September 22 through 26
Sep. 26th, 2021 10:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chochiyo_samaIt has been a lovely fall day. Crisp and cool. The workers are making good progress on the siding. They are hard workers. I never see them just standing around doing nothing. They work at a fast pace and accomplish significant work every day.
I went through a pile of the stuff by my recliner, including some mail, and paid a few bills. I bagged up a bunch of recycling as the recycling will go on Tuesday. I caught up with a couple days of the DW journal. I can never seem to stay on top of that. Part of the reason is that the second I start trying to do it, a chubby orange fuzz ball determines that this is unnecessary labor and all of us would be much better served if I were to hold and pet HER. The little pill.
Lily went to Rochester and had shots in her fingers for her rheumatism/arthritis issues. I hope they are effective as she has been suffering a lot with pain and swelling in her hands.
Tonight, Mom, Lily, and Nola are headed to Albert Lea for a Civic Music concert. Instructions were given that everyone in attendance MUST wear masks throughout the entire presentation. People are so fucking crazy, who knows if they will actually wear them.
Thursday, September 23
Today, I had to take Mom to her eye doctor appointment for her macular degeneration shot in the eye. I brought my Artist’s Way book and a stack of the local newspapers she had given to me to read and pass on to Lily.
I noticed some large birds circling in the air over the clinic/hospital. At first I thought they were eagles, but when they descended, I could see that they were turkey buzzards/vultures. Not a very cheerful sight for any very sick person entering the clinic or hospital area!
Sitting in the parking lot was fine—it was cool and sunny, so I was not cold and I was not hot. I got the whole stack of newspapers read. There was nothing too exciting in them. There were several obituaries of local people, but I did not know any of them. There was a report on playground equipment having been vandalized and a discussion of whether it should be repaired or replaced. Also, there was a very long article about Patrick Stitt and his family leaving their position as pastor at the church my mother attends and their future plans to be missionaries in Japan.
I had just finished reading the last paper when I saw my mother coming down the sidewalk. We went from the hospital parking lot to Dairy Queen where we got malts and then on to McDonalds where we got fish burgers. When we got back to Ellendale, I drove Mom past my house so she could see the progress on the siding. She thinks it looks lovely. We went past my mail box, so we grabbed my mail. Then I took her back to her house to get her gas cans for the lawn mower and on to Casey’s where we filled my car with gas and one of her gas cans. The other had last been dealt with by Caleb, a young man who is strong. He had screwed the cap on so tight that neither of us could budge it. Because I always take her anywhere she wants to go—indeed, my car rarely leaves Ellendale without her in it, she paid to fill my car with gas. It was over $50 for a fill, so I was deeply appreciative.
There was more excellent progress on the house. I took a nice nap in my recliner in the afternoon. I fell asleep watching something on TV—I don’t even remember what it was. The sun is setting much earlier than it was, and it gets totally dark so much earlier. It feels like winter is barreling towards us at full speed. I am enjoying the cool fall days, but I am not looking forward to snow and ice and blizzards and all that nastiness.
Friday, September 24
I sorted and started my laundry today. It is a larger than average laundry as I didn’t do any last week. Just blankets and pillows.
Ed came over early in the afternoon. Amy (his wife) dropped him off then went off to do some shopping. Lily arrived a little later. Ed worked on putting together my new heavy duty desk chair while Lily and I cleaned out the freezer. I have come to believe that my freezer was open longer than I first thought. So many of the bags had swelled up and burst, and I strongly felt that I could not trust any of it. So, everything got thrown out except one pound of butter. The butter would not be hurt by being thawed out and refrozen. We stuck as much as possible into my garbage bin and then packed all we could fit into the three banana boxes that Lerbergs uses to deliver my groceries. What was left went into three kitchen garbage bags. When Amy came back, she helped Ed with the chair assembly and the assembly of the new, heavy duty shower chair. He hauled all the boxes out to his pick up truck and loaded them up. After dark, he will dump all of that into the dumpsters at his camp ground. He rolled my garbage bin to the curb to be collected on Monday. He also put my new shower chair in the shower and hauled the old broke down one out to the breezeway. I wish I had thought to ask him to throw it in the big dumpster. I can probably get that out there myself. It isn’t heavy. Just awkward.
