Chair et able

 It's kind of sad when the high point of my day is the return of my main power chair from the technicians. Quite honestly I was not expecting my chair to come back until sometime tomorrow and I would have felt Lucky had that been the case but today the chair showed up with my friend the technician. He filled me in on what was wrong and they had indeed repaired the faulty piece of equipment. In this case it was the Riser mechanism for the foot box. This equipment actually raises the foot box and even extends it out so that I give the illusion of totally lying down. This is a piece of equipment that I use a lot everyday- - and this may be part of the problem when it's broken I am broken. Without this foot box functioning properly I have a difficult time transferring from the bed to the chair in the mornings because the Box will not raise itself up and cause a barrier so my feet won't slide off the foot box. I've been very fortunate and not having this piece of equipment lately that I've been able to safely do the transfer in the mornings. I had a friend of mine who's also the technician at the local assistive technology shop, it cause I stayed agency, who's been working on my chair to maintain it's usability until I run the 5-year course which will allow me to get a new chair from my insurance which mandates I wait 5 years between chairs. I think I'm somewhere in the end of the fourth year or maybe just starting the 5th Year. If I were to present this chair to the company that sold it to me and who has been kind of maintaining the chair for the last 3 or 4 years. They've warned me that they could do the repair but if they did that would add probably another year avoiding time because by them doing the repair it would indicate that chair was usable for another year. Thank you  ucat you are a lifesaver at least to me.

Once again I must take responsibility for the destruction of this chair. I tend to wear out my assistive technology. I don't know if I expect too much out of the technology. When I'm in my power chair, I dress myself in the power chair, lately it's been taking more and more time to dress myself. I must do this 4 days a week the other three days I have a caregiver who assists in dressing me. I used to hate this part of the week the three days that she dresses me but now however that's the best moments of my week to be completely dressed in just a few minutes. I don't quite completely stand up in the foot box but I do push off from the foot box in order to keep myself in the power chair. By elevating myself in the power chair I'm able to Arch my hips and pull the shorts up over my hips. I guess if I were rich I would have a person dressed me everyday but I don't think I want that either. I like the time I can wake up, get up and dress myself at my leisure. Well I have a meeting or function to get to early I just program more time in getting up and getting dressed and getting to my destination. I can still do this but I can see in the near future this will not always be the case. If I'm fortunate enough I probably could afford three more days of assistance in the morning even if it wasn't for a shower but just a few minutes to get my clothes on and be presentable

Sunflowers Delight

We had a great breakfast this morning at the restaurant not far from where I live. It's kind of crazy that we continue to go there I think primarily because of the proximity to my apartment complex. We dutifully look over the menu every week thinking it's going to be different or we're going to see something else that we might order then what we already have. Every week it's the same menu and usually the same prices- - however sometimes there is an escalation with the new price written on a piece of tape usually over the existing printed price. The new pricing will go into effect when they reprint their menus sometime in the future. Any more, I would not be surprised if restaurant owners and such start leaving off the price of the items since the fluctuation is all over the board a printed menu price would soon be defunct. The tape works but it's kind of funky looking. Today I went out of my comfort zone and ordered the sausage and biscuits without the hash browns . Instead I was able to get a fairly nice sliced tomato. It was something certainly different than what I usually have been ordering the past couple of months. I was quite surprised how much I enjoyed the breakfast, even the eggs which were very hard fried and it's what I ordered but I didn't realize they would actually solidify the eggs. I enjoyed the meal however. I will wait before I order this breakfast again, possibly as much as 3 months.

We usually break up around 2 hours after we meet for breakfast. We start around 8:00 and figure we've pretty much talked ourselves out by 10:00 a.m. today was pretty much the same everyone had stuff to do. I really didn't have anything to do. It's Sunday after all. I said goodbye to everyone and headed out the door. However, I stopped in front of some wild sunflowers that had sprouted this week. I'm a sucker for sunflowers, the wild ones that grow large. Not the ones that are huge and stand like 10 ft tall on stocks as thick as your arms. The sunflower heads on these are so huge they've been the whole plant down as if bowing to something or someone. But the sunflowers I like usually are just a multi-flowered plant that is usually a volunteer somewhere on the path to know where but everywhere. Today I was so taken with the sunflower facing the Sun, of course, but I took the time to snap a few images. It was difficult for me to take these images because it was so bright with the morning sunshine. I just pointed the camera and kept hitting the butt until I heard the shutter click as they do on these cell phones. It's such a hoot that they make him sound like cameras. But I came away with some pretty good individual images of this beautiful plant. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did or do…

 

Saturday night vittles

I'm trying something different. I know I've talked about this a little bit in past blogs but today I kind of put it to the test. Last week I decided I was going to actually purchase some items that I look at longingly when I go to the market. I've looked at these family sized meals in the frozen food section and thought wow I should try that but I never get around to doing it. The price actually inhibits me from going ahead and purchasing the item. I don't know how much I've written about the idea of how much I like to cook , but I find that cooking is basically fun if there's other people involved. I like to cook for myself but it's gotten to the point where it's just not cost efficient as far as energy goes. Many times I just can't bring myself to do all the work and necessitates to pull off a good meal Plus the cleanup afterwards. That's what really kills me is the cleanup. So I thought to myself to really purchase the meal already pretty much made in his Frozen state and see what that's like. So a couple weeks ago I actually took the plunge and purchased the family sized ground beef lasagna. It was pretty damn good! It fed me for at least four meals and that's almost a week! They were huge meals but that's all I needed to get through. I was able to cut off heat and adjust. I mean if I'd really been diligent I could have opened up or I thought of some green things like broccoli or green beans or something else that might be edible and fun and good for me. I could even do a salad. I don't know if I'd get to that point but we'll never know especially if I were to make a big salad and then just take portions of it throughout the meal or the week. So last week I purchased two family size meals. The Salisbury steak was pretty good and today I cooked the meatloaf family size dinner or entree. This one I was more worried about because I love meatloaf and especially my meatloaf but not having to prepare it or clean up afterwards we'll see what the meatloaf brings. And I have to admit it was pretty darn good. I even whipped up a batch of mashed potatoes- - instant to serve alongside the meatloaf that came with its own gravy. There were six small meatloafs in the big size or the family offering. And I think it's going to go well with leftovers and it'll be great for tomorrow- - this is the reason that I cooked it today was that I wouldn't have to do anything over the Sabbath. Food wise. Another reason I have not purchased these offerings in the past was because they were somewhat pricey. Once again compared to the preparation and cleanup of object and the fact that I do have enough to purchase this item and not worry about it, it was a no-brainer. My next purchase is to get over to Costco and purchase another container of  tamales which I do really enjoy but I also I'm a little hesitant because I tend to focus too much on Mexican food and look for other options I don't usually get into…

 

Burger with the works

I don't know if it was because it was Friday or I just wanted something different and wanted to see if this old hamburger joint was still up and running. I found it the number of years ago I probably even have a Blog about it somewhere 5 or 6 years ago. I found it while rolling around exploring the neighborhood. I can't for the life of me remember the name of the joint. It was named after the person who owned it, a nice lady who I think just liked serving people. I'd gone there a number of times, the place is not too far from where I live, maybe a mile or so and it's relatively easy terrain if I take advantage of the marked off bike Lanes that very few people use on this street. I have to confess this still puts me a considerable risk but I look out for myself pretty well. I've noticed lately as I've passed the place it's has another name than before, something more trendy Happy Patty or something like that. The name is actually quite trendy and the new owners have spruced up the front quite a bit but it's still the same old classical hamburger joint once you get on the inside. Nothing's really changed since the other times I've been there. I suppose the joint has some kind of air conditioning system but I couldn't tell when I was there this afternoon. It was hot, almost sweat hot. But really floored me was the new prices. The burger started at 10 bucks a piece and these cometh fries. The burger that I got was without the fries and I think was $9.75 or something like that. In my quest to find the hamburger of the 1960s and 70s I always order the burger pickles and lettuce and onions on a sesame seed bun if they have it- - these guys didn't have a sesame seed bun. The burger was tasty however reminiscent from that scene from Pulp Fiction where Vega talks about how good the hamburger tastes of the poor lad who he takes it from and later destroys. Still, 10 bucks for a hamburger from a greasy hamburger joint at that totally makes me wonder. However I was totally surprised by the amount of cars that are parked out front and how many people were in that greasy joint wolfing down Burgers and Fries, cheese sandwiches anything that seems to be greasy these guys are slinging out. Just a quick side note when the place was operated by the lady before the current proprietor she was quite vested in feeding LDS missionaries. Around lunch time they always seem to be four or five bikes parked out front. The rumor was that she fed them for free or maybe she garnered blessings on high. But anyway I finally finished my burger Savory and everybody but I had to get out of there it was truly turning into a sweatshop and I needed to get back to the apartment complex. I felt that I exercised enough free will of the day and enjoy the Excursion out and put a few miles on my chair at that- - that's what Fridays are for…

