Not everything went wrong yesterday, but not everything went right, either. It was a day that started out with a slight (OK, maybe a bit more than slight) disaster, but by the time I went to sleep, things seemed resolved and I learned how much I can do in my almost-sleep. At this time of the week, I'm sleep deprived, and decisions and actions can be more "challenging".
Thursday, October 17, 2024
Life Is a Bowl of Cherries — Right?
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
Wreckage - I Might Live to Write Again, But Life Isn't Cooperating
Our newest assignment for LJ Idol, due tomorrow, is "From the Wreckage". It's a highly appropriate theme, given that our Moderator lives in Florida and had to evacuate during this last hurricane. He said he wasn't super affected by it, but without doubt, there are thousands of people who weren't that lucky. I haven't the vaguest idea of what to write and it's due tomorrow. I'd better try to get my thoughts in order quickly, but today is a kitchen day, and those days simply can't be skipped.
As always, my thoughts bounce here and there and everywhere. But I do have to focus a bit today, I have a lot that I have to get done. |
I'm also dealing with getting our security system at the shop upgraded to wireless before we switch to our wireless phone system. DH asked a good question yesterday, and after 10 phone calls with various people in the security company arsenal around the nation, I still don't have an answer for him. Currently, we pay a monthly amount to the security company for "Monitoring Services". These constitute "Intrusion Alarm Monitoring" and "Monitoring - Total Connect". For that service, we are billed approximately $150/month. DH wants to know if the monitoring will be the same after we switch, and more importantly, what it will cost us per month. We need to build that into our budget. After speaking with more than 10 people, I still have no answer. I'll keep trying today in between cooking. We do need an answer.
Argh! ... just ARGH! |
We have decided to pay for the wireless security system up front, which is almost $1000 (I did manage to get them talked down from $1200, but couldn't improve past that). If I was going to be in business for another five years, I'd probably finance it over 60 months. But I'm not planning to be in business past next year, so no. I won't obligate myself to pay for something I won't be using. *sigh* What a PITA.
So, as I look back upon my personal wreckage, I could write about that ... but how boring. No. I need to figure out something that will be far more interesting to read about than real life - LOL. I hope you have a wonderful Wednesday. I'm bundling up (it's a cold morning), hoping I can get a good look at our "Super Moon" and heading to the swimming pool. Have a wonderful Wednesday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini.
Tuesday, October 15, 2024
LJ Idol, Bags and Winter is Coming
A bit of a rushed post today because it's a swimming day and I actually slept until my 3:00 am alarm went off. Thanks to all of your votes, I survived last week's Idol challenge and move on to Week 12. I think this is the longest I've survived in this writing competition, and I'm thrilled. The theme this time is "From the Wreckage" - appropriate since our Guru and Moderator lives in Florida.
I'm heading to the pool in about 20 minutes, so this post will be "compact" LOL. It's been a bit crazy at the shop - either feast or famine. I need more "feast" days and less of the "famine" days. Yesterday was a total famine day, starting out with a street person buying a single long leather lace to redo his shoelaces. Apparently he suffered from narcolepsy, because he had a couple of episodes while he was in the shop chair changing his lace and getting things cut correctly for the pair. He was well spoken and quite nice, but I imagine his illness made him completely unemployable. He lives on the streets, it was easy to tell, but he was bundled up appropriately for the much colder weather we are having right now, and for the winter upcoming. I wish him well on his journeys.
I'd never met someone suffering from narcolepsy before. It was rather eye-opening and a bit shocking. I really felt for the guy because the impact on his life must be horrible. |
I offered to buy him a cup of coffee, but he turned me down with thanks and headed on his way. I did have one of my regular customers in later, but it was a really slow day. Maybe just because it's a Monday, maybe because people are apprehensive about their futures until after the election. Maybe a lot of things, but the result was a really poor day of sales.
So I'm off to the pool to work off some of my frustration. I'll have to make a detour on my way to work and drop off a bundle of paper bags I purchased yesterday (and get a refund for them). I ordered one sleeve of bags, but they gave me a box which has two sleeves. I don't need that many bags, and can't afford them either. So, one sleeve is going to be returned today.
Without a doubt, winter is coming to the Frozen Northlands. We escaped winter last year - it was highly unusual and exceptionally warm without snow. We won't get that lucky a second time in a row. |
That's all from St Paul. Our temperatures are dropping, and I suspect I won't have a wonderful winter like last one's. This year I'll be doing a lot of snow shoveling to get to the gym. Last year's winter was a joke. This year ... well, let's just say that winter will return from its' vacation ready and willing to give us lots of snow once again. The vacation was very nice, but I think it'll be good to have a real winter also, even though it's a ton of work for DH pulling snow down from the roof so that we don't leak in the house. Have an excellent Tuesday, I'm off to the pool. Slava Ukraini.
