Last Day

It's another New Year's Eve and I'm sitting here by myself in my apartment putting together the last blog of the year. That's okay I don't know what I would do if I did get invited out to some kind of New Year's Eve function. I don't even know if I would go. I'm surprised they don't have anything going on here at the apartment complex- - they actually may and I have just been overlooked and that wouldn't surprise me at all. One of my friends here did bring me down a small bottle of rum after she found out that I had eggnog badly in need of a shot of rum. Of course not mixed the booze with the drink just because I have this thing about drinking alone. I don't want to do anything I would be worried about and I certainly wouldn't want to mess up where I live and getting a weird reputation. I've done pretty good so far but it's just one slip, one drink and then you're a pariah.

It's just a little after 9:00 p.m. and already the fireworks started. Not the ones put on by the city or the county but I think just individual folks who have their own stashes of legal and illegal fireworks. Of course it drives a lot of the little rat dogs here at the apartment complex crazy and a lot of the dogs are locked up in the owner's bedrooms so they don't get two psychotic- - the dogs that is. I did go out to breakfast with the kids this morning that was fun it's good to get back into the routine. We just went up to the corner D's and had the regular. Other than that I have had a very sedate day. I didn't cook anything to speak of because I did all my cooking yesterday but I did eat a lot of my concoction pickled vegetables seems to be my favorite right now. It seems like somehow the vinegar or the pickle juice gets watered down. And I keep the the items inside the container at refrigerator temperatures just makes a really good mouthful to slurp in every once in awhile as I go past the refrigerator. Tomorrow I'm going to have to slice up another cucumber and put in another can of kernel corn, French cut beans and a can of pickled jalapeno peppers sliced. I did something pretty interesting yesterday I fried up one of the hamburger patties I got from the Omaha beef package and set it aside for today and I nuked it in the microwave and had it between toasted hamburger buns with lots of ketchup and mustard. I ate half of that burger and it was the way to do it. Meal fixed with singleness of mind.

The most productive thing I have done all day was actually work on the kid letters. I wanted to start printing the envelopes and then maybe even the letters so I just have to fold and stuff tomorrow. But of course I couldn't figure out how to get the printer operating at first. It seems like something had gotten messed up in the commands that I was giving the machine Plus, a couple of the envelopes had gotten stuffed in the printer itself and I had to kind of take the printer apart to pull the cramped envelopes out of the rollers. I kind of surprised myself because after an hour or so and at one time almost totally dropping the printer completely, saving it at the last minute, I got the envelopes printed. I called her today after that and watched a little Marvel. Tomorrow, fingers crossed I will print the Letters Out and do this stuffing and stamping and getting them at least to the mailbox to where the postman can find them on Tuesday morning. I figure I have all day tomorrow for the task so I don't have to do any more tonight. I hope everyone has a great New Year's Eve that you're safe and sober…

Smaller!

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I don't write this posting disparagingly after all the gift is a gift and I appreciate all the gifts that I got for Christmas this year. The image on today's post is the box that I got from my daughter for Christmas. The Good Old Hickory Farms box with sausages cheeses and crackers and the square little candies my son used to call shabby's and he was too young to say strawberries. When the Box first came it was a couple days before Christmas of course so I just sort of put it aside, since I didn't get a Christmas tree this year. And just waited for the days to come so I can open up my gifts. So finally on Christmas morning I opened up the package from Michelle and true to form it was the box from Hickory Farms. I kind of just glanced at the Box seeing what it was and didn't really look too closely it was only after a couple of days when I finally decided that I might Maybe make a snack out of the some of the cheeses and crackers. When I opened up the covering of the box I realized that the cheese blocks we're just a sliver it seemed like compared to what used to be in the cheese blocks. There was only two kinds of cheese and I didn't notice it first but the sausages were much smaller than even last year's box. Truly Hickory Farms is downsizing and downsizing big time. I mean seriously I would be embarrassed if I were the folks at Hickory Farms and passing these gift boxes office something special. What is special is that my daughter thought enough of me to send me a gift box and I know that she was thinking that the cheese is in the sausage were the same size as always. It seems like the whole commercial world is going in that direction. It doesn't really bother me very much except for it till just a minor irritation. Perhaps it's the irritation from thinking that these companies will not notice that they're shaft the American public and they won't even notice unbelievable.

I may have written about this in the past but I saw the same phenomenon with the soft drink folks the cans are smaller than what they used to be for the same price but in most cases more than what they used to cost. The plastic bottles for what used to be the large soft drink containers like Coke and Pepsi are probably just as tall but a lot skinnier than what they used to provide soft drinks in. It's just everywhere. And I know it's an economic thing and that has something to do with the economy and all that kind of stuff but you'd think they would be at least a little bit more honest with the American folks as opposed to trying to dupe them with smaller sizes and thinking we aren't going to notice.l

I probably should have gone over to the market today or at least two the dollar xsstore but I just couldn't get myself excited enough to get dressed up to the point that I would be able to leave the apartment. I'd have to put my shoes on and probably wrap something around my shoulders just to be comfortable and to make the dash over to the market and back. I figured I didn't need to go to any more movies today I'd gone to enough this week to cover anything like that. I did focus on the aspect of finishing the kid letters at least getting the dictation down I still have to print the letters as well as the envelopes and see if I have enough cash the stuff the envelopes properly for the new year. I just stayed in the apartment all day watched a couple dishes cooked some dinner a steak and a hamburger patty for tomorrow. I think I may have a hamburger in the afternoon. I got a couple booger buns when they did the food box last week so I'm pretty set for New Year's Eve. Janet my friend from upstairs even brought me over a small bottle of rum to mix with my eggnog…

Weird feelings

 I'm feeling a little weird tonight I'm not really sure why I think however, it has to do with the possible passing of my boss when I worked at the Independent Living Center. She's not dead yet from what I understand but she's in hospice and there's some discussion about her staying at the ICU/ Hospital or returning her home to pass at our house. I found this out by one of the folks who live here at the apartment complex who continues to work at the Independent Living Center and who was, I guess relatively close to my old boss. And she's been keeping very close tabs on what's going on whether it's wanted or not but that's another issue entirely. Jay is the person who lives here at the facility is actually gone up to see my boss at the hospital and says that she's just Gray, unresponsive and just close to the end. I guess she has a massive pressure sore which is not assisting the doll with her recovery which I don't think is in the works anymore. I guess she had a DNR which is not been honored those are sort of flimsy anyway if you ask me. The living are so weak and trying to comply with some of the requests that a DNR makes of a loving person who has the responsibility to carry out those last wishes. Anyway, I kind of think that's what might be leading me to this weird feeling I'm having currently. I'd like to think my boss and I were close but we were and we weren't at the same time if that makes any sense. On a reason I was close at all aside from being employee and employed by was that I was married to an individual who was very close to her at one time so we were close just by association. I have always indicated that had my boss not been ill the day I showed up to interview for the position I would not have gotten that job. It's quite a complex story and one I might ride at some point in time but not now not as she swirls around the drain of life.

