Photo sorting day, cat adoption FAIL, IRS refund FINALLY!

Last things first - I just downloaded into Quicken, and my tax refund was finally there! I had filed Feb. 1. They gave me $61 more than TurbnoTax said I was owed. Maybe now I'll get the pandemic subsidy. But I doubt it.

I'll wait to see how much I will owe for the car repairs, but now I think I have enough to replace the screen doors and install a keypad lock on carport door.

Speaking of insurance, the car insurance sent me a letter saying they will be charging me a few dollars less per month. That's a surprise.

My property tax bill arrived today too. $156. For the whole year.

Went to the mailbox this morning before breakfast because there was a package, but it turned out to only be a spare box to return 2 empty sodastream cartridges. Another pair should be on its way.

Sorted photos all day. Finished the first and smaller of two boxes. The roll-top desk is a great place to do this, lots of slots and a few drawers and a wide surface. I'm sorting in what to me are intuitive family groups. From left to right:

oldest sister -- middle sister -- youngest sister-- me-- grandparents-- ancient unknown pix-- cousins

Parents are in the top left drawer. 

The box is in the middle of the surface, to the left are pix which I can't identify and to the right is postcards and scenic shots with no people in them.

I'm favoring oldest sister, so any photos of parents/grandparents/siblings with her or her brood in them go into her slot. Her house caught fire and I know her wedding photos were toasted but maybe also many of these others.

The next step is to run them through a scanner (due to arrive in a couple of days), copy them to my PC and put them online. Or something.

So far no sister wedding photos except their thank you postcard to the grands. Tons of photos of her children's weddings.

Quit sorting at 4:15, got in the car at 4:30 and headed for what the map said was a half-hour drive to the PetSmart where Yahtzee was waiting to be adopted. Lots of stop lights and slow traffic and road work made for a 50-minute drive. Despite being 15 minutes late, the volunteer who was supposed to help was not there. I texted her and then when there was no answer I texted the adoption agency, but then a couple of volunteers showed up and let me into the back room where they opened Yahtzee's cage for me.

The cat was terrified. Did not want to have anything to do with me. Did not want to be petted. Hyperventilated, crushed herself against the glass on the opposite side.  After about 10 minutes of this I gave up. She has only been in the cage a day, and went through all the medical stuff but she just flat out was scared of me.


I did some shopping, needed kibble and bought a little bed for Spook and an undercoat rake.

Home, it was after 6. 90 Day Fiance teaser, PTI, TMZ, Match Game 74. The one storm chaser online did not have a storm to chase. Watched some streams of Portland protests. The Feds screwed things up royally last night, and are lucky the protesters are not showing up with AR-15s.

Spook yelled at me to brush her, I used the rake and got tons of undercoat, but she was not onboard with being de-matted.

Youngest sister called, made it a video call and showed me her massive garden.

Lasagna for dinner, streamed for an hour, again had chatters.

Plans for tomorrow:
More photo sorting
More streamers
More trashy TV

Buying Stuff

The morning started with thunder. No lightning. No rain hit the ground but I could see rain falling out toward the south. Tried to stream, but the Samsung was out of charge, I had left it on and unplugged. I thought it was off. Streamed from the Pixel, but after 10 minutes there was nothing to show.

Lead storm chaser had the same luck today. He chased a radar signal for hours but the action was behind him. He needs a better spotter. There's a guy who looks like he has all the equipment & qualifications,  & experience, but he keeps sending the chaser to the wrong places.

More photo sorting. Maybe halfway through the second box. Way too many photos of big sister's ginormous clan. Took them out of the slot and rubber banded them into two clumps, and put them in a drawer. And started adding more to the slot.

Spook has been acting very assertive. She claws at my computer chair and yells at me, leads me to the recliner so I can put out the foot rest and brush her. She has a love-hate thing going with the undercoat rake.

Wearing a dashiki, which is a minor PIA because when I make a pit stop I have to take it off. Pants and belt have to be under it. The pockets are at the bottom so I have to empty them first.

Watched the last 3 Match Game 74s I'd rerecorded. Not recording any more of them.

Lunch was a tuna casserole with a lot of added cheeses, dinner the last of the duck from the freezer on a slice of sourdough. And watermelon.

Streamed for an hour, lots of trolls.

Delivered was the cassette to USB player, tried three tapes, but it was a FAIL, loud thumping coming from the device onto the audio track. That's going back, I have a different brand coming from Staples.

Also delivered was the phone holder for the car, this time not a charger. I should be able to rig it to the arm which attaches to the passenger headrest mount.

Spook likes the upside-down bed I got her but she's twice as big as it is, and she finally gave up on it and went back to the plastic duffel bag. I'll look for something cool and plastic for her.

The remote control light bulbs are going back, they don't work with SmartThings, so I can't program them to work with motion sensors. I've ordered three sets of ones which will work.

I also ordered slippers to replace the ones I've been wearing out since my move. And I bit the bullet, and after much research ordered a podcaster mic kit, complete with clamp-to-desk extension arm and pop filter. The hard part was finding one which published its frequency response numbers, and the harder part was not insisting on CD quality for that, because bit rate is more important for streaming.

And straws. Big paper ones.

Took the garbage bins out. Looked for the comet but there's too much light pollution in the NW. However in the SE there are three bright planets, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn I think. Venus must be in there too.

Plans for tomorrow:
More photo sorting
P/U prescriptions at Walmart + minor grocery shopping
UPS store to return Amazon stuff