Me good company? Not!

I'm just in from conversing with some of the folks here at the apartment complex. I sort of become part of a group that meets out on the grass by the patio every evening. A bunch of old folks just yammering along and I've become one of them. I'm not sure how I feel about this at first I was a little put off but I sort of gotten used to them and I like the fact that I'm able to visit with these folks and enjoy their company and they seem to enjoy mine. Of course they're all women and that's not that big of a deal at least I don't think so. I don't do a lot of the talking just sort of hang Loose and enter into conversations where I feel I have something fairly significant to add. A lot of these folks bring their dogs there's about four dogs that show up on a regular basis and they fully constitute part of this group. I don't think there's more than 10 people in this group if they are all to show up at the same time some meet on Monday others be on another day people drift in and out sort of like life.

An interesting topic of discussion tonight was where have all the bookstores gone. In fact that was a bit of contention because some of the folks really believe that some of the big box bookstores like Barnes & Noble it's still at the place in the area. I know they are not cuz I went looking for some books to read sometime Last Summer and I rolled all over that area where they thought or said that the bookstore still was and it just isn't it's gone pecan. They did mention some other places for a bookstores of gone up that I wasn't aware of and I only have to leave them anyway cuz I don't remember book stores going on in that area. This means I'm just going to have to check and see if in fact the big bookstore did open up a new space. This is over on Winchester Drive area down around 6400 South and State Street. I really got to know that some places where it's at before I take off to find it. I just do not want to take any chances with this power chair of mine. It's interesting and I've been thinking a lot lately about how much free to my head when I still had a van with a wheelchair lift. I really didn't get out that much and do that much when I did have the van and I doubt I would really be that much out and about even now. The fact that I let my license go that was a big issue too so even if I had a van I wouldn't be able to drive it on my own. I guess that's okay because there's a higher probability that I would enjoy being out and about with somebody else as opposed to being out and about by myself I really don't think I'm not great at company LOL

 

The day after

I I kind of like the first day back from a vacation/holiday. It's like I'm returning to the real world from some fantasy place which was the holiday even if I really didn't do anything over the holiday it's just a different mindset that I enter into when everything is back to normal. In the old days it was when the stores were open again you could get groceries, do some shopping and get into places that were closed over the holiday. Now, you don't see that so much hardly anything's closes anymore really except liquor stores on the holidays that's a holdover I guess when things weren't so frantically focused on ringing as much money out of the present conscience as possible. Today was just beautiful a perfect autumn day still with influences heavily of Summer I think it got up to the '80s today but clear skies less wind than usual nice to be out. I briefly went across the street to the market it was more recreational than anything that I really needed. I spent some time reading in the afternoon, after I finished my hour on the arm bike and then even in the evening later I actually went out and joined some of the women out on the patio and visited with them for a little while. I really do this I don't know why maybe it's by shyness my my timidness. It was kind of fun however just sitting there in the evening visiting, y a m m e r i n g. I should have come back and got on this Vlog immediately but I put it off electing to do a few other things primarily the word puzzles just to get a few done before the end of the day better put everything else back a bit. I think I'm past the pooping stage how ever I do get some urges. Periodically especially if I don't empty my bladder in time I start seeping a little bit not really peeing but still getting wet. Still even though I've increased my liquid intake and feeling like I've got a lot in me when I drain I'm still only getting 300 or 350 cc's which kind of worries me that seems like if there is something wrong I would have other symptoms as it is I'm feeling almost great. I think there's all kinds of things in my urine I wish it was clearer but it is what it is. I still need to maybe run over to the Urgent Care drop off a sample and see if someone will write me Scripts for cleaning up my pee a little bit. Maybe this would help increase the volume of a drain as well.

Tomorrow I have A T. Council it's going to be a zoom meeting because the regular meeting is up in Northern Utah up in Logan and I didn't have a way to get there and the ride that I usually have when we do have these meetings in Logan will not be around. That's okay it's a zoom meeting slated to start at 12:30 and get over by 3:00. It's fairly easy Duty and I'm trying to push myself to be more active in these meetings. I would be so embarrassed if they asked me to stop coming just because I didn't respond enough to the conversations and discussions that we have considering assistive technology. I'm always amazed at how much other people are doing

Another Labor Day

I don't know how much of this posting will make it to the outside world. The tablet on which I write it every night is throwing messages at me indicating that I'm totally filled up the space and I have to get rid of some documents to make space for new postings. I'm so self-involved that I have a hard time erasing things I've written just because I'm so in love with what I am as far as writing goes. Even though I have what's listed on this blog on a page I have on the internet so everything I have is there but then my mind starts thinking what if something happens there and I no longer have the original here then I start losing myself down the rabbit hole. Chances are I could go back 10 or 15 years on some of these postings and get rid of some of those since I probably wouldn't even recognize him now if I were to read them. But something inside me tells me to keep them because you never know they could become handy if the internet fails and you no longer have access to the information you have listed on your website. The other option I've kind of explore it is having a chip inside my tablet, which I do, which has tons of space. I just need to know if I'm doing it right as far as sending saved vlogs from this page to the one on the chip that I have stored on this tablet. That is probably the best way to go about this problem I'm just a little spooked to pull the trigger. Truth of the matter is I don't have a whole lot of faith in the internet that's going to be around for a bit. I have yet to get to. It seems like a most larger task copy and pasting copied and pasting then going back to delete all those that you copied and hope that you'll be able to find them on this chip if and when you need to if not you'll totally lost a lot of time and making these posts. That's only half true because remember, the main purpose of this document is to provide evidence that happened write something over an extended period of time and probably get it done. Essentially what I'm talking about is writing 500 Words a night or a day and putting them together to form a book at some point in time. I believe I've accomplished that so now I'm writing just for the share pleasure/fun of the exercise.

I kind of poop the bed last night it wasn't a blaster but still it was enough that really made me feel uncomfortable. Overall I had a difficult time sleeping and I'm feeling tired today I'm glad it's about time for bed again hopefully it'll be better this time I had a fairly productive session this morning on the toilet with my caregiver. Hopefully I got enough out that I'll be able to be okay until Wednesday morning. Got a few moments this evening where it felt like somebody was trying to get out and I was trying to keep him in. It's beginning to become fall very rapidly. I had a short sleeve shirt on this morning it took me awhile before I got climatized to the coolness of the day. Luckily the day warmed up significantly towards middle afternoon. I was able to spend some time outside in the sun dozing and reading when I could get around to it. I went to the market picked up some milk at the dollar store came back again mainly all this exercise was to put miles on the new batteries. And my estimation they seem to be holding up very well and I think I can significant ranging if I want to. No I just want to get my bowels under control.

