I feel like I'm on the road to recovery 'cuz I feel like singing again. I've got Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani's "Nobody But You" on repeat and will head upstairs soon to sing it in the shower. Then I'll sing it at the top of my lungs in the car.
My head is full of gunk and I'm still coughing but I'm willing to give getting out of the house a try today. Freeplay in Reno is reason enough for me to get dressed (first non-PJ day since last Thursday).
We're working with the lighting lady via email and have already picked out unique art glass pendants for the island and a matching chandelier for the dining area. Depending on how my first excursion in a week goes, we might trek to Home Depot and Lowes to get some ideas.
I think I found fans at Costco we like - way less expensive than what the lighting store has - and the art glass is going to use up our lighting allowance pretty darn quickly (and then some, most likely).
The house is approaching what we've always said was our 'no higher than this' amount but it is what it is. It's truly, TRULY the house of our dreams and at this point, a few thousand more dollars mortgaged over 30 years doesn't make all that much difference. There's that scene in Sleepless in Seattle where the lady tells the builder (also named Sam) 'when I have parties I always have platters and I need the SubZero refrigerator' - and it's a load bearing wall and will cost a fortune to redo and move out the date another six months and she says 'do it. It's important to get.it.right'. We're not doing THAT but we are making sure that what we want is what will happen. When I told the lighting lady we wanted the art glass items, I said 'and we know how expensive they are. We want them'.
Remind me I said that when I freak out when we start making the monthly mortgage payment on that amount.
I want to profusely thank hubby who has made store runs based on whatever I felt like I might remotely want to try to eat. He's also made over the counter medication runs for stuff I'm sure we have somewhere but we can't find it and if I/we need it, we're getting it. He's changed sheets, cleaned out barf buckets, brought me waters, juice, etc. for the last SIX days and has been the best help mate ever. I told him 'please don't get sick with this gunk 'cuz I honestly know I can not take care of you as well as you've taken care of me'. But I would sure try if that happens.
Looking forward to wearing clothes today!
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
Twice in Nine Months
We had a great trip to Vegas and it started with the absolute easiest trip to the airport. Love the Reno Airport - super easy to get to, little to no traffic congestion, parked easily, trekked to the terminal, checked our bags and got boarding passes at the curb and viola! At the gate and ready to go. It makes traveling just so much easier vs. when we lived in Tracy and just getting to the airport was a total crap shoot. Budgeting 2+ hours for what should be a 40 minutes drive has been eliminated! We love that change so much!!
Vegas was loads of fun as always and I/we can't wait to go back. We stayed at The Cosmopolitan and perhaps it's not really our favorite place to stay? We were saying 'we'll do Bellagio next time'. But on our last night there, a lady approached me at the slots and said "M., here's my card". She was the VP of Slot Marketing for the casino and she promptly instructed me to have a very nice dinner that evening on the casino and to call her when we visit again so she can arrange our rooms. (She offered to comp our room but we'd booked through Southwest Vacations [something we will never do again, by the way]. She offered to comp any room charges we'd made, too - but we hadn't been doing that]. We dined at Zuma and didn't scrimp on what we ordered - steak, lobster, sushi, drinks, dessert. It was delicious!
The next morning, as promised, the dinner bill had been comped and she also comped our daily resort fee, too - yay! So now it looks like we'll do Cosmo again, most likely - getting a free room there would be great. (Getting a free room mostly anywhere on the strip would be great). The Cosmo is a bit of a younger crowd (which is totally fine) but it really gets loud and crowded at night. But the room was SPECTACULAR - generous size with a nice seating area by the balcony and great views. We were on the 44th floor!
We trekked home late Wednesday - cats super happy to see us while giving us a bit of attitude for having left them. But they were totally fine and they readjust to their humans really well.
