Quick Update

It's been a busy couple weeks as we move into fall...

• We are enjoying the lower temperatures (yes we can actually feel the difference between 110 degrees and 95 degrees!).
• Work is still in some ways a PITA. There are several old guys on our team that are one annoyance away from retiring with a few day's notice...I am probably right behind them!
• Prices on everything continue to rise. Our food stockpile is bursting at the seams so we don't want to buy much more (we don't want to waste it because it expires before we can eat it).
• We look forward to getting outside and doing more activities in the fall since we have been practically home-bound all summer.
• It may storm tomorrow (I love storms in the desert!).
• Monday is Labor Day. There are lots of sales but at this point, we literally don't need a single thing.
• The feral cats are still cute as ever...

!0 Things from This Week

In no particular order...

1. I cant believe it is almost September! This year has flown by!
2. RIP Dolly Parton. I knew she had been sick but like other larger-than-life cultural icons, you never think they will actually die.  :(
3. Our sunrises are as pretty as our sunsets! 
   
   
   
   
   
4. Exactly half of our lemon tree is suddenly dead, no idea why  :(  
   
   
   
5. We replaced all of the carpet upstairs with vinyl plank flooring last week (we did the downstairs a couple years ago). It should be cooler and easier to clean--not to mention it won't collect dust and dirt like carpet--but it takes a bit of getting used to on our feet. Also, hubby and I determined we are way too old and frail to be moving furniture these days.
6. According to my work email (and meetings...and fire app), most of the west is on fire! eeekkk 
   
   
   
7. Speaking of disasters, September is National Preparedness Month. Here is a great daily calendar of preparedness tasks everyone should complete for the month.
8. I can't believe that everywhere we go there is wall-to-wall Halloween advertising--the holiday is still a full two months away!
9. Here is an interesting 'Almost Tariff-Proof' Grocery Guide.
10. I'm thinking about retiring. I love my job so I am not in a hurry to retire but it suddenly dawned on me that I am nearing retirement age (how did that happen??? It seems like I was just 40 a year or so ago!). So I guess making a graceful exit from the world of work is something I should start planning for.

10 Things from This Week

It's been a busy week!

1. It is still hot here (around 110 degrees everyday) and our source of water (Lake Mead) has hit its lowest point ever.  eeekkk
2. Of course our sunrises and sunsets are still beautiful!  
   
   
   
3. We saw this clever idea on TV so I bought a cheap plastic shoe holder on Amazon and hubby organized it perfectly. 
   
   
   
4. I also bought this very small, very cute vacuum on Amazon and was surprised at how well it works! It seems to work as well as the Dyson we tried for a fraction of the price plus it has a cord so I don't have to charge the battery every half hour.
5. EVERYTHING at the grocery store has increased in price. We only bought loss leaders today (a big tub of coffee was half off at only $10,99) but we skipped the hamburger all together (the price was shocking high...for hamburger. Ugh).  
   
   
   
6. Half of the state of Washington seems to be on fire. I thought August would be quiet for work but, because of the fire response, we are having meetings everyday even on Sundays!
7. The stores were packed today. I forgot that kids in Las Vegas go back to school on Monday.
8. AI keeps escaping its set boundaries. Scary when you think about the possibilities.
9. A reminder to occasionally check for unclaimed property and class action lawsuits.
10. I love bucket lists. Here are a bunch of great bucket list ideas for fall. 

How to Trim a Palm Tree...And Other Things

Every once in a while I look out my window and see something unusual...

And in other news... 

• I wish you all a happy and safe Memorial Day Weekend! We will probably go to the free military buffet at the South Point Casino on Monday as this is something we usually do on the holiday.
• When things get stressful (which work has been lately...I would love to elaborate but policy says I can't talk about ______ and confidentiality protocol says I can't talk about ________ ) I zone out occasionally and watch live cat videos here and here.
• I will also be voting in the mid term primaries this weekend (everyone should vote like their life depends on it...because it does).
• I will be avoiding people as much as possible, which is kind of normal for me (measles, ebola, and hantavirus oh my!).
• There are 100 days between this coming Sunday and the last day of August so I may do some sort of '100 Days of Summer' project.
• Finally, for those of you who will be out and about, Memorial Day is a free entry day to the National Parks.

Apparently It Is Now Summer...

...because it is 100+ degrees this week! eeekkk

In other news...

