beadyeyedbeth

I always forget how easy it is to get from here to Goodwill. It's actually a straight shot on the interstate and take the first exit. I didn't score big but I scored a little. I got everything on my list and not too much that I didn't want or need or regretted. I would have shopped more but, turns out, they have shut down their bathroom and I needed one so, I just paid and split. I guessed that the Uwajimaya bathroom which is a loooooong way from the parking lot would not be as nice as the Metropolitan Market bathroom so I headed on to the Met.

The last couple of years that I lived in the condo, Metropolitan Market did my cooking for me. It's a high end fancy assed grocery with a huge selection of very tasty prepared foods. I had favorites and that's what I bought today. All the favorites that I could freeze or save. They had everything on my list in stock. So yeah! (Oh, and their bathrooms are just lovely.)

I got home a little after noon and it was kind of a jolt. I'd spent the morning in my old life and now I was back in Timber Ridge. Kind of weird. I did the laundry and then prepped all the food. Sectioned it into appropriately sized servings and put it into the freezer. Except for the dinner option for tonight. Then I cleaned the kitchen and ran the dishwasher.

Now I'm back in my regular life.

Lately I've had trouble with Thursdays. I keep thinking they are Fridays. And today is no different. Bonny's leaving on Friday and I could not figure out what she was still doing here this afternoon. Doh.

My federal tax refund arrived. Thank you, past me, for so generously over paying! Washington state has no state income tax as of right now so I'm all done for the year. Nice.

Today is the public Food and Beverage meeting. The blush is off the rose here. It's just old ladies bitching about the same shit over and over again. Half want a dining room dress code that makes them dress up for dinner and half do not and it will never happen so shut the fuck up. There are 3 women who do nothing but bitch about salt. The Food & Beverage director says they use a modest amount of salt in cooking. These three women was zero salt used (cause why have flavor?). So they bitch every month and the response is always the same. What is the grade of beef used? This question is asked and answered every month. In fact, all of the questions asked and answered every month are the same.

So, yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Ha!

I'd really like to make my Goodwill trip today and I could do both but tomorrow's better for Goodwill.

I'm just cranky for no reason. And Biggie needs attention.

On my way back from the pool this morning, I spied this hilarious camouflage. I don't know these people. They moved in about a year ago with a teeny tiny adorable puppy.

I've had my coffee maker for a while now. I've retired it, to try different/new ones/processes, but I always come back. It's a Keurig that they still have not improved upon. But its height requirement keeps it from being an option on my kitchen counter. So it was actually the impetus for my turning the half bath here into a utility room. Washer, litter box, printer, storage and coffee.

For the past a lotta years, I've pretty much stuck to rewarming coffee mugs. The way too expensive Ember and then, when it died, a pretty much just as expensive alternative. That one died last week. And I decided to change my ways. And then, yesterday, I redid the whole coffee area.

I switched to regular coffee mugs - those that can be washed in the dishwasher! - and heated coasters - one at my table and one at the sofa. Yesterday, I culled out some not needed stuff and made more counter space and then set up a lovely little proper coffee bar. It amuses the heck out of me how much delight I get out of a simple rearrangement of normal stuff.

This morning's coffee does taste better, my brain says.

I noticed on Flickr this morning that they have a legend which has probably been there forever and I never noticed it before. I've had my account since 2008. And as of this morning, I have 37,768 photos in it. Yikes! Probably half of those are trash takes which could be/should be/won't ever be deleted. Oh well.

No swimming this morning. There's a special pop up aerobics class at 11. There's a woman who used to teach here and retired but comes back once in a while and does these pop up classes and they are fab and fun. So I'm looking forward to today's. I may go down early and do some swimming before the class. I mean as long as I'm going to get my suit wet anyway.

I have a trip to Seattle Goodwill coming up. I now have 3 things on my 'hunt for at Goodwill' list and 3 is the minimum to make a trip by my Seattle Goodwill rules. I don't know if it will be this week or not but it's definitely on the horizon.

I went to bed too early and could not get to sleep. I finally did but then at 11:30, the electricity came back. I got up to plug in shit and turn off shit and then, of course, I could not get back to sleep. Finally about 2, I got up and watched the last 45 mins of a show I started in the afternoon. And then, finally, I went back to sleep. Julio and Biggie wanted breakfast at 5:30 so they got it and then I went back to sleep again until 7:30. I think, in all, I got plenty enough sleep.

My emergency hardware did great. Especially, my portable power station. It's the size of a children's shoe box and has all manner of DC outlets and 2 AC outlets and a big light. It cost me about $70. (not available any more so no link but look for 'portable power station' - there are a bunch the size of children's shoe boxes that have the outlets.) I charged it up when I got it in the fall of 2024. When I turned it on yesterday, the charge was showing 100%. I plugged my bed into it and got the head raised for sleeping. I plugged my toothbrush/water pick in and got my teeth ready for sleeping. My plans this morning were to have plugged my coffee pot in to make a cup, plug my induction plate in for scrambled eggs and my toaster in for, well, toast. All easy and doable. And, doable, probably for several days with no more charge required.

