Wild Blue Yonder

I am waiting for the weather warmup, which here in the Northeast, will happen on Easter Sunday, when we'll see a high of 58 degrees.

That's when I plan to do some seed planting: I've started red peppers already, and I plan to do eggplant, broccoli and butterfly weed in my little peat pots. I really have an extreme shortage of indoor space, and just a limited number of grow lights in a cool house, but I'll figure something out. To hedge my bets, I will reserve a certain number of seeds for direct sowing in the ground when it's warm enough. I have soooo many flower seeds collected since last fall through several different seed exchanges.

Aside from wishing cousins and dad a Happy Easter, this will be the highlight of my Easter. No special dinner planned, but I will go out for a nice long walk alone.

Update on neighbor's tenant, who has the virus. She's hanging in there. He's checking her blood oxygen levels twice daily and knows what would signal he needs to call 911. He told me it was very hard caring for someone that sick; you feel for them and are scared for them, he said, and she should be in the hospital. He can't leave her for more than a few hours.

This morning I was able to pick up 4 wood pallets from behind a shed on town property, near our walking trail. I had already gotten the permission of the First Selectman. It kind of tickled me that I live in a town where the First Selectman still has time to personally respond to your email query and give you his blessing.

I plan to build an insect hotel; they are quite popular in parts of Europe.





Sure, you can buy them, but they are overpriced and very small, and frankly, half the fun is filling it with all sorts of organic materials.

So I will stack the pallets, as shown in the 2nd photo, and maybe use some bricks in between pallets for some extra height.

In a previous post I mentioned that my neighbor who lives behind me got the virus. He was finally feeling better for several consecutive days. For 3 weeks it was very touch and go as his body fought the virus; one day he'd be good, the next day he thought he was dying.

My neighbor is married and around my age. They bought their house in the woods about 15 years ago and because he was making very good money, they over-improved the house, doubling its square footage to about 5,000 sf.

Then their world turned upside down when he lost his job. He went from earning six figures to driving a school bus to make ends meet. His wife works as a bookkeeper, so not much money there. Because they over-improved the house, they couldn't afford to pay their property taxes, which are $15K a year.

They put the house up for sale and planned to move out of state, where real estate is cheap, but couldn't find a buyer, probably because the driveway (I'm guessing it's 2,000+ feet), at that time unpaved, was up a hill that became fairly steep at the curve, and in winter, it was treacherous. I would watch them from my house as they slid sideways on the ice and had to park their cars on the hill and walk up.

Their solution, in the end, was to turn all that square footage to their advantage by doing more renovations and renting out small apartments. I think they have 4 single tenants renting there now with room for a 5th. I'm not sure if it's legal or not. Initially, I know it wasn't, but some time ago he claimed to me that the town gave them their blessing. I kind of doubt that since I was never notified of any zoning meetings but these people are good friends of mine and I never investigated.

So my neighbor, I thought, had mostly recovered from the virus, but last night I saw the flashing lights of an ambulance truck and car cruising down my street. They turned in on my neighbor's driveway and went up there. I was so worried that my neighbor had taken a turn for the worse. I was afraid to call or text and did not want to disturb them.

I contacted him a few hours after I saw the ambulance leave. Neighbor was okay, but it was one of his tenants, a single woman and breast cancer survivor, who was taken to the hospital after showing all the symptoms of the virus. She was semi-delirious and not fully aware of what was happening. She was in bad shape.

I learned this morning they brought her back from the hospital last night. If you don't need a ventilator, they send you home.

This woman, probably in her 40s and divorced, has only her sister in the area, and she apparently is not close to her; in any event, the sister doesn't want to go near her for fear she'll catch the virus.

My neighbor and his wife have moved their tenant into their spare bedroom so that he can better take care of her. (He says caring for sick people is not his wife's thing.) He is ideally suited to doing this because he is now immune to the virus.

And he made me promise him last night that if I got sick, I should tell him immediately, and not wait 2 days like his tenant did. He said you could go from feeling fine one minute to being dead 4 hours later. Maybe an exaggeration, but I guess he would know.

I told him he is a prince among men. And that maybe this was all meant to be, that he had to get sick in order to save another's life.

Living alone, I feel I have both an advantage and a disadvantage when it comes to COVID-19. The advantage is that there is no one in close quarters on a regular basis who could possibly infect me, and I can control my home environment much better since it's just me; the disadvantage is that I am going without the social interaction and just plain comfort of having others around me.

I am actually pretty okay with hunkering down; my biggest dread is doing the weekly grocery shopping. I could go longer between trips, but I'm also shopping for my 86-year-old father, and I'm not sure he would like me to skip a week.

Yesterday was the day; I decided to try BJs because they are generally very uncrowded on weekdays without the COVID. I went during the early morning hour reserved for those of a certain age. It was uncrowded. I used the self-checkout station, but an employee suddenly ran up to me (3 feet away) and yelled that I could not use "unapproved" sanitizers on their equipment. (I've been bringing my little bottle of bleach/water and a sponge to spray any surfaces I have to touch.) And they still had a guy at the door checking receipts, making you wait in line with others. I don't think I'll be returning there again til this crisis is over.

I was very disappointed not to qualify for a new study an area hospital is recruiting for to see how a vegan diet, with or without eggs, affects diet quality and heart health. The study sounded great: eat a vegan diet (I already do), plus certain people would be assigned to eat 2 eggs daily for 4 weeks. There'd be about 4 blood draws and other check-ins. The pay was $600 PLUS another $500 in gift cards to pay for the vegan food! Unfortunately, I don't qualify because my BMI is in the "healthy" category and I'm not considered at risk for diabetes.

My routine when venturing out for groceries is elaborate, but as some healthcare pros have said, if you feel like what you're doing is overkill, then you're probably doing the right thing. I also read a good article in the New York Times about how to grocery shop safely.

So I wear my disposable gloves (I have masks, but haven't yet used them) and bring my sponge and spray bottle of bleach/water. I find a cart and wipe down mainly the handle bar, but also the wire on the cage wherever I think I'll be touching it, so that would include the front, since I would be leaning over it to empty it at checkout.

I've been trying to pull items stacked behind the front ones, to reduce the chance some customer has touched them.

I also spray and wipe down the surfaces at checkout, including the display screen you touch at various times, and the credit card terminal. Only BJs hassled me.

When I get to my car, I spray my own gloved hands with the bleach solution again, and the door handle. When I get home, I spray and wipe down all food products, either in the packaging they came in (like my dad's chicken), or I remove the food from its outer packaging and put it away without it. I also, for instance, sprayed/cleaned individual bananas for dad.

My technique is imperfect, to be sure; spraying the typical shopping cart is definitely difficult, but what I do is spray my sponge and then wipe the cart. I prefer the little carts simply because there's less to wipe down, but I'm shopping for 2 households so that sometimes won't fit in a smaller cart.

When I finish unpacking and cleaning the food, I set aside the reusable shopping bags in a part of the house where I won't walk into them, and I add a sticky note with the day I used them. Just because I know that the virus isn't supposed to survive past a certain time. I've heard varying numbers up to 9 days, so I allow for 10 days.

I do the same thing with mail collected from my mailbox. My postal carrier could have the virus and not know it, so I remove the mail using a gloved hand, and put both the mail and the glove aside, again with a dated sticky note. I get most bills online, so I'm not too concerned with not paying some bill in time.

I've ordered some food and other things from both Amazon and WalMart and done the same thing when those boxes arrived. Suffice it to say I have little piles of mail, boxes, gloves and coats scattered all around my living room (which I don't really use much).

So yeah, it sounds extreme, but I live near the nation's epicenter for the virus, New York City. In my state of Connecticut, I also live in the county that has the highest number of cases (and is closest to NYC, with lots of people who commute there for work).

Other than the challenges of food shopping, I've developed little routines that help me organize my time. I still have a job (at home), but this week I worked only 7.5 hours. Hardly enough to get by on, but I have savings and the government check to look forward to.

I walk nearly every day, sometimes just around the block, sometimes elsewhere. It's great to get outside and not feel cooped up. Once the weather gets a little warmer, I'll have plenty to do with gardening. I'm already considering whether I should try mowing my lawn for the entire season instead of paying my guy to do it. I certainly will have the time for it; it's also great resistance exercise and good for bone health, something I'm definitely thinking more about since being told I have osteopenia. It would also save me a pile of money since he charges $45 per mowing.

It's not easy to do. It's about an acre, and the worst part is a fairly steep slope near my front door. The hardest part is doing this in July/August, or during times of high humidity.

I do plan to grow more veggies this year at home, which could definitely become important if the virus persists.

I'm continuing to cook from scratch for nearly all my meals. I'm doing strength training exercises with hand and ankle weights, my yoga mat and a stretch band 3x a week.

I see my dad every week. This week was the second time I did not go near him. He was sitting outside in the sun when I arrived with the groceries. I thought he should put the groceries away himself, but he asked me to do it. I had bleach-wiped them, so they should be okay.

So we talked for about 20 minutes, but from a 6-foot distance. I worry about keeping his spirits up because he is already housebound and didn't go anywhere unless me or my sister or brother were taking him. Now all those visits will be curtailed.

He's talking about growing vegetable seedlings, so I've ordered soil, seeds and peat pots. It would be something to keep him busy.

