Wills and Trusts and Donations - This and That

Yesterday's swim went really well, and today (and tomorrow) are treadmill days, so I get that one hour of extra sleep - very needed and appreciated. I have what seems like a million things on my agenda for today, One of those things is a final read-through of our Marital Trust agreement. We managed to decide on charities that we wanted to donate to. DH's donations are quite a bit larger than mine - but his trust fund is quite a bit larger than mine. LOL I'm giving funds to organizations that I care deeply about: MN Public Radio, the Trevor Project, St Jude's Children's Hospital, Como Zoo, the MN State Fair Foundation and the ASPCA. DH is giving a large donation to Public Television which was another on my list. I'll let him do that donation - he has a much larger fund to pull from. 

Giving to charities we care about is important to both of us. 
It's something I've done regularly for decades, but he's the 
guy with the money, and his donations will be substantially 
larger than mine. 

I'll take one more read of the multi-page Trust document, and we should be able to tell Corey what's needed on Monday and give it the green light. Apparently my name change isn't necessary to be able to sign this legally, so we won't be held up by that. 

One of the things they never mentioned when they speak 
about getting older is the amount of time you have to spend 
with lawyers and legal documents. 

Of course, we should probably have gone through all of this earlier - a decade or two ago - but really, we're both in good health (somewhat) and I fully expect to be around to give DH more grey/white hairs for a decade or more. Still, we do need to have everything down in writing. He's got money, I really don't have a lot - but I'm passionate about those charities that I do support. 

Public Broadcasting Service is something both of us 
support heavily and I'm letting him take this one 
for donations. His pockets are deeper than mine. 

So, I think it's time to wrap this up and start my day. Not much to say today, but not every day will be "War and Peace". Have an excellent Friday and I'll be back tomorrow for the final post of the week. Slava Ukraini. 

Starting "The Wave" of Smiles Today and a Big "Thank You"

Hello one and all, I hope you had an excellent weekend. Mine was filled with a lot of food, some conversation, excellent ice hockey and beautiful weather. It was above 60 F yesterday! In MARCH! Our weather this year is absolutely insane. The Winter Weather Gods decided we needed a break after last year's record-setting and extra long winter, and we've got it this year. I don't think we've even seen a total of six inches of snow TOTAL all winter here in the Twin Cities. CRAZY! But I like it! LOL We'll have to keep a very close eye on our trees and plants this year - we'll have to make sure they get enough water since they haven't had much from any snow melt. 

It turned out quite nicely, and was a fun project to do. 
I used EXACTLY the number of brown beads available - 
in fact, was two brown beads short. It was the brown 
beads that dictated the end size of the piece, since 
I had more of all other colors remaining. I hope she 
likes what I did, and that she uses it for many more years. 

To bring those of you who are contributing towards the beaded trivet up to date, I hadn't heart from her, although I had left her several messages, so I settled down on Saturday afternoon and phoned her instead of emailing her. It turns out she's been down with COVID, and is starting to recover. I told her what my on-line friends have done for her - THANKS AGAIN, TO THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE CONTRIBUTING TO HER REPAIR COSTS - and by the time I was finished telling her, she was in tears of joy. She said that in her long life, no-one has ever done something so nice for her before! I was a bit shocked, but delighted that my online friends have contributed to her absolute happiness. I told her to relax and get better, that it will be waiting for her when she gets well. 

I like this - "Doing a Good Deed Brightens a Dark 
World". I sincerely believe in that, and today's world 
is becoming darker by the day. I don't like where the 
world is going right now, and I'm grateful that I'm an 
old lady and won't have to deal with where the world 
is headed for more than a few more decades. 

So, you'all have done a good deed for an old lady, and she's extremely grateful. Chickie deemed it "excellent", but DH said I should just have given it to her. That I had plenty of money. I tried to explain that the money wasn't the issue as much as the payment for a skillset honed over decades of practice, but he just didn't understand. Of course, there's not a charitable bone in his body. I have far less funds than he does, but all of our charitable donations come from me. I donate a lot to a number of charities every year - monthly donations that I examine and either continue the next year, or I find a different charity that I feel helps more people to donate to instead. I truly believe in extending a helping hand - not giving everything carte blanche, but putting out assistance to help people (and animals) get back onto their feet with dignity. DH just doesn't get that. 

There are a lot of different ways to donate - not 
just financially. I choose to donate money because 
I don't have the time to actually help physically. But 
I'm hoping that after I retire, I can help out at the 
Humane Society or maybe at a care center 
near me. It doesn't take much to brighten the life 
of another living being. Just being there is 
sometimes all that's needed. 

