My accountant just called me and told me I was getting money back from federal taxes, but that I would owe $625 in Louisiana income taxes. WTH! Texas doesn't have state income taxes. Even if my retirement was from Louisiana, I wouldn't have to pay, but since my money comes from Texas I have to pay. That SUCKS! By the time I pay the accountant and my state taxes, my federal refund will be used up! RATS!
I just had to go outside and move everything in the garage that could be tossed around by wind. We have predictions of 60 mph winds coming through here momentarily. Power is already out in Shreveport just west of here, so there is the real possibility of losing power here as well. Our power is supplied by the City of Minden and if it does go out, they get it back in fairly short order. I'm sure they have all the trucks on stand by right now. I like that.
My foot is 100% better. I can even move the joint in the big toe. Unfortunately, the steroid is still in my system thus causing blood sugar issues. The steroid keeps me hungry, but I try not to eat carbohydrates, which would raise it some without the aid of the steroid. Yesterday, I ate boiled shrimp and today I ate boiled crawfish, neither of which would raise my blood sugar, but today it has remained around the 200 mark. That's not good! High blood sugars are what cause nerve damage and kidney damage, so I try to avoid having any sugars that high. Since that rarely ever occurs, I'm hoping this couple of days won't cause damage.
Today would have been a perfect day for me to make progress with all my outside projects, but NO.....I woke up in the night with yet another swollen foot of death! Gout REALLY hurts. My toe never gets completely well, always being very stiff and painful when I try to bend it. Hopefully, we are going to address that problem. I could barely walk, so I had to go in yet AGAIN to the doctor. I told him that it's a shame I have to come see him more than my parents do. Before I came here, I went to the doctor maybe once a year. I was rarely down! Needless to say, I have done nothing useful today but lie around wishing I could go outside and work in the yard. I got another celestone shot, the magical potion that masks the pain and raises my blood sugar. Since it is a steroid, it makes me hungry, but I have to be very careful not to eat foods to exacerbate the problem.
My brother left today on a little road trip, so that means I am in charge of seeing about the parents every day. When he is here, I don't have to go there every day because he sees them every morning. They really miss him when he is gone. He spent all yesterday morning doing stuff for Dad like planting some fruit trees and getting the insurance adjuster to look at damage on Dad's truck. There is always something that needs to be fixed. Most of it I do not know how to do, but my brother does. He can fix anything. I miss them when they are on vacation as well.
Yesterday the land man came and brought me a check for leasing my few little acres down at the home place. Today I used a $100 gift card from Belk that I have had since Christmas. It seems that I am such a creature of habit that I take the sheets off my bed, wash them and put them back on because I only like one set of sheets that I have. These are so soft and comfy. Unfortunately, they wore so thin that they ripped. Well, of course, that just will not do, so I spent all the gift card plus $25 on some new sheets and a new mattress pad. They had better be soft. They are 300 TC sateen. I bought some 400TC once and they got those little pills all over them, so I am very skeptical about sheets. Also, I am very picky about sheets! Let's face it, I am pretty damn picky about everything.....which probably explains why I don't have a sweetheart on Valentine's Day!!!
I was going through internet withdrawal yesterday because I had none. Usually, my provider is right on an outtage no matter when it occurs, so I called this morning. Turns out it was just ME! All I had to do was disconnect the wireless router and plug it back in! Next time I'll know!
There was a time when my doorbell ringing at all hours was common, but not now! Friday night my doorbell rang twice after 1 in the morning. Of course, I did not even think about opening it. Finally, I did go and look out a window and saw a stalled vehicle out on the street. I did not know whether to call 911 or not. How was I to know it wasn't some drunk who would just kick in my door? Anyone who would ring the bell at a house with no lights on can't be dealing with a full deck anyway. And who on Earth does not own a cell phone! I had the phone in my hand, but it wasn't an emergency. My brother told me it could have easily turned into an emergency and, yes, I should have called 911! Next time I will know!
I was at Dad's by 8 this morning. My brother laughed at me for being there so early. It is sooooo not like me! I told him I wanted to get there while he was there so he could start the tiller for me. He did and I got a lot done. Tomorrow the rains come and winter returns to mess up what I did today. The rain will make the tilled area all hard again, but I will do it again and get it ready to plant potatoes.
