Post Christmas Un-Wrap-up

Overall, it was a lovely Christmas. All things considered. The totality of reality included. But we will look at a smaller scale and see what we find - shall we?

I am working on an animated gif of the Christmas tree - maybe one day I will get it posted. Weirdly, where I used to post things quickly - or at least work through them and get something passable up and out, I start a post and then just rarely go back and finish it. Sigh. I must have fifteen to twenty posts in various states of completion on my various blogs. Which, honestly, I will probably never complete. Anyway, I digress - which is one reason that my posts don't get finished - digression.

So, the tree got up, the presents wrapped and put under the tree. The past three years (or is it four) I have tried to make things sort of like what used to be a traditional Christmas in the Schoen-René household: opening presents on Christmas eve - Christmas music on the stereo, candles everywhere, little snack foods and a decent amount of alcohol, followed by a yummy dinner. At least that is what I think it used to look like back in the day. This year - nothing like that at all...

A good friend invited us to her home for a buffet dinner - featuring a baked 14lb salmon! Mom likes salmon! We got moderately dressed up - I even wore a tie - and headed to the festivities. There were a bunch of people that I knew, a few who knew mom and no one that mom recognized. People were very nice to her, coming and chatting with her now and again. I fed her two plates worth of food and a decent helping of dessert. And I didn't have to cook! Yay! We only stayed a little over an hour, I think.

Back home, my plan was to put on a couple of movies and open some presents. And maybe snack a little. Mom got comfortable while I puttered a bit. The first movie I put on was "Holiday Inn" - one of my favorites. While that was playing, we opened presents - this may have to suffice for thank you notes:

Juliet and Paul gave mom a lovely new nightgown, gave us both a puzzle (which I think is going to be too much for mom to be able to handle - I have put it out - but she hasn't even made a move to try to work on it) and gave me a great New Yorker Beer Snob cover (all framed and everything). Joe and Ginger gave mom a lovely woolen blanket and gave me two great pairs of socks (I love socks in case anyone else wants to give me a post-Christmas gift). Ernst and Betty gave mom a lovely soft big blue blanket and some candy (which she ate in about two hours) and gave me money - which I plan on spending on something for myself - maybe a massage. Oooh, that's a great idea! Thank you all for taking the time and effort to pick stuff out and send it to mom and me! I know she appreciates it - as do I. She keeps talking about writing Thank You cards...

I also gave mom a few things: some dvds, a book, some marzipan. She was pleased at the moment - though she probably couldn't tell you who gave her what at this point. She does remember the things - just not who gave them to her. And she remembers the marzipan now and again. (I have put it out of sight so she doesn't eat the whole box in a couple of hours.) I also gave her a very weak scotch and soda which she took a sip of but didn't finish.

All in all, a successful Christmas Holiday! Oh, the second movie was "It's A Wonderful Life" through which mom slept mostly.

Looks like a muddy Christmas (Mish mash post)

Yay! Mud for everyone! The snow we had here in beautiful Geneva, NY is mostly gone. We are not really expecting enough new snow in the next few days to make for a white christmas. This isn't really a surprise since the first day of winter is December 21. Yippee!

Meanwhile, I have made it through a full year of being the Technical Director at the Smith Opera House. Balancing that job with taking care of my mom, who continues to decline, has been an interesting challenge. We shall see how we fare in the new year.

Nothing really too exciting to report. Let's see... Tomorrow is laundry day. Today, I am working on some forms for mom's health insurance and slowly putting the Christmas tree up. And trying to survive a few hours without Facebook.

Yes, that's right, I am trying to survive a few hours without Facebook. Mainly because I have a huge crush on someone and that is the only way that we have been "communicating." Sigh. For those of you who know me well, you know that I love email and mucho communication in general. (Well, most of the time.) So not checking Facebook is proving to be something of a challenge. Anyway, I am leaning towards believing that my crush does not reciprocate my feelings - which is not a surprise, but sad nonetheless.  Oh well. This too shall pass.

I have been posting on and checking Instagram a lot which is a poor substitute for Facebook. Glarg.

Let's see - more mom news? Not really anything to report there. I took her out to help buy the tree yesterday. Then dinner at Friendly's. That went pretty well.

Now I think I will take a shower and head off to Lake Drum (a new beer place in town) and maybe some grocery shopping. Speaking of groceries, I am all confused now. A friend has invited mom and me to her house for a Christmas dinner buffet! So when do I eat Peking Duck? Hmm? Anyway, Huzzuh!

Electric Blanket anyone?

So, what is your take on electric blankets? Personally, I am not a fan. But mom has been complaining of being cold all the time. So, today, I bit the bullet and purchased an electric blanket. Just a small one. A twin. Yes, I know that mom has a king sized bed, but she only sleeps on a piece of it. No King sized blanket was called for. My only worry is that mom will toast herself. Maybe, though, it will make her want to drink more water. And that is usually a good thing. I plan to put it on her bed tonight.

I also have to replace the "angel" lights in the living room. About four years ago, I put up some Christmas lights on a window in the living room. When I took down "Christmas" I left the lights up. That corner tends to be a little dark for one reason or another, so this made things a bit more cheerful. And they help me to know when mom is still up - she is still mostly able to remember how to turn them on and off (a large white button on the arm of the sofa).

On a completely different subject, I took the day off from the Smith on Monday. Mostly. I still worked about an hour, sigh. I just can't help myself. I like to get things done incrementally, so I don't have to cram everything in at the last minute. And there are a bunch of things that I can accomplish at home from the computer that need to get done. Oh, and I did stop in for a minute at the Smith. Just to see if anything exciting was happening. Nothing was. Yay!

Score!

Sometimes, it pays to be a working stiff. We had a reception at The Smith last night. I sort of knew what was happening and I sort of didn't. It all came together in the end, as things theatre sort of always do. I did have a tense while doing some computer stuff, but it all worked out. Anyway, it was a catered event. With food and a bar. At the end of the event, the caterer said - take what you want, we are throwing all of it out. So I took a lot of food home - and made dinner from some of it. Yippee! That just means that we are having breakfast for dinner another night. I can hardly wait.

Mom profited from my ill gotten gains - she got strawberries for lunch!

3.25

When I am away from the house for long periods of time, I do worry that I might come back and find mom in some less than optimal condition - fallen, broken something (on her body - I don't care if things break in the house), uber confused, etc. The flip side of that, is, coming home and finding that mom has been gorging herself on anything she can find - as if I don't feed her enough. Last night I came home to find that she had been at the ice cream, big time. Three bowls in front of her and one small one in the kitchen. I asked her if she had any ice cream. "No, I haven't had any ice cream yet," was the response. I pointed at the three bowls in front of her and she said, oh, those, well there wasn't very much in any of them. Sigh. At least she was ok. And she still likes to eat. Those are both good things.

Long load-out for Cinderella last night. Long, hard load out in fact. One of my workers ended up not coming. Which meant that I actually had to do some heavy lifting. And there certainly was enough of that to go around. I had thought load-out would take an hour and a half. It didn't. It took. 3 hours! I was pretty tired by the time I got home. So I played a little and fell into bed. Only to get up and go back to the Smith again today. Sigh. Hopefully I will have most of Monday off from Smith things.

At least my current obsession on the xBox has been broken. True, it was broken by another game, but still, better than nothing. And, having finished with Star Trek for the time being, I am not watching as much on Netflix as I was. I will admit that the kitchen is in a bit of a distraught place recently - probably because I haven't been at the house that much over the past week. Ok, not really, I just don't clean the kitchen as much as would be nice. Oh well.

Just great

Mom had a weird little nubbin on her left wrist. One that she worried a lot. Rub, rub, rub. Pick, pick, pick. Rub, rub, rub. Well, I head a little "Damn" from her and went to see what was wrong. Turns out her nubbin was bleeding. I told her that she shouldn't rub it (for the gazillionth time). She said she hadn't rubbed it. I said "Really?" She said "Really. I cut it off." So I took away all of her nail scissors. Sigh. At least it is making her tractable and docile than she sometimes is...spoke too soon - she wants her scissors back!

I think the home health aide and I took away eight pairs of scissors! Eeek! Luckily, the aide now has permission to help trim mom's nails! Yay!

Long, long Smith Day. And a longer one Saturday and another longish one on Sunday. Maybe I will take Monday off. We shall see. Friday was spent working on getting Cinderella put together - taken off of trucks, out of boxes and set-up. It looks great! And the lighting work we did all was good. We did have to stay a little late to work on cabling of the light trees - lighting trees that stand on the side of the stage - often used in dance performances.

Saturday was an early day - and it was slightly miscommunicated. I thought our techs were needed to run sound and light - not the case - only the deckhands were needed for the cue-to-cue - or spacing - rehearsal. I left Terren in charge and came home for a nap. I need all my good will if I am to successfully take mom down to see the show this evening. Wish me luck!

Work work work work

It looks like there will be a bunch of hours a day for the next three days spent at the Smith. Though I do have, I think, a full staff, so I won't have to be there if I feel that I don't have to be. That would be nifty. What I don't have, and would like, is an elder baby sitter. And for less than $20 an hour. Sigh.

