Monday, Feb 5th

[Bethers]

Now that it's really Monday, I can make business calls, etc, that I've been waiting over the weekend to take care of. Otherwise, probably another lazy day as one of the calls is to find out where the heck my carpet is! Only supposed to have a high of 72 today, so long sleeves and leggings for the morning walk, maybe for the day.

[Irmi]

Good morning Beth and all that check in.

Beth, I wear leggings almost everyday, today included. We may hit 60 degrees this afternoon, the reason I wear layers just about everyday. I'm so tired of this long, chilly winter.

I paid our electric bill this morning for the month of January and it was $107.00. That is for both our motorhome and casita. I turn the electric heat in the motorhome on a couple hours before we go to bed and it is set for 68 degrees. We have 3 zones in the motorhome and I turn the front zone/living area heat on only. Those heat pumps are noisy, so I never turn on zone 2 or 3 when we're sleeping. The thermostat is set on 75 degrees during the daytime in the casita. It gets turned off when we go to bed and the heat in the motorhome gets turned off when we get up. We were told about leaving the thermostat set on one temperature and leaving it alone. I tried it for one month and it doubled our bill. So we all do what we have to do to be comfortable.

Those of you in southern CA, are you okay? I've seen the pictures on the news and there has been lots of rain and it isn't over yet. Please be safe.

[Cudedog]

Electric went out here last night at about 6:00 p.m. Still out with no estimate of when it might be restored. Internet out as well, cell service to the rescue.

Getting chilly inside my house with no heat - when I got up this morning it was 58 degrees inside could be worse, I guess. At least I'm not in snow country.

My kitchen range is gas, have all four burners lit - in 20 minutes has brought the core temp of my house up by four degrees, and counting. All bedroom and bathroom doors shut to conserve heat. Also have a living room window open a crack, "just in case".

All in all, doing fine.

Anne

[BarbaraRose]

Good morning gals!

I had a major coughing fit last night and now my ribs hurt a lot this morning. I press my hands against them when I cough to hopefully cushion the force on them a little.

I have been watching the radar and the whole system is moving east/northeast and is just grazing me to the northwest by just a few miles. So no rain here yet but I am sure the northwest half of the valley is getting hit with a lot of rain. Looks like the whole system will be dropping down (south) a bit and we will probably get some rain later on but definitely not nearly as bad as everyone else around me and along the coast.

Anne, do you have a gas oven? That might heat your place better than the burners and maybe be a little safer.

Since I had the mini-split AC/heat system put in, my electric bill decrease significantly (60%). Last month was $40 (for December), and I just got this months (for January) and it is $65. But January had some cold nights and I even had to run the heat a bit during the days. But overall, not bad. I did notice an increase in my bill over the summer so they did raise their rates a bit. In the summer it runs over $100 per month because of running the AC 24/7. But also I only have 400 sq ft to cool or heat, however, this place is poorly insulated and only single pane windows.

Yesterday at work was much quieter which was a big relief! Still had a sore back when I got home. It isn't just my sciatica now but also my lower and middle back that is hurting more. Using my heating pad helps a lot with those pains when I get home. I wish I could afford to get a massage but out here they cost about $140 for an hour!

Stopped to pick up spaghetti on the way home from work yesterday. Their prices went way up since the last time I ordered it! But it is enough to divide into 5 or 6 meals for me, so still worth it. And it is SO good!

Need to talk to my new agent this morning and get things going. Still need to call Spectrum as well and finally get my TV/cable working properly. Then back to cleaning up the house again. My new agent, Kris, wants to come over on Friday to take photos. I was worried he would want to come by today!

Tomorrow, if we get missed by the majority of the rain, we have our putting tournament in the morning. Then I need to pick up the cat trap, and later is my ADHD appointment. I will make it to that, come he!! or high water, literally!

Hope to continue to read good news on the "boys".

[Irmi]

Anne, I'm sorry you don't have any power and hope it comes back on soon. We are at an advantage because when ours goes out, we go into the motorhome and turn on the generator. That has only happened once for about a 12 hour period and it was in the heat of the summer. So we had a/c and turned on the TV, went to bed and the power came back on the following morning. Please stay warm.

Barbie, have you considered putting in double pane windows or at the very least, having tinting put on your windows? We have both, but the tinting has helped tremendously keeping the summer heat out. I highly recommend it.

