I've had a few more grocery price surprises. Today, I managed to get out, drive the 15 minutes or so it takes to get to BJs, and get home by a little after 9 am. Trying to beat the heat, which will reach 95 degrees today.

The "surprise" is discovering that Stop & Shop charges MORE than Whole Foods for organic oranges. Oranges are heavily sprayed, so I like to buy organic.  They are currently $5.99 for a 4 lb bag at Whole Foods and $6.99 for a 3 lb bag at Stop & Shop.

Here's another example: 1 lb of baby bok choy is just $2.79 (organic) at Whole Foods, but costs $6.99 for 1 lb (not organic) at Stop & Shop. That's a crazy difference!

At my BJs trip this morning, I noticed they LOWERED some prices since last time I shopped. I know this is routine as summer approaches and fresh produce becomes "in season," but it was the Wellesley Farm brand of Greek yogurt that also dropped.

The masonry crew finished the basement walls yesterday. I was SO glad when they left. Even though they were in the basement, I could clearly hear them talking (in Spanish) from my 2nd floor office, with various noises, etc. What really upset me was that in the process of cleaning up, one of them chose to use a gas-powered blower on my driveway. They did create a lot of dust with the cement mixing out there, but they cleared the whole driveway. I had 2 small parsley plants out there with baby black swallowtail caterpillars. The caterpillars were literally blown away and I'm sure died. The other thing was, they cleared a whole lot of groundcovers that were growing along the edges of the driveway, against my stone walls, plus some beautiful ground phlox that took many years to grow into a large clump. I liked the way they softened the look of the stone walls and paver driveway. All blown away. Very upsetting.

Continuing the tradition of contractors always causing some kind of damage or work for me, this crew splattered concrete on my brand new hot water heater, the oil furnace, my water tank, my kayak and even the pump for the water tank, plus copper piping. There was dust everywhere. Concrete smeared on my outdoor faucet handles, one of which is now hard to turn, I think becus concrete dust got inside the mechanism. 

I spent a lot of time wiping a lot of concrete and dust off stuff, but I'm not done.

Now that I am cat-less, I would really like to make the basement as clean and dust-free as possible, partly to protect the new hot water heater, which has a filter at the top that i clean every month, but also just to be cleaner. I need to think about how best to reduce the dust. I think a household vacuum with hepa filters would still be ruined by vacuuming up fine dust. (I learned that once and had to have the vacuum repaired.) I do have a shop vac but is that going to blow the dust around? I think it would. I guess wiping with damp rags would be best; i don't even own a mop, but maybe I'll get one at $ store. 

Remaining projects for 2025: I ran a load of wash at the "normal" spin cycle setting and it still seemed to be vibrating too much on its new stand. The clothes were still extremely wrung out of water, though, which is good. Next I want to run a load on the "low" spin cycle to see if that noticeably reduces the vibrations. If not, I'll ask the handyman to return and help me slip a half-inch foam yoga mat i no longer use under the washing machine. I may also call Samsung and ask for suggestions. I mean, I love the new stand the handymay built for me, and I want to be able to use it!

Also need to call an appliance guy about a possible leak with my dishwasher, which i haven't used for over a year.

Then there are my father's projects. I have to bring him back out to the  notary at library again to redo notarization on his letter cus bank said i left off a "0" that appeared on his statement with a space after it, so I didn't think it was part of his account number. Notary has not called me back yet. He was on vacation, but i think that was just last week.

The talking watch i got my father a year or two ago is talking very faintly now. It needs a new battery. Rather than me fiddling with it and just getting frustrated, I want to bring it to a jeweler, who will charge $15 to do it, although i have purchased the battery for it.

I made a reservation for myself next week for a guided walking tour of Historic Heugonot Street in New Paltz, over an hour's drive for me. I've passed through that area and the homes are beautiful. The area was originally founded in 1894 by descendants of the first settlers. The tour includes going inside 5 or 6 of the houses, settled by French/Dutch, I believe, and also a 1717 French church and cemetery. It should be interesting.

There are a lot of things of interest to me within a 2-hour drive that I have never gotten around to seeing, so I plan to start making "fun" daytrip stuff more of a priority. There's more to life than grocery shopping and home projects.

My mason was supposed to finish up the basement walls today, but was MIA. He said he'll be here tomorrow.

It's very easy for me to waste an entire day basically reading stuff online. So, since we're in an awful heat wave and I don't plan on going out except to the gym after lunch, I decided to do more decluttering. I really can't stand living with so much stuff around that really has no place to go (but OUT) in my small (1650 sf) home. 

