Saturday shopping from home

The week sped by, but was also draining, I think because of the delays in getting my refinance closed. Keeping my fingers crossed for next week. The weather is supposed to make a big change by mid week and by the end of the week up in the 50's during the day. Right now, it's been snowing all morning and none was predicted when we went to bed last night.

Our hvac guy has been telling dh for a good year or more he wants to put his place he just built 3 years ago up for sale. When he talked to him a week or so ago about our add on to our hvac system he told dh he was actually getting ready to list it, due to the insane prices homes are going for. Well, I see this morning it's now listed. Dh had thought maybe he was going for the 1.2-1.5 million price range. Nope. It's listed at 2.1 million! I've driven by it a hundred times, but of course never seen the inside. DH saw the inside when they were just about done building. He had stopped by to pick up some hvac part or something from him. It's umm...interesting, LOL. It will be interesting to see if they get that price for it! 

It's a very interesting house - design wise and decor wise, LOL. I'll keep my house, thank you ;)

On tap for today. I need to figure out a reasonable priced frame for that big print dh had made to hang above our tv, over the fireplace. Something that doesn't cost $500, including shipping, for goodness sake.  I just had to order dh a new heating pad. His died and he uses it just about daily for his muscles. I tried to find the same one. I found one online with Walgreens (just a different color) for $31, but of course need to spend $35 to save the $5.99 shipping. Then I remembered Walgreens is the only place I found my special eye ointment the eye dr. had me get and I'm getting low on it, so I ordered another tube of that with the order. I don't use it all the time now, but a couple times a week, or if my eye is feeling particularly dry. DH also wanted to replace a pair of winter type work gloves that have worn out and hopefully get the same kind. We had gotten them at a Costco trip with dd and her dh a few years ago. I don't have a membership anymore, but she does and I found they are available for shipping so she will order and have shipped to us. Saturday morning shopping online!

I see my birdie lamp is finally shipping - or at least they charged my card for it now, so it should be shipping soon.

Well, time to get busy cleaning house. I've been dilly dallying around most of the morning, though I did get the kitchen all cleaned of some dishes in the sink and cleaned my glass cooktop.

Dh is out shoveling the snow we got overnight and this morning so far and the neighbor dog from down the street showed up, totally being in dh's way. He was going to have me walk him back home, but by the time I got my winter clothes on, dh said the dog took the hint when dh yelled at him to go home.

 

What a day

This has been an interesting day. It snowed a bunch last night. Not long after getting our day started this morning (me working and dh out shoveling and plowing snow) our power went out. It was very bizarre. I was sitting at my desk and it went out for a second or two and came back on. I was in the middle of mobile depositing my check, so I hadn't turned my computer back on, plus I wanted to wait a few minutes to make sure the power wasn't going right out again. DH came inside and hollered up to me to see if I could fill up the bathtub. I'm thinking to myself, well sure I can, the power is back on. LOL.

I go downstairs and realize there are no lights on and of course the water would only run for a little bit before it ran out, since we are on a well that operates from an electric pump. Wait...wasn't my desk light on when I came down here? I went back up stairs and my desk light is on as well as I can tell my printer is still on. I flipped the wall switch light. No light. What?! how does that work??

I went down to find dh outside and noticed the laundry room light was on and all the garage lights were on. I said to dh, how can there be electricity to part of the house? We were standing in the garage looking at the electric panel to see if any breakers flipped. All looked normal. One of the garage ceiling lights kept going off and on. I walked back in the house, the laundry room light was on, but I couldn't turn kitchen lights on, but my appliance clocks were on. What in the world?

DH went back out to continue plowing and I texted my neighbor down the street and she said same thing was going on at her house and then the other neighbor, who had been out plowing said the same thing. Apparently "all" the power didn't go out, there was still partial coming through and then about half hour later it all went out. So, neighbor and I texted awhile. She sent me some new pics of the baby. She's so cute.

In the meantime I'm trying to email from my phone with the lender as she emailed me to see if that notary ever showed up? Nope. She apologized profusely and said this is so unacceptable. They are working on getting someone to come. I said well, probably not going to get someone today - it's snowed a bunch and we have no power. I asked her if I should make my 3/1 mortgage payment with my current lender and she said yes, go ahead. She will request updated payoff on Monday and hopefully someone can get out here Tuesday to close. My guess is it's going to be later than Tuesday, now that she has to get another payoff from my current lender.

Around noon dh came in for lunch. He had set his phone on the bench in the garage the whole couple of hours he was outside and it was like 50% battery life. When he came back in it was 1%. He was freaking out about that (though I had no clue why it dropped like that, not being used. Mine was being used and I was still at 25%). I said well plug it in to your solar charger or the car phone charger then! So, he got out his solar charger and it started charging right up and then a buddy of his called and they chatted for a long visit while he left it plugged into the solar charger. Then it was just totally dumping snow. It looked like a blizzard out there.

It never really got too cold in the house. It was warm when the power went out, we have that ridiculous amount of insulation, LOL, and it's not as cold out as it was the last time it went out all day. Mid 30's today. The power was finally restored at 2pm and I got back to work for what is left of the day. When the power came back on I had just drifted off for a nap, darn, LOL.

I think I figured out what may have caused dh's phone battery drain. I guess the iphone 7's are set to have app background refresh on as a default, so I turned it off and we'll see. At least the solar charger he bought a few years ago, for emergencies, worked great and I do have a cell phone charger you plug into your car cigarette lighter and it has always charged my phone really fast.

I have no idea what I'm doing for dinner. I didn't take anything out of the freezer. Maybe I'll just do eggs and bacon for dinner. 

DH and I discussed having our electricians (when they come out to do our gate at some point) hook up a different thing in our electric panel in the garage, where dh can hook up the generator there and it would just run our well pump and something to do with our septic, as I guess that has some kind of electric pump, too. Just in case we ever have one of those once in a blue moon outages where you are out for days. I said, well, at least if the outage had lasted until it got dark, we now have our new LED battery lanterns we recently got ;)

I meant to add, before I published this,  when that notary who didn't show up called me on Tuesday to confirm the appt, I didn't catch her name, but had her # on my phone. Same thing I did with the first notary who was supposed to come, I googled the number, but for her I couldn't find anything. Well, dh is much better at sleuthing, and he found her right away. Apparently she had just listed herself like 2 days ago on a notary service webpage and just got her license. It doesn't show she has any experience in doing this or handling the paperwork. Then he looked her up on Facebook. She does look like a flake........

What a joke

So, now the 2nd notary that was supposed to come at 11am today is a no show. What in the world is wrong with people??!! She couldn't even call or text. At noon I called the number that she had called me from, when she called on Tuesday to confirm the appointment with me. I left a message that I was calling to see if she was still coming for our 11am appointment. No call back. Finally, at 12:30pm I emailed my lender contact and she emailed back "are you kidding me?? What the heck!!! Let me reach out to title ASAP!!" So, apparently title can't get a hold of this notary either, so now they are looking for yet another one......I'm so mad!! 

How freaking hard is it to let a person know you aren't coming? So damn rude. Now she's just cost me probably a few more days, until they can find someone else to do it. And I'm sure she knew earlier this morning (at the latest) that she wasn't coming, but couldn't let me or the title company know?

THURSDAY this and that

Apparently when I titled my blog post yesterday, I thought it was Tuesday. LOL. Ok, I'm caught up now with what day of the week it is 😄

I was budgeting, looking at numbers, renewing dh's short term health insurance plan for another 6 months and realized just how much money President Trump has saved me since I was able to drop the $650 a month Obamacare plan for dh, 2 1/2 years ago. And, I'm sure the monthly premium is even higher by now (it had gone up $90/mo at the time I dropped it). I did the math. I have saved $15,000!! $15,000 in my pocket vs. going to a crappy insurance plan that only covers 60%. (sure I could have gotten a better plan, for another $400 a month or more). And if I am able to keep this another 6 months (because I'm just expecting Biden to drop the hammer anytime now) I just signed him up for, the total savings will now be at least $18,000 in 3 years. In my book, that is an extremely significant amount. Imagine what all these people out there paying through the nose for their insurance premiums, barely getting by, could do with that kind of extra money every month. I know one couple, our age, self employed, no subsidies, not making a ton of money, who couldn't afford those premiums for both of them, the past 10 years or so. I know during Obama's terms they just went without and paid the IRS penalty. They couldn't afford $1200 a month or more in insurance premiums (for both of them).

I'm re-working my budget now to reflect the new mortgage payment. I'll know when I see the documents later this morning, but I'm anticipating my first payment due 4/1.  My new mortgage payment is $571 a month lower, after refinancing. Not to mention all the interest I'm going to save over the life of the loan going from 4.375% on the first mortgage and 6.29% on that second mortgage, down to 2.5% in one combined mortgage loan, now. The notary is supposed to be here at 11am, so after that is all signed, I'll be doing the happy dance here. It's kind of like getting a raise.....though really getting raise would be nice, too, haha. It's been 2 years now, thanks to Covid.