While working on inputting cues for Cinderella, I learned a good bit about the old light board that we have. Like, if the master level is not at 100% all of the lighting percentages that are input are not what they seem. In other words, if it is off by even a fraction, much confusion can occur. As it did me. Sigh. One of my hopes for the Smith is to have a new (to us at least) light board at some point in the not so very distant future. Oh, and I had one of those epiphany-lets: we need to replace some signage with digital signage since the marquee was taken down so very long ago. (If I am not making sense, I blame the hour. It is 8 am as I type this - only 6 hours of sleep.)

Without realizing it, well, that isn't strictly true, I have been doing the Daily Challenge thing for over 3 years without missing a day. Where's my prize?

Had a weird and not good interaction with a vendor this week.

Me: Hey, we're missing something from our order.
Vendor: Ok, I'll send a replacement. If I get it out today, you will have it tomorrow.
Me: Cool, thank you!
Half an hour later. (Close to five - i.e. too late to get the order out that day...)
Vendor: Are you sure you didn't get it?
Me: Quite sure.
Vendor: Because I am sure I sent it.
Me: Really, quite sure.
Vendor: Ok, well. I will get it out tomorrow - you will have it on Wednesday!
Me: (A little irked not to be getting it Tuesday) Fine.
Wednesday - no package - Thursday no package
Thursday - Me: Hi, where's my stuff?
Vendor: You said you would have someone pick it up.
Me: Do you remember telling me it would only cost $10 for you to send it - and me saying great, cause it would cost me three times that to send someone. Then you saying that you would send it so I would get it Wednesday - UPS ground?
Vendor: Yes, I remember. Then I remember you saying that you would have someone pick it up.
Me: Please send it!
Vendor: Ok.

Grrrr. If I don't get it today, it will make me less than professional. Grr, grr, grr.

All better

I can type "l" with impunity! Huzzuh! The healing qualities of time!

In the middle of a little dilemma. I need to head back to the Smith in a little bit - and stay for an hour and a half or so - maybe a little longer - do I try and cook dinner before I go or wait until I come back - closer to 8 pm. Sigh. I think I need to try and get it done before dinner. (Got it handled)

And another today - this time I am going to go, start the movie and then come home and cook dinner. Then back to do a symposium/talk back sort of thing. Yay.

Not quite a week of juicing

By juicing, I mean making juice from fruit and vegetables, not using steroids to enhance muscle growth, in case anyone was confused. I like my physique as it is. Soft and flabby - getting softer and flabbier by the minute! Yay!

I am not noticing any benefits from my juicing regime so far. Though I am getting some muscles from washing the blinkety-blank juicing machine every day. My hair doesn't seem any more shiny. I am not losing weight (not that I really have much to lose, if any). I don't seem smarter. Hmm. Maybe I am doing it wrong. Maybe I need to take it intravenously? Anything is possible.

Fedex irked the hell out me yesterday. I am waiting on a new blu-ray player. It was supposed to be delivered on Friday. And it wasn't. Well it was, but it wasn't. The delivery guy couldn't manage to find the entrance to the Smith. Nor could he the next day. Nor the next. So today, I called them to see what the hell was happening. Apparently the driver wasn't a ground driver (whatever that means) and he tried the big glass doors on the front of the building and gave up when he found them locked. Sigh. The first customer service person told me I would have to drive to Rochester to pick the package up. The second one told me that they couldn't communicate with their drivers. What? Who did he think he was talking to?! Then a real customer service person called me and told me that the driver was too far away to come back (but hadn't been when I first called, since I called 5 minutes after he had failed in his third try to deliver the package) (and I had been in the building for half an hour already at that point) and that they would send a ground delivery person - still not sure why that makes a difference - today (Wednesday) to try again. Oh. My. Word! I am probably not going to set up the device tomorrow as I won't really have time to play with it before the movie that night or the movie on Thursday - both are on disk and not on the server. I will probably set it up next week at some point. (Got it, btw)

We have a busy week this week. I am still working on getting the lighting accomplished. I got a pretty good rhythm going, and if I hadn't had to spend an hour on the phone, I would have had the lion's share of the cues input. Wednesday - more light work, as well as a meeting and a movie - I don't have to stay for the whole movie, but I will be there to get it started. Then Thursday, I have to be there at the beginning and at the end of the movie. But I won't have to stay for the whole thing. I have a projectionist there to do that. Yippee! Friday, the ballet people arrive. Saturday is the ballet and I have promised to take mom. Sunday we have a conference meeting of some kind about which I know very little. Sigh. I'll just happily wing it. With help from someone. I will ask amongst the crew on Friday and Saturday and see if anyone is available for Sunday. Phew. I hope I survive.

Master Chef and such

It was quite a busy day at the Smith. We worked on setting up lights from 10 till 12 and then from 2 till five. I will admit that the entering of the cues is taking a lot longer than I had anticipated. Mainly from user error I would think. Three steps forward, two steps back, five steps forward, three steps back, one forward, etc. I think I have completed 10 out of 75 cues. Eeek! Meanwhile, my staff did a good job getting the gritty work - hanging, circuiting and gelling the instruments in accordance with the ballet's light plot for this weekend - handled with minimal supervision. All we have to do is some rough focussing, some more gelling and some cabling to get ready for 10 circuits on each side of the stage for side lighting. Wow. That will be a lot of cable! Just a lot more slogging. Sigh.

I came home three times - once for lunch, once for dinner and once in the evening - to check on mom. The third time she was, sadly, freaking out. I settled her down, put on a Thin Man movie and hoped that the timing would work out. It didn't.

Because of inclement weather, the signal got dropped - we use an HD antenna to get TV to the Smith - and I had to hustle back. I arrived just in time to see the whole group of people de-Smithify. If they had only waited another 15 minutes (yes, after I had returned and brought the antenna back inside), everything would have been fine. But they didn't. They did eventually come back. In time to see our Geneva native win! Yay!

Just finished watching Star Trek from TOS through Voyager but I haven't watched all of the Enterprise episodes. Yet. They are on my list, but about #5. I need to watch some non-Star Trek stuff for a while.

I type therefore I type...

Here's the thing about Facebook: if you have cool pictures to share - put them on instagram.

Here's another thing: I comment on a lot of FB posts. And like a bunch as well. Bully for me.

I would like the Apple Watch if it weren't tethered to a phone. An Apple watch/phone.

Saw a woman last night that I would have a crush on if I still had those kinds of things...oh, right, I do. Nevermind. And I will most likely never see her again.

Oddnesses

A friend's son just died last night. He was a great kid and it came as a big surprise to everyone. I am sure we will learn more eventually, right now, just sending happy thoughts! This is not the sort of news I like to wake up to.

I have had a pleasant sort of vacation for the past couple of weeks. Or rather, I am about to go into a fairly busy couple of weeks at The Smith. Today is going to be a bit of a marathon - not that I have ever or will ever (though ever is a long time) run or walk or anything a marathon - but that is the expression. I am heading into the Smith at 10 and will be there till noon. Then back at 2 and there till 5 or so. Then back at 6 until 11. Though I have staff. Or rather I might have staff. So I might not be there the whole time. That would be nifty. Why have staff if they can't help make it so that I can actually do my job (directing them to do the actual hands on work)?

Speaking of work, I am a little irked. Some (most) of my workers are not good about responding to emails. In social life, I totally understand. Life gets in the way, friends will understand, etc. In work, I don't understand. An email is like a contract. I send a message asking for or stating specific information. I need to know that the message has been received and understood. When I hear nothing, I don't get that closure, that agreement. Grrr. Ok, I just sent out a nice message (I thought it was nice) asking everyone to respond. I know I will get a couple of people responding to that message in various ways. Sigh.

How the mighty have fallen

Luckily, I haven't tried to create soufflés, otherwise they might have fallen too. I was looking in my fridge last night, for some dip from Wegman's, when I glanced at two flavors of balsamic vinegar that I have on my vinegar shelf. Yes, I have a shelf mostly made up of different types of vinegars. Did you know that there are lots of different types of vinegars? There was a time in my life when I thought all vinegar was the same. Anyway, I realized that at one point during my tenure here at Chez Schoen-René I was cooking up quite a storm, making lots of different meals and trying lots of different things. Not so much any more. Now that mom's memory is so far gone, and her taste buds are not as adventurous, adventuresome, I have been sticking to a more boring set of food and dinner options. Easier, for sure. But not as much fun...oh, I just remembered, I might have left over hot dogs and baked beans in the fridge! And it is lunch time! Callooh! Callay!

For those keeping track, yes, I still have some owiness in my right ring finger. Sigh. Maybe sensitivity is a better word for it. 

I added some witch finger grapes to this morning's juice. Has anyone ever heard of or seen these cool grapes? I have another cool grape that I will tell you about after I taste them. 

Rainy Day!

Yay, it is raining. And cool. That's cool. I wish I could send this rain to droughty bits of the country and world. Where is the much vaunted weather control that was supposed to be up and functioning according to Science Fiction of the 50s? Hmm? And I want my self driving/flying car! (Jet packs never did it for me)

My owness quotient is down to about a 2 out of 100 at this point. Still a smudge sensitive but I don't wince every time I type an "l."

Oh, I am in love! I thought I should share the good news! I bought a bidet for my bathroom (thinking that mom wouldn't be able to figure out how to use a bidet at this point in her mental decline). It wasn't very expensive. No bells and whistles. Just pushes out a nice variable strength stream of water upon request. I hadn't realized what I had been missing this whole time. The only time I had a used a bidet previously was while traveling in Europe as a child and I did it wrong and got water every where. But that was 40+ years ago. Now I sing the praises of the bidet! My world is rocked! And a bit damper than usual, but thems the breaks.