[SoCalGalcas]

No rain down here yet. It’s pouring about 50 miles north tho. Lyn

[OregonLuvr]

Good morning. Of course it is raining. BUT nothing like CA is getting. We had one nice day this past week and luckily it was on the day I went to get the logs. I am getting a little tired of the rain. I want to get my raised bed put together but will wait for a few nice days.
Washed the kitchen and dining area floor this morning. Now going to cut down my cardboard and get it out to the trash so I dont have to look at it anymore ha ha Going to make a chicken and dressing casserole today with the leftover rotisserie chicken I bought at Costco. Printed off my tax statements today so will tackle those later on in the week. Nothing too much going on here.
Beth hope you get your carpet tiles soon. I hate waiting for things that dont arrive when they are supposed to. I can understand a day or two but no longer,
Time to get my butt up and get busy. House doesnt clean itself and I like to keep it picked up and everything in it's place. Need to clean off my kitchen dining table of unknown paperwork....will file what I need to either in the trash or a folder. I really hate clutter but it happens some days.

[Cudedog]

I think most of the awful California rain everyone is hearing about is happening more to the south of me. Wind storm last night took out my power, not rain. As a matter of fact, it is sunny outside, with only a few scattered clouds in a mostly blue sky.

Barbie, thanks for the suggestion, but my oven is "new and improved" which means it has an -electric- heating element deep inside the oven that ignites the gas - oven can't be lit with a match (at least that I know of).

I don't think I want a gas generator (expensive) but I am seriously considering a portable power station (basically a giant battery). I have a couple of solar panels to charge it with (it can also be charged by riding around in my car) it would at least keep my electronics going. Less cost and maintenance than a gas generator, maybe.

I could probably even plug it into my kitchen range and get power that way to get my oven lit.

Edit: 9:36 am. Power on! YAY!

Internet still down, hopefully it will be back on soon.

Anne

[Bethers]

Just got off the phone with Home Depot. Why they couldn't update the order online is also frustrating. So after talking to the computer then being on hold forever, the human checked and said she shows it due to arrive this Wed or Thursday, a full week late. I'll be patient until then, but not promising anything if it goes longer lol.

I paid in the low $30's each for electric and propane this month. The propane will last at least 2 months. My last propane fill was in Iowa in mid-Oct., so 3 months. I usually use my propane furnace to take the chill off the air after cold nights. Then my heat is set between 55 and 60. I climb out of bed and turn it up to 65, max 70 and climb back for a few minutes while it does it's thing. Me who likes it warm, can't sleep when it's too warm. Give me extra comforters. No down, though. Allergies. During the day my AC is set at 80, except when really high humidity when I'll occasionally set lower for a bit to help take the humidity down.

Anne, I hope your power comes back soon!

[Bethers]

I'm laughing. While I typed my last post an email came in from Home Depot that my order is available for pickup. So I think I'll do a grocery pick up for tomorrow and get both then.

[Irmi]

Yay for you Beth!

[Acadianmom]

My internet is out again. I have an appointment for Wednesday. It came on yesterday at 5:00. I have about had it with this service.

Martha

[chalet05]

Barbie, when I was having physical therapy, I bought a massage gun for my shoulder which the physical therapist said was also good for sciatica. Amazon has a good sale right now. Also have you tried Icy Hot or heated back patches while you are working?

Beth, finally the carpet! Sue, so sorry about Molly's eye. Too warm for the predicted snow. Luckily, we did have a couple sunny days, but the rain is back. We'll take what we can get because water supply for summer is not going to be good here.

[BarbaraRose]

I got an email from the Psych clinic asking to fill out some information on-line so I went in to do that. Well, lots of questions to answer that took me the past hour and a half to fill out. Then it showed a list of 17 forms I needed to download, fill out and bring with me tomorrow! That will take me another hour or two at least! Good thing I started early today! I am very glad that they are so thorough tho. They are a lot more legit than the last place I dealt with. So now I am getting them printed out. I should eat lunch before I start filling them out.

No rain yet...I think it is all just going northeast of me. I am OK with that.

[JudyJB]

Barbie, it is good that the psych clinic is thorough, but all I could think about when I read your posting was how in the world someone who was seriously depressed was going to cope with all those forms!! I would think that would make them give up and not go.

Son is being sent home again today, but with TPN, antibiotics, and two drains in his abdomen!! Don't know how wife will cope. And she is supposed to go back to work in a week though she might extend it another week. When there is no drainage for 24 hours, he will go back to get the drains removed. I offered again to fly out.