Time in The ED

I was busy working outside today getting some of the old pane glass basement windows re-glazed when Kris comes outside and tells me she just got a call from the Arboretum and her dad is going to the ER (or in modern terms the ED – Emergency Dept.).  Apparently he was having a lot of trouble breathing and when they checked him he had a fever, so they sent him over to be checked out.  So that means we have to stop everything and go spend a few hours sitting in the ER waiting for the doctors to run tests, etc.  Just what I want to do on a nice day when I have stuff to do outside. 

When we got there we found out that the attendant at the Arboretum reported that they think he may have choked on something at dinner and had foreign material in his lungs, which may be causing aspiration pneumonia.  He definitely had a serious wheezing problem when he breathed.  So after running some tests, they were going to keep him overnight at least.  So this is going to lead to him not being allowed to go back, I just know it.  

Trampoline Is Closed

How do you know summer is really over?  It’s when the trampoline comes down for the season.  I think if I look back, it is coming down earlier than normal this year, but no one has been on it since school started.  And with all the other things happening, I didn’t have time to get the trampoline taken down in one fell swoop, so I set about taking it down in stages over a couple of days.  Than went much easier.  First was the net.  That wouldn’t have been bad except for having to untie all the stings that were woven in and out of the net to keep it secured to the springs.

Day two was spent removing springs and taking the supports apart.  Both went fairly smoothly.  I did notice that I will definitely need to replace some parts next year.  Some of the spacers between the upper support arms of the net and the legs are crushed/cracked and I should have them replaced.  I also need to order a new net, and maybe a new pad to go on the springs.  I really should make a list and buy them one at a time so when it is time to put it up next year, I don’t have $200 worth of parts to get.

Phone Line

What I thought would be a quick, 30 minute set-up for the new printer turned into about a 4-hour ordeal.  Proof that nothing is EVER easy.  I got the printer out, plugged in, and all the assorted tapes and holders from the box removed so that I can start using it, and then hit the point where I needed to install the “software” to run it.  You would think that in 2017, installing software drivers for the operation of a printer would be something that took 30 seconds, but no.  It was a 25 minute install cycle.  Oh, and the fact that I put the CD into the drive, and the drive would not read it.  I’m not quite sure why, but it is a DVD RW drive and it appears that no software/data CDs work in it.  I don’t know if that is the reason, or if it is just because the computer is that old and the drive is just worn out.

Anyway, after nearly half an hour I go to check and I get a pop up window that says, “Installation failed. Try Again?”  Sure, I have to get this stupid thing working.  But in order to do so, I have to start all over from the beginning.  Another 25 minutes.  Then when I finally got the software installed, it was time to plug in the phone cord.  That was a whole ordeal in itself.

I had installed a phone jack in the den years ago, but since it was never used, I disconnected it.  No big deal, right?  Wrong.  I had to get a length of phone wire to hook up to the jack, and then splice into the existing line.  I go to my bin of electronics supplies (speaker wire, stereo patch cords, plugs, extra coax cables, Cat 5 and Cat 6 network cables, HDMI cables, but no phone wire.  I had about 75 ft. of phone cord about 6 months ago, and when I was cleaning things up, I figured, when am I ever going to need to wire in a new phone jack anymore?  So I tossed it out.  No big deal, I’ll just run to Home Depot or Menards and get about 25 ft worth of phone cord and I’ll be good to go.  Again, easier said than done.  NO ONE carries phone cord anymore.  After weighing my options, I ended up just buying longer phone extension cord and cutting off the spring loaded plug.  Then I just separated the wires, stripped them, and connected it to the existing wire with wire nuts.  Total time of playing around, about an hour and a half, maybe two.  The good news is that I FINALLY got the jack working.

Once it was ready to plug in, I discovered that I needed to have my existing phone plugged into the printer.  I tried to get around it when setting it up, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to get the fax part working unless I had the actual phone base plugged into it.  As a result, I ended up having to move the phone in by the computer.  I suppose that is a small price to pay.  

