Who exterminated the exterminator? Misfits

Thursday morning was about phoning and searching and trying to track down an exterminator. The one I used in July seems unreachable -- his number was answered by a different company far north, his cell out of service, not responding to emails -- maybe he retired. And all the others are franchises, none very close. 

I'm finally getting estimates, and hoping for an inspection appointment. But it's a weird world, many takeovers, and a lot of negative online reviews.  Which might be fakes written by competitors, you never know.  And they all want continuing contracts with monthly payments. All I want is a baseline for now. And a local company to do it. 

In other dull news, the high tech cream my derma prescribed for the facial skin issue hasn't done much to soothe the itch or smooth it out.  So I returned yesterday to the rosewater and glycerin I used to use, and it feels much better.  And the continuing pouring rain helps quite a bit, with the increased humidity.

Thursday afternoon is take down of the group art show, best fun I've had in a while. It's always a bit sad to remove a show, like leaving a party in a way. 

At the library in the afternoon, my spirits were lifted when I saw a crowd of little kids getting organized for the Halloween parade and party. Tiny dinosaurs, pumpkins, cats, crocodiles, all kinds of costumes. No pix because kids.

Misfits was delivered in the rain, poor guy 

How I know when to expect them

Handy for the customer, but not so good for Robert this week's driver, working under surveillance. They're very accurate. The pink truck must be in the shop this week.

Here's the usual suspects. Extra canned goods for the food pantry. Olive oil because I'm nearly out and I use it daily. Scallions and spinach for the required leafy greens. The scallions are so fresh they snap. Beautiful brown free-range eggs for many purposes, what do you want for dinner, there's eggs, style. Two lots of panko, one now in the freezer for insurance because I like breading.  Brown rice, now spending a couple of days in the freezer in case of any wildlife.  Lime juice to beat up with the yogurt as desserts with the blueberries. 

I'm thinking stir fries this week, thank you, Sandra, also various ideas involving chickpeas, cannellini beans and rice. 

And the box is now broken down and tied with string for the recycle. When it stops raining.

Happy day everyone. Some days we all feel a bit like the box, broken down, tied up. But there's always tomorrow.

Today's resistance 

Here's me wearing my American Patriot pea whistle, in resistance yellow, ready to distribute the others to anyone who needs to resist ICE. 

In Chicago they're being used to warn neighbors about ICE in the streets and to help intimidate and distract them.

If you know a community organizer who can use them, email me with contact details and I'll ship them, no strings.

Some day of rest!

Sunday was all go, dishes, laundry, changing bed, taking out garbage, cooking, planning and ordering Misfits food, stitching the hat, see later, knitting more of the sock, Freecycling.

The most interesting is the hat.

Many pins in place to ease the crown and side together 

Then fine whipstitching, with a small needle and silk thread. I chose a long eyed needle to slide through the fabric easily, and thread easily, too, then enjoyed my favorite of all stitches.

As soon as I start this very small stitching over the top of the edges, holding two fabrics together, I'm flooded with calm. It's about using a skill, honoring the women who taught me, and being in a long tradition of handmade clothes 

Then to try on and see, yay, that's the fit I want. My head is small -- those one-size hats fall over my nose and have to rest on my glasses. This one is snug enough to stay on.

There was a pause when my scissors fell apart, and I repaired them, then I continued with a new idea I thought of while I was stitching 

Here's a different brim, not yet attached but looking promising. It's a straw (or something) round placemat. 

I cut out the center -- a crown for yet another hat -- and I need to bind the edge of the inner brim to stitch it to the crown section.

So that's where we are. I think I may end up being the Hat Lady before I'm done. I'm really pleased with what I learned making this one up to now. Then there'll be a hatband.  I have enough brown batik for the brim of another hat, and a band for this one.

This is the only way I can get a hat that fits. I have a another, cotton, one round the inside of which I had to run elastic to keep it up enough so I could see ahead of me.

One good reason for a hat with a brim when you're walking, aside from shade, is that it keeps insects off your face, a big point where I walk near trees. They land on the brim and get confused.

Happy day everyone, wear a hat, confuse everyone while you're applying sand to the gears.  My daily sand was getting my mail in ballot filled out to drop off Monday. We're electing a governor, and the red guy is a wildeyed MAGA, so I need to put in my vote. Many dirty tricks on the other side to overcome.

 

House cleaning, postcards, Knitting Group, Textiles and Tea

This morning was about getting out from under the cleaning family's feet. So I went and voted, using the municipal dropbox, yayyy, go Kamala and Tim! 

Then I thought the world was quiet this morning and realized Ruth and Laura were still home on the charger, so I went back and got them in action.

Back out again, sound restored, to the library, to finish the postcards, watch the window cleaners working, from the ground, on the third  floor windows

and the local artists guild hanging their fall exhibit, and I fixed a public jigsaw puzzle that had been maybe played with by a little person. Then I got back into Oliver Twist, who's proving to be a lot more entertaining than I expected.

