areolas

I lost a shitload of money in my investments yesterday. I didn't even bother to look up why. I assume Trump farted or didn't and the captains of industry hit the panic button. One day last week, I made a ton of money in one day. Didn't look up that one either. I keep a spreadsheet (of course) of the totals with a very simplified chart and I just watch the line go up and down and up and down. My chart would make a great ski field.

On the other hand, Social Security did me a real solid. Last year they deducted $200 for Medicare and then an extra $400 for Medicare Part B IRMAA (which, roughly translated, means you made too much money). This was not unfair. Inheriting my cousin's investment accounts did the trick. That was in 2024. According to the fine print, Social Security only reviews IRMAA status every two years so I figured I was in screwed again in 2026. But, nope. I got the news today that I am officially IRMAA-free! So my 2.5% Cost of Living raise is more like 30% in real life. I'm perfectly fine with that.

Also amazingly wonderfully fine is the paint roller. I got the cheapest one ($5) - a 4 incher and it arrived yesterday. I lathered it up with lotion and wheeeeeee!! It goes on perfectly. All the books and crannies covered - even that spot in the very middle of my back that my arms believe is NoWomansLand. And it layers on the lotion evenly without big puddles. The spatula applies the lotion not at all evenly and also misses a lot of spots. This paint roller trick is the bomb, I tell ya. And fast and easy. I put the roller in a zip lock bag with the handle poking out the bottom. So now I just peel back the bag, slap some lotion onto the roller and
roll on a thin layer. Easy enough to do every day and not requiring special clothes to mop up the excess.

I'd love to get Google Gemini a big hug.

And in other news of success. I have this table lamp that I love. But it's failing. When I turn it on, sometimes it lights up and sometimes it doesn't and sometimes, it lights up 5 minutes later. My brother said he was willing to install a new lamp kit in it so I ordered one. Then last week, I had my own lightbulb moment. Maybe it's the light bulb??? So I black friday'd an Amazon smart bulb. And screwed it in. Alexa recognized it instantly with no action from me. (So I could eliminate the smart plug it was plugged into.) And... guess what? Issue totally fixed. The lamp kit is going back today.

It is house cleaning day and I have a nice collection of returns so I'll be heading out to UPS.

Yesterday, I ventured from my apartment one time. I took some trash to the shoots - two doors down. And that was it. It was lovely. Martha came by for Amazon help. She wanted to join Prime for her free month so she could Christmas shop. It was not entirely straightforward but we got it done. And I had the conversation I've had with others around here about banking online.

"Aren't you worried about getting robbed?"
"Nope. I check all of my accounts first think in the morning. If they try to steal from me, they won't get much for long. How often do you check your accounts?"
"Oh, I check them every month when I get the statement."

So, bank account robbers... feel free to hit up all old people the day after the statement comes out. You have a month to enjoy the profits.

Plus, in texts last night, she said she could not find an 8x8 pyrex dish with lid on Amazon. I found about 20 of them. So she called around and will drive to downtown Bellevue today to pick one up from The Container Store. "I hope it's ready before 2, I hate that traffic."

Different strokes for different folks.

After she was here, she was on to drop off a photo for the newsletter this week. She and Richard have a wedding anniversary coming up and they wanted their wedding picture. She showed it to me and, frankly, it's about the most perfect wedding photo I've ever seen. And they look just the same but older. And Richard had a whole lotta hair back then. Next year will be their 60th. (I'll grab a copy Thursday when the newsletter comes out and post it.)

I was so very tempted to copy yesterday today and not leave this apartment. Some non-volleyball mornings, I wake up ready to swim but on the days when I'm not, I'm hesitant to force myself. I don't want to not like swimming. This morning was nice and foggy but it did not look like it was going to last so before I could spend any time in debate, I just slapped on my suit and hit the road. It was a very good swim so I'm glad I did.

