Moving On...

The last couple of months have been a political nightmare.  This morning was the first time in ages that my text message alert wasn't going off dozens of times a day with political messages, that the YouTube algorithm wasn't filling my feed with doom and gloom political garbage geared towards divisiveness and hate, and that every talk show/FB post/news feed wasn't hammering away on the opposing political candidate.  This morning it seemed like everyone finally took a breath and hopefully(!) we can move forward.  Some positive things today...

• our lemon tree is just about ready to be harvested
• my first meeting went off without a hitch (I'm crossing my fingers for my afternoon meeting which is giving me unsettling vibes for some reason)
• my YouTube feed was showing such an array of non-political stuff today from subscriptions that haven't shown on the feed in ages that it was quite nice, including this nice post from Barry's Analog Insights
• the sun is very bright today (although the temps are in the mid 50s which is very winter-ish weather for us desert dwellers).  Our mountains even got some snow overnight.
• I was able to cancel the fancy anniversary dinner with our friends without any hurt feelings (she helps a lot of families out and she was telling me about sending money to a few families that were having financial problems which is when I segued into saying that we would really prefer that she helps other people during the holiday season and that we would be happier to hit up a local diner to celebrate our anniversary which she agreed with so all is well now)
• the parts to my blender showed up and worked perfectly.  I had no idea you could buy repair parts for something as simple as a blender (we usually just toss small appliances that don't work).  The blender should have several more years of life left now.

Now...onward!

10 Things I am NOT Doing Tomorrow

This is my "not" to do list tomorrow...

1. I will not vote (I already voted by mail a couple weeks ago then checked to make sure my ballot had been received) so I'm done with that.
2. I will not watch the minute-by-minute election news all day tomorrow (mainstream news is so utterly biased, I barely pay attention to it now; considering that six companies own nearly ALL of the news sources in the US, it's no wonder bias and manipulation are the name of the (news) game these days).
3. I will not shop.  I have spent less than $10 so far this month due to my low/no spend challenge.  It's getting difficult, however, as early Black Friday sales are now starting to show up in my feeds!
4. I will not argue Harris policy vs Trump policy with random strangers on the internet (people seem to get cranky when I point out facts--like the fact that the current administration has sent nearly $20 billion to Israel so they could kill 42,000 people in Gaza--instead of, maybe, spending that money on homeless Americans but I digress...).
5. I will not bake anything. I've been baking a lot lately (including the above banana bread that I baked this morning) so we definitely don't need any more baked goods for a while.
6. I will not eat out tomorrow.  Hubby and I have agreed to cut back on eating out this month as part of my "no spend" challenge.  Hubby is being very supportive but I am pretty sure he will get tired of my home cooking before the month is out!
7. I will not drive anywhere tomorrow.  Besides having some work projects to finish up, I try not to go anywhere at least a couple days each week and just stay home (plus the drivers here are absolute lunatics so every time we leave the house it's like jumping into a game of Frogger.  Applicable reddit post on the topic here).
8. I will not hold my breath for a meeting I scheduled Wednesday (I've got some prep work to do tomorrow but it may not be needed).  People have already started to cancel because their jobs will be on high alert after the election (primarily law enforcement, and disaster-related workers).  eeekkk
9. I will not doomscroll.  I have been trying lately to read e-books when I feel like being online instead of scrolling through massively long feeds of nothing but doom and gloom and anger-inducing posts and articles.
10. I will not grumble about how early it gets light now and grumble about how early it gets dark now.  Changing back to daylight standard time takes a bit of getting used to; I popped out of bed at 6am today because of the hour earlier than usual sunshine coming through our windows.

Beautiful Skies

Our evening and morning skies have been so beautiful recently!  p.s. Happy Halloween!

A sunset a few days ago looked like this...

And this morning I had to be up extra early for a meeting and when I looked out the window our sunrise looked like this...

Gas Leak eeekkk

Yesterday I came home after an hour or so of shopping and as soon as I walked into the house there was an overwhelming smell of...something.  Even though we use natural gas appliances, I don't really know what that kind of gas smells like.  I walked into the kitchen and saw that the dial for one of the burners was turned partially on but there was no flame so I put two and two together and nearly hit panic mode!

