Not here!

She did it again – We were predicted to have a “warm” (relatively speaking) weekend and Mother Nature disappointed us. Yesterday was not warm. It wasn’t even average temperatures. Today is supposed to be the “jewel” of the week hitting the 70s. It’s cloudy. The kind of cloudy with no sun peeking through so I’m not convinced we’ll see it. We won’t see warmer weather after today (if indeed it gets out of the 50s) until April. March is a tough month. Although it’s warmer than January or February, I’m so sick of the cold that I want to sleep through it.

On another whiny note – I received a notice in early February that one of the 1099s for my income taxes is wrong. They are making a correction. I haven’t seen it yet. It’s been six weeks. These forms are computer generated. Slip in the new number and update. Easy peasy except they still haven’t made it available. It’s not a matter of slow postal service. I will download it from their website and it’s not there yet. I feel a cranky call coming this week. Taxes are due April 15^th. I don’t like to spend any beautiful April days pouring over numbers. There is always a quagmire or two when I do them. I hate taxes.

The highlight of the week – We visited another continuous care facility this week. We looked at four independent care apartments. One was too small for both of us (we would kill each other) and may even be too small for me alone. Another was ok for me but not for both of us. There was at least one that was “just right.” Moving to a place like this involves a lot of compromise and adjustments. In exchange for guaranteed care for the rest of your life, you give up comfort things like a garage or carport for your car. If you happen to make an early morning coffee run, you need to scrap the frost off your windshield in the winter. Mail is in another part of the building and not at the end of your driveway (which you don’t have). There are a lot of positives and as you age the idea is that the positives become more important than the negatives. The question is always, when is the right age.

Another take-away from that – The apartments we saw are occupied. Residents volunteered to open their homes for potential clients. They were beautifully furnished. Furniture fit and was appropriately sized. Something I’ve seen in my travels in these communities is that people don’t downsize enough. They take too much stuff to the new place and have lots of unattractive clutter. Sometimes the furniture is too big for the space. Having downsized once, I know how hard it is to make decisions. What will you need? What is special to you? Mostly nothing! (Except for the cats! Always take the cats!)

Just one more thing – As we waited for our group to gather, I said to the beloved husband, “These are all old people!” There were no canes, walkers or wheelchairs. Lots of gray heads and if there were health challenges, they weren’t visible. They were people like us. It was like looking in a mirror except my mirror shows me as a younger person.

So how was your week?

Editor’s note: WordPress has been giving me issues lately. Today it said my domain has been canceled (despite being on autopay). My account is being suspended so today may be my last day. When I started blogging in 2011, WordPress was a wonderful platform to just write. I wasn’t looking to monetize, promote or sell. It seems they are expanding to allow broader usage but also leaving us hobby writers in the dust. This may get resolved or may not. Just in case you can’t find me, that’s the story.