 

Sunday moving slow

 I slept poorly last night waking up around 3:00 a.m. and not really getting back to sleep. I had to pee and I just couldn't get everything to work right. I couldn't get the catheter inside the urethra took me forever I never did get it done actually. I finally got up at 6:00 a.m. not being able to handle anymore time in bed. Hopefully tonight things will go better. Hopefully it was just one of those things or maybe it's another one of those Corners I've turned that I just can't do anymore like I used to. I was able to finally get into my returned power chair late this afternoon my caregiver was able to come over and Trent transfer out the chairs and it feels so much better to be in my regular chair. Everything feels comfortable again I'll see what happens when I transfer into bed and more specifically when I get up in the morning to see how well the transfer goes as well as dressing. My son is in Istanbul this weekend and I haven't contacted I heard from the granddaughter who usually goes to breakfast with us. I don't know if she wants to continue tomorrow or not. That makes a big difference whether or what time I get up as far as that goes. Maybe I'll just get up early anyway get dressed if she doesn't show up that's fine she does that's fine too that'll be great. I haven't got much done around the apartment today just because I've been so tired and interestingly the backup chair that I got the batteries switched into the other day was acting really strange. I thought I was going to be safe as far as going anywhere in that chair but even though I charged it all night I only went a little ways and start ed draining the battery quickly or at least that's what it said on the controller. It's worse now than when I started the project. I may have to drop it off at the ucat place and see if they can track down the problem electrically speaking. I don't know if that would work or not it's worth a shot especially if I have to use it again for an extended period of time. A big job on Monday will be too make an appointment with my MD to start the process of getting the new chair. I don't know how long like this is going to take but I do know it'll always take longer than I want it to.

I did the coffee shop this morning which was really impressive to me because that meant I got up early enough to get dressed to get down there by 9:30 when I usually go in and get my coffee. That lady who's really been tight spending some time on talking to me came over and actually sat at my table it along discussion. I actually opened up about some of the stuff I'm going through right now which I can't believe that I did it was good to know to have someone to talk to. I bet we talked 45 minutes to an hour. I actually bought a whole fried chicken at the market today that's pretty stupid the best saved a lot of money and I bought just two chicken breasts fried. But now I have a whole chicken it's a fried chicken cold in the deli that I will use for Frank maybe even make a chicken salad sandwich or something that might be good. I think I was just trying to get ready for a holiday weekend…

1 Return of the chair

I slept poorly last night waking up around 3:00 a.m. and not really getting back to sleep. I had to pee and I just couldn't get everything to work right. I couldn't get the catheter inside the urethra took me forever I never did get it done actually. I finally got up at 6:00 a.m. not being able to handle anymore time in bed. Hopefully tonight things will go better. Hopefully it was just one of those things or maybe it's another one of those Corners I've turned that I just can't do anymore like I used to. I was able to finally get into my returned power chair late this afternoon my caregiver was able to come over and Trent transfer out the chairs and it feels so much better to be in my regular chair. Everything feels comfortable again I'll see what happens when I transfer into bed and more specifically when I get up in the morning to see how well the transfer goes as well as dressing. My son is in Istanbul this weekend and I haven't contacted I heard from the granddaughter who usually goes to breakfast with us. I don't know if she wants to continue tomorrow or not. That makes a big difference whether or what time I get up as far as that goes. Maybe I'll just get up early anyway get dressed if she doesn't show up that's fine she does that's fine too that'll be great. I haven't got much done around the apartment today just because I've been so tired and interestingly the backup chair that I got the batteries switched into the other day was acting really strange. I thought I was going to be safe as far as going anywhere in that chair but even though I charged it all night I only went a little ways and start ed draining the battery quickly or at least that's what it said on the controller. It's worse now than when I started the project. I may have to drop it off at the ucat place and see if they can track down the problem electrically speaking. I don't know if that would work or not it's worth a shot especially if I have to use it again for an extended period of time. A big job on Monday will be too make an appointment with my MD to start the process of getting the new chair. I don't know how long like this is going to take but I do know it'll always take longer than I want it to.

I did the coffee shop this morning which was really impressive to me because that meant I got up early enough to get dressed to get down there by 9:30 when I usually go in and get my coffee. That lady who's really been tight spending some time on talking to me came over and actually sat at my table it along discussion. I actually opened up about some of the stuff I'm going through right now which I can't believe that I did it was good to know to have someone to talk to. I bet we talked 45 minutes to an hour. I actually bought a whole fried chicken at the market today that's pretty stupid the best saved a lot of money and I bought just two chicken breasts fried. But now I have a whole chicken it's a fried chicken cold in the deli that I will use for Frank maybe even make a chicken salad sandwich or something that might be good. I think I was just trying to get ready for a holiday weekend…

One chair and one comforter

The little delivery guy, the driver for us my wheelchair shop, just dropped off my repaired power chair. You remember, the vehicle that I got back from the shop earlier in the week supposedly prepared and nothing had been done on it felt like I had to send it back? Yeah that one. Anyway they ended up replacing the defective motor on the chair. They just put a used one on the chair- - which is okay with me I have no problem with that that as long as it works. I cleaned the information from a message that the caller left but in the call he informed me that they made a big effort to put the motor on because it's been more than 5 years and they have money to pay any more work into that chair. But I've been telling them that for seems like a year and a half now and they've just been put me off put me off. So now they just told me that I have to contact my medical doctor start the whole process Over Again by him writing a letter of need. And I had done all that before they should have all that on Rick but obviously they don't just irritates me there's no man. But the chair seems to be working well the guy actuated the chair from the front door of my complex to my apartment chair didn't stop once and it drove real well in the real quickly. So hopefully I can enjoy this chair for as long as I have to as the process for the new chair starts once again. In the meantime however please because I was able to get the batteries in this chair you'll remember at the back of chair. But having a problem with them all day up however the meter indicated that they were charged last night but when I went to use them during this day the charge went down really quickly which sort of weirds me out. I don't know if it just read a full charge and I was kind of surprised that the battery started deleting itself as quickly as it did. So I have been charging my pack of chair tonight as I was watching just in case the new chair that coming back from the shop didn't work properly or whatever I want to make sure something happened I had this chair totally topped out energy wise especially since it's a holiday weekend and there'll be no significant Tuesday morning at that is it just me or is my life? Now I just have to contact my caregiver, melissa, who is already indicated should be more than willing to come in over the weekend and help me transfer into the returned, repaired main chair. I totally appreciate this but that'll be tomorrow.

Since I know that they locked the doors to the building I kept running back and forth from my apartment to the front door to she is anybody was there wanting to come in. So doing that I always check the giveaway room or the giveaway table and when I first went down to check there is this comforter sitting there in this little plastic container. It looks like a great piece of bedding so I grabbed it brought it back to my apartment and will put it on the bed Monday to see how well it works. My old comforter the big old white thing has some major tears in it that I've put masking tape are that are the kind of tape on the silver tape just so all the floaties don't escape the comforter. It looks some perfect condition I'm kind of excited. I've been looking for a company but it's just too difficult to buy especially if you got to carry it around or anything.

Laundry day

I'm kind of exhausted right now not much sleep and working to just stay even with what I need to be doing. Since I wasn't able to wash clothes yesterday I washed the match today at least keep me going until next Wednesday hopefully. I hadn't really done the wash for a number of months now since my caregiver pretty much starts to watch then transfers it to the dryer and then I pick up the final dried version take it back to the apartment full clothes and then hang up clothes. So today I was able to do the whole thing and brought back the old having to wait till things get done and just hang out for a while. But I got the pants folded the shirts are still in the basket I may wait for Melissa to do that tomorrow since you won't have to wash clothes. I would say the biggest event of the day was I was able to score a set of batteries for my power chair. A friend of mine over it the you cat was able to score me some which was cool. They seem to be working really well and I won't have to worry about running out of power I can get back to doing some bus riding and trying to get some things done. I also have the capability now to get into the position if I need to sample to see if I've got any problem going on internally. On top of all that I was able to do the arm bike as well for my third hour of the week. So just 20 minutes far and I'll have my 200 minutes in.