 

Electric funk

 I knew it was going to be a challenging day when I looked over at the clock when I first woke this morning and did not see the usual red illuminated number indicated to me what time it was. It took a minute before the severity of this information sunk in. Everything I do has to do with electricity and power it seems especially getting in and out of bed. I knew this day would happen at some point and surprised that hadn't until now. I kind of hoped that somehow the clock plug had come undone and that was the problem but then I tried the buttons on the bed control and nothing happened. The handheld device was dead as a stone nothing was happening to my bed there was no way I'd be able to lift myself from the mattress onto my chair. Fortunately, I still had my cell phone next to my bed- - as I always do and I immediately searched my contacts list for people who might be able to advise me on what's going on. It was almost 7:00 a.m. when I was able to contact upstairs Janet, who by the way I woke when I called her. I sold them actually call anybody anymore usually I text just seems less painful that way. Anyway, groggy as she was she was able to ascertain that she didn't have any power either. Long story short was that a major portion of Taylorsville was in some sort of power problem. I spent a good part of the morning in bed trying to call around to find out how bad the problem was and finally I found a website the power source or the power company indicating that they're expecting the power to come back on by 10:00 a.m.

There wasn't anything pressing I had to do this morning and I wasn't going to let this thing upset me so I just decided to lay back and try to pass the time as best that I could. I called to let my brother know that I'd gotten hold of the power company who said when the power came back on and for him not to worry. I called my wound care professional who is supposed to come by today to let her know I may have a problem but you can still dress my butt if I was laying down. In the back of my mind I had made up a scenario that I'd be able to escape this problem if I had to. I would get a hold of my caregiver Melissa and beg her to come over and use the hydraulic lift to lift me from my bed to the power chair and let me be on my way. Hopefully that didn't have to come about. Almost 10:00 a.m. the clock came back on and I set the lamp next to my bed to on so it would flash me the second to the power surge through and it did. I was okay. I made it through another personal crisis. Luckily I had water next to my bed and I woke up totally thirsty. I usually keep two bottles of water by my bed and only had one whole bottle and 1/4 of another. My goal is to keep two full bottles there at my bedside at all times.

Actually that was the worst of my day. All things went better from there although I really didn't do much of anything. The day could have been much worse

Run

Yesterday the temperature was near 100°. As I said outside the athletic field of the Taylorsville High School at the bus stop waiting for the 217 northbound. I had been trying to link up with my friend for coffee at the wrong Starbucks so I was backtracking in the silver bearing Heat. If I sat waiting for the bus, had managed to find some shade which meant a little prediction for the bearing Heat. I noticed there was a group of girls and what look like physical education PE garb running or jogging in the sports field. It's actually a huge field I never orange markers making a huge rectangle maybe a hundred yards on the side. I think you could actually stick two football fields in this area. There is 40 or 50 girls masked together jogging slowly around this temporary track. I got the strong impression that this was the beginning of a practice of some sort, a sporting practice like soccer practice or something like that. But mostly was soccer practice since that's what everything seems to be going to these days that and T- Timo ball or whatever it's called. Watching your kids make this run on this gloriously hot summer, July day took me back to my own youth when I was in the 5th or 6th grade and Little League baseball or whatever it's called. In those days there is never anything as organized as what seems to be going down as Sports these days. Who never was the cost associated with it either. In those days it was just a bunch of guys getting together to play baseball. We would snag somebody, an older kid who knew the game pretty well, to be our coach and then we would have one of the team members who had connections usually a dad who owned a business or knew somebody who owned a business that would be willing to sponsor our team you know provide balls and bats bases and everything you would need to run a scrimmage ball game. And what made me think of this was the running of the never-ending perimeter. It seems like we had to run something like five laps between home plate of this baseball field we acquired or took over to these goal posts which seems forever away and we would have to run at the beginning of each practice at least three laps and then there would be a lap for discipline if it was needed as well as a lap for errors when Fielding different baseball scenarios. Like if there's a pop-up fly- - and easy catch and you drop the ball there's a lap, you're playing shortstop the coach bats you a one or two bouncer and you miss it that's a lap. When you had to do a lap you dropped your mitt right where you were and took off to come back later to pick up your mitt and reenter the baseball practice. We got our coach in our case we got two coaches because Bruce Mccomb had twins for older brothers Larry and Gary who are also total athletes. I don't remember how many years those guys coached us. But they always did the same thing we had to run and we ran as a pack. And that's how we started each practice. There's also coach Smith in the 7th grade who seemed to take Delight in having us run laps at each PE class we are fortunate enough to have on the outside when it wasn't raining or snowing. We always did Laps on the big track before each regular class started. Must be an Unwritten rule somewhere and coaches jargon or practice. I'm sure it has something to do with warming up the body I'm getting the muscles ready for whatever torture they're going to through our way but looking back I wish now I'd enjoyed the privilege of running more than I did then

Tuesday's Heat

   

 

I did not have my regular Tuesday meeting today. We're still pretty much doing every other week as far as the volunteer group that I meet with on Tuesdays because of funding issues and end of the year beginning of the year fiscally speaking. So I made use of the time by establishing an appointment with my assistive technology people to do some work on my power chair as well as meeting with a friend for what I thought was lunch and turned out to be coffee. Today was hot. The weather person said it was unseasonably hot but it was near 100° and so anytime you're in that kind of weather riding on concrete and asphalt it's always going to be warm from the bottom up as well as the top down.

I think I slept great till about 3:30 a.m. when I was jolted awake for some reason and I really couldn't get back to sleep. I think I was worried about whether I would be able to get dressed or not since I've been having such a problem with dressing myself of light. I'd like to blame my chair and not myself but in the back of my mind I think it's probably more myself than anything else which is kind of laid to rest when I got to the assistive technology Program and my friend who runs the shop pretty much fixed what I needed as far as my head rest went but also looked at the other parts of the chair that I was worried about and he said it seems to be an okay condition. So it's not going to drop me out in my head or anything like that which I'm afraid that it would. My appointment was at 10:00 a.m. so I was finished by 11:00 then went back to my apartment and wait around till it was time to go to my other appointment. I just figured it was going to be a late lunch and I went to where we usually went and waited until she  showed up. She never showed up . When I finally started texting I remember that I guess that was going to be at the coffee shop Starbucks. So I jumped on the bus and went there and of course it was the wrong Starbucks- - there are two Starbucks on this road and I went to the wrong one as usual. I think I was basically 2 hours late when we finally did link up, spent an hour visiting and such. I was glad to finally be out of the heat and then to the cold air of Starbucks with an iced coffee of some sort. We had a good discussion and had some good ideas which I need to write down. I think about expanding. I don't think I will but what I'm speaking with my friend they always sound like great ideas but when I think about it myself I just can't seem to flush them out. But one never knows I could come up with a great idea and pursue it to the end who knows…?

