I attended a wonderful democracy rally last night with a few friends. I'm so proud of my little hometown. The old gymnasium was packed to standing room only, and there was a very inspiring array of speakers, including representatives of the ACLU, local politicians, the local Indivisible chapter, and multiple other organizations fighting the felon. I think my favorite speaker was the pastor of our Congregational church. I was just impressed at his impassioned speech. Impressed because so often faith leaders retreat from political upheaval and play it safe by remaining "neutral." He was not. We also heard from a young Mexican immigrant who had already witnessed ICE arrests in nearby local city, some local high school students and a 97-year-old woman.

The snow and ice have finally begun to melt with warmer temps forecast all week before turning cold again. I took advantage by going out and doing some pruning: a fairly large branch of a Japanese maple growing straight into a mountain laurel, and a hard prune of bluebeard so it doesn't outgrow its space. Soon I am looking forward to cutting pussy willow branches to bring inside.

Now that I'm pretty much recovered from my cold, I did return to the gym for 2 days last week, but decided I would make Sundays my day of rest, and pull back the workouts from 4 days to 3 days a week. Since I was also going to the gym the other days of the week to use the treadmill, the whole schedule felt kind of demanding. Hopefully having Sundays "off" will make it feel more reasonable; it's not like I'm not going to do stuff so I will get some steps in anyways....

I am beginning to think more about various home improvements I want to do. There's always more than I can handle. I guess the first priority is repairing 2 small holes that were punched into my vinyl siding after storms. The 2nd  one occurred just last week when ice on some old cable wires caused the wires to literally rip out of the side of the house. I didn't even know the wires were not needed when I upgraded to fiber last  year, but they chose to leave them there. I have since had someone from the cable company come out and remove them, but now want to repair the holes to avoid insect or moisture infiltration.

I have actually been considering replacing my roof earlier than anticipated; it was last done in 2013 so it's just 12 years old. I would like to get metal roofing for over the garage and the front entry way and I would really like to get the guy who did it last time because he was honest and gave me a great price. I also have 2 exterior doors I'd like to replace plus a bigger fridge and would love to get an induction stove. And also redoing the stone stairs leading to the back yard.  Obviously I'm not going to get all of that done this year; I tend to knock off the "easiest" projects first so who knows what will get done, and when.

Happy to say I have already gotten both state and federal tax refunds totalling about $3k.

I decided this afternoon to go get some soymilk at Target as I was running low and this is a staple in my house. I usually get 4 half-gallons at a time so I don't have to go there so often. Hopped in the car, drove out there, parked and grabbed a cart.

If you've been to Target before, you probably know they have those nifty little compartments in the top front of the cart,  perfectly sized for your cell phone.  That's where I put mine as I headed down the long aisle to the refrigerated case.

I got what I needed, checked out and left the store, came home and did some reading, both online and off. At some point, I was on the computer and to log into a certain website, I needed to get the code from my phone. Except I couldn't find it. Anywhere.

I tried to locate it in the house with the Tile thing on my key chain, but nothing was beeping back to me.

It dawned on me that it was POSSIBLE I left it in the cart at Target. Oh no. Between my keys, my Faraday pouch that securely contains my car key plus my groceries, my hands were full and I am easily distracted. I called Target to see if anyone turned in the phone. The phone rang and rang and rang, and no one ever picked up.

Feeling desperate, I grabbed my coat and jumped in the car to go to Target. It's about a 15-minute ride to a neighboring town. About an hour had lapsed since I'd been to Target.

I began mentally to recall what was in my cell phone case: multiple credit cards, my driver's license and a small amount of cash. A lot of valuable stuff. As I drove, I was thinking it was POSSIBLE the cart could still be where I'd left it, up against a small island in the parking lot further away from the store since my car is still new and I don't want it dinged. So I've been walking further to any store I go to.

I pulled in to the Target parking lot and headed to the exact spot where I'd parked before. I saw the cart and pulled up as close as I could, but there were other vehicles on either side of it. MY PHONE WAS STILL IN THE CART. And all its contents.

I felt like doing a Hail Mary right then and there. Anyone who'd pulled up to park there could have grabbed the cart and found it, and may or may not have been honest, but I'm guessing with today's bitter cold, most people don't want to walk a freezing cold cart into the store when there are usually plenty already inside. The phone is in a brown faux leather case which has a pretty low profile and apparently was not seen laying in the front of cart. I am so relieved!!!! Also glad someone collecting carts did not find it, because from there, who knows....

I guess I'll have to go back to lugging a purse around.

I'm about 95% recovered from the cold (or whatever I had), and I am running very low on certain food items, but strangely, I feel little motivation to go out now after being cooped up for 2 weeks. I did go out and knock most of the ice off my car but still have to work on the roof. I guess it's the cold weather...about 25 degree high today.

I feel like I've gotten NOTHING done, and I don't even feel like rushing back to the gym. I am usually very disciplined about doing stuff. I do plan to return to the gym sometime this week.

I did already get my IRS tax refund and am waiting for the state tax return to be  processed.

I purchased a security key that I want to start using with all my financial accounts; hopefully I can set it up without too much trouble.

I spent $8 on a dozen eggs. I don't eat many, but like to have them.

Thanks for all the well wishes on my last post. That night I was feeling a bit more energy, but waking up the following morning, I felt just as sick again. It reminded me I've always experienced this pattern of feeling sicker in the morning but better in the evening, and this worked in my favor as a child since my mother would see how I was doing in the morning before deciding whether or not to send me back to school.

But today I am definitely feeling more energy and have a load of clothes in the dryer. It was on my list of things I really want to do, along with my state tax return and shoveling my driveway. Doing the laundry is easier, so that's where I'm starting. Now I've gotten real ambitious and am laundering my bedsheets and duvet cover.

