Sunday March 1, 2026

 

Today is March 1 and I would say March came in like a lamb .. so does that mean it will go out as a lion ? Hard to say ! We did have an inch or two of snow overnight but that is nothing. Temps dropped into the teens but that is also nothing. That being said, the low for tonight is near zero ! I'm ok with that since we're doing to be in the 40's starting Tuesday (with overnight lows in the 30's) and may see mid 50's on Saturday ! I should note that for weeks I have not seen any stray cats. My two orange fellas have been awol for weeks and the female I used to feed hasn't been seen in a long while. However, in the past week both males have resurfaced ! The extreme cold likely kept them from camping outside my door and if I don't see them, I don't put wet food out. Dry food is always there so they may have sustained themselves on that. The old boy showed up this morning but I didn't see the younger one. With the warmer weather I'll probably see both of them every day, so I'm glad I still have canned food for them. I wasn't sad about that expense going away for a while ! It's hard to know what happened to the female. She may have crossed the rainbow bridge but I hope that someone took her in. She wasn't friendly and her kittens seemed to disappear. It's a hard life out there for the little ones. I think the young orange male is one of her offspring and the old orange boy is likely his father. I can't say I'll be sorry to see no females as that means no more kittens !

For this blog I'm not going to add on to unfinished blogs. I'm publishing them as they were left. I last wrote on 2-24 and I'm not going to reconstruct every day. I will say that I never got on the treadmill on 2-24 or even 2-25, but I did get on it twice on 2-26. That would be great if I didn't have to admit I haven't been on it since. It's about 12:30 pm as I write this and I do have a goal of getting on the treadmill today. I WILL DO IT !

I haven't been up to much since I last wrote. The highlight of the week was going to Walmart & Wegman's yesterday. It was a beautiful sunny day and temps made it up into the 40's, so I was glad I went out. I went to Walmart first and then stopped at the bank to get some cash. As I leaving the bank I realized I was near 1/4 tank of gas so I hopped on 81 and headed to Delta Sonic to fill up. The place was mobbed with car wash clients but I managed to find an open pump pretty quickly. Since I was in North Syracuse I decided to go to Wegman's as I've been wanting to buy some chicken and I will not buy fresh meat at Walmart. I got some beautiful chicken breasts, a small sliced ham, a package of Hoffman hot dogs, a loaf of Irish soda bread (yay, 'tis the season!), 2 cans of baked beans (story) and a slice of their strawberry shortcake from the bakery. So what's the story on the beans ? Well, I used to buy Bush's Grillin' Beans Southern Pit BBQ flavor at Walmart all the time, then they suddenly didn't have them anymore. They have the other flavors, which is weird. Anyhow, I happened to remember that while I was at Wegman's so I checked to see if they had them. I was glad they did and I bought 2 can's. They were $2.99 a can and when I checked on the Walmart app they are selling the other varieties for $2.77, so I'm thinking price wasn't the issue. Maybe Walmart's clientele wasn't buying this flavor ? They're totally missing out and I was glad to find them at Wegman's. I had half a can with 2 hotdogs for dinner last night and they were delicious. The one thing I forgot to buy was mustard and I'm nearly out. I can run to Top's up the street and get some.

I was home by 2 pm yesterday and could easily have got on the treadmill, but I never did. I did get a little cardio shoveling the remaining snow out of the driveway. I also changed the sheets on my bed before I took a shower later in the day. As usual I spent my time watching YouTube and playing Jackpot World. I've spent real money a couple times on Jackpot World and I caught myself before spending $10 yesterday. I had always said I wouldn't spend real money on these games, yet I did. So, going forward I am spending NOTHING. In total I've spent maybe $10 but as you progress further in the game the cost of these little things increase. One item had a "sale" price of $2.99 and I bought it. Then it jumped to $4.99 and I declined to spend that. Now it's $9.99 and I almost bought it last night. Luckily I stopped myself and I've resolved that going forward I will play with what the game gives me for free and that is it. I haven't missed the games I deleted (Dancing Drums, Lotsa Slots and Monopoly Go) one bit so I'm glad I deleted them, but I was never tempted to spend real money on them. I do still enjoy Cookie Jam and Disney Match, mostly because you progress through the game on your own and they challenge my brain without ever thinking you need to spend real money ! I will watch ads all day long in exchange for being able to play these games. You can progress on your own through Jackpot World but there are some activities that totally rely on team activity. I have 2 accounts now, so I often "team" with my alter ego ! I realized not long ago that some players take advantage and use lower ranked players to increase their own progress. I'm not willing to do that, so I'm tamping down my own competitive nature. That competitiveness is what leads you to start spending money on these games to get ahead. One of the side games has a challenge every 3 days and neither can be completed on your own, so you're continually chasing the unattainable. I'm going to start focusing on only one of the challenges in order to reduce time spent on the game and time spent "begging" for stuff. One involves building 4 items and I have never been able to finish more than one, so I've never received the top rewards. The other requires building 5 items but it's much easier to do and between my 2 accounts it requires very little begging. So the next side game starts tonight and to be honest I have no choice but to skip it because I'm out of spins ! I'll play what I have and work towards building a spin bank. It'll probably take a week, so I'll be sitting out the next couple challenges. I'm ok with that !

So that brings me really to today. It's another sunny day but temps are only in the 20's and they're headed to near zero tonight. Tomorrow's high is in the 20's and the low is in the teens and then the rest of the week will be much warmer. 40's during the day and 30's at night sounds like Heaven and it will help with the utility bills. There's rain in the forecast every day so our snow will likely disappear fast. Good riddance ! I'm just glad we made it through February without a repeat of last year. The snow made it nearly to my window sills but last year it made it to the roof in some parts of the yard ! I remember feeling trapped because I couldn't see out any of the windows. I was fortunate to have Doug come in and clear the snow away from the windows on the driveway side of the house. That was an immense relief last year AND this year ! He knows I don't like to let the snow get too high, plus it makes it harder for him to plow. I'm SO lucky to have him !

I checked in on my bills before I started this blog and I made the decision to use $1000 of my credit card rewards to offset the cost of my new phone. Why let them continue to sit there ? I had intended to use them for an electric snow blower, but I never did commit to that. Maybe next winter ! I still have $400 in rewards and I'll continue to accrue more each month to offset that if I decide to move forward. I verified that all of my February bills are completed and that money was transferred to cover the bills due the first week of the month. All was good but I need to check later today to ensure my scheduled mortgage transfer completes. I saw it on the dashboard but it hasn't posted yet. It's an automatic transfer that's been in place since 2016 so it must transfer late in the day. Hopefully before midnight !

Well, it's nearly 2 pm and I'm going to get dressed and hop on the treadmill. I had some chili for lunch but I'm going to make a protein shake anyway. Once I'm done I have 3 hours of free lives on Disney Match waiting for me ! I'll check in on both Jackpot World accounts before I start that. I may also throw in a load of laundry to round out the day !