I tried Movie Sunday yesterday. I have MADD. Movie Attention Deficit Disorder. I tried watching 4 different movies and did not last 30 mins into any of them. They all had potential but I didn't have the patience. I'm just not a movie person.

Biggie has, apparently, worked through his issues with the egg crate foam topper and has now taken to sleeping with me again. The lights go out, he hops up and snuggles into the bowl my spoon makes. We settle in. And here comes Julio who tries to settle in but cat words are exchanged and they both leap up and leave. I go to sleep. When I wake up to pee, Biggie is there and, usually, Julio and they stay the night although Julio usually gets up first. Then me. Then Biggie.

One side effect from watching TV news is exposure to commercials for every weight loss/diabetes product and there are a million of them. It occurred to me last night that the good news is all those fat dancers who couldn't get work because they were fat are now fully employed because they are fat. Sweet.

Ok, it's after 9 and I really do need to get dressed and make my bed.

It's 29 degrees and we have frost on the roof. First time I've seen it this year. Nice. But the sun is coming up so it won't be there long.

Sun is coming up so the pool will be blinding plus it's time for a day off from swimming. My skin needs it. Bromine is the stuff they use to keep hot tubs healthy. It's way better in many ways than chlorine. It doesn't smell, at all. It doesn't eat your swimsuit over time. It doesn't freak your eyes out when you open them under water. It disintegrates in sunlight so it can only be used indoors. It's wonderful to swim in but... it dries out your skin quickly and thoroughly. (The gym I used to go to also used bromine but they used way too much. And my mouth also dried out. I used to chew a piece of gum on the way home every day.)

My old age skin is really bitching. I itch everywhere most always. I can reach everywhere fairly easily to apply lotion which helps except my back. I've tried a million things and some work better than others but mostly, it's just a PIA to get lotion back there. I have a t-shirt for that purpose. It's a very old one that is very soft. I slap the lotion on thickly with a spatula and then put on the t-shirt and just live with gooey back until it dries. Last night I gooed myself up so today, I'm going to just let it marinate with no swim.

While I was letting it dry, however, I did do an AI search to see if there was some trick I hadn't thought of. The response was a rather long list of various ways to get lotion on my back. I had tried all of them but one...

Black Friday Sale Purchase ... Small (like for trim) paint roller!! hahaha Yep. Amazon is bringing it to me this week. It actually might work fine. OR be a total fail but for $12, I'm going to give it a try.

Today will be a good day for laundry. And maybe a movie. I never watch movies and think maybe I should once in a while so I'm going to designate Sunday as movie day. At least while baseball is not in season.

Yesterday I finished the middle one at elbow coffee and Martha wanted it so I said fine but first a photo. Bonny had on a nice, white top which was good for background. So those are her hands.

Also, she told me yesterday that once a year, she and her friend, Chris, who lives in another part of Timber Ridge, practice getting up from the floor in the middle of the room with nothing to hold on to. Smart! I think I'll do it on the first day of every month.

I think the reason I still go to elbow coffee on Saturday mornings is that it is a very easy way to just check in without having to engage or make a big to-do. I take my knitting and listen to the mostly boring and absurd conversation and keep my trap shut. It's easy. Martha and Bonny and Jan and I stay after to clean up and catch up and I think that's really the value of the whole thing.

My moving the hub yesterday did not fix the problem. Finally today, I checked the Amazon Skills review of the app that is failing and found the problem. The October AWS outage fucked up the handshake that runs between the app and Alexa. And since the hub has been replaced with a newer one, there will be no fix. This controls a group of switches that fit over my on/off toggles and enable me to have Alexa turn off the room lights or the under counter lights or the closet light. No one else makes anything close so having this work as designed is pretty critical to the operation. I blew the $25 and ordered the new hub. It arrives on Monday and, hopefully, fix the issue. Until then, I'll just have to get off my ass and go to the switch to turn the lights on or off - like a fucking cave man. Geesh

Fortunately, I will have time since I have no other plans today. My stuffing was so excellent, it's even good cold and I have about enough turkey, stuffing and cranberry jelly for one excellent sandwich. And enough cheesy mashed potatoes, ham and fried okra for one excellent dinner.

