Roofer Madness

Had Robin not encountered our landlord at the mailboxes last week, we would never have known he'd hired contractors to redo the house's roof. Well, they arrived today and summarily asked (very politely) if I could please move my car out onto a main street so they could park their behemoth of a dumpster in my parking spot. The downstairs neighbor had to move his car as well, so I wasn't the only one affected. But I wasn't feeling well, and having to look for a spot then trudge back even that 1-2 blocks did me in. And this all happened in the middle of working. It was impossible to concentrate on any job stuff with all the banging going on; today seemed to be removal of the old shingles and putting down big wooden slabs to protect the area from the coming rains. At the end of the day I was able to move my car back to at least a spot where I can see it from my living room window, but I'm very glad I'll be in the relatively quiet Manhattan office tomorrow. And I believe the worst of my ailment is over, judging by my multiple trips to the "reading room"...

Jonny Come Lately

My darling godson Jonny came to visit us today. He's moving back to New York City from Austin, TX, where he felt like he never quite fit in, and wanted to assure us that we'll be a major part of his NYC experience, at least until we move. Speaking of which, he's vital and strong (he does rock climbing and lifts weights) and was able to help Robin take down our printer and AC boxes almost single-handedly! Not only that, thanks to him all the boxes from the loft that aren't filled with receipts waiting to be shredded are now situated where the old AC/printer boxes used to be, freeing up space for us to steam our kurtas for this coming weekend and retrieve our suitcases for the weekend as well as the UK trip. Plus, he will help us rehome all our tech and appliances in the next few years as we get ready to downsize all the things that run on US outlets. Best of all, we get to cat-sit his lovely orange tabby Mango when he travels, satisfying my urge to have a kitty that won't completely be fulfilled until we've emigrated. We had a lovely visit with my uncle (his grandfather) then a nice lunch locally before he took off for more parts unknown. A bit of a whirlwind, exhausting day, especially being out in non-air conditioned areas for a longer period of time than I'm used to in muggy weather. And I'm still not walking properly despite having changed back to the sneakers I was wearing before my most recent pair, so that was pretty tiring as well. But so, so worth it!

The Calm Between

With the car inspection behind me, the loft cleared yesterday, my godson coming to visit tomorrow, followed by the landlord's contractors putting on a new roof next week, this was our only day to rest, and I took full advantage. At least 2-3 naps during the day when I wasn't watching footie and baseball. I don't exactly feel refreshed, I'm a bit too travel-nervous for that, but I definitely needed the break!

Lofty Ambition

When Robin met with the landlord in an unsuccessful attempt to get another mailbox key, he was informed that the house's roof is going to be replaced, which I'm sure it desperately needs. This spurred him to action to finally empty the loft space (really only rafters) which we've used for storage since we moved in a couple decades back, which of course we needed to do anyway but thought we had more time. As it turned out, Robin did a yeoman's job of getting all the various boxes, suitcases, etc. down into the apartment proper, and the only thing remaining up there now are a couple of dusters and two doors that were taken off what's now our larder and coat closet back when our wall-to-wall carpeting was installed, and have been used as runners of a sort to hold all the boxes and such. Now begins the wonderful job of sorting through it all. I suspect our shredder will be working overtime in the next few months. But it was, as Robin says, a job well jobbed, just in time for my godson's visit on Sunday where I'm going to ask him if he wants to give some of our old tech a new home. Slowly downsizing!

Muggy

A bit hard to breathe this morning, but Robin swore to me that his weather apps indicated no rain in the forecast despite a flood watch in effect, so off I went without my raincoat. A bit of drizzle greeted me as I exited the local bus near my firm's office, but aside from having breathing difficulty I saw no real signs of rain. At lunchtime I noticed the ground at Manhattan West plaza was pretty wet, but I figured maybe I could still get away with dancing between the raindrops on the homeward commute. Alas, it was not to be, as I got caught in quite the deluge on 9th Avenue crossing to the Moynihan train hall and decided to stay underground until I got to my homeward-bound subway. By the time we hit the Bronx the rain had stopped, so it wasn't really that bad, but it started again when I was on the local bus so Robin met me at the terminus with my rain jacket. My feet are in a lot of pain right now so I've ruled out the socks I've been wearing and am once again assuming it's the new sneakers, and will put on my "old" pair again to shop on Saturday. This too shall pass!

