Toms Diary

Today’s Activities

Shower. DONE.
Cat duty. DONE. Cat duty involves cleaning the litter boxes, bagging the excess, feeding, and house cleaning cat dirt of all types.
Wash (3) loads of pending laundry. DONE.

Log

08:00 AM: I’m up.

08:15 AM: Facebooked for a bit. Friend count: 637. Fan count: 118.

09:00 AM: Posted the Tom’s Views –> Great Value No Calorie Sucralose Sweetener Review piece.

10:00 AM: Posted the Tom’s Views –> Great Value Vegetable Drink Review piece.

11:00 AM: Posed the Tom’s Views –> Now Better Stevia Glycerite Zero Calorie Sweetener Review piece.

01:00 PM: Posted the Tom’s Views –> Blue Diamond Whole Natural Almonds Review piece.

02:00 PM: Posted the Tom’s Views –> Pringles Cheddar Cheese Flavor Potato Crisps Review piece.

03:00 PM: Watched today’s episode of The Young and the Restless via the DVR.

04:00 PM: Posted the Tom’s Views –> Slim Jim Monster Original Beef Sticks Review piece.

06:00 PM: Washed the laundry.

06:50 PM: Watched today’s episode of Dr. Phil, called From Heroes to Monsters?

07:30 PM: Watched tonight’s edition of NBC’s Nightly News via the DVR.

09:15 PM: Worked to get caught up in my diary blog (this one).

11:00 PM: Talked with [Emmy].

11:50 PM: Watched a bit of The Andromeda Strain movie via Netflix.

12:00 AM: I’m heading to bed. Good night and do stop back tomorrow for more content. Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

This month’s gas bill.
Coupon newspaper-style mailer.
Mother’s Day sale notice from Bath & Body Works.
A few credit card offers.
Sewage bill.
Offer from SafeLink for free cell phone service. Not at this time, thanks.
Misc. bank papers.
$10 gift card from Kohl’s.
Notice that Mom has been approved for another year of medical assistance for her nursing home costs.
Coupon from Atlantic Broadband for an Altoona Curve game at Blair County Ball Park. I’m not a baseball fan however. So I probably will not attend.
My medical insurance premium bill.
The Writer magazine for 2012-04.
Offer for Mom from Birds and Blooms. No thanks.
Privacy policy mailing from the investment firm that manages the savings for the WPSBC Alumni Association.
Copies of some of Mom’s important financial from the state county assistance office.
Loan offer from Citizens Bank. No thanks.

Today’s Activities

Shower. DONE.
Cat duty. DONE. Cat duty involves cleaning the litter boxes, bagging the excess, feeding, and house cleaning cat dirt of all types.
Wash (2) loads of pending laundry. DONE.

Log

08:00 AM: I’m up.

08:15 AM: Facebooked for a bit. Friend count: 634 (unchanged). Fan count: 113 (unchanged).

11:00 AM: Leaving now for breakfast and to visit Mom with sister Mary Ann. Back later.

12:45 PM: We ate at King’s restaurant for breakfast along with one of sister Mary Ann’s in-laws. Nice outing.

03:00 PM: Next, we visited Mom. All was well there.

03:30 PM: Our final stop was Meadows for some ice cream. Sweet.

04:30 PM: I’m back home. Mom was pleased to see Mary Ann and her girls, and welcomed the clean laundry I took her.

05:00 PM: Nap time. Back later.

06:30 PM: I’m awake again.

07:00 PM: Posted the Tom’s Views –> Mrs. Paul’s Crunchy Popcorn Fish Review piece.

08:10 PM: Watched today’s episode of Dr. Phil via the DVR, called Overly Competitive Parents.

09:00 PM: Watched today’s episode of The Young and the Restless via the DVR.

09:20 PM: Watched tonight’s episode of NBC’s Nightly News broadcast via the DVR.

10:00 PM: Watched the Star Trek original series episode The Conscience of the King.

