So, for the past couple of weeks, not much has been going on here. Events have illustrated to me that the opposite of mundane is not always good, so I’m not at all upset with this. 🙂
I’m still working on the landscaping. I’m in the southwest USA desert area and plants, even the desert adapted stuff I’ve been planting, will require some extra water to be able to thrive. So, I’ve been reworking the automatic watering system. At one point, I had to go through or under a cement block wall with the tubing. I both hate and like the block wall. It sort of reminds me of a prison wall, yet, since it surrounds the back yard, it’s the reason we can let the dogs use a small door to go into and out of the house whenever they want to “change places”. Anyway, to save having to buy a rotary hammer drill, I decided to dig a narrow trench under the block wall’s footings. At four feet, I had not reached the bottom of the footings, so I ended up buying the drill. I hate poor quality tools, so I bought a nice one. Armed with the drill and the drill bit, it took me 10 minutes to drill a 1 inch (2-1/2 cm) hole through the block wall.
Bills. Imagine that. Besides the usual utility bills, January is the time I need to renew (pay money) the “dog licenses” and memberships for two professional organizations that I still find worthwhile.
Investment and retirement account reviews. I tend to treat the long term retirement investment accounts with what I call benign neglect. Once a year, I look things over and decide if I need to do anything to keep things moving forward. This year, even with the pandemic stuff, the investments are looking good, and even with the election results, I don’t currently see any need to change things. That doesn’t mean I won’t take action mid year, but I have to build a quite compelling case to do so…it’s only happened one time in 35 years….
Sauerkraut. The sauerkraut is “sitting there” fermenting in its crock and will be ready in another week. It smells normal and it’s getting the required sour taste.
Sourdough. My sourdough starter is happy. I’m baking bread three, sometimes four, times per two week interval.
Ham radio. I have some old (vintage/antique) ham radio equipment that is not working as well as expected, so I spent some time figuring out the issues and have ordered the parts needed to fix things. About half the $12 cost is for shipping. There used to be six electronics stores here that would have had everything I needed, but they have all disappeared, so it’s all “mail order”.
The Christmas tree, its decorations and the outdoor Christmas lights are all put away.
And for some good things….
Our daughter has turned 23 and is working at her first job that makes use of her education. It’s a starter job, but it pays enough to take care of her bills and still save some money. She asked for some help with savings plans and budgets, and after looking at what she was doing, all she needed was confirmation that she was doing well…she has zero debt and is managing to save around 15% of her income. I guess that makes her an oddity in today’s USA society…no debt and money in the bank. I guess it also illustrates the power of being an example.
In other daughter news, we got to meet her boyfriend. He seems like a nice guy.
After waiting 6 months after diagnosis (Covid delays) , my mother-in-law had the first of three kidney stones “blasted” with what is called extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy. Basically it is using sound waves to shatter the kidney stones. She was in severe pain from the kidney stones and the procedure added some additional pain, but she says it’s now subsiding to below “pre-blast” pain levels. There are two more to go. The next one is the 26mm (bigger than once inch) “rock” and the doctor says getting rid of that one will make her feel a lot better.