Thoroughly Thursday

Once again it's much later than I would like it to be and I'm just now getting to my blog and then hopefully quickly to bed. It hasn't been that busy of a day thank goodness I've enjoyed not having a lot of stuff to do but I did my usual I did my arm bike of course and I'm behind on that day or so so I still have to do another 30 minutes at least if not 60 to get to my 200 minutes. I actually was able to get dressed without much issues this morning which was good. I did take off the dressing that the hospital guys are the InstaCare PA put on my arm yesterday but did the last long at all I had it off when I did my arm bike pulled it right off. I'm kind of waiting for the folks to call about the wound care. I did get a call today but they wanted me to go to the LDS Hospital all the way up Salt Lake and I want to do the one through IHC which is local to me a lot easier to get to actually I'd like for the ones where they come actually to your apartment like they did a couple months ago when I was having to deal with wound care then. I'm hoping that this will just be done quickly I think it's just going to heal right up we'll have to see. The medications I'm taking I'm having difficulty remembering when I've taken them or when I haven't taken them. I swear I'm beginning to really get concerned about my memory and stuff. If it gets worse I'm just going to have to go in and get a checked out if I can remember to do that - - LOL.

Marc Anthony just left he was here working on my problem of today which was somehow I disconnected all the power to my flat screen and my computer and everything. We did find the problem which is the connecting area or plug is right behind my bookcase if I push it too hard it pushes on the plug it disconnects everything. So now I've got to be responsible and not push in on the bookcase when I get close to it to work on the flat screen. I think I can do this but I've got to figure out another solution so it's not turning off on me all the time gets to be a real pain having to rely on someone else to come in and do the fix. I certainly appreciate Mark stopping by. I spent a good part of the day working on the apartment trying to clean it up a little bit. It is really gotten out of control I can't say it was me making the rice which didn't help at all because I spilled a whole cup of white rice and basically had to throw it away. Luckily I had two or three bags of brown rice since April one of those and make Frank so that worked out okay. Matter of fact I had Frank for dinner tonight. I'm just amazed that I'm looking down the barrel of another weekend spend a whole week just like that click of the fingers if I could

Two Medical Offices, one tetanus shot, trip to the pharmacy- - one long day

When my caregiver looked at my arm this morning she changed her position on whether I should go in or not have the wounds look at. Since she is one of the few people that I really appreciate my life and their opinion I decided I would do that. The clouds are still bunched up so the sun was not out yet so the heat had not gotten out of hand. I was kind of hoping that the rain they keep suggesting might happen would happen but not today. Now, not only did I have the wound on my arm to consider and the wound on my leg I developed some sort of sore throat but I don't or can't figure out why it is or however it came from. I can barely swallow so I figured it great as long as I'm at the doctor's office / Hospital we can check that out too. I was hoping that's going to be able to get in and get everything taken be back by 1:00 so I could be working on my arm bike and doing my 60 Minutes on the bike. I get to the hospital however and get to my clinic and they tell me that I can't be seen by them till tomorrow sometime that I really need to go to InstaCare. I should have done that first another I was just hoping to get us hope I didn't have to make a lot of travel Arrangements but what the heck? I had to take a bus that runs on one hour headways which is a lot of time waiting but finally got on the bus Which took me close to where I needed to go got off the bus and rolled to the clinic. These guys are great and they were concerned. I really haven't been concerned my kids are really concerned and my caregiver is concerned just me I wasn't concerned. They had to wait a little bit not significantly however. They did the whole doctor thing on my arm cleaned it up wrapped it with a new wrapping and gave me a prescription for some medication to kill whatever it is I have four tablets a day- - talk about overkill? Which is okay my nurse practitioner means business they got me wrapped up and soon I was out heading home in the afternoon day sun and the day it turned hot!

Today is Wednesday and the reader knows that I wash my clothes on Wednesday and I had my caregivers start the wash. I waited an hour then went down and collected my clothes and brought them back to the apartment. I pride myself on folding and hanging up clothes as soon as I bring him in from the dryer but not today I wanted to get out and get the stuff I need to have done done. No I'm too exhausted. I'll have to do it tomorrow if I can find the time. I did do my arm bike today maybe that's all so why I'm so tired but anyway have a good night all is well the wounds are healing..

 

Hot Road Monday

I am flat out exhausted! My day is definitely catching up with me. I had it a little bit of pressure on me this morning when I got up or even before. I had to finish the stuff for my recertification for staying here at the senior apartment complex where I live. I have to do this every year in the process totally freaks me out. I tried doing this on Friday if I remember right and I was on hold for an hour at Utah State government phone systems after URS are Utah Retirement System. Today I figured I would just go ahead and finish the project as long as it took and I was on hold for 45 minutes or maybe an hour in that in that vicinity. Luckily I have some puzzles that I was working on, I had something to drink and I was okay and I have time didn't think I was going to be able to outlast me drone of the recorded message asking that we wait and they would be with us directly. Finally however I did get a live voice and she was really nice. She's now going to send out the information that I need forget the Jennifer for rent manager or the apartment manager. So I'm still hyped up at this success I decided I would jump the bus and go over to the credit union and get a copy of my last statement which was needed by whoever. I'm sure there was a way to do this from the phone at the apartment but I just wanted to go in person to get it document and get it done and come back and enjoy the rest of the afternoon. Thank goodness today was only 105 degrees not like yesterday there was 109. But I was out in the for a little bit yesterday it didn't feel too bad I enjoyed it actually. They keep the hallways here so cold I'm glad to go out in to the Heat and get an instant warm up. The credit union is not that far from the apartment complex but you have to catch the bus to get over it actually two buses one does a colleagues and when you transfer over to another one it takes you two blocks to get you off the credit union. 

Of course the line at the credit union is almost out the door! I could not believe it had been a Friday I'd understand that have been a Payday for any of them today but on monday? So I settled in and I think it took about 40 minutes to get through the line and finally after I had made contact with the bank teller I got the document it was not waiting for the bus which was a fairly long time less than 30 minutes but after a quick stop at the market on the way back I finally got home and got to relax in front of the 5:00 news.

As you know, Mondays I start my 200 minutes so exercise on my armbike. I just couldn't do it and I'm not going to do it today this is going to sort of mess up my week a little bit but that's okay I've got the days that I can do the arm bike and they'll be less stressed another today…

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Ho hum Tuesday

@It was another one of those mornings but I just couldn't get things to work right in trying to dress myself. Dedicated reader remember I have to dress myself for days of the week tuesday, thursday, Saturday and Sunday. To dress myself I use the number of apparati to accomplish this mainly sticks and leg lifters to get my shorts over my feet and then to a series of wiggling around in my chair and doing all kinds of this like bridging to get my butt off the cushion I can pull the pants up over my hips. I used to be a very simple thing I get really high to listen be able to pull the pants on quickly not So Much Anymore. Perhaps if I'd had a meeting or someplace to be at a certain time I could have been much quicker but today I just sort of couldn't get real motivated to move very fast I started probably around 7ish and didn't get really done until 10:00 of course I wasn't working all the time with this dressing project. I was doing things like taking my meds turning on the radio getting into the day's weather. All I could focus on is the fact that I wasn't able to dress as quickly as I used to and as if and everything is going to change one of these days. This is flavored the rest of my day actually. I did not put shoes on today I didn't need them just because it's so hot but the reason is I didn't want to have to go through the whole process of trying to lift my leg and cross it over the other leg so I can put my shoes on. I only have one pair of shoes right now- - maybe more if I really looked - -. I get a pair of shoes in the last forever. The shoes look very poor makes me look very homelessly homeless. Then I got a general email about folks my age becoming more and more susceptible to disabilities like Alzheimer's! Pretty soon I started checking myself against the predictors that they went through in this article it wasn't very promising. The best part about Alzheimer's I guess would be the fact that you wouldn't know that you had it and probably at the end not even care. If it's Alzheimer's I hope I don't remember much of it to say the very least. I just don't know how I would do everything else if I could do everything else. I don't even know how I would get into a long-term care facility if I needed to. I don't think I was depressed just Moody. Luckily I went the whole day really without seeing or talking to anybody except one of the old people walking around here talking half to themselves and have to you and not being able to understand any of it and particularly since this woman is German anyway. She came across the ocean with her husband in the '70s or something like that. She drug  me around the parking lot in the back of our building today trying to communicate to me that somebody had bashed in the door of her vehicle. I have to take her at face value because that's all there is except for her vehicle looks like somebody's side swiped it really bad. I cook tonight I made Frank it was pretty good. I got chicken a couple nights ago and now we're having using chicken and all kinds of recipes.