Rickshaw villains

 I'm not totally frustrated but I'm pretty damn frustrated that is a for sure. Remember I went through all that occupational therapy and therapist was real big into doing the workouts and such with the yellow elastic bands and lifting weights. I also got some very supportive feedback from her when I showed her my rickshaw, that device commonly found in rehab gymnasiums for people with disabilities usually in wheelchairs or I guess they can use the Rickshaw sitting in a normal chair and you push down on the handles the arms for the workout. My rickshaw has a weight box in the back of course and it works out just fine for me until recently. Oh, the rickshaw's just fine as it is more or less what strain is that when I went out on my parents this last weekend or maybe it was the 4th of July I heard a tinkle sound and when I looked at the rickshaw I noticed the pin that locks the arms into place one of them was on the ground then I look closer and the piece that fits into the arm of the Rickshaw was gone completely!. First and foremost buy one would do such a thing because the piece did not walk away by itself somebody had to take it. But for somebody to have to take that piece of that rickshaw did have either had to access our property by climbing the fence just south of my window separated by a street and then they would have to still climb over my railing into my patio. And people wouldn't even know that this piece of equipment was on my patio because behind the railing and then I have fencing of sorts that goes around the whole perimeter of the patio so unless you knew what you were looking for you wouldn't even see it. So I'm not saying it's an inside job I mean there's really few people that even be able to pull it off as an inside job because I don't know anything to have an inside job person to do it. Oh also, if the person did not access my patio the way I said by climbing over all those obstacles they will have to come directly into my apartment through the patio door and then remove the piece of equipment. And to do this would be somebody that's pretty big balls and I don't know anybody around here with balls that big- that's hell those would be even bigger than mine. I've been going through by list of people who dislike me to the point that they would do something like that/ this and I really haven't been able to land on anybody as yet. I mean I don't know how many people I even know who know that I'm here. The only real family that I know of his my son his daughter and his daughter's boyfriend who are all very supportive of me and then there's my brother and that's about it. I really don't believe I have any grudges that I've developed with any of the people here at the apartment complex. I think I get along with it if you will after all, remember I had a college professor describe me as just a nice guy a right friendly fellow an old Dr Phillips was right I am that. I would like to remedy this problem because I really need this form of exercise not only for the cardio but for a little bit of muscle I can Garner up and make myself stronger for things like riding myself in the chair and sitting myself up right transfers Etc. I think I could use one of my sticks if I could get them down to the right size or I have some other things that looks like it might work best case though I'll contact my older brother and let him do his magic which he definitely has. It's just a perplexing dilemma and should I be worried?

Lord of the Flies

 I find myself quite fortunate in that I have this great patio attached to my apartment. The patio is great just to have the door opened and the screen door in place giving good ventilation and good view to the outside world. Have a much wider view than I used to now that they the city of Taylorsville, remove the berm that was there and replace the whole little skateboard park that used to be on the other side. They put in a giant new skateboard facility and the kids are over there all the time. It's a bit noisy sometimes but not bad I enjoy watching the youth enjoying themselves. Many times I go out and enjoy my patio. It's actually quite large I have no problems getting my power chair out there and deploying the chair to the point where I can actually lay down and enjoy the Cool Breeze if there is one. Lately during the day there has been no cool breezes but in the evening it's it's nice especially go out and lay there in the dark. I also read out there from time to time in the afternoon. The Patio is well shaded. As I go back and forth to the patio I have to leave the door open and again consequentially flies coming to my load. I don't do a lot of effort to try to keep them out except for I do have limits. Perhaps if I didn't leave food out that would cut down on the amount of insects that attacked my living space or at least enter my living space. As I said many times when I feel that the fly population is becoming too great I will close the screen door. After a couple of hours, or sometimes when I get up in the morning there'll be a number of those little buggers clinging to the sliding screen door. Many times I could have taken my trusty fly swatter and smashed them all over the screens especially during the morning when I first get up. The flies have slowed their metabolisms down during the cool evening and they're a bit groggy. I could really make a killing. But as it is what I try to do is open the screen door and try to shoot the flies out. I think there are some that are brighter than others. They take the hint and they're gone but the others either try to fly away or try to run to the part of the screen door that slides the top the other. If they can make it there they can be spared from the Slaughter. Sometimes I can push the screen door back to the shut position the little guys will be in there thinking they're safe only then they will meet their Doom if I'm lucky and they are not. Really the only reason I do this especially in the evenings is that nothing I hate more than a pesky insect flying around my face and ears while I try to get some sleep. I usually keep my screen door shut but every once in a while like I said I go out and sit without pulling the screen door shut behind me. I have included a image of the screen door leading to my patio. You probably cannot see the insect on the screen door unless you try to enlarge the image as much as possible. It'll appear as a black Speck I think above but looks like trees or something.

Another watermelon blog

  Yesterday I bought a watermelon at the market, you probably read about it and yesterday's blog. Well tonight I was going to write something about the watermelon but got thinking I wonder if I'm overdoing that l a little bit. So, I brought up the blog and did a search for watermelon and sure enough there was blog after blog about watermelons that really didn't come out right just one blog and have many posts in that blog how about watermelons. So it'd be a little Overkill I think to write another blog on watermelons even if it's somewhat Justified.

The mill and I picked out the market has sat on the table all night long and it's a bit intimidating. With the other watermelons in the big box of melons it looked pretty small but on my table I look too huge and daunting. I wasn't quite sure how I was going to process the fruit. I don't even know where I would store that much fruit. I kind of copped out but it was a good idea I still think and I grabbed one of my neighbors who at least cut the watermelon in half and I gave her half of the melon for her laborers. The half that I was left with was still quite large and it was a little awkward too cut and trim but I found a pot pretty large and started cutting sections out and put them in the pot eventually stuck the hole thing in the refrigerator which I hope to piece on in the next couple of days. I did not make as a big a mess this year as I usually do when cutting the watermelon by myself. It's so messy I hate to use that many paper towels on one project but this last spring and summer I've been investing in dish towels. The dish towels I have now or just perfect for something like absorbing moisture from the watermelon cutting. I also had a couple of plastic bags from the market, you know all those really thin plastic bags that they send you home with from your shopping experience? Well I like to keep bags around so that instead of throwing all the watermelon rind in the garbage adding weight and mass I just take the pieces of the watermelon after I cut them into whatever size or trim or when I've eaten one or two pieces of test pieces I threw them in the plastic bag and when I'm finished I have a hefty bag that I can run out and deposit into the dumpster. By the time I was finished with the melon I was pretty much sick of the whole thing by the time I was finished I had a couple nice bites of the watermelon it wasn't as good as I thought it was going to be or as much as I wanted it to be. Always about this time I think about the prepared food they have at the beginning of the market when I go in you know the prime ribs are the barbecue ribs potato salad all the things that are trying to get you to buy, I've noticed this year they actually have quarters of watermelon cut into slices covered in plastic or cellophane. You seem expensive around $7 which seems like a lot for that much watermelon but it's cut really nice it's very pretty and it's all done. I think I should maybe consider doing this purchase sometime and see how good the watermelon is. I'd like to see if it's worth the $7 crap shoot. Cuz the fruit really looks good when it's cut up and taking care of like that. And this is just the perfect way to have watermelon if you're single and have to do your whole thing yourself. I don't mind the effort if I'm doing it for somebody else plus myself. Just more of the joys of Summer…

Happy 4th of July

 

It's a little after 9:00 on Independence Day here in Salt Lake City. It's not quite dark yet but it's getting there which of course means the skies are going to erupt in explosions and flashes of light many colors many designs. There's been the occasional off and on explosion all afternoon as early Independence Day revelers set off noise makers. I always say I'm not going to stay up to watch the event even though I usually do stay up and the fireworks displays usually evade me. If Lucky I could see some fireworks displays being put on in other communities south of where I live or west of where I live. Some are quite far away but I can see their fireworks displays which are beautiful summer closer. Last night they launched some fairly close by it was quite noisy and I lucked out and I could see them out the back patio or the back door of this facility better than I've ever seen them before I don't know why that is or maybe it's just a look at the draw this year that the person launching the explosive items lives in the area that I have somewhat good access to visually. I really don't have anywhere to go tomorrow the coffee shop I used to go to on Saturdays is closed- a benefit from the owner to its employees. They'll be closed 2 days. I assume they'll be open on Sunday but luckily I stopped in there yesterday and got a pound of ground Italian coffee. I have enough to keep me going now until fall I'm sure. It seems to me the explosions get lighter every year but anybody over 70 years of age says especially Grumpy Old Men? But seriously the detonations do sound more explosive and close by then I remember.

