A Few Events in an Uneventful Life

The man who has overseen my roofing project is quite pleasant. I appreciate that he isn't aggressively charming, as some of his ilk tend to be, but he has a major flaw that I suspect is connected to "the way things are done" in his business.

Two or more weeks ago, he told me he was going to pick up the gutters he would be replacing at my home. This morning about 9, here they were. He saw my car, so parked the loaded trailer on the street. Good. I came out to  move my car, however, to find a workman on a ladder right in front of the garage door, preparing to pull off the old gutter.

"Hi!" he said with a cheery smile. "We're here to do your gutters!"

I growled, "You couldn't be bothered to call me Friday afternoon to tell me this?  Move the ladder and I'll get my car out of the garage and park it next door."

He responded quickly. (He's the son of the roofer.)  I pulled out, told him much more calmly to carry on, and parked next door, walked back. Unfortunately, the noise has Brody ALL excited, and he seems to think it is His Duty to pant heavily, run around the house, bark and growl.

As you see, I have recovered nicely. I am simply sitting in a civilized fashion in front of my computer complaining about what is a good thing, even if I wasn't given advance notice. This will finish their part of the work and get the other half of their money, now in escrow, to them. I said the roofer is pleasant, and he is. We live in the same community and will probably meet again. And he is an honest man, which means a lot.....

Pause for the telephone call from the roofer, whose son called him to say, "Dad, the lady is really mad we didn't tell her we were coming." He apologized, said this was last minute reassign when someone else's job was postponed by the homeowners. I told him all is well and my feathers are smoothed out. Which they are. So actually, I was surprised, but it's a bit of good luck.

I wonder how many times I react with grumpiness just because I am inconveniently surprised by good fortune. Something to think about.

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Good luck surprised me again this morning when I let the dogs into the back yard to find it, as well as the front yard, had been mowed. My next door neighbor sometimes does the front when he's on his riding mower, but the back is unusual. My poor granddaughter is going out of town and kind of planned on that $10 I give her to mow a good-sized yard.

But she's going to Schlitterbaun,  a wonderful water park in Central Texas with loving extended family, so I suspect she will be just fine.

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I am trying to remember the second thing reporters quoted someone as saying would be gone in the next four years, but can't remember the second one. The first was personal computers. We'll all have IPads hooked up to our smart phones, they said. Well, that leaves a lot of room for a lot of folk like me to carry on. I don't have a smart phone and am not planning to get one. In fact, I'm ahead of a lot of the 70+ grandparents I know because I text as well as phone. I may upgrade to a phone to text more quickly, but smart phone? Not yet. I don't know how to handle the security on them properly, and am not willing to partake until this has been addressed.

As a matter of fact, I have a lot of problem typing on almost any computer but mine. When keyboards first came out, they had these little foldup legs you could extend to give your keyboard a slant. For someone who has been typing countless hours since I was 15, that is necessary for me. My speed is cut at least in half when the keyboard lies flat. Eldest son gets frustrated when he comes to help me with some computer problem because my desktop (yes, desktop) is on a regular desk and I pull out the middle drawer so I can prop the keyboard against the edge of the desk's top to give me that slant. Works just fine, as you see.

The arthritis in my hands and wrists also is a factor. A flat keyboard requires an arch in my wrists that is not comfortable, and while I could learn to use a laptop, this works better.
(Like many of us who have a glitch or two in how our bodies work, I don't particularly consider myself handicapped so much as having my own way of getting some things done.)

Oh! and that reminds me. Saturday, I went next door three times to get something opened. I have an electric jar opener, but it is too clumsy to open the small jar of minced garlic. The mouthwash requires firm pressing with thumb and forefinger on either side of the lid while turning. I can't squeeze hard enough.  And the last--well, Dr. Pepper puts the caps on their two liter bottles uncommonly hard. I can usually get it, but sometimes, even strong men must strain to do it. I had one of those. I've learned if I open, then close the bottle before storing it into the fridge, it is much easier to open the next morning, and cold caffeine is my morning beverage. But this one almost defeated my family next door. And my daughter-in-law gave me a spare bottle opener similar to one her grandmother gave her years ago. It is an ancient hand tool, about one inch wide, six inches long, with lip on one end of the metal stick and a metal tongue that slides underneath. Eh. I need to be able to photo and attach this. I'd never seen one, and  I bet you haven't, either. Anyway, a handle
 holds the bottle firmly between the tongue and lip and allows you to turn the long metal piece to leverage the lid to open.

Nifty!

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Finally.

Every so often, I get a hankering for ginger ale. I have almost always used Canada Dry brand, and yes, I get diet. Diet ginger ale really isn't as good as regular, but I get enough calories as it is. I've noticed tv ads for Canada Dry publicizing Real Ginger in the product, and it's getting warmer, and I bought me some.

I do not know why they changed the recipe, or when. I don't know what the regular tastes like, but I am not willing to try.

This has a powdery, taste like really cheap powdered fruit drink(I won't denigrate Koolaid brand) with carbonated water added and a dash of ginger. The lack of sweetness reminds me of the first diet drinks in the 1960s.

If one were to add an alcoholic beverage, it would ruin the taste of that, too. Since I bought it as an alternative to booze,  I simply will switch brands.

I bought two bottles. I think I may just throw the other unopened one in the trash. It really is that bad.