What did you do today?

My area has some of the highest insurance rates in the country. Partially because it has some of the worst education &, as I mentioned before, some of those companies charge higher rates due to lack of education. It's illegal to have a vehicle here without having insurance (unless you have it marked as not drive-able). Huge fines if you let it lapse for too long. So people will get the cheapest insurance they can possibly find that doesn't cover squat. They find any excuse they can to avoid paying out. Because there are a LOT of careless drivers and a lot of flooding in nearby areas, that also drives rates up. The only accidents I've had on my record were clearly the fault of other drivers & their insurance companies had to cover it, but they still keep raising my rates. They also sent us a check they knew we couldn't cash. They sent us a check in 2018 addressed to my mother and my father. My father died in 2009 & is not on the policy & is not one of the drivers listed on the vehicle that was hit. Mom went to deposit it but State Farm claimed that because it only had Mom's signature, it wasn't valid & therefore could not be deposited. So, not only did she not get the $, the check essentially bounced & she was charged a fee for it. The check had been lost in her drawer for a couple years and I found it a few months ago and took her to deposit it. She still hasn't contacted the bank or State Farm to rectify it. I'm going to have to persuade her to do something about it. The amount of the check almost covered the cost of one of my dental procedures.

Speaking of which, I've been getting a toothache in the area of a tooth I had filled. Not sure if the root is agitated or if there is something stuck in the gums or what. I might have to go back in and have her look at it and see if she can figure out what's causing it. I get pain when I drink room temperature or cool water or when anything cold hits the area. It's not major pain, but it's annoying.

I went to get prescriptions today and all were ready. Some dude up ahead was yelling at the pharmacy clerk about the medicine not being ready because they didn't have enough to fill it. He was carrying on about how this happens every month. He looked to me for support and I told him he shouldn't yell at the clerk since it wasn't her fault. He insisted they needed to order more of the medicine. I told him it needs to be approved to be sent & he interrupted and just kept shouting louder about how he's been having this problem for 20 years and it's every single month. I told him that maybe he should switch pharmacies instead of continuing to go back to one that he felt was screwing up and making a huge scene and berating overworked & understaffed employees. Part of the problem was that after they told him to come back in 2 days when they had enough meds, he would not leave the window. He kept trying to argue with them so other customers had to wait longer. After I called him out he did apologize half-heartedly to the clerk but continued to shout about what a problem it was. The main pharmacist had to tell him to leave so other customers could be helped. He shouted and had a fit about it before finally leaving. What a jerk! I made sure to be extra nice to the clerk and she thanked me for it. I almost forgot to mention that this dude didn't even stand in line. He cut in line ahead of the woman in front of me.

Before the rude jerk butted in, I was doing shoulder exercises because my right shoulder is still bugging me. There was a maskless woman directly behind me who had moved pretty close. It was hot outside still so I'd been sweating and my deodorant/antiperspirant wasn't working. When I lifted my arms up I could vaguely smell that my deodorant had failed even through my mask. The woman behind me seemed to have noticed as well because she backed way off. 48hr protection my a**. It hadn't lasted 5 minutes. LOL.

Septic tank service called before 8am. Guy was on my road trying to figure out where to go. I guess his boss didn't pass on the note to take a right at the fork (left goes to the river). I could see his truck from my window as he got closer and he could see the busted car port. I went out and showed him where the septic tank was. Discussed price-- he didn't know but his boss had written out a receipt. They charge service tax at the same rate as sales tax (10.45% for in town). Town takes about 6% of the tax and I'm outside of it and not supposed to be charged the town's tax out here. Was exactly $650. I looked for other services in the area that might be cheaper but there weren't any. It's on the high side of charges for the service but the guy told me that the place they normally dump the waste that is closer and cheaper is closed for maintenance so they have to go to a place farther away that charges more. Given that we made it 9 years without needing the service, it's not that bad, but still kinda sucks.

The dog was excited about someone being there and was running around in the wet grass. She stepped with her wet paws in cow manure and then jumped up on me. The phone woke mom up and then the septic truck made a lot of noise near her window so she got up and got her checkbook out. Once it was done she wrote the check and the guy gave me the receipt. He waited until he got the check to put the lids back on the septic tank. Told me I should try to run a bunch of water to fill it back up because rain might cause problems. There was a very small pocket of sludge in a corner that would not come up and he was worried it might cause problems if it rains. I saw him doing his best to get every last ounce of gunk out though and he had me inspect the tank before he got paid.

