Driveway Danger

 The temperature is way cold outside. We're getting that cold air from Canada I reckon. Even though the Sun was shining all day then looked inviting I didn't really leave the apartment till later on in the afternoon and that was just doing a fast shopping run across the street. Picked up a few things I really wanted to get by Sunday with so I'll be ready for Monday morning when Melissa shows up got some more bathroom cleaning materials got some grapes and some candy bars.

As I said it was very cold outside but I wanted to get these materials and get home and get warm a little bit before I went to bed sitting in front of the heater. I didn't take my basket with me which is probably a major mistake but I didn't have a really good hook with me either. I've been battling my feet all day the one right foot that pearls under and I have to do something with this padding that I have in here now cuz it's making my foot twist even more. So I asked my buddy at the produce area for a box and he provided me one just not bad I've had better boxes but this one will work. I did my shopping got the clean materials, fresh grapes and the candy bars that I think Melissa enjoys most. Coming back I had quite a bit on my lap I had to make sure that I had the Box hooked down appropriately. I'm a little vexed because of the construction that has almost got all the sidewalk completed except for there are a couple spots that have to force me into the street to go around the sidewalk area that's not fixed yet and normally this is done a major problem but tonight coming home from the market just outside of the market getting ready to head back towards the apartments I came off the sidewalk and somehow became High centered. You know like where the road is crowned and when you come off the sidewalk it comes down a little bit well I think because of the way that the groceries I was carrying over my lap in the Box whatever that it hit it just right so that the front end of my chair are front wheels hit the ground portion of the street and my back wheels and still come off leaving the drive Wheels not touching the concrete. I was totally high-centered I couldn't move no matter what I did and I didn't want to spill all my groceries but even then I was in a pickle. I sat there waving my arms frantically trying to get somebody's attention, it was almost completely dark at this point in time. I was hoping someone might come around the back way and then they would see me and I could flag them down. I guess the worst case scenario I guess I could have just called 911 we had the boys from the fire department rescue me but I wasn't ready to go to that point yet. Long story short somebody did see me as they were coming around in fact he mentioned that he almost hit me which I don't really think the case but still I was in a precarious and a dangerous spot. Once back on the sidewalk however I was okay and zoomed right back to the apartment. It's cold like I said even with the heater going I'm still feeling kind of chilly and I think I'll have that same feeling tonight as I sleep through. Oddly I have not heard from mark Anthony yet. I assume we're going to breakfast in the morning but usually I hear some Intel from him regarding the meet up we'll see. I suppose I'll get up early anyway get dressed and hang around until I find out whether or not they're coming and if they're not then I'll make garbrock if they are I'll just have my regular…

Adult lunch

It was almost 7:00 before I got up this morning that rarely happens. I didn't sleep all those hours that's for sure but I didn't realize the time was getting away with me as fast as it was. I must have dozed off a little bit after I saw the clock reading at about 5:45 a.m. and the next thing I knew it was 7:00 a.m. but I was able to get up and get most of the stuff done before my home health person got here. Kind of excited for the day my ex is in town and we're planning to go to lunch. Of course that means public transit for me and the bus system all seem to be messed up because they were running on but they call the Holiday system and times are all a little bit different. I ended up having to call the agency because none of the internet bus system times seem to be operating.

I was dressed in red for the most part today except for my shorts with your black but I'm wearing the red sweatshirt my granddaughter gave me a Thanksgiving and then I had my red leg blanket( that garment I wear around my legs in the winter time) which was red I was Mr color today which is so different than my regular Grays and blacks which I tend to like to wear. I was a little bit late to the meeting after all I am writing public transit and there's a lot of waiting that goes on but by just a few minutes maybe 10 or 15. Diane, my ex was with one of my old best friends for my working days Amy where Diane is staying. We made it this French type restaurant Bakery. You know those fancy Dancy joints that a lot of women like to go to has a lot of cute little Bakery things and coffee and tea and all kinds of upper middle class weird things. They do have a good menu I was surprised I was able to get a half a sandwich that sandwich with sauerkraut and stuff on it and corned beef plus a bowl of soup which I can't remember what kind it was right now just the kind of got the cheese in it and some kind of broth onion French onion soup. I always forget how difficult it is to eat french onion soup especially with a a spoon that's pretty small even if it's a soup spoon if it's not large enough it's hard to Corral all that cheese floating on the top of the soup. Diane paid for lunch I was going to but she paid for it anyway which is okay with me I'm not proud. But we had a long talk it was good we must have spent two hours there before he finally broke up and went home. I think I kind of overdressed for the event as far as blankets and hoods that I had wrapped around my shoulders for warmth and such. It was fun to sit and visit and go over some of the old things from the old days since we all seem to use to work with the same people. Diane's not in town long should we headed back to Arizona in a day or so and we'll all get on with our lives but it was so great to have some time and go out to a restaurant and visit with friends like real people do…

Thursday feels like Sunday

 It Feels Like Sunday. I have to keep reminding myself every time I think about tomorrow that tomorrow is actually Friday and not Monday if that makes any sense. Well there is more action than I anticipated I would experience this Thanksgiving. I was contacted early on by Marc Anthony indicating he wanted to come over as well as the kids. Which was fine with me but at the same time I was pretty highly motivated to put my idea of two TV dinners mixed together into motion. Remember last night or yesterday afternoon when my home health person is here she actually put together my green bean casserole so all I had to do was put that in the oven and cook it for a while and I was also at the same time trying to figure out how to do the sweet potato casserole. I had actually found a can of sweet potatoes for my neighbor and so I was kind of jazzed for that so I wanted to have my lunch around 12:00 noon so they said the kids wouldn't come over till a little bit later.

I don't know if I'll try this ever again but it certainly was doable. I figured what I would do was to cook each microwave dinner halfway through then dump the contents of each dinner on a plate the same plate then microwave the whole plate until it was good and hot and edible. I cooked them at first about 4 minutes what are the dinners got fairly done and the other one still had a block of ice that look like for the mashed potatoes. It took a while of microwaving and a whole lot of faith and Hope but by the time I had microwave for about 7 to 10 minutes the concoction was boiling down to a fairly recognizable dinner of turkey Parts mashed potatoes and a little bit of dressing. There was so much food on the plate I never did get a chance to really serve up any green bean casserole and I sort of gave up a totally on the sweet candied yams. I just didn't have any brown sugar and it looked pretty complicated but I did put together something I found an 8x8 pan deep in my closet and just dump the whole can of yams that have sweet juice with them into the pan then dumped a bunch of ancient marshmallows I've had forever on top my mistake was there was too much juice in the candy jams so it was very soupy and I didn't even want to try to lift that out of the oven I think I'll have Melissa do that tomorrow when she gets here and then put the whole kitten Kaboodle down the the disposal. It's no great loss and I had a fairly decent Thanksgiving dinner. It wasn't beautiful and it wasn't a bunch of Turkey and photo perfect mashed potatoes and gravy as well as dressing and cranberries but it was enough to get the whole concept across and not break my back with time spent trying to prepare and then trying to save afterwards. As I indicated, I have enough left over to have one more meal particularly if I were to warm up some green bean casserole and I still have the box of stove top dressing that I purchased for backup. If I had more turkey parts I would probably shoot for another total meal but as it is I'll just have what's left. It will taste great. The only thing I did not get was pumpkin pie and whipped cream or whatever. That would have been perfect and I guess I could have ran over and cut the pie but I just sort of wanted someone to bring me a piece of pie is that too weird? Jasmine was talking like she was going to bring me over some pie but I don't think that came about. They were going over to her mom's families place and I think Jackson's as well and they were going to try to score the pie then but like I said I have not heard anything and it's just as well I'm sure I put enough calories on this week just as it is. Luckily I did not get much damage done to the kitchen so it's still relatively in good shape. It's going to be severely cold the next couple of days so I don't plan to be out anymore than I have to. But Dianne flew in today and I think I'm going to have to meet her and Amy for lunch tomorrow down in Midtown area almost 30th South. I imagine it'll be cold but it'll be nice too see the people. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Pecan pie day

 

It's quite funny how a day begins when you think you pretty much know how the day is going to go and all the sudden one thing happens and everything changes. That's kind of Tina what happened today this day before Thanksgiving. Of course it's Wednesday which means it's my day for a program and shower and in the midst of that this operation I mentioned that had not heard from my previous Home Health person G for some time and I was hoping that she's okay. Melissa who is my current Home health person indicated that she would give her a text message just to see what's going on and she did and to my surprise Gloria shows up about 2:00 this afternoon!

