Bus Bridge rant

 

We've talked about it in the past how much I dislike change in my everyday life my everyday world. So today was a major challenge to me ability to accept change on a moment's notice. I should not have been so surprised because I knew it was coming I just didn't know what form it was going to be in and what shape is going to take but I've been notified I can't remember how if it was over email or Bulletin or pages on the note bored outside of the TRAX station- - you know where they pin up documents that are important enough to publish and everyone doesn't necessarily have a computer or email so they still do postings. Anyway they dedicated that for the next couple weeks over the summer in June they'll start working on parts of the track system -- the train I take back and forth from my apartment to the assist meeting downtown across the library. They indicated they'll do they call a bus Bridge from one point to another point and allow you to get on your way. These guys talk like it's going to be real simple just park the train get off the train get on the bus and simply go to where they're not building anymore and get back on the train and off you go. Well this morning was not the case. We got off the train I don't know I must have been around 21st South maybe a little bit more south than that. And they were using people who I think were either UTA scabs or folks they just pulled off of the Department of Employment/ list I don't know. But they were okay more or less a little smelly here and there little messy here and there barely literate I don't know if that's a fair description but it's what it felt like this morning. Then they hurted us from the Train across a bunch of parking lots it seemed like and finally onto a bus that barely worked in fact the driver had to keep opening and shutting the door so everything would be okay I guess the door has to be closed a certain way are the bus won't go. So the driver spent how long trying to get that those doors to shut properly. Then we had to go many more stops than they indicated to get to the ballpark station and from there they hearded us back on the train and we should have got back to our original spot but it was really messed up- nobody knew what they were doing it was so chaotic that instead of going back on the train I elected to go up to State Street and caught that regular bus I went all the way up on the regular bus system to Murray station and take the bus home from there. I really don't want to do that again. So in two weeks if they're still working on the track system I'm going to take the State Street bus Inn and the State Street bus back that's all is to it…

New June

I got the kids letters done this afternoon. I did not work on the letters all day but the letters were certainly on my mind all day. I found that I had to write one last letter that I missed the spaced off. So I was able to dictate that and finally get that one printed then all the letters into their various envelopes some getting cash others not all getting stamped that's for sure. This is not heavy duty work by any means but it's work it has to be done and have to be focused enough to stick to it till you can get them completed and down to the post box and dumped for tomorrow's mail. Like I said earlier I would like to have been able to have done that yesterday so that the letters would have gone out today or better yet like to have had him mailed on Friday but that didn't happen of course. But I'm done it's off my mind now for a while at least until the end of June couldn't be looking at another holiday weekend.

The biggest project of my day, after getting showered and taken care of and dressed, was suiting up and heading out for the bus stop. Over the weekend my check came from the state they called the renters rebate check and this year I got about $330! That's a very healthy shot in the arm I could actually retire my debt at the credit union with that much money. However, I'm just not strong enough to spend $300 of unspecified money on a clear and rational debt. I deposited the whole thing except for 30 bucks into the regular account. I would have liked to have really taken the whole check and cash and then hid it in my apartment somewhere but I'm trying to stop being so irrational and not trusting the institutions that everybody else does. I just have to stop feeling so strongly that I have to pay cash and use my plastic a lot more not necessarily to charge stuff but to pay for stuff rather than real cash or currency. 

I didn't have anything really else to do this morning so I grabbed my hat and ran to the bus stop. I went up to the Community College Transit point and got on the 47 which would take me around the corner to 2700 West or I could get to my credit union where I keep my cash and get accounts. I really thought this was the best thing to do plus it would get me out and on the bus system. Today the credit union was celebrating the consumers there were trays of cookies and cans of soda. That was kind of nice Mountain America has always been a good group to work with I've enjoyed my time with their credit union. Price neglected to put through my mind process that it was the first of June or the first of the month so everybody in their duck was at the credit union actually I didn't see a duck but I saw a couple dogs. Well they don't come right out and say it but this branch is a Spanish-speaking branch. Oh they certainly have enough white folks on staff Plus I'm sure all the Spanish speaking folks on staff are also checked out with the English speakers needed to conduct business. It's sad but I was pretty tired by this point in the morning. I hadn't slept well the night before and gotten up early. I made my deposit got some cash to run on and put it in my wallet. The teller that I worked with was definitely Spanish speaking it took us awhile to finish my transaction because she kept breaking into Spanish and right Spanish is not very good at all. I just have the basics down. I could get by if I had to just a Spanish speaking universe I would not be my first choice. But we got through. I was so impressed with myself I went over to the market and got a couple pieces of fried chicken the leg and a wing. I grabbed a can of soda when I was at the bank so I went to the parking lot sat in the Sun and had a cute little lunch. I'm sure I looked pathetic like an orphan or a character from Charles Dickens..

Computer frustration

 I have been struggling all day and that's okay. I think I pretty much got the problem fixed that I was struggling with but I had to end up calling my son to help me with the computer problem I was having. It's Sunday morning so of course we did breakfast it was a little late getting started but finally my son and the two kids showed up. We had a good breakfast it was enjoyable we did not linger as we usually do we had things to do Mark Anthony had to do some music stuff and I had to get the kid Letters Out. I really wanted to get them out today but that's not going to happen partially because of the problem I was struggling with. It always seems to happen and I can never figure out on my own how to resolve the problem. I don't know it's just me but printers intimidate the hell out of me. So of course today I finally get to the point where I'm going to do the printing. I wanted to get the envelopes printed first and then the letters themselves I guess it didn't really matter but that's how it felt to me the best way to go about the problem and of course I could not get the printer to work. I just randomly started pressing anything it said printer on it and going through the process that I've done in the past eventually allowing me to print what I was trying to print. This situation never got to that point I ended up printing two letters or two envelopes and that was it. But I keep going through the process so the little printer on the screen on my computer kept showing up every time I'd print so I knew that a print command was being stored somewhere. I thought at one time I just print through them that didn't happen finally in my frustration I called my son Marc Anthony who really knows how to really work on these printers. I'd seen him in the morning remember and I knew that he was going to be somewhat busy today but I gave him a call anyway and he said he had and he did. It didn't take him long to resolve the problem and soon I had envelopes printed. I'll see what the print the letters themselves because they were on this tablet and somehow this tablet can tie into the printer independently of the computer system that alleviates a lot of stress. I also realized I still have one letter I need to write. It's a little disheartening but it'll be good when I'm finished.

I used to be fairly smart when it came to working on computers. I was never brilliant but I was somewhat functional and actually assisted other individuals less functional than I. Of course I always had somebody I would go to who knew a lot more than I did there at the office. But I could usually work out the problem if it wasn't too significant. But as the system seem to get more and more complicated so was my stress levels. Now I know enough not to even try to play like I understand what's going on with my computer. I'll still give it a shot to see if I can inadvertently hit the right keys in the right sequences to get the job done but I'm glad I have someone to call on when I need to.

Saturday surfing

 I didn't sleep well last night I woke up very early having to pee and I haven't had that sensation for the longest time. It's weird now that I think about it how I would often try to pee in the middle of the night either into a can or when I started using my catheter trying to cast myself at night which I could do but was still very irks something to have to wake up from a dead sleep to pee and then be very careful so you didn't spill or back gush water onto the mattress. I went through a lot of work this morning in order to try to relieve the pressure- which I did but by that point in time it was getting close to 5:30 and I try to be up by 6:00 a.m. and I struggled too much so I was totally awake at that Of time. I laid in bed until 6:00 a.m. then got myself up. Still a little bit worried about my butt and hopefully everything's okay I probably sat on it way too long today but what else could I do? I'm doing okay though it was raining when I got up dark clouds it's coming down pretty well actually I did get dressed took me a couple hours but I did it then cruise to cross the street and went to the coffee shop. I ran into Michelle there she wanted to talk this is the person that lives right now with her family and Utah County and is forced to go to church and everything it's pretty freaked out about that but she did try to live with her kids in Tennessee which didn't work out at all and then she came back this was her first time back to the coffee shop. We visited for a while then I took off back to the apartment and that was pretty much it for the day actually. I did work on kid letters and I tried to do some work in the kitchen tried to clean it up a little bit. I did cook or heat up or whatever you do with the noodles the package of Asian noodles that I got at the market just on them yesterday. There's not as many noodles as I would like but it did make a nice little meal I ate half and I saved the other half for tomorrow. I figure if I have half of the noodles tomorrow and then supplement the rest of the little fish that they're in with some of the rice I've cooked we'll make a nice little Asian meal for the evening or midday whichever ends up being. I'm not sure I can't remember what I paid for it but it was okay it was nice it was all made I didn't have to do a whole lot to bring it to meal status. The clouds moved on out by mid-afternoon patches of clouds remained here and there and there seems to be a possible bit of rain that may fall later on this evening I'll be surprised. The rain should be moving out though by tomorrow so I should be okay going over to the breakfast have spoken with Mark he will be there at breakfast I don't know if the other kids will be or not. Hopefully I'll get to bed soon and get better sleep tonight then yesterday…

Something red

My buddy Dwayne got the hamburgers for lunch they also brought me a bottle of Mountain Dew red. He was worried that I would not be drinking it however I love Mountain Dew red.           