11:00 PM: Talked with [Emmy] and watched tonight’s episode of Hawaii Five-0 together on the phone.

11:10 PM: I’m heading to bed. Good night and do stop back tomorrow for more content. Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

None today.

Today’s Activities

Shower. DONE.
Cat duty. DONE. Cat duty involves cleaning the litter boxes, bagging the excess, feeding, and house cleaning cat dirt of all types.

Log

08:00 AM: I’m up.

08:15 AM: Facebooked for a bit. Friend count: 634 (unchanged). Fan count: 113 (unchanged).

09:00 AM: ‎2.3 miles on the treadmill today, at 4.0 MPH, 460 vertical feet, 4.0% incline (unchanged), 70 degrees F room temperature, for 36 minutes, 403 calories burned, with heart rate peaking at 149 BPM for walk / workout 13 of 130 in 2012.

10:00 AM: Read about how best to target profitable keywords in an effort to increase revenues from my blogs.

10:45 AM: Leaving now to visit Mom. Back later.

03:40 PM: I’m back home. Mom was very tired and slept through practically our entire visit. However, we did manage to watch The Young and the Restless. But I’m not sure if she saw very much of it.

04:30 PM: Posted the Tom’s Views –> Best Slow Dance Wedding Songs piece.

07:20 PM: Watched tonight’s episode of NBC’s Nightly News broadcast via the DVR.

11:00 PM: Talked with [Emmy].

11:10 PM: I’m heading to bed. Good night and do stop back tomorrow for more content. Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

None today.

Today’s Activities

Shower. DONE.
Cat duty. DONE. Cat duty involves cleaning the litter boxes, bagging the excess, feeding, and house cleaning cat dirt of all types.
Wash (2) loads of pending laundry. DONE.

Log

06:50 AM: I’m up.

07:05 AM: Facebooked for a bit. Friend count: 633 (unchanged). Fan count: 113 (unchanged).

07:45 AM: Leaving now with sister Jojo to visit Mom and to perform some shopping. Back later.

09:00 AM: We’ve finished shopping at Wal Mart. I just picked up some fresh fruit, more Sogave! flavored agave nectar, some milk, and margarine.

11:00 AM: Next we stopped at the Good Will and Salvation Army stores, to look for some warm sweaters and sweatshirts for Mom. We found eight of these for her and paid less than thirty dollars. Hey, I love deals like this; particularly since, with Mom now in the nursing home, she has very little money to spend on clothing.

03:00 PM: We visited with Mom for the past hour. One of her close friends surprised us by stopping in as well, and she talked with Mom for nearly a half-hour. Now, we’re attending a birthday celebration for a few of the other residents, in the main dining room.

04:15 PM: We’re heading home now. Mom was in a pretty good mood and wide awake.

04:25 PM: I’m back home. Sister Jojo inspected my installation of the curtains here in the office and gave it a thumbs-up.

04:30 PM: Nap time. Back later.

07:30 PM: I’m up again.

08:15 PM: Posted the Tom’s Views –> Terro Liquid Ant Baits Review piece. Perhaps it’s due to the warm winter weather we’re experiencing this year. But many small ants appeared the other day in my kitchen and bathroom. So I purchased today a package of four of these Terro Liquid Ant Baits. I’ve used these before and found them to work exceedingly well.

10:00 PM: Read about search engine optimization. Hopefully I can find something in this voluminous information that will cause much more traffic to be driven to my blogs.

11:00 PM: Talked with [Emmy].

11:10 PM: I’m heading to bed. Good night and do stop back tomorrow for more content. Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

No deliveries of any kind received today.

Today’s Activities

Shower. DONE.
Cat duty. DONE. Cat duty involves cleaning the litter boxes, bagging the excess, feeding, and house cleaning cat dirt of all types.
Wash (1) load of pending laundry. DONE.

Log

07:30 AM: I’m up.

07:45 AM: Facebooked for a bit. Friend count: 632 (unchanged). Fan count: 113 (unchanged).

