Week 42 - Cleaning and Crocheting

It was another wacky weather week that included our first freeze but ended in the 80's. In addition to being in clear out mode, I had some major cleaning to do because Connie would be arriving the next Monday. It was a busy week.

First thing on Monday I started clearing out the spare room, which is my dumping ground. Once the bed was clear, I washed all the linens and remade the bed. I went through tons of stuff, adding bunches to my donation bags. Then the cleaning began and on Friday, I went through my gift dresser, which was full of things I'd bought over the years that would make good gifts but had never been gifted. I loaded up a big bag of kitchen items for the library to make gift baskets with and loaded up an entire laundry basket with stuff for Becky's sale. After more deep cleaning and some decorating, I was almost ready for Connie's arrival.

I had a nice lunch with Lorri on Tuesday. We had planned to eat out but she had a pie in the over so I got grab and go from Mocha C's and took it to her house. The apple pie for dessert was delish. With our first freeze due that night, I went home to bring in plants. They were everywhere but there was no frost for the rest of the long-term forecast so they went right back out Wednesday morning. That afternoon, I loaded all the yarn into my car for delivery on Thursday. I had a meeting at the library about the expansion on Wednesday night.

As usual, I had loaded up my Lincoln day. First stop was the UPS depot, where I found a permanently closed sign that directed me to the UPS Store. I knew it would be more expensive but mailed the big box of yarn to Dottie anyway. When I recalculated the amount when I got home, it was almost twice as much as PirateShip would have been. Lesson learned. Time to buy a bigger postal scale for next time so I can ship from home. But I digress... Next stop was dropping off all that yarn. Turns out that the house had 3 steps up to the walkway and another 6 to get up to the porch. I was a sweaty mess by the time I was done but gone is good. I stopped at Anne's to catch up before my lunch date.

I was picking Cindy up on campus for lunch at 12:15 so left Anne's at noon. I texted from a red light by campus that I was 2 minutes out only to get a reply from Cindy that she wasn't on campus. She was at the hospital with a friend who was having emergency bypass surgery. Damn! It was too late to arrange something else and Anne's was in the wrong direction so I headed home, picking up Chinese on the way. Truth be told, I was pissed. I listened to Sarah Millican on the ride home to improve my mood. She's hilarious so check her out on YouTube. 

I spent the afternoon crocheting. Yes, you read that right. I had started an afghan earlier in the week after being inspired by a social media post. I was using the only acrylic left in my house after giving it all to my sister - pastels. I'm thoroughly enjoying it and barely knitted all week. Shocking! Aren't the squares pretty?

The rest of the week was mad cleaning between bouts of crocheting. I loaded the car Sunday night with the second round of donations and made a decadent chocolate cake to take to my cousin's on Monday for her birthday. It was another productive week of retirement. : )

Week 41 -Last Working Day!

I was going to title this post Fall Garden Chores because I spent a lot of time working outside this week but that pales in comparison to this week containing my last paid day of UNL employment.

It was up to me to figure out the day I would run out of pay between using my vacation and floating holidays. The problem is that while on vacation, I was continuing to accrue vacation, which needed to be prorated. I didn't know that SAP would show my October accruals on October 1st but then remove them if I didn't work for the whole month. When this was pointed out to me, I panicked and started doing math. The day I was doing it ended up being my last day of pay - Tuesday, October 8th. Wow! Talk about end of an era. I'd get my insured benefits for the whole month but my last paycheck would be about a 1/4 of normal. Let the budgeting begin!

I worked with the HR person in the business center to get my paperwork done, which entailed separating me and then rehiring me as an hourly on-call employee. The separation nuked most of my system security so I had to do paperwork to get it back. There were also benefits forms to do, which I did on Wednesday when I was on campus for lunch with Dodie. Of course I thrifted while I was in Lincoln. As always.

