We decided to weather over in Tucson. We flew out on New Year’s day, returning the end of February. This was a downer for our construction company. The last payment is due when the punch-down items are complete. They damaged one of our blinds and had to order new. When they went to pick them up, the found the blind company was closed between Christmas and January 5. There was no way that anybody could get into the warehouse. With our house locked up, they will have to wait a couple of months for their last payment.

Getting to Tucson took all day. We took two flights which connected in Las Vegas. Both flights were delayed because clouds in Los Vegas were under 1,000 feet. They had to put more time between each takeoff and landing. By the time we got into our room, it was after 9 PM local time.

Our room is a lot like a casita. It has two bedrooms, two baths, and a living area / kitchen. It’s ideal for parents with two kids. The second bedroom has two twin beds. We have a bright light just outside the main bedroom’s window. I was so tired our first night that the light didn’t bother me a bit. On our first full day I covered the window with some aluminum foil.

On day one, our first task was getting the rental car, which went perfectly. The next task was food. We went to the local Walmart. We had so many items we needed two carts to to get it out to the car. We had one miss. I wanted to buy two 5 pound weights for my daily exercise. We put them in the bottom of the cart. Our check out clerk didn’t notice them. The guard checking folks as the leave didn’t notice them. We didn’t notice them. The two weights were left in the cart on the Walmart parking lot. Hopefully somebody returned them to the store.

Today I found out that the bike rental wasn’t anywhere near what I thought it would be. The other bike shops that rent bikes want $30 per day, which is almost as expensive as the rental car. With this being a university town, the ride share bikes look promising. I put my credit card on file.

Our first fun activity was “Rolling Thru Time”, a huge museum of old cars, fire engines, etc. The biggest part of their vehicles are Model T and Model A Fords. This museum focuses on returning the cars to drivability with the original drive train. Almost every vehicle in the museum could drive out of the door.

I hope this finds everyone doing well.

One word describes this week — Christmas! The main event was Christmas Eve dinner. Mark and family came on Christmas Eve Eve (the 23rd). They were flying back from a vacation in Mexico and stopped for a couple of days. Ryn drove down from NY and stayed overnight. Ed and Lynne drove down for dinner. I picked up Mom so she could join the dinner and festivities. Danita prepared some of her signature dishes. There was much more food than we could eat.

On Christmas morning Ryn and JaMMM had a gift opening, primarily for the kids. We had a great time doing family things and opening presents. A new family member joined the photo-bug club. Here is the very first picture Mira took with her brand new camera. (Maia was off doing something much more important.) Then it was time for everyone to go home.,

I hope all had a great Christmas.

There are a few small things to do, but we are basically done. We have full use of our kitchen. We’ve moved back into our bedroom. We can use toilets and sinks on all floors without restriction. The new shower is great. Woo Hoo! It’s all just in time for visits from Kathryn and Mark & family. There are some pics on the website.

The builder did an amazing job of protecting floors & furniture. They hung plastic to minimize the construction debris. hey did a wonderful job of cleaning up every day. But sanding walls creates a lot of dust. We have been through a cleaning cycle twice. We are declaring ourselves dust-free. Many pictures are rehung. The place looks and feels like home.

The backsplash for the kitchen sink was installed Friday. I would like to say how great it works, but they left it covered with protective plastic and to us to keep our hands to ourselves. The electrician will be here tomorrow. Next is the plumber. At that point, we should have a working bathroom and a working kitchen. We aren’t sure we will get everything done this year, but once we have plumbing, we’ll have what we want most.

We had double entertainment with Mom today. The first was music and lunch for all assisted living families. The music group did a nice job. The lunch was plenty of good food. After that, we went to a concert given by he Suspicious Cheese Lords. I wrote about this group last year. They are a group of 10 men singing a cappella. The concert is in the beautiful chapel. It’s old style architecture offer perfect acoustics for this kind of music. And if they want to use an organ for one or two pieces, there’s a nifty one on hand.

That’s it for us. Cross your fingers for a stove and a toilet. I hope this finds everyone doing well.

Danita did a brilliant job of cooking ahead so we could eat home-cooked dinners during construction. Her cooking plus a few restaurant dinners took us up to Friday, which was the original estimated completion date. Unfortunately, it looks like we will have two more weeks of construction, which is currently at a standstill. We are waiting for the kitchen backsplash to be fabricated and installed. The biggest excitement was the party to decorate the clubhouse. Danita normally goes to this annual event and I usually stay home. This year, I attended so I could share in the pizza and cookies available to those who decorated. I even found a job I could do to help out.

