The End Of The 2025 Blog

 

It's been forever since I wrote and nothing has changed in my life. I've accepted that I am now "retired" and honestly, I'm happy about that ! If I really tried I could find some random minimum wage WFH job ... but I realized I DO NOT WANT a job. So I'm not looking and I will likely start collecting my pension and/or Social Security next year.

It's important to note that I'm writing today because I'm on a bit of a "high" because my house is cleaner than it's been in a year and my Christmas decorations are up ! How did that happen ? Well, yesterday was my annual pasta dinner with my family. However, unlike last year I didn't have to run around like a maniac the night before to get the cleaning done. I did a bit each day and gradually it was done. No stress. No anxiety. No panic. Joe was kind enough to decorate the front porch, Lauren, Joe and Barb decorated the tree and Barb put the finishing touches on the light in the kitchen window. This has become a bit of a tradition and I love it ! I wasn't happy with my sauce again this year though. It gets so thick from the time I make it on Saturday to the time I serve it on Sunday. Next year I am going to add some tomato sauce to thin it down on the day I serve it. Everything tasted good but the sauce is just too thick.

Cleaning up afterwards wasn't the monumental task it always seemed like in the past. I loaded the dishwasher before I went to bed last night and ran it as soon as I got up this morning. I also washed all the stuff that doesn't go in the dishwasher, cleaned the stove, tables and the counter. Then I washed the tablecloth and did 2 other loads of laundry. I also ran the duster around the ceiling of the laundry room as I noticed the cobwebs were taking over ! I also vacuumed the upstairs again as fleas popped up again late this summer ! I haven't seen any all day, but I will continue to vacuum every day for a while. I treated Minnie for them as well. Anyhow, the house is pretty clean now. I still need to scrub the tub a bit more and the litter boxes need to be scooped. I'll take care of the boxes tomorrow for sure. I also discarded some junk mail from my office. There is a lot more I can do in there, but I'm trying to do small bites so that no one task becomes overwhelming. I also checked in on my bank account and made sure transfers were scheduled to cover the rest of my November bills. I still have $50k in the bank, so I'm doing good financially !

I have made zero progress with diet and exercise and my goal for 2026 is the same as 2025 ... time to get back in shape and get this weight back off. I did finally cancel Nutrisystem so it'll be up to me to make smart choices and reduce my calories. I say that with a house full of candy that I bought for yesterday. As usual, none of it got eaten. Next year I am going to buy much less. I made gift bags of candy for everyone with a Grinch themed ornament attached and those went over well. However, I didn't need to buy so much candy to fill them.

My goal right now is to keep the house as clean as it is now and to continue doing a little something each day to maintain it ! Without Nutrisystem I'm going to have to start meal prepping, so that means cooking for myself and cleaning up the associated mess ! Breakfast is easy as I have frozen waffles or pancakes. Lunch lately has been a can of Chef Boyardee Ravioli. Horrible I know ! I plan to make things like sloppy joe, chili, roast turkey and meatloaf. I'm going to buy a turkey breast or two now, since the stores are full of them for Thanksgiving. I can roast it then portion it out into containers with some mashed potatoes and a bit of homemade gravy ! I'll have stuffing for a while too as I always make a ton for Thanksgiving. I slice it up and freeze individual pieces. It's really my favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner.

The text above was written on 11-17-25. The blog continues today, which is Tuesday 11-25-25.

Nothing has changed in the past week. I'm still doing a good job keeping the house neat and clean ! I'm trying to tackle little jobs here and there to continue the momentum. Today I managed to get all the trash out, including the recyclables that have accumulated. I also changed my sheets. Time for flannel ! Yesterday I went to Walmart and bought what I needed to make stuffing and pies for Thanksgiving. Sunday I spent the day out with Rich & Barb. We drove all the way to Massena to go to BJ's and Aldi's. We had dinner in Lowville. They picked me up before 9 am and it was nearly 7 pm by the time I got home. It was nice to be out of the house ! Saturday I spent some time in the kitchen. I cleaned the front of the fridge, which had some hard water stains from the ice maker area. I also cleaned the hard water buildup off the sink area. I'm making an effort to wipe up the sink after using the faucet, so that hard water deposits don't build up again. I also cleaned the front porch Thursday 11-20. It just needed a good vacuuming and looks so nice now. I wish I had done all these little tasks before my pasta dinner, but I now call that day my reset ! It tends to be a reset every year but I usually blow it and go right back to being a slob. I'm making more of an effort not to let that happen. I sit here now and look around the house and feel proud of what I see. I even washed all the sheets and blankets that I use to cover the furniture and to throw over myself. It's so nice to have everything fresh and clean. Nothing was really "dirty" but it accumulates cat hair and dust and crumbs over time.

