2010 July 13 — Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara

Flea Market Finds

July 13, 2010 · by JudyL

Sunday’s trip to Joplin was not supposed to include a trip to the flea market but Vince just can’t pass one up. He found all kinds of stuff but I found this:

It’s an old All American canner. The reason I almost got it was because I want a new All American canner — this one — but I can’t get anything til I know if I’m getting the new kitchen.

Vince found a router, some tools, and I can’t remember what else.

The cooler was in there because we were going to Sam’s. The straw . . that’s in there because he carries bundles of straw to use with the chickens. We had planned to take the Highlander, new battery and all. When Vince asked me to got to Joplin, I said “only if we don’t take the pickup!” I will never forget that the truck left us stranded in Joplin! Just as we were getting ready to walk out the door, the weather alarm went off and said we had a chance of thunderstorms with hail. You know the Highlander wasn’t getting out of the garage with a chance of hail. Vince looked at my car. It’s filthy from the dirt roads I travel. He said “We’re taking the pickup!” Now that the air conditioner is fixed, I think it has the best air conditioner of all our vehicles. So, we took the pickup and it’s a good thing with all he ended up buying. It got us there and back and that’s about all I should expect of it.

· Filed Under: Home & Garden · 4 Comments

Air Conditioning, I Love Thee

July 13, 2010 · by JudyL

This morning I cranked the thermostats down to about 65 hoping to get the house cold enough to stay comfortable the entire day without air conditioning. It didn’t work.

Promptly at 8 a.m., just as promised, the a/c guys showed up.

Within minutes, the old stuff was out.

The problem with me hanging out in the basement and sewing all day is . . that’s where they’re working and my sewing machine would be right in their way and I couldn’t get to the iron (not that I’m crazy enough to turn it on today anyway). Hey air conditioner dude! Can you take your hand off that painted wall?

Here’s my sewing machine and the a/c guys are in that closet. No matter where I go, I’m in their way.

The last thing I want to do is be in their way.

Ruby said . . Stop complaining! You should be covered in feathers and live in this coop with no air conditioning!

I figure in 6 more hours I’ll have cool air again. That’s only about 360 minutes. Make that 359 minutes!

· Filed Under: Home & Garden · 10 Comments

The Necessities of Life

July 13, 2010 · by JudyL

Can you even remember life before the internet? I can but I have to think hard. And, I don’t want to think about it. I don’t want to live without the internet . . not even for an hour!

After we tried Magic Jack for a while and decided it would work for us, we scheduled to have the home phone turned off. Since we had internet (DSL) through AT&T, and part of our home phone line, that all had to be switched over. Our understanding was that the internet would be “fixed” so it would run without the home phone, and then the home phone would be turned off. Monday (yesterday) was the big day. Do you think it went like we thought it would? NO!

When I got up at 5:30 a.m., I realized we had no phone and no internet. Thank goodness I wondered if everything would go according to plan and late last night scheduled a few blog posts to show up. But, I needed to make bread and my recipe was on my blog; I needed to mail a quilt to a lady and couldn’t sign on to my UPS account; I needed to check mileage to where I was doing a trunk show last night and couldn’t get onto mapquest.

By 5 p.m., I had given up hope of having the phone company show up and guess who drove up!

There was hope I would have internet before the day was over.

Quit looking around, buddy, and get my internet working! I’ve been 12 hours without it and things could get ugly quickly! Seriously, he was a very nice guy. He fixed my internet! We got the new “U-Verse” which is a whole lot faster than our regular DSL so I’m happy again. The repairman left with an ice cold Dr. Pepper and warm, fresh from the oven, focaccia bread. No one leaves my house hungry!

And do you want to hear my sad tale for today? The air conditioner crew will be here at 8 a.m. to change out our air conditioner system. I asked them “when will you turn off the air conditioner?” and they said . . 8:01! It’s going to be a long, hot day at my house. I was afraid to ask them what time they guess they’ll have it finished and cool air flowing through the vents again. You can bet there won’t be any cooking or canning going on around here today.