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.

Oops. Alas, I have no photo I took today so I'm cheating a little and posting a photo I took last week that made me laugh. A teeny tiny lock someone's using at my gym.

Today I made lentil soup.

In other news, Patient Saver has dipped her toe in the dating pool again and now she has not one but two suitors. I find it kind of stressful. I  never liked dating more than one man at a time (feels deceptive and gets complicated), but in this case, I met Bachelor #1 today and Bachelor #2 is really counting on us meeting sometime this week.

They are both very different from one another but coincidentally, both grew up in the same town about 45 minutes from me, are the same age and both have 2 kids. I met Bachelor #1 today for a nice long fall walk; he is a divorced nurse anesthesiologist who had a rough childhood and is on the quiet side. He seems thoughtful and is a good listener. He is interested in fitness and plant-based nutrition as I am. Bachelor #2 has a much more outgoing personality on the phone, is retired from a lengthy career with a single (defense) employer and is widowed. I want to at least meet Bachelor #2 before making any decisions but in a way it would make it easier for me if the choice were obvious.  

After our walk today, Bachelor #1 texted me while he was driving home to ask me to dinner this weekend, and Patient Saver said yes!

Near where I live....

What I'm reading: The Nature of Oaks, by Doug Tallamy.

Today started out as a good day but that was short-lived.  That's when I entered my father's apartment to see him attempting to attach a paper towel with scotch tape to his leg, which was bleeding. The elderly have very thin skin; he had a large scab that I guess he scratched, and his entire leg was bloody from the knee down.  There was blood on his bedsheets, the floor, the rug and him. Luckily I found a full drawer of medical supplies and actual bandages. I applied pressure to stop the bleeding, which he resisted, causing us to quarrel. He is really misinformed about a lot of things, and this is one of them. In the midst of all this and trying to clean him up and his apartment (which he also resisted), I got a text from the wife of my half-brother (my father's son). He is dying. Any day now. She told me to brace myself. He learned in December, or perhaps a little earlier, that he had stage 4 colon cancer. December is when I learned about it.

So it was not a good day. I'm not going to say we were close, because we weren't. We didn't grow up together. We lived in different states, led different lives. We've been cordial when we've seen each other, but that became very infrequent, especially once he had kids. His kids are great, and I know he loved them very much. The whole thing is very upsetting, so tragic and so unnecessary. He is young. He had a colonoscopy scheduled but cancelled it due to covid and never got around to rescheduling it. This is the only reason I am sharing this info here, in case anyone has procrastinated about any kind of routine screening.  Just get it done. 

If you're wondering what this means, the phrase is a modern adaptation of Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous quote emphasizing that progress toward justice is not inevitable or automatic, and that we need active human effort to bring about change. It's meant to be a call to action urging people to work toward social change rather than waiting for justice to happen on its own. So appropros for 2025.

Even if trumpty-dumpty was not destroying the environment, selling off public lands, dismantling a wildly successful program that made health care affordable for millions of middle-class Americans, eliminating energy effciency tax credits and similar green energy incentives, hunting down and kidnapping suspected illegal immigrants with no due process, blowing up boats in the Caribbean, cozying up to dictators like Putin who is hell-bent on destroying Ukraine, dismantling the federal government, enriching himself and his family and pardoning Santos, who lied about his education, that his parents were Holacaust survivors and defrauded donors, who pardoned the Capitol rioters, I would still loathe this repulsive man. He does not have a shred of moral integrity, not an ounce of human decency. He is vindictive, cruel, self-serving and is an embarassment to this nation. 

I am so proud of the estimated 7 million souls who took time out of their lives to voice their anger and displeasure. There were some great signs, too. 

I wanted today to be a leisurely day, and it has been. This morning I headed out to nearby small city to help clean up one of their parks. Worked there for 2 hours; they were very appreciative. Oh, and I got this nice t-shirt too.

I came home, had leftovers for lunch and am contemplating my next move while there are still a few hours of sunlight left. I could do some laundry and want to make a big pot of lentil soup. Or, I could go outside and pull invasive plants. Finish tidying up the garage so I can fit my lawn furniture in there, and my vehicle. What to do, what to do?

The amazing thing is that the thousands of my photos that disappeared from my personal file folders have magically reappeared in those folders. I have no idea why, but I'm relieved, that's for sure.

All the Kiva loans I reviewed this week were from Phillippino borrowers, and all wanted money for a sanitary toilet. All of the borrower profiles showed the borrower standing next to a toilet inside a crude, cinderblock hut with a curtain for privacy. The toilet is never connected by pipes to the wall, so I can only guess they dig a pit underneath it until they can afford something approximating modern sanitation.

