Holiday plans

I never could find a red ink pen around this house, so yesterday I ordered a pack of 12 from Amazon for $2.35. I also had in my cart an oil filter for the lawn tractor - for next year, I guess. DH realized, after doing the annual maintenance, that he really only needs to change the filter yearly, the other parts that come with the whole maintenance kit, he can change every other year, so he doesn't need to order the whole kit every year (at $92). So, we just have to buy the filter, for less than $10. He went ahead and put it in the Amazon cart, so he wouldn't forget about it (and so he doesn't have to look it up again) and have it on hand for next year. Both of these went on the $20 Amazon gift card I earned for doing that survey. Both of these were free shipping, so I didn't need to get to the $35 for min order. I also have a couple other items in my cart, but they ship from Amazon and I need the $35 order to get free shipping. I could just order from my shared Prime account with dd, but then I couldn't use my gift card balance (as the Prime account is under her name/email). Something will come up to add to the cart soon. It always does.

I still really need to clean up/off my desk. Geez! I also have a stack of stuff I need to shred. I'm going to do that right now.....I'll be back....

Ok, that didn't take too long. Most of it ended up being garbage and some of it I got filed away in the file cabinet. I still have a bunch of misc "junk" on top of my 2 short file cabinets. I will try to get to that during my lunch break. Just a bunch of junk that needs to find a spot to be stored, I guess.

I just asked dd what their Thanksgiving and Christmas plans are this year. I figured they will stay home for Thanksgiving this year (to spend with his parents) and come here for Christmas and she confirmed that is their plan, but I wanted to make sure, so when I buy my turkey's I know what sizes to get. Plus I want to buy both at the same time. One year I waited until mid December to buy a turkey for Christmas and had a hard time finding one! I'd love to do ham instead, but dh insists on turkey.

I am taking a week off during Thanksgiving - the Wed before Thanksgiving through the next Tues after. That will be nice. We always get Thurs and Fri off and I usually take the day before, but this year I decided to use up some of my PTO and take a couple extra days. I thought I had already put in for my PTO during Christmas/New Years, at the same time I put in for Thanksgiving, but I guess I did not! It won't be a problem to take it off, I just thought I had already taken care of it in our payroll/time off system. I'm going to work the 23rd, then take off the rest of that week and all the next week. Wooo!

Silly cat

As I was getting into bed last night, I hear some rustling in dh's closet. I knew it was the cat, but couldn't figure out what he was doing to make the noise. Well, this is what he was doing

He had jumped up on top of dh's wood hamper next to this sorting laundry basket and then jumped down inside. He could probably have gotten out on his own (but not easily), but I didn't want to listen to him trying, LOL, so I pulled him out.

Not much else new going on to chat about. Yesterday was payroll processing day, but it went smoothly and I was done fairly quickly. I always tell dh when it's payroll day, so he leaves me alone, LOL. Well, as much as he can get himself to not interrupt me. All these years and he still doesn't get why and why payroll day isn't one of my favorite days. He always will say (and to others) "she's just such a tightwad, she doesn't even like spending other people's money, it makes her grumpy". I've told him more than once - it has nothing to do with how much money it is - IN FACT, I'd personally be thrilled if it was double that amount and all us employees were making 2x what we make, LOL. No, it's a detailed process/payroll system and I don't want to make a mistake on anyone's paycheck. I don't want constant interruptions, nor do I enjoy the whole process, just for the fact that there almost always seems to be some weird issue going on that I have to figure out. Or when we have a new employee, there are so MANY steps to add them to the payroll system (my boss does this part) and if one little box doesn't get checked, it will give me an error message when trying to process payroll and I have to figure out why/what caused it.

We're just still in limbo/waiting mode for dh's GI doctor appointment to get here, as well as still waiting on his brand new computer to get fixed.

More insurance and candy raid

I think I figured out dh's insurance claims and deductible total. Apparently, when I looked online a week ago and saw he was $167 within meeting his deductible, that included this claim that just processed this past Friday 10/25. So, even though a week ago I wasn't seeing the detail of this claim yet, it was apparently included in the total already, because including it now, he is $167 short of meeting his deductible. (I also see commenter Eli said the same thing, thanks for the explanation!)

And overall the totals of his claims are now $1207 higher than all the eob's add up to, so I'm guessing one or more of these claims still in process are actually now included. So, of this $1207, $167 will be towards deductible and there rest I will now only be paying 20% coinsurance on. I'm quite certain this $1207 is only part of his ER visit as there are still 4 claims showing in process from his 10/15 ER visit and I'm sure between a CAT scan and everything that day, it's going to be way more than $1207.

If he has to have an endoscopy, lets hope it's before year end. If he does need one, I can't imagine them saying at his 11/8 appointment that he needs to wait 2 months for it. When they wanted to do one 3 years ago, they scheduled it quickly.

I do need to call and ask why my 2nd round of blood work wasn't covered at all. It's only $69, but it's the principal of the thing. My employer pays a lot for my insurance, it should be covered. Plus, I paid the bill myself, so if it's covered I will get a refund. Ok, I just found a more detailed EOB online for this claim and apparently the docctor's office/lab did not submit the claim correctly, so I actually need to call the dr office and talk to them about it.

Today is payroll processing day, so it will be a busy day. DH is gradually feeling better and starting to eat more normally. Well, he wants to eat all his regular foods, but he's doing his best to not over do it. He's not having anymore pain, so the inflammation must have cleared up. The nausea is getting better, but seems to be a slower process of going away.

I always buy a bag of Halloween candy, just in case the neighbor kids show up. Some years they do, some not. I just bought a small bag this time (so we don't eat a bunch) and hid it in the kitchen, so neither of us are tempted. Well, I mean of course I know where it is, LOL, but as long as it's hidden and the bag not open, I have no desire for it. Saturday night, after I went to bed, dh said an ad popped up on his computer for Halloween candy. He thought "oh, I'm sure One has it hidden somewhere!". So, he quickly found it, haha, and had one Reeses. These are the tiny "fun" size or whatever they are calling them. Then the next morning he told me to hide it somewhere else, LOL. I took it up to my office to put in my desk drawer, but not before I had a kitkat. It tasted terrible! Candy is going downhill in taste. It doesn't even taste much like a kitkat. I mentioned that to dh and he said the Reeses cup didn't taste that great either. Just not the normal flavor. Bleh!

Saturday afternoon we did finally play some pool again, so that was fun. Yesterday I did all the vacuuming upstairs. I've found if I do like 2 areas at a time, with a break in between, my back doesn't end up hurting. I guess the trick is to stop before it starts hurting.

It started raining yesterday and still raining this morning. It's only like 36 degrees out, so it's getting close to snow temps.  

Well, time to log into work and get the day started.

Insurance is confusing

I got an email that one of dh's medical insurance claims from his recent visits to urgent care and then the ER, processed. Just last week (before any of these new claims had processed) I had been looking at his totals for the year to see how close he was getting to meet his deductible. It said he was $167 away from meeting it. 

So this newest claim was just processed on 10/25. It was for the urgent care visit. The total was $508 and after the discount contract amount the total is $237.56 and the EOB from the insurance company says he owes the full $237.56, as it was all applied to deductible. I'm so confused! If he only had $167 left to meet his deductible, then why wasn't $167 of this latest charge of $237 applied to deductible and the remaining $70 should have been processed at 20% co-insurance and the rest now paid by insurance?

And his little graphs show deductible now met at 100%. He's also only a little over $600 away from meeting his YTD out of pocket max, so I'm sure with the other claims coming thru soon for the ER visit he will (should?) meet his OOP max.

And then looking closer at my claims and what they are saying has been applied to my deductible so far - I see that when I had to go back for a second blood draw to recheck my levels - that the EOB says it was not covered (I didn't catch that when I paid the $69 bill, I just assumed that was my share and it went to my deductible). Why would this not be covered and go towards my deductible. The doctor ordered this test done, as a follow up. None of it makes sense, so I guess I will have to call to get some explanations, tomorrow. Or maybe I just need to look at it all again, later, LOL. I keep looking at all his EOB's and the amounts they say applied to deductible don't match what they show on the graphs as his "total claims".  It's making my head spin, but stuff like this drives me nuts, until I figure it out.

