February 4 through 8
Feb. 9th, 2022 10:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chochiyo_samaFriday, February 4
I sorted and started my laundry first thing today. Then I put out some peanuts for my squirrel and blue jay friends. They love those peanuts. I am running low. I will have to order more next week when I get groceries. I stocked up my little fridge with Diet Coke and opened the breezeway door so Larry can deliver the Schwans stuff and Ross can deliver the Lerbergs stuff. I went through my mail and set aside the stuff I need to mail to Kasson for my taxes.
Larry arrived first. I did not get much from Schwans this time, so it only took a few seconds to shove it into the freezer. When Ross came, I went right to work putting stuff away. I bought quite a bit of fresh produce—hot house tomatoes, pears, bananas, potatoes, celery, lettuce, grapes, and cabbage. I had ordered a bottle of sweet and sour sauce to eat with the egg rolls I bought from the Schwans man, but a freak accident happened. One of the tomatoes rolled across the counter, bumped the glass bottle of sweet and sour sauce which was sitting right at the edge of the counter, and knocked it onto the floor where it completely shattered. Sauce and glass splattered everywhere. It was a total mess. And sticky! Sticky as hell! It took me about 15 minutes to clean it up. And my heart was broken because I really wanted to eat egg rolls for lunch. And a big bottle of sweet and sour sauce wasn’t cheap either.
Ah, well. Can’t cry over spilt sweet and sour sauce.
I ate my Taco John burrito and some coleslaw for lunch instead. For supper, I had chicken salad on a pita bread which was very disappointing as the pita bread did not open up into a little pocket like it should have. The chicken salad was good. I bought it ready-made from Lerbergs. The chicken was in bigger chunks than I prefer, but it was a quick and tasty meal.
I got a little more work done in the kitchen. I had hoped to finish cleaning it by today, but I wasted several days this week due to my knees and shoulder giving me lots of pain. It’s hard to feel motivated when you are hurting.
Saturday, February 5
I finished the laundry today and cleaned up a lot of crap that had accumulated around my recliner. I used my electric broom to vacuum up a lot of crumbs and cat hair and other small debris around the recliner, down the hall, and in the bedroom. I dug out a “new” three ring binder and filed my January prayer journal pages in it.
The last burrito from Taco Johns was my lunch, along with more of the coleslaw. I had an apple fritter and a banana for supper.
Today is my cousin Rhonda’s birthday. She is Lily’s daughter. I posted a picture of her with her two brothers on Facebook with a birthday greeting. It was taken at Easter time when she was about 9 years old. They were all dressed up—both the boys were wearing little boy suits. It was a very cute picture.
My knees and shoulder were giving me a lot of pain today, so I didn’t accomplish much. I watched a lot of TV.
Sunday, February 6
Last night, I heard a noise that woke me up. It sounded like something fell. Apparently Peaches was rampaging around and knocked a big stack of paper crap onto the floor. Then she must have pounced in it and rolled around in it as it was spread all over the living room floor.
Sigh.
I folded the last load of clothes that was in the dryer then brought the clean clothes into my bedroom. Then I cleaned up the mess Peaches had made in the living room. By the time I finished that, it was time to do the Zoom meeting with DeAnn. I didn’t feel much like it, but I missed last week’s meeting, so I forced myself to suck it up. Once we got going, I was glad we did it. We had a very good and motivational meeting. We talked a lot about the Sabbatical DeAnn is taking next year and the goals she has for it. She is going to be working mostly on learning and polishing the skills of computer animation. She teaches all that advanced computer stuff at Dakota County Community College.
After we finished our meeting, I watched a little TV then went into the kitchen where I did an enormous sink full of dishes. Then I made myself chicken salad open face sandwiches on toast and some coleslaw. I had received an email earlier from Sue Janicky (a friend from West Concord who is a nurse) who invited me to a Zoom with our little group of friends at 5 pm. It was DeAnn, Sue, Tammy, Nancy, Julie and her husband, and me. We had a wonderful chat session—we talked a lot about the crap going on in the field of education in Iowa where they are going to mandate cameras in every classroom and allow parents to monitor the footage live every minute of every day to be sure that the teachers are not “indoctrinating” the students with godless liberalism….and a bunch of other crazy shit. I am so glad I am retired and will never have to deal with all that shit.
That’s about it for Sunday.
Monday, February 7
Monday has become my day for filling my pill caddy. It works better that way since I do my Zooms with DeAnn on Sundays—and I like to sleep as long as I can. I enjoy unconsciousness. I like to dream. It’s nice to be able to walk and even run in my dreams. Real life is just a lot of pain and frustration.
Anyhow, I filled my pill caddy, gathered up the bedroom garbage and recycling and hauled it into the living room where I combined it with the living and bathroom garbage and recycling. Later, I dragged all of it to the breezeway as it needs to go out to the bins. I also called Jim and Dudes, the plumbers. My kitchen sink has been draining very slowly for a couple of months now. I am sick of it. I decided not to mess with it myself and just call the plumbers to come and deal with it. They are coming Wednesday afternoon. They will call me when they are on their way. It will be good to get that dealt with.
