Sounds of Saturday

Another morning waking up fairly early. I'm getting kind of used to this anyway I hung around the bed until around 6:00 then got up. I really didn't have a problem but it was a bit of a challenge I just need to be careful all the time these days. I spent a lot of time right after getting up doing just the regular things shaving getting dressed and such and I finally did get dressed grab the fast breakfast of peanut butter toast and yogurt then cross the street to the coffee shop. It was quite an interesting morning actually I sat for some time by myself and then this one guy named Odo showed up and ask to sit beside me and I said okay sure no problem. Then he went off on the tangent about who he was and how much you like to visit with people even people he didn't know and he was glad he sat down with me and such and went on and on we talked for an hour at least before the person he was waiting for showed up. They were going to play chess. This is the first time for a long time I had somebody to really visit with and look like I was really busy with somebody- - I know that sounds weird but that's just the way it came out. That was good because that was my cue to leave and leave I did. The day was chilling not too bad I wore a jacket around my shoulders or a hood around my shoulders to cross the street to go to the coffee shop. Little later I ended up going to the market getting a few things I felt I needed to get through the weekend with. I got some fried chicken already cooked from the deli along with some mashed potatoes and gravy. I also got a slab of ham another jar bottle of V8. Few other asunderous things as well jalapeno slices just so I'm set for the next batch of concoction.

After I got back home I fell into my regular practice of watching a couple of episodes of the current series I'm involved with and the movie and that was about it for this Saturday. Wish I'd done more cleaning up around the house/ apartment. I did take garbage out of the bathroom and the kitchen so I have cleaned receptacles start dumping stuff in. I thought about making something like meatloaf or whatever but I'd never got around to that and figured I had enough stuff Frozen that I can get by tomorrow Sunday without having to do any cooking. I do also have the chicken I have another leg left and a breast actually two breasts which is a lot of chicken cuz I want to use part of one of the breasts chop up for Frank. Had I been in the ball today I would have had rice made and throw it together but now it's just going to have to wait till Monday. Actually I could have one of the fried breasts for lunch or dinner or whatever. Since Marcus still in Budapest or wherever he's at I really didn't feel like doing breakfast tomorrow with just the kids I know that sounds bad but I'm feeling a little risky as far as pooping goes so I just wanted to lay low if I have to poop I'll be here at the apartment. I just hope I'll be all right

 

Thoughts on food

 Today looks beautiful actually no clouds just beautiful blue sky with lots of sunshine. I rolled from the back door up to the front office where the laundry is at just to see how cold it was it was cold enough to what we stay the rest of the day inside enjoy the beauty of the day from little apartment. Experience wise the day was rather dull but I did enjoy the day in the apartment. I didn't make anything I thought about doing a cake but I'm not ready yet for that and I also thought about putting together a meatloaf but I don't have a green pepper. I'm sure there's been many a meatloaf belt without a green pepper in fact I've done that in it comes up pretty decent. The onions save it a lot if you ask me but I would still like to have a green pepper so I will put it off, that is the construction of a meatloaf until I can give my hands on a green pepper which might mean a roll to the store tomorrow. They might be cold but if I dress up warm maybe wrapping a red blanket or something I should be okay. I still have a couple of jalapeno peppers pickled peppers left over from the concoction but I don't think that's what I want as far as deep green pepper flavor that happens with the meatloaf when it's done right. If I could pull off a fairly decent meatloaf tomorrow that would mean I would have meals for Sunday. I do have meals actually Frozen in the the Skies of meat burritos or pot pies Etc. I also have a can of meat corned beef that I can make a nice Frank with. I've been talking about doing this for some time I'm just somewhat intimidated I think by trying to put together another corned beef dish. I shouldn't because I've done it so many times in the past and it really is the kind of meal that makes great leftovers. I've also been toying with the idea of taking the number of those beef stew cans I'd gotten from the Mormon food boxes and dumping them into One Bowl so it's like a major dish of stew and then whenever I needed to meal I could just dip it measuring cup or whatever into the stew and I would always have a meal ready to go. I know it's weird but so many times I would have a meal of something from the pantry but means I'd have to fetch the can open it up heat it up and then do the clean up afterwards. If I do this plan open up four or five cans of stew and then to one container that way I can just have it whenever I want. This would allow me to move a lot of cans through my storage as well as having more full meals that's sort of been my goal. I still have to work on vegetables and fruit. I do however try to keep fruit like grapes close by and I do have cans of fruit which I would enjoy better if it wasn't such a task getting them out.

Winters relapse

  The cold front moved through today just as they said it was 2 hours of snow wind and clouds and dropping temperatures. The snow is long gone but the temperatures are still here and we are once again in the midst of winter but that's okay I don't think it's going to last very long at all. Still, I'll probably be inside for most of the time. I don't Vision me going out or bundling up and going out for any particular reason. Well Tuesday I'm sure we'll have a meeting downtown Salt Lake and I'll breathe the elements for that but aside from that probably stay close to home and try to stay off my butt going to another sensitive phase I don't know if it's me or the cushion or just what but certainly irritating. I must admit it was a challenge getting dressed this morning but I was able to do it and get to my coffee group meeting well within the time limit. I don't know why I like going to these events so much unless it's just to being company with some of the other people at the property. There is nothing Earth shaking going on just a bunch of old people talking about the stuff that they've been doing since the last Thursday. The two Hispanic ladies that run the group or host the event does a great job whether it's cookies, pieces of fruit or in today's situation all the above Plus pancakes. I'm not much into pancakes especially in the social studies just because syrup is such a culprit. And if I eat something with syrup on it it's bound to get on my hands and once it's on my hands it stays sticky on my hands all day long it's drives me totally crazy so I just assumed pass and eat the other finger foods.

