A Little Tuesday This & That

I haven't had a lot to blog about the last few days, or maybe it's just haven't wanted to think about what I might blog about, so today is a mish-mash of things.

This is one of the two little guys or gals that are growing so fast they'll be out of the nest in a day or two or three it seems.  Sorry my point-&-shoot doesn't do sharper images on zoom.  It's a hummingbird.

This is the light reflection being made during the eclipse on Sunday evening.  It was only partial here as we weren't in the path for getting the full thing.  Marty called these by a name, but I don't remember what that name is.  They look like little images of the sun with the eclipse shadow crossing it.

This little squirrel was enjoying a cool spot on the lawn next to the ash tree on a near-100 degree day.  I measured the girth of the ash: over 95" around. 

Ok, well, this is the back side of a baby robin...I missed the perfect photo op because I didn't have my camera outside.  From inside the house in the early morning, I heard a lot of bird chatter going on out back, so went to investigate.  There was a baby robin on a branch - a very good view and close - suddenly, up flies mama with some big dark bugs in her mouth and she fed baby right in front of me.  I so missed a great photo!  And this was the best I could get of baby as it started taking off up through the branches of the tree after I went in and got my camera.  Some mornings have been a loud cacophony of sound with the birds - I'm sure it's because so many babies are fledging right now and mamas are teaching them to 'hunt' for themselves.  I put a waterer out in the backyard but haven't seen a single bird anywhere near it.  I even scattered seed on the ground.

 The upper now has slider doors...still need that faucet, cabinet hardware, mirrors & towel/toilet tissue bars

The lower now also has a door and glass wall.  It also needs the same as above as well as the toilet...
Both will also need that final inspection by the city dude - oh joy!

And that's it for photos for today.

Here's my funny for the week:  Awhile back I complained about soap residue that didn't wash out of my dark clothes and left permanent stains because of these new-fangled water-conservative washers.  Well, I figured a way around that.  I place the soap powder in first, close the lid and let the water run until it begins to agitate.  I then open the lid and close it again.  It resets to add more water.  I then open it again and place my clothes in then shut the lid which causes it to add even more water - no more soap deposit problems.  That first round only adds about 5" of water in the bottom of the machine...how is that supposed to clean your clothes?  OK, so for the funny part.  Because doing it this way takes time by my having to stand there and wait for it to add water each time...not a problem for when I'm adding regular clothes because I use that time to lay each item out and pretreat as needed, but...I walked away to do a couple quick things in the kitchen (I was washing the kitchen towels, cloths & potholders in that load).  I then sat at the table, heard the washing action while I perused a couple magazines, and the dryer was running from the previous load.  Dryer buzzer goes off and I remove the items, went back to put the next load in the dryer because the washer had now stopped...NOTHING IN THE WASHER!  That's right, I got SO side-tracked, I forgot to go back and put the load of  towels in the machine!  I just had to laugh at my forgetfulness.

Under Construction...Almost :)

The decision has been made. We selected a contractor for the bathrooms. For us, the selection wasn't between a slue of contenders. We had two. Contractor-1 (henceforth C-1) has been on the board at Nick's school, has constructed a couple of the buildings and other work at the school, remodeled the kitchen of a woman at the school whom I spoke with a couple years ago and was quite pleased with his work. Did some work also for the mom of Nick's friend Tino. C-1 seemed eager to listen to and interact with us even while discussing the future of our kitchen remodel. He was pleasant and answered all questions....even if he did have a tendency to talk a lot :) C-1 met with us within a couple days of our initial call and had two proposals, one for each bath, in less than a week, came back and reviewed it with us line by line. He was here for two hours at each of the two visits. At the end of the week he called to check on whether we'd made a decision yet. We asked for a couple more days.

Contractor-2 (henceforth C-2) also met with us within a day of our initial call. C-2 was referred to me by a very good friend at church. She was my maid-of-honor, so I think I trust her :). She does a lot of decorating for folks at the church and has a working relationship with C-2 and had his phone # on her cell phone. C-2 had also done work for our tax man who is also a member of our church and who, along with his wife, hosted the bible study Marty and I use to attend long before we even had an interest in each other. So from their home, I was familiar with the quality of work that had been done. C-2 was here less than 30 minutes. Unlike C-1, he didn't bother with measurements. Our appointment was for 5:30 and he called around 4:45 to let us know he would be late as he was coming from an area a distance away and was caught up in heavy traffic. He arrived, shook our hands, but didn't seem overly friendly nor enthusiastic, very cut and dry. I excused it because I know when Marty contends with traffic it can set one askew. So we rushed through what our thoughts were, yada yada, and he said he needed to be off as he still needed to get home and showered and back to the church for the Shepherd's Conference. He actually lives within about a mile or so from us. That was last Wednesday night. We have yet to hear from him. That's 8 days...no word...no proposal. And before you ask, yes, we have tried to call him, several times, both from Marty's work cell phone, and from our land line. The phone just rings and never gets answered, nor does it go to voice mail. The last call, earlier today, was finally met with a recording to enter our pass code or something like that. Huh?

We were told C-2 was a perfectionist, well, I'm not seeing much perfection. I'll try not to make a judgement, maybe something critical has happened in his life. And I know I'm not a patient person. But between C-1 and C-2, C-1 is shining brightly, so we made the call today. He'll be meeting with us tomorrow to sign the contract! Yay!!!!! I think, I hope, I pray. But I'm NOT looking forward to 3 people using 1 bathroom for a minimum of 5 weeks while the other two are under construction. We're so spoiled. Growing up, we only had 1 bathroom for 7 people! But then, we only took a weekly bath with quickie sponge baths/hair washes in between. And if the bathroom was occupied, well 4 of those 7 were male, and well, you know how easy the guys have it...and we lived out in the country without visible neighbors (ah, those were the days) ;)

Sometimes, I have to wonder when one thing just doesn't move along as it should, if that isn't God saying "No" while saying "Yes" to the other. C-1 seemed to be a bit of a perfectionist too, maybe a little 'higher end' than we planned, but I think it'll be ok. We won't be going into debt, and that's an added blessing, we just may not have as much for retirement, but then, it'll be invested in a nice home which, hopefully, will at some point gain even more equity over time.