Buying a new Refrigerator

I might have mentioned that I have a refrigerator that's on the fritz.  Although the freezer is working perfectly, the main compartment is unable to keep things cool enough for safety.  Something is wrong, and I cannot fix it.  So, I am replacing the unit before I have to throw away everything in the freezer.  (Even then, I still expect that I might have to toss some stuff because it's been stored too long.)

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Instead of car shopping, the first task of the day was to drive to the store where we made the salesman's day.  After telling him what we wanted, we were escorted to the appliances department where we were shown a group of refrigerators.  I asked only one question: Of all of these brands, which is the most reliable?  He answered that the Frigidaire was the most reliable, and I made my choice: Today's version of the same refrigerator that is in my apartment.  It was likely the quickest sale he'd make all week - and the week had barely started.

After this, RQS and I drove to Walmart to pick up some cheap Styrofoam coolers in which I could store freezer food while the new refrigerator is being installed.  If I'm lucky, it'll be cold enough for these containers to be left on my fire escape landing while the old refrigerator is taken out and the new one is put in its place.  By the time we were done, it was time to go to the train station to drop her off.

Once back home, it was time to rest before changing into Marian mode and going to a meetup in Mamaroneck.  Since this town was part of my old stomping grounds from where I worked for 25 years, I knew how to get to the restaurant quickly.  And yet, I was still late.  YGD had texted me to find out whether I was coming or not, even though I had left a message in the meetup's comment area that I might be late.  But I got there shortly after the text had been sent.

Once done with my meal, it was time to go home.  Luckily, I was on the road by 7:30 pm, as by 9:00 pm, I was out for the night.  Sleep was my companion for the evening, and with a brief awakening around 11:30 pm to get up to go to the bathroom and then to bed, I was out until the next morning.....

Dinner at Chazz's Place

 

Today was a day I did a lot of nothing until it was time to get ready for the evening.  If I didn't commit myself to attending the meetup, I would have preferred to stay home and not be on the roads.  However, I was committed, and I got showered, dressed, and made up to look my casual best before going to dinner in White Plains.

This meetup was to try out Chazz Palminteri's White Plains restaurant. You might have heard of Chazz.  He's the performer who is known for his play: A Bronx Tale.  Although I didn't want to see the movie based on his play, I'm of a different mind now than I was when the story was first adapted for film.  If Chazz does his one man how near me, I'll go and see it.  But I digress....

As I left my home at 5:30, I found a lot of people doing stupid things on the road.  And there were a couple of "Scheisskopfen" who, because of their own stupidity, could have caused me to get into an accident.  Luckily, I was alert enough NOT to get into trouble, as I reached the restaurant safely and on time.  And then I found our group.

Unlike other meetup groups I have attended, this group tends to have small gatherings of 6-8 people.  This allows for the host (and all attending) to be able to chat with anyone else sitting at the table.  I like this.  And I was able to sit next to YGD from the Yonkers gaming meetup.  Although I was at one end of the table, I was able to chat with everyone in my line of sight.  (I was glad that the meetup host made this possible by keeping the group small.)  

It took a while for a waiter to come and take our orders.  If I have any complaint about this place, it will be about the service - I had to ask for my water glass to be refilled, and the wait staff left us a little too bit alone.  (I'd have liked to get refills on my Iced Tea without having to flag down a waiter, as if I were hailing a NYC cab.  But I digress again....)  Fortunately, the quality of the food made up for the service, and I would go back here again, now that I know about it.

On the way out, YGD mentioned that she had parked at an on-street spot where the meter was broken.  (Someone had jammed the wrong coin into the slot, preventing it from being used by another car.)  TGD, in her ignorance parked there (thinking that spaces with broken meters are free, as they are where she lives), and found a ticket under her windshield wiper.  OUCH!  Before leaving her and her car, I took pictures of the broken meter and sent them to her so that she can fight the ticket.  Do I think she'll be successful?  No.  But she'll have tool with which she can fight city hall.