I have to admit things about getting a little out of hand at the old apartment lately. I haven't really done any real upkeep aside from just the day-to-day survivable shelf space here or tablespace there to just do the essentials. There's been no cleaning to speak of. My Melissa just does so much and I am pleased with what she does and haven't really pressed her to do any housekeeping for say. She does the occasional sweeping and some mopping on the floors periodically but that's just about it. And she will do anything I ask her to actually anything from meal prep to washing my clothes or at least starting the wash we're having to leave then I can finish it up without having to do a lot of the lifting that I usually do when I have to wash myself. So having Gloria come, who was aghast at disarray throughout the apartment. But she went to work I have to bet she was a bit Tanked and I offered her a little incentive as well with one of my frozen margaritas in the freezer. But she did more than she usually does which is basically just the kitchen she worked in the bedroom and just a little bit in the bathroom. If I could catch her with as much as zealous as she had today we could do the whole apartment but as it is I'm pleased with what we were able to get done and make me feel that I'm ready for the holiday whichever comes. In fact Gloria went so far as to forward together the green bean casserole. I was a little bummed out because I couldn't find any yams or sweet potatoes to put together the candied yams but I guess I have to get by with what I have. She left I gave her addition amount of money to fuel her Thanksgiving Day holiday whether it's hard booze or cigarettes or both to some degree you can only do so much with $40 especially with $10 of that being in quarters for her wash.

As I mentioned I was totally out of sweet potatoes so I was thinking that why don't I just knock on a few doors in my apartment complex and see if anybody had a can that they could spare I didn't need a lot just enough for a taste. Anyway just as I was leaving my door my next door neighbor across the hall was pushing a small with a carton of ice cream and a number of pecan pies pieces on little plates she's going around offering them to people for Thanksgiving! Long story short I got a great piece of pie and ice cream and when I asked her if she had any yeah those are sweet potatoes she came across the cab the sweet potatoes. I don't know if I'll have the energy tomorrow to put together a sweet potato casserole but you never know I certainly have enough for my own Thanksgiving dinner Come What May. The only thing I don't have is a pumpkin pie piece and you never know what will happen in the day's time….

Timely Tuesday

We didn't have enough names or records to pull together a meeting at assist this week which is just as well it being Thanksgiving weekend all. So I didn't have to go into the city at least all the way to her assist ink is at. With the time that I had when I spoke with Kim likely the other day I suggested that we meet today and we decided to do so at 10:30 a.m.. that's a good time except for it's just the middle of the day and I have to figure out something to occupy myself as the clock strikes closer and closer to that time I have to make connections with the 47 over to the bus station train station and then I decided that will take the 200 into the Independent Living Center. I get up and make pretty good time no really good time I had breakfast, coffee did a game or two on the word mix up. I got dressed pretty quickly so it was a fast morning which means I had to wait about 45 minutes until it was time to catch the bus which I did. And I caught the train and I made pretty decent time finally getting off route 201 across the street from what used to be the badass coffee company which is now turning into something else. And then I motored into the office.

I was meeting with Kim today since he's associate director there at the Independent Living Center. He and I go back a long long time. I wanted to get some sense of what was expected of me as a board member particularly as a financial group member. I just don't know how severe or how significant they expect this job to be done. If it's just reading the report every month about the status of the bookkeeping that's one thing both they expect a full-fledged Financial person that's quite another. When I told Shelly about this opportunity to be a board member and that they stuck me on a financial committee she thought that was a great idea and I could actually go to different videos on the internet basically teaches someone how to be a board member and probably even the financial board member. At least you can learn that jargon for finances probably better than I already have luckily I listen to Marketplace which has been sort of a teaching thing as well. Well the meeting with Kim was okay we really didn't get anything accomplished to speak of except visiting and that was good maybe even worth the whole trip. He did finally link my tablet and sign and cell phones to the website of the Independent Living Center and to the special Communications folders that the board is privy to. I have not checked them myself since I pretty much been on the run for a large part of the day.. after the Independent Living Center I got off the bus and rolled for the graveyard over to the market and purchased more jalapeno peppers sliced, candy bars, potato chips, and vegetables to put in my sliced pepper concoction cucumbers and tomatoes. Then I came home did a late workout on my bike for 60 minutes been kind of had dinner and that was it for the day it went pretty fast. Outside it wasn't bad today I wore my red coat but even then the sun was out and after the morning cold had been burnt away it was a pretty nice day to be out and about. Wasn't too cold for me tomorrow should be about the same but I don't know where I'll be going tomorrow since it's wash day and I want to stick around and make sure I get that done but Thanksgiving is the day after that so I got to make one last step to make sure I have what I need to have for my little meager Thanksgiving dinner. Today I got two I got two turkey dinners one with dressing one with mashed potatoes and gravy I'm going to cook them both together and sort of mix them together on Thanksgiving so I'll have a full Thanksgiving dinner I also got a box of hamburger help not Hamburger Helper but turkey dressing and stove top which means I'll have backup dressing in case I run out of the dressing from the frozen dinners to buy Marie Callender and I expect them to be pretty decent. I'll be able to enjoy the Thanksgiving dinner on this minimal basis now I just have to figure out how to get a hold of a couple pieces of pumpkin pie. I guess I get a whole pie but just as soon have a pumpkin pie one or two pieces alone enough to get through the holiday…

Sunny Monday

 The sun shown beautifully today but the temperature was cold very cold. I probably should have gone more places today than I did but under the circumstances I felt somewhat please with myself to have gone to the one place that I did which was across the street to get my haircut. I really should have gotten the Harris cut last week and giving it more time to grow out by Thanksgiving but since I'll probably not be doing anything Thanksgiving anyway what the hell. I'm sure I will look just fine for the day of thanks. I'm in a bit of a quandary this year not sure what I want to do I keep vacillating between going to the market and getting a couple of heavy duty thanksgiving/ turkey deep dish TV dinners or just ordering Domino's on the eve of Thanksgiving and have delicious cold pizza for the day. Something to chew on as I watch movies and possibly a football game or two. That's right you can believe your eyes I might even watch a football game or even the basketball game. I'm finding watching the sport is a bit more interesting than I anticipated. I'm still not a great fond viewer of the sporting events but I find it kind of interesting to watch especially if I know the team in the game. Whether it's the local basketball team Jazz are University football teams IE Boise State, University of utah, Utah State or even teams from San Francisco I tend to support over any of the teams that might be playing though I still like the Crimson Tide just because I knew somebody who went to University of Alabama University whatever the school the Crimson Tide is. If it's the Jazz I kind of like to see him lose I know that's kind of bizarre but it's true just like with BYU root for any team against them pretty much. I even watched a little bit of pro football yesterday on Sunday. I marveled at how big some of those players are and holler able to move with the intensity that they tend to move with it just blows me away. It's a good way to crap out a weekend afternoon or a holiday afternoon when you're too tired to do anything else.

