September done

Yesterday I went ahead and accepted the change in valuation on our house with the assessor's office and closed out the appeal and will not pursue it further with the county appeal board. Still not happy that they didn't lower the land value any, but of course the fact that none of our neighbors appealed the same land value increase of 113%, doesn't help my case any. I did tell him well, considering the two that have homes, that are way undervalued compared to ours, it's not surprising they don't want to rock the boat by appealing. Anyway, it's done now and none of you ever have to hear about it in a future post again....well, at least for another 2 years, until the next assessment comes out 😜. I'm not making any promises. Never say never.

Nothing new to report except I think I should give DAN a new name: I'm changing it to "He who must not be named"....I'm scared to say DAN now, LOL. Maybe instead of DAN, I should have called him Voldemort. Oh, one more thought: and how's this for one of the last explanations I got on our neighborhood lots valuations. Lot 6 (also 2 acres) sold for $100k in Sept 2020. DAN paid $156k each for lot 5 and 6 a year later. The assessor said the reason they feel that lot 6 sold for less is because it has to share a well with lot 5...ok...so if their lot isn't as valuable - why are they being assessed at the same value as all us other lots? That's not fair to them. It's all just a stupid, unfair tax and valuation system and I really think they just pull 90% of their answers out of their ass. 

The assessor did say that how they lowered our house value was they threw out the 3 comps in the other counties, 200 miles away, and just used the 2 comps in our county. Ya, no kidding. 

I cannot for the life of me figure out why I have so much trouble commenting on other "Blogger" blogs! I'm signed in to Blogger. I can click on Linda's blog and comment as me almost every time. I click on T'Pol or Treaders blogs and then it says I'm not signed in. I sign in and it takes me back to my dashboard page. I try to go back to their blog and I'm not signed in again. Every so often, after 3 or 4 tries, it finally signs me in, but usually I end up giving up before then. It's frustrating. I want to comment and not anonymously. Then I just tried to add a comment to T'Pol as anonymous and it said "an error occurred". Geez, I can't even leave a comment that way. So, just know I was trying to comment that I'm glad you had a good time on your trip!

My boss called at the end of the day yesterday. She wanted to let me know they have decided to do some layoff's that will happen on Monday. Five people are getting laid off. Not good news. My friend who visited us last year just found out her (very large) company is going to be laying off like 2000 people (they operate in more than one state) and she still has no idea if she might be one of them. She works remotely. This is starting to remind me of 2008. Are you hearing of layoffs?

Yes, please take my $500!

Dh and I are going to go on a vacation. A real vacation! I may have mentioned last May, when our Texas friends were here, we discussed going on an Alaska Cruise together in 2024. Yesterday R texted me that she found a good deal on a 7 day cruise - are we still interested? I said YES! She called a little later with the details. Next September (which is when I wanted to go, too). We will have a room with an ocean view and balcony. She's excited, I'm excited, her dh, M, is excited (he's been on a couple cruises so he enjoys them) and dh will have fun, LOL. I didn't even ask him, I just went downstairs and said R found a good deal on a cruise to Alaska and we're booking it and going next Sept. He's like...oh...ok! haha.

The best part so far was she did all the work to decide which cruise and found the deal! That was awesome, because I would have spent hours and hours and more hours trying to look and decide. She was like "here's the plan" and I was like "perfect!" LOL. The sale was ending yesterday so when she called they put a 24 hour hold on the reservations and I had to put down a $500 deposit within 24 hours. Done. The balance won't have to be paid until next July, I guess. It's going to be so fun.

DH and I have never gone on many vacations. Firstly, because we never had the money and secondly, because we're content to be homebodies. And thirdly, he's really not the best vacationer - he worries too much about every little thing. Going with our friends (who have already been on an Alaskan Cruise about 5 years ago) will be a good way to vacation for him - he can just go along with what they plan and and they already know the ropes and he will be much more relaxed than inside his brain thinking he has to make all these decisions, LOL. 

R&M have been on a couple of cruises with another couple they are friends with, but R said the wife only wants to spend the whole cruise sitting at the pool in a lounge chair reading a book. All day. She doesn't even want to get off the ship at ports. I said, no - that's boring. I want to do ALL the stuff! Which made R happy. We will all have a good time together.