H

Grandpa abrasion stat!

This is going to be a short posting because I've lost power to my computer rack that's got all the technical logical things that I need to send information out over the internet. I bumped into the tray I have in front of my big screen and all the sudden everything went off. I think I just unplugged the major power source which I think might be the power strip and it made it so I can't use my tablet and that's what I really use on blogging. 

The day has been, I suppose, incredibly hot the local news reported the temperature was 109°. I was outside quite a bit this afternoon and it felt warm yes but 109°. That's amazing. I should be more careful wandering around outside in this kind of heat but feels good to me. I can always grab a popsicle if I need to cool down or a big glass of water or something. I see a lot of people out and about two of this kind of heat the pickleball people are playing as are the skateboarders next door to our apartment complex and there seem to be music Big Time in the park as well. I went over there just to check it out and it was some major family Hispanic family and stuff who had a big amplifier and such. They were making a lot of noise but I liked it it sounded good reminded me of the old days working with Dr Mcintyre. This morning I was up pretty early in got dressed in time to meet the kids over at the restaurant. If I had the subject about what today's blog was about it would be watch out for granddaughters. I don't know what I did but on my right arm under the elbow there's quite a large abrasion. I noticed it when I was getting ready for breakfast. I guess it does look pretty grim but anyway when the kids saw it at the restaurant they kind of freaked out especially my granddaughter, who is in the midst of nursing school. She sort of has that med school disease where they see medical problems everywhere they look and they try to fix the problem medically. Sexy kind of cute but they really were invested in following me home from the breakfast and then taking my arm as well as my leg where I scraped it too and sanitizing, cleaning up and then bandaging up my arm. I think it's a little Overkill but my granddaughter is so serious. She really is quite smart and was totally cute watching her go through the motions of trying to repair old grandpa. Both granddaughter and grandson-in-law both focused in on me and made sure that I got my wounds cleansed and covered. I don't think that was their big intention at first but surely ended up being that way. They wrapped a lot of stuff around my one wound on my arm and as I told them it would it's becoming very loose and I'm sure by tomorrow morning it will be totally off. I may have to have Melissa craft another dressing to put on. I have to watch out for my granddaughter too because now she expects Melissa to do heavy duty attendant care services for me. She wants you to do things I would never ask Melissa to do and then my granddaughter says she's going to follow up tomorrow afternoon and see if Melissa changed the dressing and how the new dressing looks.. I tried to take an image of the bandaged arm didn't come out very good and I don't even know if I can find it in my photos that I can use to post onto the blog itself. If not I'll figure out another way to get images of my wounds over to my granddaughter so she can see that we're taking her seriously and repairing my body. I'm just going to have to be now very careful and what I say are what I show medically speaking to my granddaughter. I assume that she's going to be in this mode for the next 4 to 6 years as she works herself through her academic Medical study..

 

Clam chowder and chips

 

     

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I woke up later than usual this morning and I was also slower this time that I was slowly getting of bed. I was a little concerned since yesterday I had a near problem with transferring from the bed to the chair. Luckily I resolved the issue with only some minor trauma today but I was cautious that problem didn't happen today and it didn't. Even then I was just not motivated as usual to get dressed as soon as possible so I can get over to the coffee shop for my Saturday ritual of sitting by myself and watching the other people communicate. In fact I was very close to not going over at all except that I did not want to make a whole pot of coffee and I figured it by the time I got dressed and everything it would be pretty late in my regular people would be gone by then. So I dilly-dallyed around the apartment then about an hour later than I usually did I ran across the street. I was getting my coffee and I heard my name called well not my name name I heard “dad! “. It was Marc Anthony and he was sitting with his friend Kevin on the other side of the room at the coffee shop. They waved me over and I joined them and we talked for probably the next hour and a half until I made an excuse to go. Those two are really going after it communication wise. That was great I was caught in my own little group having a moment at the coffee shop. I was kind of a third wheel but that's okay I entered into the conversation off and on but it's mostly between those two. At a time when it was convenient I broke the conversation indicating that I had to leave and that was it. Back home to the apartment shortly then out to catch the bus to go shopping over at Smith's which is something new. I like talking to a new store every once in awhile. I saw some interesting items got some grapes some bread even a cold Fried Chicken. So I have food for the weekend or I can make a casserole of some sort usually it'll be frank if I dine to make some rice. I stopped at this fish join across the street Mr and Mrs crab. It's kind of weird but not bad I got a great meal of fish and chips and clam chowder which was pretty good. Probably not as good as the Clam Chowder at Market Street but very convenient and not as expensive. I had too much to eat which worries me because now I'm in the long stretch before the next toilet episode. I included an image of the mess I left at the crabs. Enjoy the meal I sure did...

PB&J today

The dedicated reader knows that I partake of free food any chance that I get whether it's hot and comes from a restaurant or cold and comes from the food bank I'm up for free food anytime. One of the things keeping me from having a spotless apartment is the fact that I've got so much canned goods sticking in the closet shells that any new cans of food are precariously balanced on shelves or stacks of food or whatever. I don't think I'm hoarding this food because I truly believe I will eat it if I get a chance or have to eat the food to survive not having enough money to buy regular food. I've been pondering this dilemma all afternoon. I meant that statement to be is that people who are low income. When you are low income and you have lots of kids or brothers and sisters are however you want to identify the family you always have to be focused on eating the food in front of you or send with you to work or school. And once again the reason that I'm pondering this is because on my table with the loaf of white bread a jar of peanut butter furnished by the LDS church social welfare program and another program set up by the church to feed low income people. Jars of peanut butter, small jars with red lids of peanut butter and white bread which turns to toast. I love peanut butter and I love crunchy peanut butter poor people just get smooth peanut butter. I guess that makes sense in a weird sort of way also with each LDS Food box the recipient also gets a bottle of strawberry jam. I hadn't tasted the gym until today and now that I have it's a pretty darn good Jam actually. I'm not sure how complicated it it is to make jam I or jelly. I've been in the process all I remember is washing a case of jelly jars and then stepping back as big batches of carrots, onions and what other vegetables go into making a good stew or all canned in bottles in a pressure cooker. The Jam Jar Jam bottle in a polyethylene squeeze bottle but still sealed when I got it. It's been sitting around my desk or my table for some time but it still had the seal over the material itself the strawberry jelly. We got the protection to have off and I squeeze the bottle until I got a good pile of jam that I put on the bread and smooth the peanut butter all around and later the jelly on top of it making them fine PBJ sandwich. I thought about toasting the bread first but since I didn't have any bananas to slice onto it I elected to go with the strawberry jam. As I squeezed the peanut butter out onto the bread and spread the jelly wrap with my flat butter knife. The toaster. This loaf of bread was still fresh it seemed like to me even after opening bread up a week ago. I'm sure it had more to do with the nutrients and are materials in the bread to make it last longer. I've been out of brown bread for a couple of weeks now and I like the brown bread best for toast. But I'm writing about the white bread and the Globs of peanut butter that I put on the White Bread on top of the dining room table. I I put peanut butter on both the top and the bottom piece of bread then I disclose a couple of big dollops of onto the and scores them around throwing both pieces together to make the classic PB&J. A dugout the family size bag of corn chips or Fritos the big Style for super dippers. I drug my coffee over from the countertop to the table and took a bite of my sandwich and was transported immediately to third grade the lunch room of Campus School where I fished my peanut butter and jelly sandwich out of my brown paper bag. I had saved a nickel that I used in the Big Blue milk machine for a paper cart and a milk cold. The white bread was okay but not spun the soft as the one I had today. Many times mom used the bread she had baked for the week. Now, don't get me wrong I love homemade bread but it just doesn't hold up well for sandwiches especially if they've got to survive the trip from home to school in the brown paper bag…

Hot talk

I know we're in a drought and I've conditioned myself to accepting hot days but I have to really admit that I miss the monsoons that we usually get around this time of the year. Hopefully, according to the weather people that I watch on the news we will be getting some monsoons pumping moisture into the area maybe next week but I'll be surprised. I mean we live in the desert everyone knows that so we're always in kind of a drought but never with the kind of heat that were experiencing this year and probably forever onward now. I'm not too worried about myself but certainly seems to have everybody else on edge. It seems like there are calls for emergency Heating crisis everywhere in this community. I don't see the problem myself if you're hot you come in from the summer and cool down one way or the other. If you feel at rest don't go back out into the Heat luckily the world has Netflix now as well as Prime and Disney Plus so you've always got something to watch while you're cooling down or not going out at all. I suppose those who do go out have to have a good reason to do so but getting into a vehicle does feel deadly. Even with the windows down I suppose with the air conditioner running it would be doable but expensive. Everything is expensive now anyways so that's not much of a shock. It's easy to say global warming is the culprit which basically means it's the whole human race that uses and abuses everything to do with climate. It's not every single individual but it's a number of individuals in high power places that make decisions which effect everyone. The big lake in Utah is like totally evaporating. Part of the newsmakers aren't too worried about what's going on indicating there's lots of water still but then there's others that are crying Doomsday and end of the world sounds. Fortunately no rationing of water or fuel has really taken place yet but I'm sure that's just around the corner or until this coming winter season and if we have enough moisture slash snow Maybe we can bring the lake levels back up to a safe and usable level for everybody in the western part of the country that sucks off the lake here in Utah.