Dianne called this afternoon and she's flying into town sometime this week for Thanksgiving. We plan to get together maybe Friday for lunch before she flies back to Arizona. We're going to a place I've never been before some place like 27 South State Street area should be interesting it's a knock off of Gourmandise home by the same company same Bell affair. She'll be with Amy at least and maybe Amy's partner Linda. Should be an interesting lunch. I hope it's not too cold should be okay Cloud wise I don't think it should be precipitating. I hope this relocation too Arizona let's forget some peace of mind and enjoyment out of the rest of her life.

Favorites

 It has been dark overcast and rainy all day and it indeed did feel cool if not cold. Early on I Rose even though I didn't go out to breakfast but I turned on the heater by my computer system and made breakfast. That's about as active as I've been all day. Of course I watched a couple of movies but really enjoyed frying up the sausage and making french toast. The loaf of bread I got for the food bank last month was still in the refrigerator and on the verge of going back so I thought I'd better use it up as well as enjoy some french toast which I did along with the sausage. I of course have not seen anyone else all day. Haven't been to normal Sunday with mark Anthony being around I would have visited with him and the kids and even seen people at the restaurant and travel a little bit. That's okay I don't mind being quietly alone all day.

Tomorrow begins Thanksgiving week which is going to be pretty much the same except for in my mind I kind of celebrate the concept of Thanksgiving all week long. I really am thankful for what I've got, where I'm at and those I know. I'm going to start thinking of what and how I plan to celebrate the holiday. I'm not going to do a major cookout as I've done before I am going to think about picking up some high-end TV type dinners that would be Thanksgiving oriented IE turkey and our mashed potatoes and dressing. Maybe I can mix and match you know by a TV dinner with a lot of Turkey and mix it with another TV dinner that might have more dressing and mashed potatoes. I was thinking about this last night that might be the way to do it or maybe two TV dinners just so you'll have an abundance of the Thanksgiving items for your individual Thanksgiving meal that might be good too. Or, and I think it's too late to consider this now. Order one of those like homemade Thanksgiving meals brought to you by someone who does this for an ungodly amount of money but actually does taste like real life Thanksgiving. I don't know how much I was spend for such a treat but you know I'm worth it I don't know if I would spend that kind of money on myself but maybe just once. It may be the thing to do cuz I never knows if one's going to see the next Thanksgiving. And maybe, if the weather's good, which it's supposed to be, maybe I'll try to find a restaurant that's serving of Thanksgiving dinner. It would be nice if there was some place close by cuz I don't think bus services are going to be operating that day very much if at all. If I had a van but we know about that. I was kind of thinking of possibly ordering a decent Pizza on Wednesday and having it for Thanksgiving or even making the batch of Garb Rock I haven't done that for a while that would be sort of good too I have all kinds of options Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays…

Saturday's thoughts

 Well, today was the last good day for the next couple of days. Rain tonight and tomorrow and then the cold front comes down from Canada and might even bring snow to the valley floor but I would be surprised if that happens but just the same the only thing I did with the good weather today what's to run across the street and get a few things to cover me for tomorrow, sunday, and until the precipitation gets it out of its system. I have more than enough food and whatever but sometimes just to make sure I have backup treats I picked up another sack of Ginger Snaps and pretzel sticks. I'm really going through a a thing of pretzel sticks right now nice to have around. As far as real food goes I'm pretty well covered with canned meat up in the closet are covered spam and good old corned beef plus Frozen hamburger in the refrigerator freezer and who knows what else is up there. I have a couple pieces of mystery meat that I should use one of these days. I think it's some sort of pork product but I'm not certain. I think the pork product would fry up nice and perhaps I could use it in some secondary dishes. But that was it as far as traveling. I went up and checked the mail of course but I pretty much stayed in the apartment aside from a couple of garbage runs to make sure I had ample space to get me by until Monday. I'm thinking really heard about what to do about Thanksgiving. I'm not going out anywhere that I'm aware of and I certainly don't want to go through the process of cooking another turkey just for me that was a waste of time and effort and meat. I thought about going to the market again maybe on Wednesday and picking out either Frozen turkey dinner but the elite Upper Crust frozen turkey dinners or maybe just get turkey Frozen like a turkey roast and then make some dressing and such. Trouble is it's always a risk as far as getting a turkey roast it's always ends up being pressed meat, it's turkey that's been pressed into some sort of a shape that fits the package. I've thought about the old standby of buying a breast and cooking it which should be okay but that's a lot of white meat and you still have to mess up the kitchen- - even though it's a mess already. But it would be nice to have some sort of a token Thanksgiving dinner. Now of course the food bank is providing turkey dinners for many folks here at the apartment complex and all over Salt Lake we're talking about thousands of dinners which pretty much rests my case. I appreciate their efforts they do a great job but I've had their Thanksgiving dinner before which left a lot to be desired as well as cold and I guess I could microwave it heated up. I may have to consider that though I have not registered but they always say the they have backup meals for those who didn't registered still wants to dinner for one reason or another. I'm not going to worry about Thanksgiving dinner it's going to come and it's going to go and I just want to make sure I get a piece of pumpkin pie….

Autumn Leaves

 Another beautiful day I completely blew off under the excuse of I had to wait for my wheelchair technician to get here and fix my chair. Granted I was ready to go at 10:00 this morning that's when Melissa finished me after the morning program and theoretically I didn't think my technician would be here till close to 5:00. So in reality I could have gone somewhere and done a lot of stuff I've had really wanted to. I could have done some shopping could have caught the bus and got some other shopping done I could have gone out and done something but I elected to stay in enjoy my apartment maybe I could hide behind the concept of I had to take it easy because of my taking the medications I'm taking but that would be the LIE. Truth of the matter is I just wanted to hang out watch some more Netflix or prime enjoy my little apartment.

I woke up sleepy. I guess I didn't sleep well through the night I had to wake up at 3:00 a.m. to drain which took a little bit of technique and stress but I was able to get back to sleep not having to wake again till about 5:25 am or so. I ate a lot of pickled peppers today along with cucumbers and such. I have a need to dice up another cucumber now and maybe the rest of the tomatoes through in another can of peppers before I hit the sack or maybe when I first get up I like doing it before I go to bed because when I get up they've had time to cool down, meld and basically get it together. I'm still going through the cans extremely quick. I don't think it's doing me any damage per se and certainly not adding up any calories at least I don't think significantly. Now the amount of nuts I'm eating is another issue entirely but I eat them one pinch at a time so I don't really eat a whole lot at once maybe three or four pieces usually the cashews at this point. My rationale this week is at I'm calling this a salad since I'm not really mixing the drinks as much as I used to I'm actually fishing the peppers out of the big container with a slotted spoon, a big slotted Serving Spoon. I certainly get a lot of peppers and maybe that's why the whole thing's going quickly. I thought about going back to the giant cans even though I don't necessarily like the outfit that's got them in the local stores but it's really not that much more expensive than buying four or five cans of the smaller cans. It's all good I look forward to eating them with cottage cheese then it'll be like a real salad. Speaking of not being able to eat dairy, my last Cipro tablet will be taken tomorrow. Obviously I screwed up somewhere in the week and taken one pill more than I should have or less than I should have cuz I have, after tonight, just one tablet left I should have two to finish it out the way it should be. I am really looking forward to getting back on Dairy though I really have to admit I might be feeling a little bit better all around not having any dairy in me to speak of. Melissa swears dairies detrimental and I've certainly played that car before. It used to be such a dynamic discussion regarding the dairy industry pushing their evil product on the American public in the world stressing the thought that bovine milk was good for us.

