Burnin' Down the House and other Musings

Burnin' Down the House compliments of Talking Heads

to listen, click here!

Greetings from somewhere in a slightly “opened” area of Florida! I’m sure we can all agree the past few months have not been the greatest, but we are persevering as we figure all of this out.  I am fortunate and very blessed that I was already in a work from home job that was not impacted by the virus. My life has been going on fairly normally-if you can call wearing a mask and gloves outside my home “normal”

I tried to keep busy and one of my projects got completed about 2 weeks ago. I ambitiously decided to paint my foyer, living and dining rooms. The walls weren't too bad but Florida houses seem to have this textured drywall so I thought it took a lot more paint than it should have. But I finished and then noticed how awful the ceilings looked. I broke out my painting supplies and bought another gallon of paint. Oh My GOD, the ceilings were even more time consuming than the walls. My place formerly had those disgusting popcorn ceilings and what was left after that was removed was a very textured surface. 

I got about a six foot square section done and thought my arms were going to fall off.  So, I thought OK. I'll get a larger roller (I had been using the 4" ones) and an extension pole and this will go really fast.  hahahahahahaha

I got the new supplies and hooked up the extension pole with the new "for rough/uneven surfaces 10" roller. It sucks up paint like you would not believe. I hoist the thing up and over my head and after about two minutes, my arms again felt like they were going to fall off.  It was far too heavy for me. 

The issue was that in order get all the nook and crannies full of paint, you had to apply a decent amount of pressure to the thing. So after a small mishap involving the curtains at the sliding glass door, I decided this crap was going back to Home Depot.  I bought a smaller extension thing that went to 2 feet and hooked up my 4" roller to that and finished the damn ceilings. 

I will give you a glimpse of the new paint. The sliding glass door wall is painted in "White Lavender" and the walls are "Maui Mist". Depending on the time of day, even the Maui Mist walls take on a pale purple hue. I absolutely love it. I was going for a tranquil feeling and, to me, that is exactly what I got.   I am now in the process of picking out kitchen wall paint. I did paint that kitchen once, but I hate the color now. I painted a large piece of cardboard with each of the colors I am considering and hung it on the wall in the kitchen.  I do know I am painting the cupboards white and I may refinished the counter tops. 

Here is the a shot of the new paint:

At the moment, my place smells like Italian salad dressing. I’ve acquired a fruit fly infestation---from cantaloupe that was ripening on my counter top. UGH, UGH and UGH.  I searched my friend, Google, for how to get rid of them and quite a few sites mentioned using apple cider vinegar. At this moment there are 5 apple cider vinegar bowls set out throughout my house. Although they have attracted and killed some of the population, there are still many flying around, dive bombing me and overall just being a nuisance.

Update: As you can see, the vinegar method does work... but again, I smell Italian dressing all day and the little f*ckers are still flying around, although greatly reduced in number.

The kitchen counters have been washed down multiple times, the fruit taken outside to the trash and still they are hanging around.  I swear to God I swallowed one when I was sleeping. I woke up coughing in the middle of the night. Maybe they were attracted to my minty fresh toothpaste breath. Who knows?

My fly swatter is ineffective at killing them because the mesh-like holes are too large and I miss one every single time. The second strategy involved a rolled up hand towel and snapping it towards the area they’ve landed on. I can see there is a disaster in my future if I continue to use this method. I burn candles and sometimes incense and twice now I’ve come close to knocking over a candle. I will probably end up burning my house down if I keep this up.

(Just call me Britney) 

My favorite restaurant reopened yesterday at 4pm. I am so excited! Part of me wants to wait a few weeks to go and the other part of me wants fresh seafood and frozen margaritas. Not sure what will win out. They opened with a smaller menu because all of their suppliers are not back and they have reduced capacity. Inside seating is 25% of capacity and outdoor seating has been set up to ensure six feet between tables. I really hope this will be successful for them – and all the local restaurants.  

I am soooooooooo sick of my cooking. I am not a bad cook, but I am used to eating out a couple of times a week. I want a meal I had nothing to do with preparing. Even getting take-out is not the same—you still have to serve it and clean it up—no thank you.  That is one of things I love about cruising—the whole dining experience.

And speaking of cruises, my Princess cruise to Tahiti in November has been cancelled. I am majorly disappointed. I cancelled a trip to Australia last fall in order to book this years’ trip. And the year before that the cruise line cancelled my Australia cruise. 3 years in a row-----------no vacay for this girl. I’m ready to go insane, or at least further insane.

I decided I definitely needed some sort of break so I booked myself into a place on Sanibel Island in July. Hopefully, the shelling will be fabulous and even if it isn’t, it will be good to get away and see some different sites.

I tentatively have a cruise booked for the end of March 2021. I hope things will be ‘normal’ or as close to normal as we’ve become. I’ve been reading about the plans to sanitize and the changes they are making to seating etc. and I am encouraged. Cruise ships were always very clean in past years, so I suspect the cruise lines will be far and above what the old normal was.

I’ve also read cruise bookings are up over 300% compared to this time last year. And as cruises cancelled during this pandemic, the cruise lines offered great cancellation compensation if you book another cruise. I am taking a credit from Princess for double the amount I had already paid.  The way people are booking, I would not expect to see any real bargains out there for the general public.

The thing that is taking all of my time is un-doing all the plans that were already done and filing trip cancellation claims for some of things that are not being refunded---vacation house rentals, airline tickets on small airlines etc. I need to get that finished up. And now, that I am finally done painting the foyer, living room and dining from top to bottom—including the ceilings, I should have some extra time. 

In other news, I just got aligners for my teeth. I had braces as a kid but over the years my teeth shifted. They are just a little crooked and it was bugging me so I took the plunge. This is day 3 and I have to say I will be glad when the 5 months are up and I am finished. My tongue and the sides of my mouth are scraped up and I’m having a hard time getting used to having them in my mouth. I now have a slight lisp—so attractive I know.  Plus, despite my mouth being bone dry, I have excess spit and risk drooling. But on the plus side, you really cannot see that I have anything covering my teeth.  Of course, with wearing the mask and all, that part doesn't really matter. 

Aligners are a great idea---you put in a new set every week or two depending on what they indicate and those first 2 days are achy. The pain is just like you felt, back in the day, when you got your braces tightened. Soup on the menu for a few days because even though you take the aligners out to eat, it hurts to bite down.

And, of course, my aligners do not fit perfectly. The top one does but I had to call them about the bottom one. They told me I could ‘trim and use an emery board to file any sharp edges. Ummmmm, didn’t I pay you to do that? So, when I call back I am going to ask for an entire set of new bottoms—trimmed and filed correctly this time. I’ll let you know how that goes.  

In other good news, our community pool here opened back up two weeks ago and people have been staying the required six feet apart, which is very good. Not a lot of people use our pool, but I am up there a minimum of 5 days a week, weather permitting, doing my hour of water aerobics. I usually don’t hang out before or after like I used to, but I’m sure over time, things will change.

Our beaches opened two weeks ago for sunbathing. There is a heavy police presence there trying to ensure social distancing. There is an officer walking the beach, ATVs patrolling the beach and a police boat near the shore patrolling. They took this very seriously and I am thankful for that. Because it seems like a lot of people here don't think the rules apply to them. 

So that' s the news from sunny Florida. I hope things continue to improve but will be interested in seeing if there is a serious uptick in cases of the virus. Of course, we peons may never know--from what I read some places are not reporting them truthfully.

I'll close with this:


Stay safe out there!
jilly