Getting it all done

It was a busy and very productive day yesterday, all in about 5 hours. I had told my mom I'd pick her up outside (there is a porte cochere you can pull up and pick up). Usually when I do that I will call her a few minutes before I get there to let her know I'm pulling in soon and she can start heading downstairs. I tried to call and no answer. I'm thinking crap! she forgot, she's still in bed or down at breakfast. But, I pull in and she's standing there waiting, LOL.

The clinic with the lab is just a very short drive. It's also an urgent care/regular dr's/xray place, but only one other person was in the waiting room. It was warm in there (already at 8am) and we had to wear masks which made it feel even warmer trying to breathe. She was done by 8:20 and I gave her some water and a granola bar I brought so she'd have some food, but my mammogram appointment at the same place wasn't until 9 (earliest they do them), so rather than sit in that warm waiting room with masks on, we went back out to the car. I moved it to a shady spot under a tree and we waited until I could go back in. Their a/c must have kicked in by then as it felt much cooler in there. I was back at the car at 9:15.

Her dr appointment, a couple miles down the road, wasn't until 10am, so I decided to go through the car wash and get that done. I had looked at bugs all the way there, then streaks of bugs, as I tried to get them off with my windshield fluid/wipers, LOL. We still had lots of time left and I also needed to pick up the laminate flooring transition strips I had ordered, which was just past the dr's office. We got to the dr. office at 9:45 and got checked in and didn't have to wait too long at all.

Her weight has been gradually going down, now at 155, so that's great. I know at one point several years ago she was at like 180 or more. She's totally shrinking! While she was always 5'4", she is now 5'1 1/2". And this time they did a couple of memory/cognitive type tests. The nurse told her 3 items to remember and she was going to ask her if she could remember them in a few minutes. Then asked her to draw a clock. I could not see, from where I was sitting, if she was doing it or not, but from mom's questions I was assuming she was having trouble. She couldn't remember any of the 3 words.  When the dr. came in (very pregnant, haha) she just said that is common for her age, with the memory loss. Really, there is nothing they can do for it. As mom's previous physician had told her, she said same: activity and socialization is the best medicine for it. I did tell the dr that I have taken over the checkbook/banking now. Mom chimed in with her usual "well, if I did it more often, I could probably still do it". I just said to the dr that it was a couple months behind, so it was time. Mom did bring up that she is noticing her hands shaking more. (she has had this for quite awhile and her mom had it too). Dr. said it's called "essential tremors" and fairly benign, unless it interferes with writing or holding things. She said there is a drug very similar to the atenolol she is on, that does the job of atenolol and helps with the tremors and she felt she could easily transition to that drug instead of the atenolol, so we will be trying that. I also asked her to change the paxil dosage so that I don't have to cut the pills in half anymore. That will make my life easier.

Mom's BP was a bit high. Dr. asked when she normally took the atenolol and she said morning and asked if she took it this morning? Mom said "oh, I think so....." Dr. was thinking maybe it was high, if she hadn't taken that days dosage yet. I said she probably didn't with getting up early and not eating yet. With the change to the other BP medication, she wants me to bring her back in about a month to have it checked, just to make sure. I did check her chart notes online, when I got home and it noted she did fail both memory tests.

We were done at the dr. at 10:45, but the appointment at the attorney's office, to sign the will, wasn't until 11:30. I decided to give them a call and see if by chance they could do it early and they said no problem. I said we'll be there in about 10 minutes. Their office is just a couple blocks behind where my mom lives so very close and convenient (most attorneys are downtown, paid parking, etc). We were done by 11:30 so decided to go get lunch at Wendy's and go inside to eat. First inside eating I have done in a year, haha. We got there at a good time, just before the lunch rush. She never really seems to know what to order anymore and will always just say "what are you having? ok that sounds good". I wanted a grilled chicken sandwich and strawberry lemonade, so that's what she wanted. But, note to self, she apparently doesn't really like strawberry lemonade, haha!

I took her back to her apartment and had about a half hour before needing to pick up my grocery order and I wanted to find those refills of her prescriptions I had ordered. I found them up in her kitchen cabinet. Whew! And of course she hadn't taken her morning pills yet, nor had she taken the day before. Ugh. I'm ready to get her one of those pill dispenser systems. As we were checking in downstairs, someone had left their keys on the counter. Then the lady at the desk said, oh this is for you and handed my mom an open envelope addressed to her. It was a card from step bro and his wife for my mom's birthday/mother's day last month. I didn't look at the date on the envelope stamp, but not sure how it ended up at the front desk. I'm thinking it got put in another residents mailbox and finally made it to my mom? There was also one of those "car warranty" junk mail cards inside the open envelope, that was addressed to someone else. Who knows. My step brother wrote the note inside wishing her happy birthday and mother's day and said they read that her apartment is all vaccinated now, so that is great. I'm thinking how would they know that?? I had read that somewhere, too...so I was thinking maybe the senior living's facebook page? but no, Step bro and wife don't do FB. Maybe the senior living place website? I looked when I got home and neither had it. I had to have read it from one of the manager emails that go out to residents and family on record......

I got home and took a nap!

Last evening, dh gets a text that just pissed him off. Mr had told dh a few days ago that son and family were coming to pick up their dogs and staying until Saturday. Both dh and I said to each other, well...at least with it over 100 degrees out this week, we won't have to listen to them outside much, haha. Mr. texted dh last night and says his son would like to do some fireworks - would you be ok with that?  WTF?!!!! It's not July 4th yet, it's fire season, it's 101 degrees out. And as we were reminded at that recent fire dept meeting we went to a couple weeks ago, they are 30-40 minutes out to our area for a fire, not to mention since we aren't in the fire district, if they do come out we have to pay for them to put out a fire. Not to mention we don't want to listen to that. That's the whole freaking reason we moved where we did. Peace and quiet. Not have to experience their son's vacation (again) to just live in our home. Not to mention the stress to our dog listening to it.

DH didn't reply back until hours later. He just didn't know what in the hell to even say. Like we said to each other damned if he does, damned if he doesn't say ok. If he says he's not ok with it, he's the asshole, if he says he's ok with it, we have to deal with it interrupting our lives and adding risk we don't need. These people obviously can never say no to their son about anything. And dh is damned tired of being the one who has to be the asshole, because he doesn't want to listen to fireworks on June 29, 30, July 1, 2 and 3rd (not to mention the fire danger). We expect to live with it, to some extent here, on the 4th, Not 5 days before. How about son drive down to his 40 acres he just bought and do it THERE?! Dh has made it no secret to any of our neighbors that he had moved here for peace and quiet, so for Mr to even ask was annoying. He knows how dh would feel about it. If they had to even ask, then they already knew the answer. We thought about replying, ok, let us know the day and time, so we can take our dog and go out while it's going on. So tired of having to live his son's life so that he can do what he wants. He doesn't want to be inconvenienced by his own dogs, so we have to, month and months every year. He wants to come here and vacation and do all the things they can't do where they live, so we get to live it in our home, while he's here. And being put on to respond to something like that just made dh stressed to the max and he still is this morning. His reply he finally decided on, way late last night, was "I'm not sure how to answer that Mr, I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't. I let you guys decide what you think is best".

Maybe this is the time to sell and find somewhere where neighbors are a mile away. I'm just trying to figure out how come we manage to not to do anything to disrupt our neighbors lives...We have the occasional visitor, but no one would even know that, except the neighbors 5 dogs have to bark because someone is pulling in.

Busy day ahead

I've been making pitchers of Country Time lemonade to have on hand. A nice cool treat. I like that better than ice tea or plain water. Even dh is starting to drink some. 

I sent my uncle a text to see how he's faring in this heat (supposed to be over 110 where he is!) and he said he's good. He has a/c, so that's good.

Work is getting interesting. First we let go an employee in one dept a few weeks ago. I'm not sure if they plan to replace her, I haven't seen a job posting. Then another long time employee in that same dept. just gave her notice last week. Not good.  She gave her notice after she started her week's vacation. Why? probably because several years ago the company changed their policy and stopped paying out accrued PTO if someone quit or was let go. I am not a fan of this policy at all. I figure we earned this and should get paid for it. I'd be really screwed if I got let go or quit, with like 5 weeks on the books. I really need to keep taking days off. Since I'm taking tomorrow off, I should have just taken today (Monday off, too) and made it a 4 days weekend. Why did I not? LOL.

Yesterday morning we just got notice that 2 long time sales people are leaving, to go work for a customer. Both are managers over other sales people. What is going on? I did message my boss a quick message that said "wow, lots of challenges lately", but as I figured she wouldn't give me any details. Just said it's all going to work out ok. The first gal who gave notice last week is going to a different industry to work. These other 2 are staying in our industry. It makes me wonder how much of this is related to money/salary. No one has seen a raise in over 2 years now....it's not like the company is losing money, that's for sure. While we aren't making our sales goals (obviously unattainable in this economy/shut downs, etc) we are still making a nice profit. And now add on inflation, we are taking a double hit with no raises. 

Thursday we are having our quarterly company meeting. Still online. We get next Monday off for 4th of July and are also closing for 1/2 day on Friday, so at least that "perk" has come back (to close at noon the day before holidays). 

Shortly after I made my post yesterday morning, my eye finally started feeling better. I kept adding drops all day and before bed (and once a couple hours after I went to bed) and still had a little episode last night where it hurt for a bit, but went away and so far so good this morning.

After fixing my 401k to be in a more aggressive plan, I see it's showing more improvement now, so that is good news. My balance increased about 6.3% for this quarter just ending here in a couple days. My mom's total $ got over $1 million awhile back and she's getting closer to her next $100k above that, already. I'll bet she'll be there by year end.

