New PCP and Other Stuff

 I saw my new primary care provider today. Her name is Sally and she sat down and talked quite a bit to get to know me. It was a pleasant visit.  The drive to downtown Greenville was easy. She put in an order for me to have my annual mammogram, but I will need to go to a hospital that is all the way across town. Two issues....I don't drive expressways and I don't have transportation except for a short time in the morning. It's for the end of July. Maybe I can figure it out before then.

My test results are in, A1C 6.6 (better than I expected after all the stress), thyroid looks ok. Blood pressure 124/80 (no meds), weight 134, height 5'7" (still, after all these years!! No shrinking!) It's interesting that they consider me underweight. I'm not starving myself!

Next in news...my son-in-law broke his wrist. First X-ray seemed to show a hairline crack, but the next X-ray revealed a complete break at the wrist of the larger arm bone on the pinky side. He now has a cast to above his elbow and a hard time sleeping with it.

The air conditioners got cleaned and the sliding screen door fairly fixed.

My hubby's work sucks. Stress and back biting.

My daughter suggested a UV blocking semi-sheer curtain for that hot west window. She uses them on her west windows and they help a lot to block the heat. Here is what I ordered from Amazon:

I hung the curtain sideways because I don't want it to cover my plants or block the sunshine from them.

Here it is with the blinds drawn

In other news, I have been looking for a pedestal pot for my philodendron. I just think it would look cool since it trails nicely. Hubby and I were out shopping and I spotted one. I questioned the only color choice, but decided to try anyway.

I am not liking the color

The color clash is barf worthy. That's a fake distressed area on the stand.

I don't know if I should try to sand it down and repaint it or just return it and get my $12 back. I'll never get all the glaze out of those details.

And lastly, I'll leave you with a bunch of pictures of my Gasteria blooms.

The plant

That's all for tonight.

Updates & Random Stuff

Our truck is in the shop for repairs. Here is our rental. It's a Ford Escape. Three cylinder but turbo. It's a cute little car. Our insurance is covering everything. Our truck should be done Friday.

With all the stuff going on in the country, thankfully hubby's job is stable. Some rumors were going around and a meeting was called to reassure the employees there is enough work, including overtime, for several years. The company is actively hiring, and increasing wages for everyone.

Our favorite brand of brown eggs is back. The prices are stable, higher than before the bird flu, but stable. I found a double-yolk egg this morning.

We found an interesting place to walk just north of Kaukauna. We want to go back when the trees are green and there is some sunshine. I never realized the Fox River turns into a huge, raging river through Kaukauna. It was very cloudy, so my pictures don't do it justice. We also found another trail. We ended up walking 4 miles that day. Here is the Fox River. I see some flooding.

This area is "downwind" from the paper mill. The smell was undetectable that day.

The USDA growing zone is warmer here than it is in Hartford, which is still a zone 5a. Here we are zone 5b. Even Green Bay is 5b. Sheboygan is zone 6. I remember when Wisconsin was cold, I mean Really Cold. I think the summers here may not be as hot as Hartford.

Some of my plants are happy, some are not. The ones on the west window sill appreciate the warm sunshine and cool nights, which is how succulents and cacti grow in nature. I can peek at them through half-open vertical blinds. Vertical blinds only work for sliding glass doors. I do NOT like vertical blinds.

The shelf setup under the south window has mixed results. Some succulents are ok, some want sun, and my Jades have been wrinkling their leaves meaning they need more water, and those low shelves are no fun to water. It's not that I can't bend over, the problem is the metal rods in my neck don't allow me to look up while bending over, I have to go in sideways, and reach in to water, and then go back to make sure nothing is sitting in water.

When we moved in we noticed there was a wild area along the road. The first thing I thought of was "wildlife habitat". We could hear lots of birds but can't see it from our apartment. We asked to move to the front apartment if it ever becomes available. The red arrow points to the apartment complex.

Google street view

Then it was scraped down to bare mud and drainage pipes were put in.

My picture

Now they are filling it with dirt. No idea what they are doing, but maybe there was a mosquito problem.

That's all for now.

Door County and Random Stuff

We took a trip to Door County, our first time there. Sturgeon Bay was fun. We drove more north just to take a look. Most everything is still closed and the bays are iced up. We had coffee in Sturgeon Bay, visited a resale shop, and I bought another rock from a gem shop. We ate a very expensive pizza in Fish Creek. Well, hubby had pizza, I had cheese curds. Here I am in Sturgeon Bay. It was a fun drive, would be more fun if it wasn't so cold, but by then I'm sure it's chock full of tourists.

