Oh My God

Half an hour of the same question over and over again. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

I am feeling sleepy for some reason this morning. I don't have a lot to do - but I do want to pop into the Smith and test all of the film equipment. And make sure that any laptops that are going to be used and are attached to my drop box account get an opportunity to sync up before they are used by others. Does that make any sense at all? I could talk someone else through how to do what I want done, but I don't know who would do it. So I will head down around 3:30 and do what I need to do.

I am in my second "office:" Lake Drum Brewing. They just released a new beer - so I get a mugful free! For a shandy it was pretty good. I don't really like Shandys though...

Dinner is going to be from Cam's pizza. I think Chicken Parmesan and some chicken wings and onion rings. Yum! (Garlic parmesan wings are yummy)

My stupid xBox game keeps crashing and it is irking me no end. Grrr. (Turns out a lot of other people are having the same problem. Yippee! Hmm, that didn't sound very nice...)

Ok, slogged through some tedium for the Smith. Yay. But I keep learning more about Theatre Manager. Yay! Did some dishes and am ready for bed. Lots of meetings tomorrow. 

It is a sunny day!

We don't get a lot of them here in Geneva. So they are noteworthy. I am going to ride my bike down to the Smith to neaten up the stage, the area of the sound and light boards, maybe replace the sound board, set the theatre for tonight's movie and do a couple of other little things. Today is also bill day! Yippee! 

In all the hubbub bub, I didn't get to the bank to do anything with the filthy lucre that the IRS returned, grudgingly, to me. I still don't understand how someone who makes as little as I do needs to give anything to the government while corporations that earn huge profits get tax rebates?! WTF. Seriously. I don't know if Community Bank is open on Saturdays. Maybe till noon? I wish I could find Hannah again. I do like the staff at my branch, but she was funny.

I keep getting distracted. Found a new thing in Theatre Manager that needs to be tweaked and rebranded and such. I don't think I will be doing it, but will be paying inHouse to do the work. Oughtn't to take them too long so won't be too expensive.

Because it is sunny, I thought, hahahahahaha, that it might also be warm. It is 9 am and it hasn't broken 40 yet. So maybe I won't ride my bike downtown. Then again, I have only ridden it three times, which is about $100 a ride - gotta get that number down in case this bike, too, is stolen.

One cute thing mom is doing now, is that she can't really make clear the difference between her bed and her chair. I will say something like - Mom, (while she is sitting in her chair) do you want to get in bed? And she says "I am in bed." Makes me smile for some reason. Any excuse to smile is a good one.

Did my major Smithing today. Set up the movie stuff, cleaned up the stage a bit, did a couple other little things. Then a nice trip to the grocery store. Though, we are having Pizza and chicken wings tonight for dinner. I can hardly wait. Yum, num, yum, yum.

Another Marathon Day!

It is one of those days were I feel like I have been running all day long. I woke up at 6 to mom once again trying to make a pilgrimage downstairs. Sigh. It took some convincing, but she finally agreed to stay upstairs - where it is ten degrees warmer and where I can keep a better eye on her. I got her a yogurt and started to work. Lots of things to do for the Smith.

I feel like I worked from 6 until 10. Took a short nap and then started working again. Some for mom - I made her lunch and did her pills - which have been added to - a vitamin D tab (thank you Mary) and an iron tablet recommended by the doctor (who said her iron is a little low). Interestingly (well, I think it is interesting) mom seems to be perkier since she started taking the vitamin D. Go figure. I hope the iron does wonders too. That would be niftilicious! Then continued work for the smith from 2 ish until now. Another hour and a half. I probably won't charge the Smith all of that time - maybe 3 hours today so far instead of five and a half. Sigh. I really, really wish I was on salary. I hate having to think about how much time I spend working. Glarp.

Showering was accomplished. Yippee! I hope to change my sheets as well. And I have to go and get some groceries - I have decided on soup and salad for dinner - split pea soup. Mom used to make that soup - so I am hoping that it is a comfort soup of some kind. That would be great. I think I will toss in some sausage bits as well. I found a second blitz hacker (a weird device that chops things up pretty quickly - the poor person's food processor. Ok, I guess a poor person's food processor would just be a knife. This is in between a knife and a cuisinart.

Just a quick post squeezed in on this busy feeling day. Huzzuh!

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.

Close my stupid yap!

After deciding I would go to the new Japanese restaurant in Geneva, I was pretty excited. I like Japanese food - the challenge was to find stuff on there that mom would eat. I got there and the place was empty feeling. Luckily it filled up pretty well while I was there. I heard the owner/manager speaking with an associate and it sounded like they were speaking some sort of Chinese dialect. I was hoping for some Japanese. But no, it was Chinese. I asked him and he told me it was Fujian dialect. I said something in Mandarin and he was off - nattering away about this and that - his accent was a little hard to decipher at times - and my vocabulary isn't what it was - or even what it ought to be - but I think we got some communication done. Still, I need to learn to shut my yap!

The food was good but not great. Don't know if I will go there again - but only time will tell if that is the case.

