De-Liver Me Tour ~ November 26, 2014

Thanksgiving is upon us and I have so much to be thankful for. The universe continues to amaze and reveal itself in curious ways.

When Starships Collide

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Update: I've been on the drug combo of Ribivarin and Sovaldi for Hepatitis C since October 17th. As reported before, there have been no side effects. What I wasn't prepared for was the swiftness of quantifiable results. I had baseline tests done on October 15th and my viral load was 135,825. At the end of the first week it was at 88 and has continued to drop. My liver inflammation indicators: AST, ALT and ALP are within the normal range for the first time in 20 plus years. Say What? I had my quarterly CT scan and MELD blood tests this week. What's next depends on the CT scan being clear and Hep C being undetectable in my blood. I should hear back from my doc next week.

One more thing off the list and a full circle tour: Headed to San Francisco on November 17th to get reacquainted with a couple we met through our friend Maureen Lomasney. Alice and John have generously offered Rod their spare bedroom while I'm captive a UCSF. After a short visit we headed to Mill Valley and on a whim stopped at Grilly's Mexican Food down near Tam High School for lunch. Great choice, excellent meal. Up and over Mt. Tam to Stinson Beach for a 2 mile walk and to check on the yard and house plants at my cousin's cabin. The day was absolutely gorgeous, we got home before dark and totally refreshed. 

Omne Trium Perfectum: In the last 5 days we've had friends visit from here and beyond, quite literally. One of my oldest pals, Tom Gross and his friend Suzanne, came by for a couple of hours on Saturday on their way back to New Hampshire. He's moving back home to Sebastopol in January after having been gone 7 years. Sunday and Monday, my college roommate, Maggie Rose and her husband came all the way from Cedro Woolley, WA for a two day visit. We hadn't seem them in 5 or 6 years. Last night my late friend Trisha showed up in my dreams with a hug and a smile. The clans and my spirit guides are gathering to walk with me on the journey, you may know them as you know me:

Crow: Questioner of Authority

Crow

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Wolf: Stamina and Strength

Wolf

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Swan: Beneath my serenity lies a fighting spirit

Swan

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Be thankful for family, friends and all the little things. Life is short so get off your butt and on with the journey.  Thanks once again to Etsy artisans who never fail at illustrating my thoughts and musings. 

Omni Trium Perfectum Part VI December 20, 2013

Yes, once again it's time to play What's my Triumvirate? They seem to get a little stranger each time, but the irony and humor are always worth the excursion. 

Bathroom remodel ~ turns into the Remodel from Hell: a four day project turns into a twelve day "medusa of plumbing" marathon. It's worthy of it's own post, complete with pictures, so more on that later.

Medusa

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Credit card fraud - I get a call from the fraud division of my bank saying my debit card had been counterfeited. They were alerted when someone tried to purchase $300 worth of goods at a Target in New York City. The charge was denied because it was outside my area. Thank you Exchange Bank.

The Press Democrat reports today that Target just suffered the 2nd largest credit card breach in US history with 40,000,000 accounts compromised. Customers who made purchases by swiping their cards at its U.S. stores between Nov 27 and Dec 15 may have had their accounts exposed. Guess who went to Target for the first time in a year on December 3rd?

Rogue Ransom

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Going Nowhere ~ So we're in Santa Rosa round dusk and the Honda won't come out of park. It starts and the wheel turns but we're going nowhere. We get out the "Guide Book" and find there is a work around that allows us to get it out of park and drive home. However that was only after we set off the car alarm three times. What's amusing is no one gave us a second look.

Going Nowhere

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Rod took it into the dealership and discovered that the remote sensor, that was installed for braking when we towed the Honda (Omni Trium Perfectum IV), had shorted out. The car thought we had no brakes so we become momentary hostages. I guess that's a good thing, though frustrating in the moment. Fortunately it was an inexpensive fix.

If you want to check Omne Trium Perfectum posts I to VI just click on the phrase in the Labels, lower right of blog. Have a safe and happy holiday season.

