ITS THE LITTLE THINGS.... CONTINUED

 Here's another example - 

I had renewed our reenacting unit's insurance - did the paperwork, paid for it and paid dues to a group that unit has to belong to get the insurance.  I was done for the year!

Or was I?  

A couple of weeks ago I realized I had not received the "Certificate of Insurance" which proves we have coverage and what the coverage is.  So, I sent an email to the insurance agent and he emailed back the certificates to me.  We get a certificate for our unit to prove we have the insurance from them and 3 more certificates as 3 different venues require us to have them added to our policy (in case something happens due to us) and we have to send them their certificates (I keep a copy of each).  I mailed out two of these certificates to places where we are actually doing events.  The third place I do not mail their certificate until just before the event or they lose it, so I did not mail that one.  Done with mailing the certificates out until the fall.  Check it off my list - take a breath.

The certificates had the wrong expiration date on them!  The policy expired two months before it started according to the certificates!!   New ones emailed to me with the correct dates on them and a big apology and I received them over the weekend.  I printed out the two which have to go out right away with a cover letter explaining why they were getting a second certificate and I put the envelopes in my outgoing mail basket to go out next Sunday night when we again go out and post outgoing mail.

Well, there is an event this coming weekend and the venue contacted our president - did we get a new certificate for this year?  He contacted my husband.  I explained to husband that it had been mailed to them, but was wrong and corrected one being mailed out with the mail to go out Sunday.  He scanned it into the computer and emailed it to them and we went out late tonight and posted our outgoing mail to date so they would have it sooner (hopefully before the event) - extra trip out and time spent.

 AND - we mailed in the renewal of our van's registration over a month ago and have not received the registration yet - we realized this last weekend. I checked with our bank's computer and the check had not cleared the bank. So Monday I telephoned the DMV, the hold was not as long as I thought it would be.  Now what is strange is a month before we mailed this registration renewal in, we mailed in the renewal of the registration of our RV - which is basically also a van -that came in 2 weeks.  The automated message said that they could not help with registrations mailed in less than 4 weeks ago. Since it was more than 4 weeks I waited put through the computer system to find out what was going on.  Nice woman came on and told me that it had been "processed".  If it was process why hadn't the check cleared our bank?  She did not know.  It was processed on June 21, I should call back if I do not have it 14 days.  I pointed out to her that the registration would expire before then - what should I do if it is not here before the expiration date - can we drive the van - NO!!  So we are waiting to hopefully receive the registration - at least the check is finally clearing the bank as of today.  If we don't get the registration before it expires, hopefully our car will not have problems and we won't need to drive the van.

I then had to call our medical insurance as one of my prescriptions was turned down - as past  6 months, need to go to back to the doctor for new prescription?  Huh, never had this problem before for self or husband - and why did all of other prescriptions go through.  Found out doctor had written the prescription for too long a time and I have to call him to fix it - why did they give the first renewal?  Our state passed a terrible law some years ago.  In an effort to stop the theft of prescription pads, all prescriptions must go directly through a computer system.  In the old days we would get the prescription, make sure they were correct and take whichever ones we needed filled right away to the pharmacy.  Now we have no idea if they are correct and if we don't need a medication renewed as we have, still get it anyway - if it is one of the expensive ones, we tell them to put it back and we call when needed - more work for pharmacy staff and time wasted picking up prescriptions. 

We need to go food shopping and plan to do so tomorrow. So in addition to writing to all of you nice readers and doing our laundry I took inventory of what food we have and what we need.  How nice to do something normal - we may even go out lunch at Wendys first - our third time doing so since mid March 2020. 

 THOUGHT OF THE WEEK - Is it the pandemic which is making everything weird and resulting in all of these stupid small problems one after another after another after...?

Are any of you finding you are having this same problem of one stupidity after another?

 

    

COVID 19 #28 FOOD SHOPPING

 Another week gone by  - and I am a day late, my apologies.  

We went on one of our Covid food shopping sprees yesterday.  The shopping took about 3 hours and then wiping down and storing the items another couple of hours when we got home.  We last went food shopping in mid January on a similar adventure.  We have been doing our food shopping trips to a Walmart Neighborhood Market.  The Walmart stores around here are much smaller than elsewhere and have only small food departments not the large supermarkets that Walmarts have in other area.  Walmart has among their other chains, one called Neighbor Market.  These stores are supermarkets and pharmacies and what is normally carried in stores such as this – not the big assortment of items carried in their regular stores.  This particular Neighborhood Market is their highest grossing in the US and has been turned into a “retail lab” to find out why – I could tell them why without all the work of making it someplace I really don't want to go, it is the only Walmart supermarket in the bi-county area! The Neighborhood Market is 2 miles along the road from the local regular Walmart near us (where we get our prescriptions) – so it is sort of an add on to the local regular Walmart.   We did fill in bread and some items once or twice between January and now at our local Walmart when we went to renew prescriptions or needed something right away.  

When we started doing these food runs last May (2020)we were not as organized as we thought and yesterday's trip was actually the most organized and relaxed of all our shopping trips since we started staying at home last March (2020).  I am guessing that I have written about our first trip – by the time we were done shopping husband felt so bad that he had to wait in the car for me while I checked out – we later figured out it was due to his blood sugar having fallen from the (negative) excitement, his panic, and the sheer amount of running around we had done.  