Is my bathroom sink a sign about my life? The drain seems all backed up and I can't figure out how to get it clean. And the cold water faucet continues to be flaky - fine one day, drippy and other and just now, it just wouldn't stop until I turned the water off to it. Sigh.

Mom's tastes have changed so much. She used to love ginger - now it is "too hot" for her. Sigh. No spicy food. Nothing "interesting." We tried tempura last night and she was not amused. She kept telling me that eating dinner with her was always an adventure. And it seemed like she meant that in a not good way. Sigh. At least she still has an appetite.

Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine...

Pixar has some very creative brains. The seagulls from Finding Nemo and their "Mine" thing was awesome. Not so awesome is my mom's version of it. Yes, I am still smarting over her eating my sundae from Friendly's that I really was looking forward to eating eventually. Most lately, she found a bag of pop corn and asked if it was for her. Sigh. Grr. Poo! It was in fact for her, but I was trying to parcel it out. If I give her the whole bag, she eats the whole bag. Partly because she forgets that she has eaten any, partly because, well, she does enjoy eating. Still. Which is a good thing. Just not the whole, sort of, gluttonous thing.

Olivia D'abo...sigh...

I don't know that I am going to make it until I get a break in April. Really. Mom is just being incredibly selfish and greedy and it is really, really frustrating. Tonight, we got some bad winter weather. Slush falling from the sky. Our power lines didn't like it, so out went the lights. I was at the Smith - called mom - didn't get an answer, so I drove home. Sure enough, our lights were out. I got mom a candle, used a flashlight to get her to and from the bathroom and then decided that she would be ok while I went and got Chinese food for dinner. Chinese food had been my plan all along but with the power out, cooking wouldn't have been all that easy or fun. Did I mention the dishes are piled really high and deep in the sink? Anyway, when I got out everything was all snarly and icky. Police and fire had closed off the strip mall. Luckily the Chinese place, Ling Ling was still open with power! Hao! I got a good pile of food - I wish they would give us containers that didn't have separated sections. Whatever. Then I decided to head to the Smith so that I could clean up the seminar I missed and help Nate through his second attempt at projection. Eventually I made it back home - where we were still without power. Candles for everyone!

Now came an unpleasant, for me, part of the evening. I really, really don't enjoy hearing my mom eat. Watching is even worse. Sigh. I sat with her in her candlelit bedroom while she snuffled through her food. It is cute how she discovers stuff - is this salmon? What is this, a shrimp? I guess I didn't get any green beans. Oh, here's one! And then the sounds of mastication. Joy and rapture! I endured it as long as I could and then headed off to my room for a lie down. Not much else to do with no power on. Just as I was closing my eyes, the power came back. Yippee!

So where do the selfish and greedy things come in? After dinner, I gave her a bowl of popcorn (from the Smith) and an apple treat from the Chinese restaurant. I come back to check a little later and her show is over. She looks at me and says "what else is there for me to nibble." Seriously. Not a thank you for the food she has been given. Not abashedly. Just "What else is there for me to nibble." I mean, come on, you had dinner, you had a snack, you fed yourself ice cream. I have brought you food, snacks, out on your shows for you and what do I hear. "What else is there for me to nibble." I am glad I have some self control otherwise I might have really exploded. As it was, I told her that there wasn't anything else just now and she would just have to go to bed. During the time it took her to stand up and head upstairs, I had gotten her fresh cold water and taken her up a fiber bar. Sigh.

All in all, it isn't really a big deal. I have it really easy. I need to chill out and let it all slide off. And the new mom does say she loves me a lot - used to be a surprise to hear it, now she says it five or more times a day. And she seems grateful, most of the time, for my efforts (or anyone's efforts) on her behalf. When she isn't wishing she were dead. That's always a joyful part of the day. Anyway...looks like I have the weekend off from the Smith. Trying to keep my hours down because we don't have a lot of money coming in. I look forward to the day that movies are consistently making money for the Smith. Ok, I would settle for routinely making money...

Up for the duration

For some reason, I am feeling put upon and overwhelmed. Just thought I would share.

I know this is all in my head. Maybe it has something to do with Valentine's Day. Maybe it has something to do with how much work I have to do in the next few days at The Smith. Maybe it is the weight of taking care of mom. Maybe it is something else entirely - relationship/Relationship wise. Who the heck knows.

Valentine's Day was long and dull. I wrote a lot of letters - e-mail notes. My recent pithiest correspondent is signing off for a week and that was a bit of a blow. It shouldn't be, since we have not been corresponding that long. But I really enjoy our dialogue and have looked forward to it. And now I won't hear a peep for a week. Part of me is afraid that after that week, it just won't be the same. Then again, it might be.

Other notes were not as pithy, but I did hear from some nice people. That is a good thing. Not as good as seeing someone in person, but a lot better than nothing.

