bill_schubert | Recent Entries

I don't think I look like it but as of this morning I'm at 185 pounds, down from 230. That's a lot of stones. I've got ten more or so to go. A couple of weeks ago I was stuck at 190 and then the floor just dropped. I'm not consciously eating less and there is certainly a bit of junk food, mostly chocolate and cinnamon rolls, mixed in with the not quite enough protein. So, far from perfect. But still effective.

Two weeks ago I signed on with a company, Lifelong Mobility, a British guy with a small staff and a good, senior directed program. It does make a difference and will continue to do so if I keep it up. I've paid a bunch for a year and, like pickleball, need to get my moneys worth. And it is fun to do it with an English accent.

We voted today in the Democratic primaries. Pretty much an exercise in futility. We'll do better this November but I doubt will make any real headway. Still, it is an easy thing to do and the price is right.

Today is chilly but one only has to look at the forecast where my son lives, in Taunton, MA, to feel better. One to Two feet... FEET.. of snow. Fuck me. I've already turned the ceiling fans back on it was so warm yesterday. It's going to be 82 next Wednesday afternoon. The plants are sprouting. Spring is nearly sprung.

First day of MLS soccer season is today. So far we're undefeated. I can enjoy that until about 7:30 tonight. We're ranked solidly in the middle of the pack in our division with a pile of naysayers. And that is our supporters. I've paid for the year on Apple TV and will mostly enjoy it regardless.

I just did a bad thing. Looked forward in my calendar and saw Zoe's birthday. The Ides of March she would have been 16. It is something I compartmentalize and have now deleted from the future. But it is a bit of a punch in the gut:

I never did receive two of my 1099s but one of them I know the amount and the other is only $35 or so and I can just fake it.

Ended up I paid the last of the quarterly payments a month or so late and an extra $8 and we're all even. No penalty, no interest, everyone is happy. My tax rate is 5.79%. All adjusted for being old and such. ChatGPT says the IRS treated us 'gently' this year.

Another reason to not make any changes. I'm not sure I can improve on our tax rate or property tax rate or anything else. Being a senior does have some benefits.

Played PB today and my wrist was OK. Which is good since I'm scheduled to play again tomorrow. Mixed doubles group. After which I elected to do taxes. I really need to take a shower and get ice on the wrist and do nothing else for the rest of the day.

Headed there now.

And in the time it took me to write this entry, the IRS has accepted our return. How things have changed.

Just another afternoon.

I worked at the shelter today. We took this guy in. Gentle six month old kind of wiry haired something or other. Once again I'm so happy that we don't have room for half a dozen more dogs. I've drawn the line and intend to hold it. But look at him!

PXL_20260217_164258389

Dana has a friend (recently acquired) helping her clean up "the room" where my grandaughters will be staying in April. This is a pretty huge thing. The room is so bad that I considered for a while about whether or not we could even host the two girls. There was not even a way to enter the room. Now there is, at least, a path. There's lots of time before the girls are coming (20 Apr) but I put a 1 April hard time on the room being ready. We still have to get a bed and get it in there. So I've been stressing about it a bit and Dana has been stressing a lot. Anyway, she's found someone to help and that someone is in there now making some headway.

Meanwhile Dana called and asked me to get some cash so we could offer her some money. I was at the shelter and thought about it and I realized I had no way to get cash. In an absolute emergency I could walk into the credit union we use with my ID and work through not having a card with me and get cash. But short of that I had no way. I've got a few hundred bucks tucked away in a shoe and that stash is $60 less now. I'll fix that but it was an interesting exercise. Dana still thinks in cash.

Apparently Walmart is not far behind. After I got off the phone with Dana I stopped by Walmart to get a couple of things and tried to check out using my phone. Walmart does not do that. No GPay, no Applepay. I said thank you, but no thank you and left. I did have a card with me but it was in the car parked, of course, far away in the lot. And I was feeling annoyed so I decided to leave the stuff behind.

On my way back home I was hungry and did something I never do. I went to a fast food place. Even before I started semaglutide I talked my way out of getting fast food most of the time. I want the taste but am invariably disappointed so I just talk myself out of it and come home to make what I really want. Works every time. But I was feeling wild so I went to Shake Shak. Of course I've heard of it and thought it had to have something going for it. Turns out it has nothing going for it at all. Crinkle cut extruded French fries you can get in the freezer in Walmart (if you have an actual card or cash) and a quarter inch thick burger on a bun with mayo, tomato and lettuce. Redefining mediocre. And a small Dr Pepper. They did not screw that up.

