It burns- - it burns!

 

I'm such an idiot. One of the ingredients for the concoction that I make, I try to have a couple large slotted spoons of the concoction everyday, is jalapeno peppers in a very hot brine liquid very very spicy stuff. Today I had peppers with the last enchilada casserole I purchased from the markets frozen food section. The enchiladas were great but I was happy to see them go as well. I remember though after I put the enchiladas in the microwave to Nuke that I then fished out a couple of jalapenos out of the covered plastic mug that I keep them in. We have a couple of those water jugs they sent home from the hospital, the kind with the red snap on top. Well, I fished out two pretty large size peppers and set them aside. I retrieved the warmed up enchiladas and proceeded to have my lunch. It was only after lunch that I was doing something that I don't remember what but in the process I rubbed my eye with the same hand that I extracted the jalapenos with consume my eye was burning! I could close my eye and there would be no pain but if I were to open them up the pain would start immediately are really strong burn. This has happened so much that the pain no longer frightens me like it did at one time thinking that I damaged myself severely. Eventually, the hot material rubs off the eye I guess and the eye returns to normal. But right after contact I'm essentially blind to that eye. I guess I could watch that with the washcloth or even drip drops of milk on the eye will bring comfort. Otherwise, I'm trapped in this situation if I don't wash out the eyes with some sort of soothing Cooling fluid her first to roll around looking like a squint-eyed pirate. The searing pain lasts only a few minutes, less if you're smart enough to get up and wash out the eye immediately. I wasn't,  and endured the pain for a good five or six minutes before the pain began to subside. It wasn't much longer until my eye was back into my control. This was the high point of my day. I have began my kid letters for the month so everything was pretty subdued. I know this is a short blog they'll just have to do. My eye doesn't bother me anymore it's just that I'm exhausted…

Of skaters and kings

 

Remember the skateboard park that is just outside my window? There was a small version when I moved in and then last year they renovated the skateboard park into this huge beautiful skating facility even with after hours lighting- - no it's never really used thank goodness. I guess I should preface this hole posting as I don't want to sound like one of those senior senile oldies that doesn't like anything that young people do. That's kind of perverse to put a skateboard park next to a senior housing project if you ask me. The new facility is bigger and much better than the other of course which means that anybody any kid in the right mind would go nuts over the facility. It's a free facility it's ran by the county so no charge and it's on the bus route all the elements for abroad constituency. And I don't really have a problem with the skateboard park or the skateboard park people/kids but I do have an issue with using the facilities after hours and what I'm considering after hours anytime after 10:00 p.m. I know that sounds ridiculously early especially for kids standards and especially for teenage standards but come on everybody's got to sleep. I'll bring this up primarily because last night around 2:30 a.m. I heard for the first time loudspeakers saying something like “ you are being warned you are not to skate after hours. If you persist law enforcement will be a notified and you will be fined…”. There was more than announcement of course but you get the gist. Cease and desist Go Away Little skater all that kind of stuff. Of course, law enforcement was not called and nobody showed up and the skater skated on. Took a while to get back to sleep but eventually I did kind of but it was an uneventful sleep because I had to be up at 5:30 to make sure that I was dressed in time to meet the kids for breakfast. So I really didn't get back to sleep. And I felt quite ragged all day long but it's Sunday so I didn't have a whole lot to do but lay back, take the weight off my butt and either read or enjoy my Netflix subscription.

 

I did not mean to but I started reading Lisey’s Story by Stephen King. I know I've rattled on before about this particular volume I read it twice before I know that maybe even more. Like I said I did not mean to read it again but I started it because I ran out of books to read and I started this to tide me over but I've gotten sucked into book once again. I don't know what I like about Mr King's riding it's just so easy to read, the people seem so normal just like me I guess that I identify with that. I just really like his word craft. I envy his ability to put so many thoughts out together in such a way that push you, the reader, from one thought to the next till you finish the whole book. I think I've read three Stephen King's this year. I'm still looking for a new book I haven't read to read until that time I'll just keep turning pages of this book and be glad that I have access to it…

Drawing

 I love to draw, I think. I'm always trying to draw or think I'm going to try to draw. I'm doing less and less actually trying to draw the last couple of years I've noticed. I don't know why I can't draw. I even took a class at the community college a couple years ago. It was a basic drawing class and it didn't do me any good and I'm sure it wasn't the instructors fault. I will take responsibility. I did the exercises I showed up to the class and maybe I needed to persist more classes. I did a couple of drawings at the end of the class or during the class it wasn't what I thought it was going to be but I still had some feelings that maybe this was the right track. It was just difficult for me to pursue any further than the one class. I had to drag all the equipment back and forth for my apartment to the room and then back again and it was a summer class as well so I'm sure it was lightweight as far as what could have happened as a real semester type class would have been. I think I've talked about this before but I really have a feeling that I'm supposed to draw and I get a good feeling when I do draw but I rarely, as I said earlier, make time to actually draw. And I've got wonderful sketchbooks, I mean pads, tablets of paper given to me as Christmas / birthday / Father's Day gifts over the years. I need to use some of these to at least  put marks on them before I die so the kids will know at least I appreciate their gifts. That's if anyone even notices. I've noticed that a lot of families basically open the doors of the apartments when the person dies and lets anybody grab whatever they can out of the apartment and then basically either themselves or they have a professional trash company come in and take everything and take it to the dump for whatever they do with that kind of stuff and sadly I think anything I have drawn may end up at the dump and really that's okay by me too I'm not that infatuated with making a mark on this world that I'm going to worry about what happens to the things I've created. Again the most important things that I've created- the children will continue and that's good that's the way things should go. However material things those for sure can go to the Wayside.

The image I'm using for tonight's posting is a a pillow, actually one of my favorite pillows that I sleep with. It's basically a cuddle pillow or a hugger. I like the beasts on this pillow and I'm intrigued to the point that I want to figure out if I can draw them or not. I've been meaning to do this for over a year now and I can't bring myself to do it. I'm not sure exactly why, probably fear of failure more than anything else. That is so silly and if I heard somebody else using this as an excuse I would not cut them any slack, tell them to get on the stick and do it or stop yacking about it. These seem like silly little images but they've taken my heart for some reason and I just want to know if I can not only draw them IE copy them onto paper or maybe even develop my own little beasts.

Another One Bites the Dust

The other day my caregiver informed me that my favorite restaurant or one of my favorite restaurants in this city is closing their doors. The Shanghai Restaurant it's been in business for 35 years. I thought the restaurant had been around for much longer but that's okay. The point is that it was a favorite restaurant for Dianne and myself. The restaurant was conveniently sort of on our way home from work so many Friday nights we would deviate and have dinner at the place. It's a fairly nondescript little restaurant sandwiched in between another bunch of small businesses, restaurants and such. The whole place was unpretentious but the food was tasty, affordable, and even elephant. I'd like to say this was Chinese food but that's not the Chinese food that I remember growing up in Boise. I think it's the new version of Chinese food that's basically Thai food and whatever else the menu is evolving too. The last day that Shanghai will have its doors open will be the 31st of July next week. I doubt if I will get down there. My caregiver told me that she went to the restaurant last week and the line was outside the door and around the corner. They waited 2 hours just in line and then there was another hour they waited to get their meal served to them. I mean I love this place but I'm not that much in love with it. 3 hours for a meal is not my idea of a night out even if it's the city famous Shanghai. 

