More cost increases

My cell phone bill with Verizon went up $15 a month starting this month - except it's really an $18 increase. Taxes and surcharges on the $15 I assume...though 20% tax seems absurd. I haven't looked at the bill to get to the nitty gritty. I am going to have to ask our neighbors which carrier they use. I've just always liked Verizon because I pretty much seem to get service everywhere. When we were building (and living here) the subs would come out to work and some of them, depending on which carrier they used, couldn't get service or it was very spotty. But $120/mo for 2 cell phones on their smallest data (only 3gb) plan seems pretty ridiculous.

My new 4-letter word is becoming "staining" LOL. These are the posts I had to stain yesterday. 

There were 4 of them and it went quick, as I was only staining about half way. The other half is going in the ground. DH put some sealant type stuff on the half that is going in the ground. He's got 4 spots on our property where he had pre-planned for possible electrical needs and there is conduit sticking up out of the ground, with a little box on top. He wanted to add the posts next to them, to keep the conduit from accidentally getting broken off. While it didn't take me long to stain at all, I then helped him for about an hour getting the black goopy sealant on them. 

I noticed dh repaired his old saw horses with some new boards. These are his dad's old saw horses that he has had for years and they finally got so wobbly he had to put some new boards on them. They just have sentimental value to him.

As you can tell, I really do not enjoy spending half of my weekend day out in the shop on his projects....every so often is fine, but this seems to be turning into every weekend and it's cutting into my time to clean house and do my chores. Plus, I really don't enjoy spending time in the shop - it's tooooo full of stuff, stuffed to the gills. Too claustrophobic, even though the ceiling is very high. It's never going to change, so the less time I have to go out there, the better.

Yesterdays temp got to 62. This morning when I got up it's 22. Daytime wants to be spring - nighttime wants to be winter.

I have a strange thing going on with an order from Walmart I did. One of the items was shipped separately and says delivered to me USPS on Friday. We didn't get it. Tracking is very odd. The tracking# Walmart has for it is not showing up in My Informed Delivery, yet it shows being put into a PO box at my town's post office. I don't have a PO Box and even if by accident they put it in someone's PO box, why didn't the tracking # show up in My Informed Delivery? If you look at more detail via USPS on the tracking history it also makes no sense. On Thursday it shows originating at a little tiny town up in the northwest part of our state (not likely at all). Then on Friday it shows leaving PA (more likely) and somehow got to MT the same day and put in a PO box? Makes zero sense. I'll give it a few more days this next week and see if it shows up, before I report it as not received.

Well, dh wants me to wake him up at 8 this morning, so I need to get back downstairs and do that and make breakfast. We are going over to the friends at 10:30 this morning.

 

My newest complaint

Are you kidding me? I have to do more wood staining?! LOL. Good grief. Now he's decided that he will use up a few posts for another project and needs those stained LOL. It'll be quick, but dang, it's never ending ;)

Last year my eye doctor recommended some eye drops for me called Optase Intense. They are really great - their product container/bottle, not so much. The bottle is just too soft and when trying to squeeze drops out, it just collapses. I have a full bottle that I just started using and this is what it now looks like after trying to use it a few times

This makes it almost impossible to squeeze now and get drops out. It also seems like this bottle is worse than previous purchases. At least with my previous purchases the bottle did not start collapsing until it got about halfway down with the solution left inside. Then I'd end up wasting a lot of it, when it got down to about 1/4 left because there was just no way to squeeze it anymore. There's also no way to get the top off, to try some other method (eye dropper?) to get to the solution. This stuff is too expensive to not be able to use much of it. It's about $24 for this little bottle. I found Optase's website online and was able to send a complaint message. This stuff works great, but not with this bottle they put it in and I'm not spending that kind of money on it anymore and told them so. Every other eye drop I have ever purchased has a bottle that is firm and able to squeeze drops out and holds it shape and they should be able to make this usable.

March 1st today. Spring will be springing now that we don't have much snow left. Of course it still will likely snow again, but it won't last long with the temps now. Also curious to see if we will be seeing some building start on the 2 lots next to us. I have talked to the guy that owns the 3rd (farthest from us) lot, but they are not starting until September. They will likely only be able to get site work and a foundation dug before it's too cold, so their house most likely won't be finished until mid 2026. But, potentially this summer/fall there could be 3 houses being built on our street. That would be crazy, LOL. 

It's another blue sky sunny warm day on tap. I'd better enjoy and appreciate it, because starting tomorrow it gets cloudy and a little cooler again.

Tomorrow, mid morning, we are going to some friends house for some coffee and baked goods and a visit. Friend said they will have Mountain Dew for dh LOL. I think they are just trying to attempt to start inviting some folks, get to know each other better, get a better sense of "community" in the area (it sure needs it!). Maybe it will turn into something more regular and we can do a turn at hosting in the future. Anyway, it will be nice to get out of the house and enjoy some nice (and intelligent!) company.