Brother Time… Precious

 

I knew today was going to be odd just because I was going to have to give up my regular chair so that can house repairs done on it. Giving up my chair also means I have to go to my backup chair which is a bit of a puzzle if not a pill. I'm thankful to have access to this chair, a piece of equipment I know and somewhat love especially is nothing else around which be the case if I didn't have access to my old equipment. Still however when the reasons I got the new chair or the current chair is because the old one is wearing out. I think the left motor is in trouble of a hard time turning the chair to the left. Then parts are begin the fall off the makes the whole vehicle somewhat worrisome and I don't think dependable for any extended trips. I'm not going to address the fact that I have a cushion in that chair but probably less than supportive. I think subconsciously thinking about this chair was so unnerving that I had not necessarily nightmares very uncomfortable dreams and waking periods throughout the night. Quite frankly, I'm surprised I'm doing as well as I am at this semi-late hour.

I pretend I can deal with this chair for the usual 24 hour period that I'm without the other. Remember, my wheelchair shop orders and all the parts then collects my chair is the work done all one time and usually brings back the next night. Here's crossing my fingers. Like I said I can usually deal with this chair for 24 hours. But today or this evening the left side of my foot box on this chair fell off! And I was thinking to myself will and don't really want to bother my brother but the same time I don't do something to this foot box I may be in jeopardy in the morning when I do the transfer from the bed to the chair. I've got to be sure that my feet are going to be secure in the foot box. I worry that if I foot should slip off the foot box or the footplate that my whole body just might slip off of the chair then it's fire engine time. So as much as I didn't want to bother my brother this evening I bothered my brother. Luckily I caught them on a night when they didn't have anything scheduled except for one's personal life and he just had finished dinner so he came right over. Luckily all the way around this was a simple fix for my brother. For me I do not have a chance in hell trying to fix the thing. Too little nuts which anchored the foot box in place had been lost causing the left foot box completely come off the footplate. Carl just had to go across the street to the portable store and get a couple of nuts and washers, came back with a little finagling got the foot box back in place and I think I'll be safe for tomorrow morning transfers and dressing.and I'm anxiously waiting for the return of the chair

Cold Days and Clear Vision

 

I hate to harp on the weather but seriously is the major thing happening in my life right now. I'm really allowing the severity of the weather dictate as to whether I go anywhere not in my power chair. I have to admit that it's easier to stay in where it's warm and dry and relatively interesting. Snow fell during the night minimal but significant to the point where snow removers are brought out early this morning and I could hear them scraping outside my window. The clouds were dark and heavy when I got up also reinforcing my need to stay in. The only thing on my agenda today was a eye examination that was being offered by some ocular group to folks are at the apartment complex. I figure this be a good way to get an prescription for new lenses since the lenses of my glasses now our scuffed up to the point where they are almost useless. I could've gotten the appointment for an earlytime like 8 o'clock 10 o'clock or 1 o'clock but I wasn't sure at the time that I've even be in the area since it is Tuesday morning when I typically have my Assist meetings. Therefore, even if I did have my Assist meeting I would be back in time so I set the appointment for 4 PM. There is no Assist meeting unluckily is able to move where appointment down to 3:30 PM which didn't seem quite so bad.

Interestingly optometry operation is fairly sophisticated. This optometry group takes over a section of our community room setting up a small office and exam area. Got a little front desk office that takes care of all the appointments as well as the billing. They're essentially picking low fruit by offering these examinations to people with Medicare or Medicaid or whoever will is paying and then offering to sell the people glasses other kinds of optometry paraphernalia needed when you're a glass (as in glasses) wearing American. I was amazed at how much time the optometrist met with me. He was very social and very talkative as I can be. I was intrigued to have somebody I can actually ask questions about the optometry profession and how they tied it with the other medical professions. Did he feel they were respected as far as optometry been part of the medical profession by other medical professionals. Sort of like to medical doctors really think dentists are real doctors too. He was quite candid and kind of felt that yes optometry did get less respect from his medical colleagues that he'd prefer but they're pretty much used to that. The whole idea is very political and was very interesting to hear how the large part of the stature of the optometry profession has been dictated by insurance companies as to what is medicine and what is not of course will be covered will not be covered by an insurance provider. Excuse the pun but eye-opening. Like I said I spent a long time with this guy I think he was just excited having someone to visit with you didn't drag a small dog or cat along to the examination. Everybody who gotten examination today had to provide their insurance cards are with their carrier but what is system spending the whole day if not more at the living facilities of a bunch of seniors who of course need to have their vision checked out one where the other and have a guaranteed payment. It would be kind of nerve-racking doing this day in and day out unless you really love people in my guy really did I could tell recently had a mixture story my enjoyed my time with them and in the end got my prescription for new lenses. I don't know file order a new lenses anytime soon but who knows this may have made all the difference…okay

Snow Alert!

 

I probably didn't need to. Goodness, I have enough stuff in my pantry to get through a month or so if I had to but still the excitement of the approaching storm made me feel I want to make sure I had enough of my regular food to get by. I still consuming a great deal of pickled jalapeno peppers and spicy vegetable juice every morning. Also, I noticed I was running out of beef taquitos and frozen burritos. My Monday staff person is often hungry when she gets here, I'm her 1^st person of the day, she leaves pretty early to get here on time. It's the least I can do is to have something for the have breakfast with and she does like both of those items. I've been thinking about also heating up some of my biscuits, baking soda biscuits and opening up a can of sausage gravy that you have a is just a breakfast of baking soda biscuits and sausage gravy a breakfast of champions.

The weather people have been forecasting the store for some time. I was kind of like getting out of the apartment and I blame myself for that because Liss was an HALF hour early. I was really quite behind schedule this morning. Still I dallied around this morning and finally when I did get out to the market I had little issue going but coming home the storm had decided to focus itself and begin with a vengeance started out with a little rain and sprinkles to finally huge snowflakes. I was not soaked when I got home but I was wet and cold. I did even where a lap blanket just to make sure I wasn't too cold. So now I have everything I need 2 more bottles of juice and 3 cans of sliced jalapenos pickled. A whole box of crackers and all kinds of soup in my pantry canned. I still have the fixings for a batch of gar-broc. I have steak and chicken in the fridge freezer and 3 good-sized potatoes. I'm set for whatever the storm will bring. In fact or in a bit of a snow pattern now with storms following each other every couple days now for the next foreseeable future. I have not heard about the drought being over that certainly be affected. The snow geeks are beside themselves with excitement with the “greatest snow on earth” and the poor are just cold, wet and hungry and search for affordable if not accessible housing. Not to be smug but I'm set. Also, the but wound I thought that I had and it was a but wound did not seem as bad this morning when Lissy inspected by but. She put on a pretty good dressing and reassured me I was going to live.

It was not an exciting day but semi-productive and enjoyable. I got my sheets changed Lissy gave me another set of sheets that her sons had grown of. She put on flannel type sheets exactly what I need with a snow storm approaching that it's always cold when the snows on the ground

Hold Out

 

Truly been sort of a crazy autumn this year. We held less than a month before true winter begins and it's cold some days very cold yet the silly tree outside my window has yet to drop its leaves. Sure it's let a couple go here and there but to my recollection that little tree usually has everything gone by Thanksgiving but not this year they don't really know why. Not that it matters a whole lot because I'm sure the next couple days with a good wind the rest of those fleas are going tumble down. Still I scratch my head every morning when I get up and look outside the window and see my tree still frocked out in its summer wear.