I think we may have had about 800 or so...maybe a thousand....people show up for our town's demonstration today. First we listened to a series of motivational speakers, including my favorite, a church pastor, and then we walked to South Main Street and lined nearly a mile of roadway with our signs, receiving a great deal of support from passing motorists.

I have a weak spot for craft fairs, church fairs and things of that sort. I love homemade knit items, which remind me of my dear grandmother, as well as homemade baked goods. I saw many things my grandmother would have liked.  It's a glorious fall day and I love this time of year.

That's a knit pumpkin at left with a real pumpkin stalk on it. So clever. Also a ceramic pumpkin for my kitchen window; I bought a similar pumpkin in a teal color last year. And, my first pair of fingerless gloves so I can use my phone outdoors.

I would have liked to support the church ladies by buying a few loaves of their home-baked pumpkin bread but I forgot they don't take credit cards like the craft vendors do and I rarely carry cash these days. I remembered the same thing last fall (!) when I had no cash, but then remembered I had lots of loose change in the car for tolls or Aldi's, so I trooped back to my car last year and paid in quarters, which they didn't seem to mind. I could have done the same this year, but it escaped my mind.

I also got a high dose flu vaccine at the health fair and a variety of fun freebies like pens, notepads, a rubber jar opener thingie, etc. I've been going to the health fair for years now. It's a great resource for residents and you'll see tables for the town's emergency response system, home health care agencies, suicide prevention, our local police force, the regional health care system/hospital, a local naturopath physician, varous dentists, the senior center, etc. 

In a few hours, I'll be attending a rally on what could be a record-setting day because a record-setting number of Americans hate what is happening to this country.

This was a very good dessert this week: a flourless chocolate cake (warm) with raspberry sorbet and pistachio nuts.

Took dad to PT, then lunch. Mowed the back lawn when I got home.

So tired of difficulties posting here. 

Anyhoo, catching up for a few days of missed photos.

Tonight I went to a meeting on efforts to ban rodenticides in my state. This is a rehabbed screech owl that survived an anticoagulant poison that killed the rest of its family. They've seen a real spike in birds and mammals like foxes and even domestic cats poisoned by rat and mice bait. This woman, with a group called A Place Called Hope, was a great advocate and very informative. 

This is the view as I sat at a traffic light on my way to the meeting.

Here's the gym where I work out 3x weekly. It's actually a huge building. The gym is on the 2nd floor but there are all kinds of ball courts and they have lots of tournaments there on weekends with out of towners who come to compete. It's a great resource.

In a post that disappeared after I saved it, I explained why I'd forgotten to post, but eh, I won't go into it now.

OK, so I needed to come up with a photo today, but it's been so cold, dreary and now rainy that I haven't really ventured outside. So I had to delve into my photo gallery to pick something recent. I imagine you are getting tired of my many plant photos, so here's another dish I enjoyed at that favorite cafe in town I told you I visited last week with my father.

This dish is "meatball salad." Each meatball is the size of 3 regular meatballs. It's delicious.

Now that the 3rd quarter is behind us, I thought it would be a good time to project my total 2025 income and see if I could manage a small Roth conversion while still staying in the 12% bracket, which tops out at $48,475. Cus I'm not sure my income would ever exceed the 22% bracket, which tops out at $103,350 for a single person, so not sure during a Roth conversion now and paying 22% taxes would offer any benefit.

To my surprise, my projected income this year, between annuity payouts, traditional IRA distributions and a few taxable mutual fund distributions, total about $63,000, and that's not including dividends or cap gains on two taxable brokerage funds. That was surprising since my expenses have remained in the low $40s for many, many years. But then I already forgot the January purchase of my new SUV, and the whole idea of taking out a loan for the purchase was to avoid a larger $30K bump-up in my income that would push me into the 22% bracket. I've been aggressively prepaying the loan in addition to the regular payments, and all told, all those car payments do seem to account for most of my income increase. (I plan to have it paid off next year.)

Although my income will be over $63,000 this year, with the standard deduction of $15,750, my adjusted income will be roughly $47,416, just within the 12% bracket. Cap gains and dividends will likely add another $3,000 or so to that total, but I guess I can live with that.

Wow, the Shark cordless vaccum (the PowerDetect) that I bought 3 months ago (which I love) has jumped in price by $80. I gave it a 5-star review on Amazon.

Violet's owner picked her up 2 days ago. We had a nice chat about the dog and also their travels to Berlin and Prague. I am definitely missing the dog, but I am also enjoying me freedom again. I would not be opposed to dog sitting again should the opportunity arise. 

Didn't do a heck of a lot today. I am STILL sick; it's been harder to get rid of than I thought. Which stinks, as I want to go to the gym, get back to invasive work, etc. Well, I did manage to change the bed sheets and vacuum. 

Yesterday I pulled up my tomato plants but am still picking squash and snow peas.

