Thrive Without Janelle: The Accountability Group

[Absolom]

Thanks, the vase survived!  I'm feeling better this afternoon.  I do have a very small scrape on my face.  I've only done one task on my list.  Maybe tomorrow I can get to two or three more.

Edited December 9 by Absolom

[Chalby]

On 11/4/2024 at 9:32 AM, Absolom said:

They've worked pretty much effortlessly.  I don't know what your budget is, but with the laser you won't have to deal with having to frequently buy the pricey color cartridges so figure that in the cost calculation.

Thanks, I need a printer as some items I prefer to be hard copy. It's to the point where my own bank is charging me $2.50 for any bank statement they mail me. I have to pay to receive a receipt of my money (held in their company) but I'm expected to only use online, yet still pay them a "service charge"?

I send an etransfer, which involves no one's help but I have to pay for the pleasure. That should be an arrangement between the bank and owner of etransfer software.  I still have some cheques BUT some companies are refusing paper payments: cheques, money order, etc. 

I've yet to see a bank having a "bad year". If this was ever announced, I'd immediately demand the list of any manager receiving bonuses. If there are bonuses handed out, there's money.

Oops, sorry absolom. I went off course, and printer talk turned into hatred of banks, 😂 😆 

Edited December 7 by Chalby

[Absolom]

Are you in the UK?  I've been hearing stories of UK banks having lost their minds.  

[Gramto6]

Guess I forgot to hit Submit yesterday. Friday's total steps was 12,176.

Yesterday's total steps were:

13,026.

Tried to get more steps in earlier in the day when I am usually doing more things on the computer. I usually just do the minimum 200/hr until around noon, but I want to steps spread out a little better.

So far no pains, I do notice knees will be stiff first couple of steps when I first stand up after siitting if I sit too long. Another reason to spread the steps out more...

Nothing really planned for the day, but I'm sure I'll keep busy!

[Gramto6]

11,967 steps yesterday.

Slowed down a bit, lap time with Millie cat and even dozed off in the recliner mid day! Knees a touch achey so the rest came well.

The crystal lady messaged me early this morning and wants to make another purchase. So the morning will be spent with her. Other than that, just taking the garbage up the road is all I have planned.

[Gramto6]

11,730 steps yesterday.

The crystal lady was here for 3 hours so not too much walking during that time. She paid by check this time...finally realized it was the better way to pay. I just asked her to mark them "garage sale items/purchase" which she did. So Monday's are going to be on the hectic side again for a while...

I went out to deposit the check and do a tiny grocery run so got some extra steps there. Nothing on agenda today.

[Gramto6]

11,650 steps yesterday.

Spending a little more time sitting, Millie cat gets in my lap the minute I sit so I guess I have been neglecting her. Maybe I do need to slow down a bit. I'll see how today goes. Not much planned for today...

Whelp, my TV died! Also my Dish box is so old it needs upgrading. I've been a Dish customer for 16yrs, made me eligible for a free Hopper upgrade. The tech is coming to install new box tomorrow, but I also think the TV itself died, so I will be taking a trip to town and and get new TV so tech can set up all tomorrow.  Yay for new TV???

[Absolom]

You may be happy with a TV upgrade in resolution and features.

[Gramto6]

3 hours ago, Absolom said:

You may be happy with a TV upgrade in resolution and features.

I got a Samsung 40" 5 series. My first "Smart" TV!! My old one was also a Samsung and lasted a long time. It was only a 33" or somewhere abouts, new one seems soooo much larger!! I can't unbox it alone,  I'm hoping the Dish tech will help me and get it all set up with the new Hopper. I'm going to be playing with my new toys for days I think learning how everything works!!

Meanwhile it is weird not having the TV on in the background. I dug out my old "boom box" the CD and Tape parts are no longer working but the radio part does so at least there is some sounds in the house.

Hoping tomorrow goes smoothly, I hate when there are disruptions like this!!

[Absolom]

You'll love it and find things you can do like cast videos you want to watch to the TV so for longer ones you aren't tied to a device.

