Second Week of March

I am a couple days late with my blog this week.  That is because Steve and I were in Indiana over the weekend to spend some time with Julina and Alex.  We watched the weather forecasts quite closely because a winter storm was predicted for Friday, our departure date.  Happily, the storm turned out to be just light flurries with no accumulation for Saint Louis and points east so our drive had no issues - aside from watching gas prices go up and up the further east we went!  We paid $3.99 before we left, Illinois prices were at about $4.50 and Indiana was at $4.25.  Thankfully, Julina has a Costco membership so we were able to fill up at $4.08.  We are still in our rental and it gets fairly good gas mileage that enabled us to just drive through Illinois without having to worry about our tank.  Columbia, apparently, DID get the winter storm and about 5 inches of snow - which melted quite quickly since it is March and not January.  While in Greenwood, we helped Julina with a few projects around the house and Steve spent quite a bit of time with Alex down in his basement "man cave" as he tinkered with his huge model train setup.  We had to leave for home early Sunday morning so we could get to our church meetings since the ward choir was singing.  So, it was a short visit this time.  Below are two photos from our time with Juli 

We had hoped to leave Friday morning for Greenwood - I even shuffled a cello lesson to 9:00 am that day.  But, we awoke to no hot water - AGAIN!  So, I got on the phone and called the plumbing company (Aries) to ask to be put on a waiting list for an appointment.  I got a voicemail.  So, I called another plumbing company (Guinner) and was told they were making appointments three weeks out!  I said OK but when they learned that we had a Whirlpool heater, she said they were not licensed to work on those kinds????  Weird.  I then called a third plumbing company (Maplewood) with some reluctance because I had reached out to them mid-February for a water heating installation quote and I had to leave a voice message and they never returned my call.  But, this time, they answered and they said that there was an appointment for Tuesday morning, March 15th.  WOW!  I took it.  Then, about thirty minutes later, they called me and said they had a cancellation and someone could be at our home in fifteen minutes.  What a miracle!!!  So, the guy came and he diagnosed the problem - we do not need a new water heater, we do not need a new igniter - we had a very slow and small leak where the water enters the tank and it was most likely extinguishing the pilot light and when we tried to re-light it, it would still be wet. (that would explain why the second time we had no hot water a couple weeks ago, Steve was able to relight it the next day - it had dried out)  So, he fixed the leak and we have been good to go ever since.  It was also refreshing to hear this plumber say that water heaters can last 15 to 20 years.  That is a completely different story from what Beig Plumbing told us right at the start of this fiasco.  Guess who our new plumbing company is going to be???  And guess who will be saving up for an eventual water heater replacement?

Early last Tuesday morning, March 8th, I got to drive Beckie and Micah to the airport so they could begin their visit to Hawaii.  Pictures on Facebook and Instagram show that they have been having a wonderful food-filled, beach-filled time which is exactly what they hoped to happen.

In typical March fashion, temperatures have been all over the place.  It was SO COLD last Saturday in Indiana.  The sun was bright and shining but it felt like four degrees with the wind chill.  Yesterday, we had sixty degrees!  My little crocus are not deterred, however, by the yo yo weather.  

Before the "winter storm" last Friday, temperatures were nice-ish and Steve and I helped with a cemetery clean-up across the street.  Spring time there is always a need to collect large limbs and branches that have fallen throughout the winter so the mowers can navigate.  

We have a weekly FaceTime visit with Alice (and her family) on Thursday evenings and this time, Alice wanted to draw pictures of Steve and me.  Here are her creations.

Isn't she adorable? 

Hmmm, what else happened last week?  Well, you can see from the photo of Steve and the dogs that Linus got a haircut on Tuesday.  I worked on my t-shirt rug all weekend and I am not totally pleased with the color choices I made so I am thinking of doing a new one with much more white in the blend.  In my humanitarian sewing, I get a lot of fabric donated to me and there was a large piece of white t-shirt fabric  in the last bag of fabric I collected over the weekend (I got two bags!) so I think it is meant to be, right?

I watched "Free Guy" on Disney+ while Steve was at youth meetings Wednesday night.  I enjoyed it.

And, I almost forgot to tell about last Sunday afternoon - attending the performance of the Mozart Requiem with the Saint Louis Symphony and Chorale.  It was just amazing!  All the Southerlands, Beckie, Elise, Steve and I got to attend.  Afterwards, we all congregated at our place for dinner.  What a lovely way to end a Sunday!

some of the delicious food we enjoyed together....