And then it's not-short stress rant

 Nothing calamitous just frustration and stress about budgeting. We did the last of the food shopping today and I only bought what was on the grocery list and had even budgeted last night. I ended up $50 over food budget. I even put back some things that were not on the list that were not crucial to have. 

I'm stressed out about that and then the stove decides that the front burner doesn't really want to stay level. It has never been perfectly level so we've been using scraps of foil folded up and put under one of the three struts that support the burner. For some reason it was more off than before today. Seriously it is so off that I had to use a multiple folded piece of aluminum foil between the pan and the burner to level it. Once that foil heated up it was evenly conducting heat. That's going to be my fix for now and will try and get hold of the maintenance guy and show him this is unacceptable. Most of the other residents don't really care because they don't cook like I do. They get meals to microwave or can afford to order food delivered or whatever. I am not to that point yet and besides, I couldn't do a meal service because they don't take EBT. With the rent going up another $25 in June, I sure as hell want a stove that is more functional. 

So for now, we have food and fixings for the month, just things like bills and other costs may not be in the budget. I got $20 for doing laundry this month, we needed 40 to catch up. Haven't done laundry in a month and have been washing socks and underwear in the bathroom sink as needed. Haven't washed the bedsheets and covers in years. Seriously. Not exagerrating. Jon didn't want to do a dedicated wash before because the machines were so small. They're larger now and we still can't wash the bed covers because he doesn't trust the machine to get them clean.

My ranting just is built up frustration, happens about once a month and there's not much that can be done about the little things. 

We have food in the kitchen, roof over our heads and electricity to keep the lights on.

For now.

Everything is better when you get money.

 The weather is definitely spring/winter. It rained and was cloudy after it was nice weather so it's on and off again but very cold the last few days.

A sad note, the lady that was below us passed away, she had several windchimes in the Jacaranda tree that we enjoyed hearing when it was windy. It's very quiet now, her garden area is almost empty but I managed to snag a hummingbird feeder and a spring fake floral wreath for our door. 

Beautiful perfect spring skies today and yesterday. That garden area had a small table, a plant stand, black wire fencing and outdoor lights and decorations. Windchimes and other things hanging from the tree. It's sad to see. She was a nice enough lady but then found out that she was anti-vax, which made it frustrating and more sad. She got covid, then pneumonia and then a heart attack while at the hospital and didn't survive. I discovered today why, she was a Jehova's Witness. As Jon says, I will not be dying for my religion. Sad that she's gone, but that was her choice.

I got to my appointment almost running on fumes for gas and not enough money in the bank to cover parking, which would have been $4 but we were that broke. Luckily I  mentioned it to the nurse who checked me in and they have parking passes for situations like that. I had my last 'ladies check up' if everything is cleared in a day or two. If samples come back negative for anything then I don't need that sort of checking again.

I also ordered a new pair of glasses finally. I should have gotten all the 'bells and whistles' I should but only opted for the progressives. It's all good, pictures when I get them in about a week. I couldn't remember how much my insurance covered so had to ask and frames are covered up to $400. After I saw the prices of most of the 'designer' frames I was only looking at the ones that were under 200. Because in the past the limit was about 350 or less. So yay! Those are Kate Spade (whoopee) and blue purple faded rims and ear piece, I think there's even some glitter in the ear piece. 

We have been having a wonderful two days after getting all the monies on the first (SS, EBT and OTC loaded). Much silliness and comedy of errors really. Can't remember half of what we were doing but we were having fun laughing. At one point while we were driving and I gestured to the cars at the intersection and said, 'it's lunchtime traffic' so he commented about it being Saturday I leaned slightly toward him and said, 'It's Monday'. Then we remembered a short reel he saw about some young guy who realized buses came in a longer size. It took him a couple of days (and me pointing it out) for him to realize that the guy had been on 'short buses' all his life, he could not stop laughing when the guy had basically admitted he was a 'short bus kid'. So after his day of the week mistake I told him his nickname was going to be 'Short Bus'. Which made us both laugh even harder. Now, do not get on my case for laughing at 'special needs' indicators. If you know me you know that laughter truly is the best medicine and so is money. Speaking of medicine, Jon's labs came back and his A1c is stable and normal (insert comedic comment) and so is his kidney function .His meds are helping him lose weight and that makes his breathing easier and activity better. 

