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......... there's nice things to October.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in Canada. Lovely turkey and all the trimmings feast.
Then there's Hallowe'en on the 31st.
But this one looks as though it is going to be like October last year, when everything connected with safety that could go wrong did go wrong.
So far this year, we have been told that we need a new roof after water ran down the chandelier in the family room during a torrential downpour on September 30th. Only a little bit came in, and only for a very few minutes, but ...................
Roof technician came the following Tuesday (Oct 5), roof is in bad shape. We wait to get a quote.
Sockets in both bathrooms went dead, again around September 30th. Usually that just means flipping the fuse back on, but OH couldn't get that to work. Those sockets are the special ones used in bathrooms over here. Finally found the name of a local handyman who did electrical, he came last Wednesday (Oct 6) around 5 pm.
We have a pretty strange electrical system as this house was built in 3 stages ............ ca 1944, ca 1951, and 1977, so there have been adaptations along the way, as a result of which, we have 2 fuse boxes.
Kosta (handyman) didn't succeed on Wednesday after an hour, so came back on Thursday with more tools, about 5:30 pm, was here until 7 pm, still couldn't work out the circuitry, ie which fuse in which fuse box had gone kaput.
Said he'd come back with his helper on Saturday around noon. Didn't come, so we're still without working sockets for shaver and hair dryer.
BUT, a side result of him having to turn the electricity off at the mains several times, meant that we lost internet connection. Got our techie to come round on Thursday afternoon, he re-connected us, told us what MIGHT prevent loss of internet "next time", and showed us how to re-connect.
Nope, it didn't, loss of internet again. OH tried to do what we'd been told several times, no success.
I managed to re-connect today, so we have internet connection for at least the rest of today and tomorrow.
But still a roof that needs a complete renewal, and no working bathroom sockets.
Added to all this is the fact that a) my arthritis has been bad this week so I can't walk or stand for long, and b) I need hearing aids, which are NOT free over here.
The good news??
OH had a regularly scheduled meeting with our financial advisor on Thursday afternoon, mentioned the roof in passing, and we have sufficient money squirreled away in what is called here a tax-free saving account, some of it from a small inheritance. That is, an account that pays a good rate of interest on money put into it after tax has been paid, and no tax is charged even on the interest when you need to take it out. So no money worries for what might be a 5 figure sum .......... at least that is off the table!!
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Oh wow you needed a break so at least that helps a bit.
Time for you to relax and eat too much tomorrow Sylvia, actually had our meal today so we have tomorrow to recover :-)
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Enjoy your meal Sylvia-and forget all the negatives for the day.
I believe my Son celebrates his Thanksgiving the last Thursday of the month (in Kentucky). It'll have a tinge of sadness for them this year because my Son and his wife always went the her parents for their meal, which Father always cooked. Sadly Mark died of Covid this January so this is their first year without him. My lovely Son will step into his father-in-law's apron and take over the cooking! <3
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Oh Sylvia what a lot you have had to deal with. But enjoy your thanksgiving meal, glad you have money for the roof and hopefully your electrics will be soon sorted.
I read today that it might be a white Halloween over here!! Imagine that brrrr
Florence in the hebrides
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Thank you!
Yes, Caroline, we have our meal tomorrow ................ turkey breast and 2 drumsticks plus all the other necessities are in the fridge, ready to go. But no pumpkin pie, OH and I will be alone, I can't eat pumpkin pie, I may send OH to Safeway tomorrow to pick up some pumpkin tarts for himself :-)
Kay ........... American Thanksgiving is the 4th Thursday in November, much later than us! I found it a bit too near Christmas, but don't mention that to the Americans!!
Interestingly, Americans are much more likely to "go home" for Thanksgiving than for Christmas. It's much the opposite up here.
Florence ............ a snowy Hallowe'en could be interesting! The weather forecast for travellers here in BC was interesting. Much snow expected on all the mountain passes between the Coast and the interior of the province, as much as 15 cm in some cases! :-0
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Oh dear Sylvia, everything coming at once. Will you be able to get your roof repaired before the winter months set in? Sorry to hear your Arthritis is bad as well, you don't need that while trying to cope with everything else. enjoy your thanksgiving meal and I hope you get solutions to all the other problems. <3
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Update ..................
The electrics were sorted out very easily when an older electrician who works with Kosta (the one we were using) came.
Over here, fuses are switches, ON to the left, OFF to the right. If one "blows", the switch is sent to the right, turns off the power to that circuit. All a person has to do then is flip the switch to the left, back to the right and then to the left again, and it works.
OH and Kosta had both flipped every darn fuse several times with no result, hence the tracing the circuitry problem. Joe, the older guy, looked at the sockets in the bathrooms, down to the switchboards, and examined every fuse. He pointed out that one fuse was a different colour to all the rest, and that was the one for the bathrooms. There was another difference to it though ............... when it flipped to the right there was a stop that it had to be forced past. So when it blew it had to be pushed to the left, then back to right and pushed hard past that stop, and back to the left, before it would work.
Neither OH nor Kosta had gone past the "stop" point.
It's many years since OH had had to check it ................ probably not at all in the last 20 or so years, and maybe 4 or 5 times between 1987 and 2000. Before that, his brother-i-l used to blow the bathroom fuse every time he used his Braun razor. No idea why it would do that, but it would happen 3 or 4 times a year when Hans visited!
Kosta had never come across it before because the newer systems work differently!!
Roof ................. we've just signed the contract and put down 10% deposit on a new roof. Hopefully they will be able to do it within the next 6 or so weeks, depending on the weather. They only need 3 -4 days reasonable weather.
AnninG ........... they work throughout the winter except in the very worst of weather, eg Pacific rain storms like we've had the last 2 weeks and another one possibly coming through later this week. There are usually several days between those storms that are better. Snow also stops them working.
Hearing .............. I had my appointment with the ENT surgeon yesterday, an attempt to find out why my eardrums don't vibrate as they should. This was needed to help the hearing aid technologists decide which type of hearing aids would be best. I have fluid behind my left eardrum, so have to go on a course of using a special nasal spray for about the next 2 months. That apparently helps the fluid to drain through the Eustachian tube into the nose and away. If it doesn't work, the surgeon would have to make a small hole in the eardrum and drain it out that way. So fingers crossed!
He said that if I hear bubbling in my ear, then the spray is working. :-0 :-D
Arthritis ................ better, although still up and down a bit. I'm still having to use the cane in the house much more than I like
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Hoping for 'hubble bubble' Sylvia then but no toil and trouble? Sounds like you are getting there anyway. Onwards and upwards.
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Just had a massive hailstone storm and by golly its brrrrr.Internet went off but came on quite quickly, thought the electric was going too.
Wouldnt surprise me if it snowed overnight!!
Florence in the hebrides
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