JULY 4TH - REMINDS ME OF THE ORGANIZING IT TOOK TO RUN A HOUSEHOLD - ALMOST 250 YEARS AGO

 While this post circles around an American colonial event of 1776, it is also a general post. I do hope everyone related to same had a good July 4^{th .}

As 18^th century reenactors the holiday has a second meaning for my husband and myself. When one spends part of their time “living” in a different time period that time period and participating in events related to it, it take on additional meaning.

Communication being what it was in 1776 the Declaration of Independence most people had no idea that the Declaration had been signed for a week or maybe more. Could you imagine something that momentous today not being instantly available – in great detail – to everyone within minutes today? And it took weeks for England to know about it – even longer for other countries.

Most things took longer then. A housewife and anyone helping her cook (including enslaved people, free servants, and family members) would be awake as early as possible to start cooking – possibly before dawn depending on the time of year. In a most cases the kitchen was a separate building. A fire – in all seasons – as it would need to be started so the wood could burn down to charcoal for use. If the housewife was good at what she did the breakfast would be leftovers from the day before. It was common to cook a meal for “dinner” (at about the time we have lunch). Leftovers from dinner would be eaten for supper that evening. And if the housewife had planned correctly – the food still leftover would be reheated and served for breakfast the following morning. Leftover food could not be stored for anywhere near the time we do so today as it would go bad without refrigeration – depending on location winter would help some with keeping food cold in season. Of course there was no running water so someone was carrying water for cooking and washing – people and things.

A good deal of the food was raised by the individual families – animals for meat, planting in the spring, fishing in nearby water – again it all had to planned out in advance how much would be needed, such as how much wheat would the family need to last until next year's wheat was ready to harvest? What if something happened to the crops and they were lost or bad? How much bread to bake at a time so it would last long enough – but none would go bad? We have been thorough periods in the 20^th/21st centuries where we had to go food shopping every day as we had not been planning out what we need for food as the easy and constant availability of same spoiled us. It was much easier for me before husband retired/quit his job a decade or two ago as I could plan my list and plan my time to get shopping done once a week, with an extra run on Friday to fill in if needed – before the weekend and husband was around all day. Since Covid we have been back to figuring out how much food to buy to go out and food shopping the least number of times – and shopping list matching the aisles the items are in to be able to find things as quickly as possible. We tried to keep the food shopping to every 2 months in 2020 – storage of the food a major organizing job on its own. (We are edging back to food shopping much more often as fill in shopping these days.)

When my husband was still working he thought what I did if a bad storm – snow or rain - was mentioned on the news – I would make sure we had a week's food in the house – especially food that did not need to be refrigerated and also food that did not need to be cooked - and all our prescriptions were up to date so we had enough medications for a week or so at the least. I would fill the gas tank in my car. I would do the laundry – even if early – so I knew we would have clean clothing, towels, bedding, etc. Since he has been home all the time and even more so since Covid, he understands what I was doing all along.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Survival in earlier times depended on the family – especially the wife – planning what foods would be needed when, as well as how to keep the food safely edible and not running out of food. In cold weather the husband and sons would have to make sure there was enough wood to burn for heat and for cooking.

At the start of Covid a bit of all this need for planning came back. As the need for the planning has been disappearing again (though even now, many times food shelves are still partially empty in the supermarket and they are out of foods we planned to buy) we are losing the idea of planning ahead to make sure we are ready for the next emergency – and there will ALWAYS be a next emergency.

Are you planning ahead so that when the next emergency comes – you and your family are prepared? (I am not talking about going to the extent that so called “preppers” do – just that you have food in the house for a short period of time to get started if something happens.)

COVID 19 #17 SIMPLE THINGS IN NORMAL TIMES TAKE PATIENCE AND UNDERSTANDING NOW

I have been writing about our lives under the current corona virus pandemic as it involves organizing in a totally different way than normal.  What were simple things to do before this past March when this started in our area of the U.S. - such as running out of bread and needing to buy more – has become things which take much more planning and organizing to deal with.  I know that those reading my posts are going through similar problems and I hope that those in the areas now being hit hard by the virus and their loved ones (as well as the rest of you) are well and safe and stay that way.  I had intended to post once or twice about the subject, but it seems to have become a series and will stay that way for awhile – dealing with emergencies being more exciting to read about than how I do my laundry or do (or do not) clean my house.

We have separate “through the wall” air conditioners in different rooms of the house.  The one in our bedroom was not doing well at the end of last summer.  But rather than buy one right away and have most of the warranty run during the winter when the air conditioner was not running, we figured we would buy one in the spring – ha ha ha.  We need to have the air conditioner installed for us as it is not something we can do – especially since the bedroom is on the second floor.  Since I am generally cold I have been fine.  Husband though is feeling terrible while sleeping and waking up from the heat. 

