Trip To The Vet

Today we took the cats to see the Vet.  It has been, probably 2 or 3 years since we took them.  I think we stopped just because it was hard to get them up to West Bend to see him.  It was the vet that we had been going to since 1993 when Kris and I got our first cat when we were living in West Bend. And since we have never been able to find one around the Falls that we liked as much as Dr. Schneider, we just kept going to him.  But as our cats got older and we started having problems getting them up there, we just figured they were fine since they were 100% indoor cats and we never really ran into any other problems with them “health-wise”

First of all, it was a chore getting the cats into their carrier.  Kris got one of them in, and then as she opened the door to put the other one in, the first one ran out.  It was just a horror show trying to track them down.  And I couldn’t help because I was at work.  I left work a little early and we had things timed so that as soon as I got home, we would put the carrier in the car and go, with about 5 minutes to spare before their appointment.  Well we managed to make it on time, but what an ordeal!

Phoebe cried the whole way there.  And when I say “cried” it was really more like a howl.  Something akin to alley cats in the middle of the night.  Then when we made it there and went to take them out, we discovered that Phoebe was so traumatized that she peed all over the inside of the carrier, and she was covered with urine, and consequently, Samson as well.  We spent the first five minutes or so there cleaning them up and wiping out the inside of the carrier.  I don’t know how Kris would have managed if I wasn’t there.

Then… once they started the exam, the tech got their weights, and other vital stuff before the doctor came in.  I question whether the weight she took was actually accurate, but since they were squirming around on the scale, I guess it was the best we could do.  Then the vet actually came in.  Now this is not the “normal” vet that we had seen for years.  He retired last year, and based on what he looked like the last time we saw him, that was probably a good thing.  He just didn’t look well, so he must have sold his practice to his associates.  That being said, the guy who looked at Phoebe and Samson was rather timid I thought.  And of course, like they always do, they try to get us to do the unconscious teeth cleaning for them, which always runs in the neighborhood of $500-$700.  Sorry.  But we also had the situation where Samson has a couple of large moles on his back.  When he is brushed, if you aren’t careful, the brush snags them, and cuts them open, so that was something we specifically wanted the vet to look at.  He said if we wanted to, he could take them off, no problem, and he would get us a price for it.  And in fact, if we had his teeth cleaned, he could do it at the same time while he was out.  We almost fainted when we saw the cost of that.  Needless to say we’ll just be careful brushing him.

The cats are “good” for another year, though the vet did say they were a little overweight.  Samson was about 21 pounds and Phoebe was around 15.  Phoebe was more toward an ideal weight than Samson, but if you ask me, I’d say they are both at a pretty good weight.  But we’ll cut back a little bit on their food and see if we can’t knock them down a pound or two.

Resetting the Patio

This year was a rough winter.  With all of the freezing and thawing the patio blocks has a rough time.  Add to it the chipped and missing locking sand and all the ant hills that are popping up means that I need to do some resetting of the patio pavers.  There are actually a couple of spots that ended up settling more than I wanted last year and I never got around to fixing them, so this is my chance.  I’ll have to pull out a bunch of the pavers and relevel them before refilling all the seams with locking sand, then resealing them all. I dread doing it because it isn’t an easy fix, and it is a lot of bending and stooping over.  But it will give me the chance to make sure no water pools by the garage as well as spraying a ton of insecticide into the sand/paver base to kill all the dang ants.  I really hope I don’t end up having to do this on an annual basis!

Samsung TV

We have a 55” Samsung LED TV in our family room.  We bought it in 2012 (it hardly seems like it is 5 years old) when the other TV we had started getting shadows on it (I think that may have been a Samsung as well).  A few days ago, I was sitting on the couch watching TV when the picture went off all of a sudden.  It clicked a couple of times like it was being turned off, then on, then off, then on, etc. until the picture came back about 30 seconds later.  I was alone and thought it was odd, but didn’t do anything about it.  Then it happened again when Kris was in the room with me and I looked at her and said, What the hell???!!! 

