Saturday repairs

I was totally excited and impressed this morning when I got phone call from the wheelchair shop repair guys who are coming out to repair my bed indicating or wanting to let me know if the time that we had indicated would be all right. I was delighted to tell them yes and they indeed were coming over in fact it was only a few seemed a few minutes later they called back indicating there would be over in about 30 minutes. I was told the excited I couldn't believe they got the party in and everything. The guy did okay you only got lost once having to call me for more specific directions. Let's hear it however he got right to work. I didn't tear my bed up this morning because I figured he had let me know how you wanted to work on the bed I imagine it'd have to take off the mattress but I just didn't know if he wanted me to take all the bedding off the mattress first or whatever and that was so impressed because like Hulk he just grabbed a hold of the mattress on each side lifted it up the whole kit and caboodle and placed it on the other side of the room. This of course exposed the whole mattress and the broken piece of equipment. Of course 3/4 of the way into the job he realized the part to be replaced was defective and he would have to go to the shop and get another one which said to me they didn't have to ship anything in that it was right here all along. Well anyway, it's exactly what he did coming back a few minutes later with the new piece and then within 15 minutes he had the whole piece in in the bed was operational once again even me fairly excited about getting up in the morning a bit more safely than I have the past too. This morning I almost got to the point where I had to call the fire department or somebody because I was in such a position I didn't think I'd be able to overcome the way I was laying halfway in and halfway out of the power chair but in a matter of great strength I was able to lift myself up on by the trapeze and eventually balanced myself on the seat of the power chair and then tipped the seat mechanism in place until gravity pulled my butt all the way back to the back of the chair and I 

was Secure. I did the lap belt up and then started my day.

I also started the August kid letters today. I've been having some Saturday issues with my tablet which is what I used to write the letters with these days. The only problem is I've totally filled up the machines internal drive. I have majored space on the chip added to the tablet my problem is I can't figure out how to transfer files from one to the other. I want to move files from the internal drive to the external drive and I just can't seem to figure it out. I did a few of them however which allows me to dictate on this machine at least. I was however able to download a few files which opened up I don't know how many megabytes of space on my internal drive. This should be more than enough to do my letters this month. I am going to have to get my son to advise me on this issue I'm sure he'll know how to do it if not I can always go down to the Light Rail and take the train into 21st South to a major business store there that does a lot of information technology type machines so there'll be somebody behind the desk are the counter who I think will be able to advise me I think I'll have more than 645 to transfer from one drive to the other… 

Lame entry

Yes I know, 5 months away from Christmas Day. I drive people crazy bringing that out all the time but something about the 25th of any month makes me think of Christmas. Today wasn't bad however in Salt Lake I took off a while went over to the market looking for a cantaloupe and the pickup my medications for this go-around. I got there and I got confused again asking for diazepam AKA Valium and I knew better I haven't been taking that for years but I wanted was the Baclofen and luckily the pharmacist figured it out and I was able to get that taken care of thank goodness. Would like to have got the watermelon but I just refused to pay the price that they want for their balance and I don't think I've been that impressed with the mountains once I got home but certainly a lot closer than going up to 5400 South in the market there we're all melons or 495 or something like that. My butt's been a little tender the last couple of days so I don't want to really push the issue too awfully much and lean back in my chair and take the weight off my butt. I need to do this more I even told you the idea of sleeping in my chair which I don't think I could do but today I actually dozed off a little bit and it revived me. I woke up early around 3:55 almost 4:00 it never really got back to sleep but I drilled through the day pretty decently. I'm trying not to get excited about them fixing my bed. However the transfer this morning went without issue actually. There were a couple of seconds there that I was a little concerned about but eventually made the transition and the jump into my chair. Not to dwell on the broken bed issue too awfully much but I have to consider the concept that because I can't elevate my bed in the end where I sleep I can't Elevate the bed so to sleep and I really do utilize that peace a lot I guess. Or maybe I'm just going through a period now where I'm going to be waking up pretty early. I get through the day I don't have much to complain about and that's okay by me. However I think I'm going to have to track up to Walmart tomorrow or Saturday and pick up another watermelon maybe a couple steaks would be nice I almost bought a steak this afternoon but I think I'll wait till I get closer to the first of the month then use the next month's money. I don't think this is anywhere close to 500 Words but it's going to have to do for today I'm pretty tired I need to get the weight off my butt you understand..

Pioneer Day 2024

It's been a hot nice Pioneer Day the kind that I like. Haven't done a lot just hung out got the wash done and tried to run rough shot on my bed repair that looks promising I make contact with the wheelchair or the chair shop or the shop that will repair the bed will cost about 500 bucks to get the job done but it's cheaper than a new bed and I know what this battle do when it works so that's great. Other than that it's been just a quiet one. I think if there was a comment to be made of Interest was that typically Wednesdays are the day that Melissa starts my wash while she's working with me and then she takes the wash from the machine and throws it in the dryer then I just have to pull them out when they're finished and fold them and put them away. But I found today Melissa forgot to do the second part which is okay no big deal. I'm just glad I realized this and started the process but when I went down to do it I ran into my neighbor who told me she had already done it transferred the clothes from dryer from washer to dryer and then she wouldn't take any money for doing it or even the cost of the dryer which is 75 cents. I have to dry the clothes twice to get a good dry so I did that and I got busy doing something else and when I went back to get my clothes or when I came back to my apartment after I'd gone out doing some reading out in the common areas the clothes are all folded in in the basket outside by door amazing I'm sure it was my neighbor. She is really nice and I appreciate having someone watch my back like that.

You might notice that this was written on a different program that I generally use for the blog. I'm writing this on my tablet which will not yesterday would not allow me to dictate on this product it kept shutting me down because it said my memory was full which it is. I have to figure out how to move a lot of the stuff it's on the OneDrive so I can store stuff again and so this won't keep me from dictating on this machine. I dictated my entry yesterday off my cell phone which is sort of difficult to do- - for me anyway.

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Blog 072324- Tuesday

 I really apologize for the lightweight postings I've been making lately and this will be the same but I usually use my tablet to dictate these postings and my tablet seems to be full and I can't figure out how to strip away material so I can free up the drive I guess. I have a I think something like 16 GB chip in the tablet but I can't figure out how to move items from the internal drive to the external drive. It's got to be fairly simple but because the drive is totally full every time I start trying to dictate it closes down. So anyway, these postings are going to be a little bit lightweight. I'm using my cell phone to do the dictation now I don't know how long that's going to last. I even tried to go back to the computer and my dragon dictate program but there's something wrong with my headset microphone and it won't even listen to me now. I suppose the easiest solution would be just to go down and buy another tablet but I need to really learn how to move items around on this tablet.

I'm exhausted I didn't sleep as well as I would have liked to of course because I can't manipulate the head piece of the mattress. I think I woke up around 4:00 never really got back to sleep. I wanted to get something I can't remember what it was though it was up at Walmart I was going to give it a shot. So I jumped on the bus got off of 5400 South stopped at McDonald's enjoyed a egg McMuffin and that's what I ordered but it's not what I wanted. That's a little confused at the time and got a McMuffin as I wanted a biscuit but it was good and kept me going through the morning. I ended up getting another wash laundry basket. So this is going to be nice it won't have any broken handles like the other and the other one was just disintegrating. I made some good Headway on the novel I'm reading right now. I also spent a lot of the time of this day trying to get some progress on my bed. The guy that set up the appointment for 1:00 never showed up which is kind of a pain in the butt. I spent a lot of time on the phone this morning getting things done. Hope it works out to my advantage. I'm kind of surprised at how much I use the head elevation function of my mattress or slash bed to sleep on.

