[Jean]

Happy Friday! Sun is out, humidity is on the rise, and weatherman says it will hit 90 tomorrow! We are on our way to Ian’s football game. I’m wearing jeans and sandals but brought my socks and tennis shoes just in case, and a jacket! It is always windy up there.

“Gma,” our town is having issues with people chaining dogs outside and then the dogs get mean. The police are called, issue a warning, then the dogs are let loose to run so end up at the vet’s to be put down. Some people shouldn’t be allowed to have pets, nor kids either! I saw your ID fiasco on FB, that’s enough to make anyone crabby! My favorite smoothie is made with ice cream instead of milk. The gal in the hospital coffee shop talked me into trying it since I don’t like milk. I haven’t tried it at home yet.

I am losing my tower signal so better quit. Hope you have a nice weekend!

[Jean]

Good Evening! We’ve had another strange weather day; cloudy this morning, 1/4” of rain, then sunshine for the rest of the day. It seems like just overnight it is getting darker so much earlier. I know I’ve said this before but I really, really, really don’t clean like I used to so I paid big time over the last three days! We were having two couples over for a steak supper last night. The more I cleaned, the more I found to clean! We took time out for Ian’s football game but otherwise I kept moving. My body was so tired today! I had picked up the gift shop money on Friday intending to count it today. Well, I stuck it away and it wasn’t where I thought I had put it. Talk about panic! I knew it was in the house somewhere, and finally did find it; even Bob was looking for it. I took a “real” nap this afternoon which unusual for me.

I have the dishwasher finishing it’s job, will unload it, and then think I will head to bed and read for a little while. Hope you have a great week coming up - last one in August.

[gma22]

Good morning. Hot and sunny here today. I did a load of laundry, make some sandwich spread for my lunches, and am going to try and get vacuuming and mopping done today. I did grocery shopping yesterday and I had bought the Pampered Chef stoneware taco salad things, we had taco salad last night. They worked great. You just put a flour tortilla in the stoneware and mold it into the shape, bake about 10 minutes or so and you have a taco salad shell. I tasted the shell but didn’t eat much of it, but it was good.

We have a busy week, at least for us. I have a dr appointment tomorrow, then Wednesday I have to try and get my ID card again. Jack took a vacation day and we went out there and they said the system was down and didn’t know when it would be back up. It was world wide. Really? So, totally wasted day and he has to take another one off. Thursday he has an appointment about his cataracts as his eye doctor Friday said they are now bad enough to deal with. Looks like Friday I have free. lol We are shampooing carpets this weekend though.

Jean: Hope you had a nice dinner with your friends. I feel the older I get, the harder it gets to do a good job cleaning.

Have a good week!

[gma22]

Good morning. Leaving for the doctor’s in a little while. Hopefully we can get the meds all straightened out. The one he wanted me on was disallowed by Tricare because they make you try one of three others first. So, we have to talk about that and my bp med change. I am having swollen feet and ankles since upping the one med, but he took me off the diuretic so that may be part of it too. I’m a mess.

I did get done what I wanted yesterday. Jack had a HOA board meeting last night so I went up to bed about 8 and he came in soon after. I guess they talked mostly about finances. There is one person here who owes $15,000 in back fees, but filed for bankruptcy protection and they can’t collect a dime. They have changed the bankruptcy rules and they favor the ower completely. It’s a mess because there is $85,000 in arrears that is totally owed and when the manager files foreclosure they up and file bankruptcy. No wonder we can’t get anything done here. Jack has started tagging cars for illegal parking and he carries a golf club with him. I guess when the manager was doing it, he had some run ins with people. I told Jack a golf club wouldn’t stop a bullet. Sad, really.

Jack bought himself another pair of Oakley sunglasses so he’ll have one for each car once he gets his cataracts taken care of. I think we spent over an hour going through styles and such for him to pick what he wanted. Worse than a woman shopping. I had $40 credit on the Discover card so we did get them a bit cheaper.

Everybody have a good day.

[Jean]

Good Morning! The gas company guys are here installing a new gas meter. Every so often they drill something and Ernie doesn’t like that noise. It will take about a half hour then they will light the water heater pilot light and be on their way. I can smell gas and I don’t like that. We’ve had a rain shower already this morning and it has cooled down some. If the sun comes out it will be sticky.