We're under a lake effect snow warning for Thanksgiving day, of all things ! It starts at 4 pm so I'll have no problem getting to Thanksgiving dinner. Getting home might be a challenge ! I'm going to bring a nightgown just in case. I plan to drive to Kim & Joe's house and ride with them and I know if the weather is awful I can stay at their house. I will leave extra food for Minnie too. I'm hoping the snow won't be as bad as predicted ! 

Tomorrow I plan to shred the bread for my stuffing and cook the sausage and onion mixture. I am also going to make my pies. I'll have to get started early to get that all done because tomorrow is bingo night ! Last week Kim and Joe both won a game. I won for the 3rd time a couple weeks ago, so we're going pretty good !

On the unemployment front, my lack of income means I'm qualified for free health care for 2026 ! I'm technically under Medicaid but the plan is administered by United Health Care. I will have no health care the month of December, so I really need to stay healthy until January 1 rolls around. It's a huge savings for me. I've been paying over $500 a month for medical alone this year. This means my savings will last that much longer and if I keep my income low enough in 2026 I might have free healthcare right up until I hit age 65  in 2027 and can start Medicare. The plan I'm on includes dental, but I'm keeping my retiree dental from AT&T for now. I feel funny about being on "Medicaid" but I've worked and paid taxes for 40 years ... so it's my turn to benefit a little ! Rich and Barb are retiring too. Rich at the end of this year and Barb will be retired by the end of March. They plan to spend winters here and summers in Virginia with the grandkids. They also want to travel some. Like me, their biggest expense will be healthcare until they're 65. They'll be able to use COBRA coverage for 18 months if that is cheaper than the exchange rates. They have no debt and they've saved a lot, so they should be ok. Unlike me they have no mortgage or car payments, so they're in even better shape. I'll save $6k in 2026 for insurance alone !

The blog continues .. today is Tuesday December 9. I last wrote on 11-25, just before Thanksgiving. Weather turned out perfect for Thanksgiving, so I was able to make it home that night with no problem. Dinner was wonderful and I enjoyed the day. Poor Barb .. she was freaking out over bad gravy and a clogged sink when we arrived. I was able to make a fresh batch of gravy and we made do with the sink issue. Yesterday I went shopping with Kim and Joe and really, really enjoyed the day ! We went to Boscov's and also visited Bath & Body and a liquor store before going to Carmella's for dinner. Kim and I had 2 glasses of Moscato with our dinner as it was happy hour and wine was 2 for 1 ! We didn't realize it until after we ordered 9 oz glasses of wine ! I had chicken & broccoli alfredo and it was delicious ! I barely made a dent in it and brought a full container home. Half of that was today's lunch ! I splurged on 10 bottles of foaming hand soap at B&B. I also bought a new top, a ring and a kitchen floor mat at Boscov's. Add 3 bottles of wine from the liquor store and that was my day ! I had $30 in gift cards for my dinner and Joe covered the rest. He is too kind ! Once we got back to their house I went in for a cup of coffee to "sober up" from those 18 oz of wine and settle up the Boscov's and liquor store bill, since Kim used her Boscov's charge and Joe paid the liquor bill.

