The Day After Yesterday

[snowball]

before I forget to I guess help you all to understand the heating ... the pellet stove isn't our own heat... she has electrical heat that thermostat is set at 67 my body says that it is cold at 67 much happier at 70-72 the pellet stove is in a room that was added on I had thought that heat wasn't put in it but mom says is was that my step father did something so it isn't coming out there ... he has been gone for at least 33 years so the pellet stove is out there we are hoping the problem is that it needs a deep cleaning... have an appointment for a repair guy to look at it since he comes from Idaho Falls about 100 miles away they want to make it worth their while and have more than one person to see I guess because that appointment isn't until the 4th that is a long way off.. hopefully that clarifies things a bit... today I did wrap up in a throw while crocheting the legs are warmer the back isn't...
got mom's car fixed today ... thankfully it wasn't a huge expense... I guess when the oil was changed the last time they used an out of market oil pan plug I take that to mean no Subaru approved... and so it's been leaking every since and just getting worse so that is fixed whew!!!
went to the store grabbed a few non essential things as well as the hamburger that I needed for the soup tomorrow night going to make hamburger soup hmmm dang didn't get bay leaves but it will probably be ok without
I used to make home made tarter sauce so much prefer it to bought I used to make it with mayo, finely chopped up dill pickles, and lemon juice...
Karen Utah is big on what we call fry sauce... basically ketchup and mayo more mayo than ketchup never thought about putting horseradish in it though... for us it's usually for french fries...
hmm another Christmas movie I don't remember 2nd one tonight... that is unheard of
probably need to decide if I'm going to finish watching it or go half way through...
taking the purple pill now need to take it when I before I go to bed then follow it with a snack half hour later... so the later I go to my room the later I take the pill or I could go down the hall and get it and take it... but who thinks of that???
with the cost of diesel and the distance if I go to Q in my mind it needs to be for longer than month... or so I guess I really want my normal time down there... several months at that
started working on the Swedish Weave that I was working on for awhile but set aside while I finished the old one... it's done now so feel like I can work on this ....
you all have a great day
sheila

[BarbaraRose]

Another long day getting stuff done here! After the lawn guys left, I got started on the deck. Mostly empty bins out there but they were covered in dust and grass from the lawn scalping. So I moved them all onto the lawn and sprayed them down with the hose. Once I had everything off the deck, I took my leaf blower and blew as much dirt and dust from the carpet as I could, onto the driveway. Then I got the hose and power sprayed the sides of the house and then the carpet and pushed all the dirty water from the deck onto the driveway. It was just like mud coming off the carpet! Had to clean up the walls where the male cat(s) have marked on. I hope I was able to get some of the pee out of the carpet! The lattice I put up last year along the deck railing was falling off because the zip ties were breaking from the heat and sun over the summer. Had to redo those.

Then I started on the driveway. Had to sweep up all the dirt/grass debris from the corners of the carport first. Then the blower, followed by the water hose. More mud! But got it all cleaned up. I, on the other hand, was a filthy mess! Once I got all the stuff on the lawn dried and stacked in the carport, and my chairs cleaned and dried in the sun and put back on the now clean deck, I took a nice long shower!

I have been relaxing ever since! My back hurts and my feet hurt! And my eyes are burning from all the dust. I did wear a mask and goggles while using the leaf blower.

Still have some work to do out there yet, like the sidewalk and back patio, but that won't take very long. Also need to cover up some overspray from when I painted the trim. I then need to get stuff out from under the house. I think there are still bins under there from the previous owner. I opened one up when I first moved in and it was full of clothes. I saw a few more when I looked today. I have some fake flowers I had bought last year to put in another flower box I have but never got to it. I already have one done and it looks nice, so will get the other one done and add that to the railing. Curb appeal is always a good thing!

Thursday and Friday will be working on all that stuff. No rest for the weary! I got another message today that I didn't read until around 6pm about that shop wanting to know if I could work from 3 to 8 today. Good thing I didn't get the message until later! Geez, can't a girl get a day off in peace??

Sheila, can you use a space heater until you get the stove fixed? Your family really needs to do more for you since you are giving up a lot to take care of your mom and you have your own health issues now too. I would tell them you are going to Q for the winter and they need to figure out how to take care of your mom for awhile. Sometimes family members will sit back and just let one person do all the work because that person doesn't say anything. I was the one who was expected to take care of my parents. I moved back to MN from Denver to help my mom, and from CA back to MN to help my dad, even tho both brothers lived just a mile or so from both of them and still did nothing to help either one of them. Sometimes you gotta just speak up, (altho I tried that and it didn't work very well). Good luck!

Time for PJ's and bed! Didn't get to my laundry even tho it is all ready to go, so will have to do that later in the week.

