Cicada’s are Here, Hot in the Office, and Sharing Summer Bucket List

It’s about to begin. We are about to be graced with these cicadas. Every 13 years. I’m convinced that is why 13 is a bad luck number. This is the first one seen. George saw it on the sun room screen a couple of days ago. He sent it to me while I was work and said “they’re heeeeeere”!

We go from an Igloo to Hell…lol

Our office a/c has also graced us with its annual “we ain’t gonna work for ya” visit. It’s just a section of the building. It’s cool on the executive side. I guess they get a lot of flack for that, ha. Anyway. It’s been 80 to 82 in my office. Those with window offices are graced with 86 to 88. It’s better to be outside where there is a breeze.

I moved my fan to my desk. I didn’t realize it but it was vibrating and it vibrated off my desk, landed on the floor in a crash and broke. So in the trash it went.

My boss was about to leave for the day and she said “here take mine”. That was so sweet. It put out more air than mine did and felt pretty good.

Then the a/c workers showed up with these big “A55” (sorry trying not to curse, lol) fans.

So the theory is these portable a/c units will cool us down. They felt good up close. It ran an hour and I was still at 80 but I guess it takes a while. The black thing sends the air up and away, lol.

The down side is that the bottom fills with the water (humidity/condensation? – not sure) and it has to be emptied every so often. I can’t lift heavy things so I hope it’s not heavy. Someone in the office said she would be emptying them every day, but that it a lot of work for her. So I guess we will see what happens.

While the Office is Heating, I’ve Been Eating…But a little better…except for that ONE donut!

Here’s my afternoon choice of chocolate for this week. I’m trying to get off the Reece’s kick and trying to eat less sugar. As I ween myself off, the caramel is a treat but next time we’ll have to do even better than that.

I’ve been enjoying nuts again this week and that is a life savor really b/c of the protein. Almonds of course. And they are helping me keep away from constant snacking – like eating a bunch of crackers or cheese-itz.

I saved the other half of my banana from my oatmeal this morning and sliced and froze them. Oh my what a great treat along with the chocolate. It tastes like banana ice cream when frozen. They have to thaw about a minute at room temp coming out of the freezer and then they are perfect. So good for an 82 degree office.

Pretty Major Boo Boo Bummed me Out!

I’m kindof behind this week – only by an hour or two. I’ve had a few interruptions and then found I’d made a major error. I stopped to run a report for HR pulling last year figures and then after, I ran my monthly withholding reports so I could pay April’s withholding taxes. My boss was reconciling the month and trying to figure out why she was off. We finally figured out I had pulled last year’s numbers because I was still in last year’s records on the system. OH MY GOSH. So that was not only for that one STATE, but that meant 4 more were also incorrect. It about made me nauseated. I try so hard. It’s just so easy to come off track. It’s my fault. No one else’s. But geez.

So I had to stop what I was doing and send her a report to show what the 24 was supposed to be and what I paid for each state that was actually year 23. And then I had a column with the difference and whether I overpaid or underpaid. Sadly it seems the withholding taxes were higher last year. So in most cases I overpaid. That means people are making less than last year. That’s not good. Anyway, it will work out because I have clipped a sheet onto each state’s folder with the amount I need to adjust it by next month when I pay taxes for those states next month. But I was so upset with myself. I’ve not ever done that before I don’t think. I felt so bad. I wish we had something that shouted out “hey you are in last year”, and it does in some places in the system but not when printing things out. Oh well.

Meanwhile in Texas…

Our Little One is starting to notice things.

But it doesn’t take much for him to go back to sleep! I just want to scoop him up and hold him! But I have to wait til Thanksgiving.

Bucket Lists Finished and Bucket Lists Began

Here’s where we ended up with our winter into Spring Bucket list.

