3 February 2020
Baxter Restoration returned today and reinstalled the cabinet door that fits under the sink. There was a lot of sawing and noise but at least the doors close correctly and they look good. I’m afraid to look too close in case there is some other problem with them. At least I still have time on my year warranty on workmanship.
Just so you know, I’ve officially snapped and gone off the deep end. The pandemic finally got to me.
I’ve started thinking about getting back on the trail (even the winter trails) and I finally broke down and bought a pair of snow shoes. I’ve snowshoed three times in my life and loved each and every time. I’ve always wanted a pair and I finally logged onto the REI site and purchased my first (and probably last) pair.
I may never use these but I would dearly love to get back into some snow and hike with my new snow shoes. I decided on the Mountain Safety Research (MSR) Revo Ascent Mens snowshoe. I’ve previoiusly purchased some of MSR equipment and really like it. Now, I know I’m 72 and probably don’t need to put on a pair of snowshoes and go plowing through the snow, but why not. Either die on the trail on in my bed at home, right? Better than a crash on I-95.
To further cement my insanity, I decided to purchase the new iPhone 12 Pro and a new iPad Air. I’ve been locked up in the house too long. To justify, my current iPad is running extremely slow and is almost out of memory (128GB). The new iPad Air is 256GB. I have no excuse for the new iPhone 12 Pro. I just wanted it.
Part of the mania is also due to a pleasant surprise in my bank balance. I took a big hit in 2020 when I had to pay out $4800 to a public adjuster (my mistake) and $2500 for the Citizens’ deductible for my water damage. It seemed like I never got to put any money into my savings account for emergencies. I was fortunate to not have to dip into my small amount of savings from 2019 to make any of those payments but I scrimped from March 2020 to January 2021 in order to not do so.
The good news is that I will probably get a nice tax refund this year, my social security jumped $146.30 a month (because of a lower income bracket allowed me to decrease my Part B contribution) and my Florida retirement changed $6.16 a month to the positive for some unknown reason.
In any case (judicious spending on my part?) I saw a nice jump in my savings account for February. Even with these two major expenses (iPhone and iPad) I should still be able to put away some money every month for the rest of the year for emergencies (and trips).
Parents have welcomed most of the online driving education programs, online levitra because they are already too occupied using their own timetable. adapted approach The online driver ed courses with each other in different parameters, which would include: course curriculum, course instructor, teaching methods, cost, discount, insurance offers and so on. ED with a wide number of generic for viagra viable options. This process can help doctors to prescribed to you a good male sex pill or recommend you canada viagra cialis to a qualified professional to do the testosterone replacement therapy. It is a no brainer – there really is no excuse to viagra generic cheap still suffer from sexual dysfunctions in both men and women.More and more of my friends are either getting their first dosage of the vaccine or even their second shot. Maybe there is hope the Biden administration will be able to unsnarl the problems created by the previous administration and we’ll have a real chance to put this pandemic behind us. It still does not negate the need for masks and social distancing. I suspect we’ll be doing that for quite a while yet.
Florida continues to yo-yo in the number of cases and deaths. Look for a major jump in both after the super bowl in Tampa two weeks after next Sunday. I continue to see people post images on Facebook with no social distancing and no masks. Even after you tell a child an iron is hot and don’t touch and they do, they know not to try that a second time. At least I learned that when I was about 5 years old and it’s stuck with me.
I’ve started shopping Fresh Market and Whole Foods as opposed to Publix. Julie Jenkins Fancelli, daughter of the founder and heiress to a part of the Publix fortune and member of their board donated $300k to pay for the rally for Trump on January 6th (facilitated by Alex Jones).
Previously, our governor Ron DeSantis received $100k from Publix to be added to his campaign fund. After a series of payments that totaled $100k, Publix received allocations of the vaccine to be distributed through their pharmacies in 105 stores and 12 counties. Even more significant is that many Publix cannot be found in the poorer neighborhoods of Florida and in Palm Beach (not known for poor people) the governor had to take some of the vaccine away from Publix and give it back to the health department for the poorer areas of Palm Beach county.
Before that, Majorie Stoneman Douglas students held a “die-in” in several Publix stores because of Publix contributions to the NRA.
There are some boycott murmurings on Facebook and other social media sites. I generally try not to get too involved in boycotts but I think I see a pattern here with Publix and I can spend money at other places than Publix. I will admit, both Whole Foods and Fresh Market are more expensive but even Publix has become more expensive during the pandemic.
My song recommendation is Lefty Frizzell’s “If You’ve Got the Money Honey, I’ve Got the Time.” Money seems to be on my mind these days, both in good and bad ways.
Stay tuned and stay safe!
