A few Measly Steps a Day

A friend from Spain told me their word for "retirement" is "jubilación." Jubilation!

Monday - holiday - great start
Tuesday - site visit by someone doing the condo's Reserve Study. Only "minor" issues found. Good continuation
Wednesday - Troubles in Jubilee Land ... when getting my laptop looked at (3 small screws holding the back were missing) I somehow lost one of my favorite folding hats.
I also lost a small sheet of tiny dots used to remove a corn on my foot. Both minor, but annoying.
Evening seminar discussing "Nashville" very much fun, to compensate.
Thursday - The dots were found. The hat did not turn up at the Apple store or the mall's security (lost and found) office. Oh well, time to buy fresh ones.
Attended a university class under the state's laws that lets seniors into classes for $5. Yikes! What was I thinking. I don't have time for this now (too much to do re: condo exit and other interests). Very sad about this as the prof has put together a great course and, naturally, will retired at the end of this term.

Friday - to be determined.

Reading with interest the developments with cat piss, bit bull puppies, book reading (and edits) and neighbors who haven't a clue how to enact that role.

Got my personal name for "retirement" ~ JubliGlee.

'Cept it ain't necessarily so. It's exactly like before, but work is missing as a source of stress. Today, a trade I thought would go through turns I was 24 hours too late in placing it.

Which led me to reflect on the various ways of Motive:

1. Fear of Missing Out - one of the reasons I thought to try the trade. But felt as the positive ...
2. Enjoy an adventure - well, it's been one, but not the one I wanted.
3. Anger - To defend or redeem myself. This is now fired up. Feeling a sharpening of focus with the narrowing of my eyes. Not describing things as what they really are gets me going.
4. Adding fuel is I applied for some market research on being scammed and revisited my sustained anger when I realized they had ripped me off. And eventually they got away with it!

Grrrr. Thanks for your ears. R.

Hmm, it always seemed to me that a good scam would involve offering advice on how not to be scammed. The idea is that the folks who are confident about spotting scams won't be interested. And the rest, well, they're a field of sheep waiting to be fleeced.

A few identity theft services invite their users to enter credit card numbers and driver's license info. But I leave them blank. When it comes to credit card hacking, the credit card company itself is the first to notify me. One Sunday morning they called my landline to ask if I was withdrawing $500 cash from an ATM on the other side of the country. Obviously not, I replied, and so we agreed to close the account, after I went over which of the pending transactions were valid. They FedExed a new card to me the next day.

jubilación / Jubilation -- Very Nice!

Looking closely at the word "retirement," I see TIRE (and not the thing you need for cars and bikes). So I think of "retirement" as another stage of life where you do different stuff that just TIREs you out but in a different way. Maybe something along the lines of "revivement" might be a better term, although no one will know what it means.

Hi,
As the senior (age-wise) member of this group, here are my impressions on retirement. I retired in 2008. I loved my job, so for me retirement was a challenge. I had to find things to fill my time. Yes, I had some interests and friends to spend time with, but not enough to fill up forty hours per week. I think you find your rhythm - how much activity feels right. R, I know you have a lot of interests. So I think you'll do fine. For me, other challenges were health issues which hampered my ability to do what I wanted, and friends and family getting sick, old, and dying. As my friend Kate said, "I need to find younger friends." Also, I used to be a very mellow person. Now little things that didn't used to bother me do bother me. On the plus side of all that, I have so much freedom to do what I want - take classes, go places, do things. visit with friends who also have a lot of free time on their hands. I'm shy, but during COVID, I felt really comfortable about calling friends because I knew that they were probably bored and welcomed the call. And I had so much time for writing. (Truthfully, I wasted quite a bit of time, but I still managed to get a fair amount of writing in.)
So good luck with jubiglee. Let's both put a lot of glee into 2024. This is me signing off. Elaine

More like JubliGlum for now. Day 7 of freedom from work. So far, big estimated taxes amount, submitted. My partner broke a crown and will need an implant with new crown. Our hydrogen peroxide machine for washing clothes without detergent sprang a leak that might cost over $8000 to remedy. Possibly covered by a claim on our insurance, but that firm approval is something state farm dangles in our faces without giving a solid answer.

Plus, winds and major snow storms promised over the next several days. This means getting out there and shoveling it so our sidewalks are passable.