• Got the spring decor put out
• Ate at Burger Theory
• Got the Car Washed (I’m not one that does that real often)
• Planned and went on our TX trip
• Met our NEW grandson
• Did my research on Senior Discounts
• Had a nice Valentine Day outing
• Made several YouTube improvements
• Made TWO special content videos aside from the weekly videos
• Finished TWO books. It might have actually been 3.
• We got Maddie boarding ready so she could stay overnight at the Pet Spa while we were gone
• Watched the Blue Zone shows
• Bought a few colorful tops
• Bought a white cotton jacket
• Took a walk
• Got the new curtains hung
• Cleaned out TWO drawers
• Cleaned out ONE Marie Kondo category
• Researched diverticulitis/appendicitis and God finally solved the tummy issue with appendix removal.

What we didn’t get done was:

• I didn’t reach 500 subscribers. I reached 488. But my original date at the beg of the year was by June 1. So maybe I’ll reach that this summer.
• I did not have time to get with George on our financial aware project. I pretty much know everything I just need to write a few things down. It’s hard getting us to sit together at the same time, lol.
• I did not lose 5 lbs but probably gained more since I’ve been free to eat and testing the pipes! Now it’s time to kinda steer toward more healthy eating again.
• I did not have time to start the puzzle sadly.
• I haven’t been able to hem those PJ’s in two years so why start now?
• Did not go to Greenbrier Distillery. George wants to go. I don’t really care about whiskey, so I’ve not suggested we go, lol.
• I’ve not worked on my Curiosity list but that is ok, it’s for when I have spare time. Just mainly a list of things to google and check out.
• Join a blog community. I would have but I can’t find one! If you know of one let me know.
• Move old photos to file. It’s been 3 years of being on my list and I don’t have time for this. But I keep trying
• Did not get to go to Good Will or Thrifting, but planning to do that soon.
• Did not eat Pho.

Here’s the NEW Summer Bucket List

So here is this summer’s bucket list. It just helps me keep an eye on things. George throws a few things on there, but mainly I guess this is my “thang”. lol. I threw a lot from the previous one on this one. I love to see the check marks.

How am doing for the year???? Take a Peek!

I was looking at the 2024 goals I’m pleased with the progress so far. I have a few check marks to add that I did recently. (Planned content on YT happened in April. That was the one that went up Tuesday.)

Planning 2025 already!

I’m already starting to plan 2025 in my head and in Notion. Don’t you know it! But I need to sit down with pen and paper and have a thought process and discussion with myself on what I truly want 2025 to look like. What I want it to be and what I will allow and what I won’t allow. Just because I retire, does not mean that my life is an open book for others to seize all of my time. I will guard the time as preciously as if I still worked. My time is not going to be an open calendar. I am wondering about time blocking for myself and I’m unsure about that. I don’t know if I want to just be free or make the time productive and schedule things out.

Right now I’m thinking of having some weeks with time blocks and some just with free time. Oh well, this is for another day’s thoughts. But you can bet either way, I’ll be doing what I want. If I want to feel productive and feel like I need to schedule the time for myself, I will. It’ll still be stuff I want to do. But waking up and just doing free style then that sounds good for some days too. I know me and I will likely have some discipline to my days. But maybe the first few weeks of retirement will not be time blocked. I’ll probably just have a list of things I want to accomplish in order and just do them as I please.

I can tell you it is fun to think about and I’m getting very excited. I have the month picked out in which I will start all the process! Right now it’s kind of a secret. Because you never know, it might not work out as planned so I don’t want to say anything to box myself in. But I have dates planted in my brain as the ideal ones anyway if all goes to plan.

I’m tired ya’ll. But I’m hanging in there. I kinda want to read tonight. If we have time.

This Saturday’s video is the LAST March video! The next one starts with the last week in April, whew! March threw me behind with appendicitis and our trip. But soon my videos will be just a week or two behind instead of 4 or 5. But I had to skip filming in April to pull that off. I video’d last Saturday and again will video this Saturday.

Hope you all are doing well. I better quit. This is getting long. If you are still here let me know, lol. See ya Saturday morning with the Front Porch Decor vlog!