When we realized this air conditioner was not working, other than as a fan, I suggested we bring up the “portable” one we have for the living room.  This is a device about 3 and half feet tall and weighs 68 pounds – it can be rolled around to where it is needed and attaches to an approximately 6 inch tall plastic piece which expands in width to fit the window and is placed in the bottom of an open window and the window is pulled down on top of the plastic piece.  We managed with both us lifting, to carry it upstairs – one step at a time.  We set into the window and did a proper installation of it in the window, sealing it into the open window.  We turned it on – and – it did not work either, except as a fan!  We took it out of the window and pushed it into the spare  (teddys') room as we are not sure we can get it back downstairs. 

In the interim we have tried various solutions – using the dehumidifier from the basement – blew hot air out the side and the basement really needed it back as it started to smell of humidity.  (Also took both of us to carry up and then back down – 2 flights of stairs, but somewhat lighter than the portable air conditioner.)  3 different fans – the one we use in our RV works best and is what we are using.  I even tried the early version of air conditioning - “air cooling” putting frozen bottles of water in front of the fan – worked a bit, but the water was melted before the hot morning (overnight being cooler in the room).  We had thought to put the bottles in a baking pan on a thick towel so there was no wet mess on the table or floor to deal with.  He ends up turning on the other 2 air conditioners upstairs (in office and spare bedroom) in the morning to avoid getting sick and he is worried that he will “use them up”.

This past week the temperatures went up and seem to plan to stay up – we ae heading into the 90Fs late this week into next week.  I looked for alternatives.  I suggested husband sleep on the twin bed in the spare bedroom and I would make up a bed on the floor for me to sleep on, so he would not be alone.  He point out – politely – that the room would need a major cleaning – dusting and vacuuming at the very least as it has been years since we (I) bother cleaning it as all it is used for is bears, dolls, and their friends sitting around.  In the 31 years in the house it has been used as a guest room 3 times – and that was over 15 years ago.  So that idea was out. 

We were left with one solution.  It is a solution that in normal times (and for normal people) would be no problem – we need to buy a new air conditioner.  Now for me having someone come in the house, let alone the bedroom brings up major fears of getting bed bugs again – we had them 11 years ago and since then live our lives so as to avoid getting them again (hence our little RV for traveling).  Right now – we are both terrified about having someone come in  the house – especially the bedroom – but there is no other choice.  (I thought about sleeping in the RV – but we would need to either keep the generator running – burning gas and putting out fumes next to the bedroom of the little girl next door or plug it into to a 30 amp outlet – and do not have one.)

So Monday husband called the local appliance store we have bought our air conditioners from before and priced the one he saw online.  Tuesday we put on our masks and went in and bought it.  Their ad said “next day delivery”, but that is not case when it has to be installed – they are coming next Tuesday – a long hot week away from we bought it – but that will give me a chance to clear out the bedroom so we can move furniture for them to get to where they have to work and have room to do so. We plan to push the bed to the other side of the room the night before and cover it that day with plastic tarps we use to cover the RV bed days when we are using the RV (so it does not look a bed from outside).  We have been assured that they take all precautions as one of the employees died from the virus – very reassuring or it means that they may have caught it from him?

And since, as it is said, it never rains but it pours – Sunday night we dropped our RV to have the mechanic figure out what the noise in the car air conditioner/heater was.  (It was excessive leaves blown in by neighbor's gardener disposing of THEIR leaves by blowing onto our property as the driveway with RV on it is next to the fence between us.  (Hopefully this problem will end as the neighbor is filling in the fence with plastic slots – but then we won't be able to blow our snow onto the property.)  When we picked up the RV Monday night, we left our car – it needed an oil change – and as we drove it there, we found it needed a new headlight.  We picked it up Tuesday night.  So, of course, a reminder popped up on my computer calendar – our van needed to have the state inspection done by the end of the month.  So we just dropped it off for same and an oil change – as we pulled out of our driveway the brakes were not right…  The mechanic (and his staff) are very nice and very capable and honest.  What we have been doing is dropping the vehicles off late night when no one is around.  Since we don't want to go and leave the keys (or we could leave the vehicles also) during the day – we want it  “contactless” we put the keys in an envelope and throw it in a slot in the building when we leave the vehicle.  When it is finished he calls us and I pay with a credit card by phone (paid the RV and car on one payment) and he leaves the receipt and keys hidden in the vehicle (we have spare sets of keys so we can get in).  He has been very nice about this. 


THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

All these normal problems that are handled so easily in normal times take a bit of a workaround to figure out how to deal with right now.  It takes patience and understanding by everyone involved to work it all out and luckily right now – people are mostly willing to do so. 

Stay well and safe. 

COVID 19 #16 AN EMERGENCY DURING AN EMERGENCY

Emergencies arise even during emergencies! 

