Mystery lunch

 

I just finished off the hard boiled egg that you see in the image that I posted with this blog tonight.. I've written about it before and the strange behavior that now she's bringing me over lunches once a week it seems like. Today's meal consisted of a boiled egg rice a boiled potato some kind of soup and mystery meat. The mystery meat potato and egg was in this bowl of broth of some sort I didn't need it but I did fish out the other things and put them all on one plate ate a little bit for lunch and then put the rest in for dinner and perhaps lunch tomorrow. This person speaks very little English we've gotten to get by with basic words and hand signals and such. She's quite elderly but she lives independently at the apartment complex just down the hall. These are great little meals that she prepares and usually there's enough to make at least two meals out of the offering. I don't know why she's doing this her if she has any expectations. She checks up on me to see if I've eaten the food or not that she's left. I don't know if she understands me when I tell her that I've only eating partial and want to eat the rest for dinner or another meal. She seems to understand the nods and agreement and then leaves it's really kind of strange. I will however keep accepting the meals cuz it's really nice to have a full course meal every once in awhile. I certainly wouldn't make this for myself which is kind of too bad. Now, I would make this for somebody else but not for me. 

This meal was kind of the high point of my day until later on in the evening when I got a text from my son who wanted to come over and help clean up the apartment a little bit. Luckily, my granddaughter had been over earlier last week and did a great job cleaning up the place and it was still pretty clean when my son got here however he went to work on the refrigerator. The refrigerator is a real challenge for me as far as keeping things clean or even orderly inside. The fridge is real difficult to get close enough in the wheelchair to really get things in and out and somewhat orderly. Many things that existed my refrigerator are dead and it was a long slow cold death for these poor pieces of Forgotten food. There's also the science experiments that also seem to be living quite well in the fridge. He even pulled out the vegetable drawers at the bottom where what materials had gone and dried up it took a minute or two to get those things soaked to the point that they were movable. But the best part was just having somebody who could reach in and grab stuff I couldn't and throw the stuff away which many times are things I couldn't do either just because I'm restricted from respecting the “use by date”. I think more than even having his help to clean the fridge was just spending time with him and visiting with him this Wednesday evening

Dark 30 earlier and earlier

 It's 8:30 and it's almost dark outside! It's funny how all of a sudden you become aware of the change and you realize now heading towards autumn at seemingly greater speed. I mean after all a month ago would have been 30 some days so it'll be 9:00 before it was this dark now it's 8:30 and 30 more days it'll be 7:30- - that can't be right but who knows we'll see. Because I went out last night the date that I had for lunch today didn't happen cuz it happened last night for dinner. Anyway I guess the point that I'm making is that I didn't have anything really to do today. The constant reader will remember that usually on Tuesdays I am downtown Salt Lake at assist Inc office. That gets me up in the morning forces me to be ready by a certain time in order to go down to the bus stop catch the bus into the train to get into Salt Lake by 11:00 a.m. which is the usual time. However the coordinator of the program is gone this week so there's no meeting believe in me with a whole day on my hands. Sadly and it's almost a confession I didn't do anything with today except maybe watch a couple movies. I really hate to admit that. I did my usual however I did my 60 Minutes on the arm bike and that took out a chunk of the day no listen to a number of my favorite shows on NPR. Once again I could take the little road and suggest that what I'm really doing is nothing because I need to lay back in my chair to take the weight off of my butt because of my possible pressure issues. This is my justification for watching so many movies is that I do it with my chair situated in such a situation where I'm lying back and the pressure's off my bottom. I justify my lack of doing things that way plus I'm rather cautious on how much I use my power chair because of the batteries that are not perfect anymore. This reminds me I did get a call today I saw I was from IHC my wheelchair place. I imagine they want me to schedule the time for them to pick up my chair to get it worked on. I've become so complacent that I don't care really. Even with the failing batteries that's in this chair now I'm doing good to get from A to B power wise. I will have to call them tomorrow and see when they can schedule I think I probably lost the window for this week. And that's on me.

Tomorrow my routine clicks back on. Lisa will be here kind of early to do my Wednesday routine and then dressed and ready to go I'll have to wait around until the wash is done and retrieve the clothes from the dryer- - remember she takes the clothes from the washing machine until it's been the dryer before she leaves. I get the clothes take them back to the apartment and if I'm really focused I will fold them and hang them on hangers and free up the clothes basket. I guess I will be responsible and called I see people and schedule my chair pickup. If I can do all those I'll feel like I've done something for my Wednesday. I doubt if I'll go to a movie at all the next couple days I've seen everything once or twice. I almost might go back to the Odyssey but I don't know if I could stand two more hours of those guys though I do like the actors it's just 2 hours and some minutes is a long time and it's kind of cold inside the theater…

Dark foreboding

Looks like we're getting ready to experience another brief mini monsoon season. More and more moisture is being pumped into our air systems and that means more and more big clouds. So far, as far as I'm concerned, all this has been for show. We get a few big clouds they tend to Bunch up in one area of the sky or another turn mincingly gray and black and winds begin to drop down but the option of precipitation quickly minimizes tonight I was having dinner with a friend and all through dinner I watched clouds Bunch up become dark and threatening and a refreshing downwind came from all thier bunching up . I hate to see a good storm gone bad. I should be grateful that these bunch of clouds were not throwing off great jagged shards of lightning. I do miss the Thunder however that seems to accompany these large lightning bolts. I didn't hear any thunder tonight and last night. It seems the lightning bolts are all around the the area just not in the Salt Lake area. Hopefully that will change before this mini monsoon season ceases to exist. Luckily for me I don't have anywhere  to tomorrow , in fact I really don't have anything for the rest of the week. Last week Andreas canceled the meeting for this week. There is a chance of possible rain showers thunder showers tomorrow. I doubt they'll be a full-blown thunderstorm but one never knows this time of the summer. My plan for tomorrow is to spend a lot of the time in my chair laying the chair Downs much as I can to take the weight off my butt. My caregiver insists there's nothing on my butt cheeks but it seems like I can feel something. If after a couple days of favoring the hip it doesn't show signs of less discomfort maybe I will schedule a trip into the InstaCare or whatever cause I Medical support system I can get myself into. The only problem is if I'm being seen for something superficial and easily accessed no problem but if the issue is someplace that is not easily accessed, somewhere that I'd have to leave my chair to get onto an exam table of some sort that's a whole nother story. It kind of frustrates me it's an old frustration that these professional folks that wanted to take your money they want to become physically involved too much. They don't invest in things like body lifts and things that could assist someone like myself leave my chair and get on to the table. It's like if you can't physically get yourself to where they want you- - and they're not going to help – then you might as well not even go in. So my plan is to weigh my chair out in front of the big screen and watch Marvel movies till I can't stand it any longer and then maybe read for one of my good books or the other way around. The phone were very technical and creative one could actually Lobby this issue into a Ada issue but that's pretty weak these days as well since the current leader of the great country is dismantling all the support for folks who really need the most. Bottom line isn't this passive murder? Wow this really turned dark but I call it a night..

 

Summer storms and clean apartment

 I've rattled on before and past years about how much I enjoy a summer storm in the evenings. I like to watch the clouds build up during the day the day by cumulative clouds Stack Up turn dark gray the wind comes up especially on the hot days. Tonight was one of those nights for me in fact I was just settling down to write tonight's blog post and all the sudden I smelled green rain that distinct smell you get when water hits concrete on a hot day. Coming down but I wasn't sure so I went out and realized there was a storm brewing Maybe. Warm Winds were blowing the trees around our apartment complex and it was just a very high energy evening. And all the time I was out I only saw lightning once and didn't hear any Thunder which doesn't mean there wasn't any but I didn't witness or hear anything. I got caught by a couple of my apartment folks that were outside as well and we end up having quite a discussion about rain and concrete and the smell of a storm. The wind kept blowing and it was hard to break free from the moment or moments we are having. It was kind of a perfect ending to Hot August Sunday. 