Less Owie now

Thank you for all of your kinds words and thoughts and gifts! I especially love the padded ring finger cozy that someone (who shall remain nameless)(particularly since it was an anonymous gift) sent me.  I can almost type without worry again. Yippee and huzzah!

Day three of my juicing experiment. Only 87 more days to go! And I haven't started trying mom on it yet. I want to get a formula working that tastes decent for me before trying to get one that tastes decent for mom. Lemon juice helped a lot. Someone else suggested trying golden beets - I am going to look for them at Wegman's when I go food shopping today. But I digress, which is perfectly normal. No exciting changes that I can tell so far. My hair isn't falling out, or growing faster or anything. At least I have not reached the cousin it resemblance stage yet...

A-Smithing I will go! Today is getting ducks in a row for October movies! Yay! Updating the website and then adding the movies to our pre-event slide show. Fun and exciting times are had by all.

Oh, we found the nature videos again. Mom watched a lot of them back a while ago. The main problem I have with them is that there is no "auto play" feature. So I have to try and check on her after each one is over. Not something I can put on and go about my business with. I hope she continues liking Doc Martin. She is, unfortunately, over the "As Time Goes By" series. Sigh.

Anything with an "L" in it hurts

Yes, my owie on my right hand ring finger still hurts. I never thought I would envy two fingered typists. Ow. Heck, typing "ow" can hurt if I don't move my fingers over and use my third finger more. Ow.

Did I mention that mom has started to forget who I am? That is a nice thing. She often asks me know if I am her son. And if she has other children. Everyone once in a while she thinks I am her parent. Yay.

Oh, one thing that happened during my hiatus was I got to miss my eldest niece's wedding. That sucked. I had lots of warning. I just couldn't manage it mentally, emotionally and fiscally. Well, I could manage fiscally, but it would have been a lot of money that I am hoarding for when things get really bad. Or just worse. I would have liked to have shared Kristen's big day. I just couldn't see taking mom. And I couldn't find a reasonable method of having her looked after by anyone I trusted or wouldn't have minded having to put up with her for however long I would have been away. See, it is a two edged sword, this caregiving thing, at least for me. I do long to not do it, but I also do not want anyone else to do it. They aren't me. I know that I am not always the nicest or most patient, but Mom is my mom. It might be a trust issue. Who knows? In any case, missing the wedding was not a good thing, but surprisingly the world did not end! Huzzuh!

Getting Started Again

Hi All! (Or both) It has been a while since I have posted. Mostly because I haven't felt like it. I am sure that there are little things, medium sized and maybe large sized things I could have written about, but I just didn't feel like writing. I didn't want to sit and write. I wanted to sit and do other stuff. Like play bridge on my phone. Or play on my xBox. Or stare off into the distance. Or watch Star Trek or Pan Am. I have also been working a good bit. Actually the next two weeks are going to be busy at The Smith. And I have a bunch of stuff to do to get ready for that. In fact, I am putting that off right now and writing this instead.

Quick catch up since July. Mom - deteriorating pretty well - she has some puffy leg issue that we are trying to fix. The doctor has given her medicine and wants her to go back on the c-pap machine - mom doesn't want to go back on the c-pap machine. Mom isn't doing the other things she is supposed to be doing - like drinking lots of fluids and exercising (ha) - and keeping her feet elevated. One of her new behaviors is to sit on the edge of the bed and read. For hours. So I am not surprised that her ankles are getting puffy. I am hoping to try the ABC miracle juice thing with her - more on that in a bit. She has been on a kick of watching Doc Martin a lot. And I recently got us the existing Downton Abbey DVDs. Those we have been watching together. I don't know yet if she will want to watch them multiple times or not. Yesterday we voted. Could well be her last time voting. She could barely sign her name - even with help from me and from the check-in person (who's daughter - Mary Van something went to school with Juliet apparently). Sigh. We shall see what happens come November. So, the long and the short of mom is - she keeps moving forward slowly and so far we are both managing her being here in the house. Huzzuh. Oh, we went to the dentist too - well, mom got her teeth cleaned.

On my end - I am working a lot at the Smith. I have an owie on my right ring finger. My bankruptcy is all through. I am starting to work on my beer vlog. I went on two dates with a nice person and then she stopped writing back. I am playing too much xBox (well, other people would say that was the case). I am not getting out much. I do hope to get mom and me to Maine in October. Ah, the miracle juice thing. I have read stuff about what drinking beet (ick) apple and carrot juice can do for one's health. They say a minimum of 60 days to see real results. I drank some this morning and felt nauseous for the first four hours afterwards. Sigh. Maybe some lemon juice will help. I'll try that tomorrow.

Burned the Brussels Sprouts

Sigh city. I really do like brussels sprouts. I didn't mean to burn them. I made a batch for dinner and then cooked a second batch to be eaten like popcorn or tossed into other dishes. Sadly, I left them cooking for five hours. That wasn't good for them. No one noticed the smell, I guess. Mom, for one, wouldn't have been able to figure out how to turn the toaster oven off. Then again, I am not really sure that is true. She does seem to be able to figure out how to turn things on and off. Though that is about the limit of her acknowledged cognizance of things technical.

Speaking of mom, I plan to take her to the race track again. I know that she has fun there. It is a pleasant way to spend a nice afternoon. Maybe sometime this month. Still haven't figured out what to do about Kristen's wedding. My guess is that we will just not go. Finding someone to watch mom for a few days is not an easy task. And I haven't gotten my ducks in a row regarding mom. Sigh. I really need to do that too.

Carrot or the stick? I tend to work better with the carrot - or even better with carrot cake. How about you? When you have things you would like to do, do you beat yourself up and take away things? Or do you promise yourself a treat when they are done?

A package I ordered finally arrived. Yay! Mom has been watching a lot of Doc Martin lately - I mean at least 10 times through the whole series. Not that she really remembers it, but I think it is beginning to sink in, that she has seen it before. Oh, that reminds me of a funny - well, not funny, but interesting perhaps - there is a DVD of Victor Borge that she loved to watch, until she found out that it was a recording of a show he had done. Some part of her brain thought that she was watching a live performance of his, right then, right there. Anyway, I bought her a set of DVDs of As Time Goes By - starring one of her favorite performers - Judi Densch. I hope this goes over better than the NCIS series I got for her.

Tic Tac Toe

Three days in a row. Are the "x" days or "o" days? Hmm.

So, I was thinking that I would see if the bike place downtown does layaway. If they do, I could start paying for a new bike now and have it in time for next Spring. I like the idea of layaway. Better than buying something on credit in my opinion. Teaches one the happiness and satisfaction inherent in delayed gratification. We shall see. Thursday I will inquire.

I found myself noticing bikes all over the place today. Silly of me, I know, hoping to see mine just sitting out somewhere. Still, it is a small town and anything is possible (though most things are unlikely). I also looked at The Smith to see if perhaps I had hallucinated and not ridden my bike home the other night and had just left it there. Another bike was there, not mine, unfortunately. Sigh.

The bright side - they didn't take my bike/car rack. Nor did I attach the rear-view mirror! Hurrah for small blessings.

Right now I am sitting at the Smith babysitting for a band that is rehearsing for an upcoming East Coast swing of a tour. It reminds me of the times I have hung out with bands in the past. Back in college I was sort of briefly the band manager for a group of guys I knew. Rockford, I think was the band's name. I recently reconnected with a few of them on Facebook! The other was when I was living in the Bay Area and was briefly the lighting guy (when they played gigs where there was a lighting rig set-up) and lugger for a band called Hobo. Not as glamorous as people think it is, the life of a musician. Or any artist for that matter. A lot of time is spent just sort of sitting around. It does have its cool bits. And this time I am getting some work accomplished - which is more than can be said for those days gone by.

Mean People Suck

This is just a quick post to say that mean people do indeed suck. I came back from a morning meeting to find that my bicycle - my new to me bicycle into which I had put a decent amount of time, money and energy, was stolen. Off of my enclosed front porch. Yes, the door was open. Yes, the bike was unlocked. But it was on my front porch. On. My. Front. Porch. What kind of crap is that?

Since Geneva is a small town, I do hope that I will see someone riding my bike one day and I will be able to ask for it back.

I don't think I will report it to the police. Why bother? Really, they are too busy giving people speeding or j-walking tickets. And what would they do in any case? Stop everyone riding a bike and ask if it is mine? They aren't about to do a house to house search. And I haven't put anything particularly identifying on it.

I think I will wait until next summer to get another bike. I can't face buying a new one at this point. And I will probably do things differently. Like put it in a vault whenever I am not using it. Sigh.

Has it really been weeks since my last post?

How the mighty have fallen?! It has been two weeks, at least, since my last confession. Mea Culpa. Mea maxima pulpa! (Not sure what pulpa is, but when has that stopped me?)

So, how are things with you? Let's see, since you asked, things with me, for the most part, are pretty great. I have a bunch of first world, middle (ish) class problems, but you know, in the grand sweep and scope of reality, things are dandy. Yay.

