Tuesday's travels

I went into the city today it was my usual weekly assist meeting. Luckily it was this cold as it has been but I found my red jacket which really is somewhat hammered but it works for me even though it makes me look like a hobo. Anyway, got to the meeting no issues after a little bit of talking and stuff we got to business got out of there by 12:00 it was the usual stuff nothing crucial. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do following the meeting. I kind of thought I wanted to get something to eat but at the same time I also thought I should book it over the hill and get to rehab and see if they can fix my chair a little bit. I tried this new Mexican place downtown, I assume it's Mexican they have Mexican food there I went there primarily because one of the people at my assist group indicated they had ground beef tacos. It's so hard to find ground beef tacos downtown everybody wants to be authentic so it's all pulled meat beef or pork or chicken or whatever pisses me off. I got there and it was very Mexican indeed I could barely understand the menu and even then I had to have help with trying to figure out what was there and in the end I didn't get really what I wanted but I was tired of trying to figure out stuff. I want to just rice and beans and a meat burritos some sort that's what I got but it got all wrapped up into one giant tortilla. It was a challenge trying to eat that thing ended up basically getting the plate and eviscerating the top of the tortilla or burrito and then just sort of eating the insides out and it works pretty good but I certainly made a mess. And I couldn't believe how many people helped me in trying to get squared away. This power chair is just still not my friend as much as I'd like it to be. My feet were just not working out staying on my foot plate today and so I had to keep pushing my foot up or asking people to put my foot on the plate it was frustrating. The Mexican experience was expensive- - but what do you expect it's downtown they're going to screw everybody especially if the suit crowd comes in for lunch. I will probably try it again but I don't know how soon.

The train home was without incident as was the best trip over to the graveyard. There was an incident which was kind of strange but I don't think it's worth getting into here anyway. If I can't get the 500 Words maybe I will but it's doubtful. I did bite the bullet and cross the street and go over to the market and picked up a few items but I felt that I needed specially for making my concoction for my morning drink cucumber, tomatoes and I got a couple more cans of jalapeno peppers sliced I'm set for the rest of the week that's for sure. Then it was home and it was time for me to work out. Later on in the evening I finished the rest of the letters envelope stamps and cash. They are all stacked on my table ready to go in tomorrow's mail the first of November unbelievable 

Monday Mumblings

Another day I basically chose not to go out. I use the lame excuse that I need to stay in to Outside is very cold I would venture to say bone chilling cold but I went out today anyway rolled all the way down to the university I mean Community College and caught the bus went southbound to the movies. It was after lunch almost 1:00 so it wasn't as cold as it could have been, the sun is out and even though the temperature is cold from the cold Canadian winds that have come down you can still gather some Heat/ warmth from the Sun. I had the red blanket over my legs and the hood with the marijuana paraphernalia patches on the front wrapped around my shoulders to give my upper body some heat. The cold was not bad but I certainly will have to take some time getting used to it again. Following the movie, rather than try to get home on the hit and miss curbing to the sidewalks that's being repaired and such I elected to stay at the bus stop and wait for the 217 to take me home. Like I said there was not a cloud in the sky and even though the house temperature was cold stay inside the shelter and tipped up towards the Sun I was able to deal with waiting tell the bus arrived. I enjoyed my experience at the movie house even though as supremely frustrated. I had the urge early on through the movie that I needed to use the bathroom but I didn't pay attention to it or I tried to think I could hold myself until the movie and then I could get to the bathroom but then I sort of remembered when I thought that I was holding my pee I really wasn't thrust my hand down between my legs and sure enough I was wet not supremely wet yet but it was coming. I waited till the movie ended anyway then got to the large family bathroom that you can lock the door and you're the only one in there. And for the life of me I couldn't expose my penis head to stick the catheter in. It was so frustrating because by that point in time I was peeing even more as obviously I was dealing with a full bladder. Finally I totally undid my pants and finally it's enough coaxing and grabbing and finessing the penis in stoma I got enough of an erection to thrust the catheter down the eye of the monster to bring up the golden liquid and relieve the pressure from the bladder by that time I was a mess. Not only had I wet my pants but a spasm through my shoe off of my right foot. The only good thing about the whole thing was not one person rattle the door to get in as I was going through my urinary crisis. But that point in time I accepted the fact that I had gotten a movie out of the day and that was going to be it I need to get home and either out of these shorts or exposed myself to the hair dryer and at least dry him as much as I could which I did. I put my red blanket over my legs and tucked it in around my foot so you couldn't tell that I didn't have a shoe on and then wrapped the the other side of the blanket around the other Lakes are both were tucked in and finally waited at the bus stop until the 217 showed up and came on home and enjoy the heat of the apartment. I left the heater on so there was some heat but it seems like my unit is pretty chilly so it's going to be a long winter for sure… on kid letters- - which I did - - and I worked out on the arm bike for an hour but mostly tried to stay warm. I figured I really had turned on that furnace yet though I thought that I had so I got that cranking a little bit spent some time trying to figure out the heater that I keep by the computer screen got a little heat coming out of it too so I was able to basically stay warm. Of course head on my stocking cap and we put long sleeves on me this morning when we dressed me. As I've written before my home health person comes at around 8:30 today she was a shade later I would say about 8:45 a.m. and then that takes about an hour so it's almost 10:00 when she leaves and I'm dressed and ready for the day. Many times I still have to ingest something for breakfast or some sort. And as soon as you 11:00 and the day is basically gone sort of. There's really not much I could do in 2 hours that I would like to be back in time to listen to to radio shows on NPR, the world and Marketplace while I work out on my 60 Minute ride that I do on Mondays. And of course, marketplace does not get over until 3:30 p.m. and I suppose if I were all set I could then take off and do something but then the days basically over. I could have gone over and got a few cans of peppers and stuff at the market but at that juncture I'm pretty much looking at staying in tell a new starts at 5:00. Today I had the letters to work on so I didn't feel I was wasting a lot of time but many days I just try to figure out something I can do to take up the time. But hadn't been so cold today I would have gone across the street and got in provisions. But I have enough Peppers to get me through another couple days and I can live without a cucumber in my pepper drink so I just tried to keep the heat cranking and just doing odd jobs around the kitchen and the bedroom. This morning I almost did not make it, the transfer from bed to my power chair. I sort of got wedged between the two which is not necessarily A Bad Thing that happens usually every morning to some extent which I count as part of the morning transfer process but this time it went a little bit deeper than usual and I got Twisted a little bit and I couldn't really pull myself up with the trapeze like I usually do. It took me almost 10 minutes to correct that transfer and I didn't have to call on anybody like to Fire Department to assist. I was fortunate or I was blessed or both. This is been happening a lot more with the new chair and I'm writing off this learning phase as okay. It's something in the back of my mind is also suggesting that I consider that this might be the next phase and getting old and not being able to transfer as well as I used to and take further precautions to make sure each transfer is safe and secure and doable on my own. Cuz if it isn't I'm looking at other options that aren't as pleasant as what I have now…

Sunday Soaker

Outside is very cold I would venture to say bone chilling cold but I went out today anyway rolled all the way down to the university I mean Community College and caught the bus went southbound to the movies. It was after lunch almost 1:00 so it wasn't as cold as it could have been, the sun is out and even though the temperature is cold from the cold Canadian winds that have come down you can still gather some Heat/ warmth from the Sun. I had the red blanket over my legs and the hood with the marijuana paraphernalia patches on the front wrapped around my shoulders to give my upper body some heat. The cold was not bad but I certainly will have to take some time getting used to it again. Following the movie, rather than try to get home on the hit and miss curbing to the sidewalks that's being repaired and such I elected to stay at the bus stop and wait for the 217 to take me home. Like I said there was not a cloud in the sky and even though the house temperature was cold stay inside the shelter and tipped up towards the Sun I was able to deal with waiting tell the bus arrived.