I spent time with my friend Lori today at Starbucks. This is our go-to place when we have to link up and make sure that we're still functional and doing okay. We both have significant disabilities it's kind of fun to be out sharing the same spaces everybody folks. For the most part people leave us alone to Yammer on for hours in the afternoon. We like to touch base, make sure everything's okay gossip about past experiences working for the same employer for a short period of time and realize that we basically outlived the director drinking coffee, gossiping and stretching out a hot summer afternoon..

 

Wednesday's winds

 A couple weeks ago I did an Impulse Buy- - I may have told you about it one of my blogs I don't remember- - it's one of those real factual type books almost like a textbook. It is definitely not fiction it's a document called yuppies and it's basically how that strata of individuals developed and became a part of our culture. It's very slow reading no question about it and I'm a slow reader anyway. But I am fascinated about the whole group of folks called yuppies so I thought why not? I've Got Friends who ordered books all the time I don't think they order real books at least one of them does I know but the others like order the books on tape and stuff like that that they listen to. I'm at no way to judge of what is reading and what is not. I mean if you listen to a book and it's entirety can you say that you read it? Does it even make a difference? It's sort of like that concept of can you say that you've written something if you realize heavily on AI to write the document or maybe to help you write the documents. I don't know where one stops and starts and stuff like that but anyway I was visiting via email with one of my childhood friends who encouraged me to stick with reading the volume, when I sort of complained about how difficult it was to read, I listen to this guy a lot cuz he's always been smarter than me. And so rather than letting the volume defeat me and overtake me and eventually have me drop it off somewhere I'm going to read it with small attempts here and there on a regular basis and try to at least get through the additional reading of the volume. His encouragement is helped a lot and now that I read almost 70 pages into the document I've got a good feeling that I can finish at some point in time. It is a dry read there's no question about it I often wonder why these writers seem to have so little in the way of sense of humor when they publish these volumes. This volume at least has images spread through the book mainly of yuppies that they're writing about. The whole concept is still fairly interesting to me how a whole social branch of the American public kind of morphed into existence. I was extremely impressed about how a whole social niche was separated out and lifted up into its own sociological Financial vocational group. That's not really a big deal but it's good for me to stretch my reading skills and commitment to a project. I only dropped the book once today after I nod ded off asleep.

There seems to be a significant amount of win yo ho  tonight as I'm writing this in my bedroom but the window open. There's a tree just outside the window and it seems to be taking on a lot of wind with this branches being pushed this way and that. According to tonight's weather person there is not really going to be any rain pushed out of the clouds on this particular evening probably not even any lightning either. It's just the cold front maxing with the heat of the day produced by global warming but just becoming pretty significant in the days…

Jerkwad World Cup- - televised

I'm such a jerk I wish that I wasn't but I think that something hardwired into me so sad. Today, Tuesday, I didn't think that I had this meeting today. I thought we were going to not have it until next week I called my quasi boss guy Andreas who reminded me that we were going to meet today and not meet for the next two weeks because he was going on a major vacation. Anyway I'm going through some real challenging things right now in the self-dressing department. I can still dress myself and I can pass myself off fairly decently as being dressed but it's just taking me so much longer and I think in some ways it's getting to a point where I may not be able to consider dressing myself anymore in a relative near future. Like I said I finally got myself dressed and still had quite a bit of time to kill so I just sort of hung out the apartment a little bit then decide to just go on in, which I did. I made the mistake of stopping by the bagel Shop and gotta dill pickle bagel. I don't really do this a lot so I'm not very good at it I should have had them toasted and everything but I ended up getting a what look like a bagel sandwich just a ton of sour cream with chopped dill pickles. It actually tasted pretty good but that's just so much bread and cheese even if it's cream cheese. I went to the office and the big boss is still gone he's out of the country or something everybody else is working fairly significantly but they had the big flat screen on the wall tuned into the current battle at some soccer place in Europe. It's this weird thing called the World Cup that everybody's Gaga about right now and I was surprised that the folks there are Gaga about it too. Of course had to be the jerk that I am and had to tell them how much I disliked soccer how much I thought it was a communist if not European plot to push European values back on to the Americans who hadn't been doing a lot with soccer the last couple of years. I just went on a rampage about how weird soccer is and how strange the USA is about the way they just sucked it in in this concept of wanting to be more European like- - at least that's how I see it. The whole soccer takeover was just too manipulative we did exactly what those folks wanted us to do. Anyway I could tell they all thought that I was weird- - and I am - - I try not to be too too weird but this game and the playoffs or whatever they're calledq definitely means a lot to these people at the office. There's nothing I can say that would turn them against soccer. I mean Andreas is Hispanic kind of but he was even wearing a soccer jersey of the team that was playing on the big screen. Well I got out of there as soon as I could. In fact we only did two names today! That's like I traveled nearly 3 hours to get here by 11:00 for just two names. I'm still glad that I went even with all the trials and tribulations, it is important that I get to leave the house or slash apartment whenever I can and I specially like the work concept that it sends me into. I took the bus all the way down State Street all the way to the hospital where I link up with the white bus that takes me to the Community College. UTA is working on tracks again and so we have to go through these bus Bridges to get back and forth to our destination. I did the bus Bridge from 13th South into the library and I couldn't find the bus Bridge to get back so I Rode rt 200 State Street all the way back...

 

Summer nights with emergency lights

It's one of those hot air nights you know middle of the summer, hot days, hot overcast days with a hint of rain but it's all Virga so rai doesn't really touch the ground evaporating due to the heat of the day. I like this kind of nights but way darker than it is right now. I like the lay in bed with the window open and feel the hot Breeze blow across your body. I remember nights like this when my older brother and I would sleep over it our best friends place a farm maybe a mile away from our farm. They were closer to the streets going into the city from the country. In the evening traffic flow was minimal and on hot days like today we would walk on the tower streets and sink a little bit our body weight sinking into the heated tar. The tire wasn't liquid or anything like that it was just sort of soft from the day's Heat. If you want to you could lay down still feel the days warmth on the blacktop. It would probably take all night for the blacktop to lose the Heat only to have it return the next day. I love those days now in the late night as I lay in bed my mind trips back to those days before my body was twisted and mangled never to walk again under its own power wishing that I could.

I was quite surprised this morning after my substitute caregiver got me up and ready for the day and it taken off. I was sitting in front of the stove whipping up my breakfast for the day. I had some spam left over from yesterday which had chunked up into small bits chopped up an onion and fried everything adding eventually two eggs and storing it all together. I really like this kind of breakfast I make them a lot when I'm in a real cooking frame of mind. I was kind of surprised when my regular caregiver walked in. She been gone for a week and she was surprised to see me up dressed and ready to go. She was sure that she had to get be up and ready. I'll sort of getting worried because I had not seen her for a week I thought maybe she'd quit. Her mother died and she had to spend a week with the family making arrangements and all that kind of stuff but she was now back ready to do my care which that will start on Wednesday as opposed to Monday. I will totally be excited to have Melissa back giving me personal care. I've worked with her long enough that she's like a machine that totally committed to my upkeep.