For $16.23!!! There must be a tarrif on crappy hamburgers and fries.

The absolutely best thing about is I'll never have to go back. I can't wait.

To be a dog. Beaux knows how to do it

I was first exposed to it in high school English.
Ozymandias

By Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

I was reading today about how the manner in which the current president constructs his edicts lends them to being 'disappeared' in a rapid fashion even before he is dethroned. Executive orders do not hang around the same as legislation tempered in the Capital. Some of what he is doing will remain but like Ozimandias it will dwindle over time until it will be hard to remember what was such a big deal.

The current movement by our allies to gird their own loins and harden their own alliances is sad to see in some ways, that they do not trust us (nor should they) will I hope swing back when sanity returns. It is my suspicion that I will not live to see the majority of the return of the U.S. being any kind of hopeful beacon to the world. But I don't see another country filling the roll so we will be around later if not sooner.

And I won't be around to see the dessication and decay of Ozimandias but will, I hope, soon enough dance on the toppled visage.

Last week's lunch at an independent living facility continues to have ripples. I was getting something out of my sock drawer and realized that I no longer wear socks for 10 months of the year. I'm in shorts but for the couple of months it is cool and I don't wear socks but for pickleball when I'm in shorts. So why all the socks?

I dumped a bunch a few years ago but apparently not enough. So I made a pile:

I'll be adding some other stuff from the back of the closet and then off to Goodwill. I've only been in a Goodwill once in the past 40 or so years but now have a need. I've dropped off more than I can even remember when we relocated in 2018 and I cleaned out my life the first time. I've got some drop offs other than my socks. Several pairs of pants are clown size and I have to wear suspenders to keep them up. Just the long stuff. My shorts adapt.

But I do need long pants so I'll be looking.

Having pants that fit the smaller me keeps me in the mindset that I don't need to get bigger again. I've still got another 15 pounds to lose so I don't want to buy new stuff that will soon be too big. So Goodwill.

See what I can find.

I will miss some of those socks.

Dana and I went to a luncheon at a local 'Independant Living' place on Thursday and it turned out to be more of a foundation rattling experience than I anticipated.

We are not ready to make a change like that yet. Not even close. We could afford to do it. Everything paid for. Everything right there. But the downsizing would be crippling for us. I think if it were me alone I could deal with it a bit better and if I weren't around Dana would just have to. But the entity that is 'US' is not ready to be reduced so much. Not nearly.

This is a place that has no continum of care but has support and third party help. But it is otherwise like living in an apartment anywhere. But without a kitchen and the laundry is down the hall. So maybe more like a hotel room with a nice dining restaurant on site.

The people were really nice and I do think there is a lot of support staff. They have managers living in the building so there is 24 hour support if needed.

Part of my problem is comparing it to Timber Ridge which is Toyota to Rolls Royce unfair. We have a Timber Ridge type place here too and will likely get dressed up and look but I don't think we can afford it.

There is one in the middle that I think is most likely. It is continuing care and, I think, nicer.

But we're not ready. Unless and until we get to the point that we can't manage the living we have now I think we'll stay. As I've recently come to realize we're only a single event from that at any given time but if something happens that triggers our long term care insurance then everything has changed anyway. Anything short of that we'll deal with it.

I'm thinking we might look at maid service which would help a lot. Schedule it when I can take the dogs out. Maybe.

The luncheon did make me look at our situation with a more critical eye. It was a little depression inducing so I've been working through it but am, for the moment, happy to be on the other side and committed to being here for another five years or so. At least.

Meanwhile, my plan to build up our savings and investment is working. I'm putting Dana's social security into investments each month and we're nearly back where we were last year before all the medical costs hit us. That investment situation should only get better. And our house is retaining something over $100k in value were we to sell. So we're safer than many even with inflation chipping away at the monthly income.

Not ready to change just yet.

On Thursday I went to the optomitrist and got the explanation for why the world has gotten a bit more blurry. I've been uncomfortable with how I can't see signs when I'm driving even with my glasses. My last eye exam was a year and a half ago but I've never had much happening that required me to have annuals. But in the last year and a half I've developed cataracts. My right eye is especially blurry and that's been the good one all my life.

So I made an appointment for a consult. The eye guy that my optomitrist trusts is so busy the consult isn't until the end of March. But no real hurry here. She told me to not buy glasses as I'll be getting the lasik.

I've been wearing glasses or contacts for most of my life. While I've been able to go without them I wear them when driving or going to the movies or that kind of thing.

