Phantom Neighbors

Eight months ago, new neighbors moved in across the street from me. The day they moved in, they rang my bell with a bottle of wine and introduced themselves. They are a young Asian couple in their early thirties. They seem very nice and went to all of the other neighbors with the same introduction. The woman said they have a two year old son. I saw her mother at the house sweeping the front walkway. From that moment on, they have been an enigma. They leave for work every day, seven days a week, at 7:15am and return at 8pm. They rotate their cars. They leave with one van and return with another. Three vans are in the rotation. Two have Connecticut license plates and one has New York plates. A fourth van never leaves the garage. I have never seen a child. I have never seen visitors. The outside of house is kept neat and clean. Every morning I wave as they leave for work as that is when I also leave. Yesterday I saw them take a walk, but they only walked three houses away and then returned home. Maybe this summer they will be outside long enough for me to talk to them. They are an unsolved puzzle.

Too Many Cooks

Lately there have been "too many cooks" in my office and as we all know, too many cooks spoil the broth. After years of complaining, we are finally getting a new phone system. Verizon has a great option that only costs the price of the phones. I called them up and negotiated the system and other services and they sent a work order quote. When I came into work yesterday, I saw another quote in my email. I found out who did it and they said that one of the administrators asked them to. I called that person and asked why in the world would you have a new receptionist call Verizon to discuss a phone system. She said that she thought it would be a good exercise for her. I informed her that since a new quote with all incorrect information was given, the old quote I spent an hour working on was negated. She had no idea this would happen. I then had to call Verizon again and spend another hour redoing the work order. Now I know what the slang term "stay in your own lane" means.

Downloads

Last night I tried to download a file. First I tried it on my phone and it did not work. Then I tried it on my computer and it did not work there either. I added programs, joined the cloud and did everything possible to get the information downloaded. It never worked and now I have to get what I want the old fashioned way. I will take my sister's flash drive and put it into my computer. Hopefully then I can get what I needed. 

Iris

Yesterday I got an upsetting letter from Iris. That is the pet name I gave to the IRS. She told me that I owed her money and that my failure to pay would cost me penalties and interest. I was quite upset as Iris is the kind of friend that you never owe money to and never disrespect. The first time I tried to call her she was too busy to speak to me. The second time she took my call. After a brief discussion, Iris realized that she made a mistake. She received my payment and even cashed it at the bank. She said that she had such a busy month in April that she forgot to enter my payment in her notebook and she was so sorry. As we spoke, she posted my check and all is well.

Saving for a Rainy Day

Some people save for a rainy day. Some people spend accordingly. Others just do what they feel even if there will be no money left. If you mix a bit of each spending style, you will have a well rounded life. If you only save for a rainy day, you might not be around long enough to see the rain. In that case, you spent your life lacking things you wanted. If you spend accordingly, you never live outside the box and take a chance. Everything is safe but nothing is exciting. If you spend wildly, you will not have enough money for emergencies and that could be dangerous. I think people should spend some, save some and every once in a while splurge. 

Minimalist

I am a minimalist. The older I get the less I need. I was never a person to need a lot of things and if I had one of everything I needed I was just fine. I see a co worker get deliveries from UPS at my office on an almost daily basis. She mostly gets shoes and handbags. When there is a sale, she buys. She has them delivered to the office so her husband does not see and then she smuggles them into her house. She must have hundreds of shoes and bags. Honestly, to me she looks plain. I have never noticed anything outstanding about her. I use the same one or two handbags, probably because I am too lazy to change their contents. I wear shoes that fit comfortably and lately have one pair of "go to" shoes. I like to invest myself in people not objects.

Traveling Bee

After my mother died, I had daily signs from her. If you are a believer, you understand what I mean. If you are not, there is no way to convince you. You will think the signs are random acts. Yesterday morning as I got into the car to pick up my father, I asked my mother to give me a sign that she is still "with me". Usually a special song plays when I ask that. For the first month after she was gone, the song played daily, then I only heard it sporadically. On the drive to Brooklyn, the song never played. On the drive home, I was waiting for it but it did not play. I was at exit 17 on the Belt Parkway when  my "sign" appeared. A tiny bee flew onto my windshield. It placed itself right in my line of vision. It was not an ugly, big, round bee that would make us scared of being bitten. It was a thin, miniature bee. It was beautiful. It stayed on my windshield, looking into the car and drove with me for about five miles. Then it flew away. Was it a random incident or was the bee (Bea) there to show me that I am still being cared for? I got what I asked for.