Well, on to my super busy day. I'm going to need a nap this afternoon, LOL.

Just unfriend me

It's going to be 108 degrees today, where dd lives. OMG. There's only been a few days in history where it's even been over 100 there, so today is unheard of. Too bad their neighbor didn't get their a/c installed for them yet! She said even with 2 a/c units downstairs and 2 fans it was still 88 inside their house yesterday. Her dh will be glad to be at a/c work today. She's going to be miserable at home, but said she's just going to start work at 5am, when her dh leaves for work so she'll be done early afternoon. At least it's only going to be one more day for them. Tomorrow they are down to 88 and then low 80's the rest of the week. Where she lives almost no one has a/c in their houses. It's just never really needed, except maybe a few days or a week during the summer it might get in 90's. It will be 100 where I am today and we have no plans to be outside. I do have to go into the city tomorrow morning, but other than just from car to building, we will be in a/c. It's also going to be extreme where my uncle lives, so I'll give him a text sometime today and make sure he's doing ok. He has a bunch of friends and is very active, so most likely he/they will find somewhere cool to hang out. My side job boss lives near my uncle, but she also has a house on the coast, where it's 30 degrees cooler, so you know where she is working from today! LOL.

Mrs Neighbor came over last evening to have me show her what flowers to water while we are gone. She's also going to pick up our mail, which I totally forgot about, haha. 

I figured out and filed the FBAR filing for my half sister yesterday. She only had to do 2019 and 2020, as her accountant did 2017 and 2018 her balance was below the threshold. So, everything is done and caught up for her and should be easy going forward to do once a year now. No need for her to spend $500 a year to do these simple filings. I'm sure that's why she'd get behind on it, because she couldn't afford to pay that every year. She doesn't make a bunch, plus she was a single mom when her girls were growing up.

Tomorrow is going to be so much crammed into the morning. Pick mom up at around 8. Go over to the clinic (very near her apartment) that does the lab work and mammograms. Get her blood drawn (and then something to eat) and then at 9 get my mammogram. Those usually only take about 15 minutes, but if there is a delay, we have until 10 to get down to the doctors office a few miles away. I'm estimating getting out of there at 11. The place that has the flooring transition pieces I ordered is near there, so will swing in there after to get those picked up. Then back to a couple blocks behind mom's apartment building is the attorney's office and an appointment there at 11:30 to sign and pick up her will. Then get lunch somewhere. Then I need to go back inside her apartment to find those prescription refills! I kind of need to pick up at least some groceries, so I'm trying to figure out what time for that. Probably choose the 1pm-2pm time slot and hopefully get there at 1pm and then head home. I don't even know if my ice packs would stay frozen in my cooler all morning in this heat, LOL. I guess we'll find out. If not I might have to run inside Walmart and buy a bag of ice.

Back in Feb our governor lifted the mask mandate, though counties could keep it on if they wanted. Our county lifted it. I had made a just general comment on my Facebook that I went into the town store today and it sure was nice being able to see smiling faces again. A few of my friends who live in my previous state made some comments not in support of their state's still mask rule and governor. Another friend, from that state, chimed in to mask shame us. I just very politely pointed out that while I can understand, my state isn't the same as hers. I said it's twice the geographical size and less than 1/7th the population and there was only one active case in our county. I also pointed out I wasn't at a store with a couple other hundred people. There were maybe 10 people in my store. She begged to differ and I dropped it and didn't reply further. Prior to that she has always been one to actively comment on mine and my dh's posts. Since then not even a like clicked. While I'm not one to very often post a political type post, I do every so often, so it's been no secret where my political leanings lie and it's certainly no secret where my dh's are the past several years. Anyhow, it was just something I noticed from her lack of commenting or even clicking a like. She loves dogs as much as we do and couldn't even click or comment when I posted about our dog dying. I have left her on as a friend and of course still click on her posts from time to time. She's very liberal, no secret either. Whatever. Go ahead and wear 3 masks, if that makes you feel safer.

Well, Saturday she posted a pic of the temp out in her backyard. Her son commented with a pic from where he is showing a nice 78 temp. Her son is about 30 or so. I knew he worked and lived near her so was wondering if maybe he moved or was just on vacation. I clicked on his profile and was scrolling through his posts. Well, dang. The guy is quite conservative and lots of posts/memes making fun of the masks, vaccines and their governor! Something I would never post! Yet, I'm the bad guy she doesn't want to interact with anymore? LOL. People suck.

She is someone I worked with 25-30 years ago. We worked in the same dept for a few years, were same age and got along well (even though she was slow as molasses to do the same job). She always has been opinionated though. This was back when you could still smoke in our office lunchroom (ugh). We were eating our lunches (I always brown bagged it) and I was eating a twinkie for my dessert. She commented "ewww....you put that processed crap in your body?". I didn't miss a beat and pointed to her cigarette she was smoking and said "and you put that in your body??".  After I left that company to be a SAHM we didn't keep in touch (we didn't live close to each other at all. She lived one direction from that office, I another) but reconnected on Facebook years ago.

My eye is totally bothering me this morning. I still often use drops and if it's feeling a little dry I'll put in some of that ointment when I go to bed, every so often. It was feeling a bit drier last night so I put the ointment in. I get up this morning and it just keeps feeling worse. This isn't how it was when I was having the problem with it getting dry while sleeping and then rubbing off what had healed from the scratch last spring. Then, when I would get up and start blinking/lubricating my eye it would start to feel much better, it was the sleeping that was terrible. Now, every time I blink it feels like something is in my eye. I keep putting drops in, but not helping any. I'm not in the mood for this nor do I have time for this right now. Ugh.

Sunday and hot temps

So far we are only at 90 degrees out for our high, so nothing too extreme. Today is supposed to be 93 and then 100 and over all next week. I forgot a year or two ago dh had given dd our portable a/c unit we had for our house in town, since we didn't need it anymore, and she messaged yesterday to thank him again, haha. It was almost 100 where she lives. On Monday it is supposed to be 108 where she lives! A record there, to be sure. I've even heard some business's there are closing for the day. These high temps where I am usually lead to forest fires, unfortunately. Not looking forward to that. Mostly because it's now really not a matter of them just getting in there and putting the fire(s) out asap. It's a business now.....so they let it burn and "manage" it. I'm not a fan of this, but it's a money grab, and money breeds greed.

We've still been seeing the bald eagles more, but still not as often at their nest as we used to see them. I hear them quite often, though. They have a very distinctive call. I never knew what they actually sounded like until we moved here. The river is still pretty high, but finally starting to go down. When it gets down more there is little "pool" area on the other side across from us that is a favorite of the ducks, geese and fishermen. I'm starting to see ducks hang out there more often now and I imagine after this next weeks temps the river level will go down more. Haven't seen floaters yet. Even though it's hot, I think with the river level the water is still very cold and it's faster moving, so maybe they don't like it going that fast.

As neighbor was on her way down with her wheelbarrow (which I figured would be too big to get in my coop) I got my little garden cart and me in there and got it scooped out. It really only takes me like 5 minutes to scoop it all into the cart. Then we just picked it up and dumped it into hers and that was easy. I showed her how the watering feeder works, where the water spigot to use. Then showed her where I keep the food just inside the back garage door. Then I gave her 4 year old a carton of eggs to carefully carry home with them, LOL. He's so cute. And she had baby girl in a carrier strapped to her chest. She just seems so content to go where ever mom does that way. 

DH worked until about 1pm weed eating and mowing. It was pretty hot by the time he got done but we had lunch on the back patio in some shade and a bit of a breeze so it was nice. About 2pm I wen to take a nap. Just to relax my back from bending over weeding an area under a tree. When I woke up I heard dh lightly snoring out from the couch, so he got a nap in, too. Dinner was steak and green beans. I always buy the thin cut of steaks, as I can seem to cook those perfect, but Walmart keeps substituting regular cut, which I'm taking because I figure some meat is better than no meat. But, I just can't seem to figure out how to cook these thicker ones. They are always either not done enough or too done.

DH watched more of the racing he watches online and I started watching the new season of Bosch. I just love that show (and the books) so was excited to have a new season to watch and sad to hear it was the final season. Then I read an article that the streaming platform, IMBD is going to do a "spin-off", basically just a continuation of the series and they already started filming. Yay! 

I will probably get dh to hang my 3 new pictures today. Only 2 1/2 weeks until we go on our trip to Texas and 1 1/2 weeks until dd comes for her visit. I'm more excited about seeing her than going on vacation, LOL.

Today should be pretty relaxing. We really don't have much needing to be done today. I suppose I should try to figure out now what I want to make for dinner. Ugh.

Saturday and staying cool

My dd and I pretty much just chat off and on all day long, every day, LOL. She's good at decorating and is working on decorating her house. She bought this wicker type rectangle basket to set on her coffee table. Something to put the remotes in, add some decor/eye appeal type of thing. Well, her cat decided this was the perfect spot to hang out in now, so the cat is always in the basket, LOL. Then cat started chewing on the edge of the basket a bit, so dd put a folded up fleece blanket (with owls on it, LOL) inside and covering over the edge of the basket. So, the cat even loves it more, because that cat loves fleece stuff. She sent me a picture of her cat actually laying on the couch across from it yesterday. The basket/blanket empty. I said boy, now there's a decor fail isn't it? 😂 A folded up owl blanket in a basket on her coffee table, LOL. They are getting this heat wave temps, too, so yesterday after work they went to several stores and found a small kiddie pool for their 2 dogs. Once her little aussie mix dog (and he is little) figured out it wasn't just a big water dish to drink out of, he had a ball, she said.

