Got an early start

Good thing I went to bed early. Though, a nap is probably in my future.

Mom's toilet is still broken and I had to decide whether to fix it myself (as I did last time) or get help. I chose to get help. Hopefully Justin will come and take a whack at it later today. That would be neat.

Saw a great recipe online today - french toast roll-ups. I am going to make a few and see if mom will eat them. I know they look delicious to me. But my sense of how much and what mom will eat is completely askew at this point. I give her a third of what she ate normally in the past and she eats half of that. Before, she used to be thrilled with anything and everything I put in front of her. Even is she didn't really like it, she ate it. Now, she eats only a bit of most things - and spits out a bit of this and that to show her distaste or displeasure. Not sure which one. So, for dinner today, er, French Toast? We shall see.

Justin came and fixed the toilet better than it was before, because he knows things! Maybe we will see our water bill go down. That would be great and nifty! And now I don't have to flush the toilet by lugging water in a box from one bathroom to the other. Yippee!

I have done very little Smith work today. I did, though, ride to the Smith when I went in. Yippee! Oops, almost forgot to finish up the weekly mail blast. Still not sure what to do about the temperature in the Smith. We shall see tomorrow. 

Maybe it is Call of Duty that is irking me. I will admit to destroying a copy of the disk just now - not intentionally (at first). But wantonly after it was clear that the disk would not play again (damn, xbox's bad read heads...)

The good news is that my window is open and the air is flowing happily around my room. Yippee!!

I cooked an interesting meal and of course mom thought it was disgusting. Yay. Bacon, corn on the cob (which she snarfed) and french toast rolls - stuffed with peanut butter and jelly, or nutella, or cream cheese. I tried to give her both PB&J.  

Two posts in one day?

Trying to catch up - I had the post all written last night and then got confused, what with working at the Smith when I thought I was going to have a night off, to realizing I needed to go to sleep early anyway since I had to be at the Smith this morning at seven - I plain forgot to post the silly blog post yesterday. Grrr. I am still aiming for 31 posts this month, so I hope to get this post written and up. Though it is going to be another long day at the Smith. 

We got the lighting all done in a couple of hours - but we were going at a very relaxed pace as far as I am concerned. But we got everything done. His board was not that much different from our board so I could actually be a little helpful. Yay. 

Had a nap, which helped a lot. I always feel a little discombobulated when I have to get up at a time that is not natural to my body. And only 5 hours of sleep doesn't help all that much either. I like sleep. Generally.

I sat and dozed through the show this morning. I will probably doze through the show this afternoon as well. There really isn't anything for me to do besides make sure that the place doesn't burn down. And then we have load-out and restore. The biggest problem will be moving the legs and the weights around again. Sigh. Though the first electric will need a good deal of work to get back to the rep plot, pretty much everything else was left unchanged. Hopefully I won't be there all night. The difficult thing is going to be getting mom her dinner. My plan is to leave as soon as Terren gets there and come back and feed mom and then head back down before the show starts. Joy and rapture.

And tomorrow is another show. And a little bit of work will be needed to be done for that. I hope that Darnell and Teajay will be able to handle running the show. 

I glimpsed the shingles on mom's side and boy howdy are they scary looking. But they are scabbing over and I hope that they will be leaving soon. Her anti-viral is done with, which is great. Speaking of mom, a long time friend of hers sent her a postcard. While mom is not always clear who sends her mail, she does love getting it (hint, hint).

Just got back from the Smith. I still have work to do on resetting, but it will just have to wait until tomorrow. I will head in around ten and get some of it done. Really, I just wanted to get out of there.

Already did an hour of work

Here it is 8:45 am and I have already done an hour of work. I want to get a little of this blogging thing done before doing some bill stuff. Yay bill stuff!

Last night's movie (The Hundred Foot Journey) was good, not great. I was uber surprised to see that Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey both put up a lot of money for it. I wonder why. It was a cute story, decently done, but certainly was not exceptional in any way. It would have been if we could have tasted all the yummy looking food. Oh well.

Damn Civilization all to hell! Grrrr. Moving on.

