Dusty's Frugal Fortnights

dustydigger

redofromstart wrote: »

Oh my those nosebleeds sound hideous. Hope they clear up soon for you.

With the kindle its worth keeping an eye on Patricia Wentworth, they had a run of putting the re-released ones on as free for a couple of days and I got most of them that way. I prefer the Miss Silver ones but the rest are usually an ok read.

Hi ,redofromthestart. Yep,I hope the nosebleeds are over.Heyyou have to have a varity of illnesses,dont you?:rotfl:
Thanks for your Patricia Wentworth info.the earliest book available to me in the series was Miss Silver Intervenes,book six!But I have just checked and the library has just got an ebook anthology edition of the first three in the series, Grey Mask,The Case is Closed,and Lonesome Road.I always prefer to read a series in order,so I can happily fill the gap,only books 4 and 5 would need to be bought.:T
Mind you,with over 110 books already pencilled in for the rest of this year,it may be next year before I get to them:D
In general I usually plan my basic 12x12 challenge in January,(which is 12 books each for 12 categories) but can often read 16 books a month,so that leaves room for spontaneous reads from the library shelves,or rereads of old favourites,
Delighted to say that on my Librarything virtual bookshelf I now have 3998 books listed.Just tried to add the Lindsey Davis novella I just read to the list,but it doesnt seem to be listed on the site,perhaps because it is only a short story.
Oh well,I had better get cracking to reach that 4000 book new level soon.:j

beanielou

Hope there is good news today.

dustydigger

beanielou wrote: »

Hope there is good news today.

Unfortunately not,beanie lou. I was sure that with a new magistrate who knew nothing about the case there would be problems and sure enough they put the case off again,so Mr Dusty's trip was a complete waste of time and money. Cant even be bothered to talk about it,too upsetting and depressing.:(
Actually I shouldnt be so down.He is seeing daughters and their families - and getting a bit sun,so its not all bad:)
My granddaughter the Imp is improving and will go back to school tomorrow so in theory I should be free as a bird. However I have another trip to the dentist tomorrow.Too annoyed to talk about it tonight.
Thursday I am expecting a parcel and also our medication delivery,which is so unpredictable it can vary from 12 till 5pm.I hate waiting for deliveries,the time seems to drag enormously!Plus SW class.
So it will be Friday before I can have my only day out of the whole of my so-called ''holiday'' And thats just to take library books back:rotfl:
In between entertaining the Imp I did my first bit of housework in 3 weeks:D Amazing how much dust can accumulate in that time. Washed all the window ledges downstairs,dusted tables,cleaned the mirrors washed the hearth and then cleaned the glass TV stand. Wasnt too much fun trying to bend down to do the bottom shelf,I ended up sitting on a stool to do it. Anyway nice and sparkly - for a short while. Its amazing how much dust is attracted to that stand by the electricity or whatever.
Its nice too,very calming,that there is no clutter anywhere in the living room,every surface clear. Well of course,no Mr Dusty with his papers and drinks and clutter everywhere. I had better enjoy it while I can.
I think I had better turn the heating back on in his ''den'' and the spare bedroom,have had them turned off for 3 frugal weeks. My February bill was £20 less than January! The ''den'' looks wonderfully neat.I sorted all his stuff,but didnt dare to declutter it. I faithfully promised not to throw anything away this time.Mr Dusty has never forgiven me for throwing out his huge pile of Readers Digests from the 80s someone gave him,and he never read anyway. It took months before he even noticed they were gone,but he has grumbled about it ever since. Almost the last words he said before leaving was not to remove even a single sheet of paper:D:D
He's a packrat,what can you do?
The only decluttering I have done today is actually just to go through various drawers,bags ,boxes etc around the house and have collected all paperwork - bank statements,bill,insurance utility papers,genealogy stuff,instruction manuals,guarantees,photos etc.They are now all together in a small suitcase,and 2 big carriers,waiting for me to find the health energy and patience to go through all of them.I want to put all important stuff together,with a list of instructions on what to do if anything happened to me - including a list of phone numbers,bank details websites,with passwords IDs etc.Now I've reached 70,and have been poorly, I think this is on my mind,so its a sensible thing to do. At the moment stuff seems to be scattered round the house and no-one would be able to find anything.and Mr Dusty would be clueless. My dear late sister was so organized and had such an arrangement,and it made things simple and straightforward.But I cant concentrate on it at the moment,maybe before the end of the month?
Finished another book today makes 7/14 read,34 books for 2018.And am at 3999 read,another day or so and I will have reached the 4 thousands:T
Apart from this few things I have wandered around worried or distracted,comfort eating (hate to think of my Thurday SW weigh-in:eek::eek:By my wonky scales I've put on 2-3 lbs and I am just going to draw a line under it,and try to start again once Mr Dusty is back home,and things hopefully get back to normal!

