What a difference a day makes!

Or what a difference two days make really. Saturday was scorching hot and if I remember right hit 40°. They had forecast storms but we didn't get any - they were saving themselves for Sunday apparently. Even then it was fine during the day, hot enough to sit in the garden and read, and the storms hit late afternoon. It obviously rained during the night although I didn't hear it, but this morning it was so much cooler only reaching 14°C today! So a drop in temperature of 26° in just over 24 hours. I suppose it's no wonder people get sick is it!

It's forecast to head back up again starting tomorrow (I think) and then hit the high temperatures towards the end of the week. It's weird (or maybe not), but as soon as the temperatures start dropping I feel my "oomph" coming back and today was no exception. I made a point of being in bed by midnight so I would be up and running by 8 a.m. I've made a long list of all the things I neglected last week so will be trying to knock at least one of those off each day. I took a trip down to the recycling centre first thing and even though it was raining I then decided to head out to Thyez to get a walk in too. This is my "go to" walk for when I don't want to go up the mountains, and with more storms forecast I definitely didn't want to go up the mountains. So in the space of an hour I got a nice walk along the river bank and around the small lake there to add 10,000 steps to my daily challenge. Except for the fact that my hair turned to frizz it was a lovely walk and definitely the right thing to do, but then do you ever regret going for a walk? Honestly I don't know what to do with my hair because as soon as it gets damp it turns to frizz and I end up looking like a bedraggled rat. I was thinking on the way home that if I really do intend to join a local gym in September I'm going to have to come up with something to do with this mop because I don't want to end up looking like Harpo Marx having a bad hair day!

When I got home I thought "right, that's it, first task on the list - I'm gonna call the IRS". André received his stimulus cheque about two months ago but Jordan hasn't seen hide nor hair of his and has got it into his head that he won't get one now! The only thing we can think of is that he moved in November so potentially it was sent to the wrong address, the French post office didn't forward it and it was returned to the IRS. I tried tracking it through their site using both addresses but each time it comes up as "information not available". So I decided there was nothing for it but to call them. The first couple of times, after going through their spiel, they told me to hold for more information, and after five minutes of total silence I hung up. The third time I did manage to get the "more information" never-ending loop so I decided that come what may I was indeed going to hold and keep holding. In the end I finally got through to a very helpful lady after 20 minutes (so I reckon Jordan will owe me half his stimulus cheque just for that phone call as I believe 800 numbers called from outside the States are not free). But at least I got through!

The lady on the other end was not able to go into specifics so I explained what had happened and what our thinking was. She told me that the stimulus cheques were processed on the basis of 2018 filings (so they would have Jordan's old address), but since he has filed for 2019 already his address should have been updated. Apparently the "information not available" message is just a standard response and I should keep checking until I see a "processing" or "processed" response - but that could take up to Christmas as they still have millions to complete. Failing that I could fill out a form 3911 to trace it but either way it wasn't "lost", as if all else failed he can claim it when he completes his 2020 taxes next year. I know I should leave this stuff to him really but he has no idea about US taxes and I don't mind doing it anyway. Still, it's money neither of the kids were expecting so if/when it does come it will be a bonus!

Today was André's first day back in the office and he said he just sailed through in 45 minutes. I told him not to get too confident as quite a few people were still working from home and it was vacation time for many others anyway, but at least he isn't starting back to work with a nightmare commute immediately. He wants to come over tomorrow night so I can go through his divorce paperwork with him, to see if I can think of anything he has missed. He will also bring his codes for his Swiss ebanking and I will show him how to do that too. It was funny because when we all went out to lunch on Saturday he went into his bedroom and came back out with a few euros from his "spending money" and said he actually likes the envelope system I had him set up because he can see what's what and what he has available to spend. From looking at my French bank on pay day I can see that he has indeed started sending money to his French bank account (hopefully restoring his reputation with them), and putting money into separate savings accounts to save for his own place. Hallelujah, I finally got through to him - I guess the old ways still work then!

My ex called me this morning (mid-day our time, 6 a.m. his time) and I asked him what the heck he was doing up so early. He said he now goes to bed around 9 p.m. (?????) so he gets up early too. That is definitely not the man I was married to, nor is the fact that he has put on 50 lbs since he stopped smoking either, but I guess it's better to have the extra lbs than the tar stained lungs isn't it. In any case, he was so skinny anyway that he actually doesn't look bad with all that extra padding!

Like me he's delighted with Jordan and Jen's news and we chatted for a while about family. Then he told me that he might send André $1,000 "to help him out". So I said, "er I don't really want to butt in here (but I will anyway), but can I make a suggestion and encourage you to split that in two and send $500 to each kid? André on his own makes more than Jordan and Jen together, he's starting to put money into savings and he's living rent-free with Jordan and Jen - who've just told you they're expecting a baby, so don't you think they might be hurt if you send money to André and nothing to them?" He said he hadn't even thought of it that way and indeed that's what he's going to do. Damn I'm glad I caught him before he did something stupid!

And finally, talking of losing weight (we were weren't we), I am indeed going to join a gym in La Roche in September (when it's cooler) because I want to learn how to use the weight machines properly. I can do all that at the work's gym and pretty much have the place to myself but driving into Geneva obviously isn't working out so well so I think it'll have to be La Roche instead. Anyway, having got in a one hour walk today and been careful with what I was preparing for food, I decided to log it into Myfitnesspal to see if I was calculating calories/portion sizes properly (I'm getting better at it, but it's surprising how the "little things" can add up too). Anyway, once I input all my info and hit save, Myfitnesspal indicated that if the next five weeks were like today I would lose eight pounds - so there you have it! Just gotta keep going for the next eight weeks to find out!