She told me that it had been doing that every now and then for her too, for as long as a month or so, at intermittent periods would the power will suddenly turn off and then try turning back on making the "clicking" sound like when the TV is normally turned on and the screen is “warming up” (for lack of a better description), cycling a couple of times, eventually coming back on.  It happens randomly, but usually only lasts 20 seconds or so.  Recently is has been happening more frequently and for longer periods of time (today it took roughly 6 hours for the power to come on).  When it is going thru this "cycling" the only way to get it to stop is to pull the power cable and let the residual power drain as it cycles another 2 or 3 times.  Usually I will let it sit unplugged for a few minutes and then plug it back in, where it may come back on, or it may continue the "cycling".  When it cycles, the red LED in the corner when the TV is off, will click and go off, then after a few seconds, it flashes a couple of times, then clicks and starts the process over again.  I have let the process continue as long as 30 minutes without the picture ever coming back on.

This lead to doing some research online to try and figure out what the problem is.  When we bought it five years ago we paid $1500.  It was on sale at the time, marked down from $2500 (yes, I know because remember, I looked it up).  I managed to find things suggesting all sorts of solutions ranging from replacing capacitors, to just scrapping the TV and getting a new one.  I have tried all the suggestions listed on these forums such as changing outlets, unplugging all other peripherals (cable box, Blu-Ray, etc.), I even left the TV unplugged for some time (as much as 4 hours), made sure all the software was updated, reset to the factory settings, etc. and yet the problem persists.  Also, when the TV is going thru this "cycling", none of the other buttons will work, neither on the remote, nor on the side/back of the TV, which is why I have to pull the plug to give it a rest if it doesn't come back on right away.

I sent a request to Samsung directly requesting assistance.  Their website says they will respond w/in 24 hours.  Well they didn’t.  They suck!  I realize that the TV is out of the warranty period, I was looking more for an “authorized” repair place to evaluate whether or not I needed to get a new TV, or if it was something as simple as resoldering a connection.  But nothing.  I am not sure what I am going to do yet, but it is looking more and more like I will need to drop more $$$ on a new TV (Insert angry face here).  

Another Leak

No, not from the Trump White House…  A month ago I noticed oil leaking from the new car so I took it in to have it looked at and fixed.  At the time they said it was a leak in the rear differential, and it looks like they replaced a plug and everything was good to go.  Saturday after Kris left from work I noticed a dark spot on the garage floor where all the other oil drips had stained the concrete.  I thought I must have missed a spot where it had previously been leaking, or at least not scrubbed that area enough when I cleaned it last month.  Today since it was nice I decided to wash the car by hand and after I pulled it out of the garage, I noticed what looked like two new, fresh oil spots on the concrete.  I dabbed my finger, and confirmed it, it was oil.  So now I end up having to call the dealer back to get it taken into the shop and fixed…  AGAIN!  This has been the worst car buying experience ever!

Summertime

Memorial Day weekend is hear, which means it is time to put up the trampoline.  Or it is normally the time I put up the trampoline for the girls.  This year, I think we’ll be a little bit delayed.  Since it has been such a wet spring, the ground is still very wet.  The guy behind us has had standing water in his yard since the snow melted.  I think there must have only been about a week where it had dried up to the point where he actually cut his grass.  I just cut my grass and my feet squished as I was pushing the mowed.  Which also means that have a couple hundred pounds of metal being rammed into the ground as people jump on it will not be good for the yard.  Ali is begging me to get it put up, but I am not about the set it up and have 3” depressions pressed into the ground as she (and Sarah) bounce away on it.  I should actually just put some blocks in the grass for the legs to set upon, Then I wouldn’t need to worry about it.

2017-2018 Varsity

Ali found out tonight that she made the varsity cheer squad again for next year.  Now we know we have to start planning for all the things we did last year, like volunteering at the Indian Invite.  Kris wants to make sure we work in the kitchen again.  We also have to plan for Nationals again.  Or at the very least be ready in the event that we go.  And don’t forget the fundraising.  If you want a nice Minor’s Christmas Wreath, let me know now and I’ll pencil you in. 