I seriously had difficult time getting out of bed this morning, not necessarily physically you know pulling myself out of bed or up and then transferring to my chair it was just trying to shake the sleep out of my brain and to have the motivation to get up and slide into my chair. Luckily this is a day that Melissa will be here to shower me and everything else so I had to get going I had to get the coffee made so that she would have hot coffee when she gets here. I make that a thing I do every day that she's here I believe in keeping my staff happy. Showers and stuff is uneventful I appreciate it that she swept the floors up in the kitchen and the TV room every little bit helps. The high point of my day was or is the ones I shared with my good buddy Dwayne. I met him at the park across from our building. The weather this morning was beautiful in the afternoon pretty much. Had clouds and some feisty winds but it was warm so that made it all worthwhile. We found a table under the Pavilion at the park sure that we're three young adolescents males Rambling On and On but we kept ourselves and they pretty much kept to them. Dwayne picked up hamburgers asked what I wanted and I said I wanted to McDonald's cheeseburger. The first line burger they've got with cheese on it I'd rather have just a regular burger but it seems too much for them to deal with as well as Dwayne interestingly he ended up getting Burgers from someplace else Something Something In and Out. The burgers are okay they're cold by the time he got here but that's all right fries were still kind of warm but they were cooling off quickly that's all right. For beverage Dwayne brought me a Red Mountain Dew which I thought was just perfect . He knows me well enough that I like anything red . I enjoyed the time with Dwayne. We don't talk about anything in particular just Ramble On usually about politics and how bad the local Administration is then just random things hold me and talk about. We did a good 2 hours together and he moved on and so did I back to the apartments.7

The storm they've been forecasting all week finally begin moving in this afternoon. The clouds begin to Bunch up and the wind picked up as the low pressure system moved in. Temperature stayed warm even with the clouds moving in it for right now anyway. I wanted to make sure I had something on hand in case the rain tomorrow was more than they expected so I do the fast run over to the market next door picked up a few things you know burritos frozen, chips, celery a stock the bottle of V8 things you need to do to get through a rainstorm and a weekend. The rain supposed to move out Sunday afternoon and warm up again next week. I'm counting on the rain tomorrow morning to keep me focused on getting the Letters Out.

Q

Thursday thoughts

I finally got both charging cables to work and was able to charge my cell phone as well as my writing tablet to the maximum levels! I really thought my tablet was toast, I had dropped the tablet one too many times. I'm really quite surprised that the trailer to the screen on my tablet is not as traumatic. I've used this piece a long time and it hardly ever kept it as pristine as I was able to do that one but time ran out and the tablet slipped off my lap and landed just right and now I've got these feathers cracks all over my screen. I can still see good enough to write between the crack lines and I guess if I really was into Tick Tock or the other video channels I would be more upset. Thank goodness I am not. I just want to have something to write on and it looks like there's going to be a little more time on this particular document writer.

There's no coffee social this morning at the apartment complex. I can't remember what excuse the older Hispanic ladies used to not have the function oh I remember. Non-profit housing Corp, is the outfit that runs this apartment operation I'm in. They had their annual meeting today the news are common room which is big and spacious it looks nice and of course we were displaced and nobody really cared that much anyway I did I thought we should have had it someplace else but they didn't. So I was basically left on my own as We Know. The day was nice I wanted to make good use of the time and I did need to get change monetary change so I would have $10 bills to send my grandkids that still got money or get money. That means I would have to do a trip to the credit union. The credit union trip was uneventful I caught the bus outside my apartment got off at the transit hub picked up the 47 westbound get me off at the credit union. I got cash then came back home as soon as possible. This still took all the rest of the morning I got home just a little bit before lunch time. I'm still semi committed to using my cache in the closet. I've got the huge amount of Mormon chili the last couple months and I focused on eating some of that. Makes a great lunch with soda crackers. Following lunch I read a little bit out in the Wind came back and did a half an hour on my arm bike to make my 200 minutes for the week. I'll be getting to develop some issues with the arm bike I'm not sure how to correct them. I've called their home number before but never have gotten any real solution. I was involved in a little bit last five and came back into the apartment to watch the news. I slowed down a little bit now, the sun is done it's worse on me I need to be drinking more liquids. I've been riding today's blog on the tablet seems to be doing just fine. I think I might need to start looking at another writing device. I'm exhausted, I think I do not have my sea legs ready yet for the Heat that's going to be summer. It's almost Friday which means it's almost the weekend again.

Coffee Talk

Somehow, miraculously, I was able to get the cable plug into work and actually charge up my tablet almost to 100%. I got up to 85% I decided I would take it off the charger and use it to write my blog entry for the evening. Still I think it's pretty weird that it's taken me like almost 18 hours to charge this thing to the 85% level. I still have to figure out another way to charge this piece of equipment or maybe it's time to let this thing go and get another one. Sadly, these cheap little tablets are beginning to pile up like cordwood around my apartment. Had lunch with a good friend today well not lunch we had coffee and she mentioned that I should take my tablet into that program I work for assistive technology Foundation and see what they can do as far as either fixing it or finding me a worthy replacement had and affordable price. This is actually a great idea and I'm surprised I hadn't thought of it sooner since I'm on this part of directors and I also think that's where I this tablet came from. That was a number of years ago but still not an excuse.

We had our coffee today at Starbucks. It's a little trendy I agree, and that's not the term I want to use but I can't remember what the term is, but it's quiet enough not very many people were there during the times that we were. They don't bug us to buy more stuff we usually get that one beverage or a treat or both I had a muffin and a latte it really does sound bourgeois.

It's hard to believe that it's the end of May June will be just a couple days away and of course that means kid letters have to go out soon if I'm going to keep myself rule of trying to get these letters out by the first of each month. I keep telling myself it's not that big of a deal but somehow I must keep true to the form of out by the 1st or as close to it as I can every month. It also means I've got to run to the Credit Union pull out cash for those kids that still get cash every month. It gives me purpose and I like that it's almost as good as a job as far as having something to do and a reason to propel yourself out of bed every morning. I'm pretty pleased with myself even with meeting with Lori for coffee I still have been able to get in by our arm bike workout and I even got ccxthe clothes back from the dryers folded as well as hung up. That's touching a lot of bases in one day and that's pretty decent for me all things considered. All that things get a little bit out of hand tonight after I got home from coffee. I watched a little news and I and had a meager dinner the Ritz crackers and soup. I even had a small ice cream sandwich for dessert it was a pretty good day.

