$20 a poop

 Another Netflix day. It was a cold morning to begin with biggest reason I didn't go anywhere. My morning helper told me it was cold outside and I believed her and she was right at the time. Later on in the afternoon I adventured out and actually it wasn't so bad much warmer than I Another Netflix day. It was a cold morning to begin with biggest reason I didn't go anywhere. My morning helper told me it was cold outside and I believed her and she was right at the time. Later on in the afternoon I adventured out and actually it wasn't so bad much warmer than I anticipated leading to me going to the market later on after I had done my 1 hour of arm biking. Now I just have 20 minutes to go tomorrow and that will give me my 200 minutes for this week. Usually I'm done by this time of the week or I do my two 20 minutes on Fridays but because of the commitments I had not being able to be around the apartment during the day cuz of meetings I was not able to do the exercising during the usual time. The main reason I went to the market was to get a couple cans of mushrooms, small cans one that I can use in a dish I'm making, hopefully tomorrow, and one to put in storage that I will have for the next time I need mushrooms. I really do like to have things stored that I can use at a moments notice. I'm anticipating making a hamburger patty casserole. This looks pretty easy to prepare making the patties then covering them with onions then covering that hole mess with mushroom soup. I found an option of included a packet of flavor type meat tenderizer like a spicy powdered soup of some sort. I didn't have to purchase any at the market cuz I know I've got some here in one of my storage areas. I suppose that as the hamburger Cooks and releases it's fluids that mixes somehow with the gravy are the mushroom soup and the gravy mix and should make a savory sauce to go with the hamburger patties. It looked like there was a number of different options one could use whether it was stroganoff noodles or just hamburger noodles or rice brown or white. It really does look like comfort food and I'm pretty sure it would all be very tasty. I got back from the market too late today so I didn't try to make it this evening it was too late I had to watch the Jazz lose. I hope I will retain my Vigor for this project tomorrow haven't made by tomorrow night so I'll have it for Sunday afternoon maybe that would be fune …

 leading to me going to the market later on after I had done my 1 hour of arm biking. Now I just have 20 minutes to go tomorrow and that will give me my 200 minutes for this week. Usually I'm done by this time of the week or I do my two 20 minutes on Fridays but because of the commitments I had not being able to be around the apartment during the day cuz of meetings I was not able to do the exercising during the usual time. The main reason I went to the market was to get a couple cans of mushrooms, small cans one that I can use in a dish I'm making, hopefully tomorrow, and one to put in storage that I will have for the next time I need mushrooms. I really do like to have things stored that I can use at a moments notice. I'm anticipating making a hamburger patty casserole. This looks pretty easy to prepare making the patties then covering them with onions then covering that hole mess with mushroom soup. I found an option of included a packet of flavor type meat tenderizer like a spicy powdered soup of some sort. I didn't have to purchase any at the market cuz I know I've got some here in one of my storage areas. I suppose that as the hamburger Cooks and releases it's fluids that mixes somehow with the gravy are the mushroom soup and the gravy mix and should make a savory sauce to go with the hamburger patties. It looked like there was a number of different options one could use whether it was stroganoff noodles or just hamburger noodles or rice brown or white. It realla+!y does look like comfort food and I'm pretty sure it would alpop 9l be very tasty. I got back from the market too late today so I didn't try to make it this evening it was too late I had to watch the Jazz lose. I hope I will retain my Vigor for this project tomorrow haven't made by tomorrow night so I'll have it for Sunday afternoon maybe that would be fun.

My care gave me a heads up this morning that I believe next week or the week after on on Saturday Sunday or Monday she will not be available for emergency care taking ie wild poop clean up. This just threatens me a little bit not too badly cuz I think if and when this happens and I cannot get Melissa to respond I will find someone who can do this work and help me out in a weird situation. I really have become increasingly dependent on my current caregiver it's hard because she's so good and I think that we're so compatible. I've got to keep in mind that she's just a caregiver and an employee. Theoretically they can be replaced but she just so darn good. There are other folks I could probably call not even my brother Carl if I really had to but if I can pay somebody and it's not too much that. I've worked it out it's pretty much comes out to $20 a poop. Actually I should probably pay more since it happens it's usually in the middle of the night that really is convenient for the person too take care of me. If I only had a robot that would be grand…

The cool down Blues

 Cooler weather has returned to the area that kind of bugs me out. It's not cold weather it's just about the temperature that it should be this time of year but it's still chilling for a couple days of almost 80° weather it's hard to go back. But according to the forecast lady that's going to be for the next couple of days maybe even possibly snow next week. I believe that's when I see it but just the same strange weather strange time. The only thing of any value I did today was to attend the coffee social this morning not a big deal and it wasn't very well attended. For those who show up I think we have a good time we have some good discussion because some the folks there are not the greatest English speakers but that's good it gets us all time to slow down and listen to each other communicate. It can be a bit of a challenge but but I feel I get what people are trying to say. I went out a little later on in the late morning thinking that the day would be coming up but it did not in fact it was still chilly but what was worse was that there was a a steady wind blowing the cool temperature around which made things feel even chillier than they were. I suppose if I was really fixated on moving and going somewhere I could have gotten a jacket of some sort but I really did not have any place to go that I wanted to go to the rigmarole I'm moving myself. I actually thought about going to the library again I'm picking up a 1040 tax form to fill out. The person I thought might have one wasn't working in her office when I went up to check her out to see if she had any. She was gone and I started thinking to myself why not just contact Social Security I'll have them send something out. I certainly have access to the internet so why not? Sure enough they're all it's all kinds of options for them sending you out actually downloading your own document and it even looks like there's a way you can pay your taxes over the internet. Now that I know this it certainly puts the onus back on me to do my taxes before April 15th. I have the one document I don't know if I need another one these are all things I need to ask somebody. Maybe upstairs Maria the quasi social worker could you give me some more directions. But I might need as far as trying to find the back payments I should do. I don't think I own a bunch of anything it's just going through the whole process and doing it under the time limit. I actually did my arm bike today as well. So yesterday and today then tomorrow one more hour then hopefully Saturday I can do the 20 minutes to catch up and then I'll have it all done for the week like 200 minutes I sure feel better when I do them that's for sure

Free lunch board meeting

 It was a pretty good board meeting today. Not that I was thinking it was going to be bad but today there was a bit of energy to the board that I thought was refreshing. It was nice also to have the only thing I need to do today was the board meeting. Actually I guess if you count I'll folding and hanging up clothes that's another thing as well. I knew it was going to be tight as far as trying to get the wash done today as well as going to the board meeting and trying to work out- - which I have not done all week until the afternoon. But surprisingly I was able to pull all of it off so far I don't know if I'm going to get all the shirts hung up tonight but got the shorts folded and put in the spot and the shirts are all on the bed and I can put them somewhere and hang them up tomorrow if I totally run out of energy. I'm not doing half bad though. In fact I even got a new built on my chair which is totally exciting. This belt has a latch opening as opposed to the push button that I had on the previous belt so now I just have to lift up the lights in the buckles release. I think I'm going to enjoy it it's not the complete body point system I would have liked but it was 10 bucks and they put it on right there so that was a big factor and I was able to do that before I actually got to the media itself. Somehow that was important. So it's been a busy day.

I'm already missing Shelly and crew. I didn't get to see them as much as I would have liked as much as I could have. That wasn't sure at first how I was going to deal with this but going through the whole thing and maybe it was the exposure to the great grandchild that also had something to do with it but totally made me feel like a grandparent for maybe one of the first times. I really want to get to know both of the granddaughters better than I do better I may never get that chance but if I'm lucky who knows maybe that day will come. Enjoyed spending time with Michelle as well and I really want to get ato know her husband better. I don't know why it's been so difficult for me to get to know him over the years in fact I think the first two or three years that are married I couldn't bring myself to even think that she was married. That's totally surprised when I finally realized that she was indeed married and having a good life up in Oregon.

