February 9 through 13

[chochiyo_sama]

Wednesday, February 9

Today I cleaned and organized the rest of the kitchen counter—wiped down all the appliances and materials sitting on it and tidied and straightened everything that sits on it.  Cody from Jim and Dude’s arrived much earlier than expected and unclogged the sink in less than ten minutes.  The plumbers from Jim and Dude’s are always so nice. 

After he left, I had some leftover roast beef with potatoes, carrots, onions, and cabbage for lunch, made and called in my grocery list to Lerbergs, and talked to Lily on the phone.  She told me that the insulin I had ordered for Missy (the cat) from Chewy.com had arrived in Texas.  I was glad it got to her as she has been calling me at least once a day fretting about when it was going to come and why it wasn’t there already!  That woman LOOKS for things to fret about.

 

Thursday, February 10

The squirrels and blue jays were desperate for some peanuts, so I threw some out on the deck.  They just love them, and Peaches loves to watch them gobble them up.  I gobbled up some open faced tomato on toast sandwiches for lunch.  Last week I bought some hot house tomatoes, and they taste every bit as good as fresh from the garden tomatoes.  There is nothing more delicious than an open faced tomato on toast sandwich with a little mayonnaise on it.

It snowed today—not much.  Just enough to coat the deck with a little frosting of snow.  I got a small package in the mail today.  It was some doll clothes to fit my “Todd” dolls.  These are little boy dolls from around 1990.  I have two of them.  I think I got both of them from Toys R Us in Rochester while teaching at Triton.  One was part of a “Wedding Party” playset.  He was a ring bearer in a tiny tuxedo who came with a little Stacy doll who wore a sweet little pink flower girl dress.  I got two outfits for the “twins.”  One outfit came with two Superman emblem blue tee shirts and blue jeans.  The other was a two pairs of pants with small “Cat in the Hat” heads printed on them in tiny scale.  The two shirts were red.  One said “Thing 1.”  The other said “Thing 2.”  Perfect for twins!  The dolls look adorable in them.  I have named the boys Kenneth and Benjamin—“Kenny” and “Benny” for short.

I’d really like to find another tuxedo so both of the twins had one.  In their doll family, their family is wealthy—their dad, a vintage Ken, is a doctor.  Their mother, a vintage pony tail Barbie (my childhood doll), had a tragic accident when I was a child.  I had left her outside for a few minutes while I ran in to go to the bathroom or something, and our puppy chewed her hair off.  So, she spent many, many years wearing a cheap, frowsy dime store wig that just didn’t suit her.  Before all my medical issues of 2019, I ordered a custom wig for her that suits her personality MUCH better.  I paid a shocking $60 for it, but she looks so good in it, that I think it was well worth it.  Anyhow, she is more of a “high society” woman who doesn’t work, but who spends her time hosting benevolent charitable events and attending cultural events.  Both the Ken and Barbie are “vintage” from the late 50s, early 60s.  The boys are their younger children.  They have two “mod” skippers, both brunettes, from the 70s.  One is a bendable leg Skipper, whom I think I got off Ebay while working at ROC.  The other’s head came to me on a vintage barbie body.  I bought that at a flea market that was held every Saturday in downtown Winona while I was in college.  I got a headless straight-legged Skipper body somewhere in my travels, so I put the mod head on it and gave the barbie body to one of my mod girls whose legs were broken.  I call the girls Violet and Veronica.  The parents are Barbara and Kenneth Sr.

Someday, I intend to write all of the stories of my dolls’ real and imagined experiences.

 

Friday, February 11

Ross delivered my groceries, and we had a nice visit.  He is such a kind man. 

Later, I had a nice chat with my brother Jack.  He told me he had 12 days left before he could retire.  He is looking forward to it with great enthusiasm.  

Today, I got a nice package from my friend Mary.  My favorite thing amongst all the lovely items was the Jewish Space Laser Squad pin.  “Mazel tough!” I immediately sent pictures of it to my siblings and my good friend DeAnn.  Everyone loved it—even my crazy tRUMPer sibling.  I called Costa’s Candy store today and had a nice box of assorted chocolates sent to Mary as she has had just a never ending stream of unpleasant, unfortunate, and unfair events raining down on her, and I wanted to brighten up her life just a bit.  She is such a very good person who deserves only the very best—not all this downpour of crap.