I enjoyed my experience at the movie house even though as supremely frustrated. I had the urge early on through the movie that I needed to use the bathroom but I didn't pay attention to it or I tried to think I could hold myself until the movie and then I could get to the bathroom but then I sort of remembered when I thought that I was holding my pee I really wasn't thrust my hand down between my legs and sure enough I was wet not supremely wet yet but it was coming. I waited till the movie ended anyway then got to the large family bathroom that you can lock the door and you're the only one in there. And for the life of me I couldn't expose my penis head to stick the catheter in. It was so frustrating because by that point in time I was peeing even more as obviously I was dealing with a full bladder. Finally I totally undid my pants and finally it's enough coaxing and grabbing and finessing the penis in stoma I got enough of an erection to thrust the catheter down the eye of the monster to bring up the golden liquid and relieve the pressure from the bladder by that time I was a mess. Not only had I wet my pants but a spasm through my shoe off of my right foot. The only good thing about the whole thing was not one person rattle the door to get in as I was going through my urinary crisis. But that point in time I accepted the fact that I had gotten a movie out of the day and that was going to be it I need to get home and either out of these shorts or exposed myself to the hair dryer and at least dry him as much as I could which I did. I put my red blanket over my legs and tucked it in around my foot so you couldn't tell that I didn't have a shoe on and then wrapped the the other side of the blanket around the other Lakes are both were tucked in and finally waited at the bus stop until the 217 showed up and came on home and enjoy the heat of the apartment. I left the heater on so there was some heat but it seems like my unit is pretty chilly so it's going to be a long winter for sure… 

Saturday Serenade

 I socialized! That's one thing I did today that got me out of the apartment, at least across the street to the coffee shop. Other than that I've pretty much just stayed in the apartment with the heater on and enjoying my internet connection. Actually I've been binging a series off of Netflix about planet Earth, it's very high brow. I have one more segment to watch but I don't know if I'll do that tonight. Maybe tomorrow sometime in the afternoon because I don't plan to do a whole lot tomorrow except go to breakfast with Marc Anthony. I can't believe I'm being such a wuss because of the cold air but there's just no reason to be out in it if I don't have to. Perhaps I'm being careful and not subjecting myself to any undue flu/ hold risks respiratory risks but if that was the case I sure as hell wouldn't be going out tomorrow for breakfast. I almost ran across the street this evening to the market pick up a rotisserie chicken but then talked  myself out of it at the last moment thinking I have enough food here at the apartment to get me through tomorrow. Granted it's not cooked like the rotisserie chicken would be but it's in cans basically cooked and I can cook something tomorrow if I really need to. And I have things in the freezer like I said frozen burritos and such. Today at the coffee shop the tamale man came around and I picked up some tamales as well I could actually throw together a little Hispanic lunch should I desire. A couple of tamales or at least one tamale one burrito and smothered with cheese jalapenos and maybe even some rice if I really got that industrious. So no reason to go to the market today.

Tomorrow I would like to devote a good part of the day to finishing up on the kid letters so I'll be able to have them in the mail by the 1st. I only have a couple letters left to do but the big challenge nowadays is printing them holding my mouth just right to make sure the printer keeps functioning to get the letters done, the envelopes printed and the envelope stuffed. I made sure I have enough change the stuff the kid letters who get money so I've all set to go. It's really maybe a half an hour to an hour job that I stretch out over the day but what better thing can I do on a Sunday- - don't answer that:-) it's enough that I feel I'm getting something accomplished especially when I'm getting them out on time I'm getting kind of proud of that.

So it's Saturday night and again I'm sitting here in the bedroom dictating this last document of the week for me. And you know that's not half bad. In fact I'm kind of looking forward to getting undressed early and hopping in bed and reading my novel until I start falling to sleep what a great way to end a week. Hate to admit it however but it's also a very senior way to end the week but hey? Isn't that where we're at? I'm closer to 80 then I am to 20 boy that's scary.,,

Friday Fade Out

 I must say the only productive thing I've done all day was right a couple of kid letters. They're relatively simple but they do take time and a little bit of thought. I pride myself in that I don't clone each letter off the nice one. I tried to focus a little bit on each individual that I write to so that means something specifically to them. I understand that whoever gets these most likely really doesn't pay much attention to the letter it's probably more of an annoyance than anything else but it's my annoyance to them. Hope that doesn't sound too harsh. I know I think I would sort of get tired if I had somebody who is writing me every month. But it's my challenge to myself to do this in the hopes that it will be some sort of legacy to those After I'm Gone and I will be gone someday, probably sooner than later. I almost went out this morning because the morning was clear but it was very cold as well. Once again it's difficult to get out early because on Monday Wednesdays and Fridays my home health person doesn't even get here till like 8:30 if I'm lucky. Today she surprised me by coming 15 minutes early and that's great.

I really like my home health person she's really reliable at least for showing up and providing the services that I paid her for. Over the years I've tended to give my help bonuses now and they're not really very much 5 or 10 bucks here and there on top of what they get on their daily visit. These girls work so hard sometimes it makes a difference in their gas for one job to the next. Anyway Melissa, my current home health person, really doesn't seem to need cash that much as much as she needs food and I think friendliness. I don't mean food like food bank food I mean like having a loaf of bread to make toast out of or a burrito or something else frozen in the freezer that she can use to microwave into some service snack while she's here. She also likes cookies and candy. I have a candy bar for her everyday when she's finished and I think she really enjoys that probably more than anything else the consistency of being appreciated. Melissa really takes care of me and I don't know what I will do if and when she leaves that I know that will happen unless I go first heaven forbid. I just wish I could get her up in the morning earlier so I wouldn't have to spend so much of my time waiting for her to get here do the job and get on with my day. But really I'm just glad she's here and she does such a good job.

I continue to get familiar with the new old chair, the one for the repair shop, it's still a challenge to get dressed and feel comfortable once I'm in. Today's been the first day that my butt hasn't really hurt from being in a different chair. Same cushion mind you but it just fits differently and how I sit in the chair on top of it I don't have the near protection that I thought that I had before. Now if I could just get things easier to dress in the morning I think I'd be super happy…

Cold Snap

 Very early this morning I was awakened by little pings on my window where snow / ice crystals driven by the wind where smashing against the window pane. I appreciated the fact that my home health person put another quilt on my bed yesterday as she waited on me to do my business and remade my bed. I guess a true shade of things to come. There is no snow that I could see on the grass and grounds around my building but I guess there had been during the night and they're definitely was snowing in the mountains. There's no reason so I haven't been outside today- - because I did all my shopping yesterday I knew something was coming.