 

My bread machine fell apart back in Harford and I didn't buy a new one. Last week I decided to try making it by hand, kneading for 10 minutes...the whole nine yards. It was ok but didn't rise very well. Hubby said it tasted good (I don't eat bread). Saturday we bought new jar of yeast and bread flour. Hubby worked half a day on Sunday (double-time...yay!) so I set about trying to make another loaf. This one was better, but still needed something to make it better, maybe more flour. It seemed to slump down a little even though it rose great at first. 

Unfortunately my wrist is swollen now and I can't be kneading any more dough.

I'm finally doing a little painting, just practice to get back into it. I'm going to try to stay with it now that my plants are fairly settled in. I say fairly because I have to keep the blinds half closed for privacy reasons, so most are not getting enough light, even though I bought supplemental lighting.

I tried to clean the walk in whirlpool tub. It was stressful and not something I will try again. In fact, I do not ever plan to turn that damn thing on again. I followed the instructions, fill with hot water to a few inches above the top jets, add two or three tablespoons dishwasher liquid and turn on the jets for 10 minutes.

Ten minutes later I come back to turn off the jets. 

NOTHING

I press the button again, harder, firmly, all the way down, in case I didn't do it right the first time. I wait a few minutes and try again. Am I turning it on or off? I try again, just in case.

FREAKIN NOTHING THEY ARE STILL RUNNING.

So I'm looking at this mess, large dirty flakes of dried crap that blew out the jets is swirling around in a tub I can't empty because you can't run the jets dry, and I can't turn it off. See picture below (most of the water is drained out). It's obvious it hasn't been cleaned in ages!

I called maintenance. They don't know diddly about this thing because this is the only apartment with one of these things. By now an hour has gone by and I try again. Finally the piece of sh!t turned off.

To me, the terrifying scenario would be getting stuck in there. You can only fill it with the door shut, meaning you need to lock yourself in there. You can't get out until the water is out. Nope, not doing that.

 I'm so thankful hubby loves to go places to shop or walk on his days off. The towns of Greenville and Hortonville are pretty and remind me of what used to be home, rolling hills and trees. Even though I didn't say anything, hubby has apologized for putting us where I have nothing to look at except a garage. I told him it wasn't his fault, that was the only apartment available in January in our price range. It's going to be very difficult to find an apartment with a view, on our budget. The place in Hartford was probably a one time deal. I miss it. I miss Hartford. It was easy to drive around there. I never cared for Appleton. Hubby loves his job. It's a good company. The airport is 10 minutes down the road. My plants are not happy. I have nothing to look at. Life is a mix of good and things that suck.

  

Mixed Bag

An acquaintance of  mine in another state lost her son. He was 44, and on life support for nearly a month. He finally said he was done and begged to be taken off support. He died a few hours later. She was beside him the whole time he was in the hospital, save for a total of 10 hours. I feel so sad for her because I know the pain.

My hubby is still training with his job. He enjoys metal finishing, but another department is severely short-handed, so they asked him to fill in. The job requires wearing complete protection equipment, like a hazmat suit, complete with a hood and oxygen. He is power washing parts after welding, involving an acid wash and then a hose down with water. He doesn't like it at all. I guess everyone gets rotated to different jobs. He will be asking to rotate back to metal finishing.

We are registered to vote with our new address. There are elections April 1st.

Hubby is planning to fly back to Kosovo this summer because of needing to set his father's head stone. I'm planning to fly down to visit my daughter at about the same time. The Appleton airport is only a few blocks away. I talked to my daughter about it. She could pick me up at the South Bend airport. For about $300 for a round-trip ticket, she is even thinking about flying here!

Last Saturday we drove back to the Kimberly area to check out some resale shops. There are some neat ones in the Kimberly and Little Chute areas. They are closed on Sunday, so we missed them the last time. I noticed a little gift shop we had not seen before and stopped in. She sells crystals, so naturally we started talking about rocks. She knows where Blythe is and where Midland used to be. I bought two little crescent moons, one is rose quartz and the other is something dyed to look like turquoise. I also bought a piece of Fluorite because I love the green hues at one end (not showing up so well in this light). Picture below.