*******

Back again, after a long day on Saturday. I woke at 5 and stayed up. Work started at 7 for me, schlepping tables. Fun stuff indeed. The more fun stuff was setting up the AV equipment for the Fire-people's training session. I knew that we had to put the small projector they had someplace nearish the stage - I was surprised that it went in the second row! I had the small sound table to use and its legs were long enough to go over the seats nicely. I could have run power from the front of the stage. If I am around next year, that's what I will do. I did run sound from there to the snake which worked out fine. Not all that necessary since the guy's/presenter's presentation had about 30 seconds of pretty useless sound all together. Nice guy, dull as lead presenter. I snored or nodded off a lot. Made for a long day, though. On top of that, I went in later and trained a new projectionist. I think he will get the hang of it quickly! Yay!

Hmm, what happened on Sunday? Not a lot of anything.

And now Monday is history as well. More work. I went in to get some preliminary set-up accomplished. All went smoothly and quickly. Yay. Lunch for mom and then off to the doctor's appointment. Jenny (the aide) got mom dressed and nudged her along to eat her food. Then, while we were gone, she did a great job neatening the kitchen. Yippee!

Meanwhile, mom and I had a thrilling time at the doctor's. Well, I had a nice time at least - chatting with the staff. One of them liked Hello Kitty! :) Dr. Ryan suggested that I make an appointment to get mom's eyes looked at, which I will do. Other than that, no big news. Phew and huzzuh! Quick trip to the grocery store - mom has taken to sitting in the car rather than going in with me. Should I make her go? I don't think so. In any case, I didn't make her go into the store. I got what I needed and got right back out.

Since I didn't need to be back to the Smith until time for the event, I puttered around the house and napped a bit. Dinner was a major glop. All of the leftovers (except the garlic mashed potatoes) went into the pan. Turned out pretty well - and the leftovers of that will be my lunch for the next few days. Yum. I put Hunt for Red October on for mom and went to my event. It was a movie showing and talk presented by Hobart and William Smith. It wasn't particularly well attended but was interesting. And despite having to run up and down from the projection booth and up and down the aisle in the auditorium a few times, I think it went smoothly. I got most of the clean-up done last night - just have a few cables to coil and put away that I didn't feel like doing.

So, there you have it. Finally caught up. Oh, there is a new week in review from my relationship blog.

And I saw Ender's Game one night - Saturday night I think. It was ok, not great. I am a huge fan of the first two books (and the others aren't bad - I am just not a fan of the author, sadly). So I had a lot of preconceptions heading into the movie. I think that overall they navigated that pretty well. I just don't like Asa Buttersworth or whatever his name is. I didn't like him in Hugo and I didn't like him here.  Glad I saw it, but sad I saw it at the same time. Now I need to read the book again...

Busy Day on Thursday

Not really super busy, but we did a few errands. Mom actually got up and got dressed (with some help from Jenny) before lunch. In fact we did not eat lunch until midway through our appointments. First off, blood sucking phlebotomy! We have a doctor's appointment on Monday. That will be a joyous occasion for sure. In preparation for that, mom needed to get a blood test. So that's what we did. Sadly, over the course of six months, I misplaced the paper that requested the blood test, so had to make a quick run up to the Doctor's office to get a new one - which happened without much time or hassle. Like that! The phlebotomist was a bit curmudgeonly when we first arrived but by the time we left she actually had a little smile. Mom can have that effect on people. Sometimes.

Next stop, Friendly's for lunch. Mom does like Friendly's and feels comfortable there. We had a very nice server who told me that I reminded her of her brother who was taking care of their parents. Mom had a fish sandwich and some coleslaw. I had a Reuben with french fries. Mom spent much of the time "complaining" that she didn't get a Reuben. This was mom's complaining "Don't I like Reubens?" "This isn't like any fish sandwich I have ever had before." Etc. Fun stuff.

Next stop was Rite Aid. I had to pick up some pills for mom. And I wanted her to talk the pharmacist about her flu shot. It was a new-to-me pharmacist named after a hurricane. Ok, not really. But she did say that the hurricane touched down on her birthday, which was sort of odd. Again, she started curmudgeonly, but ended up smiling. Yay!

I offered mom the opportunity (ha) to go to the laundromat with me. She couldn't make a decision. So, rather than drag her there, I left her at home. Laundry went pretty smoothly, had a nice chat with a funny woman from Brooklyn who moved up here for a guy. Brought it home and mom folded about a third of it before giving up.

Next, leftovers for dinner! Yum! And quick and easy. I like meals like that. We had to eat early-ish, so that we could get to the Smith for me to show the movie.

Oscar Shorts 2014 - Animations - five are nominated but they gave us seven to watch. I liked most of them. My favorite was Mr. Hurlbot. I also liked one of the non-nominated films - The Blue Umbrella. I think Is there Room on the Broom is going to win. I liked it but didn't think it was great. It was decently attended. I think mom liked most of the films, which is always a good thing.

So, long day. Yay!

Starting to get sketchy

My current secret (ha, I am blogging about it) pleasure has been watching all of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes. I will follow (and intersperse) these with DS9 and Voyager. Someday will watch Enterprise. Anyway, I am working on Season 4 and already my memories of episodes is getting sketchier. I think this is when I started doing other stuff and didn't have as much time for television. 1991, I was in the Bay Area - either working at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory or the Lawrence Hall of Science. Good but busy times. Maybe good and busy. Hmm.