Mark Anthony and Jasmine both are recouped to the point that were willing to head out this morning for Sunday breakfast. We have missed almost a month of breakfast now and it felt good to get back in the swing of the breakfast thing. I was late meeting up with the group this morning. They had called to let me know that they were running late indicating I probably had 20 minutes before they would be in to the restaurant so I started to get involved in something else to occupy my time in got a text that they were there. I quickly threw myself together and flew down to the restaurant. It's kind of amazing in the section where we always sit there for 5 other groups that always sit there as well and it was like old home week seeing these folks I hadn't seen for a couple weeks. We don't say a lot to each other more like nodding heads and occasionally a word here there but general acknowledgment.there's one group of old guys who sit right behind us. I was annoyed at 1^st when Pam waitress type person sat them behind us they were noisy kind of gruff and they seem to crowd me a little bit. However I was interested to overhear their conversations from time to time. Old guys were probably as old as I am some retired and some not working in conventional job settings but to part-time work and things like drivers for the various car services or transportation services that seems to a been popping up since the Covid hit a lot of regular work disappeared. These guys are able to do these part-time jobs and make enough along with whatever subsidy i.e. Social Security type stuff they might be getting to make it enough to have Sunday breakfast and coffee with the boys. I've grown to enjoy the fact they sit behind me now and enjoy our encounters when we have them.

We had our regular breakfast Mark and I in Jasmine and of course Jaxon but he never orders breakfast. I don't know if he eats before he comes our test go to breakfast with his family somewhere afterwards but the lab never eats except when Jasmine stuffs with food off her plate. Usually Jaxon avoids her pestering but every once a while relents and do not piece of soggy bacon the meat torn off leaving the fat and he does that grudgingly. Jaxon is a good kid but very young and has a long way to go. He fits in with our local group quite comfortably is smart enough to laugh at all of my jokes. The gets pretty bright picks up on a lot of things other folks of the table miss seem to have a little bit of a bond perhaps his best just a little bond never know how these things will work out.

Saturday Citrus

 

I can't believe that I almost forgot to write in my blog today. I just finished a Seinfeld episode started wondering if I actually had written when I checked sure enough I had not! That's not like me. Many times my blog is the only important thing I do during the day and that's not a very important. So here I am 7 o'clock on Saturday night trying to put a blog entry together.

Unit one of my pet peeves is, not having a vehicle at my disposal, is how difficult it is if you're in a wheelchair even a power chair to get large items the market or when you purchase a lot of items of the market more than just for the basket that I take with me. The other pet peeve is that my local market does not carry citrus fruit in bags communal plastic bags like he usually gets the market like a bag of 10 grapefruit or bag of 10 oranges. Anyway, I was a stroll around the apartment this afternoon when I got a call from my brother who indicated he'd be in my area is there anything I needed from the market. And for some reason I instantly thought a grapefruits from Walmart where I've seen that they did have plastic sacks of fruit. So I asked him if he would swing by and pick one up for me. I really appreciated his reaching out to ask what I needed. I have sort of curtailed what what I'm asking my brother to do for me especially since he had his hips replaced. Actually he's getting pretty well healed now which is encouraging but that the same time I don't want him to think that I just want him in my life to take care the things I can't do by myself. While he was here delivering the oranges I have them do some fixes to my power chair as well. Just little things quickly done and with little effort and no stress to replace hips. I almost had me come over last week to screw the power strip to buy wooden bedside stand. As it is now the charger has a pretty thick plastic cord that always causes the the plug-in part to twist am always worried that it'll pull them cord that powers my bed out and leave me stranded. When I 1^st called and asked for the assist a week or so ago I was just getting over the last illness and he seemed a little reticent. We agreed to wait until we both felt better but when he called the other day to see if it was a good time to come over I ask a told him that's okay I've some regard taken care of. I haven't but at the same time I think I just live with it for a while. I may even tried to do it myself. Sometimes I worry that I'm losing my independence. This is a stupid thing I know I'm seriously as I age I'm going to need more and more assists I can just tell that now. But for now I'll get by with the power strip dangling on the side of the wood contraption. I just have to be careful to sure that the power beds plugged in all the way every night. However I'm totally excited about having a bag of grapefruit and a brother who delivers…

Fearing Shearing

 

I do a pretty good this morning until I did buy shower with my home health person she informed me that there is bleeding in my room and area. On one of my hips! I sure didn't feel it coming on as far as that goes which is kind of odd music pretty sensitive about that kind of stuff. The way came on so quick. We didn't see anything on Wednesday when we did my shower I'm wondering if it's issue of shearing! This terrifies me. We put some patches on and hopefully the last until Monday when I'll see Melissa and see what she says. Of course I want to blame my cushion or lack of one and anything else for the fact that I'm getting old and my skin is getting more and more dangerous/risky. I thought that I had so well combated this issue with the whole “2^nd skin close quotes option that I've been practicing last couple months. Seemed like it was doing pretty good. Now I just got a see what we can do as a go forward certainly puts a damper on my Christmas joyfulness.

I elected to stay inside the whole day. I watched a movie and I guess I could been more productive but the wound issue has so taken the wind out of my sails right now. I did mop the bathroom however which really needed it. I wish I could've done a better job at its better than nothing and smells clean. I still have lots of Thanksgiving stuff around food wise so I'm not doing bad on food. I well not need to go to the market for a while except for fresh fruit should I desire. I suppose I can find someone to shop for me if I really needed to and maybe we can stop at the market after breakfast on Sunday if need be. Supposed to snow next week I'll be surprised if we see that happen.

Check out the date, it is 25 November that means we are month away from Christmas that really kind depresses me. I do such a poor job shopping anyway and not really knowing how to get that to anybody I do purchase something for them. I can always default and send either cards or Internet gift certificates which is it really bad actually. It allows the person to buy whatever they want and not have to deal with cash or whatever but then most out of it have to wait until whatever they buy for themselves gets there be of the mails. I personally like those kind of gifts something by a lot of stuff off the Internet. I suppose giftgiving this year will work its way out anyway one way or the other. Once again I apologize for being so down. Hopefully, by Monday will see some improvement but perhaps have to see what happens if it gets worse and maybe we can combat the situation with home medical services like I had with the Burns last summer. I don't think this is the end is to hope not

T-Day

 

green being casserole hot in the oven

I think I was actually excited about today being Thanksgiving when I woke this morning. I woke a little earlier than usual about 5:30 AM and hung around the bed for a minute or 2 before jumping into my day. There was talk about being a coffee klatch today so I got dressed relatively quick and went down to the common room and of course there was nothing going on. This wasn't a really big issue but was only 8 AM to 8 AM and 9:30 AM when the klatch is false start. Now I still wanted to get a pumpkin pie for my dessert for today which would mean going across the street to the market. One of the folks here had informed me that Macy's would be closed all day. I kind of doubted that but who knows maybe they knew something I didn't so I called the market and sure enough they were going to be open till 2 PM which constructs out in my mind. This allows last-minute shoppers to get something and still allows the market staff get home with their family should be so desire.

I was quite relieved that traffic was so minimal on Redwood Road but I didn't have to go all the way to the light. This went a little ways down to the driveway and zipped across Redwood Road straight to the market. I don't know why I had such a fixation to get a pumpkin pie probably more than I wanted to spend for a lot more pie that I want to eat. But I found one that was still little frozen. I had everything else that you slice it back home. And excitedly I began fixing the green bean casserole. For a brief moment I was little worried that I didn't have the ingredients. Eventually I found a can of mushroom soup, green beans and a couple of cans of fried onions or as I set. One of the things I found followers of the market were quite durable 8 x 8 10 or aluminum cooking vessels. These are just perfect for side dishes and specifically today the green bean casserole literally a couple bucks!

