Nothing much

I got to drive my new car again yesterday, haha. We don't go somewhere much all week, LOL. But, dh had called that repair shop on the other side of our town and the guy said to drop it off our old car and he'll take a look and see what needs to be done to fix the engine light. So, I had to follow dh over there in my new car. I still think it's zippy! haha.

Well, I'm 0-3 the last 3 mornings of my mom taking her meds at 7:30am. At least I have figured out I can reset/extend the time to alert her. The crazy thing is the whole reason I set it for 7:30 instead of 8:30 was because she had not been getting back to her apartment between 8:30 and 9:30 to take it. Now I'm setting it at 7:30 and then extending it another hour of notifications and she's back to taking it at 8:50am LOL. I'm just going to leave it at 8:50 for tomorrow and see what happens. Watch - she won't take it then!

I'm taking off work an hour early so we can go into the city to pick up some house maintenance stuff before the business closes at 5. DH replaces our furnace filter every April and October and we buy them from our HVAC guy. He also wanted to pick up some sprinkler system part from the guy who did our sprinkler system. So, yesterday I call our HVAC place and get a recording. I try back and still get the recording, so I leave a message that we want to pick up the filters at around 4:15 and just want to make sure they are still at the office then. The guys wife called me back and said they are actually down in Las Vegas for a trade show and no one is at the office, but they also own the small business next door and she will have them grab our filters and we can pick them up there and she'll just bill me when they get back. Ok, works for us. Then dh got a hold of the sprinkler guy (who dh has known since he was a kid) and he said they are leaving in the morning for Arizona, haha, but he will leave the parts by the office door (he has an office next to his house).

I also have a big grocery order to pick up at Walmart at 5pm. I didn't order the expensive organic milk I like. While I like it, I don't need it. It costs 3x what regular milk does per gallon. While doing my online order I also noticed I can order a case of 12 cans of canned chicken via shipping at a cost of $1.66 per can. To order from the store, for pick up, is $2.44 per can. Since I want quite a bit to stock up on (for that delicious enchilada recipe) I'm going to order the online case and save there. Walmart was also out of their cream of chicken soup, so since I need add some things to get my order over $35 for free shipping, I'll add some of that. The store brand cream soups are half what Campbell's cost and I can tell no difference in casseroles. The only thing I buy Campbell's is Tomato soup. But, I'll bet if I tried the Great value soup, it would be fine. I should try it. We eat a lot of tomato soup.

It's payday. Need to get online and pay my mortgage as well as pay off what I charged on my rewards credit card since the last paycheck. Also, our auto insurance 6 months premium is due. I'm glad I was able to get back to paying it every 6 months, rather than monthly. That saves, too. When we were building the house and my cash flow was severely whacked, I had to go monthly for about a year or so.

 

What do you say to rudeness?

I frequent a Facebook page group I am a member of, for decorating. I don't post myself very often, but have made like 3 posts over the past 6 months. My post showing the church pew I found at the antique store I see has over 1000 likes (I didn't even realize that). Mostly I just click like/love on others posts or comments and often will put in a comment, sometimes with a picture, if someone has asked to see what others have done. So far, in the time I have been on this group I haven't noticed anyone being rude.

So, yesterday a lady shows a picture of her master bath tub with a large window over it. She asked for suggestions on a window treatment, as it needs some privacy added. Lots of suggestions (including what I suggested). I said I used cafe style curtains and showed a picture of mine. Mind you, there were lots of comments, so easy for mine to get lost in it all. A couple people clicked like on my comment and another commented below it that she loved my tub area. I replied thank you! Then a lady comes in and says "those curtains look ridiculous". Ok.........LOL. Someone else clicked the "wow" emoji face on her comment. I said nothing for a couple hours. What do you say to someone like that? DD and I were having a good laugh messaging each other with ideas to say, haha. I know what my dh would say "what a bitch-a-rooney-dooney" LOL

I have never ever made a negative comment to anyone's posts or anyone's comments in someone's post. If someone posts something that is not my style, I just scroll on to the next post. Everyone is going to have different tastes and style, even within the same type of decor style. Who in the world am I to make a negative comment on someone else's style?

So, I just ended up commenting back to her "well, hopefully they aren't as ridiculous as your attitude. Feel free to enjoy your style and I'll enjoy mine". I see this morning that someone else commented to her "Rude". I looked her up on the group to see if she's ever posted anything and once she posted a bunch of pics of her kitchen. The decor is my style but not overly cluttered in every spot and I'm sure I saw her post when she made it (kind of remember it) but of course I would never comment anything negative.

Yesterday later morning I'm at my desk working, with the window cracked a bit. I hear a dog whine and assume it neighbors down the street dog (our dog wasn't outside, nor does he whine). He always whines if he comes down here. I look out the window, but don't see him, so then I walk out to look out the windows from upstairs looking out at front yard and see our little neighbor boy walking around....in his pj's. LOL. I tell dh "hey, J is outside, I think looking for his dog". Dh goes out there and here is the conversation LOL (remember he is 5)

Dh - hey J, whatcha doing? 

J - trying to find my dog.

Dh - you haven't gotten a hat from me in awhile (dh has been letting him pick a hat out of the box of his hat collection) so they go inside the shop.

J - we saw you got a new car. How do you get one of those?

Dh - well you have to order it

They go back outside to walk around the back to look for the dog.

J - I have a clue - holding up a tennis ball he's had in his hand

dh - where'd you find that?

J - on the ground out by the gate

dh - well, that's a good clue!

Then dh told him he bets the dog ran home through the lots while he was walking down the street to come look, so go home and see if he's back.

Kids are so funny.

OK! I just told dd I think I need to put a tracker on my mom, LOL. I set her medication dispenser to try for 7:30 this morning. Nope. Almost 8:30 and she hasn't taken it. What the heck time is she going downstairs?! Still haven't found the "sweet spot" time yet!

EDIT: MegB asked to see a picture of my cafe curtain above the tub. I wanted something that still let us see out the window (mountain cliff view), still let light in, as much as possible, but still give us the privacy we would need if someone was standing outside or even driving by way out in the road, LOL. I'm sure at some point down the road I'll change them to something else. Hence, the reason I just put a spring loaded type curtain rod and nothing permanent. We needed something there when we got moved in and at that point my budget was G.O.N.E. LOL. I had a tall fake grassy plant back in the left corner, but the cat kept knocking it down, so for now it's moved.

Happy Tuesday (trying again)

It really wasn't a Happy Monday yesterday, it was a Sucky Monday. But, hey, you gotta give me points for trying to start out with a positive attitude, LOL. Payroll literally took me until 10 minutes before quitting time to get submitted. It was just one thing after another and then add in the waiting time for each issue as it popped up, to get a reply from our payroll advisor (not that she's slow, but she is trying to help more than just our company. She is loads better than the previous lady). FIVE new employees and 2 termed employees, one of the new employees being p/t hourly, which we don't have a template for. 

Ok, I looked at when I ordered the one med for my mom on the past refills and she should still have plenty in her dispenser to last until I go visit in a week or so. I think that med also notifies way too early for the dispenser because the pills are so tiny that it thinks it's getting low, when it's really not. Plus, the last couple of refills I ended up ordering a bit earlier than needed because they've been taking so long to get here and then I need to also allow time for the days between after it finally arrives and when I can get in to see her next. She should have at least a months worth of pills in the dispenser, more by my calculations.  With what I have refilled so far (and a little early, each time), I'm showing she should have at least 40 pills in there. Based on when I started ordering this new dose at 10mg, on 8/6 and not received for another 5-7 days, at least, and the 3 more 90 day refills I've ordered since then, she should have enough right now in the machine to last her to mid May.

When dh goes outside to get the mail or whatever, with the dog, he often now lets the cat come with. The cat will walk with them down the street to the mailbox, LOL. He will straggle behind, but as soon as dh and the dog get out of his sight, he will come. They eventually ended up in the back yard and kitty went a little farther than normal exploring. Over to the next lot and partway down the river bank! He wouldn't come when called (of course, he's a cat!) so dh moved back into our backyard so he'd be out of sight and kitty started to head back his direction. Then all of a sudden dh said kitty was running full speed, with his hair up on his back, towards the back patio door. Dh was like WTH?! Then in between all the trees that are in our backyard one of the bald eagles swooped through. Yikes! Kitty ran into the house when dh opened the door and went and hid under our bed.

Dh's friend, who is taking care of his brothers belongings, made good progress the past couple of days and sounds like he gets to start heading back home to Texas today. I'm sure he's relieved it's all over. I guess he did not find the title to brother's pick up (which he is selling to another friend) so he had to request a lost title from DOL.

Goodness, mom's morning meds are going to drive me over the edge. I had hoped having the new time to take them being 7:40am that would work to take before she goes downstairs for breakfast and then whatever else she stays down for hours. But, this morning it's been almost an hour and she has not taken them. In a couple of minutes her 60 minutes of notifications to remind her to take will stop  and when she does get back, it won't remind her. And now who knows when she will be back? I guess I'll see if I can reset the time for a later time this morning, so she keeps getting reminded. At least I hope that will work. It seems that I can change the schedule via the app on my phone. Nothing needed to push on the dispenser itself. So, I just reset it to start the hour of notifications to start up again in 10 minutes. Hopefully she'll be back within the hour. I'll have to keep an eye on the app this morning. Then remember to set it back to it's regular time, once she does take it. I think I'm going try a little earlier at 7:30. I can't imagine she'd leave her apartment before then, for breakfast downstairs at 8am. Who knows with her! I'm really not sure changing the time to 8:50 reset it for today, or if that will start up tomorrow. I can't tell on the app. It says it's changed to that schedule, but for today it's still showing 7:40am.  I always take a picture of the months activity calendar and I see there is no wii bowling this morning, so hopefully after breakfast she will be back up in her apartment. OH good! the app just updated with the new time. 