Quick quick

Be advised that I don't know how long this is going to be just because device that I use for some reason has stopped charging and I'm in the last few minutes of what was left on the battery this morning when I woke. I've been trying to charge all day but it just seem to be happening maybe if I can get Jackson over here he can look at the charging device he's good this kind of stuff. It's been a great Tuesday no reason to go to town this Tuesday because no meeting which is good for me. I was going to do a lunch with my buddy Dwayne but I think he forgot about it a nd was a no-show on finally contacted each other he had forgotten I think it was Monday. He got messed up with the holiday and that's easy to do. The wind's been significant today but the temperature's been warm enough to be outside shirt sleeves whatever so I have spent some time outside reading not much though. Just enjoying the apartment and doing some depressions just because my butt hurts today I don't know what's going on with it but I'll have to have Melissa look at it tomorrow and put some medicine on it or something if that's what it is the problem with. I don't think the skin is broken or anything it's just tired and worn. I did do my arm bike got my 60 Minutes in and exploded the kitchen when inadvertently I backed into the open door of the microwave and almost spilled the whole microwave to the floor however a lot of stuff did get thrown into the floor. I'm tired I should fix it myself but I'll wait till Melissa gets here I think for tomorrow aside from that that's pretty much been the day. My battery is now in the Red Zone I must be quick

 

Holidays end

I hate to say goodbye to the holiday or any holidays for that matter. I just love the magic that I tend to put into these 24-hour periods when they happen. This holiday is about used up just a couple more hours and hopefully I'll be asleep during most of those hours which are left over. I'm tired was fairly busy today really not doing much but still I was busy I was riding the bus, I went to the movies, rolled around the 5400 South area. Remember the accident I told you about yesterday morning during breakfast? Well last night as I was getting ready for bed I hear this bump bump like boxes falling off of something it was weird and I said I wonder and then I heard the first of it seem like a zillion emergency vehicles converging on the exact same spot that the other same spot as the earlier accident and I could not believe the amount of red and blue lights in the area. So many more emergency vehicles that was out the one earlier in the day. And they were up and down the road. It's a shame sounds like it was really grim. I even caught one of the news people talking about some accident that happened on Redwood Road right in that area which I think was probably that accident they were talking about but I didn't get the full story. My son-in-law indicated what were the odds of something like that happened again in the exact same spot? Well I think it's an awfully dangerous corner for one thing and another thing I think people are stupid in general they tend to rush lights try to get through them cuz they don't want to wait a few more minutes for the next light cycle to work it's way through  …really is pretty stupid.

 

The weather today was perfect for a holiday actually is really perfect for a get together of some sort where their family or just friends. It wasn't boiling hot and it wasn't cool just right in the middle. I was impressed because I was a little frightened that they have the air conditioner going at the theater but they may have but it was warm enough that I didn't realize that the theater might have been cool. Same with the bus it didn't feel too chilly either. I guess if I was going to be perfectly honest about the whole weather thing that there were large dark clouds filtering through the sky most of the day. They didn't block the Sun for say causing possible temperature drop but they were there and everyone a couple of gusts of wind that makes one feel or believe or think there might be a storm brewing somewhere and the possibility of a nice little electric storm with lots of Thunder pepper the evening. None of those clouds produced anything like that here in the Salt Lake Redwood Road area anyway. There is the possibility I think for the rest of the week that there might be some afternoon weather activity that might be interesting. I think I don't have to go anywhere really the rest of the week unless something interesting comes open that I can just get to relatively easily. I do have a lunch here and there that might ensue which is kind of exciting and I'm having coffee with my friend Lori at some point on Wednesday. So I have things that will keep me busy the rest of the week hopefully and no assist meeting tomorrow so I'll be able to just mess around even more . I do have to get to the bank get some $10 bills for kid letters other than that just going to lay low and be cool …

 

Halfway through

 It's a few hours past the smack dab in the middle of the holiday weekend point but still middle of the holiday weekend. Sun's gone down and it's much cooler than it was a few hours ago of course. The wind still maintains itself and the clouds are still with us it's cooler than I thought it was going to be but still overall a pretty nice day. I know I've written about this before but I feel strong enough to write about it again the fact that holidays have their own unique feel even though I'm retired and I would not be worA 1 ng tomorrow anyway tomorrow to me feels like it's a holiday. Everything feels different that way supermarkets and the clothes Banks and other pieces of Industry / business that think themselves so significant that they close on national holidays. I don't think the UTA buses will be running at full strength they'll be running on what they call their holiday mode and I'm not sure really how that differs from the regular service except that you may have to wait a bit longer and really check to see if the route is running at all. Many times on some of the Lesser routes that I use less they will close that run for the day of the holiday. That's okay for me I'm not really planning on doing tomorrow anyway except laying low and enjoying the Heat. I may make another stab at reading a block of material for my current paperback but aside from that just enjoying the day and getting ready to jump in to everything on Tuesday. I'm kind of amazed because again it's the last of the month that I need to start getting ready to do my June letters.

This morning at Sunday morning breakfast we were fascinated along with the rest of the restaurant at a an accident which took place right in front of our building. It was quite significant mandating a big fire truck and two ambulances and a mess of just regular police vehicles. I'm sure there are quite a few available because it was early Sunday morning and most of them is already done their donut Run for the day. He accident was pretty aggressive some guy turning quickly or trying to turn on at red light got T-Bone almost or the front part got nailed spinning the whole vehicle around 100 or 360°. And then the driver who is at fault stand around the accident scene all morning. You could tell that he was a definite whiner and he was Curly in the wrong and there's a full restaurant who watched the event take place. Fortunately we were not asked to give any kind of a statement. All the people who basically sit in the same area that we do but face the window had a much better view of the incident. There's been some talk among various residents here at the apartment complex of possibly putting together some kind of barbecue tomorrow in honor of the holiday. Quite frankly I'd be surprised if that were coming to be but that i certainly would support such an event. I have a fine kielbasa I've been saving for just the right event and tomorrow will certainly be such a Time …

Socializing Saturday

I was kind of shocked this morning as I was leaving the coffee shop after doing my usual Saturday vigil of showing up ordering the large coffee and then sitting by myself listening and watching other people in the shop communicating one with another. Had enough time to myself and I really wanted to get some things going for the day I got up and ready to leave and say I was leaving a person that I know very little came in and she indicated that she wanted to visit so I put off my exit for another hour of visitation amazing. I was one of those folks that had somebody else at their table visiting, laughing and just being normal. I quite enjoyed myself even though it was quite a bit about nothing. As I was sitting at the table I got a text from I guess my ex son-in-law, which house just referred to as son-in-law you still feels like one. Your name is Gabe and Gabe indicated he and his son would like to get together with me and visit it's been a while. I thought we were fairly close when we were in another reality. I said sure and we would get together later on in the afternoon. This would give me time to get over to the market and pick up a few things get me squared away for the holiday weekend. This is a great weekend weather wise. Pretty much blue skies, there were a few pesky clouds not enough to block the Sun and get chilled however. I returned from the market put my groceries away and then worked on cleaning up the place a little bit. I didn't know what we were going to do as a visit just wanted to be sure. That's the time got closer for the arrival and they called indicating that they were on their way I decided I'd meet him outside of the building.

It was such a nice day we decided to go across the parking lot into the park just adjacent to the apartment complex. We did and we visited really well for the next 2 hours perhaps a little more. Good conversation it was a quick and constant conversation there are no walls or soft slow parts which I think is important which meant that we had a fairly decent relationship that we still do when we have lots to talk about and we did. It was my son-in-law and I guess grandchild Asher. Ashley's about 14 now it's amazing I can give you all the crochets about how fast kids grow and all that kind of stuff but you'll know what I mean. Asher was a major part of our conversation I think we totally enjoyed each other's presence and look forward to meeting again. I sent out a text to my son- - the one that we usually have breakfast every Sunday morning with - - to see if that's what was on the agenda this week as well and it was we are set. It's been a busy but good day a lot of talking a lot of being social which is sort of different for me it was a nice change...

Doesn't seem right

The weather has finally turned respectively warm. It took all morning before the day to warm up to a point that I felt I could comfortably get out in my short sleeve shirt and enjoy the sunshine. There are some heavy clouds at first this morning but they dissipated relatively soon after the Sun started maxing out. Today was the last day of the week for my home health person to do my shower and dressing and such. This is the long. Now that I've got to go from this morning to Monday morning without a poop. It always freaks me out especially when I don't do it really good job like this morning. I think the lesson is that life goes on regardless of what's in your pants or not and if you need to be cleaned up you need to be cleaned up and then you get on your way. Anyway, come around lunch I was getting a little hungry so I figured I would go and grab a hamburger at my favorite joint. It's a couple blocks south from where I live I'll take the bus and get off but I couldn't find the building. I don't want to write this off as a senior moment cuz I was doing stuff like this long before I became senior I just couldn't find the building. I finally did find it but it was after I'd already gotten lunch and everything.

