COVID 19 #22 STORING AND LISTING FOOD SO YOU CAN FIND IT IN THE FREEZER

 Last week I told you about our food shopping trip.  One thing I have to do at some point not too long after we go food shopping is write up new lists of what we have in the freezers so we use it all up and don't let anything go to waste by lack of memory.  

Everything that had to be was pushed into a freezer when we got home – other than a few items that were not frozen and could stay for a bit in the refrigerator, but needed to be frozen for longer time storage – such as fresh meat that will not be eaten for awhile.  I was not able when we got home to put a number of things in the freezer that makes more sense – meaning I try to keep packages that we pull out the items one or two at time in the upstairs freezer in the refrigerator – such as a package of hamburgers – so I have to run downstairs when we have same and pull out one burger for each of us – or just one for husband if I am eating something else.

Last Friday night I boiled the chicken we had bought.  Half of it was to be used for a Brunswick stew for Sunday night and the other half to be frozen for later use either in another of same or some other dish.  Since it takes quite awhile to cook the stew and the chicken meat has to cool down between being being cooked and being pulled off the bones for the stew, I often boil the chicken in advance so this is not unusual.  My plan was to make the actual stew Sunday afternoon.  I have to keep an eye on the stew while it is cooking so I also planned to do several chores downstairs at the same time so I would be nearby to check the stew and give it a stir every now and then.  

One of the things I planned to so was make new lists of what is in the freezers and see if I could switch anything around between the two so items I need to have in the kitchen are there and not down in the basement.  

I had cut a sheet of paper into 4 list shaped pieces across the width.  I used unused paper for this so there was nothing on the back of the lists to dirty the refrigerator door.  (I normally reuse paper that has been printed on and was an error, was something some website printed multiple pages when I only needed one part, and so forth- the back of the pages and often part of the front have no printing and it makes great scrap paper – full sheets or cut up.)

First I went to the basement to make a list for down there and see if I could juggle anything around to move some larger items (like second container of ice cream) to the basement freezer to have room in the upstairs freezer for the items I would prefer to keep up there for convenience.  This was not to be. I brought 2 pieces of the paper cut to make lists and a pencil – and a large towel that we have using to cover the kitchen table when we bring in new food items to let the alcohol they were rubbed with to kill any Covid 19 on the items.  I had to take things out of the freezer downstairs shelf by shelf to see what was there – there are 3 shelves and I put this on the floor so the food is not sitting on the floor itself.  I mark one list basement (or B) and “meat” on its top.  The second one is also marked on top for the basement and as “other”.  Technically not everything on the “meat” list is meat – it actually means main dish type item.  The “other” list is vegetables, bread, and so on that is not a main dish.  I rearranged the freezer so things fit it into better and listed the items on the papers.  

We have been buying what I call “frozen box meals” - by this I mean those meals intended for a family that are popped into the oven, cook an hour or so and are a main course and often also the vegetables and starch are mixed into the entree – examples of this is a prepared lasagna, turkey bake, and things such as small meatloaves or Salisbury steaks – these latter two need to have the side dishes cooked separately for them. We buy 2 each of a few kinds of each and have them Friday and Sunday nights when we used to go out for dinner in the normal days before the corona virus.  I stacked them so that the same dishes were together with the older ones on top of the newer ones so that when I take one – it is the older one.  

We have a few items which take up more room than they should for what they are.  Back in May husband ordered a 5 pound bag of frozen corn and a bag about the same size of french fries from BJs when we ordered from them.  I am maybe halfway through the bag of corn and it takes up a lot of room.  I just finally opened the bag of french fries – we also had 2 normal sized bags of french fries that we had to use up first before opening this one.  Add to that husband bought a bag of meatballs when we went to Walmart back in May and it was almost the size – and he does not like them.  So after one dinner from them, they were sitting in the freezer taking up space – possibly to do so long after the pandemic ends – so I decided I would eat them for dinner when he has something I do not particularly like.  Unfortunately one of the reasons he does not like them is that they have too much garlic.  So when I have them I have to go upstairs and rinse out my mouth with mouth wash after wards.  They are small meatballs and 6 are suppose to be a serving.  It will take at least a month and a half or longer to finish the bag, so last week I upped the serving size to 8 meatballs – every 3 weeks is one week less I will be eating them and one week faster that I get the space from them back in the freezer.  When these 3 items are finished and gone from the freezer and a normal bag of french fries and a normal size bag of corn are there instead the freezer will hold a lot more things.

As I am removing all these things from the freezer and rearranging them – periodically I run upstairs to check and stir the stew.

I then went upstairs and started on the freezer in the refrigerator.  I took out most of the items on the bottom shelf and put them on the kitchen table.  These 2 lists were the labeled the same way as downstairs except they were labeled as “upstairs” instead of “basement”.  I rearranged the items in this freezer as I listed them and then put them back.  Up here are things like leftover gravies and cranberry sauce. (Did you know can freeze these things?  We only use half a can of gravy and I froze ¾ of the can of cranberry sauce in ¼ of the can size in small plastic containers (pudding sized) when I opened the can and we had the first ¼ can with sliced (deli type) turkey.  Also on this shelf is frozen bread (none yet from this purchase) and frozen hot dog and hamburger rolls so they last longer as we are shopping much less often than normal.  I then took out the items on the top shelf and did the same.  Our top shelf is a lot taller than our bottom one and I had bought a good sized plastic “basket” that I put small items into to keep them together and also stand up bags in so it is easier to see them and I can take out the entire “basket” to check what it is in it.  I have frozen eggs in this basket, as well as frozen meats in portions to use.  Husband had ordered from BJs back in May 3 boxes of eggs (3 pounds) but they did not have them and he accepted a 5 pound restaurant pack of eggs instead.  We don't eat eggs early (or breakfast) and needed them to cook things.  We had worked our way through one of the two layers when the good by date came up and we froze the rest.  To freeze an egg one has to crack it open and mix the yolk and white so that the yolk is not intact.  (If left in the shell or the yolk intact they will expand too much and break the shell and/or the yolk.)  In the old days when I did this with maybe four or five eggs I would put them in plastic, lidded pudding cups – but I did not have dozens of cups.  I put a plastic sandwich in each of 5 cups at a time and put in some cups one egg and others two eggs – if we do eat eggs – a bag of 2 is used for each, if we need 3 (say for a cake mix) take a bag of two and a bag of one or 1 for something we take – we take a bag of one egg.  I have the 2 eggs in one plastic zip bag and the 1 eggs in another.  I list of all of the items up here the same way – main dishes on the
“upstairs meat” list and the rest on the “upstairs other” list.  To make dealing with and finding the frozen vegetables easier – when I open a bag of same I put the contents in a labeled quart zip bag which is labeled with the vegetable name and the date it is good until.  I reuse these bags when I use up the contents and change the good until date.  I have them – ready for this?  In alphabetical order in the lower shelf in the kitchen freezer door – easy to find.  