...

I am nearing the end of dog duty this week but unfortunately came down with a cold (!) that forced me to curtail the twice daily walks totalling about 70 minutes to just a single, 25-minute walk. (She still gets out 4x daily to pee and poop.)

I've gotten a little attached to the dog and in some ways will be sorry to see her go. She is so exuberant when she's going for a walk and is very easy to care for. She follows me around the house wherever I go. I could see myself pet-sitting again in the future if the opportunity arose. I actually lost 3 lbs just walking with her!

Today is the first day I'm feeling more energy and I think I've turned the corner. However, out of an abundance of caution, since my friend is coming to pick up the dog on Friday and since I've had a low fever (99.4), extreme fatigue and hacking cough, I decided today to get a covid test. Luckily, I tested negative, but I'm supposed to retest myself in 2 days, right before my friend arrives.

A friend and neighbor dropped off some dog food and a box of tissues the other day, which I really appreciated. She's a nurse, and I think she chose the right profession because she is a very caring individual.

Otherwise, not a whole heck of a lot new. 

I have 10 more transactions I need to charge on my credit card in the next 8 days ( by month's end) to earn my $100 credit.

Looking forward to some much needed overnight rain.

I like to make my money work for me, especially when I don't really have to do anything to earn more/get more back, aside from being alert to various promotions.

Today, in a single trip to BJs, I was able to take advantage of 3 separate offers:

The 1st was spending at least $100 at BJs to earn $10 off. Done.

The 2nd was to purchase $30 in "baking goods" to get $10 off. Since I was already getting walnuts and Truvia, I threw an extra bag of walnuts into my cart to earn that. (They freeze well.) Done.

The 3rd was that by getting gas and then groceries at BJs, that was 2 more transactions on my US Bank Altitude Go credit card. Specifically, transactions #36 and #37 toward 50 transactions by this month's end, to earn $100 credit. (It was a 2-month thing.) Done.

Dog sitting has been interesting. She wasn't eating her food, so her owner said I could try canned. She LOVED the canned food, which I first served straight out of the can to make sure she'd like it; the next meal, I mixed 50/50 with her regular food, to try to reduce the number of cans of dog food I'll need to buy for the remainder of her stay with me (another week). It's kind of pricey. I'll be reimbursed, but I think he's kind of price-conscious.

She has been very cooperative about peeing and pooping. In addition to her 2 walks a day, she also gets 2 quick trips outside just to pee. At first I was thinking I might want to use the garden hose to dilute the urine on the grass so I don't get dead spots, but that really hasn't been necessary since she has taken to peeing exactly where the grass meets the asphalt part of my driveway, and it ends up trickling down the driveway. Once it rains, it will rinse away.

She absolutely LOVES her walks, and I suppose you could say this is her one bad habit: pulling me along on the leash. I haven't had the heart to reel her in because she is just so happy and exuberant; she has at times PRANCED on the leash in her enthusiasm to carpe diem. The rest of the time, she is very good about not pulling on the leash, especially as I walk out the door with her or when she has to wait for me to put her leash on or off.

Still, I will be glad to have my life back when I give her up to her owners next week. Right now, all my personal chores (mainly, weekly trip to the transfer station, grocery shopping and the gym) all revolve around her schedule and needs, and then I fill in my my errands in between her outdoor time. The weather has been absolutely perfect for an extended period of time; I can imagine this kind of schedule would not be so painless in the dead of winter or rain, so I'm grateful for that.

I'm trying to take her with me when I can, just to give her more stimulation in between walks; so far, we've been to the bank drive-up window, the local Stop & Shop for a quick run in, the library (to return a book using the drive-thru thing), the transfer station and the healthy pet food store, where she got extra attention and a treat from the clerk. 

For the 2 walks a day, I've mostly been sticking with a large campus (maybe 200 acres) in the center of town very popular with dog walkers and walkers, baby strollers, etc. Lots of paved walking paths, a fruit trail, victory garden for the food pantry, municipal offices, volunteer ambulance, community center, pool, senior center, ball fields, the gym I belong to, a micro-brewery and the location of our farmer's market, road races, arts festival, etc. It's getting a little boring becus I'm going there often twice a day (not including when i go to the gym), but I like it because they have poop bags, which I've run out of, and trash cans, plus I can avoid other dog walkers, which I have been doing just to play it safe. 

I tried taking her on a newly built sidewalk that extends from my neighborhood for about a half-mile to a small park, but that road is so busy with traffic it's not that enjoyable. I also tried a larger park that is made of of a small pond and grassy areas, but there's a lot of geese poop and the grass is pretty high. So I just return to the large campus in town. It's a convenient 5-minute drive, although one of her walks is at 5 pm and it can be tough making a left turn off my street during rush hour.

