I love that.Quote:
Originally Posted by SiouzQ.
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I love that.Quote:
Originally Posted by SiouzQ.
WW update: down 6.4lbs in less than 2 weeks.
That is a good amount! It’s enough to feel progress and be happy, but it’s not too fast. Is losing at a steady pace.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tradd
Great, Tradd! Congrats! Keep up the good work!
oh what a lovely color your dining room is, SiouzQ - that light is simply amazing. And WTG Tradd!!!!
I am so happy to now be living a normal American tech life where I have a fast reliable laptop and a wifi printer. It is wonderful to think “ I can just print that!” 30 seconds from the time I open the lid of this laptop to having a printed copy in my hand.
Our old lumbering HP computer with Windows 7 took minutes, sometimes 40 minutes, to initialize. Took longer to pull up a file. I hate the old thing.
Watching the goldfinches on the feeder as their bellies get more and more yellow. Joy every day to see them gobble down the thistle seed. Some are nearly all yellow now and others are still gray and cream colored.
That is insane about your old printer!Quote:
Originally Posted by iris lilies
I’m very glad to see some sunshine today, especially after the Friday evening storms and all the wind yesterday.
Now down 7.4lbs on WW.
Wow! You're getting it DONE! Good work, Tradd!Quote:
Originally Posted by Tradd
Thank you! :DQuote:
Originally Posted by catherine
Now down 12 lbs.
1+ dress size!Quote:
Originally Posted by Tradd
I have self diagnosed gout in my left toe joint. I have a flareup about once a year and I’ve never been to the doctor about it.
Today I had my first real test of this small practice, direct care physician that I’ve been using for several years. I seldom go to the doctor, pretty much once a year to get blood pressure medicine a blood test. I did have a couple of optional allergy tests, but they were not very useful.
So this morning I called a little after 9 o’clock to say I need an appointment because I have pain in my foot. They said, can you come in at 9:30. Sure! Five minute drive or less down to the doctors office, saw the nurse practitioner, got prednisone. Foot much better a couple hours later.
conclusion: it does seem that this medical practice is low-key and can provide appointments quickly
God I LOVE my tech set up! I have a perfectly functional Mac computer and copy machine/printer. It all works quickly and seamlessly, like technology is SUPPOSED to work.
I can’t believe I put up with that stupid HP/windows 7 computer for so long, then had an abortive attempt at a Mac world with a VERY expensive Mac Pro that never worked quite right. At this time last year I was working mostly from the old HP, trying out this new Mac Air, working between 3 home locations, executing a large garden club event (which required lotsa tech communications and printing) and moving households after 33 years in one place. It was chaos.
Now the technology is serving MY needs, not me serving IT. I open up this
Mac and lo and behold, it works instantly. The old HP ALWAYS was booting up something, loading something, etc and I often had to wait 20 minutes before it was ready to serve me.
That's great to hear. What exactly did you end up buying--which Mac and which printer? I also had a Mac Pro that never worked right, either, but I'd like to have the experience you are talking about here, then get an iphone and have it all integrate well.Quote:
Originally Posted by iris lilies
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tybee
yes, we both have IPhones, too. No more weird, puzzling email blocks that seemed to be generated from HP computer.But then the email nastiness happened with that $$$Mac pRo too, so who knows what was causing that.
Anyway, I have these pieces of equipment:
MacBook Air: 8 GB runs MacOS Ventura version 13.2.1
Brother black and white printer/copier/scanner: HL-L2390DW
I also have IPad mini units and have been using those for years.
Thank you!
Hell, this home set up even works better than the last set up I had at work. Even in that professionally supported environment my work computer still took too long to boot up. Every morning I turned it on, went to the kitchen to get coffee, came back, and was still waiting for it to boot. I don’t know why these PC’s took so long .Quote:
Originally Posted by Tybee
The new ones with solid state drive technology are much more responsive. I have my eye on an all-in-one model.Quote:
Originally Posted by iris lilies
Last fall I bought a new PC with both a 500MB solid state drive that holds the operating system and all the software programs, and a 2TB regular hard drive to hold all my documents and other files. OMG, the solid state drive is AMAZING! It boots in about 20 seconds and launches programs so quickly that the program is open and ready to go before the splash screen goes away. My old computer was still functional but I decided to buy it because I didn't want to have to switch to windows 11. Windows 10 functions just fine for me so I wanted to be able to stick with it for the time being. My last computer served me will for 7 years. Hopefully I can get as much use out of this one.Quote:
Originally Posted by JaneV2.0
I’m so happy to have exited the World of Windows. I am not a heavy duty text or spreadsheet user, so the simple Apple world of Pages and Numbers work for me. With my last Mac, the expensive Mac Pro, I bought Windows for Mac, but I didn’t realize that I had to store those documents in a non-Mac environment.. Or something. It was just so confusing. I never really got it off the ground with that machine.
