Hooray, it's December!

I am writing this with frozen fingers ....because our furnace is not working.  It stopped sometime in the wee hours between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning.  Ya, five days with no heat.  The problem is our home warranty - with which I have a love/hate relationship.  I love that it will cover things that break.  I hate that it takes SO long to get those broken things fixed.  I called first thing Wednesday morning to report and create a claim.  We heard nothing all day.  Thursday morning, I opened my email and there was a message that we had been assigned a repair person and they would be at our house between 3 and 6 that afternoon.  I immediately called the repair person to confirm and he said yes he would be there.  But, when he hadn't come by 5:00, I called to get an update and he said "there was a misunderstanding and his company would NOT be doing the repairs!".  So, I called the home warranty right away and, after being on hold for quite some time, was told that another company, Appliance Repair Clinic, was going to do the repairs but with it being so late in the day, we couldn't hope to see them until Friday. This new company just so happened to be the same company our home warranty assigned to fix our leaking downstairs shower.  So, I will side-track a bit to explain why I was not willing to have them do THAT repair.  First, the name of the company:  a shower is NOT an appliance and we were told that the shower needed to be completely replaced meaning plumbing and dry wall and that kind of thing.  So, the name did not instill much confidence in the skills needed to fix a shower.  But, I called anyway and the first time I did, the man answering the phone just said  "hello".  Not "Appliance Repair Clinic, how may I help you".  So, I asked if he was with the company, and he replied "who needs to know?"  Would that kind of response instill confidence in you???  I don't think so.  Nevertheless, I set up a time for him to come look at the shower two days from then and hung up and immediately reached out to our handyman, Neal, to ask if he was at all interested in doing the shower.  Happily, he said yes so I cancelled our Appliance Repair Clinic appointment - but I had to do it via text, email, and voicemail because he (his name is Marcello) never would answer the phone after that first time. So, imagine my dismay when the home warranty representative informed me Thursday evening that Appliance Repair Clinic had been assigned to fix our heater.  As I said, they are practically impossible to get a hold of.  Ever since that first phone call, I have never been able to reach Marcello by phone...only by text or email.  He emailed Friday morning to say he was coming that day - didn't specify a time - but then I heard nothing until the afternoon when I was in the middle of grandkid piano lessons when he texted me to say he was on his way.  I texted him back with Steve's phone number and to tell him to work through Steve.  So, he texted Steve to ask what brand of heater it was.  There are no labels of that kind on the furnace (it looks really old).  Steve informed him of this and by then, it was closing time on Friday and here we sit, in the weekend, with no heat.  I took photos of what signeage there was on the furnace and emailed them to Marcello yesterday and, not surprisingly, I have received no response.  So, I sincerely HOPE we see Marcello from Appliance Repair Clinic tomorrow and that he is able (competent enough) to fix our heater!!!!  In the meantime, we bundle up throughout the day, we bake in our oven as often as reasonable, we burrow down in a pile of blankets at night, and we wait.  We finally remembered TODAY of a little emergency propane heater that we bought 13 years ago for just such an emergency and it is now up and running.  YAY!  But it is small and it won't heat the whole house, obviously.  At least the kitchen/dining room is getting warmer.  

Okay, on to more positive things.  Like Neal, our handyman.  He is awesome!  He has been to the house twice this past week to do some small repairs and to begin some larger ones.  He hung a little wall shelf above our dining room table.  He put up a flag holder in the brick outside our front door.  He installed a ceiling hook in the library to hang Steve's model B17 airplane and he is working on installing closet doors to the cedar lined closets in the basement, two heat vents for the basement, and a new exterior light just outside our side door.  AND, he is going to fix our shower.....

We bought a Christmas tree on Monday and now the house is all decorated for the holidays.  We chose a smaller tree for our reduced living room space but we also bought an cheep artificial tree for the basement guest area and, between the two trees, managed to find places for all our ornaments.  Eventually, I want to get a tall skinny artificial tree for the TV room for my musical and lamb themed ornaments.  Larkin helped us decorate the basement tree (all unbreakable ornaments) for part of preschool and she was thrilled.  Even though we purged our Christmas decorations before moving, we were still worried there would be places for everything.  Happily, we found spots to put up everything, for the most part.... 

here is the living room

You already saw the wall shelf. Here is the bakers rack.  Notice my beautiful blooming Christmas cactus!

We fit all our Charlie Brown Christmas decor in our bedroom

Here is the basement tree and other decor in the guest area

Medical update:  I had an MRI of my hip Tuesday morning and saw an orthopedic doctor specializing in hips on Thursday.  And, it is not my hip!!!  Even though the pain I feel is in my right side, it is actually the lumbar region of my back that is the problem.  X-rays of my hip were done first thing at the doctor's office on Thursday and, when the doctor came in, he showed me that my hips are actually doing quite well.  He ordered X-rays on my back and showed me those pictures and, yep, you can see why I am in pain.  He referred me to a spine doctor and I was able to get in to see him the very next morning - Friday.  This doctor changed my pain med to a high powered naproxin (Aleve), told me to stop the muscle relaxers, and ordered six sessions of physical therapy over the next three weeks.  And, I am to see him in six weeks.  I have to say, I am impressed that he didn't immediately recommend surgery.  And, I am also impressed that the super-naproxin works better than the other pain med I was on.  In fact, I felt so good that on Saturday afternoon, I was able to get out in the yard and finish pulling up the grass/weeds in the flower bed behind the garage.  

Beckie stopped by Saturday morning to use our glue gun on one of her Christmas ornaments.  I was at the Southerlands on Friday afternoon giving piano and violin and cello lessons.  My Columbia cello student came into town for a lesson on Saturday.  I am still teaching my cello student in Phoenix every week.  Aside from being chilly, it has been a good week.

We have enjoyed our traditional Christmas movie watching - this week was Polar Express, Elf, and Charlie Brown Christmas and It's Christmas Time Again, Charlie Brown (we watched the last two with Larkin during preschool).  We also watched Christmas Chronicles 2 on Netflix and we were pleasantly surprised.  I will warn you to NOT watch 48 Christmas Wishes and Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square on Netflix.  The first one was just horribly casted and acted and the over-the-top soundtrack just makes it worse.  The second one is too musical.  Funny to hear me say that but it is just too much.