What will become of the Cookies in 2025?

 Darlings, I wish I could say otherwise, but things at Withering Heights have been quiet.  Very quiet. A surprise reared its head on Christmas, so now we are holding onto what promises to be quite a ride.  And that is the keyword "promise".  As we look down the short-term path, there is a lot of work and promise is upon us.  

The house is fine; we are fine.  But life often opens up new avenues and new paths. 

With the shit show that was 2024 in the rearview mirror and God knows what is in front of us, the best advice I can give you is to hold on tight. 

A couple years ago, this was our new years view in Baltimore.  It almost seems like we had more snow back then than we had in Cleveland in our two winters, thus far.

Be safe in the months ahead, and I will be back soon, maybe even tomorrow, I promise. 

Cookie 

What will Christmas and 2025 bring

 

So here we are at Cookie's 60thSomething Christmas and all of us here at Withering Heights are waiting with equal amounts of glee, and dread. 

Glee is for the positive changes ahead.  Dread because nothing is done, not even firm, and Cookie is not one to enjoy the purgatory that is waiting.   

I wish I could share more, but I cannot.  We shall not tempt the fates, here, there, wherever life will take us.  

But the house is draped with festive lights.  I hope every child in a passing car finds our display enchanting.  Kids need some beauty to remember. 

If it happens, I promise to report back. If not, no disappointments will be shared.  Isn't life complicated enough?

So what I can say with certainty is that all of here wish each of you a very Merry Christmas and a safe one too. May your holiday be what you need it to be, and may your enjoy it however you do observe it.   As a cautionary note, remember everything about this Christmas, and in the coming year do what is right and righteous so next years will be as merry. 

FedEx Ground Purgatory...

 

So a couple weeks ago, I found a floor torchiere just like the one my mother had in Shaker.  I have been looking for one for years. 

Unlike most floor lights, this torchiere directs 100% of its light output directly up and is styled in the Hollywood Regency style.  I never took Mom's when she was combining houses with my stepfather because it didn't go with the arts and crafts thing that we favored at the time.  But once we moved to the big house in Cedarcroft, I wanted one. 

Well, I found one and after weighing the expense of buying it, I bought it. 

And that is where my hate-hate relationship with FedEx Ground began. 

The seller shipped it from the upper Midwest via FedEx Ground. That should have taken four business days.  Should have. 

Everything was swell from the seller to Minneapolis, to South Bend, to Toledo, according to tracking, and then I started getting delivery notifications, via email, that the package would arrive that day, even though it never got to a regional sort facility in greater Cleveland.  "Expect your package today from 10AM to 3PM today" the messages promised.  So I waited.  And waited. and it never came. 

Then the next day, FedEx got it to another regional Ohio facility, and again, another promise of a delivery, and nothing. 

THEN Last Thursday it arrived in Twinsburg, Ohio, in the wee hours of the morning, and then more options appeared in grey, including received at the facility, transferred to delivery truck, and out for delivery.  But the only one in black said that the trailer had been delivered to Twinsburg, which I found odd. 

So I called FedEx Customer support. 

Now the FedEx I remember was the one that had its call center in Memphis.  But when I heard the made say that his *name* was "Baub" I knew it was a script-reading employee overseas.  And this is where things got interesting. 

"Oh, yes Mr. Cookie sir, I can assure you that package is available for pick up."  Never mind the system said not available, *Baub* assured me that he had sent a message to have the box pulled and held for me in the pick-up facility.   That was around 8am, and I set out for Twinsburg, which is about an hour away in snow and ice. 

When I get there, and I call the number indicated, an older woman answers and castigates me for coming to pick it up.  When I said what I had been told by *Baub*, her words were "You cannot believe anything they say." So I was told to wait a couple minutes and she would locate the package.  After forty minutes I called back to ask "What the hey?" and was connected to another woman who said "I'm sorry, but we are backed up and I cannot tell what truck it's on.  So I drove home. 

So for the rest of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, the box with my lamp sits in the truck. 

