Saturday's Ponder

 Many years ago I tried to learn to play the family accordion which I found stashed in one of the covers of the house. At one point in time I believe it belong to my older sister who I guess played but I don't remember really her playing the accordion very much. It was a difficult instrument for me and like I said I laboriously try to learn this instrument but I never did but point that I'm making is that each week I would go to my lesson and my mom would give me a quarter which I would use to buy a bottle of Squirt and a chocolate bar some kind I think it was a Hershey's almond bar. There's a great interlude in my week though I struggled so hard on me accordion. I never got the notes down and I never really got functional with the 120 base just too many buttons and just too much stress I never was able to get the instrument down except for a few basic silly songs. And the reason I bring this up is that today I was at the market buying some Provisions for the rest of the weekend. I finally succumb to the realization that my form of socialization is going to the market on Saturday nights and purchasing something fun to ingest one way or the other. Anyway I have, for a long time, wanted or needed something to to drink for fun. The problem why I have not really purchased cans of soda or pop before is that just too difficult for me to transport especially if I'm carrying another stuff at the same time so I don't buy them or I haven't purchased them but today for some reason I was really into the whole idea of buying something just for fun so I talked to somebody who reach down and picked up a container of Squirt and I had them place it between my legs on my foot pedal of my power chair. I raised the foot pedals up to the point where the package of Squirt play securely between the legs. And it worked I was careful of my trip home that I didn't hit any bumps or whatever but it was the fluid trip home and once I got to the house I had a difficult time moving the squirt container to the floor but I finally did and they're doing so I think I ruptured one can of of the beverage and got all over the floor but I secured another and drank it it was great remind me of the old days. Now I have a bunch of other cans that I will Stow in the refrigerator on Monday when my help gets here and she retrieve the rest of the cans off the floor and put them into the fridge.

Friday's Focus

 There was actually snow in the ground and it was still snowing when I woke this morning that finally got around looking out the window. Of course listen to the news and weather before I even got to the window aspect of it so I knew what to expect- just a little bit not a whole lot and seriously it was gone by 12:00 noon. I was pleased because I really did have to get over to the market to pick up a few fun items that would keep me going tonight through the Jazz loss and then tomorrow where it should be snowing a little bit in the mid afternoon and such but I won't have to go to the market now because I went this afternoon. I do plan on going over in the morning to get some coffee I don't know if Janet will join me she might. But I wouldn't be surprised if there was some kind of reciprocation going then as well but for sure in the evening and Sunday morning they should be some light precipitation probably for breakfast. Your day was a good day for me I was able to see both of my caregivers or actually one caregiver and one person who does some of my cleaning when the cleaning gets done. My caregiver gave me a great enema and a great shower and my cleaning person did a great job in the kitchen and I think I might have enough courage/ self commitment to make cookies sometime this weekend I've been trying to do that for some time now and I have everything in place to do that. I have new oatmeal new flour and I have the ingredients for the cookies themselves I just have to figure out do I want a hamster the batter or do I want to use a mixer. Whatever I do I want it to be as easy as possible. I haven't had real homemade cookies for a long time and maybe that's the way I need to go for right now stop by and store-bought cookies and just make my own cookies when I want them a dozen here a dozen there keep me back into the baking mode. Not much else is going on actually. I did get a cross to the Macy's grocery where I picked up some grapes, so now I have fresh fruit, I also picked up some ice cream circles which should be pretty good I miss them since I got out of them ran out of them. So it's a pretty good Saturday everything looks fairly good in it apartment and I have enough fun food to get through the weekend. I was going to try to get a hold of some Fritos but I couldn't find any big scoopers so I let that go for this week picking up some crackers on the side.

My wounded hands seems to be getting better and better. I don't really like the way that it looks right now though my caregiver / Melissa feels it's getting better and that the infection is gone and I guess I can't really hope for much more than that. I try to protect it as much as I can but it's in a really awkward spot so it gets a lot of banging up and stuff hopefully it'll scab over one way or the other by Monday when do we look at it when we look at it again. It looks like it could be just pretty much a maintenance weekend

Almost invisible

About a week ago, I can't really rightly remember why I was on a trip downtown, but as I boarded the train the car was full. There were people sitting in the wheelchair accessible stations- - they have these seats that are easy to fold up and then you can slide right into beside them in your wheelchair and be out of the way. Of course, if there are any rules the rules are that you surrender these seats to those that are either people in wheelchairs are seniors that doesn't always hold true but it's a nice thought. This guy wasn't sitting in the seats they were already full when I came on board and I just sort of sandwiched myself between a couple of other seats in the regular section of the train. This guy was sitting next to the door kind of and I don't think he moved while the entire time I was on the train which is for about 40 streets which is actually quite a while. I think I've mentioned before that we are now in the cold season in Salt Lake quite often mixed with rain or snow or mist or just slush and it's really cold when you get wet. Many times while waiting for the train or the bus I just can't wait for that big old vehicle to pull up and open its doors so I can roll in and catch some warmth for however my trip will last. It's a great warmth that comes the public transit not only do you have the heat from the vehicle which in many cases is overheated- - which is not a problem for me - - but you also have the heat from the mini bodies that are packed into the Sardine Can of a train or a bus. Many times I do close my eyes and let the rocking motion of the vehicle send me into some kind of a light sleep it's very hypnotizing to a point. I couldn't help but wonder if the individual bunched up on the side of the train with the blanket over his head was there for the duration of the train he was going to stay there as long as the driver was going to let him. He's lucky it would be hours he could ride all morning if it's luck holds out and the driver's not on one. Maybe he was on his way to the library, that's where I got off, the library is a warm place to go in the winter time I found and I think I've also found that many other folks who have no other place to go have started going to the library's across the country. Salt Lake library is very good and very warm. Every once in awhile I saw whoever was underneath this blanket move its foot just let me know that he was at least alive. I'm sure there's been more than one train where the individual end up dying under the blanket and nobody found out for hours until either the end of the run or somebody accidentally knocks over the corpse. This guy wasn't dead yet but I'll bet he had a story…

Presents!

I've gotten to Christmas presents already and both of them had to do with food which is great because nothing I love more than getting Christmas food packages even if they're from major corporations. What's good and if not bad at the same time is that I probably should wait until Christmas morning to open these goodies but I don't have the whatever it takes to wait that long especially in the Bleak Days running up to Christmas. I got a box of candies from one of the volunteer programs I work with are one of the programs I volunteer at. I like to leave the candies open for not only myself but for anyone who happens to wander into my apartment usually my caregiver. Then today I got a major food box from some trendy sausage and cheese operation. You know the kind two or three different kinds of cheeses, small sausages usually crackers lots of toppings like hot mustard and things of that nature. It was on my door when I came home or leaning against my door. I truly like these but cannot believe how much inflation has miniaturized the selections. In the old days the beach sticks are pretty large as well as the other treats that were inside these types of gifts. Now they're just tastes of what could be but I'm not complaining. It's probably better that you just have a small introduction to The Taste rather than eating the whole thing. It's fun to have these options laying around especially if you need a treat of one sort or another to get you through a movie or television series that you're binging at any given time. I will set this out on the table as well so that my caregiver will have more options to choose from.

