Raincharm’s Weblog

Carl and the boys are heading to Spring Training tomorrow. Some glorious days in the sun. Sunscreen has been packed. The only issue with this version of the trip, that has occurred for many years, is Carl’s lifting and movement limitations. The other guys will step up. He’s not even taking his mitt. It was in the to-go pile, but the medical personnel at his post-op appointment yesterday flinched at the mention of the glove. Reactions are sometimes hard to stop.

The toy project is pretty complete and moved to the basement waiting for the garage giveaway. There are more already in the garage. The stuffed animal review is on hold until after spring training.

I glanced into Carl’s suitcase and he did pack a small old timers mitt. 🙄

Just a few of the multitude of toys that will be leaving our collection. Two kids and over 30 years of providing daycare. These capture the sorting of 3 or 4 boxes of odds and ends. There are others already assigned and in the basement.

I am very proud of Carl working through these. It is a bit emotional and he would recall which toys grabbed the attention of certain kids. They are well used. These are not pristine barely out of the box.

I think I should provide bags and let the neighborhood kids fill them with those that strike their fancy.

To be sure, the house will not be empty of toys. Just fewer.

And we haven’t even looked at the boxes of stuffed animals yet.

Does OCD occur to anybody else?

I did complete this task along with a few others. Gathered Lego kit boxes, some with directions, more directions without boxes, and only one of the boxes had significant number of pieces inside. The various Lego sets have all been intermingled. This includes over 60-year old Lego from Carl’s youth, up through our kids (especially Ashlan) growing, and some for various kids Carl cared for. There has not been a decision made on whether to retain the boxes or instructions. It is unlikely that we will try to sort through all of the Lego to gather the pieces for a specific set back together. This makes me think the boxes could go, but we’re taking it step by step.

We know we are keeping the Lego. I am more interested in going through the boxes of toys that may stay or go, and making those decisions. And what about the 4 or 5 good sized bins of stuffed animals. Those may be more delicate decisions. And these are not the special animals, just the surrounding menagerie.

The cleaning up, and sometimes out, continues.

Progress

Not quite finished, but much closer. Most of the things remaining on the workbench are nails. Varying sizes from brads to 3″ or more. I wanted to finish sorting these today but it was time to make dinner.

I have put many extra tools and supplies into the giveaway pile, but at this point kept the, now organized, wood screws (flat head and round head), machine screws, nuts, hex bolts, and washers that live in the grey organizer on the left side of the workbench. I haven’t had cause to look for much out of here recently. I guess I’m not in a creating or fixing stage as much anymore. And yet, they may get to live in our house for a while longer.

But not all. The coffee can is more than half full of nails. I’ll keep some, but the hardware store isn’t too far away if we start another big project. And those we don’t keep will be given away. I do have a pail of metal recycling going as well.

Actually can check a few things off the list today.

• Finished and filed taxes
• Made Spinach Egg Bites for breakfasts
• Finished a jigsaw puzzle. 
• Brought down suitcases for an upcoming trip

The taxes were the biggest accomplishment, and finishing will let me move on to other tasks. I only did a small percentage of this puzzle. I separated the heron pieces, but Carl put it together. And I did a fair number of clouds this afternoon, this was challenging. The suitcases are the clue to get laundry done and start gathering items that will be helpful. The egg bites were initially made to help increase my iron levels, and have become a welcome part of breakfast.

And now I am tired, so off to bed.

My task for the day, at least the one with any progress, was to go through our first aid/emergency kits for the cars.

They each now have some bandaids, pads, antiseptic wipes, re-breathers for CPR, a bit of water, flare (needs a light), wind up flashlight, glo sticks that might work, distress flag (says call police), and fluorescent vests. I removed the emergency food rations that expired in 2011. I also removed the empty flashlights and their thankfully sealed batteries that are corroded. Each car has jumper cables and chains, although we try to avoid driving when and where the chains might be required. I do need to purchase a lighter for each car, so the flares could be used.

Not much for the day, but better than nothing.

We started the day with a 10,000 step walk, running an errand to pick up a workbench accessory. I was going to drive, but changed it to a walk when I realized I would have to scrape the car windows.

It was cold, but not raining. Our route took us through one of the little league fields. Carl can’t play for real right now, but wanted to relive past triumphs.

In other activities I met a friend for lunch. It was nice to catch up, and plan to repeat again in the future.

Seattle style 2026. Not much and not sticking. At least not yet.

It’s not much, but it’s ours.

The weather has convinced me to delay obtaining and planting a few raspberry canes. Looking at early next week now.

I had a very sedentary day. All of my trips started or ended at my desk.

For the last several months I have known I needed to get a handle on medical payments now that we’re on Medicare. I have maintained a tracking spreadsheet for years, but with only a few providers and generally consistent bill  and Explanation of Benefit (EOB) formats I’ve been in a groove. Not counting chiropractors that drove me crazy. The figures they would include on their invoices never matched the figures on the EOBs. I avoid them partially just for this reason.

Now, not so much, in the groove that is. There are the Medicare “Not a Bill” statements, UW invoice information, EOBs from our Supplemental Plan Provider, and invoices from non-UW providers. The big starting charge is usually the same but the amount allowed moves around a bit, as does the amount paid by Medicare, for those bills that have made it that far through the gauntlet. The numbers don’t even always subtract properly on the documents, they seem to round. And then have we covered the deductible yet.

I did pay the bill we received yesterday, due Friday (I’m glad we were in town). The invoice only listed 5 of 6 items provided, and the $$ didn’t add up. But the amount owed is the deductible, so I just made the payment and moved on.

I may expand my columns further to have a section for each source of information to better understand why they are different.

Why do this, you may ask. Because we have a lot of regular bills, and occasionally some really big expenses. Understanding how the systems work makes it easier to predict future needs.

I actually got a check a few days ago from our pre-medicare provider. I’m not sure what they’re reimbursing, maybe a co-pay. We deposited the check.

Tomorrow I am going to add in prescriptions. This is important. Our first set cost over $600.

Over 17,000 steps before 2 pm! Of course that means there may be scant productive work for the rest of the day.

First up, errands. Grocery shopping, which begats steps, and food. I still accompany Carl due to his weight restrictions. I also added a few things for a new recipe I want to try.

Next up, a walk to a restaurant we had a gift card for and had not tried before. About 3 miles from the house and a bus ride home was anticipated.

After some uphill the walk to the restaurant was mostly flat or downhill.

Lunch at Local Tide was excellent. It’s a small space in Fremont. We had tried to eat there once before on a sunny weekend.  It was quite crowded with a line and we ended up at a Thai place across the street. Tuesday noon is less hectic, hooray for retirement.

The weather was cool and sunny, great for walking and we both felt refreshed, so we set off towards home, roughly parallelling bus routes. This was the uphill climb. Fremont is at water level so anywhere not along the water is up. In the end we walked all the way home.