So when I started using this MacBook Air, I told myself everything will be Mac, I’m saying goodbye to the PC world.
The main downside is that I always have to send all documents in PDF form when I’m sharing them to all of my groups.
There have been a couple of documents that several people work on, but that seems to have been OK and I know they’re not all Apple users.
I have a wonderful use for a Google Docs spreadsheet, since two of us are making additions to it, or two of us want to anyway. But I don’t want to force Google Docs on someone else who doesn’t know how to use it. Sigh. This was exactly the scenario Google docs was set up to serve.
Here is a photo of my iris bed today - the previous owner planted these. We also had some excitement earlier in the yard - I heard a weird noise just outside the kitchen and went to investigate. A squirrel must have lost his balance trying to get a drink out of our rain barrel and was thrashing around frantically trying to get out. My husband lifted him out with a rake and off he ran towards the iris beds (where they have a den in the rock wall) looking very much like a drowned rat. I get really pissed at these rock squirrels around here because they will eat the garden bare. Any kind of flowers I plant have to have a cage of chicken wire around them.
Life in the high desert...Attachment 5409Attachment 5410
Poor little guy! Good for husband on saving him even if he's one of the munchers. What a beautiful garden!
Nice Iris!
I thought you'd like them! I know next to nothing about how to take care of them but they look better now in the three years we've been here now that I keep the beds a bit cleaner of other debris.
This rave probably belongs strictly in my journal, but I think some of you will relate and be supportive. As you know, I downsized and have been trying to contain all my "wants" so I can retire sooner rather than later. Well, my son is getting married to a woman who is perfect for him--she's very much a "simple-liver"--she still has an old flip-phone and buys all her clothes from church thrift shop bins. Her father, however, was a bigwig who worked at a major bank and had a Westchester NY McMansion before moving to a Bend, Oregon McMansion after retiring.
So the kids are getting married in VT. That means her parents will be hanging out here for a couple of weeks, and of course, we will invite them to our home during that period of time. The angst begins there. DH already gets mad at me every time I tell people I live in a small house ("Why do you have to tell people that and make them think you're poor?"). So yesterday, we just for the fun of it went to a local furniture store. Our living room furniture does not work for us, either functionally or aesthetically. Within 20 minutes DH had me nearly talked into two new chairs and an end table. I told the saleswoman I'd think about it. DH said, "If I were you I'd pull the plug. YOU DESERVE IT."
I came home and thought about it. It sure would make our home look nicer and more modern. I texted DD who is my partner in crime in decisions like this.She asked me good questions about why I wanted it, why now, would I be excited.. etc etc.
So then I starting thinking about my old aspirations to make some kind of a slipcover for the wing chair that I actually like, which DH and I bought at a second-hand consignment shop in Princeton. I thought about the fact that while I think the recliner is ugly, it does serve a purpose. Being zero-gravity, a guest like my BIL could technically sleep in it--plus the grandkids LOVE it. I went online to look for bolts of vintage fabric and found a VT-based seller who has tons of vintage fabrics. I picked an indigo blue one, and bought it. That's that.
I'm not going to spend $2,000 on new furniture. What I "deserve" is to retire as soon as I can. I will enjoy making the slipcover, even it turns out wonky, which it probably will. And I'll know that this is an example of who I am--a person who likes old things with a history and patina and values a wabi-sabi vibe that feels homey and homespun.
If the in-laws think my home is quaint and tacky, and even if they think we're "poor," well, they'll be back at their PNW McMansion before long.
Catherine - I love how you took time to think about what is really important to you. My guess is that if you had bought the furniture, you would never really enjoy it, because it would always be in the back your mind that the reason you had it was to impress the new in-laws.
Their thoughts are their thoughts and none of your business - good for you finding some beautiful vintage fabric and making your own slipcover.
