We Are Back Again - Though It Took a Few Days to Post the First Post

Saturday, December 31, 2016 @ 5:43 am
Good morning.  I wanted to let you know first off that we weren’t thinking of it being almost New Year’s Day, but we have been thinking the last several days, we would like to start writing again.  Because where we are, we don’t always know if we can follow something along, but we should do something, because the lack of writing seems to be putting a void in our life.  We’ll continue our old blog I think, so if you’re reading this we’re over at “Ann’s Multiple World of Personality (AMWP).”  Well, maybe … we went over there and then from a link we went back to a newer project that we’d started working on.  That spot is at “Multiplework.”  I remember it as a web site and a blog, but that it hadn’t been developed beyond the first things and I remember that we were working on “e-books” with our old AMWP blog.
As to a timeline … the AMWP went back to an entry from January 16, 2016 and about the same time of the morning as now.  At that … It was a small entry titled “After a longer 5 months.” And, before that we wrote an entry called, “Mid-May to Mid-August – we’re saying that’s about three months behind/caught-up!”  In other words – the year of 2016 has left us blank as far as blog entering goes.  Looks like 2013 was only 104 – 8 ½ entries a month – that has been our high number … the next year 2014 we were at 29 entries for the year, 2015 was 34 entries, AND the entire year of 2016 was ONE ENTRY!  What the heck happened there? Ok, maybe 2 entries, we just added a draft of one of our forgotten entries.
One thing … my mother died the end of 2015.  After that we must have not been trying or was just way out in space somewhere.  I know we asked Dr. Marvin if there was something we could think to wrap up the year … like where in the hell were we.  He thought a moment and then stated that my mother had died and then there were all the things that came from that including the change in finances and building processes.  It seems the end of 2015 was the projects in coloring.  We got back to those a bit – now the last part of 2016 in that there were like 5 Christmas coloring pages, and then the double set of pages that went to Dr. Marvin IN a nice frame that was his present this year. 
I’m not sure of what happened to the MW blog.  I know it wasn’t as free flowing.  We were working on structure, but it got the best of us when our Internet started to bog down AND we were having problems with the house production work.  All that will be explained in a bit.  *sigh* Basically, though there have been several renovation projects such as both bathrooms, laundry room, kitchen (coming up to two times), and then siding and lastly a new front porch.  Yeah that is a lot, isn’t it?
@10:03 am
Ok, we’re going to start this again.  Several hours have passed.  We got overwhelmed with the writing – could understand sentence by sentence what we’d just written and we weren’t feeling very good.  So, we took some Dayquil, but fell to sleep on the couch anyway.  After about 7:30 am, Rich got up and took the dog out again and fed him.  I eventually got up to do a few things – checked the cookies AND vacuumed a couple of rooms AND did all the email/facebook things – a LOT of NYE messages to trade with others. 
Pswhoo – just finished the vacuuming – we did three rooms and a hall this morning yay!  We still have to sweep the living room, office area, dining area, kitchen and laundry room.  Maybe Rich will have mercy on us.  We’ll try in a little bit, but it’s taking a bad toll on the back.  Just need to do it in parts like we did yesterday.  You would think by now this wouldn’t be such a big deal, but alas, it still is L  AND, we still need to save back space for later in washing and buffing at least the kitchen – we did the whole thing a week ago – and think the rest is just fine. 
We’re most proud of Rich having taken some things out of the pit hull of the back of my office – where the books are kept (the ones allowed in the house).  The suggestion part for me was to look through and get rid of some of the papers.  Pswhoo – invitation accepted!  A lot of stuff went out except records of 2016 AND some personal NEED to save things for Rich and us.  Yearly we file receipts in boxes for each year, so those older containers, just had to be relocated.  Again, just kept out 2016. 
Hmm, apparently, we’re more home orientated now.  The thoughts are much easier than they were this morning, and already my back is feeling better.  Dakota gave up on us … we’re the slowest breakfast – cottage cheese eater in the world.  He WILL get up again though when he hears us scraping the bottom of the plastic container.  He’s faithful!
I don’t want to get real into things so that I can’t find my way back to the kitchen floor.  We might take some more cold medicine when we take our 11 am medicine.  Think we had the last stuff around 4-4:30 am.  Ok, you – quit thinking of housework … just need to focus on the very next task.  Better do the kitchen floor before the others, because we don’t want to tie Rich up in the kitchen.  He did appreciate after he woke up that we’d put bread in the cookies to soften them.  He made cookies last night and forgot to put a top on them.  Ok, enough fussing, right?
One more thing … what is on Rich’s list.  He must clean the guest bath – though we vacuumed it, and then a BIG job – he must clean up his office.  Pswhoo, it’s a mess!  We had our own chore with the sewing room – so it’s even AND the guest room was pretty much done except to put a few pictures back on the wall and vacuum.  He still has garbage to take out – we got it out as far as the sunroom – I think his curb garbage can is full.  He’ll have to find a place for it.  I think he wants to move the clothes rack down to the breezeway and to sweep the breezeway … ok, with me.  AND he must cook.  Right now, he’s at his mother’s and to Walmart for a SHORT list of things to get.  I told him he was leaving too much for today – we picked up the entire house EXCEPT his office yesterday – he should have gotten that far.  Eh – his workload.  EXCEPT the part if things should start falling over to me like the vacuuming. 
