Traditions...

Christmas is all about - Traditions - old and new. It occurs to me that my Traditions have changed over the years and now consist of the Traditional Christmas Brunch, followed by the Traditional Christmas Dinner of Saurbraten etc. The first due to the long standing relationship and friendship with Thelma and her family, the second due to the second marriage of my Father and the addition of more members to an extended family. Not to be left out of course is the Traditional Christmas Eve making and eating of the Potato Croquettes, compliments of my Italian descended neighbors next door. Funny how all these Traditions tend to center around food...*smile*

This year despite some misgivings I'd say it was a very enjoyable time all around. Things seemed more relaxed and fun at Thelma's this year vs. last and despite the untimely death of a family member, my Christmas at my step-brother's was just as enjoyable.

Now to gather my thoughts, my aspirations and begin preparations for the New Year. I'm getting a somewhat early start on my day - one load of wash is now hanging in the cellar, a second load is in the washer. I still don't have a dryer since my old one died last summer and yet, I don't really miss it. I seem to be managing fine with a line outside and the lines downstairs. We'll see how it goes. I should probably replace it, but a refigerator/freezer comes first as the one I have is from 1972 and definately is not energy efficient. Now with the Tax Laws changing in January and the possibility of getting a tax credit for buying energy efficient appliances, I'm more inclined to wait a few more weeks.

Thelma's grandson works at Sears and after the 1st he'll be in Appliances so I figure I'll go there and do business through him and he'll get the commission etc. Since Sears is where I figured I'd buy the appliance due to their payment plans and so forth so why not give the commission to someone I know? Right now I have a side by side, but I'm leaning towards a freezer on top type model now - they are supposed to be more energy efficient. Or maybe a freezer on the bottom....hmmmm. More research to do first.

For now, after the wash and my breakfast I think it will be a paper - related day. Tabulate the damage Christmas did to my finances and calculation anticipate expenses and so forth...only a week left to make those charitable deductions...though based on my calculations so far my adjusted gross income will be low this year so I should benefit tax wise etc.

Write some letters, Thank You's and work on the storyline in the Tomb - it has been idle way too long.

9 Days and counting...

It is hopeless...I am just not full of Christmas spirit this year and when I think I might be coming around something happens to put a damper on it...such as waking up this morning to 6 - 8 inches of snow...yuk!

Last night/evening we had a mixture of snow, sleet and freezing rain and at 11pm there wasn't much accumulation but during the night - actually early morning as the paper was delivered and there are no footprints so the bulk of the snow must have started around 4 - 5am. Now there is a ton of it out there and now I have two driveways to shovel...lucky me.

Plus Travis has gone out of town till Sunday and Thelma is on her own. Usually someone goes to stay with her at these times, but Linda was just here and then fell and broke her elbow and I've been sufferring with a severe chest cold etc. so she did not ask me. Today - Friday Aaron is supposed to be around, though Saturday no one may be there...I'm deciding now what to do and will probably go out there either tonight thru sunday or tomorrow thru sunday. I had planned on saturday anyway to go through bills and so forth, now I'll just pack more things to take.

But then there is this snow...sigh...what a thing to wake up to.

And I did not go to the Calling hours or Funeral...not with this chest cold/cough and the cold temperatures...I stayed in and tried to keep it from getting worse. At least now I seem to be able to sleep in the bed and not have to sleep in the chair due to the constant coughing.

11 Days and counting...

Well I did accomplish one thing...I got my Christmas cards done and in the mail. No Christmas Letter - I had toyed with the idea since my last letter was back in 2002 or so, but I haven't had the inclination to write or otherwise work on one. So it will wait another year.

I also went to the Bank and used my meager cash reserves to buy two Savings Bonds as gifts and get $100 cash (in new twenty dollar bills) to also give as gifts. I still need to go and shop - I need to get to Yankee candle and pick up a few candles, then there is all the rest to do as well. I need to get out of this gift giving cycle...though I have limited the number during the past couple of years I still need to do more.

It is -1 degree out right now, though sunny and the heat keeps coming on naturally. Supposed to get up into the 20's by noon and then down into the teens tonight. Tomorrow will be clear a bit, before a major snow storm comes through - Thursday afternoon thru Friday evening - possibility of sleet, freezing rain, snow mixtures etc. No word yet on amounts we can expect to receive.

Just finished washing the sheets etc and they are now hanging in the cellar...hopefully they will be dry by this evening...LOL Otherwise I may be sleeping in the chair, which might be the case anyway due to this cold and cough that disrupts my sleep whenever I lay down.

Let's face it all I want to do right now is hibernate.

