What did you do today? 2018 version

[iloveyoga]

Today....a good day. It is very cold here in Iowa, so not outdoor activities except our daily walk. I slept in (for me) until after 6. Got up and had coffee while reading the paper and this board. I did a little bit of work, and then I had my monthly massage. My DH and I had a date at one of our favorite local restaurants, and now we are home relaxing.

 

[Music Lover]

I took in 2 old screen doors and some leftover scraps of suspended ceiling grid to a recycler and earned a few $$ for the aluminum. Then I stopped at a thrift store on the way home and blew it all on some used books.

 

[MBAustin]

Yesterday we got home from a short trip in time for me to harvest the rest of my tomato crop in advance of our first freezing temps of the fall. I brought in about 2 pounds of grape and yellow pear tomatoes, about ⅔ of them green. So today I made refrigerator green tomato pickles for the first time. Recipe says it takes 1-2 weeks for the pickling, so I'll make a note to try them when we get back from our Thanksgiving trip.

It was cold enough that I delayed our dog's morning walk until after 11am, when it was still chilly but at least it was sunny. I am such a creature of habit with our first-thing-in-the-morning walks that it seemed really odd to enjoy my coffee and newspaper while still in my PJ's and warm fuzzy bathrobe. But a very nice kind of odd!

 

[aja8888]

Did my usual dog walk at 7:00 AM with the pooch. He loved the cool weather. Then had coffee with my ROMEO group for an hour or so. At 9:30 AM, DW was presentable enough to go out for breakfast!

COSTCO this afternoon to pick up a few things and fill the car with fuel. Also put the insulated covers on the outdoor faucets and backflow valve.

I guess "winter" is here in Texas.

 

[misshathaway]

Could you come over and do mine? I am wIting for the plumber and he says he won't be here until after Thanksgiving.

If I did have to call my plumber I would have to eat crow. I bought the cheapest faucet available when he installed the "before" 2 years ago. He grumbled about it being a piece of junk. About a month later the handle fell off, then the hot/cold indicator fell out. I've been forever reattaching the handle for almost 2 years.

 

[misshathaway]

I’m very impressed, misshathaway! Can you come over next time we think we can handle Ikea contraptions?

I think I could now! There are people who advertise themselves on my neighborhood list as handymen / IKEA assemblers.

 

[misshathaway]

Congrats!

I hate plumbing jobs, although I still do them. My sister-in-law has to do all the work like the above around their house, because my brother is all thumbs and never does anything. Or maybe he is just being smart to avoid dirty work. Like my late father-in-law.

On the other hand, people like my wife would not mind the effort, but they cannot figure out where things go, or how to proceed.

A couple of days ago the town sent a guy to replace my water meter. While he was here he heard me listening to the YouTube videos about faucets. Turns out he used to be a plumber. He told me that the faucets nowadays usually come with their own connector hoses and anything that might be tricky is already incorporated into the faucet housing. Then he went to my kitchen and tried the shutoffs and the connections to them and said that those would not be hard to turn. The instructions really were easy to follow. Mine even came with a tool to tighten a hard to reach bolt behind the sink bowl.

It was so nice of him to take that extra time. I think I won't mind so much when my water bill goes up because of the new meter. So far many people who have had their meter replaced have noticed a bigger water bill.

 

[DeborahB]

Put together with DH an Ikea 2-drawer modular thing. Broke the connecting pegs on one side of the top. Reversed half of the supports. Attached the little bonus feet to the back instead of the bottom. Broke a drill bit off in the hole being drllled. If it weren’t the perfect little piece of furniture for what we are using it, it would have been back at Ikea when the connecting pegs snapped.

So much respect to the DIY craftsmen on these boards who can throw a kitchen remodel or a whole house together!

I love IKEA but am afraid to put the stuff together. I’m sure I’d have a similar experience! You pay for it, but they will assemble stuff. So I have a lot of IKEA furniture and haven’t assembled anything. Too many horror stories.

 

[MRG]

Did things I didn't like. Called anthem about a provider. Couldn't use the internet as it was out since the night before. I tried my cell phone but anthem recently introduced 2FA and I was unable to receive the email they sent! Sure is secure now!

So after an hour on the phone they declared that provider isn't in the state wide network I'm in this year but will be in the smaller area network next year. Made me feel pretty good when anthem said, "oh let me use another program to find this provider. Oh yeah, there they are in a town 60 miles away" . Okay sure, your data is fine, the provider has tried to change their address multiple times. Codd and Date always suggested having multiple data sources for the same data, with tribal knowledge of where it is!

Dealt with my ISP trying to get an ETA for service. They texted an hour later saying it was restored. Guess again. We were out for 24+ hours.

Did pick up DWs wrangler with new tires. Of course since the internet was down all over town I haven't seen the bill. My truck's in today for new tires, we will settle up when it's done.

 

[DeborahB]

So far today I listened to the wind gusts and was glad to be inside. Then I went out (35 degrees) and filled the bird feeders because we’re getting a little snow tomorrow, followed by rain Friday. Ugh! Next a trip to the chiropractor - I have such an exciting life! - and then back to work on getting set up in Quicken again. I hate Quicken. It hates me. And I only use it to track investments. There isn’t another better product I can find. I used to enter transactions by hand and decided to start fresh so I can automate everything. %@$*&&$!

 

[Walt34]

Today was a gym day, then went home and put gas in the snow thrower, started it up to make sure it would run, then brought it up from the shed to the garage in a last-ditch effort to forestall the possible one to three inches of snow forecast for tomorrow. Oh, and brought up the snow shovels too. And it isn't even Thanksgiving yet!