I have been really grappling with the whole Assisted Living issue. It's been a lot of time visiting with my friend and Buddy from ucap today. He was totally reinforcing of me living as independent as I can for as long as I can and only then consider Assisted Living options. He says not to worry about the concept going anywhere it'll be around for a while and I'm doing well just the way I am and to continue the good work that I bring to the issue of people with disabilities in this community. Really it really felt good. This is going to be another light version of the blog just because I'm having to save as much space as I can until I figure out how to transfer a bunch of old blogs from one section to the backup drive I have a test machine. I just have not Learn how to effectively used the machine like it's really supposed to be used hardware and software...

Oh no!

This is going to be another one of my Infamous short blogs just because I'm not sure how much of it's going to stick around. I think I've totally maxed out my space I'm allowed to have and because of that my tablet is not saving my riding and hopefully this information is just going directly to my cell phone which I do have space on.

I got the dreaded assistive living discussion with my brother today over the telephone. I'm sort of surprised they hadn't come sooner and I know it's probably real difficult for him and it was just a very light mention so it wasn't like a heavy duty coming to God moment but still it happened and I know folks are out there concerned. I'm going to have to figure out a way to answer that question with myself amongst the other situations I'm in. I'm sure there's going to be further discussions down the road now that the proverbial cat is out of the bag so stay tuned. Didn't do anything today because they're picking up my power chair that was supposed to be repaired that's not they're picking it up tonight so I'm still in the backup chair and I think I'm going to be in it for some time so I'm searching for some cheaper used batteries I can get me through the whole thing if I have enough time living independently …

Transitions

 I don't know if it was a bladder infection or maybe I had something else I don't know what but yesterday was kind of a nightmare and a large part of today was very much similar. I didn't sleep much past 3:00 a.m. seemed like but that seems to happen a lot to me anymore I don't know what the hell that's about maybe it's just a geriatric thing but seems to be getting old. Last night I couldn't get my new shoes off because they were snug On My Feet so much different than the other ones. Clearly I was having some issues I was almost falling out of my chair at one point luckily however quite late almost 11:00 I get a call from the people that are supposed to pick up my chair, remember they're going to fix it, they're here to pick it up or soon will be. I was able to use so who came to get the chair as someone to take the shoe off my left foot and help put my foot back on the foot plate which got me back on track it was then I went to bed and I wasn't sure what that was going to be like but I made it through the night. Today. One of the first things I did do today was at 8:00 I called the cyst to let them know that I was not going to be able to make the meeting today at 11:00. I was planning to even chance taking the chair in Spanish but I was just too l or dehydrated or whatever to even make the meeting and I hardly ever miss that.

 I just wanted to get through the day it took me forever to get dressed and I was blaming the chair for the whole thing and I couldn't imagine having to go a couple more weeks in this chair if I had to if they have to order in New Motors but guess what? I got a call from a wheelchair shop a couple hours ago indicating that they did put the new batteries in and were able to fix the motors didn't have to be replaced. I don't know if I believe them or not we'll see though what happens I'm just excited and I think just the mere thought of not having to totally rely on this thing I call a backup chair any further has perked me right up. I also had a couple good glasses of liquid. I think this may have been part of the problem I think I may have been a bit dehydrated I've just got a force myself to drink fluids all the time and just realize I want to spend a good deal of time peeing but that's the way things go. The day was also pretty chilly for me early on I tried to go out and I read a little bit outside I was just too uncomfortable with the Cool Wind. So now I'm waiting for the phone call that will let me know how far out the delivery guy is and will soon have the old chair back with new batteries and Motors that work. 

In fact if the chair is so functional now maybe I will go to the Urgent Care Clinic and do a sample and see if in fact I have well I know I have a bladder infection I always do but maybe they'll give me some medications to knock it out for a while in that case also make all the difference..

Waiting for a pickup

I'm sitting here in my darkened bedroom looking out at the dark stormy sky waiting for the folks from the wheelchair shop to step up and get my power chair for batteries and repair. I took one of the earliest times so that I could get they never give you an exact time just to in between time between 4:00 and 10:00 p.m. it's 8:36 so I guess I still have some time conceivably. I'm tired my butt hurts and I'm sure my kidneys are failing. Now Lori don't get all upset but not really. I think I'm going to have to check things out though just the same. They've been talking about my pre-diabetes or whatever it is for a couple years now maybe I've turned the corner. Like I said kind of spooky I did my arm bike today for the first time in 3 days that always takes it out of me too. I think I did an hour maybe a little bit more but I'm not sure because I slept halfway through the arm bike protocol which is kind of hard to do but I managed. I'm kind of worried about what they'll find on my chair. They are going to put the batteries in I'm pretty sure but with the problems with the motors that might be a whole different trip which I think is going to mean more waiting one way or the other either getting the motors and putting them on and waiting for them to get here to do that or getting the motors on and then having those guys say that I've got brand new Motors why should I get a new chair. They'll think about it again when the chair is it's beginning to fail which I mean starts the whole Tango over again. I think deep down they just don't want to give me another chair. I think they're waiting for me to die. I'm surprised I don't have people standing on the corner wishing me to drive riding the traffic and if I don't comply they're going to give me a small nudge to help me on my way. Is that paranoid thinking? Probably. Sadly I must inform you that I'm getting used to this backup chair. My care person did a lot of work on the foot box this morning as it may not be such a bad share though it doesn't fit me well and it terribly needs new batteries tomorrow I have my meeting over at assist and I'm going to try to get there in this chair. If I'm very conservative in my actions and driving my chair I would think I have enough power to pull this trip off. I have enough power in my batteries when they're fully charged to give me at least two to three miles of distance. That's distance using the motors on my chair. If I use the bus system to take me to the main hub and from there into the train station which will take me off to the library and assist offices across from the library that can't be more than a mile or so all together and then back again. I hope I can make it

 

Sunday's labor

 I have to confess there's nothing that eats up my time more than a stupid Marvel movie that I've already seen I don't know how many times. This afternoon I spent at least 90 minutes watching this movie, okay I was doing other stuff in between scenes off and on, but the point is now it's 8:43 in the evening and I could have done this blog much earlier in the evening but now I'm doing it almost like I'm trying to catch up that really is quite frustrating. I spent the major portion of this afternoon and some of this morning not much because I had breakfast with Marc Anthony and came back and enjoyed the weather for a minute or two. I spent the day trying to get the letters ready for the send out. I had stamps I know couldn't find them anywhere so I figured I'd just go ahead and address the envelopes stuff them and then stamp them when I buy some stamps. I did this of course and now going through an envelope I find this isn't just a regular interval but it's like a envelope you get from the post office it's got large size you can put a lot of stuff in these envelopes but anyway I found the two backup stamps Plus two or three letters that have been stamped that I had printed last week or last month and I was just going to stuff the letters in them when the time came. The time came and went and I didn't do that finding the envelopes now if I use them which I need to use them I'm going to have to go through open up the envelopes pull them out and put the letters in the stamped envelope but with the two residual stamps I should only have to purchase at least two stamps. I guess that's the bright side if there is one. I don't think I lose things anymore than anybody else at any given time but I also worry if these are times or indicators of Dementia or anything else like that. I hope not that would be Dreadful.

