Birthday hangover

I was going to go out today and do stuff I really was but I didn't. I'm not sure but that the tone maybe it was the time it took me to get ready just for the day. I actually woke up at 6:00 a.m. didn't get up till around 7:00 it was just a little difficult of my sticks which was different than usual but I still made the transfer. The transfer itself was a little difficult and it took me awhile to situate myself up to the point that I felt comfortable enough to go into the other room to start the coffee and stuff. But it was more difficult No Doubt. I don't know what if this spooked me about things to come or just was an off day. I really didn't even get ready until about 10:00 only then barely eating my breakfast. I did my arm bike earlier than usual got that out of the way the one hour. That's what I noticed that the electric device that keeps track of minutes and distance and stuff like that traveled is misbehaving. It's done this in the past but I kept a close eye on it and even with its problematic shut itself off and on it still kept very close to what was going on in actual cranking I feel like got my 60 Minutes in and they were honest minutes as well. I need to really seriously consider trying to find another arm bike or device that would give me as much exercise as this good old piece of equipment has done over the years. I would like to have the backup so I lose no exercise time at all if the machine I'm using now totally fails and will not come back online. I really don't believe that will happen but just in case I want to be ready.

I did not even watch that much television / flat screen today towards the latter part of the day. I watched the Utah Jazz they finally won the game. I was impressed. They actually played like the new what they were doing. I don't know if it was because the other team had so many of its regular team members on sick leave but it was a good game I'm glad I watched did not just listen to it. The family sent the leftovers from last night's dinner home with me for leftovers and I had those leftovers watching the game tonight it wasn't a lot part of a hamburger fries cheese stick some other mix so American Delicacies it was enough for dinner when I did not have to go in and fix though I have the fixes for some decent dinners. Yesterday, I had Jackson put the chocolate cake that was provided for my birthday on top of the refrigerator I think primarily so it would really keep me from eating it. I had this weird notion I'm going to offer the cake up for Refreshments at Coffee social on Thursday I don't know if I will now. However, after dinner just out of curiosity I wanted to see if the power chair would Lift Me Up High Enough that I could snatch the cake and guess what it did. There was just one piece of cake left over in the initial cut then that was enough for dinner or after dinner treat. I scooped up a little bit of the icing too just having something extra sweet and put talk back on the cake itself and snapped it shut. I may still offer up the delicacy for the coffee group really is too much sugar for me to handle except for I do like the dry cake and milk treat it's an homage to my dad.

Birthday boy

3It took me a minute to orient after I woke up this morning at 2:00 a.m. I couldn't believe it. I did manage to go back to sleep but woke up on the hour until 4:00 kind of dozed until 6:00 a.m.. like I said it took me awhile to orient that it was my birthday February 2nd, Groundhog's Day that day that you're living in for me. 75 years on the rock and I'm looking for more as many as I can get before the timer runs out. I knew it was going to be a packed day especially with two events and me having to make both of them. The first event was going to lunch with my neighbor upstairs DJ. This is our first time out together and a birthday is always safe ground. Elected to go to this Chinese restaurant north of my apartment complex. I must say I made all my appointments on the bus in good time today it was amazing. Anyway I went to the appointed restaurant Ming's Garden and waited for about 15 minutes before my person shows up DJ. I had a great lunch. I do like this place it's one of my favorites it reminds me almost of the old Chinese restaurants that used to be so ubiquitous not so anymore. So many have taken over our bed taken over by Vietnamese people. Seems the Chinese folks who owned the restaurants wanted to cash it in probably move to Florida. This restaurant like I said just still much like the ones that used to be everywhere. The food's good you have to wrestle with the order taker because she doesn't understand what you're saying and you want to ask specific questions. We finally got our order and it was relatively close mine was right on but DJ left a little bit to be worked out. She wanted gravy over her rice with the little note-taker person order taker wouldn't have it. It was great because it gave us something to talk about and to laugh about it I'm sure a memory or two. We ain't talked to enjoyed our company but I had to get back to the apartment to catch the workout this is on the arm bike. I did an hour on the arm bike and then it was a few short minutes that I rested and got the phone call that we were moving on to meal number two for my afternoon birthday dinner. I had to immediately get out and catch the bus to head south. I ran into my company as I was getting off the bus and rolling over to where the restaurant was at and we changed the restaurant to another very close in proximity Applebee's. I didn't care where we went as long as I could get there by bus relatively easily and this I could and I did. 

Everybody showed up and it was great at Applebee's. I got the fish and chips everyone else got more protein oriented meals a lot more beef options there are some other choices in there too but I got the fish which was pretty good. Can we get the gifts and the cake the chocolate cake which is also good and fun. We spent quite a bit of time just talking then we all reunited over at my apartment and they did an apartment cleaned which was great. There is one more gift to be had as they presented me with an Alexis the little bundle of artificial intelligence to run the apartment. I'm surprised they didn't realize that I didn't like Alexis are the Alexis type concept. The whole thing scares me it's the whole artificial intelligence thing. But I couldn't tell them no they obviously went to Major work and stuff to get this. I was surprised at how much work it took to interface the device to my living environment. I'm just going to accept it for now speak as little as possible and try to keep it out of my life as much as possible. I'm sure I'm going to hurt a lot of people's feelings at some point when they realize how much I dislike these kinds of options. With Alexis set up in supposedly working everybody went on their way they did a good job cleaning up the kitchen and sweeping the floors are the rest of the apartment- - I'm truly blessed no question about it. I'm exhausted just finished the conversation with my daughter who lives in Oregon, Salem. I'm glad birthdays come but once a yea×Wr and 75th birthdays once a lifetime. I really kind of hope I see another one. I just hope the event way less stressful…

 

Last day at 74

I hope my frustration will not bleed through on the presentation of this blog tonight. All day long I've been trying to charge this tablet that I use for riding my blogs. Just your regular Samsung tab I don't know the number on it or anything I got it pretty cheap if I remember right and possibly that's probably the problem. I've tried a number of different plugs but I can't get any of the plugs to really stay inside the tablet to charge the battery inside. I left one all day today after I finally got it to connect the only charge like 10 or 12% leaving me like 63% battery capability and it's getting low right now. I hope I have enough juice to finish this update. In fact I was looking at some newer tablets so I had the courage to purchase one. I really need to link up for somebody knows what they're doing to make sure I get the best purchase because we're talking about it device that's going to be more than a hundred bucks I'm always afraid I'm going to lose money on the project like this. Anyway..

I had a weird evening I woke up around 3:00 a.m. got back to sleep woke up again at 4:00 a.m. and really didn't get back to sleep after that. I haven't been super tired today but I haven't been really perky either. Had a pretty good breakfast with the kids this morning cuz Mark and me for the longest time then the other kids joined us after a bit. As always we had a good conversation and tried to make sure the times for the meals that I will get tomorrow for my birthday. That's correct tomorrow is the day I turn 75. That is really hard to Fathom for me kind of freaks me out. But I'm going to make the best out of it this is going to be one of my best years I could tell. It's going to be an interesting day tomorrow I've got Mark Anthony and Jasmine and Jackson for dinner in the afternoon then I plan to have lunch with DJ. Should be a very interesting day to say the least. Halfway tempted by myself a cake just to have something sweet to eat for the week. If it hadn't been Sunday I thought I'd make one today but too much work for the Sabbath. Maybe if I got up in the morning I could get one made or perhaps just flake out and go across the street and get one from the market. A very nice happy birthday cake is that too weird? I hope not. That would be a very useful gift as far as birthday gifts go. Something I could really enjoy and would eventually disappear. I don't want really anymore gifts that will take up space and remain After I'm Gone. I've got enough for people to get rid of as it is. No more art stuff no more pens inks or anything like that. If I was going to do the Great art piece I would have done it by now with the resources I have available. No more books no more anything that takes a space like I said just things I can use immediately and not have it hang around. Things like movie tickets perhaps, are tickets to other kinds of events but even that I don't know if I would go cuz it just takes so much energy to get up and go somewhere when you're in a power chair you don't have any regular means of transportation. It was a pretty nice day for the first day of February. It's a bit of a shame because we need much more moisture both snow as well as water. I shouldn't enjoy the nice weather that we're having because we really need the dark clouds in the rain and no moisture that storm spring. It's going to be a short month  always is in February. I have to make everyday account…