12 Days and counting...

12 Days to go and I have not even started. No cookies, no cards, no gifts and I don't have much enthusiasm to get started either. I must make a list, limit myself, and get going on things. Today it is cold, single digits right now 7 degrees...brrrrr. Sunny but cold, tomorrow is supoosed to be sunny as well though a bit warmer so perhaps today I map out my strategies and hit the ground running tomorrow or try to as tomorrow is also calling hours too 4 to 7pm only, then the services are at 9am on Thursday at the church. I'll probably get to the calling hours but I doubt if I will get to the church....I don't seem to function very well in the mornings anymore. Face it I'm not functioning anytime of the day right now.

I need to set some goals, find meaning for everything in my life, a reason other than being at everyone else's beck and call.

Oh well, and there are more autopays to contact...the Post-Standard for one. They will be charging my account later this month and I must tell them the card no longer exists. This is becoming a pain as this was my primary card and now I need to figure out which one I shall use in the meantime.

It gets worse

Last night I got a call...my step-brother's wife's father had passed away unexpectedly Sunday morning. No details other than he had not been feeling well the past few days. I have a real problem dealing with Funerals - Calling Hours and so forth, that and Hospitals. Probably relates to my Mother and her multiple stays in the Hospital and so forth when I was growing up.

I did not know him well, only seeing him on the Grandkids birthdays and at Easter, Thanksgiving or Christmas. He wasn't that old having just retired a few years ago though I don't know what if any health problems he had. Arrangements are incomplete will have to watch the paper etc.

Still it gets you thinking ... who will be next ... what arrangements have you yourself made for the eventuallity, in my case none though I have started on my Living Trust/Will thingy it has sort of sat unattended over the past few months. I really need to get going on that.

Then this morning I get a call from Chase/Bank One's fraud department, seems my Visa card has been compromised. There has been a lot on the local news about hackers breaking into the Visa Card database, but I thought I was safe since the one thing all those transactions had in common was Sam's Club Gas Stations and I have never frequented them. Well I guess not. There were two transactions - AOL and Circuit City, both I believe for $1 and both online transactions on the 10th. Chase says I am not liable and the card has been cancelled and a new one will be issued in 3 to 5 days...now to notify/change/cancel all the autopays on that card...wonder what if anything will happen to my reward points ... probably be transferred to the new card along with the legitimate transactions, I suppose.

Snow & Christmas - got to get moving

They said it would end - they lied. Still snowing out and very windy. Says it is 30 out, but I'm sure it feels much colder, wind chill of makes it feel like 17. I shoveled this morning for the first time this season. About 2 - 3 inches of the slippery, slidey wet kind of snow. Now we are getting the occasional flurry or two of lake effect - dry and fluffy. At least the snow falling now doesn't appear to be sticking, as the driveway is staying clear (lightly covered to wet in spots - roads are wet the plow came down early this morning (BIG SURPRISE) and salted).

My feet are cold though, as I really should invest in some wool socks. Face it I need more than just socks, but I don't want to spend the money, trying to conserve and so forth. Let's see what do I need or want:

- Sweat pants L (need)
- Socks white, tube type 10 - 13 (need)
- Socks white, ankle length 10 - 13 (need)
- Socks wool, any color 10-13 (need)
- T-shirts XL white (need)
- Briefs L white (need)
- USB Hub extension, self powered need more USB ports (want)
- Web Cam, I have one, but it is old and I'm sure newer ones have better capability (want)
- Blank paper 14 x 17 have a new wide format printer but no paper to take advantage of it (need)
- West Wing Season 5, have all the others (want)
- Book 'Why do Men have Nipples' the answers to all life's little puzzlements (want)

I should keep this list going, then I'd have something to tell people during the Christmas season. Of course I have managed to get out of the majority of my gift giving through mutual agreements not to exchange, but still there are some that that does not apply to and that is causing me stress right now as I have not even started with Christmas and all that yet. My cards still sit in their boxes, no cookies have been baked and my gift purchasing has not begun - again I don't want to spend, sigh....but spend I will have to at least a little and soon since there are only 16 days left til Christmas.

And that paperwork I mentioned previously...well it still looms over my head.

A blog resumes...

Ok strip me naked and throw me out into the snow...I have been neglectful with regards to posting in this blog lately. Chaulk it up to stress...Christmas...Finances...Family...Friends...and maybe a little bit of depression.

The "Winter Texans" are finally in Texas after a two-three week delay due to medical issues. Naturally it all came about on the day they were to leave and just as naturally I had shut off the water and gas and heat at the house the day before (it was in the 60's then). So there I was turning it all back on and flooding the kitchen - not once but several times before we finally figured out which values to keep closed and which ones to keep open. There is a pipe with a leak (obviously) in the upstairs apartment (not used), the leak has been there for years between the floors and difficult to get to. Anyway that was resolved and the appropriate pipes turned on etc. So there was water and heat, to a degree - tends to take awhile to sort itself out after the hot water system is drained and bled and bled again. Initially not every room was getting heat, but by the end of the first week the rooms were getting too much heat.

And classes resumed. Mainly working to clean up and organize the financial records etc. Now I need to create some lesson plans and email them to Texas - such as creating backups and reports and sorting through transactions etc.

