Last day

 This is it the last day, I kind of wish I could have accomplished more this month or even this day but I've been kind of enjoying my digs now that they've been cleaned up a bit. Gloria, one of my caregivers or has been one of my caregivers, stopped by on Friday and did some cleanup around the place. Glory does the exceptional job usually around 2 hours of time. Floor swept, sometimes mopped, dishes washed mostly put away tables cleaned off that's always a biggie for me. Nothing makes me feel more like the apartments cleaned and cleaned off the table. It's all illusionary. I understand this but still it makes me feel good. She's relatively inexpensive. If I worked it out it would be $10 an hour plus $10 for wash money. Gloria usually contacts me when she's out of quarters. Then she'll come over and do the apartment for a couple hours and quarters a conversation so all together it's 30 bucks and some great conversation. I would really like her to come over and spend some time on my study area where I have my riding materials and my artistic materials and my library. When it's clean the area is quite cozy and I have enough Lighting in the area but it's just a great place to hang out especially in the winter time when it's way cold outside and you just want to snuggle up draw, read or just go through old books. Otherwise if I don't get this area cleaned up it'll just get more and more congested and messy. I need somebody strong who can make me throw stuff away. That's a point in my life where I am right now I need to start getting rid of stuff and I think this paperwork stuff might be the best way to start. I mean if I'm not interested enough to go through it I doubt if my people who survive me will be as interested. The kids might be and so I might save what I think are some of the better pieces for them they let them do whatever they want to with them and the rest of the materials that I don't destroy.

I did work out on my arm bike today. I really enjoy Mondays because I usually don't work out on Saturday or Sunday, Sunday for sure. So it's like getting back into the full workout mode on Monday so. I usually listen to some NPR show while I work out that eases me through the one hour or 60 minutes. As the true blue reader knows I do 200 minutes a week and so the first three days of the week get me to almost my mark. Following that, reaching the 200 minutes, I usually skate the rest of the week. So following the workout I crossed the street and went to the market as well as to the dollar store we're just now the dollar and a quarter store. I'm running out of boxed milk so I tanked up on it. I got five quarts should last quite a while. I also picked up some cleaning materials it was pretty productive. Like I said not a lot going on today but not bad either for the last day of the month..,

Lucky Duck

 

I'm one lucky duck. That's not new information Anyone who reads this blog must know how lucky that I am and all manners of that word. Today is a case in point that I'll try not to make two bigger deal out of but still it was a big deal to me. We've been going to the same joint for breakfast the last couple years Mark and the kids and me Dee's Restaurant which is just a a few blocks from my apartment complex. It's very easy for me to get there but the trade-off is the service has gotten really poor the last couple of years as well as the food perhaps. We actually had to fight off flies a couple times this last summer so we're looking at expanding places to eat and one of the places we've gone lately is place called Penny Ann's Cafe for PAC. We went once or twice this last summer and it was a breath of fresh air that's compared to Dee's. It's a little bit further from my apartment complex but not too far I can get there very quickly on transit and I can actually roll there if I had to but it's a bit of a jaunt. I think PAC is a little bit more expensive then Dees but not significant. The service is pretty good, staff is nice the portions are pretty large- - not that the size of the portions is important to me. They have tables I can get under relatively easy compared to the other place. That's where we went this morning. As I said I have to take the bus so I have to make sure I'm up and ready to go so I can get there a little bit early to catch the bus. This morning I got the 7:40 bus which is about 10 minutes late but who's counting? Penny Ann sets off a little bit for the main drag where the bus let's be off so I have to backtrack a little bit. It sits in the back of a number of other establishments. I don't know what was going on in my head this morning but I don't think I was super sleepy I thought it was fairly focused. As I was ruling to the back of the area where Penny Ann's is located I am on some sidewalk and I have to be careful because I was on the one piece of sidewalk and all the sudden I realized I was closer to the edge then I had anticipated. I stopped my power chair just in time and got myself back to the center of the sidewalk. I went down the ramp and I thought I was at street level at that point it seemed like I was and so I was somewhat distracted I guess as I started going forward towards the restaurant. As I said I came off the one sidewalk that I thought I almost turfed it on and as I went forward I didn't really notice much but I was on another sidewalk that I thought was ground level as I mentioned and suddenly I felt myself going over the edge of the sidewalk. I was totally confused and totally freaked out knowing that this was it I was going to be going over and I was going to be hitting the concrete or whatever. It was even more surprised in a second when I didn't go over and found out that my foot pedals or foot box had caught me from going all the way over and the fact that I was strapped in to the chair with my safety belt also kept me in my chair but I was totally hanging out. This was putting a lot of stress on my lower stomach and everything and it took me a second to get reoriented. I was basically hanging out of my chair and I didn't know if it would do any good I was beginning to have some problems breathing and I then shouted “ help me! Help!” and to my surprise the head popped up in a car in the other parking lot. This guy saw my problem jumped out and ran over to where I was sitting or hanging. Of course I'm too heavy along with the power chair for him to try to pull up and of course he didn't speak a word of English and my Spanish isn't that great. But I stuck my arm straight up trying to get us intention to have him pull me so I'm sitting back into the chair which eventually did when I did that it's the whole chair seemed to sit back up on its Wheels to the point where I could push my lever forward and my wheels begin to catch in between me driving my chair and the other guy rocking my chair I was able to get enough traction to power me out of my predicament and get back on the pavement fully. I was really worried that something had gone wrong with my chair or I'd done some damage to the chair but as of yet I see no problems everything seems to be working fine. The foot box must be really sturdy to catch the weight of myself in the power chair as it did but so far everything seems to be working great and I didn't Turf it. I am really beginning to worry that if something like that were to happen and I wasn't strapped in I could break some bones I'm not much of a senior and that could almost be the end of me. Anyway that's my heroin story for the day. I'm at the kids had a great breakfast and a pretty good day. I went to two movies I was kind of proud of myself …

A pretty good day

 This month is rapidly drawing to a close. Today was beautiful temperatures almost in the 90s and I should have been out on the bus line doing something rather than being in the apartment for most of the day. I'm trying to get the October mail out done and ready to go out by Monday morning. So I spent all day working on the mail out. I pretty much had the letters dictated ready to be printed so the big Quest was how am I going to print. It seems that should be the same every single month but I always get to this point and have to figure out how to do things all over again because weird things will have happened during the month. Sometimes I get kicked out of the software I use and have to find a new or create a new password. This drives me crazy and takes time and frustration. I finally got the letters pretty much written and then to some degree gone through and did some corrections that blatantly needed done. Then I had to go through the same process as far as actually printing the documents. I have for the last couple of months unable to use my tablet which has been a great help. I didn't plan it this way but for some reason my printer suddenly was able to read commands from my Samsung tablet and I could just dictate the letters to the tablet and then print the letters from the tablet straight to the printer. I hope that's clear enough for you to understand. But of course today Something's Happened and my printer no longer reads my tablet for whatever reason. So, I spent time trying to find out what the problem was with my tablet and then I had an idea. Sometime during this last month I realize that the writing software I'm using to write these documents it's basically Google Docs and I wondered if I downloaded Google docs to this tablet would it read all of the documents I've written in Google Docs everywhere and to my amazement I downloaded Google Docs on my desktop computer and sure enough there they were all the documents I've written in Google Docs there and ready to be printed. This of course took time to figure this out but once I did printing was a breeze and I was able to get not only the letters printed but I also got the envelopes printed as well. This evening I spent folding the letters and stuff in them into envelopes. Now I just have to stuff the envelopes with money for those who get it every month, apply stamps then seal up the envelopes. It's late now almost 10:00 p.m. and I'm ready for bed. Tomorrow as usual I have an 8:00 a.m. Sunday breakfast with some of my kids at a local restaurant. So hopefully tomorrow afternoon or evening I'll be able to lick and seal the envelopes shut. Part of the envelopes have those strips on the back that you peel off and it's supposed to stick to seal the envelope. However I sense these envelopes are pretty old and whatever glue was there is very unsticky. So I'm playing with the idea of opening or unclogging one of the bottles of Elmer glue I have kicking around and using it to seal those self-adhesive envelopes..

