Cordelia's Mom, Still

Go Figure

Posted on October 8, 2021 by cordeliasmom2012

My stats are steady!

Even though I’ve taken a break from WordPress, and pretty much from all social media, my views are every bit as good as they were when I was posting on a regular basis. Good to know, I suppose – at least I haven’t been forgotten already.

The last couple of months have been hectic. One family member sold a house and bought a new one, another family member got divorced, and yet another eloped. Busy, busy, busy!

In addition, hubby and I completed the refinancing of our own home, which lowered the monthly payments and thus allowed me to pay off the balance of a small home improvement loan – in total, I’m saving $218 a month. Which sounds great, except that we then got the school tax bill, and the taxes increased by $300 a year – meaning the monthly mortgage payment will go back up by about $25 a month. I can hardly wait for the newly-assessed County bills to come out …

On top of that, my cell phone carrier informed me that they’re upgrading their network and my old [really old] phone would no longer work, not even for voice calls and text, so I was forced to obtain a 5G smartphone. And of course, if I lease that phone, there will be an additional monthly payment. Haven’t decided yet whether to just buy the phone outright or continue to lease it. I really hate those monthly payments. But does it make sense to purchase a phone that will likely be obsolete in a few years? Feel free to weigh in on that.

In any case, I am now the proud owner (or lessee) of a Samsung Z Flip 3. For the time being, I’m having fun with it, never having owned a smartphone before. I love the fact that it folds in half to fit nicely in a pocket (and to protect the screen), but opens fully for ease of viewing. I don’t like the way the battery runs down rapidly when applications are used. So far, I haven’t had to charge it more than once a day, but just in case, I purchased an extra charger to keep at my office. Probably if I only use the phone for talk and text, the battery life will be just fine, but hey, it’s a smartphone – I can now surf the web, play games, watch movies & TV on a device that can easily be hidden when the boss walks into my office. (Don’t judge unless you personally have never sneaked a web search in while at work.)

The nice young man at the carrier’s store even synced the phone to my car. I promise not to play Candy Crush while driving.

By the way, did you know that many cell phones no longer come with chargers? People like me, going from older technology, don’t have a bunch of chargers lying around the house, so I had to go to Best Buy to purchase them before I could get the phone activated. Minor annoyance, but these days it doesn’t take much to irritate me.

Another annoyance is the fact that we were informed that my husband’s older i-Phone also needs to be upgraded in order to be usable on the new network. More money! But at least he’ll pay for his own – and he already has a compatible charger.

Meanwhile, Puppy Cody tolerates the humans in the house as best she can. She spends a large portion of her day looking for the last remaining spot of sunshine:

Happy Weekend, Everyone!

__________

I love to hear from my readers. You may comment on this post, comment on my Facebook or Twitter pages, or email me at cordeliasmom2012@yahoo.com
__________
Images by Cordelia’s Mom/TeddyRosalieStudio

Posted in That's Life | Tagged phones, Puppy Cody, Samsung Z Flip 3, smartphone, technology | 19 Comments

Because I Could (Plus: When It’s No Longer Fun)

Posted on August 20, 2021 by cordeliasmom2012

The booster shots for the COVID-19 vaccines are here!

CDC is recommending boosters be received 8 months after the second dose of the initial vaccination. However, people who are immune compromised due to certain conditions or medications are encouraged to receive the booster now.

Being on Remicade (and being old), my doctor said I was eligible for the booster, so I got mine yesterday. Easy peasy. No appointment needed. I simply walked into my local Wegmans store, went to the pharmacy, and got my Moderna shot. Since my records were already there from the first two doses, I didn’t even need to fill out paperwork; I was only required to show my vaccination card and to sign a form attesting to my Remicade therapy.

I’ve heard that the booster shots are only half the dose of the prior two shots. I don’t know if that’s true, but the syringe did look a little smaller. Of course, that may simply have been my own mind comforting me. Regardless, the shot was totally painless, just like the first two, and was over in a nanosecond.

The pharmacist provided the usual information on after effects, such as sore arm and mild flu-like symptoms, which I had heard before. However, he also advised that in a case like mine, where I had no after effects from either of the first two doses, I should anticipate that the third dose might hit a little harder. He suggested that I not make any plans for the following day.

So far, so good. My upper arm is a little sorer than it was the first two times, and it seems slightly swollen. I do feel tired and fairly achy all over, enough so that I’ve suspended my plans to go out to trim bushes and weed in front of the house today. Which is unfortunate because it’s starting to look like a jungle out there – all that rain recently!