It's Thursday which means it's coffee social day and I made it showing at the event. I was trying to become the person who runs the outfit/show but that really didn't ever happen which is okay because it was a lot more work than I anticipated. Herding people always is one way or the or the other. I still collect the money at each event just because that's what I do and that's what other people think that I do so that's what I do. I put the money in an envelope and put it in the envelope box outside the manager's office when she's not here as was the case today. I'm okay as long as I get my coffee I can do a lot of stuff. I am a team player. Today's coffee was well attended and a lot of conversation going on everything from last night's loss of the basketball game to the fresh snow and winter like weather we are certainly experiencing now. One of the people who goes to the coffee social is also quite a born again Christian person who is very active in the local food bank actually the government part of the food bank quit it support and one of the local Evangelical denominations have taken over which this lady is a part of. She's very nice she even attended our Saturday coffee get togethers once but that was probably enough for her. Anyway, today she dropped off a bag on my door that contained two bags of popcorn, you know popped and in those little sleeves that mock the popcorn sacks that you get at the movie house, and some sort of baked good which kind of frightens me. I think it's part of a casserole some sort. It looks like something gooey with either soda crackers or potato chips crinkled up on top. It's in a container that actually has her name and return address on the top so I guess that means she wants it back, when I'm finished. The name tag is one of those adhesive things you get in the mail for one project or another it's usually for an elected official looking for support that's got your home address name and search on there. They come in handy over the years I have found especially on kid letters when the printer doesn't print as well as it should. So I guess I will wash the container out if I elect to try to eat the casserole. It would really be spooky if it was something like tuna fish and cheese or whatever that dish is tuna fish noodles or just tuna fish casserole. That would take me back to days of your in tuna casserole that I could barely choke down. I don't want to encourage this Behavior but I don't want to be obnoxious either it's such a hard call…

Nesting

As a rule I dislike Sports. I think I've gone over my history enough times in this blog that the dedicated reader understands my disdain for competitive games. It just seems such a Monumental waste of time and then the whole thing where everyone's caught up in it and it's a real thing it's just wears me out. Having said that now I must confess that I'm spending my evening among other things like folding clothes from the days watch and cleaning up the kitchen a little bit too having the first Utah Jazz game of the season, which counts, on my screen by the big computer. Notice I didn't say I was watching the game but the game is on and I am gazing at it periodically as I wander in and out of rooms in my apartment tonight. I took a break and paused or put the game on silence to come in and do my blog but I eventually will probably go back and see what happens after the half or at least when I'm done with this posting. The jazz tonight are playing some California team which seems to be pretty good, one of the announcers said fast and I guess they seem to be. They took off on a good size lead early in the game and had kept it by the time that I pause the screen to come in and finish folding clothes in blogging. Maybe I just like sports because either the teams I'm on or the teams I support always lose. Whether it was baseball or football or whatever the teams that I was aware of as a kid like Junior High and whatever always seem to be losing. That was different however when I wrestled I think that comes back to that whole thing of individual sports versus team sports. Anyway, I get sucked into supporting the team and then they lose all the time that's really frustrates me. Like I said I'm not a really good sports person and I'm watching tonight primarily because I got sort of sucked into it by all the 50-year celebration this team has had Tonight is their 50th or beginning of the 50th year for the organization. They even took out a lot of the 5:00 and 6:00 news basically covering this whole event. Just media hype I'm aware of that but they've been doing it all day on their Network it amazes me but people will tolerate what kind of scares me is that it's not a matter of tolerating because that's what the local numbness brainless Utahan wants.

The first winter storm is coming in tonight. It's not a big one by any means and probably is not going to be as bad as they even forecast but still makes me feel somewhat wintry. I even had Melissa put another blanket on my bed now I hope it's not too much. I went to the market twice today when's I got a number 10 Goods of things I use a lot of and I put them in the cupboard of course but I forgot to get any produce so I went back for a bananas and a cucumber sliced up for my morning drink. As it stands now I shouldn't have to go out again before the weekend when it looks like the weather might be somewhat better but colder than it is now. Today was Food Bank I was able to get some more spaghetti, a package of elbow macaroni and a package of brown rice. I think I still have a couple cans of chicken up in my meat section of the cupboards so I can be making some Frank in the near future. I'm almost done with the spaghetti that I made last Saturday I'm ready for the snow …

Concerned

 I'm getting a little concerned about the repair chair that I received earlier this week. Well I got it yesterday I guess. This morning I was able to transfer okay even though the armrest is kind of messed up. It doesn't go down the way it used to so I have to like pull it straight back so the armrest is not in my way when I try to make the transfer. I made the transfer withlout issue this morning. The big trouble I had was trying to dress myself. This chair seems to be much more narrow than the other chair it does not give me much room to move the stick under my leg to lift it up to cross over so I can put my feet through the pant legs of my shorts and to put my shoe on. It took longer than usual but I finally got the job done just as I got a call from Andreas that the meeting today was canceled. The day looked nice but it was cooler than and I tried to stay out a couple of times to read but it wasn't too Pleasant though I got a few pages read. Sadly I must report that I watched a couple more Marvel movies trying to get through all the Thor movies. And I was kind of depressed at how sore my butt was as a result of my chair I guess or are baby is with the shorts as well. But they were Dockers usually gives me no problem but I need to be careful as I transition into this new chair I don't want to have any decubitus sores if I can avoid it.

It's hard for me to believe that that's another end of the month situation. Just one week left in the the month that I'm thinking I need to start riding my letters so they'll be done by the 1st. I'll start with Mom Hughes since her time is getting short and I don't know how well those letters will get through to her as she goes into a hospice living situation. I hope she still cognizant enough to enjoy the letters. I've enjoyed taking time and writing to her. The others are pretty much the same. We're running into some cold weather which I doubt I'll be out and about doing anything in the next couple days so hopefully I'll have all the letters done, print it and enveloped and ready to go out by the November. It sure seems life is become a bit of a routine but I think that's okay too. The newest thing I've done is gone back to the senior center and at least started using the lunch program they have. It's just a donation type of thing you can get away with a dollar and a lot of people don't even do that. It's pretty measured portions that's okay too. I'm sure they have a bunch of other resources but it's just hard to get used to all the old farts that are hanging around there and there's a lot of them.

Monday's moments

 I apologize if this feels a bit rushed but in all honesty my evening just sort of got away from me. I don't know exactly how that happened I think a lot of it has to do with me getting used to the old chair which is a new chair which is the old chair you know I said the chair and had to get fixed couple days ago and I couldn't get into it till this morning when Melissa was here to transfer me from the old chair to the new chair or the reconditioned chair whatever you want to call it. I just don't remember it being this uncomfortable it probably was but the chair isn't such a state when I send it in but it's hard to say what was the chair and what was the broken part of the chair but now the chair is all together and I still feel pretty uncomfortable. My big fear of course is pressure on my butt. Because this chair is so fancy and functional it sets me straight up and down which really puts the pressure right onto my tailbone. I think I really sluffed  a lot in the other chair but it seemed a lot more comfortable than this one is now. I know I need to give it some time and make sure I've got the right cushion in we'll see where it goes. I do have the elevator function back and that almost makes everything worthwhile I can now use the upper cupboards of my apartment which I can't in the other chair the same goes for items in the freezer. I can't reach the freezer really except for the very first front part of it and then it's questionable now I could use the whole thing raise high enough to reach into the back it's really quite nice feature. I wish I'd got that a chair before now. I don't have padding in my foot box either. When I did have the padding I destroyed it quickly just the way that I tend to push myself up pushing my feet onto the pads tears about pretty bad because the pads are pretty lightweight once again not really made for someone like me who has as much Mobility as I tend to have, which I shouldn't and I'm thankful that I do certainly makes the ability to live independently a lot easier. The next big challenge that I will be hitting the sack and then getting up in the morning. Going to bed should be fairly easy that's just falling in getting up will be the challenge of transferring from the bed to the power chair I'm sure I'll pull it off but it's a bit intimidating I mean after all I use this chair for a bunch of years before I had to send it back in for repairs. I know I can do it..

