I'm A Voracious Reader : 2021 Year End Wrap Up

January ~ Hubby went to Iowa plant for training.
February ~ Hubby came home and went back to Iowa plant for more training.
March ~ No more traveling to Iowa plant for training. Yay! Kyle got hired on at hubby's workplace. They carpool together while I car shop. I turn 53.
April ~ log splitting (so much log splitting)
May ~ Hubby promoted to Team Lead, new skylights, lots of gravel, adopted our dead neighbor's cat and dog
June ~ Trip turns 22, new gutters and finally got gutter guards (sa-weet!)
July ~ built a garden shed, more gravel, George turns 36, 3 yr anniversary of dad's death
August ~ Hubby celebrates 1 yr at new job
September ~ Anna turns 24, hubby turns 53
October ~ Kyle turns 21!
November ~ Thanksgiving in Ohio, bought a Kubota sub-compact tractor-the payments are Eeeeeeek!
December ~ new smartphones and chaos

January ~ New windows are supposed to be here at the end of the month, so we need to get stuff moved at least a foot away from the windows. That means completely reorganizing the boys room and the computer area. And we'll need to move Anna's bed. Fuck! We just did all that last year! Gonna be a HUGE pain in my ass. But the end result will be new windows. *deep breaths* It'll be so worth it.
February - December ~ All about Organization ~ Cupboards, closets, drawers, house, sheds. And omg, my filing cabinet. But not the kitchen, I did that already. Okay, so this was also last year's (and the year before that and the year before that x infinity), but some of it still needs done. There are more projects in the works (bathroom remodel, decks, raised garden beds, firepit, etc). Still need a used car for Kyle. Otherwise, we'll just be winging it for 2022.

On the Home Front: So, I did not keep up with post and I have no idea what happened this year. Let me see if I can remember some of it.

January (or was it February?) Anna broke up after 6 yrs with Alex because she had developed feelings for a co-worker. That's all I'm saying on this subject.

Hubby went to Iowa for training in January and February. He was gone 4 weeks, home a week, gone 4 weeks. He was supposed to repeat that pattern one more time but the company decided not to. They really should have because the plant in Iowa shut down in June and no one here in NC has a clue how to do shit. Seriously. The training should have gone on until at least June, but hey, what do I know?

At the end of March Kyle was hired on at hubby's workplace and they've been carpooling while I car shop. Seriously, how is it I cannot find a decent used fucking car? Maybe it's because I'm picky. I want to buy a Honda and Kyle wants a small car, so that leaves us a Civic or a Fit. Yeah, it's fucking impossible. Anyway, it's been over a year later (I started after we got rid of our old Accord last year) and I'm still looking.

We finally got new skylights even though they aren't tinted. No one had a clue when the tinted ones would be available and we could NOT wait any longer. The one in our bathroom was leaking like a sieve. We love them! I sent my mom some sheer material, she made curtains for them and I bought small tension rods to hang them. They look great AND let in light without giving us a sun burn while we take a shit on the toilet.

We also got new gutters and finally, after 20 yrs, finally got gutter guards. That's a game changer everyone! So nice! And we really thought the icicle Christmas lights would be a problem, but they aren't and they don't look stupid clipped to the shingles. Sa-weet!

On Mother's Day I was concerned about our reclusive semi-elderly (she was 65) neighbor. Her mail was piling up, her yard unmowed, and her car was filthy with pollen when she kept it pretty clean, so Anna and I went to check on her. Repeated knocking yielded nothing, so we checked with another neighbor. Apparently she had surgery a few weeks before and had stopped answering their calls. So he grabbed the key he still had and we went to check on her. She was dead. That was something I would have preferred not to experience. Anyway, we adopted her poor dog (we named Rocky) and cat (we named Eevee) who had been locked in the house with her dead body for more than a week. They were in shaky shape but are fine and thriving now. The house still sits empty. She has no relatives we know of and probably no will. We and the neighbors have been keeping an eye on the place and they mowed it in the summer. Who knows what will happen to it? We'd kinda like to buy the place, so I guess I'll put a call into the tax dept and see what the procedure is in cases like this.

We built a garden shed. It came as a kit and we will never ever do that again. They give you the shittest wood possible and the instructions weren't as accurate as they should have been. Thank goodness we are handy. Did I mention it was hotter than Satan's ballsack and taint when we were assembling that bitch? Because holy fuck.

