Issues with blogger

I hadn't seen an update to the Barbara's blog, Me and My Dog, for 5 weeks, so I wrote to ask her if she is ok. She recently bought a Class C that she named The Palms, and she and dog Katie finally got to hit the road. She responded that she is ok but having trouble with Blogger. Here is an excerpt from her email:

"I'm still blogging, but my blogs aren't showing up on some of my followers blogrolls. You will have to click on my blog down at the end of your blogroll to bring up current posts. Or enter dewelldesigns.blogspot.com to bring it up.

Blogger doesn't have any tech support, so whatever is wrong, I can't ask them to fix it. I'm thinking of moving over to WordPress so I don't have to deal with Blogger anymore. Blogger keeps adding new things that most people don't seem to want, but they won't fix the issues that have been plaguing us for months."

I scrolled down my list to "Me and My Dog" and found her latest post which was yesterday, 10/6. (The blog list shows last post 5 weeks ago!) Barbara is having trouble with her generator/batteries/power and really needs some help and/or suggestions. I never could figure that stuff out, and I'm hoping that one of her readers can give her some answers.

This makes me wonder about Blogger and what is happening to it. I have trouble seeing photos - some of them show up, and some that are referred to in the text don't appear at all. It seems random and I've just learned to live with it, although I know I'm missing out on some great photos. Now I'm thinking I should go down my list and click on some of the blogs I haven't seen an update for, as the same thing may be happening to them. I agree with Barbara that Blogger keeps adding features that aren't all that great, or wanted, or needed by the users, yet they can't even be contacted to report long time issues with the program. I find it is getting worse, at least for me. Some bloggers say they have no problems with it, but what if half the readers can't even see an update? That is, those of us who rely on the blog list to show the latest updates for the blogs we list.

I may post again later today. I have a couple of photos to add, but can't seem to locate the cord that hooks up my camera to the compouter. I will be SO glad to get my furniture and belongings tomorrow and can at least begin to organize and find a place for everything. This morning I'm cleaning kitchen cabinets, a job I don't like at all.

Later -

The bedroom is painted

Tomorrow I will decide if I want to add a 2nd coat on the walls. I let the ceiling go with just one coat (plus the primer, of course). I will probably regret it, as I will be the one most likely to be looking up at the ceiling! I've used slightly over half a can to cover the walls, so I will probably slap a 2nd coat on the walls that are most likely to be noticed. I'm tired of painting.

The rain we've had off and on sort of has me worried. I'm worried about leaks, and will probably not be able to let it rest until I get someone to come out and look at the roof. This is just too much like having an RV to worry about. Although it would be nice to have a washing machine of my own, I'm seriously thinking about demolishing that small room that was added on between the two extended rooms. The extended rooms are like permanently slid slide outs. The room is wired, and of course is plumbed for the washer, but I guess that isn't too difficult to get rid of. The roof was extended flat out from the main roof, with no allowance for run-off. It was an ongoing problem for Yvonne, and her son told me he had coated it about every two years which seemed to work.

Looking out my front double sliding doors, I see the beautiful western sky at sunset, with palm trees towering over all the houses and the other trees. Lady loves to look out those doors during the day. She is so curious about everything, she could tell some stories if she could talk, because she notices everyone and everything!



Speaking of Lady, her fur is shedding something awful and she looks so shaggy. The weather forecast is for an early and cooler winter this year, but maybe her fur growing mechanism knows about a late heat wave? I sure hope not. I take her brush when we go walking out on the trail behind the Park, and I pull out big loose clumps and brush like crazy. It's all over the field now!

My TV was installed today and I couldn't find anything interesting to watch just now. Maybe later this evening. There are so many channels it is annoying to have to scroll through the guide, but I'm not familiar yet with the numbers to be able to find what I want any other way besides scrolling. The gentleman who installed it was so informative and patient. He explained in detail about the remote. Don't laugh, but back when I had TV there were way fewer channels available to me even though I had cable TV. This is definitely overkill for me, but I need the package I got in order to see the few channels I like.

Thankfully I will have clean rugs tomorrow. I've just about decided to put laminate flooring in my bedroom, and it's too bad I can't get it done before Saturday when the furniture is being moved in. I reserved a uHaul truck, and contrary to my own nature of getting an early start, I reserved it for 12:00 Noon knowing that my "help" doesn't get started until later. I know Donald would help me no matter what time I asked him, but I hope it will be easier for him this way. Plus, I have the truck for 6 hrs. and I believe the place closes at 7:00 pm, so we'll be sure to get it back in time. My daughter can usually be counted on but she had dental surgery yesterday in preparation for dental implants. I didn't realize what a long drawn-out process it is, but I don't think it will be completed for a complete year. She's having a difficult time now from the surgery, so I don't want her to overdo.

