It's my birthday! Got an eye check up!

 'Execute Birthday 66'. 

 Thanks to birthday monies, I stopped at Costco on the way home because I know they have the best cakes. This was the only cake of in the entire case that had decoration on it. Chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling, yes please!

So eye appointment, as bad and not so bad as previous ones go. No sign of glaucoma, no sign of macular degeneration, cataract needs to be dealt with before it gets much worse. Very efficient visit, nurse did preliminary check for my sight compared to my glasses. Then another set of tests when I got to the room for near/far sighted then waited for the doctor. The surprising test was what they called an OCT

"Optical coherence tomography (OCT) and optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) are non-invasive imaging tests. They use light waves to take cross-section pictures of your retina. With OCT, your ophthalmologist can see each of the retina's distinctive layers and the optic nerve fiber layer."

It involved a machine you look in like when they're checking with a strong light, it scans your eye very quickly (if anyone has had an x ray where they tell you to breathe then hold it, that sort of thing but with blink then keep eye open and don't move) So that was something new and different, then what was really surprising was the glaucoma test. Previous versions that I have had were everything from a pinpoint needle testing the pressure in your eye (I seem to recall it having a small twinge of pain) and then the air blast in your eye. I told the doctor/assistant about that and they said they don't do either of those anymore due to PTSD. Wow.

So what they did was put anaesthetic drops in my eyes, took all of maybe half a minute for them to take affect then... what looked like an oversized digital thermometer that she would press on my eye in different spots to get readings. I had to seriously take a deep breath and relax so she could do it without me blinking. She held my lashes and lid out of the way of course but it was really surprising, unfortunately due to the cataract they couldn't get a good reading on my left eye.

So, slightly better prescription for glasses was written, took that and the plastic eye cover in place and checked out at the desk after that for the cataract surgery consultation. Which I got a call from on the way home from dropping the boys off. The soonest consultation appointments are June/July of next year. Which actually works out since I was worried about juggling the pick up schedule this year and early next year and the eye appointment and/or surgery. Soooooooo...... yeah. Since I got the call while I was driving had to wait until I got home and when I called back, five rings and no answer. Will try again tomorrow morning.

Looks like I might get that new prescription for the glasses anyway since it's almost nine months away for the consultatiom. As far as I can tell, eyeglasses after cataract surgery are covered completely and will know after the consultation what they are considering for the replacement lens.

 Oh and ballot for election was mailed off yesterday and we got confirmation they have been accepted and counted. YAY!

 

Annnd, once again jumped the gun, and bills

 I need to learn how to listen more effectively. I got a call about my throat scan and now my eye appointment. The scheduler called me yesterday and said she saw my appointment for December about my eyes but since it was a referral, they have an earlier appointment.... Oct 9. Wow. I was not prepared for that so she changed the date for that appointment and will have that at 10:40 in the morning on a Wednesday which means I go from there to get the boys. Hope they don't dilate my eyes because that would suck trying to drive with the plastic sunglasses on.

Also, due to going $42 over budget on the food groceries I am now short for paying the remainder of the bills. Luckily I figured out why the SDGE bill is so low, this time of year they have an energy credit so it may well be half of what we paid last month thankfully. But I will still be short by about $70 for the rest of my bills. 

Rocky has food, we have food, rent is paid, internet is paid, amazon prime is paid (don't judge, it's only $7.50 and is part of our entertainment budget), storage is paid. I have $98 left and still have car insurance (Geico), SDGE and phone. Geico and phone combined is $108, SDGE is unknown right now but could be as  high as $80.

I'm running through the timing and budget just to get it straight in my head right now so bear with me:

Geico is $54 on the 11th then SDGE is on the 12th. I may take Geico off autopay and see if I can delay that, the phone isn't until the 15th.

98 - 54 = 44. Not enough for either SDGE or my phone. So take phone and geico off autopay and delay those and pay SDGE. 

Even if I had the extra $42 it wouldn't be enough. 

High finance for low income people.

And a mouse mummy just because it's so dang cute!

Announcements

 Firstly we have decided to postpone our Disney trip to mid November for two reasons. One, the tickets will be cheaper by $40 and two, it will be decked out for Christmas which Jon has not seen. I have only been once during the Holidays and it is absolutely spectacular. This also gives us some time to hopefully buy some long pants for me and shoes for both of us. Yeah the day is shorter but we don't want to spend a long hot day walking around. Also gives us some time I hope to convince Jon to do some walking so we can get in a little better shape.