Okie dokie - adjusting the time again for the morning meds worked and she must have just got back to her apartment and heard it and took them. I had noticed before, most mornings, she would be back to her apartment and take them around 8:50, if she went down for breakfast. But, with the increasing number of mornings she hasn't been coming back up to her apartment in time, that wasn't working. Now, I'm going to reset it to 7:30 to try tomorrow morning. There's got to be a time that is the "sweet spot" LOL, where she is up and in her apartment still in the morning. Lordy! At least now I know that if I get the notification she hasn't taken the pills (because she's not in her apt) I can temporarily adjust the time so that when she gets back she is still getting the notification. This occasionally happens in the evenings, too, as she will go visit with her guy friend to watch tv. This way I don't have to make a call to her to remind her. It's just this 5 minute conversations of "I didn't? I thought I did. I'll take them (and then forgets after she hangs up). I'm pretty sure I took them? I didn't?"

I am trying to find some new pajamas. Mine are old and worn out. You wouldn't think it would be so hard to find what I want. I want long flannel pants and a short sleeved pull over shirt (not button). Everything is either long sleeved or a button type shirt, or if it's a short sleeved shirt it's with shorts or capri type pajamas. I don't even really care what they look like. Maybe I can find what I need separately. And when I type in "pajama top" (Target, for instance) I don't want to see regular t-shirts!

Yesterday was kind of funny. I was on the phone several times with my boss. We were trying to figure out how to set up a part time employee schedule in payroll. We use Teams for our calls, and I was answering it with my phone and not my computer (which has a mic and camera, too) but the whole time I'm talking to her (and moving my head back and forth between my 2 screens) she's seeing my my office. She says "oh your lamp is cute". I'm like how are you seeing that? I'm not using my webcam, plus it's not pointing at camera. Then after the 2nd call realized it was viewing from the camera on back of my phone. It must be some setting on my new phone! my old phone never did that when I answered a Teams call. Finally I figured out to just turn off camera for this app in my phone settings, LOL.

 

Happy Monday

So far so good (but it's only been 2 days LOL) my mom has taken her morning meds at the new time or close to it. It now notifies her starting at 7:40am. Yesterday she took it at 8. This morning at 7:45. BUT, I had brought one of her refills with me that came in the mail after my last visit/pill refills and totally forgot to add it while I was there Saturday! Damn it! The app just started notifying me it's low so there should still be plenty in there, as it seems to start notifying way too early. This was a med that her doctor changed the pill to the right dose, so I didn't have to keep cutting them in half, and I filled that the first time around mid July, I think, so she should be good until mid April. I will be back way before then, of course. I'm going to log into her online prescription account and find the exact dates and make sure.

My mom's medicare advantage plan has that $100 per year of OTC stuff you can buy, through their online catalog. The stuff isn't really priced good, but it's free, LOL. I haven't used her $25 per quarter benefits yet this year, so there is $50 on there. One of the things (after ordering up the $100 worth of stuff last December with that years benefit) I wanted to get a blood pressure cuff. Seems like it might be something handy to have on hand for all of us. I can use it for her if needed, and also us. DH has often had his a bit high while at doctors offices the past 6 months so it might be good to check it at home every so often. Through this benefit they are $37. There was $13 left to spend on something else and you can't spend over and pay the difference. It has to be exact or less amount. So, I also ordered some generic miralax from there. $13 for a 14 day dose is ridiculous, but again, it's free to use up the benefit, so might as well. At then end of this year I'll use up the remaining $50 and stock up on OTC supplies again with whatever is needed.

I hardly did anything yesterday. Just didn't have any ambition at all. I did make some peanut butter cookies. Dh and I took a little walk outside around the property (he was looking for dog poop with the shovel, LOL). It was nice and warm out. I went to take a nap later and dh sats down to watch some more of Reacher and I don't even know if I got to sleep at all when the doorbell rang and it was our retired friend stopping by for one of his visits. I didn't even look at the clock to see what time it was. He stayed quite a while and I put some of the cookies out on a plate and he took a couple for the drive home, LOL.

Then I started on dinner. Originally I was going to make pizza, but earlier in the day realized I had none of the frozen bread rolls I use for the dough. I ended up making a hashbrown casserole. Dh went back for seconds and said it looks like enough for leftovers tomorrow, too. I said yep, that's the plan!  

DH finished watching the show (he's done with all the episodes now). I was still super tired, (so pretty sure I didn't get much of a nap at all) so I took a nap on the couch and dh went and took a nap on the bed. I didn't sleep much/too long, but dh ended up napping until almost 8pm.

Back at work today - it's fun payroll day. We have like 4 or 5 new hires and one termination, so I'm sure it will be a mess to figure out. All the new hires are hourly too, ugh. Just adds to the process to have to contact them to figure out missed punches, etc.

With the snow melted the past couple of weeks and the weather warmer, I have expected to see our new neighbors who bought the 2 lots next to us out at their property. Figured as soon as they could see the ground again, they'd be out getting ready to get started moving dirt, putting in well, etc. I at least figured we see them out there measuring and marking, like we were at our property numerous times doing, before we started the site work. But, their other home (they have 2) they are trying to sell is still showing for sale on zillow. It's been for sale 6 months now and they haven't lowered the price on it yet. I'm guessing they need to get this sold before they can get started on this place. That's kind of how the guy made it sound when dh talked to him that one time. The building season is short here, you pretty much have to get started as soon as you can see the ground again. 

We are going to have a little work done on our old car before we sell it. For a long while it's had a check engine light on that the code it shows has never been figured out as that's the problem (at least by dh and his mechanic buddy). The car has run fine all this time, but to sell it dh wants the code fixed/cleared. We also may throw a cheap set of new tires on it. I don't know what all the repair and tires will cost, but told dh to go ahead getting that going. I will put it on my rewards credit card anyway to earn the 2% cash back and then we'll have 4-6 weeks before the payment on the credit card is due and should be able to get it sold within that time frame, I would think. In all the years we've ever sold a used car, it's always sold pretty quickly, couple weeks max. We take good care of our cars, so they are clean and nice. Then, whatever we get for it (less the repairs/tires) I want to use that money to get a project or two checked off our list of things still needing done here at the house. It will probably only do one project, but that's better than none!

Trying for a relaxing Sunday

Well, my attempt to make sure my mom is getting her morning pills (and at generally the same time every day) isn't working either. 

Back up (you can read all the details on blog about mom) to yesterday and I made a trip in to figure out what is going on with her dispenser and not getting the meds for 2 days in a row. It appears to be a combination of things going on. #1 being she isn't in her apartment during the hour that the machine is notifying her it's time to take (starts at 8:30 and goes until 9:25). #2 she was apparently unplugging and plugging it back in yesterday morning (which is why I kept getting the notifications wifi was disonnected). Never mind that there is a 3 inch wide piece of blue tape across the plug in with "DO NOT UNPLUG" written across it along with another note taped above the outlet.

So, I reset her time to take/dispense to 7:40 am. I "assumed" if breakfast starts downstairs at 8am she probably wasn't leaving until at least 7:45 (she doesn't know what time). It takes 2 minutes to get down the elevator that is right outside her door. I've been sitting here typing this and it just turned 8am and she hadn't taken yet, so I assumed she must have gone downstairs for breakfast before 7:40. But, the app just notified me she took it at 8am. Ok, at least that got done. Since I moved the medication dispenser over to her desk she should not be able to unplug it. If she does, she would have had to move her desk out from the wall!

The good noticed yesterday. She had washed all her silverware in her sink. The bad. I was using her scissors to cut the styrofoam cup down to make a new "cup" to fit underneath where her pills drop into, and she said "what is that in your hand?". She no longer recognized scissors. And a couple of times as I was trying to get everything re-plugged in and figuring out why her phone wasn't now working, she asked twice what the phone was.

After leaving her place I ran over to Target to grab a bunch of food stuff. That will help tide over until I can go do a normal grocery pick up. I also wanted to look for a new sleeping nightshirt, but didn't find anything I liked at all. They were either too thick and warm or too silky. But, I grabbed soda, water, spanish rice (box kind), Hostess cupcakes (dh loves those), regular crackers and Ritz, blueberry muffin mix, chips, and a Twix for the road, as by then it was lunch time, haha.

I didn't get home until around 1pm. I told dh the old printer in the back of the car needed to go into the garbage. Thankfully he didn't do his usual "are you sure, blah blah" because I was so not in the mood for that nonsense. He just picked it up and took it straight to the outside garbage can.

I didn't sit in mom's recliner (I should have) to see if it's now uncomfortable or feels different. She's still convinced that isn't her chair, someone took her chair. It's probably just worn out and she needs a new one. I know I can get a new one delivered up to her apartment, but I need to figure out how I can get the old one taken away. I'll have to look into how I can get that done. I don't want to advertise on Marketplace or anything like that. I don't want to deal with someone having to come to mom's place when I'm not there, let alone dealing with the usual idiots you have to deal with to try and sell or even give away something. 

The other odd thing I noticed at her place. So, she has one of those nice big "Alzheimer's clocks" sitting on her file cabinet that sits between her desk and tv/tv stand. On the other side of her tv is the door to her bedroom, where she has her nightstand and has always had a little alarm clock plugged in there. She has the little alarm clock (still plugged into the wall behind her nightstand in the bedroom) pulled around the corner of the door and sitting on her tv stand. I asked her why she needed 2 clocks out in her living room? She had no idea. She thought maybe to set an alarm to remind her about an activity time. Then I realized the little clock wasn't even set at the right time! It was showing like 3pm! I reset it and put it back next to her bed. Strange.