I wanted to share that small victory with all of you, though. Sure, the total cost for the repair wasn't a huge amount, and it's not going to stock her cupboards with goods to get her through the next few months. But it will brighten her heart every time she sees and uses her beaded trivet, and isn't that what money is supposed to do? To make life just a little easier and filled with a bit more sunshine? Maybe that's not what the stock market things money should do, but in my personal book, that's EXACTLY what money should do. Spread joy and happiness, help out a little here and there, and more than anything, do things that will improve the lives of individuals - people. 

Spread some joy today. It doesn't take much - a smile, a 
listening ear, a friendly hug, a pat on the head and scritch 
behind the ears (for a dog, it's heaven - LOL). It takes such 
a minimum amount of time and effort, it amazes me how 
rarely people actually try to do it. 

So go out and spread a bit of sunshine today among people. You don't have to give money, just give a smile, and a wave, and a cheerful "Good Morning" or "Good Afternoon". Smiles are contagious, so let's see how many we can spread through our circles today. Let's start "The Wave" of smiles today, one smile at a time. I'll be back tomorrow, Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.

Le Tour is in the Pyrenees and Hats Off to Lachlan Morton and World Bicycle Relief

Here we are, the final week of Le Tour de France. After last year's Covid-shortened Tour, it's a relief to have Le Tour back to somewhat normal grounds with spectators allowed (and welcomed). That, of course, is always a somewhat debatable "positive" aspect of racing when you're on the narrow and steep inclines of the Pyrenees on a bike, and getting crowded in by an ocean of spectators. Still, I'm delighted to be back in the high mountains with the enthusiastic spectators. For those of you who are "in the know", the Devil is back also and was seen (and commented upon) during Sunday's stage. 

Stage 16 goes from Pas de la Case to Saint-Gaudens and, 
as you can tell from the profile, there are some lovely 
mountain peaks to go up and down, with a downhill 
finish. This is NOT a sprinter's paradise. The mountain 
men, however, will look at this profile with glee. 

Stage 16 looks intimidating, and yes, those are some high and relatively steep mountains, but really, the gradients range from 4.1% to 7.1% with a very small section at 10%, so it's not horribly steep. One hundred and forty-five riders will start today. During today's stage the riders will pass the memorial to Fabio Casartelli on the descent of the second peak. Fabio crashed during the 1995 Tour de France and died from his injuries. Bicycle racing is most certainly not for the faint of heart, especially in the mountains, although accidents can happen at any time as we saw during the first few days this year in Brittany. 

Remember this crash? It was only a bit less than two weeks 
ago, and it seems like a lifetime. Crashes on the flats can 
involve many riders, crashes on the mountain peaks usually 
are going to involve fewer people, sometimes only involving 
a single person with a machine malfunction. The mountain 
crashes can lead not only to injury, but in rare cases, death. 
The history of Le Tour de France has catastrophe as well 
as greatness. 

Because the mountains aren't excessively challenging, just a lot of climbing, I don't have a lot to say about the stage, but it'll be entertaining, even if not exceptionally hard. The sprinters won't like it, but they'll grit their teeth and come in under the time cutoff, and we'll all race another day tomorrow. 

Congratulations to Lachlan Morton for a tremendous 
solo ride raiding funds and awareness for World 
Bicycle Relief. Although there were several different 
charity bike rides around Le Tour, he was the only 
person who actually rode the entire course on his 
own. It's a tremendously hard course, and doing it 
without support is beyond difficult. 

Cheers and a tip of the hat to Lachlan Morton and his "Alt Tour de France" solo bike ride to benefit World Bicycle Relief. He raised 360,000 pounds for the charity. He set off and duplicated the full course of Le Tour de France in its' entirety, including those sections where the riders were on the bus or in caravans. He even rode the final bit where the riders will fly to Paris. All told, Lachlan rode a total of 5,510 km in 18 days, solo and unsupported for 220 hours. Everything was packed onto his bicycle - sleeping gear, a change of clothes, rain gear, repair gear, etc. He often slept outside and sometimes sourced his own food. He's a professional rider for EF Education-Nippo, so he's very familiar with bicycles, but this was a ride of love for him. Bravo for his achievement. 

I'm out of here. I'm going to watch a bit of Le Tour before I head to the shop. I hope you have a fabulous and fantastic Tuesday and I'll be back tomorrow. Please, be kind and stay safe. 