I opened the kitchen slider (fortunately it was a really windy day) then high-tailed it outside.  I started Googling what to do if there is a gas emergency and it said to call 911 or the gas company so I opted to call the gas company (I didn't want a full response from the fire department) and the lady said she would send someone out immediately.  She finished up by telling me to stay away from the house, not to light a match, not to turn on or off lights, etc.  Visions of the exploding houses your see on the news when there is a gas leak raced through my head...yikes!

The guy from the gas company arrived within a half hour and brought out his gas detector machine.  Here are some things I learned:

• CO detectors don't detect natural gas (the guy said they are two different types of gas so the detector won't detect natural gas).
• He also said the risk of carbon monoxide is that it will kill you quickly but natural gas leaks can go for a while (then if someone lights a match it might be game over).
• Natural gas rises instead of sinks.  By the time the gas guy arrived the first floor of our house didn't have the strong smell I noticed earlier but when we went upstairs the smell was again overwhelming so he opened the windows to let the second floor air out.
• Then he went to the thermostat and turned the fan from "auto" to "on" and said to let it run for a few hours as that would help air out the house.  I never thought of doing that so next time we have a lot of cooking smells I will do the same thing.
• Fortunately it wasn't 110 degrees outside so we could air out the house for hours without it getting too hot inside.
• The guy said that he responds to most house fires as there is always the suspicion of a gas leak when a house catches fire but he said the main cause of house fires these days is items with lithium batteries left plugged in to charge overnight.
• He said that in households with kids, he suggests stove dial covers which require a couple of steps before allowing the dial to be turned on.  For hubby and I (we still can't figure out how it was turned on, maybe one of us bumped into it?) we both check the stove now before we go upstairs to bed or leave the house.

I'm glad everything worked out OK with this situation!

10 Reminders

Off topic, mom cat came back a few days after we donated a big unopened bag of cat food to the local shelter.  We hadn't seen the cats in an age so we thought they were really gone and we had all of this cat food so we decided to donate it as the shelters in our area are overflowing with cats...and then she shows up out of the blue!  I don't understand feral cats.  At all.

Now some reminders...

1. Set your clocks back this Saturday before you go to bed.  Daylight savings time ends on Sunday.
2. Vote next Tuesday (or earlier if early voting is available in your area).
3. The last free entrance day to the National Parks in 2024 will be on November 11th--Veterans Day.
4. If the weather has changed significantly in your area (it's dropped nearly 50 degrees over the past couple weeks in our area), be sure to get the air pressure checked in your car tires.
5. A few other things to do when you change your clocks back include checking the batteries in your smoke/CO detectors, changing your furnace filters, and making sure your fire extinguishers are fully charged.
6. Start your Christmas shopping now.  This is a great time to pick up wrapping paper, cards, and bows as they come into stock at the Dollar Tree, you can pick up gifts before the Christmas rush in late December, and buying gift cards, a few at a time, are great for those last-minute Christmas gifts.
7. Now is also a good time to buy loss leaders at the grocery store for your holiday meals (our local grocery store is already starting to put baking items, potatoes, etc. on sale which we are stocking up on for Thanksgiving and Christmas meals).
8. With Halloween happening this Thursday, next week will be a great time to stock up on highly discounted candy/decorations/costumes/etc.
9. If you live in an area that gets winter storms, prepare now before bad weather starts.
10. Finally, who knows how things will shake out after the election next week (I'm hoping for calm, cool, and collected people but judging by how people act on a daily basis around here that may be hoping for too much), be prepared for civil unrest just in case.

10 Random Things

Just a bunch of random things from this week...