Monday, October 14, 2024
Sunday Was a Bit of a Wasted Day
DH and I wasted a few hours on Sunday afternoon looking for a sound bar for the new TV in the computer room. We have a limited height we can work with - it needs to fit into a cubby. There's also a limited length. Put the two together, and we're eliminated 90% of the soundbars that are out there. Then, finding one that worked, and figuring out if we could actually connect it to the TV (which doesn't have the proper port) was ... well, let's call it an exercise of several hours of futility. We ended up going to Best Buy for almost two hours, and then to Target for another 30 minutes before resorting to looking through on-line offerings. I'm leaving it all up to him. I wash my hands of this one.
Between football and hockey, the rest of our day was bookended with sports on the TV, something I enjoy a great deal. I had been in touch with my salesperson for the treadmill about additional virtual tracks I could do on the equipment (two options get boring VERY quickly). DH won't care at all about the virtual tracks, he just huffs and runs. I, on the other hand, do fast walking, and having scenery to look at makes things a LOT less boring. After she got back to me with a 12-month free menbership to the Treo app (already installed on the tread), I dove into that yesterday afternoon to get my password entered and see what they had.
Although there are a limited number of options for running/walking, I can easily use the biking or elliptical virtual scenery just as well, so today I chose the Chilean Andes from my choices, and lost myself in 30+ minutes of stunning beauty. I don't get the altitude changes that I would on a hiking module, but I set a hard pace and just enjoyed the scenery (and the llamas jumping off the roadway). It was great. I had my earbuds plugged in to my favorite Sirius channel on my phone, and I was good to go. So, my posts on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays will be a bit truncated, because I'm running those days. I actually have more time to post on my swimming days than my running ones. LOL
I live to write another day. "whew!" Thank You to everyone who voted for me. Every vote was important and meant the world to me. I love this competition. |
And ... I live to write another day. Two wonderful writers were eliminated in this latest installment, and although again I was near the bottom, I managed to survive. I'm looking forward to this next theme and I'll have to remember to print it out so that I can think about it a little bit. I send out a huge THANK YOU to all of you who voted for me. I was in the bottom five, but fortunately, not in the bottom two. So ... have a fabulous Monday. Mine will start out VERY busy with a quick run to the bank and then picking up merchandise bags for the shop. I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini.
Saturday, October 12, 2024
Wrapping Up the Week
I'm running late today - still trying to figure out the best new schedule that builds 45-60 minutes on the treadmill into my early mornings and still allows for everything else. Today I almost forgot to write my blog which hasn't happened for years and years. Shame on me! But, I remembered before I left the house, which makes me happy. I don't enjoy posting my blog from the laptop.
I'm still trying to get used to the new schedule of putting the treadmill into my "off" days. I love the machine, though. It's pretty darned awesome. |
It's finally Saturday and the end of a busy, busy week. I have some on-line shopping to get done when I get to the shop, and there's a vendor claiming they didn't get paid for last month (I checked my on-line bank statement and I did, indeed, pay). I'll have to write down the particulars and phone them on Monday.
Let's wrap the week up on a high note. |
I'm really hoping for a relaxing Sunday, and have no faith that I actually will get it. Still, I can hope. Sundays are my non-exercise days, so I'll be able to sleep in and enjoy. Monday will be back on the treadmill with my usual swimming days of Tuesday through Thursday before returning to the treadmill for Friday and Saturday. But here it is, 7:17 am, and I've already done more than 7500 steps. I figured out that my wrist watch (which counts my steps because of arm motion) wasn't getting much data because I was holding on to the side sensors for heart rate. So, I moved my watch from my wrist to my ankle today. MUCH more successful. It's still a learning platform, but I'm feeling much more confident.
So, I'm going to wrap this up and get going. I hope all of you have a fabulous and safe weekend and I'll be back next week. I'll try to take photos of our spectacular autumn colors on Wednesday to share with all of you late in the week. Be kind and have a great weekend. Slava Ukraini.
