Simple Saturday

I made it through the work week. I pretty much only got the minimum done, due to my low energy. Hopefully next week will be better. Dh is getting his energy back more than me, but we both still have a little cough.

Yesterday afternoon I got an email from where my mom lives, that 3 residents have tested positive for Covid yesterday- but this is not in the memory care part, it's it their regular assisted/independent living area. But, I'm sure this is just the start of it spreading more there. The letter just said they were canceling "happy hour" that afternoon, but planned on keeping the activities on for the weekend. If any residents didn't want to go to the dining rooms, they could request their meals brought to their apartment. I don't know how many independent and assisted living residents they have, but it's a lot. It's a large place. My mom did call me yesterday morning and she was happy and doing well.

One more thing I want/need to take care of regarding my mom's accounts. I'm going to close out her checking and savings with Bank of America, that she has had forever. There is no BofA here, so she does have a checking with a local bank, after I moved her here. I left the BofA accounts open because she still had quite a bit in savings (and some checking) and her credit card was also tied to that account, so it was just easy to pay each month out of those funds. But, a year or so ago the credit card got reissued with a different company, so it's not tied to BofA anymore and there isn't enough money left in the accounts for her to qualify as "gold member" or whatever it is. Closing it out is just one less thing I have to keep track of. My name is also on the account, so it will be easy to get closed. I just need to do it and stop procrastinating (my middle name), LOL.

DD said they walked 23k steps yesterday and her legs are tired. I just messaged her (where it's afternoon now) and she said another 14k steps today. They are touring the Tower of London right now. Looks like decent weather. I see some blue sky in her pics.

No blue sky here still. It's not raining, but overcast and gray skies. According to the weather forecast we aren't going to be seeing the sun for the next week or so. 

I just ordered cat litter and cat food. I see from what I wrote down as the price I had paid before, cat litter is $2 more. I'm not sure on the food, I didn't write down my previous price, but I'm sure it's up, too. A 16 lb bag of food is $30. Geez - Petco is fast. A half hour after I placed my order I already got an email it's shipped and the tracking#.

I need to do some laundry today. Wash my clothes and wash the sheets again. Tomorrow I plan to get the chicken coop cleaned out. Big plans, LOL.

Oh, there is a little bit of sun coming out. Maybe dh will be able to mow the lawn today. After he did his fall fertilizing and then all the rain we've had this past week, it's ready to be mowed again, but it needs to dry out some first.

Well, I hear dh up and about. I can now go get in the shower and not wake him up bumbling around the bathroom.

Happy Friday

It's raining again this morning. I don't mind. It's a nice break from the hot summer. I am glad it's Friday. Even with having Monday off, it has seemed like a long work week. I am not waking up coughing, so that is better. Still not at my normal energy - which wasn't high to begin with, LOL. 

Yesterday afternoon I ended up with a bad sinus headache. It even hurt my teeth to chew food. A sinus tablet helped and it seems to be gone now.  

The cat is just meowing and being annoying. He wants dh to get up, LOL. Finally, I just picked him up and tossed him outside. He can meow out to the rain for awhile (he won't be out in the rain, he will hang out under the covered front patio). He does the same thing almost every night when I go to bed. He's fine all evening, but apparently mad that I went to bed, so he wanders around the house meowing for a little while and then finally stops. Maybe he needs a buddy. Or we'd just end up with 2 meowing, haha.

I do not feel like working today. Oh well, gotta do it anyway.  

DD just sent a few pics of Westminster Abbey. She said over 17,000 walking steps in today, so far. She said she isn't really feeling any jet lag. They flew over at their night time. She said she slept a little on the plane, but not much (screaming 2 year old for most of the flight) and then by the time they got to London and to their hotel and dinner, it was evening and then they were ready to sleep last night.

A little improvement

After I kicked the annoying cat out of our bedroom at 6 this morning, I fell back asleep until 7:30. At least I didn't cough last night, so that was an improvement (and I didn't take cough syrup). By the time I was done working yesterday, I don't think I felt quite as tired.

I was just looking at dd's itinerary and they are due to arrive in London in about an hour or so, but of course it will be like 4:30pm there.

It's raining here this morning with some fog hanging around the tops of the mountains.

I've gotten my mom's memory care expenses for this year logged in a spreadsheet, so that I will have the total cost when I do her taxes in January/Feb. I also need to log into her health insurance to get her prescriptions costs each month so far. Then at least, I will be caught up for the year and only have a few more months to add. From everything I have read on it, her memory care costs are fully tax deductible medical expense because she needs it for her daily living. So, she should end up with a very large federal and state tax refund for this year. I'm just going to have her RMD left set at the tax rate they've had her at, so then just gives me an extra cushion added to her checking account, when she gets the refunds. Right now, with her level of care, her cost is just under $8000 a month. With the big refund, I want to be ready to file her tax return as early as possible. The remaining few months left of this year will go by fast. It always seems to with the holidays.

Well, by the time I finished this post an hour has past and dh just messaged us they just got landed. 

I need some breakfast and get back to working.

 

Lots of receipts found

I think I have now gotten most of my HSA eligible items w/receipt copies loaded into my HSA expense journal online. This is for 2022 and 2023. So far it's over $725! Other than one dr visit for dh that went to deductible that was like $137 and I had missed recording it last year, the rest is OTC stuff and prescriptions that I never recorded. I need to stay on top of all the OTC purchases. Obviously they all add up! I'm not going to reimburse myself at this time. There is no time limit for HSA stuff, so that is good. 

My dd and her dh leave tonight for their Scotland trip. They won't be back until Oct 6th. I think they are spending like the first 5 days in London and then the rest of the trip in Scotland. I'm sure she will be keeping in touch and sending lots of pictures during the trip. She said they added a temporary international plan to their phones. She also sent us a pretty detailed itinerary, right down to where they are parking their car at the airport, in case anything should happen, we'd know where to find it.

Very chilly out this morning. Started out at 39 and now it's up to 44 and only supposed to be low 60's today. Fall is here. I had to turn the heat on a bit upstairs when I got up to my office this morning. 

I did take some Delsym cough medicine last night and I didn't cough. But, I did wake up at 3am and couldn't go back to sleep for awhile. If it's not one thing, it's another, I guess. 

One of the recent times I was at my mom's I noticed I could only find one cardigan type sweater. She likes to wear them over her tops quite often. I thought I had brought at least 2, maybe 3, when we moved her. But, it's so easy for clothes to go missing at these places. So, I just ordered her a new cardigan sweater and also a long sleeved top. Having two to wear should be enough, as long as they don't go missing again.

More of the same

I guess I need to get caught up with my blog since it's now Tuesday and I last blogged Saturday. Nothing much has changed. I'm still feeling the same  - tired. And tired of it. DH is getting his energy back, so hopefully I am there too, soon.

Sunday, around 12:30, we went into the city and picked up groceries from Walmart. Got home, put them away and took a nap, of course. On the way home we stopped at Taco Time for a late lunch. For dinner dh just ended up making himself a sandwich later. I don't remember if I even had anything. A muffin, I think.

I spent Sunday morning saving copies of receipts to my computer that have HSA eligible items on them. Lots of OTC stuff is eligible and I just need to get them added to my HSA. I'm not going to reimburse myself, but having the receipts in the "vault" will ensure that at some point I can reimburse myself, tax free. This morning, with my hour I'm up before I start work, I added them to the HSA account. I also found a couple other receipts that needed to get added. So, far I'm at $235. I also need to just go through all the claims on our heath insurance plan and make sure I have captured everything and not missed any. 

I had yesterday off work. Originally scheduled off and a catch up on rest day, after I was supposed to drive back home from dd's Sunday. I decided to just keep it as a day off. DH needed to go get his concealed weapon permit renewed. He still renews it in the state he originally got it from, so we had to drive about 2 1/2 hours to get there. It ended up taking 3 hours, as we stopped for gas, a bathroom break and McDonalds drive through for breakfast. It didn't take too long to fill out the form (it's a 5 year license) and pay the $32 fee at the sheriff's office. This town we went to is literally blocks off the state border, LOL. We then decided to take a bit longer, more scenic route home, rather than the interstate. I was getting pretty tired by the drive home. We did stop at one larger city and got lunch at the drive thru at Burger King. When we got back to our town, we had to stop and fill back up with gas and we didn't gt home until 3:30 and we had left at 8am, so a long day in the car. I can't really sleep in a car much anymore, so as soon as we got home I took a nap. It was a nice sunny day and a pretty drive, though. Oh, and I just remembered it also took us longer to get home because he stopped at this place with hundreds of old trucks (ie rusted out junk, LOL) and ended up chatting with the guy for like a half hour.

I had asked dh why he doesn't get his permit in our state here and he said it's a few reasons. One, it has to be approved by the county sheriff every time. Two, you have to take a class (he's already done this), and third, our state isn't as reciprocal with as many states as the CWP license he has. So, every 5 years he'll have to make this little trip, haha.

I've also been going to bed about an hour earlier than usual. Doesn't seem to be helping. And I seem to end up waking up around midnight every night having a coughing fit. Then I'm fine the rest of the night. I supposed I should take some of the cough syrup I bought. I really despise taking cough syrup, but I probably should.

So, that's the boring update.

Still recovering

Yay for Saturday and no work. I have Monday off, too. I am hoping to be feeling more back to normal by then, but not holding my breath. At least bread is starting to taste more normal again, so I am happy for that.

We really need to get to the store soon for some more groceries. I'll probably do that tomorrow. I'm getting my list started now. When dh gets up I'll see if he wants to go with me tomorrow or stay home and then decide what time. It's now been 2 weeks since I last got groceries. Not that we ate a bunch the past 2 weeks, while sick, but we're definitely out and low on some things now. 

