January 4 through 10, 2021

Monday, January 4

Today I sorted and washed my laundry and put away a few things that needed to be cleaned up.  I made a little pod of microwavable mac-n-cheese and a tuna sandwich for lunch.  I haven’t eaten tuna in ages. 

I called the clinic and made an appointment with urology for Thursday at 8:45 am.  Lily is willing to drive me to that appointment so I can get off right at the door and not have to walk a long way on the icy sidewalk to get in.  I hope the stones will stay quiet until then.  I do have pain pills if I need them, but I hate using them.

 

Tuesday, January 5

I had another pain free day, for which I am thankful.  I had a Schwans teriyaki bowl for lunch and was able to eat most of it.  I just do not have much appetite.  That might be because of the really strong anti-biotics I am on. 

Lily stopped in and brought me my mail.  The ink cartridges I ordered for my new (to me) printer came today.  I had written out my bills, so Lily took them to mail them when she goes to get her own mail.  Glad to get those things out in the mail.

 

Wednesday, January 6

Lily had an appointment in Owatonna today and bought groceries afterwards.  She picked me up some yogurt, a loaf of Italian bread, a package of Swiss cheese slices, and four cans of chicken noodle soup.  She also brought me a dish of a hotdish she had made.  It had some Pillsbury dinner rolls on the bottom with something like sloppy joes on top of that (made with BBQ sauce), and cheese on top of that.  It was tasty and I was able to eat all of it for supper.  I needed some protein, so I was grateful for it.  I had a bowl of Rice Chex for lunch. 

A lot of my LeeAnn doll collection was laying out on the coffee table as I was doing a photographic inventory of everything.  I have sort of lost enthusiasm for the project as a result of everything else that’s going on right now.  I decided it was time to pick everything up and put it away to get rid of the clutter.  I discovered that my annoying little orange cat had managed to puke on one stack of clothes I had made.  Sigh.  Of course it had to be one of my really detailed little outfits which will doubtlessly be adversely affected by being washed.  These have a lot of ribbon and lace on them, which will be messed up by being washed.  I will try my hardest to get them put back to rights, but I don’t think they will ever look as sweet again.  Dang it, Peach! So many other things she could puke on, and she chooses to puke on my doll clothes!

I folded my own laundry today—the red and white clothes—and put it away.

Then I was pretty much glued to the TV the rest of the day as Donald tRUMP’s goons attacked the Capitol Building.  I cannot believe that this event actually took place.  I am outraged.  I am PISSED.  I am deeply saddened and filled with despair.  That citizens of the United States could be so filled with hatred toward their fellow man, disregard of our Constitution, and love and devotion toward a known liar who has worked tirelessly for four years to destroy our nation and institute his own despotic eternal rule astounds me.  They tore our Capitol apart!  They threatened our OWN government!  They erected a gallows to execute our own people on! 

The thing that gutted me the most was when I saw a group of them scramble up a scaffolding on the side of the building, rip down our own nation’s flag, toss it to the ground, and run up a giant blue flag emblazoned with the word TRUMP.  Oh, my God!  I literally burst into tears of rage and despair.  I found myself screaming at the TV, “Someone shoot that bastard!”  You KNOW if this shit had been done by the BLM group or a group of Muslims, there would have been knee deep blood in the street.  But since they were white nationalists and tRUMP supporters, they were just herded out and allowed to disperse.  Any other group would have been loaded into buses and “disappeared” for days.  WHY was this allowed to happen?  Where were the national guard?  Where was the tear gas?  The rubber bullets?  The REAL bullets? 

I cannot believe it has come to this.  I don’t want to believe it could come to this. 

This cannot be allowed to continue one more second.

 

Thursday, January 7

I met with Gretchen, the nurse practitioner in Urology.  We spent a long time—probably 20 minutes discussing the fact that she remembered me from when I taught in Freeborn, MN.  That was the very first school I ever taught in.  I had no memory of her, and felt bad as I do remember most of my former students.  But it turned out I never had her in class.  She was in elementary school when I was there.  She remembered me from the class plays and the occasional pep fest and other activities that I did while I was there.  She gave me a lot of information about people I used to know there. 

My arch enemy there, a vile and hateful woman named Judy Hoppe who was insanely jealous about my popularity with the students died a couple years ago.  She did not say how she had died.  Just that she had died.  Also the history teacher, Dick Paulson, whom I used to visit had died of a very bad heart condition, and his wife Caroline was alive but suffering deep dementia.  They used to have me over to their house for supper often.  He had a horrible temper and used to chase students around his classroom and thump them on the head with his huge pair of scissors.  Those were the old days of education when many teachers still felt free to physically assault students. 

I remember sitting in their kitchen chatting one day when three boys ran up to their back door which opened onto the kitchen then threw in a handful of some kind of really loud firecracker.  When the boys bolted across the back yard, all three of them ran full on into the clothes line and almost decapitated themselves on the wire. They all ended up flat on their backs on the lawn.  Dick bolted out the back door to catch and kill them, but they were able to scramble to their feet and flee without further injury. 