I continue to be impressed by how price competitive places like Whole Foods and BJs can be. The BJs price on organic cosmic crisp apples were better than Wal-Mart. Whole Foods also continues to beat Stop & Shop on a variety of foods, I've noticed. 

Making slow progress on assembling things I have purchased, a chore I HATE doing. I've assembled everything from a full size outdoor composter to a desk and other stuff, but I've also returned something once (a simple bench!) that just wouldn't assemble.

Lawn mower

The Greenworks lawnmower arrived yesterday and I was relieved there was not much to do beyond charging up the battery and inserting the battery. I like to mulch my grass and leave in place, so I didn't even need to attach the bagger.

I had found a mower guy who was $5 more expensive per cut than my last guy, so I just gave him the job, and he said he'd be here today, so I just briefly tried out the Greenworks and liked it very much. I want to do a full mow to see how long the battery lasts and just to assess overall performance and if it's easier to push with the somewhat lower weight, so since my mower guy will only come every other week, I'll do a full mow on alternate weeks, starting next week. But so far I am very much liking the simplicity of design.

Meanwhile, I posted the old Black & Decker mower on Buy Nothing and even with the needed wheel repair issue, I already have a taker who has picked it up.

The new mower was here. Actually there were 2 mowers who also did trimming and then blowing. What a racket. I'm going to ask him to skip the blowing. It's too noisy and I have pollinators around here that could be harmed. But anyway, without having gone out there yet, they seem to be more thorough; my old mower had his son doing the trimming and he did a half-a**** job.

Fancy water filter

My Biroux water filter is another story. Right out of the gate, I had a really vexing problem priming the 2 filters. They give you 4 different ways to prime them, and none worked. Beyond frustrated! They shipped out a replacement filter and auto primer, but that still took 6 days. I was so relieved the new auto primer worked exactly as it should. You charge the primer, attach to the filter, hook on the side of chamber, then push the on button and the Start button and it does its thing. It runs for about 2 minutes and then shuts off. Then you do the same thing with the 2nd filter, which is about the size and shape as a rolling pin.

Next step was doing the red dye test. Had to do it a 2nd time as pink water came out when it should have been clear. I don't think one of the filters was attached correctly.

I thought I was NEARLY ready to go using this thing, but once filled up with water, the spigot developed a slow leak/drip. There's a bunch of washers on it where it attaches to the lower chamber of the unit, but it's not leaking from there; it's leaking from the spigot itself. So the company just told me they will have to send me a replacement spigot. I'm hoping that's not another 6-day wait. I thought there might be a workaround for that. I have a wood floor in the kitchen so I have to be absolutely sure there's no leak.

Yardwork bag holder

I bought a bag holder thing on Amazon that I thought would be very helpful when doing yard chores. I often collect the berries of invasive plants I come across on the property and bring them to the transfer station to reduce the repopulation cycle going on here. It would be very helpful to have something that holds open the large trash bags I use for yard work so I can just dump stuff in there instead of holding the bag open with one hand while putting stuff in with the other. I gave away some old trash cans on Buy Nothing a year ago; I suppose they would have worked as well.

Anyhoo, the highly rated bag holder I ordered on Amazon never arrived, even though they said it had arrived at Teterboro Airport, and then Manchester, CT, but then no further updates since a week ago, which I thought was strange and maybe means they lost it. I finally decided to cancel that order and order the same item from another brand, but now I have to wait to cancel per Amazon's rules.

Dog-sitting

Ms. Violet is very well-behaved and couldn't do anything to be easier to manage. She's very quiet, sleeps through the night, etc. The real challenge for me is 2 of her 4 daily walks, at the very beginning and end of the day. Getting up and dressed to bring her outside around 6 am, even just to my driveway area. The noon walk is her biggest walk, at around 40 minutes at a popular spot in town that dog walkers and others love with its paved trails, ball fields and lots of open space. I've been only going there as it's the easiest place to avoid other dogs if you want to, though, because Violet's parents say she loves people but other dogs is a 50/50 proposition, and I don't want any problems.

The 5 pm walk is a bit shorter, at about 20 or 30 minutes. The last walk is at around 10 pm. That one is hard to get up for. I've been getting away with letting her do her thing alongside the driveway or across the street in a grassy area between homes. I thought today that i would try to use the garden hose where she pees so i don't get dead spots on the grass.

It's just that now, at 8 am, I am feeling tired from having gotten up too early and the 10 pm walk kind of wakes me up at a time when I'm usually already comfortably ensconsed reading in bed.

She is not a big eater, though, which her parents said was something new, that she doesn't immediately finish her meals, so breakfast may sit around til noon. Her meals are just dry food with some pumpkin puree mixed in. She does seem to have a strong interest in people food, but owners are not in the habit of feeding her that, so while I gave her small bits of chicken or cheese, I'm thinking I'd better curtail that or she'll let it be known at the table when she gets home with her and her parents won't appreciate it.