Friday, October 11, 2024
Scheduling, Treadmill, VOIP and a Dehydrator - Lots of This and That
I'm off schedule today, so quite late with this post. My apologies. I'm trying to get into the habit of getting onto the treadmill first thing in the morning on the days that I work on that equipment (Friday, Saturday and Monday). I had decided to try something different today, so I took my phone and earbuds and set up my favorite listening music on Sirius. There's nothing like hard rock to get things moving in the morning. I had a much more productive "run" because of the sound that accompanied the virtual screen, and managed to get in 2-1/2 miles before calling it done for the day. I'm very happy with the treadmill - it's quiet, it works perfectly, and (so far) it's all mine. I'm happy to share with DH, but there are some ground rules he'll have to follow, or he'll be banned. (Cleanliness is prominent in those ground rules.)
After a shower, I settled down for a bite to eat, then remembered I hadn't done my blog yet. OOPS! So, you're getting this almost an hour later than you normally would. Far from the end of the world, but definitely different.
I also wasted some time trying to see about a portable heart rate monitor, not realizing that my smart watch does that function for me without having to buy/wear another piece of equipment. Yippee! At least one good thing today.
I'm in the middle of a "negotiation" with my phone company and my security alarm people at the shop. We are upgrading to wireless for our phone system (actually mandated for businesses by the end of the year). I found a company I liked for that, and signed a contract with them. They, in turn, sent me two phones at no charge (and they're REALLY nice VOIP phones), and are giving me two months free while we arrange to get our security alarm system ready to move to wireless as well. THAT's been like pulling the whole camel through the eye of the needle.
The original quote from my alarm company was almost $1200! and I totally balked at that. I drilled down and talked to a lot of people, finally finding out in detail exactly what was required to do the switchover, talked with the person who had generated that quote, and he came back to me yesterday with one closer to $900. It's still pricey, but it's better. He also broke down the costs, and almost half ot that $900 is the new equipment box that will be necessary to get everything wireless. The remainder is installation and labor. I guess I can live with that, so now to herd the cats so that everyone is doing their installation/switchover within the same 24 hour period. I don't want to be without my security alarm for longer than that.
I'll be trying to work out all of the details today, making lots of phone calls and trying to get things scheduled between the two different companies. In between all of that, I also have other things on my agenda that have to happen, and I set up the dehydrator to make one of my absolute favorite things - dried pineapple chunks. SO GOOD! So I'll be busy today - nothing unusual about that - LOL. Have an excellent Friday, I'll be back tomorrow to wrap up the week. Be kind, make someone smile today, and Slava Ukraini.
Thursday, October 10, 2024
A Traveling Phlebotomist (Who Knew?) and Hurricane Milton
Have you ever heard of a "travelling phlebotomist"? I was introduced to one yesterday, for my blood draw. The lab at my clinic is now being managed by an outside firm, although they are still located in the large building that houses the clinic. The older woman I had for my blood draw yesterday was having some difficulties getting one of my tests to be accepted in their new computer system, and we had a chance to chat a little bit while she was working things out.
Now, I'm a horrible person for blood draws. I have VERY small veins, and usually they have to use baby needles on me for any success. Some people are great at hitting the vein immediately, but others make me feel like a pincushion. She was of the first variety. While drawing my blood, she told me that she's a travelling phlebotomist, and she accepts three-month jobs at a variety of hospitals and clinics throughout the USA. She had just returned to traveling after spending three months with her husband and his aged parents in North Carolina. But her job has allowed her to see many parts of the nation in short bits and pieces. It's been perfect for her, and she was GREAT.
Usually after any blood draw, I'll have bruising at the vein or within the vicinity. This time I have no mark at all, and no blood on the gauze either. She was superb at her job. |
Usually I have a bruise, and a bit of dried blood on the gauze and bandaid, but not this time. Not one drop staining anything and my arm looks untouched. Brilliant! I wish I could have her every time I need a blood draw, but I'm sure she'll be in a different clinic in a different state when I need my next one. I wish her well on her continued travels and a happy and long life.
Our Great Leader for LJ Idol is being affected by the hurricane, and has put everything on hold until after he's able to return to "normal". I may survive to write another week through default - LOL - but I'll take it. I adore writing to theme, it stretches my mind and imagination. I hope he and everyone affected have pulled through this safely. It looked AMAZINGLY HUGE and quite frightening on the small screen of the TV, and I'm grateful that we only have occasional tornadoes up here. Yes, tornadoes are very destructive, but they have a much smaller area of direct impact. In addition, not that it matters, tornadoes are beautiful to see (from a distance). Have a wonderful Thursday, be safe and be kind. I'm off to the pool for my final swim of the week. Treadmill on Friday and Saturday - hurrah! Slava Ukraini.