I’ve had a few days of nice walks in the early morning. I’ve been the only one there when I get there, and then by the time I’m leaving, a few people are showing up. It’s cool, though, at 44 degrees this morning. We’re in for much cooler and rainy weather starting tomorrow. I do plan on going to the pool tomorrow, so hopefully the rain holds off till I’m home.
I sat outside yesterday and enjoyed the sunshine, and later had a fire in the firepit before dinner. It’s a nice way to wind down the day. I made a spinach Boursin quiche for dinner. It was quite good. I think I’ll make some chili for the week today if I get the stuff out of the freezer to defrost.
I plan on going to the Auburn gym this morning. Then, after I get home, my daughter and I are going to go back out to do some errands and get lunch out. ( we think). Both of us can be indecisive at times about going out to eat.
A blogger I follow has been doing another sweep through their house, decluttering. She mentioned, exactly what I’ve found to be true, that as time goes on, certain things that seemed important before no longer are. So with that in mind, I think I’ll start another round of going through each room. I’ve let some of my FlyLady routines lapse some so I want to get back into that too. Most stuff is automatic like the in the kitchen, counters are clear and no dishes in the sink( well maybe a spoon occasionally.) But I’ve not been doing as deep a clean in some zones. So I’ll see how much I gather up.
Well, as expected, yesterday was a wash. I woke feeling terrible, so I just stayed in bed. I finally got up and started feeling better by the afternoon, and even sat outside a while. This morning I feel fine, so it wasn’t too long. My daughter, though, had a histamine reaction, so she’s had to take it easy all week.
I’m still getting up around 5:30 -5:45am, depending on whether I plan on walking, which I am today. I’m not pushing going out in the dark to walk, as I think that ship has sailed. As much as it was one of my favorite things to see the stars, I think it’s smarter for me to hold off. So that means today I’ll go out and walk around at 6:30. I’m still bringinga flashlight for the first round.
We are in for rain this week, so I need to be sure everything is done. The wood needs to be covered, and the wood stove needs to be ready. Tahoe is already quite chilly, as would be expected. It still would be beautiful, though. I’m still looking at a hotel for one night for my daughter and me to go up in October.
I’ve done October’s budget and made the first payment on Allstate. My son is going to donate his Subaru (which is parked in my yard). When that’s done, I’ll take that off the insurance, and that will help a lot. He’s using the truck and making the payment, so I’m ok with that for now. He still needs to figure out the car he wants.
Anyway, the budget looks ok. Not a lot of wriggle room, but ok. I haven’t done too much with cash envelopes since B died, but I do have some still. Mostly, I want the big annual bills covered, so I’ll keep adding to those. Smaller ones, like Target or household, I’ll just let go or add that to a general spending. I do keep cash for groceries unless it’s Costco because I can use the card and get the rewards back.
Here are my two LVs I use for cash envelopes. I also have a monogram MM that B bought me for my birthday a few years ago.
I have 2 preloved LV agendas in the Epi black. One I got off of the Facebook group, and the other from eBay. One is the PM size and the other is the MM size. Of course, I love LV with classic things. Most of their fancy stuff is way beyond my reality. But I use these daily and enjoy them.
Finally, a week where I think I can get to a regular schedule. I hope.
I need to do some meal planning for the week. I have some more soup in the freezer, so I’ll pull one of them out, and I have some tofu to use. My son is coming over on Tuesday, and I plan on ordering a pizza for us to share. He’s going to do at least one dump run. Hopefully, he can get it done before it starts raining. I also want to close up the trailer and have them put a tarp over the top.
One is with the sleep doctor, finally. I am sure he will order the CPAP machine, and I’ll give it a try. I figure, why not try it and just see? If I hate something on my face, I’ll know. Then later in the week is my flu/COVID shot, but that’s just walk in and get it. I do have an appointment for it.
In between, I’ll try and swim and I need to go the the Maheny gym and library. So a little busier than I like.
My son is planning to come over and stack the firewood. He is going to bring an apple pie to celebrate his dad’s birthday. He would have been 75. I’ll decide on the day trip to Tahoe tomorrow. It seems I am deciding things based on the day and that’s ok. Update: my debit card isnt working so I may have to go into the bank at 10 am and that will change things.
