So It Ends

 

What a great way to end the week. Gloria was in a pretty good mood today cleaned up a little bit while I was doing my business on the toilet. So much so that I gave her a $10 tip at the end of the session today. I really appreciate the work she does I just wish I could just have her do a complete two hour block. She does a great job however on the short stints are pretty superficial but it gets the unit relatively clean and makes it so that I can do some creation as far as food goes. I do like to cook with there's a clean kitchen.

With a little dismay I did sit out in the sun today. There is a great lightning storm last night when I went to bed and I suppose rain fell during evening but was all gone this morning except for what remained was the cold front. It's not like it was freezing cold, cold enough with the breeze that made it impossible for me anyway to sit out and enjoy the sunshine. I thought about jumping the bus heading down to DI to find some more reading material but I just never got motivated to the point especially after encountering the cooler air. I should put on a long sleeve shirt but the day look so beautiful, from my bedroom, that I thought I could get away with a short sleeve and I was too lazy to dirty and other shirt. I totally enjoyed the day for having nothing to show for it. But in a couple puzzles some on my cell phone some the paper pencil kind that I have magazines of. I was a little intimidated to do anything significant after yesterdays problem with the chair and the power system. Allen assured me yesterday after he had somehow reprogrammed my controller that I need not worry about losing the controllers program again. I couldn't do it however I just kept imagining myself on the bus somewhere out in the community and the chair going down. I'm just not up to resolving that kind of issue on Friday morning or afternoon for that matter. So I just stayed in the comfort of my apartment what you couple movies, playing around chopping up some vegetables to put in my morning drink and working out when the time came. It's not much of a day but it's a good day for me. Right now I'm enjoying my time. My butt doesn't hurt or bleed very much at all and the rest of my system seems to be doing okay. My teeth don't hurt I am so thankful have to as few as I do in my close still pretty will fit me when I really have to do something about my weight I'm just a mess eating way too much.

Is the last day of the month, September is gone and now I'm looking down the barrel at October. I think Octobers going to be okay I think the temperatures are going to drop significantly and will see a rapid change of the foliage and then will quietly slip into the oncoming cold season. I don't know what the to think about what global warming is going to do to the moisture this winter. Will it be hot will be called I doubt it will be wet. The news media is talking like the super hurricane they just had off the Florida area, one in 500 year storm, it is done in moving out. I kind of think were just beginning. Just hope I have enough water and canned food to get me by. We'll adapt, as a species we always adapt even folks disabilities after all were part of the species… Are we?

Steaks, Power Failure And Rescue

 

I could go on and on about how I went across the street today to the Macy's grocery and purchased a $15 T-bone steak! How I justified such a need to replace blood lost recently. Perhaps also reinforced with the knowledge that my Social Security as well as pension checks have been deposited in my account so I know I got the protein covered. Not really don't know if ingesting a good steak replaces any blood loss but boy the steak was great. Enough said I may still yet possibly blog on whatever inflation or just gouging by the retail industry is doing to everyone. Because all got superseded at least in my mind by the fact that this afternoon this is diligently retrieve my wash and was in the bedroom waiting for my 3 o'clock show to start when all the sudden when driving my chair forward just a little bit the chair jumped – – I characterized as a “burp”. My chair was totally dead.

Nothing brings me down quicker than sitting in the multi-hundred pound paperweight goes without power that's all this chair is. Luckily, I was close enough to my arm bike, where I had my cell phone resting while I do my workout. Space luckily again I had a stick with me long enough to reach the cell phone which I knocked on the floor then was able to pick up with a long handled dust pan. I was able to call my chair mechanic who was helpful in the long run but in the short run was questionable. Luckily (I know there's a lot of luckily here) I also called the manager of the apartment complex who then got me in touch with the social worker type person here. My creature mechanic informed me of a reset button on the side of the chair that's just out of my reach. I was hoping that Rochelle would be able to press the button and bring my chair back to life. Rochelle did just that actually when she finally was able to get to the apartment. However it wasn't the reset button which was the problem one of the main wires/cords from my control box to the power structure of the chair had gotten pulled out of the chair causing the down time. She eventually plugged in record in my chair came back to life! Great relief. I soon realized however that with the rebooting of my chair I lost a major function which was the chair manipulation function which allows me to tilt in place, raise that foot pedals extend the foot pedals and use the elevator function on the seat up and down. All of these items I use counsel. Don't get me wrong I was happy as a clam that at least the chair would move I could get to the bathroom and I suppose I could of gotten on and off the bed if I couldn't get these functions working. I called my buddy Alan the wheelchair mechanic and of course she couldn't come over then but he would stop by on his way home from work sometime around 5. Which is okay I can deal with this that long.

But Allen did arrive be checked out the chair push the reset button nothing happened and then I informed him about the unplug cord. The unplug the cord and plug the backend nothing happened within a couple more times. They figure that when the chair reset itself somehow didn't turn on this part or function of the chair. So I had mobility but was not able to do any seating adjustments like I said to use constantly. He figured he'd need to bring a small handheld computer they used to program the computers amuse chairs and I figured I could hang out for a day. In the last minute however he Allen had the idea that what he did what he did was bring the chair back to functionally perfectly a real trauma avoided.

The $15 steak was incredibly good, in fact I still have half of it left and half of the roast potato I just hope I can get my blood count backup…

Raindrops Falling On My Head

 

I was caught in the cloudburst this morning on my way to my credit union to get the cash for this month's letters. I just finished my business at the credit union there is one massive dark cloud city right above our area. Luckily my credit union is just a few yards away from the bus stop but still in the matter of seconds started with a few drops like the sky opened up and the mixture of hail and large drops of rain plopped down on the sidewalk and myself. It was kind of unnerving because there is blue sky all around except for his huge massive black cloud hanging over the my part of the Valley. The temperatures were warm it was a little unpleasant having that amount of moisture unleashed on my body up all at once but the cloudburst was not significant to the point it would destroy my day in fact in about 5 minutes the whole thing of past and aside from a bit more dense humidity one would never know how significant the cloudburst had been. If you are minutes my bus arrived and I was inbound for the apartments.

I was kind of impressed with myself because not only had I gotten up and gotten my morning service for my tender care folks I actually jumped the bus went down to the credit union got the cash I would need for my letters and came back all within an hour. Not that it mattered but one of the insurance brokers was having what he called “tenant appreciation function”. He supposedly was bringing lunch and that they would have a raffle of some sort. It was just this weasel way of getting access to tenants of this property that he could try to strong-arm them to change insurance plans for his own benefit. I'll try to limit my disgust to a few lines only because I can get carried away on these “fishers of men”. I had heard that perhaps this guy was going to bring a real launch. I would've been satisfied with pizza that was almost warm but as I came back from my banking trip I could see his little car parked front of the building and he was unloaded plastic containers full of the individual lunches. Essentially a sandwich of some sort I think your croissant in this case stuffed with lunch meats and other fancy decorations with probably some kind of donut or something at the end with the mandatory bottles of water. Definitely something I was not interested in especially not enough to sit in the presence of this elderly vulture (pretty funny probably should say vulture of the elderly are on the elderly). He also brings in some cheap giveaway things than has some kind of a game like bingo or some other payment somebody has to win then gets choice of some of these trinkets. Ours reminds me of the Indians and the pilgrims. I ended up having a banana and frozen meat burrito and hunkered down and finished my mail out project. There are still a couple of days in this month I don't know how fast the mail will deliver my October letters but who knows? Maybe we'll actually get there on the 1^st day of the month…

Full Day

 

A little after 9 PM this evening and also not realized I have not yet blogged! I rarely wait to this late time to blog. I guess today was busier than anticipated. I thought is going to be a bit laid-back just because when I called yesterday at the Assist office staff informed me that there would be no meeting today for a number of reasons which gave me the day off essentially. I pretty much and committed to utilize any time I had this week to get my kid letters out as close to the 1^st of the month is possible. So this morning I spent a good part of the morning trying to remember how to fix the printer because once again stupid machine lost contact with the CPU. I'm madly communicated with my son Mark Anthony who reminded me that I had to unplug the machine but it set for a minute or 2 then plug the court back into the printer and sure enough the printer responded to the commands from the CPU is off to the races. My initial goal was to print envelopes and then tomorrow full the letters and stamp the envelopes. Oh, I was also going to do a quick run over to mount America to get change for the letters that still get bills inside. That did not happen.