That being said, let's get our kvetch on. Starting with mom. I must admit to having been remiss in my duties on July 4th. The last two years I dragged mom out to fireworks. This time it just seemed too daunting. But I guess I need to give a bit of background.

A couple of weeks ago, mom took a tumble. This is nothing new. Lately at least. Since coming back from Maine mom has gracefully kerplunked at least four times. Well, three of them were graceful (ish). The one she remembers was the one where she took out a box of cassettes (what the heck are those things and why do they still linger in this house)(I really need help letting go of stuff)(seems like an oft repeated sentiment - heck, a refrain even - if we were singing). Just this morning she was complaining of owies received in her latest loss to gravity only to attribute them to her collapse atop the box of cassettes. I never did like that box anyway. But the one where the owies came from necessitated a trip to the doctor's for a look-see. She bumped her head and her chin - I think on a chair in her room. I can't be sure because I was downstairs actually doing something - making dinner or lunch or cleaning the kitchen. For once I wasn't playing on the xBox - when I heard mom's "I'm falling" sounds. I came upstairs and found her sitting on the floor at the bottom of her bed. Her head had a bruise - it is still visible - and it took me a minute to notice that her chin was bleeding. Of course this happened on a Friday - must have been around dinner time - because I recalled thinking that my only recourse was to go to the Emergency Room - except there was no emergency. She seemed ok, for the most part - a bit bumped and bruised but not in dire need of medical assistance.

Why do things like this seem to happen on the weekend. Why couldn't she take a fall on Monday at 11 in the morning? Whatever. Anyway, that flavored my entire weekend (and is still flavoring my mental space) - waiting for Monday to roll around so we could visit with a medical professional. Said MP didn't do much, really. Nice enough - and mom's GP popped in for a quick consultation. We also checked on another issue - mom's feet and lower legs were swelling up - the aide and I both noticed it. So, she is taking pills, supposed to drink a lot of fluids and go to the bathroom a lot to get rid of the swelling. It would be nice if she exercised. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Ha. Haha.

I really need to get some ducks in a row. First, it would be good to know what ducks I need or what ducks I might already have. Sigh. I am thinking of aiming for a post a day at some point. Perhaps. Maybe. When my brain seems less cluttered. As if.

Some randomness is welcome, yes?

A few random thoughts for today - first, I had another epiphany about what to do with the ends of mom's bread. She doesn't like crusts, so she obviously wouldn't really enjoy the butts of the bread. So they have been accumulating. One use I have made of them is croutons - home made croutons - not that I did a great job making them, but they were ok. I also used them for making French Toast which worked out alright too. A third usage is where the epiphany came in. I like crusts. Well, like might be an overstatement. I don't mind them. So, when making a sandwich for myself one day - sometimes when I don't have loads of leftovers to eat, I make myself an Augustus Sandwich (salami, sharp cheddar cheese, mayo, dijon mustard and dill pickles on toast) - I realized that I could eat the butts for my sandwich! Yay! And yum! Butt munching!

Second random thought - we all have to have things to look forward to. Ok, I don't know if we all have to, I know that I like to have things to look forward to. Sometimes I only have teeny, weeny things to look forward to - like my ear working again - or my next breath - that sort of thing. Other times, it is playing a game on the xbox, checking my email (hoping for a message that will rock my world (in a happy way)), eating yummy food. And at still other times, I have larger things on the horizon, like another trip of some kind, or a visit from a friend etc. Right now, I have a new-to-me brew pub to visit. Current plan is for Tuesday with fallback day on Wednesday. They have two for one tastings on Tuesday and Wednesday (yes, I am parsimonious). The other day, at a celebration of 30 years in business for a local company, I had G.C. Starkey's Stout and it was darn tasty. I hadn't heard of them before and they are only 30 minutes away (by car). Woo hoo!

Mom News - I really do fear that the time is coming that I will have to take the next step in her care. Either get someone in here a lot more frequently, or find a home for her to rest her weary head. For those who aren't around her daily, the drastic changes might not be noticeable. Frankly, I am astounded by the sporadically continuous descent into brainlessness. She is beginning to not consistently recognize me. Especially when I am gone for a long time - like when I have an all day show at the Smith. And she is consistently not remembering more and more (if that makes any sense). And she is beginning to lose track of where she is - even when she is in her own home. Sigh. Any thoughts are appreciated.

I bought a grenade

I bought a grenade. And I used it. But no one was killed. Woo hoo! Does anyone else think it is crazy that people are allowed to walk around with weapons of killing, like assault rifles, and yet, walking around with an alcoholic beverage is against the law in most places? Oh, by the way, the grenade I am talking about is half a growler. I had never heard the term before. Anyone? I bought a grenade of oatmeal stout from Climbing Bines - which is correct - Bines are different from Vines - look it up if you don't believe me. I will write about Climbing Bines in my Brewpub blog, even though they aren't a brewpub. They are, at least, a local brewery! Yay local breweries!

So, what has been going on at Chez Schoen-René? A whole lot of nothing. Some busy-ness. Some indolence. Some sitting and staring at my room and thinking - wow, I could use someone to help me do some cleaning. And what should pop into my head? "Everybody ought to have a maid" from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Love that show. It was the second show I directed in college. I think I saw it in High School, with Chris Clemenson playing one of the parts. Speaking of college and high school - nice segue, right? (I would really like to have a Segway, by the way...) - it is my 30th college and 35th high school reunion this year and I consciously chose to not do anything about either of them. Yay!

Oh, some of the business (busy-ness) was working at the Smith. We had a band - The Lone Bellow - come in for a show. They were quite good - though not many people came to see them at our venue. I don't get (as in "understand") how some shows sell really well and others don't. Capitalism sucks. Just sayin'!

Mom news: she is getting more befuddled but so far we are still managing. Mary Gerhart came for a visit, but I was at the Smith, so I don't know how it went. Getting information from mom is a hit-or-miss prospect. I hope it was a good visit and didn't confuse her too much. I can't tell any longer if visits are good for her or just upset her. Sigh.

Feels like a lame post. But, better than nothing, right?

A Good Smith Day

So, here it is Saturday, three days since we got back, seems like a lot longer, and I haven't been able to finish a blog post. I hope to do so today, since I really don't have much else going on. 

Yes, I have a day off from the Smith. Yippee! Not that I have been working there an inordinate amount. But I have been working there. Speaking of which, I had a great Smith day yesterday.

What I mean about a good Smith day is that I got a lot of things done and learned a few things as well. I actually was there twice. In the morning, I hung a banner in the front foyer. That entailed a bit of ladder climbing, which entailed a bit of ladder carrying. I also learned about something called "Oops" or as Kelly calls it, "Goo be Gone." It took tape residue off glass really easily! Yay! Now, we just need somebody to go around the Smith and de-tape more glass bits!

I also called the electricians and told them that they had a green light to do some electrical upgrades and clean-ups that we have been interested in doing. Like getting people out of circuit breaker boxes and putting in light switches for safety. And putting in some permanent work lights for working on the stage. Yippee!

My mind is not working as well as I would like. I can't remember if I called the lighting company - ETC - to ask about the blinking dimmers yesterday or earlier. Anyway, they suggested vacuuming them out, which I did yesterday. In the afternoon, actually. Back to the morning. I spent a good amount of time playing with the slide show. I added a couple of slides, which can take a few minutes, or can take a lot longer if I need to build the slide from scratch. And I think that was my morning.

In the afternoon, as I mentioned, I vacuumed the dimmers free from dust. This was a bit of an ordeal. I had to figure out how to turn the power off to the dimmers. I couldn't tell from the labels in the circuit box which ones controlled the dimmer pack. So I turned off the breaker in the electric room. Oops. Not a major oops, but a good solid minor oops. Turning that off turned off the whole stage left side of the theatre, including all of the outlets in the center of the auditorium. Which meant that one of our two internet wifi routers got turned off. The one that Kelly and I use for our email. Oops. And, on coming back into the theatre, I noticed that something looked different. It took me a minute to realize that I was looking at the fire curtain! Oops. 

No time to worry about that - I needed to vacuum the dimmers and do a few other things before our "press event" that evening. Vacuum, vacuum, vacuum. That was rewarding. Then power on, viola, internet service restored, and fire curtain, hmm, not going up. Why is that? Oh, right, the power is off failsafe thingie. Up another, very tall ladder, and after a good bunch of tugging, got the thingie in the thingie and the other thingie magnetically attached to the last thingie. Problem solved and bye bye fire curtain!

Next up, adding sound to the previews. Which I did. Only to find that it was going to take more than an hour to get it up on the film server. And I just plain ran out of time. Oh well. 

The event went smoothly, with a bunch of running up and down the stairs to the projection booth. Yay for exercise in the line of duty. 

So, all in all a good Smith Day. I learned, I played, I cleaned, and life is good.