I went in and sat with mom for awhile before taking a nap. The night before I'd found a heavy package on the porch and brought it in. I brought it to her and it turned out to be something that had to go in the bathroom so I lugged it in there and put the contents away (over a dozen packs of shea butter wipes- she buys them in bulk). After my nap I cooked for her, fed the cats, refilled the water for the kitties, refilled water for the dogs, and went out to get pictures from the shed.

I've decided that I am going to make lists of things to do each day and do at least 3 of them before I allow myself leisure time. I did my 3 tasks for the day. I wiped down the counters and the window sill near the kitchen sink while refilling the water for the dogs.

I'm about to take my meds and get another nap.

I feel good, I just helped a friend re-establish a contact. A friend in FL had moved to a single level house and apparently changed phones and lost my friend's number. So I did a bit of data mining. I assumed he had lost his wife so I searched OBs using his name. I found his wife's OB and got his daughter's name. I did a search for her, found her and left a message. She is a very nice lady, called me back and gave me her dad's new number to pass on and we thanked each other for making it happen.

Did the forum change the page format or did my chromebook change its page display?

@Eddie_T I dont see anything different, but I just use my phone.

I felt good enough yesterday and made all the things.... and those sample bars were a pain because my batter was thickening up.


Sample size soaps, a few full bars, calendula salve and not pictured... whipped soap base (I'll use this to make other things with).

I've been in quarantine since last week. Negative test, but symptoms (which resemble my fibro symptoms including a not quite 100° temp. I've been wearing my mask outside of my bedroom. It's no fun being home when you cant really do anything. I may not be able to go back till the 17th... so that will blow through 60 hours of sick pay. It was a little nerve wracking the first 5 days because my mom was also having a slight increase in breathing difficulty which was worrisome, but she seems ok now.

Eddie, I'm glad you were able to help your friends get back in touch. I'm also relieved your friend is still alive. Sad to hear about his wife passing though.

Shan, the soaps look good! I hope you don't have Covid and that you get feeling better soon.

More lines have appeared on my screen. Blue, red, green... The green one has gotten thicker already and I have to try to move my browser screen around so I can read things properly. Before I get my new monitor set up, I'm going to take a picture of the screen with all the lines for posterity.

I felt absolutely exhausted today so I slept until after 3pm. Got up and got food for mom (she usually isn't up before 3pm). Went back and napped. I saw I was losing daylight so I grabbed some drill bits, my Matrix, some sandpaper, and the boards I plan to mount to my wall. I drilled pilot holes where I marked for things to go, then I hand-sanded the boards as best as I could-- took all the grit off of one side of the sanding block. I lost daylight so I had to come back inside (I was out on the porch so I didn't get wood dust inside. I need to get some better sandpaper and see if I can get it to attach to my matrix sanding attachment. The velcro triangle piece at the to of the attachment came off the first time I took it out of the box so I will have to find some sort of heavy duty replacement, cut it to size, and put it on. Need to find more of the right sandpaper too. Or just try to wrap it on to the tool as best as possible.

Tomorrow my plan is to get up early and take my cat Itsy and pick up Nightmeow from my friend's house to take them both to the vet. Itsy has something swollen and sore on her lower jaw and Nightmeow's eye is worse (bc my friend's gf literally kicked him out of the house- she didn't know I could see her but I watched her swing her leg and kick him while shouting "GET!" to knock him outside). I came very close to going over and slapping the daylights out of her.

Zannej, I almost said take a screenshot instead of a photo then remembered the lines wouldn't show up that way.

I've decided to finally clean all the previous owners' junk (mostly scrap trim and stuff like that) out of the mechanical room and move my office down there. So that's probably my next big project.

Pictures of the mostly-complete garage/basement tool shelf coming soon.

I’m drowning but it’s a happy drown.
I currently have projects all over the house.

One thing has led to another. My wife wanted to paint a wall in a basement bedroom and re- tile the lower level floors.

So… the walls showed damp on a meter. So I ended up ripping out all of the walls to find rotten wood behind. Ouch. I ended up ripping the whole room back to the concrete wall and rebuilding from scratch… This enabled me to remove the entire run of pipe from my kitchen sink to the drain… over 80 feet of pipes that were not dropping properly so completely solid… huge fix! but then Ira came in and dumped a ton of rain on us… the newly sheet rocked room leaked (wet floor)…

so now I’m digging the front of my house up… the entire front patio was laid above grade… which rotted the sidings… and provided Ira with a way in

lots of digging to remove concrete and, earth, rubble and gravel.., I’m knee deep in a trench… and cursing the previous owner… but I’m now planning to replace the rotten siding with new cedar.