Saturday, spreadsheets, and scratchy throats

It figures that the first morning I finally am able to wake up at my normal time - it's on a Saturday. LOL. Oh well, my cup of coffee is near and I've got the heat on upstairs, getting it warm. Since getting sick, dh has been sleeping in pretty late, so I have a few quiet hours each morning. I've also been eating very bland dinners, along with him, and boy that's getting old. But, I don't feel like making 2 different meals, either.

Last night my throat started feeling a bit scratchy. Ugh. I'm so tired of this. It's still feeling the same, kind of like when you first start noticing you are probably getting a cold.

I've been working on a spreadsheet list of all the construction costs that we paid out of pocket, so that I make sure I have our cost basis, including that and the land, if we ever had to sell our home. (If dd inherits it, her cost basis will be the FMV at the time of inheriting). Plus, post construction, we've added a lot that would be included in the cost basis: paving, fencing, sod/lawn, chicken coop/shed, etc. I kept track of most of it back then, but between a full and p/t job and the chaos/stress of building I just let the organization of it all get away from me. I think now that I don't have much in the way of side jobs, I have more time to finally get to this project.

I just looked at my informed delivery for mail today - well well well - guess what finally showed up. Looks like a billing for that additional sprinkler system we added last July. Good grief! I'm going to be so mad if it's more than I have set aside for it. 

Looks like it's going to be a sunny day out and mid 60's. Better enjoy it today, as next week the high is going to be low 40's all week. I need to do upstairs dusting and vacuuming today. And I really need to get all the papers on my desk cleaned up. DH decided to do the burning of debris (stuff fallen from a couple of big wind storms this summer) and the scrap wood, so I had to report online we were doing a burn, on our burn permit for the year. I had this permit on my desk, in this vertical file folder, since he last burned last spring....and it wasn't there. What the heck! Finally, I found it on my desk under mail and other crap - I think last week when dh said he was going to burn again soon, I took it out of the vertical file and set it on my desk. Glad I found it, that made it easier to get online (I had to have my permit number to sign in) and report we were doing a burn.

Rearranging, searching and purging

Dh spent the afternoon doing some rearranging in the shop. He also decided he can now get rid of some scrap pieces of lumber, taking up room. He's got some fall yard waste in the fire pit, so when he decides to burn here in the near future, he will add the lumber pieces to the fire. He was trying to make getting his snow plow in and out, this winter, a little easier, so he was happy to figure that out. But, I'm sure he overdid it. 

It's been getting down to freezing or below at night. It was raining a bit, when I started making dinner and if it had been any colder it would have been snowing LOL.

I was looking for a red ink pen the other day. I swear I bought a box of them several years ago. I'm going to have to do a little searching in my desk drawers before I order another one. I always write out my budget/bill on a steno notepad for each pay period (I usually go out about 3 paychecks), but sometimes I'll add little notes or dates and I'd like to use a different color so it stands out when I'm referring to it later and don't forget I added something. Just now digging through my desk I found a box of blue pens, so at least I now know I have more of these when my current pen runs out. I also found 2 rolls of new scotch tape, which will probably be needed for present wrapping.

I just started going through my desk drawers. Purging, as I search. I just found my old ipad mini. Boy, it seems small now that I've gotten used to my new(ish) regular ipad. No red pen(s) found yet. Maybe dh has a red pen in his pen cup on his desk, I can steal. I also feel like one of the recent years I sent out Christmas cards I signed them in red pen. That reminds me, again, I need to figure out getting some Christmas cards. I think this year I'll just buy a box of nice cards. Sometimes I have the personalized type made up to send out. I don't mail out a lot of them, but I do like to send some out.

My sis is just doing an amazing job. I'm so glad I was able to get her on board to be my assistant. In addition to getting LOTS done, she also takes the time to question things that don't look quite right to her. We have already come across a couple of things that, by her questioning, we have found issues we need to fix or look into more. 

An easy $20

Last week I got an email from some survey company to do a 15 minute survey "about your car" and get a $20 Amazon gift card. I looked up the survey site and it was legit, so I did the survey (it was about if I purchased my next Ford vehicle what security features, like if it got stolen, etc, would I like, possible pay for). It took me about 10 minutes to do. Yesterday I got the email with the $20 Amazon gift card, so that was nice and easy. I'm glad I didn't just assume the email was spam and delete it.

I had ended up just ordering the earthing mat (that came with free shoes) for my sis and having it shipped here, since they wouldn't ship to Canada. It came yesterday, so I ran into the post office and mailed it up to her. That cost $60 for a 6# box. All told, it Canadian money it cost her $268 to reimburse me and that was cheaper than she could get the mat from some Canadian website and it didn't come with a free pair of shoes either. She said she was leery ordering from the Canadian website she found, as she wasn't sure if it was legit or the exact same product it claimed it was.

DD and her dh were recently told their company they work for will be laying off about 10% of the workforce, so of course that made them uneasy. DD said her boss told her on Monday that she will not be laid off, she is too critical to their department and he didn't think their department would be affected, anyway. SIL feels confident his job is secure, as well, so that's good news.

I guess I spoke too soon when I thought my cough was finally over. I had a couple days where I barely coughed (more like cleared my throat) and since yesterday I'm back to the annoying cough. 

We are supposed to be getting our heater added to the garage in a couple of weeks. I thought, when dh first inquired about what best to put there (and neither of us can remember what the estimated cost was now!), he had talked to our HVAC guy. He had told him we didn't need it until later fall, so no rush. Turns out it was a guy from the propane company, not the HVAC, who we would purchase it from and they install it. I'm kind of glad about that, as the propane company's prices are more "set", whereas the HVAC guy just seems to charge whatever he wants LOL. Both dh and I seem to recall the price quoted was around $2500. Plus, since it's through the propane company, I'm sure they just add it to my account and send me a bill/statement to pay. This will be a propane wall type furnace (like we have in our shop) so we'll be using more propane in the winter, once it's installed. Hopefully, being much smaller than the shop, it won't take as much to heat it. DH just wants to keep it warm enough to keep the chill off in below freezing temps. This propane guy was actually one of the guys who did some of the site work when we were building, digging the ditches and whatnot for all the utilities. He and dh got along really well, then later he went to work for the propane company and has now been there quite a few years. 

DH found an interesting news article yesterday that some residents of our state are suing our governor and Dept of Revenue over the huge property tax increases we had in 2023 (I'm sure those of you that were sick of me talking about when I was trying to appeal our increase, remember, LOL). The average increase for residential properties was 51%! (they wanted to increase me 52%, I got it down to 32% in my appeal). Business's saw a DECREASE in their taxes. The states largest business taxpayer, saw a 20% decrease. Also, overall the state collected just under a BILLION dollars MORE in 2023, than the previous year, all on the backs of residential property owners. The article also stated that the plaintiffs and their attorneys are attempting to get this ruled as a class action lawsuit. Let's hope so.

Managing Monday

I managed to be a little productive yesterday. I dusted, vacuumed downstairs and cleaned our master bathroom. I took a short nap. DH was outside spreading the casoron weed killer around and I didn't realize he was out there talking to the son of the people who bought the lot next door. I guess they were here to see the property while we were on our cruise. He said they have a house plan and a builder, so the son will be the one working with the builder (since they live out of state). I'm guessing none of this building will start until next spring.

I also got my closet cleaned up. After returning from our cruise, sick, most of my stuff, even after washing, just got dumped into the closet and onto the top of the dresser in the closet. So, now that is all straightened out again. I really need to go through some of my clothes and purge. I know I have quite a few tees that just need to be relegated to the rag bin in the shop. They have little holes in them (how do they always get little holes right in front? LOL). 

Now I need to work on getting my office and desk cleaned up! When I am sick and tired, things pile up.

