Wish upon a star

DH always goes outside for a bit late in the evenings (after I'm in bed) to let the dogs out for a last pee, so he always looks up at the stars. Last night he comes back inside and comes to get me out of bed (I hadn't been in bed too long, so I wasn't asleep yet) and says you gotta come look at this "spaceship" in the sky! Spaceship? LOL. He's like well, I don't know what it is. It's in the same spot as last night and just sits there and blinks red and green.

So, in my pj's and slip my chicken shoes on, outside we go out towards the front of the shop where we can get a good view of the lower NE sky. As he's trying to point to me where to look, just to the left of that I see a falling star! I have never in my life seen one, so first I was all in awe about that. He didn't see it because he was about a foot away from me and still kind of at the corner of the shop and his view was blocked. With my naked eye I could see the star he was referring to, blinking. With the binoculars I could see that is it is indeed flashing red and green. What in the world?! I thought maybe he really knew what it was and was just trying to fool me or something, but he insisted he had no idea what it is.

Back inside I google "red and green blinking star" and lo and behold there is such a star. It's called Capella:

Capella is a bright star, what astronomers call a 1st magnitude star. It's one of the brightest stars in our sky. ... Bottom line: If you're in Earth's Northern Hemisphere, a bright star twinkling with red and green flashes, low in the northeastern sky on October evenings, is probably Capella.

Fortunately, since we live so far from any big towns or cities our night sky is pretty amazing with all the stars you can see. Certainly would never see this kind of sky where we lived before. If you have the opportunity, take a look for it. It's pretty neat to see.

Fence guy finally came back yesterday to install the gates and finish putting in the last bit of wiring he was short before. He was only 6 weeks, instead of the 3 weeks he told us it would be. Honestly, we figured it might end up being next spring! 

Guess what?!! NO MORE CONTRACTORS NEEDED! We are DONE with them. Everything from here on out is maintenance and DH will be handling the majority of that, or small projects dh will do himself. He is having a local handy man guy come out tomorrow afternoon (if he shows, haha) to help with the quick 2 man job of blowing in the insulation in the shed ceiling. DH just needed an extra set of hands and this guy does odd jobs.

oh wait........I spoke too soon. I forgot we do have the building supply garage door guy coming to install the shed door and replace the damaged panel on our garage. That was supposed to be in like a week or two ago and we are still waiting. Dang. LOL 

Sweet dreams

After 2-3 years DH always seems to rip our fitted sheet. I'm not sure how, LOL. He keeps his toenails trimmed short, but even if he happens to accidentally rub his foot on my leg it scratches! He must have like razor edge nails, haha. So, Saturday night he ripped what had apparently been a small tear into a huge tear. I went to the linen cupboards in search of a spare fitted king size sheet. Found the one I had, but then remembered it too had a tear.....if I recall this happened a couple years ago, right before we moved, so I just started using my spare sheet (or maybe I ordered that one at the time). Usually I just wash sheets and put them back on after wash and dry is done, so I don't keep alot of spares since king sized sheets are so expensive.

This spare one had a much smaller tear, only like 6 inches. I got out the thread and needle and stitched it up, washed it and am using that for now. We'll see how long it lasts. These are Target Threshold sheets I've been buying the past 6-8 years and they only seem to last about 3 years before they tear. I can buy the fitted sheet separately, but only in 300 ct, which is probably what I have purchased the last couple of times, since the top sheet is fine. If I recall the set was about $60-70.

How come the sheets we had while I was growing up seemed to last years and years? Probably because the sheets made all those years ago were made in the USA. I've been so wanting a really nice set of sheets for our bed and have been so close to pulling the trigger on a really expensive set for $195, but I just can't do it. Though now that I'm down to this repaired fitted sheet, I'm on the fence again. Do I just buy another set for $60-110 - that will probably only last a few years, or do I go for the $195 set. Cotton made in the USA and the sheets made in the USA. All the reviews are great and people say these sheets last for years and are like heirloom quality. When all is said and done, I'll probably be out the same amount of money over time, if these good sheets do indeed last a very long time.

We spent over 1/3 of our life (well I do cuz I sleep 9 hours, haha) in bed. Should be nice and comfy. The only thing I wish was that when you buy a king sized sheet set you didn't have to have king sized pillow cases. I never use king sized pillows, just standard. If I decide to order these I think I will just order the sheet set first and if I like them, them order a set of the standard pillow cases later. Plus the website is offering a 15% discount, so with a very reasonable $5 shipping the total will be $170.

DH was out chatting with Mr. Neighbor yesterday around noon. I had gone out to the chicken coop to give them some scratch and check for eggs, so I walked over to the fence where there were talking. He said a friend was in a small town store up north and an old Indian guy was in line with him and said it's an old "tale" that if the pine cones are falling off the trees green in early in the fall, it's going to be a "bad" winter. Well, DH's eye's lit up because the green sticky pine cones have been dropping like crazy the past couple of weeks and to him a "bad" winter is wonderful. I googled it and it's of course supposedly a myth, but I didn't have the heart to tell DH, LOL. I'll just let him keep planning for a bad winter, haha.

Well....this is interesting! I was just posting an invoice from an attorney my company uses and reading what it was for. Possible franchising activities....in my state I live in! Seems like a smart idea. I know when dh and I were first planning to move over here (and I assumed I'd need to find a job over here) I first looked to see if there were any rep companies in this area and there were none, only in the mid/eastern part of the state. It's always something I thought would be good for here, let alone how much the area is growing and construction is booming. I'm sure my boss will fill me in on it at some point. Things like this are usually very hush hush until it happens.

Anniversary come and gone

When I (got) woke up this morning, I remembered Saturday was my 15th anniversary with my company. The bummer is that used to be a big deal with my company. Heck, 10 years was a big deal. In fact, for about the first 6 or 7 years of my working there, those few that hit their 10 year mark got a paid for weeks vacation to one of the owner's condo in Hawaii! I was sooo looking forward to that as I was getting closer and closer every year. Then about 2 years before my 10th anniversary there was a split with that owner and zip, nada, not even a congrats, on my 10th anniversary. A couple others had hit their 15 year mark back then, too. They both got an extra weeks vacation every year.

Why I got woke up: at 6:30 this morning we both heard a cat meowing at our bedroom patio door. It was still dark out and by the time dh got the patio light turned on it was gone. On Friday, when dh walked down the street to get the mail (it was raining)  he said he could faintly hear a cat meowing but couldn't tell where it was coming from. I went out and looked around. Shined a flashlight into the culverts at our driveway. Didn't hear or see anything. We had been putting the food out but a couple weeks ago it stopped eating and our camera wasn't catching anything (except a skunk) so we stopped putting it out. After Friday, dh put it out again for 2 nights and nothing. If the dang cat it still out there (and now meowing) why isn't it eating the food?

I spent part of yesterday, again helping dh out in the shop. Trying to bag up tons of packing peanuts as he unearthed the kids old trophies he had saved. Then of course, they all needed cleaning/dusting off. UGH. LOL. So, I did them all (many of these are like 3 and 4 tier trophies. Huge. Because he wanted to save the ones from championships and after 9 years there were lots of club and region championships, as well as 4 National championship trophies (the biggest, taller than me). He put them all up in the loft area on display with the little race cars. At least he is slowly making himself more room in the shop. This weekend he managed to free up the space of 2 pallets (as soon as he can get rid of the big bags of packing peanuts, LOL)

I get my 2 prescriptions mail order. They say I'm due for refills to be sent out on 10/1 but I still have like 44 pills of each left, so I don't need for another month. I looked back and it shows they shipped out the last refill mid July. I think they must go 2 weeks early every refill, so now after 2 refills they are like a month early? I'm not sure, so I took it off "auto" refill for now as I don't need them for at least 30 days. Or maybe I should just go ahead and have them sent. Better to have them on hand now then later, I guess. In my old age I now get a bit paranoid, with the country going so crazy.

Finishing up Saturday

If there is such a thing as karma, I guess the neighbor dogs provided it. After and during all the barking one of them proceeded to bring things out of the house through the doggy door. Not sure if it was laundry, blankets or what. Then he apparently found some papers or mail and brought all that out and tore it all up. Stuff was everywhere in the run area, LOL. Mrs. came home around 2pm, not a happy camper to see all that, but apparently she left the door between their kitchen and laundry room open........

After breakfast yesterdat morning I made some more tapioca pudding since I'm stocked up with enough milk. Worked on my 1000 pc puzzle a bit. It's a hard one, not to mention my big dog with the big bushy tail swiped a piece (or two?) on the floor and then tried to eat one! (or two). I got it out of his mouth, a bit worse for wear, so if I end up with a piece missing at the end, I'll know where it ended up. Emptied the dishwasher, etc. Was just about to help dh with a bit of re-arranging in the garage when a friend from town stopped by for one of his visits. He was happy to take home a dozen eggs.  During his visit dh started to tell him about the ex sheriff encounter. As soon as dh said his name he just rolled his eyes. HE said he doesn't know why he is like that but he's like that with everyone. He said he thinks it's "short man syndrome". I laughed and said that's what Mrs. Neighbor thinks, too.

