On being "stuck" - time out to figure things out

I realized this morning that I am feeling "stuck" in many areas of life which means I need to take time off from this blog to find my way out of this phase.

I'll still be checking in on other blogs. Have a great Fall. 

Daily life plus frugal/not-frugal, looking forward

Daily life -

I’m an early riser so get the dishwasher run and load of laundry done if needed first thing while the electrical rates are low. The laundry is in the garage. I have set up a drying rack and use a sofa table we didn’t need in the house as a laundry staging area. It isn’t as nice as the indoor set up in our last house but way better than the basement one in the house before that.

The garage is not usable for parking as the door has been closed off and small. It is good for storage which is great because best we can figure 3 closets have been removed inside this house during remodels (bedroom, linen and coat). Right now it holds our storage stuff and some excess from our son’s while their 101 year old house foundation is being replaced.

Frugal/not-frugal - 

This week’s check of the frig produced some moldy open jars and a very old piece of frozen ginger plus three things we weren’t going to finish because they didn’t taste good. Not our best week.

My fall wardrobe refresh has resulted in 6 purchases so far - a mix of new and thrifted items. Four  tops, a cardigan and sweatpants for a total of $121 or an average of $20 per piece at a range of $4 to $79. I’m happy with that. Onward to exercise clothes and PJs.

Something to look forward to - 

I talked to a neighbor who also likes to go to art exhibits and once she is through substitute teaching and the holidays are behind us we are going to take trips to local art museums plus lunch out. I’m also going to ask Hubby if he wants to go to MOMA in San Francisco as an outing.

Our older son and DIL are planning to spend Christmas with us which is another thing to look forward to.

October week 1: Yummy pumpkin bread, Play time, Art show, thrift shopping

1. This spider has been hanging out right outside our back door for days. So far I've only seen plant "fluff" caught in the web but I love the patterns the web and wood fence make together.

2. Oh my goodness but this pumpkin bread is so good! Smitten Kitchen Pumpkin Bread

3. We had our 2 1/2 year old granddaughter over Sunday morning for a special solo visit and it went really well. Her Dad stayed for a little while and then said he was going to go get coffee and be back. She was fine with that and we 3 plus the dog had a really good time. 

4. I am thankful that our move to be near our young grandchildren has worked out positively. The added bonus part is that we can help out when life’s logistics are a challenge for our son and DIL. The downside of the move still is not having found a meaningful activity outside of family that fits me and not yet having a circle of friends. That is on me to fix though.

5. Sunday afternoon we walked to the city Rec center to see a show by a local artists' group. Enjoyed the variety of art a lot and would have succumbed to buying one but purposefully left my wallet at home.

6. I've found one local charity thrift store I will keep dropping by to see what they have. Most recently I found a red-violet 3/4 sleeve Chico's top that I really like as well as a JJill navy cardigan. Working on average per item spending as I kept one top from JJill at a high price for a cotton (albeit organic) top. 

Still want to find some inexpensive warm tops to improve what is in my GO BAG and replace some exercise tops.

7. I am thankful that every registered voter in California is mailed a ballot and can chose voting by mail, dropping off the completed ballot at a convenient location or voting in person. I walked to city hall and dropped mine off.

Ending September/Starting October - Life Admin completions, ocular migraine, tariffs

As longtime readers know I can procrastinate quite well on life admin that has no clear deadline 😊 This past week some of it got done though!

1. Most important (to the dog) first - favorite toy Fluffy Puppy's "arm wound" was sutured and it is ready for rambunctious play once again. I also mended a shirt that didn't have the same level of excitement result lol.

2. We have been married for over 4 decades and never had a certified marriage license. We thought what was handed to us after the wedding was all there was and no one told us differently at the time. Once I realized we needed one for the survivor to navigate bureaucracy upon one of our deaths, I took that out and there on the back in faint blue print were instructions as to how to order a certified copy.

Well the county claimed they didn’t have it and said the proof of marriage probably was never turned in by the officiant. I finally got the idea of checking the state online marriage records through a genealogy site and there we were so it was filed correctly. The state records office came through after another notarized request was submitted. The document print is a bit weird so we figure it was printed from a microfilm copy. At least we now have one and know who can produce it if we ever need another.

3. Some contact info on our Advance Health Care Directives is out of date so I pulled up Kaiser’s version which also has a Life Care Planning section with deep questions about receiving care or not under different circumstances. I talked through my answers with my older son & DIL when they were visiting to clarify my thoughts were being communicated.

I mentioned to younger son that my bottom line was that whomever had to make these difficult decisions should make ones they will be able to live with. He said that is what he put in his form when they did their documents. I sent the draft to Hubby so we can discuss and finalize it. Just talking about filling it out led to discussions we hadn’t had before as we have some different views on what we would want.

