Happiness is a new door decoration!

My new door for the season!

You will remember that the granddaughter called last night for some time yesterday afternoon? Instead of breakfast let's go to lunch. I really didn't have a problem with that except that I have to wait around until it's lunch time but that's okay. The granddaughter does so much stuff for me that waiting a little while it's not a big deal. So I got up and rattled around the apartment for a bit finally getting dressed and hanging out till about 11:45 but I could go meet the kids at the restaurant at around 12:00 noon. It's always amazing to go to some place different then what you usually do. We're usually at this D's at around 8:00 a.m. and it's a whole different population and somewhat less busy then 12:00 noon on Sunday. They found us a place immediately however and once again we had to navigate an unfamiliar menu. I got the senior menu so I ordered a senior hamburger, a quarter pounder which is probably more meat than I wanted but my granddaughter explain to me that all hamburgers started out as Quarter Pounders. I'm in no mood to challenge such a statement and it's easy to accept. The kids explain to me that they had just come from a two or three day campout and they hadn't even been home yet. I was kind of surprised cuz they look pretty damn good. We got our luncheon then to my surprise- - just a little - - they volunteered to come over to the apartment and do some sprucing up of the joint. I am always excited when they volunteer to clean the apartment they do such a great job. This was also a special occasion because was tomorrow be in the 1st of September it's not the formal was the informal beginning of fall. We had talked last week to some degree about changing the decoration on my front door. And that's what happened this afternoon after we had lunch. Jackson went to work cleaning up my apartment sweeping the floors picking up this and picking up that and putting this or that in order. And Jasmine pretty much took over the front door project. It was really quite fun enjoyed our discussion and I totally appreciated them taking time to be part of my life this Sunday morning. In a few weeks they'll be leaving for a year or two. I don't know for sure when they're going but it'll be soon now. I will miss them and especially our Sunday morning breakfasts. I hope it won't be too long before they can move back to the area. I think I've mentioned before that they're pretty much going to Florida to go to school for at least a year or maybe two to get the degree that they're looking at . This will be the first time really away from parents and in an entirely new region . They seem committed to this project and I truly hope it works for them. They're going to Florida this seems so far away or maybe I'm just be coming in a clinging Grandpa….

 

Favoring Saturday

 I feel exhausted! Seems like I hardly got any sleep last night. First I had a difficult time actually finding sleep and once I did find it I was awake by 2:00 thrashed around but next time I looked at the clock it was 3:15 a.m. then 4:00 a.m. and I think I just slept minutes in between these numbers. I won't feeling that I was somewhat sleep starved but I got up anyway because I didn't think I'd be able to sleep anymore and I hate just laying in bed. I thought I would get up and cross the street and get a cup of coffee to bring back to the apartment. I was committed on getting out my kid letters today even if I can't get them into the mail at least be out of my hair and the kids would get the letters by the first week of September. I went across the street to my coffee shop - - and I should have realized they wouldn't be open but I thought they just might be open since the holidays on Monday why he'd lose a business day just for the holiday I don't know. I even thought about calling but now I went over and of course it was all locked up. I came home heated a poor little coffee I had already in the pot and went to work focusing on the kid letters. Please with myself drink some coffee printed out the envelopes, then the letters themselves I got everything finished envelope stuffed and stamped and sealed and it's out the door about 10:35 a.m.. I was going to catch the bus up to Harmons where there is a little post office and just as I was crossing the street or getting ready to cross the street there is a postman right there at the stop sign in his little Postman truck I handed him my letters and I was free for the rest of the morning. I felt so good I went to the market picked up potato chips for the holiday weekend. I also got a couple cans of sliced pickled peppers that the shopping people missed the day before.

I spent the rest of my day working around my apartment. I made a new batch of my concoction with the sliced peppers I picked up a few things here and there around the apartment. There's still so much more I need to do but at least it's a start great way to end the month and perhaps to start the new fun. I would like to have got the watermelon as part of my holiday treats but just too complicated. I will be happy with the two loaves of bread. I got a text from my granddaughter today asking if it'll be okay instead of doing breakfast tomorrow, we would have lunch, which is okay with me 100%. I guess for changing up our routine a little bit with Mark in europe. She wanted to know if I wanted to go someplace else but I just didn't have the energy to consider bus to another restaurant. Once again it's not the place it's the company that's what's important to me..,

Kid letter issues and AI

 I was going to really try to get my letters out today but besides tracked by a trip to the credit union / Bank to pull out enough cash to stop the letters with to the kids that still get a few dollars each letter . The trip to the credit should not have my whole day but it did somehow perhaps it was time spent waiting for the bus either at the community college or after waiting to come back to the apartment. I did make a side step over to the market picked up a few items. Earlier on this morning when I was with Melissa my caregiver we tried to do instacart again. It's not that I don't trust instacart it's just sort of intimidates me the whole process but well let's assumed quite confident this morning. There's a problem with the pay for the program when Melissa submitted the order and I told her I would take care of it. The only problem was the number of the items had been miscommunicated and I changed the order significantly. Sadly the number of the items were not found but the person who built my order anyway following my trip to the market I finally got home decided to read a little bit out in the fairly decent weather. I guess that's where I strayed from the path of finishing my letters. After reading for a bit, the sun sort of baked my well too compose out of me. I came back into the apartment and watched the Saturday afternoon / evening news. Local news has been sort of a joke lately they've been covering this burial of the two officers killed in the line of duty last week to the point it's getting ridiculous. This is my opinion. Anyway, I purchased a number of steaks a few days ago so I figured I better cook them up which I did tonight to serve with corn on the cob. Turned out pretty decent and now I have three backup steaks that I can use for the weekend with other corn on the cob that I still have. I was also going to have the rest of the fried potatoes I made the other night but decided against them. Maybe save them for another day. 

I'm going to diverge from what I've been writing this evening and maybe go for a brief tangent on artificial intelligence or AI. I've been really against the whole concept- and I still am but I'm beginning to wonder am I using AI when I write this document? I mean I've gotten kind of used to the underlying issues of my writing that is when there's something written wrong the computer has it underlined and I can just tap on to see how it should be or what would make it better and often I make that correction- - it's easy to do just tap. Is this using ai? And am I Miss using the whole writing thing then. A well written document- with the help of AI- - is it still my writing or does it not belong to our part of the AI universe? I would like to think it's my writing at least it's my thoughts. So in that regard it's still my thoughts but the AI is cleaned up the grammar and the writing problems I tend to have. I guess it does make me look smarter than I actually am but if I were to go back and proofread all these documents that would take forever. And sadly if I tried to proofread but I didn't know what I was actually proofreading with the mistake still stay there probably. Still on things that are important enough to hand in or be read by other people I will use items like spell check which is sort of like how this whole thing started. The computer would flag a misspelled word and I would change it was that the beginning of the AI in my computer life? It's really hard to say

Thursday movie day

 I don't know what is wrong with me but I just cannot get motivated clean up my apartment. It's not that I can't do it, I'm sure that I can I just can't seem to stay on the job long enough to make a difference. One thing I do recognize however is that, for example the table. It is the collecting point for much of the chaos that is my apartment. The point is I can't reach a lot of the stuff on the table easily and I would have to use my sticks and hooks or whatever it is to get that material so I have to place it somewhere. And I guess I could do that if I stuck with that task long enough. The same with other little nooks and crannies around the apartment. For one reason or another stuff gets stuck in these areas and I just can't get to them to do any cleaning or organizing. Add to this the chaos that's on the floor the sticky stuff that's hardened on the surface that I would have to soak for days to get it malleable to the point where it could be taken off. So it's just everything. I guess if I really wanted to do this hard enough I would figure out a way to do it or if I was going to get adjudicated one way or the other and they would demand that I clean my living mess up. Alas I just clean up enough to get by, scratch out a place to eat or to do meal preparation one way or the other try to make something like coffee. I like to do this and clean out a complete sink. This makes you feel like I've done something that makes my kitchen a little more bearable, that is until you look at the floor or one of the walls by the garbage can. This confession is why I really need to have a cleaning person come in on a relatively regular basis to bring order to the mess. I don't know if it's cheapness on my part or trust issues of somebody coming into my apartment. Either way, the continued chaos kind of drives me crazy.