In the garage, dh's leftover wood supply is dwindling and he was able to move one over with another smaller pile. That empty space he was able to bring in a pallet of stuff from the shop, thereby giving him a little bit more room in there. He spent the rest of the afternoon starting on another pallet that has big boxes of big trophies the kids had one. I do mean big. Like a few are as tall as me. Several like 4 ft. He will clean these up and put up in the loft area next to the kids race cars he's displaying. I'm not sure all what else is on that pallet but he may be able to get rid of that one too, once he's done. He put so many packing peanuts in these big boxes, that he's only going to be able to throw like one big bag a week away in our garbage can.

After lunch I made a yellow butter cake (from box). Finally had cakes that didn't stick to my glass cake pans and came all out. Then I took a nap while the cake cooled and frosted it after I got up. I don't know where dh is - he's either out in the shop or went down to the neighbors at the end of the street to see their goings on as they are starting to build a detached garage, which I'm sure they will appreciate having this winter.

I chatted with my mom and she sounded good. I actually didn't end up talking to her on Friday. Got really busy with work and ended up working until like almost 6. I figured she'd be ok to skip a day. I had just spent half the day with her on Thursday and heck, she probably wouldn't remember if she did or didn't talk to me.

I'm reading a book I got free from Amazon First Reads. It's sort of a science fiction story. Eh...it's really not that great, but I don't have much else to read right now. While sitting on the couch, reading, I turned on the tv and started watching the movie Big. Always good to watch once in awhile.

I actually stayed up until almost 10, LOL. And I actually, for the first time in a long time, got to sleep in this morning until almost 8. I don't know what I'm doing today. Most likely I'll have to dust off those trophies for dh.

Friday and Saturday I had not noticed any birds at my birdbath. I thought well, maybe they finally did fly south, but here they are again this morning. Though I can see one sitting in the tree across from my office window that looks quite different and bigger than the usual, so maybe it's a different group stopping by. I'll have to watch and investigate :)

Saturday early up

When I logged into my bank account this morning I see now that my mom's new account is also showing. That was a nice surprise. I had just assumed I'd have to do a separate log in to access her account, but since I'm on her account as part owner, it links to mine. That will make life a bit quicker going forward, once I close out her old account. I'll only have to do one log in in the morning to check both our bank accounts.

DH new desk chair arrived earlier than expected, so we got that put together. He seems to really like it. Says it's very comfortable and of course, anything is more comfortable than a wood chair! Plus, it's also nice to have some wheels on a chair, too.

Boy, the Social Security Admin is slow to change direct deposit info! I changed her bank info online, but it won't take effect until her December payment, so we will have to keep her account open until then. And her Medicare Advantage insurance she has can only update premium payment info by printing out a form to mail in. There was a survey on using their website at the end so I gave my input about that, LOL. I just printed it, filled it out, signed her name and am mailing it. Same thing I did the first time to set up her auto payment with it ;)

DH walked down the street to get the mail yesterday afternoon and thought he kept hearing a cat meowing, but he couldn't tell where it was coming from. I went out and looked in the culverts with a flashlight but nothing in there and I never heard any meowing. I see he put the cat food out by the back door again last night, but it still hasn't been touched.

So much for getting to sleep in a bit this morning. Neighbor dog has been barking since it started getting light out. Barking at what? Nothing that I can see.

The high is only going to be mid 50's today. Fall is here for sure. It is supposed to be in the 70's starting Monday, which is perfect. DH was going to blow out the sprinkler lines himself but then decided to have the sprinkler guy do it this first year, so he can watch how he does it. Well, of course he can't give dh a day when he'd come out. Like ever heard of a schedule? it's his "sprinkler blowing out season" you'd think it would be pretty easy to do up a schedule of all your clients during this time period. So, dh decided back to just doing it himself. He needed a couple of things for his air compressor so I got them ordered yesterday.

WOOF.....WOOF.....WOOF....pause.....WOOF...WOOF...WOOF...so annoying. DH is going to get up really grumpy now.

The day off

So, the other day I get that bird guide book I ordered in the mail. I kind of thought to myself I wonder why all 3 books and the dvd I purchased on same transaction weren't just all mailed together. Then today the package comes with the remaining items, only it also included the bird book. I was like what the heck - how did I order 2? Then I thought I'll bet my boss/friend that had told me about the book had one sent to me. I just texted her and sure enough, the first one came from her! Aww. That was so sweet of her. Plus, the copy she had sent is in almost perfect condition. The one I just got is an old library copy, so it's quite a bit used and has the library tags and stamps on it. I will just leave that copy in the library room where my mom lives. The other 2 books and dvd I got look to be in very nice condition, though. I need some bookshelves!

My day off yesterday with mom went well, though the drive in was in rain. I had enough time before needing to get to her place to stop in and pick up my chicken feed order. I got to her apartment about half hour before her appointment and got the ipad mini connected to her wi-fi. Then the dr's nurse called. I wasn't expecting that, so I'm glad I got there early and wasn't trying to do that chat while driving. She just had some general questions to get out of the way. The dr. was about 5 minutes or so late getting online, so I was starting to get worried I wasn't doing something right on my end. It was kind of a waste of time really, LOL. But at least saved a trip to the dr. office itself. But of course now she needs blood work done, so I have to make another trip for that sometime soon. I still need to get mine done, so we'll get it done at the same time.

Then I had to call Bank of America to have them remove the account freeze so she could write a check to set up her new checking with new local bank. It took awhile on the phone to get this done, but finally it was accomplished. The customer service lady was very nice and apologized for taking so long, but she was having to message with her supervisor, who was the one "un freezing" it. So, we chatted awhile while she was waiting, LOL. At the end she said she really appreciated my patience with it all.

Then we drove over to the bank (where I also bank). I didn't realize they had decided to close up their lobby's again, by appointment only. Good grief. So, as I'm calling the ph# on the sign to see if we can get in for an appt. a lady comes out to the door and I explain we want to open new account and she says they can do that through the drive through for us. Okie dokie. That took awhile, too, of course. But the guy was super nice. He also thanked me for being so patient as this was actually his first time doing a new account set up that way.

I just decided to have her write a check for $10,000. There is still about $3500 in her BofA checking and almost $3000 in savings. Once she has her new checks and debit card I'm going to transfer the savings to checking and have her write a check for the balance to her new account and then close out the BofA accounts. They did give her 4 starter checks and a free box of checks is on it's way.

We then went to Target as she needed a few of the usual things. Milk, cookies, granola bars, tissues, toilet paper and crossword puzzle books, LOL. After was lunch time so we did Arby's drive through for a beef n cheddar sandwich and vanilla shake to take back to her apartment. My Walmart pick up order was scheduled between 1 and 2, so still had time to eat and visit a bit more. She had just received 3 of her 4 prescription bottles in the mail the day before, and still had a few pills in her previous bottles. I combined them into the new bottles and threw out the old bottles, so she didn't have so many, which I sure could/would just cause confusion.

I left a little after 1 and stopped at Home Depot for some weed killer dh wanted me to pick up. When I got to Walmart I remembered to check my emails to see if they were out of stock with anything with my order. Crap. They were out of like 8 or 9 things and several of them I had to have. Like chocolate milk, lunch meat and water. Out of water? they were out of both the bottles and gallon jug with nothing to substitute? I find that hard to believe. So, after getting all that loaded I  had to make an another stop to the nearby grocery store to get those items. I also decided to try to bring home some ice cream in the cooler with the other frozen stuff. I want to make a cake this weekend and dh only likes cake if there's ice cream with it. It made it home fine, so that's good to know.

Last stop was the co-op store to get one more bag of the grass fertilizer. My car was totally loaded up! I got home just before 3 and at least the rain had stopped and sun was out for the drive home. It takes me probably a half hour to get all the groceries put away (dh unloads and brings into the kitchen). Then I took a nap! For dinner I just made dh a big salad and some watermelon pieces on the side. I had a bowl of cereal later on.

Today I need to figure out how to change her social security to deposit to this new account. I also need to contact her health insurance to change the auto payment to this new account. 

And it's payroll processing day, so I need to get to it. If it hadn't been payroll today I would have also just taken today off to have a long weekend. Oh well.

The new sheriff

When dh had that incident last week with the old sheriff, he had called right back to dispatch to say it wasn't fireworks and was the ex-sheriff with a gun, shooting, so no need to come out to respond. Then he asked he would appreciate if the sheriff or a deputy could call him back when convenient, no rush. The new head sheriff did call yesterday. He was just appointed sheriff recently (so he's the second sheriff since the #*$&head ex sheriff resigned). First he apologized for not calling sooner, he's been out of town a few days. Then when dh said that while he realizes this isn't anything that can/needs to be done, he just wanted it known, in case there are other future incidents and then they will know it's not the first. 

New sheriff replied "that guy should NEVER have been elected to be sheriff of this county in the first place and this county is so much better off with him gone". DH was kind of surprised he'd be that blunt, but told him he 100% agrees. The guy is a just a complete ass. Sheriff said he would let his deputies know what happened, that way if there are any more reports of him shooting in areas not supposed to be shooting, they will respond to him and know it's not the first incident. DH said to sheriff - while we have no issues with guns or shooting in the area (like dh said, he though it was fireworks, not a gun), there is a law that you cannot be shooting within like 150 yards of residences and he definitely was within that distance of the 3 homes on our street.