DD's husband is getting switched to a different job with their company. They aren't quite sure whether it's going to be good or not, time will tell I guess. But, he's been frustrated that he's been in his current position 5 years (10 years with the company) and not finding an opportunity to move up a level. He's a trainer of new employees and now they want him to train the people they are moving into lead positions....yet they won't promote him to a lead position! Doesn't quite make sense. I told her to ask his boss "um...hey...can I train myself for the job I'm going to be training others for, too?" LOL.

Tuesday this and that

I received a call from the new notary that is coming tomorrow at 11am. She's from the nearby city....ya, that makes much more sense, LOL.  

I guess my boss was very busy yesterday. In the morning I messaged her to ask a payroll question about an employees time off. I finally heard back from her early afternoon and she said she'd been in a meeting since 6:30am. With the info she sent me I was able to run the payroll report and email it to her for reviewing. This was like 5 minutes later. No response. Finally, at 4:25 I messaged her that when she gets a chance to look at the register I emailed her, just message me and I'll get payroll submitted. She messaged back "oh, is payroll due today?" LOL. Yep - that's why I was asking and sent the register. haha.

I ordered this fake tallish plant from Wayfair ages ago. It's still on backorder and supposedly April shipping. I was thinking of just cancelling it, but really, I got too good of price on it! $47. Right now it's "on sale" on their site (but says out of stock) for $97. I'm also still waiting on my birdie lamp I ordered from LampsPlus.  

I can't remember if I mentioned this or not, but I got an email on Sunday from that mobile vet I had used for the dogs care. Due to not working, due to Covid, he is no longer in business. Several months ago he sent an email that he was only seeing pets for end of life emergencies, as he didn't want to get covid. I remember thinking boy, that must be hard to just basically stop working/income. It seemed to me he could have worked through this with some adjustments. He has this big mobile van, which is his "exam room", but typically, he would exam the pets in the house, just because they are more comfortable there. But, it seems like he still could have made the house calls. I could have stood 6 ft from his van door with either of my dogs and they would have gone right to him (especially with a treat, LOL) and he could have sent them back out when he was done. But, I guess he had his reasons. He sold the van, but not to another vet. He sold it to the Humane Society and they will just be using it to occasionally go into areas like where I live, where there is no vets, and do spays, neuters, shots. Bummer. I'm really not looking forward to having to haul the dogs in to the city again.

Not much else going on. My mom seems good and happy to be getting back to some activities and eating in the dining room. They have 3 floors, so alternate floors each day to eat in the dining room. I think exercise class starts back up today, but all along she continued to take a daily walk or two up and down the halls and even the stairs, so that is good.

I asked the cabinet lady for an estimate on when she thought we'd get the cabinet. I figured better to at least pin her down a little bit on a date, rather than just waiting months wondering. She said it should ship to her around 3rd week in April, which I think was about the time frame when we ordered all the other ones.

No closing yet

So, did not end up closing on my refi yesterday. About 1pm or so the notary guy called and said he wouldn't be the notary coming, as they didn't get him the documents in time for him to make the appointment. I emailed the lender and she emailed me right back and said she will check with title to see if there is another notary that can be sent out that afternoon (I'm sure she doesn't realize we don't live in an area where they can't just easily find a different one), otherwise they will have to reschedule. I really don't get why they just don't use one of the title companies in town and have us go there. I never heard back and still no update this morning.  You'd think they could just get that first notary the docs sometime by the end of yesterday and he could come today, instead. So much for the smooth procedure, LOL. You'd think they would have had who they were going to use figured out before now. I expected an email this morning with an update, but there wasn't anything, so I sent the lender an email asking for one.

And looking at my work calendar I just realized today is already payroll processing day, since this is a short month. Guess I'll be busy today. 

Had a funny yesterday. DH gets himself a snack of chips and salsa. He says "I thought you got the chunky salsa?" Me: "I did" Him: "hmm, it doesn't taste like it" Me: (looking in the fridge) that's because you opened the jar of pizza sauce" 😆😆

I just got an email from the lender and now she is saying it will probably have to be Thursday or Friday and am I available. I replied back I am free anytime, I work from home, so I am here all the time. She just emailed back she will get me rescheduled for Thursday.

I just heard a gobble outside and see this out my window

 

Closing today

By end of day Friday I never heard anything back from the lender on my issues with the closing disclosure amounts. I figured she must still be working on figuring it out and she said she'd email me about it. This morning I wake up to an email from a different person saying the notary can't do the 11am time I picked today, am I available another time today? I was about to email back that I'm still waiting to hear from the closing person I talked with on Thursday about my property taxes and loan payoff amount, as I'm not signing until that is resolved, but I decided to look online first, to see if possibly it got updated. Every time they have done an update, I always get a notification, through this whole process, so I wasn't expecting to see it changed, but there it was and it was all fixed back to what my property tax amount should be, as well as updated loan payoff that was now correct. Yay! So, I emailed back that I'm available any time today, after 10am. She emailed back she has reached out to the title co and will get back to me, but I haven't heard back yet. But, anyway, it sounds like sometime today or tomorrow I will be closing.

So, the notary guy who will be coming here just called. He's coming all the way from Idaho! oh good grief, poor guy. So, he said he'll be here about 5pm my time. You'd think he would have told the lender that he's not really in our area, LOL. There's gotta be notary services out of our nearby city. I just googled the guys ph# and he has a website for his mobile notary service, it actually says on there he services several counties in my area, so have at it LOL.

I told dh to give our HVAC guy the go ahead for doing the air exchanger system, now that I know exactly what my out of pocket closing costs are. I didn't want to give him the go ahead until I knew for certain what the numbers were going to be. I didn't want to tell him yes, we'll spend $6k on this and then have some big surprise with the lender at last minute. Our neighbors said they have one of these air exchanger systems in their house, too.

Mrs. Neighbor came over yesterday with a plate of cookies - with a note on it from her 2 dogs (that I think Mr. Neighbor wrote) that Dh "baby sat" while they were gone, LOL. Yummy molasses cookies. I was literally about to call her up to see if she wanted a bunch of eggs as I was totally overloaded with 4 dozen eggs, so I have her 2 dozen. She said she was about out of eggs, so worked out great.

Our big black dog always sleeps on the floor beside my side of the bed at night. When I got up this morning he wasn't there. (other dog sleeps on the bed). Me and other dog get up. I'm going to the bathroom. You can hear the other dog clickety clacking his nails on the floor out in the living area, waiting for me. Still no black dog. I stop at the thermostat to turn it on, still no black dog. I get out into the laundry room to let dog out and still no black dog and I'm worried now. Then all of a sudden he comes bombing down the stairs sounding like a herd of buffalo. He apparently slept the night up on his favorite guest bed and blanket, haha.

DD keeps getting hall tree orders. Another one or two orders this past week. She just finished one a guy ordered and he and his wife picked up yesterday. She was glad to be done with that one. The guy wanted all kinds of changes to her basic hall tree design. He asked if she could do one with a back on it? She said yes, but that would be more $ of course. To make sure she knew what he wanted, she found a picture online of one similar with a solid back, but it had built in cubbies on the bottom under the bench. She even said, something like this back? (but without the cubbies). He messages back and forth and then says yes, like the picture and with cubbies. She's like I'm sorry, I'm only building hall trees with an open bench on the bottom. She was just having a hard time communicating with him, so she's glad to be done with that one.

Starting out to be a good Monday, so let's hope it keeps going. Very windy and in the high 40's today.

Saturday (Night Fever)

Our trip to pick up groceries was uneventful and fairly quick, trying to get home before the predicted snow. We did first stop at Harbor Freight for the 2 kinds of latex gloves dh likes. We haven't bought those in awhile, but I don't remember a box being so expensive and there was a sign there saying something about the price increase due to the shortage or something. And of course dh can't walk through that place without seeing other stuff he wants/needs. He bought 2 rubber mallet type hammers. They are bright orange and I said well, you sure aren't going to misplace those! and I suggested these magnetic boxes they have for the boxes of gloves that stick to side of tool box or something metal. 

While there I got the email from my grocery order and they were out of a couple items, as usual, so next door to Harbor Freight is another grocery store so we stopped in there for those items, and I let dh pick out other snacks to have on hand....which I don't typically buy because he'll complain he's eating too much junk, but then of course when he's shopping he wants to buy them, LOL. We then went and picked up our order, not too long of wait for them to bring it out, considering they looked busy and it was Saturday. But, the guy pulled out one pallet of grocery bins and I said to dh that can't be our order, it's too small. DH got out and asked the guy and he looked and said, oh you're right, there's more. He didn't bring all the dry goods. While he went back in to get that, we quickly got all the cooler stuff put away, which we were going to have to do anyway. Next stop we went through the drive through car wash and then stopped at Wendy's for lunch. I was hungry but rather than end up with a stomach ache after from eating fast food, I decided to try their grilled chicken sandwich. It was pretty good and no stomach ache later.

We got home before it really started snowing, but it hardly lasted very long. Some metal art dh ordered ages ago came in the mail, so he went out in his shop to hang up those. Both were kind of bald eagle/US flag type pieces. Turns out they came from China, LOL. so that is why it took forever to get here. I didn't have the heart to tell dh that's where he bought from haha. The label to mail via USPS covered over the label from the China freight company, so he didn't know. 