So even though I didn't get out and roused about a little bit out in the Glorious Sun I feel fairly accomplished being able to get 98% of the mail out attended to. It was a pretty good day …

Window on the world

 I think I've ranted on before about the debacle they've done across the fence from my apartment complex and specifically out my bedroom window. They basically turned down 3/4 of the park All The Pavilions all the bathrooms all the other pieces of things that make a park and they are rebuilding the project now. There was a major skateboard park facility that teenagers loved now of course they tore that out and are rebuilding that. At one time just outside my window there is a berm, amount of dirt on the other side of the fence that separated their property from our property it was a nice grassy Hill which quite protected the building from the outside world. They actually put a new Street in this area meaning they had to entirely remove the berm which now exposes me to all the traffic on a major thoroughfare just west of our building as well as all the construction going on the park. The way they have things laid out on the new park does not look like they are going to replace the berm which means the illusion of separation and quiet and peacefulness will be gone. During the day this looks quite Dreadful actually the view is almost Industrial just car after car after car. The park itself is relatively busy with dump truck after dump truck either taking things away from the park are bringing new dirt into the park to build up some of these projects they're working on. It's just busy busy busy and luckily I've gotten used to it pretty much. One thing I've kind of enjoyed however and I say this somewhat quietly kind of shocking myself is the view of Redwood Road during the dark time the dark. I've included with this posting the image outside my window on the world. It shows the activity to be quite busy on Redwood Road on a Friday night people going out on the town. They've already come home from work and it's Friday night out. It's still too early for any basketball games and of course there is a host of high school football games going on and who knows what else is going on on Friday night. I know I'm not going anywhere. But it's quite interesting sometimes to sit here turn off the lamp above my bed and watch the world go by and try to imagine all the places these people might go. It might be really interesting to see what happens on nights like Thanksgiving and particularly during the Christmas season as people go back and forth to events and shopping. Maybe I'm just trying to put the best face on another minor challenge in my life.

The closest person I have to a cleaning person came over today to spend a couple hours on my apartment. She used to be one of my caregivers couple years ago. That's how I met her. She amazes me because her life is always in a whirlwind of confusion. However today I was pleased to hear that she had found a place to live that she can afford which is very difficult in the Salt Lake market right now. They reduced her work hours to the point that she is significantly low income meaning that she can basically be guarantee the money she does make will cover her rent. She works extremely hard I'm always glad to help her out if and when I can. I worry about her but she always seems to survive and today is the calmest and most upbeat I've seen her in the number of months I hope it lasts…

Keeping occupied

I was feeling artsy fartsy the other day so I took this image and edited it and thought I would add it to my blog tonight. I was hanging out at the IHC Medical Campus and had about 45 minutes before my appointment so I was trying to fill in time and keep myself occupied and out of trouble. This can be challenging at places like this. I'm on the 8th floor of this relatively large building, for Murray utah, being seen by my internist basically just as a follow-up so I wasn't really into any stress as I usually am when I go to these things. Right now I've got no issues to report so I was laying on my back looking up and saw this shiny object and it was the surveillance bulb or whatever they call it. One of the cameras they have all around this Hospital and doctor's office building. I wasn't sure how good an image would result from this and so I took a number of clicks and rendered the document above as the best and then cropped it down to where you could actually see that I was laying back in my chair looking up with my camera/ cell phone doing the basics. I really like doing this kind of stuff I really should do it more often.

It's Thursday so that means it's Coffee Day at least what they call the coffee social. It was not very well attended today and that says something about the event in general. We did some socialization and that was about it I was free for the rest of the day except for meeting with a friend of mine around 2:00. She was the creator of an acting company that we both participated in a couple decades ago. She is a real actress and I am not an actor though I went along with the group because at the time I was using the group as a class at the organization I worked with. We are trying to put together some small plays with people with disabilities. We became an acting company around that. Of time and we did some small place here and there but never at the pace and level that she would have liked. She is the kind of actor that lives for acting and she's good at it. She writes plays as well as acts them. It's a shame because over the years she's put together a couple of good groups of people that none of them had the same drive that she has in acting. We usually come together for a specific project and then disband. We also work together on some literary type projects and what is left is a three member crew that meet periodically for lunch and discuss what we're writing on if we are writing it all. The other two are usually writing but I am somewhat neglectful and I feel somewhat guilty for not keeping up my end of the deal. I think the other two characters carry me along think of that sooner or later I will break through this barrier I seem to have right now and produce something rich and wonderful I don't think it's going to happen…🤔 

Medicine and ice cream perfect day!

 It's crazy I just realized that other people are reading this blog. Every once in awhile I suspect are expected someone to trip across the document but now I'm beginning to realize that some are following it relatively closely. Some are even leaving messages or comments. I didn't start the blog for comments in fact I don't think I want comments that's why I didn't even know about the comments till the other day when I was doing something else and noticed there were comments about some of the things I've written about. What a shock really made me consider what I was writing about except for I was brought around to the concept once again I'm writing not for anything in particular as much as I'm just writing to keep myself writing if that makes any sense? Hopefully, someday I will write something worth commenting on but until then keep throwing his little bits of fluff out into the universe and get surprised when there's a nibble or something on them.

I had a doctor's appointment today. Luckily, it was a follow-up appointment and everything seems to be going okay so there wasn't a lot to really talk about except how good I seem to be doing which of course makes me feel pretty good. At the scheduled appointment for the middle of the afternoon 2:15 p.m. hopes to lighten the stress of trying to get the bus ride into the office on time and it worked. In fact the only drawback is have a keep myself busy until the time of my appointment. The doctor's appointment was really the only thing on my agenda today and that's just as well. I still ended up waiting for the doctor for about 20 minutes but that's all right no problem there. The room was a little chilly but not bad. I laid back in my chair and read stuff on my cell phone. I stopped into the main hospital on the way back to the bus terminal and actually got an ice cream. They don't serve ice cream cones anymore I don't know why. Probably something to do with hygiene or something the best you could do is get the ice cream that you want in these two sizes of plastic cups I took the smallest that's all I needed but the serving of ice cream still seemed quite large. The reason that I like this ice cream so much is that it's hard ice cream, the kind that has to be dug out with one of those scooper things they always keep in the water next to the ice cream tubs. The person who dug the ice cream out did a great job of packing a lot of ice cream into the small container. Cost $1.65 which seems like a deal compared to everything else these days especially for a confection like ice cream. I probably shouldn't have got the treat but I sure enjoyed it. I ate the whole thing which kind of surprised me because I kind of promised myself I wasn't going to and have a little bit to throw away but by the time I was down to the bottom of the ice cream Bowl I had decided that there was going to be no survivors, I was taking no prisoners and I would even lick the bowl if I thought I could social get away with it. It was a great experience. I sat near the windows overlooking the flight deck hoping a chopper would come in or leave. Seems like a slow afternoon however there are group of guys standing around an ambulance on the flight deck, I thought at first they were waiting for a delivery but that never seemed to happen. I ate my ice cream and then headed towards the bus depot to catch my ride back too the apartment complex. I actually got back in time for Marketplace, my favorite radio show, they just laid back or kicked back for the rest of the evening finishing the Marvel movie that I started last night…

