I finally took the plunge and got Magic Jack. It was very easy to hook up. Initially, I decided to save myself $20 and have them randomly assign me a new (free) phone number, but once I did that, I regretted not porting over my existing number, because now I'll have a gazillion people to inform.

On the plus side, having a new number should vastly cut down on the amount of telemarketing calls I receive. Plus, Magic Jack has a free service you can opt into for call screening, where the caller is asked to dial a one-digit number before the call is patched over to me and my phone rings. Robocalls can't do that, so that's a plus, too. Finally, I don't think my Magic Jack call will be listed in public phone directories like my Frontier (formerly AT&T) number was, so that again, would be helpful.

Why did I go with Magic Jack? Because I was one of those very few people who still maintained a land line, and I was tired of having to renegotiate my phone bill every year or every other year with Frontier, with certain "discounts" I never knew about until I threatened to leave. More transparency would have been nice.

My current bill with Frontier for both phone and Internet is $61 and change. Roughly $30 for each. Note huge, but I dislike recurring bills and knew there were many other options available.

I had discounts for bundling my phone and Internet with Frontier so I knew my current bill for both would not be cut in half when I dropped the phone. I called them this morning, and in fact, cancelling my phone service with Frontier (effective end of the month becus they bill in cycles) will only save me $15 a month, so my current $61 bill will drop to just $47 (inclusive of taxes/fees).

Once I and everyone who knows me gets used to my new phone number, it will still be worth it, because phone service is one of those things you don't tend to think about much from day to day. So the $15 a month savings will become $177 saved annually, or $885 saved over the course of 5 years, without really thinking about it.

Magic Jack cost me $47, which includes shipping fee, plus another $6 for 911 service. The 911 fee varies in price and is not set by Magic Jack. I will pay to renew Magic Jack service each year, I'm assuming after subtracting the $8 shipping cost referenced above.

I will feel more comfortable once my Frontier phone service is disconnected, as I want to make sure clarity and operability of the new service works fine. I tested, dialing my new number from my cell phone, and it seemed to work fine.

I have a new walking partner who lives within walking distance of me. She's one of the neighbors I invited to my patio party last month and like me, she loves to walk. (And she's VERY trim!) I am aiming for now to walk with her twice a week. Maybe in the fall when it cools down we can do more. She goes daily, often twice daily, as she has a German Shepherd.

I can't tell you how much more enjoyable walking for exercise is when you have someone to talk to. So we are enjoying getting to know one another. Last night, after our walk, she invited me in for a glass of wine. And I lost another pound!

I made a delicious cold salad to bring to work today, perfect for these hot weather days: chopped fresh pineapple, chopped cucumber, chopped cilantro and lime. Yum.

My father's vision is getting worse. My father knew this all along, but now his doctor, who's been giving him the monthly eye injections for some time now, has informed him so, and I think my father is finally resigning himself to not being able to drive "soon." He still has to get the eye injections because while it doesn't stop the deteriorating vision, it will slow it down. My father will not be blind, but nearly so. It's very sad.

I told him I'm available to take him to all his doc appointments, and I can do grocery shopping with him too. It's going to require a significantly greater commitment by me to help him out, but this is one reason why I scaled back my work hours, because I saw this coming. My sister works full-time and is not around during the week.

I also prodded him to complete the process of getting all local doctors where he's living now; at the moment, he still travels 1.5 hours to New Jersey to see his podiatrist and his dentist, who happens to be his brother-in-law. Totally unnecessary, and while I have to drive him down there to replace a broken tooth, I'm not going to make a habit of ferrying him down there when he can see doctors up here.

Even so, I worry about my dad's mental health. To feel confined to your apartment except for very occasional outings (we also go to dinner every weekend), cannot be an easy thing. I need to think about this and what else I can do to help him. Maybe looking into senior center transportation options and contacting his town's senior center for info.

Two black swallowtail caterpillars feeding on my parsley have formed their chrysallises, and I expect them to emerge as butterflies very soon.

I also spotted 2 Monarchs nectaring on my Joe Pye Weed, and I'm hoping they laid eggs.