I had kind of planned on going out and doing something today but after the caregiver got done with me cleaned and dressed I pretty much just hung around the apartment complex in my unit and watching my flat screen. I did take a break to work out on my own bike which is always a pleasure oh yes today is Wednesday that means it's wash day so I did go down and get my clothes out of the dryer- - I have my caregiver through the clothes in the dryer as she leaves and I go and collect them once they're dried to fold and put back into place- - brought them back and folded and hung the clothes for the next week. I felt that was enough to justify binging on the Umbrella Academy some more. I just have a few more seasons left then I'll move on to some other series that I've really enjoyed. I'm still agonizing over what to do regarding my electric bed. My son looked at the bed and found some information that when I check it out I'm not sure of what I'm looking at. I need to find a actuator that will fit onto my bed that'll raise it up and down Etc but what it's showing on the internet that should fit very bad doesn't look like it would and it's about $400 and I don't want to make that kind of a mistake I don't think I can. I wish there was somebody I could ask about this that really knew this kind of stuff and I probably is I just haven't stumbled on them yet. I may have my son take it over and finish the project. I like to tell people that if I had my hands I could do all this stuff but as I remember my life before the accident I'm just not good at this kind of stuff as far as fixing things up even though I think I could do it I don't think I have the self-confidence to pull it off so I was never good at sales… 

Tender Tuesday

 The most productive thing I did today was fry up a bunch of bacon this morning. Since we decided not to have a meeting today I got to spend the day at home not having to go out in the cold weather even though the sun was out which I'm sure made the day feel a little bit warmer than it was. I really didn't have a place to go or anything really to do on the outside so I just stayed in. I really like bacon probably more than I should and I've had this pound of bacon for some time it was a thick cut the kind I think it's used for like real cooking experiences not just bacon and eggs but that's what I used mine today for it was bacon and eggs plus I've got a whole lot of bacon I need to put away before I go to bed. If I don't cook the bake it up at one time thinking I'm going to cook it another time I usually don't cook it up and the meat eventually goes bad. If I cook the whole thing up and then store it in a plastic bag in the fridge it will stay quite a while and I can use it for bacon and eggs sandwiches whatever I need a bacon for if nothing else just snacking. This stacking thing is a poor choice I don't know if it's any better than sugar especially with my pre-diabetic state. Sugar versus salt it's a hard call seems like anything that has any value at all is off limits for health reasons. It seemed like everything I touched today just made a mess of the apartment. I was really hoping that Gloria would make it over today but she had serve an accident and couldn't make it. I'm having a difficult time doing simple things like washing dishes because of the wound on my hand. The Band-Aids that Melissa put on my hand on Monday has stayed in place and I think has done the job even though I have got it wet a couple times washing out coffee cups and frying pans. If there was infection in my finger I believe it's gone away with the intervention from Melissa on Monday. We'll have to check tomorrow to see if the room needs a redressing.

I was intrigued Monday when Melissa told me that she had a new person added to her list of folks that she cares for. This was a 28-year-old quad male who Melissa believes is pretty much at the same level as I am drama wise. Melissa told me quite a bit about her new charge which I worry a little bit about her divulgence of client information but I certainly enjoy hearing the stresses and traumas other folks tend to be using are having. This guy actually has money he's self-pay like me but has her for many hours a week. I guess he actually has somebody with him all the time in case he needs assistance. I don't know how that would be that would drive me crazy. I think I've spoken before about how precious the time alone is to me. Even though this morning it was a bit of a trial getting dressed totally by myself. I didn't even put shoes on today because I kicked them off and just didn't want to have to put them on again. Had the dressing gone differently perhaps I would have gone out and done something today but I was content to sit in with the heat turned off and watch the umbrella Academy

Mostly Monday

I have a whole host of self-defeating behaviors I don't try to make believe that I don't. However one of my most possibly disjointed behavior is on Monday Wednesdays and Fridays I have my toileting and bathroom days. I get done with this event probably around 9:30 or 9:45 a.m.. I don't start until a little after 8:00 a.m. usually that's when Melissa gets here then we start the process after she has some coffee that I've made for her. Anyway the point that I'm getting to is that after Melissa leaves I'm clean then I'm dressed and usually I've had something to eat by then and it's almost 10:00 in the morning. Invariably I go over the table and start one of my puzzles or continue working the puzzle that it may have been doing earlier before Melissa got there. And I might do this puzzle until 12:00 even I've been known to do that. My issue is do I should I be doing something else? I don't rush to do anything now outside just because it's so blame cold and it don't enjoy being out in the cold anymore than anybody else does I'm sure. I could be doing something productive but I choose not to in fact I kind of enjoy cranking the heat up a little bit and just feeling snowed in. So I choose this puzzle plane exercise as my are one of my self-defeating behaviors. I just don't do anything all I'm doing my puzzles.

Tomorrow I'm kind of excited because I don't have to shower so I can get up and straight away get dressed and figure out something to do. Usually I have the meeting in Salt Lake but I don't have one tomorrow so I've got my morning open. I could cook something here at the apartment whether it's the bacon or even mix up some cornbread and are oatmeal cookies. I don't know if I told you last night when I went to check the flower to make the cookies yesterday of cornbread yesterday it was filled with tiny creatures just trying to make a living in the baking flour, there and they may be have been dead for some time I didn't see any movement but I wasn't looking very hard. With the help of Melissa I was able to find the new flour I purchased a month or so ago. Now I just have to download it into the washed out bread container. I still might make either the cookies or the cornbread before the week is out. I wouldn't mind more chili made by Janet upstairs. It was quite good.

We are roughly now about a week and a half away from winter solstice. The only reason I bring this up is how quickly darkness comes in the afternoon now. Right around 4:00 that really starts beginning to feel the evening come on. Now by 5:00 the sun is about down and it does feel like evening big time. If I don't have my heater on by then I turn it on turn off mention the lights in the apartment and watch whatever available electronically whether it's the news a movie or a series that I'm currently involved in. I'm watching the Umbrella Academy again it's really a cute show I like it at least the first season or two again it wanders off as it continues to try to be relevant either way certainly makes for an evening…

 

Hand wound care

 

I don't know what I did to my back of my hand are back knuckle but sometime between last night and this morning I did a number on my hand. There's a little shocked this morning when I saw it I should have taken care of it right then but I didn't do anything and just went on with my day. I should douse it with peroxide before I go to bed. This morning it didn't really hurt or anything and it was a little messy but that was it now however it's been a whole day and my hand is beginning to get stiff. I don't know how severe that is but it's doing something now that I should probably take some intervention and try to minimize the the problem. I'd like to wait till Melissa can look at it and doctorate but I'll just have to do something tonight and let her take over in the morning she's really good at wound care I'm impressed with her. The Skin's torn off yet there's a small blister just to the side and I just can't figure out how I could have done this. It wasn't enough to stop me however I did enjoy afternoon at the movies watch the silly movie that probably was a waste of time something you would find on Netflix deep in Amazon somewhere. The movie I wanted to go to was started later than I wanted to hang around the movies for. Maybe this next week or something seeing. I'm sleepy tonight it's amazing how much just going to the movies will take out of me. I had to wait for an extended period in the cold for the bus to pick me up. I guess I could have motored all the way home but I just didn't feel up to the task of having the chair bounce me around like a NBA basketball. I was super glad I'm on the bus picked me up and pulled me into the warm environs even if it was a short 

trip the warmth really invigorated me for the rest of my journey.

I was intrigued the other day when I had a message from one of my granddaughters who are really haven't had that much contact with and now she has texted me thanking me for the Christmas letter I sent out she'd gotten it and she wanted to thank me for i money I had sent in the letter. This is kind of exciting for me because it's one of the first time she's reached out since I started the writing campaign couple years now. I'm really looking forward to communicating with this one granddaughter. She's in a rock and roll band and has a number of gigs there in the Oregon area. She's a little radical but that's great. The other thing I have to accept is that perhaps she's not one for literary and like her sister she communicates over the Internet over texting and I appreciate that as well. It's Sunday night and I'm exhausted really was a day of energy.

