Updates from the nuthouse (was the little house)

Goodness gracious - there is liable to be a revolt at our house.  Butch is ready to give up on renting the little house out as the first rental, if you were unaware, was cancelled due to a water leak.

WHY was there a water leak?  Well, there was a leak at the toilet that the housekeep may, or may not have made worse by turning the water off at the source.  The pipes in the house are apparently brittle and there were some issues with the actual pipe at the bib splitting or breaking off completely - I have no idea as I was kept out of the loop on that one.  The plumber was only in touch with Butch during that fiasco. 

SO... a cancelled rental the DAY BEFORE they were to check in due to 1) water leak that we thought was just a toilet 2) turned into a massive leak that was the entire bathroom and into the hall and beyond that entailed a water mitigation crew and thousands of dollars.

THEN the firt renters were in for 10 days... all seemed to be well.  There was 5 adults instead of 4 - OK, fine.  We roll with it.  They get in, get
out on time all seems to be well until the cleaning lady goes in to clean and the dishwasher is full of dirty dishes and the sink is backed up - thank
goodness it wasn't overflowing (at that time).  THEN they attempt to fix it with drain-o.  Nope didn't work.  They let it sit overnight.  Nope.  Have a renter coming in at 4pm.  We delayed them to get a handiman in to take a look at the P-trap.  Nope not the issue, so then we have to get a plumber.  

The maids in the meantime have started to try to do it their way and managed to get the whole thing to overflow and go everywhere - I have no clue what is going on but the picture was of water everywhere ... yeah. 

SO now I'm down to calling the management company back to tell them to cancel the renter incoming SAME DAY.  Yeah, tell me I don't feel crappy about that snafu.  SO.. Now we have a wet house AGAIN and the plumber coming out again tomorrow.  All because the prior renter did something that clogged the lines.  They will get this bill, thank you very much.  What a goat rope.

I have just blocked the house until the 2nd of next month when the NEXT people are coming in AND called for a quote from a full service company that will charge a bit more BUT will deal with the juggle of time/and service people.  I think in the long run it will be worth it as it will still rent out and we'll not have to worry about the juggle of getting things fixed when they go wrong from where-ever we are in the world.  That's the goal right?  Make it a passive income and start having it pay for it'self.  BUT the call tomorrow will tell if we're ready to just turn it over to someone else to fully control the unit and let it all roll off our backs and understand that the only thing we need to worry about is paying the taxes
and ensuring we are licensed and insured to handle this.  I like that idea so much better.

Gotta start somewhere.  Apparently I started in the wrong spot and went with the not-so-self-sufficent rental option.  Good news?  It's renting and for way more than I would ever ask for it. 

Happy New Year!

Headed to Florida and Sally’s to see her for New Years. While doing a car swap Butch says “did you see the cat?”  Uh, what cat?

IN the closed florist shop. My kind of store!!

I drove through sunshine and happiness. Crashed out for an hour and woke up to this. Yuck!!

You can see the rain in the distance over the car. Just dumping out of the clouds!  Glad I wasn’t driving!

BUT it makes for pretty greenery!!

Our spring blooming Camilla is just starting to bloom!

Lots of buds!

Our New Years was thrilling (actually just the way I like them!). Stewbys for dinner and bed before midnight!

Shrimp, hush puppies, and grits. Can’t be beat!

We had fog quite a few days while we were there. We ate well with ours of sausage and gravy for breakfast and great meals at night. Nice way to ring in the new year!

Shopping and poop talk.

For those that don’t want the poop talk, I will limit it to the BOTTOM (haha see what I did there?) of this post and you can skip it.

Sally and I went out to breakfast with Ina this morning. It was good to see her again. Wednesday night Sally and Ina had their girls dinner at Ruby Tuesday’s and they invited me along. There were 8 total including me. Most were in their 70s and 80s with the exception of one gal and me. I think she’s probably in her 50s as well...maybe younger I’m not a good judge of ages. Anyway it was nice to meet them all and have dinner with them.

It’s always nice to see Ina. She seems to be doing OK after the loss of her husband Robert.

After breakfast Sally and I headed to Elgin to get some fruits for her fellowship meal tomorrow at her church. I dropped her off and went over to the Bx to look for a headboard as I had seen them at out BX a while back. I had my mind set on a black leather one but THIS one caught my eye immediately:





What I didn’t realize is that they were selling me the floor model. BUT it was in great shape. We took it apart and put it in the back with minimal issues.

That being said I was having some “issues” today and had more than my fair share of potty stops. BUT I did make it through the a small part of the BX, a bit of the commissary, Lowe’s and a bit of Sams club as well before I realized as I was getting gas that my issues needed me to be home for a bit. And we headed to the house.

I didn’t accomplish much else, as evidence of the headboard still in the car! Soooo life is still good, just working through today’s issues and hoping things will calm soon.

I did come home, take a shower and put my sweats on and did some laundry and took a nap (short one as the phone woke me, but that’s OK too).

**poop talk**
This is what I posted on my reversals group.

Ok over the last few weeks I have come to the conclusion that if things are going well I have a HUGE sense of guilt and don’t want to say anything to everyone on the group because of the number who are suffering after reversal and, well, it feels like bragging. BUT for this facing their reversal, there is hope, and a few let downs. (Sorry long winded)

Im 4weeks4days post reversal, 1ft rectum/sigmoid colon removed, stump of a rectum left (1/2” maybe) and a side to end connect (tiny pseudo-pouch?)

For the first three weeks it was poop central. I decided because I had the time off work I would let my body do it’s thing. I would see if it work out it’s own issues and behave, if not I had fiber and all that Jazz to fall back on. I don’t take pain pills and am only taking Gabapentin, a stool softener (too chicken to stop those just yet), a multi vitamin and a probiotics (gummies type)

I was shocked that at about three weeks of constantly pooping myself at night and living in fear of pooping myself (with protection) in public that the switches started flipping. I started to NOT poop at night. Lots during the day still but my nights were mostly mine!! Yay

Then things started to slow down during the day and for about 5 days I had been pooping at 9pmish and not much during the rest of the day. As long as my stools were easy to pass I kept going with everything the same on meds.

I got so Cocky I drove 5 hours to Florida to get some work done on our little House here behind my mother-in-laws. I was wondering what the drive would do to my schedule but I’m happy to report things stayed pretty steady the first 4 days.

Today is day 5 and I’ve had a bit of diarrhea and urgency. Happy to report that Always incontinence pads work pretty good and my clothing survived. So. If it’s only every 6 days I get a “clean out” day I can live with that. But there IS hope. Your body can adjust. It’s not like it used to be, but it’s all good!!

I joked to my MIL that I can stay out until I run out of supplies! So what that I had to poop in three stores today. Then as the uncontrollable urges hit again while getting gas I realized that, nope, supplies or not, it’s time to go home and let this play out close to a potty!

Epiphany

This is my midlife crisis. I have been looking for something to do... a Masters? Will it pay, will it not pay? Am I willing to commit to something like that? What do I want to be when I grow up??
Doesn't that have ALL the hallmarks of a midlife crisis? Yep!
So there you have it folks, I'm going through my midlife crisis. Maybe I should just buy a convertible and be done with it? LOL. Oh, wait, I bought a vacation house instead. Yep, truly and fully in the middle of my midlife crisis here!!