Our UPS guy usually isn't to our house until evening sometime. Not that he comes every day, but some weeks it's quite a few days. He always texts dh when he's getting close, and dh meets him out at the gate. When he texted, right after dinner last night he asked if he could fill up his water jug. Such a hot day and he drank what he had brought with him. Of course he can. DH had him come in and use the laundry room water, as the house water has a filter on it and the sink out in the shop doesn't. DD said she had an Amazon driver coming yesterday, so she left some cold drinks out on her front porch and they took a gatorade.

Every so often I look at my moms cell phone call log, see who's called her and see if there are any repeated spam calls I need to block. For years my uncle has always called my mom at least once a week, then the past couple of years, since she moved into senior living, he calls her usually every 2-3 days, usually just a quick few minutes call. I've noticed the past couple months he's not calling as much at all. Maybe once a week now. He did call me about a week or so ago, to check in and say hi and said he's doing good. Since I don't think my mom thinks to call him too often (I think because he's always been the one to call) I'll have to remember to call or text him more often, just to make sure he's doing ok. Days just go by so fast and I'm busy with work and stuff on weekends that next thing I know a month has gone by.

I'll be cleaning out the chicken coop later this morning. I'll give neighbor down the street a text to let her know. It's all I can do to fit my little garden cart wheelbarrow and myself into the coop to clean it out. I'm not even sure, if she has a regular sized wheelbarrow, it would fit thru the door, LOL. I'm just going to tell her I'll get it scooped out into my cart (only takes me like 10 minutes) and then we can either dump it into her wheelbarrow or she can just take my cart and bring it back.

I'm not sure what dh is doing today. He got up already and I would think the lawn needs mowed again. It's been since Monday. I need to stop blogging and get outside and water flowers! I see one of my day lillies bloomed yesterday. At least those seem to stay bloomed all summer. Most perennial flowering plants do not. I'll bet we'll be seeing lots of floaters and fishermen on the river today. The two art/pictures I ordered from Kohls for the guest bedrooms arrived yesterday, so dh will hang those for me. I'm not loving the bear one, but it will fill the wall space and it's nice in its simplicity. The buffalo one, even though similar, has more to it. I would not have paid the $100 or $120 that these were originally priced, though.

Happy Saturday! To those in the heat wave - stay cool!

 

 

Some of this and some of that

I finished that Apple TV miniseries I was watching - Defending Jacob. While it was good, I have to say the ending was very dissatisfying, LOL. I don't like being left hanging, wondering. I like answers, things black and white. (probably why I'm an accountant, haha). And really, what was the point of the writers basically having the mom do what she tried to do at the end, and it not happen. I heard the book was a different ending.

I see this morning that my mortgage lender figured out their mistake of those 2 principal payments. Man...I was gonna retire early if they kept that up! 😆 

I received a big chunk of my Kohl's order delivered last night. The 4 melamine plates (for patio dining). 4 plates in one big box. Who trains these people who decide what box to ship stuff in? The plates are great. Nice looking and lightweight. I also got a big vase thing to put on one corner of our fireplace hearth. I need to find some greenery or grassy type stalks to go inside it. Since I had a 30% off coupon and was trying to get to that next $10 in Kohl's cash reward, I also ordered a box of decaf k-cups coffee. Sometimes later in the day a cup of coffee sounds good, but I can't have more than one cup a day. I tried it last night and it was pretty good, for decaf. Two t-shirts also came. I'm just waiting on one more pair of jeans and 2 pictures/art that I think are coming today. The new duvet cover I ordered on Amazon is supposed to be here tomorrow, but I'd be surprised. This morning it was in like North Dakota, LOL.

I also emailed the office person at that attorney's office, who is revising my mom's will. They had said it would be about 2 weeks (which is this week) so I asked if it would be possible to come in and sign/pick it up next Tuesday, as I will be in town for my mom's Dr appointment. It sounds like that will work out great and she suggested the exact time I was thinking, at 11:30. It's going to be a busy day next Tuesday.

Mrs. Neighbor just texted me to ask if she'd like me to take care of the chickens when we are on vacation. I told her about other neighbor going to do it, but that I would love it if she could do the watering for my patio flowers. I'm sure she won't mind. She loves gardening and it's only just the flowers that are in pots or hanging at both front and back patios. Everything else is either hit by the sprinklers or on a drip line to get water. The ones in front we have one of those coily types of hoses on a long wand and it reaches the hanging pots and everything in pots on the ground easily. For the back she'll just have to fill up a watering bucket from the back spigot by the chicken coop and water with that. It shouldn't take her more than 10 minutes a day.

At least it's finally Friday. Busy work day. Payroll to do and also the monthly state business tax return. Another more complicated payroll as we have 2 out on maternity/paternity leave and two new hires who weren't set up right by my boss, LOL. She always forgets that part when setting up a new employee.

Complaints and fixes

I had sent an email with a picture to the company we bought our two maple trees last fall from. They are only growing a bunch of leaves on the bottom of the trees, at the ground. The rest on up has nothing and looks almost dead. They replied that those ones growing on the bottom are called "suckers". They need to be pruned off, as they are stealing the nutrients from going up the tree to the top branches. So, dh did that today. A pain in the butt, as he has wire around the trees (to keep the deer out) so had to cut the wires holding the wire fencing so he could get to the trees. That took longer than snipping off the suckers. Hopefully now the trees will survive and grow like they are supposed to.

I got my sisters US tax returns done and emailed to her. I just got her FBAR info from her yesterday so still need to get that filed. 

I learned something new yesterday. A "how to fix".  Every time my mom tries to get on her online banking to see what her balance is, she has to call me. I try and try to tell her again user name and where to enter it. For some reason our bank will not save/remember the user name. We can save the password and it will auto fill in *****, but not the user name, so she either has to type it in or when you click in the box where you enter it, it will show up in a pop up box. Every time I think I get her to enter it, she then is getting a message that they need to text or call her a code to access. Not even going there with her on the phone, LOL.

So, when I was there on Saturday I tried to log in her bank to see if we really need to get a code sent to us, and if so I can take care of it with her phone (that doesn't get texts now) for her. She has probably 10 incorrect login names that come up in the drop down, all the one's she's apparently tried to enter. I tried to figure out how to delete all those, but couldn't easily figure it out. I chose the correct login and it worked fine. I googled how to do that and got the answer. I tested it out on a couple of my websites where more than one log in pops up and I was able to delete them. Yay. So next Tuesday I will get all those deleted and just leave the one correct login name to pop up for her. Hopefully that might make things a bit easier the next time she calls me and wants to get online with her checking account. Well, probably not, LOL, but at least I know now what's causing her to get the message that they want to send her a text or call code, it's because she's entering her user id wrong and hitting enter.

The 35" wagon wheels I ordered from Tractor Supply finally got delivered late yesterday. DH met the truck out at the gate, he comes walking back with 2 wagon wheels in his hands. I'm like that's how they were shipped?? No box or packaging?? Nope. What in the hell? So, of course, one is missing part of the middle piece that 1) holds the spokes together and 2) is decorative. Both are scratched up. I paid $92 in shipping for them to be shipped like this?

I just called Tractor Supply to put in a complaint. The lady was very nice and offered to send a replacement order, if I'd like that. I said well, that would be great as long as they are not shipped the same way! She said it looks like this was shipped out of one of their distribution centers and she will put in a note that this replacement order needs to be packaged and also let them know they should have packaged this order and what happened. She is sending me an email where I  can reply with pictures of the wheels and she also just credited me half, $46 of the shipping. 

One of our employees, who has been with us for 8 years, is leaving to pursue something outside of our industry. Bummer. And then they just recently let go one in her department, so that's going to be hard for this department for awhile, being shorthanded and/or new employees. It would be interesting to know more details about why she is leaving. I might message my boss just to say bummer about her leaving and see if she offers any details. She probably won't, haha. More money? an opportunity to work from home (they are going back to office next week) full time? I also wonder if no raise in over 2 years now has any part of the decision. The owners and managers can weather the rising inflation well, they all got their annual increases the past 2 years.....but I would think if she had said she took a job offer for more money our company certainly would have offered her a raise to keep her on. She was good at her job.

One of my jeans I ordered from Kohl's came last night. The darker pair. The shorter length seems to be just about right, as long as it doesn't shrink any. I don't think the regular length pair I have has shrunk, so should be good. I also received the box of 48 birthday cards I got for $2. Figured just a small comparable gift card in the store is 2 bucks, just for one, so this is a great deal and they are nice. I also got the fake lavender plant from Kohl's. It's ok, but I sure wouldn't have paid $40 regular price for it. LOL.

The drip lines dh ran into each whiskey barrel planter are working great. No hand watering and they flowers are looking great. 

Wow, it's going to be so hot next week. Thank goodness we have a/c. It makes life so much more comfortable, especially for sleeping. And I never have to listen to dh complain about the heat again, LOL.

Grump day

Boy, I had a grumpy annoying morning/day yesterday. It started out with that damn robin bird banging on the windows at 6:45 or so. He even was hitting the bedroom windows, which he usually doesn't do.  Then at 8am - for at least 3 hours - it was the neighbor dogs barking their brains out at the yard workers at their house. And I guess they didn't get the job finished, so will most likely be back at 8am this morning, so we'll be listening to that again. I guess the guy doing their sprinkler system add on told Mr and DH that he just cannot find employees to hire, so the reason Mr. had to wait this long to get it done was the guy had to wait until school was out and hired high school students to work the summer.

Let's see, what else....oh, I called Tractor Supply. Was on hold 20 minutes before finally getting to a customer service person. She put me on hold and called the freight company and said they are going to try to redeliver tomorrow. "apparently you are rural". I said no, we really aren't. We are a town right on the major interstate freeway, at the beginning of their route. Their route is "rural" as they go to small towns north of us 3 hours away, on a windy 2 lane highway. Then they run out of time/driver hours and leave us hanging again.