Earlier in the day, it's Sunday of course, I'm at the kids for breakfast at the usual joint. I was surprised that when I got to the restaurant my granddaughter was already there. I'm usually the first to get to the restaurant but she'd gotten there and staked out our table. My son ended up joining us and we had a great conversation and probably hung out for about an hour and a half at least maybe even 2 hours by the time we were finished yammering. Then my son had to go to a function he was working at and then the granddaughter was coming over to my apartment to finish your project which started a couple of Sundays ago. I was amazed because soon she was totally involved and cleaning the apartment. I would not say it was a deep clean but she was certainly working hard on the project. She spent time cleaning the table off which was and is always a major project everything lands on my table. Then she actually swept the floors then drug out the mop and mopped the floors all through the apartment. It's not like it's a big apartment it's pretty small so I guess it's not that big of a job for me sitting down. When I try to do this job I can do it to a point but then I start rolling over the wet surface and my wheels leave tracks all over my work but when my granddaughter does the floor it dries before I get back onto it and I don't really the face all the work she's put into the project. I think she spent another 2 hours working on my apartment. She did such a good job all I ended up paying her was an ice cream sandwich, see last night's entry or maybe night before last.

Watermelon Saturday

 

I am almost certain that I've got some kind of bladder infection, I only realized that I most likely have the infection this afternoon when I realized once again that feel like I have to pee real bad then when I try to nothing happens or just very little urine comes out. This is really beginning to Spook me until I realized that Witnesses happened before to me, and it has it seems many times, I ended up going to the doc who wrote me some kind of script that sorted cleans everything up and soon I'm able to sleep through the night again. Now I'm doing that weird phenomenon of where I wake up way early in the morning feeling that I've got to pee and then going through the process only to realize that there's no urine going to come. I don't know if I want to wait until Monday when I can just go to my regular doc or if I should just go to InstaCare type place. I'm not quite sure remember where the InstaCare place is but I know it's not too far from my apartment it seems the last time I went it was quite cold so the heat would be the upside to this whole situation. In fact I just turned off the air conditioner to my apartment. I've had it on low for the last couple of days because I had it on for my caregiver on Friday and then have forgotten to turn it off but I have not been please with how cool or cold it makes the apartment. Sometimes I feel a bit ashamed because I'm too lazy to get up and do something that would make my situation so much more enjoyable. I've really been trying to keep a closer watch on my use of air conditioning this summer. Last year I used the air conditioner just a few days out of the whole summer and this summer, so far, I think I've used it more than last year. It's nice when I'm super hot but just for chilling- - excuse the pun - - or when other people are coming to visit one way or the other I can bring a temperature down in the apartment and it makes me look good, like I'm sacrificing something for the person or people who are visiting me.

Yesterday I was sitting out by the parking lot, like I always do in order to keep warm, and one of the neighbors walked past an indicating that she was going to the market did I need anything. I asked if she could get a watermelon telling her that I would split the watermelon with her. She did get the watermelon it's a nice watermelon fairly good size. I already visited with my neighbor across the hall earlier this week indicating that that would be happy to go half on the watermelon with her. I don't think she really believed me you know just one of those things people say- - but I was serious. Anyway, after the lady who offered to buy the watermelon left said fruit on my kitchen table. I was nowhere to be found when she came back from the market cuz I was across the street shopping myself. It's a fairly big watermelon and I've learned that I don't do well cutting watermelons in the first place let alone large ones. They just get out of control for me. So I was finally able to get my neighbor to let her know that I had the watermelon would you come over and cut it in half. I had a feeling large dinner right and I'm a little bit sleepy now so I don't think I have the energy to process the watermelon tonight and I don't know if it's a project I want to take on over it Sunday but you leave me just Monday the earliest day I could cut the watermelon off the rind and save it in the right kind of bowls in the refrigerator. Things I've learned about myself is once that something like this is processed it's in the refrigerator I tend not to be too interested in it anymore. However, I love watermelon and I'm going to force myself to eat as much as I can once I get it to the point where it's easily cut off it's rind make it a fairly easy to have watermelon and cheese in the evenings. I'm always amazed at how much I piss after I eat watermelon. It makes sense , Ergo the name watermelon.

Chasing Ice Cream

 

 The temperatures have ticked back up to the triple digits. Today we reached 103° which really isn't a lot but my local standards it's enough to make the news at least three times a day. Anyway the harp on just how he is that sometimes you do things that are so much stupid and that's what I have done. The other they or should I say the other hot spell I saw what I thought was a deal in the Frozen section of the local market and that was a whole box of Meadowgold gold ice cream bars and the rapper look just like the creamery and milk company in Boise where I grew up. I guess I'm a sucker for sedimentality. Even more important was there's 24 ice cream bars in the Box at the same price of 12 of the local brand. I thought I was being somewhat clever pulling this off as I stuck the box of ice cream bars in my freezer. I've had two or three of the ice cream bars now and each and every time I tried to unwrap the ice cream bar I failed and only got in the portion of the ice cream bar exposed by the time the whole thing started melting on me. I've gotten so I'm somewhat hesitant to even dive into the bars. Fortunately for me, and my caregiver likes these ice cream bars helps yourself to one off and on when she's waiting for me to finish my business on the toilet. I also thought about taking a couple of them over to my neighbors to help me get through this box. 24 bars are a lot of calories especially when you start eating one tonight which I'm tempted to do. I just hold myself back have a bar maybe once or twice every week.

I ate my ice cream sandwich tonight again I noticed how quickly the chocolate  like wafer that the ice cream sits in the middle of, begins to disintegrate and get soggy making it most difficult too finish unwrapping the cool summer treat. Going to the internet of course and there was a fairly decent answer there as far as how many people have this problem- - which totally surprises me. I thought perhaps the freezer portion of the freezer is not turned High Enough and the  iron coupled with the body temperature leads to a quick meltdown. Whatever is the problem it's a mess maker and I don't get the entire benefit of the ice cream bar. I don't think the Wafers are as thick or as crisp I used to be either. My mother had this unique way of finding things that were available in bulk sizes. One day she brought home two large bags of chocolate wafers from a local Cream Dairy Outlet that made ice cream bars. These Wafers were Rejects they were really good like a chocolate cookie but they had small defects that made them unusable for their regular product. We had these for a couple weeks before they all got eaten and I remember them being somewhat crisp it would take something like ice cream a long time to melt through it. I think they've changed their makeup just like everything else.

 

Just a feeling

 I seem to be coming such a worry wort I can barely stand it. I am surprised by caregiver keep showing up because every time she comes in she can see that I've been worried about something. Last couple of nights I've been waking up very early last night I woke up, or should I say this morning, I woke up around 3:00 a.m. I never really got back to sleep. But it's really weird is that I have felt okay through the day and I've been a very busy person today. Two bus trips and socialization coffee and working on my arm bike to finish my workout for the week 200 minutes. Just turned 9:00 p.m. and now I'm getting a second wind. I don't plan to stay up much later but it seems like I should be feeling worse than I am. And I just feel like something the Dreadful is around the corner. I could be suffering from the news I got yesterday of my brother's blood cancer. That could be it and I can see how that would influence my sleep as well. Having said all the above I must admit that my transfer this morning was better than usual as well as the self-dressing. I even wore both shoes today which is unique. I have just not been able to get my left foot up high enough on my leg to slip the other shoe on or have it stay on when I push the leg off my leg back to the Box. Often I'll have a spasm in the leg will kick the shoe off but not today so that's a good sign. I just hope I'm able to sleep tonight and do some catch up. I guess the best thing I should take away from these issues is that I get by. I guess I should worry more if I were the suddenly stop being able to make the transfer from the bed to the chair or actually land on the floor. Yesterday for a short minute I felt my leg go between the bed and the power chair and I found in the past where that happens I'm almost a goner. I either have to stay that way until my caregiver gets here or I have to call someone and the worst case scenario is the 911 folks. It's been 10 years since I've been to this place I still don't know enough people I could call on or even how to get a hold of them if I were to have an emergency like this again. But should really boost my ego and concept of being independent is the fact that I have been nearly independent for the entire time I've been here which I think would be more than like 3,000 days or more that says a lot. Oh, I've had the fire trucks come out a couple times no more than five I don't think. Tomorrow's Friday that means Melissa will be here for my shower, toileting and dressing. After that it's Saturday and Sunday and I dress myself but I think I'm going to do okay .,,psis I just have a feeling