Then just before Thanksgiving they got the go ahead to go and off they went, after naturally turning off the water and gas and heat and repacking the motor home a second, third and fourth time :-) They left on Tuesday morning and by Friday they had reached Alamo, Texas just outside of Mc Allen (not THE Alamo) safe and sound and avoided a major snowstorm that was due to hit CNY over Thanksgiving - turned out it was only a passing blow.

Since then actually on the day they arrived there - Friday - I developed a sore throat which progressed to a chest cold, to a chest cough to probably bronchitis. I still have the cough and it is worse when I talk or lie down on my back. Plus the constant draining in my throat etc is annoying. But having no insurance, makes one pick and chose whether a Doctor's visit is really, REALLY, necessary.

I cancelled/rescheduled a blood tests/Doctor visit in November to next April (2006) precisely because of the expense. That last time (April 2005) the whole process cost close to $300 after the tests and Doctor's fees. $300 that can be spent better elsewhere so I'll wait and see what happens and get the cholesterol, homosistens, PSA, liver function etc checked once a year instead of twice. I'm still looking for Medical coverage but I can't see paying $600-$1300 a month to join as an individual in an HMO plan. So I've relegated my search to a decent Hospitalization plan only - in case of emergencies. We'll see how that goes.

The Lake Effect machine is cranked up hitting the northern suburbs very hard...whereas south of the City (me) we haven't had too much. I haven't even had to shovel yet this year it has been amazingly mild, but of course within an hour that could change as it always does. It is 21 out right now with a wind chill of 5 and hazy sun - by afternoon the predictions are that we will have 2 - 4 inches of snow on the ground as the Lake Effect bands more south and break up.

They say we are in for an expensive winter in terms of heating costs. I am on the budget plan with National Grid and so far (thru November) had built up a credit of $226 that they owed me. Each month I have been paying $121 for gas and electric. But I guess there have been BIG increases in the budget plan amounts beginning in December - so much so that National Grid sent us all a letter warning us of the expected increases, but not saying how much since it is calculated individually. Since late spring I have been turning off appliances etc and unplugging them only plugging them in when I need to use them - microwave, toaster, coffee maker, TV etc. It has cut my KWh usage. Of course my clothes dryer died too and since then I have been either hanging clothes outside when possible - or in the cellar like now and that seems to be working out ok. Not sure how good it will be when I wash the sheets etc.

I had the furnace checked and cleaned too, the first time in about seven years...I know...I know...shame on me. It was installed about seven years ago. The temperature I have set on a programmable thermostat - 10PM it goes to 55, at 6AM it goes to 58, at 8AM it goes to 64 and at 5PM it stays at 64. So I essentially keep the house at 64, except when I am sleeping then it goes to 55. And of course when I am not here for an extended period of time it goes to 58 (I manually set it then). This month's bill will be the first with this scheme of things as I kept the furnace off through much of November (it was unusually warm - 60's & 70's).

Now I need to work on paperwork. A task I have been dreading and delaying for days, but today maybe I will accomplish something - at least I will have posted in this blog. I have a meeting with Rachel on the 15th to discuss finances and plans for the future and so forth and I need to pull some figures together, especially my budget and what I have spent.

Then there are taxes. It is that time of the year again though based on my preliminary figures my income (adjusted) won't be very much, which surprises me as I expected it to be higher, but the stock etc that I sold didn't have the gains I expected so that saved me from having to pay a huge amount in taxes. So I may have gotten a large sum of money, but in actuality the gains were quite small. Right now I'm looking at an adjusted income basis of about $3500.00, which no doubt will increase once all the funds pay out their year end dividends etc this month. Money that will be needed to pay bills for January and so forth. I think I have managed to set aside enough to pay December's aside from County Property Taxes for 2006 which I sometimes pay in advance, but probably not this year.

Plus I have transferred some debt (about $4400.00) to a 0% cedit card offered from State Farm Bank good through November. Initially the debt was $7900.00 - my part of the windows and insulation work done in 2004. I had that billed to Amazon.COM first (gettings my rewards points), then taking advantage of a 0% offer transferred it to Bank of America thru October 2005 and now to State Farm Bank til November 2006. So basically I'm using others money and making regular payments at no interest. I'm planning on making $400 payments over the next 11 months and pay it off by next November. If I am succussful and I don't incur anymore debt all I will owe is loans on Life Insurance policies. It is a goal and probably why I get indundated with credit offers all the time.

Credit offers that I cut my name and address and and codes off of and return to the companies in their business reply envelopes. My own mini protest for all the junk mail they send.

Of course all this would be easier if I got a Job...even a part-time one. I keep thinking I should, but then I would be committed to set hours and so forth.

But back to paperwork the Christmas Cards I need to get together and send, the Christmas Letters to write and the Round Robin. After almost two years it finally made it around again and I have it and have had it since probably the end of October...sighhh