Domino's inflated

Really? It's Saturday again truly hard to believe. But it's a fairly clear day except for the inversion which has got all kinds of gunk in the air which I'm sure is somewhat diddly to me but I'm out in any way enjoying what time I can with my new chair batteries going places even if it's just the market and I did go to the coffee shop today with Janet where we gossiped and enjoyed each other's company over some coffee with the other cool guys in the area. Other than that and then running across the street for a quick run through of the market to get things I need for Saturday night and Sunday that was about it for today. Watched a couple movies on Netflix and Marvel and was just about ready to call it a day when Mark Anthony called and indicated that he had free time and would be willing to come over to help me a little bit which of course I definitely always need. This turned out to be a quite a pleasant experience as far as being able to talk while he went through my chaotic dresser full of all kinds of historical garbage that I've been carrying around for decades. We threw a lot of stuff away which really I don't need anymore which I thought that I did but I really don't and it's just good as he says to get rid of the items now that have to deal with it down the line when it's just him by himself really not knowing what to get rid of and what to keep. I would say just throw everything into the dumpster at that point but I know he would have a hard time doing that cuz I know I would have a hard time doing that. However today we meet some major inroads and enjoyed a lot of conversation at the same time we ordered a pizza and got held up as far as that goes for a small pizza ended up being like $27 unbelievable I really wanted to have a Domino's Pizza and it's been a while- - that 27 didn't really include the $2 tip. I hate to blame it on inflation and all that kind of stuff which I'm sure has something to do with the price of everything it's just incredible I'm just glad I was able to deal with it. The biggest find out of this cleanup was the old Bible with my grandfather switch I've been holding on to for some time and I'd actually thought that I had lost. The volume has some real damage done to it I think the cover is totally ripped off and I've been meaning to take it down to a binder as soon as I can find one just so I can get the document bound and let it be usable again. It's an old King James Version but he's got all of the verses he liked underlined which I think is valuable in and of itself as far as linking to my grandfather. I don't know if I'll ever find a binder and it probably will be thrown away at some point in time so I don't think anybody in my family would want to hold on to such an item. Maybe I could reach out to my cousins who shared the grandfather with me they might be interested it's that whole generation thing: after two generations the Next Generation doesn't know this other person from anybody else so it doesn't really matter to them one way or the other. That's quite a generalization and they're probably are descendants that would be interested in something like that but I don't know how I would get it to them especially after I was dead that would be a great trip I know I got appeared to them sometime when they're praying that would work …

Assist open house

The inversion continues. A very faded sunshine during the day and a thicker and thicker atmosphere made of nothing but pollution very dangerous for protected populations. I don't know if I'm a protected population I guess I could be in regards to being senior as well as probably somewhat Limited lung function but I don't feel too negative if a dog from trying to exist in the atmosphere as it stands now. I think a lot of the folks worry about me, who don't know me. These folks just see me as a person with a disability. With that thought in mind I knew it was going to be a long cold day for me because today was the December open house I.E Christmas function for one of the programs that I serve on there Advisory Board assist ink. I had to go all the way from the apartment complex downtown to Across the library which is quite a trip especially in the cold and damp evening. Fortunately everything functioned does it was supposed to. I spent a good part of the afternoon hunkered next to the heater tanking up the heat for my inbound trip. I found my semi new heavy duty Hood that was just new enough to look like it was something special to wear to an event like I was going to. I had misplaced the postcard that was sent out that had the time the open house is supposed to start and at this point in time it was almost 5:00 so I decided I was going to go regardless. I think I got to the office about 4:45 and the staff was all there if things were laid out and everything look like a party. I was impressed when I got in there that one of the staff was to make a presentation to the group along with a really nice graphic projector that events of the staff in the emergency housing situation could render images of four and after scenarios of projects we worked on during the year. When I got to the office they are actually going through the presentation they had planned to give to the folks who come to the open house. I was mildly impressed. The organization is far different than what it used to be when I first came into this town they actually have three Architects on staff! That was never done in the old days there is one architect and that was an older fellow who was also the director of the organization. The new directors quite Young also a full-fledged architect plus the other two architects.

This year's event was fairly well attended. There were contractors that the organization works with throughout the year as well as many directors and staff folk from other private non-profit agencies that also work in the area of housing and low income service provisions. People coming people go people spend a lot of time schmoozing each other. The event has become quite smaller than it used to be. In the old days the place was packed usually elbow to Elbow and seemed that they went through a lot more booze than what happens today. I got cornered by one of the folks I used to work with in the old days. We had a good discussion but it was time for me to head out since I had to come home on the train. A fog had to send it over the area as I took my leave for the train station. I was cold but I was glad to be done with this particular event. It's fun but it's also kind of harrowing to be part of the old generation that does nothing more than to remember what it was like in the old days …

 

Wicked, wickedly unsatisfying

 Some times I wish I could go back in time, to a time when I was not so stressful. For some reason I've misplaced my cell phone. The only thing that makes the stress less tell us is that I know it's somewhere in the apartment here I just can't find it right now. Fortunately, I hear the thing signaling off and on is new emails her transferred to the cell phone. I've looked all over the apartment in between commercials on my Thursday night viewing but as of yet no luck. Many times when I get it this point of frustration I tend to look at my foot box on my power chair and sometimes on the overhang on my cushion. Days past the cell phone has landed on one of those two areas. So far I've looked down between my legs as well as check things out on the mirror and does she have yet have not found the calling device. I just hate how my whole life is wrapped up and that stupid little plastic device. Everything from vital phone number Qnumbers to Total Access to my bank account. I really kind of miss my landline I always felt comfortable but I'd look at the trusty Princess phone and know that calls would come in and I can make calls out and not lose the phone. I don't know if that made much sense but you know what I mean I'm not going to lose the phone cuz it's always plugged into the wall.. I would gladly go back to that time where it possible. It's getting late now and I'm not going to spend much more time worried about silly cell phone. I think I will Cruise the apartments one more time I'll lift some things up to see where it might be hiding and if I can't find it oh well. I think I will wait till in the morning and then have Melissa Scout the device out. She really is good that this kind of stuff I'm always amazed at her ability to come up with Solutions to problems I've suffered hours on. 

I went to the movies today following the coffee social. I wanted to make sure got the movie Wicked and under my belt. To be honest with you I was quite disappointed in the musical. I don't know what I was expecting but it sure was not entertaining in fact I kept falling asleep through the whole thing. I really don't know but everybody sees in this production except for a lot of green face shots of the star. But I had finished the movie I rolled over to the bus stop and the bus was leaving just as I got there. So rather than wait around to the cold for the next bus even though it would be just 15 minutes I decided I would road test out the new batteries and as q D1 how they held charge until I got home which I did. The commute was straightforward kind of fun a little chilly but I didn't have any issues at all with the amount of power I had, no flashing lights or slowing down. I had maximum power all the way home and I'm still reading 90% charAge wand today's travel time or distance was 3.3 miles I feel great.

