Monday Morning Musings
It’s 6am on Monday morning. Usually I write my posts the day before and schedule them, but today I am writing in real time. I don’t have anything earth shattering to share, but want to post something, since it’s been awhile.
- Look at my Wordle today. I always use the same word, so it had to happen sooner or later. It’s strangely dissatisfying, as it took zero skill. (I posted this with a screenshot of my Wordle, and then realized that I was giving away the solution to today’s Wordle, which is a jackass move, so I pulled that down and replaced it. If you play, I hope I didn’t ruin it for you. They did a whole bit about that on last night’s Curb Your Enthusiasm.)
- Ted and I have the day off today for Presidents’ Day, though Maya does not. She’s not thrilled about it, her office building is closed and even the places where she gets coffee will not be open today. Our plan to celebrate this holiday is to take the car in so a mechanic can investigate the strange noise that it’s making, and perhaps go to Costco, since that is near the mechanic.
- Speaking of fixing things, I have a couple of stories about that. One is that two of our kitchen drawers (circa 1979) lost the wheels that guide them smoothly on their tracks, making for a shrill noise and a difficult time opening and closing them. This has been the situation for a long time, and it’s frustrating and loud. Guess what? I was at the hardware store a few weeks ago, and wondered if I could buy them new wheels. Short answer: No. Longer answer: No, not just the wheel, but I could buy the little bracket doohickey that includes the wheel. So I removed the doohickies and brought them to the hardware store (so I could be sure to get the right model), bought two, and replaced them. It took all of 10 minutes and $13. I am beyond thrilled at this.
- In sadder news, we have a slow drip in our bathtub faucet that we can almost stop by really tightening the handle, and thought to use the opportunity afforded us by a suddenly needed toilet repair to have a plumber look at it. Look at it he did, and advised that in order to fix it will be an all day job (at $200 an hour) and they do not replace drywall or tile, though of course he could recommend someone. If we have learned anything by the plumbing issue of 2018, it’s that patchwork fixes often mean that you cannot find a match for old patterns / flooring / bathroom tiles. We still have that stupid missing flooring in the kitchen, since fixing it means doing the entire kitchen, which means doing the entire downstairs, at which point we really should do the upstairs too, our carpet is old and has gone through two dogs with tummy issues. So for now, we are living with the stupid drippy bathtub faucet. No $13 fix this time.
- We had a nice Valentine’s Day. At first I wasn’t going to make anything special for dinner, but I changed my mind and made my favorite lamb chop recipe for Ted and myself, along with our favorite Mediterranean feast items for all of us, which is what Maya had. Ted bought us both flowers and cards, and we sat at the dining room table for dinner instead of eating in front of the TV. It was lovely. We even had dessert, which we generally do not.
How are you this Monday morning? Have you ever gotten Wordle in one guess? Do you use the same starter word every day? Do you even play Wordle? Any home repairs that are just too much money to contemplate?
26 Comments
Tobia | craftaliciousme
The husband and i used to play world together but its been ages since we did it. What app do you use?
Yeah for the quick 13$ fix. Boo for the dripping faucet.
J
Tobia, we use the New York Times app. 🙂
I must play every morning.
nance
I use the same starter word for Wordle–AUDIO. It happened to be the word once, and I was shocked. My current streak is 97. I play it every morning right after I feed my blue jays.
I’m having a very difficult Monday, unfortunately. It’s complicated. I’m feeling angry and stressed. I need a long walk, but I doubt I’ll be able to get one in.
UGH. Costly home repairs. We definitely need our front porch redone, and we need some foundation work as well. I’m talking huge money. The porch will have to be torn down to the joists, a new floor put in, and I’m fearful that new posts will need to be put in, too. That *has* to be done this spring/summer. HAS TO.
J
Nance, I remember when AUDIO was the word, I know someone who uses that as her first word as well. Kind of shocking when it happens. I play a couple of offshoots, and PRICE comes up very rarely.
I’m sorry that you’re having a crappy Monday. I hope that there is nothing too terrible going on, and hope all is better by now, or if not, then SOON.