0

On the garden front, I finally finished breaking up the last of the brush pile, which filled the empty spot between the cherry tree and my compost bins. I ran out of boxes so started filling paper grocery bags and then ran out of them. There's a small pile of stick parts that I'll use at the base of my compost when I start autumn clean up and I have the makings of many nice fires when the cool weather arrives, which is taking its time this year. Anyway, with that done, I spread woodchips between the 1st raised bed and the garage. All that'll be left is between my raised beds and the neighbor's fence. There's a temporary compost pile there and some branches that need to go to the burn pile so spreading woodchips there will wait a bit. I also sifted some compost and mixed it with potting soil for future potting up, filled the bird feeders and did some hose mending. I'll call that a good lot of gardening crossed off the list. There's always more to do though.

On the knitting front, I finished my obligation knitting - my cousin's birthday socks and all the projects I made for Cindy's Justice in Action sale - on Thursday. That done, I cast on a pair of Halloween socks and spent most of Friday morning knitting. I then ran errands in town before picking Andrea up for a Friday Fremont run. I've always loved getting errands done on Friday so I have the weekend free and being retired hasn't changed that. It was the Estate Dispersal Store weekend and going on Friday meant we were able to hit Thriftology, which isn't open on Saturdays anymore, before the usual Restore, Goodwill and Aldi. I found some treasures, including a fold up sewing table for the machine that's been in my front room on a chair for years but never used, a double decker bus piece of original art, a Corelle (not Pyrex) pie plate, which I've never seen before, and a fun vintage tablecloth. Books were $.29 at Goodwill so I bought a few for my retirement goal of reading actual books during daylight.

With my errands done on Friday, I had a nice relaxing weekend of chatting with friends and puttering. With a frost in the forecast, I put together the cold frame I bought years ago at Aldi to cover my 2 eggplant plants, both of which have a small eggplant I hope will continue to grow, and took cuttings from 4 different colors of impatiens to root for next years baskets. So more gardening ('tis the season) to end the week. A banner week that marked the end of my UNL career. Happy retirement to me!

Week 40 - Exploration and Productivity

It was a perfect week with a great mix of productivity and socializing plus a mini road trip too. Yes, the weather was still crazy, starting the week in the 90's and then seesawing between fall weather and heat again. All week long. : (

Because of the wacky weather, I didn't spend much time outside. I cut some sunflowers, which were dry and crispy from drought so never formed seeds, and took a load to the burn pile. I did some intermittent stick breaking, making some good headway with getting rid of my brush pile behind the garage. Just a bit more to go.

Tuesday was the first of the month so I cast on new socks for our bending stripes challenge and spent the morning knitting. I also had to tally entries to fulfill my moderator duties in my online Socks from Stash group, which takes at least an hour, then I slogged through more yarn to donate to the upcoming Stuff for Strays garage sale. I tried to watch the debate that night but I was a nervous mess because Goodie wasn't coming in so I walked the alley and called and called. She came in eventually and was scared so I can only assume she was hiding from the big white cat who roams the neighborhood and bothers my cats. Will I ever stop worrying about my cats? I hope someday.

I went to Lincoln on Wednesday, which is becoming my usual day, for a lunch for Liwei - one of the accountants who is leaving. The whole work gang was there, which was nice. After hitting a couple of thrifts and scoring some sock yarn (YAY!), I spent the afternoon at Helen's then hit Aldi and was home in time for Survivor. It was a nice day.

Rene and I were going to Norfolk on Friday for one of our exploration day trips. Since she was picking me up, I spent some time on Thursday doing some cleaning between stints of breaking sticks. Will I ever be done? Rene drove on Friday, which meant I could knit for 200 miles worth of driving time. I got so much done on the socks I was making for Cindy's charity sale that I finished them that night.

