Who is This?

I flew out of Orlando airport early yesterday morning and rented a car for my drive to Syracuse. I stopped several times as I was pretty tired, but overall, it was an easy trip.  I was amazed to see how well my mom was doing.  Her speech was much improved, and she could walk a lot better than I expected.  She was still using my grandmother's walker but was hoping to get a better one once she was ready to go outside more.  

While I have been at my parents the past two days, we have caught up on some of their favorite shows including Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy and Gunsmoke.  Although I had watched the first two shows frequently, I hadn't seen Gunsmoke in years.  I was amazed at how good the show really was.  One time I was so caught up in an episode that I didn't notice that my mom had fallen asleep and I finished the show without her.  She was ok with that as she had already seen it and knew how it ended.  

The other thing that I have enjoyed on the television while I have been visiting is the reel of the pictures that my dad has a screen saver on Roku.  Some are old ones from decades ago and some are more recent.  This picture showed up on the screen while I was watching them and my parents told me that Aunt Jan thought it was Cal, but they were sure that it was Cameron.  I knew right away who was correct but decided to text my family to see what their thoughts were.  Everyone knew instantly that Aunt Jan was right, and I texted her to let her know.  Cal even remembered the day and the hat, one of his favorites.  No matter who was right or wrong, it was a lot of fun reminiscing, and I thoroughly enjoyed the walk down memory lane. 

Happy Anniversary Meg and Nick

Meg and Nick spent the weekend in Sarasota celebrating their first anniversary.  They stayed at a Hilton resort on the beach enjoying the white sands.  They picked the perfect place for their miniature holiday as it was extremely hot in Florida this weekend with heat advisories over 110 degrees.  Meg said that they had a wonderful time with a lot of great restaurants to try as well.

When I thought back to this past year, I couldn't believe how fast the time had flown and how many changes had come into Meg and Nick's life.  They started last summer in Chicago with Meg still working for Plante Moran.  Since then, they have moved across the country and Meg has found employment that she has been a lot more meaningful to her.  They not only downsized their possessions, but friendships as well all for the better.  It wasn't an easy year, but it was a memorable one.  I look forward to seeing where year two takes them next.

Weekend Visitors

My parents were blessed with two visitors this weekend as both Cal and Cameron were in Syracuse for a visit.  My Dad and Cal had plans to play in a golf tournament and Cameron wanted to hang out in Northern Indiana for a few days as he hadn't visited there since before Brett's wedding.  My Mom and Dad thoroughly enjoyed having them both of them there and took advantage of spending as much time with them as possible.  

Cal and Cameron called to tell me that they could not believe how much improved their grandma was.  She was moving better and talked a lot clearer.  The four of them even played a game of Oh Hell out on the back porch.  I was amazed to hear that and incredibly glad that my boys made time to spend with their grandparents.  It reminded me of my visits to my own grandparents.  I wish that every child had a set (or two) of grandparents that loved them.  It makes life so much easier.  

Snakes, Why Did It Have to Be Snakes

Doug and I met Phil last night at Hiatus and then came back to our house to hang out on the back patio.  It had rained while we were gone, so once we arrived home, I went to the garage to get dry chairs.  Doug was in the kitchen making a drink while Phil went outside to check the patio.  I was walking with the chair in my arms by the pineapple table when all of a sudden, I saw something move. I put the chair down and yelled at Phil to stop.   At first, I thought that he was playing a trick on me but quickly realized that he wasn't as he was about to step on a snake. 

I was in shock.  Thankfully, my scream alerted Doug and Phil to the danger.  I suggested the snake pole and gloves, but unfortunately neither were helpful.  The snake was too thin for the pole to work and none of us wanted to try and grab it even with gloves.  The guys tried to chase it out with a broom, but unfortunately the snake got behind the China cabinet.  I started panicking that it would get into my bedroom and ran to get a blanket to block the base of the door.  Fortunately, they were able to move the cabinet out enough to get the snake out of the corner and push him with a broom out the sliding glass door.  The snake laid on the patio recuperating for quite some time before slithering off.  None of us went back outside last night and today I went to Lowe's first thing in the morning to purchase Snake-Away and a door protector to block the base of my bedroom door just in case any other reptiles stop by for another scary visit.  