Sad day Wednesday

What A Strange Day! It started out extremely early I woke up around 3:00 a.m. and really couldn't get back to sleep. I must have dozed off once or twice before we reached 6:00 a.m. but it was kind of hard but I was excited kind of today is my brother's birthday. We're not super close kind of just because and we always pretty much stuck together. I still have a weird feeling about the call. I couldn't find the phone number at first I had to really work at it to make sure I got the right phone number. He has a home phone but never answers it he answers pretty much only to his cell phone I didn't have that number I left a message and eventually got back with me. During the conversation where I did the happy birthday thing he informed me that he's got cancer, some kind of blood cancer which indicates has no cure or at least that's what they told him. He said he's had it for some time but this is the first time he's ever let me know about it and it kind of freaks me out there's no question about that. He's a veteran and he goes to the VA a lot and I think he's been doing the VA Hospital thing for this whole cancer trip which kind of makes sense that he has those options. Either way he's a short timer but who is not a short timer at this point. He's 5 years older than me that means he's 80 years old that's a good run it's going to be probably better than I get. He says he's not in too much pain a little discomfort but who knows what that really means. I wish I was closer as far as physically being closer to Boise so I can actually visit him. I didn't really think I'd get back to Boise and I still don't know how I would but that might be something just going to have to work out. When he passes unless something else happens to one of the family until then he'll be the first to go then I guess it'll be like floodgates opening up. I don't know at all but it wouldn't surprise me except for the oldest brother who died quite a while ago and really wasn't too integrated with the rest of the family this should be the first close one to go. I think I'm just babbling now.

I really wanted to get more done today than I did. It's Wednesday and that means it's wash day. That pretty much links me to the apartment complex until I at least get the clothes out of the dryer. Melissa takes the clothes from the washer it closer in the dryer before she leaves then about an hour later I check the dryer take out the clothes get back to my room and then fold them. I was pretty straightforward today got them done probably about 1:00 or 2:00 but then I just didn't have the momentum to head out and catch the bus and go look for a new lanyard to hold my bus pass in since I destroyed the other one last week. This of course is at the same time that I've got to deposit the check that I got from my volunteer work with assist. It's not a lot and it's not like a salary it's more like and honorarium I forget the other word it's used for that. Still 60 bucks is 60 bucks I'll dump most of it into the account and take 10 out for fun…

Words words words

Tuesdays Thursdays Saturdays and Sundays are my hard days. I think I've talked about it before but these are the days that I have no morning help coming in to assist me getting up actually to assist me go to the toilet and shower, I'm usually up by the time she gets here. For the longest time I had no problems getting out of the bed and in the chair and getting dressed actually but something's changed I've talked about this before. I sort of think it might be my foot box and it might be lower but then there I go conjecturing I don't know all I know is that I can't get my leg up over my other leg as easily as I used to and can't get my shoes on as easily as I used to in fact I'm almost not wearing a shoe on my left foot on these days just because I can't get it up over my other leg like I used to be able to. I know it sounds like I'm whining and I probably am but that's the feelings that I'm getting and sometimes a little frightening other times I realize if I work on the project of getting dressed long enough I can get dressed at least enough to pass at being dressed. I have this weird mindset that if I wear one shoe it's permissible people will believe that there's something wrong with my other foot. That's the reason I'm not wearing a shoe on that foot. Sometimes I balance my shoe on top of that foot along with my backpack and everything else and hope that somewhere along the line someone might put that shoe on my foot. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't but it certainly worth a try.

I need to start carrying a jug of water with me wherever I go. I'm just not ingesting enough water through the day to really do good things for my kidneys and such. Each day I start the day with the idea that I'm going to drink lots of water today or liquid doesn't necessarily have to be water. However I get to the end of the day and realize I've just had a couple gulps here or a cup of gulps there just enough to keep dry mouth away and this cannot be good. But I'm not in pain or discomfort and it seems like if I was doing something really destructive especially something like losing my kidneys are bladder or whatever I would feel it more. As it is, I just drain my bladder when I get the Sensation that I need to. Since I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic I guess there's probably some kind of liquid I should be ingesting on that as well and not let the diabetes take over my system. The other side of that coin of drinking liquids all the time is that what goes in eventually has to come out. I have an unlimited hand function and having the place find the dick every time I want to go to the bathroom makes it a little bit challenging on the street even finding an accessible bathroom it's still a bit of a challenge and then being able to use that bathroom long enough to do the job. It takes me awhile. It's probably subconscious justification but then I don't drink water because I don't want to have to pee while I'm out and about. That I need to get over cuz if I don't start drinking more I'm going to be in big trouble.

One of the best parts of my day was when I realized that I was going to have more than enough power in my chair to get to my meeting downtown and Back Again. In fact I was so sure myself I didn't even pack the charger like I thought I might. With all the assists that mean the bus and the train and such by the time I got to the office I'd only used about 5/10 of a mile of power by the time I gotten pretty much to the college coming home I I've gone about 1.3 miles I felt so sure myself I didn't even take the 217 like I was thinking and just drove the rest of the way home stopping at a number of stores looking for an item that I'm trying to find. But I got home there was lunch sitting on my table white rice some kind of meat product covered in gravy and some interesting potato salad. It was all very good it was all very cold she must have delivered it very early mid-morning or late mid morning. That's okay I ate half and saved a little bit for later. Then later in the afternoon there is a knock on my door and the lady ate from upstairs and brought me down a bowl of lentil soup along with some kind of dessert a cream pie which is really good after a day traveling and I really didn't eat anything while I was out. So it's been a pretty good. But now I'm tired and ready for sleep

 

Monday moans

I'm still trying to clean the apartment phase that's the phase where everything's so clean in the apartment that you don't want to do anything for fear of messing it up. For me I want to cook a breakfast fried spam and eggs but to do that I would have to get the frying pan out put it on the stove and cook the spam and the eggs somewhere along the line I know I would get something splashed over the side either onto the burner top or on the frying pan. This would mean that I or somebody else would have to wash the frying pan again before it could be used. I don't know what I fear most a dirty frying pan in the sink soaking waiting to be washed or I washed frying pan just really looking for a place to hang out until it's going to be used again. I could we hang it on the rack but I know I would or I doubt that I would really do that because of the energy it would take to go from the frying pan in the sink wet and wanting to be hung up. I would probably just leave it on the stove top and wait for the surge of energy to wash the frying pan up so it could be used again shortly. But I keep forgetting every time I open the refrigerator doors that I've got a meal from take home Sunday when we went to the restaurant and I scarfed everybody's plates when they are all done which left me a full styrofoam box of food including my large pancake that I never got around to eating. So I think I know what I'll have for breakfast tomorrow before I head out to my meeting at assist. Couple Fork Falls of pancake or fried potatoes and sausages that were all part of the scrape off into the styrofoam box before we left the restaurant. I forgot that box was in the refrigerator till after I made myself breakfast this morning: a cheddar cheese covered burrito with crisp Chinese noodles. Tomorrow will be better anyway because I will feel the pressure to get out and catch the bus to go into my meeting downtown. I believe I've shared the sediment before that I'm a little worried about the battery or batteries in this chair and their capabilities of holding a charge long enough to get me there and Back Again. Remember I used this is the excuse last week to skip the meeting because I was afraid that I would be stranded with my bad batteries. But when I got the batteries back from the wheelchair shop they indicated that one battery was failing and the other battery was good. And I've been watching the distance I've been traveling the last couple days on a single charge that looks like I should be okay. I'll pack up the charger and drag it in with me just in case I'm out of juice and I need to charge it just to get home.