Once again I'm hearing the sirens and horns of the emergency vehicles heading out another run. There is a fire station just a couple blocks down from my apartment complex - I think I've written about this in the past- and every time there's a situation that need professional emergency care the fire engines take off once the big doors are opened. Small squat red and white emergency medicine vehicle takes off follows a few minutes later by the big long truck that has a seat in the very back that a backseat driver sits in that has to do something I'm sure in order to keep a vehicle that long on the road safely. These machines put out a great deal of noise up and down Redwood Road they drive. The small truck always takes off first screaming angrily I said Jets down the road. The big truck follows of course and in the evening and the dark of night you can see where they make the turn either towards the interstate or towards the western part of the city. You can hear their sirens all the way down. One thinks they will never get used to that but they do we do and soon we don't even notice machines now except when you happen to hear they're screaming voices sprinting down the road hopefully to save a life …

 

Sunday Sundown Serenade

The nights have been so weird the last couple of days it'd be in the holiday and everything. Typically the night would be a conchophony of explosions, whistles another noises associated with 4th of July. But this season is a weird season. The drought continues the whole state is a Tinderbox dried out weeds everywhere the slightest spark of Fire will turn the community into an Inferno torch homes and barns and Fields. They catch flame up and burn so fast the authorities really have time to put them out and there's so many this year I think the firefighters themselves are getting burned out and the season just barely begun. But to the point that I was making because of this hyper susceptibility to fire most of the firework displays have been canceled except those under extreme close attention and care. There's been a few diehards that of elected to do their own fireworks but a couple homes have burned as well as some significant property in Weeds and such. Law enforcement is trying to track down a lot of folks who didn't heed the the bands on personal fireworks. Usually when I bed down for the night on these holiday nights it's just one explosion after another sometimes I even see the fireworks but not this weekend and now it's over till the 24th anyway and that's okay by me I think I've enjoyed the silence over the spectacular of the explosion.

For my holiday treat I ended up cooking one of the steaks that I purchased couple days ago. Very thin steaks just two of them and they were $23. I was going to cook them yesterday for the 4th of July but the day pretty much just wound down and I never got the motivation to heat up the kitchen but today was different I pulled out and onion diced up half of it pulled some tater tots out of the freezer to cook with the steak and went to town. I could have used a bigger frying pan but chose to use the little one and just do one steak instead of both of them. So that means I also have one steak left for this week sometime. I don't want to do a major production for just one little steak. But it's fun to have something besides just the piece of meat to ingest. Maybe I'll get some mushrooms to go with the steak and onions next time I cook. These little cookaroonies are not major Productions but just little pieces of enjoyment that I found along the way.

Today was a hot day which I totally enjoyed. I had a breakfast with my son in the morning which is very good and then I pretty much hung out at the apartment for the rest of the day going out a little bit at one point to read and doze in the Sun for a minute. It was really too hot to stay out for any significant amount of time so I did come in and watch a movie or two to get through the day after the 4th of July. I wore my Venom t-shirt it's a new t-shirt and I got at the same time I got the shirt that I wore yesterday that was just a little bit too small and this is also a little bit too small but I wore it anyway and I don't know how much smaller they're going to be after I put it through the wash we'll see it's kind of sad though I really like these shirts I'm just too big. The tooth I had repaired recently still is causing me pain but maybe it's getting a little bit smaller everyday. I had a little ibuprofen this morning and might have a bit more tonight before I crash just so that I'll get him to sleep mode okay and I don't want to have to battle oral pain to get there..

Happy 4th of July

 I resolved early on this morning that I was going to take an early movie and then just kick back the rest of the day read Maybe watch a couple movies on Netflix or Disney Plus my usual way to get through a holiday. However I was pleased when I was contacted by Jasmine indicating that she'd like to come over and hang out for a while. Of course did not tell her that I was thinking of going to a movie because it's more important to me to have any time at all with my grandkids. So it took them a while to get there but they finally did show up and picked up and cleaned up around the apartment pretty well totally appreciate that then Mark Anthony joined us that was exciting as well Mark also got into the act of cleaning things up he watched the dishes cleaned around the sinks and stuff that was pretty nice it was a great Independence Day meeting everybody went their ways of course everyone had other things that they had to do family stuff and though I did not tell them I still was playing with the idea of getting to the movies. I was very pleased to find out that the buses were actually running today and pretty close to the regular schedule. I was totally pleased when sitting at the bus stop outside my apartment that little bus showed up in less than 10 minutes! I was planning on going to a later movie maybe an hour or so later but if I could get there the next 5 or 10 minutes I could get in to the movie that's just starting because it'll still be showing previews and stuff.

I'm pleased to announce that I was able to pull it off get to the to the theater and get my seating area even after some problems about finding my club membership. Today I chose to go to Young Washington a period of timepiece about George Washington as a young individual. Is by an organization called the angel group and I think it's just as it sounds it's a very born again/patriotic type outfits. I did not let that detour me. I thought the movie was well done. It was a real interesting take on the Redcoats and the early Continental Army and George Washington initially wearing a red coat even though he was a local boy. It was also an interesting portrayal of Native Americans and how they served not only the French but also the Continental civilian Army  George Washington was part of. I think I would like to see that developed a little bit further. There was still some aspects of the movie I was somewhat confused with. I would probably be well served to sit through the movie again but I don't know if I'm up for that kind of punishment. I was looking so much surprise though they were quite a few people in the theater with me that's hardly ever the case especially on Sunday.

Later in the afternoon once I came back from the movie I was supposed to cook either one or two of the steaks that I purchased couple days ago. However, I remembered that I have almost full bag of Frito dippers hidden away in the closet and I still have 3/4 of a container of chip dip just what I needed for the movies.

On holiday holiday

It's one of those days where it's a holiday but it's not a holiday. Tomorrow is the 4th of July the real holiday but because it's on the weekend they're celebrating today as they observed holiday. That's all pretty confusing sometimes but nothing federal or anything like that is open so it's just a non holiday holiday. Thankfully the buses were running today I used that early on to go to a movie which was fun. I even had popcorn. Spent more than I wanted to but I had the Sensation that the movie was free because of the program I'm on. My regular care person is still gone so I have Alan the Hispanic and he certainly tries hard. He's operating under the problem of not really understanding perfect English things get a little frustrating sometimes but all in all we get through. I certainly do not have the relationship with him as I do with Melissa. Again it's Friday and that means I don't poop again until Monday at least control it anyway. I'm a little worried because I didn't poop very much today which means I'm holding probably a lot I've got a hold of for two more days kind of freaks me. And with Melissa I could call her anytime and eventually should get over here and clean me up and get me going again I don't think I can do that with Alan. He works for two different agencies hustling and he tries to get some time in there with his family. Plus as much as I can understand he's also trying to start his own agency care Agency. I don't know how much faith I would put in him at this point he seems to be highly motivated however and that's a good thing. I spent $23 tonight or this evening on two steaks not too thick but steaks just the same. I almost had him tonight but I thought I'd wait till tomorrow which is the real holiday. I plan to get him cooked by tomorrow evening so at least I'll have one steak to go by on Sunday. One for tomorrow and one for Sunday I still have lots of potato salad left that's what I had for dinner. I probably should have something green somewhere along the line and I don't know if that's possible I noticed I still have some celery in there that needs to be used I guess that could count as something green from a crunch crunch standpoint. I am still eating off my concoction that's got green peppers or jalapenos in there they're green. I just have to be careful of what I eat now so I don't get too much stuff in me what goes in is got to come out sooner or later.

The hot weather is finally gotten back to the Wasatch Front excites me greatly if nothing else just to sit outside in the shade and read that was for me. I didn't sleep well last night so I tend to nod off a lot during the daytime hours. That's what I like to do most in the summer of retired life…

Working through Thursday

My Thursday just got longer by a couple of hours. I found out this morning that who's ever in charge of the coffee group here at the apartment complex has quit the job and there will be no more Thursday morning coffee groups until further notice. This is totally strange to me it's such a good piece of socialization for this place. Granted, a few more people could show up and some of those might be even men, and it's not like we have to have the social group here at the buildings just convenient everybody and certainly gives the building a warmer feeling but that's just me. Obviously not enough people feel this way and quite frankly I will miss the Thursday morning get togethers but on the good side it gives me more time during the day to do things if I may. Today I used the extra time to jump the bus and go over to a cheap deck clothing store not far from my credit union. I had to get to the credit union to get cash for the upcoming holiday weekend. One never knows when runs going to need cash. I know I'm trying to learn to live more on my credit card or plastic debit card but still I like the feel of the scene of cash either in my wallet or in my secret hiding place. It's something I can give my cleaning person straight from the book to her. She doesn't have to Wrangle the check or have to wait when the banks are open. She can grab the money and just take it to spend however she wants. It's not much but it's more than what she had whether it's for gas or for liquor it's all the same to me. He's been some talk about ordering a pizza in over the weekend to split between couple of households. Cash makes cashing out the people for the pizza much easier or to pay my share however that works. I did my bus trip way early t  this morning probably around 10:30 10:45. I waited for the bus to take me over to the Community College where I can transfer them to Route 47 westbound which goes right past my credit union. The credit union is at eventful except for it took seemed like forever to get to a teller because they were all caught in some sort of social dialogue with whoever they were serving and the transaction just went on and on and on. Things work well for me because no sooner had I gotten to the bus stop following my Trans in the credit union that the old 47 rolled up picked us up and brought me back to the Community College and I rolled home from there.

