Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Car Service on Monday

Today, I woke up a little after 10:00 a.m. (after going to sleep at 4:30 a.m.).  After I replied to blog comments and commented on a couple of other blogs, I reviewed my up coming appointments for August.  So far, I have four medical appointments, on 8/2, 8/15, 8/17, and 8/22 (for endoscopy/colonoscopy) and one appointment with my financial planner, on 8/6, and I need to make a dental appointment and an appointment to hand in my retirement papers before the end of the month!

Then, I called and made an appointment to take my car in for a service at 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon.  After that, I rinsed the dishes and loaded the dishwasher and washed a few other items by hand, swept the bathroom, and took a shower. 

The car service took 1 1/4 hours.  I waited in the waiting room.  It was nicely air conditioned there, with a TV, free bottled water, and coffee; I helped myself to a bottle of water and did some crossword puzzles and watched a little TV while I waited.  They said that everything was fine with the car, which was good to hear.

On the way back, I stopped at the smaller Armenian store (near my dentist's office) and bought a loaf of bread ($1.50).  I debated going in to the dentist's office to book an appointment to have my teeth cleaned, but I was getting hungry by then (it was around 4:30 p.m. and I hadn't eaten anything other than some almonds I had taken with me to snack on at the waiting room) and I just wanted to go home.  I decided I will call the dental clinic and book an appointment over the phone, instead.

Came home, ate some of the bread for a late lunch, and had a cup of tea.  Daughter called to tell me she really enjoyed today's statistics workshop.  She had the opportunity to network with another participant who is from the US Dept. of Agriculture and went out to lunch with some of the others.  There are just 7 participants, she said, so plenty of individualized attention.  She mentioned that she might like to pursue a PhD in Bio-Statistics; we'll see if she still feels that way at the end of the week and take it from there.   

Then, I ran the dishwasher and did 2 loads of laundry.  I also took the trash cans to the curb. I stepped outside with the trash just in time to see my nextdoor neighbor park his huge truck in a manner that blocked my driveway by a good couple of feet and two of their dogs (the two white chihuahuas, not the bigger German shepherd) in my front yard!  I just stood there and watched.  As he got out and saw me watching him, he greeted me, made a big show of checking out if he was blocking the drive way, yelled at his dogs, pulled out, and drove off to find another parking spot, down the block!  A woman came out of the house next door (not the lady of the house), called the dogs, and then, proceeded to sit on my other neighbor's half wall in the front and have a phone conversation with someone while I brought out my trash cans and put them, one (trash bin) on one side of my driveway and the other two (yard waste and recycling bins) on the other side, vacated by the too-big truck.   I didn't say anything to the woman sitting on the wall.  

Later, daughter and I video chatted for a bit and I brushed Dancer.  

Today, I am grateful for:
- Getting the car serviced and being told that everything was fine
- An air conditioned room in which to wait while the car was being worked on
- My neighbor moved his truck without any problem
- Appliances like dishwashers and washing machines
- Freshly baked bread

Monday's To Do List:
- Do the dishes/run dishwasher - DONE
- Call to schedule a maintenance service for the car (maintenance required light has come one) - DONE
- Do a load or two of laundry - DONE
- Do some paperwork (pay bills, etc.)
- Take the trash cans to the curb - DONE
- Cook the ground beef
- Grocery shop for bread - DONE

Oops!  I completely forgot to cook the ground beef!  And I didn't do the paperwork.

Tuesday's To Do List:
- Put away the laundry
- Empty the dishwasher
- Paperwork/pay bills
- Cook the ground beef
- Bring in the trash cans
- Water the house plants
- Renew the car registration

How was your Monday?  What have you planned for Tuesday?



14 comments:

  1. Well, at least your neighbor moved his truck. That is better than in the past.

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    1. I was very thankful that he did so! I probably have a reputation of being the neighborhood parking witch! LOL!

