We had almost 10 inches of snow and thankfully today the sun came out. Hubby shoveled and we did a little shopping. I had no energy. Chalk it up to covid. I did make some more attempts at watercolor painting and decided I pretty much suck at it right now. I watch tutorials online but when I try it falls flat. I'm not even sharing photos.
That's about it for today. Maybe tomorrow will be better in the art department.
I've been trying to paint some scenes from photos I've taken and I have discovered that I have forgotten any watercolor techniques I ever managed to learn. Good grief! I may need to shift gears and go with pen and ink and just do a wash to add some color.
In other news, it's been snowing all day, and I mean so much I couldn't see across the field. Tomorrow hubby will shovel the truck out so we can go shopping. I guess we have about 3 or 4 inches of snow.
I finished 4 loads of laundry.
Hubby and I watched some YouTube videos. One guy is panning for gold along Lake Superior in some layers of black sand and finding a little bit of gold. And you know how YouTube sends you more stuff, another guy bought a bunch of sand to mix as mortar, so he decided to run it through his sluice. After spending 6 days of shoveling, sluicing and panning, he ended up with $104 worth of gold. He said it was too much work but a fun experiment and it covered the $39 he spent on the sand.
No we are not going sluicing. But I took and magnifier and looked at the sand I buy for my plants and it was only quartz.
That's about it for today. I'm feeling much better. Apatite is back, energy ok, nose not stuffy, lungs clear, no headache.
Last night I chugged two water bottles with salt added. I was able to stop the heart palpitations that also came with covid the last time I had it in December 2022. I was really sick that time, for two weeks. I stayed in bed with a headache, chest congestion and random heart palpitations. My doc said it was good I was vaccinated or it could have been a lot worse.
It seems that covid makes me pee A LOT. It's a struggle to not become dehydrated. Along with all that "flushing" go my electrolytes. Low electrolytes and dehydration cause low blood pressure, and one can get dizzy or even pass out. It's interesting that when I went in the ER earlier this year the diagnosis was dehydration and a bladder infection. They gave me antibiotics and two big IV bags of saline (salt) solution. It took 5 hours! It's also interesting that looking back to the past, I've always been told to eat low salt, but my labs always reported that my blood was low in sodium. Drinking gobs of water without adding electrolytes is not good!
Before bed last night I decided to take a shot of asthma spray, meaning a puff from my inhaler. I have not needed to take it in over a year, since changing what I eat, but the covid was making me a little "tight". Well, asthma spray is like caffeine on steroids. I COULD NOT SLEEP. I was still awake at 3:30 am. I kept getting up and walking around. What else to do? Hubby was sleeping and I didn't want to disturb him.
Then suddenly the lights on the patio popped on! At 3:30 in the morning! Ugh. I had unplugged the Netgear WiFi extender and now my phone could not connect to the 2G network to control the plug. So there I was at 3:30 am with a flashlight, plugging in the Netgear, waiting for it to connect, opening my phone's connection settings so I could connect it to the 2G band on the extender, just so I could push a button in the app on my phone to turn off the lights controlled by the connected plug. LOL
By then I was tired enough to go to sleep.
Earlier in the evening I saw the cutest poster on someone's wall on YouTube. I found the picture! It's now on my Facebook and my lock screen. Love it!
...covid. I had a test on the medicine shelf. Result: Positive. That explains the weird symptoms.
We had a few glimpses of very welcome sunshine. I was able to eat a little. Feeling better. Maybe do a little art now.
Hubby got sick and then I got sick. That rotten kind, the weak, dizzy, and can't sleep well because when I lay down my nose stuffs up and then my mouth is dry.....yada yada yada. I don't take much cold medicine because sometimes it affects me in bad ways. I just tried some DayQuil pills that hubby was taking. If I do ok I will try the NyQuil pills later.
In June it will be 8 years since I lost Chrissy. I don't know why that is affecting me so much right now, maybe because my normal distractions, like walking in the woods, have been postponed by bitterly cold weather and now sickness. My older daughter keeps asking for artwork and for some reason all my attempts to create something have failed. The days and days of fog have finally lifted. Maybe that will help.
At least I am feeling more alive today.
We went to Cermak Food Market in Milwaukee to buy some food items hubby loves and can't buy locally. Then we went to Parthenon Foods to buy some Albanian sausage, which is actually made by a man from Kosovo who lives on the west side of Madison. A couple more stops and we got home just as it started to rain. That's a good thing since they are saying "stay home" until Sunday night because they are expecting icing. Fine with me. I have a pile of laundry to do tomorrow.
I tried to bake Pecan Sandies with mostly almond flour instead of the bamboo blend I usually use. The bamboo blend is very low carb and very high fiber. I was hoping to balance that out a bit, but I ended up baking crumbs! Guess I either eat them with a spoon or crumble them up into a pan and do something with them.
I had to move my bowl of Haworthia reticulata subregularis because they got too cold in the window. The still looked unhappy so I removed them completely and put them in a small pot. The bowl will remain empty for now.
We were watching something on YouTube about things not going the way you want them to, and feeling like your prayers are not answered, and sometimes it was for your own protection.
