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Post by ProudTVJunkie on Sept 26, 2022 11:03:46 GMT -5
Hi All,
It's a beautiful day here today. I was hoping we could take a day trip since there is no school, thanks to Rosh Hashanah, but we have a lot to do around the house before the contractors come tomorrow morning to work up the final plans for the rest of the renovations. I just can't wait until we get that done (and paid for!)
Last week was Back to School night at my daughter's middle school. I was so impressed with all of her teachers. Whether they'd been teaching for 2 years or 20, they all seemed enthusiastic to be there. I can see why my daughter hasn't had one complaint so far in this school year. It made me realize we made the right decision in deciding to renovate this house so we can stay in this school district until she graduates.
Also, my Mom and step-father ended up with Covid last week. They took the antiviral medication, paxlovid, and their fevers broke fairly quickly. Still, they had, congestion, sore throat, a painful cough, and fatigue. But six days after symptoms began, my Mom is now negative and feeling better.
Hope everyone out there is healthy and having a good week. Check-in and let us know.
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Post by tycho657 on Sept 26, 2022 13:42:16 GMT -5
Nice to hear teachers looking forward to a new year. Our teachers in AZ are paid so low (49 or 50 for lowest pay in the US) they have a big teacher shortage. I feel for those teachers having big classes and not enough staff for the schools. I am loading up the RV for the fall camping season. This is the longest my RV has sat. I decided to stay home this summer and enjoy my pool. I did not get as much cleaned out as I hoped but I am making progress. I am hosting my first campout in Oct so I am busy planning and putting needed supplies into the RV. We will not be able to have a wood fire due to fire restrictions in the area. We will have to use a propane fire pit. I actually like the propane better but I had planned to have S’mores one night for dessert as we sang songs around the fire pit. We will still sing around the fire. Got a phone call from my best friend this week that she has liver and pancreatic cancer. She is past trying to control the cancer. They give her 2 months. She will be missed. She lost her husband 10 years ago but she has 4 kids and 5 great grandchildren who will miss her.
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Post by ProudTVJunkie on Sept 26, 2022 14:04:08 GMT -5
tycho657, I'm so sorry to hear about your friend. There are no words to make that kind of thing better. At this point, I hope she's able to pass with as little pain as possible and surrounded by the people she loves. Speaking of teachers, NJ is in the top 10 highest paid in the country. I know the teachers in our district make anywhere between $50k and $100k a year. It's one of the reasons our property taxes are high. But we also have a fantastic school system, and everyone's property is worth more because of it. We had a thunderstorm last night that brought some hail and quite a bit of rain. Hail is unusual for us, but it doesn't seem any real damage was done. But I know a lot of places had flood warnings because the rain came down so hard and fast. Thankfully, we had no issues here.
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Post by nathanfan1 on Sept 27, 2022 4:38:29 GMT -5
We had a 90 degree day early last week and then turned the corner to Fall in a big way! We are likely to have frost tonight and a freeze tomorrow night with the temp landing in the mid 20's. YIKES! My husband, who LOVES tomatoes, was out in the garden with a flashlight at 11PM tonight trying to pick as many tomatoes as he could. It's his favorite food in the world and he's hoping to have enough to last into October. It's been a great year for tomatoes with no disease problems at all. The good news is that the insects will take a solid hit with that freeze and it'll make the rest of Fall a lot more enjoyable outdoors!
Our trees are just starting to turn and I hope we have a nice, long stretch of good color to enjoy. No offense to those of you living in AZ, but I'd sure hate to miss the changing of the seasons.
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Post by tycho657 on Sept 28, 2022 16:45:57 GMT -5
We see the changes in the mountains here. I sure don’t miss having to rake leaves. My 1st fall campout will have many beautiful trees to view. I love fresh tomatoes. I am envious Nathanfan1 I will be planting my fall garden this week. I will have tomatoes for sure. Still in low 100’s this week. I need to get a few more afternoons of pool reading.
