Tuesday, October 27, 2020

 Today I ordered a bunch of food for my Peach on Amazon.  I didn’t get much else done today.  I did have a few nice conversations on the messenger program on Facebook.  One was especially nice—you don’t always get the kinds of affirmations from former students that I got today from Erik Douglas.  He was a skinny little red-head when I had him in class as a 9^th grader and through 11^th grade.  I left before he graduated.  Anyhow, we had quite a cool conversation.

He popped up on my messenger saying, “I miss you, Cheryl.”

I replied, “I miss you too.  I miss seeing you kids all the time.  Now I mostly sit alone in my house and see no one and talk to no one except my mother and my aunt.”

He said, “I know what you mean.  I just work at 2 jobs and spend a lot of time in the room I rent.  My family is all far away. Grandma is closest at 45 minutes away.  We are not kids any more.  😊"

I said, “I know—but you will always be MY KIDS.  LOL.”

He said, “And you’ll always be like family to me as well.  <3”

I said, “That’s what I really miss—that sense of family.  It was a very caring place to be most of the time.”

He said, “It sure was. You teachers made it that way.  But you especially.  And Jay.  I’d say you two were the most for me."

I said, “I am so thankful I got to be a part of that for ten years.”

He said, “I’m jealous that you got ten.  :D”

I said, “I don’t think I could go back to a ‘regular’ school after that.”

He said, “I’ll never forget our McDonald’s breakfasts in the mornings.  You always gave me food.  LOL.”

(I’d stop about once a week on my way to school and buy a bunch of McDonald’s breakfast burritos or breakfast sandwiches for my homeroom kids.  Erik wasn’t in my homeroom, but I almost always had a couple extras for wayward little dudes and dudettes like him.)

I said, “It was one way to show my love.”

He said, “I would always show up an hour early and roam the halls.”

I said, “Sometimes the other teachers got irritated because their homerooms were mad that THEY didn’t bring food for their homeroom too.  LOL.  I always brought the other teachers food too.”

(There was a bakery between West Concord and Rochester, and at least 2-3 times a month I would bring my colleagues and my homeroom kids delicious sweet rolls.)

He said, “You were honestly the coolest teacher ever.”

I said, “Awww, shucks.  I just liked to have fun and loved my students.  And not in some perverted sic way—totally wholesome.  That’s me.  LOL.”

He said, “Every single student loved you.”

I said, “Well….there were a couple who didn’t.  But they were assholes.  HAHA.”

He said, “Whenever I talk about ROC with other ROC kids I went to school with, you always come up.  No other teacher  except Jay has that kind of legend status.”

I said, “That’s sweet to hear.  I am glad my impact was positive.”

He said, “And everyone thinks Chris was a cop.  Nora and Blair were also extremely well liked.”

I said, “They were both awesome.  Blair and I had a lot of fun while we served in the store/kitchen together.   Didn’t get to spend too much time with Nora, but I liked her.” (Blair was the science teacher and was close to 7 feet tall—very handsome and muscular with a giggle like a grade school girl.  Nora was a tiny little dumpling of an art teacher—super sweet.) “Did you know that I was Chris’s teacher when he was in 7^th grade?  That was the first school I taught in.”

He said, “Blair’s class was always very interesting when we did things outdoors. Nora was just a sweetheart to everybody.”

I said, “Blair was very intelligent.”

He said, “I’m glad I know that.” (He was talking about Chris then.)

I said, “Chris was the cutest little boy—he had tons of thick, curly hair.” (At the time I taught with him in ROC, Chris was as bald as a cue ball.  LOL)

He said, “Chris??  :D  :D  No way.”

I said, “Yep. It was a shock when I saw him as a bald man with a shiny head.”

He said, “That’s hilarious.  My phone’s going to die, Cheryl, but I’d like to keep in touch and arrange to get together when all of this covid stuff is over and life is normal again.”

I said, “I would love that. I’m on line every day—feel free to message me and we’ll talk.  I love you, kiddo.”

He said, “I love you too, Cheryl.  You’re honestly the best.”

I said, “Aw shucks.  Thanks.”

