I'm still looking for my best shoes. Shoes that I can pop on any day, wear with socks and walk whereever/whenever I want that are NOT athletic shoes or sneakers. They need to fit well so I don't walk out of them and look decent (and my 'decent' gets broader and more inclusive every day). I have two pair of sandal-y shoes that I can actually wear every day all day and walk a fair bit in. I wore a pair of those the other day with socks and it worked out ok but not great.

Amazon is bringing me some more options later this week. And I still have one shoe store - the one my podiatrist recommended - that I haven't tried yet. If this week's Amazon selections don't work, I'll be heading over there to that store.

Otherwise, things are kind of on a good keel right now. I'm not on hold because of anything outside of my control - like SteveTheLawyer or the IRS. SteveTheLawyer has yet to settle the now 3.5 year old very simple trust. His last promise was to get it done by early 2025. Whatfuckingever.

The IRS still owes me money but it is clear that the chances of my living long enough to get it are growing slimmer every day. I went on their website this past weekend to check my transcript to see if there was any progress (none) and they asked me if I would take a survey. Sure. First question. Based on your visit today, how much do you trust the IRS. Hahahahaha. That was my giggle of the day.

It was a year ago that I switched financial advisors from the outfit I had used for more than 25 years to a new one. I am still delighted about that decision.

Two ballgames today - this afternoon. Aqua yoga this afternoon. I'll probably go out and puzzle some this morning and see if I can capture any hallway news.

Every once in a while, I find a mindless phone/computer/tablet game that sucks me in and won't let go. Most of the time, I can amuse myself by one game of majong solitaire and a couple of rounds of spider a day. And I can go years without getting sucked into anything more. But, not, apparently this year. I'm deeply, madly, irrevocably sucked into this stupid tile matching game. I cannot quit playing it and just that fact is driving me nuts. I will not be controlled by a game, except when I am. Sigh.

Last year, when I was having to feed the cats that overly pricey cat prescription food, I bought it mostly from Chewy. Amazon would run out and/or fiddle with their delivery processes and the stuff was so expensive it easily cleared Chewy's free shipping hurdle. But, then, when we got to go back to cheap stuff, that free shipping hurdle became an issue. And I get 5% back off Amazon purchases. And toilet paper, toothpaste, kleenex, cat stuff... subscribe and save. And I let Chewy go. Really out of laziness. They each have about the same number of items on the 'Pro' list - where one is good, the other is not - and not too much on the 'Con'. So Amazon wins because I'm lazy.

But, then yesterday. They sent my brother flowers and a lovely note.

I immediately cancelled all my Amazon subscribe and saves and set up everything for autoship on Chewy. We are now, officially, Chewy all the way. No regrets. No second thoughts. Flowers. They sent flowers.

Yesterday, I ran into Hazel and her son and his wife in the hallway on their way down to get something notarized. BUT I'm a notary until the 3rd of November. So I did it. Hazel has never liked her daughter in law and now I get it. She was all consumed with setting up Hazels sad old Samsung tablet with audio books. Except. Hazel will never be able to use them and won't enjoy audio books at all. But there was no dissuading her. Also, she had no idea what she was doing. I showed her how to log in and why it was set up with no password and no credit card (so Hazel can click on anything she wants and not get charged). She had no idea how to overcome that obstacle so I just left her to it.

They left and Hazel sat down to chat with me. It was nice. She said she had been stopping at Joan's every day to report which I know Joan just loves and it's so nice of Hazel to do. She said that Dick and Jan (who barely even know her) had been popping their heads in every night to check on her. She said that John was ready to die and hopes it is soon. And noted that it probably will be since he's not eating. She said she was so grateful for this time that they have now. We've just been talking and reminiscing and visiting and it's really been nice. We haven't even had the TV on. She's very calm and cool and together about it all.

I was going to get up and swim this morning but, when I got up, I remembered why I stopped doing laps in the mornings. The fucking sun. There is a 20 foot floor to ceiling wall of windows at the pool and they face east. The glare is exacerbated by the water. Dark goggles help but not much. It's just not fun. I could go later but even now I already for 5,769 reasons why not. Sigh. So I'll do aqua yoga at least one more time tomorrow.

Biggie is not a lap cat. He wants to be on my lap but will not settle. He walks back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. I give him 3 times and then put him on the ground. Once in a while, he tries to sneak on. Very very very slowly, he starts with one paw and then just as slowly, he adds another. It cracks me up. He did it just now so he's now standing on my lap with his belly on my arms while I type. Oh Biggie, you are a weirdo.

I have a podiatrist appointment this week but I am to cancel it if everything is working. Both issues are clearly better. The peeling hard skin feet with ugly ass nails is totally on the mend. The nails will take 6 months or so to get 100% but they are on the way for sure. The other - the nerve thing - I'm not sure about. It's way better but still twinges now and then. But, I think I'm going to cancel for now and then go back if it gets worse.

