SORRY I HAVE BEEN MISSING - DOUBLE POST - CANCELED CAR PURCHASE/BANK LOAN PROBLEM AND LAUNDRY BAG CORD AROUND AGITATOR

 A bit of a followup to my post of (can it really be this long) over a month ago.  

Two weeks after we went to the car dealer and then decided  - while at the dealer – not to buy the car and canceled the transaction, we received a letter from a bank denying our car loan.  This shocked us for two different things.  

First, we know what our credit rating is and it is about as high as one can have.  

Second – We had canceled the car purchase – without signing any paperwork for a loan – though the “finance manager” had told us she as entering our info that we had the loan.  

We wrote a rather extensive letter to the bank which had turned us down.  (One reason given my credit report was locked – something I had done with all of our credit reports long and ago and forgotten about  - which makes me wonder why husband's was not locked.)  And we told about all that went on that day and we had NOT applied for the loan!  Waiting to hear from back from same.  


NEXT– LAUNDRY FUN.  

I do three loads of laundry most weeks -clothes, towels, and bedding.  Dirty clothing, bedding and upstairs towels go in a large laundry bag in our upstairs hall closet.  Dirty towels from the kitchen and downstairs bathroom go in a smaller laundry bag which hangs on the basement side of the door to same in the kitchen.  I throw the laundry bags into the towels load to be washed weekly.  Something I always wondered about happening – happened.  The string from the downstairs laundry bag wrapped around the agitator in the washing machine and would not release from it – even after I cut the cord and only left a short piece in the washer.  Husband and I finally gave up on getting it released.  With much trepidation about the mechanisms in the washer getting the piece of the cord wrapped further around the agitator and breaking the washer completely I kept doing the laundry in the washer.  Two weeks later – MAGIC -  I found the piece of cord loose in the bottom of the washer – relief!

To prevent this from happening again – even before the piece came loose – I now take the cords out of the bag before throwing the bags in the washer.  Yes, it is a bit more work each week – but stops me from worrying about a repeat.

I no longer put the cord in the downstairs bag at all.  It is short now (since I had cut off the piece which was stuck) and I knotted the ends together.  Short of it being there having been a holiday that week and having used fabric tablecloth/napkins, there is not much put into the bag and the kitchen/bathroom hand towels are relatively small.  I have a medium sized safety pin which I use to attach the remaining small, knotted piece of cord to the bag so I can hang up the bag on the hook on the back of the basement door during the week to collect the laundry in it.  

I have a large safety pin which I use to push the cord through the channel of the larger, upstairs bag so I can hang the bag on the 3 hooks in the closet which hold the bag open to make it easier to throw the dirty laundry in the bag.  

Yes, it is more work than before – but having worried for 2 weeks about the possibility of having to repair our washer if the cord wrapped further around the agitator or needing to buy a new one and the cost and mess involved in doing so.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

If it is not one problem – it is another problem!   While both of these problems wasted time, caused great annoyance – they are minor compared to what can happen in life.

Any one have a problem like either one of these – what did you do?

TRYING TO BUY A MUCH NEEDED NEW CAR

 Here's another kind of organizing.  We need to buy a new car.  Our old car has a problem that develops with this model car and we want to get rid of it before it is too late.  We keep looking at what is available.  Problem is that cars have changed too much for us since we bought our current car and we want to avoid as much as we can of the changes – such as – we would really like a REAL KEY to the car.  

Husband has it down to one particular car and we keep hemming and hawing over it.  In addition to not being comfortable with the new cars and the changes in them (our most current car was purchased in early 2013 and the car world has, apparently changed since then) we also have financial limitations on the purchase.  In the past when we were both working this was not a problem – as matter of fact we customarily paid for our new cars in full when we purchased them – did not take out a loan.  But with our current car and this new car (and our RV) a loan has been needed for convenience of not needing to get out of other assets the money to pay for the car as it would result in income taxes being due on the money taken from same.   (Not wealthy, just very prudent at socking away savings from our incomes over the decades before spending was done.)   

We had figured that between our trade in (based on values husband saw online) and what we could manage to take out of the bank we would owe about half of the cost of the car.  

Since when this model year is over there will be no more key – we went today to a dealer who had the car we wanted.  We had a test drive – well husband did, I just rode along with him and the salesman.  He liked how it drove – I was a bit concerned that hood sat too high for him, but he said it did not.  So we moved along to the messy part – negotiating for the car.  