I was trying to take a nap. He kept going in and out of the house and the dogs didn't know whether they wanted to nap with me or go see him every time he came in, plus he always has to slam the door. Then I heard some whining that sounded like the neighbors down the street dog. Finally, it was quiet for about a half hour and the dogs and I fell asleep, only to be woken up by my mom calling. I don't think she remembered we had talked a couple hours earlier. The dog whining I was hearing was the neighbor, his little boy and dog came down to use dh's table saw to cut a board, haha.

Since we had a big lunch, dh just snacked on chips and salsa for dinner. Later I had a bowl of cereal and he did too. I picked out a movie from one's I put in my "library" from YouTubeTV and we watched Saturday Night Fever. Then we had disco music in our heads. And I'm still singing "Night Fever" in my head this morning. Can you believe John Travolta is 67 years old now?

Saturday shopping

My mom had her 2nd vaccine on Thursday afternoon and Friday she was feeling a bit under the weather, but that seems to be common, from what I've heard, after getting the 2nd dose. She didn't sound too bad, just said her arm was sore and her back ached. Hopefully she will also be typical in that it only lasts about a day. She also got to have her meals in the dining room yesterday, so that was good news.

Our neighbors returned yesterday afternoon, so very happy dogs and a quiet evening for us. Though dh laughed and said it looked like the 2 dogs left at home were happier to see the 3rd dog (at boarding) back than their peoples, LOL. And hey, they didn't bring son's dogs home with them, so that's good.

We are going into the city later this morning to pick up a grocery order at Walmart. I haven't been for 3 week, so it's time to get restocked on some things and refill the stuff we use daily. I did have some steaks on my order, but after I went and looked through the freezer I realized I have quite a few in there, so I took them off my order. We've been having hamburgers more than steak lately, so I guess that's why there's still quite a bit in there. I am down to my last loaf of bread for lunches. Once in a while the small store in town carries it, but I can never count on that, so it's best to buy 4 loaves (the limit they will let me order) and freeze them. We are also going to stop in Harbor Freight. DH uses their latex gloves in the shop and is getting low. I gave him a $25 gift card in his stocking, still to use. I tried to order them online, but they are in store purchase only. I just realized that we have not gotten a Harbor Freight ad in the mail in ages. Wonder what is up with that? Used to always get their monthly little ad/catalog, with the coupons and such. I'm searching online and apparently they have stopped their 20% off any one item coupons. 

I'm having dh drive me, as the weather is too iffy with snow and will be good for him to get out of the house for a bit, too. 

No news on my re-fi and my concerns about the payoffs and almost doubled property tax escrow. I guess I probably won't be closing on Tuesday as they estimated.

Real estate stuff

Yesterday I received my closing disclosure on my refinance of the mortgage, for the 3 day wait. So, possibly could be closing by next Tuesday. BUT, there are a couple of things that need to be worked out/clarified before I'm happy with this.

#1 - the property tax escrow payment they are now showing. They've had it close at what my current annual property taxes are. Now the latest closing disclosure has almost doubled it! That now puts what my new house payment (including the property taxes and insurance), with this way lower interest rate than I'm currently paying, at more than I'm paying now! Um...no!

I called up the person now handling the closing stage and she said there is a note from underwriting dept that they updated it by adding 1.25% to our appraised value and re estimating our property taxes. I said based on what "appraisal"? Per their decision an appraisal wasn't necessary, so what amount did they use? They upped my annual property tax estimate to $9375 a year! We are currently paying $5544 a year. If they want to do a cushion and increase what we are actually paying per year by 1.25%, well, I guess ok, but not by 70%. Not to mention, in my closing costs they are already putting in 5 months worth of escrow, right off the bat.

#2 - the payoff amount they have for my current mortgage. It's $4554 higher what my current loan balance is, after making my Feb 1st mortgage payment. I still haven't gotten a good answer on that, other than she said the "date range" for the payoff they got is from starting a like 1/1/21. Then she said I have to pay a daily interest rate up to when the previous mortgage gets actually paid off and I said I realize that. She told me the daily interest rate and I said yes, that is the amount. Then she explained that while after I sign they usually have the payoff done in 4 days, they put in an extra 7 days of interest in their estimate as a cushion. I said ok, so lets say we close next Wednesday and add 7 business days to that for them to get their $$, that's at most 33 days of interest, which is $1873, not $4554!!  

She said she is now requesting an updated payoff amount and with the revised payoff date now, it should come out to the correct amount owed to them. It better!!

The good news is that we don't have to go anywhere to sign the closing docs. They send a notary person to our home! Easy peasy! Sweet! 

The cabinet for the laundry is like twice the cost I was expecting. Ugh. I just keep telling dh I'm glad we aren't trying to build now, with the prices of lumber and everything gone up.

The Hvac guy called dh last night and explained the "air exchange" system to him. He also said our humidity level in our house is way too high (it's like 43%) and is also probably contributing to the soffit issues dh is having over the garage/bonus room. The system is like $5,000-$6000. Another ugh, but should be done. 

In chatting with him, he told dh his almost new house he built is going up for sale tomorrow. He said the market is just too good to pass up making that much money on it, so with only living in their big new beautiful house not much more than 2 years, they are selling and I guess going to build again. NO thank you! LOL. But, he said they could get 1.2 million for it and he's more about making money then tied to his house. I will be snoopy and look at the listing online, just because I like to see insides of nice houses and how they are decorated, LOL. DH keeps saying we should sell ours! I'm like well, if our house is worth $X then to buy or build something equivalent we're just going to have to pay the same, so what's the point. If we were downsizing, then yes, this would be smart time to sell, because all these out of state people moving here thinking this is the place to live, haha. The hvac guy is also his own contractor for building (he's built like 5 houses for themselves so far and they only typically stay 2-3 years) so he can do a lot of it for cost/cheaper than we could have a house built. He also said that all the people moving to this one area that has really grown the past 10 years are typically only staying about 2 years and leaving. Dh asked why? Apparently they come from out of state, think they can manage these high house prices on the salaries in this area and then run through their savings in 2 years and then can't afford the house on the salary they now have. Then the next out of state person comes in and does the same thing. Interesting.

Cabinets and friends

The cabinet lady did call me early afternoon yesterday. She acted like she never got my first 2 emails. I wanted to say: and you didn't get my voicemails either?? or the message a month ago from your area rep?? Anyhow, she is now in the process of getting an order for the cabinet together. It will probably be more than I guestimated, based on our other tall cabinets price, since the price of lumber has skyrocketed. She did say she would get me the quote by the end of yesterday, but she did not, and was I surprised? No I was not, LOL.

DH also had to put a call into our insulation guy - again, as we are still having spots where our attic/roof area is apparently still not insulated property and we have water and ice forming in our soffit areas. If it's not fixed we are just going to end up with mold there and rotting wood. He texted him and he said he'd call dh last evening, but never did. He also texted our hvac guy as he's wanting to discuss with him adding an "air exchanger" to our system. He texted back "I'll call ya in a minute" and never did. 

The neighbor dogs are doing as well as expected for having to be alone for so many days. DH said when he goes over there one of the dogs is just shaking, he's so stressed. (this is the one that loves DH, so it's not that he's afraid of dh). Poor pups. A week is too long to leave them by themselves, they don't understand. DH always goes over to visit at the fence of their run with them (and gives treats) and said this morning he told them "one more sleep". Yesterday he was shoveling snow over there so he let out the female dog for awhile to play with our dogs. If he let them both out the would take off in a second (that's what they always do when Mr. Neighbor lets them out). He did have to call her back a couple times, but she didn't go off.

I had a good laugh last night. I get a text from my side job boss/friend that says "de-friend stupid people off Facebook 😂😂😂". I replied back "?? who?" thinking I missed something she posted on FB. Then I went "oh! you mean my friend R?!" and at the same time she is typing my friends name back to me. LOL. I said oh, ya. I was trying to be as nice as possible to her comment she made to my post on MY wall, where I was just saying our state lifted the mask mandate and it was really nice to see faces and smiles again at the town grocery store". (basically same thing I posted here the other day). Of all my friends that commented were from my old state I lived in. Their comments ranged from "with our governor we're never going to not wear them", "our governor needs a bag over his head", to "I need to get out of this state". I did not reply to any comments, but, my one friend R, felt the opposite, which is fine, but of course had to make me and those that want to get back to not wearing masks, feel like we're some kind of ogres and death wishers. She didn't get any support back from anyone. 

It's interesting, before 4 years ago I never even gave one thought to what people's politics were. A few I knew, if they were vocal about their views, but the majority - no clue and no care either way. That isn't how I chose my friends. But, it's been interesting to now realize that probably 90% of my friends do have the same views as me, it turns out, since we all seem to have opinions about what is going on the past few years, especially this last year. Even one of my friends (all the way back to high school) who has never ever posted anything political or even about the virus, so I had no clue up until yesterday where she stood. I guess I just assumed those on my friends list we probably like the country - about a 50/50 split. She posted a meme about their governor, so yep, she's had enough, too.