Not much else happened today for me anyway I spent the whole day pretty much in the apartment watching different movies. I only watched one Marvel movie and then couple movies on Prime but you a little high brow but not too bad I enjoyed them anyway. I had the heater cranked up and I wore stalking cap some of the time. I think I was more sleepy than I thought because I remember it one time visiting with somebody at the coffee group they told me to wake up and I was looking right at him I must have been dozing or something how embarrassing. I thought I slept really good however I was up at 6:00 I actually went to bed around 10:00 I think red till 11:00 which surprised me cuz I thought it was very much later than that so it got a little extra more sleep than I usually do they can get all confusing to me

Potluck

Wednesday, today, is a poop day and sadly I must report that I hardly made any deposits at all today which leads me to some anxiety as far as now having to wait until Friday for my next opportunity unless of course my body takes it in its own mind to do whatever it wants and moves forward on the schedule. I'm still trying to absorb the lesson that this is not a great big deal if it happens it happens you get cleaned up and get back into the game. It's just that simple but it does take a toll on me as far as how I envision myself and how I want to be able to get out and do things but for fear of a public poop sort of holds me back. I don't think I'm getting depressed because of this but I know I'm a bit concerned. What if this is the new routine that my body's establishing. I think possibly maybe an option might be just don't go any further than I need to day wise and have a regular poop Day on Saturday night if I feel anything close to a need. Already I can tell I've spent way too much time on this particular issue and I'm sure the reader is getting real tired of this as well. I guess I'm just working through the whole thing. I'm really thankful that I've got Melissa who has no issues or problems of working with my situation. I'm really lucky on that level even if it costs me something extra to get these things cleaned up when it's not a regular day.

I don't know if the luncheon was planned for today, tax day but they had a potluck lunch today at the facility everyone was just going to bring whatever they wanted. I really wanted to take part on this and so early on after I got dressed and such this morning I went over to the market to see if I could find something to bring as my contribution since I wasn't going to make anything. I have a saddened however that there is nothing even put out this morning and it was like 9:30 or 10:00 that they didn't have a fried chicken or anything else out I could have gone the one of the Frozen casseroles they have but then he gets around 12 or 14 dollars like family size lasagna for example. I guess I'm too cheap I wasn't going to spray that much. I still have in a case I bought a few weeks ago I drink it down and do it on the table for my contribution. Nobody took any of the drinks it's okay I saw it as my way is buying into the game. There were some good dishes there however some nice potato salad, meatballs pork and beans or ham and beans of some sort and assorted cakes, pies and other Charming desserts. It was nice everyone visited a little bit everyone looks nice to each other. I was quite proud of myself the only thing I took home was the cans of Pop, my donation..

 PS I'm going to have to get back into the habit of taking images every day. I should have taken some of the luncheon today but I wasn't thinking. Hopefully I'll get better

Movie and coffee

I didn't have to go into the city today no assist meeting. Once again this feels like a holiday in fact I had to keep telling myself that it was Tuesday because it felt so much like a Friday. Interesting I thought so as not to lose the day by just hanging around the apartment or watching Marvel movies I decided that even though it was cold outside comparatively speaking I put on my hood or drape a blanket over me jump the bus and go to a movie which I did. I tried to get the problem of my card fixed- - my special movie card that lets me go to all the movies I want a month for 20 bucks. Somehow it's stopped working but that wasn't able to be done today but it's able to get a ticket just the same. I watched the movie again that I saw a couple of weeks ago and it was like watching a whole another movie. I kind of remembered parts and pieces of this but most of the movie was totally new and made a lot more sense. I don't know what's wrong with me I've got to watch a movie twice now to figure it out. I don't think that's an aging thing neither. The movie was Project Hail Mary and it was much more enjoyable this time. It's a long picture but pretty well done. Anyway, the only problem I had was the theater was pretty cold I'm glad I took my blanket with me. Following the movie I really didn't want to go home just then and I was kind of hungry though I had popcorn at the front of the movie but nothing to drink. I went over to Harmons which is right next to the movie house and got the piece of bread from their Bakery which is really good then stopped at their coffee shop for some coffee. I took some images of my treats I'm going to try to post them with this posting. I know I haven't done any images for some time so I think I'm about due.

As I mentioned earlier I went to Harmons which I think is a high end grocery store. I forget that I look pretty weird as I'm rolling around town these days. I look like the strange guy that I used to see around town myself and a different me. I look pretty well messed up people give me a wide berth that's just as well but I went to the little area where you can sit and eat things you purchased from there Little Deli kind thing. And ate my piece of bread and drink my coffee before I headed out to the bus stop. It wasn't as cold in the afternoon as it was going to the movie. I guess the sun had had enough time to cook the surroundings a little bit. Luckily I didn't have to wait long before the 217 showed up to Ferry me home. What's up good to get back into the world again.

 

Poop Recovery Monday

 It's so hard to go backwards especially in the area of weather when you've been treated to some really nice warm summer like days so early in the spring. Even though the sun was out today it was still quite chilly out. I actually went to the market and was okay all things considered. I found a hood that I forgot that I had hanging in the closet - - my caregiver is so good about hanging up stuff that I drop and when that happens I forget that I even have the item. I wiggle myself into my blue hoodie that zips up front I like this because it's long enough I can actually pull it down beside me in the back and not having a Skin showing. My blue hood is one of my few pieces of clothing that I kind of enjoy wearing. It's a struggle however to get inside the hoodie and I prefer only trying to put it on when I have short sleeves on like a t-shirt. As I kind of mentioned earlier that the hoodie is a great piece of clothing that I can wear instead of having to get all dressed up in one of my heavy jackets that's too heavy for the season. I know there's other things in the world I should be thinking about this much more important than how nice wearing a hood is but it's true.

