Why I Am Not Bored in Retirement

Right out of the starting gate this morning I dropped an egg on the kitchen floor. I decided to have two eggs over medium instead of three along with two pieces of bacon. The refrigerator is close by, and I could have added another egg. When things happen, like an egg breaking, I get it in my head that it is a message from the universe. Today’s message was “Only eat two eggs.” As I explained this to my husband, who came in to ask me if he could get me another egg, he looked a bit confused. As I mentioned before we have had communications issues, on occasion. It took me a while to clean up the egg and get my two eggs cooked.

My early morning time was spent reaching out to the contractor who is replacing two retaining walls. This was a part of the original house sales contract and the sellers have already paid the contractor. The hold up has been the rain we were getting every few days since early April. The contractor told me they are shooting for next Wednesday. Joe is excited because he wants to watch them. He thinks of it as part of his continuing education.

I also left a message for Waste Management as we have a recycle bin that they were supposed to pick up and have not come by or called for it. And people were concerned I would be bored in retirement?

My next morning challenge was checking on our utility charges. We have multiple utility companies in Saint Michael. Gas, Electric, Internet, Water, and Garbage. The recycle bin is billed through the water company which is owned by the city. I had already received the garbage bill which runs about $50.00 per quarter. Our Waste Management bill in Woodland was about $44.00 per month. This will be a nice savings for us.

When I checked each utility company’s website, I discovered a partial bill from each of them. I want to be able to get an idea of what it costs to run our household each month. I produced a spreadsheet to track the bill amount and to get an average cost per day for the specific utility and then for all utilities combined. I know it will fluctuate seasonally so this breakdown will help me to understand trends and patterns. Our first twelve days in the house (April 19^th through April 30^th) cost us $7.67 per day. By the way this does not include the Internet bill as it is a fixed cost per month and not based on usage. In comparison our Woodland house averaged $8.62 per day cost and that was with solar panels. Any savings though will be spent on increased property taxes and homeowner’s insurance in Minnesota.

Next up on my agenda was to treat myself to a pedicure and having my fingernails “enhanced.” Enhanced is on the Salons menu and means I had my nails lengthened, dipped, and gel polish added. Most people remember the acrylic days. My nails took longer to become healthy after using acrylic. My nails like the dip method. The shop I used in January to treat Charlotte to a pedicure and manicure for her birthday is half a mile from our house. Like many of the shops today they prefer cash. I found a credit union about a mile away so Joe and I popped in to see if we could get cash. They checked and they have an agreement with Golden 1, so yes, we could get cash at no fee. However, we have to talk to Golden 1 first to find out if we are supposed to use our member number or our bank account number on transactions. It was too early for Golden 1 to be open. I thought fine, I’d just use their ATM. Except it was not fine at all, the charge to take out money would be $3.00. I refuse to pay bank fees.

Between the credit union and the nail place there was another local bank. I pulled up to their ATM and discovered I could use my local Bankwest debit card without paying fees. Great! I put in my card and asked for $80.00 from our savings account. The transaction is declined. For a moment, I begin to hyperventilate as this is an account I keep a minimum of $1,000 in for local cash emergencies. Was the universe telling me nails are not an emergency??

I called Bankwest on my way over to use their ATM in Hanover which is about four miles from our house. The person on the phone tells me that the transaction was declined because the savings account is not linked to our debit card. Say, what?

I will make that phone call to the bank on Monday. Today I had important nail business to attend to at 11:45 am.

The two and a half hours at the nail salon were therapeutic. My hands and feet feel terrific!

As I left the nail place, I called Ashley Furniture to ask about our pieces that were supposed to be in yesterday afternoon. The salesperson told me it was in and ready for pickup, “We didn’t have enough people come in this morning to call you.” Lesson, you got to follow-up!

This afternoon I rested from all of the morning activity by watching Veronica Mars on HULU. I could have called Bankwest but decided it was a Monday, not a Friday, problem to fix.

This weekend my goal is to try to videotape a tour of the house. I had promised two  friends a tour when we next talked virtually. I realized if I wait, I will be walking around the house out of breath and trying to keep stuff in focus. If I do videos beforehand, I can share during our chats without all of the heavy breathing. Plus, I can videotape once and share multiple times.