Last day Rambles

Today was the day of small things. Little bitty, by themselves, insignificant items that when you add them all up makes for a day. I was awake pretty early stayed in bed till 6:00 30ish getting up and getting ready for the day. I was going to be Swift and get over to the coffee shop early and hang out that did not happen. I dally too long looked at the puzzle too long filled in a couple spaces, decided I would make a breakfast which I did it was very good but certainly cut into my time frame finally I struggled to get dressed which I finally did. I didn't get to the coffee shop till almost a quarter to 10:00. In fact one whole table was leaving just as I was coming in that's really odd. I found a table however very easily this day only to find out that I left my cell phone at home. Do you know how hard it is to be alone at the coffee shop all by yourself with nothing to play with except the coffee cup, my stick/hook and the power chair I keep slipping out of, I swear if my safety belt didn't work crazily good I would be sliding out on the floor. Today I even had a round donut that's not a donut smathered with cream cheese bagel that's the word. I can't believe I ingested the whole thing too. Had I been really smart I would have just had a chocolate donut and or Maple bar. I probably crapped out on calories with the loaded bagel. I got out of there relatively soon probably stayed an hour but I got back to the apartment make sure that the phone was there and it was. Did they help promise but it was colder than I anticipated. I hung out at the apartment complex at my apartment watching the flat screen again started another series which sounds kind of intriguing, something put on my Netflix. I caved in and began watching Disney Plus a new series started and I am going to support this series Joy it till it ends or at least this season. Another insignificant item which happened today was I was struggling to put my shorts on Stick I was using to elevate my foot to cross my leg snapped. This is one of my favorite sticks I was surprised but not surprised that it broke I really do put these sticks under a great deal of pressure when I try to use them to pry my leg up or at least to get the Barefoot over my knee so I can pull my shorts up or put them on and then put a shoe on. It's important that the shoe goes on right after I get my foot inside the short leg. Today I forgot to put the shoe on and my leg fell to the ground before I put my shoe on. it took me quite a while then get it back up over my left leg put the shoe on and then do the same to the other leg. As I was doing this leg left using my stick as I always do it snapped on me. This is a shame because I really like the stick this evening I cut the stick down, cutting off the sharp edge or end and put blue stuff on the other end. It'll be a good short stick for things like pushing my pants down or shorts down to where I look fairly well put together with no back Skin showing. I may go to bed earlier than usual on the Saturday night just so that I can wake up early enough to make sure I'm dressed by the time I need to leave for the breakfast. What are the people here at the apartment complex whose name is DJ an interesting woman. I've been trying to take her to dinner out somewhere for the longest time. She really wants to take me to dinner for my birthday but I've already made plans with the kids now I've got to figure out how to juggle all these things together. This is why I don't get involved…..

 

Stamped, mailed, and done

 It was a significant effort on my behalf but I finally got them all off today. I was awake at 5:30 a.m. and found a drug my ass out of bed around   and piddled around the apartment cleaned up a little bit made coffee waited for my caregiver to get here. My goal today, major task in hand, let's do get the Letters Out. I finally got them all printed and the envelopes addressed and failed. I got cash in the envelopes that needed cash and everything was done except for the stamps and wouldn't you know it I only had five stamps and needed one more. I hope to get a hold of Jennifer the front desk person but she had a door closed all day she was doing rent reviews or something like that I need the Silence of the closed door for concentration and probably privacy as well. That meant one thing a trip to the market to the post office they have in the Macy's. It wouldn't have been my first choice for today but I did need to pick up a few things for the weekend. Finally after lunch I pulled the big red coat over my shoulders I head out across the street. Of course on the way I dropped four of the letters which means I had to backtrack to find them and then to put them up on my stick and drag him up to my lap. Fortunately the letters dropped just outside the door to the bus stop as I was bent over trying to pick up a couple of the envelopes. One of the people who live here stopped and retrieved them off the blacktop for me. At the market the first thing I did was go to the counter and get stamps then  finished stamping the envelopes and drop them into the mail return. I don't think there's a ghost of a chance that we picked up today but you never know it might just happen. I got my part out of the way that's all I cared about and now I have the whole month of February to enjoy before I start having to put together the March mail out. Since I'm still in the mailing mode I've almost decided to print out envelopes for March. That's not a promise but something I'm just considering.

Thoroughly Thursday

 For the past couple of days I've noticed something on my chest. I haven't really paid much attention and I thought it was just actual paint or something but today I finally got a better look at it and it's a wound of some sort! Of course, my mind immediately goes to cancer and I pray that it is not but I really didn't make a lot of efforts today to get it looked at or whatever. It's too late in the week and I want to ask my caregiver tomorrow to see what she thinks. I really value her and put on things dash dash of DD were here that would certainly bounce it off her. She has the best medical input on something like this. I'm totally hoping it's just nothing just my overactive imagination I somehow I got it the wound started somehow I don't know how I could have started it but I must have pinched at a torn it somehow unless it really is a carcinogenic skin breakdown of some sort right now I'm just scaring myself so I'm going to stop right there.

It's Thursday so that means it's coffee social. I was up around 6:00 a.m. as usual and farted around here and there just messing around made some breakfast took my meds finally got myself dressed I still haven't finished my folding my clothes like I need to and at this point I think I might just wait and have Melissa do it in the morning she's quick. I should have done today at some point but I was more involved with going to lunch with my old boss Claire. We had this appointment for like a week now we meant for lunch across the street at the Hawaiian restaurant. This is becoming my go-to place just because it's convenient it's fairly nice it's a good place to sit and visit. It's a little expensive but most of the folks that I go there with they paid the lunch so what can I say? Everything points to moki's. Today I had the fish the first time I've had fish and chips and such a long time they get primarily because Claire was paying the bill. I certainly enjoy this person I'm really always amazed that she is still alive. She's gone through some really Medical crises of late- - but haven't we all? We had a great conversation. I wished it could have been longer and we've committed to having closer times together or having our lunches more often. I even carved out enough time this day too finish my 200 minutes on the arm bike. I only have to do around 20 minutes on Thursdays after the first three one hour pumps. The rest of the day I pretty much watched episodes of a cereal that I'm looking at right now. I've seen it before but I really enjoy the first season and the actress. Whenever I have a few minutes of time I've got to fill, I'm doing it one of these series that I've enjoyed watching.

Sadly the only thing I'm really not doing, which I need to be doing, is finishing the mail out of the kid letters. At this Junction I think I'll be able to get that done tomorrow if not Sunday. It's really not that hard it was just hard…

Wildly Wicked Wednesday

 I had to turn off the game and come in and blog. My team is losing again and I just couldn't tolerate watching the game anymore. Basketball I never did really like the game when I was able bodied and that was a long long time ago. Now I think that's an adult and an old adult I probably would have enjoyed playing some backyard ball. I never played basketball with a team you know like high school or whatever and I just couldn't get into the whole group function. Instead I wrestled, my older brother wrestled and I think that's the main reason that I did actually. I always told everybody it was because I didn't want to share the glory or the loss on a team level that if I wrestled I individually was out there on the mat and if I won I won even if the overall team lost I still won my match and that was good enough for me. And honestly I really didn't like wrestling that much, wrestling was just something I could do and do well shocking to me as it were. I did not enjoy the pressure there sport put me under and not just wrestling anything actually where I had to “ perform”. The day before in the whole morning and afternoon of the day of my wrestling match I can hardly even eat anything I was so worried but once I started the the actual match I was into it as into it for all that I was worth tried to pin whoever I wrestled within minutes of the first round. I didn't want to go any further than that if I didn't have to. There were a couple times when I did go the three rounds and that was grim but I eventually won in the end. The entire 3-year career of my short wrestling career I think I lost only twice and I still swear the guy choked me and the ref didn't see it. It's not like I've nursed this this long time it's just stuck with me, the loss.

I've spent a good part of the day doing my kid letters. I finished I believe the last letter and I spent the latter part of the afternoon printing envelopes are trying to print envelopes. I don't know how much of the problem is my printer and how much of it is the envelopes that I use but they keep getting caught in the printer and I keep having to undo the printer pull out the finger in pull the crumpled up envelope out and start the whole process over again. I had to do that three times on today's print. I should someday consider getting another printer but this is basically a good printer when it works that sounds kind of weird. But it seems to be holding up though I did get one message from the printer showing what the level was of ink I had left I believe I have enough into finish printing three or four letters I have to do but I do need to seriously consider ordering another container of ink. I'm online however to get everything mailed out by the 1st of February sadly it's a short month and I'll be doing this again very shortly.

Tackling Tuesday

The day was chilly starting out but it was beautiful as far as no clouds in a nice big shining Sun to at least give me the illusion of heat when facing the fireball on this somewhat chili Tuesday morning. I was headed inbound for the meeting at assist inc. I'd actually made decent time all morning getting up about 6:00 and then just working steadily at getting ready to catch the 9:20 into the library then out over to the office. I even made time for a much breakfast, oatmeal mush and toast it was pretty good actually. I probably would have liked to have some kind of a protein options as far as the breakfast went even an egg would have been nice but I didn't want to go through the extra work of having to fry something up. And the only meat product I had available possibly was some unfrozen hot dogs / wieners. Again I could have opened up a can of spam but seem like an extra layer of work and I didn't want to jeopardize getting in to Salt Lake too late.

