Tots and Pears

My sweet boy passed away at the nearby veterinarian clinic last week. Reuben was never really the same after Hoshiko died. He was old, and I think he was depressed and gave up. His kidneys failed and it all happened so fast, I didn’t realize anything was wrong until he’d stopped eating and lost a lot of weight. He’d also stopped jumping onto the table and kitchen counters. By my estimation based on when we adopted him and how old he was at the time, he was probably around 14, same as Hoshiko when she died. Reuben wasn’t as far gone physically as Hoshiko, but I did not want to wait as long. I didn’t want his quality of life to decline as badly as hers did in the end. It was a really tough decision, but the whole point is to prevent further suffering, and they can’t tell us when they’re in pain.

I had the vet clinic do a private cremation so that I could keep his cremains with Hoshiko’s. The carved wooden box they put him in is the most beautiful box I’ve ever received for cremains and it’s the biggest as well. I opened it up and saw that his ashes took up only about half the space inside and the rest of the space was occupied by a crumpled piece of paper. So I pushed the paper aside and put Hoshiko’s little bag of ashes in there with his. Now they will spend forever together, just as they spent their lives. When we adopted Hoshiko she was only three months old. When we adopted Reuben about a year later, he was six months old. They spent the human equivalent of about 90 years together.

Hoshiko was quite the scrapper; she hated all other cats and even once broke through a window screen when she saw one outside because she wanted to fight it. When we adopted Reuben we had to keep him in a separate room, pet him, then let Hoshiko sniff our fingers. She hissed at first. Finally, after about a month, we slowly introduced the two of them. Hoshiko eventually became used to the idea of having Reuben around, and they became best friends. They cuddled and Reuben cleaned Hoshiko’s ears for her. He was the sweetest cat I’ve ever met. He was more like a puppy, really. He was often overbearing and he drooled, humped pillows, destroyed my furniture, and was a huge pain in the ass. But I loved him. The two of them will be sorely missed, and it does feel awfully empty and lonely around here.

However, I will not be adopting any more pets. I’m at the point in my life where I need to not have anything or anyone depending on me, and I want to be able to just pack up and leave for a week whether it’s a work trip, vacation, or just to go camping or visit my mom. There is no pet in existence that I can just leave alone for a week, so I’m ruling out any living things.

I do have a couple of house plants, and without pets I can have more plants. But I’m not going to go crazy with plants because my condo gets very little light. I’ll just stick with the shamrock in my son’s room and the pothos I have in the kitchen window box. I tossed my lucky bamboo because after 11 years two out of the three stalks had died and with rearranging the furniture in my bedroom, it had no place to get enough light. The shamrock needs to be watered about once a week– more in the summer. I don’t know how it would fare if I took off for a week. The pothos can go without water for a week. As for the patio, I’ll stick with my native plants and not do more than a hanging flower pot every summer. I want to keep my freedom now that I have it for the first time since August 27, 1993, when my first child was born. Ever since that day I have always had either kids, pets, or both. Now all of my kids are grown and pets are gone. I’m not even feeding the birds anymore except for Max. Later this spring I’ll pressure wash the patio.

The cats did destroy my loveseat, couch, and dining tablecloth, so I replaced the tablecloth and place mats. I switched from dark brown to beige and got place mats and matching cloth napkins with birds on them. My son and I went to a furniture outlet store and picked out a new couch, swivel chair, and coffee table. In 3-4 weeks those items will be delivered and the same company will haul away the old stuff. The new things will take up less space, so I will probably rearrange the things in the dining area and I’ll be able to use the dining table for dining (right now it’s in a corner and difficult to get to and only one person can sit at it). The couch and loveseat are 10 years old now, and they’re all scratched up, covered in dirt and spills, and cat vomit. They’re not only gross, they’re big and floofy, take up a lot of space, and dark brown. The new stuff is lighter in color so it will lighten up the room. The couch is beige and comes with throw pillows that have blue accents. The swivel chair is going to be upholstered in a blue pattern that matches the blue accents in the pillows. The coffee table is beige with a brown top that lifts up and it has drawers for storage.