I hope to get some mom stuff done today. Justin is supposed to come over and get the gate up - maybe bring a new oven, etc. We shall see. And it is a Jenny day - yay! One of the things I would like to do is get some weekend coverage. Speaking of coverage, I was ok'd for respite from the Alzheimer's association. Up to 40 hours before June. Now if I could only figure out when I could use some respite - besides all the time...I could really use a massage. What? Where did that come from?

I had a minor epiphany today. Ok, it wasn't my epiphany exactly, a friend had it and I recalled it this morning. I can make calzone type food items with grands biscuits and the appropriate innards - like mozzarella, pizza sauce and pepperoni. I am so gustatorily excited!!

Today, amongst the things I did, I went to the bike store and picked up my bike. I got some things added to it, and they attached my handlebar mirror for free. Yay. Oh, another teeny epiphany, I can now get my car looked at - it is six months past due for its oil change, 'cause I have the bike to get back and forth - walking from there is too long a way in my current situation. By the way, checking the mom cams isn't very data intensive, so I can do it when I am not connected to the web.

Also, our handy guy came and put a gate up across the top of the stairs - very cool.

Ok, enough for now, I am sure there is more, but not that is getting written by me just now. Pfffffft.

Work, play and cleaning

It is one of those multi-function days.

I got up relatively early and headed to The Smith to test a few things. The HDMI splitter started working again, which is good and confusing. We shall see if it works for the projectionist on Thursday, as she has a DVD film to show. I also tested the DVD, added a trailer to the playlists, called the electrician about when he would be coming to start work on some lighting work that we requested a month ago (sigh) and blew out the rusty boiler water. Phew! I also went to the bank and checked in with the people who do the kiosk for us.

After that, a quick trip to the grocery store, where I got some huge beets!! Yay. I had my beet, apple, carrot and lime juice this morning. Yum. I also did my yoga. Sadly, the only thing that I have actually accomplished every day so far this year is writing my blog. So far, so good. Oh, and I have been doing my Daily Challenge response every day. Baby steps.

When I got back from my tough morning, I played for a little bit. I am playing Dishonored which has been enjoyable so far. A cross between an FPS (first person shooter) and an RPG (Role Playing Game). Fun stuff. I have gotten stuck a couple of times, but many people have gone before, so there is help aplenty on the internet.

Next up, room cleaning. My room hasn't been cleaned in at least a year. I was going to take a "before" picture, but that would sort of defeat the purpose of cleaning my room. I might take an after picture, just so that I can look and see what my room looks like when it is neat (ish). I don't mind a messy room, or a chaotic space, generally. Weird, right?

Wow, it really wasn't all that dirty - just cluttered. The status of my existence just now. Maybe one day I will be down to the minimum amount of belongings and stuff, but that day will be a long way in my future, I fear...next step - dusting - and then vacuuming. Yippee!

Augustus, vacuum cleaner repairman! So, I started to vacuum my room and noticed that the bag wasn't inflating. Oh no, Mr. Bill! (I am reading a book about Saturday Night Live) I took the thing apart and got out the clog (the entire tube was filled - I think we kept the last bag in too long...). It was not as easy as it could have been - but it is done now - and my room is as clean as it is ever going to get. Huzzuh! Time to cook dinner and chillax!

Sleepy Dreams of Nursing Homes

So, it was another bad night here at Chez Schoen-René. I really wish more was understood about the brain and especially the brain of my mom. She basically slept all day. Woke up a couple of times to eat lunch and get a shower - then Zzzzzzz for the rest of the day - until dinner time - which she only woke up for because I put food in her lap. Ate the food and then zzzzzzz. Then back upstairs - 'cause it was cold downstairs - where she slept for the next four hours till about midnight. At which point, I was winding down, getting ready for my sleep time. So what happens? She starts talking and being awake. And asking what she was supposed to be doing. And where she was going. And where was she. And what should she be doing. Etc. I told her to please be quiet as I was trying to sleep. This worked for about an hour when she started calling for me and telling me she needed me. When I asked why, she said because she needed help to the bathroom. I told her to help herself, I was sleeping. Which she did. Which I did. Then, another hour later...you get the picture. It is now 8:48 am as I start this post, I have been up for an hour after she called out again (fourth or fifth time) that she needed help. And she was hungry and what should she be doing...Gave her a yogurt so I guess I have about 45 minutes until...