Whenever we would go to the Shanghai we are always met by the owner and his wife. I don't think the wife spoke much English or she didn't speak much to us and she looked quite frightening. She and her husband were somewhat elderly, it seemed to us. We called her the Dragon Lady just because she looked like a Dragon Lady. Dianne soon warmed up to her or the other way around or maybe it was a mutual warming but they often visited with each other as we waited for our meals. The Dragon Lady never really warmed to me and that's probably all right too. I suspect the dragon lady was one of those people that were really good at reading people and she was reading me just fine. I don't know if she ever smiled at me other members of my family said she smiled and if she did I did not see it and that's okay too. Perhaps the worst part of this blog is the fact that the reason they're destroying the Shanghai is to raise up another apartment building this town does not need nor deserve…

Q 

The Humble peanut butter cookie

Even though it was Pioneer Day, a local state holiday but very big in Utah of course, we had coffee anyway. I was a little late getting to the event just because my wound care guy showed up and had to change my dressings. But I got to the coffee social there's only three or four other people there which is become the case anymore it seems like. But the coffee was made and there were some pretty decent Refreshments too and one of those was a host of peanut butter cookies. I love peanut butter cookies. They're so humble in my estimation. I believe peanut butter cookies were one of the first kinds of cookies I learned to make early on, the other was oatmeal cookies of course. I loved being able to access the round Quaker Oats box with the image of a pilgrim. Are you okay with the oatmeal cookies but they're kind of intimidating with a lot of ingredients like raisins and walnuts. The peanut butter cookies primarily were made of peanut butter and I used smooth as well as crunchy peanut butter over the days that I cooked peanut butter cookies. What I like best about the peanut butter cookies were when you squish them out flat you're required to do the x hatching of the cross hatching with the fork. I don't know what this does to the peanut butter cookie in general and there must be a good reason for doing this I just have never heard what it is. But I do like making the criss cross on the cookies. I think my mom really liked it when I asked if I could make cookies because it kept me busy and out of her hair. Once you set me up with the ingredients I pretty much went to town. I know I always pretty much made a mess as well. That's been one of my consistent features in life. So I was delighted this morning when I saw half of the cookies on the table were peanut butter buried beneath other nice treats but my eyes were just for the peanut butter cookies. Of course these were not homemade by a long shot, they were made by some giant cookie factory or if lucky the person who got the cookies for today's function got him at the local market hopefully whose Bakery made these cookies. They were a bit of the industrial quality identical one to another and the flavor certainly having that of peanut butter not the wholeness of real homemade peanut butter cookies. That's okay I can go for the authenticity of the peanut butter cookie just as long as I get the peanut butter cookie and the more the better.

I almost forgot to mention that today is Pioneer Day. I pretty much went over that last night in the blog but now at 9:24 p.m. in the days Darkness the fireworks should be getting to be launched along with the machine gun staccato builds of strings of firecrackers going off one after another. Every night before the fireworks show starts I'm surprised at how I'm not ready for the thunderous explosion of the first firework bombs. You think a person would get used to it but always startled. I wish there was an easy, close lunch site I could go to to get a good viewing of fireworks but I don't know of any and it doesn't mean enough to me to search one out or to ride a bus to where they're probably a good viewing site. Just listening to the explosions is enough for me happy Pioneer Day

The night before

 

It's the night before a major holiday here in Utah. Tomorrow's Pioneer day. Pioneer Day is Utah's basic Founders Day. That great day when the Pioneers looked down from the mountaintops in their leader indicated that this toasted piece of ground part of the great desert is the place where their new homes would be. I am surprised the whole kitten caboodle didn't just turn around in their wagons and head the other way. I guess there was a number of individuals that kept heading west and finally arrived in California but for the major portion the Pioneers came to this Valley- - Salt Lake Valley. You can explode fireworks twice, legally, in Salt Lake in July. Of course there's the 4th of July which results in a lot of fireworks and then big time there's a 24th of July which is totally firework related. I guess you can start launching fireworks 2 days before each holiday and I think a day afterwards maybe 2 days I don't do fireworks so I don't really know. But the fireworks started now and they're very explosive I've never noticed before the last couple of years that the fireworks are very very loud as well as explosive. There's a park just north of our apartment complex and I guess this is a great place for launching these fireworks but they're certainly loud like a bomb going off next door. I don't have a beast but if I did I don't know what I would do for them aside from give them a large dose of Valium and or locking them in their own room while the bombs explode. I guess these two holidays are quite significant for these little guys.

Fortunately for me Pioneer Day is pretty insignificant. I do enjoy the feeling of holiday Pioneer day renders. If I really energetic I could get up and go downtown for the big kick ass parade that curses the city on the morning of the 24th. Luckily the holiday is celebrated enough that this eruption or disruption of transportation is not totally disruptive. More and more national International businesses have popped up in the area that don't celebrate the holiday. I think bus service is supposed to run pretty close to normal for the day. They have traditionally used the “ holiday” schedule, meaning anything faster than half an hour headways is down to just half an hour headways. Like Redwood Road runs 15 minute headways holiday schedules down to two bus stops an hour hopefully that made sense. Fortunately the holiday lasts only won 24 hour period so I don't have to deal with too many routine mess ups. I doubt I will do anything more than the usual, perhaps maybe even up to the movies. I would just jump on one of the buses doing a holiday schedule and be sure that I caught the bus with ample time before the movies. 

Oh, and Zjust an update my brother was here a few moments ago and spent some time working on my rickshaw- - remember the handle got stolen my brother Carl was able to Fashion a piece of wood into a new handle so I can use the machine again and build up some strength. The brother also adjusted my chair seating situation which I think will greatly assist me as far as not scraping the bottom of my chair on the floor as well as the pavement and other sidewalk issues that's been tripping up my chair recently. The only problem is any change to your physical environment like this causes my whole body to rebel against what you mean . Hopefully once the chair are my body gets used to the chair setting I should be okay and hopefully the skin breakdown  stop...

Full day good day

 I did not get a chance to do my arm bike workout today I was just too busy gallivanting all across Salt Lake. It was a good day don't get me wrong I'm not complaining I just didn't have any energy left to pump my bike for the 60 minutes I should have. Fortunately for me, I have enough days left in this week to Garner the 200 minutes I like to do every week. The 200 minutes is from some trainer I had at some point in or trainer like person who indicated how long I need to spend on the arm bike for it to have a significant effect.

I took off this morning around 9:30 so I could catch the bus to take me into the city for my 11:00 meeting. I spend a little bit of time waiting for the bus and then the train but I have enough time to get to the library which I really do enjoy wandering through and looking at the new books always on the new book display sections. I'm just amazed at how many new books are out every week when I go. I enjoy this almost as much as listening to the books reviewed on NPR. It's not that I would ever check one of those books out; however not because I don't want to but because I don't trust myself as far as being a responsible Library person. I've learned over the years that that is not my forte. I hate checking the book out and then trying to finish it or however much I need to read in that two week period of time or in some cases it's a month I guess depending on the library. Still I end up having to renew the book or having to remember to renew the book over and over until they finally send a notice or an email or something indicating they want their book back I've had it long enough and there are other people in line wanting to read this book. Then it becomes personal and then I have to go into the library just to drop the book off. I consider it shaming the library should be better than that. If it's a book I really am interested in however I often take an image of the book and then look it up on the internet and then sometimes even order. Sometimes at the library I'll read a section of the book and if it's really interesting I'll do the same process of taking an image of the book to order or in some cases order it right then. It amazes me how much Freedom we have. It's kind of an expensive way to read and I should be more patient with myself and teach myself the responsibility for being a good Library person but I know myself and I know my weaknesses and I don't feel there's a good rationale to set myself up to fail the Magnificent institution of the library.