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  2. I've just been enjoying a long overdue blog catch-up. Goodness, you've been busy! You must be wondering how you ever found the time to go to work.
    I really enjoyed reading about the wedding. I'm glad you had such a lovely time. X

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    1. I would try to fit in things as time permitted, when I worked, Jules. Now that I have more time, I am not feeling quite as rushed or tired, and I can attend to some things I had been postponing! I am still feeling very slightly overwhelmed as I still have a mile-long list, but I am telling myself there is no hurry. :)

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  3. I love reading your lists. I am bad about making them, but when I do it surely helps my scattered brain stay a little focused. Thanks for the reminder. I have a pen in hand and a notepad. there are no excuses now!

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    1. I find it helpful to list everything, Anne. It is a bit like a brain dump; once it is written down, I don't have to worry about forgetting something! Hope writing down your lists will be helpful to you, too.

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  4. My Tuesday has tired me out. I've driven approx 100 miles for various things today and, while I'm glad that I can tick them off the list, maybe I should have spread them out over a few days.

    Do you have many problems with your neighbour blocking your drive? We used to in the previous house. A neighbour's friend used to park on our drive (without asking) so I used to block her in when I got home from work. The thing that finally stopped her doing it was when I refused to move my car to let her out. She'd wanted to go home about 2pm but I didn't move my car until midnight. She was fuming but learnt her lesson and never did it again!

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    1. It can be hard to find a balance between getting things done and accommodating our own energy levels! I, too, like to run as many errands as I can in one go, but I try to put a limit on what I do in a day, in order not to get too tired.

      Oh, I like your solution to the neighbor's friend parking in your drive way without permission! I guess I should be grateful that my neighbors haven't tried parking in my drive way!

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  5. Yesterday I forgot to put the trash bin out. I only remembered it this morning when I heard the garbage truck picking up neighbor's bin. It was too late by then.
    But the bin is not at all full, so i can wait until Friday. 😊

    If your daughter is interested in doing a PhD, and if it can be done without accumulating huge student debt, I'd say go for it. A PhD in a science field can open many doors.

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    1. Sorry you missed the garbage truck, Nil, but good that the bin wasn't full and you can wait till the next pick up!

      The financial aspects of pursuing a higher degree is something that will need to be discussed. :)

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  6. Wow, a Ph.D.! Would her job pay for her to go back to school? Could she continue working while she also worked on the Ph.D.?

    Good for you for glaring at the neighbor while he removed his dogs from your property and the truck from in front of your driveway!

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    1. No, her job won't pay for it, but, they have told her that they can reduce her hours to accommodate her class schedule and still keep her on and that she could have access to their data for her dissertation. However, today, she told me that they had to have an emergency meeting due to funding cuts (they are a publicly funded agency), and 3 newly authorized positions (the job offers were made just last week) have been deleted (they had to call and rescind the job offers!); daughter isn't sure what will happen with her job, although she's not too worried - if she no longer has a job, she'll just come home and look for something here, but she's sort of the only statistician they have for the program, currently, so, they'll probably try to keep her on.

      The little dogs are able to squeeze through the railings of their fence! They used to have a lattice that they put to block the railings on the side between their property and my garden, but they removed it and the dogs jump through the railings. Today, I watched as one of them ran all around the sidewalk and street and crept back into their yard!

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  7. That is quite funny how your neighbour got caught out starting to park partway across your driveway, and as for the dogs....! Well, you are keeping him and his entourage on their toes, I reckon!

    I've smartened up and gone back to making lists and I found a neat little coiled notebook with 300 pages in which to make them. I put the date at the top of the page and the list underneath. The following day I do the same and enter the things that didn't get done, plus any new items. I only use the one side of the page since it was such an inexpensive dollar store notebook. I find that there are some things that are earmarked for whenever I can get round to them, and I don't want to add them to each new page, so I wrote them on a little card and used a paperclip to fasten it inside the cover of the book. It is working quite well for me and better than having individual scraps of paper.

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    1. Oh, I really like your notebook To Do list system! I have one of those dollar store spiral bound notebooks! I think I shall try something similar!

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