The biggest difference with be sunglasses. I wear them whenever I go outside. Always. I've always been concerned about sun damage and really hate bright light so I've had prescription sunglasses at hand for as long as I can remember. I had a very expensive pair of Oakleys that I wore for probably 8 years. I've not worn regular sunglasses, non prescription, since I was a kid. Shopping in a non prescription store will be interesting. Since pickleball is inside now days that won't be an issue but walking outside and driving will be very different.

That isn't the only reason I'm feeling old. I can really tell a difference in my loss of muscle mass. It has been noticible to me since my last hip surgery. Prior to that I couldn't do much of anything and was walking with a cane. My recovery was fine but it ended up with me not doing any real muscle building work for five or six months and at my age that is real muscle loss from which it is very difficult to recover.

Last Tuesday I worked for an hour at the dog shelter scrubbing and swabbing down the cages. Hard work. Then I shoveled for a bit in our drive making a path that my car could use in our drive. I was so sore from that it was hard to move. Then I played pickleball yesterday on not enough sleep getting up at a quarter to six to meet up with someone to do some ball machine training. Then we played a couple of hours after that. I slept over 10 and a half hours of deep sleep last night and only now feel like I've gotten over Tueaday.

I really need to do more muscle work. Pushups. Upper body work. And some more knee strengthening.

Helped bring this dog down to be on the air.

It is still slick anywhere that the sun hasn't hit. Our house faces north so we get very little sun on our drive. I had an appointment to volunteer at the dog shelter and so took out the car. I nudged it forward until it started to slide down the hill then just tapped the eccellerator and rolled out to where it was dry and I could get control. It was 'fairly' safe and definitely fun. The tires didn't even leave a dent in the ice on the drive. Nor did they leave a dent when I tried to back up the drive. I almost made it when the car started to spin and drift right where it would have either slid off or hit the side of the garage. At that point I put it in neutral and rolled back down. I tried three more times and never quite made it. I was within a foot of hitting concrete and traction but that was not enough. So here is our current condition:

I'm going to stay down there until the drive gets maybe a little slushy and then try it again. I don't want to leave the car down there. So I'll figure it out. Later.

Meanwhile I went to the dog shelter to meet with someone and start a new volunteer job, intaking new dogs. They need someone to help calm and manage new dogs that are just starting out. I thought it might be up my alley and have been trying to connect up with the woman in charge but she didn't show this morning (icey road delay) so I helped at the kennel. Dog walk and then put in a separate crate so the one where they spent the night can be washed out and bedding replaced. It is the first thing every morning and it is really hard. So I put in an hour. One dog was really jumpy and pulled me at the wrong time and I went down. Thank you Pickleball, I was fine. Nothing hurt. No one was watching. The dog laughed but was a good sport about it.

Another dog bit me when I tried to put a coller on him. He didn't have much for teeth so it was not much of a bite. Work with dogs, get bit. It's the norm. I'm used to it. He was just scared and didn't mean anything by it.

So, an eventful morning. I'm taking our two dogs out for the first walk they've had in three days. Hopefully it will go better.

I'm looking out front on our camera and the street looks to be solid ice. A few years ago I'd have gone out to take pictures but I'm not sure enough of my own abilities to stay up on that kind of surface. There are no cars at all. The whole area is silent and motionless but for the trees blowing a bit in the wind.
The temp on my phone says 17 degrees with a wind chill of 5 degrees.
The dogs have not been out yet but will have to do so soon. Fortunately the sun hits our back yard more than the front so they will have access.

Yesterday Beaux was out in the sub freezing afternoon and doing his thing in the back yard when he suddenly started towards one of the bushes in the back of our back yard up by the fence. He went right into it and was doing his dachshund thing when suddenly a rat ran out the back towards and then through the fence. A moment later a second one did the same. Beaux snuffled around a bit more and then worked his way back down the snow covered slope having done his job.

Toby had been nosing around up there a bit and now we know why. Both got a post vermin clearing treat.

Watching the game.

I'm thinking they are going to cancel PB for tomorrow. It is closed today which is no surprise. But the temp is not going above freezing until Tuesday so what is ice now will be ice tomorrow and the roads here in the development are very icy. The sun will melt just enough for a good freeze tonight. I think we're locked in until Tuesday and even then I'm thinking the morning doesn't look good.

Monday morning is projected to be around 13 degrees, cold as I've seen it here. The wind chill at that time is negative 1. It only gets better from there but there is enough freezing that there will be patchy ice through at least Wednesday. And really the rest of the week has below freezing in the schedule so driving is going to be dicey until next weekend.