In other news...

It's funny how your chosen careeer and line of work kind of lives on even when you're retired. I worked as a marketing writer and journalist, and that's largely what I do as a volunteer for my groups. It's what I'm good at, and I really do enjoy it.

I started a series of interviews with "leaders in the litter cleanup community," which I've posted on our Facebook page. I bet you didn't know there WAS a litter cleanup community, but indeed, many small towns around here have their own dedicated litter cleanup group. The first guy I spoke to had such an interesting background and strong leadership traits at just 23 years old that I decided to interview him and write about it. The man I interviewed today, from a different group, told me his most interesting litter "find" was a $100 bill! I'm waiting for him to send me his photo and then I'll post it.

I'm trying to grow the presence of our little knotweed group, which is becoming better known elsewhere in the state simply because most towns don't have this kind of group. We are now on Facebook, Instagram and Bluesky, in addition to our own website. I am new to Bluesky but am flummoxed by the 300-character limit on posts with no way to edit them. You just have to delete them and start over if you want to change something. I still like Facebook best.

This month we're meeting with the sustainability director of nearby city who expressed interest in seeing our demonstration plot, which shows a stand of knotweed divided in 2, with one side having been merely mowed and the other treated with herbicide. There's a pretty dramatic difference in how many canes came up on the mown side (hundreds) vs the herbicide side. We've done this multi-year project becus there are a lot of people who hope to kill knotweed by tarping it or cutting it repeatedly so as to avoid using herbicide. Neither work.

Later in the fall we're putting on a training station for our town's Dept. of Public Works. We hope to raise their awareness of knotweed, learn how to identify it and then avoid mowing it when they mow the roads, or if they must mow due to sight line issues, then collecting the fragments, the smallest of which can resprout into a new plant.

For such a small group (5 of us), we're doing a lot.  There will also be a public knotweed presentation at the library soon.

I attended a native plant sale and bought 4 plants (3 butterfly weed to expand on the few tht I have, and a buttonbush, whic would make the second). They are small seedlings and have all been planted now.

I have just 3 more weeks left in my current credit card promotion. I need to make 21 more transactions of $10 or more in that time (for a total of 50 in 2 months) to earn my $100 statement credit. I think I can do it, but I may have to intentionally make lots of small purchases at the grocery store toward the end if I find I haven't quite nailed it.

.

This week I reviewed Kiva loans from Philippines and Kenya, about half and half, and one from Uganda. As is typical of all Kiva loans, about 90% of the borrowers were women. All of the Philippine borrowers were people who fished for a living and wanted money for a boat engine. All of the Kenyan borrowers were farmers wanting about $175 for fertilizer and good quality seeds.

The average annual income in Philippines is about $4,000 and in Kenya, it’s closer to $7,000, so even a small loan of $175 is a big deal.

I finally finished writing out 200 postcards to encourage environmentally oriented voters in Virginia to vote in their upcoming November general election. Then I’ll just need to certify I completed the project with the Environmental Voter Project and then mail them on the designated day this month. 

Saturday I went to a new-to-me native plant nursery with 2 friends. I bought 6 plants.

Well, I guess it was only a matter of time before this happened. As you may have noticed, I am very health- and nutrition-conscious. About 5 years ago, I bought a countertop glass water pitcher with a charcoal filter in it that’s supposed to filter out certain things, but who knows if it really is?

So after reading a lot about microplastics, nanoplastics and PFAs (forever chemicals), I decided to spring for a decidedly more expensive reverse osmosis system that’s supposed to be highly effective at filtering out a bunch of stuff, including what I’ve just mentioned.

I was hoping to have the whole thing assembled on Saturday, but hit a stumbling block when I tried to prime the 2 filters but could not fit the rubber gasket thingie they provide onto the end of my modern kitchen faucet, so the alternative way to prime the filters is to soak them in water for 8 hours, which I did.

The good thing is that I only will have to do this once a year, cus that’s how long the filters last. And next time, I will know to plan ahead so it’s not an inconvenience. But then when I did the red dye test, to make sure the filters are working as they should, well, only about a tablespoon of water percolated thru one filter, and none from the other. It's possible I overtightened the nut on the ends of filters, or maybe they're not really primed? At this point, I want to call customer service regarding next steps, and due to the holiday, that won't happen til Tuesday.

Anyway, I’ll be excited to get this system working and see how or if it changes the taste of my water, which is supposed to retain whatever beneficial minerals it already has.

So, very recently I was actually toying with the idea of getting a very part-time job, just for a little pocket money. I retired in the spring of 2023 and by all accounts I will be perfectly fine, financially, but I can't help feeling a little stressed by constantly rising prices on just about everything, and it makes me feel a little insecure.

