A trip to Utah

 I finally made it out to Utah and had an adventure of a trip!

I left out on Friday a bit earlier than the last flight I took - I switched to the 6:30pm flight vs. the 7:45pm flight - lesson learned on that last one where I petered out just as I hit St. George and could NOT drive any further and got a hotel!  

Just coming into the someone area after a VERY smooth ride in!



Big storm front!!



Landing in Ontario California. Fun fact Liz was in LA at the time ;)

It would have been a great flight IF we didn't have a record breaking typhoon Hilary coming into California.  What an adventure.  We spent about an hour or more circling to the east of Las Vegas waiting to be released to land IN Las Vegas.  Las Vegas, however, was having it's own issues at the time.. they were having lightning strikes and rain.  They would open and close multiple times in that hour, however we were in a line of planes to land, so never got the chance.  We were then running low on fuel so we landed in Ontario California of all places.  Yep.  We sat in the airport for an hour or better, getting refueled and waited.  I had NO idea what we were going to face, would we get stranded in California overnight?  would we make it to Vegas?  Who knew?  The good news is our pilot was well within his hours to continue to the wee hours of the morning... so we waited.  We eventually got BACK in the air and had a bumpy ride to Las Vegas and landed about midnight.  YAWN.  This is now 3am my time AND I had cancelled my rental car not knowing when I would make it into town.... so off to rental cars I go.  I made a reservation on line while in the LONG line to the rental place - it was about 5 or 7 bus lengths long... seriously LONG line - who rents a car when coming TO Vegas, really?  I would think Uber and Lyft would be much cheaper than renting a car, but what do I know, maybe these folks were all doing what I was doing and going on from there.

Weeee hours of the morning driving north. Yawn. I think I had my coffee in hand by now!

Anyway, I made a reservation with Hertz, get to the front of the line and they tell me that they are NOT honoring last minute reservations... what the what?  Why not just NOT take reservations if you don't have cars silly people.  So to Avis I go and make a reservation while in line going there as well... THEY honor it... but they were telling everyone they only have trucks.. so I am prepared for a truck.  NOPE, I got offered a Charger or a Jeep Hybrid.  I chose the Jeep.  It got horrible gas mileage by the way!  Oh, well, I had a car... but it's NOW 1:30 am Vegas time... 4:30am my time... double yawn.  I was going to rent a hotel room but had issues getting a room for a few hours and paying over $100 - nope.  I drove over to the Orleans and slept in my car.

The GOOD news is that I had a duffle full of blankets to sleep with/on/use as pillows as I was taking 4 blankets to Linda to use as batting for quilts.  Bonus.  They were soft and I got about 4.5 hours of sort of decent sleep tucked in the back seat of the Jeep..  They are narrow so there was no stretching out, but it was good enough for what I needed.  I kept praying that rain would start and I would have had that nice sound to fall asleep to, no such luck.  Oh, well.  I got some much needed shut eye to the point I didn't hear the car pull up and park next to me.  I was under a street light, but honestly don't think anyone looked in the back of the car... either way I woke a few times, switched positions and went back out.  I got up about 5am and headed north.  Well, got a coffee then headed north :)  The coffee was from a truck stop and had a LOT of grounds in it so was apparently pretty strong - ha!  Worked for me.  I went straight to Mom's house, played some rummikub with her and waited for the rest of the crew to get ready for breakfast.

We went to breakfast Saturday and Sunday mornings and lunch or dinner as well, so that was nice for mom to get out and about.

We also picked veggies and berries out of Linda’s garden

What I picked that afternoon before the rain came in



Linda was still out there diving deep into the raspberries to get all she could!



We picked beans too but then forgot the in the garden in the rain. They got a good rinse! 

We also admired Sorensen memorabilia and tried to identify it all



I know there is a word for the style this is. They are Czech glass and enamel with beads embedded into the enamel. Very pretty and sparkly in the sunshine. 

This one is possibly Fostoria chrysanthemum pattern lemonade set. Regardless it is old and is lovely and has been in the Sorensen family for a long time. 

These were painted my my grandmother Leona Coles Sorensen  very pretty!  

Back to the travel pet of all this!

I was supposed to travel home on Monday and wouldn't you know it that was the date that the Typhoon Hilary was to hit Las Vegas.  After my last experience on the "practice storms" as they called them, I opted to change my flights (and with mom's convincing).  I rebooked first thing in the morning and about 3 hours later Delta came out with a notice that allowed me to change (yay me, ahead of the game!).  I altered my rental car with a click of a button and a bit of money as well.  Yay me, and extra day to hang out with mom.  