Actually going out in public is quite an event for me today because I had a major bowel accident overnight. I was so thankful to have a caring and supportive caregiver that I have who just jumped right into the situation this morning when she came for her regular work and had this added project to her schedule. I thought I'd contain the elements of the bowel movement better than I had and actually had done pretty well. I only had a couple other events to judge it by that I really did really really good and contained if not all of it most of it the poo. Well I did contain a lot of the material but there is still quite a bit of feces that escaped. And I had to transfer from my bed to my chair and that also spread the material out. If there's anything good about this whole situation it's that the more I have these kind of issues the more I realize I'm like everybody else and though no one speaks about their bowel accidents they're happening out there probably more than my naive self what's to even think about. So I'm getting used to it I just don't want to become a weekly ordeal. It's still the situation that's happening that I have three bowel movements a week remember? And the longest I have to go from one day to the next is the weekend or have a bowel movement on Friday morning and then I have to go all the way till Monday morning. This does not seem like a lot but it is. If I cannot get on top of this situation I may have to just build in another day of a regular bowel movement on either Saturday night or Sunday morning. Probably the earlier the better since that's thea problem that I think I eat so much that I've got it stuffed in me and it's got to come out somewhere. I hope nobody finds this offensive just part of life of the Aging odd quad

Simply Sunday

 I can't say it's really cold, it's not cold but it's not warm and dry either. Look like major storm clouds a Cool Wind and fairly chilly temperature this morning I met me as I left the apartments and headed for breakfast thank goodness I was wearing my long sleeve shirt because it was definitely not a warm spring moment. Oh, it's definitely spring just on the colder side and there was a couple drops hit me too as I rolled over to the restaurant. I was amazed when I was visiting with Mark that he's heading off to Europe again this next week. I'm just amazed that he's doing this and I'm not sure exactly why except to be hanging out with people he is interested in over there most of them younger women. We had some good discussion this morning not much because the kids showed up. Talked a lot about Mark's knee for being recognized and his need for feeling appreciated Love by other people. This also brought up a lot of conversations about karen/shannon his mother. She was a handful had a lot of issues, a lot of problems. It's mental health challenges and certainly I think had some impacts on Mark we're trying to break my heart.

I really didn't do much the rest of the day mainly just watching Marvel movies with the heater going full blast. It probably wasn't really that cold inside the apartment it just look that way looking out at the clouds and the possibility of inclement weather. That's pretty uncomfortable most of the day I think I'm sitting on a poop and I just don't want it to come out before tomorrow morning. It's the only problem with weekends with me is that it's the three days I go without pooping well actually just two days in a night but still it's pretty uncomfortable I wish I could just be like in the old days even be even after my accident I can still eventually poop by myself which I did up until I had that pressure thing we moved from my neck and really decimated my access to being independent. I'm still thankful that I can do the things that I do and I do the things that I do but it's just one of those little things being able to poop anytime that you want to. I just don't have the strength to get me on or off the toilet especially in the power chair. I don't know if I could do it as in the manual chair but I don't have that option anymore. I don't even think that I could transfer from my bed to the manual chair safely. So hopefully I'm going to close maybe a little early tonight and see if about hitting the bed a little bit early. Hopefully I'll be able to hold the poop until tomorrow morning if I go to bed and take the pressure off from sitting up. I can pack myself pretty well with bed pads and wet wipes in case I can't hold it. Luckily if I go during the night I'll be able to contain the poop to a fairly safe level like I've done other times. This really mitigates the amount of work that Melissa will have to do. This is also cheaper for me because I don't have to have her come out on an emergency type situation but I usually pay around 20 bucks for her visit to come out and clean me up. I figure I can just tough it out until tomorrow and hopefully things s will be good then

Saturday sentiments

This may be another short one because I've just let this day get away from me. No specific reason just laziness I guess. However I did make or tried to make the casserole that I've been thinking of the last couple days the hamburger patties can of mushroom soup garlic dry powder. Turn that okay sounds good as I thought it was going to be but gave me something to eat for tomorrow but I won't have to cook unless I warm up or make some rice. Tonight I just use Chinese noodles which works pretty good I may do that tomorrow. I know what may have confused me now that I'm thinking about why it got so late. It's the stupid daylight savings time. Now the sun doesn't even sink behind the mountains until 8:00 p.m. that gives me the weird feeling that it's not as late as I think it is so at 8:00 p.m. I think it's a lot earlier so I don't use my time like I should think that I've got more time to do it it all sudden I realize it's 10:00 How Bizarre. That's excuse I'm going to use tonight and it's a good enough excuse for me. I did go over to the coffee shop this morning I even got involved in some of the conversation that was going on around me. The people there seem to like me okay I just can't keep up with their conversations or burrow into their table. I went to the shop earlier than usual today I don't know why about half an hour earlier. Lot of us old guys talked about how weird it was that the Artemis exploration thing is getting as much attention as it is. I mean we all went through the walking on the moon landing on the moon thing years ago. Which I think is a lot more significant than just doing the whole loop around the earth thing. Like I said I still have lots to do before I can go to bed. Looks like tomorrow I have breakfast with Marc Anthony over at the restaurant and I don't know what I'll do after that I think it's supposed to be inclement weather so I might just hold up in the apartment again watch movies hang out read my book. I certainly have enough to do..