Home again, lunch, then out to Tuesday Knitting Group, no pictures, nothing new to show you. But we talked about animals, petcare, rescues, hospice, fear of death, insurance for nonprofits, more cheerful than this sounds!

home yet again, it's all go, for Textiles and Tea, with

She's a textile designer for mass consumption, as well as having art interest, using looms from the tiny Hello to a 16-harness one. 

She's studied a range of fibers, animal and plant, and of dyes, natural and synthetic. She's getting into tapestry weaving on  Mirrix looms, and makes journal entries to note natural scenes and colors for reference. She also tries found object weaving, for possible design ideas. 

In fact, watching her  suggests all kinds of cool ideas for weaving..just when you'd left the last rabbit hole!

This evening may be an online watch party with friends of the Walz-Vance debacle, I mean debate.

Then I plan to take the rest of the day off.

Happy day, everyone, resting is overrated.

The rest of the story

 The Case of the Mistaken Deck Billing has been resolved happily. After an exchange of emails, the manager  asked if my contractor could attest to having done the work on the deck.  

It occurred to me that I could send pictures from the blog of the work in progress. I'd been keeping contractor Michael informed because I was talking about him and I'm a believer in Nothing About Us Without Us.

So to save contractor Michael from being imposed on further, I sent this to the HOA

Proving that the deck was never an obstacle to the fencing, and that the small work required was done before they arrived, pictures dated. 

And promptly got a response thanking me and agreeing to correct the record. So there was an unexpected bonus to blogging. 

I felt like a character from a TV detective series -- "perhaps THIS will refresh your memory!" -- flourishing in court the proof which will make the bad guy confess, then, like Perry Mason, all the lawyer's team adjourn to a Chinese restaurant.

Anyway it's settled and Michael didn't see the texts and emails until it was resolved, so he read it all with some amusement. I wonder how many other mistakes the fencing company made in their billing, they not being so good at the paperwork back at HQ.

I think I might consider this as a retirement income -- claim to have done work I didn't, bill for it, and force the victim, I mean client, to prove a negative. Not many people will have the receipts as I did. This could work ;)

And in other important news,  my vote has now been cast, in the dropbox outside the town hall. 

The building you see is the Police department, and the dropbox, you can just see the top of it, is in a 24/7 camera surveilled area, security guaranteed. It's emptied daily by officials from the Board of Elections. So I'll soon be able to track that it's been received.

Meanwhile reading has been happening, and this is very entertaining, beachy but still fun to read and very well researched. It's the next part of the lives of Emmy and Bunty, now crusading journo and sidekick

And this is the upcoming weekend treat

Mma Ramotswe rides again.

.

The dental visit went well on Thursday,  hygienist Courtney giving me an excited account of her new pregnancy, she must just have found out, her Lasik surgery, her husband's color blindness, her hopes that the baby would escape it, a very entertaining background to the cleaning process. 

Then while the dentist followed up with the permanent crown installation, I got his concerns about water in the western states, and how dams with reduced flow are generating less power and what a contrast with Florida with more water than they can handle.  Quite an educational time, I thought as I left with my $150 toothbrush.

Happy day everyone, today I'm sorting two boxes of stuff winnowed by handsome Son, for Freecycling or thriftie donation. He's so pressed for time that it's a great help to his decluttering now that it occurred to me to do the disposal for him.  And he certainly needs to declutter.

Hoping all our lives are decluttered, educated, and the good guys win the billing, and other, wars. And Happy Thanksgiving, Canadian friends!

Check your spam, here comes the sun, and vote on

First a discovery I made that someone I thought had decided not to respond to my emails had not received them. Her system, unknown to her, had started rerouting my emails to spam.  I was distraught, not knowing how she was.

Please, if you haven't heard from me, find your spam file, check it and rescue any emails you should have received. Usually it's as simple as marking them "not spam".  

The morning sun is moving around the living room. A few weeks ago, it was shining here

Now it's shifted to shine on the sofa

Seasonal change as seen from indoors.

And, walking the walk, my mail in voting materials arrived, and I voted from the sofa.

Into the mailbox today in plenty of time to be counted. In NJ primaries are party -specific, so you get the materials for the party you belong to. 

And cooking ahead, I'm thinking of making pasta again, ravioli to be exact, so I made a mushroom filling, to freeze ready for whenever I get around to it.

Cream, minced baby Bella mushrooms, fresh thyme, doing fine in its new digs,  garlic, butter, cooked down to a spreadable sort of mixture. 

I think the rest of the mushrooms might go well with yellow potatoes in a pasty, haven't done pasties in a while.

Happy day everyone. 

Vote cast, flu fighters wheeled in

So I found the drop box which was not where I thought, but not far off. 

Voted

Stopped on the way home at the new Asian store and found pretty much the same stock, huge produce department, live fish etc,  but much brighter and lighter and I got my flu fighters. 

I can't get a flu shot, past serious reaction, so I practice covid-19 type care every flu season.

However if you can safely get a shot, please do, for yourself and the community of folks who can't. That includes infants, just sayin'. I seem to be doing a lot of PSAs nowadays.