We and neighbor are guessing maybe he did it so close to our neighborhood thinking he was going to annoy his old friend, our neighbor (who wasn't even home). Who knows. He's the type of guy who thinks he can do whatever he wants, and no one is going to question him, exactly why he never should have been a sheriff. He can stay a security guard. He wasn't in law enforcement before he was elected sheriff and after he resigned he didn't try to find another LEO position in another county or town. Our neighbor has also said he has heard things that the new sheriff is finding equipment inventory missing that was purchased by/for the sheriff's department when #*$&head ex sheriff was in charge. Did I mention that as dh was trying to nicely and calmly explain to #*$&head that he of course didn't know who it was and he was concerned it might be some idiots doing fireworks potentially starting a fire in the forest, #*$&head told dh like 3 times "get the F out of my way". I guess dh told him at the end, yes, I'll get out of your way, but you are a F-ing asshole and walked back to his car. 

DH said the new sheriff acted like he expected a sheriff of a small community to act. Respectful towards a good law abiding citizen. I had forgotten about another encounter we had with this #*$&head ex sheriff. Back when we were having all the problems with that renter neighbor in town, who was grinding fenders and starting up race truck engines at midnight, night after night, 10 feet from our bedroom window. We had gone in to the sheriffs station to inquire if there was a noise ordinance (turns out it was like no loud noises after 10pm or something like that) and the lady at the counter gave us a complaint form to fill out and show us to this little room on the side to go fill it out in. As we are filling it out #*$&head ex sheriff and his under sheriff (who was not rude, ever) open the door and he's all rude and pompous. Like what in the world are we doing there bothering them. DH started to explain and kept getting interrupted by him. He outright lied and said we've never had a complaint or been to his house.....well your SISTER in law right across the street told us herself SHE had called on them! and the previous house owners told us they had called in the past. Not to mention the stupid renters themselves told us "ya the previous owners used to call the cops on us". DH told the #*$&head ex sheriff "The common denominator with this seems to be the renter. I'm not the problem".

My 1000 piece puzzle is proving much harder, which I guess was the point, haha. At least I'm not done with it in 2 days.

Tomorrow I have the day off to go to see my mom, do her virtual dr visit and take her to open her new bank account and most likely she will need to go to a store for some things.

Better sleep and other stuff

Sleep came well last night. In fact I was sleeping so hard I slept almost a half hour past my normal waking time. But, I was at my desk only 15 minutes "late". Hard to say late, when it doesn't really matter what time I start work. I just like to be very consistent with my schedule, so I almost always start at 7:30. I got my little cup of coffee this morning and needed it, haha.

Yesterday Amazon delivered most of my monthly subscribe and save items. It's mostly dog stuff. DH had just refilled the dog food bin and says "do you realize you have 3 bags (40# bags) of dog food, including what I just poured in the bin?" I'm like yep - trying to stock up, like we discussed. He says "oh good, ya, in case stores get empty of stuff again." Yep.

Yesterday I did $4.50 in MTurks. Today I'm already over $8. DH and I were just standing at my office window this morning looking at all the birds using the little birdbath and see a row boat with fishermen going by on the river. They had found the "spot" where the water kind of calms and pools a bit (a favorite fishing spot of the bald eagles and ducks) so were holding themselves there for a few minutes, casting their lines out. Kind of relaxing looking. 

Even birds that must be migrating through are stopping to use my birdbath. I just now saw a couple of birds with yellow on top of their heads and on their back.When they flew off their whole back looked yellow with the wings open. I need my bird guide book I ordered! I think it will be here in tomorrow's mail. It will be the first thing I look up :)

Now my mom is confused/forgetting about her credit card. She has a couple of bills charge to it automatically each month as well as she will use it for purchases when we go to stores or grab lunch somewhere. It's linked to her bank account with checking and savings. I think she got the email that her monthly payment applied, but she wanted to know what it was for. I had to explain when she logs into her bank online she can click on the Visa and see the transactions. Once I said to her well, it's charges like your cell phone bill, internet. We went to Target and Walgreens......she was like oh ok. Her Visa card is a "AAA" visa and honestly when she see's that I think she gets it confused with AAA, as far as she used to have membership with them when she had a car and when she first see's something about her AAA visa card, she's only seeing the AAA and not noticing the visa part of the email. I'm sure it would be easy to say "just don't have a credit card" but then she'd just have to use a debit card and then have to write in each transaction in her checkbook....and just writing one transaction for "credit card payment" is much easier for her now.

DD just got a really nice email she was cc'd in. It went to her immediate boss and even 2 higher ups, praising her work cleaning up on an extra supplier she took on her work load about a month ago. 

 

No sleep

I had an awful nights sleep last night. I think the cup of tea I made myself around 8:30pm had caffeine in it. I was literally awake all night with my heart pumping fast. Even at almost 8am this morning I was still feeling the effects, not to mention I now have a headache. I had some loose tea bags in one of my pantry containers and now I kind of vaguely remember buying this box of green tea quite awhile back and not realizing it had caffeine. I would only drink it very rarely and only during the day, but when I put the tea bags in my cute little air tight container I threw out the box and must have forgotten this wasn't decaf. I threw out the remaining bags this morning. I can have a little bit of caffeine, but when I do it's only mornings. Needless to say I skipped my morning cup of coffee this morning and took 2 tylenol. Then I try to get started working. Try to log into my side job and the remote connection is not working again. Welcome to Monday.

I did get my chicken coop all cleaned out yesterday. A quick scooping of it all into my little wheelbarrow with this "rake" that just has a flat edge and works great. I just pull it all to the edge of the big door in their nesting/sleeping area and it falls into the wheelbarrow. Then throw in the new bedding and good to go. DH empties the wheelbarrow into our big garbage can for me. It looks like this rake on top of this picture

DD dog sat a couple of dogs for some friends over the weekend. It worked out ok because her dh went to spend the weekend at his parents, helping them with a project, so he took their 2 dogs with him. Friends were supposed to pick up the dogs yesterday. Then they called and said they'd come and get them Monday. Her dh gets home, with their 2 dogs, and of course one of the guest dogs didn't want to get along. DD ended up calling them to come over, so they got there at 11:30pm. Not fun when she and her dh get up at 5am, but dd is glad they are gone as she wouldn't have been able to deal with 4 dogs ot getting along and working from home.

I'm working on my grocery list so I can pick up a load of groceries when I go see my mom on Thursday. Still trying to stock up on things. Still can't find canned pears. And then Amazon was out of two of my monthly items, which is getting really frustrating. 

IT guy called (he sure is a nice guy) and they updated their VPN log in for everyone on Friday......but as usual they forgot about me. Now it works.

I've slacked again the past couple of weeks and haven't done any more MTurks to earn extra money. I decided I'd better get back to it. We aren't going to get any bonus this year, so I might as well try to make up for some of the loss with that income.

The dr. visit for my mom on Thursday is a virtual visit so I'm trying to make sure the ipad mini is working correctly with zoom so DD is going to send me a meeting invite so we can make sure the camera and microphone are working. This is my mom's ipad mini she never uses and doesn't even remember she has.

ok, I'm really feeling the tiredness hitting me from lack of sleep. Still a long time left in the day.

Rainy Saturday

It pretty much rained most of the day yesterday, which was really nice for a change. It also helped to clear up the bad air quality we've been having the past week. Even though he got rained on dh went outside and finished up with the pile of landscape rock that was left. Another little project he needs to do is insulate the ceiling in the shed. He says it's a quick job (I think he is spraying in), but it's also a 2 person job and he doesn't think I'm strong enough to help, so he tried to find someone to just hire for a quick job. Tried to get the guy he hired who helped build the shed, but of course he didn't return his call. As he was out front by the fence working yesterday our young neighbor down at the end of the street was coming or going and stopped to chat with dh. He said he'd be glad to give dh a hand with it. DH says it's really like a 20-30 minute job, so he's thankful for the offer of help. I told dh I pay in eggs LOL. I know DH will try to pay him (generously) and I'm sure he won't let him.

While he was outside I cleaned the downstairs, vacuumed and mopped. I made a loaf of banana bread after I got up, to use up some very ripe bananas. My mom called to say hello. She was getting her flu shot after lunch. I guess it got postponed from the original day, as they were waiting on the covid test results for whoever lives or works there. She also went and did exercise class, again. It appears from their monthly schedule that exercise class is every day Tues-Sat and she's been going most days. So good for her. She said mostly they sit in chairs but she and a couple others do some of the exercises standing. She called later and said she got the shot and it was quick, easy and painless. She also asked me if she was registered to vote. I couldn't remember! I know when we went and got her ID card the guy asked if she wanted to register and I couldn't remember what she decided. I figured out there is a way to look it up online and she is registered, so I called her back and told her she is and will get her absentee ballot closer to election day.

I ordered dh a new office chair and chair mat from Amazon on Friday. I got sick and tired of looking at reviews, so picked one that had majority good reviews, looks nice, and in my price range. Like I said anything has to be better than sitting on a wood dining chair. The chair mat is for hard floors and is clear, so it doesn't cover the look of the wood floor. 

I started a 1000 piece puzzle. Way harder than 500 piece LOL. There are too many pieces that fit but actually are not the right piece. I was getting frustrated with just doing the edge/outside. I'm still haven't got the outside done right, but no more pieces, haha. On one side that had night sky I had to rearrange all the pieces several times to get them all to finally fit. I'd hook several together that fit perfectly but they weren't the right piece. Apparently I need to figure that same situation out on the other 3 sides.