Then I got the notice for jury duty with a form to fill out. They sure do want a lot of personal information about me. What my education is, where I work, my occupation, am I related to an attorney and if so their name and address. Wonder if being related to one is a reason to not want a person as a juror. If so, I listed my (step) sister in law, haha. She is partner in a law firm and also a pro tem judge.

The topper was the reply from cabinet lady. Here's what I said in the email: just checking on our cabinet install again, as it's now been 5 weeks since the last update. We'd like to get this scheduled, please.

Here's her reply:

Sorry, I have never thought we would be in this situation.

Don’t get me wrong…I’m glad we are busy! It’s definitely better than the alternative.

That being said, the guys are working overtime to try to keep up with the demand. We haven’t been able to get a slot in their schedule.

As things are going, I can’t tell you when that might be. You are more than welcome to come pick up your cabinet anytime. 

I feel like telling her to take her cabinet and shove it up her.........(we have not paid for it yet). How about you just schedule a time for it to be installed, just like you are doing with every other job you get?

DH got the call in the afternoon from the Ford dealer that his part was in, so he drove up there to pick it up and was gone about 2 1/2 hours. All worked good on his pickup, so he must have done the upgrade right. He said he got better gas mileage, too.

Then I get an email from LampsPlus that my birdie lamp ship date has been delayed again. Wait, I thought it shipped later last week? I swear I saw on the order status it said shipped and I know I then saw the charge on my credit card online and was so happy. Now it's showing as not shipped and the charge is gone from my card. I give up. Wish there was some other company to buy this lamp from. Usually stuff like that is available at more than one store, but I can't find it anywhere. Every time I look at their website it says they have it in stock, ships in 1-2 days. Weird.

I was texting with my sister in Canada and told her I got the free weeks trial to Apple TV and watched that Palmer movie she recommended and i asked if there was anything else good on there to watch, while I have the free week. She said Defending Jacob is good, so I started that. An 8 episode mini-series. It's really good and I still have a few episodes to finish it up. When I started watching I'm like what have I seen this lady in before? she looks so familiar. I finally had to look her up. She was in Downton Abbey, LOL.  

I ordered one of those dough bowl candles from an Etsy seller. I picked "pumpkin bread" scent. It's really a cute candle but wooo, the scent is strong. I does smell exactly like pumpkin bread. I can't believe dh hasn't asked "what's that smell?" I swear he can smell like a dog.

Well, so far there has been nothing going on to annoy me today, LOL. Bring it on! :)

 

 

All in one day

I have to take my mom to her annual check up next Tuesday at 10am. I know the dr will want blood work done. They can do that at that office, if fasted, but that's too long for her to go without eating from the night before. Their clinic with the lab is just a few blocks from my mom's place. It's walk-in for blood draw. So, I'm going to pick her up at 8 to get the blood draw done there. This same place is also where I get my mammogram done, that I am due for. It's also walk in for that, but they do take appointments. I learned my first year living here to make the appointment, LOL. I drove the 55 miles (this was when we lived in town, so 10 miles farther) to get there right when they opened and was told they were booked until afternoon. So, I called yesterday morning to see if I could make an appointment for next Tuesday morning. They start mammograms at 9am. He said wide open, just come on in, it's walk in. I said no, I'm coming almost an hours drive, I need an appointment. After we get my mom's blood drawn, I'll get her something to eat, while we wait until 9 for my appointment. Then after that, we'll drive down a few miles to the office where she has her dr. appointment at 10am. I haven't heard back from the lawyers office about my mom's will (they said about 2 weeks) but I'm going to email them today and see if they can have that ready to pick up/sign after her dr. appointment. Trying to get as much done in one trip, rather than 3 separate trips! If there's time between my mammogram and her 10am appointment I'm also swinging through the car wash, LOL. 

DH is waiting to hear from a Ford Dealer, about a part he's waiting to come in and go pick up. It's in the town where we took the dog to the vet. They have a small Ford dealership and dh has been trying to find a hose clamp for his exhaust to replace the original one. They finally figured out which part and it's supposed to be in any day. He has the old clamp on now, but wants a new one that isn't 20+ years old. He also figured this hour drive in his pickup each way will be a good test drive to make sure all the stuff he did to it works ok. The guy thought it would be in last Friday but he called and said it wasn't, so probably Monday, but he didn't call yesterday either. He joked with dh that FedEx is really reliable....between 10am and 3pm LOL. I have a feeling he'll probably call today and say it's in. It will get dh out of the house for a couple hours.

My grandma used to have a box of greeting cards on hand, so she could get greetings mailed without needing to go to the store for a card (she didn't drive). When mom and I were at Target we picked up a birthday card to send DD's dh, from her. I hate standing there trying to look at cards. Always have. When I got home to put the check in it for him and mail it for her, I thought of those box of cards and that's what I need. I found some on Amazon for $12.99 for 48 birthday cards. I decided just to do birthday as I probably wouldn't need all those other occasions much. There was a $1 off online coupon box to check, and it qualified for the $10 off small business discount for Prime members. DD didn't have anything she wanted to use the $10 off on, so I used it and got the cards for $1.99. 

After all this time it sounds like Mr Shooter guy started up again. DH said it wasn't as loud, so either he's shooting something different or he did make some changes to mitigate the sound. Even so, dh was bummed that he's at it again. I used to be able to hear it from my office (I sit next to the window) but I couldn't hear it inside this time.

I have USPS informed delivery. Just got my morning email of what's coming in the mail today. Looks like I'm on jury duty again, LOL. It's a 2 year thing, but nothing ever goes to court much here, requiring a jury trial. I was on it during our build, but never had to do anything. Seems like it should be dh's turn again, LOL. He's only been called once in the almost 5 years we've lived here.

That dang bird who hits our windows was at it before it was time to get up this morning, so I was awake and up earlier. I hate that bird. LOL. He seemed to be doing it less lately, but dh washed all the lower floor and back windows Sunday, so I guess he can see himself better, haha. 

I think neighbors are having their sprinkler system added on to today. I hear all the dogs barking like crazy. Of course they get a contractor that actually starts at 8am...LOL...dh usually sleeps until 8:30 (usually goes to bed around 12:30 or 1am). Eventually they will settle down and stop barking, but obviously Mr. isn't home or he'd have them inside. This is to water the lawn they planted on the other side of our fence. They've been watering with sprinklers to keep it green. It looks really nice this summer (they planted last summer) and is a good compliment to our green lawn on the other side of the fence. When Mr was first deciding to add on to his sprinkler system he was asking dh some questions (he really doesn't know anything about it) and dh is like "oh, just tie into our system for this part of the lawn, then they don't have to go under your driveway....". I nixed that idea! Geez Louise. That's just years of wear and tear on our well pump having to operate more. Let alone, if some day we did sell this place "oh by the way, you water the neighbors side yard, too". Ya....NO. LOL.

 My poor mom doesn't remember we went to the store 2 days ago and she got a bunch of stuff. I called her (yesterday afternoon) and she said she went to the store today with her guy friend. Said she can always use a few things, like Tylenol, so she got some. Ummm...she just bought Advil 2 days ago. I hope hope hope she didn't buy Tylenol PM! I will check when I see her next Tuesday and make sure it's just regular Tylenol. That's all I'd need is for her to get those again. She hasn't had a bad morning in almost a year now, since going off those pm type pills. That's what was obviously causing her problems several mornings a week where she "just didn't feel good" for 2-3 hours after getting up. I'm hoping she just doesn't even remember that there is such a thing as Tylenol PM anymore. She didn't remember about her Nature Valley granola bars she was always buying/eating until recently.

I still have nothing to read. So, I've been watching movies, either on the tv or my ipad. DH has been on his computer most nights, watching a bunch of racing. It's summer, so lots of racing going on, even weeknights. He subscribes to 2 different "channels" to seems to always have something to watch. I don't mind paying for it for a few months during the summer for him. We don't pay for any other tv service, since we get our YouTubeTV through dd's account. So, let's see, I've watched Cocoon. Serendipity. She's All That. Definitely, Maybe. My sister said she has Apple TV and the new movie they have called Palmer with Justin Timberlake was really good, so I signed up for a free weeks trial so I could watch it. It was really good.

Other items to do today: call Tractor Supply customer service and complain that the $92 shipping I paid for and it still has not been delivered. Email cabinet lady.....(it's been 5 weeks since she last (again) told me "next week").

Social security figures

One of the things on the back of my mind, as dh and I get older and on the backstretch to retirement age is when dh should start taking his social security. Since he doesn't work, starting at age 62 would be nice additional income to us. But, should he wait until he's older and get a higher amount? Should he wait until I start collecting and then take a benefit equal to half mine? We still have over 4 years to figure this out, but I did do some basic calculations. Taking at 62 is a lower benefit amount, but it's also 5 years of income he wouldn't get, if he waits until 67. What's the break even age? I did the calculations and his break even age is 79. Well dang. That's pretty old. He'd only start to earn more at that age than he's already earned, in total, if he started taking at 62 vs 67. Honestly, with his health, diet, and aversion to doctors, I'd be surprised if he makes much over that age and even if he does, by then he's probably not got very many more years, just to earn another $4000 or so per year. By then he'll probably be in nursing care/medicaid anyway.

I haven't calculated him waiting until I retire and start taking social security. My plan, barring any health issues, is to work until I'm 70. That will be next to figure out, but for now, just based on his social security numbers I would probably just have him start at 62. That extra income might help to get me to be able to retire maybe a couple years earlier than 70 (by paying off our mortgage sooner). I'll have to work on some figures. I can't remember what my amounts are at 67 and 70, his might already be equivalent to about half, so then it doesn't matter.