Later on in the afternoon I'm with my friend Lori at Starbucks. I finally got the right Starbucks. There are three on Redwood Road and last time we had a meeting I went to all three before finally getting the right one. We had a good conversation lasting about 3 hours as we drank our beverages and talked about writing and everything else that seems to be going on in our world. It got in the early evening before we broke up and went our separate ways. Catching public transit and getting on home. But it was a long hot day but enjoyable. We came to realize that at this point in our lives we have to enjoy what moments we have cuz we don't know how many moments we have left…

More stress Monday

 I'm kind of freaked out although I knew something was going on but just hearing it finally from somebody who really knows is very unsettling. I've been having this rough area on my bottom for some time when I say rough area I mean you know when you touch it with your finger it's all rigidity and rough like dried skin and such. I've been trying to medicate it by keeping it lubricated with some nice cream that I've had for some time it usually does a great job but recently I don't know if it's gotten worse or I'm just paying more attention to it or I'm not sure what but I'm going to find out one way or the other. But anyways this morning when I transferred into my chair I always check the pad that I slept on and noticed there were little places where the blood was at little just drops probably but I couldn't for the life of me figure out where that would be coming from but it was coming from somewhere and of course when Melissa came, my care person, she did a real good body check and it looks like that spot she said look like it got scratched or something. We decided to let it go until my wound care specialist got to look at it. Fortunately that was this morning today it was Cameron. He looked at it finally and diagnosed the area as shearing. I knew I would one day be subject to this because my transfers are just so poor I just really wasn't ready to hear it today but I wasn't that bad either at least you didn't seem to be too concerned. Cameron put dressings on the wounds on my butt and we're going to see how well they work. I'll see Cameron again I believe on Thursday or maybe Friday depending because Thursday is a state holiday I don't know if these guys will be working or not. Actually I think the worst case scenario would be I'd be set to bed until that area heals and I assume it will heal eventually I would just have to really practice patience on a major scale- which I'm not used to. I would hope if I did this I'd be able to get up once or twice a week or whatever if I have to take off and go to a meeting or something. I'd hate to give up my meetings. These are my main forms of Authentication. They give me validity. 

Riding the above statement makes me think of the scene from one of the Spider-Man movies where Peter Parker is pleading with Tony Stark been to Peter keep the Spider-Man suit and Tony says something like if that's what you need to be a person then you shouldn't have the suit. If my going to the meetings is what makes me a person then maybe I shouldn't be going to these meetings. There's an analogy in there somewhere and I think it's relatively valid but I think you know what I mean. I need my exposure to the public through my work at these meetings at bringing about change and opportunities for people who are low income or folks with disabilities. Am I bad?...

Movie cover up

In an effort to have a tidbit to tell people of what I did over the weekend I figured it'd be a good reason to take in a movie. I have not been to the movies all month and actually I didn't go once and June and I have that special deal or I can go to as many movies as I want for 20 bucks at this multi-screen venue not far from where I live. So if I don't go to the movies then I'm out 20 bucks which I'm okay with really but I do need to use the service I've purchased. I have it on subscription so it renews every month unless of course my card is invalidated for one reason or another usually it's when I lose my wallet which hasn't happened this year so far. Sadly, the fact that it has not happened means I'm due for an economic catastrophe like losing my Visa debit card or Visa card. I hope I haven't jinxed myself.

The movie I went to was at the Regal Theater and it was How to Train Your Dragon. Truth be told, I have been somewhat interested in seeing this film and particularly since I brought the thought that I'll be going to the movies at the assist meeting I attend sometimes weekly. One of the Folks at the meeting is actually an employee of the agency. He has wanted me to go for some time to let him know if it was worth going to especially with his kids. Well I can truly say that it would be a movie he could safely take his kids to without Reserve. Hi however was not so impressed. It's not that it was a bad movie it was just for one noisy so much choir music in the background kind of drove me crazy it was over the top. Just a lot of background music. I think one could safely say the filming was beautiful and well done but I just thought it was loosely filmed and produced. Now having said this the real purpose of this blog today is the temperature of theater.

Even on super hot days I've always thought it was so stressful to have to sit in the movie and be frozen to death by their A1 air conditioning systems. Usually I don't think about this until I get there and then suffer through the whole ordeal of the movie freezing cold. But today I actually had a few minutes before I need to go out to catch the bus and I pulled an old felt type blanket- not like a blanket on the bed but just a fairly lightweight blanket. I actually pulled one down from my closet and Loosely wrapped it around my legs. In the past what I've done this I usually lose the Garment somewhere along the way. Interestingly enough the cloth stayed with me in the movie as well as all the way home in fact it's still there as is shown in the image I have at the beginning of this blog. This is also good camouflage for the fact that I was not wearing my shoes today just because it's such a challenge to get them on in time to make it out to the early morning breakfast with my son. Was also interesting in this movie was once again I was the only one in there. That is such a weird viewing experience. It was cold and much or twice it bothered me but I did not pull the wrap from around my feet to wrap around my shoulders for warmth. I was totally surprised it made it home with me I usually lose those somewhere along the trip. But not this time maybe later on in the week I'll try it again there's still a couple movies I want to take in before the end of the month…

We will survive

 I'm kind of terrified yet at the same time impressed with what is happening to NPR and overall PBS. I'm feeling because this actually has happened now to these two large operations I really feel the president will go after Medicare and probably in a big way and how that's going to trickle down to people with disabilities is sort of anyone's guess. I think and I'm hoping however, that the two organizations I listed above will be a positive example to the rest of us seniors another folks rely on Social Security and other programs. I really think these guys are going to survive PBS and NPR and just because they're digging in, going to the public in these emergency fundraising exercises they're doing the exploring all other alternatives they will need to stay in operation. They indicated this morning as I listened that they're expecting to take a major hit and survived mainly because they have a number of resources that are not necessarily hidden but not necessarily talked a lot about either. They said they're going to maybe lose some of their rural areas and such because of the lack of funding and it'll be weak for a couple of months maybe a year or maybe more but they'll be working with their different options and particularly with the folks that really stepped up and increased their gifts/donations to the operation. I truly hope there is enough folks out there who are willing to do such a thing they will be able to assist PBS and NPR weather this particular funding storm. I really feel that people need to see how they're doing this and bring it to their own agencies and programs. I remember when I worked the independent living Center this was always a boogeyman in the closet type of thing about what would happen if we lost the funding from the federal government that paid a major portion of the independent living centers across the country? Seem like they would always cry and ring their hands and worry about what was going to happen. I was one who suggested that Bring It On Cut the funding and everybody dropped their main job and go out and do fundraising for the agency or organization. I still kind of believe that the independent living movement still seen as a group of Scrappy folks with disabilities just trying to survive on the individual level and they're getting some help from Independent Living centers scattered around the country. Because of that I think the general public would support through giving and funding to help these organizations survive. I would still support ncil or the national centers for Independent Living continue their advocacy and National fundraising that they do so well in Washington DC and eventually they would turn the funding back on and if not the independent living movement would have to really go skinny for a while maybe cut back on Client Services and focus on efficacy at the national and state level working directly with senatorial and Congressional lawmakers on the local level to encourage the national folks too return funding should that ever happened. I know it can happen I know it probably will happen sooner or later and I know we will survive…

Taking care of business

 I'm exhausted! It's not like I've done anything today to Warrant the way that I feel just I'm tired. Most productive thing I've done today was to dictate a letter to my granddaughter, thank you letter for a letter she sent me earlier in the month. She's becoming very skilled at the art of letter writing. I Vision her being a great writer someday that would be totally cool. Maybe, in some way, I can take credit or some credit as she is written me a number of letters which I totally appreciate. I can't even blame the Heat though it's been in the upper 90s today I really have not been out in the high temperature. It's been cloudy all day with a warm wind blowing. There were times I felt that there was actually going to maybe drop some fingers of lightning or some Rumblings of thunder but that has not happened yet and I think if it hasn't happened by now it's not going to happen. Oh I just remembered I also took the bathroom trash out which was a very big deal. In fact I still have to put a new liner in the garbage can before I go to bed till there was a couple things I did that could be counted as productive. I spent the day reading and that's been so much joyful. It's a volume I've read before but for weird reason or another it's reading like a new book for me. It's kind of a murder mystery and I can't believe I'm enjoying the exercise as much as I am. I'm hoping I'm able to finish the volume tomorrow. It's not like it's a deep breed and I'm not taking time to sub vocalize every word I'm just kind of skimming but getting the flavor of the plot and how she's coming to grips with the ending.