More Tech frustration

 I'm trying to exist inside a techno storm. All day I've been frustrated trying to either get technology to work or trying to fix technology that I have to have to exist case in point. I am trying to repair my automatic bed that is totally automated that lets me live independently. This morning as I was trying to get up or raise the bed up so I could transfer I heard a crack in the snap and then the top portion of my bed would no longer lift up to it like a sitting position. I broke something I'm not sure well I know what it was it's the gearbox that powers the servo or whatever mechanism it is that allows the top part of the bed to raise to a sitting position which I didn't use to help me transfer into my chair. Fortunately the other two modes seem to work. I have spent all day trying to find somebody who can work on my bed and get it fixed one way or the other. I even contacted my brother Carl to see if he could come over and fix it. He has a magical hand that'll fix just about anything perhaps even more importantly I was able to get at least him to eyeball the situation and find out what the problem is. It's a broken gearbox of whatever you want to call it. I was on the phone to the local folks trying to figure out if they had somebody they know who could fix it- - they did not. I was on the phone to National places like where they build this bed and they couldn't tell me who locally could fix it. I eventually got some other information which might be of assistance I'm waiting now to hear back from the people but I have a little faith in them actually cuz they seem to be lying to me. They told me that this bed is no longer being manufactured and they don't know if they find the parts to repair my thing they're going to give me a quote tomorrow. I did another search and found the number of places where they do have parts and such and the part that I need to get is on there I just not sure if it's the right one I'll have to figure that out tomorrow. I'm also hoping that perhaps the folks that you can't might be able to help me. I will give them a call and see what they can conjure up.

My plan now is to call it a day get into bed and hope that tomorrow when I have to raise the bed up as much as high as it'll go I'll be able to then make the transfer to my chair safely. Wish me luck

Sunburn

 The western United States is totally burning up! Dried out and Sun beaten from days of 100° or Better Days. There's a fire burning now just above Salt Lake in the foothill area I really haven't seen the smoke except on the television screen on the news. It's the really first one it's been close into the city this season. We've had some big fires in the state and some are going on right now but they're not really close. However, we are beginning to get some smoke from other states who also have some major fires going. I can't smell anything which is probably best but definitely the smoke cloud is beginning to filter in to the community. So much so that during the day even though it's supposed to be cloudless there is a thin veneer of smoke that's filtering the Sun so it's hot but seems a little Cloud covered but there are no clouds it's the smoke. The best time to really consider how much smoke is around is at sunrise and sunset. I noticed this tonight as I was out soaking in some heat before I came back into the apartment complex for bedtime. The sun is just sinking behind the Horizon they're getting close to it there are some trees beginning to block it's descent but I was able to pull out my camera quickly or quick enough to get off one or two snaps which shows the explosion of light in that area. When there's more cloud cover you can get those really good red blood red sunsets and you see a real pronounced round ball in the center. I didn't get that tonight maybe in the next couple days if the smoke cloud gets more dense. I sat in the back this evening for about 45 minutes after I finished watching Ender's Game. Partly to warm up a little bit since I have the air conditioner going in the apartment and to enjoy summer as it's beginning to get closer to fall. There's still a lot of days of summer and heat left but I sense how quick this season is actually leaving.

You know something I think is weird? After I took this image tonight and for the past couple of nights I have noticed particularly when I went to start editing the images that I took that the editing tools are no longer available like they used to be. Seems like every time I turned around I was getting some kind of a photo editor I could download or sometimes they seem to download themselves. The point I'm making is that there's lots of Technology available free to let you edit your images especially for cropping or enlarging and things like that. I didn't find any on my tablet and I found one eventually on my cell phone it's sort of hiding in the back one of the programs. I'm going to try to crop out some stuff on this image but it's a good representation I think of the burst of sunlight just as the image Falls beneath the horizon. For that I am thankful as well as these wonderful hot days.

Foot box Woes

 I'm exhausted and I didn't really do anything today. I watched a couple movies and finished a miniseries I've been watching but oh yeah I went to breakfast with Janet but that's part of this blog that I'll tell you more about later. I'm exhausted because what happened to my power chair yesterday. It's been happening more and more the last couple weeks but and I've talked about it about how my foot box stops working. When this happens I'm basically stuck with where the foot box stopped working or the position of the foot box.

Last night I realized pretty late like at 10:30 that my foot box  all scrumpled up1 in fact the foot box had been messed up all day causing my legs and feet look totally weird as as well as the rest of my body. I was pretty well messed up cuz I didn't know how I was going to get to bed. Okay what I said the foot box was messed up I mean I couldn't modulate the position of the box with my controller. I've had a wire Miss connect been going on for a couple of days. What I can find the wire I can wiggle it and it starts working again but last night I couldn't find it for some reason and it was really stuck in the up position and it made it very difficult especially since I was wearing shoes to move my feet around to get my clothes off. I end up calling Marc Anthony who I knew was going to be doing something but sometimes he's wandering around town during the night after he gets done with the show or something. I knew if I could have him come over he'd be able to do a quick fix by adjusting those wires and get the wires back in contact. I did make contact with Mark and I realized that I could probably get myself undressed and once that was done I can roll into bed. So I texted him back indicating that I think I was okay for the night that he did not need to stop back or stop by but in the morning if he could come over we could work on my chair. It took me a while to undress it really was a challenge and I had to use my sticks to move my legs in such a way that I was able to get my shoes off then my shorts and then finally rolled myself into bed about 1:00 a.m.

I was kind of surprised at how well I slept waking up around 5:00 a.m. then hanging around the bed until 6:00 a.m. because I really didn't want to try transferring but eventually did in the transfer went well as I anticipated it would. Mark finally contacted me and he was pretty tired from his work the night before but he said he would stop by but he had a busy day and it wouldn't be much and it wouldn't a lot but he would do what he could. I decided as difficult it was going to be that I'd go ahead and get dressed and again this was very difficult to do with the way that the foot box was positioned and the way that I had my legs up made it really difficult for me to try to move my legs around by Sticks but I did it and I was dressed by the time he got here more or less at least I was presentable and halfway decent. Of course Mark found the problem and there is an issue it seems like a part is gone that needs to be repaired so I am going to have to send it in but in the meantime he did do a job of using some contact tape some of the gray tape or silver tape put it together and wrap it around the tape and such a situation hopefully that it will stay together until I can get it sent back to the shop for repairs and who knows how long that's going to take. The chairs been working in okay for the rest of the day. But is sore because the way that my legs were cramped up it caused me to push the whole weight of my body down on my butt and I think I either bruised it or maybe started something. Actually the whole thing could have been averted head my caretaker not been on vacation. She's the one I usually default to she's great but she's out camping this weekend I can't I deny her that. So I'm back on the road for however long I can get away with it. I'll call Monday to see about an appointment to get them to pick up my chair this of course means I'm going to have to utilize by backup chair which kind of scares me to death on a bunch of different levels but it'll get me by I think it'll have to..

