Pioneer Day 2023!

It's Pioneer Day! The day when Utah pioneers came into this desolate Valley almost 200 years ago and claimed it as theirs. Of course, it's a state holiday not federal and the Yahoo's who like to blow things up are using it as a blank check to explode anything they can get their hands on in the name of Celebration and honor to those past. This Years celebration is turning out a bit different in Salt Lake anyway. We're having a bit of a storm even a little rain to speak of more sprinkles than anything else but huge dark clouds are trying to organize themselves into some sort of a statement. Wind has come up during the afternoon and evening hours and it's quite nice to see all the leaves and branches and trees paying homage to the gusts of the storm. On the positive side for many the wind in dark clouds have greatly reduced the temperatures that have Rock the to the upper 90s this afternoon. Not anymore it'll be cooler for the rest of the evening. I'm sure the heat will return tomorrow with less chance of afternoon storms.

As for me it was another quiet day in the apartment. Didn't have any place to go I didn't necessarily want to spend any money and I was unsure of what the bus schedules were cuz it is a state holiday and UTA runs buses on holidays sometimes but just with less frequencies. I looked on the internet online and then I tried to call the authority either way no answer was just enough deterrent to keep me from going out. But I stayed inside and outside reading and eating popsicles and a sloppy joe. I sliced up some whole jalapeno peppers which I kind of enjoyed I'm getting better the message are quite so significant and the smell of vinegar isn't quite as prevalent as the first couple of projects. I still have two big cans of the peppers Shelly sent me so I have time to continue my skill development of cutting up peppers for my morning drink. I've started using diced vegetable especially tomatoes in the drink as well which is really quite good. They make a spicy diced tomato option in the can good section which adds a lot of flavor to this ice cold drink which I used as my morning beverage more often than not.

The rain chased me into the apartment a few minutes ago. It really wasn't raining it was sprinkles nice summer evening sprinkles. There's just enough moisture to Enlighten the concrete to give up its odors which instantly takes me back to other memories of wet concrete are more specifically with cement are wet plaster. All of them have great historical roots for me especially the plaster. What concrete always reminds me of my dad plastering walls in the basement of our house on later when he was finishing the basement. It was the greatest smell. I miss those odors and I'm truly thankful for a summer rain to bring them back

Trencher

 It's been kind of a weird weather day lots of clouds almost sucked in dark billowy things which one would think holds lots of promise of lightning and thunder and possibly even rain. Along with the clouds there's also been gusts of wind it's also leads to the hope of possible moisture but so far nothing has happened. The clouds taunt me floating there looking mean and foreboding but they don't do anything. It's been a semi busy day for a Sunday. Started out of course getting up kind of early waking up about 5:45 and finally getting up at 6:00 a.m. in order to be ready by the time 8:00 a.m. rolls around. Invariably some folks are late to breakfast but that's okay as long as I'm there I can secure the table and enjoy the atmosphere and coffee until kids show up- - which they eventually did.

Getting to the restaurant was a bit more of a challenge still quite doable right now but in a very near future I think that's going to change. I'm going to have to really think my way around the road construction which seems to be looming. Last week they started slicing the asphalt up for the upcoming Trench they'll be digging in the next couple of weeks. I've seen this happen in other parts of Redwood Road and it really does quite cause a mess. The only thing that seems to survive is the driveways into people's business establishments and such. This construction is really going to have a negative effect on business for the rest of the summer. It's going south as well and not only is traveling going to be difficult on and around the sidewalks there's no place really set aside for the UTA buses too navigate close enough to put down their lifts. These drivers get kind of squirrely and anything that looks a little bit challenging to them but try to take the easy way out which is not load the person at all. The trench they're digging is about 4 ft wide and I don't know how many feet deep 4 to 6 ft deep and they're either laying cable or replacing cable I'm not sure it really looks tenuous if you ask me. I may have to figure out a way to get on the bus and go into the college and they're transferred to either 48 or 217 whatever. I think it's going to be awkward at best. We'll see on Tuesday when I have to go to assist for the volunteer meeting.

Good morning breakfast was quite almost rambunctious with my granddaughter who seems to be a budding Republican trying to make sense out of everything that's going on in your world. It's a little spooky trying to talk with her because she's such a little absolutist but hopefully we can lower the past this. And maybe at some point in time real life she'll remember and come back. Luckily we're able to keep the communication going and enjoying each other's company at the time being. Hopefully it'll always be this way. It's kind of hard to get to points across sometimes. After breakfast we all went our separate ways. I thought about going to a movie or something but I just didn't want to try to beat the Heat and freeze to death all the way through the movies. I've got to find one of my blankets I know I've got some little bitty throw blankets that would work. As much as I do not want to I may have to go to the Attleboro movie again cuz I don't see any or remember any of the images they show in the previews that's part of the movie and now I know a part of the cast are people I really like that might make a difference in how I enjoy the movie as well. But I'm going to have to find some sort of blanket of some sort to enjoy the movie with

Comfort Food

 I just finished making a meal of sloppy joes. Sloppy joes is one of my favorite go-to meals when I want some comfort food and I want to establish a bunch of sloppy joes to eat in the next week. What I like to do is make it back to sloppy joes fill up as many hamburger buns as I can put in the refrigerator and then just have them whenever I need them for the next week- - usually for dinner. I have been known however, to eat them for breakfast as well as I am dashing out the door sometimes for a meeting or something. Today I just wanted to have enough to get me through Sunday and the holiday which is Pioneer Day here in Utah the 24th of July which will be Monday. I've decided not to do a fantasy barbecue again it's just too much work for one person. It's kind of pathetic too and I stand back and look at it and what am I trying to achieve a feeling of normalcy. Anyway, this year I've got sloppy joes two kinds of potato chips, store made potato salad and my usual drink of jalapeno peppers tomato juice and the rest. It's going to be a great holiday. It's too hot to really do anything so I plan to do some reading sit in the shade as much as possible suck down popsicles I have a couple bags in the freezer and enjoy the time. 

As I said sloppy joes are one of my favorite go-to comfort Foods there's just something totally easy from building to digesting the burger. I think besides cinnamon toast sloppy joes was one of the first meals I ever learned to make all by myself. I don't know if my mother encouraged me she must have since I used the family kitchen to make them but I don't remember that aspect. I just remember putting everything together especially the green peppers and the onions and a can of tomato paste or whatever and having the whole thing turn out to be a decent little barbecue burger. Actually sloppy joes with sort of a new thing at that point in time and I was totally in love with the burger and would make as many times as I get away with. I've been thinking about making sloppy joes for 2 days now I even got a pound of hamburger out of the freezer and had it thawed out ready to go. I thought I had everything I needed but during the week I did get another green pepper and I knew I had an onion so I was okay that way. I also thought I was totally okay with the tomato sauce or paste whatever I knew I had cans of it in my storage. However when it came time to use the Tomato product I checked the best by dates and I was like 10 years past most of the checkout dates are used by dates. I opened up the paste anyway and it was this ugly black sludge same way with two cans of tomato sauce that I dared to open. I guess the use by dates are really valid I need to be less skeptical. I guess I'm going to go through all my cans now and get rid of the ones with way past the used by dates. I should have done it long ago how stupid am i? I'm currently waiting for the sloppy joe mix to us cool down at the point that I can build the burgers put them in the plastic container and throw them in the fridge. I kind of destroyed the Kitchen Tonight so I think I have to wait now till Monday to clean up. That's okay I enjoyed myself happy Saturday night

A Bomb

 The hot days continue but I decided to do something I wanted to do and not be forced to keep myself in the shade or cooler temperatures of the apartment all day. It's Friday and that means new movies at the theater and today Oppenheimer started. I'm kind of fascinated with the whole atom bomb thing but I also have fascinated with the playlist and characters in this particular movie. So, after Melissa was finished with me dressed and ready to go like rolled over to the bus stop and waited. The 217, the Redwood Road route, runs every 15 minutes so you never have to wait long the only problem being there's a bunch of construction beginning in my section of the street which means bus drivers may or may not stop because of all the orange cones in the street and there just isn't a place to stop. I don't know what I'm going to do when the construction gets worse. I think this work is only supposed to last two or three months but that's so they going to take up the rest of the summer that's for sure. I Will Survive.