Over the last year or so, I find that I don’t have the energy for that yard work. Believe me, I would be happy to pay some college kid or unemployed person $50 just to do it for me every few months, but there’s no one like that in my neighborhood – or at least no one that would be willing to do that work. Landscaping services are too expensive, and too intrusive. Guess those bushes are going to stay shaggy for at least another week. Ah well.

Thankfully, we seldom get visitors and thus far I’ve managed to keep the bushes trimmed enough so they don’t look too bad when viewed from the street. There are other houses that look worse than mine.

And I’m sticking with that story.

***

For those of you who may have noticed the extended lag time between my posts:

I’ve always said that when blogging was no longer fun, I would stop doing it. What with all the WordPress “upgrades” and the fact that I seldom have anything new to say, I believe I’ve come to that point.

I managed to boost my enthusiasm when I started taking and posting my own photos, but it wasn’t very long before I realized that pretty much anyone with a cell phone can take better pictures than I can. Photography, like blogging, has become too much work for the benefit I get out of it.

Not to say that I will stop completely. I intend to keep this site (and the mirror site) open for those of you who wish to spend time reading all those wonderful posts from my earlier years. From time to time, I may add a new post, should I have something to say or if I take a photo that’s share-worthy. But it won’t be often.

When time permits (those crocheted afghan orders are keeping me very busy, yay me!), I hope to catch up, and comment, on everyone else’s posts. I’ve made so many friends here and would miss you all if I didn’t keep in touch. Those of you who feel the same can also email me at cordeliasmom2012@yahoo.com. I do check that email daily.

See you around, folks. Get your booster shot when you’re eligible, and everyone: stay safe and healthy!

__________

Posted in Covid-19, Health, That's Life | Tagged blogging, goodbye, Moderna, photography, vaccine, writing | 27 Comments

We Can Save HOW Much ??!

Posted on July 29, 2021 by cordeliasmom2012

Current real estate dilemma:

Is the market so hot that we should sell the house?

Sure, right now we could sell our house for at least double what we paid for it four years ago, probably even more. That would be such a nice little nest egg when going from partial to full retirement.

But where would we move to? What with current bidding wars, there’s no way we could afford another house in a nice neighborhood, and who knows what kind of neighbors we might get? We love our current neighbors.

And there’s the dog. Puppy Cody is a good dog, but she’s still a 44-lb dog. Most apartments will not accept a dog of that size, if they accept dogs at all. Even if they did, we’re back to the most basic of questions: What kind of neighbors might we wind up with? and: Where will Cody run?

And there’s the fact that we put so much money into this house over the last four years and finally have it pretty much livable. (Anyone who’s ever owned a house knows the work is never completely done.) I, personally, love my house and don’t ever want to leave. When hubby and I can no longer do yard work, lawn mowing and snow removal, we can hire someone to do it for us. Downstairs are both a large bedroom and a full bath, so it would be possible to live in this house without ever having to climb the stairs to the second floor, should we become too decrepit to do so.

Long story shorter: We agreed to check into refinancing.

When we purchased, we were forced due to economic circumstances to accept an FHA mortgage loan, and I’m really, really tired of paying those FHA insurance premiums every month – especially now that we have significant equity in the house (thank you, crazy housing market!). Under an FHA loan, you can never remove those premiums even when you reach that magic 20% equity level.

So, conventional loan it is.

Long story still shorter: After obtaining written, itemized offers from three different lenders, which were all pretty much identical, we opted to stay with my current bank. They can save us $116 a month on the payment and reduce the interest rate down to 2.75%, with no points. The closing costs are substantial but considering the savings, will be recouped in about three-and-a-half years. Assuming we can stay in the house another four years, refinancing seems to make sense. If we can stay longer than four years, the savings will be significant, and none of the money will be going to mortgage insurance premiums we really don’t need to be paying. That alone, will make me happier.

I think it’s a win-win. The financial documents have been submitted to the bank.

Wish us luck.

If any of you are trying to purchase or refinance a house, I wish you luck, too. This seems to be the time to go for it.

Hugs, all.

__________

I love to hear from my readers. You may comment on this post, comment on my Facebook or Twitter pages, or email me at cordeliasmom2012@yahoo.com
__________
Image by Cordelia’s Mom/TeddyRosalieStudio