Lily had been to a grocery store before she came over and had found diet coke on sale, so she brought me four 6-packs. I haven’t looked too closely at it yet, but I think it is the regular diet coke this time, not the less desirable caffeine free diet coke.
While Ed, Amy, and Lily were here, we got a lovely little rainstorm. No thunder or lightning, but a lot of rain. Arlen the contractor came over at the beginning of the rainstorm and moved some of the supplies for the deck against the house to keep them dry, I suppose. The air smelled so nice and fresh during and after the rain.
After all of them left, I got a UPS delivery of some stuff from Amazon. I have been so bit up by some kind of bug that I ordered two tubes of Neosporin which helps with the itching and the swelling. Damn bugs. I also got a box of dust mitts for my continuing goal of getting this house back in order and a set of basic fabric paints.
Had a nice chat with the UPS driver who called my new siding “classy” and thought the deck was a great idea. “You will enjoy that,” he said.
I had eaten very little all day, so I made a can of Progresso clam chowder for supper. I did not order a grocery delivery for today. I am going to try to eat up what I have in the fridge and the fridge freezer. While the chowder was cooking, I did a sink full of dishes. I had not done dishes for several days, so it was quite a few. Mostly forks and bowls.
Saturday, September 25
Okay, I have a very embarrassing confession to make today. For over a month, I have been sleeping on basically a bare mattress. There was a mattress pad on the bed, and I have been laying a big towel on top of that as the mattress pad is a plastic, water proof thing that feels very unpleasant on bare skin. I used a fuzzy throw as my blanket. Today, I made the bed with my new “deep pocket” sheets. They were quite expensive, but oh, my! They were worth every penny. They were so easy to get on the bed, and the sides were so deep and fit so snuggly that I am certain they will not be sliding up and off the corners like my other sheets. I am going to get rid of them and buy another set of these expensive sheets so I can swap them out. I had washed the new sheets and the comforter and pillow shams weeks ago. They’ve been sitting, folded up, in a laundry basket at the foot of the bed. I also washed all four of my pillows as they were smelling less than fresh and had a lot of cat hair on them as Peaches likes to snuggle into my pillows.
In putting together my bed so I can sleep like a normal, civilized human, I discovered that my 5th pillow had fallen down the crevasse between the mattress and the headboard. I reached down and pulled it up and with it came a bunch of bugs that we call “silver fish”—usually they hang around in damp places like drains and showers and bath tubs. I do not know why they would be under my bed. They are really ugly and disgusting. In my shocked surprise, I just brushed them off me and the bed with my hands instead of killing them. So, I have not seen them since. But I know they are there.
I need to pull the bed out and away from the wall and kill everything under there—except Peaches of course, since she likes to hide under there.
Anyhow…Since I had fresh bedding on the bed, I took a shower so my body could be as clean as the bedding. I used the new shower chair which was much more comfortable and sturdy than the one I have been using. It made the showering experience much better.
I put away a basket of clean laundry and did a little tidying in the bedroom. It was “Saddle Up Saturday,” so I watched some westerns on TV. I had not seen the movie Three Godfathers in years, and I enjoyed it. I also watched Rio Lobo, which I did not enjoy as much. It was okay, but I don’t care much for movies where Indians are basically devils who must be completely eradicated.
Late in the afternoon, I decided to make a run into Owatonna and get a burrito for supper. I really wanted to just go alone, but I felt obligated to ask my mother if she wanted to ride with, which she did. So, we went to Owatonna the “old way” on HWY 45. The swans and two of their babies were swimming in the swamp. The babies are fully grown and white now. They must have lost two of their babies as there were four in the spring. We did not see much of them this year mainly because we just did not go to Owatonna very much all summer and the few times we did, we went on I35.
We went to Taco Johns and got beef burritos and potato oles. Then we went to DQ and got ice cream. I got a hot fudge malt, and we ordered a turtle pecan blizzard for mom, but we got a turtle pecan sundae instead. The young girls working there absolutely refused to believe that I had asked for a blizzard. What skin it was off their asses to make the blizzard I don’t know. I had corrected her twice when ordering, telling her BLIZZARD, NOT SUNDAE. Finally Mom said, “Oh, we’ll just take it.” She was worried they’d spit in it if we insisted on them making it. It looked really good, but it was irritating that they were so stubborn about it. When we finally said we’d just take it, THEN they offered to make the blizzard. Duh.