Cap America T

 I think I'm developing more and more signs of advanced age. There's this weird commercial on television that's aimed at selling some sort of Elixir or medicine that works at erasing plaques in your brain and you could tell that the commercials aimed at senior individuals as far as targeting confusion, forgetting, and other areas that would probably be indicative of plaquin or whatever it's called. I don't know if that's what's making me paranoid but I'm just wondering if I'm beginning to exhibit those kind of behaviors but again I think a lot of the time I've had these all along so I don't think it's because of the plaquin or whatever it might be. One of the other examples of Aging I think might be showing through is my need to be more and more identified with Marvel entertainment products. I doubt that I would call this my second childhood perhaps it's still I'm working on my first childhood I don't know to be honest with you. Yesterday my newest addition arrived by mail. My new Captain America t-shirt. I'm so excited that I ordered the shirt and even more excited that it actually seems to be big enough for me- - I didn't say fit me but it does cover me up and that was my goal. Anyway black T-shirt with the Captain America Circle of a big letter A which is in red and white background kind of all enclosed black. I work today to the movies and I felt great because it looked like a new shirt that felt like I was new to a little bit. Is this what new clothes feels like? If it is I need to get more luckily for me there's a bunch of Marvel characters I could certainly get shirts of and what's even better is the possibility of not only short sleeve shirts but also long sleeve shirts for when the weather turns cooler or flat out cold but for the cold scenario there's even sweatshirts that I could get with various depictions or depictions of Marvel characters. I don't know how much I want to go overboard in this but I know I sure enjoy wearing them when I have them available. Up until now I just have really two an Iron Man t-shirt and the guy and one from Deadpool. I'm not sure how fast and how many more I want to add to my collection. Would it be too radical to have one shirt for each day of the week? Then I really would be cool. I would eventually like to get a Spider-Man as well as a Thor and possibly something from The Avengers collection there's a number of different ways I could go and it kind of excites me. I don't know if I would be interested in the Hulk maybe Bruce Banner that would be sort of interesting and Tony Stark but also be an interesting one and maybe it's Stark industry shirt that look cool. So I may or may not be going through a second childhood or adolescence or whatever but either way I'm kind of enjoying it..

Storm warning

 For a short while today there was a promise of significant thunderstorms along the Wasatch Front. Even around 4:00 the clouds started building up significantly and that wind started the kind you know, but a storm is approaching? I love sitting out in the wind gusts it really is nice. In fact I had this bizarre belief that if I were to go out in an electric storm and get hit by lightning that it might burst the scabs or bruises or whatever on my spinal cord and cure me. I was in my late twenties and I still believe this I can't believe it now. There is this one time when I was in Blackfoot Idaho living just a few blocks from where I worked. It was an interesting little Triplex three Apartments belt in a row. The apartment sat back for the road a little bit and the driveway horseshoed in came to the front of the apartments then horseshoed out again back up to the main road. On the other side of the road in the apartments was the yard it was covered by lawn and one night during the thunderous lightning storm I rolled out to the center of the lawn. This was way before I got a power chair I was still in my manual chair pushing. Anyway the wind came up, it was quite dark, and there was lightning all around so like an idiot I decided to push myself out to the center of the lawn and test out my theory.

I agree with you dear reader that was pretty stupid but at that point in time I figured it was worth a shot. The winds came up semi-ferociously As I push myself out to the grass. I was wearing cutoffs and no shoes. I seldom wore shoes in the summer. The winds came up and I enjoyed facing the dark rolling clouds all around the sky. The storm grew closer and the rain which I could smell finally became present and there was significant lightning flashes all around and that was when I realize this was a stupid idea. The rain became torrential, a real cloudburst as I started pushing myself towards the apartment complex. The wind was still blowing but it seemed like the lightning bolts are getting closer an the Thunder roaring and my fear bubbling over as I pushed forward. The grass was now wet making the rims of my manual wheelchair wet make it very difficult for my partial quadriplegic hands to get any grass at all on the wheels push rims. I inched along at what took forever till I finally got onto the asphalt and the sidewalk going up to my apartment. I was drenched totally soaked and totally relieved I was now in the apartment dry watching the storm outside trash and crash and light up. Of course nothing happened to me except that I got pretty chilly before I stripped down and towel off. I know I would have been a storm casually had I've been stupidly hit by giant bolt of electricity. But for a brief second I bet it would have been marvelous… 

Morning thoughts

Editor's note: sorry that I posted this blog tonight instead of yesterday. I don't know what I did but I forgot to hit the the button that posts the blog. I at least was able to fix the date so it looks like I posted it yesterday. Please forgive and have a great night Ms

 

I don't know if everybody has them but I have these strange bouts of creativity often just after waking for my night's sleep. Sometimes they're pretty interesting these thoughts that I get they seem to be so much better in the morning right after I wait from sleeping. Everything is crystal clear everything seems to make sense and everything seems to work the way it's supposed to. Those few times that I've taken the energy to write down a few thoughts about these moments of creativity I tend to think there's somewhat less interesting as the day goes on or else I even wake up more fully in the creativity Beast tends to slink back into the OR to my unconscious. This happened about a week ago upon waking I had this unique revelation or thought process about how interesting it would be to know the backstory or biography or history of some of the support characters in stories that I've witnessed or watched either on regular television or Internet or what have you. This day I got to thinking of the guy I called The General. I haven't gone back to really research what he was or who he was but in the adaptation of the book Ender's Game the guy who played the big guy or the director of the kid groups that Ender was part of. I thought he was really interesting and I really would have been interested in seeing a treaty done on him who he was and how he got to be over the school or training program that Ender was in. Was he a military guy? Or maybe he was just a shrink or an educator or a controller cuz he definitely tried to in control Ender actions.

These kind of Mind questions are the perfect items to use when I was trying to develop discussions with all my kids during kid day. It's not like I was actively doing an experiment I was just excited to get a discussion going everybody would get into and try to figure out a solution to an idea or problem I don't think we ever did the general from Ender's Games. I'm going to have to go back and check it for sure to find out what is rank was or if he had any kind of title or designation. As I laid there in bed I continue to develop more ideas to think about and one was to pull all the kids together are all the participants and kid day and go over this information and to see if we had enough interest or conceptual ideas to maybe rough out draft of short story, novel, movie script. I kind of think there's something there but I'm not sure what. Maybe there isn't and I just want something to be there because I'd like to know where the guy came from but more than that I'd like to get the feel of another Kids Day and enjoy the creative depth I used to feel when I dropped everybody off and headed back to my apartment …

Where's the damn image? found it

 

Don't you just hate it when you have something perfect in mind for a project or something and that that moment it seems to disappear? And what's really pathetic is that just last night I was going through my images on some of my my drives and there was the image I wanted. But today when I wanted to post something to my Facebook account I think or some other platform that I sometimes post on to I couldn't find the document to save my life or the file/image. And the reason I bring this up is it's kind of the reason for today's post.

