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.

Mawwiage

My excitement today is heading out into the winter wonderland that is Geneva NY today (I think the high temp is supposed to be 7 degrees Fahrenheit - and we have a decent amount of freshish snow on the ground) to get to the Smith to meet with a woman who is planing on having her wedding ceremony at the Smith. When I agreed to see her, I didn't realize that it was President's day (I think we ought to go back to having individual days off for each president - what would you do on GW Bush's birthday?) and that the Smith would be closed! Well, poo. It will, though, get me out of the house for a little while. I do need to do some grocery shopping. Mom was asking for tater tots all evening. When she was awake.

Mom was up until about 5 pm yesterday and then slept until 11 or 12 at night. Yippee? I watched all of the stuff we usually "watch" together on Sunday night - the baking show where the the 17 year old got tossed, which was a pretty good showing for anyone - top five - then Downton Abbey - where everyone is blithely accepting Edith adopting some random child - and lastly Grantchester which is getting even more melodramatic. I hope the vicar ends up with the German woman - but since it is a drama, I bet they won't end up together. And of course, mom woke up pretty thoroughly right after the shows ended and spent the next half hour complaining that she didn't get to watch them. Which makes me a bad person because she was sleeping during the show. Yippee.

Mom just asked for a backstage tour of "this place" - asking to see where the people were riding the horses...and where all the other people who live here were. (Weird that those two words don't rhyme...)

Ooh, I might be a polymath. I know I am a polyglot. I hate poli-sci. Not sure about polygamy or polyamorousness. And I am not roly-poly. Ok, probably not a polymath, but a polymath aspirant.

Closing in Quickly on the End of the Month!

January is weird - it seems to go on forever - at least here in the sort of North. It is too bad that it isn't one of the month with 30 (or fewer) days. Darn knuckle months. Anyway, it is the 28th and I swear that there is still a month left to go of January. But what is weird is February happens really quickly after January is gone. And this February is so short!

Technology is amazing. Last night I was taking a shower and thought about just how cool it is that many people can take a hot shower in the middle of the night in the middle of winter without thinking about it. Just recently - on a cosmological scale - this would have been something unbelievable! I was also thinking about luxury - what makes a shower luxurious - above and beyond the plainly luxuriant feeling of water sluicing grime (etc) down the (now freely flowing) drain. Speaking of which, it was nice to once again be taking showers without my feet being in a few inches of water.

I actually had an adult evening last night. Not as in a romantic adult evening, but an evening out talking with other adults. Real conversation! How weird is that?! I left mom at home watching My Fair Lady. Misjudged the time just a little so the movie had ended before I got back, so mom got a little anxious. But otherwise, it was a great evening!

Ooh, got a package from Amazon today! How exciting is that? Pretty darn exciting. Season 5 of Downton Abby - which I will still watch on Sundays with mom if I we can. But we will be able to rematch any of the episodes or all of the episodes whenever we want! Yay! But there real excitement was the other item in the box - which to my surprise, came in a square box. I thought it would be in a tube.

I never noticed the inflatable tube

And there's the trick! Right there! Cool!

That's right, I am ready to puzzle! I have a couple in my closet which I think I will tackle next. I also think we have a few puzzles in the attic (and I think I have a few in my boxes of crap, er belongings). We shall see.

The Secret to Quick Yummy Cooking is...

I had this epiphany the other day, while making my version of Tuna Casserole. I love epiphanies. They feel so good. But they can't be forced. I have yet to have an epiphany on demand. Anyone else find that to be the case? Lots of things in life can't be forced. Locks, though, they can often be forced. At various times in my life I have wanted to learn how to be a locksmith. I am sure that is a skill that would be cool to have. But where was I?

Oh, right, my cooking epiphany: Cream of Mushroom soup in a can! That's right, when in doubt, dump a can of cream of mushroom soup into your meal and voila! Instant yumminess. When I bought the cans for the tuna casserole, a recipe I ought to have halved, actually, I bought an extra "just in case." Another yumminess adder - for me at least, not being too lactose intolerant or anything, is our cream. Nectar of the gods! And the beef stroganoff recipe I use has both cream of mushroom soup and sour cream in it! Huzzuh!!

I didn't do a lot yesterday - or so it seems. One thing I did do, though, was clean off a counter in the kitchen that had gotten super cluttered. That particular counter was neat and wide open a few years ago, but over the past couple of years, stuff built up on it again. Then last night, for some reason, I proceeded to clean it off. Which is the way I seem to roll. Doing one bit of neatening every few years! Go me! (Rah, rah) At that rate, the house will be clean in, er, well, never. Sigh.