Techno frustration in the little bit of chili beans

I really do like technology most of the time but there are a few moments that just drive me crazy and one of them is the case of Disappearing emails or messages. I've just spent an hour trying to find a message that was sent me a couple weeks ago or maybe days ago regarding a doctor's appointment I have tomorrow. I really hate this new thing that doctors are doing that is requesting that you fill out these forms electronically before you show up for the doctor's office appointment. I have course kind of freak out when I get the message and then I cannot find them when it's time to fill it out the night before. Of course that's what I've been doing trying to search all of my documents to find out what I need to be doing before tomorrow's appointment. I know it came in through messages but I can't find it anywhere in messages so I checked the emails just in case and it's not there. I've checked everywhere I can't find it which basically means that I'm going to have to just show up tomorrow and chagrinley confess that I didn't fill out the document. When this happens before they always just sort of shrug their shoulders and say okay we can go do that now. Then I give the information and she writes it down and I wait for the doctor's appointment to start. I even went to my medical file online which I never do I had to really go through the whole process of finding my username and then developing a brand new password which I know I will forget our contaminate by the time I need to use the service again. However I did find that when I finally did get into my email medical folder it was pretty good. I never read it just because it's always full of bad news but not this time. One of the doctor's notes just recently indicates that I have done really well on my anemia issue. In fact I'm no longer anemic he still wants me on the dosage of iron for the next couple of months but that's really good news plus there's really good news on the diabetic situation. I need to read it again just to be sure I'm okay on that level but I still need to set up an appointment to get my diabetes training complete. This should be something I'm going to have to live with for ever now probably.

I spent a good part of the day away from the apartment- which is good isn't it? After all I must maintain my illusion that I'm important enough to be gone to meetings all the time. I had my usual weekly meeting down at assist. It was different than usual because I was invited to the staff luncheon they have one every month and everyone brings something to the event. I didn't have to. It was good there's a theme to each event of course this one is fall or pumpkin there's pumpkin soup pumpkin flapjacks and other things pumpkin that I didn't really partake of however they did bring homemade chili which was pretty good actually. Kind of reminded me of my mom's chili from the old days. I was impressed because jason, the director of the private nonprofit assist brought the chili in and he made it from scratch I mean he actually soaked the beans overnight or whatever it takes to get them soft for the chili which my family used to do. I've got a number of bags of red beans but I've never gotten the routers actually soaking them and then using them that way. I prefer the cans a red beans that I get either from the giveaway table or from the market. I currently have a case of red beans I purchased last month which lasts I should last a great while. It was nice seeing homemade red beans jelly I'm going to have to do it one of these first weeks when it gets cold and I want a blast from the past.., 

Sucker Punch beware

Life seems to be going too good right now and when that happens I tend to get worried. Right now I don't have any wounds to speak of and I'm getting in and out of bed without much problems. The house is relatively clean and I am not in any pain. Teeth seem to be okay as does bowel and bladder. I seem to have my bowels under control right now no problems as far as pooping in public or when I'm not supposed to and that really is a blessing. I'm basically sleeping through the night and that's really cool I mean I really get up at 5:00 a.m. or wake up at 5:00 a.m. and that's okay I can get by on 5 hours of sleep. I stay up every night till about 12:00 then turn over and go to sleep and I sleep through the night more often than not. I'm not even waking to pee like I used to do. Oh, every once in awhile I have to do the I'll stick the dick but usually I get back to sleep after I do that that happens around 3:00 a.m. if it does. So right now I really think I'm doing better than I deserve which also makes me a little sensitive to the point that somewhere out there is a sucker punch with my name on it. I hope it's not a big punch you know the life ending kind whether making the wrong turn at the wrong time getting hit by a Trax train or getting the alpha news from the MD that my days are numbered that I need to get my house in order. Or maybe it's just the election that's coming up that the madman's going to get back into power but who knows what will happen at that point in time. I think it's going to be interesting all things being equal but still it's going to certainly change the way things go around this universe. Or maybe it's like what the Christians say or talk about it's what God wants. Wouldn't that be a hoot. Have to endure the Wrath of Arnold Trump to be followed by the wrath of God perhaps that would be the greatest I could punch of all. So, right now I'm feeling pretty decent. I'm making my meetings I'm getting about the neighborhood I'm getting my things taken care of I'm paying what I have to right now to get through life one week to the next and I seem to be doing okay. I also know from experience all that can change in a heartbeat.

So now I'm just trying to be the best person I can be. Trying to be nice to all my neighbors help out when I can or where I can. Make all my meetings care enough cash to give to homeless folks on the way to where I'm going and hope that will make a difference to a certain degree. Take all my medications don't shy away from my medical appointments say my prayers had to get very bad before 12:00 a.m. and you shuffle for all I've got…a 

 Life seems to be going too good right now and when that happens I tend to get worried. Right now I don't have any wounds to speak of and I'm getting in and out of bed without much problems. The house is relatively clean and I am not in any pain. Teeth seem to be okay as does bowel and bladder. I seem to have my bowels under control right now no problems as far as pooping in public or when I'm not supposed to and that really is a blessing. I'm basically sleeping through the night and that's really cool I mean I really get up at 5:00 a.m. or wake up at 5:00 a.m. and that's okay I can get by on 5 hours of sleep. I stay up every night till about 12:00 then turn over and go to sleep and I sleep through the night more often than not. I'm not even waking to pee like I used to do. Oh, every once in awhile I have to do the I'll stick the dick but usually I get back to sleep after I do that that happens around 3:00 a.m. if it does. So right now I really think I'm doing better than I deserve which also makes me a little sensitive to the point that somewhere out there is a sucker punch with my name on it. I hope it's not a big punch you know the life ending kind whether making the wrong turn at the wrong time getting hit by a Trax train or getting the alpha news from the MD that my days are numbered that I need to get my house in order. Or maybe it's just the election that's coming up that the madman's going to get back into power but who knows what will happen at that point in time. I think it's going to be interesting all things being equal but still it's going to certainly change the way things go around this universe. Or maybe it's like what the Christians say or talk about it's what God wants. Wouldn't that be a hoot. Have to endure the Wrath of Arnold Trump to be followed by the wrath of God perhaps that would be the greatest I could punch of all. So, right now I'm feeling pretty decent. I'm making my meetings I'm getting about the neighborhood I'm getting my things taken care of I'm paying what I have to right now to get through life one week to the next and I seem to be doing okay. I also know from experience all that can change in a heartbeat.

So now I'm just trying to be the best person I can be. Trying to be nice to all my neighbors help out when I can or where I can. Make all my meetings care enough cash to give to homeless folks on the way to where I'm going and hope that will make a difference to a certain degree. Take all my medications don't shy away from my medical appointments say my prayers had to get very bad before 12:00 a.m. and you shuffle for all I've got…

Keep them separated

 Another perfect fall day which I totally squandered, actually today is the first day of fall. Squandered I mean by watching movies on the television usually Marvel from the Disney platform. I was a bit frustrated just because I want to watch a particular movie which is not on my free movie list but it's still offered for 395 on Prime. The only trouble is that somewhere along the line I got kicked out of my Prime account and I can't remember my password to get back into the account. I found this out after I had purchased the movie and was trying to bring the movie If I could watch but each password I had written down in times past none of them would work. This is so frustrating to me. I assume it's frustrating to other people as well especially people my age. I even had those password keepers turned on and I had three different passwords for the account none of them at work. So now I'm left with a 395 charge on the movie it'll probably expire in 2 to 3 days if I don't watch it. I think the only option I might have is go into a human being and see if they can talk me through getting my password updated and maybe getting my movie running as well. The movie I'm trying to get is Good Will Hunting, I haven't seen this I don't think and I can't believe I haven't seen it because got a couple of my favorite actors in it that's a pretty old film I'm surprised it was you had to purchase it. I would have thought it would have been in the free domain by now shows you what I know.

