Kuhn's before & after--and a little guilt, and a little rage

The picture on the top is my home away from home, Kuhn's Supermarket.  It's your average 1960's-sized supermarket, and has always suited me just fine.  I've been shopping there 35 years.

The bottom photo (I took this Saturday) shows the NEW Kuhn's they're nearing completion of, and it's MAMMOTH.  It's the size of 3 of the old Kuhn's lined up next to one another, and is slated to open this summer.  When I walked to the store on Saturday and saw Mike (the manager) I expressed my surprise and asked what they intend to put in there.  One of the cashiers said "We're going to have our own bakery, pizza shop and a big hot foods station, right Mike?"  He said yes, and a few more surprises.

I'm excited, but a little nervous too.  I know life is all about progress, but do we really need a superstore in my little neighborhood?  My belly may be rounder than average, but there's only so much it can hold.  I'd love to know what they're going to do with the original store.  More to come... stay tuned.

This may sound silly or dumb, but I did something the last two nights and I don't feel great about it.  When it comes to tv, I watch the Roku Channel & Peacock for free.  I watch HBO Max & Paramount Plus, which I pay for.

I pay an annual amount of  $139.00 a year for Paramount ad-free, and $159.00 a year for HBO Max ad-free.  They are both coming up for their yearly renewal in March.

So, two nights ago I'm looking around for something new to watch on HBO Max, and wasn't that impressed.  Curious, I went to my Accounts page, than my subscription page and saw a "Cancel Subscription" button.  Wonder what would happen if I clicked it?  So I did.

Right away I got a "Don't Go" pop-up, and an offer of  $40 off my next renewal on March 21.  I never had any intention of canceling, I was just playing around.  But sure, I'll take a $40 discount.

So last night, I'm sitting here watching Paramount Plus and thinking "I wonder if I could do that again?" and went to my Paramount subscription page, saw my annual payment was due March 3 and clicked 'Cancel Subscription'.  I got this.

I hit "Redeem Offer" and just like that, my annual price of $139.00 dropped to $69.00 on my billing page.  

(If you subscribe to HBO Max or Paramount, and pay an annual amount like I do... you might want to check this out, and save yourself a few bucks too.)

The thing is, I wasn't looking to save and wasn't planning to cancel either.  I like both services very much and feel I get my money's worth (especially as I don't have to sit thru any ads).  But it was my understanding Paramount Plus was underwater and here I am, squeezing them further?  They're just a big corporation, right?  I still feel guilty.

Finally, is anyone using TurboTax Online to do their taxes?  I'm ready to hurt somebody.  I get on there to do my taxes, I keep getting interrupted with "Do you want  Expert Help?  Say the word!"    

After completing the Income portion of my taxes (where they graciously offered to download my investment documents from Vanguard and I accepted)  I kept getting "Before we can proceed, you need to review."   I checked the various numbers I'd entered with the numbers on the forms they downloaded, they all matched up.  But every time I hit proceed, I got "Unable to continue, you need to review."

Finally an emoji of an Asian woman appeared, saying "Expert help is here!  Click on me to take over for $59.95!"  NO THANK YOU, ASIAN LADY.  I gave up and signed off, and went to bed.

As I lay there in the darkness, I wondered if it was something on their end, not mine.  I got back up, looked at the online document and what they downloaded.  That's when I noticed Turbotax chopped off the "CO" in the payer name.

VANGUARD FIDUCIARY TRUST CO  (the Payer Name on my investment form)

VANGUARD FIDUCIARY TRUST        (the Payer Name that Turbotax downloaded)

I added "CO" to the Payer Name they downloaded to my tax form, hit enter--and sure enough, the "review" box disappeared. So, they wanted me to pay them an additional $59.95 to locate THEIR typographical error??

If that Asian lady emoji had a neck, I'd strangle it--just kidding!  Okay, deep breath... relax... back to my taxes.

Recovery from the flu, love in the afternoon & I can't forget LC now

Friday morning I awoke with a damp undershirt and wet hair; took my temp, 98.6.  I guess I was cured?  Got out of bed, woozily stumbled into my kitchen and made a cup of coffee.  Went to the bathroom, brushed my teeth... I was out of breath.  Went back into the bedroom, began pulling my germy blankets off my bed.  Had to stop & catch my breath.  Sat down for a break, turned on my tablet and read a morning email from my sister Shawn asking how I was doing.  

I said I was recovered but pretty weak and had trouble catching my breath.  She said she was worried I may have developed pneumonia.  I didn't know how to respond to that.  As the morning moved into afternoon I got progressively pooped and canceled my plans for the day.  I read mostly and slept, and was in bed by 8pm.