Last Wednesday my husband's (upper) denture broke in half.  He still had a tooth in the front that was his, but had been trying to leave him and apparently, as he puts it, “it acted like a wedge as it moved and split the entire denture in half”. 

This would be a problem in the best of times, but right now – when the thought of going to the supermarket sends fear through us – the thought of going to the dentist to have it replaced sends worse fears through us – someone touching his mouth during the pandemic…

To top it off we no longer have a dentist.  Our long term dentist (he was my dentist before we started dating in the 1970s) retired in 2018.  We are not the best at dental health as most of our actual teeth are gone and fake ones replace them and therefore do not have a new dentist.  Last December husband lost another tooth in the front of his mouth. We needed to have it replaced quickly as we were doing a craft demonstration the coming weekend and  he would not look like someone that one wanted to buy a higher end woven item from if he was missing a tooth . For information about that see - http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2019/12/real-estate-tax-exemption-paperwork-and.html 

Not only the general fear of going to the dentist, and the fear of doing so during the epidemic, but also financial fears faced us.  While we knew we could charge the work, we only have the money that is in or will be in our checking account when the credit card bill comes in to pay our bills.  In normal times in an emergency we could go and make a withdrawal from husbands small IRA, but that would be another trip out in the world of Covid- 19 and we don't  want to go out more than we absolutely have to.  Also we had not met the dentist last time – only his staff – staff and did not know if would be understanding or not. 

I telephoned the dentist's office and explained.  We were given an appointment on Saturday morning (and not too early for us to deal with) as the tech who makes the dentures would be in that day.  Husband worried about surviving until then both in terms of eating and being nervous.  He has an older denture and used that for the week.  (I had offered to cook only soft food if he needed.)   I was told that he had to come in alone.  As I was discussing this with the employee and that it was a problem, he said he understood and could go in alone.  We were texted forms to fill in – basically Covid-19 disclaimers in case husband came down with it.

Friday night neither of us really slept at all in fear of the appointment to come.  We drove there Saturday morning and I telephoned the office.  An employee came out and took his temperature.  They told him to wait and then a brief time later she came back and took him in with her.  I sat in the car and played card games on my cell phone.  He telephoned me to discuss the options he had been given – fix this denture or buy a new one.  We went with “fix this one” for now – if nothing else when he did get a new one, he would have a more complete spare for emergencies.   

He was done and out a short time later and we drove home – and I went to back to bed  hoping to still get some sleep – that was not to be.  Now in 2 weeks we will know that we are okay.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK – Often when we are afraid the fear is much more than the situation calls for.  We know this, but it does not stop us from being overly afraid of things and we tend to over think and overplan them.  (By we I mean my husband and I.)  I find that in the end generally it all works out – in this case as we hoped, other times it works out in ways we had not hoped for or had not thought of, but everything always works out someway and somehow in the end.

A very good  and safe fourth of July to all – even if you are not here in the U.S. 

WORK, FAMILY, CLUBS - ALL ARE TAKING UP MY ATTENTION

Okay, so now I have to work on getting things done - not all house things - mostly work, family,  financial, and club things. I got a fortune cookie today that said that my problems are behind me - if only I believe it.

Work - I went to the client that I go to monthly.  She was charged a large amount for fees by her credit card processor and she had no sales.  I telephoned her processing company and they gave me a breakdown that sort of made sense, but did not.  What I was told the fees were for do not match what I have been told in the past about the annual fee she has to pay (due to low sales and this being a crooked company that she says she will switch from, but does not).  A friend of hers (she is in an indoor, open market area and this is one of the other vendors) came by and said that she has to fill in a form with the processing company (and Mr. Expert does not use the same company) and then they will get rid of one the larger fee.  I called the company again and they  then said that I had to call the sales office for more info.  Her salesman who should be who she talks to about questions disappeared in 2016 about two months after she signed up this company.  So I am trying to reach their sales office - either no answer at the extension I need or it keeps ringing.  I looked up the company name on line that answered and not only is not the company she signed up - it seems to be a “use an electronic device for card processing” company not one that uses the card reader she has.  I will keep trying.

Mom - since I have been less helpful with going through mom’s house, I have been put in charge of taking her to 4 doctors she has to go to.  Husband insisted her wheelchair will not fit in our car (and she cannot climb into the van).  I pointed out to him that if I went without him, it would fit as I could drop the back seat down for more room behind it.  In the meanwhile, my sister explained that the wheelchair comes apart to fit in a car.  I have been waiting for husband to set on when we are going on a trip - still a short one and probably to PA again - so I can make appointments for mom.  Today my sister called - mom had to go to the emergency room due to leg muscle spasms.  Now she will have an aide 24/7 for 3 days due to the medication - so I am putting off calling about the appointments until next week (or the week after if we go away next week) so I know where we are with her going out. I called her Medicare supplement plan to see if they would cover the aide, only if Medicare does - so, no, they don’t

Work, again - I have a tax client who has me put his tax return on extension as he goes south for the winter.  Normally he will contact me the start of September to set up an appointment to do his return.  He sent an email  - can we meet Monday?  Have to find out from husband if we are going away next week or not - he seems to be leaning towards not as it is suppose to, yes, rain.