One thing I really appreciate when not feeling well....I can sign into my US Postal Service account and use Informed Delivery to see what mail will arrive/has arrived in my mailbox today to see whether I need to walk down the drive and collect it or not.  I recognize the sound of the mail truck engine coming down my street so lazy me, I can check what mail he is leaving me WHILE he is leaving it.

I'd also like to walk down into the front yard and see if there's any sign of pussy willow catkins yet. Probably too early, but last year I was too late. They are very much an early spring arrival. I'd like to cut some to bring indoors, plus cutting them back helps keep them a reasonable size.

I see so many tracks in the snow. I know I have opposums and bobcat and not sure what else is roaming around. I keep a heated water bath for all. Last night's full moon illuminated the yard.

My plumber hasn't yet gotten the "sausage" anode rod he wants to use as replacement, if needed, in my heat pump hot water heater. He was here to do some annual maintenance but inspecting the anode rod was the one thing he couldn't do because I have very low ceiling clearance in the basement. Hard to pull the rod out from the top when you have just 6" or so. The "sausage" rod apparently fits in differently.

I like this plumber because he explains everything he's doing to me in great detail and will patiently answer my questions.  I'm one of those people who tries to listen and learn as much as I can about what any contractor is doing. Knowledge is power and all that. He said most people don't care to hear it all, but I do. The more I know, the less likely some other contractor is going to rip me off, and believe me, many do, in different ways.

I also think his pricing is fair, and I like the discount they offer on furnace cleanings after the first one. He is from a local town, and his wife manages his scheduling via text. There are two plumbers in my town that have a lock on business, or so it seems. People on the town FB group recommend these two over and over again, almost to the point where you wonder if they are the only 2 plumbers in town. "Best in the business, hands down" and all that. I have hired both of them and found them lacking for different reasons.

Actually, there is another local plumber I discovered when a rusted-out pipe end cap burst in my basement last summer, whom I also liked. It's nice to have 2 plumbers in the mental Rolodex for any future plumbing issues.

Given the Felon-in-Chief's abrupt, autocratic, bull-in-a-china-shop style of decision-making about wide-ranging programs, I am feeling more nervous about my future Social Security income. My plan all along has been to wait another 3 or 4 years before collecting, but will it be there, intact? I had always reasoned in the past that if one Administration or another started making changes that I likely would be grandfathered in to existing rules given my age, but I'm feeling less certain of that now. If I felt changes were imminent, I would move to start collecting sooner, but would really rather wait.

I've been sick with what I assume is a bad cold for nearly a week now. I've gotten vaccines for Covid, the flu, RSV and pnuemonia, but still I got sick! First time in many years.

It started out with at least 2 days of just a sore throat, which then progressed to a dry, hacking cough and fatigue. Now it's congestion and sneezing. Can't wait to shake this thing.

There was a point I was so tired I didn't even have the energy to read or watch TV, and I've already lost over 3 lbs. cus not much appetite and I was just eating the simplest things like toast, fruit and cheese. But I am dethawing wild salmon now for dinner.

Thank goodness a neighbor I don't often talk to texted me, I mentioned I was sick, she offered to get me anything I needed, and so I did ask her to get me cough medicine. I am more than halfway through that bottle already. Luckily, I'd done a big grocery shop right before I started feeling sick but those weights are going to feel extra heavy once I get back to the gym.

We had about 4" of snow last night but I'm not planning on shoveling, even though 2 more storms are headed here later this week.

In other news, I joined a Nature Book Club in town (we have 3 book clubs) so I'm reading a book about beavers now. The prior book, which was hard to get through, was about the high intelligence level (on a par with dogs and porpoises) of octopi.

I'm annoyed with myself because, well, I'm not used to driving a vehicle where you press the release latch on the back door to open it, and as I was feeling around for that latch, I inadvertently pushed inward (not that hard) on one of the license plate lights and detached it from where it was securely seated. So it's loose. Now I'm wondering how much $$ the dealer will want to fix that because the door is completely sealed in as far as I can see. Unless they have some sort of special tool.

I like the Toyota dashboard for my loan repayments, and I made the first of 2 big prepayments this past week. Still a ways to go...

                                                 

The tariffs imposed by our Idiot-in-Chief go into effect Tuesday in what he foresees as "America's Golden Age."

 It could be more painful than that. Remember, rising prices won't likely be seen immediately, due to existing inventory, except for non-durable goods like food. We get an awful lot of food from Mexico. And I do worry about opportunistic and unethical price gouging by those seeking to take advantage.

I recently started thinking about stockpiling a few things like paper towels, toilet paper and the like.  If I had a spare freezer, I'd fill it up, but since I really have very limited storage here, whatever buys I do now will likely have minimal impact on my spending in the months ahead.

My oil tank is still 3/4 full and should see me through most of the winter, but if tariffs remain in place through summer, it will definitely impact my usual dead-of-summer heating oil buy, when oil prices are usually lower. If I were an optimist, I might say this would all come to an end in 6 months' time, but who really knows.  Still, I'm glad my car purchase is out of the way.

What about you?

In other news, I finished my taxes but am anxiously waiting to get the email from the IRS telling me my filing submission was accepted. In past years, I put zeroes in a few blank spaces that caused my return to be repeatedly rejected. It was a very frustrating process because the IRS does not precisely spell out what the problem was.

But anyway, despite having made about $5,000 more in income than I predicted and thus having to pay back about $500 to the Affordable Care Act, I should still wind up with a $1400 federal refund. At some point when my income becomes more consistent, I will tinker with taxes I have deducted, but right now it's still a bit of a moving target.

I'm eager to begin next on my state tax return but can't do that til the federal one is accepted.