Weekend equals Pizza Time

 It's hard to believe I'm looking down the barrel at another weekend! Why is life going so quickly for me I don't understand this. However that's not such a bad thing I'm enjoying my life it's not like my life is being painful. It's just going so quickly makes me a bit paranoid sometimes. Having said that I've been thinking a lot about pizza lately. I know that seems rather irrelevant compared to what I was just talking about but it's true. I would really like one piece of pizza and that's all. I'm hesitant to order a whole pizza from where I would like it but that's way too much calories and way too much carbohydrates so I don't order a whole pizza. I don't purchase a whole pizza from the market. I've done that before and I like doing that but again it's the same situation I don't need a whole pizza. I miss the old days when you could go to a pizza shop and buy two pieces of pizza the soft drink and call it good that would be your lunch or that would be your dinner but doesn't seem I can do that anymore. People keep telling me there was a couple places around here that one could do that but I don't believe them I haven't seen them yet. This might be true somewhere up in the university area. Students still live on pizza I'm sure. They probably make money off selling pizza by the pieces.

I guess I'm kind of a pizza snob I just don't want to eat any kind of a pizza but now things are getting somewhat desperate. Today I went out foraging for a container that I could put coffee in, you know, ground coffee. I brought some flavored coffee from my local coffee shop couple days ago blueberry something and it's okay it's just a weird flavor for coffee. It would be good for like a dessert coffee or something like that I can see that but not for 6:00 in the morning wake up coffee. But went across the street from where I live there are a number of little shops that I thought might have something like that but alas I struck out nobody had any little cans or containers that you could keep coffee in. However, there is a pizza shop. It's a chain Pizza organization basically doing most of their sales and home delivery of whole pizzas of course. I usually don't even give these guys a second thought because I've had their Pizza in the past and have not been impressed- - they had a store pizza shop there in Murray where I used to live and we bought a couple pizzas from those guys and I was never impressed with this pizza. However I was in the area I rolled past the front windows and the pizza smelled good in the pictures of them looked good. The price was acceptable so I thought about maybe I should give these guys another shot. Even if I did however I'm still stuck with the problem of what am I going to do with a whole pizza? I don't know this joint if the pizza was halfway decent it made it a lot easier to go get one and just roll back to my apartment real quick it could be done relatively fast. I think it's a Pizza Hut or something like that it's a chain but I'm not that desperate yet. I have enough stuff in the refrigerator right now to get me through the weekend maybe…

S

My market miracle

 I don't know why I consider going to the market a major portion of my day but I tend to and I always feel the same way at the end of the day. Things that I count rather significant today was going to the market and then before that going to the social coffee coffee social thing that happens every Thursday at this project. I've written about the coffee social before in this document. It's that Weekly get together where coffee is served, it's suggested a dollar donation but they'll let you have it for free, and I guess the point is that the group will sit around and talk and socialize which is good I guess. It took me a while to get into the mode even though I always went. I didn't think it was mandatory or anything like that just seemed like it was something fairly decent to support. In the beginning there are a lot more folks that went to this function interestingly they were white folk. The number of them got older and died of course but then there's a number of them that stopped coming and I don't know why I think because other colors started showing up mainly Brown. I can't believe people would stop coming just because different color Stars showing up more than the others that's just plain stupid. I'm glad I didn't stop coming I look forward to meeting with these people every Thursday morning. They work real hard to have good treats as far as having something to eat with your coffee it's usually some form of cookie or sometimes people actually make something to bring in that's kind of nice I would settle for donuts- I would always settle for donuts. Sadly we hardly ever have Donuts.

The market was just the market just the market around the corner from my apartment complex. I went mainly because I thought I had meds I needed to pick up it said so on my email. But when I got there there were no meds for me in fact they advised me that I was out of refills for my one medication that I need but the good part was it we got the ball rolling they called the doctor's office and hopefully soon they'll have my meds refilled. While I was there about more useless stuff that I didn't really need like five or four pre-made hamburger Patty's I really want to try some of the recipes that I seen on my laptop recently. They also got some soup mixes that you use when you make these kinds of things with your Crock-Pot that's kind of exciting. Oh I remember now! I had like $30 worth of things to purchase and when I went to the line I realized I didn't have my wallet. I had somehow left it at home. Embarrassed I told them to put the stuff aside and I was going to run home and get my wallet. At the time I wasn't really sure that the wallet was at home I thought maybe I'd lost it on the way. But then the guy in front of me some young study looking guy pretty rough looking “said no I'll cover him” . And he did! 30 bucks- - 30 bucks I didn't have to spend. I wish I knew how to get a hold of him or else I could see him again not gladly pay him the 30 but that's not going to happen sometimes it's just the best to accept the miracle…

Low energy Blues

 This may be a short blog because the device that I write on does not seem to want to take a charge. I thought I charged it all day today and then when I went to check it tonight it was still like at 32%. So I'm going to write as long as I can and still post and see if I can get this charge better tomorrow. Maybe I have just worn this poor sucker out. I really like to write with it but if it won't take a charge that doesn't leave me much to do with it. The day was a beautiful day no question about it there was a small Breeze but not enough to bother me in my short sleeves. I didn't go anywhere to speak of just hung out here at the apartment read a little bit out on the patio that was about it. Of course I was busy today was wash day so I folded clothes and hung up clothes and I did my arm bike of course. With the help of my person my help we are able to get a new lamp installed on the side of my bed which is really excites me. The lamp that I did have for some reason it was just flickering on and off and kind of driving me crazy I couldn't really rely on it to do it what I needed to do which is illuminate the book I'm reading it ain't giving time as well as help like the room. I really like the lamp light not a big fan of ceiling light. I of course will use it when I have to and now off and I do have to use the overhead light. The big problem is the switch to turn it on the front of the room by the door coming in and my head is that the officer end of the room however I've learned that I can reach it with the long stick. So when I do need those days when I got to have the overhead light and I'm in bed I can turn it on and off with my long stick and that's cool. In a nutshell that was it for today. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have more power and I can dictate longer and maybe this is just it for this particular item. I might have to start looking for another flat screen or handheld riding device.