My son has this deep respect and I think loves the food at this Mexican restaurant. Of course now I'm getting a blank on the name but it will come. I've never really totally understood this place it's sort of freaks me out my son likes the place because it has giant portions. I don't need giant portions especially if I got to roll around with the take home with me. But anyway over the Father's Day and Christmas and such he's giving me gift cards to this place that I've never used. I came across some of them last week and shoved them in my wallet so the next time I was in the area I'll try them out and I did. The place is called Cafe Rio and it's sort of like a buffet type environment. It's pretty intimidating for me anyway. But I went to the building fished out the cards found out one card still had $4.95 on it the other card had $25 on it I've never used that one. So I figured how I could how could I go wrong. I wasn't sure what I was doing or making but I just start throwing out words that I knew beef burrito and they put together this giant lump of beef and beans and rice in a round aluminum to go container. Consumed about half then came home and threw it in the fridge. I'll heat it up at some point in time this weekend- - it's a holiday weekend so I'll label those holiday food. They're in trouble is I hesitate putting that much protein/ food product in my gut when I can't poop again until Monday it doesn't seem right

 

Thursday thoroughly

 I hated it when people tell me how tired I look. I was on kind of a mini high this morning because I slept at least 5 hours last night which was really great. I sort of felt great when I got up and got ready for coffee. I think if I can get 5 hours of sleep I'm doing great. But anyway today's Thursday that means it's coffee group and I was at the group being very social or trying to be and I think I yawned once and then I got pounced on by this red-haired old lady about how I need to get more sleep. I know I rattle on and off about sleep. By and large I'm pretty much happy with my sleep routines. To a degree it's my own fault that I only get a few hours of sleep at night just because I have a hard time going to bed and I just seem to automatically wake up at 6:00 a.m. if I'm lucky enough to sleep that long. Usually I'm awake at 3:00 a.m. and then I go back to sleep or try to and fidgeting fast and tell it's 6:00 a.m. and I feel like I can get up. I used to be worried that I'd be sleeping or yawning all day but I usually get through the day feeling pretty good. So today I was definitely caught off guard. Of course, after red said that I spelled tired the rest of the day. Luckily I didn't have a whole lot going on so it didn't have to be out doing things and seeing people in general. I worked on the apartment a little bit and also went around Gathering up the clothes that I had hung out all over my patio as well as the apartment to dry out. I got the clothes hung up and the shorts folded. Put some time in on the arm bike not a complete hour but I did enough to get the 200 minutes in for the week. I noticed I seem to be eating a lot these days I don't know what that's about I need to pull it in. I don't know if the lot or just a bunch of little snacks that I have but it seems all day long. I like taking spoons of peanut butter out of the peanut butter jar, having some cheese out of the refrigerator crackers What peanut butter. This morning I actually cooked breakfast I had spam and eggs toast buttered it was okay. They sent leftover muffins and cookies home with me following coffee. I tried to put him down but they wouldn't let me they wanted me to have them so I scooped them up and took him to the apartment. We're on the table with the Clutter.

I have not heard anything from my brother in the longest time and I've even sent out a couple feelers but no response. I don't know if he's disowned to me or what. I hope he's okay. I think he's had some health issues the last couple months but for him to go up and die if not telling me though that's something that's sort of frustratingly fearful for me. The family reunions should be next month as far as last I heard. I don't know what's going on but my instinct tells me just to keep my head down and go with the flow..

Dry clothes dry!

 

She really is a nice old lady and I know that she means well but still kind of drives me crazy takes up a lot of my time being a nice guy. Remember today's wash day? And as usual my caregiver put the wash in came back tended to me then as she was leaving grab some quarters and went down and put the wash from the washing machine into the dryer and left that's the usual method of operation for us. Then I go down a little later and pull out the clothes if they're wet or damp I'll run into another cycle if I have the time. If not they're usually pretty dry and they'll dry in time. Today I was having breakfast which today was toast in the yogurt. I hear a small scrabbling knock on the door. Of course I cry out come in but I no one enters and I hear some sort of muffled sound so I figured I'd better go check it out which I did. It was Ling our little Vietnamese neighbor at the senior complex where I live she had all my clothes in a basket of sorts and push them into my apartment. Is it she then tried to tell me that all the dryers were full and that I had to take the clothes she had to take the clothes out so other people could use the dryers and the clothes were a little damp. They weren't soaking wet but there is certainly more than damp! Didn't do any good to yell at her I don't think she would really understood was trying to say. At first I kind of believed her and filled a little embarrassed that she thought that I was hogging the the dryer. Once I got the   in the apartment I sort of went down and checked and there was nobody in the washroom there's nothing in there. I think she actually stopped the dryer by opening the door to look inside and couldn't get it operational again and then thought that the clothes were dry. I don't know it's hard to say all I know is I've spent the day now trying to get these things dry I was hoping they would dry on their own but I check later on this evening or early evening and some pieces were pretty damp. So I went around trying to find any extra space in the apartment as possible to hang the clothes to get them dry. Many of them were drive by this evening but there's still some that are still pretty damp which I have elected to let them stay out all night hopefully it'll be dry in the morning if not tomorrow afternoon for sure I just take having clothes everywhere. I tried to have a clean apartment as much as I can hanging up clothes everywhere it's not help helpful.

It was the weirdest thing around 2:00 a.m. this morning had I been able to sit up I was would have bolted up. But my eyes opens and I sort of jerked myself awake. I don't know what it was but it was interesting it wasn't scary I just felt like all the sudden I new stuff and it felt like I knew I was going to die relatively soon not like right then and there. But it's no longer terrified me as it usually does I don't know if that's a changing of some sort but took me awhile to get back to sleep and I really never did except a little bits here and there snatches of sleep mixed in with grogginess. I'm kind of thinking about this all day and the further I get from that. To time the less it is worrying me…

Maggie May Tuesday

 Seriously if I don't watch a movie right after the news I usually just turn the flat screen off for the night. I really watch Network not trying to be all snooty and stuff but really is there anything on network that I really want to watch. However, tonight I got sucked in because I was making myself dinner and Entertainment Tonight was on those too busy to turn it off and sometimes I get a little intrigued on some of the stuff they report on Entertainment Tonight so I let the television run and then I realized they were doing a tribute to the Maggie May Guy Rod Stewart! And I'm not really that head over to Gaga with Rod Stewart but I do like a lot of his music and he was a significant part of my youth. So I got sucked into the tribute. You getting a Grammy or something I just got he's getting something that CBS has made a big deal out of. Anyway, he's going over a lot of his old pieces of music and somewhere in the commercial aspect of the show they indicated they would be doing Maggie May. I will probably miss that because I'm doing this trying to make sure I get my document in for the day. I was afraid if I waited till the end of the Rod Stewart special that I may not be that excited to sit down and dictate.