As for me, I drove home for the evening and took care of things around the house....

 

 

 

Sunday with RO

 

I like this peacock so much, that I figured I'd post his image one more time.  It's nice to be among the half of a species who gets to use color to attract the opposite sex.  (In my case, I'm not trying to attract anyone while presenting as female, but I enjoy looking as pretty as possible.)

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RO and I had made plans to get together today, and I wasn't going to break them to go on an early morning hike with my friend (YGD) from the Yonkers Game Night Meetup.  Luckily, it rained, so this made it easier for me to postpone getting together to hike, leaving me more time for things such as doing laundry.

I took care of some correspondence this morning, and then got busy taking care of errands around the place. When I first got around to doing laundry, the machines were already in use by one of my neighbors.  This made it critical that I get home from dinner early enough to do laundry.  But it also made it critical that I squeeze in a trip to Wegmans to pick up lunches for the week.  So I could have a time crunch if my dinner with RO lasted too long.

Arriving in Mt. Vernon 30 minutes later than planned, I found that RO had found a way to burn time waiting for me.  She found a place across from where she parked to get a manicure, and 30 minutes later, she sat down at the table - about a minute before I arrived.  The Bayou is a good place for Cajun food, and it didn't disappoint us.  We had more than enough food to eat, and both of us took home leftovers.

On the way home, I made a quick stop at Wegmans, then called someone who responded to my ad on OK Cupid.  We had a nice chat, and agreed to chat again later in the week.  (I took the long way home, so that we'd have more uninterrupted chat time.) And 60 minutes later, I was home unloading my bags and doing laundry between messages with friends.  

This was a day where the less I say means more in the long term....

Hump Day - For some, a good night for sex.

Mae West once said that it's not the men in her life, but it's the life in her men.  It's hard to believe that she was almost 100 years ahead of her time.  But her words still resonate today - even after they have been censored to fit the morals of her era.

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I had only one thing on my docket for the day, and that was an interview with an image scanning firm.  Everything went well, and I was made an offer.  Yes, the pay is lower than what I was earning at the census. But with my skill set being relatively worthless in this market, I'll take this job for a while to see if I like it.  It's not that I need the money.  Instead, it's that I need to keep myself active enough to enjoy getting up in the morning.

When I got home from the interview, I found an email from the employment bureau waiting for me. Since the email was addressed to Marian, I had to mention that I am pre-op transgender, and that my legal ID and photo doesn't match the image I presented on the interview, I had to ask if this was a problem - and it wasn't.  So I guess that my feminine presentation is better than I would have once thought.  Let's see what happens assuming that I'm on the job for a while.

On other matters, I have been in phone contact with two women from north of me.  One was from Kingston, and the other from Pawling.  I basically gave up on the one in Kingston, and Pawling may have dropped by the wayside.  What's really strange is that the Pawling phone number has been disconnected.  This is just as well, as both women carried more than their share of baggage.

And lastly, I had another fun online game night with YGD and some of her friends.  The Jackbox games are mostly party games, but they are fun when you have a larger group to play with.

 

 
 

Another Monday, another walk in the park.

 

If it weren't for the fact that I want to build up a better friendship with YGD, I'd have passed on going to a local park for a hike today.  My sleep patterns are totally screwed up, and I've found that I've been catching a few hours of sleep at random times through the day.  Since I haven't put on my CPAP machine, this sleep is not as good as I'd like it to be.  

With the above being said, I decided to stay awake and see YGD near where she lives - in Greenwich, CT.  I was pleasantly surprised at how many places are available in her neck of the woods for easy hiking, as this was the second place in Greenwich we've hiked.  I was even more surprised to find out that she does most of her hiking in the Hudson Valley.  Given enough hikes over the years, I'd bet that she'd have bumped into my ex girlfriend on one of those hikes.  But, without me trying to connect the two, there is no reason that this should be a problem for me.