Breaking the blogging "rules"

As I get ready to make a new post, I have to chuckle, as I hypothetically (and tongue in cheek) wonder what are the rules for blogging? I must have missed the blogger training rules years ago ;)   What exactly am I allowed or supposed to talk about? Am I allowed to complain about anything or maybe it's just that it's ok to complain once and only once and never to mention it again? Is there a list of what topics are ok to include in my blog posts? Who decides? Is there some secret blogger society I don't know about that is in charge? Do they meet and discuss blogs and decide "everyone" is sick of hearing about something someone posts? LOL.

Is it my responsibility to only have content that a particular person, or group of people, like and want to read about? It is my responsibility to provide them with their entertainment and what they want to read about and make sure they aren't annoyed? I never thought it was. I mean, it's not like these people who read are paying me to read something they want. I never considered that someone who is not paying for my house, my bills, my property taxes, my life, would think they have a say in how I feel about it or how much I decide to write about it on my blog.

For me, my blog has always kind of just been a daily diary. That a few people actually end up reading it (and still read it!), and the other wonderful bloggers I've gotten to know over the years is just a bonus. I enjoy when there are comments and replying back and try to reply to everyone's comments. It was never and still isn't my intention to have some blog that my goal is to appeal to everyone and get lots of followers. I just write about whatever is going through my head that day or going on with my surroundings. Good, bad, boring, otherwise. To me most of it seems pretty mundane and not too interesting. No more or less interesting than the other blogs I read. I don't too often skip blogging days, because years ago I found if I did that, it ended up skipping a few more and it's just easier for me to try to stay in a daily routine, even though some days not a whole heck of a lot is going on.

Someone commented yesterday they've been waiting to see if I ever realize how obsessed I am with DAN. I replied yes. I am the one writing about him/the situation and I know when and what I say, haha. The thing is....I just. don't. care! and come to find out Mr and Mrs Neighbor are just as "obsessed" as we are with what he doing/plans to do. I have lots of faults that I am fully aware of! I didn't realize I needed to state the obvious.

For some reason both dh and I have cut way down on online purchases. We still order the regular supplies and stuff we need to use and take care of our place, but that's been about all that we've been ordering for months now. I can't even blame it on having Covid and being too sick to order stuff (though that was a "benefit" of Covid, I guess, LOL), as we've been not ordering for months now. I'll get online with Amazon to look at my order history or dh will ask "are you expecting UPS today?" and I look (because sometimes I can't remember if I ordered something) and see that I haven't even ordered anything from Amazon in like a month! Our UPS guy used to come here a few times a week. DH knows him well, LOL. Now we hardly ever see him. He did finally deliver some cat food and cat litter yesterday that I ordered. DH chatted with him awhile, they had lots to catch up on, haha. 

I think we must both kind of be to the point we now have most of our little wants out of the way. Other than some bigger ticket items (for the bonus room, to be finished some day) I think I pretty much have what I need for the house now. It's pretty much fully decorated now (I'm slow, only took me 4 years, LOL). The only thing I find myself telling myself "NO!" is more Christmas decor....but so far so good - other than the $5 I spent on some with Temu. It's nice that both of us have cut down, finally.

I did have to place an order for dh for lawn tractor and lawn mower maintenance kits today. When he is done with every season he cleans them up, changes the oil and spark plugs, etc. It's that time of year again. DH wasn't too happy that it costs $140 for the kits (for both) but that's the cheapest he could find them. Mr Neighbor just takes his into the lawn tractor service place. I'm glad dh knows how to do that stuff himself. It does save money. Last month Mr asked dh what he uses for the lawn fertilizer, where to get it and how often. They've always paid TruGreen or some company, but their lawn hasn't looked as good this year and he wants to try it himself. Dh even recommended the best type of lawn spreader to get. I'm sure this will save them quite a bit, which I'm sure is helpful now that Mrs. is retired. 

DD and SIL are very much enjoying their trip. The first 5 days, in London, they walked 50 miles in 5 days, just seeing as much as they could. Now they are spending a few days on the Isle of Skye and it looks very peaceful and beautiful. Then I think the next stop is Inverness. They have a rental car for Scotland. One of the days next week they plan to go see the town of Huntly, which is where my paternal grandfather was from (and all the generations before him). His father emigrated in early 1900's to Montana and his wife and 4 year old son (my grandpa) came over a few years later.  They flew up to Scotland on Tuesday afternoon and spent the first night in Edinburgh before going to the Isle of Skye yesterday. SIL said when he was checking them out of the hotel the desk guy asked him his name, so he said it. SIL's first name is Mexican and his last name is Irish, LOL. I guess the Scottish desk clerk got a big kick out of his name and said that is a great name! and kept repeating it. LOL. DH and I were trying to imagine how his name sounds in a Scottish accent, haha.

