Save More, Spend Less

It's about 11 degrees now and falling. Will be -30 degrees with the wind overnight!

I spent a few hours beefing up my rather poor water pipe insulation in the basement. Some of it is quite close to the outer wall, and that's what I focused on. However, like Goldilocks, I discovered that 1" diameter foam insulation leaves a bit of a gap while 1/2" diameter foam insulation is very snug and hard to close completely. 

I ruefully thought oh, it figures, I didn't get the 3/4" inch (my pipes are all different diameters!), but then upon researching I learned that 1" diameter foam on a 3/4" pipe actually provides better insulation, as long as you use insulation tape (which I have) to seal the 2 ends. So I think I got most of it along the wall; some of the copper pipe can be viewed with a flashlight but is nearly impossible to reach due to ductwork and other pipes in the way. It may not look pretty with all my cuts to fit around stuff, but hopefully will do the job. I still have some leftover foam, but not too much. 

I mean I've been here 30 years and never had frozen pipes, and there must've been prior times when it got this cold. And the wind chill is not a factor in my unheated basement so without the wind chill, it will be -2 degrees overnight. Note to self: Buy a few more 100 watt incandecent light bulbs; I use 2 in the basement but one burnt out. These really come in handy at times like this as they throw off a lot of heat.

I debated whether I should go out now to shovel the few inches of snow on the driveway, solely because Amazon has informed me they are delivering something today. If I don't shovel, they'll likely leave the package at the bottom of the driveway where anyone could grab it. However, I'm home and monitoring my email, so as soon as I get notification, I'll just run out to get it and come back in. 

Nah, I just went out and shoveled it.

I've read that it's only necessary to have one faucet dripping, and to chose the one that's furthest from where the water enters your house to ensure that slowly dripping water passes through all the pipes. But I have all faucets dripping anyway; it should drip at about 1 drip per second. 

Temps wll be plummeting tomorrow afternoon with lows each night this weekend below zero, and high winds will make it even colder. I don't plan to go anywhere, but I did run out today to spend about $75 at Lowe's on water pipe insulation in the basement. Not the foam kind, but the better quality stuff; I don't know what it's made of. I also got a large roll of insulation tape for hard to get to spots.

When I got my new heat pump hot water heater in January I guess 2 years ago now, we agreed he would move the location of the heater, necessitating new copper pipe. Insulating the pipe (there are many spots even with the older pipe with no insulation) should have been top of mind for me sooner than this, but it just wasn't.  The last few years we've enjoyed relatively mild winters. Some of those pipes are quite close, like inches, to the outer wall, so I don't want to take any chances.  I keep reading posts from people on my town's Facebook page who have frozen pipes and are freaking out.

I will do it in the morning, prioritizing the pipes closest to the back wall. They mostly run parallel to the back wall but the water comes in from the front wall from the utility provider. There's still a lot of snow on the back patio, and I imagine that must act like an insulator in and of itself, but still.... I measured the circumference of various different pipes (to determine diameter) and found 3 different sizes! The guy at the store said my largest pipe measurement must be wrong because most pipe diameters aren't that big.  So I took home 18 feet each of the 2 smaller sizes and hope they are enough. It may not be. I think I'll put a thermometer down there, too, just to monitor how cold it gets in that spot. I really don't know.

Otherwise, I made a big pot of lentil soup a few days ago as well as some date brownies, and I just did a big grocery spend at BJs today (spend $150 and get $15 back), so I'm good with food here for a while. 

I won't say the driveway is completely shoveled, but I did finally shovel enough so I can turn the car around at the top of the driveway so I don't have to back down it; I also shoveled a path to my oil fill-up tank, just in case.  It will make it easier to shovel the 1-3" we're expecting tomorrow.

I checked my oil level and there's still a little more than a half tank in there so I should be able to get into early March with that. I may ratchet up the indoor temp all weekend given the very low outdoor temps, which I don't really like to do becus I honestly sleep better at night with cooler temps, but you do what you gotta do. The other thing (maybe a tip for those not used to this kind of weather) is keeping all the cabinet doors open on your sinks to expose the pipes to the warmer air, along with allowing a very slow drip from each faucet. Yeah, I've been doing all these things for the past week or so. I will put a large plastic container to catch the drips in the sinks and will use it to refill my bird bath or water houseplants, so nothing goes to waste. 

I think I spent as much time troubleshooting rejected tax return filings as I did filling out the tax return.

After the first rejection, I rechecked all my numbers and thought perhaps it was a glitch in the system, so I resubmitted after finding nothing wrong. It was rejected again. Then I discovered the special table you refer to if you were born before 1961. I'd glossed over this before because I was on auto-pilot, I guess, and this is the first time I've been able to check off that box. I KNEW about the senior standard deduction but didn't realize this is where it's accounted for. I fixed it and redid my Qualified Dividends and Cap Gains Tax Worksheet. I filed a 3rd time.  It was rejected again this morning. I was really stymied so I wrote to the IRS and was prepared to wait 2 days for their reply. After that, I discovered that the little chart I'd used to get my senior deduction was from 2024. I had just pulled it online. Embarrassing mistake. So this morning I refiled for the 4th time. I'm afraid to say I'm "confident" it will be accepted this time, but....

If it's accepted, I'll be getting a $1,039 refund vs the $760 I thought I was getting with the first tax return submission.

Good times!

Update: It was accepted. Hallelulah!

I worked all day on my taxes today. I like to get it done as early as possible so it's not hanging over my head.

It went relatively smoothly until I got to Line 7A Capital gain or loss. I had the cap gains reported on my Form 1099-DIV, which happens every year, but last year I also took about $13K from taxable brokerage funds, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out whether I needed to File Schedule D, Form 8949 or both. Each time I looked at different instructions on one form or the other they seemed to say something a little different. In the end, I chose to file Form 8949 because the Form 1099-B I got from my brokerage said "Long-term transactions for which basis is reported to the IRS - report on Form 8949." What confused me was that on the same form under the Gain or loss column, it says in parentheses (not reported to the IRS).

And I decided to also File Schedule D because the 1040 instructions said if you sold a capital asset like a stock, you must file both Schedule D and Form 8949, with 2 exceptions. It's the 2 exceptions I kept tripping over til my brain was fried, but it seemed to me that neither exception applied to me.

I decided to see if itemizing on Schedule A would be better than taking the standard $15K deduction. My itemized deductions, even with my high property taxes, came to $9,500, so not really close. I reported a $10K Roth conversion and made sure to claim the new senior deduction as well as the car loan interest deduction.

In the end, it appears I'll get a refund of about $750. And my total taxable income came to just about $150 more than the top of the 12% bracket; this was my goal, to stay in the 12% bracket, so job well done.

I will scan everything tomorrow, I guess, and at least check my math. I plan to file on paper through snail mail rather than use a free tax service. I'll mail it certified. I don't like using them; the one time I tried, I didn't like how they ask you questions and just automate stuff for you. I like to read the IRS instructions for myself. Call me a masochist. 

My handyman never came over here yesterday; he called to tell me another customer had a no-heat issue. He was still going to come, with a more uncertain arrival, but I let him off the hook for now. I'm going to bundle a few odd jobs together so it's more cost-efficient having him come over, so it'll be fixing a sticky kitchen drawer (if I absolutely can't pull it out myself), weatherstripping 1 or 2 doors and possibly sealing the leaky greenhouse window (if I don't do that myself). I've caulked stuff before but sometimes you can make a mess if you're not careful. As for the kitchen drawer, I vaguely remember soaping the runner before, but I can't even pull it out this time. I'll try again.

Another distraction: discovered $75 from my mother's estate in the state unclaimed property website. It's super frustrating that the nursing home sent it straight to unclaimed property, necessitating a lot of paperwork by me after the fact, collecting of documents, getting things notarized, etc., when they could have mailed me the $$ directly. I still am at the same address with the same phone and email as I was 10 years ago, and they have my fiduciary documents.

So I filed the initial claim and state told me I could shortcut things by filing an affidavit instead of having to go back down to probate court to "reopen" the estate and and get an updated executor document. And then I remembered vaguely having attempted to claim this same $75 a few years ago but they didn't say anything about the shortcut affidavit, just that I'd have to go back to probate court. I remember the probate court people as being particularly unhelpful as I navigated my mother's estate through probate; it was almost as if they just wanted you to hire an attorney.

I don't know if they've loosened the rules for unclaimed property with values of less than $500 or if the original advice I got was bad, but at that time, I just dropped it and didn't feel the amount of money was worth pursuing based on the hassle and time consumption. I still don't, but I also don't feel it's right the state should benefit by keeping my family's money.

Now, to file the "expedited/simplified" affidavit, I have to find and again submit my mother's death certificate (I think it's in the cold attic) and then schedule an appointment with public library to get them to notarize the form, and for the library I need driver's license and passport. The appointment is set for Monday. Then I upload everything and hope they are satisfied. 

I plan to at least start my taxes this weekend, which means printing out all the forms I'll need and going from there. 