Today I HAVE to clean out the coop. I didn't end up doing it last Sunday as dh didn't want me outside in the bad smokey air. As soon as they are done laying for the day (usually by around noon) I'll get out there.

The furniture edition

I was so excited about my little console table arriving Thursday that I completely forgot my new chair was also arriving. I have been waiting for that to come for quite awhile now. Of course, both had to be put together.

Putting the chair together (by DH) went easy, until he got to the last 2 wood plugs that go to cover up the screw holes. They aren't sized right for the plugs. Dumb. Took him longer to finagle those 2 plugs in than to put the chair together. But, I do like the chair. It's fairly comfortable. But, it looks very lonely sitting in the loft all by itself...

The little sculpture I ordered for the console table was supposed to arrive next Wednesday - and it came yesterday. Woo! At least now the table doesn't look lonely. But, still needs something next to it and on the wall above the table. I'm thinking a small mirror.

The orange-ish colors in the buffalo match the blanket and throw pillows some. It's a nice heavy wood, sturdy table. I'm pleased for $60 (though with gift card and coupon it only cost me $5)

I'm trying to find a new office chair to order for dh. He's been sitting on an old wood dining room chair for the past 15 months. All the reviews of the chairs I am looking at are driving me nuts. "it's a great chair" "it's an awful chair" "it's held up great" "it's falling apart already" "it helps my back" "it hurts my back". And it does no good to go try out chairs at the office supply store. You can't tell by sitting in a chair for 30 seconds. I thought my chair was comfortable when sitting in it at the store, but it's not at all. I guess I should just tell myself that any chair is going to be better than what he's been sitting on, LOL.

Our wild cat hasn't been around to eat the food put out at night for like 10 days, so I stopped putting out the food for him. Wednesday night dh thought he caught him again on the game camera, so I put the food out again last night. This morning the bowl was moved but nothing eaten. Camera: a SKUNK! and then a mouse later on.....ok, guess I won't be putting out any more cat food :( Mr. Wild cat is on his own now.

Had a little bit of rain yesterday and more supposed to come today. Hoping it clears out the "unhealthy air quality" we've been having for a week.

short man syndrome

When we first moved over here, almost exactly 4 years ago, the first Sunday we were at our new to us house (in town) DH was out doing what he does - cleaning up and making stuff look nice. We had an alley behind our house. On the other side of the alley was a building for a local county office (they did not use the alley for anything) and one house. So, 2 lots. DH was out in the alley mowing down the foot tall weeds and then realizing in all the weeds, mostly on each side of alley was left a bunch of junk. Old boards, pieces of metal, etc. The doors to the shop on our lot sat right on the edge of the alley.  We could barely get back there to use it! The older lady who lived in the house got in her car, slowly drove down the alley, doesn't even come to a stop as she says to DH "can I help you?" Dh says well...no...I just moved in to this house here and am just cleaning up the alley". She was snooty and snotty. (about a year later she ended up moving to her daughters and the house has been empty ever since)

2 days later the head sheriff and undersheriff show up saying they got a call of a suspicious person on "her" property. DH was like I wasn't on her property in any way shape or form. I was in the alley right of way mowing weeds down and cleaning up all the crap apparently dumped there for years. Head sheriff was a total #*#@head. He even wanted to run dh's drivers license (dh should have told him to come back with a warrant). DH was just extremely cooperative. I mean we just moved in a week before, we didn't want to alienate anyone! We also knew (that he didn't know we knew) that he was (at the time) good friends with our current neighbor here at our new house and dh kinda played dumb and said ya we  just moved in and we also bought a piece of property -  next door to so and so's..and his tune instantly changed. I then said do you need my driver's license too? He says no. Then says to dh "well, you have a pretty wife, I guess you are ok..". I was like where are we? Mayberry? LOL

About a month or so later, just before Thanksgiving, snotty lady neighbor has her brother and nephew (or someone like that) show up in a pickup and they proceed to start picking up all the CRAP on her side of the alley. OMG! There was so much crap in the 2 foot high weeds! It took them like 3 truckloads to get it all out of there. One of the items was a dead coyote carcass! Apparently for years and years the edge of the alley, just over her fence (another reason dh was not on her property - she had a fence!) was her deceased husbands dumping grounds.

#*#@head resigned from being sheriff a year later. Now he's a security guard (what he was before he was sheriff of this big county of 4000 people). We met him one more time, at a friends bbq. He was a pompous #*#@head then, too.

Today, dh is outside all day working in the yard and hears this very close, extremely rapid and loud popping noise from across the road. Our dogs (inside) freaked and neighbors dogs (outside) freaked. At first he thought it was someone firing a 22 on auto (or something like that - I don't know gun terminology). Then he thought, who would do that? it's still fire season here as well as bow hunting season just started. Who's going to be out shooting their gun like that with bow hunters out and about? (well, only#*#@head's would) His next thought 2 seconds later was boy, it really sounded like fireworks, more than a gun. Plus, none of the dogs usually react to gunshots at all. And with all the craziness going on in our country, who knows what some idiot(s) would do. He gets in our car and drives over across and down this dirt road, (all state land) where he heard it coming from. Someone was driving out in an old truck. DH of course couldn't see who it was, nor did he even know if this is the person causing the fireworks noise. It's about one lane road, so dh stops in front and walks up to his truck (his gun on his belt) and starts to ask hey, was that you doing fireworks and sees it's our ex-sheriff and his wife. And say oh, (insert name), hi, I was concerned someone was shooting off fireworks over here and could start a fire. #*#@head says "do you think I would start a fire?" DH says well, of course not, but how was I to know it was you over here?? 

Then he snarkily tells dh it was a 22. DH says the whole time his wife is sitting there giggling (these are people our age). DH say oh, ok then - with all the craziness going on everywhere I was just looking out for my neighborhood and community. #*#@head says "where are you from?" (he knows who DH is, of course it's his way of saying you don't belong to this community). By then DH has had enough of this jerk (he had enough of him 4 years ago) and says I'm from here, where are you from?. Then he says something about dh having a gun. And dh say "ya? who doesn't around here?" and he says well, you don't usually carry. Dh was thinking to himself how would this guy I've only seen twice before in the last 4 years know what I do? DH says that's because I have a conceal carry license, so most of the time I'm concealed. #*#@head says well, you aren't now. DH says I don't have to. It's an open carry state. Then #*#@head says, "well if you didn't like that you aren't going to like what's coming".

This guy is bizarre. So bizarre that our neighbor told us quite awhile ago he stopped being friends with him. They used to hunt together, mostly for wild turkeys. They didn't socialize in any other way because Mrs. Neighbor has never liked him. Why? because he's a#*#@head. "He has short man syndrome", she always says. Neighbor said that (after being hunting friends for quite a few years) this guy tried to kiss him two different times! We were like "he did not! you're joking!" He said no, I'm totally serious and the only other person I've told about this is my wife. He said he just started telling #*#@head he's busy and then stopped returning his calls a couple years ago.  DH and I gave each other one of those husband and wife looks (LOL) and neighbor says what? We told him about this strange conversation we had just a couple months before overheard with #*#@head and his brother, while we were at that friends bbq. #*#@head's brother was teasing his own adult son about some sandals he was wearing. Dad told son they look kinda "gay". #*#@head then says to his brother (totally serious) "well what if he was gay?" Father and son are just sitting there looking at him like he's crazy (because son is about to get married in a few months LOL). Father says well, he's not.  #*#@head says again "well, what if he was?". Father again says well, he's not, but I guess if he was, then that's what he is. But his sandals still look girly LOL.  We told neighbor it was just a strange conversation to sit there and listen to, especially as #*#@head always tries to come across as this macho #*#@head. Neighbor says well, I think he must be secretly gay or something, but I'm not kissing him!

Some days are just too much

Well, I totally bungled renewing my mom's remaining prescriptions! It's all fixed now, but I realize now what I did - when I went to the messaging section of "mychart" I saw her Dr. listed and an FNP listed - I thought the FNP was her doctors nurse and sent her the message. This FNP was the person we saw for her rash/wound care. I got confused who this was and that they are part of the same medical group. Now her regular dr. is refilling and she should have her meds in the mail soon. Ugh. I need to pay closer attention!

DH is really tired of spending every day indoors when there is yard work to be done, but the unhealthy air quality bothers him when he gets out there, so he's just staying inside. Watching you tube videos about various things. Taking an afternoon nap.

I was texting with a friend about all the birds at my birdbath. She texted a picture and info out of a bird guide book she has. I was like oh neat! I need a book like that. I'm always looking up birds on Google. It's an Audubon Guide to North American Birds. She sent a picture of the books cover. Looks kind of old with a leather/like cover. She said she thought she got it from her dad years ago. I found it used on Ebay for like $4. The ebay store was also having buy 3 get 1 free, so I looked through the list and got 3 books and one dvd for $12.62 total (free shipping). Not bad. I want to start building up a library, so eventually when we get some bookshelves either bought or built in the upstairs wide hallway area, I can start filling the shelves up.

Today my little table for the guest bedroom is supposed to arrive. The little sculpture I ordered to sit on the table won't be here until next week. Did I mention DD is giving me the marble chess set she got on Marketplace for $5? She decided her cat is too annoying with it. Her cat likes to steal small things, LOL. She was definitely eyeing the pieces, haha. I had gave them an owl winestopper for their anniversary, that was up on an open shelf in their kitchen. Cat got up there and took it, LOL.