Linda/moreparsimony - you will be as happy as I am to know that birdie lamp for my desk finally shipped! Only took 6 months. 

I'm hoping we get the wagon wheels for the wood bridge delivered this week. If not, I'm calling Tractor Supply customer service to complain. I paid $92 for shipping these and they are just sitting at the delivery place, or get loaded on their truck and don't get delivered because the driver runs out of hours. The lady at the delivery place told me I can pick them up there, if I want. No thank you. I paid $92 for delivery. I'm not driving 100 miles round trip to get them, unless they want to credit me for my shipping charge. They shipped them on 5/26!!

Never good enough

I got to my mom's place to pick her up just in time before getting stuck in a car show drive by, LOL. For Father's Day a local car club or two had set up a drive through the retirement places. By the time we got back from Target, it had passed through. She had a list of things she wanted at Target. Funny how she has always bought Nature Valley granola bars, but didn't have them on her list and when we were passing them in the aisle and I asked her she didn't seem to remember them. But, she bought some cookies and some small bite sized chocolates. She also bought some milk and OJ and some instant oatmeal packets. I think that now that she is required to go to the dining room if she wants breakfast, she more often prefers just to have something in her apartment that early. Sounds like she still somewhat has her guy friend, though yesterday she said is name wrong, a different name starting with same letter, LOL. The last thing on my list to get was more "chip clips". I stopped at the wall of kitchen utensils and told her I was looking for chip clips. She had no idea what those are (though she always had them too). I said clips to hold potato chip bags closed. She still had a totally blank look on her face. Interesting what the mind remembers and doesn't.

Her apartment is so warm! She'll turn on the a/c, but 2 minutes later she says it's too cold. I spent about an hour there and way too warm. I told DD that when she comes in a few weeks we'll either have to take grandma out in the common sitting area to visit or take her for coffee or something. We'll die trying to sit in her apartment for 2 hours. Or we need to wear shorts and tank tops.

I was using her bathroom and snooping in her medicine cabinet and drawers. I know she had gone with her guy friend to Walgreens a couple weeks earlier (saw the charge on her debit card) and wanted to make sure she didn't buy something like those Advil PM'S. Up in her medicine cabinet she had like 3 rolls of TP that have just a little bit left on each. Wonder what the thinking is there. And then as we are putting her milk and OJ in her little fridge I see back in the corner is a can of comet cleaner with bleach, with some foil covering the top. I'm like what is this doing in your fridge? Let's put this down below your sink. She said she didn't know, she thought the cleaning ladies put it there. I'm like well, they use their own cleaners, I'm sure.  Strange.  And since before, when she could drive/shop and lived in her home and then the first retirement apartment, she never threw away any store receipt. She'd put them in her desk drawer, paper clipped together (why, I have no idea), so of course I found her Walgreens receipt from 2 weeks ago, so I took it and was able to see what she bought and make sure it didn't include any OTC stuff she doesn't need or that might not be good for her (there wasn't).

And then I was looking at her meds and filling up for the week and suddenly remembered I just ordered her refills not too long ago...where are they?? Then I started doubting myself, maybe I didn't order them. I just got online to check and shows they were in her mailbox on 6/5. So, where the heck are the 3 bottles? I didn't see them in the bathroom. So, when I go back on the 29th to take her to the dr. I'm going to have to do a good search.

It's been raining this morning, which is nice to get everything watered by nature. I got a text from my young neighbor yesterday afternoon. She wanted to know if the next time I clean out my chicken coop she could come down with her wheelbarrow and help me and she'll take it all for her composting bin. I said sure! And then I asked if she'd mind being a chicken mom for a week while we go on vacation and she said no problem. So, I'll clean it out next weekend and then show her how the watering feeder works, where the water spigot is, etc.

It's kind of too bad, though, that it's raining. DH probably won't be able to mow and keep busy with something today. I'm sure he'll be a grump, as Father's Day is just a reminder of his dad not alive now, our son and lack of relationship and of course nothing dd does to acknowledge him will be good enough. She's already sent a card/gift and of course will call him. But, I get to hear how he expects her to be here for every little occasion. Our neighbors kids live out of state (one lives near dd) and I have numerous times pointed out to dh that their kids are never there for Thanksgiving or Christmas, Mother's Day, Fathers Day...I have not, in knowing them the past 5 holiday seasons ever seen them not alone for Thanksgiving or Christmas, though one year Mrs. flew to Texas for Christmas and Mr. stayed home. Now he's mad that I set it up for her to come and take our dog home with her and we'll meet about half way after we get back to pick him up. It was HIS idea! Well, apparently when I told him she was coming for 4 days, but would have to bring her laptop to work Thursday, he decided if she can work from here one day that she can just come here for 10 days and stay/housesit/dogsit while we are gone. I said well I throw the idea by her....which of course she did not want to do. She doesn't want to be gone from her home and her hubby for 10 or more days and I certainly don't blame her. But he acts (to me) like she owes us this. Then complains some more about having to go 3 hours to pick up the dog the weekend after we get back. I said well, then I'll just do it. He's also now got a pinched nerve in his back, so that's not helping his mood whatsoever. But, he also won't try to do something to alleviate it and get it back to not hurting.

Well, since I was gone half the day yesterday, I guess I'd better get some house cleaning done today. This wet ground might be a good time to pull some weeds out of my wild flower area beneath a tree in the backyard.

 

One good hair day

Our neighbors were having those leaf guard gutters installed yesterday. Dh was chatting with the install guy awhile. Dh decided he doesn't think he'd want those. We'd only need them on the backside of the house, where there are trees dropping needles, but everything that normally falls into the regular gutters (needles, leaves, sand from the roofing material, etc) would then just run off the guards and fall to our patio and lawn and have to always be cleaned up. DH said he would rather just clean out the gutters a couple times a year. Maybe when we get neighbors age, he'll change his mind, LOL.

Awhile back I managed to do a halfway decent job of cutting some layers into my hair. My hair just seems to keep getting curlier and curlier and most days the curl is on the frizzy side. I've tried different conditioners and leave ins, but nothing works very well. All one length just seems to poof and frizz out on the bottom. Especially in the back. In my attempt to look somewhat more presentable, every so often, I've been using the curling iron on it. Much better.

At least now I know I can make it look a little better, when I feel like it, LOL.

I have been eyeing/wanting a pumpkin/cinnamon/rust colored duvet cover for awhile now.  I can't remember where I saw a picture of bedding with that color on it now, but I fell in love with it and have been looking for something similar since. I almost bought one that was like $200 - just for the dang duvet cover, but I'm like no, I can find something very similar for much less. I found quite a few that color on Amazon and good prices, but the material wasn't what I really wanted. I didn't want jersey knit or anything that was kind of a smooth satin look. I wanted more the "stone washed" "linen" "rumpled" look of cotton. I found one for $102 for king sized. They were also offering 10% off plus I had a $3 gift card code to use from my Verizon UP rewards, so I ordered it. Bedding ALWAYS looks better in the pictures then it ever has looked on my bed....and I'm sure I'll even be disappointed a bit with this one. But, I also only ever spent like $30-40 on my duvet covers in the past, so maybe this bump up in price will be something a little better quality. What I really need to do is get 3 matching pillow cases, LOL. We both use standard size pillow, but dh uses 2, so there 3 that go across the bed and his 2 have different pillow case than mine. Once I get this new duvet cover I'll see what color pillow cases I want and get some that are all the same.

Heading out in an a hour to go see my mom, pick her up and we'll go to Target, then back to her apartment until it's time for her lunch and then I'll go pick up (hopefully!) my grocery order.

Trying to online shop today

Don't you  hate it when you get part of a blog post typed out and somehow it disappears?! I'm glad it doesn't happen too often, but somehow I got distracted to do something else in the middle of it and lost it.

Let's see if I can remember what I said, haha! We received our property tax assessment notice in the mail. It shows going up $13,000 or so, like dh saw online. I had estimated the taxes to go up about $120, but they are showing only going up $63. The strange part is just the day before dh had looked at the state's property website and all those new assessed values had been removed. I saw, with my new mortgage lender, on my online account in the payment section I also have the option of making additional payments to the escrow balance. I think I'll do that before November. Then when they do the annual adjustment I won't have to play catch up for that amount.

I've had a cart of items with Kohl's all week, still not pulling the trigger, LOL. I have a 30% off coupon, as well as $5 Kohl's cash. I wanted some more of those jeans I bought, so picked out 2 other colors/washes, but decided to get them in 6 short, as the mediums are a bit long, so short will probably be just right. Then I added a couple more tshirts, that end up only being $5.60. Then I decided to take a look through their clerance items. Sometimes I find nice decor type stuff. Next thing you know I am up to almost $250. There was a fake plant/lavender for $11 (reg 40). I found 2 framed art, one with bear, one with buffalo I liked. I still have 2 walls in each guest bedroom that need something. They were regularly $110, for $42 after discounts. I've been wanting some cheap dark blue melamine set of plates for the outdoor dining. I don't want a whole set of other dishes and they had just 4 plates that came to $13, which seems like a good price. And I've been looking for quite awhile for some kind of large rustic looking vase to set on the fireplace hearth, but everything that big is so expensive. This one will be $40, reg. $96. By then I'm $14 short of earning another $10 in Kohl's cash. I might as well add something for $14 to get $10 back...right? LOL. I added some decaf k-cup coffee. Because lately I've been having a coffee craving later in they day and I can't have more than one cup of coffee in my system a day. So, I still need to pull the trigger and actually order all this....I just wanted the jeans, LOL. But, it will also be really nice to add 4 pieces of decor that I need for good prices and I can stop spending time searching for those. Boy, they sure don't give you long to use that Kohl's cash earned. It says it will only be good from 6/21 to 6/24. Seems like they used to give you a week or two to use it. Then I goofed up and chose my credit card as payment instead of my Kohl's charge card and it removed the 30% off, so I had to go back and change that.