No response from Dell on my work order for repair being escalated and I was supposed to get an updated reply today. I am also able to log in to see the work order status and I also just found where I can send a message reply back to their updates (last update saying Nov 9th estimated completion of repair). I again said I returned a brand new computer that I have now not had for 2 1/2 weeks and am supposed to now wait at least 3 more weeks. I cannot go without a computer and need a resolution of either sending me a new replacement computer for the faulty computer or refund my money so I can go buy another computer. If I don't hear back by noon, I am calling customer service again and this time I am going to tell them I am going to put in a purchase dispute with my credit card to (try) get my money back.

DH had a PSA blood draw at our town hospital 2 months ago. They still haven't billed our insurance. They are the slowest! This charge, as well as the Urgent Care visit last week (before we were sent to ER) will be more than enough to meet the annual deductible, so the ER visit and his future medical bills the rest of this year should mostly be covered, thankfully. I'll have to look back up when dh had his GI appts and endoscopic ultrasound before and see what they billed insurance for, 3 years ago. Will be interesting to compare and see how much the cost has increased.

Some improvement and a 180

DH seems to be feeling a little bit better. He made it all night with no pain pill and got up when I did and took some regular tylenol, instead (and then went back to bed). He said his pain level right now is about a 2 (it was an 8 when we were at the ER). Trying to figure out bland foods (and he's always hungry LOL) has been hard. For dinner last night I made scrambled eggs and toast. Seemed filling, yet bland, I guess. 

He got the other lawn mower (we have a lawn tractor and a regular Honda push mower) serviced for the end of the year and put away, so that is all taken care of. A week or two ago he put the plow on the    side x side, but that isn't too hard. It's all hydraulics and then click in some parts (I can't remember what they are called now) that keep it securely hooked up.

I didn't do much at all. I was remembering that come Jan/Feb I will have to file my mom's 2024 tax return, (she passed 9 days into the year) and the week before she passed I had taken out the first half of her IRA distribution for the year. I did an estimate on what her taxable income for the year will be and looks like the refund between Fed and State will be almost half of what was withheld, so that's good. At least nothing owed. That tax return and her final social security payment are the 2 last things I am having to take care of.

I don't know if I'm imagining or what, but it seemed like I used to be able to order food items from Walmart to be shipped to me, things in cans or boxes, etc. Now everything is only in store. Or if it does ship, it's from some 3rd party seller who wants 4x the normal price. In the past, sometimes when I needed to add things to get to the $35 shipping threshold, I would add food items, but now nothing much seems available with Walmart. And since if I can't make the $35 shipping, then I just order my item from Amazon, so I don't have to find things to add to the order. I just checked Target and am having a bit better luck, so at least they still seem to be shipping a lot of food items. I see Target carries their own brand of protein powder, so I'm ordering the vanilla this time, to try. A couple of the reviews said this brand tastes just like Premier. I ordered Premier from Amazon that I am using right now, but if this Target kind is good, it's cheaper and has more servings per container.

DD reminded me of that funny show Ghosts we had started watching awhile back and then I forgot about it, so last night I picked up where I left on on season 2. Still funny. 

There's a gentle breeze going on outside and it's playing a pretty tune on my big Corinthian Bells wind chime, that is near my office window. I just love these wind chimes. They have the prettiest sound. Very relaxing.

I think I may have finally turned the corner with this damn coughing. I hardly coughed at all yesterday and this morning so far so good. I still feel like I need to clear my throat off and on, but hardly any coughing. I haven't noticed dh coughing as much either. I haven't gotten very good sleep, though, since dh started feeling bad on Monday night. While he was out in the shop yesterday afternoon, I managed to get in a really good 2 hour nap. I must have needed it. 

He came inside just after I got up and I asked "it took you 2 hours to do the lawn mower?" He said no, he ended up standing at the fence chatting with Mr. Neighbor for awhile. I guess we are not the only Republican voters in this state, not very happy with our Republican choice for Governor and US Senator. DH and I thought long and hard about it the past month or so and for the first time ever, in almost 40 years of voting, we voted Democrat, for the state Governor and US Senate seat. Mr said he and Mrs are feeling the exact same way, but couldn't bring themselves to actually vote Democrat, but ended up leaving those 2 votes blank, not giving their votes to the Republicans running, either. We thought of doing that, but in the end decided to vote for the D candidates. I have a feeling a lot of Republicans are feeling a bit like this, in our state. We watched the recent debate between our current governor and the other candidate and after watching that I feel ok with voting for the guy running against our current governor. He impressed me and I felt like he won the debate and came across well. I'm to the point that no matter which side, almost all of them are corrupt, liars and in it to enrich themselves and those that pull their puppet strings because they bought them their elections.

Another friend, down the road a ways (a rancher) who much more leans much more Democrat over Republican is having a similar issue with voting for Harris for president. He said he can't vote for her, so went with one of the 3rd party candidates. It seems for some, no matter which side we are on, a lot of people don't like the choices we are given to vote for. We do mail in voting, but dh always drops our ballots off himself, at the county courthouse in town. We are so sick of the handful of political mailings we get every day. But, nowadays it seems the "election season" is every year, doesn't it? At least we will get a break from the mail and tv ads for awhile, pretty soon.

Well, it's time to go down to the kitchen and make myself some breakfast and get on with my day. I need to clean out the chicken coop :)

What a week

I muddled through the day yesterday. I did get one project done, during my lunch break, for this little (very little) side job I picked up last summer. I've kind of been waiting to at least have a few hours in, before I bill them, LOL. Well, now after the last few days I am up to 4.25 hours, so I will bill them for my time at the end of this month. 

I got one of those class action lawsuit cards in the mail. This one is for my mom. This could be interesting, but no idea of the potential payout yet, if they win the lawsuit. It is for purchasing stock in DocuSign between 2020 and 2022. Apparently the company lied/falsified important information regarding the company and investors took a huge loss. My mom's stock was purchased in 2021, 110 shares for almost $30,000. I'm not sure when the shares got sold, because I no longer have access to her account history, with her account now closed, but at the time her investment guy moved to a different investment company in 2022, and everything got transferred over the stock, was only worth $7500 by then. I'll be keeping on an eye on this. The website listed on the card says if you purchased stock you are part of the class and if you want to stay in the class, you don't need to do anything (at least nothing to sign up for yet, as other class action suits I've done). You only need to do something if you don't want to be a part of it.  

DH almost met his health insurance deductible after having the prostate ultrasound at the end of August. He's got $167 left, so obviously our trip to the urgent care, and then ER, last week, will push him over the top, so most of that visit, the lab work, and the CT scan will now be covered, as well as the upcoming GI doctor visit and if they do a endoscopic ultrasound. More than likely all the upcoming charges will put us over the family deductible max, as well.

DD and her dh went and did some sightseeing a couple hours from their home. Where they went (small town) I told her my aunt (the one that just passed) and uncle had owned a little burger type place, there, back in the 70's. I kind of remembered where it was, in the town, so I looked it up on google maps and sent dd a screenshot of the street view, while they were on their way there. They found it and she said they had a good lunch of burgers, fries and milkshakes. I messaged one of my cousins with a picture from outside dd took, to ask if this was the place I remember her parents had owned, and yes it was. I've been meaning to send this cousin a message anyway, to tell her how sorry I was about her mom. I'm sure she is likely having a hard time. She and her mom lived together and I'm sure she will feel this loss deeply. One of her siblings lives near her, but the other 2 are in different states. 

It was cold here yesterday morning, 32 degrees. Now the low is in the 40's but looks like by midweek next week it will be down below freezing. Brrr!

Yesterday dh got the lawn mower maintenance done and the tractor put away into the garden shed for the winter. No more mowing. We're heading into plowing season, LOL. I guess there's been a little snow in the higher up elevations (we are at 2700 feet).

No big plans this weekend. Just hoping dh starts to feel better. So far, very little improvement. I did manage to make him eat only very bland foods, not even a lunch meat sandwich for lunch. I made him 2 pieces of toast and applesauce. For dinner we had chicken noodle soup, crackers and jello.

Can I start today over?

