It Was a Week of Accomplishment!

It's finally the end of a very busy and stressful week. I had an excellent fast walk on the treadmill this morning, and have my first cup of herbal tea next to me while I type this. I've started a Xmas Gifts for me list for my DH, leaving in on the refrigerator door in hopes he'll see it. I desperately need a new set of Nike running shoes for my treadmill days, and a set of running shorts for the hotter months would also be beneficial. We'll see if he actually does anything much. His gifts over the years have been getting sparse. 

Today's run went from Venice to Cinque Terre in Italy. There 
were some canyons too. It's one of my favorite runs, except 
for Venice. I'm not very fond of running through cities, even 
if they are as charming as Venice. 

I'm anxiously awaiting the physical court verdict so that I can take that with me and get an updated Driver's License and begin to get a new passport. It's really those two things that spurred the whole issue in the first place. My documentation was not accepted, but with the court order, a lot of things will change - in my favor. As it is, when my driver's license expires next May, I wouldn't be able to renew it. NO BUENO! LOL 

I'm waiting for the paperwork to get a "Real ID" card 
from the state. It's basically a driver's license with a few 
extra parts to it that will allow me to board airplanes, etc. 
Rather important, I suspect, since I plan to travel when 
I'm finally rid of the shop. 

So I'm going into the weekend with a feeling of accomplishment, at least. I found and looked through all of the house documents yesterday, but no problems there. My name is exactly as I have in the court document throughout. I guess things were a bit less strict in the mid 1980's when we bought this place, but I'm very grateful that I won't have any issues with my name as listed on the purchase agreements or the Title of Deed. 

I'll have to start a small "To Do" list. I'm 
not fond of lists in general, but they can be 
helpful when trying to make sure everything 
is completed. My mother ran her life with lists, 
but I tend to run mine with short lists that 
will be current for a day or two only (except 
for the grocery list). 

I'll have to start a list of things to check, however. Things like bank accounts, stock and securities accounts, etc will all have to reflect my proper name. I don't think I'll have any issues with them - most of them are probably already using the name I have now legalized. But, I'm sure there will be something that will crop up as I go through things. Probably something I rarely use, but that still has importance and needs updating. 

Have a great weekend. I'm hoping to get some more of 
the leaves raked up. It'll be the last nice weekend we'll
have, maybe until Spring! 

So, I'm wrapping this up, having breakfast, and heading off to the shop. I hope all of you have a splendid day and a wonderful weekend. I'll be back on Monday morning. Slava Ukraini. 

My Name Is Now Official! Court Was Successful!

Virtual court was very successful, and I won my case. I'm sure it didn't hurt that I had my oldest niece, Catie and Chickie Mama as my witnesses. They've both known me practically forever - LOL. I should be receiving the official judgment in the mail and then I need to get busy getting a bunch of things taken care of - first of which will be an updated Driver's License. I'll have to start a list, though. There are a lot of governmental entities that will need to be contacted to make sure my information is up-to-date and accurate. I might be able to finally get a new passport too! That would be delightful. 

Thank goodness for my days with WildFit during the COVID 
shut down. I got used to using Zoom at that time, and it wasn't 
horribly difficult to get back into it. The lens cover for my camera 
is quite a small slide lever. Getting the video turned on so that 
I could appear on screen was almost the hardest part - LOL. 

DH, of course, was totally grumpy about the whole thing. He's already grousing because we need to check my signature on the deed for the house. It has to have my legal name, and if not, I'll have to arrange to get it revised. I'll check that out this afternoon, I think I know where he has it. I'll also check on hours at the Social Security office to make sure I can be at one of the locations in tine to be one of the first people let through the door for service. 

I will be drowning in documents for a while. I'll need to make 
sure that everything is updated to my legal name ASAP, and 
then I can arrange for other things that may need to be tweaked. 

Anything and everything official will need to be checked. My driver's license is the only thing I know I don't have problems with; my problems with renewing it is what led to this whole thing. I simply didn't have the correct documentation to be able to get a new license and my current license expires on my birthday next year. 

I'm extremely fortunate in my friends - near and far. For 
the court, my oldest niece and my dear friend Claire 
stepped up to the plate for me to be my witnesses. I can't 
thank them enough! 

