A Life Most Ordinary
The first week of the month always feels the laziest. Well, except for the the last week of the month. Motivations are low, expectations are high. But, hopefully it'll all wait until next week and today will just be quiet.
We almost had a weekend guest again as the Sparrow's mom is still in St. Louis for work and Wednesday she'd messaged him about possibly coming up here again. He responded back that he had to work Saturday and more or less inferred that she was welcome as long as she was okay making the 5 hour drive to only have less than a day to actually spend with us.
His message was misinterpreted by her to mean that he didn't really want her up here. This prompted a follow-up call from his sister who was urging him to talk to their mom again and "urge" her to come, because it'd seemed he suggested he didn't want her here and she was very bored and lonely down there. He explained that his message was not at all meant to suggest we didn't want her here. And then the sister eventually apologized for "inserting herself" into the "middle of things".
Bottom line, there was no drama nor any intent on our part to make anyone think it was an inconvenience. (Even though privately we really didn't want to have to host anyone and just wanted a quiet weekend... but no one but the two of us knew that conversation had even happened). He was a bit frustrated yesterday about the whole thing saying it seemed like they were expecting him to "beg" for her to come and he wasn't going to get wrapped up in "these games".
Women, huh? I was laughing that a life lesson I've told him about once again proved itself.
Last weekend we discovered Bosco had a couple ticks on him. We knew this would happen once he went outside again, but I guess I just wanted to ignore the fact. We found some flea and tick drops at the grocery store. Sunday night I had the PERFECT opportunity to deploy them, as when I went to put his food bowl outside he came between the opening and the door and allowed me to pet him for quite some time. If I'd had the tube in my hand, it would have been done so easily.
I managed to get him back in the opening after that, with the tube ready to go. But, when I parted the hair on his back and squeezed I think I had the thing pressed too hard on his skin and nothing came out. Of course, when I moved the tube it all burst out and was mostly on his fur and NOT on his skin. The squeaky noise the tube made scared the crap out of him and it took two days before he was comfortable enough to be pet again (through the door). I think enough of the treatment got absorbed though because the tick did eventually drop off.
The Bro-in-Law and Gayle were her on Wednesday. She is supposedly going to see her ex on Saturday to "officially" end their relationship. Though, I'd thought that had been done twice now. Everything is in this weird limbo period as she obviously needs to get this divorce done, but she's living with the Bro-in-Law so one can only assume there's stuff going on there... but she's married which means the Bro-in-Law is in a limbo of sorts. It's all very weird.
We are going over there next week for dinner and so we can see Ichabod the cat. I really am wondering if he'll remember me, the hand that raised him. She texted me yesterday about asking the Doctor for one of those notes that says she's allowed to have the cat in their apartment since they technically don't allow pets. Though, every gangbanger in the complex has a pitbull and note saying it's a service animal so clearly management doesn't care that much. Personally, I think they should be planning their future right now and getting the hell out of there. It's essentially Section 8 housing and though the rent is cheap, there HAS to be something better and safer for them somewhere else.
I really don't have any goals for this weekend. I have a haircut in the morning (I think, though our scheduling got screwed up at one point). There is still a huge pile of mulch in the driveway to be dealt with. Still two more raised beds to be assembled. Plants to plant in the ground and others to transplant to new locations. I've not gone to the bottom of the hill in over a week to see how the most recent perennials I planted down there are doing. I'll probably cut the lawn at the end of the day today. Exciting stuff.
I should do another round of fish fertilizer on all the new bushes we've put in. The yews along the fence have all started getting a few stalky branches of growth. And I know it's going to be years before they get real height, but if fish juice can move that along a little faster, I'd be so pleased. As it was on Wednesday, we were sitting in the dining room and the scumbag neighbors on the corner were at the fence line working on wrapping up some hoses or something and looking right over at us. They have to have at least one and a half acres over there, but the ONLY place they ever seem to do ANYTHING in their yard is right at our property line. I fucking hate these people.
I've really been feeling the itch to go for a walk at the arboretum down the road, but it hasn't happened yet. I didn't go anywhere on lunch all week and then yesterday I had a dentist appointment midday. Thankfully, it is my last till the next cleaning. It was quite the expense having blown it off for three years. I still have not found out whatever happened to my dentist in the city... he just up and vanished. I'll probably go to Menards today since we just got paid and I could restock on some items we'll need this month.
The mortgage went up $123 a month because our taxes went up. I was originally going to increase our extra principal payment by that piddly amount, but then I also got a raise and have an additional $200 in my check going forward. For the time being we are going to add both those numbers together and include it with the regular $2000 a month extra. Though I want to see how our spending is this month. If we could increase our extra monthly principal to $3000 a month it moves the payoff date to November of 2026 and saves us another $10,000 plus in interest. I just do not know how far we can push it and still live off the money that's left.
I am VERY curious and hopeful when the mortgage is paid off that we get some kind of info showing how much in interest we've saved. I know it's been tens of thousands of dollars already just from previous calculators I've messed with and from two of the large principal payments we made.
Also, since it is August we need to look into booking our trip to New Orleans if we are going. It's been far too long since we've been there and I feel that pull deep within me to return to the Crescent City. I actually wish we could go down there for Halloween this year. Technically, there's no financial reason we can't. It's really the cats more than anything and finding someone to housesit and watch them. With the Bro-in-Law now in this situation with Gayle it's unlikely he'd want to spend several days here. If she could bring their cat with, it could work out if the cats all got along. But, she is afraid of staying in the house and being alone here because of all the (apparent) supernatural occurrences we've had.