Okay second announcement, I jumped the gun and didn't do my appointment for my throat scan right. I was called by scheduling on Wednesday before I left and she said she needed to schedule that. I explained my confusion and she straightened me out so that is now scheduled for Oct 17. It's a scanning appointment and I did a Lab appointment which is a different department entirely. So now eye exam is December 19, audiology is March 17, and follow up doctor visit is March 31. Whew!  They are so backlogged with patients it's really sad they have appointments six or more months in advance.

Third announcement... I am looking for an alternative to Blogger. Since the photos editing has gone entirely bonkers and I can't find any help online in various forums it's time to find something else. I looked at Wordpress and the free basic themes are so utterly boring and not simple format at all I'm still looking for another free site. So no more pictures for this blog, straight up boring updates until further notice.

The weather today was miserable. 93 and smog level that reminded me of being in grade school level of air quality.  For the next week we will be having a heat wave but at least the temperature drops dramatically when the sun goes down, by at least thirty or forty degrees!  Right now though there's only 4 days left in the billing period for SDGE and ::knock on wood throw salt over shoulder:: it's projected to still be way under $100. Please, please let it be under 100, that would make my life so much better this month. It's my birthday month, give me a break!

Oh we got our General Election voter information book in the mail. This is a big one folks, as big as 2020 was and is so dang important for every single person in this country. Imagine, in our lifetime we will have had a black male president, a female vice president and finally a female president who is a woman of color. It is incredible and so much needed! The alternative to that is too frightening and depressing to even think about. Seriously.

 I don't get political but Blue is my favorite color and I love seeing the waves.... if you get my drift.

 

Good doctor visit and excitement

But first, the weather. October 1 and it was 93 today. It is going to be similar if not warmer tomorrow. What theee heck (to quote my favorite sea monster).

So we have the AC running but will likely shut it off in a few minutes (around  8pm). I just peeked at my SDGE 'expected' cost and if it's accurate even on the high side, it's going to be a heckuva lot less than last month.

(stupid formatting for photos on blogger is driving me nuts! It worked fine on my garden blog and now it's being all wonky putting the pictures in weird places.)

If anyone has in depth knowledge of the editing format and whatever of blogger please contact me. I'm about to start looking for a different blog company to do this. In any case, here's a picture of rocky who is, tip of tail to nose about 32 inches long. 

So as I said, doctor visit was good, she's thorough but not fine detailed (scale said I weigh 212...yeeesh! all other vital signs were normal). It was a meet and greet kind of thing, I told her about my various aches and pains, my knee that is not healing very quickly she wiggled it around, felt it and agreed it seemed a bit warm so about the only thing to do is ice and elevate and stay off it. Right. She did the listening to my lungs and heart and all that then felt my neck and throat, and said she might have felt something in my neck but it could be just thyroid and asked me if I've ever had issues with it and told her no, my daughter did. She ordered an ultrasound just to be sure and because I noticed my hearing was getting a bit odd she ordered a hearing test.Check up in another six months unless something comes up between now and then. Cholesterol is a bit high but lower than it was a year ago, so that's okay. I guess.

Tomorrow I have the ultrasound on my neck, then mammogram and a bone density scan all in the same location one right after the other. It's great having a facility nearby that can take care of all that, the eye doctor on the other hand, if I go through Sharp, the soonest I can get an appointment is December. I'm looking at other options through Medicaid/Medi-Cal that are no or low cost. The previous one that I used doesn't take Medi-Cal.

So we have the AC running but will likely shut it off in a few minutes (around  8pm). I just peeked at my SDGE 'expected' cost and if it's accurate even on the high side, it's going to be a heckuva lot less than last month. They must have changed over to the fall/winter rates or something because it's about $100 less than last month at about the same time. Will have to see how far it goes up using the AC and fans for three days. 

And finally, my birthday wish has come true. We're going to Disneyland (through a generous donation of the minimum funds) Jon just showed me his shoes though and ... mine aren't in the best of shape but we don't have the extra money to get two pairs of shoes this month. Saving our spare change for just a little extra something at D'land. I know my feet, legs and hips still aren't up to walking very far, they start hurting just walking for ten minutes. Going to keep doing it though and try to get Jon to do some walking and be on his feet too. Otherwise we'll be stopping at every available bench possible around the park. Every sit down ride possible in a building and wherever else we can.

