Snow Snow and More Snow and Oral Surgery

I guess that I really jinxed it when I wrote my last blog about how little snow we had. Remember that little last snow bank in our yard? 

Oh well...

This is what we are in for.... 

It's time to pay the piper. We got round one last night. It was only a few inches but a lot of blowing around. Right now we are in the middle of round two and the winds have really kicked up to 40 mph. We are going to expect another 4 to 6 inches today. Then round three is coming in overnight. They said in total we should have 12 to 14 in. I don't mind the snow so much, but it's the blowing that is awful! It blows into huge drifts which can make travel dangerous. It also blows over trees and branches on to the power lines that cause outages. Then the temperature is going to drop to below zero tomorrow night. That's fun. Then everything freezes solid and makes it difficult to snow blow or shovel. Especially the pile that the plow keeps putting at the end of the driveway!

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Yesterday was an adventure. But it was all made better by getting to see this beautiful friendly doggie face at my dentist office! Meet George. He is a 1-year-old Irish wolfhound that is learning to be a good boy. He's behind the desk in the receptionist area. Quite a gentle giant. He is standing on the floor next to that chair with his head leaning up over the counter to get a sniff of my hand. Yes, he's that big already!

The rest of my dentist visit was not as much fun. I know I've been having trouble with some gums located underneath a bridge that I had put in over 10 years ago. They needed some serious attention. Since I was going in for my cleaning I asked if they should get looked at by the dentist. The hygienist rescheduled me for another appointment to come back in the afternoon because other people were all canceling their appointments due to the impending storm. No waiting!

On second thought, waiting would have been nice. Like waiting forever and not having this done? Lol. 

But seriously, I suddenly had oral surgery performed on six areas of gums above my teeth that were being affected. I had the bridge work corrected and ground down smoother to stop irritating the area. I also had a piece of cadaver bone mounted in to reinforce another area. Then I had dissolving mesh put in and sutured down to help the gums reattach back to the teeth. Sounds crazy hey? Also expensive.

With no dental insurance, our dentist kindly gives us a cash discount. So once we were done, we trekked on over to the credit union and performed a robbery to bring back a hefty amount of cash. Ugh.

Amazingly, I am not having any pain at all today. There is some swelling to be expected. But not nearly any of the dangerous pains that I was given as precaution and possibility of pain medication needed.

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The other thing we took care of yesterday was voting. We had a state judicial race primary election in Wisconsin that was quite important. We were going to vote absentee if we were gone on our vacation. But since we were in town we were able to just go in person and do it the original way. 

Also on Monday we finished up the painting in the kitchen. I got this little section of wall completed with taping off and then two coats of green. 

Steve took care of unhooking our modem and router that are usually hidden up on top of the refrigerator. Then we moved that out, so we could get painting done behind there as well. 

And here it is now, all done and everything moved back into place.

I'm really glad we went with this soft sage mossy green. It sure looks a lot better than that previous beige/rose/mauve color. I think that color sucked in the light whereas this new one reflects it outwards. 

I put everything back in our little kitchen table area, including my hand blown glass paperweights and the cuckoo clock and my little 12-month quilted stitching hanging from my friend Patti.

Steve got the refrigerator back into place and put our modem and router set up behind my big platter from the kids. Everything is now back to normal. 

Well, it's Wednesday morning. Since this storm is going to keep us trapped in the house for a couple days, Steve decided that we should start painting over that same beige/rose/mauve color in our bathroom. So we started on the walls and I just rolled half the ceiling before taking a break. We might run out of paint so maybe I can only get one coat done. We will have to wait for the storms to subside for a couple days before we can go back and get some more.

Not about to risk going out in a blizzard 

just to get more paint! 

Bathroom and Doors and Weaving

We got a lot done again this weekend....

We did a thorough going over of the master bathroom.   First we cleared out "stuff"....  check out how much "stuff" we had over the washer and dryer!!!  Good thing this all hides behind the folding mirrored doors, huh?  (the bifold doors were removed before this pic was taken)

The whole bathroom got a fresh coat of paint, same color as before but just cleaned up and brightened up the room.    The ceiling and all the interior walls needed paint.  The two walls along the exterior of the house are all pine, so those don't need any paint.

The inside of this washer and dryer closet was all freshly painted too.  We bought new shelves and added a third bracket to each span to prevent sagging.  It sure looks nice now that it's done!