Having finished dealing with the freezers and listing their contents  (while stirring the stew in between) I put all of the lists on the refrigerator door with magnets (no point to having the downstairs freezer list downstairs – then I would have to go downstairs to see what I have – if all the lists are upstairs it I can see everything while upstairs.

These lists would not work as well when we are shopping normally – they would have to updated instead of replaced  - they work now being replaced as there are major changes each time due to the length of time between shopping trips.  

Since the stew was still not finished (it cooks a LONG time), I then stored away my July Lucy and Me  figurines from the living room and put my September ones – the August ones never went out.  Again, I was close to the kitchen to keep checking the stew.  

When the stew was almost finished I made some biscuits from refrigerated biscuit dough (this is not the same as the frozen biscuits, although the same brand) to go with the stew.  Freezer contents listed, frozen food arranged a bit better and easier to use, Lucy and Me bears out for the month and dinner cooked – all at the same time.  A good day of organizing and a bit fun in changing the bears.

THOUGHTS OF THE WEEK -

1 – If you have do something to do that takes awhile, but must be watched – see if there are other things you can do in the same or nearby physical location so time waiting to stir or check on the pot is not wasted.

2 – List what you have in your freezer (and for some people – also what is in your refrigerator – so you know what you have.

COVID 19 #21 - FOOD SHOPPING DURING THE TIME OF CORONA

 We went shopping for food this past Monday.  We almost made it through August without a full food run – just a small run to our local supermarket for Diet Coke (first time we have bought since before the stay at home – we had been drinking it only a half glass with Saturday night dinner, and then only since the start of May.  We also bought some other items which are not sold at the Walmart Neighborhood Market at which we have done our food shopping.  

I have been using a ¼ strip of a page of paper on the refrigerator for a shopping list and then when we start to talk about going shopping I have been copying the list into a spreadsheet file.   I try to sort by where I think the items are located in the store as I don't want to take out my pen and to cross items we have found off of the list and want to avoid having to double back for missed items also. This trip I did two related things – I brought a pencil stub to write with (if I felt it should not come home, I could toss it out when we left the store) and I also used the back of the shopping list (and the pencil stub) to list generally the items in the food aisles, especially those we buy.  I realized my shopping list was pretty close to where the items were located anyway – I did have 2 aisles reversed in the list.  Next trip I will try to list what is in which aisle of the non-food items.  

Before we went I had started making a master list of items we buy or might buy in the supermarket to make sure that when making future lists I don't forget anything.  (List is mostly made by husband saying or my realizing that we just took the last of something or have few enough of the item left to last beyond a week or so or one of us saying something like - “hmmm, wouldn't it be nice to have “Brunswick stew” (or something else) for dinner – do we have what we need to make it?”  After I returned home I resorted the master list by which aisles I had found the items to be in.  The master list is in 3 columns (so more of it can be seen at time while making up the shopping list – in a 4th column) – food, cold food, and non-food.  By looking down the list as I make up our shopping list for the upcoming supermarket trip I can make sure I don't miss anything.  Maybe we will continue to shop for more than a day or two at time, like we used to in the old years when I did the food shopping alone while husband was still working outside the house, it does work very well.

We found most of the items we were looking for – I could swear that supermarkets carry Chinese hard noodles – maybe it is just this store that does not.  It took him 10 minutes to decide which “I think want different cookies this time” he wanted.  He likes nicer than white bread when he has a sandwich, so he bought an Italian loaf baked in the store and wanted to buy rye bread.  The rye bread is small compared to the white bread and the what we call – the store bread so he decided to buy 2 loaves.  (We bought 4 loaves of white bread, use one and part of one fresh and freeze the rest as the expiration date approaches.)  In normal years we maybe buy one loaf of white or store bread and maybe don't have any bread in the house for long periods of time.  He could not decide between the “hard” and the “soft” rye breads from the same company – I told him to buy one of each and then decide which he liked better for next time, we did.

I figured while we were shopping we should buy some ant traps – generally need them on and off.  We could not find the bug spray section.  I asked an employee – he pointed at a rack hanging from the end of an aisle.  None there – I mentioned this and he sent me to Aisle 16 – made sense to me that was dog food and stuff for the house – only another rack hanging from the end cap – guess there is not much of a calling for bug killer stuff in the supermarket?  When/if we go to a regular Walmart I will check there and buy same.  

And now – the big disorganization happens.  In the trips we have taken to this Walmart for groceries – about 3 or 4 times since the stay at home started – there have been no lines at checkout other than at self checkout. This time it seemed there were big lines at all of the registers – and the lines ran up the aisles and people were close together.  Husband picked a line.  I was concerned that it was a small number of items or less checkout and went up to check.  I then saw that where we normally check out seemed now to be empty.  I went and checked and it was – problem – not going to take out cell phone with gloves I have on and he won't check – so I had to run back to him and then back to stand at register while he figured out how to get there.  (Umm, go to back of store and up the big aisle that comes forward – this took a lot of thinking? And he walked there so slowly.)