The casserole came together fairly easily. I chose one of my steel pots to mix everything up with before I put them in the 8 x 8” panda to cook. One can of mushrooms soup, a couple of half of milk, teaspoon of soy sauce, small bits of cheddar cheese, all mixed up bad 2/3 cup of fried onions mixed thoroughly of the rest of the onions another 2/3 cup and then put in the baking dish then into the oven. 350° for 20 minutes I did 30. Came out great. So I heated up my hungry man turkey dinner then pulled out the warm dinner put on a big plate put on the pieces a turkey had gotten from the apartment Thanksgiving leftover plate. Heated up the gravy, I opened one count of Campbells turkey gravy. The only thing was a failure was the mashed potatoes I should've made some from dehydrated flakes are cooked one of the big potatoes I purchased. They are pretty watery and cold this is not everything else was great specially warmed up dressing. I had a real-life authentic Thanksgiving dinner with much less stress than I've had in other years. This is definitely the way to do it if I'm to do it for myself. The pumpkin pie was okay certainly not world-class but good enough for this holiday.

Interestingly I had a small mako my door as I was finishing up my Thanksgiving dinner and it was Tim my friend who lives on other side of the building. She had scored one of the Salvation Army turkey dinners. I was astonished at how nice that dinner locked. The ones I had before were gross. I put in the fridge and I'm looking forward to another great dinner very very soon…

Thanksgiving Eve

 

Well tomorrow is the big day not really a big day just seems to be a big day. I'm not going anywhere but forgot Turkey and today I actually put together the dressing and I have the men which Turkey dinner I should have enough. And also whip up some think potatoes as well as I have a Turkey gravy and more than set. I held back from going across the street to the market today I didn't have Gloria put on my shoes not that would've stopped me. I just figured I had enough to get through Thanksgiving. Now however it's 7:45 PM on Wednesday and I'm wondering if I should've gotten a pumpkin pie. I toyed actually with the idea of building one but I just don't have enough self-confidence right now our space. I'm really trying to hold back from trying to believe I can make this a big deal is just Thanksgiving.

The apartment is in relatively decent shape. Gloria was in really no condition to do any cleaning today and it didn't need to. I had the sinks pretty well cleaned out and the frying pans and pans relatively clean.I have milk and a couple of cookies if I need them still lots of nuts and coffee. I've even thought about putting together a batch of garb rock for tomorrow morning but I don't know. It might be a little more work that I want to do on a holiday morning. I did the weeks laundry today, a day early because tomorrow is the holiday I wasn't sure what it would bring and what I would need clothes-wise so having a nice set of shorts available might be wise. I know I could've done them tomorrow but doing laundry made me feel productive. We still need to sweep the floors before tomorrow. If I have enough energy I might get the kitchen done tonight. I woke early this morning couldn't get back to sleep I don't know what it was false excited for the holiday or exactly what. I think I festered a lot regarding the production of the turkey dressing. I thought it was going to be more difficult than it turned out.

I spending a lot of time talking/texting with this new person I found on the Internet or who found me on disability nudes. This texting relationship is really turning into something interesting. This person has some major weight issues which makes her relatively extremely shy, we have a few things in common. She seems fascinated with my home health person who also has some of the same body issues. I'm sort of putting these 2 together. I doubt if they really ever will go together but maybe they can have some information to share with each other which might help each other out. Both have big boobs and are considering the possibility of a breast reduction surgery. I've never seen this person just texted her on the Internet. She's a para seems to have a fairly active life would still feel somewhat isolated and seems to enjoy spending time with me on the Internet texting each other. The only drawback is when I'm visiting with this person via the text I'm not doing anything else done. In the mornings Monday Wednesdays and Fridays is not a big deal because she keeps me busy till my home health person gets her. Yet at the same time before I was texting this person in Texas I was running around picking up the apartment washing dishes are out there making coffee and basically just getting ready to stop the case anymore. Not a big deal's nice to have another focus for a while. But I doubt it's going to last very long she seems totally focused on my home health person Melissa. What an interesting life…

J F K Who?

 

I call today JFK day. I don't know anybody else he uses that reference. Interestingly however to be I almost forgot that it was today that Kennedy was assassinated so many years ago I don't even know exactly how many now but I know it was over 50 because I was still able bodied at the time I may have been 14 I was in the 7^th grade. Actually, I was 12! Almost 13 and February. I remember now year was 1963 I would've been 12. I didn't think I would ever forget that day but this year I almost did. I was on the train heading for downtown Salt Lake when it occurred to me that this was the anniversary. My guess is no big deal now, just another day, I'm surprised they haven't elevated it to some sort of national recognition. But I think it's doomed to languish in the minds of those who experienced the day the music died.

The sun was out today but the inversions have started which means that even though the sun is out the day is going to be cold regardless because the inversion locks the coldness in a ground-level seems. I made a mad dash from the apartment this morning when I realized I was going to miss my bus to the train station and if I did I would be a half an hour late for my love o'clock the meeting. Actually, I was quite impressed with myself because I made the bus. But in dashing out like I did I did not get blanket to cover my legs as I've been doing any time I'm out in the elements this winter. I've found that covering the legs with a blanket even though totally makes me look like an invalid it actually kind of helps keep me warm as well as hide by gimpy legs. Not that my gimpy legs bother me that much is just that I can wear my shorts and shoes and not have to worry about everybody gasping about how cold I must be. In fact the blanket helps make me invisible because then I fit the icon or persons a disability on public transit.

I don't know if I've bitched and moaned about the new direction assist, Inc. has gone since they hired the new director a number years ago. It's like all the new staff or Mormon so there's no coffee pot way it used to be. That's okay there is a little bakery shop right next door to the office, for now anyway, and I can usually get 12 ounce coffee for couple bucks there and gets me through the meeting. It's just been made public that the bakery shop is going out of business or closing so everybody and theirduck was there this morning trying to get their last coffee in. Was taking forever so I just ended up going over to the meeting without my coffee unfortunately for me when the new staff (who is the exchange student from somewhere) had a bottle ofinstant coffee and she executed together a a cop was totally helped me out. Following the meeting I went to lunch at this small restaurant which is on the other side of the coffee shop. I've never been there it's a Thai restaurant I'm not that familiar with Thai food but I stopped in how to lunch which is great. I'm using that image for today's post. 4 skewers of beef and this concoction of Asian vegetables on the side. I would rather had rice but that wasn't on the menu.

I kind of got scolded (in a friendly manner) by folks who missed me at the luncheon and I kind of blew him off. I wish however I'd ask somebody to put together a Thanksgiving day plate that I could've enjoyed I think I still have options and maybe I'll just have to be happy with my hungry man selection…

Fake Dressing-- RealLife

 

I swear I'm going insane! Somewhere in this little apartment of mine I have a old bottle of green olives, you know those kind that show up in really strays every holiday season? Well, I've seen this bottle off and on throughout the year and since I rarely have a reason to use it I've never really touch the jar after put it wherever I did. But can I find it today? Hell no. Of course my neighbor is putting together the relish tray that we kind of volunteered for at the apartment Thanksgiving dinner which is going to be tomorrow, as I understand it. I will not be there but they're going to have it just the same. I did/was able to find my can of pickled beets and small jar of sweet nubbin's or pickles and the good people of this apartment complex well just have to do with that. So I guess my to miss probably the only Thanksgiving dinner that I was going to get. So, since I needed coffee filters I sprinted over to the market this afternoon picked up the filters and I also picked up Hungry Man turkey dinner – – basic hedging my bets nothing better comes open I'm going to have Thanksgiving thanks to the hungry man Corporation. As I was rummaging through my pantry I came across alone box of turkey stuffing. I think on Wednesday night or afternoon going to put together this turkey stuffing so all have it for Thanksgiving in case I need back up. I know will get a little stuffing with the hungry man dinner but you never get enough. So that in mind I'm also been mixup package of baked potatoes and open a can of gravy, turkey gravy. I should just about be covered to have a real meal and not knock myself out like I've done in years past. I kind of miss the thrill of preparing the real bird especially feeding the people with it since I have neither this will have to do. And quite frankly I'm thankful for this abundance that I have here in this little apartment complex.

