Friday February 18

[Shirlv]

Morning All, it’s sunny, breezy, 45°but dropping to 29° tonight. It’s still windy but mini green house is still in tact. No plans for the day. I woke up this morning so it’s a good day.

[BarbaraRose]

Good morning Shirl and those who follow and lurk!

Shirl, could you put a rock or something heavy on the top of the basket to hold it down?

I am hanging out in bed this morning, because I can! I did a haircut after work last night and was so tired I went to bed early. I have 2 haircuts to do at 10am this morning. There is a yard sale in the park this morning too but (shock !) I am too tired to go around to check things out. I really don't need to bring anything more into this house anyways! There is another yard sale in a month so I will participate in that one to get rid of more stuff I have here. So I have time to go thru and get stuff put aside for that.

Now that my golf cart is gone, the front of my house looks kind of bare. I moved some planters in front but they don't have anything in them. I might get some more potting soil and buy some cheap flowers to put in there. It is late in the season now with the heat coming in a few months so I don't want to invest in anything expensive. I might even just buy some fake flowers to put in there instead. Then I don't have to remember to water them!

Lots to do today after the haircuts. Need to bring my tax stuff to my tax guy, drop off books at the library, get the house keys remade, do laundry, etc. The male cat has been spraying my steps out front so I need to wash those off. I would rather he sprays those than my slider since it is easier to clean off there. Would sure like to trap him and get him fixed! He is the one with the bad ear too.

Velda, so sorry about your Covid. Hope Chris doesn't have it too. I just got my 2 boxes of free covid test kits yesterday in the mail. I bought one box (2 kits in each box) awhile back and used one before I went to visit my brother, so I still have 5 tests left. So far I am feeling fine. I am hearing that this Omicron doesn't usually cause a fever. Lets hope we can get thru this variant and not get another one before we can get rid of all of it!

I heard that Coachella Fest and Stagecoach, 2 hugely popular music festivals out here, are not requiring any masks, vaccines, or anything, so those will probably be super spreaders and bring up the number of infections significantly in the valley here. Both festivals are from mid April into the first week of May about 8 miles from me. We also have the county fair and Date festival starting next week just a couple miles from me.

I better get up and ready for my haircuts.

[Acadianmom]

It got up to 75 yesterday but is down to 50 today. We only got about 1/8 of an inch of rain but I think most of the rain was going sideways because the wind was so strong.

I am going through a box of papers that came out of my office when I retired in 2007. No sense in getting in a hurry. I need to burn them so hope the wind dies down.

I'm still receiving tax papers so haven't checked to see what is still missing. Since I had to change some accounts from Harold's name to mine I'm afraid it created a taxable event. The last time that happened they cut my social security.

There are Mardi Gras parades this year and Down Town Alive every Friday so will be interesting to see what it does to the covid numbers. I'm not going to any parades or festivals. I think about going to the farmers markets but don't ever get moving early enough to make them.

I need to go get cat food at the feed store this afternoon. They close at noon on Saturday so I probably wouldn't make it in the morning.

Martha

[chalet05]

Good Morning,

Boy did I jinx myself when I said winter wasn't what I anticipated - we are going to be a lot colder next week, unless the weather changes again! A bit cloudy now. Looks like another day of little projects.

[BarbaraRose]

I went and did the 2 haircuts and then on the way back to the house, I saw some things that were for sale that I stopped for . I ended up buying 2 folding padded chairs to use for haircuts. I have looked online for some that were just folding stools and were $60 each! I got two nice chairs for $25! I can use one for working on my gourd projects and one for haircuts. Also found a nice table lamp for my gourd table that will help me see what I am doing, for $2. So I still came home with a little cash! Good thing I didn't go out this morning looking! $$$

Just had lunch and now need to get going on the rest of my list of things to do.

[Bethers]

Martha, you can appeal when a one time thing causes your income to go up which cuts into social security. In most of those cases your full amount is reinstated. And I'm back in the low 60's today also. And the wind isn't gone but oh, so much better.

Lol Barbie. But if they are needed, that's a good thing.

The park is having a baked potato and toppings meal today. Proceeds are going to a charity. I forget which. It includes root beer floats but I won't partake of one of those because some root beer has caffeine and that a big no-no for me. I'd just give a contribution, but I don't go to many things here so figured I would when it helps someone somewhere and put my contribution in the bucket.

[Colliemom]

Good afternoon. Waiting for the snow to begin. We are under a Winter Storm Warning until 7 o’clock tomorrow morning. It’s not so much for the amount of snow that we are supposed to have, 3 to 6 inches, but it’s the winds that are going to cause issues with blowing snow and visibility issues They are telling everybody if they don’t have to go out just stay home. I have all my errands done so I don’t care what it does.