Family, again - husband this time - husband has been having problems for several years finding the clothes he likes.  As a result he is low on presentable clothing.  Now that RV is finally working correctly, he needed something else to obsess about.  Underwear - it seems that it cut with a lower waistband and is too low for his to be comfortable in and falls down.  Then again, his old underwear falls down also - I am going to have start sewing new elastic in the waists.  Some of his shirts are so worn out that he can be seen through them.  When he complained a week or so ago, I made him go to the outlet of the company whose shirts he likes - they are short sleeved which I figured would make it easy - but he found most of them to be “too heavy”.  He got 3 shirts - which have to be washed so he can wear them.  We also have been going to various Walmarts as he found shirts in another fabric he liked, looking for what colors it comes in.  He also bought some tee shirts to try - only $2 each at Walmart closeout.  He didn’t like them, but they are fine are spares for me - especially at that price.  Jeans - he had 2 spare pairs that he bought when the ones he likes was discontinued.  I washed them.  I went to pin them to shorten - but the waists are so tight that he would pass out if he wore them. (They were 2 of 3 identical pairs he bought together - the other is tight, but not like this and the next size up falls off him.) We went out looking for jeans.  He found 3 pairs - all going back are they are not right.  I did convince to buy a waistband extender which moves the button/button hole 1 or 2 inches apart and he is using same.  More jeans shopping to come.  (Okay, I can be as bad, just have been lucky - my only problem is socks and I have taught myself to darn so I can fix them when they get holes.)

Clubs - I have to get paperwork out to an upcoming event for our reenactment unit.  We raised the unit’s insurance coverage and I have been trying - by telephone and mail - to get a copy of the increased coverages from them since May!

Clubs - I managed out to get out the summer newsletter for my embroidery chapter.  Now I have to get the year book (upcoming year’s meeting programs) out.  The newsletter is email; the yearbook has to be printed and mailed - and husband is planning a trip - sometime.

Financial - I have to print out, sign, and mail by certified mail two letters for credit cards that we have to “opt out” of changes they are making.  I paid all our bills today until the end of next week in case he decides that we are going away same. 


THOUGHTs OF THE WEEK -           

First thought is - I don’t have time to write and post this!

When one does not know when one will do something - one cannot plan when one will do something else and has to juggle to deal with it all.  It will all work out in the end - either work out well or badly, but it will work out and new problems will come along to be solved.

RVs, Cars, Mom, and Work

I have not made it back to the family house since 2 weeks ago to finish up, heck, I haven’t even had a chance to try calling mom to just talk to her.  I have been busy taking care of my husband. 

No, he isn’t sick, but he has been going crazy over our RV and its batteries.  Back towards the end of July I mentioned that we had ordered new RV batteries and then had to drive down to New Jersey and spend part of the day getting them installed (by the company which ordered them for us).  We thought that would be the end of dealing with the batteries. It was not.   

To explain the problem with this - our RV (a Chevy Express Van converted to a very small RV) has the regular battery under the front hood which does all the “car” type things - like starting the engine.  We also have in a cabinet which opens to the outside two more batteries - similar to those in golf cart.  These run all the electrical RV things, when turned on, if the RV is not plugged in and the engine is not running - like while the RV sits in a parking lot all day while we are somewhere.  (Well most of them - we cannot run the RV air conditioner unless plugged in or the engine running.)  There is a small electrical panel on a wall in the RV which lets us check how much water in the clean water tanks, how much is in the dirty water tanks, how much propane we have in it’s tank, and how well the electricity is doing.  (It also has the switches on it to turn on the RV batteries to allow them to be used and to turn on the water pump so water works out of the sink, toilet, etc.)  The top light for the batteries on this panel lights up and is green when the RV batteries are charging while the RV is plugged in or the engine is running.

In addition to the green charging light showing that the RV batteries are charging, husband has a small device to plug into the cigarette lighter to check the voltage of the engine battery or into a similar receptacle he had put in so he could check the voltage of the RV batteries.  This had been low for the RV batteries, which is why we replaced them - especially since they were 2 years passed their expected life. 

