Day 88 through 93: April is Here but Spring is Not !

 

Here we go ! It's a new year. Time to get back on track with diet and exercise. The goal was 100 pounds by 12-31-25 but I'm failing miserably. I was so excited on January 1 but I'm so discouraged now.

I'm not going to link my original day 88 through 93, but I was still fighting a cold or flu and wasn't exercising. I'm still fighting respiratory issues today but it's getting better for sure.

To catch up to today, I spent 4-1 and 4-3 doing what I usually do: watching YouTube and playing online slots. 4-2 was rock & roll bingo and it was again just me, Kim & Joe. We had a fun time but didn't get any wins. Yesterday 4-4 I went to the baseball game with Rich & Barb. It was COLD, so there were not a lot of people at the game, which was great because there were no lines at the concessions ! My beer didn't get cold and my ice cream didn't melt ! It was 51 when we got to the game and 43 when we left and I did NOT dress warmly enough. I froze and ended up spending $60 to buy a huge blanket. It's 54 x 86 and made of sweatshirt material, so I love it. It was big enough to cover all 3 of us but I was still cold. By the time I got home after 11:30 pm I was hoarse and worried my cold would turn into something worse. Luckily I am about the same today so nothing to worry about. The game was fun even though we lost badly (12 to 4) but there were more foul balls than I've ever seen. Barb caught one and was so thrilled. Later, when I had gotten up to go buy that blanket one bounced down the stands into my hand but then bounced on. Richard tackled it and gave it to me, so I was happy to come home with a ball for the first time in my life ! I did offer to give it to him but he told me to keep it. In an odd coincidence, my trip to Rich's and my trip home saw the State Police in action. Between Parish and Central Square a guy blew past me and everyone else but apparently didn't know about the speed trap. Cop was pulling out as I was rolling by and sure enough he stopped the guy who passed everyone. On the way home I noticed the car behind me as I turned from Taft Rd onto 81 didn't have headlights on. All I could see were the yellow parking lights. Then I saw the familiar red and white police lights. Of course I first thought *I* was being pulled over but quickly realized it was the car with no headlights. Hopefully that person hadn't been drinking ! I only had one beer at the game so I wasn't worried about being over the limit, but I knew I hadn't done anything to warrant being pulled over. Whew .. a relief on both sightings !

In other news, my neighbor reached out on Wednesday to let me know she had recovered 5 kittens from under her plant room. I wasn't surprised as I knew one of the females had given birth and strays have been living under that part of her house for years. She wondered if I trapped and released and I told her I didn't. She wanted to get that done so she contacted a rescue organization. Well, last night she texted to let me know they'd trapped the mama and she and one of her babies were off to live on a farm. She also said 3 babies have homes. She kept 2 of the male kittens. I'm so happy they have homes and mama will be taken care of. She is likely pregnant again and I don't know if they'll spay her now or wait for her to have her kittens. Hopefully she is planning on trapping the other female, who was waiting for me this morning along with the 3 males. The oldest male is likely her baby daddy and the other 2 males are likely her offspring. If they remove the female I hopefully won't see any more pregnant females or kittens ! Ideally I'd like to stop feeding strays, but I won't leave the boys to starve. I was anxious about this issue but I'm glad it's working out.

So here we are at today. It's Saturday and it's almost noon. I spent the morning watching YouTube and playing my online slots. I also scheduled my utility and credit card payments and added gift cards to my Nutrisystem account. I reviewed the menu options and to my delight, the cherry cheese roll is back ! That used to be a favorite breakfast item for me ! I also discovered the burrito is available to me now ! This is great since the pepperoni pizza melt is "low inventory", so I order some of the burritos and the spinach pretzel melt I used to like. It's always nice to change things up since I tend to eat the same things day after day !

Weather has continued to be cold and dreary. Thursday made it up into the 60's but I'm longing for warm sunny days where I can throw the windows open and sit on the front porch enjoying the sunshine ! It'll be here soon, but I can't wait !

In political news, the country is in chaos. I'm not sure Trump is on the right track and I'm wondering how much more damage he is going to do. He did warn there would be pain associated with making America great again, but I'm not seeing any rhyme or reason to what is being done. I was very worried about my IRA, but it's "only" lost about $5k in value. I was expecting worse. At this point all I can do is ride it out. If I end up "retiring" later this year at least I'll have social security and my pension and can avoid taking too much from the IRA. In a perfect world, other countries will fall in line and make some deals with Trump so that the tariffs that are roiling the market can be reduced or eliminated. It's a scary time and definitely not what the MAGA voters expected. I'm all in when it comes to deporting illegals, regardless of how long they've been in the country, but he's gone far beyond that initiative and seems intent on tearing our government apart. Chances are the Dem's will take back the White House in 2028 and then spend a ton of money putting everything back "the way it was". The next Dem in office will blame every dollar spent on Trump. Honestly, I don't think the chaos will end when Trump leaves office. Unless things change drastically, the Dem's will win big in the midterm elections and put a stop to anything Trump tries to do that requires Congress & Senate approval, so the chaos isn't going to end anytime soon. Big business and wealthy individuals are losing a ton of money and I'm sure they are not happy about it. We'll see what happens !

Kim texted me around 12:30 to see if I wanted to go to Montezuma Winery with them at 2. Unfortunately I had to say no as there wasn't enough time for me to get ready and drive to their house by 2. I'd at least have liked to take a quick shower. Oh well. Perhaps going forward I need to be "ready to go" on weekends, just in case ! I'm kind of tired after last nights ordeal anyway. When I went to bed last night I had to put an extra blanket over me because I was so chilled. I slept with that blanket the entire night ! There was no throwing the covers off. I also took 2 Tylenol this morning as I was achy and still tired. I went to bed after 1:30 and was awake just before 8, so that really wasn't enough sleep.