I have a really good day today. I did a bit of grocery shopping and because I have a charge card from our local AMeijer store, I get a $10 certificate every time I spend over $200. I can use that on purchases it at the store. I also periodically get $2 or $4 dollars off my grocery bill when I spend $75 I think it is. So today I got not only the $10 off from the coupon, but I also had $2.00 off my laundry soap and 2 take $4.00 off my groceries cart,so I had $20 chopped off my total bill Then I went and got my income tax done and because I sold that piece of property last fall at a lower price then I probably could’ve asked from somebody else, that loss balance out the capital gains that I had so I am getting a refund On both state and local taxes Needless to say I am one happy person today. For those of you who tend to get refunds, IRS has advised not to wait until the last minute to file your taxes. They have a 6 million tax back up from last year and the longer you wait to file your taxes the longer it is going to take you to get your refund this year. My tax preparer said that she has people that she does taxes for, who are just now getting their tax refund from last year. There is a tremendous amount of new math in the taxes this year and they are very hard to figure out, so some of you who do your own taxes might have to seek some professional advice. One of my neighbor/friends here threw in the towel because she said it was just too complicated trying to figure it out, and my tax preparer concurred on that. I don’t know if it is the federal or state unemployment that was given out last year, during the Covid, But a lot of people are shocked to find out that it is taxable.

I finished painting the last room in my basement so now it is down to sorting through the stuff that I have sitting on the floor and then putting back what I Intend to keep. Once I get that done, then I will get on to painting the floor.

Barbie, those were good finds that you bought because you can put them to use. Velda, I hope you get to feeling better pretty soon. There is a virus called the Stealth Omicron going around right now. That is the one that causes all the coughing and the tiredness. BJ, don’t worry too much about Emma possibly playing with Pippa, because it is surprising how big dogs adjust the level of play to a smaller dog. When I took my trip out west I had Molly with me, and she was eight months old, so she was almost a full grown dog. One of the campgrounds that we were staying at, the people next to me had a Chihuahua and she wanted to play. The owner was a little hesitant, but we really enjoyed watching them, because Molly was so gentle with her despite the size difference.

My fence guy was here on Wednesday and put in some more fence posts. He is planning to come on Sunday because we are having a nice warm spell coming in and then depending on how he does with the posts on that day, he will come back Monday or Tuesday and finish up the posts and then completely finish the fencing the next time he comes. We had rain on Wednesday night and everything is covered in ice now because it froze after it rained. So having the snow come will be good because at least we’ll be able to walk out there without falling. Even the dogs are walking very gingerly when they’re in the yard.

So I guess I’m a go watch the news him see what’s going around in northern Michigan and I later I will work on my family history of back and half watch what’s left of the Olympics. I’m kind of burned out of it now. So you are have a good evening or afternoon depending upon what your time zone is. Oh, and Anita, it isn’t over till it’s over, I’m referring to Winter.

[JudyJB]

A very late Good Morning! I have been sleeping in and then reading for a while in bed, so breakfast has been at lunch. Today, I changed my bed, which is always not easy, especially trying to get clean sheets out of my overhead cabinet and tucking in the left side of my bed because of the arthritis in my left shoulder. It is painful to lift my left arm over my head or use it in certain ways. Could get it replaced, but that would take many months of recovery.

Then had to make a few phone calls to try to get a replacement for my couch, which does not seem possible. About a month ago I got an estimate of $2,500 to get this little loveseat-sized jack-knife couch recovered!!! I do not even use it as a bed, so I do not care if it is just a plain couch. Going to try some marine places that recover boat furniture. Also, my tailpipe is falling off and I need a new bracket, but ran out of time to call around. And finally, I dumped my tanks and drove to a Chase Bank about 8 miles away to buy several rolls of quarters for laundry.

That just about took my entire day--of course i move slowly these days. Need to focus on doing some reading tonight.

Oh, and I am really, really happy that the International Skating Union is going to propose changing the minimum age of ice skaters in competition to 17. It is sad about the expectations put on these young teens to act as adult athletes! They give up their entire young lives to compete as adults and then people wonder why they have problems as adults.

[Redetotry]

I've had better days! We took Pippa for her 4 month vaccine today and she had a reaction. A few hours after we got home she started acting very strange running then stopping and scratching at her ears and rubbing her eyes. I called the vet and they said give her 2cc's of childrens Benadryl. She slept for quite awhile then ate and started the scratching agitated behavior again. I held her for awhile and she went back to sleep. She should be pretty drugged as i had also given her 1/2 of a Dramamine for the drive to the vet per his recommendation and it was the 24 hour type. I'm pretty freaked out but think she is ok now. While that was going on Toby was chewing on a dryer ball I had dropped and forgot to pick up. DH went to take it away from him and Toby bit his hand. It is a pretty bad bite and I think he should go for a tetanus shot tomorrow but I'm pretty sure he won't. I'm ready for bed!
We had a really bad snow storm and it was very cold for part of last week and yesterday I found Daffodils blooming in our yard!! I have never seen Daffodils bloom this early.
Sue I don't think Emma will ever play with Pippa, she doesn't want to get near her and won't even walk past her play pen. Emma is afraid of Toby so they don't play. We have a dysfunctional group of dogs!

[snowball]

I think our high was in the low 30's but not sure... although since is it 29 right now it may have gotten hotter than I thought...
and it was a do nothing day they come around almost every day!!! later breakfast as mom didn't take her thyroid med so had to wait until the 1/2 hr was up... then back to bed to read scriptures and then I listened to a pod cast then the phone beckoned and I wasted a lot of time on FB then focused on a tv show enough so that when mom went to switched channels I asked her not to as I was really into the mystery I was watching I knew better than go get involved in it but did it anyway .... it's all screwed up time wise due to the Olympic's normally it would be ok but oh well it will be over soon..
left over's for supper now I have to figure out what is for supper tomorrow night... no clue
I am boring even myself
you all have a great day
sheila