I really didn't have any breakfast to speak of just some nuts in my tomato drink so I picked up the next bus and stopped at a hamburger joint and Chow Down. I still had almost an hour before the movie was supposed to start being seated which means another 20 minutes after that for me to run the previews so I had more than enough time. I stopped over at the dollar store and got some boxes of theater candy then I got my tickets. 

I got my customary Red Vines and a drink this time. I hate the sizes of the drinks cuz they're just huge and so I never finished them but I got some fruit punch with ice. I would have liked some popcorn but I declined figure I was doing enough damage to my body as it was. The movie: Oppenheimer is beautifully filmed I'm sure it's going to be up for a bunch of awards when the season comes due. But I just never really got into the movie maybe it's cuz I didn't understand it or I wasn't sure what they were trying to portray or trying to say I just didn't get it. Truthfully the thing was boring to me but I sat through the whole thing hopefully if I can it was going to get better it never really did. However like I said conceptually the concepts were interesting as far as quantum mechanics and some of that stuff how they tried to visually show that but that was almost as confusing as the others. I didn't even recognize some of my favorite actors in this movie which I thought was kind of weird. There are actual other people in the theater with me which is rare anymore but I was totally shocked when at the end of the movie someone actually clapped! Like I said somewhere along the way I got thrown off the wagon I never got back on I don't even know if I could sit through the movie again even though it would be free to go to. It was the old Jews and communist fears that seem to be underlying in the movie. I really don't know who the good guys were are the bad guys just flew over my head. Maybe I was tired I don't know but I don't think I can sit through it again but never say never and these are hot days…

Coffee and Cable

 Just to bring you up to speed I decided not to be a jerk and help out this morning at the Community Coffee social. Granted, I didn't go over to the market last night and get the cheap cookies that I usually get luckily however, we had a whole package of cookies and one of the cupboards that had not been used yet. Luckily there was the giant amount of people showing up today who knows why. Maybe it was just too hot for coffee. Anyway there was more than enough cookies for those that did show up to have seconds and even thirds at two cookies paper saucer. Marsha, my neighbor across the hall helped me tremendously this morning pull this off and I'm glad she did it was really quite laborious at times. I'm quite pleased now with Management's drive to get some regulars to do the coffee but I don't think that's going to happen. The announcements been up for a week and as I understand nobody has elected to take on that position. As long as I have people like Marcia willing to work make coffee, clean up put things away I can run the thing real well get the job done. Everyone's got coffee everyone yammers for a while and we're done in about an hour. I help her I can clean up and trying to get things back to normal but fortunately there's a class now that meets every Thursday at 11:00 a.m. and the tables have to be put away in the corner anyway, it's an exercise class, low impact, so even if the tables are all messed up and yucky some of the more able-bodied people can push them over to the side and get on with their lightweight workout session.

Luckily I had a building excuse to not hang around and watch the ladies do their low impact exercises. I finally went through the whole process and ordered Xfinity to come in and trade out my box which I think is the selector box or whatever that they're broadcast materials come in on. I know this is silly because the only thing I really want to watch is the 5:00 news and more specifically the 5:30 news which is the CBS affiliates national news broadcast which I cannot get on live streaming or whatever. I think CBS has a block on that forcing you to come through their front door like normal people. Anyway, the guy was supposed to be here between 10:00 and 12:00 you know how that goes. So after the coffee I waited out front so he wouldn't have to go through the whole process of coding in to the front door but he never showed up until I was notified by the front desk that this guy was waiting at my dog at my apartment and I turned around and looked there he was! I don't know how he got there. I don't know how he could have passed well he says he came in the side door which might be true, why would you lie? It was a process of about 45 minutes testing out the broken box and then making sure you had the new box that would work and by 12:00 noon I was able to catch the local news update on regular television feed. Really felt civilized. Then I turned off the feed and spent the rest of the day hanging out under the shade read my book. Seems like I have read this Stephen King before but that's okay it's good enough that it's worth a reread at least part of it I've read before I think it's the number of short stories I thought it was a full novel but does not seem to be. One last thing, I don't know if I've got a wound on my butt or what or maybe the tapes just getting old and irritating the skin but I need to have Melissa look at it in the morning and tape it up for the weekend and then still during these hot faces I'm not going anywhere probably just to the market if I have to go anywhere leaning back in my chair taking the weight off my butt as much as possible and getting through the day. A number of movies start this week that I might want to take in before the end of the month as well. The best thing was the coffee social went off okay and I didn't have to be an ass…

Wishy Washy Rain Day

 Seriously, the only thing productive I really did today all day was my Wednesday wash. It was usual I had Melissa carry the clothes down to the laundromat and throw the clothes in and I started the process as she was leaving. That sure helps a lot. And I was trying to be focused so I was going to try to finish reading my novel and watch the clothes at the same time. I went down and threw the clothes from the wash into the dryer and started the process and I did my usual thing of putting the quarters for the second wash in the slots and not thinking anything more of it. Then I went back to the apartment actually I went out to read my book. I was kind of excited they were supposed to be possible showers and thunder showers later on today but sometimes prepping getting ready for that to happen can be quite exciting. So, I did my reading with an eye to the sky. The afternoon wasn't this active as I would like to have been but eventually the clouds did seem to form up a little bit and there was a little wind not too much. What was really weird that during that time that I was reading I went to start the second dry of clothes to make sure they would be done by 3:00 when I could fold the clothes during Marketplace. It was really strange when I got there my basket was gone and so is my stick! I thought that was really weird and Jennifer wasn't in her office she was gone for the day where was my basket and more importantly how was I going to get at home once I did the second dry. I figured well I might as well get the clothes dry so I hit the plunger in the quarters fill in to the dryer and I started the whole thing. But I was just totally shocked because my basket and my stick was totally gone!

With nothing more to do I figured I might as well go back to the apartment drain my bladder then go out and read some more. I was taking it back when I got to the apartment there with my basket and the stick sitting on the floor. Somebody had taken my wash and dry and put it in the basket and dropped it off at my place. I was a little miffed but glad to have my basket back but a little worried that the clothes would still be damp which is why I always do a second dry. These people just took the clothes out and and took him to my apartment. I'm sure it was the best intentions. And luckily for me when I did check him out later on that afternoon the clothes weren't too damn and I was able to fold the clothes and hang the shirts as I usually do that was a blessing. It's a shame that I ran that dryer for no apparent reason though. Cuz I didn't check to see if there was clothes in there I just hit the plunger and started the machine. I'm still wondering who it was and I guess if I really wanted to I could check. But right now Jennifer and some of the staff are acting a little weird I don't know if it's at me in general or just what it's kind of strange though. So anyway I'm going to be somewhat scarce for a while and see if things blow over. I don't know for sure but I kind of think it's something to do with the coffee social and who's running it and who's not running it and all that kind of stuff it's really turning into a mess. I should learn not to get involved in this kind of stuff it always comes back to bite you in the bottom. I figured I will go tomorrow at least a part of the coffee social make sure it gets going and then make up some story to head out, I do have the cable guy coming tomorrow to see if the install the cable. That's a whole nother minor issue that I've got to deal with. Something doesn't seem right but at least I'll be able to watch television without having to filter everything through the computer. It's actually cold tonight and today I had Melissa take the top cover off the bed so I just have the quilt and the sheets hopefully I'll be able to stay warm tonight. I did finish the novel The Tom Clancy and started the new Stephen King but I kind of think I've read it sounds and feels real familiar in some ways. Sigh, I'd like some good science fiction if I can find it…

