A Battery of Issues

 My crazy schedule with kids/energy/car issues this summer have been winding down so that last week, I actually made it to church for the midweek Bible study!  However, I'd missed the note in the bulletin saying that there was NO midweek Bible study last week.  sigh.  day late and a dollar short. That's me!

So I decided I would go LAST night.  I made it to town, dropped off the hard drive for my data recovery and when I got to the car, the battery was dead. ???!!!  I called Meri and she was thankfully close by.  She and bf Josh jump started my car and then I headed to Walmart for a new battery and possibly have this one checked to see if it could hold a charge.

Meri said to go to the North Walmart as she was headed there shortly. okey doke.  So I did.

Unfortunately, as I pulled up to the store, it didn't look like they had an automotive area, like the other one does.  So I called their service desk without even turning the car off. Because you know what trouble that can bring. They confirmed.  Go to the South one. uggh!!!  It was 6:20pm and their auto section closes at 7.

I headed there and realized that I didn't have the right tools to get that battery out.  I'd been planning on swapping it myself (hopefully easily). nope.  and the battery posts were heavily corroded over. yuck.

Not my battery but a close facsimile. 

I went inside and waited for someone to help me. Thankfully two young men in that department took pity on me and came out with the right tools to get that battery out even thought they're not really allowed to!  I got the new one swapped, didn't even take time to have them test the old battery.  It was 3 years old.  I decided to just wing it and assume that was the problem. 

Who can say?  Not me anymore.  oh well.

They helped put it back on for me and the car fired right up!

If it's the alternator, I guess we'll find out.  I do have a tester somewhere that can tell me that.

Do I know where it is? 

nope.

Oh and I missed Bible study again.  

I did use the Bible gateway app tho on the way into town and had it read to me for several chapters in Genesis.  Ooohh  Joseph and those Egyptians!  I guess THAT was my Bible study for this Wednesday.

Tonight, I'm picking up someone at the airport in the middle of the night.  I hope to get enough sleep before and after.  We'll see.  

I'm going to be dragging tomorrow.

God Winks/Nudges/Miracles

I get miracles done every day from God!

Some I can tell you about and some I won't, because you don't need to know ALL my business!

Here are a couple that I CAN tell you about.

Robb and I put together that cookbook of all our family favorite recipes, had it printed into a book and given out for Christmas presents. I use mine a few times a week!  That was the fall before he passed. Miracle #1

4 years ago, in the summer after my dear husband died, I had thought to make an external backup of all the thousands (and I'm not kidding) photos off my desktop computer. Miracle #2.

Shortly after that, I thought to make a file of all the Instant Messages that we'd sent back and forth over the past several years.  He and I both were on IM for our jobs and we thought we'd add each other for quick notes.  Most like, "Hey - what's the Amazon password?"  or "What should we have for supper?" or "I found Maddy on the church service camera, here you go!"  I had been saving those photos to put into a book for Maddy's college graduation gift. Did it and it was great! :) But that was a few years before.

Within a few weeks of that backup and just after I'd created that file, we had a bad storm and a power surge took out my surge protector, computer and hard drive.  I took it to some IT guys I know and they couldn't access the drive.  I was heartbroken. again.

But I hung onto that drive and stored it away just in case.  I didn't have the money to send it off somewhere at the time so it sat inside an old purse on top of my hutch.

Recently, due to an undisclosed miracle, I thought to check online for a data recovery service that could retrieve data off that drive.  I got in touch with one company, that I thought was in Des Moines, but turned out to be on the east coast.  The quote was "somewhere between $400 - $4000".  
whew.  How much do I REALLY need that data?
I mean, I do know the password to Amazon nowadays...

Actually I did just look it up via a text message to Robb from 2020. So I have other means to get that info now.

and I did not want to ship off the drive somewhere where I don't know the people.  So I looked online again for someone local.  Found one in the next big town over and made a call.  I got an appointment and brought my hard drive in.

