11/29/2010 Oh No, Another Trip to Town!

We’ve been to town nearly every day for the past 3 weeks. Today’s trip is because Bob found online what he thinks will work even better than the piece of molding he bought yesterday. If it will make putting the transition in any easier for him I’m all for it. Of course when we got there they didn’t have what he wanted in the size he needed. BUT, he found something else that he liked even better than the molding he already has. Whatever it takes, I don’t care at this point as long as we keep receipts. Oh yeah, we did bring back all the extra flooring we had since we’re now going with carpet in the bedroom. We also returned the left over kitchen tiles and some other odds and ends.

While we were in town we stopped at the grocery store, a furniture store, JC Penney’s, Walmart and Mickey D’s.

Needless to say no work is getting done today. That’s ok….he doesn’t have to work on it every day. The house is functional.

When we got home I put a turkey in the oven for dinner. In fact, I made our Thanksgiving dinner today. I made all the things that we would have if we were back in Delaware.

My turkey turned out so well!

I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings! I just hope its not another trip to town.

11/28/2010 I’ll Call This One…..

HOUSTON, LOWE’S, WE HAVE A PROBLEM.

Bob went and played poker last night. He really needed to get away from the house,,,,the floor. I went over to Carl and Sandy’s for a bit and the subject of the floor came up. I relayed how there was a problem with the transition and Carl perked right up. He said, “I know what’s wrong!” And then I perked right up!

It seems as though the directions with the transition package doesn’t give a full set of instructions. He started to tell me what needed to be done and halfway through my eyes just sorta glazed over. This was way too much for me to take in. I told Carl that I wanted him to come over in the morning. He agreed that he would. I told him Bob would never ever believe me if I tried to tell him what was wrong and Sandy chimed in with, “That sounds just like here!”

So this morning Carl came over and found Bob laying on the floor “studying” the situation. Carl told him what the problem was and explained that he went through three, count em’ three, sets of transition packages. He said the first one just splintered, like ours. The second one did the same thing when he was “tapping” it into place. He went on to explain when that happened to the second one he then took a hammer to it to make sure it was dead. That was when he got the directions out again, laid on the floor to “study” the situation that he realized what the directions didn’t say. Just as Carl was explaining, Bob was seeing it for himself at the same time.

So off to Lowe’s I go to get the second set of transition wood. At $27.00 a pop. I got the last one in the color we need. Do I need to tell you I said a prayer that this one would go in easily because I didn’t see our “wood” on display anymore either. Please don’t let this be discontinued….please.

By the time I got home he had taken the metal channel up and fixed what needed to be fixed on it and had it back down again already to put the wood pieces into it. Again. So he's down ont he floor, measuring, piecing pieces together and he gets a section in! YES! We're on our way to having this job complete. Halfway across and things are going fine. He's taking his time, he's gentle as he "taps" the pieces down into the channel. All is right with our world! I decided to go shopping online and I'm just surfing along and then I heard it. CCCRRRRAAAACCCCCKKKKKK! Oh no, please don't let that be the transition wood. Please! Please! Please! I would rather it be Bob falling through the floor than having that $27.00 dollar piece of wood cracking in half. Then I heard HIM. I stayed put. No way was I walking out to see what happened. Oh dear God, please keep Bob out in the kitchen, please don't let him remember I'm back here in the bedroom. Even though he won't be yelling at ME he'll be yelling. I can't stand it anymore. I walk out into the hallway and he just looks at me. It looks like he is ready to explode. I feel so bad for him. He can't hold it it anymore .....*(&^%%#&$*%(%)**&@&^@*&#(!

He says, "Get in the truck! We're going to Lowe's!" I said, "Ok,,,but let's load up the rest of the flooring material and return it." Looking back now, that probably wasn't the best time to bring this up,

We get to Lowe's and he goes straight to the wood section,,,not the flooring section. I see him coming down the aisle with a piece of wood in his hand, molding actually, and he says, "I should have done this in the first place! I'm going to make my own!" I didn't say a word.

When we got back to the house he just put it away. Enough is enough for one day.

