May 2 & 3

Tuesday, May 2

It was kind of a busy, crazy day.

After I did my morning obligations, I went into the kitchen where I planned to clean and cook all day.  I fried the hamburger I intend to make into some kind of casserole.  I’d prefer not to have anything with tomato sauce.  I’ve had sort of a touchy stomach the last few days, and tomato sauce is so acidic.  I’m trying to clean out my freezer a bit.  It is so full.  I had bought some cookie dough from one of Becky’s foster kids, and I decided to bake one of the two packages while the hamburger was frying.  It made a little over 3 dozen cookies.  I put a few aside in a plastic container for Lily.  She likes the white chocolate/macadamia nut cookies.

I cleaned up a few things in the kitchen, swept the breezeway and cleaned the three litterboxes.  The boxes needed fresh litter added to them, so I needed to open a fresh box.  The boxes I get are 30 lbs, so heavy that I can barely move them.  While attempting to pull the tab that opens the top up, I tipped the box over.  The corner lit on my ankle and was sharp enough to slash a big gash on the side of my ankle.  It’s hurt like a bitch ever since. 

I managed to get the fresh box of litter open and transferred about half of it into the boxes.  The cats were thrilled and spent a good share of the day digging in it as if they were excavating a gold mine.  You can’t tell I ever had a broom in that room.  Sigh.

I couldn’t think of anything that sounded good for a casserole, so I just put the cooked hamburger and onion in the fridge, planning to give it some thought and make something tomorrow.  Lily had given me a container of barbeque and a couple of buns, so I warmed that up and ate that for my lunch/supper.  It was okay.  I don’t like that much seasoning in my food, but I was hungry and it was edible. 

I didn’t have too many dirty dishes, but I decided I might as well wash them, so I did.

I decided I was tired and sick of messing around in the kitchen, so I settled into my recliner and did my written prayers.  I was still working on them when four young teenagers came strolling up the ramp and onto my deck.  There were three girls and one boy.  All of them were just as cute as buttons.  I figured they were out selling stuff for a fund raiser.  I think every kid in town knows that I always buy.

I waved them in.  They came I and just stood in front of the door looking shy.  I asked them what they were up to, and one of the girls said, “Can I use your bathroom?” 

Now this made me feel a little weird because I didn’t know any of these kids—or at least I didn’t think I did at that time.  I just looked at them for a few seconds and considered giving them a lecture about how it is dangerous in this day and age to go into people’s houses and ask to use the bathroom.  (I am still suffering a lot of sadness over the shooting of young Ralph.  And the young lad with the girls was black.  I would hope that no one in my small town would kill a kid just for the “crime” of coming to the door while being black, but there were an awful lot of tRUMP signs, posters, and flags festooning the place during the last election cycle.)

I pointed the girl to the bathroom and she disappeared for a few minutes.  While she was in the bathroom I made small talk with the kids and offered them some of my fresh baked cookies.  They told me they went to NRHEG (the local school New Richland/Hartland/Ellendale/Geneva).  The boy said he was a seventh grader (but he was the tallest of them all), the bathroom girl was an eighth grader, and the two blonde girls were ninth graders.  I had guessed they were all about ninth grade. 

I told them I used to be an English teacher, and one of the ninth graders said, “You were our teacher.”  Suddenly, I recognized them.  They were the twins I had tutored for two years when they were in second and third grade!  They are actually cousins—their great grandmother and my mother are first cousins, making their grandpa my second cousin, their mother my third cousin, and them my fourth cousins.  I have not seen the girls since before the appendix issues in 2019, and they look so completely different now that I didn’t recognize them. 

They had been wandering around town when their friend “had an emergency” and desperately needed a bathroom.  They had often come to my house when their step grandma threw them out of the house for being noisy and rambunctious.  We’d watch kids’ movies on Netflix and I’d fix them snacks.  When I had health problems and spent weeks and weeks in the hospital and recovery facility, I wasn’t available---then my worthless nephews moved in with me and were not welcoming to my little buddies.  So they found other companions and pursuits.  Then of course the pandemic came around, so it has probably been close to five years since I have even seen them.  I am shocked at how grown up they looked.