The way this is supposed to work is that if I'm all prepared for snow, then it won't snow. That'll work, right? Won't it?

And I have an 11:30 appointment tomorrow with the plastic surgeon to take the stitches out of my leg in the four places he took out suspicious-looking moles. DW wanted me to reschedule because of the snow. NO WAY, those dang things are itching like crazy, I want 'em out! We'll take the 4WD pickup to ease her mind.

 

[misshathaway]

It's 28 degrees. We're getting snow tonight. Out in a race to get the leaves gone before the snow comes. Crazy. I have more layers on now than I do for shoveling in the dead of winter. Only up side is that the ground is so frozen that when you rake the leaves they just skitter on the surface, so good for spreading them out for the mower.

Very good reminder for why I am doing a trip in Jan or Feb to check out a warm possible retirement spot. Did a lot of research on Arizona but I just couldn't get excited about it. Landscape might as well be Mars. Now I'm looking at Texas.

 

[Walt34]

The way this is supposed to work is that if I'm all prepared for snow, then it won't snow. That'll work, right? Won't it?

Oh well, it was a nice theory but it didn't work. Three inches and still coming down. I did get my stitches out though without incident. And the moles were all benign.

There are days when nothing but 4WD will do and this is one of them. We saw lots of FWD cars immobilized by the snow, wheels merrily spinning away without effect.

So now after lunch, DW is ensconced on the couch under a blanket with the TV and I'm typing away here with a cup of hot tea with a teaspoon of honey in it. Perfect for a snow day.

ETA: Took a nap for a while, when I woke up the snow had stopped, replaced by very light rain. Fired up the snow thrower, did my driveway & sidewalk, then did one-and-a-half neighbor's (one was halfway done) and finished up just in time for dark. DW insisted on doing the front porch.

Gotta love having a snow thrower, this is ~three inches of very heavy wet snow, perfect heart attack material.

 

[aja8888]

Walked dog @ 7:00 AM. It was 32 F outside. Love this Texas winter! No neighbors out this morning. I guess they are digging out their down filled parkas and gloves for the cold snap. Weren't any Texas natives born with hot blood in their veins?

Yesterday had my echocardiogram. Will get results 12/4. Last test for this SVT thing I am dealing with.

 

[jollystomper]

First snowfall of the season. First snowfall of my retirement.

Pre-retirement, I would be checking the forecast and window hourly to see when it would end, plan when I was going to shovel based on getting to work. Now... do not really care when it ends, no need to go out, I'll just keep working on things in my workshop while blasting tunes from my favorite groups.

 

[steelyman]

First snowfall of the season. First snowfall of my retirement.

Pre-retirement, I would be checking the forecast and window hourly to see when it would end, plan when I was going to shovel based on getting to work. Now... do not really care when it ends, no need to go out, I'll just keep working on things in my workshop while blasting tunes from my favorite groups.

This reminded me of my first major snowfall after becoming a gentleman of leisure. It had snowed all night (a Midwestern treat) and had accumulated to an impressive height by the next morning.

But I realized I didn’t have to do a thing unless I wanted to. The snow was very white and pretty in the back yard and a single red cardinal flew on top of a drift, looking very handsome. He hung out for a while and I noticed classic Looney Tunes toons playing on the TV. Naturally, I chose coffee and Bugs over commuting and “important meetings”.

 

[gayl]

Particulants from up north at 160 and its FREEZING 55° so I'm stuck inside

 

[Ronstar]

Tune up at holistic dr. Making a couple of photo frames. Making cabinet for half bath.

 

[kgtest]

First snowfall of the season. First snowfall of my retirement.

Pre-retirement, I would be checking the forecast and window hourly to see when it would end, plan when I was going to shovel based on getting to work. Now... do not really care when it ends, no need to go out, I'll just keep working on things in my workshop while blasting tunes from my favorite groups.

I just shovel and commute in when I am done, if I'm late, I'm late. I just assume the ones that aren't late on big snow days are the ones who have spouses who shovel, or they don't need to or care to shovel before the hot sun sets in an unpenatrable layer of ice underneath that surely won't be gone until spring.


So yeah if anyone asked why I was late on a big snow day I would probably burst into laughter.

 

[Gumby]

Took 2.5 hours to drive home from w*rk in the snow (normal is about 1 hour). Just ordered $100 of chocolate from these guys https://www.tazachocolate.com/pages/our-process We have been to the factory and the young wife loves their chocolate. Watch the video. It's really cool.

 

[W2R]

Today I paid the property tax on my Dream House in full.

It hasn't gone up a cent since last year, and I guess it was lower than some, at $1,701.

Property tax was much lower at my old house, at $956. But I think my Dream House is worth the extra.

 

[misshathaway]

Today I paid the property tax on my Dream House in full.

It hasn't gone up a cent since last year, and I guess it was lower than some, at $1,701.

If that's your property tax for the entire year boy are you in good shape. That's mine per quarter.

 

[Christine]

I'm visiting my mum and enjoyed driving her to the post office and grocery stores.



When seeing my new car (Tesla Model X) she said "nice". And when I said it was electric and did not need any petrol she said "oh". She is the first person not having 1000 questions when they hear about my new car. Very refreshing!



We talked about more important issues such as how to cook the shank of lamb she had bought and how nice that her neighbour flew to sunny Spain for a week all on her own.

 

[Koogie]

We talked about more important issues such as how to cook the shank of lamb she had bought and how nice that her neighbour flew to sunny Spain for a week all on her own.

One vote for curried lamb shank. Nothing finer in the world....

 

[pacergal]

winterized the garden , cut down roses and the last of the flowering dahlias then covered the bulbs with mulch.
The winter camelia is blooming and keeping the hummingbirds happy.