I got started in my yard and got half the roses pruned, treated with fungicide and new mulch around them. It's like starting over because all the dead leaves had to be removed from the ground around the plants and new mulch put down. I'm not finished! If this doesn't stop the black spot, I will pull those roses up, throw them away and give up on roses.
Last night Dad wanted to take us all to dinner and talk to us about leasing our 60 acres around the home place. The independent lease hound will pay $100 an acre plus a percentage of any gas if they should happen to drill a producing gas well. Dad already gets money from 13 gas wells on his old home place, but any wells drilled near our current home place have been dry. We don't even know why they want to lease our land, but we all agreed that we would go ahead and take that $6,000 and run. Of course, all the money would go to Mom and Dad except for the 6 acres that my brother and I own there. Dad did say he would give us each some of the money because he doesn't need it.
"If we must have a Democrat in the White House, it might as well be McCain!" He is soooooo not a conservative! In fact, he is a RINO! (Republican in Name Only) My first presidential election that I could vote in was when John Kennedy was elected. I didn't vote for him, but he was more conservative than John McCain. What a MESS! All those people who hate George Bush are going to appreciate him more! I'm not happy with him either, but GEEZE LOUISE....we are in big trouble!
We had the girls' lunch today for the last time at our friend's old house. She and her husband have built a new home right behind mine and will be moving in a couple of weeks. Another one in our group of ladies is a couple of months behind in construction, but she will be on the same street behind me. Our last meal was homemade French onion soup with French bread, salad, and fresh blueberry pie. It was awesome!
After lunch I was supposed to work in my parents' yard. I went, but the wind was so bad that it was too hard to get anything done. My brother stopped by on his way down to our pond to see if he could catch a fish. He caught 14 white perch, so tomorrow we are eating his fish and my collard greens. Yes, we are self sufficient!
I'm admitting to the world that I am becoming more of a doofus every day. Today I spent a good 30 minutes trying to stop advertisements from AT&T coming as text messages on my new Motorola RAZR. All I had to do was send STOP to the four numbers. I have already done that once and got the return answer that they would be stopped. However, they did NOT stop, so I did it again except that I couldn't remember how I finally got the message sent last time. I used to be fairly tech saavy, but those days have left me in the dust. I finally got the message sent. Now we'll see if the ads actually stop!!! I have a feeling this new Camcorder is going to be the death of me!!
I woke up this morning at 6:30 starving, so I knew I was over the crud that has messed up my Mardi Gras. After a sausage, egg, and cheese McMuffin, I actually had some energy to do some yard work. My tulips are now in the ground because they were already sprouting in the bag they came in. I went to check on Mom and Dad since I haven't seen them since Friday. They are both still struggling with head colds.
We are under a severe weather threat, so our last parade tonight is real iffy. It's 73 degrees with a cold front on the way, so a major weather event is predicted. I'm not real sure I am up for another parade, but I have plans to go if it happens. My strength is returning. I have managed to go up in the attic four times putting Christmas stuff up, so I am on the road to recovery. Yay!
This graphic explains how I feel.The parades would have been so much fun if I had not been sick. Due to my being so idle physically since I got sick before Christmas, my back was killing me during the 3 1/2 hours of the parade on Saturday. That's constant dancing and throwing beads for that long. I had a chair on the float that I had to sit in quite a bit, but that parade is hard work. They estimated half a million people along the route. We have a DJ on board and he is awesome. He keeps us dancing the whole time. After the parade ended on Saturday, we had breakfast served to us at the King's wife's little restaurant. Just perfect. I had done very little drinking....2 lemon drops and one 7 ounce beer, but I had to stop on the way home to throw up. Turns out I had some sort of virus. I was not sick again until just before the next parade started yesterday. I should have never got on the float, but I did. Thank goodness I was on the end and had a plastic container to throw up in. I hadn't eaten a bite since the night before, so there was nothing to actually throw up. Sometimes that just makes it worse. Finally, today I have managed to keep some crackers and some sprite down. I just ate the old stand by...chicken noodle soup. I hope it stays down. I am supposed to do one more parade Tuesday night, but it is a short parade. I hope I can make it. Every upper torso muscle is sore from all the dry heaving...well, now aren't I just a ray of sunshine!
