Chores

Luna--my sister is fine with my messaging her.  She was just hassleing me.  Our family is like that--always has been.  Nothing serious can be taken seriously.  It might be too scary, so we joke about it and are sarcastic.  You should hear the story my girls have about how they are going to commit me to the nursing house, when the time comes.  They have it all planned out and it is quite a hilarious scene to visualize.

I message my sister a different emoji every morning, reflecting my mood.  She answers back with a thumbs up.

My sister and I especially, don't show emotions-not scary or sad ones.    While we both hug our girlfriends, and hug and kiss and say "I love you", to our kids, she and I don't hug each other.  I have in the last two years said, "I love you" to her when we part or when I get ready to hang up the phone.  Last Thursday, I hugged her goodbye.  It feels a bit strange to both of us, I know.  We love and count on each other deeply, we know that, so the extraneous gestures seem not to be needed.  Although, I know they are.
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The safety pin I used a month ago to attach the toilet flush handle onto the chain that pulls up the flapper to allow water to rush in and flush, rusted out.  I thought the safety pin was made of stainless steel--apparently not.

I got some picture hanging wire and spent two days fixing the dang thing.  Put the wire through the clip (which broke a couple of years ago) hole on the flush handle and attached it to the chain that pulls up the flapper.  Tried it out and noticed, it was so short it wouldn't pull up the chain far enough to let in enough water.  It had taken me nearly an hour to do that.  No light to see--trying to hold a little flashlight in my mouth, hands shaking like crazy.

The next day, I was determined to re-do it.  This time the wire was so long that it barely pulled up the flapper to let any water down into the toilet bowl.  EGADS!!!!!!!!

Yesterday, I tried again.  The wire was already twisted securely in both places.  I just had to untwist it from the top part on the flush handle, where I could see the best, and adjust the length.  Of course, anything I do like this is impeded by the hand tremors I have.

I thought I had it just right and when I flushed, it isn't quite long enough, but it lets in enough water to flush the "debris" out of the bowl and that is good enough!!!!

I don't know of any man that could fix it any better than I can and of course, you all know why I can't hire a plumber to put all new innards in the tank and have it work perfectly for a few years.

I also put up a solar-motion detector light over my door.  The stupid thing had sticky tape on the back, which of course didn't hold, so I taped all around it with clear mailing tape.   I switched the switch to "automatic on", thinking it would stay off until someone came near it.  The dumb thing appears to stay on all   the   time!  Haven't figured it out as yet, but I will.  or get frustrated and throw the dang thing in the trash!
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Today, I have done laundry and no issues so far.  I do need to go outside and clean out the dryer vent with the big long, round wire brush head thingie.  I like to do that while the dryer is running.  Oh, and I forgot.  I have to drain the water heater!!!  I'll do that when I clear out my closet to swap out my summer clothes.  I can wait on that I guess, as the rest of the week and weekend are supposed to be in the mid-80's.

We had autumn in August and now we are having summer in September.  Mother Nature must be getting way senile because she sure has been confused this year!
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Look at these two loaves of bread.  They look just alike, don't that?  Both 12 grain bread, which I love, because it has whole pieces of wheat and oats to bite into.  Both wrappers have the same colors.

While the one on the right is delicious and made by Brownberry, the one on the left is tasteless and the grains are ground up finer.  The one on the right is being eaten and enjoyed--the one on the left is being torn up in pieces for the squirrel/bird feeder.  This is what happens when one doesn't take their glasses to the grocery store.    and yet--I'll bet, here are people way smarter than me that might get the two mixed up!
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I have really been enjoying the new PBS Ken Burns documentary of the Vietnam War.  It is on every night at 8:00, on PBS.  So  much I didn't know about the early part and how the whole fiasco got us involved.  The documentary is done really well because it casts no political judgment.  There is no slant to it.  Ken Burns researched and documented it for 10 years, interviewing people from both sides.  It sure has been enlightening to me.  I was one of those all for it people in the mid 60's and all against it by the 70's.  

Sending "advisers" over there to teach the ARVN (South) how to fight.  Hard to do when they didn't want to fight--all they wanted was the French to get out and for them to form their own independence.  Kind of reminds me of our "advisers" now in Iraq and Afghanistan. Seems the only people getting killed are the advisers!

This documentary let's you form your own opinions about the War.  I know, mine have changed.
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