The system he has developed for food shopping is he wear gloves and pushes the cart. I wear gloves and select the items and put them in the cart.  (To his mind this keeps the cart and food unvirused.)  So I have to take the items out of the cart and put them on the belt for the cashier.  (Before the pandemic we only did self-checkout, now we always go to a cashier.)  I put the heavier cold items first and then the lighter cold items, followed by the heavier not cold items and finally the lighter not cold items.  We want the cold items bagged together so we can deal with them first when we get home before they warm up – both for wiping off with alcohol on paper towel piece and then figuring where to fit the items in the freezers (one is part of refrigerator and the other is a small dorm refrigerator sized one in our basement).  Fitting them in is not easy.  An example – we have been buying what I call frozen box dinners – these are the precooked, heat up, commercial company frozen meals in the freezer cases. I told him we had room for 7 of them (based on what we had used and the room I had for stacking them).  He picked out 6 of them – okay, that's better as more room for something else, right?  He then decides to buy a box of frozen fried chicken (which I reminded him he did not like last time and that there was much less in the box than it looks like it will have) – it almost the size of 2 of the boxed dinners.  I explained to him that we could buy that – but one of the box dinners has to go back due to space limitations.  He found a bag of fried chicken strips instead.  

I started putting the items on the belt to be rung up. It is again a huge order as we are buying for a month and hopefully beyond.  He is standing there watching me – remember, only I can touch the food.  I finally suggest he go to the other end and watch how the cashier is bagging the items.  He comes back.  The cashier is not bagging them – they do not have any bags!!  He starts to panic.  I unpack as quickly as I can and then start reloading the food she has rung up into the cart, thinking all the time what to do.  Oddly I had looked at the two reusable shopping bags we had gotten back at the end of February when the state was going to no disposable plastic bags and thought about about bringing them, but did not.  We had brought one disposable bag as he sprays the cart with Lysol before we start using it and I like to hide in the van as it is in such demand this days.  I figured we must have other bags in the van and told him we would be okay.  When I asked the cashier if this was something permanent – they had run out of bags at 2 pm.  (This was 5-6 pm.)  Not sure if it was a question of people doing extra food shopping as heavy rain was to come for the rest of the week (which is why we were shopping Monday), it was the last day of the month or what, but good to know it was not a change in policy.

In the car I had about 4 disposable plastic shopping bags, a paper shopping bag (bigger than a supermarket bag from some other store), and clean plastic garbage bags – I am guessing leftover from craft shows we have done and used them to carry woven items or such.  I put the breads in the paper shopping bag – just fit all of them (including a pack each of hot dog and hamburger rolls).  I put cold items into the 4 plastic bags which took most, but not all of them.  I then used one garbage bag for the rest of the cold items and a couple of garbage bags for the non-cold food.  

When we got home we dealt with the cold food in the shopping bags first and then I used the empty shopping bags to bring in the rest of the cold food.  After the cold food was put away, I started on the non-cold food, again using the shopping bags to bring them in – bread came in last.  

After all of this time and work – we came up short a rye bread!  We thought we lost it on the way on home after paying for it, but when we checked the receipt – we had never paid for it – either it fell out of the wagon, did not make it up the belt at the register – or a fairy took it out of the cart – and with how things are lately, I am so not sure it was not the last.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

It pays to make a shopping list before going shopping all the time – better than a trip back for a forgotten item.  Even more so now with the Corona virus about.  It helps one deal with a larger order quicker and with much fewer running back for items not remembered as one went through their aisle.  Today much more so than even before – one wants to go in, shop, and get out as quickly as possible to spend as little time out near people as possible.

A good Labor Day holiday to those in the U.S.

LIFE IS TOO OVERWHELMING THIS WEEK TO TALK JUST ABOUT CLUTTER AND ORGANIZER

 As I sit here tonight writing this post I am having a problem getting my brain around what is going on simultaneously here in the United States.  I grew up in post World War II United States of America. Never in my life have so many major problems being affecting our country at one time.  We have the 11pm news on and the news rolls on and on.

Our problems that accumulated from centuries of not treating all people in our country (and in the colonies before them) have come to a head.  Our population is separating in one of the most divided and angry elections we have had in recent memory to the point where I fear the violence if the candidate I don't support coming to office as well its result, while also fearing what will happen if the candidate I do support comes to office and the violence that may result from that also, with whichever side loses the election not accepting same and rousing up their supporters.  

We have an illness that is overwhelming to our population, medical systems and further splitting the people of the country apart between those who appreciate the danger of the illness and try to keep from catching it or passing it along to others and those who think it is “just the flu” and not serious and do nothing to prevent it being passed along. (And by the way, the flu is not “just the flu” either and can be lethal.)  

Our weather has also been a problem this a year.  As mentioned in prior posts, our area of the U.S. went through what should not have been a bad tropical storm passing through.  Due to our local utilities it took over 2 weeks to get almost all of those who lost electricity back on line – electric utility claims all back, but some people apparently still do not have their electricity back.  There are a substantial number of people still do not have telephone, Internet service and cable TV service back – some weeks after the storm.  Our electric utility has figured out how to deal with the fact that most people with outages could not reach them during and after the storm for future storms – they will not take any calls, emails, texts, etc. in future storms as they “will know” where the outages are due to their “smart meters”.  This despite the fact that less than half of their customers have smart meters and they did not know during this storm and in its aftermath who did not have electricity.  

