August 10 through 14
Aug. 15th, 2022 05:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chochiyo_samaWednesday, August 10
My blood pressure was slightly lower today, so I am happy. Sort of.
Gracie and Caleb, my cousins who were the original owners of Sawyer and William, came over today so Gracie could say good-bye to the boys. She is off to basic training in a couple of days. Sawyer cautiously approached her, sniffing as if he knew that scent but wasn’t sure who she was. After some sniffing and observation, Sawyer allowed himself to be petted and played with. William completely disappeared. We searched everywhere, but there was no sign of him. I even sent Caleb to the basement to search for him. Nope. We did not see a whisker of him the whole time they were here. I was beginning to freak out a little as the boys always come out to inspect visitors. I was worried he might have got himself into a tight spot that he couldn’t escape from or hanged himself on the cords for the blinds.
I was beginning to consider calling my brother or my nephew Erik to come over and do a thorough search. But I had to pee, so I did that first. Lo and behold, he comes sauntering into the bathroom to watch me pee. Both of the rush into the bathroom whenever I am in there. They love to watch the toilet flush. Weirdos.
So I took a couple of pictures of him, texted them to Gracie, and told her she could stop back again on her way home. She had been visiting her great-grandma who lives in the assisted living facility just down the road from me. A while later, she came back. William was so wary of her! He walked a wide circle around her to come to me, wanting pets. I talked to him soothingly, and he crept closer to Gracie, sniffing her and scampering back to me for reassurance. Finally, he let her pet him but not pick him up.
She was amazed at how big both boys had grown. They are huge.
I don’t know if they remembered her or not, but I wonder if they were afraid she was going to take them away again. They have totally bonded with me and live like little feline princes here—good food, lots of toys, tons of attention and affection—they’d never want to leave all this! LOL.
Earlier, Lily had given me two quart ziplock bags of beans from Rhonda’s garden—one yellow and one green—and an ear of sweet corn. She had already washed the beans, so I cut them up, tipped them, and boiled them. I also fried the two New York strip steaks I bought on Friday. Those steaks were huge. I ate half of one and a big bowl of beans with a lump of butter in them. Delicious! Fresh, home grown vegetables are the best.
I cleaned a bunch of old stuff out of the fridge along with some shriveled up fruit that went bad faster than I could eat it. I also washed a sink full of dishes and tidied up the counters. Lily had also brought me her mail, so I sat in my recliner and went through it. Nothing too major in it.
That’s about it. I didn’t do much else.
Thursday, August 11
My blood pressure was a little lower again today—still dangerously high, but not as high as yesterday. I guess I just have to take each little bit of lowering as a positive thing.
Today, I worked on my book of goals, cleaned the laundry room’s litter box, sorted and started my laundry, made my grocery list, called it in, and did a little random tidying up.
Joel Butler called me and asked about Jason—he would like a few handyman jobs done at his house—putting a new sink in the kitchen and hanging a new door and screen door where his obnoxious, out of control grandchildren broke it. Those kids are out of control, destroying everything. The 5 year old refuses to use the potty chair, shits his pants, then demands that Joel change his diaper and clean him up. The twins who are about 15 take food out of the freezer and fridge and never put anything back, so all kinds of things go bad while Joel is at work. They also just throw the rinds from watermelon on the floor when they finish eating the “meat” of it. The oldest daughter who is 16 just takes off and stays gone for days and no one knows where she is.
Their mother is less mature than any of the kids—just for the frosting on the cake. Joel himself is not the sharpest tack in the box, but he is a hardworking man who does his best. The bunch who live with him are undisciplined, unmotivated, lazy leeches. I feel so sorry for him. He has been told he should just boot them out, but he loves them and doesn’t want them to be homeless—or worse—ending up with one of his daughter’s worthless abusive boyfriends. The last time that happened, the boyfriend and the mom took all of the twin’s ADHD meds themselves and left the girls unmedicated. No concern about what that did to the girls. Assholes.
Joel wanted me to see if Jason was interested in doing some odd jobs, so I had a text conversation with Jason and told him about the repairs needed and gave him Joel’s number and address. I gave Joel Jason’s number too. Now it is up to them.