Saved by the lotion

Sometimes I wish I had more going on. I appreciate the meetings in Gatherings that I attend from week to week. Sometimes I think I could do more but in the back of my mind I have this weird thought complex indicating that I'm not doing more because my body won't let me do more. I know that sounds kind of strange but it's true. Sadly, I think I'm just wearing out physically speaking. I know there's something going on with my rear end I'm not exactly sure I attend to it every evening and morning with this special lotion that I found which works I think really well and has allowed the skin to stay intact pretty well but I kind of think my skin might be turning or shredding and when that happens sometimes I think it's all over. It's just a matter of time until all you're doing is skin maintenance and not much of a life. I know this sounds pretty dire but I don't know what else to think. I have a meeting with my physician in a couple weeks and I might bring this up. I'm a little intimidated to do so just because I don't know what they're going to do with this happens and what they might suggest. I think if it gets to the point where I'm actively bleeding are the pain is so great that I can't sit up maybe I'll take quicker action.

I asked my caregiver every morning when she hoists me up transfer me from my chair to my shower bench check out my butt and she does and I think Faithfully to what she sees and what she knows says it's okay that my butt looks just fine. I have a lot of faith in the person she has done a lot of caregiving and gone through a lot of consumers and has seen a lot of trauma physical trauma on butts and other parts of the body as far as skin breakdown goes in pressure sores and such. Since I've been applying my lotion to my skin two times a day morning and night I felt that my skin has been responding very well. In fact I'm no longer really even put it on what I used to call the second skin or the first skin a very specialized plastic tape to cover the skin which would prevent the skin from shredding and such from transferring back and forth from bed to chair or the rocking motion of the body against the fabric when in the chair driving for one point to the next especially over long distances. I've also been trying to maintain better pressure release procedures you know lifting yourself completely off the cushion. So I know that I've been trying to be proactive and trying to minimize the effects of skin breakdown but again I'm haunted in the back of my mind thinking no amount of procedural inputs going to stop the end result. I really don't look forward to days and days of laying in bed waiting and waiting for my body to heal. Then of course there's the quality of life issues this would render which is about zero. Maybe I'm just expecting too much but still this is how the end begins I'm sure of it

 

No chicken tonight

I zero out the miles on my chair every night or at least I try to. This gives me a great idea or a constant of how many or how far I go in today's time. If I recorded this information it would be pretty good stuff for the accuracy of how much I travel in a day. Anyway, tonight as I just about finishing the day I have 3.0 miles on my odometer! I've done more of course in the past and three is actually a good number All Things Considered but just shows that I've been busy today in order to Garner 3 miles on this chair. I was able to do that and do my hour arm bike workout. I made a list over the weekend of all the things I felt that I needed but I keep forgetting every time I go to the market and I remember when I'm done and back home it's just so frustrating. Simple things like a bottle of mouthwash or another box of sandwich bags the list goes on not big items but items that I use on a daily basis and once that I've gotten them I should be okay for an extended period of time. One of the things I got that I took a chance on was the lamp to replace the broken lamp at the head of my bed that I use for reading and getting up in the morning on the mornings are dark. I'm not sure if the lamp that I got will do the job I think it should since I only use it as a reading lamp. When working correctly that lamp does throw off a good amount of light I do like that on a generalized basis for that part of the bedroom but I was more involved in getting a lamp that I could read with. I'm still doing that trying to get to bed thing with enough time for me to read a couple chapters in whatever volume I'm attempting to saw through at any given time. I was totally surprised cuz I thought Walmart would have a better selection in fact that's where I got the lamps that I'm using now. I decided to get a lamp that didn't use traditional light bulbs- it says it's an LED and the lamp bulb is included with the device. Was just at to see how good the LED concept is.

I have so much food in this apartment that I live in with all my canned goods that it's hard for me to justify buying anything already made. Today while I was in Walmart I rolled past the pile of roast chickens that they have for purchase to take home and enjoy. I've actually taken a couple of these chickens home before over the years and it really does make for a great dinner as well as a great leftovers which would have been my justification. Though I would have eaten at least one leg. The chicken smells so good and in the winter time they're so hot it's nice to roll around in the cold roast chicken underneath your jacket. I didn't purchase one tonight however I've got stuff I can make noodles or rice veggies and canned chicken cuz I do have these chickens or pieces of chicken that will work just fine for such a meal. It's not like using real meat taking off the bone and that great chicken skin that you get with a roast chicken but it will suffice once the rice is made the vegetables fried and added to the rice and the meat they'll still turn out to be a great meal. It's still not like deboning a chicken and all the joys it brings.

 

Happy Easter

 I'm kind of getting the impression that April's beginning to stabilize as far as it's weather is concerned. Today I will not say was absolutely beautiful but it was very nice, very spring like it almost inviting to sit out and just get basted by the sunlight which I did for a little bit. The day started fairly early for me I was kind of shocked when I woke up and saw that it was 455 a.m. and you'll remember that on Sundays when I meet the kids for breakfast I have to get up at 5:00 in order to be sure that I'm dressed and ready to go when it's time cuz we usually eat breakfast at 8:00 a.m.. I was kind of proud of myself I rolled out of bed without issue did the transfer into the chair straight forward and then negotiate myself to the back of the seat. I actually made relatively good time and very rarely stopping to yeah they're all over just hang out. I was finally ready about 7:35 a.m. but I've been contacted by Mark at some point in time requested another 30 minutes or at 8:30 a.m. appointment breakfast. Usually this irks me a little bit but not this day I could use the 30 minutes which I did. A little concerned about Mark however that I could see that when he's suggested 8:30 a.m. that he did that around 3:35 in the morning this morning so even if he takes a nap or two before breakfast he's still been up for a long time. I can't say anything because I suffer from not being able to get to bed before 12:00 usually so I can understand. I try to hold back for saying anything just being the good parent Observer. It was just the two of us for breakfast and that's okay I think we had some good conversation and touched on some concerns and issues that we might have with each other and are the rest of the family. I could see Mark was nearly exhausted and he still had some work he had to get out and do before I was able to do anything else today. He continues a pretty strong relationship with his ex and I don't know how productive or even healthy this might be but it seems important to him that he's able to do this. I keep thinking it eventually not be rewarded enough to keep going but certainly hasn't been not yet. Mark talked about another year trip very soon next month I think he said I think it should be pretty interesting.