[Cudedog]

Also, a large part of homelessness is the lack of affordable housing for people who are working and making only minimum wage or slightly above it. It is much easier in states like Michigan and Ohio where housing is cheaper for low income people to afford an apartment.

Judy, I most certainly agree with you that a large part of homelessness is, as you say, lack of affordable housing. Mobile homes, and mobile home parks, have been one of the last bastions of affordable housing.

Originally, a very great many of these parks were built on the outskirts of cities, but over the years the cities grew and surrounded the parks - and thus the land value of the parks has gone through the roof, with developers rushing to buy them. What is happening more and more is that people that own older mobile homes are being evicted as their parks get sold. These older mobile homes are not up to current code, they can't be moved, and there isn't anyplace to move them to even if they could be moved.

When the owners of these mobile homes are evicted, they lose their homes, have no where affordable to go, and are forced to join the ranks of the homeless. It is a terrible situation. Many of these owners are elderly (like us on this forum) have owned their mobiles outright for many years, have lived in their parks for decades - and now they are out on the street, through no fault of their own.

Don't take my word for it, do a Google search "mobile home parks being bought by investors".

Poverty and homelessness is a terrible and growing problem. A while back there were two women with four pre-teens in tow in line in front of me at the grocery store. They were on some kind of voucher (I don't know what kind it was), and part of the voucher was denied by the cashier, so they were only able to purchase a part of their groceries. They had only your very basic staples in their cart, along with six gallons of milk.

They pushed their cart to one side, away from the cashier, and I could hear them conversing about what they would be able to buy, and what they would have to leave behind.

Now, I am NOT a person that falls for sob stories, not ever, but it was plain to see that these people were hurting, and that they were hungry.

I walked over to the woman nearest to me and palmed a $20.00 bill into her hand (which was all the cash I had on me at the time), said, "Please get the kids some milk", then turned on my heel and quickly walked away before any conversation could get started. The look on the woman's face was pure astonishment, and totally made my day.

I think it is easy for those of us that have enough to get by, to sometimes turn a blind eye to those who don't. None of us gets out of this thing alive, so I don't think it ever hurts to spread a tiny bit of kindness around whenever we get the chance.

Anne

[JudyJB]

I certainly believe you!! My then-husband and I lived in a mobile home when we were first married in 1965. We lived there for 4 years and one thing we learned was that the owners kept raising the rents to the point where it was ridiculous. Luckily, many of the residents in the park we lived in worked for the nearby race track, so they were making a decent wage. I would never live in one again unless I could own my property. I also learned that after so many years, they would evict people who had older mobile homes, and mobile homes are not really mobile--too expensive to move them and no place would take an older unit. So people lost their investments and had to find another place to live. We got out while our unit had value and bought a small home.

Another big problem is that no one wants a mobile home park in their community, nor do they want smaller, less expensive apartments and homes to be built because of fears of losing their property values. Many communities, like the one I left in Michigan when I went full-time, had rules about how large new construction had to be. You could not build a 1,000 square foot house like the cute little one my then-husband and I bought in 1969!! Communities want big houses that bring in more tax money. If low-income housing is brought before a city or township, the neighbors protest vehemently, so it takes forever for approval. The result is that housing becomes too expensive even for two-earner households, if they are not earning more than minimum wages.

The amount of homelessness on the west coast is a bit of a shock to those of us who live in the Great Lakes areas or Midwest. There is homelessness, but much less, and it is not just the cold weather that reduces homelessness. A county can put up a family of four in a two-bedroom apartment in a decent community for about a third of what it costs in California or Oregon. Ditto for buying a house--maybe even less.

A young couple with a brand-new tent worked to set it up across the campground roadway from me today. They did not really look like experienced campers, so I asked them if they could use an extra blanket and they said yes. I have been getting rid of stuff I never use lately, and I had an extra blanket and a throw I was going to take to Goodwill, so I took it over to them. I don't know if they were homeless or not, and I did not ask, but I figured they needed it more than Goodwill.

Good for you for giving the lady some cash!

[OregonLuvr]

It is concerning that in all the money people running for office pay to advertise on tv NOT one of them tells of the plan they might have for combatting various problems. They all want to fix homelessness, climate change, fires etc But nothing mentioned about HOW they will do it.

I know in my communities that were burnt out that some people are just now getting their building permits. Now what in the world can take that long. 2+ years. AND it is very expensive. Which in turn makes the housing way more expensive. They need to speed up that process and make it affordable to builders and buyers.

Barbie you certainly have gotten a burst of energy lately. More than I have ever seen you do
at one time LOL I am sure your place is looking very spiffy now. Sheila I hope you get the stove fixed soon. I have a heated throw and multiple sweatshirts that I put on every morning. I do turn my heat up to get the chill off but then turn it back down as if I am just sitting I am always chilly. If I am working around the house I keep quite warm.

Starting my day with my coffee and computer time then will get busy.