At 2 PM there was a presentation or an opportunity to get massaged. One of the insurance brokers was always trying to dredge up new folks to represent monthly brings something around here that he hopes will bring people out of the woodwork and sign up for his insurance stuff whatever that is. I usually boycott these kind of fiascoes but there was talk of decent refreshments which ended up being a quick stop at the market across the street for cookies. This is not my idea of quality refreshments. I did stick around for a little bit however and watch them try to coax the seniors into massages. I don't know where they get their masseuse from (I don't know if that masseuse is plural are not but there is more than one) but they had 2 or 3 show up in my have been students I don't know. I was not too impressed and finally left in time to start my 1 hour workout on the arm bike.

I forgot also today I got talked into having breakfast/lunch with my new posse. I don't think it's tight enough to call it a posse but maybe it is. They want to do a late breakfast and I didn't want to do a breakfast but it was late enough for an early lunch which I did. It was pretty good conversation and a pretty good time. This is truly different behavior from this posse and I don't know where it might lead. This may have some impact with other folks that I associate with at the apartment complex. Kind of interesting. Following the breakfast is zipped over to the market to get some carrots. This is my new ingredient to my morning spicy, crunchy, ice chilled drink. Mosso who is this older Asian lady who is part of the posse indicated she would like a carrot are two I was happy to oblige but had to catch her later on in the day because the little person became exhausted walking all the way from the apartment complex to the restaurant and back again. I was unable to get Mosso her carrots until around 7 PM closer to the time I would usually write this blog.

So my day has been full, much fuller than I'd expected. I had to excuse myself from 7 PM meeting of the posse to get to my apartment to clean it up a little bit before tomorrow's health visit from Gloria. I hate it when she sees that I haven't been many dishes since the last time I saw our on Friday. My day's been, full but good…

Monday Muse

 

I was going to spend this evening working on finishing up my letter project for October. I have the letters written now all I need to do is print the envelopes and stuff them. Like I said I was going to do that tonight but when I called Assist, Inc. I was told that tomorrow's meeting has been canceled. This is kind of a shame because this is perfect weather for bus tripping. I may still head out in the morning to get to Mountain America pull out some $5 bills for letter stuffing. That I can finish the project and be sure to have letters in the mail for the 1^st of the month, October. So, I can free up tonight. I could do some home maintenance stuff like sweeping the kitchen floor and washing up some dishes that she waited for the weekend. Or I could just dial up another movie to watch. There just something very therapeutic to me and watching old movies over and over again. Perhaps it's just the fact that I don't have to totally focus on the film because I know it's going to happen. Since I have Netflix and Disney plus I could actually pull them up on my tablet and watch the movie while I was printing envelopes. Not a bad idea will just have to see how far my energy levels hold. I may want to get off my butt early tonight I hope for any healing to take place I don't have any skin breakdowns it's just that my rooms begin to feel little sensitive or don't want to encourage any possible issues.

Aside from my sensitive tush I'm entering this last week of September in pretty good spirits. The weather is delightful and I should really be doing more but I'm just kind of tired right now. Perhaps I'm still recuperating from last week's full agenda and that's fine. I'm finding of spending maybe in our art who the day leaning back in my chair out in the common area on the patio just soaking in the sun. I know that sounds terribly geriatric being a some beast of all but you know what? I've always done that specially working at the Independent living Center where all the quads “sun beasted especially in the winter. 5 or 6 wheelchair people sitting faceup towards the sun just enjoying the rays come through the windows totally heating the body. I was much younger than that didn't feel at all that I was wasting any time since is actually getting paid to be at work. Now, I'm getting paid for living in this apartment complex kind of from a different funding source but still federal money. The only real difference is I can't get fired from this last “job”. I still have images of my mind of rows of old farts In wheelchairs

facing the sunlight coming through large industrial institutional Windows, waiting for death. That's okay who are we kidding. Senior living facilities of any kind just make it easier for “father death”.

I don't know what I would do if our offered any kind of employment right now at this point in my life. It would feel natural to take on the position like that but I just don't think my body could handle working to be honest with you.. This is kind of hard to admit but I think it's true. I would enjoy the socialization that that kind of work might bring I just don't know I could do it.

Meat And Potatoes… Yum!

 

It's kind of strange Sunday for me. Mark Anthony as well as Jasmine are out of town today. The reader knows that we have a standing breakfast every Sunday at the local restaurant not far from my apartment. Today was the 1^st time that both kids were gone leaving me to fend for myself on the Sunday morning. I certainly didn't want to go out to the restaurant by myself. In fact, I've been want to do my own cooking for some time breakfast wise. So I slept in a bit this morning got up and put together a rather humbled breakfast of French toast and Vienna sausages. I didn't make much of a mess so it shouldn't be difficult to clean up tomorrow morning before Melissa gets here. Today's French toast not the best I've ever made. I burnt a couple of the pieces, not so bad about I wouldn't eat them they just smelled carbon based. I will save the left over French toast for breakfast this coming week.

Without the extended breakfast at Dee's restaurant I found myself a lot of time on my hands. I decided I would jump into my next round of letters for the month of October. It's not that of a big Christian, I am not, but I don't like to do a lot of labor on Sunday is just something ingrained. However, I can justify working on letters as an important piece to do during my Sunday. Keeping in contact with family is a important project for me. At least with my immediate family pretty much my kids and their kids. You'll remember that each individual gets their own letter not a copy and paste version of an original letter. I don't notice because a lot of LDS families or parents tend to do that with holiday letters which goes out to everybody and their dog, the same letter over and over again. I think it's important that each letter regardless of how basic that letter is the written for that specific person even though, perhaps, many of the pieces of information you are sharing will be the same. It's bad enough that I'm dictating these letters not even typing them with my own hands which is probably a step down from a handwritten document. But those of you who know me even before my accident people could not read my handwriting and after the accident you have to have some kind of spiritual intervention or a special device such as used by Joseph Smith to translate the words on the paper. Just not like you can get those specialized classes at the dollar store. These magic specs are usually hidden in some large hill in New York's farm country. I have now finished the letters aside from going through in checking the quality of the software which took my dictation. One has to be careful… Very careful. That still gives me a number of days before the 1^st of the month to print out each letter as well as the envelopes. You have enough lead time to cover any problems that might arise like not enough stamps, envelopes or issues with the printer. I'm anticipating an easy October for letters.

