Game day! It's basketball time

 It's the middle of the afternoon, well actually now it's late afternoon, and I thought I would move around my schedules a little bit and do my blog update now versus later on this evening. Tonight the Utah Jazz are playing again and that will take me right up to 9:30 or 10:00 p.m. and that's just as soon not have to dictate after 9:00. I just spent a good part of the afternoon visiting with my buddy working days. We visit periodically he's lives in Mexico / San Diego right there on the border. I'm totally impressed because he's living this Mexican life and going back and forth across the border when he needs to do more responsible stuff like living in the American culture. Other than that he tends to live in Mexico and it works for him more or less. He might be getting burned out on the whole situation but that's his prerogative of that's what it does and likes to do right now but he said he's thinking on possibly moving back to America full-time. I personally don't know why anyone would want to do that specially now. I mean if I was living in a place like Mexico or some other third world country attached to the USA and I was getting my needs met and all that kind of stuff I don't know if I'd want to come back at least until they got a different legal regimen going. I mean I can honestly say I've never been more embarrassed to call myself America or American and my whole life as I have been this year. And I have not even been out of the country and I doubt that I will be going out of the country but still I didn't know what it would be like going to Europe or something like that now and having to declare yourself in America. Anyway he has a pretty cool life I'm somewhat envious of it but I'm not looking at it to the eyes that he is looking through which I'm sure would totally different for me.

As I alluded to it the Utah Jazz are playing basketball tonight here in Salt Lake. I have no desire to go down to watch the game in person except for to watch other people and I would do that in the heartbeat but to do that I would have to really use public transit and use it after dark and late- coming home. And I get such a better examination of the game on flat screen that that's not even a consideration on my part to go to the game in person. He played last night as well in another city and the team actually won! I could hardly believe that. I hope they do well tonight that would be totally exciting if they were to win again, I think it's highly unlikely but I don't want to sell them short. They're my team now I've done over to support them much more than I thought I ever would. I was thinking about this during the Super Bowl time- - no, I didn't watch the Super Bowl football is just way too boring- - that there's nothing else on major sporting events that I would spend time watching like I do basketball and the Utah Jazz so it's not even the basketball as much as it's the Jazz. There's nothing there in baseball that's way too boring absorbs a whole afternoon usually as well as football and then there's no other support in between whether it's skiing, curling, gymnastics heaven forbid soccer or rugby or whatever no other sports except basketball. I know I'm weird sometimes it's just the way it is.

Another, just one of those days

It was just one of those days. On any day or most days I wake up around 5:00 and have to lay around till 6:00 when I usually get up but not today- - oh no, not today. I woke up today around 6:30 which is amazing to me still. But today is Tuesday which means I have my assist meeting in Salt Lake which means I have to be ready and out the door to catch the bus bye 9:35 or 40. That will get me to the library downtown about right around 10:00 and then I can catch my breath and spend some time wandering around the library checking out what's new. However, for a number of reasons that wasn't supposed to happen today because I had to get ready so I can could be out by that. Time and since I don't have my regular chair makes dressing a bit more of a challenge and I wasn't sure if I could pull it all off in order to get there in time however I did! I surprised myself. I still worried about the batteries in this chair and if they would hold up for going as far as I have to go but isn't that far regular but with the battery starved chair maybe it would be so instead of driving my chair all the way down to the corner where I catch the 47 inboun d I caught the 217 just outside my back door and went to the transit hub and picked up the 47 there traveling probably no more than 50 ft. This saved me a lot of battery power I believe. I got to the library about the usual time did some book inspections and finally wandered over to my meeting. It wasn't a bad meeting and I got another check to cover the one I lost. I did not go the route that took me to the bank however I decided to go straight home to conserve the battery as much as I could power wise. Is it okay tonight I still have 71% of the charge in my battery. I know however that they'll start going down quickly from this point forward so I did good I think I did all right by taking the vessels extra routes those extra trips and saving the battery time.