DD and I are trying to plan her few days here next month. Thursday we'll be working, at least until mid afternoon. I think Friday we'll try to plan something to do with DH. Take a drive or a little hike somewhere. There's been these 2 small lakes we hiked to several years ago I'd love to go back to. Or there is a hike above the edge of town that overlooks the whole town that is nice to do, too. Figured if we do that on Friday, probably less people out there than on Saturday. Saturday we'll go see my mom. DD and I like to "window shop" so I asked her if she'd like to do regular stores or maybe do antique type shopping. She said antique and she'd also like to stop in that used bookstore near us, again. I said me too, I haven't been in there since we last went in there together a few years ago. I found an antique mall in the city, so we can go look around there Saturday and stop at the bookstore on the way home. I think I'll save my $50 TJ Maxx gift card she got me, and we can stop there and see what I can find to spend it on.

Ok, trying to get my Walmart grocery pick up order placed. Their website is a mess! First off I noticed it looked a bit different. They had a "reorder items" button, which at first I'm like this is nice. It basically put in my cart all the items I regularly order all at once. A time saver. I deleted a few items I didn't need. Then I realized as I'm adding other items that now the "pick up" and "shipping" are all combined into one search now. You have to pay attention to make sure it's something you can pick up. Like I don't want 3 jars of pizza sauce shipped to me and have to pay shipping! Nor do I want to pay $27 for 3 small jars of pizza sauce! I had reserved my time at my store (which has always been saved as my store I use). When I went to check out it asked me what my shipping address is (it had mine and my mom's saved, because one time I ordered something for her to be shipped to her apartment). I picked mine. Then it asked my time to pick up (again) and the store it was showing was in Arkansas! The it outed me a whole bunch of items. I went back to the first screen to change my store and re-add all the items it outed me. Then I tried to check out again and it kept changing my pick up store to Arkansas and outing me. Finally, it worked at my store (I hope! geez!) but pretty much outed me all my bread items and a few other items. It wanted to ship me the pizza sauce, so I had to delete that. What a mess. I'll be surprised if there is even an order to pick up tomorrow at noon.

Thursday this and that

We received our annual property tax notice yesterday. Our assessed value went up $13000, which I would have estimated our taxes to go up about $120 a year, but they are only going up $63. It is strange though, that dh went back to the state property tax website and all those new assessed values he had seen were all removed now. I also noticed, when looking at my new mortgage account online, that they have a section of the payment screen where you can also add a payment to escrow, if you want. I think I will add that $63 sometime before the first half of the increased property taxes are due in November. Might as well cover the shortage, rather than have to cover it via the monthly payment, when they do the escrow adjustment.

Mrs. Neighbors peonies are big and blooming, so she gave me handful of some she cut, to put in a vase. I'm still waiting for the 2 buds on my 2 small peonies to bloom, LOL. I can only hope one day mine are as big and as many blooms as she gets and I can cut the flowers for vases. Hey, at least they lived through to this year and are getting bigger and look like they will have a few flowers on them at some point, haha.

My back is still a bit out of sorts, but just a tiny bit. Now it's my left knee! LOL. I've had that happen before, most often when I used to work in the office and for no reason I'd be going down the stairs to the first floor and one of my knees would bother me every so often. Day before yesterday I walked down the stone steps dh built into the rockery. Then when I was going down the steps in side the house it started bothering me. I went to ride my bike to the mailbox yesterday and it was hurting. Last night I was bending it back and forth and sounds like gravel in my knee. I hate getting old.

It sure is easier just having my mom's checkbook. I can only imagine how far behind she would be recording transactions by now. Her checking is linked to mine so I see hers when I log in each morning to look at mine. I was able to see her Verizon payment posted today and record that quickly. I'll also be able to mail out a check from her to dd's husband for his upcoming birthday, rather than wonder if she did...if she sent it twice or what. Just makes life easier this way.When I go in to see her Saturday we'll pick up a birthday card for him she can sign and we'll add the check to mail with it.

I'm working up a grocery list so I can make an order and pick up Saturday. It won't be super large, but tide me over until I'm back in the city on the 29th and can pick up more. Then I won't be back there until July 10th, most likely, when dd is in town and we go in to visit my mom for part of the day. I keep wanting something to snack on most days, but I don't know what! I walk in the pantry and there's nothing I want. The chips and trail mixes don't sound good (I rarely eat chips). I keep thinking tapioca pudding sounds good, but I don't want to use up 3 cups of my milk to make it, haha. Or any pudding. Maybe I'll make cupcakes or brownies.

DH did the work of figuring out where he wants to drive to each day and the motels he wants to stay at on the 3 nights trip to Texas, so at least I didn't have to do that. I just have to get them booked. I also decided it would probably be a good idea to add AAA roadside assistance. Plus, usually you can get discounts at motels with AAA.

Visits and meetings

The other day I was telling dd about friend wanting to come for a visit and she brought up that she and her dh needed to get over here for a visit. I said Yes you do! We haven't seen them since the end of last October. Usually their visits seem to be from us saying hey, when are you coming over next? But we haven't done that this year yet.....I decided to just keep my mouth shut and see how long it would be. I also usually get to make at least one visit over there each year (for work) and stay with them, but not in 2020. I'm hoping in December we are back to that office meeting and I can go visit them, too.

Then I said, throwing this idea out there....it would be great if she could come the weekend before we go to Texas, then take our dog home with her to babysit while we are gone. Then the weekend after we get back we can pull a page out of neighbors playbook, like they do with their son's dogs, and each drive halfway to meet up and get our dog back. She called yesterday and said that would work and it's actually going to be even a little better visit (for me anyway, haha). She's just going to come over by herself on the Wednesday and stay still Sunday morning. That way we can have several days with her and time to go see my mom, while still having some time for ourselves with her. She said she will probably have to work Thursday, so she will bring her work laptop and she can work from here that day. But, at least she'll be here. I'll just work Thursday, too, and we can be office buddies, LOL.

Her dh can't come because he will be at his parents for a few days that week, helping his dad, who is having his other hip replaced. Not really sure why he has to be there. I totally get why he took time off the first time, because his mom had to work and they wanted someone with him while she was at work, but she retired 6 months ago.

Last night we went to a community meeting regarding adding a rural volunteer fire station out in our area. At this time we may or may not fall into their 5 mile area. We are literally right on the cusp, depending where exactly they end up putting the station and the water source. Letters went out to all the residents in the area, about the meeting. Except in typical ineptness, none went out to those of us who might or might not be in it. The only reason we found out about it was through Mr. Neighbor, who heard about it through his job. All 3 of us homeowners on our street went to the meeting. We practically represented more than the people who actually live within the 5 miles showed up. A lot of things have to work out and align for this to happen, but they are working on it. Mostly they are going to need volunteer fire fighters, of course. Our young neighbor did sign up to volunteer. Of course, if we are in the 5 mile area, our property taxes will go up to fund this. But they are saying our insurance should go down, as we will be considered in a better rated area. Young neighbor wife did some calling to her insurance company (same one we use) and they told her she should be able to save a couple hundred a year, offsetting the $100 a year or so property tax increase. We'll see. It doesn't sound like something that is going to happen overnight, that's for sure. In the local newspaper article last week it said the property tax increase would be 1.6%. Last night the fire chief was now saying 2.6%. I'm sure when all is said and done it will be higher.

Just before we left I group texted the neighbors asking if anyone wanted to ride with us there (5 miles, haha) and young neighbor said he was driving himself so he could get out of there as soon as it was done and not get stuck talking to people. I replied "ie...(my)DH! LOL". Then Mr Neighbor replied he was driving himself, too. Annnnddd sure enough, dh and I were the very last to leave! Because he has to talk and talk. First we talked to the town fire chief. Then we talked to the lady who is the county fire warden for quite awhile. Then we (and by we I mean dh, haha) talked to the guy who is our state rep in the state capital. Anyway, it was good to get to know some more people in our area. We had heard of all these people, but never met. The lady who is the fire warden lives next to where we had the meeting. She said oh, I drive by your house all the time, watched while you were building, it's so beautiful, every time I drove by I wanted to see what the inside looks like. We both said stop by any time, LOL. She seemed really nice.

Towards the end of when we were chatting with her, her dh showed up. More chatting. I was thinking to myself she looks to be in her mid 60's, but he looks much younger (I knew it's her 2nd marriage), more like our age, or maybe a couple years older. When we got home, dh made the same comment, that her husband looks quite a bit younger than her. Well, snoopy me looked them up on Facebook. His page shows his birthdate. He is 69! Zaba search shows she is 66, just what I thought. Boy, he does not look 69 at all, LOL. We know her son, who did some work for us when we built, and he's got to be around 40 or so (turns out he's 45) so figured she was mid 60's.

Our automatic gate was having some problems last time we left. We usually wait to make sure it closes up behind us, but we did not (last Sunday) and then when we were trying to get it to close it started sounding an alarm, which was pretty loud and annoying. DH got it to stop and it would work ok, then he'd try it out and it wouldn't. Yesterday he thinks he figured out that with all our recent big rain we had the wood on the gate swelled up just enough and when the gate was opening it was actually hitting on the bracket and not quite opening all the way, so then it wasn't shutting because it thought there is an obstacle or something. He did some adjusting and testing and that seemed to fix it. When we left for the meeting we waited to make sure it shut ok and it did.