I actually made a small Sunday dinner this evening as I watched a Marvel documentary on the avengers. I made fake mashed potatoes and a couple pieces of the meatloaf I made earlier in the week. I really anticipated opening the account of something green possibly spinach or green beans but I just didn't have the energy or the well are the vessel to heat up the vegetables with I think I will get there eventually right now I'm sticking with meat and potatoes no matter what. My rear end is kind of sensitive tonight I don't know if that means I'll have a early in mid-focus on finishing my novel are maybe just laying back and watching a movie that seems like a copout butcertainly be low-energy

Pine-Sol Saturday

 

I really don't want to become histrionic or totally focused on one idea but never before have I been so aware of inflation as I am right now. In the past, inflation was always just an economic term used in history or to broadly describe items going on on the national level but somehow really didn't impact me very much. Maybe I've just oblivious to what's been going on in my life in the area of inflation. Inflation is just not been significant until now. And even now, inflation is still more of a concept that a reality but I'm really noticing pricing changes at the cash register when I check out. The biggest jump in prices that I've noticed this last 2 weeks has been the charge on my vegetable juice, my spicy vegetable juice which I totally love and don't really for see me going without any time in the near future. I am in fact trying to figure out ways to stretch the morning drink. When I was shopping yesterday for the beverage, I usually like 2 bottles of time because that's all I can carry weight wise and that's enough to get me through a week or 2 usually. But, I was a little taken back at the price which is like $5.89 a bottle the last week when I purchased the bottles it was about $4.89! I can't believe my beverage increased a dollar in that amount time as I said this increase in price space has not deterred me from purchasing the drink. I did purchase a stalk of celery however. I just realized I kind of wrote about this yesterday – – this is a senior moment? I don't think I carried on as much about the cost increase.

I have to admit, just realizing that I merely wrote the same blog twice and not even realize that until a 3^rd of the way through the new entry. This is kind of weird. I guess part of it is that I'm not doing enough new stuff I guess to create totally new blogs. However, I don't want to stop writing because I love doing the process, seeing the words appear on my computer screen and then onto the blog itself. I have to watch this however because is nothing worse than a senior who repeats itself over and over again. So in desperation I will recount my bit of housekeeping today which was mopping the bathroom floor. I could say scrubbing the floor because I did that to with the long handled scrub brush I have which allows me to scrub between the tiles. I'm astounded at how dirty or how much dirt collection of spaces between the tiles. Today however I used a water bucket with Pine-Sol mixed with its which brought back memories of my mother's house cleaning efforts to how difficult that must've been for her trying to keep the house clean with all the kids running in and out. I could now totally identify with her frustration of trying to keep busy feed off of just mopped floors. In my case of course it's wheelchair tires. I scrub with the brush that I mopped the dirty water left over from scrubbing the tiles and then pushing.water towards the drain with my mopped. I did as best I can and then let the whole thing dry and call it “mopped”. After all, the floor looks a lot better, a lot cleaner and then you have Pine-Sol permeating the whole apartment and nothing gives the illusion of cleanliness and Pine-Sol…

More Vegetable Juice Nonsense

 

The only thing of any consequences that I have done today has been going over across the street to pick up a few things for my morning cocktail. I know I probably bencher air enough about the wonderful drink I make every morning out of vegetable juice (supposedly hot but it's not) pickled peppers and now pickled carrots.) The only reason I bring this up , yet again is that I'm beginning to add more ingredients to my drink.

It kind of started a couple weeks ago when I couldn't find my couldn't find the jalapeno peppers that I usually use so I purchased a can of sliced jalapenos of a different brand which were okay, the peppers were a lot more firm than the ones from the cans I have been using. The pickle juice however, wasn't nearly as spicy none really going for the spice of this stuff. In the meantime I've actually even tried another Of pickled peppers which had really firm sliced peppers very crunchy which I liked a lot but I wasn't that pleased with the pickling juice. It wasn't nearly as tangy for some of the others. I also purchased a can of pickled carrots had never really tried those before except for those that come with the sliced peppers in the cans that I purchase – – it must be some sort of Hispanic delicacy or go to food product. I truly understand certainly makes frozen burritos a lot more enjoyable. So today I purchased a small can of pickled carrots in a small can of sliced jalapeno peppers I also purchased a stalk of celery which I plan to use in the drink as well as a real green pepper, raw. This last week I used green pepper and another recipe that I cooked and had half a pepper left and I decided what the heck? I sliced up the pepper and dumped it into my pitcher of pickled peppers (I use one of those metered plastic cups that the hospital always sends home with you which now shows up at the DI. They hold a whole can of peppers and that's what I've mixed everything with. So, the green peppers were a little bit over the top when I 1^st added them to the juice and what was left of the peppers from the can but really after a day or so were quite tasty and very crunchy. So I'm figuring with the peppers and the green pepper and the small can of pickled carrots I should have a maximum crunch concoction. I thought about even adding a cucumber but I decided not to go there because then what I would have would be that summer vegetable soup dish that I cannot remember the name of right now which is quite good but I'm going to hold off on the cucumber for now.

Autumn has really moved into the area. Even though the sun was out all day, and I was out in the sun, I felt chilly a good part of the time I was out. Granted I was not wearing shoes but I still had on long sleeves and my cap. The trees still haven't really burst into their autumn colors but I'm sure by this time next week will have a good start. Good weather is forecast for the next 7 days with each night temperature dropping more and more significantly which I believe the the trees need to make the change. Until then I plan to be outside as much as possible enjoying the autumn weather sunshine and such. There was a comic con in Salt Lake the past couple of days. I probably should've gone I don't know if I would've liked it I never have gone to voice kind of wanted to special to see the costumes for the comic worshipers. It's over tomorrow though so I don't know for be worth the time to travel up to Salt Lake for that but who knows. I have coffee with my neighbor early on and then maybe if I'm still excited about my co-op for the last hours of comic con just to see what it's all about…

Flattered

 

It's official, autumn started today. It's not a big deal but I like to keep track of items on the calendar and I'm particularly fond of seasonal change. As I have recounted earlier, I am often not ready for the season to change especially this one but now that I'm here I'm kind of interested in seeing the leaves change and eventually fall. Not that this has anything to do with seasonal change but today I was contacted by 2 of my best friends. Weeks go by and I don't hear from anybody or anything and then suddenly in Monday I have 2 contacts. One friend from University (we were roommates or apartment mates at one time) alerted me to the passing of an acquaintance I haven't thought of for years, literally decades. My other buddy lives here in Salt Lake County. We worked together at one time kind of opposing forces, from my point of view, but not his. I saw myself as the radical and he was representative of the establishment but we got along pretty good and now we go to lunch to it 3 times a year. We're supposed to go to lunch tomorrow actually but God I message from him not long ago indicating the remodel of his house hit a snag it have to cancel tomorrow's lunch date which quite frankly came as a relief. This is been extremely busy week for me. A lot of trips on the bus and a couple free lunches I guess it all works out but still is time-consuming and physically demanding. I think I'll just enjoy sitting out in the autumn sun soaking up the vitamin D.

Interestingly, the 2^nd meeting of the day was a group called the A. T. Counsel (assistive technology). This is a group of folks who stood by the people from Utah State University in Logan that pretty much facilitates assistive technology on the academic side throughout the state. It's all very complicated in the old days the scruples well attended by everybody in the state from gubernatorial type representatives to parents of kids with disabilities to folks with disabilities especially from independent living movement which was my reason for being at these meetings. I like the meetings primarily because there always hot lunches. State action spent a lot of money providing hot food

problem was the whole operation is run by a vegetarian – – I guess it was a vegetarian because we never had any meat dishes to speak of. Sometimes we had chicken but mostly it was some form of vegetable casserole this would be for everything went to taco's are Mexican food for the lunch but at least it was hot and now it's all cold. We had a copy of this say much we had yesterday sandwiches and salads which I thought both were pretty good I didn't have a problem with the same menu twice in one week that I did not have to pay for except to show up. Again, love the big guns are used show up to these functions especially this function are just not interested it seems like any longer. This was also the 1^st group meeting since the before times. We used to meet every other month then every quarter and now's twice a year. And for the last 2 years we've been doing Zoom meetings. It was good to be back with the A T folks from around the state. Those who did not show up in person did come in by Zoom.

