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Norning all. Thought it was about time to check in here. Been keeping busy with all sorts of everyday things around here. You know, the usual, vacuming, errands, yard work. Did give my house a bath and wash the outside of my windows so that done for this summer. So it’s mostly things that keep us busy, but nothing worth writing about. Weather here has been beautiful, temps in 70’s, ocassionally mid 80’s, but no humidity except a day here or there. Had some rain yesterday, could use more, although we are only a bit less than an inch below average. NWS said yesterday that our average temperature for the month of July was 68.2°. Doesn’t mean it was in the 60s every day but it averaged out to that because there were 60s and 70s and even a few 80s here and there in the mix. This week we are supposed to have an up-and-down temperature forecast. Tomorrow It’s looking warm and humid and we have a level one severe storm outlook for late tonight and tomorrow morning. Storms have been rare since the tornado hit in May.

I’m hanging around here waiting for a call from my Heating/Cooling/Plumbing folks as my water softener is on the fritz. They always call when thry on the way. I have an appointment for today, but I do not have a definite time. Which is understandable because of the type of work they do. I would like to run the vac, don’t want to because I might not hear the phone.

I am back into cutting out some more wood projects. One is a hose hanger that I am making to hook my hose on and the other are a few flowers that I am cutting out to paint. I trace them on a piece of wood from a couple of ones that my neighbors had. Thought I would keep them around here so that if we have a hot day, I can paint in the house and sometimes in the evening when there’s nothing on TV.

Looks like all of you have been keeping busy. Martha, would love to have some of your grass cutting issues as my backyard is more dirt than grass. Karen, sorry to hear you are dealing with smoke and I know it brings back all those memories again. Fortunately this fire is far enough away from you. Judy, sounds like your son is trying to get you to settle down whether you want to or not. Probably figures a lady your age doesn’t have any business doing what you’re doing anymore. I hope you can get your wheelbearings straightened out. Are you downshifting when you are going through those mountains coming downhill? Beth, hope you can have your employee issues under control now. Tina, congrats on the dog wins. I hear ya on the travel funds I’ve kind of got the same problem. But then I have been pretty content just being here at home. Gas here has dropped down to $3.75-79. O’Sharon, bit of excitement by you. Probably why so many responders, just in case it spread. Anne, hope you get some answers for Joe. It’s hard when our furry companions are sick. I understand what you are saying about whether or not you would get another dog when you no longer have Joe. I am the same way. I worry about what happened to my dog or dogs, if they are still living, and something happens to me. I don’t know if I want to get another one after these two are gone or not. I will face that decision when the time comes.

Tornado cleanup continues slow but sure. The majority of the businesses along the main highway that were damaged are now open and back in business or getting ready to reopen in temporary quarters. Some do still need some minor repair work done, mostly glass or facade replacement. There is equipment sitting next to the Hobby Lobby and adjoining businesses that were destroyed, getting ready to tear them down. I don’t know if Hobby Lobby’s entire store needs to be torn down or not. I did hear that the building was unstable. There are a few homes here and there that have been torn down, also a number of others have either been repaired or are temporarily repaired and awaiting materials. Still others are awaiting repairs. So things are progressing slow but sure. The state has set up $500,000 to help with the cleanup and other things and the SBA has a temporary office set up here. Money is still coming in from other sources too. Some people have found new homes to move into and others are still waiting for some type of more permanent quarters until they can either rebuild or find a new permanent home. So some progress has been accomplished in the past couple months.

So that’s all that’s going on in my life right now. I’m sure I have forgotten some of you but I can’t remember all of what everybody was dong So I am going to wish you all a nice day and see what I can get into. Might be time to do a little dusting and maybe clean my bathroom.