My Friday morning was not off to a good start, right off the bat. First up was an email update about dh's computer repair from Dell. They do not have the parts in stock (on a brand new computer) and it's been delayed getting them and estimated completed date is now Nov 9th! I am furious. I talked to 2 different departments. Asked to just be sent a new computer as a replacement - I should haven't to wait another 3 weeks to get a computer. I talked to another dept about them keeping it and refunding me. Of course they don't want to do that and told me they can't do a refund after 30 days. I said the only reason it's past 30 days now is because of their delays. Plus everyone I talked to is outsourced in India, so of course that always gets you nowhere. The computer itself was shipped to Texas. I shipped it back 2 weeks ago. It took a week to get there and now they've had it a week.

By the time I got off the phone with them, it was now time to call that GI doctors office, because they still had not called me back with an appointment for dh. I had to leave a voicemail and 3 hours later I get a call back from someone different than I talked to on Wed. morning. She told me he will need to be scheduled for a 1 hour new patient appointment and the earliest available is Nov 8th. I said even though he's already established, just a few weeks past 3 years, with one of their doctors and the lady I talked to on Wednesday acted like since it's so close to 3 years, they'd keep him as established? Yes. Good grief. Then she said that doctor doesn't even have any openings until after the first of the year. (not to mention this is pretty much the only GI office in the area)

I explained that it is pancreas related, he's still having problems and the ER doctor consulted with one of their doctors and he said dh needs an endoscopic ultrasound. So, now we wait until Nov 8th and be on a wait list in case they get an opening or someone reschedules. Since he's still in pain, with just about enough pain meds to get him thru the weekend, my guess is on Monday we'll be trying to get an appt with one of the doctors here at the small clinic in our town (part of the hospital) where he had seen one of their doctors once or twice as follow up, after being in the hospital there for pancreatitis, 3 years ago. They would have to prescribe him some more pain meds to get him through until Nov 8, I guess. Or we go back to the ER.

Then I started working and was having IT issues, so had to put in a help ticket to get that issue resolved.

What an annoying day!

Orders, reorders and returns

I'm getting very low on cat food. Walmart only carries what I get Amos in little 7 pound bags. Not very economical. Costco doesn't carry it. I usually either order online from Petsmart or Chewy and get the big 17 pound bag. But, it still never enough for free shipping, so I have to find other stuff to add. Sometimes I need litter, but I don't right now. I decided to get a 3 pack of flea and tick treatment. I don't need it until next spring now, but right now Petsmart was having 20% off (but not for the food), so I saved $5 on that, plus Rakuten is offering 10% cash back on Petsmart right now, so I saved another $5.30 that I will get back with their rebate.

DH had me re-order from Amazon, the John Deer mower filter kit he changes every year, after mowing season. I had just done a reorder of what we've ordered the last 3 years. Well, he had the lawn tractor all ready to do the maintenance (this was Monday) and opened the box and saw it's not the right parts. He was all mad, thinking I must have ordered the wrong one. I didn't think so, since I just did "re-order". I went and looked it up what I ordered and it was part# LG257 but they sent us part# LG275. GRRR!!! I am now returning and re-ordered it again (hopefully they will send the right one this time, I called the seller company to make sure).

The lamp socket I ordered came yesterday and dh replaced it on the floor lamp and it works again now. Yay! That saved probably $200 for a nice new lamp. I'm glad to have some lighting back, in the evenings, while I'm sitting in the recliner. I've been using the sconces on the walls, but that just feels weird, LOL.

DH is up and about now this morning. A little less pain, by the time his 6 hours between pain pills was up, but still needs to take some. The pain (nor the nausea feeling) is not gone yet. We're just trying to keep his diet really bland. And he's just trying not to do to much. I know he overdid it Monday with the 3-4 hours of yard work, which probably didn't help whatever is going on, plus he's been eating a lot of meat lately, which he should really avoid as much as possible.

An unplanned day

Yesterday turned into a visit to the ER day. DH. He's been having recurring fever, ever since Covid. Since Friday he's been feeling nauseous. Monday evening/night his whole stomach, chest and back was in pain. We decided to go into the Urgent Care, that is part of my doctors office, in the city. There is a clinic that is part of the small hospital in our town, but needs an appointment, plus if it ended up being something we did have to go to ER for, and get admitted, we'd rather be at the city hospital. When he had pancreatitis 3 years ago and ended up there (for 9 days), after he wasn't getting better in a few days, they said they would have had him transported to the city hospital. They couldn't then due to all the hospitals overloaded with Covid patients.

We had no wait at urgent care, but the provider said it would be best to go to ER. Guess we should have just done that, but honestly with the recurring fever we were thinking maybe he just had some infection they could see via a blood test and give him some antibiotics and on our way. 

Of course ER was a long day by the time you wait...and wait...and then finally get back into a room to be seen. The CT Scan showed that the head of his pancreas and the stomach lining area next to it are inflamed, but it wasn't pancreatitis. The ER dr said he consulted with a GI dr who recommended he could be sent home with some pain and nausea meds, lots of fluids and bland diet, to let the inflammation die down, and then schedule an appointment with him at his office, as they will then likely schedule him for an endoscopic ultrasound, to try to get an idea of what is going on now. It was like 5:45 by the time we got home.

He seems to be doing better this morning. I could tell he's not quite as bad, just for the fact that he did sleep much better last night then the night before. I just called the GI dr office. He had seen a doctor there 3 years ago for his pancreatitis and then they did an endoscopic ultrasound and then referred him to a surgeon to remove his gallbladder. She started to say it's like 48 hours before they get the ER chart notes to review, so can't even schedule an appointment. Then tries to tell me he needs to see his primary care dr first. I said no, we already went to a primary care type dr at an urgent care, they sent him to ER, and now the ER doctor consulted with one of the dr's at your office and we're suppose to schedule a consult, so he can get an endoscopic US done. Then she tried to say that well, it's been over 3 years since he saw the dr. there, and after 3 years it's technically a new patient status. Then she changed her mind (likely because she saw that it's literally like 3 weeks over 3 years) and told me she won't even wait for the ER notes to come over, she's pulling it all now (they are linked to the hospital system) for the dr/team to review and then we can get scheduled for an appt. I should at least be able to make the appt. tomorrow. Crazy.

Now at work trying to catch up on 50 emails from yesterday.

Start of a new week

I managed to wake up at my normal time this morning. But, I'm not feeling in the working mood yet. My sis won't be working for me today, since it's Canadian Thanksgiving. That's good - I'm not feeling in the mood to train or answer questions, LOL. I can just muddle along today with emails and work on some easy stuff, I guess. Hopefully it will just be a quiet work day.

I kind of wish our Thanksgiving was early, like Canada. Would make the time to get ready for Christmas longer and not having 2 major holidays back to back. Sis has her own turkeys they raise, so I'm sure that's what they feasted on. She said a week or so ago they took all but 2 to the processing place. They decided to keep 2 as pets, LOL, as apparently they are quite entertaining.

Yesterday was just a relaxing, be lazy day, pretty much. We did try the carne asada for dinner. I've never had it a mexican restaurant, so I have nothing to compare it to, but I thought it was pretty good. DH said it was ok, but nothing like he's had at restaurants (a couple, in particular, and not around here, haha). It was from Costco, so of course a big package. I separated the rest into 4 "meals" and wrapped in saran and then put those in a freezer bag, to freeze and use later. 

Amos agreed it was just a relaxing Sunday

Not much else new. Another nice sunny day on tap in the low 70's. DH said he heard possible snow in the valleys at the end of this week. If it is it won't be much or stick around. Still too warm.

I can't believe in 6 weeks we'll be decorating for Christmas already, again! This year has gone by so fast.

A broken day

Our trip to pick up groceries just seemed annoying, all around, LOL. About every other trip, after getting our order picked up at Walmart, we then stop quickly at another grocery store, where I pick up their frozen hamburger patties (I don't like Walmart's patties) and sometimes some frozen salmon. I know Costco has frozen patties, so I said to dh we can either stop at Costco for the patties or the other store. And grab whatever else we see. He opted to try Costco and we stopped there first. We got there at 5pm, they close at 6. Not any less crowded than any other time, sigh.

