Random 5 for January 9, 2022 – Ice storms, covid, kitchen, birthdays, electronics

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Storm – We are hunkered down waiting for an impending ice storm that should have started already. I hustled out to Starbucks to get my fix early. There is nothing like an addiction to help overcome my fear of driving. Nothing gets between me and my morning mocha! (At least if I can help it!)

It’s getting weird again – I am midway between two Starbucks. My favorite is a hilly drive. The other doesn’t have hills but has more stop lights. I opted for no hills today just in case it started icing up while I was in route. There was a big sign on the door. They will only be open from Thursdays to Sundays for a while. Some of the stores have been closing earlier. That’s not surprising as their biggest business is early morning through afternoon. Closing for three days will lose the morning business. I hate to see this. Not so much that it’s Starbucks but I hate to see any business cutting back hours. By the time this covid business is in the rear view mirror the landscape will be different. We are losing the small businesses that can’t survive. We have a few favorite restaurants that we are hoping will persist. We give them take out business but we are only two people so that would not be enough.

Kitchen update – Appliances and countertops came in this week. It’s looking good and even I am surprised that I wasn’t immediately wowed by the difference. I’ve got that wonky gene that sees the “shuddas” instead of the progress. I shudda got black appliances instead of stainless steel. I’ve never liked stainless. It’s like putting big pieces of dull silver gray metal in a kitchen. I will get used to it as one does because the appliances aren’t going anywhere and this crop may outlive me. We pulled up the protection they had on the flooring in the adjacent dining area and it looked a lot better. Dirty pieces of plywood don’t help the visual either. Later today we will roll out the carpet and put the table in the eating area. I may be doing the snoopy dance then. The plumber comes tomorrow to finish the hookups. Then it’s all about the window replacement that is vacationing in the Bahamas at a tiki bar. After that it’s backsplash and a huge round of snoopy dance! Pictures are coming.

Happy birthday to me! – My birthday is this week. I will turn one of those milestone numbers and am not happy about it. (The beloved husband pointed out that it’s better than the alternative!) I will be the age that my mom was when she died. I’ve often thought about how much easier my life is. She was a wonderful woman and deserved far more than she got. She died in January two weeks after my birthday. That year I sent her a card and flowers to celebrate her birthing me. I caught her by surprise and that was hard to do. She had eyes in the back of her head and no matter how hard of hearing she was, she always caught the important stuff.

Electronics – I have a love-hate relationship with all electronics. My Fitbit smart watch is dying. It’s two years old and that’s about the lifespan of the cheaper models. I bought this one to track steps. I never thought I needed a smart watch (and technically I don’t) but it came in handy with the kitchen renovation. Instant texts on my wrist were very helpful. Especially when a worker was on that way (and I was at Starbucks getting my fix).

So how was your week?

 

88 thoughts on “Random 5 for January 9, 2022 – Ice storms, covid, kitchen, birthdays, electronics”

  2. Happy Birthday! You get to celebrate yourself all month; it’s a law now. (I made it up)
    Glad to hear the kitchen is coming to life. Once it’s done, you’ll be smiling ear to ear.
    You know it’s bad when the big chains start cutting hours. It’s like living in an altered state sometimes.

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  3. I’ve been behind in Reader, so hopefully you’ve made even more progress since this post published. And you are likely a year older, unless your birthday is later in the week. My mom passed away the end of January too and HER birthday would have been two weeks after to the day … it was Valentine’s Day and pretty tough to ignore that holiday with all the advertising for it.

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    • I’m behind too. The house project sucks the energy out of me. Kitchen is completed as far as it can be. Waiting on a window and then the backsplash. Then it is completely done. My dad was buried on my birthday and mom later in January (many years later). January has never been a favorite month. I don’t like the cold either. We usually get more snow in February but it’s the bitter cold that bothers me.

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      • Well hopefully soon … don’t start any more projects for a while to give yourself a rest from the mess. I’m no fan of January either, cold wise (we’re going to have another Arctic blast this weekend) and my grandmother died on January 29th and my mom died on January 31st … different years, like yours, but still …

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  6. I know how you feel about the small businesses, even large corporations like Starbucks, cutting back on hours or closing entirely. It is hard to see. The terrain is definitely changing. One way that I’ve felt a little more calm at the changes is in noting that we are supporting new businesses even closer to home in some sense. We’ve had to make so many adaptations that I now wonder what is new habit or what will shift again when we eventually resume a bit of normalcy. For that matter, what is normal ever again. I have no answers.

    Your kitchen sounds beautiful to me. I like stainless, though. I do think you’ll adjust. And happy milestone birthday. I have one of those in March. I like your husband’s observation. So true!

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  7. Happy birthday!! Hope the storm passed you by with no damage? We have places here closing a couple days each week or shortening their hours. For a lot of them it’s staffing issues. For others its that they don’t have the business to stay open as much as previously. I hope many of these places can survive this!

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  8. Glad the kitchen project is starting to look closer to the finish line. My kitchen is the size of a nickel and so I got white appliances. Black (though it looks good) would have sucked out all the light. Here’s to morning coffees and finishes projects. 🎉 Happy Birthday wishes from me and the Ranch crew members. 🎉

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  13. Can’t wait to see pics of the new kitchen. Gracie must be thinking, where to puke first? So many good choices. If I knew your address I would send you some tuna for your birthday. Or maybe salmon since tuna may not be your favorite. But I don’t, so I will send good thoughts and purrs. Hope you have a wonderful birthday!