As we started out on today's hike, I almost twisted my ankle and needed medical attention.  This is the one thing I didn't need to happen, as I'm still fighting with my insurance company to get my coverage straightened out. However, I was able to recover my footing in a way that didn't cause me to hurt myself. But it did made me hyper aware  of how I was walking for the totality of the hike.

If this were a normal day out in the woods, we might have gone somewhere for a bite to eat.  However, with the pandemic spiking lately, eating indoors is not highly recommended.  So we agreed to get together next week (weather permitting), and will look for a nice place to walk before then. 

Mid January Odds and Ends

 

 

Sometimes, I don't have much to say about any one topic, but I'm trying to keep my readers up to date on things with a post.  This is one of those posts....

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I've been having problems with my health insurance.  My membership number changed, and the paperwork to fix my problem has been taking longer than expected to be processed.  Today, I reached out to the company once more, and someone placed my issue on a high priority queue.  Hopefully, I'll have the bulk of the matter resolved by Monday, and the only thing left to do will be to connect the membership to a new email account AND to get things set up properly for my mail order medications.

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My brother and I are closing out accounts my dad had before he died.  They don't amount to much money, but they will provide us with much needed money for luxuries.  In my case, this money will help pay for a vacation or two.  In my brother's case, it will pay for a delayed trip to see my niece and her (to be) husband in London.  We had a minor problem with one of these accounts, as it got locked when my dad died. But we expect to have the money in our "grubby" little hands soon.

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I finally have my auto registration in hand.  There is only one more thing I need to do with it: replace the old sticker on my windshield with a new one.  Of course, I'll drive down to see my brother to see if he has the scraping tool needed to get the old sticker off the windshield - it's a perfect excuse to see him before driving over to see FH.

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My friend from my Thursday night gaming group has taken the plunge and is setting up her own online game night starting Wednesday evenings.  I think I'll have another something to look forward to while locked down inside, waiting out the pandemic.

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Next week, I'll be getting together with another of my friends who knows me only as Marian. It'll be nice to see her once again. But with the pandemic raging, this might be the last time I meet anyone other than FH, YGD, Vicki #1 , my brother and his wife for a while.  Of the people in my circle, I'm one of the few that is under 65 AND doesn't have a reason to be an early recipient of the coronavirus vaccine.

 

Going outdoors in the cold - BRRRR!!!!

 

It was a little over 2 years ago when I took the above picture.  And, boy was it cold!  Although today's outdoor activity involved a walk in a local park, I was still a bit hesitant to go outdoors in this weather.  However, I used a cisgender woman's trick - wearing a pair of tights under my trousers to keep warm in this weather.

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However, 1 pm came, and I had to make it to Rockefeller State Park in time to meet my friend, YGD, from my Thursday night gaming group.  I don't know if any of my readers have had the chance to walk through this park.  But it is a nice place to visit on a quiet weekday, as it is easy to maintain social distancing and have a nice walk.  Plus, during the winter, they don't charge parking fees on weekdays.

We started our walk at the main parking lot, and made it up to Stone Barns Center before turning back to our cars. I was surprised that I needed to stop along the way, but I think it's because I'm not used to going up and down hills.  The slightly extra effort to keep moving showed me how out of shape I am.  Yet, I kept moving after catching my breath.  (No, I wasn't gasping for air.  Instead, I just didn't want to elevate the stress level I was putting my body through.  I was comfortable, and didn't want to feel like I was making a strenuous effort to maintain a specific pace.)  A little bit under an hour after we started, we got back to our starting point and chatted for a while before going our separate ways.  Hopefully, we will be able to do this again next week.

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After I left the park, it was off to the supermarket.  $60 later, I was on my way home, hoping to find enough room in the ice box for all the stuff I bought.  Once I was done with everything, I realized that I had to go out again - there were books waiting for me at the local library for me to pick up.  For once, the important activities of my day took place before 8 pm for a change....