After our third shopping trip I figured out that what we needed to do was to make TWO shopping trips at the same time.  First we go into the store and buy all the items we need which do not have be kept cold – canned and jarred foods, boxed foods, bagged foods, cleaning supplies, OTC medications, soap if we need, any office supplies and such.  We then check out and bag all the items – we have to bring our bags or buy paper bags from the store due to a change in law which went into effect in the middle of the pandemic and the paper bags they have are small.  I bring A LOT of bags and pre double bag them.  We take the bags out to our car, in this case our van as our car is in for service for over a month as they cannot figure out what is wrong, and our van is better for this anyway as it holds a lot more.  We then locked the van and took our cart and more bags back into the store.  We then bought all of the cold items – refrigerated, meats, and frozen items and then checked out again.  We even remembered to use 2 coupons for several dollars each – sent to us by a manufacturer due to a problem with a product a few months ago.  By the time we were done we had 16 double bagged bags plus 2 (not really) “gallon” pails of ice cream.  Amazingly we were not exhausted and not yelling at either as we have been on these food runs in the past.  Two good is that I drink as little water as possible with lunch as I don't want to have to visit the ladies room in a store right now and – husband finally realized this – he has to eat enough for lunch before we go to have enough glucose in system for his blood sugar not to fall while we are out.  We also go around 2 pm so the stores have smaller crowds in them – people working, children coming home from school etc then – easier to move around and almost no line checking out – plus not as many people means more space between us and them right now.

When we come home we wipe down most items with alcohol on paper towel.  I say most items as some items are double packaged – such as dry cereal in a bag in a box or fruit bars which are individually packed in a box – with these items we open the outside packaging and dump out the inner packages instead of wiping down the outer package and toss the outer packages right away.  It is an exhausting process and I came up a way to make it a little less.  Since I don't have to worry about canned and jarred goods being out as they will not attract bugs or other vermin, I leave the cans and jars in their bags and set aside the bags until later in the evening.

This entire process took us about 5- 6 hours this week not including later wiping down and storing the cans/bottles.  But we won't need to food shop again, other than some fill ins for about 2 months.  Why do we do this?  Well, we don't want to go out more often than we need to.  Hopefully by the time we need to do a full shopping trip again – it will be safer for us to do so, especially as we should get our second vaccinations next week.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

How organized are your shopping trips, especially now?  Do you buy only items which are needed (to be honest we were doing that  before “stay at home” came into being and I did not like it)?   Do you plan ahead to make sure that you don't run out of things?  Do you make a list as you run low on food and related items so you will know what you need.  (Since we started doing these food runs I actually inventory everything we have and make a list in computer spreadsheet than sit with husband to decide what and how much we need to buy of items – also since stay at home, I sort the list by, more or less, which aisle in the store the items we need are in – and print out the list of what we need to buy and take it with us.)

A TRIP NOT TO THE PARK - SNOW, SNOW, SNOW

 Well, as of now all of the Christmas decorations are not only down- but stored away.  

We were lucky and the snow storm which was to come through on Tuesday (yesterday) was just rain which ended in the early morning – and the temperature went up into the 50Fs!  What a pleasant day!

Husband was upset, as usual, about the storm due to come in tomorrow (Thursday) – very upset.  I looked out and the saw the sun, felt the (relative) warmth and suggested to cheer him up - “Let's go walk around in the park.”  He was concerned that the snow from prior storms might not have been cleared or that the park might be soaked and did not want to go.  I suggested as an alternative we take a drive.  He thought about and agreed.  We got our “going out bag” - holds masks, bag for mask, hand sanitizer, plastic gloves, plastic sandwich bags (as alternative to gloves for me), and spray bottle of alcohol and started out.  

We drove to a different, nearer park and all looked well cleared.  BUT whenever we had to stop – at red light or otherwise – the car was surging – he would need to shift the automatic transmission into neutral to stop it.  So home we went – now very upset, so much for a nice day out.  This is apparently the sort of problem which is either a US$200 repair for a switch or thousands for a new transmission.

We have a driveway which is shaped like an “h”.  We keep the car at the foot of the long side of the “h”  (RV at top part) and our van on the grass, well really dirt, all the grass died, between the bottom legs of the “h”.  All extremely organized, this way either car or van can be driven out – if the van is being driven before we go out the car is put on the curve of the “h” so we can the van back in place.  He was concerned that if the car did not drive next time, we would be stuck and not able to get the van back in place – so we decided to switch the two on the driveway.  First he paced out that the wheels of the car would be on the bricks that the van's wheels are on – yes, they matched okay.  Then he drove the van off the driveway and parked in the street in front of a neighbor.  Then he had me get in the car to drive it so he could direct me.  I am actually the better driver – no, really, he would say so even more than I do, but I have not really driven the car since the first Wednesday of last March.  I have driven a couple/few times to or from our mechanic who is 4 blocks away, when we have needed to take one of our vehicles to him and it was too cold or wet to walk home (if going there or walk there if picking up), but that's it.  I did fairly well with the driving, but did not end up on the bricks.  We did not figure into this that the ground had melted after being frozen and wall sheer mud.  In going back and forth to get the tires on the bricks – I was getting stuck in the mud and the tires were throwing mud up.  When husband asked me to open the passenger door so he could talk to me – well, I had forgotten how to do so!!  I did open that window and by the time he asked again, I had found the button on the dashboard (I could have sworn it was the door near the armrest – that must have been our last car).  He had to shovel the mud around so that there were not deep cuts in it when it freezes back.  He then had to go and drive the van onto our driveway – which involved driving it to the next street and back.  We will take the car in for it to be looked at next week – after the ground freezes again!