Every time I use a calculator, and also, Dido from this site tells me this, I will have about $7,000 a month in income for the rest of my life. This boggles my mind. Me, a lifetime frugalite. But I think that's once I start collecting Social Security, which won't happen for another 4 years, so I do feel cautious about going on a spending spree.

Then I was having a phone conversation with an old friend who is heading to Berlin for a few weeks with his wife this fall (so very, very jealous) but was having a hard time finding someone to look after his dog. I volunteered, and so I have my first pet-sitting gig that should yield about $500. They are very well off, like, the top 5% based on net worth, but he tells me $30 a day is on the low end for pet sitting services. They are coming up next week to leave their dog with me for a few hours so the dog becomes acquainted with my home before the 2-week visit.

This should be interesting. I have not owned or lived with a dog since I was a child. I imagine that by the end of the dog's visit, I will know for sure whether I might like to get my own dog (a retirement dream for many years during my working life and having cats) or not.

The dog is used to going outside to pee like around 6 am, which is a little early for me, and then the last outside visit would be 10 or 11. It might get a little old, but we shall see. By all accounts, she's a very well-behaved and easy to care for doggie. We have met before.  I don't have a fenced in yard and I don't really feel I want to walk the dog in the yard because there are always ticks around here; so I'll have to get in the car and driving a short distance to a nearby, better manicured park.

Also along the lines of making extra money, I'm currently working on 2 different credit cards for various rewards. I'm just about done with the spend requirement on the one card, which will give me $250 in credits for entertainment stuff. Which is fine, cus I've wanted to focus more on doing FUN stuff in my retirement at the same time I'm a bit concerned about rising costs.

The 2nd card could give me as much as $100 if I charge I think 50 purchases of $10 or more on it by August 31. I have no idea how many purchases I charge among all my cards, but it's a lot.  There are very few things I'm unable to charge, like my lawn mower guy, my property taxes and stuff like that. And I'm paying closer attention to the higher cash rewards different cards offer for different kinds of purchases, something I never could be bothered to pay attention to before. So yeah, I'm always using my Discover card this quarter at gas stations for 5% cash back.

My auto and homeowners policies are set to renew this month. They have both increased again this year, though I have a perfect record with no claims. I know it's based on other drivers and homeowners. I asked my agent if she thought the price hike for the car was reasonable, something I was having trouble determining since I just bought a new, more expensive vehicle in January. So she offered to shop it around to see if I could do better somewhere else. I'm not expecting another insurer to outdo Progressive though. I've been with them maybe 4 years now?

I recently purchased a cordless, rechargeable fan, about 8" diameter, and I love it! Being cord-free means I'm free to use it anywhere I like, including outside, which I may try at some point when I'm doing yard work. Although I don't often stay in one place. But maybe sitting on my patio under the umbrella table would be a good place to use it.

I had a birthday recently and my cousin wanted to send me flowers a few days before my birthday. When she called me on the day of my birthday, she asked if I'd received them, which I did not, and when she called 1-800-flowers they said it was delivered and gave her a time of delivery (but no photo). They promised to deliver them to me the next day, so I hung around here all day, but again, no flowers. She called them again and this time they admitted they didn't have the right flowers for what she had ordered, and promised to deliver today. Why would they lie the first time? I finally got them today. This florist isn't even located in my town, so that to me would be the first mistake, to tell a florist 20 minutes from you to make my delivery. Oh well. They ARE nice flowers.

I pulled out my 2 cucumber plants since they had succumbed to insects, but I did get about 20 cukes out of them. And now in their place I've planted a late summer crop of snow peas. In a few weeks, I'll pull out the first bed of string beans I planted, which are nearing the end of their productive life, and plant lettuce.

I always feel good when I can increase the weight I lift, pull or push at the gym. Today, I was able to increase the weight I'm lifting when doing Romanian deadlifts to 65 lbs. I hope to lift much more than that eventually.

I hit BJs this morning, then the dump and the gym this afternoon. Tomorrow, I'm taking my dad to physical therapy, and then to lunch at a cute country spot we used to love but then it closed. It's reopened as a Mexican fusion type place, much more casual than we usually eat but I think it's worth going just for the location, and actually, when I had lunch there with a friend following a protest rally this past Saturday, my chicken burrito was really very good. It's just that neither of us likes to order sandwiches or other foods you have to eat with your hands at a restaurant, him because it can be messy and me because I'm touching a lot of other stuff that grosses me out.

On the subject of the protest rally, this was one of the nicest groups of people I have yet to meet at any demonstration. This town is a very rural but wealthy country town, and the overall size of the group was modest, maybe about 35 or 40 people, but then again, its population is only about 2200 people. I just had some very nice conversations with different individuals, and all were very welcoming. 