And now what has pushed me to write this post.  There is a hurricane bearing down on the south-east portion of the U.S. - with Louisiana and Texas to bear the brunt of it.   Luckily the second hurricane that was traveling more or less the same path as this one, has fallen apart or those in these areas would be facing a one, two punch of horrendous storms.  I am hearing that some areas will have sustained winds of over 120 miles per hour for over 3 hours – can anything stand up to that?  Hopefully the populace will listen to what they are being told and get out of there for other states to their north and west as the storm will heading turning in a large curve to the east after wards.  (Expected here on Saturday and I am concerned for friends in the Carolinas, Virginia and Delaware as it passes through their areas.)  Of course the need to social distance is adding to the problems of this storm as fewer people can ride on each of the buses intended to move them to safer areas, fear of riding for an extensive time with other on buses will lead to more people driving their own vehicles – which make more traffic and slow the process of moving people away from the danger, down even more.  Plus the shelters which are set up for those who have no place else to go when they evacuate the area can hold many fewer people than they normally would due to the need to space the beds, etc. further apart from normal.  

Life is starting to seem more and more like a biblical tale, in this, wrought by nature.  

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

My prayers, fears and thoughts are with those about to hit by Laura.  I can think of little at this time.  I hope that the storm breaks apart somehow or travels through must faster so it causes less damage.  If you are in the affected areas – please make sure that you leave and stay as far away from the path of Laura as you can.  Your life and those of those around you are much important than anything else.

COVID 19 #20 - DEALING WITH COMPANIES AND TRYING TO CHANGE ONE'S MAILING ADDRESS WITHOUT GOING OUT

 Do you find days and weeks are flying by since the start of the pandemic – or inching their way along?  I tend towards the former.  When I realized we would be stuck in for quite a while, I figured I would finally get a chance to catch up on organizing and cleaning.  Have I?  Well, it inches along.

When my family home was cleared out (I admit to doing much less than my sisters and their families in this process) I ended up with the assorted family papers – my parents' old income tax returns (back to the 1950s), the papers related to the original purchase and building of the house, my dad's military papers, plus papers of mine – what was left after what I had taken when we were married – from the 25 years plus that I lived in the house.  I have a cardboard file box of the papers in our office, next to my desk blocking easy access to our office supply closet.  On top of the box is 2 old photo/scrap books of mine and several old shoe boxes of childhood correspondence with friends and cousins who had gone to summer camp and others – and shortly after this all came here, the least of the papers were pulled out on a quick go through and shredded (lots of greeting cards – kept those from certain family members, close friends from back then and husband).  

I finally got started on dealing with the papers.  Combined with the fact that one of my fingers has started to hurt – I think from overuse of computer keyboards, husband thinks arthritis – I have been trying to use the computer less this past week than usual.  But scanning, I can do with little typing on the keyboard and using a different finger for the thumb pad I use (instead of a mouse) so I started going through my parents' income tax returns and scanning them.  Why am I scanning them instead of tossing them?  Well I was going to toss them out, but in the back of my head was my dad, the accountant who trained to me to be one - “Always keep copies of clients' income tax returns for the time they are clients plus 10 years.”  Mom is still alive and I guess sort of a client.  But that it a lot of paper to keep.  So, scanning was the way to go. I have scanned in all of clients (and our) old tax returns – keep them and they take up no physical space.  (I now scan the clients returns as soon as the return is done, but keep the most recent year on paper to make it easier to refer to them when doing the next year's return.  As soon as the next year's return is done, the older year is shredded.)  

I have basically always known (well back to at least my early teens) that one's tax returns is a record of one's life.  Marriage, children, divorce, death, buying a house, college for family members, losing a job, getting a new job, etc. all show up on one's income tax returns.  I am seeing it now as I go through and scan my parents return.  I was confused when I noticed that on one of the returns my 2 younger sisters were showing as dependents and I was not.  The middle sister of the 3 of us married before I did – shouldn't there be returns with me as dependent and her not there?  Oh, wait, I had started my full time job that year and was no longer a dependent even though all 3 of us were still living at home.  The returns in the years shortly before my dad died are filed on extended extension with the notation that “taxpayer has a major illness which is delaying him from filing the returns”.  (Extensions were granted of course.)  I know that as I go back further I will see each of the three of us daughters show up on the returns.  Going forward (unless my sister kept the more recent returns) I will see the return change from joint to just mom when I reach the year after he died.  

Also in the file box is various papers I wrote in high school and college.  For some of them I find multiple copies – not sure why.  I have learned that as bad as my hand is, it used to be a LOT better as was my typing  I also seemed to write doom and gloom a lot more.  I will scan in the best copy of each of these papers after I am done with my parents' income tax returns.  

I find that I can scan 2 -3 years of tax returns in an afternoon (while also checking email and other things which have to be done in the office in the closet).  I will keep doing so for now.  If nothing else, the shoe boxes will be fit into the file box at some point.  At least I feel like I am getting something done by doing this.

The other project I have been working on is changing the mailing address for us, our business, our reenactment unit, and my embroidery chapter.  I am guessing I have mentioned that we have a Post Office Box that we use as a mailing address due to problems with mail delivery at our house that developed 10 or so years ago.  This PO Box is at a different Post Office than the one which serves our house – as this Post Office is much closer to our house (as is a third one) than the one which serves our house.  There have been problems with mail forwarded to the house – not sure if problem is the Box Post Office, the house Post Office or something in between.  (These problems predate what is currently going on with cutbacks etc at the Post Office and are not related to same.)

