Rest In Peace by Bonnie Le Hamilton

 

Yesterday this world suffered a terrible loss; one I know will be felt profoundly not just by her family but her fans too.

We have lost a great lady and heaven has gained an angel. A real angel.

This woman started her life out dirt poor, but she used her talent and pure determination to drag her entire family out of that hole, and once she managed that, she turned to helping others.

I first learned about her charitable works some years ago when my niece had only one daughter. My niece (Konnie's oldest) told me about the monthly book club her then very young daughter was part of. A club where each month she received age-appropriate books to keep. My niece mentioned how grateful she was for the help to build a children’s library which would hopefully one day rival the library my niece already had.

And she told me who started and backed that club free of charge to the recipients.

I thought that was cool.

But not too long ago I saw another side of her.

It was a post online about the recent devastating fire in California, and she came on saying she was doing all she could to help the victims of this fire, but that there were so many who lost everything, and the need was enormous even for her. She said every little bit helps.

This big-time celebrity went on social media and humbly asked for help for the wildfire victims. She was sincere and forthright. She didn’t brag about how much she gave; she said she couldn’t do it alone and needed our help.

She talked about sending supplies, not just money. And talked about how it is our duty to help our fellow man in times of need.

And I watched, scanning her face, thinking about how young she looked, yet I knew she was way older than me. I have no clear memory of when she first hit the charts, so I had to be quite young. She’s been around for a long time. And as I listened to her plead the cause of the newly destitute, I had a sinking feeling this would be the last time I ever saw her anywhere.

I just knew we were about to lose an angel, and that sad news came out yesterday. She’s gone.

We can’t have her back, but we do have what she left behind: her music and her compassion for her fellow man.

She had talent and a voice that will never be forgotten. And below (thanks to Google) I have assembled a list of her songs. Here they are:

Joleen

9 to 5

I Will Always Love You

Islands in the Stream with Kenny Rogers

Coat of Many Colors

Here You Come Again

Two Doors Down

Rose Garden, and

What’s Up

Others include:

Dumb Blonde (1967)

The Bargain Store (1975)

Applejack (1977) and

Tennessee Homesick Blues (1984)

But I am sure she will be missed most by her family, who loved her dearly, and all the people she helped with her charitable donations.

I repeat, we lost an angel; Heaven gained one.

Rest in Peace, Dolly Parton; you are a lovely, great lady. We already miss you so much! And my condolences to the grieving family you left behind; may they find comfort in knowing you have earned your reward.

I don’t think I can say anything more, so I’ll end here, hoping my next post will be on a happier note.

Happy writing, everyone.

Of Appliance Sagas and Memories by Konnie Enos

It’s been nearly a month since I posted about our appliance revolt. I thought some of you might want to know how that is going.

First of all, my son who had offered to help with getting a new stove has not been able to assist with it yet because of some issues he’s been having on his end. It seems every single week he has an issue with his paycheck, his job, or this week, his bank. All different reasons but all of them affecting how much money he has available. I’m thinking some of the issues might be connected to his ADHD but not all of them are.

This week, his bank froze his card for possible fraud all because he used a vending machine that he isn’t around very often. In fact, he is only near it when he is taking one of his apprenticeship classes. Classes he is only taking a few times a year, so it’s been at least four months since the last time he was near that machine.

Not a good thing to find out when you’re gas tank is near empty and you have places to be like work or school. Yes, he did call his bank as soon as he found out about it, but it still takes a bit of time to get the card back up and working. Fortunately for him, I could manage getting him enough money to cover his shortfall until he can use his card again.

Anyway, back at the homefront, we were getting pretty tired of not being able to use our oven. The one glaring shortfall with our other appliances is we had nothing that could cook a pizza, and my son really likes having his pizza.

I have thought about getting a backyard outdoor kitchen setup with a pizza oven, but that is, predictably a pipedream since we never have the funds to even consider such an upgrade to our backyard. I mean just landscaping the still just dirt back yard has been beyond our means, and we’ve lived here for over 20 years.

Now, while all of this is going on, my daughter, who moved across the country for education and medical care, finally got SSI. Finally, with proper diagnosis, and competent help and support from state agencies, she was able to convince the Social Security department that she is indeed disabled.

Great news for her and good news for us because now she no longer needs the monthly allowance we’ve been sending her so she could cover some of her expenses. Yes, what we sent her wasn’t much, certainly not covering rent, but it helped her out. Now adding that amount back into our coffers helped me scrounge together enough to cover a new stove.

So, at the beginning of this month, I told my daughter, the one still living here, to look for a stove in our price range that met all our requirements. She checked both Home Depot and Costco. Home Depot's listed prices were at least $100 less than the prices at Costco so we were going to go with those options. Then she actually looked at ordering one.