Dinner last night was omelette's. Easy and good to use up eggs. Then we watched the first Jack Reacher movie - we've seen it before, years ago, but dh wanted to see the 1970 Chevelle in the movie, again, LOL. Then I turned on the new Reacher series on Amazon (which I've already watched) to see if he'd like that. I went to bed after the first episode played, but he liked it and watched at least a couple more episodes. Then he messed up the show by trying to rewind and completely lost his place and he can't figure it out, so he new better than to wake me up, LOL. 

I received a check in the mail from the county for a big $23.70 for my jury duty, haha. 

DH takes Claritin allergy pills. Just when needed, not on a regular basis so a bottle lasts a long time. The past few years I have found them much cheaper on Amazon and he just told me he has one pill left, so I got online to order more. I discovered a generic brand that has good reviews for a fraction of the price of the brand name. Rather than .36 per pill.....it's .03 per pill. Time to give these a try! All the reviews say they work just as well as the name brand loratidine. It's the same ingredient, so they should. DH also uses Miralax and I've been buying the cheaper Walmart brand at .42 per dose but found one on Amazon that came out to .33 per dose. No sense spending more for brand, or even store brands, when I don't have to.

A wild turkey just walked through the back yard, gobbling up a storm. Usually they are in small groups but this guy was all alone. The cat didn't know what to make of it, LOL.

Friday and Saturday frustration

I'm extremely frustrated again this morning with my mom's medication dispenser and her erratic schedule of late, of when she is actually in her apartment!

Yesterday ended up a total bust and she got no meds. I had gotten a hold of her about 2 hours past her morning time and for some reason she said the screen kept saying "refill" rather than dispense. Well, from my memory on how it works, you push the big button and on the screen it says "dispense" and below that "refill". You push the button one more time to dispense. If you want to refill you have to push the down arrow to highlight that option. I couldn't get it figured out, so told her to go down to exercise and I'd call her after. Well, after turned out after lunch is when she got back up to her apt and by then it's 1pm and it's apparently past the window of time, so you have to go through the menu to manually dispense, which there would be no way for her to figure that out. Especially when she can't stay on the phone while she's standing at the machine. Her landline won't reach. I'm going to have to move it over next to her phone, so that when we have an issue like this she can stay on the phone and do what I say. By the time she sets the phone down and walks over to the dispenser she's forgotten what I said.

So, then her after dinner pill (one pill for cholesterol) was not taken at 6:10. And for some reason, I got no notifications on my phone yesterday that she did not take either dose. I try to call her at 6:35 and no answer. Ok, well that explains why she hasn't taken it, she's gone again. I get a hold of her about 7:15 and she just got back to her apt. (she was at her guy friends watching tv). She missed the hour window through 7:05 to hear the machine notifying her, so of course she forgot. She says "ok, I'll take it right when we hang up". We hang up and of course she forgot! She never did take it. I didn't call her back. I just gave up. One missed cholesterol pill is not going to matter at this point.

Then this morning I'm watching the time so I can check my phone at 8:30 to see if taken or not and *&%$ the app now says her machine is disconnected from wifi. OMG! What I have come to the conclusion the few times this has happened the past few months is her wifi must be down for a bit. One time I went to their website and saw it was a system outage going on. Other times, though, it says it's connected. The only other thing, of course, that would cause it would be if she actually unplugged it, which she hasn't done for several months now, after I taped it down and put the note on the wall at the plug in. So here it is 8:40 and I can't tell if she took it or not. She could be eating downstairs, so she won't take it until she gets back up, usually just before 9, or they could also just as likely have brought their breakfasts to them at their apartments. Seems to be no set schedule on this anymore (I think it's a staffing issue). 

So, I'll have to call her a little after 9 and go through the whole thing like yesterday where she doesn't have a clue and I probably won't be able to get her figured out. I don't want her to miss 2 days doses in a row. I guess if I can't get it figured out, I'll have to drive in. If the damn app/wifi was connected on her end at least I would then know for sure if she took it or not. I even logged into her internet provider account and did a modem reset from there and they say it's working/connected.

DH has been talking to his friend, the one who's taking care of his deceased brother's belongings, at least once a day. Yesterday friend went to where brother had worked (he was a truck driver) and had parked his pickup, while he was out on the road. Oh dear, since his brother lived out of the semi, the inside of his pickup was also a "storage unit". He sent a pic to dh. It's an extended cab. The front passenger side is stuffed up to about window height. There is just enough space to sit in it to drive. The back seat is stuffed from the floor on up. I told dh well, it could be worse. Friend could have a whole apartment or house to go through and get rid of all the stuff! At least it's all confined to a storage unit and the pickup. And at least he was able to find the title to the truck inside the glove box. I don't know if there will be much friend will end up keeping of the stuff. Maybe the toolbox and tools, but friend already has more than enough of that in his own huge shop, duplicates as a matter of fact. He doesn't really need any of the stuff, but feels like he's supposed to keep some of it, I guess. I told dh....when I die I really don't expect anyone to keep anything of mine, just because it was mine. Of course if there is something someone really wants to have, sure, but no one needs to keep my collection of teapots, just because I collected them. Friends brother had a bunch of model trucks he put together, in boxes in his storage unit. Lots of them. Now, friend feels like he has to keep them. I said if you feel the need, pick out one or two and display on your desk or a shelf and get rid of the rest. What's the point of just keeping them in the boxes they are in, taking up room at his place?

This is also wearing dh out, quite a bit, being the sounding  board for both the wife (who wants to complain (well, she complains about everything anyway) about her dh and his friend, who wants to complain about having to go through all this stuff of his brothers. Dh tries to give them both suggestions/options and then because they each want the other handle it their way, they both twisted what dh said and then each gives dh flap back. He's like whoa! that is NOT what I said to him/her and set them straight, but it's wearing on him. I said Jeez! just load the crap up in his trailer and go back home! Friend is staying there, in a motel, almost 2 weeks! To load up a storage unit and truck cab of stuff. Another friend of his is buying the pickup. 3 days max??!

Speaking of deaths, I just learned of another young death. She was 53. Sorta kinda a step sister. My half sister knew her/met her, I never did. Our dad was with her mom for several years, though after 5 previous marriages and divorces, he never did marry her. She had 2 children. I met her once, about a year or so after dh and I married we drove out for a visit for a couple of days. I honestly just vaguely remember her. We only stayed like a couple of days, as we both had work and I had work and school and dh didn't get paid time off. I don't remember meeting either of her kids. From what I know now her son is about my age, her daughter 5 years younger, so at that time she would have been about 18. Anyhow, the story is, my dad had started drinking again and this girlfriend talked him into selling the ranch he inherited from his parents and moving back to Arkansas with her. He sold the ranch, she moved her and her kids back to AR, but he never did move there with her and they broke up. 

It sounds like my half sister didn't meet them until our dad's (I use the term "dad" loosely - he was never a father to me) funeral. They loved him because most of the years they got to spend with him he wasn't drinking. Half sis has stayed in contact with them and I guess several years ago this "step" sister flew up to Canada and visited with her and her family. I guess she had cancer and didn't tell anyone she was dying, so my half sister had no idea until she found out about her death, from her brother, a couple days ago.

My half sister has this like 10 page "life story" our dad wrote up (she found it in his file cabinet of papers) where he goes through all his marriages and divorces and other relationships during all his years of alcoholism. I found it interesting that all the marriages and divorces he writes about he never writes the woman's name. Just numbers them, LOL. But for this girlfriend (after all the divorces) he says her name. She's the only one in his life story, that he said the name.

TGIF

TGIF. I'm almost where I want to be with what's done for work, overall. I just sent my boss the year end December 2021 preliminary financials on Wednesday. She always ends up making some year end adjustments/write offs and then we get it to our CPA, who always has filed an extension and does our tax return in August, LOL. I looked back and last year I didn't get this to her until April 29th, so I'm more than a month ahead on it this year. Still not quite where I want to be. At the end of this month I had hoped to have January done. I can only be about 6-8 weeks out from completing a months financial reports, at best, because it takes well into the next month for me to receive all our manufacture's orders and commissions reports and I need that data to incorporate into our numbers. I'm getting closer. I got started on January work yesterday and my goal is to get it done in the next 10 days.

Today I need to file our monthly state "Business and Occupation Tax" report. I have always hated doing these. I hate anything to do with filing taxes, LOL. I usually procrastinate and do it at the end of the day it's due. Yesterday I printed out the reports I need to do it and decided to get it done this morning. I'm almost there. I just have to finish figuring out what we owe the state in sales tax. Always a pain because there are hundreds of different sales tax "locations" in the state and we have to break down and report it to each one we made a sale to. It's annoying.

My mom missed her hour window for taking her meds again this morning. I have it set for 8:30...because some days she eats downstairs and some days she eats in her apartment (because they don't have the dining staff, so they bring the meals up). That way, if she goes down she is typically back to her apartment at 8:50 and hears the chime to take it (it will keep notifying every 5 minutes until 9:30). This way has been working fine, until recently - where she is going down to breakfast and just staying downstairs all morning! So, I just called her at 10:30 and thankfully she can hear me with her phone today, but for some reason the meds aren't dispensing, but the app shows she hasn't dispensed them. It sounds like she pushed the down arrow to "refill" instead of just pushing the center button to dispense. I think it has to reset itself before she can try again, but her landline is across the room at her desk and doesn't reach to the medication dispsenser so by the time she goes back to do what I said or to tell me what the screen says, she's already forgotten. Ugh. I told her just to go ahead and go downstairs for her exercise and I'll call her back after and we'll try again. Also, the app never notified me this morning that she didn't take it, I just happened to check and saw she didn't, so that is frustrating, too. Hopefully I can get her to get them dispensed today

It's still morning and I think I need a nap already, LOL.