I also got rid of all of the cat stuff like the litter box and cat tree, which opened up a lot of space near the front entry. We moved my tall bookcase to where the cat tree was, and I moved my dresser to where the bookcase was. That opened up space in front of my bedroom window where I put the stool and music stand for playing instruments. I still need to clean out and reorganize my garage so I can store stuff in there from my bedroom closet and I need to clean out and reorganize my closet. Near the front entry I put a small storage bench with a cushion. It looks really nice.

I might end up with enough room for an additional chair. When I spoke to the manager of the furniture store we agreed that I’ll start with what I ordered and if I have room, might add another swivel chair or small recliner. We’ll see. I’m going to prioritize the dining table having enough seating, so I may forgo another chair.

I want to start having people over for dinner. I’ve refrained from inviting people over and when I do, have been kind of embarrassed by how cramped the place is and have to say, “Sorry we can’t eat at the table.” Also, “You might not want to sit on that loveseat. If you do, you’ll be covered in fur.” But the couch is torn to shreds.

My goal is to do a complete refresh – get the new living room furniture, do a clean-out of closets, rooms, cupboards and drawers, and dust off shelves and reorganize them. I’ve been living here for eight years now, so it’s time to de-clutter. After that’s done I’ll focus again on things like replacing electrical outlets and painting the trim around the doors. Maybe one day, when I recover financially from the computer and furniture purchases, I’ll get new flooring for the stairs, bathroom, and upstairs hall (everything but the bedrooms). I can only afford to do a little at a time and still save for emergencies and retirement. To pay for the furniture I sold off some stocks in my brokerage account (thankfully it was first thing Monday morning before they all dropped in value). I’m also trying to save for the down payment on my next car, which will be in roughly 5-7 years. In addition to all of that, I’m putting an extra $200/month toward my mortgage so that I can have the condo paid off by my 67th birthday.

Sigh.

Well, that’s about all I have for today. I might be going out for drinks tonight with a coworker. Another coworker asked for my number last week and he says he wants to be “friends.” I sure hope that’s all he wants, because I do not want to date. He’s already being a little bit pushy and wanting to text in real time or talk on the phone and has offered to come over and help move furniture. I need plenty of time and space to myself. I definitely would never date a coworker, let alone one as young as he is. He’s recently divorced, and for some reason everyone I meet sees me as some kind of unlicensed, free therapist.

Maybe that should be flattering, I don’t know. But every time I’m going through a hard time, other people come out of the woodwork and need me for someone to talk to. It is flattering, but can also be a bit overwhelming.

Right now I’m very overwhelmed with grief, work, and… well, just grief and work. I recently requested some PTO just so I can have five straight days to deal with my shit and still have some time left over to hike, walk, read a book, and maybe even dust off my ukulele. I have so many more hobbies than I have time for. But that’s a good thing; it keeps me busy and out of trouble. Not that I have any trouble to get into at my age.

As far as dating goes… I don’t know. Maybe I’ll pick that back up again later, after all of my work is done. I would enjoy having friends over and cooking dinner for them. We could have a nice dinner, a fire in the fireplace, and a glass of wine and good conversation. I’d like that.

It’s been so hard losing my last two grandparents and both cats all within just 15 months. That’s an awful lot of loss and a lot of tears have been shed.

I guess this is just a new chapter in my life. A little bit less responsibility will be welcome.

First things first – wow last weekend was beautiful! We hit 70 degrees and had sun all weekend! I didn’t go hiking because I knew all of the trails would be crowded (and yes, one person died and two others had to be rescued in the gorge). Instead I went to the park, laid a blanket down on the grass, and read a book. It was a nice compromise because I had household chores to do, but wanted to be able to get outside and get some sun. I got a bonus bird sighting, a Red-breasted Sapsucker. I’ve seen them around here before, but typically I only see them and never hear them. This one was very vocal, and its call was what caught my attention. It sounded a little like an angry squirrel.

Also, just for the hell of it, last Saturday I decided to shower, put on a dress and some make-up, and leave the house. I went to my favorite dispensary and got myself a 1:1:1 THD:CBD:CBN tincture to try. The bud-tender there complimented me on the white stripes in the front of my hair at the temples. That was sweet and very flattering. Then Monday at the grocery store a woman told me the color I was wearing (lavender) was a good color on me. People are being so… nice. It’s weird.