Oh, miracle of miracles..I finally got my new air quality monitor synced with the app. I was fiddling with it last night and could not pair the 2 together, between toggling back and forth among the device, its app and the settings on my phone...very confusing. I initiated a return at Amazon but this morning I kept trying because it displays some interesting stuff and I'm kind of a nerd that way. I was considering just keeping it and using it without the benefit of the app but luckily don't have to give that up now. 

It displays indoor and outdoor air temp, relative humidity, noise (measured in decibels), 2 kindsof particulate matter, carbon dioxide and VOCs (generated from things like paints, new furniture outgassing, perfumes, etc). Mine shows it's slightly high but you're supposed to put it in an outdoor setting for about a half hour to calibrate it, and I haven't done that yet. The noise was a bit high because my microwave was heating up lunch.

I did my monthly expense report a few days early cus I want to get started on my taxes soon.

It was a very spendy month, mostly because January is when I'm making the 2nd big pre-payment of $5K on the car loan. The reason I'm doing that is to overall reduce the amount of interest I pay on the loan. In 2025, I spent $871 in interest. My balance is down to $4,800, though, so I'm getting pretty close to payoff.

The other big expenses were the quarterly Medicare premium of over $600, so that's always an unpleasant bill. I also got carried away buying stuff for the house when the weather got bad, plus my electric bill was higher than usual, again due to the cold weather. 

I'm wanting to regulate my ongoing expenses so that there aren't so many highs and lows. Once the car is paid off, I expect that to happen, though other big one-time expenses besides the quarterly Medicare bill are car and homeowners insurance.

I'm blowing off the gym today. I'm getting tired of this cold and I don't know when my handyman will be here exactly. I'll go tomorrow and so have just 2 workouts this week instead of 3. Unless I get super inspired to also go on Saturday.

Feeling the urge for comfort food ahead of last weekend's storm, I was GOING to make split pea soup, only to find I didn't have dried split peas. So I improvised and made a really good "Morroccan" vegetable soup with carrots, parsnips, onions, mushrooms and quinoa and it came out really good. I partially pureed it with immersion blender but it still has chunks of veggies. Meant to add potatoes  or chickpeas but forgot. I guess I could have added tofu, too, as I have it on hand.  I'll get 5 more servings out of it. 

It's a chilly 14 degrees here in southern New England. The birds are going crazy at the feeder and I am spending a good portion of my days just keeping it stocked with black oil sunflower seed and black soldier fly larvae, which the bluebirds love.

I have a problem with water leaking through a greenhouse window I've had for years. The issue is that icicles that have formed under the gutters above are dripping on top of the window (it was always like this and never had a problem) but the water is freezing on top of the greenhouse window and I guess blocking drainage. 

I came home from a workout at the gym yesterday looking forward to relaxing, but instead spent the next few hours dealing with the window. Most alarming, there was quite a large spread of water collected on the bottom of the window. The surface is some kind of laminate, so it APPEARS impervious to water, but I know water has seeped down between where the laminate meets the windows so I sure hope it doesn't warp or anything. I would not have noticed this at all had I not needed to water my cacti, which only happens every 3 weeks in winter. The water looked like it had been collecting for a while. Well, let's see, it was snowing Sunday into Monday and yesterday was Tuesday, so I guess 2 days. So first I mopped all that up with rags. Then I saw where the water was still leaking in through one corner of top of window. I tried to exit kitchen door to investigate from the outside, but couldn't open the storm door due to the 14" of snow we got. 

So going out the front door, I then waded through all that snow around to unshoveled back patio to clear snow away from the back door so I could open it. Then I brought a step ladder up from garage (don't want to open garage door as I have a bunch of annual plants overwintering there, and they won't like the frigid air.), through the kitchen and out the back kitchen door that way, and once I set it up I could see a pretty solid slab of ice all along the edge where I think water was infiltrating. 

I got a skinny screw driver and small hammer and was able to chip away the worst of the ice. I figured I dealt with the problem, but it was still dripping inside the window, and there was a thin film of ice on top of window and icicles were still dripping from above. Spent some time using the heat from my hand to melt the film of ice and wipe away but much of it still there. Each time I came in or went out, the snowy boots had to come off, plus many layers of clothing, and then I'd have to go out again.

So I headed to upstairs bathroom, opened the window and used a yardstick to knock down as many icicles as I could. Still drip, drip. It was getting dark.  I found 2 large trash bags and put them on top of the window with 2 small pieces of lumber to hold them in place. Can't put a whole lot of weight on top becus it's glass; the lightest breeze will probably blow the bags off. Broke down and called my handyman, who can't come til Thursday, but he suggested using a space heater to warm the air inside the window which will in turn melt the thin film of ice on the outside, and then be ready to hop on the ladder again to sop up the melting ice. I'm also headed to hardware store for some sealant for inside (I'll let him do it Thursday although that's the easy part) and we can do outside sealant come spring. So I have a lot to do today.

I spent the last several days shoveling the driveway, a little at a time. I have not shoveled the upper half, just the lower half, so when I have to go somewhere I'll back down, that's all. The only reason I'd need to have the top part shoveled is to clear a path the next time I need an oil delivery. There is another snow storm forecast for this weekend, but I believe I still have at least a half tank of oil left, which should get me through mid-February.

The bags on top of the window are still in place this morning but I see continued water infiltration. I had put some towels up against the window last night to soak up any water and it was partially soaked. Sigh.  I may try using my roof rake to remove accumulated snow just above this greenhouse window.

Before all this happened, I'd been entertaining myself with bird posts and photos on my town's local Facebook page and enjoying all the commentary. I need to get going, go the dump and then the hardware store for sealant; I have a $5 coupon I can use which expires at end of the month, so perfect timing. 

All of this does not mean I haven't been following the horrible stuff going on in the world.  Meaning, ICE attacks, murder, lies and obfuscation. ..

It seems that half the country will experience snowstorm Benjamin. Here on the East Coast, he isn't expected to arrive until late Saturday night, dumping a foot or more before he leaves. Our meteorologist is very excited. We are lucky in that here in the northern part of the county, we have a weather guy who covers just our small area, so his forecasts are hyper-local.

There isn't a whole lot I can do to prepare, but there certain small steps I will take:

1. Rather than park in the garage or even at the top of the driveway, I will intentionally park a bit further down the driveway, closer to the road. (The driveway is about 100 feet long.) In this way, I can save a good 20 feet of driveway I'd othrwise have to shovel if I parked in front of the garage. It will be easier to just shovel a narrow walking path from my garage to the car. I'd park even further down except that the driveway narrows a bit in the middle and there's shrubbery on one side in that area, making getting around it to clear snow difficult.  Honestly, the worst part about shoveling the driveway is how the snow plows pack in the snow nice and tight at the bottom of the drive. It's the most exhausting part of shoveling, hands down, but it's never a good idea to leave it til the following day, because then it gets rock hard.

2. I use those little plastic baggies with the elastic on the edges, used by women to keep their hair from getting wet. (Does anyone still use these anymore?) I put them on my side view mirrors to keep the snow and ice off them, saving me a bit of extra work. With my new SUV, the 1 mirror is heated, but I don't think the other one is. Either way, it still seems better to just cover them anyway. I also have a windshield cover which I guess is good if you're expecting freezing rain or ice, then yes, for sure, it keeps all that ice off your wipers, but with mere snow, you just end up dumping lots of snow on yourself as you work to pull the cover off the windshield. 

3. I finally got my EcoFlow power station shipped back to me after they issued a recall last November. I have been testing it to make sure it works properly, and so far it seems like it is. I'll finish with the testing by end of day tomorrow and charge it back up again JUST IN CASE of a power outage. We "should" be fine as it's going to be a light, powdery snow with no wind, but you never know. It would be truly awful to lose power with this storm becus temps will go below zero and with this much accumulation, it could be days before power is restored.

4. Again, just in case, I will make a point to charge up my cell phone Saturday night instead of waiting til Sunday morning to do it, as is my custom. I have several small power banks for phone charging as well but I rarely have needed to use them.

5. Due to the expected accumulation, my front stairs could be quite treacherous, so I think that instead of positioning my snow shovel at the front door, I will exit the house down through the basement and then out into the garage. I'll keep the snow shovel, the shovel for the car and my roof snow shovel ready to go in the garage. I often forget to take the car snow shovel OUT of the car and then I regret it because I have to open the car door and get all kinds of snow inside when I do.

I used to use the roof snow shovel after very heavy snowfalls to avoid ice dams at the gutters, which can lead to water infiltrating your walls, but last time I had my roof done, I had the roofer put the impermeable rubber membrane under the shingles on the ENTIRE roof; building code only requires it from 2 feet above the gutters down. So I "shouldn't" have to worry about ice dams, but I've still hung onto the roof shovel.

6. I'm pretty much set with food in the house except maybe i'll pick up some bananas today when I'm out.  I'll also make sure to get my last workout of the week in today so I'm good until Monday.

What, if anything, are you doing to prepare for the storm? Or maybe, depending on where you live, the storm has arrived!

I've been tracking heating oil prices for a while now and I think I made the right decision buying on Dec. 22 at $2.85 a gallon. After that, prices rose to a high of $3.12 a gallon on Jan. 2, but have since been dropping with the warm weather we're enjoying this week.  Today's price is $3.01.