I need to pick up the pace on my postcard writing for the Environmental Voter Project. I have 6 sheets of names and addresses, with each sheet having about 33 names. I have just a little over 6 weeks to write them all before they must be mailed, so that means one sheet a week. I am behind right now, but still have 3 more days.

I discovered weeds growing in my gutter in front. Wow. I never have that gutter cleaned out cus it has metal mesh covers on it but apparently, stuff does get in there. Have to see if my handyman might be able to do that for me. He's back from vacation in Maine soon.

Tomorrow I'm going to another rally with a new friend, this time in a different town, a country town. Then we'll hit the small deli down the road for an ice cream that happens to come from a farm here in my town, which I don't get to enjoy that often becus there is always a long line unless you go during a thunderstorm. 

It is with great sadness that I report the demise of my cucumber plants, due to cucumber beetle. The cucumbers were coming fast and furious. I got about 10 of them although 2 went soft in my fridge becus i couldn't keep up with eating them. 

The same may happen with my yellow squash and zucchini although so far, so good. Stringbeans have begun producing and I'm just waiting for the green tomatoes to ripen. I was at Tractor Supply today and bought some lettuce seed and snow pea seeds for a late summer crop that I may plant in late August.

This week in my Kiva volunteer work nearly all the loans I reviewed were the same (a little unusual). They were all from women in Pakistan wanting a loan to purchase a buffalo, to add to their herd used for milking and selling milk. I felt sorry for the buffalo: all were quite gaunt and underweight.

Geez, these Chase offers are getting into serious money...

Of course, they want serious money, too, which won't be forthcoming.

Tempting to think about though.

I went to one of those retirement planning programs last night. They always talk about Roth conversions. Which I understand can be very helpful in reducing taxes you'll pay once RMDs begin, but I don't think they're necessary for everyone, and they didn't mention scenarios where they wouldn't make sense.

There's a John Lewis/anti-Trump rally tonight, the first one I'll be skipping. It will be a muggy 90 degrees here at 6:30 pm, when the rally starts. It's just too darn hot.

This is a Great spangled fritillary on purple coneflower.

Liatris (blazing star) with black eyed susies.

I got a new Shark vac and tried it out today. Pros: It's definitely better picking up stuff on both bare floors and rugs than what I had, and I like the easy empty feature. It automatically adjusts its setting after detecting whether I'm doing a rug or floor so I don't have to keep pressing buttons.

Cons: It acts like a self-propelled Ninja on rugs. Kind of like a dog pulling on a leash. It's pretty loud, so I'll continue using headphone thingies. It's also still fairly heavy, but I guess you can't have it all. 

I brought my Toyota in for its very first, 6-month service, which will be free (ToyotaCares) for I think the first 2 years? 10 years? I'll have to doublecheck. But at this juncture, all they did was top off fluids, rotate the tires and reinsert a small plastic cover that I accidentally dislodged that goes over one of the license plate lights in the back.

Bummer.

Today was the day Home Depot was to install the new Andersen storm door with retractible glass/screen in the door (not interchangeable, where you have to physically remove one or the other). The arrival window they gave me was 11 am to 3 pm. They got here after 5 due to some delays and they brought the door up, still packaged. Thank god we chit chatted about the door and I discovered the door they brought didn't have the retractable feature which is what really sold me on the door because it would eliminate the need to drag the heavy glass insert up from the basement each time I changed it in spring and then again in fall. I was able to show him my original order on my phone; he said the guy at Home Depot gave him the wrong door. 

So he will try to return with the right door, hopefully on Friday cus he's on vacation next week.

A young woman is supposed to come over tonight with her fiance and truck to take a Victorian couch I got from Buy Nothing a few years ago and decided I don't want. They are moving into their first apartment together and need everything. I could have posted it as a regift on Buy Nothing, but I didn't want to hurt the feelings of the person who originally gifted it to me, should she see the post, so this way, I don't have to do that.

The heat is still brutal here. Even at the gym, where it's air conditioned, I could barely do 15 minutes on the treadmill. No doubt my electric bill will spike cus I've had the central air on quite a bit. The highest I can bear is 78 degrees but it's usually set at 77. The problem is that while the downstairs usually feels ok, the upstairs always feels a good 5 degrees warmer. I always say I'm going to sleep downstairs, but I never do.

Tomorrow is dad day: physical therapy, probably the bank and then lunch, hopefully at one of our favorite cafes, which is closing this week. They have plans to redevelop part of the center of town and possibly related to that, the landlord jacked up the rent, forcing the restaurant owner to make plans to leave. It's a very cozy place where he literally knows everyone by name, just like in Cheers. He will come over to your table and lovingly recite all the ingredients in his different dishes. There's not really a menu; it's all verbal. The food is good, the portions are huge and the price is reasonable. And it's in a very picturesque area where you can sit outside on a deck that overlooks a river. And he always serves you a pair of complimentary mini cannolis for dessert. He really makes you feel taken care of there and I'll be so sad to see it go.