However, after the RV batteries were replaced, the green light still was not lighting up.  That meant the RV batteries were not charging.  We do not have an RV dealer near us to go to about any of this (hence the trips to Pennsylvania and New Jersey to get work done).  Husband was going crazy about this.  Over the past month and a half we paid out something like $4-5000 that we do not have to fix the three vehicles.  He needs to get a tooth added to his denture as one fell out - probably another thousand dollars.  Between being upset that the RV batteries are not charging, not knowing where to go about it, and not being able to pay to find out what is going on, he was rather despondent and depressed. 

We have a really good mechanic and he tries to help us as much as possible even though he does not know about RVs.  The fellow who used to work for him (retired) was even better at figuring all this out.  Just in time for us - the fellow who had retired decided that he needed to work part time as he was going crazy retired.  We called them and explained.  I was suppose to go to work this past Tuesday, but husband was soooo, upset about all this - and Tuesday was when they could take the RV - I made the work appointment for Thursday (tomorrow) instead. 

The engine battery was also low and was replaced (had another year and a half to go on it).  But it the voltage was still low.  There is a device, called a separator, which lets the engine battery or the RV batteries charge alone when needed.  It is apparently a simple electrical switch, but not generally available.  We had talked about ordering one to have it if needed and with all this going on, last week we did.  It came in this past Monday. 

Tuesday we were ready to go out for lunch and had not heard about the RV, so I asked if he wanted to stop by on the way to lunch and then suggested we put the separator in the car. 

The fellow who worked on it was on the verge of replacing the alternator as he still could not get the system to the correct voltage.  He was looking online for which of their suppliers had one for our RV that was good and not crazy expensive.  We all went out to play with the RV.  The fellow had not known about the light panel to show the RV batteries were charging.  We showed it to him.  They used this voltage meter and that in this place and that.  Then I asked - can the voltage going through the separator be checked?  Ah ha!  Voltage going into the separator - right - voltage coming out - low!  We brought him the separator and the voltage on each side was the same.  Solved!  Husband was so relieved to see the green light on the panel light up!

So, if I had not stayed home with him to comfort him, we would have paid out more big money for an alternator and still not resolved it.  (Makes me wonder if we needed any of the batteries, but that is water under the bridge.) 

In the process of all this - we have driven out to almost the end of Long Island to charge all the batteries.  Since we do this after dinner we can go and return in about 2 hours.  I have lived my entire life on this (long) Island and have been out as far this (or further) maybe 10 times, 12 at the most on the north shore.  Five of these times - including these two times - have been to charge the RV batteries.

So I lost 2 nights of being able to do things in the house. I am going to my client 3 days later than I planned - and there is a possibility of thunderstorms.  Plus the day lost while he was too upset to be home alone and all the time we were outside in the RV playing with the batteries.

In addition, my sister had sent me a text Monday evening asking me to go to mom on Tuesday as she was meeting with the physical therapist and would have to sign papers.  Unfortunately it must have come in while I was out of the kitchen - after leaving my phone on the table while cooking.  I did not see the text - due to all of the above mess - until half an hour after the end of the of the time range of when I was needed there!  So poor mom was there alone because of all this mess. I sent a text to my sister explaining and apologizing, but have not had a chance to call mom.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Our time is limited.  If we need (or want) to do one thing, we cannot do something else at the same time.  Our loved ones are the most important reason for choice to be made.  I am not sure if I had the text in time if I would have picked going to my mom or staying with my husband to make sure he did not go over the edge.  When I apologized to my sister, I also told her that next time something must be done on such short notice, to call to make sure I knew about it and did not miss another important text. 



                       

CATCHING UP - THREE STEPS FORWARD AND ONE STEP BACK

I have been trying hard to catch up this week on everything since, I guess, the beginning of March.  Things are getting done, but then, of course, new things pop up.

I actually have the stuff on my desk down to 2 piles - to do and to scan.  The to “enter” pile is gone - yay! 

I managed to lower the to scan pile today - I scanned in the tables of contents for 5 issues of a history magazine I read.  (I scan in the table of contents of magazines we keep for research.  This allows me to either search all of the tables of contents in a file to see if there are any related articles to a specific subject or to “page” through all the tables of contents without having to take out all the magazines.)  I also quickly scanned in the instruction manuals for the two new outdoor light fixtures that we bought and installed.  Again, easier to find the instructions in a scanned file than by going through all the instruction books.  I deleted the instruction manual of light fixture that one of these replaced as it stopped working right and was tossed out after being replaced.  The other is a light in a place where we never had one before.  I marked the instruction books with the year and will put them in a file to toss at the end of next year, so I will have them for now if anything comes up and they have to be returned.  The replacement light is next to the side entry garage door and I scanned an enlarged copy of how to adjust the light (it is motion triggered), which husband sealed in plastic and we have put it in the garage for convenient access if needed.