 

It could have been disastrous

 This day started out with what could have been a disaster. You, dedicated reader, no that usually on Sundays I get up a little bit earlier because I tried to get totally dressed and ready to go by 7:30 so I can make the 8:00 breakfast appointment at the local restaurant. Today I started at usual about 4:55 something like that and then when I went to make the transfer for the bed to the chair I still don't know what happened but the cushion wasn't fastened or whatever like it usually was or is and the whole cushion slipped underneath my weight as I transferred from the bed on to the cushion 3/4 of the cushion was left hanging off of the chair and I was sort of just basically on a little bit of the cushion that was still on the chair and I didn't have anywhere to go except down. This has happened sort of in the past and I've been able to lay the chair down or lay the back down and with a stick or whatever push the cushion back underneath me when I try to bridge but that didn't work on this one and I knew I was a goner I was going to have to call somebody or something. Then I figured well well I tried getting back on the bed and starting over again but I can still do that with the lowering in the bed back to its down position then in a leap roll back on the bed which I did then start the process all over again this time however pushing the cushion back as far as it would go in the bed of the chair. It took me 45 minutes at least to do this procedure but I did it and I rolled back and I was able to make the transfer I put out a couple calls with Alexa but nobody responded and that turned out to be okay. It seem to take me a bit longer than usual to get dressed and such but surprisingly I was ready to go by 7:45 a.m. amazing! In fact I got to the restaurant way before everybody else and waited for about 20 minutes before the rest of the crew showed up. 

The previous event was pretty huge in my estimation especially since I was able to pull my own self out of a problem myself. But I think the best part of this day was that following breakfast Jasmine and Jackson volunteered to come over to my apartment. Did ask me if there was anything I needed to have done and there really is I've had a case of spam on the top shelf and my cabinet that I couldn't reach any more cans to pull out I need to have this spam empty before I could reach it since I really do use a lot of spam when I have access I feel like cooking. But of course once the kids got here they went right to work cleaning up the place putting things in order sweeping the floor and doing whatever I ask that needs to be done around the corner, dishes were done countertops were dusted off and washed down as well as the top of the stove top which can get pretty Grody sometimes. A lot of elbow grease went into some of the items they cleaned. They also got rid of a lot of useless stuff on my tabletop and set the rest of what was left in order making it look very tidy and very useful I was truly blessed today from disaster aversion to apartment clean up I am one lucky dude!

August again

First day of August and it was Triple digit Saturday temperature wise. It was hot but not so hot that I couldn't function outside in fact I went again to the new Spider-Man movie to see if it made more since the second time particularly if I see the movie from the beginning and it kind of did. I kind of surprised myself because I stayed for the whole thing I was just going to watch the first part of the the movie that I missed but I really like the way the movie ended so I ended up staying. It was hot when I left and I'm sure it was already in the triple digits but I got to the bus stop okay and waited patiently for the bus which probably did come and for once I really enjoyed the cool vehicle.

I kind of freaked myself out this morning as I was getting dressed for the day when I noticed blood on one of my feet. Remember how I lift one leg over the other leg to get the pants on and the shoe and such? I guess I am using too much exertion on the stick that raises my leg or my skin is becoming so frail that it's just breaking off I'm breaking up. So now I've got wounds kind of on my foot as well as on the other leg where I think I burned myself the other day when I had my legs under the sink and didn't realize the sink was hot until it may have been too late. So like I said it kind of freaked me out this morning but getting through the day I'm feeling a lot less frail and maybe not needing to see the wound person like I was all ready to do this morning. Luckily it was a Saturday. I'm still having issues with my butt but I keep applying the cream and it seems to be helping a great deal. I still saw batches of blood on pad this morning when I got up but my caregiver swears that she doesn't see any skin breakdown when she's attended to my butt and she's looking really close. I totally believe her. I'm still going to play it safe as soon as I get better batteries in my chair I think I'm going to go into the wound clinic at least get their input on what seems to be happening and how concerned I need to be not only with my butt but with my legs and anything else my skin seems to be breaking down.

I had coffee this morning with mark Anthony. He had contacted me earlier indicating that he is up to meeting me for coffee. He texted me and this time I was able to catch the text. Last week he texted that he and Kevin were going to be there and I didn't see it and I didn't show up. So this week we had a pretty decent discussion and enjoyed each other's company for early coffee. About more coffee for the apartment just so I wouldn't be caught short next week. So between the coffee shop and the movie experience I think I can relate that I had a fairly decent weekend to whoever might ask..

July's end, the new Spider-Man movie and the very small watermelon

 Another One Bites the dust! Tomorrow is August and even though there's much summer ahead hot and dry it still means the end of the season is nigh .

 Right now I'm pretty tired so I don't even care. It's been a long hot day but it's been fun, enjoyable somewhat interesting. I've been intrigued with how the last Spider-Man ended and when they talked about the new Spider-Man the one that just opened up about him negotiating life being forgotten by all those that love him I really wanted to see it so that was my main objective for today. I want to take an early show in and try to be home by the time the temperature is really begin to ramp up. I think I've gotten a little skittish with all the talk on the local news and radio channels and television stations about the heat Dome and how hot it's going to get in I'll delete it is for seniors to be out in the severe heat. But it's like everything else if you know what you're doing you're okay.

My Movie experience was weird if nothing else. I knew I was a little late getting to the movie I wanted to see at the time I wanted to when I got to the ticket place the ticket lady told me that the movie it started a little bit but wait 10 minutes the next showing would start that's just seriously this Regal Theater must have had five theaters showing this movie so there was a bunch of times it was always seem to be starting. So I went in to the theater the next movie and they said would be starting around 10:45 which meant that with all the time and previews it would start around 11:00. So I figured what the heck and I went in. I never showing previews all right and I thought they're showing quite a bit of them then finally they started showing a long preview of The Odyssey, which I saw last week, but this preview went on and on and on and then I realized something was up and I realize I was actually watching the movie again and there's nothing in there about Spider-Man! So I rolled out back to the ticket place and they were pretty embarrassed they sent me to the wrong movie theater so I went back and found one that was actually showing the movie that it just started I guess. That's part of the problem was that I couldn't really figure out what was happening. And I really never did accept at the end when they did the handshake and I guess that meant the Buddy remembered and it was sort of cool but I definitely am going to have to see it again and make sure I see it for the very beginning to the very end but it's like two hours and something that's a pretty long commitment.

 Q

I went to the big Walmart store across the street after the movie and did a little shopping for fun. I actually got a watermelon it's a little guy but hopefully I can eat the whole thing before it gets bad and hopefully it's good when I open it up. I don't think I'll open it tonight though. I think I'm just going to drain the dragon and hit the sack…

Spaghetti Thursday

 

Today is the start of another wave, we've been under this heat dome for some time and it's and it's taking a bit of a break the last couple of days when it began pumping up moisture from the south. This many monsoon season we've been enjoying finally ended yesterday with the downpour that I wrote about in yesterday's blog. Today was kind of hot but I guess nothing like it's going to be the next couple of days Seven maybe 10 days. Sadly the days were passed quickly and soon our Heatwave will be over. Luckily today I was not out in the heat very much. Between finishing getting the kids Letters Out today and doing my arm bike I stayed close to the ranch. Broke out a while read a little bit outside but that was about it. The high point came when there's a knock on my door around lunch time and it was my neighbor who had prepared for me a big dish of spaghetti with a fine Rich homemade meat sauce. This lady speaks very little English but we seem to get by. Yesterday washing clothes we had to wait on another individual in the complex who had all the dryers working at the same time so we had to wait for him to get his junk out of the dryers. I don't know if this is what precipitated the lunch today or she just hadn't prepared a meal for me sometime. Either way I appreciate it the man even though I couldn't really tell her how much because the language barrier. Luckily this time I hadn't already started my lunch so I was able to enjoy part of the meal. She gave me so much spaghetti that I had spaghetti for lunch and I had spaghetti for dinner and I still have enough spaghetti for another meal maybe two if I'm not a pig. The only sad part is that I pretty much work through all the meat sauce. I thought about throwing together and meat sauce real quick I have all the ingredients but now there doesn't seem to be enough noodles just have to keep the meat sauce around for something unless I make another batch of noodles and use the meat sauce on the combination of the two spaghettis. That would probably be best maybe if I get a wild hair tomorrow I would do that. I would love to have food for the weekend without having to do much trouble in preparation.

