I am grateful for being able to open the door and walk out into our backyard at any time of the day and night. I am grateful for being able to pluck a persimmon off our tree, wipe it on my sweater, and munch on it as I wander around the backyard looking for forgotten things that put together will become something else.  I am grateful for the Husband being the main dishwasher and coffee maker. I am grateful that we are able to afford the utility bill so we can turn on the heater during the chilly season. I am grateful that Daddy took the risk to sign a work contract with the Hawaiian sugar plantations and then decided to stay in Hawaii for a bit more (about 18 years) after his contract was over. I am grateful that Daddy chose to become a U.S. citizen when the government offered it to him and many other Filipinos who were serving in the U.S. military during WWII. I am grateful that Mama said “yes” to Daddy’s proposal of marriage and said “yes” to moving to the United States wh

Good cheer, One and All!

I wore my first bikini top today. I made it this morning out of two cloth masks. Easy-peasy. Tie strings here, tie strings there. Voila, a halter bikini top.  “My gosh,” repeated the Husband when I modeled it for him. After  we stopped laughing, he said, “You’re clever.”   After showing off my creation, I retired it.  🙃

The Husband and I are saying today that tomorrow morning we will drive to a big box hardware store in the next town to purchase a washing machine. Ours no longer wrings out all the water from the clothes. After years of having a washer, we’re too spoiled to go back to lugging laundry to a laundromat. I’m 99.998% sure that we will actually buy a washing machine tomorrow, as well as stop by the post office, the bank, the tax collector’s office, and the library in town. We were going to do all that today, but I nixed that idea when I got inspired to work on a bunch of different projects in the yard, L Studio, and the upcoming yard sale.  So, did I work on any of those projects?  I finally moved boxes, which I put off for months, from the shed to the garage. I had to ask the Husband to come outside and be near the shed when I go in it. Just in case, I told him, a mouse lives in the shed. Shudder. It would probably be more like a rat but I don’t want to consider that. Nope. The Husband said

Two things I did today. One. The Husband and I took a short walk around the neighborhood. Yay! We included a slight hill to give us more of a challenge. Along the way I picked up a pine cone and clippings of California fuchsia to try to grow.  Two. I switched the drafting table and desk, which I use for the sewing machine, in L Studio. The drafting table sat in a corner, trapped by the ironing board, so the table was nothing more than a surface to hold stuff. Now that it’s accessible, I can do things again, such as lay out patterns and cut fabric with a rotary cutter. Simple pleasures.

Thanks to a segment of Bob’s Burgers , I walked in circles around the living room and kitchen for more than 15 minutes this evening.  I stopped when the commercial came on. That took about 12 minutes. I wonder if syndicated cartoons have fewer commercials. Before I started my trudging, I was searching online why  “legs ache at night.” One possibility is having fatigued muscles from over use, while another is being inactive and sitting, standing, or lying in one position for a long time.  Bingo.  Up and off the couch I was. Heel, toe. Heel, toe. . . . When all was done, I felt energized. My legs tingled in a happy way. Guess what I’ll be incorporating into my life. 

Relief.  This morning I set up an appointment for the Husband and me with an insurance agent to help us enroll in a new Medicare Advantage (MA) plan. Hurrah! The insurance company that handles our plan decided to quit serving our county as of January 1, 2024, which means a lot of old folks in town are scrambling to figure out what to do for Medicare. The insurance agent, who we’ll be meeting, said that nearly all she has been doing the past week or so is help people figure out what kind of Medicare plan is best. We have three options. One, get on another MA plan, which is through a private insurance company. Two, go back to Original Medicare under the federal government, along with purchasing both a Medigap and a Medicare Part D (drug coverage) policy from an insurance company. Or, three, the same as number two option but without a Medicap policy to cover what Medicare doesn’t or won’t.  The third option is a high risk move, so I think, with the cost of healthcare. Thank goodnes