Totally Tuesday

 I really cannot believe that I am not able to put my shoes on independently, with my chair the way that it is right now. I hope I'm not just blowing smoke and that no matter what happened to my chair I'll not be able to finish dressing as I used to. I was going to try to wear shoes today going in for my assist meeting but I had one shoe on and then when I went to cross my legs to put on my shorts by shoe came off! I knew I could struggle to try to put that shoe on and I might be able to have made it but I only had a couple hours before my meeting and I wanted to make sure that I didn't waste the time on something is extraneous as shoes in the middle of summer. My biggest issue is the do I lose any credibility- - as if I had any anyway- - wandering around downtown without any shoes on. The way that my foot pedal/foot box is constrained right now tipping radically up I think someone has to be totally looking for feet without shoes to find them in my shoebox right now. I wish I had not lost my Avengers blanket that was perfect for hiding feet. So, I made the decision early on rather than fight the shoes leave them I finished getting dressed wandered out to the bus stop after a fast bowl of corn Chex and milk.

Gray skies with lots of wind and every once in a while sun shines through but the temperatures are still pretty warm not overbearingly hot like it has been but still pretty toasty. I got down to the library pretty early got some coffee I hung out in the library for 45 minutes until it was time to get to my meeting. Andreas my friend who runs the meetings keep saying he has all these tons of applications to approve and there's really not very many at all I'd be surprised if there was 10 today. It gets me out of there pretty fast and gets my job done. Since I was downtown and it's Tuesday meaning that Robert and Company will be in the workshop at the ucat building I figured out stop by and see if they can help fix the chair. That's a long story and it took a while but we finally got the main reason I stopped in there and that was to fix the receiver of left arm rest and to get the right armrest fixed as well. That's also able to ask questions about the other power chair and it seems like what really happened is that the batteries went so low that the charger I had is too weak to charge them so Robert who runs the shop indicated that he would stop by with a trickle charger which will revive the batteries if anything can. I've got the charger on now and I'll run it all night and see if that'll kick the batteries over. I might need new batteries that will be expensive.

I finally got home and that was a trip as well because I seem to have destroyed two buses today just by being. When I was waiting to catch the bus number four from downtown Salt Lake over to Rehabilitation where the wheelchair repair shop is. One cycle the bus didn't show up which of course that particular route runs every half an hour making me wait almost another hour in the Sun and the heat waiting for the next bus. Then on the way home I was on the bus, I just gotten on actually on the 217 Southbound and all the sudden all the electrical systems on the bus completely phase out. The bus has nothing but a lump on the road. Though Kimberly the driver says it's not my fault I know that it is just as I'm sure I wasted the bus on Route 4 earlier in the day. I am the Destroyer after all. I'm just glad I got home, got a couple popsicles in me dropping my body temperature and then relaxed for the rest of the day…

Very Warm Indeed

 Another super hot day that I'm using this excuse to do nothing at all except read my book which by the way, is getting close to being finished. I don't know if waiting through the first 500 pages was worth the conclusion but it isn't pretty exciting and to this volume. I'm not sure how much I like the writer maybe I'd read Clancy again if I was desperate and fortunately for me there are a number of Clancy volumes up in the library. So I'm covered either way. I do have a Stephen King to get into possibly two we'll have to see. So I'm pretty well set till the end of the summer I believe if the heat wave ever gets done which I know that it will, but going through it just never feel that's going to happen. But believe me it will get cold again and who knows maybe even snow this whole climate change thing is still new bananas and we're still trying to figure out how to peel the first one let alone the whole bunch.

Tomorrow I'm going into the city even though it's supposed to be a hot day again. I think I'll be okay as long as I carry water and have my head covered. I mean after all it's not really that hot even at its worst we're talking triple digit Heat but tomorrow there is a possible cold front pushing by which brings clouds as well as the possibility of some precipitation. It won't be much even in the best case scenario but certainly could be exciting with winds lightning and possible torrential rain. My biggest issue is within my wheelchair will hold up to the stress of travel in the heat. I'm having so many issues with parts of the chair becoming unbolted and such that I'm going to go over to ucat wheelchair shop to see if they can do anything to patch me together as well as I need to ask them some questions by my power chair won't charge. Because I can't get this chair going until I have something to ride around in when this one's not available. Why does everything have to be so complicated? If I can get those two items done tomorrow I will if deemed it a positive day.

I was a little taken aback this afternoon when I passed the bulletin board and there was a announcement for somebody to do the coffee on Thursdays that I thought had been doing okay at. Obviously not, but before I got all screwed up and hot or anything else about it I realize it's no big deal. It's my ticket out of that whole thing if I play it right I still come off looking relatively decent. If they don't like the one I've been doing let somebody else do it no problem to me. Just seems weird that I've been able to do that and if it wasn't doing it the right way why didn't they let me know. It's pretty dumb thing anyway coffee social. I'm really glad that I'm able to live here though it sure came in handy when I needed it and it's been handy ever since on all the levels. Personal transportation would have been nice but you can't have everything and that's okay too I get by just fine doing what I need to do.

JUST Reading in the Shade

I kind of slept in today. Both kids had something going on out of town in other states even. So there was really no reason for me to go over to breakfast by myself. I slept until about 7:00 a.m. which is kind of unique especially for a Sunday I didn't even get up till after 8:00 a.m. which is when we usually have breakfast over at the restaurant. I indeed felt like I was skipping school. I thought about cooking myself a masterpiece but just didn't have the desire. I made my drink which actually has the peppers and the carrots and the vegetable juice that's kind of like a diet breakfast I would think. But that was about it I'm sure I grabbed a couple cookies here and there. I didn't take out the sausage last night like I wanted to which again is probably just as well because I really didn't feel a lot like cooking this morning.

T I'm really going through a reading phase right now. In fact after that pathetic breakfast I went out in the shade and read for a couple hours. I could feel the temperature increasing and realized it was going to be a hot day but that's nothing new right now we're still under the dome. I've kind of enjoyed the Heat this summer so far it hasn't been too bad on me but I haven't had to be out in the sun too much. I'll be going out this week to some degree I have to go in on Tuesday of course and I think I'd better get over to you Kat or whatever to see if I can fix this chair a little bit. To get to see somebody look at my other chair or find out another system to take care of me while this chair is in the shop. It's also complicated it's all driving me crazy just want to deny everything and read my books. Hopefully that's not a bad sign.

My older brother Ross calls this afternoon that was kind of a surprise for sure. I was getting kind of worried not hearing from him from sometime and I must confess I have not been the best brother either as far as calling him like I should. He seemed to feel like he was the one in the wrong for not calling. I thought perhaps he had died or something and I had got the message yet but he still functional but he says he's living on borrowed time which is kind of spooky but I can understand his point of view especially at 78 or whatever he is. Maybe he's only 76. Just having a problem with the VA medical system but who doesn't. Making all the noises that vets make when working with that system. He's got a lot of that Vietnam era problem as far as not feeling they've gotten the respect they should have gotten coming home from that war. It's a hard one to call no question about it. I gave him some ideas possibly maybe if you're going to contact the vet rep at his senators office or House of Representative person. They might be able to help him cut through the red tape a little bit the bottom line is just a giant Perkasie and nobody gets through there okay. I think a lot of the old World War II vets got along okay at least my neighbor did but he was a nice guy as it was so what can you say treat nice get nice I don't know. I watched the Harrison Ford movie this evening just for the fun of it. I've seen it a couple times before but still enjoy the whole premise. Good political stuff CIA nobody telling the truth and Harrison Ford getting caught in the middle of everything almost killed and doing stuff he's not supposed to do as a CIA reader and not a field agent. Always kind of fun.6 kind of excited about the next week. They're supposed to be a couple days of high probability of possible thunderstorms or thunder showers that always makes for an exciting evening and afternoon. Sadly it also means that the summer is winding down but once again that would be okay I'll get through it and then we'll be winter time again and Dark Nights and little days and enjoying each day that I have left

Sticky Rice...Very Sticky!

