random thoughts – Day 2,149 (Tuesday) – search

I needed a stamp to return the city census form because I didn’t feel like driving downtown to drop it off. The last time I remember using stamps was when sending Christmas cards, so a search for the remaining cards ensued. The leftover cards from 2025 had been set in a box with the leftovers from two or three years previous in a cabinet with art supplies. Address labels were found, but not the stamps. A stamp was eventually found in a desk drawer, but it was a flower stamp from a couple years ago and not even one of the holiday stamps.

Later, while sitting at the desk tracking bills and upcoming social events, I wrote an entry in my date book intended for February, but accidentally wrote it in March. No worries, corrector tape will take it away. The search began. It wasn’t in either of the desk drawers, so I checked the box of office supplies, which ended up being staples, paper clips, assorted pens and sticky notes and the thread trimmers from Mummu’s job at the yarn factory. The trimmers were moved to the sewing desk drawer with the fabric cutting tools.

Somehow, the search for corrector tape led to finding a bag of craft supplies. Those were moved to the sheer storage drawers with the other craft supplies that lives next to the filing cabinet in the guest room closet. Trims were found in the fabric tub in the craft room and placed in the newly acquired trim storage box. A weekend travel bag in the craft room closet was discovered to hold several jigsaw puzzles I had recently wondered about. Those were moved to the shelving in the guest room. 

This sort of activity went on for nearly an hour before I returned to the desk with little recollection of what I was originally looking for or why until I spied the datebook again. It was just another day, and this is totally typical. I go looking for one thing, find several other things, get sidetracked, forget the original mission, and do some other random things. In the course of it and with luck, random tasks are advanced or even completed. With even more luck, the original goal is somehow achieved.

Tonight after dance group, I found the corrector tape. It was in the pencil drawer of the filing cabinet which lived adjacent to the desk for several years in Lowell. Now, the filing cabinet lives in the closet. The same closet I was in organizing craft supplies earlier in the day. I was so close to the original target the whole time. Next up is the resumed search for the missing dance costume jewelry. That should also be fun.

random thoughts – Day 2,148 (Monday) – lunch, taxes, dance

The day flew by. In addition to the usual routines that keep me functional and semi-sane, there was time spent in the kitchen starting a pot of stock with the rest of the turkey carcass that has been in the freezer since Christmas. After several hours, the bones were removed from the liquid and the onion skins and trimmings were removed from the freezer and added. After a couple hours, the heat was shut off and the skins were removed. Later, the pot went into the refrigerator. Tomorrow, soup making will resume with the addition of vegetables bought on Sunday. Bonus -- there is now enough room in the freezer to hold some ice cream. Finally.

Stuffed mushrooms.

Lunch was a quick heat up of the rest of the artichoke stuffed baby portabella mushrooms. They came in a package of seven, prepared and ready to heat from the produce department at Aldi and were quite tasty. The first three were had for Sunday night supper. 

As the aroma of simmering turkey broth filled the house, I sat at the desk and tortured myself. There were job applications and then work on the tax return. Ugh. The timer feature on Turbo Tax estimates how long the return should take and mine started with a laughable estimate of 54 minutes. I remembered from last year how far off the estimate was when it was simple, but this year is blowing it to shreds with the house sale, unemployment, and the moving of bank accounts and the former company’s 401k. There is no longer a module in Turbo Tax to calculate the value of non-cash donations, so dealing with the eight or nine pre-moving donations to Epilepsy Foundation, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and St. Vincent de Paul are a lot more complicated. I don’t see me building a spreadsheet, logging the handwritten sheets done at each donation, and hunting down the values. If only I were a millionaire able to make large, easy to log cash donations. Sigh.

The countdown.

So far, I’m at 4 hours and 24 minutes on the clock on the tax return and I'm only 3/4 of the way into the Federal return. Chunks of that time were spent searching for online documents and entering information from paper forms and discovering there are still some forms missing from accounts once held at the now-defunct former employer. Super fun.

The evening included dance practice and it was a good way to shake off the dust of the afternoon. Redemption was sweet and had a great soundtrack.

random thoughts – Day 2,147 (Sunday) – searching

There was no new snow event (it stayed to the south and east) and dance group was able to meet for dress rehearsal. We ran our performance number several times and began working on a new old piece. Old in that we performed it back in 2018 or 2019 and new in that one-third of the troupe didn’t learn it and the rest of us barely remember it (at least until we review the videos and the muscle memory kicks in).