Fall Out Boy Concert

Wow, Fall Out Boy rocks! The Moda Center was packed. I know their show in Seattle sold out, and I think Portland was damn near. They had three opening bands which took a lot of time, so the concert ended pretty late. The opening bands were alright; the first two I’d never hear of, and the third was Jimmy Eat World. Fall Out Boy was amazing. I’d never seen them in concert before and only started listening to a lot of their music the past five years or so. I always had a few of their songs on my running playlist. They had some big props and pyrotechnics and put on such a good show. Patrick Stump, the lead singer, is my favorite. ♥ He’s 5’4″, nerdy, and talented. On stage, he exudes confidence. So sexy.

Computers

The short version: In October 2025, Microsoft will discontinue support for Windows 10. Windows 11 requires a TPM chip, which neither my laptop nor desktop had because they were both 11 years old.

I’ve known this for a while now, and have just been putting off upgrading until 1) Windows 11 had enough drivers and worked out the major bugs, and 2) I could afford new hardware.

Fast forward to me getting a big tax return thanks to the Oregon Kicker check this year, and a new credit card with 50,000 bonus introductory points if I spend $2,000 in 120 days.

I bought a Lenovo Thinkbook and did what I usually do with laptops – ordered it with Windows Professional and not the most RAM or the biggest hard drive. I save money and get more years out of the machine by upgrading those later.

Then I bought a new motherboard, CPU, RAM, and a few hard drives for my desktop PC. My desktop has been a custom build since I first learned how to build computers in 2006. It says a lot about ASUS that after 11 years, the board was still going strong. So was that Intel CPU and the GSkill RAM. I don’t think I’ve ever had a PC give me zero problems over 11 years. Of course each month I did OS maintenance and every six months took it outside to open the case and dust it out. I probably could have used both the desktop and the laptop for at least another five years if it weren’t for having to upgrade Windows.

Here are my old parts (I kept the SSD and put it back in as backup storage – it was my C drive):

Old HDDs that were filling up. I replaced the two 1TB HDDs with two 2TB HDDs and put a 2TB SSD in as my C: drive. Then I took the 500 GB SSD out of the old laptop and put it in the desktop as backup storage to replace a small HDD. I also took the old 1 TB HDD that was the C: drive and formatted it and now it’s backup storage.

Here are the new parts before and after. This is my very first AMD processor! That’s only 32 GB of RAM. I can go up to 128. As with laptops, I like to start small and upgrade later.

I’m still using my 11-year-old graphics card, heh. That’s also how old that power supply is! And the case!

And yep, I still have a memory card reader and an optical drive!

Getting a new laptop and rebuilding the desktop in close succession was challenging, but it’s what I did last time, 11 years ago. I like to just get it all done and over with at once. It’s too time consuming otherwise. Now I’m good until the next minor hardware upgrade and whatever version of Windows will come next. Hopefully it’ll be another 10+ years before another rebuild.

The funnest part is giving the computer a name. I always use old lady names. I’ve gone through Wilma, Bernice, Beatrice, and Gertrude. The last desktop was Ruby, so I kept with the gemstone theme and named the new ones Pearl and Opal (still old lady names, too).

Just for fun, here are the specs – and I’m typing this post now on my newly built desktop PC, Opal:

Old Desktop PC

New Desktop PC

New Laptop

Health

Uuuugh. Well, the latest diverticulitis flare-up has subsided. The side effects of the antibiotics lingered on in the form of an HSV-1 outbreak on my lower lip and a yeast infection. Wow, it’s a good thing I’m not dating.

I’ve been having a lot of strange symptoms lately like really super intense itching in my armpits, itchy labia (with yeast infection ruled out), and I found a dark, hard, painless lump on the inside of one of my labia which I cut off. It looked very suspicious, so I’m keeping an eye on that area to see if it comes back.

I’ve been having hot flashes that last a long time and frequent and intense night sweats. I felt like my thyroid was enlarged, but I had an ultrasound of it and apparently although a bit smaller than average, it’s not abnormal. It’s not enlarged and has no nodules. So my doctor is having some hormone labs done. I’ll get the results next week. Regardless, I need to see a gynecologist because it’s most likely perimenopause and it’s getting so bad, I’m waving the proverbial white flag to hormone replacement therapy.