Ah, right, I did some Smith work yesterday. And I am doing a bit of that today. I need to go in and test all of the film stuff to make sure that it is happy - so the projectionist who comes in doesn't experience anything too weird to handle when they come in tonight.

Watched American Hustle last night and enjoyed it. I love Amy Adams and mostly watched it because of her. Mom didn't understand it at all.

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.

It just might work...

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

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

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

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

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

Mid Sleep Musings

Here it is, 4:21 am, and I am writing. I went to sleep around 11:30 pm and woke up around 3:20 am. I do plan on going back to sleep. Really. I do not have a "big" day in store. But I do have things I would like to accomplish and a little more sleep would be a good thing.

I have started a couple of blog posts. Ones that will probably never be seen by others. Posts that are a little on the soul searching, or radically honest, or sadly, maudlin sort (I am not drunk, btw). The reason I am writing these, I think, is to get the thoughts out of my system. Catharsis. Purging. Cleansing. Whatever. "Better out than in" is one of my mantras.

Well, that's depressing - I just saw that donating clothes is generally a bad thing for the world economy. How freakin' sad is that? And the advice for what to do instead sounded less than optimal as well. Poo. Double and triple poo even! Did I mention, poo?

Ok, I did go back to sleep and slept for a few more hours. I can't tell anymore if I am tired or if I am fully rested. I guess that means that I am still tired. Or maybe it means I am fully rested. Who the heck knows? Actually I just yawned, big time, so maybe I am still tired. Maybe I will nap later this afternoon. Oooh, that would be nice.

I had a momentary (well, a couple of minutes worth of) scare yesterday. As some of you have garnered, I play a good amount of xBox. (Right now, I am playing two games - not simultaneously, but alternately - I have a backlog of purchased and unplayed games and I am trying to work my way through them all - I enjoy collecting, and I enjoy finishing, and I enjoy playing - makes me feel I am being somewhat productive...) While playing, there was a surge and the power went out briefly. But the xBox seemed to have died. I did all the trouble shooting that I could think of and eventually, after unplugging the transformer/surge protector that comes with the device, all was well. Phew!

Another thing I do quite a bit is play bridge on my iPhone. I don't know how many hands I play a day, but it is more than 3 and less than 2,117. (Not many fewer probably...) It helps me to think, relax, meditate even. Sometimes while I am playing I will have minor, or not so minor, epiphanies.

I visited Red Dove and Microclimate (local establishments) both again recently. I really need to find a place to hang out when I do go out. I miss Leaf Kitchen. I just don't feel like hanging out at any of the places here in Geneva. And driving to neighboring towns, although not that far, is a bit on the tedious side, just for a drink and some hangage. And of the places I have visited there, none also stand out as places I would like to spend a bunch of time. I miss the Saucer and my table. Waaa.

Cooking and such

I have been doing a little bit of cooking, recently. By cooking, I mean glopifying: taking leftovers from the refrigerator and adulterating them - yes, making them into adults - by adding this and that, maybe a sauce, maybe some spices and forcing my mom to eat them. Most of the glops are pretty darn tasty. Last night's was a case in point - it could have used a bit more orange sauce, but overall, it was a delicious, chicken and rice based glop. Not quite a fried rice, but close. And I made roasted brussels sprouts to go with it. Yum!

Planning is beginning for my week off. The beginning is uncertain, as is the middle. Though the end is fairly clear. The current thought is - drive to E&B's on Sunday after I am done with my show at the Smith. Stay the night there. Head to London, ON the next day to meet a friend for late dinner or something like that. Next day, to Toronto to meet another friend. Maybe also dinner. And beer. Next day, off to Montreal to meet a friend for dinner perhaps. Who knows? Then it gets fuzzy. Do I stay in Montreal for the rest of the time? Do I head back to Geneva and maybe go to Ben Beaver's Circus themed party? I don't know. At least the plan is partially roughed in. There are way too many variables to set anything in stone. But I, for one, am getting excited! Road trip!!

Does anybody else seek the perfect quarter for laundry receptacle? I think I have found it. My mom used to use a glass jar. I was a smidge worried about that - fear it would break in the laundry basket, etc. I then found that mom's pill tubes were the right diameter - problem was they were too small to hold adequate quarterage. So, the other night, I finished a container for advil. And lo and behold, large enough mouth and big enough to hold enough quarters for a fun and jaunty outing to the laundromat! Yay! Even better, my quarters smell like medicine! Hmm...

