Friday Five - Happy To Pay The Weather Tax

 Friday Five - Happy To Pay The Weather Tax

1.  I had not been paying attention to the weather because, well, Southern California, and so this morning was the first I heard of Winter Storm Fern. My dad lives in one of the projected-to-be-deep-cold areas, and so I spent time this morning chatting with him about his preparations. He has been through this before, so I knew he'd have already prepared (which he had), but I still wanted him to know I was aware and concerned.

As a side note - I've been trying to talk him into returning to California in order to be closer to me as he continues to age into his 90's, and perhaps this will give some added weight to my 'push' in this area.

2.  I restarted HRT, after weaning off of it last Fall. Within weeks, the hot flashes returned, and after a couple of months, they began to affect my ability to sleep through the night, leaving me feeling increasingly exhausted. So, I threw in the towel and restarted HRT a few days ago. Nicely, already, the hot flashes are diminishing, and I am able to get through the night without waking in a sweat. I'm still waking up unreasonably earlier, however, even after hours of exercise, so looking for improvement to occur there as my body continues to adjust to the resumed hormone medication.

I'm also encouraged by the recent release of studies indicating that remaining on HRT, once begun, for pretty much the rest of a woman's life, turns out to have some benefits not previously noted. 

Link to FDA study here.

3.  So happy to have received a call from a girlfriend that is dealing with brain cancer to say she was done with treatment for the time being, thus feeling stronger and better, and would I like to get together for coffee? And also, would my spouse and I like to get together for dinner with her and her spouse? 

Yes and yes!!

I was not about to put something like this off, so she and I now have plans to meet up for coffee next week, followed by a couples get together the day after at our water-facing social club for conversation, music, sunset viewing, and dinner. What a gift to have another opportunity to enjoy her company, and the company of her spouse.

4.  Slightly annoyed that I didn't stock up on pumpkin puree when it was on sale everywhere this past Fall. I needed to hunt some down yesterday for this absolutely amazing Pioneer Woman recipe for pumpkin & sausage chili I'm making for an event next week, and it was nowhere to be found at Aldi's, so I had to resort to, horror of horrors, the regular supermarket. I found it, but at what I consider a stupid not-on-sale supermarket price of $2.99 a can (vs the $1.49 a can it was at Aldi's during the Fall season). So, lesson learned - I'll buy a few extra cans next season.

In the meantime, I really cannot exclaim enough about this rendition of Pumpkin & Sausage Chili. It's incredible, and even more so if topped with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of roasted pepitas and cilantro- 

5.  Looking forward to a social wine event we are attending tonight, and also looking forward to wearing a gray knit dress that I tried on last night after putting it in the back of my closet years ago when I felt it made me look thick. 

It doesn't make me look thick anymore after last year's Herculean weight loss efforts, and I'm excited to wear it after wearing it only once previously. I'm pairing it with gray suede boots and a chunky silver and pearl necklace and earrings.

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Today's Healthy Focus Plan - Walk six miles, blow patio clean, finish off pre-Panama Canal cruise plans in Fort Lauderdale (booking a Segway tour among other things - fun!), file for online UK Visas for upcoming summer trip to British Isles, pick up charcuterie board supplies from Trader Joes for an upcoming dinner event here, leave early for social wine event to help with setup. 

Tuesday Tidbits

 Tuesday Tidbits

Just some minor tidbits happening in my life currently.

1.  Reading and loving this book that I downloaded from the library for an upcoming Book Club meeting. I haven't laughed out loud this much while reading a book since I read my first P.G. Wodehouse book some decades ago. Well done, Mr. Graeme Simsion!

2.  Scanning an online menu for a Korean cafe I'm going to today with my spiritual community ladies group. I've eaten only Korean BBQ up until now, and so this is a new cuisine for me for the most part and I want to be ready with my selection before I arrive. 

3.  From the restaurant I'll head straight to ukulele group play, and I'm looking forward to it, even though I'm generally wiped out mentally when I leave. It's so much fun to play with the other group participants, but my guitar-trained brain still has to hyper-focus on playing the ukulele version of chords.