Even though we dodged the snow on Thanksgiving, we've had some since. It's also been bitterly cold the past couple days. My cold water froze in the kitchen last week, probably because I forgot to leave the cabinet under the sink open. It's been near zero the past 2 nights and the water has been fine since I left the cabinet open. As long as temps are in the teens or higher I don't need to leave the cabinet open. This summer I plan to install a garden bed under the kitchen window. If I backfill the dirt high enough I think that will block the flow of cold air in that area. I'm going to put a row of pavers wrapped in plastic or landscape fabric vertically along the foundation and butt them up against the siding. Then I'll fill with dirt sloped away from the house. I might also use some spray insulation behind the pavers to fill any gaps. That area gets snow dumped on it from the roof so I'll probably plant annuals.

I haven't really been up to much else. Bingo on Wednesday is about it for my social life and I'm fine with that in the winter ! I hate the cold more every year ! I need to go to the grocery store but skipped it today because it's only in the low teens. I will go on Thursday as I need to make cookies on Friday and don't have the stuff I need for that ! Saturday 12-13 we're baking cookies at Kim & Joe's, so I'm looking forward to that. Hopefully the weather cooperates ! I'm in a good spot with Christmas shopping now ! Joe picked out 2 shirts yesterday and new jeans he ordered were delivered yesterday, so I grabbed a pair of those. I will add some cashews and perhaps a Dunkin gift card. Erin & Alyssa will get Lowes and Target gift cards. For Lauren I ordered a shirt she picked out on Etsy, along with the 2025 and 2026 Disney ornaments. I meant to give her the 2025 one last year but forgot all about it ! I plan to also get her a Target gift card. I need to make a trip to Bath & Body to pick up a few hand soaps for her as well. I don't know if she'd like the holiday scents I picked out. I have 2 sweaters for Kim that she bought and I'm also getting her a set of Corning ware casseroles, as all of hers have broken. I need to order that ! I don't exchange with Rich & Barb or Michelle & Mike, so that about wraps up my shopping.

On the health front, I feel fine but I haven't gotten back on the treadmill. I'm going to try starting again on January 4, 2026. I'm not doing Nutrisystem so I need to work out a meal plan. Since I don't have insurance the month of December, I'm holding my breath a bit and trying to be careful. I have shoveled some snow and probably overdid a bit, but I push most of the snow and I'm considering buying a battery powered snow blower. My Chase VISA points would cover about $1400 of the cost, so I wouldn't be laying out a ton of cash on it. I do still have Doug to plow but I would feel better having a snow blower in the event he has issues with his truck or his own health.

I mentioned earlier in this blog that I'm trying to keep the house in shape and I'm continuing to succeed at that. I do have a few dishes in the sink but the plan is to address those tomorrow. I have a few things on the dining room table and I am going to address that the next time I get off this couch ! It's just my skincare and makeup as I sat at the dining room table to do that yesterday, since Minnie was in my seat on the couch .. lol ! 

There's some light snow falling now (4:30 pm) but it's not going to last or have a significant accumulation. We have a winter storm warning starting at 4 am tomorrow and it runs to Thursday morning. It sounds like the worst will be north and east of me, so I'm hoping it doesn't keep me from going to bingo.

Well, it's been another hot minute since I last wrote. Today is Friday December 19, 2025 and I just had my annual heating emergency ! I was on my way to bed last night around 11:30 and I noticed the dining room felt cold. I checked the thermostat and it read 65, which was odd considering it was in the 50's all day and it was set at 68. So I traipsed down to the basement and though the boiler looked like it was "on", it was not igniting to heat the water. I unplugged it several times and that didn't help, so I went to bed and planned to call Ken this morning. He gave me the same "I'm trying to retire" spiel but he showed up anyway just before 2:30 pm. He swapped out the board and all is good now ! Fingers crossed that I make it through this heating season with no further issues ! I had a space heater going to keep me and Minnie warm but it wasn't enough, so I brought my electric blanket down. That was perfect and I think Minnie enjoyed it too ! It's 4 pm now and Ken left for his next disaster just before 3:30. I had to write him a check as I didn't have $100 cash in the house, so I hopped online to transfer some money and schedule transfers to cover my bills through the first part of January. January will bring my property tax bill and my auto insurance bill, so it'll be an expensive month !