So Norfolk, which is pronounced Nor Fork for my non-Nebraskan readers, was fun. We took the scenic route there and back, exploring every little town that we passed. Other than a remnant I bought at a quilt store in Norfolk, all my purchases were food related. We stopped at Buresh Meats on the way there so we both scored so meat deals and there were a couple of bakery stops. The reason for picking Norfolk was Nofo Pizza, which was delish. We got a gelato afterwards and shopped along the cute downtown main drag. We missed the bread bakery owned by the same people as the pizza place by 15 minutes. From there we tried to find the old Norfolk State Hospital but the razor wire dissuaded us. We headed home, exploring more small towns. I was home by 5:00. It was a nice day.

It was 93 degrees on Saturday so I hunkered down inside. It was a perfect fall day on Sunday so I spent a bunch of time outside. I'd found that the birdseed in the barrels on the deck had molded so cleaned all that out (ick!), fixed some hoses and actually watered the grass out of fear that it would die from drought. It was still crunchy but maybe it did some good. It was also Colon's roast beef dinner so I picked that up for lunch and had plenty more for some suppers next week.

So, nice week, right? If my retirement keeps looking like this week, I'll be a happy camper. All except the crazy weather that is.

Week 39 - Hot and Cold

The temps this week were crazy hot - I'm talking high 80's most days and 90 on Sunday. Low humidity so it cooled down at night but HOT during the day. At the end of September. I refuse to put my AC on so closed the house up around noon each day and lived to tell. It also encouraged me to do some work in the basement, which is always cooler. As for the cold, my cold was full blown for the beginning of the week but was mostly gone by mid-week. Maybe the zicam worked?

I didn't do much for the start of the week. Lots of streaming/knitting, of course, plus I dyed some yarn, did a few minimal chores but didn't feel fully functional, albeit snotty, until Thursday. I did some laundry and changed my sheets so was back on the functionality track.

I have had ParmountPlus from before it was called that and had a perfect grandfathered plan that gave me local channels live TV and their regular content for just $7/month. It was under my yahoo email, which I rarely check and so I didn't see that my payment, which was still on my old card that had been cancelled due to fraud, hadn't processed. I was watching it on Tuesday and it went poof. Of course I couldn't get the old plan back so had a choice of basic without live TV, which I need because CBS from Omaha is iffy using my antenna, or pay more for Showtime. Bummer. I opted for basic and am dealing with the spotty reception, especially if it's windy. It usually gets better in the winter so we'll see how long I can hold out.

At the start of the week, the Virginia trip to drive with my friend Susan as she moves there, was put on hold due to a medical issue. In the time it took to get her results, which were good, the cost of flying back had doubled. I'd also given it a lot of thought and when it came down to it, I really didn't want to go. I felt guilty about cancelling so hemmed and hawed but finally called her on Sunday and told her I was out. It was absolutely the right decision and I'm happy to just be home. Rescheduling the trip to Connie's is up in the air and we briefly discussed either her coming here or meeting in the middle. Nothing definite yet.

Anne is in South America and as she usually does, we chat via Facebook Messenger in the evening some days. When she called on Wednesday, she mentioned that there was a talk the next day about the Nazi influence in Argentina, which is right up my alley. She asked if I could listen to the talk and the person agreed so Anne blazed up Messenger and I got to listen to the entire talk Thursday afternoon. I'd also watched 2.5 hours of the Grocery Girls on YouTube so it was a media intensive day. Worked for me. I ended the day with book club at the library to discuss Bad Blood, which was a good read.

Having been operating on low energy all week, Friday was a big day. I had plans to meet Darla after work but couldn't pass up the opportunity to thrift so left right after lunch. I drove all over Lincoln, hitting 11 thrifts with a stop for peanut butter soft serve at zesto mid-afternoon. I scored some $.99 bags of yarn (mostly for Dottie), 3 new shirts and a project bag but not much else. I was impaled at St. Louise's because someone had left a foot long peg on an end cap that gouged my arm as I walked by. I was bleeding a lot but they got me Band-Aids. Sheesh! I got KFC for supper and ate it while watching the Great British Baking Show, which I love. It was a nice day overall and it felt good to get out of the house.