I was able to get out of bed and dress myself more or less this morning in time to get to breakfast which I'm totally surprised. Last night I was ready to cancel the whole event just because I didn't think I'd be able to get ready by 8:00 or 8:30 a.m.. I almost didn't. Transferring out of the bed to the chair my feet foot fell off the foot plate and almost got trapped between the chair and the bed which kind of terrifies me. Luckily I had sticks close by and I was able to finagle my foot free but it cost me many minutes of the time I had to get ready. Even with all the time I worked on getting ready this morning I still didn't have the time and are well to put my shoes on so I put the shoes on my feet and went over like that to the restaurant. Mark caught me just as I was getting ready to go into the restaurant and put my shoes on out in the parking lot. I was totally relieved I looks quite respectable. If one counts letter writing, and breakfast with my son I can really say it was a family Sunday day which is good as it gets…

Saturday night sads

This is going to be a quick, down and dirty, post. I really thought I was going to be on top of this and try to get this done earlier in the day but I didn't do it. The day was peppered with one downpour after another and there's a major temperature drops so it's actually beginning to feel cold at least I am trying to find some heat today and it was hard. Every once in awhile the sun would peek through some of the clouds and it would warm up a little bit but by and large it was dark and very ominous. I think I'm coming down to something I hope not probably a bladder infection or something. It's not the way I wanted my Saturday to go that's a big for sure. I was able to get out of bed this morning it was a little dicey but I did it it's even got myself dressed and that's really hard to do with this backup chair. I'm supposed to go to breakfast tomorrow with the kids I hope I can make it if not maybe Mark can come over and dress me if I can't do it myself. Talk about bizarre times. I wish I could cover more information for you but that's going to have to do it for Saturday night

Bad chair

 I'm glad I have this chair even with all the iniquities right now and all the problems that it seems to be going through it's been doing good by me as far as the chair goes. I know better than to try to take it out on any long trips by myself. By long trips I'm talking about even going over to Macy's which is just one block down and across the street from where I live. I wasn't sure entirely if I could make that trip. I think I could do okay on a straight line trip like going somewhere on the same block where I live, but where it gets to be a little dicey would be like crossing the street where you've got to be able to do it in a certain amount of time. I mean after all you are putting yourself at risk anytime one has to cross during a controlled setting like a crosswalk. Mark Anthony texted me tonight indicating that we could probably do some visiting and go over to the fast food joint across the street for a little dinner. I was up for this I'd like to see Mark anytime I get a chance. I warned him that my chair is acting up and I might need some assistance and he was up for that. We didn't seem to have much of a problem getting over to the Arctic Circle(AC) but coming back was a totally different trip. For some reason the motor on the left side of my chair is going out and it seems to getting worse the more that I use it. I really feel quite safe and comfortable using this chair just to run around the apartment and grounds but I'm a little concerned about going anywhere significant across the street for instance. So, the motors been kicking out on me after I drive it for a few minutes or if I try to turn the wrong way at the wrong time the whole thing will just stop and I'll have to turn off the machine and turn it back on and then go as much further as I can before the whole process starts again. Like I said I'm straight line that's not a problem but crossing the street that gets to be spooky and it was. We tried three or four times to try to get the chair in the forward motion mode while we had the light for four times the chair just stopped and we couldn't get across the street in time. Finally on about the 5th try we got close to getting almost halfway in the chair shut down and we had to start the whole process and it took the whole time that the rest of the light gave us and we ended up having to cross while people waited for us to get across even though they had the green light. I pretty much believe in people and they will let me do something like this and I think Mark believes the same way but it's just still scary see the entire Bank of cars wanting and waiting to cross the street all waiting for you it just doesn't seem right. As much as I don't want to I'm afraid tomorrow when my caregiver gets done with me I'm going to have to go into my other chair and set this one in the corner waiting for the people to pick it up. I just hope this chair doesn't feel like it's being punished…

Workout Wednesday

I have spent the last two days trying to find one of my grip gloves, you know it's like a glove it's got a velcro strap on it that allows you to grasp something and then lock it into place with the velcro straps. This is great for like lifting weights and working out and stuff like that. I use the gloves to keep my hands on my arm bike pedals which allows me to Pedal with Focus and commitment. It's weird because I knew I had the gloves on Monday because I did a fast workout but when I went to workout on Tuesday I couldn't find the one glove and I really had to use the one hand without the glove which made it very difficult and I only ended up doing 20 minutes instead of the 60 minutes that I usually use the first 3 days of the week. I looked and looked for this glove accepted that the glove is probably gone. As I said the Grove has these velcro straps on it which sometimes gets trapped on my chair and I end up taking it wherever I'm going not knowing that I have a passenger and then basically losing the item when for one reason another it detaches itself from the velcro. I hadn't gone anywhere but still I couldn't find it. This morning when my caregiver Melissa was here I told her my problem and of course within 20 minutes she had found the Lost glove. I was just about ready to order a replacement love which I found best priced at $89. I think I would have paid the $99 there other sales sites had the gloves listed at just so I can get back to working out for the hour. Fortunately I held off and Melissa found what I needed as she always does. I felt totally fortunate as I worked my 60 minutes today and keeping the ever closer look out eye on my workout gloves.

Wednesday wash day. I drug a 20-minute ordeal out to a whole day. I just barely finished folding my shorts and hanging up my shirts. Actually I had the shorts folded by 5:00 this evening but put off hanging up the shirts till just a while ago. Seven or eight shirts that's all it seems to take forever to pull it off sometimes. I don't know if it's because some of the shirts are inside out- - I try never to leave them inside out but sometimes I guess I do- - I set them up so they're okay then hung them up and finally put him on the rod in the closet. It's not the prettiest job of hung up close but I guess the job done and freeze up the dirty clothes container. It's near the end of the month I elected to start my kid letters. I just finished two I think I have about six left to go I should be able to have all things done by the 31st. The only problem is remember the 31st is when they come and pick up my chair to fix it up I'm going to be in my backup chair. That's okay because I don't plan on going anywhere a great distance but I have to ride the chair for at least 24 hour period as they take my regular chair into the shop to make the repairs to switch out the batteries. I'll be so lucky to have a new batteries

 

Mein Kampf my daily struggle to put myself together

I had a definite senior moment this morning after I gotten up. I for sure thought today was Monday. It felt like Monday all the way through. It's only after I was up and dressed and wondering about why my home health person didn't show up today to do my dressing but I started putting together traces of yesterday and then realized that in fact today is Tuesday. The only thing that possibly saves my senior moment rationale is that this Tuesday there was no assist meeting that I usually get up and hurry through my morning ritual to get out to the bus in time to get into the city for the meeting. Little bit by little bit I made the realization that today was in fact Tuesday nothing that changed anything to speak of. I pretty much enjoyed the day at the apartment just going over to the market briefly to pick up some cottage cheese and a couple of other spontaneous purchases. The whole bag of groceries cost $11.95 or something like that.

