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It wasn’t for me as I spent a miserable night wide awake and trying to get comfortable with sciatic pain.
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I’m never sure how I tweak that particular nerve, but boy it lets me know when I do.
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Rolling out of bed this morning was a slow painful process…
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But I definitely had a gorgeous view.
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I’m off to sit on an ice pack and crunch some Tylenol.
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Hope your day is starting a little better.
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The day finally arrived, as did the supposed window expert.
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We’d had rain, sleet and snow in the morning but by the time he showed up at 2:30 it was just wet and cold.
After a thorough exterior examination with our contractor, the inspection moved inside.
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Measurements were taken, levels were checked…
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Pieces and parts were removed and given a complete going over.
The result?
A determination that the windows themselves weren’t square and one was 3/16ths off plumb. Which is what we told them a month ago.
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Pictures were taken for the report and we were left with two options.
1. Completely new sashes could be ordered for four out of the five windows. This would take at least 7-8 weeks with no guarantee they would be any better than these.
2. A complete refund could be requested and 5 new windows ordered from a different company… which will also take 7-8 weeks.
I can’t stress how much of an inconvenience this has been and will continue to be. Either option will force our contractor to be installing windows in January.
In Maine.
Grrr… not to mention brrr.
We’ve decided to go with door #2 and will be heading over to the store later today to argue for a full refund and begin the entire window selection process again.
Needless to say I’m not looking forward to it.
😡
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As you know, I’m all about the creative cocktails. Infusions? Yes.
Fresh herbs and dried fruit? Perfect.
But lately I’ve noticed a disturbing trend toward absurdly over sugared, cake and cookie rimmed dessert in a glass concoctions and I think they’re getting a little out of hand.
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Enough already. Sitting at a bar shouldn’t rot your teeth. Your liver, sure. But no one needs a vodka driven cavity.
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Do not f*ck with the British.
🤣
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Pot is legal in Maine and has been for a few years. Stores have popped up everywhere and while that’s hard enough to get used to…. I had to laugh at this flyer I saw the other day. It was distributed by the government who apparently have an “Office of Cannabis Policy”. My teenage self… who went to great lengths to hide her stash… is silently chortling that a free lunch is provided. At least they know their audience.
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The required photo of Lord Dudley Mountcatten, just because.
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The Marvin window specialist didn’t show up the day they were scheduled, which for once was a good thing. Our contractor is back in town now and thankfully will be meeting the rep at our house later this afternoon.
That’s the good news.
The bad news looks like this :
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Not exactly optimal window repair and/or extraction weather.
And while I feel sorry for our contractor… it seems like the expert is getting what he deserves for making us wait an entire month.
😈
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Though I live in the land of clam and haddock…. every once in a while I need to break the mold and stretch the chowder boundaries.
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So on a cold and windy day?
Shrimp and corn chowder is on the menu.
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And this new recipe I found?
Wow.
So thick and creamy you could eat it with a fork.
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I’d recommend using medium or small shrimp. I only had jumbo on hand and even cutting them in half made for more than a mouthful.
Yield: 4 small bowls or three large as pictured.
Not a lot, but trust me this is so rich you can only eat one. As a meal, not an appetizer.
😉
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Well, alright you could.
But I’m not, I swear.
When last I blogged about the bedroom renovation project from Hell, we’d decided to throw in the towel and get a full refund on the faulty custom built windows. Our contractor was going to handle that for us since they were purchased through him on his account. It’s not the route I wanted to take, but something had to be done.
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Yeah, I should have known it wouldn’t be that easy.
Our contractor attempted to get the refund and spent a half hour arguing with the sales rep before being bumped up to the manager who told him no refund could be made by the store until the Marvin window service expert approved it.
This is the expert for whom we’ve been waiting over three weeks and the reason my husband has smoke coming out his ears while he sputters about small claims court. They keep saying he’ll be here but he hasn’t shown yet.
After endless phone calls our contractor tentatively got a date to meet the service expert here and then… yes, you know there had to be a then…. then he had an unexpected death in the family and had to fly to Virginua.
Of course he did.
I expected nothing less.
Our contractor wants to be here because he knows if the expert tries to weasel out of a full refund they’ll blame him for faulty installation and he wants to defend himself. I want him to be here because while I know he tried everything to make the windows work… I don’t know exactly what steps he took.
So as it stands now… the expert is supposed to be here tomorrow, but our contractor won’t be, as his flight doesn’t get in until midnight.
I’m honestly hoping the expert is true to form and arrives a day or two late as I don’t want my husband to burst an artery arguing with the guy.
What a f’ing mess.
🥴
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I never used to be an early riser. When my husband and I were first married you’d rarely see me out of bed before 8:30.
Now that I’m older and hopefully wiser, I greet the dawn more often than not.
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It rarely disappoints.
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❤️
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Veterans Day is important… and in this house it does not go unrecognized.
Hitting the road with our flower bouquets early yesterday morning, we set out to visit my husband’s family.
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His father is buried in Maine’s largest Veteran cemetery.
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Lovely well kept grounds on the top of a hill…
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With mature trees and many places for peaceful reflection.
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The second family member we visited was my husband’s uncle who was buried just this summer at the new Maine Veterans cemetery.
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This setting is more traditional with endless rows of white headstones.
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Personal endearments are allowed at the bottom…
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Like the AKA Grump my husband’s cousin chose. Perfectly fitting as he was a lovable old grump.
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There’s something about walking through these lines of identical markers that shatters me every time. All those service members who sacrificed for their country.
It’s beautiful… and quite humbling.
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This airman made me smile. I hope he finds some coffee.
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Apparently Crown Royal was more to this soldier’s taste.
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Our final stop of the day wasn’t a Veterans cemetery, just a small country graveyard. Quite a few of the husband’s ancestors are buried here but we’d come to thank his other uncle who fought in WWII, Korea and Vietnam.
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It’s not often you find someone who saw all three.
💕
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Driving down Route 1 the other day we saw a leftover Halloween decoration.
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A very large leftover Halloween decoration.
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🤣
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Prices have gone up everywhere on everything. It’s nuts and no matter how much we bitch and complain there’s not really anything we can do about it except pay more… and bitch and complain.
This is me.
Bitching and complaining.
We live in Maine…a clean, beautiful, environmentally friendly state. We have returnable bottles and cans, a ban on plastic grocery bags and numerous recycling programs. You rarely see trash on the sides of the roads and while all that is wonderful it comes at a cost.
Like this one we just had to pay to dispose of a dead window air conditioning unit.
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Yikes.
And speaking of ridiculous charges?
When I reserved our rental car for the week long anniversary trip I planned… the price was $654.73.
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Until I got to the confirmation/pay page and it jumped to $911.39… a difference of $256.66. That’s one helluva lot of add ons.
Surcharges/Fees:
County Tax 5.00%:
Concession Recovery Fee
(11.11%)
Customer Facility Charge 5.00/
day:
Vehicle License Fee 4.00/day:
Taxes:
It’s the world we live in… but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.
😡
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River's world..... 