To-Do List....How I Did for May 2024

 

My To-Do List and how I did......

*  Pay Bills  DONE  Always paid first and early or on time

*  Have Bloodwork Done  DONE  Had labs drawn before I saw my PCP in May.  Everything was good.

*  Start Shoulder PT  DONE  Started and continued through May.  

*  Go to 3 Dr. Appointments  DONE  It seems all I do is go to medical appointments.  Saw the PCP, Orthopedic Doc and medical safari to MS to see my Dermatologist.

*  List 12 Items to Sell  FAIL  I just didn't get to this.

*  Take Box to One Kid  DONE  I drove over and left it on the front porch as Daughter didn't even have the courtesy to answer the door.  So I taped a note to her front door and she has made no attempt to contact either of us.  Sad.

*  Finish Arrangements for Trip and Cruise  FAIL  Well, I finished paying for the cruise but we still have to make plans for the flights out to Idaho.

*  List 2 Items on Facebook Marketplace  PASS  I DID  list 2 items on FB Marketplace.  I listed the two derelict boats in the back 40 that the previous owners left here.  I put them up for free.  We don't have the titles to either of these boats but previous owners have not made any attempts to come get them(so they have been abandoned here).  I got deluged with folks wanting one or the other or both, even in the bad conditions they are in and one of the boat trailers has no tires on it.  So Hubs looked up what is involved with actually selling/giving them away legally and it's quite a lot of paperwork involved so we are going to find another way to get rid of them where we don't have to pay fees and such to the state.   So I DID list them but we still have them. 8-((

*  Go Through Old Photos  PASS  I had to go through photos in order to put photos in Daughter's box.  

*  Contact Lawyer with Changes  FAIL  Ran out of time before we left.

*  Read/Finish Two Books  FAIL  Just hadn't felt much like reading.  Some days it's hard to hold a book still enough to read words with this danged Essential Tremor.

*  Buy Stuff for House(Always)  DONE  Hubs bought something, even if it was just kerosene for the burn pile. lol

*  Giveaway/.Donate Clothes That are Salvageable  DONE  I treated all the baby clothes I've been carrying around since the 1990's with Biz and everything that got cleaned went to Goodwill and anything too stained went into the garbage.  I gave each kid the outfit them came home from the hospital in and sent a box of boy clothes to my new Great Nephew, born in March.

As a Bonus I was able to donate some shirts and a new bra to Goodwill too. 8-)

*  Have Bone Density Scan  DONE  That wasn't much of anything other than laying on that hard "bed" at the scanner place.  ouch  Was done with that within 5 minutes and my bones all look dense and good.

*  Take Food to Food Bank  DONE

Everything pictured above got hauled to the Church Food Bank in May.

*  Edit More Photos  DONE  I got more photos on my computer edited but, I came back from the cruise with even more of those type of photos. I don't think I'll every get all these done.  lolz

*  Post About Old Trips  DONE  Worked on the 2017 Trip Out West and got near the end of that saga(finally).

*  Work on Genealogy  DONE  I was contacted by a 3rd cousin 1 x removed on Find A Grave, concerning some work I had done there putting up some memorials of relatives.  I didn't know she was my cousin until we got to corresponding about some errors in my FAG memorial placement.  Perhaps we'll stay in touch once we get this FAG issue hashed out.  We share my 3x GGrandfather Vassar but her Grandmother's maiden name is Snead and she is my 1st cousin 3 x removed too.  See what I mean about having a family macramé and not a family tree. lol

*  Buy Poly Mailers to Ship Fabric  DONE  I ordered and received the poly mailers.  Now I just have to photo and actually list fabric so I can sell and ship it. ugh

*  Photograph Fabric for Listings  PASS  I only got 3 pieces of yardage photographed before the month ended.

May turned out to be a busy month and June is about as busy.

Sluggy

March 2024 To-Do List....How I Did

 Here is my March To-Do List and how it all turned out.  Sorry it's a month late.  Stuff happens. ;-)

MARCH

*  Pay Bills  DONE  Always first and foremost

*  Go to 5 Dr. Appointments  DONE   Saw my Orthopedist,  I also got sent for shoulder MRIs at the end of March after insurance approved those tests.  I also was sent for 2 MRIs by the Neurologist(not that he cares or ever gets back to me about any tests).

*  Have Shoulder Injections  DONE  The Orthopedist injected both my shoulders in the bursa sac. 

*  Send Package to Brother  DONE

*  Begin Going Through Merchandise to Sell  PASS  I pulled out some fabrics to sell on Etsy.

