Wednesday, May 28

Up around 7:30, and did stair stepping, resistance band, and weights exercises after breakfast. Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house mid-morning.

She has had a problem working her central heat/air controls. The thermostat is mounted on the wall too high for her to see the switch on top, which she likes to fiddle with it, even though Hubbie has set the unit for the season and showed her how to raise and lower the temperature with the switch on the side of the thermostat.

No matter how many times we have explained to her to just use that side switch and not try to mess with the one on top, she has ignored us and fiddled with the upper switch anyway, so that she ends up with the temperature in her house as hot as an oven, or as cold as a refrigerator.

I'm puzzled by this, since she seems able to raise and lower the temperature in the camper just fine by using the side switch and not trying to switch the thermostat from cool to heat or vice versa.

Anyway, we decided she needs a new, very simple, thermostat with the functions clearly marked, and she needs it mounted at her eye level. So Hubbie went to the heat/air shop to choose one. A guy is scheduled to come and mount it for her tomorrow morning. I hope this solves the problem.

While I got ready for the day, Mother went to her jigsaw puzzle. It was a this-and-that kind day for me today...just lots of little things that needed to be taken care of, like burning photos to a CD from my laptop, in an attempt to create more space, burning a CD of Great-Grandson's graduation, and boxing it, along with a package of photos and a 5x7 portrait to be sent to Granddaughter, printing coupons to a hobby store for a trip there later this week, completing this week's word search puzzle contest, etc.

Despite clearing out photos from my laptop, and doing a disk clean-up, the computer still indicates I'm low on space. Guess it gets to go to the computer shop.

Re: word search puzzle contest: this week's puzzle appeared in the Tuesday local newspaper edition, since the paper didn't publish Monday, due to the Memorial Day holiday. But when I tried to complete the puzzle, I couldn't find a single word for a while. When I did find a word, it had nothing to do with the puzzle list. So I checked today's paper, and sure enough, there was an apology and a puzzle correction.

Later, for lunch today, Mother had her usual Ramen noodle soup, and I made chef's salads for Hubbie and me.

Afterward, Hubbie called the number listed at the company website from which I bought an automatic jelly maker to ask how we could return the unit, since it is as defective as the one it replaced. He was told that since the unit was not returned within 60 days of purchase, their policy is to give store credit, rather than refund the purchase cost.

And to get that, I needed to go back to the website and access their contact page and give the reason for returning the unit. I'm supposed to get a response with one day, with instructions on how to return it.

At the contact page, I wrote a scathing memo, letting them know that this is the second defective unit I've received, and that I don't want another one. What I want is a refund, and if I don't get one, I will write a very unfavorable review of the product at the booksellers website from where I originally ordered the first jelly maker.

After all, a jelly maker is not something you use routinely, so it's not likely I would have discovered that the one I have was defective within 60 days. I used it once shortly after I first got it, and successfully made a batch of jelly. But when I tried again a couple of weeks ago, it didn't even heat. I ended up having to cook the strawberry jam on the stove.

Later, Hubbie did the honors of making French toast for our supper, so we could use the remainder of a loaf of white bread from Sunday's picnic at camp. With the French toast, we had a side of fried eggs, using fresh eggs from Sis's chickens. The syrup we used was some homemade jelly that didn't fully jell, mixed with sugar-free syrup and heated in the microwave.

Shortly after supper, Mother was ready to go home, so Hubbie accompanied her. Tonight I vowed to go put drops in Mother's eyes, since I forgot it last night.

Re: Mother: somehow, she has injured her left arm...she thinks she banged it against something. I discovered it was bothering her when I noticed she kept holding it with her right hand. She said it felt better when she applied pressure to it. She might have a hairline fracture. Anyway, Hubbie went to the store and got a self-adhesive bandage, which I put on her wrist. It makes her arm feel better.

While he was at the store, he checked the pharmacy to see if my prescription had been filled yet. It was called in before our camping trip. At that time, the pharmacy said they needed to contact the doctor, since the prescription fill date had expired. As of today, they had not heard from the doctor's office, they said.

So when Hubbie called to tell me this, I decided to call the doctor's office myself and light a fire, because I have only one pill left for tomorrow morning. I guess this worked, because in no time, the pharmacy called to say the prescription had been filled.

I have to wonder who is at fault for this, though, because it's not the first time I've had to call the doctor's office when the pharmacy claimed it hadn't received word to refill a prescription. But in the past, when I called, I learned the doctor's office had in fact contacted the pharmacy right away. This time, I left word with the nurse, but she didn't call back, so I don't know where the communication breakdown was.

Spent the evening watching "Bones" episodes.