I used to call around to different suppliers, but have found a site that lists daily prices of many different heating oil suppliers, so it's much easier to use that site, and they consistently provide the lowest prices. 

Just another thought on my 2025 expenses...I note with satisfaction that after the town implemented a new system for how household trash is disposed, I spent just $21 instead of $105 for the annual permit. That's becus the town did away with the annual permit system and now just charges you for specially designated blue bags that must be used to drop off trash at the transfer station, AND there is renewed emphasis on recycling, especially food waste, which is composted.

Basically now, the more you recycle, the less you'll need to toss in the trash and the less you'll pay for the bags. There are different sized bags you can buy, but 1 roll of 10 small trash bags costs $10. I started out only needing to bring trash to the transfer station every other week, and sometimes, I can go 3 weeks before needing to, becus after recycling and composting stuff, what I usually have left is small pieces of paper or wrappings that cannot be recycled due to their size, and stuff like that. 

I think the new system is great because now there is actually an incentive to not be wasteful. Yet there's a certain contingent in town that just complains, complains, complains without giving it a chance.  Recently, the town installed 4 new compost dropoff containers around town to make it easier for busy people to drop off their compost. It's a big, spread-out town. All you do is download an app on your phone, and you need to use that app to unlock the bin so you can drop it of. It's an added convenience,  yet people complained about that, too. This drives me nuts.

A few more thoughts on last year's expenses..... I divided those expenses into 3 broad categories to help remind me of the relative importance of each. In the first tier are the 14 highest expenses that range from $1,000 to $19,662. (Car purchase and payments accounted for 30% of my total expenses. After that, my next highest expense, property taxes, made up a far lower share at 11.6%.) This is also where all 4 of my home improvement projects fell. Also showing up here were food, health insurance and car insurance as well as two utility costs: electricity and heating oil.

In the 2nd tier are expenses ranging from $500 to $916 that aren't super high, but aren't small potatoes, either. This is where you'll find my homeowners insurance, out of pocket medical costs, gasoline expenses, entertainment, clothing and gift expenses.

Finally, in the 3rd tier are a bunch of much smaller expenses, all under $500, some of which I'm tempted to consolidate into other categories.  Like my trash disposal fees and haircuts, for example, plus "subscriptions."

I already know what home improvements I want to focus on for this year:

1. Replace back door and storm door in the kitchen. I like the front entry storm door so much I would get that same door. I'm not positive I can even FIND a door that will fit becus it's smaller than standard size, like the front door, but also because there are kitchen cabinets to either side of the door so it is a very tight fit. 

2 & 3. I'd love to replace 2 major appliances in the kitchen: the fridge and stove. The fridge, only becus the current one is now 15 years old and i worry about it breaking down. It has an exterior ice maker which I regret getting becus I've heard they are prone to leaking. The stove works fine, but I would really like to get an induction stove, which heats things up faster and is more energy-efficient. 

4. I really, really need to replace the cheap bathroom cabinet upstairs. It's shot. But I've procrastinated about doing this because the stairs going to the 2nd floor narrow at the top and getting something new up there without dinging up my walls or something else would be a challenge, not to mention the very narrow bathroom door, and if it's not the right size or they rip the wallpaper, then all the wallpaper would need to be redone. So this one I don't like to think about.

I do admit to a new, somewhat hefty purchase this week. Similar to the reverse osmosis water filtration system I got, because I worry about bad stuff in my water, I decided to buy a top-rated air purifier for my downstairs. I have one I often use in my bedroom while I'm sleeping. It doubles as a sound machine. 

The new one has an app you can control it with, and the brand and model were recommended in a webinar I watched by Electrify Now, a consumer group out of Portland or Seattle that supports electricity as clean energy in place of fossil fuels or natural gas. I love watching this group's webinars, and in fact they are responsible for my decisions to purchase a variety of green appliances for my home, including my  heat pump clothes dryer, my heat pump electric hot water heater, hopefully an induction stove and now, this air purifier.

You can find their videos on You Tube; just search Electrify Now.

Anyway, the air purifier indicated that the air inside my home was "excellent" even before I turned it on. Anytime you cook, even with an electric stove and especially with natural gas, you are affecting your indoor air quality. Even burning a candle emits soot into the air. Running an exhaust fan helps when cooking, but not 100%. If you have pets, of course, there are issues with dander. And then there are the many rugs and furniture that emit formeldyde and other chemicals.

As I spend more time at home, and especially in winter months, I think more about things like making sure the water i drink and the air I breathe is healthy. I know not everyone can afford to do this, so I am grateful I can make these choices. This comes years after I ditched all my plastic food storage containers for glass and put carbon monoxide detectors in the bedroom and basement.  All this technology I welcome; AI, not so much. I recently googled, "Tell me about [my name] recently, and it came up with an interesting bio of myself collected from online. Some of it was totally inaccurate, though, like saying i served on the architectural advisory committee. No idea where that came from.

Yay, with aggressive extra payments, the balance on my car loan is now down to about $6,000. I see the light at the end of the tunnel and plan to have it all paid off this year. I financed about $20K exactly one year ago.  

Yay, FedEx finally picked up my recalled EcoFlow for a software update.

Yay, did some pruning today with the winter thaw, cutting down a Japanese maple and some big branches of a large viburnum, but only half done with the Japanese maple; need to pull heavy branches out of neighbor's side, cutting up the branches so I can drag them across the lawn into my brush pile.

Yay, got my car serviced with an oil change and tire rotation. Just one more year of free service with Toyota Cares program. 

I got a larger platform (window) bird feeder which is working out well. However, I  noticed with some alarm that the red-bellied woodpecker and later, a nuthatch, seemed to get their feet caught in the screen when trying to take off. I found a piece of clear plastic that perfectly fit the opening inside the frame, and problem is solved. I would rather the seed get wet since I refill daily, and I can also just avoid replenishing it before expected rain.

The platform makes it much easier for larger birds to land on it without the roof that was on the smaller one I had.  It's safer for the birds, though a little difficult for me to refill as I have to open window and then crane my arm around the fill it. It would be easier to do if the top of the feeder was lower, but the vertical posts with the suction cups are fairly long and it's mounted as low as possible now on the window.  But I can say it is 100% squirrel-proof.  I did have one squirrel trying to literally climb the siding of my house to get to it, but that failed. 

Everytime I post here, I have to do it twice because it disapears the first time. I got tired of contacting admin here about it. I know from long practice to always copy what I write so it doesn't get lost, but this site will never grow because people will get frustrated and not bother trying a second time.

In 2022 (or so), I purchased an Eco-Flow power station, which is strong enough that it can keep my fridge/freezer going for 4 days in the event of an extended power outage. It gives me added peace of mind. I did use it once during a longer power outage and a few times for shorter (less than a day) outages. 

In November, Eco-Flow informed me of a recall and the risk of battery expolosion. Fixing it was a simple software update the customer could do themselves, but I could not.  My Eco-Flow refused to sync with my iphone, which was necessary to do the update.

Eco-Flow said I could return it to them and they would do it but at some point in the past 3 years I disposed of the original box and foam packaging. This thing weighs about 50 lbs so it definitely requires special care to ensure it's not damaged en route. They said they would ship a box, and after several email exchanges and the first box shipment "lost," I finally got it this past week, but without the foam inserts, which they now say they don't have but don't worry about it, just put it in the box and FedEx will pack it. EcoFlow scheduled a FedEx pickup this Tuesday for me.

In the meantime, and out of an abundance of caution, I found someone on Buy Nothing who gave me a bunch of super spongy corrugated cardboard padding, so it's now packed up and good to go. 

There were 4 bluebirds here this morning! I have mixed rehydrated freeze-dried meal worms in with the black oil sunflower seed. 

Saw dad in rehab today. Each time I go he seems a little better, although he won't always admit it. He even said his meal was good. I felt in a way I was also keeping his roommate company today, too, and we had a very pleasant conversation. He was born in Denmark and lived there during WWII. I was hoping that by having a pleasant chat it might encourage dad to talk more to him himself, to pass the time. 

One thing I've noticed about dad is that when he's not feeling well physically, it really affects him mentally. So initially my dad had the room to himself for several days, and when his roommate arrived, dad still wasn't feeling great, and he started talking negatively about his roommate (something about him snoring) while he was just separated from him by a curtain, so I cut my dad off and shhh'ed him.

But I noticed his roommate has a European accent, and that's why I started talking to him because I was curious. He's "just" 85. He lived many years in NYC and worked at a "salon," that was a combination book store and art gallery and "everyone" went there. Dad mostly listened but started joining in the conversation near the end. So maybe they'll be friends, even though they are two opposites. 

My 2025 expenses are pretty scary to look at, given how many line items increased significantly from 2024.

Here are my top 10 expenses.

1. No surprise, but what I paid on my new Toyota Corolla Crossover, between the down payment, regular payments and extra principal-only payments was $19,662. I still have a balance of $9,650 and plan to pay it all off in 2026. Seems like it's taking FOREVER, and I resent the 6.9% when nearly every other car brand out there finances at less than half that. I suppose I could have joined a credit union and gotten a better rate, but oh well.