I'm quite surprised my skin seems to be holding up pretty well in my butt. I've tried or I'm now in the process of putting the Barrier cream on not only in the night or in the evening before I go to bed but also in the morning before I get up and I think that's making my skin more supple and allows me to go without having to bandage up. Now I'm a bit worried about using the new belt cuz it actually forces me to stay sitting upright in my chair putting the weight strictly down on my buttocks differently than I have had before I'll just have to play it by ear and see if I can keep up covering the butt at night and in the morning. I'm touring with the idea of sending a way for 144 8 mm packages of the butt cream. I don't know why this entices me so much maybe it's just so it's conveniently and controlled amounts snip off the end of the package squeeze out the stuff put it on and that's it. 144 * 2 is 72 it should be about 3 months if I used it non-stop but actually it would be for putting in my backpack to where I can use it when I'm out and about and felt the need to apply the lotion then we'll see. Maybe I just want to have backup

Day two

 I'm exhausted again today but not near as tired as I was yesterday and in a lot less pain. I had a pretty decent night's sleep that was part of it I'm sure but I just wasn't all over the valley like I was yesterday. I spent a good part of the day waiting on stuff that didn't happen but that's okay I was there I was ready I was family member ready to visit and be part of the family function. Granted I had to go downtown early well 11:00 a.m. but I had to leave here early enough to get down there in time for my assist meeting. But finishing that I was free for the rest of the day. Shelly and family had been to the zoo and they are pretty much exhausted but I did make contact as I was on going my way home. They're going to rest up a little bit then get back with me. I took the train home grabbed a fast bite to eat and then just sort of waited until all afternoon. That's cool I'm not complaining I was available and that's all you can do on your server host situation. Let the guests do what they need to do. We linked up about 4:00 and went to the common room here at the apartment complex with the big chairs stuffed chairs and visited for a little bit. lilah played and sang her guitar and piano. The girl really is quite talented I don't know if she'll ever do anything with it but she certainly has the basics and it sounds like she's doing something with her skill set. Brisa on the other hand kind of just laid around waiting for things to end. She's a good kid I can tell that quiet but right I can tell. I really didn't get a good chance to visit with either one of the girls maybe someday. I've never asked him about if they're getting my letters or are they reading them or are they keeping them what's up. I think I was more intrigued with maven the great granddaughter who is still quite Young but is coming along. She can almost hold her head up on her own and she'll tell me she's able to turn herself over. It's just amazing see these Generations underneath me begin their growth. Filling up with Mark Anthony who is going to meet them downtown again at one of his venues where he does his thing as far as music and such. They're going down to listen to him for a couple hours before coming home and going to bed and leaving the area tomorrow morning around 9:00 a.m. I think. I hope they'll be able to get in and get some good sleep tonight for their trip and I think the grown ups Shelly and James will be doing the driving. The teenage granddaughter the older of the two might drive as well I don't know where she's at with her driving skills though. Otherwise it'll be just along quiet ride.

Guests

 Truly, it's been another one of those days. I know I keep writing that but actually it keeps happening. I know today was going to be somewhat stressful and I I felt that I had to go through with it no matter what. One of my oldest friends was in town being support for his wife who is trying to recover from kidney transplant. My daughter is in town from Washington State she came down with her family to visit me and my son. She does not get to visit very often and decided this weekend would be good since the kids are out for spring break and weather conditions look tolerable and she had the time to take off of work. Now I've got to make time to spend with both of these groups and today was the first day that I felt healthy enough that I could do so. David, my friend, has had to have housing across the street from the hospital and family housing in order to support his wife. So he's been here for a bit it might be here another week before she's released from the hospital. This is my first day that I could actually go and meet him which I did both of the hospital. We got to spend a couple hours together before I had to take off to bus over to where my daughter's family was waiting. My son had managed to take off half a day of work so he could spend time with his sister which I thought was pretty nice. Michelle, my daughter, we'll still pretty tired from there drive down from Oregon. So they sort of had the morning off anyway. Of course had to take the bus over to IHC Hospital. We thought we were going to have more time have lunch together enjoy some togetherness but that didn't happen. Cindy had to wait until the doctors could make time for her I guess so there's a lot of waiting going on and then on top of that they had to do more imaging in other doctor stuff which ate into the time we could have been together. I did manage to spend a couple hours with him. Then over to the hotel my daughter was at which was not very far but still kind of a grind and plus my butt was beginning to have some issues as far as sitting up too long I've got to be careful. We had a good visit I got to know my great-granddaughter a bit more plus the grandkids themselves. It's been a while since I've seen them in the Flash too long between visits the whole new people every time I see them. Such as the curse of long distance living. I look forward to getting to know them better there's time permits.

I'm in pain, not severe pain, but pain just the same. I don't know if it's the bursitis/arthritis or whatever on my right side but at times makes it difficult to even raise my right arm without using my left arm as an assist. But I get by and I guess this old wheelchair isn't much help it's pretty much rubbing me the wrong way to use a term. But I can get by with it and I can get by with long trips like today and Jocelyn bus rides on the transit authority. It's pretty insane actually trying to do things like this on public transit but it's the only thing you've got sometimes you got to accept that and I do. And I'm totally thankful for public transit is an option. But now I need to get horizontal get the weight off my butt I hope that we haven't done much damage it's going to be a busy week

Slow recovery

 Like it's not crazy! I felt weak all day from yesterday's bout with diarrhea. I slept about 8 hours again which is really kind of bizarre for me and I got myself out of bed and dressed. I canceled breakfast just because of the diarrhea thing. And I already feel exhausted thinking I had to meet with Dave and Cindy as well as Shelly and family. It comes out that I didn't meet with any of them during the day. David Cindy I've scheduled to spend some time with at IHC Hospital cafeteria as I understand things. Shelly I'll meet some time around this time schedule. All going to be awkward I know this and today was a little bit but I got it around it. Do much just hang around the apartment tried to go outside a couple times but it wasn't really warm enough for me anyway. I laid out a little bit but wasn't very much I came back in soon. The temperature should be warming again relatively soon. That's the big problem when you have a heat spill like we've just gone through it's hard to go back to the lower temperatures after you've been to the high temperatures. I actually wore a long sleeve shirt today. I was still uncomfortable a little. Shelly caught in later afternoon when we visited on the phone a little bit and tried to work out something for tomorrow. Shelly seems quite excited to be in the area she's got her whole family so this should really be interesting. I don't know how long Shelly will be here just have to work in intermittent times of visitation and trying to make them as real as possible. I know it's not a competition but I feel it is. I just hope my health can keep up long enough to go through this route of visiting with people.

I've been eating a little bit by little bit trying to reinstate my food levels after the diarrhea. Yogurt for sure followed by post another bread forms. I really didn't cook anything for dinner I warmed up some chicken fingers and the rest of the beef parts with some potatoes tots that's lots of ketchup. That's been about it for the day though it's been a short day haven't done a lot feel uncomfortable on that level but still I got up got dressed then I'm ready for bed. Hopefully my stomach will even be better tomorrow when I meet with the guys.

Rumble tummy blowout

My belly started grumbling just after I got up this morning which would have been around 6:30 a.m. I really didn't pay much attention to the grumbling started off with my day I wanted to get dressed and go over and have some coffee with the coffee group. I took a while to get dressed and such but I was able to get to the coffee shop around 9:30 a.m. and spent it about an hour and a half just hanging out visiting and doing the coffee shop thing. But the time I got home however my stomach was growling even more significantly and I was really afraid I was going to dump a load in my pants. I pretty much figured then and there I was going to have to call it a day as far as going anywhere significant. I spent a large part of the day sitting out in the sunshine reading which was pleasant enough. If this is on off of other folks who are walking by but I basically those did the sunlight as much as I could. But I not moving too much I was trying to stay off a butt explosion of any kind. Finally around 3:00 I called my caregiver to see if she could drop over today and get me on the toilet and try to diffuse this normally but I've been having. She said she couldn't get by till about 5:00 which was okay I had made it this long I think I could have made a few more hours. When Lissy did finally come I barely made it to the toilet on time in fact I didn't really I got a few pieces of stuff on the floor but most of us hit the toilet which I'm totally thankful for. I sat there for a while wanting to make sure the total evacuation was performed. When I was finally fairly secure you rolled me in and I did my shower and that was it. I still feel at risk of another blowout but as Lissy said once you get the best stuff out you're good to go. I still took a couple of anti-diarrhea tablets and drink and hopefully that'll diffuse everything. Right now I'm still feeling at risk to the point that I've canceled my usual Sunday morning breakfast with the kids. So I'm going to take it easy for the rest of the weekend and hopefully I'll be back to my old self by Monday. Hopefully the sunshine will be out and tomorrow will be another day I can spend in the Sun just getting my stomach back on track

Sirloin to go please

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I went to my doctor's appointment my dentist appointment and he was in the middle of an oral surgery and couldn't do my appointment and they gave me a gift card? The gift card was for Texas Roadhouse steaks. Oh, they gave me the gift card because I was very gracious and indicated that I'd be happy to move my appointment to another date to give him more time and less stress and because of that that's they gave me a choice of gift cards to various restaurants in the area. I decided I would go ahead and use the gift card as opposed to have it language in my wallet for who knows how long? I still have gift cards that I've got three to five years ago maybe longer but I've never really used just because I've never buy the place at the same time that I'm hungry or need to use the card. It's really kind of sad but today I decided I would go ahead and use the card up get everything on it I wanted and have the card to go and I would take it home and then eat on a little bit by a little bit through the weekend. That's the other thing when I get a gift card or something like that to her a restaurant they generally really pile the food on and I can't eat all all that food and one setting and then I burdened myself with having to still carry the leftovers home. This way I'm at least I'm carrying not leftovers but first meal it'll be a great meal when I get around to eating it. The gift cards for 25 bucks basically just enough for an 8 oz steak with shrimp and the regular fixings baked potato I also got a container of mashed potatoes and gravy couple rolls The General stuff that you get with what used to be like a 15 $16 dinner now it's about 23. I still had to kick in two or three bucks on my own by the time it was all over and we were check it out but that was fine. It was great to get to be home and have a couple bites right at that time and then a little bit later for dinner. I haven't done this very much in the past cuz I haven't had the gift cards but I think that's the way to do it is to buy the meal on my own terms and then take it home I need it at home truly is the way to go .

