Every day's a holiday

This was created in an app called Death Clock.  It was free.  For $30ish they have a bunch of recommendations that would extend my life.  The extension that would be achieved, in my case, is about 2 years.  Fo 89 doing what I'm doing now vs 91 if I add various supplements and lifestyle changes.  All in all I find that pretty damn encouraging.  I can do what I'm doing now and not have to put up with the last two years.

And I love "Save the Date".  

Maybe I need a web site so I can put together a gift registry.  

In a Sunday email that I get there was something about "using a massage gun to force every last drop of mayonnaise out of a bottle".  Supposed to be a video about it.  I don't have or really want a massage gun but I was intrigued.  So I put the question in a ChatGPT box.  Here is what came out:

That’s either a stroke of genius or a culinary war crime.

On one hand, it's the kind of outside-the-jar thinking that could win you a MacGyver Award. On the other, you're two pulses away from redecorating the kitchen in "Hellmann's Eggshell White." The massage gun may vibrate the stubborn mayo into submission, sure — but it may also turn that bottle into a condiment cannon.

Verdict: Technically effective, morally questionable. Proceed if you're wearing goggles and emotionally prepared to hose down the backsplash.

I thought I'd pass that on.  Might be something worthwhile to consider as you run low on Mayo.

The French Open is done and I'm at loose ends.  Having been totally immersed in a final that lasted five and a half hours.  Like watching Ali and Frazier but no blood.    Now I'm waiting for Wimbledon and The US Open for the tripple crown but am not sure what to do in the meanwhile.

Pickleball was scheduled again today and again around 5AM I heard the crack of thunder.  Third time that has happened.  We were cancelled but therre was a decent rain.  The weather service will be calling us in a month asking us to schedule some more morning pickleball as they need the rain.  

I just watched Becoming Led Zepplin and I'm stuck in 1970 again.   

I rode for 40 minutes which is a good amount on the second day of riding.  And I did a fairly steep hill.  It is not long but is pretty steep.  Pumped up my heart rate to about 155.  One of the problems with walking is that it does not do that.  Pickleball does it and cycling hills definitely does.  I feel like I need to get my heart rate up in intervals to build it up as a muscle.  There is, of course, tons of research on that but it is all towards sports performance not age endurance.  Cycling is good in so many ways but that may well be the most important.

Tomorrow is another shot at pickleball.  This time of year the mornings tend to get rained out but tomorrow we're scheduled for noon.  It will be a nice cool 85 degrees when we start.  We'll see how that goes.

Before cancelling out of USAA I paid for a year of Progressive.  Or put it on my credit card.  Then I took Zoe to a new vet across the street.  She needs some drugs to help with her arthritis pain (a household commonality).  $415 later we have an anti-inflamitory and a pain pill.  Of that money, $120 is the meds so that is going to suck going forward.  We'll see how long they last.  The vet is a stone's throw away from us and has a really nice place for dogs to stay when we go out of town in October.  So I changed to them.  I felt badly about changing from my old vet as I think they are not doing really well and they have always been nice.  But driving into Georgetown was inceasingly hard on Zoe.

The combination of a year's auto insurance for two cars plus the Zoe appointment has sucked our account down some.  Fortunately not so much that it will matter but for the short term.  And it will pay back every month when I'm not laying out the monthly insurance payment.  

Since USAA is a mutual and I have money in it, there is a $5k+ balance they owe me.  I think I get it in three months which will be well timed for the wedding.  All in all we are better off financially without USAA.  There is an emotional tie but I can always rejoin Navy Federal Credit Union if I want to regenerate a military connection.

I got up and was on my bike by 6:30.  Long time since I've done that.  I did not push at all and stopped after half an hour.  Saving my legs and butt.  I'll do another half an hour on Thursday.  It will take me a couple of weeks to be saddle comfortable and I'll slowly extend the time.  In the past I always did too much too soon and then just gritted through the outcome.  But I'm in no hurry and have a perfect place to do short runs.  It is kind of a PIA to get dressed and then have to wash the stuff for just half an hour but no way am I doing it without cycling padding.  I walked Zoe afterwards so had a full hour of activity.

Getting on the bike again was like putting on a well worn pair of jeans.  My bike is more like a part of me when I ride.  I've been doing it so long my brain automates all the shifting and watching and signalling and intersections.  I turn off whatever is playing in my headphones if things are going to get interesting for one reason or another but normally my automatic functions work fine.  Thousands of miles in the saddle.  It is always nice to be back.

Not much happening today.  An Amazon returns trip and a discussion with one of the other tech committee people.  At some point.  He works.  

There are five of us on the committee.  I suggested we get together at 6 on this past Monday.  Two of the remain four even responded.  One said he couldn't make it.  The other asked what time (after I had stated in the subject line 6-7).  That last guy and I have had some back and forth emails since and should be talking today.  The guy that said he couldn't make it sent a note at 6 yesterday asking where we were.  He was at the meeting place and was annoyed that we weren't there. 

I'll try one more time sending out an email to get together next Tuesday.  Give them a week to plan.  