Rather than work on cleaning the apartment I escaped to the movies this morning following the coffee group. I have been meaning to go to this one movie for the past couple of weeks which looked just strange enough to enjoy. And it was. I think it was the only movie this month that I used my program where I pay 20 bucks for as many movies as I want to go to. I don't know, maybe tomorrow I will go to another one if I can find one I'd be interested in. I pretty much have the kid letters roughed out. Now I just have to do the envelopes, print the letters and mail them which I think I can do by the holiday. I still have, I think 3 days before the end of the month.

Food box experience

 I actually slept okay for the night before doing something I was not equipped trained or skilled it doing which would be the food box. Once a month food boxes are dropped off at our building from the Utah Food Bank. I'm really not quite sure what the program is all about even though I've been around it for years. All I know is that I'm not part of that program that means I don't get a food box that's all right. Anyway remember I volunteered to take over the program? Then I remember that on the day that would be the food bank day, today I have my program which is pooping and showering in the morning before I could do anything else. I'm unsure about the program works as far as the food bank goes so today was going to be a major learning experience. Someone comes in the night before and sets up the tables they sit in a certain way that the food boxes are stacked on top of them and basically given to people who are on the food box program. But typically happens at that point is that the people go open their boxes go through it take what they want out of the boxes and leave the rest for the giveaway table. Each month is copious piles of bags of beans and macaroni of all kinds, cans of potatoes, beans, anything you can think that can be canned given to poor people to eat. I of course have taken a lot of cans over the years I have quite a bit in my storage area which I'm quite thankful for. I also have many bags of beans and such though I've never really constantly reconstituted them or soak them and used them to make soup or something I could if I wanted to. They're in my storage I had used them if you want I can't get real food- makes me feel good. Anyway fortunate for me the food bank slip got mixed up and we didn't even get the boxes until almost 12:00 noon! I wouldn't call at chaos but it was kind of close when people finally did realize that the food was here and they came down to get their boxes and things. It was kind of a mix up here and there and who was in charge. There is one little volunteer who was in charge but she finally gave up because she was exhausted from what she had been waiting all morning. I finally kind of figured out what I was supposed to be doing and did that luckily one of the individuals who did this program before showed up and assisted me for the rest of the period of how and what to do with empty boxes, boxes that weren't picked up, how to get the boxes to the people who can't get down to pick them up themselves- - the boxes are really quite heavy. I did that all finally and ended up realizing it's not such a big deal not to freak it out over those things I can't control. Everything would work out eventually I should have known that but still it's something new and I hate looking stupid

Tuesday's Tale

I'm having the strangest dreams lately. The dreams are not nightmares necessarily but they are strange they seem to go on and on all through the night even if I wake up when I'm able to get back to sleep the dream seems to pick up right where it left off. Just little items that are just weird and dream. I also get the Sensation that this feeling that I'm having during the dream will last with me always but after I wake up get going on my day I think I completely forget all about whatever I was dreaming about except for the weird Sensation that it gave me. For the first part of the day I was pretty busy. The storm systems are still pretty significant along the Wasatch Front. Very little of any sunshine today a lot of gray clouds and Rain off and on not a lot of rain more of a drizzle but for the first time this summer I wore long sleeves not sure what the day would bring as far as temperature goes and even if it's semi-warm on a rainy day like today the buses are always cold because they continue to run the air conditioners are full blast it seems. But it wasn't too uncomfortable. I was intrigued when I started my trip this morning that as I rolled past this pot of stones someone had taken the time the stack two little piles of stones on top of each other making for a little Shrine type of something. I was mildly impressed I wished I could have done something like that- - just a pile of stones on top of each other and left it for whoever was to come afterwards.

Tomorrow is Wednesday- - food box day and the day that I'm supposed to take over as being the food box guy. I'm mildly stressing out about the whole thing because the food box usually gets her around 7:00 a.m. but at the same time that's when I'm up shaved and waiting for Melissa to get here to do my bathroom agenda. I'm not going to be able to be down there to do the food box recipients thing. I tried to tell Jennifer and the other lady that maybe I wasn't okay for do this job because I wasn't going to be leaving be down there till 10:00 around so maybe so they should think of someone else. But they were adamant they wanted me to be the person in charge of this operation. Tonight being the night before this all happens I can't figure out how I'm going to do it if I'm going to do it at all but I'm not going to stress over it. If it gets awkward tomorrow because I'm not there it's not because I didn't warn them I warned them. I still believe in the system the food boxes are a great resource for many of the folks here at the facility or anywhere for that matter and we're foolish we don't take advantage of being part of that program just saying I'm going to be having a hard time being part of it

 

Mondays Meandering

That's right look at that date and weep. In four short months it will be Christmas Day along the Wasatch Front and everywhere else. I know I'm a real pain in the ass to bring this up but I just can't help it just amazes me. The old cliche about time flying is true. Finally the weather's changed a bit we're now and what they're calling the monsoon season here in Utah. The triple digit temperature's have fallen and now it's on the verge of being cold- - at least cold to me. Everybody else is clamoring around about how wonderful it feels for the significant temperature drop and I just am caught in between wearing a long sleeve shirt or short sleeve shirt. I have generally deferred to a short sleeve just because I want to keep the essence of Summer alive in me as long as I can. But definitely the season is changing and we'll get a few more warm days but we're headed for the coolness of autumn.

I guess I'm going to have to get busy and start heading out in the mornings or afternoons to get some bus times in order to get some more experiences that I can write about. I'm getting to the point of really enjoying the time that I can spend in my apartment and just hang out and either work on wood projects or do my puzzles on the table. Experience is the creator of good blog entries I firmly believe that now. I just harness enough energy now to do such projects and outbound experiences. I think I'm some consciously trying to save money as well. Why go out if you don't want to spend money correct? I think I used the driving excuse this morning was that it might rain today. I did not see rain of any significant quantity today so that was a lame excuse. My other great excuses trying to lean back in my chair as much as I can in order to take pressure off my butt. I like to think that's a great excuse particularly after I spend time on Reddit on one of the disability pages and read other individual accounts from spinal cord injured folks with significant pressure sores. That is so traumatic in my estimation. So I'm willing to give up excitement outside as opposed to laying back in my chair, pressure off my butt, and a good excuse to read whatever book I'm into. The bright spot however is that tomorrow is Tuesday and from the events of last week's assist meeting there will be another tomorrow which means getting up somewhat early, dressing myself and taking the bus downtown to the assist office and go through another consumer support meeting basically signing documents that will allow the assist staff to work with Worthy consumers who need emergency home repairs of one sort or another. I don't Kid myself that this is Hot Shot emergency assistance. And it's not like they really get their file looked into to see if they really have authentic signatures - - which they do- - and to make sure that they have done their procedures appropriately and correctly. The next major event I probably will be writing about will be doing the food box program this coming Wednesday. Today I got myself squared away with the city and County of Salt Lake to be a volunteer food box guy. I'll be riding on that shortly

 

Traveling Man

 My son is going to europe! He's leaving tonight or very early tomorrow morning and is hoping to sleep a large part of the trip over in his flight. He joined me for breakfast this morning has he usually goes on Sunday mornings when we eat at the local restaurant. He's been talking about this trip for months now and it's hard to believe that it's actually now taking it. He's essentially going by himself and will be meeting up with people he's been in contact with over the internet and such last couple years. It'll be very interesting to see how this whole thing turns out. I guess he'll first go to Turkey where he's got some contacts and we'll visit them with a day or two and then off to London and I don't know where else he is anticipating going. I have to admit I'm a little bit jealous I don't know if I would ever do such a thing even if I could not be encumbered with my power chair. It just seems like such a huge undertaking. I suppose it wouldn't hurt if I knew somebody that I was going to see that probably might make the whole event a little bit more reassuring and promising of a positive outcome. I of course as a parent have not really inquired how he's paying for all this. I think he's actually got it thought out pretty well- - like I said much more than I would have been able to do. I wish him the best of luck in this adventure and look forward to following whatever I can via the Internet hoping for the best outcome and the chance to Revel in his adventures and vicariously visit the other continent myself.