The thing is, I’ve been in perimenopause since at least 2017. Why is it getting worse? My appetite has decreased quite a bit too, but that might be because I haven’t been working out.

Anyway, who knows? I’ll be getting routine blood work done in June, so maybe we’ll find out more then. I also have a nodule on my left adrenal gland that was 1.5 cm when it was found. My doctor said testing for issues with that is a lot more expensive, so we’re working on ruling everything else out first. It might just be that I need to take Premarin or something.

My cat is dying. He never got over losing his partner, and he’s on his way out. He’s 14 years old and has nearly stopped eating and drinking. He vomits every day. He’s lost more than half his body weight. I’m afraid to take him to the vet… and this is going to sound terrible and maybe I am a terrible person… but it’s because I don’t want them to guilt me into expensive treatments I can’t afford. I’m racking up my own medical bills right now trying to figure out why I feel the way I do (and fix it).

Finances

I’ve been keeping an eye on my high yield savings, CDs, 401(k), Roth IRA, and brokerage accounts. I’m adding to the HYS and Fidelity accounts; not much, but it’s adding up fast with the stock market going the way it has been this year. My son has been putting $1,000 per month into savings and it was difficult at first to get him to start investing and diversifying and especially doing automatic transfers. He seemed pretty nervous about it. He’s finally all in now and is doing automatic transfers and investing. I still can’t get him used to the idea of having money in CDs, though. I keep telling him he should do that now before the Fed lowers interest rates. It sounds like beginning in June, they’ll start dropping the rate. He’s like, “Mom, I only have $10,000 in savings. That’s my emergency fund.” He has $5,000 in his Fidelity accounts and $1,000 in his credit union savings. His monthly expenses are only $700/month right now. I guess I taught him well? He just needs some time to get over that anxiety surrounding not having 100% liquidity. But he should at least get one long-term CD and one short-term one before the Fed lowers interest rates. I told him to put a little in a long-term one and a lot in a short-term one. Maybe I’ll be able to get him to do that next month.

The HOA board found out there is significant damage to the clubhouse foundation and that we have a major storm water drainage problem. They also found out the siding was placed over old wood paneling, so it’s not actually waterproof. I’m expecting either another significant increase in monthly HOA fees next year or a big annual special assessment, so I’m trying to hold onto as much money as I can.

This is also an election year, so who knows what’s going to happen with the economy. I’m afraid that if Tangerine Tyrant wins it’s going to be bad. So I’m squirreling away money into investment and retirement accounts until I see signs of badness, then I’ll SELL SELL SELL and put everything I can into savings. With the retirement accounts all I can do is sell off stocks and bonds and put the money into money market funds. One of my CDs matures in July and the other one in December, so they’ll just stay put for a while.

Work

Busy as fuck right now, especially with my boss being on vacation for two weeks. Beginning on April 1st we are required to work in the office three days a week. Boooo. On the other hand, they will be allowing us to wear jeans as long as we wear dress shirts and shoes. What’s the fucking point? We were given sit-stand desks, and I do not wish to stand for half the day in shoes that will further destroy my already destroyed feet. I’m going to wear my Altra Escalante shoes when I stand and if I have to, I’ll put on the dress shoes when I leave my cubicle.

In other news, I’m now the one holding the Volunteer Committee together. It’s kind of like that one time I ended up interim president of the Beta Pi Rho chapter of Phi Theta Kappa at PCC – way out of my comfort zone.

Dating

Nope.

This Weekend

Oil change, tire rotation, and new battery. Then a haircut. After that, possibly a swim and trip to the tanning salon. Then I’ll read a book and relax. Maybe I’ll go for a walk or two, but it’s going to be rainy.

I remember back in my Facebook days, friends frequently talked about goals. They were setting goals and touting their bullet journals and planners. Having goals is great, but when I tried all of that, the planning and journaling was too time consuming. I spent more time planning than carrying out those plans, and keeping up on tracking my progress prevented me from making much progress. Also, life has a way of presenting obstacles that make some goals difficult if not impossible to accomplish. I think I’ve said this before, but my life has a way of steering me toward specific goals when it’s time for me to take action.

