Sunday Weigh in March 24, 2024

[Barb135]

Good morning... yes, it's late, but it is still morning!!  How's everyone doing this morning?  It's been busy here, but that's okay.  If I stay busy, I'm less tempted to lie down and sleep!!  

Last week, I mentioned that I was supposed to be getting a call to get an appointment for Laser Lithotripsy for my kidney stone.  When I still hadn't  heard anything from the surgery center by Wednesday, I decided to call and find out what was going on.  Apparently, I'd fallen through the cracks.  Anyway, I was put through to the surgery center and the chick I talked to tentatively set my Lithotripsy for April 4th and said she'd call me back later the same day with an appointment for a pre-op exam, which would probably be the next day!!  Well, that didn't happen - neither a call back, nor the pre-op.  When I didn't hear anything the next day either, I called again to see what was going on.  I was, obviously, not a happy camper, as I don't do well when people tell me they're going to do something, then don't!!

Anyway, by week's end, I did end up with both the appointment for the pre-op (Mar 29) and the Lithotripsy (Apr 4).  I've also been having trouble with my blood pressure, so I have to see my pcp on Apr 3.  and because of shortness of breath issues, I'm having ultra sound on the arteries in my legs to make sure I don't have blockages.  That will be done on Mar 29 also.   As you can see, I'm pretty well loaded up with medical appointments.

In addition to all that, the treasurer of our calligraphy guild has decided she must resign.  She has profound hearing loss and it's causing symptoms, such as depression, forgetfulness, etc.  We don't have anyone to take over so I offered to help her out, temporarily, until we find someone who can step in permanently.   I'm already the Vice President and Membership Chairman and really enjoy that so don't want to give it up but would have to if we don't find another Treasurer.  

I did get to take a calligraphy class yesterday and even though it was a hybrid (both in person and on Zoom), for once, I was not a tech host, so actually got to enjoy the class.  

This morning, I've been out for my walk with my neighbor and got the lawn mower out to do a bit of badly needed trimming to get rid of some weeds around the yard.  It was only around 60 degrees and there was a nice breeze so it was comfortable.  

I'm still walking almost every day and the medication I'm on for my neuropathy makes me not as hungry, so I'm still dropping weight.  This morning, my scale shows that I've dropped 3.6 lbs since last week.   That makes a total of 22 lbs since October when, both my thyroid and neuropathy meds were changed.  I think I'm actually beginning to feel better since I'm not carrying around so much weight, though I still tend to be tired most of the time.  Maybe that will change, too.  Anyway, I'm good with the direction I'm going.  

So how was your week?  I hope it was good and that you reached your goal(s).  

~~Wishing everyone a wonderful, successful week~~  

[Barb135]

I'm not sure my 3.6 lbs is a solid loss.  Sometimes when I lose that much in a week, I bounce a little bit before it all finally stays off.  We'll see this time.  

You've done really well, with 1.5 lbs, though.  Definitely something to be proud of.   I'm sure it feels good to be well within your acceptable zone again.  

So, the Pilates socks sound kind of cute.   100 classes is an accomplishment.  I wonder what you get when you reach 500 classes!!  They probably expect you wear them to classes now!!  

Oh wow - the taxes.  I'm sure you'll be relieved when you've found it all and handed it over to the accountant.  I'm sorry you have to write your stepdad's obituary; that's never a fun thing to do.

So, your son found a car!!  Did you find a place for him to take driver's training?   Do you have a lot of charging stations there that he can use if he's out and about and needs to recharge his car?  There are very few around here and I'd be very reluctant to have an electric vehicle for that reason.  I don't know how long/far he'll be able to go on a charge, but I've heard of some people unable to go from where we live to the nearest large city (~ 25 miles) and back without charging.  IDK if that"s true or no, but it would be my luck I'd be sitting on the side of the road needing a charge or would run out juice looking for a charging station!! lol  

Good luck with your taxes.  :-)

[AnnieBrooke]

You'd probably be surprised about charging availability -- Florida has a reputation for having more than most states, something over 8,000 spots. In our area, there are chargers in the parking lots of shopping malls and even next to some parking meters on the street. But actually, since you just plug the car in at home every night, the car is "full" every morning anyway. Most electric cars now have a comparable range to what you'd get in a gas car from a full tank of gas. (My husband's car, for example, gets 320 miles per charge.) Also, there are several apps one can just click into with one's phone, to locate the nearest charging station. Our son's car gets 110 miles on a charge, fine for a daily driver. But it's certainly possible to take trips in an e.v.; husband and son drove to southern Oregon and back just for fun when husband's car was new. I also asked my son if charging is available if he's living in a dorm, and he says there are charging spots at the dorms of all the schools he's been looking at.

[Barb135]

Interesting subject... There may be more charging stations here than I realize, but we don't see them in our local Walmart or Publix parking lots, or the shopping centers we frequent.  I've seen them at couple of the rest areas we've stopped at when traveling, but for the most part, they don't make them real obvious and from what I've read, they charge to use them, but not positive about that.    I'd forgotten that your husband has an E.V.   I'm curious... Do you have to have a special type of outlet for it?  And if the battery is mostly used up, how long does it take to fully charge it?  