1 hump day errands

 I finally got around to getting enough energy to cross the street to the market. Actually I was beginning to run low on Staples like Frozen burritos and such. I'm surprised that how dependent I am on certain types of food. I don't know if the foods are comfort food or easy to prepare and ingest or I just plain like the flavors that I've been able to concoct with them for example like my frozen bean burrito I really like to heat up to the point where it's soft then cut it up into bite-size pieces basically one slice down the middle then horizontal stripes across the long Stripes so they're little bite-sized bits cover that with shredded cheese then finish microwaving till the cheese melts and the burritos hot all the way through cover that with Chinese noodles from La Choy the crisp noodles coming noodles if that makes a fine crunchy breakfast lunch or dinner. Used to have one every day when I was working in the morning before I took off for the bus. So I got two packages of these burritos one of them the good old basic Bean burrito with supposedly spicy peppers and stuff but you can't really taste them the other one is more of a meat based burrito both of which are decent when they're fixed up. I also purchased four or five beef pot pies which I really like. Again, they're easy to prepare and relatively easy to eat can get a little tricky at times but if you keep yourself to one pie for dinner or whatever I think you're doing okay as far as weight control and things of that nature go. And it's not like these are my soul source of food options. I still enjoy doing my own cooking many times that's what I prefer therefore these packages will last Maybe 2 weeks or so maybe. They're just there and I need them and that's the best part..1

I had a turkey sandwich this morning for breakfast which I thought was great. However halfway through the sandwich I realized it's been a total week since Thanksgiving. I was a little vague about what I remember hearing a safe times for eating prepared foods that are kept in the refrigerator and I think a week might be getting close to the parishable point but all the meat Parts still taste great to me but I'm thinking I'm going to freeze what's left which includes a leg from the turkey not sure what I would do with all of that to meet later on maybe use it in making some kind of a turkey salad for turkey salad sandwiches or whatever later on in the year could bring back great thoughts of holidays past. I still have a roast that's frozen, a roast that I cooked ate half of and then froze the rest which I'm thinking I will t h a w next week. I also made contact with my buddy over at ucat and he will start earnestly looking for a used high low bed that I can use to replace the one I've got now it seems to be failing. The motor still functions to raise the platform up and down when that goes I'll be in big trouble if I don't have a backup system immediately ready to go. I have a lot of faith in Kent and we'll figure this out until then I've got to be careful how much stress I put to my poor body which itself seems to be wearing out quicker than I would like…

Tuesday's Meetings

 I had another strange night this one directly relink to the fact that my beds no longer functional as far as sitting myself up which is a vital part of my transfer capability. So I've been struggling since I don't know two or three in the morning probably getting a little catnaps in between trying to figure out I'm going to deal with this problem. I just have to get it fixed one way or the other and I think I went over yesterday or on the 1st some of the options one of them being going through my friend over it you can't finding a used product. As I was thinking about that this morning I said that well why not try using the assistive technology fund again, the board that I sit on, actually before when I got the shower chair, remember? They directed me through the Independent Living Center but that still might be a viable option at least a place to go. I also started thinking about this about the fact that yesterday I threw away the document from the federal insurance program that I'm on that tells you about all the changes and stuff, trying to get you to see if that's what you want to do is continue with that insurance program and they might have a idea might be able to help with the whole issue I'll have to look into it as well as into the other two options u c a t and the other funding options. So maybe I'll contact the vendor again and see what a new bed would cost. It's Advisory Board meeting today it's over Zoom but I'll have to zoom back from my assist meeting before I link up to it more to come later.

As hard as I tried I could not get the meeting to be again quickly and go quickly and end just a little bit early. People were too enthralled and eager to talk about their holiday experiences and who cooked what and how it was cooked even I got into the process of talking about my holiday Thanksgiving Adventure dinner. We did and write at 12:00 pretty much but I tried to get home as quickly as I could but when you got to wait on trains and buses you end up being late and I was about 20 minutes late into the meeting on Zoom. I don't think I missed much I'm sure they did a lot of holiday talking to as well as visiting each other we meet every 6 months I think and it's a lot of time it goes by it a lot of catching up we have to do a lot of us are getting way old too so there's even more reinforcing and catching up to do. Like I said I finally did get home got online it took me a while to tap into the meeting and I really didn't offer much when I did except that I was there online as far as that goes and I was able to field any questions but none came my way. The meeting was typical Bankers talking about how much money that we have as a organization we have quite a bit actually as well as discussion different topics that might be of interest to folks with disabilities particularly since a lot of time is spent on whether or not a computer was and a t device and should our organization loan money out to acquire such devices. I in my naive way didn't should thought that's possibility but everyone else did not seem to think so. I caved and went with the majority. I wasn't sure if I was really online I think that I was but I may have been muted didn't matter though we got through the meeting we're done now until March and this time I had inputs indicating that we would meet on Wednesday instead of Tuesday so I wouldn't have an assist meeting to worry about….

Broken stick rehab

 

It's a minute before 10:00 p.m.! Where does the day go especially since I'm not really doing anything with my days you would think I would get to this riding a lot earlier in the time frame that I'm awake. It's not that I'm doing a lot today I got into my old routine of hanging out till my morning help gets here showering doing my business and then just messing around the apartment until mid afternoon when I listen to my radio show Marketplace. However I did decide to break routine a little bit by doing my arm bike right after 12:00 noon when I usually do it around 3:00 p.m.. it's an hour ride today, 60 minutes, I ride 60 Minutes the first 3 days of the week giving me 180 minutes then I only have to do a few minutes to get to the 200 that my doc told me I needed to do. Getting to my 200 minutes usually takes the first 4 days of the week unless of course something else intervenes like tomorrow I have my assist meeting followed by a zoom meeting at 1:00 which will go till 3:00 and then maybe I'll be able to pump my bike for my regular Tuesday ride. Somewhere between 3:00 and whenever I should be able to squeeze in an hour of riding my arm bike. Time management is my big challenge it seems these days. I have really the flat screen take over a lot of my life which is kind of embarrassing to admit but true. Between Netflix Prime and Disney plus I'm a goner. It's not like I can let a movie take over for a couple hours and then forget it if it's a good movie I tend to watch it over and over but luckily that's just basically Disney plus material IE Marvel Universe. Even if I didn't go outside these wasted minutes I could be reading, baking and maybe even cleaning up the place a little bit. I had a visitor today which was my friend Gloria who used to be my caregiver. I keep her supplied with quarters. She also cleans my apartment. Periodically at least parts of it and does a great job but that's usually when she's desperate for money I'm glad I'm there for her. As I mentioned Gloria used to be one of my caregivers years ago. She tends to come and go with the service so I eventually found Melissa who is very very steady and I can count on her all the time. They are actually both great caregivers in their own rights I'm glad they're in my life.

I broke my stick this morning another stick actually one of my favorite sticks along narrow stick with one of my rubber tips on the end which I use for reaching long things especially opening and closing the drapes from a distance. I closed the drapes at night there's a big lamp right outside my window and shines right into my face otherwise. I usually hate to have drapes pulled at night but I've gotten used to these drapes which block the light. This stick was perfect for that and for reaching any number of items that weren't too big. It's only recently that I started using this particular stick to assist in doing some of my dressing as far as being able to pull up close over hard to reach places and tucking my shirts in and things like that. I should have been more careful and not tried to use them to adjust and lift my legs in order to get my strep I use over my foot to pull my legs or one leg over the other one so I can put my shorts on and later my shoes. I want to adjust my leg this morning in an effort to slide my strap over my foot and snapped the poor favorite stick. Now I've got to figure out when I can go to Lowe's and pick up a number of sticks to use in my Hooks and my long Reacher. It's kind of arduous especially bringing the sticks back home on public transit lucky and get sticks that are like 72 in Long which I sort of keep between my legs and it's just short enough to get myself into the bus front door. The drivers have never stopped me so I guess it's okay but it does get awkward. I've got enough sticks now one or two long ones that are heavier and so it won't snap as easily but I'm sure their time's coming but it'll be a while yet I'm having to do a lot of rehab I'm broken sticks right now that I've massacred one way or the other over the last 6 months but it keeps me busy and obviously off the streets along with that flat screen..