The final steps are to get it witnessed by 2 non-family members or notarized, submit it to Kaiser for inclusion in my medical record and provide copies to my designated proxies.

4. I ordered the laundry detergent sheets we use that are made in Canada and the price has gone up 11%. I'm sure we are seeing tariff increases across much of what we buy but this was easily calculated. 

I also paid our property tax first installment and credit card bills, contributed to the grand-girls college funds, and donated to the county food bank as those are not automated.  I also did month end financial reconciling and as usual felt very grateful for our situation at our age.

5. Wednesday morning I had an ocular aura migraine that first made me think the computer screen was going bad. It only lasted less than 10 minutes but was really weird with moving wavy lines of diamond shapes in the side vision of both eyes. Hubby came to call the Kaiser help line to see if I should get examined and casually mentioned he had had the same thing on and off for several years in one eye - what!!! 

Mine ended and I felt ok so went to Pilates and called the ophthalmologist after lunch as by then I had a bad headache. No need to see a doctor but now I know what additional symptoms would mean to do so. Tylenol and a long nap made me feel somewhat better. A strange experience. 

PLUS - Cornbread and blueberry muffins were baked, chili made and other meals cooked, stove fan filters washed, exercises done and all that kind of stuff.

September week 4: Farmer's Market excursion

On Sunday we took the 8 year old grand-girl to the Farmer's Market. The 3 of us had a good time!

Our first encounter with the monthly puzzle exchange table at the fancy farmer's market was awesome! We brought one that no one wanted to do, granddaughter brought 2 and her Mom sent one. Different ones were happily picked out by granddaughter as replacements. What a great idea!

We treated her to a fancy brownie and fresh juice plus red grapes for her household. I just got spinach, cucumbers and red grapes for us. Hubby got us both pastries.

The live music was upbeat jazz tunes - very nice.

Granddaughter ran into a friend which made her happy.

And the only other news is that nothing I ordered online worked out so will be returned and I got my COVID vaccine. As usual I lost a day to my reaction to it but still very happy to have gotten it.

Jolted awake by earthquake

I wasn’t able to go back to sleep after a short jolting earthquake just before 3am. Apparently it was centered near the UC Berkeley campus less than 2 miles away.

No damage to our house. The auto gas shutoff was not activated. No car alarms going. The dog went back to sleep fairly soon. 

Just a minor adjustment in the Hayward fault so whew for us at least!

September week 3: Point Reyes, trees, shopping

 

We had an outing to Point Reyes Station for a yummy lunch, abalone shell and antler totems, a cypress tunnel leading to a decommissioned maritime Morse code receiving station in the National seashore area, and delicious buffalo milk soft serve ice cream swirl cones. It was fun and also a lot of driving but part was through stately redwoods in a state park. Lunch was an Open-faced Veggie Sandwich with hummus, cucumbers, tomato, avocado, pumpkin seeds, toasted sesame & almonds on rustic batard and absolutely delicious and filling.

A neighbor's rapidly growing large oak tree was hanging way over our fence so we had it pruned back, a small oak tree/large shrub removed at a front property line, and some trees we planted pruned to a good shape for going forward. They did a great job and provided some education too to help us do some things ourselves going forward.

I continued my fall and winter clothes shopping project. 3 brick and mortar stores = no purchases. Checked off sweatpants with a pair of Amazon Essentials for $15.66 (running total for 2 tops & sweatpants = $31.91). Placed a large costly online order from JJill which I know fits me so now it is about comfort, color and style.

I'll return all from JJill that doesn’t work to the store. Then back to the two thrift stores worth ongoing visits. I also learned about a SF company, Marine Layer, that has a Berkeley store so I will check them out for sizing and style. They certainly understand the weather here.

Help please - I want a pair of very comfortable slip on walking shoes or sneakers but not Sketchers as my feet don’t like them. I’m considering trying Orthofeet but looking for other suggestions.

And lots of little stuff:

- Pilates is back on - yeah!

-I found yet another nearly new pencil on the sidewalk. We do live near a middle school and lots of kids walk home. We do not need more pencils, but they don't need to go into the storm drain.
- The Grocery Outlet was out of ground turkey so we had chicken burgers instead.

- Leftover green beans prompted me to remember how much we like Niçoise salad so we had that for dine once during our 3 days of summer weather this week.

- This summer has made me wonder if I should give away our patio umbrella and stand. That and the wind tunnel effect on our patio as the wind heads through the Golden Gate, across the bay and straight to our back yard. Haven’t even hauled it out once this season.

- Picking up the older grandgirl from swim team practice this afternoon as it is date night for son and DIL. Toddler stays at nursery school for kid’s night out which I think is a marvelous offering.