Something weird which happened this evening. I was checking out some items on Amazon Prime, well actually I was deleting emails and noticed a thank you from Amazon Prime for the next shipment of some items that was pretty pricey. The whole shipment would have been like $150. And it was a subscription meaning they would continue shipping this price item every month until they were told to quit. I know I would never knowingly enter a subscription like this I'm just too cheap and too frightened of what might happen if there's a screw up well, there's a screw up. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to cancel the subscription and the email that was sent to me immediately after I canceled the subscription indicates that will not be charged. I will now keep a close eye on this to make sure that I'm not sent this item anyway. It just Spooks me how, unless you're really on top of things, you can get ordered a lot of stuff that you don't want and then you have to take initiative to stop this item from happening again. Maybe that's one of the definitions of a grown up is taking care of business.. .

A serious cut up

 

Ever since the last watermelon that I purchased a week or so ago I realized one watermelon is just too big for me. Even if I am able to get it on the table and then cut it up it's just too much fruit for me to use as one person. I think if I work at it the right way I can probably process and use in a reasonable amount of time a half a watermelon So to that end I've been thinking why don't I ask someone to go in with a watermelon with me. It's Thursday morning and I got myself relatively presentable- - without shoes of course- - cooked myself a real breakfast and went to my coffee group at 9:30 I even managed to be there a little bit early. I've been thinking about this all week but I wanted to bring up at some time during the group, to ask if anybody wanted to go in a half on a watermelon. I of course spaced off the whole question until later on afterwards, after the group had broken up I was visiting with one of the group members and I brought up the concept of what she thought of the whole half a watermelon project. I told her I would be willing to go half on a watermelon and she totally was into the idea. So as soon as the group ended and that I was finished with my wound care nurse who came soon after the meeting was over. I went across the street and seriusly checked out the Watermelons at Macy's Market. Again, I was dumbfounded how large these beasts were. A whole cardboard box full of pretty huge watermelons. Of course the Watermelons are in the vegetable section and I have- someone who's become a relatively close friend in vegetable and fruit section. I don't know if this guy has any real power but he seems to always be there whenever I'm there at the fruit and vegetable section. He seems to know his stuff especially the whole idea of slapping the watermelon too here whether or not it's a good melon or not. He seems to know what he's doing and I leave it at that and hope that he's serious. I asked him if he would pick out a watermelon for me relatively small but firm and hopefully sweet. I endured his whole slapping and thumping of various watermelons make it all kinds of professional sounds of watermelon discernment. Eventually produced a relatively small melon which was quite large but look small compared to the other melons in the Box. I still had a few things to pick up so he took the put it on the will call desk.

What I did was tip my chair back and raise the foot pedals up high enough to cause a cradle that I can set the melon in too for the trip home. I really didn't want to lose the watermelon between here and the intersection where I cross to get to the apartments. They had to do some real finagling with my lower legs I'm sure these guys hated touching my legs but it was important that I have the melon anchored in there good which ended up being the case with them lifting up one leg it's throwing in the watermelon and put in the leg back down causing a watermelon lockdown. I went slower than usual and got home finagle the way to get the watermelon up onto the table and actually cut the watermelon in half it took some doing and using my new rocker knife and my elevator function still in my chair was able to get high enough to really do a good cut pretty close to half and half. Clarice my neighbor upstairs who went in half on the watermelon with me had given me $10 bill that I elected not to use in use my debit card for my whole purchase. The watermelon came to about $7 in a few change. It was quite a heavy watermelon at 39 cents a pound I think it was around 20 lb a little less. I had to really do some fancy moving around in my chair and tilting back but I was finally able to lift this melon from my lap onto the table. I'd spend some time actually cleaning off the table with enough room to do this operation. When I finally had enough confidence and enough height in my power chair I pulled up my big butcher knife and made the first cut then replaced it with my new rocker knife and finished cutting the beast in half. I was pleased the the watermelon halves were almost equal in size. I gave my friend the larger of the two halves it seemed only right.

I haven't heard how clarice's processing went but I spent a good hour cutting my melon in half as evenly as I could. I washed out a pretty large stainless steel container and set it aside to put in the cut up pieces of watermelon for my half and the time came. It was quite intimidating trying to cut this watermelon fairly. I finally was able to do that with the newly washed large butcher knife as well as the large rocker knife I have for cutting large vegetables and fruit. The mess I made was not too significant I dropped only two pieces of watermelon to the floor in this process. There was still cereal boxes left standing on the table of the watermelon cut. We eventually move the the bag's Goods to another place and I set my cleaned off the table top and after a while had the watermelon cut in half and the other half step set aside. I ran into Clarice who was in the process of heading out to the senior center to play bingo. Long story short was  I was able to cut the watermelon into respectable halves

and I took the larger of the two halves over to my friend Clarice apartment and we got the transition finished. Clarice even ended up giving me $4 for my efforts and getting a watermelon. I made a mess on my table of course, watermelons very very messy. But I got most of the melon my half and cut up into different sizes in the silver container. I couldn't find the plastic wrap to go over the top so it's just sitting in my refrigerator and I'll probably eat it in the next day or so. I found out this is definitely, buying the watermelon with somebody else, the best way to purchase something large that you have to carry home somehow on your power chair. It took some finagling but I was finally able to get the watermelon off my lap and onto the table where I was able to first cut it in half and then cut my half into sections that will fit into a container that I can keep in the fridge and if I'm lucky stretch some kind of plastic wrap over the top. I'm looking forward now too maybe Sunday night with watermelon and cheddar cheese slices my favorite Sunday evening summer treat…

Cliche be damned

 As many of you dear readers, summer is my favorite time of the year. I love the heat and holidays and the summer food that goes along with the season. I think I've always loved summer the best because it's the least complicated season. I mean if you live in a civilized enough culture, environment you could go without clothes without a problem for many of the days of the summer. At least I would. Even now the least amount of clothes is the best but as I quasi indicated earlier we live in a world that does not smile upon in the least. I love the days when the heat sees you into the evening and sticks around all night long even without the benefit of clouds acting as the blanket to keep the heat in. Even though I don't get to experience many storms these days I like to blame it on global warming. I blame everything on global warming. It's just easy that way. But we don't experience as many summer storms as we used to, at least it doesn't seem like it to me. I mean it's not like I've lived in Salt Lake that long but it's very similar to Idaho weather. And I guess that's this whole concept of the monsoon season where you have these rivers running through the skies and if you're lucky enough to be underneath one you might get some rain if not thundershowers. I really love a thunderstorm in the evenings when the lightning is on display most brilliantly. Now as I'm an older individual who can really appreciate the simplicity of the season I really do love the season even more. I don't have to worry about snowfall, people who haven't removed the snow from their sidewalks or driveways or Civic support systems like buses I cannot use during the winter season because I can't get to the bus stops. And I actually do like the winter season quite a bit even with those problems it's just that I kind of like summer more. Spring and fall autumnal I truly do enjoy but not like I do summer. The autonominals are the change seasons and they're enjoyable for that fact of transition. I also embody the cliche of the senior sitting in the sun just to sit in the sun to have his bones get warmed by the direct rays. Now I can enjoy any season of the year that I have access to good steady sunlight but the sunlight doesn't really bake like the sunshine of Summer. Cliche I mean I find myself often sitting in my chair, eyes closed facing the sunshine. I don't know how safe this is as far as damage to my skin and all that kind of stuff but it certainly warms my soul. Sadly I keep an eye out for other residents here at the complex. I don't want them thinking that all I do is sit in the Sun but I think I would if I had a choice and not be so senior looking doing so…