My brother brought over the sticks I requested earlier this month after I broke off one of the other sticks he'd made for me. He made them a little bit different this time and I don't know if I'm going to be able to use them very well. I may need to have him rip one of them and two or whatever to make sure I have a lighter than usual stick in the edges sanded down. The sticks that I have now are quite sharp on the edges and don't know if it'll break the skin or not. If he could just run the edges down the sander that would be good. He did mention that one of the sticks cost $6 and so much cents a foot. I'm not sure but I don't know if he was indicating that he would need to be reimbursed for purchasing the wood which I should have brought up by myself anyway kind of strange. I've sent him a text to see. Hope it doesn't put him on the spot. It was good to get home from assist and take it easy for the rest of the day/ week. Looks like the weather might take a turn for the worst but I just don't believe anything the weather man says anymore. Today is supposed to be pretty grungy but it turned out to be fairly decent not too cold just cloudy/ a little sprinkler actually but not too much.

 

Just one of those days..

It was just one of those days. On any days or most days I wake up around 5:00 and have to lay around till 6:00 when I usually get up but not today- - oh no, not today. I woke up today around 6:30 which is amazing to me still. But today is Tuesday which means I have my assist meeting in Salt Lake which means I have to be ready and out the door to catch the bus bye 9:35 or 40. That will get me to the library downtown about right around 10:00 and then I can catch my breath and spend some time wandering around the library checking out what's new. However, for a number of reasons that wasn't supposed to happen today because I had to get ready so I can could be out by that. Time and since I don't have my regular chair makes dressing a bit more of a challenge and I wasn't sure if I could pull it all off in order to get there in time however I did! I surprised myself. I still worried about the batteries in this chair and if they would hold up for going as far as I have to go but isn't that far regular but with the battery starved chair maybe it would be so instead of driving my chair all the way down to the corner where I catch the 47 inbound I caught the 217 just outside my back door and went to the transit hub and picked up the 47 there traveling probably no more than 50 ft. This saved me a lot of battery power I believe. I got to the library about the usual time did some book inspections and finally wandered over to my meeting. It wasn't a bad meeting and I got another check to cover the one I lost. I did not go the route that took me to the bank however I decided to go straight home to conserve the battery as much as I could power wise. Is it okay tonight I still have 71% of the charge in my battery. I know however that they'll start going down quickly from this point forward so I did good I think I did all right by taking the vessels extra routes those extra trips and saving the battery time.

My brother brought over the sticks I requested earlier this month after I broke off one of the other sticks he'd made for me. He made them a little bit different this time and I don't know if I'm going to be able to use them very well. I may need to have him rip one of them and two or whatever to make sure I have a lighter than usual stick in the edges sanded down. The sticks that I have now are quite sharp on the edges and don't know if it'll break the skin or not. If he could just run the edges down the sander that would be good. He did mention that one of the sticks cost $6 and so much cents a foot. I'm not sure but I don't know if he was indicating that he would need to be reimbursed for purchasing the wood which I should have brought up by myself anyway kind of strange. I've sent him a text to see. Hope it doesn't put him on the spot. It was good to get home from assist and take it easy for the rest of the day/ week. Looks like the weather might take a turn for the worst but I just don't believe anything the weather man says anymore. Today is supposed to be pretty grungy but it turned out to be fairly decent not too cold just cloudy/ a little sprinkler actually but not too much.

I just hate pooping the bed

 