I guess the summer is finally over even though the sunshine was out the temperature seem cool today when I was out and about. I had to cross the street partly to test my chair and partly to get some new coffee. I used about the last of it this morning for Melissa's coffee and mine too but I know by Wednesday I'm going to need another bag of coffee which I got today at the shop across the street. The weather folks indicated that the day might be one of the warmer days of the week so it's going to start getting cooler I'm really going to have to start dressing better to be out and about tomorrow I'll have long sleeves and maybe a hoodie as I go into the city for my weekly meeting. It's that time of the here….

New Week!

 

Actually I'm quite embarrassed today I blew off a perfectly good Sunday by just staying inside and watching Marvel movies. I totally enjoyed myself I had enough food, drink and such to keep me entertained through the movies and that was after I was up pretty early to meet up with my son at the restaurant where we had breakfast. My granddaughter wasn't feeling well today so we missed her company. I think I'm switching into autumn/winter mode and that might be part of the reason why I'm not really too anxious to really do anything. The day was actually pretty warm up to 73°, but it just has that fall look outside that says stay inside and take it easy it's Sunday you'll have more to do tomorrow at the rest of the week. Rest up enjoy yourself. I didn't have to cook because I made the spaghetti earlier in the week as well as I made my morning drink last night and just put it in the refrigerator and I had breakfast out and sad to say restaurant breakfasts are usually pretty huge and even though I didn't eat all of mine I felt that I stuffed myself way more than I should have. Luckily I'm not feeling like I've got a full bowel and I'm sure I can make it till tomorrow with no issues.

I'm kind of proud of myself the kitchen is still fairly clean and I won't have a problem tomorrow tidying up before Melissa gets here for my Monday morning program. The rest of the apartment is also looking fairly well clean anyway. There's some chaos building here and there but I think I can get it under control in the morning anyway. The weather is going to be changing this week it sounds like the good weather is now beginning to pass and soon we should have some moisture and much cooler weather there's even talk of some light snow possible on the Valley floor by Wednesday. It will have no accumulation of course but just precipitation and it cold enough to be actually making snow. At this juncture I know I'm going out on Tuesday for my usual meeting but other than that I don't think I have any thing really out of the apartments this week. So I'll probably just focus on staying in and keeping warm and working out keep you in my arms mobile and the rest of my body someone limber too. Actually, I am kind of excited now that I have the chair back from the shop to get to know it again. They put like $9,000 worth of work into the process and I'm just curious about how well the chair is going to react. I haven't been overly anxious to get into the chair I mean since I've had it since Friday and Have Not Elected to push the issue of transferring into the rehabs chair. I figure that's something Melissa and I can do tomorrow no problems. I'm a little concerned that the chair does not have any feet padding or foot pedal padding. I think that's my fault I think I was so frustrated with the fact that the padding I had been getting I just ended up destroying when I try to stand up in my chair and my foot puts all the pressure on the padding which gets loose then tears and soon it's gone but I think I need to have something in the Box to protect me from scraping up my feet and such. Well it's time to make bed time noises for this old guy and get ready for the brand new week best wishes that you all have a good week too

Saturday's strangeness

I had the weirdest experience this morning. I think I was woken up around 2:30 or 3:30 a.m. by a beeping type of sound. A beep followed by eight seconds in the beep again. The first part of my recollection of this event happening I was still asleep and conjured up this incredible thought process that this was a sound heard only in the brain/mind and is being perpetrated by some unknown individual Citywide Statewide Countrywide. It just the dream thoughts seem to go on forever until I finally woke up and was still hearing the sound and I was wondering if the rest of the building was hearing it as well or was it just me. Finally around 5:30 I pulled my cell phone over and went through a couple of news feeds thinking that if this was as big as I thought that it was there's got to be some other people who are complaining about it as well. Because the sounds were just separated enough that it totally interrupted your sleep process and you couldn't get back to sleep no matter how hard you tried. I was really quite concerned for a while not sure what to think what was going on. Then I don't know why but I put the pillow over my head or ears which diminished the sound which made me realize for the first time that the sound was outside my head and in my apartment it still didn't really crystallize as to what the sound was and as I woke up more clearly I realized the sound was local. That one time I thought it might be some kind of building wide alarm system going off cuz we tested the alarms earlier in the afternoon and I thought maybe it was a leftover anomaly from that event.

Finally around 5:45 a.m. I remembered I had been careless reaching over the front knobs of the stove when I was making the spaghetti last night and I touched the number of the Buttons used to set the time in frequency of alarms and timers and things like that and then I realized the sound was just the stove. Because I usually get up at 6:00 a.m. the first thing I did was go to the stove and sure enough it was showing that the stove was waiting for a command to do a final step on setting an alarm on the stove. And the thing was beeping all I had to do was press the button and things went wonderfully quiet. I'm quite looking forward the sleeping tonight without being interrupted by kind of spooky sounds in the night.

Later in the day adventured out trying to find an interesting place to eat I wanted to reward myself for getting a haircut. I tried to catch a bus but they wouldn't stop at the bus stop I was at because it was in a construction zone kind of pissed me off. So I ended up rolling the other direction finally settling to just go to the deli at the market down the street from my apartment complex which is really a good deal. I had three chicken tenders, one sausage and mashed potatoes and gravy a small spoon and covered with gravy. I did the whole thing for about five bucks. It was just enough I didn't have to worry about leftovers or dragging anything home with me. It sure wasn't fancy but it was good enough for Saturday night…

Just two things

 Two things I knew for sure we're going to happen today one was meeting with some old friends for lunch at this pizza joint and second was the return of my power chair it's been in the shop about 6 weeks. I wasn't quite certain about the latter because they just indicated that my chair delivered sometime today. I thought maybe if they tried to come out but I wasn't here at the apartments they would just take it back but luckily they ended up delivering it right around 6:30 cuz I was making dinner at the time.

There's this place called the pie, it's a pizza joint Renown for making incredibly large tasty pizzas. When I first moved into the area there's only one the pie joint and it was up right across from the University, which sort of made sense. But it was the place to go if you really wanted especially pie. The pies are huge and tasty great meat and great other items to put on a pizza pie. The restaurant we went to is fairly new kind of trendy which takes away from what the place used to be all about. The original pie was in a joint in the basement and what was sort of its trademark was that everybody had written on the walls. The walls were made of bricks exposed bricks and everybody did either use felt markers are felt tips or chalk to write their names and messages and dates on the wall. So of course they have faux writings. The place still makes excellent pizzas but you can certainly tell they are out just to make the money. But they have good staff and it's accessible and that's what this crew really needs. All of us power chairs down one way or the other whether it's a scooter or a power chair like I've got. We basically use public transit except for one of us who has somebody driver around usually. We meet once or twice a year and it's a pretty decent experience. The pie is one of those places where you can actually order just a single slice of pizza that's all you really need really. A single slice of pizza and if you decide to have a salad and a drink probably comes around 10 bucks maybe a shade more but that's what lunch is these days. The pizza is great and it's probably best that you just got one piece more than one could put you over any weight limits you could put on yourself. I got the Stromboli which is basically a meat lovers Pizza it was quite tasty along with a carbonated drink that was all I needed. Conversations kind of one-sided but that's okay too I don't know if it's me or it's just getting hard to hear and probably places like this anymore I find myself requested the person to repeat themselves over and over again through a conversation. I really don't want to deal with hearing aids but we'll just have to see what happens…