Like I said the day was beautiful probably pretty warm outside, I don't think I went out once today, I've included in tonight's photographs images of my favorite trees across the street from my apartment more specifically directly across from my bedroom window. It's taking him a while this year to deck out in there Autumn Glory but the trees finally got there and I'm enjoying them every bit

Holey

 Remember a couple of weeks ago I had my home health person, melissa, order me some shirts? Probably five and all, which is a lot of shirts for me at one time, she ordered some 3x LTS and some 4xlts which are like shirt sizes for big boys or big people. The trouble is when you order a shirt big enough to cover your girth of your Billy that comes with very long sleeves and very wide necks. And the reason that I hate ordering anything is I always order wrong and then I'm too lazy to send it back or too dumb to send it back cuz I don't really know how to do that. I know, it's not rocket science there's just so many things you have to do to get it right the steps in the process are what bothers me. Anyway, I decided I would go ahead and probably keep the shirts wearing the large necked ones as like an undershirt when I need one under a hoodie or something. I can hope for shrinkage to some degree but since it's mostly synthetic fiber I'm not going to hold my breath that it'll shrink that much. Today I felt pretty interested in the day itself. There are only two things I really had to accomplish one was the coffee social and then the other one was going to the dentist for some work on some of my teeth. So I decided to wear what am I new shirts. I chose the smaller size the 3XL and was kind of pleased when I noticed that it did fit my neck pretty well and I like the way the long sleeves felt. It was also during this time when I noticed on the left sleeve near the end at first I thought it was my imagination but then I realized there was a hole in the Garment. First I thought, it's actually a thumb hole. I was thinking when I put the shirt on it would be nice to have something like that and there it was. But on second thought I thought this is a man's shirt a thumb hole be pretty stupid, but really it's not that stupid idea I like the idea specially for putting on a hoodie over this shirt it certainly ease the process. It was an actual hole where the sleeve was coming apart! I don't think I'm going to do anything about it to be honest with you and just wear it until the whole garment wears out or maybe I'll get real rambunctious and find a needle and thread and try to sew it back together. I don't know how realistic this really is. Maybe I can get somebody else to do it somebody who has some real skills in that Arena. But more than anything else I'm just somewhat hurt to have a brand new garment and already it's falling apart it's so symbolic of the age.

Wednesday's chili

 Growing up I didn't even know you could get chili from a restaurant or any place except from home. I thought my mom made the best chili ever and she probably did at least as far as I was concerned or I'm concerned. She made chili the old fashioned way actually taking the chili beans or the big red beans from the sacks where we kept them in the food storage area the houses pantry soaking them overnight at least and then cooking them all day and I assume that the last moment be the last couple of hours adding the ground beef and all the other flavors that go in to chili. I think every once in a while she even made cornbread but more often than not it was great stacks of saltine crackers. I won't even go into a dissertation about how the day saltine crackers taste different than the saltines from yesterday. The saltines and those days came in four section pieces that is the cracker is one giant cracker that can you break into four sections that are the size of most individual crackers today. It could be that was if the rest of the kids the brand mom got because it was the least expensive I don't know. But I do know what the crackers had their own flavor that they don't have now and the flavor went with cold milk.

One could grind the crackers up to us find a powder as you could have the patience to do so and mix up inside the chili making a very thick thick soup at best if not almost porridge. I never did this but my older brother did. I learned pretty early it was probably wisest to do the opposite of anything that he did at least around food anyway. Sometimes the soup or chili was thicker than other times. I don't think chili everlasted around our house more than three days. I don't know if the rest of the kids like the chili as much as I did it was always hard to say. The older ones never complained about anything it seemed like and the younger kids complained about everything so they were just white noise but I know I really liked my mom's chili. 

It was really cute my home health person showed up and had this small bell jar filled to the brim with chili. No litter or anything like that just the jar filled to the brim with this chili. Of course I was not going to eat the chili right then so I stuck in the refrigerator and because I didn't want to create anything on my own tonight I thought I will have the chili and I did. In my store of paper plates and bowls I got a bowl out spooned in half of the jar of chili heated up and dying on new saltine crackers. Aside from being a shade salty the chili was great. My mom's chili was a little sweeter she must have used more sugar but still Melissa's chili was great to have for dinner tonight and maybe tomorrow as well. It's good to be looked after..

Taming Tuesday

Tonight I'm going to do something cheap and through a responsibility to the wheelchair technicians last seating specialist who was supposed to work on my chair yesterday or even the day before and never got around to it for one reason or another. Yesterday when we talked you indicated he could come today again but it would be late in the day. I was a little concerned but just because if I didn't get the chair worked on today who knows how long it would take before he found more time to work on my chair. So that was part of the reason I scheduled so late because it being Tuesday was the day that I'm in the city at my volunteer/advisory board function at assist i n c. And even though I'm sure I would have been home by 4:00 I made it sound like it was iffy.

We didn't have many names to consider today at the meeting so it was pretty short. I knew I had a lot of time before 4:00 so I stopped off at lunch and got a Reuben sandwich, onion rings and the glass for water which I must admit I'm not proud of but I actually filled it with a watered down version of fruit punch. It's a small cup that's not the point the point is I guess I'm guilty of stealing. I was kind of surprised however that's where I sat I had a full view of the soda dispensary and I wasn't the only one who was getting soda in their water cups. I was hoping they would have made me a half a sandwich instead of a whole sandwich but they wouldn't go for it so I ate half of a Reuben sandwich and then just ate the corned beef off the other half and pretty much let the bread go. And I added onion rings to my order which gave the whole lunch a good crunch. I was able to get home in time to do a complete 60 Minute pump on the bike which gives me 120 minutes now so one more day of 60 minutes and then another day of 30 and I'll have my 200 minutes for the week in the can. I hope this is doing me good I'm sure it is. This evening as I was just trying to figure out something to eat for dinner I got a call from my doctor's office with the results of the urine sample I gave last week. They indicated that Cipro was the best medication for the thing growing inside of me. And then very seriously the caller indicated that I need to follow directions specifically lots of water take the medication on time and don't waver from the path. She says that's important because if you don't the pathogens grow into real monsters more difficult to slay in the future. This of course addled me a little bit. I am hopeful and I'm praying there is some leeway into this particular regimen because I have been having a hard time remembering to take this medication exactly 12 hours apart. I just sort of get into the general time slots and I take it with maybe a half a glass of water not the full big glass of water she would like me to take and then just pump more water through the whole procedure of the day. I don't know what she's thinking I mean it's hard enough to pee two or three times a day but to add just more fluid to the whole process I just don't know if I can do that. Then she indicated that I need to be doing rest for this medication to work at its best. That was the first time I heard this and I've been Trucking all over today anyway. So maybe I'll have to take it easy the rest of the week with the exception of Thursday when I have to do the dental appointment that's just across the street I should be okay. Maybe I'm just the impassive-aggressive but I sure don't want to be growing monsters not at all

Mostly Monday

 

One of the movies I watched today was 2001 A Space Odyssey, I saw this movie when it first came out and I can't really rightly remember but it was in the 60s somewhere. I even have the movie on DVD but it's just so much easier to find it somewhere on the internet and usually for free. Right now I can get it on my Amazon account for free. I forgot how forward-thinking the movie was. I of course took it in full circle and even then we didn't call the phenomenon artificial intelligence it was certainly what the movie was all about in my opinion as well as one of the first warning flags out there about beware of what we put our faith in and our efforts. I think a lot of the reason artificial intelligence is taken on so readily now and this century, in this decade is man's pure laziness wanting another entity/ machine to think for us and make our on decisions. We as a species better watch out what we wish for it will get us if we don't really put up some guards and it may be too late already. We may have already given away the farm.

