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.