Another hot day though nothing like the Heat and some parts of this state which is well over 100°. Today I think was only around 98 or something which is Toasty no question about it but not enough to keep me from doing stuff- - if I really wanted to. As is I'm happy with just doing the basics and spending time in the shade dozing and reading. Perhaps the biggest thing I did today was run across the street to the Macy's Market and purchase a couple chicken breasts, Deep Fat fried, to use in making some Frank or something that nature. I've got a package of jasmine rice that I use tonight. I don't know if it's the rice or me or what- - is probably me I can accept that- - but I washed the rice brought the rice to boil then added the rice soon thereafter taking the rice aside covering up with a( I don't have a lid that fits the the saucepan I used)). Then I went out and read for an hour or so came back in the fluff up the rice and it already begun to like turn to mush in parts of the rice. Like I said I'm sure it was something that I did but I chose to use the rice anyway and fried up some onions and a can of chicken meat, I decided not to use the breast of chicken just too much work. And I went to the process of Browning the the onions and the meat is best I could then dumped the rice into the mix and tried to cook off the extra moisture and fluid and make it edible. I of course will plan to use a lot of soy sauce. I totally believe soy sauce can fix almost anything especially white rice but I would have liked the kind of rice you get in the restaurant however. But I opened the whole bag of jasmine rice that should be a good package to practice on. If I have a pile of rice made it's easy for me to eat that during the week like when I make six or seven hamburgers and have them ready to go at any time works out really good.

No one's available for breakfast tomorrow and I think I will use the time to sleep in if it's possible and possibly cook some breakfast here. I have a green pepper and the rest of the onion and if I were to cook the sausage like sausage squares I learned that last quarter might be okay some breakfast food to have at hand if I need it. Other than that the days go in fine. I'm finishing that Tom Clancy I've been sweating for the last couple weeks. Jennifer dropped off another Stephen King yesterday, I don't think I've read it but I'm not sure we'll see. But I'm set perhaps the rest of the summer for reading.

I'm a little worried about Marc Anthony coming back from Oregon with his car. It seems to be of having some challenges. I must admit however he's doing a great job keeping things going like that. I like to think that I could never do that but he swears that's where he gets his skills is from some innate ability from my gene pool. I find that kind of hard to believe but Mark's pretty smart I'll have to think about this some more. It's the 15th kind of like halfway through July which also makes me think halfway through the summer if you want to use the three months protocol. Even if you use the four month quarterly concept we're closer to the end of the quarter then the middle of the quarter. Soon, soon the days will shorten to the point that they're noticeable, the overheating environment will get back in line and we'll make the transition during fall. And summer will be gone for the year. I'm hoping I get to see another…

Let Him Down Gently

 I just finished a semi- awkward task of emailing a friend of mine advising him that I was really not interested in a wheelchair cushion which he was offering me. This was such an odd offering to begin with still trying to figure it out. The guy's name is Tim and I don't know him that well. He's one of the Paras( paraplegics that hang out and play ball with the Salt Lake Street Wolves. An independent paraplegic basketball team ran by the paraplegics on the team. This is quite a delicate / complicated topic and one day perhaps I will write further on this concept. But anyway that's how I know this guy. The company that I worked with Utah Independent Living Center was the sponsor of these guys, As I understood it, so we often went out to their games to show our support. These guys were interesting folks many of which like to go drinking after the games/ practices or whenever. There are a couple times I went with them but I always felt like I third wheel. I didn't quite fit in with the group. My wife at the time was pretty interested in the team so in supporting both I went to a couple of the extracurricular functions.

With the Advent of more social media particularly with Facebook and some of the other platforms it's been easy to communicate with some of these folks that I never have before. I know Tim and I have sent a couple messages back and forth more just salutatory ideas you know Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, whatever holiday might be there. But that's been the extent of our relationship. I was kind of surprised that Tim even realized I was on Facebook still. I've been keeping kind of a low profile over the last couple of years. No particular reason just that I can't think of a whole lot to say to these people anymore or I don't have a lot to say about myself on the public side of the platform anymore. I'm not sure what that means, probably just another age indicator. Actually I just heard back from the gentleman and he was more than diplomatic regarding my refusal of his offer. In fact he shared with me that he had issues with the cushion as well and could never really use the cushion himself. I thought that was very interesting to know.

The Rojo cushion is a Top Model, high tech, piece of disability equipment. The cushion itself is made of the number of individual pockets of air that really cushions the buttocks. My problem with the cushion is that one it's expense and two that it's pretty unstable for somebody with limited trunk control as well as transfer capabilities. It's hard to transfer on and off of almost to the point of being unsafe. Perhaps the biggest issue I have had with the Rojo is that as I understand the pockets of air they're all hook together so when one goes the all go as far as when one ruptures and deflates the whole cushion is affected. Over the years they've tried to limit the amount of problem by keeping just sections of the cushion integrated but still when one of the air sacs deflates you're left with an almost unusual cushion even if you have 3/4 of the cushion still intact. Anyway, I ramble. Don't get me wrong the Rojo's a great cushion especially if you're trying to either heal from skin breakdown or prevent skin breakdown. It's just not for me

A Very Long Day

 

Another early morning for no apparent reason but being too lazy turnover and catheterize. I mean I feel like I need to go to the bathroom, the empty my bladder, where just too tired to turnover and do the process so instead try to force myself back to sleep, which does not come , and not pee The bed at the same time. I do not dare sleep in, it's Thursday, and I see it my job to make sure that coffee social Goes off as planned. So I've got to get up and get shaved and make sure Things happen. As usual, who myself out of bed at 6 AM. I do my thingsAnd struggle to ge ssed– – much easier since I have elected not to wear shoes.

I am functionally rolling by 8:30 AM the cookies I purchased last night still in the sack from All a dollars and take them down to the community room and make a mistake of putting them on the giveaway table not thinking that people with seriously take the whole package of cookies… But they did. I tried to be angry but this was on me I really should've known better. If I had encountered a package of chocolate covered graham cookiesI suppose I would have done the same thing. And it turns out no big deal Chris brought donuts and we've been stockpiling the cookies that I've been dreaming the past couple weeks so we had calories to expend.

I have to admit even I think it's dangerously hot outside and therefore somewhat limiting by time out in the elements. I spent a good part of the morning following coffee social trying to update my resume. It has been sometime since I last updated the document. I have all my information about my Murray existence which I wanted to update my current contact information. It must be done case since I last used PDF software and oddly I don't have any on my equipment. I couldn't get my document open. I actually went down and asked Jennifer if she could assist me and she did but you just print the document I needed the information changed. Hopefully she'll send me the open/save the Word file documents-make the changes. In the meantime I managed to send a copy of the as is resume To have until I can get the updated version. This might not even be necessary since I'm really not trying to gain employment just be considered for membership to the board. But who knows where things go?