New day new month

I'm exhausted this first day of December. Last night I lost the ability to raise my head of the bed up at all so it's flat out and so. No elevation at all. Plus I couldn't get the head section of the bed to raise up and all intermittently as I have been able to do the same holds true for the leg razors those don't work it again either. Right now the most important thing is to get my tablet as well as my handheld up and going. Because I was sleeping prone on the bed that's no elevation for my legs or anything and I wanted to make sure I was up and ready to hit the restaurant in time. I was pleased that by the way I pressed put the chair away at night last night it was quite easy for me to slide into my power chair without having to raise the back of the bed which I usually do is close to a sitting position as I can. Sadly that functions gone and I can't get it to go again and I had mark Anthony stopped by the apartment after breakfast this morning and he looked at it and said yeah it's a goner there's no way to get it fixed you have to get a new one. Words I did not want to hear but I certainly was not shocked I hearing them as well. So now I'm going to have to order in a whole new package which is going to cost hundreds of dollars that don't feel too comfortable doing but it better. Since those two features of the bed don't work any longer and I use them quite a bit it's best that I get to the new motor system in and have somebody I know install it on at the bed. I don't know if I will call Kent to see about getting a new bed entirely one of the left one of the donations they have might be the best because I'd hate to dump that money into it again and have it broken within a year which has been the history here. And sadly here I must confess I wasted the whole day binge movie watching on Prime. I kind of enjoyed my time doing that even if the shows are kind of campy in places. I had gotten my shorts on and my shoes on so I was ready to go if I really wanted to go anywhere but I just couldn't or didn't want to go out to the market or anything. there was nothing that I needed I can't wait till Monday.    One other thing about not being able to raise the head of the bed is that the elevation helps a great deal with peeing when I have to drain my bladder at bed. This morning I had to drain around at 3:00 a.m. and it took me a little bit but I finally was able to do it and slept back in for another couple hours. I made the transfer easily so it's where I situate the chair next to the bed when I Dismount the bed. I was totally surprised I made the move as well as I did.k

Breakfast with the kids was fine. Following the breakfast Marc Anthony stopped by the house / apartment and looked at the bed and said yep it needs to be repaired basically replaced he can't repair the parts broken it's too smashed crashed. I foresee a busy week probably a busy month

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Numbers end

It's another one of those days for I should just be whipped for not taking more advantage of the day that I did. Seriously all I did today was watch the flat screen it's quite enjoyable but still I should be doing more with my days than just watching something on a big old flat screen though I don't know if it would make it any difference than watching on the big old screen at the movie house. The only difference would be the age of the movies I'm watching and the fact that I didn't have to get cold to watch the movie on the big screen in my apartment. However though I do have some guilt for basically poo poo in the day away. I am feeling a little unsettled however I don't want to be too far away for the bathroom but that's not it I could have gone wherever I wanted to especially with the new batteries had really need to see how well they work and what kind of range I get from them but that things I can do next week hopefully. The high pressure system should be over the area for some time meaning the days will be clear more or less and then the 40s temperature wise not a bad temperature for cruising in. I do admit my butt is a little tender however I need to be careful.

I got a text from one of my old friends Almost Al, one of the older friends I have here along the Wasatch Front. We used to work together decades ago at the Independent Living Center but we've just never really totally lost contact. In fact most of the contact we do do is over the internet and perhaps that's best. But, he made the comment that this year has family has given up on him and he didn't get any invites to Thanksgiving dinner. I can certainly identify as far as the family giving up on us. Mine probably would have done a lot sooner had my mom not been in the area here she has a way of twisting arms and guilting people into doing what she wants them to do. But with her gone things have gotten a bit LAX it seems like I would have been dumped a lot earlier if mom hadn't been around to twist arms to make sure I was included in stuff- I may be totally wrong but it just seems that way anyway I understand what Alan's talking about. Luckily I didn't have to deal with that this year thanks to my grandkid he seems to really watch out for me- - which I truly appreciate. I haven't really responded to my friends text yet but I'm really cuz I really don't know what to say. They're fairly knit closely to family it seems to me but actually I listen to a podcast the other day and it was an interesting discussion about pretty LDS families and if you don't fit in maybe you just don't get in. Really interesting podcast however and seems to be this exact same thing of course I'm in denial thinking that this isn't the case with me there are too many other issues that make it difficult to hang out with me because of the power chair and being able to get into people's homes and stuff that's the reason. You guys are probably right I'm in total denial and not even close to Egypt.

Friday's folly

 It was so good be back in my chair for the full day today. My butt feels so much better it's unbelievable I really thought I was getting some skin breakdown from that other chair. The cushion just doesn't protect as well for one reason or another as the chair I'm in right now. I really didn't go anywhere today except across the street for some fruit at the Macy's Market. Feels great to have a chair with new batteries. It probably runs just the same but it feels a lot more spunky than before. I hope it's not just my imagination I don't have any plans for any major outings in the near future just because it's so cold outside. That could be the  wuss se inside me me talking an hour. Even though they temperatures are supposed to be pretty cool on the trip over to the store I was dressed in my heavy hoods I did okay so as long as the high pressure system holds maybe it will go out and do some tripping around if I get totally motivated. I don't want to histrionic but yesterday and today but having these fairly severe pains off and on and by left arm. It's not anything too dismal I don't believe and I think it has something to do with the fact that my left side I'm always pulling myself up into the right position in my chair and somehow I've sprained something. But that's all I would need is to lose one of my arms in my basic living scenario I don't know what I would do. I'm getting these thoughts more and more they're only that somewhere out there is a number and I will eventually have to figure out what the next step is as far as independent living then going to more dependent lifestyle I don't know how I would make that transition but I guess everybody has to if they live long enough. Of course my biggest issue would be the cost involved and if there will be any money left at that point in time. I was going through a few postings in the internet this morning or this afternoon and people are finally talking about what the new president's budget might mean for people on Social Security and similar benefit programs. They could be coming to a close as we know them and I'm not sure what the the new answer might be if answer at all.