Another thing I could plug in but maybe wouldn't would be my toilet. For more than a decade now my toilet has sported a bidet that includes a heated seat. My ass is just used to the finer things and sitting on a ice cube is just a shock it does not appreciate. But, I guess, sacrifices need to be made. It (my ass) loved that the juice was back on this morning.

Timber Ridge sent an email last night saying breakfast would be served at 10 this morning, lunch at 1 and dinner at 5. They totally know how to handle buffets for all of us now. AND the meals today would be complementary. I'm guessing they are still going with that plan. And then tomorrow back to normal.

Oh and unlike last time, when the wifi came roaring back as soon as the electricity did which was very nice to see.

In other news, the IRS sent me an email saying there was news so I checked Where's my Refund which is way easier than logging into my account and, sure enough, they are promising the refund in my account by Thursday.

Volleyball was called off for today yesterday afternoon. Elbow coffee starts at 10 but that's when they are serving breakfast downstairs so it may be a no go.

I may watch the Mariners game. I for sure will be putting all my emergency supplies away, hopefully for a long time.

and

I woke up, got coffee, fed the cats, sat down at the table next to the window and WHOA!!



It was still snowing then, a little, but now it has stopped. I can see some traffic and several cars have come up the hill to the garage without issue. It is 7:05 and I have an appointment with my foot guy at 7:50. I'm going for it. Once I get off this hill, I suspect there will be nothing on the roads.

But, what a treat! Sorry I didn't get to see it falling. But, at least we got one - teeny tinsey - snow this winter.

After the doctor's, I need to stop at the Amazon Lockers and pick up a package and then at UPS to return one. Then I was going to get gas but it's probably too cold and I probably won't.

Timber Ridge is nestled into a hillside in a range of hills at the base of mountains (hence the name). So we don't get much in the way of windstorms directly. BUT our utilities are apparently located in a trailer park. The first gust and down they go! Last night, though, they mostly hung on. We had flickering electricity around 8 and 9. I don't know about cable TV cause I wasn't watching it. At 1:30, I was awake to pee and so were the gusts. Bam. Nothing. Sooooooo quiet. For really no more than a minute.

The microwave clock got it and Alexa did - my two Alexa bulbs flew on brightly as did my three emergency lights. I told Alexa to kill the lights and she did one. I just put on my eye mask and went back to sleep. This morning I had to go around to the emergency lights and turn them off. They plug into outlets and, turns out, they work REALLY well!

So volleyball was all 'did your microwave clock die?' And as each person joined we had to have the same conversation over and over again and several times since it's hard to hear in the pool and they can't hear that well anyway.

This morning the landscapers are back with all manner of bushes and shrubbery.

The food and beverage meeting yesterday was exceedingly tedious. But I managed to get through it without insulting anyone, I hope. They all think I'm great because I volunteered to be the secretary and take the notes on my magic tablet.

Today was Shot #8. End of box #2. I have box #3 ready and waiting in the fridge. I have my video apt with my Dr. in 3 weeks. And then I'll get box #4.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with the foot guy to get another cortisone shot. For some reason that escapes me now, I made the appointment for 7:50 in the morning. Which is fine, just a weird time and a bit early even for me.

Today I might do some puzzling but mostly I think I'll just hang here and avoid people as much as I can. I might order dinner - reports are that the lasagna is excellent and the portion give great leftovers so I'll order up some of that.

The car. To recap. Saturday, engine light came on. I went to the fix it place's website and started making an appointment to get the error read. Abandoned and figured I'd just pop in this week. Monday I got a text saying they saw I had abandoned and could they help. I texted back my plan to pop in. The response was 'fine'. Turns out that was a lie. I popped in and the not-at-all-helpful dude allowed as how they were way too busy and would need an appointment and the first one was next week. I went home and texted 'nice of you to mislead me.' The response was 'if you want an appointment Monday, I can hook you up.' I did not respond because I couldn't decide between fuck you and fuck you very much.

On my way home from that place, I pulled into the auto parts place to pick up an OBDII reader. In my mind I kind of had the parts place guy coming out to my car with his reader but they looked very busy so I sat in their parking lot and ordered one for $16 from Amazon. It will be here today. And at least I will know if my car is falling apart.

I spent some time yesterday knitting up a teddy bear but by the time I got to his neck, I was done. He's too big. So now I have some other ideas in my head to try out.

Today we have the food and beverage pre-meeting which will be short, I'm guessing and painless, I'm hoping.