“Gma,” what kind of sandwich spread do you make? I’m always looking for something different. I get in a rut with the same things. I haven’t seen the PC shell stoneware; I like the demonstrations at parties but feel a little foolish going because I don’t like to cook. I always feel like cooking takes so much time when I’d rather be doing something else. Can you call the ID place and find out if the computers are working before you make another trip? You would think they would have a backup being government. Then again, maybe not. It is too bad the management company let the uncollected fees go so far in debt. It’s even worse those bankruptcy people can’t be evicted which would cause bigger problems I’m sure. We’ve had some (assume illegals and others wanted by police) trash rentals and then move out of town during the night. It’s a vicious circle. Hope Jack is extra aware when tagging cars. Police should be doing that! Good luck with your doctor appointment today!

I have more sorting and pitching on my agenda today so better get busy. Hope you enjoy a terrific Tuesday!

[Jean]

Good Morning! The sun is shining and it is warming up from 49 degrees early this morning. There is no wind so is nice outside with a jacket. I’ve been to the grocery store and am so proud of myself! The grocery store that gives cents off on gas has started putting their coupons online. I wanted to see if I could make it work so jumped through the hoops on a box of diapers for the gal in Bob’s office. It worked! Yay for me! I just might figure out this technology stuff yet. I have some ironing to do; Bob bought some golf type shirts with the company logo on them, they are Nike brand with a kind of silky finish to them. They came out of the dryer a wrinkled mess! I read the laundry tag after the fact, and wasn’t supposed to use softener. Oops, I did. I hope the wrinkles will iron out or I will be mad. So I am off to iron! Enjoy a wonderful Wednesday!

[gma22]

Good evening. We are in the midst of one heck of a thunderstorm. Our satellite is out so we can’t watch tv and I remembered I haven’t posted today.

Jack called the ID office this morning and everything was dandy. Unknown to us, the system went down while we were on our way out there! Thank goodness it came back online right before we got there or Jack would have blown a fuse. I now have a new ID, but Medicare is behind I guess and hasn’t updated showing I go on Medicare Saturday. She said to call back in a few days. It is always something. As long as I am in the DEERS system, which I am, then Tricare will second pay whatever Medicare doesn’t.

Tomorrow is Jack’s cataract first appt so it will take awhile. I think they dilate his eyes so I have to go so I can drive him home. One thing is they merged and their offices are now closer to the condos.

Jean: From what I understand, the arrears are all from the previous management company not forcing collection. The nnew guy is a jerk, but when he took over we had $150,000 in arrears and he has collected it down to eighty five. I found out the whole pool issue too. I was really mad because they completely tore out the pool and then concreted the area. Well, I guess the first 13 or so years we lived here, the previous mannagement company wasn’t paying proper liability insurance on it!! Since there was no life guard and we had problems with the trash from up the hill sneaking in and swimming at night, if one of them had drowned, it would have bankrupted the whole complex and we’d all have lost our homes. I have a white tshirt like that. I can’t get the wrinkles out even ironing it so have to send it to the cleaners to have them do it. A real pain. Oooh, I do love to save money. Now that you have the hang of it, you should be good to go. As for the meds, my doctor is a hoot. I told him about my adverse effects to my bp meds so he changed it. I’m taking the same stuff Jack takes now. It’s a beta blocker. Then we discussed my diabetic meds since he reduced my metformin to half because it was making me so sick. Tricare wouldn’t approve Victosa and I didn’t want to wait 90 days with their appeal process so we decided on Trulicity. It’s a once a week injection. I gave myself the first injection today and wowee does it sting and hurt. When I was first diagnosed and on insulin it sure didn’t hurt like that but this one is uncomfortable. Glad I don’t have to do it more than once a week. I have to go back in 2 weeks to see how it’s all working.

Well, the lightening has moved through so guess I’d better get dishwasher going. Have a good evening.

[Jean]

Good Afternoon! It’s cool, cloudy, and windy in my neighborhood today. Several years ago, and lasting a few years, our town hosted hot air balloons over Labor Day weekend. The weather was usually too windy and often rained so the pilots were lucky to launch once out of six times. There were races, dips over targets in the lake, and nice prizes, a new car being the grand prize. The sponsors finally gave up because volunteers quit volunteering and the promotion expenses too great. My point being there is rain and/or thunderstorms predicted throughout the coming weekend starting tonight. I had a perm late this morning and enough said about that!

