With everything happening over the past few weeks – work overload, grandson’s dad dying and daughter having to scramble to go get him, brother-in-law’s accident, yet another death in the extended family yesterday, etc., I’ ve shoved anything non-critical under the bed. Out of sight, out of (my) mind.
I’m grateful for the OT pay, but man… the additional hours and current breakneck pace at work, on top of everything else, are kicking my butt.
There’s a footnote to the work situation. I’ve been with the company long enough to get a vacation bump effective this year. I’ve taken off a few days already and have three vacation days scheduled later in the year, and was trying to figure out if I needed to schedule more. (We can roll 40 hours over to the next year; anything more than that, it’s use it or lose it.)
Ahem.
I definitely need to schedule more vacation time. A lot of it.
G and I planned to go to the movies last night. I bought the tickets online a couple of weeks ago.
It was G’s birthday yesterday, and since we both love the Indiana Jones franchise, I thought it would be nice to go see Harrison Ford’s last adventures with the fedora and whip.
We rarely go out for G’s birthday, so I was aiming to set a new tradition.
Unfortunately, G was utterly miserable all day yesterday. I had to cancel the date. Rather than rescheduling for another day, we’ll wait until the movie is streaming, buy it, and watch while snuggling on the sofa. I promised to make homemade popcorn. G’s not a big fan of going to a theater and loves any excuse to snuggle, so he preferred my suggestion to Plan A, anyway. (I’d already bought him a new phone, so he didn’t exactly get short-changed.)
Starting last month, I pulled the two-year history for our electric bills, so I could see if the new AC actually was more efficient. I was shocked at how much difference it made. Timing was perfect, since the new unit was installed the first day of the billing period. We’re on an averaged-bill plan, same amount every month, so I had to go digging to find the “here’s how much it would be if you weren’t paying the average” details.
Admittedly, May-June this year wasn’t as hot as usual. I had to download a report to see what the billed amount was in previous years. When I compared this year’s electric bill to the previous two years, my jaw dropped.
Here’s the quick and dirty breakdown:
June 2021: $194.33 (1148 kWh)
June 2022: $219.64 (1275 kWh)
June 2023: $136.06 (691 kWh)
Yup. A liiiittle bit of difference there. The next bill will be the litmus test, though. We’re into normal (read: ridiculous heat) temperatures now, so it’ll be more an apples-to-apples comparison when I pull the bill later this month.
Since this entry was on the wordy side, I’ll leave you with a couple of photos from weekend before last.
This corner store is vacant now, but I still appreciated the kitsch it preserves on its walls.
Inviting? No. Character? Loads. This side of the vacant commercial building was once white, but between shadow and paint degradation, it’s now a melange of glass, wood, brick, steel, and dust.
I’m sorry your lives are so busy. I know you would enjoy some downtime, using up some vacation days. Loved the photos.
Thank you, Terri. Yeah, I can definitely use some time off. And I’ll take it once it cools down. It’s the busiest time of year for work, by far, for one thing; for another, it’s too hot to go anywhere and take photos or do anything else.