We had a lot of house stuff happening on Thursday - met the project foreman (FINALLY). We had to talk about how to do the steps up and down from the house onto the back patio and front porch. There will always be steps - and someday, if we have to, we can always do ramps. (Hope we never have to do that!). They delivered all the drywall so the garage and a lot of space inside the house is filled with drywall. We also found out we can arrange to add concrete around the house and even extend the patio out a bit and we're definitely planning to do that because we're positive our builders charges for that work will be hugely less than a landscape company later.
That afternoon, I had a scratchy throat but that's not unusual for me, right? But within a few hours, it morphed into a bad cough. I still just thought 'normal sinus stuff'. But Friday morning, that was clearly not the cause. I made it through a horrible Friday but the minute I woke up on Saturday, I said 'I need medical care'. Didn't even get dressed. Just put on a coat over my PJ's and a beanie to hide the most horrendous bed head ever and we went to the Urgent Care center. Type A Flu AGAIN - twice in 9 months!! And yes, I had the shot!!
It's day five-ish today and I MIGHT actually put on clothes at some point...though we're cancelling all scheduled appointments. The lighting appointment to finalize all our fixtures was scheduled for today at 1PM but the lady we're working with has serious health challenges happening - she just had major surgery - and there's no way I'm risking exposing her to the flu. And I really don't feel up to driving to Reno.
Tamiflu is amazing - and this time, we only paid $15!!
Vegas was loads of fun as always and I/we can't wait to go back. We stayed at The Cosmopolitan and perhaps it's not really our favorite place to stay? We were saying 'we'll do Bellagio next time'. But on our last night there, a lady approached me at the slots and said "M., here's my card". She was the VP of Slot Marketing for the casino and she promptly instructed me to have a very nice dinner that evening on the casino and to call her when we visit again so she can arrange our rooms. (She offered to comp our room but we'd booked through Southwest Vacations [something we will never do again, by the way]. She offered to comp any room charges we'd made, too - but we hadn't been doing that]. We dined at Zuma and didn't scrimp on what we ordered - steak, lobster, sushi, drinks, dessert. It was delicious!
The next morning, as promised, the dinner bill had been comped and she also comped our daily resort fee, too - yay! So now it looks like we'll do Cosmo again, most likely - getting a free room there would be great. (Getting a free room mostly anywhere on the strip would be great). The Cosmo is a bit of a younger crowd (which is totally fine) but it really gets loud and crowded at night. But the room was SPECTACULAR - generous size with a nice seating area by the balcony and great views. We were on the 44th floor!
We trekked home late Wednesday - cats super happy to see us while giving us a bit of attitude for having left them. But they were totally fine and they readjust to their humans really well.
We had a lot of house stuff happening on Thursday - met the project foreman (FINALLY). We had to talk about how to do the steps up and down from the house onto the back patio and front porch. There will always be steps - and someday, if we have to, we can always do ramps. (Hope we never have to do that!). They delivered all the drywall so the garage and a lot of space inside the house is filled with drywall. We also found out we can arrange to add concrete around the house and even extend the patio out a bit and we're definitely planning to do that because we're positive our builders charges for that work will be hugely less than a landscape company later.
That afternoon, I had a scratchy throat but that's not unusual for me, right? But within a few hours, it morphed into a bad cough. I still just thought 'normal sinus stuff'. But Friday morning, that was clearly not the cause. I made it through a horrible Friday but the minute I woke up on Saturday, I said 'I need medical care'. Didn't even get dressed. Just put on a coat over my PJ's and a beanie to hide the most horrendous bed head ever and we went to the Urgent Care center. Type A Flu AGAIN - twice in 9 months!! And yes, I had the shot!!
It's day five-ish today and I MIGHT actually put on clothes at some point...though we're cancelling all scheduled appointments. The lighting appointment to finalize all our fixtures was scheduled for today at 1PM but the lady we're working with has serious health challenges happening - she just had major surgery - and there's no way I'm risking exposing her to the flu. And I really don't feel up to driving to Reno.
Tamiflu is amazing - and this time, we only paid $15!!