[Gramto6]

10,318 steps yesterday. As the day began, I didn't think I'd be getting anywhere near that!

This morning it was hurry up with all the morning chores, only to end up having to wait for Dish tech to arrive. And hope he sets up the TV too...

After that, put things back in their places and try to calm down back to normal activities.

Yesterday morning to add to all the other anxiety, I got rudely awakened by a message on my phone.  (I keep it by my bed, have had it close ever since DD became a Police officer yrs ago in case of emergency) Anyway, the beep beep woke me from a sound sleep 1/2 way through a dream. There was a lament, from the crystal lady, literally 3+" long about how she felt I was being mean to her charging what I did for the last crystals.That I had promised low prices etc.  What did she do to make me turn on her...HUH???  I had told her weeks ago what was left was high end material. Even so she got them for far less than I paid. She went on about how I wasn't being fair to her... OMG!! she agreed to every price I charged her!  It was just a rough start to what turned out to be a worse day all around!!  I'm not forcing her to buy from me, if she is unhappy, just try to buy similar items for what I am charging elsewhere, please do!!! ARRGGGHHH And to text all this at 6:15 AM ..... I felt bad that she felt this way, but I also felt I was more that fair with her. I have yet to reply to her. It put me in a very depressed place for most of the morning. A place I have been before, that never ends well.........  /rant. Sorry just needed to get it out!

Edited December 12 by Gramto6
added on to post

[Gramto6]

10,987 steps yesterday.

A little over 2 hours was spent with the Dish tech getting new TV set up and the new Hopper box installed and then learning how the controller works. Nice to have it all set up now. Now my challenge is remembering how everything works and getting in the habit of using all the new features!

Rest of the day was just the regular things. Today my friend is coming over with her old foam mattress topper and we're going to cut it down for a topper for the cat platform and for inside some of the boxes in their "house". So probably not much more walking than yesterday.
 

[Absolom]

I hope you enoy the all new viewing experience.  It will hopefully be super convenient for you.  

Luxury for the kitties. Go for it!  

[Gramto6]

11,257 steps yesterday.

More than I expected what with the work in the cat's house and rebuilding their shelter on the side porch. We got the foam topper cut to size for the platform and then rearranged the area some. Then some planning for window shelves with the left over pad on them for the cats to sit on in the sun and be able to see out. A place for them to get up off the ground. My cats love to climb trees so they should like this.  Short platforms for them to climb up the wall to the shelf and on the other end to climb down. We have enough for the two large windows. Not sure how soon it will be done, depends on how my friend is feeling. She still has good days and bad days.  After the work we visited inside for a while and had a nice day. I needed that time!

Just inside chores today, laundry etc. Still need to figure out all the ins and outs of the new Hopper controller for the TV so that is a plan too for today.  I am almost mesmerized by the new TV, the picture is so much better, of course larger and all around awesome!  I can't wait to watch some of my Amazon Prime shows on it!! And I've never had the ability to record and watch later...nothing new to most of you I expect, but I just never upgraded until now  and it was a loyalty bonus for free!!

[OlderThanDirt]

Congrats on the new video system.  I think you'll be amazed by how wonderful it is to record shows so you can zip thru commercials.  Even starting 15 minutes after the show starts is so rewarding. 

[Denize]

23 minutes ago, OlderThanDirt said:

Congrats on the new video system.  I think you'll be amazed by how wonderful it is to record shows so you can zip thru commercials.  Even starting 15 minutes after the show starts is so rewarding. 

I've been doing this for years to zip past commercials & boring bits, like the nth flashback of the same scene we're sick of on Sister Wives. On the "More to Love" episodes, which only have 2-3 new bits, I FFwd to where the "Bonus Scene" box apperars in the corner.  60 minutes reduced to ~3 minutes to watch.

On my Samsung Smart TV I also enjoy watching the free Youtube channel, including videos & livestreams of cats such as "TinyKittens HQ" which focuses on ferals in British Columbia.