Vacationland Maine - Friday May 23

Catching up slowly. And before we inch forward, let me say a few words about mom, for those of you who read my blog for mom news. She is being treated to a lovely time. Lots of stimulation, lots of food, lots of attention. Heck, I bought her 11 books in the Gideon Scotland Yard Detective series the other day. She was complaining that her copies were falling apart, so on the way back from Bangor, I stopped at a great barn of a used bookstore and bought one copy of each of the JJ Marric/Gideon books they had. Yay! Meanwhile, Juliet keeps finding adventures for her to go on. Go her! More power to her in fact. Sadly, each time we try to talk, mom gets upset that we aren't talking to her. Sigh. So, long and the short of it, I think that mom is having a good time. Though she would be just as happy being at home in her bed doing nothing, I think. :)

Friday was another day of rest and relaxation! Huzzuh!! I got up and puttered on my computer for a long time - starting to get things organized, websites visited for the first time, getting all the logging in and set-up re-accomplished. As for my phone, I have only added one or two apps so far - mainly the bridge app! It doesn't look as good as it did on my old phone, but it is playable. Yay! Anyway, I could have done that for hours and hours, but I really, really needed to get out and get me some shoes. Yup, daddy needed a new pair of shoes! Big time.

A year ago, or so, when I was down in NC for some reason of other, I bought a great pair of Birkenstock shoes - dressy but not super dressy. Well, I am not so good with shoes. I wore them for everything all the time. And, recently, they were looking a bit worse for wear. I have been looking for a place that does shoe maintenance around Geneva with no luck. So I headed into Belfast, hoping that Colburn's, the oldest continuously (continually?) operating shoe store in America, would also have shoe services. They did! They made me a deal - if I bought a pair of shoes, they would shine my old ones. How could I turn that offer down? I had been planning on buying a new pair of shoes anyway - I needed something a bit more durable and working-ish. So, I ended up buying two pairs of shoes. Left one of the new pairs and the old pair there, as I didn't want to take the shoes back on my bike.

One of my new pairs of shoes!

Oh, right, I had completely put it out of my mind that I rode from Northport/Kelly's Cove to Belfast Downtown. It really wasn't far, just really hilly. Right out of the driveway, there is a hill. Seems like at least three good sized hills between here and there (and seven smaller hills). But it wasn't too terrible a ride. Only 5 miles or so each way. And the shoulder on Route 1 was, for the most part, six feet wide, which provided lots of room for me and zipping autos to share the road. I must admit that a couple of times it was a smidge frightening, but overall, I felt safe, and exhausted, er happy. There was one point early on when I was tempted to ask Juliet to come get me with my bike rack, but I managed to persevere and did the whole trip without too much trouble. And some fun! Yippee!

I bought this as a reward for riding to Belfast safely!

After the shoe store, next up was purchasing a new thumb drive - I left my thumb drives - picture to follow in another blog post someday - at home. How helpful. Sigh. The man at the shoe store gave me directions to the computer store, but I didn't really understand what he was saying, so I just wandered off in the direction I thought he said was right. I didn't find the computer store - but I did find a bakery, where I had a yummy chocolate croissant and a nice interaction with the sales person. Yay! She told me where the computer store was in a way that I could understand - she pointed at it. :)

Yummy, despite the weird name.

So I wandered to the computer store. Weird little place, but a nice guy (is everyone nice in Belfast?) behind the counter. He sold me a thumb drive for an exorbitant sum. Oh well. We all gots to make the benjamins! (Or something like that). Next stop, more food. 

Someone had mentioned Daily Soup to me. Silly, but I thought one could buy soup there. Apparently, I was wrong. You have to order soup and have it delivered to you. No soup buying where it is made - at the soup kitchen! Well, fine, no soup for me! Next stop, food truck Good n You. I had been thinking of trying more of their food, so had their pork tostada! Yum city! I could easily have eaten four of them! Or more!! But I didn't. I refrained. I was thinking of heading to Front Street for a beer, but decided that a beer would have made my eventual ride home a bit more taxing, and it had been taxing enough already, thank you very much. Still, I wandered that way when a little place caught my eye.

  

Good n You food truck

Oh. My. Yumminess!

I liked the location and the variety of cuisine offered: Thai, Vietnamese and Laotian!

The Thai Place

View from the Thai place!

I wasn't all that hungry, but I wanted to eat something. So I had a bowl of hot and sour soup, Thai style. It was good, though I think I might have liked the coconut soup even more. Maybe another day. It was a smudge chilly on the deck out of the sun, but it was still pleasant hanging out there and eating/drinking some yummy soup!

Thai Hot and something soup.

Then it was time to bike home. The ride back seemed a lot easier than the ride going. Psychological mind games or fact? Who can tell? In any case, before I knew it, I was back at the homestead! Yay! Juliet's plan - she, as I do, always has a plan. In this case, we were to meet after a movie and then go to dinner together. The movie was Life of Pi, which is a fine movie - just not one that I wanted to see, in a library, on a teeny screen, on uncomfortable chairs...so I opted to check out a new to me brewpub! Yay!

The new place is about 15 minutes away in Lincolnville. It took over part of a very old restaurant, The Lobster Pound. I had, over the past few years, tried to get into Lincolnville Center to Andrew's Brewery, but somehow never managed. Now he has opened a brewpub! Yay! I had only had one or two of his beers and though not overwhelmed, I am always willing to give beer a chance. I know, I know, I am very magnanimous! I will write more about my experiences in my beer blog - suffice it to say that I had a pleasant time and might venture back there one day. Not top of my list, but I will gladly give it a second chance.

I got done there and headed back to Belfast to meet up with Juliet and Mom and Paul. Sadly, it didn't happen. Not in a tragically sad for of way, but in an - oops, the movie lasted two hours and the restaurant we were to meet in was closed sort of way. Oh well. Life is that way sometimes. So we all met back at the house, ate a few nibbles and made our way to bed.

Phew! Quite a day. Yay vacation!

Vacationland Maine - Wednesday and Thursday May 21 and 22

How long have I been here? How long will I be here? What state is this? Who am I? Yes, I am getting that jello-like and relaxed. Mellow jello! We drove up on Tuesday. Wednesday day was a decompressing day. I didn't do a lot of anything - except ate and drank a bit. Oh, and saw a movie. Well, a collection of five documentaries from the Camden Film Festival.

That was a nice relaxing day!

Thursday was another relaxing day. My main (tee hee) plan was to buy a new laptop and a new iPhone. (I am using the voice typing feature and it seems to be working pretty well)(How freaking cool is that!) At first I didn't know if I wanted to go to Portland or someplace else to find a Best Buy. So I used trusty online stuff and found out where all the Best Buys were and it turns out the Bangor location was indeed the closest. (OK, back to my laptop and no more voice typing.)(Wait, maybe there is an option...looks like there is - downloading something so that I can use it offline as well as online. Almost a gig download!) So I hopped in the car, programmed my GPS (love my GPS) and toodled off to Bangor's Best Buy.

Bangor isn't so very far from Belfast. The two cities, though, are not connected by major highways. They are connected by less than major highways. A lot of little towns are driven through as well. A 30 mile drive takes an hour. But at least it is scenic! Yay scenic! I tried listening to one of the CDs I recovered from my book bag - oops, they both were all beaten up. Sigh. So it didn't play as well as I would have hoped. I have a plan, though. I am thinking of turning my old 3gs phone into an iPod. I have never had an iPod. I know, I am a loser. Actually, I am just not that "into" music. Don't get me wrong or started. I do enjoy music - I also like silence. Most of the time I prefer silence. And when I am doing something, I don't need sound in the background. Usually sound in the background (rocking the rhyming) is distracting. But there are times when I would like some music. And creating CDs doesn't seem to be the thing to do. Especially since a) I don't have any blank CDs hanging around and b) my new laptop doesn't have a CD player. I would like to make all the music that is on my old computer available to my new computer. I think I need to upgrade my iTunes though to take advantage of iCloud. Hmm. Just going a mile a minute here in my thoughts. And typing them almost as quickly. BTW, I have installed the dictation thing on my laptop, though somehow I think that is cheating. And really, part of the reason I don't do a podcast or a vlog is because I like to ponder and correct and recording  what I say just seems out of control. Typing, now there is something I fool myself into believing I have control over...

Where was I? Oh, right, on the way to Bangor. I got there and was lucky enough to follow a group into the store who also were looking at getting a new laptop. We chose similar things - I chose to go for the larger hard drive, though. Which, on this machine, is a solid state one - quiet and fast - oh so very zippy! Technology is amazing!! Next stop, cell phones.

I was a little worried about changing phones. Change is scary. Fun, and scary. I didn't know what to expect. It actually was easier, but took longer than I had thought it would. Oh well. Still, I was told my options, changed my plan drastically, but now I have unlimited text!, and picked out a nice, white iPhone - for $1. Plus money to turn the thing on. Really? Jeezus!! Anyway, I am happy and it seems to work. Now all I need is a new case for it...

After bonding with the sales guy over this and that, especially Geaghan's, I headed off in search of food. Ok, I didn't really search, since I knew that I wanted to go to Geaghan's. What's not to like - good food, good beer, good atmosphere. True, no pool table, but other than that, it is high on my list of great brew pubs! (Maybe it is in my brewpub blog...) I had a great oatmeal stout - or two - and a yummy tuna melt with sweet potato fries (which were a little cool but life is that way sometimes...).

Back on the road and headed to dinner with my friend Susan. We have known each other for, oh my goodness, I don't know how long. We were friendly as kids - though she is a few years older than I am. Our families were friends. And we have remained friendly this whole time. Yay. She offered to make me dinner and I gladly accepted her offer. Yummy stuff, too! I need to find a good meatloaf recipe. I think mom would enjoy it.

Long day, though, so I then headed home, played a bit (phone, computer, xBox) and then hit the hay! Yay!