Friday, January 10, 2020
Amazing Things Happening Every Day
I spent Sunday and Monday nights at Atlantis for a slot tournament. Had every intention of spending time in my room working on some computer things I need to do - but I did have time for play. The day started off with me using freeplay - started off aggressively because I had a lot of freeplay. But left the machines I was playing on when I decided to save for another try at a different machine.
20 minutes later (after finishing freeplay and losing) I walked by the original machines I started with - and someone had hit the major. Crap! I hate when I know a true 'drat, that could have been me'.
Sunday afternoon, I was playing and saw my friend D. . He was chatting with someone so I did a wave and walked by. Later, I was back at the machines he was on and sat down. A few minutes later, he called me over. Asked 'are you here for the night? Yes.'. He said 'I'm celebrating my birthday and having a dinner with family and some friends - can you join us?'. I was shocked. I said 'are you sure? It's very nice of you to invite me but I don't want to intrude'. He said 'I'd love for you to be there'.
He hosted a dinner for 12 people (me included) at Napa Bistro - it was extraordinary. Nicest people ever. His casino host from Grand Sierra was also at the dinner and it was fun to meet her and her partner (who is the stage manager at GSR) and their son. What an evening! Delicious food, making new friends, lots of amazing wines. For dessert, we all went up to the suite on the 27th floor (at Atlantis) and had D.'s favorite cake - Costco sheet cake! The suite was amazing - ridiculously lavish. A pool table in the living room. Two 8 people jacuzzis - one in each bedroom. It was a blast to get to see a suite like that - the 27th floor was 8 suites in total. Clearly, he is a high roller - which I knew because he plays with rolls of hundred dollar bills that are bigger than Jim's fist.
D. is the nicest, sweetest most kind hearted person. He is such a great guy. I had met his partner R. on NYE but it was extra fun to get to spend time with him, too - he works for a telecommunications company and is as sweet as he can be, too.
Had another 'crap, that could have been me' moment on Monday when I was about to move to a new machine and I was cashing out my ticket to move, someone sat down to play the machine I wanted to be on. Oh well. About 20 minutes later, I glanced over to see the guy staring at the screen - and the MAJOR ball had dropped - $1,000. I said 'you just won $1,000!' and the guy said 'no, I couldn't have - I'm only betting $1'. I said 'when the ball drops, you win'. He walked away with $1,099 on a $1 wager and was so excited. I was happy for him - truly - because he'd never played before and what a great way to start on trying a new machine. But darn it!
Oh well. Still solvent. Not going to fret about it.
While I was at Atlantis, I phoned J. for something and he said he was talking to our new neighbors. A couple from El Dorado Hills are building on Lot 8! (We are Lot 7). And....they are already our neighbors 'cuz it turns out they own one of the town homes in the same complex we're living in! The wife is a nurse and is still working (so she commutes to Sacramento area but stays here on days off) - but her older husband is retired and lives in the townhouse full time. I haven't met them yet but look forward to it - such a Kismet-y thing to happen!!
It's now Friday and we've been at the house a couple times this week. Plumbers there earlier in the week and my very observant husband realized that the faucets for both of our showers were plumbed to be over the bench in each shower. Um, no. That's wrong. He mentioned it and when we visited today, everything was fixed.
We've had two electrical walk throughs this week and today, the 2nd walk through confirmed the placement of all the can lights and lighting fixtures. It's amazing how much progress they made on getting all the light cans installed - and the owner of the company (who also did the first electrical walk through this week and invited us to his home to see how he did his outdoor lighting and how many lights he had in his office vs. bedrooms vs. living spaces - nicest guy ever) said 'wait until you go back on Monday'.
We won't be going back on Monday 'cuz we're leaving on Sunday for three nights in Vegas! Why, you ask? No reason. Just felt like it and can. The joy of retirement. We'll be home on Wednesday mid-afternoon. We're leaving the cats alone - we know they will be fine. Plenty of food and water will be around and we're setting up an extra cat box to make up for not being able to scoop daily. They won't be thrilled to be alone but they'll survive.