We talked about several of the students and the plays and other school events that happened while I was there.  She also told me that the old principal, Harold Schlepp was still alive.  I had heard he had died many years ago.  Apparently not.  It was quite a trip down memory lane.

Anyhow, she showed me the results of the CT scans and explained to me that I have three kidney stones—one at the entrance to the bladder, one at the entrance to the tube that goes from the kidney to the bladder, and one a little higher up in the kidney.  All of them are too big to pass. 

The good news is that the surgery can be done in Owatonna, and not in the hell hole of Methodist Hospital in Rochester, and it will be an outpatient procedure done without an incision.  A stint will be slid in, and each of the stones will be broken up and removed through the stint. 

We talked at length about my previous experience and my desire to avoid a repeat of that at all costs.  I told her I did not want any fentanyl given to me nor any kind of medication that would result in memory loss or impairment.  She said to tell that to the anesthesiologist when the time came. 

I asked if I could get a flu shot since I was there already, and she sent a nurse in to give one to me.  So, that’s done.

I have to go back tomorrow for a preop appointment.  My primary doctor was not available, so I will see Mallory Berry, whom I remember seeing once before.  Lily said she would take me to the preop appointment if I couldn’t find anyone else to do it.  She has an earlier appointment, but mine will be an hour after hers.  Gretchen said the preop appointment should not take more than half an hour, but that never holds true. 

My cousin Rhonda and her husband will be arriving at my aunt’s house today, and she hates to miss any time with them as she so seldom sees them.

When I got home, I ordered my groceries from Lerbergs after telling Ross that I wasn’t sure if I should order them as I would be going to the clinic and was not sure when I would be home.  He said to just call him when I got home and he would deliver them then.  He’s such a kind and thoughtful man.

I had a ham and swiss cheese sandwich and a carton of cherry yogurt for supper and spent the evening watching more news on the outrage at the Capitol.

 

Friday, January 8

Lily took me to the Clinic where I had to sit in the waiting room for an hour before my appointment.  There were not many other patients there, and I sat and read my book till I was called in for the preop physical.  It wasn’t that intense.  She took my blood pressure, listened to my heart, lungs, and stomach, and sent me down to the lab for an EKG.  She also set up an appointment for me on Sunday morning at 10:05 for a Covid test.  Apparently this has to be done before you can have surgery.

While I was doing those things, Lily did some shopping and picked up a couple of prescriptions for me.  When we were in the car, Lily told me that Rhonda and Loren were upset that she had taken me to the clinic today—they didn’t like it that she took me while THEY were there.  I asked if they were still mad over my attitude toward tRUMP.  She said they said it was that they wanted to “spend time with her,” but she told them that no one else was available to help me.  Mom can’t see to drive.  Jack is out of vacation and sick time, and Caleb was exposed to Covid and didn’t want to take a chance of having it and exposing me.  She said she told them, “I can’t call you guys whenever I want to as you are always busy and get impatient with me when I call.  Cheryl is always willing to talk and help me whenever I want to call her.”  I bet that stung them a bit.

When I got home, I called Lerbergs right away, and Ross told me he’d be here shortly with my groceries.  Driving by the store, I saw he had Sirloin steak on sale according to his marquee, so I asked if I could have a couple of them added to my order along with some cottage cheese.  He said sure!  A short time later, he delivered my groceries.  I got them all wiped down and put away.  Then I cooked up one of the sirloin steaks which was absolutely huge!  It covered the whole bottom of the frying pan.  I had bought a box of whole mushrooms which I cleaned and added to the steak.  While those things were cooking, I cleaned a bunch of red grapes and the box of raspberries I had purchased as well. 

A lady named Sally called from the clinic to tell me that my surgery would be at 10 am on Wednesday.  I need to be there by 8:30 and I should be cleared to go home between 1 and 3 pm.  Lily will take me in the morning and Jack will pick me up on his way home from work.  Sally said I could stay later if that was my only ride.  She said that they would like me to have someone stay with me overnight, and I said, “Good luck with that.  There is no one to do that.”  Then she asked if there was someone I could stay overnight with, and I said, “Good luck with that.  All of the people who are near me have lots of steps into their homes, and I doubt very much I could get up them.  I will be fine on my own.”

When I told this to Lily, she was very upset.  She wants my mother to stay overnight with me.  I would just as soon not have her here.  All she will do is whine and complain.  She could not handle staying with me before when I had the appendix surgery. 

So when all is said and done, I will just have Jack take me home, make sure I can get into my house, and leave me in peace.  By myself.

While my steak and mushroom were cooking, I did the dishes and worked on scrubbing the burned sugar off the bottom of my small roaster with an SOS pad.  I bought those in desperation as nothing else was working to get it off.  I have a lot of it off now, but there is still quite a patch of it on there.  I want it OFF.