I kind of hate the day after I poop or blow out. Last night was a blowout the little blow out the blow out just the same. I thought it was just gas at first and really didn't know how bad it was until this morning when I went to get up but I did have enough thought process last night that I wrapped myself up in Med pads and large diapers as best as I could which caught a lot of the damage but still we had to strip the bed wash the sheets. I figured it was going to be kind of a bad weekend since my bow moving on Friday was very small. I probably ate too much this weekend as well all staging me for the blowout. Now I just feel uncomfortable at risk. I've eaten yogurt and some cheese in hopes of getting to plug myself back up again. Either faster famine with trying to maintain proper bowel structure. Luckily I had my caregiver coming in this morning and she certainly did a great job in cleaning up to the bed and the wheelchair as well as the floor and stuff in the bathroom. I'm doing okay I didn't go anywhere today. It was really too cold- - you know what that's not totally true I went across the street and got a half a pound of coffee that was probably last me till the end of the month. Is especially coffee shop which I like pretty much I write about it a lot. The days have moved in colder again. It now feels like a typical February day. We may get snow by the weekend it's not a lot but some more than we've had all winter long and possible rain. We might even get some of that as early as tomorrow which would make sense because I need to be on the road tomorrow to my assist meeting downtown Salt lake. It's going to be cold and somewhat dangerous for me just because I'm in my backup power chair and I think the batteries are pretty hammered. I think I might have enough juice to get back and forth from Boise I don't know for sure. But I just do a bunch of short jumps I should be okay. If I catch the bus right outside my back door which will take me to the Community College and then pick up the 47 which will take me to Murray Central then I can jump the train and take it straight into the library and the place I have to go is in back of the library and that would not subject myself or my chair to Too Much having to go back and forth or go around stuff I may even take my backup charger with me in case I go I run out of juice somewhere. It would take a while to charge up my batteries if I needed to but at least I would be able to. My care person indicates that I should just have the faith in my chair and take off and she's probably right. I can still hang my charger off the back of my chair and sip on down to Salt Lake assist Incorporated. I contacted my volunteer director person for the little group meeting. And I guess he'll come looking for me if I don't show up for the meeting. The biggest challenge now is too get up early enough that I can get dressed and hit the road and be sure to charge my chair all night long..,

Warm days old ways

 That's fine it's so distressing having to readjust to the backup chair that I'm using until I can figure out what I'm going to do with the primary care that I don't seem to be working since I drove it in or underneath the countertop the other day. This morning I was pleased to dress myself as usual for Sunday mornings and being able to go over to the restaurant to meet the kids. This morning again like I was a little stressed not knowing for sure how I was going to make the transfer into the chair since the whole foot pedal thing is so much different than what I'm used to with the big old box foot locks that I use. I was awake at 4:00 a.m. but didn't get up till 5:00 figured I would be able to use I am able to get dressed at least in 3 hours which I was able to do probably more like two hours. I think there were a couple points where I could have been in Jeopardy but for the most part it was a safe transfer from the bed to the power chair and then get myself situated in the chair to the point where I could engage the motor to drive itself around and get something to drink and shave and doing the whole morning process. I was able to get a full charge into the chair during the night but I'm not sure what that really means we how much security this gives me out driving around. Makes me kind of wanted just hang close by until I can get my other chair repaired. Of course tomorrow morning I think the first thing I'm going to try to do as soon as Melissa leaves and I feel that the wheelchair shop where I trade has gotten itself into Monday morning mode. Give them a call and schedule a time for them to come and pick up the power chair to look at the issue. I'm still frightened it's going to be a burnt out motor and I just don't know what the repair is going to be like since they have such a hard time trying to repair my chair for me anyway. But I'm not really going to worry about that until tomorrow mid-morning or whenever I can place the call. I have an assist meeting on Tuesday which kind of Spooks me because there's also possible rain on Tuesday as well. I don't know if there's a battery the batteries are charged well enough or they will charge well enough that I have Clear Vision that I'll have enough power to get from here to there. The two biggest areas of transfer I would have would be going from my apartment to the bus stop and then the train station then from the train station to the library and across the street to the assist office then reverse that travel so it's back to the apartments. I really kind of believe I have enough power on a full charge I could do that but just kind of Spooks me not to be sure and I don't want to get stuck out in the middle of nowhere or downtown or wherever. I rolled around a little bit after coming home from breakfast. It was a beautiful day today the temperature was I think in the '60s which is very rare. I rolled across the street looking for rice today I couldn't believe I couldn't find any white rice I went to two restaurants where I thought they for sure would be able to have rice there are Hispanic restaurants one across the street doing next to my building nothing there. I did finally purchase a bag of brown rice unfortunately my neighbor had some white rice. I have half a bag of rice somewhere but I couldn't find to save my life today and now that I don't have my elevator chair I can't really see what's on the upper shelves okay I've gotten used to. I'm ready to pop white rice for dinner to have with my burritos frozen burritos worked out really well and I was able to use the new bottle of super hot salsa that Jax bought me the other day. I was kind of surprised it really was quite hot that I had on my rice and two burritos for dinner. Now I think I've got to go put everything away. I'm ready to start a new week I guess a little weirded out with my chair but we'll see what we can do

