Wednesday, December 10, 2025

I have felt pretty happy looking forward to Christmas this year so far but I wonder how it will feel up north when it is different again. We hosted it for 20 years, then my SIL did it on Cape Cod for the next 10. All the family on that side gathered together every year. But last year we went to my nephew's home (SIL's son). We had to travel, stay in a hotel, and the gathering was mostly his wife's family. We felt welcome but it was weird. This year will be similar but with a different family: traveling, staying in a hotel, and gathering at my daughter's home where more of the guests will be from her husband's side than from ours. I guess that's why we are losing our energy to go north at Christmas.

Going to the dentist is not fun but necessary. I feel relieved whenever I get a cleaning where they don't find anything (which just happened). Likely that the next one will involve replacing a filling at minimum.

120.6, down a bit more. I too was productive in the bathroom!

New cut and color look nice. She did my color a little more choppy, but I like it!

Put together a pool area storage basket and got a vanity chair that still needs to be put together and my coffee/tea bar came today and needs to be hung!

New residents meeting tonight. It will take a bit to get used to all the HOA rules. You can't do anything to the exterior of your home or landscaping without prior approval, even putting in a new plant or changing the lights on your garage door or putting a garden gnome or sports team flag is a no no!

Similar! Ours says, "When in doubt, fill it out! Touch the form before you touch your house..."

Once you get involved in the community the HOA rules will become more familiar because people will talk about what they did. CC's rule is a good one. You don't want to inadvertently get in trouble and have to backtrack on something you do to your home/yard.

Good find on the hairdresser!

Not a busy day here. Kirby and I walked and I went to the hardware store for one of those vent diverter things so that the air from a floor vent doesn't go straight up. I moved a plant and it happens to be over a vent, so I thought this would keep the heat from drying it out. And my friend who is on a trip to the German Christmas markets asked if I would stop by and grab some packages from her porch. I got passed by several rescue vehicles so someone had an accident hiking somewhere by me. That's fairly regular unfortunately. The other night they had to pluck two people off a cliff on Capital Butte in the dark with a helicopter when they made a wrong turn and got stuck. If you live here, you don't pay for your rescue (ambulance, helicopter, etc). (Part of the property taxes, Peps!) If you're a tourist, you do. So get travel insurance before coming to Sedona if you're accident prone!

I took the convertible today as it was 72 and blindingly sunny. Still unseasonably warm and dry in the west. Darned La Nina.

The materials for the roof deck replacement came today and they start framing tomorrow. The roof has gotten 2 coats of silicone.

I tried to touch up the paint on one of the walls where Anna moved a mirror and it looks patchy, dammit. So I'm going to have to paint the whole wall. Grrr. I don't even like where the mirror is now, but it's so heavy it took 2 people to move it, so I'm stuck with it for the moment. And that's a much bigger wall that would need repainting.

Kirby send his love and licks to all..

Ps Diane does tha****er stiff help with lip bacteria? His teeth are still pretty, I think it's coming from his lip folds and jowls.

What a pain that a touch up is turning into wall painting! I have painted kitchen cabinets for which I had paint custom matched so I could do touch ups. It works fine on small places at the edge of doors but the front of the trash drawer needs to be fully painted as it has a drip mark down it. But the sheen of the paint is just a little bit different so I am afraid to do it. I did read that I could scuff it a bit with fine steel wool but what if it still looks different?

Someone working on my house left a paint stir stick in the paint bucket and it rotted my original paint. So I had to get more mixed for touch ups, but it's just enough different that you can see it from certain angles. Grr!!!!

That's what I'm afraid of if I paint that one cabinet front. The other touch-ups I have needed were on edges or other not obvious places.