Not too cold today I actually got out and went across the street to the market picked up a few things I would like to have in stock for when the temperature does drop. I could have actually made the trip without a jacket but I took one of my new hoodies across my lap just to be sure if I ran into something cold or wet I could have some sort of protection but I didn't need such stuff it was windy and warm- - mind you, it was also very dark a lot of clouds and this is one of the reasons the temperature kept warm as well as the fact that some low pressure system out there is blocking all the cold air from coming down from Canada which is okay with me. We usually have one major snowstorm by now and as of yet I don't think we've hardly seen any snow on the floor. It's staying in the mountains for right now and everyone's happy with that but possibly next week the snow levels will fall at least that's what they're saying and that's what they're hoping because if we don't get any moisture shortly it's going to be very dry for the next few seasons. The time is late and I've let my day get away from me once again and so I may have to cut this postage short of the 500 Words I like to ride at least. As I said we will have warmer than usual weather and dryer for the next few days. Tomorrow is my assist meeting which means I'll be out on the tarmac riding the bus and luckily not having to dodge any raindrops. The weather forecaster indicated that tomorrow might even be warmer than today, be that as it may I will still carry a hoodie, wrapped around my waist and legs just in case…

Softly Sunday

Mark Anthony and the kids are in Idaho today, they've been at his aunt's place all weekend the family is celebrating an early Thanksgiving dinner since everybody will be gone visiting in-laws and things of that nature under actual day the holiday celebrated. It's kind of a Mormon thing I think or maybe it's just a thing of families nowadays that have so many in-laws to satisfy on the holidays it's just easier to do it ahead of the event and not get so crazy and involved because it's so easy to do. I pretty much enjoy doing nothing all day I did go out at one time just to test the sunlight and the temperature and it was pretty uncomfortable, granted it was about 10:30 a.m. so theoretically you got significantly warmer in the afternoon but by then I was into a couple of movies and just enjoying the apartment. The place is a little bit cleaner today. Last night before I went to bed I cleaned up a little bit around the kitchen chopped up some more vegetables for my pickle jalapeno pepper drink and no put up a new bottle of juice and oddly I didn't make the drink for today like I usually do in the mornings though I have been helping my self to the large slotted spoon full of pickled peppers periodically through the day.

I even thought about going out to breakfast this morning even though the kids weren't here but I really couldn't justify it with so much good food that I got in the refrigerator that has to be used up. So I made myself fried eggs and toast which I totally enjoyed I did without the cheese of course since I cannot do milk products right now because of the medication I'm on. I even had two eggs that I didn't eat that I saved to eat later on this evening when I made a egg sandwich use it up that fried eggs from this morning that I did not eat. It made for a fast low energy evening dinner. Now I just peace on a few things before I go to bed maybe I'll have another canned food and toast treat. Of course, I can't use cottage cheese which would be delightful but I had canned apricots and toast last night.

I can't remember if I reported about getting the shirts in that my home health person ordered for me. There's a bunch of them but I would say half are 4X tall and they're really huge I mean even I can tell I'm not that big. And they're all made out of like nylon stuff so I doubt they're going to shrink however the shirt I wore today is a Forex but it's cotton and it's struck down pretty good. So I don't know if I'm going to try to send them back or what. Maybe it'll be a good exercise just the same. All I know is I will have some new shirts in case I need to do something that I don't have to end up looking like the whole world I tend to look like most the time. The weather reports are pretty interesting these days looks like the droughts coming back not that it really ever left. But we did have a reprieve of quite a bit of snow last year especially in the mountains which greatly is the drought talk but the drought talk always says we need four or five years like that for it to have an impact. The upside however is tomorrow, like today the temperatures will be up in the 60s maybe 65 by Tuesday and sunshine. Also I found out that I should not be taking direct sunshine on my face and stuff while I'm on this medication what a drag. I have been enjoying doing that the last couple weeks but I only have to go a few more days an4d then I'll be off the Cipro… 

Super Saturday night

 It's been kind of a weird Veterans Day for sure not necessarily bad but just kind of strange. Of course the coffee shop was not open this morning but I wasn't sure because there was no sign on the window and there was no messages on the answering machine. In fact the only message on the answering machine was management telling the public that Hidden Peaks would not be open on Labor Day. Which made me thought well if they didn't say they weren't going to be open maybe they would be open- - if that makes any sense at all. So my friend Janet who lives upstairs and who I usually have coffee with on Saturday morning and other folks who want to join us invited me upstairs where she made coffee we were able to visit up there for a while gossip about folks here at the building and other places. After that I pretty much hung out at the apartment except for a quick trip over to the market to pick up a few things to get through the weekend OJ, cookies and candy bars for next week for my staff. Other than that I pretty much watched movies for the day which was fun. However, in the evening I started cleaning up a little bit maybe I feel guilty for watching too many Netflix movies today. I started out by sweeping the floor in the kitchen or trying to I'd gotten a quite messed up the last couple days in fact tonight I dumped a can of pickled jalapeno peppers on my lap very few actually escaped but the juice slopped over and that was all over the floor the floor was dirty already so that mixed with the dirt so it was really gummy dirt so I actually swept up the floor and then I dug out the Swifter and went over the floor with it it kind of made me feel like I was cleaning up the kitchen it looks a little bit better at least on the floor I did clean some junk off the table but the table still looks a mess. I took some time and chopped up cucumbers and celery and added them with the can of peppers to the big pot of vegetables that I keep in the refrigerator now soaked in the juice from the pickled peppers I try not to but I think I almost go through a can of pickled peppers A can a day if not every two days. I actually tried to move stuff around on the countertop and tried to clean off the countertops a little bit especially where I do most of my work next to the refrigerator that gets to be really messy. Made me think back on Saturday nights when I remember my mom would mop the floors in the kitchen another area of the house in the old days. He knew it was Saturday night mom is prepping for Sunday. I don't think that's why I do it I'm just trying to keep away or ahead of the entropy. I think I have to acknowledge the fact that I'm 72 and that I never was a good housekeeper to begin with and now it's getting even harder for me to keep even assemblance of order to some of the areas of the apartment. Physically demanding and I cannot keep up with it. I will have to once again seriously start looking at finding someone who can come in and do some cleaning. I was helping my one home health person would continue to do some a little bit but that's pretty happy hit and miss. I can think of better ways to spend Saturday night but probably not as productive….