The Government At Work

I often wonder how government gets the rap of being as backwards as it is (not that I disagree, mind you).  Well now I know.  We are currently in the process of updating Kris’s dad’s paperwork for all of his benefits.  We got the letter a week ago saying if they didn’t have updated forms by the end of the week, he would lose the benefits that he does receive.  So after doing a lot of scrambling to get all the right forms and make sure they are filled out properly (at least as far as I can tell) we find out that we cannot just scan and email it.  We either have to submit the paperwork manually thru the mail, or it has to be faxed.  Faxed???!!!  Who still uses a fax machine anymore?  Fax machines are like the VHS player of communication.  They went obsolete a decade ago.  I remember one of the Back To The Future movies (I think it was II) that had a scene where Marty was fired by fax in the year 2015, so they were obviously around in the mid 80’s.  And I remember having to fax things at my first job back in 1997, but that was also when email and the internet were pretty much still in its infancy.  But now?

So in order to make sure that the stupid government agency has his paperwork, we went out this weekend and bought a new scanner/printer that also has a fax machine.  We sort of needed a new one anyway, but it is still the fact that we actually needed to buy a new one that had a fax feature really sort of rubs me the wrong way.  Isn’t government the best?!  

Finished In The Dark

I started sealing the driveway around 4:00 and I figured it would take me three hours to get everything spread.  Well I wasn’t too far off.  The only problem was that the sun goes down at around 6:45 and that meant finishing spreading tar in the dark.  It really wasn’t all that bad, though.  By the time I was in the dark, I only had about 8 feet left of driveway to go.  I finished with a flashlight in my mouth while I was spreading tar.  I had asked Alison to come out and help me by holding it, but I got attitude so I just did it myself.

It wouldn’t have been all that bad, but cleaning up got to be a bit of a challenge.  I ended up stepping in a spot of wet tar that I hadn’t spread yet because I didn’t see it.  Then, when I was finally finished and spraying off the squeegee in the road, a little kid from down the road came cruising up the sidewalk on a motorized scooter.  I saw him coming and tried to tell him to watch out for the hose I had stretched across the sidewalk.  He either didn’t hear me, or just didn’t listen.  He rode over the hose, and then up into the wet tar on the driveway.  I didn’t know about it until the next day when I woke up, looked out the window, and saw black tire tracks going all the way up the neighbor’s sidewalk toward the corner.

A Few Stragglers

So far so good.  There have been no swarms of yellow jackets around the foundation and I haven’t see any that have managed to burrow thru the foam barrier.  I have found a couple of dead yellow jackets in the house the last couple of days however.  Two the first day, and one today.  Again, still not sure where they are getting into the house but at least when I am finding them they are either dead, or practically dead.  I just need to make sure that the cats don’t find one and decide to lick/eat it (because at least Sam is curious that way).

Death To The Queen!

After spending every other day dousing the “crack” in the foundation where the yellow jackets were flying in an out of, I had finally had enough.  I had a can of foam crack filler on my work bench and since I needed to fill a few other cracks in preparation of winter, I decided to stick the nozzle in and fill it.  It actually took a little more than I would have expected, although I don’t think the foam actually filled where the nest was, it more likely filled the opening they were using to get at their nest.

After I filled it a bunch of yellow jackets began flying around the foundation looking for a way to get in.  It always seemed like the only time I ever saw them was when I sprayed the stupid thing.  I gave them a good spray with the poison as they were hovering around the foam that was oozing from the crack just to be thorough. 

My big worry was that once I sealed off the opening to the outside, they would find their way into the house thru cracks and holes in the walls.  I went into the basement to look around the foundation I didn’t see anything, so I thought everything was good.  The next day when I was cleaning the little boxes, I found about 10 dead yellow jackets in the utility sink.  They were mostly curled up and dead, although a couple were still twitching. 

I still didn’t see any obvious openings anywhere.  I didn’t see any cracks at the top of the walls and no holes in the floor/ceiling between the joists.  The only thing I could think of as to where they may have been coming from was around a couple of opening in the ceiling where a couple of water pipes and a drain pipe went thru.  After I got them all cleaned up, I noticed one very large yellow jacket that was dead on the floor.  It was at least three times the size of the ones I washed down the drain.  It makes me wonder if that was the queen.  I think that if it was I won’t be seeing any more yellow jackets.  But I will keep checking, just to make sure.