I got a phone call later on in the afternoon in the evening and I didn't take the call at first because I didn't recognize the number but then I got the call again immediately so I knew it was somebody who was trying to get me and it was the wheelchair shop delivery guy bringing my chair in. It's back sitting in the space reserved for the chairs. I was upset at first because I couldn't find the running lights on the chair I thought maybe they're taking them off somehow when they were replacing everything which it looks like they did as far as replace everything but the lights are there finally I found them and that calmed me down otherwise I was pretty upset now I'm just waiting for somebody to come along and help me transfer from this chair to that chair. I kind of think I may have to wait till Monday until I can get Melissa to put me in the chair when we get done with my shower. That's okay I'm used to this other chair now give me time to rack up some more miles currently I'm at 4,678 miles today I went 3.4 miles. I'm looking forward to using the new chair. The chair looks pretty good I just hope I don't tear it apart too fast.. NJ

Things of Thursday

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I am supposed to get my power chair back tomorrow, the chair has been in the shop like 6 weeks. I'm a little apprehensive about having the chair back because I'm going to have to get used to it all over again. Half of me is excited to have the working product back especially the elevator function I've been a loss without being able to rise myself up and down. I can't believe how much I use that function. I think the other parts of the chair will be nice to have as well the bigger foot box and the reclining functions working well. I wish it was going to be faster but it's still going to be at 6 mph some things you have to relegate yourself to and that's one of the things in my life just a slow go but it's probably saved my life more than once. There was a report tonight about some lady in her 60s who got nailed by one of the trains. Supposedly it was her fault for crossing the railroad tracks while the arms were down. That's a real issue too because when there's multiple rebuild tracks it's easy to get confused by a sucker punch. You wait for one trained pass that you zoom out and not realize there's another train coming the opposite direction that you couldn't see and didn't hear and then your toast. You're basically filler for the 6:00 news. I came close a couple times till I got used to the idea I'll just staying down on my side of the tracks until that arm raises itself up.

The shop is not going to deliver my chair until sometime tomorrow probably in the afternoon or the evening with my luck not that it matters because after my home health person leaves in the morning I'm on my own until Monday morning pretty much unless I can get somebody over here too help me transfer the cushion and stuff in this chair into the repair chair and then to transfer me from this chair to that chair. I suppose maybe if there is a way to set things up so I could move this chair out of the way once I get into bed and somehow move the other chair in after I go to bed but that's way too complicate it. Worst case scenario I sit in this chair until Monday morning or maybe I can talk Melissa into coming by the apartment at some point in time over the weekend and changing out the chairs. It's always the little things that flop you up in life.

My major event for the day today was getting over to the dentist's office at 8:50 a.m. this morning which wasn't such a big deal cuz that's pretty late in the morning if you ask me but they acted like it was really early. I was relieved to find that I did have an abscess going on a little one and the doc seemed pretty good about saving the tooth was sort of puts me at ease. I should have it pulled just because there's nothing under that tooth so just sits there there's no reason for it to be around except to give me problems but anyway it looks like I'll be able to keep the tooth for a while longer. He's leaving the state tomorrow for a month or for a week but he gave me a prescription for pain, which I'll never use, and penicillin or oxacillin or whatever it is to knock out the problem with the tooth hopefully I'll sleep better tonight though it hasn't been given me too much problem I've been really lucky. Almost 3 miles on the chair today , not bad

Wednesday Wash Day

 The only really productive thing I did all day was to make sure the wash got done. I've or should I say we've developed a system that on Wednesday mornings when Melissa is here doing my program that she uses the wait time to take my wash down to the laundry and start the the wash and then as she leaves she transfers the wash to the dryer and starts the dryer. This leaves me to just head down, or remember to head down, to the laundry and fetch the clothes under the concept that they'll be dry which they really aren't but I sort of give it up on the two dry method. I used to when the clothes were damp like that after the first dryer sequence I would throw in three more quarters then dry the hell out of them but that really means she have to be committed to the point to stay around another 45 minutes at least before you can Harvest they're really dry clothes. But now I operate on the concept that if I hang the clothes up they'll dry. My shorts are usually dry anyway but the shirts tend to be a little damp especially those that are bundled up inside each other little knots that never get exposed to the Heat. They're not really wet just a little bit damp so I hang them up with the belief that over the week that I will be wearing these clothes they'll dry out especially hanging up in the closet. You'll see the image I have tonight posted with this posting that the clothes that I folded, the shorts still sitting on the foot of the bed that I have to put away before I can fall into bed. That's not a problem I just move them from the bed over to the other wheelchair station- - speaking of which I finally got the call from my wheelchair shop that my regular chair is finally finished. I guess the parts came in and I'll be okay to go trouble is I cannot get my chair until Friday when they'll deliver it. I really did put up too much of a fuss, though a lot of people thought that I should have, and just accepted the notion that they will deliver the chair when they want to. I suppose if I still had a wheelchair van I could have sent somebody over with the van to pick up the chair and brought it back anytime. The problem with having the chair come back on Friday if it's after the time that Melissa is here I won't be able to transfer to the chair until the following Monday unless somebody comes over specifically to assist me with such a transfer. Maybe possibly Melissa would come back for the 10 minutes it would take to transfer me out of this chair into the other chair. I wish I had another place to store my backup chair I've enjoyed having much more room in the bedroom. Maybe I could put the chair out on the porch patio and cover it up over the winter if I am careful.

I can't remember if I told you all about the squash that Gloria cut up and fried the other night for me. I'm too lazy to go back and check see if I had. But anyway, when she was here the other day cleaning up she had this big squash that's been sitting on my table since late summer I was really to throw it out he said no she'll fix it up so she cut it up sliced it pretty thin added onions couple sausages I had left over from breakfast cheese and a few other things I can't remember right now and cooked it up. That was a little spooked by the whole thing I didn't know if I wanted to eat it or not but I knew that she would ask if I had eaten it not be a fool and a dummy to say that I had if I hadn't cuz she would find out one way or the other so I fried up a portion of the concoction and ate it during the viewing of when the Marvel Comics I've got The Avengers. It was pretty good I think I would have added a can of ground beef or regular beef and I think I might do that the next time I have access to a squash of some sort I could even use potatoes and that would have been really good…

Full day Tuesday

 

Tuesdays are really becoming my epic days though that's not how I plan them it's just how they're turning out to be. Of course Tuesday is my usual assist, Inc day. I accept that I mean I've been doing this for years even decades. However today was a little bit different in that I had Gloria, who is one of my home health people, come over today too clean up a little bit. She was over around 8:00 a.m. and I had to leave the place by 9:25 to catch the bus downtown. So I was up and dressed and ready to go when she got here then on the bus for the fast meeting down at assist and then I even got some lunch at Taco Time my favorite. Now all this was set with the idea that this evening I would meet the kids over at the Spaghetti Factory, The Old Spaghetti Factory technically named. I have to admit by this afternoon I was getting pretty tired after I tried to do my arm bike workout on top of running around downtown all morning. I had to change my shirt since I drenched my arm and hot sauce at the Mexican fast food joint. Then I had to roll all the way down to almost the college to be able to catch the bus that would take me to Old Spaghetti Factory. But it was a warm day and the only problem I had at all was the fact I used up a lot of energy out of my battery and I wasn't sure how I was going to make it to the end of the day. The end of the day meaning my return trip from OSF to my apartment. By the time I got to the OSF I had yellow showing on my battery indicator meaning as in the cautious Zone which is my own mind meant I was in danger I had already put about 5 Mi on my chair this day on this charge and I just wasn't sure how much further I could go.

