My night went as usual, but I woke up this morning to no water throughout the house! It was very disconcerting and, once again, made me realize how much we take for granted, day to day! I will say that I prefer being without water (for now!) to being without electricity! We do have our hurricane supply of bottled water so it's not a big emergency.
But since we "let it mellow" at night, I have no idea of when we lost water and was worried that it was a problem with our line. I texted our neighbor Jeff to ask if they had any water, as I know he's an early riser, and he said the whole city was out but that crews should have it fixed by 8. I woke Greg up to let him know not to jump in the shower, told Youngest Son, and got online to see if I could find confirmation of what Jeff had texted. Nothing, anywhere. Not on the city's website or Facebook page, and no message on our main line. I found a phone number for after-hour city or sewer emergencies and called it. It rang at the police station that just answered by saying "Is this about your water?" and when I said "yes", they connected me to a recording that just said "the water is out throughout the city and we don't know when it'll be back" and the hung up on me. Hmm, OK!
So I texted Jeff to let him know (he's at work) and reminded him to get bottled water if he didn't already have it because, IMO, we'd be under boil water alert when it came back.
After about 15 minutes, the City's website suddenly had a Citizen Alert on it, saying exactly what I had just told Jeff! By 8 a.m. the water was back but a very dark orange until it cleared the line. I left a note for Youngest Son to tell him NOT to drink the water or cook with it since I'm going to meet with a friend mid-morning and I'll be gone when he comes back from his class.
So, so much for my going back to sleep after I cooked Greg's breakfast and packed his lunch, as I had planned! I got dressed and reheated the decaff left over from last night.
After a while I got hungry so I had a pain au chocolat. That made me even hungrier so I had an English muffin with raspberry jam! Hopefully this will lead me to save money at the diner where I'm meeting my friend Juliet in about 30 minutes!
I caught up on the news and blogs and earned the Daily Rewards.
I guess the cats are trying to tell us that they want more MEAT!
I wanted more coffee so I brewed a pot with bottled water. Then I collected the trash and recycling through the house, cleaned the downstairs bathroom mirror with homemade window cleaner and a microcloth, took the trash bin down to the curb for collection, chatted with Jeff about the water situation for a short while, as he'd come back from work, and refilled the hummingbird feeders with homemade nectar.
I also set out three large pork chops to defrost, along with a bag of caramelized onions, and 2 more pitas. I thought I was done with those but I guess not! I have another 3 or 4 in the freezer too!
I'm going to run some errands today as I'm driving into Clermont, but I don't think I'll do the big grocery shop today. Not that I need much since we ate out A LOT this past week! I'm going to go to CVS to get milk, eggs and cereal for free with one of my gift cards, and then to the library to drop off 2 books that are due today. Not too taxing!
9:40 a.m. Well, I might need to go to Aldi to get more gallons of water after all as our boil water order is going to be for 2 to 3 DAYS! Arrgh.
I was halfway down the driveway when I noticed that Jeff was running after my SUV so I stopped to see what he needed. He wanted to know if he could take a shower because he works outdoors and was all dirty and sweaty. I told him I wasn't sure what the rules were for when you're under a boil water order so I did a quick Google Search on my phone and it seemed that showering was OK but since he'd just had surgery and was still healing, I advised him to call his doctor's office and ask for their advice. Then Youngest Son pulled into the driveway so I updated him about the water situation.
I went to meet my friend Juliet at an old but new-to-me diner in Clermont. They serve breakfast every day until 2 p.m. and it was good and not too expensive so I took a picture of their breakfast menu to show Greg. My friend and I chatted for a couple of hours and had a good time. One of her daughters (she has 3 daughters) is expecting her first baby so my friend's first grandchild and she's very excited :) I bought her breakfast to celebrate and charged it to Discover for 5% back in Bonus Rewards.
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| I had a breakfast bowl that had homefries, eggs, bacon and gravy on top, with an English muffin on the side. Yep, quite heavy, especially since I'd already eaten... twice! |
Last week they had bacon jerky that Greg had really liked so I was going to get him more of that, but this week they had none :( He'll be disappointed.