I held myself back this year. Usually I have this fantasy of making a complete summer/independence day/holiday meal and I really can't even do that for one person. In fact I.  was even considering ordering a pizza, which I would love, but it's just so complicated. I really think it's some psychological need I have a feeling abandoned on the holidays. It's not debilitating by any means or even seriously serious. Just make me feel good being surrounded by holiday meals from the holidays past. I think this need for Holiday home visions might be brought on by all the different ads on television and such. Holiday time equals family time. However I can sit that aside and still be interested in just the general Staples you know bananas, grapes, something from a meat family I even gave serious thought to ordering in a pizza from Domino's. I probably would have had not been so complicated to order in home delivery. I've only done it once really it was great but I felt that I could have done better in the ordering process. Also I don't think I need a whole pizza to eat even if I put stretched it out over a week. I still might before this weekend's done but not this day. Plus I remembered that I still have the last portions of the Salisbury steak that I purchased last week in the fridge that I need to finish eating. Maybe I'll do pizza tomorrow who knows we'll see…

Pre holiday words

I finished the book finally last night and I really like to have something new to start on a holiday weekend. I like that whole feeling of looking forward to a day if not a weekend of just falling into a new read. Especially if it's a good read. In the winter it's curling up against some heat vent of some sort or even a fire if you have access to such a thing and in the summer of course finding some place in the shade and losing yourself in the words. Even if you don't have a new book to consider by sometimes like opening up one of the ones that I really like that I've read before and I have a few Stephen King's that I keep around for that very purpose but I didn't really feel like a Stephen King this 4th of July. Besides I wanted to go out and find something new that I haven't been into for a while. I had a few things to do this morning but once I got those out of the way I was fair game to head out to find something to read.

I really thought I knew where there is a Barnes & Noble or another book conglomerate in the old neighborhood. Hold up to the corner to catch the 47 inbound. I had to wait a little bit but it wasn't a hot day not like it has been and I sort of sort of laid back down in the chair and enjoyed what heat there was. I finally did get to the place where I thought this bookstore is at. I suddenly had this weird Twilight Zone feeling that I knew what I should be looking at but what I was looking at was not there. I couldn't quite remember for sure where the building was but I knew it was in the general area where I was at and was big enough that there's no way I could have misplaced it but it was gone. I just sat there a bit flummoxed and as I continue to roll around and look at the different buildings and shops that are still there I suddenly realized the whole giant section at the end of this group of buildings was no longer there. Whatever had been there have been totally turn down replaced with a black top and kind of chained off. Look like it was trying to find a new owner or something to build there. This was a bit disheartening since I really had my sights on the book. I figured worst case scenario I would go up the hill cross the street and be at the Costco and though the selection is not the best it's something.

I can never go to Costco without rolling up and down the aisles and seeing all the stuff that I'd like to get that I never get because I never have a bag or something with me to carry the stuff home with. This isn't the problem for people who have their own vehicles but for me there's no way I can carry stuff home without a bag. I've tried the nearest past it's just too awkward. After a bit of rolling I finally went over to the book section looked and looked funny coming to rest on a a team up effort by a couple of my favorite authors: James Patterson and Michael Crichton. James Patterson I'm not sure if I'd consider him a favorite author except that he or whoever writes in his name puts out a lot of stuff that I have read and it's somewhat entertaining. Michael Crichton however was one of my favorites and I really still miss the guy. Anyway. I got the book and finally got back to the apartment. It's been a bit of a long day, another one, but I think I'm sick for the holiday now I haven't been to the market and maybe I'll just skip that part of the holiday this year. I'll be happy with what I have and I never really end up doing what I want to do anyway so it really doesn't matter. Maybe I'll just hibernate and enjoy getting in to a new book

 

Junk mail?

 You know how you get junk mail, the same organization keeps sending you pointless pieces of mail about joining their program or being part of their program or being covered by them for one reason or another. Pieces of mail- do I dare even call them mail - - either at the center of the table are on my little writing desk in the back corner of my apartment or they will they will lay there until something happens that forces me or somebody else too look through them and separate any good pieces of information from the other garbage that tends to fill up my mailbox in time to find. I've gone to a point where I only checked my mail once a week or 2 weeks. For a number of years now I've noticed that I keep getting pieces of mail from Chase Bank which is a pretty big operation. My ex belong to chase for quite a while if I remember right and I guess we both did as far as possibly having a joint account I'm not sure I can barely remember. Anyway I've been getting these fairly authoritative looking Chase envelopes the last couple of weeks. And I've thrown these pieces of mail on the pile to be liquidated. First of the week I bumped into the small desk and of course everything got dumped onto the floor a real mess which doesn't really surprise me. But I've been meaning to pick up the mess for some time before Lissy she's the mess and cleans it up herself for sorry about that to happen. So start picking up the message this morning early before she got here and I came across two identical pieces of mail actually there could have been three. We were rather thick envelopes that I was a little cautious about sending him to the shredder because I worry about burning the motor out and the piece of mail slows the shredder to the point that it's going to seize up. Anyways I opened up one envelope and sent the envelope through and I was about to throw the other piece of mail through when I saw a couple of phrases on the document indicating that they are trying to contact me about a check that I had never cashed, a cashier's check from the bank, I have never cashed and if they didn't hear from me by the 17th of July it would go to the states unclaimed money office. I opened up the second envelope at that point and it was the exact same letter but dated a couple weeks earlier. I looked at the document very close thinking that maybe it was a scam group fishing but I didn't see anything too weird about it it looks pretty official in legit enough so that I settled up as soon as I got done with my morning routine and jump the bus and headed up to the Chase Bank just down the street from where I live. Figured I was going to run into the bureaucracy and that I'll be waiting quite a while but that's all right I did not have anything else to do and the Branch was air conditioned and quite amenable. I was finally called into one of the Banker-etts name the lasandra. She was kind and spent the next hour with me trying to ascertain whether the document was authentic and how to process the document if it was. After numerous phone calls and improperative meetings with various Bank professionals reestablish the fact that it was authentic and legitimate. I signed the documents I needed to and now it's been sent to the home Bank where they will cut me a check for almost $400! Like I said I figured anyway would be worthwhile and if this comes through it will be…

Happy july!

 I don't know what it is but for some reason I'm just exhausted. I haven't done that much today but travel. It was my assist day so I had to go into town on the train. I wake up naturally so I'm not jolted awake and this morning and I woke up it was blow after 5:00 a.m. I stayed in bed till 6:00 and got up and started my procedure. The transfer was challenging but I made it and I actually did fairly well with my clothes dressing the stuff I'm still cattywampus on my pants coming up I can't get my right hip up. I get dressed enough that I'm civilized. Today was the first day or is the first day of the fiscal New Year and remember I would suggested that we have some sort of a function or party at this particular assist get together. Well we did! I brought potato chips that was my voluntary thing. They got a bunch of other stuff too wasn't half bad for the 1st of July. We had a basic meeting signed off two people and that was it. I was once again surprised because Andreas handed out paychecks again I was amazed. The new director is really cool well he's not new but the one that came after Roger is not new now but he appreciates us and paces every couple weeks every couple months. Today was 157 dollars that's amazing so as soon as the luncheonette was over I booked ass over to the credit union deposit check and took a little out for this month's just open spending. I came straight home I didn't have to buy lunch since we certainly had it at the meeting. It's a hot day today maybe that's what sort of drained me that could be it too but I wear my hat I tried to keep hydrated. I tried to do my own bike but I was just too exhausted I forced myself to a half an hour then went out to the patio on red for a while. It's the first of July we're much hotter than we should be for this time of year but that's global warming and that's the norm now. The 4th of July is the end of this week and I think I'll just lay low. No quasi celebration no watermelon no ice this or ice that. I think I'm wearing my lesson. I still have 3/4 of a bag of crinkle chips left so I doubt if I will get any more potato chips except however my contribution to the function today was barbecue chips and they were pretty good even though they aren't Clover Club I'll have to make do with what's available.

