There are a couple of pics this week.

Snow in Visitor Parking

We started the week with a whopping 8″ snow Saturday evening and Sunday morning. (Yea Dani, but it’s a lot for us). Danita did her grocery store run very early Saturday morning to avoid the big rush later in the day. We stayed home Sunday — no Church, no breakfast out. Danita made the best omelette I’ve had in many years. The grounds crew had bobcats moving the snow. All the visitor’s spots were piled high with the stuff. That’s one of the disadvantages of high density living. There’s lots of streets, sidewalks and driveways. Tiny yards. It’s all got to go somewhere. Danita was disappointed because everything was cleared out by the end of Sunday. She didn’t get even one day off of work. It would be nice if that were the end of winter, but temperatures got cold again. It got down to 12 last night. Things should be warming up later on this week.

HP Stream PC

Other than winter, we’re making progress on stuff. Taxes are done for the year. These days one can E-file taxes, tell the government to take the money owed from the checking account, and not to take it until April 15 — no matter how much snow is outside. Pretty cool. I got a great deal on Turbo Tax this year. They sell several different levels of Turbo Tax. They took stocks (Schedule D) out of the package I normally buy, and they’ve been getting very bad publicity. Amazon put the more advanced package on super sale. After I bought that, Turbo Tax offered a $25 rebate for people who need Schedule D. With taxes done, I sent lappy off to HP to get the keyboard repaired. It’s fixed and should come back next week. HP came out with a new, small, inexpensive computer they call the Stream 200-010. It’s kind of like a desktop, but it’s not much bigger than my fist. We decided that’s cheap enough and small enough that we can buy it and leave it hooked up to the TV for streaming movies from the Internet. In the mean time, I’ve been using it as my computer while lappy’s being repaired. It’s amazingly competent. But only because I was forewarned by the reviews and added another stick of memory. Still, the total cost with the extra memory is still under $200.

5 of the 6 parts we need to fix the furnace came in early last week. The last part came in Friday. The furnace fixers will be over Monday afternoon. In the mean time, the fireplace has been doing a credible job of keeping the house reasonably warm.

With all the bad weather we’ve been having, I haven’t ridden my bike in since Feb 11. I went over to the gym in our clubhouse several times, but going to the gym isn’t my cup of tea. I was able to take the bike out to the bank yesterday, to deposit that $25 Turbo Tax check. But it was too cold to ride very long, and the roads weren’t good enough to go on the narrow back roads I enjoy riding so much. Hopefully I’ll be able to start riding soon.

My Chinese Culture class has settled in. When working over the internet, it’s easy to forget how young most of these students are.

We don’t have any parties this week, but we should have clear roads Sunday for the first time in many weeks. (Not the whole day. That would be too much to ask for, apparently. But they should be clear until Noon.) We plan to meet Mark for breakfast.

Well, Danita’s back from the grocery store. It’s time to unload the groceries.

We’re having a cold February. Some people are comparing this February to all the other Februaries in recorded history. That’s quite a trick, considering the month isn’t over yet. But there’s no doubt we have a cold one this year. That’s one reason why it’s inconvenient that our furnace stopped working. We talked to two different repair companies. The parts are under warranty, but we have to pay for the labor. The have to pull the furnace apart to replace the parts, and they’re working in a tiny closet, so this isn’t going to be cheap. Parts are on order. But we’re not the only people in the state with a furnace that doesn’t work. We’ll see when it gets fixed. In the mean time, our gas fireplace is doing a good job of keeping the house warm enough that there’s no danger of pipes freezing. Sweaters and blankets take care of the rest.

I’ve been checking our financial site for the last 1099 every day. Finally it was posted. I downloaded it and opened it, only to find that the account summary information was incorrect and the 1099 information wasn’t in it. I called our friendly financial advisor. He had been getting quite a number of phone calls on this subject, and as friendly as he is, he was beginning to get a little frustrated. It turns out he had told several of his clients that the 1099s were finally posted. But I was the first person to actually look at the form and see the emperor had no clothes. The advisor kept his cool, but I had the distinct impression that he was wondering about his career choice. Three days later, they had the file renamed from “Summary and 1099” to “Account Summary”. The summary was still wrong. Finally today, the 1099 was posted. I don’t know if it’s correct, but it’s close. Fortunately, it doesn’t make any difference whether it’s exactly correct. It only matters that the numbers on our tax return match the numbers reported to the IRS. Taxes are completed, and will be filed after Danita reviews them.

Retirement is a strange beast these days. There are so many rules. If one delays Social Security payments, they increase 8% a year until age 70, so it’s a good idea to delay Social Security if one can. IRA accounts require minimum withdrawals after age 70 1/2, so it’s a good idea to delay withdrawals until 70 1/2, if one can. For us, Danita plans to retire next year, and I won’t be 70 yet. I’m close, but we need something to live on while we’re waiting for that magical moment. We decided to use some stock. We decided it would be a good idea to sell the stock now, because a major market downturn would put a definite crimp in our life style while we’re waiting for me to be 70. So we sold the stock near the end of last year. Between the taxes on the stock, the trip to China, and repairing the furnace, we’re doing an breathtaking job of spending money.