I was so pleased, for dinner I a complete Thanksgiving dinner again. I even had whipped cream on my pumpkin pie. I was kind of surprised how quickly I went through the leftovers I still have a few left over a lot of turkey however. I might freeze a bunch of it for later on. I have enough left for another dinner at least or lunch and perhaps enough for a couple sandwiches. This morning I put the letters into the envelopes that I printed yesterday. I put the letters in and I put the money in those that get it are getting money and so that is going to be finished when I drop them in the mail either tomorrow or Sunday I don't think it matters actually. After I sealed and stamped the envelopes I sent them aside then watched a number of movies that I'd need to finish then got to my blog. I hope your day after Thanksgiving was great mine basically was…

Holiday stress

I'm really not trying to be paranoid but I think electronics are out to get me. For one reason or another I don't know but my power wheelchair, the backup chair, has all the sudden began to malfunction. Luckily it's not where those malfunctions where it just stops going and becomes a piece of rock or something like a 300 lb Rock but what is happening is that the electronics seem to be somewhat messed up and it keeps flashing weird signs on my driving mechanism and throwing me out of various functions for example my Forward Motion function becomes somewhat invisible as well as the chair placement modality whether I'm at a tilt or raising up and down are raising my foot pedals Etc. I think the functions are all there but they're being masked by these signs that flash up and cover everything on the viewing screens with my drive mechanism. So I can actually drive the chair but it's a hit and miss proposition trying to get the computer on a chair in the right position so the chair will either drive forward backwards are well rise up and down. It's very frustrating and I would really be frightened especially since this is a holiday weekend of course which means there's nobody that can pay attention to me. The only bright spot is that remember yesterday they picked up my chair- - that's the reason I'm in this chair- - and they will be bringing it back this evening sometime between 6:00 and 9:00 p.m. which really doesn't do me a whole lot of good right now until I can get myself transferred back into the chair which is a whole nother trauma sense tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I would have to find somebody IE family or someone else who could operate the lift to transfer me out of this chair move this cushion and stuff over to the repair chair and so forth. It's all doable but it's going to take some fast talking and some real sacrifice of folks too interrupt their holiday enjoyments to help out the poor guy in the chair. And did I say I was going to do all the food prep for the holiday tomorrow today. Well that's not really getting done and the apartment is a mess hopefully the grandkids will look past this since they're basically doing this Thanksgiving dinner event for me anyway so maybe it's just as well still kind of frustrating. I'm just holding my breath that everything works out all right and my regular chair comes back as promised .

A bit of an update it just so happens soon after I finished this morning's blog I got a call that my chair was being delivered in a few hours. That's great because my regular chair was really going cuckoo I could barely get it to engage so I could drive the chair. That part of the problem finally settle down and my chair did arrive but now I have no way to get into it because I have to get the cushion I'm sitting on into that chair and then have somebody lift me up in my sling lift to set me down in that chair. Maybe I can get my grandkids to do it tomorrow if they show up for Thanksgiving. As for that that's a whole nother posting. I've just got to stop getting myself into these volunteer situations that I can't pull off anymore and actually maybe I never could pull them off in the first place without a lot of help from people around me that I never really thought through. I had two things to make green bean casserole and the dressing and as of tonight very late I have the dressing made it's not very pretty and my apartment looks like a bomb went off. Maybe the kids will just drop the food off and leave I don't know what their plans are and I can't get a hold of anybody. I think I was happy when I just had this do myself the holiday all by myself. I really must be broken...

Tuesday's post

This is an image of my power chair waiting patiently in the hallway just outside of my apartment waiting for the driver from the wheelchair shop to pick it up to go in for repairs. We'd scheduled to have this chair picked up between 10:00 and 3:00 today but obviously that did not happen. It's Tuesday so of course I was supposed to go into the shop for my meeting but last week we indicated that there wouldn't be a meeting today. Then I was contacting last night to indicate there was a meeting which eventually turned out to be a mistake. Still however I did not go anywhere today wanted to make sure this chair got into the shop and got the work done before the holiday. That'll also means I'm sitting in my backup chair which is really quite an inferior piece of equipment compared to what I really need particularly on my butt. In this chair I sit up way too straight and puts all the weight on my right issue butt tissue which always terrifies me that I'm getting skin breakdown- which I probably am but my caregiver always says I'm okay and I'm always taking her word. There has been no skin breakdown yet. So I don't know where the driver's at and whether my chair will be picked up tonight. Oddly, I just answered my cell phone and sure enough there's the driver 10 to 15 minutes out to pick up my chair so everything's good. Of course I'm too lazy to trash this entry since it's no longer viable but still it'll express my concern for them not letting me know that they were going to do a later chair pickup.

I'm dictating this entry quite earlier than usual. There's a jazz game on tonight that I will be watching to see if they can replicate there when that they did a couple nights ago. They actually won a game against the New York Knicks I was really quite surprised. So tonight I will be watching and hoping they continue to keep their winning streak going. They have been doing well this year at least it doesn't seem like it to me. I hope they do well tonight just because I really want to be part of something that's winning. There's other things I should be doing or could be doing. I want to put together some oatmeal cookies not because it's Christmas time or Thanksgiving or whatever but because I would like some real live homemade oatmeal cookies. I've gotten tired of the ones I buy from the dollar store that's that's what are not bad but they're not really good good either. Maybe I just want something from the old days in the old ways. I've got raisins and I've got walnuts so if I add those to the mix I should be a happy camper and then cook them until they're very cookie-like. I don't like soft cookies not really. I just want a nice round well cooked cookie with a lot of flavor and a lot of crunch is that asking for too 

TG Jitters

It looks like a nice day but it was terribly cold least cold to me. I'm beginning to feel the pressure that I've got myself into and p1lanning and thinking about having a Thanksgiving dinner. I'm beginning to sweat the whole idea. I started getting an ingredients together for the different items I'd like to have. I got a couple of backup onions today from the market as well as celery and some carrot sticks. It's amazing carrot sticks cost as much as regular carrots and they're already processed pretty interesting. Solid tray with celery sticks carrot sticks at olives and who knows what else. I've got the bakings for dressing the turkey dressing. It's basically just a box of stove top dressing that I want to dress up with real dressing items like onions and bread or butter and chicken broth items that you need for hopefully a tasty sage dressing. And that's really all I'm really supposed to do I guess. I just hope this thing turns out and going to see if we can pull it off for the big room. We've used it before that turned out basically okay no it's just a matter of bringing it and putting it all together.

I've had my back at church charging all day so the batteries, what they are, should be stoked up for the 100%. Melissa will be by Tuesday Morning / tomorrow and we'll do the transfer into the old chair and we'll get the new chair and this chair ready to go back to the shop for some more working and hopefully to trade out the batteries. I didn't go far today and I don't have any indicators that I'm losing power so I'm okay for tonight and if I don't think I even need to charge it because it's just going to be going from here to the truck and for the truck to the shop and then they're going to trade out batteries hopefully I'll have to do course I'll be back able to do some real distance rolling hopefully soon. Not get this got a call from Jennifer this afternoon indicating that if it's too wet tomorrow too snowy not to come in for the meeting. Meeting!? I made a point last week when we finished our assist meeting that we won't have another meeting they said they weren't and when I left I yelled Happy Thanksgiving to everybody like I went to see him again until afterwards and now they're thinking of having a meeting on top of everything else I scheduled to have the chair picked up tomorrow and I'm not really sure when that time is going to be except it's going to be probably in the mid-afternoon but I don't want to have to go to the meeting and back again and try to do it all under some kind of time frame and to do it and pour gunky weather I just don't need that. So I'm going to have to tell him that I'm not going to be able to make the meeting tomorrow. And I can't think of why they're having a meeting there's not enough folks to be adjudicated for a meeting I don't know it's pretty complicated to me sometimes anyway. It's been a day a good day I had my coveted beef chow mein that I've been saving for weeks tonight for dinner and boy is it salty certainly not to dish that I wanted it to be but it wasn't bad for a dinner anyway tomorrow we're closer Thanksgiving Day

Happy Thanksgiving week!

