July22 through 24

[chochiyo_sama]

Friday, July 22

 The day started with some productive activities. I finished my laundry and got everything folded and dragged into the bedroom.  I haven’t put the laundry back in the drawers yet, but at least everything is clean.  From there, I went into the breezeway and cleaned the three litterboxes and swept up all the litter that the little beasties had kicked out of their boxes. 

Lily came over to drop off the Diet Coke, bananas, and raspberry bismarks that she had bought for me.  I gave her a big Cool Whip bowl of the potato salad I made the other day and a large jug of water for her new water cooler.  Her old one gave up the ghost, and her daughter Rhonda and her husband Loren bought one for her and had it delivered to her house.  She could not find the Culligan store to buy a jug, and I had six of them and was glad to give her one.  They are ungodly heavy, so I called Jack to see if he would be willing to take a jug to her since she is 82 years old.  She just isn’t physically strong enough to be slinging those heavy jugs around.  Jack was glad to do it.

The Schwan’s man delivered the order I placed last night.  We chatted briefly.  He’s a very nice man.  My debit card was denied, so I had to go onto my credit union’s website and see what was going on there.  It was an easy fix—I forgot I had paid over $500 for my six month’s car insurance.  So I just transferred some out of my savings. My social security and TRA will drop in this coming week, so all is well.  As long as I was messing with my financial stuff, I put my new debit card information into my pay pal account and deleted all the old debit card numbers off of it.  I have just never had to patience to figure out how to delete them before.  Today I just decided this is the day.  It wasn’t that hard.

After that, I pulled a bag of frozen cookie dough out of the freezer and baked the cookies.  I am trying to use up the stuff in my freezer.  I baked the whole bag—it made about three dozen cookies.  When Jack stopped over to get the jug of water, he ate about six of them.  Ha.  They are not as good as my real homemade chocolate chip cookies, but they were warm and fresh out of the oven, so they were pretty good.  Jack told me he had to stop at Lerbergs as he needed Sesame Oil for the stir fry he was planning to make for their supper tonight.  He wondered if they carried it, and I thought I had some.  So I dug through my lazy susan and found my bottle—it had not even been opened.  He said he’d check Lerberg’s first, but I said I’d call and ask—then he could just take mine if they didn’t have it.  Well, I called and they do not carry it.  So, Jack borrowed my bottle and will return it after he is done with it.

While he was here, Ross brought my grocery order. The three of us chatted for a while, and Ross ate just one cookie, even though I told him to eat as many as he wanted.  They both left at about the same time, and I put the groceries away.  I felt pretty good about the progress I made on stuff today. 

This was a good week for me.  I got a lot done.  Usually I’ve only been able to work two days out of the week.  This week, I had four days where I was able to work and get stuff done.  I have to take frequent rest breaks, but I have been able to get stuff done.

 

Saturday, July 23

There was a great thunder and lightning storm early today.  It was very stimulating, and we needed the rain desperately.  My lawn was yellow and crunchy, but it greens up almost instantly when it gets some rain. The weather people said there was a chance of severe weather today, but the early storm was just loud with a lot of lightning.

When I got up, I filled my pill caddy.  I used to fill it on Sundays, but then DeAnn and I started doing our Zoom meetings on Sunday which became difficult since I like to sleep as long as possible.  So, now I do it Saturday mornings instead. 

I ate some of the cream of broccoli/cheese soup I made the other day.  It was disappointing.  The broth tasted good, but it just wasn’t very flavorful.  It was very thin too.  What it reminded me of was hot chocolate—except broccoli flavored instead of chocolate.  I am not sure what to do about it.  I am considering just throwing it away.  Maybe I will fry up some onions and add them to the mix.

I did a sink full of dishes after I ate then went into the living room and watched and deleted some of the shows I had recorded on the DVR.  One of them was The Queen which was about how the royal family responded to the death of Diana.  Another was Daddy’s Home 2.  I think I like that one better than the first one.  John Lithgow and Will Farrell and Mark Wahlberg and Mel Gibson as father/son combos was hilarious.  They really do look like they could be father/son. 

We had another wild weather event tonight.  There was the distant rumbling of thunder for nearly an hour, then flashes of lightning.  The lightning got sharper and sharper, and the thunder got deeper and harder.  There was a heavy, pounding rain for a while which turned to a pelting hail.  The hail was not very big, and there was not much of it.  It did not last long.  It calmed down a bit, and the sky lightened up a bit.  But then it got very dark again and the wind picked up.  Next thing I know, my weather app lets out s shrill wail and Matt Benz of KTTC Weather announced “A tornado warning has been issued for your area.”  I turned the TV onto the regular station where I learned that the tornado was radar indicated and was over Geneva which is about 7 miles from Ellendale. 

