I'm Back!

   Hi everybody! I'm back! Back to the blog, back to our house, back in spasm... Yes, my back is in spasm. That's why I didn't write this last night when we got our internet back. 

  You see, when we were still at Emma's, we lost internet when she was moving to their new house, (They have bought a house.), and she took the router to the new house. Ken hooked ours up, and he was able to get internet on his computer, but not mine, but only for about half an hour. Then it disappeared and he wasn't able to get it back again. I had my phone, but I couldn't get into my blog on it. So, for weeks now all I've had to communicate on, get emails, or watch anything, has been my phone. That tiny little screen. I don't type well on that tiny keyboard either. So even if I could have gotten into the blog, it likely would have been an unreadable mess, like the email I sent Raging Moon the other day. When we got back in the house a few days ago, Ken couldn't get the internet to work here either. But the Frontier person came yesterday and got it going. Halleluiah! 

    I got over my Covid a while back. Emma thought mine lingered on longer than normal. It was at least two weeks before I could do things without feeling sick and getting unusually tired. But I'm over it now.

  As far as getting into our house, that's been a story and a half too. We had the electricians here. They did some rewiring and set us old people up with a plug in for a washer and dryer in the kitchen, because we are too old for the basement stairs these days. They moved our electrical box, because it was in a bad spot and the previous guy had backed it in a damp basement with a piece of wood! They checked all our circuits, and told us which ones  were okay,  (which was, fortunately, most of them.), and which ones not to use until we get more rewiring done. We got the windows replaced that got knocked and burned out in the fire. Of course, the guys who put the windows in didn't rebuild the frames first, and installed windows into CHARCOAL. That's not going to last in the long run, is it?! Now I have to yell at Lowe's. We got the gas back on, since they had removed the meter while we weren't using any gas, (Why?!) So we got our het on...and the pipes that were apparently frozen and burst, thawed, and all...water broke loose. We were 'lucky' enough to have a water company valve right at our house, so even though we turned our water off, they didn't. So we had to get the plumber out to fix a bunch of leaks, and another plumber who cut holes in our wall and did nothing, and yet another plumber who cut a hole in our ceiling and fixed a couple of leaks. We have been keeping the repair people in business lately. And remember, our mortgage company hadn't paid our insurance, so this is all out of pocket. Yay.

  On the good side, we finally got our cat Arky out of the basement! He had been down there the past year. He wouldn't come up while we were here, wouldn't let anybody touch him. That meant leaving the basement door open, so when we got the heat back on, we were also heating the basement. I got him up to the top step for treats last week, and he took them from my fingers, but he wouldn't let me touch him. Then a few nights ago, he came all the way upstairs, (Not even the ground floor, but upstairs!), and he actually came to me and let me pet him. He started rubbing on me and purring. I got him in the bathroom and shut the door Then I managed to slip out and hobble downstairs and lock the basement door so he couldn't go back down. Then I let him out of the bathroom as quickly as possible so he didn't feel like I was being mean to him when he had finally consented to be petted. But he didn't hold a grudge, and has been cuddling with us ever since the second night or so. He got back in the groove pretty quickly. The three cats have been hanging with us most of the time.

  We have been carrying a lot of stuff, and moving from Emma's, with all those stairs. So, it's been a bit much, physically on both of us. My back finally called it quits yesterday, after a bunch of sweeping and bending over to dustpan it. It started with a bit of a catch, painful, but manageable. Then my back went crazy, so I took a shower before I got to the point where I couldn't. It's a good thing I did, because it only got worse. Our neighbours must have thought somebody was being murdered in here, because I screamed every time I moved. Any time I wanted to turn over in bed, I went to the bathroom too, because I figured if I was going through all that pain, I wasn't going to do it again when I had to go to the bathroom. (You thought I meant I peed myself, didn't you?) I also did a lot of sleeping, and I'm not sure why. And no, I don't have Covid again. I hope.

  So I'm back now. There's loads of work to do here. I scrubbed the bathtub walls and the tub, and cleaned the floor the other day so we could bathe. I still need to clear out the cupboard so we can keep our stuff in there again, and do the ceiling and walls, which are sooty. Up to now most of what I got done was clearing four years of college life and other stuff out of Ivy's room so we can live in here until I redo our room. Our room is blackened, and so is everything in it. At least it's starting to not smell as smokey. I still owe you a book for last month. I had one ready and everything, but no internet! Give me another day or two and I'll get it up. I'll be back soon.