It is Friday yet?

We had a wonderful spring day yesterday. It got up to 71 degrees. Then it rained in the evening LOL. I'm still trying to get over feeling tired. I think it was a combination of last week and the time change. That always takes me a good week to get adjusted and then just before I could get adjusted we had the busy weekend with less sleep. I'm still not feeling caught up this week.

I found another movie to watch last night, but didn't get it finished before bed. It's called Finch, with Tom Hanks. Cute movie about a lifelike robot he creates. I don't have too much left to watch, but it was almost bedtime and dh was on the phone walking around talking (loud, as usual) and then he turned on the washing machine and all the background noise I was just going to have to keep turning up the tv, so I just decided to turn off and finish watching it today. 

Dh has been on the phone quite a bit with his good friend and also his wife. Friend's brother passed away a month or so ago and this week friend drove the 2000 miles, with his little cargo trailer, to take care of his brother's personal belongings. There's not much really. He lived in the long haul semi truck he drove and had a storage unit for the rest of his stuff. But, friend is having a hard time dealing with it, so dh has been giving him moral support and also chatting with his wife (who didn't go with him) about it.

oh ugh. We just hired 4 new employees and all are hourly. Just more work for me as then I have to monitor their time punches. Most of our employees are salary, which makes life much easier for payroll. 

For those of you that are Ancestry.com experts - is there a way to print or save a tree so that you could send the info to someone? My uncle is asking to see it, but I can't figure out a way. The only thing I found was it saved a tree in like a bunch of pages and was super hard to read/understand. He doesn't have ancestry.com. What I ended up doing is just typing out the tree going back several generations for his dad. That was too much work, haha.

We had enchiladas again for dinner last night. They are so dang good and I'm happy to have found something good and easy to add to the menu, that dh can eat and likes, too.I also purchased the sour cream in the squeeze type tube and that was easier to fill the tortilla with, less messy.

And my mom just tried to call me, but she could hardly hear me talking. We hung up and I called her back but same thing. Another ugh. Hopefully it's just a bad cell connection on my part, and not something wrong with her landline, though if there is it's probably because she pushed buttons and messed around with the volume, is my guess. Or I had this picture in my mind of her holding the handset upside down, LOL. (though I don't think so, because I could hear her fine)

Wednesday what not

I'm trying to take advantage of my free 3 months of Apple+ Tv. I watched a most excellent movie last night called CODA, about a girl, with a singing talent, who is the only hearing person in her family. I'd highly recommend it, along with "Palmer", which I watched several months ago with a free week trial.

Today is going to be sunny and in the 60's. Woo!

When I called my mom Monday morning around 10:15 she said she wasn't feeling that good, a bit of a sore throat. I told her to call me if she feels worse or needs anything, but she didn't sound too bad and had eaten breakfast. I tried to call her yesterday morning and she wasn't in her apartment, so I figured she must be feeling ok to be doing activities. She called me yesterday afternoon - concerned about some mail she got. "Somebody's doing something and it doesn't sound right", or something like that. It was mail she got about a class action lawsuit against Safeway. I told her just to throw it away and explained what it was and not worth it for a couple of dollars. She had apparently thought she needed to call someone or an attorney. I don't know if she thought she was getting sued or what, but she said she felt better after I explained what it was. Hopefully she remembers to throw it away. She also didn't mention not feeling well, so I think all was good. And this morning I just noticed she hasn't taken her morning pills yet. She must not have come back up to her apartment after breakfast and missed the dispenser chiming. And then now at 9:30 it's her wii bowling time. I need to set my phone alarm to check again in a little while. I'll get busy with work and forget. When she returns to her apartment, the dispenser will not remind her anymore. It only reminds every 5 minutes for 40 minutes past her time to take the meds.

Not much else new in my life today. Maybe the last bits of snow will be gone after todays temps.

Movies and shows

My new car payment had a due date of the 11th of each month. I was kind of wishing it came out of the 15th paycheck, and then while logged into my account online I noticed you could request a change of due date, so I did that. I just prefer that my 2 biggest payments are split between paychecks. So, I pay the mortgage on the last day of each month and now the car payment on the 15th.

DD decided to do some shopping around for auto and home insurance. They had been with the same company for several years (I think it was who SIL, and his parents, had always been with). Well, between their auto's (they have 3 or 4 cars and a camper trailer) and their home, she was able to find $2000 a year in savings by switching. That's quite a bit, for sure.

Last night I watched The Adam Project on Netflix. Cute movie, though the action scenes didn't do much to keep me interested. It's kind of funny, I hadn't heard of the movie until a Facebook friend (a lady in her 40's) made a post a few days ago about it: "if you don't cry watching the Adam Project, do you have a soul?". I looked the movie up online to see what it was about, thinking it must be some serious type of movie, LOL. Oh, ok, it's just a cute family/kids type movie. Have to admit (like most of her FB friends did) that I did not cry, LOL. She and one or two of her friends said they cried several times during it. I guess I have no soul.

My side job boss and I will occasionally recommend shows to each other to watch. She's the one who told me about Resident Alien and Ted Lasso. But, apparently they only watch what her dh wants to watch, it mostly sounds like. Last night I told her about Severance (as she said she likes mystery type shows) and she said that looks good - she'll have to see if she can get her dh to try it - as he controls the remote in the evenings. I hope they mostly enjoy the same things on tv or that would get pretty old to never watch what you'd like to watch. DH and I rarely watch the same stuff, haha. We only have one tv but if one of us wants to watch something different or doesn't want to watch what the other is watching we go do our own thing or I sit and read or he goes and watches something on his computer (he watches a lot of youtube "channels"). Either way, I end up watching what I want to watch and he watches what he wants to watch and every so often we have a show or movie we watch together. He will usually come in and sit down to watch Tucker Carlson with me each evening and we both enjoy Young Sheldon. Sometimes he will watch the Voice with me. I will usually sit through if he's watching something like Gold Rush. But, neither of us controls the remote, LOL. And since all shows can be recorded or are on demand, we can watch them anytime if one of us is watching something else at the time. And since dh usually falls asleep as soon as he sit down in the recliner or on the couch to watch tv, it doesn't really matter, haha. That's why he seems to prefer watching stuff in his den, on his computer. 

Another little thing I like about the new car - it has wireless phone charging.

Not ready for Monday

It was a fun, but exhausting weekend. Entertaining and being "on" for several days in a row always wears me out. Add in staying up way past my bedtime two nights in a row. haha. All four of us (me, dh, dog, and cat) took a nap yesterday afternoon. I was still so tired I went to bed at 8:30. The cat was very happy to have his house back to himself.

It was nice, though, that they stuck around yesterday until almost 1pm. Breakfast was more casual. I just ended up making egg sandwiches on english muffins for everyone and they sat at the breakfast bar. The breakfast bar gets used a lot more when I have guests and I do like being able to be in the kitchen taking care of cooking and cleaning up while, still being able to visit. Since we had breakfast a little later morning, they didn't want lunch before they left, they had plans to stop at get lunch some place on the way home. DD also brushed our dog before they left, which was nice.

For dinner I had some bread to use up, so I made french toast and heated up some link sausage to go with it. 

This morning dd messaged me a funny, she got a message from their friend that came on the visit with them and he said to apologize to your mom. He meant to put his towel in the laundry room, but forgot and wasn't sure where he left it. I told her I had found it in the bedroom, laid over the metal part of the bed's foot board frame. LOL. I told her tease him that I couldn't find it and am like "what? did he steal our guest towel?!" haha.

So, that show "Severance" I had watched on Apple tv, there are more episodes coming after the 5 I watched. I didn't realize it was in the middle of the season and they are releasing one per week, so I got to watch the next episode last night. That was good news - haha. I was like that's how it ends with only 5 episodes? 

My mom was a bit "off" when I called her yesterday right after the kids left. She said her back had been bothering her a little the past couple/few days and she couldn't figure out why and then she realized that her chair was missing. I'm like...ummm.. what? you have a recliner and the little loveseat, right? (I was just there last Monday, LOL). and she said yes, but it's not the same recliner. Someone took hers and left this one, so that must be why her back is hurting. Oh dear. I think I got her convinced it was her same chair (I described it), but strange, nonetheless. Sometimes it's hard to know what to say! Back when she had her own house, she had 2 recliners. The one she has now (leather type) and the other one was fabric. I don't know if she's remembering that chair or what.

New car smell

Definitely enjoying the new car smell, LOL. Such a nice car. Too many buttons and gizmos, that's for sure. I'll never learn or remember it all. But, I managed to get it down the road, ha! My car is on the right.

It has so much more power then our old car. The speed limit on our highway is 80 and I was up to 80 before I even got to the end of the on ramp. Our old 11 year old car we could barely get it up to speed in time to merge on, anymore. 

The heated and massaging seats are wonderful. SIL programmed the 3 buttons on the sun visor that open our garage doors and gate, so no more remote controls clipped to the visor. Phones are synced. We each have our own seat, steering wheel and mirrors settings. DH loves the power it has and the modifications we had done to it (while it was at dd's)

They washed and shined them both up yesterday. Also put on the hood struts. Even Mr and Mrs Neighbor came over to check them out.

We are enjoying our visit with the kids and their friend they brought. Nice young man. Good sense of humor and easy to joke with. Last night I made my new enchilada recipe and it was a hit. DD loved it and helped me make it, so now she knows how easy they are to make. While the guys were back out in the shop after dinner, dd and I watched last weeks episode of Resident Alien. She loves that show, too.