About shirts and coffee

 I would really like to be able to order things like clothes over the internet really use Amazon and other entities which seem to sell clothing at a much reduced rate than even like Walmart and such. My problem is I have severe buyer's remorse the second that I make the order knowing that whatever I order I'll not like but at the same time feel powerless to send stuff back because the process seems too complicated for me. I know that sounds totally strange but it's true. Then of course I just sort of exit the page and don't order anything and my clothes become more and more ragamuffin and I just look like a role in Hobo Wherever I Go. I was going over this the other day with my home health professional, Melissa, and she listened to me and indicated that she would have no problem spending my money on clothes. I wasn't sure how I felt about that and I actually identified four or five shirts that I would be interested in owning if I knew that everything would be just fine and let it at that. I was taking it back however when I was checking my bank account and saw a reduction at just about the same price the clothes would have been. I then checked my sales history and sure enough Melissa had ordered the shirts. They came yesterday in the mail from the Big Brown Truck who just leaves the stuff by my door. They used to knock but not anymore I just opened the door and if I'm lucky I'll see it before I run over it. I ran over at this time. By the time I finally got the bag out from underneath my wheels it had been pushed over to the far corner of the apartment which I just left there.

That was Wednesday morning/ afternoon and it's been there since. So the first thing I did when Melissa showed up for my program this morning just to have her grab the package and open it and sure enough it was the shirts. They're those flimsy cheap shirts that come from the third world countries I'm sure. One of the shirts was a 4X which I had forgotten I ordered. It's a big honking shirt certainly fits me. If I have a complaint about the shirt it's the neck it's not the shirts fault maybe my neck isn't a Forex neck just a 3X. I think the other shirts are 3x 3xls actually. I worn the 4X all day and even though it hangs on me hugely I like it. Maybe just maybe they'll shrink a little bit come wash day.

Tomorrow of course is Saturday morning that's when I meet one of the people here and sometimes other folks at the coffee shop across the street. We usually meet around 9:30 have a cup of Joe and gossip a little bit but that's it. Well it struck me today that tomorrow is Veterans Day and from my experience that places always closed on holiday weekends. I was so unsure that I actually rolled over there after dinner tonight but there was no signs on the windows or on the door or anything so I don't know. I think what I will do is call them as soon as I am awake they're supposedly open at 6:00 a.m. and if they answer the phone that means they're open if they don't well it's Veteran's Day. I guess the reason I'm making such a big deal out of the whole thing is that this is the same outfit that closes on Sunday morning the time that I think every coffee shop should be open but what do I know …

Thoroughly Thursday

If there is a good side of this current infection that I have it's that for whatever reason, the infection has allowed me basically to sleep through the night with one or two episodes where I wake up in either have to drain or talk myself into not draining and forcing myself back to sleep hopefully capturing any pee that's happening in one of the little absorbent pads that I have invested in quite heavily lately. UTIs have had before have kept me up all night with that false urgency. Anyway, as a introduction to this day's blog. I woke up around 6:00 a.m. and got myself into the chair with little issue. As I indicated I slept pretty well except for one point where I had to drain and I only drained about 300 cc's enough though however don't let me get back into sleep for the last couple hour block. I had to focus on keeping myself focused on dressing to be sure I was ready by the time it was 9:30 to go down to coffee which I did. I was a little worried that because I had pee all over me from the evening I would stink but I pretty much tried to take chair bath after I shaved which I think did pretty good and I think the chair was pretty clean from the work that Melissa did yesterday on it so I was okay I believe. Coffee was uneventful except for of course Pat wasn't there and she was missed. I finally called the dentist office before I went to the coffee group and let them know I had the UTI and graciously they let me reschedule till next week and so I figured with the beautiful sunshine and cloudless sky and whether or not it was colder or whatever I had better get my ass over to the clinic and get something for this UTI.

There's no question about it it is cold, I dressed myself in the red jacket as always and the red blanket wrapped as best as I could around my legs and off I went actually the sun was warm enough if you were dressed as I was and face directly into the sunshine I could feel the warmth on my face which made the time out a lot more enjoyable to me. I felt relief even just checking into the clinic which I did and they stashed me in a side room of course. They directed me to the side room with the little bottle and wanted me to give a sample. That was the only thing that was concerned about I didn't know if I would have enough or how unwildly it would be to give a sample but I was able to do so readily. I didn't make a mess didn't spell anything on me and caught everything pretty much in the bottle. The doc wrote me a prescription for Cipro and off I went stopping at the market on the way home to get the drug filled and finally got back home turned on the heat and tried to enjoy the rest of the day.

The board meeting was okay I feel a little self-conscious zooming in from home but it worked okay. Next time I'll try to go in person. I just couldn't do it today and besides I really wanted the technician to look at my chair Allen and he did. The only drawback was he didn't have the right tools for the job I thought about it but I didn't do it I should have taken an image of the problem so he could have come prepared. He was able to at least halfway fix the chair should make life a little bit easier especially dressing hopefully. The board meeting was okay. There's always I never feel I'm comfortable enough to do anything got myself on a couple of committees I don't know if I'll do any good on finance and something else to do with money. That's pretty funny actually anyway. Is a relatively short meeting which is okay because I was relatively cold I was trying to warm up and get ready for dinner. Like I said the days are cold now 44 degrees even with Sunshine is still cold. I guess that's the way it's got to be but hopefully once I start the regimen of Cipro I won't stink so bad … 

Wednesday's Wowe's

 Just my luck. Remember yesterday my wheelchair guy was supposed to show up but he didn't and this morning I found out that he just basically forgot. It's just that I really need to have this chair fixed it's really beginning to bite into my regular life. So as we were talking we set up an appointment and I was pleased to find out that he could come by tomorrow night maybe around actually tomorrow afternoon around 5:00 p.m. that sounded good to me but something was Naggy in the back of me but I wasn't sure what until I happened to check The Independent Living web page and sure enough tomorrow night is board meeting. So I've got to be down there at 5:15 there's no way I can work with Alan at 5:00 p.m. to fix my chair. So who knows when I'm going to be able to get this thing fixed ticks me off. But I need to back away it'll all work out one way or the other at least I'm alive and I'm okay.

I've been in denial again and it seems like I do have a UTI that I'm going to have to get looked at which means getting together getting dressed and looking fairly okay jumping the bus and going to the outpatient IHC facility and getting are giving a sample of urine and then them right in the script which hopefully will knock out whatever bugs I got. It seems like I've been getting this a lot lately and I thought with my demonos and everything that I would be doing a better job of not being UTI. I can basically sleep okay I'm surprised at that it's just during the day having to pee every 15 minutes or so and then peeing all over yourself sometimes cuz you can't get there on time or if you're out and about that's even worse trying to find a bathroom and then trying to Cath yourself with all your gear in your way that you have to move and coordinate out of. I could be getting discouraged but I'll get past this and get on to my life again I'm sure of it. I keep thinking however I'm going to enter in another stage most likely a final stage and things will digress I don't know how quickly or how significantly but the writing certainly been on the wall. I've been thinking of Pat lately who fell and broke her head couple weeks ago then that person who got hit by the car 67-year-old woman knocked backwards on the back of her head broke the head and she died that afternoon or later on that night. It's just that easy to slip away. Don't mind me I'm just sort of out of it right now too much pissing, Too Much Death and winter again doesn't make me very buoyant. I also think I'm a little concerned / spooked about coming home tomorrow after the board meeting which will probably be around 7:30 or something but it's going to be way dark by then now that we're into regular time again. So it's going to be dark and cold and I'm probably going to be wet and stinky but I play the cards as I'm dealt and see what happens…