What in the world?!!

Ok, I feel like I am losing my mind with my new mortgage company! Someone is playing tricks on me! LOL. Remember I said how a few days after they transferred the mortgage from the first lender (who I refinanced with, completed late March), they somehow posted an additional $2070 payment towards my loan balance? I figured they are going to catch it and figure it out and reverse it. I have my own amortization spreadsheet, where I am recording my payments, tracking my payoff, so I know what it should be.

When they took over the loan from the first lender, I had made the 5/1 payment. On 5/5 is when they transferred it all over. They had my balance from the first lender correct (after making first payment and additional principal payment). They show on 5/5 posting the total they had transferred from the first lender for my Escrow account.  Then on 5/10 is when they did the 3 transactions for $2070, putting in and out and back in as a payment (this is the error), but these transactions are noted as related to Additional Principal, not Escrow. Then on 5/13 they reversed my escrow amount and then put it back in. It ended up correct, but why the reversed it and then put in back in, I don't know.

On 5/28 they posted my 6/1 payment, correctly, and also show the additional $600 I paid, correct. 

Since I saw this error of $2070, I have been checking back with my account online about once a week or so, to see if they reversed it. I just logged in and no they did not reverse it...........GET THIS.......They posted another "additional payment", dated 6/10, for the same amount of $2070!! Where is this coming from?! At this rate my mortgage will be paid off in 10 years! LOL. 

I'm just going to see how this goes for awhile, LOL....But, it sure has me confused and mind boggled.

PTO, iris's and friends

I forgot to mention this, but apparently I got another weeks vacation every year, when I hit my 15 year mark last year. Who knew?! LOL. God, I can't even manage to take what I earned before. Now, I'm up to almost 5 1/2 weeks a year. I discovered it when I was doing payroll last week and was looking to see if my new "benefits" I signed up for were added and I noticed my PTO accrual now said 9 hours per pay period. Wait, what?! LOL. I guess I knew that, from a few others hitting 15 years, but there are only a few who have been there longer than me, and that was a few years ago, so I forgot about it.

It was a really nice, if not a bit too warm, day yesterday. Thank goodness for indoor a/c! DH spent some time in the morning (while it was still pretty cool out) taking off the wheels and tires from his car trailer, so he can take them in to have the new tires mounted on them when they come in this week. He will put them back on the trailer himself, at least saving a few dollars. With what he has managed to get rid of lately in the garage (more of his wood pile) he was able to take the old T-bird off the trailer and park it in our garage. Not sure if that's going to be permanent or not. For now, the car trailer is parked outside (still an eyesore) until he gets the new tires. That leaves a huge open space in his shop, which is sure nice. I'm hoping that will nudge him to work towards getting rid of a lot of his crap in there, so he can have the nice USABLE shop he dreamed of. But, I doubt it. He will die still having all this crap and I'll have to figure out how to get rid of it all.

I did my (almost daily) walk around the property, seeing what's blooming and what's not and what doesn't look so good. Sadly, the little flowering plant I planted in honor of our dog and we put some of his ashes in the dirt when we planted it doesn't look good. It never has bloomed flowers. I gave it some miracle grow with water yesterday. And we have our first Iris bloom :) They are so pretty. Dh planted all the bulbs our neighbor gave us last fall here and there, all over, so happy surprises blooming everywhere, LOL 

I don't think the 2 maple trees I ordered online and we planted last fall are doing well. The only new growth is now at the bottom of the trees, which from what I read is not a good sign. I'm going to email the company, with pictures, and ask. 

I'll be asking our neighbor(s) to check on the chickens while we are gone for the 7-8 days next month. Yesterday I filled up the feeder completely to the top, just to see how long it will last. Usually I only dump in a pitcher full or two at a time and put more in every few days. So, I'm thinking/hoping if I fill it to the very top before we leave, it will last and one less thing neighbor will have to do. Water usually lasts at least a couple of days, so she should only have to refill that a few times. Other than that, just check for eggs every day, which I'm sure her 4 year old will enjoy.

After I went to bed, it got really windy outside. Then lightning and really loud thunder. Around 11pm our power went out, but only for about a half hour or so.  

A long time Facebook friend (the one who's hubby cheated on her and left her) would like to take a little trip and come visit us for a few days sometime in the near future. Hopefully, it works out that she can come. We have never met, but have been friends due to Facebook for many years now. I can't even remember how we met. I think dh got to know her hubby online through a racing message board and then FB friends and then we became friends. It would be so fun to have her here for a few days and show her around. She has never been in this part of the country. She's got a fun sense of humor. We have a great time joking on Facebook with her over the years.

Sunday

I finished up my sisters tax returns yesterday. Printed them all out so I could look them over that way to see if I missed anything or any typos. Corrected a couple spots I missed checking a box on a couple years and then reprinted those pages. Scanned them so they were a file for each year and emailed them to her this morning. I still need to figure out/do her FBAR online filing. It appears her accountant guy had to set her up with a user id and password to file, so she emailed him to ask. I'm still trying to figure out why he filed when she was under $10,000 bank account balance. So far, everything I've read says she does not need to file. If I'm right, then the only year we need to file for her to get caught back up is 2016. She was over $10k, for a bit during that year, because she sold her home.

I gave away 4 dozen eggs yesterday and still have over a dozen! Our retired friend stopped by to say hello. He'd been on vacation a couple weeks, so we hadn't seen him in awhile. I gave him 2 dozen and then I texted young neighbor down the street. She walked down yesterday with the kids. Baby in a front carrier. I had not met baby yet! She is so cute. Almost 6 months old now.

I didn't want to over do it on my back, so I just vacuumed downstairs yesterday. Most of that is hard flooring so easy to push the vacuum around. I washed a load of my clothes. I made my favorite 4 cheese and bacon mac and cheese for dinner. And ate too much! But, it's so good. Lots of leftovers, too. While dh did his usual weekend race watching on his computer, I watched "Serendipity" on tv. One of those movies I've seen a dozen times, but always cute.

My mom's days seem more filled now, I think, now that they are eating all 3 meals a day in the dining room, rather than in their rooms. Plus, it sounds like a lot of them get down there a bit early, so they all visit with each other. I don't mind skipping a day to call her now and then, now that she's got more activity going, people to talk to. Gives me a break every few days from the same conversation, haha.

I still have nothing released to read from my library waiting list, so I keep watching shows. Still watching "The White Queen" and I guess after that is "The White Princess".

I'm glad I recently bought a paper shredder. I can now shred all these tax return pages I printed out, that have sis's social security number all over them.

Let's call it reparations

The tax returns for my half sister were pretty easy, though we still don't know if she filed 2016 or not. Seems she got skipped a year. She can't find any docs for it, nor can her accountant. She tried to request transcript online and over the phone, with the IRS, but no luck, I'm guessing because she lives out of the U.S. So, she is requesting by mail. Or maybe we should just file it. She seems pretty organized and if she had filed it would have a copy.

The other part I don't have any familiarity with is her accountant filed an "FBAR" filing for her every year too, so I need to figure out how that works. Something to do with reporting she has a foreign bank account, but only if balance ever exceeds $10,000.

IRS tax forms are ridiculous. I had her 2017, and 2015 to see as an example. On that short and easy 1040 form there was spots to list your foreign address. In 2018 if you had a foreign mailing address, you had to fill out another form, just for that, to attach. Then 2019 it went back to like 2017. The form 2555-EZ to report her foreign earned income/exclusion changes every year, too. But for the most part it's just reporting her income, then showing it as a deduction to zero out her taxable income, so she doesn't owe the US anything (God knows she's already probably pays a bunch to Canada).

She is eligible for the US stimulus money. I was telling dd about that and she's like no offense, but that just doesn't seem right! I said I know. She's lived in Canada since a little kid and has never had to pay a dime in US taxes. I said I'm chalking it up as "reparations for having a really crappy U.S. Dad" LOL!! One that never paid her mom any child support, just like he never paid my mom.

It was sunny and warm yesterday so dh quickly got a lawn mowing in. Good thing, as it's back to rain, or at least it rained last night.

Last night dh watched some racing channel he subscribes to on his computer and I watched the season finale of Manifest. It was a 2 hour show and quite the cliffhanger. I read that NBC still hasn't renewed it for a season 4. I'm going to be really mad to have watched this show for 3 seasons and not find out what it is all about, LOL.

I'm still debating on a new ipad or ipad mini....or just get a kindle reader....I don't know. I have loved my ipad mini all these years, but it can barely do anything now, it's so old. I tried using my moms, but it's not much newer, though is better. But, still too old to like download some apps. But, I can get YoutubeTV on it, so sometimes use it to watch shows, when I don't want to turn on the big tv. I still use my ipad mini for reading ebooks from the library. and some for looking at Facebook while I'm chilling in the evenings, but half the time I look at my phone instead. It's like I have 3 devices, which is getting annoying. I have read that the kindle is best for just reading and best on the eyes. But, my ipads are too old now to update for many apps now.

Well, time to shower and do house cleaning.

Putting back on my tax preparer hat

I am finally making some time to help my half sister, living in Canada, get her past years un-filed tax returns done. I believe she will also be eligible to get the stimulus payments. She previously had an accountant in Canada do her returns for her. She sent me what she had, so I could see what forms are filed, etc. But she had 2015 and 2017. No 2016. She can't find it and she contacted her accountant and he can't find record of it either. Seems strange that he would have filed 2015 for her and when he went to do 2017 would have known he also needed to get 2016 filed. I am going to have her request transcripts online so she can see if 2016 was ever filed. For now, I'll get 2018-2020 done for her. It seems super easy to fill out and just 2 forms, to fill out. Basically just report her income, then put it on another line as excluded foreign income. Now, she just needs to get me her annual income for those years. This really shouldn't take too long to do for her, at all. I've got all the previous years forms downloaded from the IRS website and ready to input her info as soon as she gets it to me. (I'm not going to comment that she's lived in Canada since she was 10. Has never paid a dime of taxes to the US, but gets this tax stimulus/refund money, LOL)

I get to start my Friday morning out with software problems at work. Not how I wanted to start Friday off.  