I am conflicted about putting mom in a nursing home. They seem like scary black boxes to me - when I am not there, they could do anything to her - or not do anything to her - both of which scare me. She can't sleep - so they give her meds. She isn't awake - so they give her meds. She says she can't go to the bathroom - so they give her meds. I don't want my mom taking lots of meds! Medicine is ok - but the body generally knows what it is doing and does it better with basic care - food, water and rest - than it does with medicine. Just my humble opinion. And no, I am not anti-vaccination - it would, though, be good if vaccination's contents were enumerated and explained (for the adults - most kids wouldn't care, I don't think) - just anti-most medicine - eastern or western. Though eastern generally seems less invasive (except acupuncture - that is pretty pointedly (tee hee) invasive...).

It seems like sometimes staff and patients don't do anything at nursing homes. I have scary memories of visiting people in nursing homes and hearing a whole lot of moaning and bleating and crying out for help as I walked through the halls to find the person we were coming to visit. And the caretakers at the facility - probably - hopefully - doing their best to do what they could to ease the fears and pains of their charges. But who knows. They could just be nightmares that have been exaggerated over the years.

At home, I strive for mom to be as autonomous as I can let her be - as autonomous as she can be. I know that she can make it to the bathroom on her own - that she can make it back to her bedroom - that she can make her own dish of ice cream (though this might soon stop - since I found the ice cream container sitting on the counter after her last ice cream retrieval mission) - that she can, hmm, well, that's about it. She can put on her own robe, when push comes to shove.

At home, I try to feed her, keep her well watered and to let her, as best I can, be awake when she is awake and asleep when she is asleep - letting mom be mom. Letting mom be. I am afraid that in a nursing home, that wouldn't be the case. They would want mom to be who they wanted (thought they needed) her to be. It is all very confusing.

Then again, a nursing home might be great for her - she would have the staff to talk to and pay attention to her. Since she isn't bedridden, she would probably be able to talk with other patients (or whatever people in nursing homes are called these days.) And who knows, they might get her to exercise some. That would be great.

In any case, I will talk with the doctor on Monday and see what he has to say.

Two quick things - I wrote 31 posts last month! Huzzuh! I have done yoga every day since January first - except today. Yay and boo.

Nubbins

When working on a puzzle, there are, of course, many different ways to do so. Color, or patterns on the pieces - sometimes looking for the "right" shaped piece with the right number of "nubbins." I don't think everyone calls them nubbins, but I do. A puzzle piece in most puzzles can have anywhere from no (or none) nubbins (the protruding round bits) to four nubbins. Recently I sorted my puzzle parts into the number of nubbins - and in the case of two nubbins, into three distinct piles - nubbins on opposite sides, two nubbins next to each other pointing one way, two nubbins next to each other pointing the opposite way. Am I crazy or what? There are probably twenty or thirty pieces that I ought to be able to find this way - which still will leave me with a tenth of the puzzle that will be better served by color or pattern matches (until nubbin matches again make sense). Baby freakin' steps. Mom has started to ask me what I am going to do after I am finished with this puzzle. My glib response - start another one. Right now it is a bit of a slog - but if I do a few pieces each time I sit down...

No picture of the puzzle today - it would be hard to really tell what has been changed since last time.

And that's it for today's post. We'll see if more inspiration occurs tomorrow...

Almost a Week!

Yes, I have almost posted every day for a week! Yay!

My nephew, Sam, told me that google has made it hard to comment on my blog posts. Has anyone else tried and failed? If so, please send me a direct message - if you don't have my email address, please find me on Facebook (there aren't that many Augustus Schoen-Renes on Facebook) and send me a message there, please. Sam would like me to move my blog to wordpress, but that isn't going to happen anytime soon...

Yesterday was back to the grind. Yippee! I got a little work done at the theatre (after running a few errands) and then had two meetings. The first, with Kelly, to go over the coming weeks and months and to talk about up coming events and such. Good stuff. Then a Marketing Committee meeting where we talked over a bunch of the stuff we had talked about but with more people. I hear to the "t" meetings! Sometimes.

Just now, though, I really enjoyed doing some of my work from home - I have set it up so that I can connect to work from my computer and do four different activities:

1) Set-up the heating/cooling schedule. We want our patrons to be toasty or cool and to not spend too much money heating/cooling an empty building.