I am set.

Before I moved in here, I tossed (donated or just tossed) about half or more of all my shit. It was wonderful to purge all that stuff. I have never regretted any of it EXCEPT. I also purged about half my clothes. And I picked the wrong half. I really miss all the clothes I made for myself. I sometimes fantasize about buying a sewing machine and making some more. But there is no place here to do it without upending my house which I don't want to do and I have plenty of clothes. I don't need more. And 14 other very good reasons not to. So I just miss the ones that got away.

Yesterday was fine. I worked on the puzzle for a bit so saw some people in passing but mostly stayed in here and enjoyed a quiet day watching the latest season of Slow Horses.

I have bought a couple of Black Friday things - plenty - and don't need more so today will likely be a lot like yesterday which is fine and dandy.

I do have one tech project to do. I need to move a hub that controls all my switches. I think I can do it with shit I have on hand which means I can do it today and without buying anything else. It should be easy with a minimum off 'SHIT!' and 'fuck'. Or not.

But, first, I think I'll go swim some laps.

We play volleyball with a beach ball. Under ordinary circumstances, we blow up a new one and can play with it for weeks or more before it starts losing air or gets a puncture. BUT we have one player who has long, pointed, hard fingernails. Sylvia used to routinely puncture balls. Then she didn't play for a year+ while she recovered from cancer. Now she's back and it's costing us a ball a game. We played with one ball for 6 weeks. She's been back now for 5 games and we've gone through 6 balls. The cost of the balls is not that big a deal but the stopping of the game to go get a new one is annoying and particularly for Steve who is the person in charge of the balls.

This will be a drama/dilemma for a while, I think. Stay tuned.

I have a perfectly good cart for hauling shit. Packages from the lockers, groceries to and from the car, puzzles down to the puzzle closet... It had double wheels which enable it to roll oh so easily. It folds up and lives in my closet. Sure it's old and battered but still works like a charm. I've had it for years and been perfectly happy with it until legalmoose rained on my parade this morning with talk of a Clax Cart. Which of course is now on sale. It does not have the double wheels but it does have the easily removable box. And 'dolly' like function. But, I think I can resist.

I do have a solid plan now for the storage room/closet rearrangement. I know what I want and I think it's doable with some Bro help. And it would mean that I would not need the Closet Reorganizer. I think Christian does not want to do it so is just 'being too busy'. Which is fine. If I'm wrong and I decide I want a professional, there are several closet places that have done work here at Timber Ridge and I'll just call one of them. BUT it would be lovely to skip that step.

I had a great idea/place to put one of those pull out shoe organizer cabinets. I had one all picked out and ready to order when I decided to burrow into the comments a little farther and discovered that probably my feet are too big. Most all of the ones I had my eyes on, said somewhere in the comments that it was great for kids shoes but anything bigger than an adult 7.5 was going to be too big to get the pull out to go back in. I wear a 9. Oh well. I couldn't even find one for big feet. Saved some money there!

Today they are doing a buffet for Thanksgiving dinner. It's from 11 to 1. Last year's power outage led them to a buffet scheme that works pretty well for the staff and for us. Easy to serve and really no waiting at all - even when they are serving everyone like today. As usual, I have extra meal money so I might just get two meals. One for eating and one for leftovers.

I remember once years and years ago when I was living on my own in Charlotte, NC, one of the nicer hotels had this marvelous scheme for Thanksgiving. It was buffet style and had all the usual Thanksgiving stuff plus a lot of nice, fancy extras but their main selling point was that the deal included a box of leftovers to take home! It was such a cool scheme. I had a group of friends and one year we all pitched in and got a room at the hotel overlooking the main street. We had cocktails in our room and then went down for dinner and then had dessert in our room while we watched the Christmas parade. And we all took home leftovers. It was a very grand Thanksgiving.