The strength the rest of the day goofing around the apartment. I should be washing dishes and sweeping floors but I didn't get to that today I'd like to think I was too tired but I think it's more like I was too lazy. I did my arm bike and worried about Lissy.   I can't quite remember what kind of relationship she had with her mother I don't think it was a very good one. I hope she's taking the week off for to grieve but somehow I don't think that's the case either way more power to the girl/ woman. I doubt she'll be back tomorrow I think I'll have Alan again to barely English-speaking Hispanic he's okay I just worry about the long shot between tomorrow and Monday morning ut we'll just have to go through it and see what happens…

July beginnings

 It's truly hard for me to believe that I've turned another calendar page for another calendar month! I know it's cliche but it's true time / life is going way too fast for me to even try to absorb. It doesn't do me any good too bitch about it so I won't then get on with my month. Last night I was so focused on getting my kid Letters Out I was doing them up until 10:00 and then I actually ran him down to the post office or letter area not a post office and drop them in the mail slot but in doing so totally spaced off the fact that it was the last day of the month and my rent is due today. In the past I've always prided myself in making sure that I got things done on time. But the space off rent just one more thing that lets me know that I'm aging and making simple mistakes that I used to not make. Hopefully I will still have time tonight and energy to write out the check and run down and drop it off in the Box. Whether I am one or two days late on my rent doesn't make a whole hell of a lot of difference It just does to me.

The only significant thing I really had on my agenda today was getting my tooth taken care of. The tooth with a hole in the side that I kept sticking my tongue in and the dentist inform me the food is probably going in there all the time too which is totally gross. I really thought it'd be a really short visit but it was longer than I would have liked it to have been. Perhaps it's because I elected not to do nitrous oxide the good old laughing gas this time. It was only an extra $61 but I figure I need to start putting the pedal breaks on. There's quite a discussion and a number of images were taken of my teeth are tooth in question. I guess they couldn't figure out why I needed to have the work done I wasn't in necessarily paying and all the stupid pain tricks wasn't happening. So I guess I could have got away with out any dental work today but I don't like sticking my tongue in that hole all the time it also sends me to signal that it could cross over and get into the sensitivity area pretty easily and I hate it when teeth go Nova on me and there's no easy Swift solution. I just wanted the whole patched up and to see if there really was any ongoing Decay to the point that pain would be involved. They gave me two shots of Novocaine just even having one child know okay means that's going to be a while before they start working on you just because they got to have time to do its work. Then when the drilling started there's a super hint of pain from the drilling saw he shot me again. Then there was another break for the painkiller to do further deadening. I truly hope this will stop any further process. And my teeth area in that area of the cavity we'll see what happens tonight. There's also a lot of discussion going on over my head about teeth that are disintegrating or work that's been done that's still holding together and will continue together. They make it sound like it's imminent that it's going to fail and crumble so I just asked my dentist straight out or my teeth going to last are they going to be crumbling on me soon? And if you were a betting man what was he bet with the outcome? He told me that he was pretty sure his dental work without last the rest of my life. Still I had him patch the hole just to be sure …

June's end

 A busy day and another day for the tablet didn't charge appropriately charge it all day and only got half a charge and I used the first half to print Letters Out For Today Mail out tomorrow. Luckily I have the letters written and they've been printed out now I just have to do the envelope so I don't have to use the tablet for that I just need to use the tablet today to dictate today's blog and journal entry. But I can see that doing this straight into the battery pretty quickly will to go till we can't go any further. It's quite a shock today when I got a message from Melissa actually I first I got a call from the agency. I didn't get to the phone fast enough and it went to voicemail and I had to retrain myself to do the voicemail but I did get to Melissa text wise who indicated that due to a death of the family/ her mother/ she would not be doing my attendant care for at least a week! This is kind of freaky to me just because now I have to deal with another person and I know that's been an issue I should have been aware of what happened and I did the back of my mind I was just never really prepared for it. So now I have this guy I think they said his name is Alan I will have to see how that works. I don't think I'll get the service that I get from Melissa if I just tread water to Melissa gets back I think we should be okay but this does bring up the issue of Melissa can't be there forever at least I don't think so and what do we do when we no longer have Melissa forever? It's good to have a backup plan.

It wasn't the warmest day of the year and it wasn't the coldest either so the heat is coming back a little bit by little bit. I should have worn long sleeves but couldn't bring myself to do it this late in the summer. I did okay, got dressed all right out the door on the bus into the city. We did our names at assist, then they turned me loose. I went straight to the Train that's straight to the hospital made good time and had an hour to kill before my appointment so I got myself a lunch at the cafeteria which as you know I love cafeteria food. I got a big sandwich named after a city but I can't remember what it is right now it was probably more food than I needed. Then tonight my neighbor brought over meatloaf and mashed potatoes another great meal and probably more calories than I needed if not just poop material. I certainly appreciate her looking it out for me.

I was pretty tired but I thought I'd better work on the kid letters tonight so it took a while but I got the pages printed out and that was kind of spooky I had to link up the tablet with the printer again for some reason. I thought it wasn't going to work but finally I did something must have held my mouth right or whatever it finally printed. Now I just have to do the envelopes and then stuff the letters in the envelopes and then should be done. I have not even tried to get on the horse today or the arm bike. I'm just going to have to pick it up somewhere along the week before Sunday which I can certainly do.

Briefly speaking

This may be a short entry for today for some reason the charging mechanism didn't work as well as anticipated and I've had to use my tablet for other areas of writing essentially the kid letters so I've used a lot more juice than usual. The weather is finally returning to a normalcy the cool and flat out cold his leaving the state finally. Today was pretty nice tomorrow will be better and back to hot temperatures by the 4th of July. Really just Monday stuff today. I did my arm bike earlier than usual which I really like cuz that frees up my evenings quite a bit. I am sawing through my new book yuppies and it's a challenging read. I got some good feedback from my friend Dennis Dahl who I guess reads this block from time to time- - a major surprise to me. However he gave me some great encouragement to just work my way through the volume which I did today I finally got out of the introduction and into the first chapter. It's slow reading but fairly interesting. I look forward to reading a few pages a day until I'm finished you know eating the elephant went by the time. Aside from that things are good. I have my kid letters pretty much dictated I still have to print the the letters and envelope and stamp them hopefully I'll be able to get them out tomorrow but I have assistant Incorporated in the morning and then time under the drill in the afternoon to get this major cavity taking care of. I really want to get this done so I don't have any surprises over the holiday weekend. Aside from that life goes on I'm enjoying all of it

 

Remotely Disturbed

Another very cool day, temperature wise. I don't think it got out of the '50s today. I didn't notice it so much this morning when I went over to the restaurant to meet mark for breakfast. I did take a hood and draped across my lap just in case it got too cold but I really didn't have to use it I also wore our stockings just to keep the bald head warm. I did remove the Hat after I got to the restaurant. I got to the restaurant just shortly before Mark did. Many times I spend at least a half a cup of coffee waiting for him or the kids to come but not today we had a pretty good conversation and enjoyed our time together I believe. Going home I felt chillier than I did going to the restaurant so much so that I spent a good part of the morning just hanging around the flat screen watching whatever I could find on Netflix are Disney Plus. Oddly later on in the afternoon something happened. I I lost the remote for the big flat screen. This happens to me once or twice a month I carry the remote on my lap often when I watch the screen. I took me a while to find the remote once I realized it was gone. I looked through the house three or four times not finding it getting a little frustrated I re-examined my feet. Often the remote slides off my lap and slides into my foot box. I looked a couple times and couldn't obviously see it. If it's in the Box it usually stands out but it didn't look like it was there so I spent another hour looking for it then finally decided to look very closely which means I have to get one of the big sticks and move my legs so they're off the foot box entirely what I did that I realized I saw the remote sandwich between the wall of the football and the foot cushions. I didn't pay much attention I finally got the stick and push the remote out on the floor then was able to pick it up with one of my lifting devices a metal dustpan. This does pan works very well especially for heavy items. I was pleased when I got the remote that the batteries are still intact. Often when the remote Falls the batteries become just lodged. I'm not sure what happened but I did something to this remote because after I finally got the item free of the footballs the wouldn't work on the flat screen. I don't know what I did but I did something and so the remote no longer works which means I can't really see offerings on Netflix or prime or Disney Plus which is probably a good thing as far as the amount of videos I've been watching lately but still I desire to watch. I thought it might be the battery so I dumped out the batteries put new ones in till nothing. Once I put the batteries in I get a little blue light on the remote which Fades quickly and then nothing seems to work. I'm almost afraid that when I was lifting my foot box I have a controller that lifts the foot box up. When I used it I thought I heard something crunch but I'm not really sure that I did. Now I'm torn I'm wondering if I were to send away for another box control box with that solve the question are the problem? I don't know I really don't know. The control boxes I've seen on things like Amazon Prime and Chrome or even eBay are not like the one that I have now. They have one or two of the channels I want to watch but not all three. I suppose there might be a way to program another one it seems complicated however. I wish it was easy and I wish I didn't have to do it through the mail. Just another thing to ponder and worry about for this coming week..

