Hi Cherie ~ 

Phew (as she mops her brow), I'm happy to hear that you are alive and well.  Actually, we followed your last note or two and saw where you were having connection problems.  Technology is oh so great when it works ~ but.....

I'm up early.  Finn, my eight year old Golden Retriever, was panting throughout the night.   He will have a bath and badly needed hair cut next week.  His coat is very thick, rather like us wearing a fur coat in the summer.  So, I rose and turned down the a.c. to 72, gave him two hemp chewie pills for dogs, fresh water and he promptly went back to sleep.  Me, not so much.  He's eight and a large breed dog (100.6 lbs at our last visit).  I see changes in him as he ages and that's always so concerning to see what looms ahead.   

Yes, I do know about the exhaustion that comes with watching the little ones.  Bronwen (age two) can just about do me in.   I have had her from one afternoon, overnight and into the next day.  As much as I dearly love her, it's a lot but then she is only two and I'm blessed to see her and play with her.

Our kitchen is coming together.  We will take a month off and then start the flooring in our main living room.  I love the wood floors.

Take care.  Carry on.  Glad to hear you are smoke free and doing well ~

Hi Ernie ~

Too hot ~ too soon, in my opinion.  I have been working indoors/and outdoors.  Painted the shoe molding in the kitchen, closets, foyers and half bath.  Not so easy on the knee or back being up and down but it all looks great.  Love the plank vinyl flooring we put in the kitchen, foyer, half bath and hallway.  We visited Menards with the rebates from the flooring, and bought a stainless steel back splash (20 cartons) of subway brushed that we will put on in a week or so. Rebates totaled the amount of backsplash plus caulking.  All good. The new microwave will go in this week and if all goes well, the kitchen will be done in two weeks.

Daughter gave us an Ikea cupboard (glass front) that had some type of lacquer on it.  Jim tried a deglosser and thought that would work.  He painted it terra cotta and the paint would not adhere.  Peeled off like skin.  So, now we are sanding and stripping the piece and then to be painted.  A lot of work but it stores lots of dishes in the kitchen for us!   

We will take a break for a month and then continue on with the flooring in the living room.

Sounds like you are very busy with your projects.  I love nostalgia and the phone idea.....Do you remember a party line?   My grandparent's had one at their farm.  I think they shared it with a neighbor down the road.  

Take care.  Going to cool down by this week-end.  Not ready for high temps yet.

Susan

Dear Kitty~

Yes, strange indeed.  I just heard a rumor that our pool will most likely not open.  It's a small pool and rarely used except maybe by neighbors on week-ends.  A few of us with some aches and pains use it for therapy.  Makes me sad if the rumor is true.

We have tickets to fly in September to see my cousin/husband in Denver.  They reside in a residence assisted living (both in their mid 80's).  I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the fact that we would have to wear masks for five hours.  I don't think I can do that.  I find the mask extremely uncomfortable when I'm in a store, let alone for a five hour crowded plane trip.  The travel agent said that he doesn't feel we can exchange tickets for another time down the road.......I don't want to lose the money but then I don't want to risk our lives .....  Hardly doubt a vaccine will be ready and who knows what September will even bring.

Lots to think about.  Is Paradise quiet?  Wonder if many people will travel down this summer?

S.

Paradise is quieter then normal....but things are started to open...motels open at 50%  some restaurants open for indoor/outdoor dining....we can't bring ourselves to do that yet either....thinking that the closer you get to Sept.  the airlines might change depending on the COVID19 # at that time....if the numbers have risen they might reconsider...sad about the pool  but stay away...we are going to stay here as long as possible...altho someone looked at the house yesterday and stayed for close to an hour....(we weren't here of course)  and she loved the house....we will see....

Morning Susan.  70 degrees here at 7 AM, not as warm and humid as Florida but warm for 7 here.  Might get our walk in before the next barrage of storms.  I stayed up a little late knowing the storms were starting at 4:30 AM.  Sounds great all the work you guys are doing, you will be very proud when it's all done.

I did the maintenance on our main riding mower yesterday and my 4-5 hours of exercise.  Weight is still going down but it's a slow process.  Made the mistake of eating pizza with the grands the other eve and my glucose is up a little for a couple days.  Only 120 and 113, would be low for the past years but discouraging now.  I'm trying to stay below 100 so next week will have to eat vegetables and leave the pizza for the others.