Actually same was rather simple – Dealer employee “This is the cost.”  Husband “Okay, how much can you lower that price  - it is the full price.”  Dealer employee “That is the price – we are  “only” charging the MSRP  not charging you more than it – charging over same has apparently become the norm (well, it is a suggested retail price from the manufacturer I guess).  “Discussion” went on.  He can't give us anything lower in price  - and the US$1000 plus in extras we don't can't be removed from the car/price.  Oh, and our current car which husband had looked up the value of – is only worth half according to them.  Price now too high for us.   I should explain that we have not technically had “a car” in several decades as we have had what are considered “light trucks”.  

The manager came over and would not give us anything at all.  We DID not buy the car and will be checking out some of the other local dealers to see what their story is.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
One can plan all one wants – but that does not mean that when one needs to buy something – it will be anything like it was in the past or that the process today will make ANY sense at all.  I wonder if we were paying all cash it would be less expensive and an easier process.  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

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

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

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

SETTING UP A NEW COMPUTER AND UPDATING AN OLD COMPUTER - OYYY!

 Computers – can't live without them and can't live with them!!

And they DO need to be kept organized!

Computers are important to keep organized also.  In addition to each having a desktop computer, we each have laptop computers (and I keep my old ones so I have 2 Windows XP latptop computers, a Windows 7 desktop computer, and my latest – a Windows 10 laptop.  (I am using the latter as I post.)  My Win 7 and my Win 10 computers each have a virtual Windows XP machine in them.  (This allows me to run old XP software in them – mostly my Lotus Organizer.)

My husband I do not keep our data on our hard drives.  We keep them on thumb drives (originally on 5.25” floppy drives, followed by3.5 inch floppy drives, then zip drives, and in the years since – thumb drives (aka stick drives).  This does several things  - most importantly if our hard drives die we still have our data and it is easy to move the data from one computer to another.  We also each frequently back up our hard drives to external hard drives to prevent loss of data on same.  

This all comes to mind as my husband has just bought a new laptop computer.  He has vision problems from when he had cataracts despite having had surgery for same – mostly problems seeing to read small print.  He has been struggling more recently to read items on his laptop as it is a small one, so we discussed it and he bought a 17.5 inch laptop.

He bought it Monday.  Yesterday (Tuesday) he took it out of the box and started setting it up.  First, of course getting rid of some of the newer features which he did not want and finding features which no longer come with them which he DOES want.  

In doing of all this (so far) he noticed that the hard drive on our network did not show up on his new laptop – he checked my laptop and it was missing there also.  So tonight he dealt with this problem and got the hard drive to show on his laptop.  He then moved to my laptop to fix it also.  Why?  Because he needs to do so, so mine will be able to access that hard drive.  Have I used it?  Maybe – once – or twice.  

In fixing this on my laptop the computer decided that “Whoopee! She is letting me do things!”  “I am going to update – whether she likes it or not!”  So I lost over half an hour of my “me time” on my laptop (which I get in the evening as opposed to using using my computers for work related work or house related work).  

Understand – I am not against computers.  My first use of a computer was a main frame IBM computer back when programing and answers were by punch card (programming in Fortran) in high school.  That was followed by a main frame computer which used various stations around our college campus to enter things (programming in Basic).  But each version of the software to run current computers seems to make more and more problems.  And they do help to keep one organized and cut down on paper clutter.

NEW PILLOWS FOR HUSBAND - AND WHERE TO STORE THE OLD ONES

 Two weeks again – sorry no post last week. Then again – is anyone other than me actually reading these posts? (If you are a “hi” would be nice so I know someone is out there.)

My husband decided he needed new pillows for when we (hopefully soon) start traveling again in our tiny RV. (Think Chevy van conversion, not the RVs you see in movies and on TV.)

He had recently been having sleeping at home and bought a new pillow to use at home. He had me bring in his pillows from the RV and he tried them and they were not comfortable. (It has been since 2019 since we used the RV and the pillows.) So we went out and bought him a new pillow – same as the one he bought for the house. I put pillow covers on that pillow and one of his old pillows (he picked which one) and he tried using them at home for a few nights and said it was fine. I also bought him 2 new pillow cases – why I am not sure as I will be using the old pillowcases for me, but he insisted.

Do we throw out the old pillows? No, of course not! “We might need them.” Now the problem becomes where to store them. I have mentioned that our house is on the small side (though much larger than our RV) and storage is limited.

