Lots-o-stuff goin' on

Life's been keeping me pretty busy, here's an update on what's been going on....

The Bug (Bug#1) has been having brake problems, I've gotten pretty good at driving around with very little brakes, the tricks are keep it slow, use first gear to go down hills and the emergency brake still works, oh and always keep an eye out for a place where I can drive the bug off the road if I can't stop in time to prevent a collision. PB has been tirelessly working on the brakes, first he took them apart to see what the problem was, we ended up having to order a master cylinder, those sure look funny on a Bug, not like any other master cylinder I've ever seen before. They ranged from $25 to $100+, as you can probably guess, we ordered the cheapest one, we received it in about a week. Once we had that, then PB discovered other issues, had to order brake lines, fortunately all of this ordering I was able to do through Amazon.com and since I have an affiliate account with them, and many of you, my wonderful readers click on my Amazon.com links and make purchases, I have enough credit to be able to order these things without it coming out of my pocket. I have another way I earn Amazon.com credits, if you are interested, check this out, it's free and it works, click here to learn more.

I have back brakes but no front brakes right now, just waiting for the other parts to come in, should be sometimes in the next day or two, for now PB just put everything back together so I can drive where I need to go, it's a little challenging, I let everyone know that I essentially have no brakes so don't stop in front of me :)

Next item, I'm still using the Periogen and the other calcium therapy products in my mouth, so far so good, I'm still happy with the results, the tartar is dissolving, even between my molars where I can't get at them to scrape them, so I KNOW it's the Periogen doing the work. I'm averaging using the Periogen about 4 times a week, I know if I would just remember to use it everyday, the tartar would be coming off even faster... I also feel like my teeth and gums are getting healthier.

Next item, I'm going to be in the Easter music program at church, they didn't ask me to head this one, and for that I'm grateful, I would have had to say no, I just don't have the time any more to be in charge of those things. A friend of mine is heading it and I'm helping, she picked out the music we are going to sing, I found the music on line so we can practice, I'm also burning copies of the music onto CDs for everyone so they can practice at home if they want to. I'm really having to work to make time to go to the practices, but I didn't want to let my friend or my church down, and it's fun too, can't complain about that. :)

Dinner, tonight I'm making something I haven't made in a long time, I don't have a name for it, I take those little red potatoes, I cook them whole, I'm cooing them in my pressure cooker, I don't cook them all the way done, just most of the way done, then I cut them in half, scoop out most of the insides, mash the part I took out, add butter, milk, sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese salt, pepper and an egg, then I refill the potato shells with the filling, pop them in the oven to heat through and brown. They are really good and pretty easy to do.

I had a stroke of good luck, or something like that. Last October, toward the end of the month, I had ordered a replacement MP3 player, my old one had developed a problem with the headphone jack, it had a short in it, if I held the jack just right I could hear, but if I let it go, the sound was horrible if any sound came through at all. So my new player, just a few months old suddenly developed this same problem a couple of nights ago. I think I know why it's happening, I listen to it when I go to bed at night, I put it under my pillow, I think I'm putting pressure on it when I turn over, and that must be what's causing this problem. I checked the warranty and it's just slightly out of warranty, they have a 90 day warranty on MP3 players. I checked and they don't sell this model any more, and I REALLY like this one, I didn't want to change to a different model or brand.

I took a chance and called the customer service number anyhow, I hoped that maybe they would fix it even if I had to pay a little for it. I talked to a very nice gentleman whom I could understand, that is very important to me, you can have an accent but I want to be able to hear and understand you. He told me that since it was purchased close to the Christmas holidays, they extended the warranty period and I fell in that period. YEAH, all I have to do is mail it back to them with a $6.00 money order to cover shipping, and I'll get another MP3 player, they don't repair them, they just send out another one. I asked about the older model I had with the same problem, I was hoping they could do something about that one, but since they don't repair them, and this one is so far out of warranty, there was nothing they could do. Oh well, I might try to figure out how to take that one apart and see if I can fix it myself. I spent a little time deleting everything off of my player, mostly audiobooks, podcasts and a little music.

Oh and speaking of ordering from Amazon.com, I finally had to replace the filter elements on my Berkey Light water purifier, I have had them in use for a LOT longer than they say you can, I have kept them clean though the last 6 months, I've been almost afraid to take it apart to clean them, I was worried that they might begin to fail and I wouldn't have anything to replace them with at that point. I know that there have been issues with the black elements, failing on the first use right out of the package, there have been multiple complaints about that, I had a problem with my first set, it appeared that one of the elements had been dropped, it worked at first, then failed later. A set my dad purchased for himself failed right out of the box too. I had contacted the company about it and they assured me that the issue had been addressed, it had to do with how they were glued to the base. I still had doubts though, I knew they probably fixed the problem but I didn't know how many potentially problem units were still sitting in warehouses waiting to be sent out to customers.

I decided to purchase the (2) British Berkefeld 9" Replacement Ceramic Water Filters for Big Berkey, I checked and it turned out they would fit in my Berkey Light unit, they are almost too tall, the top of the filter comes right to the top of the water level in the unit. They don't require priming like the black elements do, and you have to pour off the first 2 runs of water, that's OK, I did it overnight after pouring the clean water into a clean pitcher for use the next morning.

When I had contacted the Berkey people about the problem, I asked if the other filter unit would work in the Berkey, they didn't recommend it only because it doesn't last as long, but I figured at half the price, I didn't mind if it didn't last as long, my water is very clean going in, the only reason I filter it in the first place is because I store my water in a big plastic tank, I don't want to drink or cook with that water straight from the tank.

So, that's all that has been going on for now. Hope everyone is doing well, it's almost garden time, woohoo!

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Wretha,

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