It often drives me nuts. I really like the concept of "Every thing has its place." That has hardly been the case here for 10 years, really since my mother passed. I've been gradually letting go of her things for the past 10 years but I just wish I coud speed up the process. Plus just the fact that having lived in one spot for 30 years tends to encourage "accumulation."

So today I chose to tackle clothing. This one's hard for me. I look at things in my closet, some of it not worn for YEARS (like dress clothes), and I say, well, it's a little stretched out but I can layer it under something. Or, it's something I wore to the office, but maybe I'l need it. Or, I bought this in the last few years, but it was a "mistake" and now if I get rid of it I'll never "recoup" the loss. And so on and so on.

I was able to purge 15 pieces of clothing, plus a Mexican blanket and a pair of sneakers. I think I could do more, clothing-wise, but I also hate to waste money. Still untouched are 2 homemade things that don't fit me, but my grandmother made: a robe and a sweater. Also 2 or 3 items that belonged to my mother that also don't fit me but were in her favorite color: turquoise. I still get emotional contemplating getting rid of them. People say just take a picture, but that would not really make it any easier. I don't know what they're going to take.

Over the weekend I decided to offer my big chair and a half on Buy Nothing. I've had it forever and am just tired of it, and am generally trying to lighten my load before I possibly move within the next few years. It's in very good shape and has washable cushions. Right after posting it, I saw a nice oak bench with cushion that someone was offering, and I jumped on it.

Sigh. i brought it home. But only one person expressed interest in the chair (maybe the timing is bad due to the heat wave) but turns out she has no one to help her carry it, and I have a bad knee. So she passed on it, even after I offered to ask for help on our local town group, where people will occasionally ask for a ride or help of some sort, and get it.

So now I've made things worse by adding a bench I have nowhere to put. I'm my own worst enemy.

I could wait til fall and post the chair and a half again. That often works. 

I have been gifting lots of other stuff these past few weeks, mostly stuff from the attic, where I have tons of art and even just frames I probably will never use. 

Also today I was in the linen closet and gifted piles of standard sized pillowcases, which I don't need because I now use 2 longer length pillows, which I just prefer. (I kept a few of the standard size for the fold-up twin bed guests very occasionally use.) I must've gifted 25 pillowcases! So now the linen closet only looks "moderately" stuffed instead of "greatly" stuffed.

I want things to look SPACIOUS so when potential homebuyers come, it will be more inviting. I mean, I am one person, yet my clothes take up 3 closets (1 in each bedroom). Then I have 2 linen closets upstairs: one has nothing but sheets, blankets and a bulky comforter (plus my vacuum and 2 hampers) and the other holds towels mostly, plus winter scarves, hats and purses. I just have too much of everything!

I think I'll take a break for lunch.

PS I recently communicated wtih "Jon" from this site and told him about the main SA glitch I've encountered: how you will often lose your entire post upon hitting the Publish button. Long ago I got into the habit of saving all the content as a precaution, but anyway, he said he would fix that; if you have any other issues, let me know, or just send a message yourself.

Early spring was a little frustrating because I couldn't seem to get any of my planned on home maintenance jobs going.

Now, things are moving along. 

After the back stone stairs were rebuilt last week, my vinyl siding guy has arrived today and is working to replace siding where 2 small holes were made during 2 different storms. In the last storm, the Internet wires were literally ripped out of the side of my house! The 1st hole appeared the day after a bad storm years back (I've kept it sealed from weather and insects with color-matching duct tape) so I have to assume a tree branch somehow hit it at just the right angle to actually puncture it.

He said he would not bill me for doing this (!) because I've been chasing after him since April and he kept saying he would be here and then he wasn't. However, I decided I should pay him for his work and didn't really feel right about it; it was only $220 that he asked for. It involves removing siding from the bottom of the north side of my house (that people don't often look at) and using that siding to the vinyl with the holes so that the color matches more closely; otherwise, natural fading of the vinyl from sunlight would really make the new siding obvious, especially since the one hole is right above the garage door.

So I told him I would pay him and he said don't worry about it and that it would make him happier if I left a good review for him.

Another project I felt I should do to get this house ready for possible sale down the road was to recoat my concrete basement walls. This is an old house, and some of the concrete you can even scrape off as dust with your finger. I thought crumbling concrete is not a good look.