You know, the "marshmallows" in Lucky Charms don't really taste like marshmallows. Doesn't mean I don't like them or won't eat them...not that I would eat Lucky Charms at my advanced and advancing age (nearly 53, eeek!!).

Speaking of sketchy, my mom freaked out the other morning. I told her I was heading to Rochester - she was still asleep. She is not at her most cogent when she first wakes up. Not until after she has broken her fast and had some coffee is she truly as awake as she will get during a day. So I probably should have told her that I was going to the Smith instead of where I was actually going. Yes, it would have been a lie, but it wouldn't have been as stressful as hearing that I was driving to Rochester and back. Anyway, I was in the middle of my meeting - about which I will write in March - when my phone rang - it was my boss from The Smith. No, no disaster there - instead Asta had called there for some reason. And Asta had been called because for some reason she is still shown as an emergency contact somewhere for my mom. Why aren't these things checked by the companies that provide these services once a year or even every six months? Sigh. Anyway, I called home to find that mom had freaked out and called 911 - complaining that everything was broken (in her body) and she couldn't move. Apparently the handle to the toilet might have broken (it didn't). How she had discovered that from her bedroom (remember, everything was broken, she could not see or move) is a mystery for the ages. I called back a little later and spoke with one of the two Ambulance drivers who said that mom had told them that nothing was really wrong and that she didn't want to go anywhere. I told her than an aide was coming soon and that she would be able to watch my mom until I returned. All ok. But it was a smidge scary and disheartening.

Cell animation is hard!

I am trying to animate a bird's wings flapping. And boy howdy is it hard work. Especially since I am not used to working with Gimp. True, I have used it a few times now, but not every day for hours and hours. So, I figure another twelve hours or so and I will have five or six good cells. Sigh.

Ok, it didn't take me that long. It took me a good while and I think it turned out decently. A goose flapping its wings. I am using the animated gif as part of my signature. I am going to try pasting it in here, but I don't know if it will show up or not.

Yay, it flaps! I think it is pretty cool. I use it to make Au-goose-tus.

So, I watched The Fountain again tonight. I don't know when I last saw it, but until it started I hadn't remembered seeing it. A science-fictiony sort of love story/creation myth starring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. Decent to good stuff if you haven't seen it before.

Good Smith day. A work crew came and did a good job organizing yet another space. One that they attempted before but did not do a good job with. This time, with a little prodding from me, it got done decently. Yay. Then in the afternoon, I knocked a few other things out. Charlie, one of the Smith's long term supporters, came in and started the somewhat laborious and arduous task of going through our lighting Gel inventory. The goal being to throw out anything that is bad and confusing and to see how much we have of what so that if a visiting artist asks for a color, we can know if we need to order anymore or not. Also had a good chat with the copier lady. Not an excellent one, but at least we know that we can move the copier for free - and I measured and found out that it will fit easily in the space I envisioned it would live. I do have pretty good spatial relations. I also got a couple of cables I had been thinking about taken care of. It seems like I did more stuff, but can't think of it now. Sigh.

Oh, I made chicken wing dip! I had never heard of it before. A friend gave me her recipe, so I tried it. I think if I make it again, I will add way more celery. I would like celery in nearly every bite.

Eating for health

Eating to enhance one's health makes sense to me. Seems sort of common sensical in fact. I swear, though, that some food makes me sick. Not food sickness, sick to my stomach sick, but low grade infection or cold sort of sick. Perhaps it isn't the food itself, but a germ that happens to have piggy-backed on it. But though I believe in germs as a transmission methodology for illness, I also believe in the immune system, mine in particular, that prevents such transmission in most cases. I do know that sometimes I eat food from a fast food place and I feel depressed afterwards. I think that is some sort of psychic transmission - not just the normal depression that comes from doing something that really, we know, not so deep down, that what we did was perhaps not the best, most healthfullyness thing to have done. Anyway. I am sick right now. Not Big Sick, but little sick. A little sore throat, a little stuffed nose. Poo.

I swear that I asked mom if she would like to see a Marx brothers movie. And I swear she said she would like to. So I ordered a set of Marx Borther's movies from Amazon. The other day, I asked if she wanted to watch one. Her response? "I never really liked them." Great. Well, luckily, I recall enjoying them! Yay even!

Learned a lot at the Smith today. Played with the fire curtain. Fun and easy. Way too expensive, but that is the price of safety, apparently. I also spent an hour with people who know things about boilers! Wow! We have a boiler in our house, so I was a leg up from someone who doesn't know about steam heat. Still, it will take some maintaining. Joy.

Wee tree dings

Of orient are...

Anyway, I started to watch The West Wing on Netflix last night and I couldn't stop. I watched three episodes and could have watched three more without a hesitation. A glance at the time stopped me, though, since I had to be at the Smith at 9 in the morning to check in with the workers. What a fun show - good writing, good stories. I had forgotten most of what I had seen - if I had ever seen it before. I know I saw the pilot. And some of the rest of the next four seasons (I stopped watching after Aaron Sorkin left) So, if I don't post a blog, I am going to blame it on The West Wing!