09:30 AM: Finished filling the two hollow columns between the windows in the office here with concrete, in the hopes that this will add enough mass to the entire wall, to reduce its readiness to vibrate when loud vehicles go by outside. It’s somewhat quieter definitely. Still not quite enough however.

09:40 AM: Leaving now with sister Jojo to visit Mom and to do a small bit of shopping. Back later.

10:15 AM: We stopped at Dunkin’ Donuts for our usual coffee.

11:30 AM: Next, we stopped at the PA Wine & Spirits store, where I purchased a few bottles of spirits to stock my mini bar at home (strictly for when friends visit me.) *evil grin*

01:00 PM: We enjoyed lunch at Jack & Georges today. I got a baked Italian sub. Half I ate now, and the other half I’ll take home for supper tonight.

03:00 PM: We then went back to the nursing home to continue our visit with Mom, now that she’s out of bed and more awake than when we first arrived this morning.

03:30 PM: I’m home. We found on this visit, that Mom doused her cell phone in water. It will not power up now. Hopefully, it will work again once left to dry out over the weekend.

04:00 PM: Nap time. Back later.

06:00 PM: I’m awake again.

07:00 PM: Installed the other Honeywell RLV310a thermostat that I purchased at Lowe’s yesterday in the upstairs office. No unusual difficulties encountered.

08:30 PM: Unmounted the baseboard electric heater in the bedroom upstairs, took it to the basement, and inserted eight sheet metal screws at some of the places where one piece of metal rubs against another. This definitely quieted most of the pings and bangs observed in this heater before. However, it did not reduce the hum at all; nor did I expect that it would actually. There are four more sites that might be vibrating excessively that I did not discover until after I’d reinstalled the heater. So sometime in the near future, I’ll bind those with sheet metal screws as well.

07:45 PM: Watched today’s episode of The Young and the Restless via the DVR.

08:10 PM: Watched tonight’s episode of NBC’s Nightly News via the DVR.

09:00 PM: Tried lubricating all the metal-on-metal joints in the upstairs bedroom electric baseboard heater, in an effort to reduce the clanking, pinging, and squeaking that occurs each time the heater comes on and goes off. I noted some improvement. However, none of the oils and greases I tried seemed to last very long before these noises returned. So I’m looking for a more effective and permanent solution.

10:00 PM: Again, tonight, I hung out in the upstairs bedroom, iPodding, and observing the heater operation under the control of the new Honeywell RLV310A thermostat that I installed yesterday. I may have to replace the heater with a quieter unit. The only question is: Which heaters are in fact quieter? Which baseboard units hum less, and ping and bang less? Recent reading indicates that a hydronic heater just might be what I’m looking for.

11:00 PM: Talked with [Emmy]. She said that she received this years application forms for this summer’s camp sessions from Beacon Lodge. Neither of us plan on attending this year.

11:55 PM: Watched selected scenes from the movie The Day After via my DVD player. While I cannot honestly say that I like this movie very much, I find myself watching the scenes over and over where the US military is preparing the missiles and air force for war.

12:00 AM: I’m heading to bed. Good night and do stop back tomorrow for more content. Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

No mail or other deliveries today.

Today’s Activities

Shower. DONE.
Cat duty. DONE. Cat duty involves cleaning the litter boxes, bagging the excess, feeding, and house cleaning cat dirt of all types.

Log

07:00 AM: I’m up.

07:10 AM: Facebooked for a bit. Friend count: 628 (up one). Fan count: 113 (down one).

07:50 AM: Leaving now for shopping and to visit Mom with sister Jojo. Today’s shopping schedule: Wal Mart, Dunkin’ Donuts, JC Penney for more drapes for Mom’s house, Gabriel Brothers to see if they have any more cheap iPod accessory cables, and we will stop at Lowe’s to pick up a bag of setting type joint compound for a new plaster surface coat on the north wall, around the window in the workout room. Back later.