Dinner?

 I  just got in a few minutes ago from what I thought was going to be a fairly succinct dinner for the board of directors of this organization that I live at. I've been at the board are on the board for I don't know how many decades. I know I've written about this particular board of directors before particularly in the fact that I was able to get housing when I needed at most immediately and I think primarily from my time serving as a board member to this organization. I've always enjoyed my association with the people that make up the board and we've all been at it so long it's almost like family. Anyway, I knew that they were going to be doing something with a lot of the filming. They actually sent out a dress code for us to comply with to the point that I was so worried that I showed up a little early just to make sure it was okay. They sent out an email saying that they wanted all the guys to wear white shirts and it's sports jacket if they had it but I didn't have any of those eyes lucked out to find a white shirt or at least Melissa found a white shirt and it sufficed. I was totally surprised because the only short sleeved white shirt I have was available and actually clean. In fact I made it through the whole evening without spilling anything on my shirt primarily because it really wasn't a dinner - - well I guess technically it was but most of it was being props for a documentary the organization is filming to celebrate it 60 years of business. So we are just Pawns people taking up space and to be photographed we were the actual board and that's what they wanted but still it wasn't quite what I had in mind. They sa to be there at 7:00 p.m. and they would be taking images of us but this really didn't get going until almost 8:00 if not later. That was not even the dinner it was just the hi hello and how do you do part of the evening. They also had this tricky little thing where everyone had to write something down about the director of the board and what he meant to us to serve with him it was all kind of weird. We finally got to eat around 9:00 p.m. which is pretty late for a lot of us. Steak and shrimp as they promised it was quite a big portion and quite tasty but hardly worth the two hours of trauma that they put us through just waiting around and getting this thing to be camera ready to be filmed when they wanted to film it. There was a lot of starts and stops and actual photographing interview type stuff with different individuals on the board with the director Marion. It was a long night like I said, hardly worth the dinner but I was able to stay intact and didn't spill anything on my shirt and I think I can wear these.  shorts  tomorrow to breakfast…

Lunch date

 Just to ease your mind- I didn't poop the bed last night. I thought that I might I really had strong Sensations that I might but this did not occur which I'm greatly thankful. I just you thought you'd all want to update.

I had lunch today with my buddy Duane from the old days when I worked for the state and before that Independent Living. This is becoming a fairly regular occurrence. It's nice to have an ongoing relationship with someone who is somewhat close to your thought process. This guy is a lot more tuned in to the world than I am has some definite opinions on the political going down to the world and it's always good to hear his take on what's going on in any particular time. I wish I could think this way much deeper than I do. He had a real education and thinking is much more refined than mine. Once again he brought the lunch and we ate it over at the park next door. I don't know what's going on there's no band practice tonight I guess. Today's menu was something Hawaiian I had something like Hawaiian beef it was pretty good. Actually any meal provided that U / I don't have to pay for is a good meal in my estimation. The meal says it's Hawaiian but it's tastes very Asian which is good with me. I think I've rehashed a number of times how much I wish that I could cook better Asian than I do. Most of my Asian dishes consist of some form of stir fry with a lot of soy sauce. I can cook I just choose not to I guess more than not. I really need to spend a lot more time putting together rice just white rice that I could serve with my Asian dish whatever it might be IE again once again it's stir fry bunch of different vegetables thrown together with what I think might be somewhat Asian in general. What I really need to do is get on down to the Asian market and once again get the sauces- which intimidate the hell out of me - - so I can start making dishes with the flavor that I really want. I just don't really know how to use these sauces. I'm afraid that the sauce that I choose will not be what I really want to use it well destroy the whole dish. I used to be a lot more of an aggressive cook and took more chances than I do these days. I'm sure it's just another function of age that I'm dealing with which still drives me crazy.

Tomorrow, they are filming a documentary about organization I volunteer for who I'm a board of directors. It's a little intimidating they want us to come to this Buffet tomorrow evening and we're all going to be filmed eating and talking about the organization. I don't know how involved it's going to be but it sounds pretty complicated. The event starts around 7:00 p.m. and ends at 9:00 p.m. a buffets included and a lot of shots of the board. They want us to wear white shirts and a jacket and a tie if we so desire. I really wasn't intimidated by the whole thing for the email but I talked to the guys that are actually doing it and they said you can come as you are if you desire. I had Melissa pull out a white shirt with a collar and some slacks but I think I can get away with my nice shorts. That means tomorrow though will be a long day …

Screen door chore

One of the most frustrating things about being a person with a disability is not being able to do something yourself. Today I posted images of the sliding door to my patio the screen door. No I'll take responsibility it's my problem it's my fault the weight of my chair which means the weight of me and my chair going over the threshold in and out of the apartment to my deck and Back Again this caused some trauma to the runners down below that the door slides back and forth on to the point where trying to slide it back and forth is forced May the force the screen door off its tracks to the point where it's just falling out completely. I contacted the manager and she's talking or going to contact the worker guy Bill who does this kind of repair hopefully but I don't know if it's going to do any good he's okay but I don't know if he's can do this. The other option is to call my brother but seems like I'm always calling my brother, which I hate to do because he's got his own life to live and there should be some things I can figure out myself . Spend a few hours since I wrote the preceding. When I wrote it the door was still in place and fairly functional. I could, with severe effort, move the door back and forth but since then the door has completely jumped off its track and completely fallen off. In fact I was out on my deck trying to lift up the screen door and force it back in or on to the tracks at least so I could put the screen in place and leave the door open. I like having the door open at night to catch the fresh air. Anyway I was trying to put the door back best I could when one of my neighbors who also has a disability ruled by with her dog and said she would come over to help it wasn't much I could say. I was actually getting the stove warmed up to fry a steak I picked up at the dead meat section of the market. I got a steak which normally cost 12 bucks for six which is still more than I wanted to pay but I need the protein.

We struggled with the door for about 10 minutes and decide to hang it up and hope Bill from the apartment complex would be able to do a better job tomorrow. I'll just have to shut the door to the patio tonight. I'm just glad I didn't punch a hole in the screen door. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll have a functional door again.

I've talked about the fact that I live across the street directly across the fence from The Taylorsville Park which is a pretty good deal for parks if you like parks. I always forget about this time of the year a full course band I mean not like a rock band but like a marching band takes up residence in the park at least in the evenings. I think they're like a high school marching band or something like that a lot of brass which is nice I like brass. I think they practice their songs in the park I haven't gone over to watch him this year but they might be marching at the same time I don't know. But the night selection was or is actually the theme to Hawaii Five-O what's they do pretty well that sounds pretty cool the first time but after 5 or 10 times as the band practices it gets a little old and right now they're still pounding the drums and making all kinds of noises and it's almost 10:00 p.m. and I just want to get through the night and get some decent rest.