My embroidery chapter is in the middle of the renewal period so I have that out in the “to do” pile as I will have to forward the dues collected for our National and our Region to them at the end of the month.  I also have not finished dealing with the renewals for our reenactment unit (also in the “to do” pile) - I have a few new members who I have to add our to our list (already sent their dues to the National of same so if they went to a National event they will be on the list of unit members).  I then have to make the membership lists for both groups for our members to use.  This is especially important for the reenactment unit as we have events coming up, as well as our monthly meeting and the unit commander needs the new members info so they receive their notices. 

I renewed medications for myself and my husband - we need to do so quarterly.  I waited a bit longer than normal due to everything else going on and our weekly boxes when filled by me last Saturday night were short some pills, that have now been added.  (I keep an additional week of pills laid out in our travel pill boxes so I could have pulled the needed pills from same if we had a problem getting them.  I keep the travel boxes filled as it makes it easier if I have a cold or such and husband has to fill the regular boxes that we use in the house for our pills - they are counted and sorted and he just needs to put them in the house boxes.  Houses boxes are in individual boxes - a weekly box by day  for each of us for morning bills - in our bedroom - an lunch and dinner box for each of us in the kitchen, and a bedtime box for husband in the kitchen.  The travel boxes are one set of boxes with separate sections for the times of day and can be removed from the tray which holds it. I put all of the pills for both of us in each day’s box so that pulling out the box has all our pills for the day - as opposed to the boxes we use in the house where each box has a week’s worth of pills for one of us for a certain time of day.  (I hope that makes sense.)


We are also in the middle of dealing with insurance for our reenactment unit.  One is an accident policy for our members (we do have black powder guns being used as well as an open fire at events) which, after discussion with the rest of the board during the year, we checked and we are increasing the very low coverage we had before.  That bill should be here soon as it is due this month.  The other policy is a liability policy for the unit.  We have been looking for a new insurance company.  The one we had up to last year is no longer writen in our state as of last year. We found this out at the last minute last year.  We found an alternative last year when we needed to find one extremely quickly.  We wanted to see what else was out there now that we had a chance, plus we figured that additional companies might now be writing policies in our state now that the company we used to have was no longer doing so - and they would have had time to start doing so.  Much effort and time has been put into this - mostly by husband - and after all this, the policy we found last year, is still the only alternative.

We did have a call from mom the other day asking us to come and do a favor for her.  She had gotten a delivery of a new paper shredder.  It had been left in front of her front door - so she could not open the door, so could we come and please bring it in for her.  We did so and husband also set up the shredder for her and made sure it worked - that took just over an hour. 

Husband also had us finish dewinterizing the RV water tanks.  This takes time to fill the tanks repeated times - first time with bleach added to the water and which is run the water lines of the RV, then let sit  and then let out through the clean water let out (as opposed to having to let it all into the dirty water tanks and then dump those tanks  - which cannot be let run into the street, as clean water from the clean water let out can be done).  The tanks are then refilled with plain, clean water and let out the clean water let out several times to get rid of the bleach taste/smell.  Wet job and time wasting, but needs to be done.

Today husband had a new project for us to do.  We siphoned out the gasoline in the snow blower into a gas “can”.  That gas and the gas left in the other can were poured into our cars for use.  The snow blower was then allowed to run to use up the gas in it.  If this is not done the gas in the snow blower goes bad over the summer and it cannot be started in the fall/winter for checking that it works and for us. 

But these odd tasks are getting done and the piles on the desk are going down. 

I also paid our business credit card bill today - out in the mail tomorrow and tomorrow afternoon our will pay our main credit card bill and it will go out in the mail on Friday - when we will also transfer money from savings to checking to cover it.  (The money to the business checking account to pay the business credit card was transferred last week.)  All bills are paid in full every time.  (Well 2 exceptions over the decades which had specific reasons not to pay in full.) 

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

If you fall behind - slow and steady will get you caught back up even if new things pop up that have to be done.

KEEP ON TOP OF CHORES AND APPOINTMENTS BY SETTING UP REMINDERS

Another week, another post.  This is actually good for me.  With the exception of, I think, two times since I have started this blog several years ago I have not missed posting on what is Wednesday night to me and Thursday (very) am to everyone else.  (12:15 am Thursday as I start to write this, for example.)

Do you have trouble doing tasks which have to be done over and over on some sort regular basis?  I did, well I still do although I am much better at it now.  I use my mobile phone to help with this as I do for many other things.  