10:15 AM: We stopped at Dunkin’ Donuts for our weekly coffee, and met there one friend of sister Jojo’s. The two of them used to work together twenty years ago. There were also others that Jojo’s friend knew there. Apparently there’s a whole group of them that meet at Dunkin’ Donuts each week (or more often perhaps). I sure miss dining with my Philly friends each weekend. It was such a pleasant, rejuvenating tradition.

11:00 AM: We then went to Gabriel brothers. Jojo wanted to check out some furniture and any bargains on snack foods they might be offering today, and I wanted to check out the low-priced iPod accessory cables I’ve seen there often.

01:00 PM: While Mom was being cleaned up and dressed, sister Jojo and I ate lunch at Jack and George’s restaurant. She had a Buffalo chicken salad while I munched on a Philly cheese steak sub. Yum.

02:15 PM: After lunch, we returned to the nursing home and sat with Mom for an hour or so. Her spirits were normal to high, and she felt pretty good over all today.

02:30 PM: I’m back home. Got all known-to-be-needed supplies for the plaster repair project in the workot room, as well as groceries for the upcoming week.

03:15 PM: I bought twelve more panels of Light Shield drapes for the first floor office (requires six panels), the workout room east door (requires four panels) from JC Penney, along with rails from which to hang them. I also bought two panels for the last window requiring drapes in the downstairs bedroom. Ten of the twelve panels they did not have in stock. So we placed a catalog order for them. They’ll be delivered to my door sometime next week.

03:00 PM: Nap time. Back later.

05:00 PM: I’m awake again.

05:45 PM: Watched today’s episode of The Young and the Restless via the DVR.

06:35 PM: Watched today’s episode of Dr. Phil via the DVR, called Inside the Powell Family Tragedy.

07:20 PM: Watched tonight’s episode of NBC’s Nightly News broadcast via the DVR.

09:00 PM: I ironed and then hung the two panels of drapes on the last window that requires them in the first floor bedroom. No unusual problems encountered. However, I wish they’d make the wall anchors that came with the curtain rails a little stronger; they often become compressed when driving them into the specified sized hole drilled for them. Either they should fashion them out of metal (like the old-time toggle bolts), or specify a bigger hole. Fortunately, I was able to straighten out both of the ones that bent on me.

09:15 PM: Installed one of the surge protectors I bought this week on the microwave oven to reduce the size of any voltage spikes that this appliance might be injecting onto the power line when turned on and off.

10:00 PM: Recorded in my audio journal for the past 45 minutes.

11:00 PM: Talked with [Emmy].

11:15 AM: I’m heading to bed. Good night and do stop back tomorrow for more content. Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

None today.

Today’s Activities

Shower. DONE.
Cat duty. DONE. Cat duty involves cleaning the litter boxes, bagging the excess, feeding, and house cleaning cat dirt of all types.
Wash (3) loads of pending laundry. DONE.
Pay (4) pending bills. DONE.

Log

08:30 AM: I’m up.

08:45 AM: Facebooked for perhaps ten minutes. Friend count: 631 (up one). Fan count: 113 (unchanged).

08:50 AM: It’s been one year today since Mom stopped residing here. She had to go to the hospital on Super Bowl night in 2011 while arrangements were made for her to live at the nursing home where she now lives. After one full year, I’m still feeling a bit empty. I still love her house. But it’s not quite the same now that neither her nor Dad live here. Those two, along with Mom’s parents before them, really made this place come alive with all sorts of wonderful memories and comfortable feelings of warmth and safety. I still miss them all.

01:30 PM: Washed all pending laundry; most of which, again, is for Mom. I’m visiting her tomorrow and will take her these cleaned clothes then.

02:30 PM: Watched today’s episode of The Young and the Restless via the DVR.

02:40 PM: Scheduled a ride to Lowe’s home improvement center for the day after tomorrow, to buy some plaster (setting type joint compound) and associated tools for repairing the cracked and separating plaster on the north wall in my workout room.