So yeah, anyone who says money can't buy happiness has never been on their last dime and then get paid.

We have two of our three grocery runs done, got major purchases done at Costco on Tuesday, today we needed to get a new bath mat at walmart and got wet cat food for Rocky. I may have overspent a little because of my glasses but everything so far is needed things. At Costco I did splurge and get some thin sliced 'carne asada' chuck steak. That's at least three meals of meat when I divided it up, bag of frozen shrimp that will be at least 3 meals, hamburger (6 meals) and chicken breasts (with three packs left over that's 9 meals) So we're set for meat other than chicken thighs which will add about four more meals. Without leftovers and non meat meals, that's three weeks of meat meals. We actually have to buy rice again this month. Careful planning and scheduling we'll have food for the month again.

This was the view for four days out my bedroom window (so glad we cleaned that!) First picture is fou r days ago and the second is day before yesterday. Oh yeah and those weeds. They were not even visible from this angle in January. There's two chairs just below that small bathroom window that have been swallowed by mallow plants. Not sure when they're going to cut those down. Almost tempted to toss a note over the fence telling them I'll cut them down if they have the tools and pay me $100. But nah, don't think I could do that all in one shot. Not my yard, not my problem.

I'm worried about my car tires and brakes, the wet weather cleaned the brakes so I heard them scraping the other day when I was stopping. Brakes AND tires.... that's $1000 I do not have and will not open a credit card to get them done (doubt I'd qualify for that much credit anyway). That's a rough estimate, I figure brakes is about 300-500 and tires.... about the same I'm figuring about $100 per tire. Oh and gas cost me $50 for an almost full tank of gas yesterday, that is the most I've ever had to pay for gas recently.

Other than that, not much else. Just hoping to coast to the end of the month without too much hassle.  

It feels good to laugh at ourselves with all the depressing and stressful things going on. I could have sworn it was Mel Brooks or Don Rickles or someone Jewish who said something like 'if you can't laugh at yourself then who can you laugh at?' I looked it up and most of the sites attribute it to Tiger Woods and others but I remember hearing that way back in the 80's or 90's maybe before that. Oh well.

Bit of annoying day

 

Picture because it's been beautiful weather lately, spring is springing all over the place.

Jon had his second pulmonary doctor appointment today, scheduled for 2 pm so we arrived about twenty minutes early. Like you do. So there were only two or three receptionists, and the one that supposedly did pulmonary called him over.

I could hear the conversation and it was basically, got his phone number and name, the doctor, and a 1:45 appointment. I thought...that's odd, it's for 2 pm. Then he said there was a $35 copay. Um, definitely wrong on that we have no copay. Jon asked if I would go in to the doctor with him and I said of course. He's never asked before and has said no when I offered.

Fast forward an hour and a half and they hadn't called him. Jon was about ready to leave, he had been napping but when he realized what time it was he was livid. In his own way, which is internalizing and being cold shoulder and expressionless. I told him to go double check with the guy first. He came back and said the doctor will call him in a minute. Yeah.... as soon as they called him we get notification on our phones that we have an appointment and to check in when we get there. This guy really screwed up.

Jon's doctor is great, she's on top of things and explained the process with how they medicate his condition being 'technically'  like congenital heart failure. He's been feeling good, only had one dizzy spell and that was from bending over and coming up too fast, his blood pressure is great, everything else is good. So he's going to be on an additional medication also for his heart but that comes with some issues for kidney and potassium levels. He had blood work done and those are good so before we even got home he was notified that his prescription was ready for pick up. 

It may not seem like much, but that window screen and windows are CLEAN!! The weather was good and I just had enough of looking out a dirty window and asked Jon to help take the slider out. I used the windshield cleaner fluid (because we don't have windex and that was the closest thing), and then when that was done on both sides I took the screen out and did the same thing in the shower. Holy moley was that thing dirty. I don't think it was washed properly before we moved in.