Good-good – didn’t get to the floor, but we did move the rack, and we cleared out the 4 containers of open pop and put it into the fridge.  We still have room for the diet coke and water Rich will bring home.  Good, just called … he has it in the car already.  I didn’t stay on long enough to ask his ETA … thinking we’re going to let the floor go until he can do something with the heavy rug.  Reminds me, I should look at Dakota’s food and water dishes.  I might have to clean them already.  Drat one more thing on OUR list.  I’d like to get that kitchen swept, but the rug in front of the sink is dirty so if I sweep around it and it gets picked up my floor must be redone, AND if I try to move it – put it out in the sunroom then Rich’s floor won’t be swept … I’ll let him deal with it – he’s the one that wanted that messy dirt holder BLAH!
Maybe then we will sweep the other areas or work toward it when our back rests some.  I’ve got to bring his computer bag back to his office too – don’t want it in our kitchen.  We must sweep there.  I think we’re in charge of the fussed upon things Hehe.  There-there … poor Rich isn’t going to get home – we just called to remind him we didn’t have enough ice cubes.  He said thank you for thinking of it.  Pswhoo – bit the bullet there!  He’s still in a good mood.  Obviously, he isn’t home looking at his list of stuff to do. 
Shoot … we should rest longer.  We barely got through the kitchen part and the laundry/pantry room part – I guess that’s ok.  Two small rooms, right?  I guess we’re breaking things down the next part will be to get through the dining room, and then the office.  Maybe by then I’ll find that Rich vacuumed the wood part of the living room – it seems so, no need to duplicate work.  We’re getting there.
Doesn’t this feel like the old days where we used to talk just to get through housework – sometimes with the 15-minute timer?  That’s when we used to be able to do 15-minutes.  We’re like at 6 minutes now.  Rich and we have been (before direct holiday time) walking on the treadmill.  I’m at 6 minutes and he doubles our number.  We’ll start that again on Monday, or at least after the kitchen people are done again and we get our sunroom back.  Just remembered that we’re going to lose it again.  It was such a good find after the last kitchen people left.
You didn’t hear that part yet.  Earlier in the year we had both bathrooms done and the laundry room, and we took out the third bath and made it into a pantry with very tall shelving units on each side of the door … it was a small half bath.  We never used it and it helps Rich out considerably with stocking food.  We’ll go into that later, but Ed did a good job.  We got gouged though, and we had to hire a new builder later in the year when we were to do our kitchen.  As well, we are finishing up siding work and had a French door added to the dining area/sunroom and a front porch.  The problem was Rich (the other Rich) and the first kitchen job, was that he did a terrible job and it was terrible to work with him.  We like the other two contractors.  We’ve got a lawyer helping us with the first kitchen.  We gave him an 86-page picture/comment booklet of all the problems we were left with and didn’t want to pay for.  Then, we had to hire a second kitchen contractor, Jeff, to go over the whole thing, especially electric.  Just can’t play games with that.  He will be starting his crew on Tuesday (1-3-17).  That might be the siding contractors last day.
I think the good and bad of all this has been that we used a part of my mother’s inheritance for this.  I think by working on the projects, it’s been like having her here, because the ongoing thought and feeling is that we hoped she would like it.  We have some investment left and it must be kept where it is.  That is the part – that should be helping both Rich and us as we both lean toward retirement.  I’m on disability already and Rich just turned 65-years of age.  We hope that it supplements our incomes, but will not have to be used unless it absolutely has too.  Rich is worrying if he goes first.  He’s 8-years older than us.  Rich is planning not to retire though until 70.  Fortunately, he works for himself and calls the hours and demands.  AND, he has an office here at our home where he can get things done in his private space.  I know if I go back there, I’m already one foot back out of the room.
@ 2:46 pm me again – you just get a dappling at a time J  We just visited Rich in his NICELY cleaned office!  It’s perfect!  And he did the garbage in the sunroom and the breezeway floors.  Now he’s headed for the bathroom and we’ve finished the sweeping washing of the kitchen floor.  Rich wants to be back in the kitchen at 3 pm, so we’ll wait until he gets in the shower, and then buff the floor … Just doesn’t make sense to do it now – it always looks better just after you finish it!  But, nice to see the dirt spots from the dog lift out J  Hmm, wonder if I put a double coat of wax on it?  Maybe not – don’t want to fall a part in the process.  I think we’ll try to take our shower by 5:00-5:30 pm, so make it a goal to wax before that.  By then Rich should need a breather.  We’re skipping the dog dishes, they are FAR away from the party … thinking we could put them in the laundry room.  Rich put the bars for hanging laundry in the breezeway so there is plenty of room.  None of our guests will use the longer length of breezeway.