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Apparently we are in time where anything that can go wrong - will do so.  Try to figure out what can happen and what you can do if does.  Hopefully your problems, like ours, while perhaps terribly annoying (and possibly expensive) will not of the type which threatens health or life or financial security.  We have to learn to “roll with it” as much as we can.  

I hope all and theirs are stay well and survive this winter weather – especially those in areas such as Texas which are not used to winters like this.

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. 

RV, VAN AND OLD PAPERS

Another week, another post.  Mom had 2 surgeries within a week and is now back in her apartment at the assisted living facility.  We will taking her Friday back to the doctor who changed her pacemaker for a checkup and I have to make an appointment for same with the doctor who did her cancer surgery as well as with the one involved with her leg scan as it still has not has been discussed with her.  We did squeeze in appointments with our doctor for us last week – dealing with mom, we had forgotten to make same until the doctor refused to renew our prescriptions because we were so late in doing so. 

Friday we drove to Pennsylvania and picked up our RV – the batteries are working and the entire electrical system was checked and was fine.  Husband is concerned about driving such a distance alone (as I probably mentioned when we had to drive it there) and also concerned about driving alone in the dark – the combination of the two, even more so.  We kept calculating when to go and what to do coming home.  We figured out that we had two choices – both involved trying to get the dealer as early as possible, having lunch at Wendys very quickly and starting home.  In one version we would immediately drive home, this way we would miss Philadelphia rush hour and hoping to avoid rush hour from NYC headed towards our home. The other version involved again leaving immediately after lunch to avoid the Philadelphia rush hour and driving to near the Golden Corral in New Jersey that I am sure I have mentioned before.  We would then go to some stores in that area to spend some time, then have dinner at the Golden Corral and then head home. With this version we should avoid the rush hour from NYC to home, but would be driving in the dark home from Golden Corral.  We figured we would decide after we picked the RV and while eating lunch.  The golden morning time to leave home and head off Long Island for us seems to be 8:30 am – we are following at the end of rush hour and are before the construction work on two of the major roads starts.  We we were out at 8:20 -since we were driving only our van, we did not have to waste time backing the RV out of the driveway (a process that involves walkie talkies and me standing in the middle of a 4 lane road road that has traffic that all speeds – which is why it a problem to begin with.)  We had figured we would get to the dealer between noon and 1 pm.  We got there just after 11 am.  We picked up the RV - “schmoozed” a bit, gassed up the RV and the van for the trip back, spent about 15 minutes having lunch and started home – confident that we would miss the rush hour traffic at both cities.  We did fine in PA – no traffic, NJ not bad almost no traffic.  One very quick stop at a rest area for me to use the facilities – so fast, I left my cell phone in the RV and husband waited out there so we did not have to shut everything did – I ran literally both ways and we were off again.  Then we hit Staten Island  (NYC) and there was traffic, but it was not bad – 15 minute part of the trip maybe was 25 minutes.  We then crossed the bridge to Long Island.  The limited access roadway we have to taken home was BAD.  How bad?  The signs on the bridge said not to exit to it, to exit to a local street that allows later connection to the roadway – which we take anyway.  It took us 2.5 hours to the dealer – it took us 5 hours home – and that was with arriving in NYC at 3 pm.  Another day of our lives – gone.

But the RV is home and working properly again – so all is well – right?  Driving home husband found that the brakes were squealing so today they were at our mechanic again.  He said they were okay to use – a problem sometime down the road as there is rust. 

Wait a second, have to run to the basement to switch laundry loads and check the heat in the PackTite.

Back.  Normally I have a load of clothes, a load of towels, and a load of bed linens each week with a load of jeans every few weeks.  With all this going on, I have not changed the bedding in a couple of weeks – no time to do so and saves a wash load (yes, I think ewwww also, but it will done soon).  This week I have a load clothes, a load of sweatshirts and nightgown – I bought 3 new ones and have worn a few of them and they don't fit in the general clothes load, a load of towels, and a load of jeans.  I also have a load of white reenactment clothing (much “small clothes” - undergarments, all of which are white) from our last couple of events and a second load of the rest of our outfits – next time we will need them is December and I want them clean so I don't have to run at the minute to wash them – some of the pieces need ironing also.  Just put the general clothes load into the dryer and the sweatshirt load into the washer. 


At the same time I have been going through the bags of stuff from the family home.  Being a crazy person who had bed bugs. I fill (lightly) our PackTite heater with some of the stuff and heat at it night – mixed with whatever fabric or paper items we have in addition to be heated.  Then the next afternoon I go through the stuff from the house after putting away the stuff from our house that was added in.  Today I went through the papers from our wedding – 40 years ago.  All of the response cards & envelopes – shredded, set up invitation with all the papers which were included and put it in the shoebox that I have as a “memory box” of the stuff I am finding and want to keep from all this, shredded the other invitations, tossed out the other response cards (no names, etc. on them), I kept the blank envelopes for the invitations – can always use larger envelopes, have set aside the unused response envelopes they do have my parents and name and address, but I will see if labels will cover same and decide if we are keeping them or they are being shred, shredded the receipt for the wedding (what a waste of $8,000 – I was right, we should have just gotten married & not bothered with a wedding), and shredded the seating charts and other papers.  I kept the box that it was all in.  Good box.  Apparently there is much more than my stuff in what my sister set aside for me – work papers of my dad's and other financial stuff.  I have a found a certificate given to my other sister when she graduated from high school (she is 55 now).  I scanned it, emailed it to her and asked if she wanted the certificate or what.  I found old bank statements and similar of mom's and even some of dad's (he died in the mid 1990's).  I found a dividend check for $4.50 that was never cashed – I will see if it can cheaply somehow be replaced – but 1994 was a long time ago.  More to do tomorrow after the current load is heated – this load also has some yarn husband bought for weaving project to sell and a new sweatshirt that I bought  - both today. 