I turned to hubby and said, "I felt the job in Jefferson was dangerous, driving back and forth 40+ miles each way at night, deer on the road, maybe drunks on the road, and a 12 hour shift cutting meat without your glasses. God was protecting you by saying no."
Hubby answered, "My brother just told me the exact same thing."
We felt good about the spiritual things we watched. Then we moved on to a video about cats and I started to cry. I watch cat videos all the time. I don't know why I started to cry. I told hubby it reminded me of Chrissy. I've been bummed the whole rest of the day, even though it was sunny, even though we drove to West Bend and I finally found a pair of joggers that are L . O . N . G enough to reach my ankles and in Medium size so they aren't so big it looks like two of me could fit in them. I can't tell you what a struggle it is to not be a common size, short and wide seemingly being the norm.
We stopped at Sendik's to buy some chicken and then went home. Hubby made himself chicken noodle soup because he has a cold (he went to bed early) and I took the breast meat and fixed it with lemon, green olives, onion and some pepperoncini peppers for zing.
It's been bitterly cold, below zero at night. Tomorrow it's going to warm up and rain. My mini orchid is blooming again! The others might not bloom until spring. No signs of bloom spikes on those.
So why did I title this post "Patience"? I think because we need it right now because everything is so uncertain.
When all else fails to lift my mood, there are flowers!
I have dealt with instability my whole adult life. My first hubby was often between jobs after a layoff or just being let go because there was no more work with a two-bit employer. He was in the trades, and could always find some side job just in time to buy food and pay the bills. With second hubby, there is a whole new dynamic. He grew up with a war, and with older brothers, and not a lot of self-confidence. Still, we have met all our bills 100% on time. He is a hard worker, he likes to work, prefers 10 or even 12 hour shifts, nights. Excessive paperwork is not his strong point, nor are a lot of technical details that are easy to mix up.
Helgesen was perfect. He did it well, and the shift premium raised his pay to a very comfortable level. Standard Iron ruined that. We had hope with Nestle Purina, but he was not chosen to move forward, we suspect because he wears glasses, which for some mysterious reason, seems to be grounds for instant rejection. We think it's because glasses fog up in the cold, and they wanted to start him on the meat cutting line. They asked if he can see without glasses, he said yes, but not tiny details.
For now, he has a job that he likes. If you ever wondered how they make plastic bags, they start out as a bubble. It's called blown film extrusion. Each machine needs two people to run it. There are specifications to set up, customer orders needing particular plastics, paperwork to be filled out, hoppers to be filled, measurements, how wide, how thick, things to check on all levels of a three story tall machine, etc. He is training on what the company calls the Legacy machine, which is another word for old and needing constant checking. By constant I mean every 10 minutes with complete setup every half hour (no time for lunch on a 12 hour shift).
The bad news is that recently they told him when he finishes training he will be running the Legacy machine by himself. When he hired in they told him he will never be working alone, and they would move him over to one of the new machines. They failed to tell him that on the night shift, only one person runs the Legacy machine and all of them have quit. The only comfort is that because these machines are complicated, training takes quite awhile. One good thing is they will train him on forklift. Hubby is upset and feels they betrayed him by telling him one thing and then another.
Blown Film Extrusion
So, we were hoping he was set in a job he liked but now there is just uncertainty. I told hubby, for now, just try to learn as much as he can, get the forklift training, and in January or February we will see what becomes of this job.
I was working on some projects yesterday but didn't get the pictures moved over to my PC until later today. I like to send them to myself with Facebook messenger but Facebook was having issues all day. I can only add pictures here from my PC. Anyway....
Yesterday I straightened out the bottom of the hall closet. That's sort of our utility area, a place for tools, tape, glue, drills, screwdrivers, etc. Over time a bunch of stuff got put into bags and the bags shoved into the closet. What a mess!
So now you can see the bags are eliminated, all the tools in the bag (on the right...hard to see), all the glue and tape in the basket, and the miscellaneous items in some other boxes.
The other project I worked on was experimenting with making my own plant labels. I have not had good success in the past. This time I tried a food container, I think it will work great. Time will tell if they fade. Another idea was to cut strips of a cookie container which had a layer of the label still on it. I clear coated the paper with nail polish (after writing on them). Time will tell if they hold up.
Today is a better day. Hubby and I are feeling better. His best friends from Helgesen sent him pictures to say hello. It would be great if they could all end up working together again.
There was a big bird sitting on one of the trees this morning. I couldn't tell what it was. When it flew I didn't think the wings were long enough to be an eagle. The wings were a bit short and wide. Later it was preening itself and I could see red tail feathers, so, Red Tailed Hawk! It was probably fluffed up against the cold, making it look bigger. Also, I'm used to seeing crows in those trees, so my judgement was off.
A flock of geese were flying over and around and around. The geese don't migrate anymore, they just hang around in the fields. Sometimes they seem unsettled, like some hint of migration is nagging at them. I'm sure they fly south if we get lots of snow, I'm guessing. I also saw and heard a large flock of Sandhill Cranes fly over. I love how they sound.