dustydigger

Sad to see that Stephen Hawking died.Amazing man,so determined not to let his ALS overwhelm him.He was and will be an inspiration to many people in all walks of life.
RIP Stephen:(
Havent watched the news much while Mr Dusty(who watches news channels like other people watch soaps etc) has been away but its been a weird few weeks.After numerous US school massacres,after 17 people were shot dead at Parklands,the young people rose up in anger in a way not seen before.The Donald has alternately amused and bemused the world as ever,including a spectacular week of sackings in his best ''You're fired''Apprentice style. And the Russians have been methodically removing old enemies in the UK like something out of a John Le Carre story!I have been keeping a list of interesting news items to inform Mr Dusty on his return,including Wigan humiliating Man City in the Cup.:rotfl:
Yep,its been a little more offbeat than usual

beanielou

There was a lovely message yesterday from Dunblane(22 years ago yesterday) to the people affected by Parklands.
Never forget.

dustydigger

beanielou wrote: »

There was a lovely message yesterday from Dunblane(22 years ago yesterday) to the people affected by Parklands.
Never forget.

22 years ago! In some ways it seems like yesterday,the utter shock we all felt. How sad that that sort of thing has become almost commonplace in the USA,and until this latest outrage seemed to in some way normal and expected. Weird country. The thought of popping into Asda and buying milk,eggs and,oh,musnt forget I want a new gun too,and Mr Dusty needs some extra ammo.........Wonder if I should get an semi-automatic rifle,or a sub machine gun......... Its bizarre to everyone except the people of America.:eek::eek:.... Crazy

beanielou

Crazy isent the word for it

dustydigger

Got a little housework done today,first in weeks. Amazing how much dust accumulates in 3 weeks,especially on the glass TV stand from the static electricity:D Washed all the window ledges downstairs,cleaned mirrors,washed the hearth,cleaned outside of fridge,cleaned the ceramic hob and the microwave,mopped the floor,emptied the rubbish.Was a little wobbly at times,and took some little rests,but felt pretty good compared with last week.Legs not so wet noodle like:T
On Monday I went for my new dental plate and was very annoyed. (Couldnt even be bothered to discuss it that evening here in the diary!)All the staff has changed,and the bloke dealing with me was hopeless.I have one artificial front tooth,next to it is my own other front tooth then the 3 false ones together. My last denture was excellent,but this one was ridiculous. As I said before the denture had been getting loose,the natural tooth was moving a little to the side. To my horror the plate he gave me,gave me one tooth less,left a gap between the real and artificial front tooth. I asked him(rather sarcastically I'm afraid) werent friends etc going to be surprised at seeing me with a gap between my teeth all of a sudden? Made him redo it,and today he produced something that looked normal,but admitted it did seem a little loose,but that,oh well,a bit of fixative would probably sort that.I am not amused but I needed a new one because I dropped the old one coming down the stairs with a pile of clothes ,and stood on it!:D I need it for public appearances like SW tomorrow, shopping,going for Mr Dusty on Tuesday and just for life in general of course.
I brought the darned thing home it looks very good actually but its loose. The bloke apologised and admitted he had been too quick doing the original impression trying to get me a new one quickly.Honestly,I doubt if he will last long there!And I hate fixative,my old one originally fit so well I never needed to use glue,so I need to get out and buy some.
Can anything else go wrong with this so eagerly awaited ''holiday''?:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