Did I mention the downstairs floors have been stripped back to concrete for tiling which meant stripping a second kitchen to get the original 1980’s laminate tiles out so that room is a project - all cabinets removed and plan in place to rebuild new units once the floors are done…

Also going on is a huge window replacement project - 16 foot glass wall with 8ft high sliding doors due to be delivered early November… paid for the day before Ira decided to let the water in.

oh and a kitchen on the deck to plumb and fit…

Oh, and this weekend my refrigerator died - it’s a 20 year old sub zero and about $12k to replace but first delivery date is April next year!!! Regardless I don’t want to throw it out as let’s face it you should be able to repair a refrigerator right?

tonight I’m chilling while building a router table to allow me to route the cedar siding.

oh and I work for a living!!! Fortunately from home right now!

I just wrote all that and realized it’s a ridiculous amount of projects to have running simultaneously, but circumstances turned a single project into10 active projects all over the house…

Remember all of this is because my wife wanted to paint a wall green…

soooo what am I doing today?

Ouch at Murphy coming to visit your home. Next year I have a asphalt roof to redeck and replace with metal. I am now in savings mode for materials and buying the little items over winter.

Shan, I would sell those on Craigs. Looks like a lot of work, good job.

zannej, I think that there is enough cat hair floating around in your house and you have kissed them enough that you're turning into one, sleeping all day!

pbellamy, I have been there when one project becomes 15, without the massive rain. I'll probably get 4 feet of snow because I thought about it.

chefman... I'm in the same savings mode until lumber hopefully comes down to the price it was before the big coordinated Covid price gouging.

Flyover, I first thought about taking a screenshot and then realized it wouldn't capture the lines. I think I will first mount this messed up monitor and see how the cats behave around it (to see if they try to climb on the arm) and if the arm will hold up weight if they try to climb on it. I may have to put sticky tape or something on the arm to deter them from stepping. I've already had to stop one of my cats from stepping on the top of the monitor and pushing it over trying to climb over it 5x today.

pbellamy, that sounds like my kind of luck. Good thing you're able to do something about it though. Going to be expensive, but hopefully you'll get through it. I hope you can get your fridge working.

I'm currently waiting for my brother to wake up so we can take Itsy and Nightmeow to the vet.

You guys have been super busy! I made some more soap today, it smells divine! It's called sleigh ride. It has peppermint undertones as well as other scents, but I am not good at picking out scents. I soaped at cooler temps today and it was a little easier to pour. It doesnt look like what I had pictured in my head because the fragrance oil changed the colors to brown tones instead of bright tones. However, I am sure they will be fine. I made this loaf and then had enough left over for 4 single flower molds. (I forgot to take a picture of them)


I should be able to unmold them by noon tomorrow or maybe earlier. There are several solid oils in there. This was a new recipe.

I agree that @zannej turning into a sleepy kitty! Lol

@Flyover cant wait to see your pics!

@pbellamy youve got your hands full for sure. I am glad there is happiness found in the murk and more. Sounds like it was a blessing to find issues you didnt know about.

@chefman45887 I am going tomorrow to buy some OSB to put over a bedroom floor. I know it's not what I should use but I definitely cant afford plywood. So I understand!

@Spicoli43 thanks for the vote of confidence! Those were unscented but the ones today smell soooo good.


I was finally released from employee health today. So just 48 hours of sick pay used. Grateful it wasnt covid after all!

Shan, the soap reminds me of fudge. Looks delicious. LOL. Glad you don't have Covid.

The lump on Itsy's chin turned out to be an abscess as I suspected. Vet had to sedate her and keep her over lunchtime to lance it. I was told that last night, Nightmeow's mother got territorial over food and hooked her claws directly in to the remains of his bad eyeball & wouldn't let go. People had to intervene. So he was not feeling that great and it was very sore when the vet went to scrub it. No anesthetic. Poor baby. He was crying and I wanted to hold him. He got plenty of cuddles afterward though. He slept on me while we waited over the lunch break to see about Itsy. I was so relieved it wasn't cancer. She's on my lap right now. I asked the houseguests at my friend's house to please remind him to give Nightmeow his eye ointment tonight and then 2x daily. He works tomorrow so I might have to go over and do it at least once.