It was hot on the weekend so I spent both Saturday and Sunday afternoon down in the basement sorting through yarn. I had already filled a box of mystery yarn for Becky's Stuff for Strays sale but when she told me she'd advertise having yarn to bring out the crafty people, I decided it was time to go through all of the vintage yarn that I have listed as for sale on Ravelry. It's mostly better quality vintage yarn but some has been listed for 10 years. Time for it to go. I was merciless on Saturday, sorting 2/3 of it to go. On Sunday, I bagged it all up (there were lots of multiple skeins) and then delisted it on Ravelry. The huge tote pictured, which I'm donating too, is brimming so I'll need to find another big box before I can move it upstairs. It was nice and cool down there and I felt great when I was done because Gone is Good!

So not the best week with having a cold but at least it wasn't bad for long. I had thrifting fun, a productive weekend and even got a blue dot political sign for my front yard. My county got gerrymandered to redden up Omaha, which is the blue dot in Nebraska, and since we split our electoral college votes, one of the 3 votes usually goes democratic. Lindsay Graham visited Nebraska recently to try to get us to change it to winner take all, which would mean Republican always, but it failed. Yay!

On the viewing front, I was mostly streaming Wire in the Blood on Prime but on Saturday night, I watched The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry on Hoopla. I had read the book for book club and loved it and the movie was good too. If you have access to Hoopla, give it a try. TTYL.

Week 38 - Working on Adjusting

Remember last week when I said I was doing it wrong, cramming too much into my days? Well, I clearly learned nothing so still need to work on retirement.

Having moved my new chair into the back room on Sunday, the old chair was just shoved aside, which would not do. So first thing on Monday, I dragged the chair through the house and down the driveway, slapping a FREE sign on it before posting it all over the local Facebook groups in hopes that someone would take it. 

In order to get it out the front door, I'd rolled up the 4x6 foot rug in the front room. Well, since the floor was half bare, I moved the rug to the kitchen and swept, swiffered and then washed (a rare occurrence) that side of the floor. That was the easy side but since that was done, I moved all the furniture to the now clean side and did the other side, which was much more work. Then once it dried, I moved everything back. See - I learned nothing from the previous week but I felt good to have done it all and went to Monday Night Knitting feeling good.

I did better on other days. I ran errands in town on Tuesday and went though a crate in my closet, which met my goal of going through at least one thing each day to get rid of stuff. I dropped 4 pairs of old glasses when I picked up my new ones and threw tons of stuff into my Becky box for her Stuff for Strays sales. Another day, I put all my summer Birkenstocks away and cleared the rest of the stuff on my bedroom floor. All good.

Wednesday was my Lincoln day for lunch with work friends at Honest Abe's, where I opted for loaded tots instead of a burger because I was going for peanut butter soft serve at Zesto later with Anne. And to maximize being in Lincoln, I also picked up book club books and thrifted all over town, scoring some amazing indie dyed sock yarn for $.99/skein. Get a load of this thrift score!

Under "everything is harder than it should be", on Thursday afternoon I spent 2 hours trying to switch my Hulu and Max subscriptions to the bundle that includes Disney and costs less. I tried everything I could think of for 30 minutes before giving up and calling Hulu. 1.5 hours on the phone with them and at one point they did a conference call with Disney customer service. 2 hours to get it done! Have I watched Disney yet? Nope.

After the Hulu call, I finalized my plans to head to Connie's (8.5 hours away in South Dakota) on Sunday for her birthday. That meant I had lots to do before leaving. You know - chores so I don't come back to a mess, changing litter boxes, arranging friends to feed cats and water plants - that kind of thing. It was 95 degrees on Friday so I spent the day inside getting that stuff done and starting a couple of sock projects that were easy knitting. Because a week after getting back from Connie's, I'd be driving to Virginia with a friend who's moving there so would have plenty of knitting time then too.

