Of #Ocean Views, Medical Mutterings, Weather Reports, Home Repairs, #HarryPotter Boxes, And #Crafting

The photo at the top of this post is one we took of the ocean this past Sunday (March 10th). Here's a short video taken around the same time, for those who might want to hear it too:







Well, I'm doing a lot better. I'm still a bit sore, but nothing like I was. I can sit up for a long time now without it hurting, and have been able to reduce the amount of painkilers I'm taking. I wish I could have stopped them completely by now, but I'm getting closer to that point at least, which is something.

By the way, just because I can, here's a photo of the get well card my Dad and Nan sent me, which I didn't get a chance to have Kelly sort a photo of until now, but wanted to share:


Anyway, as it turns out, it's just as well I'm doing so much better really, since it's unexpectedly been a week filled with workmen doing repairs around here, and looks to be a similar week this week. At least, assuming the weather continues to co-operate, since they keep talking about storms. So far the storms have been good about coming at night most of the time though, so I get to enjoy listening to them - the parts I don't sleep through anyhow - but they aren't stopping the guys from doing the work.

Naturally, Lilie liked that the repair guys were here at first. That is, until she realised they were here to work, and not to play with her. Lilie loves people, so she's happy they greet her when they see her. But, if she had her way, they'd spend more time giving her attention, and less time working. Good thing Lilie's not in charge of them, isn't it? *wink*

So, they got the keys from the new downstairs neighbour, at last, and were finally able to fix the buzzer thingy. Well, mostly, which I'll explain in a moment. Anyway, it was, as we suspected, because of what nasty neighbour had done before she left that it was completely broken. She had jammed the button on the handset in that apartment so well it kept sticking. They actually had to replace the handset for that apartment because of the button sticking as fast as they freed it. So it works again now. Finally! At least, the part where we can let people in to the building works. The speaker... That's where the problem lies. You see, we thought that part was fixed too. Even tested it with the guy who fixed it, and everyone could hear each other. Except then the speaker stopped working again, which we only discovered because we got a delivery on Saturday and they couldn't hear us telling them to come in. They were able to because the button to open the door worked, and they pushed it when they heard the buzz, but they hadn't heard Kelly speak. We'll have to let the guys know when they're back this week that the speaker part isn't as fixed as we thought. It's progress though. At least we no longer have to try and get down to the main door before the postman gets bored of waiting to be let in to the building. That's a good start.

They're coming back this week because they're doing some other work around here too, including some work on the roof. Now they're doing the work on the roof, maybe they'll actually get the issue where it keeps raining in the downstairs hallway properly resolved. The guys who came before were only fixing the inside part of the problem. These guys are actually doing the outside repairs too, so there's hope. Plus, we know they're working hard, since we're running a cable out for the electric for them to be able to run their tools, so we'd know what time they arrive and leave even if we couldn't hear them working. Let's hope they keep it up.

Also, we discovered when Kelly went up in the attic to rescue the pigeon that the skylight up there is broken. We suspect it has been for a while, since it would explain why it's so drafty that side of the apartment, regardless of how warm the rest is. We don't go up in the attic, which is why we never noticed. Kelly only went up there that day because Lilie and I heard the pigeon, and he braved a trip up there to verify what it was, and try to rescue it. It turned out not to need rescuing, since it got out the way it got in. But it was good he went up there, because that's how we found out the skylight was broken. Although, the guys might have noticed while they're up on the roof. Either way, they'll be fixing that too. They plan to do it this week, as long as the weather isn't too nasty for them to be able to go up there, since they need to fix it from the outside, which means them being four stories up on the side of the building facing the ocean. I don't envy them that task, and certainly don't blame them for saying they're not coming to do that on a stormy day.

Oh, and they're going to put a couple of rails up in the bathroom for us. The occupational therapist finally got in touch, but they're the "emergency response" team, and since I'm now at the point where I can move enough that I don't need one of their bath chairs - especially since it will have been six weeks since my surgery by the time they could get me one - and they'd have to ask the landlords about doing some rails in the bathroom apparently anyhow (there's no rail to grab to steady yourself when you get out of the bath at the moment) we politely told them to forget it. We wanted them for help when I was first out of hospital. What that team can do for me it's a bit late for now. I thought they'd likely be too late when we got the letter saying I was going on their waiting list. As it turns out, we've got a couple of rails we were given, which we already know the landlords are happy for us to put up, but nobody got around to putting up, so we've asked the repair guys to do them. In all fairness, the repair guys did ask if there was anything else we had that needed doing. We figured it wouldn't hurt to mention those, and they said they'd do them. In theory that's going to happen this week too. The occupational therapist asked if there was anything else they could help with as well, but there's nothing else they handle that we need help with, so I told them no.

Anyway, let's hope these repair guys do follow through, and the work they promised to do does get done... Preferably soon, like they said it would. So far they've been great workers... Much better than most of the guys the landlords have had do stuff around here in the past. But we'll see what ends up happening in the longterm. If nothing else, at least the buzzer thingy now mostly works. I mean, that's an improvement to start with.

Although, I notice there's still nobody talking about when the windows will get replaced, even though that's something we've been promised for a couple of years now. Maybe I should mention those when the guys are around this week...

In other news...

My February Harry Potter box arrived right at the end of February, like it's meant to. But I didn't get a chance to have Kelly sort photos of the contents for me to post about it last week. So I'm doing it this week instead.

Inside was an owl wand...


A deer picture...


A t-shirt with the animals that are the symbols for the Hogwarts houses on it...


Some chocolate frog tea...


A butterscotch bath bomb...


And an ornamental golden egg...


Just thought I'd share photos of it all, for the benifit of those of you who like to know what's in my boxes.

Lastly, I haven't finished the owl I'm stitching yet, because I haven't really been working on it. I have managed to sort out a photo of the elephant for you though, like I said last week I'd try to do, so here it is:


And that's my week in a nutshell. Well, actually, that's my week in a blog post, but let's not be technical. *wink*