Just waiting

It's not like I knew it wasn't going to be cold. I listen to the weather forecast as well as all the alerts on the different weather platforms on the internet. It rained today but not really enough to cause me any discomfort. When I was out on the bus line and whatever it was just at the most sprinkling. Later on this evening has rained more but luckily I'm inside so it's not a big deal. But being out in the community was cold there's no question about it, not super cold, but I wore my big red jacket just the same I figured that if it did start doing like buckets of water I'd be okay. The red jacket isn't so hobo-ish but it's warm and easy for me to get into especially when I'm in my chair. So the sun didn't really shine today it was cloudy and for temperatures not getting bigger than 45 or so it really did feel cold and not just because I was wearing shorts. Today I wore shorts, shoes of course, a hobo shirt and one of my black watch caps. It wasn't totally uncomfortable but uncomfortable enough that for the better reason I would have stayed home from like obligation at assist. It was uncomfortably chilly waiting for the bus to take me to the train then waiting at the train for 13 minutes for the next Red line and it was uncomfortable. I need to invest in some gloves again it only get a nice pair that will keep my hands warm. It just struck me that my dad's hands are always cold in the winter time and he was about my age when I first started noticing this. I had a good pair of gloves once but they disappeared like everything I have I lose. But maybe I'll give it one more shot I don't want something that's so small are stretchy that's hard for me to get my hands into. A good pair of gloves does help me get by traveling on the streets during the cold and rainy day.

I've been struggling with my chair yes the one I just got back from the shop, for a couple of days now the left side has lost its ability to lock itself down so the arm always races up when I try to push myself back in my chair. It's a real pain and I don't know really how to fix it from having somebody from the. Remember yesterday I gave you the idea that the technician from my wheelchair shop would be by around 4:00 to fix it the chair, the arm on my left side. Well of course I really didn't have any place else to be at 4:00 so I was at home and nobody seemed to care that I was at home so I was just wondering around the house grabbing something to snack on. So I was home at 4:00 and at 5:00 and so forth and so on and no show from my mechanic. My arm has gotten so bad that is worn me out just trying to keep myself locked into Chair by wrapping my arm around it and holding on. It's a pretty easy fix right now if you would just get here. So I didn't see him tonight and the way you talked when I tried to make the appointment the other day was that he was booked for the rest of the week so I don't know if that means I'm not going to get it fixed until sometime next week I did have an appointment for tomorrow at the ucat but stupid me called in canceled so sure that I was that Allen would be here today. I'm just going to get by not worry about it anymore than I have to really, isn't that all I can do.....? 

Checks and a movie

 We've been having extraordinarily good weather the last couple days. I mean there's been moments of severe cloudiness, very little rain to speak of and it's been in the 60s almost 70° from day to day. Another cold front moves in tonight which is rain tomorrow and cooler temperatures after that so I figured I better go do something today with my time so after my home health person left this morning and I was nice and clean and ready to go I decided I would check out a movie but this was after I had gone to the credit union to try to resolve a problem that I'd had as far as I ordered checks about a month ago and I have yet to receive the order so I figured I would check with them to be sure and pick up some counter checks to hold me over and tell my other check to get here. I really intended this to be a quick trip to the bank but of course that never happens. I had a little go-getter behind the till and she was working really hard to make sure that we found by checks. Long story short we never did obviously they person never order the checks when I told them to go ahead and make the order which is okay. The little teller made out eight counter checks for me which will more than hold me over till next year. Essentially I write one check a month and that's for my rent here at the apartments. So I at least have 8 months of checks the little Bank person told me that maybe that's what I should just do instead of ordering the books of checks to just order counter checks two or three times a year or as needed. It's not a bad idea and it certainly keep me going but I still like the concept of having a nice little book of checks always at my disposal. Do I want too much?

For the life of me I cannot remember the name of the movie that I went to. It was a period piece I suppose during the first part of the century of last century. A couple big names are in that I couldn't figure out who was who in the zoo though. An interesting piece about murders of American Indians/ Native Americans and the Indian nation which owned a lot of the oil fields during that time and how the white men and they're seated again and essentially robbed them of the property and resources. It was pretty depressing what I saw of it I think I watched about three quarters of the movie before I had to run to the bathroom which took so long I lost interest in the rest of the movie and came on home. I must admit it was an interesting depiction of the Native Americans who owned this oil who had gotten very very wealthy and lived in a very wealthy way. I may have to watch it again to see how it ended but I don't know if I can put myself through that much pain and Trauma of the movie again or Native Americans being killed as well as a few white guys. There are a lot of big names in the movie but I can't remember any of them now and I think I would just assume go to lesser made movies that are not as dismal and depressing as big name movies tend to be…

Sunday chilling

 I've only done about half of the clocks in the house at this point in time. I figured I'd leave the more challenging changes for tomorrow morning while I wait for Melissa to get here for my program. I the low hanging fruit today actually even last night I changed the clock on my radio clock next to my bed but this morning I did my power chair first thing that I did the clock in the bathroom the more intricate ones like the clock on the Range and the microwave I'll do tomorrow. This may be the last time since our current legislature is talking about taking Utah off the daylight savings time concept. I mean I understood the idea of daylight savings time back and never really figure out how it really did that much difference are good or bad or whatever. All I know is that it was so strange first couple days when you make the change especially the the fall clock Change when you go back an hour. I wasn't quite sure how I was going to react since I needed to be up early enough to get dressed to be ready to go out and meet the kids at 8:00 at the restaurant. But I didn't have an issue or a problem at 5:30 I decided I would start getting up which I did had a little bit of trouble after the transfer into the chair or during the transfer in the chair. I didn't fall or anything but I could feel myself being at risk, real risk. I got myself situated and started off with my day. The the new chair repair is quite a rascal bug still especially trying to get dressed in the chair. Took me quite a while this morning to get my legs crossed high enough to get my shorts on. I had to put one shoe on twice but after I got that squared away I was pretty good the rest of the day which is sort of a surprise.

My granddaughter and her boyfriend joined us for breakfast as usual. It's kind of strange since they don't really eat breakfast a lot of the times sometimes Jasmine will have a scone but never a real breakfast in Jackson never eat breakfast but sure like to have him there we have a good time at the discussion is Lively at times gets a little dicey sometimes because she's such a little conservative and trying to make a decent open conversation especially anything political can get heated quite quickly. I use a lot of my skill sets to direct us away from anything controversial in our conversation. It's safe that way. But often I have to admit the Sunday morning breakfast is the high point of my weekends. It's a small gathering perhaps that's best but the nearest I can tell everyone enjoys each other's company even the dicey conversations. I really didn't do anything the rest of the day just hung out in the apartment and tried to lay back on my chair as much as I could to take the weight off my butt just because it's been getting sore lately and I don't want any nasty surprises…

Suddenly Saturday

I did a bunch of rolling today more than usual just because I wasn't sure when the bus would be round to pick me up. I had coffee this morning with my friend from upstairs it was a short version of our usual coffee break but she got word that one of the other folks who live here quite a character passed away last night. It was one of those things where it's not surprising but it did happen. She fell and hit her head on the floor and it's all she wrote. She lingered for a number of days but gave it up last night. Her name was Pat and I like her a lot which kind of surprised me. She and I served on the same board of directors for a number of years. It's the same outfit which runs this apartment complex. I always thought she was Goofy in the board meetings then I got to meet her as a neighbor and she wasn't bad at all just kind of strange and a good way and she'll be missed. It's kind of weird we're going to a whole spat of deaths right now at the apartment complex. I better be careful. So anyway after a brief time after she left the coffee shop I decided to pack it into and went home pulled out a $20 bill and jumped the buses to go up to the movies. I had about an hour to kill before they started letting people in for the movie so I hit a couple of the shops in the same area got some coffee and just hung out for a while it was kind of nice.