Met with a woman a little older than my son and she took all my information and gave me the cost.  Around $130.  SOLD!  And she'd let me know within a few days if there was something they could do. If not, then no charge and I'd need to send it to the $400 people.  ok.  I'm giving you a shot here and I prayed a lot about it.  Miracle #3

And when she got my info, she said coyly, "you know...  You and I know each other..."
do we? sort of creepy...

Her kid sister went to the same tiny day care that my son did 33 years ago!  The sister's name was Erica, but Ryan called her KaKa, because he was just a toddler!  She was instrumental in his first sentence!

"KaKa" then motioned with his hand to "come here!"

lol!  Apparently that nickname stuck for her but she doesn't give it to new friends.  It's mostly  just a family name.

Well, KaKa's big sister contacted me on Monday of this week.  She was able to get 80% of the hard drive data!  Some is just lost but it's probably photos that I've already got. hopefully!  Miracle #4

Oh and she told me that most external hard drives will sort of start flaking out at around 5 years. Yikes!  I've had this one for 4.5 years! The timing was perfect! Miracle #5

So I purchased an SSD external hard drive with 2 terabytes of space on it for only $90!  Isn't it cute?
And being an SSD type, it should not deteriorate like the HDD kinds. Miracle #6

The orange one was only 1 tb and THAT cost $90 4.5 years ago.

I can't wait until a 10 tb drive costs $25!
That would truly be another miracle!

It's Curtains... for the window

 

Like the new curtains for my sewing room?

I got them brand new thrifting last week!  I was thinking about using them in my bedroom but Jen suggested here as it would clash with the pink-ish paint there.

So I've got another idea for my bedroom.

And there's a reason the photo is cropped.  It IS my creative room so there it is.

Oh, after cooling down, the mower fired up beautifully so I got my steps in yesterday walking to Meri's house to pick up my car after driving the mower home. Just over 7k steps for the day!

That's a record for me if you don't count the Irish festival day!

Back to work!!!  It's almost FRIDAY!!!

One of those things...

 One of these things is just like the others.

What do these 3 things have in common?

Issues with the mower.

Well, new to me mower!  My brother brought me his old mower, which actually used to be my dad's!

So it means a lot to me that I get to use it now.

However, Mark wasn't even home yet (3 hours away) with his trailer when I mowed the back yard and the belt fell off.  It was sheared.  We don't know how that happened.

He's getting ready for Burning Man next week so I don't want to impose on him again, however I did call him about some advice a few, maybe more, times in putting the new one on.

I finally got the new belt on and finished the back yard today.  Took it over to Meri's and did her yard too.

Before I even attempted this today, I got a message from Ryan saying that a good friend of his wondered if someone would loan him a mower as his had just broken.

I agreed to drop it off for him when I got done with Meri's yard because they live less than a block away.  No big!

Well, it was a big.  I got there and the friend's dad was already there trimming and mowing.  I turned off the mower and chitchatted with him for a bit before attempting to start my mower again to take it home.

The dad said that fire, then smoke was coming out from the front of the engine.

sigh.

It's cooling off on their yard for the moment until I come over later this afternoon to try and start it.

I might be buying that brand new one sooner than spring.

Trust me to kill off Dad's mower!

I am 2-teen, going on 16

I went on a walk with Aggie last night and introduced her to CORN!  We're in Iowa.  She needs to know what to yell if we drive past a corn field as opposed to a soy bean field.

For the moment though, she just yells, YEAH! if I ask her if she sees corn.

And yes, that's a small ear of corn she's holding.

She's pretty positive about a lot of things. 

She also yelled, YEAH! when I asked her if she sees a cow.

There was no cow.

I did call her out on the zebra and then she said Nah for the rest of the animals I asked about.

She's not as positive about potty training but we sometimes get lucky with her if Miss Rachel is on.  Then she'll sit on the potty for 30 minutes and surprise herself.