I continue to read my Tom Clancy and worry about the condition of my apartment, backup power chair that will not power and how I'm going to get my current chair repair.Speaking of repair I also need to fix a way to access my arm Bike. I think I've missed Working out like 200 minutes a week I'm amazed at how good the constant workout made me feel as well as give me the illusion of looking better;most of all the things I think I'm having these thoughts because it's almost 8 PM and I've been out for very long time in a very long day

Wednesday Thoughts

 

As much as I like to use the tablet to verbally dictate and how contingent the tablet is to enjoy using my computer, desktop and hopefully back in the game. Again, the tablet is very effective about doing basic dictation doesn't have all the little tricks that bedtime software has.This morning I noticed an email from Google indicating that I was eligible, once again, to reclaim my password or whatever the term is.I did with the email said that look like I was back in the game will see when it comes time to post this document in a few minutes.

Melissa was back from vacation today. I have to admit I was really glad to see her and her ability at service or at least her taking care of me. What was best was Melissa not looking at her watch every 5 minutes. This is what the person who substituted or Melissa and really put me off my game. Melissa, it's good to have you back. The rest of the day I pretty much all around the apartment complex taking off briefly across the street get treats for tomorrow's coffee social.I did spend some time trying to read out on the deck or the common area. Got a few pages read but mainly dozed. I was sitting at one of those tables With the Umbrella Stuck in the top of the table. I was fortunate day the umbrella was accepted and will give me adequate protection from the beast of The sun.

Remember I said I went to the market for the coffee treats. The other major reason I went to the market was to get a couple bags of popsicles.The bag I have been using was almost gone you have about 5 more popsicles left. It took me a while to find my hot/cold bag. Right after marketplace I headed to market. I have to admi 2 bags of popsicles which is 36 units those were counting is fairly heavy. But with little effort the bankers got them all into my H/C bag and removed the bag off my hook. I know I probably don't need 36 popsicles ALL at once but it is been my experience that only run out of just the plain popsicles taken forever to get new popsicles. You have a bunch of fancy dancy designer popsicles is just not the same. So now I'm set I wonder if I can consume these popsicles as quickly as I do the pickled peppers. Speaking of which, Melissa found the oversized can opener with hand crank and desperately want to use it but I put her off until Friday because I'm usually want to also cut up the peppers. I want to make sure this next batch/Large can of peppers are slashedCorrectly long way. I really want to try it on Friday and see how difficult task cutting the peppers this way is.

I can't remember the name of the place right now is like an ice cream/malt shop.net shopping area around 5400 S. and Redwood Road. This is place I would to last week and asked for an ice cream cone with one Scoop which cost me almost $5 . Aside from the sticker shock and the size of the hard ice cream scoop has left me the desire to go back for moreI don't know quite there but at least I'll know how much the next cone is going to cost…

Hot City neck pretty gritty

I really thought the high point of my day was going to be the assist meeting downtown Salt Lake at 11:00 a.m.. I was actually doing pretty well all things considered. I started getting up around 6:00 a.m. figuring that I had to get dressed and shaved and everything and ready to take the bus into the train and the train into the city. Now I knew that there was a problem before I caught the bus because of road construction the bus stop has been taken out of commission it's kind of freaks me out. I figured however that I'd be able to maybe go the back way in the back streets cut into the Community College and take the bus from its place where the bus comes in. What I didn't take into consideration with that the work guys of the streets chiseled up so badly there's no way I was getting into the Community College. I had to roll Maybe a mile out of my way maybe more to finally get to a number 47 bus stop on the far side of the Community College which eventually did take me in to the train but in doing so I used up so much time. I was kind of surprised by the time I got to assist,inc it was only about 15 to 20 minutes late and I was really surprised I thought it's going to be much later than that.

We have just started the new Grant year which means that we have money which means that we can actually take requests for home repairs. A lot of these have been stacked up waiting for the new funding but some are new quite a few actually and that's what we did once I got in station there at the office. Once we got going the process was pretty quick and we got about 19 or 20 requests signed and delivered. These people now will have new steps concrete and otherwise, new windows, off and on electrical repairs which powers air conditioners and such. What was really great was that it was a Payday. We rarely get any pay or financing for what we do we don't expect to. This is basically an altruistic function well for me it was part of my work week so that was something different as housing coordinator but still I never expected any Financial compensation we got some today wasn't much $48 but still that's quite a bit allowed me to get some things that I hadn't really planned on for a while.

With that in mind new money in my my laptop I took off for the bank cash the check then had a great lunch over at Taco Time my favorite guilty pleasure. Then I went off to find Standard Restaurant Supply which I hope would have industrial type can openers. I finally found the building didn't take too long but this was after I stopped at my old workplace the Utah Independent Living Center to visit with my friend Kim. And Kim drag me into the executive directors office Holly. I've been meaning to get to talk Holly ever since she became the new director which has been about 6 months now. In truth I'm a little bit intimidated by her and was reticent to spend time but Kim got us together we had a great conversation and looks like I'll be on the board of directors at that facility Plus on another board as far as Transportation goes all of which is pretty exciting and should be good for me to get back into the swing of things. What was the best part of the event was that she was making talk like the good old Independent Living director should which was having a source for folks with disabilities who aren't represented by any other group which is basically physically disabled folks. I don't know how much I will work with the center they're going to have to go through some major changes but that's okay it's a new day. I finally found restaurant supply after leaving the Independent Living Center and it took me awhile but I did find kind of what I was looking for a crank heavy duty can opener belts to open up the number 10 cans of restaurant vegetables and things like that in my case jalapeno peppers. I finally got to the train station and took the train to my stop. It was much easier getting home then getting to the bus. I cut the watermelon tonight I've been meaning to do that for some time. It went off better than I anticipated so dinner was pretty much watermelon and cheese cheddar cheese Sharp and pickled peppers sometimes the day does not turns out as you expect 

Measuring Monday

I cannot believe it! I just lost a 700 Word document of today's post to my blog! I don't know what I did but I was completely finished with it and I was going to save it to the blog site and I must have hit the wrong button and there's been no way I can retrieve it.:-( so here it goes I'm going to try again.

I didn't sleep as well as I would have liked primarily because I was worried about how the morning was going to go with the new/ substitute lady for Melissa who's on vacation. I was contacted by the agency last week that this was going to happen and that she was coming at 5:30 a.m. and would that be a problem. I indicated that was pretty early but you know I could survive and so whether or not that was a reason I woke up around 4:00 a.m. and couldn't really get back to sleep. As up at 5:00 a.m. and got a lot of my stuff done I've got coffee made and cleaned up a little bit in the kitchen and was finishing my catheterization when the individual walked in. I was a bit surprised she was well past middle age and she barely spoke English and I don't know how much she understood English and I wasn't sure how much she understood what my needs were. I am finding with this agency they don't really fill in their people when they start a new person. I mean they've always assured me that the people knew what my needs were and many times the people didn't know anything about what was going to need. She was a champ though between our broken English and her broken Romanian or whatever we got the process done. She even did the suppository fairly well. I must admit I feel concerned that the bowel movement itself was not a very good evacuation but I think I got enough out to get by until Wednesday when Melissa is back. I also felt a bit stressed out because she was supposed to be here at 5:30 a.m. and then she's about 20 minutes late and then start looking at her watch like she had some place to be. It seems like she has her regular nursing job up at the University Hospital and had to be on line at 7:00 a.m. so she really need to travel that half hour from our place here in Taylorsville up to the U. I need to probably do some soul searching in that how thankful I am with Melissa who I think regularly goes over the hour that I should be doing my stuff in but I think that Gloria also let me slip a little bit TimeWise but we always got a pretty decent bowel movement in the shower. This lady,5 I could not even pronounce her name was nice about everything and maybe on a long-term basis she would work out okay but it would be real challenging to say the least. Hopefully I'll be glad when Melissa is back.