In preparation for dress rehearsal, there was a one-hour long search this morning for the necklace I usually wear for troupe dances. I wore it in December. It was last seen with a new necklace I wore for the duet in December. I can’t find either one now, but I’m pretty sure they are together someplace supremely safe and logical in the padded jewelry bag with a third (missing) necklace I made from vintage brooches. I know they are not in the dance costume jewelry bag in the bedroom closet or the travel bag used for jewelry, hair accessories, and makeup for shows that lives in the bathroom closet. A quick rifling through the underbed storage boxes of dance costumes and veils came up empty and they aren’t with the Halloween stuff. I hope the location comes to me in a dream or something. And soon. There is currently no troupe dance necklace plan B. 

Potential solution to the costume jewelry issue?

I need to get to work fast on the “better system” for dance costume jewelry because this is the second time in a week I've been searching for things. It will likely involve many hours of falling down a rabbit hole of jewelry cases, armoires, cabinets, etc. Maybe I should just get a nice tackle box. Or based on the volume of trinkets, maybe a mechanics tool chest fitted with cushioned linings. Of course, then the problem would be where to put the massive chest. 

random thoughts – Day 2,146 (Saturday) – another winter day

Bathroom skylight.

The day was cold and sunny with a blue sky. There was talk earlier in the week of a storm over the weekend, which is currently slamming the Carolinas and southern Virginia but now the absence of screaming headlines makes it seem it will miss central Massachusetts. Or not. Who knows.

The snow on the skylights is melting off. This morning there was a large chunk of blue sky and the tippety-top of a tree visible over the shower, but the kitchen skylight is still about 75% snow-covered. 

When the kitchen skylight is covered, the room has a gray tone to it, but the difference in light quality is less noticeable with the bathroom skylight over the shower area. Or maybe it’s just that I spend a lot less time in there.

There was dance practice in the afternoon with the duet partner. First, we move the area rug and sofa out of the way and then we run through the dance in the still small area available as many times as we feel are necessary. Our dance is looking and feeling great. 

Almost full Snow Moon.

Before and after practice, I worked on the final steps of adding brocade trim to the back neckline of the costume which was declared done a week ago and now might really be done done. Now I can shift my attention to a full obsession over hair, makeup, and earrings.

As darkness fell, the nearly full Snow Moon shone bright in the sky. It looked large, but in cell phone pictures from the living room it looked like a little fluff ball or a moth ball nestled in the trees. 

The sky was clear and that means cold, so hooray. It's a whopping six degrees that "feels like -4". Winter is really wintery this year. The forecast is for warmer temperatures with 24 degrees on Sunday and 30 on Monday. It will feel like a tropical heat wave and I am all for it.

random thoughts – Day 2,145 (Friday) – amateur sleuth

Icicles like weapons.

The icicles out front grow more impressive each day and the morning sun shone upon them. They glistened and dripped, extending their length throughout the day. They now extend like sabers half the length of the window. Nearby houses have matching lethal-looking icicle protective devices.

This morning I called Mom’s house. Instead of the line ringing or the recording to leave a message because the line was in use, I was quickly met with a message from my cell carrier notifying that the “person being called is temporarily unavailable.” Unusual. Mysterious.

I called several times, then donned boots, coat, hat, and gloves and walked next door to see if Mom was aware her phone was weird. There were no cars in the driveway so I returned home. I checked the outages site for her provider and saw none noted.

While in the guest room to open the curtains that had been drawn against drafts the night before, I noticed Kiki’s toy was gone from where I had placed it and couldn’t find it anywhere. Mysterious. Also, the pale yellow pillow on the daybed had black hair on it that matches the hair often found on the blanket at the foot of my bed where Kiki naps all day and on the arm of the chair where she perches in the evening when I watch TV.

The pillow offered a clue to Kiki’s nighttime whereabouts after she leaves the bedroom when I go to bed. In the morning I find her sitting on the rug staring at me while I’m in bed, under the dining table, or on the arm of the chair and wondered where she spends the time in between and how long it would take for her to discover the day bed.

In the afternoon, the car was warmed up and I drove to the mail boxes. I hadn’t checked for mail all week and the day’s USPS alert indicated several pieces of mail including tax forms and a package which turned out to be the four-inch by four-inch canvas I will work on for a fundraiser.

On the way past Mom’s house I saw she was home and called her land line again. It was still the Verizon recording. On a whim, before going over in person, I called Mon’s cell phone, which is usually not even turned on when she’s home, but this time it was. I informed her of the phone issue, she called the provider, and it was fixed quickly. Situation solved, although the outage reason is still a mystery. 

Costume jewelry.