I was the only member of our three member group of volunteers that sign off on these requests for funding documents. Both of the others are now quite sick one not even coming back I guess, Robin who I really like actually has got cancer and she's a Goner. This is really quite a shock. Seems like I'm the only constant volunteer that usually makes the meeting nowadays. Knock on wood I hope I can continue to be the Dependable one. We, the folks of assist, should start searching for a couple more volunteers. I don't plan on going anywhere soon but the second you start thinking you're going to be there forever is when you get the rug pulled out from underneath you and there you go flat on your face. I was going to go to the bank today following the meeting but yesterday at some point I was looking for one thing and found an envelope and I think I had 200 bucks in there. $100 bill in 3 20s and four tens. The reason I was going to the bank would be to get enough cash to stuff the envelopes for those folks that I write that get cash it's not many but still I didn't want to run out of cash as it were. So I just went to the train station across the street and caught the train home stopping at the market to get a few items that I've been thinking about for the last couple of days. I even made a list but then the list was on my cell phone and my cell phone got buried underneath the box that I was putting the groceries in. I still missed getting a couple of the items I was considering. Even with that I forgot to get ahead of cabbage and possibly ahead of lettuce. I continue to write the letters. My big fear now, since I have cash, is that the printer is going to mess up on me and I'm going to have a difficult time printing these. Tomorrow I'll finish the dictation and hopefully begin printing at least the envelopes then hopefully Friday I can put the items together and get them out in the mail at least by Saturday morning. We'll see

Monday moans

 I almost went outside today but stopped myself at the last moment for what I don't really quite remember right now. I had been working all day trying to get myself with enough initiative that I would dress warm, cross the street do some shopping and get back in time for the evening news. I just couldn't pull it all together and pull it off. I've been working on kid letters off and on all day besides working on my word puzzles. Really have this weird belief that doing these word puzzles is doing me good. I can't prove anything but I still feel that way. Oh I did pump my arm- bike for an hour I felt that was productive. So the day hasn't been a truly lost cause. The days are supposed to get warmer by a few degrees so I'll be heading out more often. Tomorrow of course I have and my meeting downtown, assist for the first time in 3 weeks. I'm kind of getting excited to get back into the swing of things. I just hope my body will let me do so I'm feeling a little bit unsettled tonight. I'm totally free of Critters in my urine. This of course is a gift from the course of medicine I'm taking for my tooth or extracted tooth recovery. It's always a pleasure to see Crystal Clear urine. The bladder infection well come back as soon as I work through the last of the meds but that's okay I don't have to have a clear all the time. I'm not sure if I told you all about the fact that I run a low grade infection all the time because of all the catheterizationing that I do. My urologist indicates that that's common for people with spinal cord injuries who have to external catheterize. The body more or less protects itself one way or the other. I guess I don't really care one way or the other myself except for unless it gets me down and I can't be out enjoying my life or freedom. Everyday my room gets better in my mouth for the tooth was extracted. Now I'm just being bothered by the suture that seem to be striking out. I spend a good part of my day wiggling the sutures with my tongue just wondering if they'll stay in. As of the first of February I don't have a couple more days before I am seen by the dentist again to make sure that everything is going all right. I do at this point. I think I dodged the dry socket diagnosis. I don't think I've really ever had dry socket and it certainly scares me the way they talk about it and how I don't want to have it. It's very much that whole parent scaring the child into doing something supposedly good.

I'd better wrap up this blog now. I know it might be somewhat short but I just want to get the blog written before I try to write a few more letters tonight. At least that's my plan. I want to make sure I have enough time to either make corrections to the letters are to make sure that I'm able to print out all the documents and envelopes that I will need to in the next couple of days. I still have a week before I have to really mail them out so I'm sure I've got the time

Simply Sunday

I really wanted to have this done by 9:00 p.m. rather than just starting it at 9:00 p.m. but that's just what happened reels and other small videos that's on the internet as you make your way over to the software you need to write your blog. Anyway, I at least did a few things this Sunday as well as just cloistered away from the cold outside early on I was up and dressed and met the kids at the restaurant. We had a pretty good time enjoyed each other's company and got on with her day. I came home and just enjoyed my apartment just sitting here makes me feel good sometimes especially on a Sunday. I should have been more useful though as far as riding my letters for the month goes but I didn't.

I think my main stress point coming up this year regarding my birthday, and this year it'll be by 75th birthday which kind of freaks me out. However, what is really stressing me this season is trying to figure out where I want to go for my birthday lunch or dinner. The kids want to take me out to a meal of where I want to go but I just can't think of any place that's relatively easy to get to and what I would be interested in eating. I thought about the Red Lobster but the only reason I would go to the Red Lobster would be for the clam chowder and I don't think it's worth it to go all the way across town for that in cold weather on public transit. I could default and go to the Spaghetti Factory which I'm not really interested in or this place called verges which used to have really great fish but I don't think they're as good as they used to be. At least spaghetti and bridges is on Redwood Road and would be relatively easy to get to on the bus. There is a little Chinese place I saw kind of like not far from here down the street a quick bus ride across from the community college which might be good as well. I think the kids are willing to go anywhere just to take me out to dinner. It shouldn't be this difficult of a situation but I can't think of any of the other restaurants that are really any good anymore. There's a bunch of new ones that's all popped up but I don't know anything about those guys or how to get to them. That really shouldn't be such a big deal. On top of that I got a text from mild last Claire who now wants to take me out for lunch as well. I don't know what to tell her but I got to be thinking of something because she wants to do it Thursday so that's coming up pretty quick. Either way I'll be getting out of the apartment and being a little bit more social than I've been the last couple weeks. I think that will be good. I really have been letting the weather dictate my living choices the last couple of weeks. I've been enjoying what I've had stored in my storage food and cooking a little bit more than usual. I think things are going to get busy again I better work on getting in shape..

No pain - good sign

 I should be working on my kid letters for February but for some reason I just cannot get motivated at this point in time. It's not like I'm doing a whole lot of anything else. Pretty much I'm just hanging around my apartment watching way too much flat screen. I'm not feeling totally wonderful my butt hurts a little bit but basically I'm feeling it's just too cold to go out and do something if I don't have to and luckily right now I really don't have to leave my apartment for any reason except maybe to put some mileage on the chair and I don't really need to do that. My stomach feels a little gurgly I'm not sure what that's from but I don't want to mess around with an explosion on the outside either that would just be a drag but it's Saturday night and here I sit. I'm not even watching the Jazz game tonight I forgot that it was on and then when I checked on cell phone the team was so far behind I don't think they have a chance of catching their opponents so it's another one down for the Jazz. That was enough for me to just forget about watching the game and doing my blog and hitting the sack for tomorrow. I didn't note that I didn't even go to coffee this morning like I usually do on Saturdays. I just couldn't get motivated these could all be signs of depression Maybe but I don't think I'm depressed. Maybe I'm cautious I don't want to get sick. I had thought about trying to increase my liquid intake which I really need to do but because I'm on medication right now my urine is clear the episode or whatever it is killed everything inside which I think is a good idea and a good sign. I'm not guzzling liquids like I probably should be though.

My mouth continues to heal. I've been having the real problem trying to keep track of when and how many medications I need to take. I'm almost overwhelmed with the project so I'm taking the the ampicillin or whatever it is pretty much the way I'm supposed to and the other stuff I'm taking as well plus I have to gargle or swish this other stuff Qaround my trauma site where the extraction took place. It's all very confusing to me and I hope it's coming along. There's no pain but I do feel an errant string wobbling around back there which I think is a suture that was either not tied down or Has Come Undone I don't know what to think all I know is that it's feeling better, I'm feeling no pain and that's a good sign.

Firebox!

 

I've been pondering my good luck all evening every time I wander into the kitchen to get a drink out of the refrigerator or get a fresh cup of coffee. And once again wonder how many folks in this complex have had close to the same problems. Since we're a group of seniors here I don't think many of us talk about it too much just because too much information about my limitations could be dangerous to my long-term living situation if you know what I mean. But still I was just amazed at how freaked out I get when something like that happens. I mean the most important thing at the moment is to smother the fire one way or the other. It would be great to have a fire suppressant device like a fire extinguisher but even if we did or I did that I've learned from past experience that you got to know how to use the device effectively to make it do any good. So it comes back down to either throwing water on the Flames themselves if you could do that or some other kind of suppressant material like salt or whatever. Just something to douse the flames. I'm wondering why I just think of hard solutions to this problem. Maybe I should look at radical solutions to this problem. One of the most radically that comes to my mind immediately that I should have done or I want to do the next time maybe is to actually just grab the device it's on fire and throw it out away from the wall. I have the stove underneath a wooden cupboard that's probably not very wise at all considering the situations that I'm talking about. Anyway, if I were able to grab the oven one way or the other or even a new phone to my sticks and pull it away from the wall and onto the floor I could kill the flame that way very a lot easier and at least you'll be away from anything else that might be flammable. I can always get another toaster oven.

