Random 5 for November 14, 2021 – Charities, phones, neighbors, cost, renovation

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It’s that time! – I’m getting besieged by fund raising gifts. Being old school, I feel guilt when I throw out something “good.” Yet I’m getting things I’d never use and can’t be donated. I wish the charities would use the money on doing good work rather than enticing me to donate more by sending me junk.

Goodbye sweet phone – My phone died this week. It took ten minutes to order a mocha latte. I knew it was time. As with everything else, inventory is down. You can’t get what you really want so you make do. Hope this doesn’t come around to bite me.

People are a hoot – I have a chatty neighbor. He’s retired with excess time so his paragraphs have excess words. I enjoy him but a five minute conversation could take a half hour. Maybe longer. He’s an interesting guy so I have to make sure I have the time when I ask him how he is because he will tell me in great detail.

Murphy comes to visit – Without a functioning kitchen we had made plans to get ribs from a food truck. This is the last weekend the truck is open until spring. I’m not a fan of their side dishes so I picked up a side at a grocery store. I was shocked. Three servings of mashed potatoes cost more than five pounds of potatoes. Way more. I had to “make” myself buy them. Later when we went to the food truck, they didn’t have ribs. Now I have $$ mashed potatoes and no ribs. There is a chance they’ll have them today. It’s their last day. Otherwise we are having expensive taters for dinner!

Kitchen update – All the cabinets and appliances are out. It’s only been three days but it seems like it’s been going on forever. Without a good sink on the first floor we are using paper or plastic plates. Transitioning the cats was a little harder than I expected as the plates slip around. I’ve come up with a good method that’s working and they seem to be happy. At least for now. After all they are cats.

So how was your week?

64 thoughts on “Random 5 for November 14, 2021 – Charities, phones, neighbors, cost, renovation”

  1. Hope the ribs finally paired with the $$$ potatoes and the food truck got restocked. If not, there iss always KFC. They have the roasted chickens at my grocery store – they are a hot item (literally and figuratively). I haven’t bought them since it has been just me, but they can never keep the rotisserie area filled – as soon as they put them out, people rush over to grab one like it’s a blue light special (oops, just dated myself there).

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  5. The food truck sounds fun, interesting and delicious!
    Being stuck with mashed potatoes kinda works for me, they are my favorite food. SSNS makes potato cakes out of them and that is a good thing! Hope you got the ribs. The supply thing is ridiculous… hope your new phone does the trick for you.

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  6. I’m with you about the charity stuff! We have a specific set of charities we give to – they are for things that are important to us, and we have checked them out on one of the charity rating websites. I wish the other places wouldn’t send stuff out and would use their money for their charity.
    Hope you got the ribs! Although you do have some mashed potatoes that should be pretty awesome 🙂

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  7. One of my favorite neighbors is very chatty. I really enjoy talking to her, but it’s hard to get her to finish a conversation without going on to a bunch of other topics.

    I hope you got your ribs to go along with your mashed potatoes.

    I’m trying to change the types of charities I give to and concentrate more on climate change problems. I should cancel some of the automatic-every-month donations I give first, I suppose.

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    • I focus on animal rescue (no big surprise). I research carefully and never respond to a request when I’m not familiar with the organization. I always have to think twice before saying hi to my neighbor. I have to have the “time.”

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  8. My phone is kinda old, and I am hoping keeps doing its thing for a bit longer. Shopping for a phone is not my idea of a good time. As for chatty types, I think I am channeling my mother…she could talk for hours!

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  10. I’m sure that being without a kitchen compounds the need for lots of expensive takeout food, but what can you do? When I was much, much younger, as in the children were babies, we remodeled a kitchen as we were also adding on to the house. I was confined to a very small space. I would give a child a bath and then have to take our dishes and use the same bathtub. I didn’t have options, or didn’t think I did, so we made do. The idea of doing that now is appalling to me. LOL! If you’re making any headway with the cats, you’re doing great! And you’re going to have a wonderful kitchen! 🙂

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  11. I know exactly what you mean about upgrading phones. I went into my carrier’s brick & mortar location and discovered all their currently running ads are at the least misleading (don’t you hate the teeny, tiny small print?). They don’t want to give you anything for your trade-in unless you have the most expensive plan plus delivery set for late December. So I went around them, got a better deal online, picked the phone up at the Apple store the same day and actually got it all set up without help (aka a grandkid). Rather proud of myself for figuring it out but not sure yet if the latest and greatest is worth the obscene cost. Still the old phone was 3 years old and just waiting to go south. I’ll tentatively call it a ‘qualified win’ at this point-that is until the credit card bill comes in. {gulp}

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  12. Sounds like you’ve had your hands full. Slipping plates, gold-plated taters, and someone that talks your ear off.

    My brother, bless his heart, is the same way. He can call, or drop by, and I feel like I have taken a 10 miles forced march when it’s over. Just mentally drained. Michelle can be the same way. She will start to tell you about something, and she has to give the history of all involved, before she gets to the point.

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    • Once in a while my husband goes down that path. I call him Edith Bunker and he gets to the point. Had the taters for supper and they were pretty damn good. Probably made with cream. We have 1% milk in the house so our mashed are made with that.

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  14. I like to use the calendars to keep track of my timelines while writing. My mother loves the fuzzy socks I get in the mail. I guess the old saying “One persons trash is another persons treasure” still holds true. As for mashed potatoes…I could eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

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    • Some years I have 20 calendars. I would give them away when I worked but I don’t have access to people who want them anymore. One pair of really cheap fuzzy socks this year. Really thin. What is it about mashed potatoes? I love them too. Anytime, anyway.

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  15. We have been getting tons of calls for donations. They always ask for my husband because he’s the softie. Lately I’ve been pretending that I am my husband and politely ask them to take our name off their call list. It doesn’t work.

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  18. I have a neighbour who LOVES those charity freebees but is never sent them. So mine go right from my front door to hers. Win-win!
    Good luck with your remaining days of construction.
    BTW – I’d be more than happy to eat just mashed potatoes for dinner. Just sayin’!! 😀

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  21. Things are weird everywhere – food prices are amazing. Eating out is a major financial commitment. And again with the signs in the grocery about toilet paper?? We are transitioning from one challenge to another. Makes us learn new ways to do things – kicking and screaming but it’s not like we have much of a choice. Glad the reno is moving along!!

    Hugs, Pam

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