Catching Up - It's Been VERY Snowy and Happy New Year (Early)

Since we're closed tomorrow and Thursday, although I will be posting quick Happy New Year posts, this is really my final post of substance for the year. We were dumped on for snow on the 28th-29th, so when I awakened, I did 1/2 hour on the treadmill, then got dressed for shoveling and started moving a mountain of snow. I cleared the walkways, then started on the driveway, and I had half of it cleared before DH came out and tackled the remainder with the snow blower. I was quite grateful for that, since that included the snowplow scree from the plows running back and forth along my street. 

Although my street is urban, the amount of snow on each 
side of this photo is just about what we were dealing with 
yesterday morning. Thank goodness Kevin had been kind 
enough to snowblow our front out. It made things much 
easier for me to deal with when I got into the shop yesterday. 

My acquaintance at the shop, Kevin, the Anishnabe guy who clears snow for the coffeeshop next door on the corner, had cleared his single pass that he does in front of my store as a kindness. I'm always grateful to Kevin, it means I have less that I have to clear, and people have a safe way to walk by my shop to get to the bus stop and the coffee shop. I still had plenty of snow that needed to be shoveled, but it wasn't solid  and didn't take me long. The drift that the snowplows had cast up in front of the shop were easily more than 4 feet high, so I now have an impressive barrier to the street snowplows. They'll be cleaning up for a day or two more, so I'll have to do touch-up shoveling, but I think my castle walls are in place for the remainder of this winter (unless we get an unusual warm snap that causes some serious melt-down). 

We had nice numbers from our sale on the first two 
days, but yesterday was a real disappointment. The 
snowstorm really kept people away (and I couldn't 
blame them for not wanting to drive through although 
the roads were mostly cleared). 

It was the third day of our four-day END OF THE YEAR SALE, and, as sales go, it was a disappointment. Of course, just getting from Point A to Point B in the snowstorm seemed to be a serious issue - there were at least two cars stuck in the drifts alongside the road during the day. One, they had to call a tow truck out for, the other borrowed my shovel to get himself extricated. I'm sure my little corner wasn't the only one affected along my street, the snowplows had cleared the driving lanes, but hadn't cleared edge-to-edge yet. 

I'm extremely grateful for Kevin who is hired to snowblow 
the walkways around the corner coffeehouse, but extends his 
path past my store for a single up and back sweep. It's a 
kindness he does for me and I'm very thankful for it. 

I have to start today out by going to the bank for our final deposit of the year. We're closed tomorrow and Thursday, so it's my last chance to get money into our account. It's a bit nerve-wracking - it's a LOT of cash to be carrying around. Still, it's not like I'm wearing a placard stating "Rob Me". LOL I'm sure I'll be fine, it's not the first time I've had to do a deposit like this. 

We're a legacy customer of Deerwood Bank. Our original 
bank, which had been less than a mile from the shop, now 
is the location for the spectacular metal loon sculpture on 
the northwest corner of a redevelopment of green space for 
the urban scene. I adore the loon, but on days like today with 
roads the way they are, I would really prefer my old bank. LOL

But I'm starting the day out at the swimming pool. I won't be swimming the remainder of the week, so I absolutely need to get my one day in. I'm going to catch up on some sleep over the next couple of days, and we'll have to go into the shop for at least a short time for reports. We also have the rescheduled family get-together on Wednesday afternoon. So I won't be housebound. My posts will be short, however, for the 31st and the 1st. I wish all of you a safe and happy New Year and I look forward to sharing with all of you in 2026. Slava Ukraini. 

ARGH - It's Enough To Make Me Want to Wallow in Self Pity! That's Just NOT Me!

One of the things the bank needed from us for our PPP Loan Forgiveness were copies of our bank statements. I had taken them home mid-week last week and scanned them in - three months for one account, six for another. I scanned them in and saved them to my hard drive. I thought I had included them in the documents I sent to my banker on Sunday. She emailed me yesterday, and no. They weren't part of the multitude of images I sent along to her. So I was going to send them again. They are nowhere to be found on my hard drive. I've looked in every location I can think of under every name, and searched by dates too, and nowhere! So, today I get to find the damned things again and scan them in once again and send them out again. It's extremely frustrating. 

I have looked everywhere. It would be nice if I found the files 
after re-scanning one of the statements, but who knows. It's 
annoying and quite frustrating. 

The hardest part of getting those documents to the bank is finding the darned bank statements. DH squirrels these things away (probably wise, but it makes things difficult) and he's not at the shop on Tuesdays. I'll have time to take a serious hunt, but it's just one more step of frustration. Maybe I'll be lucky and it'll actually be someplace reasonable - like in a folder or something. But it probably won't be that easy. 

My Discover Card is my personal card. I use it for 
my own expenses and sundries. It's what I use for my 
books and e-books, and for things like my computer 
because I have a very nice credit line built up with 
them over 20+ years of use. 