2. Again no surprise, but property taxes of $7,569, an increase of 5.2% compared to last year. It is what it is. And to think that if I chose to move one town over, because that town is in a different county, I'd save quite a bit in property taxes, among other things. But I like my town.

3. Back stone stair redo, a one-time home improvement so I have nothing to compare it to from last year. $4,600.

4. Food: $4,502, which surprisingly was 4.5% less than last year. 

5. Health insurance: OK, here's where it gets really scary. My cost for Medicare and a Medigap plan was $4,473, which is 100% more than what I spent last year!! Last year, for the 1st 7 mths of the year, I was still on Obamacare. While I thank my lucky stars I don't have to deal with the massive rate increase Obamacare folks face now thanks to Rump, my health insurance costs in 2024 were just $2,231. I hadn't realized how much more I was paying this year.

6. Front door replacement (including the storm door) was another one-time home improvement that cost $3,698. I don't regret it but I still need to find a trim carpenter who can fix and replace the trim the door installers used, which doesn't match the trim I have in my LR/DR. It doesn't look good, plus there's a gap they created by removing the old trim. 

7. "Household." $3,182. This is probably the only catch-all category I have where things that don't fit in other categories tend to get buried. It's usually stuff for the house. This represented a 41% increase from the year before and included a new Shark vacuum, paying my handyman to build me a platform for my front-loading washer/dryer and my reverse-osmosis water filtration system. I don't regret any of these purchases.

8. Lawn & garden: $1,865, an 85% increase from the year before. This includes bi-weekly lawn mows, which increased in price when I changed mowers.  It also included some new plants I bought, a new battery lawn mower and an expensive tuteur for some native honeysuckle a friend gave me.

9. 2 basement walls recoated: $1,850. I had the other 2 walls done in prior years so now finally all 4 walls have been recoated. It needed to be done as the old concrete was crumbling, and if I ever want to sell this place, that could have been a concern for potential buyers.

10. Car insurance for new car: $1,286, the first time it's been a four-figure number. A 59% increase from last year, when I was insuring a 2013 sedan. Geez. Not to mention an increase in my car tax, $405, double what I paid on my old Honda.

I also had an unexpected big expense, replacement of the firebox in my oil furnace which cost me $1,090. The HVAC guy said that if it had been any other brand, he would have just recommended I replace my 30-yr furnace, but with mine,  I can get another 20 years out of it, he said. 

The majority of my other more routine expenses all saw increases from last year. The exceptions included a 42% drop in what I paid this year in out of pocket medical/dental costs and a 27% drop in entertainment expenses. My internet bill increased by 24%, just because they like to gouge their customers.  Even though I have 2 full years of free ToyotaCares maintenance, I still wound up paying $450 out of my own pocket because of that fiasco where I was handed the 2nd, spare key by the dealer salesman and then immediately lost it. Like, I don't know if it ever left the parking lot. I searched high and low for it and in the end, decided I wanted that 2nd key should anything ever happen to the first, so yup, I forked over $400.

A few bright spots in my secondary expenses: my gas costs dropped by 46%. My dining out expenses dropped by 40%, but then I only spend a few hundred on this anyway. My water bill dropped 11%, I think becus in 2024 the end cap on a pipe burst and flooded my basement with more water than I realized at the time.

All in all, total expenses came to about $65,000.  But part of that was roughly $11,000 spent on 4 separate home improvements, so my actual living expenses were about $54,000.

Looking at my grocery breakdown, or where I spent my grocery dollars, I spent the most, $1,298, at BJs, which I'm okay with since their prices tie with Aldi's in many cases. In the #2 spot was Whole Foods, at $921, which I think I'm ok with too because I stick to the 365 brand but do probably pay a premium for fresh organic produce there, but I think they have the best and I'm willing to spend on it.

I'm unhappy that I spent $815 at Stop & Shop, which is high priced, but there are certain items I can't find elsewhere cheaper, like the low-fat Cabot cheddar I buy, frozen lima beans and the shredded wheat cereal. I did discover their bok choy is way overpriced at $6.99 for a wrapped package of baby bok choy compared to Whole Foods, so I corrected that oversight sometime ago.

In the #4 spot is Aldi's, where I spent $445. I buy what I can there, but admit to being very particular when it comes to food; I avoid high sodium, high fat and high sugar products, as well as processed foods with lots of additives/preservatives and ingredients I can't pronounce. The remaining places I spent grocery dollars on, in lesser amounts, included Trader Joe's, Vitacost, Big Y, Target, Harney & Sons, Shop Rite, Walmart and 2 local and expensive stores. One is a new, small farm market with produce even more dazzling than Whole Foods, but I don't think their prices are a bargain and I don't like their receipts, which DO NOT itemize what you bought, making it impossible to compare prices later, so I'm sticking with Whole Foods. 

I continue to play around with my phone and taking pictures.

Dad had a busy day at rehab Sunday. First I showed up with my fruit salad and tea, then my younger half-brother came all the way from New Jersey with his pickles and liverwurst, and then my sister showed up. When it was just me and my brother, I decided it was a good time to suggest that when he went home, we should have an aide come to his place a few times a week, mainly to check in on him. To my surprise, he agreed that would be a good idea but he wasn't sure he'd be going home at all. He said he's planning on living until Jan 1 but not after that. 

For someone who's planning on dying, I'm not sure what the significance would be to hold out until Jan 1. 

He seems to be doing better now with the flu and pneumonia behind him (no phlemy cough today), but mobility-wise, I think he has a way to go. Maybe it's this that has him thinking so darkly. He really does enjoy the fruit salads I've been making him, the tea, the food my brother brought. So I plan to keep that up as one small way to remind him that there are still things in life he can enjoy. I worry about him. 

Now to change the subject: Without getting too personal, how much do you donate throughout the year? What do you feel is a reasonable amount, either in terms of monthly contributions or an annual percentage of your adjusted gross income? I would like to make my contributions more automated and more intentional, and ideally, make a fixed dollar amount each month to different nonprofit groups.

I also make non-tax-deductible political contributions and am mulling over what ratio of charitable to political contributions I should make. I foresee my political contributions ramping up as we approach the mid-term elections and then maybe stopping. These elections, if they go our way, can really make a big difference in curbing Rump's ability to get stuff done.

I live in a state that has a car property tax you pay each year, and it's based on the type of car, I guess, but also specifically, its age. The longer you own a car, the lower the tax gradually becomes. In 2024, the car tax on my little 2013 Honda was down to $204. I just got the bill for this year with my new 2024 Toyota SUV, and I'll be paying $405. Ouch. Call it a new car penalty tax.

Saw Dad in rehab the other day. They had just brought him down to another floor for his first physical therapy session, so I went down to find him. I nearly didn't recognize him because they had given him a shower and completely shaved him. Anyway, his exercises consisted of raising a bar about two feet long up overhead and in front of him and doing a bunch of reps with it, and also walking with his walker and stepping up a single step. It's a start. Mentally, I don't think he's really into it, but I think he finds it easier to just goes along with it when people are encouraging him to do so.

That's one thing I've realized about dad....my own mental outlook/attitude makes a huge difference on HIS mental outlook. He can pick up very quickly if I'm in a less-than-perfect mood myself. A positive, but not fake demeanor and kind words go a long way with him. 

He has really enjoyed the green chai tea I've been bringing him in my thermos. He also enjoyed listening to a new audio book on tape cassete I brought; the first book is about the role of privateers in the Revolutionary War, which he asked for. When I see him tomorrow I think I'll swing by the Chinese place and get him an egg roll, something he always gets when we go. And more chai tea. 

I am thinking ahead to when he is well enough to return home, or the point at which Medicare will no longer cover his stay there. If there's anything glaringly obvious to me, it's that it is not safe for him to continue living alone. The little baby step I would want him to take is to agree to having a home health aide come and check in on him a few days a week. Just a little extra companionship, someone who can maybe help him make lunch and maybe do some very light housekeeping. He will probably resist it as he has in the past, but maybe the scare of this last fall will help him to understand that wearing the emergency necklace around his neck is not enough. 

My challenge is getting my sister on board with this idea. She has now revealed that she is dad's POA since she added POA after her name when she signed the $5K Christmas check she wrote for my father for each of his kids, something he's done for the past 5 years or so. So while she still can't force him to do anything, she now has the ability to write the checks and so on. My sister will likely be reluctant to push anything. Taking care of my father really requires coordination of our efforts, but if your sibling is my sister, it's a whole different story. 

I have to be so careful in the way I phrase things to her becus she is quick to take offense and withdraw if I come on too strong. When I was walking in the parking lot into the rehab facility the other day to see dad, I saw her driving up and I waved. She rolled down the window and said I'm not going in, I'm on crutches, here, take this. And she handed over to me the cassette recorder I had asked her to bring from dad's apartment (adjacent to her home) to give him something to do. As I took it, she said, don't tell dad about the crutches. That's how she is....very secretive and never wanting to share anything about her life or situation. I have no idea why she's on crutches, but a few years ago, she finally submitted to hip replacement surgery after limping around for years. So maybe this is the other hip.