Another Tour

Since we have been getting conflicting reports on Kris’s dad over the last couple of weeks, we are still continuing to search for a new facility for him to live.  The case worker asked us about a place in Germantown, and honestly we have been dreading the possible tour of the place because we really don’t want him to go there.  It has a not so good reputation and the only way we would even consider moving him there is if we absolutely had to.  Well we were to the point where we felt like we needed to go have a look at it just in case.

We set up the tour with the administrator, who happened to not be there.  Instead we got shown around by someone else.  This was already not starting off well, or at the very least making us feel good about the place.  The woman that took us around showed us the memory wing, and walked us all through the place, and while it seemed nice enough, it still felt very “institutional” and cold.  There was even one person in the memory unit who was screaming out when we walked into the day room, something about do you know where my family is.  I know that this is a memory unit and there are people there suffering from Alzheimers, which is much more of a severe situation than Kris’s dad, but it was still sort of shocking.  I am not sure her dad would do well with that.  Kris even asked her about their “reputation”.  And she came out and admitted that things have not been the best there in the past, but they have a couple of new directors and they are working to change the culture there.  Somehow that didn’t fill me with confidence.

Kris looked up their rating with the state and they had a 2.5 out of 5 rating, that didn’t bode well for them either.  The final straw was Kris talking to some co-workers and getting their opinion.  They basically told us we could not move her father there.  One person had a family member who was staying there in their rehab unit after going thru some sort of surgery and hearing about the terrible care he got.  And he is coherent and was only there for a couple of weeks.  Needless to say, I think we will be passing on this place.

Wreath Orders

Ali came home from practice tonight with her wreath sale order forms.  Anyone who got a wreath from us (and Minor’s Garden Center) last year knows how wonderful these wreaths are.  So tell your friends!  And if you would like one this year, just let me know.  You know how to get a hold of me.  Money is needed ahead of time.  

Yellow Jacket Extermination

I have finally had enough with spraying hornet killer under the siding and still seeing yellow jackets buzzing about and crawling into the crack.  I have been waiting to fill the crack with expandable foam until all the yellow jackets were dead, but that just isn’t happening quickly enough.  So, being the engineer that I am, I devised a plan.

I determined that the reason that there are still yellow jackets flying in and out is that the actual nest must be deep inside the brick/under the siding; deep enough that the spray isn’t getting in far enough to kill them.  Even though the stuff says that spraying an opening will result in the workers bringing it back into the nest.  So I thought the best thing to do would be to get a directional tube to stick in the crack, like those thin tubes for spraying/directing WD-40.  Except that the wasp & hornet killer did not have that tiny of an opening that I could use one of those.  What I managed to find was a length of flexible fuel line that had a .060” opening.  It fit perfectly on the tip of the spray nozzle.  So I cut about two feet worth and stuck it down into the crack and sprayed away.  It looked like one of those fix-a-flat cans with foam funneling in to the opening.  It took about 5-10 seconds worth of spraying before the foam started to come back out of the opening, which would also correspond to my theory.  So that should have gotten far enough inside to kill them.  I waited of a little while and then gave it another shot, so wherever that crack lead, either into the hollow opening of a cinder block, or up into a void in the wall, everything should be dead now.  So all that is left to do is wait for a day or two to make sure nothing is flying in and out and then spray the expandable crack filler in there to seal it up.  RIP yellow jackets!

Cheer Night

Last night was cheer and dance night at the high school.  That means that Alison gets announced and we get to escort her up the track before the game.  The game was against Marquette, which traditionally is a tough game.  But this year, MUHS is in a down year, so I was looking forward to beating them.   Ali didn’t want us to be there, because it apparently isn’t cool for your parents to come to the football games.  

   
Anyway, we lined up before the game and when they announced us, the PA announcer pronounced Alison’s name as “Ollie” Hahn.  Why is it so difficult to pronounce Ali?  I supposed they could have announced it like the boy’s name, Ali, as in Muhammed Ali. 