Most of the problem at this time involves statements from the two credit unions we and/or the two clubs I am treasurer of have their bank accounts at.  Last week I telephoned the two credit unions and changed the mailing addresses to our house.  Well, almost all.  For some reason one of the credit unions could change the mailing address on our personal accounts – but I was told not the mailing address for the embroidery chapter – it is a “business”.  I have to go there in person to do so – ummm, there is the Corona virus pandemic going on and we are still are suppose to stay home?  I am missing 3 months 3 months of statements for each account – the other credit union is mailing me copies – free.  This credit unions wants $5 a statements – though there would be no charge if I – yes – came in and asked for them.  The alternative I was told was to open an online account for the chapter – so easy and convenient to do.  I discussed with husband and president of the chapter and went to set up the online account.  First problem I had was that the online form rejected the chapter's Federal ID number (same as a Social Security number for people, this is for businesses).  I tried putting it in the format IRS uses. I tried putting in the numbers with no format.  I even tried putting in the numbers in the format used for Social Security numbers – each several times – and it did not work.  The next day I telephoned the credit union and was told to put the number in with no format – somehow this time (as opposed to the 5 times before) it worked.  I finished the form and “signed” it and sent it off.  Hmmm, now what do I do? No way to sign into the account.  I sent an email – answer was that it would take several days for it to be “approved”.  Okay, why didn't it just say that on the form and I would have known!  Last Saturday when I checked email I had two emails that the online account was approved – yippee.  I copied the username from the first email and then went to copy the password from the second…. Ummm. They sent an email at 8:15 pm on a Friday night which was only good for 30 minutes!!!  Okay, it said I could get a replacement email.  I fill in the form – needs the telephone number associated with the account – I put in my telephone number.  Rejected – not the right phone number.  Try again several times.  I opened this account before cell phones were common and I did not have mine then, also there were no google phone numbers (have one now for the chapter), so what the heck other number could it be?  I tried all of these numbers anyway – also a google phone number we have for ourselves and a VoIP number has for his counseling practice – none of them worked.  I called and left a phone message at the credit union asking for help.  I also sent an email.  Monday – no one called – I called again and sent an email again. The idea started to mill around in my head that I used to have another landline phone number that I used for my accounting practice, but got rid of about 10 years ago – I looked back in my computer files to find something with the number – old letters with number in the letterhead. I tried same – no good.  I understand that businesses are shorthanded – but it has been 3 business days.  Late yesterday I called the credit union for a regular person not someone related to online help.  The man who answered was able to change the mailing account for the credit union when the other employee could not.  He had to verify me and told me that the other employee probably did not want to bother (took all of 5 minutes maximum).  He verified that the phone number on file is our home number – which was rejected.  Today I had an email from the bank finally – giving me the phone number for the account – again, our home number which was the first tried and rejected multiple times.  I do have to wonder if they wanted the phone number to prove who I am – why they would email it me.  This credit union used to be great.  They have been changing since the end of last year and not sure that any of the accounts will be staying there after Covid-19 is dealt with and we can safely and easily go out.  They changed their bank statements.  As an accountant I have dealt with thousands of bank statements from banks in about dozen US states plus from 3 other countries – and have never had a problem figuring out something as simple as their bank statements.  

So little by little I am trying to get things done which have been sitting or have arisen from the current situation – I did manage to rearrange my empty plastic containers which are out to use right now and stored some in my kitchen closet on a shelf in case they are needed.  (So much work to pull out the plastic boxes the spares are kept in, in the bottom of the same closet.)

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

One has to deal with emergencies first.  Then one can slowly work at other problems.  Scanning and shredding 2 or 3 years' worth of maybe 50 years worth of income tax returns is not much – but that is 2 or 3 less to deal with.  One step at a time – same applies to calling up and changing the mailing address on everything that has our Post Office box address on it to our home address.

COVID 19 #19 UTILITIES STILL OUT FROM ISAIAS, CLEARING OUT KITCHEN PANTRY AND I FOUND MY MISSING BEARS

 First a couple of updates on my last two posts -

In the July 30 post (2 weeks ago) I had mentioned that I was going crazy having lost an assortment of bear figures that I use in my “Teddy Village”.  (Don't think it that crazy that I have this village – it is the only place I can “visit” without a mask right now, and it is cute and fun to do.)  I have put off climbing under the bed in the spare bedroom (aka the Teddies room) both because of the logistics and because I feared not finding the bears there – and since my only thought was that they been tossed out –  I could not take them not being there.  I tend to put things in places that are logical when I put them there, but later do not come to mind when I am looking for them.  Last night on our way to bed I was looking around again as to where the bears might be – and my eye fell on a large, thick white cardboard box (I am guessing that is the inner box that some computer peripheral came in) which I call “the hill”.  It is used for skiing and sledding bears and in the past I would store those bears in it for the rest of the year.  My brain started whirring.  I touched the box – definitely something in it – but hadn't I seen the big skiing bear in the Christmas boxes when I looked there?  I removed the teddy bears riding in a train setup on top of it (not winter – no skiing or sledding) and carefully turned it over, took it to my desk, and opened it.  YES!!  The missing bears.  See – I put them where it made sense – right in the village itself in a safe storage box that I have looked at every day since they were stored!  Today the bears in the box that made sense (and there was room for) and the musician bears for the summer concerts in the part were added to the village and the rest carefully stored in a marked box with the other storage boxes of bears for next time I need to use them.  Oh – and my husband was right about two things (not unusual for him) – I did not throw them out and I would find them.  

In the August 5 post (last week) I was talking about Hurricane Isaias – technically only a tropical storm when it hit this area.  I explained how lucky we had been to get back our electricity that evening.  Around here there are still people (8 days after the store) who still do not have electricity.  Supposedly they are all suppose to have their electricity back by “11:59 pm” tonight, Wednesday.  I am guessing that the tens of thousands still will not have their electricity back.    In addition to electricity people have been without and some still are, without their natural gas.  (Here is in run through underground pipes to areas were it is available and may be used by those using it for heating and/or hot water.  We did not lose same and only use it for hot water.)  Our local cable/Internet provider which also provides a good percent of landline telephone service, as well as our traditional telephone company which also provides all 3 services also do not have all of their customers back online yet.  The stories one hears about people who have special needs and are suppose to have service to be restored quickly – people with medical conditions and are still waiting are especially upsetting.  Also people have live lines down in their yards that as of yesterday (today's news will be out tomorrow of course) which is terribly dangerous.  One man found an electric company employee working on someone else's outage and asked the employee to shut off the live line down in his backyard (dangerous both for someone or an animal touching it and dying or it starting a fire) was told it was a question of flipping a switch, but the employee was not allowed without a work order to do so!  And this company was brought in (and seemed good as they are in a neighboring state) because the last company did such a terrible job during Hurricane Irene and Sandy!   I hope that any of you who were caught in Isaias also, did not lose your utilities for too long a time and did not have the circus we have had here.  