I went ahead and bought him a slim water container to put in the fridge. Once we get our good city water back, I'll fill it up and leave it in the fridge so he can have as much cold water as he wants, lol. It was only $4.99.
As for me, I pulled the trigger on buying 2 dog cooling mats, as I had been joking about. I mean, at $9.99 each, I figured I had nothing to lose and if they didn't work, I could use them for the cats if we lose power again after a hurricane or storm.
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| They're filled with some kind of gel so they're pretty heavy! |
So I spent $101.25 at Aldi altogether. $48.70 was for groceries, including all the bottled water. I paid with Amex for 3% back in Rewards.
From there I drove to CVS. I found a Coke bottle cap right in front of the door!
My favorite cashier exclaimed "I was just thinking about you this morning and how I haven't seen you all summer!" so I replied "Well, you would have if you'd had better deals!", LOL. I purchased a gallon of milk, which was on sale at $2.79 even though it wasn't in the weekly ad so yay, 2 dozens of eggs on sale at $1.69 each, and 4 boxes of cereal on sale at $1.99 each. I redeemed 2 $0.50/1 coupons for those and a $2 ECB so my total was $11.13 but I paid with a CVS gift card earned via American Express Rewards, so it was all free to me, woohoo!
My next stop was ABC Liquor because I needed to restock on whiskey. It wasn't on sale this week, poop. I think that, moving forward, I'll need to buy enough for a couple of months when I see it on sale! I bought 4 bottles and charged them to Amex for 1% back in Rewards. I also earned some ABC reward points.
Lastly, I drove to the library to turn in the 2 books that were due today and they told me I had a book waiting for me too! It was the book on treating Hashimoto's. My dad has it, so I suspect I might as well read the book and educate myself.
I was trying to beat the storm that had just come into town but didn't make it and it was pouring by the time I got home. Thankfully we have a large tree over our driveway and then I can back up almost to the front door! I unloaded the SUV into the entryway and Youngest Son helped me by carrying everything into the kitchen for me.
He had to drive to the high school to see the Guidance Counselor because somehow his Fall classes were never approved correctly in the system and the Dual Enrollment Advisor told him he'd missed a step (?!) but he only found out because he emailed her to find out why his classes didn't seem approved in their system yet so it's a good thing that I had reminded him to do this last week.
He came back shortly after, frustrated because the Guidance Counselor had emailed him to come by today or tomorrow, but when he got there, he found out she was in a meeting and would be unavailable the rest of the day. Seriously? How annoying! Thankfully he thought to make an appointment for tomorrow afternoon. The bureaucracy is unbelievable. What a waste of time for everyone!
But he did bring back the trash bin from the bottom of the driveway so there is that :)
In the meantime, we were back to having no water! My Daughter had texted me while I was at Aldi to ask if we had water because her BFF, who lives a couple of blocks away from my house, had asked her to ask me since she didn't have any and hadn't heard about the city-wide outage. So I wasn't surprised to see that it was not working once again.
So I instituted the following plan:
- Put notes in the kitchen and bathrooms and on the Brita pitcher reminding everyone to use BOTTLED water.
- Brought in 2 jugs of rainwater for each bathrooms so we could flush the toilets but also put notes reminding people to "let it mellow".
- Put hand sanitizer on the sinks in kitchen and bathrooms to wash our hands
- Instructed Greg (via text) and YS to take Navy showers with bottled water if we had no water, and to make sure not to let water come in to their eyes/nose/mouths or ears if we did have water but were still under boil order.
I had to drive to Family Dollar to pick up bottles of hand sanitizer and I also got the band-aids that I needed for our first aid kit since they were only $1. Saves me a trip to the Dollar Store since Family Dollar is about 0.5 mile away from my house. I drove the Focus there so it was more economical.
When I got back, Greg was asking me about the water situation. I checked the city's website and they had just posted that the water had been restored but we were under boil order for at least 48 hours and until further notice. But at least now we can shower and flush!
