Random 5 for June 22, 2025 – Guests, wills, transitions, swamp ass weather, technology

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Sasha spent significant time here watching but not joining.

The house is quiet – Our houseguests are gone. Sasha is back to ruling everyone. Routine reigns.

Swamp ass weather – This week will be our first real “swamp ass” weather this year. High temperatures and high humidity will give us feel-like temps of well over 100 degrees. It’s a good week for a pool. Being outside without one, not so much.

Wills and stuff – We’ve been working on getting our last will and testament together. No one wants to do it. This week we have a read through of what we worked on at our last meeting. If we’re lucky, we can sign and put this behind us. At most, it will only take a few tweaks. This has been a chore for me. It did spur me to do a lot of downsizing this spring (still on that mission!).

Stages of life – I can feel myself moving through a different stage in life. Things I used to enjoy don’t bring the same joy to my life. I’ve reverted to imagining them in my head instead and that’s just fine. You don’t understand this until you experience it. I’m a lot less people oriented and thoroughly enjoy a quiet life (which may appear boring to the casual observer).

Techie update – We have continued to upgrade our technology. Earlier this year we bought new spiffy smartphones. We have upgraded our front door lock with a new one that interacts with our spiffy new smartphones. Then we added a ring doorbell that records visitors. Did we need all this? Probably not. We are enjoying the convenience though. TV streaming has gotten easier although there are some features with standard cable that are easier (just not the cost). One thing is certain. When technology works, it’s wonderful. When it doesn’t, it’s very frustrating.

So how was your week?

50 thoughts on “Random 5 for June 22, 2025 – Guests, wills, transitions, swamp ass weather, technology”

  1. Glad your techie update is working out! Those techno door longs and ring doorbells are definitely convenient! So glad Sasha is able to come back out and resume her rightful place in charge of everyone 🙂

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  2. No doubt all the kitties are happier to have their house and regular routine back. It’s funny how just a tiny change can upset the applecart. Kudos on your tech upgrades. You’re so right about technology being great…when it works. Hope the swamp drains soon. While we had hotter than Haddes temps, the humidity was in the single digits or just over.

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  3. Simple is the name of the game at a certain point in life isn’t it. We’ve been in that groove in the road for quite a while now. Less activity, more home and quiet………we aren’t hermits but we have downsized the craziness a lot and it feels fine. We are one of the few we know who don’t have a “SMART” home or the associated gadgets. I have enough problem remembering my phone number much less how to operate “stuff” !! LOL Anyway, here’s to a HOT summer…….our “feels like” temp today is supposed to be 105!

    Hugs, Pam

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    • As you get older, less is more. At least for us. We have friends that enjoy taking off in an RV for a half year but that’s not for us. As for the smart home stuff, we did it for a number of reasons and there is a learning curve. We had trouble setting the lock up on my husband’s phone (my phone was easy). This weekend our granddaughter was here and she did it in 5 minutes. She explained what she did as our eyes were glazing over. Sometimes I wish I had grown up with technology but we grew up in a wonderful time!

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  5. You are way ahead of me tech wise Kate – sigh. Right now I am having issues accessing various sites and accounts and even though I have a Malwarebytes subscription with robust antivirus protection and a VPN, I have a half-dozen sites I have to turn off the VPN to access it … WordPress is one of them. So what purpose does the VPN serve?

    I think I mentioned I did the will and trust last year – not fun at all and now have a looseleaf binder full of documents and paperwork that he gave me when it was over. I still have to get the sign for the fridge to contact the attorney in an emergency, plus to note there is a DNR order and I’m an organ donor, but I prefer to not think of those things right now.

    I never heard of “swamp ass” weather, but yes, it feels as hot and humid as a swamp – ugh. It’s day one for us and it’s 85 degrees at 10:40 and two more days of extreme heat, then high 80s and 90s again for next week, stormy every day. I am not walking in the heat, even if there’s a breeze. Mother Nature is on a tear to be sure.

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    • Same weather here. I filled the bird baths to the top yesterday so the wildlife has water. Wills aren’t fun. I’ll be glad when it’s over. You may be ahead of me as I’m not sure what the subscription you have is for exactly.

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      • It is miserably hot – even in the house with the A/C running. I have a sweater on for when it runs, but it shuts off and then it’s hot. It’s like having a hot flash. 🙂 I was glad when the will/trust, etc. was over too. I always had Malwarebytes for virus protection. I worked from home for years and my boss would click anything and everything and got us malware a few times, so I got a paid subscription – now I have a VPN after I was part of the AT&T data breach. I have an AT&T landline and AT&T cellphone, so they have my bank info, credit info – great and they didn’t pay for credit monitoring unlike other big companies that have data breaches. But the VPN is weird sometimes and restricts where I can go as it says it is an unsafe site, even when I click “safe, don’t exclude” … then I have to contact them and have them fix it. Technology is too much sometimes.

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          • We had a stormy day today and it was still 95 with a heat index of 105 when the storms began rolling in. I shut off the A/C to avoid a lightning strike so I put on the fan – due to the thunder and lightning, the A/C was off about 90 or so minutes and it got to 79 in the house. The tower fan worked well, but it was not helping if you stepped away from it. I kept changing clothes again – sweats and a turtleneck for the A/C and my lightest clothing for the fan, then back to warm clothes when I put the A/C back on. So we do this same drill again Wednesday and Thursday. I may be ready for Fall!

