thank you ~ and a frenzy of activity

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to those of you who left heartfelt comments on my last post about the passing of my beloved cat, Zippo. I cried reading them but yet felt the love. I know a lot of you can relate. Our hearts are slowly healing, but we all still miss Zippo terribly and it's painful to look at his photos. I know this will get better as time passes. Heck, we've certainly been through a lot worse with the passing of Phil - our son/Tim's brother nine years ago. Actually, there is no comparison of the pain and loss in that regard.

But, the passing of a beloved pet - which is indeed a family member - hurts. A lot. And now that it's been a week since Zippo's passing, we are now able to realize how sick he truly was before he passed away. It breaks my heart to realize how much he must've been suffering. The thing with cats is, they don't show when they're in pain. They're very good at hiding it.

Two days before Zippo passed away, Tim moved out of our house into his own apartment. I had taken a spur-of-the moment shot into Tim's room as he was packing things up and I didn't notice until I looked at the photo later, that Zippo was sleeping on his bed. Tim had spread out a towel because Zippo's nose was bleeding. See how Zippo's head is hung? He was doing that a few days before he died. He couldn't fully relax enough to curl up into a ball or even put his head down to sleep. I wonder if it was because he was in pain? I know I'll never have answers to these questions, but they're just ones that have gone through my mind.

It was a crazy 48 hours with moving Tim into his apartment. It started late Friday night with him getting home from work and packing more stuff up and wanting help doing last minute things, to Saturday - moving day - helping pack up the U-Haul and our cars and carrying load after load of stuff up three flights of stairs - 34 to be exact - to Sunday when we went shopping at Wal-Mart to buy a ton of needed stuff for his new place.

We hadn't seen his new apartment until moving in day, and we were pleasantly surprised. There's a nice galley kitchen...

 and a large open living and dining space, with a small balcony and storage room off the dining area.

 The vaulted ceilings and open concept looking into the kitchen make the apartment look and feel more spacious.

 Tim also has a huge bedroom, his own bathroom (same with his roommate, who has the same on the other end of the apartment) and a big walk-in closet that I'm envious of! He's only two miles down the road from us, so it's nice still having him nearby.

My mom had asked if Tim was going to hang any of photographs around his apartment and I tried to explain to her that Tim was a single guy moving into a bachelor pad with his friend. Neither one of them are exactly into decor. This was the extent of their current decor the night they moved in. Ha!

How are you all doing with Thanksgiving prep? I went to two grocery stores today and was surprised to find that both of them weren't as crowded as I feared. And the one thing I love about holiday time is that most people in public are in good moods. The shoppers and checkout people were extra-friendly and all wishing each other a Happy Thanksgiving. In one of the stores, the man in front of me let me go ahead of him since I only had a few items. I paid the kindness forward by giving extra in the Salvation Army bucket on the way out of the store.

I am going to a Friendsgiving celebration tomorrow night and bringing a corn casserole and these pumpkin bars. Thursday, we will gather at my mom's house and I'm making another corn casserole, green beans with orange-almond gremolata, roasted carrots and parsnips with honey and fresh thyme, and a pan of brownies. 

I also made a big pot of soup today and will be making a pot of chili tomorrow. Not only are they for our lunches and dinners up until Thanksgiving, but some of each will be packaged up and delivered to a friend who's mostly housebound right now, as her husband is on hospice care at home.

What else...oh yes, of course the contractors we are dealing with have both decided that this week is the perfect time to work on our house! This afternoon, the roofers were here (yes, that project is still ongoing...they have been quite incompetent) fixing some last-minute stuff that they didn't get right the first time and tomorrow morning at 7:00 AM, the deck builders are going to be here to start ripping out our front porch/deck.

One of my blessings in life is the many friends I've made through this blog. Thank you for your kindness, support, words of wisdom and love over the years. 

Happy Thanksgiving from my house to yours. 💗

air conditioning, roofs and porches ~ oh my!