Now, as to actually dealing with clutter and disorder – I think I mentioned that back in March when we went through our pantry closet (actually 3 shelves in our kitchen closet) we found, among other items, a half gallon jar which had been filled with, per the lid) Bisquick.  This is a good item to have as so many items can be baked with it.  Problem was it was dated 2017!  We did not toss it out as back then food was hard to find in supermarkets – but we did not use it either.  In the interim we purchased new (smaller) packages of Bisquick.  My husband suggested yesterday that I should dump it out and put new Bisquick in it and then we can easily use same.  I pulled the jar out tonight and dumped it out, wiped it out and washed it.  While doing so I looked at what else was on that shelf – in the back.  I found out that I had 2 started containers of dried basil – I combined them and they are in the container which was in my spice cabinet.  I found we have more sugar than we thought.  Worcestershire sauce – almost a full bottle (well it is not something we use normally).  Part of a bottle of vinegar.  Interesting items to have and have available for use that we did not realize we had (or had so much of).  I might even get some of the items on the dining room table into the closet where they belong.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

It is important to remember that we are more resilient than we think we are.  Even those of who think we are weak can deal with and do amazing things when we have to.  Whether as trivial as missing inanimate “friends” or something as major as no utilities, somehow one can get through it.  When one thing after another hits us  - Covid 19, hurricanes, loss of utilities – we can get through it.  We take a deep breath and think about what to do to continue on and deal with the problem.  

I hope none of you were hit hard by Isaias. 

PREPARING FOR HURRICANE ISAIAS AND THE AFTERMATH

Well, like those of you along the east coast of North America we had an add on to our Corona virus fun yesterday – a visit from Hurricane Isaias.  I hope any of you affected by it are okay – personally, your home intact and have electricity, etc again.

We were each about to run out of one medication – husband's last pill of same would be Thursday.  Sunday night I called our pharmacy (at a local regular Walmart) and reordered what we needed on their computer.  We did not need refills of everything as husband is taking less of his medications due to our eating less to stretch our trips out for food and I stop taking one pill in summer as my blood pressure drops too low in summer otherwise, but there was a good number of pills. 

We also had to call and change our RV park reservation – due to the Covid - 19 situation we do not feel comfortable going – and add on not knowing what would happen from Isaias, we decided best to postpone as it had to be done by yesterday – the day of Isaias here.  I left a message Sunday night for them to call us Monday.  We have changed the reservation to be our July 4th trip next July – we hope.

Saturday we went out and took in the loose items.  We have two small solar lanterns which hang from iron posts – took down the lanterns and posts.  Our “Betsy Ross” flag is also on an iron stand – took that down also.  We have 3 iron stands that hold pots of flowers – normally we buy 3 pots of geraniums in spring and they through the fall (and for Christmas we put artificial poinsettias, which we potted and we reuse annually in them) – they came in also.  Also our garbage pail – all went into the garage. 

Monday night I put 2 ice cubes in each of 2 small plastic bags and put one bag of cubes in each freezer – if one loses their electricity and the ice is still frozen, then the food is okay to use.  We charged our electric lantern and took out candles in holders.  We plugged in our cell phones (even the old ones with no service – they can still call 911 in an emergency) and our laptops – normally our cable company's wifi which runs through the wires in the street will work when electric out and we can use the laptops with it.  I also dropped a very small flashlight in my jeans pocket – during and after Hurricanes Irene and Sandy they were of great help.  (The ones that Harbor Freight used to give out free with coupons before they switched to the blue plastic lights they give out now free with coupons.)  We went to bed Monday night, hoping we would not need any of our preparations. I also cleared the walkways in the house -  so that we could around without tripping on anything.  In the 18th century rooms were used for multiple purposes.  Furniture was kept against the walls and what was needed for the purpose at a time was moved to the center of the room and used – then put back against the walls.  In semi-darkness to darkness one could walk through the room without needing a light.  I work with this idea making sure that one can walk from room to room and around the room where one needs to be without a light when there is a possible blackout coming.

Isaias came in overnight – sounded terrible.  News and weather reports had said it should be out of our area by around 3 pm and headed further north.  So when we were getting ready to make lunch at 2 pm, we felt better as there was only an hour or so left before it was gone.  Then the lights went out and the TV went off.  I called our electric company and gave our information.  (Our electricity poles, generating facilities, etc are owned by a non-profit which contracts with a regular utility company to run the system.  The company that was doing so, and had been doing so for a long time before, when we were hit Hurricane Sandy did a terrible job of not getting everything going again, but also there was a major lack of communication and a new company was brought in to do run everything for the non-profit – following I will be talking about the  new for profit company which runs it all for them.) 

We expected to hear back from them at some or several points as the message had asked what phone number to call us back with updates – which I had figured would be recorded messages.  For lunch we had peanut butter sandwiches – from an unopened jar as the opened jar was in the fridge, while I eat mine plain, husband likes jelly on his – he put some honey on it instead and I used disposable plates so I only had to wash the utensils (we leave the drinking glasses out on the table from lunch through our prebed snack).  We found one of our battery operated radios and put in batteries.  Not knowing how long the outage would be, we turned off our cell phones and did not turn on any of our laptops (old ones were also charged).  We opened the front door (left the glass storm door locked) and husband sat on a chair to read on his tablet while I read BBC History magazine sitting on the staircase.  After awhile I went upstairs to open the mail which had been sitting for 4 days (to kill any Covid-19 virus on it) – I opened the curtains and put up the shade to see what I was doing. I then went back to my reading on the stairs.  It was bright and sunny, but still a bit windy outside at this point.  The NYC (am)news radio stations would occasionally mention out here on Long Island, but not much info.  The few Long Island radio stations (also am – radio does not have FM) just kept playing music.  So no info.  No calls from electric utility.  Internet in street was not working.  This was extremely annoying and frustrating.

