Long Memorial Day Weekend Review 2022

Saturday:  Walking the dog, dodging raindrops, and figuring out what to do today.  I will be listing items on eBay and it has been a while since I have felt like listing.  I like the ability to bring in a little side income with a few sales here and there.  The generator is online.  A loose connection was the issue.   Thank goodness that is resolved. 

The first half of this year I was NOT into eBay at all.  Listing and shipping seemed like pure drudgery. So I did the next easiest thing.  I would go into my live listings, END 20 listings a day, and then SELL SIMILAR of the same 20 listings.  This was my way of tricking the algorithm (if that is even possible) into thinking that I was adding NEW listings daily. 

It did work and I did generate sales.  Nothing spectacular, but enough to keep things going. Then I did not even do the minimum of ENDING listings and SELLING SIMILAR. I got lazy and there may have been an extended episode of depression. I did see my family doc and he did start me on a mild antidepressant.  I had a reaction, lips swelling, eyelids swelling.  This was remedied with Benedryl.  We tried a new antidepressant and that has been working out just fine. 

Sunday:  Church and then a quick trip to Lowe's to rescue some marked-down perennials.  I do love the mark-down rack at Lowes.  Then I headed over to Goodwill.  They had just opened and I was able to beat the crowds from late church.  I did get a few cute things to flip.  

Rack of mark-down plants.  There were 
five racks of plants to choose from. 

We were supposed to go to Leesburg and check out Rural King ( similar to a Tractor Supply) and bump around up there for a couple of hours.  No sooner than I finished lunch than my stomach kicked in with something that was not agreeable.  

I was in bed for a couple of hours with a heating pad.  Luckily it subsided and I could get up and function. I am rehydrating the rescue plants, mostly Lantana.  It can take the Florida heat and the small flowers will attract butterflies and bees. 

For better or worse, I saw on TikTok where a gardener would put an egg (in its shell) in the hole before adding the plant.  I thought, why not?  I will plant them tomorrow morning before the heat kicks in. 

Monday:  It was yard workday.  I mowed and hubs did the edging and blowing off the driveway. We had an early start to try to beat the heat.  It took us about 1 1/2 hrs to finish everything.  

Afterward, we had a bit of lunch and then jumped in the pool to cool off.  We spent about an hour in the water, it's still very cool, almost too cool to enjoy.   

Cricket got her weekly bath, and clothes were washed and dried.  They may get put up today, maybe. Dinner is canned salmon patties in the air fryer with brown rice and broccoli. 

Half of the plants did get planted, will try to get the rest in the ground tomorrow. I think I have enough plants for now and I probably don't need to go back to Lowes anymore.  

Hope your Memorial Day was relaxing and fun-filled. 

Whole House Generator Update

New Fridge 

The generator saga continues.  Yesterday, the fridge in the house AND the garage fridge are both toast. Done and done.  Luckily, our oldest son had a spare fridge and brought it over last night.  I shoved all I could from both fridges into that one.   It is so darn full lol. 

My husband and I both looked online last night for a new side-by-side fridge. We checked Lowes, Home Depot, and a local appliance retailer. They are expensive.  We want one with ice and water and that adds to the price. Our current one has ice and water and we are a bit spoiled with it. 

I decided to go to Home Depot this morning and see what was available on the floor.  Luckily, I found a discontinued floor model very similar to our current one on sale.  The original price was $1999.00 and it was marked down 50%.  I went ahead and bought a 5-year warranty as well.  This is not something I typically do but since it was a floor model I decided to go ahead and get the warranty. 

The warranty price is based on the purchase price of the item, so again we saved 50% on the warranty.  The salesman said if we do not use the warranty that in five years we can get 30% of the cost of the warranty back.  We do have to pick up the fridge, they do not deliver floor models. Which is fine. 

The new fridge is in place and most of the items that were in the borrowed fridge are not in my new fridge.  Last night, after switching the bad inside the fridge and bringing in the new fridge, the hubs was sure that the new one did not work.  It was not cooling. I think he was super frustrated with everything and had no patience with anything last night.  He wanted to return it.  I just kept quiet and decided to wait until this AM and see what was going on in the fridge.

We have thermometers in the fridge and I checked the temps this AM and made the executive decision to just go ahead and load in the new fridge. We have the warranty and we still have the spare fridge.  I am willing to chance it but I do not think it will tank. Fingers crossed. 

 Hoping today will bring a solution to the actual generator problem.  Meanwhile, I will carry on with daily chores, washing the floor and getting a load of clothes done. 

Have a great Friday!

Whole House Generator Start Up Fail

 We  purchased a whole house generator maybe two years ago, and quite possibly it could be three years
ago.   Anyway, yesterday, the gas company came out to make the final connections from the gas line to the generator. 

After he completed what he had to do, the hubs and my son ( an electrician) and via the phone my other son ( an electrician - he installed the generator to the house) did the actual start-up on the generator.  It did not go well. 

When the power was shut off in the house, the generator should recognize this and after a minute (to make sure it is not just a quick power flash) will kick in and run to power the whole house.  This is the perfect example of what should occur. 

What actually happened, is that after multiple attempts by the generator to kick on and sustain power to the house ( which it could not) is that half of the light bulbs in the house blew.  A power strip that was connected to the main TV, Internet, and Home security, started to smoke. Which means it did its job and protected the items plugged into it.  But, the smokey smell was definitely concerning. 

The electrician son that was here ran several scenarios in his brain as to what the frick was going on. The electrician son on the phone ( who installed it) was in a panic as to what was going wrong.  The rest of us were sitting in a hot house sweating ( 94 degrees yesterday) while they were trying all the tricks of the trade to get the generator online and functioning properly. 

After about an hour the generator was taken offline, the house was back on regular power and that is when we figured out the more light bulbs took the hit and died. We did get a new power strip for the main TV, Internet and Security system. 

Fast forward to this morning, I am getting bone broth out of our freezer side of the fridge in the kitchen and the floor is wet, and all the frozen stuff in the freezer is starting to defrost.  Luckily, we have another fridge in the garage.  I shoved all I could out of this freezer into that freezer and what did not fit, went over to my daughter's fridge/freezer.  

It could be worse, ALL the appliances could have been fried. What is going to happen is that the one son electrician who may or may not have crossed a couple of wires is sending out a generator expert to see what is actually going on with this generator. We should have answers and be back online Thursday.  Hopefully. 

How was your Tuesday?  Do you have any experience with a whole house generator?