This and That

 Another dreary, damp day here in Central Wisconsin although this afternoon the sun did peak out for about two minutes before it once again retreated behind the thick cloud cover.

I have a couple of things to share and I have already put this on my Facebook Page but for those of you who are not on Facebook I am also putting it here. I read that there is a very simple way to add the degrees symbol when typing on your Android smart phone and that is simply holding down the zero, release and you will have the degrees symbol after the number. Try it, it does work and is kind of fun and it eliminates having to type out the word degrees every time you are saying what the temperature is.

Secondly, there has been a lot of discussion here and there about mail forwarding and how much trouble most people encounter. Here is what we do. About three days before we leave in November I go online to the USPS official site (not any other site) and sign up for the mail forwarding service. It is very simple and I give them the date in November that we are going to leave. At the same time, I put an ending date in and I make it about three weeks before we plan to get home. We are almost always home by the very end of March so I usually make it sometime around the end of the first week in the month. This costs a very minimal charge so they can check your ID and make sure it is you, and requires a credit card. At the same time, I go to the post office take one of those yellow cards that are always available on the counter and fill it out to have our mail held from the day the forwarding is stopped and I check the box that we will pick up the accumulated mail and then our normal mail service will resume. Years ago I was able to fill out a form I picked up at the post office, they discontinued that so then I found the form online, filled it out and took it into the post office. That too disappeared so now I do it on line and it has always worked flawlessly. They will hold your mail for 30 days. One year we got stuck in Amarillo for a week because of the weather so it was held longer than 30 days. I just gave them a call and told them the situation and it was not a problem. I read all kinds of complaints about the trouble people have but honestly, if you do it like this you will be surprised how simple it is and how well it works. I think the key is to put the ending date in when you start having it forwarded. Most people, I think, tend to return home about the same time each year. Years ago we went to auto-pay for our utility bills so we don't have to work about bills in the held mail. For everything else but the utility bills I can do it online at my convenience. 

One other tidbit, we had a credit card hacked two years ago and I do believe it was Barb Brooker who told me that she uses one card for online and a different one in person. I could be wrong about who told me that but it does seem like it was Barb. Ever since then I have done that. The one I use online is the same one I use over the phone for reservations and things like that. At least if your card is hacked you will know it was either someplace where you inserted it or if it's the other one, it was hacked online or over the phone. Of course, you still don't know where but it does narrow it down.

We will be heading back down to the Valley on Monday when we will finally be able to take physical possession of the mobile home that we purchased in Trails End. It will be our first opportunity to really look it over since we purchased it in mid-December. We are hoping for better weather going down than we had coming home. This time we will be in our little fuel efficient car that for its size holds a whole lot of cargo.

I understand the birthday party for Carmen that Darlene organized at Trails End was great and I'm sorry we were already on our way home but I know some of you were able to attend and enjoyed yourselves meeting up with other Magnolia friends and wishing Carmen a Happy Birthday.

Think Spring!!!