The only really enjoyable thing I did today was half coffee with my friend upstairs, across the street at the coffee shop where we spent about an hour gossiping and catching up with what we've done this week. I was actually toying with the idea of going back for another movie this afternoon but once I got done with coffee I just had lost interest- - again right afterwards is when I got contacted by the other person that lives in the building who is sort of watching my bosses passing very closely and giving close reports. And this probably wouldn't be happening if this other individual wasn't helping me and try to get it a new shower chair so I have to sort of see her and pretend to be interested in what she's talking about. I did run across the street and to the market picked up a few things most of them vegetables to put in my concoction that I eat every day of cucumbers jalapeno peppers slices and canned vegetables : kernel corn, tomatoes canned in on the vine, just a bunch of stuff that I like in this concoction. I even got some hot chocolate mix I don't know why but it seemed like it was the best time of year for such beverage. I wanted to get a carton of chocolate milk but they didn't have any at the dollar store maybe in a couple weeks. I need to get some of the squirt syrup of chocolate which will work. I could just be tired as well I don't think I'm sleeping that well which might be secondary to all the other issues of outlined. I need to start my letters it's getting close to the first…

Grande!

 I do not like to think of myself as an elitist. I really don't have anything to be elite about when I come right down to it. I mean there are so many people out there who have so much more than I do I don't even have the ability to comprehend their thought processes. This morning I was cruising around Reddit and inadvertently got shifted to a divorce Reddit and these guys are posting about how they're divorces came about mostly women and how cheap that men were in their gifting and things of that nature it's pretty interesting but it made me think that there's no way I can even compete on these guys level even to be a creep. I really thought it was interesting and I tried not to think about it too much but really I don't think I even register sometimes and perhaps that's best. But getting back to the elitism I was interested this Thursday after I got up got dressed and went down to the coffee social I thought I would take in another movie. So, I took off around 10:45 to see about catching the bus and making it to the movies for an 11:40 filming or showing. I figured this would give me time to maybe get a sandwich or go through the dollar store to see if there's anything I needed there.

I had a lot of time by the time I got to the area of the movies and just fortunately there is a Starbucks not far from the movie/theater. So I figured I would check out if I had any money on the Starbucks gift card and some other gift cards that I've been carried in my wallet and backpack for some time. I was amazed to find out that I still had about $4 on my Starbucks card that I really hadn't even used for 2 years at least. The other cards I know had a little cash on them but they didn't even register anymore so they must have some kind of time limit on them. It was interesting on Marketplace a couple days ago and they talked about how many gift cards another kind of cards that are out there that have billions of dollars on them that have not been used or totally used up well I did my duty today and cashed out my card for Starbucks on a very nice latte of some sort I can barely pronounce it as caramel something but it was pretty good for $6.49 that's right the elitist coffee place and I'm there sucking it down. This of course is from when I used to catch the bus into work and there used to be a Starbucks there by my bus stop and that's when I first got sucked in and ever since if I have the opportunity I will watch on to a couple Starbucks if I dare. I even got a new Starbucks card and put 20 bucks on it in case and for the next time I'm going to be in that area. I was a little bummed out because I had lost my shoe well I didn't lose it my foot came out my spouse I had a spasm my foot came out and I spent the rest of the day with the shoe balance but curiously on my foot as I rolled around at the movies as well as Starbucks and on the bus home again. I didn't have the energy to ask somebody to put my foot back in the shoe and tighten it up. I swear I look a mess when I'm out and about these days. I'm sure I'm just another random hobo spending the last dollars they have on a Starbucks Grande..

Folding Time

 This image is not pretty but it's exemplary of my Wednesday. I fully was committed to going to a movie this afternoon or even this late morning but my home health person was pretty late getting in that wouldn't have changed much anyway because I was so focused on the movie perhaps that I neglected to remember it was Wednesday which means it's wash day. Even if Missy throws the wash in the washing machine and then takes them out and stows them in the dryer and starts that machine before she leaves that still doesn't stop the fact that I have to dry the clothes one more time and then at least Retreat them and not dry is finished back to the apartment. All this and still find time to do my 60 Minute Workout on the arm bike. Knowing all this I pretty much figure I won't be going to the movies today. That's fine the movies will wait. Still have a couple more days of the month we get two more movies in to justify my $20 a month passed all the movies at my local Regal Theater. Any movie they're showing as many times as I want for just the price of the monthly fee.

The rest of the day pretty much was taken up with waiting for the wash to dry and picking up a little bit in the kitchen and then dragging the dried clothes back to the apartment and throw them on the bed and then folding. Today I waited till after I had finished my arm bike experience giving me 180 minutes so far. Just one more day on the arm bike will give me the 200 minutes that I require every week for the best return on my physical investment. If I get the chance I'll put in a couple more 30 minutes sets maybe before the new year.

Not to be too explicit but I've been having this pain in my groin area for the last well I don't know how long it's been going for years actually it comes and goes that's why I'm not too too worried about the pain but it's becoming a bit more focused and a little bit more acute and I may have to start thinking about getting the thing looked at. Like I said I've suffered with this for years it comes and goes and I tend to live on. So it seems to me that it's not too deadly, I mean if it was a cancer or something like that it would have run its course one or the other and I would it would not be here. I'm thinking it might be a hernia of some sort and maybe that's why it goes on and off I'm basically messed up just because it's it does mess with my sleep a little bit especially the sharp jabbing pain that randomly shoots through that area from time to time. Not all the time mind you and not all that frequently but there is a sharp pain every once in awhile plus a much lower level pain that seems to come and go. I've even thought about it it might be a sprain a strain of some sort to my muscular areas from negotiating my lower legs especially when I go to bed or get up. Tonight however I'm going to take some Tylenol or profen and see if that has an impact as far as letting me better sleep. A pretty quiet day as we get close to New Years …

Movie day

 I could have slept better but I guess in the long run I did okay because I didn't feel too drug out today but I remember waking up at 3:00 a.m. and I wasn't sure if I was going to get back to sleep or not but I guess I did a couple times eventually getting up at 6:00 a.m. for my day. Of course there was no assist meeting today since it's in the in between week and all private non-profit industry seems to be taking it off. I did call you Kat to see about my chair and of course no one's around they're closed until a week from today January 2nd. It's the float time nothing gets done to speak of until the start of a new year. Having said that I figured I would do something and checked out the schedule for the bus as well as for the movies and decided I would take in a movie for the day. I want to be able to get an early enough movie that I'd be able to get back and do my 1 hour workout today. I probably should have done something more responsible like cleaned up the apartment a little bit but I figure it's Christmas holiday time and I'm going to revert back to irresponsibility of the season.