She loves the positive reinforcement of 2 gummy bears for a #1 and 3 for a #2.

This morning we got the babies out on the deck for their daily feeding in the fresh air. And Aggie talked me into picking another black eyed Susan for her.  It's not hard.

I'm easy.

She brings me vividly back to the days when my kids, the girls, especially, were so little.

I loved that.

Enjoying it while I can!

Teenage years are about a week away.

Grandma went to the fair and all I got was...

Leon and I were GOING to go to the Iowa State Fair on Saturday, but due to conflicting schedules between me and a video game, I went alone.

NOT a big deal!

It was actually quite liberating!  I decided to park at the capitol building and take a city bus ride over to the fair. There and back was only $3!  and how easy was that!  I did get a sales pitch about some health stuff on the bus ride because I asked the person where they worked that they get to travel all over the world.

I have their business card now.

And I chatted with some folks on the ride back.

The bus dropped us off AT the gate and picked us up there.  In the past, I've walked several blocks just to get to the gates and then on the way back to someone's yard where I'd left my car. If I remember which street I parked down.  This way is a WINNER! and I'll do it again next year.

I believe I was in the actual fair grounds for 1 hour.  I  visited the 4H building and got pics of my nieces projects.  Found them SO easy because they have a project locator on one end of the building!!!  Where was THIS all my life?!  You just have to know which county your kid is from. I guessed wrong. I guess she's in the county next to the one I grew up in. oh well.  It was easier than going down every aisle!

Then I walked through a horse barn to get to the adult sewing stuff and GUESS WHAT?!  I got ribbons on both items I submitted this year!

Matthew's jacket got an honorable mention!

And his PJ bottoms got 2nd place!  YAY!

I really need to get back into sewing so I'll have more current entries next year.

I walked through the business booth area and found my obligatory annual yard stick that will be lost or taken before next years fair.  Signed up for a few freebies to increase my spam cell calls and then got some cheese curds.

You know... there are NOT a lot of diabetic friendly food choices at the fair.  I think everything is geared towards steering you TOWARDS diabetes.

I tell you what...  going to the fair without the boy was a WHOLE lot cheaper than taking him with. And he agreed with me when I got home. 

I brought him back a bag of caramel kettle corn on the way out of the fair and he was oh so thankful for it!

Grandma went to the Iowa State Fair and all I got was a lousy bag of kettle corn!

:) He loves that stuff so all was good.

My brother is bringing me his old riding lawn mower today!!!

He is a pretty swell brother!  We're going to try that one more thing on my mower and if it's a failure, we'll roll it to the curb. (after taking out the battery)

I'm not strong enough to take that bolt out so I'm leaving it for him. Something about a possible sheered key, like I'm going to know how to fix it after he leaves.  Well, maybe I will be able to if he explains it to me.

Ok - back to work!  Have a beautiful day!

CatchUp Wanna Be Irish Style

 I had a weird day yesterday.  A feeling hit me that I haven't felt in 20 years and it knocked me off my feet.  It was not a good feeling.  

So once I got home, I got busy with work, folded some clothes, got ready for a cooking class last night and the feeling subsided.  I felt "in control" again.  MUCH better!

If that's an anxiety attack, I'm going to do my best to avoid them.

Anyway, the cars have been in and out of the shop with major issues for the past few weeks.  I'll be glad when all cars are functional again without the engine lights coming on or weird noises from under the hoods or near tires.  

In the market for a new or new to me lawn mower.  My dear brother drove here from western Iowa and mowed my yards a week ago Thursday and they're about due again.  What an awesome brother I've got!

While I tried out his mower, finishing the back yard, he used his gas powered trimmer and started in around my garden.  He accidentally trimmed up two of my 3 tomato plants that I grew from seed before he realized there were "wanted" plants mixed in with the tall weeds! :) I asked him to leave the last one as it was my favorite anyway.  They are NOT being productive plants anyway this year.  I guess I don't know what I'm doing with the garden.