I also called my sister Joni and talked with her for a while. We hadn’t talked for a couple of weeks, so it was good to catch up.
I didn’t eat much today—finally, I got a Schwans individual spaghetti frozen dinner and cooked that in the microwave. I had an apple fritter and a banana later.
I didn’t accomplish much else today. I was tired and sore.
Last night, I dreamed I was at my grandmother’s house again. I dream about that house a lot. This time, I dreamed I was in her kitchen. She was doing dishes, and I took over and told her I would finish them. One of the things I washed was a white plastic plant pot which had been cut in half lengthwise. I asked her why she was keeping that, and she said she used it for Kitty, her big white cat. So, I washed it and set it aside. There was someone at the garage door, and I thought it was my brother. It wasn’t. It was my nephew Caleb. He took the weird plant pot and put it under the counter where Grandma fed her cat. It magically transformed as things do in dreams into a fancy water dish. Grandma had gone into the living room area, and she came back. Suddenly there was a loud yowl from the other side of the house. Grandma said, “Oh, Kitty is shut up in the bedroom. I have to go let her out.” So she scampered (as best she could) across to the bedroom and let the cat out. The cat came sauntering into the kitchen and helped herself to some fresh food and water.
I made myself some toast and cut up a tomato and laid the slices onto my toast. I love a tomato sandwich! I was sitting at the table eating my tomato on toast—I had two pieces of toast, each with its own tomato slices. Grandma sat next to me and snatched the tomato off one of my pieces of toast and gobbled it up! When she had eaten it, she giggled. I told her there were five tomatoes on the counter if she wanted more.
I woke up missing her. The dream was so real. It’s funny how everything comes back so clearly and in so much detail in dreams. Both Kitty and Grandma have been dead for over 20 years. Yet, in my dream they were just as they were in life—actually better than they were in life as they were both very infirm and in terrible shape the last time I saw them.
Tuesday, February 8
Today I prepared the beef roast with potatoes, carrots, onions, and cabbage. I also cleaned a bunch of old and expired food out of the refrigerator and wiped out some areas inside the fridge where things had leaked and dried and required vigorous scrubbing to remove. I filled the small kitchen pop fridge with pop then dragged all the garbage and recycling into the breezeway. There were three big bags of garbage and two bags of recycling. I cleaned the litterboxes and threw the scoopings into the garbage bin. I watered my snake and spider plants.
There were some withered carrots in the fridge, so I threw them over the railing of the deck into the yard along with some withered sugar pea pods and the outer, withered, dirty leaves of the cabbage. I am hoping the rabbits will enjoy them. I feel sorry for the little animals in the winter. I scattered more peanuts out on the deck for the squirrels and blue jays.
I washed all the dishes and cleaned most of the counter top and the things sitting on it. Only a small section of the counter remains to be dealt with. I am hoping I can get that done tomorrow before the plumber comes. He is supposed to come in the afternoon. It took more than an hour for the dish water to drain.
While the roast beef was cooling, I turned the two cucumbers into creamy cucumber salad. I had some of that and some of the roast beef for supper. Later, while watching TV, I had a piece of the coconut cream cake.
I watched a show called Peppermint on TV. It was a rather depressing show about a woman (Jennifer Garner, I think), whose family was murdered by a drug lord who had his fingers in the judicial system and the police force, so no one was punished for their deaths. She became a vigilante and killed all of the bad guys. It was quite violent, and the ending was left with an open door for a sequel.
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Date: 2022-02-10 05:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-02-10 08:07 am (UTC)I'm preparing for the PUPPY BOWL this Sunday. There are review shows on Animal Planet.
I rather like my groceries getting delivered by Amazon. Not sure how much more expensive it is going to be to go that way. I might try Von's delivery service as well. I know their stock better. There is also Whole Foods but I notice their selection isn't that great.
That is one of the perks of higher education. Sabbaticals. You don't get them in K-12. Probably one of the reasons teachers burn out.
Shit. If I were a teacher in Iowa I would quit. You know the parents of those asshole students doing shit in class will conveniently not see *that* on Big Brother.
The bus was an adventure but relaxing and no worries about finding a parking space, which will only get worse over the summer. I got off one stop early at the pool but will fix that the next time. the ride back was uneventful. It was a good exercise in slowing down. I had time to sit and wait between transfers and waiting for the bus to come. The buses are air conditioned now so comfortable that way. The seats are still hard plastic but clean and I get preferred senior seating now. I make sure not to go during peak times so plenty to choose from. The buses are powered by natural gas so less polluting than my car. Round trip was $2.50. The most I would pay for an entire day of riding the system would be $3. The most I would pay in an entire month is $23. Not a bad deal.