Friday

Today’s Spring Flower. Hyacinth.

If of thy mortal goods thou art bereft,
And from thy slender store two loaves alone to thee are left,
Sell one, and with the dole
Buy hyacinths to feed thy soul.

Saadi – The Rose Garden

That sounds nice. But not very practical. I fear I would come down on the side of investing in some seeds that could be planted and perhaps yielding a meal. Or maybe steal a chicken and buy some chicken feed in hopes of getting an egg now and then. 

Finished up the taxes this morning. Signed and shipped them off. Electronically. Mail a check to the Tax Guy. Set up funds transfers to pay my large tax bills. And set up quarterly payments. The only thing I didn’t do yet is to get a copy of the returns to keep. The Tax Guy’s new system is completely online. And there doesn’t seem to be a good way to get copies. This is a first-world problem.

 

 

 

 

Warning Cat Picture.

 

 

 

 

I forced The Princess Cat out of hiding to get her treats. Bad Peg. She hissed at me. Bad cat.

4.5 miles today. Almost 10K steps. According to my watch, I have done my required weekly cardio. So, I can just chill until Monday. 

Good Enough For Government Work.

Today’s Spring Flowers. Daffodils.

Finished pestering the Tax Guy today. I found an error.  He fixed the error. That reduced my tax bill by $13. I am sure that it increased my tax preparation bill by much more than $13.  Maybe next year I’ll trust the process and not check the return.

Warning: Cat Picture Below.

 

 

I have a regular reader who loathes cats. 

 

 

 

After that taxing experience, I went to visit The Princess Cat. Her well-trained human is away and she has to rely on subpar replacement humans for a week.

And why are you here? 

Got 3 miles of walking in today and 7,500 steps. 

Government Work Day

Today’s Spring Flower. The ever-unpopular Bradford Pear.

The first “Government Work” task of the day was to turn in my driver’s license and apply for a state ID card.  I had to do that in person. Since it was a nice day, I figured I’d check that item off my Shit2Do list. The state computer system didn’t seem to be setup to handle that transaction elegantly, so, it took a while. But, what else did I have to do?

The Twilight Zone

Giving up my driver’s license – no problem. I stopped driving about 25 years ago when I stopped owning a car. I kept a license for “just in case” and for ID. But for many of us old people, turning in our driver’s license is huge.


Taxes. Actually. I got two tax emails this morning. One from the Tax Guy saying my taxes were ready to review and another from a brokerage house telling me I had a “Corrected 1099”. I don’t think the correction is material. But, I am not pleased with the Tax Guy’s first go at the 2023 returns. More work is required on my part tomorrow. He did OK last year. But he has “new improved” software this year. Yeah. Right. 

But, for now. Things are just fine.

Arlington Wall Art.

Managed 2.5 mile walk today. That was on the way to the DMV for my state ID. Walk some. Bus some. 

A beautiful day in the neighborhood

A beautiful day in the ‘hood deserves more and better images. But all I have to show for today is a lone hellebore.

Nice day today. And what made it nice was the weather and getting away from The Asylum. Went to my yoga class in person today. I Ubered to the class and walked and bussed back home. One hour of yoga. Three miles of walking. It was time for a little nap after I got home and had a late lunch.

The Twilight Zone

Being on the road from 80 to dead shortens the horizon. It sneaks up on you. A friend at dinner the other night mentioned that she no longer buys things in Costco-size quantities. I saw an article this morning about United Airline’s plans for the 2027-2028 time frame. Well, I decided that I could just wait until 2027 and see if I care what United Airlines is doing in 2027. As the T-shirt says: “Don’t Mess With Old People Life in Prison is no longer a deterrent.”


My friends are either at the theater or in Florida tonight. So, I plan on making an omelet and having dinner in the Old Bat’s Cave. Then I will read a cheap detective novel until bedtime.  Or enjoy the forbidden screen-based activities. I am now in day  24 of NO online shopping, doom scrolling, social media, YouTube, or games until after dinner.

I made it to 2023. Photos.

I seem to have been in a B/W mood in early 2023.

Hope to plow through 2023 photos. And for the rest of my days, maybe I can keep up to date. 

Speaking of “Up To Date”. Got a text from my grocery store. They want me to get yet another Covid shot so I can be “Up To Date”. I am approaching the first anniversary of my last case of Covid. Undecided about another shot at this time. 

It’s a black and white kind of a day.

Closeup photos of orchids are fun. 

boxes and roses.

Last year was definitely a year of origami boxes and roses.  

The sun came back.

0730 EDT

I am not sure why we have Daylight Savings Time. The first recorded instance of DST was in 1908 in Port Arthur(now Thunder Bay), Canada. I think it’s time to say bye-bye to DST. 

I was happy to see the sun. It’s cold and windy. But sunny. There might even be a snowflake or two this evening. Next week promises to be warm and sunny. 