I had left overs from the Sunday's breakfast, so went to Mom's Monday morning and ate breakfast with her and played games most of the morning.  We went to the Nursery and got her a pot to replant her African Violet and then headed to lunch with Linda and Mike.  We also went grocery shopping and running around town all weekend so by the time Monday afternoon rolled around mom was beat.  She went to bed after a final round of rummikub and I went back to Linda's for a later dinner and visiting with them before bed.

The trip to Vegas was uneventful and the flight back was very nice with an extra seat between myself and the gentleman in the isle seat.  All in all a great weekend trip despite the snaffu on times and returns.  It all worked out like it was supposed to!

And the BEST news was when I got home I had a TON of boxes to go out in the mail!  Yay for eBay sales while I’m away!!

Ten sales while I was gone for those 5 days. Yay me!  Now to sell more!!

After MUCH procrastination…

I went to the dentist the other day for my 6 month cleaning. During that cleaning I had to admire that I had yet to make any efforts other than a bite guard to  resolve my possible TMJ. Yeah. Procrastinating is a problem. 

So I have an appointment for my jaw with an orthodontist to be looked at AND this drive me to FINALLY made an appointment for my arm because you know, THAT has been going on for the same timeline if not more. At least since January. Sigh. I thought “maybe exercise will make it better or worse after I joined water aerobics in March. Yeah, no it didn’t make a bit of a difference. Not better, not worse. It STILL wakes me if I lay on of at night with pain. Fun times as I’m a side sleeper. Sigh. 

So Dr appointment for arm done and because the regular physician can’t DO anything so sent me to an orthopedic doctor to do an MRI on the arm. They suspect that the ligament from shoulder to upper arm has an issue. 

Sooooo appointment has been made for the orthopedic doctor as well.

While at the regular doctor I asked about reducing my one medication for blood pressure after the weight loss (60lbs as of now) as it didn’t spike until the weight gain. So I’m hopeful. I am taking 1/2 my pill per day and measuring my BP daily to prove its not an issue anymore (hopefully!). I also found out I had an appointment in a week that I had no knowledge of!  Whoops!!  Oh well I know now!!  It was great timing for my requests for to this!  

So, 

Checkup scheduled for all blood work ✅

Asking to reduce BP meds ✅

Asking about my arm ✅

Asking about my jaw ✅

How my day typically goes

Ok so maybe not THIS bad but here is how my day CAN go if all is moving well

What is all this??  The white bag holds items to go to Blue Moon as I sold some items from there. Yay me!  

The boxes on the seat are multiple boxes to be mailed at the post office. And the black bag is my water aerobics bag with suit and towels and such. The timeline is this: 4:00 finish boxing sold items 4:10-15 get it all in the car and off we go!!  Drop at PO, drove to Blue Moon and reset shelves. Get back in car and drive to the OTHER side of town for the gym, get changed and get an hour in with water aerobics. The pool heater is STILL broken. Very COLD water at 70ish degrees. Force myself to get in and get it done. I’m proud of myself as it’s been FIVE months that I have been going!  There are days I have to force myself to go. More lately as the water is cold. 

That white bag also held another mirror to put on the back of the shelves. 

Here are the shelves at Blue Moon as of yesterday!

Just a few changes. I sold my set of brown grape bowls ( large salad bowl with 5 smaller bowls ).  I wasn’t sure about them but I got them for what I labeled as $.19 for the bunch so why NOT buy them, right?  I got a huge box of items from a store going out of business. I paid $5 for the box of items. I have sold 5 things from that sale already making that a great purchase!  Other than that I’m not sure that this store has been good for me. I have sold a few things but it’s just paying the rent at this point. I’m trying another approach this week and listing my new items on marketplace as well as in the booth to get it sold and more traffic to the actual booth. S

Well see if that works. 

Other than that I’m making progress in getting organized a bit better as seen from the prior post. Progress even little is good!

The only other hiccup in my world is my Fitbit died. I was so sad!  I have had it just over a year and I had my doubts I would like it and really didn’t use it as intended for the first half of its life BUT after starting my weight loss and health journey I have really liked having it. I MISSED it so I orders another. I didn’t pay for the first one as it came with a study I was participating in for cancer healing. BUT I got a 20% discount on a new one so I went ahead and purchased another just like the one I had. I will lose some data but who cares really?  For now, not me. We shall see once I get the new device. 