What coping strategies have you come up with?

My neighbor who lives behind me thinks he has corona virus. He's been really sick for the past week (sicker than when he had pneumonia 4 years ago, he said) and got tested this morning. He had to make a 40-minute drive to a special test center by himself to do that. He won't have results for a couple of days. He said he's had all the symptoms, most especially trouble breathing. He couldn't put his arm on his chest because of the pressure. they gave him Tamiflu.

I am very relieved that through uber caution, I turned down his suggestion that he come by for a cup of tea and a visit the week before last. By then I was already feeling uneasy about seeing anyone. Perhaps he wasn't contagious or even sick then, but I don't really know.

He said you cannot take care of yourself if you get sick. Because it was all he could do to walk to the bathroom. His wife is caring for him now and so far feels fine.

It will be a quiet day for me. (Heck, a quiet foreseeable future.)

On Thursday I ventured out to buy groceries for me and Dad. I got there during senior hours, but in truth it was probably more crowded that it might have been if I had gone during the middle of the day? I'm not sure when an uncrowded time to go would be since nearly everyone is home and presumably go food shopping at any time.

Stop & Shop was completely out of bananas and most meat. My father wanted chicken thighs, but the only chicken they had was chicken patties (which I got him) and chicken sausage. I got the last large clamshell of salad greens.

I brought dad's food over to his place but after putting the groceries away, I stayed there probably just 40 minutes when he said I should probably go. He wanted me to run to the bank and get him some cash, which did, but then I headed home.

Today so far I vacuumed and changed my bedsheets. I hope to take a walk at some point, before the expected showers. It's supposed to get up to 70 degrees.

I'll look for an interesting way to cook my spaghetti squash that's been sitting in the fridge.

I've been doing intermittent fasting for the past month or two, not every day, but 2 or 3 times a week. It basically involves no snacking after dinner, and not eating the following day til about 11 or 12 noon, so you're essentially fasting for 16 hours. Then you can eat during an 8-hour window. There are a lot of health benefits to doing so.

Does anyone remember the old Charlton Heston movie, The Ten Commandments, which the networks often would play leading up to Easter? There's a part of that movie (or was it in The Greatest Story Ever Told, also starring Charlton Heston) where King Herod's army is ordered to kill every Hebrew male infant under age 2. I'm remembering a scene where a deadly smoke/breeze wafts throughout the town under the doors of all the people except those who marked their door with a cross.

Somehow this corona virus reminds me of that scene; we're all just hunkered down, waiting for the pestilence to pass us by.
I brought



I brought dad's food over

Last night I emailed my manager at work, asking to work from home for an as-yet-undefined period of time because I truly feel showing up there is an unnecessary risk.

We are a small office, about 9 people, but I see no reason not to leverage modern technology to work remotely. My work as copy editor lends itself to it.

I got the go-ahead this morning; manager let it be known they were working with IT on a solution for others to work from home "in the event" they needed to.

Wow, if ever there was an event, this would be it. Not sure what they're waiting for. Our governor and everyone else is advising "social distancing," and this is what all our clients are already doing, yet for some reason my little employer seems to think this advice doesn't apply to them, even as we're told that someone can be a virus carrier and spread the disease for several days before showing symptoms.

I will be taking a substantial financial hit from working at home since I can only charge for time actually spent working on an assignment. When I'm on site, I charge for the entire time I'm there, regardless of what I'm doing, and there can be long downtime periods I just spend reading news online. So a typical 18-hour week could shrink by half or more. I actually tried to calculate whether I'd be better off if they issued me a temporary layoff. I think it would be a close call, and in any event, if work continues, I'll need to do it. Not really my call.

Now, my only true exposure will be my once weekly grocery shopping trips for my father and myself. I feel uneasy about continuing to see him as I could spread it to him, but I believe that my precautions would make that possibility very low. He is homebound now, and looks forward so much to my visits.

That being said, we won't be visiting a restaurant anytime soon. Being 60, I actually fall into the "high risk" category, along with my father. I guess I will make a meal for us at his place and we can still take a drive somewhere just for fun, but not stop in anywhere!

My county is the hot spot in our state due, no doubt, to our proximity to Westchester County, NY, another hot spot, and New York City.

I am sure the self-imposed isolation will get to me, but perhaps less than most, as I am very self-sufficient and have many things to occupy my time at home.

Unlike Dido, though, I doubt I have several months' worth of groceries, as I rely a lot on fresh produce that can't be stockpiled. I could make do with what I have for a few weeks, probably, but the lack of variety would probably get to me. I did stock up on cat food for Luther. I do hope no further shortages occur at the grocery stores. I noticed when I was at Stop & Shop last Saturday, besides the cleaning supplies, they were only half-stocked in cat food, bread and some fresh produce.

Yesterday I stayed home all day except for 2 outings: a nice, long walk to our historic Main Street, by myself, and a short drive in town to donate some clothing accessories to a woman with a church group collecting for a Sudanese refugee family settling in our area.

The day before, Saturday, I also stayed home all day but I kept busy and did some cooking and yard work. I plan to keep in touch with family, friends, loved ones by FaceTime, email, phone and text, and by yodeling to my neighbors up the hill.

Today I canceled a routine doctor's visit. A few days ago, I had a good conversation with staff at the gym I just joined; they sound very reasonable and I have every expectation they will let people extend their memberships by as many months as they avoid the gym. In the meantime, I'll be working out at home.

I had met with my mason to do a few jobs for me this spring, but given the uncertainty about how long this will last, I think I'd prefer to preserve the liquidity of my cash holdings.

Another huge downturn in the DJIA and they've frozen the market.

One small bonus coming out of all the economic and stock market uncertainty is the drop in oil prices. I was able to fill up my oil tank for $1.66 a gallon, a price I haven't paid since 2016.

The past week has been a whirlwind of bad news and unexpected developments, most of it COVID-19-related.

I got the results back from my DEXA bone scan, and it indicates osteopenia. This shocked me, because I've been active all my life, from walking 4 miles back and forth to school until I got my driver's permit, to mowing my one acre with a walk-behind mower for 20 years, and everything in between. I've walked on my lunch break at work for decades, and more.

So 2 days later, I joined our local gym, the "sports academy," which is quite a bit more expensive ($42/mth) than most other local gyms these days, but I like it because of the convenient location, the friendly staff and, perhaps because of the cost, most of the membership is definitely over 50, so I feel very comfortable. It's not your typical macho pickup joint. I saw any number of people who had to have been in their 70s working out!

I committed to doing strength training on the machines 3x a week, and this would have been my 2nd week doing so, but things have gotten so nuts with the virus that I began feeling uneasy about returning to the gym, even with my own little spray bottle of bleach/water solution. I was there on Wednesday and don't think I'm going back for a while.

I had a good conversation with a staff person there who was very understanding and said they were having a meeting about it. They may offer an extension of memberships so if you take 2 or 3 months off now, they'll extend the membership by that much. or something like that, so I'm not too worried about that.

I have several sets of hand weights up to 10 pounds and a very good set of exercises for bone health you can do at home. I'm not sure it's as complete a workout as what I could expect at the gym, but it may have to do (along with my habitual walking) for a few months.

I'm actually more concerned about my job. When I left the office Wednesday, I had been following the virus news closely, but had every intention of returning to work on Monday, per my schedule, because we are a very small office and I figured the chances of contagion were also small, but now it's Saturday, and I feel differently.

My job editing lends itself to work at home, yet this company has always been reluctant to let you do that. I take a financial hit anyway when I do work from home, say, during a snowstorm, because I can only charge for actual time worked, not time spent sitting around waiting for assignments to come in. That's different than how it works when I'm on-site, where I can charge for my entire time spent there, regardless of whether I'm actually working, or not. And there's a lot of downtime.

But beyond that, I'm thinking it's likely we'll all see temporary layoffs, because our clients (very large pharma companies) will ban the kind of training workshops we put together for them, and if they can't be all turned into webcasts instead of in-person meetings, we'll see a work shortage.

A former coworker who now works for our largest client confirmed that this is exactly what's happening at her firm. Travel and meetings have been banned for the next 3 weeks and everyone there is working from home.

My neighbor told me a week ago he spent $1000 on groceries. At the time, I thought it unnecessary, but now in hindsight I see that wasn't a bad idea.

I went to Stop & Shop early today and not only was the entire one side of the cleaning aisle completely empty, but the cat food and bread shelves were only about 50% full, and I noticed other shortages in fresh produce. I do hope that once supermarkets restock, things will settle down.

Luckily I had a gallon of bleach at home so I made my own spray for surfaces, and my coworker gave me some Purell at the office Wednesday which I took home with me.

I am definitely practicing "social distancing" but am keeping in touch with family and friends through phone, text, email and, as I jokingly said to my neighbor behind me, through yodeling up the hill.

I saw my dad on Thursday and had decided that though the risk is small, I didn't really want to take him to a restaurant for lunch if we could easily avoid that, so I made a "picnic" lunch of homemade veggie soup, some peanut butter cookies and hot tea in thermoses.

I expected some resistance from him as I know that, being homebound, he really looks forward to our outings, but since he watches the news all day, he was fully informed about what was going on and did not poo poo my concerns as I thought he would.