The other eventful item of my day was going across the street to have my sutures removed from the extractions a couple of weeks ago or one week ago actually. I was set for 11:00. I thought it was going to be an In-N-Out deal and it kind of was but still is longer than I anticipated. One of the nurses or assistant was trying to remove them but because I wasn't in the actual dental studio she couldn't see it well enough and called on the regular dentist the old guy who I really like and he couldn't do it so I ended up getting his son who did the job pulled out the sutures. It's kind of painful very short pain however. I hope you got them all doesn't feel like it but he was in there long enough and he's conscientious enough I have faith that he got all it need to be gotten at the time. So it was a pretty good day I was busy I even got to read out in the sun for a while and sometimes it doesn't get much better than that. The temperatures are still warm and I'm out enjoying the season- - happy spring!

 

Thinking on Thursday

 It may have been because I wanted to make sure I was up and ready to go to coffee this morning or I had a little too much to drink water wise just before I went to bed. I'm really becoming Paranoid on drinking enough water. I don't think I'm drinking enough but I basically feel okay but just the same the water was there beside the bed or I always keep two bottles of water and I drink a good third of bottle. It's been a long time since I have had to turn over and pee into a bottle. This is a relatively new Behavior and again another one I don't understand why it's happening now I don't necessarily feel bad but at the same time it's a different scenario that I'm used to. I used to have to pee at least one tonight and then all the sudden I stopped having to pee at all and pee in the morning when I got up. Well anyway I was awake at 3:00 ish or 4ish and feeling an urgency to pee but not enough to where I would actually stop turn over get a catheter go through the process of trying to cast myself while in bed. I'm sure I can still do it relatively easy but I just haven't done it for months now. I never did catheterize myself in bed today. Eventually got up about 5:45 a.m. and had a bit of a struggle getting ready but I did it well within the time frame allotted and I made it to Coffee just fine.

Coffee was okay it was a little miffed because earlier in the week somebody had left a couple packages of pastries for anybody and they give away table. I took a package and put it in the freezer of the refrigerator in the kitchen and of course today after I went through the dressing challenge I was going to pull the pastries out of the freezer and of course somebody else had stolen somewhere or sometime during the week. There's a lot of that goes on in the refrigerator in the freezer. Sometimes things get saved and most of the time they get stolen one or the other. Hate to see if there really is a bunch of losers here or some. Other than that still basking in the Heat of the day, literally. The temperature was in the low 80s today perfect for sitting out lying in the Sun and then reading my current paper back. I really am fortunate. I also made a fast Dash to the market mainly just to use the power chair and enjoy the process of going back and forth in the early spring Heat. The most important thing I picked up at the market besides potato chips was sweet pickle relish. Remember I told you I got a food box from the Mormons the other day? Well there's a couple cans of tuna fish in there that looked a little bit more enticing then the tuna we get at the other food box which ends up being on the food on the table. I wanted to try out the new tuna and see how it looked. The tuna was okay it wasn't fancy Albacore which I was hoping this seemed like it had a little more togetherness than the cheap tuna I've got up in the meat section now. I looked and looked, I knew I had some but I couldn't find it that was the reason that I went to the market was to get some relish that I can mix in with the tuna fish and mayo or salad dressing to make a tuna fish sandwich which I did. Tuna fish sandwiches my lunch and it was pretty good but I could have had something in it besides just tuna and mayo would have been nice to have the relish or the dill relation of the sweet relish either one I'd be happy with and I guess if I really wanted to be an adult I could have actually chopped up a dill pickle but that was way too much work for this morning. But I have the bottle of sweet relations just a matter of squeezing it into the concoction of tuna and mayo. The tunic fish lunch sandwich turned out pretty well but I said that already. I can't wait until try it with some sweet relish. I still might invest in a can of fancy Albacore and see how that sandwich turns out. I made two sandwiches so I have one for tomorrow as well and I also invested in a bag of regular potato chips. I was desperate this afternoon when I had my sandwich so I used a bag of barbecue chips that I appeared it away from the table yesterday at the client appreciation luncheon. I got two bags of chips. I feel so adult when I make my own sandwich for lunch rather than purchasing something that somebody else built.

Working Wednesday

 Something's definitely changing with me. I don't know what it is but it's showing itself with me sleeping longer. I guess that's not necessarily A Bad Thing but I've just never really slept long hours before and it's kind of unsettling. This morning again I didn't wake until about 7:00 a.m. and I probably didn't really get to sleep until 1:00 a.m. which is later than usual for me. I didn't even take time to read last night cuz it was so late and I was pretty darn tired. I felt okay today except for paying on my right side where I think my power chair is really putting pressure on nerves on the right side of my back and I think part of that goes to my arm. I may have to talk to one of my docs about this to see if this is an ongoing issue or if I I was just worn out my ability to use this chair or what. I want to go gently into that argument just because of all the problems I've had with other chairs that I've used as backup chairs. Overall, I like this chair even though it's painful for me I know it knows me we pretty much act well together except for things that I don't think can be undone. I think a lot of it has to do with me and where my body is at this point in my life it may be getting weaker- - which is not really shocked me very much after all 75 What can you say? So I continued to get up every morning early enough to do what I have to do whether it's getting myself dressed or getting myself ready for my home care person whenever she shows up to do my morning program. I will do this until I can't any longer make the transfers from bed to the chair without issue. I still don't have really any problems rolling into bed at night. And I haven't had any really getting up it's just always kind of spooky I haven't fallen for a while and that's a good thing but sometimes things happen and for one reason or another I find myself on the floor. I really haven't used it very much but I do have a voice activated assistant I'm careful to what I address it as. But the one time I really need to use it it came through 100%. I was so impressed it was my major thought changing process to possible, maybe working with AI and how it might assist me to live as independently as possible even though the whole thing scares me to death. I will use whatever I need to use to keep myself independent and able to care for myself with extended supports even.

Am I going to bed process one of the last things I do before I roll into bed just make sure that I have my battery charger connected or wrapped up in my chair one way or the other so that when I need to I can plug the cord into my power chair and start the charging process. Like I said it's the last thing I really do before I roll into bed for the night. I don't know what happened last night but when I rolled into bed turned over and looked out towards the charger expecting to see the light orange which means it's charging the green blinking light was still blinking meaning that I had not plugged the charger end of the chair meaning that I'm going to have to survive with whatever Powers left in my chair it was about 85% when I went to bed. There are times when this has happened and I really pushed myself to get back up transferred into my chair grab the charger cord and plug it into my chair. Last night however, I couldn't do it I was just too tired and if that meant keeping myself limited to the apartment complex here even though the day was supposed to be in the 80s, the first day of the year for that to happen, I would just bite the bullet and wait until tonight and charge it again hopefully maybe do something tomorrow. It should be another fairly warm, abnormal, weather day. It was a good day I pretty much hung around the apartment complex which is okay cuz it's Wednesday which is wash day and I was running back and forth from my apartment to the laundry and back numerous times. I also got a Mormon food box and I spent a good part of the days trying to sort it out trying to know what to keep and what not to keep. More on this and another point in time I'm sure now I need to get to bed early tomorrow is coffee social I like to go to coffee social...

Sleeping late and enjoying chili

 I woke with a start I couldn't believe it it was 9:30! I've been asleep for almost 9 hours or so it seemed. I never sleep this long. What a luxurious incident. I don't know why I slept so long I mean I knew I was tired and I missed some sleep the day before but for 9 hours!? I was excited for the day that's no question you know I didn't have that assist meeting today so I had a free morning. Sadly, a little bit, it took me a good 2 hours of not longer to get ready for the day it was almost noon by the time I finally was able to get around to being outside dressed dress wise and stuff. Sunshine is out today was supposed to be warmer and it was. My goal was to get to a a store that have been trying to get to for months, Harbor Freight. Of course wanted to do the roll down the aisle thing and look at everything they had but mainly I was out to get another razor knife to cut Pages out of my puzzle magazine. Harbor Freight is down on 70th Redwood Road area. I knew it was before the switch out for the 217 turns into the 218. My bus trip was uneventful and that's the best kind. Harbor Freight was fun cruising around and seeing all the different projects I could do if I had the space and the money to buy some of the equipment that is there for woodworking. Eventually found the two pieces I wanted made by purchase then came back home using the remote control that Jackson repaired for me this last Sunday. The gate still works and I'm so glad. Was nearly 4:30 by the time I finally got back home. I want some news and then made a quick dinner Mormon chili con carne. This certainly was different than regular chili in fact it tasted more like my mom is chilly than more chili I've ever I've ever had. It was definitely not a professional chili and that's okay it's exactly what I wanted. What I want to do now is open up two or three cans of this chili add a can of ground beef or one of the other cans of beef that I've gotten from the food bank and see how that goes and have enough made that I'll be able to put it in a covered bowl that I'll be able to pull out for dinner every time I come home or it's time for dinner. Chances are I will do this more in the fall in Winter than I will during the summer it is kind of heavy, the Mormon chili. Oh I forgot to mention that before the news I worked an hour on the arm bike and got my 60 Minutes in for the day. My butt's a little tender on the left side but I think it's going to be okay tomorrow when Melissa looks at it it's been tender all day and I've been doing pressure releases as much as I can. Today was a bit of a test. I wore a short sleeve shirt, green, for St Patrick's Day and I wore a hood on top of it. I'm sure I didn't look very good but it was essential and it was doable. Tomorrow the temperature should be close to 80°, this should be fully interesting