Our house has 3 bedrooms – the largest one is, of course ours. We had planned for the remaining two bedrooms to be used for our children – who were not to be. So, the middle sized bedroom serves as our office – we sit at desks facing each other – and our main library space for our books. The small bedroom was setup as a guest room in case one of our moms or a niece or nephew needed to stay with us. It has been used 3 times – once my niece and nephew (brother and sister) used the single bed together when they were very young and stayed overnight. Same niece used the room again twice on two different occasions when doing something with us. Other than that it has not be used a bedroom. The bed is covered with a blanket and there are stuffed bears (and a few of their friends sitting on it) and the room has become known as the Teddie's room as there are also shelves in the room holding stuffed and other types of Teddies and their friends in it. (We use the closet for husband's out of season clothing and some other storage.)

Among the other storage for the room are the bed pillows for the room which are kept in pillowcases and stand against the walls waiting for someone to stay and use them. (I would change the pillowcases if someone used them as they have been on the pillows for years – some of them have Teddy bear designs on them.) So I put the extra pillows in pillowcases and stood them on top of the ones already in place.

At least with this resolved and the extra and RV pillows out of our bedroom I again have back the place I put the laundry basket when I bring up the clean laundry to fold and store. The extra pillows had been sitting there while he decided which pillows worked for him.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

Think outside "the box" when looking for places to store things – often storing them in some way which makes sense or looks decorative (or you can make look decorative) is the best place to store them – especially larger items which need “a home”.

JUNE - ALREADY????!!!! SPRING CLEANING? - I JUST FINISHED STORING AWAY CHRISTMAS - LAST WEEK!!!!

 JUNE – ALREADY?!

I guess it well into “spring cleaning” time?  Anyone doing any?

Well ….  I have mentioned that I have a small “village” of small bears  - figurines, toys and such (about  ½ inch to maybe 6 inches tall each) in our upstairs hall.  If you have missed this – it started as a Christmas village populated by bears and grew to a year round village which is changed (more or less) monthly to match the month.  It is a terribly silly thing, but husband and like it and it gives us smiles – and during the worst of Covid it gave us someplace “to go” when we stuck in the house.

It gets overdone for Christmas – like a small village which is over crowded for the holidays with shoppers, a parade, carolers, Santas, skiers, skaters, booth selling hot beverages and renting out skis and sleds, bears finishing decorating the large tree at the center of the village…  The rest of the year the setup is much is less.  

I have mentioned that I am accountant.  I had an extremely odd and bad tax season this year so the bears have been having Christmas all the way into May (and the mom bears were upset at no Mother's Day) as I have not had a chance to store the Christmas part away.  I finally had a chance last Sunday to start taking it down.  Christmas in the village is almost done being stored now.  I should finish this Sunday and will jump ahead to wedding and later in the month graduation in the village.  (Same young bear couple get married every year.)

Sooo, who is doing spring cleaning – not the bears they are too tired from celebrating this long.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Things need to be done.  Sometimes something suddenly takes up a continuing huge amount of time and it needs to done and other less essential things put aside.  That is life and we have to take it as it comes and then catch up when we can.  

TIME FLIES - DOESN'T IT? GETTING OUR RV READY TO USE THIS YEAR

 Wow another week already?  

We started dewinterizing our tiny RV yesterday and finished today.  For those who might not know about this (I had no idea until we bought it) in the fall one has to remove all the water in the tanks and pipes in the RV and put in special anti-freeze to keep the pipes, tanks, etc from freezing and possibly splitting open.  

Comes the spring one has to get the antifreeze out of the pipes and tanks.  This is done by draining the liquid in the pipes and tanks out. (The antifreeze is a special one used in RVs and boats; it is not what is put in the engine of vehicles.)  One then replaces same with water and bleach and drives back and forth, stopping short to mix it throughout the pipes and tanks.  It sits awhile.  Then it is then drained out of the RV and the RV tanks and pipes are filled with plain water – several times – and drained again each time to the get the bleach and any remaining anti-freeze out of the RV.  We have spent the last two days doing this several times to our RV.  Now the water system is usable for this year's season.  

Understand, this RV is a van converted (commercially) to an RV – NOT one of those large things you see on the road and in movies.  It is very, ummm, “cozy”.  The entire inside space is something like 20 feet by 6 feet.  Think about a room that size and living in it – toilet, kitchen, living room and bedroom – all in that space.  

So it is now prepared for any traveling we do in it this summer. Husband has plans.

Think about living with your significant other in a space this small.  You have to be very close friends!