What’s the thing I miss most?  Being able to see the time in the middle of the night!  I wake up to pee and can glance at my watch and see the time but cannot see it in the background of my phone. Silly I know but little things like that. 

Next to get off these blood pressure pills and see if the weight loss was enough to take care of that pesky issue!!it didn’t start until I topped out on my weight so I’m hoping the 60 pound weight loss is enough to have taken care of that new health risk!

Storms

This last few weeks have had a LOT of BIG storms!!

One day when I was @ the gym for water aerobics and we didn’t get into the pool and exercised on ground. That sucked!!  The storm was full of lightning. 

One of the things I bought while out estate sailing was a wine holder. I had bought a different style but liked the looks of this one. It works out well!


And I started to work on my office this week. I pulled a LOT of stuff out of the office and into the hall. I bought a three level cart as well that is in the very back. It looks like this when not full of boxes!

I didn’t quite scan to the top of the top boxes because there was a lot of stuff in the hall. :)2

The hall as of a week later. Getting better!!


Funny thing. I got a box in the mail and o could NOT remove for the life of me what i ordered…


What was it?  It was an extension type duster. I left my last one in Germany as it was worn out. So… this is what was in there. With zero padding just that little thing kitty corner in the box. 


Too funny!!

Around the house

I looked out my back door and saw that we had a visitor!

Pretty bob tail guy. He ran when I came out. I was sad. 

What else is new around here?  I have applied to work full time from home. I still don’t have access to my building in Macon and I’m NOT asking about it ;) is that sad?  I have zero desire to go into an office any longer :)

Other than that my life is full of estate sales, shipping and driving around the country side. 

Cool trestle for rail roads. 

Around the house... (David has a girlfriend)

 

Pretty sunset to share... 

It was raining today and I looked out the window to see how hard it was raining and saw this creeper... he was avoiding the rain and spying on us in the process.  Cute!

Pretty flower and bare toes as I was out and about walking the grounds.

Every time my fitbit says "get up and move fat girl" I do just that... most days I'm in shorts and a t-shirt now (with exception of a few days in PJs still)... so I took a picture of this pretty new bloom in the garden.  

AND the real reason for this update is David.  Most of you know about David.  He came home with me from good will, heavens, 10 years ago or so... he has been a center piece on our mantel for ages.  he dresses for most occasions (even made him a graduation cap for both girls graduations)

Note that David is dressed for the 4th of July as that is the next holiday.

While at an estate sale I spotted this fine lady and joked that she should come home as a girlfriend for David.  We laughed and joked about it because Butch DESPISES David.  Really does not like him, thinks he is silly and would like to see him fall off the bookshelf and crack his head.  (poor guy will get a complex).  I have joked about this for about 5 months of estate sales and picked out other "friends" for David, I think one was a musical person, but his bust was 1) too expensive and 2) too small - he wouldn't have complimented David in size and stature.

Then came this fine woman....

Isn't she precious?  She was the right size AND the right price ($4) and so I wrapped her in paper and brought her home.  I did take a video of her being unwrapped by Butch but I don't put video's on the blog (too hard, linking, printing in the future complications)... His reaction was just as I expected and it didn't help that I was laughing so hard when presenting it to him.  ha!  She is a CANDLE.  I joked with Barbara that his threats will be to light her head on fire and watch her disappear.  LMAO.  I think she's the perfect addition to the household.

She even fits in with the items on that part of the bookshelf as she is sea themed and the items beside her are all items pulled out of the Baja California ship wreck off of Fort Myers Florida.

When your morning is interrupted... unexpectedly!

 I was sitting very nicely on the back porch on Sunday morning enjoying the nice morning - eating breakfast, having coffee while waiting to start my day with Estate Sales (yep, my life now).  When THIS comes walking through the yard.

It's at this point you find out if you are a dog person or not.  I'm a NOT.  I guess the trauma of the Keel's dog attaching me has long lasting results as this freaked me out... yes, I'm now inside because OMG, what the heck, I'm NOT appreciating this dog in my backyard.  YIKES!  I ran into the house...

The sad fact was s/he was friendly.  I was NOT.  eeek!

AFTER I regrouped and talked myself into the fact his tail was wagging and he was smiling at me I went outside and said "OK, it's time for you to go home, come on, follow me" and walked to the walk gate... s/he followed me out just fine, I shut the gate in her/his face.  Poor puppy was actually whining at me as we were walking to the gate... I have zero cares... get OUT.  I'm not a dog person as seen by my internal and external reactions to a big dog just "showing up" in my back yard.  Sigh.