Speaking of hot, it was so fucking hot when Trip and I moved gravel. Did I mention I had 6 bags of gravel delivered from Lowe's? Then another 6? I'm surprised Trip hasn't killed me in my sleep with a shovel. We built a path to the burning barrel, put gravel under and around the new shed, around the front of the Exterior Library, under the back deck, and around the 3 firewood holders we built last year.

Speaking of firewood, Trip and I split a shitton of wood from the hurricane tree and then stacked it. That's the bigass tree that came down during 2018's Hurricane Michael for those not in the know. Anyway, it was a lot of wood. At least using the log splitter is fun. But again, it was hot and it was a lot of wood. How has he not killed me yet?

We did not go to Ohio in July like we usually do because hubby barely had enough vacation days and Kyle had none. So we went Thanksgiving week instead.

I cleaned (most) of my office and set up the new desktop computer I bought March of 2020. Finally! It looks better.

We kicked AT&T U-Verse internet to the curb when T-Mobile said we were eligible to get their home internet. Ok, so here's the thing...I know the tech is new, so I'm cutting them some slack. Pros: It is tons faster than AT&T. TONS faster. Cons: It has to be rebooted, sometimes several times a day. However, reboot doesn't take long and I mentioned it's tons faster, right? It'll do for now, but I'll be curious as to how Starlink compares when it becomes available here which was supposed to be sometime this Summer but I got an email last month stating they are waiting on computer chips (isn't everyone?) so they don't know when it will be available. So, T-Mobile it is.

We bit the technology bullet and replaced our smartphones in December. They were 5 yrs old and therefore ancient. The new phones are so fucking fast. Woo doggie! And have 128GB of space instead of 16. Yeah, you read that right. I remember when 1 GB was a pipe dream on a computer (my first one was 1994) and now there are phones that can hold 1 TB. *mind blown*

November and December were so busy I didn't know if I was coming or going. I hated it. I always felt like I was behind in everything probably because I was.

Right before our trip to Ohio we took delivery of a Kubota sub-compact tractor with bucket, backhoe, and box scraper. We had been waiting for about 2 months for one and the salesguy still hasn't found a post hole digger (auger). It's so small. And cute! But the cost about gave me a heart attack. Eeeeeeee! At least hubby has been using it practically every day, digging out stumps. And we got our old Ford 8N tractor back from the shop. It needs a complete overhaul and we weren't going to pay for that. It runs fine for awhile then we have to change out the spark plugs because they get fouled with oil. One day, once we build a garage (not until the Kubota is paid off - eek), hubby can pull it in and tear it down to rebuild. Until then, we save it for the heavy lifting. Or in this case, pulling that the Kubota can't do.

Did I forget anything? Probably.

Touching Nature: The weather is all kinds of fucked up. That's all I'm going to say on that subject. Except for this: I had an inordinate amount of leaves and acorns infiltrating our territory this Fall. My steadfast companion, Backpack Blower, and I were kept very busy during Leafageddon. Btw, I love my backpack blower so it's not a hassle. lol

Book News: I read 69 books. I have 9 of those reviews left to write. 26 of those books were from book tours with The Write Reads, 9 were with BBNYA, and 2 were with Authors Taproom who does the Dianne Duvall tours. I do love me some Immortal Guardians! My NetGalley ratio dropped from 94% to 93. Mostly because I requested a couple of books and haven't gotten to them yet. You saw my abysmal 69 books read this year, right? Ugh. I have 13 books left on my shelf there and 1 is for a tour in February. I really wanted to start listening to audios more often and I did for a bit in the beginning of the year then stuff interrupted me. One of my goals for 2022 is to get back to it. I have many audios lined up, damn it!

Don't Touch That Dial!: The Bad Batch is about the only new show we watched. Trip and I stalled on our Marvel chronological rewatch. Hubby and I have also stalled on Rebels in our Star Wars chronological watch (rewatch for me). I started a rewatch of Criminal Minds and made it partway through before I got too busy to watch tv.

At the Flicks: We've seen: Spider-Man: No Way Home, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Dune, and Godzilla vs Kong.

Cyberspace Playground: Finally set up the new desktop I bought back in March of 2020. Eeee! And we bought new phones. Our old smartphones were 5 yrs old. Holy fuck, what a difference these new phones are. Woo doggie!

Randomness: While it's been awhile since I've been to a Five Guys, I have never seen a more truer thing on the internet. LOL