A Ring Camera

After three years of dealing with our front doorbell, I had had enough.  The original doorbell that came with the house never really worked correctly and there was no way to hook up a new wired one to it.  I had purchased two different wireless doorbells that were great at first, but both ended up going through a multitude of batteries and eventually stopped working.  When the newest one quit, I decided that I had had enough and started investigating a Ring camera doorbell.  After reading hundreds of positive reviews, I went to Lowe's to price the one that I wanted.  I was surprised by how inexpensive they were.  When we first moved to Ocala, a Ring product would have been well over $200 and now they were less than $100.  I figured that I had saved us at least that much in fixing our electrical outlets in the kitchen myself and went ahead and bought one.

I set the Ring camera up yesterday and have already been surprised by how much I like it.  It alerts me quickly when someone is at the door and I have easily been able to talk to them via the microphone.  It also alerts me when a package is dropped off, and I can look out my front door via the app to see what is happening even when no one is there.  I know with the new doorbell that I will feel safer when Doug is in Orlando or when we are traveling next week as well.  Overall, I have been impressed.  It is amazing to me how much technology has really improved over the last five years and after having the doorbell for a few days, I am very thankful for that.

Boundary Boss

While my therapist was on vacation in June, she recommended that I start reading the book Boundary Boss.  She thought that it would help me with a few issues that I had been having with taking on too much.  I started reading the book, a chapter a week, and was amazed at how much insight it gave me.  It not only explained why I was taking on too much, but how to set boundaries for myself.  When my therapist returned, I talked with her quite a bit about what I had learned and what I had hoped to learn upon finishing the book.  She suggested that I started using the skills that I had learned on people or situations that were not that important in my life.  She thought that it would be a great way to practice my newfound skills.

What amazed me the most about reading the book was how much insight it gave me into Doug and his family relationships.  Until I read the book, I did not realize how many times boundaries were overstepped.  I knew that I was frustrated with situations from the past but did not know why.  The book explained it perfectly.  It also explained why I had spent many years being angry.  It gave me some helpful ideas on what I needed to do to remedy those situations, even though they were long past.  I appreciated the helpful advice that the book gave me and promised myself that I would not be put in those situations ever again.  It was a very freeing feeling, and I was glad that my therapist had recommended the book to me.  

Positively Electric

This past weekend, the electrical outlets in our kitchen went out.  They had done so a little over a year ago, so I knew where to look for the problem.  Once Doug and I confirmed that it was the same outlet and that I could not easily fix it, we decided to call the electrician.  The company that fixed it in April of 2024 said that it was past its one year warranty and would have to charge us $167 just to come out and look at it.  I tried another company with good reviews. They could send someone right away and it would only cost $35 for the trip.  I thought that I might as well try them since the first one did not solve the problem.  

Several days ago, the electrician came out and said that it was the same GFCI outlet that was the issue.  It would not reset and he felt it was because it was installed incorrectly.  I believed everything that he said as it seemed reasonable.  After diagnosing the faulty outlet, he also stated that the issue could have been caused by an electrical surge.  He pushed pretty hard for us to put in a surge protector because of all of the lightning strikes in Florida.  He might have talked me into it until he said that it was over $1000.  That was a lot more than I wanted to spend.  I thanked him and asked that he just fix the outlet for the $234 he quoted me. 

I was very hopeful that replacing the outlet would be the end of our electrical woes, but unfortunately the next morning, the entire set out of outlets were out again.  I started to believe that maybe I had made a mistake in not getting the surge protector.  Instead of calling the electrician back, I called the electric company.  I explained the issue, and they agreed to send out one of their electricians to make sure that we were not getting power surges form the outside line.  They arrived quickly and were able to tell me that everything coming into the house was working correctly. They were also able to validate my opinion that we didn't need a surge protector as a power surge of that magnitude would cause more than just one set of outlets to go out and that we would notice a lot of other issues such as blinking lights.

I decided after talking to the electric company that I would solve the problem on my own.  I didn't want to call an electrician as I knew that they would push me to buy something that I didn't need.  Instead, I shut out the power to our home and started changing the outlets in the daisy chain one by one.  Sure enough, once I replaced the second outlet that I was suspicious of, the power came back on, and all outlets worked.  I even overloaded them by plugging in multiple small appliances and the GFCI stayed on.  I was surprised at first that I figured it out so quickly, but it made sense when I thought about how electrical currents worked - one bad outlet would definitely cause an issue if they were all connected to it. 

I spent the rest of the day excited about my ability to fix the outlets.  It not only saved us several hundred dollars, but I also was able to put in outlets that looked a lot nicer with our new granite.  I was pretty proud of the new look.