Claire and Catie - what fabulous friends and relatives. I couldn't be luckier. They've both known me practically forever, Claire since 1993, Catie since I moved up here in the mid-1980's. They were the perfect witnesses. I think the Judge appreciated an easy case for a change - LOL. Now the harder work starts, as soon as I receive the official judgement, I'll need to get it notarized, then I can have a copy for me and a copy for whatever entity I'll need one for. My bank can do that for me without any problem. 

I'm celebrating today. Although I still have a lot that I'll 
have to do, the major roadblock has been removed. 

So ... whew!!! Whoopie!!! Thanks for all of the positive thoughts and prayers - they worked! LOL I'll be back tomorrow to wrap up the week. Slava Ukraini. 

Today is My Virtual Court Day - A Lot is On the Line

Today is my virtual court hearing for my official name change. It's not like I'm changing to something outrageous or even new, I'm trying to get official recognition of the name order I've used for decades. I use my middle name as my first name, and because I have a hyphenated last name, I just drop my original first name completely out of the picture. 

We'll see how this all goes today. I'm hoping it will go 
smoothly, but there are no guarantees. I have my two 
witnesses lined up to state that they have never known 
me as anyone other than who I say I am, but since I didn't 
supply documentation to back everything up, I'm not 100% 
sure things will be resolved today. *sigh*

It's bittersweet, but it has to be done. My first name was my father's choice, and he was a student and aficionado of Greek mythology. I was raised with Greek mythology for my bedtime stories, not Raggedy Ann and other more mundane tales. But Dad chose a minor character for my name, one that rarely appears at all. I'm fine with rare, but this one was too rare. It was like a chain around my ankle, following me wherever I went. I couldn't blend with others because the name always set me apart. 

Although I like my given name, I don't enjoy using 
it. It's mispronounced and misspelled all the time. 
I stopped using it in late 1966 and have never looked back. 

So, when I entered Middle School in a new area of town where no-one knew me, I switched my name. My Home Room teacher, Mrs Brooks - whom I will hold in high respect for my lifetime - asked each of us what name we wanted to be known by and called in the class. I chose my middle name then, and I've never looked back. 

Mom felt that Paul and Pauline would be 
rather like a circus act. She was totally 
against that appearance, so switched to 
her middle name and used that name for 
the rest of her life. 

There is precedence in my family for that, but it was a lot easier in the days past. My mother was Pauline, my Dad was Paul. Mom felt when she married him that having the two names that similar sounded rather like a circus act, so she switched to her middle name, and was known as Eva for the remainder of her long life. So there was family precedence for what I'm trying to accomplish today. 

I'm really hoping today's court hearing will wrap 
things up, that the court will agree with me, and 
that the judge will rule in my favor. Of course, I 
probably won't know until I receive official 
documentation, but I'm hoping that will be soon. I 
need to get a new Driver's License and can't even 
do that until this is resolved. 

Of course, I can't present documents to the court in a remote session. If the judge decides he needs to have the paper trail, I'll have to schedule a second hearing, probably pay another ridiculous fee, and I'll need to arrange for the documents to be received by the Court for the second hearing. I'm really hoping it won't come to that. But there is a possibility that it will be remanded for a later hearing when documentation has been received.  So, I'm heading out to swim off some of my fears and frustration. I hope you have an excellent Thursday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

It's Going to be a VERY Busy Day

Just a quick post today at the start of a VERY busy morning. The afternoon will be more relaxed (if you can call three loads of laundry and some cooking relaxing), but the morning is packed solid. I start with my swim, of course. I must hit the water on Wednesdays - LOL. Then I get home, drop off my swim clothes and start the first load of laundry before a VERY quick breakfast and heading off to the wilds of the Northern part of the Twin Cities to see my Endocrinologist. 

I'm heading into the wild of Coon Rapids, MN as soon 
as I've had a quick breakfast (although I might push 
breakfast off until late morning). 

I like this doctor, and I haven't seen him for over a year. Itr's a touch-base appointment, and I have no idea what we'll discuss. I can't tell if the infusions I'm getting (at a VERY expensive rate - it's a damned good thing I have health insurance), anyway ... I can't tell if they're doing me any good or not. I haven't had any scans to let us know whether my bone density has improved or not. Maybe it's just stabilized, I really don't know. I have crap bones ... that I do know. I feel like a skyscraper that's developed rust on its' interior beams. Generally, not a healthy thing. 

My bone density is more like the bottom than 
the healthy bone density of the top. That presents 
some serious issues with mobility and possible 
bone breakage in my future. We're trying everything 
we can to improve the density, thus the infusion 
schedule he's got me on. 