 

And that was the end of our conversation.  It was so affirming to me to have this conversation, so I wanted to put it in my journal so I can refer back to it on another day when I feel like my life has been a complete and utter waste.  At least I made some of my kids’ lives better.

October 28 through October 31

Wednesday, October 28

I took Mom to the post office to get her mail, then we went to Owatonna and picked up food from El Tequila, our favorite Mexican restaurant.  I got my favorite combo—an enchilada, a chili relleno, and a tamale with beans and rice.  I haven’t had Mexican in such a long time.  Next time, I will probably get a fajita.  I like the steak and shrimp fajita.  There’s really enough there for three meals.

Since I had taken her to the post office, Mom grabbed my mail from my mail box and dragged my recycling bin back up to the house from the curb. It’s impossible for me to do that with my walker.  It isn’t heavy—just awkward.  We ate our Mexican food at my house.  She had the chimichanga and enchilada combo.

After I took her home, I cleaned Peaches’ litter boxes.  They needed it. 

My new refrigerator gets delivered tomorrow.  I got a call telling me it would be delivered between 11 am and 1 pm.  I dread unloading all the stuff from the fridge and freezer.  It is stuffed full.  It’s going to be an ordeal.

The fridge still works fine except it freezes the vegetables in the drawers in the bottom.  I offered it to whomever would come and get it from my house for free.  Three people wanted it, but my cousin Kari’s daughter Alyssa was the first to ask, so she gets it. 

 

Thursday, October 29

I started unloading the freeze at about 10 am.  I filled two laundry baskets with frozen food.  And then three or four of my recyclable grocery bags with smaller things from the freezer.  It was astonishing how many bags of chocolate, peanut butter, and white chocolate chips I had in there.  Also, many bags of walnuts, pecans, and almonds.  I had three plastic dish pans under the sink that I used to put all the stuff from the fridge in.  The inside of the fridge was kind of sticky, so I scrubbed it out with bleach wipes as well as I could.  I worked on it steadily except for the few minutes I took to make my grocery list and all it in to Lerbergs.  I had not ordered groceries the two previous weeks, so I had a pretty good sized order. 

I hauled a bag of recycling and three bags of garbage outside to the bins while I was dealing with the contents of the fridge.  Anything that was slightly questionable went out the door.

My new fridge did not arrive until well after 2 pm, but the delivery guys worked quick once they got here.  I had one more bag of garbage which I had hauled as far as the breezeway.  One of the delivery guys just picked it up like nothing and took it out to the bin.  I could barely drag it. 

When they hauled out the old fridge, I swept the filthy floor under it and was just about to scrub it with my O-Cedar mop.  The same guy said, “Let me do that,” and took the mop and scrubbed it thoroughly, praising my mop as he did.  Then he took a bleach wipe and wiped down the wall and side of the cupboard to get rid of all the dust.  It was awesome to have it all cleaned!  They left the old fridge on the patio for my cousin to come and collect. It was too big to fit into my garage without risking scratching my car.

After the delivery guys left, I wiped out the inside of the new fridge and every single item that was going back in.  The fridge held far more than what had originally been in it, but the freezer did not have room for the nuts and chips.  I put them in the fridge instead.  The best thing about the freezer is that the food can sit in it like file folders in a file cabinet—I can tell exactly what I have.  I am going to work on eating the food in the freezer so I can fit the chips and nuts back in there after a while.

I had a strawberry cream cheese braid in the freezer that had to be at least a year old, so I put that on a cookie sheet to rise over night.  There was also a bag of ready to bake cookies in the freezer that would not fit.  I stuck those in the fridge to bake tomorrow.  Just too tired to bake them tonight.  I did get the dishes washed, however.  I didn’t feel much like it, but I forced myself.

I hadn’t eaten anything all day, so I was about famished.  I nuked a couple of hot dogs and made a pod of microwavable mac and cheese.  That’s what I had for supper.  It wasn’t the greatest supper in the world, but it was better than nothing.

By the time I went to bed, every bone and muscle in my body was screaming in agony.  I took some arthritis formula Tylenol and went to bed. 