• Please get your kids their basic vaccines! Currently our hospitals are on high alert for measles and I can't believe some parents won't get their kids tried-and-true vaccines that have been around for ages and prevent their kids from getting debilitating--sometimes deadly--yet easily preventable diseases!
• We are also gearing up for the FIFA World Cup which will take place around the US this summer. It takes a metric crapton of work to get the emergency medical side prepared for such an event but one place I won't be this summer is at these events--mainly because I don't like crowds AND the tickets can run into the tens of thousands of dollars for ONE game. That's insane!
• Here is a good preparedness checklist for your important documents.
• My "you gotta be kidding" list...apparently it is a thing that kids aren't being potty trained prior to kindergarten??? "Personal pricing" sounds like AI evil at its peak. And I can think of nothing worse than being trapped on a cruise ships when a deadly virus outbreak happens...that's like the plot of a horror movie!

I'm hoping for a safe and wonderful summer for you all!

10 Random Things

In no particular order... 

1. We have an entire herd of feral cats that stop by each evening for dinner (examples above).
2. Find lots of good frugal tips here.
3. I've never tried to crochet before but after seeing these examples I might give it a try!
4. I'm glad I am pretty close to retirement age although I love my job and will work as long as they want to keep me...all this AI, Claude, n8n, Open Claw stuff is both mind blowing at what it can accomplish and slightly terrifying at what it is doing/will do to the job market!
5. In other news, I can't believe Spirit Airline shut down, those yellow planes are a common sight in Las Vegas. Here's how to protect yourself in such a situation.
6. Here are some amazing things...
7. And here are some old time videos that suddenly popped into my YouTube feed that I really like watching (reminds me of my grandparents time).
8. Here are a bunch of frugal meal ideas...
9. ...and a bunch of general frugal living tips.
10. Finally, I like the pretty way the vegetables are arranged at the grocery store (although the prices are, like everything these days, outrageous)!

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...

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!

10 Random Things

The suckyness continues...

1. Alex Pretti was executed by ICE a few days ago. What a horrific video; it also showed what an evil liar Kristi Noem is. The entire administration should be marched out in handcuffs. FWIW, I contacted all of my congressmen and wrote sharply worded emails explaining our system of checks and balances which they all seem to be unaware of.
2. And the Doomsday Clock is nearer than ever to doomsday.
3. And the government may shut down next week. Again. This page from the White House website is totally delusional.
4. I hope you all made it through the recent snow and ice storm unscathed. The only way I like to see snow is in pictures!
5. FWIW, here is a good after action report about the storm.
6. Our weather has been warm and sunny with roiling sunsets (see photo above).
7. On a sad note, there was a horrible small plane crash in Maine a couple days ago. I always check Captain Steeeve's YouTube channel for an explanation of what happened (not that I would ever fly a plane, but it is interesting knowledge to know).
8. Here are a bunch of tips to help you stay safe.
9. I think I improved my sleep quality by at least 50% recently just by NOT using my tablet before bed. I used to doomscroll and watch the algorithmic mess that is YouTube for a couple hours before I went to sleep and now I just watch an hour of Bloodline Detectives before I fall asleep and sleep like a baby.
10. On a happy note, I love pictures of well-organized things!

A Quick Update

It's been an age since I posted anything, mostly because it's been a kind of sucky month so far... 

• Hubby and I were sick on our cruise, felt better by the time we got home, then caught some sort of respiratory virus lite edition which lasted about a week
• Some friends came to visit; both caught the flu and were sick for about two weeks
• People I work with: one was just convicted of killing his wife, one just got arrested for a long list of horrific crimes against children, and one young mother was just got a terminal illness diagnosis  :(  :(  :(
• Our country is careening towards tyranny (I certainly didn't have invade Venezuela, Greenland, and Canada on my bingo card this year!)
• And prices are out of control (we took our friends out to dinner and the wife ordered a steak with a lobster tail as an add on. It was listed at market rate but since when is market rate $48 for a three ounce lobster tail??? Fortunately the entire bill was free with hubby's poker comps but $50 for parking at the casino (free for hubby), $400+ for a basic dinner for four people, $10 for a Starbucks drink, and minimum play on the blackjack table was $50...no wonder people are avoiding Vegas like the plague!

On a happy note...

• One friend was worried a biopsy she had done would be cancerous and it wasn't so that was good news
• Another friend gave me a bulb in a wax ball (above) which said not to water it, just leave it in a warm, non-sunny spot and two months later these pretty flowers bloomed
• Our weather has been amazing good all winter. If you are in the path of the winter storm set to hit the US this weekend, I hope you are warm and safe in your home!

Lounging

We haven't left the house in three days, mostly because the weather has looked like this ^ since we returned from vacation, also because the SIL is visiting and she has been feeling under the weather, and I guess it is also taking us a while to recuperate from our vacation.