And while sitting watching tv/relaxing last night my mom calls.......for the 30th time "I wrote a note to ask you something about medicare cuts coming to seniors next year"...........

And she's back to saying all the meals are the same thing. I'm fighting a losing battle with this one, too, I guess. When I show her the menu and that it has variety she will say "oh, well now they are, but they weren't before". Days or a week later, when she's saying it's all the same, I will say, we just looked at your menu the other day and it was variety and she will say "well, there were doing variety, but now they aren't"

Some days are just gonna be like this, I guess. It's certainly not going to get any better, that's for sure.  I had honestly hoped (because that's what all the experts say helps) that her exercising several days a week and doing activities and socializing would help her memory - or at least slow the progression down. It seems like she is getting worse since starting more activity, not better.

More tweaks to mom's gadgets

Yesterday's issue with mom was some text message she got. She has this little old flip phone that you can see like 4 words of the text on her screen and have to keep scrolling down to read it all. Apparently she was downstairs in the common area when she received it, so she asked someone who works there what it means. Of course she had no understanding of what they were trying to explain (I don't even think they really knew) so they wrote on piece of paper for her to tell me that it looks like some app is going to be discontinued, but her phone is probably ok. She tried to read the text message to me. Something about a Brew app discontinuing on  9/30? I looked on her phone log and it shows no text message received, so I'm guessing it came directly from Verizon, as I don't think those show up in her call log. She doesn't even have a smart phone or data on her phone. Not sure why Verizon would even send her something like that. I have Verizon, smart phone and data and received no text. I tried to explain to her she doesn't have apps/smart phone to it doesn't apply to her. She has no idea how to delete a text (so she'll probably see it in a couple days again and call again.....)

So, guess what I did? I disabled text messages to and from her phone! She has never texted and of course never will. Hopefully that also stops the texts from Verizon. All's she needs to be able to do is take and make calls. One less headache for me to deal with. Then last night I get a text from uncle that mom was worried someone was trying to get into her computer. I told him it was fine - it was her Windows10 updating and taking a long time because she never leaves her computer on more than like a half hour. Apparently she also called him a couple of times about it, but why she called him yesterday (around same time she called me about the text) about it, I'm not sure. Her computer is literally turned off 23.5 hours a day, if not 24 as I know some days she probably doesn't even get on it. No one can hack into her computer that is off.

I really don't know how to make her life any simpler, short of no phone and no computer! I have tried to set up her computer as simply as possible. Literally the only thing on her desktop are 4 icons: Firefox, Solitaire, Team Viewer and Recycle bin (and I should just delete that icon). When she opens Firefox her "favorites" are tabs on top that she can click on to access: email, banking, facebook (which I don't think she looks at anymore at all). She knows how to go to the start icon in lower left and turn off her computer when she's done......until she's rattled and then she can't remember how.

A few years ago (before memory issues) she wanted an ipad mini and we set it up for her. I wish she had "taken" to it and she could just use that for games and email viewing, but she never really quite understood it for some reason. Now she doesn't even remember she has it and when I tried to get her to start using it last year, I had to buy a new charger, which now isn't found anywhere either. A few weeks ago I just took the ipad home with me to get charged up. I will use it for her "virtual visit" with her doctor (I have to load 2 apps to do the appointment) but will probably just end up keeping the ipad for myself. Mine is like 5 years old and I can't update it anymore and most apps I can't load on it now, as it's too old.

I wish she was more into watching tv - that would take up more of her day. She usually watches some in the evenings, but has never watched during the day. She does still love to do easy crossword puzzles. I think she tries to read a little, but I'm fairly certain she is not really completing a book anymore (there is no way she could remember the storyline). She likes to play a little solitaire on her computer. Thankfully she is doing quite a few activities. Every 3rd day her floor gets to eat meals in the dining room so that gets her out and about. The other day when I called she was just sitting downstairs in the common lounge area and chatting with people as they came and went, so that is good, too.

I try to vary the time of day I call, just to give her a bit of variety, LOL. Sometimes I'll call around 10:30. Other times I'll wait until after lunch or around 4pm. I don't usually call in the evenings as I know most days she talks to my uncle in the evenings. 

On a good note, the times I do talk to her in the morning (and when she stayed here) she seems to not be having those mornings where she "just doesn't feel well" hardly at all now. Remember, before she would have to call downstairs and tell them she wasn't coming down for breakfast. Or if I was coming that morning she was calling me to say she didn't feel well. Haven't had any of those in quite awhile now - and she had that issue for close to a couple of years.

I have a friend/facebook friend who is 78 years old today. One year younger than my mom. Boy, what a difference. He and his wife just bought a new home and seem so healthy, young, and mentally there, compared to my mom. I think they both navigate Facebook better than me, haha! I hope I am like them when I am that age.

Mumbling through Tuesday

My mom's senior living place had a bit of a scare last week with Covid. They gave all the residents a letter and emailed family that either a resident or associate was being tested. In the meantime, until it was verified, all activities were cancelled again, and they were supposed to basically stay in their apartments. The test came back negative and they are back to "normal". I called mom yesterday morning and she was downstairs waiting for the card game to start. Whew! I was panicking that I wasn't going to be able to do her virtual dr visit next week or take her to get her new bank account open.

A local friend has a high school boy playing football. They won't let the parents in the high school stadiums to watch the games. Most of their away games are quite a ways away, being everything is so spread out here. So, the parents sit in bars, waiting for the game to be over. Friend says it's so stupid.  They won't even let one parent per player in the stands, that will hold like 2000 people - outside. Where they could easily spread out, but the state/governor is ok with them all sitting inside in a bar together. 

The chair I ordered weeks ago, for the loft sitting area, was supposed to arrive today, but now I see it's delayed until Friday. What an ordeal just to get this chair! I'd better like it, haha.

Another day of smokey, hazy air. It's keeping dh from doing his yard work/maintenance. He did go out for a while yesterday and put down the fertilizer he needed to get down and has been putting off for a few days now.

I use Amazon subscribe and save for a handful of items. It seems each month now at least one of my items is out of stock. This month it's 2 of the dog treats. So far, it has not affected the dog food, but I'm glad I have an extra two bags of it on hand. I did find a 3 pack of the pizza sauce I like to use through Walmart, so I ordered that last week along with grape jam (not jelly) that was out of stock when I tried to order it with my grocery pick up order.

But, when I need something we are out of and decide to order it....either through Walmart or Target, why do I have such a hard time coming up with enough stuff to add to my cart to have the free shipping. I mean $25, even $35 isn't that much! I sit and try to think of things to add all day long. Or I think of things and they are out of stock. I annoy myself! Well, I just lucked out. The Milk Bones 7lb box that Amazon is out of is in stock with Target and it's not part of the "only ships with $25 order" that most things seem to be attached to, so with using my red card, it's free shipping and no min. order amount.

Today is payday. Bills not set up on auto pay are paid. Mostly, I have everything on auto pay, charging to my 2% cash back credit card and then on pay day I make a payment to the credit card for everything scheduled to go on the card during this pay cycle. Then on the 20th of each month I get my cash back and transfer it to my paypal balance, which I then transfer to my checking. I'm waiting for the propane company to charge my card and then I will pay it right off from checking. I don't know what is taking them so long. I mailed in the winter prepay contract for $895. It was due by 9/4 and I mailed it to the propane office in town on 9/2. Last week I was checking my credit card to pay it off and see it hadn't been charged yet. I emailed the office girl to make sure she got my contract and she said she did and was probably going to get all the charges put through by the end of last week, but she still hasn't done it.

I just remembered to take some steaks out of the freezer, so dinner has been figured out for tonight.

Well, crap. I had messaged mom's dr office online last week to refill her 3 other prescriptions, because for some reason I cannot click on "refill" on her chart list of meds. Last month they quickly refilled the 1st one she was low on, after I messaged. I saw a message back, but stupid me assumed it was just a notification that they processed my request and they sent the refills to her mail order pharmacy. I get online this morning and see the note from the nurse. "just request a refill through the pharmacy". I had to reply back - I can't do that. This is new pharmacy/insurance for her, so they do not have her prescriptions on file - you need to send them to the mail order pharmacy so they can fill." UGH. So, by my not paying attention I've delayed them getting to mom a week. From what I counted when she was here last week, I  think she had enough for about 20 days more, so hopefully they will get to her in time still.

Yesterday afternoon/eve was about 6 calls from my mom about her computer. Windows 10 was doing an update. And it turned out to be a long one. She never leaves her computer turned on and when she is on it, she's never on it long enough to let it do an update, so most likely there were a bunch to do. She kept calling saying it was x% done, she's not sure what to do. I kept telling her to just let it run through until it's done. Then she'd call saying it's x% done and says it might restart her system several times and this is normal. I again had to keep saying, it's ok, just let it finish. She was worried someone had taken over her computer. Finally it seemed to be done but she couldn't figure out how to close out. I got on with team viewer and it seemed to be done updating as far as I could tell. I logged out and she then couldn't remember how to shut down her computer. ugh. So I got back on with team viewer and just shut it down while I was on. LOL. I know today she'll most likely remember how to use her computer, but when she gets flustered and overwhelmed with it, she forgets it all. She was to the point saying she doesn't think she probably even needs a computer anymore (she's right!). She said she really only uses to check her banking and I said we can always change her back to a monthly statement in the mail. She rarely gets an email that is anything important. She doesn't look at Facebook at all anymore.