We spent some time today looking at the lighting company website. We need 4 carriage (outdoor) light fixtures, an entry chandelier, a dining area chandelier, 6 pendants for over the island, vanity lighting for 3.5 bathrooms and 6 ceiling fans. We have some pretty good ideas of what we want - we love most of the fixtures in the model home here at the townhouse and also in the unit we're renting. Ceiling fans present a challenge - we love the one we had in Tracy and they are available - for $600 each. We're not usually super 'cost conscious' - this is our once in a lifetime house and we're making it everything we've ever dreamed of and we have the money to spend whatever we need to get whatever fans we like - but there are less expensive options available at the lighting store. (They don't carry the fan brand we had in Tracy - so if we want those fans, it's fine. We buy them,ship them to the builder's address and they will be installed). We're trying to find fans we like. We actually found one we like and then it's realizing that a 56" fan for the great room will be perfect - but a 56" fan for our small guest room will be way too large. And of course, the fan we like doesn't come in any smaller widths. It's a frustrating experience trying to get all this worked out. We have until the 21st - thank goodness!
In other news - and a major accomplishment (since I've been procrastinating and fretting about this for a while) - I made our estimated tax payments to the US Treasury and the California Franchise Tax Board. When I went into the bank today to make the transfer from our savings to our checking - an amount so large that it required a second lead teller to approve the transaction - I told the two young ladies 'when all this money leaves our account on Monday, I'm going to have a nice cocktail at The Cosmopolitan Hotel' in Vegas!
H. has had a good first week - no labor laws in Texas so he has no scheduled meal break or any scheduled breaks. He is allowed to take a few minutes here and there to eat and use the restroom but he works 8 hours straight. The plus is that his shift is only 8 hours - so 8-4 vs. 8-5. He says he gets home exhausted. But he's doing OK.
That's the news this week. Time flies by -
20 minutes later (after finishing freeplay and losing) I walked by the original machines I started with - and someone had hit the major. Crap! I hate when I know a true 'drat, that could have been me'.
Sunday afternoon, I was playing and saw my friend D. . He was chatting with someone so I did a wave and walked by. Later, I was back at the machines he was on and sat down. A few minutes later, he called me over. Asked 'are you here for the night? Yes.'. He said 'I'm celebrating my birthday and having a dinner with family and some friends - can you join us?'. I was shocked. I said 'are you sure? It's very nice of you to invite me but I don't want to intrude'. He said 'I'd love for you to be there'.
He hosted a dinner for 12 people (me included) at Napa Bistro - it was extraordinary. Nicest people ever. His casino host from Grand Sierra was also at the dinner and it was fun to meet her and her partner (who is the stage manager at GSR) and their son. What an evening! Delicious food, making new friends, lots of amazing wines. For dessert, we all went up to the suite on the 27th floor (at Atlantis) and had D.'s favorite cake - Costco sheet cake! The suite was amazing - ridiculously lavish. A pool table in the living room. Two 8 people jacuzzis - one in each bedroom. It was a blast to get to see a suite like that - the 27th floor was 8 suites in total. Clearly, he is a high roller - which I knew because he plays with rolls of hundred dollar bills that are bigger than Jim's fist.
D. is the nicest, sweetest most kind hearted person. He is such a great guy. I had met his partner R. on NYE but it was extra fun to get to spend time with him, too - he works for a telecommunications company and is as sweet as he can be, too.
Had another 'crap, that could have been me' moment on Monday when I was about to move to a new machine and I was cashing out my ticket to move, someone sat down to play the machine I wanted to be on. Oh well. About 20 minutes later, I glanced over to see the guy staring at the screen - and the MAJOR ball had dropped - $1,000. I said 'you just won $1,000!' and the guy said 'no, I couldn't have - I'm only betting $1'. I said 'when the ball drops, you win'. He walked away with $1,099 on a $1 wager and was so excited. I was happy for him - truly - because he'd never played before and what a great way to start on trying a new machine. But darn it!
Oh well. Still solvent. Not going to fret about it.
