This day is a joke, so I’m celebrating it accordingly. But seriously, I love you all for visiting me here and tolerating my droning on about things that don’t matter to anyone anywhere. I’ve got a heart on for all of you!
*MWAH*
I found a pair of eye glasses I thought I had lost. They were tucked away in a drawer in my bedside table. I wouldn’t normally put them there, which is why I did not bother to check there sooner. I only ever use that drawer to stash away my every day personal items (aka clutter) when we are hosting guests and directing them to put their coats on our bed (which we do when there are more than 2 people here, since our coat closet is pretty full.) If I’ve stashed things away, I always pull it back out of the drawer the next day. I must have overlooked my glasses. Oops!
I signed up for a free retirement seminar in April. The seminar is offered for eligible NY Civil Servants (those eligible for retirement within the next 5 years) on a regular basis. Its intended to educate pending retirees on Deferred Compensation, Social Security, Health Insurance, and general Pension information. I think I’m pretty knowledgeable about these issues but it can’t hurt to attend and see if there’s valuable information I don’t know. Worse case scenario, it’ll confirm what I already know.
I made macaroni salad today during my lunch break (I’m working from home today.) We are having hot dogs for dinner tonight, and I thought the salad would be a great complimentary side. I didn’t have any bell peppers to dice up, but I had onions and celery, so I think it’ll be fine. We both love mac salad, but I never think to make it. The same is true about Deviled Eggs. Maybe I’ll make some of those tomorrow.
I performed a fun little experiment. Using my Instacart App, I filled a basket with similar items for 3 different grocery chains: two are the “Big Two” chains; the third is touted as being “extremely cheaper” than the other two be everyone I know. None of these items were specialty items – all were standard kitchen staples. (Milk, OJ, canned goods, etc.) I looked for the cheapest brands for each item at each store and, although they did not all carry the same brands, I made sure I chose the same size items. One of the stores did not carry an item I needed, so I looked up the closest comparable item. What were the results? There was only a $6.32 difference between the cheapest and the most expensive grocery order, and the highest costing order was the alleged “cheaper” store. I know this is a very unscientific experiment, and there are many factors to be considered before declaring these stores essentially all cost the same, but I did expect to see a bigger difference, none the less.
I got the results back from my annual blood work. Apparently, I am not on death’s door. My cholesterol is a bit high, my kidney numbers are bit low, but nothing of real concern or alarm. Docs orders? Hydrate more, reduce frequency of high-fat foods, and exercise more. All stuff I try to do anyway. I have to redo the blood work in 3 months to see if my numbers improve. Oh, the pressure!
I have nothing else to share at this time.
Cheers to those who survived this far in our apocalyptic present.
Everything in our life is now being scrutinized for downsizing, from clothes and belongings, to streaming services and subscriptions, to social apps, to buying habits. We’ve enjoyed a relatively carefree approach to spending money, buying what we want, when we want, with no real consideration for cost. With prices soaring the way they are, and Social Security benefits on the chopping block, we decided to start being dollar savvy now, instead of waiting until we absolutely have to, keeping in mind we want to spend wisely and thoughtfully, and discontinue (as much as possible) financially supporting companies who bent the knee to Agent Orange loudly and proudly.
We’ve already done a clothing and coat purge. I also removed a few social apps and one or two more may be on the chopping black. One reason I don’t scrap them all together is that so many good people are sharing stories and news content that the mainstream media is not sharing or intentionally covering up, so I don’t want to lose access to what is really going on. I should probably look into some proper independent news sources that share actual facts and don’t editorialize (remember those days?) I’ve even given a way a few giraffe items (GASP!) to friends. We want to keep the house in the current refined, less cluttered look, and there’s no sense packing all the non-displayed items away in the basement until we die. I’d rather they go to people who will display and appreciate them. Plus, we do still plan on moving after retirement, so we don’t want to pack and move things we don’t want to bring with us.
We are also examining our spending and buying habits. We have way more streaming services than we need, and we will be canceling those over the next week or two, bundling where we can. We just cancelled Hulu, which is not only hiking subscriptions prices yet again, but are now revoking our commercial-free privileges and inserting ads into our previously add-free premium plan. B-Bye!
We have all but stopped using Amazon to purchase anything since Christmas. Today, I cancelled my digital comic subscriptions and my Comixology Unlimited (“CU”) subscription through Amazon. I replaced it with a DC Universe Infinite Digital Subscription (something I’ve subscribed to before) since everything I am currently reading is DC anyway. It’s about half the price of what I was paying for CU; gives me access to read all the (DC) comics I had to purchase in order to read through CU; allows me to read new books for free 30 days after they’re released instead of 6 months; and I’m not supporting Amazon. (Woohoo.) So I’m saving money, getting more content, and not lining Bezos pockets with my moolah. Its a win -win- win! I may add a Marvel Unlimited subscription some day, (I have subscribed in the past) but I already own most of the Marvel material I love (Golden and Silver Age) so I already have a vast library of print and digital Marvel comics. We’ll see.
We’ve also started shopping smarter. We have stopped using Insticart exclusively, and have been doing in person shopping again, which allows us to price shop and save money on delivery fees. It has become painful to grocery shop (When are those egg prices coming down? I ask rhetorically.) and we have swapped out many preferred brands for store and generic brands to save money. Unfortunately, there are some beloved food and household items that don’t offer lower priced versions, so we either have to shell out the dough or go without. We’re compromising along the way and thoughtfully considering which items are must haves (i.e. Hellmann’s Mayo for Jeffrey, Name Brand Gluten Free Cereals and Breads for me) and what items can be swapped out for the lowest cost store brands (e.g. milk, condiments, and spices.)
