Five Star Day

 Has since been downgraded, but we'll get to that.

Started off waking up without neck pain, for the first time in over a week.  Neck pain due to stress, might I add.  Called the IRS office to get a copy of my W2, which I can't actually get.  They can only send me a transcript of my wage earnings.  I told the agent I spoke to, "As long as I can use it to file, I don't care."  I'll be glad to finally be done with place, other than keeping in touch with some of the coworkers I liked best.  Because I called before 9 a.m. their time, I was done with the whole process is less than 90 minutes.  

After my happy dance, I gathered my things, hit up a drive thru for my weekly breakfast out.  The lemonade went out just as they were filling my cup, so I replaced it with Dr. Pepper.  Got a good chuckle when the guy at the window called it "BBQ water."  Ate it on the way to the mechanic to get my headlight fixed.  (Which reminds me, I need to look for the receipt for the pair I bought and decided it was too much work to put in myself.)  I could tell pretty much right away that they had a new guy working, along with a couple of fairly newer, less experienced guys in the bays today.  One of them read the wrong work order on the stand, and started giving me an oil change.  Which meant he had to finish giving me an oil change, even though I literally just had one two weeks ago.

Next stop was the storage unit to change my payment information, and address, since I had apparently skipped over that part in the chaos that was last fall.  A little disappointed that the lady behind the desk didn't put a mask on, but I'm not terribly worried about it.  We stayed far enough apart, she didn't breathe in my general direction, and there was limited touch points.

I had accomplished three things, one of them being a call to a government agency, all before noon.  So I went to the Arboretum with my book.  It was beautiful weather, even a little bit chilly just sitting on a stone in the shade.  There was a woodchuck who startled me and we stared each other down for a little bit.  It was a beautiful time, and I had the impression to let a new family in our ward know about it.  I'm the teacher for their youngest, even though we aren't having class.  The mom homeschools the kids until high school, and the Arboretum has a lot of educational plaques and not even many locals seem to know about it.  Plus, it's free.  I found a cool nut that works as a worry stone.

Came home, had a decent lunch, bit my lip and joked with my roommate that it's been the worst part of my day.  And I've been due for a good day.  Went to my room, listened to a couple of episodes of Firefly, played a few games, took a nap.  Had an invite to a webinar focused on women in curling, set to finish just as my regular Zoomstacking starts up.

Woke up and shortly thereafter saw a text from my sister, asking if I had talked to Mom recently.  It'd been a couple of weeks, but my sister said that Mom was recently diagnosed with Stage 1 Kidney Failure.  Which shouldn't throttle me, but she's also diabetic and has less than reliable doctors.  Probably doesn't help that she doesn't take very good care of herself. 

I called her and left a message on her machine that I'd be up for another hour (which has come and gone) or she can call me on Thursday.  I have plans tomorrow after work.  One of my Sunbeams invited me over (with the help of his mom) for popsicles on their porch.  Hopefully it's not raining and I can walk over. 

Have been doing pretty well with the Firefly binging.  Would like to get two in tomorrow, perhaps, and get a head of schedule so I can maybe do some Passporting on Saturday.  Which I should have been working on planning out today.