2024, Family, home, Seasons

Welcome 2024

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We’re putting away all the holiday decorations today.  Normally we do everything today but YA has been chomping at the bit so started cleaning up “around the edges” the last couple of days.  She doesn’t do more because, of course, she’ll leave most of it to me.  Not a problem… pretty much everything goes into the plastic bins that are currently sitting on the front porch.  Only takes about an hour or so. 

Except for the wreath.  I like to leave it up until after Chinese New Year.  Not entirely sure why – except that they are darn expensive and I like having it on the front door with our welcome sign.

Still “discussing” whether to put the tree out in the back.  YA wants to but I’m a little skeptical that it might lure little critters into a false sense of security when there is a killer beast let loose in the yard several times a day.  I’m campaigning for the front yard but YA thinks that will look messy from the street.  It’s pretty much the last thing that will be done today – plenty of time for more “discussion”.

Other than that, no particular acknowledgement of the beginning of the new year.  We used to write bad habits that we wanted to leave behind onto flash paper and burn them up but haven’t done that for years.  I’m not even sure the magic store, where you can find flash paper, is still in the Mall.  As I suspect is the case for most of us on the Trail, it’s an arbitrary day and if you’re not already in the mood to make changes to your life, circling this day on the calendar probably won’t do it.  Don’t tell the weight loss companies who are right now flooding the market with ads that I said so. 

Will put up all the 2024 calendars today as well!

Do you still write checks – how long does it normally take you to write the correct year in the date?

30 thoughts on “Welcome 2024”

  1. Snort! Usually a couple of weeks.

    Yep, we put away pretty much all the decorations except for a few that have a winter theme, and the lights stay up till end of January.

    I’ve been invited to a Leftovers Party today – we’ll come and eat her leftovers, and are welcome to bring ours. : )

    Here’s my favorite New Years meme (so far) from FB:
    https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=860037715920951&set=a.578133400778052

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  2. Rise to Greet the New Year Baboons,

    Happy New Year to all Baboons.

    I write a very few checks these days, and when I do it seems it has something to do with state or federal taxes. There are some e-payments available, but it does not seem consistent through the systems. When I wrote many checks it would take me several weeks to a month to get the year documented correctly. However, last week when I wrote an estimated tax payment check I found myself writing 2022.

    Today, because it is a holiday and I am retired, I get to do fun stuff and I am eating a piece of cherry pie leftover and frozen from Christmas dinner. WooHoo! Phoebe and I will also visit the dog park to burn off a bit of steam. Right now she is circling her “treat tire” (a toy to slowly dispense dog treats), barking and growling at it.

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      1. I was reading a number of poems for the new year that were posted on Poetry Foundation this morning. I only really understood one of them. The rest seemed too abstract for my little brain.

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        1. He was a nurse but as it turns out, this poem—actually a fragment of a much longer poem entitled “The Sleepers”—foreshadowed his decision to serve as a nurse in the hospitals. The poem was part of “Leaves of Grass”, originally published in 1855, years before the start of the Civil War.

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  3. Morning–
    I wrote two checks last week. 2024, that will take a while. Most of the checks I write are farm related. Our insurance company finally has a way to take electronic payments, with a $38 Service charge!! No thanks.

    We were talking about our tree last night. We’re going to leave it up until next weekend.

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  4. WP seems to be turning over a new leaf for the new year. It’s allowed me to remain logged in for two whole days now! Let’s hope the trend continues!

    I don’t write many checks anymore. Dental insurance needs one quarterly. I’ve failed at their website and given up – it’s just not user-friendly. Motor vehicle registrations require a check. They charge extra for using a credit card.

    I found a way to make estimated MN income tax payments online. There’s a site for it. I wish you could log in to your own account, though, to see a record of your estimated payments. If there is a way, I can’t figure it out.

    It doesn’t take me long to change the year in my mind. I won’t have to write a check out until the end of the month. By then I should be used to it.

    I hope for all the best in the coming year – for everyone everywhere.

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  5. Since checks, especially when sending them through the mail, has gotten more dangerous, we are trying to minimize their use. Most of our utilities are auto-paid now, so that eliminates some. The utilities call that payment mode “paperless” but they still send acknowledgement statements that entail just as much paper.

    There are a few businesses, like Ingbretsen’s and Morelli’s that don’t take cards so we can’t dispense with checks altogether. We write few enough that getting the date right isn’t much of a problem.

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      1. They get stolen and the amount and the recipient (but not the signature) gets chemically erased from the check, whereupon the thief fills in another name and amount. On the dark web, erased checks are for sale.

        As I understand it, they are mostly stolen from postal boxes. There is a market for master keys for the older boxes which is why the Postal Service has been replacing them with heavier, more secure ones.

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  7. If it’s a payment that is going to be made by mail, I log onto my checking account and have the credit union prepare and mail the check. When you date it, you just select the date off a caldar, so that prevents me from entering the wrong year.

    I write checks very rarely. I don’t want to have to order another box of them, so my remaining supply gets dispensed very sparingly. I think the last few checks I’ve written have been tucked inside sympathy cards at funerals. I usually have issues with getting the year right only if it’s early to mi-January.

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  8. I write very few checks any more. Most are now for my author business. Maybe one every month or two.

    I used to take weeks to get the year correct in any correspondences including checks. Now it happens so infrequently that I might only forget once or twice in January.

    Chris in Owatonna
    (gonna cook a duck for New Year’s dinner tonight. 🙂 First one in ages.

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  9. I can’t remember when I last wrote a check. I do have a checking account, but I pay most of our bills electronically from my laptop.

    Once a month or so, I withdraw $300.00 in cash from a local ATM, and that usually suffices for the cash I need to pay my domestic fairy, Morelli’s, and tips for the waitstaff whenever we go out to eat.

    When I used checks more frequently, writing the correct date on the check was the least of my problems. Don’t think I have balanced my checkbook in 45 years, but I check the balance at least a couple of time a week.

    Happy New Year to all Baboons, near and far away. May 2024 be a year of deeper insights, wiser decisions, and contentment, and may you be surrounded by people who bring love, light, and joy to your life. Amen.

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  11. I’ve written a check per week for the milkman for over 25 years. Since I discontinued dairy service last summer, I find that check writing has dwindled to one check every couple of months. Even the apple orchard takes plastic now.

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  12. Well, I am rather “la di da” since I started referring to checks as cheques after living in Canada. I write a few cheques here and there. So glad to be home tonight after a 7 hour drive from Brookings, SD!

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