Getting dressed this morning wasn't quite a struggle but it was a struggle nonetheless. Working on dressing off and on it probably took a good 2 hours to get dressed this morning. I stress too much I think and put over time into getting on my green shorts today. Try as I may I couldn't get enough elevation on my bridge to pull the shorts up over my hips the way they should be. The end result was a very twisted pair of shorts. Off and on throughout the morning I worked at trying to pull the shirts around so they are centered right with my body didn't really work that much but after I'd gotten my stick and my bag and whatever sitting on my lap I was good enough to go for me. I think I looked hideous but that's just the way things are these days. One day soon I may even break down in get a Home Health person to dress me everyday. I don't know if I could afford that as it is right now but who knows in time.? I'm paying closer attention to my little pile of wealth that I have at the credit union. It seems I lose a little bit more wealth every month. A lot of that wealth has been used in paying off the dentist for my awful teeth. Theoretically one would think that that would certainly take care of itself over time and they can start building up cash reserves again. I just don't know if I have the time anymore. As long as I have the pension coming in every month I should be okay. I must confess however that the money that I'm spending these days is what's left over from the 2000 Trump gave us a couple years ago. I banked it and I've been using a little bit here and there the past couple of weeks more than I have ever before.

I am also realizing that I'm using my credit card more than I have ever done before as well. It scares me when my balance on the credit card just to be like two or three hundred dollars. When this happens I just pay it down as fast as I can. Credit balance drives me crazy especially now where they talk about it all the time on NPR. I don't want to be the reason the debt fails..

Evening winds and distant Thunder

It's one of those near and summer beautiful nights, Thunder roaring in the distance occasional flashes of flat lightning and occasional raindrops accompanied by quick short blast of wind. They all tie in together to lower the temperature a little bit to make the whole evening enjoyable and bearable even though summer is fastly coming to an end. I've been fortunate the last week or so that have not had any meetings or commitments have had to address so I'm spending long days at home mostly in the apartment. Often I go out and read in the common area also known as the patio. Large clouds are floating in the sky blocking the Sun keeping the temperature quite enjoyable. When the clouds move in the sun peeks through it immediately heats up the whole area. Luckily for me that was not an issue today. I started a new book I think I briefed you on that yesterday got into it maybe three chapters now it's about the Kennedys and I'm finding it not that boring for a documentary type book. The book is Well written. Sometimes there are passages that are borderline boring but I'm learning just to jump past those pieces of writing. I have not had to but if I were to justify my long periods of being alone in the apartment I would use the excuse of having the layout flat or near flat in my power chair to mimic staying in bed. I would rather be somewhat uncomfortable and stretched out in my power chair then having to play stretched out into my bed being lonely and fear of being forgotten. That doesn't seem to be an issue and I'm blessed on that level. 

What I did do today that was quite pleasureful if not fun for me was as soon as I got up this morning and functional around 6:00 a.m. I started a double batch of rice. Yes, I finished my process of project of making a batch of Frank. I got the rice made this morning and then processed celery, onions, and later on in the afternoon white chicken meat from the breast that I purchased last weekend for this project. I also fetched out one of the cans of carrots that I have in my Supply drained it and add it to the concoction when I finally started the task. I really did not take as long as I thought it would take at least felt that it would take to do this work quite enjoyable as well I had to NPR in the background. I would like to say that that's quite beneficial but you know what? I have a major frustration issue with the local NPR affiliate, kuer. Inherently doing an article or an interview or a story even, and many of their stories are quite good, the whole channel will cut out and go to dead space or dead air. I'm not sure why this happens except for someone's inadequacy at the station at least that's what it always feels like. It probably has nothing to do with anything like that but it sure feels that way and I never get used to the whole Channel just cutting out nothing but dead air. And then verbally it happens during a really good story that you'd like to find out how it completes itself. It's probably something to do with the Airways or something like that but I think as soon as I can find the right number to call I want to call the University radio station and find out if they're doing anything stupid that would cause major minutes of blackout. I don't know when I'll get to this project I'd like to say immediately but history tells or shows that I never do that. I talk a good time but carry through is a whole other frustration

Beautiful sleep

I cannot believe how functional I feel for only two or three hours sleep that I got last night. It was a weird night for me I don't know if it was the storm going on outside blowing cooler than normal air our usual air and on me or the fact that I woke up with a bladder with felt like it was pretty full and I had to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to cath myself. I just couldn't find the hole to put the catheter in. And all this time I was also concerned about how late it was and how to sleep I was getting and if I would miss my wake up time. It's Sunday of course which means it's restaurant breakfast day with the kids. I was really afraid that I was going to sleep right through the time I needed to get up and then that just cycled with the worry that I would get but eventually I was able to drain my bladder enough to kind of get back to sleep or near sleep for a 2 hours or so before it was time to get up and get dressed. I'm more than made the time and like I said I've been fairly functional all day. I've been yawning a little bit but even then not as much as I would have thought I would be at this point. At one point in time in the afternoon I got a little drowsy while watching one of my Marvel movies and I slept through maybe 20 minutes perhaps. Which was really cool was that this evening going to my back room getting ready to blog I checked my Reddit account and there was a very interesting chat about quadriplegics in there methodology and timing for catheterizing themselves. Especially spent a good amount of time giving ideas and their methods for sleeping through the night or trying to or how they did it. I was somewhat relieved to find out my methodology of starving myself water wise couple hours before I go to bed might help in sleeping through the night. I think I've shared the issue that I've, for some reason, the last couple days I've been having to wake up to pee at some point in time during the night and I'd gone three or four months without having to pee during the night at all and actually getting some fairly decent sleep. Perhaps it's cyclic I don't know but once again from what the other spinal cord injuries are sharing I'm right there with everybody else and a lot of other people are just waking up once or twice during the night every night the catheterize. Totally how useful that chat was for me every once in awhile I luck out.

My granddaughter and grandson-in-law ( is that an appropriate term?) Came over to the apartment following breakfast this morning. They just returned from 2 weeks at St George I missed them quite a bit. Anyway they came over to work on my door to transition from Summer to Autumn and whatever else I might need. They cleaned the kitchen swept the floors in Jackson work on the lamp on my bed stand that hasn't functioned for two or three months and you got it going. I am just so fortunate…

Chicken leg monsoons

I was hoping for some major storm activities today. I know I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up even though the weather person said there was a chance a fairly decent chance. There were clouds especially towards the afternoon when you expect storm chances to start building. Some of the clouds were quite dark and promising and eventually they all sort of masked together and there was some drops of rain with some Gusty wind even sheet lightning giving birth to nice peels of thunder but that was just about it just a few drops here and there. I should be careful what I wish for when I look around and see some of the precipitation going on around the country that's phenomenal and I am thankful that so far we have had no natural catastrophes here along the Wasatch Front. I mean things like major rainfalls with mud slides and stuff. There's been some issues around the state as far as mud flows or mud whatever getting the whole neighborhood engulfed and like literal tons of mud in their basement. What a nightmare. Seems like these disasters have been being more and more in the news lately I've thought about it a lot more. I don't know what would happen if anything catastrophic happened here at the apartment complex where I live. The fire would be bad enough in the building itself but I don't know where we are as far as if there was a major weather event like I giant Monsoon where they dropped a foot of rain in one period of time would we be in the flood plain of any of these washouts? Would it take our wonderful apartment and more specifically would it take my wonderful apart since I am on the ground floor and where would I go? I think I would survive I generally do and I don't say that with any little pride it's just I have been blessed with The Uncanny ability of surviving this and that along the way I really am thankful for that gift or whatever it is. But as of tonight it sounds like we're going to start building up high pressure again which means that the heat will come back but not necessarily intermittent rain showers or storms for that matter.

