Livingthedreamwithdiana.com

The other day, all of the power went out in the apartment.

My fault. Entirely.

Our, seemingly, hundred year old breaker box, which holds all of 4 breakers, is only capable of me using 1 electrical appliance in the kitchen at a time.

I forgot.

I started roasting some green bell peppers, then put a piece of short rib to reheat in the microwave.

Everything got quiet.

We had need of an electrician recently, that helped us replace a breaker, and I watched him, knowing that someday, in the future, I’d need that bit of stolen knowledge.

Yup.

I got my little step stool out, took off the face plate of the breaker box, and turned off all 4 of the breakers. My hands were shaking like leaves. I have an acknowledged phobia when it comes to electricity.

I pulled the 4 breakers out of their positions, knowing that the second one was the culprit, and went about “fixing” it. After said “fix”, I put the buggers back in place, which took a bit of umph for sure, flipped the switches, and voila, there was light. Or, in our case, electricity.

Mind you, that actually took about 15 minutes because I thought I had to bend the wire around the screw, in between the 2 metal plates, but that was not the case. It only needed to go beside the screw, but between the metal plates.

The power came back on, to our bedroom, as well, which had been out since just after the electrician left; go figure. We’ve had an extension cord running from the hallway to the bedroom so I could use my CPAP machine, and the air circulator; 2 modern marvels I can’t live without. (Ivan’s bright idea of the extension cord from the hallway. Thank you honey.)

I guess I can add fledgling electrician to my resumé now. Hahaha.

I am going to save up money, and have someone come, and update our breaker box. If I can, I’ll educate myself with some YT videos, and do it myself; shaking hands be damned.

That’s it for today folks. Until next time, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

Here’s a photo of the POS breaker box, and its unholy contents.

Finally.

We haven’t had any rain since last year until the other night.

That first rain lasted almost 15 minutes, pummeling all the cars in the parking garage downstairs.

It was Heaven!

Of course, I had to go to the bedroom window, and open it to its fullest capacity, and just stand there, watching, listening, and enjoying the smell of rain; one of my favorite scents.

It also cuts back the heat. It’s been in the 30’s here, over 90º, for the past several weeks, and it’s stifling. The rain is a welcome relief.

I’ll have a look at the dried up plants in the park when I’m out walking. Hopefully, what little rain we’re getting will help them somewhat. They look so pitiful.

Did I mention it was Heaven?

Well, it was. I have to take my walk soon, and it’s supposed to rain again while I’m out. That, too, would be Heaven.

Until next time, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

You’re probably getting tired of me telling you I’m doing this, ok, not this, but that, in my quest to return to a modicum of better health, better shape, better life style.

I’m getting there, slowly, but surely. (You don’t need to call me Shirley 😉 I’m concentrating my efforts with, as I have said, using the One and Done program with Meredith Shirk, from Svelte. Her program, now that I’ve finally opened it, and embraced it, is working extremely well for me.

I just had to open the program, and do what it said to do. Go figure.

I work out about 10- 15 minutes in the mornings, M-W-F, than go about my day. I walk for 20 minutes T-Th-Sa, and on Sunday, I do my usual nothing.

My body is slowly changing. I’m getting stronger, a bit leaner in places, my bat wings are almost gone, my belly isn’t as “pregnant looking” as it was, 😉 less bloating, more defined. My legs, and rear have always been good, so not much to improve there, but less cellulite all around.

Well, that’s the way it appears today. Let’s wait, and see how it looks next week.

Until then, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

Do I need to say more??

I don’t think there are many opera written by Sir Andrew that I don’t love, and know all of the words within.

Recently, I found, on YT, of course, The Phantom of Opera, performed at the Royal Albert Hall, in 2020, starring Ramin Karimloo, Sierra Boggess, and Hadley Fraser as the leads.

I have never heard of these performers, but I cried through 75% of the video.

The whole thing is 2:40:13, and let me tell you that I remember almost every word of the musical.

Then, at the end, he came out on stage; Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber. I cried like a baby, How can he make music like he does unless he’s inspired by God?

Music is the portal to my soul; it always has been, and it always will be. I love music. I love to sing.

I don’t sing enough in my life anymore, and it breaks my heart. I need to sing, really sing, everyday, all day.

My resolutions for the coming year are to walk, and sing everyday.

Until next time, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

I’m sitting at the table, my space in the living room, and enjoying the smell of the air coming through the windows.

It is fresh, clean, sweet, relaxing.

(I am trying to ignore the music someone feels we ALL need to listen to, and am concentrating on the aroma.)

Today I am feeling relaxed, sedate, and complete. That doesn’t happen often so I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts.

