April 23 through 28
Apr. 30th, 2021 12:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chochiyo_samaToday was a pretty quiet day. In the afternoon, I watched the movie All Is Lost, starring Robert Redford. My greatest reaction to it is that it was depressing. Very depressing. My lesser reaction to it is that finally, I have now seen a movie which even *I* could memorize the lines in. Basically, the plot is that a guy on a sailboat wakes up to discover that his boat has been struck by a rogue storage container which apparently fell off a transport boat, gouging a big hole in the side. A bad storm leads to the damage getting even more profound and he is forced to abandon ship and face the elements in a small rubber raft. Of course, his radio does not work either.
As far as I could tell, only Robert Redford is in the movie until the last ten seconds of the film (sharks and other aquatic creatures do not count), and he speaks only TWO lines in the entire movie—“shit,” and “FUUUUUCK!” I think there may have been one or two inarticulate howls of rage and/or despair.
Robert Redford used to be such a gorgeous man. He has not aged well. But the man is 84 years old. However, Sam Elliot is 76 and still drop dead gorgeous. How do they do that?
Mom has been complaining of back pain for several days. I kept telling her that I would drive her to her chiropractor—just call and make the appointment. Well, today she called Jack and asked him to take her. He has that magical penis, you know, which makes him better at everything than I could ever possible be. And also, that magical penis makes him ALWAYS correct in every single thing he says.
I don’t really care that he took her—I am totally happy staying home. It’s just irritating that I offered to take her a dozen times, yet, he is the selfless hero because he took her.
Oh, well. I hope Lori got her back aligned and that her pain is alleviated now.
Lily called and said she had a very nice time at Hailey and Dan’s with baby Chloe.
For supper, I ate more of my steak, onions, mushrooms, brussels sprouts, and cucumber salad. That steak was especially flavorful and tender. The brussels sprouts were especially delicious too. I love brussels sprouts. These were small, tender, and sweet.
Saturday, April 24
Kim took Mom to Owatonna today where Kim had her hair cut and colored and Mom had her hair cut. Then Kim took Mom back home and they spent the day together.
I spent a lot of time on the phone, FaceBook messenger, and texting today. My dear friend Mary got rear-ended by another car today, but fortunately neither she nor the car was damaged.
Sadly, there were no cinnamon rolls today as Lily went to Iowa with another friend to some craft shows that were taking place there. Thank God she has had her vaccinations. Iowa is a black hole of pestilence with a mentally deficient governor who licks tRump’s lying anus, smacks her lips, and swears it is delicious.
When I wasn’t communing with a variety of people I care about, I was messing around on the computer and watching TV. I’ve been trying to clean out the stuff I have recorded on the DVR. I have a LOT recorded.
Sunday, April 25
DeAnn and I were going to meet over Zoom at 10 am to work on our Artist’s Way commitment, but when I woke up this morning, I felt queasy and bloated in my guts. I felt like vomiting was imminent. I never did puke, but I felt tired and sick and just not up to the Zoom meeting, so I texted DeAnn and asked her if she minded skipping the morning Zoom. She was understanding and told me to go back to bed and try to sleep it out of my system. Which I did. I never got up until almost noon.
Tomorrow, my mother will be 87. Tammy and her husband Bert along with her two chihuahuas came down to Mom’s with pizzas from Papa Murphy’s. Jack, Kari, and Cora also came over to enjoy the day and celebrate her birthday on the weekend. Apparently the chihuahuas had a marvelous time. They just adore Cora who has a “way” with animals. They also like Kari and Mom very much. Chihuahuas are not usually too fond of non-family members. They don’t want much to do with me, and that is unusual because usually dogs love me. They don’t hate or fear me, but they don’t fawn over me like they do Cora.
Bert and Jack did some yard work for Mom. She had a big metal pole in the backyard that once upon a time had a bird house at the top. The pole had turned into a wannabe leaning tower of Piza. They worked on it until they snapped it off close to the bottom. Mom was worried about it falling over on its own and wrecking something. They discovered that the pole was planted in a huge chunk of concrete underground. They worked hard trying to dig that out, but it was too deep and they are both old farts now. They don’t have the stamina they used to have.
Bert swore a sacred vow to the testosterone gods that he would get that concrete dug out eventually. Just not today.
Lily stopped at my house after church to bring me my mail and two of the pumpkin bars I had baked for her. I was still queasy, so I set them aside for later. We visited briefly. Then she went home to do her own thing. She was also tired after her big day in Iowa yesterday. Her back, neck, hips, legs, and hand have been very painful. She has an appointment with the doctor for x-rays or an MRI (can’t remember which) to see if they can find out what is causing her all this pain. My bet is some kind of arthritis. She is 80, after all.
My guts started to settle down a little bit in the afternoon, so I cleaned the litterboxes, took two bags and a small bag of litterbox waste outside to the garbage bin, and bagged up all my recycling and took that out to the recycling bin along with a bunch of cardboard. My recycling bin is literally overflowing. Thank goodness it gets collected on Tuesday.
I also unloaded the dish drainer, washed my dirty dishes, wiped down my counters, and put away a variety of clutter. By then I was running out of steam, so I sat in my recliner and sorted through my mail, recycling most of it. I reviewed some of the material in The Artist’s Way book, and watched the snow falling. It didn’t amount to much and did not stick, but for a while it looked like a blizzard out there, falling fast and furious.
Later in the day, DeAnn called to see how I was doing and we chatted for about two hours about how life in general is going and about the stuff we were getting out of The Artist’s Way. So, we felt like we could count that as our weekly meeting. I tried to watch The Walking Dead later, but I just couldn’t seem to get into it. I do record it, so I will watch it again at some point when I am less out of it.