Morning Sue and All, same ole here. My days are exciting. Today I remembered to put earrings in my ears so the holes don’t close. Lol Judy, I laughed at your conversation with your son. Sons are very protective of their mothers. You have to admit your recent adventures have been scary. You are so organized and being a world traveler it would be interesting to know where you planned to be and what doing in 5 years. My, brother has phone service again. Every time I called Verizon I gave them horror stories of this lone man in the middle of no where. I guess it had some impact because Verizon called him yesterday to see if he was ok. My excitement for the day is delivery of Straight Talk home telephone base. The base was $50 and monthly bill for use is $15. That is a $10 saving when I discontinue Verizon. The challenge will be talking to an agent to activate the new base. I tell people on the phone “you are talking faster than I can listen”. I tell them my age and that I have a hearing. They usually change their tone, talk slower and very loud. Lol Glad I now deal with wing nuts instead of lug nuts. Be safe.

Good morning gals!

Romeow and I are buddies again. He seems pretty quick to forgive and forget! He is sitting in the window behind my bed right now. I think he will love the porch once it cools off.

Just hanging out in bed for a bit. Will watch the church service I missed on Sunday and then get up and start in on my list of things to do around here. I checked online last night for the 2 thrift stores by me and found out they are both closed on Mondays so they should be open for business today, so I will head over there later to drop my stuff off.

Enjoy your day!

Shirl, you should check into a closed caption phone like I have. It captions everything out on the screen as the person is talking to me. I have cable so my phone service is through my cable company and it needs Wi-Fi to caption conversations. It’s a CapTel phone. There are also close caption apps out for cell phone now too.

Sue, there is a medical term for my hearing problem but don’t remember. I hear fine but it takes longer to process what I hear. People with accents talk too fast for me to process so I just say I have a hearing problem. I don’t read fast enough to keep up either. Lol thanks

Sugar woke me up about 6:00 this morning because it was thundering. It has been overcast and thundering all morning but hasn’t rained much. Yesterday I went to town and while I was gone it must have stormed. When I got home it had rained 1/2 inch and there was water standing all over. There is still water in some places.

I went to Tractor Supply to get some grass and weed killer to spray the driveway in Maurice. The driveway grows up so much I have a hard time seeing it and don't want to end up in the ditch. I wish I had widened it more when the guy built the driveway. I went and sprayed two of the one gallon sprayers but need to do more. Sue be careful what you wish for, you might be mowing instead of making your projects. Tractor Supply has some of the old time candy I don't see anywhere else. I had to get a bag of the candy covered peanuts. I should have gone to Walmart. One of my spoiled cats is almost out of the only food he likes to eat.

Judy, sorry you had so much trouble at Camping World. I had them install a new toilet one time and it took 4 hours. I don't know that I could even get the hub cap covers off to check the lug nuts. Hope they fixed your plumbing problems. You are in some MOUNTAINS! When we went to the Grand Canyon we went North to Grand Junction and South on hwy 50. Stopped at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and then kept going South through Silverton to Durango. That was some white knuckle driving for someone from flat South Louisiana. I was in an under powered Class C and wasn't sure I was going to make it up some of the mountains. Sorry your son thinks you should give up traveling. There are women in their 80's still camping in some of the groups I belong to. I told my son that he would have to pry my cold, dead hands off the steering wheel. lol

Shirl, I have to keep the kind of ear rings they pierce your ears with in my ears. I have many sets and use to change them all the time when I was working. Now the cheap ones make my ears hurt so have to use the surgical steel ones. Glad your brother has a phone. I probably should get rid of my land line but when I evacuate I can call the land line and if the answer machine picks up I know I have electricity. If someone that I don't really want to talk to wants my phone number I give them the house phone number and they can talk to the answer machine. I have trouble understanding some of the people with accents on the phone too. Companies need to hire Americans. I have trouble understand people if I'm in a large group and everyone is talking.

I am so ready to go camping but the August campout is in Mississippi and I'm not going to Mississippi. A friend called me yesterday from Halifax Nova Scotia. She is on one of the guided RV tours. She is a retired horse shoer and blacksmith and full times. She said she would be back to Louisiana in April to do volunteer work at some of the local Acadian Villages that have a blacksmith shop. You can sure meet some interesting people RVing.