I don't know what made me think of it. I didn't even go through my new messages which I usually do every morning when I wake up you know when you're in that zone of half asleep and you continue to climb up to consciousness? I felt pretty good I got about 6 hours of sleep which I hardly ever do and I was in no pain and it looked like it was going to be a great day and mind you it was a great day but that's not the issue here. But anyway, somewhere along the line as I wandered through today I became aware that if there was a weird birthday or trip day or whatever you want to call it today would be that day. Today was the day I got hit by a car, broke my neck destroyed my brother's motorcycle and became a quadriplegic. Unbelievable, so I thought as a quasi tribute to that because I really hate these kind of postings or someone goes over a major point in their life and tries to elevate into something that probably it wasn't to begin with. I thought it would be cool to rehash the accident and then post it with the image of the newspaper report of the incident and the best part is that it got an image of me being poked into the ambulance. I still don't know how this happened how they were able to get a person there from the local newspaper but they did. Maybe what I will do is that I'll go ahead and post this and then later when I find the image integrate it to the post then. It will not certainly carry the weight that it would otherwise it'll get the point across for future readers should they trip across this blog and such.

For those of you who don't know the day of my accident was the day just like today maybe not as hot but it was a great July day. I had just finished mowing the lawn of this old guy that I got the job of doing his lawn every week and I had rushed home changed my clothes into what I called my whites which I was supposed to wear at my new job at Kentucky Fried Chicken. A friend of mine had got me on there as a cook- - entry level by all means the most dangerous job but that's another posting. It was my second night on the job I worked from about 4:00 till closing would you be around 10:00 p.m. I had my license and my brother was out of town at the time so that means I also had his motorcycle which was somewhat bigger than mine. Anyway I came up to an intersection that didn't have a light just to stop sign had to cross it and as I did the car hit me. I bounced off the windshield broke my neck cut my head pretty badly and just ended up in the street. Fortunately I was right in front of a fire station and those guys came over and held me together until the ambulance got there and then I was at the hospital and that was that. There's a lot after that of course actually a little more than five decades but I'm thankful that I survived and had a fairly decent life for a spinal cord injured male here in America…

Jonesing for watermelon

 For some reason I have been focused on watermelon All Summer Long. I thought it'd be relatively easy to find a watermelon this weekend but I was shocked when I thought about purchasing a million at my local market across the street and they wanted like 65 cents a pound and the smallest bones I could find we're 8 and 10 lb melons actually the melon I felt strongest to I think it was like 16 lb wow! That's a lot of money for a watermelon. I know I had seen them for  $4.98 a piece, which I thought was much more tolerable than what they were asking to pay the melon. I thought sure they'd have a relatively accessible mail in there at Walmart which is just up the street from where I live a short bus ride if I don't roll myself. But they didn't have any watermelons! I cannot believe a market like Walmart not having watermelons in the dead of Summer. Then I checked another place and they didn't have melons- - this was the Harmons- - either so I was out of luck so today I wanted to go over to Smith's pick up a melon. Surely Smith's would have a decent watermelon. I think for sure I saw the Smiths at the superstore quite a ways up the street from my place for like $4.98 piece. But that was not up for an extended bus trip this morning. There's a smaller Smith just down the street from where I live so I decided to take that trip it was much shorter.

I was amazed as I perused the market that I could not find any watermelons. They had some small personal watermelons that have a hard time believing in they're just too cute too dainty to be a serious. I finally gave up trying to find any watermelons or just ask if they even had any watermelons. I found a nice little store employee named Kimmy who was happy to help me. And sure enough she found the big box of watermelons right where I'd overlooked two or three times. I had to find me a righteous spell and put it on my lap but before I could put it in my wallet I dropped the sucker and broke it open meaning I'd have to pick out another. I dropped the watermelon as I was close to the checkout and Kimmy happened to be there and saw my problem and she immediately went back and found me another and helped me stow the melon it in my pack. The melon I got was a lot heavier than I anticipated but eventually got home and on the chair by the table. I had Melissa cut up a Cantaloupe this morning so I'm good to go for melon for a few days. Now I just hope I can cut the melon up or have Melissa process the melon before it gets all soft and m  mushy. I'm falling asleep trying to finish this blog so I guess that's a Time reference that means it's time for bed…

Special moments

 I think I have written about kid day before in this blog. I have not written about the concept very many times just because I didn't want to overuse these special moments of my life but they were many to be sure. Briefly, kid day was Saturday's when I would drive over and grab my kids as well as their brothers and we would head out to do what tasks either needed to be done or just have fun ourselves. Many times we had to get items either my son needed for junior high as well as Michelle might need for school or dance or whatever and the boys went along with us because I had a difficult time leaving them home while we drove away for the day to have a great time. So for a number of years it was just us folks on kid day. We always had at least one meal together the cheapest ones I could find cuz I didn't have a whole lot of money. Usually places like Taco Time and other places where they would have sales are gimmicks to get people in like five tacos for a dollar or six tacos for a dollar and I could feed everybody for under five bucks and then share a couple large drinks. This is doable in the late 80s and early 90s. Anyway, I really like to kid day and I'm always surprised at how well the kids enjoyed that time together. So this morning I woke up around 4:30 a.m. and for some reason my total focus was on kid day. I need to be careful when I do these things because I lay there in bed waiting for 6:00 to come thinking about all kinds of things and today was how to write stories about kid day it's some of the things we did. The first thing I thought we could do was everybody get together on a conference call or whatever that technology is available to bring everybody on the same call that we can discuss some of these things. So I get really excited in the morning as I think about this then start talking to people about it before I really think it through and realize how much work it would be to do something like this. I would really enjoy getting together with everybody sometime this summer if it was possible but I don't think it's possible right now anyway. As I understand it Charlie the youngest lives with older sister and family in Oregon, mark Anthony lives here. I bounced this idea off Mark Anthony this morning at breakfast. Mark would definitely interested which kind of surprised me. It would be really fascinating to me to get more input from the kids regarding the day Saturday's we spend together in that special time we had together during kid day. What would be even more fun is to write some kind of movie script or television script for a movie type portrayal. I don't know if this would really be possible and I certainly don't have the skill sets right now to pull off such an event. I have done some script writing in the past but I don't know how that would fare out now. It's truly something to think about…