On Sunday we drove out to Kimberly Point Lighthouse, then downtown Neenah and also downtown Menasha. Neenah has sculptures all over town. Menasha has a few, and Appleton does as well. Sometime I will gather pictures together and post them.

The Wisconsin State Parks facebook group was posting their favorite parks. I made a list so I can look up what is close to us. I kind of cried a bit with the mentions of our favorite spots that are now so far away, Lapham Peak, Lion's Den and others. I still think Baraboo is the most wonderful place, but hubby couldn't find a well-paying job there.

I am still having a hard time unpacking. I don't want to hang all the pictures. This apartment is ok, it's warm, the windows aren't drafty, the kitchen is big, the living room is fine, no mantle for my little things, so they have to stay packed. We both do not like the bathroom AT ALL. Generally the bathroom has a dirty feel about it. The toilet is tiny and short, like sitting on the floor (or so it seems), the walls are horrid, textured and painted sh!t brown. There are spaces along the floorboards. The tub is a whole 'nother animal. It's a walk in whirlpool thing and it feels like taking a shower in a little box. I have been putting off running it because the jets are LOUD, but I need to do that because it needs to be cleaned (stains around the jets). 

There are all kinds of warnings for using it, like don't fall down. The door opens inward. If a person were to fall down, how would the door be opened? I was washing a plastic drawer in there and I dropped it. I couldn't open the door. Luckily I have a grabber so I could reach in and grab it and pull it up. And don't even mention the time I accidently pressed my arm on the "Jets" button. Scared the bajeebers outta' me. I didn't know what I did so I was pushing buttons not knowing what to do. Finally it shut off. 

Then 20 minutes later it roared back to life! Thankfully I had grabbed the manual and it said it will come on 20 minutes later to clear the lines. Damn it's LOUD. I seriously thought about throwing the breaker switch on the darn thing to cut it off.

I told my daughter about it. She has a jacuzzi tub but not a walk in, so she gave me some tips on cleaning.

So yeah, we are contemplating moving after our lease is up, and hopefully we can pay month by month because there is nothing to rent in January. We shall see. It all depends on if we can find something affordable, and if the USA still exists, and all that stuff. 

Random Stuff

 The shelf I ordered was a good deal and I have put it to good use. 

The dishwasher is behaving. 

I got all my plants under lights.

I found some little bowls I've been missing. The one on the lower left is from Japan. Just a resale shop find, but I love it.

I never found my pans.

I'm missing an ingredient for my keto bread (got tossed by accident) so I need to order more. My bread collapsed because of a substitute I made.

There were some neat clouds today. I feel boxed in by the garage. 

There is a more open view when I walk down to get the mail.

I miss my view.

I don't Know Where to Put Anything

 This apartment is warm and quiet. I don't hear traffic like when we lived in Hartford. I hear an occasional jet or plane in the distance. The windows aren't icy with freezing drafts like the apartment in Hartford. Wind doesn't blow in around the air conditioners like the one in Hartford. The carpet isn't an ocean of waves like the one in Hartford (it needed to be stretched). It's not dusty because the one in Hartford was "painted" with tinted plaster that has been shedding dust particles since day one seven years ago.

I still miss the view. I miss the hills. I miss the places we walked. I miss how easy Hartford was to drive around in. I miss West Bend and Grafton and Delafield, so many familiar places.

I'm not sure how much I will be able to drive here, although I have Walmart figured out. It's easy, only 3 miles and no highways. I am hoping the clinic is not far. I like to be able to drive myself to the doctor or for labs. I asked on the Appleton group for recommendations but that one is across town by expressway. I have never felt comfortable on major highways. Hartford was easy. Appleton, Grand Chute, and all the others that make up the Fox Valley cities are sort of the same type of mayhem as Indianapolis and Madison.

My hubby loves the area. He grew up in a city. He feels comfortable here because he is surrounded by dozens of jobs. Thankfully they aren't stinky. Green Bay stinks. Hartford had a few jobs but the one that paid well died.

Back to the apartment. I have a decent view of sunsets now. There are birds singing! I heard a chickadee this morning. Did I mention it's quite? I can't even hear people running their appliances. In Hartford we could only run them between 8 am and 8 pm because we could hear each other's washer, dryer, dishwasher and disposal. To think that place was advertised and being sound proof! Here the water is soft and I have the cleanest dishes ever! In Hartford the water was so hard everything was encrusted in white, no matter how often it was cleaned. I have more counter space, and more cabinets, but less usable space. For some reason the cabinets have a poorly placed shelf that makes me practically stand on my head to see what's in there.