Charity Begins at Home - That's the Saying, At Any Rate

It's December 30th and I'm running late. Late for what? Late for my annual charitable donations. I always allocate some of my annual spending to support charities that are important to me. I have some on monthly, automatic deduction from my bank account - Public Radio and the Trevor Project are standard for each month. But I also do annual donations to Twin Cities Public Television, Point Foundation, Out Front Organization, the ACLU and the Animal Humane Society (animals are just as important as people),. as well as a few others. I also do spot donations during the year for things that catch my attention or just to help a friend who is having a hard time. I usually have already made my donations for the year by this time. I'm going to have to rush things through in the next two days. I want my donations completed before the end of the year. 

Life for young people is hard. Life for young LGBTQ 
people can be even harder. When someone contemplates 
suicide, they'll often reach out via phone to someone ... 
anyone. When I was young and reaching out, there wasn't 
anyone there. I'm determined that won't be the case now. 

I've been very lucky in my life, but I also remember those times when I was anything but settled and was relying on good luck and food stamps for my meals. I was raised by parents who firmly believed in giving to various charitable causes and organizations that improved the lives of their community. I was NOT raised with weekly tithing to religious organizations, and I don't do that either. I look carefully through the organizations that make my short list, and I don't always choose the same charities every year, although TPT and The Trevor Project are pretty well carved in stone. I want to give where I feel it will do some good and help individual people achieve a dream or improve their lives. And of course, I love animals and want to help them have better lives and loving homes. 

The Point Foundation is a National organization that 
provides scholarship funds for higher education to 
LGBTQ youth. The scholarship funds are used for both 
classic four-year and advanced degrees, as well as 
for study at Community Colleges. As a single person, 
I can't help much with advanced education expenses, 
but combined with thousands of other people, I can 
have a positive impact on a student's dreams. 

I'm not asking any of you to go out and donate to any specific causes, and I know that donations of money are only one way to help - donations of time, materials, or labor are equally important. What I am asking is for you to be kind and if there is any way at all that you can make a difference in the life of another living creature, then please try to make it happen. The best way to achieve peace is through a single smile at a time. 

The Animal Humane Society, both National and 
International, are also high on my list for charitable 
donations. The well-being of animals and the caring 
for our fur and feathered friends can make a serious 
difference in the quality of life for both parties. 

I'm stepping off my podium now and rejoining the human rat race. Please be kind, stay safe and wear a mask. I'll be back tomorrow. 

It Was A Great Day

Thanks to all for the birthday wishes, e-cards and other lovely thoughts. Thanks also to those who gave donations to the Trevor Project in honor of my birthday. I'll be donating today when I get the final figures, but I'm so happy to have spread the news a bit about this worthwhile charity. 

I strongly believe in The Trevor Project. A large proportion
of suicides and the homeless are people who identify as
LGBTQIA. The Trevor Project saves lives. 

DH cooked for me - a really lovely meal. He made scallops in a slightly Asian flavored sear, made a lovely seafood linguine with small scallops, shrimp and crab, and had some mini garlic shrimp that he pan-fried on skewers. Asparagus accompanied the meal. It was wonderful and so thoughtful. His birthday card brought me to tears. He can be a real sweetie sometimes. 

My birthday dinner was fabulous. The scallops on the right
look quite dark, but it's the light sauce, not that they are
excessively burned. The meal was wonderful! DH even
washed the dishes! 

Chickie's mom, Claire, has become a good friend over the 20+ years we've known each other. She dropped by the shop yesterday with a card that was so amazing, I had to share with all of you. Just take a look at how incredibly gorgeous this is. I'm saving this card, for sure! 

I adore this quilled dragon. It's not a large
card, 5" x 7" in size, but it's so detailed! 

The card uses a technique called quilled paper - strips of paper tightly rolled and then hand-shaped and glued to card stock. They have a lovely website featuring their cards and larger matted art pieces. Just follow the link in my text if you're interested. I had looked into quilling when I was younger, as a possible artistic format for me. I had decided against it because it was a bit too persnickety for my personal taste, but I adore it as an art form. 

Here's a detailed look at that fabulous dragon card that
Claire gave me for my birthday. What a stunning
piece of art. I'm thrilled! 

So I had a lovely birthday and thank you to everyone. Now I'm going to have a great two days and I'll be back on Monday, ready to dive into another week. Have a good weekend and a safe one! 

It's Countdown Time!

I'm counting down the days now - wanting to get my holiday cards in the mail to all of you on my list. I've checked the list twice, will start signing the cards today, and if all goes smoothly over the next three days, they'll be in the mail Wednesday or Thursday this week. That's requiring a lot of work before the store opens in the mornings, and my schedule is messed up by a Chiropractor appointment this morning, but I'm pushing to get these out ASAP in hope that many of you will have them before your Holiday. 