DH has his pickup truck all done. Just needs to take it for a test drive. Probably today or tomorrow, as the rain seems to have stopped. He found the tires he was looking for the trailer. Only took half a dozen phone calls, LOL. When he was in town yesterday filling up the gas cans he stopped at the small town tire store. Closed, by appt only, but dh could see the guy inside while dh is at the door/window. Good grief. But he didn't answer or hear dh, I guess. So, dh tries to call when he gets back home and gets voicemail. Whoever he finally got through to and told what tire # he was looking for (not a common type) the guy kept laughing at him and telling him he was missing #'s, etc. DH was like no, I'm not. This is the tire number (DH worked in tires in a previous life, he wanted to say to the guy I was selling/changing tires before you were even born, LOL), it's even on their website. Finally, after the guy argues with dh some more, the guy says "huh, you are right and it shows I have 2 in stock, but I've never seen them before". DH needs 4, so they are getting ordered and will be in next week.

He was fiddling around a bit on our old 1986 T-bird that is in his shop. It's sitting up on the car trailer (because there is no room to park it on the floor, LOL). He thought something was leaking on it but he needed to watch it starting under the hood while being turned on. So, I had to climb up on the fender of the trailer and then crawl through the window. I am getting too old for this! LOL. At first it didn't start. But 2nd try it started up, but no leak, so he doesn't  know. Then this morning I see he sent me a link to order 2 DIY parts kits to fix the windows going up and down. It's the gears needing replaced and $50 total. Hopefully, he can just work on it a bit here and there and get the things fixed on it that need fixing, as he feels like it. We bought that car new (our first new car) back in 1986 and put a ton of miles on that thing. It's still in pretty good shape. 

Boy, I feel tired this morning. I think I slept good, but I feel like I could crawl back in bed and be right asleep...if only I could. I shouldn't feel this sleepy. I did have my morning cup of coffee, but I guess that's been almost 2 hours ago now. IT dept just called and fixed the software issue, so that is good to have that problem out of the way.

I still have 2 months left on my 6 month Starz subscription. I finally finished watching Outlander season 5 and now started on the White Queen, recommended by my sister. Since I still have nothing to read, I can get these watched in the evenings instead of reading. I had signed up for the 6 months back in Feb, intending to watch these shows and then had a bunch of series books I was hooked on and kind of forgot about watching these shows. And since there are now no weekly evening tv shows to watch (I was watching The Voice and Young Sheldon) I should have some time to watch the Starz shows.

Well, I hear dh up and about finally, so I'm going to go take a quick break and shower and get dressed. I usually just wait until after he gets up, so I'm not making a bunch of noise while he's still sleeping. Then I'll get back to work and see what I can get accomplished today.

That's a lot of rain

I was awake at 6:30 this morning (get up at 7) and then fell back asleep...until 7:43. Ooops! I don't usually do that, at all. And I was totally dreaming then. Some dream about work, but it wasn't where I work now, bigger company and a boss lady who had ADD or something, LOL. I couldn't get her to sit still and tell me what she wanted to talk to me about, or I kept having questions about a report and she couldn't focus to explain it to me. Thank God that's not real life, haha.

We're getting a deluge of rain. Over an inch since yesterday. At least no thunder and lightning to knock power out. I didn't need that happening this morning before I got payroll submitted!

DH is driving me nuts. He can't just go about his own business and ignore stuff. And then add onto that he constantly worries what other people (people he barely knows or doesn't even know) think. Now his latest is something to do with re-annexing our fire district out here where we live. Really, who cares. They are going to do what they want with it and whether they do or don't we're still going to have a good 30 minute wait for help to arrive, so whatever. Whatever property taxes we are paying towards fire service would just shift to that district, so probably not really an increase in taxes, like he's thinking (and if it is in addition, it's about $90 a year.) Not to mention, as of now they are saying where we live will be outside of that new district, even if they do create it, so it affects us zero. And then he just makes himself unhappy paying attention to all this. When we first moved here he was watching the weekly county council meetings online, so he could learn what was going on, who was who, I guess. I think they stopped recording them for quite awhile, but they are now again, so he watches again and just complains about this or that. Then he's all in a fit last night that if they opened this new volunteer fire station out here in our area, they'd expect him to volunteer and think he's a jerk because he would (have to) say no. I'm like who the F--- cares what any of them think?! Geez Louise. Even if he was able bodied to do something like being a fireman (he's not) doesn't mean he would have to say yes, even if he could do it. He is constantly so worried about what others think of him. I'm like I could care less and he's like well, they don't look at you that way, they do it to me...and I'm like that's because YOU LET THEM! He's been that way his whole life, so not going to change. The county council, town council and the other powers that be have all been doing their stuff, making decisions, good or bad, for years before we ever moved here, LOL. Us being here makes no difference and I'm not going to sit there and watch weekly council meetings online and get upset about this or that or speculate what is really going on...which his what he likes to do. I would hate to live in his head. It must be exhausting.

Then, because Mr. Neighbor mentioned that over half our property taxes we pay is going to the 3 school districts (which are kind of crappy here) dh wanted to see our property tax breakdown. I haven't gotten one yet this year, and not sure what I did with last years....but then this morning I remembered I filed it in the folder with my income tax stuff for the year, since that's part of the itemized deductions. I see the school district gets 70% of the property tax revenue in this county.

Payroll is done today and was pretty easy. At least I'm  having more easy one's than hard ones now.  DH just ran into town to fill up the gas cans for the lawn mowers. Might as well do it now before gas prices go up even more. Now, he's trying to find new tires for our car trailer, because the one's on it are getting a bit old and he doesn't want to drive 1800 miles each way and take a chance. Then he complains about how much this "favor" for friend''s wife is costing. Then he says friends wife said she wanted to give him some money to reimburse for bringing the car down there, and he told her no. So, then don't complain about how much it will cost! I'm honestly hoping he just decides to go down there by himself. He never heard back from "loud friend" about possibly riding down there with him, which either way he is fine with. If we both end up going, neighbors offered to keep our dog (their sons 2 dogs will be going back home before that), but knowing dh he won't want to do that either. I'm just letting him figure it all out.

 

Rainy day Wednesday

When I called my mom about 10 minutes before her investment guy was to call, she had remembered and was waiting for the call, so that was good. It was a little longer call than usual for the quarterly update. He usually has "suggestions" of some of her stocks he wants to sell of and then several to purchase. Of course we always say ok, sounds good! LOL. Overall, he said they are feeling optimistic about the economy and investments, especially by around October, as we are finally getting out of Covid and businesses back to operating fully again.

DH got his pickup upgrade finished up last night, it sounds like. Ready for a test drive - only it's pouring rain, so he won't do it, LOL. He's already tired enough from it all, he won't want to have to wash the whole thing to put it back in the shop if he drives it out in the rain, LOL. It's supposed to rain most of today and all day tomorrow. I must say I was glad to wake up to the rain. I can take a break from watering flowers and plants while my back is still healing up.

It was nice sitting down to my cleaned up desk this morning. I still have a stack of papers to weed through, but at least they are all in one pile and off my desk (in an empty small bankers box now).

I made another Amazon order yesterday, but finally not truck parts, haha. I ordered dh's New Balance tennis shoes (he looks ridiculous walking around here with duct tape on his shoe, LOL) and ordered myself some new reusable keurig pods, where I can fill my own coffee. The ones I have are worn out and not letting the water flow through very well anymore. It comes in a pack of 4 and only $6. I don't remember them being that cheap when I bought them about 4 years ago. Those pods already filled with coffee are so much more expensive then just filling a reusable one up with my own coffee.

When I was getting ready for bed last night my dog followed me in. I straightened out the bed from him taking a nap on it earlier in the day, LOL. He always has to move the blanket off the end of the bed. Then I was playing with him a bit and he decided to get down on the floor and start doing some zoomies, but tried to go back out into the rest of the house, trying to run on hard floor. So, I had him go upstairs where it's all carpeting and we zoomied around a bit. He used to try to get our old dog to play like that, but he never would much. It was just good to see him feeling better. He's finally starting to eat without having to be encouraged and stand there with him. I honestly think it was just that he had never eaten alone before! I think he thought he was supposed to wait for the other dog before he could eat.

I have nothing to read! Every ebook I have tried to get through the library is a wait and nothing I've put on reserve has become available yet. So, I've been watching some shows. Trying to finish up Season 5 of Outlander now. I should re-read all those books! That would take awhile, LOL. Nah, don't think I'm in the mood for books that long. (though they are one of my most favorite book series)

We are now seeing the eagles back at the nest again, off and on. I wonder why they left it for so many months. I got this picture yesterday, of them both at the nest, through our telescope.

When I placed my big Walmart grocery pick up order last week (Thursday) it was for about $370 (final total to be adjusted for weight items), but they put a hold on my credit card for $429 to "make sure all funds are available when they put the final total through". Ok, I can understand that, but now the final total charge of $369 has been posted as completed, yet the $429 is still showing as a hold, so my credit card balance is more than double what it should be. It's been 7 days now, I think they could remove/release that dang hold by now! It's just annoying me to keep logging in and still seeing $429 as "pending".