It's a chilly 48 degrees outside this morning, but supposed to get up to low 80's today. DH is going to see if he feels like mowing the lawn again. I really need to do some vacuuming, dusting, and bathroom cleaning. It sounds exhausting, LOL. 

I've started my Walmart grocery order online. Good grief - my list so far isn't even that long and it's already up to $260.

I got up at 7 this morning, because as usual I wake up and then for some reason just waking up starts the coughing. It doesn't last long, but by then I'm awake. Now it's 8:45 and I'm thinking about going back to bed. DH is still in bed, but he doesn't usually get up until 8:30 or 9 most days anyway, since he is always up past midnight or even 1am.

I watched British comedian Michael McIntyre (probably spelled wrong but I don't feel like looking it up) Netflix comedy special last night. Gosh, he is funny. I had a good laugh watching that. I've seen clips from his tv show (on BBC?) and he's a hoot. Especially when he takes a celebrity's (which I don't usually recognize who they are, at all LOL) phone and send a funny text to everyone in the phone and reads some of the replies.

Ok, I'm going to go back to bed and see if I can fall back asleep. Ugh.

TGIF

I check on DAN's listing for his house, in the other state, often, to now see if it goes back on the market. He took it off mid July. Well, it's back on now - back at the same highest price he originally set it at when it was first listed 2years ago. Huh? LOL. We had really thought maybe he took it off in order to do a little landscaping (as there is none, it looks like an industrial gravel yard) but nope, it all looks the same, other than most everything is out of the house now. He did show up out here yesterday for about an hour, but other than just turning on one of his pieces of equipment, he didn't do anything. Probably so the batteries don't die, is my guess.

We did get a notice from the property assessor in the mail of the reduction decision they made to our buildings value (a reduction of $127,000) but that they are not adjusting the land value. That's frustrating and I haven't decided yet whether to keep appealing the land value or not. At this point it would go to the county appeal board for review/decision. I told dh my guess that the reason they stuck with the land value is because none of our neighbors appealed their (same) values. Part of me is just tired of dealing with it (probably just tired from Covid) and accept this amount. I am ready to be over it, that's for sure.

There was an article dh found yesterday about our state's property taxes and our governor's house in Helena (that he purchased in 2020). His property tax actually is going down - imagine that. 6000 square foot very nice house, in Helena, is valued at less than my house out in a tiny town in a tiny county of 4200 people. Just makes you want to throw up at the corruptness of it all. Rules for thee, but not for me at it's finest.

I'm stuck at feeling the same all week. A cough and tired. Every day is the same this week. I'm glad it's Friday, but I'm not feeling very optimistic that I'll start feeling better, more rested, with the weekend. At least I will have Monday off, too.

I need to get housecleaning done, so I'm hoping I feel like doing some this weekend. 

Same stuff, different day

I feel like there is something I'm supposed to be doing/taking care of, that I am forgetting. Probably just from Covid and feeling like I lost a week. Hopefully whatever it is I may be forgetting isn't that important.

Still feeling about the same the past few days. Still a little cough, stuffy/runny nose, ears plugged up and still tire easily. I think dh is going to see how much of applying the lawn fertilizer he can get done. He was supposed to do it over Labor Day weekend.

Our accounting assistant sent my boss and I his work schedule with fall quarter classes starting up soon for him. Interesting that he's only showing working 12 hours a week....when my boss hired him she told him we needed him at least 24 hrs a week. Yesterday she told me we'll chat next week about him - probably to see if that schedule will be enough? I wonder if he ok'd this reduction of hours by half with her. 

I don't have much of an update. Just trying to get as much work done as possible and then taking a nap when I'm done. Then to bed around 8:30pm. 

 

Good news?

I have not heard back yet from the assessor when he was here the Friday before last. I keep checking my emails, but last night dh was on the states property website and saw our buildings value has now decreased! With the value they are showing it at now, this is a 21.63% increase instead of a 44.25% increase from our prior assessment. Much better! The land is still the same though and he had kind of made it sound like he could probably adjust the land, too, some. Maybe he's not done yet (and why he hasn't contacted me with his decision?). Our land had gone up 113%, so I'm also really hoping/expecting that to adjust some, too. But, I'm definitely pleased with the change in buildings value.

I made it working until around 3:00 yesterday and then just worn out and took a nap. I made us some scrambled eggs for dinner. There still isn't a lot that sounds appetizing to either of us yet. Honestly, the thing I've been craving is a brownie, LOL. That's the only thing that sounds good to eat.

Yesterday I texted my uncle, as we hadn't checked in with each other in at least a few weeks. I told him dh and I were getting over Covid, but on the mend, and that my mom is doing well. He said he just found out the day prior that he also has Covid. So, now I'm going to worry about him. He's 79 and lives alone. Hopefully he doesn't get too sick (and he is very healthy for his age), but he does have a lot of friends that I know will be checking on him, I'm sure.

DH managed to get the lawn mowed yesterday, but even though most of it is on a riding mower, it was still pretty exhausting for him. We were both pretty worn out by the end of the day.

Well, I have payroll done and in the review process right now, so I'm going to go take a shower and get dressed for the day. I think today I will make sure I take a lunch break to take a nap mid day, rather than trying to make it all day before I stop.

Back to work, I hope

Yesterday was a little more improvement. I'm still getting hit with coughing fits, but not as often. I did manage to get the new sheets on the bed. And then promptly crawled in and took a nap. The new sheets are nice and soft, but I doubt they will last a long time, but we'll see.

DH was also feeling better yesterday but when I got up this morning he said now his throat is hurting. I'm sure this is going to be a long recovery period for him.

My mom called again after dinner last night, so I was finally able to answer and feel like chatting. She's doing well, though still thinks she is staying somewhere for awhile and this time she's not going home for about a week, LOL. But, it was nice to chat with her.

I need to make myself walk down to the mailbox this morning to mail my signed propane winter contract.  

I logged back into our payroll system this morning and thankfully it all looks normal now. That was so strange yesterday, but I am relieved it's all looks ok now. Though I am still pounding my head on the desk with our hourly people. They are supposed to take at least a half hour lunch. There are times they just don't end up taking a lunch, but they are supposed to add a note to that day letting me know they did not take a break, so that I know that is the case and not that they did take a lunch and just forgot to clock out and back in. My boss has reminded them all several times of this, yet it still keeps happening.

I had wanted to sleep in as long as possible this morning, before I get up to start work. The cat decided I should be awake at 6:30. Meowing and making a bunch of noise. I finally got up and shut our bedroom door to try to go back to sleep and then of course I started coughing after getting up. So, no extra sleep. And of course, after I'm up and sitting at my desk he's all lovey dovey.

DD and her dh are getting excited about their upcoming trip to Scotland. She said she will send me their travel itinerary, just so we have it, though of course she will likely be messaging us and sending pictures during the trip. I think they will be gone for 2 weeks and also spending part of the trip in England.

I've lost track of time, but I think it's been at least a month now since we last saw DAN here at his property. Two of his 3 pieces of equipment are still sitting parked on one of the lots. I would say he's not been busy doing construction/land clearing jobs for anyone or he'd be needing this equipment you'd think. I wonder if he plans to leave them sitting here all winter, covered in snow?

Coughing, preparedness and Twilight Zone

Yesterday was another coughing day. I did actually do a little bit yesterday. I had ordered a new set of sheets for our bed that came last week and I got those washed. Maybe today I'll actually feel like changing sheets. I got the dishes in the sink into the dishwasher and this morning I turned it on. Such an accomplishment, LOL. Yesterday I also managed to make dh an egg sandwich for breakfast and made us grilled cheese for dinner.

I coughed the first hour I went to bed last night but then settled down and slept really good again all night, so at least there is that positive. DH just can't seem to shake the bad headache and of course is still super tired all the time.

This morning I'm having my first cup of coffee in a week. I used to have things on hand like sore throat lozenges, cough syrup, stuff like that. That was years ago, when the kids were younger and between the 4 of us, we'd need something at times. But as the years went by, the left home and dh and I hardly ever get a cold or flu, I don't have any of that stuff. I remember throwing out a whole bunch of long expired stuff during our move/packing. 

I'd get texts saying take this or that. Honey...nope don't have any. Zinc....nope don't have any...The list goes on. I guess I'll make a list and get a few things again to have on hand, just in case. Someone commented yesterday about Delsym cough syrup and I agree, that has always worked best for me, too. And it really wouldn't have done much good for me to order this stuff for now - there is rarely anything that arrives in the 2-3 days shipping "promised". Not here. It's usually 4 days now, sometimes even 5. 

When dh got sick I immediately ordered a few things. The sinus headache med was working, but one box was lasting like 2 days when taking every 4 hours, so we definitely needed more. I also ordered a pulse oximeter to have on hand. It came. It doesn't work. We even tried another set of batteries, so now I have to return that. Fortunately we have plenty of tylenol and advil. One of the things I ordered awhile back from my mom's insurance OTC benefit was a digital thermometer and we've gotten lots of use out of that (though I do also have a very old ear type thermometer that still works).

OMG - I just logged into work to do a couple tasks related to payroll processing that I have to do on Tuesday. I'm feeling like I'm in the twilight zone! I logged into our payroll system and it's looking totally bizarre. I'm scrolling through each employee's "timecard" and it's not even scrolling in alphabetical order. It's just going along in order and then suddenly not. It has never done that before. Then I choose "hourly" from the drop down menu to look at our 10 or so hourly people's timecards and almost every single one looks the same - every day for each person is showing PTO, not actual clocked/worked hours worked. WHAT IN THE HELL?!! None of them took the whole pay period off as PTO, that's for sure, let alone all of them? I'm so confused. I even tried logging out and back in. I have no idea what the heck is going on. If it still looks like that in the morning I guess I will be calling our payroll company to ask what the world is going on? So much for trying to get a little bit of work done and be prepared. Geez.