The second high point of my day and actually it might be the first was that or is that I dumped the letters into outgoing mail tonight when I went down to the mail room and check my mail for the week of course there was nothing there but junk which I brought home and gladly shredded. I was pleased that I didn't have to spend a lot of stress and time on my printer. The printer just fired up when I turned it on and Faithfully took the commands I fed it and spit out the letters as well as one or two envelopes I hadn't yet printed. I don't know which is the hardest part signing the letters are folding and stuffing the envelopes and then peeling the stamps off the stamp sheet and the plane them to the envelopes. Fortunately, they don't sell envelopes that you have to lick anymore they all seem to have those peel off sticky backs which is a bit of a struggle but I get those too. My biggest challenge to neatly apply the stamps very rarely do they go where I want them to go or straight as I would like them to be. Every once in awhile most of the time their little helter skilled to or sometimes hanging over the edge a little bit and I have to turn them under. But eventually I get them all together and take him down and dump them and I'm pleased to have one day before the new month starts to myself and the Heat of the new heat wave

Wet and Wild!

 I have just sat through a delicious summer storm, the kind that you hope and wish for but never really seems to come around maybe once or twice during the summer. Chances are this is the only summer storm we will get this year it's hard to say- - I think we had one earlier in the year too but not as nice as this one where you had a little heat of the day and then the storm comes in from another part of the state with thunder and lightning and torrential rain for a few minutes. The kind of rain that makes you realize how dangerous it would be to be in one of those Canyons when this kind of rain would happen. You really would be a goner. It's past now it's becoming mid evening the sun's getting ready to set but it's obscured by clouds of course so you just get this kind of glow as I look through the rain drop encrusted window. The driveway outside my window gushed with water there for 4 or 5 minutes is now on its way to being dried the wind is blowing fairly significantly but the heat of the day is creepy back in to the coolness of the downpour making me wish I had a reason to be out in the hole weather phenomenon.

I got my chair back from the shop last night. Nothing of course had been done except too go through the chair to ascertain what kind of work they needed to contact the insurance company to see if they would cover it or not. The batteries they feel pretty sure that the insurance company will cover but they won't replace the actual cores until they get it in writing. They're just so afraid to take a risk. They've got a few other items they're going to work on the chair as well which kind of drives me crazy cuz remember they had the chair last month or they were supposed to do a lot of work the chair and why didn't they do it then? All I know is that it was great to get out of the backup chair. My regular chair is just so much more comfortable. I forget how comfortable my regular power chair is until I have to go through an ordeal of a day in the other chair. Gratefully I know now that I could do more than one day if I had to I wouldn't be happy about that but I would still do it or I could do it. Everything's harder. Especially getting out of bed in the morning. I think it took me almost 15 minutes this morning a solid work to get my legs over the side of the bed and onto the chair. Luckily today was a Melissa day so she dressed me otherwise I would not have been able to wear shoes today either like yesterday. Respect regular chair I can get my legs crossed to put the shoes on if I really feel I need to wear them. I really don't think I have anything civilized I have to do for the rest of the week so I can actually not have to wear shoes at all if I wanted. The temperature is going to spike again so the weather person says which means I'll want to stay as cool as possible instead cool is what it's all about…

Time check

 

I feel bad. I've been cruising in my power chair all day the backup chair and I really sort of think I could have done my assist assignment. I didn't do any long distance rolling or anything like that but I covered some ground. I went to the market and then I went to some of the stores in that area looking for a radio since the radio on my bed stopped working the other day which had something to do with Melissa but who knows. All I know is that it no longer worked and so I have to get something new bye the end of the day so I have some clock to look at during the night. I got by by building up algorithm or formula that I could add hours on to whatever hour I started and find out how long I slept actually I ended up programming my cell phone to be a digital clock and basically got through the night fairly well but I still want to have a clock. So, none of the stores in the area by the market had anything so I jumped the bus and eventually went down to di of course where I know I could get a clock. They have them there like cord wood stacked. The biggest challenge is to get the clock it will be best for me which I think I did it certainly new and improved to what I got before. I really don't use the radio functions and stuff but I could and maybe I will with this new clock. As I said this search really took some significant rolling much more than I think I would have done had I gone on the train into town cross the street by the library to the assist office and Back Again. I got a call later after I got home which was the wheelchair shop indicating that they were bringing my chair back tonight of course I don't know what I was thinking I really thought they would install the batteries but no they did not they just got everything they thought was wrong with the chair they'll submit it to the insurance at the insurance covers it bill do the batteries and what else ever else it needs. This is someone confusing because they just did this and they replaced a bunch of stuff now they're doing a bunch more stuff. I just want to have batteries that's all I care about. They did indicate that they did check the batteries out One battery was good the other one was failing pretty significantly but I think I could use that that chair if I need to get back into town again to do the assist thing before the parts come in to do the upgrade on my regular chair. I'm not going to sweat it I've got too many other things going on to worry about something as minor as my power wheelchair being able to have enough juice to go from point A to point B…

Shortcake

The driver picked up my chair this afternoon right as I was ending my first of the week workout. When I work out I think I've written this before but when I work out I'm strapped to my arm bike and I go through my different settings getting an overall workout for an hour. Today I didn't do anything close to an hour I think I just did a half hour workout. I was not in my regular chair. Lissy had put me in my backup chair this morning after my shower. What new shoes being placed in a chair that's not what I usually use gives the same feeling and many times it's an awkward feeling. This chair is significantly different from my other chair. I think this one is smaller, it does not fit the same way with its cushion and it has no elevator function! I also think the batteries are somewhat limited as well perhaps as bad as my other chair. The chairs so uncomfortable that I finally decided I could only stand doing a half an hour work out and it's during the latter part of that workout I thought I heard a knock on the door. I yelled for someone to come in but nobody did maybe 4 minutes 5 minutes later I heard the knock again this time I yelled again but a little bit louder and sure enough the guy came in and said he was here to pick up my chair. I thankfully unstrapped myself from the arm bike and signed the documentation of him picking up my chair and sardonically giving him the order to bring my chair back as soon as possible. I just pray that happens and that by tomorrow night or at least Wednesday morning I can get switched back to this chair. I canceled one meeting that I have for tomorrow that I didn't want to jeopardize my butt or risk being stranded somewhere in this chair because as I remember right the battery in this chair isn't much better than the chair I sent away just now. So my plan now is to just basically lean back in my chair as much as I can to take the weight off my butt and to get by the next couple days or as long as it takes. My biggest fear right now is transferring from the bed to the chair. The foot box is way smaller than the foot box in my regular chair, following a safe transfer is the actual dressing myself. I made a question myself in my apartment the entire day just because I would not be presentable.

I know this is way shorter than my regular blog but I'm going to have to hit the sack early tonight. It's like I've been fighting this chair all day and it's one this round. My only option now is to stick with this battle another day and hopefully my good old chair will be back tomorrow night. All right team drink lots of water, for loose clothes to get plenty of rest I'm signing off for today.

 

Sunday seconds

 I spent all day with this tablet plugged in trying to get it charged to full capacity. Earlier this evening I rolled by and checked and sure enough it had reached 100% charge but I started charging yesterday in the evening and it charged all night and this morning it was like at 89% and then I let it charge some more. It was important to me to get this charged so I could dictate or start my kid letters as well as have charge to write my blog for today. Needless to say I didn't get any kid letters written today.. yet but at least I'll be able to get my blog in in my journal and then plug the tablet in again so that I might have a full charge to start my kid letters tomorrow. Tomorrow I'm only semi busy because I have to have my caregiver put me in my backup chair and then put this chair on the charger so it's got a full charge when they pick it up to take my chair into the shop hopefully for new batteries but they maintained that I had to send my chair in with the full charge as well as with the charger. I didn't have the heart to tell them that the charger I use most likely it's not the charger that came with this chair I have no idea what charger I have that might be or if I even have that charger. I must I have three Chargers two of them have been pretty poor condition but they work and the third I had wrapped up in a canvas bag tied in so tightly I could not free the charger by myself and had to go across the street to a park and grab somebody to help me pull the charger out of the black bag. Now I have everything charging I should be okay for tomorrow. They will not be picking my chair up till 4:00 or so so I have enough time to put this chair I'm currently using on the charger and it'll be fully charged by the time to pick up boys get here. I hate giving up my chair but I've got to have batteries so I can continue my life.