Deja Voodoo Tires ~ June 1-2, 2012

6/1 ~ After breakfast we start the trek West on Hwy 20 towards Mountain Home, ID for the night. Tomorrow we'll head for Bend and turn south on Hwy 395 to Lakeview, OR for a couple of days.

We almost make it to Mountain Home and bang, thwapa, thwapa ~ the outside dually on the driver side loses it's tread. This time, at least, we're not on a major freeway and pull off onto a wide gravel verge with a view. We unhitch the Honda so I can set out to find some cell phone reception. I take one of the walkie-talkies since I don't know how far that'll be. We now have our road handles: Red Ryder and Little Beaver.

Joe's Towing to the rescue within an hour to change the tire. Good Sam Platinum Road Service has been worth it's weight in gold. In spite of the third installment of the Tire Trilogy, it's been a gorgeous day, sunny and breezy. Once the tire is changed we head for Mountain Home RV Park for a hot shower and dinner.

6/2 ~ First stop this morning is Les Schwab to get rig tires assessed. We have them check serial numbers on remaining tires and replaced only the ones in same batch as two tires that lost their tread. Wow we only needed 2 tires not 4.

Breakfast at RJ's truck stop and off we go, west on 20 then south at 395 to Lakeview. This will be our second stay at Juniper Lake Reservoir, a small park in the middle of a working cattle ranch and great place for hiking, photography and birdwatching. We came in from the south last visit, so this is new territory and a gorgeous drive.

Rod's determined to BBQ once we get settled and that sounds like a winner to me: chicken, corn and Shelley potatoes. We dine outside and enjoy the view and the weather. Against all odds we haven't yet lost our sense of humor about this and have decided to dub this trip the:

Re-TIRE-ment Tour

or

2-4-6-8 who do we appreciate

Les Schwab for being everywhere!



Omne Trium Perfectum IV ~ May 19-20, 2012

We're off and by the end of the first 36 hours we have a new understanding of the concept of adventure. We have the rig set up now to tow the Honda CRV. It will give us more flexibility to anchor somewhere and explore. Rod has hauled a trailer with the rig on his annual trek to Las Vegas for the NASCAR races, but towing a vehicle has a whole new set of ground rules.

It has something called a proportional brake that senses when the motorhome brakes are engaged and applies the Road Master brakes to Honda. Just outside of Laytonville a car in front of us decides to make an unannounced left turn ~ you know the kind: stop, start turn, signal, tail in your lane. Rod applied the brakes; the message to the Honda was slow down, but instead of that the brakes locked making it a momentary 4,500 pound anchor. We must have left a 100' of rubber on Highway 101 and a cloud of blue smoke that swallowed the car behind us. The parameters and settings were supposedly checked before we left Johnny Franklin's in Santa Rosa. Me thinks they muffed it. We pulled over at the next rest stop and re-adjusted the unit which sits on the floor of the driver side in the Honda with an arm attached to brake pedal. From there on no problems.

We pulled into our campsite at Emerald Forest north of McKinleyville and unhitched the Honda to drive down to our friends house for the evening. The minute we got on the Freeway it was "Houston we have a problem". Major vibration, sounded like a freight train. Being NASCAR fans we understand the concept of "flat spotted tires" when a car skids it scrapes off the rubber. Oh boy!

Fortunately Tom and Linda are good friends with Pat, the manager of the Les Schwab Store in McKinleyville. Linda called his house (this is Friday night) and left a message with this wife explaining the situation. On his day off he met us at the shop at 8am and had his guys to get us in first. Four new Honda tires $1,000 ~ friends and customer service ~ priceless.

On the road again by nine, destination Sublimity, near Salem, OR for Rod's Pop's 94th birthday party. We had expected to get in by mid afternoon, but that was not in the cards! We're just south of Cottage Grove, OR on Interstate 5 when we hear a loud rattle-clank, thwappa, thwappa. We pulled as far off the road as possible on the paved verge, which left about 2 feet to the slow lane. Scary! Big Rig drivers are the best, if they had room they moved over to the fast lane to pass us.