How did s/he get in?  The truck gate has a massive hole where the edges on both sides are broken off from a lawnmower hit.  So I assume s/he just wiggled her/his fluffy butt right through that hole.

I went in and got dressed to go to sales with Liz and Barbara... I did go out and holler for him once to see if s/he was still there... nope, moved on.  GOOD!!!

I reached out to the neighbor to see if it was their dog.  NOPE.  Still a mystery!  NOT a nice way to start your day but sure gets my blood pumping. 

You KNOW it's very humid when...

You take a picture on thee way north JUST because there are clouds coming from the ground and going up!  Yep, that is humidity rising from the ground... clouds... growing right before your eyes.

Can't see them... take a closer look: 

I'm always amazed when I see this and think "I should take a picture" so today I did... it's not a GREAT picture, but it's a picture none the less!  The BIG rise right above the white car was impressive.

You would think there is a river down there... there is not... there is a stream that is barely wide enough to be called a stream at points, but it has a lot of marshes in the heavily treed area you can see in the foreground.... maybe that is the cause of all this steam/moisture in the air?  Very weird to see on a yucky rainy day on the way to Macon.  

Why did I go to Macon?  I'm finally a real girl.  I have my ID Now :)  That only took four weeks plus a few days to get :o/  But I'm officially a new employee with a PIV (not a common access card as with the Air Force, but a PIV.  "Perssonal Identity Verification" credential. M'Kay... lost the number I have had FOREVER (OK, maybe 15+ years) in the process.  Made me sad.  107xxxxxx is no longer my identity.  Not a clue what it is now... but I don't care for the next 2 years, 2 months and 23 days.

what I do with all my time.... (brace yourself!)

 For those that know me, know I LOVE to thrift shop.  I always have.  Until now I have shopped for me... now I shop for eBay..  Yep, I have been doing the eBay business this year.  So far, so good.

BUT sometimes I get myself in a pickle - like a few weekends ago.  I did a thing, I got involved (on a whim) in an auction... YAY, I won... oh, yeah... I won (bumbumbum)... here is the result of that win:

This is the haul still boxed.  I was honestly scared to tell Butch what I did... but then I HAD to unload it from the car, so had to fess up... I just said.  Uh, I did a "thing"... and then sort of chuckled about it, then I told him I won an auction... it was less than $40 total... BUT it was 5 (yes FIVE) tables laid out with glassware at the store... yeah... FIVE.  Barbara was a sport and helped me box it all and pack it into my car for the ride home.  The gal I was bidding against only wanted ONE set of dishes from the pile and offered me $15.  Uh, OK, fine, that would be fine.  Do I even know what they were worth?  NOPE.  Did I pay for just under 1/2 of the cost of the winning bid, heck yes!!  I was still in shock when I immediately said "yes" to that sale to tell you the truth.  What isn't pictured here is a set of brass lamp bases ... You'll see those at the end of this post.

This is the bulk of the haul on the table... 

plus these two chickens...

plus these two lamps - that in hind sight were marked on the bottom MADE IN ITALY.  Really?  They may have been worth more than the $10 I charged.  OK, let's be realistic they WERE worth more than that, but I'm pricing to sell as this stuff is something I bought on a whim and didn't really do a bunch of research on.  

The ONLY things I knew had some worth were the FiestaWare and the Dorothy Thorpe.  What is Dorothy Thorpe?

This is Dorothy Thorpe (you would have to live under a rock to NOT know what Fiesta Ware is)

These are 1960 silver rimmed glassware... there was quite a bit of this in the group - these drink glassed some bowls and a salad bowl.  All will be, or are on eBay for a decent price for the name.  I may be sitting on them for a while because apparently I'm the only one that seems to want to buy Dorothy Thorpe glassware.  ha!  

The Fiesta Ware on the contemporary pieces (I had to look up how to identify those) were sold off for the most part (paying for most of the rest of this bill).  I have a few left over of the percimmon dinner dishes.  The rest are all going up on eBay.  

If you wonder what my handle is on eBay to check things out it is: https://www.ebay.com/usr/doash_78

If you see anything let me know ... I can probably work a deal with you :)

why am I so happy to tell you all this?  Today my table looks like THIS!!

1.5 weeks later and it's clear!!  OK, so not all the way clear, but it's 99% of the way cleared off!!!!

Whoot, whoot.

We won't mention the bin of stuff in the kitchen currently awaiting attention!