Night terrors or just waking up early

 I don't know if they're night terrors or what. I'm not even really sure if I'm awake or I'm sleeping and dreaming that's ever happening to me. But I woke up this morning around 3:00 in the morning maybe a little bit later and I couldn't get back to sleep my butt hurt. It was throbbing and I was sure I had a major lesion or butt sore pressure sore whatever you want to call them. It was wasn't severe pain but it's enough to make me worried for the rest of the night to the point where I really couldn't get back to sleep I don't think- - unless I was asleep already and just dreaming the whole thing. I stayed that way till 6:00 when I usually get up. Once I got in my chair everything seemed to evaporate my butt didn't hurt I transferred okay when it turned on the TV started coffee for Melissa when she arrives to do my morning ritual. I was back in the game I was okay. I think what happens I'm not sure but I'm pretty think the pattern that I'm beginning to witness is that I usually have a patch on my butt I use it as a padding so the skin does not break down. When Melissa puts a good patch on it'll stay on for probably weeks if you let it but begins to deteriorate around the edges and the edges gets sharp and sticky pointy and I think that's what I end up feeling is this patch sticking into my flesh especially we're not sitting in my chair or laying in bed loactually. I think I made a mistake however and that's that after Melissa took off the Band-Aid we left the Band-Aid off so that the skin could breathe. Now I've been sitting on this all day long and I'm feeling okay except for I do worry about being up sitting up and putting all that pressure straight down on my right hip. We'll have to see though I'll go ahead and what lotion on tonight before I turn the lights out after I finish my reading. I'm hoping this will allow me to sleep. I do have just a small bottle of regular ibuprofen that I could take with me and if this starts happening again I can take a couple of those. I'm a little shy of the heavy duty strength that the pharmacist wrote me are the doctor wrote me to the pharmacist gave me. If I was having some secondary pain or pain of some sort I think the ibuprofen might kick in and if nothing else give me a psychological pain blocker. I don't know if that's really a thing but it should be a thing I believe it totally. I pretty much stayed in my apartment all day except for running up and checking on the table this morning picking up some more bread or treats one sort or another. Did a Puzzler too and then worked out for an hour on the armbike it's Monday you know. By that time it was close enough to 4:30 that I just sort of hung out and waited for the 5:00 news to start. Dinner consisted of rice and vegetables stir fried kind of chinese/ Asian food. Not like I would like but it will get me through the evening. I believe the tooth is are the excavation left by the extractions are coming along quite well the sutures are all still embedded in the wounds but the rooms themselves are feeling better each day. I'll have to remember on Friday I think I have to go back and have my stitches removed I think it's Friday anyway we all can help

Suddenly Sunday

 As I Was preparing to get to my blog tonight I was scrolling through some of the items on my email page and I found something from Disney Plus. It was a email that said I owe $204 to Disney plus and that my credit card was no longer functional. There's no way in the world I can owe $204 to just do plus I don't understand this. I'm hoping that this is just one of those scams to where they want you to automatically just send them to $200 for dollars and not inquire. But I need to figure that out cuz that's a lot of money and I would never buy Disney plus for that much money. I used Disney plus a lot but not that much. I'm not sure how I can figure this out but that took a big went out of my sales tonight. That just worries me now hopefully I'll be able to get through the night okay which I'm sure I will. I haven't done much of anything else today except having breakfast with the kids. That was always a pleasure and afterwards J&J came over and cleaned the apartment that was really nice I certainly appreciated that. Not only just hanging with the kids but having them clean the place up as always important to me and I appreciate it immensely.

Today was just cold enough that if I didn't have to go out I wasn't going to go out today and I didn't. I spent the day on the flat screen watch it various movies on Netflix. I also spent a good deal of the day trying to keep my tongue off of the stitches in my mouth from where the teeth were extracted last week the healing continues I think fairly well. I used only one ibuprofen and that was a preemptive strike to make sure that if I did have any pain that I wouldn't be woken up during the evening. I think I would have been okay even if I hadn't taken it but only one out of the whole script that I was given. I guess it's good to have backup ibuprofen clinical strength or whatever it's called for the big pain. I'm going to get rid of the other bottle of meds that I won't take just because they are the kind that you get addicted to opioids or whatever they're called. If I don't they were opioids I would not have purchased that bottle of pills. I doubt that I would have gotten addicted with just one bottle of capsules or pills but I wasn't willing to take the chance. So maybe I'll just dump him down the toilet this coming week at some point. My main meal today was the breakfast this morning at the restaurant. Yesterday I cooked that steak actually a couple of steaks which I had one for dinner last night and then I had one in the refrigerator that I used this afternoon when I got a little hungry. I also had a couple spoonfuls of the concoction and that was sort of satisfying. I still might see what else I can scare up to see what I might be able to eat before going to bed. Should be warmer tomorrow not a whole lot warmer that won't be till later on in the week then it'll be unseasonably warm probably the beginning of a killer drought. It should be an interesting week  …

Pain free Saturday

 I was so glad that I woke up this morning and there was no residual pain where the teeth were extracted yesterday! Before I went to bed last night I took one ibuprofen and amoxicillin and that was it. Now I have like a whole bottle of ibuprofen that I don't know what to do with and this is super strength ibuprofen. The amoxicillin I'll continue to take until I run through the whole regimen. But the other medications I took or was supposed to take if I had the pain was one of those chemicals that totally gets you messed up and addicted I don't need that. Of course the bleeding stopped through the evening when I went to bed I threw away the last of the cotton gauze that I had in there in the evening invite morning I guess everything had stopped. I could feel it felt like all the stitches on Earth in the holes left by the extraction. Other than that though I don't feel any pain at all or anything at all except for occasionally touching the sutures with my tongue. I just hope that my mouth heals quickly and that I don't worry the stitches out which I think I sort of did the last time I had them in my mouth. I can't remember if it's just one week or two weeks I have to go before I return to get a check up on how the healing is coming and do they need to remove the stitches/sutures. I don't know if I'm going to be able to keep the stitches in myself that long. It's kind of surprised it how much food wanders up into the area when I eat on the other side of my mouth as I've been doing the last day or so especially the grape skins and the skins from the beans that's in the concoction. I've got to be careful that those don't get caught up into the sutures.

Today was cloudy but the temperature was fairly decent getting up to about 61° with that in mind I decided I would catch the bus and go up to Walmart and get my glasses fixed. It was a fast trip thank goodness I didn't have to wait long before the 217 came. I was a little worried about what they're going to say about how destroyed the glasses were frames Etc. I just wanted the technician to bend the glasses back into subserve acceptable condition so they weren't falling off my head constantly. But I found out that a new pair of Frank would cost just $18! So I got a new set of frames with my lenses put into the new set and so it's like a new pair of glasses. The frames fit snug on my head and I feeling great to wear my glasses again something they won't fall off every time I turn my head. I just have to be responsible enough to make sure I know where the glasses are all the time better yet be responsible enough to place the glasses in accident-free zone that there won't be any way I can destroy the frames with my chair. That's a lot to ask for can be done

Friday's extraction

 I just lost a complete dictation for today I'm having to do it over again. I hate it when that happens when I hit the wrong keys on the keyboard. Anyway of course the biggest event of the day was the tooth extraction but before that I hardly slept at all last night it seemed and the only thing I can attest it to would be the upcoming surgery, dental surgery. I felt like I had a pressure sore on my butt all night long and I thought perhaps it was from sitting on the padding that Melissa has on my butt. Didn't make sense but it certainly felt that way until I got up at 6:00 a.m. and then all the pain seem to go away in the whole morning up until then faded. I still had a lot of my mind don't want to be sure I was ready for the 12:00 appointment. I didn't worry about anything this afternoon after the doctor's appointment because I got my 200 minutes in already on the arm bike so I was okay to go. I just hung around the apartment till around 11:45 then headed over to the dentist's office. I didn't have much of a breakfast cuz I wanted to keep things light in my stomach as far as not sure what all the drugs the doctor was going to expose me to. But I finally did go over to the dentist office I was impressed as I crossed the parking lot I can see that the door was open the Secret side door that I always enter. Cindy you must have seen me coming over and she had the door open for me that was very kind I thought. I was about 15 minutes earlier than the time that was stated on my card so I was directed to the waiting room which is very cramped even for able-bodied people let alone wheelchair Folk.