It's almost 7 PM but because the days now darken by a little after 5 PM seems like it's a lot later than it is. There's a part of me that wants to pack it in turn off the lights wandering the back room with the bed and hunker down and read maybe work out a be play on Internet for a while and then jump into bed at a decent hour with the hopes of a long night sleep. That rarely happens but it's nice to think about. I have a few folks I like to visit with courtesy of the Internet and Reddit or other platforms that I figured out how to use. There's so many that I still trying to figure out. It's like I'm visiting with real people, who they are very real electorate there in a room with me especially if we use open chat where we can see each other that's even better and can be a lot of fun and not feel like I am an isolate. When I have a night of visiting such as this I feel more productive than squeeze it in another Marvel movie or other piece of tripe from Netflix or Amazon. Real life always trumps the media…

Thanksgiving Week Begins!

 

Both kids sick so there's no restaurant breakfast today spend 3 or 4 weeks now. Kind of strange hopefully will get back to a regular schedule and everybody gets well. I was going get up and be fairly productive but instead got caught in a long texting conversation with somebody you have just met on the Internet. We texted of for quite a while. We both have significant disabilities which we both found interesting and spell long time doing compare and contrast. She's a para its always interesting to see how paraplegics live as opposed to quads. Other than that they are pretty quiet day. Luckily I've made meals Saturday so I wouldn't have to do any cooking today.

We are entering Thanksgiving week and decide for an apartment Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday I think that's about as good as it's going to get. I have basically signed up for salad tray. It just so happens I have those baby nubbin bread-and-butter pickles, olives: green and black and I even have a can of pickled beets. My neighbor and I think that will be a fabulous tray. I'm going to give her all the vixens should put them together as our contribution to the meal. I think I've written about it before the Thanksgiving week in a place like this is, kind of funky. Staff all seem preoccupied with the holiday was going to happen and how they're going to spend it. Which is cool, I totally understand it from when I was working in a private nonprofit industry as well as state work. Not a whole lot gets done everything is sort of on freefall. Everything just gets by. Unlike other years when I tried to really do something I think this year I'm just going hunker down and try to stay as long as possible write, draw and mess around on the Internet. I'd like to drink lots of coffee and eat pumpkin pie but that doesn't sound too healthy. Everything in small amounts that's the best way to do it.

Sadly this afternoon I got quasi-alerted by one of my granddaughters that her sisters birthday was yesterday and of course I missed it. I've mentioned before about my failure as a grandparent. I just can't keep birthdays straight. Can there get cards out in time and don't even think about gifts the best I do is send cash which is really a cheap out if you know what I mean. Luckily, the birthday granddaughter did send me a letter earlier in the month to which I responded with a $5 bill and which possibly got there on or close to the birthday so maybe she'll think that's the gift for the grandpa is really her reward for writing the letter. I've only got a few grandchildren I don't know what some of these giant Mormon families do you have 40 or 50 grandkids. That would be a nightmare financial and otherwise trying to be a good grandparent there. So I guess I'll just keep writing my letters and hopefully they'll do.

That's it for this Sunday. I think I'll try to get to bed early tonight to get a head start on the holiday week…

Welcome Back Internet

 

I woke up this morning and still I could not reach the Internet. Clearly was ever in charge is not turn me back on. This is a real thought that I had and that I've been carrying the last couple of days. I don't know why I didn't think through what was going on. I dealt with this issue numerous times and why it did not click in is beyond me. I was awake by 6 AM and by 6:30 AM I was out of bed into the bathroom doing the shave in the face thing and then getting dressed totally focused on being dressed and ready by the time it was for me to go over across the street for coffee with my neighbor and friend here at the complex. I've met somebody on the Internet and I noticed she had sent me a greetings this morning. Since I cannot get out on the Internet except on my cell phone that's where I texted her back and forth using up a lot of time. Then all the sudden even my cell phone would not make contact with the Internet! Now is totally frustrated. It seemed like I could even barely get a dial tone. I wasn't sure what was going on. I texted my son, Mark Anthony, who is now sick in bed trying to recover from this respiratory thing going around. He advised me to call the number on the document that I got in the mail telling me that I would be disconnected if I didn't pay my bill. That's what this was all about.

Without information I did call the number and this time got hooked up with another minority person who is definitely very nice and very patient and who finally was able to kind to talk me through the phone call to the point where she set up appointments for tomorrow on Monday that an Internet jockey could come out and help me get myself back online. In the interim she give me some other ideas in this for finally kicked in. The old unplugged modem routine that is unplugged the power source to the modem wait 3 minutes then turn the system back on. I was so confused at this time I could even find the modem which is right next to me sitting on top of the CPU. Then it was all coming back from the last time this happened. I even had Mark Anthony placed the modem on top the CPU for the very purpose of rebooting the system should this happen again. It was pretty awkward for me to try to get to the's modem while the operator was online but she is very patient is very committed and eventually I got the thing unplugged weighted plugged in and waited for the whole system to rejuvenate itself… Which it did when I was a static. I had access, once again, to my blog and all the other things that I post and more importantly Netflix, Amazon and Disney things that will get me through the coldest periods of this year. I chose to stay in today after going to coffee with the group. I don't know shopping yesterday getting more juice, more citrus and more condiments ketchup and mustard as well as tater tots to get me through the weekend. The day was beautiful I probably should've gone to the movies but staying home and getting the Internet connection fixed seemed more important to me and was.

Not only is Mark Anthony sick but so is Jasmine my 2 favorite Sunday morning people. That means I have Sunday morning free am not sure what I'm going to do with it. Though I don't like to do a big cook thing on Sunday I might make up some bacon for bacon and eggs through some coffee and enjoy the morning this last Sunday of November…

Connection Frustration

I am a bit frustrated to say the least. For the past 2 days I've not been able to reach the Internet from my desktop computer or tablet. I just kept getting no signs of “can't connect to the Internet” finally I ended up calling X-finity . I actually got a letter in the mail from the tech giant and I really didn't pay much attention to it because I get these letters all the time. There usually statements are acknowledgments that my bill is been paid as I had it set up through my account my bank account to pay this bill on a monthly basis. Anyway, that's when I found out, when I opened up the letter, that my Internet been turned off and there waiting for me to pay $101 in back payments. This was quite frustrating because I have the whole thing set up through my bank. The only I can think of is somehow when I changed cards a month or so ago somehowXfinity dropped my account from my payment system. So what ensued this morning was a 45 minute discussion with a nice young lady on another continent who had a fairly decent grasp of English but not enough, I could tell, to understand what I was asking and somewhat demanding. Will the long and short of the whole issue was that I got myself on automatic pay again on a different card with the promise that they would be turning my Internet on again shortly. Well, of course as these things go, that is not happened yet and that was a good 8 or 9 hours ago. Fortunately I can still access the Internet via my cell phone but I can't get into a lot of things I like to from my desktop particularly ink pad notepad, a writing platform I use for this particular blog on the Internet. When I can't reach it through my desktop or tablet I really can't reach our change my blog which I usually do everyday. I know that eventually things will get taken care of and be put in order but that's going to take a lot of finagling on my part then of getting into my account and resetting the dates of when I posted so at least it looks like they're in chronological order. There was a time when issues like this used to make me a whole lot more frustrated. Now it's just go with the flow. Of course, if I can get to the Internet I have no access to Netflix, Amazon and other movie viewing platforms. I have not tried but I guess I might be able to access some of these platforms via my cell phone but really? Come on who wants to watch a movie or documentary on the little screen? I guess I could watch something like that in bed play like I was camping and watch the little screen and enjoy it somehow but just rolled around the apartment in trying to watch something or listen to music or whatever is a no go. I do have a stock of movies on disk – – I don't remember what the term is anymore – – I could watch for movies if I really wanted to do and hope that my desktop would not glitch itself out. I tried to watch a movie earlier this week just for the fun of it and got 3 force of the way through in the system totally stop playing. Technology and frustration can sometimes be the curse of the Friday nightin a freezing cold state…

Turkey Anticipation

Here we are a week from Thanksgiving! I get a little antsy when I see the days go by so quickly. Today was the coffee social. I miss this event last week when I was so sick but this week I had no excuse. I started my wash way before so luckily I had the ability to go in and out of the meeting/group say that I had to attend my wash. It's not like this is a mandatory function (at least I don't think so never been indicated as much. I do know we come knocking on your door though if you don't show up). And I guess in all honesty I have to admit that I do kind look forward to the event weekly. I'm a little dismayed because some of the characters that used to be common attenders no longer come to the event. The people now attending except for a few of us long-term folks are the new people who just moved in over the past couple of months. I could say because they don't know any better but it certainly changing the flavor and the feeling of the whole Thursday morning coffee group. This is change which can be most uncomfortable.