Saturday was a busy day. I spent the morning finishing getting ready for my road trip then picked Andrea up at 12:30 to head to Fremont for our monthly spinning and errands run. Spinning was fun and we hit all our regular stops before and after. I got back home later than planned so was a bit late to my friend Amanda's 40th birthday party in Ashland. Anne and Rene met me there and it was lots of fun. She had a cheese food truck on the street and everyone wore black. There were some full blown costumes involved and it was a nice night to be outside in her yard. I had a scratchy throat by the end of the night so just to be cautious, I zicam'd before bed and again at midnight since I was struggling to fall asleep.

Well, I woke up at 4:00 a.m. with a blazing sinus headache and completely congested. With only 4 hours of sleep and feeling like crap, I had to call Connie and break the news that I wouldn't be driving that day. I thought I might be able to drive Monday but after spending the day in bed reading and dozing, I still felt awful so called that night and said it wasn't happening. We'll have to reschedule for October sometime.

So, my 2nd full week of retirement ended on a sour note. At least I had a nice week up to the point of getting cold. Clearly my 3rd week will be impacted by my cold. One of these weeks I'll get it right. Sheesh!

Week 37 - Doing It Wrong

It was my first full week of retirement and it was ridiculously hot and humid all week - 91 on Monday and 91 on Sunday with high 80's in between. Crazy for mid-September! I had to turn the AC back on so was mostly working in the house. And work I did but not much on Monday because I was recovering from spending all weekend cleaning the garage.

I started the week breaking up sticks from the brush pile behind my garage. It's mostly branches that have come down over the years from the silver maples but had grown quite large. My plan was to get it all broken up for future fires and then spread the entire garden area with wood chips from the last of the pile on my alley. It was cool enough to be outside first thing in the morning but I spent the afternoon reading inside. I was reading All the Colors of the Dark and wanted to return it that night. I finished it at 5:58 and so was a few minutes late to knitting. Oh well. When I got home, I needed to put the trash can at the curb but it was so heavy that I couldn't tip it onto its wheel so dragged it down 6 inches at a time. Sheesh!

Tuesday was a Lincoln day. I had a few reasons to do Tuesdays on a regular basis and had scheduled lunch with Dodie but when it comes down to it, all my office friends aren't there on Tuesdays so I'll be rethinking that. Anyway, I was going to Cindy's on the way to Lincoln and had a detailed list of stops before and after lunch with Dodie on campus. So what did I do first thing but lock myself out of my house. I called my friend Lorri who has a key and thankfully she came right over. I went straight to Cindy's for a tour of her schoolie (a school bus they had converted to a camper) and then had to go right to campus for lunch, which was fun as always. I pared down my list of stops in favor of hanging out with Anne, who was leaving for a 3 week trip. I had a library board meeting, which was my first as president, so I got it done in record time so I could be home for the debate. I watched the entire thing and all I can say is holy crap!

I had another big to do list for Wednesday so after breaking more sticks in the cool morning, I started. Laundry, dishes, organized knitting projects and then started going through the laundry room. When I finally sat down at the end of the day, I reached down to brush something off my foot and pulled a muscle in my lower back. Yes, just reaching down to my foot. I couldn't stand up straight but sitting was no problem so I spent Thursday taking muscle relaxants while streaming and knitting. Luckily sleeping wasn't an issue.

Even taking no meds, my back was much better on Friday and I needed some groceries (that was one thing I'd pared down on Tuesday) so I did a quick Fremont run. I went to a thrift shop that's only open on weekdays then hit HyVee for their Friday the 13th sale. Actually, walking with the cart felt good and it limbered me up some. I got their Chinese special and ate that for lunch, took it easy in the afternoon (finished these scrappy socks) and then ate more Chinese for supper. I was on the mend.

I was almost back to normal on Saturday so got some light housework done and went to bed early to read. I did a bunch of cooking on Sunday and at the end of the day, moved my new chair, which had been sitting in the middle of my front room for 2 months, to my back room. I was happy to have my back fully functional again.