1. It is less than two weeks until the presidential election.  Big eeekkk  I hope people will be reasonable and cooler heads will prevail no matter what the outcome is.  I will also be glad that all of the political text messages will stop!
2. Mildly related, two of our military installations will be holding a disaster exercise on election day(!).  People are already wound up enough over this election so seeing military activity on such a contentious day is either #1, a warning to the populace or #2, really poor planning.  I'm thinking it is #2 but holy cow these people could have picked a different date. Yikes
3. Speaking of Election Day, here is a list of freebies and discounts you can get on Election Day.
4. My blender sort of died.  The metal part on the pitcher that fits over the metal part that sticks up from the motor seems to be stripped since the motor works but the blades won't spin so after not being able to find a new blender at the Goodwill and not wanting to pay full price for a new blender, I went online to Amazon and found that I could buy replacement parts for the bottom of the pitcher assembly for $8. I am waiting for the parts to get here and hopefully this fixes the problem for less than $10!
5. Hubby's coffee maker is acting like it isn't long for this world so while we were at the Goodwill looking for a blender, he picked up a new drip coffee maker for $6.  It works perfectly and looks pretty new (see photo above) so we will keep it to replace the old coffee maker when it stops working all together.
6. Prepper Princess posted a video on the things that were "best buys" for her house.  Our list is pretty much the same--bidets, Roku, a lemon tree in the back yard, OTA antenna, the $6.95 Netflix plan, a coffee maker at home so hubby never buys coffee from a coffee shop, freezing food when it comes on sale, etc.
7. Costco was ridiculously busy today!  I thought going to Costco on a quiet Thursday morning at 10am would be a good plan but apparently everyone else had the same plan.  There were a lot of sales so we stocked up on everything (dish soap, laundry soap, all kinds of canned foods, etc) so we shouldn't have to go back to Costco for months (thank God, that place is a zoo!).
8. The weather in Las Vegas is perfect now!  High 70s/low 80s is warm and amazing.  It makes for great walking in the morning!
9. In a creepy turn of events, hubby and I looked at a few open houses near our house a couple of months ago.  Besides having too many stairs, I told him I didn't like the houses because they were three stories high which to me is a huge fire hazard (the bedrooms are on the third floor and if there was a fire, good luck jumping out of a window that is 30+ feet off the ground).  Sadly, in the news this morning, there was the exact same style of house in another part of Las Vegas that caught on fire killing most of the occupants :(
10. My goal for November is to have a NO spend NOvember.

10 Things from This Week

In no particular order... 

1. I got an OK-ish picture of the Hunter Moon a couple days ago. 
   
   
   
2. And a pretty interesting picture of a recent sunset...  
   
   
   
3. And another Halloween-ish picture at the Goodwill (this big guy was for sale but it would be way too big for our yard!).  
   
   
   
4. My voting is done (I like to vote by mail so I can research each candidate and ballot question as I fill out the ballot).  Now if people would quit with the political calls/texts/mailers/doorhangers!
5. Marginally related to voting and our psychotic political climate...don't believe everything you read or see online.  AI is being used to create very realistic videos these days!
6. I think our very hot days are done now--we went from 96 degrees to 65 degrees during the day in a matter of less than a week!
7. I am still shocked when we come across ridiculously priced...anything.  Hubby and I looked at a nearby new housing development that featured all single-level homes.  They started at $780k and went up from there :(  Then I was curious what a new truck would cost and when I checked some local auto dealer websites, it looks like the starting price for new base-model trucks is $50k :( :(
8. Hubby and I are trying to figure out how to tell a couple we go out to lunch with regularly that we want to decline their offer to take us out to dinner for our anniversary.  We always take turns paying for lunch (which we need to cut back on) but the place they want to take us for dinner is $150 per person which is #1 ridiculously expensive, #2 way out of our comfort zone for the cost of one meal (we aren't foodies at all), and #3 would require reciprocity in the future (again, that is way more than we--or anyone--should want to pay for a meal!).  They are a nice couple and they mean well so we don't want to insult them but nearing $1000 for the meal/drinks/tax/tip for four people is simply outrageous IMHO.
9. Somewhat related to work, it seems like everything medical-related is in shortage these days including IVs, drugs, and providers.  eeekkk
10. Finally, while we have shut off the air conditioning for the season, we are hoping we can go a whole month (or longer!) before we need to turn on the heat.  I have friends around the country who are already posting their snow pictures on FB so there was really no break in utility costs when it comes to hot, or cold, weather for them.