But I think it's kind of silly of me is that I sometimes have a hard time realizing that the toaster oven is a real piece of equipment. I could actually cook real food in a toaster oven, my toaster oven. Tonight I actually roasted hot dogs or wieners in the toaster oven. No fire tonight thank goodness. But I was able to get that oven roast results of the wieners I had in the oven. Which I ate alongside last night's soup lima bean soup and had a great little meal. But I could also cook real pieces of meat in there like chicken or, even hamburger and steak perhaps I just have to cook it as it says to and use the timer and the oven on type of switch. My toaster it was a nice little device and I'm going to really try to use it more this coming year

Fire extinguisher- - next on my list

 

Sometimes I'm amazed at the people who let me live here, by myself totally in attended doing my ADLs- - activities of daily living like cooking. I've been cooking all day as a matter of fact I certainly enjoyed the time and the ability to get to my stove top and put the ingredients together and throw the heat on and have a meal together into some great flavors and odors and whatever things turn into my food sources. Today I made a bag of lima beans or better yet butter beans. Remember the cans I opened up last week that I got from the market? Well I thought I'd try it from scratch this time to see how it turned out. Well I certainly still need to use a recipe to fix to fix these beans and use it to the letter as I should which calls for a ham hock to do it right. I used diced ham on the other beans I made yesterday or the day before which turned out okay but certainly not the same as a ham hock would do it really would and that would really make for great beans as far as that goes. I now plan to put them all into one container to put in the refrigerator that I'll be able to pull out in the evenings and heat up for dinner along with either pieces of bread or homemade breadsticks. And it's actually these homemade breadsticks which is the focus of my thoughts right now since I know he burnt down the apartment I don't want to say again but I've had small fires before nothing ever destructive and I can always get him put out in time. Today was similar I was toasting the bread that I got last weekend when I was looking for breadsticks so I was toasting the bread and toasted it too long and of course caught on fire! That wasn't a roaring fire and I was able to keep the door closed on the toaster oven which I guess that you're supposed to do but the flames shooting up certainly put me off there's no question about that. I am really going to see if I can get a hand fire extinguisher or a fire extinguisher that I'm able to use. I guess I could get large quantities of salt as well as what other natural fire suppressants that might be out there but still nothing freaks me out more than a fire in my apartment and then a fire in a senior living complex. This also brings me to the idea that if I'm having fires in my kitchen I'll bet there's other seniors in this project that are doing it as well so I shouldn't feel so weirded out. Everybody's cooking and everybody gets forgetful at this point in time. Also consider that I've actually posted some images after the event happened not during the actual flame sequence which is probably best. Luckily there's not too much smoke in the apartment does it feel or smell too smoky this was another point where I was just damn lucky ellipsis

Extraction Wednesday

I must start out this blog by apologizing to everyone for not posting yesterday's blog until just a little while ago. I don't know what happened how I spaced off not putting it up but it was all done and ready to go and I just turned off the tablet and went to bed. If I have to have a defense it might be because I was worried about today's extraction. I did in fact go to the dentist and have a tooth extracted this morning or later on.

My appointment was set for 10:30 a.m. but I got a phone call around 10:00 indicating that they would appreciate it if I were to come 30 minutes later which is okay. I live right across the street from the dentist and so it's no big deal except that I want to get it done and on with my life. When I got to the appointment it was almost 11:00 a.m. and I got sent to a general area to wait until my operating Suite would open up which is just the dental chair big enough to facilitate my power chair. I was there for about 30 minutes before they realized they hadn't started deadening my mouth yet which is a big deal when you're pulling out somebody's tooth. Well the new guy which is the regular dentist's son got the job of doing my extraction. I wasn't too sure how I felt about this at first but I figured what the hell Creed is great I like him and I'm sure he's got a full dental degree behind him extractions are just part of the game and it'll be just fine in fact it's probably even a bit more conscientious since he is still relatively brand new to the dental world as far as being a real life dentist so he's trying hard to be perfect I can agree with that and I appreciate that. This is kind of showed itself a little bit because he started the numbing process but he kind of missed the area that I was wanting to make sure was totally dead. We had to reshoot the area which meant waiting another 10 to 20 minutes but this time it was really dead when Tracy came back and stuck the probe in my gum to see if I would jump. I didn't. When we finally got on the job Creed did a great job acting like a real life dentist, sounding like a real life dentist and cared a great deal like a r l d. He was methodical and focused wedging wedging working back and forth and finally pulling the tooth fragment out. Cost less than I anticipated it was under $400. I got out of there with paying a down payment of $100 calling it good payments yay! Of course they gave me a prescription for I kind of penicillin or whatever to make sure ampicillin or something to make sure that I didn't get any problems with my tooth also they gave me a prescription for a bottle of mouthwash that also was important to keep you my tooth clean and healthy and healing up all right. I was born against dry socket it's terrifies me every time I have to deal with it and pushed out the door. I made a beeline for KFC getting mashed potatoes and gravy and three chicken fingers or chicken pieces or whatever it is. I really like them half of them for lunch then the other half for dinner. The novocaine's finally worn off after my 1 hour on bike and so I am in some discomfort I've taken a couple Ibuprofen will take some more before I go to bed and we'll start in on that regimen of medication I'm medicated mouthwash. Now I'm just concerned about they're going to be able to masticate food at all anymore. And I sure don't want to have to implement a tooth or developed tooth I have a tooth put in. I do need some Grinders however

Talking Tuesday

 Second week without a meeting at assist downtown Salt Lake. I could sure get used to this it's nice having a little extra time. But at the same time I really do like the pressure of having to go in and do my business and then come back again. The most energetic thing I did today was make lima bean soup. Diane gave me the idea for this yesterday when she sent me the Quasi recipe directions on how to make bean soup just out of regular lima beans. I thought I had some dried limes but I guess I did so I had to make that run over to the market this morning actually this afternoon fairly late. I could have used the dried beans for the lima beans but I ended up getting two cans of already processed lima beans and some ham that I could use to put it inside them. I came home and threw it together and sure enough it was good enough to have with dinner as long as well as with some potato salad and I chopped up one of the pork chops it was quite a large dinner actually. I don't necessarily like eating that heavy in the afternoon and evening but I was tickle about the soup and what I'm thinking I'm going to do tomorrow is to start early and soak half of the bag of beans I purchased today and add them to the mixture that I made today with the lima beans from the cans. I think I put too much ham in these beans and so the extra the extra beans will be welcome and I think tastes great. I really do like cooking. I might also consider some cornbread for tomorrow so I do have the breadsticks I can toast as well. That might be good just to get rid of the breadsticks that I picked up last week. I made this good dinner tonight just because I didn't know how I was going to feel tomorrow after the extraction. I don't think it's going to go too bad however I could be just whistling in the dark. I just hope I'll have enough platform grinder surface that I'll still be able to basically eat okay. I'm seeing more and more ads for those weird teeth that you buy that work like real teeth just have to stick them in your mouth. It seems like they're a little bit desperate but when I think about the whole concept of what teeth are and where they're at and stuff it looks like it would be fairly simple to put together an easy denture type situation that's that's inexpensive but functional. Something to grind up meat and nuts and such. As I said tomorrow's extraction is at 10:30 and I should be all done by noon not that I plan to do anything to speak of but still I'm getting a little bit nervous and hopefully that everything will go just fine. I don't think there's any reason why it shouldn't. I'll be glad to get this part of the whole thing done then maybe start thinking about what to do about maybe replacement teeth if that's what I want to do ast some point if I want to spend the kind of money that that's going to take.