We found the hamburger patties, so I got 2 bags. That should last awhile. DH grabbed a few other frozen things to try. Some breakfast sandwiches, some battered frozen fish fillets, and we got some more of the mini tacos. I said no more - this stuff is all such large boxes, we'll use up all our (2) coolers space and have no room for our Walmart frozen/cold stuff. But, he wanted to look for some carne asada meat that a friend told him about, so we found that over in the meats section. I had also been wanting to find/try these "caramelized onion with white cheddar" chicken burger patties dd recommended, but last time I couldn't find them. I didn't realize there was another frozen section of stuff over by the meats and that's where I found them. I also remembered to bring my $25 Costco gift card I had received for my glasses taking so long, months ago.

So, we ended up spending twice as much time (and money!) at Costco as planned. We get to Walmart around 5:40 with only one other car in the waiting area and they got taken care of just as we arrived. Then we sat there, for like 10 minutes before anyone came out. Usually they are very quick. Two girls brought our stuff out and it just seem chaotic. Probably because there were 2 of them. We kind of have a system where I tell them to put the bins of cold stuff down on the ground at the tailgate and then I go to work putting the stuff in the cooler and cooler bags I have. Then they go over to the side and dh starts putting all the rest (which is most of the order) into the back seat (folded down) of the truck. Sometimes this all goes smoothly and fast. Other times it just seems chaotic - seems to depend on the Walmart employee, LOL. Usually there is just one that brings the stuff out.

And, since dh wanted that carne asada meat (not frozen) I of course didn't have the other stuff he wanted to make this meal - rice, refried beans and tortillas. I didn't want to go inside Walmart to get that stuff (it's too big and I'm not familiar enough where everything is). By then it's a little after 6pm and we are both getting hungry. We pulled into the other smaller grocery store and I ran in and grabbed those extra items needed, but still another 10 minutes. Finally we get over to Wendy's with a line around the restaurant. Slowest service ever there. Usually they have a very quick drive thru line. We were there like 25 minutes and it was 6:50 before we got our food and headed home. I think by then both of us had had enough of this trip, haha. That's why I don't like combining having to stop a bunch of places. After the almost hour drive each way, anything more than an hour in the city makes for a long trip.

Then going home this semi truck pulled over right in front of us on the freeway. So, of course dh had to complain about that for the next 5 miles. The only thing the evening had going for it was it was sunny, 75 degrees, and pretty fall colors for the drive :)

When we went and picked up our Walmart order 3 weeks ago, we were gone a total of a little over 2 hours - it was perfect, but we only stopped at Walmart and Wendys and getting our Walmart order out and loaded went really fast that time. It has seemed like going in on a Saturday, leaving our house at 4, was a good plan.

I guess I will be trying to figure out how to make him a carne asada meal for dinner tonight. Plus, it's a huge amount of meat, so I'm going to have to freeze the rest of it.

I think once dh is up this morning, I will make blueberrry muffins for breakfast. We haven't had those in awhile. I was going to just have him try one of  his new egg sandwiches he bought, but I'll wait and try that tomorrow morning, when it will save me time, because I'll have already started working by the time he gets up. 

For the first part of the day I got laundry done, dusted, and cleaned the bathroom and the shower floor. This time I just went back to using the long brush on a handle and some "Soft Soap" cleaner, like I used to use before I got the steam mop. Again, he complains about the smell "it's killing my sinus's". I said too bad - you complain if it's just steamed water. I have to clean it with something! If you don't like it, go out to your shop or open your den window. His excuse was that he took the screen off the window. Well, put it back on for the day. Geez. I've really had enough with his super sensitive smelling. 

Then, when I was dusting, I was picking up my "cowboy boot" cookie jar off the bar counter top corner and was setting it down on the kitchen counter and it slipped out of my hand and the lid fell off and broke into too many pieces to fix. That was a bummer. I have had that cookie jar for a very long time. My mom had gotten it for me on a trip down to Arizona, years ago. I think I might try to find one of Ebay. Or maybe I can re-purpose it - put some fake greenery in it or something. Do you remember the Reba tv series? In that show she had the same exact cookie jar sitting on her kitchen counter and it never had the lid - I guess I match that one now, LOL.

Another grounding sucess story

Oh! The (cruise) friend I had suggested she try the grounding mat for her pain issues - she updated me yesterday. She said her hip pain (she'd been dealing with it since before the cruise) was gone in 2 days and her arthritis pain in her lower back is getting better. She feels better and says they are sleeping better and she's not in constant pain anymore. Success!I'm trying to get my half sis to get one - she has a lot of back and hip pain, too. And she was going to order it last night but apparently Canada is the only country they don't ship to....weird. She found a Canadian website, for apparently the same products but twice the cost as US$ and no free item when ordering. I told her, knowing what I know now about how much it helps me, I'd gladly pay double what I originally paid for mine.

I slept in this morning. It's still been hard getting up at my normal time, but I figured it's Saturday and it won't kill me to sleep in an extra hour or so. I'd rather get up at my normal time, even on the weekends, as it give me some quiet time, with my cup of coffee (and my blog LOL) before dh is up and about. But at least, all day, I do feel like my normal energy level. It's just been hard to wake up.

It's very foggy out this morning, but supposed to be a sunny 70 degree day when it burns off. 

I had ordered a bp monitor and pulseoximeter from Amazon that arrived yesterday. DH is now wanting to monitor his blood pressure, ever since friend brought over hers and left it for a bit. Well, he didn't like the one I got, LOL. Her's has an arm cuff that the first part that goes over your arm is kind of stiff and I guess it's easy for him to put on himself and then finish wrapping to the velcro side. The one I ordered the arm cuff is all soft and loose and he said it's really hard for him to get it wrapped around by himself. So, I told him I'd return it and find the one online like friend has. I found it through Walmart (twice as much haha) and ordered it and printed out a return label for the Amazon one. It was going back UPS. We hardly even see the UPS guy anymore as almost all of our Amazon orders now ship through the USPS. But, I saw in my UPS delivery account, he was delivering to us on Tuesday with some lawn mower maintenance kit. I happened to go ahead and just put the return label and tape of the box right then. About 15 minutes later dh yells up to me, in my office, UPS just went down the street to deliver to neighbors, can you get that return ready real quick and I'll give it to him now? I said already done and gave it to him.

We are going in to the city later this afternoon, to pick up groceries. Around dinner time, like we did last time on a Saturday, and traffic on the busy road was less and overall seemed like a good time for us to go. We'll grab Wendys' for dinner when we are done to eat on the way home.  Going at this time, vs in the morning, dh doesn't have to get up early (for him) and I don't have to get up and start getting ready to go out as soon as I get up. We now have our whole day to do our normal stuff and will leave around 4pm to head to the city and instead of me spending from 4:30-5 or 5:30 getting dinner cooked and eaten, we spend it getting groceries and eating on the way home. Works for me ;)

On tap for today - cleaning house. I need to get our master bath shower floor cleaned. I want to use my steam mop, as it's so easy to clean it and I like how it sanitizes it (or at least I feel like it's much more, with the hot steam) but every time I use it dh complains there's a weird smell in the house. So, I guess I'll just do it the old/hard way - with soap and a scrub brush. Boo.

Sky view

I finally got to see the Aurora Borealis....because it's now getting dark before my bedtime, LOL. Got some neat pictures

DH went out on our back patio a little later to look and said he could hear a mountain lion nearby, so he came back in LOL.

We are still wondering what is going on with that 2nd 2 acre lot DAN supposedly sold at the same time he sold lot right next to us sold. Three months later the property is still showing DAN as the owner. The big for sale sign on the tree is still there, but there has never been a new listing put out for this lot. Bizarre. That lot was supposedly being purchased by the 80 year old guy.

We must have missed meeting the couple that bought the lot next to us. Their son had told us they were coming up to see it in September, so it must have happened one of the 2 weekends we were gone in Sept, for our cruise.