 

My granddaughter finally got back from her 10-day Cruise, she was one of the maids of Honor at a married marriage on the sea of whatever best friends and so she was able to meet with us for breakfast this morning. Was really great to see her. I missed her actually she's become part of the Sunday breakfast crew. Just granddaughter has really taken on the challenge of looking after her grandfather in various ways one in particular is making sure that his door is decorated properly for whatever season/holiday might be in Vogue. It's been one thing I've kind of been interested in since moving to this apartment complex since everyone seems to Delight in dressing up there entryway. I guess it's a small thing but the people around here are totally enjoy dressing up their doors and I started to do the same. We had meant to do this earlier than today we had decorated the door for summer and then for Halloween with the wreath, spiders and skeleton. and I wanted to have something for Thanksgiving and we did the door today even though it's just Thanksgiving week now and it'll be over and a few days that's okay it'll be enjoyable to do that for a couple of days but then we'll have a shoe in for the Christmas time door decoration. 

Following breakfast the kids came over to the apartment complex and we worked on the door for a couple of hours. It was really great fun sit around the kitchen table with construction paper cutting, coloring and gluing various aspects of the decoration. I did find that I needed to get more construction paper of different colors especially if this is going to be an ongoing thing. Couldn't find a glue stick I know we had one cuz we used it for the Halloween Construction project. So I need to invest in glue sticks colored construction paper and maybe a colored felt tip art pen set. I wish I had taken some images of the kids as we worked on the decoration but I neglected to do so fortunately however I did have the wherewithal to roll out in the hall this evening and take a couple images. I don't know how they'll come out and I don't know if they'll show the writing on the inside of the wreath which says Happy Thanksgiving. Of course you'll notice the wreath is the same one we used for the Halloween exhibit/decoration. Not that it really matters but it's kind of nice to be part of the door decoration group here at the apartment complex. It's kind of a new experience for me I'm usually not part of the group effort on something like this but now things are important to me that perhaps haven't been so much in the past. I don't know which is more exciting to me decorating the door or having this incredibly fun social time with my granddaughter. I worry a little bit that the other granddaughters will feel a little bit jaded because I'm not spending more time with them but it's a logistics thing I guess in a different world perhaps things would be different. I do however enjoy their letters and whatever Communications we do enjoy. This whole grandkid thing is pretty interesting…

Sailing through Saturday

 I was on my own today I got Communications last night that Janet upstairs Janet was not be joining me today for coffee over at the coffee shop. This is not a big deal it basically just means I go over and sit by myself at the coffee shop for an extended period of time listening to other people talking their little groups and such. It was a regular Saturday morning at the coffee shop usual amount of people sitting in the two big rows yapping and yammering about who knows what. After about an hour I'd had my fill and ended up going back to the apartment where I stayed for the remainder of the day. Today was actually kind of warm but cloudy and overcast making the perfect day to stay inside. I spent the day basically cleaning up, empty and garbage cans taking oversized bundles of garbage out to the dumpster and trying to heat it into the dumpster. I'd let the kitchen garbage can get too full and I take responsibility for that. That was kind of stupid. I had Melissa dump the rest of the shredded shreddings into the garbage she did a good job packed up pretty tight but they're all loose inside the garbage can of course when I tried to take it out it was too heavy for me to lift I dragged it and of course eventually tore a hole of the side a lot of these shreddings escaped especially with the brisk wind blowing. I made a major mess, luckily my neighbor Betty came by helped me throw it into the dumpster. What was left cleaned up the best one I could let the wind take care of the rest which it did quite admirably. I bake the pizza this evening, the Pizza that I got from the market couple days ago. It's a cheap one but it's good enough for me for Saturday night. I mean sure I could have ordered a Domino's Pizza which I would have adored but it's way too much food and I don't know if I can keep myself from not eating too much. It's a few days still before I get to poop again and I still have breakfast to go through tomorrow at least before Monday morning. Hopefully I'll make it. I did eat one fourth of the pizza it was pretty good for what it was I kind of overcooked the thing but that's okay that's the way I like it I still have enough to get with you a day or two. Mark's been on contact and looks like we'll be doing breakfast in the morning so that's taken care of. I don't know if Jasmine Jackson will join us in the morning it's hard to say but at least I'll be able to hang out with Mark for a little bit. The weather supposed to take it down turn get colder and wet for tomorrow so it looks like it'll be another day of staying inside. I've got the pizza to keep me company and who knows maybe I'll even make a cake.

JFK day?

 If my memory serves me correctly I was standing in line waiting to get a hamburger or hot dog or something from The Grill at The Hornet's Nest, a small soda and grill shop next to our Junior High School, East Junior High in Boise Idaho. The place gets crowded at lunch time totally stuffed with 7th 8th and 9th graders trying to grab lunch in the conversation and be seen at this cool little shop. The radio is always going playing Hit Radio songs from the 1963 era when all the sudden the music's interrupted and a radio voice starts blabbering over the crowds General Roar, a little bit by a little bit however the crowd quiets down as a subject matter of the announcer becomes clear John F Kennedy had been shot in Dallas Texas. Within seconds the entire shop was dead silent nobody knew what to say nobody dared say anything because this was just something on the radio it wasn't really real… was it? Quietly we waited out the rest of the lunch hour and return to our fifth period classes and it was then that the principal over the intercom announced that the president had been shot and was indeed dead. I think I was at math class or maybe it was some other math type class and the girls started crying I couldn't believe it. The guys just looked around dumbfounded and minutes after that they closed the whole school down. Buses were ordered and soon we were on the way home. I can't believe it's been 61 years since that day. I still remember it just like the crochet says just like yesterday.

Such a controversial event I'm totally surprised even now there's never really been a JFK day, a national holiday. I don't know if November could deal with another holiday since I've got two national holidays to begin with a third one might be just too much particularly since it was a Democrat. But I think everybody who was there or Alive at the time and cognizant of what was going on thinks the same thing why hasn't been more done with the whole event. Maybe I'm just naive I don't understand things that are too powerful or possibly explosive. I wish my family had voted for him but we were Republicans- I didn't really understand the differentials too much then all I knew was that for one reason or another I no longer sat with my best friend John who has a great Catholic and a great Democrat. Remember once on the bus right after the event that for some reason my pencil dropped and rolled down the eye of the bus tell my friend John picked it up looked at me and broke it. Such a small thing but totally broke my heart for some reason. I was in the 7th grade at the time. Junior High felt like a universe away from grade school and I just figured crisis like the assassination of a president went along with the turf of seventh grade..

AI just leave me alone

 I hate to sound paranoid but in actuality I think I'm becoming more and more paranoid of the whole AI thing. Hopefully I'm not saying myself up for being spied on by a local AI but who knows? These AIS are popping up everywhere and I don't know how to battle it. There's been an AI who's been pursuing me on my equipment my electronic equipment of course. Seems like every morning when I turn on my equipment the AI is there begging for me to use it and I just refuse to use it and I try to eliminate the AI by deleted it from my tablets but they show up again the next day. It really is beginning to sound like a Twilight Zone episode. What kind of worries me every time I do this is going to offend the AI and if so what kind of Retribution will he/ she/it rain down upon me? I know this sounds a little farceful but the more that I go through this exercise of elimination the more I begin to feel that I'm being scrutinized far more than I ever thought that I should and if you elect not to use the AI does it become offended and then turn that hurt feelings into Revenge. At this point it's all just kind of sarcastic on my part or whatever but I have to admit I'm getting a little uncomfortable having to look in my message folder, which says I have and message in there, and realize it's just the AI trying to get itself noticed by me. Telling me how much it wants to serve me and telling me how much it wants to do searches for me it just doesn't sit right with me. It's the stuff TV movies are made from maybe even high budget movies actually don't forget 2001.

