Tuesday July 28th 2026

Good morning!

I really enjoyed my visit to the surrounding area in Phoenix. It's not a landscape I'm used to. Very nice. They do endure a hot Summer.

Dianah, glad you settled on a new vacuum. It isn't always an easy decision is it. I got mine at Walmart but it's still the old fashioned heavy kind.

I love a good PB&J. I have rice cakes and PB&J at work for hunger times.

I did have a good meeting with my retirement counselor whose AI tells me I have a 92% chance of meeting my retirement goals which is good. We decided to decrease my risk some since I'm close to retirement. So if a crash like 2007 or 2022 happens it will be less painful.

I've updated my beneficiaries to have best friend get my cash and sister and brother get my retirement. Best friend will get the house, sell it, pay the mortgage and split it with my siblings. I picked a funeral home and will pre-pay for a cremation. Too bad I don't have a spouse and children so I can ignore all this and leave them to deal with it. LOL

One thing I learned is my medicare premium will be based on my final two years of income, which is annoying as this year I'm working overtime and might be thrown into a higher bracket and pay $80 more a month for life. It is what it is. Healthcare premiums are factored into my retirement needs.

Anyway, yesterday was kind of a dud household chore wise, so I have some meal planning to do, cooking and cleaning to do. Laundry has been started.

Spent two hours at the vet with S and the little boy dog, and the black cat came along for a recheck of her ear infection. The cat is fine. The dog has a partial ACL tear and both knees are 'bad', plus it has a heart murmur which will lead to the upper right portion of the heart enlarging over time. He is getting pain medicine and something else, and 'they' will explore the treatment, medicine-wise for the heart problem, at another appointment. This appt costed a bit over $300, which would make me feel pretty "YIKES!", but we take the dog back in two weeks for a recheck. One interesting thing that happened at the vet, when the tech went to give him a pain shot, the minute the needle just touched his skin, he gave a kick so strong that the entire syringe shot out of her hand and across the room to hit the wall! They took him in the back and four people had to hold him down to get the shot given! This is an 11-12 lb dog!

There was a TV show on in the waiting room, quite a stupid science-fiction soap-opera about a young man, "The Flash" who had been hit by lightning at his birth, and one of his nemesis's, an older man whose power (after also being hit by lightning) was that he "knew everything", and proved it by being able to name the person who was the infamous Jack the Ripper, and his real career, etc. It was a most unimpressive show, and I guess the not-very-good-actors/folks in it are lucky to have jobs, but if I was in that show, I'd feel mighty embarrassed!

I WUZ going to go to get my license today, but I stayed up late/early (1:30 AM) 😵‍💫 streaming a show recommended to me by my friends, since I have come to the end of available shows of The Lincoln Lawyer. This one I started watching last night, I may have watched 3 or 4 episodes, or maybe I turned it off mid 4th episode....SHETLAND, a murder mystery that takes place in Scotland; so far I believe 4 young women have been murdered. Anyway, it is interesting to see the beautiful Scottish countryside, which is often lonely, wet, and/or cold; and how "primitive' and small the law-personnel group is. By primitive I mean, their cell phones keep losing signals even when they climb a high hillside to get a connection, and even then the conversation disappears at an inopportune moment; plus they have to take a ferry to get to the island where things are happening, and lots of people actually walk long ways to get where they're going. QUITE different from the US city murder mysteries!

Yah, well, my legs (thighs primarily) are aching something fierce today, and that plus my sleepiness are the reasons I don't want to go out to the DMV which is at the Tax Office. Hopefully I can do it tomorrow, because, well, I really need to. Oh, and I finally got the confirmation letter of my permanent change of address from the USPS, so I will HAVE TO get my Fla license and change my address on the checking acct where my SS check is deposited. Such a bother, but I know it is necessary.

Coming up on noontime, so I suppose I ought to "DO SOMETHING". 🙄

I am aghast at how much money you will need to get a Florida drivers license, Stars. I hope the dog feels better. How did they diagnose the ACL injury (just curious)?

Feta cheese was indeed a tasty addition to the salad.

Tweety, Hubs and I really need to get some of that end-of-life planning and organization done.

It has been HOT here with temps over 100 for several days. Our pastor is trying to have the church be a "cooling center" on days when there are heat warnings. We did open one day and didn't have anyone come in to cool off. I guess our ancestors had to just deal with it and with the health effects. Even when I was young, most people didn't have central heat/air. Our schools were not air-conditioned. My parents had central heat/air installed in our house when I was maybe 14. Before that, we had a floor furnace in the living room and 2 window unit A/Cs -- one in my parents' bedroom (on the west side of the house, and my dad sometimes worked night shifts and needed to sleep during the day) and one in the living room. Many friends and family didn't have A/C. Some used those "swamp coolers."

Speaking of air conditioning, the hospital is still coping with one of the units being down. Parts were ordered, they arrived, the people who came to do the repair realized they needed more parts, which were ordered... So I still have the loud fan outside my office. My office is still cooler than I would like. With the fans blowing cooled air down the med/surg wing it is really not uncomfortable there, either.

Ado~ The dx was made by palpation which caused the dog to make a specific, undeniable response, and by x-rays. He,( the dog who I always refer to as she because he is SO pretty!) is already seeming better, but the vet said it is just the pain medicine masking the pain. He still hops with the foot pulled up, but he puts his foot down a little more often. My friends were dreading having to pill the dog, One large half-pill, once a day, and one small half-pill once a day, and one small oval pill every twelve hours. I just got my tub of soft (real) butter, scooped out an amount that would cover the pill, put it on my index finger, offered it to the dog, and the dog took it and swallowed it without any hesitation or attempt to spit it out. They were amazed! I was not. Butter is magical, especially to an animal who has never experienced it before! There have been times when an animal smells the medicine through the butter and will spit it out, but those are the times when I have to open its jaws and thrust the pill on my fingertip full of butter, to the back of their throat, and they swallow it then. No choice really, but the butter is like the 'spoonful of sugar that makes the medicine go down', because it is too slippery to push back up into the mouth! VOILA!

We grew up with no A/C and the air-conditioning in the movie theaters was PAINFUL to me! My feet and ankles got SO cold, not just numb, but it made my bones HURT. So I had to make sure to bring socks to the movies, and a sweater to cover the backs of my arms. The A/C still was not exactly more comfortable with the socks and sweater, but they helped me tough it out. Then, much later, in the midst of the most dreadful hot flashes, I could stand in the full, coldest setting of the high-powered blowing from an A/C vent, and the sweat would still pour down and I still would not feel cooled down! Had to wait through those complete three minutes for the hot flash to begin to subside. Phew!!! I am glad that is over with!

Ado~ Never mind the costs of the driver's license, tag, plate and sticker; TONIGHT the take-out order for my MEDIUM Steak and Cheese Calzone was $28 %*(^& dollars!! and that was without any add'l toppings added to it. Jumpin' Jehosaphats! It better be good! A $3 can of tuna may be my meal for tomorrow night and the same or something similar during the rest of the week! I just cannot believe how much EVERYTHING here is much more expensive! I didn't come to Florida to go broke! Poor man's spaghetti sounds good: pasta with butter and salt on it. Peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich. Homemade grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup. I can't do this livin' high off the hog stuff for too much longer; my Soc Sec chk doesn't come in 'til the 4th Wednesday of the month, so I better pare down a good bit; And I still have to pay thru the nose for the FLA driver's license,etc!!

Just got the Calzone.... it is as big as a half of a pizza! I thought it would be in a roll, like a sub sandwich. But I must say, after my first bite, it is quite delicious.... and it will be tomorrow's supper or lunch as well.