For dinner, I got Arby's food last night. I was, yet again, aghast at how much a fast food dinner for two adults of decent appetite costs! Glarg, even! And it was ok. We had two sandwiches, onion rings, curly fries, a soda and two chocolate lave cakes. Honestly, my primary reason for choosing Arby's this time was because of the cakes. Sadly, they were not totally awesomely delicious. They were good, just not great. Curly fries with Horsey Sauce, well, those are another magnitude of yum. Not worth going there all the time for, though.

Sometimes I leap to the most negative conclusion I can imagine. Case in point. Last night, I went to fill a Brita pitcher. The sink was, sadly, a tad full, so I tried to cram the inflexible pitcher under the spigot  in several different ways to no avail. Finally, I removed some of the dishes in the sink and put the pitcher in - only to find that no water came out of the tap! Eeek! The water in the house is broken! Maybe a water main is being repaired. Maybe a pipe in the house is broken and water is gushing into the basement! How much will that cost to fix? Who is going to come fix it at 1 in the morning? Where is the water turn off? Where would I look for a leak? What will mom do for water for washing up and flushing and things? Listen for sounds of running water, nothing...Upstairs, the water worked fine. Hmm. Back downstairs, kitchen sink faucet still not producing water. Now wait a sec, there is a filter thingamabob on the faucet - that hasn't been used as an active filter since 1984 and there is a little slidy switch thing that just might...yup, that did it. Flowing water. I hope no one was looking or listening to my thoughts. Phew, even.

Early to wake...

I am not a fan of early morning meetings. Not the schedule to which I currently adhere. I normally rise around 9 - sometimes later - so am easily ready for a meeting that starts at 10. Unfortunately, not everyone is on that schedule. They are early risers - five and six in the morning are not unheard of times for them. So a meeting at 8:30 seems like getting off to a late start for them! Eeek! I managed to get to my 8:30 meeting a few minutes early - yes, even for early meetings I like to be early. The third of our triumvirate arrived soon after - the first was there waiting. The meeting was about the HVAC system at the Smith.

The person representing the controls company seemed young - but that was only to be expected when it turned out that there was a lot of control scripting that happened under the hood of the controls application. Who knew? Apparently this guy did. After listening to our woes, he opened up some files and found the major culprit - one piece of logic had been mis-written - making it so that no matter what we did after we turned the system on, it would try to cool down the space to the unoccupied coolness setting - a not-so-balmy 55 degrees! Eeek! No wonder it never turned off!!

After the technician made such quick work of figuring out that problem, my fears were assuaged about the system. We spent the next couple of hours tweaking things and learning some of the ins and outs of the program. All in all a well spent few hours, I believe. Yay, even!

Unfortunately, it made Augustus a tired puppy. I dragged myself home and made lunch for mom - note to self (and anyone who reads this) - mom does not love left over quiche. The supermarket has been out of salami the last two times I was there. Poo. If they are out the next time, I will check at Tops. Glarp. In fact, I plan to head to the supermarket today before lunch and resupply with salami for mom's lunches.

After lunch, I napped for a bit to try to regain my customary alterness. It worked to a teeny degree - at which point I started working on my blog - hence the lateness of the post yesterday. I also started thinking about dinner. I thought, heck, I will do the normal Friday dinner - salmon for mom and pizza for me - but I couldn't face making pizza and the salmon hadn't been thawed - so I came up with the idea of ordering pizza! Yay! Except that mom informed me that she didn't like pizza. Sigh. I got pizza anyway - and some chicken wings - mom mostly ate most of the chicken wings. I now have pizza for meals for the next couple of days! Yippee! Everyone, mostly, was happy with the dinner.

A little of this and some of that

What must it be like to live in Alzheimer's world? Not remembering if you had slept or not. Not knowing what was a current memory and what is a memory from the past. And to be so frequently unsure of what is going on. Eeek! And as caregivers, it is suggested that it is easier to go along to get along. In other words, if the patient (I don't know what else to call mom - mom?) says it is cold - agree - even if it is not. Being right is difficult with an alzheimer's patient for both parties - I know this from experience. The two actual cups of coffee has helped a lot, by the way!

Yesterday, I went into the Smith to meet with a man who is going to help around the place by doing some woodworking and stuff of that ilk. That will be amazing! I would like to have the place a bit better organized! Yay! Very nice man, loads of experience - I haven't seen any of his handy work yet - but am looking forward to it.

Last night was my night out on the town! Woo hoo! Red paint all over the place. Ok, not really. I did go down to Beef and Brew and stuck my oar into a little bit of trivia. Mainly because I was waiting for it to be over. One of the team participants had agreed to go to Canandaigua with me to partake of beer, pool and inexpensive wings. Sadly, our desires were thwarted regarding the wings. They were sold out of them! How the heck does that happen? Whatever. We settled for garlic fries instead that were great! I think I must have eaten 6 cloves worth of garlic. Yippee! Beer was, as usual, inexpensive and the pool was only $1.00 per game - we played five. I do so enjoy playing pool.

