Friday, February 26, 2010

Bad neighbors..

Anybody got 80' of solid fencing laying around? I have a wicked Witch living next door with two darling children, who love to tease my Cocker Spaniel, My SMALL Cocker Spaniel. Sadie also likes to bark at them when they are teasing her. She also likes to bark at strange people walking on the other side of the chain link fence.

Wicked Witch moved in about 6 months ago, and proceeded to tell me that she works from home, and she is not supposed to. And if they find out she is working from home she will lose her job. She told me she works for a credit card company. She told my other neighbor she sells travel insurance to time-shares. If she hears her kids playing outside she screams at them to be quiet or she will lose her job, then they will lose the house. THe kids stay outside from the time they come home until dark. RAIN OR SHINE! COLD OR WARM! so SAD!

Sadie is used to being out side during the day, but wicked witch called the animal control officer on her. Said officer came to the house, with a citation. I met her on the porch, and asked her if she heard anything, she said NOOOOOOOOO. and rolled her eyes. I said Sadie only barks at strangers, said officer said "that is her JOB!" I said that I am trying to keep Sadie in when the kids are out so she wont bark at them, but it is really hard. She agreed and said just make sure you comply with the noise regs. Which state, "continuous, repetitive, barking..."

I put Sadie out, and when I hear her bark, I bring her In. 7 barks max. It takes me that long to get up and let her in. I have even gone so far as to sit out there and watch her while she is out. Now I am being accused of SPYING on her!

Dear Lord! Will you PLEASE give her laryngitis so she will MOVE! (cant talk, cant work, have to move!) I wonder just what she REALLY does that she has to have complete silence? Wonder how she explains the jets flying over? I wonder what she would do if I sat in the backyard and sang....

I HATE being held hostage by an evil minded Witch who does not even OWN the house! I was here first! GRRRRRRR

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Just a simple old woman with no brain...

I bought a new dryer a few weeks ago, and it came in on Wednesday. I mentioned to Bob that I would like to pick it up on Thursday. (I have to plug into his schedule!) I waited and waited and finally about 230 he shows up. We went in to the Base to load up the dryer, and bring it home. We pulled into the driveway and he said he would off load it into the garage and be back sometime later to hook it up.

NAH NAH says I. Please just set it in the Living room, and I will get the pigtail hooked up. So he brought it in, plopped it right in front of the couch and left for his 5:00 appointment with a beer at the Local Watering hole. He will be 70 next week, and NOTHING stands in the way of his routine.)

I looked at it, and looked at the laundry room (really a wide hall between the living room and the back yard.) and thought....HMMMMMM I can do this. I pulled out the out dryer, unhooked the wiring, and then tried to get it out the back door onto the deck.

It was like a chinese puzzle! this has to move here in order for me to go there, in order to get this over there! Like I said WIDE HALL. just wide enough for for the door and the appliances. Nothing else. and If you dont have it set just right, the door wont close.

After realizing that the dryer would not go through the door unless I took the door knob off, I had to move everything back to square one, to go get the screw gun and bits. Got the door knob off, got the dryer to the deck and then put the knob back on.

Step one done! Now I opened the cardboard box that the dryer was in, got the dryer turned around and went to open the flange that covered the wiring screws. OOPS, the one socket that fits that particular screw, was missing. Off I went to hunt down a pair of pliers. Found one but it was rusted shut. So off I go again looking for the WD-40. Finally got the pliers working and the screw off, got the flange off and hooked up the pigtail from the old dryer unto the new dryer. (Now WHY don't the manufacturers put real plugs on their merchandise?) Then I sat and rested, because my back was starting to spasm. I sat there and looked at it sitting there in my living room and thought, I can do this. So I tried to push the new dryer over the carpet...Nope! So I moved the couch, pulled back the rug and then realized that the really heavy display case that I rescued from the demolition bin at a place I worked, needed to be moved, so that I could fit the dryer through the door into the utility room.