This morning on a whim I ordered a new batch of mechanical pencils. I don't really know why because the order that I did yesterday for a mechanical pencils came in been trying to use them but they're kind of small. They're very pretty nice and silver give an illusion of a nice nice heavy mechanical but it was not. Now I've got three at least that I can use for rack of pencils. I think the New Order will be about 13 14 more pencils when they come in which I use for my word puzzles. It was nice however I guess the point that I'm making is that I didn't even think twice the cost of the pencils was $17 not a big deal and will save me from having to go out and purchase some. Just cause I promise of thunderstorms tomorrow I'll believe it when I hear it but there were clouds today nice big black clouds nothing came with them but it might be the beginning of the short monsoon season if we're to have one at all this year. I still like the Heat... wax

Cheap Trick In blog writing

It's the last day of the month and once again I'll let the day get away from me and so it's very late and I'm only now getting around to blogging. It's may not be a great blog and it may not be a long block but it's going to be a Blog anyway. Today I just kind of goofed around actually. After I had Melissa do her thing the nurse came over and did her thing so I've got good bandage yourself I seem to be healing okay. Later I went to the market and got Salisbury steaks for some reason that sounded really good to me and got a few other things as well but oh the potato chips. Got chips because that's what I said I would bring to the assist function tomorrow. And we're still having it so I'm okay. I read a lot today got some serious work done on my book I'm reading right now so that's coming along very good I'm enjoying it actually. I got the rent check written not even took it down and dumped it off in the red box I also got the garbage cans emptied all except for the kitchen garbage can and I can go another day or two maybe to the weekend. I had the Salisbury steaks for dinner the morning as good as I thought they were going to be. I did get some more cheese and I plan to cut them up and maybe I'll cut up another spam box or can. I did work out today and that's okay I didn't do as much as I probably should but I did lift the Rickshaw weights and I worked on the elastic on the door it got some in I should be working out more I need to find that document that the OT left for me. I know this is terribly short it's my fault I'll acknowledge that. I've enjoyed the month of June went by terribly fast so a third of the Summer is gone. Now I just have to focus and use the rest of the month to my ability.

Printer now operational

 I spent a good part of the day trying to get the letters ready for enveloping. I had a problem yesterday as I was trying to print the letters and I inadvertently pull the plug from the back of the printer. This is kind of late yesterday and I really didn't feel like I should call Marc Anthony to come over and plug it in for me or anybody else. I figured I would just let it go and try to remember to ask one of the guys to come over after breakfast this morning and plug the printer back in. Jasmine and Jackson had to go somewhere right after breakfast and so Marc Anthony came over and we worked on the printer actually he worked on the printer I just watched. I had a gold to make this a little bit easier for the next time we had the problem so I remembered I had an extension cord in the bottom drawer and I grabbed that or he grabbed that and plugged it in to the wall and the other end plugged into the cord of the printer and now we have quite a bit of free play in the cord and I can more than easily get to the printer whenever I need to now. That actually takes a big worry for my shoulders. I don't know why it took me so long but I ended up spending a good part of the afternoon correcting the letters and making sure they all fit on one page- - that's one letter to a page. I spent time trying to find the letters on the big computer and print them from that but for some reason half of the letters that I saved on the large system we're not or would not print at least I didn't understand how to print them. The other letters printed just fine. I ended up using the tablet to print the final letters. I'll sign and put the letters in the envelope tomorrow and mail them off early in the morning hopefully before the mailman gets here. I thought about going to a movie today but felt that I should use the time more productive and get the letters done as soon as possible and I totally believe that Sunday is a good day to do that. I confess I did watch a couple of Netflix movies and snack on spam and cheese. Probably wasn't the best dinner one could have had but it was simple and we're very low labor.

To complain just a little bit I'm a little concerned about how long it's taking me to get dressed when I have to get dressed by myself and the fact that I can no longer really Center the shorts on when I have them on. When I pee these days I have to undo or unbutton the waste so I can get to the goods this is quite frustrating and a little intimidating. And I sit so catty Wampus anymore when I transfer everything's over on my left side and I'm twisted and it's all I can do is to get my leg across the other leg to get my shorts on and that's with both legs. I don't know what has happened that's making it so difficult to dress. Mark thinks it might be the cushion which it could be but I can not even raise my butt off the cushion like I used to do to be able to dress as well as pressure release. Luckily I can still lay back in my chair and take the weight off my butt that way that works. I just concerned I dress myself enough that nobody can really see how poorly dressed that I am at least that's the myth I tell myself. I just keep going for now one day at a time dressing myself four days out of the seven and thankful that I can do that …

Printer problems

 I don't know what happened but something definitely happened on my computer last week or sometime between now and the last time I printed envelopes or anything else for that matter. For some reason I spent this afternoon are really early evening until now trying to print envelopes for this month's mail out. First couple hours was frustrating in that I could not even find the previous envelope software that I use. All I could really detect was that the windows stuff looked all different new cleaned up almost perfect. Yesterday at some point everything in the apartment was shut off for a Split Second then it came on again I don't know if it was a power surge or what. I had to reset my clock by my bed and the microwave clock something definitely happened. Then today I started to print envelopes and I couldn't find the software. It indicated it was on my hard drive but when I try to bring up previous envelopes and such they wouldn't come up. I finally turned off the computer and turned it back on again to see if that had any impact. I don't think that it did except for I eventually found the software that I usually use on my hard drive I was able to bring that back up and begin printing my envelopes I got them all done except one and of course that was a jam a paper jam. I opened up the printer found this scrunched up envelope but in doing so I unplugged the computer and I can't reach the plug and so I can't plug in the computer to see if I can get the last envelope printed and I still have to print the letters themselves! I've still got a couple days before the 1st hopefully I can get Marc Anthony or maybe one of the other kids over and maybe have them plug it in. It's so frustrating.

Last night after I got into bed I realized my charger was blinking the green eye at me. Basically telling me that I had forgotten to plug in the charger to my power chair. I was not in the mood to get up again and try to plug my chair in. The charge indicator on my control box indicated as at 100% which I knew it was not totally 100% but had not moved off. I don't think I even went a half a mile yesterday. I figured I'd be okay for today. This morning after coffee across the street the shop I decided I'd take in a movie and not worry about running out of power. I left the coffee group early and then - across the street after dropping coffee off at my apartment. Long story short the movie was entertaining and I was able to get there and back again and still have 70% charge left I did okay. I neglected to inform you that before the movie I actually took myself out to lunch at this Asian/vietnamese restaurant I've been thinking of for quite a while. I got broccoli and beef one of my favorites and it was pretty good. It was a pretty righteous day

Failing Friday

 Kind of a crazy day I really didn't do much- - well that's not really true now that I think about it. I wrote the kids did my kid letters today. I started this morning early as I lay in bed pondering about getting up. I had a little time so I actually squeezed off a letter on my cell phone. That's kind of strange for me I never use that time for that kind of stuff but at least it got me off base and got me thinking about the letters and getting the others finished which I ended up doing which is pretty decent. Now I forgot to finish the task. I must print the Letters Out plus the envelopes and stamp them fold insert and seal then I'll be done with the July letters. I wonder sometimes should I increase or include other people in the writing. I think I could but I don't know how invested I am with the others as much as I am with my kids that sounds pretty bad I understand that. I don't know if I want to do that long distance thing with poor James all the way in Japan but that's kind of James's choice Charlie I don't know. I am close to Charles but I don't think he's close to me which is kind of sad if I had any kind of interest from his side I might include him in these writings but right now I'll just stick with the folks that I'm aware of. I do the same with Diane's kids if they were like visiting with us or inclusive anymore but they all pretty much written Diane off and me before that. Families are strange there's no question about it in my mind.

But as I was saying aside from writing the letters- switch to me is a big deal- - I really haven't done anything today except binge watch the alien show. It's just entertaining. The days gotten hot again and that's good for me but sort of keeping me in the apartment too at least what did today which I thought was kind of strange. I like to read out on the patio but I think I'm changing I think I'm going to start reading on my deck are my patio off off of my apartment it's good sheltered and it's got shade so maybe I'll be my reading spot for the time being. I have hardly worked on my my workout regimen that I'm supposed to be doing from my occupational therapist. I just find it hard to continue but I got to work on it because it's just good for me. I've got to find my directions. I've lost the printout. The other big thing I did today now that I ponder it was I actually finished the book I've been working on the last couple weeks reading that is. The goofy clit lit about a teacher in Manhattan New York and her dip into Ultra rich tutoring to rich kids and her own struggle to maintain their own standards of teaching as opposed to just getting rich. It was an entertaining summer read not too much substance what kind of interesting showing the rich Ultra rich people and how they hire tutors to basically do other kids academic work. I think more than anything else I just enjoyed the apartment and the good work that Gloria did cleaning it up. Sadly I've already begun the entropy the floors are a bit messy but overall the apartment still is possible which is kind of nice.