Yesterday some crew was out, putting what we think must be fiber optics cabling in the ground along the main road, out in the easement area. There have been little orange flags along the side of the road for what seems like years now, LOL. We were told that was to mark where fiber optics will go in some day. Not sure what else it could be, but the telephone companies website that has some info on where they are adding fiber optics right now/near future, says nothing about our area. It sure would be nice to have better internet one of these days. 

I am glad it's Friday. This has felt like a long week, for some reason.

I remembered

About halfway through the day yesterday I remember what I wanted to check on prices with Amazon Prime sale. A blood pressure monitor and a pulse oximeter. Then we can return the one's a friend lent us, and have on hand. I also had recently heard we could get more free Covid tests from the gov't, so I ordered those to have on hand, as well. When I went downstairs to grab some lunch I saw the BP monitor and pulseox on dh's desk and then it triggered my memory, LOL.

I had also checked on the Optase eye drops I use, the first day of Prime Days and it wasn't on sale. Then it showed in browser history and showed it was 20% off yesterday, so I also got 2 of those. That saved about $4 per bottle. I also ended up getting most of dd's Christmas presents from the Prime sale, haha. I got her a board game she had on her list, a puzzle and a cribbage board. I still need to get her a birthday present, but it's too soon to order/have delivered and the Christmas gifts I will just have come here to wrap and we'll likely see them Christmas. 

Starting around 7am yesterday morning neighbors dogs were barking and barking. Honestly, now that they only have 2 dogs instead of 3, the barking sounds just the same and just as annoying. Off and on all morning. What the heck! When dh went out to get our mail, down at the entrance to our street, he figured out why. There was some road construction (repainting the lines) going on and they had part of the road blocked off, with a pace truck, that was using our street to pull in and turn around each time, so hence the dogs going nuts constantly. Oh, and the workers are too stupid to stop the paint line a bit BEFORE they are crossing over to turn around, so now there's yellow paint going across the lane and into our street. Nice. Hopefully they are done using our street today. I haven't heard any barking yet and it's almost 8am.

I see that the computer I shipped back to Dell last Friday is finally arriving at their place in Texas today. Kind of annoying that it was shipped ground (and takes a whole week). Hopefully they fix it fast. I was told it would be sent back via overnight shipping. So far dh using my mom's old computer is working out ok, but of course being old, it's a bit slow. But, I'm glad I kept it, as a back up. Just never thought I'd be using it as a back up for a brand new computer. It's fairly compact to store, since the CPU is built into the monitor.

I want to get into Costco again soon. It's been quite awhile since we last went and I'd like to go and get stocked up on some stuff for the freezer and other stuff. I wish I was more familiar with what all foods they sell (and how much the quantity of it is). Like eggs....I'm sure they sell eggs, but how many do you have to buy? I don't want like 5 dozen LOL.

Prime Day and what am I forgetting?

I had a few items in my Amazon cart Monday evening, but hadn't ordered yet. Glad I didn't. I forgot about the Amazon Prime deals starting yesterday. DH wanted some DeWalt saw blades and by waiting 12 hours, I saved 44% on them! I was also going to order a can of chocolate protein powder to try (because the kind I tried and liked from Walmart apparently isn't being made now anymore) and it was like 22% off. Then I decided I'd better check on a few things I buy every so often and also saved on kitchen garbage bags, Miralax (amazon brand) and omeprazole.  Then last night I thought of a couple of other things to check the prices on and said I'll look them up in the morning. Now for the life of me I can't remember what they were.

I was messaging with my boss in the morning. She said it was raining there and I said it was nice and sunny and going to be 75 at my house. She said take the afternoon off - enjoy the nice day. So I did! First thing I did was take a short nap, haha. Then later in the afternoon I went into the small grocery store in town for a few things to tide us over. Milk, bread, lunch meat, etc. I was in shock that they had some donuts left at that time of day. They might typically have a few, but never maple bars and they had 2 maple bars and several other kinds. These donuts are always so fresh and delicious. I got dh a maple bar and myself a glazed. I also picked up some chicken and waffle fries from their deli and that's what we had for dinner. With donuts for dessert. I haven't gotten anything from the deli in quite awhile and we always get the baked chicken instead of the fried. But this time the only baked chicken they had was smothered in bbq sauce, so I had to go with the fried.

I forgot about Monday being a bank/federal holiday, so I guess I have to do payroll today and not tomorrow, as I thought. Good thing our payroll company sends me an email reminder of when payroll is due, LOL. We have a new hourly employee who started like 3 weeks ago. When I did last payroll they hadn't clocked in with our timecard system. My boss said she talked to him about it last payroll. I just realized he still is not clocking in. What the heck?! LOL. It's not that hard to do/figure out.

work, dinner and tv show

I got caught up in a work project at the end of the day yesterday and suddenly realized it was 4:50 LOL. I never work past 4:30 haha. 

I hadn't planned anything ahead of time for dinner, so I ended up just making us breakfast for dinner - fried eggs (fried in olive oil) and wheat bread toast. We've been skipping the bacon or sausage due to dh's gallbladder, or lack thereof. 

 I do have ice cream in the freezer and dh will have that in the evenings sometimes. I now have no desire for it. As long as I have my yogurt/pudding dessert, I am happy and satisfied.

I had a super annoying dream last night. I was at Costco and trying to do a big shopping trip. DH was with me and he took a cart to get stuff on his own. It seemed in my dream the place was 3x the size it really is and alot of it seemed to be outside, almost like walking down streets. I just could not seem to get anywhere or find anything. I also had like a 3 year old boy with me, so that was slowing me down. I started wondering/stressing where dh was and that he was going to be annoyed it was taking me so long. I even woke up a couple of times and when I fell back asleep I carried right on with the annoying dream. Finally, hours later, (I was exhausted) I had to go check out (but I still didn't find the frozen stuff) and it was dark. I didn't know where dh was and I was trying to call him, but for some reason my phone was missing the call feature. LOL. Then I finally woke up and the stupid dream ended.

Anyone remember the old tv show from the 60's "Family Affair"? I started watching it on Amazon Prime. That was a cute, sweet show. When I'm done watching that, I'll have to find some other old shows to watch. So much better than most of the tv shows on today.

I can't seem to stop coughing this morning, since I've gotten up. DH is starting to feel better, but still feels like I do. I'm beginning to forget what it's like to NOT cough :/

Last week dh mentioned chocolate chip cookies sounded good (I haven't baked anything in months) so after work (I think it was last Monday or Tuesday) I had the ingredients so I made up some cookies. I realized I have missed baking every so often, especially on the weekends. Whether it be cake, cookies or pie. I don't want the sugar at all, but I do miss baking every so often. Last time I made banana bread I tried using the monkfruit instead of sugar, but didn't really like the results.

Do you have any good low/no sugar dessert recipes?

Weekend wrap up

I forgot to mention in my weekend post yesterday that on Saturday afternoon I watched my aunt's memorial service, which was streamed live. She was a sweet lady and that was evident by those that spoke about her. My uncle did not attend, but even though they live in the same state, it would have been a 3 hour drive each way for him, so that is totally understandable.

Yesterday I mostly just continued to try to rest up. The coughing seems to be happening less often, but worse when it does - whatever that means, LOL. But, I actually have not coughed yet this morning, so that is good. Usually after I first get up, I start coughing a bit. I always just wake up, with no alarm, between 6:30 and 7. I'm usually up around 6:50. Since getting sick I've been waking up from a sound sleep around 7:10 and getting up closer to 7:30. I start work at 8, so I'd rather have a little more time to myself before I start work. I'm hoping with the time change, I can get back to my normal time, but that's a month away.

I don't know where there is a forest fire, but the air has gotten smokey. It sure was a nice mild summer, for forest fires, so we didn't have to spend the whole summer breathing in smoke. Seems kind of late in the year for a fire.