I'm actually looking forward to my own surgery next Tuesday - I want to get it done and get started towards decent vision in both eyes, plus I just need a rest. I'll be climbing the walls wanting something to do while I'm resting, but I certainly need it at this point. I have too many jobs ahead of me with this house, but I can look forward to completing them one by one.

Ceiling finished - I hope!

I got the rest of the walls primered and started on the ceiling paint. I am really being optimistic, and at the same time lowering my usually high standards, but I think there is a chance I can get by with one coat of ceiling paint. I really won't know until tomorrow after it has had a chance to dry. To be on the safe side, I didn't wash the roller, tray, or brush, but have them wrapped in plastic and sitting in the fridge.

Here are some before and after pictures, and don't notice the absolute mess in the room.








There is another closet on the opposite side of the room, so you can see how much drawer and closet space I have. There is one closet in the smaller bedroom, and maybe I'll store the change-of-season clothes in it. I had planned to paint the walls in bold warm colors, but after thinking about it I decided to use more muted warm colors. There is so much more light now that the paneling is white, and I would like to keep it light, especially since I see so much better in the room even now. I tried to take a picture of the paint chips but they completely washed out.

Susan came by last night and brought me some plastic storage tubs that she was getting rid of. Now to fill them at least temporarily with all the bags and boxes I brought from Jeannie's and which are sitting in the kitchen. Everything goes into the kitchen until Thursday when the rugs are cleaned. I don't have much hope for the bedroom rug being salvaged as I'm still getting a strong odor of smoke. I set a plastic cup of vinegar in the room as I heard it will absorb smoke odors, and did you guess, I knocked it over today. I have drop cloths down and was able to wipe up most of it.

Donald brought over the TV and my microwave today, in addition to one of their air mattresses. I slept ok but getting up several times a night was the difficult part. I can get up from an air mattress, but am totally unable to stand up very steadily when getting off the floor. I noticed that when camping I was falling when I tried to stand up, and using the air mattress has completely solved that problem.

I guess it's time for Lady's walk although it feels so good to just sit down I hate to even go out. We walked on the bike trail this morning - at one time it was a two lane road so it is nice and wide for bike riding and walking. Of course Lady loved sniffing new bushes, grass and trees! She conned me into a short walk between the primer and the ceiling top coat - I was just starting to take a quick power nap too.

A big storm is predicted to come into Northern California during the next 3 days, bringing rain, lots of wind, and snow for the Sierras. It has really cooled off and is 64F right now. Things will warm up to the 70's by Friday, but I doubt we'll have any more very hot weather. That suits me fine.

The DirecTV installer will be here between 8:00 and 12:00 tomorrow, so I won't be able to go to Home Depot for wall paint until afternoon. I could start putting the primer on the small bedroom, but for all I know I will wake up to find that the ceiling needs a second coat. My ambitious plans are so far off track now I don't even worry about it. I need to reserve a U-Haul truck to move out of storage this weekend and it will be so nice to see my furniture here. Then it will start to seem like home.

It must be the planets!

I think they are probably aligned so as to give people lots of setbacks, and I have had my share. A woman from the carpet cleaning service called me at 11:00 this morning - she thought I had an afternoon appointment - and said that the owner had been stung by several wasps yesterday and spent the night in the emergency room and could they reschedule me for Thursday. What was I to say, as I've been there, and he could have been in a dangerous situation.

So at 11:00 am, which I consider getting a late start, I opened a can of primer and went to work. After wearing out my muscles yesterday with the cleaning, I found the painting to be even more strenuous. Those grooves in the paneling are the very devil to paint! I finished my ceiling and a little more than 1/3 of the walls. I had really hoped to get both rooms primered but it wasn't to be. First thing in the morning I will paint the first coat of ceiling paint, and then finish the walls while waiting for it to dry. It will take at least two coats to get decent coverage, and I hope it doesn't require more than that. I really hoped I could do both bedroom ceilings in one session, but I'm not going to fight the fact that I simply can't do it.

I had to stop early enough to look for a few items in storage and then pick up the dog, and get back before the daylight ended. Plus I'm bone tired. If that wasn't bad enough for one day, I got the air mattress and air pump and discovered that I had only the cigarette lighter connector, so I took everything out to the car. No cap for my air mattress, so the air comes back out as fast as it went in! I tried stuffing the opening with bubble wrap but it isn't going to work. I ended doubling over a comforter and will just make do.

The smoke odor is just as strong in the bedroom as it had been, and I'm sure it's mainly in the carpet. Now I'll have to wait until Thursday to see if it is even worth saving, but if not, then I'll just set my mattress and springs in the small bedroom until I can get laminate flooring - and someone to install it. The really weird thing is that the smoke smell is strong enough to make me want to gag, but I've been having more cigarette cravings than I normally do. Washing off the second hand smoke on the ceilings and walls, and then imagining what the first hand smoke looks like inside a pair of lungs, will keep me from even picking up a cigarette. But I swear if I am ever told I have a week or a month to live, I will buy a couple of cartons and chain smoke myself to death!