I did run to the market today and pick up some green sliced Peppers to go with my drink. Makes a big difference. I still need to travel and get some a can opener that will handle the big industrial cans that I have. I also got a green pepper and some onion with the idea of making sloppy joes for tonight and that's what I did. I watched two movies during the day on Netflix then made dinner tonight and messed up the kitchen. I also found out that I have an assist, ink meeting tomorrow which I thought sure we did not but that's okay gets me up gets me out gets me enjoying the day. I have to be careful however because the one stop that I used to pick up no longer functions. Long story it's frustrating. Hopefully I'll sleep tonight…

Sunday Frustration

 Please be advised. Somehow I've got myself blocked out of my Google account that runs this blog. I finally figured out how to access the account through a back door that I'm using right now hopefully it'll go. I'm still now trying to figure out how to transport the stuff I wrote yesterday onto the blog in the right position. I'm really frustrated but what else is new. It's hot today I've been outside reading and enjoying that quite a bit and just worrying about not being able to post to my account. Hopefully I can get it figured out this coming week... just a few more notes as I'm about ready to go to bed. I was able to get my blog account at least accessible from my tablet and it seems to be working okay except for it keeps flashing that I'm dangerously low on computer space. I think I know what that means but I'm just not really worried about that right now I'm sure there's a lot of stuff I can delete should I need to.

Had a great breakfast with my granddaughter. Usually I have breakfast with Mark and Jasmine and many times with Jasmine's boyfriend Jackson. However Jackson's in Mexico this week and Mark's in Oregon visiting Michelle so it was just the two of us and that's really fun sometimes just hanging out with the granddaughter on our own. It's great to hear about her life and what's going on and how she's getting on top of everything she needs to. She even paid for breakfast again, the second time she done that I'm pretty impressed. The rest of the day I actually just spent reading trying to finish this Tom Clancy book as soon as I can to get on with other Reeds for the summer. I'm a little nervous about tomorrow morning when I'm going to have the substitute Home Health person come in for my Monday maintenance and shower. She's coming at 5:30 and a.m. and I just hope that I'll be up and ready to go by such time. The plus side is that'll be done and done for the rest of the day which is pretty cool. The days are hot now that I like them I should do more than just sit out in the shade and read but for today I think that was just right...

Saturday published the hard way!

You know you're old when Saturday night and your checking charge levels on your backup chair. I don't know if you remember but I'm supposed to send this chair, my regular chair, into the shop on Monday night hopefully for them to repair my elevator function on my box. I have a Power chair parked in the corner of my room not far from where My arm bike is where I have the character which I use every night to charge my batteries, for my power chair, for the next day. My concern began this morning when I Plugged my Power chair(My backup chair) to make sure the battery is fully charged when I have to use it Monday when they come to to get my regular chair for repairs. When I plugged in the chart indicated flashing angry background without black arrow. The flashing icon looks a little frightening so I unplugged the beast in hopes that this afternoon I'll plug-in again and everything will work just right. Well of course, I tried now again and once a again got the angry flashing red background with a black arrow. As I said, I use this machine every night to charge the batteries in my main chair. 

I grabbed my trusty cell phone and searched for flashing red light on charger  of wheelchairs. And sure enough when I found was this the light is flashing red that means the batteries that you charge. I don't know what would've happened because nothingness really been done that power chair  since last time I I had to send the power chair for service. There is a little more information that possibly somewhere in the wiring something as come disconnected preventing the battery charge. It's late Monday I don't want call my brother and I don't want while in one Sunday. Mark Anthony my son, is out of the state visiting sister so he cannot check this out I hoping it is a simple fix, of course. At this juncture however I'm afraid I'm going to have to contact the shop early morning to advise him not to collect my chair the afternoon while I figure out why the backup chair is not charging. I know that by doing this probably Make me go tot the back of the Line for the next available slot will open up.That's okay I can wait.

It's almost 9 PM on Saturday night and I'm just about ready to turn in and maybe blog is our reading time before turnover to try gget some shut eye. As you made earlier my son is in Oregon this weekend box by grand daughter called indicating that she still would like to go out to breakfast If I still wanted to and of Course I do. So I want to make sure I'm up early enough to get is dressed as I can before heading out to the restaurant. I'll probably go barefoot and cover my feet with my Avengers towel. This tactic works pretty well not that anyone cares about my crip feet. I'll just plug in my regular power chair then watch the amber light blinking degree…

Cookout! Watchout!

 

I cannot believe that I actually got semi-excited about today's summer cookout in the common area on the back patio of the building. I don't know what I was thinking when I was coming for some grilled hamburger with all the fixings. And the event actually started out pretty good. I got there about an hour before the start happening and Rochelle was there of course the company side and the meat was provided by one of the local vampires always hosting these kind of its attempts to suck off more clients to their care programs. That should've been a red fl nough for me to a boycottedThe event but I think I still have some of that Fourth of July illusion hanging over me. Actually jumped in and helped Rochelle carry things out to the table in the back by the barbecue pit. Tablecloths of them but on the tables and reset the holding up pretty much. Gayle the resident advisor put in charge of cooking hamburgers will do a great job Even better once they found a spatula. Clearly not a lot of thought this operation. There is only one bottle of ketchup, mustard and Mayo.

I thought things started going south when the residents/neighbors started bringing all the side dishes they've been assigned. Clearly these people did not want to be outside in the sunshine – – when I 1^st got out there was blessed clouds blocking the heat that would be. The time for the barbecue was 12:30 PM and is getting restless. There seem to be countless complaints of macaroni salad, potato salad, German salad, Jell-O, and a host of items like cakes and other homemade treats. Everything that I have it set up outside at the barbecue pit now is being moved inside as the line of residents grew and became somewhat despondent. Gayle was doing an admirable job in producing these hamburgers. The hamburgers were ferried from the barbecue to the common area where the tables and chairs are. A giant Line had formed. They did try to send the folks in wheel chairs and walkers 1^st to get their meals without this added to the problems that so many of folks meeting that description. Like I said there was just one mustard bottle, was bottle of ketchup, and one squeeze bottle of mayonnaise. Each individual seem to take an eternity and decorating their hamburgers.

Nothing wrong with the common actually beautiful but the common rooms also huge and gloomy on a summer day and I was not just get stuck in the common room surrounded by individuals who have succumbed to the belief they had be served. I actually told up one plate for me… Everything is I went to the door. Bushell was grand inputting another played together another plate for me. At that point I just want something meet and to vanish. I thought the hamburgers were done pretty well the hamburger buns was another issue somewhat sterile kind of hard in the best I could do was wildly shoot the continents on the buns with a spoon of relish, cheese a few onions and sliced tomato that I screwed up my little table outside. I must've been quite hungry Because the hamburger was Delicious. I quite enjoyed a couple pieces of watermelon and the bottle of water – – 8 ounces. I I decided against any dessert it just wasn't worth it. I don't know why we continue to do this kind of operation never turns out well. We should just kick in and have the whole thing catered.

I'm granted another year on |this dirt ball and begin the top of a summer cookout arises I think I'll just pass and leave the the Illusion Alive…

Watermelon Dreams

 

It was a pretty good day everything from coffee social this morning sitting out the back of the apartment complex next to the back fence, in the shade of the Trash trees which Are climbing the fence, Dozing, reading and listening to the world go on around me. The 217 busstop Is on the Over side of the fenceAnd unless I make some kind of noise or something that no clue that I'm there, listening just listening. I'm not sure but I think this is one of my favorite places to be right now. Now in the back parking lot clandestinely reading a trash novel by Tom Clancy.