So close…..

….and the floor saga continues.

11/27/2010 We HATE This Floor!

There is a transition from the laminate flooring in the living/dining room area to the kitchen where tile has been laid.

When we bought the flooring we bought the matching transition piece for $27.00. Bob got the metal channel piece in place and screwed it down ready for the two pieces to be fitted into it.

A closer look.

Two pieces of wood are supposed to fit nicely together and just slip right into this channel. NOT!

Bob spent many an hour on the floor trying to figure out why this wasn’t working. Talk about major frustration. Let me tell ya, I learned a whole new language on this part of the project. I think he even made up a few new ones. I didn’t know so many cuss words could be strung together in one sentence. I wish I had a tape recorder going for he surely would have taken the Guinness World Record one continuous string of cuss words.

When he thought he had it…he started tapping it in and….and…wait for it…..the wood splintered. Now think back to that long string of cuss words I told you he spouted off in the previous paragraph. THAT WAS NOTHING! Talk about mad! I thought his blood pressure was going to go through the roof.

He quit. He’d had enough. He hates this floor. I hate this floor by now. It was at this point that I decided that the bedroom flooring material was going back. We will carpet the bedroom instead. I will not, can not, put him through this again. And the floor saga continues.

11/26/2010 Still Stuffed!

We had a very nice Thanksgiving yesterday with lots of friends. This year was much different than last few here in Quail Run. In years past everyone gathered in the large Carnaval Room and we all ate together. While there was still a dinner there it seemed that most of the people who have been coming here, at least as long as we have been, opted to have more personal dinners. Groups of 4 to 6 had their Thanksgiving dinners in various homes here. Bob and I were involved with a group of 30 that had an early Thanksgiving dinner or perhaps it was a lunch since we ate at one o’clock.

As I told you yesterday our contribution was glazed carrots and roasted garlic cauliflower. The carrots were good! The cauliflower dish,,,,didn’t even get out of the house. My darn oven went on the fritz and I didn’t know it. Halfway through the baking time I went to stir it and when I put my hand in the oven I knew it wasn’t at 425 degrees. The cauliflower had been in the oven for half an hour and was still as hard as it was when I put it in there. Of course I had this timed so that I could take it out of the oven and head right over to where we were eating and it could be served hot. What was I going to do now? I had one small bag of peas in the freezer so that wasn’t going to work. I had one can of green beans and that wasn’t going to feed a bunch of people. One jar of beets wasn’t going to go far either. My only option? Open three cans of corn and heat. I was so disappointed after all that mincing of garlic, chopping of fresh parsley and cutting cauliflower flowerets to uniform sized pieces. Damn oven!

In the end, it didn’t really matter, we had so much food it wasn’t funny.

Friends gathering outside, waiting to eat.

….and the food kept coming.

Marilyn and Judy enjoying a visit and glass of wine before dinner.

Wanna bet Bob is talking to Wilf about floor installation?

Al brings over a deep fried turkey that he has cooked and carved.

Cameras were clicking all over the place.

Sandy calls everyone to the buffet line.

Everyone had plenty to eat and there were plenty of leftovers to take home to eat again later.

We thought it was going to be too cold to eat outside but sitting in the sun it was quite warm and it didn’t take long for jackets to come off.

A good time was had by all and no one went home hungry.

So that was yesterday. Today Bob was back to working on the floor. The tile is now all done except for one strip which won’t be done until the bedroom floor goes down.

I feel so bad for him. His knees and back hurt so bad with the constant up and down. When you aren’t used to doing that and then are at it for a full week, well it certainly takes a toll.

11/25/2010 HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Bob and I want to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving.

We have so much to be thankful for. We have families who love us, friends that we cherish and our health. When we join a very special group of people for dinner and give thanks this afternoon we will certainly include our service men and women who are giving so much for us. We will give thanks to their families for the sacrifice they too are making.

This Thanksgiving Day Bob is taking a day of much needed rest. Yesterday we moved the furniture around a little bit and found a way that gives us so much room now! Who knew moving a chair five feet in a different direction would make so much difference!