“Gma,” I’m glad you have your new ID and hope Medicare will follow in a timely manner. It will be nice for Jack to have the cataracts taken care of and he can see again. I’m sure all will go well for him. Do you take insulin and metformin both? Here’s positive vibes the new med works for you! Bob takes a low dose of metformin every other day. His doctor wanted him to quit but guess Bob likes the security of it. His number is where it should be so the doctor is happy. I’m not sure I could give myself shots. Bob says there’s nothing to it; it’s just like giving the hogs shots on the farm. I’d like to think I’m a little different than a hog! I didn’t think private pools needed lifeguards, but what do I know. The undesirables who sneak in would be the type to sue if anything happened. In this crazy world today they would most likely win even though they weren’t supposed to be there.

Have laundry to get in the dryer so better do that before I forget. Hope you enjoy a terrific Thursday — last one in August!

[gma22]

Good evening! We’re sitting watching the Cubs game tonight. We were at the eye drs about 3 hours. Unfortunately, Jack’s astigmatism is so bad he’ll have to continue to wear glasses after his cataracts are removed. We didn’t feel we want to pay almost $6000 for him to have toric lenses inserted. He’s going to see if he can wear toric contact lenses after surgery. I left the decision up to him. The dr said they could only improve him to 20/25. The eye drop prescriptions are $110! What the heck do people do who can’t afford them, go blind? They’re supposedly to cut down on inflammation.

Tomorrow guess I’ll tackle the kitchen. My appliances need cleaning again. Stainless steel gets dirty pretty easy. We have a quiet three day weekend. We’re going to shampoo carpets on Monday.

Jean: You don’t have to have a lifeguard, I just meant because the idiot hadn’t been keeping up on proper liability insurance and there was no lifeguard, someone could easily have drowned and the family sue. I don’t take insulin. I did for the first 6 months I was diagnosed, but brought my numbers down quickly. Trulicity isn’t insulin. I take one metformin daily and now Trulicity once a week. My numbers are decent, but my A1C is a smidge high so he wants to try this. We’re expecting more rain it looks like. Living in New Mexico for awhile hot air ballooning is very popular out there.

Have a good evening.

[gma22]

Good morning. Had some paperwork to fill out so got that done. I want to clean the kitchen this morning and have a load of laundry to fold. Not much else going on. We could get some more rain today, but that's up in the air as to whether it will get into our immediate area or not.

Jack is all set for his cataract removal. The first one is October 15. He is having to talk his foreman about work as he is not allowed to lift anything 20+ lbs and his tool belt alone is about 25 I guess. They don't have limited duty so he is either going to have to take a month to sick weeks of sick time to get them both done or his boss is going to have to figure something out for him. Since he has to wear that eye patch too he will have limited sight for a few weeks. We shall see. He has plenty of sick time, but he may have to fill out paperwork if he has to take it all off.

I is pretty quiet around here today. Guess the kids have gone off to school and parents to work. The guy who used to do a lot of woodworking passes away a couple years ago so you don't hear the saws and such all the time like you used to. I guess I better get up and get going on my chores. Hope you all have a nice holiday weekend.

[Jean]

Good Afternoon! The sun has finally come out of hiding but it’s another strange weather day. It was quite windy earlier but warmer by a few degrees. The humidity kicked in around noon but now it is cooling down. When I went to the hospital to pick up the gift shop money there was a dozen raindrops on my way back home. This morning was my once a month coffee date so needless to say I haven’t accomplished much except to scoop Ernie’s potty box and count money. Bob left early this morning to pick up Jason and head to western SD for Ian’s football game tonight. Zowie didn’t want to go because last year she got docked for attendance while none of the athletes did. She works towards perfect attendance and was really put out. I didn’t know about it until this game but would have encouraged Jason to go to school and protest. Anyhow, Amanda opted not to miss work so Bob went with Jason. The team rode out on a chartered bus and will return home after the game. It’s a six hour drive, one way, in a car. Crazy imo! They are staying overnight and will come home tomorrow. Otherwise, not much newsy from here. Hope you enjoy the long weekend!

[Jean]

Good Morning! It is spitting rain drops and so gloomy this morning which is typical Labor Day weekend weather! Amanda sent me the link to Ian’s game last night. Both my iPad and iPhone said, “url cannot be null.” I have no clue what that means or how to fix it. I had my laptop on from doing the gift shop figures and was able to get the game on that. Ian’s team won, 33-6. Bob sent me a text saying Ian had a great game; it seemed like it was a long game, almost 10:00 when it was over. Now my report won’t print and I am clueless how to fix that! Technology makes me nuts! I have some laundry to do and should vacuum but right now it is too dark to see the fur/dust bunnies. I think I will sort through the coat closet and make a box of no longer used items for the SOS store. Hope you enjoy a nice weekend, hopefully in sunshine!