I've been having an urge to do some cooking the last couple days I just can't get myself motivated to do all that I really have to do to get ready for such an event. Today however, I did fry up one of those packages of chicken legs I was telling you about it earlier I could say I cooked something. I also got some celery the other day I was going to chop some up as well as as well as the chicken breast I purchased yesterday and put it in the fridge. I also have a really good size onion I would use half of I think for Frank as well. Sadly however, I never got around to processing the vegetables to put into the rice that I made a couple of days ago. I've had the rice in the fridge so I think it's okay. I don't know if I will possibly process it tomorrow since it's Sunday but maybe I'll figure that the ox is in the Mire so why not? That's not completely true either because I still have that frozen pizza in the freezer. Then that would be a lot less work then the vegetables and rice it's hard to be frank a about such a thing …

 

Alzheimer's the Specter of

I have been trying to remember the name of a movie all day and it's eluded me every single step I took to find it. I can remember bits and pieces of the movie but not enough to really bring out who acted in the movie or other items I could use to try to identify the movie. It's that feeling, you know, but it's just barely out of your reach you can see it sometimes you can feel it but you just can't say it you can't focus on it entirely. Just sitting there out of the corner of your memory mocking you sometimes. And like I've been writing about the last couple of weeks I'm wondering if my memory is getting worse if it's the Aging processor worse some sort of neurological issue. I don't know for sure at least I know how to get around the roadblock it may take a while in this case it's taking like a half a day or almost a whole day till I finally remembered one of the actors in the movie and that's Bruce Willis. When I brought up the filmography for Mr Willis of course the movie comes up and I can see it and now I remember it it's unnerving however but as long as I can figure out a way around then I'm okay and I'll be able to just continue on remembering 98% of all the stuff I need to remember when I need to remember it. I just pulled that number out of the air I don't know how close that is to reality but I think it is close. I can pretty much remember all that I need to but I am writing things down a lot more, I particularly tried to write things down on a calendar of some sort whether it's on the Internet or my tablet or my cell phone.

About the only thing I did of any consequence today probably even more important than the 20 minutes I did on my arm bike to get my 200 minutes for the week was to head over to the market to do some brief shopping. More importantly to me was to put some mileage on the batteries and see how well they're holding up. I could have gone further I should have gone up to the Walmart in that area 5400 South and seeing how well the battery holds up but it being 100° day didn't want to push anything to speak of pun not intended. So it's a trip over to the market and Back Again but you put me over the mile mark on my odometer at 93% battery. I think if I went 2 miles I'd be okay 3 Mi then I think it's getting a little iffy. So right now it's boring as I seem to be I'm just sort of just hanging out here at the apartments taking care of my power chair taking care of myself by laying back down in my chair so it takes the weight off my butt…

Just a little assist

I don't know why but I feel my 1 hour arm bike pumps are a great accomplishment in my days. I did a 1 hour pump this afternoon of course and that's because I was exhausted on Tuesday and I didn't do my regular hour then. That was the day that I'd gone to my meeting downtown Salt Lake and the heat it pretty much makes me on the way home. Typically, Thursdays I only have to pump 20 minutes to get my 200 minutes in for the week. But not today tomorrow I will do the 20 minutes to round out my week but still leaves me Saturday and Sunday to rest up before I start all over again next week. I feel fortunate that I could do this. I spent a little time earlier this evening cruising some disability reddit's and I was kind of fascinated about how many folks were talking about and being disabled and trying to be as independent or thinking that they are independent as they were. There was some guys that have been disabled for some time- I didn't run into any that had been gimped out as long as I have but I wasn't looking very closely either. I didn't say all I need to compare. But it was interesting a lot of the new Crips were talking about how they were going to last a long time and probably more honestly at what time in the lifespan do folks with disabilities lose their independence or ability to be totally independent. Not really is interesting I try not to think about it too much but I certainly see it happening to me. Quite frankly I'm totally shocked that I'm still living by myself in an apartment was just the assistance of a person 3 days a week. I remember for the longest time being just totally independent. I could live in a manual chair crawl into the chair if I fell out and go on with my life. Eventually I had to go to a power chair that was quite a big change but the same time I really kind of enjoyed it. Now however there's no way I could ever get myself back into my chair if I fill out or back onto my bed had I fallen out. I could do this at one time I didn't think too much of it now it's major. I was shocked at how quick I went from me and married to single and I couldn't take care of myself by myself anymore. I totally understand but I think it should have freaked anybody out. I'm still impressed with myself how well and that I went through that. And how fortunate I was to blend in the place where I'm living at now. As I said 3 days a week someone comes in gets me on to my shower bench or chair halfway showers me I shower the rest of the way as well as on to the toilet where I do my business and then she dresses me and goes on her way. And I'm on my own till I see her the next time which is basically a day away unless it's Friday then I have to cruise until Monday which is really a long time. I suppose if I really needed to I could pay for another day of assistance but I haven't had to do that yet. I am just amazed again how independent I could be with just a little bit of assistance.

 

Desperately Seeking celery

!I was getting a little too self-secured. Has been to think things are going my way and I was doing okay- that which I am. Don't get me wrong. Just that I should have realized that she was going to drop soon and that I should be in more control of what's going on. Yesterday, was busy cuz I went into town and went to my meetings and stuff but when I got back sometime during the afternoon the yellow light came on in my control box meaning that losing power I hadn't really gone that far. But odometer just read 3 miles and I often do three miles easily and I don't get into the yellow zone. Reality is that they said that one of my batteries was bad and we had better get do batteries soon and that's what started the whole process of me contacting my battery shop or my wheelchair shop and starting the process. But now because I got some what lazy and somewhat unrealistic and thinking everything is okay I was once again thrown back to the reality that I'm only as good as my equipment is good. Hope that came out right. If my hard share fails I essentially fail. It's bad enough that I'll be in my backup chair whose batteries themselves or somewhat Limited but I only have to be in that chair for maybe a day and a half at the maximum 2 days. I can live with that but having to live till the 31st of August from now till then is a long time and even though I charge my chair up every night reality says I can only go so far during the the following day. That's the real head scratcher is that I'm not sure how far I can go. I'm not sure how much this hot weather is affecting everything. I know temperature extremes play Havoc with power chairs and particularly the batteries. So, I'm just having to really meter out how much time or power I'm using everyday until I can get the new batteries in my chair. It's kind of nerve-racking. I guess the best part is that this is happening during the summer I think it would be much more dangerous if I were going through the same situation in the dead of winter and I can be stranded somewhere without adequate protection from the cold.