My online Chinese Culture class is getting stranger and stranger. We had an assignment to pick a topic and lead an online discussion for one day. My topic was “Working Through Cultural Differences”, which I based on my experiences working with Chinese people at Axalto. I posted my blurb on the web, and got no comments. Some discussion. I figured I’m so old I just don’t know how to do it. The next day, another student posted a blurb about Chinese holidays on the web. She also had zero replies. Nobody else has been brave enough to give it a go.

It’s started snowing. According to the weather folks, this could be the biggest snow so far this year — as much as whopping 8″, before it switches over to rain. Somebody asked me my opinion. I told them that if the snow was a big one, I wouldn’t go to work. They didn’t catch my humor. It’s supposed to warm up tomorrow. The temperature could “rocket up to 38 degrees.” That would be nice, because we have a SOCA party Sunday.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

There are no pics this week.

We got a new thermostat this week. BGE was offering to install them for free. It’s pretty easy for me to be at home during the day, so I signed us up. This one is WiFi enabled. We can change our home temperature from anywhere in the world using our phone (there’s an app for that!) or a computer. It displays the indoor and outdoor temperature and humidity on a color screen. It displays the weather forecast. It can change the temperature throughout the day if we wish. In the winter, we keep the house at 68 all the time. They claim that the thermostat can save us money by being aware of the weather.

I also received my new Kindle this week. I got a Kindle Voyage with the Origami cover. It’s a very nice E-reader. This is the first Kindle with a glass screen. (Earlier Kindles have a plastic screen.) It also has a backlight and a high resolution display. The total effect is that the Kindle Voyage is actually easier on the eyes than a paper book. I used to put my old Kindle in the cargo pocket of my pants to have it with me. Somehow, when I took it out, it had turned itself on and done a bunch of page turns; sometimes even changing the displayed book. The Voyage is so small that the Kindle with the cover is actually smaller than my old Kindle was without the cover. The cover keeps the Kindle from turning itself on or pressing pages. The smaller size means it fits in my pockets. It’s a little pricey, but it’s very nice, I use it a lot, and I expect it to last as long as my previous Kindle (which was almost 6 years).

As I mentioned in my previous blog, we ate out a lot last week. Danita’s been having a party at work each month in appreciation for the work her folks do. This week, she had a Chinese lunch and had one of the Chinese faculty talk about Chinese New Year. We had a SOCA party yesterday. We’re having a SOCA Valentine’s concert with dessert tomorrow.

I had to give up riding. We haven’t had very much snow, although it’s snowing as I write this. The streets have never been snowy for more than a day or two so far this winter. But this month, when it’s “warm” (above freezing), it’s threatening rain. When it’s dry, it’s cold (below 20). The low tonight is supposed to be 7. It’s supposed to get down to 2 Sunday night. I’ve been going over to our neighborhood gym. It’s no where as good a workout, but it’s better than nothing.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

There are no pics this week.

Last Sunday was Superbowl. I got tired after the half time show and went to bed. I was getting a cold. Danita fell asleep with the TV on, but woke up to see the last few minutes of the game. My oh my, I’m feeling old.

Temperatures were higher than forecast. The snow for late Sunday / early Monday  became rain. There was no snow emergency. Danita went to work. I was stuck inside, and I had a cold, and I felt lousy. I decided it would be a perfect day to do taxes. Unfortunately, one of our financial institutions has not released their 1099s. They are supposed to be released by Jan 25. As of tomorrow, they will be 2 weeks late. Normally, I would call them up and threaten to pull my money out of their account. Just to make myself feel better. But I can’t do that because we already closed the account as part of our financial re-organization. My first attempt to fix my computer keyboard didn’t work. I don’t want to do any more until the taxes are done. Grrrr. Monday was a very good day to be home alone.

Later on this week, I got another tech problem. My Kindle’s button stopped working. The only way I can switch books is to reset the Kindle. Every once in a while, The Kindle switches the book from whatever I was reading to the Bible. It’s a message from God. I need a new Kindle. I went to Amazon. The Kindle I want is out of stock. Who knew retired life is so hard?

Our neighborhood decided they want to put car license plates in the database. I’ve had the database ready for this for over a month. There was a flurry of 20 or so Emails. I wanted to send out a sample form to illustrate a point. The license plates weren’t on the form! I had to quickly fix my development database so I could send the form. That night, I updated the official database. Nobody knows of my error except me. Whew! Other than fixing my mistake, I mostly had to watch the Emails fly by.

Our neighborhood also promoted one of the women in the office from “Assistant” to “Office Manager”. That is another flurry of Emails. There have been over a dozen so far, and it’s not over yet. This is another one where all I have to do is wait for the Emails to settle. Then I’ll change her Email settings from “Assistant” to “Office Manager” and be done.

We have a busy week coming up. We’re going to a Church spaghetti dinner this evening. Tuesday, Danita has a late meeting at UMBC. She will eat at school and I will probably grab a hamburger. Wednesday will be our dinner out this week. The Outback is just down the street from our Tai Chi class. Thursday, BG&E is coming to install a new WiFi Thermostat. And we have two neighborhood parties next weekend. It’s getting hard to keep up with our schedule.

It’s almost time to go to dinner. I hope this finds everybody doing well.