I didn’t sleep very well the other night, so when I woke up, I decided not to walk as I had a headache. Weirdly, though, my Apple Watch says no sleep disturbances(which is sleep apnea). Very strange. I did walk this morning, and it was nice. I used the flashlight for the first round.
Fall is really here, and the colors are changing on the leaves. Plus, the cooler nights make a difference. I’ve been sitting outside with the fire pit all this week while eating dinner. It’s nice. I have to fill the propane bottle as it is almost empty. I’ll just do the exchange at the store.
I’ve been having fun playing around with ChatGPT. It’s kind of fun to ask questions a get an answer. One was about selling Rubi while still having a balance on the loan. It’s not a lot, but that means I don’t have a title. So it suggested paying it off and then selling. Something to think about. The other idea was to do a trade in. If we can find the tent trailer my daughter and I want with them this would be a good option. Well, I have till next year to figure it out.
I listed the All American on market marketplace so I’ll see what comes of that. I also pulled out all my canning jars from the garden shed, and I will list them today. Or as soon as I have some pictures. I haven’t had any interest in the All American, which I’m surprised at since this is canning season. I won’t lower the price on that so I’ll just keep it for now. The pressure canner is one of those things that retains value even if it’s older, which mine is not.
Basically a good week with finances since all of Septembers bills are still out there and this week is just an inbetween week. I have my budget done for September and everything is set up to come out automatically.
I got my LLS reimbursement so I’m keeping the $300 for UHC in the checking account. I’ll submit September’s about mid month. What a relief to have that for now. The grant should cover most of UHC till next July. At least it’s something for now and I greatly appreciate what they do. ( LLS that is).
I checked my Allstate account and nothing is due yet but I’m guessing that first payment will be October. I talked with my son about this because his Subaru is sitting in the back by the barn because it’s not running right. It’s a 2006 and I think he should just get rid of it. He does pay his insurance so it’s not that, it’s just it would be better just to have the 2 vehicles on the insurance. At this point he’s driving the truck which is fine till he figures out what to do.
I ended up going to Trader Joes after picking up the sleep test. I spent $125, but most of that was wine, and then $25 was gift card and about $25 was gift stuff(plus some of the wine) for my son’s partner’s birthday. Other than that no money spent this week.
It’s nice to have these inbetween weeks and not have to think about things related to bills, groceries, etc.
The sleep test was a disaster. The first night I did ok but really only got about 5 hours sleep with it on but the next night was horrible. I couldnt get to sleep for hours and then I was only like dozing off. I woke up like a zombie. I drove to Roseville dropped it and told the receptionist I wasn’t sure it was on the night before. After that I drove home, took an ativan and went to bed and slept for 3 hours.
I did feel a lot better after that. I walked this morning and felt good. I was planning on driving to the pool but then just didn’t feel like driving. So, I plan on dropping off thrift store stuff because it’s piled in the back of the Santa Fe. Other than that just pottering around here and doing some house tidying.
Here’s a picture of where my desk that I work at is with the 3 steps. Remeber this was a porch with concrete steps when we moved in.
Here’s a closer shot of Barclay and his VW bus. Plus that’s Jason our first boy! This poster is supposed to loook like that as it’s some kind of photography thing my son did.
Another shot of the now Heywood office.
Here’s the Star wars shelf for now.
Well, off to get going in my day.
Do you keep a shelf of memorabilia like star wars? The other thing is a Dalek from Dr. Who.
My new budget starts next week. So far, groceries have come in under $400, so I think I’m getting the hang of buying less.
I went to Costco this week and spent $233 on food. Freezer and pantry stuff brought it down to @150. For the pantry, it was granola, which lasts months, butter for the freezer also will last 3 months, pulled pork will be for at least 4 dinners over a few months, tamales, the same as they will be used over the next 3 months, and coffee, which will be about a month. Non-food came in at $70, about for batteries, hair conditioner, TP, and paper plates were on sale, so I picked them up for easy clean-up dinners. All of that will last for months.
For wine, I bought my favorite Juliet Rose and a fancy bottle of Sonoma-Cutrer wine. That was around $40.
Overall, I was pleased. Then I bought 2 pizzas for the tree crew that were here. I’ll show the pictures below.