I totally blew off the day after having breakfast with my son, as I usually do every Sunday, I thought about taking in another movie but I really wasn't up for that so I came back to the apartment went out in the heat for a little while- - it's been extremely hot but I enjoy that you guys know that- - I finally decided not to be heroic and decided to watch or finish watching movies I've started earlier this week I never got a chance to finish. I got myself sucked into a series as well 45 minute episodes and I think about 20 episodes per season I think there's five seasons. I don't know if I will last five seasons I don't know if I'll last the rest of this season. The series is called Heroes and I think I saw an early version of it the number of years ago but I can't remember any of the episodes I've seen so far and it's a little sci-fi/fantasy entertaining so I'll use it until I find better movies to enjoy..

Popcorn in a movie

It's hard to believe that in five short months it'll be Christmas Day as hot as it is right now I think it was 103° in Salt Lake today. Who knows what will be on December 25th 2026. Everything's strange everything's different the country is burning up because of the drought I'm just surprised Salt Lake hasn't really shown any effects of the drought except the Heat and no precipitation to speak of. We've really not had any fires or floods or anything like that that seem to be happening all around the country it's just kind of strange that's all. I know I always come back to the thing that we're just waiting for the slippage that will signify the Great earthquake along the Wasatch Front which will probably more than make up for anything that's happening across the country right now. And who knows maybe these increased temperatures well leads to the slippage that will cause the Great earthquake… that's not now however, it's Saturday night and of course I'm not really doing anything except pondering hitting the sack maybe a little early just because Sundays I try to get up the shade early to make sure I'm ready by the time that I'm supposed to be over at the restaurant. I used to just get up early and mess around until it was time to go but now I have to use every second of any time that I have waking up early to get ready. I know I keep harping on this but it seems like they're just certain things that I can't do anymore like I did even earlier in this year. I have not yet not been able to get up but I've noticed my right leg seems a lot more difficult to do the early morning move that I need to do to transfer into my chair. Once I'm in my chair I'm pretty much okay but getting there seems to be more and more difficult. Crossing my legs to put my shoes on was another challenge today eventually got it done but it cost me time at which cost me from giving up on going across the street to the coffee shop. Sadly I find out that mark anthony, my son, was that the coffee shop with his friend Kevin. I'd like to have seen them. That was pretty much it for the day I pretty much stayed home the rest of the day just a little concerned about being out in the heat it was going to be 100 plus today. I did go out however with a cap and my equipment went to the movies. I got popcorn a drink Red Vines and Milk Duds- the movies basically free but the price for the amenities was $22 some months I paid for it with my card. I got a small container of popcorn that's what I usually do however the people sitting next to me in the movie gave me their bucket of popcorn when we left. With a bucket of popcorn you can get it refilled at least once I guess so I had them top it off when I leaving the movie theater. I spelled it all over everything it seemed like it was a challenge trying to keep it together while I was on the bus but I finally got home deposited in the corner and amply forgot about the whole thing until it was time for bed. Found it again and enjoyed couple pieces of popcorn. I'll have it with me now though for the rest of the weekend who knows how longer?

All wrapped up

I seem to have been plagued all day by a power cord wrapped around some facet of my power chair that I can't get untangled. Of course it's a holiday so a lot of staff are not here today I was hoping the main technical support individual would be here but no so I'm just dragging this wire around all day trying to get it less wound up in my wheels or tires. That also means that the code that I used to usually charge up this device has not been functional and so no charging has been done to this tablet. I am hoping I will have enough power to get this document up. Really haven't done much of anything today except just hang around the apartment I mean I've only registered 0.8 miles on my odometer on my chair so not even anything like across the street to the coffee shop or the market. That's okay I've got bad batteries. The bad batteries excuse the works really well would not having to go somewhere and do something you don't want to do or I don't want to do. My wound on my right elbow is coming along just well as far as healing goes. We're Way Beyond the issue of infection. Lissy has indicated that it's nearly healed she's done a great job with this piece. Yesterday I went to the market as well as to the movies which requires a lot of rolling and distance rolling actually. I guess I would have been able to get to the appointment last week for the wound doctor. I just don't trust this chair but now I think I will. I'm not going to have it for my needed trip into assist on Tuesday. I'm a little worried about the other chair as far as that goes the one I have a backup chair. Hopefully that chair will get me through or I may just have to cancel their assist meeting as well.

Dinner tonight consisted of the last of the box of fried chicken that I got from Smith's last week you know one of those eight piece Fried Chicken things that you get from the deli? It was pretty good though I was a little suspect of some of the pieces of meat but I did not get sick or I have not yet and I finished enough that I threw the hole box of remaining chicken pieces away. They've been pretty well picked over by now and most of the breading had fallen off it was just right for cats at this point if they dare get into the dumpster. I have to watch myself cuz I could really get into those Fried Chicken boxes if I don't watch out. It's nearly time for bed at least for me. I really am trying to do a concerted effort of getting to bed earlier than I have been this whole year. We didn't have any storms along this portion of the Wasatch Front today but the wind is picking up now there's been heavy clouds on and off all around the area today. I got a few drops of water on me this afternoon visiting with somebody out front of the building but it was just a little bit. I doubt if anything will happen tonight of significance but I've opened my window even wider by the bed just in case…

 

Chilly Willy

I just turned off the air conditioner to my apartment. 7:50 p.m. in we're sliding into the night time cycle but it's just too cold in this apartment otherwise. Sniffling my nose is running and I feel chilly. This apartment gets really hot really quick it seems to me during the day and I've started turning on the air conditioner around 2:00 or 3:00 if I haven't turned it on already. On Monday Wednesdays and Fridays I often turn the air conditioner on in the morning just so the apartment will be a little cooler when my care person gets here. I like to make the environment as comfortable for my people as possible. For my caregiver I want to make sure the temperature is right, the coffee's new and hot and there's snacks on the table and food in the fridge if she needs to have some sort of breakfast while I go through my morning process. These are the little things that I think is important to keeping folks that serve you happy to serve you and want to come and serve you. I'm not that smart I wish I were but the bottom line is I don't want the apartment hot hot wind she gets here. I'll actually turn the air conditioner off after she leaves and not turn it on again until maybe later in the day if the apartments way too hot. It took me a long time to figure out the air conditioner module thinner , okay thermostat! I mean I really should know this kind of stuff my dad was a furnace guy and he knew all about thermostats I just have a hard time trying to read our thermostat here at the property. It's a challenge of getting close enough in my power chair and then up high enough to see what module the thing is in at any given time. I've worked the thermostat enough now to just about know where to put it at any given time for the results that I desire. And sometimes it was good and hot I like to feel the coolness creep into the room. I don't know why but in the doorway between my bedroom and the main room it seems to be a vent or something cold air blows right through that area all the time and if I'm really hot that's where I like to plant myself for a little while anyway until I bring my body heat down. Looks like we're about ready to enter another hot spell maybe beginning Saturday the days will start becoming triple figures for the next week or so. I'm afraid we're building up to the high point of the summer after which point a little bit by little bit we start that downhill push to the end of the year. I know there's a lot of days that will be before then but just knowing summer is passing very quickly and I suppose so am I…

 

Cash!