Yesterday’s good news was the return of direct flights to Bermuda. Today’s not so good news is my cheap lodging in Bermuda is no longer cheap. But, it’s been five expensive years since I was there. I’ll be planning an escape (or 2) from the Asylum soon.  

The idea was to tidy up the origami dojo. It didn’t happen.

What did happen? The freezer and fridge were cleaned.  Groceries were purchased. Pea soup was made and stashed in the freezer.  

All things considered. Everything is good. 

Sorry, Mr. Rodgers

Sorry Mr Rodgers, it’s not a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

It’s raining. And I need sun. I put on my rain gear and went for a small walk. 

The Twilight Zone

Being lazy today and I am sort of beating myself up for being lazy. I don’t believe I did that when I was young. I think I just figured I needed to rest. Now I am not sure that I deserve to rest.  There will be plenty of time to rest when I am dead. That’s just crazy thinking on my part. 


The good news is that April 1st direct flights from National Airport to Bermuda resume.

It’s Aloha Friday.

One of last summer’s orphan orchids.

Made it to Friday. Survived a week of birthday festivities. Survived is the wrong word. I enjoyed a great week. We’ll have to do that again on my 90th. You all come now, ya hear?  Guess I should pre-arrange the festivities with my lawyer,  in case I don’t make it.

Desk. Spring Cleaning. Check.

And that would be today’s project. Years ago, I bought this cheap little desk at The Container Store when Carlton and I moved from one place or another.  It’s not very big, but I can still get it all junked up. Carlton had an absolutely hideous 1950’s huge leather-topped monster desk that his first wife had selected. Every time we moved. It moved. He loved it. I called it The Ark of The Covenant. Death to anyone who touched it. And even worse if you opened the drawers. I gave the sucker away.

PS – I loved that man. His desk. Not so much.

On the road from 80 to dead. The journey begins. Enjoy the ride.

Still enjoying my orchids, but I think I need to improve my staking techniques.
The Twilight Zone

80 is fucking old. About 2 percent of the world’s population is over 80. So, I already won by just making it to 80. Nobody gets out alive. 

“Live fast, love hard, die young” has become “Savor the moment, cherish the love, leave no regrets”


About this time yesterday, I decided that my closet needed work. Well, I took everything out of the closet, and vacuumed corners that have been hidden for almost 9 years. I put almost everything back. But I did some rearranging. I got rid of clothes that no longer worked earlier this year. 

Now, that’s better. Not ready for TicToc. But, it’s a closet. Not a shrine to my stuff.
Next target. My “office”. It seems to have gotten rather junky.

I am not one of those people who can keep things in a continual state of neatness. 

Yikes. 9th Decade Tomorrow.

Birthday Balloon Meets Popcorn Ceiling.

I dislike that popcorn ceiling. This is a pretty sturdy birthday balloon. And tomorrow morning I am going to put it on a friend’s door knob. She is well into her 10th decade. 

Been mopey for the last couple of weeks. So, while having a hurkle-durkle this afternoon I gave myself a good talking-to. Propelled self out of bed. The least I could do was empty the trash, recycle, and compost. Plus run the dishwasher. 

Sorry Peg, there’s no Shazaam in real life.

I want a neater closet. Shazaam didn’t work. It’s supposed to rain AGAIN tomorrow. Maybe I’ll put my headphones on punch up a mix of Charles Mingus and The Dead and do neat.  Or maybe I’ll just listen to music and drink coffee until the desire for a neater closet goes away. 

Tonight. My Asylum Family is celebrating March Birthdays. We have two. There will be mediocre food, maybe wine, snarky cards, cake, ice cream, coffee. And lots of laughs. 

But wait…

There was just a knock on my door. It was Management.  Bearing a corrected Birthday Card. And. BEERS.  

Fortunately, I was fully dressed and had tidied up the Old Bat’s Cave a bit.

Soggy Tuesday

The hospital gang.

Today I am “recovering” from my surprise party last night. 

And that is more than enough for today. 

Monday

OK. Got Neko. I started playing with it in 2018.

This week’s origami play will be with Tomoko Fuse’s polyhedra. The cube was easy. Got it on the first try. That was level 1. There are 63 more levels. 

I am trying to get enough documentation together to get a Real ID Virginia ID. And I am having a hard time scrapping up my 2nd proof of Virginia residency. It’s a solvable problem. And, I can always use my passport to get on an Army base or a plane. No biggie.

BUT. This didn’t help. Asylum management sent me birthday greetings.

OK. I am not Sylvia. Never have been. No part of any of my names is Sylvia. 

So I open it up.

And what happened to Dear Sylvia? If my last name were Garcia would Dear Garcia appear?

Anyhow. Two bads in one envelope. Not feeling the love. 

Going OUT to dinner with old work friends. 

Gratitude

How can I not be grateful? It’s the people in our lives that matter.


PS. It was a great surprise party. Loved it. 

And, I even got a candle! In the baklava.