I had a dream last night that I was interviewing for a teaching job in Hayfield High School.  I m not sure if I have ever actually been inside Hayfield High School, but my dream was extremely detailed.  In the dream, the building was very old—probably from the 1930s or earlier.  There was a lot of tile work on the walls—mostly green tile, lovely wood work with tall doors and transoms, and almost every wall was that really loathsome shade of institutional green that so many old schools are painted with.  The gymnasium was similar to the one in my old high school’s basement.  The seating area was in a balcony—the gym itself was below—like a pit.  The stage was on the far end of the gymnasium.  The walls were green there too, and the floor of the gym was old and yellowed.  There were boys in ratty basketball uniforms having practice down there.  I was taken on a tour of the school as part of the interview, and it was in good condition other than being really old and sort of dingy.

I had an interview in what appeared to be a conference room with a very old, very long table that had the administrators and some of the school board seated around it.  I suppose they asked me questions, but I don’t remember that part.  What I remember was telling them about my teaching career, especially all the curriculum work I had done and how many of my former students keep in touch with me—even some that I taught thirty years ago.  I remember telling them that I missed teaching a lot and that I was excited about getting back into the classroom.  I told them that I did not look forward to the first few weeks as that was always like “hell week” for a new teacher where the kids struggled for control and the teacher had to be ever vigilant to keep from being eaten alive.  I assured them that they would love me in the end.  And I laughed.  I thought that comment would probably screw the whole thing over for me, since I was the only one who laughed.

Even though the school was old and dingy, I found it appealing and was looking forward to exploring it completely when I was on my own in there on a weekend.  I like old buildings so much more than new ones.  I enjoyed the dream and thought about it a lot for the rest of the day.

 

Saturday, February 12

I threw more peanuts out for the squirrels and blue jays today.  They appreciate them so much.  One particularly chubby squirrel sits on the railing closest to the picture window, his little paws clasped under his chin, and stares at me hopefully until I get up and open the door.  He of course runs off immediately at that.  I scatter the peanuts generously across the deck.  I am barely back in my chair before he’s back.  Then he sits on the rail, stares at me, and gobbles up the peanuts—in my anthropomorphic way, I believe that is his way of showing his appreciation for my service.  Sometimes he leaves me a little fecal “tip” in return for my generosity.  How thoughtful of him.  Ha.

I sorted and started my laundry, washed the dirty dishes, “butchered” my cantaloupe, and called Walmart as I STILL had not received my prescription refill which I had called in way back on Monday.  The pharmacist told me that the three prescriptions were there and he “wasn’t sure” why they had not been sent out for delivery—even though all my prescriptions have been send by FedEx since 2019.  He told me they probably could not be sent till Monday and that I would likely not receive them until Wednesday.  Fortunately, I have enough to get me through till them.

My brother Jack came over to help me put a new light bulb in my hanging globe lamp in the living room.  It is hanging just high enough that I could not get the globe off without being likely to drop and smash it.  He is tall enough that he could lift the chimney while I tilted the globe and held it while he reached down and removed the burned out bulb and screwed in the new one.  Then he replaced the chimney.

It’s nice to have adequate light by my recliner again. 

Jack also carried out my heavy, awkward kitchen garbage and rolled my garbage bin out to the curb.  There wasn’t enough in the recycling bin to make it worth taking to the curb.

 

Sunday, February 13

I woke up early enough to take a much needed and very refreshing shower.  After that, I still had time to wash a load of laundry and throw a second load in to wash while throwing the first load into the dryer before joining DeAnn for our Zoom meeting.  As usual, it was very motivational and satisfying.

I restocked the Diet Coke in my small fridge and spent the rest of the day puttering around on the computer and watching TV.

Comments

[cmcmck]

I was also much taken with the Jewish Space Laser Squad badge!