A very busy and sometimes frustrating week………………………………………………

As always, first the chronology:

9/29/24 – Sunday – Up at 8AM. Kathy wasn’t feeling well so I got cleaned up and out to church. Had lunch at church. Home, checked on Kathy and down to do the blog. Out to Gary’s for the afternoon get together. Back to the house, picked up Kathy and over to Cattleman’s Steakhouse for dinner. Home and usual evening routine.

9/30/24 – Monday – Up at 8AM. Took Kathy’s car down to the shop to see how much they would charge to replace tire pressure sensor. Then over to Country Mart for some lunch meat. Home and did some calling. Then lunch. Up to Mike and Julie’s to retrieve the Vibe. Got home and changed clothes. Out to the shop and reset the error codes on the Vibe. Then got the lawn tractor out and started mowing. Did all the front. Got fed up and quit. Worked 4 to 5 hours. Grass was really long. Inside and dealt with shit in the house. Took a shower. Had dinner. Usual evening routine.

10/1/24 – Tuesday – Up at 8AM. Got dressed and took Kathy’s car to Tire Discounter’s to get the tire pressure sensors replaced. The appointment was for 11AM and I got there around 10:30. Shortly after 11 the service guy came out and told me their sensor had a dead battery and they couldn’t do the work. But he said he called the guy up on Shelbyville Road and they could take care of me. So, I drove up there and the guy concurred that I had a bad sensor. I told him to replace all 4 and he said he only had three. So that was the end of that. In the mean time, yesterday I had called Shelbyville hospital to get an appointment for a Cat Scan. They said they didn’t have the order. So today I called the doctor’s office and asked for Trish. I was questioned why I wanted to talk to her and I explained that I need to get the order from Dr. Combs put in the system so I could make an appointment at Shelbyville. She said this is Theresa and I take care of that. I said OK, then what’s the issue. She told me she hadn’t gotten it approved yet. I told her she didn’t need to get it approved just send it. She said she would. So then I get a call back from her with a song and dance but bottom line she had gotten the order over to Shelbyville hospital and had made an appointment for me Thursday at 3PM. I informed her I work from 7:30AM to 4PM on Thursday and would not be able to make that. So she said I could call and change it if I wanted and did I need the number. I really am surprised I kept my cool at this point. I told her that I had the number and thank you. Just unbelievable incompetence. Anyway, I came home, had lunch and went out to finish the yard work. Kathy had started mowing at 10:30. I think total we put in almost 7 hours this week on the yard. It was really thick and wet. And I called the hospital and got my appointment changed to next Monday at 10AM. Otherwise, take out Chinese for dinner and usual evening routine.

10/2/24 – Wednesday – Up at 8AM. Kathy was out to do some shopping at Kroger. I worked on her computer and finally got Thunderbird up and running and all her stuff ported over. She came home around lunch time. I helped unload and put some things away. Then lunch. Then out on the motorcycle for awhile. Stopped at the SO while I was out and picked up a couple long sleeved shirts they got for me. Then continued across into Bullit County and Jefferson County and home. Mail came while I was out so I had my new LCR meter. Went to the shack and downloaded the manual for it. Got the tax bills so sent one of them off to the escrow people. I’ll pay the other next week. Had dinner then usual evening routine.

10/3/24 – Thursday – Up at 6AM and off to work. Covered the front door from 7:30AM to 4PM with an hour break for lunch. Went to Subway and ran into all the fire department egomaniacs. My cousin Lee and his wife Judy (Kathy’s sister) arrived at the house sometime between 10AM and 11AM. So, we had a good time talking with them. Had a great ham dinner. Managed to stay awake till after 9PM then crashed.

10/4/24 – Friday – Up at 6AM again and off to work. Had Circuit court this morning. A very bizarre morning. Got home as they were eating lunch a little after noon. Spent the rest of the day showing them around the property and fixing some things. Julie, Mike and the grand kids came over for dinner to spend time with Lee and Judy. Had Ziti for dinner. Again, I managed to stay up till 9PM.

10/5/24 – Saturdays – Up at 8AM and cleaned up. Out for breakfast. Socialized and got ready to go up to Loveland, OH to surprise my brother-in-law Terry on his 80th birthday. It’s a little over 2 hour drive. We had to make a stop on the way to pick up a cake at Costco. Got up there around 3PM and I believe he was very surprised. The rest of his family showed up and we all had a good time socializing and catching up on the news. Left there around 7:30PM and drove back to the house. Got home around 10PM. Let the truck outside at the house, unloaded things and went to bed.

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Now the specifics:

Kathy was not feeling well last Sunday. She had a belly ache and didn’t go to church. But she was feeling much better by the time we were ready to go out for dinner. Ended up at Cattleman’s Steaks House.