Eventually I was called in to the middle office it was quite a challenge backing into the office the way they want me so I can extend my chair and lay back down so the dock can access my mouth. It took a minute or two but we finally did it. You got me going on the nitrous oxide. They weren't sure if I've been charged the laughing gas but it quickly view of the contract show that I had it done it was okay it was worth it to me. Eventually they shut my mouth up with the novocaine and whatever else they use. The first tooth that came out relatively easy very little trauma second one was very a kind of difficult. Creed my dentist for this extraction did a trick that I thought was cool and tooth came out much easier. Then it was a matter of showing up the wound and write me three prescriptions which I thought was a little Overkill but maybe not. Right now I'm feeling no pain and that's as good as it gets.

Thought for Thursday

 

I cooked tonight. I suppose I've mentioned or told you more than once how much I really do enjoy cooking and when I don't cook for an extended period of time I'm amazed that when I do cook how much I enjoy the process. And it's a true process I made old version of something I call Frank, a dish I learned from a guy named Frank bonacore and that goes back years and years. Anyway, just essentially a rice dish. I use chicken mostly. I had a bag of chicken that I found on the giveaway table a few months ago and it's been in my pantry ever since. Of course it's sealed and it's says it's full of white meat it was pretty mushy but I thought by the time I got it into the dish it would be all right. Then after an extended push or search I found a half a bag of brown rice that I stuck in the nook and cranny in the pantry a number of months ago. The rice look pretty good actually no bugs or slugs or anything else moseying around inside and the rice look good enough to eat. I put on some water to heat got it boiling, then I found a half a bag of the rice I also found with a couple chicken bouillon cubes. On the side I chopped up a couple stocks of celery, one onion, and I found a bag of what was left of a bag of frozen broccoli in the top of the freezer pushed all the way to the back. This was more than enough that I needed for Frank. I found the old skillet that I like to use through some oil in it then through the onions frozen broccoli and celery stir them up for a bit then added the rice but I had 3/4 of the way cooked. Added everything together stirred them up reduce the heat to Summer and covered the the frying pan as tightly as I could for 45 minutes or until the end of the news broadcast. By the end of the newscast what dinner was ready the rice is soaked up the rest of what little liquid was left in the skillet the broccoli also cooked nicely with the onions added everything to the rice mixed it up and was quite pleased with the result. I took a small bowl full the rice and vegetables sprinkle liberally with soy sauce and quite enjoyed my little brown rice dinner. It was just me for dinner and that's okay. I still have enough rice to put away for another meal at least. Now I just need to put away the rest of the dinner run some water in the frying pan maybe even take a minute and wash out the frying pan but not have to do it this weekend. I'm not going to be able to chew too much because tomorrow at noon I'm having two of my teeth extracted. I'm a little worried about the results and I don't think brown rice is going to do it. Depending on how well I feel following the extraction I may Wander over to KFC for a big container of mashed potatoes and gravy and maybe some chicken wings or legs. I once again totally destroyed my kitchen and we'll think about cleaning it up tomorrow. I still have to Garner the energy to put the dinner away. I didn't do much after returning home from the Market except cook dinner a couple hours later:-)

Wednesday's wander

I get so frustrated at websites I want to participate in but they really don't instruction on how to do it. I know that sounds real simple and it makes me feel very simple but it's true. You know. Temu, that Asian website for they have just everything on Earth to order at a very good price? Well I've been trying to figure out for two or three days maybe longer on how to finish an order. I know items that I want and I go through the whole process and get to the checkout phase and then it just leaves you hanging. It doesn't let you know how to finish the hole ordeal at least that's what I feel that's how it looks like to me. It doesn't let me finish the process. When I get so frustrated to the point that I leave the website then I start getting emails and everything else letting me know that I have items that need to be checked out and would I please do it and then when I sucker into following through I get caught in the same Twilight Zone phenomenon. It's always like they want you to buy more, and I understand that, and I will buy more especially if they let me buy this. But as it stands now I almost just want to wash my hands of the whole operation just because it's so frustrating and I don't trust them now that they'll actually come through. However, other people I talk to do not seem to have this problem at all they cannot praise this operation enough. It could be just a plot against me I certainly got into that the last quarter of my life that all these things that are out of my control seem to plot against me from time to time. Right now it's timu.

On the brighter side, the maintenance guy, Ted was over at my apartment today working on the holes in the wall that I've made in my power chair. He was patching up the holes today sanding down the rough spots and actually painting over the holes making the place look like is there ever been attacked by a quadriplegic and a power chair. He was even really nice about the whole thing. So it's like taking everything in stride what is that kind of guy. I really never pressed this issue with management in fact they are the ones that brought up the hole in the wall repair on one of the last apartment inspections they did when they did the walk through. What kind of surprised at how quickly the whole procedure went once they got going. Now I've got walls that look perfect once again and I've made a commitment to myself into the management that I'm going to be more careful in powering up my chair and where I go and how close I get to the wall.

It's still kind of early and I want to try to get to bed early tonight as well. I like to hit the sack and read for an hour if I can. Tomorrow's a light day I'm having lunch with a friend of mine and then Friday I have my double tooth extraction. Hopefully the weekend will be long enough to recover..

Tuesday's tidbits

 The day was colder than I anticipated still just the same I did okay. I kind of woke up early not too bad I was up by 6:00 a.m. trust and ready to go even with the breakfast by 9:30ish the time I've got to leave to catch the bus to get me over to the train to get downtown. I was uncomfortably chilled there's no question about it. I was wearing one of my stocking caps as well as a hoodie draped around my shoulders as I usually do. Actually, now that I think about it, I had the hood draped over my lap and the hook. I went all the way down to the 47 stop that I used to go inbound and then just waited. I wouldn't have made much difference had they're not been a lot of light clouds there was some sunshine getting through and it did give a bit of an illusion that it was warmer than it was but it was still chilly and uncomfortable. Eventually the bus rattled to a stop in front of me and brought me on board. I'd love going on to a warm bus after being in the cold waiting for however long amount of time that one has to before the bus stops. The meeting is uneventful we only had like seven names to deal with so that was really not even enough to come in on but I'm glad that I did I'm glad that I got into the city. I stopped at the bank on the way home and got some cash then stopped for lunch at Taco Time. Fried bean burrito and a taco and a bit of a drink. Following lunch I decided to, take the state Street bus all the way to Murray station. It was a long drive but okay. I was just glad to be that close to being back to the apartment got the 47 then the 217 and finally got home. I still did my arm bike and caught the five p.m. news. I actually found a can of stew with pop top. I realized sadly that I really needed a can opener to really eat anything most of my cans are not pop tops and must be open to the can opener. Still no word on her I can't open I ordered is. I don't know if I need to go up to the market and buy one and then what do I do with the one I just ordered I could try to send it back and that's a pain in the butt. I kind of checked today to see if the money had been taken out of my account I could not tell but I'll keep an eye on for a couple days and see what happens.  Actually I got to spend a significant amount of time eating out of my freezer that I've stocked fairly well the last couple of months . I have pot pies which I really like as well as the frozen burritos and the chicken parts and have a bit of the beef parts left too . I also have Frozen potatoes that really I can make Garb rock with . I have a small head of cabbage I could use as well . It was a cold and tiring day looking forward to bed tonight.

Searching for my can opener

 Overall I've had pretty good luck in order things online. It's a marvelous experience to order something in the morning and have it show up at your door by that evening. Like I said until today I have not had any problems or issues but this morning I was opening up cans for a concoction I make that I usually use for breakfast and my can opener stopped working. As a quarter plegic with a little bit of hand function I don't have enough hand function to operate a handheld can opener that you've got to hold down on one hand and twist with the other to open up the can. Thank goodness for electric can openers they have made the difference for me living independently and trying to open up cans. It's been a busy day for me today I spent a good deal of time with a friend of mine at a coffee shop Starbucks, looking cool and just visiting. It was a good day for traveling the weather was actually warm temperature in the upper 60s. Have some issues with my butt and it was kind of sore but all in all I was doing okay but I was not at the apartment I was out. Usually this is not a problem because I have no issues leaving my door unlocked and today it was particularly unlocked because Ted, our great maintenance guy, was working on some walls that I'd put holes in with my power chair. As I said this evening I was looking at my emails and I noticed that one email was from the company I purchased my new can opener from saying that the delivered. I wasn't sure when they email was sent but I did not see a box by my door when I came in. That's out perhaps maybe since I've been in the package had been delivered but when I went out and checked it just now it was still empty as far as my doorway went. I did a real look inside my door in the front of my apartment thinking that perhaps Ted had seen the package and stowed it inside the door of the apartment but I can't see anything that looks anything like package large enough to house a significantly large can opener, an electric can opener. The Costas not really relevant I think it was under $15 for the can opener but what's very important is having something I can open up my cans with especially when I'm putting together my concoction. Half the cans you have to use a can opener on the other half they have the pull up tops or pop tops that allows you to open the can without a can opener any kind. Three of my cans were that kind of a can but all the other cans I needed today.  Usually when they leave the package I've ordered, outside my door, they take it image of it or a picture of it with their cell phone and post that with the message that the package has been delivered. That did not happen they just said the package have been delivered. I would hate to think somebody in the building that has light fingers. And like I said before I've ordered lots of stuff that's left sat outside the door till I can get to it or tell Melissa can bring it in. I see other doors with packages resting, patiently waiting for the new owner to show up and collect them and take them inside. Well I'm not going to get too concerned about the whole thing tonight but I really do want to get going on my concoction and without a can opener I'm stuck...