Our biggest excitement was the delivery of shelf liners. There were two boxes. One was delivered to us Friday afternoon. The second was delivered to our neighbor about 10 PM Friday. In the delivery instructions, we ask the delivery persons to ring our doorbell, so we know the package is on our doorstep. They did not ring our doorbell for the afternoon delivery, but they did ring our neighbor’s doorbell Friday evening. Our neighbor was startled.

My other project last week was to switch our clubhouse internet service from Comcast to Verizon. The switch was triggered when Verizon notified us that they no longer support land line telephone service. We now have all our phones lines provided as part of the FIOS internet service. As a bonus, we saved money on the new arrangement.

I hope this finds everyone doing well.

We had a very nice Thanksgiving. We went to Ed & Lynne’s. Jul, Pete, and their kids joined with us. All the traditional foods were there. Nobody went home hungry. We weren’t able to give Jul shelter, due to the construction, so they stayed in a hotel overnight. Friday as a service project, we made 50 bag lunches. These go downtown for the poor & homeless. Then we all went to Charlestown and had a very nice lunch with Mom.

The house construction is in a lull. The took the measurements required for the countertop. It takes a week to get that fabricated. Then there is another measure/fabricate for the backsplash. But we are seeing serious progress. All the tile is in place for the bathroom. Cabinets are in place. Once the backsplash is in place, it should be a quick job to finish everything up. We’re scheduled to be done on December 19. If that fails, we have been promised a working kitchen.

With the house looking pretty good, my attention was drawn to the grouting in the loft bathroom. It was once white. Now it was dark and looking gnarly. My weekly cleaning never helped. I tried having it steamed cleaned. No improvement. Most cleaning tips are based on chemicals that I don’t even want in the house — you know, like this:

Safety tip: Be sure to use heavy duty rubber gloves. It is suggested that you not inhale while losing this product. You might also want to close your eyes.

Hitting the internet with renewed focus, I decided to try using bleach powder coupled with a seriously heavy duty brush. Here’s something I learned. Bleach powder is much safer than the more common liquid chlorine bleach, and it is very effective. I’m pleased with the result. Nobody is going to confuse this floor with a new one, but there is significantly less “gnarl” in the house.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

The construction crew went back to work. This time they fixed, sanded, and painted the walls in the kitchen. It didn’t look like all that much work, but the dust generated is huge. It’s not just one crew that does the work. So far there are painters/wall fixers, electricians, plumbers, and tile guys. The painters wanted to install a shower liner Friday, but we had to say no. This work involves glue. Danita’s allergic to that. We have a hotel lined up, but our reservation starts Monday. So the tile guys will install the liner as well as the tile, starting Monday morning. We hope to be back in the house Friday.

We had an unusual lineup of dinners this week. Friday we had a neighborhood dinner party. Saturday we had the volunteer dinner. Today (Sunday) we have a pot luck dinner just for our home owners association. And just for fun, I also will enjoy Monday morning Men’s club, which comes with bagels and coffee. After that, we’ll be on our own for food until Friday, when the potato food truck comes. You have to be sharp to keep up in this neighborhood.

That’s all for us. Here’s hoping everybody is doing well.

Last week was the time for fall foliage to strut it’s stuff. Crimson, red, yellow, gold, and green. Colors leapt out, each according to the species of plant, in combinations that surprised and delighted the observer. It was a great time to ride Columbia’s wooded trails.

We often go to concerts in the weekend. This weekend we doubled down. Saturday we enjoyed a delightful performance of Brahms and Mendelssohn at UMBC. Today’s concert tempted us with a performance by a steelpan and piano. It was an intriguing concert. The guy is a genius on the steelpan. They paid jazz pieces. Unfortunately, after a while the songs were all sounding pretty much the same. Still, how many people have attended a piano and steelpan concert?

Danita and I decided to place a sun screen on the front door side panel window. The window is 15 inches wide and 7 feet high (more or less). I found a company, located somewhere in Southeast Asia, through Amazon that would make a custom blind. I put in the measurements. In a few hours, I got notice of a message from Amazon. It was the blind company, making sure the measurements were OK. I returned the message. I think it’s pretty amazing. Somebody half way around the world making a custom blind, checking with me to make sure it will be OK, making the blind, and shipping it to me in a couple of weeks. But there was one minor glitch. When they messaged that they will start making the blind immediately, they signed off “Have a nice life!” Amazing service. Decent English. No clue about American idioms.

