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..

Monday moans

Not much going on today for a Monday. Did a little cleaning up first thing this morning after Rising. I washed some dishes, made some flavored water drinks- I do this now to encourage myself to just more liquids during the day. I buy the flavoring from the dollar store across the street from where I live. Of course there isn't anything in the dollar store a dollar anymore so each of the flavor boxes is $1.25 but that's still a deal and I like the flavors of the of the water bottles I mix. This idea kind of works I still need to ingest a lot more liquid in my daily diet it's just hard. I know I need to drink more water but I just can't do it. And I've done the popsicle thing so I'm working on that but that's a lot of popsicles to adjust in a Day Too for it to make any significant difference. I remember though in the last visit/ in-person stay I did it a rehab unit at the University Hospital they pushed popsicles all day long. Just made your encouragement every time they caught you with a two stick popsicle in your mouth. There's also the ubiquitous ice cream treat I know that's a double-edged sword. Yes, ice cream is basically Frozen liquid this also full of sugar and fat so any options what might get from the Popsicles I think outweighed by the sugar content and the propensity for being more overweight. I think my favorite liquid flavoring is either cherry, strawberry or raspberry something that's red. The color of the beverage I'm having seems to make a big deal with me. I think I've labored this point before but I think the biggest reason that I don't ingest more liquids is that liquid in always equals liquid out- I hope! If it wasn't such an ordeal to try to catheterize myself during the day I'm sure I would try to ingest more liquids. It's just I hate taking 15 minutes to try to catheterize myself for 400 cc's and more if I'm lucky. Lately however it's been less 300 sometimes 400 but something inside me thinks I probably should be downloading way more than that during the day however, I've lived with a lot of quads it seems like and a few pairs who are always ingesting some kind of liquid. They all carry those Hospital mugs they give you when you transition out of the stay in the hospital. This is perfect for not only ingesting liquids but to keep a record of how much you are consuming so when you do the other end of the body and you produce x amount of CC's you can see some kind of relevant relationship liquid in to liquid out. I don't know this information fascinates me so much but it does. I like keeping track of this kind of stuff kind of amazes me. I really like to see how much I ingest versus eliminate. It's not important I know that but kind of makes me feel like it's important especially as I ingest more liquids during the day the color of my urine gets lighter and becomes seemingly more clear.

I received a text message from one of my oldest friends the other day. We used to be inseparable in grade school but that all changed at Junior High as many things do. His older brother and my brother hung out together with us and we did a lot of things on the weekends and after school. Now his brother is probably dying from MS. His brother was a lineman for the local Power Company and I'm sure that's where he got it. John, the other brother my age, I'm getting the sense looks after these folks. Oh yeah there was another brother who's got Parkinson's. It seems like a large portion of the families begin to disintegrate and which is too bad. I also think my friend is really the only able-bodied kind of looking after his brothers. I of course admire that then wish him the best of luck but also maybe I need to make myself more available to him in case he needs to vent. He even informed me that now his days are spent reading and napping and sometimes a little conversation. I was quite amazed because that's sort of what my schedule looks like more often than not these days.

A new look- - Maybe

 

This is an image of my shirt botted up after a days wearing. Thought it might be useful

I'm always amazed when I wear something new or something different and people begin to notice and comment about how good I look in this new outfit. I think I've rattled on in the past how I think I don't really know how to dress. It's not a thing that I took two very well even though my dear old mother tried to dress me up as much as she could aside from their institutional regular Sunday dress for going to church. That was how I basically understood dressing. It's Autumn or near autumn it's the time when in the old days we would be getting our clothes out of layaway which we had put them on earlier in the year. That is how I grew up purchasing or getting new clothes. I always got clothes that were either basically school clothes very fundamental. Never Levi's brand name but the Sears knock off and often they were tanning color. I never got Converses unless of course I happen to just luck out our mother happened to luck out and found a pair of Converses at the local thrift store or at a garage sale. Didn't matter if if they fit or not if they were close to even getting on my feet I would wear them like I belong to them and not somebody else at some time and who knows for what reason they were discarded. Same way with shirts I never had those cool plaid shirts that bled when washed and made a great looking pattern and they had the fruit loops on the back. If my shirts had Fruit Loops they were long gone by the time I got the class it seemed like. I didn't get ridiculed or laughed at or anything like that and probably nobody even noticed except I noticed. Luckily I just sucked whatever was going on and went on with my life. Actually this didn't even matter in grade school. I didn't know what was going on. It was Junior High when things kicked into gear that I was somewhat different than most of my friends. I didn't look like them.