I might have some pictures for the next post. From my new iPhone. Huzzuh!!

One step at a time

One step at a time - is there really any other way? And multi-tasking? Really? I don't think anyone can really multitask as we only have one brain - true, there might be other parts not necessarily under our conscious control - but what goes on under the surface is none of our business - until it surfaces of course. So, we, with our uni-brain, can really only do one thing at a time with focus. Driving and putting on make-up? I rarely do it, but it doesn't seem like a good idea. Driving and doing much of anything else - is that really multi-tasking?

Anyway, as I was saying, one step at a time. Most things can only be accomplished through methodical steps forward. Again there are those times when an answer springs into your head - or a task seems to take a lot fewer steps than anticipated, but still, those are just single steps. One of the things I like to say when people find that they don't know where to go or what to do or how to achieve a goal is: baby steps. When in doubt, take little, wobbly steps (sometimes with support if you can find it) in any direction - hopefully in the one you are wanting to go - but really, all motion is forward motion (in a way). At least it is motion.

This all occurred to me as I was working on getting the room at the head of the stairs ready for potential occupancy. We might have a boarder! Mom vacillates between being excited about the prospect and being horrified by the prospect. If it causes her too much stress, we will reevaluate. But for now, it looks like, starting this weekend, we will have a housemate. (I stared this a while ago - she is now safely ensconced in the room - how long she will stay is anyone's guess...she is welcome as long as she wants to stay, but life has a way of moving us around sometimes in ways that we had not anticipated.)

In order to get the room ready, I had to attack the problem one step at a time. First, I emptied out the dresser drawers. Karl, if you are reading this - hahahahahaha (on a couple of levels) - do you want your Heathkit calculator? The dresser mostly had a bunch of random stuff in it - I think one of the drawers was a sort of gift drawer that mom had created. Two and one eighth drawers had stuff in them. I boxed it all. Yay!

Next, I took a few boxes After that, I took some boxes that I had sitting around waiting for Godot on the front porch up into the room to be filled with extra books into the attack - only to make it clear to me just how many books and boxes had migrated into the "orange" room. (The rug is orange.)(This is my childhood room. So I always feel a little nostalgic in there.) The next day, I took more boxes out. Then I piled the remaining boxes near the door for their eventual trip heavenwards. So, all I had left to do was move those boxes and do some neatening and the room would be as ready as it was going to be. Maybe a quick vacuum. We shall see. Mom promised to dust the big table in there - she did actually help (in her way) clean off that table. That was probably the biggest job and I had forgotten that we had done it. (The table did get dusted - I don't know if mom did the actual work, or just supervised Jenny (the aide) doing it.)

I thought I had oodles of time. Turns out, I was wrong. I got a call from my boarder asking if she could move in much sooner than expected! Suddenly, my baby steps needed to be accomplished in rapid succession. Pack boxes, lug boxes, lug boxes, lug boxes. I think, in all, 20 boxes worth of crap made it up into the attic and out of that room. And I mean crap in the most loving, respectful way.

Things that didn't get done - I didn't vacuum the room. Or clean the bathroom we are sharing (except in a very cursorily (cursory sort of way)). But, it gone mostly done. Through baby steps. Yay!

Putting the Porch Together

One of the lovelier attributes of the house in Geneva is the screened in side porch. It is a lovely place to sit at times during the fairer parts of the year, here in Central NY. I like to open the porch as early as makes sense and put it to bed as late as makes sense. I started the opening process today.

The first thing necessary to getting the porch ready for "the season" is to wash off the detritus that accumulated over the fall and winter. There was a surprising thickness of dirt on the floor. As well as pine needles and leaves. First a quick sweep, lifting up the cool gutter doors that someone (Pa?) installed so many years ago. Then to a quick rinse with the hose.

Aha! Sometimes things are really easy, sometimes they are a little less so. That was the case with the hose. First off, the outer faucet doesn't function anymore - which means that the water must be turned on and off in the basement - a little bit of a hike back and forth. First turn on - water flowing, hmm, that isn't right - the hose was closed, there ought to be no running water. To the faucet - oops - the hose became detached. No biggie, I will just, er, well, um, it didn't just become detached, the plastic bit (why was it plastic?) that attached the hose to the faucet broke. Made in China. Not that I am impugning the quality of Chinese goods - heck, a lot of Apple Products are assembled in China - but sometimes they do cut corners - like using plastic where a metal connector would have lasted longer. Sigh. You get what you pay for. So, back to the basement to turn the water off. I hoped to find another hose somewhere. And I did. In the garage/barn. Yay! Simple to attach the hose to the faucet and then disconnect the two old hoses, like, er, um, umph, grrrr. To the tool box! First tool, a simple pair of pliers. Um, no good. Back to the tool box again, for one of my favorite of all tools, the vise grip. Grip onto the hose, hold tight, twist the other hose bit with the pliers. And slowly, and surely they come apart. Yay! Now, to simply attach the two...oh, that's why the hose was in the garage/barn. The attaching end has broken a bit. Even though it was metal. Sigh. Ah, duct tape to the rescue. Tape, tape, tape. To the basement to turn on the water and...wait, the water is running - did I forget to turn off the hose end? Nope, the taping didn't work. Sigh. Back to the basement to turn the water off again. Back to the hose connection. Let's see if I can do a better job of connecting the two hoses with duct tape. Tape, tape, tape and open the hose a bit so that the pressure is lessened on the connection. Back to the basement to turn the water on and it is running, as expected. Though there is quite a leak at the connection, enough pressure is getting through the hoses to accomplish the rinsing. Finally. Yay! Back to the basement to turn the water off one last time. It has occurred to me, subsequently - or maybe during all of the hither and yondering, I could have swapped the places of the hoses, though that would have meant that the spray nozzle wouldn't be able to be attached. Sigh. I will need to buy yet another new hose. Huzzuh. Still, everything is rinsed and the porch is drying out in anticipation of being put together.

Phase two - Porch Assemble! - Everything looked dry, so I went out to start the process of putting the pieces that comprise the porch in their proper places. First off, the plastic tarp that I used to keep wetness and dirt off the soft goods. Up it came, and, oops, more wetness - I guess I sprayed the plastic when I was washing (well rinsing) the floor. Plastic out onto the side yard to dry out - swept the water a little to spread it out so it would dry faster and then off to do other stuff while the floor continued to dry.

Back again - folded the plastic and unrolled the rug. That is the hardest part. In years gone past, we used to put the rug in the basement - unearthing it and bringing it upstairs was a tough job. Two years ago, I got smart and put all of the soft goods on the little sofabed thing and covered it all with the plastic. Viola! A lot less work. Flip the sofa bed on its side and the rug just makes it past. Woohoo! Down goes the sofa bed, furniture and pillows placed and tada! the porch is ready for primetime. With a the sofa bed being covered with the Christmas "snow" which was a nice think white bedspread. Not the traditional covering, but it will suffice until such time as the other cover makes an appearance. Or not.

All in all, about an hours worth of work, I would say - spread out over the afternoon - it would have been more fun with help, but as it was, it was still not onerous. Yay! And maybe, just maybe, mom will go out and sit there now and again. Maybe not. We shall see.

It just might work...

Last night I wrote down all the things that I would like to accomplish before heading to Maine a week from Tuesday. The list is not all inclusive - I am not putting down daily tasks like cooking and shopping and working at the Smith. And there might be a couple of things that I have forgotten to put on it - hopefully they will come to me before too long - anyway - here is the list:

Pills for mom
Car Looked at/Oil Change
Bike Rack
Bike Helmet
Laundry
Empty Out Orange Room
Clean Little Bathroom
Pay for laptop fixage
Give Card Back to Kelly
Pay Bills
Pack mom and me
Call Time Warner (ick) about speed boost
Vacuum my room
Look in dance studio and third floor for good chair

Most of these are easily doable with a little planning. Monday will be the day when I get the ball rolling on most of these. And here is where the little epiphany thing happened. Used to be, when I took my car to Dave's Garage to have it looked at, I would walk back to the house. And when I was called and told that the car was ready, I would walk back down. Not a big deal - maybe half an hour each way. Then I had my little aha moment. If I bought the car/bike rack before getting the car looked at, I could take the bike down to the car place on the bike rack - ride home and then ride back to the car place then carry the bike home on the rack. Win, win, win! Love those triple win things (which makes me think of horse racing and taking mom to the track again this summer - at least once - hopefully more frequently than that...) Anyway, that will knock three things off my list. Yay! And, while I am out and about, I will try to do some of the other errands on my list - get as many accomplished on Monday as I can. Yay!

Today, I plan to do some of the things around the house - oh, one I don't know if I want to add to the list or not - put the porch back together. It is a good day to do it - not much wind, pretty warm - that way, when I rinse the floor, it ought to dry quickly. Maybe I will wash the floor today and put the porch together tomorrow. One little problem is that mom's port-o-potty is in the doorway to the porch. Hmm. I will have to think on that one...

Ok, time to get started - I have been toiling away on this and a relationship post about what exactly I mean when I talk about relationships. But I gotta eat!