2) Work on the Film server - for those of you who don't know, we show films at the Smith. Most of them are loaded on a server (we only show digital films currently) and playlists need to be created that show the people what we want to show them in the order we want them shown. Having the ability to do the work from home is great!!

3) Work on the pre-film slide show. I don't know how effective the pre-film slide show is - mainly because we have no real way to judge its impact (does anybody else do the his/it is thing to remember whether or not there is an apostrophe (the crux of the biscuit) in "its"?) - but I think it is a good thing. Luckily, no changes will be necessary until Thursday (after our first movie of the New Year plays).

4) The kiosk programming - last year, the Geneva Business Improvement District group got the funding to get the kiosk replaced - a tri-electric sign near The Smith that we can use for upcoming events, announcements and advertising. I don't actually do any of the programming, but I can access it if I need to remotely. Which means that the person (Amanda) doing the day to day work on the kiosk also doesn't need to be present at the Smith to do her thing. Yay!

But, once again, I got away from my narrative thread - I was talking about yesterday. Good meetings. I think that was it. We are mostly planning our Oscar Event, which hopefully will be more fully realized than our Oscar Event last year. Speaking of which, at some point, I need to see if the television antenna is working and that we can indeed show the Oscars...

I cooked a delicious, if I must say so myself, tuna casserole last night for dinner - with Salad for our veggie. There is way too much of it, so I am sure we will be enjoying it again on Wednesday night. Mom was eating up a storm yesterday - a yogurt, lunch, dinner, two bowls of ice cream (with cookies) and some marzipan - and a couple of fiber bars as night time snacks. That isn't a bad thing - just an observation.

I need an oven. I hate spending that much money, though. Oven/$$$, $$$/Oven. Hmm...But I probably will. At some point. Sooner rather than later. Maybe even today! Nah, not today - way too cold outside.

Oh, and I forgot to show how the mountain was transformed into many mole hills.

Look! Mostly folded! Now I just need to put the clothes away...

Also worked on the puzzle some and made a little progress.

Mom asked what percentage done I am - 10% maybe?

By the way, my fears were not realized. I found no trash blowing around my yard. I did find my two trash cans knocked over, one in the street - though I think that was just careless rubbish people...

Onward into the Future!

Here it is, Friday already, and the second day of 2105. Has anyone already dropped off the resolution bandwagon? Failed to do something they promised to do all year? I haven't, yet, but the day is young.

I was thinking about posting a picture everyday - like I did a few years back. Something, anything, to keep me posting for a whole year. I was sad to see that I only posted 75 times in 2014. Still, seventy five isn't too terrible. That averages to around 6+ posts a month. Not everyone is that prolific. Should I be content or not? (I chose to be content - and happy).

Oh, I am thinking of re-writing my match.com profile. If I do, I will post the updated one in my super stagnant relationship blog.

Does anyone else find it interesting who wishes who Happy New Year? My brother and sister both called to wish mom a Happy one! Good for them! True, we missed Karl's call (mom was otherwise engaged and I was shopping at a deserted Wegman's), but the thought was there. A couple of my friends wished me Happy New Year and I wished a couple of the Happy New Year. First that is - I replied to most all of those who wished me happy new year first...

Instagram - do you all like it? I have an account and I have posted 40 pictures so far. I though I had posted more. Still, I am thinking I will continue to post there - too bad that there isn't better synergy between Google and Facebook - but they are rivals, I guess...

Today is laundry day and I can hardly wait. Yippee! Laundry! Woo hoo!!

One of my goals for this year is to clean out this alcove - again:

Less than a 6 months accumulation of boxes (I think)

And here are two pictures of the puzzle in progress:

Got the edge done

Got some foliage done

One last thing - I need to remember to get the coins out of my center console in my car so that I can do my annual coin wrap-up. I don't remember how much I wrapped last year - but I think I average around $60. That is a few beers worth of change. Or some laundry...

2015 In Review

So, it was a good year. I cured Alzheimer's, won the lottery (twice) and found my forever-soulmate-partner. Oh, and I got some socks for Christmas (again - which is great, by the way - I love socks).