I told him we could still take a drive somewhere, but he said let's wait for a sunny day. I did have to do grocery shopping for him, but tried to be careful in wearing gloves and spraying down the cart handle bar. I told the bagger I would bag my own groceries. Maybe I'm overreacting (I didn't see anyone else wearing gloves at the store) but I'd rather be safe than sorry, and there are now a dozen people who tested positive in my state, and all but one of them are in my county.

I really hope that people take this virus seriously. The more quickly we can take extraordinary measures by closing schools, movie theaters, etc., the more quickly we can nip this thing in the bud, or "flatten the curve," as they've been saying in the press conferences. If we delay or take half-measures for the next few weeks, it could make this whole thing much worse for us. Just sayin'.

Oh yeah, and I've lost about $300K in the stock market, despite being extremely conservatively invested with just 50% stock exposure. Not touching it, of course, as I expect we'll make a full rebound once they wrest control of the virus or come up with a vaccine.

Today has been an atypical day, filled with a number of unexpected events.

Dell Technical Support
This morning I tried calling Dell technical support as I was having issues printing from my new computer. The first person was on with me for 45 minutes, after which she told me since I was having a software issue, not a hardware issue, she'd have to transfer me, and the next person told me since my warranty doesn't cover software, i'd have to pay $239 to upgrade my warranty!! if I wanted to have them help me fix just this specific problem, that would still cost me $129.

I declined either offer and told them I'd just go on social media and tell everyone what I thought of Dell technical support, after which they offered to "escalate" the issue and have someone else call me back at a later time, presumably at no cost to me.

So we'll see what happens with that. I was pretty irate, having spent over $900 on a Dell computer, to have them telling me this.

Scrapping old computers
After that, I got really tired tripping over the components of my old computer, which was sitting unassembled on the floor. I had hoped to make a few bucks selling it but had no takers, and I know there are hundreds of other people trying to do the same thing. Both my computer and my mother's computer, which had been taking up space in a spare closet for 4 years now, worked fine but are functionally obsolete.

Microsoft, as you may know, no longer supports Windows 7, which I am told leaves it vulnerable to hackers, so that pushed me to upgrade my computer, which was really not that old. I think I got it in 2013.

With some difficulty, I took the tower of both computers apart and removed the hard drive, then smashed both hard drives with a hammer to destroy them.

I had considered keeping my mother's old hard drive and transferring all the data, but I'm not really sure what the point was. There is nothing I have missed these past 4 years, and reading her documents or viewing her images would just be a painful and emotional process.

I brought all of it to my town's transfer station today before they closed.

My friend and neighbor invited me to walk with her and her dog, so I worked out my frustrations with her as we walked.

Neighbor's marriage woes
Later this afternoon, another neighbor unexpectedly stopped by and confided in me his marriage has gone south. I had always thought of theirs as a great marriage. I was really surprised. So we talked over tea for quite a while. He has contemplated an affair. She won't see a therapist (doesn't even want to talk about it) , and they can't afford to divorce.

Now, as dusk descends, I am back to my own devices, considering myself lucky that I am not dealing with a late-in-life marriage crisis.

I filed my tax returns a few weeks ago and got my federal refund of about $1100 in my checking recently.

The stock market tumble
I'm worried about the stock market as I lost quite a bit on paper, even though I had only 50% invested in equities. All the more reason to get an immediate annuity for about $150K in 5 years to ensure regular monthly income that will cover most of my ongoing expenses and remove that money from stock market exposure. So I wouldn't have to lose sleep over future stock market fluctuations. It's a little too early to have done this now, as I would get a lower monthly income because of my younger age. Actuarially, waiting 5 more years is a better strategy.

The rest of the weekend will be devoted to cleaning the house, cooking, chillin' and reading.

Busy, busy, busy.

New computer
I decided to replace my "aging" Windows 7 Dell desktop since Microsoft no longer supports it, virus/security-wise. It was also getting incredibly SLOW, probably due to today's complex graphics.

I bought a new "all-in-one" Dell desktop (Windows 10) with a slightly bigger monitor of about 23" and NO tower, which I like a lot since too many wires makes it hard to vacuum. Everything is wireless.

I had considered a laptop, but I really like a large monitor, which doubles as a TV for me when watching movies on Kanopy. All you need is a participating public library (and library card) and you can watch some great free movies there.

I also bought a gadget to transfer all my files from my old computer to the new one; I made the mistake of having them put into the "cloud," so now all my photos are just dumped into the cloud by date and are no longer neatly organized by file. There were also tons of duplicate photos; I don't know why, but that's likely the reason why the system is already telling me I'm nearly full at the cloud and I would have to start paying a monthly fee for more storage there. So I'm slowly deleting the dupe photos.

I spent a while on the phone with tech support, because, to start with, I couldn't get the keyboard to work. who knew there is a tiny on/off switch on one side? Then there was an issue with the face recognition feature not working. Uh, duh, that's because I didn't push the little pop-up camera in the up position so it could actually see me. This is what happens when they give you no instruction manual. Sigh.

I spent most of Friday manually copying over all my bookmarks and reorganizing them by file names. I still need to connect to my printer and a few other things. Transitioning to a new computer is always somewhat traumatic for me.

Started taxes
I started doing my taxes last week but had to stop as I was missing one form, which I now have, so I hope to continue (complete) my federal taxes today??? I did another small backdoor Roth IRA conversion since my income these days is pretty low. I am kind of procrastinating by writing this post.

Gift cards...whoa!
I earned $200 in gift cards (it would be less if I opted for cash payment) from my latest Citi credit card, so I have gift cards for Macy's, Lowe's and Bed Bath & Beyond to use whenever I want. I don't really need anything right now, though I will surely find the gift cards useful at some point.

Moneywise, the computer was a big unexpected expense, but I'll just try to lay low on spending this month. If I spend on nothing but essentials, there's a chance I'll break even.

Bone health
Lately I've been thinking about bone health. My mother had osteoporosis. I have walked for exercise, for years, but I've read this doesn't necessarily help. So I bought a weighted vest after hearing good things about how they can help you actually build bone. You can put up to 10 lbs in half-pound increments in the vest; starting to wear weight very gradually.

I started with 2 lbs which I guess was too much because it gave me a mild backache. I eased off that and am now walking (when I think of it) with just 1 lb, evenly dispersed between front and back. I wear it under my coat and it's a little bulky, but I wouldn't be caught dead with it worn on the outside.

However, now I'm wondering if I should give up on the vest entirely. I remembered that last year, when I saw my neurologist for my annual visit, we had done an MRI; the great news is that nothing hadchanged since my last MRI 10 years ago. But there was mention in the report of spinal stenosis, and it mentioned a marked decrease in the cushioning between certain vertebrae. I brought it up to my neurologist, who didn't really discuss it with me. I feel he was only interested in the MRI for the MS.

Not sure if it's part of normal aging? Is wretched back pain a part of my future? I don't know. I have come across some exercises you can do to strengthen the muscles along the spinal column to perhaps alleviate the condition, although I feel no pain but am wondering if that's what's going to come. I have noticed a distinct clicking sound in my neck when I turn my head from left to right. I have a physical scheduled for next week so will talk to her about it then.

The funny thing with the physical, which I originally had scheduled for this past Thursday. I showed up for my 10:15 am appointment and while the door was UNLOCKED (it's in a commercial office building) no one was there. The computer at the reception desk was off. I called out "hello?" and no one answered. The hallways were dark. Very strange.

I couldn't figure out why the door would be unlocked yet the place vacant. Living in a town where a mass shooting occurred, I started to wonder if the staff was being held hostage and maybe a gunman was in the office. I didn't stay there long. I left messages with the answering service, who knew nothing. Finally, a staff person showed up, very apologetic. They had a one-hour delayed opening due to weather (just a little rain), and they had tried to call me but umm, I haven't been there in 2 years and I got my new iPhone since then, so they couldn't reach me. Even though I had just talked to them 2 days prior due to the possibly bad weather, and if someone had thought about it, they should have been able to get my new number by looking at the past incoming phone calls.

Learning to love sardines
I am trying to learn to love sardines. They are supposed to be very good for you: low on the food chain so less heavy minerals than other fish, even salmon, and good for brain health. I'm still eating mostly plant-based, but do eat fish 1-2x a week. I was afraid I wouldn't like it. I bought several tins of sardines a few weeks ago and the one tin sat on my kitchen table for 2 weeks.

I worked my way up to trying out one of the recipes I got and opened the tin. Hmmm, these don't look like sardines. Turns out they weren't. They were smoked oysters. I didn't realize other things besides sardines would be packed in those little tins and sitting so close to the sardines, I made a mistake in picking them up. I ate them in my sandwich and they were ok.

Then, yesterday, I tried the sardines, using the same recipe of mayo, mustard, lemon juice, chopped red onion and celery with sprouts on whole grain toasted bread. (I used spelt.) I mashed the sardines up well in the dressing, and this helped to mask any strong odor. It was a little fishy, but I got it down. I was hoping to eat sardines once a week. Still not crazy about them but I want to give it another try. If anyone has a recipe that really masks the flavor/odor by combining it with other foods, I'd love to hear it.