Sunday slacker

 Daylight Savings Time started today. I'm not a big fan of daylight savings time it's so stupid to change times like this at least that's what I think. Anyway I of course forgot to turn my clock ahead when I went to bed last night I was so excited to get some reading time in on my book that I forgot to turn the clock ahead. When I woke up this morning I wanted to be up by 5:00 a.m. so I could listen to the English show that I listen to on Sunday morning since I get ready for breakfast. The clock red 4:45 when I woke up which means it was nearly actually 6:00 a.m. which is what time I have to wake up on normal days not Sundays. This means I was going to have to hustle in order to get dressed in time. No time to lollygag around like I usually do on Sunday mornings but I have the extra hour. I did pretty good I focused for the next 2 hours I'm getting my shorts on and my shoes spent way too much time trying to do up my shorts then basically gave up on the whole concept and make sure I had a shirt long enough to cover the open pants. I think I pulled it off all right.

It was just Mark and I for breakfast today. I don't know what happened to the other kids but that was all right it gave Mark and I time to visit and enjoy each other's company. It was pretty noisy today at the restaurant it was hard to visit almost. There's a great family group sitting just next to us with a number of kids that screamed all the time especially that high-pitched shrill shriek that some kids Delight in screaming. We finished our meal and visiting about an hour and a half and went on our ways. I must confess that I really didn't do anything with my day even though it looked like a beautiful spring day and it sounded like it when I listen to the news reports later on in the day. I just did Marvel movies all day Spider-Man free movies and one guardian of the Galaxy. I know that's really sad and I don't have an excuse I'm sorry I didn't do anything except maybe I'm just lazy.

Starting tomorrow a high pressure system is moving in over the state or at least the Wasatch Front which means that temperatures are going to escalate and get up maybe even to the '70s which is going to be phenomenal. This worries me a lot because that also means that the season of witness is just about finished and that we're going to have a lot more hot days this coming summer and more issues of weather related travels whether it's fires, dried up water supply or just Superior Heat to the point where it might be dangerous to travel outside. I don't have any issues with wearing a hat so that won't be a problem was just it's going to get arid, dry and the little spooky. Add that with the current legislative political issues of the country and it's going to get really uncomfortable. I still will not be surprised but will be terrified if and when the current Administration starts cutting supports to folks with disabilities and who are low income. They've already started the Low Income thing so the disabilities can't be far off. I just hope I'm going to be able to survive…

I'm better than that

 I was going to try to get away early, well early tonight just because I get up around 5:45 or 5:30 a.m. on so I can be sure to be dressed by the time it's time to meet the kids over at the restaurant for breakfast. I think I've already blown that however as far as trying to get the bed earlier than usual we'll see though I still might be able to shave off at least a half an hour or whatever get some real meaningful read time into my new novel that could be fun. So do that end the day was not bad cold, brisk but the sun was out and if you had to be out in the sun it wasn't so bad I went over for coffee this morning across the street and actually got to sit with the group or an extended period and had some good conversation with the folks and that would have been enough for my day actually but then later on I met my friend David who is up for Mexico who used to be from Idaho. Dave and I worked at the same Sheldon work center for 4 or 5 years and we sort of kept together over the years following. It's been about 40 years please. I know it sounds real shallow but this also gives me a lot to tell people on Monday morning when folks begin asking what I did over the weekend. I can honestly say I was busy and met with lots of people and did some real weekend things. I know I put way too much energy into making sure that I sound like I'm a busy guy but it's important to me I think. I don't want people who seem to lie just screw off over the weekends and watch nothing but Netflix and other programs or systems that are nothing but movies and television. I myself feel that when I spend the whole weekend doing that kind of behavior watching Netflix another programs that I totally wasted something of my life. Now there are times when I kind of justify the whole concept by leaning back in my chair so it takes the weight off my butt which is so important to me that to keep myself free of pressure sores. I've been doing pretty good that way you will clear of any issues right now thank goodness but that was pretty much my Saturday for this week.

Now having said that about the weekend I still have tomorrow to fill up. The day should be as nice as today as far as weather goes and in the morning I'll have breakfast with the kids so that takes care of that portion but later on in the afternoon I'm not sure if I'll be doing anything exciting except for trying to fill it up with something besides sitting down and watching Disney Plus, Prime or good old Netflix. That's the easy way out and I better than that …

Cold winds waiting for the bus and the army of the 12 monkeys

Of course the only day this week that snow blue sideways and a cold with blue always and I had to take a trip down south to almost 80th South to get my toenails done. I've been thinking and had I been smart I would have called yesterday of the day before and ask for a reschedule but I didn't know that the weather was really good to get this bad. As soon as most of the time when the meteorologist says it's going to do this it's going to do that it really just do anything at all but not today today was cold and somewhat miserable. It was the only thing on my agenda so I didn't feel too bad. Today was bathing day and by the time I was up and dressed and ready I just had a few hours before I need to take off for my buses to my toenail guy. It was snowing when I left the apartment to cross the street. I tried to face out from the wind so it just blew my back but that's uncomfortable cuz it puts my back to the oncoming traffic and I hate it when the bus comes up and I'm not ready for it. So I tucked my head inside my jacket as well as I could and wrapped my scarf around my face and they sat there until the bus came up. I don't know if I've mentioned this before but it gets weird at the end or the middle of route 217. The 217 runs every 15 minutes and very civilized but the 218 which I have to take from where the bus stop ends and the 218 begins the 218 runs on every 30 minutes and that seems like forever when you're waiting for a bus in cold cold weather or hot hot weather it just seems endless. I was so fortunate however that when we pulled into the bus station the driver let me sit on the bus until it was time for the other bus to come and Park and then I was able to sit on that bus until we took off but in both cases I was warm and dry. This is never really happened before and I sure appreciate it the driver volunteering this and I really didn't have to talk to him either I just sat there and messed with my cell.

Seriously the time I spend with my podiatrist is between 10 and 15 minutes. We have small talk usually about the horrible stand so the USA right now or what he did on the summer vacation Etc. He cleans my toes Crips the giant toenails and then works on whatever wounds I might have. This time he worked on the wound on my foot that I have gotten from the other chair that I've been using. We think this chair is much better as far as no pressure on the side of my foot or that wound was trying to get a hold on I should be okay now but you gave me some more Band-Aids and things to look for and volunteer to services that I not be healed as a week or so. The return trip was a bit challenging I couldn't really make out what the time frame of the returning bus was because of the half an hour headways. Eventually sat out in the cold until the bus came it was about 20 minutes but it seems like forever. I was grateful but it was all done and I was in my apartment with the heat cranked up. I had warmed leftover spaghetti for dinner pick some meds settled in to watch some flat screen for the rest of the night. I watched the 12 monkeys on Prime it was great . I love that show Today was a pretty good day but cold hopefully this weekend will be warmer …

Open wide

 When to return last night with a minor vengeance. There was howling wind blowing cool air that invaded the apartment but I was warm and cozy beneath my blankets listening to the store and come in. It didn't last long but cold air from Canada's main this morning with Cloudy Skies. It's coffee Thursday so I was up got ready had coffee with the group and then 1:00 I had my dentist appointment. I wasn't really sure how the event was supposed to go because I knew I had cavities but I wasn't sure if they were going to look for more cavities or just do an examination which I thought they should have done a long time ago but I showed up anyway just to find out what was going on. I have the doctors kid who just received his DDS and is really quite accomplished I think I like the kid and he does good Dentistry at least for what I've seen so far. It was a interesting event no question about it they not only checked my teeth but they cleaned it scraped it and all that kind of stuff but really took notice. Looks like I'm going to lose a couple teeth but their back teeth and they don't line up with anything anyway so they're just as good as gone. They're infected and happy yanked cuz it might go into the bone or whatever. In fact I think they would have yanked him today had I been up for it but I just couldn't face that this afternoon. I just wanted to get back home where it was warm that wasn't to happen either because I was told I needed to start the medication to kill the infection so that would be a trip over to the market Pharmacy. I wasn't that jacked on going to the pharmacy either but the dental staff seem to be pretty adamant that I start this regimen as soon as possible. I'll be doing my extraction next week I think the 7th no the 13th Friday the 13th that doesn't sound good but it could be all right because as the hygienist said she was born on Friday the 13th and that's always been her lucky number so I'm okay. Perhaps the worst part of the whole event was signing the papers for the dental procedure. Almost $1,000 anymore cuz I had some that I am still paying off from before. A payment schedule finally almost $200 a month it's kind of freaking me out but not too bad. I too I truly believe it's doable. I just need to stay focused and work real hard for that year on making sure I get this paid off.