It turns out we are supposed to have three people to do anything but I've not seen that in any direction so who knows.  Not worrying about it too much regardless.

For whatever reason the Ranch was causing me stress.  Most of the cause was, I think, mine.  But there are some elements there that constantly grate at me and ultimately I sent the email this morning saying I'm backing away.   For personal reasons.  The owner said thanks and prayers and such.  So it is done.

I recently offered to assist in our community's tech support committee.  They are an advisory group that is supposed to help make recommendations to the tech in the area.  After a month they had one meeting.  Two people of the five showed up.  The guy that is on the board and who sent out invites to the committee membership asked if I'd be what turned out to be chair.  He wisely didn't call it that but I agreed.  And then I reached out to the paid facilities guy to connect with him.  He said he was going camping and did not offer a different time, clearly just as happy to not have a volunteer in his face.  So as 'chairman' I called a meeting.  No one signed up but the one other guy that was at the first meeting.

The community needs to have a tech support company come in and run their tech but they don't know what they want, how deep they want the vendor to go, how much they want to pay them, what response times, nothing.  They have not done any thinking about it at all.  

So I just wrote the board member and said if no one else is going to join me I'm out.  I'll see later today how that goes.  I know exactly what needs to be done and how to do it.  Stephen Stills recently was asked if he was going to retire.  He said, hell no, retirement just means people want you to start doing things for free that you used to get paid to do.

Right on, Stephen.

Meahwhile I did apply to help with our local animal shelter.  It is MUCH closer and even though it also has cats it is a nice, well run, place.  So I might get involved with them but now will keep my finger ont he eject button.

As my alarm want off this morning and I was thinking about pickleball the lightening storm hit.  Rain for about an hour and the courts are wet until 11, so no PB today.  As soon as the sun came out the temp soared.  It says that it feels like 83 out but I took Zoe and Toby for a walk and we agreed it felt a lot worse.

So, an A/C day. 

Dana is going to a luch with her buddies and I'm driving her.  Nothing else I'm doing of import for it is fine.  I'm glad she's getting out.  She is making progress and is at the 'it doesn't hurt as much be shouldn't I be doing better?' phase.  No.  Not only did you replace a joint a month ago you broke a bone and had an infection.  Your hip might hurt a bit for a while.  Say, six or eight months.  Get used to it.  She got the message.  I'll be repeating it every couple of weeks for a year.

My transition from USAA to SoFi is moving along.  I got paid today from my pension and wrote another check to deposit.  I don't want the accounts connected and am not really wanting to transfer anything to or from USAA.  Fortunately I have old USAA checks and it is easy to write one and upload it to SoFi.  In the midst of doing that I realized that I need SoFi checks.  About two times a year someone wants a check for some reason or another.  I looked on the SoFi app and, sure enough, it has a check order.  I clicked the button and 25 checks are on their way.  Should do me for years.  No cost.  I respect the low number of checks (you can order more in a day if you want) and love the zero cost.  Meanwhile I've got everything  but Social Security and Oil income moved over so I'm feeling good about it.

I had a stupid idea to help out with the technology committee in our community.  It is volunteer so I can easily drop it whenever I want but since I'm retired they put me in charge.  The first thing they want to do is get outside help fixing the tech stuff.  I gather so far they have just piecemealed the work and depended on one off jobs to do things and volunteer labor to do the rest.

So they said "we need to get bids to get someone from the outside to do the tech".  And they said the paid maintenance guy would ask for bids.  I sent him a note asking what he was going to bid out, scope, SLA, ballpark cost, etc.  He kind of said 'that's what you guys are supposed to figure out'.  Meaning he had intended to approach some tech companies and say 'hey, how much to fix our tech?' without any definition or idea what the hell we were asking them to do.  And this is the company that is managing the entire development.

So, being as how I'm in charge, I called a meeting.  Got to have a meeting, right?  So far one of five has responded and he did not read the subject line.

This might take a while.



 

I had a nice Tuesday morning at the Ranch walking the dogs. Last night we had a pretty big thunderstorm but it was calm this morning and the dogs were happy with the quiet and morning sun.



Khaleesi agrees. We have developed the habit of sitting on a bench for a while before going back in. Here is what it looks like from the other direction.



I've been knocking off, or trying to, the links to USAA. I've got two more but can't do them alone. Dana is involved. One requires a drive to Georgetown for the social security office visit. The other requires her to be in camera range to verify who she is to redirect a payment from a legacy account her family had.

But I think those two are the last. Then it is just waiting until the federal paychecks drop into the new account which will likely not be until July.

So far, SoFi is a better bank. It is nimble on the Internet and I'm good with that. They did come up with a dumb answer to a question I had so I sent it back to them. I had opened a ticket to have them figure out why I could not edit the name of my external transfer banks so they were clear, something fairly important to me now I'm in a fight with USAA over the same thing. They closed the ticket saying that the problem existed as I was using a VPN for access and/or a business computer. I kicked that back with relish and with a demo of using my phone in T-Mobile mode to access their bank with the same results I'd already provided from my NON work NON VPN connection.

They have a problem with their site and will figure it out eventually. Meanwhile I'm a squeeky wheel.

