It's Sunday! Here we are again.
As you can see by Itzl's concerned look, this group is for us to check in at to let people know we are alive, doing OK, and not affected by such things as heat, blizzards, floods, wild fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, power outages, or other such things that could keep us off DKos. It's also so we can find other Kossacks nearby for in-person checks when other methods of communication fail - a buddy system. Members come here to check in. If you're not here, or anywhere else on DKos, and there are adverse conditions in your area (floods, heatwaves, hurricanes, etc.), we and your buddy are going to check up on you. If you are going to be away from your computer for a day or a week, let us know here. We care!
We have split up the publishing duties, but we welcome everyone in IAN to do daily diaries for the group! Every member is an editor, so anyone can take a turn when they have something to say, photos and music to share, a cause to promote or news!
If you would like to fill in, either post in thread or send FloridaSNMom a Kosmail with the date. If you need someone to fill in, ditto. FSNMom is here on and off through the day usually from around 9:30 or 10 am eastern to around 11 pm eastern.
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I've been feeling my age.
It took six workdays to sort and evaluate and either dump or save the papers, etc., in the storage room we have to empty. I appropriated people from the lab to help - a couple each day - but I still did a lot of it myself. We finished this past Tuesday, and I have only just begun to feel anything except stiff and sore. I'm 60. I'm usually able to ignore that fact, since I have the constitution of an ox.
The project isn't finished yet, but most of what remains to be done is on other people. I only have to let them into the room and make sure they know what is to be taken upstairs and what remains to be got rid of. I think the folks in the lab will move the echo systems that we're keeping - it isn't difficult, since they all have their own wheels.
Party at Catnip Manor (Sara R, winglion, Horace Boothroyd III) on Saturday. Gluten-free brownies (made with sweet potato among other things), my favorite fruit salad (blueberries, mango, honeydew melon, sweet onion and Italian parsley), and whatever anybody else provided. Menu and/or recipes to follow.
As of next Tuesday, I will have held my job for 17 years. I may very well end up holding it for another 10 (my current plan, since my boss shows no signs of truly wanting to retire), but as long as I am employed through the end of 2015, I will have no issues with retiring before that. According to my best calculations, between my pension and Social Security, I will have enough money to live as I am now, which is entirely to my taste, as long as I'm out of debt before I retire - which will happen before the end of 2015.
I might win a lot of money before 2016. No, not the lottery - I'll never win the lottery, since I refuse to buy tickets. Publishers Clearing House, now .... It is not exactly likely, I know; but on the other hand, it's not impossible, either, and the amount of money I need to clear my debt goes down fairly substantially each month.
There's some nasty wildfires in Oregon at the moment. Most of them, if not all this year, appear to be the result of lightning strikes. We also still have snow on the tops of a couple of local mountains that are usually bare rock by the end of July.
And I am by no means the only local quietly sniggering over the new Oregon Republican Party chairman.
The Willamette Week recently ran an article about collecting signatures for the marriage equality initiative in Eastern Oregon - it appears to be going well over there. Not that I feel any particular surprise, since many of our Republicans are still the old style, care-for-your-neighbors sort that used to be famous.