better, but that “hunger” feeling didn’t go away until about 11 pm. Actually it never totally went away … it was still there at 11 pm, but it was the most tolerable that it’d been all day.

Today I didn’t feel as hungry as I did yesterday … but I’m getting there now. I was busy all day and I’d planned to make home made Spaghetti and meat sauce (no the spaghetti isn’t home made, the meat sauce sort of is), but I started late. It will be done within half an hour. Hopefully it will help!

I don’t think I’ve been eating foods that burn fat or anything like that … I just think my metabolism has jumped into high gear this week.

For those of you with GERD or acid reflux … do you ever get hunger pains that just won’t go away?

How do you talk about an acne problem with a teenager?

Tricia — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 01:38:37 +0000

Just before Christmas my husbands brother and his two sons came to our house (from Chicago) for a visit. They were the first of three rounds of house guests that we had over the holidays.

While they were here visiting I noticed that my nephew suffers from really bad acne … maybe it’s because he’s a hockey player and gets so sweaty. I think he plays just about every day and in fact most of their visits to Canada, especially in the summer, revolve around hockey and hockey camps.

I decided that I’d try to do a little research on acne treatments for him … try to find some of the best acne treatments however I’m unsure how to broach the subject with him.

I mean, I want to help him out. I know the teen years are hard enough without having terrible acne, but it must be bad when you have terrible acne!

Any ideas as to how I can bring up this subject with my teenage nephew – especially if I find something that might really help him out?

Our Lab is turning into such a ham!

Tricia — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:29:40 +0000

My dog is such a ham! She’s a 2.5 year old Labrador Retriever and she’s adorable. Well, we think she is!

She’s calmed down a lot in the last 6 months or so, although she barks more often for some reason. When she was a year old we thought she might never calm down! Labs always want to be near you and do things with you and when Midnight was younger she was always in our face wanting to play or wanting to go outside and so on. There were plenty of times that I wished we could just flip a magic switch to make her calm down or find a click here button on her to switch her into lower gear. LOL

She still follows us around whenever we move about the house, usually with her favorite bone in her mouth just in case she can convince us to play with her … but she’s not quite as instant and in your face as she used to be.

Midnight is becoming quite cuddly too. I knew she was affectionate, but I never thought she’d be a lap, chest or in my case – shoulder dog. Yeah … guess I should explain that last one … When Midnight wants my attention – usually when I’m lying on the couch working on the computer and trying to watch TV at the same time, she’ll jump on the couch and climb over me to come and sit on the couch by my head. Unfortunately she’s not a tiny little dog so when she sits down and makes herself comfortable she often ends up sitting on my shoulder … or even my head!

Hmm maybe that’s why my shoulder’s been hurting lately … Midnight’s kind of heavy … no not overweight, but she’s a muscular dog with perhaps a few extra pounds.

In my husbands case she’ll jump up on the couch that he likes to relax on and climb onto his chest and lie down. When she does lie on him she always lies down so that she’s facing me. If I talk to her while she’s lying on my husband or get up to go in the kitchen she jumps off him and comes to me. My husband thinks she’s totally fixated on me.

Midnight also talks … she sounds like a Wookie (remember Star Wars?). She’ll lie down beside one of us and we’ll pet her for a moment or two and then go back to what we’re doing and that’s when she starts talking … letting out little groans and moans to tell us to keep petting her.

Yes … she’s kind of demanding, but we love her.

For those of you with dogs … is your dog affectionate and cuddly or do you have a more solitary independent dog? Have you noticed new aspects of your dogs personality emerge as the years go by?

Tricia's Musings

We lost another good neighbor

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