After lunch today I have a quarterly update phone call meeting with mom's investment guy. The stock market sure has looked crummy the past couple of weeks. I read because the fed said they are going to raise the interest rate again. 

It's been pretty rainy here this week. It's kind of a refreshing change, especially the cooled down temps. I like in the morning how the fog hangs around the tops of the mountains all around us. DH will be able to finish emptying out and throwing away some of the flower pots we aren't keeping. The garbage can was too full to get all of them taken care of, but it will be empty today. Some of the annuals, that are getting the rain are still hanging on, but the ones that are hanging under the front patio or in front of the garage and shop (between the doors) are under the overhang died. When we got Covid - I gave up worrying about getting those watered. It was Sept and I just didn't care that week I was so sick with it.

I'm trying to decide when I should go visit my mom again. Now there are 7 covid cases (still not in the memory care part yet, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time). The main part of the place is huge, I'm sure there are probably 200 or more apartments, so 7 isn't a large percentage of everyone that lives there. I haven't taken another test (I took at like 10 or 11 days and was still positive) but of course will take another test before I would visit. But, just thinking for now to stay away for a bit longer. She's doing fine and I'm talking to her nearly every day and she's very content and doing well. Plus, her place is very good about keeping in contact if anything is wrong.

Well, it's almost 8am and time to log in to work for the day.

Sluggy

I have to admit, reading Sluggy's comment on my post yesterday was like a punch in the gut. My first quick thought was she hacked?! I have read her blog for years and I assume(d) she mine. We don't comment regularly on each other's blogs, but on occasion we do and she (and I) has always been kind.  I know over the years I have supported her on her blog at least a couple of times from trolls. One time years ago, when I first started to try ancestry research, we emailed a little bit and I was appreciative of her knowledge and help with learning it she gave me.

Monday evening I watched the TED Talk about pain management she posted. I wanted to comment (from my experience with my dh), but I was on my ipad downstairs, so I decided to wait until I was up at my desk and keyboard yesterday morning. I clicked on her blog and was surprised to see it was closed and only open to invited readers. I went on to write my daily post and then do my work.

I saw her comment later in the afternoon. I decided to not react then. I then saw her 2 comments on Kim's blog.  I decided to sleep on it and see how I felt this morning. Usually time and thinking can lessen the sting of something, right? Unfortunately, it didn't seem to help much. Though, to EVERYONE who commented after her: THANK YOU. Your kind words and support mean the world to me and I appreciate all of them.

DAN will likely be our neighbor for many years. We are a very small neighborhood of 7 lots. If we had just minded our own business, DAN would have built his 10,000 sf metal warehouse monstrosity next door and operated a business, and tried to add in a new access road.  So, no, I'm not going to mind my own business as to what he is doing. We all paid good money for our properties and homes we had built and we all deserve to make sure they are protected (via the covenants) from someone like him.

As for my mom - well, (and sorry to offend anyone, I really don't often cuss) you can just fuck right off. I can't change the fact that my mom has Alzheimer's/dementia. All I can do is make sure she is well cared for, comfortable and happy and that I take care of her financial assets so that she will continue to be cared for in this manner as long as she lives with this horrible disease. She is my priority and has been for the past 4 years now. Like most people, I can worry about and take care of more than one thing at a time. Been doing it my whole life. I'm pretty good at it, actually.

Sluggy, I sincerely hope you get the relief from the pain you are experiencing. As for your contempt of what I write in my blog, my simple answer is just to not read it anymore. Easy, done. Then you won't have to be a hypocrite by telling me to mind my own business, while you are telling me what to do with my life.

A DAN update

Today is payroll processing day. So far it's going smoothly. I hope so because after yesterday my brain doesn't seem to be able to handle a lot of figuring out, LOL. I had to do our monthly state excise tax return for the company and I think it took me 3x as long to figure out. I was just not getting it and getting frustrated. My brain just didn't want to pull the right numbers and figure it all out.

DH is getting fall yard maintenance done. And it was time to order more of the stuff he uses. We were out of the bug spray he uses, mostly around the base of the outside of the buildings. It's a concentrate quart bottle and does last quite a long time. Then I had to order the annual 2 bags of casoron weed killer for the gravel areas. That crap is expensive! I hate ordering it, but it works and since I know we use it every year, it's in the budget. He also decided he wants a few more bags of the grub killer we tried earlier this summer. We got it at Lowe's, but neither of us feel like driving into the city. I checked to see if they would ship and they don't, but Home Depot has the same thing and they will ship for free, so I ordered a few bags from there. It's also time to flush the 2 tankless water heaters, which he uses vinegar to do, so I ordered 7 gallons of that to ship from Walmart. All of it should be here by the end of the week.