We put only the most important things back, and culled the rest to either donate or the dump.

Then we had an incident ----  my insistence on adjusting the bi-fold mirrored doors.  For over 14 years I have asked REPEATEDLY for Steve to adjust them "upwards" on the little pivot point on the bottom.  Year after year, I have asked him to adjust the bifolds, as they were always scraping and grinding and binding along the bottom track. He always grumbled that they could NOT be adjusted.  He can reach down behind there but I can't.  My arms are too short to reach down while leaning either over the washing machine or the dryer.   I asked him why can't the pivot be adjusted on the outside bottom with a thin wrench.  He said : "NO" .... Well, why did they include that cute little flat wrench then?

About the third year of ownership, the doors dragged so much that one panel CRACKED the mirror when opening it!!  That year we had to buy a new double set as they didn't sell the singles.   (There is an extra bi-fold door now in the basement we are planning on leaving for the new owners)

Well---- this time,  while the doors were off and laying on the floor, I took a good look at that bottom pivot point myself.  Lo and behold, there IS an adjustment, just as I had figured.  AND it could be reached from the outside on the bottom with the little flat wrench!

Mr. Fix It was goaded into working on them, and they are finally adjusted === and they work PERFECTLY!  The sliding doors have never, ever, ever worked this good!!!  Effortlessly gliding open and shut.  No binding, no scraping, no grinding.

What a guy , eh?

I wrote on the cute little wrench with an indelible marker: "TO ADJUST BI FOLD DOORS" and hung it from the shelf above the washing machine... for the future owners.  LOL

So here are the finished walls around the bifold closet doors, around the top of the shower, and also the painted wall goes around the left behind the toilet and around to the master closet/changing room.

These walls behind the sink and around the tub didn't need any paint, but I did dust off the light fixtures and the hanging ivy over the tub. I am thinking after all of our work today, a nice soak in the whirlpool is in order.   Hmmmmmmm?

Once the bathroom was done, I had to keep on painting, you know how that goes.   The brush and roller were still wet with paint.   So I did up the interior sides of both of the entry doors on the east and west sides of the house.  Got rid of all the doggie paw marks and little grandtot dings and scraps.   My locksmith hubby removed the knobs for me, and put them back on when dry.

  

I did take a little break this weekend to get some weaving done too.  Soon this loom will be going to a new home, so I whipped out this rug and finished another one down underneath it, already wound on the takeup beam. 

The biggest loom might have having a new home this week too.  I had started this blanket a while back and decided to finish it off.  Well, not quite but I got a lot more done than I had, so I should finish it up by tomorrow.

On motorhome news... We did a Fleet Farm run this morning.  (farming/automotive chain in the midwest)   Steveio picked up 32 quarts (8 gallons)  of diesel oil for the motorhome, as he is going to get an oil change done as soon as it warms up a bit out there.  For now it's amazingly spring-like in Wisconsin.  We were up to 38 degrees today and sunny.   But never fear, our weather is known to turn on a dime, and we can be buried under feet of snow as late as April.   

He also picked up a headlight relay switch for an operation on the rig... seems Safari headlights are pretty dim, not wired properly from the get go.  The guys on our yahoo group  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SafariCoaches/ have found that wiring in a relay with a better source of 12v can make the lights brighter.    

Last weekend, we had bought a trailer hitch for on the back of the Tracker.  Today at Fleet Farm, Steve picked up a shiny new ball and locking hitch pin for the receiver too.  That will also be a warm weather day project in the garage to get it bolted up and into place.  Although we are selling our boat to our kids, we may wish to *borrow* it when we come back into the area in the summers....   so it's a good idea to have a hitch, just in case! 

In family news---  soninlaw Mark made it home safely from working down in Arkansas for a few weeks.  Little Chelsea is so happy to have her daddy home again, as is the very pregnant Erin.  It's a relief to have him back, safe and sound. 

Heather and Jesse called this morning from the airport in Milwaukee, they made it home too from their week long vacation down in Florida at Micky Mouse's house. Little Jameson had a blast and they will have memories that last a lifetime.  Jesse's wonderful parent's, Lisa and Kevin took them all down as a Christmas present.  What a great thing to do and Keven also enjoyed turning 50 in the Magical World of Disney! 

Well, I am gonna pop some ibuprofen  and hop into that tub.... ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

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