We just got our Allstate car renewal, and it went up $1000 ( fuck Allstate) because of the claim that the scammer did, saying my car door scratched his. It’s a long story, but suffice to say, my door did not scratch his, but it did touch his passenger door, so Allstate had to favor his claim. It was a scam to begin with because then he got the money, and of course, didn’t go to the body shop. I tried to explain the setup because he was extremely aggressive verbally, and never even got out of his car, but took a picture ( or someone did) of my license plate. My guess is someone else was waiting with him in the parking lot. Oh well, done is done, but that is going to cause me extreme stress trying to pay that. I guess the best I can do is do the payment plan at this point.
On a positive note, the tree crane was here and took the tree. It was quite the job, as you can see. It took all day and then the next to deal with it all.
I’d had other plans to meet a friend for coffee, but that went out the window dealing with this. I hate dealing with this stuff, but I don’t have a choice. The other tree, I guess we’ll just have to wait on because it wasn’t in their system, but I’m going to try and convince them, but that will also take a crane( I think).
It would have been too much to do both anyway. All the wood is gone now, and it looks good. They did a good job.
Today, I’m going to Auburn and will drop off a load at Goodwill. It’s mostly stuff from Rubi that I know I’m not going to use if we get a tent trailer eventually. I still have the bathroom in Rubi to sort out, though.
It’s been a stressful week with my ortho appt, labs, the tree, etc. BTW, the shot hurt like hell, and my knee was really sore from it, but yesterday it started feeling a lot better. So hopefully in the next two weeks I can increase my walking. It takes about 2 weeks for the steroid to take effect.
Also, on a positive note, my labs came back about the same. Kappa went up to 20.5ml/g, so a slight increase from 19.8. Really, in the big picture, that’s not much. My ratio, though, did go up a bit because the lambda went down. If the Kappa goes up, Lambda down, then the ratio goes up.
The heat is back, and 98 * is hot for us. I think today it’s supposed to go to 99*. I’ll have to turn the coolers on by 10. Our PGE bill did go down some, though, so there’s that, I guess.
On a sad note, it’s our 55th anniversary soon. It makes me sad. We did have a wonderful life, even with the ups and downs of it. I’m planning a day trip to Tahoe soon, just not sure when. Burning Man is happening, so the freeway has lots of crazies, which also means the Tahoe area has some overflow. I’m hoping next week sometime.
Well, it’s been 2 months since Barclay died. Most stuff is handled, but there are still outliers. We need to sell the motorcycle and the trailer. We’re going to try for the motorcycle in September when it cools off. It may or may not sell. It’s a specific niche of a bike, so we’ll see. The trailer is another story, and I’m emptying it out slowly. Most of the camping stuff I’ll store so we can use it if we get the tent trailer.
Some things that need official death certificates, like the bank, I still need to do. Other things like PGE, and I’m just leaving alone for now. The water bill I got changed to my name alone. He had one cc in his name, and I’m leaving that too, as they will close that if it’s not used. I’ve put a lock on it, so that should be ok.
I’ve cleaned out some clothes, etc, and I have a few more things to do. Some favorite T-shirts I’m saving.
It’s definitely a strange place to be.
This coming week, I have my labs, and I’m getting another steroid shot in my knee. We also have PGE coming to take the big tree with a crane. They figured out the other big tree wasn’t in their system, although Barclay tried to get them to add it. Well, maybe another time. The one they’re taking is a huge tree with a lot of lean, and that’s why they need a crane. I’m concerned for our water line, but I will tell them to be careful how they drop tree parts. The other tree I suspect we’ll have to pay for at some point, but I can’t think about that now. So that’s going to be a very anxious day for me, as my anxiety goes way up with stuff like that. Usually, if B were here, he would handle it, and I would leave, but he’s not.
The rest of the week looks fine. Although I don’t know what day PGE is coming until Tuesday, when he’ll call me.
Right now, our weather has cooled and is quite nice. I’ve enjoyed sitting outside. Today is also nice, and then it looks like it heats up again later in the week.
My motivation to do things is very low. I’m pretty much forcing myself to go to the pool or the gym. I’m sure this will pass with more time, but for now, it’s weird for me to feel unmotivated. I did have a nice walk this morning, though. It’s been busy at the park during the week, so I’m not fond of passing 6 people walking, but today was empty, except for two guys fishing in the pond. In the past, when it got busy, I’d just go earlier and then no one’s there, but right now I’m not motivated to get there any earlier. 6:00 a.m. is about my limit, considering I get up at 5:30.