Had breakfast with the whole crew this morning. I was kind of interested and pleased that my granddaughter was quite interested in some of the things I've done in my life. I was really on today about the whole separate but equal thing. It was during this time as I explained this to the group around the Meltdown I had about Paralympics last week. Jasmine indicated that she actually had been reading about this whole concept separately equal another items regarding disability and for the first time she was saying she understood about some of the things that I seen the Yammer about a lot. She said she was impressed. I really didn't press much of the stuff because I didn't want to wreck the moment but still I was happily surprised that you thought the old grandpa was pretty cool and doing a lot of the stuff that she was reading about in her College reading. I have to admit I'm always impressed as well. Sometimes I think I might have done something of value. In the long run it really doesn't matter. Would like to think that it did but in reality the same issue still keep coming up obviously see my issue with the Paralympics and then normal Olympics. If we had done something significant it wouldn't be the two system of able-bodied athletes being separate from athletes with disabilities it's just that simple. That battle is going to come over and over again and I don't know if it'll ever get itself resolved probably when science figures out how to cure spinal cord injury and people with disabilities totally do disappear. But now it's like what the song says you got to keep him separated…

Virges

 

Today was one of those pristine last days of summer first of fall Saturdays clear, cool but not cold, beautiful blue skies just a few clouds makes a person want to get something done or enjoy something outside. I wanted to get something for the weekend to be sure so I decided to go to the market. Right across from my apartment complex, I think I've talked about it before, there's an Arctic Circle it's the only really fast food joint around the place. I wish they made a better hamburger than they do but we will do in a pinch. Anyway, I went out back down the sidewalk and threw the fence slash gate to the main road which is Redwood Road and which is right across from Arctic Circle. I don't know what it was or how it carried the way that it did but in the cool Autumn air but the hamburger Grease came directly across the street and into my nostrils clearly activating the Wayback machine to move me instantly through history to the old grease joints that made the best hamburgers ever. I'm sure it was the grease that I smelled today from the Arctic Circle but I had that nice fried smell odor. I've learned the hard way that if I had to run over there right now and Order a burger of what I would get is a piece of meat that tasted kind of like what I wanted it to taste like what would basically be cardboard in my mouth it seems. Maybe I'm being too brutal but it's true at least this joint the order is different than the actual product. Down the street however five or six blocks there is a hamburger joint called Five Guys that puts out a pretty decent burger. Kind of tastes like the old burgers but it's much juicier and flavorful then the Arctic circles burgers and many of the other burgers that are out there now. It's a great burger for the time but it's not the hamburgers I remember from the late 50s or at least '60s which is a dog on shame. I've had my burger allotment for the week I don't dare have another one as much as I would like. I downloaded the McDonald's app to my cell phone a couple days ago and have not yet really figured out how to use it. I talked to my caregiver who knows everything about apps and things like that she tried to explain to me the system but I'm just going to have to do it myself. In fact where I got off the bus today was right across the street from the McDonald's here in Taylorsville and I really wanted to come across the street and use my app and my cell phone to order a burger pay for it and consume it without ever visiting with the staff from McDonald's. I didn't do that maybe next week or sometime this coming week who knows? Right now I still have things to do before I sleep and tomorrow morning early I am up and meeting the kids over for breakfast at the D's restaurant which never has a very good breakfast but it's filling and it's a reason for us to get together and visit and that's the whole purpose. I'm going to suggest that we take in virg's one of these days just to get some diversity in our Sunday morning breakfasts…

Friday night fizzle

 I've been cruising through some messaging posts and other posts that I find out my feed when all the sudden I found one for my dentist. I was really shocked actually but I clicked on and went to the profile and found a lot information that I'm kind of glad that I found out before I really stuck my foot in my mouth. The biggest thing I found out that he's a raving Trump supporter I would never have thought that. I don't mean that disparagingly but still trump! I thought he was smarter than that but then I realized he is a dentist which means that's a high probability that he'll also be a republican which means he would be a Trumper. I just never worked it all the way through before. I really like the guy too my dentist not Trump but I don't know how to relate to him now. I suppose that all the safest way to relay just not to bring up anything at all to do politically. Maybe I should transfer all of my dentist appointments till after November and we know what the election is going to yield. That's okay I've been waiting for a while for my tooth area to heal up where he's built up the gum so that if we ever go there Step of putting in the fake tooth I'll have a good foundation to work with. He did the foundation work for four or five months ago now and I'm surprised he hasn't called me in to finish the job. Now that I've learned to live without the tooth that was pulled I'm doing okay. I was afraid I was going to not be able to chew anything but I'm actually able to substitute one tooth for another tooth and it's not quite as nice as having a grinder but I'm shredding and tearing quite well to the point that at least I'm able to feed myself or eat by myself without having to puree my food or grind it up first. Now I don't know if I want to go ahead with the procedure I feel kind of bad because he gave me such a hot deal cuz he knew of my self pay for almost everything situation. That really sounds like he was going out on a limb for me and I do appreciate that but why you like to get myself more thousands of dollars in debt if I'm getting by all right unless of course I'm doing damage to my remaining teeth by having them do all the work that the one molar used to take care of It's A Hard call.

I took myself out to lunch today for those specific reason except that it was Friday and I felt like I needed a change of pace. I went to this place called verges they used to be not far from where I worked for a long time there in South Salt Lake. They were a great place they had super fish the best fish that almost ever tasted. Then they moved out too Taylorsville and adopted a full menu and they no longer have the fish as good as it used to be kind of bugs me out. The biggest trouble I have of going out to eat is that unless I'm with somebody else they always give me way too much food and there's always leftovers and I really don't have any way to transport them back to my apartment without making a giant mess. Today I ordered two hard shell tacos and tater tots made a total mess of the floor when the hard shell tacos tend to explode when I bite down on them and the broken Taco goes everywhere. It was a nice but messy lunch I was glad to get back to the apartment and start pumping my bike my arm bike …

A.T.Council

   Today was AT( assistive technology) Council. An organization I've been part of for probably more than 30 years. The council is made up of agencies and organizations that deal in one form or another of assistive technology and folks with disabilities our programs are agencies that serve folks with disabilities. In the old days I was a representative from the Independent Living Center of course. The council reflected a number of different private nonprofit organizations as well as state and other government agencies. Over the years though the population has dwindled even though the direction has pretty much stayed the same. We meet twice a year for what that's worth. We went from meeting maybe monthly to quarterly now we're at twice a year and we have to struggle to bring in 10 or 20 folks. The best part about the whole function is they provide lunch. Somewhere along the line in this blog I may have outlined by procedures for attending various advisory boards and councils depended on what they serve for lunch. In the old days it was a hot lunch and many times it included meat i e ribs, spaghetti, Stu you know just hot food started going downhill when they got rid of the meat. I never understood why that happened I don't know if it was because so many of them were these health conscious yuppies or it was a cost situation. Probably a little bit of both. Now, as I indicate there's just a few of us that continue to meet. The whole organization is basically hosted by the program down from Utah State University in Logan and they've just hired a new director who is very interesting young person. Anyway we meet and discussed various aspects of what we've been doing the last 6 months are what's new and new in assistive technology. Sometimes we have a presenter but most the times we just eat our lunch go over the high points of the year or half year and get the hell out of Dodge. The new director her name is Bora cuz I said is very interesting and she still totally believes in the system and programs like this. This program is just one of the many things that she has to attend to. The reason I outline this is because I attend these meetings but I'm the only one that's not really affiliated with an organization anymore. Before I was part of either private nonprofit industry are the state of Utah. Now that I'm retired I've just represent myself. I'm an interested consumer with a disability who uses quite a bit of assistive technology. I think Bora likes me but I don't think she knows what to do with me hell, I don't even know what to do with me. I don't know if I'm not supposed to come since I don't represent an organization but I'm still a consumer which I think is vital to this kind of an organization and one that shows up to the meetings- - and eats the sandwiches what more can I do to be involved?