That damned near killed me! But I got that done. Then I pushed the dryer into place. OOPS....gotta put the vent ducting on and plug it in, SO back out it comes, and then I crawled behind it. ( no easy task with a bad back and a giant stomach!)
GOt it hooked up, sorta, and got out, and then pushed everything back into place and turned it on. VOILA!! Step two done

I went out back to see if airflow was coming through the vent to the outside, and it was not. I got a flash light and looked up in there to see it was jammed full of lint and fuzz and more than likely RATS!! I thought the sense was the better choice and left it for Bob. After all he can move a lot faster if there should be something alive in there.

The dryer does not have much clearance between the wall and the vent pipe, and If I did not get it set just right, either the vent would kink up and not blow outside, or I would not be able to get the door shut. I Waited for Bob.

Late yesterday he called and said I am planning on coming over to hook up your dryer does that work? I said it works fine. :) he came over and was shocked that I actually could do something. (after all I have been doing for myself all my life)
I handed him a long wire clothes hanger and took him outside and told him what was left to do. Nothing alive or dead for that matter was in there but it was 6 feet of solid lint and mud! No wonder the old dryer quit!

So to make sure that the vent worked right, he unhooked the dryer and crawled back ther to see how far up the duct the clog went. We got a big sack fuyll of junk out of ther and then said he had to go to ace hardware in oak harbor for some tape and some clamps. I KNEW if he left, it would not be hooked back up until later in the week, so I said WAIT!! and pulled out a package of clamps from the kitchen junk drawer. He gave me one of those looks...You ruined my plans...teehee. He got the dryer hooked Back up and pushed sort of in place and then said he would see me later.

Step three will be to get him to actualy wiggle the dryer back far enough to shut the door and be straight with the washer. That one make take a few years. I now have a dryer again, and the vent is cleaned out and all the clothes are dry and my house no longer looks like a chinese laundry!

Mission accomplished, and once again, I am a simple old woman with no brain. At least that is what he thinks!

Thursday, February 04, 2010

Opening Night Friday Feb 6, 2010




By LIZ BURLINGAME
Whidbey News Times Reporter
Feb 03 2010, 8:34 AM · UPDATED

A feel-good photo that graced the cover of Life magazine in the 1940s turns out to have a dark underside in “The Cover of Life” opening Friday, Feb. 5 at the Whidbey Playhouse.

Kate Miller (Cynthia Kleppang) is our narrator, a Lois Lane-type character and Life correspondent who is thrust into southern women territory.

She’s reporting a “woman’s piece” about three wives who have come to live with their mother-in-law, who goes by Aunt Ola, while the boys are at war.

Apart from a few squabbles, it’s a pretty civil household, until the second half. That’s when the wives’ happy facade breaks down, and bad news and wartime separation takes its toll on the women.

“The newlyweds don’t know what marriage is all about because their husbands quickly moved away,” said director Rusty Hendrix. “It’s a touching story.”

The play is set in a tiny, Louisiana town, and we see Aunt Ola’s early Americana-style home, porch and screen door. The sets were built by Bob Hendrix, Rusty’s husband.

After some insistence, Kate moves in with the wives. She meets the modern and racy Sybil (Amanda McCartney), who describes herself as “hot as a Saturday night and safe as Sunday morning.”

Weetsie (Michelle Hunter) maintains that she’s a plain, common housewife, while Tood (Lisa Datin) just wants to break free of the family and start a life elsewhere.

Mary K. Hallen is the homespun Aunt Ola who has a feisty sense of humor. When the newlyweds spar, Hallen nicely conveys strength as the family matriarch.

Although the script is considered a bit dark, Hendrix said her cast brought some playfulness to the characters.

“What they made is better,” she said.

Rounding out the cast are Judy Hendrix as Addie Mae, the gossipy local reporter who tipped off Life in the first place, and Fernando Duran, who plays Tood’s husband.

“The Cover of Life” is a show (like it’s punning title) that hints that life isn’t always what appears on the outside. It also briefly casts a light on a media that won’t let personal feelings ruin the story it wants.

Part social commentary, humor, drama and hope, it’s a surprising and deep story written by R.T. Robinson. Hendrix said it may touch on some feelings of Oak Harbor’s military families. She adds that a few of the play’s scenes are “too strong” at times, and it is not for children.