Everyone says that when you retire, you need to adjust to it and figure out what works for you. Well, I clearly need to work on that because if the past 2 weeks are any indication, I'm doing it wrong. While I want to get things done, I'm doing too much and working too hard in too short a time, which is too much for my 63 year old body. I need to work on breaking my big projects into smaller parts and spreading them over multiple days. Other than socializing, I can be home most days so need to stop cramming everything in like I have done on weekends for decades. I also need to give myself permission to relax. I'm enjoying reading during the day so need to do more of that. Wish me luck.

Week 36 - Done with Work

I would normally start with any week that starts with a holiday is great but when you're retired, even part way, a holiday is pretty much like any other day. I had my last work obligation on Thursday so full retirement is close.

Labor Day started with sleeping late and having a lazy morning but I redeemed myself with cutting weed trees and beggar's tick and taking them to the city burn pile. I noticed some wood debris there, which isn't allowed, and by the next day, the city closed the pile so it could be cleaned up. I got there just in time.

I had social commitments in Lincoln for the next 2 days. Tuesday was lunch at Helen's so I stopped at Menard's on the way there to buy a new handle for my slider. After a nice lunch, Helen and I chatted all afternoon, only stopping when Charlie got home from work. I went to Aldi when I left and picked up chicken fingers that I ate in the car. It was a nice day.

I was back in Lincoln for lunch with Layton and Steve on Wednesday. We went to Piedmont Bistro, which is my favorite Lincoln restaurant, and Layton said it was to celebrate my retirement (that was news to me) so they treated. I hit several thrifts before heading home and scored sock yarn at one of them, which is the best. 

I got home early enough to tackle replacing the sliding glass doorhandle so gathered tools and promptly tripped in my back room and went down hard. Damn! I got up and was determined to get it done. Well, turns out my door is thick so the screws weren't long enough. I attempted to use the old ones but they had a head that was bigger than the hole so wouldn't work. It was approaching 6:00 so my only option in town was Bomgaar's - the farm store. A kid helped me find the perfect screws in the many tiny drawers of screws. After paying 18 cents, he offered to help me carry out. Made me laugh. I installed the handle in minutes and was happy to have that done. Everything is harder than it should be.

After 2 weeks on antibiotics, Pixel was still a snotty mess (Tot was fine) so I took her back to the vet Thursday morning. He said to give it time because he'd injected her with long acting steroids and antibiotics 2 weeks before so there was nothing left to do. At 1:30, I logged onto zoom for the last training class with Dana and with that done, I was officially retired. Yay!

To celebrate my first full day of retirement, I got up Friday and made strawberry pancakes for breakfast. After running errands in Wahoo, I made my favorite lunch - a tuna melt with tater tots. I spent the afternoon going through all the yarn in the spare room, sorting some for Dottie, a bit for me and a huge Chewy box for Becky's Stuff for Strays sales. Just before bedtime, I signed up for the Walkfit app and despite it being 9:30, I put on my sneakers and did my first workout. Getting more exercise in retirement is on the list so I'll give this a try.

After spending a chunk of Saturday morning clearing out my gmail account, I decided to take advantage of the perfect weather to clean the garage. I spent all day in there, moving Corelle filled bookcases, reorganizing and throwing out bunches of stuff, filling my trash can. I ended the day feeling good about my progress and having bean dip, chips and a beer for Saturday snack supper.

After working so hard, I dialed it back on Sunday. I filled the kiddy pool from the garage and washed all the grimy recycling I'd found in the garage and filled my recycle bin too. I broke some sticks in the backyard for future firepit fires and was done, spending the rest of the afternoon reading on my bench and drinking tea.

So not a bad week with a nice mix of socializing, productivity and relaxing plus I'd kept up with my wakfit workouts. But the best part, of course, was being done with work. It doesn't mean I won't help as needed but I have nothing more scheduled. Yippee for my first few days of being fully retired! Now to settle into it and figure out how my retirement will work. Any ideas?