On Monday it was received and set onto a truck for delivery. Yay, right? 

Wrong. It was never delivered. 

Tuesday, it went onto another truck and, well, again, it wasn't delivered. 

Wednesday morning?  It was in the warehouse, and my contact in the warehouse said she told them to hold it, but it was loaded onto another tractor-trailer and moved outside to a location. 

So they got it there, checked it in, failed to deliver twice, and then tossed it into the trailer, AGAIN, and parked that out in the lot. 

Come to find out that at least three other people I know, including a cousin, have had packages stuck in Twinsburg for longer than three weeks. 

By this time, the person I was working with was frustrated, I was frustrated, and then I got a call from FedEx Corporate.  The caller was in the U.S., she apologized, listened to the whole run-in, and said "Multiple lines of management are aware" that the box is to be located and sent to the cage for pickup.  

But what they were really onto was *Baub* telling me to drive out in inclement weather to pick the box up.  Evidently, that's a HUGE no-no. 

I thanked the troubleshooter for listening, gave my compliments to the employee at the center who was trying to get this ironed out, and even said that they needed more of her and less *Baub". 

But here I am, in FedEx Purgatory, going into their busiest week of the year.  And every time they pick it up and send it somewhere, the chances of this lamp not being damage-free grow exponentially. 

And now this is going into its fourth week.   I am not alone. Evidently, this is impacting a very large chunk of North East Ohio. 

So now, along with a couple thousand other people, we sit and we wait.

Yet another storm a brewing and Krab With a K

 So, yes, again, it is winter, but the weather forecasters who love a good winter storm are predicting we are going to get one Thursday.  They are sure of it, this time. Very sure.

Again, another Lake Effect snow event with winds coming in at 60 miles per hour.  So what did Cookie do?   The winds are starting to pick up a bit, so it is brisk outside, and there is frost on the leaky windows.

I went to Heinens, the local better grocery store, in University Heights. 

A gallon of skim milk - which we do drink, makings for Pot Roast for tomorrow evening, and BBQ pulled pork for dinner tonight, with Tater Tots. 

We might be in for something.  The dogs, who also act as barometers are curled up and asleep.  But then again it might be their age - but pups have crossed into that 16-year-old range. 

The new boiler that we added in the spring is pumping out so much steam heat to the second floor, I have the door to our enclosed but unheated sleeping porch open to help balance out the torrid heat these radiators are putting out.  In our bedroom, one of the windows is open to balance the huge radiator in the room.   And our first floor? Figid.  But that's another story. 

Meanwhile, the kitchen is like an ice box because someone in the last 50 some odd years ago, someone had the idea that enough heat from the house would keep that room warm.  

WRONG.

The kitchen has no heat. Not even baseboard heat. But then again, it could have had it and some previous owner removed it for the dark oak banquette and table they installed and we tossed it out to the trash. 

Other than that, we're nestled in. 

In other news, Cookie is also going to be resurrecting Krab With A K blog shortly as well.  Withering Heights will be more reality-based, Krab With a K anything I choose not to publish here. 

Cookie

Our second Thanksgiving and STILL with the boxes...

 

Today marks our second Thanksgiving in the house and in Cleveland. It's much less stressful than the Baltimore Thanksgiving.  

The weather hangs over us like the Sword of Damocles.  There is a weather front bringing us this fall's to the coldest temperatures. and promises of rain, sleet, grauple, and snow, separately, or at the same time.  In my childhood days, this happened by Halloween, but these days, who knows. 

Right now it's sleeting.  Five minutes from now it's anyone's guess.

Projects coming up include a new back door to replace the worn-out 1974 door, and new storm doors. That should be happening in the next three weeks. 

As for BIG projects, that would be the kitchen and the sleeping porch off of my office. 