 

Wednesday's wash

Wednesday has really become my busy day of the week. It's the day that I wash my clothes which is really not a big deal especially since my caregiver Melissa actually starts the wash and throws the wash into the dryer before she leaves on Wednesdays meaning all I really have to do is retrieve the clothes drag them down to my apartment and then fold and hang. It really isn't a big deal but ends up tending to be because I basically drag the whole process out. Some days I'm an actual adult and take it home right from the dryer throw it on my bed and then process the rest of the event and hanging up the clothes and getting off my day. I'll bet it takes less than a half an hour for the whole shebang wash to dry. I just feel anchored to my apartment until this happens. So I don't really end up doing anything on most Wednesdays which is okay because usually I'm still recuperating from Tuesdays when I'm usually in Salt Lake for my assist meeting so working Wednesdays works out fine.

I guess I could be doing other things with my time but washing clothes is my dedication for the day and then if I'm lucky I can spend some time reading whatever volume I'm involved with it any given time. The end of summer this year I'm dealing with a reread of Stephen King's Insomnia. I was only going to read the book until the book I just ordered comes in the mail but I'm so involved with the book now that I'll keep the new volume wrapped up until I finish Stephen King for the summer. It's such a good read the guy does such great character development. There are a couple other Stephen King's I really enjoy but not as much as these two. Oh, and I nearly forgot I also have to spend an hour somewhere in the day pumping my arm bike which I basically do while I'm listening to Marketplace for at least 30 minutes of that pump and usually the last of the world or something like that. I don't really care what I'm listening to except for Marketplace which I do care and I always like to do at least the our pump to at least 30 minutes of marketplace. And that pretty much takes up my Wednesday. I suppose if I really got ambitious I could cook something but that doesn't seem to be the case and today I even utilized one of the corn dogs I bought yesterday at the market. I don't necessarily like pre-made corn dogs you know that are in the frozen food section? They always advertise of us Honey Dipped corn dogs which I don't understand where that came from. I cannot find corn dogs that do not have this honey in their name. So I figure if I dip the dog in enough mustard it'll take care of itself which it usually does. As I was eating my corn dog this afternoon I was taking back to the old days on the farm on my mom got this deep fat fryer I don't really remember what the occasion was could have been a Christmas present or a birthday present or something like that. But we went through a phase of a lot of deep fat food. I think we even tried to make donuts at one point in time which was kind of fun but I do remember trying to make corn dogs. This was a time when corn dogs could only be had during the fair. They were so good and so new to my taste buds. Mom actually did a great job on doing the corn dogs at the farm testing out the new deep fat fryer. I think we only made him once or twice then the novelty of the deep fat fryer past and it said on the Shelf for the remainder of the days.

 

Summers Heat

 Usually by the 19th of August somewhere along the line I announce something like the back of summer is broken. It's usually when I wake up and smell certain smell that tells me fall/ autumn on its way but to be honest I haven't had any sensation. In fact today was 100° Salt Lake. I do acknowledge the fact that it's not the same as earlier in the summer feeling. The hate feels different much more manageable at least by me. Of course my first knee-jerk reaction is the curse global warming and the mess it seems to be making the world right now. So maybe the heat will continue on but way late in the Autumn this year. Even growing up I remember Thanksgiving swear it was warm enough to hang out in the yard and play Touch football with my cousins with just a regular shirt.

As I mentioned, today was hot. I was fortunate enough to go to my assist meeting downtown without issue. I ended up wearing my Captain America symbol t-shirt which is basically black it was a little worried that it would draw the Heat. But I didn't seem to have a problem at least during the time that I was out in the sunshine rolling from buses   Etc. The past couple of months have not been able to get off the tracks at the library as I usually do. They were doing some kind of construction and such on the the main line. I was having to get off the bus the courthouse since they stopped buses dropping people off there during this construction project. I found out today that the buses now have returned to their routes and there is bus stops at the Library. I did not know that of course so I got off at the courthouse there's only after my meeting that when I went to check for trains I noticed that they were stopping once more at the library. This is a great sign especially for trips in. I'll not be able to just hit the library then cross the street to my meeting things are looking up. Well I don't know if it's the Heat or trouble sleeping or whatever but I'm exhausted and I know this is way shorter than the usual 500 Words but it'll have to be and   for Tuesday

Life!

 I got my medical discharge today from the wound care Program- - I guess it's a program I don't really know except that I go to the doctor with a problem like skin breakdown and he then assigns me to phone management and all the sudden these folks start showing up and taking care of my wounds. It's quite a nice program at least I've been impressed with it. This medical discharge is kind of a formal ordeal. The supervisor of the program has to come out and look at the wound or the hopefully healed surface of the skin to where the wound used to be. the wound, takes images, compares these 1  to other images taken of the wound progress. This is kind of a significant operation and I'm fascinated to see it put in the place. There's also a discussion that goes on afterwards where the supervisor asks me all kinds of questions regarding my personal self-care and any other issues I might be having. I wish I could her check me out regular. She is totally thorough, totally business but I'm sure I would be in safe hands as far as wound care goes. She ended the session with a mini set of questions about how I was feeling, do I  get enough sleep, what kind of pain levels do I have just a bunch of questions and then she said I was basically cured- which I don't think so at all and a little weird. She also gave me suggestions as to putting this special goop on my butt as much as I could but should help keep my butt smooth and good to look at. I've got some stress about losing this kind of medical support but I guess if wounds come back I'll get another prescription from  my doc and get some more home health.

I pooped my bed last night. This is difficult to write about but not as difficult as it used to be. I was in bed I just gotten down thought I was passing gas but I was wrong. Luckily I had a bunch of bed pads next to my bed and so I kind of wrapped myself up in that as much as I could and then got through the night. I was really pleased with Melissa showed up early today and she went right to work. She's such a great Trooper. Nothing really seems to affect her. She had my bed stripped and severe areas of poop soak ready for the washing machine and got me squared away showered and dressed. I'm a little spooked still hopefully tonight will not be a problem. I had a significant amount and so a colon should be pretty empty for the time being. I'm banking on the idea that it was the amount of time between my last poop and last evening but just pretty significant from Friday morning to Monday morning is almost too long. I haven't had many problems the last couple years I don't know if I'm changing or something's happening different or as my home person says it just happens sometimes. I hope she's right I'm feeling a little spooky tonight so I'm going to wrap myself up with another bunch of pads and hope for the best. I'm thinking maybe some point down the line doing another poop during the week maybe Saturday night. I think each visit costs me about 20 bucks so this would be another 80 bucks through the month. I think I could do this at this point in time. I'm just thankful I've got everything pretty much under control right now- - I better keep my nose clean it …

Surfing Sunday at the coffee shop

 It's been a busy day for a Sunday and quite a long day for me starting out at 5:30 a.m. I was actually awake a little bit before this and just waiting for 5:30 to come around so I could be sure I had enough time to get ready for breakfast. I do well I don't even need to half an hour that I give myself but I like to have that buffer in there just the same for when I lollygag around and not totally focus on getting ready every single seconds before I have to leave. I wish I could enjoy the weekend better than I have due to the blood I found on the bed pad the other day when I got up. I have a wound somewhere I just don't know how severe it is and how come the wound folks haven't seen it. Bill tomorrow the Supreme wound Queen it's coming into discharge and see if I need any more services. I'll put the pressure on him to see how well she's looking this is going to be after Melissa's been here and bugs because they'll have to take off whatever wound protection that Melissa applies. They will not replace that wound protection as well as Melissa does. I just hope they can find the source of these droplets of blood that seem to be hitting the bed pad. I really am laboring under the concept that whatever is happening is curable and we'll just have to be focused on healing. I don't mind having to Do complete pressure releases I just don't want to do them in bed all day. If I can be in my chair leaning back taking all the pressure off my butt side but still being able to get around the apartment of whatever that works too. Hopefully I will even have a healed but or one well padded by Tuesday but I am sure will have an assist meeting downtown Salt Lake which means I'll be riding tracks. I don't think I have many more meetings the rest of this month except for the ones downtown on Tuesdays. I feel a little guilty because I'm not doing more - - I echoed that sentiment a great deal I am aware but it's true. I just want to come continue with the sediment that I am somewhat productive and somewhat valuable to the people in the community. I think as I age become more and more senior and more keenly aware of feelings people have towards senior citizens or ancients like myself. I like to think I have something of value to give but I can see it in people's eyes now at the market or other groups and clusters of younger folks that I share the same oxygen with. For the most part I can tell they see me as a person with a disability that meme has only limited value but add on to that the senior citizen or the age individual citizens of our chair then of course it's a double whammy I try to continue to be intriguing and interesting and it works to some degree but I still sense there's a feeling of low return for any energy dumped into this vessel.