I had a nice chat with my cousin M. Christmas morning. She was stopped at a traffic light a few days prior and a pickup came up behind her and crashed into her, failing to stop. She has an older car with very low mileage that she likes, so she wanted to repair it, but the insurance company said it's too old to repair so you have to agree to total it, and then we'll give you $8,000. Now she's got a rental car for 2 weeks to give her time to find a new vehicle she didn't really want.  Anyway, she gave me a very nice Advent calendar tea sampler set with different herbal teas to enjoy each day.

Christmas for me was a quiet day, really a non-event. I guess I'm getting used to it becus I wasn't too upset. I didn't even bother going out for Chinese or Indian food. I just spent the day reading, listening to music and doing a jigsaw puzzle. Still, I'm glad it's behind me for another year.

We had a good 6 inches, maybe more, of snow overnight. The driveway is shoveled but I didn't get to doing the car and I'm worrying it will all be rock hard if I leave it overnight. A squirrel knocked my bird feeder down, so I threw handfuls of black oil sunflower seed and dried meal worms out on the roof of my family room from my upstairs bathroom window and had fun taking photos with my new iphone. This song sparrow is my favorite.

White-throated sparrow (above).

Cardinal.

Well, the good news is, I didn't lose power in the storm a few days ago. There were 60+ mile-per-hour winds, but it looks like the worst of the storm fell on the central part of the state. I'm on the western side, so we fared a little better.

However, I woke up this morning feeling really cold and i started worrying that something was wrong with the furnace. I have MANY times accidentally turned the furnace switch off at the top of the basement stairs becus I have a small bag hanging above the switch for recycling plastic bags, and if I knock the bag, it doesn't take much to push the switch down (off). I learned that the hard way one year when I had to pay the HVAC guy who responded to my call over a hundred dollars to TURN THE SWITCH ON. Even he felt bad, but he still had to charge me for coming out.

So first thing I did this morning was check the switch, and, yup, that was the problem. It was down to 53 degrees!

In days of yore, I used to try to keep the heat down as low as I could tolerate, and that included turning it down further at night. Now into my second year of full retirement and being home more, I found my sweet spot is a little warmer than when I used to do the No Heat Challenge. (Remember that?) It feels pretty good to have it set at 65 or 66 day AND night. However, when I go out anywhere, I always turn it down to 60 since now I don't even have a cat that might be chilly. That being said, I often notice when it starts getting dark and cooling down outside that I feel the chill in the house. I usually resist the temptation to turn it up a notch and just throw a sweater on instead. 

I had some grocery errands I wanted to run today, including a gym workout and a visit to see dad at his new location, the rehab facility, but I'd forgotten that I ordered heating oil and the window of arrival they gave me was "6 am to 4 pm." I could leave a signed blank check for them to fill out, but I prefer to write it out myself, plus they sometimes try to back up the driveway, even though I always request they don't (narrow, curvy driveway and pavers they will sink) so that could mean hanging out all day. Hmm. This oil fill-up should get me through February or even into March if the weather cooperates and I pile on the sweaters.

I timed my oil purchase to occur during a 3-day warm spell here, but I see prices didn't move as much as I thought they might. I think it's becus of what's happening with Rump's attacks on Venezuelan oil tankers and the massive buildup taking place offshore now. A lot of uncertainty about what's going to happen. I'll be paying $2.85 a gallon, or about $400 to fill up a half-full tank. (Prices are generally lower in early winter than mid- or late-winter.) Last year around this time, it was about .05 more a gallon.

I know a lot of people outside the Northeast use natural gas for heat. A lot of people in my immediate area use wood stoves or wood-burning fireplaces as supplemental heat. The air quality here is so bad I don't even like walking around the neighborhood in winter due to the stink. 

My cousin in PA sent me an early Xmas present, which I received yesterday. A new iPhone 17 Pro Max! This is the 3rd iphone he's gotten for me. I hit a few glitches setting it up; at one point it was asking me for my zip code and it wasn't accepting it until I realized he used HIS zip code and that, in fact, worked. I haven't tried out all the newest features, but I do see the camera on this one is much better, and evidently the battery has a longer life too. It transferred my thousands of photos and all my apps seamlessly to the new phone. The one thing I still need to figure out is how to reconfigure my "Find Me" thingie for the new phone (the thing you keep on your key chain if you can't find your phone). 

I haven't opened the other gift I've received this year and am saving that for December 25. It was given to me by my other cousin when I saw her at Thanksgiving after she told me let's not exchange presents anymore!

I'm not sure what, if anything, I'll be doing for Christmas. Dad will still be at rehab, I'm sure. I can visit him for a bit but am still stymied about what to get him. I bought several packages of low-sugar cookies but am now having second thoughts as he used to be pre-diabetic and they're probably feeding him crap at these facilities. Like the orange juice they gave him at the hospital while testing his blood sugar throughout the day.

I did order more books on tape for him and will swing by his place to pick up the cassette recorder he needs to listen to the tapes but am waiting for my sister to tell me whether or not dad has a private room at rehab; if he has a roommate, i won't bring the recorder. 

Just sitting here pondering life during the middle of a growing windstorm. Hoping I don't lose power but it doesn't take much here to do that; trees and power lines don't mix. Gusts of 55 to 60.

Hey, does anyone want to make an easy $100? If you apply for a Discover card using the link I send you and you make a purchase in the 1st 3 months after receiving the card, we both get $100! Here are the details:
https://card.discover.com/web/cardacq/referral/?page=referfriend&trafficCode=75

Dad is doing a bit better though still in the hospital. Better in the sense that he is more talkative and alert than he was a few days ago. He enjoyed the green chai tea I brought him. I want to make a lentil soup and bring some of that but I seem to be missing the dried lentils and this storm is getting worse. I sure wouldn't want to lose power in the middle of cooking; if it's not too late, I'll run out tonight after the storm eases to get those lentils.

Did anyone catch the Saturday Night Live special last night? It had all the classic holiday skits from years ago. I still get a laugh out of them. I guess there's another SNL special tomorrow night.

All of the loans I reviewed this week for Kiva were from borrowers in the Phillippines. I was notified of one small default (less than $2) which I consider as part of how the Kiva system works. Defaults are very uncommon and of inconsequential amounts.

I took a quick look at my stats since we are wrapping up 2025. Since joining Kiva as a volunteer in 2019, I see this statement: "You've reviewed 3,911 loans enabling $2,108,535 in lending activity."

I was pondering an interesting post here by Tabs, who wondered why some people savers, and others spendthrifts.

I was thinking more about the abrupt transition from "lifelong working gal with a career" to "retiree with hobbies." It can be a little rough to consider what all those years of hard work meant. I mean, I'm left with a a file cabinet full of writing samples from every job I ever had. I did a lot of work I was extremely proud of, and even got a few awards, but in the end, it just went to help this company or that market the product they were selling, and I daresay all that hard work has already been forgotten by the few who may have appreciated what went into creating it. So to add to my answer to Tabs, my self-worth was internally driven, and that's what remains today. I thought I was working to earn praise (and maybe a higher bonus) from my manager, or my manager's manager, but really, I am self-motivated, and do the hard work to please myself.

What kind of delights me is discovering that I am still using my decades of work experience and skillsets as a writer/journalist/researcher in my volunteer work, and that it is appreciated by others I work with. It's nice to work those muscles even if I'm not earning money for it. 

This winter could be very quiet though, since my 2 main volunteer activities naturally become a little less active due to the nature of our work. I am still on the lookout to take something new on; I've found that I like working with very small organizations because they will more likely offer more interesting volunteer opportunities to someone like me and will also appreciate what I can do more as well.  

The wind is really picking up and the rain is coming down in sheets. So far, I still have power.

Got together with one of the groups I volunteer with for a Christmas lunch at one of my favorite places in town. All I had was the tomato basil soup with the jumbo garlic bread croutons, and that was plenty filling, so I'm glad I didn't get the salad, too. . And the price was right: $8.95.

I haven't used my weighted belt on the treadmill since Tabs made his suggestions, and I've been able to increase my speed from 3.3/3.4 (with the belt) to 3.6 without it, and a heart rate high of 111, which is still probably not my optimal peak heart rate as far as cardio benefit goes. I have to say I enjoy the workout a lot more without the belt and I "feel" stronger because I'm walking faster. I usually shoot for 30 minutes. 

Today's a warmish day. I Would love to wash the salt off my car, but ehhh...maybe tomorrow. It's already 3 and the water will likely freeze on the driveway. Guess I'm too frugal for a car wash.

Dad's still in the hospital. As far as I'm concerned, it's the best place for him right now.

Unfortunately, he tested positive for the flu and he has a UTI. He has such limited exposure to people I'm really surprised, unless he immediately picked it up as soon as he entered the hospital. So many people coming and going to do this or do that, plus he was already moved once from an ER bed to a regular bed in a different "tower," so there was a whole new set of care providers tending to him.

He did get a flu vaccine in November, so hopefully that will blunt the worst of his symptoms, but he was noticeably tireder today and a little ill-humored due to not feeling well. Plus the gash above his eye that he received when he fell kept bleeding, so much so that they had to change the sheets 3 times, but once the blood thinner med he was on was stopped and out of his system, the gash seems to have stabilized. So perhaps not surprising he is a little anemic, so now they're giving him an iron pill. ....They seem like they're doing a good job, although he is pre-diabetic and what do I see he was given at breakfast? Orange juice. Maybe not the best choice.

