Confessions of a Grandma

Today's post was inspired by GigiHawaii . I would love to take up painting--especially watercolors.  It is not that I don't have enough to do with my time, but I admire those who can draw and paint.   Plus, I like to have art to hang on the walls. When I retired, my special education colleagues presented me with a quilt to which everyone had contributed a special square and this painting: Sorry about the glare! It is a scene of Mt. Mansfield, not unlike the scene less than a quarter mile up the road from me.  It was painted by Marianne Nealy, one of my former colleagues. I have had this original print for a long time.  I bought it at a church sale.  It was donated by the woman who did it, a member of the church and an art teacher. These little guys--sanderlings--hang in the bathroom.  I bought the prints at an art fair in Florida and framed them myself. I found one of these silhouettes at a flea market.   The la...

Vermont summer has not been here all that long, but I do not think this particular one is going down on anyone's list of all time favorites.  It has been a marathon of storms and heavy rains.  We live near the town garage, so I can tell you that the road crew has been flat out busy dealing with road wash outs. I also noticed that our chimney is leaking.  There is always something that needs tending to in a house.  I wish I could do some things to update though, rather than always having something pressing has to get done right away.  Last month it was the propane tank for our gas stove in need of replacement, now the chimney.  It is really not a good idea to neglect things like leaky propane tanks so I guess I can put off a new kitchen window for a while. There was a break in the rain yesterday morning so we got out to mow the lawn (Mike) and weed the gardens (me).  There was not a break in the humidity and resulting high heat index.  It was u...

It's nice to own rather than rent until something doesn't work and there's no property manager to call. I tried the dishwasher for the first time and...nothing.  Water filled the bottom and then didn't drain.  The motor whirred and whined and got smokin' hot.  The dishes remained dry and dirty. Fortunately, Mike will always try to fix things himself if involves plumbing, mechanical or electrical tinkering.  More importantly, he's good at it.  He has the ability to look at these things and figure out how they should work, then problem solve what's not working and how to get it to do what some design engineer intended.   He did some research on line, never having fixed a dishwasher before, then took off the foot plate and reached underneath.  It took him a few trips back and forth to the computer, but he got it running like new.  Voila!  We have a working dishwasher. Mike is not so confident with projects involving wood, but I really wa...

Today I was the Grilled Grandma on the blog, Grandma's Briefs .  You can check out my adorable grand children there, and you can check out Lisa's blog. My brother has been here for the past three days and has put in two new windows on the north facing wall of the house and has replaced the back door frame and rehung the old door.  Nice to have that talent available in the family.  Now I will have to do a spot of painting and I sincerely hope that will be it for home repairs this season.  That's what the budget says, anyway. Tomorrow is my brother's birthday and my sister, other brother, and our spouses are taking him out for lunch.  He'd rather go golfing, but the links are way too wet.  It's a big O birthday so that deserves a bit of extra attention.  Of course my sister, being the baby of the family, can get away with making jokes about old age, but, since I am the oldest,  I am pretty much required to be nice about it.