Tuesday tellings

 It seems the little vacation are a little volunteer group at assist, ink is finished for the year. With the Advent of the new year, that's fiscal New Year people who have been waiting to apply for services for home repair and such are coming out of the woodwork - - excuse the pun- - and from what our Handler at the agency said that we will be meeting probably weekly from here on out and that's okay I like being busy this way. The only problem is that I'm having such a struggle anymore getting dressed and things. I totally enjoyed blaming it on my chair as I have been this entire year but I think I'm beginning to realize that it's not the chair and if it's not the chair then it's got to be me. It took me all morning to get dressed to the point that I thought that I was somewhat presentable to the public. I had a couple spots in the back of my chair that I couldn't pull my shirt down as far as I like that showed a little skin but I was pretty cautious keep pulling my shirt down as much as I could but I definitely had a hard time pulling my pants up high enough to count as them being on. Fortunately, people don't really say anything out in public. I get the weird looks off and on but it's a rule I like to elude myself and to believing that I look okay in that everything's covered. Usually that's the case but right now I'm going through a period where I'm just not being able to pull the pants up over my hips. Unless I said fortunately I have shirts that are long enough that I can pull over the offending skin that likes to expose itself. Fortunately again I am sitting down and I have things piled on top of me like my bag that I have my wallet in and my cell phone and stuff like that plus my stick, my hook and anything else I might be carrying. Usually I can pretty much get away with looking okay. For some reason this morning my shoes wouldn't stay on and that was part of my stress. Again I finally got him on enough and they're sitting in the bottom of my foot box that I sort of look like I was wearing shoes. Again it's not like people are out there telling me how bad I look. I shouldn't be surprised this breakdown of Independent Living skills is coming to pass. Realistically this has to happen as I age and everybody else ages day by day. I guess I'm just not ready. The better pill I think I would have to ingest might be paying someone to come over the days when my care person's not here to help me dress. That shouldn't freak me out so much but pondering it kind of does. I have the funding, at least at the current time being, I don't know what's going to happen with this current Administration. I don't know how long things like Medicare and Medicaid are going to last. And if the cuts come through like they talk about it's going to be a sad day for many people with physical disabilities…

Chair et able

 It's kind of sad when the high point of my day is the return of my main power chair from the technicians. Quite honestly I was not expecting my chair to come back until sometime tomorrow and I would have felt Lucky had that been the case but today the chair showed up with my friend the technician. He filled me in on what was wrong and they had indeed repaired the faulty piece of equipment. In this case it was the Riser mechanism for the foot box. This equipment actually raises the foot box and even extends it out so that I give the illusion of totally lying down. This is a piece of equipment that I use a lot everyday- - and this may be part of the problem when it's broken I am broken. Without this foot box functioning properly I have a difficult time transferring from the bed to the chair in the mornings because the Box will not raise itself up and cause a barrier so my feet won't slide off the foot box. I've been very fortunate and not having this piece of equipment lately that I've been able to safely do the transfer in the mornings. I had a friend of mine who's also the technician at the local assistive technology shop, it cause I stayed agency, who's been working on my chair to maintain it's usability until I run the 5-year course which will allow me to get a new chair from my insurance which mandates I wait 5 years between chairs. I think I'm somewhere in the end of the fourth year or maybe just starting the 5th Year. If I were to present this chair to the company that sold it to me and who has been kind of maintaining the chair for the last 3 or 4 years. They've warned me that they could do the repair but if they did that would add probably another year avoiding time because by them doing the repair it would indicate that chair was usable for another year. Thank you  ucat you are a lifesaver at least to me.

Once again I must take responsibility for the destruction of this chair. I tend to wear out my assistive technology. I don't know if I expect too much out of the technology. When I'm in my power chair, I dress myself in the power chair, lately it's been taking more and more time to dress myself. I must do this 4 days a week the other three days I have a caregiver who assists in dressing me. I used to hate this part of the week the three days that she dresses me but now however that's the best moments of my week to be completely dressed in just a few minutes. I don't quite completely stand up in the foot box but I do push off from the foot box in order to keep myself in the power chair. By elevating myself in the power chair I'm able to Arch my hips and pull the shorts up over my hips. I guess if I were rich I would have a person dressed me everyday but I don't think I want that either. I like the time I can wake up, get up and dress myself at my leisure. Well I have a meeting or function to get to early I just program more time in getting up and getting dressed and getting to my destination. I can still do this but I can see in the near future this will not always be the case. If I'm fortunate enough I probably could afford three more days of assistance in the morning even if it wasn't for a shower but just a few minutes to get my clothes on and be presentable

Sunflowers Delight

We had a great breakfast this morning at the restaurant not far from where I live. It's kind of crazy that we continue to go there I think primarily because of the proximity to my apartment complex. We dutifully look over the menu every week thinking it's going to be different or we're going to see something else that we might order then what we already have. Every week it's the same menu and usually the same prices- - however sometimes there is an escalation with the new price written on a piece of tape usually over the existing printed price. The new pricing will go into effect when they reprint their menus sometime in the future. Any more, I would not be surprised if restaurant owners and such start leaving off the price of the items since the fluctuation is all over the board a printed menu price would soon be defunct. The tape works but it's kind of funky looking. Today I went out of my comfort zone and ordered the sausage and biscuits without the hash browns . Instead I was able to get a fairly nice sliced tomato. It was something certainly different than what I usually have been ordering the past couple of months. I was quite surprised how much I enjoyed the breakfast, even the eggs which were very hard fried and it's what I ordered but I didn't realize they would actually solidify the eggs. I enjoyed the meal however. I will wait before I order this breakfast again, possibly as much as 3 months.

We usually break up around 2 hours after we meet for breakfast. We start around 8:00 and figure we've pretty much talked ourselves out by 10:00 a.m. today was pretty much the same everyone had stuff to do. I really didn't have anything to do. It's Sunday after all. I said goodbye to everyone and headed out the door. However, I stopped in front of some wild sunflowers that had sprouted this week. I'm a sucker for sunflowers, the wild ones that grow large. Not the ones that are huge and stand like 10 ft tall on stocks as thick as your arms. The sunflower heads on these are so huge they've been the whole plant down as if bowing to something or someone. But the sunflowers I like usually are just a multi-flowered plant that is usually a volunteer somewhere on the path to know where but everywhere. Today I was so taken with the sunflower facing the Sun, of course, but I took the time to snap a few images. It was difficult for me to take these images because it was so bright with the morning sunshine. I just pointed the camera and kept hitting the butt until I heard the shutter click as they do on these cell phones. It's such a hoot that they make him sound like cameras. But I came away with some pretty good individual images of this beautiful plant. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did or do…

 

Saturday night vittles

I'm trying something different. I know I've talked about this a little bit in past blogs but today I kind of put it to the test. Last week I decided I was going to actually purchase some items that I look at longingly when I go to the market. I've looked at these family sized meals in the frozen food section and thought wow I should try that but I never get around to doing it. The price actually inhibits me from going ahead and purchasing the item. I don't know how much I've written about the idea of how much I like to cook , but I find that cooking is basically fun if there's other people involved. I like to cook for myself but it's gotten to the point where it's just not cost efficient as far as energy goes. Many times I just can't bring myself to do all the work and necessitates to pull off a good meal Plus the cleanup afterwards. That's what really kills me is the cleanup. So I thought to myself to really purchase the meal already pretty much made in his Frozen state and see what that's like. So a couple weeks ago I actually took the plunge and purchased the family sized ground beef lasagna. It was pretty damn good! It fed me for at least four meals and that's almost a week! They were huge meals but that's all I needed to get through. I was able to cut off heat and adjust. I mean if I'd really been diligent I could have opened up or I thought of some green things like broccoli or green beans or something else that might be edible and fun and good for me. I could even do a salad. I don't know if I'd get to that point but we'll never know especially if I were to make a big salad and then just take portions of it throughout the meal or the week. So last week I purchased two family size meals. The Salisbury steak was pretty good and today I cooked the meatloaf family size dinner or entree. This one I was more worried about because I love meatloaf and especially my meatloaf but not having to prepare it or clean up afterwards we'll see what the meatloaf brings. And I have to admit it was pretty darn good. I even whipped up a batch of mashed potatoes- - instant to serve alongside the meatloaf that came with its own gravy. There were six small meatloafs in the big size or the family offering. And I think it's going to go well with leftovers and it'll be great for tomorrow- - this is the reason that I cooked it today was that I wouldn't have to do anything over the Sabbath. Food wise. Another reason I have not purchased these offerings in the past was because they were somewhat pricey. Once again compared to the preparation and cleanup of object and the fact that I do have enough to purchase this item and not worry about it, it was a no-brainer. My next purchase is to get over to Costco and purchase another container of  tamales which I do really enjoy but I also I'm a little hesitant because I tend to focus too much on Mexican food and look for other options I don't usually get into…