I will not do the dishes until the boil order is rescinded. So what else is new? LOL. I'm a pro at this! I was training for this eventuality this whole time!
I set up the cooling pads on my mattress and laid down on them while still in my clothes and they work FABULOUSLY! I might even get too cold, lol! I put them under the fitted sheet and can't wait to go to bed tonight to see how they work out for me. If they do, I might be able to keep my bed and mattress!
It's now 4 p.m. and I really haven't done much at all today, have I?! But at least I won't need to go grocery shopping tomorrow.
I spent quite a while trying to claim a $5 Amazon gift card on the AARP Daily Deals site at 3 p.m. I was quick enough to put it in my cart, but their freaking website wasn't working properly and at first it looked like it wasn't in my cart, and then it was but I couldn't verify the order as none of the buttons to do that worked. Arrrgh! After 20 minutes I gave up since we only had 20 minutes to confirm the order anyway. I sent them an email (well, to the company that administers that site because they're contracted by AARP, it looks like) but I don't expect an answer in my favor :(
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| I'll have one under my back and one under my butt. I hope it helps! If I get too cold, I can always put a blanket on top. |
I spent quite a while trying to claim a $5 Amazon gift card on the AARP Daily Deals site at 3 p.m. I was quick enough to put it in my cart, but their freaking website wasn't working properly and at first it looked like it wasn't in my cart, and then it was but I couldn't verify the order as none of the buttons to do that worked. Arrrgh! After 20 minutes I gave up since we only had 20 minutes to confirm the order anyway. I sent them an email (well, to the company that administers that site because they're contracted by AARP, it looks like) but I don't expect an answer in my favor :(
I submitted my CVS receipt to Ibotta and received $0.25 back for "any item" so that was a money maker for me.
Amazon confirmed that I received $2 in digital credits for 2 of my Prime Day orders from yesterday. Late last night, I also ordered a $25 Amazon gift card, which gave me a credit of $5 in my account, woohoo :)
I got on the bike at 5 p.m. and biked for 38 minutes or a little past 6.5 miles. I probably should have pushed myself to bike 45 minutes at least because I've been snacking on trail mix all afternoon, but I'd had enough.
I've been very soft on myself for several weeks now. I think I've been thinking, unconsciously, that I'd get back on all my good routine "once school starts again", only YS is already in school and won't have a break at all between summer classes and fall classes, so... I'm only kidding myself. Ugh. So, to get started again, I'm promising myself that I'm not having decaf today. I finished drinking my coffee before I biked (later than usual because I was gone all morning but since I drank coffee at the restaurant too, I've had lots of caffeine today (well, about 3.5 to 4 cups) so I'm now switching to... water! Well yeah, if I carried 18 gallons of water into my cart and then out of my cart and then into my house... then I'm going to drink some!
Today marked almost 2 weeks since the potato plant died so I ventured into the garden to see about harvesting some potatoes... I put on gloves, got my digging tools, removed the tower quite easily from the bin... and started looking for potatoes through the dirt. Nothing! What?! So I went to get the wheelbarrow and the shovel, and transferred about half of the bin's dirt into the wheelbarrow so I could dig deeper. Nothing! Whaaaaat?! I know it was from a regular store-bought potato, but how could the plant have grown without making roots? I mean there was nothing in the bin at all, not even the remnants of the stem, any roots, nothing. I didn't dream, a potato plant grew! I'm even sure it was a potato plant because it looked just like the last potato plant that I grew from a store-bought potatoes that had indeed given me little potatoes to harvest! So I'm dumbfounded.
But at least the experiment didn't cost me a dime since I had everything on hand. I didn't even need potatoes as I usually have to make sure the ones I buy don't go bad, lol. But it would have been a thrill to have grown something for free. Well, poop.