This is from January, so yeah you can tell the difference, as well as seeing the weeds have now completely covered those two chairs.

Anyway, that spring cleaning was spurred by Rocky. He knocked my water bottle under the bed so of course... I had to try and fish it out and the only thing I was catching were dust monsters. These were much to big to be considered 'bunny' size. Swept some of the hallway and the bedroom and then looked at the window and said to myself, 'spring cleaning time'.

Next will be to try and figure out how to clean the kitchen window. Considering Jon siliconed the screens in because he was worried Rocky would knock them out and fall.... I know one thing that will loosen it but it will have to wait until next month.

Other than that, oh yes my phone bill. I had to do a 'bridge pay' which meant paying $15 on the day it was due and then the remainder $45 on the 27th. Well I got some money (thank you Devon, again!) and was going to pay it but now it says it's $55 due on the same day. I need to walk into a storefront and get that straightened around. And still don't have my glasses because ...complications with where to go that I still need to talk to someone in person about. The VSP they referred me to is a whole different provider that has 'vision plans' that the lowest is $11 a month. Sharp Advantage says that my coverage for the glasses is zero copay unless I get the progressives. So it's back to the phone and get that cleared up.

Sheesh! Need to get all this done before they completely take away everything we depend on for living.

Back to humdrum life

 The weather has been somewhat exciting, three or four days of clouds, cold, wind and rain. It's wonderful. It also delayed Rocky getting outside for three days and me checking the garden but both were done today. No changes really. We both recovered from walking the Safari park in three or four days. As soon as the weather gets better hoping to get out and do more walking.

This is today's sky, picture perfect white puffy clouds and blue skies. Still nippy if you're not in the sun, but it gave the soil a chance to soak up the water and run off the extra.  Still going to be cold overnight, low 40's at least so double blanket on the bed.

I decided to cancel my hearing appointment. I looked at the time and it was for 7:30 in the morning. I do not get up that early, especially with the time change, and I would have to get up at least by 5 or 5:30 to get ready and have enough time to get to the doctor. So Now just waiting until the end of the month for another check up with my doctor and maybe I'll reschedule it again. 

Jon had an issue with his phone this morning, apparently Cricket took his payment out a day early (which I'm not surprised since tomorrow is Sunday and they don't process things on that day or the bank won't or something. anyway). He then realized it was $4 more than it should be... he was livid to say the least and had fears of another 'Verizon' incident where they would take a payment before the date then take the actual date as well. That's why I convinced him to switch to Cricket. Well turns out (we went to an actual storefront) the cost of the insurance went up that much so instead of being $55 it is now $62. It's been years since they did a rate hike like that. So I'm going to chalk that up to the current administration...just because. Oh and my car insurance went up too. It went down to $49 and something this month and goes back up to $53 and change next month. I thought it was going to drop for the following payments as well but couldn't find the pay schedule on the website. Something else I need to contact them about since I'm only doing long trips twice a week not three or four, I need to figure out how to get it lower.

Sigh. All kinds of financial things going on that in the larger picture, not tragic or drastic just more stress we don't need. 

At least I'm keeping my hands busy with knitting but even that isn't without some stress but it's countered by seeing how much progress I make and I'm actually being productive. 

In the process of dropping the boys off in the carport at their place, I cut too close to the pole and exchanged some paint with it. If I had not stopped, it may well have damaged the rear door handle. As it is, a circular scrape pattern of tan paint on the door and very minor deforming of the panel. Nothing I am going to report to the insurance company since it's my fault and no one else was involved and it would cost more to fix it than the car is worth most likely.  Oh well. Been cooking and knitting, gardening will pick up in a few weeks as I have three tomato seedlings, a cucumber and two sweet peas to plant. I might give the sweet peas to Amber since one of her plants died. The porch faces roughly west southwest so winter time it bakes like crazy but is always hot in the afternoon. She doesn't get a lot of sun on their porch though so will have to ask her.