 

Burger with the works

I don't know if it was because it was Friday or I just wanted something different and wanted to see if this old hamburger joint was still up and running. I found it the number of years ago I probably even have a Blog about it somewhere 5 or 6 years ago. I found it while rolling around exploring the neighborhood. I can't for the life of me remember the name of the joint. It was named after the person who owned it, a nice lady who I think just liked serving people. I'd gone there a number of times, the place is not too far from where I live, maybe a mile or so and it's relatively easy terrain if I take advantage of the marked off bike Lanes that very few people use on this street. I have to confess this still puts me a considerable risk but I look out for myself pretty well. I've noticed lately as I've passed the place it's has another name than before, something more trendy Happy Patty or something like that. The name is actually quite trendy and the new owners have spruced up the front quite a bit but it's still the same old classical hamburger joint once you get on the inside. Nothing's really changed since the other times I've been there. I suppose the joint has some kind of air conditioning system but I couldn't tell when I was there this afternoon. It was hot, almost sweat hot. But really floored me was the new prices. The burger started at 10 bucks a piece and these cometh fries. The burger that I got was without the fries and I think was $9.75 or something like that. In my quest to find the hamburger of the 1960s and 70s I always order the burger pickles and lettuce and onions on a sesame seed bun if they have it- - these guys didn't have a sesame seed bun. The burger was tasty however reminiscent from that scene from Pulp Fiction where Vega talks about how good the hamburger tastes of the poor lad who he takes it from and later destroys. Still, 10 bucks for a hamburger from a greasy hamburger joint at that totally makes me wonder. However I was totally surprised by the amount of cars that are parked out front and how many people were in that greasy joint wolfing down Burgers and Fries, cheese sandwiches anything that seems to be greasy these guys are slinging out. Just a quick side note when the place was operated by the lady before the current proprietor she was quite vested in feeding LDS missionaries. Around lunch time they always seem to be four or five bikes parked out front. The rumor was that she fed them for free or maybe she garnered blessings on high. But anyway I finally finished my burger Savory and everybody but I had to get out of there it was truly turning into a sweatshop and I needed to get back to the apartment complex. I felt that I exercised enough free will of the day and enjoy the Excursion out and put a few miles on my chair at that- - that's what Fridays are for…

 

Electric funk

 I knew it was going to be a challenging day when I looked over at the clock when I first woke this morning and did not see the usual red illuminated number indicated to me what time it was. It took a minute before the severity of this information sunk in. Everything I do has to do with electricity and power it seems especially getting in and out of bed. I knew this day would happen at some point and surprised that hadn't until now. I kind of hoped that somehow the clock plug had come undone and that was the problem but then I tried the buttons on the bed control and nothing happened. The handheld device was dead as a stone nothing was happening to my bed there was no way I'd be able to lift myself from the mattress onto my chair. Fortunately, I still had my cell phone next to my bed- - as I always do and I immediately searched my contacts list for people who might be able to advise me on what's going on. It was almost 7:00 a.m. when I was able to contact upstairs Janet, who by the way I woke when I called her. I sold them actually call anybody anymore usually I text just seems less painful that way. Anyway, groggy as she was she was able to ascertain that she didn't have any power either. Long story short was that a major portion of Taylorsville was in some sort of power problem. I spent a good part of the morning in bed trying to call around to find out how bad the problem was and finally I found a website the power source or the power company indicating that they're expecting the power to come back on by 10:00 a.m.

There wasn't anything pressing I had to do this morning and I wasn't going to let this thing upset me so I just decided to lay back and try to pass the time as best that I could. I called to let my brother know that I'd gotten hold of the power company who said when the power came back on and for him not to worry. I called my wound care professional who is supposed to come by today to let her know I may have a problem but you can still dress my butt if I was laying down. In the back of my mind I had made up a scenario that I'd be able to escape this problem if I had to. I would get a hold of my caregiver Melissa and beg her to come over and use the hydraulic lift to lift me from my bed to the power chair and let me be on my way. Hopefully that didn't have to come about. Almost 10:00 a.m. the clock came back on and I set the lamp next to my bed to on so it would flash me the second to the power surge through and it did. I was okay. I made it through another personal crisis. Luckily I had water next to my bed and I woke up totally thirsty. I usually keep two bottles of water by my bed and only had one whole bottle and 1/4 of another. My goal is to keep two full bottles there at my bedside at all times.

Actually that was the worst of my day. All things went better from there although I really didn't do much of anything. The day could have been much worse

Run

Yesterday the temperature was near 100°. As I said outside the athletic field of the Taylorsville High School at the bus stop waiting for the 217 northbound. I had been trying to link up with my friend for coffee at the wrong Starbucks so I was backtracking in the silver bearing Heat. If I sat waiting for the bus, had managed to find some shade which meant a little prediction for the bearing Heat. I noticed there was a group of girls and what look like physical education PE garb running or jogging in the sports field. It's actually a huge field I never orange markers making a huge rectangle maybe a hundred yards on the side. I think you could actually stick two football fields in this area. There is 40 or 50 girls masked together jogging slowly around this temporary track. I got the strong impression that this was the beginning of a practice of some sort, a sporting practice like soccer practice or something like that. But mostly was soccer practice since that's what everything seems to be going to these days that and T- Timo ball or whatever it's called. Watching your kids make this run on this gloriously hot summer, July day took me back to my own youth when I was in the 5th or 6th grade and Little League baseball or whatever it's called. In those days there is never anything as organized as what seems to be going down as Sports these days. Who never was the cost associated with it either. In those days it was just a bunch of guys getting together to play baseball. We would snag somebody, an older kid who knew the game pretty well, to be our coach and then we would have one of the team members who had connections usually a dad who owned a business or knew somebody who owned a business that would be willing to sponsor our team you know provide balls and bats bases and everything you would need to run a scrimmage ball game. And what made me think of this was the running of the never-ending perimeter. It seems like we had to run something like five laps between home plate of this baseball field we acquired or took over to these goal posts which seems forever away and we would have to run at the beginning of each practice at least three laps and then there would be a lap for discipline if it was needed as well as a lap for errors when Fielding different baseball scenarios. Like if there's a pop-up fly- - and easy catch and you drop the ball there's a lap, you're playing shortstop the coach bats you a one or two bouncer and you miss it that's a lap. When you had to do a lap you dropped your mitt right where you were and took off to come back later to pick up your mitt and reenter the baseball practice. We got our coach in our case we got two coaches because Bruce Mccomb had twins for older brothers Larry and Gary who are also total athletes. I don't remember how many years those guys coached us. But they always did the same thing we had to run and we ran as a pack. And that's how we started each practice. There's also coach Smith in the 7th grade who seemed to take Delight in having us run laps at each PE class we are fortunate enough to have on the outside when it wasn't raining or snowing. We always did Laps on the big track before each regular class started. Must be an Unwritten rule somewhere and coaches jargon or practice. I'm sure it has something to do with warming up the body I'm getting the muscles ready for whatever torture they're going to through our way but looking back I wish now I'd enjoyed the privilege of running more than I did then

Tuesday's Heat

   

 

I did not have my regular Tuesday meeting today. We're still pretty much doing every other week as far as the volunteer group that I meet with on Tuesdays because of funding issues and end of the year beginning of the year fiscally speaking. So I made use of the time by establishing an appointment with my assistive technology people to do some work on my power chair as well as meeting with a friend for what I thought was lunch and turned out to be coffee. Today was hot. The weather person said it was unseasonably hot but it was near 100° and so anytime you're in that kind of weather riding on concrete and asphalt it's always going to be warm from the bottom up as well as the top down.