At least every year I go through the papers from 10 years before and get rid of almost all of them – 25 years is a long time to keep bank statements and a check.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

So progress is being made on the stuff from mom's house. I am trying to keep up on household chores – dishes washed after dinner and after night snack (only meals we eat home).  Obviously laundry being done.  Towels changed and into the laundry.  (If only I did not hate changing the bedding and folding same after it is washed even more than more than cleaning toilet bowls – I figured it out – my arms are too short to deal with sheets easily.)

Any suggestions for my family and me about dealing with all of the stuff from the house?

DEEPER AND DEEPER

It just keeps going wrong.

MOM -

We took mom to have the leg scan – again – at the same doctor's office this past Saturday.  She had a 1 pm appointment and was suppose to be there 15 minutes before.  Husband was concerned about parking as it has been a problem when we have gone during the week and we figured that Saturday would be even more crowded.  There is free valet parking – but we don't valet park our cars so that would be of no help. 

During the week before this appointment we had taken mom to the doctor who will change her pacemaker for a presurgery check.  She came up a bit anemic at same and the scheduling of her procedure for same was up in the air.  One thing that will help determine if they can do it is this scan.  We arrived at the doctor's office at 12:30 pm – we found the parking lot strangely mostly empty – this had us concerned.  Since there was room we got mom out of the car and into her wheelchair at the parking space and wheeled her towards the door which goes directly into the doctor's waiting room.  The room had minimal lights on, no one there, and looked completely closed.  Just to be sure I opened the door to the examining rooms and yelled in “hello?”.  No answer.  The other side of the waiting is for a different doctor – it was just as dark.  The hall light to the rest of the building was on.  I started to panic – I had in my appointment book to pick mom up at 11:45 to get her there on time – was that a mistake?  Were we suppose to be there at 11:45?  There is another door into the building which has a desk and I said I would go there – husband suggested that walking out and then back into the building was a shorter route, so I left him with mom and did so. 

When I went in the other door there was a desk with what appeared to be a female receptionist and there was a man in a security guard's uniform.    I explained to the woman  - she stared at me and pointed towards the security guard.  I went to his side of the desk and repeated my story – though he should have heard it the first time.  He told me that no one was there – most offices closed by 1 pm and the doctor mom is seeing closes at noon so he had no idea of why we had a 1 pm appointment.  He also 31 B.  I asked what that meant.  He told me to go up the hall to room 31 B and ask there.  I went to same and told the man behind a reception desk there the same story.  He knew nothing either.  (This is a building run by a hospital group – and all the doctors in are involved with same.)  I headed back to mom and husband to say that we were leaving.

When I got back to them husband told me that a patient had walked through, seen them, told him to sign my mother in and someone will come.  He did so.  He had as much trouble with sign in computer tablet as I had at past visits and he had told me that I was crazy that I had problems.  We waited.  Husband saw movement in the offices on the other side of the waiting room, opened the door and yelled in.  A woman came out.  We explained.  She was confused as to why we would have an appointment at this time – I showed her the page we had been given and she took it, went away, and came back and said that the tech would come shortly for us.  Ah, at least someone was there to do the scan.  Nice man came and took us – I was able to stay with mom – and did the scan.  This surprised me – the office staff had told me that the woman who does the scan is only there Wednesday and some Saturdays – and he was not definitively not a woman. 

We then all went out for lunch at Wendys.

I then heard from my sister – after we had taken mom back to her apartment – about the anemia and the procedure might or might not be done this week.  I later heard from my sister again that there was a “Catch 22”  over mom's procedure.  Since she was anemic the (good) doctor could not do the procedure unless he knew why she was anemic.  To do this he needed to have endoscopy and another similar procedure done.  The doctor who would do same would not so unless the doctor who wanted them signed off that it was safe to do – which he could not do without seeing the results of the procedures. 

Mom has now been in the hospital for 5 days with tests being done and hopefully she will have the pacemaker changed sometime this coming week. 


HUSBAND - 

We assembled his new loom and warped it (put on the long threads to weave through).  He has been using it on a small table he bought for same.  He decided that he needs a stand for the loom so he can access the underside of it for some of the things he needs to do.  The loom cost US$145, the stand that is made for it costs US$100.  You can see why he did not buy the stand.  He decided he will make a stand – he is also an accomplished woodworker with a comprehensive workshop in our detached garage.  We went out yesterday (Tuesday) to buy the stuff to make the stand – but we had gone in our car and he decided that the wood he needed would not fit in the car.  So today we went back in our van to buy the wood.  It was raining and while he paid for the wood I got the car and drove it under the overhang to keep the wood dry. 

When we arrived home and went to put the wood in the detached garage, husband went into the house for the extra key ring he has (and I have one also) with the keys to the garage and our sheds so that we don't have carry them all the time.  He then put the wood in large garbage bags to keep them dry.  When he got to the garage – the out buildings key ring was missing.  I ran in and got mine and we put the wood away.  We then spent about 20 minutes looking for the missing keys – he was getting sicker and sicker.

VAN -

As I drove up  at the store to pick up him and the lumber he heard terrible sounds coming from the van.  As we drove home I telephoned our mechanic – who is no longer surprised when I make these calls – we go there for repairs on one or another of the vehicles seemingly weekly lately.  When he could not find the keys husband was getting more and more upset and excited – as he knew we had to get to the mechanic before he closed.  I finally convinced him to drop off the van and then come home and look more.  We told the mechanic if he found the keys to let us know.