I had coffee with my Lori this afternoon we made it the usual place Starbucks each getting a cold drink of some coffee base I had a frozen mocha topped off with whipped cream. I wish I had gotten an image of this the frozen mocha would look good for the image of this posting  but I was not quick enough to reason out about getting an image with my cell phone. I didn't get one of course. We had an enjoyable time however sitting in the coffee shop with its air condition dialed to zero at least I believe that felt that way. I think we spent at least 2 hours yammering and drinking Frozen Delights..

A

Saturday slow down

 I slept really well last night. I walked this morning around 5:00 a.m. managed to stay in bed till a little after 6:00 a.m. then pretty much got up to start my day. I don't know why I slept so well but I think it might be  that I had new sheets on my bed. I don't know when the last time I had the sheets changed it's been a while, months. Just seemed like so much effort to ask my caregiver to make my bed. This is kind of difficult because I don't really know what the caregiver supposed to do aside from the very Basics that she does for me. Basically toilets me and helps me shower and she will of course help dress me after that. If I don't make the bed myself she will throw the bed together and that's good I appreciate that and there are times when she's actually swept the floor and mop the floors or scrub the floors. I don't know what to ask for and what is not part of the service. I'm fortunate that my caregiver really likes me and so she does about anything I ask her to do. Like on Wednesdays after she gets me on the toilet I have about 20 to 3 minutes of downtime she takes off and puts my dirty clothes in the wash and then as she leaves she takes the dirty clothes out of the washer and put them in the dryer and starts the first round of drying and then takes off leaving me to just finish the laundry for the week. She says she does this because I'm so nice to her. I make a rule to have her favorite candy bar available as well as other items I know that she likes like potato chips, cookies and fresh coffee with milk available. In the past I've had her cook rice for me, cut up watermelon and spot out problems with my power chair when I have them. 98% of the time I would think that she can actually fix problems I'm having with my chair and if she can't, then I find another alternative for chair repairs if needed.

You may have noticed that I did not say anything about going over to the coffee shop this morning and that primarily is because I didn't go over to the coffee shop this morning. I don't have somebody to go to the coffee shop with and I'm getting tired of just sitting at my table by myself looking like an idiot. So today, I didn't sleep in, after I got up I went to work on making my breakfast. I don't have the time to do this when I go to the coffee shop so this was a real treat. I took the baked potato that I cooked the other day, out of the fridge and sliced it into pretty thin slices I also sliced up a can of spam which I fried both in peanut oil. I didn't have any garlic so I've been using the ground garlic powder that somehow I've become an owner of. The small container relatively speaking and I think I like the alternative better than having to chop up garlic. Some ladies dropped off a large pile of onion tops you know those green things that come out of the onions you buy at the market. It was a bit Overkill but I took a couple of those and chopped them up and added to the concoction then let the whole thing cook for a significant amount of time to Brown both sides of the sliced up potato pushed everything to the edge giving me a fairly decent space in the frying pan Which I then cracked a couple eggs into. I left the eggs in and they produced a nice sunny side up. Our harvested the eggs and the potatoes in the spam and put them in a dish. There is more than enough product to make a decent breakfast for me and then enough for me to put the rest in are on a paper plate and then the top of the refrigerator to be used for the next couple of days. I really do like cooking but I hate the fact that I tend to explode the kitchen when that happens. Today wasn't too bad still haven't cleaning to do on Monday but for the most part I had a pretty good breakfast and a pretty good day and sometimes that's all you can hope for on a Saturday…

Friday night- - Faithfully Yours

 Remember last week when I blogged about my compromised credit card? And I had to freeze the card and then had to go to the credit union to get a new one. I did all that I've got a new card but then I got to thinking now I'm going to have to contact all those folks that I have revolving payments on to let them know or give them a new credit card number it's not a credit card to debit card. So anyway I have been keeping an eye on the dentist office across the street from my apartment which I always do. I'm just intrigued by the fact that I live across the street from my dentist. And I was a little concerned that they had in contacted me about the non-payment or the old are bad card number. So I decided to roll over there just give them the new number in case they needed it. When I got there I was pleasantly surprised to find that they had just ran my number for the month and the card had been accepted payment done and all that I was owing the organization now was one cent. Since the payment went through and I surmise that account was actually on my credit card and not my debit. I'm not quite understanding exactly how I ended up paying this off. I thought I had set up the account to where payments of like 50 bucks or something would be taken out monthly until it was done. However it looks like they paid themselves $150 for my account which basically took care of the account with these guys now I just owe my credit card $ 150 - switch is okay as long as I got it taken care of and I can work with myself on the payments for the $150 to my credit card. I intend to do this relatively quick cuz I just hate the whole concept of the debt in the whole credit card thing. I'm thankful for it but it's always heavy on me when I have money on the account that I owe.

I really want to get at least one more watermelon before the end of the summer. It used to be that once the Watermelons are gone they were gone not so much anymore however. I'm finding out that now they are shipping watermelons in from South America or something during our winter months, so technically I don't have to be without a watermelon ever again. Yesterday I was all jazzed up about getting a box from the back of the market and then getting a watermelon and taking it home in the Box. I think I can safely bring a watermelon home. However the guy that I rely on in the produce section essentially talked me out of getting a watermelon and going with a cantaloupe. I had considered a cantaloupe earlier in the week but I was not impressed with what the cantaloupes they had look like and I still wasn't but I didn't put up an aggressive enough fight to my produce guy and I ended up taking a really weird looking cantaloupe home and today I cut it up I was going to see if I could use the cantaloupe for lunch. Put the cantaloupe produced was pretty soft edges around the cantaloupe itself like it was about ready to go bad and inside the cantaloupe itself it was like super juicy just like on its way to collapse in on itself. It did not taste bad or did not have any flavors of Advanced age. The cantaloupe meet itself was just really loose and really suspect at least to me. I had as much as I could and then bagged everything up and took it over to the dumpster. The cantaloupe itself was huge and I had to actually raise my chair up to height of the dumpster and toss the plastic bag in with the remains of the cantaloupe. No I don't know what to think of my produce guy. I doubt that I will confront him with the bad fruit but one never knows. He does definitely know how to spank a watermelon to find it's good side …

Who really cares?

 

I listened with interest yesterday, I don't remember quite which program it was on National Public Radio, npr, but it was a piece done on how dictation writing was different than handwriting and hadn't writing was different than type writing and though the article did come right out and say it per se there were thoughts that one was better than the other as far as value and such. I'm sure it's an old argument oh, I also think part of this was the perspective on how artificial intelligence is changing the writing the pureness of the upcoming Generations. I have to admit I kind of believe to a certain degree that typing writing is probably more direct then dictation. Sure typing is slower but that's slowness assisted thinking about what I'm writing. And I'm really sure if I was riding long hand that would actually be a lot more creative trouble is now nobody can read my riding long hand not even me. And since I don't really have access to the old type of typewriter that's not an option either unless I guess I use the keyboard as a typewriter and that might be a function I could do still I would not be able to get thoughts out as quickly as I can doing the dictation thing. Maybe that's the reason is that dictating you get a lot of thoughts out quickly and they're all kind of Half Baked. So I guess if a person was willing to go back and synthesize and boil down the thoughts that were thrown out on the dictation that might bring the writing back down to real riding again. Maybe dictation is somewhat akin to inflation the more words you get down the less viable the subject matter is. At the end of the dictation the writer has to go back and boil down what's on the page or screen to something usual.