We have overnight snow that ended around noon today, just about 3 inches, which was enough that I needed to shovel the driveway. Temps will warm considerably in the second half of this week so I am hoping to get some winter yard work chores done during that time (pruning this and that), and I also plan to order some heating oil if oil prices fall due to the rise in temps (which I find they often do, though there are also other factors in play). But between now and then, i.e., tonight, temps are going to drop to a littld below zero.

So this January it will be exactly 1 year since I purchased my SUV.  It feels like it's taking forever to pay the thing off, so much so that I wondered, momentarily, if Toyota Financial had calculated everything correctly. But on the face of it, I think they have.  I financed a little over $20,000 and have been throwing prepayments at it each month, having started out with an extra $200 each month but lately it's been an extra $250.

I guess it's about right since I see my balance on it is $9900, so I think I'm still on track to pay it off in less than 2 years (my plan all along). I'll be throwing $5k at it in early January to accelerate that process and then I'll be on the home stretch. That's $700 a month I'd rather keep in my pocket than pay in principal and interest.

My father had a fall a few days ago and is now in the hospital. I was shocked when I saw him yesterday because he looked like a boxer who got the short end of the stick in a bout. He had a golfball-sized swelling under his right eye and a cut above the eye with lots of discoloration. Luckily, he didn't break anything (a miracle) and the swelling has gone done quite a bit today. They're starting physical therapy with him today as well as occupational therapy, and it sounds like he may be transfered to a rehab facility to continue with that, which I am very much for. Typical dad, he says it dosen't hurt.

My father, who is in his 9th decade, does not move around much and no matter how much I try to encourage him to just move more, whatever he can, "use it or lose it," etc., etc., he has no interest. He humors me by listening, but that's it. I understand that. But he will do certain movements and exercises it if someone is there guiding him through it all. That's why I'm still taking him to physical therapy every week, and we've been doing this for over a year now. But it's not enough. He has major sarcopenia, and I'm pretty sure this is why he fell. He lays in bed all day and watches the news. He still lives alone, adjacent to my sister's house. She brings him dinner daily.  It's not enough. But these are dad's wishes. He doesn't want to be institutionalized, and I understand that, too. So we fumble on. I would love to have a home health aide come in a few days a week, but I already know he will tell me no.  He can afford it but doesn't like to spend money. When he gets home, I'm going to bring it up anyway. Maybe with this last fall he might see the wisdom of doing this.

My BJs membership was up for renewal in early January; each year they increase the membership fee and it's currently $60, which is a fee I don't like paying since buying for one makes it debatable whether or not paying that fee is worth it. However, my grocery price comparisons tell me that many BJs foods are priced at a level comparable to Aldi's, and certainly cheaper than big supermarkets like Stop & Shop or Big Y.

So I wrote to BJs customer service yesterday and explained that I found it hard paying that membership fee as a solo person, and could they offer me any discount. I got an email from the national customer service saying please call us, which I did this morning. At first she offered me a $5 discount, which was disappointing, but I thanked her and then declined. Then she said, hold on, let me check again, and this time she offered me a $10 discount. Again I declined as my backup plan was to stock up on a few favorite BJs foods before my membership expired, just go without BJs for a few months and then renew if I still want to. Again she said let me check again, and this time offered me what I'd been hoping for, a $25 membership that I happily accepted. I mean, their pricing negotiations are on a par with some Internet and phone service providers I've dealt with! The moral of the story is, 1) it never hurts to ask and 2) always remain polite and appreciative.

Netflix is my chief TV provider but often I find myself losing interest in many movies they offer about halfway through the movie, if not sooner. The acting is often lacking, IMO. But sometimes there's a movie name I recognize that I somehow never saw, even while being widely touted as an "important" film of its era. That was the case with Taxi Driver, a 1970s-era Scorsese film I watched last night, and I must say it was a great movie. It depicted a gritty, seamy side of New York that I was familiar with growing up during that period when prostitution and crime were perhaps more entrenched than they are now, or at least, less hidden from view if you were walking around Times Square.  

I knew the movie had to be good with its 4 key actors being Robert DeNiro, Cybil Shepherd, Jodie Foster and Harvey Keitel. It was one of those movies where you're not really sure you grasped all its meaning, so I often will go online afterwards and read movie critic reviews just to understand it better. Especially the ending, in this particular case. I must say, Robert DeNiro and Harvey Keitel were SO young in this film (and the others, too, of course).

In the past, I never really went out of my way to watch Martin Scorcese films due to their violence, but I must say now I am a little curious to possibly watch some of his other films if they are on Netflix.

One of my volunteer groups is planning a little holiday luncheon next week at one of my favorite local eateries. Just 5 of us. 

I've become inspired to try to make some tree ornaments made out of pinecones, cinammon sticks, berries and ribbons. I just need to get the cinammon sticks. I also have some small white birch logs sitting in the driveway since summer and I want to cut a few slices of them up to serve as a small base for a pinecone "tree."

I stopped at Tractor Supply for a 10-pack of suet and then went to the gym, where I increased my walking speed on the treadmill to 3.5 mph. I could never muster up enthusiasm for going any faster than 3.4 becus I always walk with a 10.5 lb weighted belt around my waist and it is darn heavy. The only reason I didn't have the belt today is becus one of the guys at the gym told me the painters would be moving into the women's locker room today (they didn't) so I wouldn't have access to all the stuff like the belt I just leave there. I had it in my car but don't like shlepping it back and forth thru the parking lot. So that's why I was so speedy today.

I started feeding the birds a week or so ago and today my one little feeder was especially mobbed, becus it's really gotten cold. I'd love to hang a 2nd one to relieve the crowding, but honestly the only spot that is mostly squirrel-proof is one large mulberry tree just outside my office window, which is a great viewing spot. But the tree branch is very high, too high, in fact, even with a step ladder. In the past I got the fishing line I use to hang it (too thin for a squirrel to climb onto) by climbing to the very top of the ladder and then throwing the roll of fishing line up and hopefully over the tree branch. I don't have anyone here to help me, so it takes a while becus my aim is not good so each time it falls to the ground, I have to descend the ladder and grab it to try again. 

Anyway, the feeder I have holds just a day's worth of black oil sunflower seed mixed with freeze-dried meal worms (crunchy yummy) and 2 suet cakes.

Red-bellied woodpecker, above and below

From left, tufted titmouse, female cardinal and 2 female house finches. Also a male house finch behind the titmouse.

I mailed my 2nd half of property taxes today. That's always a big ouch at $3,884 each payment.

For Thanksgiving I'm picking up dad and then heading southwest to meet my cousin and her friend for an early dinner at a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse (expensive, especially if you like to drink...I think it's $50 a person, not including alcohol or tip). But we're a small group and no one wants to cook. I'll be home by dark at around the time most families are just starting to sit down at the table. I'm looking forward to it though I dislike the drive.

I love turkey with gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce and each  year ask myself why I only eat this once a year. I guess because it takes a lot to cook it all, and my desire to cook has really slumped in the past year. I still cook all my meals from scratch and eat out just once a week with dad.

Since I last wrote here, I organized another litter cleanup (the 4th in my hometown), different location. I had 4 new volunteers show up, including a Legislative Council member. The guy I've been in touch with from DPW came at the end with his pickup and on his own time (it was Sunday) helped us load the trash and he took it away to weigh and dump it; later he told me we'd picked up 420 pounds, so I was pumped. That included 3 old tires and an unopened package of coffee.

Not only that, but 2 of the women who volunteered were so enthusiastic and offering to do more, I invited them both to join me as organizers. There's a ton of stuff to do, from posting on social media before and after each cleanup to sending a press release to local paper, coordinating with DPW and police, etc. One woman has happily accepted so far; I plan to call our first meeting at my home sometime in January. She has a PR background and is already talking about a blog, website and our own FB page. I'm not so sure about all that right away becus it means we're "committed," and maybe at some point I'll want to move on to something else, or we don't get enough volunteers to make it worthwhile or maybe people's enthusiasm will wane over time (town has been enormously supportive thus far, but actually showing up to help is a different thing). I think I would like to give it a year and see if we can maintain a steady rate of volunteers.

We need to map out more (safe) roads to hit, ideally creating a calendar so we know what's coming up, think about how often we want to organize cleanups (no one wants to do this in heat of summer) and there are a dozen other logistical items to hash out. The other woman agreed with me we will need to start getting people to sign liability waivers when they arrive. Basically to give us some protection if someone gets hurt. I hate to introduce "paperwork" into the whole process, but I think it's very important. I can copy the waiver my statewide group was using. 

I am bracing for a big hike in my electric rate come Jan 1. My state allows consumers to shop for their own supplier. I had locked in a very low rate of 8.79 per kilowatt hour in 2024, but my 2-year contract expires end of December. I've already checked the state website showing all suppliers and their rates, and the lowest now is 11.89 per k/hour. So it's really going to be a big spike unless prices fall in the next 30 days, which seems unlikely.