I had my old mason (Alex) do 2 walls, in 2 different years becus it was expensive. And not long after he did it, I got lots of hairline cracks in the concrete, as well as some unsightly discoloration.  When I showed that to him, he didn't really seem to have any solution for it.

Now, my new favorite mason (Jeff) who just did the stone stairs outside gave me a price to recoat the 2 remaining baement walls for a price that is actually less than half the cost of what Alex charged me for 1 wall! And he knew why the hairline cracks had appeared, and said the solution was to apply a coat of a type of primer first. The discoloration can't really be helped, but he said he/I could, after the concrete dries, apply Dry Lock to cover up the discoloration. His charge for the Dry Lock application was $800, which seemed like a lot, so I may try to do it myself. I've done it before, but it's messy becus it has a consistency of water, so drips all over the place.

He told me unexpectedly he could do that job possibly starting today. (As it is, the siding guys are here and I need time to clear areas in the basement anyway.) But I want to get it done fairly soon becus in our conversations he mentioned he is 50 and will retire in about 5 years, so I'm thinking i want to get any remaining masonry projects done before he retires, becus his prices are great.

The front door install happens next Friday. The only other remaining maintenance thing I want to do this year is have an appliance guy come over to check my dishwasher for a possible leak; I haven't used it in a while becus it smelled mildewy when I was using it.

Oh, and Tabs, if you're reading this far, you wanted to know if cayenne pepper worked to keep the chipmunks out of my raised beds. Short answer is no. They still have an entry hole at the bottom/outside of one of raised beds but I have liberally been shaking the pepper on the soil on top where I'm growing veggies. The chipmunk is still digging around here and there but the digging is not too keep and he is not treating it as an entry hole that goes all the way down. I consider it an uneasy truce; as long as he doesn't ruin my veggie plants and stays in the ground, not the raised beds. I got a large container of cayenne pepper at BJs but it cost $8 and that stuff goes fast when you're sprinkling it like I am. Each time it rains, it washes some of it away, and even just watering the plants while trying to avoid wetting the pepper is not really doable. 

My stone mason...or rather, 2 very hardworking Latino men....probably undocumented aliens that rumpty dumpety has such a problem with....finished rebuilding my stone stairs today. The stairs are at the top of my driveway and lead to the backyard and back patio. It's beautiful, and I think they did a great job. I had them put in a drain at the top to divert water rushing off my back patio into a brushy area instead of down the stairs. When I pay him the second half tomorrow, he'll show me how to lift the grill cover with a screwdriver, I think, but said I could just rinse any leaves that may get stuck in there with a hose.

There's a fairly large area to the left where they trenched the drainage pipe through an overgrown bed of lily of the valley, which I've long wanted to get rid of, so this kind of helped. I may have just assigned myself my next job. I will plant grass in the part where my mower mows, but try to find a nice native groundcover for underneath the shade of the rhododendrons here if pulling out the lily of valley that remains isn't too much.

Anyway, I observed during the past 3 days that my contractor was wholly absent from the job site except for dumping off stone, which was hand cut by his men, and gravel, for the drainpipe. I was ok with that because I could see these 2 guys knew what they were doing. So after running out this morning to help my father get a notarized letter to close a bank account (big hassle I'll explain later), on the way home, I squeezed in a gym workout and then stopped at my bank to get some money to tip both men. The contractor's price was very reasonable compared to the 2 or 3 other bids I got, so I felt fine tipping his men, something I don't normally do.

However, when I got back home, they had finished the job, cleaned up the whole job site and had left already, so I texted the contractor, told him they did a great job and asked if his men were still in the area as I wanted to personally thank them. No, they were not in the area, but he said if I was thinking of tipping them, I could put the tips in an envelope and he told me their first names, and he would take them tomorrow when I pay him.

OK, so...This is the first time I've hired this guy. I imagine that giving him envelopes for his men that he knows are tips might be a temptation to open the envelopes and pocket it himself? He's done nothing to make me question him, but I just don't know and I want to be sure my $$ goes to the intended recipients. So I decided to type a short thank you note, in Spanish, along with a brief request for them to text me at my cell # to let me know they received it. I figure if the boss man opens it up, he'll see the note and realize he has to give it to them or I'll know he took it. I hate for him to find out I don't fully trust him, but if he DOES open the envelopes, then I'll have good reason to not trust him (!), and if he DOESNT open the envelopes, then he'll never know, they will get their tips, hopefully they'll confirm that and all will be well.

