Reparations and Preparations

Heirlooms we don’t have in our family. But stories we’ve got.

The two main rooms that the kitties spend time in are linked by an internal window which I used to leave open for them. This was their main throughfare between the bedroom where we sleep and the entertainment room. As a result, we haven't been in the entertainment room for a few weeks. When I last went into that room I noticed that my girl cat thought it was a good idea to use the main wooden door as an upright scratching post. It's really naughty of her because she had a scratching post! So where is it? I searched high and low for it...ahhh ok; it got pushed under the bed. My bad, she couldn't get to it so went looking for a replacement.

• Inspected the door and determined that it wouldn't be too difficult to fix, it wasn't a massive amount of damage. Made a note to grab my electric sander when next visiting the storage unit which I collected and have had it here since. Yesterday it was one of the things on my to-do list so I plugged it in and it took all of twenty seconds to sand it down. Nice. Barely noticeable, I was happy with it. Closed the window and put a chair infront of that section of door to deter the little monster from doing it again. Took out a brand new cat scratcher and added it to her old one, now she has two. She was super stoked about that and scratched up a storm. Hopefully that will be the end of that issue.

• Got the kitchen light replaced a while ago after it had blown from continual load shedding. I had to call in a repairman for this because I'm too short and don't have access to a long enough ladder to have done it myself.

• Booked the cleaning company my sister normally uses to come and do a full house clean from top to bottom a few days before they arrive so that everything will _{(hopefully still)} be neat and tidy when they get here.

• Ordered a new DVD player to replace the one which has been irrevocably damaged needs to be opened and the head cleaned due to a little one's grubby little finger prints. Do you know how many shops we phoned and visited to try and find a DVD player head cleaning kit? We phoned 6 shops and we physically checked at least a further 5 before we were able to find one. I was like a kid in a candy shop when I finally got my hands on one, brought it home and I was so optimistic that it would work.... It didn't. I wasn't impressed. I was really hoping to save the equivalent of $45 USD but I own our breakages and take responsibility so a new one is now being shipped here.

• The pool also needed a new chlorinator. This trip was kinda fun as the shop had a few tanks of fishies that LL and I spent some time admiring. I haven't seen Blackmoor Goldfish since I was a kid. LL thought they were the weirdest looking creatures. She enjoyed it.
  When we got home we chucked the chlorinator into the pool and I also gave the bottom and the sides a good scrub with the pool brush. I'm hoping that the debris that got in with the last storm will be sucked up by the filter in the next few days. The water is still beautifully clear but there's a bit of sand and organic stuff that got in which I'm gonna have to get out again one way or another.

The last thing that I'd like to do before they arrive is change out the fused light bulb in the hallway (which I luckily don't need the ladder for and a chair will suffice) and then remove a light bulb in the bedroom where the glass bulb part had separated from the metal screw in section and was hanging from a little connecting wire, which is rather dangerous. I pulled the bulb part off previously, but I'm going to have to turn off the electrical mains for this job and might do it the next time that we have load shedding just to be extra safe. I'm going to need to unscrew it with a pair of pliers.

I've been washing all of the rugs in the house and just generally packing and organising things so that it's nice and neat when they arrive. I'm super excited to see them. It's been a bit lonely here just LL and I. I've missed my sister and our long conversations, cooking together, cleaning together, just being family together. It's so good having a big sis and it's only a week and a bit until they arrive. I can't wait.