HUSBAND – AGAIN -

 We kept looking at home.  To me, the keys to our house were not included so we would find the keys or we would replace the locks.  He envisioned someone finding the keys and going into the garage and taking all of his large power tools and taking the mowers and the snow blower, etc. from the sheds.  I tried to convince that we would notice someone emptying the garage of major power tools – and with a car in front of the garage it would hard, but he was too upset.  We checked everywhere in the house – I even took all of the dirty laundry out of the laundry bag.  He finally got himself so sick – he had to go to bed. 

I kept looking, sure that I would find them and make him feel better.  I went back outside – something he does not like me to do without telling him and I did not.  I looked around  - kicked the piles of leaves again, etc.  I was heading to where the van had been parked, figuring now that it was clear there, I might find the keys there.  I had put on an old pair of slip on sneakers.  As I walked towards where the van had been parked I stepped on something.  I was about to keep walking, when it dawned on me to see what I had stepped on – there they were – THE KEYS.  By this time he was too sick to appreciate them, but was happy that they were found.  We had a small dinner and then he went back up to sleep.

VAN – AGAIN -

 In the interim our mechanic called.  Problem is what he feared it might be – need a new catalytic converter - $1400!  I told him to go ahead.  I have not told husband yet and will do so tomorrow morning.  That will get him sick all over again. 

FINANCES -

We are missing 4 credit union statements (from same credit union).  Our credit union (functions as a member owned bank for those who might not know) decided to change their name and theme – to ones that are awful is as is the “puke green” (per my husband) that will be their logo color from now on.  The account statements went out late – even though they did not change.  We receive one each as a member, one each for our retirement accounts, and I receive one for my embroidery group as treasurer of same.  4 of them go to our PO Box – we had changed all 5 to same, but one was changed back to our home address.  We changed the address to our PO Box as we have been having, ironically, problems with delivery of mail at our home.  We received the statement which comes to the house, we have not received the others.  I have been calling and screaming at credit union employees about this.

Last night I was paying bills and noticed on my computer accounting software that we had a credit card that we should have a statement for – that should have gone out 3 days before to be paid a week in advance, but I had no statement.  I looked and looked.  I checked that I had not paid it and forgotten.  I then looked and the charge slips that match to it were never matched up – so we never received it.  I telephoned the charge card company, reported the lost statement, got the balance due (in full) and the mailing address and paid the bill with a letter – they will send a copy of the statement.  When I saw the date the statement had been mailed it hit me that the statement and the missing credit union statements should have come to us about the same time.  I wrote up the info to speak to someone at the post office when we went there today – it was pouring and I left the letter in the car, so I will do so tomorrow.  If I did not keep my bills to pay organized, I never would have noticed this.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

This has to stop sometime – right? 

The house is getting more and more disorganized. 

Things are started to get lost.

MOM AND MY FAMILY HOME

We are currently dealing with mom and two cardiologists. For those of you who joined since or have forgotten, mom is 90. Shortly after her 90^th birthday she started having problems (http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2019/05/sometimes-fate-is-having-fun-with-one.html) and can no longer live at home alone. She went through short term physical rehab at a very nice local facility and since then has moved into their assisted living facility. While they do a great job of helping her and taking care of her – mostly she gets around by herself - they have been doing physical therapy and she can walk with a walker better than she has done in years - and she is back in her full mind again from just the fact of having people around her and things to keep her mind active.

Back in August it was found that she blood clots in her legs and she was given medication. She was also referred to my brother-on-law's cardiologist who is also a vein doctor for followup scan about a week after the clots were discovered. I posted the story of that nightmare - wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2019/08/29 Her leg was not scanned. We ended up going back not the 3 weeks later that this doctor wanted, but instead on October 7 as it took until then to get an appointment. The scan was not done then either as the appointment was made by a third party appointment service for someone who does not do scans – understand we drove out to where mom is, got her into the car, took her to the doctor's office and had her medical history taken – and nothing else – TWICE (and of course her medical insurance was billed for 2 office visits). When we left the second time we made an appointment for the scan – for this coming Saturday (remember this is about 2 months after we were told that she needed to have her legs scanned right away and then a week later when her leg was not scanned - we were told it needed to be done in 3 weeks). Despite everything we had been told, the doctor does not do the scan, so after it is done we will first have to return on November for the doctor to interpret the scan.

Next problem – mom has a pacemaker. It was put in 10 years ago. The battery in it is tested every few months and the last test was at the start of October and we were told that the battery had less than 2 months left on it. Soooo, the replacement of the pacemaker was moved into priority. This came up shortly before the second time mom did not have the leg scan and we asked that cardiologist's office (per the doctor – they only do heart “plumbing” and we need someone who does heart “electricity” for this) for a cardiologist who would do this procedure as mom's doctor for same is an hour away where our family home is. We were upset that this doctor would have the same sort of circus for an office as the other, but it is quite the opposite. Mom was seen by this doctor (M) a week after she had been in the other doctor (B)'s office. Yes, she needs to have her pacemaker replaced. I was telephoned the next morning with two appointments – a week later (yesterday) for presurgery exam at hospital and next week she will have the procedure. 2½ weeks and this will be done – the other doctor 21/2 months and still nothing has been done!