Not that it is my responsibility But I kind of supervised the coffee clutch this morning as I do most Thursday mornings. What are the folks who works very hard and helping out with the coffee was not fear this morning and my neighbor across the hall stepped in to take her place and did an admirable job. I think, The stress kind of frazzled her especially having to make 2 different kinds of coffee regular and decaf somewhat complicated machines. But like I said she did a great job I was proud of her. I don't know this you get this next if not I will find someone else to do the job is not just do it myself. It's really quite amusing people have no concept that could do this set of operations myself, independently if I can get to the machines and the product , I mean after all making coffee is not rocket science. I'm always pleased when we are finished with this event. It's just enough attention to make me glad to be retired and set up now. Honestly, I miss Dianne and having someone else in my life to cook for, visit with sleep next to. I really think Those are some of the best benefits of advanced age until you don't have them anymore – – for whatever reason.

I've been truly enjoying the taste of watermelon I had the night when I actually purchased, will at Macy's across the street. I can't say I have been craving watermelon but I have been thinking about the fruit wanted it as part of my Fourth of July/summer tradition. I had go to the bank this morning, seriously. I shot myself the other day when I stopped at the back and got a replacement debit card. I just wanted my old card replaced with the old card but not completely new one but I got to

of course which means all be automatic payments attest to that old number no longer happen which I think might be part of the problem with my home health people not charging my account – – which is really making me nervous. So, yesterday while attempting to rectify this problem by totally locked myself out of my account and I couldn't fix it by phone or whatever so I set up this morning to got the job done. On the way home we stopped at the market and actually got a very “righteous” looking melon. If I had more courage I would open at night but now take more energy than I have right now and maybe it will be a good option for tomorrow after the apartment picnic.. The way I'm told we looking forward to the rich red flavorishousFruit I only wish you the be here…

Just Washing Around

I've grown an affinity for Wednesday's or my nomenclature washday. I found if I can keep focused and remember to have Melissa, my Wednesday caregiver, carry the wash down the laundry room it saves me a whole lot of stress. I don't know if I'm getting weaker or my Wash is getting greater I find wrangling the basket of clothes more and more difficult. But, having Melissa start the ordeal I readily can switch the Wash from the washer and dryer myself with very little problem. The best part is that I have the weeks wash done. I still have to fold and hang Clothes which I did this afternoon during Marketplace one of my favorite NPR shows.

The other task I suffer through on Wednesdays is headed across the street to the dollar store and picking up a couple packages of treats for space coffee social. This usually is not a problem but lately it seems more and more folks are trying to become involved in different aspects of the event. This is especially true after they realized they can be reimbursed for spending their own money for treats. Now, I basically don't have a problem with that is set if the want to do it on a regular basis that way I don't have to worry about whether or not there treats available for the event. I would have no problem if someone want to step up and take care of the whole shooting match. That is what Irene did. However she did also indicate that she was getting tired of other individuals trying to take over the event but not having the responsibility of doing it each week. I can sure sympathize with the old girl now. I've got the usual package of coconut cookies and some chocolate striped things. The participants have enjoyed before. One of those individuals Whom I rely quite heavily on broad and 12 cupcakes all covered with icing these will be a mess I can guarantee that. I've done as much as I could do, nowWe'll just have to see how tomorrow's event plays out.

As indicated the only event that I took on the day was crossing the street to the market and getting the items listed. It was nice to be out but I can hardly call it an adventure. Now the weather is much warmer and drier perhaps I get back into adventure mode. Actually, I've had more lately since my arm bike is unreachable. It's been a couple weeks since I've been able to do any pumping on the bike and I'm worrying that I am beginning to lose muscle mass. I think of having problems sleeping just because I'm not firing myself out – – I've written about this phenomenon before. I surrender my power chair next week for maintenance and repair and hopefully others return only able to move the box back far enough that I can get back on the arm bike and begin my 200 minutes a week regimen working out. I'm sure there are other exercises like to do without having access to a physical therapist or occupational therapist I don't know what I can do to give me the same amount of muscle stress I need to tire myself out to enjoy my sleeping cycle. All I know what I had today the ordered on responsibilityWas to battle with X Finnerty. I spent nearly an hour this morning reconfiguring a new credit card into my repeating out. Twice I had to wait on phone at least 30 minutes only to be knocked off the second the 3^rd Worlder picked up the phone. I didn't have anything else to do so I continued to battle to the end finally getting my new car registered with this giant system. It took me nearly one hour to resolve the issueBut now it should be good…ep focused and remember to have Melissa, my Wednesday caregiver, carry the wash down the laundry room it saves me a whole lot of stress. I don't know if I'm getting weaker or my Wash is getting greater I find wrangling the basket of clothes more and more difficult. But, having Melissa start the ordeal I readily can switch the Wash from the washer and dryer myself with very little problem. The best part is that I have the weeks wash done. I still have to fold and hang Clothes which I did this afternoon during Marketplace one of my favorite NPR shows. The other task I suffer through on Wednesdays is headed across the street to the dollar store and picking up a couple packages of treats for space coffee social. This usually is not a problem but lately it seems more and more folks are trying to become involved in different aspects of the event. This is especially true after they realized they can be reimbursed for spending their own money for treats. Now, I basically don't have a problem with that is set if the want to do it on a regular basis that way I don't have to worry about whether or not there treats available for the event. I would have no problem if someone want to step up and take care of the whole shooting match. That is what Irene did. However she did also indicate that she was getting tired of other individuals trying to take over the event but not having the responsibility of doing it each week. I can sure sympathize with the old girl now. I've got the usual package of coconut cookies and some chocolate striped things. The participants have enjoyed before. One of those individuals Whom I rely quite heavily on broad and 12 cupcakes all covered with icing these will be a mess I can guarantee that. I've done as much as I could do, nowWe'll just have to see how tomorrow's event plays out. As indicated the only event that I took on the day was crossing the street to the market and getting the items listed. It was nice to be out but I can hardly call it an adventure. Now the weather is much warmer and drier perhaps I get back into adventure mode. Actually, I've had more lately since my arm bike is unreachable. It's been a couple weeks since I've been able to do any pumping on the bike and I'm worrying that I am beginning to lose muscle mass. I think of having problems sleeping just because I'm not firing myself out – – I've written about this phenomenon before. I surrender my power chair next week for maintenance and repair and hopefully others return only able to move the box back far enough that I can get back on the arm bike and begin my 200 minutes a week regimen working out. I'm sure there are other exercises like to do without having access to a physical therapist or occupational therapist I don't know what I can do to give me the same amount of muscle stress I need to tire myself out to enjoy my sleeping cycle. All I know what I had today the ordered on responsibilityWas to battle with X Finnerty. I spent nearly an hour this morning reconfiguring a new credit card into my repeating out. Twice I had to wait on phone at least 30 minutes only to be knocked off the second the 3rd Worlder picked up the phone. I didn't have anything else to do so I continued to battle to the end finally getting my new car registered with this giant system. It took me nearly one hour to resolve the issueBut now it should be good…

Holiday Conclusion

Is that quiet time now that period of time between the end of the family festivities like holiday picnics, movie expeditions An old men laying on the rug out beneath summer trees taking a nap after the big meal. Killing time until the start Of tthe explosions of the holiday. Actually, it's been pretty quiet in the park next door. Last night there were some nice eruptions as people Began firing In earnest private fireworks. I caught a few glimpses of trees and not spend any interest or energy in trying to locate A viewing position. I'm sure there'll beEven more explosive events and natural colors and lots of left hand over smoke. This morning, upon awakening, there was a stitch in my lungs ever so slight that it was there every time I inhaled. The wheeze kind of worried me and still does. I for the 1^st time today considered maybe I just and so fireworks fallout through my window during the night. I have not been wheezing that the day but I'm not lying Down either. We'll see tomorrow when I wake or the wheezing comes back, after the fireworks, and keeps me awake during the night.