I guess my point is everyone has their own opinion about it and everyone should be able to have their own opinion about it, without someone else trying to cram their view down someone's throat - especially on their own Facebook page. If my friend R had posted something about her opinion on her own wall, that I disagreed with, I would not have commented my opposite opinion. She didn't ask for my opinion, nor would I assume she wanted to argue about it. The simple fact that I was happy to see some faces and smiles again was not up for debate. (and no, I did not de-friend her, as my boss/friend suggested, LOL). 

I did just de-friend someone else the other day. Not for her political views though, LOL (which are same as mine from what she's posted) but because I realized that I don't think she have ever once even clicked like on something I've posted. She posts fairly regularly, as do I, and occasionally I will click like on some happy news she has shared (a daughter getting engaged, or another one having a baby, etc). I figured what is the point of having her as a friend on Facebook if she is not ever interested in interacting with me and my life. So, gone she is.

I have another friend (also from high school) who is an RN, who has very conservative views, but she also doesn't post anything political (though I do occasionally see that she would like a post on various political pages that we both followed). Last Fall she shared a video of how the media has changed how they report, compared to years ago. It was totally true, you can't argue that they reported differently 20 or so years ago! Some "friend" of hers went off on her about Covid (which had nothing to do with her post) and basically questioned her character and integrity as a nurse. Friend held her ground, but has not posted anything on Facebook since. I miss her updates on her son's and her dogs and what not. Sad that it takes one sucky person, who thinks they are superior to others, to ruin someone's fun. I would never go on someone's Facebook and chastise them for their beliefs - even if they don't align with mine. That's just rude.

I'm not sure what is going on at my mom's place. The last email update I got from the manager last week (sent to all family) was that they were starting up dining and activities again Tuesday of this week (barring any change in Covid case status). The last 2 days I have talked to her she is making it sound like they have not started anything, so I'm not sure. Maybe they had to delay it a bit. I've noticed they aren't very good about following up with emails if something changes. But, then she mentioned she and 2 of her floor neighbors visited for awhile out in the common area, which they hadn't been doing before.

I'm not in a working mood today. Maybe because I was super busy the past few days and now out of a bit of steam, haha. And my boss is on vacation, so it's quieter, as far as my emails and messages go.

Getting things done

It must have been my email to the cabinet mfg that did the trick, as shortly after the cabinet lady emailed me I got an email from their area rep, so he had to have gotten my email address from that email I sent. He said he contacted her for a second time (so apparently he did tell her to call me after my first call a month ago to the mfg) and if I don't hear from her by tomorrow, to contact him and he will make sure I can get my cabinet ordered. I emailed him right back that she did finally contact me. We'll see if she calls me this morning, like she said she would.

DH is still trying to figure out best way to have packages delivered. Well, he has UPS figured out. Our UPS guy is same guy every time. UPS emails me notifications if a delivery is coming that day and they are always correct. I am also able to see where he is at in his route and if he's getting close. And even better, he and dh had exchanged phone #'s awhile back, and now when he's on his way to our place from his previous stop, he texts dh he's coming and dh will just meet him out at the gate. (he typically comes anytime between late afternoon to evening). FedEx is a different story. They come in a small van type vehicle and it's not always the same driver. Sometimes I will get an automated text a package is coming and sometimes I won't, even though I am signed up to received texts for deliveries. I got one yesterday morning that they would be delivering that day. A couple hours later I got a text that it had been rescheduled for Friday. Then an hour or two later FedEx shows up....with 2 completely different packages that I never got notification about. It wasn't our regular driver and this one is trying to open the gate and dh went out and said I'm coming, just leave the gate. The one FedEx lady knows to just leave at gate, but since she isn't always the driver, I did figure out that I can go online and set up an account to manage my deliveries and I put in a note "ok to leave packages at gate".

I just got notification from my re-fi lender this morning that my loan has moved into the "closing stage" process. Yay. I don't know how long that takes, but soon, I would think. I had to verify a few questions they had, such as "yes, I still work at my employer". It sounds like they will set up closing at a local title company - hopefully the one here in town, haha. We actually have 2 title companies, I think, but we have only ever used the one for all our transactions (I didn't choose). She's also a Facebook friend, after getting acquainted with all our transactions with her, haha, so hopefully that is who it ends up going through.

My boss is on vacation the rest of this week, but we had a good call this morning before she left for her vacation, working out the details and bugs on a new process we are implementing. Since I'm the one who uses the program the most, I was able to provide a few things she and the rest of the team on the other end of it, hadn't thought of.

Now, I need to get my side job some reports during my lunch break, as they are doing a re-fi for something and need current financials. Always something.

Poor customer service

So yesterday I called that cabinet manufacturer back, since the area rep they said would call me weeks ago never did. I first asked if the cabinet dealer, who we got all our cabinets through, was still a dealer with them and was told yes. So, I explained again that we used this dealer for them to do all the cabinets in our new house 2 years ago and are wanting to add a laundry room cabinet to match. That I have tried numerous times to get a hold of her but she won't reply and when I last called the mfg office I was told a rep would call me, but never did. The reply I got? "Well, if she won't call you back there is nothing we can do". Wow. I said seriously? You have a customer who spent $17,000 for your cabinets and have no way to get me another cabinet? Finally, she said well, I can see if there is another dealer in your area maybe. She gave me the name and town of another dealer, that is fairly reasonable distance. I looked them up on the internet and cannot find a cabinet sales company with this name in that town. I did find one with that name, but different phone number.........4 hours away. And this company doesn't have a website or anything, they appear to be a contractor/hvac company. 

I decided to give cabinet lady one more chance. I called (of course it's a voicemail) and left another message and also sent her an email again. So far, of course, no reply. What in the hell? I have an email typed to the cabinet manufacturer, letting them know of my displeasure with the service of their dealer and lack of assistance in getting me another cabinet made. I will try to call this phone number the mfg gave me, but I have a strong hunch they are not in the town that is about an hour from me, they are in the one that is 4 hours.

The neighbor dogs were fine last night until about 11:20. DH went out to our garage window closest to their outside run area and told them to be quiet and go lay down and they did, haha.

We've managed to do leftovers 2 times in the last week. Pretty good considering dh really has never liked leftovers, ever. But, we had spaghetti leftovers one night and last night we have meatloaf sandwiches for dinner from the leftover meatloaf.

We're getting little bit of snow here and there, and it's nearly 30 degrees now. Better than our poor friends in Texas who have been without power for 24 hours. DH said to him, aren't you just staying in your motorhome? Well...apparently, the heater in it has been broken..living in warm Texas, friend never fixed it. All their pipes are freezing, their swimming pool water is freezing. I guess good for them is that she owns an insurance company, so I'm sure they are covered for everything.

Even living where we live, knowing it gets cold, people commented to dh during out build process that he was over doing it on some things, like how deep he buried some lines. "you only need to do it 3 ft..." He did 6 ft and said "it only takes that one really bad winter no one was expecting, so I'm going to be prepared." 

UPDATE: I knew as soon as I tried to get a hold of someone else on the cabinets, the cabinet lady would end up getting a hold of me. She finally emailed me back, saying sorry we have been unable to connect. many changes going on and on-going issues since Covid and she will call me tomorrow. So, we'll see. I called the other dealer the mfg gave me and left a voice mail. He called me right back. As I figured he is several hours away but his son, who has a woodworking business or something about an hour for me can do cabinets for him in my area. He gave me his son inlaws # and said to text him my info and pictures of what I need to see if he can help. I hadn't gotten my pictures and cabinet name/details together yet this morning to text him and sure enough, cabinet lady emails me.

Faces!

Seems like everywhere is getting snow (even our friends in Texas!) but us, haha. I am glad it's a little warmer now, though. It will be 30 today.

Yesterday we ran into town for a few groceries to last the week, so I don't have to go to Walmart for at least another week. We have a new governor in our state and he lifted the mask mandate. It was really nice to actually see faces and smiles in the store yesterday. 

On Saturday our neighbors left for a week to go visit their son. So......you can guess what that means...barking, unhappy dogs. They did take the one dog that has issues to stay at a boarding place (so why not put all 3 there??). The other 2 get fed by a lady they have come over morning and afternoon. Starting about 8pm last night we listened to both dogs bark and howl non stop for 2 hours before they finally gave up and went back inside their doggy door for the night. At one point dh went over there with a couple of treats and tried to get them to calm down. DH was literally about to go get them and let them stay in our laundry room, but thankfully they stopped. Plus, I was afraid they'd end up scratching my nice wood door between laundry and kitchen all up. Also, how much do you want to bet they are bringing son's dogs back with them? you know, because son is going to put his place up for sale, so they won't want to be bothered by their dogs.

My mom's place is starting up activities and dining tomorrow. Yay! She is really happy about that, though even though she hasn't been able to do her exercise class for weeks and weeks, she does go talk walks up and down the halls ever day. Good for her!