A few tidbits from the cruise: of course we didn't need near the clothes we packed. I had bought 4 new nicer tops (ie not tshirts), thinking I'd change into these for dinner. I wore one! LOL. To be fair, I was going to wear one for the more dressier dinner Saturday night, but then we didn't end up going. DH packed himself and holy moly - why he brought that much, I don't know. We had discussed that he would wear his jeans like 2-3 days, so he'd only need the pair he had on and 2 more. Nope he had like double of everything he needed. We almost didn't get it all back in the suitcases, because dirty clothes (in a bag) are harder to fit in, than getting everything rolled and packed tightly.  

Didn't need the little magnetic hooks I got. There was plenty of closet space, etc. I suppose if you had a couple of kids with you in a cabin, these would be handy. We only used both sets of small binoculars once, while watching a whale from our balcony. We brought one set with us on our excursions, but for the type of excursions we did, didn't really need them for anything. One pair would have been enough to bring with us.

I had packed a little "pharmacy" LOL. Turns out, the sinus meds and cough drops came in handy, as well as the tylenol, of course. I thought I had packed my thermometer, but could not find it. Turns out, when I was prepacking, I first tried to fit everything into this little separate bag and it would not fit. When I took it all out, I left the thermometer in the bottom of that bag, on accident.

Having luggage tags already on our luggage, saved time. We didn't have to stand in a small line at a kiosk to get luggage tags printed and then stapled to attach to our bags. 

The outwear we brought was perfect. We did not bring any winter wear. From the weather reports I could tell it was going to be in the 50's (Day one excursion was 60). Day 1 excursion I just wore a long sleeve shirt and a zip up hooded sweatshirt (that I ended up taking off) and ended up taking my  Day 2 it was raining a little (but not cold) so I had my lined rain jacket on with a tshirt under. Same for day 3 excursion. I think some people (likely from the south, LOL, thought it was going to be very cold as they had winter jackets and knit hats on. I don't need that until it gets down into the 30's haha.

Weekend whatnot

I managed to catch the FedEx driver yesterday morning. Whew! I had kept watching outside from dh's den window (he was still asleep). To look out the front, we don't have a lot of windows. Our laundry room door, his den window and the windows in our door/sides of door. Or I could stand in my bathtub and pull the curtains back ;) Then dh got up and I started making his egg sandwich. I was still banking on neighbor dogs barking as soon as they pulled into our street. While I was waiting for his english muffins to finish toasting, I walked into the laundry room to look out and saw the FedEx van coming down the main road (runs parallel to our little street), so I turned off the burner with the egg in it, grabbed the box and ran out to give it to him.

I hooked his old computer back up, but while it was working fairly ok when I got the new one, somehow sitting on a shelf in his den, it decided to get worse, LOL. So, I went and got my mom's old computer from the closet upstairs and was able to set that up (it's a computer/monitor type all in one) and also attach one of his monitors. It's working ok - better than his old computer that's for sure. Hopefully the new one will be back soon and no more issues.

Later we went outside and finished getting all the old/dead flowers out of pots and cleaning out the pots to put in storage. The 2 barrels beside the front door are still good with the flowers, so I've left them in for now. It was nice to get outside for a bit and some fresh air. I also walked down to get the mail (dh usually does that). In the mail was a "right angle" charging cord to use in my ipad. If I'm charging while using the ipad, sitting in the recliner, it always bends the cord at the plug in and eventually frays the cord. This new right angle cord should be a much better solution.

DH is going to take my floor lamp apart today and see if there's anyway to fix it, before I order a new lamp socket. 

Last evening we finally got to meet a "neighbor" (I guess around here you can call someone who lives 5 miles away a neighbor when there isn't much else in the way of neighbors in between you, LOL). DH has been conversing with her (Facebook and messenger) since around May. She used to be a nurse and dh was telling her he's still fighting coughing and whatnot from Covid. She said she has a pulse oximeter and she'd run it over, so he/we can just double check. So, it was super nice to finally meet her in person. She's like a year or two older than us, but sadly already lost her husband a couple of years ago. DH's oxygen level was good at 97 and mine was 98 so that's good to know.

She also brought her blood pressure monitor. Whenever dh has had it checked it's always high and he's always refused to go on blood pressure meds when they suggest it. She might be the one who will convince him he should. We'll see. She left both with us, so dh can check for a bit, and then we can get them back to her.

When dd and sil got back on the way home from their hike (7.5 miles), she gave us a photo dump. Just wow! I don't even know which ones to share, LOL. What beauty!

Out with the new, in with the old

I have dh's new computer boxed up this morning and now gotta hope I can catch the FedEx driver when they drop of a delivery I have coming today. We have them set up to just leave packages out at our gate, not come all the way in to our door, so sometimes it's hard to catch them, if needed. Hopefully between the 2 of us, and neighbors dogs barking when they pull in, LOL, I'll catch the driver. The estimated delivery window says between 9:30 and 11:30 this morning.

Now, I've got his old computer hooked back up (it seems slow, LOL). Hopefully Dell will figure out the issue with this fan. I have basically the same model of Dell computer (that work sent me) but mine is like 4 years old now and it has never had a loud running fan.

The 5th of October already. Before we know it, the holidays will be here. I always tell myself I will try to get more ready, ahead of time, but I rarely do, LOL. It just sneaks up on me. Next month is dd's birthday. I had her give me a few gift ideas yesterday, so now I just have to make sure I get the gift(s) ordered and sent in time. I have plenty of time, but it will slip away on me and then suddenly I will be in a panic trying to get her gifts to her on time.

I probably won't hear from dd today, until later this afternoon or evening. They are heading out bright and early this morning for a 7 mile hike. She said yesterday she had a goal for 2024 to do at least 6 hikes and a total of 25 miles. After today's hike they will be at 50 miles total, with 5 snowshoe hikes and 5 regular hikes. Good for them. I'm sure today's pictures she sends us will be beautiful, especially with fall colors.

My floor lamp in the living room has stopped working. DH said if we get a new lamp socket, he can try to replace that and see if it will work again. I see a replacement socket is only like $6 or $7. Much cheaper than a new lamp! But, of course dh is teasing me I just want new lamps. Well...he's not wrong...but I do still like these lamps fine and lamps are expensive. Maybe one day I'll get new ones when we replace the furniture.  

We had some wind and rain last night. DH was just coming back out of the shop when the garbage can decided to take a trip across the driveway, LOL. 

Wish me luck to catch the FedEx driver!

Regularly scheduled programming

Back to regular life posts, LOL. Remember the little side table I commissioned dd to make? It turned out perfect and I was able to get it from her when we were at their place. I had to pay her back for the piece of wood (I had purchased the legs on my Amazon account), a whopping $15, but I added $50 for her time (she stained it with some leftover she had). I also gave her a $50 Amazon gift card for taking us to the cruise pier and picking us up.

I just got the bill for dh's prostate MRI. What the heck? There wasn't any provider adjustment for it! I don't think I've ever gotten an insurance explanation of benefits where they didn't write off part of it. Seems odd. So, they say I owe the whole amount of $2187 (went to deductible). The bill I got from the company that read the image, had a discounted rate. I just called my insurance company and asked about it and she said it's because the provider actually billed insurance at the contracted rate. I don't think I've ever seen that happen before! LOL. She said it's rare, haha.

What else is going on.....dh can't seem to get over this Covid. I'm pretty much over it. A little residual coughing during the day, but most of my energy is back to normal. 

I still have not received my mom's last social security payment. I suppose I should call on it, AGAIN, but it's obviously not doing any good to call. Maybe next week, I'll call, and see if I can get an update on it.

Remember a week or so before our trip I was stressing that dh's prescription refill wouldn't arrive in time, and he would run out a day or two before we got back? Apparently I cannot add! He still had like 2 weeks past that. I have no idea how I counted the pills/days left wrong, LOL.

I now have the shipping label to return dh's new computer to Dell. It's through FedEx and I thought I would just be able to run it into the little grocery store in town. I know they take UPS drop off packages. Well, decided to double check and they do not take FedEx. Nearest is in the city almost an hour away. Ugh. We do have a package being delivered by FedEx sometime tomorrow - I am hoping we can catch them when they come and give them the computer package at the same time. If not, I guess I'll be making a trip into the city.