Are you hitting the stores tomorrow for Black Friday? I was thinking about the one and only time I did that. In case you’ve never read the beginning of this blog here is a link to that day. You’ll have to read down a few paragraphs to get to it.

http://quinnsawesomejourney.blogspot.com/2007/01/112306-happy-thanksgiving.html

I have food to make! Our contributions to the dinner today are Roasted Garlic Cauliflower and Glazed Carrots.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

11/21-11/23/2010 The Knees, The Back, The Hips

The title of this encompasses some of the body parts on Bob that give him great pain right now.

He is aching all over. He told me tonight that he hasn’t been this sore since jump school in Fort Bragg, forty three years ago.

Up and down, up and down, all day long. I tell him repeatedly to ask ME to get him what he needs but he just doesn’t think about it or its something he has to do.

I’m the go-fer. I go to Lowe’s for this and to Home Depot for that with a few trips to Walmart thrown in for good measure.

The floors are coming along beautifully. The living/dining room is now done with the laminate. The kitchen is done with tile. The hallway and entryway will be finished tomorrow and most likely the bathroom will too. When he’s done this tomorrow I’m going to insist that he rests.

He did get a day off on Sunday because it was so windy here that there was no chance of working outside trying to cut wood. I was glad for the wind!

I am so fortunate that Bob is the carpenter that he is. He pays attention to detail and doesn’t settle for less than the very best he can do. Every corner matches and every seam is straight. I remember when we were building our three season porch in Delaware and the inside corner was cut 1/32 of an inch short. It looked fine! If we had hired someone to do the job, in all likelihood that cut would have been good enough I’m sure. For Bob….not so much. I told him no one would ever notice that in a million years. He told me when he walked into the porch that was all he saw. Needless to say it was done over again. Its just who he is and I’m glad he is the way he is! Sometimes he drives me nuts but in the end I’m always so proud of him and his work. I am so lucky and I know it!

I’m not going take anymore pictures of the rooms, at least that’s my plan right now. Not until they are done and all put back together. Our fridge is in the dining room right now and I’ll be so glad when its back where it belongs. The dining table is in the living room and stuff is just out of place all over.

While I was making a run today to Lowe’s I stopped at Fry’s grocery store and bought a nearly 12 pound Butterball turkey for $3.67! SCORE!

And the floor story continues.

30 Days of Truth

I’ve lost interest in this. Plain and simple. I’m not finishing it.

11/18 – 11/20/2010 Just More Floor Story

As I type this the majority of the living/dining room is done. Just a few more pieces of trim need to go in and Bob can call it a day on that area.

The floor is just beautiful and he did a great job of putting it in. There were so many little tiny cuts to be dealt with.

Isn’t it a pretty color and pattern?

I can’t wait to paint! I dread picking out the color but I’m looking forward to painting.

Tile gets started next. I don’t know how much more Bob’s knees can take.

Our weather has cooled down. I don’t even have to go outside or look at the thermometer or hear the weatherman to know that. Can you guess how I know? I can tell by our water. Our cold water is cold! No more hot cold water for us.

We had a pizza party last night in the Carnaval Room. National Pizza’s brought in a half dozen pizza ovens and made the pizzas on site. They were quite good and there was a good selection of toppings to include ham and pineapple. The sauce was tasty and crust was pretty good too. It was five dollars for all you could eat

After dinner we played LCR (Left, Center, Right) for three one dollar bills each. One couple took all the money. First Bev,the wife, won and then Skip, the husband, won. It was a a lot of fun and we’ll play again and again this season.

I can’t wait to post pics of the finished floors!

11/17/2010 A Good Day, A Bad Day, All in One

Let the floor laying begin! Yep, today the floor started going down. The very first piece should have given Bob an indication of how this job was going to go. The edge had to be cut in order to fit where it needed to be. This is not going to be easy for Bob. Being the carpenter he is he’s used to a proper workbench and not having to work off of a patio table. But again, being the carpenter he is, he made it work.

After measuring and cutting….

….the first piece went down.