If these are the good times, spare me the bad ones! R.

R, that's a lot of bad stuff to hit all at once. Hope State Farm comes through for you. And I hope you get some good stuff thrown in with the bad.
I didn't know you could clean clothes with H2O2. I'm going to look it up.
Life is good over here, and I'm going to enjoy it.. Mostly I'm getting caught up on all the things I let slide while I was publishing "Refuge. and warm Tea." I'm on to-do list number 3. The good news is that I got lists 1 and 2 done. The bad news is that I'm not sure how many more lists I have. I keep remembering more and more things I have to do. Every time I check something off, two more things pop into my mind.

Wishing us all good stuff.

Isn't H2O2 one of the main ingredients in OxiClean? I didn't think it was possible to make H2O2 at home.

Today is the last day of vacation. I took time off from work to spend with my daughter and their partner, who traveled from Houston to visit. The time went by soooo fast. My daughter was planning to help me start a book using the Lulu platform. I've seen that B&N (and Amazon) can accept PDF documents for self-publishing. But then the book can be sold only through that site. It seems that Lulu allows for unlimited distribution. Of course the first step is to go through my portfolio and collect material that's worthy of publishing, or start writing, drawing and'or photographing.

Hi team.
"OxiClean contains several ingredients, but the important one for boosting and brightening laundry is sodium percarbonate — basically, dry hydrogen peroxide plus washing soda (also called sodium carbonate)"

Well, I guess it does. Learned something.

PureWash uses electricity to ionize water (give water an electric charge). Easy search to find explainers about the process.

My self-dev nudge today has to do with some type of daily but loose reminder system. Between sleep and waking, I played with some rhyming words to "more"

Adore - remember to connect with people
A Door - get "out there" in some way, ya know
Explore - outside or inside
Chore - must do stuff for living like laundry
Bore - like chore, but less urgent right now, like tidy up
Snore - get enough rest
Ore - investments & finances

I have boxes of expired business cards I've collected for their blank back sides. Cheaper than paying 3M for post-it notes. Divide in 6 boxes, mark one of the 'ores' in each, and X it out as I get to it in a day. I can pick the 6 each day.

Just playing with ideas.

Had a friend once who would sing "there doesn't seem to be enough time to the things you don't want to do once they find you."

Yup, today, except for probably 20 minutes to write this note and send email answers to friends, today is going to be devoted to Other People's Agendas. Yuckstuff in short.

Not going to list the specifics this time. Just send sigh and get on with it.

, I looked up H2O2 generators. They cost a lot less than $8000. On a different note, travelling is a great thing to do when you retire. $$$$$ it can be expensive - obviously - but it's something to do while your body can still do it. Your body does get older, and sometimes it's the idiot doctors, and sometimes it's just old age.
SP, thinking about writing????? Cool. I've self-published on Lulu and on Kindle (Amazon) for free. The last time I tried to use Lulu, the wanted money. That was a few years ago. Maybe they'll do it for free again. If you have any questions, I don't know everything, but I've made a lot of mistakes. Soo if you run into questions, I'll try to help if you want. You mentioned photos and drawings . . . I know you have to go to work, and yes, that does get in the way of creating.
Me - I've finished to-do list number three, and I'm on #4. And of course, tax time is just around the corner.
Sigh! I've been doing physical therapy because my shoulder is stiff, and I can only lift my arm halfway. It improved my mobility in moving my arm towards my middle (as in hugging.), but lifting my arm is no better, and i think it may be getting worse. Again, sigh!

Ok, this me signing off.

Yeah, the machines is $350 or mid $200 depending on brand. It's the water damages and repairing it that runs up the costs. Picture leaks dripping over a sink, soaked drywalls, etc. All this has to be dried out, and the holes to do this patched, then the wall and ceiling repainted. ...

I think SF will cover the repairs on MY unit, but might balk for paying for downstairs. Which doesn't make sense. They have been insuring us for over 30 years, and condos have existed since the ancient Romanss, and so they should know better how condos are stacked and water flows downhill.

The downstairs people had to file their own claim against their own policy at a difference insurance co.

... BS in my opinion, and clearly one reason property insurance premiums are "running out of control." The insurance industry plays they games and everyone wants to be paid but let's not pay the policyholder or make things simple and save everyone time and money.