For breakfast yesterday I made blueberry muffins, scrambled eggs and OJ. It was later morning, so we just snacked for lunch. I think this morning (no one is up yet) I'll just let them fend for themselves. We have several cereals to choose from, toast, english muffins, etc.

We got to see quite a good sized herd of elk on a little drive over to the other side of the river in early evening. And we saw lots of deer, too.

Kitty is not really liking the invasion of his home with their 2 dogs, LOL. He's mostly staying back in our bedroom. He's discovered the window ledge above the tub in the bathroom. He can lay there and see outside.

I'm sure they will be heading back home later this morning. Wish they could have stayed one more day, but we'll be seeing them again in about 3 months.

Finally the big day!

Today is the day we finally get our new car! Wooo! DD, SIL and their friend they are bringing along, left about 6:30 this morning (their time) so should be here around 3 this afternoon. DD was cute last night. Her dh is driving our car over (she's in her car) and she said what's some good snacks for the road trip? Her dh said NO EATING in our car, haha! so she will carry the snacks in her car and they get to have snacks when they stop for rest stop or gas, LOL.

Last night after dinner I vacuumed upstairs and also vacuumed with the nifty attachment to get some dog hair pup left on the one duvet cover, after laying on it. It pulls off dog hair so well. I'm keeping the room door shut until they get here, so he can't go in there.

I'm working until 11:30 and then will finish cleaning house. I have a load of my laundry going right now and the dishwasher running. I just need to vacuum my office and downstairs. I also need to mop the kitchen and laundry and spot mop a few spots on the rest of the hard floor. And I want to make a batch of peanut butter cookies.

Yesterday I got 4 eggs from the chickens. Back in business! Plus all the chickens look feathery and plump. No bare butts, so hopefully I can keep them that way.

In other news, I got an email yesterday around dinner time that my mom's cable tv added on that $30/mo service AGAIN! I thought I fixed that by adding the "purchase pin". UGH!!! I got online with a chat agent and he removed it and said it was ordered from the remote again. So, I will have to check it again next time I'm there and try to do a test purchase to make sure it works this time. So frustrating.

We have someone the last few days firing off VERY loud and VERY rapid rounds of gun shots down river. It sounds like it's coming from where it used to (but stopped after that guy who lives in one of the homes down there died). We are told the guys roommate still lives there by himself. It's much worse gun fire than before. I don't know guns and what sounds each kind makes (well I know what a shot gun sounds like) but his sounds like some kind of automatic type. Knock on wood, but for the most part the other guy, on the hill on the other side of the river across from us seems to have stopped.

Two parts of the new desk arrived yesterday. It is such a nice piece of furniture. I can't wait for the rest of the desk to come and get it set up in dh's den. DH is super happy with it. Very nice, heavy, quality piece made from solid wood and such a pretty color stain and grain markings.

Should be a fun weekend ahead :)

Dinner, dreams and gifts

Tuesday's dinner was spaghetti with the Texas garlic toast. And enough for leftovers last night. We are both really liking the Texas garlic toast/french bread and I like that I'm not wasting any of the bread, like with a loaf. Plus, it's only about 6 minutes to heat up in the oven. There is even enough spaghetti left if I want to have some for lunch today.

Today is supposed to be sunny and 53. I see the rain predicted for tomorrow is now pushed out to Saturday, so that will be good for dd/sil coming over tomorrow. I had a dream about them last night, haha. Somehow (dh knew) they showed up during the night and I realized it when I got up and saw their car parked in our driveway, but not our new car, LOL. Apparently, their friend was driving our car over and still on his way. Then I was saying I'm going to just have to take the whole day off now and need to tell my boss, only then suddenly I wasn't in my home office. I was in some other big office with lots of employees and the office my desk was (with a few others) was all messed up. Someone moved my monitors (which were really big, like tv's) and I couldn't get them to work, so I had to go find my boss. Dreams are so odd, haha.

DH has a birthday in early June. He's always hard to buy for, but this year I think I have a good gift idea. Well, actually I already had a good gift idea, so I might do both. My new gift idea is a nice leather duffel type bag for travel. He has a canvas one, that he always uses if we travel somewhere, but it's getting a bit worn, and I think this one I found on Amazon for $100 will look really nice and he'll like it.

 

My other idea was to have a book made (I think it was with Shutterfly) with a bunch of pictures he took of our house build. It's an idea I had several months ago, then I forget about it, then I remember and then I procrastinate on it, and then I forget about it. Repeat. Mostly I procrastinate because I know it will take awhile to go through the pictures and pick them.

I have been doing the same procrastination/forget thing with my plan to get a passport. If we want to go to Canada this summer I really need to get that done pronto as it takes awhile to get. I think I've been procrastinating because I don't know where/how to get the picture taken.

Good shows and affording life

I started watching a pretty good show on Apple+ tv yesterday called Severance. It's a mystery thriller. Apparently only 5 episodes long and I've watched 3 1/2 so far.  The premise is a group of people employed for this company agree to have their brains altered so that they only remember work while at work and only remember their time away from work while away from work. I've only watched 2 shows on Apple tv, and I'm sure it's not really the case for all the shows on there, but so far I'm liking that neither shows felt the need to throw in all the violence, blood and gore, and sex. Both were very good storylines without all that. The Ted Lasso show does have a lot of swearing, but honestly, it's funny and it's in an English accent, so it's even better, LOL. One of my favorite scenes was with the grumpy retired soccer (football) player who constantly swears. He spends a lot of time with his 6 year old niece who was picking up on his swearing habit and got sent home from school for the day. He had to go pick her up, because her mom (his sister) was busy with her job. The teacher explains all the swearing the little girl had been doing and the warnings. Then the little girl says "uncle Roy, can we stop and get ice cream on the way home?" Roy blurts back "F- No!". Next scene they are in his car eating ice cream cones, chatting about her not swearing and she says "maybe we can both stop swearing". Roy blurts out "F- You!". You'd have to see it. It gave me a good laugh.

Our YouTubetv had free HBO over the weekend and I watched a cute movie - "Free Guy" with Ryan Reynolds. Nothing great, but it was an entertaining way to pass a couple of hours.

In other things we watch regularly, the bald eagles have been taking turns sitting in the nest 24/7, LOL. It's been about 2 weeks of this so far, so about another 2 or 3 weeks until egg(s) hatch. Of course, since we can't see in the nest from our view, it will be awhile before we actually see the eaglet(s). Two years ago we watched through our binoculars as they sat but then never saw an eaglet as we didn't grab the binoculars too often. Last year we had the telescope but the eagles had left that nest for the most part. This year they are back and it's easier to watch what is going on there using the telescope. Hopefully later on we'll have an opportunity to see an eaglet, as it gets bigger and starts flying out of the nest.

Ok, reading stuff like this annoys the crap out of me, LOL. This was from a local "news" source, so the figures are from our nearby city, lamenting how no one can afford rent. I find the numbers and parameters they use to be a bit skewed. Says the median price for a 2 bedroom apartment is $979, so it takes $18.37/hr or 2.1 minimum wage incomes to afford a 2 bedroom apartment.

This is how I see it. First off, if you are making a lower end wage, why do you need a 2 bedroom apartment? Who says you must have a 2 bedroom apartment?  How about you go with less expensive one bedroom apartment? If you are a couple, then you could still get by with a 1 bedroom and both work, so there is your 2.1 incomes (of min wage) needed (and that's for a 2 bedroom). If you are 2 people who are roommates and therefore need a 2 bedroom, well then you both of course need jobs to afford your half of the rent. Again, there's your 2.1 incomes to afford the rent for that 2 bedroom apartment.

Second off, there are job signs everywhere you go around the city offering $16-$17 an hour, not minimum wage. At every fast food or restaurant, at all the stores, Home Depot had a sign they were hiring, starting at $16, it was higher for a night stocker position. My mom's senior living place still has signs out as you drive in for job openings starting at $16. So, there ya go. One of these jobs, and a little side hustle, and you, on your own, can afford a 2 bedroom. 

If you are married with a child or two, yes, you would need a 2 bedroom, but hey, sorry, both of you would might need to work, if you can't find one of those offered everywhere jobs for twice what minimum wage is. If you are a single parent and need that 2 bedroom apartment and are making minimum wage....well then my suggestion is to go get one of those $17/hr jobs that are there for the picking. Of course there are exceptions, I'm not talking about retired on limited income or people on disability. I'm talking about fully able-d adults able to work, which is most people. At least report it factual, with reasonable parameters.

It went on to say that the median home price here is $485,000, which is true. It then said that the income to afford that $485,000 home is almost $147,000 a year. I say BS. I don't make near that much and have a mortgage near that amount and we're doing just fine, with extra disposable income left over each month. Yet people read these little charts and articles like this one and I'm sure think "oh, there's no way I could afford a mortgage, then". Maybe these people writing these things need to go take a math or finance/economics class or two.

Some friends (who live in the city) have a daughter who is now 19 or 20. Working one of those $17/hour jobs (working at a retail store) and she has her own 1 bedroom apartment there in the city and is doing just fine.

The half day off

My mom's prescriptions arrived in the mail yesterday morning around 10:30, so that was a big relief. I had chatted with my boss and told her I was going to take a half day and then a half day on Friday and just use one day of PTO (salary employees can't do partial days of PTO, it's either all or nothing) for Friday. As usual she said don't worry about the PTO. But, when I do payroll next time I'm putting the day of PTO on there anyway, LOL. There's no way I'll be able to use it all up and as just evidenced by a long time employee leaving, you can't take your unused PTO with you. He had the equivalent of almost $20,000 in unused PTO on the books. Though, as I kind of expect might happen on a case by case basis (even though it's "company policy" not to pay out unused PTO when employment is terminated, either voluntarily or involuntarily) they did decide to pay him half of it in the form of a bonus. He has been a long time, good employee, and is also being very accommodating in helping transition for his leaving. Honestly, I think something like a case of me retiring (in like 12 years LOL) after almost 30 years of employment, they would pay me unused PTO as a "retirement gift", is my guess.