4.  If I'm not brain dead at the end of ukulele practice, I'm planning to head to a Toyota dealership to see if they have a Camry hybrid on the lot in this gorgeous color for possible purchase for hubby later this year -

5.  Since I know I'll be wiped when I get home, happy to have leftovers from last night's dinner, Chicken Parmesan, ready to go. Before dinner, hubby and I will make an effort to go out to catch the sunset, as they have been outstanding. Last night's was brilliantly pink, the night before a fiery red, the night before that a deep orange. So we'll see what tonight's brings.  

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What small things are you looking forward to doing or dealing with today? Inquiring minds!

Decision Paralysis

Decision Paralysis

This is not intended to come off as a humble-brag - I clearly recognize our  privilege. However, frustratingly, I am finding my anxieties more and more of an issue as I age, and they recently rendered me sleepless for two nights in a row as a result of struggling with which decision to make for our big 2027 international trip.

If it seems a bit crazy to be already working on 2027, I think its notable that we were not first out the gate on the trip we were trying to put together. We did not have our pick of rooms on the lengthy cruise we were interested in - already, even 18 months ahead of departure, the Cabin pickings were getting slim.

There were so many things I was wrestling with, mentally - Could we get a direct flight? Could we easily get from the airport to our hotel? Could we easily navigate trains for day trips from the hotel? Could we easily get from the hotel to the cruise ship on embarkation day?

None of these in and of themselves would I have considered remotely challenging 10, even 5 years ago. But the stress of aging is real, and what used to be fairly simple issues are now increasingly stress-inducing.

I don't like that this is occurring, but am trying to accept it as my new reality. So, increasingly, I find we are paying more to reduce stress. As an example, we select nonstop flights, we pay for easy airport to hotel transportation via a taxi, we select centrally located hotels, we prefer larger cruise cabin accommodations.

The tradeoffs we are making are we are traveling less than in years past, but more comfortably when we do. And I'm really fine with that, because I genuinely love where we are now living. We've gotten much more heavily involved in our community since moving to our new home two years ago, and I find that I miss my community groups and activities when we are away too frequently, or for to long.

What a change from when we first retired some 15 years ago, and went-went-went every single chance we had. I am so very thankful we were able to retire as young as we did (late 40's for me and mid 50's for my spouse), and would encourage anyone else wrestling with a similar situation to do same. The change in energy as we age is real, quite shockingly real.

I did finalize our 2027 big trip this morning, a relief, and I can now put any more thinking on it to bed until early next year.

So, after all that, here is where we are going - We are doing a 40 Day Cruise into the fjords of Norway, the coastline of Denmark, a few islands in N Scotland, a circumnavigation of Iceland, some stops in Greenland, and then stops along some of Canada's eastern Maritime provinces before reaching our disembarkation in Boston, where we'll have an easy flight home.

Lots and lots of research in my future, which I do very much enjoy.

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If you likewise have found that manageable stress levels or other are changing for you as you age, feel free to chime in here. I think we all benefit by sharing our aging journey.

January 2026 Plans

January 2026 Plans

I'm currently immersed in the Palm Springs International Festival, where we are viewing 15 films over 8 days, plus assorted Directors and Actors talks. It's been GREAT, but we are running like crazy here, as we work through each day's very detailed and coordinated schedule, attempting to work in lots of walking miles to and from the various movie showing venues, plus our meals, which are at times eaten standing up while waiting in line for our movie seats to open up. Fun stuff, but definitely not for the weak of heart. 😆

Post-movie stage talk by Director and the two leading Actors for India’s 2026 Oscar film submission, Homebound, which we absolutely loved.

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The gynormous Forever Marilyn statue

Hollywood Reporter-led panel, which included the Director of every Golden Globe nominee
 for best Non English, i.e. Foreign Film category

Once we return home this upcoming weekend, we have a number of other January events and plans to look forward to:

- We are hosting a fund-raising walk to the beach and back, followed by bagels, fruit, and mimosas back at our home. Our 12-person event bid out at almost $200, proceeds of which went to our spiritual community. 

- We have two winery dinner and tasting events to attend, always a good time. 

- We’ll be attending the symphony, followed by dinner, with friends.

- The jungle of HOA plants adjacent to our home will be removed, opening up our sight lines of the surrounding hills substantially.