”Gma,” I got interrupted by a neighbor ringing the doorbell; he brought some tomatoes and string beans from his garden and they look so good! My personal two cents worth, for Jack, is to get a second opinion on the cost of the toric lenses. I was amazed at the difference in my sight afterwards! I have worn glasses since I was two and contacts since I was 18; I tested 20/20 in my stronger eye and lower in my weak eye passing my driver’s exam w/o glasses. I was told I would need reading glasses afterwards and I have worn them most of the time. It is so nice to get up during the night and be able to “see.” Medicare and insurance paid for most of my surgery but I paid $1000 for each lens before the surgery. It took me quite awhile to remember I didn’t have to take out contacts at night or worry about windy days at the ball field. I think the eye drop regimen was the most challenging part of the whole experience. Anyhow, like I said, just my thought. I see the weekenders have arrived across the street; wish they would move back to their farms and sell to a nice couple our age. Wishful thinking! I need to keep moving, enjoy the day!

[gma22]

Good afternoon. We are watching teenage chopped. I always feel bad for the kids that get chopped. The first girl chopped was 13 and she cried and I felt so bad fror her. She is a kid that is bullied so I am sure that didn’t help.

We didn’t do much over the holiday. I didn’t even leave the house.

Jean: That’s great that Ian’s team won. Jack was the manager for the football and basketball teams and they did a lot of traveling. They traveled mainly because the schools were so spread out in NM. He has told me funny stories about eating at restaurants while traveling. It’s great experience for kids I think. My vision is 20/15 in both eyes. I do have to use reading glasses though. Jack has to take all the time off so he had to use FMLA. He took half day off today to take the paperwork to the eye doctor.

Have a good evening

[Jean]

Good Morning! It’s another cloudy day but at least it’s not raining . . . . . yet. We got 2 1/2” yesterday! Bob says the farmers don’t want any more rain for a very long time! He messed with my printer for quite awhile last night and again this morning before he left for work. His patient magic worked and it is printing on command again! Now I don’t have to have his extra printer from the office; I am happy because it is much larger than mine. I went to get my nails done this morning and then did a couple other errands. We are going to look for new bathroom towel bars in Sioux City, then meet Beth and family for supper.

“Gma,” I feel bad for the kids getting “chopped” too. I am amazed at how advanced some of them are in their cooking skills. They are much better cooks than I am! I feel like I should have webbed feet after all our rain. The weatherman says more is on the way. We have been very lucky with no trickles in the basement so far. I wonder if you are getting the tail end of what’s blowing north through the gulf. For some reason I think the storm’s name is Gordon.

Bob wants to mow before it rains again. I need to think about something for lunch so better get busy. Hope you enjoy a nice day!

[gma22]

Good morning. It is overcast here but no rain so far. Makes it very humid though. I guess the eye clinic called Jack and his FMLA paperwork is done so he’s going to go pick that up after work. Tonight is deli sandwich night. No cooking yippee!

I ordered one of those air fryers so I hope we like it. Jack likes tater tots better fried than in the oven and though I have a small oil fryer, we don’t use it much trying to lose weight. Something’s going to have to go in the pantry as I’ve run out of room for my small appliances. I can’t believe how much stuff I have. lol

Jean: Did you two do anything special for your anniversary? Our printer/scanner is wireless and it can drive me nuts sometimes so I know what you mean. When we bought the new pc it has the current Windows and I can’t find anything. If I need something like the scanner I have to wait until Jack gets home. A good percentage of stuff in those “Chopped” baskets I have no idea what it is and sure wouldn’t cook with a goodly amount of them. I saw this timeline article about “old fashioned foods we still eat at potlucks.” Most of the stuff are things I grew up with like scalloped potatoes or deviled eggs. I guess the new generation doesn’t know what they’re missing. They run by the KFC and get a bucket of chicken rather than cooking something. I think potlucks are a great way to show off. I used to always take chicken and Amish noodles and yeast rolls. Usually made apple squares for dessert because Jack liked them. There was one lady from our church who couldn’t cook. Her stuff was really ghastly. No one but newbies ever touched her stuff but I felt sorry for her so I’d get a heaping pile on a plate, cover it with another plate then when no one was looking, throw it in the trash. She used to make the grossiest stuff with deer meat. Makes me gag just to think about it.

Everyone have a good Thursday!