More Than I EVER Wanted To Know

 Foggy California got a little bit sunnier yesterday, though the forecast calls for clouds for seven days.  Hey, it's better than cold wet fog!!  It will even increase our temperatures to a high of 60.  WOOHOO!!

Here's my body guards on morning service.  That black blob to the right is Kitters.  They both sit, or rather lay there until I've finished the blog.  Good company, these kids.

When I start breakfast, Kitters moves to the chair.  Not that she sleeps ... she just lays there with one eye open.  You can't move around without her having one eye on you.  I guess that's from sleeping outside with the night critters.  I hear tell the foxy kids are still hanging out on occasion, but they don't come here any more since the house behind me was built.  Another reason not to like neighbors!!

Breakfast was quite tasty.  Corn tortillas (I'm trying to use them up) smothered in cheese, bacon and egg.  You can't beat that with a stick!!

Amazon is still delivering things here and there.  It's my contribution to the workforce.  Without all my orders, just imagine how many people would be out of work.  I have to admit though ... their faces change about every two weeks.  You never get the same guy more than three times.

Here's one that perplexes me.  You can go to the little town of Kingsburg (too far south to drive) and buy these wonderful cookies in the exact same tin.  HOWEVER, they are all in one piece.  If you order this tin from Amazon, and I'm not sure exactly where they come from, you get THIS.  

So someone goes to the factory, buys up all the scraps and broken pieces and dumps them in the same tin and ships them to you.  It does not say they are the crumbs.  The first time I was really mad, but they could not be returned.  THIS time I decided maybe I was ahead of the game since I got more in the can because of their smaller size.  Yes, the cookies weigh more than the can says.  It's better for me anyway, since I won't eat four whole cookies at a time .... I only grab the crumbs of ONE!!  There's logic for you!!

I truly did not want to go there with this purchase, but getting up at 3:00 am isn't going to hack it.  So just what kind of litter do you buy?  I ordered one bag and it's a 40 pounder.  Good grief ... who can lift this stuff??

I filled the bottom and stuck it in the spare bathroom.  I put Kitters in it once, whereupon she whirled around throwing litter everywhere and jumped OVER ME to get out.  Oh yes ... this is working out splendidly!!  I once again let her out at 3:00.  Her clock is never late.

Lunch was leftover enchilada casserole.  Boy do I love that stuff.  Once again ... another Amazon order.  If I order four things, they will deliver two at a time, for two trips a day.  No one said they were efficient in California.  

THIS time it was the battery maintainer I ordered that said it would be delivered the next day.  Four days later, here it is.  That's okay ... I went straight to work.

OH BUT WAIT!  The two clips are too close together to reach from the hot to the ground.  The red is the hot and the ground is way off to the right ... about two feet away.  How can you find something to ground to when absolutely EVERYTHING is plastic?  

I finally called Dan and sent him a picture.  He said to just plug it in and see if the thing turned on.  I was waiting for sparks to fly, but YAY the orange ON light lit up.  It's a trickle charger, so we shall see how long it takes to fill it up.  I think the batteries were at about 12.4.  

If this works, when the light turns green, I will unplug it for a few days and then check the voltage again.  This is more than I EVER wanted to know about batteries and charging them.

I'm positive that I was very achy from sitting WAY too long, so I headed out for a nice long walk.  Things went south quickly.  At the far end was the Garden Trimming Crew who accosted me last week when I walked by and they asked about any work I might have for them.  I turned around and headed back ... I'll walk further the other direction.

YIKES ... at the other end was the last gardener I fired.  Oh that's not good ... I don't want to walk down there.  So instead, I walked half a block, turned, walked half a block, turned and continued for 30 minutes.  Obviously, I'm not one for confrontation!!

Back home I began sewing the blocks together.  But something bothered me.  Doesn't it look too dark at the bottom right?  I grabbed the placement chart and went block by block.  OH GOOD GRIEF!!  Something is wrong.  That last row should be different colors.

Nancy was not a happy camper.  I went through the pattern one step at a time and discovered they made a mistake for the Throw Size.  They switched the number of squares for each color.  I tried over and over to arrange them where that mistake didn't show, but there was no way it was happening.  

BIG SIGH!  and maybe a few bad words.  Lucky for me I have plenty of fabric to make three more squares for the bottom so the pattern will be correct.  Leave it to me to pick up a pattern with a mistake in it.  Had I caught it sooner, I might have made the correction BEFORE I have to rip apart five squares. and replace three of them.

By the way, since it's tax time ... here's my tip of the day.  ALL of your social security is NOT TAX FREE.  It all depends on how much money you make.  I worked so hard to get a good job with a great retirement and my penalty for that is paying taxes on 90% of that social security money, in SPITE of what the government is telling you.  

ALSO ... be aware of them telling you they are REDUCING YOUR TAX DEDUCTIONS so you will have more money to spend.  Sounds good, but it's lying in my book.  What they do is reduce the DEDUCTIONS from your checks, but you still have to pay the same amount of TAXES at year end.  That means you have to either save more for paying your taxes, or float a loan to pay for them.  Just a heads up on that one for next year!

I won't even go into the no tax on overtime!!

And so ends another day.  I'll be on the patio with the kids, waiting for the sun to make its appearance!!