Sad Saturday

I really thought I was doing great this morning I got up at 6:00 a.m. and started doing my regular stuff felt good I even felt I was going to cook breakfast for myself and still go over to the coffee shop at my usual 9:30 I had a bunch of bacon that I've been meaning to cook for a while and so I want to get some cooked this morning for breakfast have a couple eggs some of the nice toast that I just purchased red wise and enjoy the day. The day held a lot of promise I look warmer than usual outside I feel good about everything pretty much. I had finished making the bacon and I was putting things out on the plates thanks the bacon and I'd dried up a couple eggs I got them out as well and I had gotten the toast out of the toaster oven and then I don't remember how it happened but I was by the refrigerator and something got caught in the controls of my chair and kept pushing me further and further under the countertop pushing my control mechanism on my power chair all the way up almost breaking I can see it was very tested I was totally pushed into the corner and there's no way I could get out. I was totally stuck there wedged between the countertop and chair I couldn't move. I was totally stuck I wasn't going anywhere I was going to have to have somebody else come in and assist me. I had to take a few seconds or minutes to think about what I was going to do I was just glad that I was okay I was worried about my power chair and how I was going to get it fixed or relief or whatever. Then I did something I promised myself I wasn't going to do I caved in and asked Alexa to call my granddaughter she did! I was able to get my granddaughters boyfriend/fiance live in to come over and save me his name is Jack's j a x. He's very bright I'm very helpful. It took a while but you got here for the next 2 hours he spent trying to fix my chair. He's able to undo the clutches and hook the motors up and then push me and my chair back and we started to see if we could get the chair back online it didn't work. He's afraid that I may have hurt the motor out but I was totally driving into the refrigerator under DC countertop. We couldn't it's a power chair to turn on so it would work eventually we had to accept the loss and transfer me into my backup chair. I was totally surprised because the backup chair even had what it said was 80% charge but I don't really believe that but it was enough charge to get me around the house and that's where I spent my whole day just sitting in my chair hanging out. For a while I charged the chair with a charger out by my computer screen and got a fairly decent charge going I'll charge it again tonight hopefully I'll have enough power to get over to the restaurant tomorrow for breakfast. This chair is pretty squirrely I don't really like it very much but it's better than nothing that's for sure I don't know what I'll do if in fact I did burn the motor out on that chair. I've just been acting like I've been defeated all day long just watching movies on the flat screen. Again I should be thankful and happy that I have the backup chair and I'm able to get around and continue with my regular lifestyle. I'm hoping I can get a check pick up on Monday and then they can ascertain the problem and hopefully fix it. If I have to put another motor in there I don't know if that's wise then maybe they might have it a used motor that could last for a year or so about how much longer I have in this chair. So I didn't really get anything accomplished today just sat around feeling sorry for myself and trying to get my chair charged. Hopefully