I adore owls, so these Holiday Owl cards stood out for me. Here we
have holiday whistling owls. Don't they look festive! 

Yesterday was our first Sunday open of three. It's not a day that I am open normally. DH keeps me company on Sundays so that I'm not solo in the shop - it's always wiser to have two (or more) staff people on hand at all times. But yesterday he stayed in the back room and watched his football game while I stayed up front and worked on holiday cards. It seemed to work. I got the portion of the cards I was working on completed, and his team won the game. Huzzah! 

I seem to be on an owl roll today. Apparently a Santa hat and
an owl are just appealing to me today. 

I will have to take some time later this week and get some DVD's ordered for DH. Even though we tell each other that we don't want any more DVD's, they are really one of the few things that we really enjoy and I get the more unusual ones - continuing our collection of "Midsomer Murders", "Endeavour", and other British shows that we love. 

For my friends who love cats, I found this
little gem of a card. I guarantee the cats
I've shared my life with in the past wouldn't
tolerate the Santa hat, although getting into
the lights and the stockings wouldn't
have been beyond them. 

I'm also going to take a close look at what I can afford to give as donations this year. I always try to send donations to "The Trevor Project" (https://www.thetrevorproject.org/#sm.00wwsro5145zeht11gh24q1ryxorx) for LGBTQ youth, and often other more directed charities that help specific groups of people desperately in need. This year I have several on my short list and need to narrow them down to a total of four charities. It's hard to do. I've always believed that money should be spent helping others, but there are so many hands outstretched and funds are limited. Still, I do what I can, when I can. 

I'm seriously loving this card from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The
decorated reindeer horns are so classic and beautiful, and Santa
isn't the ridiculous 'bowl full of jelly' as too often portrayed. 

So, since this is a Monday and I have to drive to the farther YMCA to swim before my Chiropractic appointment, I'll wrap this up. It's December, and Solstice is in a few weeks. How are you doing on your holiday decorating, cooking, and gifting? Haven't started? You'd probably better get going! LOL. Have an excellent day! 

Memories, Old Friends and Facebook

Yesterday was a rush to the past for me, and I had so much fun with it. It started in the early morning with a long-time Facebook friend putting out a post for an old group I belonged to to check in - to speak out and think about the community we once had. Before you know it, many of us had posted, reminisced, commented on the posts of others, remembered those who were no longer with us, and generally joined a rather good-sized parade walking down memory lane.

The topic snowballed. People were contacted by other friends and joined
into the conversation. It was rather amazing as the day progressed. So many
old friends and good memories. 

It was so much fun when we first got together. It was the early days of the internet - one step above the old bulletin boards, but far below the multiple social network posting options we have available to us today. These were the days when there was no massive money machine behind "Bead & Button" magazine. These were the days when "About.com" and their beadwork section was read by thousands of us every week, everyone downloading the latest pattern and asking questions about stitching and finishing techniques. These were the early days of AOL, CompuServe and Prodigy. This was the group that I joined in 1996.

Most of us actually joined earlier than Version 5.0. I think
I joined in 1996, and 5.0 came out in 1999. As annoying as
AOL might be (and might still be in some respects), it
managed to accomplish something revolutionary and beat out
its competition over the decades. 

AOL was king in those days - sending downloadable disks into everyone's mailboxes and saturating the portal market. The competition crumpled under AOL's onslaught of advertising and their depth of news and communities. One of those communities was in their crafting section - a beaders community that chatted every day, shared tips and techniques, arranged for exchange boxes and bead swaps, and started an annual beading challenge to raise money for cancer research.

We gathered together, the AOL Beaders, at the Tucson Gem Show, the early stages of Embellishment/Bead & Button Show, and others. We rented extra rooms at the hotels for a beading room and met there after classes were finished for the day to bead, chat, and interact. Firm friendships were formed that still exist today. Yesterday, on Facebook, we joined together once more, this time in cyberspace. It was wonderful!

I'm not fond of Facebook, but I do check in every few days. Yesterday I
was checking in often, just to talk with old friends, and I ran into another
old friend on a completely different board. I haven't had so much fun
with social media in a long time. I wish it could always be like that. 

Noises were made about possibly starting a FB group just for us - those who had been together in the early days of the craft, before it had been blown apart by big business and people running after the immortal dollar sign. It might happen or it might not. Even if a new group is formed, I don't think it will have the same magic. The friends, though ... yeah. I'd join just to be in touch with my Beady Buddies one more time.

Have an awesome weekend. I'll be swimming in the 50-meter pool today, then off to work. I want my weekend, so I'm just patiently waiting for the close of business tonight (or maybe NOT so patiently). Be back on Monday *throws kisses out into cyberspace*.