I heart my composter

I have, as some of you know, been jonesing (keeping up with the Joneses?) for a composter. I almost bought one last year. But didn't. Too expensive at the time - our finances weren't as robust as they seem to be just now. I thought about maybe having two even - I am still debating the little inside home one. I wanted it for two reasons. One - to get the fruit flies out of the house - if there was nothing they liked to nibble on, they might just up and leave. And I can use the garbage can in the house a lot less. Yay! Years ago, we had a compost thing in the yard - near the "barn" or garage. I think my brother made it out of a few door pieces. And it seemed to work. He then went off to college - mom worked very hard and didn't spend much time in the garden and heaven forfend that I find myself actually "grubbing around in the dirt." Nope, not a gardner, am I. Doubt I ever will be. Yes, I like to see things growing - I just don't like to do the work myself. It did make a good amount of dirt. And I think I actually at least shoveled it out into our "garden" area. But that was along ago and it is no longer there. Though the earth is higher there. Hmmm. Where was I went I tangentialized? Oh, yes - loving my composter.

When I have a little pile of compost, I zip outside, twist the lid on the composter and toss the pile inside. My composter can rotate. Why does my composter rotate? I haven't rotated it yet. I just read about making compost. Who knew there was a method to it? Browns and greens, and the right level of moisture? Eeek! I just wanna put stuff in and wait a while and have dirt or something like dirt come out! Is that too much to ask? And rotating seems to help. Who knew?!

On a different subject - A long while ago - I think I remember blogging about it, so it can't be longer than a few years ago - I bought a pair of drain snake things 'cause a couple of drains in my bathroom were being slow to drain. They came in the mail and I was underwhelmed. They were two pieces of wire with some velcro (the hook part) glued on the ends. Silly in the extreme. I tried one down my shower drain and it did manage to help with that. Flash forward a year later (yesterday). My sink drain in my bathroom has been draining verrrrrrry slooooooowly lately. I know I had tried at least once before to take the stopper out without success. Some sinks it is easy to do, this one, not so easy. I was about to shave when I noticed the snakes sitting in the cabinet. I thought - what the heck, what have I got to lose. A few minutes later, gobs of gunk (mostly Augustus hair - facial and top of head(ical?)) were sitting on the edge of the sink. Lo and behold - ala kazaam - the sink drains happily again. I guess that was $10 well spent. (I think it was $10 - might have been $14 - who knows - I know they must make 10,000% profit on each one they manage to sell...)

On the mom front - she seems to be moving more into a changing pattern of waking and sleeping. She is much more wide awake at 1 in the morning than she seems to be at one in the afternoon. Joy.

Writing Geyser

It seems that my pent up writing has gushed out all over the place. Those who got a bit wet, I apologize! I have been writing up a storm for the past couple of days - yesterday being no exception. I Today I will post two blogs - this one and a relationship post. Both are "must reads!" Ok, not really. Still, better than radio silence, right?

Lots of stuff percolating in my head - yesterday we had an adjunct aide - well not really, just gotta groove to the alliterativeness of life sometimes - who came to train with Jenny. Mom was not amused. At all. Not even a little bit. Oh well. Grrr and all that. Apparently she is following Jenny all week. (Insert rim shot sound here)

I got the coolest things in the mail yesterday - they came registered mail for some reason. I don't like registered mail. If you like me at all, you won't send me anything registered. Bad juju. These came all the way from China, so they might not work - but they are still cool. They are thumb drives - flash drives that actually look like thumbs! How freakin' cool is that? I ordered them so long ago, I can't recall when or why - but they are here now. Woo hoo!

Oh, I think that I got my composter while I was otherwise distracted! Yay! More on it later! Just wanted to say, I love my composter! (Ok, maybe there isn't anything else to say...)

Oops, I fallded

Yesterday was a crazy day - not too crazy - just enough crazy to make it onto the crazy day meterometer. Up early, out latish. Long day at the Smith. Good day at the Smith. With a dose of drama here and there.

I don't know why I was up early, but I was - oh, right, because I was stressing out a smidgen - really, just a little - about the band wanting to project using our projector and their laptop. Then, when I was lying here - yes, I am writing this from a reclining position in my bed - no pictures available, sorry - (well, unless someone asks very, very politely...) - I remembered that I hadn't taken down the house sound system. I knew that the sound guy was coming in early to set up - it takes two people most of 5 hours to set up for a show this size. Seems like a long time to me, but what do I know? Anyway, my little teeny sound system would have slowed them down a bit - so I went in early to take it down. Good thing! The sound people got there just after I finished clearing the stage. Phew!

Back home, I did some writing, thought about napping - heck, I may have even closed my eyes for a few minutes. But before too long it was lunch time. I had left over pizza (yum) and mom had her usual.

I left for the Smith because, well, I really wanted to make sure I got everything I wanted to get done, done. And I like to have things done ahead of time in case there are any problems - or in case things take longer than anticipated. Which never happens, of course. Everything always goes really smoothly with no problems!

Actually, that is what happened. My staff got there on time and we got everything I wanted accomplished with a few minutes to spare. The band arrived a little early, so, yay! Their load-in went well. And, surprisingly, the laptop that the sound guy had drove the projector just fine! Yippee! The biggest sweaty part for me was trying to get the image just how we wanted it. We got it mostly ok - it was clipped on one side and, since I don't play with the projector and scaler and a laptop all the time, I didn't know where to begin to fix that. But it really was good enough. (Getting it back to movie readiness is a headache for another day - tomorrow even - since we have a movie on Wednesday night.

After that was done, we had to wait for the band to get its act together for a sound check. This did not happen in a timely fashion. Which is fairly typical. While they were puttering around, I decided it would be a good time to head home for feeding mom and me.

When I walked in the door and called out to say hello, mom meekly responded that she had finally fallen down. Look, a self fulfilled prophecy! Craziness. I don't understand why my mom chooses to act so feeble. She really isn't, unless I am a terrible judge of such things. Whatever, if she believes it, it is true for her. And her reality is where I have to meet her. At least partway. Most of the time. So, yes, she had fallen - but not in a terrible, oh my god lying in a puddle of blood sort of way. She fell in an, oops, I lost my balance and gracefully sat down sort of way. Which, thanks to the Universe, is the way that she normally falls. Yay! Next challenge, getting her up off the floor.

The last time she did this, I tried a variety of tactics for getting her up - only one of which was successful. I suggested one of the failed tactics, which, surprisingly, failed again! Mom can't, for some reason, manage to figure out how to get on her knees. I can't figure out why she can't figure it out. Hmm. Food for thought. The strategy that worked last time, after overcoming mom's resistance to the whole idea, was for her to scooch (that is the technical term, right?) her butt - or butt walk I guess would be another way of looking at it - from where she was - in her bedroom - to the top of the stairs - a scooch of about ten feet I would guess. It took her a few minutes and a lot of whining - I can't do it - what will happen when I get there - it's so far - etc. - but she got there eventually. Convincing her to get up was the next challenge. Fairly quickly overcome. On the way back to her bedroom, she continued to sway and wobble for no apparent reason. She hasn't complained of vertigo or anything like that, so I really don't know what the issue is. If there is an issue beyond mom just believing she is "unsteady on her pins." Sigh.

While all of this was going on, I got dinner together for us. She got downstairs, I put Doc Martin on, snarfed my food and headed back to the Smith - secure in the knowledge that mom would somehow be steady enough on her pins to get herself some ice cream. Two bowls in fact eventually...

At the Smith, sound check still hadn't happened. We were starting to run into dinner and VIP time. That kind of thing just irks me. Not a lot - nothing I can do about it - but certainly a little. Performers. Grrrr.

The show itself went smoothly, as did load-out. I didn't get out of there until 11:30. Oh, the show was Dave Mason, who started with Traffic way back when. I have the first two Traffic albums and liked their music. Dave Mason also had some hits that were in my mind through osmosis. Good stuff. As I said somewhere else - it was a good, solid show - getting to see classic music performed by the artist himself was a treat. Not a great show - not a lot of fireworks are razzamataz - just good music performed by good musicians. So overall, the show was good - not great. And the day was crazy - but not too crazy.

Between then and now

I have always liked that turn of phrase. Between then and now - as if time were both time and space.

So, since April 18, what has been happening to keep me from writing? Well, I had a torrid and roller coastery attempt at a Long Distance Relationship. Sadly, in the end, there was nothing there. It was, though, quite enjoyable in parts. And I did so enjoy having someone special in my life in even such an odd way. I will admit that much of my waking time was spent on that, er, relationship? for the past two weeks. Wow, was it really only two weeks? Seemed a lot longer. Weird. Time is weird.

Of course, other things happened during that time. First, the issue with the long past due bill got resolved. I was bearded at my door - we "discussed" the issue and he agreed to take $.50 on the dollar. Surprisingly he wanted to keep us as clients. Whatever. He promised to bill monthly. I will believe it when I see it!

What else? Oh, a lot of stuff has happened at the Smith. More movies of course. I took mom to see two: Ernest and Celestine - which she didn't like - and Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush - which I think she did. The week of April 23 was really busy at the Smith and I felt like my head was about to explode at one point. I don't think it actually did, otherwise I might have noticed. I tried to take a day off - last Thursday - and still spent two hours doing Smith work from home! I do see a respite coming later this month - a trip to Maine is the current plan. One more big concert - then a long inhabitation by a dance company. Have to get through those before I am footloose and fancy free for a bit. Yay!