Done, Done, and Done Again

I didn't have very high hopes for the latest place I visited bright and early this morning to get my inspection done, but this one turned out to be a winner. In the time it took us to buy new windshield wiper fluid and a drink in the adjoining convenience store, the inspection was all done! And I was back home in plenty of time to log on to work. With my car worries allayed, I decided to finally book our train tickets to Philly, and that went smoothly as well. Lastly, even though I was kind of beat by the end of the day, I decided to make a stir-fry and use a couple things for the first time: a cast-iron pan to get the tofu nice and crispy, a wonderful sugar-free teriyaki sauce, and mixing corn starch with rice vinegar to thicken the sauce. Two of those three things worked well. Next time I mix the corn starch with the sugar-free sauce. Now I have leftovers and our fridge is much easier to get into with all those veggies being used up (two kinds of oyster mushroom, a bunch of scallions, lots of baby bok choy, half a mandolined daikon). All in all a great day for accomplishing things. Back to Manhattan tomorrow!

Filling the Day

Got through my commute and work day just fine, no real down time at all in the office, but my feet were bothering me too much to visit my partners so I settled for MS Teams conversations. Not sure if it's the new sneakers (possibly not as I was having much the same issue with my previous pair), the socks, or just me getting older. I'll be wearing thicker socks tomorrow with my support slippers to cushion my feet when I go out to get the car inspected (this time for sure!) but that'll be first thing in the morning so it shouldn't affect me too much. What is affecting me, more than I thought, is the death of the saintly Dolly Parton; we won't see her like again.

Like Unto a Zombie

No real news today, I just couldn't wake up after yesterday's driving and car stress. I'm not used to being out and about two weekend days in a row. Also, when we returned around 6 PM we found the landlord's gutter repair/replacement folks hard at work, so I had to park in a different spot than my usual one right in front of the house, and retrieve my car to repark it around 9 PM when the gutter replacement was finished (and that was a bit stressful seeing them walking around the makeshift platforms outside our top-floor living room). I don't drive well at night, even tbe 30 or so feet it took to park it, and when I blearily glanced outside this morning I saw the car was crooked, which I never do in the daytime. Good thing I decided against taking it in for inspection, as I could hardly open my eyes all day. Somehow I got through work and made lots of progress, tried on my new yoga pants which I'm wearing under my kurta for the wedding reception (the first pair got waylaid so I ordered another pair to arrive today and, lo and behold, wound up with both pairs), and now I'm all packed for tomorrow's sojourn into Manhattan. I cannot believe I made it through the day like this.

The Wilds of Lawn Guylan

Today we packed up about half the alcohol we've had lying around for ages and went to visit our friends Phyllis and Richie in Bellmore, whom we hadn't seen in way too long. They have the coolest backyard area and gardens, I got to each freshly-picked celery (although the basil I picked straight from the plant was a bit much and made my tongue kind of numb). The snacks and lunch/dinner they prepared us was wonderful, as was the entertainment as I learned all about Angine de Poitrine, Avatar, and Babymetal. Hey, gotta keep up with the latest musical trends, if only for my education. On the way there we went over a drain stuck out into the left lane that jogged our hubcap loose, but it doesn't appear any harm was done. Richie was also kind enough to fill our windshield wiper reservoir, allwaying fears it had sprung another leak (I guess I've just used a lot of fluid). Alas, no auto shops near them that could do a state inspection were open, so I'll have to resume my search to find someplace before next Sunday.

Movable AC

We got home from our grocery shopping and bonus H Mart visit around noon, to discover our landlord's van blocking our parking spot. Apparently there's going to be some gutter replacement shenanigans going on, but in the meantime he's asked us to move our living room air conditioner from its usual spot for the past 20+ years into one of the front-facing windows. This Robin did not need, as his back's been giving him issues lately. But by some miracle he was able to get it done, and I find I actually prefer the new setup, particularly as it allowed me to rearrange our corner table (which held lots of alcohol, most of which we don't really drink) and wine rack. We'll be getting rid of at least half the liquor when we visit our friends on Long Island tomorrow, and I'll be arranging the remainder so everything is together (including mixers and shot glasses and saki cups) and looks nice on the corner table, and so that all the pretty artificial and metal flowers are finally together atop the wine rack. The living room definitely needed a change!

House Call

This morning I had a necessary telehealth visit with my new primary care provider, who will take care of renewing all my prescriptions under her name as both my old PCP and endocrinologist have left their respective practices. I like her, she seems very nice, and best of all she's in my neighborhood, but she may wind up being a little hard on me. Ah well, I'll probably need it. Meantime, the inspection machine is still broken at my usual auto shop, and the one around the corner doesn't do inspections, so I'm still on the lookout. I also had a lovely text convo with my godson today. He's back in New York City to stay, at least for now, and wants to come up and see me (and my uncle, his grandfather). Which I want as well, as I hope to pass along to him a lot of our household belongings in a few years when we retire and move countries. But for now, I have to deal with the fact that I actually have a social life. I'm way too old for that!