Week 40 - Friends and Rain

I had lots of fun with friends this week, did some power streaming on my last 2 days with Acorn and got some things crossed off my list too plus learned mahjong. Sounds like a good week to me.

Aside from chores on Monday, I finally got my Fidelity account unlocked after someone tried to hack it this summer. That was a long process so I was happy to have that settled. Andrea and I were alone at knitting but we had fun and she gifted me a skein of yarn for checking on her cat while she was away, which was nothing and I only saw him once on the last day but gift yarn is always nice.

After knitting and streaming for most of Tuesday (my last day with Acorn), I headed to Lincoln for lunch at Olive Garden with my work friends on Wednesday. It was a dreary day with impending rain so soup, salad and breadsticks was perfect. I did a quick Aldi run and bought a pastry to go with my tea before heading home. I captured this picture of Dude trying to play with Goodie and Goodie tolerating it. The rain started falling that evening.

We got 4" of rain overnight and yes, I had a bit of water in my basement. Nothing that required more than a single bath towel and running the dehumidifier but still not fun. Some came in on the new east wall but very little and I chalk it up to the huge subsiding of the soil they put by the new retaining wall, which has dropped 2 feet in some places. The contractor said he'd be back this fall to put more fill in (it's in a pile on the alley). I got more on the driveway side. I think getting 4" of rain in one overnight is more than my basement can deal with. 

I was heading back to Lincoln on Friday, starting with a routine 9:00 appointment at the oncologist. I had changed it to first thing so I could be at UNL's annual service awards lunch to work the Emeriti/Retirees Association table. I'm not sure why this is considered a good event for the ERA when most of the people getting awards are youngsters getting a 5 or 10 year award. Regardless, I had fun. I saw all kinds of friends and got more hugs in 2 hours than I normally get in a year. It was a blast. I had already gotten gas and picked up mums and another pumpkin at Menard's between the doctor and the lunch so was able to head right home. I had failed with my first choice of yarn for socks on Thursday, which was the 1st of the month so tallying and new challenge socks, so cast on something completely different when I get home and made tuna casserole for supper. Yum!

While I usually stay home on the weekends, I didn't have far to go on Saturday morning. I had signed up to learn mahjong at the library with a new group. I had never even seen a board but have a couple of friends who play and love it so I gave it a try. It was harder than I thought but I liked it and we were there from open to close - 9:30 to 1:00. There were 6 of us learning and we all planned to go to the first meeting next week. Something else to add to my retirement fun.

I had a zoom first thing on Sunday with the other 2 moderators of my sock group on Ravelry - Lia in Germany and Jenna from Minnesota - to discuss planning for the process of choosing monthly challenges for 2027. I then went through the tedious process of setting up my new firestick and antenna then decided to wait to flip my mattress, which I try to do at the change of seasons. Then at 2:30 I decided to do it after all. While this may sound easy, I pulled off all the linens and put them on to wash then took off the mattress and box spring. There were dust bunnies the size of an actual bunny under the bed, which lead to sweeping, swiffering, washing and then putting it all back together. Luckily the linens did dry outside before it got dark but sheesh! That was a busier Sunday afternoon/evening than I usually have these days.

Another lovely week of retirement. I like weeks like this with a nice mix of being home and out and about. I saw lots of friends, learned something completely new  and had some knitting fun, of course. And I didn't need AC so the weather is starting to feel like fall. I'll take it.

Week 39 - A Huge Relief

The week was dominated by paper, fun with friends and my first ever UNL volleyball game. But keep reading for the best part of the week.

Awhile ago, my cousin asked me to look for a recipe for her and after going through 2 boxes of recipes in the basement and not finding it, I kicked myself for not throwing most of that paper out while I was looking. So I started the week going through paper. All the paper in my house - not kidding. I filled 2 recycle bins and needed Tuesday morning to finish. I kept very little of what I went through. I do have a stack that needs shredding or I can burn it next time I have a fire in my driveway.

Having gone through all that, Wednesday was a clean up day. I went to the post office with 2 paper things I'd found that I was mailing out to friends and ran Wahoo errands while I was out. I vacuumed the back room, where I'd done the sorting, because there was dust and schmutz everywhere from all that paper. I ended the day going to a banquet at Southeast Community College with Lorri, which was delicious.

Thursday was a mini road trip day with Darla. After going to the Rotella factory to buy bread, we had fun in Bellevue at some new to us thrifts. The place we wanted to get a burger at, which was actually how the idea of going to Bellevue started, was not open that day so we asked for a recommendation for a local restaurant for lunch and were sent to The Special. It was like stepping back in time with original wooden booths, a fancy carved bar and delicious food. We hit Aldi on the way home and then Darla went through some of my old work clothes and took some. It was a wonderful day with Darla and it ended with book club at the library.

But the best part of the day that left me smiling incessantly was that we got a call from Grand Circle Travel and they cancelled the cruise!!!! I had called them Monday to ask for the actual itinerary and was told it was what they had sent. When I told her that on Facebook customers were reporting being put in hotels and bussed because the rivers were so dry that they weren't navigable, she put me on hold and came back to say she had no information to share. What? Anne and I had planned to call Friday to cancel, which would have cost us each $600 because we'd be using our travel insurance, so having them cancel on Thursday was the best thing ever. Not knowing whether the cruise was happening or not was stressful and constantly on my mind so it was a huge load off. Every cent I get back will go right to our knitting trip to Denmark next April. I can't express how happy I am to have this resolved.