Seriously, who the heck knows what 2015 will be like. Hope springs eternal and I do hope I can look back and say that these things happened. Though the first is pretty unlikely (since I am not a research scientist), the second is a 600 million to one chance and the third is a one in 3.5 billion (assuming 7 billion people on the planet and that about half of them are women). But the last is almost a gimme. Yay socks!

I do hope to get back to a few things - like daily yoga - fell of the yoga wagon for a few months - blogging - I think I did maybe 25 last year - learning, growing (well, those two things will most likely continue to happen). Maybe what I need to do is to pick some project and go for it. Re-learn the trombone? Play more piano? Re-learn programming for the iPhone? Cut my hair? (Hahahahahaha) Though, have I mentioned, I have thought of going to school for hair styling. Or  maybe if I can find a school that teaches it, sonography? Finish one of the many books projects I have started? Or write a completely new one?

Most planning is difficult (probably impossible, really) since the future is uncertain. And I do have some issues at home to take care of. Like a really cluttered house (still looking for a friendly, helpful declutterer - maybe my future life partner?). And mom.

Anyway, 2015 will be what it will be. And hopefully it will be amazing. As 2014 was.

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.

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!!

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...)

Bootless and undergloved

Turns out that I couldn't find my boots when I got ready to shovel yesterday. I am hoping that they are in the boot (tee hee) or at the Smith (not so funny)(They were). I found a pair of boots that I had when I was in 8th grade - needless to say my feet are breathing a sigh of relief from having been released from that torture chamber! And my gloves were not appropriate for shoveling in single digit (I know, I have ten digits (or do toes count as well - in which case I have, er, let me take off my socks and count...nineteen? No, that can't be correct - er, ten toes and ten fingers makes, hmm, 20, twenty digits) temperatures. I recalled having a pair of deep winter gloves in my closet - while mom kept urging me to use her snazzy aquamarine gloves. Luckily, the ones I remembered were right where I thought they were. The actual shoveling wasn't too difficult. Except for the end of the driveway bit. That is never a fun bit to shovel.

I found a pedometer that I gave to mom long ago that she never used. I had wanted her to keep track of how far she walked each day and to strive for 1000 steps. She didn't even open the package. Oh well. I have opened it and put it on. According to the counter thingie, I have already gone 1300+ steps - 5000 being healthy sort of apparently give or take. And it isn't even noon. Somewhere along the way the counter got reset - silly if that is possible without holding a couple of buttons down at the same time. Anyway, I think I did well over 5000 yesterday. And I think I do well over 5000 everyday. Well, most days.

A thought occurred to me, and since this is my blog space, I will write about it. This probably should go in my political blog - but I haven't really posted anything there yet. So, maybe I will put this there at some point. Anyway...

Who came up with the idea of "Open Enrollment" periods for health insurance? What kind of craziness is that? If I want car insurance, I don't have to wait for open enrollment. If I want life insurance, I don't need to wait for open enrollment. If I want dental or vision, ok, well, I don't know about them, but I am guessing that I don't have to wait for open enrollment. Why on earth do I have to wait for an open enrollment period for health insurance?! Just another way for the insurance companies to control our health. Get insurance companies out of our health! For realz!

Post Thoughts

What a cool subject - Post Thoughts. Ambiguous - possibly humorous, especially if the blog entry turns out to be about fencing posts. Or poster bed posts. Actually, it is about blog posts. Big surprise, right? And not about ones that are in the past. Post. Get it?!

Ok, where was I? Oh, right, I was writing a post about posts. And of course a little of my life will undoubtedly slip through - which is why this post is here and not in the writing blog. I think there is one post there...

Still digressing, and what I really wanted to do was zip out a post since I haven't written a post here in a few days and because, well, lots is going on in my life. Sort of.

We have a busy weekend at the Smith. A concert tonight and our first ever Oscar Viewing event at the Smith on Sunday. In my life, I am still percolating along, taking care of mom, searching for Ms. Right (Now or forever - either would actually be ok at this point...), thinking deep thoughts and writing great truths. Or something like that.

My goal here was to write a quick blog. Hopefully after March 4, I will have more brain power to write more interesting posts. That would be nifty. Until then, I will just dash this off and see what happens in the future! See you then, then!