The Phils play at 10:30 and the Mariners at 1. And there will be laundry doings. And probably some puzzling.

I got the new rug to keep the cables running out of the table from tripping me. Works great. Looks fine. EXCEPT. The carpet is deep enough that when the table sits on the run it dips down and the rug cups around the legs. Ugly. So I put thin boards under the table legs. Perfect. EXCEPT now the table slants.

It looks fine in the picture I took but very slanty in real life. I've decided not to worry about it. For now. Maybe later.

Starting today and going pretty much through Labor Day, it's going to be hot AF around here. Unrelenting sun. But knowing it's the end of this shit for at least 9 months AND the night's worth of cool are longer, helps the attitude. Also, the a/c is fabulous and I live in the best place.

Today there are two ballgames but the first one isn't until 4. I think the car is fine so no errands needed. My Costco run, yesterday, was great. They have a lot of new stuff and I didn't get much but made notes for the future. I got coffee and cupcakes and ham and cheese croissants and a couple of other critical items. $85. I was proud. I'd forgotten how very nice our Costco is. BIG aisles. You can easily maneuver even when a family of 7 is in the middle of the aisle having a family meeting. It is just across the street from the Costco corporate headquarters so it gets a lot of management scrutiny and shopping there shows that.

It is new menu day so I guess I'll get in some steps and go pick mine up from the cubbies.

One of the things I abandoned when I left Live Journal was all the spam. I'd forgotten. Well, it apparently has finally found its way to Dreamwidth. I'm getting subscribes and mail from people who joined that day and have 0 friends and 0 everything else. At least banning is easy. I hope they give up soon.

My current phone's crack would cost me $300-500 to fix. The trade in value is $235. My old phone has a trade in value of $450. So... Trading in old phone, buying shiny new BLUE! Pixel 10 - even with taxes = $450. And new phone comes with massive cloud storage and google's pro AI for a year and $170 store credit which I will use to get a fancy charger and new case, probably.

I'm hoping new phone does not come with pre-cracked screen. Cracked screen phone will be on standby for backup.

All done and now I don't have to sit through the stupid announce event. Win win.

I bailed out of aqua yoga. The instructor, I don't think, has ever been in the water. I'm sure his instruction is great if you are 1. on land and 2. really into yoga. I am not on land and I want to stretch, not breathe. The stuff he has us do mostly works meh in water. He does not use the water at all so mainly we fight to stay and not float away. And also the 45 minutes are spent 15 minutes moving slowly and 30 minutes stationary and just breathing. The water is warm unless you are just standing there breathing and then it gets cold fast.

So. Yesterday was my last class. I will spend 30 minutes swimming laps on Sunday mornings instead.

Volleyball was also kind of meh today. One of our best players is hooked to a heart monitor for the next week and a half so can't play. The asshole was there today being very assholey. But, it's over and I didn't say anything I wanted to so I'm glad of that. My lips are getting better at staying zipped.

Watching the Phillies play the Mariners was really weird. Kind of like when you catch an NPR person talking on TV. The sound is right and the lips are moving in sync but my brain just can't handle it. The Phillies ate up the Mariners and then spit them out. Because of MLB blackout, I could not listen to the Phillies broadcasters so I'm listening to the idiot Mariners guys who are clearly rooting for the wrong team. It was beyond weird. There are two more games and then everyone goes back into their assigned corners. They will probably meet again in a few years but not before.

Today is house cleaner day and so errand day.

John's still dying. Joan is in bad shape but not dying and, I think, pretty pissed at John for stealing all the attention. Hazel is holding up kind of. She's getting a lot of attention from a wide variety of people and she's trying to keep everyone happy. Including John. It's kind of a mess.

Oh wait. Breaking news! Hazel just came in and sat for a chat. Her son has been working with exactly the right people here at Timber Ridge (which I had hoped was the case but didn't know) and they have a room in the nursing wing for John to move into tomorrow. This is perfect. This is exactly the way things should work around here and usually don't. But this time. Hazel does not have to do a thing except walk over there to visit. He'll even be on this very floor.

She said that the doctors told the both of them that they don't know if John has a day, a week or a year. But now he'll be comfortable and she'll be able to be with him whenever she wants on her own. I am very relieved. And so is she.

Oh and now I'm getting sucked back into aqua yoga. Maybe. I sent a note explaining why I was quitting and now Erica (the fitness person) is asking 'if we do xxx' would you reconsider. Sure.

As always, stay tuned!

But now it's nearly 10 and I'm not dressed yet!