One of their steps at a time we slog through this.

Oh. It seems clear cut to me. The insurance co. should fork it over. I get than people do try to cheat insurance companies, but this seems like a straightforward claim. Hopefully, they'll pay up, and you can move on.
Me - I'm on to-do list number 4. I had a long stretch of the lazies, but I'm back in action now.

Oh, well, R, the insurance company of the folks downstairs could file a claim against / sue your insurance company I suppose, just like how automotive crash claims are handled. But let's hope not!

Thank you, D. I've been thinking of writing since I was 13 years old! It's been 47 years of thinking...

I only mentioned photos and drawings because that material already is published on my DeviantArt site. The creating part is mostly done. Then again, the creating is the most fun part of it!

Well done on the todo list!

HI,

So, here's a twist: About twenty-five years ago, I put $10,000 into a retirement account. The financial advisor did everything wrong. When I hit 71.5 years old, I had to start taking withdrawals. The advisor didn't notify, or send the forms. When I finally got him to send the forms, I filled them out, sent them to the address on the business card. A few months later, they were returned. His address was wrong. I figured, 'oh well,' and got on with my life. seven months ago, I got a letter from California saying that if I didn't contact them, they'd put the money into the state. Yes, they do that to make sure you're still alive. Unfortunately, I didn't see the letter until a few days ago. But, I got a quarterly form letter telling me from the fund telling me what my investment was worth. I was going to have to deal with the idiot, but that's enough money to put up with him. Anyway, I someone new to deal with. Shock of shocks! This guy was good. He was at home when I called him, and he asked me to call him the next day at ten in the morning. (no robots, no menus. He said, yes, the previous guy did a bad job, notified California, fixed the fund for automatic disbursements. Some of it was eligible to be withdrawn now, did I want it? Oh, yes! I need to spend a fortune on teeth, and Tom's truck is on it's last legs. A week later, I got a check in the mail. Moral: there are good people in the world. Of course, that's the sort of service we should always get. And I'm okay with robots if I can figure out how to deal with them, or if I can get a human when dealing with the robot doesn't work.

Good wishes to you. R, may you get one of the good ones in your insurance company. They do exist.

Hi, Square Peg, I haven't checked your website in a while. I'll go take a look at DevianteArt.

Sorry about all the mistakes. I hope you can figure out what i meant to say.

Hi MSAD readers. Happy you found a capable person, D, who got your money flowing to you again.

Thanks for the support in dealing with this insurance circus.

Got a call last night around 7.30 from the site reviewer from SF. He can't book me till 2/22! Haha. So, I'm back to trying to reach the claims adjuster and get my own set of estimates. Maybe video documentation so a site visit is not needed.

My great experiences, even for me, seldom get a comment. I do make a point to comment on my honest car repair garage. And my very good (read: also expensive) dentist. The Apple genius bar is a 10 minute walk away and they have been great. The free "love offering" meals we get 2 times a week (down from 3) are both tasty and saving our assets.

This site has little downtime, and I enjoy lurking about for time to time. I mostly love gifting stuff on freecycle/trash nothing. Now that one of the moderators told me how to leave negative feedback for flakes (no shows) it should gradually get better.

Spotify, so far, even with ads, has been a good experience.

There are more. Some "self praise" also thrown in.

This has lifted my mood enough to get me ready to put my yuck boots back on and haul myself out to the "barn" for more yuck chores.

Hi D, I had a good experience with American Funds last year when I needed to set up automatic withdrawals so I could pay a student loan.

I'm glad you got your minimum required distributions set up! Did you set it up so that any income tax is also held back? Just curious.

R, there was only one time I ever felt compelled to upload a good review. This was for an auto mechanic.

It was the Friday before Labor Day weekend. I was driving my wife and me to our daughter's college orientation. She had moved in the day before, and we were bringing a few more items for her dorm. The drive usually takes only a little over an hour. But there was a great deal of traffic. We stopped on the way for a bathroom break.

Anyway, when I started up the car again, it ran so sluggishly I could just about make it to the other wide of the parking lot before I decided we were stuck.

AAA sent a tow truck and recommended a garage. But when I called, the guy's wife said, "I don't think he's gonna want to work on a Audi right before Labor Day weekend."

