Flowers

A long time ago I discovered that I liked to go on vacation to places that were peaceful with lovely surroundings.  Some people want sports facilities available, some want historical sites or museums.  I've done those types of vacations, but the peaceful, lovely surroundings never pall.  So I decided that when I was no longer renting, I would have what I liked around me all the time.  I guess I should have a cow because I really like steak, but that's taking it a little too far.

Atkins Diet

My health coach called yesterday.  I asked her if all the ingredients I use in a recipe are on my diet, does the method of cooking it have any impact on my cholesterol.  She said she would have the nutritionist call me.  She said she's a registered nurse and she doesn't have any idea about that.  I thought it was interesting that they have a nutritionist as part of the partners for health plan.

Movie Glee

Dumb as dirt

Medicare Pays

"Who did you just give your social security number to on the phone?"
"It was my medicare number."
"That's the same thing."
"Who?"
"They wanted to send us six diabetic cookbooks.  Medicare will pay."
"So you just gave your social security number to a con artist."
"Let's just wait and see."
Sigh.
"We have two options here.  They will steal your identity and we lose everything your name is attached to.  Or they are legit and you are ripping off medicare (wait, who pays that?!!!) because you will never use those cookbooks and neither will I!"
I went to the chiropractor Monday.  A woman took me into the room and asked questions for the doctor.  One of her questions was did I want to be hooked up to the tens unit (big one).  I asked if it would help the doctor make the adjustment that I need.  She said she didn't know.  I asked if it cost more.  She said, "Yes, but the insurance will pay."  Oh.  So it's ok if insurance is out of sight and all of our rates go up because insurance will pay and we'll just pay the copay which gets higher and higher.

Volunteered Today

It was really hard to volunteer today.  No regular parking place, no place to put my purse, no key to get in, and kids hugging me...adults commenting, I guess it might hurt my feelings if nobody noticed I was there, but I guess today answered my question about do I miss it.  No.  A kid asked why I retired.  I said I was tired of making all that money and wanted to give being poor a trial.  He looked pretty confused.  School is a good place to me.  I like kids and teachers.  I even like administrators mostly.  But they keep wanting more crap for their nickel.  It isn't the administrators' fault, but I'm convinced if I teach faster than they can learn, I haven't taught it at all.  I'm better out of it. 

Food

These are salmon patties.  I drained a small can of salmon, and mixed an egg and half cup of crushed pork rinds with the salmon.  Then I gently patted more crushed pork rinds onto the outside and placed the patties in hot grease.  They crisped up nicely.  If you are not a fan of salmon patties, this won't win you over.  But if salmon patties allow you to add another fish dish to your diet, this puts it on the Atkins diet.  Have plenty of febreze handy because the house will still smell fishy after it's history as a meal.  But battered and fried...I'm a fan.  I may do fried eggplant with the crispy coating of crushed pork rinds next:)

Retirement

Retirement has brought on a question that is hard for me to answer...what are you doing?
I am trying to figure out how to live without basing my identity on my job.  I want to do what I want to and what I need to do.  I pretty much don't know how to do much of anything with all the time I need to do a good job.  Have I done things before with a lick and a promise because that is the kind of person I am, or did I do it that way because I'd rather have been doing three other things?  I really don't know.  I tend to lose interest in things that require effort once I start back to work.  I'm trying to figure out quality of life...what makes it for me given no particular limit on time?  So when somebody asks, "What are you doing now?"  my answer seems to be, "Nothing."  Oh well.  It's more difficult than one would think.

name

A friend of mine has a student named Apocalypse Fourteen.  I have encountered strange names, but that one ranks on up there.  The other kids call her "Pockets."  Mama told me about a woman she knows who was such an avid Auburn fan that she named her daughter War Eagle.  Her daughter, naturally, hates it, Auburn, football, and maybe her mother. 

food

Black beans, brown rice, topped with homemade salsa made from my cherry tomatoes, jalapeno pepper,   garlic, onions, olive oil and vinegar.

Cookies

Every now and then I decide that I can't live without cookies...chocolate-peanut butter oatmeal cookies...to be exact.  Today was the day.  It was rainy so I decided I should cook them a little longer.  They are so hard and crumbly that a crumb dropped in my chair and I found it because it was hurting my leg.  The Princess and the Pea, no, The Woman and the Cookie Crumb.  I guess the air conditioner dehumidified the air to the point that I should have used the regular time.

Tracfone

I activated my new tracfone and added minutes.  It was reminiscent of a cartoon entering the never-ending code.  But I have it activated and it seems relatively easy to track my minutes...it appears on the display along with the end-of-service date.  The minutes activated immediately.  However, if they ever ask if I am willing to take a survey again, I'm going to say no because it didn't direct me to the survey, it just had me holding forever.  I finally hung up and started over.  It is a nice little phone and I had decent reception.  I had wondered about that.  I called Mama with no problem.  I guess I should enter my contacts. 

Money

A single guy we worked with a long time ago was complaining that he never had any money.  I finally said that if he wanted to pick what he spent his money on, stay home.  Don't go to the mall, WalMart, anywhere.  Go to work.  Eat whatever is already in your house.  Do stuff around your house, read, watch tv, whatever, but don't go anywhere.  After a month, check to see how much money you have.  You can't prevent people from sending bills, but buying gas, eating out, tends to fritter money away.  Do it for a month just to see if it helps because getting a raise would give you more money, but it isn't happening often enough to make much difference. 
I didn't expect him to actually do it, but he did.  He said that worked for him.
My advice today would be the same except to stay away from internet purchases.  It is now possible to stay home and spend money.

garden

I think it looks as if eggplant Parmesan will go nicely with the leftover roast and use what is in my garden basket. 

flowers

An Amish couple stopped by in their buggy with horses and complimented me on my flowers this evening as I was watering some grass.  I offered her some cuttings and she said maybe another day she would stop for longer...they were just sitting in the road. 

Retired

The principal invites the staff to eat at a nice restaurant at the beginning of the year to celebrate another year of test scores from the previous year that were good enough to keep the school off the "targeted list."  I was invited, for the last time.  It was good listening to them talk about all the changes and how they wished they could retire...even the superintendent.  I told them being old is very time-consuming.  The superintendent said he was looking forward to it.  Funny.

medicare

The medicare website is confusing for someone who is unfamiliar with it, but the 1-800 number on the medicare card connected me with a pleasant, helpful, knowledgeable person who made the process relatively painless compared to what I had been suffering through before.  Typing in the medications, dosage, etc., wasn't easy and required a trip to the drugstore to make sure the label was completely spelled out.  But the durable goods (cpap machine and blood sugar strips) weren't obvious.  I'm pretty sure there are people less lucid than I am out there.  I hope they get the same helpful person I did! I was horrified at how much medications cost and how erratic medicare plan d is for payments.  The copay amounts vary from a little to a lot from month to month.