At the start of the year (actually usually just as December is ending for the coming year) I will go through my Lotus Organizer and put in repeating tasks for the coming year.  I have quarterly repeating tasks - such as doing  payroll tax forms for clients or extra computer backups.  I have monthly tasks - monthly computer backups, setting up new spreadsheets for our craft business to keep track of inventory (even though we have had no sales since December - I update the spreadsheet monthly anyway) and changing the sponges I use for cleaning.  I have weekly tasks - laundry, changing towels - kitchen and bathroom, changing the bed, regular weekly data backup, and so on.  I also have daily tasks - for example -  check email - yes, I need a reminder for this.  I do not need a reminder to wash the dishes from dinner and later at night from pre-bed snack as I do them as we finish the meal.  I also have annual reminders - these I set up to repeat for 5 years (I am thinking of 10 years next time) - birthdays, anniversaries, when other tax forms are due (for clients & us), and so on. 

I also will add various events as I find out about them.  I know that our reenacting unit meets monthly on the a certain day of the month - I set up the meetings on my calendar (both in the Organizer and my mobile phone which keeps a separate calendar as it does not sync - the Organizer is synced with my old Palm Centro which I carry around the house as a PDA).  When the events schedule is set up for the year I add those to both calendars also.  My embroidery chapter has a “fiscal” year - the meeting year runs from September of one year through June of the next year and as soon as I know the meeting dates - again a specific day repeating each month -  they are added to both calendars. I add appointments I make as I go along.  I add trips we make reservations for to the calendar - I start the year with the one for our July 4ish trip already in the calendar as we have to book a year in advance to make sure we get the RV space we want - and we are generally not there on July 4 itself - we are not happy with the RV park and the area we visit being that busy. 

What do you do to keep track of when to do things or what your plans are?  When I was younger I was able to keep much of this in my head, but I no longer can.  (Heck, I put down a check today and 10 minutes later could not remember where I put it down - finally remembered.)  Having a reminder ring helps one stay on track.  I am about to go upstairs as I am backing up my desktop computer for the month (did the quarterly back up while we had dinner) and the reminder just went off in my mobile phone to see if it if the backup is done - it was not finished when I checked half an hour ago.  Be right back - feel free to talk among yourselves, get a snack, or make a bathroom run while I check........ No not done yet.  I reset the reminder for another half an hour.  But, the laundry will need to be shifted between washer and dryer - and another load put in the washer in 2 minutes, 24 seconds.

See how this works?  Trust me if you just try to remember to do everything - it does not work.  Don’t just use reminder on your mobile phone for personal stuff - use it for work also.  If you work at computer at work (or home) you can put the reminders on it instead - or also.  If you are low tech - and I find nothing wrong with low tech (I am the first one to scream if some company or government agency says that something has to be done by computer or with a mobile phone, not for me but for others - well sometimes for me as I prefer the privacy of not having any number of things on my cell phone for security) use a paper calender and an alarm clock to remind you - or even a timer if you have to go back to finish something.  Darn laundry reminder has gone off.  Be right back.......

Back again.  You need to decide what you need to be reminded of. Some items all you might need to do is to put them on the date(s) or day(s) of the calendar so you will see them to do them.  Others you might need to have an alarm go off to remind you to stop what you are doing and do what you are suppose to do. (My backup and laundry have sound reminders to remind me.)

Yes, sometimes life gets in the way (or you just really need as a personal matter not to do something on the day you have it scheduled) and things do not get done.  I admit to not changing the bedding yesterday as I normally do on a Tuesday (gasps are heard “she did not do something on her schedule after she said to schedule things so you remember them).  My elderly mom had a problem that started extremely early on Tuesday morning.  Monday night to us and we had to run to help her just as we had changed and gotten into bed - at 4 am.  By the time we were back home - and then only were able to do so by the grace my sister meeting us at the hospital with her husband so we could leave (and they had slept as normal people do from earlier in the evening). I had sent my husband out to the car for him to sleep but that had not worked.  It was 10 am by the time we finally were able to go to bed.  Husband, exhausted, fell asleep.  I could not, while waiting to hear from my sister what the findings were about mom. After text messages and telephone calls I was finally able to fall asleep - for about an hour.  When we got up for the day it was late in the day even for us and I just had no energy to deal with the bed and said to myself the very unladylike “F it”.   (Mom was given a prescription to try for the problem and is staying with my sister at least through the holidays, which for us will run through next week and we will figure out what to do to keep her safe and well - she is 90.)

THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK -

1 - Use your technology to keep you on schedule or a paper schedule and clock if you prefer to use same.

2 - Realize that things occur which will throw you off schedule - it is called life and one never knows what will happen.  Just get back on schedule as soon as you can.  (And schedules are not written in stone - if you never get to do something, such as write your blog post on Tuesdays, you can move it to another day - Wednesday, for example the day you actually post it.)

3 - I wish you a good holiday with those you love.

PROCRASTINATION

I have been making phone calls that have been sitting waiting to be done as long as we have been in the house.