I wanted to make sure that I'd be warm enough so I dug out a blanket to put over my legs as well as I found the red jacket that Annette fixed yesterday and so I'll be able to wear it today along with my slippery shirts. The day was pretty cold even with a clear sky and a bright sun shining down. I wasn't too uncomfortable as I crossed the street and waited for the bus to come. It was on time, the bus that is, and I feel comfortable boarding and taking a ride South. That has significant amount of time so I stopped in and got a sandwich at one of the sandwich shops in that area. It was supposed to have been a vegetarian kind of thing which I guess it was but it was basically a cheese sandwich with lettuce. I think I need to stick with Subway. I was kind of surprised that there was a significant amount of people going to the movie that I was going to which was kind of a shock. It was a romantic comedy rom-com not as good as the ones with Meg Ryan and what's his name but still it was kind of cute kind of stupid but kind of cute. A lot of F words and kind of confusing with all the different people involved. But it was a good movie and good to get out. I'd like to do another movie If I Could before the end of the year at least another movie there's a couple more I want to go to. What an animation and another kind of historical document type of thing. Be pretty good diversions actually not that I need any. I just got to make sure I leave enough time and energy to do my arm bike. Keeping myself up physically I think is the most important thing I can do right now and perhaps dump a little weight. Who knows if that's possible.

I got home and it was close enough to dinner that I could actually warm up a few of the leftovers from the kids' visit yesterday. Some funeral potatoes and some kind of breakfast mashup of good flavors like a breakfast casserole sausage and eggs and such onions. I didn't eat a lot just enough to get me by and then actually watched the Jazz gave all the way to the end. I'm going to have to change my negative approach to the team they actually did a pretty decent game tonight they won and it was kind of entertaining amazingly so..

Christmas Day

 

 Christmas 2023 started out as a joyous Advent indeed when my home health person showed up and it was my old friend and one of my favorite workers Annette! That was a real surprise I figured I was going to get this older Russian woman that I have had before but I haven't been to please with her support where's Annette and I have a good relationship and enjoyed each other's company till she could no longer serve me because of an automobile accident. But before she got here I woke up around 7:15 that never happens I never wake up that early and that was just by sleeping in. I was up till about 11:30 the night before/ Christmas Eve and I wasn't too terribly tired I thought but I was pleased to get to bed and not have to worry about pooping thanks to Mark yesterday morning. I sure appreciate that. I was really pleased that while I was doing my business and that swept the floors in the kitchen and mopped a little bit. I forgot how productive she could be and it was just good to see her again a real Christmas morning present that I had not expected at all.

I of course didn't go anywhere today there was no place to go markets are closed, no bus running so I pretty much hung around the apartment enjoyed the treats in and out of the refrigerator and watched Netflix and Marvel and enjoyed my time alone. The kids got here late afternoon coming from a Christmas party/dinner and they brought me over great pieces of food from there Christmas get together so I actually had a Christmas dinner. Plus tons of leftovers all my favorite items from Christmas meals. Just say nothing a fresh batch of store containers/storage containers with lids that fit I truly am lucky. I should go through those that I have and get rid of the ones I can't use anymore. I have many plastic containers that have no top or lids and those are sort of kind of just useless so I need to do some sorting out after the first of the year and just save things I have lids for that are pretty usable. The image I have tonight is an image of the gift I got for my daughter Michelle and family. My trusty Dusty box of protein products that I can't remember the company it comes from but you know the one that has all the meat logs and meat sticks. I think it's sort of become a tradition to get such a device from Shelly every year it's nice to have around for cheese and crackers and summer sausage.

It's been a nice quiet yet Joy is Christmas with visits from family and food from their table and a conscious effort to spend time with the Crusty old grandfather like me. I have much to be thankful for and I'm grateful for a place to live in that's nice warm quiet and safe and a place for family can come and spend the holiday season with me as much as they can. I have way too much sugar as far as cookies and things of that nature go and I have adequate proteins and vegetables in the refrigerator in my concoction and juices. I think I will do okay this Joy season and wish you all

Christmas Eve

 I would say as Christmas Eve go this has been somewhat of a benign Christmas Eve at best. No no that's not really true because it's been a very unique Christmas Eve. Last night I pooped a little bit just as I was going to bed I caught most of it in pads and such so there was not a mess made except for on me that wasn't very much cuz most of it went out and got caught on one of the pads. But it left me like I was feeling I was going to poop the rest of the mess all day today. I made it through the night I actually slept a little bit and was hopeful that Melissa would be able to come over and help me out. She kind of did at least said she was going to but couldn't be here till like 1:00 in the meantime Marc Anthony called to see if there's anything he could do and I him and I had and I finally said yeah I do need a little help and he came right over. In the meantime I called Melissa or texted Melissa and canceled our Meetup. I will not see her tomorrow as I usually do on Mondays because of Christmas. She is taking it off to be with her family which is good. I have somebody else which kind of makes me nervous cuz now that I have Melissa full time I'm pretty much used to her and her style of Home Care. Anyway back to the story, Mark did come over and did a great job of getting me out of the toilet and me doing my business and getting the materials out then getting me dressed. That was all accomplished by around 3:00 this afternoon so even had I wanted to do anything- - which I don't think I would have done anything today anyway this afternoon was gone and so was the day pretty much. I watched a little Marvel and sat in front of my heater for the rest of the day. For dinner I had cheese and crackers with green grapes. I still might have some cookies in yogurt to help settle my stomach. I totally believe in yogurt even if it's the pasteurized kind. I think if I believe in it hard enough it will do the job. I still have to pour the new juice into the old bottle which I will do tomorrow on Monday morning I have enough to get through the rest of this day to take my meds tonight with.