I'm kind of a side note when I went to fill my prescription the pharmacist asked if I wanted a non-technical lid. Much less cumbersome than the twisty Lids that I usually get on my medications which of course if you're a person with limited and function is a real problem. The pharmacist apologized that she had never suggested this before and I had never really thought that they had thought that much before about a person's limited hand function. I should have asked that was my responsibility. I know I've groused about it before in the blog. This should be a much better experience for further or future prescriptions…

Blue Wednesday

 I know I continue to be a whiner these days but I have to confess I'm a bit depressed at receiving my rebuilt old chair. I really thought that it would be just so much different and better but it's just the same except that it works now. It's great to have the chair back don't get me wrong I really love this chair it's just that it's just cause me so much pain today just because I'm not sure why. Don't have to have a real strong look at the cushions and seeing if that's a problem but the fact that it works is enough for me to get over the feelings that I was a good thought I was going to have and the ones that I have now. The motors work, the tires are working well very quiet as well as the elevator function which I really miss the most is great to have again allowing me to reach the things on the top shelf of my cupboards but she's here to say nothing of the freezer section of my refrigerator. But just the same I would love to have a chair that was not painful to exist in and it still might happen I'm sure it's not giving up hope.

Wednesday wash day. Melissa had to wash started and I just had to go put another set of quarters in there for a a second try then collect the clothes take it back to the apartment and do the folding and hanging which I did. Now I've got a set of britches on my bed that I still have to put away but it's all done pretty much for another week. Last month I ran through two sets of shorts trying to get them off and ended up tearing them to blitherings. There are old shorts very very fragile and it seems when I got the shorts off my butt not down my legs and mixed up with my shoes me trying to pull the shirts over my shoes cause them to rip and shred and that was the end. Now I've got to go to Di the first chance that I get and purchase a couple more pairs of used shorts. I probably should have gone today but I wasn't thinking. It would been a good break in of the chair and the new Motors they're on. It wasn't the super warm day but more than usual and I could have dressed for however warm that I wanted to be. I just couldn't get it together to go out and get on the bus. I think I used the clothes washing as the main excuse. Then I had to do my arm bike that took an hour or so and then by that time it was pretty late and there was a storm supposedly coming in this evening and it sounds like it's here. The storm just came in a few minutes ago and it's a howler, the storm is being pushed by Northern winds it's even supposed to leave possible snow in its wake. The snow won't last long now the days are way too warm in the ground is also warm. Now I will just have to experience a couple days of wet and cooler weather.

A

Tuesday's test

 Finally! I've gotten my power chair back from the shop. It came about 4:00 this afternoon they did $3,000 worth of work on the machine which I still find hard to believe. I am of course not in the chair yet because there's just no way for me to switch into it unless someone else is here too help me get into my sling and then lift me up and move me over into the chair plus they got to take everything I'm sitting on now in this chair to put into the other chair. Since I'm not doing anything else tonight just hanging out I figured I'd just wait until tomorrow when Melissa can get me into the chair when she transfers me onto the shower chair to do my business in the shower. She can use that time to move the cushions over and move my chair out and then put me in my repair chair after the shower. From what I remember from tonight's news, tomorrow should be a fairly decent day surprisingly so maybe I can take it out for a spin. The delivery guy indicated that the chair is fully charged- - which totally surprised me - - so I'm ready to go. From what the work order indicated I've got two new motors on the chair plus they fixed my lighting system as well as my control box and a few other things. The motors of course for the big spend the items. Now the drawback I face is that they did such a great job and repairing the chair that my possible ability to get a new chair that's probably put off a year at least. It's the issue of having to deal with the insurance company. They're going to say they've dumped too much money into me already, which they probably already have I don't deny that but what can you do? You got to be able to get around.

I'm really counting on the old chair putting the rest a lot of the pain that I'm in recently. Everything from the foot box to the headrest seems to have been working against me little bit by little bit. I don't know what but I know that it wore a hole in my foot on one side but now I've got to work on getting healed Plus I think I've gotten some issues on my butt now that need to be considered. In the mornings when I wake up early and just lay in bed contemplating things I really thought my body was getting really taken over by wounds but once I get up the wounds don't seem so desperate so I don't call the wound place and I don't really know how to get that call going anyway but I probably need to have them more involved in my life than I do. I put a lot of that stress and weight on my caregiver who does such a great job with me but I think it's unfair cuz she really does only have limited information that she can guess what's wrong with me so she seems to be so much more informed. We'll see now what comes of the new old chair it is kind of exciting.

Monday Madness

 Another early early wake up and really didn't get back to sleep. I think I was just so freaked out over finding blood on my fingers after touching my bottom last night that I fretted over the issue all night long. I was really hoping that Melissa and her magic would have an impact on how my day was going to go but sadly she's only human. However, I did order in the tape that we use on my sores and butt protection and I think that's helped a little bit. My goal now is to get this wound or wounds under control. I want to see primarily if I can do this without having to go to the wound specialist or have a wound specialist come in. I don't know I just freak out at the thought of having to stay in bed all the time and tell the wound heals. Maybe I would just have to stay in bed most of the time being able to get up and go and do things like my assist meetings and stuff. Mark Johnson who is a big gun in the disability movement has got a major wound on his ankle or leg but it sounds pretty serious and it sounds like he's been pretty studious at trying to get it repaired which I assume means that he's in bed probably 23 hours of the day for how long I don't know but I knew know that these healing projects take quite a while. I am also really hoping that my power chair will get back shortly hopefully sometime this week and I'll be able to get more support for places on my body that seem to be getting pressured in the possible formation of sores. Fortunately I called project assist this afternoon and thank goodness there's no meeting tomorrow. It's supposed to be raining pretty hard and I don't want to put any undue stress on my rear end that I don't have to. Hopefully this will be a thing of the past when I get my regular chair back and up and running again. So right now my day is pretty much sitting in my chair laying back to get the weight off my rear end and watching the flat screen. I suppose there are worse ways of wasting days but everybody would recognize the need of having the weight off my butt as much as possible. It's like being in bed but not quite the same. At least I have the freedom to roll around and navigate my apartment and sometimes that's pretty darn good. 

I was kind of afraid of getting back on the arm back today so that's Monday. I wasn't sure how directly the weight would be pushed down on my rear end on the arm bike especially if I was going to pump for an hour. But I rearranged my shorts which took off some of the stress for my butt and I was able to go ahead and pump for 60 minutes. I'm still quite surprised and hopefully haven't done any damage to speak of to my butt. Maybe tomorrow I can lay around some more and take more pressure off my butt and maybe that will assist in the helium process. What a way to start the week

First day of weather logical spring

I had the weirdest dream this morning just before getting up I think it started around 2:00 a.m. and I think most propagated by the feeling that I wanted to make sure I was up and so I could get to the restaurant on time for breakfast. I was able to get back to sleep off and on for the next couple hours until I got up at 6:00 a.m.. but I had the most difficult time remembering what day it was and that this was the day one of my caretakers got here and helped me do my poop. It was just so weird. Finally at the right time I got up and pretty much did a fairly decent job of getting ready except for I lost my shoe on my right foot and I couldn't get it on in time to get to the restaurant to meet the kids on time. I just set the shoe on my foot and nobody gave me any problems or hassles about it and my son went ahead and wiggled my shoe back onto my foot and I was pretty much set to go for the rest of the day. I still must admit that I continue to worry myself about how difficult it is to get ready get dressed and do the things that used to be relatively simple like putting my shoes on now I'm elected to go the whole day without a shoe on the one foot.

Following breakfast my granddaughter and her boyfriend/significant mother came to the apartment clean things up a little bit I was so pleased to have them here. Jackson does a great job cleaning sweeping and just getting things really put together nicely. Remember having somewhat bummed out about my power chairs left side where the armrest doesn't stay up anymore and it just sort of wears me out. Remember I couldn't even with my brother's help get the arm functional at least so it holds itself up and lets me use it to pull myself up to a city position better than not having anything. Will Jackson and Jasmine worked on this arm for about an hour today after they came to my apartment after breakfast. I feel that the peace was no longer functional and I just have to deal with it but after the two of them work together on this piece they got it to the point where was fixed in the right place and it's just been a godsend. I can tell already how nice it's going to be to have that functional in my day-to-day life. I am even thinking that the arm on this chair working the way it's supposed to now well help me till I can get until I get everything taken care of and maybe that won't be an issue that's my chair being repaired sometime this week. After the kids left cleaning my apartment I pretty much stayed in for the rest of the day. I had thought about going somewhere maybe but again I just not too secure with the batteries as weak cuz I seem to be. I probably will stick around the apartments this week at least until I get my chair back unless it's Tuesday and I have to go into the assist meeting.