Sorry I should have got carried away there please forgive. Last year I purchased a couple of button-up shirts that were somewhat out of what I usually where. I was searching for something that would be wearable for social events. I really didn't have anything like that especially for summer wear. I don't know if there was something going on here at the apartment complex or something that I felt needed more than just the regular pull over t-shirt and or whatever pullover I was wearing I thought would work. I pulled a couple shirts off the rack at Walmart which I thought would fit me and have had them in their closet for some time. I started wearing this year for a couple of events and got actually good comments on all of them. Today when I'm at the kids for breakfast they were impressed with my shirt. I'm going to make an effort the next couple of months to try to purchase more pieces of clothing that I think might make me more look like the other kids …

Coffee shop Bop

 

As usual around 9:30 I packed up and went over to the coffee shop just across the street from my apartment complex and got my table in my large coffee and then hunkered down for a couple hours listening to conversations going on all around me. It's like I'm invisible, not really because people acknowledge me when I come in and when they see me during the time that I'm there. Some even talk to me at once in awhile and I'd like to think they would like to invite me to join their table if they knew how to ask me. I know that does not sound like rocket science but I guess it must be. I do like listening to the conversations however I don't know how I would respond if I were involved in this conversation. I was relieved this morning, for instance, when the main table close to me we're talking about some of the audacious comments and actions are current president made this week. I mean every week is a whole new list of things to visit with and talk about. I have been afraid that these guys were all Mega folks but in effect they are not. I think there are some Republicans in the group but I don't think they're m a g a and that's reinforcing. They talked about how served the comments the guy was making and some of the things that he was doing that made everyone feel uncomfortable particularly with our Asian Neighbors those that might have access to nuclear weaponry. Like I said, I don't know what I would add to the conversations where I at the table and felt as if I remember in good standing of their little coffee group. I'm sure I'd rattle off something and I'd hope that I would be able to validate anything I said to this group. I don't think they go very deep for their information relying I think mainly on radio station television and some internet type functions like tick tock, YouTube and other platforms that are everywhere nowadays. Everyone has an opinion and I guess that's good and they're beginning to voice those opinions and I guess that is also good. I don't think they take anything much further than that however. I hope they're in contact with their legislators and all that kind of stuff but somehow I don't think that might be the case. I think my coffee shop is a microcosm of coffee shops all over this country on Saturday mornings and then probably on Sunday mornings too. I'm sure if you were to go into any one of these other coffee shops there'd be a couple of long tables full of locals that come every week in the outliers like me trying to blend in like I'm part of the crowd.

Following the coffee experience I watched a little television / flat screen / netflix and then went went to the market to pick up a few things that I felt that I needed. Things that would just make the weekend go a little bit better like brand new potato chips, brand new cottage cheese and the block of sharp cheddar you know the little things that will get you through the weekend…

August Letters Out!

Cute new stamps for today's mail out

 I should have done this earlier this evening but I was so involved with trying to get the kid Letters Out that I put off this portion of my day until now. I'm kind of glad that I did this just because good, bad or indifferent I'm getting I'm on the tail end of a second wind that I picked up somewhere in the middle of the kid letters, signing them foilding them stuff in the envelopes and then stamping them all and running them down to the postal drop at the front of the building. Done for another month. I don't know why these silly letters are so important to me cuz I doubt if they're important to the guys that are getting them. They just think I'm an old loon try to do something to be remembered by in the years to come when the old loon is gone whoever all loons go. I know some of the letters are being tracked or kept by my daughter Michelle and her two daughters. She's told me she has a box for each of them and the letters go in that box and that's probably the way it should be. Right now I'm sure the girls are dealing with these letters just because the old grandfather's bizarre enough to keep sending them every month. I like to think it's my personal stab at keeping the US Post Office in business. Last evening, maybe in the afternoon, I was at the market across the street and stopped at their customer service. Actually, I guess each of the individuals at the check out stand has their own little packets of stamps that they can sell to their customers and that's where I got mine last night. I think you had a couple different kinds but he asked me did it matter if I got the animal staff so I said no that's not a problem. Then he handed me this strip of stamps and they really have some cute art on them. I was excited to put them on the envelopes this evening as I was finishing the project for this month. Then later on I took all six or seven letters down to the mail drop and put them in. They're a little late this month. I usually like to have them in the mailbox by the last day of the month, obviously that didn't happen this month. I just had too much other stuff happening this last week when I usually put these letters together.