There is a decent chance of rain overnight so I'm going to skip watering the garden. A welcome break. 

What's growing in the garden
The garden is reaping benefits. I've been enjoying lots of green/red lettuce for a while now, and it is only now starting to bolt.  I will miss it!  

I've also been picking small zucchinis, yellow squash and cucumbers. Not sure how long the zucchini will last as it's beset by cucumber beetles that I pick off when I can, and the leaves are riddled with tiny holes, but I don't feel comfortable spraying Neem as I noticed bumblebees nesting at one of the raised bed.

I decided to underplant everything becus in the past I squeezed in too many plants in 3 4 x 4 raised beds and they grew so much i had trouble even getting in there. So I just have 1 yellow squash, 1 zucchini, 2 cucumber plants, a row of lettuce, a row of string beans just starting to flower and 4 tomato plants.

Really, the one disappointment so far is the tomatoes, which I consider my most important crop. I only planted 2 initially, but we had an unusually cold spring, so while they were alive, they appeared stunted. I bought 2 more and just added them without pulling the original 2 out in case the first 2 recovered. So of the 4 plants i currently have, only 1 appears to be the right size for this time of year.

Next Day Trip
My "one fun thing" this week will be a trip to visit Wickham Park, which seems to have a ton of stuff to see (aviary, arboretum, many different gardens, nature musuem) and yet I hadn't ever heard of this place until about a year ago. It's about an hour away but no tolls.

Kiva Loans
This week I reviewed Kiva loan profiles for borrowers in Jordan, Kenya, Phillippines, Tonga and Uganda. 

Any Cordless Vac Recommendations?
I need a new vacuum.  I have a cheap cordless stick vacuum that only does a very modest job on bare floors and is not really good at all on rugs, but that's okay since I have just a few area rugs and a backup vac. I LOVE the cordless but need something more powerful but still lightweight.

I also have a corded canister vacuum which is VERY powerful but also pretty heavy and loud so I don't like to use it.  

Based on reading a zillion reviews, I've come to the conclusion that a good cordless vac doesn't exist and will settle for a corded one as long as it's 1) lightweight and 2) powerful "enough." I don't need it to suck up everything within a 5 foot radius and sound like a fighter jet, but it should be strong enough. If you have one you really like, let me know!

I had a nice little day trip to New Paltz, NY as planned. It was a guided tour of Historic Huguenot Street, an area occupied by the Lenape Indians up until the 1600s when the Dutch and French settled there, with their slaves.  There were just 3 of us on the tour.  Here are a few pix I took.

The Lenapi Indians were widespread in the NY/NJ area, and in fact they occupied the town in New Jersey I grew up in, at Ramapo Mountain. I went to high school with so-called Jackson Whites who were said to be descendants of the Lenapi and/or fugitive slaves, and who were somewhat ostracized. Today they are a recognized tribe with about 5,000 members.

My goal is to plan at least one "fun" thing to do every week. This week I'm thinking of asking a woman I know out to lunch at one of my favorite cafes in town which is closing this week. She is someone in town who gave me some plants from her garden a few years ago, and theN we met again in the gym last week and started talking to each other without realizing we had met before. 

I had my front door installed 2 weeks ago. The door is beautiful but there were issues with its installation like a pretty prominent scratch on the front that I guess I'm stuck with. The worst thing is the way they left my storm door. I have an old Andersen storm door I thought i could keep, but it doesn't work with the new door as they could not screw in screws for the molding so they were flush. Hard to explain but you can see screws half screwed in up and down either side of the storm door molding.  It looks terrible. Installers said they warned Home Depot about this and that Home Depot "should have" warned me, but they didn't. 

So I plunked down more money, about $600 on a new storm door, which I was excited about since it solves another problem for me: instead of having interchangeable glass and screen inserts, like my current door, this one has glass and screen that stays in the door itself, so no more heavy lugging of a full size glass insert up the basement stairs twice a year.

Installer guy said he would pick up. I started getting automated reminders from Home Depot that the storm door needs to be picked up. I texted the Installer company and he said don't worry, they're just reminders. Well, yesterday i got another message from Home Depot saying your order has been cancelled because no one picked up. Installer guy hasn't responded to me message. the job was scheduled to be done this Wednesday. I'll have to call Home Depot tomorrow. Super annoyed. I already left a bad review. 

I went to another rally/protest in a neighboring small town on Saturday. Probably about 100 people.

The End

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.