I'm kind of surprised at how much I miss these folks by my reaction of when I saw them in person as well as via Zoom. One of the directors of the local nonprofits will be retiring very shortly and someone suggested that I might put in for the position when the position opens up. I have to admit I was a little flattered but did not really seriously consider the option of all. I'm tired, I'm old and I don't know if my body could stand that kind of stress on all levels. It was nice to hear however and I do believe the organization needs to be shaken up a little bit and some grassroots direct action needs to be reinstated to the independent living movement in this town…

Like The Before Times

 

Storm clouds threatening my trip home.

Remember that scene in Avengers Endgame where the characters, after they are brought back how they talked about how weird it was losing those 5 years. Today I attended the 1^st UA TF (Utah assistive technology foundation) meeting since before Covid and I felt much like I imagine those characters in the movie felt. It is like wow I haven't seen these guys and 2 years well except for we did have a number of Zoom meetings somehow it's just not the same as greeting somebody and even shaking their hands if you still do that kind of stuff and receiving your little box lunch and settling down for your meal before the actual meeting. Really, it is the little things that you miss at least I did and granted I'm pretty shallow.

The meeting, of course was in the Judy Anne Buffmire building which is fortunate for me because the building is at the other end of Redwood Road is just one bus ride for me, no bus changes or anything. In the 2^nd benefit of attending the meeting in person is that I can actually drop in on the folks there at UCATand have a little work done on my chair. Even though the shops not open on Monday Wednesdays and Fridays one of the bosses of the operation is on the same board as I and took me back after the meeting was over I found a couple of the pieces I needed for my power chairs. The only drawback if there was one today was the probability of a possible thunderstorms or cloudburst's of storms wandering through the area. Also little concerned just because I wore short sleeves and I hate to be cold and wet. The temperatures however were hot 80° so even if it did rain would not be too uncomfortable but, I was worried about the piece of broken off my power chair exposing the fragile electrical components and I think computer things. I got everything I needed taking care of so the day was productive way beyond my expectations. There was a storm lurking over the Eastern mountains is as on my trip home and I was really anxious to get home before anything erupted beside the still had to do my work out as well as listen to my favorite radio show Marketplace. Which I did but just barely. The storm was kind of a dud rendering just a little when in a few drops of rain, but still I was thankful to be home ready for the evening.

I don't want to jinx myself with a comment like “it's great to be on the other side of Covid” because who knows what variant will show itself? But it was great being able to meet with my old colleagues perhaps the best part of all is that tomorrow is the A T Council meeting which I've been part of for years and another one of those meetings which haven't really met since the Covid or to be for times…

Tiny Shoe

 

It seems the only thing I can write is my blog. That's okay I do love my blog and I enjoy adding to the document every day. And the true blue reader will remember the main reason I did start the blog way back when I was a state employee at Access Utah, Inc. was a challenge to myself to write 500 words a day to matter what and actually I've been pretty good at doing that. I think I've written enough words to do at least 2 volumes, novels or whatever. Also, along with writing, which I started about the same time that I got my 1^st cell phone and the ability to take instant images anywhere I was at any given time was many times adding an image along with my posting. Sometimes, I found the images very significant spars illustrating the post. One of the interesting things I've encountered while posting as well as image taking was how many images of shoes I've taken along the way. I don't know how many shoes I neglected take an image of before it occurred to me that a “shoe Journal” could be very effective on a possible literary standpoint. While I never really did much with it except for now I do stop whatever I'm doing I can and just take an image. Many times I tried to imagine what led up to the shoe (s) being where it sat.

Many times I get somewhat carried away with my imagination as to the history of the image. Many of these shoes I've come across Monday morning on my way to work or to catch the bus or just to the market back there would be the foot garment testimony of some rowdy weekend event good bad or otherwise. Many times however though especially lately I haven't paid much attention to the show at all except that I want to make sure I got an image because if I didn't I would certainly be unhappy later on. That is happened enough to me to make an extra effort to be sure I have that image even if I no longer plan to do anything with it. Late last week, I don't really remember where I was going by do remember it was early morning and I passed this image of a shoe. I don't know why but it nearly knocked the wind out of me for some reason. I'm sure I've seen other kids shoes before and possibly infant shoes but this one struck me with an intensity I rarely experience. I hope the shoe was just a casualty of crossing the street and the shoes were in the stroller and bounced off. Or maybe the infant kick the shoe off from a tantrum or something. What I hope wasn't the case was that the child was a victim of a hit-and-run type of felony of which there seems to be a great deal in this city. I pray that's not where the shoe came from. Hopefully the parent just gave up in frustration when she are he could no longer find the other shoe they needed to address Timmy, or Donnie are whoever were such a cute little tennis shoe.

No knot Please!

 

In an effort to cut down on the use of my credit card debt I started trying to operate on a cash economy. A pull out a couple of hundred bucks of cash to live on through the month there by using my credit cards to a minimum. That's kind of worked. However, I noted this weekend that this I was running low on cash and thought it would be a good exercise this morning to run down to Mountain America pull out its hundred and 20's and quarters just to be sure I have enough. Either way I guess is no big deal except though I believe I save some money somehow not using the credit card as I have been and keeping my credit line at 0. If nothing else is comforting.

Another beautiful day for public transit. With no particular place to go or time to be anywhere I did mine waiting for the buses. I to the credit union without incident of course and is able to make my transactions. The credit union is actually across the street from a defunct shopping center that still has a couple of businesses on the periphery. I actually thought these establishments were defunct as well but neighbor across the hall is been talked about this Chinese restaurant's for a couple weeks now. I noticed indeed a couple weeks ago that the establishment was still in business and doing business so I figured I would stop by today for lunch. I forgot around to getting to the restaurant about 12:30 PM and of course I was the only one there except for management which I I gathered were the the 2 people that were in the back when I rolled in. The place is obviously a bare-bones operation probably just by one family. I found later that is the case my neighbor who knows these great mysteries. It seems I have a couple of daughters who work with the operation after school and on weekends.

I it was kind of cute the woman who waited on me barely spoke English but was totally excited to serve me. She was confused that I was there by myself she could not believe that I had arrived by bus totally by myself. I ordered by standard egg foo young and my constant search for the puffy egg patties that I used to enjoy as a child from the Chinese restaurant we went to in Boise. I was the only one in the restaurant so I was this woman's total focus. I doubt that she is trying to upsell me so much as make me comfortable. I didn't want anything to drink except water this was hard for her to comprehend but she finally brought mighty water and then brought the Styrofoam cup with And straw because she thought it would be easier for me to handle and drink from. I think I was the 1^st customer of the day because my waitress kept apologizing that they were just getting the kitchen going. I tried to convey that that was okay. Eventually I got a plate of 3 good-sized patties, the closest but for young I've had said speed in Utah to what I remember from Idaho. She fretted that I did not have enough white rice so she brought me out another helping of white rice plus another cup of gravy for my patties. By the time she was finished it looked like a whole new orde. I was toying with the idea of just leaving what I didn't eat there on my plate and leaving because it would be just too difficult to carry Styrofoam packages in plastic bags on my wheelchair to the apartments. She ended up stuffing my Styrofoam package with more rice and gravy and sweet-and-sour (which I did not order and she knew that she was just being nice) and she also threw in a bag of crispy noodles/chow mein noodles. The lunch was $12 to start which seems high but now with inflation shirts just regular what used to be $6.95 for lunch to $9 for lunch and now $12. I figure I have a least 2 meals now counting lunch and then everything she sat with me so I figure the price was just $6 a meal how lucky am I?

