Miscellaneous

Time is zipping past now, I can hardly believe I have been home from the hospital for a month.  I am in the process of catching up with all the appointments that I had to reschedule when the knee replacement surgeries went on and on, starting back in June.  The two I haven't gotten caught up are the financial adviser and the dentist.  They both have one or more steps to get in the building (and out) and when I tried to do a step up on just one here at home, my knee buckled.  So I have been working here at home on the exercising and trying to be cautious but not panicky.  Considering how long it has been to just get home, I think cautious is the name of the current game.  I am using the gait belt too.

New gutters will go up soon, depending on their schedule and the weather.  It snowed Friday night, and right now it is the the 20s, so spring may be turning into summer without spring weather at all.  I hate it, I have been turning the heat in this room to a higher setting, then cooking in here and turning it down again.  I am wearing sweaters and sweatshirts-- It is April!  And sleeping under a blanket!  The horse has been in a stall for several weeks as the ground is so slippery, she would fall and hurt herself; the last thing we need is another vet bill.  She still shows the effect of her 'stroke' several weeks ago, her eye, tongue, righthand legs, droopy ear, it makes me sad to think of how peppy she was last spring.  I still can't get to the barn with the path so rough, thank god for C, my son, able to shoulder so much of the duties I can't get to.  I give him $ and pay his health insurance, but still...

And thinking of money outflow, I finished our income taxes yesterday and it was worse than I expected.  The big difference is going from married filing jointly to going to Single, now that N passed in 2016.  I will pay estimated taxes so that this doesn't happen next year.  And itemizing is a joke, I dredge up all the items paid and then be better off taking the standard deduction.  I blame Trump and the Rep. in congress for doing this.  If they mess up Medicare and SSN I don't think any of them will win another term.  Especially Trump.

I have been working on my cross-stitch again.  I couldn't do it in the rehab places at all, holding it above me while I am flat in bed.  And the bad lighting and interruptions too.  Anyway, it's not like I have a deadline to meet.  I am finding shopping at Amazon is still fun, only if it is very cheap of course like $20 max.  And the items are very eclectic, plant fertilizer and a garfield eraser for example.  I see things I would like to get, but nah, I have enough do-dads that I can't even remember what I did get.

The next thing after the gutters will be getting someone to take down a dead tree that would fall onto the power lines in a strong wind.  It is an ash tree (I think) that was killed by borers; then followed by woodpeckers stripping off the bark to get to the insects.  And it was a beautiful tree too.

And the cats are enjoying all the boxes my little odds and ends come in too.