That's it for now, hope for the best, plan for the worst.

Safari Was Walked

 We actually did it and surprising enough, the toughest part for Jon was just walking up the hill from where we parked. We did take a few bench breaks here and there but spent 4 and a half hours at the park, it was a bit confusing but also fun. So photos in no particular order:

I got a picture of the entrance pavilion on our way out. I don't have a lot of memories of the last time I was there but I do love those banners. We decided to go left instead of right, the right side was through the large aviary which I seem to recall being the only way you could go last time. So we ended up going through a gorgeous yellow bamboo forest. 

 

 

Jon said that hat was about his style and even dared to look at the price. Let's just say it was the cost of having a good pizza at our favorite place. Not worth it and he doesn't really wear hats anyway. The sculptures were impressive as well and life size of course.

 

 

Then there was this gorgeous specimen (not sure if male or female) just chilling with breakfast leftovers. Sumatran tigers are smaller than Bengal almost by half in weight but that paw was still about the size of my open hand. It took two tries to get a picture when it turned to look at me. Seriously, there wasn't many people right next to me and it turned and looked straight at me.

 

Just a shot of one waterfall you can walk behind, it was rather pretty and I took a video as well but have to upload it to computer but it's water, falling....and the stream below. Rhinos were all in a cuddle pile on the hill, I had hoped to take the safari tram but it was an hour wait and I don't even wait that long in line at Disneyland. Used to be a multi car tram but they've changed a lot of things obviously. And of course, lizards, because I think they're still fun to watch.

I don't remember what the name of that animal it was but it looked like a cross between a wild pig and a tapir, and of course, ducks. Then there's the gorgeous shot of the Nairobi Fishing Village that is absolutely stunning. When we walked over to it, the back side was drained which kind of ruined the illusion of water coming from the river.

Black Crowned Cranes and a species of Hornbill that was very active. Couldn't have been so different, cranes were just chillin', scratching for grit and the hornbills were flying back and forth, they're huge birds and due to other people standing there I couldn't get a good shot of them.

Backside of a Dwarf Mongoose, they were moving around a lot and then one of the gates. Why? I couldn't get a shot of the entrance gates that were also done in metal, that is all metal work and even more impressive in person. We were on our way up the hill to the Australia outback when I saw that.

Obligatory plant pictures now, two Australian acacias that I had never seen before. The one on the left had the tiny puff ball flowers right on the flat zig zag stems and the other one is just a single trunk that was leaning over but had large yellow flowers and big grey leaves. 

Another fascinating flower and tree, if there were more name tags on the plants I would have the names so I'm not sure which this was, but loved it. Then there's.... a Lego Bonsai in the Bonsai pavilion. I do remember the one time I went through that section it was a very, very roughed out semi shaded section but nothing really cohesive. It is much better now with a cement path and more specimens.

And that's it! We split a sandwich and soda which was still excellent when we got to the African area past the tram. I saw the same sling bag with a bottle pouch that I bought years ago and it was about $15 more now than it was originally. I still have mine I think in storage. The only carrying thing we have handy is a backpack and didn't really need that much room. Fanny pack of that sling purse thing would have been perfect. 

The weather was perfect. Partly cloudy, breezy not too hot and just enough trees to get some shade when we needed it. The one bummer was we wanted soft serve ice cream. First place we stopped, was closed, the lunch place we had (Mombasa Cooker I think?) had it but we got a refill on the soda instead. The only food stand that was open and said it served it, the machine was broken. Go figure! We stopped at our favorite Mexican place near the HD we worked at then stopped at Target for ice cream sandwiches. It was a fun and delicious day overall and we're both feeling the fatigue today. My knee wasn't too badly tweaked and of course our feet and legs were very much tired. We may have spent a bit too much for food but it was worth it really.

Yay!

And the shoe has dropped

 Just got the newsletter for our complex..... due to rising costs of property expenses (not sure what those would entail other than taxes) rent will be increasing another $25 in July putting our rent at $1075 and the cost of running the dryers in the laundry will go from $1.00 to $1.50.