It looks like most of Ali’s friends from last year made Varsity again too.  I was hoping that they would get a couple more of her friends on the team, but unfortunately, there are a couple of incoming freshmen that took spots.  And next year I think is going to be even worse as I believe there will be only one graduating senior.  But that is also assuming that everyone wants to come back and makes it.  I think there are a couple of girls who don’t really care to go beyond this year with the cheer team.

Terrible Yard

As I was cutting the grass today, I came to the conclusion that I have a terrible yard and I am never going to have the thick, plush lawn that I try so hard to get every year.  I say this because as I was rolling over the grass, I noticed lots of spots of what I will call crab grass.  Grab grass is my catch-all term for really crappy, weed-like looking grass.  You can’t miss it.  Then in the spots where the grass looks a little thin, there are spots of moss growing on the soil.  I am not an expert groundskeeper, but I know enough to realize that a well irrigated lawn does not have moss growing in it. 

I have tried for years to fill in some of the thinner spots, and I am constantly yanking up big clumps of weeds to get rid of them.  But try as I might, my yard always looks terrible!  What it really needs is a complete gut!  If this were a home remodeling show, I would tear out everything down to the studs.  Why can’t the yard crasher guys (is that show even still around?) ever find me?!  I think part of the problem is the soil.  It sucks.  I think it is mostly clay, which just doesn’t grow grass very well.  When I redid the back yard, I brought in truckloads of topsoil and then laid sod on top.  That is what I need to do in the front of the house.  I want to scrape off the top 2” of soil (at least) and lay some good black dirt and then some nice rolls of sod on top of that.  Unfortunately, that won’t be happening, at least no time in the near future.  So I keep plodding along hoping that I can figure out how to make it thru another year.  I’ll settle for getting rid of the moss and mushrooms for now! 

Tryout Day

Today is tryout day for Alison.  She has been working hard and today she’ll learn the routine and do their other skills assessments to see if she makes the varsity again this year.  We’re keeping our fingers crossed for her.  I am hopeful that she’ll make it again this year.  I think that her coaches like her because she works hard and always keeps a positive attitude at practice.  But just because she made it last year, doesn’t mean she’ll get picked again this year.  The competition is always tough.  Good Luck Ali!

Baby Birds

It’s been a couple of weeks now and the robin is still sitting in the nest on the garage.  Kris looked up the time table for hatching robin eggs and it is about the time that there should be babies in the nest.  So I have been trying to keep an eye out for scrawny little heads, or maybe the mother robin to fly back and feed them a worm.  It just so happened that I saw the mother fly out of the nest as I was walking into the garage and I thought, I am going to grab my step stool and see if I can see over the edge of the nest to see if there are any babies.  There are.  We have two baby robins in the nest. 

Shortly afterward, the mother came back with a big, juicy worm and the two little heads popped up with their mouths open.  One baby got the whole worm and the other was out of luck.  But then the mother flew away again, so I hope it gets something for the other baby.  It would suck to have to scrape a dead baby bird off the pavement!

Final Warm-Up

Today was the final chance to practice before Ali’s cheerleading tryout.  She spent a couple of hours at the “tumbling factory” working on her back handsprings and her tumbling skills in general.  It seems like this off-season, the girls are all getting super competitive for spots on the Varsity squad (or maybe it is just the parents).  Ali is treating it sort of like, if she makes it, she makes it.  I guess that is a good attitude to have, but I will say that if she doesn’t make Varsity this year after being on Varsity last year, I would be willing to bet she’ll be disappointed.  But hopefully it won’t come to that.  I am keeping my fingers crossed for her.

Semester Grades

When Sarah got home from work today and checked her phone to see that her grades had posted.  The good news is that she passed all of her classes.  The bad news (if it is really bad news) is that she just missed making the dean’s list.  She ended up with three B's and an A/B, which is from what I can gather equal to an A-.  That is good news because she is now free to take all the next level classes, like Chemistry II, or Biology II.  I forget what her classes actually are for the fall semester.  Now we just need to figure out how she can get her patient care/contact hours so she can apply to her PA Schools (assuming she still wants that major) after her junior year.