 

Friday, October 30

I didn’t wake up till nearly 11 am.  I could barely move, I was so stiff and sore.  I took a couple more of those heavy duty Tylenol and baked the strawberry cream cheese braid.  The Schwan’s man came earlier than I expected.  I had ordered some ice cream bars for Lily and two boxes of Chicken Kiev and a carton of Butter Pecan ice cream for Mom.  For myself, I bought a box of Chicken Kiev, a bag of Pot Stickers, a bag of frozen asparagus, a container of Chicken Wild Rice Soup and a container of Chicken Tortilla Soup.  It was all on sale.  I was able to fit it all in my freezers.  I called Lily to come and get her stuff, and she was willing to drop mom’s stuff off to her as well.  I cut generous chunks of the strawberry braid off for each of them too.  For something that was in the freezer for so long, it was pretty good. 

Before Lily came, I wrote out my Jim and Dude’s bill for the furnace and garbage disposal repair and the bill for the Woman Within order.  Lily had already been to the post office today, but she took my bills and the Sequoia questionnaire for snow removal with her to mail tomorrow. 

Ross showed up with my Lerberg’s order before Lily left.  There were two large boxes as well as a six pack of Bounty paper towels and a 24 pack of bottled water.  Mainly, I bought fresh produce—pears, raspberries, lettuce, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, bananas, milk, half and half—a few canned goods, two six packs of Pure Leaf iced tea and two six packs of Seven Up, a loaf of bread, and a bag of snack sized bags of Fritos chips.  After Ross left, I wiped everything down and put it all away. 

In the afternoon, I baked the cookies.  They are no where near as good as the chocolate chip cookies I bake from scratch, but they are edible.  After that, I was done for.  I let the cookies cool then put them in a zip lock bag.  I know I ate something at some point, but I don’t even remember what it was.

 

Saturday, October 31

My body felt much better today.  My shoulder was still sore, but most of the back pain was done.  I took quite a bit of the arthritis formula Tylenol—but I could only take it every 8 hours.  I thoroughly cleaned the bathroom—took the old rugs out to the garbage bin as they were falling apart, scrubbed the entire toilet, scrubbed the sink, swept and scrubbed the floor, and collected and took out the bathroom garbage.  When the floor was dry, I laid out my new lavender bathroom rugs.  They are pretty but not as big as my old ones.  I was a little disappointed.  When I was done with that, I sorted and started my laundry, did my dishes, and used my electric sweeper to do the living room and kitchen floors.  I would have loved to scrub the floors too, but I just could not do it. 

Lily picked up my mail and also brought me a chunk of a Mexican lasagna and a piece of pineapple cake  she had made for my cousin and his wife when they came the other day. I was cleaning in the kitchen when she got to my house.  I had scrubbed the top of the stove and was doing dishes when she arrived.  I was washing the rotating glass thing from the microwave and asked her if she would wipe out the inside of the microwave for me, since I am so freaking short that I cannot reach it without standing on something, and my knees are so unsteady that I really do not dare to climb on anything.  I don’t want to fall and hurt myself.  Now, other than some clutter on the counters, my kitchen is pretty good.  I had another bag of garbage in the breezeway, and she grabbed that and put it in the bin on her way out. She is a good egg.

For lunch, I ate the Mexican lasagna which wasn’t that great, but it was better than nothing.  I think it would have benefitted from some salsa or sour cream on the top of it.  I ate a chunk of the strawberry braid for dessert.  I saved the pineapple cake for another day.

In the late afternoon, I got a text from Sue Janicky inviting me to a 7 pm “cocktail hour” over Zoom.  So, I spent a lovely hour and a half chatting with Sue, DeAnn, and Sue’s sister in law Tammy.  Earlier, before it got dark, the streets were crawling with kids trick or treating. In the middle of a pandemic.  Where a bunch of kids from the local school are in quarantine due to some of the teachers and coaches and kids having the damn thing.  But, oh, let’s let our kids go door to door collecting candy!

Fucking morons.

I sat in the dark with all the lights off and no one came to my door.  My brother texted the sibling text group that he had 81 trick or treaters.  We are all fucked.

DeAnn reported that her “Black Lives Matter” yard signs are stolen every time she puts one out.  Every.  Single.  Time.  Fucking tRUMPanzees.  Oh, such patriots!  But they have no respect for anyone else’s freedom of speech if they don’t agree with their orange asshole KKKult leader.