In other gardening news, now it the time for Florida gardeners to start tomato seeds for our winter growing season, which is actually our main season. I might look into buying another small greenhouse since mine no longer has its plastic cover, because any seedlings that I start indoors will be ruined by those meddling cats. But if I start them outdoors, I need to protect them from the rain and the sun. I need a potting shed!
I got on the bike at 5 p.m. and biked for 38 minutes or a little past 6.5 miles. I probably should have pushed myself to bike 45 minutes at least because I've been snacking on trail mix all afternoon, but I'd had enough.
I've been very soft on myself for several weeks now. I think I've been thinking, unconsciously, that I'd get back on all my good routine "once school starts again", only YS is already in school and won't have a break at all between summer classes and fall classes, so... I'm only kidding myself. Ugh. So, to get started again, I'm promising myself that I'm not having decaf today. I finished drinking my coffee before I biked (later than usual because I was gone all morning but since I drank coffee at the restaurant too, I've had lots of caffeine today (well, about 3.5 to 4 cups) so I'm now switching to... water! Well yeah, if I carried 18 gallons of water into my cart and then out of my cart and then into my house... then I'm going to drink some!
Today marked almost 2 weeks since the potato plant died so I ventured into the garden to see about harvesting some potatoes... I put on gloves, got my digging tools, removed the tower quite easily from the bin... and started looking for potatoes through the dirt. Nothing! What?! So I went to get the wheelbarrow and the shovel, and transferred about half of the bin's dirt into the wheelbarrow so I could dig deeper. Nothing! Whaaaaat?! I know it was from a regular store-bought potato, but how could the plant have grown without making roots? I mean there was nothing in the bin at all, not even the remnants of the stem, any roots, nothing. I didn't dream, a potato plant grew! I'm even sure it was a potato plant because it looked just like the last potato plant that I grew from a store-bought potatoes that had indeed given me little potatoes to harvest! So I'm dumbfounded.
But at least the experiment didn't cost me a dime since I had everything on hand. I didn't even need potatoes as I usually have to make sure the ones I buy don't go bad, lol. But it would have been a thrill to have grown something for free. Well, poop.
In other gardening news, now it the time for Florida gardeners to start tomato seeds for our winter growing season, which is actually our main season. I might look into buying another small greenhouse since mine no longer has its plastic cover, because any seedlings that I start indoors will be ruined by those meddling cats. But if I start them outdoors, I need to protect them from the rain and the sun. I need a potting shed!
I'd forgotten that I had left my main skillet to soak overnight, arrgh. Thankfully I have a couple of more to carry us through Thursday :) I'd thought about grilling the pork chops outside instead of pan frying them, but it's darn hot and humid out, so I chose the path of least resistance and pan fried them in some butter, with some cajun seasoning. I cooked double the amount of white rice we need so we'll have leftovers for tomorrow and I won't have to dirty another dish, and I steamed a head of broccoli in the microwave.
This time, I froze the stems. I'm going to try to turn them into broccoli soup once I have enough. I don't care for broccoli slaw.
And I decided that we'll eat on paper plates. Since I'm not the main reason the dishes won't get done for a couple of days, I've decided to save myself some work on the back end, lol. We're also reusing our cups from last night's dinner, since all we drank was water.
I feel very tired. It must be all the food (carbs!) that I ate today because I really didn't do much at all, save wag my tongue and type, lol.
After dinner Greg did some reading and I went to check the mail because he was waiting for a new video game from his Gamefly membership. Then I got lost in some blogs, while we listened to classical music.
This time, I froze the stems. I'm going to try to turn them into broccoli soup once I have enough. I don't care for broccoli slaw.
And I decided that we'll eat on paper plates. Since I'm not the main reason the dishes won't get done for a couple of days, I've decided to save myself some work on the back end, lol. We're also reusing our cups from last night's dinner, since all we drank was water.
I feel very tired. It must be all the food (carbs!) that I ate today because I really didn't do much at all, save wag my tongue and type, lol.
After dinner Greg did some reading and I went to check the mail because he was waiting for a new video game from his Gamefly membership. Then I got lost in some blogs, while we listened to classical music.
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