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Post by ibmjas on Sept 28, 2022 21:11:11 GMT -5
Hi All, It's a beautiful day here today. I was hoping we could take a day trip since there is no school, thanks to Rosh Hashanah, but we have a lot to do around the house before the contractors come tomorrow morning to work up the final plans for the rest of the renovations. I just can't wait until we get that done (and paid for!) Last week was Back to School night at my daughter's middle school. I was so impressed with all of her teachers. Whether they'd been teaching for 2 years or 20, they all seemed enthusiastic to be there. I can see why my daughter hasn't had one complaint so far in this school year. It made me realize we made the right decision in deciding to renovate this house so we can stay in this school district until she graduates. Also, my Mom and step-father ended up with Covid last week. They took the antiviral medication, paxlovid, and their fevers broke fairly quickly. Still, they had, congestion, sore throat, a painful cough, and fatigue. But six days after symptoms began, my Mom is now negative and feeling better. Hope everyone out there is healthy and having a good week. Check-in and let us know. Glad your mom and stepdad are doing much better. It's pretty common for those who take paxlovid to test negative fairly quickly and then a few days later to test positive again.
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Post by DrvrTrnr on Sept 29, 2022 14:19:21 GMT -5
We have fall here in the desert, but it usually doesn't start until sometime in December. If we drive an hour or so to the higher elevations now, we can see the fall colors. Coming from the Midwest, it took a few years to get used to warm weather lasting later in the year. Now we truly appreciate our warmer winter weather when so much of the country is shoveling snow.
Our new ramada has finally been built. All that needs to be done is painting it. That will be done Monday or Tuesday. We had some friends fly in from Madison, WI, yesterday. They're here to visit the wife's sister who lives in an assisted living facility. It's such a short trip that they stopped by our house on the way to the facility. We talked for 15-20 minutes, but were glad just to see them. There's nothing better than seeing old friends no matter how short the time together.
Last Saturday my husband's sister and husband celebrated their 60th anniversary. They had a nice lunch at one of the hotels. It felt like a wedding reception. All of the out of town relatives came in for the weekend. It was nice seeing people we haven't seen for several years.
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Post by ProudTVJunkie on Sept 30, 2022 10:06:57 GMT -5
DrvrTrnr, congrats on your new ramada! It's always a good feeling to see a project completed. This week we had the roof of our front porch fixed, and I'm hoping that by the end of today, I'll have a new storm door and light fixture. Our storm door broke when some strong winds flung it open with such force that it cracked the frame. The bulk of the rest of the house renovations will take place in mid-October. I just hope that all goes well and we get it done and painted so that I can have people visit for Christmas. Fingers and toes crossed!
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Post by ProudTVJunkie on Oct 1, 2022 15:21:39 GMT -5
We seem to have dodged most of the remnants of Hurricane Ian. The rain started about 2am and has been off and on all day. We've had about an inch of rain and no scary winds.
It sounds like my family in Florida is all okay, but they're on the eastern side of the state. I have a cousin in South Carolina. As of last night, his brother was still waiting to hear from him but the cell phones were out.
This looked like one very scary storm.
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Post by larryholmes on Oct 2, 2022 6:59:42 GMT -5
This is our third day of continuing slow rain. We will have 2 1/2 to 3 inches by the time this ends. It had been very dry for two weeks. So, we really needed the rain to have things all set-up for Winter then Spring sprouting. Of course, that has meant very limited yard work for this entire rainy period. Earlier this week, both of the local grandkids were cited for exception performance on testing in their high school. It is really rewarding to their mom and dad as they did the home-schooling for their first four grades. The school wanted to advance their grade placements upon entry into the public school system. However, their parents refused so they could be more 'schooling socialized' just when they began this new phase in their education. It has worked so well; and, they have integrated smoothly for education and extracurricular activities like band and cheerleading. The three grandchildren in Minnesota are doing well in school also. The boys are all deeply engaged in school activities and little league sports while their sister is doing wonderfully in competitive ice skating in addition to schooling. In the last week, both of our sons have been identified and selected for promotion to Lieutenant Colonel. It pleases them that they both wear some of my old Major brass and will continue that by wearing some of my old LTC brass. That is so amazing and such an honor for me.
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