I received an updated Discover card yesterday for touchless charging. I encourage my customers to use touchless whenever they can, and I'm very pleased to have received the card, but of course it's a new card number and I have charges pending on the old card which have to go through before I can activate the new one. Therefore, it will have to sit for a week or two until all of my pending items (including my new laptop) have cleared. Then I can go ahead and cancel the old and activate the new. I have to be careful to catch all of the automatic places where I have the card registered too. It's not a lot, but they're important. Just one more hoop to jump through. 

Enough of my wallowing in self pity. Isn't the word 
"wallowing" such an unusual word? I might have 
to look up the origin of the word - curiosity ... one 
of the best tools against self pity. LOL

On that rather frustrating note, I think I'm through complaining for the day LOL. Time to be more optimistic and pro-active. I can only wallow in growls for so long. All things considered, my problems are fairly minimal and certainly something that can be overcome with relative ease. And, my dental appointment was excellent - a clear slate including X-rays. Next checkup in June. Huzzah! I'll be back tomorrow. In the meantime, please be kind, stay safe and wear your mask. 

It's VERY Cold, So Therefore I'll Knit

My Friday off will actually start with a quick run to the store to pick up a folder I forgot there last night. I'm so used to carrying all of my paperwork in my laptop bag, I completely forgot the package of several hundred pages of materials I was working on yesterday sitting behind my laptop bag at the shop. I grabbed the bag and left the folder standing on the floor. Since it contains things like my bank account statements from 2020, I probably shouldn't just leave it there. So I'll bundle up (it's very cold today - currently it's 3F and I'll dress warmly), take a quick drive over there, pick up my folder and turn on the shop computers, and head back home for my Fabulous Friday off. I am loving this extra day off each week. It's a wonderful thing. 

The quite above is ascribed to Mark Twain and to 
Ozzy Osbourne. Frankly, it could be any number 
of people because I think we all have times when we 
left our minds in the other room. 

On today's agenda, aside from some government forms I need to get filled out, I plan to knit at least one of the two sleeves I need for my sweater, and I want to work in the spare bedroom getting at least one more box of recycling together to deposit at the shop's larger bin tomorrow morning. The shop's recycling bin is collected every Friday, so Saturday morning deposits are excellent timing. 

Although we have recycling at home too, home pickup is 
only every two weeks, and my bin is usually pretty 
full by then. The larger bin at the shop gets picked up 
every week and if the t-shirt printer in our row of shops 
got a shipment of blank shirts, it also can fill quickly. 
Pickup day is Friday, so taking a box of stuff for it 
on Saturday morning is usually good planning. 

I have one more piece of paperwork to get together for my banker, then I can send her a bunch of stuff for our PPP Loan Forgiveness application and, hopefully, that will be it. We've been jumping through hoops for this since we first filled out the actual loan application in April, and I'd like to place the bookend down, thank the bank and government for their very necessary help, and call it a done deal. I know we did everything right - we were very careful about that - it's just a matter of getting the supporting paperwork to the bank's Loan Officer. Dotting i's and crossing t's - it's what makes the world turn around, right? 

Dotting the i's and crossing the t's is essential when 
dealing with finance and government. We've gotten 
really good at doing that, but I'll be grateful when I 
no longer have to deal with the government or bankers. 

Re my knitting for the day, after careful measurement and several different tries on Wednesday, I've decided to do a row of 2x2 cables across my sweater cuffs. I adore cables, and the sample I pulled off the machine late Wednesday looks great. I'll make it work and I think it'll be marvelous. Another adventure in knitting - LOL. Next sweater will have cables in the body too. I'm determined. 

I need to keep my thoughts on the project when I'm 
knitting a cable stitch. I don't want to miss the 
crossover parts, and I would like to have it look 
quite similar to this knitted example. 

On that note, I think I need some hot tea and oatmeal before bundling up and heading out into the cold. We'll only be in the cold for a day or so, but I'm shivering under my hoodie. Have an excellent day - stay safe, be kind and wear your mask. Unless I freeze into a pile of ice, I'll be back tomorrow. 

Lessons In Paperwork and a Return to the PPP Loan - Will Things Never be Completed?

What was the old adage for hair washing? "Rinse and repeat"? That's what we've been doing regarding our Payroll Protection Program loan from last April - yes, that's April of 2020! I had filled out the Loan Repayment paperwork and submitted it to my bank in late December. There are time deadlines in play here for getting paperwork in on time to avoid having to pay back this loan, and I didn't want to miss the deadline. But, late last week my banker came back to me with news that the form for the government had been amended on December 31st, and I had to fill out a new form and attach several supplementary documents. 

