More Repairs

Yesterday when I was driving to work my neighbor called and said my garage door was open. She went and shut it for me, but it wouldn't stay down. I played around with it last night and cleaned the sensors and knew I wasn't going to be fixing it myself. 

It turns out the gear in the motor was broken and I had him install a new unit and a new rail thing that it runs on. Oh my gosh, I love it! I know I said I was going to cut down on my spending, but this was worth it. The other one was over 20 years old anyway. He also installed the remote entry for me. I already had one purchased and it was sitting on my shelf waiting for someone with a drill. Now, I have a very quiet garage door that I can open in my car, on my phone, or with the keypad. 

Hopefully, I'm done with costly repairs now. Lets keep it to the hundred dollar range for a little while, hm? Still, I'm very happy with this one. 

Labor Day

I made plans with my sister to get out of the house on Monday for the holiday, then while I was waiting for them to pick me up, I wondered if I wouldn't rather stay home. I'm really glad I got out. We ended up at Tony Grove and walked around the lake. Perfect temperature and when the wind blew, I was very grateful for my hoodie. 

There are very few things that smell better than the mountains. It was a lovely day.

Daylight

One positive thing that I’ve been noticing since I was home sick all week. It’s the way the sunlight hits my windows in the afternoon. It’s not as low as winter sun, and the leaves are still on the trees, so it’s not direct sunlight in the windows. But it’s still hitting those south facing windows just right and making them glow with light. My plants are loving it. It’s been getting a little darker since summer solstice, of course, but now I’m noticing it in the afternoon sun as well. I absolutely love the autumn and winter sun. There’s a softness to it that you just don’t get in summer. So happy that I could consciously notice it now so I can pay attention as the season progresses. 

Sick

Well, I’ve been looking forward to September for ages and it started with a bang. I guess I can say it can only get better from here? Tuesday day was fine. I got out my fall decorations, all 4 of them. LOL And switched my candle warmer to an apple and cinnamon scented wax melt. Wednesday I woke up with a scratchy throat and the day went downhill from there. I ran to the grocery store in the morning to get lemons and orange juice and Gatorade, just in case. By the afternoon there was no denying I was getting sick and by the time I got off work, I felt awful. I worked a bit on Thursday as well, mostly because I couldn’t breathe unless I was sitting up, so why not? 

I already planned to take today off for a 4 day weekend. This was the weekend I was supposed to go to Cedar City. I have tickets waiting for me at the box office. I needed one more day to get over this. I’m over the sore throat and chills, but my sinuses are still a mess and my head still hurts a bit. There’s just no way I can comfortably do that 4 hour drive by myself. And let’s face it: I have no desire to sit in a theater feeling like this. And I want to be in my own bed with my own things when I don’t feel good. The hotel was paid for with miles so it doesn’t feel like such a waste. But there goes almost 200 dollars down the drain. I don’t have another weekend to go and one of the shows closes tonight anyway. I know I’m grumpy and I just plain don’t feel good, but I waste so much damn money sometimes. I know this one really can’t be helped. I didn’t try to get sick. I’m just….not happy about the whole situation. 

So today, I’m going to sit here and wallow in misery and hopefully take a nap, because I didn’t get much sleep last night. Hopefully, I’ll feel better tomorrow and maybe I can figure out something to do that will make this weekend not feel like a complete waste. Something free. I’ve wasted enough money for now.

Rainy August

We got a nice rainstorm today. It was basically raining when I got up and was pretty steady until around 3. I loved it. 

I had to be at the church this morning at 8:30 to help clean. I got there in time to grab a vacuum. I don’t mind helping out when I get the vacuum. I was sweating when I was done. Then on the way home, I noticed my tire pressure light was on. I drove home and checked and none were flat-flat. I was really hoping it was just the temperature change. So I showered and got ready and drove over to the shop. The tires were a few pounds flat and they did say it was the temperature. Even though it’s not cold, it’s still almost 30 cooler today than it has been.

Then I did my grocery shopping and ate lunch. I had been planning to go to the library book sale, but they had to move it indoors and I just was not in the mood to be with a bunch of people in that space. So I skipped it and took a nap instead. After my nap, I was still not in the mood to be home. I wanted to get cozy, but not until later when I knew I was in for the day. I had told myself I could look for a few more wax melts for fall so I ran down to the mall. I found 2 apple based scents I’ve never had so that was good. 