New Dustpan

It's probably just my imagination because I know the summer solstice was just 5 days ago or maybe six not long anyway but already I've noticed, in the morning, that daylight is coming just a little bit later every morning. Of course the lighting is very subtle and if I was not awake at 4:30 a.m., as I have been the last couple of mornings, I would not have even noticed this. I shouldn't be so focused on this change but it seems just immensely quicker than it used to be. Everything seems to be coming quicker than it used to  especially the weeks. Today is Thursday that means tomorrow is Friday and already the week is over. It seems that I have barely done anything this week except to wait around for people to show up regarding my bodies predicaments. Now I seem to be in the custody of the wound professionals. It's all very frustrating they say they're going to be here at a certain time and they're 20 to 40 minutes late it seems. I understand it's rough working with people and they run from one address to another all day long. I just need to be patient this portion of my life will not last as long as my opening sentence indicates.

I was at the market this afternoon shopping for just a few things with my cell phone rang it was my brother, Carl indicating that he was going to be in my neighborhood and did I need anything repaired at my apartment. Of course I did and I told him that that was not at home but I was not going to be very long at the market either it'll be home by the time he would be able to get to my apartment. In fact he was quicker than I anticipated and was pulling into the unit just as I was coming in the back gate. When I moved into this apartment complex management gave me an electronic gate opener that I could use when driving the van into the back parking lot, gated parking lot. After my van was sold I no longer needed the device but kept hold of it just the same and gave it to my brother who I think loves to use it to drive in to the back of my apartment complex. Anyway I waited for him to come to the gate and we went into the apartment together. It was great I kept funny things for him too fix. He repaired my backup chair replaced a piece that had cannibalized for the current chair I'm using. You fixed my seat belt buckle on my chair he also repaired my screen door that I ran into this morning- - which is brand new. He was able to bend it back into shape as I knew he would. When we got to my door there's a package there from Amazon it was my new stainless steel dustpan, long handle. I finally could not stand the destruction of the cheap plastic dust fans that I used to pick things up off the floor. I saw an advertisement in Amazon when I was searching for metal dust pants with long handles and came across this particular device. It's a beautiful p Qiece of equipment I just hate the fact that I'll probably roll over it and destroy it but it's going to be a lot harder to do that's for sure then the plastic stuff I've been using. And that was one of the reasons he was here because the last time he was here I gave him one of my cheap plastic dustpans for him to fortify and make usable. I went with this one stainless steel dustpan because the ceiling item to me was the fact that it showed the dustpan being able to withstand the weight of a bucket of water or a gallon of water. That's impressive. The heaviest thing I have to pick up some of the weights I used to exercise with or a 10 lb bag of flour. I don't have much use of a 10 lb bag of flour rsight now but now I can pick it up if I needed to. The dustpan had to be assembled more than just screwing one end to another there's a little nuts and bolts that had to be put in to connect the pieces. I could never pull that off that's why I wait around till Carl is available. It's really nice piece I'm really excited to use it I just hope I can't keep my chair off of it for at least 

Wednesday's hump

 I wish I cared more I really do but truth of the matter is I really don't except for I don't want to hurt these people's feelings cuz they're both very special to me. Both of these individuals have has been my caregiver and one still is the other is just a friend now but she does a great cleaning job. I wish I could say that she is my regular person but I don't really have a regular person that comes in and cleans the apartment. So every couple of weeks or month or so I called G. when I need to have her come over and dig out my apartment. G .has a number of issues as well going on in her life all the time and she needs somebody she can talk to so is she cleans the apartment we visit and enjoy each other's company. M. who is my current caregiver and has been for some time and as I foresee it will be my caregiver for some time in the future hopefully she does a great job, she's dependable and she's fun to visit with. She also picks up and cleans around the apartment from time to time when it's a desperate need. I see  three times a week and  does such a good job of picking up sweeping and such on a hit and miss basis that it defeats me from actually going out and finding a real life cleaning person to come in on a regular basis. The reason I bring this up is that this morning as I was sitting on the commode doing my business I got a ping or two on my cell phone. I don't keep my cell phone with me cuz they're just as any place convenient to place it when I'm sitting on the toilet. Anyway, it was a message from G. indicating what time she would probably be over to do some cleaning. I had to have  pick up my cell phone when it peeing because it was on the bed and bring it over to me. She looked at the messages and saw that was G.. They both work for the same caregiver company. And she asked if G. was coming over to clean and I said yes. Then there was a bit of a silence not much but I wasn't sure how M felt about G., oh I think she likes G. a lot actually, just why I was she coming over to clean. It was okay I usually have M go through my messages when they come like this and lets me choose the ones I want to address right then if it's important. That was all however. I really don't think M really cared one way or the other except how come I didn't have her do more cleaning. We've never discussed it I just have never really considered M on a real home cleaning person bases she just has too much going on and I want to keep her available for the really important needs I have such as being around and cleaning me up after I poop explosion. She's just the best that way. Like I said I don't think anything is an issue right now and I doubt will be. I just get nervous on long pauses…

Tuesday's ramble

 Today's goes so fast for me. It's becoming a test to get all the things I want to get done finished in the day's time. I think a lot of it's time management on my part and I can do a lot better job of my time management but that's a lot of work too. Without personal transportation like a van or a car, I have to rely on public transit. I don't mind public transit I like public transit but it just takes a major part of your day maybe to do one thing unless you have really good planning skills. Today I did not have my regular meeting in Salt Lake so I took a moment and ran across a couple streets on the bus system to my Credit Union. It would be just a 5-minute drive at that but on the bus I caught one bus to a transit station then switch to another which took me right to the credit union. In the credit union I got the money I needed for kid letters and such in reverse the situation getting back home probably 2 hours later or shade longer. That's okay it's not like I had a bunch of other things going today. I really am thankful to have this convenience it just takes time. Then this afternoon I spent a lot of time home I was having a cleaning person come over for a little bit to spruce up the place and that never happened because she overslept and then she was not feeling very well and that's okay too it just eats up the whole day if you know what I mean. I was able to do some serious reading on the novel I'm reading right now which is good for me. I'm planning to come out of this summer probably reading more than I've ever done before and that's good thing for me. I like to see myself as a reader. Mix in that day now with an hour I spent on the arm bike trying to get in my 200 minutes for the week and then just working out trying to get some of my exercises done that the recent OT experience has set for me to accomplish. And I guess I don't really have to do things like the arm bike or the OT experience which is this group of exercises I've already written about but it's good for me and does me good and I think keeps my life in fairly decent shape. I also tried to increase my liquid consumption today. I woke early this morning realizing I don't drink as much liquid as I need to. I complained about how difficult it is to consume as much beverage which should be water as I do. My urine has been pretty dark recently which means I need to increase my flow. Only this morning that I really realize how important this is and it really is for my own good that people have urged me to increase my liquid consumption. Diane is a great water Drinker I really admire her ability to consume the quantities of liquid that she does. I've always fought her when she asked me to do the same. It's really difficult for me to pee many times in my chair with the catheter and the bags and such but perhaps that's what I need to do most and drink more. I'm trying to it's coming I just have to keep in my four mind that it only helps me to drink the amount of water that I need to be drinking on all levels but particularly the urinary level. I haven't been producing as much urine as I would have liked to lately and I probably should have brought it up when I visited with the urologist yesterday. I just couldn't bring myself to do it and I will continue to increase or try to increase the quantities of liquid I ingest and hope for the besta

Weird summer Temps

 the temperature today was cold again much like yesterday, not super cold like water freezing and being able to see your breath cold but just cold for this time of year especially after having near 100° days. It's quite a change. I had to be out and about today I had to go all the way into IHC Medical for an appointment with my urologist. I wore a long sleeves which helped significantly. Once I got out and move it around in the atmosphere particularly with direct Sunshine here and there there were the clouds but not many the day was not half bad. Even in the sun it was not hot by any means but radiant energy was warm that's that's not super hot- - but Pleasant with the sun rays beating down on my face. I would like to stay in the apartment or even just outside if I was going to read in the atmosphere. Like I said if one didn't move and has some good blockage the sun wouldSpirit radiate enough temperature to make rain a book enjoyable at least for me. I had to take the bus into IHC bus station really the station does not belong to IHC it's just the biggest thing in that area. Since my urologist is at one of the IHC buildings I chose to get off at the IHC stop. I wandered over to the main hospital at first to go through the lunch scenario at the cafeteria. I used to love hospital food but not anymore. The food's okay it's just Industrial type food no  are soul in the food. I ended up getting pizza there was nothing in the actual food section. The main event was spaghetti and meatballs with a number of different kinds of spaghetti sauce as an option. The meatballs are probably good I didn't try them too much food for one sitting for me. Like I said I defaulted to my old self and got one slice of pepperoni pizza. I ate most of my slice of pizza I wish that attempted to drink but I didn't get that that would have been way too much stuff for me to carry. But the pizza itself was okay like I said it was pepperoni not as many pepperonis as I would like but they're a hospital after all I guess they got to make money where they can. When I got to the cafeteria I pretty much had an hour before my appointment. Following the slice of pepperoni I wandered over to the building where my urologist works building 3. I think there's seven buildings all together. It was a quick meeting nothing really to report. The meeting was just a follow-up to make sure I was okay and I'm okay. One interesting thing came out of this meeting was that he indicated that I could do the next follow up the next year as a virtual meeting basically coming in over the internet. Provided I make it till next year that's exactly what I'm going to do…