To top it all off, Yvonne's son (not the smoker) came by today to shut off the water supply to the swamp cooler. Yvonne thinks we will have another warm spell and I'll wish I had cooling, but I have lived without a/c since about 1999, and I think I can live without it some more. I listened to the directions on what I have to do to turn it off, and quit listening in mid=stream. Her son was there and offered to turn it off for me, which I gratefully accepted. When he came by today he mentioned several maintenance items I need to be aware of, and damned if it isn't just like an RV! The adage "wherever you go, there you are" is 110% true in my case.

Oh well, can't do nothin' about it, so I might as well laugh so's I don't cry. I hope I can get a good night's sleep because tomorrow I'm going to paint like a madwoman!

I hurt all over!

I got the two bedrooms cleaned, walls and ceilings, with TSP. All my muscles hurt, especially my right shoulder and arm. Tomorrow the rugs will be cleaned and I hope to get the primer on and even possibly the first coat of paint by the end of the day Tuesday. I will still have work to do in those rooms, as there are double closets and umpteen drawers in both bedrooms. The larger bedroom has double closets and drawers on both sides of the room. They will really come in handy, except there are bronze drawer pulls on all the cabinets and drawers in the house - a bajillion of them! I will have to remove them in order to do a decent paint job.

I should probably have contracted with a house cleaning service, but I'm too frugal for that and besides, I can do it better. (Just slower.) I'll be glad when the TV is installed on Wednesday, because I can listen to music while I work. I could actually listen to music via my iTunes on the computer, but haven't yet taken the laptop over to the house when I'm working. I don't want to get sidetracked into browsing the web or whatever.

Update on move, 2nd post Sat. 10/1

Just a quick update. I met Yvonne at the house at 5 pm, and went over how to work various systems and such. The house itself was emptied out and looks pretty good, but there is still a lot of trash outside and things in the storage shed that I hope get moved soon.

I'm going to love it once I get in and start working on it, although I don't have much time to get anything done. Probably that is going to insure I don't overdo it, and I've already resigned myself to just taking it easy and not worrying about meeting goals. Why do I need to set time limits on myself anyway! I do plan to have my bedroom painted before my surgery though.

The smaller bedroom is too small to actually be a bedroom unless, as Yvonne did, I just put a twin bed in there. I don't want to buy a twin bed, and I also have a triple wide dresser that was Bill's that I will use in there, so I think I will get a sofa bed eventually. That way it can be a sitting room until I have company, and then I can open out the couch to make a bed. There's no rush on buying a sofa bed either.

So I'm ready to start work tomorrow, although at a slower and more dignified pace than I originally anticipated.

The Best Laid Plans . . .

As arranged with Yvonne I appeared at the house at 8:30 this morning. I could tell she was no way ready for me, and still has a lot of things to pack and move. I offered to come back in an hour, and she seemed to think that would do it. Well, after an hour of walking through K-Mart I returned and things were still not going well for her. Her daughter was going to help her move, but she has to come from Nevada and wasn't there yet. I told Yvonne I would come back around 5 pm, but first I would like to see the bedrooms again.

With the furniture out of the rooms, I can see that the smoked-in bedroom on the south side of the house is much larger than the one on the north that she used for her bedroom. I think I will switch gears and take the larger room as there is no way I could ever fit even my queen sized bed in the smaller one. With the doors and windows open and the carpet vacuumed, the smell of smoke was only faint, and I think with rug cleaning plus washing the walls and ceiling, and then painting, is going to make it A-OK.

I'm a bit overwhelmed right now at the amount of work for me to do, and I realize most of it is going to have to wait until I can deal with it and my eye surgeon says it's ok. For now I will just concentrate on the bedroom I plan to use.

Meanwhile my car is packed to the ceiling. I'm back at Jeannie & Donald's house right now, and if I wasn't so stubborn I would just stay here tonight and try again tomorrow. But I'm too stubborn to do that unless Yvonne absolutely can't be out today. I really empathize with her - I was in that same boat when I moved from my house in Asheville. I had to do absolutely everything myself and did I ever feel forlorn - so I'm trying to be as easy on her about this move as I can be.

One thing I am pleased with is that she is leaving me the recliner in the living room. I have my heart set on a particular leather rocker/recliner but really don't want to spend the money this month, so this will be perfect until I can get my own. And then, the living room seems to be big enough to hold two of them, although maybe not. I learned not to cram every available space with things when I lived in Asheville, and my house looked absolutely huge from not being too crowded.

I realized this morning the incredible amount of storage space in the house - drawers and cabinets everywhere. It's like being in a big RV, although probably 3 or more times the size of my 5th wheel.