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            • How cold do you keep it with the A/C? I don’t need a turtleneck! Today is hopefully our last superhot day but next week we will hit close to 90 almost every day. Better than 99 though.

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              • I just keep it at 76 most of the time but where I sit (have to sit outlet wise) it is near the register. It’s not bad in the Winter as I keep it at 73 (74 when colder), but it gets freezing cold on one side. We had a storm predicted this afternoon – so I shut off the A/C, changed into shorts and a top and put on the fan and it got to 77 within 15 minutes and the storm never happened. Same for us – this is just too hot to be comfortable and I’ve not been walking either.

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  6. Congratulations on your techie upgrades. I’m getting lazier and lazier about keeping up-to-date with tech. When I was getting ready to publish a book, I had to figure out how to do lots of things I’d never done before. Now I can get by with what I already know. Eventually I’ll be sorry.

    I also stay home a lot these days. It’s as though I can’t think of things I want to do. My late husband was very good at organizing our social life.

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    • The upgrades made life easier in some ways but for sure there is a learning curve that I sometimes don’t want to do. Today I will play mahjong. Not sure what my husband will do. Way too hot to do anything outside. We went from mid 60s weather directly to bouncing near 100.

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  8. Doing your wills is never fun exactly but good to have it done. We’ve toyed with an upgraded to our front door lock and maybe a ring doorbell. Can’t decide if it’s all hype or would be a good security measure.

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    • We like it. We get an alert from Ring when someone is coming up the front walkway. We can also lock the door with our cell. Both seem silly but we like these features more than we thought we would. We replaced the side windows on the door with glass that you can’t see through so you can’t see who is at the front door until you open it.

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  9. At this point in my life I enjoy time at home and day trips. The thought of taking a long vacation seems stressful and tiring. I enjoyed that when I was younger.

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  10. I can really relate to the whole Stages of Life thing. I still like to travel (or, maybe I should say that I like to visit interesting places… not so much the actual traveling) but I’m less motivated to plan. I think I’ve entered the pre-planned, small tour group stage.

    I’m glad that Sasha survived the guests. Next time you might be more considerate and insist that they stay in a hotel… and not come to the house at all. Sheeesh.

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    • She probably slipped them a note about that! 🙂 Pre-planned and small group would be a great way to go. I had some friends do 6 weeks in Europe over several countries by themselves and it seemed like a lot of work to me.

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  11. Sasha is adorable at her little door!
    Kate, I can totally relate to your Stages of Life paragraph.
    I think we should get a Ring to play with but we have a full view double wood front door and we see all! Some things we don’t want to see… Ha!
    We did the wills and stuff in 2020 and they already need updating. It WAS a chore and I hated it.
    Our week was HOT, HUMID and stormy! It was wonderful to sit out on the lanai and watch the rain bust our drought.

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    • Sasha was more visible this time around. The guests were quiet so she was more willing to investigate. Today was supposed to be our first super hot humid day. Start of a dry week. It hasn’t been hot yet and it’s been raining off and on all day. So much for forecasts! It’s 87 so not too bad although it is humid. We had full view sidelights which we traded out when we got the new front door. People could see right through our house to the family room. I miss being able to see out but at least they can’t see in and I have Ring. I wish I could have gotten a glass that I could see out but no one could see in.

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  13. I always loved to travel, but now the mind thinks about it but the body and the heart aren’t in it – too much hassle. The way things are right now, the idea of going to another country just doesn’t interest me in the least. I’ve been fairly social lately, and I need to back that off a bit too. Wicked weather tomorrow and Tuesday, and then it evens out a little. It’s like a swamp out there right now – real feel of 86 going up to 92 by mid afternoon. I’m thinking A/C, ceiling fans, and a good movie.

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    • It was expected to be a super hot day today but we are getting rain and thunderstorms. It’s not pleasant but the temps are climbing as expected. Maybe tomorrow. I did a lot of traveling in my youth and that satisfied my need. Except for the beach!

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  14. We’re doing our wills too ~ plus POA’s, Healthcare Surrogates, Living Wills, etc. The ones we have are 35 years old and not as relevant since parents are gone and the next generation are now in their 30’s. Those years flew by in a flash!

    I’ve been reviewing Charities on Charity Navigator for possible bequests. The top salaries of so many charities just make them a NO in my book even if the charity has a 4 star rating and a good score. By way of example, the top 5 salaries at St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital total $5 million a year. They don’t need my money. In contrast, the top 5 salaries at Ronald McDonald House Charities, Inc. total $0. The 5 directors are working for FREE because they believe in the mission. That makes me believe in it too. 😀

    Some other good ones: Vegetarian Resource Group, Green America, Humane Farming, Earth Share, Meals on Wheels (Sarasota), Habitat for Humanity (Salisbury MD), Old Salem, Inc., and Rebuilding Together (here in Gainesville). Each of them have multiple directors/officers who CHOOSE to do the work for NO or LOW compensation, leaving more for the mission.

    As they say, actions speak louder than words!

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  17. I love Sasha’s little cat door! That’s what I want for our bedroom. When I leave the door cracked so the cat can go in and out at night, the dog will bash it open. Then his exuberance wakes us up. Especially his tail.

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  18. I’m a lot less interested in travel than I used to be. Too much hassle, not to mention the difficulty of caring for pets and fosters while we’re away. My life looks a lot more boring from the outside as well, with dabs of rescue drama to keep things interesting.

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