I still haven't heard anything from the family about goings-on for Thanksgiving. I doubt will be anything significant but I want to keep my options open. But I'm thinking of going over in purchasing one of those huge “Hungry man dinners turkey and dressing”. Or I might get one of those turkey roasts in the same section and then make my own dressing. Those turkey roasts in the little aluminum pans come with their own gravy and worse case scenario I could craft my own little dinner. I wish I liked football Thanksgiving is the perfect day to zone out on various University football games. A whole day of just grazing and watching football of never understood that. Now I can see if there is some good selections on Netflix or even Amazon that might be an option and I might do that and maybe if the weather is willing I might even drive my power chair up to the moviehouse and catch some holiday offerings. I'm sure I'll be thankful for something that day. Did I tell you, the closed the liquor store down the road from my apartment which is a real drag. Not that I use the Class House that much is just nice to drop in and see what's available. I'm such a lightweight I buy booze and don't do anything with it except sample every once in a while. I actually buy the booze for other people in my life case they'd like some. I did that with one of my home help people who really likes Bailey's and their coffee. I bought a big bottle thinking she would like a lot is only used it once we would a lot more for me. I don't like to drink by myself I rarely do but maybe I might do some coffee and Bailey's Thanksgiving evening as I watch Netflix or whatever

Click Click Snip Snip

 

I did it! Whether I liked it or not I was fully committed to make the trip over to the podiatrist and get my toenails clipped. Seriously, you're so long on my left foot that would be in a spasm of against my right leg the toenails can break the skin. I try to keep an eye on the lacerations were pretty faint but still I don't want anything getting out of hand in getting infected. You'll remember, constant reader, that this is the 3^rd week in a row that I had to reschedule my trip. The 1^st couple weeks was the cold/flu/virus or whatever it was in fact goodness it wasn't Covid 19. The podiatrist folks were very supportive in reschedule each appointment that I missed. But luckily today was perfect.

I think I stumbled across the right time for my podiatry appointments. Rather than going later in the day as I have been doing this apartment is scheduled for 2 PM. Like I said today was perfect very cold but sunshine was out and the be felt warmer than it actually was. I find the 2 PM appointment easier to make as far as having to hang around until it's time to head south to the appointment. This way I can just leave after lunch for the 1^st bus that takes me to the switching station to wait for the next bus out. I actually made it to the office by 1:30 PM. I got off a little past the office at 1^st Smith supermarket which is actually a superstore and I was able to cruise around a little bit before my appointment. I need to go back there and do some serious shopping for all kinds of stuff. There's even things there that I could probably use as gifts in case I went that direction. A lot of really nice soup bowls microwavable little cups with lids for soup and warming up other things. Probably would be nice for a lot of folks here at the apartment complex don't want to fix a whole male. For have lots of time and lots of cash and focus it be great grandpa presents to send to the grand kids but I doubt that is going to happen but in those maybe the spirit will catch me. I didn't have much time, just a fast roll through and it was time to get back to the office. I had about 5 minutes my got to the shop but they took me right in.

Like I said I didn't have to wait long. Because I wasn't sure how I was going to stand the time out in the elements I really sort of did the overkill thing. I wrapped my legs and my long red blanket so that they were well covered. Then I had my fuzzy red jacket with the hood with a rolled up sleeves. We still need to find a nice pair of gloves. Anyway, I really overdressed but I felt comfortable and I was comfortably warm. The commander to expose my toes but Richard right to it clip clip snip snip and sand sand and I was done. I'm scheduled for another 9 weeks sometime in the latter part of January. It was nice seeing Richard I know he is making money off me quite a bit actually for 10 minutes of work. I understand that there is a guy that comes here to the apartment complex and does peoples toes and feet and sure would make a lot easier on me but you know the guy wouldn't be Richard. We talk about what's were doing specially after major holidays. We know that we agree with one another and we could be great friends given the opportunity but that's not going to happen. So it's just a professional friendship you make some money I make some friendship and I guess it's a win-win thing or I ride the bus regardless of the elements…

chilly Tuesday

 

Fortunately, there is not an Assist, Inc. meeting this morning. Fortunate because even though I'm feeling 100% better I don't want to jinx myself by being out in the cold too much. Last week of course I was so sick I could barely get out of bed and they had the meeting without me, which is okay with me, so I know that they would not have a lot more items to consider the new may be some issues next week as well as we go into the holiday season. Next week will be Thanksgiving week and who knows who will be in town who won't be. I will of course, yours truly is going nowhere.

As I said I'm feeling a lot better than just a little hesitant to be out in the extreme cold that we seem to be having right now. And is called yes early about freezing may be a little under freezing the sun shines out it doesn't feel totally cold or dangerously cold anyway. Tomorrow, I am scheduled to head down south to my podiatrist. This will be out in the elements for a significant amount time but as I said currently even those bone chilling the sun shines out this certainly gives the illusion of warmth. I could counsel but already have done twice and I don't want to get so wussed out that I'm too frightened to go anywhere as it might put me under significant duress. And as I pondered this issue the last couple of days it seems to me that in fact I probably need to be out in the elements little more so my body can build up a resistance. This is probably just stinking thinking but I like to believe it. You know, “what doesn't kill us makes us stronger”.

Perhaps the most significant event of my day was pulling my red jacket over my head and headed out across the street to the market. Today is in between day between home health people Gloria will be here tomorrow and I've noticed that I'm running low cleaning materials in the bathroom. I been using Clorox spray as well as Ajax cleanser. I could've gotten, Comet cleanser it was just a few cents more than the container of Ajax. I really like Ajax because the Ajax cleanser as the blue specks or dots in the cleanser itself which turns whatever you're doing blue. This is especially rewarding when washing out the toilet. I just love the way it turns everything blue and it smells so clean. I figure if it could do that for the toilet it's good for the rest of the bathroom as well. I picked up a few other items while at the market. They had this deal for grapefruit juice just one calorie (which I don't know if I truly believe or not). Macy's had a deal of 3 for $5. I'm really trying to build up my juice supply to keep more hydrated.I was significant problem with intakes of fluid during the day. I run out of excuses now I just have to do it to me feel better. It's hard to believe that next week is Thanksgiving week. I thought about getting a turkey they were expensive but doable but I just don't know what to do with a whole turkey. I've learned my lesson that 1^st year I cooked a bird bird here at the apartments. But only was a dangerously awkward trying to get the bird out of the oven but trying to consume that much meat with one person is a joke. But I still want to have the Thanksgiving meal one or the other. I guess I need to start putting hints out to my son moving to another rendition of last year's Thanksgiving event…

Mail Call!

 

As many of you readers know I have an ongoing project of writing my grandkids every month. It's not on my grandchildren but a couple others too. I totally believe in the concept of letter writing and quite enjoy dumping the letters in the mail at the beginning of each month. Oddly enough rarely do I see any return on the letter sent. Others tend rely on texting, emails in the good old phone calls which are all good and great for communication and staying in touch. Over the weekend I took a minute and ran down to the mailroom to check out my slot and there was a letter in there for my granddaughter Brisa. I was delighted to see the hand scribbled address on the front of the envelope, properly addressed and stamped. A real live letter.