Snerf

I certainly hope that I haven't used that title before. I am nearing 1000 posts in this blog and, well, my memory isn't clear on what I have written and what I haven't.

Snerf is a sound I like to make when things are going in an unclear direction. I like things to be clear-ish. Not that they have to be totally translucent, but it would be nice. And if I am being opaque...well sue me.

Wow, we are getting some snow! I am about to make lunch and then go out and do some shoveling. I guess attendance at the movie tonight is going to be low. Oh well. Life is like that sometimes. And whoever reminded me of the "layers" shoveling technique, I thank you! (The layer technique is where one shaves off the topmost layer of a area of snow and removes that before repeating until the snow is removed. Much better than trying to do the whole the pile at once! Saved my back.)

Looks like I am going to be spending most of the day at home on the computer and not heading in to the Smith until I have to show the film.

Minor epiphany alert! The other day, as I was tugging at the reservoir of my waterpic tooth machine thing, I thought, there must be a better way to fill this thing. So, I took the daring plunge of just sticking the whole unit under the faucet - without removing the reservoir! Simple and zippy! Yay!!

Did I mention that I finally took down the Christmas tree? It was a cut tree, but it held onto its needles pretty well. In the back of my mind, I had intended to take it down on my day off on Monday and hadn't gotten around to it. Then, mom made some mention of the tree and I leapt into action - taking off the bulbs and the ornaments first. Then the lights. Then I carried the whole thing out to the side porch where I took the tree out of its stand. Now all the stuff is stored for next year (only 10 months away!) and the tree is waiting till the next thaw (or later) to join its brethren in the tree cemetery in the back of the house.

(Sorry forgot to post this...)

Zoom, zip, pow!

I did in fact get the papers on my desklet sorted and the major bills paid. Yay! I count yesterday as a success. Well, most days I count as successes as I have survived them. That is a good thing, right? Other than that, not a lot of note occurred.

Dinner was totally left overs. And a salad. Does salad count as a leftover? Or does only leftover salad count as a salad? I mean the lettuce and the ingredients have all been in the fridge for a while. The carrots and celery last a long time bathing in water as they do. The mushrooms last longer in the fridge in a bag than they were lasting out of the fridge. Anyway, mom had left over taco stuff, I had left over fajita stuff. Everyone seemed happy.

Since it is so late in the day, I am going to touch on what is happening. I am at the Smith and work is progressing on many fronts. I am getting thing accomplished. Our volunteer is nearing completion of his first major project - getting some lighting storage built. The riggers are doing their fire curtain thing. All is swell with the Smith world. Yay!

Sorry for the thin and boring post. Maybe life will become more exciting later in the week. Here's hoping!

Maybe you noticed?

I took yesterday off from the arduous schedule I have given myself in regards to blogging. It wasn't that there wasn't time. There is always time - weird, but most days have just as much time in them as every other day. Anyway, it wasn't a lack of time, it was a lack of mental energy and physical time combined. You all may not realize this, but it takes a decent amount of mental energy to even come up with a boring, nothing filled post. Just think how much a pithy, interesting post takes! The mind boggles (which is a fun game, by the way...)!! So yesterday, since I did work at The Smith a good bit, I just didn't do much in the way of anything blog related.

Speaking of working at the Smith - Kate and I got a lot done! All of the lighting instruments that we can find are now stored in one place. Yay! We tested a lot of instruments and found many that work - some that could easily be repaired and a few that probably could be junked. We emptied out of most of the area under the apron and discovered a bunch of random things under there. Some of which will go away. Some of which was redistributed. We have stored the lighting cable under there for now. We still have two areas under there to go through and that will be one more area touched. Yay!

We also went through the storage area where the extension cords were. Mostly empty now - except for a few hundred (literally - maybe a ton worth when I think about it and do the math - 50 at 46) pounds worth of stage weights. Wow! I guess we might need them one day if a show comes in and has a lot of heavy stuff to fly. Right. Anything is possible. All in all it was a sweaty and productive Smith Day.

And what happened on Wednesday? I couldn't tell you without a lot of thinking - and my thinking cap is in the wash. Actually, I can't remember where it is - and no, it isn't on my head - I already looked.

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.

Where have all the ideas gone...