When running a small business, you get buried 
by paperwork all the time. We're pretty experienced, 
after more than 30 years at it, but when something 
is misplaced or simply overlooked, it can be 
catastrophic. I think we managed to dodge the 
bullet on this one and find everything we needed. 

Normally that wouldn't have been a problem. We're sticklers for paperwork, especially when it comes to the Federal government. But when I went into the files to pull the copies of the completed forms, I discovered we were missing one quarterly report from 2020 and I was NOT happy. There was no reason for missing the paperwork, we filed it on time, but for some reason I never printed out copies. Bad me! 

Sometimes it feels as if small businesses are the 
snowman the women are throwing snowballs at in 
this painting by Hans Dahl. But, we pick ourselves 
up, dust off the snow, and continue on trying our 
best in difficult times. 

So yesterday was filled with accusations and recriminations, resulting in my arriving home and scanning paperwork for the bank as well as chasing down duplicate copies of missing forms. The forms had, of course, all been filed electronically, we weren't missing that, but we wanted paper records for our files. It was a hectic 45 minutes while I got all of that together, but success! I sent the revised paperwork and supplementary information to the bank this morning. Now it's back in their hands once more. 

In between customers yesterday, I was watching "Special 
Techniques for Machine Knitting - Color & Texture" with 
Susan Guagliumi on my laptop. I always learn so much 
just watching her, and she's a great teacher. I'll be starting 
the sleeves for my sweater tomorrow during my 
afternoon knitting machine session, and trying to 
finish up my first sweater on Sunday. We'll see how 
my time goes, but I'm pretty happy with how things 
are going so far. 

I'm hoping today will be a bit less fraught with accusations and general grumpiness. I've been busy watching some Craftsy classes, thinking about whether or not I want to actually purchase them or not. They're a lot of fun, and while I'm a member I can watch them at no cost. They're not worth purchasing unless I want access after this first year. I doubt I'll renew my membership for the following year - it's expensive, and probably won't match the $9/year offer I got for this year, so if it's a class I'll want to keep referring to, purchasing might be the way to go. . 

On that note, I'm out of here. I'm cold, and I want my cup of hot tea and oatmeal. Have a glorious Tuesday and I'll be back tomorrow. As always, please be kind, stay safe and wear your mask. 

Halfway There and Disaster Averted

Last week I went to the wall covering store and ordered larger samples of the two papers we had decided we wanted to see closer. Unfortunately one of them is no longer being made and there was no excess stock available, so it's back to the drawing board for the second paper. I got the sample of the primary paper in the mail yesterday, though, and it's really pretty. I'll be taping that onto my wall today so that we can take a closer look at it, and I'll be going back to the store early this morning on my way between the gym and work to see if I can find a different second choice. *sigh* I just can't seem to win, here.

The original samples from the wallpaper store are very small. Sure, we
can make very basic choices from that, but we really need larger pieces
to see how the pattern and color work in the room. I got one of the larger
samples in the mail yesterday. Now to put it up and really take a look. 

I contacted two different people last week who could possibly do the wallpaper install for us. One still hasn't returned my call, the other sounded about as enthused as if I proposed that he come in for a root canal. I think I can do without that kind of attitude and will continue my hunt for a wallpaper installation person.

I want a professional to install my wallpaper. My wall is 12 feet
high and there are some odd corners. The old paper needs to be stripped off
and the new paper put up. It's a big job and I don't want to be the one doing it. Maybe
it's time to check out Angie's List and see who I can find there. 

I needed to pay down on my primary personal credit card, so authorized a payment without thinking last night. This morning, in my email confirmation, I happened to notice that I had authorized it from the account that I'm closing out tomorrow. Oops! I quickly went into the account this morning, deleted the incorrect bank account information, added the new checking account information and rescheduled the payment. That could have been VERY bad. Disaster averted!

A few years ago when most banks hiked their fees, Affinity Plus ran this
very successful ad campaign. I almost switched then, but held off. They've
got my business now, though.
No more US Bank. Hello Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union. 

Tomorrow I'll go to my old bank and close whatever accounts I can. I will still have my mortgage with them, but I'll close the two checking accounts and the line of credit I've had with them for 23 years. Everything is working well with my new accounts at the credit union, so I'm ready to make the switch permanent. Huzzah! Have a wonderful Tuesday. I'll be sweating out at the gym before walking into the sauna that Minnesota has seen fit to give us for the week's weather.

So Much Fun, So Little Time

Yesterday's schedule was a bit maniacal, but the truly scary thing about it all is that it totally worked out. Wow.

I did the gym thing first, then had breakfast and wandered to my new bank to finalize documents, get my debit cards and first checks, and make sure that I could begin to use the new checking accounts. After getting all of the banking settled out, I started the laundry and headed out to Minneapolis and Lake Calhoun to meet Huinare. That's when my day took some turns and twists - but fun ones.

It was a day of wrong directions and turns, but I just got the
scenic tours through Minneapolis and around the lake. 