Monday Monday MLK Day

I really hadn't planned to do anything today just because and I didn't think anything was going to be open because it was MLK Day- - Martin Luther King I neglected the “jr” junior aspect just because I don't think it's needed? I think MLK's enough does that make me harsh? Does that make me a racist- I hope not I don't think that I am. But anyway I noticed that the buses were running I wasn't sure if they were running on regular schedules or holiday schedules I'm not even sure what those are anymore all I do know is that I timed the ones on Redwood Road and they're running 15 minute headways and that's their normal time so I figured at least on Redwood Road the transit authority wasn't really celebrating much of the MLK Day spirit and that doesn't really surprise me much. I thought about going to the market but I didn't need to for any reason and I thought about even jumping the bus and going up and wandering through the stores up around 5400 South but that just seemed depressing. I hate shopping for dressing because it's just so depression. If I had patience and creativity I can make a great poem out of that. Somebody should but I don't think it's going to be me. I didn't have to cook anything today because I had so much left over from the weekend and then this afternoon I was on my or at my table and one of my neighbors comes in one that speaks very very little English and asked to have that had I eaten and I had not well I sort of had but I assume she was thinking about bringing me some food I'm never going to turn down food so I said no I hadn't eaten and she brought me a great dish of homemade fried rice Frijoles and mystery meat which I'm pretty sure was chicken it was all very good, and very free. So I still have the pork chops that I cooked early on that weekend on Saturday my concoction but I need to remake that and I still have the potato salad and the jello salad. I still have a couple of spoonfuls of the concoction left so I can go a couple days at least before I really have to refill the pot . So I still have great food to consider as well. It's Monday night the Jazz lost this afternoon which is not really surprising anymore. I watched part of the game and then worked out of my arm bike for an hour then return to see that the distance between the high score and the Jazz was too distant to try to make up even with a quarter left to play and I'm not even sure what the end score was I'm just sure that they lost. The Jazz are playing again tomorrow and I'll be sure to catch a better portion of that game. That is if I don't go crazy and jump on the bus and really do something productive.

 

Suddenly Sunday

I truly appreciate the Sunday morning breakfasts we have over at these restaurant usually at 8:00 a.m. or very close to that time when folks get themselves out of bed and dressed and over to the restaurant. I'm usually the first one there cuz I live so close and I don't really have a hard time getting up early and getting dressed. This morning I think I walk around 4:00 a.m. as I've been doing the last couple of days and didn't really get up until almost 6:00 a.m. all I had to do was get myself out of bed, get in and get some liquid in me and some medications then to the bathroom to shave and to drain my bladder. I was kind of surprised I drained approximately 300 cc's or milliliters or whatever it is. Not bad for all night urine production. I guess it could be better but I was able to get a little sleep and drain as I got ready for the day.

Remember yesterday I got those jalapeno poppers at Walmart. I had four or five in the paper bag they saddled me with before I left the building. Of course the poppers were Stone Cold related them out all night and they were a little bit dried out but they're still quite tasty I didn't really need them since I was going out to breakfast anyway but they were there and I took one and then I took another and then I finished what was left in the bag there's only about four all together that was left so I don't need to be too contrite. The morning was cold I wrapped one of the hoods I have around my neck for warmth as I tricked up the sidewalk and cross the street over to the restaurant is on. I was the first of the group too come to the restaurant so I secured a table and they brought my coffee out readily playing with my cell phone I killed time until the the kids showed up. The kids were totally excited about moving into the basement of Jax’s house. A bit of a traumatic big step for the kids but don't have their own little apartment light facility in the basement of their parents' home. I cannot wait to hear how they transition into the new living space. I was kind of surprised they both seemed pretty eager to get on with the move that they had planned for later in the day. It was kind of cute they are even sad about leaving Christy's house where they had a small efficiency room. Clearly however the kids are eager and figured on ways to how they can getII\ wd#back to the unit get what they need out of it and let Christy deal with the rest.

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Subtle subtly Saturday

 Another early morning I don't quite know why perhaps maybe I was thirsty I don't know but I woke up at 4:00 a.m. and never really got back to sleep. That's okay I was fairly functional all day all things being equal. I got up got dressed had a bit of a breakfast actually Sugar Frosted Flakes toast, coffee a decent breakfast before going to cross the street to the coffee shop. I thought it was going to be too cold but not really it wasn't too bad at all. I probably could have sat at the long table but I really ended up sitting by myself scrolling to my cell phone and feeling part of the overall group. My goal today was to find some breadsticks. I've been looking for breadsticks for the last couple of days and I thought sure Walmart would have them, if anybody did. So after I came back to the apartment watched something on the flat screen. I let the day warm up a little bit then cut the bus to the Walmart store just south of my Apartments. Of course they did not have breadsticks which I could not believe. I think what I'm going to have to do it's just to order a couple packs of breadsticks in via the mail or the internet. The good old crispy breadsticks that goes well with do as well as spaghetti as well as soup in General.

For once I stopped at the counter at the Walmart Little Deli Place they've got there. All I wanted was five cheese stuffed peppers of course nobody there spoke English to the point that they could understand what I wanted. Well they did kind of understand they were trying to tell me that they couldn't sell we just pieces of the product that I had to have a big scoop that was their basic sales point. I didn't want to pay for a big scoop of these stuffed peppers so eventually they ended up giving me a dollar's worth which was more than I wanted and needed but it was all I could get away with. So I ate those all the way home those weren't too bad. Then for the rest of the day I just stayed inside and eventually fried up the pork chops I took out this morning early they were well thawed out. Oh in the afternoon I ended up watching the Jazz play their ball game of course they lost big time but seems to be the case anymore. I really wasn't all that invested in the game I'm just sort of committed now though to watch and support the guys through the dismal games. To give them good quarter however they are on the road this is the end of a bunch of games I'm sure they're exhausted I would be totally tired out. I hope they can get some rest and look forward to the next game sometime next week. We've done the contact now so looks like we're going to be doing breakfast tomorrow as usual over at Dee's Restaurant. Should be as usual entertaining if not feeling

Posting confusion or Illusion?

 I don't know if any of you diligent readers noticed last night but I didn't post. Actually I did post but that was today because yesterday when I tried to post it wouldn't let me it said that I had run out of something as far as the software needed to be updated or something like that and I couldn't access my online blog. It was only this morning when I was searching for some other information that I realized that my blog that I dictated on this software it was also saved on to my main computer my big computer which I found didn't have a problem with finding my blog and updating it so what I ended up doing was copying yesterday's blog and pasting it into the blog online then changing the the dates so it looks like it's being posted the way it's supposed to as of yesterday's date. Now however before I started this blog tonight I went online with this device I'm using which is my tablet and I didn't have any problems getting on to my blog. Something happened between yesterday and today that's allowing me on to the log we'll see how well it posts tonight. If there's an issue I'll just have to post again tomorrow from my main computer system. But it's another example of not of mine not knowing enough to work out these kind of issues and problems then only by chance do I ever seem to get ahead. Pretty strange if you ask me. I really haven't felt well today not well enough to go out and do anything in the smog and it's probably just as well that I don't. I did go out at one time to take the garbage to the dumpster and it was pretty chilly I was surprised. The sun was out looked pretty nice actually there was a definite shell in the air that when I came back in to the apartment I felt off for the rest of the afternoon. I hope tomorrow that I'll be able to get up and feel good enough to cross the street over to the coffee shop and see what's going on with the folks over there and maybe once again sit at the long table who knows? I'm sure if that does happen it'll be the only place I go tomorrow just because the temperature still pretty chilly and the air still pretty dirty and though I don't claim to be one of those at risk population groups- - which I probably am being spinal cord injured as well as post 70 years old I should be more careful when I'm out and about and cloggy weather

Regarding the tablet that I'm using tonight. I picked it up somewhere this last summer I don't really remember where or when. It seems like I got it from somebody and they really didn't have a use for it any longer. It's supposed to be smaller but I've been able to save everything and I'm also saving things to the cloud so that's where the bulk of my posts are. I guess what I'm saying is that I need to start looking at getting another tablet that's up to date on all the pieces of software that I need to be up to date on. It all just seems like a lot of work…

One of those day

 Already I can tell it's going to be one of those days. One of the first things I did this morning was run over the latch release for my belt safety belt of my power chair of course it broke. Then like a dummy I thought I would check to see if the last record is still work and put the end into the broken end of the belt and of course it did snap together and work but now I cannot get it off and I can tell it's going to be one of those days where I'm going to have to get somebody on the outside to dislodge that locking mechanism. Of course, this happens right before I got dressed so I'm naked trying to get dressed with this safety belt secured across my belly. I think I'm going to be able to get the job done to the point where I'm somewhat presentable but I have yet to shave and finish getting dressed and I'm debating whether I need to go all the way uptown to you got to see if I can get this built released and a new belt put on. Or do I get somebody here at the building like Ted to undo the belt but I said I would have no securing device not that I use it that much but it certainly feels nice to have there. Of course I have a broken tooth that I need to have the dentist look at across the street as well as a meeting with Lori Brock at Starbucks this afternoon at 2:00. Yes, I think it's going to be one of those days I'm going to have to make some decisions people are going to have to live with my decisions and I would like to make everyone happy but I don't think that's going to happen. 