Buzzed By A Robin

Today when I left for work, the robin wasn’t in its nest.  I also didn’t see it there when I got home.  I was wondering if maybe the eggs didn’t hatch, or something got in the nest and stole the eggs.  I had read somewhere that robins will know either when an egg isn’t viable or isn’t going to hatch.  They will then actually will pick it up and drop it on the ground away from the nest.  I think that is what happened the last time we had a robin build a nest there. 

So when we got back from running errands I thought, why don’t I get out the step stool and climb up to see if the eggs are gone.  I no sooner had unfolded the stool and was taking my first step up when the robin came zipping by my head with a whoosh.  I could hear the flapping wings as it flew past about 4 or 5 inches from my ear.  So I guess it is still here.  I wasn’t even close to the nest, I was climbing up about six or seven feet away, just enough so I could peer over the edge of the nest to see what was in there. 

It’s good to know that if the robin is still there, then the eggs are most likely still there as well.  I’ll have to keep an eye on them, because it has been there for a couple of weeks now, which means that it is almost time for those eggs to hatch.  If I can get back up there without disturbing it, I’ll try and take some pictures.

Happy Mother’s Day

Since today is Mother’s Day we needed to get the annual photo with the girls.  I almost totally forgot it, but mostly because Sarah has been disrupting things around here since getting home two days ago.  She (Sarah) was actually the one who reminded me since she wanted to have a picture she could post.  Happy Mother’s Day to my wonderful wife!

Welcome Home!

The first year of college is over and today is Sarah’s first day back home in the Falls.  The big question is going to be how long before we (and by we I mean Kris and me) are ready for her to go back to school.  As much as we love having Sarah around, I remember what it was like coming home for my first summer.  You get used to coming and going as you pleased, and not wanting to listen to anything.  Basically you feel like you don’t need to follow any of the rules because you’re an adult now.  So I have a feeling we’ll be fighting about loud music, curfews, and a variety of other things pretty soon.

Overbooked

Before going to Sarah’s dorm to start packing her things up, I stopped by the U-Haul Storage to check in and find out where I needed to go once we came back with Sarah’s stuff.  I tell the person at the counter I am here to “check-in” and find out where my storage locker is.  They ask my name, look me up and I get a “ohhh… I’m sorry but we don’t have a storage locker for you.”  My first reaction was, what the hell do you mean?  I am about to start loading up my daughter’s dorm room, I had better have a pace to put it, especially since I reserved this spot over a week ago. 

The manager comes over and explains to me that they didn’t have as many people “check-out” as they had expected, so unfortunately, they can’t give me the indoor storage locker I had reserved online.  But I can have a “U-Box” which is nothing more than a large, plywood crate that is on a large skid that ends up being moved with a big forklift and stored in a garage.  I wanted to pull a Seinfeld, and say “But I have a reservation”, but thought better of it.

I told them I suppose I’d have to take it since I just drove three hours and am about to start unloading my daughter’s room and I need a place to put it all.  I just don’t understand why I wouldn’t have been contacted when they realized that they weren’t going to have an indoor locker for me, and let me decide if I wanted to go with the box, or go someplace else and look for an indoor one.  Wouldn’t you think that would be the normal thing to do, rather than waiting until I get there to tell me?  This move isn’t starting out on the best foot right off the bat!

In The Books

Sarah’s first year at college is in the books.  It was rough at times, but I am pretty sure that she got used to being on her own and would tell you that she had fun.  And the most important part is that she did well in her classes.  I think she’ll get her final grades next week, but I don’t believe she is in any danger of failing any classes.  From what she told me, the worst she could possibly do in any class is a C, and that is if she were to completely fail her final.  I think she is in the A/B range for everything, so I would expect that her grade point will stay pretty high, which is a good thing.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that she stays on the four year to maybe just over the four year plan.

Fixing The Ford

It is finally time to do some upkeep in the Escape.  I have had it now for just under six years and luckily, I haven’t had to do any major repairs.  Well that ended today.  I took it in a couple of months ago to have the oil changed, and I wanted my car guy to look at a rattle coming from the front end, and maybe check the alignment.  Well, the oil got changed fine, but I also found out that the front sway bar links needed to be replaced (which is what was causing the rattle).  And they didn’t even do the alignment, because the tires were worn and needed to be replaced.  He told me that it wouldn’t pay to do it because it would just most likely have to be done again when the tires got replaced.