Before heading home, I went through the drive through at Subway to get a sandwich for tomorrow. I will be having the Artist’s Way Zoom meeting with DeAnn tomorrow, and I will need a quick and easy lunch. I like to stock up on quick and easily eaten or warmed food when I made a foray into the city.
I took Mom by my house again—it looks like all the siding is done now. The deck should not take much time to put on now. Then it will be done and it will just be a matter of waiting till my refinance goes through and I get the money to pay them off. I hope it doesn’t take too long to do.
I got my mail again. I had put an order in for a roll of stamps, and it was in the mail box. It was a good thing I stopped to get the mail as I have only one stamp left from my last roll. A roll lasts me a good long time. I don’t send much in the way of letters, and most of my bills are set up to come out of my checking account automatically.
Sunday, September 26
When I woke up this morning, I was so stiff and sore and in pain that I could hardly stagger to the bathroom. I haven’t felt this bad in the morning in a long time. I suspect that it is because the temperatures drop so low overnight now. Partly, too, it could be that I slept so deeply on my bed with the fresh bedding that my body relaxed so intensely that it caused me to stiffen up in the night. I took some arthritis formula Tylenol, and that took most of the worst pain away. My bad shoulder remained stiff and painful all day. Not as bad as it was when I first woke up, but still not good.
I was able to test my blood and fill my pill caddy before I met with DeAnn for our Zoom on the Artist’s Way. Both of us had experienced hectic, frustrating weeks, and neither of us had read the chapter we were supposed to have read for today. So we just talked about all manner of things today. She has gutted and redone her bathroom while I was dealing with my freezer debacle and refinancing my house. She has a female house cleaner/handy person who she pays a significant salary to, but this person is not doing a thorough and acceptable job and gets pissy about it when DeAnn speaks to her about less than acceptable work.
So, we have both been struggling a bit.
It was another lovely fall day, but I didn’t go out to enjoy it. I just appreciated it from the inside.
Lily went up to the Cities to see Hailey and her family and to play with little Cora. She said Cora cried and reached out to her as she was leaving like she did not want her great grandma to leave. It really touched her heart and made her happy.
I watched The Walking Dead. So far, I am disappointed in this season. I think they are focusing more on “how gross can we go” and less on “how is living in a zombie apocalypse affecting all these people and how will they reassemble some kind of society where people can thrive again?” I just find it unlikely that the majority of people would devolve so quickly into depravity and anarchy. However, look at all the lunatics who have fallen into hateful racist, misogynistic fascism under the cult influence of tRUMP. So perhaps I am wrong.
I ate my sub sandwich which was not that great. I usually get tuna subs, but this time I bought a roast beef one. It was not impressive. Oh well. I won’t be buying that kind again.
Not much else is new. I’ll be going to bed soon.
no subject
Date: 2021-09-27 08:18 am (UTC)That's a shame about the freezer.
I usually find silverfish in books or cardboard. They eat cellulose and I think also glue and paste. You can get traps and bait for them. Check Amazon.
I suppose it's possible that two of the swan babies have already flown off. They don't stick around forever. Could be if they were males they left and the two females are still around.
Deann needs to fire her cleaner/handyperson. It's not like there aren't people out there looking for work. They either do the job or their pay gets cut. They either do what they are paid to do or they don't get paid and get fired.
Isn't this the last season of The Walking Dead? Maybe they're just getting tired and lazy.
no subject
Date: 2021-09-27 05:40 pm (UTC)I will look into Amazon's bug baits. Damn things.
no subject
Date: 2021-09-28 01:15 am (UTC)https://ngpest.com/how-to-get-rid-of-silverfish/
Vacuum up all of the dust under the bed if there is any. Silverfish can even eat dust. Then check to see if there is any moisture or leaks in that area. With the new siding on hopefully if water was getting in it isn't any more. Then you can put down boric acid (I use powdered Boraxo since Boric Acid is an ingredient) or you can use diatomaceous earth, which is pretty handy stuff that is a general insecticide that isn't harmful to humans or pets. But I wouldn't breath or eat it even though some health gurus swear by it. You can also make traps with newspapers or mason jars but I would probably do the diatomaceous earth and squirt the powder under the bed where you think they are. Do it nightly for a week.