Then she discovered that things like delivery and installation, plus haul away and all the parts to connect, were extra. As in enough extra to make a new large appliance from them way more than we could afford. In fact, it added up to more than the base price of stoves from Costco.

So, she checked out how much Costco would add on to get the stove to us.

The answer is not one penny beyond taxes. Yes, it cost a bit more than I was hoping to spend, but it was less than the full cost of getting it from Home Depot, plus appliances from Costco have an amazing warranty. And we know this because we’ve had to use it when we had issues with our dishwasher and that light broke in our fridge.

So, yes, we finally have a functioning oven again. And, I’ve already decided any freezer we get will be coming from Costco. Also, any other appliance that needs replaced will eventually come from them too. Getting that membership was the best investment we’ve ever made.

Finally, Monday morning I was looking at something online. I don’t remember what exactly it was, but something in it reminded me of the date. Monday, August 17^th.

I stopped. I remembered.

First my brother-in-law (Bonnie’s husband). Born August 17^th, 1958. Gone way too soon.

Then I remembered the oldest of our brothers. He as also born August 17^th, but in 1963. Also gone too soon.

So, I paused a moment to reflect on both men on what was their birthday.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

 

Appologies by Konnie Enos

Due to unforeseen medical issues, Bonnie is unable to post this morning and didn't tell me until this morning. So there will be no new post today. Thank you for understanding. 

Of Clueless People Among Us by Konnie Enos

Yesterday, while considering ideas for my post I was reading some things on Not Always Right and found a lot of stories about people who simply had one brain cell left or just weren’t listening.

There was a whole thread on people who insisted that liquids like soy sauce and beer could not have gluten in them because wheat (gluten) is a solid and they are liquids. Yeah, too many people nowadays need to go back to school.

But there were also stories about people who simply couldn’t listen or somehow process information placed right in front of their face. One was about a person who called a company and asked to speak to a specific person. They were told that said person had died several months before but the person they were speaking to could figure out how to help if they stated what they needed.

They didn’t want the speakers help and  asked to be transferred to the dead person. They were told again that said person was dead. Their response was to ask if calling the next day would have better results in speaking to the dead person. They were told again that they were dead. Finally, they concluded with, “I’ll just call back Monday.”

I’m am quite sure that on Monday they had the same conversation because the clearly months dead person wouldn’t resurrect over the weekend.

I read several other stories were one party in the conversation wasn’t listening to or paying any attention to the clear information given them. One was about a lady who went to a restaurant and could not see or read several signs about what was on their menu, nor would she accept the statements about it from the cashier assisting her. She had to disturb the cook just to have said cook present all the same information she’d already been given. And yes, it was stated she was regular and did that every single time.

I was thinking such cluelessness wasn’t as common as this thread was presenting but then I was reminded that I live with such a clueless, often very confused person.

Anyway, while I’m reading these my husband explains that our gas tank is getting low. However, I considered what day of the week it was, and the complete lack of needing to be places between then and Friday, I assumed his concern wasn’t valid. (We fill the tank on our Friday Costco runs.)

Well, husband and son went somewhere, and later son calls me to tell me that we had more gas than husband thought. Instead of looking at the screen that says how many miles are left on the tank, like he usually does, he looked at the temperature. Which granted was well over a hundred but clearly less than the over 140 miles left on the tank.

So, my husband wasn’t paying attention to what he was looking at.

Well, later in the evening, as we’re getting ready for bed he asked me what was on our calendar for today. I clearly told him this post was the only thing I could think of but opened our calendar app and checked just to be sure.

While doing that he specifically asked about his doctor’s appointments. One of which I knew was on Friday because we’d already discussed how he was getting there since our daughter would need the car (for the Costco run). As for the other one, I was positive it was next week. It is.

After checking the app, I told him exactly what days both his appointments were and mentioned an appointment he had on Thursday. And I did say Thursday.

He was completely confused at this point and told me that tomorrow (as in today) was Wednesday, and he was sure his appointment was on Thursday.

I had to tell him three times that that’s what I said before he got that I was not saying he had any appointments today.

And the fact that he now needs hearing aids does not account for his clear difficulty processing information presented to him. We learned a long time ago that he tends to incorrectly process information given to him to the point that we no longer trust him to deal with our medical information or any service people who come to our house.

In fact, our son is now the main point of contact for our mobile phones account and out internet. At least he can comprehend the information to give and understand the answers given. And I’ve taken to listing my daughter as an alternate point of contact for my doctors should they be unable to reach me.