That middle shelf means I can't reach more than what I can see. I can bend over just fine, but because of my neck surgery I have to tilt my head sideways and try to reach in. It seems to be a mechanical difficulty.

Normal cabinet. I can see and reach everything

The bathroom has no storage and is butt fuggly. It has a walk in tub with jets. Haven't used it yet, just the shower. Taking a shower in there is like standing in a box.

WHY are the bathroom walls textured like this and WHY are they Sh-t color??

The entry way is narrow. I put a chair in there so we can sit to remove our shoes/boots, but I want it one place and hubby wants it in another. There is hardly room to do anything in there.

We can't decide on the placement of stuff in the living room. I have to consider that the A/C will blow down the hall from the front door, and the sun shines in from the southwest, and we are only comfortable sitting certain directions in relation to the TV.

Our bedroom has a fairly normal closet. The second bedroom has no closet, but it has a large laundry room with a full size washer and dryer. The hallway has a dinky "linen" closet. We are missing at least 100 sq. ft of storage compared to the old apartment. When I say I can't unpack anymore it's because I need to re-evaluate and re-organize EVERYTHING.

That's enough complaining for one day.

Getting Settled

 It's been a hard journey, all the packing and unpacking. The apartment is decent but the storage SUCKS. I have gone from roomy, walk-in closets to dinky little useless things. I guess cabinets and or shelving will be in order. Today I gave up unpacking and admitted defeat, for the time being. This was literally the only apartment available in January at our price point. Then some special watercolor paint I ordered (and gave the seller my new address) was still delivered to Hartford. Some of my friends are sad, depressed, etc. I shed some tears. It's just been so much to deal with.

On a better note, hubby's been in training all week and things are going well. 

Once the weather gets better we will take some walks, somewhere. I'm not familiar with the area.

Appleton has everything and people are nice. One of my friends always told me this area is the headquarters of the John Birch society and stay away. We have instead found a college town with people from everywhere. 

Now that I have vented a bit, here are some pictures.

Morning view, sunrise over Amazon fulfillment center 

Patio, facing south and west. I can see sunsets now, and hear lots of birds

Kitchen

Bedroom

Plants, south window

Plants, west window

That's all I'm willing to show right now. The second bedroom where my plants are has no closet, but a large, walk-in laundry room with a full-size washer and dryer, which is nice.

It's very quiet here. We can just barely hear the airport and hubby is only minutes from his work.

Take care everyone.

Finally We Are Moved!

Moving during a polar vortex is no fun, but we are done! Actually the weather turned quite nice, with today being in the 50's. Our new place is cozy, with no cold, drafty windows. The storage space is quite a bit smaller, which made for a more difficult move, sort of like trying to pack 10 pounds of potatoes into a 5 pound bag. We got rid of mountains of stuff. Our old apartment was bigger than my house in Indiana, so after 7 years of living there, quite a bit of stuff had accumulated in those big, deep closets.

Here is our new place. I'm not showing you the inside until we finish unpacking. We are on the 1st floor.

We are so tired, and sore! I can't wait to get unpacked. Will show you more later. Hubby starts his new job on Monday.

Outagamie County

 What a cute county name. It's also neat that we will be living on Technical Drive. Yes, we got an apartment, in Greenville! It has the middle-of-nowhere, in the county feel that I like and is only minutes from the amazing Appleton airport, hubby's work, and the city of Appleton.

Natural areas around Greenville

Appleton airport

The apartment is first floor and has a patio, slightly smaller than the one I have now, but we have one, and management is great, and says I can put flower pots anywhere. The kitchen is twice as big as the one here, the living room a bit smaller, and only one bathroom. However I will have a giant laundry room with a full size washer and dryer! We will have two bedrooms with bigger windows that I have now. The second bedroom with two windows will be my plant and craft room. It has two sunny windows that my succulents are going to love.

There has been a boatload of work to do, packing, hiring movers, finding cleaning help, signing the new lease, breaking our current lease, but things are coming together. We are driving up next week to pick up the key and set up my plants in the second bedroom. I just want them out of the way before the movers come on the following Monday. Then before the end of January we come back here to clean. I hired a cleaning service to help with the difficult things, cleaning the stove, fridge and bathroom.

Ok, back to work! Will share pictures later.