Job status?
There's a chance I may lose my job in another month or so, which is worrisome. The short story is this: a former (disgruntled) coworker who used to share my job with me saw an ad for my job, and it said they were looking for someone f/t. He texted me and said, what's going on?

I spoke to my manager about it the very next day, and he immediately told me they were looking to replace the woman who currently shares my job with me as she doesn't like to work late into the evening and was in fact leaving the office at 3:30 pm each day as she has kids. Another coworker who is not a trained editor was picking up the slack after she left, but I'm guessing that wouldn't be a permanent solution. (But why did the ad say "full-time?"

My manager did ask me if I was sure I wouldn't want to work f/t, and I confirmed that. He seemed very straightforward with me, and I thought I had nothing to worry about until a day or so later, when the recruiter who got me this job called me to again ask, what's going on? After I finished telling him there was nothing to worry about, that my former coworker was only "stirring the pot" due to sour grapes, the recruiter, a personal friend of mine, told me my manager had talked to him over a month ago saying he needed a f/t person. Recruiter promised to talk to my manager and let me know what he said, and even said he might "recuse" himself from looking for my replacement because he felt loyal to me. I told him don't worry about it, that it was his job.

When recruiter called me back, he said my manager was "torn." That he thought the current work arrangement was working out well, but at the same time he also thought it would be better to go back to a f/t position. But that he wouldn't be doing anything right away as he had a vacation planned coming up.

My manager doesn't know I'm friends with the recruiter, so I don't think he knows I know what he told recruiter.

So I don't know what to think. I'd hate to lose this job. It's not perfect, but it would be hard to duplicate elsewhere in terms of the money or the work. I just can't see myself returning to full-time, but I also see there are very few quality p/t jobs out there. I'd really have to rely on recruiters again.

I do know my employer has gone through several different people when they decided to let my former coworker go. He was furious because they never told him why, and he is still a little obssessed about finding out the truth, but he's asking all of us, his former coworkers, as if we would know.

I did apply for one job, which WAS f/t, but it was a one-of-a-kind job, working as copy editor for my local weekly newspaper. Having started out in journalism and having very fond memories of it, that would be almost a dream job, and I was willing to take a huge cut in salary just to work right here in town, fo the newspaper. But I never heard from them. I applied after seeing the posting for weeks, and then I stopped seeing their ad, so I suspect they found someone else. Sigh.

Fasting for health
On the health front. I have also begun doing 16:8 intermittent fasting, which means you fast for 16 hours and eat only during an 8-hour window. So, for instance, you eat your final meal/food at around 7 or 7:30 pm, sleep the night, and then don't eat again til close to noon.

There are a host of health benefits, although most people do it for weight loss. You're essentially eating 2 meals a day, and nothing in the evening. I have found it relatively easy to do, but have only been doing it a few times a week.

It's that time of year when Patient Saver likes to analyze her total spending for the year, which of course couldn't be possible without her careful expense tracking all year long!

The big picture: My total spending for the year was $39,530. Of my 30 or so expense categories, expenses increased from last year in 12 categories, including my top 3 biggest expenses, unfortunately. Expenses stayed about even with last year in another 6 categories, and expenses actually decreased in 9 categories.

Here are my ranked expenses, from greatest to least, along with a little commentary thrown in.

Property taxes: $6,738. My #1 biggest expense, representing 17% of my total expenses. Not much I can do about this until I turn age 65, when I can take advantage of a pretty generous town senior tax credit and a less generous state tax credit for seniors with more stringent criteria I may or may not meet.

Food: A whopping $4,982, or 22% MORE than I spent last year. Much of this increase is due to my decision to buy a half-share at the organic farm, which cost me $585 for the season. I won't do that again, but will continue to shop there more selectively.

This category vexes me more than any other; try as I have in the past, I have yet to contain my costs, and in some ways, I don't try to since I believe that eating healthy, organic produce is conducive to good health. For much of the year, I would hit Aldi's first for the basics and then supplement as needed by going elsewhere for things Aldi's didn't have. This obviously didn't have much impact.

Health insurance: I'm on the healthcare exchange and premiums cost me $4,330 this year. I feel grateful to have seen just a 5% increase from last year. (I treat out of pocket copays and other medical bills separately below.)

Greenhouse window, $3,000: I budget for up to $10,000 in home improvement expenses each year, or vacations. In other words, I have $10K I can spend on either category, or both, up to a max of $10k. I didn't vacation this year so I spent about $8,250 on various home improvements.

I wanted the greenhouse window to brighten up a dark corner at the end of a short hallway, a place where I could bathe some of my cacti and succulents in more winter sunlight. They seem to like it, although I have noticed the temperature in that corner is now 5 degrees cooler than the rest of the house. The window juts out from the side of the house and while there is insulation underneath and around it, I guess it's not enough. I may consider calling the builder back in spring to see if he can beef it up somehow.

Another home improvement, beefing up and essentially redoing my attic insulation, was my #5 expense this year, at $2,674. I'm glad I did it. I think it's more airtight up there. It's hard to say for sure since how much I spend on heating oil has more to do with oil prices than insulation.

I know that the blown-in cellulose seals things up better than fiberglass batts, which is what I had, plus they used a lot of sealers and added insulating foam sheets on all the knee-wall doors and the main door.

Next on my list was the cost of taking down a massive locust tree and a somewhat smaller, but dead, ash tree, another victim of ash borer. The takedown of these 2 trees cost $2,576.

My #7 expense comes under the general "Household" expenses, my only real catch-all for certain expenses I can't put elsewhere. This came to $1,668.

My #8 expense was my cat, at $1,442, and this was up 71% from last year, due to some dental work he needed.

My #9 expense was "Lawn & garden," at $1,261, which was actually 18% lower than last year because I tried to do a few mowings myself early in the spring and toward the end of the season, to save money. As it is, I only have the mower guy come every other week.

I mostly dislike mowing in the heat and humidity of July and August. It sure is nice to have someone else do it, but it really is a big expense, so I will try again to do some mowings myself (while I still can).

My #10 expense was car upkeep ($981), up 68% from last year due to the need for front brakes (the 1st time needed for my 2013 Honda) and some other stuff. This is another of those categories it would be hard to lower unless I wanted to unwisely ignore needed maintenance. I go to the dealer, but the private places around here are just as expensive, honestly.

Electricity: $960,up 5% from last year.

Gasoline for car: $881, down 14% from last year, not because I'm driving any less but due to lower gas prices.

Heating oil/furnace cleaning: $809, down 35% from last year for the same reason as gas for my car was down: Texan crude prices were just down generally.

Maintenance: $764, down 41% from last year. This includes general repairs, the servicing of my furnace humidifier, AC and stuff like that.

Homeowners insurance: $699, which was about the same last year.

State of CT: I owed them $658 last year and i guess I'm under-withholding on my pay. I need to adjust this on a W-4.

Car insurance: $655, which was up 10% from last year. I take advantage of every conceivable discount available and still it goes up each year, which is hugely irritating to me as I've never filed any kind of claim for home or auto in 25 years.

Internet/phone: $633, down 30% from last year, mainly because my dear cousin gifted me an iPhone and included the monthly service as part of the gift. I still maintain a landline, but the cost ($45) is nominal as it's Magic Jack. I hate AT&T, which hiked the cost of my Internet service after I dropped landline service with them, so now I pay them $10 more a month for the Internet. If I could switch Internet service for a lower price, I would.

Out of pocket medical/dental: $589, down 66% from last year, mainly because I had a less-than-ideal plan and made a concerted effort to avoid going to the doctor, although I did see my neurologist and ophthalmologist along with my dentist, who is kind of pricey since I have no dental insurance.

Entertainment: $527, which is about what I spent last year. In this category I include things like my Hulu subscription, my Ancestry subscription in the past, the occasional movie out and so on.

Coworker's car scratch: $500. I hugely regret scratching my coworker's car, especially since this guy is an absolute car nut and treats his Audi better than anything else in his world. I scratched the black paint on it backing out of a dark parking lot when he was unexpectedly parked behind me. I knew I couldn't file a claim with my car insurance because I long ago hiked my deductible to $5k to save money on the premiums. So I had to pay it out of pocket.

The rest of my categories are, in descending order, gifts, dining out, clothing, car taxes/registration/license fees, my umbrella policy, water, borough taxes, sewage, dump sticker and haircuts.

So total expenses came to $39,530. My total NET income came to $35,158, so I had a smallish shortfall of $4,300. Put another way, I was able to pay 89% of my expenses in 2019 with my little part-time job.

My income came primarily from my part-time copy editing job, but for the 2nd year in a row, dad gave each of his 4 children a very nice $5,000 Christmas check. I made another $850 in Facebook sales selling stuff I don't need, I earned another $600 from some random freelance work, $426 from credit card rewards, and that's about it.

What's missing from this list is housing expenses. As you may know, I paid off my mortgage early, in 2012.

Until next year!

I hope everyone had a nice holiday. I did, but truth be told, I always look forward to the start of a new year and new beginnings.

I was invited to join my friend's Christmas dinner with her family, which I did. There were about 10 adults. I enjoyed it, but after coffee and dessert and just before they were going to start opening presents, I chose to leave; the gift giving is such a family-oriented thing and I didn't want to get in the way of that.

Today we walked friend's dog off-leash in the wood and meadow, which he always relishes. He is a timid dog, but comes alive when he's off the leash, running.

