10 Random Things

In no particular order... 

1. We are supposed to get a little rain this weekend. According to the sky this looks promising!
2. Are you a bad photographer? Here is a contest for you!
3. Speaking of travel, Frontier is selling its annual "All You Can Fly" pass now.
4. TIL (today I learned) there is such a thing as knolling.
5. This may be the coolest kid I've ever seen!
6. Celebrate Trails Day is April 25th; many events are scheduled around the country to celebrate the Rails to Trails Conservancy's 40th anniversary!
7. I will turn 59 this week. Imagine my shock when I realize I can file for Social Security in a few short years. Somehow it seems I went from 40 to almost 60 in the blink of an eye!
8. I am taking steps to "de Google" my life; these are some of the reasons why.
9. Here is a great list of free and useful websites.
10. I love it when people have weird hobbies...

5 Nice Things This Weekend

It's been a rather nice weekend so far...

1. We found a water storage barrel at Tractor Supply and got an additional 25% off the price so we are really happy to have a bit of back-up emergency water.
2. We still feed the feral the cats that roam around the neighborhood but the five that are hanging out now are completely different than the ones that we used to feed several months ago.
3. A new car wash opened near our local shopping center and they are giving free car washes this week so we got one and are very happy with how shiny and clean our car looks now!
4. I look forward to seeing the top wildlife photos each years...such cool pictures!
5. And here are some useful tips if you own a home.

One of our new feral cats...

Infrastructure...

...or lack thereof. Within the past couple of days we have seen gas prices rise exponentially, had a power outage, had an internet outage, and my bank's website "had issues" according to the customer service lady. Here's how we are dealing with these things...

• On payday I logged into my bank's website to move money to savings and to an investment account and nothing was working. A few hours later it still showed pending for something that wasn't pending and processed for something that wasn't processed. I called the customer service line and the lady said their computers were having issues. Several hours later the site was kind of working. Fortunately I wasn't in a hurry to get my banking done but we do keep some cash on hand in case the system stays down for an extended period of time.
• For some reason we had zero power outages for the first 12 years that we lived in Vegas, however during the past few years, we have had several. Our power was out for about five hours a few days ago but now we are so used to breaking out the power banks it's barely a glitch for us. Since these issues seem to be getting worse (and in case power costs really spike) we are ready with power banks and solar panels to take care of our basic power needs.
• After the power issue resolved, out internet had an area-wide outage. We dealt with that by hotspotting to our cell phones (I still had a few work emails to send off). Then, since streaming wasn't working we watched a TV show via the over-the-air antenna then watched a movie from our newly-created DVD collection. We got rid of our DVDs years ago but I decided to start collecting them at $1 each on dollar Mondays at the Goodwill. When I first started doing this, hubby said we will never use them but I pointed out that we are using the collection..as I slid the movie into the DVD player! :)
• Gas is continuing to rise so we just fill up when it gets to 3/4 tank. Which is better than the guy at the gas pump before us who left his receipt for $180 worth of gas on the pump. Yikes!
• My project this week is to acquire a 55 gallon water barrel. With infrastructure (and our government) hanging by a thread, and because we live in a dessert, it makes sense to be ready for a water service outage as well. Hopefully we never have to use it and can just rotate the water by watering the shrubs with is, but better safe than sorry!

A Shopping Update

We did our usual shopping rounds today and noticed all kinds of signs that our economy is teetering on the brink...