One of our next door neighbors came walking on our driveway.  We opened the front door and yelled back and forth as we socially distanced.  She has a friend at the electric utility.  A tree was down on a wire.  It was affecting 2000 customers on the circuit (in my mind – good thing – more customers affected, the sooner they repair – fix a one house outage and the number of customers restored goes up 1, fix an outage affecting 2000 customers and that one repair makes the number of customers restored go up 2000.  But she was told by her friend that we would be back on – Thursday PM!  She was walking the street making sure that everyone had called in their outage so the utility would be aware how many were out on this circuit. I told we had – and she shared the info above about the outage.  Her young daughter was with her – we both said hello to her also .  Then they went on their way to talk to the other neighbors. (We have no children, when one has children one knows other people on the street with children, due to the nature of living on a main road, it is not a small street where everyone knows everyone else.)  I thought husband was going to break down and cry or pass out when he heard Thursday pm – I managed to talk him out of either.  Just because we are 18th century reenactors, does not mean that we like to live in the dark and without air conditioning on a hot day.

Dinner time was approaching and I knew we needed more than sandwiches.  I went looking through our supplies - lots of cans of soup.  I should mention that our stove is electric – no electricity, no stove.  But we do have our other stove – in our RV.  We have used it before during Hurricanes Irene and Sandy and some other electric outages.  It is small, but it does have a 2 burner propane stove.  I have actually only used it for situations like this – when we travel in it, we eat out.  I had another thought – see if the Chinese take out place we use was open and take out dinner, but figured that husband would be upset at going out.  I mentioned cooking the soup to him.  He brought up the Chinese takeout, so we went with that.  The place has only been taking orders online or in person – no telephone orders, but I called, explained and asked (and they know us) and they took the order and our credit card info by phone.  As we were about to walk out to pick up the order, our telephone rang.  Since the answering machine is not working and being concerned that there might be a problem with our order, I answered it.  (We answered the telephone several times during the day – we now know who the hangup calls when they get our answering machine are from – all spam calls.)  This call was not spam nor the take out place – it was my mother – who I have been trying to reach by telephone for a week!  I explained that I had to talk very quickly and what we were about to do – she was surprised – she had known that we had a hurricane go through – and she lives where it is was the worst!  Mom is in an assisted living so they always have electricity due to a generator (something we really need to get, a house generator which comes on automatically, but the price scares us) but I would have thought she would have heard the winds or seen something about it on TV?! 

We picked up dinner and came home to eat it.  I was using real dishes for dinner as did not want to deal with smaller paper tableware.  I had tap water.  Husband was drinking iced tea from mix and tap water (he hates drinking “warm water”).  We had our soup and had started our main courses. I was figuring out in my head how I was going to see to wash the dishes – I had figured to bring over the battery lantern to the sink and leave husband with the candles.  Mid first plate of food – the electricity came back on!  How wonderful and lucky.  We could use the air conditioning again – husband had been terribly warm – and lights – and TV!  We did not open the fridge for cold drinks or the freezer for ice and left them closed until we had our nighttime snack, as we wanted them to get colder inside again.
The house has been put back together again.  Seemed it was all behind us.  Tonight shortly before I sat down to write this post however, the electricity went out again.  I heard husband heading towards crying and wailing.  As I calmed him down, I started calling the electric utility again – but in less than time than it took me to find, pick up, and memory dial them – it came back on again.  I am figuring that they gerry rigged something yesterday to get our circuit back up and this was our transfer to the normal system we are on as it was so brief – as if it was turned off and then back on. 

I should mention that we were lucky to reach the utility yesterday morning when we lost our electricity.  Per the local newspaper people could not reach them by phone (apparently their phone carrier was having problems in addition to their own problems) or by their app.  So now they are in the same problem as the former company. 


 THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Problems like this will happen.  Plan ahead so when it does YOU know what you need to do.  Know where your candles, electric lanterns, flashlights (last two being safer than the first) are.  Charge your cell phones (and remember, as I mentioned, old cell phones with no service can still call 911 in an emergency so charge them also and leave them charging as long as you have electricity.  Charge your laptops or tablets (even if you have no wifi available as we did not this time, they still can serve as a diversion) – but use your cell phones and laptops as little as possible in case you need them later.  If there are children who are old enough – have a flashlight for each of them, it will help keep them from being frightened.  Obviously have spare batteries for everything.  A battery operated radio is a good idea for information. 

I have an “accordion folder” (one of those large folders with sections) as my “grab and go”.  When I reconcile a bank account the statement goes in it – and the last matching statement comes out and gets filed.  I have copies of my computer data on DVD in it and update it monthly.  Most recent paid bills for all our insurances.  Copies of our small amount of stock info.  Copies of house deed and car titles.  Copy of marriage license.  If we had to leave home in an emergency, I just grab this and go. 

Water is rarely a problem here as our water comes from municipal water towers here.  Having said that  - we used to keep 3 gallon bottles of water in the basement and also some cans set aside for emergencies (apparently they were last changed before 2005 as we came across them in the early days of stay in place and that was the use by date on them, we are not using them, but husband made me keep them  for now - “just in case”.  When Hurricanes and Irene and Sandy were coming, we filled our RV water tanks (30 gallons of water) just in case.  We did not do so this time. 

Where my family lived we were relatively near the ocean and needing to live home in a large storm, in case of flooding in the area,  became more and more common after I left home.  If you live in an area where this might happen make sure you have a plan for what to take and who will drive what and know where to evacuate.  (We live near the evacuation center so we are far enough inland on the Island not to need to do so.  My mom did need to do so during many storms in more recent years (did not need to do so other than one time when I was still living there 40 years ago).  I would tell her to come here, but she liked going to the evacuation center – “I see everyone I haven't seen since the last evacuation”.   Make sure in advance that you have enough of your medications (as we picked up ours on Monday to be sure).    If you have a pet, find out where you can go with them and have their things also. 

Yeah, I know we have all heard this so many times – but DO you have a plan and know what to do?  If not, start planning now – when you need to do so, it is too late.