I'm not sure but I think the last time Brisa visited she found an old typewriter around my apartment which I really had no use for. An old manual typewriter which look like it'd seen better days. Now, I don't know this letter was typed on that type writer or she is found another machine but whatever the case she hammered out a really good letter. I've impressed. Believe me I can still remember trying to type letters out on my parents manual typewriter an old Smith Corona. By the time I was pretty much finished with the letter their numerous mistakes on the page smudged out and grimy from handset of spent too much time with the ribbon. There is also smudges from erasures or attempts at erasing mistakes. Brisa's letter had only one or two cross outs relatively neatly done but a great letter. Great letter discussing summers end , school inquiries to my health and status as well as I think a request for some more bookmarks. The last bookmark I gave her was lost in the last move.

One of the best arguments for handwritten letters is the size of the writing. It seems like you can write forever on a typewriter and in the end have written very little to show you for your efforts. Even if you cover quite a bit of ground the size of the type and the uniformity of the type makes it look like a never ending challenge to fill the page. The best techniques I use is increasing the size the font that can really make a short letter look long list of adults impressive. This of course is with the magic of technology something you can't do on a manual typewriter. However, I love the effort and the bond that something like this makes. I actually this morning after getting squared away and get are for the day wrote her a letter back and included a number of bookmarks plus a blank Mark that she can use to make your own bookmark or she so desires which I think she will. I think Brisa is going to be very creative. I'm looking forward to the next letter…

Mac and Cheese- Less

 

I was pretty croupie where woke up this morning that seems to be the case right now. Once I'm up I feel pretty good in my coughing diminishes significantly as a pretty much does for the rest of the day unless I end up speaking somebody and then the frequency or intensity of the cough greases relevant to how much I'm verbalizing were trying to. People are noticing however that I tend are looking better and that I look like I feel better as well, so I must be on the mend. Now, having said all that I must confess are pretty much stayed in the apartment all day I only have .4 on my odometer for miles traveled. I may be a decent br particular fam particuSunday a decent breakfast using up the last of the bacon I cooked last week with the last of the eggs I got from leftovers from the food bank box day here at the complex. I also used a couple pieces of the dark rye bread I got from the market on Friday. I prefer dark rye over the swirly bread that passes for rye bread these days. I still like a good seeded Rye... If I find rye bread especially toast wonderful in the morning. I use the the bacon, as I said, mixed in with the eggs and some mozzarella cheese that one of my neighbors hung on my door. It turned out to particular Sunday a pretty decent little sandwich which I made. I have a half a sandwich for tomorrow's breakfast as well. I guess the point I was making was that I cooked this morning which I totally enjoyed. Since you been going up to breakfast every Sunday morning I haven't cooked my Sunday breakfasts in quite a while. There really is a pleasure padding around the kitchen, listening to Sunday morning music – – whatever flavor I'm into that particular Sunday. Other than that and an inquiry from my neighbor across the way as to my condition spent a quiet day. The sun was out but it was still cold and I don't want to tempt fate by going out if I don't have and build up my strength. And it up watching movies which felt good and therapeutic I'm not going to apologize.

Couple weeks ago, I remember when I got that meat from the “quick sale” section of the meat department. One of them was sub a bunch of what look like hot dogs but are called something sausages. I think they really are hot dog or wiener. I got so many I don't know what to do with them. What I plan to do I think tomorrow is cook up half of them to keep in the fridge to use for fast dinner ideas or lunches and then freeze the rest. But tonight I was really excited about having some Kraft macaroni and cheese. I don't do macaroni and cheese a lot but I don't dislike the dish either this just so pedestrian. But tomatoes in the mood for some Kraft mac & cheese and a couple of the dogs broiled or fried or something. Just sounded good for a cold Sunday night. I out my medium-sized saucepan carefully put 6 cups of water on to boil and then tore into the box read the directions 1^st. I pulled out this little slack of fake cheese that you sprinkle on blended to the hot noodles once they're cooked and that I realized total package was covered with maggot casings, maggots not the right word, but you know what I mean those little bitty pasts that like to devour anything that's not fastened tight. I don't know why I didn't think this would happen. As I looked inside the macaroni there were covered with these little warm things. I tossed everything turn the water off and dug out a frozen meat pie to microwave. I think my project this week will be to toss all the packages I've been hoarding for years literally, and start replacing some. I mean sure in the famine I would eat the mac & cheese maggots in all but we're a long ways from that still hopefully I'll have food that's well within the expiration dates when the end does come…

Don't Rush It

 

I really am feeling better, not 100% perfect yet but a lot better than I was last week at this time. Saturday morning I almost went to coffee with Billie but just didn't feel up to it yet. In fact, Billie did go to coffee I think just by yourself. I did take advantage of her commitment to Java to have her pick me up a pound of I tell you and roast, ground. I thought I had more but when I make coffee this morning and I used the last. I was a little concerned when I 1^st woke this morning, lying in bed around 6 AM. I felt stuffy and is worried I was becoming ill again, but once I got up and moving around. I started feeling okay. Especially now wheezing or crouping around. Getting dressed seemed to take longer than usual but I con myself into thinking that's okay. If I need to be somewhere at a specific time I would've been able to make the time no problem. Fortunately, I guess, being somewhere in time is not an issue this week. Mark Anthony and I assume Jasmine are up in Idaho this weekend visiting family which I think is pretty cool but that also means no breakfast tomorrow at the restaurant. I'm wondering even if the kids were in town when I counsel the event not feeling spectacular. And now's not feeling the spectacular or not it's in my dangerous? Am I spreading the dreaded pathology around. I ran to the market about an hour ago. Today's been cold but the sun is out the temperatures actually in the 40s which feels like a heat wave. I need to get some juice particularly as well as more citrus and the fruit form. I got a bag of oranges at $2.40 something a pound. I think I got about 8 oranges maybe not even that much. But I think the fruits important. I should've gotten some grapefruit as well. I really need to talk my older brother Carl into stopping by Walmart picking up some bags of fruit which would be a lot cheaper than trying to buy fruit from Macy's. Went straight over to Macy's did my shopping and came home really felt that was enough energy expended for the day. Still like, I'm tired out to the point where I need to take a nap or go to bed it's just that I can feel the wear on my body. I didn't get any but I considered a long time purchasing some frozen bread dough for biscuits. But then I think I can actually make my own biscuits that I had more energy on my return for the market I would thought about throwing together some yeast dough. I should thought out hamburger patties and just make hamburgers tonight for dinner in the week to come. I'm dancing around the soup in the refrigerator. I was quite shocked this morning when will Tim (that's Asian Tim from Vietnam who lives at the apartment complex) walked into the apartment I was over by the computer I don't think she could tell I was naked but she brought over Asian mushroom soup. The soup looks so much better than mine so much cleaner and clear broth. Sometimes wonder if I boiled the bones too long and that weird aftertaste I get with my soup is a result of the whatever is in the bones that you want. Probably need more salt as well. I'm noticing that as I dictate to this posting I'm beginning to cough. So talking still underrates my respiratory system. So even if I went out to breakfast, with somebody, I would start coughing because I'd be talking and maybe this is a sign that I'm not ready yet to enter back into the social flow.