I really didn't think I had anything to say when I sat down to start, but I could ramble on forever it seems.
We almost had a weekend guest again as the Sparrow's mom is still in St. Louis for work and Wednesday she'd messaged him about possibly coming up here again. He responded back that he had to work Saturday and more or less inferred that she was welcome as long as she was okay making the 5 hour drive to only have less than a day to actually spend with us.
His message was misinterpreted by her to mean that he didn't really want her up here. This prompted a follow-up call from his sister who was urging him to talk to their mom again and "urge" her to come, because it'd seemed he suggested he didn't want her here and she was very bored and lonely down there. He explained that his message was not at all meant to suggest we didn't want her here. And then the sister eventually apologized for "inserting herself" into the "middle of things".
Bottom line, there was no drama nor any intent on our part to make anyone think it was an inconvenience. (Even though privately we really didn't want to have to host anyone and just wanted a quiet weekend... but no one but the two of us knew that conversation had even happened). He was a bit frustrated yesterday about the whole thing saying it seemed like they were expecting him to "beg" for her to come and he wasn't going to get wrapped up in "these games".
Women, huh? I was laughing that a life lesson I've told him about once again proved itself.
Last weekend we discovered Bosco had a couple ticks on him. We knew this would happen once he went outside again, but I guess I just wanted to ignore the fact. We found some flea and tick drops at the grocery store. Sunday night I had the PERFECT opportunity to deploy them, as when I went to put his food bowl outside he came between the opening and the door and allowed me to pet him for quite some time. If I'd had the tube in my hand, it would have been done so easily.
I managed to get him back in the opening after that, with the tube ready to go. But, when I parted the hair on his back and squeezed I think I had the thing pressed too hard on his skin and nothing came out. Of course, when I moved the tube it all burst out and was mostly on his fur and NOT on his skin. The squeaky noise the tube made scared the crap out of him and it took two days before he was comfortable enough to be pet again (through the door). I think enough of the treatment got absorbed though because the tick did eventually drop off.
The Bro-in-Law and Gayle were her on Wednesday. She is supposedly going to see her ex on Saturday to "officially" end their relationship. Though, I'd thought that had been done twice now. Everything is in this weird limbo period as she obviously needs to get this divorce done, but she's living with the Bro-in-Law so one can only assume there's stuff going on there... but she's married which means the Bro-in-Law is in a limbo of sorts. It's all very weird.
We are going over there next week for dinner and so we can see Ichabod the cat. I really am wondering if he'll remember me, the hand that raised him. She texted me yesterday about asking the Doctor for one of those notes that says she's allowed to have the cat in their apartment since they technically don't allow pets. Though, every gangbanger in the complex has a pitbull and note saying it's a service animal so clearly management doesn't care that much. Personally, I think they should be planning their future right now and getting the hell out of there. It's essentially Section 8 housing and though the rent is cheap, there HAS to be something better and safer for them somewhere else.
I really don't have any goals for this weekend. I have a haircut in the morning (I think, though our scheduling got screwed up at one point). There is still a huge pile of mulch in the driveway to be dealt with. Still two more raised beds to be assembled. Plants to plant in the ground and others to transplant to new locations. I've not gone to the bottom of the hill in over a week to see how the most recent perennials I planted down there are doing. I'll probably cut the lawn at the end of the day today. Exciting stuff.
I should do another round of fish fertilizer on all the new bushes we've put in. The yews along the fence have all started getting a few stalky branches of growth. And I know it's going to be years before they get real height, but if fish juice can move that along a little faster, I'd be so pleased. As it was on Wednesday, we were sitting in the dining room and the scumbag neighbors on the corner were at the fence line working on wrapping up some hoses or something and looking right over at us. They have to have at least one and a half acres over there, but the ONLY place they ever seem to do ANYTHING in their yard is right at our property line. I fucking hate these people.
I've really been feeling the itch to go for a walk at the arboretum down the road, but it hasn't happened yet. I didn't go anywhere on lunch all week and then yesterday I had a dentist appointment midday. Thankfully, it is my last till the next cleaning. It was quite the expense having blown it off for three years. I still have not found out whatever happened to my dentist in the city... he just up and vanished. I'll probably go to Menards today since we just got paid and I could restock on some items we'll need this month.
The mortgage went up $123 a month because our taxes went up. I was originally going to increase our extra principal payment by that piddly amount, but then I also got a raise and have an additional $200 in my check going forward. For the time being we are going to add both those numbers together and include it with the regular $2000 a month extra. Though I want to see how our spending is this month. If we could increase our extra monthly principal to $3000 a month it moves the payoff date to November of 2026 and saves us another $10,000 plus in interest. I just do not know how far we can push it and still live off the money that's left.
I am VERY curious and hopeful when the mortgage is paid off that we get some kind of info showing how much in interest we've saved. I know it's been tens of thousands of dollars already just from previous calculators I've messed with and from two of the large principal payments we made.
Also, since it is August we need to look into booking our trip to New Orleans if we are going. It's been far too long since we've been there and I feel that pull deep within me to return to the Crescent City. I actually wish we could go down there for Halloween this year. Technically, there's no financial reason we can't. It's really the cats more than anything and finding someone to housesit and watch them. With the Bro-in-Law now in this situation with Gayle it's unlikely he'd want to spend several days here. If she could bring their cat with, it could work out if the cats all got along. But, she is afraid of staying in the house and being alone here because of all the (apparent) supernatural occurrences we've had.
I really didn't think I had anything to say when I sat down to start, but I could ramble on forever it seems.