A quiet day at HOME!

We've had a relatively quiet day at home... 

We returned the rental car this morning. I was able to use an IBM retiree code to make the booking, and it gave me a cheaper price even than using the IBM employee rate (specifying that I was on a leisure rental). Hertz said that I may need to prove that I was an IBM retiree at the rental... I wasn't sure how I was going to do that (I have my vision insurance through IBM and thought that card might suffice), but they didn't ask. 

Then we headed to Costco for gas and shopping. The lines for gas were so long that we decided we didn't really need it. The gas prices have gone up here by $0.40-$0.50 since we left and are much higher than other places that we've been in the last two weeks. We also stopped at the Superstition Ranch Farmer's Market that is just down the block from Venture Out and got some vegetables to enjoy.

I created a spreadsheet with our expenses for the trip, in case we can itemize medical expenses in 2021. From what I've read, we cannot take off the actual costs, but rather up to $100/day (or night) for lodging/food and $0.17/mile. It won't total to all that we spent, but it is better than nothing. I figure that I should keep the receipts to show that we actually spent more than the $100/day in case anyone ever wants to audit our return.

Miss Kitty is *very* happy to be back in her bus. She has enjoyed people-watching and being in the sunshine (the Residence Inn room faced north so she didn't get any sun for the 11 days we were there). Carl says that she is working on her tan. Sometimes in the car there would be sun coming in, but she had her harness on, so Carl said that she got tan lines and she now needs to spend a lot more time in the sun to get the tan lines erased...

We also worked on some to-do's that we want to get done before we leave Mesa. The biggest item is to get the awning replaced (the one we've been working on since January, 2020. Carl talked to a manager at the repair center today. We're not sure whether that will move things along or not, but we need something to get moving!