- This large canvas print will be ordered and delivered from one of my favorite Etsy shops, the first step in my living room refresh.

- I’ll begin shopping for new sofas for the living room, the second and final step in this year’s selected home refresh project.

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If you likewise have a list of plans for January, please share - I would love to know what they are!

Favorite Purchases And Experiences In 2025

 Favorite Purchases And Experiences In 2025

I think I've shared here before that I maintain a very detailed spreadsheet of our spending. It serves two purposes - it forces mindfulness in that I have to revisit every single purchase as I log it onto the spreadsheet. If I experience a fleeting sense of annoyance during the process, that's a good sign that the expenditure I'm entering was not made from mindfulness.

And secondly, it allows me to revisit our year and revisit our choices on where we put our money. So far I've only come across one somewhat irritating entry, which I'll list at the bottom of this post. Nicely, the majority delivered a lot of satisfaction or pleasure, both in the moment and in the afterwards.

Some of my favorite 2025 purchases:

• My new hybrid SUV. Such great gas mileage at 41+ mpg so far, so reliable, and so much fun to drive along the coastal highway that I live adjacent to, ideally with the sun roof open and my arm extended.

• My new wardrobe of pants, the result of losing 25 pounds this year. Additionally, I've purchased a few pair that were $100+ each, because they look that good, and this is the first time in my life that clothes shopping has been wholly fun and easy. 😀

• Our front row seats to watch the American Ballet Theatre perform Swan Lake. Even all these months later (we saw it in June), the beauty, excitement and energy we experienced is still lodged in my brain. 

I likewise keep a very detailed calendar, and likewise enjoy going back over it at year's end to remind myself of how I chose to spend my time.

Some of my favorite 2025 experiences:

• Joining a women's club and getting involved with both the women and the various charities we support.
• Becoming more heavily involved at the library where I volunteer, and becoming appointed to it's Board. 
• Losing and keeping off 25 pounds. This has been life altering in that I have also laid down a lifetime of negative messaging that I had become immersed in. 
• Joining a social club with my husband. Even after just a couple of months we have made a number of connections and the club's water view restaurant is a lovely and comfortable place to enjoy and hang out at. No pressure, ever, to buy more drinks or food, or to pay our bill and move along. We can simply sit and enjoy for as long as we care to, including the lovely and prolonged sunsets.

And as I mentioned above, the one entry I reviewed and was annoyed by, meaning it will not be repeated, was a murder mystery dinner event at a nearby golf course. The event was pricey, at $200+ for the two of us, the event was more work than I'd anticipated (we had to solve the mystery vs simply watching it acted out) and the food was mediocre.

But really, that was about the only entry I came across that was a regret, so overall I am very pleased at how things played out in 2025.

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If you likewise have a list of favorite purchases or experiences in 2025, please do share - I would love to know what they were.

New Year Goals For 2026

 New Year Goals For 2026

I have been giving thought to how few goals I have for 2026, compared to previous years. The reason is that I worked diligently this year to make a few changes, and for once they actually stuck.

The goals I managed to achieve and continue throughout 2025 are:

• Drink more water
• Practice Spanish regularly
• Break my processed sugar addiction
• Lose 20 pounds (I actually lost 25)
• Read more
• Add more organized social groups and clubs to my/our lives

I am so very happy with the results of the above goal achievements, and that they have now become regular practices.

A book that I read this year, and found extremely helpful was 'Atomic Habits' by James Clear. I had more 'aha' moments as I read through the book than I have in a very long time. 

The most compelling idea that I read in Mr. Clear's book was: 

Success rarely occurs overnight, but through the power of incremental changes

I interpreted, and implemented this, to mean that consistency was much more important than perfection. I didn't need to be perfect, I just had to keep trying. And eventually, I did become consistent, which was the ultimate goal. Not perfection.

So with that in mind, my list for 2026 is fairly modest by comparison:

2026 Goals

• Practice daily meditation
• Strength train 5 of 7 days at home (push ups, planking, and squats) and 2 of 7 days at our gym
• Lose 3 pounds
• Run a 5k and a 10k

-The daily meditation is in an effort to slow my increasingly frenetic brain.

-The strength training is to help offset the effects of the natural physical decline of aging.