I did enjoy getting out however however brief the event. I just got a remember to take my master more importantly where it!…

Autumn's Beauty

 

It's kind of weird I'm letting this thing which is a control of my body or which has been for the last week or so really dictate my lifestyle right now. I'm still improving, somewhat convalescing, this action means staying in the close proximity to a forced air heater and enjoying my technology and friends on the Internet who keep in touch with texting. Interestingly, I actually went up to the front of the building today to do my laundry. Everyone, I ran into commented on “well it's certainly nice of you to make an appearance”. Some of the folk referencing the fact that I did show up for coffee social yesterday. Another comment was “very comes out of his cave”. I guess that sort of true. I do so to have a man cave at the end of the hall and I do like being in my man cave for extended periods times. There might be a little validity to the point of me becoming antisocial but obviously whatever's going on in the man cave scenes are answering a lot of my needs. Hanging out with a bunch of geriatrics who act like geriatrics, to me is not one of them. I don't really mean that in a mean way but that is sure how it comes out huh? It's actually kind of spooky I don't know what would happen if I just stopped going. And used as my justification that I've don't get anything out of my attendance. When the coffee social drives to an end I feel deflated – – maybe I'm still getting over the deaths of some of the members over the last year. But I'm wandering, this is not what this post was to be about.

With the changing back to standard time the timeslot from 2:30 PM on appears a lot later in the day. I noticed today as I was pumping my arm by to listen to NPR more specifically Market Street, the afternoon sun was hitting my favorite tree across the streetfrom my apartment. I don't think I was able to capture the effect of the sun on the tree and its autumn colors which is too bad because it was glorious. Then I realized the window was very narrow about 5 minutes stat much. I was trying to get more images of the event but the light changed address the old sun sunk further down its path. That's okay I got something. What's really strange is that usually the tree has usually gone through its complete color change and dropped its leaves by this time of the year. It still fully decked out. It's very cold right now which is one of the reasons I elected to stay in the apartment today. I'm sure the leaves will drop quickly now. I can remember maybe I'll do another post next week if the leaves drop so I can show you. Too lazy to start a new paragraph. I'm about 98% sure you have Covid 19. Between my home health person and myself and my physician with tried to read the results but my lack of wheezing and coughing in my continued feeling better makes you think I'm negative. I'm still going to have to wear the mask however that's okay by me the mask brings out my bandit side and I kind of like that…

Triple Leg Soup

 

It's been a stressful day, low stress, but stressful just the same. Early on my home help person texted me wondering now if I'd gotten the results for my Covid 19 test. I did get the results but don't really understand them but that's another issue. She was calling because she woke up very ill. And I think wanting to know if I was positive and what the next step should be. So I've spent the major portion of this day trying to make contact with my doctor released the one who worked with the residents on the virtual visit that I did last week and I haven't been able to get any results. Now I'm feeling guilty if I have exposed my person to the dreaded Covid 19 virus. And I really don't want to lose her support our friendship. I can of feel that since I'm in the middle of trying to get this information I'm the one looks like I failed – – maybe I am the one – – but I certainly would trying to figure out what the next step is. Luckily the wheezing and such that had been most concerned as fairly well subsided. I have to keep myself hydrated that make sense anyway. Though I can sleep through the night now without being woken up with tremendous rails and wheezing.

I was actually supposed to go out today to have lunch with my friend Lori but I'm just not feeling strong enough to go out and whether it's cold like it is now. So that's been put on the back page/burner in my mixing up metaphors? I'm sure that I am.

However, I am moving forward, I had 3 chicken legs left over from the pack of the legs I got last week the one to use them up before they went bad. I've never done this before but I'm trying to make my own chicken noodle soup. So I started out by throwing the chicken legs into the water on the stove and then just cut is not out of the whole pot 1^st long as I could adding things like mushrooms, celery, carrots I even threw in a can of chicken noodle soup that Mark Anthony gave me over the weekend but I was so sick. Mark Anthony gave me 2 cans of soup 1 I consumed immediately the other I had ready to go by figure out add that to the soup concoction and see how it worked. I will think of doing this for some time but today is my 1^st real chance of doing it. I figured what the heck it's worth a shot was give me a whole Lotta soup about to deal with. Of course the meat is fallen off the bones of the chicken legs are still got to get those out but what seems to be the soup is tasting okay I think it needs a little salt and pepper but overall this soup is for me I think at will be able to ingest it okay. The big drawback however is that anytimeI launch into a project like this I completely destroy my kitchen. And if indeed I have caused my home health person to be sick the question is will see even show up tomorrow? And if she does will see carry this grudge? She could now wouldn't blame her that one little bit.

I've got corn bread in the oven I hope it's okay I didn't add any sugar to the mix which is the way I like my cornbread. The directions made for small loaf. I should double everything but wasn't sure how that would cook and how long and how much and all that stuff. I'll just have to wing it and hope that it will be edible with my soup. Whatever ideas I hope it helps me in my recovery, my three-legged soup…

Winter Woes

 

Remember when I got home from the market and was going to take my Covid test? How, much had been externally is involved in this operation. I cut him heard this when everybody was doing the covert test and everything but did not pay a whole lot of attention. I did think I'd ever have to do it on myself, silly boy, but sure enough when I opened the directions it was all dexterity and finger manipulation from inserting the swabbing the nose and particularly spinning swab around as well as put it in the container to be tested and twirling the swab there. I also reported not been able to have Mark Anthony do the trick last night when he was here help me with my cell phone activation (which is not activated). I figured one last shot would be to coax my home health person into given me the test this morning when she came in for my shower and such.

let me start off saying, Gloria is great. I really enjoy her as my home person on the days that she is. I was a little spooked and asking her just because it might be above and beyond what she feels she is capable of but to my surprise and encouragement to totally took on the job after my shower was completed and I was dressed. I tilted myself back in my chair like when I go to the dentist, as she quickly read through the Covid test instructions. Quite frankly I'm still amazed at how much and function goes into this operation. But Gloria jumped right in consumer I had a very uncomfortable probe inside my nose feeling like it was on its way to my brain. The minor insult caused some leg spasms but nothing too bad my sweat it out these 10 or 15, seconds that the operation took. There is more swirling or twirling going on as they tested its job. I'm pretty sure my result was negative. I didn't do anything with the information yet. The information might be bad for the time I get around to sending it to whoever. I tried to send it to my medical person but to difficult. Going to try again tomorrow to try to find the right email or browse trying to do is to link into my “My Health” page where I guess the information the resident posted on me left a message or wanted to receive the data that I generated from the nose swab. I couldn't remember my password and I just ran out of energy in trying to deal with this problem. Maybe tomorrow, if I'm feeling up to it. I've noticed that when people are around I tend to start coughing and I think that's because I'm verbalizing and that is tweaking or twitching my vocal cords and lungs causing coughing. Even dictating this posting is a bit challenging. I don't know how I will be with somebody in the face-to-face conversation for an extended period of time. I think I'll do a lot of coughing. But pretty much canceled most of my meeting this week. I do have one tomorrow at a restaurant no less than just not sure if I'm going to be able to make it or not.. Fortunately the respiratory issues not as severe as they were. Actually, I slept through the night last night which I think is a great step forward. Hopefully tonight will be better even.

I'm pretty sure I tested negative on the Covid test. For some information to the clinic tomorrow. When I started this project I wasn't worried about Covid my big thoughtless design need a respiratory therapist which I'm beginning to think I still do and I'll have to ask the doctor about that as well. This term quite cold outside snow supposed to come tomorrow not much but enough to really make the going out questionable but we'll see.…

Waiting For The Call

 

Well it's Election Day the think that would make a very fine item to post a blog on but not for me but not today. Perhaps, I might come back to this topic tomorrow when I actually see and understand the results of how the American vote went today. I have to be honest I am a little concerned and a little nervous about how things might go but like I said these are ideas and thoughts for another day.