If there is a show you want to see on a network you don't have access to, now is the time to check their rates.

Hulu used to offer up a $2 a month for a year deal but this year they've tagged on Disney and raised the rates.

I found the best deals on Prime Video. I'm not a fan of going through their app but, I am a fan of their deals. I was going to get Apple+ for a couple of months but the app won't let me - I think Apple may have heard me talk shit about them and now they have blocked my account. NO problem. I just got their 6 months for $6 per month deal. I probably won't keep it 6 months but it's nice to have the option. I also picked up AMC+ because their are a couple of shows I want to see on it. $3 for 2 months. The best one, though, is HBO/Max at $3 a month for a year. Again, they all carry the baggage of the Prime app but I'll just suffer.

And in other spending of $$. I finally scored all the tickets we need for next June's weekend at the ballpark. I have us reserved seats for all three games. Whew. I got the best available seats which are mediocre by my high standards but at least we got 'em and I can quit worrying about it,

The World Cup ends on Friday. The Boston Games are on Saturday - 1 afternoon and 1 evening - leave the stadium and come back - not doubleheader. And on Sunday. Afternoon.

There is a big Red Sox contingent in Seattle so the games are always full. Plus Saturday night. Plus it's a fireworks night. All of those add up to a ticket freenzy. I still can't buy tickets from the Mariners yet and am not sure why but am losing interest fast.

I did find 3 semi decent seats for Saturday night's game on Seat Geek. And I bought 'em. I'll get the Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon games later. Worst comes to worst... we at least have one game with no easy way to get there.

Next Parking. NIGHTMARE. There are a gillion options for reserve parking. The only ones even remotely close to the stadium are from dodgy resale places and at a price that is half of what I paid for the total of 3 tickets. The Mariners fucked up the ride share situation a few years ago. The ride share lot is a VERY VERY long walk from the closest stadium exit. I noodled around a bunch of options - none good - including the light rail and buses.

I finally decided to Scarlet O'Hara that bit. Since there's nothing worth reserving, I've got months to figure it out.

I had a great sleep and woke up kind of earlyish so I had some coffee and did some internetting and then went down and had a lovely swim.

I was going to Dollar store this morning but then remembered there is some kind of protest scheduled for the school across the street and I didn't want to get hung in traffic but when I got back from my swim, it was raining and still early and I figured even if they did go ahead with the protest, it wouldn't be for a while so I hit the road. $18 and everything on my list.

A while back, I bought some hair thickening/styling powder. My hair is getting kind of longish on top so I've started using it again. I have no clue what it is or how it work but damn. It comes in a salt shaker thing and just a teensy bit sprinkled over the top of my hair make me actually look like I have hair! And it lasts and lasts. Such weird stuff. (No link - just plug hair thickening powder into Amazon one.)

I dreamed last night that I lost my wallet and what an idiot I was for not capturing what, exactly was in it. It has a tracker, but if/when I do lose it, it will be the day the tracker's battery dies. It is a tiny thing with barely anything in it but today, I will be documenting that anything. Hmmm I just checked and it seems the tracker already died. It's not in there anyway. Oh well. I'll just make notes of what all is.

My brother is coming to visit in January and I have a project. Yeah, this is a heads up for him :) I want to take everything out of my storage unit, get rid of the scooter, put in shelves, fix the bar for hanging clothes and organize the rest. I need to get in there and measure for shelves. I'm hoping to score a Black Friday deal on some shelves.

And otherwise, I'll be right here in my house. Bonny and some others are going to install a Christmas tree in the elbow. They've been talking about it for weeks. They think they need Jim to do it and he's going on a cruise for a month on Friday. So it's today. But, there's a Seahawks game which fortunately is early. I am not a Christmas tree person and do not want the drama. So my plan is to hole up here until it's a done deal.

Maybe I'll go measure now.