Finally the weather is beginning to break. The monsoon is finally getting to the Wasatch Front. There was actually precipitation hitting the concrete today outside my window and the Glorious smell of rain off of concrete. There wasn't a whole lot of the wet stuff that came down today but the clouds were glorious as were the Warm Winds and the promise of electricity being thrown across the sky. Hopefully tomorrow they'll be even more. I don't know how long this Monsoon will last but the longer the better and I'll enjoy every last minute of the Dark Skies. My wound care nurse showed up today to change my dressings and to assess how well I tend to be healing. Looks like we're about done and it feels like that way too thank goodness. However there was some blood on my pad this morning when I got up I don't know what that really means but it's very small drops and I'll just have to keep an eye on things. Monday is the next scheduled appointment for my wound care folks. They're actually going to show up to do an assessment to see if I stay on the service or not. I'm sure they will assess that I'm Healed for the time being and that's okay by me. I must admit though I've enjoyed having this much attention by people who don't know what they're doing as far as wounds go. I'm a little unsettled by the fact that they won't be here anymore and that should I get another open wound - - which I will I know I will - - I'll have to go through the whole process again of having my physician script out the wound care folks and the whole thing starts over again. I am thankful that I have that option more than any of you understand or can appreciate…

Inadequate me

 It is past 9:00 in the evening and I still have not hung up my shirts from this week's laundry/ wash. Was able to get the shorts folded but as yet have not had the time already drive to hang the shirts. I got sidetracked but I have phone call that brought back a major portion of my weaknesses. One weakness in particular is my messiness are my lack of being able to put order on my existence. I lost a piece of mail a few weeks ago and frighteningly I cannot find it it's important that I do. I've torn this little apartment apart look high and low and yet cannot find the documents that I need to get my hands on. What really worries me is that I may have thrown the documents and question away because I thought I'd already gleaned what is important from this piece of mail and rather than keep it just floating around the apartment adding to my chaos I threw the documents away. I hope that I did not but something noodles in the back of my mind saying that perhaps I have and I don't know how this can be resolved. Hopefully, there is a resolution it may not be for my end maybe from somebody else's end who has much more Focus and drive than I do. I hope that's the case, I pray that's the case. But once again tomorrow feeling totally inadequate, unable to see myself as an adult and find good solutions on my own. This may not be something I will acquire in this life and possibly hopefully might be able to be attainable in the next if there is such an option. I've come to the conclusion that this life is nothing but a path failed test if you fail the test you will get the test again, and again, and again until you get the test right then you move on to the next level. This is suspicion I have nothing to conclude that that is the way things are except that s keeps happening to me over and over again. Have not got this solution correct on a continuing basis yet but hopefully I will.

I apologize I would really like to give you a full 500 Words tonight but I just had feeling too inadequate to come up with anything usable at all Plus I don't want to be up all night fretting about hanging up my shirts and putting away my shorts…

Card restored!

I didn't have to go to my assist meeting today because, Andreas, the leader of the group had some kind of family business he had to attend to and was out of the office so there was no group. I needed to get to the Credit Union to finish the replacing of my debit card since it was shut down yesterday after I reported the Uber charges that started showing up on my card. Presently I got almost 7 hours of sleep last night so I was up to the trip over to Mountain America Credit Union. This would entail two bus trips but that's okay. I got up early found out that the union opened at 9:00 a.m. so I could dally a little while getting dressed and such but I focused on getting dressed and getting ready even made some breakfast. I scavenged a plastic sack full of instant brown sugar oatmeal which was great along with a couple pieces of toast. I truly felt energized. I caught the bus just outside the apartment complex took me to the credit union there I waited for the 47 which took me over to my credit union. I think I finally got there around 9:30 a.m. There were already people, a few, in line. Eventually I was called up I told the fine young teller behind the grating used to separate Bank employees from the public that I needed to get some counter checks and replace my debit card. The kid was quite gracious, like he did this everyday, which  he probably did. Soon I had eight counter checks which I think will last me way past the first of the year. We must pay our rent with checks. It's kind of weird I hadn't done anything with checks for years before I came here. It's kind of awkward if you don't really use checks anymore but I've gotten back in the habit of keeping a few blank checks around or counter checks. I'd like to get a book of checks like I used to get especially if you can put cute little faces on it or whatever. I suppose I can still access these kind of checks but I haven't had the knowledge of her to get them or the will to actually follow through on getting them. The effort but certainly saves me from having to saddle up and take the bus to the Credit Union a couple times a year. I also took out a hundred bucks in cash because I'm sensing I'll be having my quasi cleaning woman over in a couple of weeks or days to do some cleaning on the old place. I like to pay her in cash. I was totally surprised when I got my transactions completed headed out to the bus stop to see the bus actually coming on. Just like that I was back at my neighborhood and it wasn't even 10:00 a.m. things rarely ever get that smooth for me. I still had to do a little shopping so I veered over to the market picked up a few things then came on home to enjoy the rest of my Tuesday….

 

Another card bites the dust

 The Heat Of Summer is trying to find its way back to the Wasatch Front. Today was not a bad day heat wise I was outside a little bit but I didn't do much just because I spent the day or a large part of it waiting for my home help nurse. The nurse didn't come in the morning as I'm used to calling in the afternoon to let me know she was coming around 2:30. The only thing I'd really planned on doing if anything today was going across the street to the market and picking up a watermelon. I spent all morning trying to figure out how I would carry at home. I've done this before purchasing a fruit like a watermelon but it's big and it's awkward and I don't want to destroy it like I've done in the past. I get so confused with my wound care nurses most of them say my butts okay it's pretty well healed but today the nurse was a new one, for me, just quite concerned with what you saw we worked on different options and hopefully it will be a relatively Fast Fix. And I think when Melissa gets back on the wounds she'll be able to fix some really good pads for my butt , she's really good that way.

I cannot remember if I've mentioned that somehow my account at the Credit Union's been compromised and I've noticed the number of uber charges appearing on my account. Nothing extravagant $12 here $8 there for Uber trips, many of them in California I.E San Francisco and other areas. It's just an irritation right now but I figured I better get it taken care of. I thought about doing it over the weekend but I couldn't find the right customer support people available. This morning I found one and she was very nice but the bottom line is we were able to find the Uber charges all together they came up to round $100 and worst part is that of course I have to cancel this card which I have done now and have to go get another one. I should have just had the card mailed to me but that it would take three or four days but I told her I'd go out and get the replacement card in person. I was going to do that today but because of the problem with the home health nurse I didn't feel I had the energy of the time to do it later in the afternoon. So perhaps tomorrow I can get a new card. I do not have to go to the city tomorrow because Andreas is gone tomorrow on vacation of some sort.

I'm waiting for my Bill Clinton book to get here. I'm anxious to get into that volume and see how good a writer the former president is. Of course he's writing with somebody else this guy named Patterson who writes a lot of formulating books. I've read a number of them which they're not bad but I don't think Patterson is a real life person or he might be as a figurehead I think a bunch of other people might be ghosting writing for him so I don't know how that would work as a team up for the president. That should be interesting though so I'm reading insomnia by Stephen King. I read it two or three times and I certainly enjoyed most of the volume not all of it but I like Parts better than others. It's a big volume however very awkward the lug around hopefully my new book will get here shortly …

Of Second Winds and Technological Frustrations

 My second wind just arrived. It's 8:46 p.m. and I've been dragging for the last 4 or 5 hours but now I've been infused with more energy that would more than allow me to get through the rest of the day. I kind of wonder what would happen if I laid down during one of those episodes of maximum tiredness perhaps I would just sort of take a nap and actually I think maybe that's what I did. Maybe it was during 60 minutes, a couple hours ago, or maybe even before that I was watching a movie as I killed time to get to 60 minutes. I lean back in my chair partially to take the weight off my butt. And I think during that period of time I dozed off a little bit. I don't think I dozed off more than a couple minutes or maybe a half an hour or so but perhaps it was enough to recharge the old batteries and rest me out for the rest of the day.