Of course the first part of this blog was written early in the day before I finally got going and started taking control of the situations that I was looking at. Fortunately I was contacted by Lori a little later in the morning indicated that she could not meet me for coffee which is fortuitous for both of us. She had undergone Dental work and was not feeling well at all which freed up my afternoon thank goodness. I called then the folks over at Utah Center for assistive technology and ask them if I should come in or how they would like to work with my seatbelt and sure enough they brought a seatbelt out to me and installed it while I was sitting here that was great interestingly I had some challenges early on when I was naked rolling around my apartment with my seatbelt on and couldn't get it off so I finally figured out how to take off the seatbelt that was quite frustrating I did get dressed finally and they came over and fix my seatbelt then I rolled over to the dentist's office. I was able to get in and have them look at my tooth and of course worst case scenario it was the tooth will have to be extracted and it will be in a couple days next week sometime cuz they have to get everything set up to do it it's going to cost almost 400 bucks it's amazing to me when I get myself into but as the day Drew to a close I'd gotten on most of the problems that I was facing that during the day and did okay I even went to the market and got some parfait and some potato salad. So the day didn't turn out too bad was certainly look good there to begin with though

Wednesday's Woe

 I don't know why but I've been craving clam chowder for the last week or so in fact I was actually thinking of jumping the bus and going downtown to Market Street Grill ordering a bowl they're clam chowder which I've always liked. I didn't really follow through with that idea however opting instead of going across the street to the market and purchasing a couple cans of chowder. Actually I got four cans of chowder two that were supposed to be very rich and two that were just traditional. I don't know what the difference is actually but I also purchased some breadsticks but they're not the breadsticks that I remember I couldn't find those kind. The breadsticks I wanted were long tubes of bread that are hard so they are crunchy. What I got was a fairly flavorful breadstick or Slender pieces of bread seasoned that if he toasted them you can make them a little bit more crunchy than they tend to be and they're okay actually. I would still rather have real corn sticks or breadsticks. I really got into the breadsticks right after my accident when my mom would bring up boxes of breadsticks for me to chew on while I was in rehab really haven't found them since but I really haven't looked until today one to have the bread sticks to go with my chowder. So I had chowder tonight during the news. I forgot to tell you that I had to get two cans of the chowder in order to take advantage of a sensational reduction in price maybe four cans actually cuz I got four cans. I have to be honest I was not totally impressed with the chowder. Seemed a lot more fishy than I remembered and now I have three more cans to go through. Maybe it's because I like the Chowder of the Market Street Grill better than the other chowders. I doubt if they make their own chowder to be honest with you I'm sure they have a industrial size can they open up every afternoon. Anyway I wasn't totally pleased with the dinner but it'll do the real Sucker Punch of the dinner was as I was eating I felt something weird on one of my teeth in the back I mean I don't have any teeth left as it is so anytime I feel anything strange the teeth I'd become very cautious something didn't feel right something felt loose and the very back tooth. Well I was eating luckily I didn't bite into it but I felt a stone like piece which I come to realize is a tooth that's broken off from the mother load and sure enough that was a small piece of tooth that came out of this tooth on the back of my mouth there's a big crevice it feels like that needs to be taken care of soon. Fortunately there is no pain associated with this giant cavity but I want to get taken care of soon hopefully before the upcoming holiday. As long as there's no pain of all I can get by even though it feels really weird you know how your tongue keeps going by back and feeling it up. If I have now three more cans of chowder to work through and I guess that's good. I doubt that the breadsticks will last perhaps if I store them somewhere dry after I toasted them they might last and I can use them with further cans of chowder. Right now I just have to get this tooth fixed ASAP.

Tuesday's funk

I don't know what's wrong with me but I just can't get motivated really to do much of anything right now. I want to blame it on the cold weather but I don't think that's really it. When I go out like I did today when I emptied the garbage couple times it was cold but it wasn't deathly cold. If I wanted to do something I would have gone out and done it but I just don't feel like doing anything unless I have to like a meeting or something like that that would get me motivated to get me up and out. Today's Tuesday that please typically I would be going into the city to do my assist meeting. But would not meeting this week and we're not meeting next week so after getting dressed and doing the breakfast I just sort of hung around the apartment. Later in the morning I actually did the bike ride the arm bike for an hour. This is my new thing where I try to get my arm bike ride done early in the day and the week freeing me up to do more stuff of nothing. I watch the new news and that was pretty much it for the rest of the day. I watched parts of a series on the TV plus ended up watching a movie later on. The high point with dinner that I made with one of the pork chops I had from you yesterday left over and a baked potato cut in half. I can use the rest of the potato half that I didn't eat today maybe tomorrow if I scramble up some eggs and spam and then chop the potatoes up inside the the eggs. Sad as it is I'm sort of like living to eat the high point of my day which is not a good thing. I'm doing okay with the apartment still relatively clean but it's beginning to break down into chaos. Maybe I can get Melissa to do some sweep up tomorrow in the kitchen where I've been preparing food and dropping things on the floor here and there. I've turned it up one frying pan and luckily I've been using paper dishes and plastic utensils which have been heaving into the garbage soon as I'm finished. A few more things that have been residing on the table away but certainly gives the semblance of order / cleanliness but it's just an illusion. Tomorrow's Wednesday so I have to do my own bike at some point in time again in the morning which will free up my afternoon. Since it's Wednesday that means Melissa will be here for my shower and such so that would make me get off a little bit later in the morning but hopefully I'll have the washing into the dryers and done by 1:00 or so the question is do I want to fold the clothes right then or wait till the afternoon or evening. Tomorrow there is a jazz game that I could use to fold clothes with. I have one more pork chop that I made the other day. There were three chops in the package. And I can bake another potato with the chop that would be pretty good. I like this chaps and stuff because it's a break from you know the Hispanic food that I tend to dwell on the frozen burritos, tortillas, hot peppers, Etc. I do love those flavors. I think I just need to Pace myself and get through this cold weather funk and into spring..

Monday's meander

 I just spent over 5 minutes trying to find the current year. For some reason I blocked what year were living in and when I went to find it on my tablet I could find the day and the date but not the year. It was only after I finally went to Google and ask specifically for the year that I got the number 2026. I know this sounds a little outlandish but it's true I get these blocks from time to time and I have to go to a source. I was just surprised at how difficult it was to find the whole date written out on the internet. There are times on waking when I have a difficult time assessing what the day is as far as Monday Tuesday Wednesday Etc. Sometimes it takes a while for things to snap into place. I sure hope this is not indicative of some major memory issue disability thing. Remember I talked about this a little bit yesterday when I woke and I couldn't remember exactly what I supposed to do that day and then finally I realized that I hadn't met with the kids over the weekend which meant that the day had to be Sunday and not Monday- - I was greatly relieved. I would have hate to miss breakfast with the kids.

Since it was Monday I needed some more fresh fruit. I had pretty much ingested a lot of the stuff I had going into the weekend. I needed some bananas and fresh grapes, at the very least. This of course necessitated a trip over to Macy's the closest market in my area. We're in that period of the year now where if it was a normal year we would have snow on the ground and it would be cold very cold causing inversions. Well we don't have snow this year but it's very cold and the same inversions are here but these inversions, to me, don't seem as drastic as the news media seems to talk about and in fact because there is no sun blockage it seems warm when you're out in the elements running from door to door or door to store and Back Again. I did wear my red jacket however Which is my semi heavy jacket that I wear but I just barely want to knock the heat out a little bit. It's fairly lightweight comfortable for me and easy to get into and out of but it looks pretty pitiful. When I wear my red jacket I do look like a hobo. I think I've talked about this before. I got my grapes as well as a bottle of my V8 juice, a bunch of green bananas and a few other items that I thought that I needed the only thing that I did not get that I really wanted to was some red parfait. I don't care if it was strawberry or cherry or raspberry but something red with the white stuff whether it's cottage cheese or whether it's whipping cream. Well my home health person, melissa, was getting things out of the cupboard this morning mainly her coffee cup I happened to spy a small box of gelatin or jello. I had Melissa said it aside and I've lightly searched for container to fix some Jello in now. I do have some of that spray can whip cream I don't know how well that would work if you're trying to make your own parfait seems like it should maybe it would be best just to shoot it on top and call it good…

 

Sunday's sentiments

 I have not really planned for a busy Sunday and I guess actually it was not that busy but Morgan that I anticipated. In fact I think I almost slept through the whole event of Sunday morning just because when I woke around 5:00 a.m. I really thought it was Monday morning. It took me awhile to figure out that I hadn't yet spent Sunday and then I better get going or I would be late for breakfast over at the usual restaurant. I was pleased though I was able to get out of the bed easily comparatively speaking as well as getting dressed but maybe 30 minutes to spare which is pretty good if you ask me. That's everything from shoes to straps around the legs. I did have some other physical challenges during the day but I'll get to those at another point in time. I had a few minutes at the restaurant before the kids got there. Jasmine and Jackson first then Marc Anthony came up later. It was quite a good breakfast with a lot of conversation and a lot of involvement. It was following the breakfast that I was really astounded that was when Jasmine and Jackson came over to the apartment and not only did they take the Christmas decorations down and strip the front door of the Christmas decorations but they also said about really putting some clean on the apartment. Washing dishes, washing the floor and straightening out a number of things that sort of gotten out of control in the last weak. It's not that they work really hard but they just seem focused and they get a lot done in the short amount of time leaving me with the feeling of a really clean apartment and probably Littles have been done actually. Actually a lot has been done. Don't want to short them for their efforts and assisted me to become more acceptable. What's finished with the apartment the kids are gone and I was once again on my own. I guess I was tired but I reverted back to my basic Behavior of trying to find something to decent to watch on what are the streaming platforms. Enjoyed some animation Toy Story I've always enjoyed that particular piece and then a couple of the segments of one of the series that I'm currently involved in. I watched one episode twice before I realized that there were no episodes left to watch until they release another one next week probably. Unlike a lot of these series when they drop episodes to drop them off for one season and you can watch the whole all of them all at one time if you want but this one is actually just two episodes into the season and watch the episode twice and it was beginning to the third time that I really liked that this is getting pretty repetitive. So I'll just have to keep my ear to the ground and see when they drop the next episode.