Ugh on the expensive stuff. Our townhouse is covered in shingles, which are near the end of their lifespan, and need to be replaced (by some sort of siding, doesn’t have to be shingles.) Each unit in our complex has to pay $40k towards that project, which really hurts. i’m sorry about the foundation work and the porch, that sounds similarly spendy. There are so many other things I would rather spend the money on. New flooring, a new kitchen, and a new bathroom. Oh, and new interior paint. I doubt I could do all of that for $40k, but I could do a lot of it!
Ernie
I do not play Wordle. I gather that people are addicted to it and enjoy it. I enjoy a good old fashioned game of Scrabble, if that means anything.
Our study closet shelves collapsed just before Christmas. I cannot get anything out of the closet until we address the situation. It isn’t pretty. Coach will attempt a repair. He’s handy, but he’s busy so not sure how soon it will get fixed.
You are a whiz for fixing the squeaky drawers. Our minivan had a knocking noise in the back – not far from the tire well. It was so strange and so difficult to reproduce – only happened right after we turned on the car. I would give kids a ride home and they’d look at me, wondering if we’d perhaps locked the last kid in the tire well somehow. Mini totalled that minivan a few years ago. That was the only way we were gonna escape that sound.
I don’t babysit on school holidays, but I have two non-teacher families at the moment. If we had something going on, I would’ve cancelled, but I didn’t. Now I’m grouchy that I didn’t cancel. I’m stuck at home with tots and I so prefer having the occasonal day off. I might shift back to sitting on zero school holidays next year. I need all the breaks I can get.
J
I like Scrabble, but we are not a board game family, sadly. We own it, but we haven’t played it in perhaps decades. I don’t know why we don’t get rid of it and the other board games we have.
Our daughter’s closet collapsed under the weight of her clothing a few years ago, and thankfully we are NOT handy, so we just had our handyman come fix it. They are much sturdier now! I hope the fix isn’t too difficult once he has time to do it.
Your minivan story made me laugh, but I do NOT want to have anyone total our cars. (Nor did you want that, I am sure.) Silver lining, no more noise. We are home from the mechanic now, and our car no longer makes horrible noises, so that is excellent news.
I agree, take the days off when you can! Especially since you work with such young kids, it has to be exhausting. My daughter was pretty upset about having to work today when so many people have the day off.
Beckett @ Birchwood Pie
Whoa! Wordle in One!!! CONGRATS!!!! Yes I play and I think I got it on 2 once but I don’t use the same starting word so I’m unlikely to make the 1/6 club. And yay for the $13 cabinet fix! I know it doesn’t make all of the expensive and involved stuff get any better, but at least you got one win in.
J
Birchie, I was so chuffed about that $13 fix, I’ll tell you, it really does help with the expensive ones!
Margaret
Never in one guess but sometimes in two. Roate is my go-to start word and I play hard mode. It sounds like you need a new cartridge in your bathtub faucet which shouldn’t require that much time or money. (as long as it’s not leaking behind the wall)
J
Margaret, I get Wordle in 2 once in awhile, which is fun. I had to look up the word ROATE, I had never heard it before. I wish our bathtub only needed a new cartridge. It’s going to involve cutting and soldering pipes and getting into the wall. Very sad state of affairs.
Lisa’s Yarns
I play wordle every day and always start with reads. Someday it will the word and I will be so excited to have that 1/1 success. But then it will never happen again since I use the same word! Today was your day so yay! All of us had today off/school closed except taco. So he went to school and Phil took Paul to his mom’s to retrieve the diaper bag he left there. They made some fun stops like Golf Galaxy and Menards. And I had a gloriously quiet house to myself for a good 5 hours. It was amazing. I did more closet purging, read, did some tasks I had been putting off like scheduling appts, etc. and then I read and napped for a bit. It was just what I needed.
Your v-day sounded so nice! A special meal eaten at the dining table really elevates the celebration!
J
Lisa, I’ve been debating on whether to find a new word or stick with today’s, and I think, like you, I will stick with this one.
Oh, time alone in the house! Glorious. I have been working from home since 2006, so I have a LOT of time alone. And my company has been giving us a 4 day work week since July of 2022, so I have Fridays off while my husband and daughter do not, so in addition to time alone, I also have a day to myself to do whatever I want EVERY WEEK. It’s amazing. My brother and his wife both work 5 day work weeks, but she works Sun – Thurs, and he works Mon – Fri, and this has been going on for perhaps 20 years or maybe even more. They each have an entire day to themselves every week, and they both love it.
