We have been able to refinance the mortgage for a lower interest rate, and my bank is handling it now, so making payments is much faster and easier. I’ve also set up Bill Pay with the bank. I love it, because we don’t have to log in to various websites and we avoid convenience fees at the same time, plus it takes about ten minutes to pay the bills as opposed to an hour and a half.
Some people hate to cook. Some, like my mother, seem indifferent, and some people, including myself, love to cook. I even enjoy cooking festive holiday meals for family and friends. My mother usually wants to go out to eat on holidays, so now she comes to our home, and is very complimentary about my efforts in the kitchen.
I am a dedicated list-maker. To Do lists, appointments, grocery lists and others keep me organized. Because of my computer’s recent down time, I have (re)discovered another handy use for lists. I had been keeping all of the zip files I downloaded in a folder on my hard drive, but when the drive needed to be reformatted, those files vanished. I have backups stored online, so I’m not too concerned about getting them back.
We moved into our home November 15. 2007. What a year it’s been! We celebrated with our next door neighbors, who moved in at the same time we did with a dinner Saturday. We signed a one year contract for our internet service provider (who was, at the time, the only one in the area) because internet access is essential. The rates were fairly reasonable, but the service was not as dependable as I hoped for. So, when the contract expired, we found a new ISP. The new one costs less, service is much better, and there is no long term contract required. Despite a glitch over the weekend that has been resolved, I am happy with the new ISP.
Ah, November! So much is happening this month:
November 2: Back to Standard Time for most of the US. Did you set your clocks back?
November 3: My stepdaughter’s birthday
November 4: Election Day in the US, and our tenth wedding anniversary (and the anniversary of 13 years together…pretty nice being able to have two anniversaries in one.)
November 11: Veteran’s Day…Remember to thank a veteran for his/her service.
November 15: The first anniversary of owning our home.
November 27: Thanksgiving Day in the US.
And the countdown to Christmas begins . . .
I know at least one person who will simply not re-read a book. Once read, out it goes. I, on the other hand, have re-read many books multiple times. I originally read Gone With The Wind the summer I was fourteen, and I still enjoy the book. But I also enjoy buying new and used books. My husband and I have been known to spend a fair amount of money for half priced books, and we have to be careful not to go over budget. I haven’t bought any new books in a while now, but last summer I found a huge collection of paperbacks on Ebay that I did get. I’m still working my way through those.
Since I learned to read, I have been fascinated with words. I quickly realized that, via words on a page, I could go anywhere and do anything I (or the books’ authors) could imagine, physical limitations notwithstanding. The world opened up further when I discovered I could write my own words. Since then, I’ve never known a time I was not writing something, somewhere. Letters. Poems. Essays. Stories. Assignments for school/college. Personal musings. Lists. (I’m infamous with at least one of my friends for my To Do lists.) Give me a pen and paper or a keyboard; I’m good to go. Some people create art with paints, oils, or charcoal; I use words as my medium of choice, and I have long acknowledged the power of words.
Hurricane Ike is a few hours from making landfall along the Texas coast. We are under a severe weather alert for high winds through tomorrow. Jay is out mowing the lawns today, and will move the car into the garage. Past that, we’ve done everything we can think of to prepare…just in case. Parts of Galveston are already flooded, and people are being urged to evacuate…yet again. It seems to me that since Katrina, people do take these storms a lot more seriously. This is the third or fourth hurricane to come ashore in or near Texas this season.
After a few weeks of being so frustrated I couldn’t even look at this blog, I decided to log in today when I was setting up a new online start page for Firefox. I logged in, and…it just works. I even upgraded to the newest version of WordPress, and the sparkle is back in my day. I don’t like to be without my blog! And it’s so much better on my own domain.