Today, I continue to heal/recover from this last bout of illness I've been going through. It's Tuesday of course that usually means I have my Tuesday morning assist Inc. meeting of course which did not happen today. I just not up to the task. I'm feeling weak and suspect particularly because the weather at least that's what I thought when I made the call at 8 AM this morning as soon as they got in their office. Actually even if it didn't rain or snow on me I think the physical challenge of traveling to the meeting and back would been exhausting for me. However I must admit that I slept better last night that I have for the last couple of nights but still woke up at 4:30 AM the final time and never back to sleep. I did not have near as much wheezing and railing in my chest as I did not before but I still had significant amounts of noisy chest. In the old days when I had a disease process like this I would pretty much just “walk it off. I still pretty much believe the concept that if it doesn't kill you makes you stronger but as I age that particular comment I do not believe as strongly as I once did at 71 with the diminished respiratory ability to think up a prime candidate far many problems particularly those by RSV orRespiratory syncytial virus, again, once in the old days I would not have worried about this particular situation at all truly believe in us too strong to be really compromised but lately I've been really paying much more attention to my vulnerability space as a person with a significant disability as well as a person in their 70s! As I lay in my bed during the nights with the respiratory railing so bad in my chest that I cannot sleep I really begin to get frightened. Then I remember the bits and pieces” from the news broadcasts as well as various PSA's about how seniors are targeted individuals for RSV. I believe it was this morning as I lie in bed playing with my cell phone zooming around the Internet I looked up to RSV information and sure enough what went down its victims symptoms I had them all. That did shake me up a little bit. So I figured even if it might be maybe a little risky perhaps I did need to show up at the hospital/IMC and do whatever they do the folks like me with respiratory issues.

I'm kind of problem myself. I use for my time this morning and called the hospital IHC were my internist and main Doc reside. Of course there's no chance in hell I will see Nathan Allred MD. But I will be able to see whether this little goons or residents. I also guess I could've gone in for the interview our evaluation process but it was supposed to rain and snow today and it was not them then. I can't believe how delighted I was when the nurse went to the phone suggested a Zoom medical appointment! It's not like they pulling up my shirt and have them stick is cold stethoscope on my back but at least he'll be able to hear me and ascertain whether I should come in for a real visit. So that's what I have, just about an hour from now I should get a message are notification of some sort about where to go and Jack into the Internet and wait for the doctor show up. I think this is a great concept. Actually, this morning I aspirated a little bit when I was chomping down on some crisp bacon I had just cooked in the bacon, I think, has really been making me cough for than usual. Hopecrispy piece of workis the case and not some histrionic attempt capture some attention. It seems like since I got over the choking fit of the aspirated meat I have been coughing a lot more especially when trying to speak or verbalize. I texted Dianne my situation and she encouraged me to make the appointment she told me about her experience with having to use some sort of respiratory therapy and how well it made her feel. I'm definitely there and hope my meeting with the resident will be as productive…

Searching For Sleep… Desperately

 

I wish this story would get better or that I would get better I think I'm just being impatient but it's kind of spooky anymore to be this age know that anything is floating around out there to take you out. I had a very strange night to say the least. I went to bed okay in fact I was kind of excited because I was going to start reading the new novel and I picked up at the facility library earlier in the day. It's kind of weird read. These authors are Too of my favorites and have teamed up to write this volume but it seems like they've gone out of their way to make the read difficult. Thing starts out the multipage prologue which challenges the heck out of me just trying to get through it and enjoy the evening. Well, I did get through the prologue but didn't really enjoy the evening so much been turned over and went to sleep. My actually took a couple ibuprofen and shot of coffee medicine to slide me to the realm of dreams.

I woke with the natural urge to urinate about 3 AM. This is the big deal and that I had been little worried that I a little dehydrated. It seemed like a bit of a challenge more than usual to get myself catheterized and finally getting a flow going but eventually I emptied about 500 mL which is not bad and gave me some comfort. It was then I turned over to go to sleep but was confronted with major wheezing. Each time I drew a breath exhaled it just seemed the exhale got worse and worse louder and louder to the point where there is no way I was going to be able sleep. Usually, I can tumble right back to sleep but not this morning. It's not that I got frightened but I certainly got uncomfortable as I tried to figure out why I was breathing so erratically and wasn't pneumonia – – that super sickness that seems to be taking out so many singers these days? I mean I took the inoculation for pneumonia but hopefully I hope the inoculation was the right strain. Or perhaps it was something else to do with my respiratory tract. I finally came around to the idea that maybe it's because I'm so dehydrated. I filled my night water bottle before I went to bed so I rolled over and took a couple of cluggs from the model and for a moment I thought it did help a little bit. It would take a lot of liquid to hydrate me back to some form of normalcy. Long story short: I was up for the rest of the night this time however I was fortunate to have my cell phone with me fully charged and I did some searching on the Internet and the kind of reinforced my thought process that I was somewhat dehydrated and if I were to breathing a lot a shower moisture when I shower this morning as well is put a teapot of water on the stove to let the teapot act as a humidifier and see if that will be of any help.

I stayed in bed until a little after 6 AM giving up making coffee because I knew that Melissa would be here today for my morning ritual. Boy was I surprised she got rescheduled showed up like 2 hours early! I was also kind of surprised and amazed that what's gotten up breathing was a lot easier almost no wheezing from my chest of all. With the best things about having healthcare people like Melissa and Gloria is that they both know a fair amount of nursing. Melissa assured me I did not have pneumonia. That I did not need to get to urgent care just yet. (I was really planning on jumping the bus over to urgent care/Insta-care). On malicious comments I made that decision, I hope tonight I will not be sorry. If I do have such another evening of struggle, respiratoratorily speaking, I will get by knowing that I survived today I'll be able to survive tomorrow…

Convalescence

 

Actually, I felt a lot better this morning. I was a little bummed out when I went to bed as I finished reading the book working over last for 5 weeks. I hate not having something to read special at bedtime. I even downloaded a volume to try to read on my cell phone. There's a time when I got really involved in particular is going to be a big cell phone reader. I joined Kindle a couple other book outlets. They soon became dismayed realizing I really enjoy holding a book while I read. I feel much more in control with a real book. My biggest frustration with electronic reading is that I can never seem to bring you the place up or I stopped reading. It must be me because I hear nobody else having these issues. I've got so many books in my electronic library that I never read because I don't have the patience to find the place where I left off and start reading again. The concept is really great but totally lost on me. However, in critical times any reading the spirit of the now reading at all sort of like water in the desert.

As I got ready for bed I thought I felt a little bit better but not enough to go out to breakfast I called and let Mark Anthony now that I wouldn't be going to breakfast. Andhad felt so poorly when I gotten up I did make the bed. And the bed was really messed up. I straightened the bed covers out quite a bit enough to hit the sack . I rolled in the bed we just laid there enjoying the warmth and comfort of my Marvel bedding. I have a weird connection from my charging cord from the green charging strip hanging from my little wood work station which is right next to my bed. The charging cord tends to roll and the plugs work their way free that's especially true with my phone charger. The great thing about my phone charger is that when I do have a plug-in that acts as a clock. I have the clock function programmed to be a lowlight level all night long writing the perfect bedside clock. So of course last night is making sure that the plug-in was secure and even before I could start messing around with my Kindle reader app I dropped my phone. It was somewhere on the floor beside the wood stand and the bed. The area is also covered with a host of cords everything from my cell charger, to my electric bed, to the charger that charges my power chair oh and least of which the electric lamp over my bed. So,my night of reading was on the floor along with anything else like watching Netflix, Disney, listening to anything on the radio as well as just music channels and general. I figured this was the universe told me it was time to go to bed. It was almost 11 o'clock

I woke once during the night to use the catheter then went back to sleep for which I was only surprised slept until around o'clock this morning! And of course the times actually 7 AM because I've neglected to remember it was daylight saving time fall back night. I did get my phone up and charging it eventually got around to getting dressed and I watched videos for the rest of the day. Seriously all day long. I felt that this was okay since I was convalescing after minute I coughed less I felt better more or less had when my chickens leg and a bowl of chili from Gloria. I also was able to retrieve my cough medicine I dropped on the floor right next to my cell phone and I think that'll also help me sleep tonight. Sometimes, I do like to be the best one can do…