 

Electrical Mess

 

I hesitated using this image for tonight's postings, I confess that even I have some form of embarrassment at the tangled web that sits next to my bed. This tangled web this actually the nurse Center where I keep my light my charger for my cell phone as well as my power chair and the drive mechanism for the electric bed that I totally rely on. I live in fear that something will happen and I will lose the power to any or all of these items that I rely on heavily during the day and even more importantly the night. A good case in point would have been I think a couple of days ago when going to transfer from my bed to my chair I had moved the bed up just a little bit or raise the bed a little bit went for one reason or another the electrical system died on the bed. I have course was totally freaked and thought that I knew what the problem was above the head of my bed is a electric outlet that I have my bed electrical bed plugged into. I've chosen this spot because I figured this was the place that would have the least amount of physical contact and therefore the plug would not come out of the wall. Of course you know that I was wrong and the only thing I can even think of was that when I was throwing the pill that I used during the night out of the way to raise my bed or to set myself up in bed I think the pillow went too high and fell down between the wall and the bed and came to rest on that plug. I of course did not realize it at the time and pushed the pillow off and brought it back onto the bed not knowing that I had pulled the plug almost out of the wall. I wasn't too concerned because worst case scenario this was Monday and my caregiver would eventually be here. Fortunately, and I still cannot really believe I did this, but I physically pulled myself up high enough to transfer onto the chair enough for me to tilt the chair back so I can get the the rest of the transfer finished. When Lisa did come she knew exactly what was wrong and pushed the plug back into the wall. I was so freaked out that I had her remove the plug unplug the electric bed into the power strip where theoretically if this should happen on the power strip I could hopefully plug the bed back in and get on with everything. I don't know how realistic this is and it kind of Spooks me to have the power bed plugged in here what's the best I can do at this point in time. I've been meaning for some time to actually secure the power strip to the side of my wooden box thing here so that it wouldn't twist and pull the plugs out as it does now every once in awhile especially if I'm not watching it.. I think I'll try to get my brother to come around and do this if not then hire some Fix-It guy to come in and do it. Now however it's just important that I maintain watch on this power strip to make sure it doesn't lose its connection..

Exhausted

 Another long day- - maybe it wasn't so long as much as the weather in the early morning makes it feel like a long day. I had to pee around 4:30 and of course never got back to sleep and then it was raining pretty bad almost to the point where I took off but finally stopped right before I had to leave for the bus. I guess it's the equivalent weather the cool weather that wears me out perhaps probably more than anything. I really didn't do that much I just went into the city did my meeting stopped at Taco time and took the bus home rather than coming home on the train. I think I didn't feel like taking the trip from State Street over to the to the train there was threats of rain all this afternoon and the chilly wind that went along with it. I'm sure the temperature didn't get below 50° the temperature just seemed cool. I kind of had a hood with me that I had wrapped around my shoulders which provided me enough warmth to doze off on the bus. I spent the day following that just hanging around the apartment and then after the news I decided to just zone out the evening doing a Spider-Man movie which got me to here. Somewhere in there also I did my arm bike for 60 minutes so that's probably why I feel more exhausted than usual. I wear my stocking cap today it sure sign of change of the seasons. It felt pretty decent getting back into my quasi winter form. I don't know if I need another hoodie I've got so many of them laying around already. I want to find some kind of a blanket or something for this cold weather this coming winter since I still plan to wear shorts all the way through as I've done the last couple of years.

I really love the technology that we have now. When I was on the bus I decided to check my emails of course I had a notification from Regal the movie company that there was a problem with my membership. I have a membership with the Regal unlimited program. I think I've written about this before but for 20 bucks a month I go to as many movies as I want usually not really much more than four but I'm doing better. Anyway, I think one of my lost cards like33 credit or bank cards was tied to my account and when I had to change them again a few months ago I probably didn't update the Regal folks so now I have to call somebody and visit with somebody to let them know that I'm still interested in the program. I think all I have to do is go into the program and trade out cards for active card and then I should be good to go. I think I'll save this task for tomorrow. Wednesday I have a free day which would be fantastic. The cold front is moving out so no more rain and the temperature is not going to be hot by any means but temperature won't be too cold either…

Weather change

 Of course the only day that there's going to be rain, really rain this week is tomorrow, Tuesday, the day that I have to go to assist board meeting. It's okay it's not that big of a deal I'll just have to dress warm maybe find one of my jackets it's got some kind of water resistant surfacing. If I run into moisture I doubt if it's going to be significant after all we do live in a desert. It's just that all the other days have been warm and hot almost hot and dry but the only day that I have to be out is tomorrow and that's when there's going to be rain. Actually, I do have a doctor's appointment I believe day after tomorrow but that's not too far away distance wise and the rain should be pretty much finished by Wednesday I hope. We are fastly getting into autumn the changes later this week sometime I can't remember which day it is but the cooler weather is certainly upon us the cold front that's bringing the storm is also going to bring in cooler temperatures for the next couple of days if not weeks. After all it is getting to be the latter part of September almost October we are on the path towards winter sad as that may be.

I have gone just a little bit more than one mile today. Which basically means I sat in my apartment most of the day and that's been fine with me. The day's been overcast with threats of rain. The day is certainly felt like fall. I did go out to the dumpster a couple times to do a trash run and even though it's cloudy the day is still warm I bet the temperature is up in the 80s today but that's changing tomorrow. Tomorrow is my trip into assist, inc. So I will more than make up for the few miles I travel today I only hope that I will not run out of batteries power. Something's been going on at this chair I think I've written about it before that it seems to be down charging somewhat quicker than before. I don't think I'm in danger of being stranded, I will go ahead and charge the chair before I jump into bed hook it up to the charger and by morning it'll top out even though there's not much power gone I'll be sure that when I start out it'll be a full battery it's a full charge. I'm heading right up to the bus stop and then from the bus stop downtown in the library then across the street to my meeting and coming back it'll just be retracing my steps. So I should be okay tomorrow. It seems like I'm okay to go 4 miles and once I go to 4 miles I show about half full battery wise but then the battery will drop suddenly the next few minutes that I'm hanging around in my chair. And within an hour I bet you I'm just doing regular rolling it will go down to zero. What I found really interesting however is that at zero miles you would think that the chair would just stop but it doesn't it keeps going and I don't know how long I could get going after it shows that I've depleted my energy source but it's certainly not a really accurate depiction of what I have energy wise. It flashes on when I reach the 50% mark and warns me that I've used half of the battery which makes you feel I should be able to go as far as I had gotten so far but that's not the case. Whereas I have not been stranded with the power chair with a lost batteries but I'd have to ask strangers for assistance and I have a difficult time doing that especially if it's something like pushing me in my chair somewhere that I can get some service- - there just isn't anything like that on an emergent situation. I would certainly like to try that if I could find out and immediate individual who could immediately break free and come and assist me / you with their wheelchair needs. And once again I'm certainly not above calling the local fire department to push me out of traffic and whatever and get back to at least my station and charge the chair with my charger that I keep in this area. I just don't have an option for after that I don't even have a backup chair right now because I sent my chair in the ucat for some repair. And I I'm having To be good to make sure that I don't damage my chair before I get the backup chair back…