Still waiting on my re-fi. I haven't heard anything back in over a week now. The status just shows they are waiting on the title. Soon, I hope. It's been like almost 3 weeks since they ordered it, now.

When I was finishing up work on Friday afternoon, I wanted to print our financial reports to pdf to send my boss for the latest month I completed. It wasn't letting me print and with less than half hour left I gave up and didn't want to deal with it and wait for IT, so I decided to wait until this morning. Thankfully this morning it's printing fine, so I was glad not to have to deal with that first thing. Makes for a much nicer start to Monday morning.

The 7 year itch

It's warming up. 9 degrees this morning haha. Back in the 30's tomorrow and maybe snow coming. DD's area, which rarely gets snow got dumped on Friday night and all day yesterday. They have a good foot of snow. It's been cold enough here this past week that part of the river is freezing

I got crafty yesterday. I'm not very crafty, but this was easy and turned out great, I think. I ordered this fake plant that came in an ugly plastic pot.

A few weeks ago I bought some jute rope and more glue sticks. I spent about 10-15 minutes and now have this. Much better :)

Then I was throwing away the dead carnations that came in this fairly large, red, plastic vase

What the heck - I still have rope and glue sticks left, so I got to work on it and now have this nice fake plant (I already had the greenery). I'm going to get more rope and glue sticks. We have a ton of plastic pots dh saved from garden plants we have bought. I can buy some more greenery and have a few more placed around my house. I'm also thinking a couple of cheap ceramic table lamps for bedside, covered with the rope would look cute in the guest room I only have one bedside lamp in.

Long story, that I'm not going to bother with since part of it is political opinion, but I was helping dh replace the 2 flags on our flagpole yesterday. Just as he's about to raise them the eagles that live nearby started chirping (or whatever their call sound is called). It chirped the whole time. I told dh they must approve, haha. When we got back inside I went to look through the telescope to see if they were at the nest and both were there sitting side by side. We have never seen them sitting right by each other before. It was pretty neat. So hard to get a picture and even harder video, LOL. I told dh see, now you wish I had gotten that adapter for the phone.

I also received the basket and throw blanket I ordered from Target. Eh..it fills up some of the space there in the loft sitting area and I'm still playing around with how best to display the blanket in the basket. The basket is definitely not worth more than the $9.50 I paid for it and the blanket is not soft AT all. More the texture of a throw rug, haha. I did wash it, with fabric softener, which helped a tiny bit. So, display use only, which was pretty much what I got it for, I guess. It was only around $14, so you get what you pay for

I still need to find a floor lamp to go behind that chair and basket.

Dinner Friday was spaghetti. Dinner last night was leftover spaghetti. Win win. Tonight will be meatloaf. I'm going to have to go into town today for more milk and bananas.

I washed the bedding yesterday, so while it was all off, dh took off the mattress and box springs and I vacuumed and cleaned good under the bed. Black dog hair, of course. I also vacuumed the mattress and box springs.

My mom's place is starting up activities and dining room dining on Tuesday, so she is excited about that. It's been at least a month since she got to do exercise class and her other activities she enjoys.

Thanks to all who gave their opinion on ipad vs not ipad yesterday. I did some searching and see that Walmart has the ipad 10.2 inch for $299 (everywhere else is $329) so I think that is the one I will get. If it last as long as my ipad mini has, that only equates to a cost of about $50-$60 per year for it's use. I have a feeling if I get a Fire tablet, it will probably last half as long.

OK, I just figured out how long I have really had my ipad mini..........7 years!! LOL. I did a search on my facebook posts and saw the post I made when I got it (birthday gift from dd). 2014, haha. Definitely got the use out of it, don't you think?

To ipad or not to ipad?

It's really time to replace my ipad (mini). It's old and hasn't been able to do a software update in a very long time. I can rarely download any new apps to it as they are too new to be compatible. I had really hoped using my mom's "newer than mine" ipad mini would keep me going for awhile longer. Hers is a newer, but it has a problem charging. It's like the opening for the charger is loose and it keeps saying "not charging". I also went to download a new app to it and it is also now, too old. 

I had decided to get Starz channel for 6 months for $30 total and hoped to just watch my shows on one of the ipads.  If I'm having a day where I'm just doing a lot of menial type tasks at work, I like to turn it on and watch something while I'm working. Or watch a show during my lunch break. I'm sure I can get the app on my tv/Firestick, but I don't usually watch a lot of shows on there. DH will constantly interrupt me, so I find it annoying.

The new ipad minis are now $400 and are actually more expensive now than the regular ipads, at $329. I have LOVED my ipad mini for many years now. I use it every day. I read e-books, Facebook, other social media and internet browsing, apps to watch shows/movies, it's synced with my iphone where I can text through that or my phone, whichever I feel like, and email. When we were planning on building our house I used Pinterest on it so much.

But, I just can't get myself to spend between $300 and $400 for a new one. Right now about all I'm able to use mine for is ebooks and Facebook. It's too slow to browse the internet now and often crashes if I try. And it's now too old for the some of the apps I have (YouTubeTV and Starz) to watch shows/movies.

I'm investigating cheaper options and looking at the Amazon Fire tablet 10. Does any one have one of these and if so what things do you use it for? Pros and cons? especially if you've gone from an ipad to something else.

It's not really that I can't afford the ipad or ipad mini. I can. I just don't want to spend that much $$ if something cheaper will work just fine for my needs. But, I also keep reading reviews of the Fire Tablet and people will say I've had all the previous versions, or they just upgraded from the last one they got say 2 years ago. If I'm having to replace it in 2 years, compared to the 5 or 6 years I've had my ipad, well, then I'm not really saving money, am I?

Happy Friday

I did my morning login to my bank account and was surprised to see my paycheck deposited, as payday is Monday, then my dd reminded me Monday is President's Day.  Time to pay a couple bills. Most are on auto pay, but I charge them all to my rewards earning credit card and on payday make a payment to the credit card for the amount of those bills being put on to the credit card.

My electric bill for January was $300. Crazy that when we had our 1400 sf house in town our winter electric bills were $400 - and that's with the furnace being propane!! Apparently that's what it cost in electricity to run the dang furnace to blow the heat through the house. Now we are heating 3x that size with electric heat for $300. Just shows what a heat pump, good insulation and triple pane windows can do. 

My side job boss was needing to use some type of basic accounting software to track the small LLC they now have for their building. Their bank loan is requiring she submits financial statements each month (ugh). Seriously pretty dumb. They are renting the building to their own company and the rent is way more than paying the monthly mortgage payment. It's not like there is any real risk going on there. Anyhow, I told her my ideas, one of them being to just use the accounting software they already have, as it's multi user (I'm the only one using it, though) and you can set up multiple companies on it. We'll just set up the LLC as a separate company and she can track her expenses and income on it. Well, first we had to get her the software on her work log in. Yesterday I started setting up the LLC, just got the basics put in. I don't know what their IT guy did, but she now has access to the accounting program but apparently it's a stand alone version and not linking to the company I had already set up. She didn't want to deal with the IT guy again, so she is just setting up the company on her end. But, as I expected, since she has zero experience with this software (or any accounting software) she has no idea how to do set it up and then use it. 

One of the company owners of my main company sure has been spending a lot of time over in my neck of the woods. I see all his charges on the company credit card statement. Seems like he's over here almost monthly. Interesting. I made a comment/joke about to my boss, thinking maybe she'd say what the heck he's over here for all the time and she just replied "yuuuppp. LOL". So, I still don't know, LOL.

The gate latch we ordered from the Ukrainian Etsy seller arrived today. It's still out in the mailbox, LOL, as dh hasn't gotten layered up/dressed to walk down to get it. It's too bad UPS doesn't come until evening, as his straps for the snow plow winch are coming and that would give him something to work on today, replacing all that. 

1 degree this morning. Brrr.. I let the dogs out and the first dog came back right after peeing. I didn't see the other dog, so shut the door and went to fill their food bowls and hear this thump against the door! Other dog wanted back in and wasn't just going to stand there waiting for me to show up, like he usually does, LOL.

Thursday this and that

Hmmm...I really don't have anything to say, haha. Temps are dropping into the single digits. We got about an inch of snow more last night and it's lightly snowing now. DH likes this snow better, lighter and powdery-er, easier to shovel, LOL. His winch and strap that pulls his snow plow up and down on his quad is about to go south, so he's ordered new stuff. The winch thingy (apparently called a fairlead) came yesterday and the straps are supposed be here tomorrow. His package that took a detour to Hawaii on Saturday finally arrived today.

Our neighbors down at the end of our street, the young couple who just had the baby.....they are really starting to make us mad the way they treat their dog! Dh has seen both of them hit or kick him. No wonder as soon as he can get away he leave and heads straight for our house, where he will sit at our door and howl. Well, of course we don't want to listen to that (nor do we want him scratching our doors) so we usually just text them that he's down at our place. This morning he came and dh was already outside, so he just decided to walk him back down the street. He didn't realize she was out looking for him at our other neighbors and when he got out on the street she came walking up and grabs his collar and kicks him. DH says do you have a leash to walk him back? she says if I have to use a leash he's getting his his ass beat. It just makes us sooo sad. I can't imagine doing that to our dogs. No wonder the poor dog doesn't want to stay there with them. DH says when the dog gets near them he acts scared. Why even have a dog if that's how you treat it? It almost makes me wish I knew someone who lived far away who wanted a dog and take him and give them to that person and not even tell anyone. There isn't any animal control or anything like that (we don't even have a vet) in our county, so that's not an option to report it to anyone. But, honestly, if I am ever the one who happens to see them do it to him, I'm going to say something.