For me Rod Stewart was one of those guys singers who was always in the background when I was growing up. I like the stuff that he's saying about but I really never sat down and listened to him until I started dating Meg he was a really fun person in my life. She adored Rod Stewart thought he was totally cool. With Meg I had to listen to a lot of Rod Stewart and I really enjoyed them. Of course lost track of Meg someplace or sometime in the semester she started University. But because of Meg I have a special place for Rod Stewart and so tonight I was listening to him. I was surprised at how many other folks looking my age but a lot more wealthy and beautiful we're rocking out with this show. I wish I could just sit down and talk to them and ask them about their experiences would they listen to this guy on the first time that'd be so cool. So listen to the old rockers and I get the impression that the whole Rock seen in those old days it was pretty much upper middle class middle class and upper middle class kids and middle class going to be. The biggest worry in the world was if they're going to have the money for a new Rod Stewart album or the money for Rod Stewart tickets or whoever was the new rocker that was coming to town to play the stadium. I think I only went to one or two concerts in my time one of them was the Beach Boys and I can't remember who the other one was. I think this whole Rod Stewart specialist survey free-commercial commercial letting people know that he was coming to town for his last concert in this area this is his last tour. I think it all works together kind of silly. I don't know even if I could get to the place where they're having the concert and even if I want to spend that much money on the concert they'll probably have to go by myself I doubt that I would it's certainly be fun to say that I had gone though that's for sure but who knows maybe I'll grow a couple…

Monday moans

 It's cold and I'm just riding the weather out until the better days come. I didn't even venture out today. I had enough to keep me busy in the apartment there are a couple things I needed to attend to one being filling out this document that should be easily done that would insure me a couple hundred bucks if I can get it filled out, signed then return to the state of Utah. To do this I need to visit with the client representative here but she was busy with other people all day it couldn't answer my questions. Hopefully I'll be able to get a hold of her tomorrow but that's kind of iffy just because I've got my assist meeting in Salt Lake which takes up a good part of my day traveling. So maybe Wednesday. I think I've written about the heaters I have that help me get by the worst of the winter nights or days when I need a little bit more heat than I can get from the unit here in the apartment. Remember they weren't working for me? Well anyway Melissa my care person who is here today responded when I asked her to take a look at the tall one the one I really like she flipped the switch and it totally turned on I've done it a thousand times and it hasn't. Good I thought it's taken care of. I made the joke that she had the Magic Touch and probably wouldn't work after she left. She just laughed at me. Sure enough I was going to lay back in my chair and enjoy a heat pack afternoon with Netflix and the heater would not work. I think it just likes to mess with me. We'll see what happens on Wednesday when I ask her to look at it again and see if she has any special techniques that she uses to respond.

I kind of cleaned out my refrigerator today well not really I just removed two or three large items that's been in there for a couple months I figured it was time. I was pleased that when I opened up the containers there are no signs projects inside just food that had been left in the cold of the refrigerator. One was a number of potatoes that I had nuked in put in with a stew that I made a couple weeks ago not as stupid a roast I ate the roast and left the potatoes to the cold but I chopped them up and fed him to the monster in the sink. There are a couple more containers which needed attention. They were taken out and soaked this evening I washed out a couple more items including frying pans the but needed attention for a couple weeks. It's not like you could tell anything had been done clean my eyes except looking into the sink. I dried off the washed items and hung them back up on the rack. I still want to go after the table at some point I keep saying that but nothing never happens. The table is just too daunting for me it knows my weak spots and knows what troubles I have reaching and then putting things away. I'll try again however throw some stuff away put some stuff where they belong back on the racks and get the table to a point where it's somewhat manageable. I'm okay I've got my place cobbled out between the paper towels in the large bowl full of knick knacks and things around the table. My one caregiver she's the best at cleaning off the table she's the best cleaning the apartment when she ever shows up. She has a knack for seeing something clean. I really admire that. Cold front should move out tonight it'll still be cold tomorrow when I go to catch the bus for my meeting but the high pressure systems coming in and the days will get warmer…..

Sunday morning order up

I promise that this whole entry is not going to be about how cold it is and how uncomfortable to turn in the weather has become but I've got a vent a little bit after all it's spring. I will long sleeves today of course just because they forecast that it might be cold or that it would be cold and there might be rain and stuff but I didn't see any rain today just the cool weather and it was basically cold. Had we not had the stretch of above average temperatures like in the 90s this probably would have been just another spring day and maybe down his dad and it felt. But that's all I needed was the long sleeves. I didn't take me long to realize, on the way back from this morning's breakfast, that I was going to spend the rest of the day inside the apartment probably watching Netflix or Prime video and trying to get my heater operational. I've done something to the big heater and it won't even turn on really there's a shortage somewhere because if you knock it it makes it sound like it's coming on it's a high beep but it doesn't stay on it acts like it's something loose cuz you got to strike the body of the heater pretty hard for it to basically light up for a second then turn itself off. I like having a heater especially the TV room I like the the Canned Heat on these cold days. I may try to see if Melissa can do anything to the heater tomorrow. I think however you would have to get into the machine itself and maybe re-solder the connection or whatever. And I definitely do not have that skill set.

Cuz I indicated it was the last Sunday. I think I watched mostly Netflix movies oh I did finish looking at a Marvel movie that I had spent some time watching a couple weeks ago. Once again I had a meal off of the senior menu at the restaurant which is just one egg one pancake one order of bacon and Bacon's crisp. It's fairly low in price think around $6.95 which is one of the lower prices on the menu these days. I get pancake and the rest of the order because it's all I need. Otherwise I get two bits food to eat and I've sort of gotten tired of trying to eat it after I take it back to the apartment. Sometimes it's good but of the times it's sort of a pain to eat that's usually the breakfast part. The other meals I don't mind for leftovers but breakfast usually just bread of one sort or another. The biggest issue I had all day was wishing that I had a heater that worked. As I talked about yesterday the big heater doesn't seem to function anymore. This morning I wanted to make sure it just was the plug-in situation so I spent time forcing to plug into the plug-in thing and I found I can wiggle the heater and it would almost come on indicating that something was loose in the system cuz I kept striking the body and it would keep flashing on for just a second. Again it's not my heater actually it belongs to the apartment complex. Like wowed a couple years ago when it was so cold in here and never returned the system I've used it quite a bit obviously. No I think I better look at getting another one before winter returns.

 

Where's the roast beef?

 I'm really beginning to enjoy using my crock pot on a regular basis. I've always enjoyed the simplicity and ease of using the Crock-Pot to cook but just recently I begin to really enjoy using the pot to make decent meals for me. I just pulled out a roast so I've been cooking for the last 7 hours- - on high! I think I should have paid closer attention because I started sensing things for getting burnt on the inside which I didn't think you could do with a Crock-Pot for some reason. I actually tried to follow a recipe that I found on the internet for long cooking projects like a roast. You will remember I cooked a roast I think last week or the week before totally enjoy the experience. So if that in mind yesterday afternoon I purchased another roast from another store or Market. This was a Smith Market quite a way south of my apartment but I was in the area because the Smith Superstars right next to my foot podiatrist guy. So I can go over there and kill time until my appointments ready and then purchase something on the way home cuz I've got to go up to the corner to catch the bus across the street to catch the bus. That's where I saw this roast a $23 roast on the label to purchase the meat for $18. I guess some sort of a quick sale deal . I don't mind buying old meat particular like the roast since the older meets the best meat anyway . I totally believe this . I think that's a deal certainly helps make the pain less more than 20 bucks for a piece of meat. The meat was nicely wrapped and even though it was supposedly old meat you're still kept its color quite nicely. I would like to put the roast on earlier in the day but I didn't get around to it till about 1:00 p.m.. once again I totally destroyed the kitchen and I don't think I'm going to have the time with energy to do a cleaning tonight. Anyway, the roast is cooked I fished it out of the Crock-Pot put it into a nice container with a lid and popped it into the refrigerator. The most effort on this project was cutting up some potatoes and cutting up one onion. Luckily I had or still have a bottle of ground garlic but I just shake on to these kind of projects I tried to do something with the didn't turn out the best that I wanted but it works. I added a cup of beef broth to the vegetables in roast. I should have put in some sauce I can't remember the name of it but it's a sauce I really haven't used before and it kind of intimidates me anyway. This sauce is just weird enough that it might really enhance the flavor maybe next time. I enjoyed hearing the roast cook all afternoon you know how it gets so hot the vessel that it begins to Rattle under the glass top that kind of noise. Cold fronts coming in tonight bringing the temperature down significantly I think this roast will be just what I needed to get through the next couple days until warm weather returns. Anticipate a chili roll over to the restaurant tomorrow for Sunday breakfast…

Addicted to InstaCart or not?

