Random 5 for March 22, 2026 – Weather, taxes, facilities, clutter, old people

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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 15th. 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.

33 thoughts on “Random 5 for March 22, 2026 – Weather, taxes, facilities, clutter, old people”

  1. I’m following your next/last move journey with interest. Like you, we aren’t quite ready but it seems like a good idea to scope out options.

    We’ve had some interesting weather here. The last several days were much hotter than usual and today it’s comfortable again. We just pulled some ripe cherry tomatoes off our volunteer bush… yum! Tastes like summer!

    Sorry about your troubles with WP. I don’t get why they keep making changes… for the worse, in most cases. Just leave us hobby bloggers alone!

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  3. I hope you aren’t dealing with a scam. I have a free account at WordPress. For a couple of months I’ve gotten notices that my credit card is not working, and I will soon be thrown out. They’ve never had my credit card!!

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  6. The weather here is glorious. My taxes are DONE & DUSTED. Yippee!

    Life is good . . . or was . . . until I heard that you are being cancelled by WP.

    Hope you can get that sorted and get your revised 1099 and get some spring-like temps soon. Give Sasha & Gus a treat from me.

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  8. NOOOOO – don’t go away! I heard one other WordPress-er say they’d had blog problems this past week…..years ago when I looked for a place to start a FREE blog I chose WordPress….. didn’t pay for a domain – I’m a cheapie – everything is free…..I don’t know if they’re gonna mess with me or not. If they do, I may just retire. Heaven knows I’m old enough to! As for your visits to continuous care facilities – I’m trying to talk my guy into that – sadly there are NO places in our town or our nearby area and we love it here. (insert heavy sigh here). Getting old isn’t easy is it. Keep us posted and hope you get the blog issues worked out!

    Hugs, Pam

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    • The WP issues I don’t understand. I haven’t heard back from them yet but it’s Sunday. Don’t know if they staff CS on Sundays. Making living decisions isn’t easy. If we had unlimited funds and could get help when we can no longer do things ourselves, I don’t know what decision we would make.

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  10. I agree, Kate! We hobbyists ARE being left in the dust. Some people are migrating to Substack but I fear it’s only a matter of time before the same thing happens there. Anyways, good on you for looking into potential next accommodations in your life NOW before it could become a necessity and urgent. That is very wise.

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  11. Gah…we certainly hope you continue to be found. You’re right WP has been a bit of a pill lately. It’s exhausting. The Block editor was bad enough but some of the other little things are starting to add up.

    With me and my siblings moving my dad into a senior independent care facility, I know what you mean about decisions needing to be made. It’s different with each person and you just have to take the good with the not so good outcomes. Hopefully you won’t be making that final decision for a while and that spring finally arrives and stays. We were jettisoned into summer this week. Was. not. ready. (or happy) about. that!

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    • I could use a touch of summer just about now! Still cool here. I never migrated to block editor. I had too much trouble with photos so I bookmarked the classic. So far they’ve let me use it. I don’t know why WP has become so complicated lately.

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  12. I think about how old people look too, and forget I’m 70. My body knows I’m 70, but my mind does not. It always surprises me when I think others are old, and realize I’m getting up there too,

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  14. I don’t understand why the blogging entities feel compelled to make it hard for bloggers. But they do. I only know Blogger and WP. Both have sold me down the river…especially WP.

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