I keep getting e Christmas cards from my biological family I'm not really quite sure what to do with these folks. They certainly like reaching out and they want to reach me and pull me back into their biological grouping but I just don't feel anything there. I don't understand their need to group as a family. I don't know if Mom and Dad did such a good job with her patch up family that I don't feel in need for the other. Maybe I'll get the Christmas spirit washed over me during the night and reach out tomorrow at some point and wish everyone a very merry Christmas but I kind of don't think that's going to happen. That seems like Jasmine and Mark Anthony will be over tomorrow at some point in time drop off gifts. I feel kind of scuzzy because I haven't gotten anybody any gifts there's really no excuse except that I'm lazy and cheap. I mean I know I can't really get out to the stores- well I could have if I really wanted to even if it was just over to the dollar store or over to the polygament store I could have gotten stuff out I really wanted to. I feel kind of bad but not enough to do anything about it except for smiling wish everyone a happy happy Christmas then I see you around the building...

Saturday's cook

I really enjoy my Saturday morning excursions over to the coffee shop with my little crew of folk that join me from one week to the next but I really also like Saturday mornings particularly when I can do a breakfast. I like to cook and I like to cook for myself. The trouble is that you make something large and you're stuck with it then for however long it takes to consume it. However, if you're cooking for your family it's not just a big deal cuz everything usually gets eaten pretty much Within 24 hour. It seems like. So today I cooked up this package of huge bacon pieces or thick bacon. The bacon I cooked this morning I purchased the number of months ago when it showed up in the meet throwaway section at my local market. It only cost me three bucks for the whole bundle. I took it out of the freezer a couple days ago but today was the first morning I had a chance to actually put it to the Heat and enjoy some crisp thick bacon. I wanted to make sure I had enough food stocked up that I can get through Sunday as well as Monday which is Christmas Day. So if I feel so inclined to have bacon and eggs on Monday morning I can do that or Sunday morning for that fact since it sounds like I'm not going out to breakfast tomorrow which is okay it's pretty much my call. Marc Anthony texted me about possibly not being able to get out to breakfast tomorrow because he had a show tonight he had to do his thing at which was all I needed to volunteer to skip tomorrow. So I could actually have bacon tomorrow with eggs since I went to the market and got a dozen jumbo eggs. I should be set now for the holiday. I will not be doing a roast or a ham or a large piece of protein like that especially since I just got my meat box in. If I really wanted to have beef I can go into my Omaha collection. I also got some more vegetables for my concoction celery, cucumbers, that kind of stuff plus another large container of orange juice and I should be pretty well set. I also got more candy bars for the candy collection for Melissa even though she won't be back until probably next Wednesday since she's taking off Christmas day which is Monday.

The temperature has dropped again, the fine spring like days are gone, it took me a while this morning in the middle afternoon to build up enough courage to crawl into my hoodie and make the trip across the street to the market. My red jacket the red jacket I love for a number of reasons is probably dead. I don't know what happened but I pulled the zippers apart from the jacket itself you know so it won't zip up and down but we tried a long time tried to fix it but couldn't get the zipper free. I suppose I could take it too Carl I'll have him come over and look at it maybe he can do. He might be able to fix it but my experience has been once these plastic zippers start malfunctioning that's the end of the road. Suppose I can get another zipper to sew into it but that's way beyond my skill set and I don't know how much I would want to pay to have somebody else do it but I don't know if I'll find another jacket that fits me as well as this does and is easy for me to get in and out of. The two other jackets I have are large are more like rain Slicker type jackets not like this the red one this has got the red outside woolly outside in the sheer slippery inside which makes it easy for me to get in and out of. I may have to do some checking around. But that's it for this year. I hardly have done anything for Christmas I want to stick one of the nut packages, salted nuts, my brother seems to like those I think I'm one of those in the Box I'll give it to him for Christmas seems weird and kind of cheap but I've been that way this year. I didn't even write about Kelly stopping me on the way to the barber yesterday Kelly bowls with my old roommate and Buddy from college he actually gave me a $50 bill for Christmas totally amazing. He didn't stop me from going to the barber so he just said hi and goodbye and that was it it's too bad I would like to have visited with him more but another Christmas miracle you can always use 50 bucks… 

Thinking of Friday

I believe I've moaned in the past about the coffee shop across the street and how it's not open on Sundays and in particular not open on holidays. I guess I could understand the holiday part everyone needs to have holidays off but there's been years I know where he's closed from Christmas Eve the entire week to New Year's it's a long time to go without your local coffee shop. Anyway because of that we decided that we would( my coffee drinking buddy and me) would meet on friday, today instead of our usual Saturday morning hook up at the coffee shop and because of that I had asked my home health person to come in as early as she could today. Because we usually meet at 9:30 for coffee and my Home Health person, Melissa wanders in here around 8:20 to 8:30 meaning I'd cut it real close for my 1 hour of service to be able to get there in time to have coffee with my friend Janet.

Melissa was early but not by very much and I was kind of worried that Janet would be there and I would not so I texted her that I might be a little late but thanks to focused concentration and maybe cutting my session a little short I was able to get out of the bathroom in time for our regular time hook up. I may be a little bit sorry for my haste now because, now my stomachs begin to gurgle a little bit and of course I begin to worry immediately that I'm going to poop my pants and start the countdown until Monday morning when my home health person will show up and this time it's not Melissa it's somebody else that I'm not too familiar with that only adds to my frustration and perhaps a little fear that things will not go well. But one thing I've learned the last couple of years is that things do work out regardless of the mess the time and who has to become involved and maybe that's possibly one of my Christmas miracles. Don't sweat the big things.

The other event of the day was the service coordinator luncheon. The service coordinators, or the folks who help us out if we have issues and problems with bureaucracy and other areas, I guess decide to go together and have a catered lunch which was today at 1:00 why so late I don't know that's another one of my constant irritations late lunches. Anyway today it was fried chicken parts actually chicken tenders, coleslaw and a cookie and bottled water of course. I wanted to be somewhat of a loner so I found the table that nobody else was at and it seemed within minutes people have picked up from their table they're sitting at and came over to sit at my table I don't know why maybe they just didn't want to poor little disabled guy to sit by himself on Christmas dinner. Anyway, the meal was not Stellar but it was okay. Had I known it was going to be as simple as it was I would have certainly passed on the whole event. But I made a good showing ate my dinner direct my water and got back to my apartment as soon as I could. I worked out on my bike and watched at least two movies. The days continue to be beautiful but that should end today tonight I mean it's a cold front comes through and drops the temperature but it's a naturally warm but quite nice to be out in.. 

