What a Weekend It Has Been

 Saturday afternoon I noticed a man walking past our windows facing the backyard. He had no insignia on his clothing. He carried an orange cable. I saw that he had parked a black car in front of my house that had no markings of any kind.

He went to the "utilities" boxes in the berm separating us from the backyards of the next block of condos. He used a trenching tool to bury the Xfinity line from my next-door-neighbor's condo. 

Shortly after, when my husband turned on the television to watch a sporting event, we had no cable connection thus we had no TV. (Since we have a smart TV, he discovered later he could watch a few things on YouTube.) I picked up the phone to call to report the problem and there was no dial tone, and it said no line on the phone window. 

Using a cell phone, we left a message to be passed on to the maintenance staff. Being a weekend, one has to go through the healthcare staff. We heard nothing back. Sunday night my husband emailed a message to the lady who oversees the maintenance requests. We heard from her this morning (Monday) that the request had been passed on. 

About 9 a.m. this morning two workers tried fixing the cut lines. It took them over 5 hours to restore the landline phone service to our condo quadplex. Around 3 p.m. they restored our television connection. We seem to be the only unit in the quadplex that lost TV service.  

This morning when my husband tried to view some news on the computer and check email, he could not. We had no internet connection. Since we had internet all yesterday, I guessed this was not related to the other problems but coincidental. I called my provider KC Connect this morning.

The retirement community worker was standing in our living room making sure our TV was OK when a truck from KC Connect arrived. Turns out the line going into our condo had been chewed through by an animal. It didn't take very long for the two internet company men to fix it. 

Finally, we are back to normal: we can view television, use the internet, and use the landline telephone. Feels good to be connected to the modern world once again in our routine way. We did check email on cell phones so we were not totally cut off.

Our home technology stopping at the same time. Made for a quiet weekend. I did get caught up on some magazine reading. Modern technology is great until it stops working, and you realize how much you use it. 

Fort Wayne Japanese Restaurant

 

Today I had a therapy session in Fort Wayne. My husband drove us there. There is a large lobby as you enter the building with a less busy section around the corner with comfortable chairs. Much quieter and less crowded than the PT waiting room. I finished early and decided to step over to this quiet lobby area to phone my husband. There he was! He had discovered this area also. He was starting to doze off. 

We had lunch at Asakusa Japanese Restaurant and Sushi Bar just north of Costco. We had eaten here once before but at least a year ago. 

There is a separate large menu for choosing sushi. You fill out an order on a paper left at the table which is taken to the bar so the sushi can be made fresh. We know very little about sushi other than California rolls; we did not order any. Instead, I ordered teriyaki chicken, and my husband ordered a bento box with tempura vegetables, Katsu chicken (panko crusted and fried), and shrimp. We knew our orders included rice, but we did not know broccoli and carrots were part of it. My teriyaki mentioned that the chicken would be on a bed of mushrooms, but my husband also ended up with mushrooms in his box.

The lunch orders included soup. The soup also had mushrooms. They must have a standing order for mushrooms from somebody.

When the waiter came to take away the empty soup bowls, he asked how we liked it. I told him I liked it very much and asked what it was called. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "Clear soup". We joined him in a laugh. Now that I am home and look at the menu on the website, it does say clear soup; but it also describes it as fish-based broth with tempura crumbs, mushrooms, and green onions. 

The food was good, but like much Japanese restaurant food it was high in sodium. We were busy gulping down water. 

We ended our outing with a stop at Costco. Busy, busy, busy! We did snag a parking spot not too far from the entrance. I dozed off some in the car on the way home. Now, I do not need an afternoon nap. 

A Little Exercise

 

I spent about an hour this morning weeding the plot next to my patio. Not strenuous exercise, but I did work up a sweat since I was in full sun.

Yesterday I took the Rolloy for a walk again. I went further this time. I enjoyed the beautiful peonies in bloom over by the Community Center. I sat down in the shade of a fir tree as I continued down the block. A rabbit crossed over right behind me, about 3 feet away. When I tried to get out my phone so I could take a photo, the rabbit hopped around the corner of a building. 

We are in for a stretch of really nice weather through next week. I hope to spend some time sitting in my rocker on the front porch enjoying the geraniums and the hanging pot of fuchsia.  No exercise in that, but it will make me happy. 

Hubby's Woodworking Projects

 

My husband's most recent woodworking projects have been building automotive vehicles using plans he borrowed from a friend. Above is a roadster with a jump seat.

Below is a vintage truck.

His current project is a bulldozer. He bought plans online from a toy company.

He is a skillful woodworker and good with small details. However, he has in the past built furniture and keepsake/jewelry boxes. 

He does his woodworking in a shop owned by our retirement community that is within walking distance of our condo. There are two other guys who use it regularly: another woodworker and a stained-glass designer.

 Right now, with our pleasant weather the overhead door is up. The workshop was previously a garage to which Grace Village added lots of electrical outlets, additional lighting and new flooring. There is air conditioning and heating so the shop can be used year-round. In the deep-freeze of January and February, the heat pump gets coated over sometimes and does not work efficiently. There can be some downtime then. 

My husband did considerable woodworking before retirement. It is nice to have a pleasant place to use and companions in retirement.