I'll have to start paying more attention to where the charging stations are at the various places we shop so I can compare to the gas stations.  

[AnnieBrooke]

Let's see. I think in the earlier days of electric cars, the mall or municipality covered the electricity when you'd plug in; the mall to attract customers and the municipality as part of promoting e.v. use. It's possible that has changed, or that at some places you have to put a credit card in and at other places you don't. The only local place where we use the e.v. parking space rather than just parking in a normal spot is across from a popular ice cream shop that never has any other parking available. There's no fee for using that one (it's a street parking spot, so the municipality covers the electricity) and I think my husband probably plugs in there more for p.r. than because he needs a charge. (How cheeky would it be to pull up in front of the big windows of a crowded place and take the free parking spot for your type of car and then make it obvious you didn't need the electricity?)

At a supercharger, husband's car takes about 20 minutes to charge to "full" if he starts with not much electricity left; less time if he wasn't low when he pulled in. At our last house there was a supercharger at the grocery store we went to a lot, so he often charged there. (His car had a deal from the manufacturer, he got free charging for a long time, like the first two years of ownership or something.) It wasn't inconvenient to take 20 minutes for the car to charge because we would do our shopping while it was charging. He then would just plug the car into a normal wall outlet at home at night. We intended to get a charging wall unit, but never got around to it because that free supercharging was available. Charging through a regular electric outlet is slower, though. Overnight it would add maybe 50 miles of range.

When we moved a couple of years ago, the new house wasn't as near a convenient supercharging station, so we got a wall-mounted fast charger for his brand installed in the garage. (I think the charger cost about $400, and about $500 for the electrician to install it.) It charges his car from 0 to 320 miles in about an hour, not as fast as a supercharger but lots faster than just plugging into a standard home outlet. And you can set it to charge in the middle of the night, when electricity rates are lowest. I would estimate that for us, the cost of fueling the e.v. is about a fourth to a third of the cost of fueling our gas-powered car, and of course, charging at home is super handy. I love the little car I drive, but it just cost me $120 for standard maintenance, including an oil change. Hubby can go, "Oil change? What's that?" for the rest of his life.

[Barb135]

Annie, you explanation of the E.V. is quite interesting and coincidentally, there happened to be a conversation on my local NextDoor app this week, about E.Vs as well.  There were some local people that have them and they all agreed with what you've said.   One did mention the cost of battery replacement, but it seems that's quite rare??  

I'm going to start looking for charging stations at my local store, just out of curiosity.  
Thank for your time to explain.  It's quite interesting.  

[AnnieBrooke]

Super good on the weight, Barb!  It's been at least three years since I've been able to lose that much in a week -- I think the last time was at the beginning of the weight-loss challenges, when I buckled down and stopped eating everything that was demonstrably bad for me. Those easy ones are out of my diet by now, so 3-pound-loss weeks are no longer available. But this week was good -- instead of my weight creeping down by tenths of a pound as it has lately, I've lost a definite pound and a half. I had been teetering in the top of my acceptable zone (the ten pounds above my officially desired weight) and now I'm back comfortably within it. That's nice, I hate how my stomach can look in Pilates clothes when I'm even just at the top of my safety range.

Speaking of Pilates, the studio where I go gave me a little award recently for reaching my 100th class. It included a pair of Pilates socks (a style that has gripper bottoms and exposes the toes) that say "100 Club" on the foot in sparkly letters. I was so amused. The socks remind me of the repeating sketches about the "5 Timers Club" on Saturday Night Live (people who have hosted the show 5 times or more) in which all these stars walk around in a clubroom set wearing velvet smoking jackets with a big "5" on the pocket. Because the socks are about equal parts silly and earnest, I haven't worn them much. Maybe I should sew one onto the pocket of a velvet smoking jacket.

I'm still in the throes of taxes. Have located a lot of the set-aside paperwork, but am still hacking away. This should be completed by tomorrow, a good thing because I've got to write my stepdad's obituary, and my sisters are pushing me on it. After that, another project is calling for my time. It's like train cars on an endless express of work.

One big interruption this week has been my son's search for a car, and finding one, and getting Dad to drive him a couple of hours to see it and negotiate its purchase. They go back Thursday by train to pick it up. It's a little electric car called an i3, made by (of all companies) BMW. They produced them for a few years before apparently figuring out that the car's rather one-off look, small size, environmental message and short range did squat to attract the kind of person that wants a BMW. The car is definitely more appropriate for a teenage newbie driver than the boring used sedans and retired police cars my son was considering. He was shocked I was OK to buy it, because it wasn't as cheap as his list of bottom-of-the-barrel beaters. But he hadn't put into the mix that husband and I were willing to pay a safety and convenience premium -- not breaking down by the side of the road some night is way more important to us as parents than price alone. Electric cars require almost no maintenance, and, since they don't use any, are immune to the price of gas. That he can't get far without having to stop and charge is just fine with us too. lol

Off to tax purgatory. Hope everyone has a great week!