Santa 2023

I'm finding it most difficult to figure out what I want to write about tonight. Do I want to write about the incredibly nice weather we're having or the fact that today was the regular/annual Christmas client party at the Independent Living Center where I did my usual Santa Claus interpretation. Or maybe I can semi-scalefully right about both. How's that?

I woke early with the expectation of an interesting day. Today I will be at the Independent Living Center and I will be Santa Claus as I usually am. The party this year seems to be pretty early starting at about 12:00 and going till about 2:30 or so. But it's Thursday and that means I don't have someone to dress me and the center is sending it driver over to pick me up around 10:30 which means I have to be semi-quick. I think I got out of bed around 6:30 a.m. and I was up and ready to meet the world by 9:00 a.m. which I forgot to include the fact that it's also coffee social today so I like to be down there to see if there's any way I can be of assistance. I was a little spooked when I got to the common room it was all dark the tables hadn't been moved together and there was no Marcia insight brewing coffee. Marsha had slept in and so we are quite behind but that was no problem there's just a few of us at the social today anyway. We had good coffee some nice treats and good conversation but I was kind of glad to get it over with and be ready to be picked up around 10:30 when the driver did show up. Let me remind you that usually I really don't have a driver and I just take public transit like earlier last week when it was so cold. I felt totally special this day however having to drive her pick me up and take me home and the fact that the weather is incredible- - but more on that later.

It seemed a bit chaotic at the Independent Living Center when I got there which is not unsurprisingly as they are trying to get ready to meet a great horde of individuals who will also be looking for lunch. The Bell Affair this year was pancakes scrambled eggs and juice of some sort and sausage. I stayed out of the way and basically enjoy the event. Usually they feed me early so I can be ready to meet the consumers after they've been fed but today that didn't happen and I was able to scarf down a little food before the event. It was a good event however humble but that's okay. We had a bit of a production line running the consumers through getting a picture with Santa and a sack of goodies. It took quite a while but it was relatively efficient it was kind of different than usual maybe it's the new director who was so nervous about the whole thing I had to feel sorry for her and just be supportive which I think she appreciated. With the pictures taken and the luncheon it was time for me to return and as I rolled out I could not believe how beautiful the day was but then that's what the second part of this posting is about.

I've now seen a couple of postings on either Facebook or Instagram or whatever about how beautiful the weather is how spring like and how perhaps concerned we should all be about the fact that we're not getting a winter the way we're supposed to and it's all because of global warming. I'm 100% sure that's the reason but as I've talked to a couple people I think we're okay at least here in Utah right now but I think our descendants are going to feel the real stress of the global warming thing unless we as a people do something about it. I look around and see all chaos going on in other parts of the country in the world major Hundred Year floods and roaring water flowing down the streets and think wow how come we aren't as the westerners and Utah specifically lucky enough to avoid all these tragedies. I always say we are not void of these tragedies are just does not come up yet and that will be a doozy when it does I think it's going to be a shift and major earthquake and that's going to be our tragedy. I know it's very selfish but I certainly hope I miss that bullet. So I'm pretty well done now till the first of the year if not longer of any major responsibilities. I don't even know if I have any more meetings except for a coffee date I have for tomorrow and that's just because our regular coffee shop is closed on Saturday he always closes between Christmas and New Years kind of drives me crazy but anyway we're moved our coffee date back or ahead one day. I'm tired tonight and I didn't even work out during the day hopefully I'll be tired enough to get all the way through the night oh and the best thing of all happy solstice for now on the days get longer and I'm happy as a clam…

Meat Teat

I'm not sure if I have mentioned a struggle I've been having for some time now in trying to decide whether or not I wanted to order that $100 deal that Omaha Steaks has been offering the past couple of months. I've coveted some time the possibility of having a freezer full of Quality Meat. Steaks, chicken, some pork but not much would all be cool I thought. And it was during this Christmas season but I thought you know what I should just order it and see. The enticed me by offering 12 burgers to go along with the regular order of a lot of meat really. But I still wasn't sold enough to drop the hammer and place an order. Then I got my annual call for my brother who sent me money every Christmas it seems like now but he has to make sure that I know that the envelopes coming the mail is coming and to be sure to watch out for it and let him know as soon as I get the envelope and open it and see the money there. This year he sent me five Chris $20 bills and that was just enough for me to justify The $99 Omaha Steak deal. Before I could chicken out I I went to the website and painfully looked over all the different options and finally chose the one that I spoke of earlier flaming youngs, pork chops, chicken breasts and lots of burgers. I wasn't even thinking about her I was going to keep something like this I just wanted to have access to this much meat. Then the first of this week I got an email from Omaha indicating that my package would be delivered on the 21st of the month which is cool I figured that but then I got another email the next day indicating the package has been delivered and I hadn't seen anything. So of course but devious mind starts thinking about porch Pirates and though it almost be impossible for them to get inside the apartment complex here but I think it could be done. However, I would still be able to see who did it because we have surveillance cameras all over the place. And naturally I began to worry about what could have happened to my order. I even spoke with the manager of the building this morning to see if somebody had reported a scene in a white styrofoam box sitting by the front door. We keep the front door locked the good part of the day or in the evenings and sometimes drivers delivering stuff can't get in the building cuz I don't know the password leaves the stuff or the Box just outside the front door. Of course this scares me to death thinking that of course that's just an invitation for somebody. Styrofoam box even if it's all taped up you know there's got to be something good inside.