I last wrote on Tuesday December 9 and I did end up not going to bingo on Wednesday 12-10 because of the weather forecast AND I just didn't feel like going out. It was cold, rainy and threatening to turn to freezing rain around the time I'd have been driving home. Kim & Joe didn't go either. Friday 12-12 I baked my spritz cookies, but I procrastinated all day and it was 9 pm before I made them ! It took me until 11 and I will NEVER do that again. Saturday 12-13 was cookie day at Kim & Joe's. We baked a boatload of cookies but I didn't help much. Lauren & Barb had things well in hand when I arrived and I'm not one to push my way in. I ended up frosting the cutout cookies, which is the job I hate the most ... so I guess it serves me right ! We ordered dinner from Sapori and my baked ziti was delish. I had leftovers on Sunday and Monday ! Another task I had to do was run to Bath & Body. I ordered from them online but it didn't arrive in time, so I ran out to the B&B store in Clay on Wednesday morning. I needed to get fragrance inserts for the turtle wallflower that Joe bought for Kim and I had to give it to him that day. It was a perfect day to go shopping. No snow or rain and roads were perfect. $100 later I was home and went to bingo. Kim saw me passing the gift to Joe but he didn't care .. he said she didn't know what it was and that's all that mattered. I'll tell the story on Christmas day since the gift was all his idea. I just helped him out.

Today is Friday and Christmas is Thursday and I still need to do a couple things. I need to go to Wegman's and get some shrimp for Christmas Eve at Barb & Rich's and I need to pick up gift cards for Alyssa and Erin. I had intended to go today but weather tomorrow looks fine so I will go first thing in the morning !

Today is Saturday December 27th and Christmas is over ! It shouldn't be a "relief", but it is for me. As usual, I leave everything to the last second and then there is no opportunity to really enjoy the magic of Christmas. If I am here and well next year I am going to try hard to NOT procrastinate !

I last wrote on Friday 12-19, so what is new ? Well, on 12-20 my house was still at 62 degrees even though the boiler was operating. I knew something was wrong but it took a hot minute to figure it out. The "minimum temp" setting was set at 5 degrees and it's supposed to be 9 degrees below the max. Max default is 68, so minimum should have been 59 ! I reset it to 50 (compromise) and the boiler roared to life ! The house warmed right up and the boiler has been fine ever since. I don't think I did anything else that entire weekend. I ended up going out on Monday 12-22 to get gift cards at Target, shrimp & Friendly's Jubilee Cake at Wegman's and the rest of my groceries at Walmart. Not long after I got home National Grid's gas line inspection contractor knocked on the door. I hadn't scheduled the gas inspection yet, so I was kinda glad he showed up. Turns out I had a gas leak ! He called Grid right away and within a half hour a truck and tech showed up. Turns out I had 3 leaks and they cut out all the piping and installed a new meter. The sceptic in me wonders if they made that up as an excuse to install a new meter, since my meter was from 1954 ! Who knows. I never smelled gas in the basement but I rarely go down there. If there truly was a leak then I'm glad it was fixed ! Peoples homes do blow up occasionally from gas or propane leaks ! So that was my excitement for the day ! I didn't really do anything on 12-23 but Wednesday 12-24 was Christmas Eve and I spent it with Rich & Barb. We had shrimp & other appetizers and then ham with mashed potatoes. We watched a couple of Christmas movies and also checked in on the deer ! It was relaxing and quiet and just perfect as far as I'm concerned. Thursday was the big day ... Christmas ! I had not wrapped one single gift so I had to do that before heading to Kim & Joe's. It took me just over an hour to wrap and pack everything, so that wasn't bad. Christmas dinner was delicious and it was another relaxing day. I got some nice gifts and (as usual), Kim spent too much. Next year I need to be more mindful of what I spend and we already resolved to provide list in early November. I only exchanges gifts with Kim, Joe, Alyssa, Erin and Lauren so it's not like I have 100 people to buy for ! Barb & Rich opted out of gift exchange a couple years ago and Michelle & Mike opted out too. I did take a bottle of wine and a cookie gift set to Christmas Eve and it's a good thing I did since they didn't think about dessert ! Next year I am going to bring dessert, so that is covered !