One of the best things about family and being old is that you're able to go out to places like the Spaghetti Factory and enjoy the situation and the family. Tonight it was myself Marc Anthony and Jasmine and Jackson. When we finally got seated at our table we all started jamming and talking we ordered and of course there's multi courses first the salad bread and then a rain course with mine was spaghetti and meatballs which is pretty darn good after I mashed up the meatballs and a little bitty pieces to eat with the spaghetti. It's always awkward to eat food like spaghetti in public it's been a lot of time trying to rap spaghetti around my Fork. And mind you all this time I'm doing this with the full bowel hoping that I can keep it together till I get home into bed until tomorrow morning when I'll have Home Health coming in for my morning routine. I could have enjoyed the meal a lot better had I not been so stuffed but I did enjoy the meal Just the Same. I was so concerned about being able to make it home I asked Mark if he had follow me till I got to the bus stop and from there I knew I could make it. This we did it it was a little bit nerving getting to the bus stop but I made it with actually power to spare. But it was nice having mark with me just in case my batteries did give out he would be able to push me once I put the chair in free wheel. It was really nice to get home to a clean kitchen and a clean kitchen table. Gloria did a good job money will spent. I'm just resting up now glad the day is nearly over looking forward to crawling into the bed and making it through the night… hopefully.

Spaghetti And Me

 One of my favorite meals is spaghetti I like everything about spaghetti, the ease and preparing the meal, the meal itself and of course the leftovers. Spaghetti leftovers I could eat forever it seems like. I'm not that turned on about professional spaghetti you know the kind you buy at a restaurant usually added Italian joint as much as I am about being able to make my own spaghetti which I've been doing for years. I'm sure spaghetti is one of those meals that men tend to make early in life- - those that cook that is. Once you have the concept down and you can boil your way into a decent noodles it's easy as that. Depending the house sophisticated you want to get with the spaghetti sauce I mean you could certainly open up a can and mix it with the wet noodles and come out with an edible product that'll get you through the week or you can take some real art steps and making the spaghetti sauce you really want. No meat or lots of meat. I personally like lots of meat especially hamburger slash ground beef I can tolerate pork products such as sausage but pretty much only if it's mixed with the ground beef. I kind of like making meatballs and I would just assume use homemade meatballs versus the Frozen rubber things you find in the market. I have used those meatballs but I've never really been pleased with them. But really just a rich beefy tomato sauce is the best and I kind of like to mix it all up in the pot before I serve as opposed to having people put playing spaghetti on their plate than adding a couple ladles of the sauce. And of course what's left over goes into the big plastic bag with a zipper on it or whatever I used to pull the meals out afterwards for the days following the original meal. I actually like to put cottage cheese on my spaghetti and if I have it that stinky cheese that taste really good on the spaghetti I can't remember its name right now. I've got to check to see if I have any because I didn't buy a fresh canister because I thought I had some in the refrigerator I'll have to check. I almost forgot, if I can swing it or have somebody with any skill sets for making garlic bread I always love good garlic bread. My mom used to make the best garlic bread that I've ever had. And I have to admit that I haven't had garlic bread is good as her since I lived with her years ago as a teenager. I've tried to make garlic bread as good but I just can't seem to pull off the product like she used to make. I've never Frozen my spaghetti. Somebody suggested that today and there's probably a decent idea I've just never thought of it. I assume it would heat up okay after months in the refrigerator / freezer Parmesan cheese! That's what I was trying to think of that's the stinky cheese. Enough Parmesan cheese, I believe, makes any spaghetti palatable.

 As far as canned spaghetti goes whether it's Chef Boyardee or Franco American I just have a little difficulty with canned pasta. The one thing I do like however is canned spaghetti like the chef or Franco over a campfire. I remember going hunting once and dad had cans of spaghetti that we warmed up over the fire nothing tasted as good as that well perhaps except for the Kipper snacks that we had on that hunting trip to. True guy food. If I were going into survival mode I would do so with a couple cases of Chef Boyardee spaghetti and meatballs. I actually had a hot dog tonight made by The Joint across the street Arctic Circle which was pretty good otherwise I think I would have made spaghetti. Actually, but maybe even right this post tonight is the fact that tomorrow I'm going to Spaghetti Factory for dinner I think. I'm a little concerned but I think I'll be okay

Sunny Sunday

 Remember Mark is helping his uncle move from Idaho to Utah or Utah to Idaho one of those so I knew he was not going to be around this morning so I didn't make plans to go to breakfast. I was staying home just hanging out enjoying some free time that I usually don't have because of my Sunday commitments. I was pleased to see a message come in from my granddaughter, Jasmine, wanted to know if I'd still planned on going to breakfast. She apologized that she hadn't got a hold of me last night to see so I gently let her down indicating that I was just going to stay in this morning and not go out with what she was pretty happy with. Sometime this week I think we're still planning on going down to the Spaghetti Factory for some noodles and meat sauce which sounds pretty appetizing. So, with my free morning I made my tomato juice consumed the remainder of the remainder of the berry pie I purchased last Thursday I think and worked on puzzles, listen to The Morning News on the TV screen that now works magically and pretty much enjoyed the morning. I had thought about making a major production but after a couple spoonfuls of peppers jalapeno peppers slices I was sated enough that I didn't have to have a bunch of carbos which commonly come with breakfast. I made coffee and just peaced on what was around the table: mixed nuts, chocolate frosted cupcake and coffee.

It was a beautiful day. I probably would have gotten some hair if one of my caregivers had not indicated that she would come over this afternoon and do a little cleaning on the apartment. I knew she needed/ needs money and this is my way of giving her a little bit. She thought she could come over in the afternoon and I really didn't have anything else to do except go somewhere but I decided I would stay in and at least get some cleaning done on the apartment today. Of course that fell through. I spent a lot of time this afternoon in the back parking lot reclining in my chair and reading my book. When I called to see what time she was going to come she advised me she probably could make it today but possibly Tuesday morning which is all good for me. Had I got anywhere it would just been up to the movies house area and that really never does anything for my mood. So I spent a couple more hours reclining in the Sun enjoying this perfect weather. I listen to the news this afternoon/ evening since now that I had a screen that worked that would allow me to Jack into the local networks. I watched that some distance the goings on in the Middle East and but looks like a real end of the world scenario. It's just too bizarre if you ask me. It's becoming the bombing of Israel is becoming the new 911 for Israel. Probably all the little israelisful all know exactly what they were doing when they heard about the bombing. Sort of like the JFK thing I still remember exactly what I was doing when I first heard of the JFK assassination. Some things never leave you…

No TV for me!

I did not go to coffee with Janet this morning as I usually do on Saturday mornings. I needed to stay home because I scheduled a technician from Comcast to come in to fix my Comcast connection. Actually, I didn't schedule the technician Comcast Central did when I called about the problems I was having trying to watch local news. I should have accepted I was not supposed to watch local news and just keep my mouth shut and enjoy my internet connection and my streaming capabilities. But no, I wanted to get the whole thing fixed and they indicated that my person would be here between 8:00 and 12:00 this morning. I figured skipping one coffee date would be not a problem. I still work at 6:00 a.m. and immediately got dressed especially today cuz that's the last thing I need to have the technician walk in on me without any clothes on. It would just be awkward. But I stressed and ready to go except for shoes by 8:00 a.m..