This morning following having breakfast with my son and granddaughter and my granddaughter's boyfriend I stopped at the coffee shop across the street from where I live to get enough coffee to get me through the day. I noticed I got a text announcement but I didn't read it immediately not until I got home. The text was from a childhood friend. We are kind of a threesome or a foursome of folks in our religious group/ Ward all the same age. Have not had a lot of contact with these guys in years it's just in the last couple of years that we've kind of reached out. I was emailed at some point in time and invited to join the group so me and Kim and Greg are on the same text list I guess that's what you call it. We can communicate with each other by texting one or both of them at the same time. We haven't done a lot of communicating on this system just a few messages here and there. I was quite surprised this morning to see a message from Greg indicating that he'll be giving a religious talk or a sermon at a certain point of time and was offering the zoom coordinates to anybody who would like to watch him and listen to him. I was a little bit intrigued by the offer and my first gut reaction was to pass by but then I realized that he was somewhat proud of what he was going to do enough that he wanted to share it with us. My only trouble is I'm not very involved in that religious group anymore and I don't think these guys are aware of it. We have not really visited that level. But anyway I figured it could not hurt me and I would be intrigued to see him in that position to give his little sermon. So I went to the coordinates he gave me and clicked on and as hard as I tried I could not bring the meeting online. He gave me a time when he was going to be speaking and it was about an hour's difference and I was wondering if that had something to do with it that the time he gave me was his time and not necessarily my time and so I would be an hour behind him. So I continue to try to get a hold of his meeting and eventually couldn't I gave up but being able to truthfully indicate that I tried if he ever asks. I don't know if I was doing something wrong and trying to access the event or the event had not really started broadcasting yet or I didn't have the true qualifications to get online to that event. I am not very strong in this technology. I tend to get frustrated when I think I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing and the result is not what I want. Since the epidemic everybody seems to have gone to zooming and most of my meetings now can't be accessed over the internet. I would rather attend the meeting if possible in person for a host of reasons but I've become somewhat adept at clicking on links and patiently waiting as the spinning wheel turns and finally connects…

Patty me this

 

The hamburger patties kind of fell apart but I thought they're still pretty good

This posting may be another short one. It's Saturday night and I decided to cook this morning. I've been plagued by this pound and a half of ground beef which I purchased from the dead meat section in the meat department of my local grocery store probably a few years ago doesn't seem that long but it probably was. It was a good deal I can't remember what the price was but it's been in my freezer ever since getting more and more what I would consider is frostburn and after my experience the other day with the ice cubes that were yucky because they had sat too long in the freezer I thought I better get to using my Frozen stuff up before I lose it all through my laxity of cooking. When I got this package of ground beef the beef had already turned brown away from its pretty red color when it's fresh. Of course that's the reason it was in the Dead meat section it was cuz it looked like it was old and yucky. I have learned however many times yucky looking pieces of meat turn out pretty good one has to be patient and use the right seasoning. I however have that problem of getting stuff and never really using it whether it's frozen ground beef or when I would buy something like a watermelon I have a hard time cutting up that same day for some reason I want to let it wait for a day or two invariably when I do cut them melon it's all soft inside and really not good. My goal these days is to use the product within a week after I purchase if the thing is sealed like cheese then maybe I'll let it ride for a longer. I don't buy milk in traditional milk containers you get from the market I buy the milk at the Dollar Store- - I think I've written about this in the past- about the quart  containers of milk I stored in the pantry- - otherwise I would be throwing away copious amounts of milk when it turns sour.

I took the ground beef out of the freezer probably around 1:30 or 2:00. I meant to pull it out earlier but kept forgetting to reach into the freezer to get ground beef. When I did finally go to retrieve the meat product it was so far in the back of the freezer that I could not easily grab it so I finally ended up getting one of my hooks I was able to pull it to the front of the freezer then. I left the meat out on the cupboard to thaw out. It's a Dirty Shame a cold front wandered through this last day or so temperatures came down. It had been so hot recently that no problem of thawing in time but not today it was in the '80s. By the time I was ready to start meal preparation I would say 95% of the ground beef and thawed out but there are still a little pieces that were still frozen pieces about the size of my thumb. I hope the human interaction and Heat would finish the job. I processed the green peppers and the onions and found a couple of pieces of bread that was still viable. Chop chop chop tear up tear up and soon I had the ingredients. I mixed the bread into the hamburger first then I put in the egg with the hopes that with the hand movement and the relative warmth of the egg it would melt the remaining bits of frozen ground beef. I think it kind of work but I sure made a mess. By the time I added the chopped onions and the green pepper I had lost major pieces of the meat product over the side and on the floor. I got rid of most of the eggshell but there's a few left on the countertop. I mixed the meat as best I could with the other ingredients and I came out with some fairly decent mix the next problem was making hamburger patties. I think I finally figured out tonight why I can't make hamburger patties like my mom or other people. My hands won't flatten out they remain sort of cupped up and so I end up getting almost a meatball instead of a flat Patty that kind of worked.. kind of. I do as best as I could to make patties that were flat. The meat itself did not really bind together well even with the egg but I mixed it up as well as I could made a plate full of patties and various other pieces of the concoction that fell to the side eventually throwing everything into a frying pan. I sort of did okay I may have overcooked the patties a little bit but that's how I like him and since I'm the only one eating BFD. I pulled the Patty's out eventually they're pretty well done and a lot of them did fall apart. I don't know if I'm just going to pick up the pile of meat or maybe serve it with a can of mushroom soup without the water so it's a mushroom gravy that might be good have it over potatoes or something- - this is my Saturday night Delight…

Frankly Friday

I'm sitting here patiently waiting for my second wind to get here. Right now I'm feeling totally exhausted but I also know there's also a period of time that comes if I can wait it out that I'll get my energy back at least part of it- - hopefully enough to get me into bed.

I've been a little concerned over the past couple of months about how much I tend to be sleeping these days or maybe just how tired I seem to be. It seems by the time the evening gets here I'm just worn out. Luckily there's not a lot that I need to do after a certain point in time of the day but still I don't feel I should be this tired. I also have noted that continue to wake up fairly early- - even for me. This morning I woke up around 3:00 a.m. again and not really getting back to sleep which is about what happened yesterday as well. Things that I have learned over the past couple of years kind of give me hope or at least acceptance to the fact that there may not be anything wrong with me except the fact that I've lived a long time I'm unequivocally old. I remember having coffee with some of the residents here at the apartment complex and them indicating that they were going to bed soon after our coffee for a small nap and it's around 8:00 9:00 in the morning that we are having this discussion. I realized then that that's how these old folks are getting through the day. I remember now how my dad always seem to be taking a nap even before he was “old”. I always thought it was because he worked as hard as he did and that he was up early for his morning chores around the farm as well as getting on to work. Then a few days ago I received a message / text for my old friend John who is my age. He made mention to the fact that he pretty much enjoyed his life these days he said he was spending his time reading and napping. That really struck me John was actually taking short naps to get through the day. What a revelation. I'm beginning to think that I am just where I need to be in my life and not be ashamed or too concerned about where I'm at.

Perhaps it was the fact that I didn't wear a hat today and I was significantly out in the sun. After my caregiver left this morning and I've gotten a little bit of breakfast I was still a little antsy and I checked out the new movies. There was one offering that looked fairly interesting called sketch. I wasn't sure if I waited for the bus if I would be on time enough to catch the beginning of the movie. So I decided I would just drive up to the theater which I did. Contrary to believe it's not easy to Traverse significant distances in a power chair. I'm certainly pleased in appreciative of the fact that I can but it still is quite aware on the old body as well as the chair. But I made it I got to the movie way before the start and I beat the bus but perhaps the extended wheelchair trip also wore me out and now I'm looking forward to an early bedtime but remember if I go to bed early I get up early and am I defeating myself…?