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...)

I have this odd desire to help random people and other odds and ends...

What the heck is that about? I have an FB friend who is in need of help - not that I could really help her, but I want to. What is up with that? Another person I met could really use a friend, so I want to do that for her. Really? I see a homeless person, and I would love to be able to help them find what they need to make different choices. I see a puppy or a seal or a dolphin on FB and I want to help heal the world. Sigh.

I know in my heart of hearts that the best help I can be to all and sundry is to be the best me that I can be.

Recently, mom saw one of those "feed the children for pennies a day" and "cure the hairlips of these kids" infomercials. It saddens me that the wealthy in this world sit on their money and don't fix what can be fixed. Greed and selfishness. There IS enough to go around. Really.

Mom has taken another step down the ladder. Now she has gotten to the stage where she really doesn't like to use utensils. Which means I need to give her food that can be easily and neatly (for my sanity) be eaten with her hands. Sigh. New menus need to be planned...

I will be starting my relationship blog next month - day after tomorrow. I don't plan on sharing posts with Facebook or twitter, so if you want to read it, you will have to actively look for it (or put an RSS feed from it somewhere...) I might also post in my political blog, though that seems more scary in some ways than posting in my relationship (or lack thereof) blog. We shall see. Anyway, the relationship blog - I will definitely write one post a day. Maybe more. For a month. And see what happens. Maybe it will get me to revisit my relationship book. Hey, anyone know any freelance graphic artists who might want to collaborate on a book project? Not the relationship book, but a self-help book...

I think I have lost my silly

I think I have lost my silly. Not completely. But mostly. I hope I will get it back again. As I hope I will get my travel on again one day. But back to the silly.

For some reason, I don't find myself yearning to jump in a pile of leaves, splash in a puddle, make snow angels, jump on a bed, take pictures in a photobooth making faces - that sort of thing. Silly string holds no shelf space in my life.

This is not to say that I am not still young(ish) at heart. I still enjoy playing games of all kinds, finding little things that interest me for hours (well, at least a few minutes). I enjoy rainbows and sunsets (still like them more than sunrises, I wonder what that is about) and like imaginary worlds of all shapes, sizes and flavors. I still like to play.

Can silliness be brought out in someone? I think so. Like all things, in my world philosophy, silly is a choice. That being said, silly often breeds silly.

Maybe I have just misplaced it. Or perhaps I am just being silly.

Extra Random Thoughts

There are some things for which is it better to have too much (or too many) than to have too little (or too few). High on this list, for my mom especially, is toilet paper. Another I guess is money (which is a lot like toilet paper). But this isn't really about the list of things, rather than being about the toilet paper. I went shopping yesterday with only a mental list of what was wanted and what was needed. The needed list was short - a vegetable for dinner - I went for spinach. Wanted - not much at all, so I just wandered through the store. I picked up a yam, some cookies and a huge thing of toilet paper, because mom really does go through it like it grows on trees. (Yes, I know, trees, paper...) As I was taking stuff out of the car I remembered that I still had a good bunch of toilet paper in the paper closet - not a closet made of paper, but the closet in which the paper products reside (along with other residues, or is that residents?).

Now that the drip is gone from the bathroom faucet, I don't have easily and pre-filled watering containers. So the plants are getting a little parched. Then, one day, I was getting mom some water from the refrigerated brita pitcher and I realized that I had water in her glass! In the past I have put it in the top of the pitcher. But from that time forward, I use that little bit of water in a plant! Yay! Win win!

As some of you recall, no doubt, I listen to audio books. And when I do, I turn off the CD player and thus lose my place. Some CDs have few divisions - either they divide only by chapter or by some random method - but most of them have less than 31 divisions. There is one company, though, at least, that breaks each CD up into 99 pieces! Eeek! How on earth is a calendar supposed to accommodate the number 99? Then I had one of those epiphany-lets: Months have numbers associated with them - who doesn't know that April is 4. So, I use the day of the week - 0-9 for the tens place and the month for the ones place! It has worked so far! Yippee!