But I'll start today off in the pool, then run home and head off to Coon Rapids (yes ... that's the name of the northern suburb where my doctor is located), and after I see him, I can get started on my day - some shopping, a bit of cooking, and some mundane things like paying bills. I'll chat with Aearwen late this afternoon, then toss some chicken into the oven, and call it a busy day done. 

I don't mind being busy, but I also have to be very 
productive today - no choices. So ... I have to be super 
organized and efficient. I'm not always meeting those 
two criteria - LOL. 

I hope all of you have a great Wednesday. Maybe a bit less hectic than mine, but a good one. I'm going to plug in some photos and call this done for today. Slava Ukraini. 

It's Been a Huge Project at Work

My muscles are feeling better today, which is good, because today is a swimming day and I don't want to miss my pool. Last week I had to miss my Tuesday swim because of the locker room issue, but I really enjoy getting my three days a week in the pool going, even if it is horrible for my skin. The perils of growing old, my friends! Your body decides it's going to self-destruct - usually in little ways that just stack up over time. 

Isn't this the case? When we were kids, it was like 
we had boundless energy. I'm quite sure we drove 
our parents and other adults a bit crazy. Now we're 
the parents and adults, and we're exhausted. LOL

We've been busy like crazy at the shop, bringing our precious metal prices up to a reasonable dollar amount with today's metal markets. It's a HUGE chore and has been taking DH the better part of the last two weeks. He's changing pricing and we're doing new price tags for everything and getting items back out for sale. We probably hadn't done this for more than a decade, and you all know that precious metals have gone through the roof! I simply can't afford to sell an item for 1.25 when it should actually be much closer to $10. Welcome to the world of commodities. 

Getting our precious metals repriced has been a 
Major Project that DH has been working on for 
more than two weeks now. 

Precious metals are one of the items that are considered a commodity - something that has value in itself, not necessarily in its' shape. Of course, a silver coin is worth more than a brass one, but a silver bead is also worth more than a brass one because the silver costs more. At least in today's world. Mankind's history is "Oooooh! Shiny" directed. Is there a silver mine over the next hill, or a gold mine across the river? Well, let's conquer them and have an easy source of trade and a foundation of wealth for the state. 

There's nothing quite like the shine of precious metals. We 
never had a lot of gold (fortunately) but we have a LOT of 
silver that needs to be repriced to current pricing. It's probably 
been more than 10-15 years since we last did more than spot 
changes. 

But, it's been a huge task and has been DH's focus for the past two weeks. We're getting to the bottom of it now, but there's still quite a lot of bins left to be priced and re-tagged. It basically comes down to facing reality - the items that we are selling should be appropriately priced for the current markets. That includes our jewelry, and our Native American-made goods. It all needs to happen, and it's all on DH to do. He feels a bit overwhelmed, and is taking it out on Chickie and me - not purposefully (most of the time), but because he needs a release and we're convenient. 

There's nothing much better than swimming my stress 
away. I couldn't treadmill yesterday, my muscles were 
too strained, but today I feel much better and I'm ready 
to tackle the water. 

So, I'm off to the swimming pool to get some of my own frustration out of the way. All in all, things are actually working out quite well, and with good luck, we should wrap this project up by the end of the week. But it's been three weeks or a bit more of steady, non-stop pricing work. A PITA, to be sure. Have an excellent Tuesday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Too Bad None of You Are Close Enough To Be My Masseuse

It was a busy Sunday, but at least the weather was good and it wasn't super cold. DH went to the shop to work on some stuff and he was gone until mid-late afternoon when he went out to rake. I raked leaves for about three hours until my back gave out. I've been in pain ever since. Nothing much to be done about that, just let things be and it will calm down again. But I didn't get as much raked as I wanted. I should have looked for the leaf blower in the garage, but I'm not really sure how to use it and what, specific, engine it attaches to - it could be one of two different lawn systems that DH owns. 

We've got a leaf blower that fits onto one of the two possible 
motor sets we own, but I don't know which one it fits, nor 
how it operates. So I'm stuck using manual labor - a rake. I'm 
good with a rake, but I wrenched my left lower back while 
raking yesterday and I hurt. The last few loads were really 
difficult for me to get down to our dumping ground. 