I want to order something from Walmart that is about $15. To get free shipping I need to order $20 more. Ugh. I hate trying to think of things to add. Finally, after adding 4 more items, I get to over $35. Then I'm looking at my cart and I just know all those items are going to most likely ship separately and FedEx is going to have to come here every day next week. Ugh.

I just signed up for a 6 month subscription to Starz channel for $30 total, so I can watch a few shows. I love Outlander and haven't seen season 5 yet. My half sister also said that the 3 series called The White Queen, the White Princess, and the Spanish Princess are really good, so watching all these should keep me busy for awhile. I think I can put the app on my Firestick and if not, for sure I can watch it on my ipad or my computer.

Then I was looking for something online and trying to see where it might be available to buy. I clicked on a link that was apparently Amazon in Spanish. My whole amazon account was now in Spanish. I had no idea how to fix! I tried googling for help and the links to me to...you guessed it....amazon in Spanish. Finally I found a youtube video on how to change it back to English. I'd say that is a sign I just need to take a break from online shopping LOL.

 

Always price shop

We have one of those white plastic laundry baskets. Dh uses it on his laundry days, and on non-laundry days it sits up on a shelf between cabinets above the washer and dryer. 

(there are 3 other things I dislike in this laundry room, LOL. #1 - that ugly fire extinguisher #2 the blue "shop towels" and #3 that I'm always adjusting that hand towel dh wipes his hands with so that it hangs even. haha. The fire ext. and the show towels look so tacky to me. I think I will make some room under the sink cabinet for the extinguisher and then one of these days mention to him those towels look stupid, LOL)

I was thinking I want to find a nicer looking laundry basket, so I was looking online at Target. This came into my searching and it was like a sudden flashback to childhood! We had one just like it (though not lined with fabric). I had totally forgotten about these kind. 

Since dh is the laundry person, I asked him if we can replace the white plastic one with something along the lines of this one. He was fine with that. And me being the price shopper......Target says this is regular priced at $100 (for a wicker laundry basket??!!) and on sale 40% off for $60.  Well, Wayfair has the EXACT same basket for $22. And they have it in white for $17. Ya just gotta shop around, I tell ya!

So, this morning I go online to get the measurements, to make sure it will fit in our spot on the shelf before ordering. Now Wayfair's price is $30. Not cool, but it's also showing up (same EXACT one) at Lowes for $15! AND, I've had something in my cart that dh needs to order, but I needed to add something to get free shipping and hadn't thought of anything yet. This is perfect. I still can't get over Target thinks this is worth $100 regular price. On Targets website it says "sold and shipped by Home Basics", on Lowe's website it also says it's the Home Basics brand. Quite the price difference. DH has a washer and dryer out in the bathroom in his shop, so I'm sure he can use the plastic laundry basket out there.

I have to do payroll today and off to a slow start. Several questions, including a possible return from maternity leave clarification, an employee who was terminated on Monday and an hourly employee who drove to our office on the other side of the state and I want to make sure we're paying him for his travel time, as I don't think he clocked in and out for it. Mostly all questions for my boss and she's being slow to respond, LOL.

Other than the strange notification in the mail that my mortgage lender was already changed with my homeowner's insurance, I haven't heard anything on my loan. The loan officer I talked with a week or so ago said they are just waiting on the title and that is taking a long time for everyone to get those nowadays. 

Things that make you go hmm....

I just got a notification in the mail from my homeowners insurance that, effective 2/1, they updated my mortgage servicing company from the lender I currently have to the one I am in the process of doing the refinance with. How can they do that when I haven't even finalized/closed the loan yet? From the latest info I have I am still a good couple of weeks away, minimum, from closing. Weird.

My mom finally called me back around lunchtime yesterday and as I figured, she either accidentally turned her phone off or had not charged it. I was glad to hear from her and not worry about her. 

DD had 2 of her hall trees picked up in the last couple of days, so she's on a break for now in making them as she only has one order to fill, but the lady doesn't want it until March, so dd doesn't want to make it yet and take up her garage space storing it, in case new orders come in. I think she's sold like 7 so far. Nice little extra money and she sent me a screen shot of her Discover card balance at zero, so she was really happy about that.

I just gave our flat coat retriever a "feet trim". His feets's start looking really shaggy, with his long fur, LOL. He looks much more dignified now :)

It's 17 degrees out this morning. I'm glad I don't have to take anything to the mailbox. Though I am heading out soon to do my morning "chore" of giving the chickens their bread treat.

I think I will make hamburgers and fries for dinner, so when I go downstairs to do that I  need to get some hamburger out of the freezer, and get out a couple buns, too.

Dh and I have had this "system" of whenever he needs me to order something, he sends me the link. I order it from my computer, my credit card is here at my desk, I use my email, so I have the order confirmation and any updates, etc. Also, when he sends me the link (via messenger) I don't delete this long continuing message, that way I can go back and know what he sent me to order and sometimes he sends me something and 5 seconds later says "no, wait, never mind" and I have that in writing, LOL. I have had to use that before when he says a week later, did you order such and such? and I go back and show him, no....you changed your mind.... "oh ya, I forgot".

Well, he's been ordering a bunch of various stuff the past couple of weeks and now half of it he wants to order from his computer because he'd rather just put them in the cart and order, instead of sending me links. Ok....fine.....but he doesn't keep track of what he's ordered! He can't remember if he did end up ordering something or not, he doesn't keep or organize the emails about his orders, etc. So, he's constantly asking me and it's getting super annoying. Or he's doing half sending me links and half him ordering and can't keep track of which got ordered which way, so I have to look through what I ordered to see if I ordered it or he did. Not to mention half the stuff he is ordering is either taking awhile to get shipped or on backorder, so they really need to be kept track of, to make sure he gets the items. Take your dang order emails and save them in a folder for orders! how hard is that? So, obviously I'll need to start tracking all those he orders, myself, to save me the headache a week or two later.

Oh good grief - here's a great example. I also always tell him if a package is supposed to be delivered today and via what method. So, USPS shows an amazon order coming today. Some kind of couplers and clamps he ordered. So, I just told him and he's got this blank stare. What is it? I said I don't know, some kind of rubber couplers with metal clamps you wanted ordered (only like 4 days ago!). He still has no idea/memory of it. Then he wanted to know what it's for....how would I know, if he doesn't even remember needing/ordering them?  I just said, as I walked away, I don't know, whatever it is and what it's for, it's supposed to be in today's mail........

and I just realized when I was downstairs I didn't get the hamburger and buns out of the freezer. LOL

Happy Tuesday!

Monday Funday

Weekends just go by too fast. Saturday I started to get out the ingredients to make peanut butter cookies and realized I didn't have enough brown sugar. The roads were fine by then, but dh wanted to get out of the house, too, so he drove me to town. I also picked up milk, graham crackers and a couple of donuts. There have been several elk herd sightings near our house (I saw them the prior weekend about a mile down the road, when I went to the city) so on the way back dh drove past our house and down the road a ways to where I had seen them. No elk but he pulled in a little dirt road onto the state land to turn around. Down farther I saw these black "lumps" we couldn't tell what they were so drove it a little closer and realized someone had dumped a bunch of tires back there! People!

DH was telling our neighbor about it and he said dh needs to report it to the sheriff for illegal dumping. DH was like there's nothing they will do...? Plus, he had already texted his friend who works for the state and snow plows our road and he said if the tires are up next to the road, they will pick them up and dispose. But, Mr. neighbor said the sheriff is really trying to crack down on illegal dumping and at least a report will be made that it happened. So, dh puts a call in. Of course, as expected they said they didn't want/need to do anything. Mr. Neighbor wasn't very happy about that. I told dh well, I'm sure whether they do something or not, depends on who calls. If Mr. Neighbor had been the one to report it, they would have checked it out. He has clout in the community - we are nobodies, LOL. Anyhow, dh drove his quad back down yesterday afternoon and moved the 7 tires up next to the road and snow plow friend said he will put it "on the board" for pick up.

The extra chair I ordered for the loft area arrived - yesterday, on a Sunday! Since when does FedEx deliver on a Sunday, let alone out in a rural area. And usually I always get an automated text from FedEx in the morning that they are delivering. Dh has a small chain on the gate (until the latch arrives) so if he hadn't gone out to go move those tires, we wouldn't even have known that box (and another box) were sitting out by our gate! In the snow. LOL. I know dh had probably told the FedEx driver lady (they don't come near as often as UPS) that she can just leave stuff out there, but that doesn't work if we don't know it's coming that day. UPS guy comes numerous times a week, but I always get notifications when he's coming and he also has dh's phone #, so he sometimes texts he's coming, as he knows dh will meet him out at the gate to get the package.