Silent listener

I'm dictating this at a very low frequency just because I'm a little worried about the extra AI living in my apartment might hear me- - actually I know that she will hear me and that's kind of freaky. It's the one that starts with an A that's all I'm going to say fill in the rest of the words you can do it on your own. You know it's that entity that you put on your system unless you ask it to turn the lights on or play your favorite radio channel probably even flip the TV around too as far as that goes Channel wise. Anyway it all happened on my birthday when the kids came over to the apartment after we had breakfast. They came over for cake and gifts. I didn't even need gifts are you going to want any of these really just more things you have to clean on to. I'm at the point in my life where I need to diversify get rid of stuff make my burden a little bit lighter as I walk off into the sunset. Anyway I was so kind of freaked out when my grandson-in-law pulled out this device and started installing it in the apartment. I should have just said no I don't want it that seems such a rude thing to do for someone who really thought they were doing a great deal by getting this for you. It's of course one of those voice systems that do whatever it tells you to do in your apartment or your household now whoever knows what else. He installed it directly tied it into the television system and what other systems that might be usable in the apartment. I don't know cuz I haven't used it yet I don't plan on using it but I should be careful I may have to eat those words one never really knows. Of course because she tied it into the Amazon system that I use I started seeing pieces of email pop up on my system telling me about certain programs or services this convenience can be. It was strange because the second he turned it on felt like there was another person in the room- - and actually there was or is. Some one who is listening and wants to help you. Again, I feel bad that I don't just stand my ground and tell him to take it out. So I'm going to try it out for a couple weeks. I don't know if I'll use it or not but it's all set up and ready to go I can get can't get myself into too much trouble in that amount of time.

I thought about going out and doing something today but even though the sun was out and it looked like spring it didn't feel like it. I went outside early on this morning for some reason that I don't remember any longer but it was chilly and it was chilly that I didn't want to be out and if I didn't have to. But good friend Dwayne came over for lunch she brought me over a Italian sandwich it was really quite good and I had some for dinner as well I leftovers and I went down to meet him at the front of the building which is by the front doors which lets a lot of the atmosphere in from the outside and it was still feeling pretty cold even though it was probably in the 50s temperature wise. I went to a movie yesterday and I felt that was probably enough for this week of being out though I did put a few other things on my to get list and that is salsa. I want to get a medium sized bottle of salsa and get the real spicy kind the hot kind that's got to help me out quite a bit.

 

Thinking of Thursday

Today is Thursday and every Tuesday and Thursday I have to dress myself and typically that's not been an issue pretty straightforward I just crossed my legs use with my sticks to pray my leg up and over the other one and put my shorts on and then my shoes and then pull everything on after that. I've noticed in the last three or four months however it's becoming more and more difficult to pull this off I'm not sure exactly why. My first inkling is to blame my power chair that I've maybe bent it or Twisted it maybe the way I sit in it I don't know for sure but I think I want to blame the chair when the fact is probably me. It didn't require a while I'll bet it took me an hour to dress this morning primarily because once I put my shorts on this morning I don't know what I did wrong but I put the shirts so my foot went into the wrong hole which meant that I had to put the whole thing down and start all over again from the very beginning. I'd actually even put my shoe on at this point so I had to pull my shoe off and push the stick with my shorts on it off my foot and start over again and this took a lot longer than I had anticipated but I got it done then eventually and I was relatively civilized an appearance. Since it's Thursday that means it's coffee social and I was really focused on trying to get ready by 9:30. Fortunately I was ready by 9:00 which I felt pretty comfortable with. I may have to at some point engage somebody to help dress me everyday right now I have to dress myself 4 days a week on the other three my home health person comes in and she does a great job. I suppose if I were rich I would have somebody come in every day to do my dressing. I don't know what would happen if I tried this I would certainly go through money faster and I don't want to deal with that at this point when I can still just myself even though it takes a bit of time and commitment.