I was surprised today by the arrival of the Schwan’s man. Usually, he comes on Friday. I had made a Schwan’s order earlier in the week as Mom wanted some stuff. I ordered a couple of things for myself too. Larry, the Schwan’s man, looked really down. Usually he is so cheerful and friendly. He just looked like his dog had died and his best friend ran off with his wife. I asked him if he was okay. He seemed surprised that I would say that. I told him he just looked so sad. He said there had been a lot of frustrating stuff going on. I told him I was sorry about that and that I liked him and did not want him to be unhappy. He thanked me and smiled rather wanly. I hope he is okay.
Lily wanted me to fill out some medical forms for her as she hates filling out forms. She is always worried she will spell something wrong and that her handwriting isn’t neat enough. I asked her if she wanted to come for supper since it was close to supper time and offered to buy a pizza from Casey’s if she would pick it up. She said she had eaten pizza for lunch, but that she would pick up a pizza for me if I wanted one. I also got a salad as I am trying to include vegetables and greens in my menu more often. I ordered a vegetarian pizza. I love Papa Murphy’s vegetarian gourmet pizza, but the Casey’s vegetarian pizza had only mushrooms, black olives, and green peppers on it. It was okay but no where near as delicious as the Veggie Gourmet. It didn’t take long to fill out her forms, and she did eat a couple pieces of pizza anyhow. She wanted to try the vegetarian pizza as she loves the veggie gourmet too.
The salad that I ordered turned out to be huge, so I put it in the fridge to eat tomorrow. We had a nice chat and then she went home.
By this time it was after 8 pm. I was working on laundry and a few other little things. I decided to lock the door as it was starting to get dark. I saw a cell phone on the little fridge where I keep pop and could not remember setting my cell phone down there. When I picked it up, I saw it was in a red case—my case is silver. So I knew it was Lily’s phone. Lily does not have a house phone any more—only her cell. I wasn’t sure what to do as it is hard for me to go to the garage and get into my car and I was not excited about leaving the house.
I decided to call Jason as he lives just around the corner from Lily. I explained that she had left her phone here, and I was worried about her needing it in the night. I was also worried that she would panic if she couldn’t find her cell phone. So Jason walked over to her house and rang the bell. She always has her TV on so loud that she can’t hear the doorbell. He could see that her TV was on, so he walked around to the back where the deck is. He was afraid she was asleep in her chair and did not want to pound on her door and scare her awake. Then he saw her move her foot out to pet Finn, her “new” Siamese cat. He then felt comfortable to knock, and she recognized him by his Mohawk hair cut so she came to the door. Everything got sorted out, and she drove over to my house to get her phone. All’s well that ends well.
Friday, August 12
My blood sugar was much lower than it has usually been today. The blood pressure continues to trend downward. I’ve given up caffeine and am staying away from junk food and sugary stuff.
Ross delivered my groceries which were a lot less money this time as I didn’t order as much stuff. Almost everything I bought was on sale as well. I put the groceries away immediately. There were not many, so it didn’t take long.
I cleaned the breezeway litter boxes and took the scoopings to the garbage bin outside. I had a couple of bills that needed to be paid, so I wrote out the checks for those and got them ready to mail. It was a pretty quiet and uneventful day.
Saturday, August 13
Lily came over and brought my mail to me. She took my two bills and my $500 vacuum cleaner which doesn’t work as her son Roger is coming this afternoon, and she thought he might be able to fix it.
I ate leftover pizza and some of the deli coleslaw I had ordered from Lerbergs. The coleslaw is not great. It is edible, but only JUST edible. I also bought one of the oranges from Lerbergs. It was very good and juicy. There were 8 of them in the bag, so I am glad they are tasty.
I watched some stuff on TV, but I don’t really remember what I watched—a few episodes of Gun Smoke and the movie ROOM which is the story of a young woman who was kidnapped by some pervert when she was 17 and held hostage in a garden shed for seven years, during which time she had two babies—one of which was born dead and the other who was five at the time the movie was set. He thought that nothing was real except what was in their room. Everything else was “TV.” They did have a television in the room. I read the book some time ago—I was still living in hell….I mean, in my mother’s house…when I read it. The book, of course, was better. Books always are. But the movie was okay.
Sunday, August 14
DeAnn and I had an extra long Zoom this week. We started around 10 am and kept going till after 3pm. We talked about a lot of random stuff, including the whole tRUMP Mar-a-largo “raid.” I really cannot understand why that low life son of a bitch isn’t in jail already. For life.
I had the last of the pizza and some of the coleslaw for lunch again. Later I had a container of Yoplait cherry yogurt. It was good. I have not had yogurt for a while.