• The Goodwill was packed with people today. It was dollar day so Mondays are usually busy but there were way more people than we usually see there.
• We had lunch at our favorite dim sum place which is usually busy every time we go there but there were a lot fewer people today than normal.
• We went to two Dollar Tree stores and the shelves were noticeably sparse. I think it is only a matter of time before the whole notion of dollar (now dollar fifty) stores goes the way of five and dime stores as the cost of producing and shipping these small items is increasing by the day.
• We got gas which was $4.79 a gallon(!?!). Yikes.
• At the big Mexican grocery store we shop at, produce is usually very cheap and very fresh. Prices seemed much higher than usual today and none of the produce seemed as fresh as usual.
• We skipped Costco and Sam's Club today as we have a good-sized stockpile of food. I am, however, making a point to pick up a few extra food items at every store we shop at (like two pounds of brown rice and two pounds of pinto beans at the Dollar Tree today, extra mayo that was on sale at Albertsons this week, etc). 
• Tech shopping has pretty much come to a halt. Samsung released their new phones recently and I wasn't even tempted to upgrade, and I have several laptops that work just fine, ditto for tablets. Besides the higher price for tech items these days, "improvements" are generally unnoticeable compared to previous iterations.
• Overall we are pretty well set to weather economic turmoil, however I would love to have a garden. Unfortunately our yard is tiny and the ground is like concrete (although this lady in Las Vegas seems to have an AMAZING garden!).

Relaxing Sunsets

Since anything I would write about would be a downer (gas prices, food prices, a horrible aircraft accident, a missing general that the media is mostly ignoring...), I will just post some relaxing sunset photos. I hope you all are doing well!

10 More Things

In no particular order...

1. If you "sprung your clocks forward" last Saturday evening, did you also do these things?
2. I was listening to this YouTube video and realized that many of the "extreme" cost-saving things Clark's callers are doing to save money are things we have been doing for years!
3. I was talking to a friend, and her son, who is in his forties, is not doing well health-wise. I know sometimes people just need someone to listen when they are worried about a serious problem but my analytical mind goes to 'what are the next steps to fix this situation?' So in addition to several medical resources, I sent her this list because if it comes to someone's end-of-life situation, not having the appropriate documents on hand can be a financial and legal catastrophe.
4. Here is a great list of ideas for eating cheap and healthy.
5. My favorite site for online shopping discounts (mostly hiking and walking gear, shoes, etc): Sierra
6. OTOH, I have really cut back on my Amazon purchases because it seem the product quality, shipping time, and the need for less crap cluttering up my house have all converged. Lots of Amazon products seem to be crap now.
7. Oddly enough, we barely had a winter this year and we should reach 90 degrees this week(!). Yay because nice weather, boo for the extremely critical snow pack (or lack thereof) this year.
8. Work is stressful, news is stressful, $5+ per gallon gas is stressful...life is stressful these days (and we are in a pretty good financial situation compared to many people. I have no idea how families with a lot of kids are getting by these days!).
9. Plus, I'm old. In everyday work situations, I miss the good old days of not having to be careful that I am not "speaking aggressively" or taking pains to tiptoe around people's feelings when they aren't doing their job, don't know how to do their job, and don't ask for help until things are on the verge of falling off a cliff. Bah humbug
10. And then there is politics...

10 Random Things

In no particular order...

1. This is my picture of last night's full moon. I wanted to stay up and see the lunar eclipse but it didn't happen until after 1am and I had to work in the morning so I missed it.
2. Don't forget to set your clocks forward next Saturday.
3. The live eagle cam is back and the eagles have two eggs they are sitting on. Cool!
4. If you think Big Brother is watching you, you are right.  :(
5. On the other hand, here is a great list of non-digital activities to check out. I met two ladies doing diamond art and had never heard of it but it looked really interesting.
6. Apparently we are at war with Iran now. Needless to say, we are beefing up our preps even more.
7. Our list of "things to prepare for" is getting exponentially longer...war, Social Security going insolvent, AI displacing 90% of the workforce...ayayay
8. We went from cold and needing the heat on to roasting hot at 80+ degrees and needing the AC on in the matter of one day last week. Crazy!
9. My neighbor gave me a bunch of homemade tamales yesterday so that was a nice (and yummy!) surprise.
10. I need to start reading books again. I am either reading short things online or reading studies and reports with a ton of data. I have the attention span of a goldfish these days so hopefully reading longer novels will fix that.

Happy spring to you all!