I just canceled my account with instacart, that program that issue shop for groceries and probably everything else via the Internet. It's really quite convenient and subtle. They have almost our delivery times it's amazing to me. I can order a fairly significant amount of items I have it delivered to me within 2 hours and usually less time than that. I keep ordering the convenience and then chicken out when I finally get the email that says they're going to charge my account $99 for a year of service which is really kind of a deal cuz that ends up being less than $10 a month for the service. I should accept that and go with it because I really like having it there when I need it like on super cold and rainy days that I don't feel like going across the street to the market. I always sucker for their free trial and then chicken out when it comes time to pay the piper. I mean I can do it there's no problem money wise except for I am beginning to be concerned about the amount of money I'm spending and how much it's affecting the small pile of wealth that I've developed over years. I just can't pull the trigger or step off The Ledger whatever made me want to use to start the program. I don't want to get into the habit of using instacart every time I turn around. It's just so convenient. I'll try to curb my internet ordering for groceries. It's just so convenient and so exciting to have three or four plastic bags of stuff sitting outside my door. I guess I could look at the situation where I look at these poor people manically almost hysterically running up and down the aisles of the market when I'm there this little notes of paper in their hands trying to fill up four or five bags of groceries for four or five different individuals who assume get there groceries at their door delivered supposedly with happy smiling people. I noticed they don't knock on the door anymore, they used to, it was so weird to go to the door and not find anyone there and just a couple of plastic bags sitting on the ground. Then the guys who delivered my stuff stopped knocking down the doors completely and I would just open the door and there would be my groceries. But I found out it was really interesting is that I could actually see the darkened images at the bottom of the door from the light in the hallway shining around the packages. I have to admit it is always kind of thrilling to me to get my groceries this way but it's just not me. I'll be a good boy and lay off ordering from instacart for the next couple of months maybe all summer actually until the bad weather starts again and I pussy out and not go out to get my groceries by myself…

 

The monolith

The picture of the closet if you look closely you can see the white boxes of catheter stacked chaotically inside and of course the chair in the monolith.

 My stomach is grumbling tonight and I'm having some cramping I'm hoping Beyond hope that it's just gas and that material in the colon is just three Distributing itself to make things more comfortable but I wouldn't be surprised if I let go with a giant blow out tonight. I'm not too worried if that were to happen except for I know I'd have to pretty much sleep in the poop until tomorrow when Melissa gets here. Hopefully the grumbling noises and cramping is just gas. 

It's been a pretty decent day plenty of sunshine and the temperatures didn't get hot it got pretty warm. I think I'm a little depressed just because a cold front moving in and that's all I can talk about is how cold it's going to get following the summer like temperatures we've been enjoying the last couple days. I shouldn't get so impatient after all it's just the middle of May. I just hate going backwards. I didn't go anywhere today surprisingly no need. Had coffee this morning with the group and that was about it I started a new book another John Grisham. I was surprised to see how many volumes we have of his in the library here at the building. A lot of paperbacks it feels like they've never been red and there's a number of hardbacks as well they all still have their paper are the rapper or whatever it's called the books covers or whatever which they appear to be brand new. I don't know where this place gets there books but we got lots right now. I can probably read John Grisham for the rest of the year if not longer. I would like to get back to some sort of Science Fiction however and give the attorney's arrest. My new shipment of catheters came in today or yesterday afternoon actually. The box was sitting outside my door and like I've written before the people here just hate to have stuff outside the door when they feel you need it. I got the knock on the door and pretty soon Maria and her broken German slash English if she could bring the box in and put it on the table. I was just leaving but I didn't care if she did that or not it seems important for these people to get me covered one way or the other. I was surprised to come back a few minutes later and the box was sitting on a chair in my kitchen looking like the monolith from 2001 A Space Odyssey. In the old days I would just jumped right on it got my racer knife slit it open and pulled out the boxes of catheters but now I just let the Box sit there and we'll have Melissa open the box tomorrow. She's really good that kind of stuff. Will be three or four each box has about 50 catheters I think Plus I'll have some catheters in a plastic bag that didn't get into the box. I actually get way more Cassidy's that I need every month and I like to put those that I don't use a side into a storage area letting me have a stockpile of hundreds of catheters. I've never felt the need to back up catheters like this until this year and the war going on wherever it's at. All I know is that war takes up lots of plastic and plastic takes up lots of materials we get from the Middle East that we don't have now that wouldn't be surprised to see if we'd be kid to have a shortage of medical type things which I believe catheters would be part of. That's really hope it doesn't come too squirreling away catheters and other Plastic Products that people need to get by on but again, things like this won't surprise me…

Qaq

Washing Wednesday and watermelon

 I know it's difficult to make out but it's an image of my folded shorts sitting on my bed. After all, you guys know it's wash day Wednesday. I still have clothes to put away those that are folded on my bed and the shirts on hangers still in my front room waiting. I may not get the hanging shirts put away tonight but I'll have to move the shorts before I go to bed since they're on a bed, my bed. I included this image just because I want to get back to an image of anything and everything I write about day to day. I know I sort of slacked off the last couple weeks and not having a image to post with the days posting and I hate that and I'll try to do better but no promises. I'm trying not to be all neurotic about the blog and my postings it's bad enough that I try to keep the blog to at least 500 Words. I'm getting sober most that I may have to put a stopper on the other end and not go over a thousand words so I don't think I'm going to have to worry about that very much.

I cooked yesterday you all know that and you all know that when I cook I sort of explode my kitchen that's like everything that I used to do my cooking is like all over the countertops as well as a lot of stuff is on the floor. And I'm less than the best housekeeper in the world everybody knows that. I think a lot of people here at the complex knows that as well but for the most part they leave me alone and that's cool. As I've always stated between caregivers that. Periodically grab a broom and sweep sweep sweep and my grandchildren who go to work picking up and sweeping and washing dishes sometimes when they come to the apartment I have held off employing a real housekeeper- which I know I need to get- - I just can't seemingly justify it when one of these groups of folks get done with my apartment and I'm good for a couple of days if not a week or so. I was almost on top of doing some sweeping today from the cooking I did yesterday. I cooked Frank like I said rice vegetables specifically celery , White onions, carrots and sometimes I go above and beyond the celery for green stuff it might throw in a couple heads of broccoli. I love the food that it makes but it does leave a terror on the kitchen floor usually. Anyway I don't know if I really talked about Larissa that much but she's this elderly person that I got a share with her on my Costco card. We both went in and renewed our cards I added Larissa to my card. So anyway I'm getting a little spooked thinking that she now comes over to the apartment more than she's ever done before. Tonight she came over to offer me some watermelon and when I did she then brought it over started talking and soon wanted to sweep the floor up in the kitchen. I usually don't mind this kind of stuff but Larissa is very old she has a hard time getting around. I told her I don't need her to do that I told her I would rather do it myself and I will do it but she doesn't see it that way. She's totally old school ignores me finds the broom and starts sweeping up the kitchen that shit that's pretty decent job. I really don't want the watermelon she brought over but she brought it over in good faith that I did want the watermelon and that I would eat it butand I am eating the fruit just not very fast. I found it easier to just let her in do what she's going to do and talk about what she's going to talk about then trying to keep her out she's pretty committed. Next she wanted to take the garbage out and I told her I would do it but she would not have it. I really would just easier for me to do it but I had to wrestle the garbage bag pull it out and then she grabs it ties it in the knot and eventually takes it to the dumpster. All this was going on she was telling me the story of I think yesterday that she fell in her apartment Landing in the basket of clothes that took everything that she had to get out and get back up. I don't know why she told me this it's pretty scary I know because it's happened to me more than once as far as being trapped and not being able to get myself free. She eventually did but she indicated she was worried and I told her about Alexis then she says that she has it too. I told her that she should use it when these things happen make sure that the machine can hear her so that she can get the fire department or whoever she's going to call for assistance it's just that simple. I don't know if she will but it's such a revelation to know these people are falling just like me and maybe I'm getting along better than most of them really some degree. I don't know what would happen if she didn't I wasn't able to get up that's a little perplexing