A good night sleep

I'm sorry I'm not responding to comments - I just don't have the energy for both a new post and making comments, yet.

As soon as my sore throat went away, I got a bad cough. Yesterday turned into full on coughing day. Exhausting, plus I hadn't gotten any sleep the previous nights with the RLS. I went to bed last night fully expecting to spend it coughing and with restless legs. I had neither and slept so good. I have coughed some now that's I'm up, but I'm hoping today will be a better day.

DH is still having a rough time. Just can't shake the bad headache or tiredness. He didn't get the sore throat or coughing, but is more congested then I am. But, with his immune system and other health issues I know he will take longer to recover than the average person.

With more cases going around, from what I hear, I hope it doesn't get into where my mom lives, but it likely will. Even though the memory care part is smaller, the rest of the place (assisted and independent living) is huge, so I'm surprised they haven't notified of new cases. She has had all the boosters though, so hopefully that will help. I had ordered some more at home Covid test kits, right after we tested Dh. So that we'd have some to take later to make sure we were negative. Last night, in my brain clearing up some I realized they never came. I look up my Amazon order and the date was like 9/20. That's ridiculous, so I canceled the order and have now ordered some from Walmart to ship and they are supposed to be here Wednesday. 

DD and her dh have been trying to do some hikes in their area every Saturday morning and she will send a few pictures. They get out so early in the morning that they find they are missing the crowd, so it's been really nice. This mornings hike was 2.5 miles up to a beautiful lookout area. Good for them for getting themselves out and active.

Checking in

Hello - I'm still here. Still sick and not enjoying this picnic too much. Day 2 wasn't as bad as day 1, but then Tuesday night I got a terrible sore throat, along with RLS. I honestly don't know which felt worse, as I could not sleep at all. I haven't slept much at night since then. The sore throat is now abated some, at least it's not hurting unless I cough. When it was hurting in the beginning and I'd cough it would feel like my throat was being ripped apart. I've also lost my voice.

Dh is a little better. He's eating more regular foods and not sleeping as much during the day, but is still pretty wiped out.  All's I've been able to eat since the sore throat is ice cream and yogurt for the most part. The ice cream was very soothing, though I was really wishing for some popscicles.

Mid day Tuesday I was checking my work emails via my phone (normally because I just like to delete out the junk) and see terrible news. My boss lost her husband over the weekend from an accident. OMG. Of course she's going to be out for a few weeks, at least. I need to get back to work. I worked a tiny bit (less than an hour total) yesterday and am working what I can today. I'm just heartbroken for my boss. 

I'm managing to get a little more work done this morning. Yesterday I only handled the things that were a must. This morning I am getting some tasks done and clearing off my emails bit by bit.

My mom has tried to call. She tried twice yesterday after dinner. She will call and leave a voicemail and 5 minutes later call again and leave a similar voicemail. Yesterday's voicemails were confusion time as she told me she was going back home tomorrow. The 2nd voicemail said she's been out and about for a few days, so wanted to give me a call. After the first call I messaged dd and asked her to call  and chat with her. Before she could call my mom called me the 2nd time. DD then called and chatted almost 15 minutes with her. She was apparently thinking she was at a casino. She said she was going home tomorrow and going to find her car out in the parking lot. DD said you should stay an extra day and do some more gambling! LOL. I'm feeling bad that I can't answer her calls, but I don't have a voice above a whisper still.

Well, I got 90 minutes in with work - time to go back to bed. Yesterday after I worked a bit in the morning and went back to bed I slept a really good 3 hours.

Day 5 and Day 1

Day 5 for dh day 1 for me,  yesterday, was me now getting sick. Dang it. Same symptoms as dh, fever, headache, achey body, wiped out tired. 

Dh's temperature did go back to normal yesterday, so at least there is that improvement for him.

Four lines is all I have the energy for right now. Heading back to bed.

 

Day 4

So far so good, I am still not sick. Dh's temp last night and this morning is down a bit, to 99.4 so that's good. It had been like 101 at first, then down to like 100.4 the next day. He's still feeling the crappy same, otherwise. He's mostly in bed sleeping. He did eat a bit more yesterday. He had an egg sandwich around lunchtime and at 9pm last night asked for some soup. 

I was glad to be done with work yesterday around 12:30 and now off until next Thursday. I did have a quick phone chat with my boss just before we were done for the day. We've been having my assistant guy work on some stuff for another dept, with not much from me right now. But, she's again having a hard time knowing if he's really working the whole time or not. The prior Friday she asked me if he had been doing anything for me and I said no, other than just a couple of quick tasks I gave him and I assumed he was working on stuff for the other dept to keep him busy. She asked him to let her know what he had been working on/was working on. He told her this report for me.....this was at the end of the day friday before last. So, then Monday I'm like...ya, I don't think so...I thought he was done with that report like a week prior....so I looked up the date stamps on all the invoices he entered and he was done with it and hadn't entered anything new. She had a phone meeting with him on Monday to ask what he's bee working on for the other dept and also asked him about the report he said he was working on for me and he said oh ya, I was done with it, except for a few that needed to get entered.

As we were talking I looked up the transaction history and told her he did not enter anything for that report this past week or even the week before (he had completed it). He has been working on stuff for the other dept, but it's hard for her to know how long it should take him. She's asked the other dept to cc her on any work they are giving him. But, she also sounds like she is kind of ready to just let him go as she's not having confidence that he's working the hours he says he is. I have on idea what he is working on for the other dept or if they have a way to track/know how long it should take him. I would assume so.

My original plans for my time off was to go back to see my mom again next Wednesday and pick up some more groceries, but I won't be going to see her until I know I am past dh being sick and me not being sick. But, if I am still not sick I may go in Wednesday to at least pick up a grocery order. Dh is going through all the Gatorade I normally buy at 3x the usual rate. I won't even get out of the car. I'll just let them put it in the back and then after they are done I can get out and put anything that needs to go into the cooler and head back home. 

After sleeping on this bed upstairs, we need a new mattress LOL. It's old and this will be the next thing on my list to save up for here in the near future. I know where we bought it, but I apparently cut the tag off that shows even what brand it is. There's nothing even stamped on it. We bought 2 queen sized mattresses at this store, but at different times. The first one was in 2016, when we moved over here. The second was after we moved into this house. I'm not sure which one got put on which bed, either. But, I think the one I've been sleeping on, with no tag, is the most comfortable. I sent an email to the store to see if they have records on their computer as to which mattress it is.

Well, time to get some chores done. I'm not trying to do too much, so I'm not making a racket while dh is trying to sleep.

Waiting and wondering

So far so good. I'm still not sick, though it feels like I am just sitting here waiting for the hammer to drop on me. Dh is still the same. I just took his temperature, still around 100 or 101. It's the strangest thing. I have one of those digital thermometers (it's fairly new) that you point at your forehead. The left side of his forehead will read 100.7 and the right side will read 99.6 or something. Middle of the forehead another temp. He says the super headache is all on the left side of his head. I test the thermometer on different spots on my forehead and it's all within a close range, like 98.4 and 98.7. Or I'll do it in one spot on my head a couple of times and it's the same, and do dh in the same spot on his head and it's different. 

The bed upstairs is super comfortable, so I'm sleeping really good - no snoring to listen to, ha! Our other guest bed has a similar mattress, though I've never slept on it, it must be comfortable too, as after our friends stayed she texted me asking where I got the mattress and pillows, LOL.

The assessor had told me he would be by to look at our property in the afternoon, yesterday. Right after dh tested positive in the morning I did send him an email that my husband just tested positive for Covid and so I'm also likely exposed, so I didn't want to expose him. Well, he didn't see the email and dh happened to be in his den and saw him stop his truck out at the gate and get out so he called me downstairs. This was even before noon. I opened the front door as he was walking up the driveway and said hello and explained about the Covid, so he just stood back and I stood on the front patio and we chatted awhile. He's really nice, but we'll see what comes of it. He seemed to act like he's going to see what he can do to get our value lowered on both the house and land.

My office closes at noon today, for the holiday weekend, so that will be nice not to have to work all day. This morning I ordered some Covid test kits from Amazon. I figured the remaining test in the box I bought yesterday I will wait and use after dh starts feeling better and make sure he's negative. If he's still positive, of course will need more to test again and then if I get sick, I will want to test when I start feeling better to make sure it's negative. If I get sick I am not going to test to see if I have it, obviously I would.

Apparently the government has stopped issuing free Covid test kits, as of June. My insurance will also not reimburse for OTC test kits, but it is considered an HSA eligible expense, so I will be recording the cost towards that, at least. 

My mom ended up on a roll with calling me yesterday. After dinner she called again 3 more times, never realizing she had just called. The first call after dinner I answered, the next two I just let go to voicemail and each voicemail was pretty much the same. It's odd - I know she knows we are family, when we visit and if someone walks by us, she will either say "my family is here, or this is my daughter", but on the flip side I don't think she knows she's my mom. Isn't that weird?! When she calls me she will tell me who she is by her first name and if she leaves a message she will leave her first and last name. One time in a recent conversation she asked "so, I had you? oh, I don't remember that".

The results are in

By late afternoon yesterday dh had a fever of 101. I got out that expired covid test kit and was going to give it a try, but it's the kind that you have to use with an app on your phone, so when I scanned the card in the kit, it said it expired and wouldn't work. I slept upstairs last night, just in case he's contagious. This morning his temp was 100. Still having a super bad headache, but the sinus congestion/headache medication helped some. Just plain tylenol did nothing to help.