Sunday's sediments

 This after 9:00 p.m. on Sunday night. That used to not be late for me that used to be just an indicator that I still had a lot of time left for the Sunday which also meant a lot of time left at the end of the weekend but anymore 9:00 p.m. means it's getting close to bedtime. I know I've talked a lot about how hard it is for me to go to bed before 12:00 midnight and it's true I just can't seem to get everything together and hop in bed by an earlier time. I guess I could try it but the problem I have is that if I go to bed late there's a better chance of me sleeping through the night and getting some decent sleep Plus waking up at a relatively decent time in the morning. I go to bed earlier then I wake up earlier. Last night's not a good example but I went to bed at 12:00 roughly and was awake at 3:30 a.m. which I've been doing a lot lately. I'm wondering on this particular situation yesterday was Saturday of course and I've already got my 200 minutes of the week recorded so I didn't necessarily work out on the arm bike. But I'm also thinking that I really rely those workouts to help Tire me out which helps me sleep through the night and maybe a little bit later so I wake up around 5:30 or 6:00 a.m. which seems a lot better for me. Even though I was awake early this morning I got through the day okay with no problems to speak of. I didn't work out today either I'm just hoping the significant sleep deficit that I have going with me right now will give me the ability to sleep late tomorrow morning so I can get up around 6:00 and be ready for my morning staff when she shows up to get me going for the day. This has been a pretty decent weekend for me I did coffee yesterday morning this morning I had breakfast with my son and then later in the day went to the movies. I have something to tell people tomorrow if and when they asked me what I did this weekend. I know that makes me a bit weak feeling that I've got to tell people that I actually did something over the weekend but it makes me feel good that I have something to tell them. I'll leave out the fact that I came home and watched movies on Netflix the rest of the day. 

I found out this morning that my granddaughter is having some health issues. They could be serious I'm a little concerned. This is the first grandchild that I've been aware of having medical issues. I have not had a chance to visit with her yet regarding these issues I'm just waiting to see what the doc said and all that kind of stuff. I hope it's nothing it's something that just kids go through. But still makes me a little concerned…

A1c why me?!

 

I'm in such a dither regarding how my diet is going to be affected by this type 1 prediabetes thing I'm currently sifting through. It seems everything that I totally enjoy I will no longer really be able to imbibe because it's a sugar or a carbohydrate, everything! For those constant readers who have to sit through my boobing about going through this pre-diabetic catastrophe that I feel that I'm passing through just either bear with me or don't read for a couple weeks just because I think I'm going to be focused on this a lot longer than I want to be focused. Trying to go through what I might be able to enjoy and ingest things like I guess meat products like roast, steak, chicken, lunch meat spam the whole galaxy meat products. I would like to think I could eat to some degree of milk products such as cheese and milk itself hopefully yogurts. I still have to figure out what to do from the standpoint of fruits and vegetables vegetables are okay I guess. However fruits which include juices maybe a real challenge too try to justify. Everything from watermelon to grapes are loaded with sugars I guess which makes them why they're so good. Even nuts are supposed to be off limits if you're really going to be serious about trying to modulate your A1c or whatever that is. It's got its own language I guess and now I'm watching the commercials during the 5:00 news now it's all about products that lower one's A1c. They weren't real to me up until now and all the sudden they all make sense so much more sense. A chemical Arsenal to lower the A1c. Ozympic which I think is the one product. I'm taking another kind of chemical that supposedly lowers that number. I babbled about it the other night wondering if this would allow me to still take part in the foods that I really love that are not available. The bottom line is I'm going to have to be an adult and as such take everything into moderation particularly losing weight cuz I understand this all affects the outcome. Little bummed because tomorrow morning I will have breakfast with my son at the local restaurant there's not a whole lot of stuff you can have for breakfast that's not bread or flour oriented I.E pancakes, French toast, toast toast Etc. I suppose I could order a steak or I could order a pork chop or I can order eggs and be done with it and just nibble on a couple pieces of bread toast. Or I could even just order cottage cheese which might not be a bad idea. Maybe cottage cheese and eggs that sound kind of weird but could be doable follow it up with sausage links or even a spanking flat of ham might be good as well. So there may be light in this Dark Storm of pre- diabetic realities. I just had to Pace myself freak out too often …

Beans and other things

 I didn't do a movie today because a friend of mine indicated he would help me bring home cases of canned goods from the market later on in the afternoon, will not be at the movies, you can give me a exact time so I figured he'd give me a call when it was the right time for him to meet me there. So I basically dawdled around all afternoon. He finally contacted me and was at the store waiting for me. This is really quite a shot so I put together myself quickly and headed out to the market. This is such a treat for me because I have such a hard time carrying big heavy items hoping for the market. You do it on a regular basis but nothing to the extent of case Goods. I didn't get anything exotic just the usual but in case format, French cut beans, red beans, corn kernel, five or six cans of sliced jalapeno peppers I was taking more but they didn't have any more I took the last. They also got half a case of now he's beef stew which I really like. I may go back and see if I can get a 12 pack of spam but we'll see. I didn't see the spammers in the area that I was at today. I could manage a case of spam to get home on my own then I think I'd be set for about a year food wise at least give you through the winter. It's pretty crazy and I think people really look at me weird sometimes when they come into the apartment well it makes me feel good and it makes me feel safe since I really don't spend a whole lot on socialization/ items that I recreate with I figure this can food will do just as well. Of course I don't have any place to put it at least not right now hopefully with Melissa who can figure out anything she'll find a place to stash it or maybe it'll just stay where it's at. Since I don't really use the table for much of anything except putting things on and sometimes I get underneath it a little bit to do my puzzles it seems like a good place to stash a couple of cases right now.

I've got another tooth bothering me again and that's a real drag. I just can't seem to get on top of my tooth repairs and maybe that's just another gift of advanced age. My teeth are finally letting go even though they did so well over the years I totally appreciate what they've gone through and apologize for what I put them through. Way too much candy and sweets and way little tooth preservation stuff like flossing and brushing just wasn't big on my agenda and I'm now paying the consequences. Maybe it's just the one tooth I'm having issues with maybe I've got something stuck there it's been pressing and making it a bit sensitive we'll find out tonight when I floss. I wonder if I'm flossing too hard can you've lost too hard?

Coffee and the movie

 I started the new regimen of medication today. Remember I picked it up yesterday or was the day before? I don't rightly recall except that I've been holding it kind of spooked about using it. I've dragged my feet on using the medication just because on the side effects it indicates that diarrhea has been reported. I apologize I actually wrote about this last night but this is primarily regarding the action I took this morning. The pharmacist indicated that I needed to take this medication with a meal and I really don't do meals much. So that's something I'm going to have to work on but this morning I took the medication with a large tamale. I was going to actually cook something this morning but by the time I got around to getting dressed and thinking I'm going to cook something for breakfast it was almost time to leave for the coffee social. So the best I could do was take the tamale nuke it and then take the medication. It doesn't say how big the meal has to be only that I have to be eating something take this med because otherwise it does something weird to you or the medication is not as effective as it could be I don't know. All I know is I didn't want to poop my pants because of possible diarrhea. So with that in mind I decided I might as well live on the edge and after the coffee social I messed around the apartment until it was time that I could catch a bus to run up and take in a movie. I think I've hit my goal for the month of three movies. The advertising package for unlimited movies indicates that three movies you pretty much paid for the $20 a month prescription that I pay. I figured I might as well be doing something if I fill up my pants.