Suzanne
You are so right that getting the Wordle in one guess is strangely dissatisfying. I prefer getting it in two. As long as I beat the Wordle bot, though, I feel good about life.
This cracked me up: “Our plan to celebrate this holiday is to take the car in so a mechanic can investigate the strange noise that it’s making, and perhaps go to Costco, since that is near the mechanic.” Yup. Sounds like a wonderful day date to me!
The bathtub drip sounds so frustrating. We have several of these “we’ll just wait it out, I guess” kinds of issues right now. Ugh.
But the drawer fix!!!! Good work! Now THAT is satisfying!
J
I LOVE getting Wordle in 2. Very satisfying. And yeah, the tub situation is frustrating for sure. Sigh. But fixing the drawers is awesome.
Ally Bean
I’ve never gotten Wordle on one guess and I can understand how it was odd to do so. It’s the challenge of that game that appeals to me so to just get it straight off, I dunno…
Boy you said it about patchwork fixes in a home. We learned that along the way, too. We even had a situation where the newly-released tile we picked for the bathroom floor in January, was partially installed in May, but the tilers couldn’t get any more of it because it’d already been discontinued. It’s always something, isn’t it?
J
Ally, for some reason your comment was sent to be reviewed, and I just saw it. Weird, because you’ve been coming here for so long.
Oh goodness on the tile! That’s horrible! Back in 2018 when they had to access the piped under the slab, I was fine with them digging through our flooring. I thought our insurance would pay for it, but they wouldn’t. Then I thought we could just patch the area, but of course, no, they haven’t sold our flooring in many years. So we just deal with it. We put a thick cushioned floor mat over it and forget about it. Frustrating.
Nicole MacPherson
Oh nooooo on the faucet! Our old house was a real fixer-upper when we moved in, in 2000, and it seemed like every time we pulled something apart there would be a whole new thing to address. It was a big snowball effect and it took us years to get everything where we wanted it. What a pain!
I don’t do Wordle but I know my mom’s word is store. My son does it sometimes and his word is pubes, so if that ever is a 1/6 he will be very excited.
J
LOL on PUBES as a starter. I suspect that will never be the WORDLE.
Sarah
OH MY GOSH– the other day when the world was psalm, I told Dorothy the answer because I swear that word is not in her vocabulary, and only reaized after I watched Curb that I am Irma. LOL.
J
Irma’s hilarious, right?
Kyria @ Travel Spot
I have never gotten the wordle in one! That is impressive! I also do not use the same starter word each time. I actually do not play wordle anymore; I play Octowordle. You should try it! You get more guesses but you have to try to get eight words! It’s very fun.
J
Kyria, I LOVE Octordle! I play all of the games there, my favorite is Rescue.
San
Yay for fixing the drawers! Boo for no easy fix for the faucet. That would have been to easy, right?
I am glad you had a nice dinner with Ted for Valentine’s Day 🙂
J
I’m sad about the faucet, that thing drives me nuts. In summer sometimes I will put a pitcher underneath and use the water for plants, but it’s not very convenient since it’s upstairs. And this time of year it is just wasted water, no point in watering plants when it’s raining outside.
Anne
Every day, my parents and brother compete in Wordle, Worldle, Waffle, and… hang on… ah! Quordle. They share their scores in an email thread that always includes me, although I do not play. They then crown the winner. It is hilarious and sometimes, like today, results in me being named the Queen because they all did so poorly. They also hate the consonants in the puzzles (they find them annoying to guess) and so half the time, my dad starts a thread with “UGH – CONSONANTS”. Strangely, I look forward to these emails. 😀
(And congrats on Wordle in 1 – impressive! also lucky. ;>)
J
LOL on hating consonents! Do they all use the same starter word? I know two that have a lot of vowels and are popular are AUDIO and ADIEU. I love that they include you, and that you enjoy it. I haven’t played Quordle in awhile, but I love Octordle, Octordle Sequence, and Octordle Rescue.
There is absolutely no skill in Wordle in 1, just luck. Now that I’ve gotten it, I’ve been sticking with my same starter word PRICE, but am debating changing it. My puppy Mulder (who died last year, but still wants things) wants me to change it to STEAK. I’m considering it, as it would still give me useful information, and hasn’t come up yet.