While I was at Atlantis, I phoned J. for something and he said he was talking to our new neighbors. A couple from El Dorado Hills are building on Lot 8! (We are Lot 7). And....they are already our neighbors 'cuz it turns out they own one of the town homes in the same complex we're living in! The wife is a nurse and is still working (so she commutes to Sacramento area but stays here on days off) - but her older husband is retired and lives in the townhouse full time. I haven't met them yet but look forward to it - such a Kismet-y thing to happen!!
It's now Friday and we've been at the house a couple times this week. Plumbers there earlier in the week and my very observant husband realized that the faucets for both of our showers were plumbed to be over the bench in each shower. Um, no. That's wrong. He mentioned it and when we visited today, everything was fixed.
We've had two electrical walk throughs this week and today, the 2nd walk through confirmed the placement of all the can lights and lighting fixtures. It's amazing how much progress they made on getting all the light cans installed - and the owner of the company (who also did the first electrical walk through this week and invited us to his home to see how he did his outdoor lighting and how many lights he had in his office vs. bedrooms vs. living spaces - nicest guy ever) said 'wait until you go back on Monday'.
We won't be going back on Monday 'cuz we're leaving on Sunday for three nights in Vegas! Why, you ask? No reason. Just felt like it and can. The joy of retirement. We'll be home on Wednesday mid-afternoon. We're leaving the cats alone - we know they will be fine. Plenty of food and water will be around and we're setting up an extra cat box to make up for not being able to scoop daily. They won't be thrilled to be alone but they'll survive.
We spent some time today looking at the lighting company website. We need 4 carriage (outdoor) light fixtures, an entry chandelier, a dining area chandelier, 6 pendants for over the island, vanity lighting for 3.5 bathrooms and 6 ceiling fans. We have some pretty good ideas of what we want - we love most of the fixtures in the model home here at the townhouse and also in the unit we're renting. Ceiling fans present a challenge - we love the one we had in Tracy and they are available - for $600 each. We're not usually super 'cost conscious' - this is our once in a lifetime house and we're making it everything we've ever dreamed of and we have the money to spend whatever we need to get whatever fans we like - but there are less expensive options available at the lighting store. (They don't carry the fan brand we had in Tracy - so if we want those fans, it's fine. We buy them,ship them to the builder's address and they will be installed). We're trying to find fans we like. We actually found one we like and then it's realizing that a 56" fan for the great room will be perfect - but a 56" fan for our small guest room will be way too large. And of course, the fan we like doesn't come in any smaller widths. It's a frustrating experience trying to get all this worked out. We have until the 21st - thank goodness!
In other news - and a major accomplishment (since I've been procrastinating and fretting about this for a while) - I made our estimated tax payments to the US Treasury and the California Franchise Tax Board. When I went into the bank today to make the transfer from our savings to our checking - an amount so large that it required a second lead teller to approve the transaction - I told the two young ladies 'when all this money leaves our account on Monday, I'm going to have a nice cocktail at The Cosmopolitan Hotel' in Vegas!
H. has had a good first week - no labor laws in Texas so he has no scheduled meal break or any scheduled breaks. He is allowed to take a few minutes here and there to eat and use the restroom but he works 8 hours straight. The plus is that his shift is only 8 hours - so 8-4 vs. 8-5. He says he gets home exhausted. But he's doing OK.
That's the news this week. Time flies by -
Friday, January 03, 2020
Little Things Really Bug Me
Our new year was spectacular. The event at Atlantis was stellar from start to finish. Super Diamond was AMAZING - so many wonderful memories of Neil Diamond songs from my teen years. It was a perfect evening full of a lot of great moments - hearing "Play Me" while sitting next to the love of my life lifted my heart and made my normal feelings of 'incredibly blessed' overwhelming. I cried - it was so great.
Food was spectacular. Had a wonderful time. The only thing we didn't do is make it back to the Grand Ballroom for the balloon drop at midnight - we were just wiped out so we ended up being tucked into bed and lights out just as the fireworks started.