It will be back to work mode tomorrow (with a mountain of emails to answer and meetings to prep for) but it will be nice to get back into the work groove.

We really want to buy a single-level home but prices here are outrageous (half million dollars plus, and those houses will need all new flooring, all new paint, etc). eeekkk 

Finally, does anyone know what happened to Linda from Practical Parsimony? I know this question was asked on another blog but when I went back to see the answers to this question, I couldn't find the post. She used to post and comment almost daily but she has been MIA for a but so I am worried about her.

Have a happy rest of your weekend!

A Quick Catch-Up

It's been super busy around here!

• National Finals Rodeo is in town and there are cowboys everywhere!
• Work is busy but should slow down in a week or so. More than a dozen people that I work with are retiring and several have been laid off so the number of bounce-back emails has been startling.
• It's Christmas decor season everywhere (but it is still hard to get in the Christmas spirit when it is sunny and 65 degrees here!). OTOH, I'll take this weather over the weather in New England our family deals with each winter...no more snow blowing or snow shoveling for us!
• We are getting ready for our Hawaii cruise which should be a fun way to spend Christmas.
• The price of food (and everything else) is insane!

Quick Update

Here are my friend's nails all ready for the Christmas season...

And we finally picked a few lemons from our tree...

Early Black Friday Deals are killing me. I tried to do the no spend thing but Best Buy had the Sony WXM4 headphones for $159 (a $190 savings over the normal price!) and I couldn't resist. They are amazing headphones though.

On another note, the Dyson was returned. The charge only lasted for 25 minutes then it needed to charge for 3.5 hours before I got another 25 minutes of vacuuming in. At that rate, it would have taken me 9 hours to clean my house!

The storms in Las Vegas have passed and now we have right, sunny weather. I've had my doors open all day to air out the house and it isn't even cold. I can see why retirees like the desert southwest!

I sent a friend who lives in Japan a birthday gift and for the first time ever, there was a fee that she needs to pay to get the gift (tariff fee?). I couldn't pay it at the post office, and for the exorbitant cost of mailing anything overseas these days, I sent her a quick email saying we should probably skip sending Christmas gifts this year. I can't WAIT until the next presidential election!

I hope you all will have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

10 Random Things

In no particular order...

1) Our sky looked like this ^^^ today (following a couple days of pouring rain). I love storms in the desert!

2) And my friend bought me these (soon to be) pretty plants. I've never seen these start out as just a bulb. The package specifically says not to water them, just put them in a sunny place and let them grow. Hmmm

3) I bought a Dyson vacuum! Our trusty old vacuum has been working well for 20+ years (with a lot of preventive maintenance from hubby) but backing down the stairs and vacuuming each stair with a big vacuum seems like it could end in disaster as I age. The Dyson vacuum was $269 on a Black Friday sale instead of its usual $599 so I ordered it. On the plus side, it is cordless and super lightweight. On the negative side, it is cordless and the battery only lasts about 30 minutes then needs to be charged (charging takes about three hours!?!). The jury is still out on whether we like it enough to keep it.

4) Do you want to be a lighthouse keeper? Click here.

5) Apparently a 50-year mortgage will be a thing? That is a terrible idea!

6) Here is a cheap(er) way to order your prescription meds.

7) I know identity theft is a thing we have to worry about, but even after we are dead??? That is awful :(

8) Here is a great list of preparedness tips!

9) For you younger ladies out there, please commit this list to memory.

10) And here is a list of interesting legal loopholes.

10 Random Things

In no particular order...

1. I was trying to post a picture everyday but my life is fairly boring (plus I am often at my desk all day) so that has fallen by the wayside (along with any sentiment that inspired me to do this after Charlie Kirk was killed and we were told to believe that this guy sprinted off the roof after the shooting, and the 30.06 he used magically left the roof and ended up in the woods somehow because he certainly wasn't carrying it in this video). I hate politics and all things politics-related.
2. Did you know the US no longer makes pennies? This was news to me!
3. I didn't see the Northern Lights here in Vegas last night but I am hoping to catch them tonight.
4. Hubby and I made the rounds yesterday and he picked up several Veteran's Day freebies which included lots of food and a haircut. We went to our usual free buffet for veterans at the Southpoint Casino yesterday but the line was two+ hours long so we skipped it this year.
5. I saw a post on Lorraine's FB page about the differences between Medicare and Medicare Advantage. Since hubby uses the military's Tricare For Life program where everything is free, I didn't know there were so many differences between the two programs. Medicare is utterly confusing to me!
6. I have no illusions that my job couldn't be replaced by AI at a moment's notice (which is why we will never take out another loan for anything because who knows how long I will have a job), but AI as it relates to the job market is looking scarier by the minute these days. eeekkk
7. I'm glad we are not flying, relying on food stamps, or signing up for health insurance this month...what a shitshow our government is these days. Let's hope the Dems run a better candidate for president in the next election (ie: not this one). OK, enough politics...
8. Adding more misery, this month I am getting so many spam calls every day (no idea why the sudden steep increase) and I was bitten by mosquitoes and dozen times despite not even seeing said mosquitoes in more than a decade (apparently I'm not the only one). 
9. I needed something to equal up to $35 to get free shipping on Amazon so I added a Rubik's Cube, a toy I hadn't played with since I was a child. I scrambled the colors and hubby and I tried to put the colors back and now we have a messed up cube because neither one of us knows how to fix it!
10. Finally, if you need any cute cat pictures, here are thousands of them!