  

It happened again! The other night I had gone over to the market just to pick up a few things more of a recreational/social outing than anything else. It's kind of a forced socialization that I think that I need from time to time throughout the week. Unfortunately, I guess that I live close enough to be able to do this anytime whenever I want, I don't know how wise this is but it's just the way that it is and I enjoy the ability to do this but anyway I was at the market. I wasn't really looking for anything specifically just a few purchases to get me through the night something to snack on something to have in the closet or the cupboard so when that movie comes on or whatever and I need a little munchie I can just roll over my stash and pull something out. Or maybe it's something sweet like her perfect piece of candy or a candy bar or just something that I can just quickly and be satisfied. I like to look around and see what else is available roll up and down the meat aisle look at pieces I wish I had the courage to purchase even though I can I still don't. I need to have a reason or a purpose to justify such a expenditure. I mean I cannot believe T-bone steaks costing $40 for a package of three or maybe even more it's just blows me away. But it's fun to look in the book and think of all the things I could do. Anyway, I pick up a few things and I have them balanced on my lap / stomach as I sip around the the store finally realizing it's time to leave it's not getting any earlier. I get in line and wait to and wait to go through the checkout.

All the sudden my spider senses begin to tingle I'm not really sure why then I noticed there's a construction kind of guy two people ahead of me just finishing his check out. He's engaged in a conversation with the checkout person so it looks at me and then moves off a little bit. Then the next person is a fast check out she's in and out and gone then it's my turn. I threw my stuff up onto the countertop it's kind of hard. This is one of the things I'm noticing as I age that things that used to be really simple just are more challenging and one of them is getting things I'm going to buy up onto the countertop for them to run through the checkout. At the same time I begin checking through my pack to get my wallet out to get ready for my purchase and the guy up in front looks at me and smiles and says “hey buddy I got it”. One of the lessons I've learned now is to just smile and say thanks. It doesn't do any good to get into a argument about if I could pay or not pay or get angry about how I didn't ask him to do the good deed. I've just decided to accept the deed and roll with it. I didn't really count almost what happened next. He said something like hey wait before you put your wallet away here they open up his wall and pulls out of fresh 20 throws it down on my lap turns around and leaves. Like I said I wasn't ready for this part I'm thinking to myself cool I'm not having any impact my savings at all and I come out 20 bucks a head life doesn't get better than this. I don't know how cool that is but if you got to accept something you got to accept it all the way. It's not like I was out trolling looking for a benefactor and if I was trying to do it it never would come out the way that I wanted it to so I was just thankful that all happened tonight and everyone came out looking pretty decent. However I'm thinking what I might look like for Thanksgiving or Christmas…

A

Slow Mo's sloppy joe

 

I did pretty good for a no help day no I have four of them over the week. I've been having some issues the last couple of days when I didn't have Home Care coming in. But today is not a problem that was awake by 5:00 a.m. dozed until 6:00 a.m. then I got up. I didn't dress immediately but I did get my meds and the regular stuff and I did get dressed and was ready to go by 8:35ish almost 9:00 a.m. it would ha

ve been a perfect morning had I had to go into town for my regular Tuesday morning meeting which we did not have this week. The biggest issue I was having this morning was how it's going to make my appointment on Thursday for the elbow wound at the wound clinic. I ended up calling what's his name over it Salt Lake wheelchair shop of course she wasn't there and got back with me later on in the day. I essentially next called the folks at the wound clinic and let them know I would not be making it in on Thursday. This is kind of frightening but not really. If my wound was giving me more issues as far as pain and such I would be more stressed out by dropping this appointment but I think I'm doing okay especially with input from Lissy, who I feel has done a great job. I feel just a little threatened by dropping the appointment but the person did leave the option I'll put the just give him a call and they'll schedule another appointment. I asked them if they could come out but they said they couldn't until I came in for an appointment then after that they could do something maybe. Just an update the wheelchair shop did call me back and I have an appointment to send my chair in to have it looked at and hopefully they'll install batteries at that time which will be next week next Thursday.

The senior center which is across the street from our building has a lunch 5 days a week. The beginning of each month they probably say a recipe or a listing of what they're going to have each day. Today they had sloppy joes and I thought why not grab lunch at the senior center? It's always a strange experience going over there if you ask me but I did at the appointed time. I have to confess that the sloppy joes didn't look like anything that I would ever produced for one I would use a lot more tomato sauce or tomato base or whatever there is hardly any in this sloppy joe that I got. Quite a bit of flavor was lacking but it was still a sloppy Joe and I enjoyed that part of it plus I had some questionable pork and beans. It's amazing how many old people show up at this event and I used to think that I look pretty bizarre and how I present myself with my shorts and my weird shoes and my strange feet positions in my chair but some of these walking seniors have me beat hands down. They look totally derelict and they're grouchy and clicky I set the table by myself mostly until three or four old ladies sat down started cackling and talked about their old life situations. I was kind of glad to get done with the whole event in fact I just realized I forgot to give my $4 donation. I'm almost talk myself now into doing my own sloppy joes I'll have to see if my green pepper still alive. I'm almost excited about not having to go in for the burn Clinic or wound clinic on Thursday feeling just a little guilty but not much..

Hot hot

 

 I swear this summer heat should begin to beat me up more so than it ever has before. It doesn't necessarily frighten me but certainly makes me wonder what's going on with my body and everything else seems to be in Flex or change. I really wasn't even in the environment today. I just went to the market after Lissa left and I was dressed and looked great for the rest of the world to see. Actually I also dropped it on a couple of the other stores in the same Mall as my market is. You know those stores that aren't really high-end stores but did not low in stores either. I don't know if they buy Factory Closeouts or whatever but sometimes they have items that are somewhat interesting and I want to see if there are any Caps or hats that I could get that would be different than the one I wear all the time as it is. I like that I've been told that I look Debonair if not cool in the top piece. Alas there wasn't anything even close to headwear. For what I'm searching for I may have to go down to one of the downtown malls and some of their specialty men's clothes store but also means there'll be a specialty of price I don't know if I'm looking at paying a lot of money for just a piece of headwear. In fact that's where I got the piece I'm wearing now that people give me good comments on.

What I'm wondering is that maybe the apartment is too hot. I know that sounds weird as heck but I have this weird thing that I do which is basically to turn the air conditioner off during the day and usually during the night as well. I like the apartment without the air conditioners on. Let's begin to change however. Tonight I was feeling a little dizzy not faint per se but not the best either and I checked the thermostat and it was 83° inside the apartment and maybe that was just a little bit too much for the old guy. So I turned on the air conditioner in this now it's beginning to turn down the inside Heat to a more livable standard. I found that around 72 degrees it's almost too cold for me to appreciate and I start thinking about turning off the air conditioner so I need to find a Zone temperature wise maybe 76 or 77 or something like that to see if that might be acceptable for inside outside temperature enjoyment of my living situation.

Remember on Sunday the problem that I had with the receiving latch on the side of my chair? That I had to have Marc Anthony come over and help me get finished dressing for the restaurant as well as seeing if he could do anything with the offended piece of equipment. And he did a good job of preparing the problem but it came undone again and so this morning I had Lissy look at the problem and see if she could do anything with making the piece secure so I could get through my day without fear of losing the arm again. And once again I'm surprised at first but then I can accept it easily she's able to get the screwdriver out and do whatever she did but totally fix that particular issue. In fact I had Ted the big guy who is the maintenance guy here at the building it was just a wonderful guy and can fix anything and is really smart. He looked at the job too this afternoon when he stopped into my apartment to fix the screen door that I broke last night remember? Anyway he looked at it and said she did a great job there wasn't much he could do to make it any better so he did look at it I think he twisted a few things which makes me double secure now. I really didn't want to have to go into the wheelchair shop but I think I will give them a call to find out what statuses are and if anything's changed regarding the possibility of getting a new piece of equipment to replace this one. The battery has been holding its own but I really haven't been going too far three miles and it's still in the upper 90s so that's the best that's been for some time. I think if I went a little bit further anywhere it would start plummeting as far as the power gauge goes. I really think I do need the batteries batteries. I know I seem to be rambling a lot these days but that's okay my goal is to get words out and words on the screen. It's going to be a warm week, it's a short week as far as work days go we celebrate the 24th of July here in Utah this week we're really lucky..