Breakfast was the high point, I'm glad that I had it. I really didn't feel up to going anywhere else today just using up what time I could in the sunshine. Thursday or Friday I made tuna fish sandwiches and kept them in the court zip up bag. I had this for dinner a very low key dinner with the remainder of my broken potato chips. I thought it was pretty good dinner good enough to watch the local basketball team that I support or at least watch get trounced again. I basically turned the game off in the second quarter turning on the last 4 minutes of the game where they were almost 40 points behind. It's so weird the commentators don't seem to be too weird that out about the fact that they only have 20 wins in the whole season maybe a few more than that but not much. I'm kind of excited about the new week should have a couple days of fairly decent temperatures especially Tuesday when I'm sure I'll be traveling downtown. Happy Easter!

Saturday's reveal

 I think I had a minor Revelation today not really sure but I'm still thinking about it. I've had this experience a couple of times now that it's not the holiday but it's close to the holiday usually the day before and I get up and go to my local coffee shop which is luckily right across the street from where I live and I'm shocked when I see that they're closed. There's a sign scribbled in the window that they're taking off the the day and the holiday. This is always a shock to me or it was now I'm finally getting smarter. Today I actually called the shop around 6:30 a.m. right after I got up and sure enough they at least had a message on the machine indicating that they'd be closed today and tomorrow that would be open again on Monday following Easter. I was already awake it's already up so it's not like I can go back to sleep. I got up and got to my day.

The cold front finally moved it's cold ass out of here leaving much cleaner air and clear skies. The sun shined bright. However the remnants of the Canadian Air stuck around and even in the sunshine it was still relatively chilly another long sleeve shirt weekend. I thought this cooler weather was what was keeping me in the apartment and enjoying my Netflix and other internet platforms. But today was nice I could have gone out and done something but the revelation that I think I'm talking about that I've had is that I really won't do anything by myself. Oh I usually do something off and on but unless I'm committed to do something or even something like just showing up at the coffee shop next door and sitting by myself at the table watching everybody else visit I don't do anything. At least when I do the coffee shop thing I have something to talk about and I'm open to the possibility of something happening. It doesn't have to be something big and humongous like a function or something just anything that kind of commits me to doing something that gets me out and gets me going. But just to get up and do something as opposed to kicking back and watching an episode or a movie or something on one of the platforms I belong to I think I like to do that more than anything even if it's something I've already watched. I must say though I'm getting into the habit of making a better meal options sometimes. I hate exploding my kitchen and just me it would be better if somebody else was there I could cook for but that's not reality. So I'm going to to try to start cooking modular meals that I can have in the refrigerator pull them out and make it real two or three course meal for dinner or breakfast even this morning I had driven itself meals had cooked earlier this week for breakfast and it turned out pretty decent actually. A few spoonfuls of mashed potatoes, an egg that was cooked the other day with part of the ham that I cooked and I had it sliced a little bit. I even had a banana to go with it. It was a real meal. For dinner I had to last bit of Chinese food that I had with my friend Dwayne when he came over this week for lunch I still had all the fried rice left in a separate container that I mixed with their last of the broccoli beef. It made a great dinner probably more than I should have had but maybe if it's Chinese it doesn't matter. I haven't cooked anything for tomorrow which I probably won't now. It's late I'm getting tired but tomorrow will probably be just a meal of burritos, or a can of Stew maybe or some other fast food I might have in the freezer. I like to keep sending meals easy. It's just hard to ask for one person..

Finishing up Friday

 I just finished basically put it away in the groceries from the market. I know that's not a big deal but the fact that I used one of those home delivery services it's kind of big. Oh, I've used them before but today was just for convenience and I was interested in doing a big enough order that I would be justified and not doing it myself like I got up 12 can box of soft drink which would have been all I could really handle if I was really trying to bring everything home on my own. It's just convenient I think that's what I want to look for these days. I'm done being super Crip and want to be us just a super person. The days are still cold in my opinion anyway. Temperatures in the hi forties today it's the Canadian Air they say let's put the air so cold but it should be short-lived and warmer temps should be coming by the next day or so at least by Easter. It's the beginning of Easter weekend and I think I wrote about the kids decorated my door the other day. Really fascinating to me that for the first time the church, LDS trying to catch up to all the other churches in there Easter worship. In my opinion that's never been a big deal in the church - nothing if you ever go back on other postings from the blog or my journals you would see that I've written about this before. But anyway just never been a big deal I always called it one of the role level holidays but now they're trying to make it into a big level holiday it's really becoming the battle. I noticed today the Protestant to trying to claim it even the president of the USA is trying to have a Protestant only celebration of Easter no Catholics allowed or something like that I I saw it on some posting. It's becoming quite a task for the Johnny come late please as far as Easter worship goes. I guess the bunny's way out finally and for good we shall see there's a lot of money built into the bunny Easter phenomenon. By the way it's kind of trivial it's a lot more irons in the fire than have to worry about candy eggs and rabbits hopping down a trail.

Not much else is happening I'm still totally enjoying the clean apartment the kids left me the other day. I did notice today however I have dropped a number of things on the kitchen floor in doing my meal prep and just working around the table. Such things are going to happen if you live in your living space. That's okay though if it gets too bad I'll call the kids over again. And I don't mind whenever they get around to it just as long as they do get around to it. I totally appreciate the joy and humility these guys are brought to my life. I can't believe I'm actually saying these kind of things but it's true another level of understanding has washed over me and that's the joy of children and grandchildren- - amazing.

