Keeping Warm

This is the scene through my condo windows today. The snow continues to steadily fall so there will be even more accumulation into tonight. Our low will be about 17 degrees and the high tomorrow (Sunday) about 25 degrees. It’s not unusual to get some snow in the second half of November, but such cold temperatures are not typical for this time of year. I guess I will be wearing the new winter coat I bought a few weeks ago at a half-off price sale.

It is a perfect day for crockpot turkey corn chili.

At lunch I baked some chocolate chip cookies from refrigerator cookie dough. Later this afternoon I will munch on a cookie and drink a mug of hot chocolate as I peruse the book I bought yesterday at Half Price Books in Fort Wayne.

I really like looking at barns as I drive in Indiana. Someday I am going to drive around and take more photos of barns in the surrounding area. I have a few I took in the past. A lot of the barns are in poor shape. I have a book Indiana Barns and now this new book will join it on the shelf.

Later this afternoon or tomorrow I will probably start playing around with the decorations for the December 2nd Winona Literary Club meeting. I am one of the three hostesses. I bought some more small balls and “glitter beads” at Hobby Lobby as there are 6 rose bowls to fill. All of Hobby Lobby’s Christmas stuff was half off.

 

The bowls belong to the club. The downside to choosing this as the table decorations is that they are the ornaments I use on my own tree. I won’t be able to decorate my Christmas tree until after December 2nd. One of my co-hostesses has some green and red print napkins we will place under the bowls.

 I did make good progress on shopping for Christmas gifts yesterday. Only 5 weeks until Christmas. We have tickets for a Christmas concert by the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra at the Warsaw High School on December 13th. That orchestra travels around to several locations for the holiday concert.

 Feeling a little sleepy. I had better go have my cookie and cocoa to wake me up.

 

 

 

Moving On

Sometimes you find you cannot change circumstances and have to adapt or move on. We have had some major water quality concerns in our retirement condo. The water comes from a well, not the city system. Discolored/rusty water would show up sometimes in the middle of doing laundry and permanently stain clothes and linens. Or I would see the rust-colored water as I filled the washing machine tub and have to forgo doing the laundry that day. We were encouraged to report the problem to maintenance; it would be worked on and be OK for a week or 10 days and then recur. I am happy to report that a third water processing unit was completely replaced in early January, and the problem seems to be gone. I am a much happier resident.

 

Awhile back, Digiorno pizza changed its sauce. I did not like it at all. This was my go-to frozen pizza brand. I have since tried several brands and settled for a Kroger brand. I don’t like it as well as the old Digiorno, but it is cheaper and slightly smaller which may be a good thing for somebody trying to watch how much they eat. Thursday when I did my grocery shopping, I received a coupon for a Digiorno pizza with a large banner across the coupon stating “Rising Crust Original Sauce is Back!”. I guess I wasn’t the only one who disliked the change and stopped buying that brand. I had moved on. Maybe I’ll buy it again, maybe not.

 

I have left the world of Obamacare behind as I am now on Medicare. There is going to be a lot more paperwork since I have traditional Medicare, a supplement policy, and Medicare Part D. 2 companies and 1 government to deal with. Certainly not easier, but once you reach the age of 65 you can no longer buy insurance through the Healthcare Market Exchange. I have to move on.

 

Recently several of our condo neighbors have moved into the retirement apartments or are getting ready to move. It made me think of how much downsizing might be ahead for us. I think I will work on getting rid of more stuff now. Running through my mind is a list of parting candidates, especially framed prints and some furniturer, that will be necessary to get rid of when we live in smaller quarters. This is kind of silly since we may not need to move for 10 years or more; but it doesn’t hurt to think ahead in case we have a sudden change in circumstances.

 

Sometimes change is for the better, sometimes not. However, change is inevitable. What kind of changes have you experienced recently?