The day today was absolutely beautiful which is difficult to say in the middle of November or late November now. I overdressed where a heavy Hood and I went to the credit union in my area. At the assist meeting on Tuesday I was pleasantly surprised when I was presented with a stipend check. The new director of assist who's been there now for a number of years so I guess he's not new anymore has really changed the situation as far as stipend checks we used to never get them maybe once a year possibly but as a rule we didn't we served for free what's the way I wanted to do it since I got time off from my office to attend these meetings cuz it's part of my job. But now every couple months I get to stipend check it's not very much less than $100 but it's nice to get one to be notified of how important you are to the organization and the other is just a few extra dollars you don't have to pull out of the of my bank regular account. I can actually cruise on the change until payday which is kind of fun and I was able to pull a row of quarters out of the stipend. But more than anything else it was great being out in the outdoors in the warm days of November

Pre Thanksgiving feast!

 Today was the annual pre Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Day dinner which is a potluck pretty much with the main protein serviced are provided by the agency that owns the property. That means that someone gets to be elevated to some sort of leader type of the project and then everything goes to hell. There has been Thanksgiving dinners in the past that have been frightful but today's went off relatively well they're just a little bit of chaos that's to be expected when they try to have two lines go down the food Channel to fill up their plates and you're mixing seniors very old seniors with people Wheelchairs and Walkers and all kinds of other things that get in the way of people who can barely walk and let alone hear each other or speak. Anyway that was the function today. I've learned over the years just let everyone go in front of me and it's not as nearly as threatening us trying to Corn myself in front of everyone else and today I Almost Got Away With It. The problem today was Big Jim. Big Jim's is Old Brooklyn Teamster who is really an interesting fellow and I like I like him quite a bit. He's not totally deaf he's not Stone death but he has a hard time hearing and he's pretty old one of the older guys here and pretty much thinks he knows the way things are to go. Now over the years they've had people come into these functions and sit down at tables and once everyone's sitting down at the tables they try to have one table at a time get up and go through the food line get the food come back and sit down and then the other table gets up well today by the time I got there almost the tables were taken and I was just trying to figure out where I was going to sit but the first table right next to the food was empty and that's because they started the whole process so they are all up and in the chow line but it looked like that table was empty and that's what Jim saw and he started waving me over and it was a mess I told him no that's okay I'll come over here but he wouldn't have it he wouldn't take care of the disabled guy and that was me and I swear I was going to sit and so then the old ladies came back so it's happening sort of figured out what was happening and they all ended up finding someplace else and so Jim and I were sitting down there at the table. By this point in time the food was pretty well cold by then there's still quite a bit of food left though I got some pretty nice dressing, couple pieces of pretty decent turkey and some nice pieces of ham plus mashed potatoes which are pretty cold and so was the gravy that went on top but they had big giant pies from Costco so I loaded up on one pie ce of pie. It was relatively quiet chaos a lot of shouting going on because a lot of people just can't hear but I would probably give it a 85% over years past when some really mess ups have gone on. I got a couple cookies filled up my plate as much as I could one last time and headed for my apartment in hopes of having a second Thanksgiving dinner in the evening. Would have been better if there's been a Utah Jazz game tonight so I can watch them lose but enjoy the free holiday treat…

Back on the bus and Train

 It seemed all the what the guys could talk about last night and this morning was to be how cold it was going to be. How the temperature would be down below freezing and we all should be careful and I kind of bought into it actually- - and I'm smarter than that seriously I am. So I was kind of surprised this morning when I took off and rolled out of the morning sunshine and boy it was brisk and I had on my red warm coat I wasn't too cold actually and I rolled up to the bus stop and hung out there in the Sun for about 15-20 minutes before the 47 came to pick me up and it wasn't too bad. There was no wind and we're no clouds to block what little radiant energy was coming down so I just sort of laid myself back in the chair and enjoyed the morning watching the Jets come in from the East 5 to 10 minutes apart as long as I was sitting in the bus stop. I really believe- - and I've talked about this before I know - - that the weather guys just try to dress up the weather as much as they can to make it as significant to them and they're viewing public I guess but kind of is a disservice. Now, the cold systems passed and the next couple days are going to be warmer than normal which is pretty exciting to me because I don't think I have anything scheduled so maybe I can go out and do some rolling to a limited degree because I'm seriously suffering from Battery fatigue. The good thing about my battery fatigue is that I got word today that I am approved for new batteries as well as some upgrades to the chair that needs definitely to be fixed. Of course, that also means I have to give up my chair for a 24-hour period which means I have to schedule time with my caregiver to get me out of my chair the night before they pick it up. Turn around will be 24 hours so I won't be that big of a deal. They're picking up my chair 3 days before Thanksgiving and should have it back bye Thanksgiving not that matters but having some extended battery time would be great. Today I went just under 3.5 MI before I started getting the flashing signal that I'm running out of energy and I should be charging fast luckily I was nearly home when that happened and I was able to charge up enough during my arm bike hour to give me enough charge for the rest of the day since I wasn't going anywhere and just hanging around the apartment. Unless I get called out for something else in the week like a restaurant run or or something I need from the market I don't plan to be out too much unless I end up taking my charger with me. This is certainly awkward but doable. What I would do like if I were to go up to watch the movie or something drag the box with me then plug it in while I was at the movies to make sure I had enough power to get home. I might be overreacting..

Ps this image has nothing to do with today's post except that I stopped at fast food joint after I had finished my volunteer time at ASSIST inc you can't see it but there's a corn dog buried underneath the packets of mustard of course which I cannot use but the onion rings are great as was the corn dog

Mondays chill

 It's cold outside feels like winter is finally arrived. I really wouldn't know because I haven't been outside today. I've spent the day trying to stay warm looking outside the window of my apartment. It's not like I haven't done anything. I worked out on my own bike pumped for an hour then I had my friend/cleaning person come over worked on my kitchen for a little bit I made my place look a little bit more presentable. Between my caregiver in the mornings and my cleaning person I kind of keep a fairly decent apartment. There are nooks and crannies however where things get so piled hot these folks refuse to touch it. So one of these days I'm going to have to just get a trash can or bag and just start going through these nooks and crannies and throwing crap in the bag. I have been trying to go through all my stacks of mail much of which I've never opened and feeding it directly into the shredder. I have a small Shredder and so I often worry I will burn the engine out by feeding in too thick of pieces of mail so sometimes I will take the time and open thick pieces of mail like from the government or the insurance companies and feed the shredder much more edible pieces. Trouble is it's not a industrial Shredder so the little bucket that the shreds fall into gets full quite quickly and then it's a matter of waiting around till the naval body person is around that can lift the bucket of shreds into some sort of garbage disposal thing that I can get on with my shredding. This means again I have to wait until one of my people shows up who can assist in this project.

I love the time right after what am I clean people get done with part of my apartment. I like to sit in the clean space and pretend that I'm not going to mess it up but sooner or later life gets in the way and entropy begins to take its toll whether it's me piling stuff on the table when I come in from the market or tipping over crackers, cookies are potato chips by the computer/ flat screen which eventually falls to the floor where I will further Crush the item adding to the chaos which entropy renders. But for the first few moments, hours the apartment is a delight to sit in and enjoy the clean Stillness.

As I remarked earlier it's cold. Tomorrow's Tuesday and I've already been notified that we will be having a meeting of The Advisory Board tomorrow which means I need to dress warmly and head into the city. A roll to the bus stop then a bus trip into the train then to the library across the street to assist ink. Yes, it'll be cold but I think I can dress warm enough to get through the next couple hours it'll take two go to the meeting and Back Again.