So today was the day that all that was being done.  And I got a call when they were pulling everything off to have the tires replaced, to tell me that the front brakes were 90% gone and would also need to be replaced.  I suppose that makes sense.  The original tires on the Escape were 50,000 mile tires, and my odometer is at 55,800 currently, so it is obviously time to have the tires done, and if the tires are that worn it would make sense that the brakes would be as well. 

Everything is running good now, so hopefully I won’t run into any more mechanical problems any time soon.  The next thing that will need to be done is to have several rust spots fixed.  I figure I will have this car for at least another 5 years of so, so I will have to make sure it lasts.  I just hope the several small rust spots don’t end up turning into one large bill to get fixed.

Awesome Sauce!

I finally had the chance to get back to the cable TV store/office to take care of updating my service.  It was night and day difference from last week.  It must have been because it was the beginning of the month and people were going crazy either paying bills or bringing back equipment.  But today when I went in, there were two other people in the entire place, so I only had to wait for a couple of minutes.

The good news is that the guy got us switched to the “silver” programming plan.  Then I get a bonus…  As he is typing away entering whatever he needs to enter he says to me, good news, it looks like I can get you down to “X”, which is about $12 less than the girl I spoke to last week told me I would be paying.  Giddyup!  So I said, great, sign me up!  Then as he is doing his thing, I mention that the girl I spoke to last week said I would need to make an appointment to have a technician come out and replace my router because my basic internet package was going to be going up speed-wise from what TWC had us at and that my modem couldn’t handle that speed.  The Customer Service Rep looks it up and after about 10-15 seconds of reading to see what type of router I have, he says, no… it looks like your router will be just fine, no need to have it replaced.  WOOOHOOO!  More good news.  Looks like the girl I spoke to last week had no clue what she was talking about.

So then as the guy is reviewing everything on the updated service, he mentions the DVR.  We have a whole house DVR that can record 2 shows, which sucks because if you are recording two shows at once, the TV has to be ON one of those stations.  So we basically HAVE to watch one of the shows we are recording, which defeats the purpose of being able to record two shows.  So as he is reviewing things I interrupted politely to ask, is there a possibility of upgrading the DVR?  He tells me yes, we can get an “enhanced DVR” which records six shows and has more memory.  I asked how much extra that would be, and he says, oh, there is no extra charge for the upgraded DVR.  What???!!!  Then why didn’t I have this from the start???!!!  So I asked if it was possible to upgrade that, and he says certainly, but I’ll have to bring the old one in to swap it out.  No problem… but what about the stuff we have recorded on the DVR currently?  He says, Sorry, that would get wiped out, there is no way to transfer it.  He then also said if I wanted to do it, they have several units in stock right now, but they won’t last long, so if we want to do it, we should do it as quickly as possible because they can’t guarantee they’ll have one here for us if we bring our old one in.

So I spent the evening going thru the DVR and trying to record stuff on DVDs that we wanted to save, and delete the unimportant stuff, or stuff I could watch later On Demand if I needed to.  This had me up until just after midnight, but I think we are all set.  I’ll be heading out right after work to see if I can get the enhanced DVR.  They better have one in stock, because if I stayed up transferring content for nothing, I am going to be MAD!

Looking For Storage

I made the decision after last weekend’s visit to LaCrosse that I am going to look for a storage unit for Sarah’s stuff until she can get back up to her new apartment to move things in.  The only problem is that with it being less than two weeks until Sarah moves out of the dorm, the pickings are a little slim.  I found out on Saturday that lots of places have no open units since a lot of students will store their things there for the summer.  I called around on Monday and found one place that had one unit open and was very reasonable price-wise, except that Sarah would have had to call him, go meet him to look things over, sign papers, etc.  When I asked if she could find someone to drive her to meet the guy, she had a bit of what I would call a meltdown.  At the very least it was a “just leave me alone” type message.  So I guess I’ll have to handle it myself from the Falls.