The recently ordered set of rhinestone bracelets for the dance costume arrived – five narrow bracelets and one double rowed large stone bracelet. There are still a couple details to be dealt with including earrings, but it is mostly complete with just over a week to go until the dance showcase.

random thoughts – Day 2,144 (Thursday) – snow clean

During Wednesday’s late afternoon shovel-the-front-stairs adventure, it was observed that the snow was the perfect dry and fluffy consistency for cleaning rugs the very old-fashioned way but the late hour made it less feasible. Today, dressed for the snow and bitterly cold weather (officially 16 degrees - feels like 5 degrees) in snow pants, layers, snow coat, heat reflective liners, and snow gloves, I went outside to check out the day’s snow situation.

Digging to the shed,
snow-cleaning rugs.

The shed doors were still blocked by two feet of snow, holding captive the snow shoes I neglected to retrieve the 1,000 times I thought about it since December. The sun had been shining in a blue sky all morning and by 11:30 the snow in the front yard was wetter than Thursday. Not wet and sticky enough for building snow sculptures but just wet enough to be not useful. At the side of the house near the carport, it was still shaded and the snow was dryer.

The three runners (laundry, kitchen, hallway) were retrieved from inside and set atop the snow. The larger rug that really needed the refresh lives closer to the front door/front yard and is just too large enough to be paraded through the house alone so it wasn’t dragged out back.

Dry snow was tossed on the runners, then I took a few minutes to start blazing a trail to the shed doors. One by one the rugs were swept free of the snow (and dirt), flipped, swept on the backside, then hung on the porch rail and swept again. Unlike the last time I did this on different rugs, the swept-off snow remained relatively clean around the rugs. Either I’m doing a better job with routine cleaning, rugs are cleaner without two dogs, or these new runners are magical. My money is on the absence of dogs, but I would take dirty rugs all day any day to have Moose and Winston back.

The snow shoes were successfully retrieved from the shed and set into the tiny cargo compartment of the Jeep. Most of the car’s length is under the hood, and the so-called “cargo” space is minimal in the Renegade if the back seats are upright. For now, it’s full of snow shoes and a set of ski poles, a large umbrella, and various household items intended for donation. I couldn’t fit a bag of groceries back there if my life depended on it.

It was much more pleasant outside today then yesterday. The sun was shining, a neighbor stopped by to chat, and tasks were accomplished. Remembering I own reflective glove liners was helpful and my fingers didn’t get cold during the shoveling and sweeping.

Once back inside, a modification was made to the dance costume. Brocade trim was hand basted along the back neckline and pressed using the tailor’s ham and it looked okay until I tried it on and saw that the neckline no longer lays flat. Did it ever? Suddenly I don’t know. But Houston, we definitely have a problem, but it’s now a Friday problem. Sometimes sleeping on it delivers the solution.

My necklace for the costume was located, ending a day long search. That is what happens when I “organize” things, like I did in December after our last performance – they end up being set someplace “logical” which I unfortunately can’t remember when I need to (lifelong affliction). After looking for the tenth time in various jewelry boxes and travel cosmetic bags used for transport to performance, the necklace was found today in a clear plastic bag on a closet shelf with many other dance accessories. Perfectly logical, right next to the storage bag of troupe performance coin belts and veils, except for the part where I might wear the necklace for non-dance purposes, making it also “everyday jewelry” which lives elsewhere. Clearly, a better system is needed.

random thoughts – Day 2,143 (Wednesday) – outdoor adventure

There are stairs
under there.

Today had an outdoor adventure. I bundled up in the tall snow boots, favorite outdoor coat, a hat, and ski gloves and grabbed the shovel. Dry, light snow had drifted against the back storm door and was cleared, along with the back steps. The snow that had drifted against the driver side of the car was cleared. Then it was over to the front of the house to clear the mound of fluffy snow that had buried the steps and hid the entryway.

It was quick work. There was a lot of snow, but it was feather light and easy to throw. Icicle daggers were knocked down from part of the front of the house with the shovel, but the snow out back is too deep to trudge through to reach the icicles on that side of the house.

Thank goodness for the quickness of the work, because it was cold. My body was warm enough in my coat, but my toes were chilly in my boots and my fingers were cold in the ski gloves. It’s been ages since I had a reliably warm pair of snow gloves, despite buying ski/snowboard brands. 

Winter sunset thought the trees.

From an energy standpoint, I could have kept going, clearing the access to the shed and the recycle and trash bins, but the cold hands cut that short and I returned to admiring winter from inside the house. As the sun was setting, I camped out at the window trying to get a glimpse of the pink sunset through the trees and the icicles on the back of the house. It's rarely successful, but I check it out most days anyway.