Yesterday, at elbow coffee, Ingrid showed up for a while. She comes late, complains about the latest Timber Ridge insult, and then leaves early. She once screamed at me, during elbow coffee, because I did not check on her when we had an alarm go off. "You are my neighbor! You are supposed to look out for me!!" It was ridiculous. Yesterday, her complaint was that every time she forgets to open her door, Timber Ridge calls "or worse yet, comes to my door". This is a horrible thing to her. She has now lived here more than 5 years and this has been going on every single day for those 5 years but I guess, yesterday, she couldn't conjure up any new offenses.

Others tried to jump in with solutions (which she did not want) and I just kept my lips zipped. Finally she finished ranting and left.

Joan called last night clearly looking for me to say 'if you need anything, let me know' but, aha! I have successfully wiped that phrase out of my playbook. I listened and ummed and aha'd at appropriate places and then said goodbye.

Yesterday, Jim (across the hall - not the Jim of Jim and Gail) came out while I was puzzling. He had his TV remote with him. Jim's problem or part of it, is that he cannot express himself. He says all the words correctly - he does not mumble or slur - but the word strings rarely make sense. I explained that there was no joy unless we were in front of his TV so we went there. He really couldn't tell me what he wanted. There was a ribbon on last watched channels that seemed to bother him because of the six, he only wanted 3. "I want to watch the UC one there on the far right." The one on the far right was NBC. He said his buddy who helped him set up was coming over today and he'd show him. I did remove some of the last watched. But never did figure out what he wanted. But he had a car race to watch so when I left he was happy. He never wants much and is always so pleasant.

Martha says that the neighbor care requirement here is greater than the rest of the complex. She thinks it's because we are on this shorten floor. Most floors have 20+ apartments and we have only 10. But, I'm learning how to do it. Lips zipped, hands not raised, response, not volunteer. I think I can do it.

My friend, Steve, told me yesterday that he turns his thermostat down to 65 at night and then up to 72 during the day - every day. Seems like I tried that when I first moved in and it did not work. I was getting heat when I wanted cool. But, hey, Steve's been here for a lotta years. So I tried it last night. Heaven. It was just perfect for sleeping. My bed said 92 out of 100. This morning I turned it to 72 - too hot. So back down to 70 and I opened the door to the patio which thrilled Julio.

The Phillies game is about to start. The Mariners are playing at Williamsport, PA - the home of the little league world series. I might watch some but for sure on mute. I do not approve of baseball games in these silly places like car racing stadiums and little league parks.

No big plans for after the game. Just the usual. I might run a couple of errands and I might save them for next week.

Yesterday we were in the hallway discussing Joan and I could tell that I'd lost her attention. She reached up to the back of my head "oh I think I missed a spot." Then she smoothed it down and declared that it was fine after all.

It's one thing to get a good barber but it's the creme dela creme to get one that will always be on the look out for when a trim is needed.

I got a call yesterday from a woman who lives on the other side of the complex. Their son is married to Joan's daughter. She called to tell me that Joan was in the hospital. "Her daughter's with her but she wanted me to call you because she didn't see anyone else on the hall to tell when she was leaving."

I get that. Particularly when I head out for Bellevue or some other place and am going to be gone longer than 30 minutes, I always think I need someone back here, on the hall, to know. No reason but I always think that. So I get it.

Joan has many many problems but lately, it's her back. It doesn't help that she is 92. But she has very active family and she has every single on of her marbles. Nothing to be done by us but I went to tell Bonny and she and I went into Joan's apartment to make sure all was fine. It was. Bonny also told me that John had his first massive drug treatment and it went fine.

10 minutes later she was in my apartment to tell me that 'fine' was apparently short lived and that now he was in the same hospital as Joan.

Elbow Coffee will be sparsely attended this morning. Jack is on a cruise and Jim and Gail are off somewhere again.

I love my new coffee table. I have a power brick and charging cables that I use for computers, watch, cat toys, phone. And I have all my knitting stuff. I finally decided that the charging stuff needs to go into the table. I have two cables, then, that need to come out. So last night I grabbed my handy dandy drill and the biggest drill bit I have and dug out a hole. It was a lot harder than I expected but I managed to get a slot exactly the right size.

I did trip over the power cable twice so I looked into a cable cover. My first try was a total fail - going back to Amazon. But then, I thought, why not a throw rug?! Like the one I have on the other side of the room?? PERFECT and they are on sale. It will be here Monday. So I just need to be extra careful til then.

And speaking of charging, I see that Julio's favorite toy needs more juice.

My two games are on at the same time again today. Yesterday, they kept pulling ahead and then falling behind, both of them. So I'd keep the sound on the one that was behind until they pulled ahead and then mute it when they got the needed runs and listen to the other game. It worked out fine.

Martha and Bonny both wanted mini monsters in school colors. I complied.