Yard Clippings

We had rain a couple days this week. So I did not collect as many leaves as I normally do. Today was leaf collection day by the county. They had not come to pick up by lunch time. So I went out into the yard to collect some more.

I used small paper grocery bags. I went on the hill. The leaf blower was no use as the leaf were moist. So I raked the leaves into piles on the hill. I used the lawn mower to collect the leaves. I mowed a straight line. I came back and tried to pull the mower up the hill. I fell. Luckily the mower went down the hill.

I am sore from the fall. I did work methodically to fill each small grocery bag and add it to the bags on the curb. The dregs had heavy items. I partially filled the dregs into small bags. Then I distributed those small bags into the different cans I had on the curb.

At the end, I realized I had half of a 30 gallon tall leaf bag in the shed. I did one more pass around a lot of the yard. Then I filled the big sticks in this bag. Topped it off with the last of the leaves I collected. And set everything out on the curb.

Weekend with Kit Kat

Kit Kat lives in her own apartment now. I don't see her often. I was off for a holiday. So I joined her and Momoko to meet up with some friends at a dive bar. Two friend came with their new baby. That was fun. Baby did some chirping but did not cry.

Afterwards, Momoko and Kit Kat stopped by a bakery and I picked them up in front to drive them home. Momoko and I eventually bought Kit Kat some Wing Stop, which we made our dinner. They gave us syrup-less drinks, so Little Kat got a refund from Door Dash.. Momoko had us watch New Amsterdam, which she got hooked up. We watched it during and after dinner.

Kit Kat stayed in our new guest bedroom. She said the bed was fine. In the morning, Momoko bought us Chick Fil a for breakfast. It was tough with all the cars there to even get to curbside delivery. We watched more New Amsterdam during breakfast. Momoko and Kit Kat went to CVS to pick up medicine. Then Kit Kat headed out with Little Kat to play D&D.

Return to Chick-Fil-A

We used to go to Chick Fil A every weekend. Then I got parked one time. Five people behind me in the drive through got served and left. Seemed they forgot about me for a while. Next time they tried to park me, I told them I won't be parked and forgotten about. Had to argue with three employees. At least I got my food.

I decided that was too much smoke. So I started going to other places to eat on the weekend. Momoko did not like this. But why would I go support the place where they just make me wait forever for my food. I figured there could be a compromise. I could order on the app and get it delivered to my car.

Today I downloaded the app. I got what everyone wanted. But I found no place to order sauces. We needed sauces. Momoko downloaded the app too and showed me the trick. When ordering a sandwich or chicken strips, I need to scroll down to a place where I can customize my order.

We went to a closer Chick Fil A that has the double lane drive through that I hate. We parked and had our order pretty quickly. Apparently they track my phone and start getting the meal ready when I am close by. This might work out. They did get the sauces right when I specified them using the trick on the app.

Newspaper Pricing Gone Wild

I subscribe to the local paper for daily and weekend delivery. Sometimes I read every issue. I know my brother reads the Sports page. I also use old newspaper to wrap items up. If I ever need to start a fire, the old newspaper is also a good fire started.

The paper has started an annoying tactic. They will label certain days as special editions. Then they charge me extra money for that day's paper. Once in a while this is warranted, like when they do some massive election coverage and research. Most of the times it is a money grab. Okay.

Just now they also increased the price of the subscription. That on top of the special editions is just too much. I would cancel. But my brother loves the Sports page. I decided to maybe cut out weekends and save 25%. I called them up today.

The guy on the line said that while the daily only costs less, they have no specials for daily subscription. Okay. He did not want me to drop weekends. He said if I kept daily plus weekend, he could offer me a 30% discount. Sounded great. Then he tried to get me to do automatic credit card billing for a 50% discount. No thank you. I will take that 30% discount. Price hike averted.

Moving my Study

Last time I moved my study, I went from the basement to Little Kat's old room. His room was small. I had to significantly downsize. Went from three bookshelves to one. In the end, it all fit.

Now that Kit Kat moved out, I renovated her room. Painted the walls and trim with HGTV colors of the year. Got new carpet too. So today I moved the remainder of my study from Little Kat's old room to Kit Kat's old room.

My brother and I took off the top of my heavy desk. We tried moving the bottom. It was too heavy. Therefore I disassembled it too. Found out that one of the bolts broke. We made due. Now I am in my new study with artwork hanging on all the walls. Plus my degrees are also framed and hanging on the wall.

I think it might be time to get more bookshelves in here.

Hand Rail Hell Redux

I had thought I had a good work around for our basement hand rail problems. I had inserted a piece of wood behind the drywall. Then I screwed the brackets into that piece of wood. The top of the hand rail was secure. It was good times until the middle bracket broke. This made the middle of the rail wobbly. Then the top brackets started coming undone.

I went to the store and purchased a replacement bracket. Problem was that I could not get the old broken bracket out of the wall. The screws had weird heads. They did not seem to be Philips head or flat head screws. There were some sort of star pattern. I had one tiny star screw driver. But it could not remove the screws.

I ended up just trying to re-tape the broken bracket with duct tape. It is holding for now. I really need my busy handyman to come and provide a permanent solution. Not sure if we need more brackets that tie into the studs behind the drywall, or something more extreme. I am just tired of this rail getting broken. The whole family relies on it.

Flying the Friendly Skies

I was browsing Reddit. Saw an ad from Southwest airlines. You can save 50% of fares for the next two days. Thought this was too good to be true. There were a ton of blackout dates. But I found a week early in January that qualifies. Each way to and from grandpa kat's town was $92.

Since I reclaimed my vacation car from grandpa's driveway to my house, I would need a rental car. I wanted the option to reserve and pay when I pick up the car. At first, even the least expensive cars went for $450 a week. That seemed pretty steep. I guess I could go and just borrow grandpa's car. But I drive a least a couple times a day. It felt like an excessive ask.

I contemplated visits to other places like Buffalo, NY. But that would also incur hotel fees. I checked Expedia for check motels. There were some that would cost me $500 for the week. But the reviews were not too enticing. I would also need a rental once I got there. So I was definitely priced out of NY.

At the last minute, I somehow found a rental for $365 a week in grandpa's town. I immediately made a reservation. It is for a small sedan like a Chevy Malibu. Momoko's brother-in-law rental one once. He said it had no power. As long as it gets me from point A to B, I am not complaining. My flight is booked and paid for. Momoko and grandpa did not see the notification from Southwest about my trip. Oh well.