Monday went over to retrieve the Vibe at Mike and Julie’s house. I replaced the gas cap several months ago in an attempt to fix the emission codes that are bring on the check engine light. I finally got the Vibe back and used the BlueDriver OBD scanner to read out the codes and reset the computer. It’s now almost a week later and the check engine light along with other lights has not come on. Hopefully that was the issue. If not, I will keep at that. Now the question comes up, since I should probably put new tires on it, should I get the tire pressure sensors replaced so that light goes out as well?

Took Kathy’s car down to where we usually get our service done and asked what it would cost to replace the tire pressure sensor. He quoted me around $150 per tire to do that. Since one has gone bad it’s likely the others will follow soon. So, that is $600 to do them all. So I called around. Found out that I can get it done for about $80 per tire at Tire Discounters. So I made an appointment to get them done tomorrow (Tuesday).

Kathy was out and about running errands so I started the yard work. The grass was extremely deep and it took me between 4 and 5 hours just to do the mowing with the lawn tractor out front. At that point I really didn’t give a rats ass what the place looked like and I quit.

In the mean time, Kathy advised me of a new problem with her computer. It seems that Microsoft will no longer allow Office 2006 to run on her computer. Specifically Outlook. Now over a year ago I anticipated this happening so I loaded Thunderbird on her laptop so she could play with it before I migrated things over. Well, guess what, that never happened. She didn’t even remember what Thunderbird was. But now that she was backed into a corner, she decided Thunderbird would be OK since she didn’t have to pay for it. But, guess what, the new version of Thunderbird (version 112+) has a broken link that was suppose to import Outlook emails and address books. So, I worked on it and tried several different approaches and finally got it working Wednesday by loading an old version of Thunderbird (version 84.1) and the Outlook import tool worked OK.

Tuesday morning I got up, got cleaned up and out to Tire Discounters to get the tire pressure sensors changed in Kathy’s car. Actually got to the shop around 10:30 and they started on it a little before 11AM. Then the guy came out to announce that the battery died in his programming tool and they couldn’t do the work today. But he called the guy at their shop in Middletown and he had the tool and it worked. So, I headed up to Middletown. Got up there a little before noon and the guy checked the sensors. He confirmed that the left rear tire pressure sensor was dead but the onboard system on the car said the left front tire sensor was bad. So this leads to a whole different issue about the guy I’ve trusted for 10 years not doing a complete job and relearning the system when he rotates the tires. But back to the situation at hand. So, I told the guy to go ahead and replace them all. Good chance if one goes bad they will keep failing. Well, surprise, he can’t do it because he only has 3 sensors. So, at that point I give up and head for home.

OK, different subject. Went to the doctor’s last week for a routine check and after a discussion we came to an agreement on thyroid dosage. I mentioned that I’ve had this hacky cough for several weeks and he listened to my lungs and looked in my throat. Concluded that it was probably post nasal drip but ordered a chest X-ray to be sure. Well, the X-ray came back with some crap on it they thought might be COPD along with some fluid. That’s not very definitive so he wanted me to have a Cat Scan. Good idea. So I talked to his office on Monday late and they were going to put the order in. Well, during my travels with Tire Discounters, I called Shelbyville hospital to schedule an appointment. They didn’t have the order. So I called my PCP’s office back and the girl that answered the phone said that was her job. She said she hadn’t have a chance to check with the insurance company yet so she hadn’t sent it. I told her she didn’t have to check with my insurance company and just send the order over to the hospital. She agreed and we hung up. I decided not to continue with that cluster fuck as I was dealing with Tire Discounters. On my way home I got a phone call from this bimbo informing me she had to fax the order over as they couldn’t see it in their computer system and she made an appointment for me on Thursday at 2PM. Great, I work from 7:30AM to 4PM on Thursday. She said I could call and reschedule it if I wanted and did I need the phone number. Well, since I had called to begin with to find out the hospital didn’t have the order, I think I know the fucking phone number. Just unbelievable how one individual can be such a fuck up and destroy the reputation of the entire medical profession. I did call later and the Cat Scan is now scheduled for Monday next week.

After all that and I was still smiling, I went home and helped Kathy finish the yard work.

Wednesday morning Kathy was out and about so I had quiet in the house. That was when I finished up the work on the Thunderbird switch over. Then out on the motorcycle for a great 50 mile ride. Really felt good.

Thursday while I was at work my cousin and his wife (Kathy’s sister) arrived at the house. So, I spent every available waking minute with Lee listening to his stories. It was a good time really. Then Saturday we drove up to Loveland, OH with them following and surprised my other brother-in-law on his 80th birthday. Had a great time up there visiting with his family and having dinner. Got home around 10PM, had a snack and to bed.

Well that’s my week. Interesting. As always, hope this finds everyone safe and healthy. Stay that way and I’ll blog at you again next week.