Imagine my relief and gratitude when sitting by my door at the table doing one of my puzzles I hear this tiny tapping on the door like one of the old people knocking. Had I not been at the table I would not have heard this but I open the door and there was the technician from Comcast I couldn't believe it! I was the first guy on his list. We went to work on the TV or comcast connection it all seem quite complicated in fact we ended up replacing my cable box with a brand new cable box and the one that goes with it. Now while he was here he showed me what the problem was somehow the cable box got messed up and was opening up to a channel that was not dedicated to anything so it looked blank all I would have had to do is say or hit the number of the Channel that I wanted to watch and it would have brought it right up. So we switched out cable boxes and ran through the the screen a couple times and everything looked good except for he did indicate that my flat screen was getting old and now it's probably one of the problems I was having. Again old technology even though we got it new when we got it a number of years ago. I was delighted I would have television for the evening particularly the news and then watch my movies till late if that's the the idea. Mark Anthony is in Idaho helping his uncle move it's complicated but he's on the road so I don't think there'll be any breakfast tomorrow unless my granddaughter wants to go but I have not heard anything from her. Anyway, I was delighted to have everything fixed. I was considering going somewhere especially now that the technician had been here so early and got done by 9:00 or 9:30. But I got caught up doing a few other things around the apartment and didn't make it out. I don't know what happened or what I did but I ended up deciding I'd watch a movie or something like it 12:00 in the afternoon and then I turned on the computer and the screen and there was nothing there. Even with the new wand when I push the power button the little light on the front of the screen would come on then fade away then come on again and fade away. On the old machine the one they switched out as far as the cable box goes it would do that but eventually I can get it to show the trademark that meant that I was in and then I could scoot around and find what I wanted to find at least if I want to I could go to the television or the streaming programs like Disney plus and such but now I couldn't do anything. I was totally frustrated and I did the dumb thing of course calling or trying to get a hold of Comcast which I ended up getting their AI and then finally after some demanding I got a human being that I was texting to and after extended communication he/she indicated that they are deeply sorry I was having the problem and that that they would send a technician out again today between 3:00 and 6:00 p.m.. I was kind of surprised but please that they were going to send somebody out again on the same day did send somebody out earlier and I was hoping that because good morning went so well I'd still be under that luck and get the new guy oh and they also indicated that they're going to send a special guy who really knew what he was doing and so this wouldn't happen again. Well of course you know the end of the story. I stayed in the apartment all afternoon and there is nothing. I didn't even get excited about it since they wasn't even going to show up between 3:00 and 5:00 well three and five are rather three and six came and left and he didn't show. I guess I could crank on to the Comcast but I'm not that strong at this point in time of the day I don't want to have anything more to do with him today maybe I'll call tomorrow and see what we can do. The one thing that's been sort of nagging at me is what he indicated this morning that my flat screen was just wearing out- - I was surprised I didn't know they could but it kind of makes sense so, I'm wondering if that's the problem I'm having is that the screen is just worn out. I could get into a new flat screen relatively cheaply just depending on how much I want to spend and how big I want the screen to be. Either way that's going to be a long process that I think I'll have to rely on mark Anthony big time to help me install the booger. But I can't even get into my computer now because the screen won't light up I'd flummoxed and bummed out but this will pass and I'll get my Comcast back, I hope..

Market runs and birthday brother

 The low pressure system finally moved out leaving clear skies but much cooler temperatures cooler to the point that even with the long sleeve shirt on I really didn't feel comfortable and I was relegated to wearing my old holy hoodie. This is a real heavy duty Hood that I purchased a number of years ago that always felt too big to wear but really it's just right especially for John's back and forth from the apartments to the market and back and that's what I was doing today a lot of jaunting it seemed like. I've been running quite low on sliced pickled peppers jalapenos as well as the cans of tomato juice I've been using for my other drink in the mornings. So my goal today was to get over to the market and get two or three cans of the mid-size sliced jalapenos and a number of cans of the diced tomatoes with green chilies that's really quite the best for the drink.

I ran over to the market before I had planned to do my workout on the arm bike. It was a pretty quick trip I knew where I was going I got three of the mid-size cans which should hold me over pretty well to the beginning of the week and I also got another jar our bottle of vegetable juice like V8 but the store brand. I actually like the store brand of the vegetable juice better than the traditional V8 juice. This was my downfall actually because I knew it was basically three things that I needed and I totally spaced off the fact that I needed the diced tomatoes with green chilies. Actually there was another item that I totally spaced off as well which was the Hershey's chocolate syrup. I had a brand new bottle that I had for 6 months never opened it fell out of the closet onto the floor of course I rolled over it and that was that. But I settled up after I finished by workout drove back to the market and picked up five cans of diced tomatoes a bag of Doritos a couple of Almond Joys. I got home and only realized then that at spaced off the Hershey's syrup. And I was not about to go back to the market again just for that. I may the next day or so run by and pick up the syrup just so I'll have some. I got that new container of vanilla bean ice cream which I think would be quite tasty drenched Hershey's chocolate.

It's my brother's birthday today, he's one of the best Brothers in the world. I've enjoyed him being part of my life even if it's been against his particularly wishes though he would never say that. He's always been there for me when I've needed and to the point of even really looking for a year right after my accident but my parents needed a break. I did not realize that at the time it was happening I just thought I was lucked out and getting a trip but it was all I think for the parents well I did enjoy hanging out with my brother and sister-in-law and another state entirely. I think he's 81 now and that's quite a shocker. If he did anything for his birthday it was just basically him and his daughter and her family they're pretty much singular that way which is okay I understand. I did text him happy birthday which I think he appreciated but it's hard to get it old no matter how healthy one seems to be

Groundhog days

 I think I may have figured out what I might be doing wrong at this point in my life. I get to the end of the day like right now and realize I really haven't done anything with my day. I'm not sure if I can Rectify that particular issue but I can certainly examine why perhaps I feel that way. Today was coffee social as it is every Thursday. So I end up spending time in the morning after I get up and get dressed waiting for the coffee social which is at 9:30 a.m. and then at 10:30 which is basically the end of the social I end up heading back to the apartment if I don't have anything else scheduled and I really do. Then it's whatever I do for lunch and like today it's too cold or too wet to do anything out just because I want to. If I had a meeting scheduled or something like that I would go and do it but just to go out in a cold rainy day I don't think so. However that leaves me with the proposition that not doing anything until 2:00 or so when I do my arm bike workout which is usually for 60 minutes. I like the time it for 2:00 p.m. because that gets me into the show called the world on NPR which is right before Market Street which I really do want to listen to everyday if I can but of course that smack dab right in the middle of the afternoon so if I want to do anything I have to squeeze it in before the workout or squeeze it in after Marketplace which gets over at 3:38 p.m. this means I can run over to the market Maybe or something else if I wanted to really I guess I could go to a later movie but I rarely do that. Thoughts just goosing around the apartment till 5:00 if when I have my Comcast working I can watch the local news and the national affiliates and perhaps make some dinner. And really that's about it. I might watch a movie or something during dinner and after dinner but that takes me up to the 8:00 hour usually and if I'm smart I'm Vlogging and I'm doing my journal and then it's time for bed or if I'm lucky I can get in bed early enough to read perhaps an hour before turning out the light and that's pretty much my day. It's certainly chews it up quickly. Today because I didn't really go anywhere I've only got 7/10 of a mile on my odometer. I don't know if I can count visiting with people on Reddit or whatever as good time spent during the day but I do spend some time visiting with Reddit people which I use as filler often times.