When we picked up our prescriptions after going to doctor one of mine came up showing I owed $45 on it - it is suppose to be covered in full by my insurance.  I had expected a $5 charge as husband had when he picked up this prescription for the first time on this insurance, which was later refunded to us as he did not owe it - but $45?  Pharmacist said that I had to talk to the company, so I finally had a chance today.  They don’t know why - they have to talk to, yes, the pharmacist about it!  So next time we go in I have to tell them to call the insurance company about it.  Both husband and I have the same prescription, so I am taking some of his in the meantime (90 day renewal, so there are enough for now until this is resolved).

I also called about the annual service for our furnace.  We used to be called by the company each year to have this done - often in the spring or early summer.  When I went looking to see when the last service had been done it was done in October 2016!  2 years with no service on the furnace, not only we did pay for the service last year as part of our service contract and did not get what we paid for - one of the things done in the service is to check for carbon monoxide.  So I finally called yesterday to find out what was going on and to make an appointment.  The cheerful voice on the other end told me that it was no trouble to make the appointment for the service - the next one is February 26!  I repeated the date to her with emphasis on the February and she said yes.  A conversation then followed about why have they not called us to do the service and I was told that it is my responsibility - never was before - why now?  The company was joined into another company and the new company has its own rules, but never told us about the change.  We buy our oil and have our furnace contract through membership in a non-profit co-op group and I have written letter complaining to same - after greatly complementing the old company which gave us great service and helped us out with two emergencies over the years, oh wait, I just remembered a 3rd emergency they helped us with.  I mentioned that my mother-in-law had a different oil company and the water tank for her furnace fell on it and broke it.  Her company told her that they don’t do replacements - too bad.  I called ours and within 3 days she had a new furnace installed - and they had a new customer.  A couple of years ago I found an oil leak in our oil tank - in our basement - at 1 am on a Friday night.  Someone was sent to plug the leak.  A huge snow storm was to hit on Monday - over the weekend a new oil tank was installed.  The one I forgot was about 15 years ago our hot water heater (which is natural gas not oil and not serviced by this company) died and flooded the basement also on a Friday night.  We had plans for Saturday and husband saw our plans gone and us spending the day shopping and making arrangements for a new water heater.  I figured I had nothing to lose and called our oil company - by 1pm we had a new water heater installed and we were off to do what we planned to do - late, but with plenty of time.  What a difference between the old and new company.

I have to make a call tomorrow - I had been called by the parks department that my embroidery group gets a room from for meetings.  I telephoned the woman back, got her voice mail, and left the information she requested - an email address.  It is time to do the renewal paperwork for the meeting room for next year and I figured I would be receiving it by email (and the town would save the cost of mailing it), but I have not heard back from her and will try calling her again and ask if she has the information to please either leave a message on my phone or send an email so I know she has it.

On the other hand, I waited too long to call about my eyeglasses.  Last year (2017) in June I bought new eyeglasses which change in the sun to sunglasses.  I have had glasses like these for decades and never had a problem with them.  These did not change.  At first I figured they needed some time - this has happened in the past - then suddenly it was this July.  I went back to the optician and was told it was past the one year for the warranty.  He did try to help me and said that the glasses changed a bit under his lights and I should try putting them in the freezer overnight.  I thought this strange, but saw it in articles and tried it.  First time the glasses changed to the lightest shade of grey.  Tried two more times and nothing happened.  He had told me to call him if it did not work.  Due to procrastination and life I did not have a chance to call him - until I was stuck in the house with husband - 3 months after I had been in.  So, now I have a spare of eyeglasses which do not change color - just stay the lightest bit of yellow and I will have to decide if I want to spend all that money again on a new pair that changes color and make sure it does or go back right away.  I figure I will wait until just before spring to decide as I won’t need them during the winter.

I also have to call our eye doctor and make an appointment for both of us to see him.  I had planned to call just about when all this happened last month.  Appointments for routine eye exams are usually about a month after I call.  Now I have a problem.  I am not sure if husband can deal with driving out to him - about 45 minutes to an hour - followed by our going to stores slightly further out near the doctor and walking around for a few hours until the eye drops wear off.  I hate to make appointments and then have to cancel them - but then again, if wait until January there may be snow and that would be a problem to drive out there in same.


THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Try not to procrastinate - we all do and I can be the queen of procrastination - believe me.  (I have to take 20 hours of online classes for work - this year I made sure to pay for them early so I would not be taking them all in November and December again - still have not taken any and they have to be finished by the end of December - or else.) 

Procrastination can result in an oil burner not being serviced and inspected for two years - two and half by the time they come.  If I wait to hear back about the meeting room - we might lose it and have no where to meet next year.  If I had followed up on the eyeglasses sooner I would have glasses that do what I need them for (or a refund) instead of a unneeded spare pair and having to spend more to get yet another pair.  And if I had called the medical insurance right away I would not be going back and having to explain the problem, as I am sure it has been forgotten by now as they are so busy at the pharmacy.