Oh, and if you're wondering what happened with the man I was dating....he actually ghosted me. We went out twice and had a nice time both times. Then he asked me to go to a classical guitar concert. I turned him down on that one due to the timing but later followed up with him to see how it was. Then I never heard from him again. So I'm not sure what happened. He had a troubled family life growing up and I remember him telling me that he avoids conflict at all costs. His words. We had no conflict, but if he decided privately that I wasn't the right person for him, he may have wanted to avoid having to tell me in case I didn't take it well. So in retrospect, it's for the best. I don't think it would work to be in a relationship with someone like that.  It would just be impossible. 

Just heard from McAfee that savings advice was hacked and that my persona info is on the dark web.

If anyone knows how to change their password here, please let us know. It's ridiculous that i have to send a note asking how to do that to savings advice.

Thanks.

A fond look back to August warmth....monarch on cosmos.

Following my resignation from my statewide volunteer group, the ad hoc chairman also resigned, which basically put the existence of the group in jeopardy. I had not expected her to follow suit. My intent was not to leave them in the lurch, but it had become clear to me many months ago this group was dead in the water and no one seemed to care.

If I had to define what the problem was, I would have to say it was a lack of strong leadership, someone who was willing to put fellow board members on the spot, ask them to step up to the plate and help out. Cus it is a lot of work.  The woman who chaired our group when I joined a few years ago was a sweet, wonderful human being, but she did not know how to delegate to others; instead, she just wund up doing everything herself, and others let that happen becus it was easy for them to do that. Eventually, she burned out and resigned.

The other person on the board who volunteered to temporarily act as chairman until a permanent chair could be found did the best she could, I think, but there's still way too much for just one or two people to manage. So she just dropped off and didn't bother to resign (until I did), nor did she communicate with anyone when she failed to call meetings for the past 4 or 5 months now! Eventually, I just became disillusioned and disgusted with the apathy of some of the people on the board, whose involvement, even to just attend a remote meeting, was spotty at best; we often lacked a quorum.

When I voiced my concerns to another board member (our treasurer, who I recruited about a year ago), he said he would pick up chairing the meetings for as long as necessary. He did chair exactly 1 meeting, but then...nothing. I don't fault him becus he works f/t at a pretty senior level job and never sought to be chair.

At this point, I felt it was better to formally step down, cut ties and move on to more productive volunteer activities. However, there are a few housekeeping activities I need to perform for them, like posting all prior recorded meeting minutes on shared Google docs. I may need to attend one more final meeting, just to record minutes.

In the meantime, I organized a "flash" litter cleanup in my own hometown. I had 2 people (and a rescue dog) show up, and that was enough for this one road. I posted pix on the town's FB group and so far have 161 emoji positive expressions of support and 28 comments from people who say they want to participate next time. The owner of the local hardware store has also made an offer to donate trash bags, which I will take him up on once I use up my own stash of bags I can no longer use at our town landfill due to a new system that accepts only town-issued blue bags.

So there has been huge support for what I'm doing, as there was the two prior times I organized cleanups in my hometown of the interstate rest area. Far fewer people actually show up to help! That's okay. It's a process, and it takes time for any new group/pursuit to take hold. I have mixed feelings about turning this into anything more than a loose coalition of residents who do periodic litter cleanups. I am still concerned about the risks involved, and my own liability, of having groups of people walking along a road distracted by picking up litter.  So the road we did this weekend led to just one place: the town transfer station (ironic, huh?) and I chose to do it on a Sunday, when the transfer station is closed, so there was no traffic on the road that could affect volunteers' safety.

But there's only so many other places like that. Town parks are really pretty clean around here; a lot of trash seems to come from motorists who toss things out the window as they're driving or sit partying/drinking/eating/having sex in a parked car.  Any woodsy areas fronting roads attract lots of trash. I do have 2 roads in mind for next time that I believe are low-traffic, but I need to do a drive-by and see if there's enough trash to warrant a cleanup and assess traffic. Otherwise, I don't think it should be our responsibility to pick up trash on private property, whether residential or commercial.

I'm so thrilled. I did something I'm really not good at....

A few weeks ago, I reluctantly upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11. Windows 11 is a free software upgrade that's been available for over a year now, but I stalled and stalled because I was perfectly happy with how my computer was operating and my experience has been that when they want you to "upgrade," it can usually end up costing you. And that was right in this case.

I finally upgraded becus they started sending messages that they would no longer support Windows 10 with security updates. So as you may recall from earlier posts, I had a problem with all of my photos being "lost" and not showing up, until I discovered them all in my Recycle Bin. While I was mulling over resaving them to the hard drive or cloud, one by one, they magically reappeared in my photo folders. For which I was eternally grateful.

But a week ago, I noticed a new popup message in Windows Security teling me it could not turn on Memory Integrity (core isolation) which is aparently very important, because I had 2 IBM Rapport drivers that were incompatible and might need to be updated.

All this computer talk is like a foreign language to me, but I guess I've picked up little bits of info during the past 40 years of work when various things like arose and our tech person would deal with it. I always liked to watch and ask questions.

Anyway, I searched for a way to update the 2 drivers, got on the IBM Trusteer website and read about the updates but couldn't find where to download the updates! It was driving me mad. I finally caved and had decided to bring the computer in to a local computer repair shop where they wanted over $100 and up to 3 days' time just to diagnose the problem.

This morning I decided to give it one more shot to see if I could figure things out myself. I found it pretty quickly this time (I think the key word I omitted in my prior searches was teh word "download." Bingo. The warning message is gone and I do indeed see that my core isolation is now protected.

I'm amazed. And thrilled. As much by avoiding the need to do without my desktop for 3 days as having the spend the $$.

I had been keeping my computer shut off for the past few days, until I could bring it to the repair place, out of an abundance of caution since your computer cannot be hacked if it's not connected to the Internet. Believe me that was hard!

Well, it's the end of an era. Or at least, something I enjoyed for the past 2 years, serving on the board of a statewide nonprofit dedicated to organizing litter cleanups. I submitted my resignation, effective immediately, yesterday. Due totally to a complete lack of activity and the willingness of no one (myself included) to serve as chair. We only had 5 board members. It was a lot of work and not enough people to pitch in and help. The bulk of the work usually fell on the chairman.

I always felt that having a statewide focus was biting off way more than we could chew, but that's how others (no longer with the group) wanted it to be. I just feel my time will be spent more productively by joining various other cleanups by other groups and also organizing cleanups in my hometown. I've done 2 "flash" cleanups here in town but got just a few people. I'm having another one today; if I continue to get next to no participation (despite getting tremendous support on the town FB page), I may just drop it. I do worry about liability issues, and let's face it: picking up litter on the side of the road is not a low-risk activity. 

Now in the statewide group I just resigned from, they had written waivers at a sign-in table we had every volunteer sign, but that is not 100% guaranteed to stand up in court should we ever have gotten sued by someone hit by a car or something.

That's why today's cleanup is on a road that leads to one place, our town transfer station, and since it's closed on Sundays, there should be no traffic there. The last 2 cleanups I did were at an Interstate rest stop/park-and-ride that always seems to attract heavy litter.

So I designed a cute logo and name for the litter group and we'll see what happens. Worst case, I'll clean up litter myself for 1.5 hours in somewhat chilly weather.

Curious visitor...

In other news, the HVAC guys returned with a replacement firebox for my oil furnace and this time, it worked like a dream. He even said it was probably the easiest firebox replacement he's ever done. On top of that, they billed me in the middle (not the top) of the price range estimate he'd given me. I was afraid they'd bill even MORE for having to come twice to attempt the replacement install, even though it wasn't my fault that the supplier gave them a part that didn't fit.

Today's photo....hope you're not getting tired of my food photos! This was olive oil cake with ice cream at a local restaurant.

Today I did mostly nothing except for a few hours outside removing dead leaves that collect at the top of my driveway. I did also replace the filter on the Aprilaire humidifier that's attached to my furnace. A chore I dislike because it's never easy to take the thing apart that holds the filter and fit it back into the unit. I actually use an old set of handwritten instructions from probably 10 years ago that a friend of mine wrote for me after helping me perform this particular task. Anyway, that's done for another 6 months.

I did some work on our website for my volunteer group.

I think tomorow after the furnace firebox gets straightened out, I'll treat myself to lunch either at the Vietnamese place I like so much, or a pizza shop that everyone raves about. Guess I'll decide which when the time comes. I also hope to do another chore I've procrastinated about: rechecking the copper mesh mouseproofing I did last year along bottom row of siding, as I've been getting mice in my one indoor trap. They don't go to waste, though. I use a plastic, reuseable trap and toss the dead mouse outside in a certain area periodically checked by possums and I'm not sure what else. I'm sure the unexpected protein is much appreciated.

Today was the chilliest day of the fall season to date. In fact, it was the first day I felt it necessary to wear my winter coat.

Since it was too cold to do fall yard work, I turned it into a day of errands: Target (dad needed underwear), Wal-Mart (I wanted to spend a $5 gift card, so I bought some green tea), Whole Foods (they have the best produce, including a new favorite for me, organic Cosmic Crisp), BJs (for gas and a few food items) and then dropping off some donations at Good Will.