I don't know what it is about vendors of items that get stuck in white plastic bags but I've noticed that at the market and especially at the Chinese place these guys like to put the item in the white plastic bags and then type handles and knots. At the market I can convince the guy not to do that to leave the bags just as they are in fact I usually don't use bags because it's just more clutter when I get home and the knot issue. At the Canton Wok there is no way to make her stop from tying up my plastic bags which he saw my 1^st request for gnome knots she then stuck the ordered another white plastic bag and I finally convinced her not to tie the bag up and let me hang it off my control box which actually works pretty good and I got a home.

I just had another Chinese meal with what the lady sent home and it was great but I still have another meal if not more. Today I've been totally Chinese blessed

In an effort to cut down on the use of my credit card debt I started trying to operate on a cash economy. A pull out a couple of hundred bucks of cash to live on through the month there by using my credit cards to a minimum. That's kind of worked. However, I noted this weekend that this I was running low on cash and thought it would be a good exercise this morning to run down to Mountain America pull out its hundred and 20's and quarters just to be sure I have enough. Either way I guess is no big deal except though I believe I save some money somehow not using the credit card as I have been and keeping my credit line at 0. If nothing else is comforting.

Another beautiful day for public transit. With no particular place to go or time to be anywhere I did mine waiting for the buses. I to the credit union without incident of course and is able to make my transactions. The credit union is actually across the street from a defunct shopping center that still has a couple of businesses on the periphery. I actually thought these establishments were defunct as well but neighbor across the hall is been talked about this Chinese restaurant's for a couple weeks now. I noticed indeed a couple weeks ago that the establishment was still in business and doing business so I figured I would stop by today for lunch. I forgot around to getting to the restaurant about 12:30 PM and of course I was the only one there except for management which I I gathered were the the 2 people that were in the back when I rolled in. The place is obviously a bare-bones operation probably just by one family. I found later that is the case my neighbor who knows these great mysteries. It seems I have a couple of daughters who work with the operation after school and on weekends.

I it was kind of cute the woman who waited on me barely spoke English but was totally excited to serve me. She was confused that I was there by myself she could not believe that I had arrived by bus totally by myself. I ordered by standard egg foo young and my constant search for the puffy egg patties that I used to enjoy as a child from the Chinese restaurant we went to in Boise. I was the only one in the restaurant so I was this woman's total focus. I doubt that she is trying to upsell me so much as make me comfortable. I didn't want anything to drink except water this was hard for her to comprehend but she finally brought mighty water and then brought the Styrofoam cup with And straw because she thought it would be easier for me to handle and drink from. I think I was the 1^st customer of the day because my waitress kept apologizing that they were just getting the kitchen going. I tried to convey that that was okay. Eventually I got a plate of 3 good-sized patties, the closest but for young I've had said speed in Utah to what I remember from Idaho. She fretted that I did not have enough white rice so she brought me out another helping of white rice plus another cup of gravy for my patties. By the time she was finished it looked like a whole new orde. I was toying with the idea of just leaving what I didn't eat there on my plate and leaving because it would be just too difficult to carry Styrofoam packages in plastic bags on my wheelchair to the apartments. She ended up stuffing my Styrofoam package with more rice and gravy and sweet-and-sour (which I did not order and she knew that she was just being nice) and she also threw in a bag of crispy noodles/chow mein noodles. The lunch was $12 to start which seems high but now with inflation shirts just regular what used to be $6.95 for lunch to $9 for lunch and now $12. I figure I have a least 2 meals now counting lunch and then everything she sat with me so I figure the price was just $6 a meal how lucky am I?

I don't know what it is about vendors of items that get stuck in white plastic bags but I've noticed that at the market and especially at the Chinese place these guys like to put the item in the white plastic bags and then type handles and knots. At the market I can convince the guy not to do that to leave the bags just as they are in fact I usually don't use bags because it's just more clutter when I get home and the knot issue. At the Canton Wok there is no way to make her stop from tying up my plastic bags which he saw my 1^st request for gnome knots she then stuck the ordered another white plastic bag and I finally convinced her not to tie the bag up and let me hang it off my control box which actually works pretty good and I got a home.

I just had another Chinese meal with what the lady sent home and it was great but I still have another meal if not more. Today I've been totally Chinese blessed

Charging Dilemma

As you know I use a power chair for mobility in fact I have to power chairs one is my main chair and one is my backup. I have 3 chargers actually in the old work mostly so for one am having some doubts about. One charger by my bed that I use to charge might chair overnight. Last night when I went to bed it was late round 11:30 PM and I noticed the light on the front of the charger which generally flashes green as “ready” was an angry red, solid red. I've seen this flash a couple times last couple weeks on this charger I'm not sure what that means. Actually I kind of looked it up the number of months ago but now I've forgotten what it said. Anyway, today is Sunday so I want to make sure I had powered my chair for the trip up to the restaurant this morning with Mark Anthony. So I plugged the angry red charger into my chair in the hopes that even though it was angry and red they would charge my chair overnight. When I woke up this morning the charger was still an angry red light but I was pleased to have the chair turn on when I flip the switch forward but sadly no charging happen during the night. Fortunately, the charge meter on my power chair read about 76% which should guarantee that I could get back and forth to the restaurant with no problem so I wasn't too stressed out. Mark Anthony is leaving town today driving up to Idaho 1st to spend the night with his cousins and then into Oregon spent a couple days with his sister Shelley and her family. Were both a little worried about his vehicle but have faith that it will make the trip there and back again. Following a fine breakfast I headed back to the apartments might notice that the body heal caution light is on which meant that I was going down on my bed are very quickly. I almost tried to cross the street in the middle of the block which cuts off quite a bit of travel time but I didn't have enough faith in myself or my chair that I would get across without it stopping is nothing I hate worse than stopping in mid-traffic people love to shake their fists and honked their horns at the “J-roller”. So I elected to go all the way to the cross in light and by the time I got to the apartments my battery a gun to the red zone showing about 5%. Fortunately I have a system set up next to my computer i.e. Internet connection i.e. streaming services that I can plug in my chair tilt back and watch movies for a couple hours to at least bring my power up to a state that I feel comfortable in case I need to use it for some reason to go on an extended roll. I don't think I needed such a thing but still was good enough reason as any to slovenly kickback and watch the TV for 2 hours. At least I didn't watch a marble presentation oh wait I did not I think about it. I watch the news Thor movie. And before I watch the movie there was a Marble “Assembled” feature about the making of the latest Thor movie which was enough to motivate me to watch the movie over again and charge my chair. I was not impressed with the movie the 1st time I saw it actually I was quite disappointed in the whole thing. On watching the movie this time however, I enjoyed the feature a lot more not even remembering most of the movie which kind of spooks me. But it was but it was good the maven watched again before too long. Part of the reason for rehearsing this 1st or 2nd paragraph was that Ellen will the people in the smoking group that I sit in on every once in a while has a power chair from independent living Center and has one charger she showed interest that I had to chargers. She said she was interested in getting the back of charger like an idiot I said I had one thought possibly could work. My dilemma now is to give her a charger the giver the one at the red light. I'm going to put my chair on the red light charger tonight and see if it goes back to green and see if it'll charge my chair. If so I will let her use it tells the longer of use. The sad part is that that will bring me down to just to chargers the charger by my computer workstation in my backup backup charger will have to see. If not we can surely look into getting her charger through one of the programs either through you cat or the loan program..