Get video replay out of golf! Really. Seriously. Tiger is the most video taped player of any player out there. So there is much more video of him than anyone else. From a bazillion angles. Golf has always been a gentleman's sport, hasn't it? And honestly, who hasn't fudged a shot here or there (especially on mini-golf when the damn ball just won't go in the hole and who wants to write down 27 as the number of shots, so you just put down par...). The latest Tiger incident is his ball moved when he moved a twig and he didn't see it move. Or if he did he thought it was so little that no one who wasn't standing right on top of it could see it move. And it wasn't like it moved enough to make any difference at all. But some video guy was editing his extreme closeup of the ball and it moved miles in the frame - the equivalent of 2 millimeters. But most anyone else wouldn't have had that shot on tape. Why penalize Tiger for being scrutinized? Sigh.

And there is it, a thought filled and thought provoking post. See, they happen!

Sneaky Me

I am a sneaky Augustus. Devious even. Yup, that about sums it up. When mom and I were at my sister's in Maine the other week, we were talking about coffee. Mom loves coffee (ewww). She would drink it all day if she could. At 10 at night, she asks for coffee. Much as I love her, I am not going to give her coffee at 10 at night. Even Decaf coffee. Personally, the idea of decaf coffee (isn't that an oxymoron) sounds horrible. And somewhere, a long time ago, I read that to make coffee caffeine-less, the processors used a lot of icky chemicals - making decaf coffee even ickier than regular coffee. That all being said, I do know that caffeine does affect my mom's stomach. Sometimes her "sick stomach" feeling is nothing more than a result of unmitigated caffeine, causing an over caffeinated stomach. I do my best to give her food when I give her coffee - a lot of food. I think it helps. But, here comes the sneaky bit, since I am trying to avoid mom having "stomach" issues, I broke down and bought a tub of decaf coffee and have started mixing it into her regular coffee! I am not sure what the percentage is - but I plan to increase the amount over time. I wonder if Gevalia offers decaf coffee. I also wonder if I ought to stop the mail order coffee deliveries from them. I probably ought to...

I had another epiphany-let the other day and finally acted on it. As some of you know, I listen to audio books in the kitchen (primarily). I have destroyed a few playback devices so far, probably from putting the books on pause and leaving them that way for 12+ hours. That can't be good for the machines. Though there must be some sort of digital way for machines to remember where they are on a CD rather than a physical way that most of them seem to use. Whatever. With the current CD player, I have been stopping the disc and turning the player off - conserving power and hopefully conserving the life of the CD player. That would be nifty. Anyway, my memory is ok. Not awesomely excellent. I tried to remember what track I was on (and about where on the track I stopped) but was not doing a great job at it. So, I have this perpetual calendar (that often languished next to my bed - unused for months) and thought - heck, it has numbers that I could set to the correct track. Which I did. And it works pretty well. Or at least has so far! Yay!

The daily recap - what day was it? Oh, yes - Tuesday. The biggest news was that I walked downtown to Red Dove for a beer last night, sauntered in, found the place packed to the gunwales and turned around and walked home again. Yes, there was one seat at the bar, but I just didn't feel like being there. But I had a great walk. I do like walking, fortunately. Yippee! Other than that, nothing too interesting of note.

Oh well, one semi-interesting note. I went into the Smith to work with David for a little bit. Dimmers are being rented for the Opera and we needed to guesstimate how long the cables would need to be in order for there to be light! I don't understand how the whole system is wired - where the cables run etc, but we did what we could. Hopefully it will be sufficient for the lighting company to do what they need to do.

Ok, that really is it for interesting stuff. At least for now. We don't want this to become too exciting a post.

Some interesting title

Toothpaste tubes are weird. I swear that the one I am using is empty. Really. Yet, whenever I go to brush my teeth, I do the tube-squeeze dance and low and behold another toothbrushful comes out! Maybe I have a never ending tube of toothpaste?! Anything is possible.

I had a minor epiphany yesterday. In the past, I have given mom a large mug filled with coffee. When she asks for more, I tended to balk a little and maybe gave her half of the large mug filled up again. Yes, I am evil, I am trying to limit my mom's consumption of coffee. And none after 2 especially. Anyway, she often complains that she didn't get enough coffee and sometimes forgets that she had any coffee at all. Yesterday, I realized (for the umpteenth time) that her perception is her reality. So, I decided to use a smaller cup and to fill it twice. And boy was she happier! Yay!

Kind of a quiet Fourth of July for us here. Mom watched a show on TV - A Capital Fourth - which she said wasn't very good and that the fireworks weren't as good as the ones at the Legion. I napped. Sadly, I didn't tell mom (not that she would necessarily have remembered) that I was going to nap. So she thought I had gone out - and fretted a little about that. I am sad that she frets when I am gone.