When I met my ex I was working at a grocery store full time and on the side, fixing people’s computers for a $40 fee. I learned how to build PCs and was getting really into it. He said, “You’re good at this and seem to enjoy it. Have you ever thought about going to school for it?” When I moved to Portland with him, one of the first things I did after we settled in was enroll at Portland Community College and start taking classes. I had transferred to a store there and had a tyrant for a manager, so I became further motivated to do well in school just to get the fuck out of there.

I plugged away at my higher education, at first two classes at a time; then three, and eventually full time when Grocery Store Manager became unbearable and my ex said, “You’re miserable. Quit you job and I’ll cover your half of the rent until you graduate (from PCC).” At that time I also pursued photography to make a few extra dollars here and there. Eventually I dual enrolled at PCC and Oregon Tech. Then I graduated from PCC with an A.A.S. in Computer Information Systems and went to Oregon Tech full time. Three years later, I graduated with a B.S. in Information Technology. That was never my plan just a decade earlier.

Going to college was never a goal of mine.

In 2015 I heard rumors that the apartment complex I was living in was going to drastically increase rent. It just so happened it had been five years since I quit the grocery job and was coming into my ESOP. I had to make a decision: roll it over into a retirement account, or cash it out. I made a quick decision to cash it out and buy a house. At that time the real estate market was on fire and undoubtedly a seller’s market. It took two realtors and two months to find me a place I could afford, and I got incredibly lucky with this one. Sure, it’s a condo with an HOA; not exactly ideal. But it’s 1.5 miles from work, everything I need is either within walking distance or a short drive north, and my son and I love it here. It’s modest, but it’s all I need and my long-term plan when I was in Boise was to move to Oregon.

Buying a home was never a goal of mine.

In early 2016 when I was moving in here and assembling the new desk I’d purchased, I herniated two discs in my lower back. That required emergency surgery and was my wake-up call to lose weight. I started exercising more and more… and more. I logged every calorie I ate and managed to lose 80 pounds in two years and within three years, finished a full marathon in five hours and 48 minutes. Since then I’ve had some moderately challenging health issues both physical and mental, so I’ve gained back most of the weight and can no longer run long distances. But I’m still in better shape than I was prior to the back injury and so far I’ve lost 10 pounds since the first of this year.

Losing 80 pounds and running a marathon was never a goal of mine.

After my grandparents passed away last year, my mom gave me some of their money. At first it was $10,000 of my grandpa’s money. Then she added me as a co-signer on his checking account which was $19,000, and said, “Use this for whatever you want.” Then at Thanksgiving, after she had sold some of the property they owned, she handed me a check for $35,000. I promptly paid off my student loans. Then I thought… I don’t have much saved for retirement. In fact, the thought of what’s going to happen once I reach retirement age worries me. I only started my 401(k) in 2016, so right now there’s a measly $23,000 in it.

So I did some thinking and some research and decided to start investing. I cut some fat from my budget– lowered my homeowner’s and auto insurance premiums a bit by tweaking the policies and deductibles (they’re still very reasonable with more than enough coverage); got rid of all the extra hospital/critical illness insurance (I still have medical, dental, and vision) during open enrollment now that we have Covid vaccines; increased my 401(k) contribution to 5% (we do have employer matching), and put my newfound wealth to work. It’s not much, but having grown up in abject poverty and single parenting for so many years, to me it was a fortune.

Then I started listening to a podcast I found on Spotify called “Financial Feminist” by a woman who gives financial advice to women. It’s quite empowering. I’m reading her book now. She calls out all the bullshit of the patriarchy and especially the fact that talking about money is taboo. It shouldn’t be. No woman should ever go blindly into a long-term relationship not knowing if the guy she might marry someday will sap her dry and leave her with a bad credit score. Fun fact: my FICO score is currently as high as one can possibly get. I don’t make a lot of money. I don’t have a six-figure salary. I simply live within my means and don’t spend more than I can afford. I use credit cards to pay for everything so I can reap the rewards from them and increase my credit score, but I pay them off every two weeks to avoid paying interest.