When we moved in four years ago, almost five now, the manager at the time said that it was rent regulated so it would stay at $950. Rent has gone up now three times since then. If the current Thugs In Congress go through with their plan to cut MediCare and Medicaid, it's going to be a lot worse.

These little cracker boxes are not worth that much. It's getting close to the point where we can't afford to live where we are and can't afford to move. Not without a huge influx of money to move to someplace further north less expensive. Sigh I've posted the rough budget for how much it would cost for us to move, not going to hash that through again.  

There won't be any bonuses for first time homebuyers for years if at all, we could have had a chance if Kamala Harris had won but nooooo, we can't have nice things because ..... people are stupid.

Even if we sold the stuff in storage at an auction we wouldn't be able to get enough money to move. Abandoning them is not acceptable, yes it would save us $500 a month but at what cost to our hearts and our credit ratings. We don't even have enough money to get storage closer to us so it would be more convenient to sort through. 

Oh yeah and we now have a Measles outbreak in three states. Measles that was completely out of the public medical records due to vaccines being so efficient by the year 2000. The three states are the original first record in Texas, then it moved rapidly to three counties there and then was reported in New Mexico and now it's in Ohio. Last time there was a major health crisis the same Bloated Bovoid was in office. This is even worse. One child has already died. And the current health secretary is anti-vaccine and was reported saying 'measels happens and children die' as if it were no big deal.

Okay enough of that. The weather is warm, we have money and may well be going to the Safari Park tomorrow. That's the plan at least. It's about a 45 minute drive but we get in free just have to pay for parking and any food. Hope to have pictures of fun times.

 

 

The struggle continues, but we have rain.

 It is finally raining, not a deluge where I am but a good gentle soaking that ranges from mist to sprinkles. Garden is growing, seedlings are growing and bank account..... well that's another story

I fulfilled my civic responsibility and am not needed for jury duty yay! The bank fiasco is straightened out and I have a new card with no further incidents to report. Other than only having $18 left in the bank after paying SDGE but not my phone. Phone is $55 so that is going to be put off until either I get some extra money (40 or 50 would be nice to make it to the end of the month) or next check, which ever comes first.

I have realized (again) I do actually need to take my naproxen and supplements or I start feeling like a gear box that needs oil. Start moving slower, joints don't move as well, fingers start swelling and not bending as good. The reason I mention this is last week I started getting painful burps again so stopped taking everything for two days and had this epiphany. My knee is on and off again being stiff and swollen which is also related to my constant diet of anti-inflammatory things. I haven't been able to do my walks due to knee and weather.

Jon is doing fine, he is actually holding steady on his weight or losing a pound then gaining back. He was looking at the diuretic he was instructed to take because his weight shot up about 2 pounds. The label said there should be 90 in the bottle and did a count, there were only 45. He used some power words when he left the first message. 'Did my insurance get billed for 90 and I only got 45?' They called him back immediately and said to come in and they would be happy to take care of that for him. (Turns out his weight was back down in the evening so he didn't need to take it). 

He did encounter a bonofide entitled white dude and his chick at the counter. They were both wearing jackets (or a denim vest?) that said '100% White Dude' or something and the girls said 'Girl'. Sure enough, they caused a stink at the counter because he thought he didn't have to pay the $15 for his prescription and even said, 'Okay can I speak to a white person because obviously you don't know what you're doing and a white person will.' Yeah..he said that. If I had been there....hoooboy. The girl behind the counter was brown skinned and possibly East Indian. I'm surprised Jon didn't say anything because I sure would have. The guy ended up having his insurance copay explained to him three times and had to pay the money for his prescription. They were laughing and smiling as they walked through the parking lot likely about how they put that girl in her place. Jackasses

Seriously, we have four years of civic and governmental breakdown ahead of us and situations like that need to be dealt with. A school district in L.A. had ICE agents posting information all around the school fence and neighborhood. Just the information about them and a number to call. Gee, where did we see that before?  

I don't have many opportunities to do what is needed but I hope in the next four years I will be able to do something.