They let me hold Scarpo, their bearded lizard. He liked me. Very sweet little critter. He likes to be petted. My brother had bright yellow on his shirt that Scarpo mistook for food so he took a taste and decided it wasn't food. Mom's laptop order got canceled because of some IP conflict. They said they can no longer do orders over the phone, it wasn't a billing issue, and for some reason they couldn't verify/get approval and we'd have to try re-ordering it-- but now it costs $50 more. Mom got mad and said we will not be ordering.

I just cut my soap a bit ago. It turned out better than I thought it would (because of the tanning of the colors). I need to get better about deciding how to divide the batter when using multiple colors.
The scent is Sleigh Ride

The flower ones I made with the left over batter need to harden a bit more (or I need to put them in the freezer for a bit.....) hmmmm

Whoa! Totally Righteous Psychedelic Soap! Reefer on!

Pizza.... mmmmmm.... Must find Donuts.... Donut Pizza!!! Excellent!

Looks great, you could sell those at a Farmers market or on Craigs or wherever... I would say Ebay, but they charge too much. There's another site like Ebay for artsy craftsy stuff that my ex sold her stuff on. She did pretty good on it.

Or, you could make 10 bars a year and develop a following like anything that's hardly ever made, and then retire early. The End.

@Spicoli43 you are an awesome motivator... lol thank you!


So..... I had a huge blowout with my mom earlier. I needed to take my son with me so that we could put the OSB on top of my SUV. I told my mom I'd be gone for an hour or so and could she please not answer the door while I was gone so I wouldn't be stressed out with her home alone with them for that length of time.

Well...... let me tell you, she said she was perfectly capable of answering the door and then she started with the I am not an infant stuff, and the I am 73 years old... which she isnt, shes 72. I told her that she can barely get herself to the bathroom 15 feet from her bed, and I didnt want to worry about my dogs knocking her over or her letting them out accidentally. I said I just need you to tell me that you wont answer the door while I am gone.
She refused. I screamed and yelled and told her that her f****** cats were ruining my home and making me miserable and I didnt need anymore worry, could she just please not answer the door if someone comes to it.
I am calm now, got what we needed and am back home now.
Part of me wants to tell her that if she is that capable then she can fix her own meals, get her own cups of ice throughout the day and so on. I LITERALLY have put my desires and life on hold to care for her needs.

The dumbest part is that i just keep pouring alcohol on a wound because she is never going to change. Not ever.

Oh yeah, you are right about cats and old people. Cats are little furry terrorists. I had NO IDEA what would happen when I got them because cats in other people's houses either ran and hid when I visited or were well behaved. As a BONUS HA HA HA HA, mine are Female, so they are in HEAT constantly... I want to throw them over the damn fence and let the neighbor have them!

Old people NEVER listen. That's all there is to it, and I think it's mostly because I'm not a Doctor, AKA a legal drug dealer or an Oncologist, AKA a legal executioner. I told several old people in my life that had cancer they need to remove Sugar from their diet... 100 PERCENT, NO cheating because Glucose is the primary fuel for Cancer cells.... NOPE, all had to have their cookies and sodas etc... They all said "Why does my Doctor have fruity sugar crap in my room then"???

Because He's an Executioner.

@Spicoli43 I have told her about sugar (I mean I consume it....however.. lol) because she complains of yeast. I however do not know what I am talking about though..... even though I am a nurse.

As a matter of fact, I think she is the only one who knows anything lol.

The infuriating part, she will act like nothing happened... that drives me crazy .

She has a pressure ulcer on her left elbow from sitting on the edge of the bed leaning on a tray table all the time. She says she gets them every winter there.. (duh... you just sit and lean all day every day) and she knew it was an ulcer.
I told her it was the same thing as a bedsores, to which she replied it wasn't.... because there is usually a hole under the skin. I attempted to explain stages (why? I'm an idiot) nonetheless, according to her.... I am wrong.... again .... nurse... work in hospital.... take care of bedsores..... what do I know?
Btw.... she has never taken care of an elderly person, or a small child since my son was like 3.... hes 32, or an immobile person to know these things.

I gave her some of the unscented calendula salve I made and asked her to put it on it. She says she did. Idk if she really did....
Here's a pic of it for fun

Her cats arent fixed early, so they are also in heat on and off... drives me nuts

@shan2themax One of my wife's wound care nurses told me about this one, her's was on a Tee.

HAHAHA WOW...... Sounds like she's just doing it to spite you. Anybody would figure the Nurse part would pass, but any 7 year old doing a SCIENCE experiment could explain the relationship between Yeast and Sugar!

I watch these stubborn old ladies sometimes..