This morning I awoke around 4:30am with a SOPPING WET undershirt, soaked bedsheets and a dripping head.  I guess yesterday's "break" was only a trial run.  I scrambled out of that wet bed and into the shower, put on some fresh clothes and stripped off my sheets.  Sprayed my mattress topper with Tide Sanitizing Spray (I love this stuff) then pounded that new topper for good measure, flipped it and turned it and remade the bed with my favorite crisp Indian cotton sheets.   

Feeling a lot better than the day before, I sprinted down the hall to the laundry room (it was empty and no one was on the calendar until noon).  Took all my germy bedclothes down there, got some hot suds going and came back to my apartment and made a cup of coffee.  Sat down on the couch and turned on my TV for the first time in a week when I heard a knock at my door.

When I opened it, there was Sally--a special needs woman who lives on the third floor.  She's in her late fifties and is a tiny thing, not even 5 feet tall.  She was holding a red envelope and smiling, and gave it to me.  It was this nice Valentines Day card above.  I read it and thanked her for the sweet card, and said "Sally I wish I could give you a hug, but I've been sick with the flu all week and just made a recovery this morning.  When you have a cold you're only contagious for 3 days, but when you get the flu you're contagious for a week."

She nodded okay while slowly tip-toeing backward.  I know Sally pretty well, she's a real germaphobe.  Good for her.  

After Sally left, I headed back to the laundry room to put my washed bedclothes in the dryer.  The right side of my face began to hurt and swell along the jawline.  Hello LC (long covid).  I felt like it's saying "Hey pal, I gave ya a break but you didn't think I was gone for good, did ya?"  Nope.  Came back to my apartment, got an ice pack for my lower face, worked on my shopping list for tomorrow.  I'm craving crusty rolls and polish sausage and hot mustard, potato chips and maybe some grapefruit soda.  This has been a long week.  I'm having microwave chocolate cake tonight.

Finally, turned on Peacock to search for something good to watch and found this movie that was just playing in theaters at Christmas, Song Sung Blue starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson.  

They play a real life couple from Milwaukee, Claire & Mike Sardina who fell in love and formed a Neil Diamond tribute band that lasted from 1989-2006.  How is it I've never heard of this before?  I just finished watching this and it's so special, so wonderful my heart's about ready to burst.  I love these two.

I hope this wasn't too boring a read, I really wanted to thank everyone for your kind comments to my flu-post earlier this week.  It really came out of nowhere, but I suppose things like the flu always does.

I hope everyone reading this is enjoying their Valentine's Day, thanks again.

It's the flu, at least that I know for certain

This is going to be a first for me. I'm going to post a blog while laying on my back.  I just wanted to say I may not be writing or reafing other blogs right now, apparently I've got thr flu.

The irony here kills me--my last post I wrote about being good from the neck down (because of probiotics).  And then on Sunday, I'd just finished a nice dinner of baked chicken, roasted broccoli & mashed potatoes and was settling in to watch the Superbowl (of course I'm a Steelers fan but my friend Margaret's Seahawks was playing) when I got an increasingly painful stabbing in my stomach.  Gall bladder attack.

It's been awhile but it's not something you forget.  It lasted from 8:20 to 10:30, by the time it ended I was so worn out I went to bed,  Fell asleep, woke up at 1am with a bad fever and every inch of my body in awful pain.

And this is the only place I've been since Sunday night, in this bed. It takes everything in me just to get up to use the bathroom or to get some juice & water.  The fever has been awful, keeps climbing up to 103.8 then dies down after a couple hours, then back up again... last night I could not get a wink of sleep, I asked AI what to do.  It suggested a very cold wet washcloth on the head and that did the trick.

I haven't had any coffee since Sunday mormng, and this is from someone who drinks 4-5 cups a day.  I just realized, is my brain having caffeine withdrawal?  It's been aching nonstop since Monday.

Also haven't had a thing to eat--well, 2 bites of the top half of a Thomas' English Muffin.  Just the thought of any food makes me queasy.

Anyway, this morning it occurred to me--what if this is covid?   I had a couple test kits in my medicine cabinet, took one, it came up negative (below).   But the box says "EXP DATE:  11/25".  That's only a couple months, right?  That shouldn't be a big deal right?

Okay I need to close this up and try to eat a bowl of cereal or something.  (It jsut has to be cold.  No hot foods.)  Thank you for reading, hope everyone out there is well and Margaret I sure was glad to hear who won that game. 😊