Edited December 15 by Denize

[Absolom]

I love Tiny Kittens. I wish I lived closer.

[Absolom]

I've had to either not walk today or walk in the house due to digestive issues.  I'm getting a little tolerance for it. I can go barely 5 minutes at a time so I'm trying to do that every half hour to an hour at least part of the day.  This definitely will not be my preferred routine, but it's good to see I can increase the tolerance somewhat.  I'm over 2 miles.

[Yeah No]

On 12/14/2024 at 11:22 AM, Gramto6 said:

Just inside chores today, laundry etc. Still need to figure out all the ins and outs of the new Hopper controller for the TV so that is a plan too for today.  I am almost mesmerized by the new TV, the picture is so much better, of course larger and all around awesome!  I can't wait to watch some of my Amazon Prime shows on it!! And I've never had the ability to record and watch later...nothing new to most of you I expect, but I just never upgraded until now  and it was a loyalty bonus for free!!

Wow, I didn't realize you were watching everything live! I think the last time I did that was sometime back in the '80s, lol. Only then it was with a VCR and a tube TV. I got my first flat screen TV in 2005. It was 42 inches. I replaced that in 2013 with a 60" flat screen. It was a Smart TV when I got it but Panasonic decided to get out of the TV business in the US so the "smart" part of it was unsupported after a few years. But that hasn't been a problem. My cable company (Comcast) gives us a lot of free streaming channels and other freebies like YouTube plus the ability to connect to many more with additional subscriptions. I also have Roku and Chromecast but I tend not to need them that much anymore with all I get from Comcast.

I still love my TV after over a decade. It's one of the rare last plasma TVs ever made. Some experts say the picture quality is better than the more common LCD TVs. I tend to agree. I think they were phased out because of the cost of making them. My husband and I would be very upset if something happened to this one. We used to have our old TV in our bedroom but we actually didn't use it that much. We watch most of the same shows and the ones we don't watch together we watch when the other isn't around.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy your new setup!

[Gramto6]

Yep all watching up to now was live!   I've finally dragged myself out of the dark ages!! LOL!

I am amazed at the picture quality! I have to learn how to use the Hopper, it is a real learning curve for me, as I've never had any type of recording device before. Last night was my first ever recording, SW of course! I have not mastered the controller yet to find all the options available. I set Record New and Reruns and I see I now have the 4 or 5 shows that reran yesterday also. 

Newbie question: Once the Hopper records a rerun does it do it again every time it runs? Or does it recognize it already has it recorded?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

10,309 steps yesterday.

Took it a bit slower, the grocery run added some steps. No leg cramps last night so think I'll go with the same plan for today.

Garbage up to the road, some snow clearing is about all that is on the agenda.

Well, maybe a visit from the crystal lady. If she shows up. She sent another long missive Sat. morning lamenting and blaming, kind of sick of it. As my dear ole dad used to say "$hit or get off the pot". This wishy washy I can't sell them (at practically give away prices) I can't afford the better stuff for what it's worth, I need it to be Cheap, but I'm not selling them, these I'm keeping.  Sheesh!! get a grip woman! She has no clue how a business works...

[Yeah No]

20 hours ago, Gramto6 said:

I set Record New and Reruns and I see I now have the 4 or 5 shows that reran yesterday also. 

Newbie question: Once the Hopper records a rerun does it do it again every time it runs? Or does it recognize it already has it recorded?

I don't have a Hopper but every DVR I've ever had records the same repeats multiple times creating duplicate episodes if you set it to record new and repeats. I have to set "America's Test Kitchen" to record new and repeats because for some reason I've never understood, every episode shows up on my guide as a repeat. I go through the recording schedule and cancel the individual recordings I've seen before they occur. I also cancel episodes with recipes I'm not interested in. I'm sure the Hopper has a similar feature.

When you set it to record new episodes only, though, it won't record duplicate episodes.

BTW, I just checked with Google and the Hopper does work the way I described above. 

