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Apparently I am not geared towards home ownership. I guess I have rented too long and I have gotten used to calling the landlord when something breaks so they can send the maintenance people over to fix whatever the problem is. The biggest concern I ever had regarding home repairs was to make sure none of the dogs chewed on the maintenance people. That was fine with me, I could handle that. I'm proud to say that I never had a dog try to eat the maintenance personnel. I have a spotless record in that regard. My record with do it yourself home repair is not quite as successful. For those of you that follow my ramblings here you might remember the fiasco with the air conditioner and the stink bugs. We recovered from that and...just when we thought it was safe to go back into the water...Jaws appeared again.
The problem started a few days ago when I noticed that the metal ring around the drain in the bathtub had come loose. I promptly showed it to my husband and asked him to glue it back into place (glue, putty, caulking...whatever he needed to use). He shot me a look like my face had gone green and said "Yeah, okay". I asked him very nicely if he needed me to go into town and purchase some stuff to glue it back into place. He said "No, we will go tomorrow. You don't know what to look for". I told him that any idiot could walk into a hardware store and ask for some glue (or whatever he needed). He then proceeded to inform me that this was not a simple "glue it back in" job and that the whole thing would have to be replaced. I asked him "What whole thing?". He just shook his head and said "Tomorrow, I'll take care of it tomorrow".
Well, two days went by and today we finally went to the hardware store. He bought some "kit", which included a new ring thingy and some plastic pipes (or what looked like pipes). When we got home I told him that I didn't understand why he bought all that stuff in this kit, all we needed was the ring thingy. He said nothing other than he would take care of it. He proceeded to change into some work overalls. When I asked him what in the Sam Hill he was doing that for he explained to me that since we live in a trailer home he would have to crawl underneath the trailer and take off the connections for the bathtub drain. Whatever...I'm going to eat lunch. Next thing I know the skirting is off the trailer and he is underneath hollering for me. He couldn't find the right connections. I had to run a tape measure down the drain hole (I didn't realize the pipe moved like that until I looked at it). He found the connections and took them off, leaving a gaping hole in the bathtub where the drain used to be. At this point I was sure a snake was going to come crawling through the dang thing as I firmly believe that we have a nest of them underneath the trailer (along with other forms of wildlife that I am terrified of). Now, you know that not a darn thing that we bought in this kit fit the connections...yeah, what a surprise. Back to the store we go to buy another kit. We get home, half of that kit doesn't fit either. My husband said he refused to go buy anything else, he would MAKE it fit.
To make a long story short he did finally get the dumb thing fixed. In the process he used his power drill, a hacksaw, some pliers and a HUGE adjustable wrench. He also went through numerous curse words, threw a number of things and drank a 6 pack of beer. He's sore from crawling around underneath the trailer and hitting his head on the axle. I'm sore from bending over the tub on my sore knees forever holding the top piece while he tried to attach it and make it work. It still leaks a small bit but I don't care. I took a shower tonight but in the morning I am filling up that tub with the hottest water that I can stand and soaking in a good hot bath...which I haven't been able to do since the blasted thing broke a few days ago. I can only hope that this is the end of the home repairs for a while...I don't know if I can take any more of them. If not, well, my car runs good...maybe I can just live in that for a while. And yes...I'm still looking for rogue snakes in the house.
Enchanted Jewelry & Collectibles...Dedicated To The Gypsy That Remains
A friend of mine recently asked me if we had any men's rings made of tiger's eye in our Enchanted Jewelry & Collectibles store. I said that unfortunately we do not however I would be able to find him one. So I am currently looking for the perfect ring for him. In the meantime we got to talking about it and he told me he really did not know much about these stones, other than the fact that he liked the way they looked. Of course that alone is reason enough to wear a piece of jewelry. I have always said that if you like something by all means get it and wear it proudly. A piece of jewelry, clothing, shoes or anything else that you are proud of and happy to wear and show off can do wonders for your self esteem. However many times certain stones can offer you much more than beauty. The tiger's eye stone is one of them.
The tiger's eye stone is a quartz stone which has rich yellow and golden brown stripes with a golden luster when it is polished. The bands within the stone resemble a tiger's eye, thus it's name. These stones are said to have mystical powers. Roman soldiers wore these stones for protection in battle. It is said that they offer protection during travel and also strengthens convictions and confidence. Tiger's eye stones are used for focusing the mind and are said to be beneficial for the weak or sick. As far as their healing ability goes tiger's eye stones are believed to relieve high blood pressure. Their wear is also very helpful in the presence of respiratory problems.
At Enchanted Jewelry & Collectibles we do currently offer some very nice and affordable necklaces which have tiger's eye pendants. We have this lovely Tiger's Eye Eternity Circle Protection Pendant Necklace...
