Rita’s Gone

Rita's Gone

Well, not forever.  I hope.  On Wednesday, July 29, 2015, I took Rita to the airport to catch a plane to  Dallas then Lubbock, TX, where she will rent a car and drive to visit her son, Eric, in Portalas, NM.  

I get to stay home and take care of her pottery classes, dogs, cats, garden, home, and other things.  This post is about that seven days of my being home alone.

July 29, 2015:

This day started at 2:00 am, when I got up to pee and could not go back to sleep. The alarm was set for 2:50 am so we could get up in time to drive to the Pittsburgh.  Air travel from the country is not fun when one lives over 70 miles from a major airport.  The requirement to get there 2 hours before your flight, the 2 1/2 hour drive, through a city that has frequent accidents, construction, and traffic jams. The time to travel can take to just over 2 hours to 3.5 hours, depending on traffic. 

So that means one has to leave our home between four hours five hours to catch a plane. This is not fun when your plane leaves at 7:00 am or earlier.

But, this morning, traffic going through Pittsburgh was good.  The trip too 2 hours and 15 minutes. I dropped Rita off at 6:45 am.  However, my stops in Pittsburgh was not done. I had 250 pounds of clay we were returning to Standard Ceramics in Carnegie, then I was to pick up two large windows at Construction Junction that Rita got for the 'Private Studio' project.  Problem was they didn't open until 8:30 and 9:00 respectively. 

So, what does one do at 6:45 am to kill two hours? 

Find a Walmart!

Now, I should note: I not a Walmart fan. But they do have some things going for them that I find convenient. They have restrooms, many are open 24 hours and they allow people to camp in their parking lot.  So, I found the nearest Walmart, went in to get some dog and cat food, used their restroom and took a hour nap in their parking lot.  The only problem was that I should not be left alone in a store that carries technology.  The bill for the dog/cat food trip was over $200.  I picked up a few techie things I have been wanting for a while.

I then drove to Standard and returned the clay.  I returned $85 worth of clay and they applied it to store credit.  I got some black iron oxide that Rita needed ($30) and should not be left alone to browse in a pottery store.  I left with a bill of $135, giving them $50 for my weakness to pick up a few items I have been wanting for a while.

Then, I went to Construction Junction to pick up windows.  The good news on this stop is that the van was full and I stayed focused and didn't pick up anything else, only some plastic shelves Rita asked me to get in addition to picking up the windows.

I did tell the lady that checked me out that we underpaid last week when we purchased them. Rita was asked how much the windows were when she was at the counter ringing them up. She said $200.  The sticker on the windows actually was $220. So, Rita asked me to fix this mistake - being the honest person she is.  So, I told that lady, we owe her more money - that the windows were $220 each, not the $200 each we paid.  I paid the bill using my credit card and felt good when she thank me for my honesty.

The drive home was uncomfortable, since the windows stuck out the back of the van by six inches.  The back doors being opened felt like an blast furnace of heat coming in from the back. The air conditioning did little to reduce the 90 degree heat of the day.

After I got home, I looked at the receipt. She had charged me  only $20 more for both windows.  We got two of them; she should have charged me $40 more.

My dilemma is: shall I still feel good for being honest, or feel good for getting $20 off our window purchase?

Later that day, I went to pick green beans in the garden.

July 30, 2015:

Technical problem with the website I support required six hours of my time to fix.  

Watered the garden.

Installed Network extender - now I have internet in the Garage!

Changed the Japanese beetle trap.

Dinner was left over chicken and stuff (popcorn)

Started letter to Stephanie.

Talked to Adam for 50 minutes.

July 31,2015:

Worked on letter to Stephanie

Worked in studio for 4 - 5 hours.

Keith's email from Dave about shipping stuff

Put gas in Beverly's tractor

Cereal and left over chicken for dinner, and popcorn.

Installed Widows 7 on Latitude Dell (that has broken LAN port)

What was that howling noise around Beverly's last night?

August 1, 2015:

Finished Stephanie's letter and took a trip to town to mail it and Georgia's DS charger, Got Zoe food and a chicken to boil for pot pie

Cut grass in field - two hours, hand mowed back and kiln yard.

Vacuum house.

Beverly called to say the noise was 

Installed Windows 10 on Dell notebook.  Not impressed yet.  Cortana can be a pain if you have TV on while trying to work.

Project Fi research.  Hum?

Updated Keith's website.

Picked Green beans again!

Installed Wireless extended. Yea! It went well and I now have Internet in the Garage!

August 2, 2015:

Visit and lunch with Jim and Marla.

Installed Wemo switch in garage outside lights.  This was after a number of attempts to install it to solve the problem of going to bed in the dark. Found the Wemo switch needs a neutral wire in the switch box, which is often not there.

Worked on selecting boards for bedroom door project.  It looks close.

Zoned out later in the day, when I was tired. Can't remember what I did. Gave up on making pot pie and just ate boiled chicken for dinner.

Dinner's suck without Rita.

Hot tub is lonely without Rita, but the stars are nice

Thanksgiving

This year's Thanksgiving was different than others we have had before. Rita met me at Dawn's and I drove there on Wed. Rita brought the turkey,rolls, wine, and other food. Dawn's girls brought ham, turkey, wine, and other food. Dawn has a small home - no room for a sit down for 18 some people. So it was a stand-up buffet style thanksgiving. It was fun, but not in Rita's dinner style. After a few glasses of wine and turkey, naps were in order.

It was nice to see Dawn and her kids, but I missed my family.

Day 53 and my son goes dark - Part 1 of 2

It was late at night, I had gotten out of bed to post three blog entries I received via email from my Son.  Adam has been on the PCT trail for 53 days and, as we agreed, he would email me content for me to post on his blog.

Up until he got in to the Sierra Mountains, I would receive daily emails to be posted.  However, cell phone in the Sierra is not good and, as expected, there would be days when I would not receive any email update. But, he still spotted every evening, so I could assume he was safe and making progress - that I would get updates when he got to a WiFi cell phone coverage area.

So I posted his day 53 update late.  This post was unusual. He ended it with the suspense of a popular mystery writer. He wrote:

I went back to bed wondering about Kate.  I expected to get an update the next day and was on pins and needles all day.

Then he went dark.

The next day there was no email update. That is not unexpected since he was in the Sierra.

But, there was also no spot that night.  Based on past behavior, he didn't spot when he got into a town or resupply facility.  So, not getting a spot was not unexpected since he was only a day's hike from his next resupply.

But, normally in a resupply facility, he has WiFi or cell coverage  So, the combination of no spot, no email was unusual. 

That combined with a missing friend hiker was really worrisome.

I worry all day.

My mind made up all sort of possible scenarios, none of which were good.

The next day he was still dark. No word, no spot, no email. I worried all that day as well.  The scenarios got worst.

On the third day of not hearing anything from him, I called his wife to see if she got word from him.   She hadn't so we talked about what could be going on. To keep her from worrying too much, I made up a few good scenarios, but felt they were not too feasible.

I'm going to leave this now.... Got to get busy doing other things.  I'll finish this later.