December 14 through 17

Tuesday, December 14

 Today, I worked in the bathroom, scrubbed the bathroom sink, the tooth brush holder, the cat’s water dish, and the bathroom floor.  I washed and dried the load of dark laundry and the bathroom rugs and washed the light load of laundry.  I swept the laundry room with my battery operated broom and then plugged it in to recharge it.

I wiped down two six packs of Diet Coke and restocked my small pop fridge.  Lily called and told me that she has a bladder/kidney infection and will have to go to Owatonna to pick up some drugs to fight the infection.

I was able to catch up on my DW journal too. 

 

Wednesday, December 15

I started the day with a long, hot, thorough shower.  My whole body ached, so I took the longest, hottest shower of all time.  It seems to loosen up the stiffness and make me feel better. 

Waylon, my mailman, delivered two packages and a fat envelope.  The two packages were from Denis Bastian’s Affordable Designs of Canada.  He was having a big clearance sale to clean out inventory before he switches from one factory to another to produce his dolls.  I bought two little girls—one blonde and one red head, and two little boys, also one blonde and one red head.  I got a few pairs of red lace-up boots for the girls and some bib overalls. 

I watched the weather all day as severe weather has been predicted—high winds, insanely warm temperatures for the season, and even the possibility of tornadoes.  I watched the bad weather sweep across the country from west to east on the weather channel and then watched the sky get very dark off to the west.  The wind came up and howled like a rabid yeti, then the tornado warnings started coming across the screen.  

Lily called to tell me her dinner party was cancelled due to fears about the weather.  Then she called later to tell me she was hiding in her basement since a tornado was reported on the ground near Albert  Lea and heading right towards us.  A tornado warning was never issued for us, but one tore up Hartland which is just down the road from us.  It destroyed a bank building and a beauty shop.  There never was any actual tornado here, but just to the north and east of us a lot of damage was done to homes and trees.  We were lucky. 

After the tornadic weather passed, the winds were howling all night long.  It sounded like they were trying to rip my new deck right off the house, but no damage was done to it.

Never before in the history of weather records has a tornado struck Minnesota in December, but there were five confirmed tornadoes here tonight.  Crazy.

 

Thursday, December 16

Today is the 26^th anniversary of my father’s death and the 15 year anniversary of my Aunt Darla’s funeral.  She died on the 14^th.  It is so weird the way this makes me feel.  It feels like it had been a million years ago that this happened—but it also feels like it has only  been a few weeks. 

I cooked today.  I friend up a pound of hamburger with an onion and turned it into a sloppy-joe like material, except that I used mushroom soup instead of catsup.  I like the flavor of mushrooms.  I also prepared my beef roast with potatoes, onions, carrots, and cabbage.  I had a sloppy joe for lunch and ate the roast beef for supper.  It was delicious.  When it cooled down enough to put it away, I dished up enough for about two meals for Lily.  She just isn’t eating anything healthy lately.  She’s living on candy and yogurt and fruit.  Then she wonders why she keeps getting low blood sugar symptoms.  I keep telling her she needs protein to keep her blood sugar at a healthy level.  Sigh.  No one listens to me.

Tammy drove down today to pick up the meat boxes from Steve’s Meat Market.  She was supposed to come yesterday,  but the weather scared her off.  She stopped her to pick up the box of my grandma Harpel’s travel scrapbooks that Lily brought over a week or so ago.  I really do not have a place to store them, so I was happy to pass them on to Tammy.

It was a pretty quiet day—especially after the lunacy of yesterday.  I felt good about getting that stuff cooked.  Now I will eat well for a few days.

I made my grocery list and called it in to Lerbergs.  I washed up all the dishes that were in the sink and the ones I dirtied doing my cooking.

 

Friday, December 17

I opened my packages today, cleaned the litterboxes, opened the door for Ross to bring in my groceries, and threw a bag of garbage into the garbage bin outside.  I tidied up a little and had settled down to watch something on TV when Ross arrived.  No one had called me to tell me the  amount for the bill, so he did.  We had a brief chat.  He said someone he knew who lived over by Plainview (which is just past Rochester) had lost everything in the tornado—his house was smashed flat.  I had heard from several of my former students that they had been without electricity for several hours on Wednesday night and some are still without it.  It’s turned really cold since Wednesday too.  Poor devils.

I was disappointed with my grocery delivery.  I had ordered a box of Triscuits, and I got a box of Trix instead.  YUCK!  I hate that sugary kid cereal shit.  I ordered a package of Oreos which I had intended to dip in Almond Bark for Christmas, but I didn’t get those at all.  I didn’t get the New York strip steaks or the pecan pie I ordered either.  I had ordered four small packages of toilet paper that I was going to give my siblings for Christmas, and I didn’t get any of that either.  Usually if they don’t have something that I order, they call and ask if I want something else instead. 

When Ross was here, I noticed that the idiot who fucked up my downspouts had been here and put them back exactly the way they had been before I complained about them being unacceptable.  So I called Arlen, the contractor, and told him that this WOULD NOT WORK.  I cannot have a damned drain pipe going across the concrete patio for anyone to trip over.  He did make it a little longer so that it wouldn’t spill the water on the concrete to freeze into a skating pond, but it is still unacceptable.  Arlen tried to tell me that was the only way it could be done, but I refused to accept that.  So, he promised to take a look at it and see if he can figure something out.  I want it out of the way of my garbage and recycling bin too.  I intend to keep bitching until it is acceptable.  Dammit.

I got my groceries put away and filled the small kitchen with pop again.

All today’s nonsense made me crabby.