Other than these events that's pretty much but it for the day. I actually ended up watching the complete Dune movie, one of my favorites. I was doing this while trying to keep my bowels from moving. It's Sunday night and I have a poop since Friday morning and I think I'm due. I'm going to try to make it through the night since Melissa shows up tomorrow morning and if I do have an issue or a problem she can clean me up then. I'll go ahead and wrap myself up in red pads and plastic sheeting pads in hopes of mitigating any issues I might have. I was a little worried about this one I looked at the results I produced on Friday and there wasn't much at all in the pot so that means that other proof had to be somewhere and I think I found it in the colon and just hope that I can contain as much as possible until tomorrow then I should be okay

The long table- finally

 I did not intentionally start out to realize one of the goals I've had in mind for the last couple of months but it just happened quickly before I knew what was going on. I've gotten up quite early this morning not being able to sleep but I was able to get up get dressed and even make my breakfast in time to get over to the coffee shop much earlier than I usually do. It was actually somewhat sparse population wise when I got there in fact all the small tables that I usually sit at were taken. The big table where the guy said that I quasi envy was open so I scooted up to the edge of the table and put my coffee there and started screwing through my cell phone - - as I usually do. I suddenly surprised when the crew started coming in sitting down at the table. Sad all around me and one of them even said hi to me but they sat around me like I belong there I was kind of shocked. The blonde lady which has been very cordial to me over the last couple months came in later on with her husband and sat down and she welcomed me there as well. I was pretty surprised but I was messing with my cell phone and listen to the conversation which I thought was pretty interesting. Luckily for me these are they seem to be Democrats and so they had quite a discussion on events from the ice agent who shot / murdered the individual the last couple days the general rants on the president and all that he's been up to in doing. It's quite surprised a lot of them talked and spoke of all the trips they had taken as far as places they had been in other parts of the world that seem to have dovetail with the conversations that we were talking about at the table. One of the folks indicated that they were employed by the state of Utah which made me perk up a little bit and introduced myself to him and we had a pretty decent conversation we knew a lot of the same people which I thought was pretty cool. I still felt quite out of place and I never really did get comfortable in this setting but it certainly was a big step up for me I thought. Now I don't know what I'm going to do next week should I take a spot at the table or go back to my small table if one is available? That'll make me look so strange one way or the other.

My older brother called me today. We've been playing phone tags for the last couple of weeks and he had mentioned in one of his messages he left that he had been having to go back and forth to the Veterans Administration Hospital where he gets all of his health care. Finally he advised me that he had cancer a house cancer I don't know if he's told me this before I wasn't sure I just didn't know how bad it was the thought maybe it was getting worse. It's not necessarily getting worse but it's still takes a lot of time on his part to maintain his level of action as far as maintaining taking care of himself. He's not in any pain there's only uncomfort is all the time it takes away from his hunting and going out with his son fishing and such. It's difficult for me to communicate with him because he's such a Republican if he is that he certainly not a Democrat that's for sure and so I have to endure a little bit of racist comments and such. But he is my brother and I got to stick by him

Free lunch good times

Even with Big Bright Beautiful sunshine it was still cold almost unbearable cold for me- - I know that's a little dramatic but it's pretty damn chilly that's for sure. I only went out once today which was to take some stuff to the dumpster and it's a pretty short Dash from the back door of the building to the dumpsters and back but it was cold enough to make me want to stay in for the rest of the day. Luckily my friend Dwayne came over for lunch. Remember, we are supposed to go out to lunch yesterday but something came up I know you rescheduled. Asian food, I dare not call it Chinese food anymore cuz it's not the Chinese food I remember but this certainly Asian lots of vegetables beef cut a certain way certainly Asian which I totally enjoyed Dwayne paid for it as usual. I'm such a chump I let my friends buy my lunch all the time. I got tired of them saying no every time I try to make a feeble attempt to pay for the meal. That's okay these guys make more money than I do so I'm not too bummed out and again please more for the time spent visiting as opposed to eating. I've known Dwayne for about 30 years he was working with Utah State Office of Rehabilitation and had to come to our office Periodically. I first saw my job with this guy as a way to infiltrate the Mothership of rehab. There was a long battle that went on for a great while at the beginning of the independent living movement as a IL centers established themselves. There is this struggle for control over there existence. Of course rehab wanted to do as much control as possible and the independent living folks wanted to control their own lives. I don't know anymore who was right or wrong. I really like the adversarial role as far as fighting the establishment. And we are all in it for that. Over the years however we've learned to live with ourselves I think and even though I saw Dwayne as a plant from the Mothership I grew to like the guy then after years and years of work and retirement we still hang out. He looks after me I appreciate that he's not overbearing or controlling or anything like that but I think he genuinely likes to hang out with me I don't like hanging out with him he makes me look good. He ended up going to be in a bigger dog in the state government after he finished with rehab which was I thought cool. The best of all he picks up the bill…

 

Coffee social

I don't know if it's the weather or it's Thursday the last part of the week hopefully tired today. No reason to go out so I basically stay inside the apartment wondering up to the front a couple times checking the giveaway table mail today and I've gotten so I really ever check the mail twice in the same week. Maybe I'm feeling anxious I can't really say and I think it also is the after holiday let down as far as getting back into the year. Actually I was supposed to go to lunch today with Dwayne but he called and had to cancel so we rescheduled for tomorrow. Maybe that's why I was feeling the world interesting. But I filled the time fairly productively did my arm bike and thank goodness it's Thursday because I don't have to go the whole hour I only have to do 20 minutes usually on Thursdays to get my 200 minutes for the week. I felt I earned a little time this morning so I started a Stephen King novel on Netflix the one about the JFK assassination of the guy who tries to prevent the assassination. I thought sure I had read this novel but maybe I have not that's pretty rare. It's okay but I don't think they're going to finish the the book in the eight sections they have online or on Netflix. They'll probably have a second season. I mean you have an endpoint you have to meet if you're going to get to 11:22/63. Parts of it I remember so I think I have read it especially the part about the hamburger where the cook has been going back in time to pull out real hamburger and bring it forward to serve it as the restaurant. I would much rather just do a whole movie and get the series over with in one sitting versus dragging it out over 8 hours. And then I know they're going to jerk me around by doing another a second season. So far I've been good about only watching one or two episodes a day. I don't want to binge the whole thing in one day I'm about ready to do episode 4 I think. I think I'm really watching too much flat screen. If I was strong I would be writing but I just can't seem to bring myself to that position. I need to do it soon if I'm going to do it at all because time is getting short regardless of how optimistic I want to be. Today was the first coffee social of the new year. It was not badly attended but seemed a little tired all things considered. The best part about coffee social is that takes a fairly decent chunk out of the morning and it also gives you something to talk about that you did that day. So coffee social is great. I went out I socialized with the group as well as consumes some fairly decent coffee. Not World Class by any means always out of a can nothing ground or anything like that. But with enough creamer and Sweet and Low icon myself into thinking it's pretty darn good coffee.

 

Something's happening here..