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  15. I’m looking forward to the pictures you’re promising. It seems things are moving right along. We have as much COVID as anyone, but, strangely, it seems as though most of our restaurants are hanging on and quite a few new ones are popping up. Is that optimism, deep pockets, or am I imagining things.

    Don’t we all have a love/hate relationship with electronic things.

    Happy birthday, Kate.

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  20. Happy Birthday, Kate! I hit seven-oh in September. My Mom passed away at 70, passed two weeks after her birthday… I’m still here! Exciting about your kitchen and getting the table in the eating area. The hook ups and you are as good as there. So excited you are coming to the end of the reno! Hope you have a wonderful Birthday week!

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    • Thanks. It was a hectic weekend — cleaning and moving stuff and then removing stuff. Well, you know how I feel about age, mothers and death! My dad died when he was 55 and both of my brothers are in their 90s.

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  21. Happy Birthday, Kate! I’m happy to hear your kitchen is coming along. I received an Apple watch for Christmas. It was a gift that I never thought I would have any use for, but so far, I’m loving it for the fitness capabilities. I’ve done at least 11K steps everyday, but what I like best is it tells me when it’s time to stand up. I have a tendency to lose track of time at my day job. Also, I never realized how many times I go up and down the steps!

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  22. Happy Birthday!! I’m older than you, but I also think about making it past the age when my mother died.

    As long as I’m here, I have to ask. Instead of going to Starbucks for your coffee, why don’t you make it at home. One of those Keurigs might look good on your new counters and Starbucks makes some great recyclable pods! Or maybe it’s the trip that you’re addicted to instead of the coffee?

    Whatever — have a great birthday!

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    • I have a Keurig. I get a mocha and I’ve tried many times to recreate it. I haven’t been successful yet. It’s made with espresso. I’m thinking of getting an espresso machine to try it again. I don’t know if you are older than me. I’m older than dirt!

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  24. Happy Birthday!! Milestones – my next one will be a whopper. LOL I thought the last one was but oh no. So happy to hear how far the reno has come and things are finally pulling together – has to feel great. So far nothing has closed around here but hours have been cut back at a lot of places. Hoping nothing closes entirely. Covid has knocked the heck out of everyone and everything. Oh – we were supposed to have ice storm this morning and instead have rain. Maybe you won’t have the ice either? Hopefully?

    Hugs, Pam

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    • It’s been drizzly since late morning but I haven’t been out to see if it’s icy (although a car just flew by with no issues). It’s 33 degrees now so it’s not warm! It would be sad to have places shut down again. Several restaurants have cut back on the days they are open. Hoping for the best. Kitchen coming along. We stocked the cabinets and set up the dining area. This was a lot of work.

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  25. Happy birthday! I hope that your Starbucks issues resolve. I visited a local outlet this week that was only serving drive-through M-Sat. Sunday mornings they are open for walk-in. I guess they have analyzed their profitable times and visits to develop a profitable model. I’m glad that your renovation vision is starting to look like it will actually get finished! Good luck!

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  27. Happy birthday, Kate! And congratulations on the renovations making some good progress. It’s sad to see small businesses being hit so hard and some not surviving. But I guess this means post-pandemic there will be opportunities for some brave souls…the flip side of crisis is generally opportunity…for somebody, at least!

    Deb

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  28. Hooray for the impending Snoopy dance when the kitchen and windows are done. I can only imagine how happy you will be to not see contractors for a while. Yes, small businesses sure have been impacted by Covid, customers, and supply chains. I feel terribly sorry for them on all counts. Hope the storm is less than predicted.

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  31. We’re also trying to keep our favorite restaurants alive, but we’ve lost several. The only Starbucks that have survived are the drive-thrus. There was a very popular one in the mini-mall by the high school that couldn’t closed not long after the schools switched to remote learning. Same for the local ice-cream place next to it.

    Only the pizza place survived, probably because of the delivery options.

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  33. So glad that the kitchen is finally coming along! The cats will be glad when it is done and no more strange folks in the house. The ice is here…got here a little after 7 am. Luckily, no dogs to pet sit this weekend, and we were able to set cats up last night for breakfast and probably the day last night, so we are sitting tight. I got both dogs out to potty just before it started raining ice this morning. Phew. Very hard getting steps in lately with the weather…but I’ve been doing an online silver sneakers class each day. And happy birthday in advance!

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    • I don’t think we got much ice. There is a drizzle but people are walking their dogs without slipping. That’s ok by me. Ice is not my favorite! I didn’t know there was a silver sneakers on-line class. Sounds cool. I haven’t been walking outside. Once in a while I’ll walk at the mall but I have an indoor circuit I do in the house. Yesterday I hit 10K steps just by carrying boxes up and down steps!

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      • Silver Sneakers has a huge line up of online classes. I’ve been enjoying some of them. They have on-demand videos and also classes on Zoom which is what I’ve bee doing.

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  34. My week was drippy, literally. Too much rain, but better than your impending ice storm. We’re seeing many small businesses close around us too. I’m to a point where I’m more surprised to see them still there, than gone. Happy Birthday! 🎂

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  35. Happy birthday. I hit a milestone birthday this year as well. I am glad your kitchen is progressing. I hope you can start using it again soon.

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    • I don’t have running water yet but I’ve used the range and the food is in the new fridge. The range is amazing. For the past 10 months I’ve been limping along with a malfunctioning range so this is a real treat.

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