Fantasy Football

The football season is about to kick off and I am about to draft players for my brother’s fantasy football league.  I was going to skip it this year, as I just don’t have time to review waiver wires, read player injury and status reports etc.  But it is sort of late in the game, so I told my brother that I would hang around for this year, but I think I will be done after this season.  So I asked Ali if she wanted to help me draft players and basically pick lineups every week.  She agreed.  So this is going to be her year.  I am trying to think up a good name to use since all the ones in this league pretty much blow.  Additionally, I had team names that are puns of players’ names.  So I have to come up with a really good one.  I am thinking some sort of a sasquatch related one.  I think I could find a really good logo for that.

Lice Scare

We got a call from one of Ali’s friends’ parents to just give us a “heads up”.  They had an older child who had just come back from college for the weekend who had contracted head lice while at school, and since Ali hangs out with their other child, maybe we should check her, just in case.  Her friend didn’t have any, but she thought it best to be thorough.  My first thought was, Really???!!!!  I thought we had finished going thru this stuff when Ali was in 8^th grade!  Although, I guess a college dorm is a good place for that to spread, if it does.

So I pulled out the combs and magnifying glasses to see and started going over Alison’s head after her shower.  We did a few other precautions as well, such as shampoo.  It took me a good half an hour to go over her head, and I didn’t find anything, so that is good.  But I think I’ll have to keep checking over the next couple of days.  I do not want a repeat of the fiasco from middle school!

Update on Kris's Dad

In the ever evolving saga that is Kris’s dad’s care, we got bad news again this weekend.  Now it looks as if we will have to move her dad.  After first being told to move him, then being told, no, he can stay, we are back to having to get him moved again.  Apparently someone came out to work with him, some sort of rehab specialist, or physical therapy something or other, and they told us that he is basically not safe to continue living at the Arboretum.  He has too much difficulty transferring from his bed to his wheelchair, and from his wheelchair to the toilet, and back.  They are afraid he is a fall risk, and the aides are not allow to help pick him up (or don’t want to).

They had called to ask if we could rearrange his room to make it easier for the time being to have the nurses and aides working with him.  We ended up taking one of his chairs, and moving a bunch of other things into storage and then getting his clothes rearranged.  One of the aides actually talked to us for about a half an hour (more like whined about the work she had to do to take care of him) and told us that yesterday they had left him in bed until lunchtime because he wasn’t able to help himself up, and that he was too heavy for the aides to lift.  Honestly we were shocked that they would have actually admitted to this.  Even if he were able to stay, after hearing they type of care he is receiving, it would only be until we could find a different place that we could find.  

No More Shrubs

One of the things on my perpetual to do list was to cut down the shrubs in the front of the house.  Kris and I don’t agree on when we planted the barberry bushes, but we both agree that it was time to get rid of them.  They started out as a nice splash of color, but over the years they grew funny, and then they picked up that disease thing that killed half of the bush on a couple of them.  And there was another one this year that was starting to have branches wither up and die too.  So as much as it pains me to dig out something that is alive and just get rid of it, it was time.

They actually came out much easier than expected.  I wasn’t sure what sort of condition the roots would be in, but after going to it with a lopping shears to take off the branches and cut the trunk at the base, they came out pretty easily.  Just a big pack of roots with clumped soil.  I was even able to save most of the soil and put it back into the hole so I didn’t need to put so much fill back in to level them off. 

Now we have only the yews and arbor vitaes left, and they are not in the best shape either.  We had rabbits, or something like rabbits, eating some of them over the winter a few years ago and some have some pretty big bare spots on them.  Maybe I can nurse them back, but if not, look for them to come out next year. 

Saying Goodbye Again

We said goodbye to Sarah for the second year now, today.  I think this time it went better than last year.  The only issue we ran into was when we were getting in the car to leave having to hear how she didn’t want to go, and wanted to stay at home.  It didn’t help when Alison wouldn’t drag her butt out of bed to say goodbye.  But once we got there I think things were better.  She likes her apartment, is actually living with people she knows this year, and has things set up in her room how she wants them.  It sure makes a difference having a year under your belt.