[Gramto6]

Thanks @Yeah No, I haven't gotten to hitting google for questions yet. I thought since most here seem to record, I could get a quick answer. I appreciate it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

10,294 steps yesterday.

Ran a couple of errands and took up the garbage to the road. Didn't plan on the errands but since the crystal lady was a no-show, decided to get them done yesterday and free up the rest of the week.

Backing off a little seems to have helped the nighttime leg cramps. None since I went down a couple thousand steps. Seems like my spot for now anyway.

[Gramto6]

10,549 steps yesterday.

Feeling OK so I guess this is a good number for the time being. I really don't want to push it so this works.

After crystal lady, just some chores around the house and probably a laundry, not much else.

Had a talk with crystal lady while she was here re pricing and fairness to me also. She agreed (surprise!) and she shopped a much more reservedly. We agreed to wait until the first of the year for any other visits. I need the break so that is a good thing.

 

I was looking at my recordings on my Hopper yesterday, SW is all I have recorded and noticed that in the to be recorded, the duplicates of reruns I had recorder that are upcoming, had a line through them and are marked already recorded. So it doesn't record reruns over and over again! Yay, one less thing I have to worry about!

[Denize]

That is handy that duplicates are crossed out, since it is often hard to tell if you haven't watched an episode before when half of each show consists of previews, re-views and flashbacks that we have seen multiple times in previous shows.

Edited Wednesday at 05:43 PM by Denize

[Gramto6]

11,622 steps yesterday.

Wow! What a day yesterday was! The crystal lady was like a different person! She just tossed off all the hurtful messages as nothing..."Oh I didn't mean to send those... it was the Retrograde and the full Moon that had me upset." Um, OK??? This woman has some serious problems, her personality flips, almost a multiple personality. 

I apologized that I basically gave away things at first, and then realized I couldn't keep doing that and be fair to myself.  I told her that pricing won't be "give away" amounts any more but still well below wholesale. She seemed to understand. I did get my book back and the payment owed. She purchased a few small items and then had to go open her shop. I suggested we wait until after the first of the year to meet again. I am not going to budge on any pricing and hopefully that will be it. I won't be rude and just tell her not to come back, but I think the more fair (to me) pricing will keep her away.

All this before 9am in the morning!! The rest of the day I just did some small chores and started doing some pricing on what I have in stock so I know exactly what each lot cost me, rather than "eyeballing" a price, for future reference when selling to her or anyone else. 

All I plan otherwise for today is just some housework and tidying in the cat house. 

[Gramto6]

10,871 steps yesterday. Seems to be a good spot, no aches or pains at this rate so far.

Not much planned for today. other than Chewy order arrives today with 3 big boxes to unpack. They are doing great delivery wise so far this season. Packages shipped yesterday from Reno NV delivery here today. Fed EX is better at this point than Amazon by a long shot.

I read there is a big strike somewhere in the Amazon delivery hubs, so delivery could be an issue, don't remember where, it was an article that fell behind a paywall before I could read it all. Guess a Google  search is in order as I have a couple of orders in the pipeline.

[Absolom]

My Amazon orders are generally doing fine.  Their website has been unusable at points though. We had a very late Chewy order the week after Thanksgiving that was two identical boxes and even being almost a week late was still split over two Fedex deliveries.  I blamed Black Friday ordering.

[Gramto6]

I miss the old days of 2 day delivery for Amazon Prime members!!

Chewy is pretty consistent with deliveries to here except in the dead of Winter. It comes from Reno and takes a Northern route through Boise ID and often hits bad snow areas. The rest of the year they are 2 day deliveries at most except over a weekend.

[Absolom]

I think the supplier may have been the issue for ours. I ordered two boxes of puppy fence telling her Merry Christmas I bought you a prison.  The fencing and hedging of their yard is not adequate to contain Miss Rowdy and Curious. She goes flat and swims under furniture. She uses the ottoman as a vaulting horse. Her daddy is an agility champion so puppy fence it is.  I ordered it on Wednesday before Thanksgiving I think.  They had only picked her up on Tuesday.  I think the fence manufacturer took a long weekend and didn't actually turn it over to Fedex until Monday or maybe even Tuesday.  We found it was something Chewy doesn't keep in their warehouse.  It's understandable but my order showed an expected BlackFriday delivery and she was going nuts by the time the fence actually got there over a week after ordering. She loves her play yard now that she has it. It's done so well that I've sent them another box of fence. 

