Wednesday June 26th 2024

Tweety, BSN, RN · Jun 26, 2024

Joe, have a good time tonight.

I've said before I don't have a task "paying bills". They pay themselves except my Amazon credit card bill that I have for the points and pay it off in full once a month. I understand that's a privilege because I'm able to always keep padding in my checking account for bills.

Was productive so far, cooked some curried beans and quinoa for four lunches. Made a tofu dish that I didn't like because the Thai basil I used was a bit bitter. Did a load of laundry. Dusted. Mopped the house. Only thing left to accomplish is some grocery shopping and a workout at the gym.

The excitement never ends.

nursej22, MSN, RN · Jun 26, 2024

Joe, I can sympathize with having to clean up spots on the carpet. Poor kitty.

Most of my bills are autopay, now. I don't miss those days of writing monthly checks and always running out of stamps. And most deposits are electronic too. When I do get a physical check, I can use my phone to take a picture and then submit it.

I had a dental appointment yesterday, just a cleaning. We agreed that now that I am uninsured, and my teeth don't get much build up that I can switch to yearly. And rarely have cavities. The hygienist tsk tsk'd about my chipped tooth, and offered to fix it, but I'm going to wait. It's hardly noticeable. Eldest ds stopped by to take some excess garden tools off our hands, and he took some eggs. I was going to go with dh to dd's house to do a little gardening, but I laid down, and fell asleep for 2 hours. Leaving soon to volunteer at the demo garden.

No Stars In My Eyes · Jun 26, 2024

100 degrees, 'feels like' 106 degrees! Not QUITE as hot as a sauna, but close! I went out to put outgoing mail in our mail box today and found out that YES, it is quite oppressive! I just don't even feel like getting in the car to go, even briefly, to the post office.

Tomorrow I have a 1 PM appt for a hearing assessment. I could tell them my hearing isn't good, and save myself some $$, but the hearing test is free. I hate to disappoint them, but they aren't going to be able to sell me some new hearing aids.

I may go by the eye doc's place to get an appt and peruse the frames while I am there. Aside from a new prescription for my trifocal lenses, I want a different 'look' for frames; I don't think there's anything 'new' out there, but ya never know. I'd rather 'shop early' and take my time finding frames I like. It's not quite as awful as having to shop for shoes, but it is pretty close. Most of the time I'm the shopper that likes to go into a store and see if they have what I'm looking for, and if they don't, I'm outta there! My sister used to drag me around in Filene's in Boston and she HAD TO look around on every one of the 4-5 floors AND especially the basement sales, and it was sooooo boring to me! I was like a little kid, asking, "Can we go now?" and her answer was usually "Not yet." UGH! And it used to annoy HER if I found a top I liked and bought 3 of them in different colors. "Why are you getting three of the same shirt?!?"

Well, Tweety, 😉 I AM getting closer to not having to pay many bills by check, I mean, I did just have 3 bills put on automatic withdrawals 😁 That's a major change for me, as you well know. 🙃 I do dread the day I have to get some kind of a smart phone to use that weird square to pay for things. There are some restaurants that will not accept cash, not that I go out to eat very often, but I see a trend coming. Or maybe it's already here and I've been able to avoid it so far? Anyway, I am still an old fashioned paper-and-pen kind of person, being slowly dragged into the future. *sigh* 😕

Okay, we all know what time it is, and it ain't Howdy Doody Time. Yes, time to get Nannie up, so I may be back later.

Hope y'all (and fur babies) are doing well~

No Stars In My Eyes · Jun 26, 2024

Momo's Native-American name translates to "Barks At Flies". She sees one and starts barking and shaking hard. I am a good mom and swatted the fly dead, and showed it to Momo. Now she is snuggled up against my hip, no longer shaking, but very attentive just in case another one shows up to torment her. I reckon since she was in a hoarding situation before I got her, there were plenty of flies around. It's almost like PTSD for her.

101 degrees outside now, just lovely 🙃.

Ado Annie, ASN, RN · Jun 26, 2024

Sorry to have been so absent, again. Took a 4-day weekend to (1) submit a passport application, (2) see the retina specialist (all is good), (3) spend some time with my brother while he was here for his 50-year high school reunion get-together, (4) celebrate our 35th anniversary. We did *not* go sailing, mainly due to heat. Even Hubs was feeling like it was too much. Today it's 97, a predicted high of 101 tomorrow. Hubs brought the boat home from Lake Hefner to clean it up. We thought we'd take it to Lake Thunderbird (a little closer and easier to get in/out) to sail. But gave it up.

Monday morning when Twin B came home from work he found Dory the dog lying awkwardly on the floor with vomit under her head. I thought for sure that was going to be the day we had to say goodbye. But, she has had a steroid shot again and has oral steroids and some gabapentin as well as her regular muscle relaxer. She perked up a little and is better able to use her hind legs but still vomited a couple of times last night. I don't know if she will recover enough that it seems right to keep going. Poor girl.

OKC had 85 mph winds last night and there was some damage. No tornado, just lots of wind. Lots of people with power out due to power lines being down. I could see lightning north of us when I went to bed but nothing like that came this far south.