*  Send Boxes to Two Kids  PASS  Sent a box to youngest and stuff in there for Oldest he will pass on to him since I have no contact with him.  Still have to get a box to Daughter.

*  Start Packing for Cruise  PASS  Started packing and got most of it done before April began.

*  Make Appt. w/Old Dentist  DONE  After the disaster with attempting to use the Dental Discount Program that came with my Medicare Supplement, I decided to go back to our old dentist.  Had a cleaning and a couple of dental x-rays done.

*  Go Through Old Papers  PASS  I've gone through many of them but there is more to plow through in April and/or May.

*  Contact Lawyer about Will Changes  FAIL  I didn't get around to do this.

*  Read/Finish Two Books  FAIL  I had good intentions but this one got away from me.  I just haven't felt much like reading books.

*  Buy Stuff for House(Always)  DONE  Hubs bought "stuff".  I have no clue. '-)

*  Order Biz then Wash Baby Clothes  DONE  Evidently they don't sell Biz anywhere I can find on the Eastern and Central part of the US so I jumped on Amazon and had it delivered to my door(mailbox actually).  Kim swears by the stuff to whiten old wedding gowns of her clients who want to use their mother's or such gown.  I tried it on a bunch of old baby clothes I still had from when my children were young to try to get spit-up and other stains off of them.  It worked like a charm!

*  Giveaway/Donate Baby Clothes That are Salvageable  PASS  My Sister in-Law's Grandson and his GF had a baby boy in March so I shipped off a big box of baby clothes to them along with a small gift.

*  Start New Donation Box  DONE

*  Try to Hem Some of My Clothes  DONE  I got two dresses shortened and hemmed.  I only brought one of them on the cruise however.

*  Edit More Photos  DONE  Just when I think I've caught up, we take another trip and I have a big photo dump. lol

*  Post about Old Trips  DONE  Been working on posting the Western Road Trip STILL!  Will it ever end??

*  Work on Genealogy  DONE

*  Take Items to Goodwill  FAIL  Didn't get up to Goodwill in March.

*  Pick Out Fabric and Photograph to List  DONE  See going through Merchandise item above.

That's all I got done in March.

Sluggy

To-Do List.....August 2023

Here's what got done(or didn't)in August......

* Pay Bills  DONE  Always paid in full on time or a little early.

* Go to 2 in-person DR appointments  DONE  Went to see the Orthopedic surgeon and the Interventional Pain Dr.   Neither of which was very helpful.  The orthopedist keeps putting up roadblocks to surgery and the interventional pain guy is a joke.  He won't put me on anything for pain other than a weak muscle relaxer and half the dose of the prescription NSAID the ortho had me on while I was having PT for my back.  Really?  I might as well take an Aleve!  I don't get why they make you sign something promising not to sell your drugs, drug test you and count how many pills you have left at each appt. when they won't even prescribe anything that helps with the pain.  He tried to put me on half the dose of the anti-inflammatory med the ortho had me on.  Walmart called and said a month of pills would cost $1,996.86!  I was taking twice the dosage and it was costing me ZERO OOP.  WTF?  Then he tried to get a pre-authorization and my insurance company denied it.  Eventually he kept me on the dosage the Ortho was prescribing.  Insanity.....
When I get back from Ohio and surgery the interventional pain guy wants me to have an MRI of my back(Oh joy!  Another MRI)before he'll do anything that will help me.

I also went to a third doctor, a dermatologist, to treat my HS.  She was totally underwhelming and I have no confidence that she actually "treats" HS.  She never even examined me!  She certainly is not a specialist in it.  This office is more interested in giving Botox injections, removing moles and selling overpriced skin care products in their waiting room.
So I have set up an appointment with a "real" dermatologist connected with the U of Mississippi(there are no HS specialist in LA)for early next year.

Ok, this screed is over for now. '-)

*  Go to 9 PT appointments  DONE  I finished up the Physical Therapy for my lower back pain.  I'll be going back there for PT on my knee after the joint replacement in October.

*  Schedule TeleMedicine Appointment with Another Dr.  DONE  I had my Teledoc appt. later that same day I saw the local Orthopedic surgeon who kept gaslighting me.  Ohio Doc green lighted me for a TKA and put me on his schedule for surgery.  I feel much better in the hands of this surgeon than the local Ortho guy for numerous reasons.

*  Submit all Paperwork to Surgeon  DONE  I got all the paperwork submitted(so far)through the 3rd party Healthcare Organization for the surgery.  This month I have a few blood workups and an EKG locally and then need to have it faxed to Ohio and then the paperwork will all be done.