Everybody dies

 I was visiting with my buddy David this afternoon and we were talking about the whole concept of time particularly in relationship to aging. Now mind you, David is significantly younger than myself I think he's getting up to his late 60s. Distance seem as much now as it did when we were working together. Perhaps that's because of the Aging Factor that age doesn't matter that much after a certain point time wise. What does matter is how Swift the time passes. David made that comment that he could not believe how quickly years were coming and of course I had to reinforce that idea by saying it gets worse as you age and it's true. I see this on a regular basis every night as I say that I'm going to get to bed early and I literally watch the clock tick away the minutes which become ours and I can't seem to get to bed before 11:00 p.m. and more easily 12. Oddly enough this does not necessarily stifle my following day going to bed that late in fact I've kind of gotten used to it. But like I was saying I watched the clock at 9:00 when I say I'm going to do two or three word puzzles and the clock just keeps turning and Ticking and soon it's 10:00 and I tried to do one more puzzle which turns into 11:00 and then I bravely put the pen down actually pencil and move into the bathroom turn off all the lights in the house as I go along that should be apartment sorry. And by the time I get done with my preparations for bed it's 11:30 or quarter to 12:00 and once again I've blown the chance of going to bed early. But what's interesting to me is the fluidity of the time process it just speeds up as I try to get to bed. And I think that's what's happening to me all the time now whether it's getting to bed or getting up in the morning and trying to get something done by 12:00 noon the time is just flowing by rapidly. Monday flows into Tuesday then then Wednesday and soon it's Thursday which means it's coffee social day followed by Friday then Saturday and the week is gone. If I think about it too long I get scared, frightened that this time that I'm passing through the mortal concept of Earth living will soon be passed and then I must contend with what comes next if anything. I have friends that I Revere who have almost got me convinced that there's nothing following this existence but I have a difficult time letting go of that bar I hold on to in my mind. You know staying on third base rather than leading off and trying to slide into home and then tagged by the catcher who's guarding the home plate. I just know there's a sucker punch at the end of that home slide. But it's easier to disregard that catcher And I guess finish up life here on this side of the Veil. I don't have the almost terrifying fear that I used to have maybe it's just turned into apathy about who cares anyway? Everybody dies or so it seems…

Hot hot!

I love the stating the obvious. It was 103° today in Salt Lake City and it's hot! That's a hot however that it bothered me to speak of. I quite enjoyed the day and what little time I was out in the elements. I did go to a movie this morning or this afternoon rather it was just in the '90s when I caught the bus to go south to the Regal Theater. I didn't mind sitting out on the sidewalk waiting for the bus with the back of my chair tilted down so I was close to a prone position. I should have had water with me but I just left the room or the apartment in a hurry not knowing for sure when the bus would be at the bus stop. Did have an emergency bottle stuck in the back of my chair that I wouldn't be able to get to unless I had someone else's help but it made me feel like I was being somewhat responsible. I lucked out and got pretty good drivers this morning. I sensed that they were all somewhat beaten down by the Heat even though the buses are quite refrigerated to say the least. I think just the constant heat stress bugs the drivers. You certainly don't want to piss him off at this point and do exactly what they say. I felt mine drivers both the first and the second were close to exploding on me but they really did well keeping his in check. Some of the other passengers didn't fare as well but that's not my problem.

I can never really tell when the movie is going to start it's a hard call even though the people starting the tickets can look it up it's never really quite exact so rather than get something to eat or drink or even go to the bathroom for that matter I just go to the movie and find my place and get squared away. I went to this movie I chose this movie just on the strength of the actor I call the dog face boy I can never remember his name hold on Nick Cage. I think I've liked everything I've seen him in perhaps with the exception of this movie. It was kind of crap and it was a terror movie about a serial killer and his victims. I was really disappointed in Nicholas Cage. He was the producer and whatever else a movie needs he probably did it as well as starring in the film. I will not be going to this one again and will be really careful to do any other Nicholas Cage movies. This was called long legs and was just playing weird. I almost rolled out on the movie but I just can't bring myself to do that so I stayed to the bloody end and it was very bloody. We got to go to at least two movies a month justify the 20 bucks I pay for the movie program I'm enrolled in. So the next two days I need to go to a couple more movies not many really good ones around right now I'll have to see what's on animation stuff I want to see that part two of some piece of Animation I can't remember what it is so I can watch that and I might be some other ones that might be worth watching. One of the reasons I even went to the movies was so I could go across the street to the big store Walmart and their food section and pick up a watermelon. I thought about getting one from my store across the street just down from my apartment complex but that would have cost me close to 8 or $12 for a watermelon! I know if I go to Costco or I think even Smith's I can pick one up for about five bucks a melon. I did buy a cantaloupe however we'll have to see how that goes. I actually left the cooling unit on this morning when I left for the movies I felt good when I got back

Got to go Joe

The most significant thing I did today was have lunch with my old buddy Dwayne from my working days. I've written about this guy before and it wasn't really a huge lunch just sandwiches from a local sandwich joint potato chips and some drinks I had Red Mountain Dew. Today's temperature was 106° and they've totally torn up our Park adjacent to the building so there is really nowhere to go and probably not wise to be out in the heat anymore than I already am. So we found a table in the common area it had a little Feast there. It was a good lunch talked a lot especially commiserated regarding the Trump ticket and have to resign ourselves to the fact that he is probably going to be the president again come November. We both agree that unless a miracle happens this will be the case and we do not know if the union will be able to survive such an event. Perhaps that sounds a little over dramatic but I don't think it really is when you consider all the wackos out there who will do and believe anything this full says(Trump). I still can not really believes this. Tonight the president had his speech and it wasn't quite as pathetic as the one last week but still it was kind of embarrassing as he took the questions from the reporters from the network and the newspapers. It's a line of desperation I don't quite understand for the guy. If it were me I'll be more than happy to to dump the job and get back to life. I can't figure why he's so adamant in staying in office or trying to win the office again. I think he made some glaring mistakes but the networks kind of cut him off right at 7:00 or it could be at 8:00 but they cut him off and went directly into regular programming and there was no follow-up no discussion of what was said or the feelings that any of these people had that's kind of weird. They usually just spend forever dissecting an address like this. Joe I think Doug is grave a little deeper tonight it really is kind of sad. He really is someone's grandparent. As you can tell I'm grasping at things to write about so I think I'm going to end this quite early tonight and not feel too guilty because if you go through my entries you'll see many times I went way over 500 Words so it all evens out in the end I suppose. 

Making Sawdust

 I've been trying all day to remember just exactly where I was at yesterday when I lost my hook that I carry with me usually all the time in case I drop something that needs to be picked up that I can hook with it like my packet that I keep my wallet in and stuff or if I'm wearing a jacket or a hat or something and it falls to the ground I can use my hook to easily pick it up without having to ask assistance from anybody. I've had this one hook now for oh I don't know about a year in fact my older brother Carl assisted me with repairing this hook at one time by putting . the metal band around the top and then cinching the band tight. I did not actually know that I'd lost the hook because it slid between my legs and my hooks tend to do that but I don't necessarily lose them. They just end up dragging their end on the ground but in this case I actually lost the hook and I wasn't till I was quite a ways away from or it may have fallen. So, today being washed day I felt I was going to need the hook in case I needed to pull the clothes from the dryer well actually, I knew I was going to have to pull the clothes from the dryer. I had to free up my little workshop that I have in my apartment which I used to make my hooks. Sadly I have let a number of things take over my little shopmate workmate bench and I had to get close enough to a power source to run my drill. The drill magically showed up this morning after my home health person left. I was really hoping that I could talk her into drilling the holes into the sticks for my hooks but of course the drill was deep in the vortex at that point and wouldn't show up until she left. And right on schedule about 10 minutes after she left I moved some things around my desk and there is my drill. I ended up dragging the drill and workbench into the bedroom where they have some raised electrical outlets. First I had to cut the ends off a couple of the sticks so I'd have a flat service to drill into. Luckily I was able to find my hand saw which allowed me to make fast work of preparing the sticks.

