The "joys" of retirement - July 2, 2009

I am currently in California, so it took me a day to get acclimated to the time difference.  I woke up at 3:30...

I had wanted to use the Wii system, but was never either energized enough or not craving food enough to enjoy my time - so today's the day.

chores:

1 - there were two huge boxes of mail:  some (most) is junk, some is important for my mother's estate, some is important to me... it ALL had to be reviewed.  I now have about 1/2 dozen bags to go to the garbage dumpster.

2 - I had been foolish the last time I was here and hadn't switched the setting on the dial up system (for internet), and the first time I was on-line (in April) was a long distance call.  I had to call Sprint and explain why I had such a large bill and why I hadn't paid it for so long.  They were VERY nice.  If it hadn't been so long ago, they might have deleted the whole thing!  As it was, I got a credit of $10.  Then the customer service rep told me that since I have Sprint wireless, I can get 50 minutes of free home service a month!  Now I can call people who have unlimited and tell them to call me back!

3 - I had forgotten to throw out some perishable food from the fridge - so that was necessary.

4 - I activated the bookmooch account I have for the books here - I wrapped up 4 books to go!

5 - I started to work on the patio.  I've ordered a chaise longue which should arrive in the next week (!) and I needed to be sure there was space for it.  There are a lot of leaves that have to be swept up.... I found some garden items I won't need - stakes, trellises, etc.  (And the neighbors have decided that this is a dump - throwing garbage over the wall!  Yuck.  There wasn't much, but still...

6 - my mother collected MANY books in her field - relationship therapy - I had the phone numbers of two women who might be interested in the books.  I called both and left messages... Hopefully they can come by and CLEAR those shelves.

7 - I called Goodwill Industries.  They won't pick up clothing unless there's also furniture to go.  After some discussion, I have a pick up appointment!  There are about 15 bags of clothing... plus a desk chair, folding table and chairs and two floor lamps!  I'm saving some other furniture for the next pick up... there'll be more clothing to go and I'll need them to also pick up furniture or nothing will get taken.

(Wow! I did more than I thought!)

Reading.

1 - although there are MANY interesting books to read here, I'll stick to magazines at first.  I can read them and discard them!

2- I read two issues of Guideposts (anyone want them?)

3 - I read three issues of Plus (also from the Guideposts organization - they're really tiny.  Anyone want them?)

4 - I read one issue of Reader's Digest (anyone want it?)

Gee....and I thought I was being lazy yesterday!