And, of course, we've got things scheduled every day this coming week. Med visits daily. Pickleball three days. Volunteer work. It will be minute by minute decision of go or no go.

But it starts with PB tomorrow and that is not looking good.

Beaux in winter

Gmail was filtering spam before it was cool. They change their filter now and again and like changing a pool filter it takes a while for the clarity to happen but overall they do it right. Recently I've been getting a lot of spam in my Gmail account. It is obvious Google changed something. It is easy enough to see what is spam and they have a simple mechanism to report it and block the address. Of course, blocking specific addresses when there are infinate addresses that can be created by bots is pointless but still I do it.

As of today Gmail made another change. Now I've got this headder on top of nearly every email. No idea what is happening. This is a new system for Gmail.

Be careful with this message.

Gmail hasn't scanned this message for spam, unverified senders, or harmful software.

It appears that they are not going to scan at all but that makes little sense. Maybe it will change again tomorrow. Any place that has a Q/A about this going back for a decade says that the user must have had some other service with a problem, that it is not Gmail, basically saying that Gmail does not change. Which it clearly does. So not much help.

On the one hand I would have loved to have AI when I ran my IT business. Would have saved us hours and hours of searching for answers and many bucks paying for support services. On the other hand I see lots of problems with people using AI tools to penetrate everything.

Meanwhile, I'm now below 190 pounds for the first time. I started at 230 many moons ago and have been stuck at 190 since returning from Seattle. But now am in the 180s. I made a video of myself playing pickleball a couple of days ago. It was to see if I could improve my play. I saw the two major factors. I'm very stiff when I need to be fluid and I'm still very overweight, something I don't see much myself but is obvious on video. So getting below 190 is encouraging. I celebrated with a cinnamon roll.

We are going out with friends for dinner tonight if it doesn't get too icy. This is the second Saturday night we've gone out. That is two more consecutive Saturday nights out than in 20 years. Between that and pickleball I'm socially saturated.

Just read an article about Coco Gauff who says she banned her father from court side since he can not control his reactions to the match. Reminds me of when my mother was playing for Winston-Salem doubles tennis championship. My father had to switch from his Zippo lighter to matches to reduce the noise from his chain smoking in the stands.

Beaux just takes a good picture.

There was a time when Dana's son and I were pretty close. He worked with me putting together the company we ran and in trade I gave him space and money to restart his life. We joked about the failings of the various religions and the questionable morality of the people who harassed and excluded minorities. He was (and is) probably smarter than me and in many ways more studious. He reads history to the extent that he could have majored in it.

He has done well with building his life and is successful by nearly every standard but has drifted philosophically, religiously, and politically to the far right. He is now a full fledged right wing religious Trumpist. I wouldn't know that but for a few comments when we were together. As with most people I don't engage and he's smart enough to not poke the bear. He did comment on how renewable energy was not a valid system and did not work and, by implication, should not be funded. His reasoning had some good logical points but much like Swift's "Modest Proposal" it was the sum that was was impractical and self defeating and socially faulty. Of course he saw no problem with it and I did not engage. His mother is on FB. She commented favorably on a post that had some pretty accurate parallels between what Hitler did for Germany and what Trump is doing to the U.S. His wail of unfair and untrue spoke more to the validity of the comparison than to any successfully fact based defense of the current president. She had stomped on what is obviously a nerve. Methinks he does protest too much.

He and I will connect once or twice more as Dana gets older but have no reason to be close again. The way of the world.

I've got one more day, I think, to say I'm clear of any traveling virus. My mind keeps jumping to 'I'm getting sick' whenever I feel anything different in my throat. But so far all those anomalies are just that.

After a week of doing as close to nothing as one can get while still being vertical I played pickleball yesterday. It went OK but I'm amazed at how much I was feeling the pain during play and even more when I got home and continuing today. The answer is to never stop playing again. My body will slide downhill faster than a skiier on Everest. I'm playing again today and again tomorrow morning. Hopefully I'll work it out. I've got a PB friend whose wife gave him a ball machine for Christmas so he's ready to do some drills with the machine. Doing so does much better with two or three people who are on the same page. Always nice to have one of the players shagging balls and refilling the hopper. I'm hoping to get on a schedule with him. More is better.

It was raining in Seattle when I left and is a little drippy here this morning.