His mower is a zero turn and I think I may be sold on that idea now.  It was very awkward to figure out and I almost drove over him a couple times yelling, "How do I stop this thing?" "PULL BACK!  Like WHOA NELLY!"

oh!  Treat it like a horse, huh?  okey dokey.  I've always WANTED a horse!  I'll name her Nelly, of course.  Or Mr Ed.  It depends on what name hits me as appropriate when I finally pick one out.

Aggie turned 2!!!!  We had her party at the Des Moines Science Center with all the major players of her life in attendance.  So much fun!

Then cake with just the immediate family and grandparents.  Her other grandma made the cake and it was SO good!  It had a raspberry filling! mmmmm  I went off my pre-diabetic diet and enjoyed a half piece.

OH - my A1C got tested again this morning and it's 5.5!!!  Dropped from 5.9 in 3 months!  yay!  I'm still pre-diabetic though and will have to consistently watch what I eat.  Keeping it low carb as much as possible.  I think I'll wait a few more months before I bring a few more carbs into my food though.

I got 2 things entered into the State Fair that just started.  Thank goodness my son-in-law takes such good care of clothing I've made for him!  I've been out of the sewing mojo for some time now.  I've STARTED a ton of projects but haven't gotten very far in actually sewing them together.  

That might be my new hobby.  Dream up and starting projects.  I need a friend whose hobby is to complete unfinished projects and we'll be the dream team!

I've got several ideas for Christmas gifts and once I push all the already started projects off my sewing table, I'll get going on them!

Wednesday night, I attended a cooking class in town nearby and learned how to chop veggies properly with knives!  It was so much fun and I've got 2 quarts of chopped veggies that I'll eat tonight.

Thursday night, I attended the cooking class again with a widow friend and we learned how to make Spring Rolls!  OOOH!!!  Those rice paper rounds made it so easy!  However with 8 carbs per wrap, I only ate one and made two other rolls using lettuce leaves for the wrap.  They were messier and I should have had a fork, but oh well.  The peanut sauce was DELISH and the chef deliberately left out the brown sugar!  So now we know we can!  I was too shy to ask, but someone else did. Whew! Thankful for their boldness!

Oh!  Last weekend, Leon and I met up with Maddy and Meri in Waterloo for the Irish Fest!  

We watched knives being forged from railroad ties

Bohran, tin whistle demonstrations and Myth telling

Maddy and Meri were the only ones who enjoyed authentic Irish cuisine.  Leon ate up most of my Food dollar bucks on lemonade, corn dogs, gelato, burgers, fries and fried cheese curds.  No, I wasn't keeping track...  But I did end up with a burger and a few curds.

We saw the Trinity Irish Dancers from Chicago!  And reminisced about when Meri took Irish dance classes when she was really young.

Lots of quality time with my girls!

Leon climbed 3/4s of a wall!!!  The last time he'd tried this sort of thing, he only got a few feet off the ground.  So he's improving!!

Maddy wove some fabric and may have just struck on her NEW hobby!  She's got a lot of them too.  Like Mother, like daughter!

Enjoyed the Highland games!  They're throwing a 28 pound rock as if it's a discus throw!  Some got it as far as 34 feet!  Mine would have landed on my foot.

The girls got to pet some Irish dogs!

It was a fun day and I put in over 5 miles in walking. My watch confirmed!  Leon was beat!  And now he's thinking twice about attending the State Fair with me because of the walking...

:) Maybe I'll bring him in with a stroller! LOL!

Well, back to work.  Meri's car is in the shop today and I'm working from my bestie's nursing home library for at least the morning.  Trying to be inconspicuous and quiet.  She and I have lunch plans but I'm working and she's got her morning schedule.

I've got a mile in so far today just walking from the car fixing place!  

THAT should work off any carbs I picked up last night or decide to eat today.  sigh.  I have no idea how this whole thing works yet.