All our spending is now intentional, and everything we spend is getting scrutinized in order to develop better spending habits. Do we have to go to this extreme? No. Could we do even more expense trimming? Yes. But we feel good about the efforts we’re making and the reductions we’ve already accomplished. In fact, I’m starting to rather enjoy cutting costs. It’s become like a game to me and now I swear – every impulse buy I avoid, every sale item I find, every item I dispose of – I can hear a little sound in my head as if I’ve just leveled up.
I really think this is the start of something beautiful….
If I’m being honest, it was not actually a bad day, for a Monday I had to go into the office and work. There were no emergencies or issues, just routine work, the day went by fast, I got out on time, and hit every green light on the way home. When I arrived home, a cute puppy greeted me, a fire was roaring in the fire place, candles were lit, soothing music was playing, and Jeffrey greeted me with a glass of Prosecco. He informed me he had done the laundry and grocery shopped. (He had the day off.) We made dinner together (Turkey meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and gravy) then settled in by the fire to watch TV and cuddle with our puppy!
Not gonna lie…I could get used to this.
Stand up!
Show up!
Speak up!
Don’t normalize what’s happening.
Don’t stay silent.
Don’t stay hidden.
Make it clear where you stand and what you stand for.
Silence = Acceptance!
Just one voice
Singing in the darkness
All it takes is one voice
Singing so they hear what’s on your mind
And when you look around you’ll find
There’s more than one voice
Singing in the darkness
Joining with your one voice
Each and every note or another octave
Hands are joined and fears unlocked
If only one voice would start it on it’s own
We need just one voice facing the unknown
And then that one voice would never be alone
It takes that one voice
We started the day at 24 degrees but the temp has shot up to a staggering 29 degrees. According to the forecast, a storm is blowing in around 7pm tonight and threatens snow accumulation up to 11 inches. Sadly, that puts the kibosh on our plans to go to CT this weekend. So we filled the wood bin, picked out some movies for later and tomorrow and, as a consolation prize, we’re taking ourselves out to an early dinner at a semi-local favorite restaurant (Century House) to cheer ourselves up and get ourselves safely back home before the snow starts.
With no other plans or projects, I spent the day putting a puzzle together:
It would be a fun puzzle to glue, frame, and hang in my basement lounge, if it weren’t for the image of the American flag, which now only fills me with sadness, shame, and disgust.
Maybe I can paint a Canadian flag or Pride flag over it.
How The British Got Trump Right
A British writer penned the best description of Donald Trump I’ve ever read:
“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?”
A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.
Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.
Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.
There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.
And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.
So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:
• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.
• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.
This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.
And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?’ If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.”
-Nate White
Jeffrey’s new shirt! He’s part Choctaw and very proud of it (as he should be!)
He also got this one. I love it and want one, but I have to decide what shirt I’m willing to get rid of to make room for it.
Until then, I just have to wear my boring old “Gay & Tired” T-Shirt!
We got our canvas print of Clyde in the mail today and now he hangs on our wall with our other fur kids. I absolutely love it?!
I made breaded chicken cutlets with honey mustard sauce, and Jeffrey air fried some potatoes to go with. It was delicious.
To celebrate surviving another week of work, and it being Friday, I made myself a classic Cosmo, my favorite cocktail.
Cheers to all. Happy Friday!
The temps took a nose dive this morning to 9° F (-12° C) To make matters worse, a snowstorm blew through this morning. While there wasn’t copious amounts of accumulation, it fell during peak commute times, and the temp stayed below freezing so, whatever fell, stuck and froze. Not a good day to be out on the roads, for sure. I was fortunate to be working from home today and, with some cajoling, I convinced Jeffrey to stay home as well. Even though Jeffrey had a fire going in the fireplace, and I had heaters on in the basement, it was still cool in the house for most of the day.
Since I had to get up earlier than Jeffrey this morning to work, I brought Harvey and his bed downstairs with me to my home office for a while, where I plopped him down next to my desk, in his bed, in front of a small space heater so he was nice and warm for the duration.
As soon as we heard stirs of Jeffrey getting up and about on the first floor, Harvey abandoned me faster than a M*GA abandons their humanity, leaving me to fend for myself in the cold dark basement. (To be fair, it’s not really that cold and dark, but it makes the story more dramatic, yes?)
However, at lunch I got to come upstairs and take advantage of one of the luxurious features of our home: a gas fireplace in the master bedroom and, because we can set it to kick on when the room drops below a certain temperature (currently set at 70 degrees,) our bedroom is the one room in the house that stays warm and toasty all winter. (And it is SO wonderful at night when it kicks while we’re sleeping on to keep us comfy.)
One might wonder why I don’t simply move my home office to the warm and comfy bedroom. mightn’t one? Well, one should take that up with my selfish husband, who thinks it’s s a terrible idea, so maybe one should just keep one’s nose out of it, shouldn’t one?
After warming up at lunch, I headed back down to the Batcave to finish my afternoon of work.
I am pleased to say the workday is over, I have my giraffe slippers on, the fire is roaring in the fireplace, and we have all survived another day in frigid upstate New York.
Suck it, Frosty!
Idle Eyes and a Dormy 