That’s it for us. I hope all are well.

The big news is construction. We asked the contractor to:

fix cracks in the ceiling,
replace the kitchen cabinets,
renovate the main bathroom, and
paint everything on the first two floors, from the toe boards to the ceiling.

We got off on a rocky start when the construction company said that fixing the ceiling cracks was not in the contract and we had to pay the extra immediately. We disagreed. Resolution comes from the big boss, who was too busy talk to us. Ultimately, after a lot of spirited discussion, the big boss made himself available. He talked with us, the site boss, and the sales person. He agreed this was an oversite on their side and said we would not pay extra for the cracks. The day after the cracks were fixed, we had a small earthquake. The epicenter was just a couple of miles from us. The cracks remained fixed. That’s a good omen.

After that, things were totally amazing, in the very best way. They brought in a large crew of 8 or so and did all the demolition in one day. They decided to do the painting next (except for the kitchen and bath, of course). After four days, the only room not finished is the large bedroom upstairs. The painters are fastidious. A separate person follows along behind the painters making sure the job is prefect. I say with total assurance that the ceilings and walls never looked this good, even when the house was brand new.

It’s been a time of continuously moving our stuff around as they paint different rooms. Most of our appliances are in the garage. We have access only to our microwave and the refrigerator. Before they went home for the week, they put a folding table in the living room. This is a great improvement because our meals, the food, and the laundry are all on the same floor. We have access to one bathroom upstairs and one in the basement. The only water available on the main floor is a pitcher we chill in the refrigerator. Filling the pitcher upstairs and taking it to the refrigerator reminds me of a Lenten exercise we did many years ago, taking all our water from an outdoor outlet. (It was to help us remember that many people on this planet still live in primitive conditions.)

The crew is pleasant and hard working. Almost everything went well so far. The first day of work, one of the crew intentionally jumped over the landing railing and landed on the living room floor some 15 feet below. He claimed he didn’t hurt himself, but he never jumped the railing again. The more serious accident was when the scaffolding collapsed. Fortunately, nobody was hurt. They had finished painting the ceiling, so they just packed up the pieces and took it away. They will finish painting this week.

Electricians are already at work. We used to have an outlet on the side of the kitchen island. The code has changed a lot lately. The construction crew told us we would have to move that to a pop-up outlet on the island surface. Then the electrician said the pop-up outlet is also disallowed. But there’s a trick. There’s no rule against having a junction box inside the island. After the inspector is done, the electricians will install an outlet — right on the side of the island where it used to be. As the electrician was leaving, he said “I know what I want to put in the permit”. This is just one example of why you want pros doing the work.

In unrelated news, I was able to finally declare the shirts I ordered were lost. One of the options I had was to immediately refund the money. After I clicked the box, a message said the order is refunded. (Yea!) I would receive the funds in 7 to 10 days. (What?????) We received the funds the yesterday. (It’ about time!)

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Its was a week of puzzling surprise, crushed expectations, and recovery.

I got my new hearing aids Friday. The left hearing aid buzzed when I use the Waterpik. I got a replacement left hearing aid, came home, and — surprise! — it buzzes when I use the Waterpik. The old hearing aids never buzzed. Nobody can explain this mystery.

I ordered two shirts from the Docker online store on October 15. Delivery was just 5 days away. October 24 comes and goes, and the shirts are still in a truck somewhere in the mid-Atlantic area. Finally, the shirts were delivered on Saturday, the 25th. Except that there was no package on my porch, or under the bushes, or on either neighbor’s porches, or in the mailbox, or anywhere else. Now I have to wait 48 hours before I request a refund. Pooy on them. So much for retail therapy.

This afternoon, we went to hear the Navy band give a concert. When we got there, we found the concert is cancelled. I was crushed. We immediately went home, where I recovered from my distress by practicing a little ice cream therapy. (Recommended by grandfathers for all manner of life’s little disappointments.)

We definitely don’t want any surprises or disappointments next week. Construction is scheduled to start at 8 AM Monday. Most of the first week will be demolishing the old, making way for the new.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.