Social whirl and safety first

Yesterday just as I was putting a banana bread into the oven, I got a text from a local friend whose hermit tendencies even exceed mine, to say she is trying out a new tea, can she come over? I accused her of checking up on me, and said if she waited till 2.30, there would also be fresh banana bread..

So we spent a lovely afternoon catching up, testing the tea and diving into the bbread and saying we mustn't wait another year to do this again.

After she'd left, carrying a large bunch of sage, great cook, my local friend/neighbor/contractor came over to check on the grab bar I'd asked him about. 

It's right at the top of the stairs, where you turn a right angle corner and go up a step , and I had it installed for Handsome Partner when he was still able to do stairs, which I'd set up with bars available on both sides and at the corner at the top.

We installed it exactly where he needed it to be, to reliably find it going upstairs,  that being his blind  side. That meant anchored into hollow wall, missing the studs.Over the years it's loosened, and I wanted it reset higher, to suit me, also anchored into studs, safer.

So here he is, Man at Work, and job done.

He tightened up the other bars while he was at it. He also finally billed me, very reasonably, for the work he did on the deck ages ago. His bill had never reached me, from back in June, so I instantly wrote a check.

Then having exchanged news -- his daughter in Florida is fine, never lost power though rain is drenching down, my other friends ranged from never lost power to lost power, lanai torn away, but people and animals fine -- I picked him a bunch of sage and he gave me a great idea, took some banana bread, then left.

He's a terrific cook and here's the idea: saute a pan of sage leaves to crisp, serve on top of pumpkin butternut squash soup. Definitely going to try this.

Then met another neighbor out doing something in her front yard and we had a hilarious convo about our accidental gardening. 

She got a watermelon growing with edible sized fruit from a pit she'd tossed, and garden balsam, no idea where from, also zinnias from, she thinks, next door. I told her about my inadvertent crops. We both look like good gardeners this year!

All in all, a mad social whirl. I need to decompress now.

Happy day everyone, try to stay safe, dry and don't get all combustible over our various useless policymakers, applicable to practically every country of our readers, except maybe NZ where the sane  Jacinta holds office. 

Here we do have a sane president and veep, but an off the rails Congress, oh well.

Meanwhile in other serious news

I think I know quite a few people who could happily help destroy chocolate rabbits.

 

Peened bar, therapy dogs, and daisies

I was wondering the same thing, what's peened?  turns out it means hammered, as in ballpeen hammer, one of my favorite art tools, as it happens.  And the bar in question is a safety grab bar, the peening making it a bit more skidproof for your wet hand in the bathtub.

I have various safety features installed in the house, dating from when Handsome Partner was still able to sort of walk, and they enabled him to get around.  I left them all in place, figuring why not, and nowadays I find I use them now and then, too.

 

Here's the staircase, bars installed right and top, and I carpet the stairs and hallways, though all the other floors are laminate.  Better if a fall happens to be carpeted. Two bars on right rather than one long one, so HP could reach for a horizontal grip on his way up.

I have two full bathrooms, one I use to shower, etc, the other to take a bath.  It's just a kind of change of scenery.  But the shower one was all set up, off the master bedroom, for HP to be able to get around, sit on a shower stool, lever himself to his feet, then with a bit of help, step out.  

He tested where to put the bar on the back wall, so that as he sat on the stool he could reach nicely. This is the advantage of positioning this stuff to fit your own size, rather than the one size fits all of institutional design.
 
I switched out all the towel rails for grab bars, after he took a nasty fall, grabbed the rail on the way down, rail came out of the wall, he ended up being hit on the head with the rail as well as falling...not good.   
 
But the other bathroom, my tub one, I didn't adapt since he didn't use it.  I did install a handhold, after HP was no longer able to use it in his bathroom. At this point, I think it's a good idea to install a grab bar in the tub to help me be sure I can get out again, before I find I wish I had.  It arrived today, and my handyman contractor neighbor will be installing it.  This is a job for someone who knows what he's doing, and Michael does.  He installed all the others for me, and got quite interested in safety items in the process.

The bar is 24 inches, and is waiting for its eventual location.
I have to first test out sitting in the tub and figuring out where to install the bar to help me up, whether it should be vertical, or on an angle.  If I can stop laughing long enough, I'll test this. Seriously, it's  a really good thing to install safety things before you think you need to bother.

On my walk out today, I bumped into an old friend with a additional dog in her life, a friendly lovely lab type, black, name of Raven, who has been training for therapy dog.  However, in the final test she was spooked by walkers and wheelchairs, so she didn't make it to the certification status.  

I offered to lend them a transport wheelchair, if they wanted to just leave it around the house, sit in it now and then, let her get used to it as a piece of furniture, and they might.  They have a walker already, and they're showing it to her now.  So we'll see if she can take another go at the therapy test. Her temperament is lovely, friendly, eager, but quiet, no barking. This seems to be my assisted living day!

And, since life is not all dull old safety, I installed a couple of beautiful white linen curtains in two of the bathrooms.  I got the fabric from Dharma Trading, lovely people to work with, beautiful fabric to handle and hang. 

I took the cabinet doors off years ago, partly because of cats, partly because doors that swing out into a tiny space are a pain.  I had crocheted curtains hung, but they were a bit awkward, partly kitty claws, partly they're slippery. So I decided to replace them.

Here's the downstairs one (just cut and pinned, tension rods, no elaborate stuff here) with a felted soap above it.

And here's the upstairs one, the bathtub one,  behind which all the dry cat food is stored. 

Up one flight to defeat ants, which can't make it up there.  Duncan was wildly interested, getting in the way while I fitted it, then sniffing suspiciously.  This smells new, do I like it?

Then he decided it was okay, because his food was safe behind it. I'm Duncan, and I approved this curtain.  And considering I only guessed at the yardage when I ordered, the little sliver left from the piece once done was pretty good estimating.

And my new whistling kettle arrived, to replace the old electric that gave up.  This is low tech.  Even if the whistle gives up, the kettle will work.

Outdoors, the Montauk daisies are busting out all over, and the neighbors are so impressed at this new burst of color along with the Russian sage, when they thought things were winding down. 

Going to sit a while now...cup of tea, made using new kettle,  tiny apple pie, mystery story.