And as I finish typing this I just get a text from the propane company that my winter prepay has been changed to my card now. Tomorrow I can log in to the credit card and pay it off and get that off my reminder/to do list.

Relaxing Sunday

It was mostly a quiet indoor day yesterday. We started getting the smoke from the CA and OR fires. The sun was kind of eerie all day. Just a big orange ball behind all the haze. You could almost look right at it. We did make a quick run into town later in the morning. I needed milks and a couple things at the store. DH wanted to drop off the pop cans at the house that takes cans for recycling and also fill up his lawn gas cans. After we got home dh did do a bit of hand watering with the hose where we had added some grass seed near the fence and a bit on neighbors side. I was out checking for eggs and noticed my neighbor lady was out for a bit to try to do some yardwork, so I took her over a dozen and a half eggs I need to offload. 

Off and on I worked on a jigsaw puzzle I had started the day before. 500 pieces. I took a nap. Read a book. Made a no bake cheesecake. I haven't had one of those since I was probably living at home with my parents. My mom used to make them. Cheesecake is one of my favorite foods. Well, apparently since then I have become a cheesecake snob, LOL. Real cheesecake is way better, haha. I have made real ones a few times (sometime I purchase them) and while this jello cheesecake is ok, I think next time I have a cheesecake craving I'll either make the real thing or buy some from the bakery section. Even frozen is better than this, haha.

I also received a post card in the mail from my health insurance that I could get a $25 gift card by filling out a health screening questionnaire. Took me about 10 minutes and this morning I received a $25 Amazon gift card. Perfect timing as dh just sent me link to some Stihl 2 cycle oil he needs that is $50 for a six pack, so I applied the $25 to that.

I've also been looking for a console table to put in one of my guest bedrooms. The room needs more decor, for sure. When you walk into the room there is a wall along the door, then the wall comes out as part of the dormer. The tables I found online last week were $100 on up. This morning I remembered we have a $50 Home Depot gift card. I have been to Home Depot like 3 times (last trip was for paint/staining supplies) and kept forgetting to use it. I know they have some furniture and decor they sell online so I looked at console tables. Found one that I think will work great for only $60. 

Plus, the color looks like it will match the posts on the bed's wood. And I like how it is curved so when you do walk in the room you don't have to make sure you avoid the corner of the table. The website had an advertising of sign up for emails and get 10% off home decor. Grand total out of pocket, after applying code and gift card was $4.97. I think I'm going to put a small mirror over it, a small fake plant on the table, next to a buffalo sculpture I found online that I will buy next.

The other happiness yesterday was the bird bath was busy busy. A group of birds with blue on them we had never seen before, arrived for a short visit. I guess they were just passing through. The water was getting low so I went to fill up the pitcher. By the time I got it filled the blue birds had left and the regular birds had returned. I slowly walked up and a couple stayed and a few more returned while I poured. It's so neat :) Being so close I noticed their beaks are strange - the top and bottom beaks cross over each other. They are kind of a red colored bird too, so in my research it appears they might be "red crossbill" birds.

I finished up the puzzle in the evening. It's a nice diversion when there's nothing on tv (most of the time!) or I don't feel like reading. I had to order some stuff from Walmart and needed to get to $35 for free shipping so I ordered another puzzle. Trying a 1000 piece this time, so hopefully it takes me a little longer.

I'm not a sports fan. Used to be growing up. Watching football was big in my family. We had season tickets to the pro team and for a few years 2 of us kids got to alternate going with parents to the games. DH used to enjoy watching basketball. But as we got busy work, school, kids, etc. watching sports stopped. And then I got tired of these guys making millions acting like jerks. Now with all the politicizing of sports, I'm glad I gave it up a long time ago. I was watching the news the other night and they showed a pro football game, with fans in the stands very limited. They took their knees and the fans (what little there were of them) booed like crazy. So, if those fans booing are so against that (glad they are) then why are they spending their money to go support them? Just makes no sense to me. But, most of the world makes no sense to me anymore, so there ya go.

Friday turned into a Saturday

Well, yesterday ended up being mostly a non-work day. Not planned! Friends showed up around 11 or so. I figured ok, they'll stay a couple hours. I'll take a long lunch. No, they didn't leave until 4:30! Thankfully, other than doing payroll 2 days a month, my work is flexible and I can do that. My boss was off anyway, so I didn't have to worry about her emailing me about something.

It was great to visit with them. This is only the 3rd time (in past 6 years) I have met his wife (his 2nd wife). The first couple of times she seemed a bit quiet, but this time she seemed more comfortable and talkative. Plus the last 2 times they had been driving in their car all day, so I'm sure she was tired. This time they had spent the night at nearby motel (we didn't know this or would have invited them to stay here!) so they weren't tired from driving.

For my side job I mail out checks monthly to their salespeople for auto allowance and expenses. Now they are getting mailed to their home addresses and not the office. At least a couple of times one of them has asked if I mailed it and when as he hasn't received it yet. I know it usually takes 4-5 days to get there, but now it's been like 9. This morning I went to get online remotely and print a new check to send, only I can't get into the remote computer. So, I guess I'll just handwrite the replacement check so I can get it in the mail this morning, but I need his address. I know several months ago he had emailed me his home address, so  I found the email. Then I looked him up on the payroll system. The zip codes are different! The one he gave me is a town next to his. I googled his address and it shows zip code same as payroll system. I'm guessing that is what is causing his check delays.

At least before the friends arrived yesterday I was able to get my meatballs and sweet and sour sauce in the crockpot and didn't have to cook dinner. We invited them to stay, but they had plans with some other friends in the city and were spending the night there and then heading home today. The sweet and sour meatballs over sticky rice (just microwave kind, but was quick and tasted good) was a good change to have for dinner. Haven't had it in years and years.

I need to clean out the chicken coop today, but want to wait until they are done laying eggs, which usually isn't until around noon. I don't want to disturb them while they are wanting to get up in the nests to lay. Yesterday was a 3 egg day, which seems to happen about once a week. The rest of the days are 4 eggs. I need to unload a dozen on a neighbor.

DD had bought a new l-shaped desk for her home office that arrived yesterday. She had a small student type desk we had gotten years ago at Ikea. It's in like perfect shape. She decided to list it on the free local website in her area. An appreciative mom came and picked it up for her young daughter who is schooling from home. She said her daughter was going to be so excited to get the desk for her bedroom.

DH got up for awhile and went back to bed. It's good he ended up with a day off "work" yesterday. 

My mom called and still somehow she is writing herself notes to ask me about "medicare cuts coming to seniors".......ARGHGH!!!! It has to be a commercial she is seeing while watching Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy every night is my guess.

Mad dash morning

When I logged into my mom's bank account yesterday morning I see the two small checks trying to clear that she wrote to me over the weekend (that I had mobile deposited before I found out about the fraud check).  When I talked to to the fraud person on Tuesday and asked her what to do about any checks still needing to clear, that are legit, she said to just call and tell them to "force pay" them. I swear they were not showing on there Wednesday. So, I call and the lady asks me what time is it where you are? umm...it's 11:06. She says oh darn, our cut off is 11am for force paying checks to clear. Then she said hold on, let me see if I can fib a little and make this work. So she apparently had to note that I had been on hold since before 11, so technically I did call before their cut off time, LOL. Whatever works! It wasn't a huge deal, but less work on my end to deal with my mom, if I had to get her to write me another check and have to explain it all again to her.

All week I have been going to make some sweet and sour meatballs in my crockpot and every day I keep forgetting until it's like 3pm, when I'm going hmmm...what should be have for dinner tonight?  I'm getting as bad as my mom, so I made myself a note yesterday day afternoon so I see when I sit down to my computer this morning. I'll get it all going in the crockpot a little later this morning when I go back down to get my breakfast. I always take my cup of coffee up to my office and (slowly) drink that first and then an hour or so later get a little bit of breakfast.

That side chair I ordered for my upstairs loft area finally shipped today. Yay! After all this wait, I sure hope I like it.

As I'm typing this out first thing this morning I happen to notice the landline phone on my desk is showing a voicemail. Take a listen. It's a friend that called last evening while we were outside and I hadn't been back upstairs after I stopped work so didn't see it until this morning. Said he's going to be in our area today and wants to stop by. DH calls him right away and they are in town and will stop by in a bit....SO.........mad dash to tidy up. I hadn't even showered yet, haha. But, I'm all ready for them now. House is perfect, LOL.

The friend stopping by is an old friend of DH's he's known since grade school. He now lives on the east side of the state, so we don't see him too often, but they do talk on the phone every couple of months or so.

Catching up the rest of the weekend

I was gone from about noon until 3pm Monday, taking my mom home and picking up my grocery order at Walmart. At least it wasn't cancelled, like it was on Friday. I was re-reading my post from Monday and it appears I left out the part where I did find the yellow Ethernet cable in one of her drawers next to her desk, LOL. Can't for the life of me figure out why she would have unplugged it, but at least it's all fixed now and I sure was relieved to have it figured out now.