Stay safe from storms and stay well from Covid- 19 all!

CLEANING, AND ORGANIZATION OR ONE CAN LOSE ONE'S TOYS

Have you found that time is passing slowly and too fast at the same time?  It does for me.  Like many others staying home during this Covid-19 pandemic I had big plans for the time we would be stuck home and made a mental list of what needs to be to done in the house and also of what I wanted to get done in the house.  Most of it involving either cleaning or organizing.  I am still inching along. 

I am not the best housekeeper in the world, but I used to be a lot better.  When husband was working full time – and out of the house --  I had a set a housework schedule.   I did housework on Wednesdays with the kitchen and the downstairs dusting and floors done on one week, then the upstairs bathroom, floors and dusting on the next, with the downstairs bathroom, dusting and floors  on the next, the upstairs dusting and floors done again on the 4th week of the month.  On months with a 5th Wednesday I would do tasks that did not need to be done as often. 

Then my husband quit his job – it was not a spontaneous choice, we had discussed it, set up rules (me - “You cannot be with me every minuted of every day or I will kill you.” and “It is not vacation so we cannot eat out everyday.”) and so on.  At first it all went as planned – we would eat lunch (at home) on Mondays and discuss the week ahead when I had things to do, he had things he wanted to do and when and what we do together or apart.  Housework was still done on a regular basis.  I still had several accounting clients so I was out of the house at least the equivalent once a week for work and he was working in his wood  shop making items for us to sell at craft fairs. First mistake I made – I used to go out for lunch alone on Fridays.  Mondays and Fridays I would run errands – and Fridays I would go out for lunch (inexpensively) by myself.  I called it “going out for lunch with the office” as I was “the office”.  First Friday he was home I offered for him to join me “this one time”.  Guess what?  Yes, Friday lunch out was added to our normal Saturday and Sunday lunches out and Friday dinner out followed along with our Saturday night dinner out and Sunday night take in Chinese food for dinner. 

This was about a year before the economic problems of 2008.  I lost clients as long time (and older) clients decided it was too hard to deal with their businesses, shut them down and retired.  So I was home more (and getting less done).  At the same time the price of gasoline jumped – high.  Husband pointed out to me that it made no sense for me to spend money on the gas to drive to the supermarket and for him to spend money on the gas to drive to Home Depot – separately – when both were in the same shopping center. 

Little by little this took over until we reached the point we were at before the pandemic – lunch out at Wendys 5 days a week, dinner out or Chinese food in – 3 day weekends, and spending almost all our time together.  Somewhere along the way I stopped cleaning the house on Wednesdays – or for that matter – mostly stopped cleaning it altogether.

I have been trying to catch up on cleaning and putting stuff away since we have been stuck home.  It is sort of working – not as regular as before, but getting done.  Much time is still taken up not doing anything.  We tend to stay at the table after lunch and watch TV a bit longer than we used to (or I would like).  I am am trying to get back to how I used to get the work done. 

Early in after Corona reared its head it dawned on me that if one of us became ill with it, we had no place for us to sleep separately.  We have a spare bedroom – with a bed – which intended as a guest room and was used as same 3 times in the earlier years in the house – all 3 times by my niece and once also by her brother, my nephew (they were small children at the time and could share the bed).  Since then my teddy bears have taken over the room – on shelves, pictures on the walls, sitting on the bed, and so on.  There are also older video games and such stored in the room.  Over the years our spare luggage and husband's out of season clothing moved into the closet in this room.  My dollhouse that husband made for me when we were dating is in the room.  Also in the room is spare things including a portable (analog) TV and a small wooden bench husband made (TV sits on the bench). 

Back in March the small floor space in the room was covered in bears and their things and the TV/bench.  In April when the thought of one of us needing to sleep in there came to mind, husband could not take any mention of either of us getting ill (not that he would be happy to hear about it now – but then it was no mention to be made.  Instead I told him that I had space in the trunk under the teddy bear village in the upstairs hall that used to be used for Christmas storage and I wanted to store items floating around the spare bedroom in it.  This process cleared out space to be able to get next to the bed and I also found stuff to use for the teddy village.  I thought I did a great job of making the room usable.

Two things this past month made me realize that I did not do such a good job.  When our bedroom air conditioner was not working I offered for husband to sleep in the (single) bed in the spare bedroom and I would make myself up something to sleep on the floor next to the bed.  He walked into the room and glanced around.  “Ummm, it will need a lot of work – it has not been dusted in years and if we slept in here we would get sick and be sneezing like crazy.  Also there is not enough room on the floor for you to sleep and me go to get up and go to the bathroom without stepping on you.  Not going to work.”  Okay, I tried – now I know I have to go in there and give the room a good cleaning.  Even worse for me, though, I had to move the teddy bear village to store in the trunk under it.  I had stored away the bears in the Christmas set up in the village to do so.  Well, now it was July and I went to set up an Independence Day village of bears and came up missing a bear that had been out for the Christmas village.  (These bears are figurines and small plastic toys not stuffed toys.)  As I looked for her, I realized that other bears were missing also.  I have looked everywhere for them – I cleaned up all of the packing, bears, and stuff that are used for the village during the year.  I went to the basement and unpacked and repacked all of the bears in the 3 medium sized boxes of bears from the Christmas setup.  I even took the village apart again and emptied out the trunk under it – no missing bears found.  My next step will involve clearing out and cleaning up the spare room some more.  At this point the only 2 things I can think of is that I shoved a box of bears under the bed or (horrible to think) I threw the box out!  So at time in the coming week we will see if the TV in the room still works and then – whether it does or not – we will move it and the bench out of the room so I have the room to lie down and look under the bed and hopefully find a box of missing bears with other items that I know are stored under there. 

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

I guess husband was right about not enough room for me to sleep and him walk in and out of bed if I cannot lie down and look under the bed.  I hate it when he is right.  Then again, if I had been more careful when I took the Christmas village down – I would know where the missing bears were.