In the middle of running with mom (plus all the car problems) I realized that I had to renew one of husband's medications and called the pharmacy. The doctor refused to renew it without an exam. We really cannot fit in a doctor visit for us right now – mom's pacemaker does take precedence, so I telephoned and explained and made appointments for us the first week in November. Ummm, I missed that we are going for blood work in the morning of the day mom is scheduled to have her scans read – and it is election day! Well, we work it out somehow. Doctor renewed prescription for 10 days – when we were not due in for 3 weeks – but we had enough left to work it out.

Then it occurred to me that the scan of her legs would be done between the presurgery testing and the surgery – telephoned the doctor doing the surgery to make sure that this would not be a problem – we did not want to give up the appointment that would, hopefully, finally resolve her leg scans, but the pacemaker is more of an emergency. It is not a problem.

My sister will get mom to the hospital for the pacemaker surgery as it is 9 am. We figured out that between allowing for rush hour traffic (as we do not live near where mom is) and then the hour and a half we need to pick her up, get her in the car, drive her the 20 minute trip (and again – it is rush hour, so need more time) and then get her into the hospital – at 8:30 – would mean that we would have to leave home at 5:30 am. My sister lives near mom and the hospital.

Okay, so 4 doctor appointments for mom, 2 doctor appointments for each of us, I have to go to a client tomorrow, my birthday falls in the middle of all this which is all within a month – and at some point we will be called to go pick up our RV out of state. We also had reenactment event, board meeting, and general meeting – which husband as VP had to run and we had signed up to do a presentation for the meeting – over the past weekend. And on the day between our blood work appointments and our doctor appointments I have my embroidery guild meeting.

That's a lot of stuff – well, we can go for weeks with nothing to do, so it is a lot of stuff for us to do. But that it is not all. We - mostly my sisters - have been working on getting stuff out of the family home so it can be sold. http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2019/08/clearing-out-my-old-closet-at-family.html A tag sale company is will hold a sale in the house this coming weekend. My sister had set aside of box of stuff she came across of my stuff. Since the sale starts Friday and I have to work tomorrow – we had to go today and get the stuff. I had hoped it was one or more of the items I told her I wanted – a tablecloth I embroidered in high school which has disappeared and a small book about our family in the old country. I expected a small, office size file box. There was a huge box waiting for me. Some was not mine and I left them for the sale, some we tossed out, most of it I don't really want, but much of it had my name or other info on it and I took it home to shred it. I also now have an embroidery that I made for one of my parents special anniversaries for them.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

I was about to write the thought of the week I was going to write about with all this going on I have kept up – I am doing the laundry, the vehicles are taken of…

Then I remembered – we checked the oil in the car today (it has a problem, there is a class action suit, and we hope it will recalled and fixed) and it was down ½ quart – and we forgot to add oil. Normally it would not matter and I make note to add the oil tomorrow, but tomorrow I am driving to almost Manhattan for work and will be driving in stop and go traffic, at least one way. So I texted husband upstairs (yes, I am that lazy) and he came down and we added the oil – in the dark.

Then I remembered – that it had been raining Sunday when we arrived home from the reenactment event and we had not unpacked the van – we had brought 2 folding reproduction stools, only one of our box benches, a flat table top, the legs to the table and a twin sized blanket (it was cold I used it to keep warm until the sun warmed up the air a bit – and then when it rained, it kept me dry.) Husband will be driving the van tomorrow as I will have the car – so we had to unpack the van.

What more can I say for the thought of the week than – it is life, it goes on, one has to do what one can do, when one can do it.

CAR - VAN - RV

Well we made it last Thursday to the RV dealer in PA – left at 8:30 am, arrived at noon – should have been 2 ½ hours was 3 ½.  We were able to keep in sight of each other almost the entire trip – which kept husband happy.  He was worried about traveling alone and we could not find anyone to go with him – the night before I had an idea (after he went to bed).  I took 2 of the smaller stuffed teddy bears I have (under 6 inches tall), put them in a small box and sat the box on the passenger seat of our van which he was driving to the dealer (so we could come home after we left the RV) and seat belted the box in place – if he felt alone he could just glance down at them – don't laugh, it worked.  We did have walkie talkies with us – which worked except for one spot that had static – so we could talk enroute.  I was in front in our RV so he could see me ahead of him and I could also let him know what was happening on the road ahead.  When we did this before (we had to drive the car and the RV both home from buying the RV)  we would meet up at each rest area on the 2 turnpikes we drove on.  This time there was only one of them available to us due to construction and closing of a rest area.  As we approached it – he was maybe 2 -3 cars behind me – I told him that while we did not meet up, I did need to make a stop.  No problem finding the RV dealer for either of us, which was good as they just got a new location for their service center.  We left the RV and left in the van. 

The RV dealer sales office was on one side of a road and the service center on the other.  There is a shopping center a block from the dealer where we have spent many a day while having work done on the RV and were worried that with the new location we would not be able to do so.  (Normally we just go in the RV and walk around the stores while they work on it, get the RV back and drive home or to Lancaster for a trip.)  As we drove to the shopping center, we looked – it is less than half a mile further away and there is a safe place to walk the entire distance – sigh of relief.  We went to the stores for lunch before starting home.  Since it was only around 12:30 it was a bit early for us – who normally eat lunch at 2 pm, so we went to a small dollar store located in the shopping center.  For some reason this dollar store always seems to have different things than other ones – found a small toy bear for the village.  Lunch at Wendys.  We then decided to visit a supermarket that was “sort of” on the way back to the turnpike.  Then we started home.  Boy, the rush hour traffic near Philadelphia is worse than that at home.  We got home around 6:30 pm – ordered a pizza for dinner – something we rarely do as it is too high in carbs for our Diabetes.  Husband went to bed right after dinner.

