1-800-Call-A-Mom

This could be my get rich quick scheme.  Or if not get rich quick, a great retirement plan.  I really think this could be a money maker!

For those of us that no longer have our Moms, and weren't smart enough or lucky enough to learn everything we needed while we had them here, we need this kind of service.

Mom was always on call, 24/7.  After she passed away, my sister Barb took over her on call duties.  While Barb wasn't my Mom, she KNEW everything that Mom did about Mom kinda stuff.  Now with Barb gone as well, Cathie and I muddle through.  She knows a lot more than I do, and we help each other out where we can.

1-800-Call-A-Mom.  Think about it.  It's a great idea, isn't it?

How long do you cook a beef roast?  1-800-Call-A-Mom.

How do you get that spot out of the couch?  1-800-Call-A-Mom.

How do you sew a pillow case on to the window seat pad after you take it off to wash it?  Have Cathie come visit and ask HER to do it!!  Ok,  but I digress.  (And, thank you again, Cathie!)  But you get the idea.

I have a nice full nap kinda area rug in the bathroom to step on once you're out of the shower.   I want to say like a shag kind of nap.

I was cleaning the bathroom last weekend and I thought hey, that rug could use a washing.  I've washed it before, I knew it could be done.  So, I threw it in the washing machine by itself to get washed.

I have a front loader washing machine and when it spins the clothes, it SPINS the clothes.  Most times they're practically dry when they come out of the washer, they spin so hard!  However, after the wash cycle, this rug was soaking wet.  Soaking, dripping wet.  What to do?  I set the machine to do the spin cycle over again.

Same result.  The rug was no dryer than it was before the second spin cycle.  Mom?  I wish.  I put it through the spin cycle again.  And again.  Ok, probably a few more times for good measure.  No change.

I had Ron grab one end of the rug and I grabbed the other end and we twisted the hell out of it by hand trying to get enough water out of it to be able to put it in the dryer.  We wrung a bunch of water out of it, but it was STILL too wet to put in the dryer.

So, we hung it over the slop sink, hoping it would dry on its own with the help of the dehumidifier in the basement.  The dehumidifier filled up with water, but it didn't seem like any of it came out of that damn rug.  Mom would know exactly what to do, I was sure of it.

Tonight after work, I went to the basement to check out the rug.  As I said, I had to empty the dehumidifier but the rug was still soaked.  Ron and I were talking that just maybe if we hung it on the line in the basement, it might dry easier.  The dang thing was heavy, but I got it up and over the line.  And that's when I noticed the smell.

I guess after four days being sopping wet in the basement, the mold, mildew and whatever else decided to come for a visit.  I am so frustrated at this point that I want to throw the damn rug out and buy another one.  If I was made of money, I'd do just that.  However, I needed to be more practical.

Ron and I threw around a few ideas and then it hit me.  The problem had been that when this rug got wet, it got really heavy.  When the machine would go into the spin cycle, the rug would clump up against one side, making the machine unbalanced. That's why it would never go into the full spin cycle leaving the rug wet.

I knew that now I'd have to rewash the rug to get that smell out and that's when I figured it out.  Wash the kitchen rugs with it, which should even out the load!  Taa daa!  It worked like a charm and I now have all clean and DRY rugs!  Go me.

Ok, it took me four days to figure it out on my own and I was this close to chucking it out tomorrow on garbage night.  One fast call to 1-800-Call-A-Mom probably would have solved this back on Saturday.

I figured it out eventually, but it would have been nice to figure out the problem with one phone call.  I know this is a great money making idea.  No matter how old we get, sometimes a little mothering would go a long way.

Wait For Me!

I know, I know, I have a lot to catch you up on.  It's been crazy around here and I have stories.  But, until I get some pictures downloaded and some blogs written, I have to tell you about what happened this morning.

I had a bunch of stuff to take with me to work today.  I wanted to hit the paper recyclers on the way home so I packed up my car with all of our old magazines that I had bagged up.  I also needed to go to UPS to ship a package.  Plus my lunch, my purse, my coffee, take the garbage out, blah blah blah.

I thought I'd make it easier on myself and bring the car out of the garage and park it by the side door.  I grabbed the garbage and took it out on my way to the garage.   I turned the car around so it was facing the street and pulled right by the side door.

I've told y'all before that I have some outside cats along with the two inside.  Two of them in particular, listen for me and run to me when I'm out there.  As soon as they realized I was in the driveway, they came running to me, meowing all the way.  That is a terrific thing, but when my arms are full of "stuff", I was having a hard time packing up my car while not stepping on or tripping on cats.