I made three hooks today one hook to be used to help pull the clothes out of the dryer and two longer hooks for helping out here the apartment reaching for things I cannot get two from my power chair. It took me forever to find the hooks themselves. I'd purchased 5 or 10 of them the number of months ago but I did some other hooks that I'm having to replace now. I don't know how long the hooks tend to last 6 or 10 months sometimes a year but sooner or later I end up rolling over him and breaking the stick then I cut it down drill another hole into what's left and make a long stick of short stick ready to use again. I love my little wood shop in my apartment I just wish I had more projects to work on…. Ps I made it to the night without issue I guess it was just gas but I was ready for the worst: I was totally wrapped in mattress protector type items

Tuesday night gurgles

I've got the gurgles tonight I don't know how bad but it's been a couple of days since I've had a decent bowel movement so it could be pretty bad. So far I don't have the cramps that usually accompany a major blow out but then again the night still young. I'm hoping that if I can just get into bed maybe they'll take some pressure off the intestines now at least be able to make it through till tomorrow. If not I'll have to get a hold of Lisa and hopefully I won't have to wait too long. Since tomorrow is my regular bowel movement day with the shower it shouldn't be that big of a deal hopefully if I can contain the blowout and mitigate it so it's really in a bunch of whatever then maybe I can just sort of hang out until she gets here around 8:30 a.m. if I'm lucky. I would really like to think this is just nothing but gas but I released gas earlier than night and it felt like it was pre-gas that you get before the big blowout. So I'm not really crushed if I should get the blow out but certainly a blow to the ego as well as trying to control things as best as I can. Not that I'm trying to be this Jack controller but I would like to be able to be able to figure out some positive issues as far as having to poop three times a week and then when you don't you start setting yourself up for the blowout. We were somewhat let down on one Monday when my bowel movement was very very light very slim and it should have been fairly decent for that extra day cuz I don't poop until Monday morning I go from Friday morning to Monday morning. Seriously, what's wrong with me? I should be happy at least this is happening at home to where I've got some major control if not messy but still if it happens tonight or even in a few minutes from now at least it's here and very containable and not on a public bus or at the podiatrist office or somewhere in between. I should put things in to prospective more let's me except myself a little better. I kind of lucked out the last time this happened few weeks ago what kind of pooped right after I got into bed and not did not realize how bad it was till I got up the next day. Fortunately for one reason or another it was very dense and didn't run around everywhere it just basically stayed in the back area of the bed and I was able to manage wrapping it as best as I could in bed pads and such that I have access to just in case this thing happens. And this was the first time that it really happened. I could have better utilize some of these resources I have for this kind of stuff but I get a little frustrated when there's just so much cleanup to do. I really like to think I can contain but I may be just whistling in the dark as far as all this goes… 

The heat won't last long

 I am kind of excited we are in for a run of hot days- really hot days and I want to be out in the heat as much as I can without doing any damage to myself or my equipment.I doubt really that I'll do anything spectacular out in the heat except enjoy the radiation and save up the warm thoughts for the coming cold weather. I am convinced this weather phenomenon is all part of the global warming phenomenon and the weather is going to look different than it has been up until now. Once again I am totally thankful but curious as to why Utah has for the most part Dodge City climatel bullets. I cannot believe the amount of moisture other parts of the country is getting right now to say nothing of what's going on in other parts of the world where they are being inundated by just unmeasurable amounts of water. I know Utah will get theirs when they're great Stones slip and the Great Earthquake happens here along the Wasatch Front and then we'll be footnotes for the 5:00 news.j

I think I chortled on before about not really liking canned air or refrigerated air or better said air conditioning. I've gone back to Turning mine off about 10:00 or 11:00 in the morning and just letting the apartment heat up for the rest of the day. I get very uncomfortable sitting watching the Netflix offerings or whatever and feeling like I need a blanket wrapped around me my nose is sniffing and I feel like I'm coming down with something only to find out it all goes away once I go out in the heat. The same is true with riding the bus there's a couple of the buses that I ride that the driver really likes to keep them cold as possible and they seem to have the cooling systems to bring that about so that even on the hottest days out there it's like going somewhere in a meat locker. I I'm sure everyone else enjoys the Frigidaire but I don't it's the same thing that happens to me when I go to the movies and though it's even hot as heck on the outside of the building once I'm in the theater I really need to have something wrapped around me. Usually I just suffer the cold but I have been thinking of taking something I can use to wrap around my arms at least to enjoy the movie is some degree of comfort. I hope I'm not being too redundant cuz I know I probably post something similar to this every summer about this time. But it's kind of what keeps my focus during these days of summer. I also know they will not last long they're fleeting. What I do wish is that I had a convenient easy way to go swimming, to get myself in the pool with water up to my neck. Would like to try to move my legs in the water, which I'm able to do quite well actually, it's just getting them in the water. Ever since I've gone to a power chair I have limited myself on many things that I used to do. But it also has given me so much freedom and the total ability to live as independent as I am. I hope you are enjoying the summer as much as I am dear reader. Now, go get something cold drink it down and enjoy the Heat it will not last long…

Footbox Success!

 Up front I would just like to warn the reader that this might be a quick posting because I didn't charge the tablet like I should have. Actually I thought I had it plugged in but I guess it wasn't plugged in enough and I was at zero charge a few minutes ago when I found this out when I was going to post earlier so I've let it charge a few minutes hopefully I'll have enough juice to get through the whole thing there isn't much to write about for a Sunday just because I sat around the television set most of the day watching movies which I totally enjoyed the experience and this was after having a pretty good breakfast with my son this morning we have some good discussions and enjoyed each other's company. My granddaughter wasn't there she and her boyfriend went to the parents cabin up in Park City area so it's just Mark and I but we had a good time it was good.

I do rather feel accomplished tonight just because all day I've been plagued with a foot box that wouldn't work the foot boxes that section of my chair at the bottom that house my feet when I go around and I have an all-electric chair of course and that foot box is part of it but there's something wrong with where the connections for the fit box and the main power source intermingle and something happens in they become they become separated of course when that happens I have a foot box that doesn't work which means my foot back maybe dragging on the ground with the foot box which is not good for anything are my foot box will be up too high and push my feet back on my body and actually pushes my butt into the chair which isn't very good either so I have to I have been getting somebody who's got some eyes and some good hands usually my home health person but Mark Anthony helps me out sometimes too or whoever I can get can eyeball something that I haven't been able to do. Melissa for instance is great at looking at it and then say oh you've got something unplugged here and she plugs it in the way we go. Mark didn't do anything it just started working again on its own once he touched it I think that's a really loose connection. Well tonight I actually took some time lit up the lamp by the big mirror and started poking around there by the what was the area that Mark said that he saw something and when he wiggled it the foot box started working again. I couldn't see anything I finally was getting a little frustrated and trying to get to my chair closer to the mirror so I can get a better shot lit up the lamp again so it's even closer and finally I saw something that looked like it could be a wire or a plug-in of some sort not as focused as that but still when I touched it and wiggled it a little bit then tried my the power box sure enough the foot box raised up and down and that's what I needed to do. I cannot tell you how much that made me feel accomplished just another thing I can do on my own and not have to either miss something because I can't take care of the problem or I don't have to ask somebody else to do it because I can actually take care of the problem and actually I probably would ask someone else to do it if they were here but the comforting issue is that I could do it on my own more or less. Now what I will do though is call my mechanic and see if he can drop by and we can fix that so it's not coming undone for one reason or the other just saying today I felt accomplished