With all this in mind rather than driving my chair across the street to go shopping I decided to use one of those shopping apps. I've used them off and on for the last couple of years. I like to tell myself that I don't really use this app very much because I like doing my own shopping however the truth now is that I need to be careful on how much I spend money wise and I can get straight away purchasing more food than I can use. Doing this kind of shopping is very frightening to me for some reason. It's like I feel I'm spending money I don't have and actually I know that's not the case. I can spend lots of money still and basically be all right. I just hate to see my resources dwindle. But today I shopped for a number of items that will keep me going for some time shredded cheese, Ritz crackers, even celery fresh celery. Remember the rice I told you I was making the other day well I still have it and I haven't done anything with it but today I got some celery chop some of that up with onions and maybe throw in either some chicken frozen chicken legs I could fry up or bake been at the brown rice too the whole concoction and make a pretty good …. dinner for the rest of the week. And now I have celery

Rice is nice

 I didn't do my arm back today and there really is no excuse for it. Actually I think the excuse that I did use to myself was that I was just too tired, exhausted the heat baked out my will to turn the arm crank. That's okay I still have a number of days in a week that I can get my our in so that by Saturday I'll have the 200 minutes in easy peasy. That's correct the heat is back or should I say the heat is on, what a great song It's a pretty good movie too. Anyway, it was a Tuesday or is it Tuesday so I jumped the bus and went all the way into the city for my assist meeting. It went off all right had a lot more names than usual which is good made me feel like I at least made the trip for some reason. I was going to jump the train and come back home immediately but I was a little late trying to get out to the train and it passed before I could get there and I sure didn't want to spend any more time downtown Salt Lake than I had to so I went to a burger joint downtown and this time rather than getting something with me in it I controlled myself it just got half fries half onion rings in the order. It was less than five bucks which is great. I also found the combination quite tasty. I don't know how often I would do that to myself but I did enjoy the meal. I got off the train at the community college enrolled over to the market pick up a couple items that I have not had that I needed probably the most important being a loaf of bread. Not necessarily for sandwiches but for toast especially in the morning. I also got hot dog buns. This of course means that I'm going to have hot dogs sooner than later now and I do have some nice dogs in the meat container in the fridge. That's a lot of food to put in yourself at one time. I suppose it can't be any worse than the sloppy joes I've had last week. I need to make up another food backup product. I'm thinking I have another can of not ground beef in those poor people cans of food that I get from the food bank. Last night before going to bed I actually made a pot of rice brown rice. So my thought being perhaps I can take the can of beef again put it on the stove with onions green pepper garlic and then mix the contents simmer for a while then add it to the rice. I think this would make a comfortable gruel and maybe quite enjoyable to eat. I got actually do some research on the internet and see if I can find any interesting items I could add to the rice to make it more enjoyable.

Monday's Heat

 

 

I hate it when I lose it complete blog for a day. I don't know what I did I don't know what keys I must have touched or how I allowed myself to have the whole rendering disappear but I did. I could spend all kinds of torturous minutes trying to find out where the 500 plus words evaporated to but I found it over time if it's there time to go it's best to let them go. I choose to forgo the stress trying to resurrect what I lost and just hope that I can follow up with another post.

I slept fairly decent through the night waking up around 3:30 and then again at 5:30ish. That's as good as it gets for me I would be surprised if there is better way to climb onto as much sleep as one can get to get them through the next day. My caregiver and I had a pretty decent morning getting me taken care of dressed and ready for the day. It's always fun to get together and go over our weekends. Even though I didn't go to breakfast yesterday I felt comfortable in letting her know that I'd had a decent weekend and I'd enjoyed the time when I didn't go out to eat but stayed home. I only left the complex once today. I zipped across the street to the coffee shop to get another half pound of my blend of French roast. I'd use the last of it on this morning's coffee. I had enough to make 10 cups- - that's what I always do is 10 cups that gives us coffee during the morning process but lets me have cold coffee for the rest of the two days before I make fresh coffee on Wednesday. I really like going across the street for the coffee even though I know it's more expensive than getting coffee at the market across the street. Just has that old time neighborly feel we're having a coffee shop next door. I struggled a little bit with the door, it's quite a heavy door and some of the folks sitting around the tables got up came out and opened the door for me to roll through. There is nobody in line tonight I came to the door and got the attention of the coffee guy. I placed my order and refined the the order so it was different than the coffee I got the last time which was around too tight and I could barely get the water through the coffee maker. Now I'm excited because I have fresh coffee and I'll be very very interested to see how well it sits through the new ground coffee.

The summer heat has returned and I'm all in favor. In my freezer I have popsicles and about 14 more ice cream sandwiches. We should experience significant heat until the rest are the end of the August month and into September. This summer is basically gone and I hate to see it go. Everyone around the complex is excited that's the cool weather is supposed to move in shortly. I'm kind of surprised these people don't realize that we're probably not going to get a whole lot more Summers that are like the ones we've had up until now. Everything's changing and all we can do is hold on, grit teeth and shoot through… 

Sunday's salute

Mark Anthony had something going this morning so he could not make breakfast and I didn't really want to do breakfast if nobody else was going to be there at the restaurant. My granddaughter is probably still out doing their end of the summer camp out down in St George Utah someplace like that so even if she was around still be someone overwhelmed by her camping experience so I pretty much canceled the breakfast. Typically when this happens I do have breakfast production spam and eggs toast, coffee and I'm sure there's other things that I tend to include on such an event but not today. In truth I wasn't even really hungry this morning. I did goof around in the kitchen a little bit I think I made some peanut butter toast, a couple spoonfuls of my concoction, a handful of grapes some cheese from the cheddar cheese block and some coffee and it was good. I got up around 6:00 because I guess I was done sleeping for the day. I was walking originally around 4:30 and then just stayed in bed and thought about going back to sleep, trying to go back to sleep and never quite make it up. What I did do because I was already in bed and feeling pretty comfy with all the blanks around me I laid very still with my eyes closed until it was nearly 6:00 a.m. in time to get up. The transfer from my bed to the chair was a little challenging but successful in the end. One of the sticks I use for help in my transfers lost its anti-stick capabilities. By the time I had finished with the original stick I set the stick aside we'll come back to begin the process of making. Since I really didn't have anything to do because I wasn't going out to breakfast I really gagged around the apartment all morning not even finishing dressing till about 10:00. I even made my bed this morning like I do every morning usually. Later on this evening I went to the market and was going to get just a can of Chinese food that I could use with my noodles but kind of got carried away. I bought some shrimp lo mein from the frozen section and came home in cooked it up. Of course it was nothing like real Chinese food and a bit of a stretch as far as really good food but it was different and I think I enjoyed the experience. I had food at the house I could have eaten but just didn't seem the same. I was a little late for the 4:30 news watched about half of it however before going through the local news later on. I was doing all this while I was cooking up the Chinese. The world was in the same amount of chaos as it had been since yesterday. Look like the floods are easy enough or the rain is easy enough a little bit and that we're going to try out a little bit before next week when the monsoon season is supposed to kick up again and we start everything all over. I wonder if Noah had had television with the news would have looked like at the beginning of the flood when it rained and rained and rained. I doubt no I would have read or watch too much of the new since he was building the ark and he was on a deadline…

Remembering Saturday

 It was kind of a weird day at least the first part for some reason months again I woke up around 3:30 a.m. and just could not get back to sleep. I was comfortable enough and I wasn't really thinking too much about anything I just couldn't back to sleep. I finally got up around 6:00 and worked at getting dressed. We were doing the coffee shop at 9:00 which turned into 9:30 a.m. and that's good I was pretty much ready by 8:30 gave me time to just rest up a little bit and contemplate my lack of sleep. I've been kind of sluggish all day really haven't wanted to do anything but enjoy my Marvel connections watched a couple movies I'm finished reading the novel I've been working on for the last month or so. It's pretty good read for fiction. A couple of days ago one of the residents here showed the book in my face and said here read this and then we can talk about it. I smiled and gracefully said thank you and looked briefly at the volume. I can't tell if it's an old lady's book or not who knows it might be good I like a lot of younger clit lit who knows maybe there's something in the old volumes as well or volumes written for older people.