!0 Things from Today

Mostly ranty things...

1. Again, if it is too early for Halloween stuff, it is certainly too early for Christmas decor in the stores...but not according to Costco (see photo above). 
2. On a happy note, we went to check out this new Costco in our city and it had only half the people that a regular Costco has here so it was a very nice shopping experience!
3. It's pouring rain today which is not a ranty thing because I love when it rains in the desert!
4. Big big rant...this Charlie Kirk thing has gone off the rails. I thought such a horrible event (when someone is killed for just speaking their mind) would make all Americans realize that such divisiveness and political polarization is going to lead us all to a bad end but no, it seems to have had the opposite effect with (irony of all ironies) people being arrested and cancelled for saying anything negative about Charlie Kirk. That is absolute insanity.
5. And apparently we can't trust our government (examples here, here, and here). Color me shocked /s
6. Grocery prices continue to go up up up. Yikes.
7. I am SO TIRED of AI...it is poppling up everywhere from webpages to software programs to my cell phone to my email to my web browsers.  If I want to use AI I will turn it on myself for very specific tasks. Bah!
8. My friend brought me some limited-edition espresso ice cream.  It was so good and now my blood pressure is also up up up.  Ayayay
9. To ratchet down all of my complaining today, I will insert cute kitty photos here.
10. Finally, we had our first experience with the "Gen Z" stare.  Hubby and I went into Subway and a girl was making a sandwich and looked up--but not at us--when we came in but she didn't say a thing. While we waited she looked up a few more times and appeared to stare straight forward. Hubby and I looked where she was looking and nothing was happening there so we were mystified and then I remembered hearing about this odd staring phenomenon among young people. How can you work in a restaurant when you can barely speak to your customers or look them in the eyes? Weird.

Today's tip: limit watching news, YouTube, social media, and mainstream media to the bare minimum; all of this algorithmic programming is making everyone batshit crazy. Now would be a great time to read books, watch old movies, learn a new language, go roller skating, etc.

Another Quick Update

Another quick update since I haven't blogged for an age and it is still pretty quiet around here...

• First of all, it is way too early to be planning for Halloween IMHO.  But try telling that to retail stores that always need some holiday to drive sales...
• We just got word that our agency is fully funded for the next biennium which is great news!
• I dropped my blood pressure from 178/96 to 119/79 in a week and a half!  I had a dental crown that fell out so I went to the dentist to get it put back in.  Since my regular dentist retired and closed up shop a while back, I needed to find a new dentist and, not wanting to drive all the way to Los Algodones through the roasting hot desert, I did a little research and found a highly-reviewed dentist close to where I live.  It turns out that dentists now check their patient's blood pressure (something I didn't know) as a standard of care, so when they went to take my blood pressure I told them I would come back in a week since I get panicky every time I see a blood pressure cuff (yeah menopause and medical anxiety).  I immediately went Daniel Diet/Nutritarian diet and after that first astronomical reading (note, if you get a reading like that you should seek medical attention immediately), I watched my blood pressure drop by double digits each day.  A week later I went back to the dentist and got the crown put back in and now all is well.  What I learned from this, after a bit of experimentation, is #1 caffeine jacks my blood pressure up super high so no more caffeine for me :(  #2 restaurants can't seem to serve anything that doesn't have massive quantities of salt, fat, and sugar (so I order differently now, like get a plain baked potato and add some lemon juice to it instead of butter), and #3 I need to pay more attention to my health metrics, after all I am nearly 60!
• Here are some online courses you can attend for free at Harvard.
• And finally, here is an example of how AI will take over the world. Scary!

Wow It's Been Almost a Month!

I just realized it's been an age since I posted here!  Time flies, I guess, as you get older?  Among the happenings here...