Though I did have a scare myself yesterday along the same lines. I had been playing for a little bit and came upstairs to check on mom. I called out and heard no response. Initial thought, she was in the bathroom. Or dead. (Yes, I think about this happening now and again.) I checked in her room - not there. I called out again - no response - so not in the bathroom either. I know that mom went out once without telling me - she went to cut some flowers in the garden. So I thought - this is it, she has started to wander - I guess I will need to do all of that stuff to keep her locked in the house. Then, I realized, that she sometimes sits on the porch to read - not frequently, but every once in a while. This was one of those occasions! Yippee and phew!

Dinner was corn on the cob, asparagus (a little less cooked than last time, but still over done for my taste) and fajita flavored chicken tacos. Yay! Easy and tasty. And hopefully mostly nutritious.

As I said, not the most exciting July Fourth - but it had its share of eventful occurrences!

Oh, I dreamt that I was in a romantic relationship. One can dream, right?

And now for another epiphany-let

My only big accomplishment for the day was paying bills. Yay. But at least I got most of them paid. I still have a couple that I am doing today. I don't know why paying bills is so traumatic for me. Oh, yes I do. I would rather use any money that we have for fun things - like food, and travel and such. Where would mom and I travel? That is a darn fine question.

I took a walk downtown. The library got in a book that I put on hold. A friend suggested I read Water for Elephants. I have seen the movie and vaguely recall enjoying it. She said the book was, of course, better. And so far, she is right. Anyway, I walked downtown, also went to the Smith Opera House, the bank and to Madia's Market. I figured it was easier to get things there, which was sort of on the way home, than to get home and head back out to Wegman's, or even walk to Wegman's on the way home. Madia's did not have an awesome selection of produce. Not a surprise really - but I did get some brussel sprouts which turned out to be fresh and happy. And corn - which was actually better than the picked over corn I usually end up with from Wegman's. Might just have to swing by there today (Friday) and get more corn when I head out for food shopping.

My epiphany-let isn't really all that earth shattering. When I was getting the rest of the edible chicken separated from the non-edible bits the other day, the chicken was still hot. Not fun on the fingers. Other times, I take the chicken out of the fridge and it is really cold. Also not fun on the fingers. So, here is the epiphany - when I take the chicken out of the fridge a few minutes before I start to work on it, it becomes warm enough that my fingers are not numbed quickly! Yay!

Does anyone think I ought to feel guilty about recycling old New Yorkers and other magazines? And does anyone want mom's old huge electric typewriter? If not, it is getting recycled. You must come and pick it up - I ain't shipping that sucker anywhere!

Drove to Ithaca last night and had a pleasant evening with a nice woman! Yippee! She suggested a new-ish place down there. We sat outside and watched the sun set and the stars rise. It was awesome! (Little in-joke there...)

Happiness is a warm dove?

What does happy look like? Hmm.

Life would be almost ideal here in Geneva, NY if it weren't for my constant nagging niggeldy poop money concerns. Not that they are impossible to overcome or that terrible compared to what some people face - but the US government isn't going to give me billions of dollars to help me out. I am not too big to fail. Sigh.

Oh, money and not having a romantic significant other in my life. Just those two things.

Otherwise, when I need to see what happy looks like, I look in the mirror. (Someone happy might be standing behind me.) No, seriously, I see me and I am pretty happy. About life. About me. About frogs. Yay frogs!

Warning - epiphany-let alert. Instead of trying to choose which glasses to let go of, I am going to start by putting aside the glasses that I know that I want to retain. The cool, specialty glasses for sure. The interesting shaped ones. And then some from my favorite beers. Everything else can go to the yard sale bin. Yippee! I start that project (and hopefully finish it) on later today (though I did do a little bit yesterday).

The great tea purge has begun as well. Neither my mom nor I drink tea more than once or twice a decade. Too much work to drink is part of the reason. And I am not a huge fan of hot drinks in general. Anyway, we have three shelves of tea in the kitchen pantry. Three. Shelves. Full. So, yesteray, I found a bag of tea on the floor near the shelves. It had leapt to the ground, probably hoping to escape its inevitable demise. Sadly, I found it and hurried it along to the trash can. Then went back and found another easy target - a jar full of tea bags from, hmm, 1812? Those also went bye-bye. More will follow in the fullness of time!

