Stay-at-Home Sunday

[JudyJB]

I am staying mostly indoors today, but tomorrow morning early, I will be packing up and headed north to the commercial campground where I will stay at least a couple of weeks. Got finals to grade today and going to try not to stay glued to the news today.

And to make matters worse, my water pump refuses to work today. No noise from it at all. Checked the fuse, and it looks fine. I can hook up to city water, but my toilet does not want to turn off, which means it keeps filling unless I snap the flush handle back into place. Been thinking what to do, and decided to use jugs of water for flushing and other purposes except for tonight when I will hook up to city water briefly for my shower. Then will turn it off for the night.

Stay healthy everyone!

[Colliemom]

Judy, you certainly have had your share of issues with that water pump. Hope you get your toilet issue fixed so you can hook up to city water and not have to worry about it.and you get your papers graded. The state just said that any online teaching in the schools (not colleges) will not count toward the required hours of instruction, per school year that the schools are supposed to do Why bother then. Maybe because it can’t be done on a state wide basis or no way to track who is and who isn’t participating. From remarks I’ve been reading online, the parents who are hineschooling now are finding out how hard it is to be a teacher. Bet the teachers get more respect when this is over. Shelia, nice to know I’m not the only one who does dishes and forgets a pan or something

Just sitting vegging for awhile. Need to run the vac and put the trash out for pickup tomorrow. Otherwise nothing doing here. Just sheltering in place like everybody else although we are not ordered to.

A lady here posted a picture on FB of her cousin and another lady, making face masks for our local hospital. She said if anybody wanted to donate stuff to make them, to let her know. It has kind of taken off and now they have a building on Main Street donated to accept stuff and others offering to help sew. So there’s a mini mask making effort starting up here. And GM is going to retool to make medical equipment. A plastics company is also retooling to making suits and isolation gowns for the medical staffs at some of the local hospitals in NW MI as well.

Off to the Chiropractor for me tomorrow, then maybe a quick store run. Am starting to walk better every day and am hoping to get the dogs out this week sometime. We took x-rays at the office last week for Medicare purposes, so will see how things are looking.

So that’s about all the bews from up here in the north country. Take care everyone.

[cnq50b]

Good morning, JudyJB & all who follow,

Good to hear that you've got a place lined up for the next few weeks. Hope you get that water pump working.

Spent my first 'totally isolated' day yesterday. No tending to the grands, no work - got several little projects done that I was expecting to do when I retired. Interesting how long the day lasted. The kids put together a facebook chat later in the day - it was good seeing & chatting with everyone. All, except my daughter in TX, have isolated themselves. She works for a doctor's office & set them up for tele-visits last week so hopefully they can all work from home soon.

I've decided to watch movies or documentaries rather than letting the news rattle on. I'll catch it once a day & that's it. Rediscovering music from years ago is fun too. Glad I've got my collection of CDs - otherwise I might not have remembered some of my favs.

Haven't been to the store for a while. Making a list for when I eventually have to go out - probably not for a while though. Want to limit my time in any public-type places.

I hope we take away some of the positives of this whole experience once its over. Less pollution, less shopping, more family time, cherishing the simpler side of life.

Stay safe & healthy,
Catherine

[Bethers]

Ok, I just realized I have to spread chores out. Even though laundry doesn't take long I think I shouldn't have done 3 small loads yesterday. One a day would give me something to do. Yes, I have other things I should do.... I've promised myself I'll go through a stack of papers and organize/get rid of/or leave more in storage here, as necessary.

It's easy to, like BJ, have moments of despair. Mine mainly are around people doing things that will cause more to catch this virus. I'm glad to be at my casita where our park is doing a good job of having us self isolate. Overall, though, the part of me that is an introvert doesn't mind. However, like others have said... It's different when it's by choice.

[JudyJB]

Just checked with my son, and he said kids would get credit for work assigned and turned in during the quarantine period. But Napa schools have had an online system for several years where teachers can post assignments and instructions for projects and where students can submit papers online. He says few school districts have such systems, however. His problem is that students are not taking things seriously and not turning in work. (I find giving students a 0 for something right away does wonders!)

And the college I teach at is only 30% of classes online, but two years ago, they added an online component to regular classroom classes so that a lot of their work is posted online. In classroom classes, students attend for a two-hour block once a week and then are given two hours worth of work to be completed online. That means that instructors are used to the online environment. Only problem is that they are used to being able to explain assignments and lecture in that two hour block in person, so they are having to make videos and write things out.