Hard read

 

I have to admit I'm trying to be a little bit more highbrow and elevate my reading selections a little bit. So a couple weeks ago maybe a month or so I ordered what I thought was one volume and what I got was a book by  Salman Rushdie the Pakistan are Indian writer who is pretty famous at least it seems like to me. I would never have ordered one of his books on purpose. I decided to keep the book however after paging through it a little bit and after I finished the book I had been reading the started reading this one. I don't know if it's supposed to be serious or if it's a comedy or what. All I know is the print is pretty small and it's a pretty thick book and it's taking me forever and that's reading a couple Pages a day. It's kind of interesting from the standpoint of how he develops his characters and has their relationships one with another I can't tell if he's again mocking English writing or Western World in general or this is how the Eastern folks right. My naivety is great. I don't know if I have the tenacity to stick with reading the whole thing but I'm going to give it a shot. I really think they're supposed to be humorous aspects to the writing but I don't know if that's just poor translations or what. But I understand this guy is pretty famous and I certainly remember all the talk about him a couple years ago seems like he was taking some kind of political stance or something for one of his writing pieces. And according to this volume I'm reading now he has accumulated all kinds of literary awards so I think people are taking him serious and I'm sure trying to. I just don't know if I have like I said the strength to wrestle down all the different things he writes about and who he writes about and how he writes about the things he writes about know that sounds pretty strange. I have this place out by the dumpsters which is relatively quiet that I can lean against the wall- - it's a brick wall cinder block wall- - and read and be propped up the Chelsea read a great deal better than trying to read just sitting here with no abdominal supports. But I tend to read then I'll not off and somebody will come and throw something in the garbage dumpster which will shake me out of my stupor. Mind you most of the time people never even see me sitting behind the dumpsters between the brick wall and the dumpsters itself. I'm sure I'm getting all kinds of weird comments made about me being the dumpster reader but that's okay it works and hardly anyone ever stops and talks to me so I can actually do a lot of reading. I have ample shade and that helps a lot. It's kind of hard to stay out there on the super hot days but I get by reading this volume one page at a time I'll saw through it

Wally tamale

 I really have not had good tamales and five or six months ever since the little guy at the coffee shop on Saturday stop coming around and selling tamales to the coffee shop People. So last week or two weeks ago when I was over at Costco zooming around I noticed they had tamales there at a fairly decent price and they look pretty good. So I've been meaning to stop there when I had a way to carry stuff home from Costco said they'll give you anything to carry stuff with. Possibly if you really beg them they might give you a box one of those cut down boxes all their stuff comes in and that might work but you can never be sure. So I've made it a point to try to remember to take one of the shopping bags that I've gotten over the last couple years with me so when I do go to some place like Costco that I can carry my stuff home in it. I got a really nice bag from Amazon a few months ago and I have not had a chance to really use it. So today I decided I would take the trip to Costco do some shopping and by the tamales and whatever else I might think I need. It was a good trip into the store. I wasn't sure when the bus is going to come so I may have sat in the shade at the bus stop for about 30 minutes but it was okay to warm day much easier to do then when it's cold.

I was kind of surprised that Costco wasn't any busier than it was when I got there well when I got off the bus and cross the street to get to Costco. It didn't seem nearly as dangerous as usual as far as I'm coming traffic is concerned. There's actually. Of no traffic at all which allow me to zip right across the street and into the parking lot. I knew I was going to be challenged so I already had my Costco card out the newly renewed card and soon right in. It took me a while to find the tamales in fact I had to enlist one of the Costco workers to assist me in the search. What's really weird is that I actually found them right off when I got there today but when I went ahead and did some other shopping thinking I'd be able to find them when I wanted to and I couldn't but eventually I lucked out and the the Costco person found the tamales I got them and stuff them in my bag and then a giant bag of kettle chips which I wish I had yesterday for the barbecue. When I got home us somewhat pleased to find out that I thought I had purchased 12 tamales and in fact I purchased 15! When I opened up the package that's also please to find out they were packaged in three packages of five tamales each package which will make it a great deal easier getting the tamales when I want one. I stuck them all in the freezer and was pleased that I had enough room. It's still going to be a little awkward when I want to get some things out and I will take some real rearranging but all in all I'm pretty stoked about the tamales I ended up getting pork tamales which I'm kind of surprised that I did but I didn't want chicken tamales they didn't have beef tamales sometimes you have to go with what you can get at the time you want to get it…

Bang Bang

 It's 1038 PM and it's still a riot of noise outside my window. If I was in one of the many nations that are at war right now I would feel that we were at war with all the noise coming through the window period however, Monday and as it might be, is the last of the fireworks presentation for the fourth of July here in Utah and more specifically Salt Lake county. actually I was going to Refrain from going out and trying to watch the fireworks but I crushed at the last moment what I noticed that for the first time like it actually see fireworks from my room period the way that they destroyed the park next door or across the way allowed us to See more fireworks before and figured I'd better go out and see if I can see some more period. The fireworks are allowed and noisy and I watched for a little bit then decided to come back and to the apartment do my blog fill out my journal and go to bed. But I can't help but explosions continue and they will for some time even though they're supposed to be done by 11 o'clock period who knows period dear reader Try not to be weirded out by the periods that I keep inserting at the end of the sentence I mean the word period I don't know what I've done dries be crazy But my goal now is just to get this document out and on to the tablet period

Last Sunday at breakfast I mentioned that I would probably not be doing anything for fourth of July periods and once Jasmine and Mark will indicated that they would do a fourth July here at the apartment period I kind of forgot about it until Jasmine Mark started lighting up the Internet on what they were going to ddo at today's barbecue. I had just finished making a heck of a breakfast and when visiting with Mark he indicated that they could change the time if I thought I was going to be too full at lunch time then maybe we could do it later on at 4:00 and I decided sure why not? Now I had to figure out how to clean up the unit a little bit so I didn't look so desperate. So I cleaned up the dishes a little bit made fresh coffee empty garbage cans and scrub the toilet out. The place didn't look too bad by the time I gotten finished. I should have swept the floor at least in the kitchen but I really didn't get around that and Jackson took care of that when he got here anyway he does such a good job. They brought everything but potato chips and that's okay I probably don't need those anyway. Marcus making hamburger patties and we are both out by the apartment barbecue which is really quite a good one. Mark makes a good size hamburgers I help cut up some of the tomatoes to put on the hamburgers as well as the lettuce. We took everything out to the patio turned on barbecue and soon we were busy making a late lunch early dinner. We had everything we needed pickles mustard ketchup you know. We even had watermelon. The barbecue was a great event I appreciate the kids coming together to make sure I had some kind of a 4th of july. Picnic/ cookout or I could be sort of like normal people out there. We are sad to a certain degree or I was sad. I wish I'd been able to contribute more to the overall barbecue. The major fireworks has stopped now the noise that's coming in through the window now is just the regular fireworks that the Joe Blow and the neighbors have probably illegal but noisy just the same that's what everybody wants. I worked out today for an hour so I'm all caught up but I'm tired now look forward to letting the sounds 1 explosions all me off to sleep…

