8 Ok 13 K’ayab

The situation with personal finances is troublesome. Dividends from the investment accounts and the meager retirement stipend exceed all expenses. Currently, “all expenses” is defined as rent for the “old folks home” in Waikiki and food. Other expenses are somewhat minuscule in comparison. So, obviously, the aggregate amount of “savings” is increasing much more than anticipated.

There are no “big ticket” purchases in the queue. All of the electronic “toys” are fairly new, and none will be replaced in the 2025 year. In all honesty, most of the clothes and other sundries will remain viable for several years, if not the remainder of this lifetime. Replacement costs are minimal. So, what to do?

Currently, the only increase in spending has been on food. Since no cooking is done in the mausoleum, food purchases only include ready-to-eat fare. That alone is costly. Nonetheless, personal restraint must be lifted. Discounts will still be a priority, but better quality and healthier food options must be pursued.

Salads (with 20% expiry discount) have been purchased from the ABC Store for dinner from Saturday to Tuesday this week. The salads are actually quite delicious. Sometimes, salads are procured at the Waikiki Market, which are also pretty good and reasonably priced. Unfortunately, salads are not very filling. Within an hour, there is a desire for more food. Thus, other prepared food products must be purchased, which add to daily expenses. Obviously, the latter is a trivial concern at this point in time.

Sleep quality continues to be poor. So, late afternoon outings to the International Marketplace has been limited to about 6pm. The primary purpose is the daily shopping at Target® for fruit and Chobani® Greek yogurt (for dessert). There’s not much to do after returning to the mausoleum. However, staying out later only increases the fatigue.

Of course, poor quality of sleep and fatigue go “hand-in-hand.” Yet, the root cause may be old age. The body is signaling that it can no longer keep up with the same regimen, particularly the gym workouts. The latter is a melancholic and sobering realization.

There have been no additions to the vast hurdy-gurdy video library (HGVL), only occasional subtractions. The HGVL is essentially deprecated. Incidentally, the LaCie® SSD has increased in price to $149 (up $40 from last year). Inflation? Yeah, that’s ridiculous.

After a long hiatus, the on-line personal health directive on the MyDirectives® site is receiving some attention. The process is tedious, mainly because the substance deals with the final exodus. Being an old codger is a real burden. Oh, the agony!

Miscellany: After serious deliberation, the most valuable technology “toy” in possession has been identified. Yes, the Panasonic® nose hair trimmer is the clear winner!

Nihilistic Updates 2025

There has been little personal desire to add new posts to Notes, obviously because of … well, same ol’ shit. The routine remains the same. For how long, though? Can this insanity continue until 80 years of age? Who knows? Who cares?

All tax returns (including the 2022 amended) for Hawai’i have been completed and submitted by regular mail. The tax form for empire was printed locally, completed, and submitted as well. Thus, another stress factor has been eliminated.

The weather remains quite mild, considering this is the middle of the Winter season. So far, the Mainstays® quartz heater has not been deployed. Heck, even the blanket has not been unpacked from the storage suitcase. The pleasant weather has been a welcome relief, what with the fragile mental state and all.

Superfluous on-line accounts (including DeepSeek) are being mummified once again. The on-line “footprint” needs to be reduced further. The only copy of the personal Curriculum Vitae has been permanently deleted from cloud storage. Employment history is gone. Why? Preparations, no doubt, for the final exodus.

On Tuesday, the sump pump gave out at the gym in town. The staff had to close the gym at 1pm because of the sewage flooding in the locker rooms. The main portion of the gym resides on the basement level, so wastewater must be pumped up to the street level to discharge into the municipal sewage lines. The second half of the workout regimen had to be completed at the Kapi’olani location. What a “pain in the ass”!

Another Night at the “Old Folks Home” in Waikiki

The scene above was captured on Wednesday evening at 9:30pm. Lots of police vehicles are visible. Old folks acting up again? Yeah, just another night at the “old folks home” in Waikiki. At least the Night Mode on the iPhone 16 Pro camera proved to be quite good, eh?

On a side note, sleep is still an issue. What could be the problem? Death anxiety, you think? At least there are a few good House Music mixes to broadcast throughout the mausoleum with the Beats® Pill to soothe the troubled mind. Baha! Ha! Ha! Haaa!

Miscellany: Notes has been passively monitoring the “shock and awe” domestic policies being deployed by the “Orange Bad Man” administration. The speed at which events are transpiring is mind boggling. Clearly, “Orange Bad Man” did not spend the last four years only teeing off at his golf course. He evidently assembled a crack team that put those policies in queue to commence on Day One.

Fulcrum

Baha! Ha! Ha! Haaa!

The “Orange Bad Man” administration has been tearing through the “woke” government bureaucracy and running roughshod over the entirety of empire. On domestic issues, the administration is forging ahead in the right direction. Unfortunately, foreign policy, specifically the Levant, is going to be its undoing. No surprise, eh?

Very little of interest has been transpiring here in “Paradise.” The weather has remained mild after a brief inclement period about a week ago. A heavy rainstorm on one of those days rendered the Under Armour® rain gear useless. Water soaked right through. Hanging it up to dry only caused the rain gear to acquire a pungent moldy odor. So, it was washed in the laundry. The residual waterproofing is surely gone now.

The tax forms for Hawai’i were completed and mailed. The amended tax return for the 2022 year is still a “work in progress” because of one missing form. Hawai’i tax forms can be ordered by e-mail, by the way, so there’s no going through all the phone bullshit anymore. The tax forms for empire have yet to arrive. A PDF file has been downloaded, and may be printed locally to expedite the process.

Personal recycling of paper, cardboard, and plastic has been officially mummified. Recycling bins at the “old folks home” in Waikiki are no longer serviced, so all of the recyclables end up in the regular trash anyway. Well, so much for the environment.

The DuckDuckGo Web browser was uninstalled from the iPhone 16 Pro as a “final nail in the coffin” of the vast hurdy-gurdy video library (HGVL) stored on the LaCie® SSD. The browser was used to download files since the Safari downloader is malfunctioning. In addition, another 80+ selections have been purged from the HGVL (322 remaining).

On a sad note, the faithful Nike® gym bag finally gave out. It had to be over 20 years in personal possession. The new Adidas® gym bag, which was acquired many moons ago, has entered into service. The “footprint” is about the same, but it is about four inches taller. To say that the new gym bag is cumbersome is an understatement. There was much grief while disposing of the old gym bag. So sad.

Miscellany: The iPad Pro M4 is now in full deployment using the Visible personal hotspot on the iPhone for connectivity.