Problem: the inside dually tire had lost its tread, which was wrapped up in the wheel assembly and ripped the mud flap loose from it's outside mooring. Fortunately the core remained inflated. We called Good Sam, and it took about an hour before they could get a tow truck to us to change the tire. Nice kid did a great job and we were back on the road in a couple of hours. We pull into Sublimity about 11pm, set up and call it a day.

I went to get something out of the closet and everything spilled out onto the floor like a waterfall. The clothes rod brackets had given up the ghost somewhere along the way. Omne Trium Perfectum. At this point there was nothing to do but laugh and get a good night's sleep!

There's a Les Schwab Store just down the road from Pop's. They got us in first thing Monday morning and replaced two tires, rotated fronts to back and replaced the spare. $400 for 2 new rig tires ~ again customer service priceless.

Next stop the Narrows for a couple of days at Malheur and Harlan Lakes south of Burns, OR. We are enjoying being unplugged and using each day to the fullest. That said you may need to wait for the rest of the story, but I'm taking good notes and lots of photos. Stay tuned.

Omne Trium Perfectum III ~ Revenge of the Appliances

I've already done two posts this year on how things happen in threes: first it was flat tires on each of our three vehicles in July, then it was various elements of the well and water system in September, now it's aging appliances. We have to replace the washer, dryer and dishwasher. Now to be fair to these old dears, they gave us 15 years of good service, amazing in this day and age.

Though it was tempting to hit the big box stores for appliances, we decided to shop local to keep our dollars local. Our favorite repair expert gave us recommendations on brands and models and what to avoid which helped us narrow down the list tremendously. So off we go to Santa Rosa and at our first stop ~ boom there's the washer and dryer set that was high on the list on sale. The color is silver which made us laugh out loud. Our sales person gave us kind of a quizzical look until we explained we just celebrated our 25th (silver) wedding anniversary. Silver will work really well in our newly updated laundry room.

Okay two down one to go. On to the dishwasher section. It was suggested by our repair person that we bring some of our dishes to assess how different racks will or won't work, a dry run so to speak. We narrowed it down to two models and after talking to our sales person about pros and cons we make a choice, it too is on sale. Inside an hour we're done, so we treat ourselves to lunch, a walk around Spring Lake and Mission Impossible at the movies. A day well spent. 

Alas, today there is one more set of three: An appraiser is showing up this morning (We're refinancing to reduce our interest rate to 4% and lower monthly payments by $160), the appliances are getting delivered and installed today and our exterior paint guru is, weather permitting, going to prime and paint our skylights.

I'm definitely in for the day, but my studio is warm and I'm working on some great projects. That said, Puleeze let this be the last set of Omne Trium Perfectums!

 Acorn Brandy

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Happy New Year! Your mission for 2012 is to fill your life with love, creativity, plenty of play days and time with your friends. Now get to it!

It Comes in Threes - Part Deux

I just wrote about Omne Trium Perfectum in mid July and here we are again. My first thought was now what have we done to piss off the goddess of the manor? But then I realized humans aren't the only things that age and have parts wear out.

One – Hmmm, I wonder how long it's been since we changed the filters on our water system. Much of Sebastopol's well water harbors bacterial iron and other minerals so it's a given that things get will get funky on a regular basis. One should change filters annually. Check the paperwork - oh crap - it's been two years. Hey Culligan Man! Filter change quite reasonable, but what's that you say the compressor's shot too? Whoa $760 is an expensive lesson, but we’re trainable and a filter change is on the calendar for next summer.

Two - White Fang the Jeep ~ the extremely comfortable, 5.9 liter, deep throated and trustworthy beast I've have had for almost 12 years. She just turned up 180K so I was banking on a major tune up this week which is an ouch by itself at $550, though well worth expense. I trust my mechanic!