Jack came over later in the afternoon and carried out my heavy kitchen garbage and rolled my garbage and recycling containers to the curb. He stayed and chatted for a while. We discussed a lot of the political stuff that’s been going on. He told me that Caleb has been offered a full time job at Federated after finishing his internship. Jack said he is starting at a wage that is almost equivalent to what Jack was making at the Federal Women’s facility after a lifelong career there—which means he must be making double what I made as a teacher after 30+ years. I was making just a hair over $50,000, and Jack was making about $35,000 more than me.
And people wonder why teachers are leaving the profession in droves. Sigh.
Another thing Jack told me is that he is being paid to participate in some kind of study where they are testing people to see where they come from, genetically speaking. Turns out that we are almost 100% pure northern European stock—with only a small percentage coming from southern Europe. He discovered that our DNA does not have markers for heart disease or cancer and that we are suited for cold weather climates. Most of the nationalities were not surprising—Ireland, Scotland, England, Germany, Russia (Prussia), Norway, and Denmark. The surprises were Portugal and Finland. Portugal seems quite a ways from the rest of our lands of origin.
After Jack left, I cleaned the litterboxes in the breezeway and washed a big sink full of dishes. In the evening, I watched The Quiet Man starring John Wayne in a movie that was not about war or cowboys. As usual, I liked the short story it was based on much more than the movie, but the movie was enjoyable and had beautiful scenery. I think it was actually filmed in Ireland.
Finally, the headache that I have been suffering with for over a week has finally let up. My body must finally be getting used to life without caffeine. I miss my diet Coke. I won’t be drinking it any more until my blood pressure is under control.
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Date: 2022-08-17 02:53 am (UTC)5 years old and shits his pants? Well, I'd let the little shit sit in those pants or clean himself up. 5 years old is old enough to clean himself and change his clothes. Let him do all of the work and he'll learn to shit in the toilet like a civilized person.
Why are these feral children in his house while he is at work. All that spoiled food and rinds on the floor. They would be gathered up and dumped in their beds. If the girl takes off, you change the locks and she isn't allowed back. For that matter, lock the teenagers out and put the 5 year old in Day Care as soon as he's figure out how to shit in a toilet as they won't take them if they're not potty trained. But I wouldn't have any of them in my house. Where are their parents?
Well, good for Caleb. Nice to see at least one member of his generation of your family turned out decent with a good job making decent money. And he won't kick his dog, beat his wife or become an alcoholic. I attribute this to the parents. Jack and his wife have done a good job with their kids. I don't need to say anything about Kim. It is also why I am amazed that you and your siblings, sans Kim, all turned out so normal and successful given the circumstances of your childhood family life.
It also explains why my sister is such a spoiled little shit as she was unplanned and by the time she came along my Mom was tired. She was indulged and spoiled too much. She is less baby boomer and more of the entitled generation that came afterwards. She did a shit job with both of her sons as a parent and her husband wasn't any better given how the two spawn turned out.
That Southern Europe in your genetics is likely Romans. My Mother is German and has some genetics from Scandinavia but also Italy. More Italian than my Dad actually. It's from the Romans occupying Germany. I'll bet that is where yours comes from too. We got this from doing a My Heritage DNA test. I also did mine with Ancestry just to make sure I could be found in both databases because still looking for my Mom's half brother and his descendants. It is good about the health markers. I did something like that through Kaiser years ago. Nothing on heritage locations just health stuff. I am sensitive to bitter, which is probably why I hate beer and other foods. I can't remember any of the rest and don't recall if they tested for any cancer markers. Likely the tests for them weren't around yet or that wasn't the focus of the study. I think I have a box with the results in it somewhere but I can't remember where. Maybe the garage. (The Romans were in Portugal as well as England and Germany.) My Mom has Goths and Visigoths from Norway, Sweden, Finland and Netherlands. I think there's some French nobles in there from the dark ages. If you do an ancestry tree and can trace it back far enough you usually find nobility and even a royal as they keep really good records. It's better to have German and Northern European ancestry as they kept really good records for marriages and baptisms with parents names of both bride and groom, making it easier to trace back.
Yes, that headache would be caffeine withdrawal. Goes to show you what nasty stuff it is and what it can do to your body. Best to stay away from all of the diet stuff and avoid coffee if possible. Tea does have some caffeine too but not as much. I think there is more value in tea than coffee as well. Plus, now that you've quit and the chemicals have finally been flushed out of your body, you wouldn't want to put them back in and have to go through it all over again.