We had the weekend to recover.

Over the weekend we drove our van as we were concerned about the car and NEEDED IT to take mom to the doctor – she has trouble in getting into the car – the van would be impossible.  Saturday night husband noticed the van was leaking “something”.  Sunday we figured it was antifreeze. 

Uh oh!! We needed the van to drop the car at the transmission shop Tuesday morning.  We could not cancel taking mom to the doctor – her battery is running out – what could we do.  Luckily our mechanic is 4 blocks from us and he – and his guys – are very nice and understanding.  Husband was up first thing Monday morning, called him and we left the van with him right away, luckily mom was a 4 pm doctor's appointment.  While at the doctor's office I called and the van was fixed, needed a new water pump, well $500 isn't $1,000 at least - we picked it up after we went home from mom's appointment and stopped in Tuesday to pay for it.

Monday we took mom to the doctor – this one is to change out her pacemaker for a new one – the battery had less than 2 months left on it when it was tested a week ago – and unlike cell phones and many other devices, there is no way to plug it in and recharge it.  This doctor is from the hospital system with an office at the hospital itself, and we anticipated the same mess and confusion.  We were happily surprised that it was not so.  Mom was in the exam room just about the time of her appointment.  They scanned into their computer the papers my mom and sister had filled in, which had been mailed to her in advance and handed the originals back to me.  Doctor came in promptly – had a good, gentle personality.  He agreed that she needed a new pacemaker (they do not change out the batteries).  He also knew the doctor who had done the original procedure on mom 10 years ago.  We were called the next morning as we had been told we would be to set up the appointments for the procedure (exam and surgery).  We will take her for the exam – between driving out there in rush hour and needing about an hour and a half to get mom out and to a place 20 minutes from her we cannot get up early enough to get there for the surgery and my sister who lives near her will take her and we will meet her.  Drove mom back – I had arranged for her to sandwich in room as she missed dinner (does anyone eat dinner at 4:45pm?) and we settled her back into room after going to the wellness office to let them what we did and what they should expect to be asked for from the doctor's office.

Dropped the car at the transmission place Tuesday morning.  They could not find anything wrong – it is a little off, but not such that it can be fixed as it does not have “a code” yet.  So we have it back, but are concerned about driving it. 

So now it is Wednesday again.  I did manage to scan some magazine articles I pulled out years to keep.  I have not left anything undone that should have been done this past week.  Laundry is in washing – the timer is about to go off for me to switch loads… there it goes, be right back.

Back again.  I back up my computer each time I have a work session on same and then once a week I back it up onto another flash drive – monthly and quarterly on or about 15th of the following month I back up the computer again. I went to back it yesterday on the regular daily drive backup (alternate between two drives).  It would not do so.  I ended up copying my data drive over again new.  I tried to delete the old backup which would not update – but could not.  So I ended up copying everything else off that drive (flash/stick drive) to an external hard drive, then formatting the stick drive and then copying the data back to the stick drive – and we had terrible storms here that ended up with us losing our electricity mid copying back to the stick drive!  I had managed to back up the computer, data, calendar, and client data for last month and last quarter before I went back to getting the daily (B) drive back for use.  2 posts about how, why and when I back up my computer - http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2016/05/organizing-your-computer-data-to.html
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2016/06/organizing-computer-files.html

I think I also posted that husband is not as regular in backing up and this has led to problems – most recently when his hard drive died and then the new one did also.  (He has had a lot of problems with his computer lately – all involved with electricity, so we just bought and installed a new surge protector for his computer – hope that resolves it all. 

Oh, we were called by the nice lady in our RV service department – the new batteries we bought (elsewhere, our mistake, trying to travel not as far) for the RV are no good.  Having read about the scam artists that the place we had them installed in is – we are not sure if there was a problem with the batteries or we were given bad batteries on purpose so that we would come back and give them more money.   Our RV service department is seeing what they can do with the warranty on the batteries before we lay out another $1000 for new batteries again.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

As crazy as we both get – luckily generally not at the same time – everything works out somehow.  One or the other of us will keep our head and get the other one/both of us through the problem.  Husband figured out to drive mom to the doctor and take the car to have the transmission looked at the day after same instead of trying to squeeze it into last week and having the transmission place not getting it back to us in time.  I figured out to put the little bears in the car to keep him company. 

Let those around you help you when they can.  Don't go crazy – look for alternative ways to solve a problem that seems too big to deal with.

Back up your computer – soon!

WATCH THE PENNIES AND THE DOLLARS GROW

Yes, saving money involves being organized.  One thing that husband and I agreed on - very early in our dating - was that neither of us liked being in debt.  The day before we were married I paid for every one of my bills sitting waiting to be paid - including adding up the credit card slips and sending a check for same to the credit card company.  I never wanted husband to be able to say that I married him in debt.  (Well, technically I was in debt - my student loans were still being paid off by my parents and were not fully paid off until some time after we married - but he has been polite enough to never mention same.)

When I was a child - before age 5 - my parents started teaching me about money.  I got an allowance of something like a penny (US) a week.  Now, remember, both my parents were accountants.  My mom set up a “bank account” for me.  She drew up a little bank book (do they still exist now?).  When I received my allowance I could keep it and spend it (amazingly, one could actually buy things then with a penny) or I could deposit it in my bank account and save up for something.  If I “deposited” it in the “bank account” she would note in my bank book.  If I decided to buy something and needed money, I could withdraw it from my bank account and she would note it in my bank book.  Sounds crazy right?  Well it taught me to save and what saving could do.  (I don’t remember if she ever added interest to my account - I don’t think so.)  If I got a gift of money from a relative I could, again, keep it and spend it or “deposit” it.