But, I did what I could. I tried the treadmill this morning, but only managed about 15 minutes before my back twinged again, so I stopped right then and there and I'll try to borrow one of the high stools that we have at the shop for the day so that I can perch a bit instead of stand all day. 

We have several high stools at the shop, I'll 
have to grab one of them for perching or I 
won't make it through the day. DH will be at 
the computer for the day, so I won't be able to 
sit at that chair, and there aren't any other 
seating arrangements I can use. 

It's a left, lower back twinge, below the waist but above the pelvic bone, and it hurts. It hurts to sit, it hurts to stand and I assume it was hurting while I slept, but I was too exhausted to pay any attention - LOL. Just one more thing in my life - LOL. I'm sure I'll be fine in another week or so. 

My lower back pain is on my left side, around 
the waist area and doesn't extend farther 
down (fortunately). Of course, at the waist 
level, it gets affected by every movement. GRRRR

For those of you who picked up playing "Arrows" on your phones, did yours turn to a black background with colored arrows over the weekend? My world is suddenly much more than black and white - LOL. I'm totally addicted to this game - it's challenging, and it doesn't take forever to do a round. I've always been attracted to puzzles like this, so I'm very pleased I found it when I was looking for a new phone game. The colored version, I think, is a bit easier in some aspects. You can follow an arrow through its' shape with greater ease. All I know is I'm on level 718 and I've only been playing it for a bit more than a week. *sigh* Addictions! LOL 

Arrows switched to a black background with neon colored 
arrows over the weekend. I don't mind it, and in some ways 
it makes things a bit easier, but it was quite a shift from 
the B/W version I'd been used to playing. I still recommend 
it, though. It's keeping my interest and I'm into the 700 levels 
now. LOL

I'm going to wrap this up, grab breakfast and head to the shop. Have a really excellent Monday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

It Was a Fun Cooking Day, Now Reality is Knocking Again

I spent most of yesterday in the kitchen. My refrigerator looks much happier now - prepared meals and morning fruit are stacked on my side. I always enjoy a good day of cooking, and one of the best things about yesterday is the roast beef that I made. It turned out glorious - perfectly medium-rare, and my slicer still works well. I ended up with 30 slices of roast beef for sandwiches for about $16. A steal of a deal. 

The roast beef I had purchased on Wednesday cooked up 
wonderfully and I was able to slice it super thin, so even 
though it's a tough cut of meat, it's still very tasty and easy 
to eat. Lunch! LOL

We had been waiting for a reply from Travis regarding our next steps for our business liquidation, but frankly, I wasn't super happy with what we got back. We're supposed to schedule another phone meeting. I'm fine with a lot of that, but at some point I'm going to need more assistance and I'm hoping against hope that he'll be able to actually provide that. I'll also have to do some searching for firms we'll need to hire for publicity, mailings and website advertising. More things on my plate "sigh". 

It's so easy to start a business - a minimum of muss 
and fuss and a single piece of paper filed with the 
city you're operating in. Closing a business, on the other 
hand, is a nightmare of regulations, governments (city, 
state and local) and procedures. ARGH! 

I took a bit of time last night to contact a friend about a gift for another friend. Since at least one of these people reads my blog semi-regularly, I'm not going into specifics, but I do hope that Friend #1 can do what I'm asking (I'm perfectly willing to pay a good rate for the job), and that Friend #2 will be pleased with the result. I'll have to wait and see, but I have high hopes on this one. 

Next Thursday is looking like a train wreck already. I have my virtual court hearing scheduled for 11:50 am, and as soon as I'm finished with that, Claire and I will head to the MCI course I'm taking at my local health center. I'll have to tell them we might be slightly late, but we should be there on time, if everything clicks. I'll have to do the Zoom call from the shop, so I'll have to gather whatever paperwork I think might be relevant and take it to the shop with me. My documentation is shit - my birth certificate is almost a joke it's so bad. But, I do have my naturalization papers and other things that back me up as being who I'm claiming I am. If the Judge asks for something I forgot, however, it's not going to go well. 

It's been a while since I was last on Zoom, and both 
Claire and I will be in the same room for the hearing, since 
we need to leave for our MCI group as soon as it wraps up. 
I'm just hoping it will be cut and dried without any speed 
bumps. 

So, stress upon stress for the upcoming week. I'm going to wrap this up and try and enjoy a busy Saturday and a Sunday raking leaves (ick!). Have a great weekend, I'll be back on Monday. Slava Ukraini.