It will be interesting what happens with schools after all of this.

[BarbaraRose]

I think parents need to hold their kids accountable for doing their on-line assignments just like they are supposed to do with their homework. Most parent(s) are home now so they have no excuse.

The galvanized caps I got for the water pipes were not working out too well. One was doing a pretty good job of not leaking but the other one wasn't working hardly at all and so I have had the garden hose hooked up to it and running into the bathtub which isn't a good long-term solution. So I went back to Home Depot the other day to look for another solution. I found some plastic caps that were only a buck something for two and decided to give it a try. I shut the water off this morning and put those on good and tight (which went on easier than the metal ones). I turned on the water and so far, keeping my fingers crossed, they are not leaking at all! Will keep an eye on them for a couple days just to be sure but am happy about this! I got my cabinet the other day so I need to put that together and set that up. I will have to figure out how to attach it to the wall really well in case of an earthquake. It is tall and heavy!

Watered my poor withered plants today too since I didn't have the garden hose for that. Found a water bucket in the shed to use for doing that. I need to replant my new hibiscus plants into bigger containers since they dry out so fast. I made that mistake with ones I had last summer and they died within a couple weeks. But it was really hot and windy then too. (and I tend to forget to water them )

Tried a new lubricant on my windows in the living room to get them unstuck but that isn't working too well either. Got them up about 5 inches which is better than nothing. I do get some breeze coming in now. Now that the other love seat is moved, I have full access to those windows. My view tho is of the RV next door and the utility box, water pipes, etc, just outside. I got some pretty window film to put on the lower half of the windows to block that but still let light in. That might be my next project.

I have more things to get to today so I better get moving before I lose my motivation! Have a good day and stay safe!

[Cudedog]

I think parents need to hold their kids accountable for doing their on-line assignments just like they are supposed to do with their homework. Most parent(s) are home now so they have no excuse.

The galvanized caps I got for the water pipes were not working out too well. One was doing a pretty good job of not leaking but the other one wasn't working hardly at all and so I have had the garden hose hooked up to it and running into the bathtub which isn't a good long-term solution. So I went back to Home Depot the other day to look for another solution. I found some plastic caps that were only a buck something for two and decided to give it a try. I shut the water off this morning and put those on good and tight (which went on easier than the metal ones). I turned on the water and so far, keeping my fingers crossed, they are not leaking at all! Will keep an eye on them for a couple days just to be sure but am happy about this!

Barbie, you probably know this (LOL! I learned it the hard way), but when screwing ends onto pipe (whether the ends are metal or plastic) it is important to use some kind of sealant on the pipe threads to be sure things don't leak. If you don't use some kind of sealant, likely sooner or later the connection will leak.

I generally use teflon tape (there are several YouTube videos that show how to put the tape correctly):

https://www.homedepot.com/p/1-2-in-x-520-in-Thread-Seal-Tape-31273/202206819

or you can also use pipe thread sealant (be sure to get the kind for water pipes, and not the kind for gas lines - and it is more messy than the teflon tape):

https://www.homedepot.com/p/RectorSeal-1-75-oz-5-Pipe-Thread-Sealant-25790/100144191't

Even if the connection is screwed down really tight (sometimes tighter is not better!), if the pipe threads are not sealed you still have the chance of a leak, either immediately or a while later.

Good luck!

Anne

[BarbaraRose]

Thanks for the info. I do have pipe thread seal tape on it.

Just had a phone call for haircut cancellations for 3 people for Tuesday. There is a case of the Corona Virus within our park that was just announced and everything here is being shut down including the swimming pools, etc. So I will have to call the others to cancel and put the haircut offer on hold.

I got my DVD player hooked up right I think but still can't get the right settings on the TV to play a DVD on it. Will have to keep working on that.

[Bethers]

Martha, I just read that Louisiana is now on "stay at home" status. I guess that answers any questions about your upcoming camping.

I hope people are finally following the restrictions. It's sad seeing small communities feeling the need to close motels and rv parks because they realize they don't have enough beds and respirators for their own small community, let alone more people.

[BarbaraRose]

They are closing parks, trails and beach parking lots in and around Los Angeles because so many people are using those and not following the social distancing rules.