Mid-year holiday Eve

The apartment complex had its 4th of July celebration picnic today. Great excuse to use the gas barbecue we have in the outside patio at the building here. It's a really nice gas range. This probably was the best 4th of July function they've had since I've been here and I'm not sure particularly why except for it could be the Advent of the new renter who moved in earlier this year Genie it seems to be really anxious to get involved in everything and bring everything to fruition that she can and she generally does. Case in point today's function. She and another person pretty much made assignments decorated the common area and got the whole project going much better than I see that done before. Someone took charge and carried it through to the end like I said something is not been done before like this. Hot dogs and hamburgers were Bella Fair with various chips, dips saladsAnd such some really good potato salads by the way I totally enjoyed that the dogs are pretty good as well you're the hamburgers for hamburgers. I was most impressed because this year they didn't have just one line which has been I think the downfall in years past today they actually did two lines one on each side of the tables contain the burgers in the hot dogs and the buns and condiments the whole nine yards things moved a lot Swiffer a lot less stress. I wasn't too excited about eating inside even though the tables are really decorated nicely for the holiday I took my plate when I got to my line went out and ate on the patio for the meat was being barbecued. Must have been a guy thing cuz they were like four other guys out there as well. There is also desserts made by volunteers from the apartment complex there's a nice jail salad, regular salad, and the number of potato salads and other things that look close to potato salads. I didn't try the weird looking salads but the regular potato salads are great totally enjoyed it. There is watermelon but I didn't try any because I don't know why because I'll use the excuse that my mouth was still somewhat novocained up.

That first paragraph is huge as it was was basically a warm up or whatever to the fact that I went in early this morning well 9:15ish for a dental appointment. I had Melanie come in early today and she was great got my business done with still an hour before I had to be at the doctor's office. It took me in strapped me down started give me the gas it was great gas not as much as I would have liked but maybe I'm just building a tolerance to it. I had no vacate my head off- - seriously I'm sure I was in some sort of tooth coma. Three or four but never can get the job finally he got in there and got everything cleaned out put the new filling in and good to go. We also talked about the fact that I owed $1,500 it's going to be paid over maybe 3 to 4 years we paying it off at 100 bucks a month or 200 bucks a month it's going to be a commitment for sure but I can do it while I live that long. Perhaps the fact that I went to the dentist before I went to the barbecue it was the biggest reason I was somewhat subdued and maybe it's just a bar I marginally like the people I live with and so that fit in with a mouth that was coming out of Novocaine Central in the fact that I'm living in what I feel is huge Dental debt but that's all right like I said it's all going to work out…

Consumer Cellular

 Fortunately I did not have to go into the city this morning for my assist meeting. I don't remember if we talked about it last week or the last time we had a meeting it seems like we did because Andreas indicated that he would probably be gone holiday week. I have course and forgotten that so when I called they reassured me there would be no meeting. I stayed up kind of late reading but I enjoyed that so it wasn't that much of a problem sleeping in this morning and not having to worry about getting up and ready and out to catch the bus I felt pretty good. I spent the day just hanging out and trying to catch up on some paperwork. It's renewal time so once a year I have to go through this document from the place where I live, because it's a private non-profit program you got to fill out paperwork as well as gather data regarding your income and all that kind of crap so that they can rent to you at the lower price or you can become part of that program. To be honest I appreciate any money I can save and I think living here saves me a whole lot. I washed clothes today just because I wasn't sure how I would feel tomorrow after the dentist appointment I have at 9:30. So it was good to get a lot of the stuff done before the weekend as well as before the 4th. I'm not planning anything to speak of there is some talk about getting together for a mini Grandpa picnic at breakfast on Sunday but I haven't heard anything since. Tomorrow, the operation here at the apartment complex is having a no host picnic for the 4th of July you know bring your own stuff but they will have the grill working so I guess you could do some serious barbecuing if one had such a desire.

Perhaps the biggest thing I did today was contact Consumer Cellular. Remember they contacted me about being late on my payment and I don't remember ever being part of that program but I guess I am when I called them they explained to me that I've been paying them all along and for some reason the payments just stopped a couple months ago of course that's when we killed my One bank account that all my subscription payment projects were in. Obviously I have a consumer cellular phone and they have records of me utilizing their service for the last couple years so I guess I am Consumer Cellular and I probably saved a buttload of money. When I was was that the Consumer Cellular website I noticed there was a program to get your password so you could get on your mail. For some reason I never put it together that my mailbox was through Consumer Cellular and in a few minutes I had talked to the consumer cellular representative who talked me through setting up a new mailbox and getting a few pieces of mail I had on the old one I guess. So now I am able to check my phone messages. I did go ahead and set up my payments on a new card that I got so I'm back to cooking with gas. Tomorrow I have a dentist appointment at 9:30 in the morning and so I've had a call into my home health person Melissa who says she'll come in a little bit earlier so I can be sure to be done in time to roll across the street for some dental work.

I'm just pooped!

 What a weird night! I was awoken about 2:00 a.m. or maybe 3:00 a.m. when I felt myself poop in bed! I couldn't believe it I just couldn't believe it. I thought it was just a little squirt like I've had before but I wasn't really going to take chances I tried to raise the sheets as high as I could so they wouldn't get involved but I was able to take some of the pads I have next to the bed for this very purpose- - though I never really used them for this before I felt the day would come and today was that day or morning rather. Fortunately I was able to get back to sleep a little bit and slept for about another 2 hours. I finally at 6:00 a.m. started the process of getting up and I was really spooked cuz I didn't want to make the problem any worse than it was. I wish I had wrapped myself up in some of the protectors that I have like the adult diaper things but I didn't. I wrapped myself up as best as I could for the transfer which went a lot better than I anticipated. I was astounded to see a pretty big plop of poop on the bed Head it was pretty well congealed which doesn't sound very good but it was but it was a significant amount. I made coffee after I wash my hands of course, and then settled in waiting for Melissa to get here.

As usual well this did a great job the only cleaning up but alleviating my guilt at having pooped like I did. Well did more poop in the toilet and felt that I got in a good part of it out. I didn't have much to do out in the community today though I did run across the street to the market to get some more iron tablets. I want to make sure my iron is better at the next doctor's appointment. I got a hundred units for about three bucks which I felt was a deal I thought they cost more the last time and I thought they came in a different bottle but these are definitely iron tablets. I should be okay. Of course after what I went through this morning I'm really been somewhat intimidated to eat anything though I did clean out the container in the refrigerator and made some more raspacho for the coming week. I pretty much had everything except for fresh tomatoes and fresh celery. I can add those the day or so when I'm by the market I can pick some things up but everything in the cans that I had I stuck in the container it's going to be quite good I know. Cold front rolled through the Wasatch Front today dropping the temperature a good 15°, so now I'm existing at 85°, maybe even lower. Not to be too much of a biddy but I really like the 100° weather. We're going to get warm again in a couple days but it's certainly been on and off even though they keep talking about how we're almost two weeks ahead of schedule where we would not see 100° weather normally for another 2 weeks but of course all that's changed global warming supposedly is the culprit. You know 85 does not sound that cool but it is I guarantee you after enjoying 100° weather just being out in the 85 80 to 85° weather feels almost cold I'll just have to be patient and realize that everything is New Again because of global warming…