A quick drive (not really) to town to pick up the wife’s meds at the pharm ($325), then off to the dentist for her and she dropped another $475, with more visits to come. I went to the hardware store to pick up some things, and still waited an hour for the wife at the dentist office…paid $4.49 for mid grade gas.

Looks like I’m not gonna skip out on the colonoscopy, as they keep bugging me to set up an appt. I also downloaded some forms to get my eyes checked. The last pair of glasses I bought was in December 2000…that’s the truth.

My phone was busy this morning getting messages from the clock people; first, saying they needed my credit card info to ship the hinges (huh?) then, a short while later, two more messages saying that the hinges were going to be no charge. I also found the document that no one knew about telling me to “bend down” a post on the clock movement as it would “interfere” with the moon dial. I would imaging someone is doing some back pedalling on that one…

well…er…uh..hmm..beg your pardon?

Tomorrow, I’ll make a much more concerted effort to get to the store. I have a hankerin’ for either beef bourguignon, or beef stroganoff…I see the top sirloin is on sale starting tomorrow…great timing..

I finished the chicken fettuccine last night, so will likely have a salad tonight with the last of the stir fried chicken.

Thursday, another trip to the wife’s doctor (mine too), and will likely set up “wellness visit” so they local medicine shop machine can run my life for the next couple months…or longer depending on what they find.

Wellness visit will involve at least one extra trip to have blood drawn, and then a referral for the colonoscopy. I hope all these months of eating bran muffins pays off.

I was unable to make it to the store today, even though I did get paid. Instead, I spent a great deal of my check paying down credit cards; one of which is given out by the local grocery chain. It’s handy, and charges an exorbitant interest rate, if one does not pay off the entire balance by due date. It also give 5% back on their own brand of food items. It ain’t much, but it does add up.

On a lighter note, I heard back from the clock people, stating that yes, I should have had two hinges for the hood door instead of the one, and they will send me another.

about the moon dial, it is  definitely not working. I think I threw the clock people a curve in noticing that one of the instructional pages indicated that I had to “bend down” a post located on the movement to avoid issues with the moon dial. I did so, and have issues anyway. There two ‘extra’ gears in the hardware, and I am certain that one of them attaches to the hour shaft, as it drives the mood dial.

The person that responded was not with Emperor clocks, but with Hermle, the manufacturer of the movement.

I am not looking forward to removing the entire movement again to install that gear.

When the hinge arrives, I’ll have to drill new holes for both hinges. That might be a good time to remove the movement, and install the gear.

yeah, right.

Where are the thunderstorms? I swear the weather app we have is absolutely worthless.

My Sam’s membership expires on April 30. I’ve decided not to renew, and they have raised their membership dues again another $10. With their shipping through FedEx giving me nightmares, headaches, and extra work to take care of freight damage, I’m gettin’ out. The last straw was they they no longer ship the Benefiber, which I take daily in coffee to maintain regularity. Sam’s sells the giant container, and is $5 off during their latest sale, so is even cheaper than Amazon; who does not even sell the giant size…so it looks like I’m goin’ back to the bran muffins. Screw the carbs.

Oh I got my Colorguard results, and of course, they say the results showed my test was “abnormal”. So that means at least two trips to the doctor.

Today, I was shelling my seemingly bottomless bag of roasted, but unsalted peanuts to salt them and make peanut clusters. What a mess as the inside hulls get everywhere.

I should get paid tomorrow, and I’m off to the grocery store.

I stir fried two chicken breasts last night into nuggets, and will add them to some fettuccine Alfredo for dinner. I seasoned the chicken with some garlic salt, basil, and oregano. The only bad thing is the Alfredo has to be eating immediately, as it does not reheat well. I guess I’ll suffer through it.

I must admit that the grandfather clock project was perhaps a bit too much for me. It took much longer than I thought, and required a higher skill set than what I apparently have.

Oh well. It does work, and have still working on getting the time synchronized: a state that may be impossible to attain. With two gonging clocks now, I am working on getting them to where they gong at the same time; or at least, the same minute.

I got the back room cleaned up, vacuumed, and rearranged the furniture almost like it was.

The wife and the kid are both scrambling around to final the arrangements on the kid’s baby shower in two weeks from tomorrow. Yep, it’ll be a boy, due in late June or July.

Yeah, it looks like I’ll have to go, although I looked for a t-shirt that said

Real Men Don’t Go To Baby Showers

I lost that one.

the shower will be held at a local Mexican food place, and the food should be really good…great just in time for my cardiologist appt.

The kid and the J-man (her squeeze) will get married the Friday before the shower. They have also put together enough money to buy a mobile home, which they will put on our property. The mobile home people will do all the foundation pouring, septic tank install, hooking up water to our well, and connect electricity when the coop is ready for them.

I don’t understand how the kid was able to borrow that kind of money, given that just a couple years ago, the wife had to cosign for the kid’s car…which, by the way, is still sitting over at the repair shop, needing a new engine and she is still making payments.

I have settled into an extreme state of laziness, now frequently sleeping until early afternoon. My cardiologist appt is on May 5, and am trying to lose a few pounds before I go there.

I received notification today from our mortgage company that our home owner’s insurance has gone up for next year by about $160. When we first got insurance through USAA, it was $2000 less per year than it is now.

The wife cracked a tooth the other night, and will see the dentist on Tuesday. I’ll drop her off, and head to the hardware store; needing some more septic treatment, an a/c filter, some quick seal caulk. I discovered to my horror the other day, that I had no duct tape to label a storage box…I half expected the cops to show up and arrest me for “loss of duct tape”  a misdemeanor here.

The wife finished our taxes, lost last year’s return, so she had to mail in the return to the IRS. She mailed it return/receipt and we have not received the return yet, although the tracking showed they had received our return.

I had to jump through a bunch of hoops to get an ID Me verification to sign in to the IRS..Turbo Tax indicated that mail in returns take a minimum before one should check on refund status; so not until after the baby shower.

Last night I made chicken tettrazini, and it came out really good. I left out the sour cream, as I had none, and added a can of cream of chicken soup in addition to the cream of mushroom soup. I had no mushrooms, so left those out. I boiled the 2 chicken breasts in water, along with a couple of carrots, sliced into 1/2″ chunks and some poultry seasoning…I removed the chicken (which I had quartered the breasts) and boiled the spaghetti in the same water. I also added 1 rib of celery to give some crunch. I had three bowls, and the wife had two without incident. I added about 1 1/2 cups of the broth to the soups to thin it out a little, and added some whipping cream (1/3) cup to help make it creamier. I also added about 1 C of shredded cheddar cheese, and topped with Panko and grated Parmesan cheese. Bake at 350 for 25-27 minutes…delish. Oh i also added a handful of green beans we had for a previous dinner. I’ll be having it again.

I get paid Monday, so will be going to the store then.

Meanwhile, we are expecting rain.

The wife and I have become hooked on Jeopardy! reruns…

Thanks to all for the support on the Grandfather Clock Project.

Try this one..

Complete with clock in other room that I purchased a couple months ago…the second group of chimes coming from grandfather..oh yeah the wife thought I was talking to her..

https://youtube.com/shorts/hE33NIGRA0o

This should take you to a video of the ‘finished’ clock

I tried to eliminate all back ground noise, but I failed. You can hear the Regulator clock in the living room, me, and the wife…

Finished the clock

Still some fine tuning on the synchronization of chimes and hands, but I’m almost there.