I’ve baked a few things in the Souper Cubes, and it’s loads of fun. I did banana bread and then zucchini bread. They are food-grade silicon, so you can bake right in them. Very cool. I froze most of it as my daughter and I can only get through so much.
Well, that’s it for the most part. just day by day.
It’s been so hot again. Today is the hottest at 99. The coolers go off and on all day. I always turn them off by 7:30, even if it’s still hot out. We have two more days of heat, and then it drops back into the 80s.
I’ve had fun reading this book,
It’s quite funny, although if you’re offended by the word fuck, then this isn’t for you. It’s quite motivating. I bought it as a Kindle book.
My walk was nice this morning. Only one person was showing up as I was leaving. My legs still don’t seem to be recovering as well as I’d like, and my app for iHealth still shows my walking steadiness as low. I’m guessing my right knee is still causing some lagging in my gait. Of course, that’s just a guess.
I picked up my holds at the library, and one was chair yoga and pilates. So far, I like it and may buy my own copy. I have it for 3 weeks, so I can give it a bit more time to see if it’s worth it.
The week ahead is Dr. appt in Sacramento, and Velcade in Roseville. That pretty much covers the week since Friday, I’ll take my Dex. My daughter starts back at her college job this week, too. We talked about maybe doing a day trip to Tahoe. Just the West Shore, as it is closer to Tahoe City. I’ll have to see how motivated I am to do that.
I still haven’t canceled one of the Tahoe trips in September. I guess I’m procrastinating. I’ll do it soon. We had booked 2 reservations that overlapped, so one will have to go, and even the one that’s left is questionable. I’m still not sure how we could pull it off without Rubi, and that is not an option. I suppose my son’s huge tent is an option, but not really a great one. I’d have to buy an air mattress and some other things, and I’m not sure I want to do that. I guess I’m waiting for some inspiration to show up. Kidding:)
My daughter has finished painting the studio, and it looks really nice. A pale green with a cream trim. We gave away the Ikea cabinet yesterday on Facebook Marketplace. Fortunately, the guy coming was nice and prompt. He had a van, so my daughter and he were able to slide it in. It was a brand-new hybrid Pacifica. Wow, it was quite nice. I checked the price and they run around 55K.
Well, off to do some stuff as I’m not heading out to the gym this morning.
The light is shifting in both the morning and evening. The other day was Lammas, so cross-quarter. For some reason, I always feel the shift, even if it’s 90 degrees out. My walk this morning at 6 am was nice, and again, it’s just a tad darker. No one showed up, which was unusual. Generally, there is at least one or two people. So that was nice. I’m still not up to a full mile yet with my knee, but I’m getting there.
Today, I plan to go to the Auburn gym and then drop a load off at Goodwill. It’s a bit of miscellany from around the house. I’ll do another round when I get motivated to go out to the garden shed. Since Barclay died, I haven’t had much motivation with things, but I guess that’s normal.
My son and daughter moved the trailer to a new spot, so the tires aren’t in the same spot. I haven’t been out there yet, but I will go out today. I also need to continue taking things out, like dishes. I won’t get rid of them because our plan is to get the tent trailer, so we’ll need stuff for that. I think the ease of pulling a tent trailer will suit my daughter and me.
We started watching the New Star Trek, with Captain Pike. It’s really quite good and really keeps to the Star Trek theme. It’s on Paramount, if you’re interested. I also watched the PBS production of Patience. It’s really a rerun of the French Astrid, but I enjoyed it. I also finished watching Murder on an Island, which takes place off the coast of Canada near French Quebec.
It’s my son’s birthday this week. 31 yo. Where does the time go?? He was a wonderful child, and he has grown into a wonderful young man. There are 9 years between my daughter and him, and he was a BIG surprise. I remember saying, I’M WHAT??? I was almost 42 when he was born.
Well, what things are you up to these days? I read a few blogs, but not as many as I used to. I do love peeking into other people’s lives. I guess that’s why I was a psychology major in college, and counseling in graduate school, and clinical psychology in a doctoral program, which I didn’t finish. No regrets, it was all a journey.
I haven’t slept well on Dex these past few nights, so I feel like I’m running on empty. Hopefully, a nap today will catch me up. I go for my labs tomorrow and should have some results by Thursday. Fingers crossed it’s about the same. I felt so low, I didn’t even walk this morning, which is my favorite morning to walk.