I ate about half the steak and mushrooms for my supper.  I was going to put the other half in the fridge for tomorrow, but I had to go to the bathroom first.  When I returned, Peaches was standing on the table enthusiastically licking the steak and the mushrooms, so I had to throw it away when she was done.  She uses that tongue to lick her butt hold.  I am not eating anything she licked with it. 

Mary’s yarn was supposedly delivered today, but I couldn’t find it on the steps or near either door.  I hope no porch pirate stole it while I was at the clinic.

 

Saturday, January 9

This morning, Lily brought me two lovely cinnamon rolls from Mary Groth.  I still had two bars left over from what she had brought me before.  I ate those and some grapes and some potato chips today.  I had no strength or will to make anything else.  I had a small bag of garbage sitting in the breezeway.  She saw it and took it out to the bin for me.  Before she went home, she looked all around the outside of my doors to see if she could see Mary’s package, but there was no sign of it.

She was in a hurry to get home as Rhonda and Loren are still there, otherwise I would have asked her to check my mailbox.

I ate my last slice of ham with Swiss cheese melted on top of the sandwich for my meal.  I folded the last of my laundry and hauled it into the bedroom to put away later.  I watched some TV and messed around on the internet.

 

Sunday, January 10

I got up, did my morning routine, got dressed and headed out to pick up Mom who was riding along with me to my Covid test in Owatonna.  My gas tank was on empty as I just hadn’t been anywhere on my own to fill it.  Mom owed me money from stuff I ordered for her from Amazon, so she let me fill my gas tank with her debit card.  We stopped at Caseys on the way to Owatonna.  It’s a good think I remembered to do it as I am pretty sure I would not be able to make it on what was left in my tank. 

Mallory had told me that they would come to the car to do the test as my knees are so bad and there were a lot of stairs.  When I got there and called the number I was to call, they said they could not do that and I would have to reschedule as I did not have my walker with me since I had not planned to get out of the car.  I explained that I was scheduled for surgery on Wednesday and needed the test before that.  So, they had a powwow and then sent someone out with a wheelchair to bring me in.  The test took seconds.  I don’t know why they didn’t just send someone out with the swab.  I expected it to hurt, but it didn’t.  The woman who gave me the test said my eyes would water, but they did not.  I just felt like I was going to sneeze.  My nose ran a little afterwards.

After that, Mom and I went through the drive through of Starbucks and got hot chocolate.  Mom wanted pizza but Godfather’s was not open till 11, and it was only 10:30.  I called to see what time Culver’s opened, and they were already opened, so we went there and got shrimp instead. 

I had told mom Erik, my nephew, had been at Joni’s yesterday, and she wondered if he was still there, since he is destitute right now, and she had decided to give him her $600 stimulus money.  I had planned to give him at least half of mine until I had to go by ambulance to the ER and now have all this medical crap going on.  I need to pay for that this month.  Also, I had to pay my 6 months of car insurance this month, which was $557. 

I called Joni and discovered that Erik was not still there, but they were headed to Minnesota Lake to pick up a small Carousel horse.  Minnesota Lake is only a few miles from Mankato where Erik lives, so they could swing over and drop the check off to him on their way.  So, Mom and I went there to drop off the check and visit with Joni for a few minutes.  We stayed in the car to avoid contact as they go all over creation and don’t really practice safety protocol.  We watched the dogs romp and have fun in the snow while we visited. 

Then we headed home.  Mom wanted to get her mail, so I took her to the post office.  Then we swung around to get MY mail from the mail box, and the yarn for Mary had arrived!  Hurray.  I took mom home.  She gave me my Christmas present from Tammy which Joni had dropped off earlier at her house.  It was a large bottle of Jose Cuervo margaritas and a cute pair of cat mittens.

When I got home, I ate my shrimp dinner which was cold by that time but still edible.  I watched TV for a while then had a nice nap as I was really tired.  I didn’t sleep well last night and had to get up early to get to the covid test. 

That’s about it.  I don’t remember anything else that is important from this time period.  I wanted to get this caught up before I have surgery on Wednesday.  I don’t know how crappy or not crappy I will feel after that or how long that will last.  When next I post, I will share those details.

 

This Recipe Looks Delicious

 Million Dollar Baked Spaghetti

1 pound spaghetti noodles

1 pound ground beef

24 ounces spaghetti sauce                                                                     

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

1 cup sour cream

1 cup cottage cheese

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

 

Preheat oven to 350.  Spray a 9x13” baking dish with non-stick spray

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook spaghetti for one minute less than the package directions state.  Drain the water from the pasta. 

While the spaghetti is cooking, heat a large skillet over medium heat and brown the beef, crumbling it as it cooks.  Drain the fat and add the marinara sauce to the meat.  Simmer over low heat until the spaghetti is ready.

In a medium bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sour cream, cottage cheese, and garlic until smooth, creamy, and well combined.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Place half of the cooked spaghetti in the bottom of the baking dish.  Dollop half of the cream cheese mixture over the spaghetti and spread as evenly as possible.  Spread with half of the meat mixture.  Repeat the layers once and top with cheddar cheese.

Bake for 20-30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.