We'll try to stay awake next year. We are really excited about making this an annual tradition.
On New Years Day, I played ALL DAY and into the early morning hours of the 2nd - and hit a $1000 major just before midnight. I didn't take a picture - I was so excited about the win, I forgot all about it - but it was great.
I didn't feel particularly great when I crawled into bed at 2AM but it was very late and I figured I was tired. I wasn't. I woke up (after very odd dreams and feeling 'off' all night while I slept) super sick - throwing up. I despise throwing up. It took until a bit after 10 before I felt like we could try to head home - never more grateful to be only 30 minutes away. Got home, threw up again and spent the rest of the day in bed. Was able to keep some bone broth and water down and was hopeful that was a turning point - and it was. Still not feeling 100% but have been up and downstairs all day today. Paid the bills, got caught up on paperwork, did some dusting and laundry.
I'm determined to make progress on things big and small daily. And that's what's sometimes so hard. It's a strange 'effect' - but since retiring, the little, daily things that happen all the time make me so worried and fretful. It's all the little minutia details - dealing with insurance companies, property management companies, Medicare (with Jim) - just make me feel so worried.
I'm sure it's related to having zero control. Dealing with entities that honestly don't give a shit about their customer service is just so super frustrating. It's making me crazy.
Example:
I noticed when I paid the rent today that on the 'tenant ledger', there was an adjustment for the refund of the $500 deposit we paid to have Chloe live here. (We paid $1500 in pet deposits). We've been trying to get that deposit refunded for a couple months - never imagining it would be a long, drawn out process that's been more frustrating than I can say. The adjustments on our account were made on December 13th - per the 'credit' and debit of $500 on our ledger history. Only problem is: we still haven't received the check. Three weeks later and we don't have the money.
When we sent an inquiry, we got a response that included the ledger - saying 'the refund has been processed'. Um, no, it hasn't. And to make the situation worse: they've now altered our tenancy ledger making it LOOK like we've been refunded - but we haven't. It's maddening. Makes me (more) nauseous. I wish we hadn't brought up a refund because we'd get the deposit back when we vacate the rental - but now, they've made adjustments to our account ledger that misrepresent things since we don't have the cash.
I had a very stressful job for a really long time....and I truly always feel like I deal with 'stress' pretty well. But the stress of all these little minutia details really hits me hard. I'm struggling with a massive amount of feeling overwhelmed about things that are just irritating.
Medicare? Don't get me started. And actually, the Medicare staff have been extraordinary - but the vendors they force people to use for equipment are rip-off artists. More on that later, maybe.
I got a huge 'thing' off my list - made an appointment for a doctor - first available appointment is in April. I said I was fine with waiting IF in the event I have an illness, would someone in the office see me? Because that trip to the Urgent Care in November cost us a fortune out of pocket and I don't want to use Urgent Care as the only option between now and April.
On the house front, the builder's assistant called today and we'll meet with her next week to finalize colors. We'll also make an appointment to finalize lighting fixtures. The house is water tight and there is visible interior progress on a regular basis - even with all the holidays.
I think my best approach to the overwhelm is to dig in and get things dealt with as they come up. J. has done an extraordinary job during all the years I worked and he was retired - he handled all the myriad of details big and small. But now we're both home - and for me, I think being in the thick of it and trying to help is the best thing I can do for my psyche. I HATE dealing with a lot of this stuff....feeling powerless and taken advantage of while people don't give a shit about how inefficient and maddening the process is. It will all (have to) get sorted. And I'm sure it eventually will.
On a high note, H. has a job and starts work on the 6th. It's a gas station job - but it's with a group that owns multiple stations so perhaps he'll end up getting promoted at some point - he likes the work. It's not paying all that much - $10 an hour which is $2 less per hour than California - but heck, we're just glad he's got a source of income.
Happy 2020! Here's to steps forward, big and small.
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Tales of Helpers
Our cleaning lady D. is here today - she wears earbuds and chats on the phone while she works. She is the third cleaning 'person(s)'...