We also offer this dainty Elongated Oval Mystical Healing Protection Tiger's Eye Quartz Pendant Necklace...
In addition to these pieces we also offer some beautiful necklaces made with healing black hematite. Please come by and take a look and remember, if we do not have what you are looking for please contact us, we just might be able to find exactly what you are looking for. Until next time, Rock On...
Enchanted Jewelry & Collectibles...Dedicated To The Gypsy That Remains
It's been a long week. It started off with a tie rod on the car snapping off about 30 miles from home in Cumberland, MD. Fortunately we have a good friend that knows a little bit about cars so we called him and he drove all the way to Cumberland, put a new tie rod on the car and followed us home to make sure we got there okay. I hate car repairs of any kind but fortunately this was an easy one compared to other breakdowns I have had in the past. A new wheel alignment and some grease should fix this once and for all (I hope). So okay, we recover from that.
The next day I'm sitting at the computer which is right next to the window when a stray cat jumps up on the air conditioner and starts meowing. It's nothing new to see stray cats in this neighborhood. Unfortunately many folks around here don't have their cats spayed or neutered so the feline population around here is phenomenal. I'd take all the kittens in if I could but I just can't...I'm only one person. We already have five that we have taken in and, in addition to the three dogs, that's about all we can handle. Anyhow, I figured this particular cat must be hungry because it wasn't that cold the day this happened. So I did what I always do when the cats come around meowing, I fed her. Apparently that wasn't enough, she wanted to come inside. I figured that she would get bored with the whole window thing after a while and move on. I was wrong. She did leave for a while but later that evening after dark she was back. And she started meowing again. Not only that but she started clawing and scratching at the window. I thought maybe another animal was after her so I went outside with a flashlight to check. Nope, nothing...she just wanted in. Apparently word has spread in the cat community that we are suckers. I spent the whole evening trying to get her off the air conditioner and trying to get her to stop clawing at the window. Of course all this time the dogs were going nuts, barking at the window. They are really good about leaving our house cats alone but they still react to the outside cats. The cat would leave and then come back. When I went to bed she was still on the air conditioner but had apparently settled in for the night. I figured she would be gone in the morning. She was. I have seen her up the street since then, she must have found more suckers.
The next afternoon it started to rain, and I mean rain hard. Pouring down rain. Some while after the rain started I happened to notice that the window below the air conditioner was dripping water. After looking at it closer I realized that the cat had clawed holes in the accordion panels next to the air conditioner and also in the sealing material around it. Great, water is just pouring in. It was too late to get anything to fix it, all the stores around here close early when they roll the sidewalks up. So we figured the only thing to do would be to just take the air conditioner out of the window. After all, summer's over anyway and we probably won't need it anymore this year. Well, I run it a lot longer than most people do but I figured I could deal with it, especially since I didn't have much choice. Now most people would have gone outside and taken the AC out from the outside but, oh no, not us. My husband has a bad back and can't lift anything very heavy and between my knee and my right arm I can lift even less than he can. So we decide to take the thing out of the window from the inside. In theory, it's easier due to the height of the window from the outside. So here we go. We start wrestling with this thing and pretty soon we had it sitting on a plastic bag in the living room. Of course it's soaking wet because it's still pouring rain outside but at least it's out of the window and the window is now closed.
Now, little did we know that apparently a family of stink bugs had decided that they liked the air conditioner too. I'm not sure where they had positioned themselves within the AC but they were not happy that their little home had been disturbed. My husband and I were both on our hands and knees trying to pick up these little jackwagons and buddy, they were mad. Needless to say that within a few minutes our living roon smelled like the bathroom at the corner gas station. I mean to tell you, those little things STINK! I guess that's why they call them stink bugs, huh? My husband told me to go get the vacuum and just vacuum them up. Uh, I don't think so! I'm not having that stench get into the vacuum cleaner so I can relive this over and over again. We finally got the broom and swept most of them up and into a plastic bag. Then we got the AC moved into the storage closet right outside the door. Once it was outside my husband was able to get the remaining bugs out of it however, for days after that I kept finding one or two bugs in the house. It's been a couple of days now and I have not seen anymore. The stink is finally gone thanks in part to the gallons of Febreze that I have sprayed throughout the house. Fortunately it was contained in the living room for the most part so we could get some relief when we went to bed.
I'm not sure what the moral of this story is however I do know two things...stink bugs like to live in air conditioners and I don't ever want them in my house again. Who knew? Live and learn I guess.
Enchanted Jewelry & Collectibles...Dedicated To The Gypsy That Remains...