I was relieved mid boarding coming back from the laundromat to find a white styrofoam box sitting outside my door! They had not forgotten me and my box had not been stolen. I finished getting my wash into the apartment then went back and finagled my styrofoam box inside again beginning to worry that where was I going to store this stuff? It's quite a bit of meat and the fact that each kind of meet like when there's like four pieces of the same thing like four flaming youngs for hamburgers patties I'll come into little box so there's a bunch of little boxes which would make it impossible to try to store it all in the refrigerator freezer but if you took everything out of the boxes you could stack it up in there pretty decently. My freezer is a bit of a chaotic mess is that redundant redundant? It took a little doing getting inside of all those boxes but I finally got them all open and got the protein out and threw it in the freezer sticking Frozen pieces of meat anywhere I could find an opening and I did pretty good I should be set for a good many months. Especially in the burger section nice to think I've got 12 Burgers to look forward to. In fact I had a Omaha Steak Burger for dinner in the form of a hamburger as I watched the Utah Jazz choke again. I don't know if I would do the meat thing again at least not from Omaha. I think there are other meat vendors that sell the same if not more amount of meat for a lot less money. For Omaha you're just buying the name and a lot of packaged meat.. 

Alone and cold

To be honest some mornings I have to force myself to get out of bed. They're not too many mornings like that but lately when I know that I have to get dressed and head out to catch a bus in the morning hours I think how nice it would be just to burrow into my covers a little bit deeper and try to get back to sleep. Well that does not happen. I've got responsibilities and so I drag myself out of bed and do the whole morning routine until 8:00 when I call the office to see if they're going to be a meeting and sure enough we're having a meeting. Actually, the temperature was a too bad when I left the apartment to race up to the bus stop. If I didn't think about how chilly the morning was I didn't have much of a problem unfortunately I didn't have long to wait until the bus did arrive. Interested Lee though once again as I was waiting for the bus off in the distance there was a shoe! A shoe laying on its side actually quite a ways from where I was on the sidewalk and it was laying in a pile of dirt that had been recently turned over so it was loose and I didn't dare get off the sidewalk for fear of sinking my wheels into the loose dirt and then it would be a real challenge to get out. But I aimed my camera at the Shoe,lying forlorn on its side crusted with morning Frost searching for its mate. I snapped a couple images hopefully one of them will turn out to be somewhat identifiable as a shoe on its side.

We really didn't have many names to evaluate this week. It was mainly a holiday get together meeting I think we did about 7 or 8 names and then ate a lot of holiday crap from the recent open house and goodies that people bring in over the holiday season. The contractors we use always bring in a lot of good holiday trays with cheeses and meats and everything nice. There was a lot of jabber around the names today it was hard for the manager to keep focused it really was becoming a Christmas office. When we had finished the last name and again the jabber started picking up I decided it was time to take my leave which I did feeling a little bit like a humbug but turn into everybody and wishing everybody a happy holiday season and happy New Year since I don't think we will be meeting again until after the 1st of the year. I cannot remember what the stimulus was but something got me into thinking of the Christmas miracle. The constant reader knows that I typically believe there is a Christmas miracle, for me, every holiday season. Some of the Miracles are more subtle than others but I still deemed the Miracles all the same. Today it may have been the fact that the day reached 50° by the time I was coming home and it felt quite comfortable but I don't think that's a Christmas miracle as much as it was the Christmas tragedy of global warming. I was just trying to put the best face on it. But now I'm looking for it I may have found a minor miracle at the office but I'd like to find something a bit larger and more miraculous lipses

Sleep time

I'm not sure I don't remember exactly when it happened but I know it was sometime yesterday, during the day. I have one of those super cheap clock radios that I purchased from the local Deseret Industries which is a giant local culture affiliated second hand store here in Utah. I think I bought three clocks one time they have a whole area of these cheap clock radios that you would never really want to listen to if you had to. The kind of clock radio you keep in a barn if you are milking cows are in a wood shop that you just want to be able to look up and see the time. They're not bad for listening to talk radio like NPR but might as well forget music really. Anyway I picked them up for a dollar a piece and I've gone through two of them already I'm on my third now. For me their best feature is that the illuminate at night so I can just always open my eyes and see what time it is. Anyway, yesterday I was goofing around with the clock and by mistake I turned it on- - so obviously I was in bed so it could have been yesterday morning early or I remember it was in the middle of the night and I did something in the radio came on and I had to turn it off so in my sleep state I hit either the snooze button or some other button and it went off but in the meantime I flailed my hands to a point hitting all the buttons on one of them was the setting button and every time you push it it adds an hour to the time showing on the front of the clock and by mistake I put an extra hour on the clock. This morning I woke up as usual looked at the clock and it said 5:00 and in actuality it was 4:00 a.m.. I felt more tired than usual but that's not a big deal. Finally, when my clock said 5:55 I looked at my cell phone for some reason and the cell phone read 4:45 a.m. so I thought it was 6:00 a.m. and it was actually just five. I had already been awake for an hour so I knew it was going to be a long day. And this was the day when I was to meet with my writers group. It was our annual Christmas dinner/restaurant lunch and I wanted to be a little more perky than I felt that I would be. Anyway,I  lollygagged around the bed for another hour before I got up at 6:00 a.m. finally. I tried to sleep but it just wouldn't come.

This hasn't been a bad day, had a great lunch with my buddies, but I have to admit being out in the cold I was a little challenged. I don't think I've ever been as affected by the cold as I've been this last season. I'm hoping I'll be able to sleep okay tonight. I'm supposed to be out in the cold again tomorrow to get to a meeting downtown. I may wear a blanket over my legs even if I don't want to. Such are the days of almost winter…

Fog

It was kind of scary going this morning over to the restaurant. Not scary like Monsters and stuff scary like not prepared to deal with what might be coming out of the Fog namely cars. It was kind of strange to wake up to a totally sucked in environment. There was a heavy fog everywhere. I could barely see cars coming even with the lights on. On the way to the restaurant there is a cutout driveway that cuts onto the street I can cut across the street directly and on to the sidewalk by the restaurant cuts off two or three minutes of my travel time. I wasn't late by any means this morning but still didn't want to go all the way down to the light to cross the street. I just like zipping across. I knew I was relatively safe because at that hour of the morning not a lot of people are traveling especially on Sundays. So I knew I'd be okay I just had to play it cool across the street. On days when there is no fog, where I cross the street, I have a good vision of traffic from the south and from the north and there are pretty long red lights on either end of the block so I know I've got quite a bit of time to cross and this morning I had to go with seeing the lights change red and it's not seeing anybody coming or hearing anybody coming and zip the street. This I did without incident and nobody honked at me or anything which is always a good day when jaywalking across the street or Jay rolling how are that would be said and particularly since it wasn't a cop or anything. A little bit of excitement for this Sunday very close to Christmas.