I ran into town at 9 this morning and picked up a new Covid test at the pharmacy (they had one box on the shelf), along with more sinus medication. Welp, he tested positive for Covid, so it's very likely I'm going to get it soon, too. We had to have been exposed at the same time/place, wherever that was. Somewhere we were at Sunday. He had not been anywhere in at least a week or more. We had stayed home the previous weekend. I went to the town grocery store a week ago, but that was by myself. Since I haven't caught it at the same time as him, I'm likely now to get it from him.

So, I called my mom's place and let them know we had visited my mom for less than a half hour on Sunday and my dh has Covid. She said she will let the head nurse know and they will likely quarantine her for a bit. Then I called the clinic in town dh has been to once or twice before. I talked to a nurse, just to ask her what is the best to do for him with it. She said at this point, just tylenol/advil for the fever and aches and lots of rest and fluids. If he gets worse to call them or go to ER. Hopefully it won't be too bad.

If I do come down with it here in the next day or two, at least I have a long weekend and already had scheduled Tues and Wed off work, so hopefully I'd be past the worst of it by then. So far I'm not feeling anything. 

Dh didn't get a call back from our garbage service driver, but today was garbage day. He was a bit later this morning and dh heard him coming so walked out near the fence/gate to ask him about it. He said he did get the message and that he did have a valve leak and it's fixed. There was no stinky fluid dripped out this trip, so hopefully that's fixed. This was before I got back home with the test kit, so dh didn't know he had Covid, but he never got even close to the driver, probably 8-10 feet away.

Here's an interesting tidbit. The train tracks are on the other side of the river, like 750 feet from our house. But, when the train is going by it actually makes a vibration in our house! As the train is going by right now, the water in the water bottle on my desk is moving. Crazy that it has that effect that far away.

The end of summer

Well, summer is over, I think. Last evening the sky turned dark, the loudest thunder I've ever heard, some lightning and tons of rain. It's still drizzling this morning and today high will be 30 degrees lower than yesterday. It's not even supposed to make 60 today.

The state's property tax rebate deposited into my bank account yesterday. $675. We are supposed to get this this year and next. I am under no illusions that this is/was just bait and switch by our governor and politicians. Trying to assuage us while on the flip side our property taxes are going to go way up. With this recent assessment period they have moved even farther towards shifting the tax burden to residential homeowners, while reducing the property tax burden to business property.

Last night dh said he felt like he was getting a sore throat. Then during the night he was up a couple of times and then said he thinks he's sick. His head was pounding and he felt nauseous.  Ugh. He's an absolute whiner when he's sick. He got the lawn mowed on Monday so at least he won't be feeling like he needs to do that in the next couple of days (plus it's raining anyway) so hopefully he will just rest and it will pass soon.

I need to do a Teams training meeting with my assistant guy here shortly, as soon as he messages me back. It shouldn't take too long and I have also written up some instructions he will be able to refer back to in doing this process that will be new to him. Not sure what is taking so long for him to respond back, LOL. I emailed him t an hour ago, that I would be ready to start the meeting in 30 minutes and then I emailed him again with the documents we will be working from and let him know I was ready.

DH just got up and of course is the sickest. I say what do you think it is? "Covid". So, I took his temp and it's normal. I'm sure it's not covid. If he was exposed to it, it would have had to be Sunday and I was exposed to the same people. I guess we'll see if I come down with something soon, too. I know I have a few old Covid tests in the drawer (what? like 2 years old now?), but are they even good anymore? Do these old tests even test for whatever variation is out now? Regardless, whatever he has he has to go through it.

Well goodness, still no reply from my assistant. I'll give him 5 more minutes and I'll ping him again.

I'm ready for this week to be over (noon on Friday) and not back to work until next Thursday.

 

Christmas stuff

I don't think I mentioned that I did place an order with Temu last week, so we'll see how it goes. I used a credit card that I never use anymore. In fact I just got a notification in the mail that if I don't use it within so many weeks, they are going to close it, haha.

I mostly bought Christmas things, but I did buy a purse for 1.85, haha! Wonder how it will be?? the reviews were good. It was apparently that price for first time purchasers, I'm not quite sure how it all works. Also, for myself I ordered these 2 long banners that look like Christmas nutcracker soldiers. I've been kind of wanting real ones, but these will be much better, roll up and store with hardly any space taken up and can hang on each side of our patio, on the posts. I ordered a cute Christmas sign for my friend, who like Christmas 365 days of the year, that says "there once was a girl who loved Christmas, it was me. The end". I also ordered 2 sets of lego type kit to make a Christmas train. Says it has 260 pcs (tiny pieces, I'm sure). This will be for dh and his buddy in Texas. This year's Christmas challenge, haha. Last year his wife mailed up a gingerbread house kit with "competition rules" and the guys had fun with it. Figured it was my turn this year, so I figured they'd have fun doing lego's. I just need to figure out some "rules" for the competition. No clue yet what. I'll show the kits to dh when they arrive and see if he has any idea.

DD was at Costco last week and messaged me a picture of a puzzle related to Ft. Worth, so I told her to pick it up and that will be one of the gifts I send them this year. I also had her pick me up a Christmas puzzle for my Christmas loving friend to go with her sign. The puzzles were $10 each, which is a good price for puzzles. I will pick them up and pay dd when I am over there in a couple of weeks.

When I was waiting in line to check out at Lowes, I noticed some magazines and one was recipes for cast iron skillet cooking. That gave me an idea for a Christmas gift for dd's husband. He likes to cook with cast iron, so I think I'll get him a cookbook with recipes. 

I didn't end up getting my email reply back to the assessor until this morning as I was busy with  payroll yesterday. It sounds like he's now having to spend Mon-Thurs out in the field. Must be lots to re-assess! haha. I love how he's still trying to justify our increase. His latest was telling me that our neighbors at the end of the street basically increased in total the same as we did (for land and buildings value combined). Them at 51%, us at 52%. I had to remind him, AGAIN, that their increase includes adding TWO detached garages. So, I asked what is just the value you have on their house? What is the % just their house increased, not including the value of the garages? I'll bet it's in the % range as our other neighbors house increased at 18%.

DH was outside cleaning some gutters and heard coyotes, so he's not letting the cat out today. Lot's of very upset and sad meowing going on, LOL.

Groundhog day

We got our visit with my mom and other stops done yesterday. I'm seriously going to have to just start telling dh a time 10 or 15 minutes earlier than I want to leave now. He waits until it's time to leave to suddenly have to be in the bathroom for 5 or 10 minutes, then it's another couple of minutes getting his wallet and his gun (he conceal carries). He has never been late in his life until this past year. And if I mention it, even joking, he gets totally defensive saying "I'm not late!". Yes, you are! Walking out the door 10 minutes after the time we were supposed to leave is late.

First we stopped at Lowe's. He wanted a couple of lawn irrigation boxes. I guess he's thinking ahead to outside Christmas decor time and wants something to put the inflatable's cords in. I'm not sure...maybe so they don't get buried in snow and he can get to where they are plugged into the extension cord. He also was in need of a couple of new hoses. We had bought good quality hoses many many years ago and they certainly lasted a long time, but they are finally wearing out. Then he was walking by a small shopvac on sale. He's been wanting a new shop vac for quite awhile. Again, the one he has (Sears craftsman) was bought so many years ago - like 35 years? LOL. He takes care of things so they last a long time, but at some point ya gotta replace. He's still going to use the old one for wood sawing dust.

Then we went to see my mom. It was so quiet there, just a little after 1. Almost everyone was in their rooms, as was my mom. She seemed good, at least dressed normal this time. I stocked up her boxes of tissues she goes through and we went and sat out in the lounge seating area for a little visit. Nothing new to add - it's like groundhog day movie every visit. I don't think she first knew who I was when I knocked on her door and walked in. I goofed and forgot to say "hi Mom" and just said hi how are you? and I could kind of see some confusion in her face, trying to figure out who I was.

Next stop was Cabela's. DH decided to use his gift cards on some new work boots/shoveling snow boots. He did go back to the firearms dept to ask if they had the gun he's been wanting, but they didn't have it in stock, but the guy explained how he could go online and order it and it would then be delivered to the store to came back and pick up/do the background check. Or the guy also showed him, how on Cabela's website they also sell used guns and there were several available through that he could order. I looked through their women's clothing dept and could not find any short sleeve plain t-shirts, only long sleeve.

Then we picked up our groceries at the Walmart nearby there. We only had to wait a couple minutes. It was then almost 3pm. We were down on the south end of town, so probably an extra 10 or so minutes to get back to the interstate to head home. We were both a little hungry so stopped in Wendy's drive thru for an early dinner to eat on the way home. I kind of lost my energy about 5 minutes before home, LOL. Dh unloads the groceries to the kitchen and I put away. Since I didn't need to make dinner, around 5:30 pm I took a nap for about an hour.

Around 10:15 last night we get a reverse 911 call that there is an armed suspect on the loose in our area, to stay inside. Good grief. From what dh was able to find out a little bit later was someone from out of state was at the bar in town and shot 2 people and fled. Our little town has like 600 people. I don't think those that frequent the bar on a Sunday night expect something like that around here, but it's sadly everywhere now, I guess. You can't even be safe in a tiny town any more. Then the phone had to ring again at 12:30am when they notified the alert was over. 

I hadn't even looked to see what the weather is supposed to be like this coming week. It was in the mid 80's this weekend and I see we will get 2 more days of that and then Wed is down to 60 for a high. Big drop and then mid 70's after that. 

Today is payroll processing day, so I will be busy with that and for sure the day will go by quickly. I've already planned for what's for dinner tonight. Some chicken sandwiches with corn on the cob. I don't know why I have not bought any corn on the cob this summer, but did get some with this grocery order, so that should be delicious.

Ok, heading back downstairs to get some breakfast. I bought some cranberry/orange muffins, so I am having one of those yummy things.