Meatloaf: MMm MMm Good

I continue to go through this weird stage of trying to sleep. Seems like every day I wake up earlier and where waking up very early is a bit intimidating I end up getting through the day relatively okay. Today I woke up 3:45 AM roughly and I really never got back to sleep even though I . I finally drug myself out of bed a little after 6 AM . I had made arrangements with my neighbor across the hall to meet her for coffee at the little coffee shop across the street at around 9:30 AM so I didn't want to really go back to sleep and sleep past my get up time by doubt that's ever happened to me I don't want to chance it plus knowing that this is happening is probably another reason why I'm not sleeping in. I think it might also be the dramatic television show series I'm watching right now by talking about that yesterday. The fall days are really beginning to hit the Wasatch front. The trees of not began their turn but the days are quite nice not to hot and not too cold and everything seems to be crisp. I've been thinking about meatloaf for some time that I figured it'd be a great day to do the project. I have hamburger frozen in the refrigerator but I didn't want to go through the hassle of having the thaw the burglar out and all that stuff plus I didn't have an onion or suitable green pepper so that was enough impetus to saddle up across the street to hit the market before the Sabbath. My trip to the market was a relatively quick visit I knew what I needed and I didn't want to impulse purchase too. I did okay only $18 and change which is a bad for me and the trip to the market. I even brought home a lot basket which kind of surprised me the usually catch me when I'm trying to leave with a basket on my lap. I'll have to return it on Monday. I'm always surprised at how well things go together when the kitchens relatively clean. I had all the cutlery and cutting boards washed it out top of the stove is clean I was set. I quickly process the onion and green pepper through it in with the meat but the spices together that I used at its garlic powder, Worchester sauce. I mixed it all together and soon had ended its pan and into the oven. If there was a problem at all with today's cooking (beside the horrific mess silencing debate) it's getting the end product out of the hot oven. I ended up letting the product cool toy could get around close enough to lift up the meatloaf and put it on the stove. I was a little unhappy with the way the meatloaf looks, not too appetizing, but I must say taste wise for the best meatloaf's I've ever made. I think it was the extra Worchester sauce I put in. Now I just have to put it in some kind of storage device and throw it in the refrigerator for the rest of the week released the 1st of the week. I still plan to cook a pie tonight. I purchased a frozen apple pie earlier this week not got around to cook it yet. I need to cook it just so I have more space in the freezer and have it available case I need to have a sweet to eat over the Sunday. So, it was a good day cooking for me. Not only did I get out of the house (early morning coffee with Billie my neighbor) I got to the market and purchased ingredients for a killer meatloaf. It's not like a football game or a trip to the fair or even a bus ride but I think it was a pretty good Saturday all things considered…

Friday Night Frights

 

You know what's weird? Is this whole economic inflation thing at least it's weird for me. If I dwell on it too long the whole concept can actually frighten me. And maybe I need to be frightened about the whole inflation thing. I believe I've discussed before how I'm kind of fascinated with the whole concept of economics. I can't wish I'd studied it more when at the University. I listened to Marketplace every day which certainly gives me a rundown on what's going on not that I really understand a lot of it but I do understand the interviews they have with various individuals. You know these “people living within the economy” how they're doing and how their surviving everyone from farmers and farm families to steelworkers and folks just trying to survive going to the market for groceries in such. It gets a little spooky listening to all these folks talking about how much more there having to spend for their groceries and services. I do notice the prices on the things that I am purchasing either increasing our folks packaging their items and smaller containers and charging the same price as before.

Right now my lifestyle is not really changed, since I don't do a whole lot anyway, I suppose this is a blessing of sorts. I read and I have a whole library upstairs as well as if I want to purchase a book that could via the Internet or Amazon. I still get these volumes at dirt prices so I'm not feeling the pinch that way. I'm kind of waiting for some sort of rent increase but nothing has happened yet I don't think it will be significant if it does. This place I live in is kind of rent controlled. I shudder to think what would happen if that were to change. I've not heard anything and I would I think because major changes from management would be bounced off the Board of Directors of which I am one. We do have a meeting coming up next week, our quarterly board meeting and who knows what will happen then. I worry that our director will retire shortly he certainly deserves to but my little spooked about who would replace him when he does retire. I should have more faith in the guise of the top they usually do pretty good. I suppose if I bought new clothes I might notice some price increases. But if and when I do buy new clothes there usually at some kind of discount website. I've thought about some new shoes they seem a bit more expensive but if I were to go to one of the big stores I have shoe departments for cheap I could probably do okay. To be honest, one of the reasons I've done so well I believe, is that I've really held onto the presidential money or whatever that was called Pres. Biden gave All-Americans a couple years ago. I think I've just about exhausted it now luckily, I've put a little in savings, so if I had to purchase something out of the ordinary that my monthly pension could not handle I think I would be okay. But I'm still feeling anxious to the point where I turned off the local as well as national news. It was all way too painful for a Friday night.

Weekend looks pretty good but I don't really plan on doing a whole heck of a lot. Maybe I'll bus up to Walmart are the stores across the street just to look around then for a change of view not that I need one. Have coffee tomorrow morning with my neighbor were going across the street to the coffee shop Hidden Peaks and then later Sunday morning all have breakfast with Mark Anthony admitted to granddaughter who says I have nothing to do?…

Like Low Hanging Fruit

 

I like Thursday's, not as much as I like Friday's my Thursdays definitely have a great appeal to me and they feel good too. I believe now long-ago post I wrote about how I would start my weekends on Thursday when I was in high school when it visit my quadriplegic friend, Gino at his residence which was a long-term care facility – – that's fodder for another post. Anyway, my visits to Gino maybe look forward to Thursday then of course Friday which was the gateway to the weekend. The feelings for 30 have stuck. Thursdays now, at the apartment complex is “Coffee Social” a phenomenon I visited a number of times at this blog. It's just time when coffee served some form of pastry to individuals who show up. Of course it's for residents here at the apartment complex but it's a thinly veiled socialization project. They don't charge but highly suggest that everyone pays a dollar and some people do some people don't. I do make a point of always held a dollar bill the throne the table when I show up to the coffee social. Oddly, I have to admit in the rather bizarre way I actually look forward to the coffee social and communicated with folks who are basically my neighbors that I don't see except at this function or other similar functions. Up until this year I didn't even know her most of the people lived in this complex and that's on me I guess, I've chosen to be a social isolate, I don't know why. Maybe it's just my shine nature. Anyway today they talked about Bingo.

Bingo is another thinly veiled operation perpetuated by one of the long-term care facilities as a function to celebrate all the birthdays of a particular month so it's a monthly bingo fest. Of course, the people who put on the bingo game are nursing staff from the care facility and the person in charge is a social worker who also is looking to provide services for folks to show up for the bingo game and don't have home healthcare or whatever who might be eligible. In effect low hanging fruit. Easy pickings. I wish I felt better about these folks but to them I think for just part of their meal ticket. I'm sure they go to these kind of apartment complexes all over the valley scrounging up potential clients. We have folks from durable medical facilities, long-term care facilities in general insurance companies all looking for “potentials”. I can't believe who shows up to these things be a today, week after week. Don't they know they're being utilized and even worse they are totally fallen into the whole stereotype of senior citizens playing bingo for stupid little stuffed toys. When I wouldn't go even if they had decent prizes. Little old ladies with 2 or 3 cards in front of him praying they get the right numbers to shout “bingo!”. Bingo is one of the biggest crowd gathers for the apartment complex. I'm always totally surprised at how many people show up. I actually did the day just so I could take some images. They build this says bingo and ice cream I didn't see any ice cream just cheap little store bakery cupcakes and the always present bottled water. Like I said I'm just amazed at how many people show up praying for a chance to scream “Bingo!” For a silly stuffed animal…