-The additional 3 pound weight loss is to reach the very lowest healthy BMI threshold for my age and height. I feel really good at 108, but I am interested in seeing what if any difference getting to the absolutely lowest 'healthy' BMI weight feels and looks like.

-The 5k and 10k are an effort to overcome (I.e., ignore) the painful bunion I have in one foot. Longer distances, of which I did oodles in my 30's and 40's, are probably no longer feasible per the afterward pain from my bunion, but the shorter distances should be doable and not create too much residual pain. (I did see a podiatrist already about the bunion, and he said to go ahead and run as long as I care to, as it will not negatively effect the bunion in any way. Though it may hurt! 😂)

Wishing the Happiest of 2026 New Years to you all!

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Today's Healthy Focus Plan -  Six mile walk to and along beach, do laundry, book hotel and activities for pre-Panama Canal cruise stay in Fort Lauderdale, send list of excursion choices for Alaska cruise to younger daughter, book post-Alaska cruise land tour, read, nap, depart for sunset viewing and small bites dinner at our social boat club.

Our 2026 Spending Plans

 Our 2026 Spending Plans

After 15 retirement years of living on a pretty conservative withdrawal rate of 2% for the first ten years, then 2.5% for the next five years, we are going full bore and pushing it, LOL, all the way to 2.75% beginning next year.

I wrote about this withdrawal rate increase a few weeks ago, but even then I still had reservations. However, after sitting with it for a bit, I'm now fully on board.

To be fair, this is precisely how I felt when we bumped from 2% to 2.5% in 2020. I was uncomfortable initially, however I did finally get on board.  

So here are our some of our more significant spending plans for 2026, which I am pretty happy and excited about. It's going to be a good year!

2026 Spending Plans

• Replace our home's 40 year old tile roof. We have had no issues since moving in, but we are aware the clock is ticking, so we'll get it done this coming spring. This is the last home project, after which we pretty much have a brand new house.

• Replace living room sofas. The ones in there currently are in excellent condition, however I have a budget line item for ongoing home refreshes, and this is the next-up refresh on the list. I'm looking for cleaner, more coastal lines than the current rolled arm and grommet-studded set.

• Remove two completely out of control Giant Birds of Paradise in the HOA area adjacent to our home, but which are under our control for decision making purposes. Once removed, our sight lines of the surrounding hills and ridgetops will open up nicely.

• Replace my husband's aging Toyota Prius hybrid with a Toyota Camry hybrid. The Prius, our first ever hybrid auto, has served it's purpose - we are now fully onboard with hybrid technology - but he/we are ready for a car with just a bit more interior room and comfort. Once purchased, we'll still be a nicely high mpg household, with my Rav4 averaging 41 mpg, and the new Camry estimated to average 51 mpg.

• Enjoy four cruises and two guided land tours -
• Early 2026 cruise through the Panama Canal, traveling east to west. In this direction we'll gain time as we move through each time zone, rather than losing it, a lesson we learned the hard way in 2015. We traveled west to east on our first Panama Canal cruise, and kept having to 'leap forward' as we traveled through the three time zones that stand between California and Florida.  
• Mid-summer cruise to Alaska with our younger daughter and her family, plus my father and aunt. This will be our third cruise to Alaska, but everyone else's first, which will allow us to act as their tour guides. Once finished with the cruise, my husband and I will hop a short flight over to Edmonton to embark on a 9 day guided land tour of some of Canada's majestic Alberta province interior, including Jasper, Banff, and Lake Louise.
• Late-summer cruise around the British Isles, which will include England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and N. Ireland. We'll end the cruise via London, where we will then pick up a guided land tour of the interior of the same countries.
• Early fall cruise up the Pacific Coast with my mother and sister-in-law. This will be our third time doing so, but the first time and first cruise for my mother and sister-in-law, so we will again act as tour guides while simultaneously enjoying their excitement.

And as an aside - our just completed weekend was wonderful and full - so full I'm literally too tired this morning to attempt to compile it into a standalone post. In a nutshell, we enjoyed a holiday boat parade, a holiday concert, a holiday play, several dine outs, and lots of lovely time with friends and family.

Looking forward to a good (but somewhat quieter!) day and week, and hope yours is same wherever you are.