What did you do today? 2016 version

[W2R]

I just kind of lazed about today. Finished a library book, one of four I checked out a while ago. I should take them back and get some more but the high today is 34° and I just don't want to deal with it. The cold DW shared with me is rapidly improving so I should be over that in a few more days, then we're both back to the gym.

Oh, are you going to HURT when you get back to the gym, after having to stay away for a while... I remember your description of your workouts, and they sounded pretty rigorous.

 

[Walt34]

Oh, are you going to HURT when you get back to the gym, after having to stay away for a while... I remember your description of your workouts, and they sounded pretty rigorous.

I know, I know...groan... but DW is going to be worse off than me. She will have missed almost two weeks by the time we get back there. But she'll have sense enough to start out slowly.

It's amazing how fast the atrophy sets in when you stop exercising for a while.

 

[Hermit]

It was a nice day today. It gave me a chance to work on the house a little. A sweatshirt was all it took to be comfortable. At least for me. My nail gun still thought it was too cold. I sat it in the sun for a while and that didn't even work. Finally turned the car on and set it under the floor heat vents. That did the trick. It is supposed to be in the mid 30s again tomorrow so I'm hoping get a garage door put up.

Hope this heat wave doesn't last too long. I have skiing to do!

 

[MBAustin]

EastWestGal - Thanks for the memories - I love Longwood Gardens! Lived in the Wilmington area twice for a total of 12 years and went nearly every one of those years to the Christmas display and usually at least once a year for other exhibits. Last time there was in March 2011 - took my mom who lived up in Montgomery County for an outing. We had a wonderful lunch at the restaurant and enjoyed the orchid displays in the conservatory - it was too cold for her to enjoy the outside displays.

Rodi - It's chilly down here so I made a big pot of my late MIL's "Beaf Soup" (what DS called it when he was 5). Very yummy.

Walt34 - Glad to hear you are feeling better.

Got several things off my "2015 hangover list" done. Also took a fellow church choir member for radiation treatment - she had a brain tumor removed in mid-December and can't drive now so we've set up rides for her. Quite a scare - she couldn't keep food down and lost 20 pounds over 3 months. Finally she had enough non-GI symptoms that they did a full-body MRI and found the malignant brain tumor which was pressing on her cerebellum. Good news is that it appeared to be well-contained so after 3 weeks of radiation she expects to be back to "normal".

 

[powerplay]

It was nice to get out of the house today after the brief snow which turned into freezing rain later on Sunday into Monday. Went to the pool to workout in the morning after a late opening. Saw The Big Short in the early afternoon catching the Tuesday bargain matinee.

 

[NW-Bound]

So, another room upstairs is all prepped for the new laminate floor, its walls all painted.

This is the smallest room in the home, but I don't know if I can do its floor tomorrow in just one day. Don't want to work too hard.

 

[rodi]

Was fortunate enough to have a rain free walk on the beach with the pooch this morning. El Nino storm #1 moved out overnight - and storm #2 hit mid-morning. Unfortunately, high tide + storm surge meant there was no beach to walk on again... So I walked on the streets down to the pier and back.

Then headed out to Costco - hoping to the beat the rain. Would have totally beat the rain except I ran into a friend I hadn't seen in a while and talked to her for 10 minutes. Came out of costco just as the skies opened up. The rain stopped as soon as I pulled into my garage.

Then the serious rain started - just as I was leaving to get the kids at school. While driving my cell phone kept going off with flash flood emergency alerts, tornado (!) alerts, etc... I'm very happy to be inside and dry now.

Hopefully this rain won't all run off - but some of it will recharge the aquifer a bit.

 

[NW-Bound]

You've got an aquifer there? I thought it would all drain into the Pacific ocean.

 

[Souschef]

Rain

The past 2 days here in CA, we have got the first of the El Nino rain. 2.6 inches yesterday, and 3 inches so far today. I am staying off the roads. We had a fire locally recently and yesterday part of Highway 101 was closed due to mud and debris from the fire.
We have a cute electric fireplace with realistic looking flames and a built in space heater

 

[Accidental Retiree]

We started the day with an earthquake--our first since moving down here--and I was surprised to see water moving in the pool.

A little later, I got the tornado alerts. I thought I left those behind in TX.

We had a big rainstorm, for which I am very grateful. Looking for #3 tomorrow.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

 

[steelyman]

I ordered something today I'd been thinking about for months: a new iPod Touch, 128 GB. The Touch has been my go-to device for years (I was a stubborn holdout on smartphones although I caved in June 2014).

One difference between the Midwest and Southeast is that it seems to me that wall-to-wall carpeting is way more prevalent in the former, I suppose because of the climate differences or just regional preferences. Back there, I could drop the Touch to my heart's content and it didn't blink. Not so after the move, it cracked and spider-webbed real fast (the phone has been guarded since purchase by an Otterbox case).

So now I await the new guy's arrival and you can bet this time it'll be wearing a new suit of clothes from day 1.

 

[W2R]

I ordered something today I'd been thinking about for months: a new iPod Touch, 128 GB. The Touch has been my go-to device for years (I was a stubborn holdout on smartphones although I caved in June 2014).

One difference between the Midwest and Southeast is that it seems to me that wall-to-wall carpeting is way more prevalent in the former, I suppose because of the climate differences or just regional preferences. Back there, I could drop the Touch to my heart's content and it didn't blink. Not so after the move, it cracked and spider-webbed real fast (the phone has been guarded since purchase by an Otterbox case).

So now I await the new guy's arrival and you can bet this time it'll be wearing a new suit of clothes from day 1.