 

Summer door

 The weather check said it was going to be cold today or at least cooler and it was both cold and cooler as far as I was concerned. I don't think it got out of the 60s today luckily it will not be for long the warm weather is coming back. Tomorrow it'll still be cool not as cold as today but still it'll be warming up I might get Brave and try it as a short sleeve day. Felt like autumn as I headed over to the restaurant for breakfast with the guys. It was a pretty good session Mark and Jasmine and Jackson showed up we had good conversation and good food. Whoever the high point of the morning if not the day was the fact that Jackson and Jasmine came back to the apartment with me and then spent the morning working on my door, changing seasons from Spring to Summer. It has been of course did the major portion of the work. She cut construction paper to the sizes that would be needed as well as the construction of artistic items like trees, clouds and of course the sunny face. I kind of wanted to use the sun we had for the spring calendar but Jasmine filled it was too manic. She didn't throw it away we still have it which is great I ended up putting it on the closet door inside the apartment. I can Gaze on it every day and enjoy the gift of a talented granddaughter. I think we're going to add a few more things to the door either next week or soon afterwards some riding indicating the wishing of a happy season to the people on the outside of the door. In this case it'll be summer. We must have spent nearly 2 hours on the project well worth the time and well worth the ability to bond with my granddaughter. Jackson was great as always he clicked into the cleanup mode and pretty soon the floors are cleaned as was a lot of the area over where I sit with the computer. He actually brushed all the from off the little table in front of the big screen where I watch the television. Cleaned off the table top entirely so it's very nice I'm excited. I always am after they leave as far as having a semi clean apartment. They're even talking about coming over before they leave slash move to Florida and cleaning out a lot of the papers and stuff I have clogging up my desk area and other places of the apartment. I don't know if I've brought this up yet or not in this block but they are planning on moving to Florida later on this summer. I can't believe it. Florida? I'm trying to remain civilized and cause I support them in this move but Florida is not a great place I think to live unless you have to. They all seem pretty excited about moving out of Utah into Florida...

The way things are

 I just wasted 25 minutes strolling through stupid little videos as I was getting ready to write this document tonight. I often get trapped into these ugly little Segways of lost time. I wish I was Stronger I should feel a little bit better knowing that at least I stopped cycling and canceled out all the way to the end. Had I not done this I would still be cycling through different videos not being happy with any of them and bending the need to artificial intelligence who was basically feeding them to me. I know it's AI I can just feel it. Control it's all control. Today is cold and does not bother me a great deal. No I mean not really cold cold- - that will probably be tomorrow Dash Dash but a lot of wind and blowing from the north. It was in the 70° area I'm sure warm enough for me to dash across the street and pick up a few items from the market that I felt that I needed, especially eggs. I was down to my last two. I was glad to get back to the apartment though and try to clean up a little bit. My granddaughter and her boyfriend is supposed to drop by tomorrow after breakfast and change my door. We're going to put the summer decorations out the door. I would like to have gotten them up before summer actually started but this will be fine it's been less than a week. I'm a little ashamed of my apartment right now it's gotten really out of control. At least swept a lot of the floor and put a few things that have been lingering on the table away. There's enough tablespace to make it look like I cared enough to clean the table a little bit where I imagine we will be putting together a cutting area or whatever to decorate the door. The summer Motif I'm thinking about is something to do with watermelon, sunshine and picnics. Headed to hot intricate that will be but I think Jasmine has it all under control. She's a great little planner. Hopefully they will not judge me too much. I even texted one of my favorite caregivers who was no longer a caregiver at least to me but it's also a great housekeeper. When she needs extra money she'll contact me to see if I need to have any cleaning done on the house apartment. She always comes over and hour or two really makes the place presentable. I don't know if she'll be able to do it now because the place is such a catastrophic mess. There's some space on the countertops and the sinks are fairly clean if not a little cluttered clutter is not bad. The basins are clean when Mason is very usable the other one has the plastic container that I used to wash dishes in.

I met up with upstairs Janet this morning, I was coming home from the coffee shop, she had had very much difficulty yesterday in the heat coming home from the market. We did not plan it but we ended up going and she was willing to cart home anything I had purchased from the market. She was getting pretty fatigued by the time she was finished and I was a little worried about her actually. I ended up having all of my items put into a small paper box that I used to bring my goodies home with. Anyway in our discussion it came out that she was trying to recover by doing what I usually do watch endless media on one of the major channels are a couple of the major channels Netflix and Prime video. I'm surprised how many people have the same behavior that I did or do. Pretty funny I do think however their apartments are much more ordered than mine it's just the way things are...

The Winds of Summer

 Summer arrived today hot dry and blustery just the way I like it brings back such great memories of Summer of yesteryears. Crap, am I that much of a cliche to talk about Summers of years past? But I guess it's true that I am. The wonderful sheet of the day will not last at least that's what the weather person says. The wind that is so adorably blowing is the result of a low pressure system moving in which is going to bring down super cold weather from up North. I mean it's not like it's going to freeze water and move us into a new Ice Age put the temperature will drop from the 90s to the 70s and possibly the 60s as the highs for the days, not the lows! Fortunately, this is a relatively fast moving front it will push through in a day or two. The hot weather should be returning by the middle of next week and build up until the weekend again. I guess it's always great to have something to look forward to. In the old days, when I was still able-bodied, my older brother and I were often left to bring the hay in while my dad was at work. We were basically worthless and to try to move one or two loads in until it got so hot we felt that we could no longer stand the Heat and fiddled our bikes are walked to the Twin Bridges canal about a mile away, through the neighbors fields. The Twin Bridges was a meeting place for many of the adolescents and a little older in the community. A place to smoke cigarettes, sneak beers if they were available and keep out the way of big kids- the teenagers. By this time of the year the water had warmed up significantly and those wonderful too throw yourself over the side of the bridge and Plunge into the dark green, semi-swift flow of this deep irrigation canal. Then if you're lucky who come up quick enough to be able to snag one of the beams underneath the bridge on the other side of the bridge and pull yourself up. If you miss the beam then you've got to swim to the beach and walk out of the canal. Either way it was wonderful to be met by the Blustery hot Winds of Summer when they were blowing. We never brought anything as civilized as a towel. Often I would lay just on the rough boarded surface of the bridge itself, which was almost burnable hot . One had to move quickly because the radiant Sun baked everything from the nails in the wooden top of the bridge to the blacktop pavement. If you stepped on the blacktop you could squish the hot asphalt between your toes. About once a week, sometimes more we were able to sleep out at our friend's home are they at ours. At night we would sleep in the house next to theirs, it was still their property and their grandparents lived in that house. We would set up our sleeping bags and I said grew darker we would head out walking all around the neighborhood. Even at 10:00 or 11:00 the blacktop was still hot from the day's Heat. It was a wonderful time for me. I loved hanging around the bridge totally enjoying the hot blustery Winds of Summer.

My dental tag team

This may be another short one I had a dentist appointment today which has been pretty grueling on my mouth. The novocaine's finally worn off and has left me searching for any kind of painkiller which I plan to take in a little while. I don't know I've had more work done on me before but the residual paint hasn't been a significant as this one it seemed to be either that or I'm just being a boob about the whole thing. Remember, this dentist appointment wasn't supposed to be till next month but I was contacted yesterday about an opening they had at 2:00 this afternoon and I decided to grab it. I'm still glad that I did and I'd do it again if I had the option or the chance or I needed to but this is just kind of uncomfortable.