 

Thursday's thoughts

 I'm kind of confused. It's kind of a long story but to make it short I don't know if my trip to the podiatrist yesterday caused the problem but when I got home my large toll was in pain by the time I went to bed it looked like it was somewhat swollen and painful. Once I took off by shoes my toe felt a little better. The pain wasn't there until I touched it or moved it in such a way that it pressed against something. I had a suspicion that this issue might have an impact on my sleep so I wasn't surprised when I woke up at 3:00 a.m. and try as I might couldn't get back to sleep but what is really confusing and somewhat perplexing is that I felt pretty good all day today Sleep wise. I really thought I was going to be one of those yawning individuals sleeping every chance they got are falling asleep as they sat in their chair. In fact as the hours wandered towards 6:00 a.m. this morning I thought that's what I was going to have to do all day but interestingly enough that was not the case except for a little bit around 4:00 p.m. the 5:00 p.m. what I did not out a little bit but that happens almost every day anyway even when I get better sleep so it's just confusing. I'm thankful however that I wasn't that way and then be able to enjoy the day as much as I did or have. I even managed to do 20 minutes of my arm bike so I got my 200 minutes in for the week and even now I don't feel too terribly exhausted.

I can't remember if I've mentioned this but this last week has been somewhat traumatic here at the apartment complex. I guess one of the main boilers on the second floor malfunctions big time in water just came down everywhere in certain part of the building but in order to dry out the building we've had these giant fans running day and night for the past week. Not too traumatic for me anyway just was this constant hum that seem to warble in the background. I don't know about people who had one of these fans stuck outside their door running 24/7 that might be another case. There is also the issue that these fans are pretty large and sort of stuck out in the middle of the hallway- I wish I'd gotten an image of these- - but they didn't really bother my transportation power chair wise I just had to be somewhat cautious that I didn't blast into them. So everything is somewhat back to normal again around the building. I didn't have to leave the building today, I mean I didn't have any meetings to attend or anything like that. I did make a fast Dash over to the market to pick up some fruit for the weekend. And I half- assed tried to pick up the kitchen a little bit but made the problems even worse as my wheelchair handles kept snagging things on the table in my racks and pitching them down to the floor. I finally gave up we'll try again tomorrow and my sometime- cleaning person has indicated she might drop by on Tuesday. I've gotten some what lackadaisical again about cleaning the place and I need to be redirected…

Free root beer float

 

Have you ever made root beer? I have well first off you don't make root beer you mix it. You have to get a bottle of extract and then, usually, you add 5 gallons of water and 5 lb of sugar! That's right 5 lb of sugar. To that you add dry ice that's if you want root beer that's fizzy or carbonated or to act like it's carbonated. I went through a period when I was making root beer two or three times a year maybe more depending festive event or holiday moods we were in. But it's quite a making that first batch and watching all that sugar dissolve and become part of the liquid base. Since we lived on a farm at the time we did have access to milk cans cuz you've got to seal up the vessel that you have the liquid in with this dry ice so the gas can get into the root beer liquid. It gets things really cold as far as the outside of this milk can goes. I also made it a couple times for Halloween parties things like that where you got to have foamy cloudy type stuff coming off of your drink to make things look kind of spooky. This mixed root beer is the best for that.

It was 100° out on the Tarmac today but it didn't feel that bad as far as heat goes to me. I had to go down to South Jordan area to get my toenails clipped. Had an appointment for 1:30 in the afternoon which means I'd be out in the heat at it's pinnacle. I want to keep some form of liquid with me so when I left the house I emptied some ice from the freezer into a plastic cup with a straw and then was going to carry it with me today as I went around in the heat. I wasn't counting on the fact that the ice that's been in that ice box has been there for months the flavor of the water it rendered when melted wasn't horrible but it wasn't good either it had flavors of all and every item that to pass through the refrigerator over the last 6 months or so. Well the coolness of the container was nice as the ice melted I need something to drink as well. And I noticed there was a KFC/ A&W Root Beer Joint nearby. The old A&W logo pulled me in. Patiently waited in line looking forward to my first slug of A&W Root Beer. I almost wanted to take the time to get a Frosted Mug like I used to be able to get in the old days for a nickel and of course the big skinny mugs or a dime. But I just wanted to be able to get a glass of root beer and enough ice to be able to cool down as I waited for the bus.

I have to admit I was a little affected by the Heat. I don't think I was really short-tempered but I didn't want to be messed with either. So when I rolled in and ordered my root beer without lots of ice the kid looked at me and said something like are you here for your A&W root beer float? I ordered it again indicating I wanted an A&W Root Beer with lots of ice. Once again he asked if I wanted an A&W root beer float, he said it's root beer float day. Like I said I was hot and little frustrated and what he was saying didn't really register so what third time I ordered the same order. And he looked at me and said again it's National A&W free root beer float day. And he pushed a plastic container with a straw and what look like A&W Root Beer in my direction it looked like there may have been a little ice cream on the top but not bad and then he kind of pulled me aside and said. Hey buddy it's A&W free root beer day I'm giving you this glass of root beer float without the float just don't tell anybody. It was finally getting through to me he was trying to do me a favor so I took the drink then push the $10 bill in his Direction. More frustration covered his face and he said it's free! As in A&W free root beer float. I don't want your money it's free. I think he was getting tired of me. I just grabbed my drink and headed for the bus stop.

Happy birthday brother

I'm of course the little guy

August 5th has always been somewhat of a special day for me primarily because August 5th is my older brother's birthday. This is the brother which is just 5 years older than I am and he was the one who actually acted like a brother in all the areas that Brothers can be as far as I know Brothers to act. All I know is that I seem to be always is Target of teasing and physically abusing. Luckily at being 5 years older than me he was rarely in the same school building as I was. I vaguely remember him being in the building when I was in first grade but then he was soon into the seventh grade and Beyond and gone. I know this sounds somewhat negative but it's the way things were at least in my family the older kids picked on the younger kids I don't know if that was learned behavior or what but certainly seem to be the way. We got along though all things being equal we liked more or less being each other's company we know anybody else's company except for our best friends. We did a lot of stuff together like going to movies, going to the fair and a lot of Church events it seems like. I did not necessarily look up to him like I did my older brothers the ones just older than he. This brother was more realistically a brother because he was like me and I could see he was like me and I had to accept him as that because that's the way that it was and things were not going to change.

It's kind of funny being older now because I think things have changed. My brother and I have developed a whole new relationship much more supportive and enjoyable. For the most part my brother has somewhat distanced himself from the rest of the family. I'm not sure why but he's kept my relationship with him pretty strong. It's not like we see each other a lot we don't but we really started communicating with each other a couple times a year on the telephone or cell phone or however you want to say that. We should visit more and if I could travel or I lived in the same city I would try to physically hangout with him more than we've ever done before. I don't know how realistic that would be because he is such an singular individual. The only thing he does is really go hunting with his son once a week usually on Sunday. They've been doing this for years. I quite admire my nephew for being a supportive of his father as he is. This birthday will be his 79th! I know he's been through some significant medical issues the latter part of his life and frankly, I'm quite surprised that he's still with us. He's strong however deriving a lot of his personal strength from within. He's a survivor always has been. He made it through multiple tours of Duty in Vietnam. He came back and settled down it had a productive quiet life in Boise Idaho. Happy birthday big brother, I'm sorry I could not be there in person. I enjoyed our conversation on the phone this morning actually I was on the bus going to my meeting. I hope you have another one next year if so I'll call you again… that's if I'm here to call LOL..