[Absolom]

2 hours ago, Gramto6 said:

I miss the old days of 2 day delivery for Amazon Prime members!!

I get same day sometimes, but I'm in SoCal.

[Gramto6]

10 hours ago, Absolom said:

I get same day sometimes, but I'm in SoCal.

My dd often gets delivery same day too, she is about 35 miles from their Warehouse in NorCal.  I don't think there is even one in MT!

[Absolom]

I ordered some things a few hours ago with delivery between 4 and 8 tomorrow (Saturday).  I'm maybe 5 to 10 miles from the local warehouse.  The first time I saw same day service was ordering some specialty (at the time) bamboo diapers and water only baby wipes while helping my daughter in LA.  We thought OK, it will be a couple of days, we'll survive with old fashioned cloth diapers and cotton balls and washcloths. We had figured out both granddaughter's screaming hysteria over every diaper change and her constant eczema/diaper rash.  She was allergic to both baby wipes AND every disposable diaper we tried.  If there was ever a delivery to be surprised by getting it in two hours, it was a great one.  It was when they were just doing a trial of same day deliver so it wasn't even an option on the checkout screen. We heard the thud of two boxes on the front porch and we both were how did that happen.  These days you can buy both those items in a store.  We could only find them online..

I have a friend who lives in northern Maine and says some orders of common items take a week or more. I'm far too spoiled for that.

Edited Saturday at 06:51 AM by Absolom

[Gramto6]

10,861 steps yesterday.

Doing laundry always adds steps and then a couple errands (I wanted to get crystal lady's check deposited) helped too. I did do a fair amount of sitting though. Then late afternoon my friend called and asked if I wanted to go into town with her and have a coffee at a new little place and go to the PO. Sounded fun and so I went. We walked around town some and had a nice outing that gained me probably 1.500 steps to boot!

Nothing on agenda today but that is always subject to change...

site is all messed up on my computer this morning, hope this posts

[Gramto6]

11,504 steps yesteday.

More than expected. I've been trying to walk a bit more in the morning hours instead of evening. I normally do my computer things and basic chores in the morning so I trying to spread them out over the day to get more steps in early. Seems more balanced that way.

Need to do some tiding up in the kitty's house today and break down the mound of Chewy boxes that have accumulated. It looks like a distribution center for Chewy in the other half of the garage!

[Yeah No]

On 12/16/2024 at 12:16 PM, Gramto6 said:

Took it a bit slower, the grocery run added some steps. No leg cramps last night so think I'll go with the same plan for today.

Did you know that leg cramps at night can be caused by not having enough potassium? I just found that out a few months ago and since I've been taking the supplements the leg cramps have gone away. No wonder my grandma was so into taking potassium!

[Gramto6]

5,944 steps yesterday.

Most of those were before I hurt myself. I expect the next few days to be much the same. 

I had an accident yesterday. I was moving my old TV, turned it upside down to remove the stand in order to fit it into a box to put out in the garage for now and I lost my grip and it slammed down my left shin ripping the skin as it went. I was afraid it was down to bone so went to urgent care to have it checked out. Fortunately it didn't get down to bone so she stitched me up, 11 stitches, gave me a tetanus shot, and a rx for two different antibiotics. Had it been down to bone, I would have been sent to emergency for x-rays and further treatment. Thank goodness it wasn't! It is still pretty darned sore this morning!!

This is definitely going to slow down my walking!! Darn and I was really getting in a good place with it too! I'm going to take it easy, but sure hope to be able to get back to normal sooner rather than later.

Garbage up to the top of the road is all that is on the agenda today.

 

 

Edited 1 hour ago by Gramto6
typo