Quite a Day

And now it is Sunday. The day of rest! Yippee!

Yesterday was chock full of exciting times. Not a bad thing, but not something I need everyday.

First off, the wedding at the Smith. It went off without a hitch - well, the couple got hitched, so, I guess that isn't an accurate statement. It went off with a hitch - but the good kind. There was only one surprise - that they had planned on taking photos at the location. No one mentioned it to me. Oh well. The photographer, John, did them efficiently, which was great. I puttered and did some cleaning while waiting for them to finish. A few interesting things were hidden in the closet I am currently working on. Anything I can move out of the manager's office and out into other people's spaces, I am happy about! Oh, and I plugged in the phone in the manager's office and it seems to work. Yippee! I wonder why it was unplugged...

After work, I bought mom a tuna dinner from Parker's. It was a tad more expensive than I would have liked or thought it should be, but mom seemed to enjoy it. She still has a good appetite. Yay for blessings of any size, shape or kind! I ended up with a slice of pizza from Cam's and some pretzels that the wedding party left behind.

Next up, showing the movie - The Bling Ring - at the Smith. It was not very well attended. I guess (college) kids just aren't interested in going to see movies in the theatre when they can watch it on their laptops or tablets. Whatever. I didn't like the movie all that well. The acting was mediocre, the film was just all over the place, the story was a depressing one. All in all, glad I saw it, and am glad it is not something I will ever have to see again. Yay!

After the movie, I went to the Red Dove for a beer, Left hand Milk Stout. I needed some graham crackers to have with that. Yummy and very, very sweet! New bartender there, who I think I might have seen before. Had a nice time just relaxing after the excitement of the day.

At home, mom was in her room, but not ready to sleep. I think she might have a bit of sundowner's going on. Anyway, I offered to put a movie on for her - and she accepted. And ended up watching two. I must remember that she doesn't like Swing Time. Hates it in fact. Sigh. I also fed her two bowls of popcorn - of which she only remembered one and kept whining about not getting a second bowl. Sigh. It is so sad to see her when she gets frustrated about not remember the seemingly simplest things to remember. Oops, two "sighs" in one paragraph. I think I need a break! Anyway, we were up until 3 - when I passed out. I think I need to get her a DVD player for her room. Maybe this week. We shall see.

Sleep Glorious Sleep!

For some reason, I didn't sleep well the night before last. I think I got about two hours of sleep before I woke up and couldn't fall, or didn't fall, back to sleep for another 3 hours or so. At which point it was 7 and I needed be out of the house by 9. I woke up at 8:54. At least I got another two hours of sleep. But neither of the alarms I had set on my phone had woken me earlier, as I had hoped they would. Why? Well, because the phone was dead - uncharged. I think the uncharging was partly due to the weather. I don't get awesome ATT reception on the best days - which makes my phone search for service more than I would like, which drains the battery. One reason I didn't sleep so well, I think, was because of a big storm that came through. Said storm probably also caused atmospheric disturbances which made my phone do more searching which drained the battery which led to me waking up 6 minutes before I was supposed to be downtown. Eeek.

Finally, I figured out how long it takes for me to drive from my house to The Smith without much traffic and with zippy parking: 3 minutes. That is pretty quick. Yay. We were meeting to go through some of the stuff in the Tech Cemetery or the Dungeon of Despair. Over the past few months, David and I have been putting things we didn't think were useful anymore (or things about which we had no clue) down into a room in the bottom of the Smith. Even more recently, we spent half an hour cleaning that space up. The next step was to get someone in who might be able to assess what we had and what we might be able to let go of and for how much. That person was Greg, the sound guy. The three of us spent most of an hour looking at things and deciding which pile they needed to live in - the sell pile, the keep pile and the "we have no idea what this is yet" pile. Huzzuh!

Next up, a bit of time was used looking at the HVAC system. It just doesn't seem to be working they way we would expect it to work. And experimentation seemed to prove that was indeed the case. Hopefully we will get some help from the controls people and the whole thing will work as expected. That would be nifty!

I really needed a nap all day, but didn't get one. Instead, I came home, made lunch for mom and then headed out to do laundry. I also decided to tackle the drip in the faucet in the small bathroom. Sigh. First off, I didn't have a wrench large enough to do the job of getting the lock ring off. So I bought one, and a box of washers for around the house. Who knew what size I would need? Turned out, upon returning home, that it was a washerless faucet - there is a cartridge in the faucet that gets replaced when it goes bad. Easy peasy, right? Wrong. Lowes didn't have the replacement cartridge. Not really a surprise since I am sure the faucet was put in many years ago. Huge sigh, though. I got home with a replacement faucet set - which the man assured me would be simple to install. And I think he is right, if I had the right tools and double jointed arms. Meanwhile, the leak continued. The shutoff valve to the cold water doesn't actually shut the water off. I guess that needs replacing too - though a functioning faucet would probably make the problem less pressing. How did I realize the extent of the problem? A puddle of water in the kitchen was a good clue. Glarg and glarp. So, right now, I have a huge pile of mess in the little bathroom and no end in relief in sight. I have written to our former handy person, Justin, but he has not written back. I heard an ad on WNYR about help around the house - Fingerlakes something, but didn't write down the information. Poo.