Stir fry Tuesday

 I did some serious cooking tonight. I've been meaning to to cook for some time now. I'm surprised I had the energy to be honest with you. It's been a fairly hot day, I haven't done very much mind you but still the heat takes it out of me, but I got some sort of a second wind around 4:00 and I started processing products for the dinner. It's one of my favorite meals call Frank. I think in the past I've gone over the history of Frank one of my old roommates actually learned the meal from. Anyway I bought a couple chicken breasts the other day at the market cooked and ready to go. I also picked up the celery a handful of sticks of celery and I got a bag of white onions. I'm trying to cook right in the right kind of onions. I have tended to lean towards yellow onions for some reason I believe that's the way an onion should look. But talking with Alexa and reading a little bit on the internet white onions have a probably cleaner sharper taste than the other onions so I'm going to give it a shot. About a bag of about six onions that should last me for a while. So I got the onion, found a carrot in the refrigerator in one of the bins on the bottom. I really need to use these more but I got the tear it out cleaned off a spot next to the stove chopped up the celery put them in a container, then chopped the carrot in The Fairly fine Wheels then I went to work on the onion skinned it and then pretty much chopped it up into fine pieces. Put all these things together in one container to carry them over to the stove. I was doing all this during the 5:00 news hour. I wish I had something more green than just the celery but that'll have to do I do have some frozen broccoli upstairs in the freezer but I wasn't motivated enough to dig it out of the top of the refrigerator maybe next time. I had to wash the frying pan and the spatula I'd let them go for a couple days and it was best that I put some soap on the items and then scrub them free of dirt or his freeze I was able to do or care about.  

I put the frying pan on turned on the stove before that however I fixed the serving of rice two cups of water, one cup of white rice put it on the boil then simmer. I finally got the ingredients in the frying pan as far as the processed vegetables with a couple tablespoons of cooking oil. After about 5 minutes the onions were looking pretty opaque so I figured it was time I dumped the rice into the concoction that I melt mixed it up and then lower the heat to simmer. I mixed the vegetables quite well and then clamp the lid on the frying pan and let them milled for a while. After about an hour I took the lid off again and the vegetable said quite cooked together well. I fixed a small paper bowl filled it with rice and vegetables and had that for dinner it was perfect. I sprinkled the base with garlic powder it all smelled very good and I had a small bowl for dinner, a paper bowl so I could get rid of the evidence quickly. It was fun, I enjoyed cooking now I have to go put away the frying pan stole the fried rice in the refrigerator and dream about other meals that are done

My buddy Kent Saves the Day!

 Okay last night around 11:00 I was making sounds like I was going to bed I getting ready to do what I need to do you know floss brush your teeth get undressed all that kind of stuff and I reached down to undo the arm of my chair like I usually do and to my horror I couldn't find the lap and do the lock that secures my arm in the place. Somehow it would have been broken during the day sometime and I didn't really notice but I do now because if I can undo the arm of the chair there's no way I'm getting into bed and no I'm getting up either. I wasn't too worried about that because I knew on Monday morning  Melissa my caregiver would be here eventually and she then could get me up. I didn't get to bed till after 12:00 a.m. I finally had to roll over the arm of my chair into my bed and I was surprised that I made it as well as I did. Sleeping didn't come easy just because I was so worried about what was going to happen but eventually wandered off to sleep waking up around 4:30 worried about getting up. I stayed in bed as usual till around 6:00 a.m. then decided to try getting up and of course I got halfway out of bed and that was all she wrote. I was trapped as it seems to be coming the usual drama for me these days. I don't know what's happening to me. I don't know if I'm making too much out of a small thing or the Small Things much bigger than I anticipate but all I know is that I certainly didn't want to call my possible son-in-law, or my son or the fire department or even the helper guy here at the building is not really the helper guy for pulling me up out of the bed and looking at your naked body that's stranded halfway in halfway out of the bed draped across your power chair. I kept my cell phone close by just in case and I'm glad I did. I checked the messages and contacts and look like my caregiver was awake at least awake and possibly not up but conscious. I should find her a message that she didn't respond to for like 45 minutes but eventually she did respond and come over and we did the whole throw me on the bed thing then get me into my power chair and do my morning routine. While I was on the toilet she worked with my chair trying to at least get the arm disengaged from the chair so I can at least come and go in my chair. Well it didn't happen that she had to leave. I ended up calling one of my buddies over at UCAT which I ended up leaving a message and worrying for the rest of the day about what I was going to do. After a short and meager lunch I went across the street to the market to pick up some medications and some bananas. I got home and I did my workout on the arm bike for an hour then I was finally called but my buddy and I explained to him as best I could the problem I was having and he told me that he would mind working on it but I need to come down. He didn't think I was going to meet today but I told him I would be there as soon as I could it was about 2:45 when I caught the bus and it took me forever to get down 40 streets roughly. Everybody and their dog was riding the bus today eventually however well it's just an hour to go before 5:00 I get to the office and this is the state office so things are done at 5:00 regardless.

 My buddy's name is Kent we work together on a number of projects. I was impressed because he actually found apart on one of the many donated chairs they have there at the building the exact part I needed. I was just thinking he was going to be able to undo my arm and I was going to leave it at that but he went way ahead it actually found the right part for my chair and changed it I was out of there by 5:00 I was so excited so happy. Tonight's going to be a great night…

Almost hot!

The weird thing about hot days even semi hot days like today is that you sit out in the sun and you absorb good quality and quantity of heat and then when you go into the apartment for the rest of the day or evening you feel chilled because it's so cool in your apartment compared to I guess your body heat. Today I didn't use the heater just because it's sort of stupid now to do that but I would have considered seriously turning on the heater if I was going to sit out in front of my big screen watching TV tonight but luckily that wasn't the case I watched my two installments of the current series I'm watching and turned off the tube. I read a little bit toyed with the idea of putting together some sort of dinner but decided it would just wait until Monday. I've got a few things I can snack on that will get me through the evening a cookie or two a tangerine and I still have quite a few the joy Noodles for Chinese food. I had beef chow mein yesterday which is okay but sure doesn't taste as good as it used to when I was a little kid and we would have La Choy noodles and chow mein for dinner. But then again nothing taste the way that it used to. I guess the high point of my day would have been the time I was able to spend with my son mark. The other kids got stuck into Mother's Day stuff and couldn't make breakfast so it's just my son and me. It was a good discussion sometimes it gets a little sensitive but most the time we work around issues and problems that doesn't need to be brought right out at the moment until he feels with so strong enough to visit with me. I still don't really have a lot of credibility as a parent hopefully that's still coming if it comes at all. That's okay though I don't mind just that he takes time to visit with me about his life I find that very appealing and enjoyable. We finally shove off however after about an hour and a half he's got things he's got to do and I'm trying to take in an early movie which I end up doing actually. It was kind of a waste of time I sat through the whole thing but it was animation it was a movie about that video game character who jumps around a lot and I can't remember his name right this second. But it's the only movie playing right now about a video game character. I almost rolled out two or three times cuz the whole thing was so bizarre. I didn't though I stay till The Bitter End I even thought about going to another movie but thank goodness there wasn't anyone close time wise so I basically just came home. I picked up a handful a couple of handfuls of celery sticks on the way home from breakfast how to make Frank this week. I had rice from yesterday that I made yesterday evening and I got two breasts of chicken that one I can use to chop up for the chicken stir fry I have the rice have some eggs got an onion so I think I'm pretty much ready I even got some carrots that I might use I'll take care of me for a couple nights this week. I'm ready for the new week..