I had lunch with one of my old work colleagues Duane. I decided not to go to a restaurant or sit down venue of any type hoping to find Space here in the building but then one of the water machines or whatever blew up a night or so ago and Drench the number of floors with water and the whole building is being intimidated by drying out fans that are running day and night sound like a hurricane. So with that in mind I decided we would go across the street to a covered Pavilion- is that redundant?- - and up to take over one of the long tables. There were a couple of Born Again folks lurking trying to capture somebody into talking Bible with them. Thank goodness both of these individuals pretty much left us alone. We had a great discussion Duane3 about brought everything two bottles of Pepsi, two big giant sandwiches from this great sandwich house, a bag of chips. Sandwiches were huge and my friend gave me his half that he wasn't going to eat so I've got a whole sandwich in my refrigerator now so I'm covered for probably till Monday. Here's one of my I guess best friends now as I get older and we both have State pensions and we worked in the state system. We visited for quite a while it's always sort of interesting had fun been dodged attempts from the Bible boy behind us to get us into a religious discussion. Our lunch was a great event we covered a lot of ground and we enjoyed the new rebuild of the covered area. And totally enjoyed each other's company. Hopefully we'll have another lunch sometime in September and Beyond…

Thursday matinee

 

I did two movies today. I kind of surprised myself. It was Coffee Day and I was a little late because my wound care nurse showed up and I had to do the dressing change. It's been kind of weird around here the last couple of days not only since Tricia died finally but the major water container or vessel or something burst a couple days ago and totally flooded the community room which is where we have the coffee group or any type of a group. So now probably for the end of the week we have these giant fans blowing in the hallways Gail force winds I guess hopefully that they'll try out the the carpets I guess the point I'm making is that coffee was strange because we didn't Bunch the tables together like we usually do and we sat at Separate Tables and little bitty groups which is kind of weird. Even with the weirdness it was okay we had some good communication at least in my table and I was a little Restless when I got back to the apartment. I checked my cell phone and sure enough there was a movie starting that I felt that I needed to see around 12:00 noon and I had a few minutes so I ran up to the bus stop caught the bus and got to the theater before the movie started. It was a Marvel movie The Fantastic Four and I really liked this group during the comic book phase when I went through different groups but it was not as good at the Motion Picture level it was almost like they're trying too hard then I found when I got out of that movie that another movie that I was kind of interesting was beginning very shortly and I can actually make it if I were to go right then and get my movie paid for and got seated. It was Superman. No I don't mean to be a movie snob but as much as I like Superman as a kid I have not really followed him as an adult adolescent to the adult. I mean it's just a DC comic thing I just think they're behind the Marvel groups. There's a reason why the Marvel ride is broke away from DC and I think it's pretty obvious when you go to their movies. Anyway, Superman wasn't bad but it was kind of dorky with the whole Superman and Lois Lane theme and they're like Secret Love Affair. I wasn't ready for that and the whole Lex Luthor and all that kind of stuff. It's just got the feeling that DC was just trying so hard to compete with Marvel it was kind of sad. I was kind of glad when the movie ended. But that's it two movies in one day it's hardly ever done anymore when in the old days the two movie matinee was the the thing for a Saturday. Kept kids involved all day long. We rarely went because our dad always had our Saturdays planned out work. But that's farther for another blog...