I try to stay positive even though there were many clouds this morning taking time to warm up. Temperature did get on our that I kind of figured out the thermostat and how to bring the temperature of the apartment down. I actually engaged thermostat set of the built up in the apartment finally turned it off around 6 PM on the place got so cold wise to turn the cooler Off. It was also this afternoon That is a bit of holiday hope is that saddled up and went across the street to the market I picked up potato chips, watermelon pieces, fresh grapes and a few other things from the dollar store. I had planned to process the brisket that was brought over the other day into chopped brisket with barbecue sauce that did not happen. I also purchased a couple of ears of corn. I'm going to save them for later on this week. Between the chips, brisket and other stats from the refrigerator I had a pretty good Fourth of July. I only got 3 or 4 watermelon slices about like to have more but I have enough.

I must admit I was not highly social today But I did tVisit a couple of neighbors in the apartment complexI have a pretty good visit. The sound of explosions are now beginning to drift into the apartment from quantity distance away but there have been a couple from the park. I expect frequency and severity to increase as the night darkens. I doubt I'll chase any fireworks sightings optrng the sack early and do some holiday reading…

Holiday Illusion

I totally believe the days are special in a holiday week. Today's 3 July and tomorrow course Independence Day, the great and wonderful Fourth of July. Of course I'm not doing anything particularly special besides my ongoing illusion/fantasy of that I will be doing something special a cookout, socializing with friends, enjoying a hellacious fireworks display. I think the most I will do tomorrow might be going across the street and getting either watermelon or pieces of watermelon, maybe some potato chips and returning to my apartment and then dispatching on the streets as my celebration the days of independence. If I get really ambitious, in the afternoon, I might take it yet another movie. Went to a movie this afternoon which was kind of fun. I re-watched the Spider universe, that's not the actual title but it's the animation piece of Spiderman executive par of another movie similar which came out last year. As I said I watch this movie a few months ago and I was so exhausted whatever I think I slept through most of the movie. I kind of remember the sequence of action but it was all new to me basically. I liked it much better than then the film I caught earlier in the week Asteroid City. The 1^st time I had company as it other film viewers in the theater with me. Kind of made me feel human.

I did not have the stamina to sit through another movie so I collected myself and headed for the exit. I did not have any popcorn or beverage to leave behind. No treats me, just a movie on my Free pass. I know it sounds a contradiction of terms but I did not have the stamina to wait for the bus to take me home. I made one diversion on my way home stopping at a little bodega/Mexican market to get a camera of sliced pickled carrots. This morning my own health person actually cut up one of the cans of pickled peppers my daughter sent me last month. I'm totally excited but I needed carrots. I was kind of surprised that the Carrots was a little bit more than I paid for at the big market across street. I guess that makes sense to some degree.

I mildly excited regarding the upcoming holiday. With the exception of chips and watermelon and set. I even have my Netflix queue integrated go as well as Disney plus If I need to rely on my old favoritesFrom the Marvel universe. Of course I'm right in the middle of a spy kind of novel written by somebody by the 1^st name of Tom a giant in the genre. My kids stepdad loves this guy and I too do some degree. The book I have now sure lasted throughout July. I don't mind going back and forth the places on our chair but I must confess traveling during his days even with protection tires this old guy out. The company is watching some selecting a Netflix and return to my novel…

Some Like It Hot

 

I just finished watching Beverly Hills Cop number 1 a silly piece of celluloid starring Eddie Murphy back in the 80s. It's hard to believe that was 40 years ago! Kind of fun time for me as just transitioning into this area a new life and a new job. Gone in the blink of an eye – – I'm just full of clichés tonight. I've had a fairly busy Sunday compared to most. I had a great breakfast with Mark and the kids and then I took myself to another movie. I enjoyed this will be much better than the one I suffered through yesterday. I went to Flash, a superhero in the DC universe. In some ways it was kind of embarrassing watching DC trying to catch up with Marvel. In fact the movie was kind of complicated, trying to follow the storyline was a lot more work than I wanted to do on this Sunday. Where I found very interesting was the through all the superheroes from DC at your one time Batman, Wonder Womann and who else I don't remember. I was kind of glad the movie ended I was freezing my butt off from the air-conditioning want to get back into the summers heat. This a couple more movies like to go to this month. I think I'm finally getting into the groove going to the movies a regular basis hopefully. I still think it's a financial deal.

Couple of days ago I mentioned to my home health person, Melissa, all much I liked brisket and it would be fun to do a brisket someday. Melissa then proceeded to tell me how her husband the chef was always cooking brisket at the house and she had the brisket Stacked like cordwood in the freezer and she would bring me some she can remember. She remembered on Friday morning yesterday evening I tried it out and sure enough it was great brisket! I've enjoyed a couple pieces so far. Trying to stretch The meat as far as possible. In some ways this brisket is better than that served at the deli except that Melissa's brisket doesn't have any of the crunch outside that the deli does.

So tomorrow begins the real holiday week. I don't know I will but I might get a watermelon to have on the Fourth of July. Not really planning anything for the holidayExcept to enjoy myself in my apartment, read and maybe taking a movie or 2. I also want to experiment on my jalapeno gazpacho

if I can get one of the big cans of pickled peppers open. It should be a fun holiday. It's night now My apartment is hot I have yet to start my air-conditioning. I hold off as long as I can sometimes running it just a my guests and staff—I like it hot…

Suddenly Saturday

 

I don't know what is that my disorientation today but it has felt like Sunday to me all day long. I woke up thinking that actually then realized I have the standing coffee appointment across the street at the little coffee shop and then everything fell place. It has not been an earthshaking day but expand a little enjoyable. I took myself to a movie which turned out to be talking stupid. I can't believe I Sat through the whole thing. I really thought the thing was to be a comedy and I guess it was still pretty stupid I can't remember the name of the movie I would warn you not to go save your money or your time if you got in the movie free.

There were lots of cars In front of the coffee shop when I rolled in but surprisingly there are a few the usual coffee shop. I got our table and then was joined by 2 other folks in my apartment complex. I ate one don't along with my large coffee. We gossiped about other folks in our building and had a general good time. We usually spend around 2 hours at the coffee shop and we were out of there by 11:30 AM today. Because I was anxious I did not necessarily want to go back to the apartment but I did , Drained my bladder and headed to the bus stop across the street for the theater. I don't know how but I have amassed a huge amount of points that can use for popcorn and drinks. So I got a drink and went to the movie. While watching the credits I was amazed over number of folks that supposedly are and as we that I did not recognize. One specificallyWas Tom Hanks! I cannot believe I did not recognize him. Following the movie I stopped at one burger joint and the selections they had looked very appetizing. I left and went to my old standby McDonald's and got the cheapest burger with cheese and extra pickles onions. Lots of flavor. For some reason I do not want to do another movie (though I could) I decided to go to Walmart to see if they had any pickled carrots. I have really been a mood for pickled carrots. I was going to buy some small cansTo mix with my jalapenos pickled. They did not have exactly what I wanted but they did have pickled carrots in the in between sizecan. I purchased 2 cans of the carrots and some with pickled jalapenos I have left from the big can I opened last week. The carrots aren't as zippy spicy as I would like but they will surely do the job. Now I just have to figure out how to open up when the giant cans chili sent me Michele sent me for Father's DayAnd I think I'll be set up for couple of weeks if not months.

Finally the days are hot. I read outside the shade today on and off for a couple hours it was nice. The heat will be here but for a short while and I plan to absorb as much as I can winter is a very long time and always very cold…