Tomorrow, my cousin will arrive from PA and will stay through Sunday mid-day.

I had a couple of really nice conversations with another cousin in NJ. I saw her for Thanksgiving. It's nice to build ties with family over time.

These are my friend's Christmas cookies:

For an entire year, I've been using and enjoying the set of ceramic knives my cousin got me for Christmas last year. They're sharp as heck and I use them nearly every day. Each time I do, I hear my mother's voice inside my head: "I don't like the way you're holding that knife."

Well, the other morning I was deveining large kale leaves to make a salad. I was nearly done when I cut the middle finger of my right hand rather deeply.

Ouch.

Because I take fish oil pills (which thin the blood), it just wouldn't stop bleeding. Until finally, it did.

So I won't be shaking any hands tonight at our office Christmas dinner. Our boss takes us out to a very nice restaurant in SoNo. Since the dinner is on my day off, I decided to just drive down to the office and join the others on a shuttle van that will take them to and from the restaurant, which is probably about 20 minutes from the office. It will save me the trouble of navigating my way there in a sort of unfamiliar city in the dark, plus dealing with the parking.

By this month's end, I will have attended 5 different holiday parties! One of them my own. First was a Fillipino party my friend invited me to with her husband. She is Chinese but grew up in the Phillipines.

Last weekend I went to my neighbors' party, which was lots of fun. This is the neighbor-husband whose children's book I edited a year ago. Things are taking off and there is talk about creating a deck of cards for each character in his book (I would write the copy for the cards), along with toys. (My neighbor is a former toy designer so he knows the business.) He has an agent who was just in China, and an investor who is ready to roll. My neighbor wants me to work for him a few days a week and he told me to name my price and don't sell myself short.

I need to learn more. I'd consider quitting my current job and working for my neighbor, but I need to find out out long-term a thing this could be; if it only lasts a year, or doesn't pan out, then I would be out of work sooner than I'd like to be. I might consider doing it while keeping my current job, but I value my free time and don't really want to work 5 days a week.

I just finished writing the promo copy that will appear on Kindle/Amazon page for the book. Will be meeting him this morning so will talk more.

I'll be spending Christmas with another friend/neighbor. I've been tasked with bringing crudites and dip. Her sister is bringing someone from work along, so I feel better knowing I am not the only "stray" they've picked up.

Then, 2 days after Xmas, I'm hosting my cousin who will be up for the weekend from PA. I've been meal-planning for his visit but it's hard to do since my dad, who will join us, doesn't drive, and my cousin, who is older, doesn't like to drive once he's up here. It's hard to plan a meal if you have to run out to pick people up, so I may ask cousin to do it just once so I can focus on the meal.

My holiday gift shopping is mostly done.

Work has been very light for the last month or so. This is good and bad. Bad, obviously, because it's less income, but good in that it may open up an opportunity to do another Roth IRA conversion without raising my income that much.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

I'm looking forward to my favorite meal of the year.

In money news, I was accepted for a new bonus credit card, the Citi Rewards + card, which will earn me a $200 bonus after I spend $1,500 in the 1st 3 months.

I remembered that I had to temporarily lift the freezes I have at the 3 credit bureaus or I'd be automatically rejected by the card issuer.

It's been a while since I've been accepted for a new credit card. Even though my credit score is sterling, I have no mortgage debt, so I think some issuers have trouble judging my creditworthiness with no installment payments to track, and just the revolving debt of my existing credit cards.

I took advantage of my primary bank's promo where, if you use their debit card 10 times in a 1-month period, you earn a $25 Amazon gift card. Easy peasy.

I also earned another $10 by paying a BOA credit card bill using my phone. I don't plan to be paying bills using my smartphone or my debit card on a regular basis.

As is his wont, my boss gave me a $100 bottle of wine this week. I will save it for when my cousin comes up for a visit between Christmas and New Year's.

Sitting here enjoying a hot cup of Assam tea. I was going to rake leaves today, but darn, it's cold.

Well, I finally saw the bear! Not in my own yard, but in the center of town where we have a nice paved walking trail that goes through woods and open meadow, and where our municipal center, senior center, community center and sports complex are, among other things, like a new brewery opening soon.

I got on the trail and ran into my neighbor with her beagle, and we walked together a while until we parted company. I wanted to go see the photo exhibit at municipal center and she continued on the trail.

A short time later, I had returned to my car and was talking on the phone with a friend when I caught something fairly large, black and fluffy running in my rear view mirror. I craned my head around to see what it was, and there it was: a small black bear romping across the mown ball fields.



I later learned my neighbor ran into some other dog walkers who already encountered the bears near the meadow. I am guessing the bear was somewhat spooked by the people and their dogs, because it was running at what I would describe as a slow gallop, looking unsure about where it was going and probably feeling a little ill at ease being so exposed and in an open area.

It ran past my car, then headed down the busy road, and without pausing for a second ran into the roadway; luckily it wasn't hit, and I watched it as it scooted under a metal guard rail fence and then behind the Parks & Rec building. The rear of the building looks to be mostly fenced in as there are several very large mounded hills of I-don't-know-what there, but if the bear made its way out of there, it would have found the state horse guard stables and, beyond that, the woods and Pootatuck River.

The last two weeks at work have been slow, and I only worked 10 hours each week.

I've begun thinking about Christmas shopping, and bought my animal-loving cousin a 2020 calendar featuring topless Australian firefighters posing with various Australian wildlife; it's a fundraiser, and I thought she would get a kick out of it.

I also spent an enjoyable hour or so browsing gourmet goodies at YummyBazaar.com, where I wound up ordering some interesting preserves: gooseberry, black currant and lingonberry, plus some fried herring for my father (can we say "Eew?")

I made my first app purchase for my iPhone recently: a year's subscription to Calm, which features a variety of meditation and destressing audio clips. I've gotten into the habit, believe it or not, of having someone read a bedtime story to me using this app. I always end up asleep before the end of the story, which is what you're aiming for. Last night I chose Gulliver's Travels, which I remember reading as a kid.

I've also been really enjoying the free audiobooks on the phone too, via Overdrive. I just finished "Educated," by Tara Westover, which was a riveting memoir of a homeschooled woman growing up in a survivalist family in the backwoods of Idaho.

This morning I made a great pumpkin pie with my own homemade crust (ground walnuts, tahini and maple syrup). I also made my own yogurt, which is now resting in my off oven with just the light bulb on, presumably so the probiotics I added will grow in the next 48 hours.

I've been enjoying the small ritual of brewing my Harney & Sons loose tea since making the trip with dad to their tea tasting place.

Last week I started trying to calculate what my RMDs would be at age 70.5 after deducting from my traditional IRAs the cost of 1) an immediate lifetime annuity I've been thinking of getting at age 65, just to cover "some" of my essential expenses. I like this idea because it would remove a portion of my assets, which are nearly all invested in mutual funds, out of the stock market and better manage my risks, especially in a recession and 2) after living on savings (traditional IRAs) between the ages of 65, when I plan to fully retire, and 70, when I plan to start collecting Social Security. I haven't finished the calculation and need to get back to it, but as usual, I am pulled in a hundred directions. Anyway, I have many years to figure this out. No rush!

Of course, if a Democrat gets elected president and delivers on some kind of radically different health insurance in this country that isn't tied to employment, I would definitely consider stopping work sooner. There is a certain comfort or security level that comes from still working and earning enough to cover just my ongoing expenses, but there are also things I'd like to do besides work, and I'm not getting any younger.

Every month I calculate what my monthly income/expenses were, and so I've known since May that my totals were in the red, and growing worse each month.

Year-to-date, my spending has exceeded income by $8,700.

By year-end, my expenses should still come in at around $40K, give or take; my only remaining big expense this year is the 2nd payment of property taxes at over $3,000.

No, what's really caused this problem is my income is lower than projected. On most weeks, I get in a little shy of the 20 hours minimum I wanted to get: usually 17, 18 or 19 hours. And that, over the year, is enough to make a difference.

Am I overly worried? No, I have plenty of cushion. It's just that I am disciplined and don't like to see things slip. So, for the remainder of the year, I'll be going on a self-imposed spending diet to try to reduce that $8,700 in the red to something not quite as alarming. If I could cut that number in half, I'd feel considerably better.
After the fun trip to the tea company last week, someone told me about a tea company very close...like 15 minutes...to where I live! It might be worth a visit, although they do tea tastings only on Saturdays, and I dislike crowds.

There have been more bear sightings in my neighborhood. My next-door-neighbor, in fact, sent a photo in to the local paper of a bear across the street. So, umm, yeah, one of these days I expect I'll see a bear with a combination of fascination, awe and alarm.

I have continued to sell small things on Facebook Marketplace; it's almost like a hobby. And unlike most people, because I sell stuff primarily to "declutter," not to make money (although of course I do make some), I tend to prices things lower than most sellers, and consequently, they sell pretty quickly. People seem to be most grateful.

Along with selling unwanted possessions, I've also been trading flower seeds with friends, family, at a seed swap at the library, and through the mail with people in my Facebook groups. I am now well stocked!!

It's been a rainy, dark day all day long. I'm afraid the kiddies won't see any improvements by nightfall as the winds now are already picking up and we'll see gusts north of 40 mph. A scary Halloween indeed.