• The weather is, as usual, hot.  It is supposed to be 109 degrees today!
• So far in the past couple months we have had three power outages including a long one (12 hours), and short one (30 minutes), and one yesterday that lasted almost two hours.  We did end up buying a 1000 WH battery and solar panels to charge it for this sort of situation.
• Work has been incredibly slow...the state and feds are still trying to figure out what our budget will be and we are already five weeks into the fiscal year!  
• Today is International Cat Day!  I wish we still had feral cats around but they all disappeared for some unknown reason several months ago.
• School starts on Monday in Las Vegas--that seems super early to me as everywhere else we have lived always had school starting in September.
• Other than that, things have been very quiet and uneventful here.  I hope you are having a wonderful summer!

10 Things from Today

In no particular order...

1. Happy Summer Solstice day!  Today is the longest day of the year, daylight-wise, and now the days will begin getting shorter.
2. Hubby's chronic back pain is flaring up so he was only able to bowl one game on his league today.  It usually works itself out eventually but I hate seeing him in pain.
3. Does anyone know how Linda from Practical Parsimony is doing?  She usually blogs pretty regularly but I just realized I hadn't seen her posts in a while.  I haven't really been paying attention to my blog feed over the past few weeks because we have been so busy, but I always worry when my bloggy friends just disappear.
4. I got the annual bill for our house insurance today and it increased dramatically from last year.  We haven't made any claims and we live in a reasonably safe area so this bill was pretty shocking!
5. The Gmail app on my phone hasn't worked all day.  Sometimes stuff like this happens but the long duration is odd.  Then I saw this article about a major password breach so I guess I will spend the weekend changing all of my passwords :(
6. Work was eerily quiet today.  Yesterday was a holiday so it looks like everyone just took a very long weekend but our next fiscal year starts week after next and our budget/contracts are still in severe limbo!  Next week at work should be interesting...
7. People seem to be losing their shit today.  Drivers seem to be driving more insanely than usual here, people out in public seem to have an odd affect, and even the very nice girl at my favorite coffee drink place was super rude to the customer ahead of my and she is always nice to everyone so I was utterly shocked!
8. It's hot here.  Even though we are a third of the way through the summer, it looks like we still have MANY more triple-digit days ahead. Ugh
9. Grocery prices continue to climb.  We usually only shop loss leaders, but I noticed a regular whole chicken in the meat section was $20, eggs were around $7 a dozen, and a loaf of bread was $5...how are these prices even sustainable for the average family???  If we need a chicken we will get a $5 chicken from Costco, five dozen eggs for $15 from Sam's Club, and bread for $1.50 from the Dollar Tree but not all people have those shopping options.  Craziness!
10. It's hard to believe it is almost the 4th of July already! 

It's Been a Wild Couple of Weeks!

I don't even know where to start!

• We are getting ready to go on an Alaskan cruise next month.  So far it looks like about 15 friends and relatives will go (hubby's family travels in packs so when one person says they are going somewhere, before you know it, a dozen more people say they will go with you!).  I am hoping to see the Northern Lights and lots of nature since we have neither where I live; we are not looking forward to the typical 60-degree summer weather in Alaska!
• We had a step-in shower installed in hubby's bathroom and he loves it.  This is much safer when it comes to hubby getting into and out of the shower.  The cost was nearly $12k which is much more than it would have cost only five years ago, but ALL construction costs have increased exponentially over the past few years.  OTOH, it only took two days to complete and the installer did a great job.
• Politics is a complete shitshow--our president is semi-deranged (but so is the Mayor of LA when she was on the news stating they had no problem in her city while on the split screen we were seeing rioters throwing concrete blocks and e-scooters on the cops below the overpass!).  Add to that political assassinations, Israel starting a war with Iran for no good reason, the possibility of being pulled into WW3, a do-nothing Congress, people rioting against deporting illegal immigrants (if I went to another country and decided I was moving there whether the government liked it or not, I would expect to be deported immediately!)...everyday bring something new and absolutely crazy... :(
• My job (and the jobs of several people in a similar position to mine in other parts of the state) is in a perilous position.  We had a come-to-Jesus meeting with our state funders, expecting a 10% budget cut for our office, and ended up with a 35% budget cut.  Everyone is in shock.  I'm just glad hubby and I are debt-free, including the house and car, and have been saving and living below our means all of this time that I have been working.  While I can go back to being retired if worse comes to worst, many of the people I work with seem to live paycheck to paycheck,  tldr; never depend on one job for your financial survival, especially in this day and age.
• The AI situation looks pretty dire...eeekkk

Here are some pictures from our shower remodel...