Am I too mistrusting?

Now that this has been done, I immediately texted my vinyl siding guy to let him know he could come to do the repair of 2 small holes whenever he could. He was all set to start this past Monday, and then out of the blue the stone mason contacted me and said he was ready to begin work the next day at 7 am. He had been totally incognito since I had first met with him back in April. So I had to ask the siding guy to stand by. Which I HATED to do becus the siding guy, after failing to do the job after promising to do so 2 or 3 times, finally volunteered that he would do it for free and seemed to be truly on the verge of actually doing it. In return, I said I would sing his praises on social media.

But having to ask him to wait was not a great move since now there's not much incentive for him to follow through. I may have to offer to pay him anyway, just to get him to do it.

Meanwhile, the door installation is still waiting in the wings but has been scheduled for the week after next week. I will be so happy to get that done.

The issue with my father closing his bank account related to a Santander checking account he opened when he was still living in another state. They have a lot of offices there, but the one closest to where he lives now with my sister is a good 45-minute highway drive. Since he doesn't drive, it falls on me to ferry him around whenever he has a need, and it was getting old having to schlep up there, so the last time I was there with him maybe 2 years ago, I suggested he close the account and open an account in the town where he resides. He declined, and I told I would not be driving him up there again becus there was no need to maintain that account. He didn't care, but now he does, and he's got a 6-figure balance earning 0% in a redundant checking account there.

He tried to close the account on his own but could not do it because he doesn't have the right kind of personal identification. They need one "primary" ID with a photo which ususally consists of a driver's license, military ID or a 3rd option, which I think was something that was also either state of federal-government-issued. Then the "secondary" ID can be any number of things, like a utility bill, signed credit card, etc.

The problem is that my father is legally blind now so he hasn't driven a vehicle in years and his driver's license expired a long time ago. He has trouble walking and uses a walker. He lost his SS card a few years ago and we never found it; replacing it means a trip to local SS office and I really try to minimize all the trips. He has a bad habit, when going to a doctor's office, of just handing them all the cards in his wallet because he can't see which are his Medicare/Medigap cards. I'm not always right there to find them for him since I usually drop him off as close to the front entrance as possible, then go and park the car while he walks in there. I tried getting a handicap plaque for my car, but once again was stymied by state requirements and gave up.

Since he rents from my sister, he doesn't have utility bills sent to his name. What he DOES have is a VA ID card, which has his photo and an expiration date. You would think this would be acceptable, but it is not. Pulling my hair out at this point. Surely, these banks have had other elderly customers in similar situations. 

Then my father started saying he wanted to change the address on the bank statements while I had the bank on speaker phone, and I had to shush him because banks are so careful about fraud, so someone emptying out a large account and THEN saying oh, i also need to change the address, well, that would really be a big red flag.

My father has had his mail going to his son's address out of state.  I knew the bank would never want to change the address while closing out the account, and given my father's lack of identiification and sloppy, no, non-existent record-keeping, I don't see a way around it. My father has made things very difficult and has not given any of his 4 children power of attorney, which would have totally avoided all this hassle. 

I do everything for my father, from clipping his finger nails and cutting his hair/facial hair to bringing him to physical therapy (he wants to go weekly "for the rest of my life") and doctors (dentists every 3 months), lunch out every week as I am his sole provider of "recreation" or just getting out of his little studio. My sister cooks him dinner and does his grocery shopping, and that is it.  It's just too much at times. His place is a disaster but he is too cheap to hire housecleaners; he allows me to change his bedsheets and vacuum, but that's it.  My sister sees the mess every night when she brings him dinner, but walks right out the door again. 

So Santander stood firm with their policies, designed to prevent fraud but in actuality prevents valid account holders from accessing their money. The rep finally told me I could mail them a notarized letter requesting them to close the account and mail him a check. Which was nice to know; when I brought my father to PT this week, he gave me an attorney's business card and told me to make him an appointment, which I would not do until I knew why, which pissed him off to no end, but I stood firm, so he told he wanted to hire the attorney to help him get his money out of his account; I told him I thought we could do it without resorting to that, or at least I would try myself first, and so that's when I began making phone calls.

After Santander told me a notarized letter would work, I made the mistake of contacting the local bank where my father (and I) already have accounts and asking them what THEIR id requirements are for notarizing a letter. Well, their requirements are pretty much the same as Santander's, so I was getting the door shut in my face again.