Yesterday at work the boss treated us to a free lunch at a nearby bodega. I took half of it home and had it today. Last night I enjoyed a great free dinner at an MS lecture and enjoyed meeting a few new people.

This weekend I'll be making my own yogurt for the first time, seeing my father (as usual), going to a crafts show and definitely mowing leaves with the mower once things dry out. I told my mower guy a few weeks ago he could quit for the season since I don't mind mowing in the cooler weather and it certainly saves me a small bundle if I can finish out the mowing for the season, although it does take time with my battery-powered mower (run time: 35-40 minutes).

There have been a growing number of bear sightings in my immediate neighborhood. They have been in town for years now, but most often they seem to be on the other side of town, in an area abutting a state park.

I walk around the block often in the morning, and a neighbor driving by slowed down to warn me to "be careful" as he'd just seen a bear in his yard that morning.

I've also talked to a woman I often see walking her beagle and she has seen the bear also as she walked home, her neighbors on their enclosed back porch suddenly shouted "Bear, bear! Go away! Go away!" She did, and as soon as the neighbors began yelling, the bear took off.

So now I need to avoid walking too early in the morning. They will be hibernating soon. And I think I want to buy a mini fog horn thingy.

My father and I had a really nice day today. It was a beautiful warm day in the 60s here and all the leaves are already past peak, I think. We took a drive northwest to a small town just over the New York state line to Harney & Sons tea company.



They have a cute little tea tasting room where, like a fine wine, you can taste a variety of teas. We tried 4 of them and I decided to buy an organic sencha Japanese tea called Bancha and an Indian assam tea, also organic.


The young man shown here was very knowledgeable about teas.


Here's what I bought. I couldn't resist this cute little mug.

Down the road we stopped at a very large organic farm and had a great lunch in their little cafe. Dad bought some of their purple sweet potatoes and a cluster of mushrooms from another local farm.

Another new-to-me cousin contacted me on Ancestry. Our DNA says we're cousins but we haven't yet figured out how, except that it's likely on my paternal grandmother's side. This person grew up in London but has lived the past 30 years in Germany, making her the first living ancestor I've discovered outside the US!

Most will agree, a garden is not complete without tomatoes.

We all know that growing our own food offers multiple benefits—for our health, our taste buds, and our pocketbook. But how many of us know how much we’re actually saving?

For the past few summers, I’ve conducted a little experiment to see just how much I would save by growing veggies myself versus buying their supermarket counterparts. You may be surprised at the results!

Why Grow Your Own?

Before getting to the numbers, let’s review the many benefits of growing your own food. They include:

Personal satisfaction: When it comes to self-sufficiency, there is nothing more elemental than being able to feed oneself. I love the early-evening ritual of wandering down to the vegetable garden, colander in hand, to pick whatever has ripened and prepare it for my dinner that same evening.

Lessening your environmental footprint: By reducing your reliance on foods grown far away and trucked hundreds or thousands of miles to your local grocery store, your food consumption contributes less to smog and global warming. By growing your vegetables, you’re also doing your part to reverse the globalization of the food supply.

Superior taste and freshness: Homegrown fruits and vegetables simply taste better than produce that’s been allowed to ripen in trucks during transport and sit on store shelves before you’re ready to eat it. Even if you’re not a verifiable foodie, the taste, flavor, and freshness of homegrown produce is reason enough for many gardeners to devote a portion of their yard, patio, or terrace to growing vegetables.

Better nutritional value: Because less time elapses between harvest and consumption (say, about an hour when I harvest my own produce compared to days or weeks when I buy it in the supermarket), homegrown vegetables deliver higher nutritional value. And if you choose to grow your produce pesticide-free like I do, you’ll get the added health benefits of consuming organic produce at little-to-no extra cost.


Early September harvest

But for the budget-minded among us, a fifth important benefit of growing your own food is…

The ability to reduce your grocery expenses: In today’s challenging economy, nearly every consumer is looking to save a few dollars wherever they can. Growing your own vegetables can substantially reduce your grocery bill throughout the summer. If you freeze or can your surplus, you can extend your savings into the winter months.

The Economics of Homegrown

This was the third season I tracked my garden’s output, not only by the pound, but by its monetary value.

My garden plot is modest in size, about 120 square feet. It was not intended to feed a large family, although the inevitable surplus is freely given to friends and neighbors. In its current form, it’s L-shaped (to detour around a small juneberry tree) and located in my front yard, to take maximum advantage of sunlight.

Die-hard gardeners can spend lots of time experimenting with heirloom varieties, growing plants from seed, and researching the best soil amendments, fertilizers, compost, and mulch covers. Yet you can fumble along, make mistakes, and still wind up with a respectable harvest, provided there’s ample sunlight and adequate watering.

Due to my own laissez-faire attitude about plant diseases, my garden is succumbing a few weeks early to blight and powdery mildew. With the harvest about 95 percent in, I’ve tallied up my pickings for the season.

To determine their monetary value, I checked the prices of comparable produce at Shop Rite, my grocery store of choice. Whenever possible, I used prices of Shop Rite’s organic produce. But for about half of what I harvested, I couldn’t find organic equivalents and was forced to use the non-organic price in my comparison. Because produce prices fluctuate regularly, I used an average of Shop Rite prices I found throughout July and August, at the height of my garden’s production.

Here’s what I grew and harvested this year, ranked by its dollar value:




2011 total monetary value: $330.08
2011 total expenses: $21.78
Net savings: $308.30

How do these numbers compare to previous years? In 2009, I grossed $148 in produce from a somewhat smaller-sized garden, but ended up with -$222 after factoring in my ‘start-up’ expenses which included a pricey, six-foot-high roll of wire fencing and metal posts (essential to exclude deer).

In 2010, I enlarged the garden (since I had leftover fencing) and harvested more, growing $515 worth of food ($429 after expenses). I attribute some of the increase to a more concerted effort to harvest wineberries daily during the month of July, as they ripened. The wineberries, which grow naturally in my backyard, are an invasive Asian bramble that produces berries that look similar to a raspberry. Since you’ll never find them in a store, I’ve used raspberry prices for comparison when calculating their monetary value. (And you know how expensive raspberries are in the store!)


Acorn squash on the vine

Last summer, I hand-picked 39 cups of wineberries, which really boosted my ‘garden’ productivity. I planned to do the same this summer, but lost my enthusiasm after finding a tiny tick embedded in the skin between my fingers. I don hip boots sprayed with DEET for wading into the brambles as protection against ticks (I’ve had Lyme disease twice) but hadn’t counted on picking one up on my hand. So I settled for about nine cups of berries picked from the relative safety of the periphery of the thickets.

This year’s garden is pretty much spent, but I take comfort knowing I’ll be enjoying my tomatoes, wineberries, kale, basil, and zucchini (in the form of soups, stews and quick breads, and on my breakfast cereal) in the cold winter months to come. I can’t wait until next spring, when I’ll be planting soybeans for the first time.

...have entered this year's No Heat Contest.

They are:

1. Ima Saver
2. dmontngrey
3. HouseHopeful
4. Toyguy1963
5. CB in the City
6. My English Castle
7. PatientSaver
8 MonkeyMama

It's not too late to join! (See earlier post for the details.)

The days are growing shorter and there's a nip in the air come evening. You know what that means...it's time for the 3rd annual No Heat Contest!

The rules are simple. The winner of the contest is the person who can hold off turning on the heat longer than anyone else.

I'll leave it to your conscience to decide if using your wood fireplace, stove or space heater is "cheating," but I do think that would provide an unfair advantage. Remember, the idea of the contest is to encourage each other to forestall, for as long as possible, the long winter of oil, natural gas, propane or electric bills to heat our homes.

Here are a few ideas for doing that:

* Throw on an extra sweater.
* Weatherstrip your doors and windows.
* Indulge your Inner Chef to create some fabulous home-cooked meals, and keep that oven door open afterwards (make sure it's turned OFF) to warm your kitchen.
* Let your pets sleep with you.
* Get out the hot cocoa.
* Throw an extra comforter on the bed.
* If all else fails and you can't seem to warm up, visit a friend or your local library!

So who's in?

Summers in the Northeast can be brutal with temps in the 80s to 90s and high humidity.

Since I'm not working and am home for large portions of the day, keeping my home cool during these warm weather months has been front and center in my mind lately.

I live in a two-story Connecticut home with no central air conditioning. For 15 years, I've gotten by with just one small in-window air conditioner that goes in an upstairs bedroom. Still, the thing is incredibly heavy and a real pain to drag down from the attic. For that reason, I only use it when the heat makes sleeping impossible; it's also noisy and the way it cycles on and off is disruptive to sleep, anyway. Plus, with two cats who like to come and go as they please, it's difficult to keep the door closed, so all that cold air often ends up drifting out into the hallway.

Here are 10 low-tech ways I keep my home cool without noisy, electricity-gobbling air conditioners:

1. Use a sunblock. I'm a big advocate of using sun-blocking drapes and curtains. As soon as I get up in the morning, which these days is around 6 a.m., I lower the blinds and close the curtains on my east- and south-facing windows. Around noon, I'll close the south-facing windows as well. Sometime in mid-afternoon, I'll open curtains on those east-facing windows which will then be in shade. By 5 p.m., I'll fling open all the windows and curtains so I don't feel like I'm living in a cave.