*  Clean and Organize Stuff in House  PASS  Still figuring out how to organize the pantry and where to put some other stuff.  I went through all my mom's jewelry and tchotchkes I inherited in August.  I am in the midst of distributing some of it to kids and putting some things aside for my granddaughter when she is an adult.(It will be put in trust until then as I have no relationship with my son.)

I have also started and am adding to a "Goodwill" pile to donate.  That's mostly clothes that are now too big for me and some odds and ends.

*  Buy Stuff for House  DONE  The only thing(other than Hubs buying odds and ends to fix shit)we bought was a kitchen counter top.  Still waiting for the handyman to work installing it and the new sink in the kitchen into his schedule.  In the meantime, the 10 ft. section of counter top is living on the floor of my sewing room.  Which is fine as I can't sew in my present state.

*  Schedule MRI  DONE  That was not fun. ;-)  Now to have my Neurologist let me know what it says.....3 weeks and waiting. grrr

*  Clean out Inserts/Coupon Envie  DONE  I think I'll take this one off my To-Do List because as my shopping habits have changed(and we no longer to coupon inserts in the paper here)there isn't much to this.

*  Edit More Photos  DONE  Grinding out more editing of photos so I can post about old trips.

*  Post about Old Trips  DONE  Currently in August I posted about our trip out West from 2017.  I posted 7 installments of that saga in August and I'm only about halfway through that month long trip.

*  Work on Genealogy  DONE  I am always working on honing and adding to the genealogy trees.  This is something I do when I have free time in between PT and Dr. visits and tests.

*  Purchase a/c Unit for Bedroom  FAIL  We didn't end up needing one so it's falling off the list for now.

*  Send letter for DRCHC CEO+ cc to 2 More State Medical Entities  DONE  Heard back from all the Medical Entities, sent a Complaint to the Federal Government about a HIIPA violation but decided, beyond that, not to pursue this clusterf**k any further.  Stick a fork in me, I am done with their mismanaged clinic and am moving on.

*  Move Video files to new computer  FAIL  This didn't happen in August.  I am still slogging through files on my computer and getting them in better order and/or deleting stuff I no longer need or duplicates.

*  Celebrate Anniversary  DONE  We celebrated 41 years married by going out to dinner at a pretentious/overpriced restaurant.  Not great but I didn't let it put a harsh on our day.

*  Wash Dogs  DONE  The puppies got bathed outside in their little kiddie pool.  They smelled so much better but they need another bath as I am writing this. lol

What did you get accomplished in August?  Let us all know....

Sluggy

To-Do List....June Update

So another month done and dusted.  Let's see how the JUNE To-Do List turned out, shall we?

* Pay Bills  DONE  Everything paid early or on time as always.

* Read 1, 2, 3 Books  FAIL  I went to VA with high hopes on getting lots of reading done.  What I did get done was lots of napping instead. lolz  I got halfway through a book at home but didn't take it with me.  I started another book on the way down at my son's place but promptly left it there so another book begun(barely)but not finished.  
Oh and I made two trips to Ollie's(Good Stuff Cheap!)-one trip with son and another trip with brother and sis in-law, and besides a few pantry goods to bring home guess what I mostly bought at those two Ollie's?

If you guessed MORE BOOKS you'd be correct! ;-) That's my cart with the 5 or so I picked up in Va. Beach.
But!  I did get one book completely read in June.

"Backbone: Living with Chronic Pain Without Turning Into One" by Karen Duffy
If you are a wise-ass, have a sarcastic gene and especially if you are a fellow chronic pain sufferer, I implore you to find this book and read it!  The book is enlightening and uplifting and a reminder that you can thrive even if you are among the 1 in 3 Americans who suffers from some form of chronic pain.
I felt like she was speaking directly to me.  5 Thumbs Up!!!!!

* Hold Giveaway  DONE

It took awhile to get in touch with the winner as she just had surgery and is enduring a tough recuperation period.
Please send out good thoughts out to Lisa B. if you would as she gets over this time.
I hope the package lifted her spirits a bit too. ;-)

* Mail Giveaway  DONE
Mailed and received quickly.

* 2 Doctor Appointments  DONE
Got a semi-annual check-up with one doc which went well and all blood work came back good.
Had a check-up and TB test with my dermo doc to see how the Humira was working or not.  She is recommending a Laser Excision Surgery on one spot of my HS that the Humira is not helping.  She gave me the paperwork/info on what that surgery will entail and I should be scheduled for surgery later this month.  Oh goody. 8-(

* Change out Clothing for Summer  DONE
I finally got around to changing the wardrobe for warm weather out before I left town.

