Day 5 - California Reopening Plan - Phase 2.5 LA County
Saturday
9:30 – 11:30 - I wake up, depressed…about my life, the state of the country, the riots, the pandemic, the dog, etc. I take the dog out. She pooped in front of the front door and had diarrhea in several areas on my back patio. It takes some time to clean it all up. I know domestic violence is on the rise but what about animal abuse? She is constantly with me - I can’t eat alone, unless I go upstairs, at which point, I can hear her whining and sometimes howling. True solitude is achieved in the garage and I’ve been known to take calls in there and eat on the hood of my car, just to have some peace…but it’s hot in the garage.
L. bought some bread from 85 Degrees so I break down and have a carb: almond butter and regular butter toast, with my coffee. I read Good Things. The toast helps.
12:00-1:30 – The appraisal is complete. My house was appraised at $634,000. For context - I bought it in 2009 for $440,000 and right now I owe $280,000. It’s about a $200,000 return over 10 years, which equates into a 10% dividend return??? Considering savings accounts are offering NO interest, I guess that’s pretty good. The only problem is now, in light of the appraisal, my property taxes will increase for the next quarter and beyond. I already considered this increase when I was applying for the HELOC and trying to establish if it was a good idea financially…we shall see.
The bank needs a copy of my trust deed and the note in order to move forward with my HELOC. I go through all of my mortgage paperwork and discover that I do not have the promissory note for my 2014 refinance – I only have an unsigned copy of the Good Faith Estimate. Although my mortgage paperwork is very organized, I go a bit further and purge unnecessary documents from my binder. I scan the deed and the Good Faith Estimate – my scanner is on its last legs and this takes over 30 minutes.
1:30-3:30 – I check personal email and respond to several of B.’s emails
3:30-6:30 – I read Good Things Happen to People You Hate on my patio. I feel like I should be doing more, going places, doing things, etc., but what can I do? At the same time, I don’t feel like doing much of anything except reading.
6:30-7:30 – I shower. Spa Day.
7:30 – 8:30 – L and I go to Whole Foods to get the salmon she missed on her last shopping round. I also get two 4-packs of prosecco-in-a-can. Whole Foods is closing at 8:00 p.m. due to an imposed curfew and we barely make it into the store. This lock down is in response to the riots that occurred in Minnesota, New York, LA, and various other cities across America, after a black male suspect, George Floyd, under arrest for allegedly passing a counterfeit bill, was killed by a knee to the neck, administered by a white male cop - Floyd died. This occurred in view of three other cops and multiple citizens and now the country is on fire.
8:30-9:00 – I get a load of laundry started.
9:00-10:00 – I finish Good Things.
9:30-10:30 – I TRY to make homemade sanitizer with rubbing alcohol and aloe vera gel. It’s a disaster and doesn’t work – the gel balls up and won’t dissolve. I end up pouring straight alcohol into three of my almost empty sanitizer bottles and adding a few drops of peppermint oil because I’m still unable to find and purchase hand sanitizer. On a hopeful note, toilet paper is back on the shelves.
10:30-12:00 - I finish my load of laundry and L. and I watch Married at First Sight. I check online news and note that the riots, across the nation, have become violent, with Trump egging it on from a bunker at an undisclosed location near the White House. We are falling apart as a country…it is so demoralizing.