I missed my exit from one freeway to the other, forcing me to go a slower way. Of course, that brought me right through downtown Minneapolis when everyone was streaming in to watch the afternoon baseball game *sigh*. After fighting traffic, I finally got to the appropriate road to the lake, then turned and realized that the parking lot I needed was in the opposite direction.

Of course, the street didn't allow me to turn around for a long distance, so I got the scenic tour. Finally I was turned around and heading in the correct direction, I found the parking lot and paid for a few hours of parking (very inexpensive, so that was good) and began walking to meet Huinare. EXCEPT, I walked in the wrong direction - for quite a while. In fact, I even passed her and although I thought to myself, "Self ... that looks like Huinare from the back," I didn't act on my suspicion, merely kept walking west when I should have been walking east.

Fortunately I realized my mix-up, turned myself around, and headed towards the boats. Silly me - having boats in the water might be a good indication of where I could get into a boat on the water. I got to the building in time to see Huinare sit down on a nearby bench to wait for me, and sure enough, it was the person I had thought looked familiar. Sometimes my life is the blind leading the blind.

We pedaled under both of these bridges to be in calmer waters. It was
a good workout - we were pedaling against the resistance of the water
to get anywhere. I think we may have almost run into one of these walls. 

We rented a pedal boat and headed out into the lake, peddling madly and steering like drunken sailors. The boat was as responsive as a ... well, I'm not coming up with anything that describes how incredibly poorly the steering mechanism was for this plastic scow, but it was really horrid. As we made our S-shaped curves toward bridges, swimming ducks, docked sailboats, and other poorly steered boats, we had a chance to talk while laughing about what an abominable steering job we each were doing.

Per Huinare's request for privacy, I removed

her picture from my public blog. 

We split the steering with each of us cutting really poor figures of competence across the water, finally arriving back at the dock and leaving our pedal boat behind. Our exercise component for the day had been reached and it was time for lunch and easier conversation which we did back in my own part of town. Finally, sated and with much back and forth talk about Real Life behind us, I dropped her back near her home and headed back, happy to have had the chance to see her again.

Of course I got turned around on the way back home too, but
it brought me past this really funky shop with a calliope in front of
it and lots of scrapped lighted lettering in bins along the side and
towards the back right of the picture. It was really an amazing
place,, but I had no time to stop and look closer. 

Everything after that was rather anti-climactic. I continued the laundry, went to the wallpaper store and chose more samples to look at, and finally had dinner and collapsed. But it was a wonderful day and I can hardly wait for Huinare to come to town once more so that we can play again. Maybe next time we'll go to the Zoo or the Conservatory or both? The possibilities are huge! Thanks for a great time, Huinare. Fun, fun, FUN! Have a great Thursday, all!

Customer Appreciation - NOT! A Banking Rant

So, yesterday's blog centered on customer service and the practice of getting a bonus for shopping with selected vendors. So many of you remembered your parents and others collecting the stamps (of various types) and turning them in for merchandise. But that's not the world we seem to live in today and I'm rather disgusted by the trend we have lately.

When I opened my first bank account as a child, we had passbooks that were kept by hand and got gifts from the bank for opening up an account or putting a certain amount of a deposit into it. We were rewarded for saving our money and for choosing X bank over Y. It's not that way any more, though, and this is one thing that hasn't changed for the better.

Yes, our accounts are better maintained because they are all computerized. Of course that can lead, and has led, to accounts being hacked and errors in deposits/withdrawals that can sometimes take months to fix. We can check our balances on-line 24/7, access funds at Automated Teller Machines (did you remember that was the definition of ATM?) throughout the world, and set up automated bill pay if you have trust that you will have the money to actually pay them when the computer will try.

But instead of offering incentives or even still giving free checking accounts, they are charging. The minute your money goes into a bank it is worth less than it was when you held it in your hand. It's rather like a car that loses half its value the minute it is driven off the dealer's lot. There is something wrong when I have to pay a bank to take care of my money.

I fully admit that interest rates are pathetic and that interest was one of the major ways that banks earned money. Additionally, the banks made really poor decisions regarding mortgages and business loans, not requiring the financial foundation for those loans that they had required when I bought my home in the late 1980's. Their lax controls and poor decision-making along with a static financial market led to their inability to make money at the rate they wanted. So to fight losing funds, they started charging for some services, finally extending those charges throughout the system including monthly charges on checking accounts. I admit it, but does that make it right? No!

My local credit union is building a larger building near my home. I'm seriously considering pulling my personal checking account away from my bank and its ridiculous fees and moving my money to them instead. The credit union doesn't charge a monthly fee for checking accounts. Maybe that will be my toaster for opening up a new account...no fees chipping away at my very hard-earned funds. What do you think about your bank? Are you happy with their service and fees? Let me know.