The sleeping porch is a full gut.  The previous owner claimed to have put $30k into remodeling the sleeping porch, but no.  Because of his handyman job - over boxed windows, window and door trim put on every which way, and his "Built-Ins" - crafted with all the skill of a five-year-old with a junior tool kit, the contracts have to rip out everything to replace the old broken, nasty, vinyl windows from the 1970s.  New windows will go in, then new drywall

The kitchen is a total gut.  What was done in 1974, and then "refreshed" in 2010, is worn out.  Open a cabinet door and it could fall off and bean you.  We can't safely used two burners on the new range because of a wall.  And because of where the sink is, we cannot have a dishwasher that is correctly vented. 

ALL Of that will get remedied. 

So we are Thankful.  Thankful we can do this, thankful to have a roof over our heads, and thankful for a plan. 

 

Way back in time...

Not far from Withering Heights is Lake View Cemetery, the place to be buried if you are someone.  Or a no one at that. Along with Cleveland's giants of history, Lake View is also home to the James Garfield Monument, the tomb of James Garfield, who won the 1880 Presidential election. 

President Garfield served only a few months in office, after a would-be assassin's bullet lodged in his body.  Being the second president to be killed in office, and a scant 15 years after the same befell Abraham Lincoln.  The nation was shocked and grieved heavily. 

Garfield's body was brought back to Cleveland for burial but was temporarily entombed in the family vault of architect Levi Scofield at Lake View while plans were made for his final resting place. The plans - grand plans at that, were set in motion for a grand monument to Garfield and a tomb beneath it. A private memorial association would raise the funds, hire an architect, and oversee the construction and it care.  Tourists were charged a nickle - a whole nickle! - to enjoy the marvel of its all. 

The picture above was taken shortly after it was completed by a private foundation.  The stone is new, clean and looking its best. The terrace balcony gave a wonderful view of Cleveland's city center, and Lake Erie

Lakeview today is still one of the better places to be buried, is expertly manicured, and in addition to being the final resting place of John D. Rockefeller, Jeptha Wade (found of Western Union) Charles Brush (who popularized arc lighting in Cleveland, and made it the first city in the U.S. to have its Public Square lit by electric arc lights), and others, also serves as an Arboretum, with beautiful tree canopy prevents the visitor of today from having this view up the road of the Monument.

How it looked before its exterior restoration.

The stone of the structure, which turned mottled with soot, algae, and molds thus giving it a mottled black look over the last 130 some odd years, was carefully and pain stakenly cleaned, leaks were repaired, and tuck pointing was done.    The interior is still good needs some attention.  The same sign ("SILENCE!) hangs on the walls of the tomb in the basement.  The martyred president, his wife and some family members are there.  The terrace with its views was reopened recently.

After the restoration. 
It also gives you an idea on how thickly wooded 
its site has become. 

But oh, that view.

The Garfield Monument, ends its 2024 interior tours today, and will remain closed until spring 2025 when it will reopen.  

 

Being baked alive, but not enough to stop the complaining.

 

Hear at Withering Heights, it is hot. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and of course, Friday, will be even hotter. 

Not even the grove of trees surrounding the 113-year-old house are making their usual dent in the ambient temperature.  

Trust me, it is much hotter than Dutch love in these parts. 

Per the Illuminating Company - the traditional name for our electrical supplier here in Cleveland - we have shut off lights, turned the thermostat for the AC unit in our bedroom up to 75 degrees, and are only running a fan in the rooms we are in. 

So as I said back on my old blog, here's the forecast for how I will deal with all of this in the coming week.

Monday: Attempting to hunker down and make the best of it. 

Tuesday: Outward verbal complaining. 

Wednesday: More pronounced complaining in the morning, followed by loud complaining laced with a cornucopia of profanity about how hot it is.   Never mind that the entire state will be complaining, but that it is I, Cookie, who complain the loudest. 

Thursday: Incoherent babbling, slumping on a porch chair, and fanning myself with a church fan from the AME church. 

Friday: Exhaustion, followed by hallucinations. Weak pleadings for a cold drink.  When I muster enough strength, I will drive around Cleveland in my Prius, the AC blasting away while laughing manically. 

By Saturday and Sunday, this should begin to abate.

Monday, the mini-split installation should begin, so we should be air-conditioned by next Friday.