I hadn’t eaten anything all day, but I was hungry. I didn’t want to eat anything too extreme, so I made a can of Campbell’s chicken noodle soup—the kind that is just chunks of chicken and skinny noodles floating around in broth. I added some saltines and had a snack sized tapioca pudding cup for dessert. While I was in the rehab hospital in Waseca recovering from the wounds from my appendicitis and infected abscesses, I practically lived on chicken noodle soup. That and beef and barley soup and peanut butter toast.
Monday, April 26
My mother called me fairly early this morning. I did not bother to call her yesterday as I knew she had company all day. I answered the phone by singing happy birthday to her. For 87, she is in excellent physical, mental, and financial health. She told me all about the events at her house yesterday. She seemed very upbeat and happy.
Lily had her appointment in Owatonna today. She went grocery shopping afterwards and picked up a few things for me. I asked her to get me the movie News of the World with Tom Hanks. It is about this depressed Civil War veteran who makes money going from town to town reading newspapers to the illiterate settlers in rural Texas. He comes across a little white girl, former captive/adopted daughter of the Kiowa and sets out to take her back to her surviving relatives because no one else will. I look forward to watching it. She also picked me up some Vitamin D, which I am almost out of, some ham sandwich meat, salami, deli potato salad (the good kind called “deviled egg potato salad” which tastes almost as good as homemade), a carton of various cherry and grape tomatoes, and a loaf of French bread with sesame seeds on top.
I warmed up some of the meatloaf I made for my supper today and ate some of the potato salad and French bread with it. The meatloaf was especially good. I make my meatloaf with oatmeal instead of crackers or bread crumbs. I love the texture and also the added nutrition.
Jack and Kari had Mom over for supper. They made homemade chicken enchiladas which are really good. When Jack brought her over to their house, he swung by my house to drag my recycling to the curb for me. I was very grateful as it was SO FULL. With my knees like they are, I just cannot pull those big bins out to the curb, so I always have to rely on the kindness of others to do it for me. Just like Blanche.
Tuesday, April 27
Today was laundry day. I washed three loads of clothes—whites, darks, and reds—and my bedspread which Peaches had thrown up on and my two throws—one fuzzy pink and the other kind of a brick colored knit that I got free with an order from Women Within that exceeded $50. So, I did five loads of laundry today—that’s unheard of for me. My bedding desperately needed to be washed.
I hate stripping and remaking my bed. That is the one thing that is still insanely difficult for me to do since all the medical shit I went through. It is getting easier, but it still isn’t EASY. I did get it done though. And I am so thankful it is done.
Mom had an appointment with her eye doctor at 2:15 this afternoon. I brought my current book, The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill, and my embroidery. However, I didn’t amuse myself with either one of them. I had brought a notebook along and worked on some planning for some of the stuff I want to do in the upcoming weeks and months while listening to some stuff from YouTube on my phone. Mom did not get out of the clinic until after 4 pm. Thank goodness it was neither hot nor cold in the car. I was comfortable, temperature wise. My legs got stiff and restless, but I lived. A guy in a big red pickup parked next to me. He had his adorable little dog with him. The dog was not happy about being left in the car and bounced all over the cab, pawing at the windows and staring desperately at his elderly and grumpy looking human daddy. When he was almost to the door of the clinic the little pup bounced against the steering wheel and honked the horn! I started laughing, and the guy glared at me as if *I* had honked at him.
After he vanished into the bowels of the clinic, the puppy hopped into the back and vanished from sight. I suppose he went to sleep until his dad came out again. That little dog was so adorable. I wanted to pet him and snuggle him.
On the way home, we went through the drive through of Taco Johns. I got a beef burrito with sour cream and mom got two hard shell tacos. We both got small containers of potato oles which we ate on the way home. It was sprinkling a little as we drove, but when we got to Ellendale, it had obviously rained really hard. Everything was very wet.
Mom asked if I needed my recycling bin pulled back up to the house and offered to do it for me. Iwas thankful she did that for me. After I took her home and dropped her off, I came home and continued working on my laundry. I also called Sequoia, the company that handles my snow removal, and asked if they would mow my yard. Usually one of Becky Lazahn’s kids does it for me, but her husband died a few days ago, and I am sure the last thing they want to do right now is mow yards for people. I will give her a call in a week or two and see if they want to keep mowing for me. If not, I will have Sequoia take it over.
Then I started working on catching up with my DW entries. Thank God I keep good notes.
Wednesday, April 28
This afternoon, Sequoia mowed my yard. Someone had tossed a plastic bucket in my yard by the alley, and they threw that in the trash as well. It looks so nice and neat now. I pay Becky’s kids $25 a shot for it. I am sure Sequoia will charge a lot more. Hopefully her kids will still want to make money this summer.
I had meatloaf and potato salad for lunch. I had some nasty left over chicken/spinach/roasted tomato pizza for supper. That was one of the pizzas Tammy had brought to Mom’s. Mom did not like it, so she gave it to me. I didn’t like it either. I will be throwing the rest of it away.
Tomorrow, Lily, Mom, and I will be having lunch together at my house and watching News of the World. Lily is going to drive to Owatonna and pick up take out from El Tequila, our favorite Mexican restaurant.
no subject
Date: 2021-05-01 10:05 am (UTC)That pole used to have a TV antenna on top. I have a similar outside my dining room window. The concrete block is huge and deep because the pole was very tall. The guy that removed it simply cut it off at the block. There are a few inches of dirt on top so in that area I can only plant ground cover; nothing with keep roots. He will NEVER dig up that block. If the pole didn't snap off at the concrete it should be cut off to avoid a tripping hazard.
no subject
Date: 2021-05-01 06:13 pm (UTC)