I haven't paid for the tickets yet. Two tickets and the parking leaves us about $150 of the generous birthday gift and that has to go to food, gas and little gifty things for us. Will make it stretch for sure. Ever so thankful and grateful for generous family and friends.

BEST DAY EVER! (soon)

 

Fall Equinox .... and not so Fall weather and rambling

 The past week has been amazing weather, cloudy and cool edging on nippy at night. Well leave it to mother nature to have a hot flash. In the high 80's for the next few days and then it cools down again. At least it's really cooling down at night so that's something to be thankful for.

So anyway..... we're floating along actually doing pretty good. It would still be nice to have an extra two hundred a month, which I am still trying to figure out how to make happen. But we still have food in the kitchen to fix, we get low on a few things and using up the last few dollars in the accounts to do that. Surfing on a low wave is what I'm calling it right now.

I have put my doctor and shot appointments in my calendar and keep checking it because my brain is getting more swiss cheese every week. So I thought my doctor appointment was today, a neat feature of our provider is they send out a 'pre appointment check in' email a week ahead of your appointment as well as a query to make sure you are still coming. Yesterday I realized I hadn't gotten my reminders and double checked the calendar...again. Sure enough it's for the 30th and we get shots the Saturday before. What is in my email this morning? Pre-check in form and query text for the appointment next week.

I swear this getting old stuff has got to go. Which reminds me I need to go take my supplements. 2 naproxen, 2 glucosamine, 2 turmeric with black pepper and 2 gingko and a multi-vitamin. Supposed to take two more ginkgo in the evening but I always forget. Seriously.

I have just been so anxious (not terrible anxious but it's been on my mind) about the doctor appointment and then still messed it up. The two primary things are going to be my eyes and hearing but also bring up other minor things going on, maybe get my pap smear done as well. See how knowledgeable she is on different things I've seen about cortisol and post menopause weight gain and stuff like that. I'm walking about 15-20 minutes four times a week but then sit on my ass for hours every day. It doesn't quite balance out.

With my birthday coming up next month I obviously can't afford anything myself and was thinking what I really could use... in a wanting/needing thing other than more money. My two hobbies are what needs help. So a gift card to Home Depot for gardening to get soil and fertilizer to refresh and build up the beds for the next season.  And maybe an Amazon gift card to take care of my knitting. I really wanted to finish the two pairs of socks for giving this Christmas, I need a new needle (or two) for the one pair that I broke the wood needle. Yarn I don't really need but there are so many pretty options out there..... I need needles mostly.

In the extravagant gift category.... a trip to Disneyland for Jon and I. That is getting so expensive they are pricing out the average families and to have an actual vacation means a high limit credit card (and an income to pay it off) or a personal loan. 1 person for one day entrance is $154 on an off peak day. 

2 people one park one day $318. 2 people food for one day just two main meals and two snacks each is about $100 (that's the low end just getting a sandwich or burger). Souvenirs minimum is $20 each.  So this is the cost for 1 day...1 day at Disneyland averages about $500 for two people. 

Now Jon and I not being that athletic and ancient in our ways would love to have two days and a hotel room to crash in. Tack on another 500 for just the hotel room. So that takes the cost up to $1200-1500 for two people to have a nice mini-vacation at Disneyland (I included a 2 day parkhopper ticket and parking there which if the hotel is close enough or has a shuttle wouldn't be necessary).

Much like me planning out costs involved in moving to a new house, I tend to overthink and overplan so it never happens.

Oh and with my new school shuttle schedule my only days free are Saturday Sunday and Monday. So.... 

 So whatever... gift cards are always welcome for my immediate needs.

 

Finally a break in the weather.

 September began with a heat blast, four days of over 100 and before that it was in the 90's regularly. We were miserable and only now figured out that we had a spare car windshield blocker thing and it fits just fine in the kitchen window. Lowered the temp in the front of the apartment by 20 degrees. Kitchen was hitting 90 when the sun came over the building and slanted in to the front wall. The heat dome finally broke free on Monday and all this week we will be seeing much more tolerable temperatures with a high of maybe 81 and the nights are in the 60's.

With only a little help we managed to pay all the bills. Managed SDGE on my own but needed about $30  more for my phone but help came through on that. So we're getting better sort of. Still treading water but getting our chins above the waterline now. We're not eating out as much, don't drive anywhere other than picking up the kids and going to the grocery store so that's a savings. Car is getting better mileage now also, almost 200 miles on a tank which I try to fill it around the half way mark if not the 1/4 tank.