* Pack for Trip  DONE
I sort of killed two birds with one stone by packing for the trip while changing out my clothes for Summer.  It was far easier since I was already reorganizing clothes in the closet.

* Sew Masks for Folks  DONE
Eldest had told me that VA had recently gone to face masks in public mode before I left home.  I had sent him a mask I made back in March(along with tp as he couldn't find any at his stores back then)so I spent some time a few days before leaving making more fabric masks-2 for Hubs, 1 more to bring to Eldest son and 3 masks for my Brother and Sis in-law as well as another mask for myself in a lighter colored fabric.  My  brother never leaves his property but my sis in-law is a realtor so she's been spending for disposable masks as she doesn't sew.  Having 2 so she can wash and change it out daily will help her and her wallet. ;-)
Some where along the way I lost the new mask I made for myself so I need to make another one soon. 8-(

* Deal with "Stuff" in VA  PASS
Well we've done some stuff and gotten the ball rolling but there are more hoops to jump through.  Decisions have been made and more are to come.  That's about all I can say for now on this.  We are waiting on some blocks to fall into place and the lawyer to return from vacation now so we are in "wait" mode for now.

* Visit my Son  DONE
I stopped for 2 days on the way down and 1 night on the way home.
He's leaving where he taught for the last 5 years and relocating to NJ so we had a lot to talk about.
Atlas, the cat was always nearby to comfort him. lolz

* Visit my Brother/Sister in-Law  DONE

Besides a quick trip to Ollie's my brother didn't go anywhere.  But we did get visits from the neighbors and their dogs while I was down there.  That's Harper and Truman and their humans visiting in the photo above.  We also got a visit from Petey on another day and his human.
Sis in-law and I, on the other hand, hit various Rite-Aids, Kroger, Aldi, Lidl, Cracker Barrel, Walmart and an Estate Sale while I was.  We bonded and laughed a lot.

* Plan Goals for 2020  PASS  Hubs and I have hashed out a few goals and made some decisions about our living arrangements going forward.  There is still a lot to do and it feels overwhelming at times so I'll be biting off a bit at a time for now.  Mostly, the Goal for 2020 is now to survive it! 8-)))

* Arrange for Painter  FAIL  This was on Hubs list of stuff to do while I was gone.  He got a list of painters at the hardware store then the store owner told him, "frankly, I wouldn't recommend any of these guys to paint inside your house". lolz  I am thinking once we contact a realtor about selling our house they might have better sources.  So this search for a painter is ongoing.

* Have Money Meeting w/Hubs  PASS  We had a half-assed financial meeting.  Half-assed as some financial things were up in the air and I was gone half of the month.  July's money meeting should be more productive but we did make a few money decisions in June so I am giving us a pass. ;-)


Did you have a To-Do List in June?
Tell us how you did with it.


Sluggy

A Quick Update

Well since returning from the VA apartment hunt I've been making up for lost grocery shopping time it seems.

After my 1 week post-op eye appointment Eldest son and I hit Maine Source for a pork shoulder($1.69lb!), tomatoes and squash, 2 dozen eggs, a chub of liverwurst for Hubs lunches and a 2 lb. bag of shrimp.
OOP came to $40.40

Then I hit Weis(PMITA)Markets that afternoon after lunch and spent another $36.33.

There is a video of the shopping trip HERE.

$11.99 of that $36.33 was spent on a birthday cake for Eldest son......and it wasn't even on sale! ack.

I still managed to "save" 42% on that trip over paying full retail for everything so it's all good.

I had another dr. appointment this afternoon plus some more unexpected fun(details to come later this weekend)and now I am off to go work on dinner.

The fun just never ends some days, don't it? ;-)


Sluggy
 

Well I Lied & Other Randomness

*  I went out to Ollie's(Good Stuff Cheap!) yesterday for a mop but I didn't come home with one.

If I buy a mop I like to buy refills(sponge heads)that fit it.   Though they had some cheap mops, there were no refill heads and I won't buy a mop when I don't know where I can replacement heads for it.
I guess I'll continue to be the Queen of "spray the floor and use a rag/paper towel with my foot to clean" for awhile longer. 8-)

I did however, at Ollie's, buy FOUR books, a bath rug and a few food products(hummus dip/corn oil/dried refried bean mix/grated cheese shaker).  The food was $7.44 to add to my grocery spending.

Then I stopped at the Shursave grocery for a couple of things.....

1 x Flounder fillets on sale=$3.99
3 x mushrooms on sale=$5.00
6 x roma tomatoes=$2.26
Total.....$11.23

I used my last $10 store scrip from a deal I did in May so $1.23 OOP for this transaction.