And HBOMax is wonderful with the French Open. I've never had so much access to a tournament. It is so nice to be able to turn on my computer or TV any time and watch the best players in the world play on the most difficult surface (for most of them). I've watched several matches end to end and it has been wonderful. But it is nice to drop in and catch a set or so without feeling like I have to watch or miss out on the whole thing. Such luxury.

I'm off to have a sandwich now.  I've had a hankering for Durkees Famous Sauce recently and, of course, they no longer carry it at HEB.  Fortunately Amazon still has it.  I grew up with Durkees and Kraft Sharp cheese on white bread watching Jon Gnagy on black and white.

This is Teddy:



He was picked up off the road and obviously had been there for a bit. He's got parasites and probably heartworms and who knows what else. He's also not yet nutered yet. But he is sweet and SO happy to be at the Ranch.



He's obviously been in a fight likely with a racoon or something like that. Muzzle and paws scared up by small teeth.

But he's fairly young and got lots of energy so he should be OK. The next most recent dog, Babs, is doing well. She came to the Ranch in about the same condition not too long ago and is getting better every day.

And, just to end on a better thought:




The inscrutible Khaleesi says hello.

Usaa responded to the complaint I filed at CFPB just now:

Hi William,

 

 

Thank you for bringing your concern to our attention. My team at USAA Federal Savings Bank works in conjunction with the CEO’s office, and I’m researching what occurred. I’ll contact you shortly to discuss this further.

 

If you need to reach me, please feel free to call me at 210-531-USAA (8722), 800-531-8722, (TTY:711/TRS) or #8722 on a mobile device and enter extension 54205 when prompted.

 

Sincerely,

 

Carolyn

Member Advocacy

USAA Federal Savings Bank

Very interesting.  And thanks, again to Senator Warren.  And fuck the MAGAs who undercut CFPB funding.

For some reason in the middle of the night I looked at my email and saw one from USAA.  Thinking it might be a resolution of the $500 that they have managed to lose I opened it.  Mistake.  USAA's verdict on what I could do after having inadvertently transferred $500 to a USAA legacy account that for some reason I still had one way access to:

'no error occurred' and that I should 'contact the recipient for refund or correction'.

I'm current on long term hold with USAA while some poor woman tries to figure out what to do and meanwhile researching how to submit a complaint through the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (thank you Senator Warren!).  

Meanwhile my account on SoFi is cruising along.  I was able to set it up in a few minutes and was able to attach it to USAA and to the local credit union I use to manage my mortgage and infrastructure bills.  They use a company by the name of Plaid, one of companies out there that have perfected the system of connecting financial institutions easily and securely.  USAA does not use them and it shows.  They have an old school way of connecting (send a penny deposit back and forth to create a link).  Plaid connects banks in under a minute without sending any pretend deposits.  It is interesting to see the different generations of banking.  I remember when USAA was cutting edge online.

I had one minor glitch with SoFi and easily got into a chat with a rep there.  He could not resolve the situation (which had to do with my ability to create a nickname of an outside account on their site) but bumped it up to the web people.  Clearly a minor developer issue.  It will be interesting to hear what happens, how and how quickly they respond.  Good test.

Meanwhile USAA is saying that the account I sent $500 to belongs to someone.  They can't tell me who.  I only know three people with USAA accounts, two sons and a step son, and none of the three have accounts with that number.  So I'm as sure as I can be that it is an old account of mine 

I submitted my complaint via CFPB so now we're waiting.  Or maybe someone will magically contact me and say 'hey, I just got $500 in my account, was that you?'

I've got to do my dilligence but my insurance bill might be less expensive through my friend too.  Several variables there but if it is less expensive I'll be severing all ties with USAA after 45 years.  

I missed Bruce Springsteen. He came along after I was out of college when my music absorbtion had wained. I always felt like he should speak to me. He's only a couple of years older and is a romantic in some many ways. But I just never caught the hook other than the "Born to Run" type tracks that were everywhere.

But there was a guy on the Voice in Germany who did a version of "Dancing in the Dark" that sends shivers up my spine every time I hear it. He slows it down and sings the meaning so much better than Springsteen ever did. Springsteen sang the song, this guy sings the experience. So now I'm looking for Springsteen interpretations.

With that background I was at the Ranch today listening to a book "The Pain Scale" by Tyler Dilts. It is an OK book but the character has a serious injury to his hand and someone gave him a banjo to play to build up his strength. This lead to his noticing that the next song on his Apple play list that was playing in the background was a Springsteen song "Atlantic City" from a concert in Dublin that began with a banjo. This is what I love about the Internet. I stopped the book and brought up YouTubeMusic and found the song from the concert in Dublin and played it. The song "Atlantic City" had always been one of those that Springsteen sang the music to, sang the song. But when he sang it live here he sang the experience, the story. It is an amazing differrence and I got the song for the first time.

And the morning's humidity had just blown away by a north wind and it had suddenly become a beautiful, cool sunny morning at the Ranch and Valentine and I were having a wonderful time:



She didn't need the music.

Just one of those weird convergences of experience and chance.