The weekend started out great. Me and hubby and son enjoyed dining al fresco on the river in our town on Friday night, followed by a family BBQ on Saturday at my aunt's house. Her daughter - my cousin - and her three-year old daughter were in from Tacoma, so it was wonderful getting to see them again. Even though it was 96 degrees and humid, we sat out on the patio talking, laughing, enjoying my uncle's amazing smoked ribs and steak and my mother's fried chicken and my salads...enjoying the family time with sweat rolling down our faces and backs. We'd duck back inside the house to cool down and then go back outside for some more Midwestern torture.

Sometime in the middle of the night/wee morning hours of Sunday, our air-conditioning bit the dust. I woke up several times during the night, overly warm, but chalked it up to those lovely night sweats due to menopause. But when we got up Sunday morning and saw the thermostat was at 80 degrees...and then I put my foot over the vent to feel the air coming out and found that it wasn't cold, I knew something was wrong.

Brian called our AC guy and he had Brian test a bunch of different things. Since our HVAC system (central air conditioning and furnace) are the original of the house - 30 years old! - our AC guy said most likely it was the compressor. We knew we were living on borrowed time, so we weren't surprised. Our AC guy referred us to a local business who does more complicated HVAC work and can also replace the system, if need be.

In the meantime, Sunday and Monday were two of the hottest days we've had, with the heat index reaching 102F. It was 90 degrees in our house. We spent a lot of time in the basement where it was a little cooler (good thing we have a little family room set up down there!) and didn't get much sleep Sunday night.

Rocky - the referred HVAC guy - was supposed to come out yesterday. He was going to try to squeeze us in between other jobs he had. Turns out, it didn't work out. Our area got bombarded by torrential rain and flooding, and that put him way behind.

It was still raining this morning (and finally cool - hooray!) and like Rocky explained to me, he couldn't do electrical work in the rain. I totally understood. However, it's now noon and it finally stopped raining. Rocky just called and will be here within an hour. Only time will tell if this is something that can be fixed. There's a possibility it's the capacitor. But like I said, I wouldn't be surprised if this is something that can't be fixed and we need a new HVAC system.

In the meantime, still waiting for two amended bids on the roof. These two companies simply mentioned the gutters and soffits in their bids and forgot about the rotting plywood underneath. It'll be a miracle if we get the roof fixed, the HVAC system fixed/replaced, and the porch and sidewalk project done before summer is up! 😎

"If it isn't one thing, it's another! It's always something."
(Gilda Radner)

sunny days, roofing woes, and a helpful neighbor

The past few days have been delightful...clear, blue skies (low humidity - which is a welcome relief in Chicagoland during the warm months) and temps cool enough where we could turn off the air conditioning and open the windows. Rain is coming later this week, so I'm trying to enjoy as much outdoor time as possible, whether that means working in the yard, taking walks, or relaxing on the patio. Running errands doesn't count.

 Flowers are in full bloom, the excitement of kids at play outdoors is heard through open windows, the smell of dinner on the grill wafts through the neighborhood...

and roofing is falling apart during storms!

You might've seen this in my last post.

The insurance adjuster came out and assessed the damage. As you're probably aware, home owner's insurance can be a joke. The boards underneath the roofing were wet, so they claim that's old water damage and won't cover it. Of course, plywood is the most expensive part. The bushes that are damaged from the fallen roofing parts? Not covered. And we have a $1000 deductible, so the parts that were covered are barely enough to even file a claim. We've had two roofing contractors out here for estimates and a third is coming, so we'll see how that all pans out.

In the meantime, the insurance adjuster said we need to get the damaged part cut down before it caused any more damage (which would be another claim!) and so water didn't get into our house. We were wondering what to do because 1) Brian doesn't have the proper tools to cut down gutters; 2) he has a torn calf muscle (that was explained in my last post, too) and can't get up on a ladder; and 3) he is not much of a handyman and wasn't sure how to go about tarping to keep water out.

Enter our nice neighbor next door. We have a few awful neighbors, but this guy is a gem. He is not only gifted in the home repair department, but just so happens to work part-time for a roofer! He worked for two hours cutting down the hanging gutters and soffits and temporarily nailing them back in to give us a quick fix.

Like my mom always said, nothing better than a man with a tool belt!