Small Saturn Thinks Big

I said I wanted to do more to help the people affected by the hurrcane, beyond donating money and I got the chance. Last Friday I was asked by the head of the division I work for to pick up some medical supplies in my local area and deliver them to him in Indianapolis so he could get them sent on their way to help the hurricane victims. I jumped at the opportunity despite the smallness of my vehicle. When I arrived to pick up the med supplies the women just looked at my car and at all the boxes they had gathered up to send south. They didn't think I'd get half of them into my little Saturn. Well, I proved them wrong and got EVERY box in my car. It was nice to do something that I knew would become part of a bigger cache of med supplies that would travel south to help those in need.

And speaking of helping the hurricane survivors, someone I work with has been in Mississippi since a few days after the hurricane. She's a nurse and has been working hard for the past few weeks selflessly spending her time helping others.

I've been doing more home improvement projects lately, thanks to the handyman I called. He's never returned my calls and has saved me a lot of money. Over the weekend I installed my first ever storm door on the front door! Getting the door home was interesting. In the box it was too big to shove into my car via the trunk so we took it out of the box. It hung out over the trunk about a foot and all I had to secure the trunk lid was a bungee cord. I knew from previous experience that the trunk lid would go bouncy-bouncy all the way home so I folded up the box the door came in and shoved it between the glass and the trunk lid. Every time the trunk lid bounced I thought my mom was going to faint from fear the glass was going to shatter! The door made it home safe & sound and with my mom's help I actually installed my storm door and I have to say that it is PERFECT! *pats self on back*

My next project, thanks to the unhandy-man, was the trim around the outside of the french doors to the patio. The trim was rotting at the bottom and needed replaced before I install the new storm doors back there. The first piece of trim I removed was held on with screws. Easy. I took it off, sawed off a small piece and took it with me to the lumber store. Yes, I had to haul something else in my car that stuck out the back. The trim took a minor beating from the trunk but I knew I'd cut the top part of it off anyway so it didn't matter. Once I was ready to tackle this job I got out my trusty hand saw because I'm afraid if I use the power saw that I inherited from my dad that I'll cut off more than just a piece of the trim! The first piece was perfect! My first piece of wood that I've cut and installed onto my house! I'm so proud. On the other side of the doors the trim was nailed to the house. Oh boy. That took some sweat and elbow grease to pry that one loose. I beat up the door frame a bit, unfortunately. I cut the other piece of trim and it installed just as perfectly as the first.

So you don't think my head will get too big for my shoulders let me share with you one of my less successful home improvement ventures. It involves a toilet, lots of water and my dining room ceiling. Let me just say that when working with water make absolutely sure that all things that should be tight are tight and that when you turn the water on you wait, check, feel around and generally assure yourself beyond any shadow of doubt that there are NO leaks anywhere. That was my mistake. I was on my third toilet and sick of replacing potty parts. I got lazy. I didn't stick around and check carfully enough. So later, when my daughter yelled from the dining room that the ceiling was leaking enough time had passed since I'd finished working on the toilet that I didn't make the connection. She had enough sense to run upstairs and check things out and yelled that the toilet was leaking. Yikes. I goofed and put something in upside down so it wasn't making a tight seal. I hate working with water. Electricity is so much easier. It's either on or off. It works or it doesn't. It doesn't leave an ugly stain on my ceiling or a little hole the size of a quarter that I punched in the ceiling to drain the water. In the end it's all fixed but it was not a pretty sight at the time!