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Did I say $550?

That was just Toby's bill from the vet. Add $150 for Beaux. $700+++. And, I think it is likely that the sickness they got is from when they stayed there in October. I was all kinds of worried about travelling to Massechusetts in October but Dana and I came through fine. The dogs, not so much.

But both are holding their own. The antibiotics won't kick in really until tomorrow but they gave us gabapentin to keep them calm and sleepy and so they are healing and coughing less. We should know for sure tomorrow.

I'm hoping neither of them ever get really sick. We'll need a second mortgage.

What I get for thinking things are good

A couple of weeks back I thought that our financial issues had stableized enough that I could look to investing and rebuilding our dwindling savings. My fault for doubting entropy. Today we paid $550 for an x-ray, blood tests, exams and drugs for both dogs who have a respiratory illness I'm hoping will be fixed with antibiotics. Both dogs are coughing. Toby is more sick. Children, you know?

Toby picked my office to have diarrhea in so I got to break out the carpet cleaner at 7 this morning.

Finger's crossed it will all be better in a couple of days. I think they got sick in October with a kennel cough at the vet hotel and it morphed into respiratory. The xray was to be sure Toby didn't have pneumonia which he does not. Whew.

I did put Dana's SS payment into the investment account and am determined to try to live day to day without it. We're not doing much of anything, going much of anywhere, buying much beyond food. Dana is onboard with thrift living for a while. We'll be OK but I'd sure like to get our finanancial padding up where it was. We can not forever live with the current decay.

On the bright side, Walmart had a great quarter and a while back I bought some of their stock. It has done pretty well over time.

Otherwise the market kind of sucks but I'm long term optimistic. Not much going in the savings rate department so its the only game in town.

Today we had our monthly, not really every month, lunch with the three networking friends I have left from when I was in business. They are all three having their best year ever. I hang out with successful people.

Today I started watching chickens for my friends who are out of town for a few days. The clouds rolled in and the automatic door on their coop shut leaving to of the chickens outside. I opened it again and they went in just about the time the bottom fell out and it started pouring rain. A little good fortune there for me and the chickens.

Watching the chickens and the cats is pretty easy and fun. It is a nice little house with a nice field behind it. The deer come up for food. Very pastoral. Going over there a couple of times a day is not much of a chore.

PB tomorrow morning. I need to move around some. Early night to sleep tonight, I think. The dogs have been keeping us up some and I feel like I'm behind.

Productive day mostly

I played PB this morning and it was a good time. We take up three courts and are in our own building with about 20 or so people so there is rest time between games and most of us are pretty evenly capable so some of the games go into extra time. The group is pretty happy and satisfied with the level of play. No one really frustrated and no one really too aggressive (that gets saved for the 'advanced' group).

Then I joined Dana for some time with her primary doc. We set up referrals and tests and all kinds of good stuff to see if we can get things under control.

Then I finally got notice that my dispute of mid September with Netspend where they let someone steal a couple of hundred dollars from my debit card was resolved. Surprise, in my favor. So I'm off shortly to get money from the MoneyGram people (weird way to do it but I don't much care as long as I get it). Apparently I got to WalMart (!!) and give them a reference number and an ID and they give me money. I'm guessing there will be some Latinos in line with me. And then cancel anything to do with Netspend and HEB Debit. Finally done there.

And I see that Dana's dentist has finally filed a claim for her extraction end of October. They don't much care since I've already paid them but I do since the insurance will be sending me a check. I've had to beat them up in the past and, sure enough, had to beat them up this time to get moving.

So mostly productive. I've got a few hundred to go pick up at Walmart and a few hundred that will be on the way from my insurance company.

Meanwhile I saw with some glee that the president threatened to block the play of next summer's soccer World Cup from being held in democratic cities if he didn't get his way about something or other. That's not the good part. The good part is the president of FIFA pointed out that football is bigger than politics. Pretty much all he said. I'm guessing that someone whispered into Trumps ear just how big soccer actually is. Not only is the World Cup being played exactly where FIFA wants it to be played but all the players and anyone who has a ticket but lives outside the US is getting a special visa and we're hiring something like 700 lawyers to be sure the expetited visas run smoothly.

Now that is power.

Now if I can get everyone to pay us back

HEB and the dental insurance company both owe us money. Since I paid off the credit card our credit rating has gone up so we can get all the money we could use again. We are not doing much of anything, not spending much of anything and I put Dana's entire SSN monthly into the investment account which, if I do that for seven more months and the economy doesn't crater means that we'll end up better off than we were before all the financially draining stuff of the summer.

After not hearing anything for two weeks after Dana's tooth extraction I contacted the dentist. They said, yeah, they just discovered that there was a problem with getting the paperwork right when using a dentist who was not in the practice. But they were fixing it. Until then they could not submit my claim. The have nothing on the line here. I've already paid them. They are filing paperwork so I can get my money. The practice is full of very nice people who do a crappy job at admin.

I've been getting some decent Prolific surveys too. Thirty bucks here, thirty bucks there, a few hundred in the savings account. Doesn't do a huge amount but pays for my leftover Amazon impetuous buys.

I had the oil changed in my Smart Car and had him look it over. All fine. The computer is flashing on the screen but it does not seem to mean anything other than that the computer is flashing. Everything works right. I've got one more trick I'll try to see if I can get it to stop and then just ignore it. If the car does not work one day I'll call Uber and a tow truck and take it back to him. I don't go too far in the car anyway so it won't be too hard. Meanwhile I sure do like having it back.

On my way driving home from the mechanic I passed two buildings going up across the street from where we used to live. One is the new Costco, same as the old Costco, just HERE now. And the other building right next to it? The world's largest Target is apparently being built there. Up the street is a new office complex that will employ 750 people.

We are become a parking lot. It is already impossible to go down the street and get pizza any time after about 4PM. It will only get worse.

When we first moved here in 2005 there were cows in the fields alongside the road where the Target is going in. I used to ride my bike on the road all over the place.

It will likely keep our house resale high so there is that.