Coffee Talk

 Another Saturday early at the coffee shop watching the people visit with their group. Interesting, I was there early today for one reason I don't remember why but there weren't many people at the big table I was able to watch the people filter and sit down and great each other talk politics, local politics local issues. The coffee shop People Now set up a table for me just off the big table I don't know why they do this and I'm not focused enough to say no that's okay I can find my own table. I just go with the flow grab the table and this time was good because it let me listen to two or three tables at one time. Not long tables just small tables one or two people are more. They all yammers so it's sort of fun to listen into the conversations. It's funny how many games are being played at one time around these different tables. The guys trying to impress the girl he is with they're definitely not together yet. He's definitely trying to impress it's really high school. The guys at the other table they're talking about what they're going to do this afternoon and tonight. They like the weather being warmer they can play softball not necessarily on team just to pick up game in the afternoon they'll take a sense of who's going and who can't. Then the table next to me it's kind of sad he's visiting with a friend wishes he could buy a house but he can't because financially he just can't make the payments partially because of his work and partially because he still suffers from a divorce suffers I mean paying all the support she has to pay. Please hoping someday he might be able to get back into a house but right now he's looking for an apartment out of West Valley. Pretty interesting morning but I can't stay long not as long as I usually do. I'm hoping and planning to get to an early movie. I semi rush back to the apartment download my coffee pick up a little change and head out across the street and hope to catch the bus in time to get me to the movie before it starts. Surprisingly I make the movie time with about 3 Minutes to Kill. I was totally impressed. It's a cute show cheap Detective. Kind of silly but pretty good as far as voicing goes and lips moving to the voices on the beasts sheep. I almost went to another movie but it didn't start soon enough now I wasn't going to wait 2 hours for the next movie I was thinking of watching perhaps I can pick it up in the next week. It's getting hotter and dryer we're a month ahead climate wise it seems. We're getting temperatures now similar to what we would get in July .or late June. We may have 90's next week. I'm totally up for that but do feel a bit concerned about what it'll do for possible range and Forest type fires. It's going to be dry and hot any Sparks will do it we'll start a fire it's going to be an interesting summer..

Trust your bed sleepyhead

  My fully electric high low adjustable bed it's been working just fine I just wish I could trust it especially after the comments made by the guys that put it together yesterday or day before. Like I said it's operating like a dream but now I'm just waiting for it to snap or crack meaning the plastic case that quasi protects the elements that make the bed so functional has cracked the soon fall apart now that hasn't happened and maybe won't for a couple of years. So it's not that I did the whole day trying to research these beds but I did spend some time on eBay and other type vendor sites and hopes that I could find a bed if and when this bed crashes. I don't know if I want to have a backup bed just sitting in the closet waiting for this bed to fail. That would be the best case scenario I don't know how realistic it is but I can do something like start a special fund that I could add to periodically so what I need to make a full out purchase I could do so or by a backup bed on time paying a little bit each month until paid off. In fact I did find a couple of stores that seem to do something similar to that where you paid a little bit each month for how long I don't know probably eternity. I should be able to get a very low interest loan from youcat here in Utah. That's the program that I'm part of that works in assisting people with disabilities acquire assistive technology and I think an electric bed would certainly meet that criteria. There's always been some sort of unspoken pulled back at least that's been my feeling of not being able to work with the board on their own special projects. That could be in my head though entirely. I think I may have even used it once or twice a long line and maybe time to use them again if I can get away with it.

The temp was not necessarily hot today but it's certainly a good deal warmer than it has been the last couple. I did another trip like I did yesterday back to Costco this is my friend who wasn't able to get her Costco card renewed that we were working together on. So once again I took off around 12:00 to get done at the Costco by 1:00 and I made it I'm still kind of surprised. The weather wasn't perfect I wish I had some sort of jacket with me to begin with coming home the climate or the weather was warm enough that I didn't need extra clothing but I would have used it if I had it. Luckily I did have a hat and lots of sunshine I should have got used to the temperature until I got on the bus or in the market when temperatures plummet fun management is trying to keep the temperatures low enough to meet everyone's criteria except those that are temperature challenge that the UTA wishes to serve keep them happy at all costs. Sort of like the coldest place in Salt Lake that is open to the General Public and that's the fruit and vegetable Chiller at Costco! I swear I can see my breath when I go to that room look at the perishable fruits and veggies it's really quite interesting but I'm always glad to zoom out of there back into the heat of the General Building.

Seventh day of May on the trip to Costco

May the 7th always is a special day for me it's sort of the title of one of my favorite books and one of the first books I read that was an adult book thick and very interesting it was 7 days in May. A great book and a great movie. Sure hope I'm getting this down right maybe I didn't read the novel maybe I just watched the movie and was so impressed. All I know it was 7 days into this month and that's where we're at right now. I'm kind of freaking out kind of the repair guys finally showed up are my part finally came in to repair my bed that's been broken for gosh months and months now that I finally got around to ordering the part for it which finally came in today and we scheduled today at 3:00 to put the new part on. I could have waited till tomorrow but I just wanted to sleep on a working bed tonight and tomorrow get up on one. Anyway I was rushing around quite a bit this afternoon I went down to Costco with one of the folks here at the apartment complex well I met her down there she wanted to use my Costco membership and get a card for herself. Theoretically we can do that you can get another person on your Costco card so you both have a Costco card. Traditionally I usually gave that to Diane but since we're not together anymore might as well go to somebody and get some good juice out of it. I have to meet her down there since I can't ride a vehicle in my power chair. I actually got down there about oh half an hour before 1:00 when we were supposed to meet. I wandered around looked at stuff always amazed it just how much stuff is inside Costco building and how much good stuff there is. Kind of blows me away every time I go to see how rich people really shop they get stuff lots of stuff and then large quantities - guess that's why Costco works so well for all these guys. It seems like it took forever for the clock to reach 1:00 and then my friend was about 15 minutes late which made more adding on waiting but finally we got out and into the building and finally got to the person that's supposed to check our cards for new ones I'll read new old ones. It's pretty straightforward process we are surprised it how quickly is she seem to reprocess our request to both of us have a card. I didn't get home until almost 2:45- - 15 minutes before the guys from the power Bed Company arrived. We got back home I'm sure at different times but she contacted me when she got back indicating that after I left and she purchased our one to purchase some stuff for some reason they didn't check her card it didn't take so we have to go back tomorrow morning or afternoon and do it again hopefully it'll get done right this time

 

Wednesday's alarm

Reader beware this might be a short blog. For some reason my stomach feels upset tonight and I want to stay close to the toilet not that'll do me any good just because I can't get on to it by myself. I'd have to have an accident and then get a hold of my caretaker person who then have to come over and clean me up. This is so weird it's beginning to happen more and more just like the bed issue last week. I don't know if this is a signal of change in my ability to live independently but something seems to be happening. My caregiver says it's all in my head and I want to believe her but she's much younger than me and somewhat naive but she's also very bright in many ways and she's always willing to come in about the Call of Duty. This morning for example I was having a piece of toast and it seems like if whatever I'm doing renders any smoke at all like when I'm cooking and are making toast and I like my toast somewhat crisp and dark the fire alarm goes off I thought I just went off of my apartment you know the flashing light and horrible sounding signal blaring for what seems like eternity. I didn't pay much attention to it this morning I've gotten so used to it and I always thought turned itself off if I opened the doors to the outside or to the hallway. And they turned themself off in good time then I got a knock on the door and it was from resident advisor of the guy who sort of steps in there's nobody else to help and emergency situations like a fire alarm. He asked if I was okay and I appreciated that held up my piece of toast and I said I thought it turned itself off he says he turned it off. That's the first time I learned that that happened. He always calls or comes over when I inadvertently pull the string on the wall which I guess lights up his area and if they don't hear response goes to the county it's just pretty weird then you got firemen showing up at your apartment. I suppose I should be happy that they care enough to have a working fire alarm anyway. Not that I've had a fire but I do produce a lot of smoke from time to time with my attempts at cooking especially toast but I don't see myself changing anytime soon. Hopefully we'll work something out. Wednesday wash day and that means I need to stick around relatively close by to make sure that I get my clothes out when they're dry and are on the dryer stops. I used to just automatically put in another set of quarters for a second drive but I stopped that take out the clothes as damp as they are hanging ones up that need to try just hang up the rest of them in that closet. This works out pretty well but it's time consuming. Then I do an hour on my arm bike which turns out to be about an hour and a half when I do the cool down and everything else after the arm bike ride. I also went to the market this afternoon picked up some tangerines and some bananas. I really need to have more fruit in my diet. And that was it for the day actually I didn't do any reading or anything just seem to be focused on trying to get the immediate things done. Hopefully tomorrow it'll be warmer outside though it was pretty warm when I did finally venture out not perfect but I could have been out in the sun earlier today maybe tomorrow and for sure this weekend at some time