I think I slept great till about 3:30 a.m. when I was jolted awake for some reason and I really couldn't get back to sleep. I think I was worried about whether I would be able to get dressed or not since I've been having such a problem with dressing myself of light. I'd like to blame my chair and not myself but in the back of my mind I think it's probably more myself than anything else which is kind of laid to rest when I got to the assistive technology Program and my friend who runs the shop pretty much fixed what I needed as far as my head rest went but also looked at the other parts of the chair that I was worried about and he said it seems to be an okay condition. So it's not going to drop me out in my head or anything like that which I'm afraid that it would. My appointment was at 10:00 a.m. so I was finished by 11:00 then went back to my apartment and wait around till it was time to go to my other appointment. I just figured it was going to be a late lunch and I went to where we usually went and waited until she  showed up. She never showed up . When I finally started texting I remember that I guess that was going to be at the coffee shop Starbucks. So I jumped on the bus and went there and of course it was the wrong Starbucks- - there are two Starbucks on this road and I went to the wrong one as usual. I think I was basically 2 hours late when we finally did link up, spent an hour visiting and such. I was glad to finally be out of the heat and then to the cold air of Starbucks with an iced coffee of some sort. We had a good discussion and had some good ideas which I need to write down. I think about expanding. I don't think I will but what I'm speaking with my friend they always sound like great ideas but when I think about it myself I just can't seem to flush them out. But one never knows I could come up with a great idea and pursue it to the end who knows…?

Rickshaw villains

 I'm not totally frustrated but I'm pretty damn frustrated that is a for sure. Remember I went through all that occupational therapy and therapist was real big into doing the workouts and such with the yellow elastic bands and lifting weights. I also got some very supportive feedback from her when I showed her my rickshaw, that device commonly found in rehab gymnasiums for people with disabilities usually in wheelchairs or I guess they can use the Rickshaw sitting in a normal chair and you push down on the handles the arms for the workout. My rickshaw has a weight box in the back of course and it works out just fine for me until recently. Oh, the rickshaw's just fine as it is more or less what strain is that when I went out on my parents this last weekend or maybe it was the 4th of July I heard a tinkle sound and when I looked at the rickshaw I noticed the pin that locks the arms into place one of them was on the ground then I look closer and the piece that fits into the arm of the Rickshaw was gone completely!. First and foremost buy one would do such a thing because the piece did not walk away by itself somebody had to take it. But for somebody to have to take that piece of that rickshaw did have either had to access our property by climbing the fence just south of my window separated by a street and then they would have to still climb over my railing into my patio. And people wouldn't even know that this piece of equipment was on my patio because behind the railing and then I have fencing of sorts that goes around the whole perimeter of the patio so unless you knew what you were looking for you wouldn't even see it. So I'm not saying it's an inside job I mean there's really few people that even be able to pull it off as an inside job because I don't know anything to have an inside job person to do it. Oh also, if the person did not access my patio the way I said by climbing over all those obstacles they will have to come directly into my apartment through the patio door and then remove the piece of equipment. And to do this would be somebody that's pretty big balls and I don't know anybody around here with balls that big- that's hell those would be even bigger than mine. I've been going through by list of people who dislike me to the point that they would do something like that/ this and I really haven't been able to land on anybody as yet. I mean I don't know how many people I even know who know that I'm here. The only real family that I know of his my son his daughter and his daughter's boyfriend who are all very supportive of me and then there's my brother and that's about it. I really don't believe I have any grudges that I've developed with any of the people here at the apartment complex. I think I get along with it if you will after all, remember I had a college professor describe me as just a nice guy a right friendly fellow an old Dr Phillips was right I am that. I would like to remedy this problem because I really need this form of exercise not only for the cardio but for a little bit of muscle I can Garner up and make myself stronger for things like riding myself in the chair and sitting myself up right transfers Etc. I think I could use one of my sticks if I could get them down to the right size or I have some other things that looks like it might work best case though I'll contact my older brother and let him do his magic which he definitely has. It's just a perplexing dilemma and should I be worried?

Lord of the Flies

 I find myself quite fortunate in that I have this great patio attached to my apartment. The patio is great just to have the door opened and the screen door in place giving good ventilation and good view to the outside world. Have a much wider view than I used to now that they the city of Taylorsville, remove the berm that was there and replace the whole little skateboard park that used to be on the other side. They put in a giant new skateboard facility and the kids are over there all the time. It's a bit noisy sometimes but not bad I enjoy watching the youth enjoying themselves. Many times I go out and enjoy my patio. It's actually quite large I have no problems getting my power chair out there and deploying the chair to the point where I can actually lay down and enjoy the Cool Breeze if there is one. Lately during the day there has been no cool breezes but in the evening it's it's nice especially go out and lay there in the dark. I also read out there from time to time in the afternoon. The Patio is well shaded. As I go back and forth to the patio I have to leave the door open and again consequentially flies coming to my load. I don't do a lot of effort to try to keep them out except for I do have limits. Perhaps if I didn't leave food out that would cut down on the amount of insects that attacked my living space or at least enter my living space. As I said many times when I feel that the fly population is becoming too great I will close the screen door. After a couple of hours, or sometimes when I get up in the morning there'll be a number of those little buggers clinging to the sliding screen door. Many times I could have taken my trusty fly swatter and smashed them all over the screens especially during the morning when I first get up. The flies have slowed their metabolisms down during the cool evening and they're a bit groggy. I could really make a killing. But as it is what I try to do is open the screen door and try to shoot the flies out. I think there are some that are brighter than others. They take the hint and they're gone but the others either try to fly away or try to run to the part of the screen door that slides the top the other. If they can make it there they can be spared from the Slaughter. Sometimes I can push the screen door back to the shut position the little guys will be in there thinking they're safe only then they will meet their Doom if I'm lucky and they are not. Really the only reason I do this especially in the evenings is that nothing I hate more than a pesky insect flying around my face and ears while I try to get some sleep. I usually keep my screen door shut but every once in a while like I said I go out and sit without pulling the screen door shut behind me. I have included a image of the screen door leading to my patio. You probably cannot see the insect on the screen door unless you try to enlarge the image as much as possible. It'll appear as a black Speck I think above but looks like trees or something.

Another watermelon blog

  Yesterday I bought a watermelon at the market, you probably read about it and yesterday's blog. Well tonight I was going to write something about the watermelon but got thinking I wonder if I'm overdoing that l a little bit. So, I brought up the blog and did a search for watermelon and sure enough there was blog after blog about watermelons that really didn't come out right just one blog and have many posts in that blog how about watermelons. So it'd be a little Overkill I think to write another blog on watermelons even if it's somewhat Justified.

The mill and I picked out the market has sat on the table all night long and it's a bit intimidating. With the other watermelons in the big box of melons it looked pretty small but on my table I look too huge and daunting. I wasn't quite sure how I was going to process the fruit. I don't even know where I would store that much fruit. I kind of copped out but it was a good idea I still think and I grabbed one of my neighbors who at least cut the watermelon in half and I gave her half of the melon for her laborers. The half that I was left with was still quite large and it was a little awkward too cut and trim but I found a pot pretty large and started cutting sections out and put them in the pot eventually stuck the hole thing in the refrigerator which I hope to piece on in the next couple of days. I did not make as a big a mess this year as I usually do when cutting the watermelon by myself. It's so messy I hate to use that many paper towels on one project but this last spring and summer I've been investing in dish towels. The dish towels I have now or just perfect for something like absorbing moisture from the watermelon cutting. I also had a couple of plastic bags from the market, you know all those really thin plastic bags that they send you home with from your shopping experience? Well I like to keep bags around so that instead of throwing all the watermelon rind in the garbage adding weight and mass I just take the pieces of the watermelon after I cut them into whatever size or trim or when I've eaten one or two pieces of test pieces I threw them in the plastic bag and when I'm finished I have a hefty bag that I can run out and deposit into the dumpster. By the time I was finished with the melon I was pretty much sick of the whole thing by the time I was finished I had a couple nice bites of the watermelon it wasn't as good as I thought it was going to be or as much as I wanted it to be. Always about this time I think about the prepared food they have at the beginning of the market when I go in you know the prime ribs are the barbecue ribs potato salad all the things that are trying to get you to buy, I've noticed this year they actually have quarters of watermelon cut into slices covered in plastic or cellophane. You seem expensive around $7 which seems like a lot for that much watermelon but it's cut really nice it's very pretty and it's all done. I think I should maybe consider doing this purchase sometime and see how good the watermelon is. I'd like to see if it's worth the $7 crap shoot. Cuz the fruit really looks good when it's cut up and taking care of like that. And this is just the perfect way to have watermelon if you're single and have to do your whole thing yourself. I don't mind the effort if I'm doing it for somebody else plus myself. Just more of the joys of Summer…