One place I called was full up, two other places never got back to me, One place that did get back to me told me they have two openings, and they are lockers that are bigger than what we would need, and they are a little more expensive than I was looking for.  I am holding out for one more place to get back to me, but if I don’t hear anything, I guess I’ll need to go with the one pace that did get back to me.  With any luck they will pro-rate it for the days we don’t NEED it, and then since Sarah can pick up her keys on June 1^st, maybe we can go up the weekend after and move the things out so we only end up paying for one month instead of two.

It's Wet

Happy Spring!!!  It is raining like crazy outside.  We had a couple of warm, dry days and I thought that the back yard was beginning to dry up.  I even cut the grass for the first time.  However, with all the rain we have had the backyard is like a wet sponge right now.  How do I know?  I had to go and replace some blocks of suet in our bird feeders.  And in just walking back to them my feet were squishing like I was squeezing out the sponge when I wash the cars. 

The good news is that my grass is nice and green, even without fertilizer.  The bad news is that it is growing like mad!  It needs to be cut again, and I can’t do it until the ground dries up a little.  I think that when it finally is able to be cut, I’ll have to make at least two passes, because the grass will be too long to take it down to the length at which I normally cut it.  Maybe I can use the break in waiting for conditions to dry up as an opportunity to sharpen my mower blade.  I don’t think I have done that in a couple of years, so it probably wouldn’t hurt.

Additionally, I need to put down some seed to help fill in the bare spots.  I don’t know how much it will end up helping since in reading up on how to get rid of the moss in my grass, it looks like I need better drainage and possibly more alkaline soil, in addition to some more good topsoil to build up a few low spots.  But that is again all stuff I can’t really do until it dries out.  Although, with the ground as wet as it is, maybe I should use the opportunity to try and pull my fence posts back to being straight.

Cable Company

As everyone in America that has (or had) Time Warner Cable knows, they have been bought out by Spectrum.  Two years ago we made the switch from AT&T U-Verse to Spectrum when AT&T wouldn’t negotiate on the price of our service, at least until we had already committed to TWC, and by then it was too late.  Well, the time period of our initial promotion with TWC had come an end at the end of April, and the new bill from Spectrum jacked the price $25ish a month.  So I went in to see what we could do to bring the bill back down, what sort of promotion was currently running, etc…

Fully expecting to have something in hand, I was shocked to find out I needed to select a new TV package, because the service I had been getting with TWC does not equate to any Spectrum packages.  I thought, OK, no problem.  Then I find out that the channels that we watch most are split between three different programming tiers, and that if we wanted them all, well then we’d be paying basically what we are now.  But we could drop down a level or two, and then we’d just be losing channels.  Personally, if we dropped from the top, we’d lose a couple of channels that I watch, and I guess I can live with that, though I sort of liked them because they were showing the programs that used to be on H2 before it was replaced with that crap-pile called Viceland (AHC and Destination America in case you were wondering).  We’d also lose a couple of channels that Alison watches from time to time, like Nickelodeon, though I can’t for the life of me imagine why Nickelodeon isn’t in the basic tier of programming.  And MTV would be gone too, though they don’t play music videos anymore, and when they do, it’s all R&B and rap…  Sorry, no.  But we’d get other MTV channels.  So how they get rid of the flagship, but keep lesser ones is beyond me.  At least with ESPN, you still have the basic ESPN but would lose some of the ESPN satellite networks (ESPN Classic, for example).

 

But even with the change in programming to something with enough channels to still make most everyone in the house happy (i.e. not me) the cost is a couple bucks more than what we were paying.  I’ll probably go with the mid range programming package for now that keeps us at what we were paying, but I am also going to start exploring the streaming options, like the Amazon Fire Stick, or Chromecast, and see what sort of streaming services I can get with those.  Because paying as much as I am for the crappy programming we get with cable is getting out of hand.  I have heard that Sling might be a good option and isn’t too bad as far as a price goes.

 

I’ll have to make a list of the channels we HAVE to have and see what we can do.  I’d be willing to bet there are only about 25 or 30 channels that make up 95% of our TV watching.  Everything else is just waste as far as I am concerned.