Chilly Willy Saturday

know what I really hate I hate it when after a good stretch of hot days I mean really hot days all the sudden the cold front comes in with air coming down from Canada and drops temperatures 20 or 30°. And even though the temperature is at 75 and such it feels so much colder just because you've gotten climatized to the hot weather and I'd like the hot weather. It's summer and I don't want to wear long sleeves if I don't have to so I still got on my short sleeve shirt and basically suffer the whole day. I guess perhaps one of the better optionsis situations holds is that at least going to the movies doesn't seem so cold once you get into the movie theater. It's just cold either way. I went to Supergirl this morning it was not what I was expecting it was entertaining however and I enjoyed being at the movies for an early movie. I've been at the coffee shop earlier in the morning nothing big was going on there so I figured I would just book it on home dump off my big cup of coffee and then get across the street and catch the bus to the theater which I did it was a great event for my morning. Remember I went to the theater last week and saw the new Toy Story I noticed that Supergirl was playing. It's getting towards the end of the month now and I really want to Stack as many movies on this particular month is possible. Remember I'm part of that program that lets me go to as many movies as possible for about 20 bucks a month maybe a little more but if you like movies this is really worth it plus you get points towards drinks and popcorn total win win.

When I came out of the movies the cold front had really moved in dark ominous clouds seemed everywhere with brakes every once in awhile for sunlight to filter through and give you the illusion that things might get better but it was much cooler than before. I can't use the term cold cuz it wasn't cold just cool and uncomfortable. Windows still blowing so I couldn't really wear my hat for fear of losing it with the wind gust would come up and blow it off my head. I was fortunate I didn't have to wait long for the bus to come along. I got on came home and basically hung out for the rest of the day. I made white rice and vegetables with onions and used up the last part of my chicken breasts. The rice turned out really well and so I have rice now for Sunday as well as the first part of next week so I can't say that I was totally not productive today. I even did my arm bike. I was afraid I was not going to get my full 200 minutes in for the week and I actually got about 220 minutes in. I pushed my Windows shut or almost closed so I wouldn't get the cool air tonight. It should be cool in the area until Monday and from then the day start warming again and I'll just have Melissa pull the window open again on Monday morning when she's here. Until then I will dream of hot days and warm nights and endless Summers..

 

Movie melon and blowing winds

The day was hot but not unbearable. There is also a great deal of wind as I understand there is a cold front pressing down on our region all the way from Canada and I had to that cold front are these winds. They were somewhat annoying as far as blowing goes in fact I lost my hat twice as I was and about today. At one point a Good Samaritan actually stopped their vehicle got out walked around and handed me my hat when it looked like I was having a difficult time scooping it up with my hook. This was also on the side of traffic which was probably pretty dangerous for me to be doing at the moment. I got so tired of having to get my hat up off the ground that I took it off completely and stuffed it inside of my chair. I felt pretty good after my attendant care this morning so much so I looked up the time of the next movie I wanted to watch and decided to try to make it to the theater before the movie started. I was somewhat pleased with myself because I actually pulled it off and still had about 10 minutes to sit while previews showed themselves. Sadly I got a small popcorn and a drink very small drink and it didn't take me long to dump the popcorn on the floor as well as tip the drink over in my lap as a matter of fact and this was even before the movie started that was pathetic. I'm so pleased that I was the only one in the theater today that's so weird. My caregiver and I were trying to figure out how's that works when the local theater is showing or screening a film with nobody in the audience or one person myself. On the way back to the apartment following the movie I finally went to a giant type that supermarket and got some fruit that I sorely missed over the last couple weeks. I've got some fine green grapes and I even got a mini watermelon. I think this many melon might have been the first one I've ever really gotten. I did this because one they look so cute in two they're a little easier to transport for me they cost significantly less than a large villain. Supposedly I supposed to get this melon for a $1.75 but it was still $3 on the white paper it's got everything listed on how much it costs. Actually now I'm thinking about it maybe it's a dollar 75 a pound that was reduced from I'll have to ponder that further. I cut the mail and open tonight which is something I hardly ever do which is something I need to start doing more of basically opening up the melons right the same day that I buy them. I tend to leave them for a special time and by the time I finally open up the melon it's all Woody Insider all gone mushy which I hate. But the melon was actually fairly firm and much more tasty than the last one that I got last week. Not as much mailing as I got last week but melon just the same I think I might try to do it this way from now on just because I tend to waste the big melons they're so hard handle as well as save. I wish I had more to report it was just sort of a nice day to get back into doing things and not have to worry about pooping in public oh by the way I went to Toy Story 5 it was worth the time.

 

Hail yes!

Finally, we finally got some relief from the excruciatingly dry season I have been enjoying this spring and early summer. I wasn't sure that we were going to get anything even though something was forecast for today I didn't believe there was going to be much chance. I was just focused on getting through the day without having to poop, which I did, get through the day that is without pooping and to have a pretty good lunch with my buddy Dwayne from the old days. There was wind but that is sort of naturally more it seems like and there were clouds not so much in the early morning but towards the noon time and later the clouds begin to build by the time we had finished our lunch date in the park across from my building the clouds began to form and to masses and bunch up and soon a storm was unfolding. The storm with droplets of rain at first then with more wind and then there was hell large pieces of hail falling the size of my thumb. I don't think I've been in hail that significant before. These white pellets of ice actually stung my hands when it hit them and made my feet Jump Around. I chose not to wear shoes today. The meteorological event lasted probably only a half an hour, so not a lot of precipitation happened but enough that I'm sure everybody got a good drink cooled off the Earth a little bit and for a small amount of time into the local drought. We may have some more precipitation tomorrow and that would be nice but I'm not going to hold my breath by any means.

I finally got the courage and opened up the mailing box that my new book arrived in a couple days ago. I did something I hardly ever do is that on a whim I ordered something that for me was relatively expensive. I ordered a book that I had seen and the new book section at the library. It looked interesting enough that I wanted to read it but didn't want to go through the hassle of going through the library system to do so- - I do this from time to time. Anyway I opened up the volume and sure enough it's a fairly academic volume. Is a book titled yuppies. It's kind of a tracing of the history and background of this upper middle class young people that permeated this great country for about the 30s and forward. I spent I don't know how many minutes trying to read this thing and I only got about six or six pages into the introduction. The subject matter does impress me and I'm kind of looking forward to that I don't know if I have the ability to sit through the whole thing and read the whole volume but I think I probably will get a good part of the volume red if not all of it but it won't be fun reading it per se. I went to the library upstairs picked out a paper back that I can use to get through the nights with and that's all I really wanted

Wednesday's work

I made it through the night without a blowout thank goodness. I was a little frightened that my bowels might not go when I did the transfer over to my chair but they held together real well until my caregiver got here and gave me the suppositories and I did my job. I think I did a good amount and I should be okay till Friday but then again I thought that on Monday only to have Mama's anxiety on Tuesday. I'm feeling great right now but we'll see what happens through the night and tomorrow. I have a lunch date with one of my buddies and hopefully I can keep my poop together long enough to at least get through this event. Ideally I would just like my calling to go back the way it used to be a few weeks ago. But we'll see tomorrow and see what the Day brings. I was so anxious to get out and see something besides the local apartment that I jumped on the bus not long after my caregiver left and went to find one of my Credit Union branch and get some change and some quarters. My caregiver was really great about showing up when I needed her this last weekend and not really worried too much about me paying for her time. I usually feel 20 bucks is enough for this kind of service. She only took $10 and that's okay too keep your employees happy and they'll always be happy for you. I was able to do my arm bike for my 60 minutes today that brings me to 180 now so I only have 20 more minutes to go to get my 200 by the end of the week.