Ok, so an update on DAN. We cannot figure it out, haha, but I'm sure that's how he wants it. So, he and his wife were there most of Sunday, bumbling around on one of his pieces of equipment. Then yesterday the sanican company shows up and take the sanican away. He must not be planning any more "work" on the lots for now, then. Last week a pickup came in and parked in front of his lots for about 5-10 minutes and then left. Then yesterday after the sanican was picked up another work type pickup with a construction trailer behind it (it had a construction/builder's logo it) came and parked in front of his lots for 10 minutes or so and left. 

Wondering what all this means....we have different theories, but none quite make sense. Mind you, they still have not had a well dug now after owing these lots for 2 years. I said well, maybe now that his other house is back on the market, he's assuming it's going to sell and has contacted some builders to get quotes....but that doesn't make sense either, because you'd be here when they came - to walk the property (we did that with a couple of builders), figure things out, answer questions, etc. Neither of these guys in the work trucks even got out of their trucks.

DH thinks he's trying to sell the lots by contacting some developers/builders directly and they are just coming out to stop by and see where the property is/what the neighborhood is. He says for just that, they'd very likely not even get out of their trucks.

But anyway, with winter around the corner, there won't be anything more going on there for a good 6 months now, at least.

I can't even imagine trying to buy a house right now - with what the interest rates are! Unless you could pay cash for a house, I wouldn't even consider getting a mortgage right now. Nor would I consider selling and giving up my low mortgage rate. It's interesting times, to be sure.

Energy returning

I think I'm getting back to my pre-Covid energy level. Dh decided to mow the lawn around 3:45pm yesterday afternoon, so I said while you have the garden shed open, get out my chicken coop cleaning stuff and I'll clean the coop. So, I got that done. It only takes me about 15 or 20 minutes. Once that was done I came inside to get off the dusty chicken poop dust clothes and decided to take a bath. I knew dh was going to be at least a couple hours, so I had lots of time before I need to make dinner. Right as I start to fill up the tub I see a big old stink bug on the side of the tub. No, I am not taking a bath with you! (got rid of it LOL) It's fall, it's stink bug season. They are starting to be everywhere.

After that I still had some energy and have been wanting some tapioca pudding, but I haven't felt like standing at the stove for 15 or 20 minutes to make it. I got that made and then went and read for about an hour, waiting for dh to come in, so I could make dinner. Since it was 7pm. I just did a quick and easy skillet pasta meal with some garlic bread. I had some tapioca for breakfast with my coffee this morning. Yum.

I'm even managing to stay up until 9, instead of 8:30. I'm not going to push it to 9:30 yet. 

My mom's place hasn't notified of any more Covid cases, so that's good. I've been talking to her almost every day. Just gotta hope it doesn't spread much there and that having the boosters will help.

I must have slept on my hip wrong. My right hip is totally hurting this morning to walk. Ugh. I think I might have to get my heating pad out and try that while I'm sitting here at my desk. Reminds me of a meme I saw recently about it sucks getting old, you go to bed and wake up injured, LOL.

Cat attack

Not a whole lot done yesterday, but enough. I got 2 loads of laundry done and the bed remade. My mom called, but she could not hear me. I had her hang up and I tried, but same thing. She must just have the handset upside down, is the only thing I can think. Later, after dinner she called me again and she could hear me fine and she is fine.

Amos was stalking me and attacking me all morning, LOL, so I caught a little of it on video. This morning he's being lovey, purring, and wants to be in my lap.

Dh and I both ended up taking a nap in the afternoon. He did not mow the lawn or do much of anything yesterday, LOL.

For dinner I made nachos. Not my favorite, but dh likes it every so often and something different to make. For the cheese I use the Frito Lay cheese dip sauce. It melts up easy in a small pan and pours over it all.

After dinner dh started watching a documentary on "The Big Burn", so I pulled up his guest chair (it's pretty comfortable, I sat in it an hour) and watched it with him on his computer. I knew a little of the history of it, from living here now, but it was informative. Back in 1910 3 million acres burned in Montana and Northern Idaho in a huge huge fire (well many fires that merged into one big fire).

This morning I managed to sleep in an extra hour than I usually wake up. I think I slept almost 11 hours last night as I went to bed just before 9pm.

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".