Tense and ready

 Winter is not quite finished with us, along the Wasatch front, yet. This was evident with all the sideways snow blowing today. Cold front moved in and with it came to snow and many dark clouds. A perfect day to stay inside and do whatever one does on days like this. That's quite proud of myself in that I didn't do it Netflix and or Disney Plus till late in the day. Today's Thursday so it's coffee social in the morning and then I had a lunch appointment with an old friend of mine who brought in Chinese. That's always we had a great discussion mainly around the poor political choice of America right now as far as leadership goes and the current War situation. The lunch was a pretty good part of my day but but surprised me and topped off my day was a knock on my door and it was my granddaughter's boyfriend slash fiance here to clean up my apartment! I must say the place was not a total disaster but it was getting there. Especially the dining table which is buried or was buried underneath various trips from the market and just dumping stuff on the table when I get home. We got down to the surface of the table which is the first time this month it felt great. He swept the floors and mopped bed later my granddaughter joined us and went to work putting up the new door decorations for Easter. I'm not quite excited about facing the new holiday with a new decorated door! I'm so lucky to have these folks in my life. I certainly do not deserve such attention. Since I've already got my 180 minutes in on the arm bike I only had to do 20 more minutes today to have my 200 in for the week everything's going wonderful. If I was pessimistic I would be bracing myself for the shoe to drop. I'm totally hoping that's not going to happen but just the same I'm tensed up and ready just in case

The little things

 It's the little things that really bring satisfaction to me. That sounds a bougie but it really is the way I feel every once and again. I spent the evening listening to the Jazz lose their almost last game for the season finishing up my kid letters for the month. Actually the printer was out of ink. I had my caregiver this morning popping a new ink cartridge and away it went printing like a winner. I got my letters printed and the envelopes all the while keeping an eye on my wash or actually by that time I got to the caregiver had thrown him into the dryer and I had finished or we had finished the first dry and I started the clothes on the second dry. When I went back and checked on them about 40 minutes later the second dry was finished but the clothes were still kind of damp and I was not going to invest another 75 cents and 45 minutes to sit through another depressing dryer cycle that doesn't dry the clothes like they should. I reported this last week but obviously nothing was done. There's actually more to that story than I have time or the drive to write about tonight. Perhaps the darkest part of my day was listening to and watching the Jazz lose again. I'll leave it right there or less I'll be redundant. And finally I guess I folded the clothes and hung up the clothes that needed hanging and got that taken care of. So it's been a fairly productive day for the old man. It certainly relieved some stress getting those letters out. I'm still semi-focused on IRS and what they might do to me if anything. Every time I bring this up to my caregiver she just looks at me and says you don't have to. She feels because I make so little money that I don't have to file. Quite frankly I don't know and the person I've been going to or wanting to go to hasn't been available but starting now I have 14 days left before the 1040s have to go in. Guess I could be a tax cheat for the rest of my life and look over my shoulder and be afraid to answer the phone and are open the mailbox. I'm sure it knock on my door give me a cardiac arrest since nobody ever knocks on my door.

Spring has finally moved into the area which means that temperature has dropped significantly in this area like 10 to 15° difference which is amazing. Luckily for the rest of the week I don't have to leave the apartment except for perhaps tomorrow for coffee social just don't like a real life meeting. I supposedly have my buddy coming in for lunch tomorrow but we'll just go to the big room and have lunch there. That should be fun I look forward to having my lunches with this guy. He's really taking time to hang out with me. It's been a pretty good evening for me I'm about ready to turn in for the night. I don't know what it is but the pain I've been under the last couple weeks seems to be less tonight than usual and I don't know why. I won't question it just maybe get to bed early read a little bit and zone out for the night..

Basil sucks don't support

 One of the things I really hate is Merchants who somehow think it's okay to contact you on your email like you guys are old friends and you respond by going to the ping you heard on your machine only to find out at some Merchant trying to sell you something one way or the other. It's really cheap I really resent these guys doing this kind of stuff. I was just getting on my tablet to make my blog for the night and I got a ping that this thing called basil wanted to talk to me and of course when I get to that thing I click on its image turns out it's a upscale bougie restaurant wanting my business, thinking I'm really this hot shot money Spender interested in sushi and other weird restaurant offerings. In the past I just sort of let these things go sometimes even trying to contact them to say I'm not a person you want but now I'm just get pissed sometimes I give a really obnoxious return but I begin to realize that no one probably even reads the remarks if anyone even sends them in. The whole thing is probably just an AI anyway sorting things out sending them information out and being a internet asshole to everybody in their contact areas. I should just blow it off but I just hate doing it when they end up showing up on my space thinking I'm interested in what they have it's all very trumpy.

I had a pretty good day. I didn't really do that much but I did get out and ride the bus system just a little bit. It was a warm day today probably the warm before the storm has a low pressure system is supposed to Waddle through tonight. I realized yesterday that I don't have any cash, especially denominations that I use when I send out the kid letters and I'm just about finished with the kid letters. So I figured I better get to the bank/ Credit Union and pick up some cash. I got the bus around 11:00 or 11:30 and finally got to the credit union sometime over lunch. Took a while but I got the cash and then waited and waited it would seem like forever for the bus back to the college. It was a warm day so I laid back in my chair and enjoyed whatever sunshine could get through the high clouds that were beginning to roll in. I did take a jacket with me just in case I got too cold on the bus or outside if I needed it. I was good. Everything worked out. I got time on the system and back in time too do my arm bike. I still feel bad not being able to complete my 200 minutes last week. I want to make sure that doesn't happen again.