So then we decided to try to get the letter notarized at my local library. Perhaps they would not be so stringent. I called ahead and asked, with trepidation, what ID requirements they had, and more specifically told them what my father, a horrible record-keeper, actually had: his VA photo ID card, a credit card, Medicare card and that's about it. The  notary said that would work. Sigh of guarded relief.

We were there this a.m. and got it done, though not without the notary hesitating when he noticed the VA ID card did not have an issue date, only an expiration date. Anyway, we got it done. Then I stopped at the PO to mail it certified so the bank couldn't claim they didn't get it. I have to wonder if they just make it hard so they can continue to make money of his balance. They could have made an exception for us given dad's condition and circumstances.

Oh happy, joy, joy.

My handyman came over last week to set up the plywood platform he had built for my front-loading washer and dryer. It's very sturdy. His buddy (with a very strong grip/handshake) came over, too, as they had to lift both up onto the platform, which is roughly 15" high. I LOVE the new height. Only problem: the washing machine vibrates QUITE a bit. Having it sit on a concrete floor vs plywood I guess makes the difference? I texted a video to my handyman, and he agreed there was too much vibration. That being said, I had it set to "high spin," which i like becus it really wrings out the water, so less drying time.

The machine is completely level. I told the handyman I'd try out a load on the normal spin and see if I could live with that. Otherwise, he's agreed to return (no charge) to help me put an old 1/2" thick yoga mat under it. (I knew I was holding onto it for a purpose.) I just ran a small load to see how it went, but then I had a different contractor come over, one I've been after since February to do some small vinyl siding repairs, and by the time I was done with him, the load was done. So I need to do another load.

Just out of curiosity, I checked the price of 2 Samsung-sold pedestals and they are still significantly more expensive than what my handyman charged me, plus if I'd bought the manufacturer's pedestal, I wouldn't have gotten the labor to set it up unless i bought them, I guess, at the time I bought the washer/dryer. I passed on them at the time because they just are very expensive for what they are, though the Samsung pedestals do include a storage drawer below, which would have been very nice.

Someone on my buy nothing group was giving away tons of brand new box cutters, each retractable as a safety feature and each with 10 blades stored inside. She encouraged people to take a lot, so I asked for 2 or 3. I figured one in the basement, one in garage, one in the main house would be convenient. She gave me 20 instead! So I gave my handyman, who I really like, 3 of them and he seemed very pleased, so perhaps that helped smooth the way toward him returning to fiddle with my dryer at no charge! Either way, I'm happy too!

Just having the door leading from garage to basement open why these guys were setting the platform in place allowed abou 5 flies in the house, which I hate. I released or killed all but one, who is currently corralled in my greenhouse window with a closed curtain. Hoping it will just die so I don't have to keep chasing after it. Two of my immediate neighbors have sheep or goats, so flies, I've noticed, are in abundance.

Oh, wow. Just heard from the mason who was going to rebuild my outdoor stone stairs.  Another one who ghosted me since April, but now he wants to start tomorrow, at 7 am. Which is actually fine, I have nothing scheduled, but my weather report says morning rain is likely. So I told him that, but he said they have demo to do first and a little rain won't affect that. He just asked me for half the cost tomorrow, so that reminded me I need a written invoice. I assume a personal check is the same as cash to him, but maybe not. May have to make a special trip to bank.

I have an old (male) friend I see every few months, so next time I see him, I'll give him a few too. They do come in handy for opening deliveries from Amazon or wherever.

I made a BJs run this morning so am well stocked with fresh food.

Back to the vinyl siding guy: he offered to do the repair FOR FREE due to the delays. Which is great, how often does that happen?  I told him I would sing his praises on social media. But WILL they show up this time after repeated fails? He told me he has new front office staff to help him keep things straight, so we shall see. He's a super nice guy, and I'd like to have him back in a few years to quote me on a roof replacement.

He told me if I have a shingle come off in a storm, to call him. He seemed to know his way around working with homeowners' insurance companies to get them to pay for an entire roof replacement when you might have just a few damaged or missing shingles, because our state, he said, is one of the few that has a "matching statute" that requires this, purportedly to protect the home property values of others in a neighborhood. This sounded like a stretch to me, but I looked it up and it is indeed true! I wouldn't think that mismatched roof shingles would affect others' property values that much.

I am still a little leery of ever taking advantage of this since we've all heard how insurers will jack up their rates after you file a claim. But isn't this what insurance is for? My rates routinely go up 15% or so every year anyway, and I have never filed a claim. What do you think?