It seems that nearly every piece has to be cut. That involves lots of kneeling and stretching and getting up and down and traveling up and down the three steps to the outside and back in…..this is brutal. Every cut is time consuming and physically tiring.

On top of it all its a beautiful day outside and Bob would rather much be riding his bike or perhaps even golfing. Instead, he spent his day working on this floor that he now HATES!

Measuring twice….

….cutting once.

Small hand tools are used…..

….and bigger, sharper ones are used.

WATCH THOSE FINGERS!

By the end of the day, 2/3 of the floor was done. He would have more done but this is where the bad part of the day came in.

Today we lost a friend of ours here in the park. Dan. When we went cycle riding in the desert two years ago Bob rode with Dan.

We partied with Dan and his wife Bonnie just a few nights ago at one of the park dances. Dan danced all night and in between sat and talked with Bob about projects around the park model. On Tuesday nights they play pool together and I spent several afternoons at the pool with them. Dan was one of the ones we planned on growing old with.

Dan was only 58 years old. Fifty eight. He died suddenly and without warning. The whole of Quail Run is stunned. People just walked the streets of the park and stopped to talk to everyone and say the same thing over and over, “I can’t believe this happened.” And we can’t. It shouldn’t have. From the conversations I had with Dan at the pool recently I had the feeling that he was in a very happy place in his life. Dan, we’ll miss you buddy

On that note, I’m going to close this.

11/16/2010 New Flooring is FUN……NOT!!!!!

This was supposed to be so simple. Take the carpet up, lay the laminate down, add the tile and wa-laa,,,,NEW FLOORING! HA!

Do I even have to tell you that another trip to Lowe’s was made today?

All the carpet is gone now in the living room. Oh those dust collectors curtains are going to go!

Bob got the tip out problem all solved and that’s all good now. So he lays a level on the floor and we find out it is sagging a wee bit in the high traffic area. To be expected I guess and if we were just replacing carpet it would be no big deal. However, it IS a big deal when laying hard material over this low spot because it needs support.

I went to Lowe’s to pick up floor leveler and it was not an easy application let me tell you. Bob just didn’t have everything he needed to make this easier. Of course he was so frustrated with the whole thing I think no matter what the circumstances were he was going to find something to, there is no other way to put this,,,,bitch about.

I was so glad I had another load of clothes to wash. Heck, the mood he was in I would have washed clean clothes just to get out of the house.

It was difficult at best to cook dinner with all the living/dining room furniture pushed into a very small kitchen.

There is still a ways to go but we’ll both be glad when this job is done! Hopefully, he’ll get to lay that first board tomorrow.

He played pool after dinner and I’m so glad he got some time away from the house and got out with this buddies. He really needed it.

30 Days of Truth - Day 23 - Something You Wish You Had Done in Your Life

Two things come to mind right away. I wish I had continued with my education. I graduated from high school and went to work right away with every intention of going to the community college for night courses. I did one course when I was twenty one and it interfered with my nightlife and partying. When I turned twenty two I joined the National Guard and the rest is history.

The other thing I wish I had done was have a wedding. Both of our mother’s had bouts in the hospital at the same time. Though we never said anything out loud I think we both knew that his mother was not going to make it out of the hospital this time. My mom, had a heart attack at the age of 43 and it scared the crap out of us!

We were engaged and living together and one Friday, two weeks after my mom had her heart attack, we got up, looked at each other and said, “I don’t feel like going to work today”. We both called off work and decided to go to Maryland and get married. Just the two of us, no one knew. We wore jeans, sweaters and sneakers. As soon as we were pronounced man and wife we headed to the hospital to let his mom know that we had gotten married. She was so happy to know that we did, it was what she wanted for us. We lost her two weeks to the day later. I am so glad she knew. But. I’m sorry now that I didn’t have a wedding. I think my parents were sorry that they couldn’t give me one. I think my dad is sorry that he never got to walk me down the aisle and mom never got to go wedding gown shopping with me. I know I’m sorry that I never got to experience those things. I have never had a wedding gown on.