The Seattle airport, SeaTac, was weirdly a bit of a mess. The security set up was not nearly as efficient or as well equipped as the one in Austin. To get on the plane we had to go outside on the tarmac where the jets were taking off and landing (far away from them but still on the same ground with jet fuel and noise and fumes) then up a set of ramps to get into the plane. I can only assume they are doing lots of work somewhere and this is the temporary result of that work. But the difference between the Austin airport and the Seattle airport was striking. We'll see how temporary that is in five months when I do it again.

The flight was uneventful. I was wearing my hoodie and put on the Bose sound killing head phones, flipped up the hood, put on four or five episodes of Pluribus, and disappeared from the world for a few hours. I've got a routine. Crawl into my cave and return when the metal tube has deposited me near where I'm going.

All is well here, nothing went amiss while I was gone. Beaux is very happy to have me back and I was thrilled to see him. Similar experience with Dana and Toby but in Beau's case lots of enthusiasm and body wagging.

My weight is unchanged after a week of different eating and everything else and no exercise. So that is encouraging. It will be nice to get back in the groove with measured food and pickleball. Time to get serious about losing that last ten or fifteen pounds. I've already reached my initial goal only to find it is not actually the one I want. But I'm happy with the progress and ready for more.

A week off from exercise is too long. I can feel it. And the immediate snap back to form that I enjoyed when I was younger isn't going to happen now. I'll need to put in a lot more effort and focus to get back to where I was a week ago. It slips away so quickly.

I do miss being able to go down to the Timber Ridge library at 6AM and read the physical WSJ paper with one of the residents. He never even looked up when I arrived but acknowledged me on his way out. Companionable silence, coffee, and someone to have the paper ready.

But I trade it off for quiet house and morning coffee and feeding Beaux.

I've got lunch today with my networking group but that's it. Such a nice schedule. A couple of other things to do with scheduling later in the week and accounts of one kind or another but nothing pressing.

I do kind of like my schedule.

So I wait for a couple of days to be sure I didn't pick up any virus during the travels. Finger's crossed. I didn't notice anyone who looked sick and did spend some quality time washing my hands in the airport.

Time to walk the dogs.

I had an account with HEB through Netspend for a debit card. A few months ago their security was breached and someone in Mexico spent a bunch of my money. It took me three months and a trip through the Consumber Finance Protection Bureau and some higher up person in the Nestspend chain to get it resolved. They gave me back my money (but no interest.. .at least the IRS gives you interest when they hang on to your money) and I cancelled the cards. Today I called to close the account. I'm rolling up the dregs of any finance I don't actively use.

The poor guy that answered the phone verifiec (for the second time on that same call) who I was and said that, yes, my cards had been cancelled but he could not close the account. I needed to talk to the 'loyalty department' for that. Sounds a bit like 1984 but I've got Google hold and a good gin game so OK. After a bit he came back on and said it would be a few minutes longer and I said 'no'.

He said, if you want to close your account you need to talk to the loyalty department. After a few rounds of me not being nice and telling him that my life would, in fact, one day end and the number of minutes between now and then are mine and they may not have any more of them. Close my account now. I can't do that, you have to talk to the loyalty department.

No, I don't. And I can just imagine the depts of useless conversation between me and the Netspend loyalty department. It would not have been pretty.

Back on the web site I actually found a place "Close account". It opened to a longish bit of writing I did not read and gave the phone number again. BUT, BUT, there was a continue at the bottom. I clicked on it and it had all my information for them to verify and another button that said "Close my account". Bingo!!

I cancelled my USAA visa card earlier in the week.

My USAA bank account is zero'd out. I'll close it one day soon, I guess. It may actually serve a purpose and cost zero so I may not.

And I just got an email survey request from HEB Debit card asking my opinion. So all is well after all.

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bill_schubert

February 2026

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1: Forty Five pounds
2: Much fail today
3: Couch potatoes.
4: I have a lot of favorite poems. This one always gives me hope
5: It's a good day
6: The whole family
7: It is so cold here at the orphanage
8: Gmail, weight and dinner tonight
9: Photogenic
10: Lost relationship

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Forty Five pounds

All done

Couch potatoes.

Much fail today

It's a good day

I have a lot of favorite poems. This one always gives me hope

Downsizing

Still processing

Officially old now

Morning's activity

Fell once, bit once and can't get back in the drive

Solid ice - report from the cold front

The whole family

Pickleball in peril

It is so cold here at the orphanage

Gmail, weight and dinner tonight

Be careful with this message.

Photogenic

Lost relationship

Brought a little bit of rain back with me

Please wait for just a few more minutes for our loyalty department