I kind of surprised myself I actually enjoyed the movie, it's about artificial intelligence. I like to scare myself with real life horror movie possibilities and I think artificial intelligence is that. Of course this movie was not a whole lot different than a lot of the other movies where the computer slash AI has gone on a rampage or just mentally ill and goes after it's Flesh and Blood operators. It was well done movie wise and I totally want to believe it's not true there's something in the back of my mind saying don't be naive. I actually even got popcorn. I supposed to be able to get a free bag because of the amount of points I've acquired but they have this weird rule that you've got to do you got to ask for it in a certain way and I did not do it so I ended up having to pay $8 for popcorn and I just hate doing that though it was good popcorn. I brought 3/4 of the popcorn home. Now every time I eat something I'm totally focused on the fact that because I'm pre-diabetic is this going to push me over the edge. I think I'm okay with popcorn even on the side of calories I think it's okay even though I had it drenched in butter. I'll eat the remainder of the bag in the next couple of days if my morning help doesn't eat it first.

Prediabetes II

 I got up this morning feeling fairly decent. I got much better sleep last night the night before- - I still could have used an hour or so more of sleep but I was awake now and didn't really want to try to go through the whole hassle of going back to sleep and waking up yet again. Twice, waking, in the same morning is more of a challenge than I want to deal with these days. I had to get up get the coffee made and shave today's caregiver day, Melissa will be here 2 or 3 hours to do the business. Time with Melissa's always fun but today was pretty straightforward for both of us just get the job done so we can get on with our day. My goal today was to contact my physician and just find out more about this drug I'm supposed to be taking for diabetes or prediabetes or whatever it's called.

It always takes me a few minutes to get through the barriers in my doctor's call phone. I mean you know you make the call you come into their first level explains a bunch of junk to you then you go to the second level then if you're lucky on the 3rd you get to speak with a human and ask your questions. I lucked out on my first try and got a nice receptionist named Marcy. I briefly explain to Marcy that there is a prescription for me at the pharmacy which I didn't understand- - and she did understand. She let me know that I was indeed pre-diabetic for type 2 diabetes. This of course reinforce the anxiety that I already had. She also informed me just some of the issues are Essentials that is probably no sugar, limited white bread are bread in general I guess and other dietary issues. She also inquired of me that had I checked my “ Healthcare” file on the internet which or where the docs like to dump all their information on regarding me. I know it's childish but I think it's way too scary and so I really haven't dealt into it too much I probably need to rectify that if I'm going to be Mr on top of everything. I've only been to this account two or three times it's just way too specific in your face of what's going on with your body. I know that's what the whole point is in being self-aware Etc. So I briefly asked the individual I had on the phone about what some of the stuff meant. She explained to me that I was probably in the beginning stages of the disease if diabetes is a disease or a state of being I don't know. But, she indicated there is a program in the office that explained it more to you actually had a person counselor type person explain it which I might take advantage of. She indicated that she herself was diabetic not necessarily brittle at this point in time but certainly has to take the shots and do the things that she has to do. So now I've got the meds and now I have to start taking them. She advises me I should take them with a meal. One of the drawbacks of this medication is it also can do some diarrhea which I really don't want to have to deal with I can't deal with. So I'm still kind of freaked out on the whole thing. Totally have to cut down sugar and carbohydrates which of course are my building blocks of life. I asked her and she also indicated that obesity is another Factor. If you can control your obesity and even lose some weight to a point that you would no longer be diabetic. I'm not totally totally sure how that would work but I've heard it before. And I might give it a shot since really what else do I have to do? I might even think about getting back into the exercise program over at Sugarhouse rehab. I don't know if I'd really have the energy to do such a project but it couldn't hurt…

Road trip- part 2

I'm not sure why but this morning was another 3:30 a.m. wake up event to which I never really get back to sleep. I may have walked in early because I'm or was stressed out about the coming trip I was about to take. I'm on the assistive technology advisory council/board and today was the quarterly meeting and today the meeting is to be held in Logan Utah about an hour and a half away from Salt Lake. We usually meet here at Salt Lake but the group really wanted to get together and go up to Logan for the meeting so they wouldn't have to come down. I think I may have talked about this already a little bit this week but today I actually went. I could have zoomed into the meeting and probably less stressed then the actual drive up. When we decided on doing this all 90 days or so ago my friend Kent who is a big gun over at u c a t indicated he would take the Salt Lake City crew up in the van which actually had a wheelchair lift on it has on it and therefore I would be able to go too if I wanted to. I figured this would be a good reason to get out of the city for the first time in maybe 7 years.

I wasn't sure if he/kent really remembered that he was driving up and I know that we had talked about picking me up but I wasn't sure what time so I called him around 7:00 a.m. and he reassured me that he would be by to pick me up around 10:00. Kent was a little late but not bad. The other folks that were going to go with us didn't show up so it's just Kent and I and we had a good trip good conversation made the drive a little bit quicker it seemed like. We got in about 11:55 there's a lot of construction around the building we were going to making it difficult for us to get in. It was the very six Belfair of box lunch not half bad I ate half my sandwich but they didn't have chips I would like to have had chips. They had this bizarre pesto macaroni salad and I ate that I can't believe I did. The meeting is okay not too bad we got some business done and soon it was time to head back to Salt Lake. We talked a lot on the way back much more than on their way up it was good discussion we went over the old times in the old days when we were just new working at this kind of stuff. We talked about old people that we used to work with who are now gone one way or the other and the the days we are living in and whether or not we will end up Surviving them. It was good to get home I was a little uncomfortable I ended up wearing a long sleeve shirt because I did not know how warm or cold it would be in Logan- - it was warm. It was good to get home to relax they sent a box lunch home with me which I stuck in the refrigerator I'll be able to have that tomorrow. Tomorrow I'm on the road again not going as far just south to the I'm not sure why but this morning was another 3:30 a.m. wake up event to which I never really get back to sleep. I may have walked in early because I'm or was stressed out about the coming trip I was about to take. I'm on the assistive technology advisory council/board and today was the quarterly meeting and today the meeting is to be held in Logan Utah about an hour and a half away from Salt Lake. We usually meet here at Salt Lake but the group really wanted to get together and go up to Logan for the meeting so they wouldn't have to come down. I think I may have talked about this already a little bit this week but today I actually went. I could have zoomed into the meeting and probably less stressed then the actual drive up. When we decided on doing this all 90 days or so ago my friend Kent who is a big gun over at u c a t indicated he would take the Salt Lake City crew up in the van which actually had a wheelchair lift on it has on it and therefore I would be able to go too if I wanted to. I figured this would be a good reason to get out of the city for the first time in maybe 7 years.