So those are two things that I wish I had done in my life. One that could have really changed my life and one that is just a magical moment in life. One that really doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, we wouldn’t have been anymore married but I think every girl thinks about being a bride someday.

This is my truth.

11/15/2010 Bob the Builder…..Builds

Well, maybe builds isn’t the correct terminology here. Maybe reinforces would be a better fit.

Today we made another trip to….

On the way we saw a……

For those who don’t recognize this bird its a roadrunner. BEEP BEEP!

Since Bob has some major reinforcements to do a trip to the store was in order for supplies.

The tip out is now safe we feel for ….weight!

With the blocks underneath Bob finally felt safe in removing the hinges.

More carpet is gone now. A little bit at a time, but he’s getting there.

Bob filled in the gap from the main area of the park model and tip out section with a can of spray in foam that hardens.

I tried my best to stay out of his way because if I didn’t I surely would have learned a whole new language so I spent a couple of hours doing laundry and visiting.

30 Days of Truth - Day 22 - Something You Wish You Hadn’t Done In Your Life.

I knew what this answer was as soon as I read the question. If I could go back and do it over again, knowing what I know now, oh boy, if only.

I would NOT have gotten out of the National Guard or quit the full time job I had with them. It was so STUPID of me to do so back then. Oh yeah, I had a good reason but hindsight is always 20-20 and now I know I should have explored more avenues instead of taking the easy way out. You see, Bob and I were in the same National Guard unit which meant we had the same drill weekends, the same Annual Training periods and his boys had just come to live with us. It would have been very difficult to work around all the care giving problems we would have encountered so I took the easy way and got out. What a monumental mistake that was. I could be collecting a pension check right now with another one starting in two and a half years. I was making good money in that full time job I had. I was making more than double the minimum wage at that time in that position. I had the world by the you know what’s and threw it away. Maybe threw it away is a bit harsh but I sure wish I knew then what I know now!

Of course, I truly believe everything happens for a reason and when I think of the people that I would not have met and the friendships I had/have because of employment since then….well, maybe it was supposed to be this way.

Still, I wish I hadn’t gotten out.

This is my truth.

11/14/2010 How to Eat Like a Child

No, I’m not going to demonstrate how to eat an animal cracker.

My friend, Marlene, and I went to Central Arizona College today to see the Arts department put on a play by this name.

This is a play based on the book by Delia Ephron.

The play’s cast consisted of four girls and four boys.

The stage setting was very simple and few props were used.

The play depicted 23 musical lessons for kids. Yes, this was a musical.

The scene below teaches Lesson # 2 How To Stay Home From School and subtitled, “I Feel Sick”.

Lesson #9 was the age old How to Understand Your Parents and subtitled “Means No!”

Lesson # 17 brought lots of laughs. No subtitle needed here as this one is “How to Torture Your Sister”

This young lady gave a lesson on “How to Act After Being Sent to Your Room”.

The last act brought out the entire cast in their jammies for Lesson # 23. This one was titled How to Go to Bed and subtitled “We Refuse to Fall Asleep”.

These college kids certainly seem to have fun with this play and audience got quite a few laughs as we remembered our own childhoods.

This certainly was not Broadway quality but they put all they had into it and they should certainly be proud of their efforts.

Marlene and I were glad we went and we have plans of attending a few other programs the college is putting on.

In the meantime Bob worked on the flooring project while the laminate flooring continued to acclimate to our environment.

He cut away part of the carpet so that a border could be determined where the laminate will end the tile start. As you can see the carpet had a curvy edge to it,,,,the laminate won’t!

Look how much the color faded over the years.

Now Bob did find one thing that really surprised us. There is a tip out section that extends out the side of the park model. After taking off the outside skirting and looking underneath he found that the only thing hold this tip out in place is two hinges. There is nothing underneath! At some point along the line one of the owners of this park model built in a rather crude bench seat. Nothing more than a two by four cut to size and a piece of plywood to fit. I’m glad that we never sat on it! We also didn’t know that there was an electrical outlet on that wall as the bench hid it.

I wonder what else we’ll find as we get into this project.