The movie I went to was Spider-Man. I'd seen it before but since I'm on that program to where I can watch as many movies a month that I want to I watched it again today. Seems like everybody's playing with the multi-universe these days and this is Spider-Man in the multi-universe no way home or something like that. What's really cute about the movie is that they have all three actors who played Spider-Man over the years all be in this one movie as themselves / Spider-Man. It was fun seeing each individuals interpretation of the role then how they all integrated it together. I kind of wish they would spend a little more time on the project enjoyed the concept of three Spider-Man acting like brothers for a short period. Let me watch it again before it goes back to the small screen. It's just something about the big screen movie. Oh, the reason that I had more miles than usual on my chair this evening is because I didn't wait around for the bus the day was pretty warm the sunshine mixed with clouds. It was a good day for a roll I had a full battery and enough time that I didn't have to worry about speeding and I just didn't want to wait around for the bus it's such a pain in the butt now cuz you never know where it'll stop or it won't. Construction is still challenging but I got around the problems it's been a lot of time dodging some problems in the sidewalks and certainly wasn't very fun for my butt either but I rolled up and caught the bus back and all was good. Pretty nice Saturday…

The right thing

The apartment complex where I live does not take cash when it comes to paying rent you must have a personal check or money order or something like that or they won't take your rent for the month. Typically have not had a problem with this setup. I think it's weird and I don't know how illegal it is as far as illegal currency goes where it says on the dollar bills are on the bills" legal tender" for all transactions or something like that. But like I said usually I don't have a problem and in fact it's easier than having to gather up $500 and some dollars and every time I pay my rent. So that's why I get a little frustrated when I run out of checks and I can't pay rent. This month , November it's okay because I used the last check that I how did my checkbook. Now technically speaking, I understand a person can issue a check on a deposit slip has all the information of a regular check and the bank will treat it as such. I don't know how accurate that was or is- - I learned this years ago in an old Junior High economics class or something. The teacher was showboating his knowledge but I'm always remembered it it always makes sense I've just never really done it. Having said all that, I did try to be responsible and proactive the first of last month when I contacted the bank to let them know that I'm out of checks and would they please send me some more. They were gracious of course over the phone and said sure now it's 4 Weeks Later and I still haven't seen any checks come in. Since I only write one check a month I believe that I could actually get counter checks from the bank just for rent. So of course the last three or four times I've been in the credit union/ Bank I have remembered everything except asking for counter checks. A couple of days ago I even made a list of items I want to get done in November and getting counter checks was one of them so I can't believe yesterday when I was at the credit union getting cash and quarters that I forgot to ask for counter checks. Now it's the weekend again and I'm not going to be able to get any checks until Monday which is okay because I still have over 20 days to go before my next check is due to be written and who knows maybe even my real checks will come in over  that space Of time. I do not hold my breath that the new checks will come however I will go with the flow for right now but before that I am going to go to the credit union next week and get a handful of counter checks and maybe even someone will take my image if I give him my cell phone, to show that I'm trying to do the right  thing.

Date remembered

 I'd like to think I'm a tough guy that I'm not a real sentimental dork head but every once in a while I get to think that I probably am a bigger dork head than I'd like to admit. Even though it's decades in the past and it's separated by divorce and even more time and two more marriages I always have to pause on the second day of November when I got married for the first time. Of course that marriage did not last and the only reason I would do it again would be if I could get the same kids out of it that I got the first time around. Truth of the matter is I probably shouldn't have gotten married way back then I think 1974 in the good old days going to college. The school I went to was a college then only changing to a university later. The other participant in the marriage as long since left this world passing on a few years ago. I doubt that she would have had any sentimentals attachments to the day. She was much more fixed in reality than I was or could I should I say the Practical nature of living than I was. But still those first few years was somewhat idyllic college Years. The whips and scorns of real life had not yet occurred. We were living off my Social Security / school money and she living off the 1st of her student loans- - back in the old days. We were even living on my parents Farm are the place where I grew up at in South Boise. Hardly any rent at all like I said idyllic in the old days before the whips and scorns of real life. Like I said I'm not very sentimental but I must give pause to the second of November.

It's kind of crazy how easy it is to get married I don't know about now but back then it was just making the decision that's what we are going to do and then off to records to get the marriage license then set the whole thing up. Couple friends showed up for best best man and the maids. An old religious instructor actually said the words( and he should have known better he should have talked us out of it he knew that we were an unlikely match I know that but he didn't). I could scream conspiracy but that wouldn't hold much water either actually it's just bad judgment and if I didn't have two of the best kids in the universe I would say it was a big mistake all the way around but it wasn't I got the two kids which also means the grandkids and many other challenges along with those blessings that goes with families. Like I said there are other marriages along the way but I don't think I really remember the dates of those as much as I do the one on November 2nd whatever year that might have been…

Orange juice with pulp

 I am really getting into drinking orange juice. It's not automatic yet but I want to get to that point where I'm ingesting like 8 oz at least of orange juice a day I can't hurt. I purchase orange juice off and on and since the refrigerator for a while then I drink it and I always wonder why you don't drink this more? I really like the flavor and I really like Pulp into orange juice. I don't know why I just seems more substantial- - sort of like eating the crushed Tomatoes I have every morning with my drink. The little chunks of tomato just add a lot and that's kind of a new Concept for me as well. I can't believe I've gone this far without enjoying crushed tomatoes or diced tomatoes. I almost enjoy them as much as regular Tomatoes I cut up to put into the drink but that's another discussion.

I think I've let the cost of the beverage of orange juice get in the way of my enjoyment of the liquid as well as any possible help benefits the beverage might be. I don't think it's as significant as I've been led to believe over the years but I do believe it certainly increases my acidic intake and whether it does anything for keeping myself free of colds and other winter like illnesses I'm sure it certainly assists to some degree as far as making a hostile environment for urinary bacteria to grow in. That's the best justification, if I need it justification, to purchase the beverage. The other roadblock that I self-imposed was the cost of the orange juice. And to some degree the size of the package. I want to get at least a gallon when I purchase the juice these days. I'm finding I can keep feeling a smaller quart size container over and over again making it much easier for me to access the drink which will increase the probability that I'll continue drinking this acidic Beverage daily. I'm sort of surprised that if I do buy say a gallon of the orange juice that seems to last maybe a week it's not like I drink at 2 or 3 times a day maybe once in the morning when I get up and take my meds and maybe a shot before I go to bed. Maybe I would ingest more of the fluid if I had the opportunity and it certainly couldn't hurt me and even if the beverage costs six or seven dollars a gallon it's probably money well spent. The biggest issue for me then is dragging the bottle home from the market especially if I've got other items I'm bringing home as well. Seems like a lot of the things I'm purchasing these days are bulky and heavy and heavy on the liquid side. This is particularly true of the sliced jalapeno peppers. I like to buy three to four cans at a time which makes quite a heavy burden to transport in my power chair even if I don't buy anything else. If I add to the purchases it gets really dicey. I really need to get someone to go to the same Market that I do at the same time that I go to so they can help bring the items back. And of course the best solution would be to get myself involved in a home delivery program from the market. I've certainly drug my feet on that project long enough maybe it's time to change before the weather turns bad real bad….