I’ve spent the last several weekends on the Internet researching investment strategies and learning all about retirement accounts, CDs, high yield savings (HYS) accounts, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, money market funds, asset allocation funds, and target date retirement funds. Boy what a rabbit hole all of that is! I have only scratched the surface, but I have learned that you take 100 (some say 110) minus your age, and that’s about the maximum you should have as a percentage of stocks and the rest bonds. The whole point is that when you’re younger, you can tolerate more risk (risk and reward generally have a positive correlation). Then as you get older, lean more toward bonds to reduce the amount of risk so as not to lose what you’ve gained. But that’s not all. I’ve also read that within stocks, you should diversify and have about 60% domestic and 40% international. Also, have short-term, intermediate, and long-term bonds. Diversification is key because when one goes up, the other goes down. Right now stocks are doing great; bonds, not so much. Bonds will do better once interest rates go down, but low interest rates aren’t so great for CDs and HYS accounts.

So I essentially have all of my eggs, so to speak, in several different baskets. I put grandpa’s money in CDs and HYS because really, I don’t want to gamble with my late grandpa’s money and, for now, interest rates are nice and high. I have a 13-month CD and a 7-month CD. (I learned about CD ladders and CD barbells, too.) The HYS account is my emergency fund now. I transferred most of my credit union savings into that so as to have some liquidity but also have it earning interest. Then I signed up with Fidelity and got a Roth IRA and brokerage account. I’m keeping the brokerage account minimal because it currently is invested with a whopping 80% stocks/20% bonds (too heavy on stocks for me, but I’m rolling with it). The Roth IRA has a good mix of all the things I mentioned above and is a tiny bit risky for my age, but I have catching up to do. I’ll never have enough to retire on, anyway. Right now I have about $62,000 and I’m just hoping that one day I’ll see $100,000. And yes, I did set up automatic transfers to the Roth IRA and HYS. I’m also throwing an extra $200/month at my mortgage so as to have it paid off in 2041 (the year I turn 67).

Having two retirement accounts, two CDs, and a stock portfolio was never a goal of mine.

Setting goals is fucking pointless.

Just live your life. Whatever you need to do… whatever I need to do… will present itself when the time is right. When it does, tackle that shit head on, accomplish what you need to, and move on with your life.

Other Stuff

This week I suffered another diverticulitis flare-up that required antibiotics. I’m currently on a combination of Cipro and Flagyl which is pretty fucking intense. There’s loss of appetite, nausea, and a few other side effects. I have two daily windows of five hours in which I can’t eat dairy or anything high in iron. I can’t consume any alcohol for two weeks, nor polyethylene glycol. Even the effect of caffeine is intensified. I tried tea this morning and was so jittery I won’t be doing that again. No THC, either. And as soon as I realized what was going on I immediately switched to a clear liquid diet, so I had a massive headache for three days straight. Oh, no NSAIDs either. Those can cause bleeding in the infected part of the colon. So I was nauseated, feverish, and in a lot of pain in both my head and colon for three days.

Treating the symptoms of diverticulitis is very similar to colonoscopy prep. Clear liquids, laxatives, and lots of water. This condition is the fucking worst. However, switching to a clear liquid diet greatly shortened the duration of the intense pain that comes with an infection in your sigmoid colon. And because I got to see my regular doctor, I wasn’t forced to go to the ER and spend $2,000 to have a doctor tell me what I already fucking know.

The irony, of course, is that I feel my best when my colon is completely empty. It’s glorious.

I’m going to the Fall Out Boy concert later this month! I’m excited about that but nervous about driving to Portland, finding parking, and navigating the way to my seat in the Moda Center.

I’m also meeting my dad and stepmom at the Spectrum Mine in July for sunstone mining! We’ve already agreed on which days to go and I requested PTO and had it approved. (I did budget the trip as well.)

Things at work are really ramping up and it’s going well, but we are very busy. I work in the building materials industry in the midst of a housing shortage, so we should be busier than we are. However, with the shitty weather and high interest rates, sales have been flat. The reason my team is so busy is because we are working to be able to sell more and more of our products on our software application– and I am working with a certain big box home improvement retailer to be able to sell more of our products on their software application(s) plural, because they have three now.

Still not dating. Fuck a bunch of that right now.

You know what, this week I read an article on CNN that specifically addressed the issue of men simply treating women poorly. It was about dating apps, but yeah, in general, men are shitty. It’s gotten so much worse since the pandemic. In fact, the author of the article used the exact word I’ve been using for a while now: “entitled.” They feel entitled to sex, among other things.