Sunday's rest

I wouldn't say that I had a bad morning it's just another one of those mornings that show to me how dependent I am on other individuals from time to time. I should have noticed yesterday but my left arm rest was getting kind of squirrely as far as trying to find the receiver to put the end piece in to make the arm piece steady and usable. The receiver is getting more and more loose I didn't realize it it didn't pay attention to it either way this morning soon after I got up it fell off my chair completely. I had been limping around with it a good part of the day yesterday that's what I should have just found someone to fix it for me should have called my brother to have him come over and fix it would have just been a couple twists with an allen wrench or my son used a screwdriver this morning I was surprised that that'll worked. Anyway trying to get dressed with one arm rest and one non-functional really took more than the 2 hours or 3 hours I had a lot of myself this morning to get ready for the restaurant with my son. I called him on my third hour which was right 7:00 a.m. and told him I was going to need some help or we're going to have to skip it today. I was really having trouble dressing. Luckily by the time he finally reached me I had gotten myself 90% dressed depending on how many points the shoes count. I didn't get those on. But immediately found the piece and was able to put it back on the chair and stop tighten it to the point that it's functional now and I don't feel nearly as desperate as I did this morning. It's funny how just one little thing can change the whole outlook of something now I'm thinking I can make it another week. I may take it somewhere and have them tighten it up a little bit more just to be sure it doesn't happen again. If I don't I think it will happen again very soon if I don't get the piece tightened up.

Aside from going out to breakfast with Mark this morning and listening to is Yammer about Russian women that was about all that I really did today all things considered. Even with the chair repaired I didn't find enough interest in the going out anywhere and doing anything particularly if it cost money. The day look like it was going to be cloudless and hot which it was. I spent the day wandering back and forth from the chips I had out on the table to the TV watching different movies at least one Marvel and one on Netflix I know I looked at the prime but I didn't really choose anything on their selections. I generally go to Netflix for the movies and Disney Plus for Marvel. I've babbled enough to get to my 500 Words. Looks like it could be and interesting week with more moisture being pumped up from the ocean or wherever it seems to be coming from..

 

Suddenly Saturday

 I'm almost concerned about how long it's taking me to get dressed, on my own anymore. My knee-jerk reaction of course is to blame it on my power chair which I'm sure is the culprit. I think the chair itself is so messed up because of me that none of my spasms seem to work anymore like they used to. I can't trigger a spasm that will make me Arch high enough long enough to pull my pants on up over my hips so it's a push me pull me thing and today took almost an hour if not longer. I wanted to be over at the coffee shop a little bit earlier than usual just because the radio station that I listen to, k u e r the local NPR affiliate through University of Utah was having what they had a mug stop or a mini fundraiser at the coffee shop. If you donate 20 bucks you get to go a mug with their logo on it. I kind of just wanted to see a couple of local DJs who said they were going to be there taking the orders for the mugs and such. They were going to be at the coffee shop from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. and so I kind of wanted to be there early so I can just hang around and watch the event as well as get a coffee cup since I needed one set because I broke my radio West coffee cup couple days ago.

I actually got the leg up to begin with relatively easy got my shorts on as well as my shoes. This morning I just could not get my Arch start so keep me up in the air be able to pull my shorts up. So I ended up doing was taking my meds and pulling up my shorts as long as I could and then roll around some more which eventually works and gets my shorts on my butt far enough that I'm no longer indecent as far as being in public and actually not looking half bad. I really should start working on my image for some reason it would be nice that I didn't look too ragamuffin like. Actually what I finally ended up doing because I was running out of time was I got the shorts up long enough that with the t-shirt that I wore was able to pull it down over the the shorts which basically hid my unbuttoned garment. After I got my legs bound and my top pulled together is to pull my legs together and then my bag with my cell phone and wallet and such which I carry around all together, I expected myself with the full length mirror that looked okay. I finally left the apartment about 15 minutes to 10:00 it had taken me almost an hour and 45 minutes maybe a little longer to get dressed. Something is happening. I got my mug and they got to talk with a couple of the DJs From The Morning Show I listened to and sat with a group of folks that I usually don't and it was good. I had to sit there just because with the folks from the radio station doing their fundraiser it was fairly packed much more than the regular mornings that I go. I did surprise myself by staying longer than I anticipated. Next I rolled to the bus stop jumped on the bus went up to the movie theater and watch The Odyssey by Homer. It's a 3-hour movie started about almost 11:00 when it finally got done with it with the commercials and stuff or the previous. So nice piece of work I really enjoyed the folks that were in it one a Spider-Man actor and the other one the guy from board identity. It was late afternoon by the time I finally got home but also my yellow light had come on from the batteries. I've been watching it real close the last couple days and they're definitely is something wrong with the batteries I think they just burned out. But I am juicing them up every night only half of me yellow by mid-afternoon and not even going very far I can really barely go three miles for the yellow light comes on I don't know how long after that I've got before the chair stops moving entirely. I'll have to check but I think I do need to call the boys at the office IHC to check about the status of my chair and well I need to do is fix this problem if it's too batteries do I invest in new batteries or get a hold of some basic good old middle batteries I don't know all drives me crazy and I qaq think I'm handling the heat the way that I used to. I'm kind of exhausted tonight thinking on hitting the sack early getting ready for the breakfast tomorrow..

@

Fumbling through Friday

 Did you know that Netflix has the whole Gray's Anatomy series available? It's like 20 years! I don't think I've watched any of the last 10 years of the series but I was pretty faithful for the first 10 I think at least most of the first 10 before I started wandering into something else on Thursday nights. I really love the first of the series or they're just out of medical school residents or whatever or however that whole system is worked and becoming real doctors. It's so well directed so well made I wish there were other serious that I like as much as that possibly Hill Street Blues I can't really put my finger on right now that I would make time to watch if that series was still available. I try to limit myself to one episode a night however there are those times when I'll watch two sometimes even three if it's a bad weather day. I don't know if I'm going to watch a whole lot more of Gray's Anatomy but I love the whole series about people becoming doctors. When the series is on Netflix I can watch it any episode anytime. Nobody's really said anything about my odd viewing habits but I don't care. I get a lot of Solace from the flat screen.

Today was podiatrist day. I had to take the bus 40 Street South to get to my podiatrist. He cuts my toenails every 9 weeks. It's kind of stupid because I know that Melissa would do some good job if I had asked her to do toenail clippings. Somehow how I think that's why though to keep some of the things separated. I really like the little guy I think I've talked about it before on this blog today is Richard. I really enjoy following him and his family from cutting to cutting. They do all these neat little trips together real family stuff. The Family itself is quite bright I hope they will keep that forward always. He hasn't shared with me any beliefs that any of the kids will go into Podiatry as he did but it probably would not surprise me. I think  Richard kind of shares a practice with his brother in different cities along the Wasatch Front. Each day he has committed to one area they're like a foot Dynasty.

Very early on a Friday evening but that was pretty tired after I got back from my trip to the doctor but I sort of napped true local and national news then one Gray's Anatomy which is now sort of passed the tiredness anyway I feel a little more refreshed. It's not like I can go anywhere. Battery indicator on my chair indicates that I'm down to 37% and showing a yellow tag on my indicator which means caution caution. This is a new development. My battery seems to be running down quite quickly these days on top of that my chair was acting strange this afternoon I still can't figure out. But it would almost stop the forward function as I was driving it between here and there. In one case it actually stopped and the chair had to be started again after which it seemed to work okay. I'm not sure exactly what this means and that sure as hell don't want to send it to have evaluated. Remember I have this ongoing issue of my durable medical people dragging their feet to start the the chair ordering. I don't know if it's the batteries but now I think it's maybe even worse than the battery maybe the motors. I haven't called them yet I'll wait till you do that that's a battle I know we'll be harsh and one I'm not looking forward to but I need to get something going on I'm going to be sitting on my butt looking pretty stupid without a chair to really work with. I like my backup chair but still that's just what it is not a real replacement. It's one thing or another. I'm just glad on this Friday night it's not my teeth …