I got some lights up on the patio. Mostly just a rehash of what was up last year. My Feit Electric outdoor WiFi Smart Plug has disconnected from my Netgear WiFi Mesh Extender, so now I need to go outside and push a button on the smart plug instead of in the app on my phone. The lights are going to stay on all night because I'm not going out there in my jammies. Will try to connect tomorrow.
Sunrises don't pay the bills, and the bills are depressing, and the ability to pay them off just got ripped out from under us. But, deep breath. Here is this morning's sunrise. I took 20 pictures. Here are my favorites.
Hubby received a rejection email this morning. Checking his account, we could see he was rejected the day after his interview.
Why?
He sent a message to Mallory asking why, what happened.
Is it his glasses?
They asked him if he wears glasses and if he can see without them. He said, yes, he can see without them, just not tiny print.
We really feel down today.
The internet is full of posts about getting rejected by Nestle Purina, and nobody knows why.
I really don't know what else to say. We thought this was a good opportunity.
For now hubby has a job at ProAmpac. They do plastic blow molding and injection molding. That's another story, but he's not happy there.
We drove down to Jefferson today, in time for hubby's interview. He said it went real well and he should be hearing from HR in about a week. All the hiring is done from the Missouri headquarters but the in-person interviews are done at the local plants. Hubby is hesitant to be happy until he hears from HR but I think he's in. They told him he will be hearing from them in about a week. They didn't say "if". Of course he will pass the background check and drug test, no problem.
Afterward we stopped for coffee and then came home. Hubby worked all night and was super tired. We also got home before most of the bad weather, roads closed everywhere, lots of ice.
As soon as hubby receives and signs the digital agreement we will get some new tires on the truck. They aren't terrible but they are worn.
I think Jefferson will be great place to move to, lots to do, and maybe I will find some friends. I had two friends here and they both moved away. One I don't hear from because she got dementia and she and her hubby moved into assisted living. They never gave me any contact information. Since then two more people have moved in and out, one was sort of friendly, the other, not. My friend with dementia gave me this. I think of her often.
I hung up this grapevine star that I wrapped fairy lights around last year. I feel better already just looking at it.
That's how hubby describes a bitterly cold sunny day.
I am currently reworking stopping drafts on the windows. I found the bubble wrap idea, which seemed to work last year, was dripping wet. I think the issue was that last year I pushed removable window putty in the cracks first. That's very time consuming, so now I am trying a different approach. Every year WE Energies offers their customers a free energy saving package. This year my kit came with two rolls of door insulation. I used it on the windows, seems to be working. I have no idea how hard it will be to remove.
We didn't plan on shopping, but we half-heartedly looked, just to get out and drive around. We bought a few groceries we needed. The wind was bitterly cold. My petunias are done. It's been in the teens at night.
Here is a picture of the bubble wrap insulation. I need to insulate more along the frame of the window. You can see the condensation, indicating a draft, which will just cause moisture that causes mold. Cheap windows.
Also Happy Albania Independence Day! November 28 commemorates when Albania raised the Albanian flag in 1912 declaring independence from the Ottoman Empire.
We aren't doing anything. Hubby worked last night so he is asleep for now. Later I will put a chicken in the oven. It's just the two of us and we aren't fond of turkey. I don't have anything major to write about so, just a list of odds and ends.
It's cloudy again today. My petunias are still green but no longer blooming. It's been in the 20's but will be in the teens at night for the foreseeable future. I think I will pull them. Poor things. They really hung in there!
Thank you to my friend for the compliment on my string of hearts. I have killed it in the past. I discovered why. This plant develops large potato-like tubers that hold a good amount of water. If the potting mix doesn't dry out quickly enough the tubers will rot overnight. My solution was to pot them in a shallow pot that was actually a plastic bowl that I made a bazzillion holes in. It fits as an insert into this beautiful ceramic bowl my daughter gave me.
The petunias are looking sad but are still blooming. Our temperatures are taking a nose dive this weekend. The high today was 36.
I'm finally getting around to working with my plants. Some need transplanting. I'm trying to make my collection smaller because my plants keep getting bigger. I trimmed the dead leaves off my gold vein oxalis. They go to sleep once a year, sometimes in summer but maybe in fall. All the leaves fall into a dead heap. Many people think they have lost the plant at this point and throw it away, but actually it will grow all new leaves after it rests for a couple weeks or so.
I fixed Burim's laptop. It's working well, could use more memory, but I would need to buy two 8Ghz chips. It has two 4Ghz now. I have most of the drivers upgraded. It won't upgrade to Windows 11, the processor isn't powerful enough. Microsoft is extending driver support until October 2025, meaning about 400 million PC's will be stuck in limbo. The good news is, they can still be used for some time. My desktop struggles. It's an all-in-one, and has a slow processor and slow harddrive. It does have a nice beautiful monitor. It will do for the time being. On the other hand, they are predicting next year will be a banner year for buying a new PC if that is something you are considering.
Getting sleepy. Happy Thanksgiving! We are cooking a chicken tomorrow.