After the day I had had, I did not feel like cooking, so headed to Ling Ling to grab some Chinese food. Yum! Mom doesn't mind when I don't cook. I had already decided that I didn't want to go out on Tuesday night, so I stayed in and played while mom watched some TV and ate ice cream. Later, she had problems with her new television set. A new remote is, of course, daunting to someone with Alzheimer's. I am not thrilled with the whole set, but it works. And I think I got mom to a place where she was able to do what she wanted to do. Not understanding time doesn't help. She wanted to watch David Letterman and didn't understand that he wasn't available upon demand. I was exhausted from a long, frustrating day and did my best not to hurl the TV from her bedroom window.

All this is to explain why there was no post yesterday. Today is another day. We are having a bit of fall, weather-wise, in beautiful Geneva, NY. We need to get mom's blood tested and run a couple of other errands. And I still have no idea what we are doing for dinner tonight. I do have an avocado that is rapidly going bad...

Phew!

Leaving Canandaigua after an evening of pool and wings, I got pulled over by the Sheriff. He seemed to think I had had too much to drink to be driving. After a battery of tests, he decided that, in fact, I was ok to drive. But I do need to get my NYS license taken care of. I almost got it a year ago, but I didn't have a second form of identification. Well, third. I needed my current license, and two more forms - a passport wasn't good enough for the DMV. So I had to get a social security card. And how did I get the social security card? With my passport. Sigh. Now, I just have to find the card again. I know I have it somewhere. It and three or four others. I have gotten a lot of them over the years. And misplaced many of them. I wonder how many Augustus Schoen-René's are paying into social security?!

It was a fun evening, besides the Sheriff incident, which actually had its fun moments. I went to the Red Dove to say hi to everyone down there. Sadly a new bartender will be taking over Tuesday nights from Sarah. Boo hiss even! Nice enough guy, very chatty, named Alan. Wandered up to Beef and Brew and met up with the trivia crowd - ok, mainly David and Keiran. And Sarah, (another Sarah) who opted to go home rather than come out with us. Probably wise of her. Anyway, the three of us went for pool and wings at Jose's where we went last week after our win at trivia. I had seen that they had wings for sale on Tuesdays and Thursdays - and the notion of garlic Parmesan wings sounded awesome! We got a dozen - six medium and six garlic parmesan, both were good. Ok, the garlic ones were great. I will definitely go back again.

What else exciting happened? Hmm. I made pasta, with alfredo sauce from a jar. Needless to say my home made stuff is better. But it was easy. Also sausage, broccoli and, guess what, for a change, corn on the cob rounded out the meal!

Shuffled off...

Yes, I shuffled off to Buffalo last night. A friend offered to go to Anchor Bar with me to try the original wings. Glad I went. I have never really spent much time in Buffalo, thinking it was far from Geneva. It really isn't, in the greater scope of things. 1:40 to downtown, door-to-door, I think. Not even going too much over the speed limit. Anyway, Anchor Bar was fun. Then we went and caught the end of Measure for Measure done country style by an outdoor Shakespeare company. Fun! Lastly, I got a driving tour of that part of Buffalo! Yay!

I was curious how big the city was, population-wise. I always thought it was twice as big as Rochester and Syracuse. And it might have been, once upon a time. Sadly, it has shrunk tremendously. I do hope that as the weather gets hotter, more people will move back up into these great northern cities. Well, a lot of coastal cities will become uninhabitable, so...

On a completely different front, there are things that I would like to do that I am not doing. I know I will do them eventually (or not) but still...Top of the list, count my change. I normally do this every six months (as some of you know from reading this blog that long)(really? - Yes, really, I have been doing this blog for more than a year. I think...) in June and January. Heck, it is almost August. (Every time I type August, my fingers type Augustus with out me being aware of it until too late...) I also want to do more books - add them to my database, that is. Then again, I am trying to figure out if there is a way to export the list from there in case I want to manipulate the data in some fashion. Hmm. And do laundry - which is actually the lowest thing on my wish list - but high on my actually might get done, list. And mom is threatening that she will go with me. Might be good for her to get out. And I could make her do some actual work! Sit back and have her load the washer and transfer the clothes to the dryer. I could relax, maybe do my nails and read a good romance novel...(Is that an oxymoron?)

One down, one to go

Last night was opening night for the opera. Sadly, there were not very many people in the audience. Happily, the show went pretty well. There were a couple of mistakes. One late curtain. One forgotten hatstand. And one forgotten bench. Luckily the last one was the actors' fault and not the stage crew's fault. I also had the added difficulty of having to run from backstage to the Mezzanine, set up a quick exception in the HVAC system to turn the air conditioning on again and then back to continue resetting the stage for the next act.