I left the house at 11:30. Halfway through the drive I'm reaching over, into my purse, trying to feel for my chapstick and what do I find? One of the missing catnip mouses, LOL. It gave me a good laugh.

I hadn't really had lunch before I left, other than a couple pieces of cheese. I treated myself to "lunch". A peanut buster parfait from Dairy Queen, haha. It was delicious, though they raised their price from $5 to $5.40. Used to be an even $5. Then I stopped at Walgreens to see if they had the gift cards I wanted to get. I knew they'd have the Visa/MC type and hoped they also had an REI one. I looked and they didn't have the REI, so I went over to Target. Well, Target had the REI but all their Visa/MC were set amounts and not in the amount I wanted. I didn't want to get dd/sil 2 separate cards, so I just got the REI card, along with 2 thank you cards. Then paid and forgot to get the cookies my mom asked for! Gah! So, still needing a Visa gift card and cookies, I stopped back in Walgreens and they had the Visa's that you could put what amount you wanted on them - and cookies.

Got to mom's about 10 minutes later than planned. Needed to do laundry, of course, but at least that's a good sign that she's not wearing the same thing every day (that seems to be a common thing in dementia, from the group I am on with Facebook) and she's now wearing those new pairs of jeans I got her for Christmas. Both machines were free, so I decided to do 2 loads and was looking on the settings to see if there was a shorter wash cycle. One machine had a "quick wash", the other didn't. Well, when I went back the quick wash was still going and the other was already done! Good to know. I'll start trying to just use that one machine that is faster. 

While washing, I went back to mom's apartment and got her meds filled up in the machine. Checked her computer again, turned it on and it was disconnected from wi-fi again, as usual. I reconnected it. Restarted and it came back on connected. I could find no way to remove that "icon" from the bottom right taskbar. I don't think she's even tried to get on it again, for several weeks now. I just kind of fibbed and told her if she still has problems with it next time I might have to take it with me to get it fixed.

She didn't have too much junk mail, but still interesting how their mind works now. She had some notification letter about car warranty or something. She hasn't had a car in 2 years now, so not sure why she would think it's something she needs to keep. The other thing was an empty envelope some other mail had come in. The other interesting thing I've noticed that past 2 visits is her sink is filled with dirty silverware....I didn't want to just start doing it for her....she's still very aware and then gets a little upset that I'm doing something she (thinks) she can or should be doing. It's been a struggle with laundry in that respect, but I KNOW she is not doing it, so I just override her. I was wondering is this pile of silverware in the sink the same as last visit? While she was in the bathroom I snapped a picture of it in the sink. If it's there next time, I'm going to kind of try to see if I can tell from the picture if it's all just the same that's been sitting in there, untouched. If it is, I'm going to get it all washed up, or at least say "hey, let's get this washed up and most likely, she'll do it.

After I got the loads in the dryer I said let's go over to Home Depot (half a block away) as I want to get a new houseplant to replace the one that died. Figured we had about an hour for the drying to get done and plenty of time. She is the SLOWEST walker LOL Her little short legs are just a going and I've taken like one slow step, haha. I found a plant I liked and we left there and I decided I should go pick up my Walmart order now -then I won't have to take more time after I leave mom's! This is what I need to start doing in the future. Saves time! We drove over to Walmart and got the groceries picked up and then I asked if she needed any cash. She couldn't find the $20 (from at least 6 weeks ago) in her wallet or pants pocket, so we got out $40 for her. 

She also wants/thinks she needs to come with me when I take the laundry down (laundry room down at end of the hall) but this time I just told her to stay in her apartment. I can literally be down there and back before she is halfway down the hall and I had a feeling I was going to need to put a little more time on the larger load, which I did. The good part was while waiting to finish up her laundry AND get it all put away for her, I didn't feel rushed because I still needed to go get my grocery order in my time slot. She also wants to try to tell me she can/will put the clean laundry away, but I know she won't end up doing it. She'll forget and then forget again that it's clean stuff to be put away, so we got all the clothes hung up and in drawers. She has too many clothes still in her closets (she has 2 closets in her bedroom) that she doesn't wear! She always had a lot of clothes over the years, so still has much of it. If/when she has to move again, I will try to pare down some of it.

I got back home about 4pm. Dh had been moving his crap around in the garage (AGAIN) to make more room. Rather than having his big hoard stack in the middle garage bay, he moved it all to the end bay, so while it did nothing to really make more room, it feels more open because there isn't this tall stack of tarped "stuff" that is tall in the middle of the space. Also, now there are 2 car spots side by side. He wanted dd/sil to be able to park their car inside while here (we'll park our old car outside for the weekend). And SIL said he bought "hood mount struts" for both of our cars and is having them delivered here to our house this week. In our group chat I said "oh what did I buy now for the car? LOL". He said it's a "gift". Dh said we should be buying you a gift, haha. Anyway, they plan to install them on both cars while they are here. I think it's something that when you raise the hood it still stay up on it's own. I'm sure the 3 guys will have fun installing something. 

Today is payday. Everything's on auto pay, except for paying off what is charged to my rewards credit card, so I got that paid and also transferred $75 to my Capital One savings account, where I'm putting away money for future propane fill up cost.

I told dh I liked being able to go get errands done in the city on a weekday. Wish I could do that more often. I think I might just start taking one day of PTO a month that is just to do that. I like having my weekends for cleaning house and relaxing after working all week. Especially with the weather going to be warming up and nicer days.

Busy week ahead

We have a tentative date set for Friday for dd and sil to bring over our new car! Wooo! Roads have cleared up and weather looking good so far. They are going to take Friday off work and get here in the afternoon. They are also bringing their friend, ie. our "bonus son", "adopted son" along for the weekend, so should be a good fun weekend for us all. Most likely we'll take them out to dinner on Saturday night. DD said I should make my new enchiladas for Friday, she wants to try them, so that will be easy and I can just make 2 pans of it.

My plan is to take my mom her meds to refill this afternoon (providing they show up!) and then take Friday afternoon off, making it a whole day of vacation time used. Then Friday I can finish any cleaning that needs to be done, which shouldn't be much. I can make some cookies for snacking.

DH is starting to complain about the smell of the litter box again. It's been so good for months now! Ugh. So, yesterday morning I completely cleaned out the litter box and the crate and wiped down the tray in the bottom of the crate. Then I moved the whole crate over to a corner in my office, farther away from the door. Kitty kicks so much litter out onto the tray in the crate. I got a small whisk broom to keep it swept up, but he's terrible about it, so I went online and ordered a different little box that has tall sides to help keep the litter in. It has good reviews for this, so hopefully that will help. It was only $12 w/Walmart online, $6 shipping or free w/$35 order, so I added other stuff I need. Amazon had the same exact thing for $18, so paying for the $6 shipping even though you think you are getting it free w/prime, haha.

Dh moved 4 of the big black storage bins in his den upstairs to the bonus room. Looks somewhat better in there. Then he moved his desk (ie table, lol) against a different wall. If nothing else, it was a good reason to get everything really cleaned and dusted.

I just put in a smallish grocery order with Walmart to pick up this afternoon. If I'm going to be there I might as well stop and get what we need, then I won't need anything next weekend. I also need to stop and get 2 gift cards, one to give dd/sil for all their help and time getting our car for us and one for their friend, who helped SIL put on that intercooler/radiator for us. Hopefully I can get them like at Walgreens or somewhere quick to stop in at, along with a couple of thank you cards.

My mom wants a few things at the store, so when I call her later this morning I'll see if she just wants me to pick up or she'd like to go out. I think I'll suggest going out - it's been awhile since I actually took her out anywhere.

Social security and retirement

I had most of this post finished the other day (had to do a bit of research) and was going to post it today, but then I had a short conversation with Mr. Neighbor yesterday and thought that goes well with this blog post too.

DH is a little over 4 years from being able to start taking social security at age 62. I've tried to do as much research and reading on this as I can as to when it's best to start taking. Waiting longer isn't always the smartest choice. Plus, there's this thing called the break even point. It's the age dh would have to reach before taking it earlier starts being less money than waiting. For him this break even age is 82.

I also just learned something else today, I wasn't quite clear on how it works. I know he can claim half of my monthly amount, if that is higher than what he would get claiming on his earning record (mine is higher). I knew he had to wait until I was retired to claim half of my benefit. I don't plan to retire to age 67 at the earliest (my full benefit age) and most likely will work past that. I thought it was an either or type of deal. What I just learned is that he can start claiming his benefit at age 62 and then when I retire he can switch to claiming the higher spousal benefit at that point (though it sounds like it will be reduced some for what he's already taken, but still more than he was getting). That makes things better, for sure. I was thinking he would have to stay collecting his smaller amount the whole time.

So, it's looking like between his break even age of 82 and later being able to get half of my monthly amount, it will be ok if we start taking his at 62. That extra amount each month for the 5-8 years before I retire will be extremely helpful, especially in paying down the mortgage balance.

If I retire at age 70, our combined SS (based on today dollars - ha!) would be $60k a year. Plus what I can draw down from my retirement savings each year. I think with a house almost paid for or paid for, we could live on $80k a year fairly comfortably. I'm working on the amortization spreadsheet I have for our mortgage to see what I need to do to get it paid off by age 70.