It's almost the end of the month, again. I'm just about finished with my kid letters for April that makes you feel real good. Today in a mad scramble trying to find some documents for my taxes came across a folder of kid letters I've received and they were delightful. I could letters are very disorganized as is most of my whole system I wish I was better at this kind of stuff but I'm not. I'm trying to get my taxes in this year for the first time and sometime and effort not to get busted and luckily I found the kid letters really made my day

It's you and me kid

 It was just Mark and I this morning for breakfast and that's okay. I love these one-on-ones that were able to have when Jasmine can't make breakfast for one reason or another. She's a busy young person has a lot going on in her life and I'm surprised that she makes the breakfast as many times as she has. Jasmine could certainly be using this time to sleep in on a Sunday morning is it supposed to having breakfast with her family. I surprisingly did well getting together my clothes are getting dressed still having a half an hour at least to kill before I had to go to the restaurant. I think this is really good especially as far as my self-esteem goes I'm still doing okay by myself. If I were Rich however I would not block at having somebody dress me everyday. I don't know if I could really tolerate that however because I really like the feelings of confidence I get when I do everything. I know it's not always going to be that way I'll have to guard myself when that happens because I mean I'll have to start looking at the next option which is a more confined environment and I don't know if I could or can really deal with that. One interesting that came up during breakfast is for a short period we talked about Mark's mother, my ex-wife. How when she died he his sister- Mark Anthony that is- had to go through her house completely dispose of everything. At the moment I thought it was a great time to say whoever has to clean out my house or apartment don't feel the need to keep anything just go through and trash everything and get out of there as quickly as you can. I wish there was something I could do that you would not have to do this but maybe it's the custom. It's probably true if Jasmine's around he'll probably be just Marc Anthony and Jasmine and that is enough. What kind of glad we had the conversation looking for moving on to the important things of the relationship and how this is all going to end sooner or later. I'm still mystified because I had this weird feeling that Marc Anthony and Michelle hung out quite a bit or communicated and I guess they don't really communicate very much. In fact if they are not coming to the Sunday morning breakfast he would probably never ever see each other except when we all got together for a holiday or a picnic or Christmas function of some sort. This is great cuz it made me feel I'm doing something somewhat important by having these breakfasts and forcing so much small Snippets of conversation for one week to the next.k

I turned Mark loose after about an hour and a half and return to my apartment. I really didn't want to go anywhere to speak of even though the temperature was going to be pretty warm today. I didn't necessarily want to have to wander through different stores and stuff. I don't really like buying stuff on Sunday. I decided it would be a good day too not watch the flat screen so much is get outside and do a little reading out on a patio which I did toward late afternoon. I came in around 4:30 cuz I didn't want to miss the news the course they didn't have the news, not really, college basketball is all over the networks right now so weird so none of the networks are running the national news not even later cuz they were in all the very long games which is a real pain in the butt I was able to get a weather forecast for this week from Channel 5 which is the NBC affiliate but it was just local but it was for the week looks like it's going to be a very interesting weather week with some possible rain storms that rot hot dry weather and no meetings that I have to attend

Suddenly Saturday

 Really was a pretty good day today. I thought it was going to be cooler than it was I wore a long sleeve shirt and I'm glad that I did. It was very warm and I probably could have gotten away partially through the day with short sleeves but it did get cooler off and on particularly when the clouds begin to move in. It was nice stuff that I was able to read out on the patio for a few minutes and enjoy the spring day. I felt that I really didn't have to do much more to really justify the day since I gotten up dressed and gotten over to the coffee shop and hung out there for about an hour hour and a half drinking coffee and watching the other people. I wish I wasn't so shy that I can just include myself with these other people especially since they've already indicated that as welcome at their table. I just find it difficult trying to transition any to the group. So I just sit by myself on my little table and wave to the different people smile and say hello to the folks as they walk past me. They see me every week so I think theqy all feels if they know me pretty funny. I know them by sight and by their voices to some degree but I don't know them anymore than that nor do they know me anymore than that and perhaps that's best All Things Considered. After I got done with the coffee shop and back to the apartment I began my one project that I wanted to do this weekend which was to use a piece of old hamburger in the freezer that's been there for some time and use the meat to make a casserole or one sort or another. The most simple casserole I was able to find was hamburger patties covered with mushroom soup. That's what I did I had about a pound of hamburger maybe a little bit more and I still have a couple of square 8-in tins and I can't remember what I initially got them for maybe it was for it I made Thanksgiving dinner and I needed stuff to cook things in. Anyway, I was pretty sure I had everything I needed one large can of mushroom soup, the hamburger, an onion cut in the slices, and the various spices like ginger, pepper, garlic bits, onion bits and a few other items I can't remember now. I even found a envelope of soup that I use to sprinkle all over the top of the mushroom saturated, soup covered, plumps of hamburger. Heated up the oven threw it in there cooked it for about an hour at 3:50 and voila pretty much had myself a casserole. Not the best pet casserole on Earth but it's only casserole I chose to make today and it will have to work through tomorrow as well. I don't really want to but I don't have any mashed potatoes to eat with this casserole. I can whip up some fake potatoes relatively quickly if I feel I really must have the starch tomorrow. Worst case scenario I can certainly look one of the big potatoes I qhave in the refrigerator I've had there for some time and they do need to be used. Later on I watched the jazz blues as much as I could before I turned it off and cleaned up the kitchen I really made a mess but on all it was a pretty decent Saturday.

$20 a poop

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

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

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

The cool down Blues

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

Free lunch board meeting

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

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

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

Day two

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

Guests

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

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

Slow recovery

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

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

Rumble tummy blowout

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

Sirloin to go please

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

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

 

Thinking on Thursday

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

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

Working Wednesday

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

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