dustydigger

Quite a varied day today. Luckily the parcel was delivered around 10 am,and I passed the time till then in cleaning all the 7 windows.,the glass in front and back doors,the glass-fronted bookcase,and a couple of mirrors. I hadnt done the upstairs windows since before Xmas.:D
The window cleaner came yesterday for the outside windows,which galvanised me into copying him. Of course,once he has cleaned them it is an absolute law of nature that it should rain very soon,negating his work.And boy did it come to pass.I went out before the rains started and got home just in time.The chemists didnt deliver the meds till after 4 pm,and the was soaked to the bone,so I sawno chance of getting out then to go into town.
I had done a quick shop,spending £16, in Her*ns on mostly my veg and SW foods.The bags were really heavy,but they fortunately acted as anchors as the Siberian east winds were gusting very hard,I could have been blown off my feet without them!
At SW weigh in I was actually a little relieved when I put on 1 lb,taking me back yet again to 3st 12 lbs. I am never going to get to that 4 st!!:(But after the last few totally off plan eating weeks I wouldnt have been surprised at a much higher gain,so its a relief. See if I can lose 1 lb this coming week?
Also collected a reservation from the library,and was unable to renew the Quintin Jardine Bob Skinner novel,State Secrets, for another full 3 weeks,because someone else wants it ,but they did extend it for a week,so I will have to put other books aside till I finish it. No problem,I am 50 pages in and its very intriguing as usual. I think its book #28 or thereabouts in the series,but Jardine is still ringing the changes in the plots,so the series is still going strong. Lots of Rankin Rebus fans around,but personally I prefer Jardine's charismatic cop.:)Now completed 8 books,still a long way to go.
I have been experimenting with doing surveys,starting with the Prolific academic ones. I enjoy how varied they areand its fun just trying to guage just what the researcher is really after,often they try to pretend they are after one thing,but are really testing something else.That makes it fun,and they are usually quite short,rarely more than 4 mins for your 60p,which is fine.Total with a sum pending is £7.99 so far,could be a nice little sum by Xmas:DOf course sometimes there can be a 3-4 day gap between surveys,but its a nice little side activity.
OnePoll is another survey site with very short surveys,most of which are 20p,and it seems there are a lot of disgruntled people on MSE who have been waiting forever to reach the £30 payout level. I only check occasionally,so that could be 2 years for me :rotfl:
InstaGC is annoying as far as I am concerned.I never qualify for a survey,they just ask a million questions(thus collecting free data) then disqualify you after all.Not going to even try. And my Macafee antivirus etc plus IP security just wants to block me from most of the offer sites on there. And obviously a 70 yr old woman with no kids under 18 who doesnt drive,go to the pictures or goes in for a lot of tech is NOT in the favourable demographics. All I am doing is playing videos while I am elsewhere on the net,and it took me a week to get £1 from that to go on my Amaz*n book fund. OK ,that could be a fair sum by Xmas,but I cant be bothered. I have other fish to fry!
Worst of all was MySurveys,which have plenty of surveys,but they are interminable and boring. They say it will take 20 minutes,but with my slow internet connection,and using a laptop it takes a lot longer than that. I think they must be counting length by time on a smartphone or tablet :rotfl:No,surveys must be just a sideline. Health,dieting,exercise,homecare,decluttering and frugal penny pinching etc etc have higher priorities.
And anyway,once Mr Dusty comes back,its back to taking care of him,and time management will be something I will have to ponder on. so surveys will go by the board to a great extent I suspect.But they have helped to distract me from pain etc these last couple of weeks!

beanielou

I love Bob Skinner novels.
Quintin Jardine's next one comes out next month.