Things Not Going Well

Let me say first that I know my complaints are minor compared to some people's problems.    I remind myself of that frequently.   I am in generally good health (as are my cats), my car is running fine, I eat well, I have no financial problems, my siblings seem happy, the computers "function enough to use, and I'm not fussing with any neighbors.

That said, all is not perfect in paradise and problems are still problems...

I brought Lori to the vet for her spay operation.  Her blood platelet is too low to allow an operation.   The vet will test her blood again in 2 weeks to see if it was an anomaly.  If not, it could be serious.  Some causes are temporary; some are serious; and some are unfixable.  It will be a long 2 weeks of waiting.

Also 2 weeks means that Lori will go into Heat again.  I'm not looking forward to that!  Tonkinese are related to Siamese, and Siamese are SCREAMERS.

While at the vet, I noticed a screw in the tread of a tire.  So I stopped at the dealership and asked about repairing the tire.  They said it would be about 2 hours.  I go nuts sitting around, so I drove to a tire place.  They said the same.  I went back to the dealership.  I had momentarily forgotten they offer valet home and back service.  

They drove me home.  And called an hour later to say that the screw was too close to the sidewall for a simple repair.  Well, they "could" do that, but the repair would always be "iffy".  Since cars don't come with spare tires these days,  a blowout could be a real problem...  I opted for a new tire.  But they won't have it until tomorrow, so I have to go back again.  At least it will match the other tires (I only have a 1,000 miles on those.  

And they say it will be a quick replacement, since I have an appointment.  Not worth being driven home and back to the dealership.  Which is good.  Because it took them 2 1/2 hours to pick my up to retrieve the car today.  They explained that they only have 1 of 3 shuttle drivers available lately.  I understand that, but it didn't make me happy.

The computer is beyond my ability to fix.  I have officially entered the "I can't figure it out anymore" age now.   I might have a technician visit to fix everything, but I'm not even sure what to have him/her do.  The email is AFU, it restarts randomly, my files seem randomly on the HD and iCloud, and Google seems to have taken over.

The laptop works again.  It was non-functional for months.  Dead battery and 2 loose keys (Z and H).  But I tried it again the other day and it worked as long as plugged in directly bypassing the battery.  It wouldn't before...  2014 apps, but I can visit blogs via Feedly.  I don't dare upgrade it.  I think I'll bring it to "IFixitIt" who does (probably unauthorized) hardware repair.  

Decent weather, so I uncovered the 30x30' daffodil bed.  I covered it with black plastic last November to try to smother the grassy weeds.  That seems to have worked well, but I discovered the plastic warms the soil SO much (I should have known about that) that the daffodils emerged early.  Pale green 4" shoots all bent over!  I hope they recover.  

I have an enclosed garden (protection from squirrels, rabbits, groundhogs, etc).  The enclose is electrical conduit pipe inside PVC pipe for support of chicken wire covering it all below ground.  A sticky-snowstorm collected on the chicken wire and bent part of the structure years ago, so I made removable supports the next Spring.

In early January, we were forecast to get 1" of snow.  I wasn't worried about that.  After dark, it became 3".  Not a good time to go out setting up the support pipes, but still not much to worry about.  We got 8" of sticky heavy snow.  The entire structure was about 3/4 collapsed and most pipes bent!

I have to take it mostly apart to pull the conduit out and straighten it.  And them re-cement the PVC covers.  I can't do that until the weather is above 50F.  And also, until I feel up to the effort of working outside again.  It will takes several days of work at best.

And speaking of gardening, I am woefully unprepared this year.  I mix my own seedling soil.  4 parts compost, 2 parts peat moss, 1 part each vermiculite and perlite.  Well, it is cheaper than the potting soil bags and I enjoy the process.  I save it in a big trash barrel.  But I am behind already...  

My seed list (Excel file that identifies seeds by numbered specimen vials saved in the basement fridge in a tray) is 2018.  The newer 2020 one seems lost.  Have to redo it from scratch.  And that means guessing at some seeds...

Need to redo my Excel password list too.  I set it up offline for security, but it vanished too.  I have an old version on a thumb drive.  But so many scribbled changes to the printout, I am nearley starting from scratch there too.  I have a password app, but it is annoying hard to use.  I mean, the password to the password app has to be horribly long and weird, so how does that help?  I'm going back to offline Excel printout.  No one can hack a printout created on an offline computer!  But that does mean nearkly a day's worth of typing on the offline...

Cable TV sucks!  And I have the top tier.  I got it because of History, Science, Nat Geo, and Discovery channels and old but free movies originally.  Those have become mostly paranormal, alien, conspiracy junk these days.  And I found an old  movie I wanted to watch and they STILL wanted to charge $4 for it.  I'm going to HAVE to explore streaming TV and pay for that.

I'm not awake enough hours in the day to solve all this stuff!