Martha

So far it isn’t too bad out today we are having a thunderstorm now so I am acting excited, clapping my hands and giving Pippa treats so she associates the thunder with good things. Our back yard has been full of deer eating the pears and flowers. I go out with bells and a broom to scare them away but they are starting to ignore me. The dogs of course bark like crazy. I want to let Emma out to chase them but DH is afraid she will jump the fence. If Pippa is alone and sees them out the window she will bark very quietly just so I know they are there. If the big dog are near she barks loud along with them.

Anne I hope you have been able to find out more about Joe’s health issue. I personally wish when he is better that you consider getting another dog to keep him company. When my first poodle Nickel had a serious health issue when she was around 11, my long time vet said I want you to get another dog for two reasons, first because I won't be able to handle you when something happens to her and second Nickel will live longer to help train the puppy. I followed his advice and saw he was right. Nickel lived to just a few months before her 16th birthday and I have always had at least two dogs since then.

Judy I had to laugh a bit at your son’s advice to stay off the roads, maybe you can come up for some advice for him. Martha you don't meet many women who shoe horses. My first husband was a farrier and also taught riding and stable management at the university. At that time there was a women here who tried shoeing horses for awhile but gave it up and enrolled in the sculpture classes. I think she is still working at making art objects. I have a beautiful piece she made that I use as a key chain.

The storm is over and the sun is out which probably means the humidity is going up. We could have definitely used more rain but I am grateful for what we did get.

The irritating thing with no son is that he goes into this tone of voice and then tries to convince me that I should "plaaaan" and what happens if I don't "plaaaan," like I am some sort of idiot who does not think about the future. He keeps emphasizing that what happens if my motorhome is "gone," as if it would just disappear from me. I told him when things break, I will get them fixed.

Then he wants to know how much I have on my credit cards, thinking I have tens of thousands in debt. (I have been paying them off every month for the past three years, but i have to have some balance because I use credit cards to pay for gas and making campground reservations months in advance.) My trip to the UK has been completely paid for from monies I made from my POA duties, by the way, and I have NOT been spending money from my 401K, other than the money the government requires me to take out each year, and much of that money is still in my savings. I don't have any pensions, but I do have more SS than some of people because I did not retire from my full-time job until I was 69, and continued to teach half-time until I was 78. I am careful with money, but I am not overspending, at least in my opinion, plus it is none of his business as long as I am competent. OK, enough ranting. I just need to ignore him.

I am at a campground near Blue Mesa Lake about 15 miles west of Gunnison. Altitude is about 8,000 feet here. Only problem is that the only highway here is US 50, and they have been doing some major construction west of here. It is open on weekends and in alternating directions between certain hours, so rather than take a 100 mile detour, I will have to plan (???) my drive west to Ridgway carefully.

Well you are majorly right it is NONE OF HIS BUSINESS how you spend your money. I am like you I havent had to touch my 401k except for the RMD I withdraw each month because they make me and I am still irritated by that.

As for the suggestion that I give him some advice, ALL of you know how well your grown children take advice on themselves!!!!

Oh, and by the way, he is the kid whose wife assured me right after they were married that she was handling paying all the bills and such. I was happy to hear that because he never bothered to balance his checkbook during the first 3.8 years of college, in spite of my reminding him to. The way U of Michigan handled his financial aid, and he got a lot of it then because I was divorced and the custodial parent, was that he got his money at the beginning of each semester, but a lot of his bills came monthly, so he never had a problem with having enough money in his account. His dad and I also gave him an amount at the beginning of the school year.

Well, a couple of months before he graduated, he called me to tell me that he had finally balanced his checkbook and was about $1,000 off. I went into my parental rant about "nobody is ever $1,000 off" and he said he had just been looking at his statement balance each month and had assumed for the past almost-four years that that was the amount of money he had in his account at that time!! Duh!!

He also had a habit of tossing all his extra money under the driver's seat of his car, so a lot of time if he needed money, he just reached into his car "bank." He almost never locked his car, either. And should I mention the time he was working as a lifeguard at a lake, when he hung his car keys over the waistband of his bathing suit and lost them in the lake and had to call me to bring his extra keys, but told me the wrong place to look, so I brought the wrong keys??? And the time he asked me to bring a dresser and chair to his college apartment, but forgot I was coming (hour drive) and went to the movies with friends? I ended up carrying dresser and chair up outside stairs to 3rd floor, but did not leave the pop and treats I had made!!

