Good Stuff

This week has been extremely busy, but a lot of good things have happened around our place.

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Monday night I came home from a meeting and noticed that the main level of the house seemed hot. Hubby Tony verified my suspicions when he walked in an hour later. I checked the thermostat, and the room temperature was five degrees hotter than it should be. About that time I noticed there was a buzzing noise coming from the south wall of the family room. When I walked outside to investigate I discovered that the one of the air conditioning units was very noisy. Because it was going to be relatively cool overnight we turned off both units and opened up the windows.

I called the HVAC company as soon as they opened at eight o'clock on Tuesday morning and explained that we needed someone to come take a look at the unit. Because we have a service contract with them we go to the top of the list, and the technician was knocking on my door 45 minutes later. Fifteen minutes after that he told me our issue was a faulty capacitor. The failed part had been replaced at the last service and was still under warranty. Our cost for continued house coolness was only $70 for the service call.

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On Wednesday morning Hubby Tony called me to say he had noticed some car issues as he left the house. He stopped at the repair shop and described the symptoms. They said they could work him in, and the shuttle service gave him a ride to work. Some time later they called to tell him he just needed a new battery. The car was ready at lunchtime, but I picked Tony up at the end of the work day and dropped him off at the repair shop to pick the car up.

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After Tony got home we got ready for the next adventure. Jackson and Pepper, our 16-year old cats, had an appointment at the vet for their annual physical and rabies shots. For many years I did the job by myself because Tony's schedule wasn't flexible, but it's really nice to have help wrangling two uncooperative cats into carriers, getting them into the car, and then from the car into the office.  In the examination room they were weighed, poked, prodded, and stuck with needles.  The vet proclaimed each of them healthy and said she hoped she didn't see us until next August.

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I'm part of a group planning a dinner at church tomorrow night.  My job is to quarterback setting up the room, including some simple centerpieces for eight round tables. (And I only have a tiny budget.) Tonight I went to the nearest big box hardware stores to look for plants that might be on clearance.  Everything on the sale table was too big, bloomed out, or just decrepit looking. I went up to the cashier to ask her about the chances of a new group of plants being marked down tomorrow. She told me she had some flexibility in the price, and suggested I pick something out and bring it up to the cash register. She would see what she could do.  

I found some nice looking Sempervivum. The  4 inch pots were marked $3.48, but the cashier gave me ten of them for a dollar each.  I may or may not cover the pots, then will set each on a cloth napkin (from my personal stash) in the center of of each table.

Five years ago today: A Perfect Friday Afternoon