Seems like every summer I have to figure out the thermostat and how to turn it low enough to lower the temperature in the apartment but not bottom out. I'm not really sure how to work the convenience so I just pushed numbers up to 77 and then not long afterwards I realized that I was freezing! Somehow I finally figured out how to turn on the air conditioner and that's exactly what I did not want to happen. Though I have learned that bringing the temperature down a little bit can make a big difference on how one spends their days. I continue to like to be outside on the patio under one of the umbrella tables. I had to go out today and bring down the umbrella because of possible and really severe winds tonight as a cold front is beginning to move into the area. The temperatures are going to drop significantly the weather person even said there would be possible need to bring in our cover up tender plants because it might get cold enough to freeze which is kind of mind-blowing. The other person's even forecasting snow in the mountains and freezing to some of the delicate plants one might have in their Gardens.

 

Tuesday's test

I swear this bowel uncertainty is getting really old. I really thought I was settling down but today as I was getting ready to go to my doctor's appointment all the sudden I got a tremendous urge that I'm going to poop and I've been trying to mitigate the issue as much as I could. Fortunately, nothing's really happened yet but just have that Sensation that any second if I hit something the wrong way bump wise in the chair or something it's going to let go and I'm going to have a poop-a-rama. I'm not even that concerned about it anymore it's happened so often but it's certainly allows me not to do anything. That sounds pretty awkward since wise but I'm not going to fix it. I ended up calling and canceling my appointment which is okay by me. The appointment is with my urologist and it was a follow-up appointment from about 6 months ago if I remember right. I rescheduled till next week and hopefully I can get this whole thing settled down but it doesn't really seem to be happening too much. It's now 10:15 in the evening- - I've made it through the day now I just have to be careful that I wrap myself up in pads and stuff that so if I let go during the night the poop will be limited just to the pads that I have surrounding me. I have a senior diaper that I wish I could wear better that I can put on myself better I guess I should say. I can just sort of reach back and kind of put it in the right place to hope for the best. So far the senior diapers have worked fairly well I've been kind of surprised. It's not like I was going to do anything horrendous or big time today anyway and I missed it because of the uncertainty but it's just the idea especially if I have to travel on public transit and should have a problem in the middle of a bus trip how am I going to ride that one out? I guess the answer is you just have to and people give you a wide berth I guess. I know I've pooped before on the bus but nothing horrendous not to the point where people could tell I had just dumped a major load. And luckily I wasn't a large enough load that this odor was anywhere except right on top of me. The driver probably realized when he went to unstrap me but I don't think anybody else did still it's freaky and something I do not want to have to deal with if I don't have to. As it is now I have a lunch appointment on Thursday. Luckily we'll just be going to the park next to the complex where I live and hopefully it'll be in the middle of the day and I won't have to poop at that point. Luckily the first time having lunch with has spent a lifetime in Rehabilitation services so it won't freak him out too much still I'd rather not have to go through that experience..

 

Monday's moans

I'm feeling much better today than I did yesterday. Melissa came last night around 10:30 cleaned me up- - actually I wasn't in too bad a shape not as much as I anticipated but we did put me on the toilet let me do some more and then clean me up and threw me to bed. I really appreciate her acoming over and doing the work so graciously. She really is a good caregiver. Anyway, did some more clean out this morning and so I'm feeling a lot better now at least I'm not feeling urgent like I have been all weekend. I sort of fortified my diet with yogurt and cheese hopefully that'll have some other effect on solidifying some of my bowel movement. And if not I'll just live one day at a time hope for the good days and get through the bad days. I kind of have everything out under control- as much as anyone can control chaos- - it's makes me feel that I can do something if I need or want to. I almost went over to the market today and picked up some more flavor packets for my water but couldn't build the energy up to do that as well as the Heat of the day was pretty warm. I did my bike work out and I enjoyed listening to some NPR while I was doing the workouts. I watched a couple hours of Netflix or Disney Plus. Was able to read a little bit out on the patio General relaxation. Perhaps the most productive thing I did today was actually fill out the paperwork for my certification here at the apartment complex that dreaded document that must be filled out yearly which allows me to live here. Actually while I was sitting out reading the support coordinator walked by and indicated that she would help me fill the documentation out if I needed help. So I went back in and saw what I could do on my own which was basically all of it. Jennifer looked it over when I handed it in and said it was okay. Stuff ed the prettiest work that comes in and I'm sure but it's enough to keep me housed for another year sometimes that's all I need.

I'm a little sleepy tonight just because I worked out for one and secondly when Melissa left last night turned off all the lights except the one in my room against the wall that I keep on all day. It's slipped my mention when she left actually I called her back to turn off the kitchen lights she forgot that. Luckily my chair was blocking the lap mostly so it didn't really bother my sleep that much but did was somehow getting in bed last night I didn't do a good job or Melissa placed me in bed with the patient lift anyway I woke and my leg was hanging off the side of the bed this is never a good thing. I finally was able to get my leg back on the bed and finish my transfer well actually I didn't do that I just went ahead and raise the bed as high as it would go and finished the transfer which my leg was already down everything worked out pretty decent I was surprised. Whatever that made for a weird day. Tomorrow there's no assist meeting but I have the Urology appointment. It's just a checkup I think I should be okay. Somewhere along the line last month somebody gave me a bottle to urinate in and I don't know if it was these guys it makes sense that it would be but I don't remember it as such. I can't find it anywhere. I'll just have to wear a loose clothes tomorrow…

Sum,Sum, Summertime

 It's officially summer, today is solstice the turning point goodbye spring hello summer and all that good stuff. I wish I could have enjoyed the day more however I felt poopy all day in fact I think I just did a number in my pants. I'm sort of waiting for Melissa to get here clean me up hopefully. Or maybe I'll just wrap myself up and just go to bed and do everything in the morning I don't know what's going on but something is. In the old days I could go a year 2 years without an accident now it's having every couple weeks I don't know it's because of accepted it's going to happen and so it's happening or I'm losing the ability to hold my poop from one unloading to the next. I pooped on Friday morning it's really decent but last night I was feeling a little anxious and I was pleased to get through the night and please to get through this morning's breakfast with Mark and Jasmine. Spent the rest of the day in the apartment hold up in case the worst happened. So I watched movies and that was about it.

I have called Melissa and hopefully she's on her way over clean me up if not I'll wrap myself up and pads try to sleep through the night will clean up in the morning. That's in fact what I would like to do but I've already called her I don't know how much more I'm going to do before tomorrow if any. It was a hot day today and it was pretty warm by the time I met the kids over at the restaurant. A little bit later than 8:00 probably close to 9:00 actually. We had a really good discussion. Mark had a lot of passion to put into what he was saying to the point I had to calm him down once or twice cuz I thought he was talking too loud and driving to people in the booth next to us a little crazy. I knew noticed I was getting the fish eye look for one of the guys that, through no fault of Their Own, we're getting quite an earful of what and how Mark thinks. Mark was able to tone down once I've called it to his attention I think you feel a little bad if not embarrassed. We finally got out of there went on a separate ways Jasmine had issues going on with the educational process. Nursing schools really difficult for her it seems like just so much work so little time. I think this is going to be very very challenging for the girl. I'll try to support her as best as I can. I think she'll make it I think she has enough tenacity to stick through to it she certainly smart enough it just has to go through the issues of doing what they ask. Academia can be such a pain in the ass.