Meanwhile, at home, mom has started a couple new behaviors. The most disconcerting is finding she has fled her bed and gone downstairs to lie down. Maybe I really do need to buy her a new bed. And put a child gate across the top of the stairs. Luckily, she still believes that she can't get around too well, so I am not too worried that she is going to head outside - but that has become a bit more of a possibility at this point. Eeek!

And that is all the big news that I can think of at this point. Oh, I have been playing too much Words of Wonder on Faecbook...

Truly Dumbfounded

Here's the thing. Whenever possible, I like to pay my bills. And be polite. I do, really.

So, back at the end of October 2013, I got a bill saying my balance due was $76.44. Ok, a bit more than I expected, but that's fine. I sent off a check and figured, all done, all square. Isn't that what anyone would have assumed? Now, to be honest, this particular vendor is not very good with his billing. I think he hasn't quite got the software down yet. Nor has he acceded to my request to send me a monthly bill (I got them very sporadically) that details not only what he has charged, but what payments he has received. I don't think that is too much to ask, is it? Anyway, all paid, all done, waiting for next year and more sporadic bills.

Fast forward 5 (Five!) months later and I get a bill saying that my account is over due to the tune of $218.63. What? Where the hell did that come from? Did the man do stealth work for me at some point that he didn't tell me about? Or didn't bill me for in those months? No breakdown of what the $218.63 beyond "Balance Forward." I'm sorry, but my last bill that I received from him said that my total Balance Due was $76.44. If that wasn't the case, why didn't it say that my balance due in October was $295.07 instead of $76.44. What ignoramus can't print out a bill that shows accurately what is owed on an account? I mean, really? Seems pretty straightforward and simple to me.

If the amount due was from a previous year - say 2012 - why wasn't the matter addressed earlier? Why didn't any of the previous sporadic bills show this amount as being due? What. The. Fuck!

I don't want to pay him this money. It isn't that much, really, in the greater scheme of things. It is more the principal of - hey bud, you snooze, you lose. You told me the balance due, I paid the balance due, you don't get to just say, "Oops, I made a mistake and you actually owe me another $218.63. And I just couldn't be bothered to ask for it in November, I had to wait five months."

I sent him an email and he wrote back and said he didn't want to alarm me. Really?

Oh, this is the letter I sent him in response:

Hi Xxxx,

I am alarmed. I am alarmed that there is any balance due. I am alarmed that you have sent me incorrect bills before this. I am alarmed that it has taken you four+ months to bring this to my attention.

As I mentioned, when I got the last bill, it said my balance due was $76.44. Are you telling me that at that time that was in fact not true? That the balance due was actually $295.07 ($218.63+$76.44)? That is simply inconceivable to me. Why would you send me any bills that didn't reflect the actual balance owed? I am dumbfounded. Truly dumbfounded. What sort of accounting software doesn't send a true balance due? Or was it simply user error and oversight on your part?

Please send me a detailed accounting of all our business together - from first to last, what work you have billed for and what payments you show we have made. I will do the same on my end if I can. I don't know that I have retained all of the bills that you have sent me.

Truly, Xxxx, I am disappointed and dismayed that this is happening. If a balance was due, especially such a large one, why not send me a bill in November? Or December. Or heck any month between the last bill and now? Why wait 4 months to send me a bill? You do know that my mom is on a fixed income and that she can't pay large lumps at one time. Heck, if I had known about this in October, I could have sent a little each month over the winter and we would be all caught up. Also, why would you send a statement that doesn't back-up what you are saying. Or a note included saying something like " Hi Augustus, I am so sorry, I just now realized that I had somehow forgotten to carry a balance due forward from 2013." (Or whenever the balance due is from). An envelope containing a bill for $218.63 5 months after my last bill (which showed I only owed $76.44) is simply rude and inconsiderate.

Thank you for your updated email address.

Looking forward to the complete detail of all the work you have done for us and all of the payments you show as having been received.

Happy Friday!

So, what do you all think?

Condiment Post (Birthday doings, too)

I like condiments.

Well, the last post I published had been started April 3, before the play started at the Smith. Not really a play - a ballet of Peter Pan. Does this really exist outside of SPAs minds? Yup, I guess it does. I just googled it. I had never heard of it before. Peter Pan, yes, but as a ballet, no.

Anyway, the show went pretty smoothly. It took a lot of time, was a teeny bit stressful - mostly around dealing with my situation taking care of mom and balancing work - I don't know how people with "real" jobs handle the same thing. Unless they get more help than I get. Bigger support system. I hope that's the case. Anyway, it all worked out. I had a coworker to cover dinner, so I could pop out of the rehearsal and give mom some food and come back again. The work itself wasn't too onerous. The group is fairly self contained - lots of volunteers and people working. A stage manager would be nice, but when I mentioned it to the director, she said that no one would take on the responsibility. Sigh. Anyway, it was a long few days - from April 3-6. But we got it done. And I think it was well received. Except by mom.

I don't know what goes on in her head. I do know that she has forgotten the story of Peter Pan - so that wasn't a good start. Ballet might be harder for her since she is still very verbal. And I admit there were some confusing bits. I am not sure what the whole "stars" and "aurora borealis" dances were all about...it just wasn't her thing. Finding her "thing" is getting more and more difficult - as I will explain in a bit.

So, that brings us to April 7th. As some of you know, I had made arrangements and plans to get a little bit of a break from Chez Schoen-René. I am a bit of a road warrior. I really like to be out and about  - not all the time - as I was discussing with anyone who would listen - besides living in a place for awhile (6 months to a year - perhaps) optimal travel at this point in my life is 3 months traveling - 3 to 6 months recouping. The last major travel I did was the trip across the US with mom back in the summer of 2011. Since then there have been lots of littler trips - Maine, CT, other parts of NY, NC, that sort of thing. Nothing too extensive. And none of it alone - or at least not with mom. Trips are trips, even with mom in her current state - and way better than nothing. But, in this case, I was hoping for a double whammy - a trip out of the country and a trip without mom.

All this to honor myself, give myself a break and to enjoy my birthday - April 8. The plan was to leave around 10 in the morning - drive to London, Canada and meet a friend for late dinner or drinks or both. I had planned a stop in Buffalo to go to the Pearl Street Brewery (Brewpub) for lunch. Gave myself loads of time for getting through the border. And the drive from the border to London, another 2.5 hours - would give me time to get there, find a hotel in a leisurely fashion and maybe do a little exploring of the town before meeting up with my friend (who works until 9 or so). She was ready, I was ready. Well, ready-ish. I was planning on packing - packing - ha - throwing a few things in a bag and grabbing my toothbrush was about the size if it in the morning. By the way - the next day's plan was to head to Toronto to meet another friend, spend the night there and then come back on Thursday in time to do an event at the Smith. Plans. Gotta love 'em.

I just ordered two thumb drives from China. Says they will get here in 16-18 days? Are they taking the slow boat?

The morning dawned, I was up and starting to think about getting out of bed when I got a message from the person who was going to help by hanging out with mom while I was away. Family crisis/emergency sort of thing. Great. Sorry for her and her family of course, but come on! Really? I chose not to go and called to make an appointment for a massage. It was my birthday after all and if I wasn't going away, the least I could do would be to treat myself to a massage. Have I said before that if I were really rich, I would have a masseuse on payroll? Maybe two - so they could massage each other when they weren't massaging others people. Turns out that the emergency was serious, so I am glad I didn't make her split her focus by having to care for mom while worrying about her own situation.

I spent a leisurely morning a bed, fed mom lunch and headed to the massage. Not a bad one, not great, but not bad. Certainly way better than no massage at all! Afterwards, I headed to a bicycle shop. Much smaller than the one in Geneva. I liked the guy who worked there immediately. He understood what I was looking for, didn't look down at me or my questions (ok, so I was taller than he) and made good recommendations. I didn't know that bikes now sometimes have disc brakes! Who knew?! I didn't make a decision right then, I like to sleep on big decisions.

Next stop, MacGregor's for a beer. They have the most taps in the area. Lots of lovely stouts to choose from. I only had one and it was yummy. I hope to get back there and have some more. Two women I know from Geneva were there - getting ready for class. We chatted and I discovered that there is a place that makes good friend chicken in the area. It was a bit out of plan to head there then, so I put it on the "do later" list. Headed to Wegman's and got some chicken wings and other stuff that didn't require effort on my part and took them home and fed mom some dinner. Yay!

All in all, a good celebration of my day of birth. I have, though, renewed my conviction to do nice things for myself as frequently as I can - and as much as I can afford.

In that light, after surviving an event at the Smith - actually it was a decent event that got a lot of students who probably wouldn't otherwise have visited the Smith in the doors - on Friday I went back to the bike store. I was prepared to spend a good chunk of change on a new, customized bike. As I was walking in, I saw a used bike outside. The man I had spoken with earlier in the week suggested I give it a spin. I did. It was fine. And considerably less expensive than the new bike would have been. Not as spiffy, but it will suffice. I actually like to ride it, as opposed to a Schwinn I had purchased back when I was living in NC. Oh, and since I lived 8 miles from town - over bike unfriendly roads and terrain. I asked for it to be tricked out with fenders, a rack and toe clips. Yay! On Saturday I picked it up - just in time for two days of great weather. Great! Weather! (Ok, today we have snow on the ground, but the weekend was in the 70s.)