So, the mystery of why they came to use my bathroom is solved.  They regarded my house as a “safe house” and knew I was always welcoming to them.  They knew I’d be kind to their friends too.

My evening was disrupted enough that I wasn’t up to writing my DW entry for today before going to bed.  I needed to be in bed fairly early as DeAnn and I zoom on Wednesday mornings.

 In the morning, I spent some time cutting off all my blonde Chatty Baby’s hair and putting her new wig on.  She looks absolutely adorable with her new hair.  I have three more vintage dolls with horrible hair whom I plan to get new wigs for.  These dolls were not my childhood dolls, but they did belong to my sisters who did not want them.  I could not let the poor abused, abandoned babies be tossed into a dumpster—not when I can salvage them.

 

Wednesday, May 3 

I woke up before 9 am and did all my morning activities before 10 am.  My head ached this morning, and I felt a little dizzy.  My blood sugar was a little elevated this morning, so that’s probably why—sampled too many cookies yesterday, I guess. 

After I fed the cats and the squirrels, I fired up my computer and waited for DeAnn to join me on zoom.  I checked out the current news items online and cleaned out my email folder.  When she came on, we mostly just chatted.  I told her about my visitors last night, and she was a little freaked out by the event.  Too many weird stories in the news lately.  But I have a pretty good instinct about people, and I didn’t sense anything too scary about those kids.  They were so loving to the cats that I knew there was no meanness in them.

And when I recognized Bailey and Brenna, all qualms were stilled.

It was supposed to be a productivity partnership zoom today, but I didn’t produce anything.  DeAnn worked a little on her masters’ work while we chatted.  She showed me some of the stuff she’s been doing on the AI art generator.  It’s pretty cool, and I can see that it would be fun to play around with.  However, I don’t have time for that kind of thing right now.  I prefer to continue to work on my house and my doll hobbies.

We wrapped up our meeting when it was almost 2 pm.  I dozed a bit in my chair.  I wanted to write yesterday’s entry, but I just couldn’t keep my eyes open.  Eventually, I called Lily as she wanted to come over to have me look at some of her mail that she didn’t understand and to drop off the six 6-packs of Diet Coke she bought on sale for me at Cashwise and a carton of white mushrooms.  She did not come until after 3 pm.  She picked up my mail on her way, which I appreciated.  I went through her mail with her and explained everything to her.  Then I helped her fill out her post-hospitalization survey and the document for her “I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get UP” button.  (I don’t remember what that thing is called.)

We visited for a while and I showed her my Chatty Baby with her new hair.  I am so thrilled with how pretty she looks.

When she left, I put away the Diet Coke and went through my mail.  I got such a nice surprise!  It was a small box of chocolate truffles sent to me by the lovely and talented Minoan Miss!  I tucked the box away in my fridge until tomorrow since I have eaten so many cookies in the last two days that I figured I had better avoid any more sweets for today.

Other than the squirrels, the blue jays, and Lily, I had no other visitors.  My Trulicity did not arrive again today.  I will not have a dose for Saturday if it doesn’t come by then.

Not much else is new today.  I told Lily about Brenna and Bailey’s visit and she was horrified until I revealed that they were Joel’s twin granddaughters.  She is so fearful of everything. 

Tomorrow I will probably do laundry, turn that hamburger into some sort of pseudo Asian casserole, and decide whether or not I need to order groceries to be delivered again.  I see that there is watermelon on the sale ad.  I would LOVE some fresh watermelon. 

The feral cats have been coming and eating every drop of the soft food I have been putting out for them before I go to bed at night.  At least, I hope it is the feral cats.  It could just as easily be a brave coyote (I live only a block from the edge of town) or a hungry raccoon.