So the tow truck guy takes me to this nice shop that I've noticed in passing. I ask the owner if he could just patch it up and get me back on the road so I can get home that night.

He said he'd try. And he had his mom drive my wife and me to the college and pick us up again when we were done!

He did manage to get the car back in pretty good shape. I'd like to move nearby eventually just so I can be a regular customer!

A few days of quiet. Whew, do I feel the strain & stress this last run-in with poor luck had left. Napping and sleeping. Tho, if I don't exert much energy I shorten my sleep period. Then I get tired mid-day and take a nap. Which means I will have a shorter period that evening. Round & Round.

Reconnected with a buddy I hadn't spoke to for 25 years! 2 hours of ideas and catching up and sharing "I was the hero" stories. So good.

The extreme feelings for a marathon like mine with condo leadership can span from, "I see the finish line, speed up," to "I see the finish line, don't think I'll make it." Say, speed up = 10 and can't last = 1, my score today is about a 4. A vendor wasted her time trying to untangle an issue we have already resolved and wondering if she could get additional documentation than what she has. And we don't have and won't expend any energy confirming what's already resolved. I'm exhausted knowing how hard it can be to overcome false impressions which seem smart to the person.

I've signed up for Pubby. Authors who sign up review my books and post reviews on Amazon, and I review theirs. I guess I'm happy. The Molly Chronicles, and Refuge and Warm Tea are hovering at 4.6 stars. each. I'm redoing Through Unfamiliar Waters now. I don't hate it, which is good. But I found so many things that I could improve on. I guess writing, like life, is a journey not a destination. I've made the major edits on TUW. So fingers crossed that there aren't a whole bunch of problems that I need to fix. I can't wait to work on the cover. I have downloaded some cool shark photos from iStock.

Health issues abound. Not the truly horrible ones, thankfully, but a lot of nitpicky stuff.

My energy level is low right now. I keep hoping that I'll wake up the next morning full of energy (by my standards which are low) but - you know.

Good luck to you guys.

Pubby is just the thing. It's a community way to game the game.

A couple bits of lucky turns. The claims inspector had a surprise opening (I'd relaxed on insisting on a sooner date and prepared to jump if something opened up). Moved the appt from 2/22 to 2/5 ... yesterday!

He came by, took photos, confirmed all was dry, looked at the device we use to treat cold laundry water (and loved it. He said he will check into it for his family). A few hours later he called with his payout calculations to review. They seemed more than agreeable, so we agreed, and got an email that a check to us is on the way. He could not find preferred vendors on his end, so we're free to contract with our own.

Patching, smoothing, resurfacing, painting. They kept the cost of paint, about $10 out of the check till they get pictures of the completed work. Funny.

I spent a lot of time just playing and creating with plaster of paris as a kid, and I know the work is fitting a screen tied with a string through the hole to backstop the plaster, puttying in the plaster, letting it dry, etc.

Still, I'd rather let a carpenter do it, partially to leave my attention free for other stuff, and also to support a relationship with a new vendor. I think he'll work out great ... eager, young, and skilled.

Personally, I'm toying with Rituals that Rank Up my own priorities. I noticed that Other People's demands pulled more on my thoughts than my own desires. Poor order.

One of my rituals uses a kitchen timer. My personal goals can run around 55 minutes for a working block of time. Other people's? Never more than 45 minutes. My own 55 blocks—first thing when I get up (using that time now); all else—later. Better size, better order.

Hi, R. I'm glad you're getting your claim moving forward. fingers crossed.

Me. I figured out how to work my sleep machine. Well, Apria told me how to make it work. Anyway, tonight, I may get a good night's sleep. Again fingers crossed.
I'm rewriting "Through Unfamiliar Waters" I know I probably said that in a previous post. Anyway, I'm find so many things that can be improved. I guess it shows that I'm learning, and that's a good thing. But I so wish I'd get to a point where I know everything. I found some cool shark pictures, so I can't wait to upload my new manuscript (no it's not completed yet) and play with shark pictures. Did I tell you that a friend of mine has a daughter who rebuilds coral reefs in Belize? I'll put a one of her shark pictures on the back cover and give Fragments of Hope a plug. I wish I had a few thousand people who would see it.

Happy days to all of us.

Rebuilding coral reefs -- now there's a worthy pursuit!

A coworker came back from Belize with a botfly larva in his scalp...