What is going on? I was about ready to start blogging, I had rolled into the bedroom and found my tablet and just as I was screwing through some videos and such my inbox pretty much blew up with information about a shooting not far from this building down the road the number of blocks. Two people dead six more seriously injured and this in the shooter is not been procured. And this is just like every night now it seems like there's something like this locally! Let alone on the news there's all kinds of reports of similar situations not only by individuals but by Ice agents killing aliens to this country a lot of them illegal but some of them very legal and being deported and in some cases outright shot and killed. Like I said usually this kind of stuff doesn't make it into my blog since it's so universally I think acted on by individuals but it's bothered me to the point that I thought I would just make a couple comments regarding the whole mess. And it does not seem to be getting better actually it seems to be getting worse.2 Interestingly today and then PR on the local section they sort of indicated that things are getting somewhat better fewer murdered that this year ending in 2025 than last year. It seems like there was some form of Hope but I don't think so now. Maybe it's the w I don't know. Of course I want to go right to what do you mean the Republican party and particularly Mr Trump that's too easy and maybe the lazy way out. I think if I were to do that I would be correct. What would really be scary would that be what if my job was to interact and make the situation better act as an agent of friendliness an agent of peace. I don't know if I could pull something like that off or not that would be weird. But change for the good would be for someone person Having the courage to be downright friendly person to other people all the time regardless. I think a whole lot of people would have to change to bring this about. Sometimes I think, I really think people like what is happening they like it just the way that it is that's why this guy got elected in the first place by a group of people who want to have this kind of violence and we separated from all other individuals that are not like them. I think that's it really so I don't know if there's a chance for us or not. Unless we have to go through a total breakdown of systems to Rise Like a Phoenix out of the ashes

Supposedly a storm is coming in tonight starting with rain which should turn to snow later on tomorrow morning sometime. I don't know if I believe the local weather people anymore but they all seem terribly excited about the possibility. I screwed around area this afternoon trying to take advantage of the decent weather before the front moves in. I went to the market again and spent another bunch of money on yogurt vegetables fresh stuff, enough stuff that I won't have to go out again for a couple of days in case there is snow in the snow gets piled up in the gutters and on the sidewalks and then piles. Sometimes it's better just to lay low..

 

Tuesday's take

It happened again, and I really should know better, but I had a perfect idea for my blog tonight and got excited when I fired up the tablet and got caught up in snippets on Facebook or other apps that just fire at you in different Snippets of what look like interesting videos and soon not only have I forgotten what I was going to write about but I also wasted good time that I could be doing something else like getting ready for bed. Why am I so weak?

It's Tuesday so I went into assist meeting today. We hardly had any names to process which is okay. I mean it would be better to have a lot of names to make me feel like I'd gotten something done but for me it's just the tension of getting up getting ready and going into the city for the meeting. We always do a lot of chatter before we really start the meeting. I think we waste a lot of time but that's just me however the concept of tithing settlement came up. Tithing settlement is an LDS concept it's where you go in and meet with the bishop for an interview at the beginning or end of every year and one of the items you discuss is have you paid a full tithe or 10% of all your earnings for that year. It's really kind of a brutal process at least I used to think it was I still do actually. I don't quite remember why but we went as a family or at least the we boys and my dad went. And I remember feeling embarrassed for my dad as he would squirm and reiterate his earnings over the year to the bishop. My dad didn't think it was a bad deal at least I don't think he did it never really verbalized it if he did did. He just figured it was one part of being a Mormon and it was time to settle up. You had to go to settlement because if you didn't you didn't get a recommend for that year, a temple recommend and that's important to the run of the mill dedicated Mormon who wants to do the temple work or feels he has to do the temple work. I don't know it was a challenging half hour or longer measurement of time. Or maybe it just felt longer because we had the piece together all the paperwork my dad would put together for the meeting in front of the bishop so the bishop could go over and make sure that everything was a okay. Sure disturbs me to think about this now. I'm just glad I don't have to go through anything like this or put my kids through anything like this.

The cold weather is coming back and that's good matter of fact there's even a chance for snow in the next couple of days. Snow coming down to the valley floor. I doubt we will get as much as the weatherman talks about we seldom do and luckily, for me, the snow is not going to last as long as it usually does because a warm front looks like it's coming down on the heels of this cold storm. Each day now we get closer and closer to Spring and that's a good feeling…

 

Monday's musing

It's not even half-time and the Jazz are already behind more than 10 points. I'm not beside myself but I didn't have any problems whatsoever turning off the remote coming into the bedroom to write my blog because there's nothing to do watching the Jazz. Maybe after I finish the blog I'll tune in on the internet and I found that the Jazz have a little app that keeps track of what's going on during the game. I could be doing something else besides wasting time watching this group of kids find themselves. Don't give me wrong I don't really not like the Jazz just the only damage yourself so much watching these people lose with the finesse that these guys do. Maybe the coach does have this long-range plan that is cultivating these guys into some sort of magic winning machine but I don't think it's going to be this year and I don't know if I have enough time left on this planet till they do become a major winning team. And bottom line it doesn't really matter. I'm get somewhat dismayed looking at the commercials during the Jazz breaks. This is definitely a sport aimed at the more wealthy people in this state. They regularly show homes that have like small basketball courts in the Attic where kids go up and play when they're dismayed out of school grade or something. They talk about the vehicles they used to go from one sport to another sport high-end Sports like going from skiing to the Jazz game and Back Again. And granted, there are a group of folks that do this but they aren't the main group of folks I don't think and certainly not me.

It was another day of dark leaded clouds. Another day I really didn't get out and do anything except run to the market to pick up a few items firstly to get me through the game tonight but now that's the thing of the past. Picked up some firm green grapes and actual bag of oranges they look a little hammered but I find that makes the best oranges to eat. They've had time to build a lot of sugar. They try to sucker you into buying the big Naval oranges but I found from a bitter experience that when eating the oranges, the navels you have to cut through very thick peels to get to the pretty small orange itself. Still I do like a good orange and even if they are hammered they're still 90% sweet most the time. Sometimes I get a dark inside that's ugly and deposing and just playing rotten. Now I just have to remember to plug in my charger before I go to sleep tonight. My batteries are failing to the point that if it shows I'm down just 5 or 10 points if I don't plug in my chair for sure I'll be draining the batteries I roll around tomorrow going downtown to my assist meeting. And if I don't charge I'll be riding in the red zone coming home with the possibility of stopping all together. I've never drained the battery so low that they refuse to move the chair I should however treat my chair better especially the batteries. I think I drew a lucky card however. Listening to the news and weather tonight it looks like the cold low pressure system has moved on and even though it'll be cold tonight and that the temperatures will drop to 30° so it's freezing it should be no clouds tomorrow. I have to drive into the city for my assist meeting in my red jacket making sure my shirt is pulled down

 

Sunday breakfast as usual

 It was good to get back into the routine this morning of breakfast at the local restaurant. It's the same place that we go to every week but things have been sort of mixed up the last couple weeks cuz of the holiday season and such. But today felt like just natural stuff except the grandkids didn't show which is cool. That gave my son and me time to ourselves to visit which is cool as well. We are sucked in Cloud wise but it was fairly warm for January and so rolling down to the restaurant wasn't a problem I didn't even wear a jacket just a long sleeve shirt and a muffler around my neck. The scar for Muffler does keep me warm but the same time I use it to mop up any sweat that might accumulate because of stress my body's feeling somewhere. I think I've discussed this a little bit before is that when the spinal cord injury is having pain below the lesion level it often shows itself as sweating around the neck and head. I don't sweat a lot but just enough that that makes the collar damp and in the winter time that's a drag because then that does feel like it's pretty cold but if I have something to absorb the sweat then it's not so bad. And most the time I don't sweat at all I just have that as precautionary tool in case I do need to drive my neck. The restaurant we go to is a D's restaurant and it's okay but it's just basic basic and when you've gone to the places many times as we have I think we're getting a little bit tired of the joint except for it's convenience. There is another restaurant just down the street from these but it's a Hispanic restaurant but they seem to have some sort of breakfast menu and we're thinking of maybe trying that next week to see how well that goes. My son says it's just breakfast fixings rolled up in a taco of some sort and he's probably right but at least it would be something different and something which might be a little bit of fun to try. Aside from the trip down to the restaurant I did stop on the way back to my apartment at the coffee shop that I usually go to on Saturday mornings. I didn't go yesterday because I was having such a problem trying to dress myself that took so long that I had just lost any interest in going out after I'd gotten dressed. This morning however I had enough time in the weather was nice enough that I did Veer over to the coffee shop and got a large cup of coffee which would last me the whole day so I don't have to make coffee till tomorrow morning before Melissa gets here. I really didn't have any problems getting dressed this morning. I did however get up 15 minutes earlier than I do usually on Sunday mornings just in case of things did go awry I would be able to build a little extra time into the dressing procedure. But I was careful on everything especially making sure I was seeing all the way to the back of my chair and not slanting forward which makes it very difficult to cross my legs to put on my pants and my shoes so that went along very well and I was ready to go half an hour before I need to leave the apartment so all is well this Sunday and I'm fairly pleased as I slide into the new year.