My place is still a mess and there doesn't seem to be anything I can do about it. Of course that's not true at all because I could do something about it if I wanted to but obviously I can deal with the mess on a regular basis since I don't do much to change it. I always hold out hope that my one previous caregiver who is great at homekeeping will come around and eat some money and then she'll spoof up the place a little bit which makes it a bit more survivable. I don't know how to just go about and do a contract with a cleaning service that would just come in and do some stuff I mean I know how I just can't read myself to do it maybe that's the the problem but somehow I think I'm getting closer I've got to do something. I just want another Simple Solution like I had before when I just called the phone number on the bulletin board outside Jennifer's office that's not going to happen anytime soon …

Dinner

 

I know tonight's image is quite unsightly but it certainly an honest bit of My reality. The most interesting part about the image is that it shows the little cup of mashed potatoes. I have not tried these before and pick this cup of instant potatoes at the market a few weeks ago there's not really had a chance to work it through its process. Being from Idaho I've got to be supportive of all the potato products Idaho has to offer. What is interesting to note being as old as I am I was pretty young when the instant potato movement sort of took off. I'm sure instant potatoes have been around forever but not like they were in the late 50s and the 60s when they really begin to show up everywhere it seemed especially in Idaho. Of course it seemed like everybody's discourse about instant potatoes were  they were horrible. I really liked everything about them from the onset especially the flavor. I did not equate The Taste with real potatoes are real mashed potatoes and gravy but they were certainly a good stand in and I totally believe if the gravy is good you can dress up a lot of problems with good gravy.

This weekend or last weekend I picked up this family size dinner of Salisbury steak. 6 patties in a rich brown gravy you can't do any worse than that or better for that matter. Again, I like this kind of gravy rich brown and synthetic. I've been keeping the dinner Frozen up in the freezer for some time but I wanted to free up the space so I can shut the freezer door as well as get a new shipment of popsicles that will fit in the space I can carve out. So tonight for dinner I had two steaks Salisbury and a cup of mashed potatoes. For the green for tonight's dinner I had a couple tablespoons of jalapeno peppers and called it good and it was quite good actually. So I've gotten rid of the potatoes and I have at least two dinners left of the Salisbury steaks. I may have a meal of hot Salisbury steak sandwich with Rich brown gravy. That could be either a lunch or a dinner. Either way I'm excited I'm thinking if I were to do a dinner say tomorrow night or whenever I might add a can of something green either spinach, beans or maybe even pickled beets which aren't green but would certainly be colorful especially in contrast to the potatoes. Might be a great Halloween dinner for the red beets depicting blood. Now I just have to figure out a way to get the Salisbury steaks covered in plastic wrap and back into the refrigerator for the next encore. The stakes are cooled off for now that I can handle them without burning my hands and I should be able to wrap them up pretty well. Then I just have to throw away the rest of the evidence that a dinner was held here and everyone survived… LOL

Berry Merry Pie

I've heard it said, not by me, that there's nothing more beautiful than a finished pie. Today I did an impulse purchase, I don't know why I think I need to be nice to myself for one reason or another and I went to the market specifically to buy a pie and Court of ice cream or whatever measurement ice cream comes in. I wanted vanilla bean ice cream. I don't know if it's any better than just plain vanilla but it sure seems to be better and that's what I wanted to purchase today. I find shopping in the frozen section of the market is the most challenging for me mainly because everything's behind those Swing Out glass doors and if the item is anywhere near the bottom or the top of the shelves then I'm out of luck. Sometimes if I have one of my hooks with me I can use that to drag the item down to a point where I can either pull it down and catch it or pull it over close enough that I can reach the item to put on my lap or in my basket. I usually keep my hook with me when I go to the market because I use it to hang the bags off of for my return trip home. I used to take a basket with me all the time but they became too awkward but I realized I can often get as much items with a number of bags hung off of the hook in my lap from the stick. Anyway in order to use the hook to grab the items from the frozen section I have to first pull it off my travel bag and secure it somewhere and then pull the hook out between my legs to grab the item in question. I find it much easier to grab somebody who's walking past and let them grab the I'm trying to secure on my lap or in my basket.

I got a berry pie, frozen berry pie that you have to cook. As soon as I got home, it was almost 5:00 p.m., and I knew I would not find room in the freezer to stash the pie until tomorrow or Sunday later and besides I wanted to cook the treat tonight. I think I knew the second that I took the pie out of the box and turned the oven to preheat 400°. That even though I cook the pie tonight I doubt that I'll even have a piece. I think I just wanted the pleasure of cooking a treat particularly since we have another storm coming in for the next couple of days and I don't know if I wanted to go out in the wet Nicole if I didn't have to. It would be nice to have the pie around as well as a fresh carton of ice cream the dote on. I thought about getting the Cosmopolitan is that the one where they have the three different colors or flavors of ice cream? No I think it's Neapolitan ice cream or something like that strawberry, vanilla and chocolate that almost sounded appetizing but I had a box of that earlier this summer and where it was good I think I really wanted to do the vanilla bean ice cream this time. I don't believe I have anything out in the community for the next couple of days. Of course Thursday is the coffee social but that's inside the building here so no need to leave. You would think the high point of my day was doing the shopping and getting the ice cream and pie but actually it was the trip into Salt Lake for my weekly meeting. I don't know why that's so important to me but I was glad to get dressed and get out of the apartment and take the train in to the city…

A $4 Lunch

Today was the community lunch, when somebody at this facility apartment complex prepares a meal for everybody. We used to have somebody here that did it all the time she specialized developing special events of programs for folks here at the apartment complex. She left leaving the vacuum which was quickly filled by one of the other apartment owners here at the complex. A German lady who will call Roxanne. She's been in Stateside for some time and speaks excellent English but still retains the German accent. I've never really gotten to know this person until the last couple weeks. She's helped me on and off doing the coffee social on Thursday mornings. But anyway, today was the community lunch and for $4 you could get cabbage rolls and potato dumplings which I really still don't know what they are but I'm kind of crazy for cabbage rolls sort of like I'm crazy for meatloaf. I don't know if it's the item or the fact that it's made from hamburger and I firmly believe if you throw enough hamburger at a dish it turns out being good I'm a True Believer.

Lunch was supposed to be at 12:30 p.m. which I thought was kind of strange to have it on a half an hour off like that when you think it should be 12:00 p.m. but who knows. I showed up around 11:30 to see if there's anything I could do to assist but she seemed to have everything under control there's not much I can do anyway except me moral support and I can do that pretty well. I kind of assisted setting up her serving table and helped wipe down a couple of the tables for the actual lunch but like I said there wasn't much for me to do. I ended up heading back to my apartment a little after 12:00 noon because I need to have my own setting servings you know your own plate and silverware or plastic ware or whatever. So I meandered down to the apartment and sort of got sidetracked doing this and that and soon it was 12:30 and I thought I'd better get back to help if there is any help needed. That's quite surprised when I turned the corner and they're already a number of people sitting and eating lunch obviously they started much earlier than 12:30 p.m. is what's the notice said. Luckily Roxanne had made a bunch of cabbage rolls, asparagus salad with bacon and the potato the potato things with a can of apple beer( not alcoholic). I was kind of surprised cuz there wasn't any dessert to speak of I thought maybe a cake or cookies or something but I was happy with the cabbage roll in fact I got a second cabbage roll as well. There's a nice gravy that went with it too. I don't know if I'll do other community functions but this one was well worth the $4 and attempts at socialization. Tomorrow there's a vendor of Social Security type supports insurance kind of guy fortunately I've got a good excuse to be gone tomorrow is my assist, inc day…