Oh No!

The other night we had a power failure in our area that lasted a couple hours. (See post on Steve's blog for other details!) Anyway, the power going out fried our big screen Mitsubishi tv even though it was plugged into a surge protector!! (Of course!) All we have now is a flashing light on the front of it. We spent quite some time trying to get it to work once the power came on, but with no luck. Finally I got on Mitsubishi's website and found 5 authorized service providers in LV. Called the first one, no longer in business, called the second, third, fourth and fifth, and got the same response from every one of them!!! I nearly had to reach through the phone and pick them up off the floor they were laughing so hard once I told them my tv is 9 years old! They all said, it's trash, no parts available!! I could not believe such a thing, so I got back onto Mitsubishi's website and went to their parts ordering page, put in my model number and got the following line in BIG RED LETTERS...."0 parts available". So sad, what to do now, no tv downstairs! We have been discussing some ideas for the future about redoing family room, but were looking about 5 years down the road...Seems as though everything we have is falling apart and costing me money!!

On Duty!

Some people have scarecrows to keep the birds out of their gardens, I have Tigger. She goes out every morning to sit on the warm dirt in the sun and sunbathe. Even though her vision is very poor, even with her eyes open (!), she might still be an intimidating presence as she rests among my strawberries and green beans!! She really is cute though!

And So It Goes...

Over the past few years every time Ed has taken some time off away from home with family or friends, or even on business, I have had a crisis to deal with in his absence. He was in CA after his father's death when I got a phone call from Allison in China telling me she was extremely ill and coughing up blood (in the throes of the SARS epidemic), he was in Nigeria working when I came home one day and discovered 4" of water on the downstairs floors (the washing machine broke while I was out), he was somewhere I can't remember when we discovered water pouring through the ceiling in the den downstairs, we had to shut the water off at the street till the plumber could get here, the next day, which was also the day we were having a baby shower for Erin at our house! Thank goodness for barrels of water in storage! He was in Mexico last year when Casey (the dog), fell down the stairs and died, and he is on an off road trip this weekend when the hot water tank goes out! I came home from work and discovered water running out of the garage, had to call our plumber (who unfortunately for him, responds to my crisises all the time!). By 7pm last night he finally had our new hot water tank in and we not only had running water again, but hot water too! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Retro

Cami and I were looking through the cupboards in the game room today and came across our OLD Fisher Price Sesame Street record player and a stack of children's record albums. She wanted to know what it was, so I explained, we put in new batteries, wiped it off, wiped off the records and she was off into a whole new world of imagination. She absolutely loved the Small World and Snow White albums. As she was listening she said, "Grandma, I really wish I could have one of these at my house!!"

Uh Oh!

Ed decided to go to Lovell Canyon on Monday of President's Day Weekend to set up a compass course for his scouts for their upcoming campout. Only thing is he failed to take into account the storm heading our way and it hit while he was up there. The truck slid off the road in the raging snowstorm and become stuck. He had no cell service so he had to hike out 6 miles through knee deep snow before he could use his cell. (He forgot he had Onstar, oh well, don't know if would have worked or not!!) A driver picked him up and took him to a phone where he called Erin to come get him. Now, you might ask, why would he call Erin and not Cathy? Well, the entire family was gathering at Ed and Cathy's that afternoon for a birthday dinner, and she had suggested to him that this was not the best day for this activity, there was lots of food to prepare, a storm was coming, and so on. Back to the story, Erin and Cami went and picked him up and brought him home to a very unsympathetic welcome from Cathy (ME!). He called Steve Marx and they gathered supplies and went back to try and get the truck out, but after 3 hours, no luck. So they went back on Wednesday with Steve's Dodge truck, another Dodge truck and Paul and Eric, two of Ed's former scouts/young men who may consider themselves quite unlucky to be working for us after this experience!! After 3 1/2 hours of trying, and both other truck's sliding off the road and getting stuck as well they finally freed all three and made it back home. Oh, and the compass course? Better luck next time! The moral of the story? I'll leave that up to you to decide!

Joy of Creation!

I went out back yesterday morning and when I looked at the peach tree, I saw it was beginning to blossom!. I was so excited to see the new growth that brought to my mind and my heart a renewal of hope, sunshine and warmth. No matter what goes on in the world, no matter what doom and gloom the politicians spew, these little blossoms renewed my spirit and reminded me that there is someone far greater in charge and that his plan IS sure, does not change and is 100% guaranteed to succeed!!

CHECK IT OUT!!!

You can't really tell in this picture, but the wall is painted and the tv is mounted on the wall, not totally finished, but hey, it's only been 14 months since I originally purchased the tv. I figure if we keep up this pace, our room will be done by our 60th birthdays!!!!