Funerals and such

Linda's post about her friend being close to death made me think of a few things. Like, when my mom passes, I really have no idea what to do with her cremated remains. My step dad was cremated and she ended up spreading his ashes basically in their backyard and on the golf course (where he spent a lot of time, that's why they moved there) just on the other side of her fence. She had always told me she wanted her ashes spread there with him. But, in the last couple of years, before she moved (and didn't have dementia) she knew that the golf course was being turned into a housing development in a couple of years and then of course, she wasn't staying in her place, so she told me she didn't know what she wanted me to do with her ashes.

I am not someone who would want to keep them. Her parents have a niche together (they pre bought all this years before they passed) at a cemetery. When her older brother died (before his parents) they placed him at the same cemetery, in a different area. I can't remember if he was buried or cremated. This cemetery is back where we used to live, so I suppose I could get a niche to put her remains in, there. Or I could just get something like that here, at the cemetery. When our long time friends, moved to Texas, her mom passed away (in another state) so she ended up getting a niche near where they live in Texas, since there were no relatives left where her mom had lived. I have thought I could let her ashes go into the river, and this river actually goes back to the state she was from, so it will carry her back there. There will be no funeral.

Originally my parents had burial plots where my step dads parents are buried, but later they decided they wanted to be cremated and they sold the plots. 

My family is probably weird, but we are apparently not funeral type people, LOL. I had never even been to a funeral until I was 18, an extremely small (like me, my mom and the woman's sister and daughter and a couple other people) funeral. Then my grandma died (bio dads mom) the same year and she had the full catholic funeral, but she was from a small town where she knew everyone. But my mom's side of the family, we've never had funerals. We have such a small family and my grandparents didn't socialize much. When my grandpa died he was cremated and I think we just had a very small family gathering. When my step dad died, no funeral, even though he knew a ton of people. He didn't want one. He was cremated and then my mom had a little gathering in the clubhouse where they lived with family and a few of his closest friends. When my grandma (mom's mom) died, she was cremated and put in the niche with my grandpa. After that was done it was just my mom, me and my family, and a cousin who lived near, and we met at the cemetery and just remembered her for a short visit. I think my uncle probably came, but I can't remember now.

When dh's mom died a few years ago they did have a funeral, but again, just super small with some family. She and my FIL didn't have friends or socialize. When my FIL passed a few months after they didn't have a funeral (not sure if that was his wishes or what) and his cremated remains were interred back here (where they had lived for many years and dh and 2 brothers live, too) in the Veteran's cemetery and dh's mom's remains were also placed with him. We do go leave flowers once or twice a year.

I know myself and dh have no desire for funerals. Again, small family and few friends. Plus, I think the older you get the less friends are left by old age, anyway. 

Over the years I have been to several funerals or memorial services. All for friends that passed too young. One was a huge memorial service that was held where there were some grandstands to fit all the people, probably a thousand. DH was also one of the speakers and he did a wonderful job. When dh's best friend died of cancer about 11 years ago, he had a funeral. He was also half Native American and there was a second very very moving Indian ceremony for family and a few closest friends a couple weeks later. That is one I will never forget.

My grandparents did it best. They had prepaid for it all years earlier. Everything already picked out and planned. We just had to go to the funeral home and they told us what they had wanted/picked out and it was so nice and easy not to have to make decisions.

Just more questions

So, yesterday the assessor sent me a small file of land sales for river properties in our area. Hmmm.....very interesting information. I was looking it over (just 17 sales) and was like WTF?!! So, he has been telling me that the reason our land value for the 7 lots in our subdivision went up 113% was because of the price DAN paid for lots 4 and 5. The assessors are using 2020 and 2021 sales data. And he says because DAN's purchase was AFTER the couple that bought lot 6 in our subdivision, they are using that price. Lots 1-6 are all basically the same 2 acre lots. Lot 7 is 3 acres. Lots 1-6 are all assessed the same value, lot 7 a little higher. DAN paid $156k for each lot (he's a freaking idiot). The couple that bought lot 6 a year earlier paid just $100k. Same exact lot.

Four of the sales data for land sales he sent me are in this other subdivision of like 40 or so lots along a hairpin turn of the river, kind of like a peninsula sticking out. Plus these lots are all low bank. One couple bought a 1.36 lot for $150k, the other 3 lots ranging from 1.2 acres to 2.2 acres, sold between $105k and $132k (the 2.2 acre lot). The lot that sold for $150k is now assessed at $146k.....yet all the lots on either side of them (and the whole subdivsion, for the most part) did NOT go up to $146k...No, the lot right next door to them, same exact size? It's new assessed value is $112k. What the.....?  Why didn't those neighboring lots have to go up to that $146k assessed values due to the sale next door, like ours did, due to DAN buying next to us? This right here is what I am going to fight tooth and nail on. Their assessing excuses and reasons are not consistent at all.

The next thing that was finally explained to me, after asking several times how our neighbors very nice 5112 sf house is valued way less than our 3735 sf house, is that their basement, which is half the sq footage of their house, is valued at MUCH less than the main floor of the house. It's valued at $45,500....$18/sf ft?! Ok, so I get the reasoning that it doesn't cost more to build the frame of the house to include a basement, so the basement is valued less......but shouldn't that same principle hold for making attic space into living area? That's what our house is. It did not cost us anymore to build the main framing and roofing of the house to put living areas in the attic space, other than the cost of adding dormers. So shouldn't our attic space be assessed at less per square foot, just as a basement is? That is my next question to him.

I went to submit my grocery order for pick up Sunday at 2-3pm and they have no times available tomorrow. Geez! they always have times, even on same day. Nothing available until Monday. But, we are also going to Cabelas, which is on the other side of town and there is another Walmart over there, like maybe a half mile or so from Cabelas and they have all their time slots available, so we will just pick up our order there tomorrow after going to Cabelas. But, at least this Walmart location has ice cream in stock, LOL.

I've got bed sheets drying in the dryer and a load of my clothes now in the wash. DH is outside/in his shop doing something. I see he has one of the roll up doors open. Last week we ordered 6 5 gallon jugs to store water in and those are supposed to deliver today. Then we will have 30 gallons of water on hand for power outage (when well goes out too) or other emergency.

Oh, I see from my email that FedEx did deliver about 20 minutes ago, so that must be what dh is doing out in the shop, getting those filled up. I need to go out and water my hanging baskets and the pots that sit under the overhang of the garage and shop. We got a nice little rain yesterday, but those flowers don't get the rain.

I'm so glad we are not entertaining today! I need time to relax after working all week and before we are busy half the day tomorrow.

Woo hoo Friday!

I went to town yesterday during my lunch break to get milk and a few things from the store. It was really quiet in town. The grocery store parking lot is usually pretty full, but hardly any cars. I also picked up some ground beef and chicken breasts, bananas and tortilla chips. The ground beef I used for dinner last night to make dh some nachos. The night before, when I was trying to figure out what to make, I ended up making pancakes and bacon. I had a little bit of bacon in the freezer, so that got used up. I always make my pancakes from scratch and they are so good (have melted butter and vanilla in the mix) and fluffy. Tonight and tomorrow I used the chicken for dinner and then Sunday we'll be stocked back up with food.

I had started my pick up order with walmart online and was going to add vanilla ice cream. They seem to be totally out of stock on ice cream. Weird. I usually just buy the great value vanilla bean 48oz that is only $2.67. I looked at the ice cream at our little town store. OMG! No way was I paying $8 or $9 for some ice cream! A lot of their prices are really ridiculous, which is why I don't shop there too much.

On my way to town I pass by our little county airport and there was this huge helicopter sitting there. I've never seen one that large and it looked like a gigantic mechanical bug LOL. I told dh about it when I got home and he said that's a Sikorsky. So, then last night he wanted to drive by and see it, so we took a little drive. It's a Sikorsky Skycrane, for the fire fighting management. Here's a picture I found online and yep, it really does look like a big bug

Welp - it's Friday again already! The weeks are still going by really fast. I am looking forward to the next weekend, Labor Day, as I'm also taking an additional 2 days off after Labor Day. Plus I think next Friday, because it's a holiday weekend, our office is closing at noon. 

Thankfully we don't have plans this weekend.......we almost did yesterday, LOL. These new friends who've come over a few times in the past 2 months, well she texted me yesterday that she had thought her dh made plans for them to come over this weekend, again...but then when she asked him yesterday he said he never talked to my dh, LOL. So, I think she was kind of trying to feel me out about coming over. I just said oh, I don't think my dh knew anything about that! But, we are busy Sunday as we have to go see my mom and do errands while in the city. Kinda hoping that would be that for now and then she said well maybe we can just come over for the day Saturday. I said my dh would try to call her dh and they did end up talking later yesterday afternoon. It sounds like she had been the one trying to get him to come over again and he wasn't really feeling like doing anything/spending the gas money, etc, so they are not coming. 

I hate to be rude, and while they are super nice people, dh and I just aren't ones that want company and want to entertain every 2-3 weeks! Like every couple of months or so would be fine. And we don't much like making plans too far in advance because we never really know how dh is going to feel from one day to the next. Dh kind of told him that on the phone yesterday about how it's hard for us to plan ahead much and that we usually just see how he (and even me sometimes) is feeling and usually decide to do stuff maybe a day or two in advance. Like, just me planning us to go see my mom, go to Cabela's and then pick up groceries (and likely stop to get fast food), I will let him know a couple days in advance, because then he can sorta try to take it easy at least the day before. For example, if he spent half the day outside doing yardwork/mowing on Saturday, it would be very unlikely he'd feel like doing all that on Sunday.