Anyhow, the loft area definitely looks more "balanced" to me, with the 2nd chair. Still a slow work in progress, but getting there. But, now that the 2nd chair is there, it doesn't "bug" me every time I walk by, so I'm ok if I don't finish this area up right away.

Saturday USPS informed delivery was showing a package was supposed to be delivered. It didn't come. I looked at tracking again.....guess where it ended up going?.......Honolulu!! Good grief. It started out in Ohio. How?!! LOL. I wonder how long it will now take to get here.

We aren't football watchers, so we watched a movie after dinner. Unbroken. I had read the book years ago. It was pretty good, but as usual books are better. My mom always enjoyed football and she did know the game was on yesterday and she called me in the morning to find out what time and what channel, so I'm sure she watched it.

I'm just not into pro-sports anymore. Haven't been for years, though used to enjoy watching football and basketball. But, somewhere along the lines these athletes became too overpaid and too full of themselves. They aren't worth my time or money. DH used to really enjoy Nascar, but same thing. Just a bunch of overpaid egos. All the drivers are there now because they "buy a ride", not because they are the best drivers. A young driver can have oodles of talent, but unless he has money to bring with him, forget it, he's not getting a chance to move up.

Ugh. I was on a work call and my mom tried to call. I tried to call her back about 15 minutes later and it went straight to her voicemail, so I'm thinking she must be on another call again. I tried a few minutes later and same thing. I logged into her Verizon to look at her call log to and I see about 10 minutes before she tried to call me she got a call from a MT number that she talked with for 8 minutes. I looked up the number and it keeps coming up as the anthropology dept at the University, LOL. Who is she talking to?? LOL. Nothing else is showing up on the call log after that yet, not even her call to me (maybe it doesn't show up if I don't answer), but I just tried again and still straight to her voicemail. Weird.

 

I still haven't stole her money, imagine that

 Happy Saturday :)

I was having a hard time getting/staying in the work mode yesterday, but I did and managed to get quite a bit done. We're still  a few months behind at work, due to that audit taking so much time. Anyhow I got Sept financials all done and started working on October and got almost halfway done on that. It also sounds like I'm going to get a little help with some of the more time consuming/less difficult task. One of the managers has an exchange student for the year, who wants to work, so we are going to have her do some of the data entry work.  My goal is to get October done by the end of next week and hopefully have November completed by the end of February.

About a year or so ago I did up a spreadsheet to try to project how long my mom's money should last. I put a note on it the last time I updated (last Feb) what her investment balance was at that time. I put in a conservative rate of return of 4% a year, included her social security annually, an estimate of her annual expenses, plus the other bank balances she had at that time.

I went to update my spreadsheet and went to get her current investment account balance. Holy cow! I know it's gone up a lot, but it's actually seeing the #'s! it's like $102k more than it was this same time a year ago. I know her broker is earning more than 4%, closer to 10%, last time he updated us.

Basically, at this point, with her social security income and expenses only at about $3k a month, she's not even reducing her investment account. Sure, she has to do the RMD, but she only needs to spend about $5k of that RMD a year, the rest she can keep in savings/money market account. In addition her earnings on her retirement account is exceeding what she's having to mandatory withdraw for her RMD. Geez, at this rate she's never going to run out of money, LOL.  It still boggles my mind how my step brother thought she was going to run out of money in about 10 years. The only thing I can think is he wasn't factoring in that this million dollars is going to keep earning a rate of return on it and that rate of return and her social security will more than cover her annual expenses, even when she has to go into a higher cost assisted living. Was he just dividing the approx $850k (at that point he sent me that email) by having to spend $85k a year on assisted living and expenses? Well, if so, he's an idiot and shouldn't have been in charge of her finances. I'd have to re-read his email, but I'm kind of remembering his estimate might have even been 8-10 years.  And again, even if she did run out of money, it's not like she'd be homeless and have no care! Medicaid would take over and pay for her nursing care, just like it did with my grandma when she ran out of money. (she lived to 95 and actually almost had her money last until the very end - and she didn't have anywhere CLOSE to a million dollars)

Sitting here waiting for the big dump of snow we're supposed to get all day today. Hmpf! I looked on the weather radar map and we're in this little pocket area of not snowing, LOL. Yesterday morning dh shoveled and plowed the 3-4 inches and by afternoon it warmed up to 42 and melted, LOL.

I gave dh a haircut (just buzz him with the hair clippers) last night, so while I had the vacuum out to vacuum the hair on the bathroom floor I just continued and vacuumed the closest and our bedroom while I was at it. One less thing to do today.

Now, it's starting to snow. According to report we are supposed to get 12" or more this weekend. More than likely it'll be like half that.

DH used up a box of screws he had and I went online to order them from Lowes, but it's $45 for free shipping and these only cost $20. I'll have to have him figure out something to add. We do also get the big 55 gallon drum liners from there but those are only like $13 for the box, so I'm still short.

DD got some good news. She and her dh will be getting bonus's from their jobs. They both work for the same company and I guess were told no bonus's this year, but they changed their mind. She doesn't know how much, but were happy to hear the news. 

 

 

TGIF and whatnot

I'm hoping today is another uneventful day, like yesterday was. No calls or texts, LOL. We did get a few inches of snow last night and a little here and there is predicted the next few days.

DH kept busy making some "caps" for the gate posts to make it look more finished. Just used more scrap wood. He said he's going to go through the wood pile that's left and remove the stuff that's too twisted or not straight enough to use on anything and add it to the burn pile. He's getting better at sanding wood. He did better sanding these caps then he did for the inside stuff he made me a few years ago LOL. He also added a couple metal house numbers to the fence that he bought quite awhile ago.

He's been looking at electric gate openers online for reviews, prices, etc. It looks like the one he's seeing good reviews on will run about $1500 (not counting having the electric hooked up) but it is also solar powered, so we can just have it use solar power, until we are ready to spend the money to get the electrician back out here.

Not much going on really. My mortgage refi is still in process, just waiting to clear the title I guess and then they will get final confirmations I still have a job, etc.

I guess I should get started on taxes soon, too. I always seem to have a refund from the state tax return. Would be nice to get that before I owe my federal return, but apparently you cannot e-file separately, from what I looked up. I may just paper file it, so I can get the refund in the bank to put towards federal.

I've been thinking of making peanut butter cookies and then dd went and made some last night and sent me a picture. Well, now I need some, LOL. Sounds like a good thing to do this weekend. No plans for much of anything.  Just need to clean, as usual.

ok, I put it off as long as I could - haha. Need to take the mail out to the mailbox...in the snow and it's snowing. Better bundle up!

 

 

 

More money offering

A friend recommended a new tv show to watch, so I gave it a go. Very quirky/funny. A bit of a Northern Exposure feel to it, mixed with sci-fi, LOL. It's called Resident Alien. It had some funny bits, as the alien (who has taken over a recluse doctors body in a small Colorado town) learns to act human. The townspeople are quirky, too. I'll probably give it a watch for a few episodes and see how it goes. Only episode 1 has been put out, so far.

I also just finished a good book by Matt Haig called The Midnight Library. I've enjoyed a couple other books by him I've read, too.

Yay, my mom's rent payment finally started coming out auto from her checking. It posted today. I'm just glad it's finally on auto pay now. One less thing for me to have to remind/ask/check on every month.

So, I call her to tell her it went through her checking and that she needs to write it down in her register. She finds her register and of course she still has not written down any of the January transactions we went round and round to try to get her to write and then I told her again about the email I sent last week with with the list of transactions, so she got her email open (of course no memory of getting it last week) and finally I just said, well just work off that list and enter what you haven't, after we get off the phone. I wasn't going to sit on the phone while she attempts this (as I know it's futile). I didn't even bother mentioning the Feb rent again, to write down. I'm just not bringing any of it up anymore. If/when she brings it up again, and then when she realizes she's so far behind, I'm just going to tell her I've been trying to have her write it down several times, but I think it's just too confusing for her now, so I can do it (I already am in my own register for her account).

I also brought up uncle and said has he been asking you for money? she said she didn't think so, so I said that he told me she keeps offering to send him money and he doesn't really need it, so he's not sure what to keep telling her. She said oh, I probably am offering it to him or telling him to let me know if he needs some for something. I told her since he doesn't need any extra, it's better for her money to stay in her investment account earning good. She then said "oh, I just need to stop offering it to him then." I said yes, that's the best plan.

Then get this! A half hour later uncle texted me that she just called him and wanted to send him money for his birthday. OMG! Not to mention his birthday isn't until April. He said he just told her that he doesn't need any money and her money earns really good interest in her account so leave it there. He said that's what he's just going to keep telling her going forward.  I texted back that unfortunately, at this point, we are just going to have to keep repeating ourselves about it with her. I also told him she has gotten to the point where she can't do her checking register anymore, so I'm slowly transitioning her from it, while I keep my own copy of her register. Just to let him know I'm pretty much 100% all over the situation. And fortunately the only 2 people she talks to on a regular basis is me and him. Can you imagine her having more relatives that called regularly and just offering money to everyone?! God!