The work I had done on me today was two cavities maybe three but I know for sure there was two. Luckily the cavities have had no pain associated with them however I do find my tongue going to the cavities themselves all day during the day knowing that sooner or later they could disintegrate into Anova of pain. What's really interesting today was the dentist who worked on me was not my usual dentist but his son. This is cool I'm still impressed to see these two guys working together. I know a lot of people would feel uncomfortable having a brand new dentist work on their teeth well I figure a brand new dentist is going to work extra hard to be the best that they can be. They know that they have to fight a battle of acceptance. They are literally the new kid on the Block. What I thought was really cool was the way that if there's an issue or a problem the younger DDS would have no qualms about looking and asking the older DDS to give them a hand which is what happened with me today. I had to have two areas of my mouth anesthetized. I figured this was going to happen it always does especially for drilling. The one area the young doctor didn't have a problem with but it was the other area which for some reason the younger doctor could not find the nerve all the way in the back of my mouth. Eventually he stopped what he was doing and asked his father to take over at least the administering the Novocaine which surprisingly the older DDS efficiently pulled off. I was really expecting some pain like if you hit a nerve or something but luckily I already had a bunch of Novocaine stuck in that area so I didn't even feel it when the needles went shooting into my mouth two or three times. It took longer than anticipated for the second tooth to be finished but finally it was and I gathered things in wandered off to the payment Place set up three different payments of about $140 each. They'll be pulled out of my account the next 3 months. Hopefully this will be it for a while

Reunions end?

 Remember the other day when part of my chair fell off and I had to call my brother come over and give me, once again, and assist in bringing my life back together. I really enjoy having my older brother really this close as he does and him being willing to come whenever I really need some assistance. I also totally thankful that he's got these incredible skills that allows him to fix almost anything that I need to have fixed. I try not to call on him every single time something goes wrong I don't want to burn him out. He's always ever ready and ever there and I just sometimes like having him come over just to visit. I've been thinking a lot lately how spoiled I am having him here. I wish we spent more time socially together but we really don't only if I'm one of us need something from the other. So I was kind of shocked when he was over the other day and good-naturedly, when I asked how he was doing, replied that he was about ready to divorce the family. I knew immediately what he was referencing. The family reunion. He is frustrated because he could not get anyone to commit to whether or not they would be at the reunion and the number of the families said flat out they weren't coming this year for a host of reasons. Whether it's fair or whatever my brother is the one that has to make the arrangements of where and when to have the reunion as far as the logistics getting the park or the meeting place and all the supports like food and stuff. Everyone chips in when there is the reunion but my brother has to put it all together and I'm willing to help wherever I can since I'm here and actually that's why the reunion is here. Totally for my benefit. In the old days it was Boise and then but soon wherever my mother was towards the end of her life.

Sadly we finally did get the word the reunion was off. Really, just not enough interest anymore and putting one together. My brother and I briefly discussed the concept of how everybody now commit to next year and so nobody can have vacations planned or whatever excuses were used for this year. Tomorrow I've gotten to think about this the more I realized three unions have failed primarily because Mom, passed away a number of years ago. Mom was the great engine, they never failing piston that put these things together. You couldn't tell no to my mother it just wasn't happening particularly when she wanted something and she always wanted the reunion. To have the reunion here in Salt Lake means that family members have to travel in some cases hundreds and hundreds of miles from as far away as Kansas. It's a lot of traveling for just two days if that. I kind of hope we can pull off another reunion this next year and hopefully it will be well attended if nothing else just to say goodbye and maybe commit to never having another…

Sleep deprived but Duty done

It was another 4 Hour night maybe four and a half hours from the time I went to bed until I walk in the morning. I really didn't get back to sleep and chose to get up at 6:00 a.m. I didn't necessarily thrash and crash in bed kept trying to kind of forced myself to get back to sleep but at the same time I had to remember it's Tuesday which is a day I'm going into my meeting downtown so I want to make sure I'm up and out and ready to go by 9:30 to catch that bus into Salt Lake. Actually the morning went quite well getting out of the bed into the chair then dressing. My brother did something very positive with my chair I'm not sure exactly what but it seems like it's easier now to get dressed a little bit- - I'm still not wearing shoes but that's just where I'm at right now. Interestingly I was back in time to meet with my nurse wound care nurse who indicates that my feet have been healed but it's still working on my belly injury/ wound. I was hoping this would be the last day but I guess not it'll be a couple more visits till I get that count scab on the belly off. This was one of those days where I was yawning every two or three seconds it seemed like I couldn't really focus on anything long enough to read like I always love to do. I was able to do my arm bike however for 60 minutes.

Carl was over yesterday and worked on my power chair a little bit but he related a very interesting story about artificial intelligence or AI. I'm so proud of him because he's taking the threats seriously. He recounted an incident that happened to him just recently where he was working on a talk he was giving in church and had written quite a bit and then all of a sudden he was given two or three paragraphs written by AI which really sounded quite good he said. But he could use them because he hadn't thought of himself. He was very focused on not having AI ride his talk. Well when he basically told the AI he wasn't interested all the sudden not only did the two paragraphs disappear but the rest of his prepared talk that he had worked on disappeared as well. I think he was almost terrified at the thought of what AI could do if Unleashed unsuspecting stupid population such as us. I should even be careful about submitting this into the blog but we'll have to see what happens. I have not seen any tamperings on anything that I've written outside of the system or this system in particular. Who knows I guess if I went back and checked on some of my postings and see if an AI had been busy doing Corrections and changing the documents. I would just warn The Entity to be careful because I've got so much stuff wrong with me it would take an AI considerable amount of time as well as. I might even break an AI which I guess would be a shame.

One quick note as I close. Today at the assist meeting when it came to a close we realized that's the end of our regular year fiscally speaking and though we will not meet next week we will meet finally the week after and it'll be the last meeting until later on in the summer. For some reason I suggested that we have some kind of a little party or something at the end of the year draw near everybody jumped on it have I created a monster?

 

Monday's mouthful

I don't really quite remember but I think I told you last week that I was discharged from my physical therapist. I'm done with the little bit of physical therapy that I was able to get the last couple weeks. The first PT I've had and I don't know how many decades. It wasn't really robust or a lot of heavy duty stretching and things like that - - which I really think I could use - but it was some range of motion stuff really made me think of the old days of physical therapy when I was going every day during the work week and getting really physically stressed as far as physical therapy went as far as stretching and really getting a workout. I'm not sure how much longer I will have occupational therapy in fact I think it will be done in two more sessions one of which will be like an exit interview or I'll meet with the head OT who will do the major last evaluation and close that chapter. This has been a little bit more valuable I think in the long run. Like I've said before they're the silly little exercises I thought were silly but now that I'm looking at them in a little bit more adult role and how they might affect me if I just let them and I feel a lot different like I'm doing something very positive something that will really assist me in the days to come. I think I've noted more than once about how I feel I'm losing different abilities partially because of my chair and partially because of my age. I think the wheelchair itself the power chair is just beginning to him me in. Something's different I can't really do the Arches I used to to be able to get dressed completely I can't seem to get my right hip up high enough to easily pull my shorts on like I used to be able to no I have to be content with just looking like I'm dressed but knowing deep down that I'm not. Thank goodness for the concept of psychological closure for the brain tends to finish something that it wants to see finished. So even if I'm not completely dressed, if one looks closely one could see that but bottom line it does not look close enough and I come off being dressed and I can get by tomorrow for instance I'm going into my assist meeting which will mean I have to look somewhat presentable. I've got a set of clothes that I can use that I can pull this off with then when I pile on my bag and my stick and my hook and all the other things I use when I travel I should look okay. I don't think I have anything else scheduled for the rest of the week so then I can just hang around the apartment and Redwood Road and be just fine.

My brother came over tonight to help me with my power chair. There is a part of my chair that came up missing. This part is what really led to the problems I was having with the chair this last week. I had the pieces together on the chair but somehow I lost the one peace I peace I needed to hook the one part of my chair to the other. My brother was able to figure that out - - I really couldn't - - and we end up cannibalizing a part off of my backup chair. This means I have to get another part now from u c a t or some other organizations that will allow me to fix the other chair now that I've dismantled part of it. This is totally doable and I really must force myself to do this so that I can have a backup chair when I need it. Having won this last couple of months has been a major positive solution to problems I've been having. Sadly I think these problems will continue cuz we haven't got a real deep fix on my problem with just to order and get the new chair. I keep getting pulled back from this need. HopefullyThat too will be remedy relatively