I wasn't sure if he/kent really remembered that he was driving up and I know that we had talked about picking me up but I wasn't sure what time so I called him around 7:00 a.m. and he reassured me that he would be by to pick me up around 10:00. Kent was a little late but not bad. The other folks that were going to go with us didn't show up so it's just Kent and I and we had a good trip good conversation made the drive a little bit quicker it seemed like. We got in about 11:55 there's a lot of construction around the building we were going to making it difficult for us to get in. It was the very six Belfair of box lunch not half bad I ate half my sandwich but they didn't have chips I would like to have had chips. They had this bizarre pesto macaroni salad and I ate that I can't believe I did. The meeting is okay not too bad we got some business done and soon it was time to head back to Salt Lake. We talked a lot on the way back much more than on their way up it was good discussion we went over the old times in the old days when we were just new working at this kind of stuff. We talked about old people that we used to work with who are now gone one way or the other and the the days we are living in and whether or not we will end up Surviving them. It was good to get home I was a little uncomfortable I ended up wearing a long sleeve shirt because I did not know how warm or cold it would be in Logan- - it was warm. It was good to get home to relax they sent a box lunch home with me which I stuck in the refZaza Zaza qcsrigerator I'll be able to have that tomorrow. Tomorrow I'm on the road again not going as far just south to the podiatrist it's time to get the toes trimmed..

 it's time to get the toes trimmed.. zzz's zzz's

Road trip!

 I'm kind of perplexed tonight because I neglected or failed to do something today. I should have gotten a hold of my friend Kent who works with the state. We are on the same Advisory Board for assistive technology for the state of Utah. We have a quarterly meeting and that meeting is tomorrow. The office for this program is in Logan Utah which is about an hour and a half north of us here in Salt Lake so typically they come to Salt Lake and we have the meeting here but for one reason or another we're having it tomorrow up in Logan. The members of this Advisory Board are all traveling up there, those who are going, to have lunch and the meeting there and probably two are the facility again. They do offer the option of having this meeting as a zoom meeting but we've all decided to go up there except tomorrow is the meeting and I haven't heard whether my ride is still up for the ride up to the university. I'm sure he is I just have not heard from him this week which is kind of strange. The reason I'm going up with him is that a few of us decided to go together since he has access to a wheelchair accessible van and will be driving me up with the group. Now one of the group has develop covid so he's not going it's just me and Kent. I just don't quite remember when he's going to pick me up. It has to be around 9:00 I would think to get there by 12:00 when we get our lunch. I'm sure there's not a big issue even if all right to miss the ride completely I can still dial in and catch the meeting on line. I would not say that I'm excited but I have to admit I'm a little anxious about this whole event. Anxious in a good way I have not really ridden in the vehicle besides public transit for years actually. And I really haven't even been out of the city for as many years. So it'll be quite interesting to get on the bus and travel to Logan. I don't know if there will be any time to do any stopping along the way. There is a major Creamery up there that makes famous cheese out of that area of the Cache Valley. Everybody wants Cache Valley cheese if anyone's going that way. I doubt that we'll have time for anything like that but one never knows. I'm hoping tonight I'll be able to get some sleep. Last night or rather this morning I was awakened by about 4:00 a.m. there's something going on in my body that I'm somewhat concerned about. Last night I had some twinges not really pain but discomfort to the point that made me concerned and this is not a new phenomenon every once awhile this tends to act up. I'm going to try tonight to take some ibuprofen and see if that will make it at least sleepable through the night. I really should bring it up with my appointment with the internist next week but I'm a little chicken. Perhaps if the payment is more severe and the fact that it comes and goes I would be a little more cautious. Maybe something just being inflamed or something. Maybe it's something to do with diabetes but just totally on my mind now since the experience at the market pharmacy. I should have called the doctor's office today but couldn't get around to it. Who knows maybe after tomorrow I won't even matter…

Pre-diabetic?

I almost wrote about this yesterday cuz that's when it happened but I'm still pondering the situation. I went to the market today primarily because I got a notification on my emails or my messenger or something that I had a prescription to pick up at the pharmacy at my market. I wasn't too surprised I have a prescription that actually is coming due and I figured it was just that prescription that had been filled. I was wrong. When I asked the pharmacist what the prescription was he told me and I didn't recognize it at all. I thought it was a mistake. Then he did this interrogation thing about who I was but date of birth all that kind of stuff. He then indicated the physician who prescribed it of course and then all kinds of information about me. The prescription is for a drug for people who are pre-diabetic. This kind of made sense but it totally came out of that field I didn't know how to react to it. Then I remembered that when I was at the position the other day for the checkup / follow up there was a blood draw done and it was for checking the iron levels that I was low on the last go round. In the meantime I've been Faithfully taking the iron tablets. The only thing I can think of is that something popped up regarded in the pre-diabetic stuff any prescribed the medication. I don't know why this really rubbed me wrong though. I left the meds there and then we'll call the doctor's office Monday to see if I can get any other information about if he is prescribing this for my pre-diabetic condition what else do I need to know?

The reason I seem to be acting so defensive as that this is just a sucker punch for me. I really have been feeling pretty good the last couple of weeks I don't know if that's the iron thing kicking in or exactly what. I don't know if there's any particular way a person should be feeling if they're pre-diabetic. And again, I certainly don't doubt that I am. I'm just don't know what the regimen is to live with such a diagnosis. At breakfast this morning my granddaughter was pretty adamant that I'd have to stop ingesting sugar of any kind. I could do this, stop eating sweet things, it might be a bit of a challenge but I could do it I know I could especially if it prolonging whatever the pre-diabetic condition might be. That would certainly like to get rid of it completely but I don't know if that's possible. I know that many people who are overweight are diabetic and I know that I am overweight but I don't know if that just means that if I were to get my weight under control would I be able to lose the pre-diabetic label and live a fairly normal life and I think I can even if I am diabetic. I might be getting myself into a tizzy because really if anything I'm pre-diabetic .. on medication...

1 million bucks

        Remember when a million used to be a large number well I mean it's still a huge number that goes without saying but a million just isn't what a million used to be especially in the sense of money. I remember when the person was a millionaire they were pretty rare. If you had a million dollars you could pretty much do whatever you wanted for some time. Having a million dollars was like you would never have to worry about anything for the rest of your life but that's not true anymore. Anyway that's what I feel. Granted million bucks is a lot of dough but you could easily spend it out if you wanted to. In fact there's a lot of houses that cost that much there's a lot of houses that having that much money would not cover the cost of this house and they're just like regular upscale properties. They're not some giant mansion like in the Avenues are the North End of Boise. Each Community has a place where the rich people live come the place where you want to go for Halloween when you're a kid because they gave away full size candy bars. You can get a lot of stuff with a million dollars but at some point you'd have to watch your your money it's not like you could endlessly be Reckless spending like one feels one could at one time. Did you know that at today's prices of cars about 25,000 for a new vehicle that's a little bit more than a lot of the vehicles but I use that as a easy number to work with but if you had a million bucks if you could just pay the money and not have to pay any of the other stuff you could only get 40 vehicles out of a million bucks. That's a lot of cars no question about it but it's certainly finite but if you wanted to check out SUVs or trucks or whatever the number goes down significantly.

If I Had a Million Dollars, right this minute, I would buy a tricked out wheelchair van and a place to store it and of course insurance and such for at least a year. I would even include in that cost the price of a driver/ mechanic someone to house the vehicle. The driver would have to be available 24/7 and that's kind of stupid for me because I never have that kind of use for a vehicle but it would be nice to have just in case I did need that kind of support. I could buy a house not necessarily A upscale house but maybe a fairly nice property in a fairly nice neighborhood. This would seriously diminish the amount of money I have in the account Maybe by even a third if not a half. One could get some toys but you'd have to be careful on what you got and how much you paid for them. I could see them shrinking your pot quickly. One could travel even having someone to go with you as an attendant. You know someone to do this suppositories the bathing that kind of stuff while you're on the road. I don't think even if I did a trip it would be very long. I like being a homebody but who knows the million bucks in my pocket I can do some serious travel. But I would probably one of those weird people who had the check someplace in the house and never cashed it or put it in the bank. That kind of stress is just too much. I'm not ready for a million maybe next year