It was nearly 10 pm by this time, and my mother goes to bed at 9.  So I called her and told her we were in a tornado warning and she needed to put her shoes on and go to the basement.  I turned on my basement light and sat in a chair at the top of the stairs.  I am afraid to go to the basement unless it is absolutely necessary as I do not know if I can get back up the stairs if I go down there.  My knees are so bad.  I listened for the stereotypical “roar” of an approaching tornado but heard nothing but basic thunder and rain.  After a bit, the TV announced that the tornado warning had been lifted.  So, I finished watching the last of the movie I had been watching when  the tornado warning came then went to bed.

 

Sunday, July 24

I only got up once in the night to pee—usually I am up at least three times.  It was lucky I woke up as I was dreaming I was in a school bathroom, sitting on a toilet.  It’s lucky I didn’t pee in my bed! 

My alarm went off at 9:30 as DeAnn and I usually Zoom at 10 am on Sundays.  I read my little devotional book, checked my blood sugar, took my meds, and got dressed before brushing my teeth and giving the cats their soft food for breakfast.  I threw some peanuts out on the deck for the squirrels and opened the front door to let the cats look out at the world.  About that time, I got a text from DeAnn asking if it would be okay if we met at 11 instead as she didn’t sleep well last night and needed more rest.  I was fine with that, so I fired up my computer and poked around on the internet for a while.

We got on our Zoom we had a pretty good chat about all the current goings on in the world.  We talked till about 2:30 pm.  Then I ate the last of my chicken pasta salad for a late lunch.  Tammy called.  She had come down to Ellendale to visit Mom—they met Jack and Kari at El Tequila in Owatonna and had lunch together.  Tammy wanted me to come to Mom’s and hang out but I didn’t feel like leaving the house.  If I had had more forewarning, I might have done it—but I was a little miffed that I wasn’t invited to go out to lunch with them.  I suppose they figured I’d be zooming with DeAnn. 

David Lassahn mowed my yard today.  Apparently we got about 4” of rain yesterday.  My lawn looks so nice now that it is green again.

Mom called me this evening and told me that she had talked to my cousin Janice’s daughter for 2 hours today.  Apparently, the mystery of Janice’s paternity is now resolved.  Mom’s brother is NOT the father.  So we have no biological relationship with her.  Her kids the DNA thing, and her biological father’s kids had done it as well, so they matched and got into contact with each other.  According to the biological siblings, Janice’s father’s parents would not let him marry her mother because he was “too young,” and also Kate, Janice’s mother, was half Lakota Souix, and his racist parents didn’t want their pure blood mixing with her “injun” blood.  Gah.  Fucking racists.

So, Kate married my mother’s brother LaVern, letting him think that Janice was his kid.  Eventually, he counted the months and realized it wasn’t his kid.  And he abused her throughout her entire childhood.  That girl was always covered with bruises.  And her mother beat her too.  They never beat their four sons the way they beat Janice. 

The first time LaVern beat her she was a baby in the crib—he worked nights, and she cried and woke him up, so he picker her up and “spanked” her.  She was not even a month old.  Fucking brute.

I don’t know why both of them took their anger out on her.  SHE was innocent.  SHE didn’t lie about her paternity—her MOTHER lied.  I do not understand people who treat little kids that way. Assholes.

Comments

[egret]

That is a very sad family history story.

[the_godiva]

I do my pill caddy Saturday night after I take the last of my pills so it is filled and fresh for Sunday morning. Even if I miss it I have 30 min. to await after I take the osteoporosis meds so I can always do it then.

I made quite a bit of progress these last few days and hope to do a bit this week. Funny how I had all the time in the world when I couldn't drive and didn't feel like doing anything and now that I can drive whenever I want I'm staying home and getting stuff done.

I wonder if your Mother has changed her attitude about Janice now that she knows that her and her kids have no biological connection to the family.

I'm still trying to track down anyone related to my Grandfather's son by his first wife. I would love to find my Mother a half niece or nephew and any children they have. I'm starting to look at passenger lists now. But I did DNA for both MyHeritage and Ancestry just so my DNA would be in the system if there was a hit. Plus more and more records are being entered all the time.

[cmcmck]

I have Jewish and Romani blood so I know about that sort of racism!