Good day yesterday! Yay! Mom kept saying that I had a boring day, and I guess from some perspectives, it could appear that way. We went back to the eye doctor's in Canandaigua for a follow up appointment, checking on the outcome of the laser zapping removal of the scar tissue from mom's cataract surgeries. (Wow, that was a long sentence!) Our first examiner was the best! Jackie - sweet, very patient with mom, gorgeous. Just great. Second one, not so great - no name, because, well, I don't like naming people who are not great. She just gave me the impression that she was put upon. And she was chewing gum, which never seems like a good thing in a service sort of situation. Last were our doctor team, who were nice enough. And zippy. We have been to the eye care center three times and, except for mom getting zapped by Doctor Hwang and his helper twice, we have had different people every time! Yay!

I also took in two pairs of glasses that were lying around the house, to see if either of them was a good enough match for mom to wear. Apparently both are ok! Yay! And we didn't have to pay a co-pay for some reason! Even more yay! We don't have to go back again for at least a year - and a lot can happen in a year.

After that, we headed home, stopping at the awesome Wegman's in Canandaigua. Love that place. And at Naked Dove for a growler fill. Yippee! (The growler will be opened on Thursday - hopefully in celebration of finishing putting away all of the glasses...) Mom has been going on about going out to dinner. So, after the BBC news, we headed to Friendly's. Jeanette, a server there, was very nice and came over and chatted for a while. Unfortunately, Mom's recently most favorite meal was not available - so we went with a fish fry platter - shrimp, scallops, flounder, fries and cole slaw. It was a pretty large amount of food. I managed to convince her not to finish it all - of which she was quite capable. I do know that I am lucky that she still has a good appetite. I will feed her some of the leftovers for her lunch today.

Later, I walked downtown to Red Dove for Tuesday beer night! And who should I meet on the road (and I did not kill) was the Buddha! Ok, sort of. It was David from the Smith. I twisted his arm, not too much, and he decided to turn around and walk back down with me! Fun time at the old local, despite it being pretty busy and crowded when we got there. We did get seats at the bar, after a couple of minutes. Yay. Didn't get much chance to talk with Jessica, the bartender, boo, but she did agree to be Facebook friends, huzzuh! Little does she realize what she has in store. Bwahahahahahaha. Oh, and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Monty's mom mentioned me to a mutual acquaintance. That's good, right? But she hasn't mentioned me since - that's bad right? Hope springs eternal, and also trying to keep expectations to a minimum. Tough balancing act, that.

After getting home last night, I watched Elvis and Annabelle. Not great. I rented it because I wanted to know if Blake Lively was more than just a pretty face. Nope. Either the script was bad, which it was, or the directing was bad, also true, or the editing was not great, ditto, or something. But it was not a good movie. I didn't like the lead guy either - though he did better in The Social Network. I thought there was no chemistry at all between the two leads. Joe Montegna did well, though. Probably the only redeeming thing about the movie. Oh well, live and learn.

Woke up this morning (Wednesday) feeling like it was Sunday. Weird. Ok, going back to sleep for a bit before starting on "Operation Glasses."

Major Purge

Two of the boxes that found their way into the living room were filled with old software and manuals and such. What use is software on floppy discs to anyone? Or software that is older than dirt (pre-2000). None. Absolutely none. I did, though save a couple of manuals - just for the memories. I let go of another 25 pounds of stuff. At least. And started collecting CDs and Floppy Disks for recycling. Oh, and a bonus - saved lots of large, gallon size ziplock bags.

The other day, I noticed I was getting low on the large size ziplock bags - though I try to re-use them as often as possible. In sorting/culling/throwing away the software in the boxes mentioned about, I retrieved probably 30 bags, at least. Yay! Waste not, want not. Ok, not exactly always true, but still a decent maxim for us hoarders (in training) to live by.

Now, all the remains of the stuff downstairs is the clean-up. I ought to be down with that phase of the neatening by the end of the day today. Yippee!

I had another minor epiphany-let - do let me know if I am repeating myself. Buttering hot corn on the cob is not easy. There are various ways - roll the corn in the butter - makes the butter useless for much else - put the butter on a piece of bread and rub that on the corn - better - but not optimal. Of course, a pat of butter on a knife works for a little bit, but eventually fails. The best way is to use a brush. Warm butter works well. Melted butter works even better - though that takes effort and I usually just make do with the warmed butter.