I read something interesting I hadn't really thought of the other day on the message board dh frequents (they talk about everything) and one guy commented he was glad he's saved and paid his house off these past several years, with what's coming in inflation. Another guy had a different take on it - and since I'm stuck with a mortgage payment, this observation made sense to me. He said he has a mortgage with a low interest rate and inflation isn't going to change his mortgage payment over the next 20+ years, so he's coming out ahead in that aspect. True. If (well it's not if, it's how much) inflation goes up we are paying for this house in pre-inflation dollars. Hopefully my salary will eventually go up some over the next 9 to 12 years of working. But in 9-12 years, with what everything is going to cost, this will seem like a small house payment, all things considered.

Plus, the social security estimated benefits are given in today's dollars, from what I read. So, us getting $60k a year total combined benefits is today's dollars. Social Security has a calculator to estimate what they think your monthly benefit will be in inflated dollars. According to their calculator if I retire at age 70 our inflated combined benefits would be $88,000 a year. Tomorrow's dollars, with a few years left to pay off our mortgage in yesterday's payment amount, won't seem so daunting.

Of course none of us know how long we're going to live, but I think in dh's case and health it's a good bet he's not going to go too many years past his break even age of 82. His mom lived to 85, his dad to 80. While he doesn't smoke or drink, he does have a health issue that I'm sure will shorten his life to some extent. His body will only be able to to take it for so long and the constant pain he experiences will make getting through other medical things even harder as he ages. I'm sure it's wearing his body down faster every year.

The other part I need to look into is how it works if you start drawing, but keep working. From what I am reading it's depending on how much you make and also if you've reached your full retirement age yet. I'm not quite sure I'm understanding that part yet, so more reading is in order. My FRA is 67.

I still have several years to figure this all out and decide which is the best plan, but good to have some kind of knowledge and plan with it only being 4 years out.

I went to get our mail yesterday and Mr. Neighbor had just gotten his and on his way back to his house. We chatted a few minutes. I asked how Mrs was doing. She had knee surgery in January and was due to be out of work at least 6 weeks, but then she is supposed to retire in May. He said she will be going back to work in about two weeks and then retires a couple months after that. He said she's gotten a good idea of what retirement will be like, being off. I said "and she's liking it?!" (thinking he was going to say yes) and he said "Noooo! She hates it. She's bored. She's sitting downstairs right now watching a movie". I said oh, no, that's too bad.

On my walk back to my house I thought to myself, boy, that is kind of sad. I don't want to be 72 years old (she will be almost 72 1/2 when she retires), finally getting to retire and not enjoy it. I wouldn't want to be 72 years old and my whole happiness in life is my job! No thank you! I like my job, but my whole life doesn't revolve around it. There is way more to life and enjoying it each day than going to work, that's for sure. Especially when you don't have a lot of years left ahead of you. Not to mention she has to drive almost 100 miles round trip to work and she doesn't even make a bunch of money (bank teller). 

A dinner hit

I tried a new recipe for dinner the other night. Chicken enchiladas. I have never made them before and they were really good! Between the two of us we ate the whole dish of them. It was a super easy recipe, too, and I'm looking forward to having it again soon. DH said to definitely add that to the menu choices.

We liked it so much we had it again last night. I had some leftover of the chicken, chilies and cheese mixture that I had put in the fridge, and then bought some more enchilada sauce when I was in town yesterday. I tweaked it just a bit from the first making. While very tasty, the tortilla's were very soggy. The recipe had said to pour the rest of the sauce over the top (after dipping the tortillas in the sauce and wrapping). I read on google to not use much of the sauce, other than dipping the tortilla's, so last night I just spooned a bit of the leftover sauce in the pan on top. It was better that way.

I still can't tell if my mom's prescriptions are going to make it today. They left a distribution center about 5 or 6 hours away at 3:30 this morning and I'm about positive they then have to go to the next nearest one, before they get out to our post office, so probably not coming today. The tracking even says this was shipped priority mail, which on their website says 1-3 business days. Should have been here by Thursday.  I would have even been happy with yesterday. What a complete waste of the extra cost to ship it that way! We had something to ship to dd a couple weeks ago. It was a bit more expensive to ship UPS, but I went ahead and did it that way because I hate giving the post office money for sub par delivery service. Plus, UPS would pick it it up here, so that also saved me 20 miles in gas and time to go to the post office. But, mostly I knew it wouldn't get to to her in 2 or 3 days like it would with UPS ground.

One piece of dh's desk just shipped, haha. It's the file cabinet base piece.  

Just house cleaning today, if the meds show up I may decide to go see mom this afternoon rather than tomorrow. Either day I adjust her alzheimer's clock, I'm either a day early or a day late, haha. The weather is going to be sunny and 54 today. Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy and maybe snowy, but I'm guessing mostly rain with the temperature predicted.

This was the view out the bedroom and bathroom windows this morning when I got up:

 Enjoy your Saturday!

Just my luck

Well, my trying, yesterday, to buy gift cards on Raise.com for the store that I want to buy the desk from didn't work out quite as planned. First off, there were no more gift cards available to buy at the 6% discount. But, apparently you can buy full price gift cards from Raise and they will give you 3% cash back to use towards a next purchase.  I did some checking first and this cash back is given immediately to use on your next order and could be used on any order. It also appeared that I had to buy what I needed in gift card amount in 3 separate purchases to equal what I need. Ok, that works.

Purchase #1 bought the 1st gift card and earned cash back.

Purchase #2 bought 2nd gift card and applied the cash back from 1st purchase to the order.

Purchase #3 was trying to buy 3rd gift card with cash back earned from 2nd order.

My credit card declined. Ok, had a feeling that might happen. I immediately got a text from my credit card asking if I made these 3 purchases and I texted back confirmation that I did. Then I got a text saying my card was good to go now and if anything got declined to try re-ordering now.

So, I still had the order screen where I was declined up and I clicked on "place order" again, but it still showed declined.  I started over with the 3rd order, but now my cash back to use from the 2nd order was missing. Show's I used it. So then I went on my credit card online and the 3rd charge (along with the first 2) was showing as pending.

Finally figured out how to chat with a live agent (their chat service is annoying) and he said he saw the charge and canceled it and it should now drop off my card. I realize this can take a day or two to drop off. For the cash back issue, he had to transfer me to a different person in a different dept. Ok. 

While I'm waiting for the second chat agent, I look on my credit card online again, and now there is another charge for the 3rd order! what in the world? The second agent comes on and tells me he credited me the missing cash back to my account. I ask about the now 2 charges on my card for the 3rd order and he says he'll have to transfer me back to the other dept again. I thought I was minimizing the chat screen for a few seconds, but apparently closed it. The only way to get back on is to start over. You end up having to enter your name and email twice every time. And then they say "chat line" is closed, you will have to handle questions via email. I tried to call the phone number showing up on my credit card, but it's just a recording saying to do online chat or email. So, now I have an email in as to why there is now 2 charges showing for my 3rd order, but they still have no 3rd order being processed.

I understand the fraud alert hold put on my card isn't their fault, but I released it right away and it should have let me reorder and there shouldn't be 2 charges for it on my card. There was no email reply this morning, so then I logged into my credit card and both the extra charges were now gone, so I went ahead to buy my 3rd gift card. Ok, now I have the 3 gift cards codes and enough time before I have to leave for jury duty this morning to get the order placed.

Only they increased the price of the desk by $240 overnight!! Are you freaking kidding me?!! If this had been not such a cluster/mess yesterday I would have ordered it yesterday at the lower price (that it has been at for all the months I have been looking at it!). I was so stinking mad. But, I had to go ahead and order it because I already had purchased the gift cards. And all but the 2 "top" pieces that go on top of the file cabinet and shelf unit, that go under the desk, are shipping soon. Those 2 pieces are estimating June....sigh.....

I get to town at 9:10 and no parking because everyone reporting for jury duty, LOL. Find a spot about a block down and get in to check in at 9:15. Sign in and get a paddle with a number 25 on it. Then they say sorry, but the courtroom is being used for a district court trial so we have to send you over to a meeting room in the fire station. So, then I have to walk 2 blocks over to the fire station and find my seat #25, end of third row. It's not the trial we had heard about for the county employee who was fired and sued. It was for some out of state truck driver who didn't have his oversized load properly marked with a reflector and apparently this is a criminal offense?! Crazy.

Sat through about an hour of information and general questions, some to the group as a whole, some to individuals. It was only a 6 person trial with one alternate and towards the end it became clear they were just focusing on the people in the first 2 rows and going to pick the 6 from there, which is what they did. Then the rest of us got to leave. The prosecutor also said, in the beginning, that the trial would start after they picked the jurors and be a quick one day trial. So, at that point, not knowing they were going to pick from the first 2 rows, I was like whew, at least it will only be one day if I get picked. The defendant was from New York and an immigrant from some former Soviet union country, I can't remember how to pronounce, let alone spell, LOL. This is such a small town/county, I even knew 2 of the other people there, haha. Neither of them got chosen either, though one of them had a better chance, as she was in the 2nd row.

And to add another annoyance, I ordered some of my mom's prescriptions to be refilled on Monday. As I want to go see her Sunday and to make dang sure they'd be here by Saturday, I paid extra for 2 day shipping.....still not here! 2 day shipping should have been Thursday at the latest, as they show shipped out on Monday. Tracking shows today, but says it's not even at my local post office yet. USPS shipping is awful and paying extra to get it here is a joke. I'm going to be so mad if it's not here tomorrow, as then I will have to take time off work during the week next week to get it to my mom, so I can refill her dispenser.

 

Save and spend

Trying to cut back on spending and then deciding to buy a large purchase - eegads! How stupid is that! We have been planning/wanting to get dh a nice desk for his den. For 3 years. It's one of the main rooms, right off the foyer, that is visible to us and anyone who comes in the house. Even with the doors shut, you can still see in there! It's french type doors. We just keep putting it off, for other things we have needed.