2. Blow, baby, blow. Next in my arsenal of home-cooling techniques are my assortment of fans. On hot days like this, my three ceiling fans are whirring round and round, two box fans are blasting and a small tabletop fan is doing its part, too. Warm, humid air feels much more bearable on the skin when it's moving.

3. The evening cool-down. Once outdoor night-time temperatures have dropped below indoor temperatures, it's time to encourage the exchange of warm air for cool. (There are parts of the country where this never really happens, and if you live in one of these areas, you have my sympathy.) However, if you live in a two-story house or condo, you can accelerate the air exchange by strategically using box fans. You'll need at least two. Put one box fan on the lower level blowing into the room, as you normally would. Put the other box fan in a upstairs window blowing out. (If you have more box fans, by all means, put additional units on both levels in the same manner as the first two were placed. If you have an accessible attic and can leave the attic door open, place a box fan in an attic window.) The inward and outward-facing fans will create an invisible air flow that will rid your home of warm air more quickly than you would by simply blowing all that hot air around inside.

4. Just chillin'. I have heard it suggested that you can speed up the cooling process by placing a large pot of ice cubes in front of a blowing fan. I have not tried this enough to form an opinion about it, though I do know my cats appreciate the extra water bowl.

5. Think shade trees. While this may not help much this year, think about planting some shade trees as a long-term investment you'll come to appreciate in future years. Remember, plant deciduous trees (those that shed their leaves in fall) on the south and west sides of your home so they block the sun in summer but not in winter. While you're at it, plant evergreens on the north side of the house to block the harshest winter winds.

If you don't have room for trees, or a green thumb, you might want to consider a retractable awning installed on the windows of those rooms that receive the most sun.

6. Take a cold shower. If, like me, you have trouble sleeping on extremely warm summer nights, I find that taking a cold shower right before bedtime helps considerably.

7. Don't forget your pet's comfort. A handful of ice cubes in the water bowl will be much appreciated. And while you could always give your doggie a cool water bath, your cats won't likely appreciate that. I've been steadily clipping the long hair of my Maine Coon, another thing he also doesn't appreciate it, but it is something he'll tolerate if I clip his fur while he eats his favorite food. He is looking quite bedraggled, bit hopefully a bit cooler. I'm saving his fur and would like to donate it to the Gulf cleanup efforts. Be careful with the scissors, though!

8. Keep cooking to a minimum. Being a household of one, I rarely use the big oven anymore, but on hot days like this, I don't even like to use my little convection toaster/oven. It may seem obvious, but it bears repeating, any hot air generated by kitchen appliances has to go somewhere, so don't release it into the house.

9. Tread gently on the earth. This is the time of year when I really appreciate my bamboo floor mats. I replaced many of my rugs years ago because I found my cats had little interest in scratching bamboo rugs. I have bamboo rugs in various shapes and sizes in my bathroom, office, spare bedroom, sun room and dining room. There's just one room now that has wall-to-wall carpeting. The bamboo rugs feel cool underfoot and vacuuming then is not nearly as labor-intensive as it is with conventional rugs.

10. Last winter, I got in the habit of entering and exiting my home through a garage and basement door rather than the front door. This prevented a lot of warm air from escaping the house. I even asked visitors (family and friends) to enter through the garage.

Now that it's so warm out, I plan to do the same thing, but this time, I hope to keep the cooler air in the home inside. When you open my east-facing front door in morning, you can immediately feel the blast of hot air, so it would seem a good idea to just not open that door. Sometimes, it's the simplest ideas that work the best.

11. Go down below. When all else fails, head for the basement, where it will be noticeably cooler. Hey, you might use your basement as an emergency shelter during a hurricane or tornado. Maybe you already have it stocked with water and food reserves, or if you're really lucky, you've got a finished basement that is already quite comfy. Or maybe, like me, you've got to find your way through spiderwebs and dust. No matter. Think of it as a camping trip, sans campfire. Hang out down below during the worst of the summer's heat waves.

What tips can you share for low-tech ways to keep your home cool this summer?

Pretty Cheap Jewelry beat me to the punch. Yes, it's time to log in your total mileage for the month of March, minus your regular commuting miles.

Sadly, I put myself out of the challenge a week or so ago when I reset my odometer to clock mileage on a trip, totally forgetting the Put It In Park Challenge.

So where do you stand?

Is your month's worth of mileage more or less than you expected?

Just for hoo-has, I think I'm going to check my mileage (this time, by writing down my starting mileage) and, without doing anything special, see how many miles I drive. The number should be pretty close to my minimum possible anyway since I consolidate errands as much as I can already.

How's everyone doing with the March Challenge: Put It in Park?

We're approaching the end of the month, which might be a good time to see if you've succeeded in reducing your miles driven.

I accidentally disqualified myself yesterday when I reset my odometer to track my mileage.

How many miles have you clocked in March?

Listen up, all you frugalites who make your own laundry detergent. It may be harder to justify going to all that trouble once you know that most consumers overdo it on the soap, both in the laundry and in the dishwasher.

According to an interesting New York Times

story, appliance repairmen will tell you that adding too much soap to dishwashers and washing machines is the "No. 1 sin."

In the old days, these appliances used a lot more water and detergents weren't so concentrated. Most people use as much as 10 to 15 times more soap than what's required, needlessly wasting their money and shortening the life of their appliances, said Vernon Schmidt, a career repairman and author of Appliance Handbook for Women: Simple Enough Even a Man Can Understand.

The author advises that between one-eighth to one-half of what's recommended on the product label should do the trick.

Suds, Schmidt claims, don't indicate your clothes are getting clean; suds mean you're using too much detergent.

By now you're probably wondering whether you're guilty of overdoing it. Conduct Schmidt's simple test to find out.

"Take four to six clean bath towels, put them in your front-loading washing machine (one towel for a top loader). Don't add any detergent or fabric softener. Switch to the hot water setting and medium wash and run it for about five minutes.

Check for soap suds. If you don't see any suds right away, turn off the machine and see if there is any soapy residue. If you see suds or residue, it is soap coming out of your clothes from the last wash."

As for dishwashers, Schmidt says, there's no law that says you must top off the soap dispenser.

Check out the full story for additional interesting tips on using your dishwasher, dryer and oven.



Frugal Nuggets represent the occasional piece of frugal wisdom for those who have mastered the basics.

Welcome to the March Challenge, the next in a series of monthly challenges designed to get you thinking more about how easily your hard-earned money's spent.

The March Challenge seeks to raise awareness of how much you rely on your car or SUV every day. Sure, you've got to get to work and drop the kids off here or there, but have you ever stopped to think how much those little trips add up in terms of both wear and tear on the car and consumption of gas?

If you'd like to participate in the March Challenge, set your car's odometer to 0 today. Throughout the month, the challenge is to minimize the miles you put on your vehicle, whether by deferring trips until they can be consolidated with other errands or using alternative means of getting where you need to go.

Get creative by considering these options to driving:

* Consolidating driving trips
This is a big one. How many times have you sent your spouse out to the grocery store to pick up a single item? How many times do you run out to go somewhere during a single Saturday?

* Using public transportation
Not everyone has access to trains, subways or buses but for those who do, public transit is one of the most under-utilized, taxpayer-subsidized deals around.

* Carpooling with neighbors or family to run errands
If one of your neighbors is a senior citizen, think what a nice gesture it would be to suggest you hit the supermarket together and take turns driving. If you're willing to help her load groceries in the trunk, you'll earn your Good Samaritan star for sure.

* Walking or bicycling
If you're lucky enough to live near town, keep the car in the garage and get some exercise while you run errands. Although I live in a spread out, suburban town, I often walk to our public library, the movie theater, a Chinese restaurant and a supermarket, when I only need a few items.

If you have more than one vehicle in your household or more than one family member who uses one vehicle, you'll have to sort out how to address that in the challenge. If you use your second vehicle to do all the driving this month, you're not really following the spirit of the challenge.

On March 31, we'll all report our mileage. The winner is the person who has driven the fewest miles between March 1 and March 31.

To get the most from the Challenge, I encourage you to continue tracking your mileage for the month of April (by setting your odometer back to 0 on April 1) so you can see how many fewer miles you can drive when you set your mind to it versus how many miles you drive according to your typical driving patterns.

Deduct Your Commute Miles
I realize that the playing field will not be completely level starting out, because many of us have sometimes lengthy commutes to work that we can't do much about. So I'm going to ask you to subtract from your total miles driven in March the mileage spent driving to and from work. If you don't already know how long a round trip takes, check your mileage when you drive in to work tomorrow.

While nearly all of us have other reasons why we must drive somewhere on a given day or a given week, whether it's visiting family, ferrying kids to softball practice or simply heading out to buy the week's groceries, these are the trips where we can use our creativity and our organizational skills to consolidate and combine driving trips.

Becoming more aware of the miles we put on our vehicles can motivate us to consolidate and shorten our trips and save on energy costs. And who knows? Maybe some of the efforts you made during the Challenge to shave off a few miles here or there will become standard operating procedure in the months to come. While most of us can't expect to give up our cars entirely, small changes do add up. And that can only be a good thing for the budget!