The cruise - final part

When we got back after our Juneau excursion on Friday afternoon, dh took a hot shower and went to bed to try to sleep it off (we didn't know it was Covid until we got home and tested, but just assumed it was). Friends and I went to dinner in the dining room by ourselves. Our wait staff were very concerned and wanted to make sure he was ok. They had me take a little food and some tea up to him, when we were done eating. 

Saturday was an at sea day. DH was worse and with a terrible headache. We had booked a brunch and galley tour for Saturday, so dh missed out on that. The brunch was really good and the tour back in the kitchen area was interesting. So much food to prepare! Later that afternoon friend and I went to our massages we had booked, oh so long ago. That was nice and relaxing, of course. None of the 3 of us felt like sitting through a 3 course dinner meal that night, so the 3 of us just went down to the pizza restaurant and had pizza. Later, when I was back in the room, the maitre d called our room to see how dh was doing, since we didn't come for dinner. More of the amazing customer service. We all had really wanted to go to that dinner in the dining room - they were offering the extra (for extra $) menu, for free that night. I really wanted the filet mignon again, that I had had during our welcome lunch. Oh well.

By about bedtime Saturday I was starting to feel a scratchy throat and starting to cough. By Sunday morning I was sick too. Friend said she was just feeling very congested, but no cough. Sunday was porting in Victoria BC. We all had been there before, so weren't planning an excursion anyway. DH and I just stayed in bed and slept all day. By that point I was just counting to hours to get off the ship the next morning. We were at least glad we got all our planned excursions in before we got sick.

We had let dd know we were sick, of course, and would likely just head back home after she picked us up on Monday. We were originally supposed to take a shuttle with friends to get their rental car (they were staying in town until Tues eve) and they were going to drive us to dd's, but being sick we didn't want to be on a shuttle for 30+ minutes, etc. so asked dd to pick us up. SIL had Monday off work, so he suggested he follow dd down in our truck, so they could just hand off our truck right there (along with Amos, of course) and we could head straight home from the pier - thereby saving us a couple hours, not going out of the way to dd's house. That was a great idea and we were glad he thought of it.

We decided to use the "self-assist" departure, meaning we just carry our own bags off ourselves, so we were at the line to get off first thing just before 6:30am. At first dh wasn't very happy that we were getting off that early, but I said do you want to get off with thousands of others in an hour or two? (there were probably only a hundred or two getting off when we did, much better than several thousand!) They started letting us off right at 6:30. Friend had told us we had to go through customs as well, so I had told dd to try to be there at 7am, since I didn't know exactly how long it would take to get off. We did not have to go through customs and were over at the passenger car pick up area by 6:40. We found a bench to sit down and I called dd, as I had told her if she gets there before I call, just go to the cell phone lot to wait. She was still on the way and DD and SIL got there right around 7am and it was a quick and easy pull up for them. We loaded our stuff. DD - always the planner, had packed us some blueberry muffins (we had not had breakfast), some waters, gatorade and sandwiches for the road. She is the best. Said our thank yous and good byes from a distance and headed straight for home. 6 hours and 15 minutes later we were pulling in our driveway. Very happy to be home to go to bed!

The first thing we noticed pulling in our driveway was that the deer had been through and pretty much ate everything they could! Mrs Neighbor said they had come through both our yards on Saturday night.

If it weren't for getting sick we'd have been all over going on another cruise. It might take awhile to forget getting sick and want to cruise again. But, we are glad we went and it was great to see a little of Alaska.

Third stop - Juneau

 Juneau was our 3rd stop, on Friday. A much bigger town, LOL. It was a very rain day, all day.

We had brought an umbrella, so that helped, and dh also used his new rain jacket I had gotten him for the trip. We needed both! Our excursion was to see the Mendenhall Glacier, via bus, and then a second stop at a gardens place. We had to get off the ship and then walk that long ramp and then over near that red tent, where tour busses parked. 

Our bus took us out the a national park near the Mendenhall Glacier. There is a visitors center, which we started at - and of course so did everyone because it was raining. The only complaint was we didn't get enough time at this excursion. Only 1 hour! DH and I decided to go back outside and saw there were 2 trails to hike - one 1 mile roundtrip and the other 2 miles, roundtrip that went over to the waterfall, nearer the glacier. We realized that with now less than an hour left, before we had to be back on our bus, there was no way to do the longer hike, so we opted for the one that was half a mile each way. It took us to a closer lookout point and we grabbed some pics of the glacier and then headed back. 

Zoomed in

We all got back on the bus and went to some gardens place (I can't recall the name now). It was some private property some guy had been working for years and years to create. Again, still raining out, so not ideal. We did all get on some little tram type busses and they took us through the property. Afterwards we went inside their big greenhouse and got some snacks and hot chocolate, until our bus was ready to leave. I also purchased a Christmas tree ornament. It was an ok excursion, but dh and I thought it would have just been better to be able to spend more time at the glacier park, rather then add this extra excursion in, but it was a package type deal, I guess.

This is an "upside down tree". The guy takes fallen trees and buries them deep and then puts plants and flowers in/on the trees roots. They are kind of neat and quite a few all about the place.

It was at this point that dh was starting to feel sick and when we got back to the pier, he just wanted to go back to our room. We parted with our friends, who went and walked around Juneau just a bit. From then on we were mostly dealing with dh being sick and then me, the next day, Saturday night.

If I ever did the cruise again, I would spend more time researching the excursions and reading reviews on them. None of them are cheap, that's for sure. I just went along with what friend suggested we book, since they had been before. I think the only repeat excursion for them (and they went 10 years ago) was the train ride, so she was guessing as well, as to what would be the best excursions.

Sad news

It was a very sad day yesterday. My boss called me first thing in the morning to let me know our company owner had passed away the night before. Completely unexpected. He was due to fully retire in 2 weeks, just as he would be turning 67 years old. Definitely a shock to us all, that's for sure. While the company itself will be fine, it's still quite a loss to us all. 

I'll take a break today from the vacation update.

DH and I are still trying to get over Covid. I'm tired of coughing. His recovery is going slower, it seems. But, we are at least able to usually sleep through the night without coughing now and both have our appetites back. 

The weather has cooled down a lot, which is nice. It's 40 degrees out this morning and the high will be low 70's. That's perfect weather to me. DH got the sprinkler system blown out for the winter, yesterday (so nothing freezes). Probably one or two more mows and he'll be done for the season. Today is his semi-annual job to flush out the 2 propane tankless water heaters we have. One of our plumbing guys , when we built the house) and told dh how to do it, with vinegar, and save the $ from paying them to come do it. 

My aunt's funeral service will be broadcast live, on Saturday, so I will watch that.

I somehow remembered that it's been almost a year since I signed up for Hulu for .99 cents a month. I thought I had through November, but decided to log in and get it canceled while I was thinking about it. Good thing I did, because in a few weeks was going to be the full monthly charge at $9 a month. No thanks. I also cancelled a subscription I had (thru Amazon) for some multivitamins I've been taking. If nothing else, I'm sure I can find some that are much cheaper that work just as well (if they even do help).

I'm still waiting to get the bill for dh's MRI of his prostate. After whatever the the insurance w/o adjustment is, the rest will be to our deductible.  

I have to send dh's brand new computer back due to the CPU fan running so loud and fast. Dell is sending me a packaging box to send it back in and that should arrive tomorrow. His old computer still works, so I guess I will just have to hook that one back up, until we get the new one back. 

DD is looking into booking a European river cruise vacation for her and her dh next year. Sounds much smaller ships with only like 200 passengers (vs 5000) so much more intimate and less people. The prices seem to be similar to what we paid for our cruise, and she's finding flights to Europe pretty cheap. Her mother in law had to put a damper on their plans by telling them these cruises she is looking at are the "Walmart of cruises" - they, on the other hand, are spending $16,000 to do a wine type of cruise over there in Nov 2025. DD told me there's no way she and her dh are going to spend $16k, LOL.