The inversion continues to be settled over the Salt Lake Valley trapping in all the pollutants and other things that are probably very dangerous to inhale. I should probably wear a mask of some sort to protect me from the particulate matter but it just seems like too much work. The days are cold especially with no sunshine to give the illusion of warmth. Since Mark was with me this morning we stopped at the market on the way back and I was able to pick up 10 cans of my pickled peppers sliced and a box of oranges. I know it's probably a myth but I still believe eating oranges protects against cold and other disease processes of the winter. Oranges are such a Christmas thing for me seems like when I was growing up that was the only time we got citrus fruit really. Lots of oranges it seem like at Christmas plus my grandparents who lived in Mesa Arizona often sent up literally a box of oranges and are grapefruit are both. Kind of a Christmas tradition. When I can find boxes of oranges- - even though they're not a deal- - I like to purchase some and believe I'm back in the late 50s waiting for the Box of oranges from my grandparents. You know what else was good? Where the peanuts that I get in my Christmas stock ing. They had a different flavor than peanuts in the Shell that I get today they must have had some sort of a Christmas flavor or maybe it's just they were raw peanuts or something not roasted yet. I've ordered a couple pounds of salted mixed nuts from The Nut House that I use should be here around the 21st that's still a week out well no couple days but still it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas… 

Door Decor

 Truth be told the last couple of years I've kind of wanted to decorate my door for the holidays even before my sweet little granddaughter and her boyfriend did the job a couple years ago. I've just never got into the decoration mode as far as getting the decorations and devices needed to hang on doors and walls and things of

that nature. If I can course my granddaughter into doing more I may do so but at least I'm not the Grinch or Bob Cratchit. So I was quite surprised when the new person who has moved into the properties here and who still works at the agency that I used to work with years ago asked if she could put some decorations on my door. I said sure of course Merry Christmas. I pretty much forgot about the request until I hear a knock knock on my door this morning or mid afternoon I can't remember when and it was Jeannie wishing to start her task of hanging a wreath and a few other items on the door and on the sides of the door I don't know what's called. When she was done, the task did not take very long, I had a great wreath and a couple items on each side of the door to my apartment. It's not a big deal but it is to me. For this season I will have decorations of the season on my door. Then I plan to miserly harvest them at the end of the season put them on a Shelf and then if I'm lucky to still be alive next season apply them again to the door. The thought excites me full of Christmas feelings.

I don't know if it was a cold day all right I just may not have gotten over the long cold day of Thursday but I pretty much stayed in the apartment all day today leaving only to take couple loads of garbage out to the dumpster. I'm trying to clean up the place a little bit just because it's gotten into such a disarray mainly with winter weather gear. I have hoodies and coats and Loxley shirts laying all over the front of the apartment so I worked on that this afternoon and then this evening I tried to sweep up a little bit and try to just make the apartment look a little better. I've been running over a lot of cooked items like cookies, crackers and pretzels the kind of things that under the wheel of this chair turn to dust and crumbs that litter the floor. Really does look bad even in my sleeping area I've got stuff all over the floor which I been working on sweeping up I really need Gloria or alessi to sweep up for me. They can do in 5 minutes what takes me an hour or so to do and it looks a lot better than what I end up coming away with. It's just me I'm sure I can't blame it on the chair like I always try to do. I just have a hard time knowing when things are clean or doing that. I mean I certainly recognize cleanliness when I see it but it's hard for me to produce it and especially hard for me to do it from a wheelchair. My chair is bubbling up again somehow I know and has me listing to the right side. I'm going to have to take it in as soon as I get my other chair back from the shop hopefully soon. I believe the extra weight on my right hip isn't doing me any good…

Jolly Holly Christmas

Last night I was so cold and so exhausted from my days Adventures that I pretty much just took the day off turned on the heater and hung around my workstation by my desktop computer all day. Just taking it easy and recuperating from my yesterday activities. I cannot believe I can't do the things I used to do. In the old days yesterday's events were nothing just part of the days function now however I've got to plan things out and perhaps take a little bit better care of myself like taking a blanket with me when I go out on cold days now. I hate having to be so focused on survival. Anyway, when I did come home from my adventure yesterday there was a box at the side of my door. I didn't remember ordering anything at least not nothing this soon arriving at the door. I have an order of nuts coming in in a week or so as well as a few other items but this box looked kind of interesting. I actually didn't bring it inside the apartment till I got home from my days tripping. The box was actually there the night before and I just left it there all night and left it there during the day yesterday until I got home then finally drug it in. I threw it on the table and finally this morning I opened it up not knowing for sure if I had ordered anything and of course I had not it was a book! I guess the latest offering by Stephen King one of my favorite writers. The gift was sent anonymously I have two individuals who I think may have sent something like this who normally well enough to know that I would be most pleased to have such a gift but there was no card or address to identify where the item was sent from. There is a way to send a thank you note to the anonymous benefactor and I shall have to do that soon I do appreciate the volume. It's actually the third book in the series. To be honest with you I've read the other two but don't quite remember what this individual story was so it'll be interesting to read the take from this volume. I almost finished with the volume on Sigmund Freud by Irving Stone and hopefully I could start the volume called Holly on or by Christmas. This would be a fitting way to start my Christmas holiday of Christmas Day. The book is a big fat one which totally makes my winter season. That's such a slow reader as I am this will last me a long time.

I may have written about the new person who moved in to the apartment complex. She is older but she still working at the place I used to work for which causes some weird feelings if not friction. I don't know if she is aware of how I feel but she definitely does not like the new director who I really like. She also makes despairing comments about the director and perhaps the way that centers being run now which I totally disagree. She seems to be getting more and more interested in my apartment for reasons I don't know. Today she asked if she could help decorate my apartment for Christmas. If you'd like to place a wreath on my door and who knows what else. Who am I to stop her and I would like to have some sort of Christmas decorations I don't think my granddaughter has time this Christmas season but we'll see. She turned 20 today I'm totally proud of her she's doing great. Anyway, tomorrow my goal is to go across the street and buy a box of Christmas oranges. When I woke this morning I thought sure I was coming down with a sore throat or something but when I got up my symptoms seem to evaporate which is good. Still however the True Believer in oranges and orange juice and vitamin C in general for combating winter colds…

Cold obligations

Another incredibly long and cold day for me to be out in the elements. Of course there was the coffee group this morning at 9:30 and it was poorly attended I don't know why except for the room itself was all changed around for the building Christmas lunch function that I did attend because I ended up going to lunch with my old buddy Dwayne from the state of Utah government. Those are pretty much lightweight Adventures compared to what I had to do about 4:00 which was dress up and head down to the bus stop catch the bus then the 200 bus into Salt Lake City where I had to attend a board meeting for the private nonprofit I used to work for at the Independent Living Center it was also there company holiday function. How easy things would be if I had a vehicle and a driver's license but that's things of the past. It was chilly catching the bus inbound but pretty straightforward what was really grim was the bus ride home. But first the independent living function holiday party.