I look askance at trying to impress other people, whatever one's age. Impressiveness, like intelligence, is something you either have or not, IMO, and it's usually clear after awhile.
Recovering furniture, well-considered, is a good solution.
Written here in my PNW Mchovel ;). I doubt I'd like Bend much (I've only been there briefly, for work)--too many carpetbaggers.
Material things are not the true measure of wealth. Sure you want a roof over your head, indoor plumbing, heat, food in the fridge, a decent car and food. But riches lie in experiences and relationships. Hold your head high and be proud of yourself and your family. Because all the money in the world does not bring you love or self respect.Quote:
Originally Posted by catherine
The slipcover fabric sounds wonderful. And you already know the chair works for your family, and that's important. I remember you disliking the couch you bought and if you haven't replaced it, you could always do that instead. Because it was never comfortable and did not meet your needs.
Your house meets your needs, and you have always approached these questions very thoughtfully. In terms of sheer coolness, your house is way cooler than a McMansion in Bend, Oregon. You are a native New Englander, born and bred, and you have a wonderful place on a wonderful lake in New England, and that is an incredible success story in terms of living how you want to live. It's also completely congruent with you are are, and that is priceless.
Catherine, good for you to drill down into what is really important.
I am in the enviable position of being able to “ afford anything I [really] want” but much of that is about past years of exercising frugality and restraint in buying, honing my ability to recognize what REALLY makes me happy when acquiring stuff.
So the stuff I REALLY want tends not to be very expensive, relative to what I COULD spend on the thing.
Every time I think about buying a new house, it comes back to I do not want to clean more space, furnish more space, pay the taxes and utilities on more space, leave our special city area, etc. I might think leaving our city would be "fun", but I do not want to take my husband away from his important volunteer "jobs" which keep him happy and healthy. So regardless of having the money, it would not be a good thing to do in any way except to give me something to do.
So I really need to stay away from Zillow. Just as bad for me as HGTV.
You made a good decision, Catherine. And we at SLF are all impressed with your lovely home, and whose opinion could possibly matter more than ours? :laff:
Good for you, catherine. You are continuing to discover and hone the life YOU want to live!
Catherine, you WILL have to tell us the in-laws’ reaction to your small house and your interactions with them.
Thank you, all, for your kind words of support..I will definitely report back, Tradd! Sweetana, I also have a love/hate relationship with HGTV! rosa (and all), the great thing about SLN is I truly don't feel the need to "impress" you guys--I think I've aired all my dirty laundry here, and that's what's great about it.
I thought I might watch a whole lotta HGTV when we finally moved to Hermann where we have cable tv. But, I don’t. Watching too much of that stuff DOES make me feel like my funny old house is shabby. Not good! So I tune into You tube videos and Instagram accounts about cottage decor that is more to my liking, kinda shabby or at least non-trendy, and purposely so
Ditto as far as having more space!!! BTW... the people who were so anxious to buy our house backed out. It wasn't said but I think they were not able to afford it! They talked about moving to a less expensive county. Kinda sucks. We did have an appraisal and have an idea what the house should sell for. We are having another realtor come next week (who we will probably go with). It just doesn't make sense to try and sell it ourselves in this scenario. Have been doing major purging. One day I had trouble walking... I was up and down the stairs and out to the garage so many times! This house has so much storage it was unbelievable how much we had tucked away. I used it all at one time. We plan on major garage sale(s) and will have an auction for the big stuff. It will not break my heart to move to a warmer winter climate and smaller abode! We can always travel in the summer if it is too hot there. We will rent in the interim. Fingers crossed all goes well!Quote:
Originally Posted by sweetana3
My hummingbirds sound like little wind-up whirly-gig toys. I've heard that the same ones tend to come back year after year during their lifespan. It does seem like they are not shy around us when we go out onto the porch. I can stand within two feet of the feeder and they will fly around me to get to it.
Also, our nesting dove pair are very used to us - their nest that they use year after year is in the eves of our main porch. They are completely used to our comings and goings at all times of day. The second set of eggs just hatched and their little heads are finally peeking up out of the nest. It's funny to watch them try and get the guts up to learn how to fly - it actually takes a few weeks. They start getting too big to sit in the nest and will finally walk onto the beam and just sit there dumbly while the parents try to coax them with their whoo-whoo call from the fence on our property line.
I love having the time to see all of this!