As for the mowers, I'm doing a lot of work on my daughter's rider.  I might give her my spare rider, not sure yet if I can get hers working well.  She has a much larger lawn than we do so its rougher on the equipment.  Our riders are all most the same from the mid 90s, Craftsman 48" with 2 cylinder Kohler engines.  I bought a spare when the next door neighbor moved a few years back, it's a late model John Deere but not as rugged as the Craftsmans.   I had to take the mower deck off my daughter's mower to change the drive belt, then one of the mower deck belts broke so I had to order that and will have to remove the mower deck again to replace that.

I can wear a mask as long as I want to but I know that germs can easily get through a mask so it's a pain.  We don't plan on flying anywhere this year though.

Yeah, we had a party line when I was young.  2 short rings was ours, a long was Waters, 3 short rings was Husteds. I have my dads rotary beside me right now, still has the number from back then in the center of the dial.

Have a great day Susan.

Ernie

Morning Kitty, glad you are both doing well.  Have heard it's very hot in Florida for some time.  Hear a relative talking about what they heard from a Florida relative on Ham Radio.  Hope you have good luck selling the house when you want to sell.

We are all doing well here, nobody we know has gotten sick.

Have a great day Kitty and stay cool.

Ernie

the weather is hot...up to 91 during the day   so yes summer is here.,,did bike around the neighborhood this evening.,,days are simple   we do little...have shown the house twice the other day...no offer made yet...will keep everyone posted

Hi Susan. Hope all is well with you. I know all too well how the heat affects large breed dogs. Our last dog was a boxer/mastiff mix and he always panted excessively during the summer. So, I would run the a/c more often for him. Lol! We celebrated the youngest granddaughter’s birthday yesterday. Although it was on a smaller scale, it was a nice party. I can’t believe she is five already. How have things been in your city? Unfortunately we had protests that ended with violence, so we had a curfew last night and tonight as well. There was a lot of damage to the downtown area. It’s sad to see many small businesses enduring this destruction right before they were about to reopen. I pray we can all heal from this. Such a sad time. Take care and stay safe!

Cherie

Hi Ernie! How have you been? I was glad that the temperature dropped a bit, since last week was too hot and humid so early in the year. It is difficult to go for walks when it is that hot. If it’s a day I am not watching the grands, I try to go early, but I can’t do that on the days I am with them. Today the weather was great. We celebrated the youngest grands birthday yesterday. So, it was a nice family day. Unfortunately our city had protests that turned violent resulting in a lot of damage, so we had a curfew last night and still have one tonight. I hope people come to their senses soon. This makes me nervous, because I only live about 10 minutes from the location of this. If things get worse, I could always go stay at my daughters, but for now, I’m ok. What a year this has been so far, and it’s only the end of May! My daughter’s work schedule has been changed temporarily due to this virus and the impact it is having on her workplace, so I will be busy helping with the grands until this is resolved. I hope you are staying safe!

Cherie

Morning Cherie.  That's what I was doing, taking early morning walks with Brandy.  Was funny, Brandy would go to bed early even if I was a little late.  Now it's cool so we are walking in the afternoon.  Lot of people were out on the back roads yesterday, walking and jogging.  I'm almost down to my target weight, still walking about 7 miles and 1.5 hours on the elliptical when a project doesn't bump it.  Lots to do here and at my daughters this time of year.

Got my parent's 1957 phone running again.  Don't get many calls but that's good, means we didn't get a number that was just recently disconnected.  The repairman had to fix the lines in two places to get our service working, it's been years since anyone wanted a regular land line hookup.    Most would want a cable phone because it's cheaper and includes caller id, long distance, etc... but I wanted this old bake lite rotary to work.  I had it hooked up on cable phone before and it barely worked.  You couldn't hear others on it and I don't think you could dial out.  My mom put a 9 foot receiver wire on it when I was a teen because I kept pulling it off the stand talking to girlfriends.    It still has that cord.   It has a drop of white paint on it from when they were painting the walls, door, or ceiling.

We have some protests here also but a smaller city and calmer protests. 

Couple more cool days before it starts to warm, have a great day.

Ernie

I would like to see my grands more often, looks like we are back on our weekly pizza parties.