Our weather is finally going to cool down, and next week looks super nice. I’d like to get back to eating out on the patio again. Plus, we can get more watering done if it’s not crazy hot.
We had a busy day yesterday with chores in town. We dropped off a load at Goodwill, went to the car wash, then down to the paint store. My daughter has a keen eye for color and picked some lovely shades of green for the studio. I picked up some misc we needed, like bee traps.
Then my son came over and did the metal load to the dump. He thinks there’s one more load of junk, and then the old wood would be the final trip for this year at least. I’m going to walk out there later and survey the situation. He hung around long enough for my brother to show up with tacos for us all. My brother needed my daughter to help him with some computer stuff. So all in all, a nice little family gathering.
I have my trip to the coast booked, and I’ll be bringing some of B’s ashes with me to scatter. It won’t be much, it’s sort of a token gesture. He loved that part of the coast, so it’ll be nice to be over there in his memory. After that, it’s still the Tahoe trip, but it’s completely undecided how we are doing it. I have the reservations(of course, because you have to book 6 months out), but I don’t really want to trailer with Rubi. We’re tossing around a few ideas, but nothing solid yet. I’m fairly sure I’m going to sell the trailer, but when is the question? Frankly, it’s too much for me to handle maintenance etc. Plus, I can’t drive the truck to even pull the trailer, and I have no desire to learn that. I don’t want the trailer just sitting there and not being used. So we’ll see. The thought has crossed my mind to see about a trade-in for something else, but I’m not sure what yet, so?? I guess these are the adjustments you just have to make when someone dies.
I’m staying home today and doing a once-around-the-house tidy up. I’ve washed inside windows and dusted. I have some brown rice cooking for dinner and plan on making a small rice chicken casserole. I have chicken shredded from the freezer that I want to use up.
I ordered a pair of compression socks from Bombas, and I hope they will help my legs. My knee seems to be doing ok, but my legs do get a sort of tired syndrome, so I’m hoping compression socks can help that. I guess that’s what nurses wear for their 12-hour shifts. I’ve decided I am going to get the next steroid shot, so I’ll call and see when I can get that. Does anyone wear compression socks regularly?
Other than that, not much else is happening. What’s happening in your neck of the woods? It’s always interesting to read about how other people live and the weather they have.
Frugal-wise, I’m not in the Cotswolds like Mavis over at $100 a month. She probably should change the name of her blog. But she’s got the money, so why not enjoy it? Plus, she loves England.
Here in my neck of the woods, N. Ca, it’s been too hot to do much outside. The temps are much nicer in the coming week, but still some 90’s, and I saw it gets in the low 80’s, so that will be much nicer. I miss sitting outside in the mornings and afternoons.
Money-wise, just paying bills, and I had to pay the overpayment from SS. It’s ok, I’ll deal with it. It’s done, and I’m going forward. I just need to work the budget with the SS I’m getting. I’m still working on my credit card bill because I put the cremation on there. But I should be able to knock it down next month. I hate having a balance. But needs must.
After my Velcade shot, I stopped at Costco to pick up some lox for the bagels I bought at Noah’s. I also picked up some rose wine( my favorite) and a Gloria Ferrier champagne-type brut. I wanted Mumm rose, but they were out.
I gave my daughter $100 in cash to buy the paint for the studio. She’s really done a great job clearing it out and rearranging it to suit her. We might go get that today as long as she drives, since I’m on Dex. I don’t sleep well on Dex nights, and last night was no exception.
I also have a food bank donation to drop off and some more stuff for Goodwill.
I’ve almost finished most of my list of things to do related to B. If something comes up, it’ll be an outlier I don’t know about. I may take care of a few things today or not. It depends on my focusing on which Dex does affect. So we’ll see.
I’m still debating getting the next steroid shot for my knee. Mostly it’s ok. When I try and do a little extra walking or swimming, it acts up, but then I seem to recover the next day. The shot did help quite a bit, so there’s that.
I've been married for nearly 20 years to a wonderful husband and I'm a mom to three great kids ages 17, 16 and 14. Oh, and I just happen to have cancer. Multiple Myeloma is a cancer of the blood that is currently incurable but IS considered highly treatable! My goal is to make people laugh, cry or feel a little less alone whether you are a mom, cancer patient or BOTH!
Tahoe Girl 