And once again, someone mentioned our storage. It is not an option to just leave it, if we could find a cheaper place to rent I would figure out a way to do it. If we could find a way to sell some stuff we would do it. But again, considering it is a quarter tank to get there and back I do not have the money to pay extra for gas (at $4 a gallon right now) even with Amber giving me money for the shuttle runs.

So we're managing.

If we had a place that the total rent/mortgage was as much as we're paying for rent now but we had a garage or more room we would manage much better. Seriously, I've done the math as best I can. Even with a mobile home the space lease/rent if it's $750-800 and a mortgage/loan payment was 400 we'd still be okay. We wouldn't have to pay $500 for storage and yes, we would have trash/water/sewer/electric/gas but some parks pay for sewer and trash. I haven't been looking at listings much anymore because what's the use? I've got an idea of the average prices and looking at listings is no longer 'feeding my soul' it's just torture or window shopping knowing I don't have the money for it.

There was something else I was going to bring up and have totally forgotten what it was and went on a tangent. Oh well, next time.

Garden almost completely died due to the heat, the hose busted and the person who bought the hose just hacked off the two feet at the end instead of taking my offer to fix it. Manny the mantis is still out there guarding the tomatillos and he actually caught a bee the other day. The garden and my knitting are the two other things I don't have any extra cash to fix issues. 

So yeah, we're 'managing' as I like to say about my garden, there's surviving and there's thriving. We're surviving best we can.

It feels like treading water, with help.

It's been hot, got up to 99 last week and high 80's this week, we're surviving with our AC running during the heat of the day and fans going almost 24/7.  I've been taking Rocky out in the evening rather than the heat of the morning/daytime so here's a shot of the sycamore tree catching the last rays of the sun over the buildings.

 We only survived this month thanks to my son, I don't know how we're going to do it without extra money like that. I am not comfortable asking for money from anyone, especially my kids when I know they are likely treading water as well. I'm budgeting the same amount for SDGE next month as this month, Costco is due next month as well and we think due to Jon's emergency room visit he's got to pay $90 on that as per Medicare Advantage plan.

I said I would post a picture last time of Jon wearing his helmet and holding his kumquat.

This is adding to my collection of silly pictures of him, really need to get them all together in a folder on my computer. He really is a child at heart and I think that's what endeared him to me (endeared me to him?). 

The running joke is he needs a helmet due to various run ins with cabinet doors but it started before I met him when he lost his balance in the shower where he was staying and actually got a concussion. That's my guy though and we're in this together.

 We only survived this month thanks to my son, I don't know how we're going to do it without extra money like that. I am not comfortable asking for money from anyone, especially my kids when I know they are likely treading water as well. I'm budgeting the same amount for SDGE next month as this month, Costco is due next month as well and we think due to Jon's emergency room visit he's got to pay $90 on that as per Medicare Advantage plan. So only budgeting one special meal out and it will likely be under $20 or close to it.

Oh and Amber needs me to pick the boys up on Wednesdays as well since one of her classes gets finished an hour after they get out of school. She'll up the gas money of course but that fills my week free time. We usually have a more complicated meal on the days I don't drive because I have time to cook. So that schedule is going to radically change for sure. This also means that I will be out and walking for 10-15 minutes or more four times a week (that's the plan at least) until December...I saw a recommendation that walking 15 minutes three times a week is good. So that's a bonus.

I got so frustrated making food today because I decided to use the hamburger I pulled down yesterday for pasta sauce. Well, I started cooking the veggies for the sauce in the dutch oven then dumped the tomato sauce in and realized I hadn't cooked the meat yet (at this point I was feeling signs of low sugar so cranky and emotional). My 12" frying pan will not fit on the stove with that dutch oven on one of the burners so pull the hot dutch oven off to the only other free counter space and put it on the bamboo cutting board, cook the meat, move that pan aside and mostly off the stove to scoop the meat back into the dutch oven that was returned to the stove.  This kitchen and apartment really is designed for one person and only using a small pan to fry eggs or something in a microwave. Very minimal living space. The designers obviously thought old people don't want to cook or have fun things, or do anything to feed the soul because we're all one foot in the grave right? ::SIGH::

 

If we want our dreams to come true we're going to have to stop wishing for the money to fall out of the sky suddenly and start making sacrifices and work for it. I can do that to a point but convincing Jon is another matter entirely.