On Friday we learned who bought the lot down the street, that is next to the couple who live on the last lot. DH had seen a truck drive down the street, but not leave. We can't see that end of the street from our property (trees and the land inclines and then declines on the lots between us). With it being a holiday weekend, as well as all the extra/strange traffic we've been having this summer, dh kind of wanted to make sure it wasn't someone down there up to no good. He texted our neighbor down there to ask her if she was home and she said yes and she wasn't sure who was on that lot and didn't want to go out there by herself to double check - could dh maybe take a walk with the dogs and investigate? So, he did and it was the new owner couple. They had just closed on the sale in the morning. DH said they seemed very nice and of course, since he can talk someone's ear off, he chatted with them quite awhile, though he wasn't quite sure what to make of them, haha. The lady's dad lives in the area, so that is why they bought around here. They plan to build in about 5 years. Then of course our neighbor gal wanted to know what dh learned about their new "neighbors" so she, hubby and kid came down and sat on our front porch while we had otterpops and visited for a bit Friday evening. DH was like well, I know you can't/shouldn't always judge a book by it's cover (lots of tattoo's haha)....our neighbor was wondering if they were "red", like all of us. DH was like red? I said Conservative! LOL. For someone who pays attention to politics as much as he does I can't believe he didn't know what she was referencing. DH said he had no idea from his chat with them. Then he said well, the lady is a teacher and we all said well a good majority of them tend to be liberal thinking side.

Then of course dh, who is Mr Detective, did some research. He only knew first names of them. Here's his trail: they said her dad is trying to sell such and such house in town (been trying to sell it for 2 years). DH knew which house, looks up the owner on the property search our state has. Finds that guys name. Finds his Facebook page, then looks at his friends list and finds his daughter and son inlaw's facebook pages. bingo! haha. Ok, they are MAJOR "Red", LOL. Like the guy posts conservative political posts all day long. Everyone is like, ok, guess they will fit in around here then, haha. Somehow he even found out where they live now and looked at their house on google map/street view, and was happy to see they had a really well kept, nicely landscaped place. But, like I said, 5 years is a long time - lots of plans change for people in 5 years, so we'll see, right? DH did tell them expect it to take close to 2 years to build a house, haha. One thing he did learn from talking with them is the guy needs peace and quiet, as he suffers from PTSD, so at least we know they will be quiet neighbors. Oh, and also they are our age.

When I was gone Friday, picking up my mom, some friends we hadn't seen in a long time stopped by. I was so bummed I missed them. When we moved here they only lived about 10 minutes from us, but they sold their big ranch and moved about 1 1/2 hours away. DH said they really liked our house and landscaping. A big compliment coming from them since they are multimillionaires and live in a 2 million dollar house, LOL. Now friends wife wants curbing around her lawn, haha. I was so glad I had spent the morning cleaning and tidying up before I left to get mom! Not that we have a messy house, but at least there were no dishes in the sink, the spare bed the dogs always sleep on and mess up the comforter and pillows was all neat, LOL.

A couple years ago I bookmarked this shower curtain on Walmart's website I liked for my upstairs tub/shower. I'm pretty sure it was close to $90, which of course is why I never bought it. Last night DD sends me this picture of a shower curtain on Amazon that she likes and it's like $40. I said I think that is really similar to one I had bookmarked but it was a different color and like $90. She said it has the tan/linen color, too and only $37. This morning I looked up my bookmark with Walmart and it's the exact same shower curtain, but $43 with Walmart. I said out of all the probably millions of shower curtains out there, what are the odds DD and I pick the same one?! LOL.

Just got a call from one of DH's friends in Northern California. He said it is so smokey and so much fires. DH was outside, so I chatted with him for awhile and since DH is outside working in the yard, he just said to have dh call him back this evening. Oh good, something to keep dh busy with for a couple of hours tonight, haha! DH has been pretty much non stop complaining this whole week. If it's not one thing it's another and as soon as one "issue" is resolved (like neighbors family and dogs finally left) it's something else. Now it's gun shots going off somewhere nearby all day long for the past 4 days. I can hear it a bit from inside, but he's been outside all day every day and is getting annoyed by it. It's not hunting season, so why a single shot about every 30 minutes? We live in sort of a canyon area and it really echos so it's hard to tell where exactly it's coming from. And then he complains about stuff that "might" happen! Finally, last night in the middle of his rambling, I just got up and said good night, I'm off to bed.

While yesterday my mom remembered about her checking fraud issue and I had told her about having to change her online password. Last night/this morning she obviously isn't quite remembering now. I went to log in this morning and was locked out and had to do a password reset. Then I look at her emails and see that last evening she must have tried to access. She calls me first thing this morning and says "something must be wrong with my bank account, I can't get in to look at it".

Hoping for an uneventful day

When I log into my mom's checking account this morning I can see a copy of the counterfeit check. Her last name is spelled wrong on it, LOL. it's -son, not -sen. Address and my name under hers (I'm on her acct) are correct as her previous address (that is still on her checks as we didn't order new ones with her new address yet). See! I guess she is right to be so adamant on spelling her last name for everyone! HAHA! It's made out to an Alex St. Pierre. Their signature on the back is kind of scribbled and then they wrote #17 next to it. What does that mean? Weird. I just find it the most interesting in that the check # was her next check # that she hadn't written yet (well, she ended up writing it to me on Monday, but the last check that cleared her bank account was 9871. It's almost like someone had access to her online banking to see the next check#.....I also changed her log in password.

A cool thing happened to me the other morning. A bunch of birds were at the birdbath, but the water in it was really low so I went and filled up my big pitcher. Usually they will fly away as I approach. This time 2 of them stayed sitting on the edge, so I slowly reached over with the pitcher and slowly started pouring water in. They all started coming back and one even landed on my hand for a couple of seconds! It was so neat.

The neighbor's son took their dogs home with them. Finally. DH chatted with Mr. a few minutes when he got home from work yesterday and dh said you can tell he is wiped out. He just said "it didn't go well" (having them visit for that long of time).  I'm sorry, but when you have 4 kids under the age of 5 (he might be 6 now) you can't have your phone in your face 24/7.

DH has been doing fall lawn maintenance. Last Friday after picking mom up I stopped at Lowe's and picked up weed and feed bags. Then went to the co-op place and picked up fertilizer bags. Whew! those made the car smell all the way home. We had to drive with the back windows rolled down and I even had mom put on her face mask. Monday he put down the weed and feed and in a couple of days he'll do the fertilizer. I also ordered another big bag of Casoron weed killer that will be delivered Friday and he can put that down in the gravel/rock areas. Then he should be good and ready for the winter to come.

I was messaging with DD, something about dog dna testing. Then I asked her when she did that ancestry dna test for herself did it say she had any close relative matches. She said she didn't think so, but she'd look again (it was awhile back she did it). She sent me the screen shot. Her reply was "it says I have 615 4th cousin matches. No thank you, LOL". Then she sent a little cartoon gif of a girl crawling in a big cardboard box house, closing the flaps, and sitting in the corner reading a book. She cracks me up. I told her she's getting worse than me not wanting to be around people! I said I don't even want the relatives I do know. haha!

Will it never end?

So, I'm typing up a new post this morning and get a call from a 1-800 number. Turns out it's my mom's bank.......there is a check trying to clear her checking account they suspect is fraud. Yep, it is. Apparently a counterfeit check someone made to try to cash for $2850.00. Made out with a check# 9872... I actually have 9872 sitting right in front of me! It's the actual check she just wrote me to reimburse me for $60. So, obviously this check#9872, made out to some "Alex LaPierre", is counterfeit. They have marked as fraud, but not after I was on the phone/hold/back on call for probably a good hour. I haven't seen a copy of it, but obviously it won't be in my mom's handwriting. Then I was transferred to another dept. who recommended we freeze my mom's checking. No money can go out and only money can be deposited right now, until we get her a new account opened up. To "freeze" it they put a "hold" transaction on her account of -$888,888.00, so now her balance, when you log in online, shows this huge negative balance in red, when her balance really is about $12k.

Surprisingly, explaining this to her seemed to go ok, she seemed to understand fairly well, though anything like this and she thinks it's the housekeepers or someone getting into her apartment (which I suppose is possible, but most likely isn't how it happened). We'll see tomorrow when she's looking at her bank again and forgets what is going on. At least she doesn't need to write another check until Oct 1st, so we will have it figured out by then, of course. I stayed on hold with the "new accounts" dept waiting to talk to someone there for over a half hour. Finally I had to hang up and get back to work. I'd already been on  the phone over an hour. I am thankful her bank seems so on top of fraud, but so dang tired of dealing with it every time I turn around.

While on hold I got online with her doctor office to set up her annual physical appt. The earliest appt with this dr is showing end of October. Good grief. I decided to call and see if there is an earlier appt. or maybe just see one of the other providers. Since she's feeling ok now (no more rash or other issues, other than memory, which isn't new issue) and due to her age and Covid risk, she suggested a virtual visit, so I made the appt. for that on 9/24 in the morning. I will just take the day off and go in and do that with her from either my phone or ipad. It requires the zoom app. I'm kind of thinking then since it's only about 2 weeks out to then just take her over to my local bank and get her new account set up there. I was planning on doing this soon anyway. I had hoped my bank might be open Sat mornings and do it the next Sat. I am there in less than 2 weeks, but they are only open Mon-Fri so I was going to have to take time off work now anyway, to take care of the banking. Then I can take care of the virtual dr. visit and the banking on same day. Now I'm thinking I'll not open a new BofA checking account (was planning to close it soon anyway) and just open the local account on the 24th. She won't need to write any checks before then and her social security will still deposit into the account tomorrow. Once I open up the new account with new bank, I then get it figured out how to transfer her BofA checking and savings over to this new bank (since I can't write a check to do it..GAH!)

