New Things In a New Year

While grocery shopping today I bought Beyond Meat patties. Normally, these would be too pricy, but today they were BOGO (buy one, get one free). I put them in the freezer to try later. We will see how they compare to the Impossible Whopper burger we ate at Burger King. The store also had Beyond Meat sausages.

I changed from traditional Medicare to a Medicare Advantage plan starting this year. I have been reading thru the materials to familiarize myself with the benefits and costs. I do know that my YMCA membership will be free. I paid $34 per month for an individual membership last year. The insurance company and plan are what my husband has been using so I have some feel for the provisions, but this year they added vision (besides an exam) and dental benefits which could save us more money. I do need to get new eyeglasses, and my husband is thinking of getting a dental crown. Not sure how all of these work yet, but the dental coverage includes out-of-network dentists. We have never had dental insurance our entire lives. The OTC catalog ($50 credit each quarter) is now run thru Walmart though not using the store, just a web site. I created an account for that. I shared my new insurance information with my pharmacy, but I had trouble registering for the mail-order site. I got some phone help yesterday, but in the middle of the call, I suddenly was flipped back to the intro/greeting module and had no way to return to the agent helping me.

I still need to use my new camera more to understand what it has to offer. I decided on my last walk, that the strap which I had attached to the left side of the camera would feel more normal on the right. I just changed that. The memory card does fit into the slot on my computer so I no longer have to use a USB cable to upload my pictures from the camera to the computer. I will pick a few "subjects" to photograph in different modes and with different tweaks to see what the variations are and compare. 

I have some books I want to share with you, but the only one I have completed so far is Educated by Tara Westover. Next week my Bible study group starts up again, but no choir for another week. I will have some free time to read. Our winter so far has had a lot of ups and downs. Cold enough for snow a few days, but then warming up to the high 30's, low 40's so rain is expected. Not extremely cold for the most part, except for wind making it feel colder. Even so, it is not comfortable to walk around outside. Sitting in my recliner reading seems the best option.

I finally sorted through my small chest freezer in the garage. I am ashamed to admit I had a few frozen meals dating back to 2017. I had to toss them. I am going to try using some frozen grated zucchini to make bread. The zucchini is from a year and a half ago; I don't think it will affect the bread or us negatively. We will find out on Saturday when I bake the bread. 

Hope you have some positive aspects to explore for your new year.