My car has a standard transmission.  I never park my car without setting the parking brake.  I would have put money on that fact.  Before today anyway.  I have the last load I'm bringing out to the car.  Part of this load is going in the back seat on the driver's side, and the rest of it will be in the back seat on the passenger's side.  I am on the driver's side and loaded up the car.  I know I slammed the door shut and walked behind my car to get to the passenger's side to put the rest of my stuff in there.

As I'm behind my car, I remember thinking to myself, "Self, you must be dizzy or something because it seems like your car is moving!"  Crazy, huh?  I got to the passenger's side, put my stuff in and that's when I realized, my car was going down the driveway without me!

My public service announcement for the day is:  No matter how hard you try, you can NOT stop a 2,000 pound car from rolling down your driveway by trying to grab the fender.  You can't do it.  Yes, I tried.

I ran to the driver's door and was able to jump in before the car got to the street.  Lucky me.  My heart got a workout this morning and I have a few more gray hairs, but all was well that ends well.

As Cathie says, "it's good to have adrenalin for breakfast!"  I think from now on, I'll stick with my yogurt instead.

What Came Out Of The Wash

Benny has a toy that is a round wire cage with a fake mouse in it.  You roll it across the floor, Benny chases it then bats it around. 

The ball had been "lost" for awhile, but I found it when I had to move the couch for the new windows.  Well, that toy and about 20 others!  Anyway, Benny was playing with it Thursday night and then Friday I freaked out when I saw the "mouse" in the middle of the living room floor.  The poor thing had his tail bit off but the rest of the mouse was in good shape.  I found the ball part of the toy and saw that a couple of the wires had been pried apart and the mouse got out. 

After stuffing my heart back in my chest, I stuffed the mouse back in the ball and tried to close the wires back up again.  Saturday I found the "mouse" in the middle of the floor again.  Ok, whatever.  I grabbed the "mouse" and I put it up and out of reach so that at least I wouldn't have a heart attack when I'd see the dang "mouse" and think it was real.  Again.  And, I threw out the wire ball part.

Sunday I was doing laundry.  I carry the clothes to the basement, separate them into loads and then pick up an armload off of the floor and shove it into the washer.  I was doing a load of sheets when I went to pull the sheets out of the dryer, something came flying out at me.  If you heard a scream Sunday around 6:00 pm, that was me!  Little shit found where I hid that mouse.

Good thing I love that cat.   Almost as much as I love the new gray hairs I got Sunday night!

My Life In Chaos

I really don't like chaos!  I am also not a big fan of change.

My house was built in 1900.  Most of the upstairs windows were replaced just before I bought the house.   The living room and dining room still had the original leaded glass windows.  While they were gorgeous, they were not the most cost efficient.  I decided to upgrade and buy new windows for the living room, dining room and upstairs in the bathroom which still had an old window.  In all, 10 windows were getting replaced.

Wednesday night, Ron and I moved all of the furniture away from the windows.  Everything was to be two to three feet away from the windows, inside and outside.  I didn't need to do anything outside as we don't have much out there, but inside, we were a wreck getting ready for this.

Have I mentioned that I don't do well in chaos?  Here is what the living room looked like:

The dining room wasn't any better.

I was kind of freaking out as were the poor cats.  They didn't care for the chaos any better than I did!

Thursday and Friday, I took off from work.  First thing Thursday morning, I took all of the window coverings down, and locked up the cats.  Penelope and Ron were blocked upstairs with baby gates at the top of the stairs.  They both behaved very well!

Benny was locked in the basement for the day.  Before the installer got there, poor Benny was outside of the basement door meowing and not happy about being locked up.  That added to the chaos of my day!  However, once all of the work started with the banging noise, Benny was more than happy to be hiding downstairs.  I went down a few times during the day to play with him and check on him and I think he made it through the day easier than I did.

I was off again Friday and Friday was spent trying to put the house back together.  The installer was back to work on the outside of the house.  I washed all of the curtains and sheers which was the easy part.  Then, I had to iron them get them all hung.  As long as the furniture was all moved, I did a real Mom cleaning.  I have scrubbed the floors, taken apart light fixtures and cleaned all of them.  Most of the furniture has been moved back to where it belongs and I'll get the rest of it hopefully by the end of the weekend.

The dining room is all together at least.  The looks of this room almost makes it all worth it!  Most of the living room is done, I only have one corner of chaos left in there.

It's a good thing my back is cured because if it wasn't, I'd be one hurting pup last night and today. 

My reward today and my gratuitous cat shot for the day:  Since I am still technically on vacation, I thought I'd lay down and take a little nap today.  I walked into the bedroom and this is what I saw.  No fighting, no drama, just two cats that just woke up from their nap when I showed up with the camera.

This definitely helps to ease any stress from the last few days.  Maybe there is hope for all of us yet.