While of course we have no idea how this happened (and most likely never will know) I reiterated to her she sometimes gets these spam phone calls that she talks to and she has to make sure she's not telling them any of her info. Her response always is "well, usually I never do". I said it can't be "usually" it has to be never ever! She knows that and I know she really didn't mean "usually".

ok, back to regularly scheduled programming.....

I need 4 days off from my 4 days off :)

While I completely have the patience to deal with my mom, I do not have enough energy to deal with it 24/7, if that makes sense. It just exhausts me. It's just little stuff, but repeated over and over, gets a bit much. Just a little example is I have a cute decorative dish cloth hanging over the edge of my farmhouse sink, off to one side. On my counter, next to the sink on the other side I have 2 folded dishtowels for use. After her asking over and over "which towel do I use, this one ?" and after a endless number of times me saying, "oh this one is just decoration (but you can use it), I use these 2". (not that it would matter if she used the decor one). Finally, on day 2 I got smart and just put the decorative towel in the drawer, LOL. Out of sight out of mind.

Every time she uses the bathroom and is done she shuts the door. I have no idea why. She has never shut the door to her guest bathroom all her life in her houses, so it's not like it's an old habit. Sometimes she'll ask me if I want the door shut when she's coming out and I say no, you can leave it open, but the next time it's shut. A couple of times she also mentioned closing the toilet lid down because she thought maybe the dogs go in and drink out of the toilet bowls. I said no, they have their water bowl they drink out of. Over and over, same thing.

I also think she is getting confused where she lives/what state now. I mentioned last post the weird discussion about changing banks. Then when I was driving her home it was raining most of the way. She says typical WA weather...I said umm, this is Montana though. She tries to correct herself and then says something about well, I meant when we get back to WA....I said no, you live in MT now. UGH!

So, we get back to her apt and I start to try to figure out her internet problem. As she was on Friday she's constantly interrupting me. Finally I had to say "mom, this is going to take me awhile to figure out, I just need you to be quiet for a little bit". Then I had to get on the phone with the cable/internet company. Super nice girl on the other end. One of my mom's odd quirks is anytime she has to give someone her name she has to spell out her last name very adamantly. It's one of those names either son or sen. And you know how when you are on the phone about an account they will say - can you verify the name and address on the account? she always has to spell it out. LOL. Or if I take her to the dr and they say what is your name? LOL. So the internet customer service says to me can you verify the name and address on the account. I say her name and start to give address and my mom's behind me saying "you have to spell out my last name for them". OH gosh..LOL!!

Anyhow - she has a modem and a router. There is supposed to be yellow ethernet cable plugged in between modem and router. Nope, not one there. I start looking around behind desk, in drawers and say to my mom "I'm looking for a yellow cable that was plugged in to these" She says "oh I don't know...unless someone came and took it". No mom...no one came and stole your ethernet cable! LOL.

ya...like I said I need 4 days off ;)

Ground hog day revisted

Having my mom here is honestly almost like the movie Ground Hog Day. Repeat the same things all day and start all over again the next morning. It's so sad. It's a little easier on dh because he doesn't have to "entertain" her like I feel like I do. He can go off to his den, work out in the shop or outside.

She will come down the stairs in the morning and say "boy, something sure smells good down here".....and I haven't even made coffee yet, LOL. Last evening DH was in his den watching something on his computer. I don't know how many times she asked me what he was watching/doing. Or the dogs. At times she knows we have 2, at other times, if only one happens to be in the room, she will ask "now how many dogs do you have again?"

Back before we moved her and DD and I had visited her a couple of times for 2-3 days, we had noticed her strange thing about throwing garbage away. Or like when dd was helping her pack to move the first time - old bottles of spices or whatever that just needed to be tossed in the garbage, she had to empty the jar or container first, into the garbage, and then throw away the jar or container. While she helps me clean up after a meal and food and scraps need to be thrown out into our garbage can, she will ask if it should go in the garbage can. I say yes, we don't have a garbage disposal. Then she says "oh, it's ok to put this in the garbage? they'll take it?" I'm like ya, we have to throw our garbage somewhere, our garbage can is the only place where we have to get rid of it. Weird.

Or like right now. We finished lunch and I said (at least twice) I had to go up to my office and do my grocery pick up order for tomorrow (because Walmart actually cancelled my WHOLE order on me Friday! I was so annoyed). I just placed the order again and then started typing this, figuring I'll do this as a break for a few minutes (LOL) and she comes up stairs and says "doing some work today?" No....doing my grocery order......

I did get the 2 jigsaw puzzles in the mail yesterday that I bought from Ebay. We started one yesterday afternoon. What a godsend! Something to do and keep us/her occupied for an hour or more at a time. We worked on it most of the afternoon and then the 3 of us drove to the next town over to get some burgers, fries and milkshakes at the little drive thru place. We worked on the puzzle again most of the evening, but I can tell evenings are not her good time for memory at all. She could not comprehend matching up what we had done with the puzzle so far with the picture on box. Finally I just said let's be done for tonight and we watched tv. Today she is doing good at it, but I also realized she needs to be in the seat directly in front of the puzzle, not to the side, in order to compare the puzzle with the box picture. We had switched seats at one point, so I had her switch back, then she did much better.

As the neighbors little grandsons say "one more sleeps". LOL.

I am thankful she has more than enough money to live in her senior apartment and will be able to afford assisted living. I would certainly have her here if she couldn't afford it, but boy, I can tell it would.

oh, and she needs some more cash. Not a big deal. But since we were waiting for her to get her DI card, in order to open a local bank acct. She doesn't have a debit/cash atm card with her Bank of America acct anymore (have no idea what happened to it, she hasn't had it for at least a few years) so she can't get cash out anywhere on her own right now. I just grab cash out of my atm/my account and she writes me a check back. Only this time I cannot seem to explain this to her! trying to keep it as simple of explanation as possible but it's not working. I think she is confused about where she lives, banks, how far away I am, etc.

I'm exhausted.

4 day weekend

Got my grocery order placed yesterday afternoon and figured out a menu while my mom is here. Because heaven forbid I feed her the same thing every day! LOL.

I've got a taco soup in the crockpot for today. That way by the time we get back here around 3pm I won't have to make dinner, just make a pan of corn bread to go with it. For breakfast Saturday I have a can of Pilsbury cinnamon rolls I can make (plus we have butterhorns I took out of the freezer). Lunches I'm just going to wing it. I'm not much of a lunch person and DH always has a ham, turkey and cheese sandwich.  Every day, since I have known him, LOL. There still be tons of taco soup leftovers if that sounds good to her for lunch.

Saturday dinner will be a chicken pasta skillet dinner (compliments of Birdseye). Sunday I am going to do meatballs in a sweet and sour sauce over sticky rice, french bread and salad. I used to have a recipe years ago for the sweet and sour meatballs. It was just 3 things: meatballs (which I just buy frozen), apricot preserves, and bbq sauce. Only years ago I lost the recipe for the amounts of preserves and bbq sau,ce so I have not made it in years. I finally just googled it, haha. Easy peasy and will be nice to have something other than our usual meals.

I will return her on Monday after lunch, haha.

Yesterday neighbors grandson told dh (while he was at the fence gate opening between our houses) that they have 5 more sleeps at grandma and grandpa's. Guess that means they aren't leaving until Tuesday. DH gave the 2 older ones who were outside riding their bikes an otter pop while he visited with them. Later when dh went back to shoveling rock he finds the otter pop wrappers out in our street between our houses....both parents had been around, but apparently not paying attention or caring. He said both were on their phones the whole time they were outside with the kids. And he said that's the last otter pops he shares, if they can't be respectful enough to throw away their garbage. They are old enough to know better.

My mom must have called me 4 times yesterday. At 3pm she was trying to remember how to do laundry. And then she says "and someone took stuff out of my apartment". I'm like what stuff? "my dish drainer thing to set dishes in to dry". No, that was in the box we took to goodwill, you said you didn't want it anymore. 3 minutes later I"m repeating that again. I said no one is coming into your apartment and taking things! the only people who even come in there are the housekeeper and she's not taking things. "well, she could". That is going to be the hardest thing I think I will have in dealing with her, I can see. She's obviously going to constantly forget that she used something or spent it and constantly is going to think someone is taking things from her. I sent my uncle a quick email, since he talks to her several times a week, that this is starting to go on more often, so if she's mentioning things are missing, that it's just her memory. He replied back he's starting to notice. I guess she told him the other day her car is missing. She has said to me a few times she misses having her car, but never said it was missing. Maybe he misunderstood her. She has never seemed to have any problem remembering she gave him her car, that I know of.

I also bought 2 jigsaw puzzles off of ebay for $16. Seemed the cheapest route to go that I could find (but barely, they are expensive because most have high shipping costs with them). I think they are arriving today or tomorrow. I'm not sure because I also ordered a Christmas gift for DH that is coming. Some wood carved buffalo bookends. Been wanting to get him those for a couple of years now. But, anyway, maybe the puzzles are something that can keep mom occupied while here.

I finally got to see "our" cat for the first time, LOL. He was at the back door eating the food about 9:45 last night. He's a bit smaller than he looks in the game camera photos. I tried to open the back door but he took right off. He did come back and finish the food off, at some point.