The performers came alive on show night. All four of the leads did a great job. And the chorus really came together. No, I am not forgetting Garsevan, who did a funny job as the notary. I am happy to be associated with this production!

After the show, we were all treated to an Indian meal at the restaurant across the street from the Smith: Pure. I had some beef dish that was a smidge spicier than was comfortable, but I struggled through it. Happily.

Other than that, not a lot of interest occurred. I think I got up, made mom lunch and puttered around while waiting to head to the theatre.

One performance down, one to go!

Post Travel Day

Finally home again - one of the things mom remembered this week was the rhyme: To Market, to market to buy a fat pig - home again, home again, jiggety-jig. Turns out that isn't actually the wording. I thought it was too - but it is "dancing a jig" apparently. I thought there was one about buying a fat hen. But no, not the case. Memories continue to be strange and wonderful things.

Yesterday was a travel day. We got up really early - well, I got up earlier than normal for me - around 7:15 I think. Packed my room up first - took apart my game, put my clothes back in the suitcase, stripped the bed. Then I headed for mom's room - woke her up and started to pack up her stuff. She had more than she came with - Juliet provided lots more clothes and a lovely Thermos bag for mom for late birthday presents! How generous and thoughtful! Mom was much better dressed over the week than I usually put out for her! Anyway, that went quickly enough. Getting mom moving was slow going, but eventually she got up and got ready to go. I really didn't want to leave anything behind - so did a good job of looking in closets and drawers and under the bed to gather all of mom's stuff together. One thing had been missing for a few days - mom's angora "chest" sweater - a sweater that she typically uses to place on her chest at night for a bit of extra warmth. A search of the house revealed nothing. As I was packing, Juliet mentioned that one of mom's sweaters was drying in a room on the first floor - I went to get it and discovered mom's chest sweater on the back of a chair in there. Yay! I do hope that nothing got left behind.

We got out and on the road around 9. It took a while, a few stops and 2 of my mix CDs to get us home around 7 pm - through a bit of a deluge near Albany, over hill, through dale, a teeny bit of traffic and a good amount of clear sailing. Yippee!

The day before - Saturday - was definitely not a travel day. My last day of semi-autonomy for a long while, I got up and got out and drove to where we were meeting later in the afternoon - when I am not familiar with a place, I like to check it out, when I can, ahead of time so I am not unpleasantly surprised. Found the place - in the middle of nowhere - and then stopped to figure out my next move. I guess I sat there a little too long as some guy came up and asked if I needed help. Not in a mean way, but I could tell he was not pleased with my sitting in the parking lot of his (closed) establishment. Whatever. I moved to the parking lot of a building that was under-construction. Only to find that the beer place I wanted to check out was only open on Fridays. Ooops. So I decided to go get a bite of lunch.

On my travels I finished my audio book - Seabiscuit! Great stuff and very glad I listened to it. Now I think I might want to see the movie again...

For lunch, I chose a place I have visited in the past - The Whale's Tooth. Good food - some local beer. I had an Andrew's beer - the place I had wanted to visit. And I had a ham and cheese melt with house made chips. Wow! It was really, really good! The whole schmoo. The house made chips were about the best I have ever, ever had. I wish I could make home made chips like they made those. Sigh.

Then off to rendezvous with my mom and sister at Hope Elephants, in Hope, Maine. I had read a little about it on the internet, after Juliet mentioned that we were planning on going to visit. But it didn't really prepare me for the experience. The deal is that there are two ex-circus elephants being looked after by a one-time circus worker who later became a vet in order to continue a life taking care of elephants. It is a small place - with a decent sized enclosure for the elephants to wander in and a specially built building for their indoor use. The main man, Jim, had worked with these two particular elephants back in a circus many years ago. He had done various elephant related activities in his life and then chose to help one particular elephant, which meant - for her health, that he needed to have two elephants. He told us all sorts of interesting facts about elephants in general and the two he had in particular. Fed them lots of carrots and some sticks (which they actually do a decent job of digesting apparently) and answered questions. We got to hold one of their old molars (wow - they have huge teeth - only four of them at a time - but still huge)! All in all, good stuff. Then a short visit to the inside building and suddenly we were done. I would recommend the visit to anyone who likes the idea of pachyderms. I think they ought to reverse the order of the experience because I, for one, would rather end up with viewing the elephants...

I think mom enjoyed the experience a little. Hard to tell recently. She is not doing that great. I know that she was eager to leave Maine starting about Wednesday. Sigh. I don't think we are going to be doing much traveling ever again. Double sigh.

Anyway, our next rendezvous was at 7 for dinner. I said "ta-ta" and headed off - ending up at Front Street Pub having a happy hour beer. Played a game of pool with a nice young woman, gave her a ride back to her abode and zipped back down to Lincolnville for dinner with Juliet, Paul and Mom.

Chez Michele is open only during "the season." Good food, decent atmosphere - I can see why Paul and Juliet like the place. I had duck and ordered a seafood combination dinner for mom. Lots of food! I felt way too pudgy at the end of the meal.

Good day - and a great way to end our week's visit to Maine! I have posted pictures on Facebook of the whole trip. Yippee!