Gothic Afternoon

Wednesday We are still quite a ways out from fall equinox which is Thursday the 22nd of this month. Next week. However the day was overcast with significance amounts of moisture falling different parts of the city but not too much here in Taylorsville. Enough however to keep me inside most the day. In fact I was chilly to the point that I cranked up the heater just under my workstation here at the computer. I guess I could've wore long sleeves but just not ready for that yet. I gave Gloria a row of quarters a few extra bucks this morning for some significant cleaning around the apartment or did my business. Gloria did not ask for the money of course she's way too smart for that I'm happy to be able to provide a little bit of direct income to the girl. She has a rough life but I'm really fortunate that she's part of my staff. I mean she would clean the apartment as much as she did for nothing had I asked. But she's out of quarters and who knows what else so, 15 extra bucks is really nothing for me, right now, but could be everything for her expression was laundry coming up. So not only did she clean the apartment i.e. swept the floors little mopping and cleaned out some of the countertops but makes my apartment look livable. You know me in chaos? Already am beginning to mess up the floors. Luckily, a Supergirl one more time before the weekend and maybe we can get a little bit more cleaning done by then. She's got a part-time job over the weekend on however come over for a couple hours and do little bit more deep cleaning right now it's a fairly good topical attack to the apartment. I don't for see much difference for the rest of the week. Be having storm after storm with a good probability of thundershowers and rain really typical weather for the autumn. I was always amazed at how many Gothic novels i.e. Frankenstein and such take place in early to late autumn even the infamous Raven takes place in December which I'm sure happen before the 21st so technically “nevermore” happened in late autumn. Just makes sense maybe it's the onset of the early sundown's and typically more moisture affecting the evenings or the days for that matter. Today wasn't necessarily cold when I went outside the few times that I did but inside city at my computer it was chilly again chilly enough to start my heater can sit back and enjoy a long afternoon drifting in and out of consciousness and feeling just a little guilty for not doing morewith a glorious late summer afternoon quickly turning to fall

Tuesday Night Gruel

 

gruel from the Internet much different than what I make

I blew out my kitchen again, of course not literally, I just wanted to finish the job I started yesterday when I tried up some chicken and made some rights. It was a good evening aside from making a total mess out of the kitchen. I now have gruel for the rest of the week. Actually gruel is a liquidy dish made from mush or something of some sort but I use the term as anything whipped up with what ingredients might be available. This was my idea of food in the medieval times when they actually referred to a dish as gruel. Anyway when this dish is not gruel actually Frank! I think I've addressed the history of this name but quickly Frank Bono core a roommate that I had at one point in time from Boston Massachusetts. He made a concoction consisting of one roast chicken (which he would roast in my oven) then MJ B minute rice which is mixed with onions celery carrots and everything was mixed and served with the chicken when the chicken was done. Over the years I've not really roasted a chicken but would use whatever chicken I had available anything from canned chicken to leftover KFC and anything in between. Today's chicken was chicken parts I got from the food bank last year and has been sleeping coldly in the freezer ever since. I was really pleased with how well everything went together. I have never done this before but since I actually had the rice made last night I put the fried chicken parts into the saucepan that I made the rice in and shoved everything into the refrigerator and it worked just fine on top of that this evening as I finished my supper of a bowl of Frank/gruel a shovel all the leftovers back into the said saucepan covered it through the whole thing into the refrigerator. I've never done that before. I've always done this horrible search trying to find 1^st a plastic container big enough to hold the leftovers then finally the top of actually matches the container. I sidestepped that whole trauma this time and hopefully I've got a solution soon.

Invariably I buy a couple of plastic containers from the market or I do the thing of saving things I've purchased in the plastic container to use as a storage device when I cook something that I want a refrigerate for leftovers. Invariably within weeks all the plastic containers amid mixed with all the other containers as well as with the lid's. They're all essentially useless on unless I figure out a way to pull all the plastic containers out as well as the lives and try to match. What I want to do now is throw all that stuff away and invest in a brand-new set of containers all matched and already to go. Now talks cheap whether I carried this through or not I don't know but that's what I want to do saw how large containers and then small serving size containers and want to figure out a system that they will all be accessible when I need them. I know me well enough to know that I will probably just keep adding containers even if I get these new ones and soon I'll have the trauma all over again. What I need to do is just limit myself to X amount of containers so I know exactly how many I have and where their lids are. Now I just have to sweep the kitchen floor and watch a few dishes either tonight or tomorrow before my staff gets here so they don't know how horrible a kitchen housekeeper I am but I'm pretty excited to have gruel for the rest of the week…

Cooking Monday Night

 

I'm cooking tonight and that's a good sign for me anyway. I love to cook and I haven't cooked in some time not real cooking. I want things up you know hotdogs in the microwave, various frozen items in the little toaster oven – – which works really well actually – – but real bona fide cooking like garb rock the other morning and Frank which I was going to make today but now I think I'll wait till tomorrow especially since there will not be a Assist meeting so I don't have to go in Salt Lake. Which is good, not going in Salt Lake, because they're forecasting rain tomorrow and a significant drop in temperature. I will not weep because of the death of summer but I'll be glad I don't have to go in.

So like I said, I'm cooking which means I'm messing with the stove which means I haven't really watched the burners and some time and so as I keep the boiling water it's also cooking off a lot of crap on the cooktop. This is also causing a great deal of smoke and what that means: the high piercing shriek of the fire/smoke alarm. Fortunately, aside from the smell of carbon and other things burning the waters been brought to a boil and I've switched the heat down to simmer which means the smoking top will gradually stop. Lucky for me now smoke alarm now calling the resident advisor to turn off the shrieking system and I could get all my ingredients together for building Frank tomorrow. Still need to process celery, onions and carrots and whatever else I can find in the freezer that needs to be used up. The best part about Frank it can really use anything I can find. The checkout took out last night has been cooked and I'll chop it up further tomorrow to add to the dish. I'm really excited now I haven't cooked as much as I would like to have recently.

I finished streaming all 3 seasons of the Daredevil series which I actually enjoyed and I'm kind of sad that they're not making any more seasons. Oddly, the whole thing was done years ago and I didn't even know it. I thought I was going to get a reprieve and not have to watch anymore series for a while but you know what I found that Disney or whoever is just uploaded to her 3 other series that I might be interested in one especially The Punisher I've not really been interested in this individual before I saw a couple of cameos the guy did for Daredevil. I think I might enjoy the series but we'll see. Looks like they've got about 2 seasons which it be about 26 hours. I don't really binge but I will watch more than one episode at a sitting if I can get away with it. Something to look forward to on dismal gray autumn and winter weekends.

As you can tell by the way am verbally dancing I really haven't been doing a whole heck of a lot this day. It's a Monday will last great days of the summer about the likes of my kitchen and cooking up a storm…

Of Cats and Jets

 

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I kind of thought I was doomed this morning. I had that dark feeling that nothing was going to go right after I had woken about 3:30 AM and even though I try to get back to sleep was kind of a no go. The constant reader will remember that on Sunday mornings I typically go out to breakfast with my son and granddaughter and we meet at 8 a.m. so I like to be up by 6 AM to make sure I'm ready to drive my chair down to the restaurant. Anyway I, finally must've fallen back to sleep because all the sudden I woke it was 6:05 AM totally amazing. I have to transfer carefully if I slip anywhere along the line and I hit the floor it's far department time and that's not good for a host of reasons.