 

Check the check

Remember a couple weeks ago when I almost threw away that check for $300 that was sent to me from a bank I used to be long to? Actually, it was a bank account that I shared with my ex-wife and we both had our names on the check and I had to endorse it and then sent it off to her for her to endorse and deposit. Sadly and with great embarrassment I must confess that I addressed the envelope wrong and now the check is missing. I did follow up and there has been no record of that check being cashed so hopefully the US mail will return the letter to me eventually. I also had the thought that maybe the bank is already sent the check to the state of Utah to put in there dead check file. It's that place where unclaimed money and stuff goes to rest. What I got the letter in the first place they were saying that it has taking so long to track me down that it was almost on its way to the state. Hopefully I can run it down somewhere in the process.

Fortunately my local branch of this Credit Union is just up the street just a few stops on the bus. I mentioned this to my ex as we were discussing the last check and indicated that perhaps would be best if I were to go up in person and she said no because it's so hot. I think we topped off today around 97 degrees. She encouraged me to just call and see if we could do it all over the phone as far as helping track down the check. Of course when I tried to do that after wandering through four or five different telephone messages to get to where I wanted to go I ended up trying to visit with some nice little person from India or some other very Eastern local. And I hate to sound like the typical American old fart but I could not understand her hardly to save my life. And also her trying to do this long distance, I mean way long distance was kind of a joke as far as I was concerned. So I saddled up got and me and the chair headed out in the mid-afternoon. The heat was significant but not too bad I had a good hat on and I was fairly cool inside. I found a little bit of shade at the bus stop and only had to wait about 15 minutes before my bus came. I do admit I appreciated the air conditioning of the credit union when I  entered the building. Sorry to have to say that pretty much my attempt to find out information at the credit union was a feudal attempt at best. They basically said come back when you have the check in hand and we can start tracing it there from there. So once again everything is stopped and everything all depends on me. The stress is high. I guess I could actually contact the State and see if the credit union has delivered the check there. If nothing else it'll make me feel like I'm doing something…

 

Beware the snark

I must be doing something right. I found dressing this morning a lot more fluid than usual or has been usual the last couple days or weeks. I even got both shoes on so I was relatively ready for the public today. It's Tuesday of course that means a quick trip downtown to be at the assist office at 11:00 a.m. for the meeting which didn't start today till like 10 minutes after 11 minutes longer drives me crazy. I know we're volunteers does that mean we have a free thing to be late all the time? I think too much of my fellow volunteers on this particular board. I try not to be verbal. I try to hold it in my size and my other indicators of dismay but I suppose my irritation creeps out anyway. I'm a lot better now compared to how I used to be. I'm sure I was a real creep but everyone knows what time the meeting starts and they keep crawling in late and once they do get here they want to be social for who knows how long. All this stuff could be done before the meeting starts if they were to get here early enough and then have the meeting start when it's supposed to and get done at a reasonable amount of time. Really I guess it doesn't really bother me that much just a little bit and I'm trying to be a better person, a bigger person but it's a tough challenge. After the meeting ends there's still more socialization but I usually beat a path to the door indicating that I want to do this and that before something else happens. Today I wanted to get home as quickly as I could before I lost the mornings cloud cover and the real heat begins. I really don't mind the Heat that much. It's just a good excuse to end a meeting that's gone on way too long.

I think I've indicated yesterday or the day before that I've been working on the kid letters to go out and of course I need cash to stuff the letters with which means that I needed to head over to the credit union after the meeting. The crowd cover was still adequate making a great role the only issue I was having was it was a bit Breezy today so I really was not that surprised when I was at the intersection getting ready to cross the street when a gust of wind came up and actually blue my cap right off my head. I just been to the market which was on the way home, and I had bags strapped like saddlebags across my legs with my hook in the middle holding the bags so I couldn't use my hook to get my hat off the street and I must have been looking somewhat forlorn because this guy stopped his truck- that's a really nice truck- - got out came over and got my hat off the street that hands it to me. I stuffed the Hat somewhere secure in my chair and booked it home glad to be done for the day. It seemed like a long day but that was still no reason for me to be a little snarky at the meeting, sigh it's just the way that I am …

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…