I’m finally in for the night and it feels right this time. The sun is shining, sometimes. I think we may get a little more rain this evening. I made a soup called “Busy Day Soup” that I basically dumped frozen veggies and some leftover unseasoned ground beef in a pot with a can of tomatoes and some homemade onion soup mix. Then you add a noodle so I added bowties since that’s what I have. It actually tastes pretty good for a very quick soup. No chopping and very simple pantry ingredients. If it freezes well, I can put it into my soup rotation. 

Time to get cozy and enjoy the rest of the evening. I do hope we get a little more rain. The 10 day forecast has the temperatures in the 80s and as we head into September, I really hope we’ve seen the last of the high 90s. Two more days and I’m hitting fall hard!

Life Without

Ok, not gonna lie, sometimes I miss Prime. I preordered a book from Bookshop and that’s fine but I’m dying to read it and I figured it would be here by Thursday and the shipping confirmation says next Monday. I’ve been planning my week around reading that book. LOL That’s what bookish people do!  But I’ve also recently noticed that none of my Kindle purchases show up instantly anymore. My KU books do, but not my purchases. So yeah, Amazon really treats you as a second class citizen when you don’t do their program. 

It’s all fine. I am going to the theater tonight anyway and won’t be reading. And this is just a note to myself that I don’t need to be purchasing a ton of Kindle books anyway. I already probably have way more than I will read in my lifetime. I’ve kept my KU subscription and there are actually a bunch of books in there that I’d like to try. So for the price and my usage, I’m ok with keeping it, for now.

I’ve done pretty well on buying more locally and not on Amazon. In 2024, I had 83 orders placed, not counting digital. In 2025, it was 37. And so far this year, I’ve made 6 orders. I don’t think I will need to buy anything else on Amazon this year. I’m not traveling, and have pretty much stocked up on all the things I like to buy there (and can’t find equivalent locally). I buy Christmas presents locally now. 

My digital orders have also fallen, but not by much. They still hover around the 50/year range. That’s books, movie purchases and rentals, etc. I’ll try to knock that down. It’s the impulses that kill me. There are a few authors I only buy on Kindle and those I will probably keep up with, but that’s maybe a quarter of my purchases. 

So I miss the instant gratification, but I’m doing fine without it. I will survive if I don’t get to read my new book as planned. And it’s money saved, aaaaassssssss long as I don’t spend it somewhere else. :)

Weekend

It was slumber party weekend. My niece had asked if they could have one before school started. I didn’t quite make that since most of them started this past week, but it was close. I had 5 of them spend the night. I feel like we did pretty good. The chaos was manageable and I didn’t yell. Seriously, I’m not sure why they like coming here. When I was younger, I made more of an effort. LOL

We started at the pool. Since some of us have a pass, I just paid for the other kids. My sisters came too and we had fun. We got out right before it closed and then went to Chic-Fil_A for dinner. We met up with my older nieces as well. Once dinner was over and we got back to my house, I let the kids play and they got out my tinker toys. I’ve had those things since Spencer was a tiny and they’ve been a good investment. About 8:30, I had them get in the pajamas and we made popcorn and settled down for a movie and treats. I rented some Pokémon movie and was bored stiff, but that’s ok. Eventually, I got them settled in bed and went up to bed myself. I told the older kids I didn’t care if they stayed awake or kept the tv on as long as they didn’t wake the twins. Evidently, they did stay up late and they did wake at least one of the twins. LOL I didn’t really hear them, but I did not sleep well. I just get weird anxiety when I’m not the only one in my house. So I ended up getting up early and took a shower and got ready for the day. I went downstairs a little before 8 to start breakfast and Rosie woke up first. Once one of them is up, there’s no way to stay quiet. 

We had breakfast and watched cartoons. I put on a few different 80’s cartoons because Katya loves watching 80s stuff. Then we got out the ancient game cube for an hour or so until Amy came to get the twins. They don’t all fit in my car for me to take home. I took the older kids home by way of Walmart for some birthday shopping and then In N Out for lunch. 

It was almost 2 when I got home to start cleaning. I got everything put away and got the floors vacuumed and swept and mopped. I started laundry and made my grocery list. I got home from shopping around 5 and just enjoyed the clean, quiet, calm of my home. I’ve been trying to make it cozy and I like how it feels. 

Then a little before 10 we had a thunderstorm. It was glorious. The rain just pelted down for a few minutes and I had puddles in my backyard on the lawn. It calmed down for a bit and then it started back up when I went to bed. I opened my window and enjoyed the cooler air and the sounds of rain and thunder. I do love a good storm. 

Today I’m finishing a bit of laundry, but otherwise taking it easy. After church, I plan on making the sweet corn chowder. I may throw in a small batch of biscuits as well. The sun is shining but the wind is blowing and it will still get hot. It’s been a good weekend though.