Do they look pretty good. There are minimum clouds and look like a very spring morning but it was still pretty chilly I was kind of surprised but I didn't want to spend a whole other day in my apartment watching movies or whatever I end up doing so after coffee I messed around the apartment for an hour or so and then when I cross the street and cut the bus and went up to 5400 South took in the movies. I went to zoo opolis too. It's animation but it was pretty well done it was pretty good I enjoyed it actually. There really wasn't the whole lot to really pick from as far as I was concerned but I really wanted to take advantage of the fact that that program I belong to as far as watching as many movies as I want to during the month offers me a free tub of popcorn and cold drink. That was really my main reason for going was too but sure I took advantage of of those things. Like I said the movie was okay and I was really quite ready to go home though when I was finished as well as I was pretty tired had a hard time sleeping this morning. I actually had to use my catheter in bed which I hardly ever do that's a whole another issue and probably a whole another days dictation anyway. I pretty much came straight home catching the bus finally but I was cold I was chilly plus I was feeling weird like I'm coming down with something. It seems like hearing people talk this morning in the front of the building people in the building that are all having some kind of flu or sickness of some sort and I was wondering if I was having some sort of issue like that. Felt like I was really feverish for a while this afternoon. I took a moment and did 20 minutes or 30 minutes on the arm bike then watch the Jazz they lost by one point or maybe two points. They worked hard though I must give him that I wish they had made some of the shots that they messed up on but they did good I have to give them that. I started feeling better once I took a couple of ibuprofen turn the heat on then sit back in my chair and enjoyed the afternoon and the game as much as I could and in the day finishing watching Independence Day the movie

So much money

 I get so confused with people. People just vexed me to a certain degree and it's not getting any better as I age. I'm wondering if this is all function of the aging process but it's just wearing me out. I've been looking forward to today for a week or so because it's the second week since my extraction. The molar the last part of the molar I had pulled out that was crumbling. My appointment was about 10:45 this morning and I rolled over there about 10:37 or something like that so I know that have enough time because I wasn't sure what the process was going to be. I knew it couldn't be a lot just because it was basically a follow-up from the extraction to make sure things were going okay. I rolled into the Sprite entrance that it's kind of a secret side entrance but it's enough that I can get my chair in okay it always surprises it when I come in that way but they are all sort of sitting there waiting for me this morning kind of I think there are more on break than anything else. Anyway, I come in and they're all seem to be pretty happy to see me and not genuinely feel they are is that I'm staying there the new dentist guy, son of the regular guy who's my dentist, the one who pulled my tooth comes up and starts talking with me and we Chit Chat he looks at my mouth explains how it looks great ask how the sutures came out I gave all that that was okay then I asked about were they aware of the other or any other cavities that I had. And they said they said they weren't but they could do a full check up in depth so they haven't had been done in a couple years. And I think that's probably true. When I told them what I was doing as far as since I didn't have any molars to really grind food up with I was masticating things by the front teeth and they warned me that that would wear the front teeth out quite quickly. I assume that that's true I know I had thought about that more than once. And they just acted weird when I started asking about the process of implants versus retainers and stuff like that. I could probably do a retainer but I'm not too sure about my hand function and being able to really work something like that and I don't know if I'd want to dump money into something like that without knowing. Same as true I guess to a certain degree regarding the cost of implants. I spoke with one of the ladies there and they're talking about about $4,000 and implant! There's no way I got to do that on a cash basis I would have to do something like that over time but even at $100 a month that would be like 40 months but just like almost 4 years. Well I suppose that would work if you're buying a car or something like that so I guess it can be done but I would have to have one or two I would think so that would even make it longer. They of course didn't know of any programs that might be out there that would assist on something like this. I doubt that there are any programs but I'd have to check it out. I know that there weren't any programs just for poor people that were basically young or had kids I'ma thinking I'd like to see if there's any kind of a program for seniors we're losing their teeth. I wonder if there might be something through the Labor Commission or through the senior services of the state of Utah to see if there's any kind of a system that set up to assist with dental care after the seventies. My cynical side will not be too surprised if there is not. I doubt if you cat or anything out wrong that line would have any assistance. Like I said I would be totally surprised if I were to run across anything but I'm going to have to do something. But still the feeling that permeated the dentist office this morning it's kind of a shock after we seem to be getting along so well it's not like they turned on me or anything it's just I had a real strong feeling that they weren't too excited to visit with me about possible options for implants. As well if I could do dentures and I don't want to do dentures just because finger dexterity that I have is limited and maybe that's what I want it to be because I don't want them but we shall see as they always say

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.