I didn't go in for the mushrooms or fish but it was a good price so I snatched it up.
I went for slicing(sandwich)tomatoes but they all looked anemic so I got these roma ones instead.  Romas are known for being meaty with less seeds and goop so that suited my purpose for sammiches.

So another $8.67 bringing my weekly grocery spending this week to $56.78.  Just over 1 more week to go in June for shopping and I've spent $423.74 on food/toiletries.

*  I pulled a chunk of smoked brisket out of the freezer and dumped it into the crockpot yesterday, added a little barbecue sauce near the end and we had pulled beef bbq sandwiches with leftover cole slaw from the other night when I made flounder.
I also put that big pack of chicken leg quarters I got earlier in the week for .50¢ a lb. on the smoker yesterday late afternoon after I applied a dry rub and barbecued up those suckers.  Hubs doesn't know what he wants to do this weekend yet as the weather forecast keeps changing so if he wants to cook-out at some point all I need to do is heat those legs up on the grill and slap on some sauce and then worry about scrounging up some side dishes.

*  There is also 6 bags of mulch sitting on the front porch so if the rain holds off we'll hold Mulchfest 2015 sometime this weekend.  Come on over!

*  I am up to 46 miles on the bike so far this month with another 11 days to go.  Not bad considering I didn't bike 2 days out of the month to this point.  That's almost 2.5 miles a day average.  I'll reach my goal of 50 miles easy this month and will up the goal for July.

*  One of the books I got the other day is called "The 5 Years Before You Retire" which I have already finished.  While I get the premise, if you wait until 5 years before you retire to do ANY saving/planning for your retirement, man, are you screwed! lolz

There is a lot of helpful information in here, especially about Medicare and Social Security that is hard to find in a digestible way in any one place.  It's a good book to refer to as you wind down toward retirement.
Being a "worrier" about all things financial, parts of this scared the hell out of me(the SS and Medicare/Health stuff). 8-O

*  The weather here has been cooler than the last couple of weeks, more in line with June weather in these parts.  Cooler being in the 70's/80's as opposed to the high 80's/90's.  I'll take 70's any day over the latter.

*  My doctor's office pissed me off this week.
I had an appointment(routine semi-annual)on Thursday at 9am.  I get a phone message at 5:45pm on Wednesday from the office that they have to cancel/change my appointment and to call them back.
So I call them right back within 5 minutes and get the "the office is closed" message and you can't leave a message. grrrr

So I don't know whether I still have an appointment and now I still have to get up at the crack of dawn anyway to call them back in the morning.  The office opens at 8am so I start calling then and no one is answering the phones, they still have the "office is closed" message going.

It isn't until 8:30 when they actually start answering my calls!  So I get rescheduled for this coming Wednesday and she passes the buck as to who is too blame for this crap AND I don't even get an apology(even a half-hearted one).  I'll bring this up at my appointment with the doctor but I am sure he won't care either.  I want to know who the hell screwed up dammit!  And I want them to grovel.....  ;-)

*  Ok, I am off to take some giveaway box photos(new giveaway coming up soon!), finish putting the decluttering into bags so it can get hauled to Salvation Army and jump on that exercise bike for awhile.

What are you up to this weekend?

Sluggy


 

Snowball Fights Anyone?

What a grey day we had in Pennsyltucky yesterday.
First off here was my view in the morning....

I was trapped in a hospital waiting on specialists to come poke and prod me.  Mostly I just answered questions about my sleep.  They feel I need a BiPAP machine at night so a new sleep study has been ordered.  Oh goody!  I get to try to sleep in a strange bed in a hospital with cameras watching me and all kinds of electrodes and gizmos hooked up to me next week.
Can.
Not.
Wait.
8-P

Then in the afternoon, here was my view......

Sitting in the car in the parking lot of the grocery store, waiting for my daughter.  I was out of turkey for my new tradition of a turkey sandwich daily for lunch.
Rain was a bad thing since my Hubs replaced my windshield wipers but they aren't working correctly.  They move alright but they just don't REmove any water from the windshield.  I think he pushed down on the center of the wiper arms when he attached them, so that the curve of the glass is not lining up with the curve of the blades, so they just flap back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.....

Here was my view from my back door in the early evening.
About 7pm, the skies opened up and it started hailing......

And it hailed some more......

And more......

And by the time it ended 5 minutes later, the deck looked like it was time for snowball hailball fights.....

Here's a shot from our front door after some had melted......

And here over by our shed.  Where the grass is dead it looks like white flowering ground cover plants.....

Now actual snow in May is not unheard of here but hail at any time of the year is a rarity.

Sluggy