The event on Friday was I was going to my first ever UNL volleyball game with Anne. She's a huge fan and has season tickets but had an extra and no one better to take. She has it down to a science, which required us to get there 2 hours early so we get primo free parking. I grabbed a hotdog for supper and then we knitted as the venue filled up. It was interesting to see the enthusiasm of thousands of fans but as someone who doesn't enjoy sports, I crossed it off my list and will not be going again. Hopefully Anne was happy that I used her extra ticket.

With that done, I was home for the weekend. I had done a 30 day free Acorn subscription, which was ending soon so happily spent the weekend knitting and watching Acorn between doing chores. I was also dropping Peacock so watched Pressure Saturday night. I did have to do the cats on Sunday morning then hit the farm store for birdseed, pumpkins and some mousie toys for Dude. Otherwise, it was reading and knitting all afternoon and PBS in the evening. Another nice weekend at home.

So despite the productivity of going through all that paper and having a fun day with Darla, nothing can eclipse the joy of having the cruise cancelled by them. It really was a constant stressor and Anne didn't help vacillating between still wanting to go, even without me, and definitely wanting to cancel. I accused her of being a total flake about it while we were at volleyball and she agreed that she had been, which made the cancellation even more opportune. Hopefully there will be fall weather in October so I can get some yard work done when I would have been cruising.

Week 38 - So Much Lameness

It was a pretty normal week, meaning I was out and about a lot, but the weather did not cooperate, which is ridiculous but becoming the norm. It even cancelled Monday Night Knitting and then the forecast storm didn't arrive. Then the heat was back at the end of the week - pushing 100 degrees on Friday. Where is fall?

I went to Lincoln on Tuesday for the monthly emeriti/retirees lunch, which was on student food insecurity. It was very interesting and I was happy to hear that in addition to the Husker Pantry, they also have Husker Closet. I've been looking for somewhere to donate clothes so will go through and pick some things that a young person would wear and donate there. From campus I went to Seward to pick up my state fair entries and since I was there, I hit their wonderful thrift shop and also discovered an old school meat market and bought some of their hotdogs and a loaf mix to make a ham loaf kind of thing. Time will tell on that.

After dropping off the quilt I'd picked up for someone I know from the library, which included 30 minutes talking in her driveway, I went home to look at my comments. LAME! Clearly they have someone judging the knitting who has no idea about knitting. I entered 8 pairs of socks and 5 had the comment that I needed to weave in my ends (every single end was meticulously woven in), a pair made with tweed yarn, which has little blips of colored wool spun into a main color, had a comment that it was pilling (seriously?) and I got a good choice of colors on a self-striping pair. I am done with entering stuff and plan to email the fair about how lame the judging was. You'd think they could come up with a competent knitter to judge at the state level, right?

I was stuck at home on Wednesday because they were coming to convert my internet over to fiber and hadn't sent a text with when they'd come. The tech did an appalling job of installing, putting a huge gray box right next to my slider right at eye level. Really? I made him move it so now have 2 silicone filled holes but at least I don't have to look at it every time I walk inside. His reasoning was that it would be easy to service. Such an idiot! Could you have lived with this location? It's now over next to the old box.

He was done by lunch so I made my zucchini/pineapple jam, cooked dinner and repotted some African violets to take to a plant program at the lake that night. The program was by a man who owns a local nursery and he brought all kinds of trees and bushes for show and tell and left some to be prizes for plant bingo. I was particularly interested in a coralberry bush he had and totally blew it because I had a diagonal bingo but was looking for a straight one so missed winning the bush by seconds when the women right before me took it. I was bummed. It's not like I can't go buy one but I probably won't.

I was back to Lincoln on Thursday for lunch with Dodie and dropping my dead laptop off. Philippe (the computer guy) wasn't in his office so I went upstairs to drop it in my old office. Lacey found me in the hallway, which was a treat because she's only 20% at UNL so rarely in the building, and after talking to her, I talked to Layton and then met the new data analyst. I stopped to see Ben on the way out of the building and just like that, my afternoon was toast. I picked up book club books at the library commission, got a frapuccino since I'd missed tea time and headed home. It was fun to catch up with so many friends. Have I mentioned that I love the people I worked with?

The heat was back on Friday with a high of 96 so I had to turn the AC back on, which I was not happy about. I did laundry and hung it out so at least the heat helped with that but otherwise hunkered down inside talking to friends and going through a stack of papers. This had better be the last time I need AC!

I had spinning in Fremont on Saturday and took yarn to share, which was the last the yarn from my sale that I'd designated to give away. All but a couple of skeins went and those few went into a bag to drop at Stuff. While the weather did break on Saturday, I was still mostly inside on Sunday doing regular chores. I do enjoy my Sundays, choosing to stay home while the working world is out and about.

So another retirement week where I was exactly as busy as I wanted to be. Now if some actual fall weather would arrive and stay, I'll be happy happy happy. Are you with me?