My brain was tossing ideas out left and right yesterday for things to write about. Really, it was! And I thought, self, it would be good to go and open the blogger page and jot a few of these down (in a typing sort of jotting way), you know that you won't remember them until after you finish the day's blog if you don't (if you even remember them then). But did myself listen? Nooooooooo! Sigh.

Well, maybe, if I write about the day, I will cause a little bit of mental stimulation and the ideas, or heck, maybe even other ideas, will re-pop into my brainlet. Here's hoping!

Mom volunteered to go do laundry with me. "Do you want me to come?" she asks. That isn't the point, is it? "Gee, of course, I want you to come." Really? So that I have one more concern while I am out doing laundry? Sigh. But at least she got dressed and got out of the house. With less self inflicted stress because she was choosing it on her own. Not one mention of feeling sick. Yay! Not much I could think of having her do to actually help. I suggested putting the quarters in the machine, but she passed on that. Oh well. We did go for ice cream after the laundry. She got some cappuccino crunch. Sadly Mr. Twistee is closing for the year come Tuesday. Maybe the grocery store will have something similar. Look at me - reminding myself by adding it to my shopping list on my phone! Go me! Mom does love her cappucino crunch! Lo and behold! Hershey's makes some! Now, if I can find it in the grocery store...

And there we have it, our excitement for the day. Laundry! Three baskets of it. This necessitated buying new laundry detergent - the inexpensive stuff we had purchased on our cross country trip last year (?) finally ran out. I also got some stain remover, which didn't work on the sternum stain on one of mom's shirts. All this was purchased at the Family Dollar store in downtown Geneva. The ATM at the community bank was down for servicing (on the Friday before a holiday?) so I needed to get some cashback as well as the laundry detergent. A man was in line buying a dress for a toddler and he and his friend were, luckily, amused by my antics of suggesting that, though it would be a little small on him, it suited his coloring.

Wow, no, I didn't recall all the things I wanted to write about. Which means that there is potential for more things to be written about at a later date! Yippee!

(Btw, I came up with a few of them after I finished this and will put them in tomorrow's post!)

Two weeks in a row!

I'm back! Phew! When I forgot to put the recycling out last week, it really threw me. True, my reminder on my computer had stopped (why had I stopped it?) so nothing popped up at midnight to tell me to put the recycling out. I don't know why I felt so discombobulated by a missed rendezvous with the recycling. Maybe because it is the one thing I can do each week that makes me feel like I am emptying the house of clutter just a teeny bit. Teeny, weeny, little bit. But better than nothing! Two weeks and counting!

Met at the Smith to talk about movies. Apparently we are going to be showing movies at the local Girls and Boys club as well as at the Smith. Interesting. So I had to get my head around two different sets of programming. Not a big deal, in the larger scheme of things. Still, all information has the potential to be useful. And I did learn a good bit. Somehow, though, I got the times all mucked up. I thought David and I were meeting at 4 and the meeting about the community center movies was to be at 5. Ooops. 3 and 4 respectively. I was only an hour off, but on time for the group meeting. Yay. I am hoping I can do some of the film stuff from my Mac. There are mostly MSFT PCs at work. Although I can get around them in a pinch, it has been years since I have done a lot of work with them. Poo even. But I will re-learn. Yippee!

At some point in the near future, motivation must be manufactured to get out of the little rut in which I have maneuvered myself. There are many things that would benefit me to get accomplished and I am really busy at not accomplishing them. Not that my days are so jam packed with other priorities. (Like getting my blog done - big and tough and rewarding that one is)(ok, yes, it is - well the last one mostly, which, when I analyze it, is pretty important to a sense of well-being) And making lunch and dinner and doing a crossword with mom are not that time consuming. Oh, I did have a realization - not an epiphany-let because it was really a one time thing - or maybe those ought to be reversed in meaning - hmm - anyway, while showering, last year (I like to be dirty) I put together my plan for an evening meal. Yay! Don't you find that the effort of figuring out what to make for dinner can be daunting at times?

Last night, latish, I met up with David and Keiran and Jason and Laura and played some pool at Trotta's. No one was there except for the bartender, Mario. He graciously let us play as long as we wanted, which ended up being till about midnight. I didn't play all that well. I realize that I am still ok, not good. Certainly not great. Sigh. Still love playing, though. Even on small bar tables.