I'm Still Poor - Thank Goodness!

I didn't win the PowerBall last night and DH didn't either. In fact, I only had two of twelve matching numbers spread between my two chances. So, basically, I'm still not a member of the mega-rich. Which actually is a good thing. Why? Well, for one thing, it will save a lot of arguments and pressure.

DH and I have always supported educational charities and are believers
in higher education, even though neither of us actually use our college
degrees. I believe that exercising the mind is always worthwhile. 

When someone actually has money - big money - the world beats a path to their door and they are expected to suddenly become everyone's best friend. I don't mind being a good friend and relative, but for something like big money, people seem to crawl out of the odd places and push their way into your lives.

Is there even a safe place to put that kind of money? Step
number one would be consulting a lawyer. And how would
you decide which lawyer to consult? What a mess. I'm
quite happy I wasn't the winner of PowerBall. 

But it's always nice to dream, and I'm sure many of us had fleeting thoughts about how we would spend that insane amount of money. My choices would mainly be charitable donations for Alzheimer's research, cancer research, and LGBTQ causes such as safe houses and educational scholarships. DH would probably increase the coffers of the already-wealthy Catholic Church and would donate to several colleges, but he'd end up investing most of the money. Large sums, like what will be available for the winners, are beyond my comprehension. I only see disaster in dollar amounts of this size.

I now have two pairs of exercise pants that
actually FIT me! What a trip! I feel so happy! 

I have little goals and small triumphs. For instance, I'm happy because I saved in my own little way. I had $25 of gift cards that I had accumulated at Target, and since I needed a new set of clothing for the gym, I treated myself to two new pairs of pants for my machine days. Now my pants won't threaten to fall to my ankles. And, because what I purchased were also on sale, I ended up spending less than $10 of my own money on almost $60 worth of gym clothes. SCORE!

Each day is special and unique. Enjoy your Thursday, January 14, 2016, it's
the only Thursday, January 14, 2016 you'll ever have. Treasure it. 

It's the little things in life that can make me happy - LOL. Here's hoping you have a wonderful and fulfilled Thursday. BTW, are you working on your Slashy Valentine stories (if you're signed up)? Better get moving on those - the clock is ticking. Happy Thursday.

Charity Requests

Just throwing a question out there. Why do all of the charities increase their fundraising efforts at this time of the year? I understand that they want to maximize their dollars in for the year, but really? At this time of the year we're all mega-broke from the holidays and excess funds are a pipe dream. Any extra funds I have right now (and my Discover card balance is laughing at me as I write this) is going to two new sets of exercise clothes so that I don't frighten anyone at the Y while I'm on the elliptical or in the pool. Good grief!

I will have to get some instruction on how to use the elliptical. I haven't
used one of these before. 

Yet the lack of funds from most of us at this time of the year (unless you're sitting pretty on top of an inheritance or something like that) certainly doesn't seem to stop the endless tide of charity requests from hitting our in-boxes and mail boxes. And the kicker is that many of these organizations/causes are ones that I would really like to support. I just can't right now.

Heifer International is one of my favorite charities because it
helps people become independent and self-sustaining through
the gift of small animal care. Just a gift of some chickens, ducks, or
a goat can be life-changing for a family. 

I choose my charities carefully and try to make sure my money gets used in a way I approve of and targets as many people as possible. I'm really rather boring in charity choices - Public Radio, Public Television, the Art Institute and a few occasional donations to other types of organizations such as Doctors Without Borders, the Human Rights Council and Heifer Organization. But if I gave the $20, $10, $5 or even $1 each time I was asked, my barely-black bank account would be blinking a bright, neon red.

There are so many animal rights charities out there, it's hard
to choose just a single one for a donation. The
ASPCA is high on my list, but so is the Humane Society. 

So I'm sorry, charity of pro-choice, charity of animal rights and charity of LGBT rights. As much as I might want to support you with funding, that's simply not going to happen. At least not at this time. Does that mean you're off my list forever? Of course not. But you're not going to be one of my monthly donations, and you might not even make my annual donation list. But when I am feeling flush and I am looking for a place to spend a bit to help others, I'll be revisiting your websites and re-examining what you are doing with your funding. If I think it will help people stand on their own two feet, or help those who have no voice like animals, I'll probably send a donation to assist your efforts.

Whether actual or cyber, I'm getting buried alive by junk
mail, many requesting donations. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! 

And after I've done so, my in-box will once again be assaulted by a never-ending stream of solicitations. *sigh* It almost makes me want to stop donating to charities all together. Enjoy your Tuesday!