I need to change my bed linen and wash it. Today.

TV. Prime has a new Scarpetta series. It starts Nicole Kidman who has always annoyed the fuck out of me. Plus it's based on books written by a woman I actually knew way back before she became a celebrity author. She was a PIA in those days and I have always assumed she is just a bigger, higher paid one now. So, I have to admit, I'm not crushed that the reviews say the series sucks. Will I watch the first episode anyway? Of course I will!

But I watched the first episode of ABC's RJ Decker and it was quite engaging.

Christian and I had a great visit and then he took me up to the unit he's working on. It's a very large unit - 1800 square feet. The woman who recently moved out was the first tenant when it was built 17 years ago. They tore it back really to the studs and it's a hot mess now. It's like a jungle of half walls and studs. It's just way too big and also claustrophobic. Also my view is way better. I was so glad to walk back into my little apartment after seeing that one. He has his work cut out for him.

He's also doing the unit of another guy here moving in next week. This guy is in his 80's driving up from Florida having all his shit shipped. He's paying Christian to get it all in and arranged in the unit. The guy has never laid eyes on Timber Ridge! He has a son living on Orcus Island which is about a 2 hour drive and then 40 minute ferry ride up the road. Closer than Florida.

One thing Christian said yesterday made me look again at parking for our baseball games in June. (He actually said that there was no fucking way we should bring a car near the stadium but that's neither here nor there.) I had looked at parking apps before, including Spot Hero, and the closest spaces available were not close at all. BUT last night, Spot Hero had spots in the football stadium garage - across the street from the baseball stadium - and I was able to secure a spot for all three games. Only $25 per game which, honestly, I think is a steal. It's going to be a bitch getting into the garage and getting out but, hey, I won't be driving - that's what I have my brother and his son for.

It is the same weekend as the World Cup so it's going to be a mad house and, honestly, I'm not even sure I believe Spot Hero. But the money is paid and we are set. I hope. The local news/internets are whipping up a gynormous frenzy about these games and the people coming to down in 2 and a half months.

Biggie's driving me nuts. He's not happy with my typing on the computer so it must be time for me to get up and do something else.

I rolled over and went back to sleep and woke up at 6:30 and it was still dark and had coffee and internetted and it was still dark. I slapped on my swim suit and went to the pool and it was still dark. My perfect kind of morning. We have only a handful left. I plan to enjoy each. There is something about getting so much done before daylight that makes me feel delightfully productive.

The laundry is laundrying and I'm pretty much caught up on everything.

I'd really like to find out what's up with the car and get it fixed but since I really am in no rush and I'm sure their Mondays are stressful enough, I'll probably wait and take it in tomorrow.

Bonny texted yesterday and wanted to go to happy hour at a nice local restaurant. I wasn't interested but said yes anyway. I wasn't doing anything and the place is nice and Bonny really needed a distraction. She's having a battle with her daughter and it needs to be over before May 4 when Bonny gets her new hip. I don't know the details but I do know she's stressing over it. We had a drink and happy hour food. I ate more than I wanted to but it was good. And nice to get home before dark.

In my quest to find thin sliced bread, I picked up a loaf of Keto bread. Turns out Keto is another word for tasteless. Yuck. That stuff is not worth the calories. I tried it toasted, air fried and straight out of the bag. Nothing made it better. No more Keto bread for me! I've kind of lost my taste for sandwiches anyway. And I found other thin bread for toast.

Oh! They are planting 3 new trees just outside my window. Right now!

I need to find a book to read. My last three have been losers including one of my favorite authors with a new book in a series I used to like. The Seattle Library has this very cool feature - Your Next 5 Books. You fill out a form and a librarian does your research. I'm waiting for results. Please please please don't tell them I no longer live in Seattle. Also there is Book DNA. I need to refresh my toberead list.

EDIT: Also Meet New Books

I just got an email from a woman in admin who is not the sharpest tool in the drawer, actually I think she's not even actually in the drawer but anyway. Her email says my email attachment (sent last week) did not come through AND she cannot read it. And she included 3 heart emojis. I so want to sent a heart with a bullet hole in it. Instead, I'll just think good thoughts about Timber Ridge the 'challenged' an opportunity.

Ooops laundry is done. I need to get the stuff hung before it wrinkles.

Grid Search works so often and did today. I sat here and thought about what the two holders looked like and where they were and what they were with and then started in the bathroom. Turns out both sets of documents were on the bottom shelf in the storage unit behind some shit. Clearly, there is too much stuff on the storage room shelves and that needs to be fixed but not today I'm taking the victory of the find.

Whew! Also, I picked up my tablet to write this entry and the keyboard was across the room so I picked up the stylus am writing it out in long hand and the tablet is ready my writing and converting it into type and making shockingly few errors! very cool