I really kind of hate these kinds of things where people are more or less suppressed into going to these functions then faking out like they are enjoying themselves playing silly games and eating silly food. Today the food was provided from a major authentic Mexican food place here in town that all the upper strata folk go to. I particularly am not fun fond of their food chicken and pork shredded for tacos and such burritos Plus other things like rice and beans but no Frijoles to speak of and a couple of tubs of some kind of Mexican roll up burrito covered in cheese. Authentic Mexican food joints never have ground beef and that's what I like best on my Mexican food plate. But they did have a good red juice drink kind of fizzy. The drink saved the dinner for me. I suffered through the dinner and then suffered through part of the games. Tell him couldn't take it any longer and then sprung for the doors quickly as I could. My best excuse was I had to catch a bus. I had to get to the bus stop. Of course by the time that I was heading out it was nearly 6:00 and the sun was down and seemed so was the temperature. Of course just as I was getting to the bus stop where the bus was sitting waiting it took off even though it saw me coming into the bus stop and I waved my arms so he knew I wanted to him but he took off anyway and it was a long cold time before the next bus showed up. Now this bus drop me off where I had to pick up another bus which had to take me to the Community College because the bus stop was counting on was closed because of Street work. So at the community college I waited for the next bus which seem to take forever. It was dark and cold and I was sitting trying to imagine myself in the warmer spot. Finally however, the 217 southbound showed up and I eagerly rolled a board and came on home. I left the heater on on purpose when I left and the apartment was relatively toasty when I got home. I'm ready to channel down in almost ready to get ready for bed but I still have some things I've got to do. A long day for me. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have a bit of a respite…

Toenail time

It's hard for me to Fathom just how much be it outside tires me out. Even though the day was not a cold day per se, very warm for this time of year. However, warm or not I was out in the cold day for a significant amount of time I think. I had to go get my toenails cut. I wasn't even planning on getting my toes cut today actually toenails cut today. I've never had so much trouble keeping an appointment in years as it has been for my Podiatry appointment. I kept double booking my appointments. Seems like there's three or four things happening in the next couple of weeks I just cannot seem to keep straight. I had rescheduled this toenail clipping at least three times. Then I realized this morning the third time that I had rescheduled for I have another appointment that I want to keep so much more than having my toenails clipped. This was supposed to be Friday. So I called once again today to see if I could cancel that appointment and in doing so speaking with the staff I found that there was a slot open for today at 2:45 p.m. I so much just wanted to keep disappointment and get my toenails done and forgot about for 9 weeks but I scheduled the appointment.

I drive my clothes a second time as I usually do and when that was finished I drugged my clothes back to the room and I didn't fold them like I usually do immediately following the retrieval for the dryers. I wanted to get in as much of a workout as I could since I didn't know for sure what I would be feel like after getting back from the toenail clipping. I wasn't sure what time that would be. So I pumped my bike for about 40 minutes. Grab the fast lunch of hot dogs which I totally enjoyed- - I had purchased some beef dogs and rolled them up in pieces of bread and enjoy them that way with lots of mustard. It was then time to catch a bus head down to the end of the line for 217. The sun was out today though filtered by a little bit of cloud cover are Smog cover or whatever it is. But I caught the bus Southbound but when I got to the end of the line when I found the bus that would take me further up to where I had to get off at 90th South, the 218 the driver told me he would leave for 40 minutes. That would make me late for my appointment so I decided I would just take off and this I did driving over sidewalks until I got to the office got my toenails done and then rather than wait for the bus to take me back to the train station and the 217 I decided I'd just roll back again in the elements which I did. But like I said being out in the elements driving my chair and holding on the chair so I don't slide out or anything really exhausts me which kind of amazes me but I'm terribly glad I can do it and I did. Now I don't have to do it again until February 14th 2024 

Tuesday's time

My day was brightened by a video call from my very old friend DD, not that insipid duck from Walt Disney, but a friend from my youth. I guess it's one of the benefits and special gifts of old men when they're contacted by friends from the past- the Deep past. My friend is very bright much so than me but he tends to slow his Jets down to take time to visit with me which I totally appreciate. We talked we gossiped made fun of historical moments from the past if not hysterical. Then we went on our way. I don't know where he went but I pumped my arm back for an hour under the guise of personal Recreation and self improvement. I don't know why I do this but it makes me feel good like I'm in some form of control over my life.m

After 1 hour of pumping on my arm bike I decided I better go to the market, first time this week, and Revitalize my vegetables needed for my daily meal of cold vegetable soup some form of gazpacho. I had to get celery and cucumbers a can of whole kernel corn and French cut green beans which I came back to the apartment and replenished my vat of vegetables Addy the can of sliced pickled jalapeno peppers it made quite a bit but will last me about 2 to 3 days then I'll start the process again. I'm totally surprised I'm ingesting this mixture on a daily basis. I truly hope it's doing me some good. I'm not sure what that good would be necessarily but still I'm pretty consistent. I have to admit however in my Zeal for slice and dice and add to the mixture I once again destroyed what little bit of order was in my kitchen. Now there's stuff all over the floor all kinds of vegetable pieces on the floor which I've dried and hardened into a disgusting looking collection of rejected vegetables. Before we go to bed I plan to sweep up a little bit and maybe soak the area where I tend to ingest a lot of the vegetables see if I can mop it up tomorrow morning or tomorrow afternoon whenever. I'm definitely losing the battle of order in my apartment. My current home health person does sweep up the apartment fairly regularly. No mopping or anything unless I specifically ask but the sweeping helps a lot. I just have to figure out where to put stuff like when I come home and not just throw everything on the table in the kitchen. I've almost come to the belief that being able to stand and move around is a key feature in keeping the apartment clean. I just can't see things from a higher position sometimes when I elevate my chair I can get a glimpse of how things could and should be. I live in continual hope that a full bona fide cleaning person one day walk into my apartment and ask for the privilege of cleaning my unit.