Are you in?

It's time to report your Home Cooking points for the month of February. How many points did you earn by eating at home rather than dining out this month?

After reporting your tallies below, feel free to add your comments. Did February mirror your usual dining in/out habits or did the contest make you think twice about eating out?

I'll start the ball rolling:

Fern: 26 points

Comments:
It was easy for me to eat at home on every day but two days this month since I am underemployed right now and my budget is very much on my mind.

On those days I did eat out, it was nothing extravagant, simply fast food I grabbed out of convenience (and hunger) while running errands.

It's your turn now!

My mom often used a pressure cooker when I was growing up. That rapid-fire, sizzling sound coming from the kitchen usually meant that something delicious was in the works. I have one of my own today, but truth be told, I don't haul it out often. That's going to change, because cooking meals with a pressure cooker offers numerous benefits.

If you're unfamiliar with how a pressure cooker works, it's simply a specially designed, airtight cooking pot with lid that cooks food using high temperature steam. When you add a small amount of liquid, such as water or chicken broth, the pressure cooker traps the steam that rises from the liquid and raises both the temperature and pressure inside the cooker to cook the food.

Here are four tremendous advantages pressure cookers offer the frugal cook:

1. Pressure cookers are fast.
Pressure cooking can cook food in a fraction of the time needed to cook food by other means, whether that means an electric stove, gas stove or slow cooker. Here are some sample cook times for pressure-cooked meals that typically require an hour or more in a conventional oven:
* Root vegetables: 6 minutes.
* Beef pot roast: 35 to 40 minutes
* Meatloaf: 10 to 15 minutes
* 2- to 3-pound whole chicken: 12-18 minutes
* Chicken drumsticks, legs or thighs: 5 to 7 minutes

2. Pressure cookers save you money.
Pressure cookers save you money in several ways. First, because pressure cookers cook foods up to 70% faster than other methods, you'll use less energy preparing family meals.

According to calculations made by the Pacific Gas & Electric Company, a

whole chicken that would require about an hour-and-a-half of cooking time in a conventional oven would cost .90 to cook in an electric oven, .17 in a gas oven and .08 in a pressure cooker.

A risotto simmering for 45 minutes would cost .23 if cooked on an electric stove top, .08 on a gas stove top and .03 in a pressure cooker.

Potatoes that were roasted for 60 minutes would cost .60 on an electric stove top, .11 on a gas stove top and .02 in a pressure cooker.

Pressure cookers use considerably less water than conventional cooking by boiling food. Depending on the pressure cooker brand, one need only add a half cup of water to cook corn-on-the-cob in a pressure cooker, for example. After three minutes at high pressure, it'll be time to butter your corn. So you'll save water, save the energy to heat all that water to boiling and save energy in cooking the corn for a shorter period of time. What's more, the corn will be more nutritious because the vitamins haven't been boiled away.

When used in summer, pressure cookers don't heat up the house like a conventional oven would, so you'll save on your cooling bills.

Best of all, pressure cookers allow you buy inexpensive dried beans or cuts of meat that would normally require hours of cooking to tenderize. Pressure cooking can turn a normally laborious, time-intensive task such as boiling leftover bones from meat for flavorful stews into a breeze.

3. Pressure cookers preserve food's nutrients.
Vegetables are a great example of how pressure cooking retains important food nutrients. Steamed vegetables retain more nutrients than boiling and because they're cooked so quickly, they also retain their bright colors and fresh taste.

Pressure cookers make cooking dried beans a snap. Dried beans are generally healthier than canned beans or other canned vegetables because they don't contain added sugars, preservatives or chemicals like bisphenol A (BPA)that are used in the inside lining of most canned goods.

Because pressure cooking is quick and easy, you'll find you have less excuses to stop for fast food or a pizza on the way home from work. Home-cooked meals are vastly better for your health than meals eaten out because they contain fewer hidden calories, salt, preservatives, artificial colors and fats.

4. Pressure cookers are good for the environment.
Pressure cookers reduce your energy usage due to reduced cooking time and so ease the load of greenhouse gas emissions you produce from your electric or gas stove.

How does pressure cooking compare to microwave cooking?

Unlike microwave-cooked food, which often heats unevenly or appears an unappetizing shade of gray, pressure-cooked foods remain moist and succulent.

How does a pressure cooker measure up to a slower cooker?

While slow-cooked foods usually require eight or more hours to cook most foods, a pressure cooker cooks most foods in under an hour, and sometimes just minutes. That's because a slower cooker operates at a relatively low temperature (about 175 to 200 degrees) over many hours, while a pressure cooker runs at a much higher temperature, typically over boiling (239 to 244 degrees). Both deliver a tasty meal, but the pressure cooker also saves significant time and money.

Using a slow cooker, or crock pot, also requires a great deal of advance planning and organization. The prep work for a meal has to be done the night before, or in the morning before you leave for work so that it will be ready when you return that evening. This is probably one reason why those who own slow cookers don't use them regularly.

Pressure cookers, on the other hand, let you to whip up a delicious meal at a moment's notice.

If you decide to give pressure cookers a try, be sure to purchase a new one that features all the built-in safety features of today's models. Older versions, perhaps like those used by your mother or grandmother, did not contain this new technology.

What percentage of your cooking is done using your stove/oven, slow cooker, microwave and pressure cooker?



Frugal Nuggets represent the occasional piece of frugal wisdom for those who have mastered the basics.

Next week, February 21-28, 2010, is

America Saves Week.

With a persistently low personal savings rate, inadequate retirement savings and a frequent shortfall in emergency savings, Americans clearly need to "build wealth, not debt."

Although America Saves Week is intended to encourage institutions like employers, banks, credit unions and lenders to promote saving, it also seeks to encourage individuals to take charge of their finances.

When visiting the website, individuals can:

* See the humor in saving by viewing a variety of videos.

* Read or subscribe to monthly e-Wealth messages on a range of timely topics like Retirement Savings in a Bad Economy, Developing a Debt-Free Game Plan and Saving Your Tax Refund.

* Read the inspiring personal stories of ordinary individuals who have overcome a specific financial challenge. You can also submit your own story.

* Test your savings knowledge.

* Assess how you're doing.

America Saves Week is jointly sponsored by America Saves, which is managed by the Consumer Federation of America, and the American Savings Education Council (ASEC), which is managed by the Employee Benefits Research Institute (EBRI).

If you had to submit a story about your greatest savings challenge, past or present, what would it be about?

Save the water you use to cook vegetables to water houseplants after the water has cooled.

The water in which vegetables have been boiled contains minerals and other nutrients that will help your plants thrive. Cooked vegetables leach some of these nutrients in the water, even when the vegetables are steamed.

It's not advisable to water houseplants with cooking water if you've salted the water. If you're in the habit of doing this, another option to reuse this water is to freeze it for later use in soups or stews.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Southerners at one time used water left over from boiling foods poured over bread or biscuits or simply drunk from a shotglass. Such water was known as

"pot liquor," or "potlikker."

American slave cooks started the practice of saving the "broth" from cooking greens like collards, turnips and mustards to feed their families.

Potlikker may have been associated with a life of hardship, but many of those who became accustomed to drinking such vegetable water - the precursor of V8 juice - relished the distinct flavors of waters used to cook specific vegetables.

If you're a Northerner, potlikker may be an acquired taste. And while the water used to cook other foods, such as pasta or hard-boiled eggs, may not generate the same praise from Southern foodies, it can still be used to refresh your houseplants.

MainStreet.com has done an interesting series of vignettes on the varied ways that people have made the most of their layoffs.

In

The Upside of Unemployment, you'll read about:

* A Michigan woman whose pregnancy coincided with her layoff. She ended up enjoying an "extended maternity leave."

* A commercial real estate analyst who used his unemployment benefits and severance to help launch his own organic beer, something he'd already been working on nights and weekends. When his company began a round of layoffs, he recognized the opportunity and asked to be laid off because he knew he needed to devote more time to ensure the success of his side business.

* A Des Moines woman who discovered that both she and her children would be eligible for a free year of schooling at her local community college due to her reduced income after layoff.

* Newlyweds who decided to leave their jobs together and travel the world. They took the money they received from their wedding, along with what they'd saved for a new house, and went on an extended honeymoon, figuring they didn't really need a house just yet.

* A former Lehman Brothers investment banker who chose to use his free time after a layoff to write a book: about his old employer.

* A former Goldman Sachs employee who joined a gym after her layoff and went from a size 16 to a size 6. She approached going to the gym, she said, like going to a job.

* A woman whose layoff occurred at a time when her mother was very ill and went into hospice care. Having no job meant that she was able to sit with her mother daily without the stress of worrying about her work backing up at the office and she was able to focus on being with her mother in her time of need.

* Another man who used his severance to travel. He earned money by blogging about his travels at http://www.NoDebtWorldTravel.com.

These are all wonderful examples of people who were able to pursue their personal interests, test their entrepreneurial skills or devote more time to family. While there is usually an element of risk involved in trying something new without a steady paycheck to back you up, many of those quoted in this story held high-paying jobs and relied on what were probably hefty severance packages to finance their pursuits.

If you were laid off this week, could you afford to indulge in long-held dreams like travel, or would you have to focus on mere survival?