Until next time, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

Post script: As I have done quite a bit of scheduled post changes, I may have already said this but, on the off chance I didn’t, tomorrow, the 21st. of May, is our 48th. wedding anniversary. So many people told us we would never last. Hah! Here’s to all of you. We’re in it for another 20, or 25 years.

I don’t know about you, but I use our Vacuum sealer quite frequently.

Knowing this, we bought 2 mega refill boxes of plastic rolls before we moved down here, in both the small, and larger widths. We gave one box away, and ended up buying a cheaper variety not all that long ago.

Now, however, I have decided to smarten up a bit. I make each bag just a bit too big, so that when I open it up, and use the contents, I can wash the bag, hang it up to dry in the laundry room, and reuse it. Duh!

Don’t know why I haven’t done that for all of these years. I do know why, actually. I’m sure it was because of the disposable society we lived in up North.

Down here, it’s not so easy to use things, then throw them away. It’s too difficult to replace what you’ve discarded.

So, when we’re not ducking when going through the laundry area because of clean clothes hanging up to dry, it’s plastic bags, of all shapes, and sizes. Look at these.

I can use a Ziplock bag about a dozen different times. Once it gets a hole in it, however, it’s done. But, until that time, it’s fair game. The reusable bags I bought, like the one with the blue band in the above photo, are really difficult to close. Once those are all on the way out, I will save up, and invest in the newer types of reusable bags. Not until then, though.

I hope that gives any of you a bit of encouragement in your efforts to recycle. Once you get the hang of it, it’s easy, and rewarding. Just a bit inconvenient at times.

Until next time, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

I set the timer on my watch for, say, an hour.

The timer goes off so I stop the repeat.

But I have absolutely no recollection why I set the timer in the first place.

I keep telling myself, when I’m setting the timer, that I should write down what I need to do when the timer goes off, but I don’t.

Therefore, once again, my timer just went off, and I have no idea what I’m supposed to do.

I look around, but, nope. Nothing jumps out at me. Nothing seems to be needing attention.

So, I just sit here, wondering what I’ve missed. Again.

Until next time, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

So, last night, being a Saturday, we got to have a few drinks.

After our first drink, President brandy for Ivan, and 100 Años tequila blanca for me, he decided he wanted a cigarette. (He had an old pack that he bought more than 6 months ago, when we were still drinking with more regularity. I’ve kept them in the fridge, well out of sight.)

I went to the kitchen, got him the cigarette, lit it, and took it to him.

He took one drag off it, and started choking.

We both laughed for minutes.

What most of you won’t know is that I smoked 2-3 packs daily for at least 35 years before I quit. After that, I had a few cigarettes, occasionally, when drinking heavily, but nothing substantial.

I had 2 drags off it, gave it back, and he put it out.

That was that. Won’t have to do that again anytime soon. Guaranteed.

Until next time, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

Last year, well, 2022 actually, I bought about 2 dozen Glade scented candles on Amazon US, had them delivered to my SIL, Mayra, who, in turn sent them to us.

For the past year, I have been burning said candles as the season dictates. In the summer, we enjoyed the Clean Linen scent, while in the fall, I burned the Apple, and Cinnamon scent, the Pumpkin Spice Things Up scent, the Fall Night Long, the Nordic Crisp Pine scent, and Cashmere Woods scent.

We have actually finished only 4 of the candles insomuch as I can use the glass jars

as perfect Oreo cookie dunking glasses. They hold about 3/4 c. milk, which is the perfect depth to dunk our cookies.

We don’t eat many Oreo cookies because of their cost, but when we do, we now have the glass with which to dunk them perfectly.

We get our Oreos online, in a big box with 14 packages of 10 cookies per package. It’s the only was they come down here. Hey, at least we can get them.

Those, and Frito Lay Original Corn Chips. We can get those in a bulk box, 1oz per bag, but 50 bags in the box. Yet, another treat.

It’s the little things.

Until next time, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.

I think rocks are smarter than I am.

Seriously. I just wrote a post about my latest exercise experience, using the Svelte app. What I failed to realize is that I had such a great workout routine going, so many months ago, doing those back, and core strengthening exercises every night that I had been doing.

So, why did I stop doing them?

Not sure. All I know is that I was able to walk all around the park, and even to the market, and back, without having to stretch every 500 ft. for the entire walk.

So, why a did I stop?

It’s 2am, and I’ve been out, in the living room, on the floor, doing the original back/core strengthening exercises I was doing for weeks. I want to walk the 10,000 steps I’m supposed to walk every day. I want to walk around the park, the market, or to Walmart, and back, pain free.

I’m going to go back to doing what worked so I can drop this weight that doesn’t want to budge, no matter what I do. I’m going back to what worked for me. Period.

‘Nuf said. I’m going back to bed. Until next time, stay happy, healthy, and safe. Wash, cover, and protect yourselves.