Best Of

The rental where we're (still) living is midway between two Wal-Marts. The closer one, in east Lincolnwood (just over the river from Chicago's West Ridge neighborhood), is a super-center, with a bazillion parking spaces reserved for online purchase pick-ups—far more than even the handicap spaces. When I still had a permit, there often were no handicap spaces available, so I had to walk further than a block! IMHO, they shouldn't hog the half of the lot nearest the store for pick-ups, because the store employees delivering the goods are young, pushing carts—while the older customers have to walk very far from their cars and back to them (albeit with shopping carts after leaving the store). There are far fewer assisted than self-checkout lanes. And the store's proximity to the city (last I checked, there are no Wal-Marts in Chicago proper) makes it crowded with people from city neighborhoods far & wide. The other one, on the border of Skokie & Niles, is smaller, but I've never had trouble finding a decent parking space. It's much less crowded, albeit with a less extensive selection of stuff. And its greeters don't demand to see your receipt on the way out.

Weather has been pleasant the past couple of days (after Saturday morning rains). Not so beginning tomorrow; by Wednesday we should be back up to triple-digit heat indexes. When the restoration guys returned with a fridge-door repairman who mounted it correctly, he discovered that the hard plastic reservoid for the icemaker/water dispenser had broken apart in transit (it was full of water when the door was removed for pack-out, and froze in the storage warehouse over the winter). So we couldn't hook up the icemaker or water dispenser. Gas is still not connected either (I tried the stove but all that happens is the igniters clicking, and nothing at all at the grill). No point in hooking up the dryer until the vent has been installed). They're coming back Wednesday morning with the replacement reservoir.

We took a little field trip to Abt Electronics in Glenview Sunday—the place is like Disneyland for upscale home stuff—not just appliances but also furniture (where we bought our split-king powered bed), outdoor, luggage, home exercise machines (lusting after the $4K seated elliptical, dream on). There's an atrium with a fountain surrounded by small boutiques, including gourmet small appliances, an Apple store, candy, coffee bar (one superauto espresso machine that doesn't foam milk, so no lattes or cappuccinos), massage chairs, a "man cave" selling pool tables, dart boards, video game consoles, etc. On weekends there are more free food samples than at your average Costco: they were demoing sandwich-makers so there was grilled cheese, free just-baked cookies in the coffee bar, and a free lemonade stand. We managed to pick up some air & water filters for the fridge; get the screen protectors replaced on our phones (BangBang cracked mine when she knocked it off the coffee table as she experimented with gravity and cause & effect—I meant to post a shaming video of her on FB but I couldn't figure out how to get her to sit still behind the "I break stuff" placard). We then looked at TVs and decided right then & there to get a couple of 55" OLED "smart" ones to replace the 46" in the den (which we're moving up front) and the 55" plasma from the primary BR. (The screen was showing some burn-in, it was heavy, had few HDMI ports and no built-in apps, was a power-hog and actually radiated heat. It was also 15 years old. I've seen Reddit posts from people using them as space heaters. It's a 3D set—but there's precious little 3D content available any more, and none on cable or streaming). We scheduled delivery for after the furniture, remaining appliances and boxes arrive, so that the stands will be there. (The ones we bought have pedestal bases, not those flimsy little feet at the ends of the set, so we won't have to buy new stands—and the restoration guys said they'll set up the tilting table mount for the 46" set so we csn use our existing corner stand).

Today Macy's delivered the twin mattress for the daybed and tiwn XL set for the guest bedroom. To my chagrin, the restoration guys brought the footboard for the guest bed, rendering it too short for the twin XL set. I called my retired HK down in AL to confirm that the mattress that had been on there was indeed an XL, atop a preexisting twin box spring (neither of which could be salvaged), and that we'd removed the footboard when my 6'4" FIL moved in with us for the last two years of his life. So I needn't exchange it, after they're done fixing the fridge Wednesday they'll remove the footboard so the XL set will fit.

Discovered that the construction crew mis-configured my bedroom closet, putting the shelves up too high for me to reach them. They'll move them down to my specs, so I needn't hire Elfs or California Closets. They also mounted my kitchen pot rack so high above the window that I'd need a stepladder to hang or retrieve pots & pans. Meanwhile, my HK will fly up on the 6th to help me direct where to place the furniture & appliances, as well as store the well over 100 boxes. Tomorrow I'm going over to put Post-Its on the walls to indicate placement of artwork & large items, and put out the second batch of smelly new sheets for Rinse to pick up & wash (they did a great job with the first batch). She will help me triage the boxes (keep/toss/donate). Also, we got patio chairs delivered—but unassembled and all in one box…delivered up front despite my instructing FedEx to deliver them to the back porch,

I feel like I'm playing a real-life full-scale game of Tetris or one of those classis "15" number puzzles. (Precursor to Rubik's Cube).

Cindy - how frustrating! A wire transfer should not take an hour. Good grief! At least you have the trip to Cape Cod to look forward to. I admit that I am a bit envious of your vacations on the water.

Illinoislady - hopefully Lil Red will come to like his outside enclosure. I know you have the patience and know how to help him through the adjustment period.

Betrayal and Cindy - I so admire your gardening skills. I love flowers and well groomed beds but I can’t work up the energy and initiative to get it done in my yard.

Sandy - hang in there! I know you must be exhausted but eventually this will all be over.

We went kayaking this afternoon at our city’s recreation area. We rented a kayak (the sit on top type) and paddled to the other side of the lake. At that point the kayak started to feel wobbly and harder to paddle so we headed back to the marina. We almost made it but about 50 yards from shore the kayak capsized and we went for a refreshing swim (we were wearing life jackets). A bunch of employees coming running and we were able to push the kayak up against a dock and swim to the ladder on the other side of the dock to get out of the water. Our phones were in water proof pouches around our necks and DH had a dry bag for his car keys. Turns out the kayak was missing its drain plug so in the 45 minutes we spent on the water the hollow area between the bottom of the kayak and the floor we were sitting on was filling with water which made the kayak unstable and very heavy for paddling. Once we pushed the kayak up against the dock, two employees jumped in and paddled the last 50 yards to the beach while nearly capsizing the kayak again. When we left 10 minutes later they had the kayak staying on end and it was still gushing water. This was my first time kayaking but I’d do it again.

Waving ‘hi’ to Carole, Taco, Intolight, Chris, Reader, Petite and everyone.