Today is Tuesday December 30th and 2025 is nearly over ! Sunday 12-28 was going to be a couch day but Rich texted me around 10 am to say they were in Central Square having breakfast and did I want to road trip with them. Of course I did ! I threw my hair in a ponytail, got dressed, threw on some makeup and was out the door just before 11:30 am ! We went to Aldi in Pulaski and then BJ's in Massena before stopping at a place called McDuff's Pub for dinner. Food was SO GOOD ! I had their classic smash burger with their special pickle sauce. It was amazing. Fries were great too ! We all liked the food so we might go back there again ! At Aldi's a bought a couple boxes of cookies that I like and at BJ's I got some Panera soup (southwest chicken) to try, along with a "party pack" of Boboli personal size pizza crusts. There are 8 crusts and each comes with a packet of sauce, for $12.99. That's like $1.63 per pizza plus the cheese & pepperoni I will add. I also got a box of 100 k-cups as I'm running low. That was $32 but that's only 32 cents a cup, so I can't complain. I also got a bag of chicken wontons, so I can make wonton soup whenever I want. I do want to buy some green onions and some shredded carrots to add to it. I got home just before 8 pm. We ran into freezing rain in our travels but it had warmed up by the time we got back to my house and it was just raining. Temps were mild yesterday but the wind howled all day and we had some snow showers. No real accumulation, so nothing to plow or shovel. I spent the day on the couch playing my games and watching YouTube and movies on Hulu.

Today is Tuesday 12-30 and we are staring down the barrel of what they're calling a major winter storm. Snow is predicted every day through Saturday and predictions range from inches to feet ! It's windy again today but it seemed like the best day to get my ass out and pay the water bill, which is due Friday 1-2-26. I thought about waiting, cuz I'm cheap, but decided today was the day since it wasn't snowing and the roads looked good. I had also showered and washed my hair, so I didn't mind putting on clean clothes to go out. So that is now done and I don't have to leave the house for anything anytime soon. I have plenty of food for myself and the cats. After I got home from paying the bill I decided to grab the tarp out of the garage and use that and my outdoor chairs to create a bit of a shelter for the stray cats. It's nothing that will keep them warm but it will keep the blowing snow out of the food dish and it will shelter them a bit from the wind. So with that done I sat down to transfer some money to cover the water bill and also make sure I had a transfer scheduled for the 1st of the month bills. January is going to be an expensive month as property taxes and car insurance are due ! Oh well, at least I don't have to pay $500+ for health insurance every month !

That brings me current when it comes to the blog. As I mentioned previously, I'm starting over in 2026 with a new blog. I'm going to try and get back to exercise and getting the weight off ! 2026 is a whole new world as I'm embracing retirement and will need to work out how to manage my income and health care expenses until I turn 65 in 2027. 

Unfortunately, the weather and/or forecast may keep me home tomorrow. Kim & Joe are hosting New Year's Eve but if the weather is bad I am not going to chance it. I can sit right here and enjoy some pizza, shrimp and wine on my nice cozy couch !

I feel like I'm in a good place right now but the winter cold really sucks the life out of me. I worry about my heat failing all the time, since I have an issue every single year ! I worried about healthcare costs for months. I worried for months about how I would "survive" until I'm 65. All this despite my IRA performing well and my advisor telling me from day 1 that I won't run out of money. My goal for 2026 is NOT to worry about everything ! I think I'm doing a better job addressing issues BEFORE they become a disaster and that truly helps. I'm doing better keeping my house clean, though it's a little bit of a disaster right now. Litter boxes are long overdue and I have some clutter on the kitchen & dining room tables. I also have a few dishes in the sink. However, none of this feels overwhelming, so I plan to address ALL of it before 01-01-26 is over ! 

For now, I'm going to rustle up some lunch as I'm starving ! It's starting to snow and the wind is continuing to howl so I glad I ran my errand and took care of the cat shelter when I did ! It's 1:53 pm and my plan for the day is to relax ! I may change my sheets later since I'm freshly showered and dirty sheets are not very appealing ! We'll see !