03:00 PM: Worked various tasks in the office today, including paying all pending bills and filling out my 2011 federal income tax forms.

03:50 PM: Watched today’s episode of Dr. Phil via the DVR, called The Girl in the Closet.

04:40 PM: Watched today’s episode of The Young and the Restless via the DVR.

05:35 PM: Watched the 2012-01-29 episode of CBS’s 60 Minutes weekly in-depth news show via the DVR.

06:00 PM: Cooked an acorn squash for 8 minutes in the microwave oven for supper. I added some pasta sauce to it after microwaving was complete. This dish was okay. However, I didn’t like it as much as the spaghetti squash I made last week. Rather bland this one was, and it might have been a bit softer had I cooked it for a few extra minutes.

09:50 PM: Conducted a sound experiment where I put up two layers of curtains on the two living room windows in the north west corner where my TV sits, to see if two sets would reduce the road noise from outside any more than one. While there may have been a slight additional attenuation of the unwanted sounds, it was not enough to justify paying an additional $90 per window to add the second layer. So I took the second layer back down (two windows worth of curtains), and put them up on a window in my downstairs bedroom, and the last un-draped window in the living room. Now, all windows that have drapes again have only one layer of drapes.

10:00 PM: Watched tonight’s edition of NBC’s Nightly News broadcast via the DVR.

11:00 PM: Talked with [Emmy]. We watched tonight’s episode of Hawaii Five-0.

11:20 PM: I’m heading to bed. Good night and do stop back tomorrow for more content. Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

None today.

Today’s Activities

Shower. DONE.
Cat duty. DONE. Cat duty involves cleaning the litter boxes, bagging the excess, feeding, and house cleaning cat dirt of all types.

Log

09:30 AM: I’m up.

09:45 AM: Facebooked for a bit. Friend count: 630 (up one). Fan count: 113 (unchanged).

12:00 PM: Continued the cellar organization effort.

01:00 PM: I recently learned at my last blood donation that my blood pressure is still on the high side at 140 / 86. So I’m cutting back on my sodium intake, and will probably resume logging my daily readings in a couple weeks. I’m scheduled for a doctor’s appointment in March to further evaluate this disconcerting situation, and if I can’t

04:15 PM: Worked on the peeling and cracked plaster problem on the window in the workout room (formerly Mom’s sitting room). I removed more loose plaster around the bottom half of the window and noticed a couple of deep cracks in the plaster substrate. Those must be repaired before applying a new surface coat over the “brown and sand” layer of plaster underneath. The cracks appear to be due to normal shifting of the whole house; none of the plaster has come loose from the laths (wood strips behind it). This week, I plan on removing the remainder of the loose plaster, and to buy some setting type joint compound, tools, tape, and any other supplies required to repair this wall.

04:20 PM: Heading to sister Christine’s with nephew Garrett to watch the Superbowl. Back later.

10:15 PM: I’m home again. The New York Giants beat the New England Patriots this time, 21 to 17; quite an upset given that the Patriots went into the Super Bowl with a 13 and 3 record while the Giants barely made 500 on the season at 9 wins and 7 losses.

11:00 PM: Talked with [Emmy].

11:15 PM: I’m heading to bed. Good night and do stop back tomorrow for more content. Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

No mail or other deliveries on Sundays.

Today’s Activities

Shower. DONE.
Cat duty. DONE. Cat duty involves cleaning the litter boxes, bagging the excess, feeding, and house cleaning cat dirt of all types.

Log

07:00 AM: I’m up.

07:10 AM: Facebooked for a bit. Friend count: 628 (up one). Fan count: 113 (down one).

07:50 AM: Leaving now for shopping and to visit Mom with sister Jojo. Today’s shopping schedule: Wal Mart, Dunkin’ Donuts, JC Penney for some drapes for the house here, and the last stop will be Lowe’s to pick up a couple 40-pound bags of cement for filling in the hollow window columns here in my office. Back later.