Lately I’ve been moving more toward dressing nicer. My Old Navy rewards piled up over and over because I use that card for groceries. I got all new pants for work and a few dressy shirts as opposed to the cardigans I usually wear and two blazers, all for about $2. I’ve also been wearing make-up to work more often and wear my sunstone jewelry and the gold nugget my dad gave me. I even own a few dresses now. I have a pretty long flowery sun dress, another one that’s shorter and black with straps, and from Amazon I got a beautiful purple cocktail dress and some black Mary Jane shoes. I also got some black, white, and nude colored tights. I’m actually excited about dressing up for the Fall Out Boy concert and whatever else I’ll be doing this summer. 🙂

A few weekends ago a coworker, his daughter, and I went snowshoeing. It was so much fun. We went to Trillium Lake and the snow was so deep, we have photos of us standing beside the stop sign with the octagon at our feet. We want to go hiking again soon, but right now I’m dealing with my colon and he’s dealing with his 90-year-old father who recently had a nasty fall. But we will go again! I plan on going swimming again soon as well. I’m also going to get back to the gym now that (hopefully) the worst of respiratory illness season is behind us.

I do still want to write the memoir. That is something I’m never going to give up on, even if I have to wait until retirement. But I was thinking it might be more feasible for me to use voice dictation and drop it into ChatGPT for editing just to see what it comes up with. Of course I’d make sure it was all factual, and I’d direct it to use “light” editing or even edit only for grammar and spelling. Either way, I’m not writing a book to make money, so it doesn’t matter if it’s not 100% my own words. As long as it’s factual, that’s all that matters. I do, however, want to continue with the outline manually. Then I could print out the outline and go to the park or for long walks or whatever and dictate my life story.

Speaking of ChatGPT, we’ve been using it at work and for me it’s been great. I use to to optimize my SQL queries. I’m on the Volunteer Committee too, and we are trying to recruit new members because we need five and we’re down to two. So I asked ChatGPT to write a solicitation for new members and it came up with something amazing. It gave me an idea to hold an “information session,” so then I had it give me an outline for that. It comes up with what I need in seconds. I spend about 10 minutes editing it, and it’s done.

My son is doing well. He got a promotion of sorts. He’s now the forklift driver in the millwork department in the warehouse. He’s forklift certified and on the Safety Committee. He’s been working about 50 hours a week and still living here with me, so he’s been doubling up on his car payments and paying $400/month on his student loans despite his income-based repayment amount being $0.

He told me he had $16,000 sitting in his credit union savings, so I decided to schedule monthly personal finance lessons with him. One Friday night a month for about four months we will sit down with takeout for dinner and work on his finances with a holistic approach. A couple of weeks ago we re-balanced his 401(k), increased his contribution to 5%, and set him up with a HYS account and a Roth IRA and brokerage account. I also had him set up automatic contributions to both and buy shares of a Fidelity 2065 target date retirement fund. He already has beneficiaries named on all of his accounts, so next month I’m going to teach him how to access his credit reports and freeze them. In April I think the topic will be FICO scores and how to play the game to increase them.

I recently got a new credit card that does travel rewards, so I’m looking forward to rotating through my three cards to get all the rewards. Right now I’m working toward the requirement to earn the introductory bonus points on the new one. Microsoft is going to force Windows 11 on all of us next year and my PCs are both 12 years old (no TPM chips), so this morning I ordered a new laptop. Yes, I know there is a way to bypass that requirement by editing the registry, but my computers are both 12 years old. Besides, it gives me an excuse to rebuild my desktop PC and I’d never turn down an opportunity to play with hardware.

That’s about all I have for now. There’s been a lot going on in my life and I’ve been pretty busy. Overall everything is going spectacularly, even if most days I don’t feel like it is. Winter is rough. I’m really looking forward to more daylight and nicer weather. I have this gigantic list of “unique date ideas” I’ve been working on, but really, I’ll probably do most things solo or with a friend, coworker, or maybe even invite my son and his girlfriend. Last year was the Year of Trying New Things and this year I’d love to continue that trend. Last year was awesome. I might do a little dating later on just to meet new people and have someone to hang out with, but I am going to be very up front about who I am and what I want and expect. My standards are pretty fucking high and my tolerance for bullshit is pretty fucking low.