HOME AND HEALTH
We knew we would have some problems with our heating when wee returned to Philo. Our wonderful neighbors who had been watching the house for us had been informing us that the heating was not up-to-par. Fortunately our house is well-built and there was no worry of freezing. But it was not quite warm. Our kind neighbors provided us with some space heaters to make the place habitable.
We did not realize the cause would be the gas well going dry. That cascaded into a whole series of repairs. As our appliances were too old to convert from natural gas to propane, all new ones were in order, including a heat pump and furnace. Perhaps we could have converted to all-electric instead of propane, but our previous experience told us that would be expensive operationally, especially in the winter. We will need to see how much propane costs, but we have a 500 gallon tank in the back now that should be more than sufficient.
Here is Mrs.T's take on things:
We came home earlier than usual so that I could see the eclipse. And it was a very nice eclipse and did not disappoint. My brother Drew and his wife Sharon live in Cleveland which was a place with full viewing so we got to do two very nice things at once. We ate one of Sharon's lovely home cooked meals and then we watched the eclipse. I admit it is slightly brazen to call someone up and say, "We are coming to your house to watch the eclipse, okay?" But you know me and so do they and we all had a wonderful time. (Thanks Brenda for getting us glasses. -dt)
Unfortunately, we came home to some very bad news. My little gas well, which I made fun of a lot, was running dry. I used to mock my fortune when I would get checks for $27 or $32 for a quarter. (Our royalty checks. -dt) Little did I know. The thing was, we got free gas for the furnace, the stove, the hot water heater, and the clothes dryer. Now I have to go out back and pull out a little thingy with pliers and if mother nature is kind we will get enough gas to run one of our appliances for a while. So we are in the process of getting all new appliances, rewiring electrics, and plumbing for propane. Not to mention getting a big fat propane tank. (And a new HVAC system. -dt) I was using the Royal We. Really Dan had to do all this because I am not good at telephoning. All of this as you can imagine was a great pain and further complicated by the fact that many service people are wimps and are afraid to come down our hill with their trucks. (It is a sizable hill. -dt)
This is in addition a great expense for all this stuff at once and it was not even broken! Needless to say Dan and I are extremely annoyed. And neither one of us is that patient to start with. I am firmly convinced the companies involved could make this all work smoothly and efficiently at very low cost if they wanted to. I also wonder what happens to our old appliances. I asked if we could donate them but was told "no" we had to pay a fee to have them removed. Seems fishy to me! (Mrs.T does not understand corporate America very well. -dt)
So we have the new appliances picked out and delivered. (That was an ordeal of incompetent delivery people. -dt) And now we are ready to get electric and propane. (Finally installed. -dt) At which point we will have three weeks worth of laundry to do (more actually. -dt) and can finally begin eating normally. Now having a functional washer and dryer, we are much relieved not to worry about diminishing piles of clean underwear.
When we came home I made a few orders from my favorite catalogs. When I was modeling a new dress Dan said it looked like a nightgown. I was quite concerned and disappointed. I have never had much faith in Dan's fashion sense but then I never had much faith in mine either. What to do? I bravely wore it to an art opening. It was a triumph! At least half of the people I ran into, both acquaintances and strangers complimented me on my new dress. I decided that Dan might know more than I about every subject under the sun - just ask him - but I knew more about women's clothes. I also bought some new shoes. If I tried a bit I could get into clothes shopping. (Heaven forbid. -dt)
In addition to all of our householders' woes, we have our regular old people doctor problems. (And some new ones. -dt) I swear between us, Dan and I have specialist doctors for all of our body parts. We do not have a leg doctor; we have a knee doctor and an ankle doctor. How silly is that? (The US healthcare system is not designed for maximum efficiency. -dt) In fact we have discovered parts that we did not know we had let alone what they are good for. For example, I found out that I am low in magnesium. I did not know I had any! Well evidently I don't have enough. Next week I have a stress test. I think I should pass that, I have lots of stress. (She did get a passing score; her heart is okay. -dt) We now have done about ½ of our doctor's appointments. But as each appointment yields two more we are no further ahead. In fact we will probably keep on making appointments until we molder in dust.
Dan is getting a pretend right knee in July. (Probably get the left one next April; mobility is currently impaired. -dt) I have two. They hurt a lot when I got them but then I felt better. This is because of arthritis. (The editor's arthritis is worse. -dt) I try to hold firm on two things: 1) No more strokes; 2) No more cancer. I do not feel real strongly about dying one way or the other.
I would like to clean up my office first which does make me practically immortal. In fact I would like to give away a lot of my useless junk. There is some of my useless junk I need to keep for no particular reason. So if anyone needs junk see me maybe we can work something out. (We will meet you at the top of the hill. -dt)
Dan plans to stay alive to take care of me because for one thing I am a trifle forgetful and would probably have our bank accounts messed up without him. (Understatements. -dt) That is fine but I wish he was not so grumpy!
Now I have to concentrate on reclaiming Serena the Mermaid for possible performances and trying to locate a big friendly horse.
The Muse neglected to mention the other major celestial event: the aurora borealis or Northern Lights. Rarely have they been visible in Ohio as we are rather too far south. Many of you probably heard about the extreme sun activity which made them visible to the far south of the US. And we did have a show here. Of course we were asleep. We probably could not have seen much as our trees obscure our sky view. But our neighbors who live well above us took some great pictures, some over our house. In fact, due to some unknown technical glitches, they are the only photos this month. Thank you, C and H. Great people! https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBrcha
Hope you all are planning a great summer.
Dan and Rebecca
Sent from Outlook
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