So, neither of these events presented me with knew information, just punctuated that I lived with a Not Always Right, clueless person.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

Sleep Deprived by Bonnie Le Hamilton

 

Burning the midnight oil takes on a whole new meaning when you’ve had at most 3 hours of sleep in the last 24 hours.

Insomnia takes on a whole new meaning when you can’t manage to close your eyes even when you are tired.

Having a brain that doesn’t stop isn’t helping any.

And I’m not able to get anything done! I can’t run errands; I’m too tired to get behind the wheel. Not risking that again.

The last time I tried to drive tired, I ended up totaling a decent Buick Roadmaster!

Man, I miss that car.

 Anyhow, I no longer drive tired. Not going through that again!

But that’s not the only thing I can’t do tired.

I also can’t balance my checkbook tired. I mean, math is not my best subject; balancing a checkbook is dang hard, at least for me. Tired, I can’t even comprehend the simple math needed.

Konnie doesn’t have my issues with math, so I’m sure fatigue wouldn't keep her from doing her books. Konnie was always better at math.

And the worst part is I’ve known I needed to write a post for a week; every time I opened my computer all week, I ended up dozing off, finally. As in no writing.

Now I’m so tired I can’t keep my eyes open, but something needs to be written.

I’ll just make this extremely short.

Happy writing, everyone.

Of Appliance Revolts and Repairs by Konnie Enos

Back in January, I wrote about issues with getting our Christmas decorations down, but at the end, I mentioned issues with both our washer and dishwasher. I mentioned wondering if, or when, our dryer or oven would join the revolt.

Well, now I can answer that.

At the time, back in January, we managed to keep our washer going, and the dishwasher was under warranty. It took the technician coming out a few times, but we finally got it back up and running. Though it was around that time when the part in our fridge that controls the light just popped out for some reason.

Fortunately, that was covered too. Didn’t take long at all for the technician to repair it.

Now as for our washer, it behaved itself until this past month (June), when with a sudden clunk it stopped spinning at all.

This time, not under warranty.

I called a repair service I’ve used before.

They honestly could have gotten someone here later that same day, but being a house full of neurodiverse people (and me an introvert), I opted for the next day. He came, diagnosed the issue, and was back out again in record time. He said he’d have to order the part and would let us know when he had it.

All fine.

Eventually he called, and we set the follow-up appointment to actually fix it.

Once he had the machine working again, we put it right to use because, guess what, it’d been out of commission for a week, and we all had piles of laundry to get through. Bedding being a major issue for all four of us. Then there were the towels and all our loads of clothes.

Well, when it was time to get that very first load out of the dryer so the second load could be put in, it was discovered that the dryer had quit working. It’s even older than the washer, so we called the repair place back up and had a new guy coming in the next day.

Do you know what happened?

THAT NIGHT we discovered that our oven wasn’t working either. It wouldn’t stay hot.

Fortunately, the repair guy was more than willing to check both appliances out. And the dryer was a fairly simple fix; just had to wait for the part.

Unfortunately, the oven, which at this point is our oldest appliance, would be less expensive to replace. So, we’re going to have to figure it out. And believe me, after spending all that money fixing the washer and dryer, it simply wasn’t in the cards to also buy an oven.

But, thanks to our “small” appliances, we’ve been able to manage. We can even muddle it if the stovetop stops working, which thankfully it hasn’t done yet. You see, besides a bread maker, a crock pot, and an InstaPot, we have an electric roasting pan. We also have a grill, though we haven’t opted for that option yet because my husband is the only one who can cook through that smoke, and he simply isn’t reliable enough to depend on him.

And yes, the roasting pan can even bake. I’ve made cornbread in it, and my daughter made a cake for my birthday.

The next step is to get enough money together to purchase a new stove. When my older son found out about our dilemma, he promised to cover it, but he hasn’t been able to get the money to us yet. I’m assuming we’ll have to wait until next month at least. We are pricing out our options, though.

But we found out when our dryer and oven would join the revolt.

And typing this made me realize we have one still functioning appliance that is older than every other appliance except our oven, which is still working.

Our freezer.

And if it stopped working, we would have to scramble to replace it very quickly because there is no way we could stuff all that food in the relatively small freezer section of our fridge. For one, both are nearly always stuffed full. But the very thought has me thinking we need to replace it BEFORE it dies.

All things considered, that should be our next appliance to focus on. Due to the sheer expense of it, I’m assuming another chest, since the preferred upright is far more costly. I do not relish the idea of diving headfirst into one, trying to reach something in the bottom of it.

Fortunately, I have three family members available who are visibly taller than I am. Two of them are six inches taller, but that half a foot makes a huge difference. Believe me. I am the only one in my household who can’t reach things on the second shelf without a stool.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.