As I said the coffee shop is pretty sedate and I sat with Mark and Kevin. We talked mainly about Mark's upcoming trips to the old Soviet Union Block and visiting all of his women friends in that area. You seems totally excited about the whole event. I certainly support his goings and doing whatever he's doing. Certainly interesting it's giving me something to think about. He's got some people in his group that they're looking at developing some kind of business which is interesting I think. I would sure like to have him pull this off and allow him to expand himself and grow. He's doing pretty good just teaching himself Russian and teaches the number of Russian people English as a second language through the median of having them read different volumes. He's currently focused on Harry Potter novels and reading these novels with the Russian speaking individuals trying to learn to speak English. I think it's a pretty good idea I don't know how well it works but we'll have to see on that. It's quite fascinating that his mother's big deal was teaching and the study of linguistics. I think she would be quite interested in what Mark Anthony is doing these days hopefully they would be able to get along. Supposedly he'll be leaving for Russia in a couple weeks. I surely hope he pulls it off and does it safely.

This morning after I gotten up in my chair as I was pulling away from the bed, unbeknownst to me a liar or cord that got caught in one of the back wheels of my power chair. This happens a lot more often than I'd like to admit and when that happens and I'm not aware of it I can tip the whole wardrobe next to the arm bike over. This of course causes a colossal mess and when I need to start getting taken care of. I could wait until Monday morning when Melissa would be back but that's just being plain lazy I can be better than that. I've also broken the lamp That I Used To read with at night after I've gotten ready for bed and dove into the mattress. The lamp is kind of destroyed I can use it I really like it because all I have to do is tap on a certain part of the lamp in the light comes on it's very convenient. Of course I've broken or seemed to have broken off the lamp part from the stand area. I can still use the device but it's not very good it looks pretty tacky. One of my goals next week is to try to find where I can order in a couple new ones. Aside from that I am anticipating a pretty good week…

Summers farewell

 It's not like the temperatures gotten really cold or anything like that but the temperature has dropped 20 or 30° from what it has been when it was in triple digits. Not only has the temperature dropped but dark temperate clouds of moved in as well. It hasn't been raining here where I live but it has been raining large amounts around the state not as bad as some of the states where they're getting like flooding and dangerous going like that but still it's no longer summer heat- the heat that I live for all year long. It's supposed to get back up into the '90s and maybe we'll get another triple digit day before it's all done but I'd be surprised. Today I had to get to the bank/ Credit Union to pull cash out of my account for the weekend or whatever when I don't want to use my card or anything like that you know leaving a trace or something. This means I have to catch the bus and go either across a couple streets west of my apartment complex or a number of streets South quite a ways. Either way it's going to take significant amount of time. I didn't mind I did not have anything else going on today. I went to the branch which is around the corner for my Apartments. I went early enough in the day to where there was no lines to speak of because those that work had not gotten paid yet that would have been later on in the afternoon. What's interesting is the branch that I do go to is also the same branch that many folks who are Hispanic go to this particular branch. They quite enjoy listening to the Spanish being spoken the entire time I'm there and just waiting in line as well as many folks doing business with the teller and such. Like I said I like to have cash around just in case somebody needs something or has something around the apartment complex I want to get a hold of. I have one friend who is really been having some issues trying to keep a job or getting a job even. She needs gas money off and on and many times all give her a $10 bill or whatever just so that she'll have enough gas to get through the weekend or get from her apartment to wherever she's searching for work. I usually get 3 $20 bills and four $10 bills. This gives me enough working capital that I can have some change in my wallet and then have some in a book in my bedroom then pull out of somebody needs a little bit more cash. This also gives me cash that I can give folks who offer to go to the market for me. Having a little cash around always makes me feel stable.

My son kind of surprised me tonight by coming over with a heavy duty power strip. The power strip I had in the corner where I had my big screen, computer and cable connection setup in one corner. Power strip I had there was pretty lightweight at Best in it even showed signs of burning out at one time or another. I'm sure it was divine intervention that snuffed out the fire that look like had attacked this cheap power strip at one time. I have a heavy duty one now and feel much more comfortable..

Thursday thoughts

The temperature barely got to 85° today much cooler than it has been this whole summer especially with the string of 100 plus Degree Days. I knew the temperature at that height would not last but I certainly enjoyed the amount of warm days we've had but now something has changed, something is definitely changed and I sense that autumn/fall is on its way. It looks like we'll be back in the 90s maybe next week but not in the upper 90s lower 90s. I'll be surprised if we see another Triple digit day before next summer. Sadly but kind of interestingly I make that comment by what I've known in the past that happened I think now with global warming Everything's changed nothing's going to be the same lesson used to be. I think the Winter's going to be fairly warm this season. And I don't think we're going to see much in the way of snow or rain for that matter. I get a little nervous watching the evening news now with all the giant storms they're having on the east coast and the middle of the country just tons and tons of water. I'm just waiting for the shoe to drop for us folks here in the West. I think the most obvious is the drought and what we're going to do as far as conserving water enough water to get the people who drink water through let alone beasts and Fields. I'm a little heart in that there are folks that are trying to wrestle these issues and problems and hopefully we'll come up with some usable Solutions here in Utah. Perhaps our old card is the fact that there are so many Mormons here in the state of course. These are the guys who base a lot of their whole food storage on the concept of they'll be great need for such items in the latter days no not only food but water as well. I always default to my own belief of tragedy be falling the state as the Great fault line movement. It's supposed to be super destructive but I don't know if they would actually let the Saints know. Food storage is important but I think what your storage is far more critical. I have a great faith in a couple of the State offices who's the only job is to work with water shortage issues. One of them is actually working with the Great Lake down state that provides a lot of water for the state consumption water. We continue to consume a lot of water in the industrial agricultural side. I know that state is trying to work out those issues as well. Who knows with everybody working on these kind of things perhaps we will be able to develop some scenarios that will take us away from the water shortages I think we're going to be seeing more of in the coming months/ year's.

I'm sitting here desperately waiting for a second wind for probably through the rest of my evening. Sadly I don't think it's coming. I've been sleepy all day doesn't help matter when you wake up at 3:00 a.m. and really don't go back to sleep.

 

Mystery lunch

 

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

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

Dark 30 earlier and earlier

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

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

Dark foreboding

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

 

Summer storms and clean apartment

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

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