The den is a sad eyesore! First off is his "desk", which isn't even a desk, is just our old small oak dining table in one corner. To the left of the doors is an old small rolltop desk. I honestly have no idea why I ever bought that rolltop desk many many years ago, LOL. I told him we are getting rid of that! Maybe we can get a few dollars for it on marketplace. Then to the other side of the rolltop desk is our old tv cabinet (which I did try to get rid of on marketplace, but no luck). Then several stacked big plastic black bins with the yellow tops in the corner. And the closet still isn't closed up, so there is a big safe in there as well as more stacked bins. UGLY UGLY UGLY!  I am not over exaggerating. We gotta start somewhere on this room. So, I think desk it will be. That will be the *cheapest item. Eventually we want one of those bookcases that are really a door, to cover the closet/safe room. They are expensive. 

We want something quality and solid. So many of the desks I find aren't even made of real wood and they are still $500. Several months ago we found one we both liked. He wanted a corner type desk. I want it to fit our home's decor style. But, then he said he could probably just build something like he wants. Then he decided he couldn't because he wants some drawers. Then he decided he could build one, but no drawers. Then he decided not, but we decided to hold off while waiting for our new car and the down payment saving going on for that. Each visit to their website to look at the desk is an even longer wait. Now it's out to July....

The "collection" also carries other pieces - bookcases, bigger file cabinets, etc. Then I just noticed there is a page where all these pieces in this "collection" are available to purchase separately and create whatever combination of desk/office you want. The desk he wants works out to the same price, but buying individually, it's showing all the pieces are available to ship within 2 weeks! No idea why it would be different, but that's so much better. I got online to chat with someone on their website to make sure this was same desk and that the pieces I would order are correct. They are.

Then on to trying to save a little on it, if possible. There are no coupon codes, but supposedly you can create a registry for whatever reason suits your fancy. Put your items in the registry and anything left after your event date, you can purchase for 10% off. I see this morning that there is now the 10% off offer. Another way to save is to purchase discounted gift cards to the store that can be used for online purchase. I found them for 6% off face value. Rakuten also offers 1% cash back from purchasing gift cards from this site. I would also get 2% cash back using my rewards credit card. I'm a little nervous to purchase that large of e-gift cards from this site (raise.com) but I have used them before for smaller cards with no issues. But, overall all, if all these "tricks" work I'll save 16.2% on the desk.

I haven't pulled the trigger on any of it yet, but since I can and will pay cash for it (well, other than putting the discounted gifts cards on my credit card first to get the 2% cash back) and we really need to move forward on the things we still need to get done to finish this house, I think I probably will order it.

These are what we still want/need to do to the house and we have been at a standstill with not doing anything more for quite awhile, due to the medical bills and getting the new car (which we still don't hve yet, haha. Hoping for the weekend after this coming one):

Den (dh's computer room) furnished and hidden bookcase/door. I think it was over $3000 for one of those last we priced out (ugh) but something needs to cover it. In building this is what we had planned to put there, so it is also not a normal door sized opening, so now we just can't go buy a door for it :(

Master bedroom closets (2) - priced out a closet system and it would have been over $10k! So, closets are still not done.

Bonus room - needs carpeting (we already put leftover laminate down in the bar area). Needs bar countertop (dh making) and furnishings. 

Laundry room - a shelf (dh making) above/over the back of the washer and dryer. I don't know why he keeps procrastinating on this one. Probably the easiest and cheapest of any of the stuff left to do.

That's all we have left, but most of it is expensive stuff, so it keeps getting put to the last of spending list.

A nice thank you and more budget savings

Our company president sent out a nice company wide email yesterday in honor of International Women's Day, thanking all the women of our company. He grouped them by dept and said a nice little something about each. Me, being a dept of one got the following:

Thank you to the wizard behind the curtain, {One} – Thank you for making sure we have a business to be thankful for! Most of you will never know how much she does for ----, but I promise you, you’d know it if she didn’t!

That was sweet :)

We've already cut down our food budget that past 6 months or so, with dh barely eating meat. I no longer buy steaks or hamburger. Chicken breasts is the only thing I buy and we don't eat a lot of it. If we do it's an added ingredient in a casserole or recipe. And for now it's still cheaper than red meat.

I plan to try more store brand items going forward.

Eggs - now that production is on the rise (I'm getting about 2 a day now, sometimes 3) and will most likely get back to 3-4 a day, I'll have lots of extras. I've always shared with neighbors and our retired friend that stops by for visits. I still plan to do this, but I first want to get us a nice stockpile of them. More than I typically would keep. I want to go into next late fall/winter with as much eggs as possible to get us through without having to buy them. 

Storage of eggs. I'm reading up on this. There seem to be several methods.

Freezing - what do you use the eggs for once thawed? can you fry it? or just for scrambled or baking type needs?

The best method, for me, seem to be just storing them, unwashed in the fridge and freezing. Fresh eggs from the hens, not washed of their "bloom", are supposed to last a good 6 months in the fridge. This should work fine for getting me through the winter/low laying months, if I plan ahead and keep enough, and make sure I am using the oldest eggs first all summer and go into the winter with the freshest ones. Freezing would also be good for any other excess. The first winter I had the hens they still produced really well and I didn't have to buy store eggs. This winter they pretty much stopped, other than maybe a few eggs a week. If I had known this winter would be less, I would have planned better. Now that I will expect this slow/no production I'm going to be prepared next winter.

The method of coating in mineral oil or using lime with water in glass jars doesn't appeal to me. If the eggs will last 3-6 months in the fridge that will work just fine for me. I will probably have to store several dozen out in our small fridge in the shop. I saw an idea to freeze scrambled eggs in muffin tins and then transfer to a ziploc in little "pucks". Each puck being equivalent to one egg. That looked like a good way to do it.

DH will just to have to figure out ways to reduce things a bit. Not his strong suit, at all. He does all our maintenance stuff. He's just going to have to figure ways to cut back a little here and there. Go a little longer in between replacing filters, etc. I'm glad we're heading into the warm months now, so the electric and propane usage will go way down, giving me that extra money each month towards these high prices coming. I'm sure next winter is not going to be good.

I did stop buying the litter box liners. I'm finding it easier to clean without them and they weren't cheap with only 5 liners per box. The kitty didn't like the liners and would scratch them all up with holes and pull the sides in, just making more of a mess. I'm also finding that for me, it's working well to clean out with the scooper every day and add fresh litter as needed, rather than dumping out a whole box of litter (like I was with the liners) and having to add all new litter each time (I was doing this weekly). I'm not going through litter as fast now. I do buy a 40lb box of the litter I use (Arm & Hammer Super Scoop unscented) and have it delivered.

We're still going to go on our drive to Utah in June. I figure the free night hotel room and free meals (we get dinner the night we get there, and free breakfast and lunch the next day) will offset the increased cost in gas. And like dh said when is the last time the two of us just went and did a little trip for just us? Like never! Even our trip last year to Texas was because we had to deliver that car.

With yesterday morning and this morning's snow dh is just letting it melt. We don't need to go anywhere until I need to go to jury duty on Friday and there is no more snow expected after today, it will melt off. Rather than get his quad out there, often just so he's busy and something to do, and plow the few inches off, he'll leave it. Save the gas/$.

I just placed a Walmart shipping order. I need a little hand whisk broom and dustpan to sweep up the kitty litter kitty always flings out. Then, of course, I needed to spend $35 for free shipping, so I figured out what else I'm low on. I'm low on Milk-bones and cosequin ds for the dog. I've always bought the 30 day supply for him. It's gradually gone up from $14-ish to $20. A little more time searching and I realized there is a 90 day supply for $40, so I ordered that, saving $20 over the next 90 days. I also need toilet bowl cleaner. I used to get Walmart's "the works" but it doesn't appear they make that anymore. Been just buying clorox or lysol. But, again, doing a little better search (from low price to high price) I found a Walmart GV brand for a 2 pack for $2.84 compared to a Clorox 2 pack for $3.78. So, being a little more mindful and taking a few extra minutes for my little order, I was able to save $21.

In my recent post, reader JRE commented and it's very eye opening. If farmers are seeing these kinds of insane price increases to grow their crops, I can only imagine what our food costs are going to look like in the very near future! It's all very scary.

 I’m off topic here but just a little because prices!!! I’m sick with worry. I talked with my son last night he’s a farmer in NW Minnesota. Starting to get ready for spring. Farmers get their farm loans for the season set up before so had been all set. Now for his corn fertilizer it was first $400.00, then went to 600 and now $1000.00 a bag, it will cost him $100,000 more just for his corn fertilizer this year. Plus his fuel prices. The thousand of gallons he goes through and the cost increase is crazy. He also grows wheat, soy beans and sugar beets. Can you imagine the trickle through costs? Consumers will see this at the other end. He can’t figure out the why of the crazy fertilizer increase but every pre market cost increase comes around. ( and I don’t believe large companies are going to lose their profits).

When our propane tank just got filled I had prepaid 530 gallons last Sept at the lower price. That's what he pumped in, as close as possible, I guess but the little .2 gallon or whatever, LOL, left me with owing 26 cents. They actually mailed me a statement for this! What a waste of money. When I worked at a company that ran statements each month we ran a report of anything under $5 and wrote it off before the statements were even run. They had another company print and mail our statements and it as figured that each statement cost like $7 to process, print and mail. I don't know whether to just go online and pay it (which then of course they are going to pay a credit card processing fee, LOL) or just leave the balance there and pay it when we have our next fill up, which is usually June. It's just really going to annoy me that if I wait until June they are going to keep sending me a statement each month for 26 cents.