When I got home, I found a BJs coupon circular in my mailbox and a $3 coupon for the Nature Made vitamins I'd just purchased there. Since the coupon is good thru December, I will return the vitamins, then repurchase it so I can use the coupon. 

A local gallery is calling for artists for its "Small and Large" holiday exhibit, which I like to enter since it's around holiday gift-giving time. You can either submit 3 small pieces of art under 13" or one large piece over 31" for a $20 entry fee. I picked out 3 of my mother's pieces but realized the frame on one was a little dinged up, so I'm in the process of painting it now. I got a free paint sample in a pretty shade of blue from a paint shop last year and found that it goes perfectly with this piece of art. I need to drop the 3 pieces off this weekend.

The replacement part for my furnace should be shipped to my HVAC people this week, so hopefully can schedule a return visit soon after. Dad was more or less happy with the deep clean of his living space last Friday ($340) and agreed to have them come on a monthly basis ($140) moving forward. However, he wants to stay there while they clean so he can tell them what to do, which I know they won't like, but.... 

I had decided I wasn't going to share anything about the funeral I attended unless he asked about it, which he did once we sat down to lunch the other day. So I shared a little. Then he wanted to know who was there, what was on the menu, etc.

I brought him to the dentist that day (every 3 mths) and I was so relieved they didn't announce another cracked tooth, cavity or broken crown. Next week he'll be getting his covid shot and going to PT. The week after that we'll be driving an hour or so south to meet my cousin for Thanksgiving dinner at an insanely expensive Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. It's just a convenient location for her and I suppose for me, so.... we go early so we can all get home before dark. I think this may be our 4th year going there? Neither of us wants to cook the whole traditional Thanksgiving meal for just 3 people (her partner won't be around as he's a longtime volunteer helping to get the balloons ready for the Macy's Day parade in NY, and so it just makes it easier to eat out although I do sorely miss all the leftovers..

My knotweed group has decided to allow a 5th person to join our small group. We haven't been activley seeking to expand the group, cus we all work very well together and sometimes when you add new people it changes the dynamic, but she had recently met one of our members who was enthusiastic about the idea. We're involved in so many projects, we could definitely use an extra set of hands.

I'm not sure what I'm doing tomorrow. It will be in the low 50s so theoretically I could do yardwork. I'd like to remove a large quantity of leaves at the top of my driveway, where they tend to collect becus it's surrounded on 2 sides by stone walls and the 3rd side is my garage wall. 

There are also 2 smallish trees I'd like to take down (maybe) with my mini chainsaw so I can move one of the many oak seedlings that sprouted elsewhere to that spot. Getting rid of nonnative or invasive plants and replacing them with native plants has been an ongoing project for me. I've gotten more aggressive lately as i realized that much of my problem stems from the fact that the invasive plants keep spreading into my yard from my neighbors. In fact, I've been battlings invasives on the periphery of the property for 30 years now, and because I always avoided using herbicides, preferring to pull, dig or even just "cut back" invasives, of course they did indeed grow back and nothing's really changed in 30 years! . Last year is when I really started using chemicals in a very targeted and controlled manner. I never do foliage sprays. I'll cut an invasive shrub at the base, as close to the ground as possible, then paint herbicide on the stump with a small paint brush. Sometimes I'll even cover the herbicide-treated stump with a small white mesh baggy so an insect can't land on it. I bought a hundred of these little bags on Amazon; they're used to hold wedding favors. Of course this time of year I don't have to worry about insects since we've had a few hard frosts. But there are still animals roaming around.

But getting back to my neighbors....one of them is a widow well into her 90s. Even when her husband was alive, they never did anything to the brushy/woodsy area on their side of the stone wall, which is the property line, so it is filled with Asiatic bittersweet, Japanese privet, multiflora rose and a bunch of other stuff.. So I've been venturing onto her side of the wall to kill invasive vines and shrubs becus damn, I can't be doing this forever. I don't think she'd care, but I try to make it not noticeable. And I just uncovered a very spindly oak sapling underneath all the vines. Someday, I may move from here and downsize, but I still would want to leave this place in as good shape as possible, and that includes ecologically, too.

I allowed myself 2 hours to get down to Hackensack, knowing that taking the Tappan Zee would make it a little longer, but also allowing lots of extra time in case there was an accident or traffic backup. But GPS had other plans for me. You know how when you punch in a destination, they give you 3 options and show you the different routes on a map?  I wanted that Tappan Zee option to avoid the GW Bridge. Problem with the GPS is that when you click on one of the routes, it's hard to know if that's the route you want, and it seemed like every route had me driving into the city, so that's where I ended up. So amazingly, I arrived in Hackensack over an hour early!

I lived the first 17 years of my life in New Jersey, but the only things I recognized today were the old Bendix Diner and Teterboro Airport. Everything has changed so much and I guess I felt like an alien there.

The Tappan Zee spans the Hudson River, connecting New Jersey and New York State.   

I stopped at a nearby Wawa to use the rest room, then headed to the cemetery. The service itself was very brief, like maybe 10 minutes. Then we headed to a local restaurant where "Uncle Joe" treated us to a nice meal. It was good to see some of my extended family again, fragmented as we are, and it made me sad that it took someone's death to bring us all together. It was just 14 of us; my brother's best friend came to the funeral but not the meal. My late brother's wife is Chinese; her parents speak only Chinese, limiting communication.

Heading home I was determined to avoid the GW, and this time I was able to get on the Palisades Parkway North, which is a scenic drive with great views of the city. From there I headed east and crossed the Tappan Zee, then north to dear New England.

It was an exhausting day. I didn't sleep well last night, then 4 hours of driving in unfamiliar, high trafficked environs and the stress of the funeral. When I got home, the first think I did was change into my comfy clothes: a ratty pair of sweat pants and an old sweat shirt, and climbed into bed with the beginnings of a headache.

There's a problem with the firebox replacement on my ThermoPride oil furnace. HVAC is here now. Seems the part they got is a different size/shape than the one they're replacing. They have ordered again, but will have to wait a few days now. I'm worried about how much this will inflate the $900-$1200 estimate I'd been given. The technician has worked out a temporary solution so I can continue to use the furnace in the meantime, but he's still tinkering with it so I've been stuck here all morning.

I received word yesteray that my half-brother has passed. Very sad. I had first learned of his illness 11 months ago when I pulled into the parking lot at my gym and he called me. As it turned out, I received a text from his wife yesterday in the same parking lot, informing me of his death. I am waiting for details on the funeral. I am hoping it's in New Jersey and not Chinatown, NYC. (My brother's wife is Chinese-American.) My father has told me he doesn't want to go.

In addition to the problem with the furnace repair, I also already scheduled a deep clean of my father's place for this Saturday. They will bill me the full amount if I cancel/reschedule any later than tomorrow morning. I think I would just let them clean even if we aren't around. Just to get it done. They already have my credit card info.

And dad has a dentist appointment on Monday.

I was happy at a recent gym workout because I was able to raise the weight pulled, pushed, pressed or lifted by 5 lbs on every machine. I say this because I feel I'm already lifting near the maximum possible, but then I go and surprise myself. I noticed today when I went to the gym that they are putting solar panels on the roof. 

This week I reviewed loans from Pakistan, Albania, Uganda, Ghana, Liberia and Kenya.

I had to cut loose one of the men i got together with. I don't think we had much of anything in common, and he's Republican, which would be bound to create conflict.

I got together a 2nd time with the other one, the anesthesiologist nurse, going to a great takeout type Vietnamese restaurant I'd never been to (tofu curry, above), but I'm not sure about him either, I'm afraid. He is very liberal (he drives a Tesla with a F*** Trump sticker to ward off possible vandalism) and we definitely share some common interests, but he seems very, I don't know, repressed/depressed. Not light-hearted. He had a very tough upbringing. At this point in my life, I just want to have fun and be with someone a little more outgoing.  I'm afraid that J. is not that person.  Plus he plans to continue working for at least a few more years, so that would limit my fun stuff agenda. So I don't know. 

The company that provides my Internet just raised my monthly fee from $50 to $60, which feels like a lot! It was not so long ago, I guess a few years now, when they raised it from $40 to $50. Sigh. They said it was just an across-the-board rate hike, which to me sounds like saying we raised it because we could.

I do fine with just my Netflix subscription, free movies with my public library's Kanopy account and over-the-air antenna for TV, and a family member pays my cell phone bill. Nice, I know. So all I need is the Internet. I see some providers give you a year's worth of Internet for just $30, but then they jack it up to $70, so that wouldn't really entice me. I need to research it more although truth be told, I guess I could also skip the stress I cause myself and just accept it, knowing I can pay it. I used to always get very stressed when this particular provider raised their rates becus you basically feel powerless, and there aren't many options in my area. Plus, it's always an unpleasant surprise; the rep said they mentioned it in the prior month's bill, but since I'm on auto pay, I have no reason to be looking at the bill; I just look at the total due in the email they send, and that's it.

Wednesday night, try to take a look outside after dark. There's supposed to be a very bright and large moon. I will be trying to take photos.