We mostly do auto-pay for bills, though there are a few that don't get paid each month until I authorize them. We don't have sufficient padding and when we get hit with overdraft fees it hurts. I don't write many checks, though. Had to find one to send with the passport application, and used one at the vet the other day because I knew we had money coming in but not until the next day or something like that.

Editorial Team / Admin · Jun 27, 2024

Hello all! I have not been real faithful keeping up with the happenings, as I didn't have service where we were staying. Dh set up a hot spot once, for me, but otherwise I just did without allnurses and FB. Heh. And I survived!! LOL!

We had a good time, with uneventful drives up and down (split into two days going up, and three coming down, for an 11-12 hr drive. If we elect to attend this festival again, we agreed we will take at least three days going both up and back).

Festival was held in the little town of Susanville, up above Lake Tahoe/Reno area, in the Lassen County Fairgrounds. Lots of big oak trees, so there was plenty of shade. It's a small-er festival (not huge like the Father's Day Festival in Grass Valley, the weekend before), but very nice. We met the promoters/organizers and lots of the volunteers that made the festival good. Dh and I took "Music Class," -- he took bass and I took vocal class. We had five in our class, and got some very good information and experience singing harmonies, picking a key to sing in that compliments one's voice, etc. Dh got instruction on the bass from Edgar Loudermilk himself, bassist and vocalist for The Edgar Loudermilk Band, one of the featured bands. The other band members taught guitar, banjo, and mandolin class.

Our friends B & P camped right next to us, and we got there early enough to get an electric site, --- it was so good to have electricity, and not have to totally rely on our solar or generator (and there was no extra charge!) B & P used theirs to power their air conditioner in their 40-ft fifth wheel! We made it through with our three fans, and just dressing for the weather.

It started off cold and quite windy when we arrived on the 16th, but had warmed up by Tuesday to the 80's and hung around 92-95 for the Fri-Sat-Sun of the festival. We left for home on Monday.

Ppl seemed to love the bands! We watched one gal just dance around to the music, as she was seated. Next thing I knew she was in front of me, inviting me to get up and dance with her! Uhhhhhhh, NO. Me: "Honey, you do NOT want to see me dance!" (which is true!) She urged again and I, again, declined. Not gonna get up and be a fool in front of all those ppl! Just wanna hear the bands! (note: she and her SO eventually got asked to leave, as they had taken off their wristbands, and were unable to present the receipt, so the organizer had no way of knowing that they had paid for tickets. Also, they'd been drinking, and were a little belligerant... gave his wife trouble as they left through the gate; she ended up calling local police to escort them out. 😟

Anyway, we had a good time, everything in the RV worked well, -- we lost a hubcap on the way up, oh well. Doggy seemed to enjoy camping. 🙂

We arrived home around 2:30, and as of 4:30 we had the RV unpacked (food and duffel bags and hats and dirty clothes). I have a load of laundry in (linens, towels, etc), will get the dirty clothes in later. There is enough food left over (frozen) so we have meals for several days. Guess I over-did the food prep, but at least it is frozen and not spoiled. I didn't use my salad supplies much, it was too much "work" to prepare a salad every day. I still tried to stick to low-carb meals, and when I weighed when I got home, I hadn't gained anything, at least. Tomorrow morning I will weigh again and see if I lost any...

Joe, hope your cat is OK.

Ado, I hope Dory bounces back. I know we worry most about our older cats, when they approach that quasi-failing part of their lives. We want to keep them as long as possible, yet don't want them to suffer pain or reduced "quality of life." Hugs. Oh, and outings (camping. boating) take a LOT of work to accomplish!! Kudos if you go, but if you decide not to, there's always another time!

No Stars, how did the hearing test go? Do they have any New-and-Improved, Spiffy hearing aids that you just MUST have?? Good for you, getting your finances straightened out! BIG accomplishment!!

Tweety, you have accomplished a lot, as usual!

nursej22, most of our deposits are automatic. I pay bills myself, but online (No more mailing bills). I have been reluctant to jump on the auto-pay wagon. How was your time at the demo garden today? When we got home, I harvested probably 25 cherry tomatoes, and half a dozen small bell peppers, which we will enjoy in the next few days (if you recall, the tomatoes continued growing [ahem! SOMEone didn't pull them out for the Winter!] and are supported by the hibiscus bush; dh says they are now hibiscus tomatoes!)

Have a good evening!

Tweety, BSN, RN · Jun 27, 2024

Dianah, good to hear from you and it sounds like things went well.

Happy Anniversary Aldo! Hope the pup remains comfortable.

I get a text when my bills are paid or any activity on my account. It's quite instantaneous when I use my phone at the grocery store or gas station, I get a text right away. But can be annoying because my dog's care plan, seems to be paid in the middle of the night. Netflix and Spotify and other bills seem to be notified at a decent hour. So far nothing suspicious has come through.

We're having our typical early Summer "just warming up". Yesterday my phone said "89 with a feels like of 100". Sure felt like 100 and definitely to 89.