The 1^st thing that went wrong was that I dropped my specially hook. A long stick with the bent hook on the end that I use for picking things up off the floor if I need. The stick fell off my bed space and caught in the fabric of the bottom of my foot box. This is kind of spooky because I next dropped my controller, my bed controller you know that device that lists the bed up up down, list the head of the bed up and down as well as the foot of the bed. This device totally assists me in my transfers. And I really needed the hotel is caught in my foot box to pick it up off the floor well that did not happen. Luckily I keep a number of sticks close to my bed and I was able to finally use one of sticks with the rubberized and that the coil cord and able to use the the pendant again. This is up about 20 minutes and like I said I only have 120 to get ready. Fortunately with the pendant arrays they head of the bed up making the transfer simple and safe. I didn't do what I usually do when I get up 1^st thing like coffee and make my specialized drink. Everything was focused on getting ready at that's what I did. I was able to do everything I need to do still have 20 minutes before I had to get to the restaurant which is a five-minute role. It turned out to be a good morning little bit by drink grabbed my stuff and head out the door.

We had an enjoyable breakfast and then I was back to the apartment is only around 9:30 AM. I tried to as little as possible on Sundays no particular reason except just to rest up a little bit. So I went out to the common area outside, the patio to read and enjoy the morning which I did. I wasn't shocked or anything but I was chagrined to find I had to share the patio with the feline that I cannot remember the name. This cat is a mess this certainly taken over the patio area – – best because a number of other residents tends to feed them – – but I was at the decent mood and if the cat didn't bother me I wasn't going to bother the Except maybe take its image which I did the cat didn't seem to mind. And that was pretty much it for the rest of the day. I played with my cell phone – – I'm actually playing the game • sucked into over the last couple weeks. Updated a journal and watched westbound aircraft fly into the area for windows where but the Jets are stacked up in the airplanes are coming in 10 minutes apart all afternoon long. I can still hear the jet engines coming in. It's almost dusk and if our totally motivated I could go out and see the aircraft stacked up one behind the others far back as the big front lights shine coming in 10 minutes apart until whenever the jets or people are both run out…

September Saturday

 

As much as I hate to say goodbye to the good hot weather and anticipate the ever nearer cold weather there is that bit of blessed time between seasons that is downright beautiful and a joy to live through. Even with the high smoke brought in from the California fires the day was kind of beautiful not that I did anything spectacular with it aside from just enjoy I'm glad to live through it. As you can see from the days posting photograph/image the foliage of the trees around this area are still quite green with no hint yet of the change. I sat today out on the patio enjoying what sunshine was able to get through the smoke covering. You can see that the tables and chairs for the patio are all being brought together now for some kind of storage over the winter months. The most likely just be pushed underneath the roof overhang. I sat in the haze playing with my cell phone, reading messages and just enjoying the afternoon.

I thought about jumping the bus going into the city for the Greek Festival or maybe even the state fair where just couldn't muster the interest or desire. It is more important to be still and enjoy the moment. I cooked this afternoon. My new plan for my Saturday afternoon style is to cook something that can be used only for the simple Sunday meal but also which can be used for meals the following week. I purchased a bag of broccoli tops/crowns a week or so ago and I did not want to lose them. I still had a little less than half of a can of corn beef which I used on the garb rock that I prepared last week. The had everything I needed for another batch so that's what I did this afternoon. I believe the cool now and it's about ready to stow in the refrigerator for next week. I took out chicken aspect in the freezer for some time and I'm anxious to get it at least semi processed/cooked that I can use for Frank next week maybe cook some on Monday. I checked I still have celery one more onion I would like a carrot or 2 but can get by without them if I need. A healthy better Frank would be good for next week and use up the frozen meat. I'm sure the meets okay is spending frozen all this time but in light of what's gone on recently with food storage my goal is to use everything in this next quarter and start replenishing with much more current “use by” dates. May not be noble but it certainly much more practical. I'm thankful that I did not get sick from the clam chowder that I had yesterday.

It's Saturday afternoon in Taylorsville local fire station is really beginning to dispatch engines really often now which is often the case on Saturday nights. I will probably watch one or 2 episodes of daredevil and call it a night and get ready to go to breakfast tomorrow morning with Mark Anthony and whoever else might show up. I sent a message to Mark A regarding tomorrow morning live yet to hear anything back but sure he'll be there hopefully Jasmine who join. I doubt if I'll watch the news tonight looks like college football's got the networks pretty much taking care of as far as national news. Local news I can probably do without and national is all but the death of Queen Elizabeth and the pageantry of the final party for the old girl. Queen Elizabeth and her passing hardly qualify as hard-core news. I'm going out now to catch some more rays of the sun before setting. I imagine by this time next week the trees will begin turning getting ready for the fall color pageant but who knows global warming may have something totally different than mine and I'll just have to enjoy whatever that might be…

Lunch?

 

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I know I probably said every week but I just love Fridays. Even though I'm not working I still feel the end of the week is special if not for me for everybody who IS working. Perhaps I'm just getting off all these working folks appreciation of the end of the week vicariously. The cold front finally wandered into the Wasatch front overnight and temperatures finally came down. Today asked he felt like fall both from the temperature and the dampened light. The cold front actually sucked in a lot of smoke from surrounding states who are suffering Forest and Range fires. Even though we didn't have many clouds the kind of felt overcast by all the smoke in the environment. There were a couple times I even thought perhaps I should go in and change into a longsleeved shirt particularly if I go anywhere. I did not however and I did go somewhere. I took myself to the movie which I thought was a great way to end the week. The movie was kind of weird. Actually, I did not think there was many movies to choose from it only went of this film because Roy Schneider starred in the male lead. Supposedly, it was the last film before his death and I can believe that. Oddly however that is not really what this blog post is about.

My morning routine went so well I was feeling very charged up when Gloria left. She put new patchwork on my butt which may be filled terribly protected. I checked on the movie date the bus times and found I could get to an early movie by 12:40 PM if I hustled. Was already dressed and I had my “to go” bag right by my door and it was packed. So I just had to grab that in my stick and make sure I had my phone and took off to the bus stop. The image amusing for today's posting is what I saw at the bus stop on my side of the street a full bottle of something I think was some kind salad dressing and the corn beef sandwich unopened. There was a time when I was not thought anything of claiming this find for myself. Like a gift from some unknown provider. But since the other week when my neighbor from across the hall return to Canada cranberry sauce I gave her when she asked if I had any. It seems she has a problem with cans out of date and granted this was probably close to 12 years out of date I did not think that was too weird. In fact I was a little offended but I've been thinking about this all week. A couple weeks ago I opened a jar of peanut butter which was a number of years post its “used by” date and I can actually tell significant change in the flavor. I don't think it was rancid but it was certainly old and didn't taste very well. I would certainly have eaten this with gusto if we were in the famine, war or some other challenge that made it imperative to live off your supply. Luckily the food bank usually just produces food that's either right on the date or year or so passed and it's pretty decent. Now, eating unattached food found in the public sector that something quite different and in light of just incredibly weird events happening in the last couple years it's best to leave such “treats” alone and leave it for some other hobo– – in fact had I been the real citizen should be just scooped up the “treasure” and ushered them into the garbage bin nearby but I can't do that.

Tonight because it was Friday because I very much would like to go to Market St., Grill in order a bowl of clam chowder I opened up a can of clam chowder that I brought over from the house when I moved into this apartment. I think they use by date was 2014! I must admit I was a little jittery after I opened up a can and threw it in me saucepan to heat. After I brought it to boil let it cool I tasted the soup and it still kind of tasted like clam chowder but there is definitely another flavor permeating the soup which I think is just age. I'm way too cheap to throw the whole thing out so I ate the soup as best I could with lots of crackers and pepper and conviction of maybe going through the other cancel soup I have been other things throwing away those way past the “use by” dates and over the next year cycle all them out replacing them with fresh canned goods is the least I can …