Regarding what seems to be changes in my bowel movements and accidents and surprises I just have to be patient and very self forgiving and realize that this is going to be the next part of my life. Certainly have to accept a lot of things that are in Pleasant in the aging process. I really begin to think that's what it's all about as far as getting so fed up with this life you're willing to go to the next just because it's such are so demanding to live on all levels of pain and inconvenience…

Springs end

It's late on the last day of spring, Saturday night, summer heat is already on the wind is blowing my windows open and I'm worried about staying up too late because I'm getting up early in the morning to have breakfast with the kids- - hopefully. I'm a little worried that I might have a bowel movement during the night. My schedule seems to be messed up somehow totally bums me out but anyway I've squandered away another perfectly good day. Will not totally squandered. Last night I lost the use of my television / cable or whatever it is. I could not get to my Marvel movies or even local programming something indeed had changed so I do what I always do as I called my son mark who I think is the technical genius and had him drop over this morning early. I know that he has a lot going on his Saturdays especially in the mornings so I was really pleased that he is willing to take a few minutes to come over here and look at my problem. I knew it would take a few minutes that was all then he can go on and do whatever else but he wanted to do. But we got the TV working are my connection my cable connection found out that I had pushed a connector against the wall in back of my TV system I'm kind of crushed the plug. As usual Mark was able to get the things going again and I'm back online happy as a clam with Disney plus and other programming options. Mark made a suggestion that we go over half coffee yet my little coffee shop across the street. I thought that was a fabulous idea because as you the constant reader knows that I often go over to the coffee shop and just sit by myself and watch everybody else communicate and socialize. Today I will be able to give that illusion as well I was excited. He got over to the coffee shop settled in and then one of the servers are the guys working behind the bar recognize mark they were old friends from another period of time. They started conversation that lasted for the next 45 minutes totally amazing. We were just yammering away at my table. I had my own little group and it was kind of fun even though I was definitely the third man out. These two definitely had a history and they're renewing it. That was kind of it for the day actually for me anyway I went back to the apartment watched something on the flat screen. I went back to the market and got a couple more fried chicken breasts that I want to use in stir fry and other things that I need chicken meat for. I've got these interesting little packs of noodles that if you add chicken to them it makes it a real meal. That's kind of exciting. Back at the apartment I did I washed some dishes try to sweep up a little bit I really made a mess with Cheerios this last week. For a day I did little in I'm pretty tired looking forward to sleep provided I don't you know..

 

Baclofen backup

The night is coming on and there are clouds in the sky. Dark clouds spread across parts of the sky with blue showing through. If I was extremely lucky there would be Rumblings and Thunder and a case of a lightning flashes but these are dry clouds and for what the weather woman says if there is any moisture in these guys the moisture is evaporated long before it hits the ground. In fact we're on high alert fearing anything like Sparks or lightning that could burst grass or trees into instant fires add to that the occasional wind gusts and we're in serious trouble here along Wasatch Front- - actually not so much the Wasatch Front as the Wasatch Back and other places in the Utah area. We're about 2 to 3 weeks ahead of schedule this kind of weather comes later on in July but not this year. I just got back from the market and it's nice and hot outside at 9:00 p.m.

I had not planned on running to the market tonight but I got an announcement on my cell phone that my medications/ prescription was ready. This was a little shocking because before the last two days I've been trying to get my physician to update my prescription so the drug test could fill out my order for Baclofen. Even as late as tonight or 5:30 I called to see if I could find anybody in the pharmacy in the personal answer it indicated that there was nothing there to show that I needed a prescription filled. It was only later in the evening while watching the news that I got a ping on my cell phone telling me that my prescription has been filled and was waiting for me to pick it up. I did not want any other issues to come up, even though they probably would not I'm just gun shy at this point, so I figured it'd be worthy hassle of suiting up and heading over to the market. I'm glad that I did. However, I was not in any real stress just because I have a small bottle next to my bed that may have 30 or 40 Baclofen tablets inside. I've had this little bottle for years in case I need baclofen during the night for spasms and such but also works quite well as an emergency backup system. I feel quite fortunate that the guys at the pharmacy didn't get the holiday off but either way I would have been okay I had a backup system.

My next challenge is tomorrow when I have to call Xfinity to find out why my Disney Plus and other Services have been cut off. My computer is saying I've got a bad connection and the only thing I can think of is somehow I may have pulled a wireless or something. I was hoping my son would be by tonight and he could monkey around in the back and find a problem and hopefully fix it he's very good at that kind of stuff. I can actually get to the subscriptions that I want the hard way the wrong way. It's very difficult and then frustrating. Perhaps it's just as well I can spend more time reading the new novel I picked up the other day from the library plus a brand new book came in the mail so I'm totally excited and have stuff to read an d things to keep me entertained besides the flat screen …

No coffee for me!

 I hope again about 3:45 a.m. and I really felt like I needed to use the restroom. Usually when I'm in this quandary I try to force myself back to sleep regardless of the urgency. Sometimes it works sometimes it does but I know I didn't want to try to stay awake till 9ish or 9:30 when the coffee group is supposed to assemble. Well I did something this morning that I haven't done in months and that was cath myself in bed! This is a bit of a challenge it was a big challenge with my bed wouldn't lift the upper half up but now it does. Trying to cast myself in bed still a trial but this morning around 3:30 a.m. I decided if I didn't try it or use the catheter I would be sorry at some point in time during the day. Luckily I had everything assembled before I went to bed not knowing for sure if I would need some of the materials. I use some of the slippery stuff on the end of a catheter roll over to my side and then insert the catheter up my penis and into the bladder I guess. And that's what I did this morning took me a minute to figure things out but using the top of the bed to lift me up and the middle of the bed I also used which raises the midsection in the lower section up which is great because it puts everything right where I can reach. Like I said it's still a bit of a challenge find that need to be whole while laying down and feeling like you need to go to the bathroom immediately. I was surprised but I felt that I was finished with the void I was amazed to see that it was almost 800 ml which is really quite a bit to void out this early in the morning as well as doing it in bed where just one move could drown me. When I was finished I pulled the catheter out and put it back and in its place.  I used to do this maneuver quite a bit once or twice a week but not for at least a year now. With the void I basically went back to sleep or tried to. I think I slept for about 90 minutes following the void experience. This rarely happens and I was kind of excited. I don't know if I'll have this opportunity again if indeed it's an opportunity. But I sure like to know what I can still do.

Today is Thursday and that's the dedicated reader knows it's coffee social day. That day when coffee is made and everyone sits around the table trying to be interested in everybody else. It's not a mandatory thing so people are there just because they're really interested in the concept. We don't have a lot of folks but those that do sort of look forward to it and I'm becoming one of those. This morning after I finish dressing I rolled on down to the room and it was dark deathly dark. No coffee social today not this week. It's not a big deal certainly not the end of the world but you know seniors don't like to have things pulled on them and they hate to have the routine messed up you know?

Beach crew

Another very early wake up. Last night I had a nice issue with pooping the bed! Fortunately, it wasn't a large movement very small in fact and I was able to mitigate much of the issue by extra sheet savers or pads. My stomach was growly and upset when I went to bed I thought that the bad thing would be the best thing and would not be an issue until this morning when I'd be able to get on the toilet with my caregiver got here. Still it's just a freak out every time something like this happens and sadly it seems to be more and more frequent or maybe I'm not as Vigilant as I used to be and realize the cleanup is just a cleanup and not the end of the world. Just the same Lissy, wonderful about the whole thing and just jumped right in and cleaned everything up. Still there's something like this that takes the wind out of your sales for the whole day at least it does for me. For one I'm always famished but gunshot to eat anything. In fact I'm a big believer in bananas as far as beginning to firm up the bowel again and I'm out. Well I had one banana very underneath some papers on the table which I consumed- - the bananas not the paper. Then I actually went across the street to the market and got a bunch of bananas just so I have enough to continue the process. I also had nice helpings of cheddar cheese and crackers has anything else I thought might clogged me up. I even thought about ordering the cheese pizza but I don't need that many calories. Hopefully tomorrow things will have settled down a bit.

The temperature today was also in the upper 90s and that's just great by me even though it does have an impact on my ability to be clearly focused. I did take the the opportunity to go out and read on the patio again under a umbrella table. That was sort of fun. I just have to deal with folks stopping by and visiting or wanting to. I usually entertain the individual and engage in some banter of communication. I'm trying to finish my paper back soon as possible. The book I ordered yesterday I found that I didn't use an active card so the sale was denied. I only found out this afternoon and that was because I was a little concerned because the book had not come yet and they really went out of their way to stress that it would be here today. So I tried another card and hopefully this card will not be denied and I will have the book by this weekend- - Maybe. I really miss the summer swim. This came up during the family reunion this weekend when the kids were talking about how I used to swim at the bridge at span a small canal in South Boise. It was a great place to swim and many of the people in my part of the neighborhood swam there in the afternoons. I was pretty young at the time so there are a lot of older folks there teenagers as we called them anyone from 14 to 21 or 22. Many days hot like today everyone just hung around the bridge drove over the railing- - in my case they would throw me over the railing- - and we totally cool down to come out of the water down by the beach and get started all over again till one got too hot. I swam her everyday before my accident and after maybe a year after the accident after I got home I continue to swim there with the help of a beach crew the number of volunteers that would throw me over the side of the rail and then Beach me which is pulling me out of the water putting me in my wheelchair push me back up onto the the bridge. I miss those days I wish I had a beach crew...