But life isn't always simple is it? I notice a small leak on my front differential and make a note to show him the next day. I take off to go workout and start hearing a really strange noise. I'm thinking this isn't good and since I was less than a ½ mile from home I turn back. It started getting louder. As I start up our road I'm chanting "Come on baby just get me home, just get me home". On the second to last corner of the driveway I hear a loud "thunk" and all of a sudden I'm driving a Mack truck with no power steering. I park in front of the house and open the hood. Yikes, no serpentine belt and fluids hemorrhaging everywhere. I walked back down the road and retrieved the belt.

Because the Jeep is a 4X4 a flat bed tow truck is in order to get it to my mechanic. All of a sudden I’m really glad we have AAA (first time I’ve actually had to use it). The guy shows up about 7:50am with a 26 footer and his first words are "I can't turn around up here". I said "Of course you can, bigger trucks than this little puppy have turned around here". He gave me a really testy look.

By then my neighbors up are because their kids heard the big truck and all are out watching. They're kind enough to move their vehicles so the big guy could get turned around in their driveway at the end of the road. He loads up and off he goes. About 30 minutes later I get a call from AAA to verify the address where he’s supposed to go (the street is like 3 blocks long). I call my mechanic to see if he's arrived. Kathy, his wife says “No but I just saw the tow truck go by he'll figure it out eventually.”

She called back the next day and said "Well, we expect things wear out with this much mileage, but not all at once". At that point we just burst out laughing. The front differential needs R&R, water pump replaced, power steering repair and major tune up. The job is done and I pick the Jeep up this afternoon. The invoice is only $1,968.79.

This is what my friend Trisha would have called an “Oh Well” moment. It a huge amount of money, and really inconvenient, but even this is really "small stuff" in the big picture.

Three – Oh well, oh well!

It seems the cement pad that surrounds our well head and holds the pressure tank is slowly crumbling and heading down the hill (It's over 40 years old and had a falling tree rock it's world about 6 years ago). Our well guy suggested we might want to replace the slab prior to winter. Preventative maintenance called for here, so let's stay one step ahead on this one. Estimate is about $500, seems like chump change at this point!

Messages here:

• Due diligence on preventative maintenance whether it’s your body, your home or your vehicle.
• Set up an automatic amount to go in your savings every month (no see ‘em, no spend em), no matter how small it adds up and can save your proverbial bacon.
• Don’t sweat the small stuff because most of it is small stuff.
• See the humor in everything.
• Now go treat yourself to a massage, you've probably earned it!

Omne Trium Perfectum

Loosely translated it means "everything that comes in threes is perfect". In writing the "rule of three" is a principle that suggests that things that come in threes are inherently funnier, more satisfying, or more effective than other numbers of things like: Three Bears, Three Stooges, Three Musketeers, or Three Little Pigs to name a few.

The Three Bears Cooking

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It's taken on a whole new meaning at our house. To quote the one and only Madeline Kahn from Blazing Saddles "I'm so Tired" but not in the context you'd think. We're really talking tires here.
 

Fix a Flat - Norman Rockwell

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1. Friday - We take our little motorhome in to have the tires rotated and find out that the two inner tires of the dualie axle need to be replaced. Duly (pun intended) noted and ordered.

2. Monday - I have a soft rear tire on my jeep and so I take it in to my tire gurus at Valley Tire in Santa Rosa. They find a three inch sheet rock screw but are able to repair it for no charge.

3. Tuesday - My husband calls me from work at the coast to say he'll be a little late ~ flat tire on the Honda. What? There is a three inch gash with a utility knife blade wedged in it. I call my guys again arrange to bring the Honda in this afternoon. 

As I finish my conversation with John he says "be careful these kind of things happen in threes". My response, as I snort with laughter is to tell him we already have it covered. We're done with this triumvirate, the triple crown, threes a crowd, and triple play week. The tire is too badly damaged to repair but at least the tread on it's mate is good enough we only need to replace one. Phew!

We're pretty sure #2 and #3 are the direct result of a remodel we did a couple of months ago - dude left behind some flotsam in our gravel parking area that finally found a place to call home. Oh Well! So total damage for the three tires is about $660 ~ oh look it's divisible by three!