 

Cloudy day spaghetti

I don't know what it is with me but I just can't seem to enjoy the warmer days outside. Even if the temperature is pretty respectable like in the'60s, low 60s but still that's pretty warm I get out in it and I can't really be comfortable. I'm okay on these semi warm days if I have something to wrap around my neck which basically keeps me warm I was also a little concerned because I could barely get dressed it seemed like today especially by 9:30 which is the time I like to go over to the coffee shop on Saturday mornings. Anyway I lost both shoes as I was trying to get my shorts up over my hips and just didn't want to take the time and the struggle to put or to try to put them back on the shoes. Thankfully I have a long enough shirts that I can pull them down over my hips at least to the point where I think I look presentable if not legal. I don't know why I'm so focused on being over at the coffee shop because I never interact with anybody not really. Today was a pretty good day actually quite a few folks and it seems pretty busy I lucked out and someone found a table for me because all the regular tables were taken my benefactor found one in the corner and Drug the table the way out to where I was sitting. Fortunately, I remembered my cell phone this week and I could bury myself in my cell phone search. I hope I didn't look to hiboyish. I realized the shirt that I wore today had some major holes in the sleeves which I conned myself into believing no one else can see them cuz I pushed the sleeves up over my elbows. I'm sure everybody is aware of my particular look but nobody says anything and that's good. I noticed a lot of them looking at my feet. I think my feet still freaking out quite a bit. But that's okay I don't think I would do this if it were some other joint. I feel quite comfortable at the coffee shop and do look forward to my times there on Saturday mornings. I didn't go anywhere else today and spend the afternoon making spaghetti. I was really interested in utilizing some of the canned ground beef I've been hoarding for the past couple of weeks. I really had a strong belief that if you treat it just right it'll be okay. I dumped the can juice and everything into a frying pan on the stove added the processed onions that I had chopped up and the few garlics and cook them with the ground beef for I don't know maybe 20 minutes. I won't say that what I made tastes funny or that the ground beef tastes funny especially when you start adding things like onions and stuff to it but it must taste different enough to that I noticed. I had a can of spaghetti sauce I found in my closet I'm out of that to the whole concoction then let it cook for a good period of time. I made sure not to burn anything. Next I decided to cook the spaghetti and that was spaghetti I found in the can section somewhat in the back. I had used the first half of this pack of spaghetti sometime during the Autumn or winter. But first I could not see any bugs or anything shit pretty good it was only after I started adding it to the water the boiling water that I noticed at least one petrified closet mouth or whatever those are little things I gave up on it I didn't care I figured if I was going to boil the hell out of it it would cancel out anything that may have survived. I borrowed it really forgot quite some time until the noodles became Supple to the point that I felt they were done they didn't crunch anymore when I chewed one or the other. I drained the water then out of the spaghetti sauce as it was the mixed everything together. Still doesn't taste like spaghetti sauce that I've made before and I don't know what the difference is I think I need some kind of sweetener or something but I could be wrong it's good enough however for me and it'll be good to have on those meals when I don't want to do anything else and it'll be in the refrigerator and ready to go. That really kept me busy for quite a part for this afternoon.

 

Relief at the mailbox and more

I was filled with relief this morning as I dumped the kid letters in them mailbox well before the postman would pick them up. So, they're on their way and perhaps my most meaningful work of the month is out of the way for March anyway. I spent a good part of the morning working around the kitchen cleaning up a little bit. I really appreciate that Melissa swept up the floors a little bit before she left this morning that was nice that really makes the apartment look a little bit better. I was able to get significant amount of stuff done before she got here today she was kind of late so that helped a little bit too. I wanted to do a little bit of a road test on my power chair so how it was still pretty early meaning that I had pretty much a full charge in the battery I took off and went across the street over to the market and did a little shopping for dinner but that was after I had gone to KFC for lunch. I got the cheapest offering that they really had which was a meal combo two-piece chicken mashed potatoes and gravy biscuit and a drink for around $8! The chicken was good there's no question about it you know but was it worth the $8 I don't know I guess it was. It was a chicken leg and a piece of mystery chicken could have been a thigh wasn't a whole lot but I had a lot of outside stuff on it so it was pretty good. And really I don't need any more fat than I had for lunch. Then it was over to the market I remember to get the better but not the juices. Tomorrow is supposed to be a fairly decent day so I might return for a couple bottles of V8 juice to get me into March. Even though the temperature was in the low low 60s I tempted to sit out in the sunshine for a while but there wasn't really much sunshine just a high coating of clouds with the sun shining through periodically it just wasn't warm enough to really sustain me sitting out there for a significant amount of time so I came back in to the apartment and enjoyed the solitude. I thought about making dinner but that didn't go far either I opted into just some things that were already made which was the a frozen burrito and a few green grapes in the refrigerator. I still have quite a bit of stuff if I really want to sit down and make a meal I could. Couple nice pieces of packages of beef plus I've got that big flat of ham steak so I've got to figure out what to do with it and I still have maybe a third of the meat stick I've been eating off of the last couple nights. I don't have a really good pile of cheddar cheese I do have some cheddar cheese that somehow I got from the food bank and it's quite a bit it's all one hunk a lump though and I've had it frozen for some time but it would be nice to have with Ritz crackers and our even baked with the couple pieces of bread for a cheese sandwich and a can of soup. Oh I remember one of the reason that I stayed at home was that Gloria my friend / sometimes housekeeper sort of indicated she would be around but it's hard to tell with Gloria it really is. Plus I just don't really have too much faith in my batteries. Perhaps the high point of the day was a call from what's his name over at the IHC wheelchair shop indicating that my parts had come in and they will schedule to put my chair back together again sometime hopefully the first of next week. So I'm relegated to the chair once again for the weekend that's okay it served me well I can't complain

Q

Wheelchair rant

 I know my dedicated readers are getting a little frustrated with me focused so much on the repairs of my chair but it's the only thing that I have to really bitch about right now. Actually that's probably not true I have so much more but the pain that I'm going through just sitting in this chair now pushes me to babble more about where repair chair is at in the whole process. I'm flummoxed that they the insurance paid the $3,000 for the repair. I mean I appreciate it but I don't know what could take $3,000 cuz they just dumped about that much into it a few months ago. The way they sounded like they weren't going to do it again no matter what but here we go. I just hope that I am able to get the chair back relatively soon before my whole body implodes. Honestly however I am getting around and the weather hasn't been wonderful to the point that I'd be out doing stuff if I had a good chair right now anyway. One of the big questions I've got for me now is that when my chair does get back do I dump any money into this chair that I'm in right now, as a backup chair, to make it a little bit more usable. It needs batteries desperately I can barely go two and a half miles before I'm almost out of juice. That two and a half miles is after charging the chair up all night long. Luckily if I use public transit to its full capability I can just about do anything I really want on the beginning of a full charge I just have to watch where I'm going and how long I've been out zipping around. I don't know what I'll do if and when I no longer can sustain a full charge and go somewhere. Right now the furthest I go on a regular basis is Downtown Salt Lake for my usually weekly assist meeting. By using the bus system in the track system I can do everything on a good charge but usually the warning lights might be flashing by the time I get back. I could basically drag my charger along with me and if I had enough Focus plug in and charge during my meeting. It would just be simpler to get to new batteries but I don't want to put new batteries in this chair if I'm not going to keep it because my plan is to have the chair that's being repaired now as my backup chair if and when I ever do get a brand new chair. That's looking more and more iffy everyday in my estimation. Ended on a high note however I am happy to report that this morning I was able to get up out of bed no problems and then with just a minor amount of focus be able to get myself entirely dressed! That's with both shoes on and shirt pulled down pretty much all the way in the back no Skin showing and legs bundled together. I could make the appearance that I'm doing okay- - which I am just some mornings I have such a difficult time dressing myself.

Con job

 It's kind of spooky but how easy it is to just stay in your apartment all day. It's way easier than having to go out among the living and interact with the silly face folks that I live with or even that exist out past the perimeter of the building. I conned myself into believing I had things to do all day inside the apartment which I basically did. I did my arm bike for an hour after I watched the noon news block. Then of course I had to fold the clothes and hang the shirts and keep in mind during all this time I'm trying to do positive things like picking up around my apartment stopping to do a word puzzle I'm currently working on a book of them. I labor under the simple belief that by keeping my mind somewhat occupied a good thing. Maybe I listen to the old people around here talking too much and they're all talking about things they're doing to keep their brains acute and thinkable. And that's it. I'm happy with this existence but I also know that to stay being happy I need to be doing some more with my mere existence like putting the pressure on Intermountain Medical wheelchair shop too get my chair functional again- - which I believe they're doing just not fast enough. I do not want to go through another weekend in this chair but I'm set if I have to. I'm a little worried about what seems to be my continuing loss of doing Simple Things and right now that's putting on my shorts and my shoes. I'm really holding my breath that once I get it back in my old chair these texts will become simple again. I don't think I told you yesterday I went all day without one shoe on my right foot. I know I looked a bit of a mess thank God that ran into a Good Samaritan on the bus who finished dressing me right there. She was able to tuck my shirt in on both sides as well as my jacket. Had I been carrying my shoe with me she would have put that on too and felt happy doing it. She went to Great Lengths to tell me that she used to be a CNA that she loved the job very much and love helping me for that shirt period of time. Have I been bright and on top of things I would have asked her to start thinking about doing or dressing me 4 days a week or however long I could do to get her to do that. I bet she would do it for 10 bucks just for a dressing job. It would be worth it to be put out the $40 a week if that would come to him. It would be totally worth my money as well as the rest to have this completion to dressing for the day. I know I must look a hoot.