Great! I love those Otterbox cases. They may not look great, but have saved my phone several times.

Usually I buy myself a present in January, to celebrate making it through the holidays and beginning a new year. This year I haven't thought of anything yet. I have an iPhone and a Sandisk mp3 player, so I don't need an iPod Touch. Still thinking about what to get. It's a rough life, I tell ya! (jk!)

 

[Hermit]

Woke up at midnight. Thought I would make use of my time so I rebalanced my portfolio for the year. Figuring out exactly what amount to move is too much hassle, so I just pick round numbers that will come close across 401k and IRAs and plug them into the 401k. After the dust settles, Quicken tells me how close I came to hitting the allocations. Good enough for me.

 

[NW-Bound]

A wet rainy day here in the land of perpetual sunshine. A day like this makes one grateful for not having to drag himself to work.

I just made a pot of onion soup while watching my stocks dropped. It's still too early for lunch, yet I feel too lazy to go upstairs to start laying the laminate floor.

PS. Back down for lunch break, after getting the room 2/3 done. Would be done if I did not have to cut the boards with a circular saw. The radial arm saw was too heavy to lug it up.

PPS. Get the room done, except for the closet. I have worked too hard. I may have to reward myself with a day off tomorrow.

 

[Walt34]

Out of the house for the first time in ~6 days because of the head cold. Well, other than the trip to the ER Sunday for the A-fib and high heart rate. Picked up a couple of prescriptions, returned four books to the library and picked up four more, and bought some LED bulbs at Lowes. Used one to replace a burned out CFL in the post light by the driveway.

 

[lem1955]

Did a self health-assessment for my BCBS plan which added $50 to my Wellness Card.
Determined to lose 10 pounds!
Walked 2 hours (5.6 miles) hilly terrain.
Checked to see if the link between my Elements Financial CU HSA account and TD Ameritrade was set up and ready to go - not yet.
Read a few chapters in my book group book - Richard Russo - Empire Falls.
Going to art reception and talk at 5:30.
Home for dinner and a quiet evening.

 

[Chuckanut]

I ordered something today I'd been thinking about for months: a new iPod Touch, 128 GB. The Touch has been my go-to device for years (I was a stubborn holdout on smartphones although I caved in June 2014).

I have had a 2nd generation iPod Touch for years and it has been a wonderful device. Small, easy to use, no extra charges. I even used it overseas to make call over hotel wifi.

Alas, its days are numbered. The very old OS no longer works well with modern devices and services. Youtube won't function on it and most apps are not made for it anymore. Even the old apps run so very slow as to be near useless. Still, I may keep it around just to do email and send messages.

 

[steelyman]

Alas, its days are numbered. The very old OS no longer works well with modern devices and services. Youtube won't function on it and most apps are not made for it anymore. Even the old apps run so very slow as to be near useless. Still, I may keep it around just to do email and send messages.

Yes, on all counts. My first was a 3rd generation that couldn't update to the latest iOS. That caused me to buy a 5th generation (my current one, now Old Spiderface), which will give way to this 6th generation.

Another thing I thought about was not knowing the future of the iPod lineup, at least the Touch. They really are nice, smaller, slimmer, and lighter than the iPhone. Free wi-fi is growing so I could use it while out and about but it's mainly my convenient at-home device. Apart from this time of year where I'm on a desktop more frequently, I do almost everything on the Touch.

 

[skipro33]

Lots of snow this year, today I went skiing. 4th time this season, shooting for 30 days before it's over.

 

[Walt34]

Grocery store run. For some reason there was an unusually large number of idiots just standing in the aisles pondering the mysteries of the universe. Can't they do that at home instead of blocking the aisles?

 

[braumeister]

Grocery store run. For some reason there was an unusually large number of idiots just standing in the aisles pondering the mysteries of the universe. Can't they do that at home instead of blocking the aisles?

Calm down, Walt. I've learned from experience that some of those folks are just mesmerized by an excessive number of options to choose from.

If your DW sends you to the store to get "some flour" and you find yourself faced with 40 or 50 types, it can be seriously daunting. Same for things like "cooking oil" or "salad dressing" or so many other commodities.

In recent years, whenever I go into the local supermarket, which is one of those enormous places that has probably 50 aisles and sells everything from lettuce to shoes, I just automatically put a smile on my face as I enter and spring-load my default reaction to "laugh out loud". This has helped me keep my sanity and I recommend it.

Before I discovered this little trick, I used to get far more annoyed at people than you are.

 

[Big_Hitter]

bought 50 powerball tickets

 

[travelover]

I have had a 2nd generation iPod Touch for years and it has been a wonderful device. Small, easy to use, no extra charges. I even used it overseas to make call over hotel wifi.

Alas, its days are numbered. The very old OS no longer works well with modern devices and services. Youtube won't function on it and most apps are not made for it anymore. Even the old apps run so very slow as to be near useless. Still, I may keep it around just to do email and send messages.

I love my old Gen 2 Touch, but I quickly learned that every time I updated an app, the new one did not work and the old one was gone forever. Gotcha! Kinda soured me on buying a new one. For now it is a podcast device, for which it works very well.

 

[travelover]

bought 50 powerball tickets

I was thinking of it, but I'm close to going into the next tax bracket and didn't want to chance it.

 

[Hermit]

Grocery store run. For some reason there was an unusually large number of idiots just standing in the aisles pondering the mysteries of the universe. Can't they do that at home instead of blocking the aisles?

Na. They were engineer types trying to determine which choice was the best value. (Analysis Paralysis)