Happy 4th of July

 

It's a little after 9:00 on Independence Day here in Salt Lake City. It's not quite dark yet but it's getting there which of course means the skies are going to erupt in explosions and flashes of light many colors many designs. There's been the occasional off and on explosion all afternoon as early Independence Day revelers set off noise makers. I always say I'm not going to stay up to watch the event even though I usually do stay up and the fireworks displays usually evade me. If Lucky I could see some fireworks displays being put on in other communities south of where I live or west of where I live. Some are quite far away but I can see their fireworks displays which are beautiful summer closer. Last night they launched some fairly close by it was quite noisy and I lucked out and I could see them out the back patio or the back door of this facility better than I've ever seen them before I don't know why that is or maybe it's just a look at the draw this year that the person launching the explosive items lives in the area that I have somewhat good access to visually. I really don't have anywhere to go tomorrow the coffee shop I used to go to on Saturdays is closed- a benefit from the owner to its employees. They'll be closed 2 days. I assume they'll be open on Sunday but luckily I stopped in there yesterday and got a pound of ground Italian coffee. I have enough to keep me going now until fall I'm sure. It seems to me the explosions get lighter every year but anybody over 70 years of age says especially Grumpy Old Men? But seriously the detonations do sound more explosive and close by then I remember.

I held myself back this year. Usually I have this fantasy of making a complete summer/independence day/holiday meal and I really can't even do that for one person. In fact I.  was even considering ordering a pizza, which I would love, but it's just so complicated. I really think it's some psychological need I have a feeling abandoned on the holidays. It's not debilitating by any means or even seriously serious. Just make me feel good being surrounded by holiday meals from the holidays past. I think this need for Holiday home visions might be brought on by all the different ads on television and such. Holiday time equals family time. However I can sit that aside and still be interested in just the general Staples you know bananas, grapes, something from a meat family I even gave serious thought to ordering in a pizza from Domino's. I probably would have had not been so complicated to order in home delivery. I've only done it once really it was great but I felt that I could have done better in the ordering process. Also I don't think I need a whole pizza to eat even if I put stretched it out over a week. I still might before this weekend's done but not this day. Plus I remembered that I still have the last portions of the Salisbury steak that I purchased last week in the fridge that I need to finish eating. Maybe I'll do pizza tomorrow who knows we'll see…

Pre holiday words

I finished the book finally last night and I really like to have something new to start on a holiday weekend. I like that whole feeling of looking forward to a day if not a weekend of just falling into a new read. Especially if it's a good read. In the winter it's curling up against some heat vent of some sort or even a fire if you have access to such a thing and in the summer of course finding some place in the shade and losing yourself in the words. Even if you don't have a new book to consider by sometimes like opening up one of the ones that I really like that I've read before and I have a few Stephen King's that I keep around for that very purpose but I didn't really feel like a Stephen King this 4th of July. Besides I wanted to go out and find something new that I haven't been into for a while. I had a few things to do this morning but once I got those out of the way I was fair game to head out to find something to read.

I really thought I knew where there is a Barnes & Noble or another book conglomerate in the old neighborhood. Hold up to the corner to catch the 47 inbound. I had to wait a little bit but it wasn't a hot day not like it has been and I sort of sort of laid back down in the chair and enjoyed what heat there was. I finally did get to the place where I thought this bookstore is at. I suddenly had this weird Twilight Zone feeling that I knew what I should be looking at but what I was looking at was not there. I couldn't quite remember for sure where the building was but I knew it was in the general area where I was at and was big enough that there's no way I could have misplaced it but it was gone. I just sat there a bit flummoxed and as I continue to roll around and look at the different buildings and shops that are still there I suddenly realized the whole giant section at the end of this group of buildings was no longer there. Whatever had been there have been totally turn down replaced with a black top and kind of chained off. Look like it was trying to find a new owner or something to build there. This was a bit disheartening since I really had my sights on the book. I figured worst case scenario I would go up the hill cross the street and be at the Costco and though the selection is not the best it's something.

I can never go to Costco without rolling up and down the aisles and seeing all the stuff that I'd like to get that I never get because I never have a bag or something with me to carry the stuff home with. This isn't the problem for people who have their own vehicles but for me there's no way I can carry stuff home without a bag. I've tried the nearest past it's just too awkward. After a bit of rolling I finally went over to the book section looked and looked funny coming to rest on a a team up effort by a couple of my favorite authors: James Patterson and Michael Crichton. James Patterson I'm not sure if I'd consider him a favorite author except that he or whoever writes in his name puts out a lot of stuff that I have read and it's somewhat entertaining. Michael Crichton however was one of my favorites and I really still miss the guy. Anyway. I got the book and finally got back to the apartment. It's been a bit of a long day, another one, but I think I'm sick for the holiday now I haven't been to the market and maybe I'll just skip that part of the holiday this year. I'll be happy with what I have and I never really end up doing what I want to do anyway so it really doesn't matter. Maybe I'll just hibernate and enjoy getting in to a new book

 

Junk mail?

 You know how you get junk mail, the same organization keeps sending you pointless pieces of mail about joining their program or being part of their program or being covered by them for one reason or another. Pieces of mail- do I dare even call them mail - - either at the center of the table are on my little writing desk in the back corner of my apartment or they will they will lay there until something happens that forces me or somebody else too look through them and separate any good pieces of information from the other garbage that tends to fill up my mailbox in time to find. I've gone to a point where I only checked my mail once a week or 2 weeks. For a number of years now I've noticed that I keep getting pieces of mail from Chase Bank which is a pretty big operation. My ex belong to chase for quite a while if I remember right and I guess we both did as far as possibly having a joint account I'm not sure I can barely remember. Anyway I've been getting these fairly authoritative looking Chase envelopes the last couple of weeks. And I've thrown these pieces of mail on the pile to be liquidated. First of the week I bumped into the small desk and of course everything got dumped onto the floor a real mess which doesn't really surprise me. But I've been meaning to pick up the mess for some time before Lissy she's the mess and cleans it up herself for sorry about that to happen. So start picking up the message this morning early before she got here and I came across two identical pieces of mail actually there could have been three. We were rather thick envelopes that I was a little cautious about sending him to the shredder because I worry about burning the motor out and the piece of mail slows the shredder to the point that it's going to seize up. Anyways I opened up one envelope and sent the envelope through and I was about to throw the other piece of mail through when I saw a couple of phrases on the document indicating that they are trying to contact me about a check that I had never cashed, a cashier's check from the bank, I have never cashed and if they didn't hear from me by the 17th of July it would go to the states unclaimed money office. I opened up the second envelope at that point and it was the exact same letter but dated a couple weeks earlier. I looked at the document very close thinking that maybe it was a scam group fishing but I didn't see anything too weird about it it looks pretty official in legit enough so that I settled up as soon as I got done with my morning routine and jump the bus and headed up to the Chase Bank just down the street from where I live. Figured I was going to run into the bureaucracy and that I'll be waiting quite a while but that's all right I did not have anything else to do and the Branch was air conditioned and quite amenable. I was finally called into one of the Banker-etts name the lasandra. She was kind and spent the next hour with me trying to ascertain whether the document was authentic and how to process the document if it was. After numerous phone calls and improperative meetings with various Bank professionals reestablish the fact that it was authentic and legitimate. I signed the documents I needed to and now it's been sent to the home Bank where they will cut me a check for almost $400! Like I said I figured anyway would be worthwhile and if this comes through it will be…