Miscellaneous Important Stuff

Two long holiday weeks have gone by since I last wrote and I found out that I think about writing all the time even when I don't, can't or don't want to. The reason doesn't seem to matter. Writing is the thing. Why? I think of all sorts of interesting things to share with you but sometimes I sit here and come up blank. How can this be? I could blame it on old age but since I write this column for old people, that excuse sounds pretty lame. It's too early for me to go public with temporary memory loss because none of you will remember that I admitted it and I won't either.

One important thing I do remember is that IF you put any of your monthly bills on a credit card for automatic withdrawal, I urge you to STOP. This applies to Century Link in my case and my sad story is that I stopped reviewing my bills once they didn't present themselves in the good old USPS. daily mail. AFTER I canceled my service with Century Link I discovered that some of my more outrageous bills were caused by late fees. LATE FEES? You betcha. They charged ME fees because THEY took the payment out late. You might notice that I'm still a little steamed about this and will be filing a complaint with the Oregon Consumer Affairs Office about it. I just felt the need to share with you just in case you are like me and were way too trusting of corporate America.

For the record our Oregon Attorney General is the one who oversees consumer fraud and other types of malpractice. I have dealt with them a number of times and have never been disappointed. These are our tax dollars at work in the very best way. If you need help, don't be intimidated by the fact that this is an office of the State... go for it. The only reason they exist is to deal with your problems and consumer issues.

Reusable shopping bags have been around our house for years because of my frequent trips to Corvallis. OK those visits haven't happened since June but they will resume soon because I will be able to drive over there. Corvallis has had a shopping bag law similar to the new State of Oregon law for many years. I didn't have trouble getting used to the new law, which took effect January 1, 2020, but it served as a reminder that I use plastic grocery bags to line garbage cans here at home. Now what? I'm sure I'll figure out something and hopefully after I reuse all my stash of plastic shopping bags I'll have come up with a great way to line garbage cans with recyclable materials. Where there's a will... there's a way. Let me know your ideas. Please. Thank you.

No, I haven't started using my brand new voice recognition software to write this column. Why? I can't seem to find time. Do any of you suffer from this problem? I don't have a job or kids underfoot or farm animals to care for or crews to cook for. I am known as a semi-reclusive human and it is rare that I am sighted in a public place. I do clean house and will admit that my hands are not worthy. They hurt so much that I just ate two Trader Joe's butter cookies to get me through this. The cookies don't help the pain but they are so good that I momentarily forget those aching fingers. Gosh, think how many calories I've saved by not writing for two weeks. Heh, heh.

The cookies came from Santa along with the self-prescribed voice recognition software. Because they arrived at the same time, my brain associates one with the other and I must eat cookies when I sit at the computer. Unfortunately, I must not learn to use the new software which would cut down on the calories from cookies and solve a lot of problems in my life. Friends, this is just another mystery of aging.

Finally, the idea of entering a new decade kind of has me going. I keep thinking I won't make it but I do. So does Mr. S. We marvel at this fact and wonder at how we've made it this far. Our general lack of good health says we should have pulled over and parked long ago but somehow we keep on keeping on. I'm happy for this and for all of you who welcomed the new decade along with us. We binge watched a television sitcom and were happy that the rain kept firecrackers from exploding and upsetting Grover. In other words our celebration was quiet.

The past week or so has made us even quieter. We watch news instead of sitcoms now, but I think we need to return to the former way of life.