Wants, Needs, To-Do's, Etc.

Well, here's another busy Saturday. Had the alarm set for 7, but was awake long before that. Loud thunder, loud rain (meaning there will be a lake between the front step and the car, so I'll need my trusty rain boots), cat coughing up a hairball, Carl going in and out waiting for his cab, and finally some unknown person calling at about 6am but not leaving a message. Add into the mix the normal stuff like needing to go to the bathroom, etc and there was no point waiting for 7 to come around.

So much to do today! Have to get down to the bank and close out Wally's account. Or should I say, our account -- I set it up for him, but he was under 18 so my name went on it about 2 years ago. He's been overdrawn more times than I can count. I've replaced the "divots" a couple of times, most recently this last week. I have to appear in person to close out the account and I warned him over the phone that I might be calling him "early" to get information from him if the bank requires it. Ironic: At age 18 I had a joint account with my dad because I was a minor when it was set up. He and my mom went in and took most of the money I'd saved up because they weren't able to make their mortgage payment. They just went in and took it; never gave it back, and my mom, when she got drunk and abusive, would sometimes say "You'll never get it back because you don't deserve it." Then Doug stole money from me during our marriage, and now my son is costing me money because of a joint account. I'll say one thing, Carl doesn't steal money from me. I don't have a joint account with him, because he's always let me handle the financial reins. It's too much for him to deal with. When he got his bank account, I was insistent that he NOT set it up jointly with me. I am a staunch believer in separate bank accounts for married couples. Call me a cynic, but you just can't trust anyone any more.

Have to recycle and do a spot of shopping. Play rehearsal at 4, followed by a church reception at 6 -- it's pledgy-pledgy time and I'm going to have to tell someone that my pledge for the upcoming year will be a bit over half what it was this time around. But last year Wally was living at home with no car or insurance or rent expenses. No ridiculous cell-phone excesses either. I want a pledge I can fulfill without having to drain my IRA again.

Have to also do the minutes from last Saturday (if I want an excuse, I can always say that I never got the ATTENDANCE SHEET back -- hello??? Charlotte? Irene???!), but that's a very flimsy excuse. I will get it done today.

Need to send back the bra I ordered. Do I want a larger size or something different altogether? Or maybe just the money back?

We need a refrigerator! The old, dinky one that came with this house leaks like crazy. It's awful. We can't use the vegetable bin at all; it just fills up with water.

We have to do something about our yard -- it's full of ruts where water accumulates. I almost killed myself walking across it the other day to give Paul a pint of strawberries. I wonder if it would make sense to install a deck of sorts -- like a raised walkway, even just lay down a couple of pallets -- to cover that spot where the water pools so we wouldn't have to get soaked going from the door to the car, at least until we can afford a more long-term solution such as grading the land so the water won't run this way every time.

Have to get the taxes going -- just get the forms filled in, but I want to wait to file until I've had a chance to confer with Wally when I see him about his FAFS.

I'm relieved that he'll be attending college not far from where his uncle and grandmother are. I think, though, that his college is about equidistant from here to where he is now ... just in a totally different direction.

A few days ago I was mulling over some of Carl's characteristics and came to the conclusion that some of his astrological configurations are different from what I'd been assuming all this time. Specifically, I think his rising sign is Taurus, rather than Cancer. When I put everything together that I know about him, this makes more sense. It works better in terms of the compatibility between the two of us, as well.