 

Papers be gone and other interesting finds

Yesterday I did a little bit more decluttering of old papers in my office. Going forward I'm thinking of trying to just scan any papers I want/need to save and then throwing out the paper. I have a nifty scanner and my computer backs up to the cloud regularly. No reason to even have most of the paperwork I do have in my desk and storage bins. I just need to figure out a good way to organize the folders on my computer so I can find what I'm looking for if/when needed.

I might even try to scan some old folders in my filing cabinet. Most of it is all old tax returns! I do have the returns saved, too, on my computer, for many past years, but not the supporting paperwork. I think I may try scanning one years folder and see if it's easy to do. Then shred the folder. Plus, some of it is more than 7 years old and I should just be able to shred anyway, as it's past audit timeframe.

I just pulled a large group of folders out - so far it's tax returns and FAFSA college stuff from 9-10 years ago. No need/reason to keep any more. I got on a roll with the big stack and now have a big pile to just go in the garbage and another smaller pile to get shredded, as the stuff has ss#'s on it. I've now shredded half of it.

And I came across something interesting, that I didn't remember being done. It was a copy of DPOA for my mom, from 2013, where she listed me as DPOA and my step brother as secondary, if I was unable. I don't remember this (this is when our son went off the rails and we were consumed by that), but it was obviously at the same time (about a year after my step dad passed) she had me go with her to her bank to add me to her accounts, added me to her retirement/investment account and gave me a copy of her new will (where she had me at 100%). She must have given me the DPOA copy at the same time. Huh. So, when someone gets revoked as DPOA you are required to send them a certified letter, yet it 2018, when step brother and her BF got her to change everything, and gave him DPOA, I was not notified. When we changed it from him to me, back in 2019, we sent him a notarized and certified letter revoking it. Just another thing that convinces me they did this behind my back.

My mom was very organized with her papers, so she would have had this DPOA with her will and paperwork when her BF and my step brother got involved, not to mention her attorney, who changed her will, would have had copies of what she had previously done in 2013. I think it was the same attorney, but I'd have to go through what I have to see. It's also likely that attorney did do up a revocation letter to remove me, but that step brother did not send it.

An annoying morning

I'm just going along, minding my business and all of a sudden on of my programs with work stopped working. GAH! I tried to figure it out myself, for a good hour or so, but in order to update the .exe file to the latest version, I need "admin" rights, which that has to be done by our IT company, so now I have a help ticket it to them. And a headache from it all, LOL. So, while I wait for an IT guy to call me, I'll take a break and do a blog post.

I had tried to call my mom yesterday but no luck. Then she called me a little after 10 this morning Good! I say "hello?" and she says is this Helen? Ahhh darn. That is her mom's name, not my name. I tell her who I am and she then seems to know, but says she still needs to try to get a hold of her mom, she hasn't talked to her in awhile....have I talked to her? No, not in awhile, I say. And then she asks me if I know if her mom is doing ok and I just say yes, she's doing good. Ok, not really I lie, because I believe my grandma is in heaven and doing perfect now. Then I said "how are you doing" and that seemed to change the subject while we were on the phone a couple minutes.

Someone from our IT called me right away and now the issue is fixed. The program file apparently needed an update but it had to be done with IT Admin rights, which only they can do. It took us abouty 35 minutes on the phone, but now it's fixed. I think I used up my work energy already today.

Not much else going on. Trying to decide what to make for dinner. The pickens are slim until I get restocked up with food, but there are choices. And a good way to get some stuff used up. I think it's mostly that nothing really sounds that good.

Tuesday this and that

I mentioned to dh yesterday that I'm going to need to go pick up groceries some time this week, I don't think I can make it until this weekend, I'll run out of milk. He's been wanting to go to the city to Cabela's to use giftcards he got for Christmas. Well, a mom visit, a Cabela's visit and picking up groceries won't work for a long lunch break, LOL. Or we just go an evening. But I think we decided that tomorrow or Thursday we'll just run into our town grocery store for milk and a few things and then go to the city this weekend, when we have more time. Probably Sunday afternoon. I may look for a couple of tops at Cabela's. I just buy inexpensive colored tshirts like at Kohl's or Target and maybe get a couple years wear, at the most. I could use a couple more as one has a hole in it from the cat's claw snagging me and another is wearing out.

It rained all day yesterday, but seems to have stopped and maybe a little more this afternoon. Looks like we're going to have a little sun today and a nice temp of 75. Hopefully most of the hot days are behind us.

Our house phone rang yesterday. It hardly ever rings, but we have to have it. Our phone company won't just supply internet only. Anyhow, it was a wrong number and she thought she was calling the city office in our town. I looked up their number and it's one number off of ours, so that explains it. I'm surprised we don't get more of those calls, LOL. I suppose we could just not have the landline phones plugged in, but dh still likes to use them sometimes, though it's getting less that he does.

My life insurance company got their data breached so I guess they are offering 2 years of identity monitoring for free. I'll probably sign up. I did cancel the Lifelock account I had set my mom up on a couple years ago, when she was taking calls and not for sure if she gave out her personal info or not. She can't do that now and I keep an eye on everything she has for accounts. She has one credit card that a few of her monthly bills are charged to and if that got hacked, it would be covered anyway with their theft protection. I also have her credit locked down, so no one could open anything in her name. This was reminding me of her always hiding and then looking for her purse and wallet and things in her wallet. Thank goodness that is passed and she's not stressing over her purse. She hasn't even mentioned her purse since I took it (before she moved, I think it was). 

I'm thinking of emailing/messaging the real estate agent (now a broker) we used on all our purchases/sell here. Just to tell him I am in the process of appealing our property tax valuation and with his real estate expertise/experience ask if he has any tips for me in the process....maybe he would? He's a super nice guy and I know if he had any suggestions he'd be happy to pass them along. I guess it can't hurt to ask.

DH has always followed the real estate listings/market for years. He said what he is noticing just very recently in our half of the state, that he watches, is a lot of "ranches" suddenly being put on the market. I put these in quotations because these aren't (edited as I had accidentally typed "are") real rancher's or ranches. They are large acreage owned by rich people (from out of state of course) who think they are ranching, because they come vacation on it in their 10,000 sf house, every so often, have a real ranch hand, who actually runs the "ranch". Anyhow, he's suddenly seeing quite a few go on the market in the last month and is wondering what is going on. Is the "Yellowstone" mystique wearing off, now?

Sweet rain

Ahhh, woke up to wonderful rain this morning. It's supposed to rain all day with a high of only 66. Right now it's just a light steady rain, but the forecast says there may be areas/times today with heavy rainfall of 1-3 inches per hour. Hopefully this is a huge help to the fire north of us. 

Have any of you ordered anything from Temu before? good? bad? I came across this cute sign I want to get a friend for her Christmas gift this year. I found the same thing on other sites, like Amazon for double the price, so thought I might give ordering from this site a try. 

I made the cake after lunch yesterday. Yellow butter cake with chocolate frosting. Yum, with a little ice cream on the side. I had 2 cake mixes in my pantry and on past date a few months. Eh...big deal, LOL. It was all fine. We're still alive this morning :)

I'm not getting very far this morning, getting this post up. Now it's 11am and I try to come back to it and slogging along, it appears.

I'm just so happy it's still raining lightly. We sure need it.

I just tried to call my mom and she's not in her room. I'll try to remember to try again after lunch.

I thought I was going to have to participate in a couple of meetings this morning, but my boss messaged me saying I didn't have to join, so that is good. When I got the invites last week, I didn't think I really needed to be involved, but since my boss was out last week, she wasn't available to confirm with.

My cat just came into my office meowing and hopping sideways towards me. About halfway to me he jumps and swats in the air and then he runs and jumps up on my desk and swats me. I don't know what he's mad about, LOL, but he's taking it out on me. I think he wanted to go outside and then saw the wet and change his mind.

Blueberry muffin Sunday

The past week or so, I have been watering my flowers in the mornings instead of the evenings. I don't know why, but it seems to help my back not hurt when I'm done. I felt like I kept busy all morning yesterday, but not sure doing what, LOL. I did get a grocery order figured out and added to my cart, I just haven't picked a day yet and apparently it's not going to be today, haha. So, I will have to either go in later this week, by taking a long lunch or take off work a little early and go in. 

I vacuumed downstairs. DH's den sure had a bunch of cat hair everywhere. I need to vacuum that area more, since he hangs out there a lot. I have an old rocking chair in the corner of my bedroom that the cat sleeps on all night and the cushion gets covered in his fur. The attachment on my Shark vacuum does a great job at getting it up, but it will be covered in fur in no time again.

Yesterday he was chipmunk watching. The chipmunks like the rockery and that's where you usually see them. The bears head is a favorite spot of his to sit.

A few days ago when I was out watering I pulled my calf muscle again, somehow. Just like around same time last year that hurt for months. Until finally I realized it was connected to plantar fasciitis and started stretching my foot and it cleared up. It was hurting a lot yesterday and I even wrapped the heating pad around my calf try to help. DH is like what did you do now? This time I am working on stretching my foot often. So far this morning my calf isn't hurting as much. 

I decided to take a nap around 2:15. Usually I'm awake by 3:30 at the latest. I kept dreaming that I was awake (though in a different place/people) but I couldn't wake up all the way and kept trying to wake up and get my eyes to stay open. Finally I really woke up - it was 4:30. Geez! LOL.

Early evening the winds shifted from east to south and our skies were filled with smoke and the air particle went up to like 168. It's still really smokey this morning. Now the weather alert is for tomorrow. Heavy rains coming from Hurricane Hilary, from California. But, hopefully enough to put out all these fires.

After dh got up this morning I made blueberry muffins for breakfast. While those were baking I descaled my keurig. My options were purchasing a $7 or $8 bottle of solution or just using around 25 cents of white vinegar and some water and doing it that way. Of course you know which way I did it. Now it's all done and the descaling light is out.