And HE wants to lecture me on planning???

Judy!

I once went in to the bank when I was in my early 20's because I was a penny off in my checking account and couldn't figure out why. The banker was so amazed and impressed and said no one has ever come in to find a penny difference! I wasn't quite that diligent when I got older tho.

Just came back from doing a couple haircuts down the street. I have gotten a few things done around here today. Dropped off the thrift store stuff, cleaned out the aquarium, and got Romeow's new larger litter box set up, plus made $50 from the haircuts. Maybe I will get to the dishes yet today...or not.

I am being sent to the other shop tomorrow. They are usually busier and the tips are a lot better so I am not too disappointed in that plan. It is only 5 miles further so not a bad drive either. Then I have Thursday and Friday off.

Have a good night!

Judy, your son sounds like my younger son. I'm pretty sure he has never balanced a checking account ever. He had the nerve to say something about the guy that has cattle here using his inheritance. I ask him if he wanted to come mow the pastures every couple of months and get the well fixed for me when it breaks. He helps me a lot more than my son does.

My first job with a CPA firm I was keeping books for six Gibson stores. They were kind of like a Walmart but not as big. This was before computers and the stack of checks for just one of the stores was about 6 inches tall. I got very good at balancing checking accounts. I was balancing my mother's account when I was in high school when my dad was away. There should be a high school course that teaches handing money, balancing checking accounts, grocery shopping, renting an apartment and other things it takes to live.

Martha

the Dr. was able to get the wax out of mom's ear yea!!! no more drops she has an appointment with the audiologist on Friday to see what her hearing is... I am pretty sure that they will say she needs hearing aids but also don't expect her to get them or to use them but she might surprise me...
we had rain today more thunder than rain but it got the decks wet.... it was good to see.... oh and water came down the rain spout
my dd called while I was at the drs. office with mom dr just came in so declined the call.... this daughter rarely calls more the texting type... so when we got out to the car I called to see what was the problem... the flooring people were suppose to lay the floor today they could because they said the issue wasn't repaired to their specifications (they were suppose to replace a 4 ft section... so dd wanted me to go to the condo and take pictures... I could see why they wouldn't do the work wouldn't even make an appointment until it's been done... if they put in a new section and that is a big IF it was a mere 1.5 or 2 ft section and that section has a section that was lower than the rest of it... I could see why they wouldn't do it the wood over that area would not have the support and potential of breaking through... oh and it smells could be the humidity but I know that they had adult dogs that had issues... it looked like it as well it's too bad that they didn't have the whole subfloor replaced... so took pictures and sent them on to sil haven't heard from them as to what the contractor said...
well that was my day...
I am sure Judy that as organized as you are that in the back of your mind that you know what you will do when the road no longer calls you... and totally agree that unless they really need to our kids really don't need to know our finances
you all take care
sheila

Martha, I actually took a math class in high school that taught how to balance a checkbook, do your own taxes, pay bills, make a budget, etc.

BarbaraRose wrote:Judy!

I once went in to the bank when I was in my early 20's because I was a penny off in my checking account and couldn't figure out why. The banker was so amazed and impressed and said no one has ever come in to find a penny difference! I wasn't quite that diligent when I got older tho. !

I think some schools do teach classes now on how to do budgets etc which I think is a good idea. My first 4 jobs were in a banks. At the first one nothing was automatic except the adding machines. We had to balance the bank to the penny every day before anyone left, checks did not have names printed on them so we had to memorize everyone's signature. The last bank I worked at never balanced, if it was close we went home. I was horrified when they put me in the drive in window sharing a cash drawer with TWO other people. The one time we had to stay because we were several thousand dollars short, I found a bundle of twenties on the floor. Funny thing was I had trained the president of this bank when he was hired at the bank where we balanced to the penny because they started him out in bookkeeping! When I quit I did give him a bit of a refresher chat.