 Over the decades the amount of my weekly allowance increased.  By the time I was in junior high school (around age 12) I was getting $3 per week.  My allowance was calculated so that I could buy lunch in school every day (50c per day), if I wanted to, from my allowance and I would still have money left over to spend.  Over time I saved up money and took my parents and my younger sister (second sister was still a baby) to see a Broadway play (tickets were a lot cheaper than - under $10 even for orchestra seats and I bought for the mezzanine). 

We have lived within our means since we married.  We found an apartment that we could afford.  At first we were spending most of our income.  As we went along I came up with an idea.  Husband received promotions at work - first director of his department and then director of the agency at which he worked.  With the first promotion I took half of the increase in his net salary and saved it - only using half of the net salary increase for spending.  Why?  Well, we had been living on the amount he (and I ) received before - the raise was extra money that we would not miss if we put it in savings.  I used the net amount (after taxes were deducted) as that amount was the extra money available to us.  I did for some time. 

Watch where you bank.  Different banks, savings & loan associations or credit unions can charge hugely different amounts for the same services.  A credit union functions just like a bank, only the depositors own it so fees are less.  The same financial institution that works for a friend or family member - might not be best for you and what is good for you now (or last year) might not be the best for you right now or in the future.  The credit unions I have been involved with locally require one to deposit $5 in a savings account and leave it there. One then gets a free checking account plus can make other deposits and withdrawals to the savings account.  Generally the interest rate on credit union accounts is higher than those on accounts at banks.


We eventually bought a house.  We bought one below what we could afford.  We put down a good sized down payment on the house  - much of it from my savings as a child.  We did not like the idea of having a mortgage and wanted it paid off as quickly as we could.  Instead of dividing the net salary increases in half after that, I would divide into thirds - one third to spend, one third to save and one third for extra mortgage payments.  We paid the mortgage off in half the time it was for - again since the money was new money, it was not missed by us as we had not had it to spend before. 

When we have bought cars - and we buy them, we do not lease them - we have mostly paid for them in full from savings. When we have had to take a loan - 3 times - for a car it was always for less than 25% of the price of the car.  We drive them, with two exceptions, until it no longer makes sense to repair them.  We have 23 year old van and a 10 year old car at the present time. 

We did buy our little RV.  It does have a loan on it.  I send an extra $100 at least 4 times a year to speed up the payments on it and cut the amount of interest we will have paid on it when it is paid off.

We have paid our credit card bills in full - with one exception - since either of us had a credit card.  No interest paid means money not needed for same and available to use.  I recently read an article and the person who wrote it said that one should always pay in cash for everything.  I wrote to them and pointed out that if items are put on credit cards one has a record of where their money went (and records for tax deductible items).  If they are paid in full, it costs nothing in interest or fees.  If one gets a credit card one can get one that pays a very small percentage back in cash - additional money to spend or save.  In our case we use several credit cards - each for a different purpose and depending on the card and what we buy we can get up to 5% back in the purchases. Does not sound like much?  We bought a fence for our house - we got 5% back on the price of the fence.  We put a car down payment on a credit card - paid the credit card in full and got 5% back on the down payment towards the car.  The one exception was decades ago.  Husband used to get his unused sick days paid off at the end of the year, which was August, so we used the money received in September for the sick days to pay for vacation (and the balance of what was received into savings).  One year there was a problem and the sick day pay was coming in October.  We discussed should we take money from savings to pay the vacation bills and then deposit the sick pay to replace what we took or should we pay the half of the credit card bill we could and then pay the balance in full the following month.  It was an odd time and the two interest rates were just about the same, so we went with paying half and then paying the bill in full the following month.

If one can get their bills in order, one can actually pay less and have money available for savings or needed items.  I was reminded this past weekend when the movie “I Remember Mama” was on TV that I actually started my thinking of dealing with money with when I read the book (actually named “Mama’s Bank Account) as a girl.  If you have never seen the movie or read the book - it is about a lower class Norwegian immigrant family in San Francisco in the early 1900s.  Every week the father brings home his wages (in cash which was how people were paid back then at all but professional/executive level) and gives it to his wife.  She sits there with paper and sorts the money “ for the grocer” she makes a pile and wraps it in paper, “for the landlord” ditto and so on. When there is a problem and money is needed for something special/different (such as the son going to high school - they will his potential wages and there will be costs) the mother says that they must figure out what to do so that they do not have to take money from her bank account.  I have gone with this idea of “piles.  I have moved money - in my computer accounts - to save for various things.  By subtracting the money before we have it on our regular savings account, it is not there to spend.  I had subaccounts in my Quickbooks - savings for next car, for vacation, etc. subtracted from the total amount of each paycheck and each time I did I heard in my head “for the grocer, for the landlord..”.  (Spoiler alert - at the end of the book/movie the daughter/author has received her first payment for writing and tells the mother to deposit it in the bank account and the mother admits that she has never been in a bank in her life - but that “it is not a good for children to worry”.)  Set aside money in advance for things that you want or need and you will not have to worry.  Start next time there is a raise if you want and set aside part of the net raise in a savings account (or even a jar) and it will become a habit.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

It is back to school time again.  If you need or know that you will need office supplies - now is the time to buy them.  Pens disappear all the time?  Buy them for around US$ for a dozen.  Will you need a memo book, notebook, ruler, file folders etc.  NOW is the time to buy them!