I need to check my hummingbird feeders, but I'm pretty sure the last fill up was the last of the season. I have not seen any around this past week and they usually start heading south from our area mid to late August or so. I might fill up one more time today with fresh nectar, just in case there are a few around. 

It's 10:15 and I already feel a nap coming on today. Maybe I'm just tired because I ate breakfast so late, from getting up at like 7:30 and only having a cup of coffee until 10am. That probably wasn't the best thing to do.

I broke another glass. Nothing to do with my hands this time. I had a bunch of stuff in the sink and this kind of tall skinny old glass was out near the edge of the sink where the inside of the bottom of the sink starts to curve up a bit towards the side and as I dumped a big bowl with water out, the water tipped over the glass. I have a mismatched bunch of glasses over the years. 3 different sets now. That one that broke was the last one of a different set of 4. We use a lot of glasses in one day. Well, dh does. I typically use one regular sized for breakfast and a small juice type glass for dinner. DH uses like 2 or 3 big glasses a day. I'm down to like 8 or 9 glasses left, so I think I'll add an inexpensive set from Walmart to my grocery order. What I have left isn't enough to fill up the dishwasher and we are running out before it's time to run the dishwasher and I keep having to hand wash. I'd rather just have enough to be able to run the dishwasher every 2-3 days.

I'm being a wimp

Our area did not get the high winds, but another area near us did and a huge huge hire started next to the little town. As the crow flies it's only like 20 miles north of us, but mountains in between, so to actually drive there you have to drive like 45 minutes. Last night the wind was blowing towards that direction, so we didn't get the smoke from it. It sounds like they evacuated the small town of less than 200. Starting tomorrow our temps are supposed to stay down in the 70's.

I have my grocery order entered online, I just haven't picked out a pickup time/date. I just do NOT feel like going this weekend. Minimum I'd have to go by mid/late next week. Milk is really the only thing I will run out of and there's probably enough left until at least Wednesday. Ugh. I am procrastinating. 

The guy who owns lot 6 did not return my call from the other day, darn it. Oh well, I did find the original MLS listing for it. They bought it in Sept 2020 and it was listed for $105k. Same exact lot as DAN's 4 and 5 he purchased in Sept 2021. But he paid over $156K per lot. The sales data they use is 2020 and 2021. Dh seems to remember they paid like $100k or even less. But certainly not more than $105k. It has been for sale for 2-3 years. Why isn't that used as one of the comps for valuing the lots in this subdivision? I wonder what Mr. Assessor's "opinion" is on the question of why this lot sold for so much less? (yet they are now valuing us all the same at $149,500 per lot.). I'm sure now he'll have a totally new spin on his explanation. And since the beginning I have been asking why both our neighbors  went up so much less than our house and have gotten zero answer. Conveniently, he keeps ignoring that question, which tells me a lot. Well, if he won't answer it, and won't adjust our value to the same % theirs increased, with no good reason, then I guess the county tax appeal board (the next step) will have to explain it to me.

Cake, I think I just need to make a cake, haha. That makes things better.

Fast Friday

I really can't seem to get a grip lately on how fast Friday's seem to come. It's not like I'm any busier than before. I don't get it. Dh says it's because I'm getting old, LOL. It's just the past month I've felt like this. But, yes, I am getting old. Before it would happen some weeks, like a super busy week, or I had a day off during the week. But now it feels like every few days it's Friday again.

Weather is cooler and cloudier today by about 20 degrees, but they are still predicting the winds this evening. It's been a little breezy today, but nothing bad yet. Still smells very smokey outside. Keeping the cat inside today due to smoke and to make sure he's not still out there when the winds start up. I have both my phone and ipad fully charged. We have the bathtub filled with water in case the power goes out and we'll have some water to flush the toilet with. Dh decided to get the lawn mowed this afternoon, since it's a bit cooler out now.

Our retired friend with the black lab puppy stopped by this morning. She is getting big! He brought over a ziploc bag of cherry tomatoes from his garden. 

I need to get in and visit my mom again and more groceries, so I'm thinking Sunday, I guess. For some reason I just do not feel like going anywhere, but I can't wait another week, as I'll be out of stuff to eat. DH wore his computer keyboard out and luckily I had an extra on hand. I think it was from my mom's computer. I'm surprised he doesn't wear out keyboards more often, as much as he types, LOL. 

Welp, that's all I've got for right now. I am getting caught up at work, week by week. Today I finished up everything for May's financial reports and now on to June. Almost caught up. I should be able to get June done in a week or so and then July by early Sept and basically caught up.  

Oops. I thought I posted this hours ago, LOL, but it's still open on my computer. Better late than never, I suppose.

Just GRRRRR....

The sepia sky yesterday morning turned out to be from smoke. Ugh. It was pretty heavy all day yesterday, along with being 98 degrees. I was just out watering my flowers this morning and it's not as smokey as it was when I went out yesterday afternoon. We are under a weather alert/fire danger all day tomorrow for winds that are expected. Hot, winds and fire - a bad combination.

I ended my work day yesterday with a headache over my eye and feeling a bit nauseous. I made a quick and easy dinner of salmon, though I gave most of my piece to dh to eat and then took a nap for a couple hours, along with some Tylenol. 

A news article came through my feed yesterday, about our state property tax system. It was an interview with the former head of the state's dept of revenue. He was the longest head they've had, from 2005 to 2013. He says the system is rigged and broken. He and some others spoke to a group of a hundred or so. Pretty bad when the former head person says this, eh?

Yesterday I called and closed out that checking account I had set up online, in order to earn the $325 bonus. It was a quick call, so that was good. 

I just got a call from an independent company the place my mom lives (they have several facilities in several states) to see if I would answer some questions to rate where she lives, her care, etc. I gave them a 5 on everything, except the move in process, I said 4, because there was really no one that day who welcomed her or took charge of helping her get settled. But, other than that I have been very happy with her care there. The staff is nice and the place is really clean and safe. Well, it better be for the cost per month! LOL. It's interesting how different views people can have of the same place. My neighbor had her mom there, in m/c, quite a few years ago and was very happy with her care there. But, they have a friend who had her husband there and she wasn't happy at all with the care. They said she was there every single day, so I'm guessing that has a lot to do with it. When you are there that much you are going to be hyper aware of every little thing going on. It sounds like she was always complaining and I'm sure being there, hovering over the staff, would make it hard for them to do their job. I think her husband's death was the reason there was an opening earlier than anticipated for my mom. My mom is cared for and safe. I'm not going to nitpick that she has on 3 tops, LOL.

We've been meaning to make a list of things we would want to take, in case we ever face an emergency evacuation. I made my list and told dh he can make his own list. He was laughing that the cat is 3rd on my list, haha.

So, this assessor is starting to annoy me. I'm tired of his stupid and vague explanations. The sales data they are using is sales from 2020 and 2021. He is telling me the reason our land values went up 113% is because of the sales of lots 4 and 5 next to us, sold in 2021. Those lots sold for $156,000 each (DAN paid way too much, LOL). Lot 6 (same exact size) was sold to a couple, in 2020, for I think around $100k. Why wouldn't that data be taken into consideration? or at least use a mid range between the prices? I called the owner of lot 6 and left him a voicemail that I am appealing our property tax increase and was wondering if he would mind sharing how much he paid for the lot? I told him if he doesn't want to share that info, that is totally fine, but I'm just trying to get as much data as I can.

Then he used one of my examples of a river lot just a bit down river from us. Said it sold for $115k mid year 2020, so that is why the lots there in that neighborhood (and EVERY lot in our county? LOL) didn't got up as much as ours did. And his "opinion" the reason it sold for less than what DAN paid is because they are close to the railroad tracks. OMG! You CANNOT live on the river here in our county without being next to or across the river from the tracks. And guess what? that property he thinks sold for less due to being near the railroad? it's 1500 ft from the tracks with NO view of the train as it goes by. We are 690 feet from the tracks and can see it going by (a little between the trees on the other side). Good grief.

So apparently the sale of the 2 lots next to us are not being used as a comp for valuing river lots RIGHT in our own zipcode/town, yet my house is being comp'd to homes 200 miles away. He also wanted to verify the info they have for our house: 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, crawl space, central heating with AC. I am drafting an email back to him with my above opinions and also saying, yes, the info you have on our house is correct. In August of 2019, 2 months after our house was completed, an assessor showed up. We answered his questions, gave him info on our cost to build AND let him inside the house to see what it has, as well as he measured the attic living space, so that we would be accurate for our assessment.

GRRRR!! He doesn't get to make assessments based on his "opinion" ie guesses, as to why something sold for what it did.

 

 

 

 

Just ugh

I spent 2 hours on the phone yesterday with the IT from my side job. I spent a half hour just explaining to him how I log in and access the accounting software. He kept wanting to think it was on on my computer hardrive here at home. I'm like no...I log into the VPN and access a "desktop" there that has the program. It's not on my personal computer. Then he was asking questions I don't really know the details on and I was like I'm not sure, your company is the one that set me up to log in like this, LOL. Finally he figured out how I log in and then another hour and half figuring out the actual issue. But, it's working now.

It's a weird sky outside this morning. It's like sepia tones out there. Still going to be very hot today. 

