December 11 - 16, 2024 - Surgery Coverage Denied - Pictures Hung - Motion Sensors - Shed Roof - Parade & Party

MY BLOG REFLECTION

Time and good friends are two things that become more valuable the older you get.

December 10, 2024

Celina came over for a supper of leftover spaghetti and garlic bread. Even as a leftover Kelly's spaghetti is fabulous. After supper we played Rummikub. I lost all three games. Celina won all three games. I quit, the two ladies played on. I can only sit still so long.

December 11, 2024

I was notified today that my sinus surgery has been denied coverage by UNITED HEALTH CARE. Imagine that. I went online and filed an appeal. Now I wait.

Some good news today is an inspection of the A/C system indicated everything is in perfect order. The company ran a special to check it all out for $35.00. I couldn't pass it up even though the whole system is only two years old. Of course he wanted to sell me a five year maintenance plan. I declined.

In the hall we then hung up three pictures that Alexa found for us. They are made out of paper and are three-dimensional. I painted the frames black to contrast with the off-white walls.

I ordered red decals for the sides of Buster. He needs a little color to jazz him up. This is intended to be my last work on Buster. LOL 

December 14, 2024

Both closet lights are turned on by pulling a chain. Old school for sure. I ordered motion sensors the other day. The sensors arrived and I installed them. They work great. No more fumbling around in the dark trying to find the chain. (Life is hard.)

I also ordered a different type of motion sensor for the inside shed. I am in and out of it many times a day and often with a handful of tools, etc. I installed a sensor but it was dead on arrival. I will send it back to Amazon. I ordered a different type but I will have to run some wire for it to work when it arrives.

As soon as the dew dried off I got on the project of painting the outside shed roof. It really needed it. Here is a before picture. Very rusty. I am using a thick white roof coating material. I read the directions and it said that no primer is necessary.

The roof is made of a very light weight tin which clearly can not support my weight. If I even lean on it with my fist it dents. I screwed a stick onto the brush handle to be able to reach the middle sections of the roof. It worked better than I had hoped since it doesn't have to be perfect. Here are pictures of the first coat. I have to wait 24 hours before applying a second coat. It may even need three coats if I have enough paint. The first coat took a lot less than half a gallon. 

There is some surface rust on the shed walls so when the roof is finished I will paint the shed walls to match the house.  I hate paying $80.00 for a gallon of paint but it won't get any cheaper so I may as well do it now.

In anticipation of the Golf Cart Parade I aired up all the tires on the cart. All four were low but none were flat when we arrived so that is great.

I joined the Theater Club as a technical worker. At 3:00 p.m. there was a dress rehearsal for the acts performing at the Christmas Party following the Golf Cart Parade tomorrow. There are two other sound and light guys who have been doing it for a while and it was clear they wanted to do it all, which is fine. Since I had volunteered they threw me a bone and assigned me to cue up one song on my computer. My computer was bluetoothed to the speaker system so it was an easy setup. 

December 15, 20204

I put a second coat of roof coating on the shed. I was disappointed to see that, being latex, it drew some tiny rust spots out of the roof. I'm hoping this second coat solves that issue. Here is a picture. The second coat looks much better. It will need a third coat.

At 5:30 p.m. we lined up for the Christmas Golf Cart Parade. There were thirty participants so the line was over a block long. Here are some pictures.

Kelly and Celina waiting by our cart for it to get dark so we could take off winding our way through all the streets of the community.

After the parade everyone headed to the clubhouse for the Christmas Party sponsored by the the Theater Club. The party started with three "acts". The first was Donna reciting a Christmas poem she had written. She is very talented with words. I couldn't get a better picture from my work station.

The second act was the Golden Gate Line Dancers. The other sound guy couldn't get their song cued up after multiple tries so the leader of the group had her husband bluetooth it from her phone. Here is a clip I got off the Facebook page. Some of these ladies are in their eighties. Not bad.

Because of my task of cueing up the music for the third "act" I wasn't able to get a picture of them. The act was three ladies  with decorated pillow cases over their heads dancing to "The Cha-Cha Slide Dance". I kid you not. I couldn't find where anyone else took a photo either. Too bad. LOL

After the acts finished talent clips from past Christmas Shows were projected onto two large screens. Unfortunately with the crowd noise no one could hear any of it. We didn't know any of the people in the clips so it didn't mean anything to us. 

The event was well-attended. Everyone brought their own drinks and the club provided popcorn, pretzels, and chips.

Sharon snapped a picture of the three of us hanging out at our table.

 

Of course Santa made an appearance. He greeted the adults as well as a few grandchildren present.

December 16, 2024

Over the weekend I received an email from United Health Care stating that they had reconsidered my sinus surgery and approved it. The doctor's office was already scheduled to call me today. Hopefully we can get it scheduled soon. This morning we are off to see Kelly's new cardiac doctor. It seems like we spend a lot of time seeing doctors while we are here. 

This afternoon I will probably put a third coat on the shed roof because rain is moving in soon.