chipping away

[k2daisy]

Still here. Still chipping away at projects and daily tasks.

I had to fire our cleaning ladies a couple of months ago (they were too unreliable and inconsistent in timing and keys) and decided to save money by doing it myself. Well, it turns out it's been over 20 years since I cleaned my own house, and I suck at it. The only saving grace is that this house is tiny so it doesn't take long. I should add sweeping/vacuuming to my daily tasks because that is the part that gets the grossest the fastest. Two dogs and two middle-aged people shed a lot of goddamn hair. Sometimes I think it's even worse than when we had the cats.

It's been a lot easier to get my parents off the junk mail lists than I thought. I do have to call each company, but most of them are the ones they were already getting (Costco, Viking Cruises, etc). I just call any number I find on the flyer or catalog, get to an operator, and say, "I need to remove my deceased mother from your mailing list. How do I do that?" And poof, they get it done.

For Costco, however, I have to go to one of their store/warehouses and do it with customer service. What a PITA.

Got a couple of calls today for Tapestry360, the primary care clinics where I have volunteered on their board for a whole lot of years. Joint Commission is doing their triannual accreditation visit, and one of the key elements is a governance session where they quiz the board to make sure we know what is going on and what our role is. It's annoying.

But it has helped me crystallize my decision that I will resign from the Board at the end of my term in June next year. It will be 9 years, and that feels like enough. My heart isn't in it anymore.

Npt really liking this quick change to cool. Bring a little more summer back please.

Comments

[denynothing1]

Between a session for JCAHO and house cleaning, I'm not sure what's worse. (It's the house cleaning.) Ugh and sympathies.

I'm toying with the idea of accepting the standing invitation to serve as a community member on one of the regulatory committees I used to administer. I'd like to contribute, but not end up doing part of the same work I was doing previously (scientific review of protocols and being the go to for federal regulations) for free. Time is precious, as I think we have both discovered!

[k2daisy]

I have genuinely enjoyed my time volunteering on this board, even the two-plus years I was the Chair! That was a lot of commitment but the work they do is worth it. Think about it, you might really enjoy it especially since you don't have to do the same work as before.

[lisforlilydale]

Good on you about the Board, recognizing what was right for you. I did something similar, leaving when it felt like enough. I miss some of the people on the Board and others we worked with, but it was a good decision.

[k2daisy]

Yeah, I had to resign as the Chair back in Feb/March because it was too overwhelming, but now just being a member feels like too much. I really like the members and the leadership team but I know they will go on just fine without me.

[minnaway]

Oh, do I need to do some junk mail pruning. I think I get more junk mail under my mom's name than I do under my own! There was pause when I moved this past summer because the junk mail wasn't being forwarded, but now all of her usuals have associated her name with my new address and they're back in business lol.

[k2daisy]

Yes I had the same thing happen once the post office finally started forwarding their mail to my address. When you do that, they enter it into a national database, where it remains for I think 3-5 years. Companies use that to update their mailing lists; so if your mom was already getting junk mail from somewhere, they use the UDPS COA database to update their mailing list with the new address. I talked to someone there, and there isn't a way to get them removed before the 3-5 year timeline. So now I call each one as I get the junk mail. People hop to it pretty quick when I say the word "deceased".

[minnaway]

This is helpful to know, thanks!