The assessor replied back. I had given 2 examples out of their sales data (not used as his comps) of 2 places on the river in my actual area that sold. One is very comparable to us in square feet, lot size (though they are low bank and can access the river), a shop similar size and it's assessed at less than our house. He replied back this morning that the shop wasn't in the sales price. I replied back with a link to their listing description and pics (still on many sites, though not active of course, since it sold) and its specifically lists the shop and has it in their pictures. So, yes, it certainly was included in their sales price. Anyway, I replied back this morning with that info and a link to the listing for the property. I also told him that my issue isn't comparing one homes value to another, because your formulas can make it all match. I said I even will accept that somehow my neighbors home is worth much less than mine.....my issue/question is why did our land value increase 113% while every other river lot in our area increased by half that or less. Why did our neighbors home/building value only increase 17% and ours 44.25%? Why did our other neighbors value WITH 2 added buildings last year, increase 38%, compared to our 44.25%. Why did another nice home just down river only increase 10%? It just needs to be fair and equitable. I would just like an explanation of why ours went up so high and just showing me "comps" doesn't explain why my neighbors house went up 17% when their house is just as much the same comps to be used as mine has!

I find it hilarious (in a totally maddening way) that all the "spin" on these increased assessments has been "well, your taxes won't "likely" go up that much", "well, it's up to the counties to determine their budget and they can only increase so much" blah blah blah. Yet the council in the large city near us just put out their new budget for next year and want to increase it by 10%......well sure, they now have the figures in from Dept of Revenue of what their income will be from the property taxes now, so sure...let's spend it! I know our county will do the same. A couple years ago, (during last assessment) a very large company in our county had their taxes go way up due to all the improvements they made after they bought the company. Like they got assessed at an additional 10 million dollars. So, of course the county had that in their budget a couple months later to spend. The company appealed it and got it down to like 3 million or something. Then a few weeks later they said a big F-you to our county and closed the doors (they were owned by a bigger company out of state). 100 jobs lost in this county of 4000 people. Then our county had to re-do/re-certify their budget because of course now they weren't getting any of the tax money from this company.

Last night we noticed that the pilot light in our gas fireplace was out. 3 hours later, at midnight, dh got it working again, but he has no idea why it suddenly started working when all the attempts for 3 hours did not, LOL.

I'm hoping for an uneventful day where nothing goes wrong today. Is that too much to ask? I'm starting to feel overwhelmed and just want to go bury my head under the covers and ignore everything and every body.

Hi temp Tuesday

I find it interesting that my mom is calling me a lot and remembering how to do it, while at the same time seems to be getting worse. She called last evening at 7:15. Super chatty, we talked for almost 20 minutes, when usually it's just a few minutes. Of course some of it was repeated, but not terrible. Though seconds after I answered she said "I'm so glad you called". She knew she lives where she's at this time and knew she didn't have a car anymore, but couldn't remember getting rid of it. She said a couple of times she really likes this place and then said and I love that I have such a great dau...daughter...right? you're my daughter? After I said yes, then she asked "so I had you?" I said yep! A long time ago! She laughed and said she guessed she doesn't remember it and must be because she's getting older now. 

Due to the extreme heat we are under fire weather watch until Thursday night. It was 99 yesterday and very dry around our area, since it's mid August.

DH was outside later in the evening for awhile. I think he went out to turn on or off a sprinkler he has set up behind our shop, which faces Mr & Mrs side. I can't remember why dh has a sprinkler there and not the underground, LOL. Anyway, I guess Mrs was outside too, so she started chatting with dh again. She said they want to start fertilizing their own lawn and asked dh what he uses and when, so dh told her he'd look up his notes on the fertilizer. It's a different mixture in spring than summer. So, then he emailed Mr about it and where we get it, etc. For our size yard we use 3 bags in spring and 3 in fall, so a total cost of approx $228 for the year. I'm sure they spend more than that with the service they've been using. It used to cost $150 for 6 bags, but last year it went up a lot when fertilizer prices went up so high and it's still up there. This year we bought all 6 bags in the spring, just to save a stop at the co-op place that sells it. We are fast approaching the Labor Day application and won't need to pick any up.

I had to email the Dept of Revenue assessor again. I had let him know that I received his USB drive of "sales data" and still wished to proceed with the appeal, and to let me now if there is anything else I need to do. He replied back asking if I have a fee appraisal I'd like to include. No, I do not (i am not paying for an appraisal) and if there were any of the other sales in the data (not picked as comps) I'd like them to look at as comparable to my home.......well, since you asked...and I dumped him with a big email and a bunch of info, LOL.

But, I also told him it's pretty impossible for me to figure out. When their "analysis" formulas can take 5 homes in the $440,000 to $1.2 million range and make them all equal, it makes it pretty hard to figure out. I did find 2 homes, in my area that sold and looked up their listing info/pics. Similar homes, on the river, blah blah. Both now appraised at a bit LESS than they sold for and less then my house. One of them is 5 acres, low bank river w/access, almost same sf, with a big detached shop and it's assessed at less than my house, in an area closer to the city, which is more desirable and has higher home prices then where we are. The other one is also very similar in size/characteristics and the house/building assessment part is way lower than mine.

Paper shredding

And Monday it is, again. I'm liking my new schedule of starting work at 8 instead of 7:30 (which is 7am where my office is). Gives me more time to chill a bit after getting up. I've even been outside and got all the flowers watered in anticipation of mid 90's today. Dh is out mowing already.

I'm still working on throwing out (and shredding when necessary) old papers. Some I had in bins in spare bedroom closet. Some I had filled in this box, underneath my desk. I'm happy to say this box is finally empty today. 

I still have more to do, inside my desk drawers and cupboard, but not too much is left. Most of what is left just needs to be shredded up. Most of the papers I had are from both my jobs from working from home. Several years old, back when I had one monitor and had to print out most things to work on/from. Now I don't print out very much at all anymore. I also just shredded a big stack of old printer checks from my side job. The bank account isn't even active anymore, but I still feel safer shredding. They were checks I couldn't use from years ago. My side job boss ordered checks to send to me and accidentally ordered checks for a dot matrix type printer (good god, are those still even used anymore? LOL). I put them in my box to be shredded "later" and "later" is finally now, haha. I'm getting there! I've filled up the shredder container 3 times this morning. All the paper stuff just got boxed up when we moved (both times) and then I just ignored it, stored away in a box or bin. I hate paperwork, LOL. The only paper I like is paper money!

I was thinking the other day, when I went to get my mail out of the mailbox, that it seems like now, the USPS pretty much exists to just mail junk mail, doesn't it? If business's ever figure out a better way to bombard us with junk mail, the USPS will probably die. I maybe get 2 pieces of actual mail a month. I have everything set up paperless. I rarely mail anything myself. Even when I had to ship a package, I usually just use UPS. DH usually walks down and gets the mail and then sets it on the kitchen bar countertop. Same day I look through what it is (usually just a couple pieces a day) and it immediately goes into the garbage. When we made our big move over here, we had boxes and boxes of paperwork from all the years dh was self employed. Everything that we could legally get rid of (past the IRS audit years) I took to an office supply store to be shredded. There was just too much. We tried starting to shred it ourselves and quickly burned out our shredder. It was quicker, easier and less cost (of buying a new shredder) to just pay to have it shredded.

Boss is off this week. Again, most of what I am dealing with on her behalf is just explaining processes and hand holding through them, LOL. I can handle that.

An old memory

Our weather is heading back up into the too hot zone. Now up into the 80 and then back up into the mid to high 90's this week. Bleh. Hopefully that is the last of it and it's supposed to be down into 70's next week. 

I kept busy yesterday morning. Watered outside flowers, made hummingbird nectar, washed sheets, emptied the dishwasher. The afternoon, not much of anything. Took a nap at 2 o'clock. DH has been wanting/craving nachos, but I don't have any ingredients for that. In fact it's been like 2 years since I even bought hamburger, other than some premade patties. So, we got in the car and ran into town to the grocery store and got the tortilla chips and fixings. I'm sure today he's going to be saying how his pancreas hurts.

DAN was back on Friday again. Again for maybe 2 hours at the most. Basically digging up some rocks by hand with a crow bar and putting them in the bucket of his "tool cat" machine while his wife "ran" it. I wonder at what point he's going to realize that is pointless.....the ground is all rocks. You dig up one, there's another one underneath it, LOL. You either just gotta smooth it all out as best as can with a dozer or bring in a bunch of fill on top. His 2 hours a week of work is putting him on par to be done in about 25 years, I guess. And here's some hypocrisy at it's finest: DAN has no trespassing signs on the sides of his property, one side pointing at our house, side windows (my living room has a bow window so there is a side window in the bow that looks right at his sign) and one pointing at lot 6. Then 2 out front facing the street at each corner. Yet, he parked his truck and trailer in front of lot 6 (so technically lot 6's property, as we all own across the street to the other side of it) because that's where the shade was. 

I was watching something on the computer about tics and tourette's syndrome. It reminded me of my dd when she was little. She had some tics when she was little. I first noticed it when she was around 5 or 6. We'd be sitting next to each other on the couch in the evenings watching tv and every so often she'd like flex her stomach. I never saw her do it any other time other than when we were sitting there relaxed watching tv. It wasn't every time and it wasn't usually constant, but sometimes would be worse than others and I'd just rest my hand on her stomach. That stopped at some point, maybe 6 months to a year. Then a year or so later she started a different one. She'd wrinkle up her nose. Again, this was nothing regular. DH and her brother never even noticed it for the longest time. I asked her pediatrician about it and he told me his best advice is to ignore it. Don't bring it up to her because that usually makes it worse and it's very likely she'll grow out of it. So, I didn't and I didn't even mention it do dh and son. If they weren't noticing it, all the better, but then they finally noticed it, so I told them what the dr said, so none of us ever mentioned it to her. It wasn't very often she did it. At some point, I'd say around 3rd or 4th grade the nose crinkling faded out and overlapped with her starting to make little head jerks every so often. We still said nothing and that didn't last very long at all and then she never showed anymore signs of it. In fact I kind of forgot about that, until I watched that video about it. It's such an interesting condition and I'm sure glad it turned out to be nothing serious for her.