Then I think I know what might have made her think it was his birthday. It is her dad's birthday today! I'll bet she was remembering that, but getting confused and thinking it was her brother's birthday.

DH has this guy he's known for years (originally from our original area) that is very wealthy and lived on a huge ranch and huge home not far from where we live now and sold it after we moved here and they moved about 3 years ago, about an hour away. They "downsized" to a 9200 sf home on 25 acres. It's gorgeous, of course. Well, they are already selling it! I can't imagine wanting to move so soon again, especially for the size of their home and belongings. I'm looking at their for sale pics and just thinking wow! it makes our place look pathetic, haha, She sure is an inspiration for lodge/rustic/western decor, but probably one item in her rooms costs more than what I put in the whole room, haha.  The thought of being in my 60's and packing up and moving again just makes me cringe. But, then again, I'm sure they hire movers to do it all, LOL. And they basically moved twice after they sold their big ranch. First they moved temporarily to a 2500 sf condo, while they looked for this current place. 

I got a call yesterday afternoon from my loan officer on my re-fi. She said the only thing they are waiting on is my title, but that those are all being slow for everyone right now, so it could take another couple weeks to get, but she's hoping to get it next week. We can close fairly quickly after that is received and cleared as all good, it sounds like. I asked her about my email regarding why the payoff to my 2 existing loans went up almost $4000. She said they got the pay off figure from my main mortgage and that there is like $3600 interest on it. I'm like how is that possible when one months interest is like half that? She said they quoted interest added to existing balance owed from Jan 1 to the end of Feb (estimated pay off date). So, apparently my payment that just posted on Monday wasn't taken into account and they quoted it as if I wasn't making it, I guess. She said when we get closer to actual closing date that they will get the new payoff amount, so it will be more accurate.

It's snowing nicely, right now. Starting to stick a bit. Though I sure wouldn't want to be my neighbor lady who has to drive 45 miles in it to get home in a couple of hours.

Suspicious minds

It's probably just mostly me and my lack of trust of people (sadly, mostly family members) I've gained over the years, but while, I don't think my uncle has ever tried to get a bunch of money out of my mom, she has "lent" him money (usually around $2,000) several times over the years (that I've never seen any paid back after I started watching her account a couple years ago), I do believe that the reason's he tells her it's for is made up half the time. Lots of examples, but like when he told my mom he'd take her car (as a gift from her) because he could use it, as his truck is getting old. Then he sold it before even transferring the title.....but I knew that was going to happen. She didn't need the car (or the money from it's sale) and it needed new batteries (2010 Prius) too. It wasn't something she could have taken care of selling on her own, so I don't mind, but then after she gave him the car he turned around and said he was going to sell it, because he needed the money to replace his roof, which wouldn't surprise me if that was made up, too.

So, anyhow, 2-3 weeks ago he calls me up. He's mentioned before she is constantly asking him if he needs money and he tells her he's fine. She does the same thing to me, so I'm sure he's telling the truth. (DD said when she told her she was starting her Masters study, she asked if she needed money to pay for it, and dd told her no, her employer is paying). He said he feels funny bringing it up, but he wanted to run it by me. He said she keeps telling him she wants to send him some money, and he had, I guess, mentioned her was thinking of getting a new computer (mostly just trying to think of things to make conversation, since he calls her almost daily for a few minutes), so she said she wanted to buy it for him. He told me "I don't need the money for it, but she just keeps offering, so I thought I'd just take it and put it in my safe deposit box and her money can just sit there"......I was thinking to myself "ya...sure it will". So, I just said well, if she wants to give you some and you could use it, I wouldn't have a problem with you using it, you don't need to keep it for her. We went back and forth a bit, but he still said if she sent the money he'd just put the cash in his safe deposit box. I said, well, you're more than likely going to have to remind her or she will forget about it tomorrow. So, 2-3 weeks pass and I've seen no check clear her bank.

So, the call/message he left Sunday night wasn't about her meals, it was about her constant offering of money. He was kind of himhawing and said he didn't even know how to word his question....but does she have like $10k that's easily accessible to write a check? I said well, sometimes. She does right now as I just did a transfer from her investment savings, plus she gets her monthly soc sec, so she's usually good for 4-5 months. I said I don't like to keep too much in her checking, just in case of fraud.  Then he says "well, would she be able to do a monthly transfer to me of say like $900 a month?" I started to say, well, I suppose.....but it would have to be something I do, as she wouldn't remember it and then he says "I don't need the money - I'm just trying to think of a way so she thinks she's helping me out and I'll just put the cash in my safe deposit box"........oh right.....so I'm going to send him $900 a month to put in a safe deposit box?! I don't think so. I said well, I don't want $900 a month of her money sitting in a safe deposit box, when her investment broker guy can be investing it and doing the great job he's been doing with all her money!. He said oh, right, ya that's very true. Then he said "oh, how about next time she mentions it I'll just tell her she earns better interest, so she needs to keep her money in her account". I also told him she offers me money probably at least once a week and you just have to say to her "no, I'm good. If I need some money, I'll let you know". Just change the subject with her. Geez.

Then he texted me back about 15 minutes later that he just talked to her and told her she earns better interest in her account, so keep it there, thanks for the idea. ok........

I told dd I guess I'm just too suspicious of people. I went to her cell phone call log to see if there's a call to her, like he said he made after he got off the phone with me. There's no call from him until 7pm in the evening last night....If he's going to lie about something as small as that, what else is lies? I also told her my hunch is he wanted to throw it out there, to see how gullible I am and if I said sure "send $10k one time, or $900 a month" but when I didn't bite, then he backed off and made it sound like he just didn't know how to get her stop asking him if he needs money, or telling him she wanted to send some. And like DD said - even if she did give him a one time amount or a monthly amount, she'd totally forget it happened and would be back to square one with it all again, anyway.

My gut is he does want money, probably mentions it to her in some sly way and of course, she says sure...and then of course 5 minutes after she hangs up she's totally forgotten about it, so he knows he has to go through me to try to get it. Who knows. Daily conversations with her are always just repeating yourself and talking about the same stuff - deal with it.

Grumble day

This morning is frustrating, so far. Some of it leftover from last night. My mom called about an hour after her dinner to say it was awful and she couldn't even eat it and that she saved it in her fridge and was going to take it downstairs to show someone in the morning. I suggested she call down or take it down then, as I'm sure someone was around she could talk to about it, but she didn't think there would be. As usual, she couldn't even tell me what the meal actually is (even though she opened the container while talking to me) just that it kind of looks like pizza and is burned on the bottom and the "salad" sounds like it was mostly like purple eggplant filler. 

Ugh. So, I told her I'd call her in the morning to see what she found out after taking it down to show them. And as expected another hour or so later, my phone rings and it's my uncle, I'm sure wanting to tell me her meal is bad, blah blah. I let it go to voicemail. I was tired, I had a headache, and I'm already going to deal with it for/with her. Then about 10 minutes later he texted me to call him when I get a chance. I'll text him back this morning that I'll give him a call around lunch break. 

I know the restrictions her senior living place is under due to Covid is probably causing most of this. They are having to deliver all meals to each apartment, and also not offering any meal choice. Normal conditions are they eat in dining room and have like 2-3 meal choices to chose from. But, if it's a meal delivered that doesn't taste good or something she just doesn't like, there needs to be a plan B. Like at least be able to call down and request a sandwich be brought up or something. Just not eating a meal, isn't an option. With them basically being on lockdown, at this time, (due to a resident getting Covid recently) it's not even like I can stock up her fridge for her. Let alone, she can't really make anything much anyway, with no stove or oven in her room. And trying to keep a few things in her fridge is hard, because most of the time she doesn't need to eat any of it, and it goes bad before she does. Not to mention her memory doesn't work well enough anymore for her to manage it all much.

After I typed this out, I decided to just email the manager with my concerns and ask her what options my mom has for getting something else to eat, when the meal is bad or a food/meal she doesn't like. So, we'll see. I also imagine if my mom thinks the meals are bad, at times, so do other residents, and if no one complains, then they don't know. So, we'll see what she says.

I got an email from the lender I'm working with on my refi that there's an update to my loan estimate. I log in and can't remember what the estimate was exactly before this new one. I should have written it all down or done a screen shot. Anyway, it seems that my amount needed at closing went up over $4000. I can't see that any of the closing costs changed (from my memory), but then I noticed my "Estimated Total Payoffs and Payments" was over $4000 more than what my 2 mortgage loan payoffs total. I can't imagine what the extra $4600 is from? even with partial months interest owed on these loans, depending on when we'd close, the total interest could only be at the very most $1800 extra. So, I put an email in about that, asking for detail on what makes up that number. (and I saved this version as a pdf, so if it changes again, I can compare).

So, not the best start to my day, haha. Though a breakfast of banana bread and "cherry cheescake" yogurt is good. I got substituted my regular yogurt flavor and this is pretty good, too. Definitely tastes like cheesecake, which I love.