03:00 PM: I’m back home. Got the tools and a couple surge protectors besides.

03:15 PM: I bought four sets of Light Shield drapes for the living room and workout room from JC Penney, along with rails from which to hang them. I’m going to spend much of the rest of today installing the drapery rails, ironing the new curtains, and hanging them.

07:00 PM: Thawed and enjoyed the last of the buckwheat pancakes I made last Monday. Delicious.

08:30 PM: I’ve put up three of the four curtain rails, ironed the curtains, and hung them up. They look very good, as the match well the rest of Mom’s decor in the living room. Unfortunately, the window in the sitting room has some plaster damage around it. So this must be repaired before putting up the rail on this window. Therefore, I’ll put this rail and the curtains that go with it in my bedroom. Then once I fix the plaster in the sitting room, I’ll buy some curtains and a rail for in there.

Posted a picture of two of the newly decorated windows on Facebook; the windows beside my television.

10:00 PM: Listened to my iPod Touch in front of one of the newly decorated windows in the living room while enjoying a couple ounces of gin. Pleasant.

11:00 PM: Talked with [Emmy].

11:15 AM: I’m heading to bed. Good night and do stop back tomorrow for more content. Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

None today.

Today’s Activities

Shower. DONE.
Cat duty. DONE. Cat duty involves cleaning the litter boxes, bagging the excess, feeding, and house cleaning cat dirt of all types.

Log

06:30 AM: I’m up.

06:45 AM: Facebooked for a bit. Friend count: 627 (unchanged). Fan count: 114 (unchanged).

07:15 AM: The fellows from Window World just arrived to replace seven more windows here on the first and second floors.

09:30 AM: So far, the Window World technicians have finished replacing one window; the one in Mom’s old sitting room.

10:00 AM: Just heard from Mom’s cardiologist. They want her to run a test of her pace maker. So I’ll take the kit up to the nursing home later this week to do that. Hopefully, this test apparatus will work on their phone lines up there. I have concern that those lines are not analog ones. However, they tell me that there are some analog lines available. We just have to find them.

10:40 AM: Posted the Easy Spaghetti Squash Recipe piece.

10:45 AM: The two bedroom windows on the second floor have now been replaced. Also, the first of three windows in the living room is done as well.

11:15 AM: The second of the three living room windows has now been replaced.

11:55 AM: The bathroom window has now been replaced.

12:10 PM: All seven windows in this project installment have now been replaced.

12:00 PM: While the Window World technicians busied themselves with the above-mentioned project, I worked on administering and catching up on this blog.

01:45 PM: Watched today’s episode of The Young and the Restless via the DVR.

03:30 PM: I put approximately 50 more pounds of cement in the hollow columns between windows 1 and 2, and windows 2 and 3 here in my first floor office. This should add lots of mass to that wall and thus, stop it from vibrating and thereby transmitting more road noise from the west yard into here. However, I won’t know just how effective this strategy will be until I completely fill those columns and completely seal the extra piece of inner glass I’ve added to these windows. Lots of sound can enter through very small holes, and with this glass not being sealed entirely, there are many gaps. I’m sure that the traffic noise is finding its way in here through each and every one of those gaps.

05:00 PM: Listened to my iPod Touch while walking around the house, checking out the new windows. Love them.

05:45 PM: Watched the 2012-01-30 episode of Dr. Phil, called Unforgivable Acts?

06:35 PM: Watched the 2012-01-31 episode of Dr. Phil, called What Were You Thinking?

07:25 PM: Watched the 2012-02-01 (today’s) episode of Dr. Phil, called Double Trouble: Violent Twins.

10:00 PM: Watched tonight’s edition of NBC’s Nightly News broadcast via the DVR.

11:00 PM: Talked with [Emmy].

11:15 AM: I’m heading to bed. Good night and do stop back tomorrow for more content. Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

None yet.

May 2012
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