I got a raise at my contract job. My one-year anniversary there was late September. I hadn't realized that when I approached the agency to discuss a raise that they would make it wholly contingent on whether or not the employer I'm working for wanted to give me a raise.

Luckily, they did. Although I had pushed for a much higher raise, based on the fact I do as much copyediting as proofreading, I am actually thankful I got what I got, and it was more than I anticipated I'd get if I was wholly reliant on the employment agency to give it. I'm paid on an hourly rate, so it works out to a 7.2% raise, to $34.50/hour. Which is also a lot more than I'd anticipated I could earn working p/t in semi-retirement. So I'm thankful.

Since I only work 18 to 20 hours a week, it'll come out to just $50 more per paycheck, but that's $200 more a month. This should make some difference.

I just spent an hour with my father familiarizing him with the new Jitterbug phone I got him. He has major vision issues. Even with the larger keypad, he had some trouble reading what the buttons said, and same for the screen.

The phone with activation fee and 1st month of service was $108, and each month thereafter will cost just $20 and he'll get 200 minutes each month, which is more than enough. It comes with a built-in flashlight, magnifier and camera.

This afternoon is my last meditation class. I learned some valuable stuff about mindful meditation, but what I liked more was the yoga. I hope to keep this a part of my life, albeit not on a daily basis. So now I have just 2 more visits with the doctor running the study, and then, finally, I get paid $200.

I'll be seeing my friend with the prostate cancer before the meditation class. I hope he is doing better today, but as of late, he is not. He got multiple blood transfusions and some special injections to try to boost his red blood cell count, which is very low, and he's still reliant on an oxygen breathing tube and living alone at his condo.

My friend's best friend and I have have now both contacted his family (his niece, sister and brother) and suggested he should no longer be living alone. At the least, they could have the VNA and aides come to the house daily to check up on him, and he could get Meals on Wheels. I guess I will learn today when I see him if there are to be any changes. The purported purpose of my visit today is to continue helping him declutter and take stuff away, but I of course I am there for emotional support and will urge him again to consider his options.

My walking partner friend is having 2 Xmas parties, one on Xmas day. She seems to have a lot of friends, and I guess I will be meeting them soon. She's the one who likes to bake, so this will be good.

I did some Xmas shopping online this past week, but I really don't have much to do. I'm having a gift shipped directly to my cousin in NJ, and we plan to open our gifts for each other over the phone together. We met at Chris Ruth's Steakhouse, a restaurant midway between us for Thanksgiving, and we both liked the food a lot, although I felt gouged on beverages. They charged us $17 a glass for the Pinot Grigiot and $5 for a cup of tea. That's crazy.

I told my cousin if we did this again, I'd bring a bottle and some glasses, and we could drink in the car before going in.

There are a ton of holiday-oriented craft fairs, festivals and teas around here now that we're officially in the holiday season. I plan to hit 2 of them tomorrow before I see my dad for lunch. I love homemade items and little old ladies who knit or quilt.

I headed off to work this morning only to find a completely flat front right tire on my car. After my local garage ascertained that the puncture was on the sidewall and thus not pluggable, I drove off to BJs Tire Center where I'd bought the tires just a year ago.

Unfortunately, I did not have an appointment there, but then, when do you know a flat tire is going to happen? The man told me I was in luck because the tire was in stock, but the bad news was, they were all booked up and they would be unable to put it on my car until Dec. 6...3 weeks from now!

So they advertise on large posters in the shop lobby that they are ready to give you new tires same day...apparently, that does not hold true for repairs or replacements.

I need the car to get to work and I'm traveling for Thanksgiving. So I cajoled and pleaded with him to squeeze me in, and he did, but I wound up waiting there all day and didn't get home tl 6 hours after I got there.

There was just 1 guy working there when I arrived, and although he was doing his best to work on my car, someone walked in the door about every 10 minutes, either wanting to buy some propane gas or buy new tires. Each time someone walked in, he came back from the garage where he was trying to work on my vehicle to wait on people who needed advice on new tires or this or that. I guess he had no choice but it was really amazing to me that BJs has so little regard for staffing its tire shop and the resulting chaos that results from one man trying to do the job of 3 or 4.

The man who waited on me agreed, and told me simply, people don't want to work here, becus the pay is not that great and the hours are bad.

I lost a day's worth of pay since I'm paid by the hour. I did get an $80 credit off the purchase of a new tire, which did not go far enough considering the hassle and time spent.

My back yard

Yesterday was a lovely fall day, in the 50s but bright and sunny. I decided to mow my lawn myself again, mainly to chop up all the leaves. I ran it for as long as the battery lasted, about 35 minutes, so the lawn is by no means finished and we will have rain off and on this week.

I also used both my blowers to clean some leaves off the lawn and driveway, so I felt like I got plenty of fresh air today.


My street

Later in the afternoon I met an old college roommate at a local diner. She used my town as a midway meeting point to meet up with a man who was adopting a cat she was fostering. She lives 2.5 hours away from here, and he lives in Massachusetts. So we spent a few hours catching up.

I cut a lousy deal with my neighbor, who very much wanted me to edit a children's book he's written. I gave him a really cheap price, knowing his writing needed a lot of work, and also offered him an option to barter if he would cut down an old, half-dead apple tree on my property. That's what he chose, but in the meantime, I'm spending way too much time editing his book. I'm only on page 15 and already spent 7 hours on it, so that means it's taking me an hour to edit 2 pages.

It's the usual thing where someone writes something and then doesn't read it again. So I'm catching a lot of stuff he could have fixed himself if he had just read it over again.

I'm wanting to get this mostly done before the new job comes through and I need to start that work. Not really sure when that will be, but I did receive word last week that the employer finally signed the SOW.

We've passed "peak fall foliage" although everything is still quite lovely.


My town