In other news, I changed my Plenty of Fish profile a bit - added a little whining about getting only a 2% response rate on my messages. I mean, really, 2%? True, I tend to write women who appeal to me - and if they appeal to me, they probably appeal to most of the other men on the site - and so they are inundated with messages. And since I have pretty clear issues - my mom, my hair and beard, my shoe size, I can understand how some of them might look and chose not to write back. But 2%. Sigh.

Felt Like Saturday and a few epiphanies for good measure

Now why would it feel like Saturday? Maybe because I have to work on the real Saturday? Hmm. But I did get a few things accomplished, despite the Saturday feel of the day.

I called the realtor that my friend Ted had spoken with about working to sell the house in North Carolina. No word from her back, yet.

Speaking of no word, most of the music that I ordered hasn't arrived. The second copy of Rhapsody in Blue did arrive and though it is easier, it still is really hard. I think I will have to wait a bit before delving into it more deeply. Instead, I am working on the second movement of the Moonlight Sonata. And I am thinking of working on the third at some point. Eeek.

I also paid the last bill of the month. Yay. Speaking of which, the city assessors office called and reminded us that we needed to get some paperwork in to apply for money off mom's taxes! How awesome are they and is that? I will try to do that Monday, or at the latest, Tuesday. I neglected to make copies of the tax stuff that Karl did for us. Sigh.

Not much else of note transpired yesterday. This morning I had a bit of a nightmare about working at the Smith. There was a party being prepared and I was hanging out with everyone when I a) missed the person I was currently enamored of and then not much later (in dream time) b) realized that I was late for working at the Smith. The last part of the dream was spent trying to find my black clothing and not being able to. Eeek!

I had a minor epiphany this morning about relationships. I wouldn't mind being the first person that someone else thinks about in the morning and the last person they think about at night. Other than themselves of course. And their blood kin or adopted kin. Or there best friends who might be going through difficult or exciting times. Or their neighbor. Or their goldfish that died four months ago...I know, it is a lot to ask, but it would be nice...

Another small epiphany - about dinner at home for mom when I am not around. I actually had two thoughts. One was that I could order food and have it delivered. There are some difficulties here - but nothing that couldn't be overcome. And the second was I could make something cold and leave it in the fridge for her. I am leaning towards that option for this evening. We shall see.

In rereading the above text, I realized something else that happened. I fell for a TV infomercial. I bought a little drain snake thing that was supposed to grab hair out of my drain. Right. Luckily I didn't pay what was asked on the TV. I found it for $.09 plus a lot of shipping (still cheaper than anywhere else I could find). So, although it doesn't seem to function as advertised (what a surprise), I am not out a whole large chunk of change. Yay!

Third Epiphany-let

Mom has problems with working the television remote - she gets frustrated by not knowing if she is on the right channel or doing the right thing. Currently, one channel causes the biggest problem - there are two of the same channel - a Digital Version - which currently has nothing being broadcast on it - and the Analog channel which is the correct one. I believe there is a way to delete channels - so I will delete the digital channel 8 and that ought to fix a part of mom's problems. (Turns out, not so easy to do - sigh - need to find the manual - online if no where else - and haven't done that yet...)

This is a different sort of thought - not really an epiphany - I am going to use a huge post-it note - I mean 2.5 feet by 3 feet - and put some important television information on there for mom. That might work. Might not - it depends on whether or not I find my easel - I think it is in the living room. It could, of course, be just about anywhere...(Found it and have a prototype up on it - we shall see if it helps at all)

Yesterday, the new aide came back again. Mom had been in a snit about her. Well, after she came, Mom mellowed out and actually let her help with a shower. Yay! I like having a clean mom. Speaking of which, today is laundry day - again - but I have left it a little long! Eeek! I might need two big machines at the laundromat. And mom is thinking of coming. Yippee.

And if I don't make the deviled eggs today, the darn avocado is going to be rotten. Darn this fresh food thing! Grrr, even.

Mom and I were going to see a play at Hobart and William Smith last night - she got dressed and everything. And we walked all the way over there (Less than a block - don't get me started on taking mom for a walk) (At least I can be pretty secure in the notion that mom will not try wandering off someday...) only to find that I had misunderstood the time - I thought the play started at 7:30 - oops - started at 7:00. So we got there after the play had started. I chose not to try to go in. Mom didn't understand why I refused so adamantly. Does anyone else hate missing the beginning of something and therefore, when possible, choose not to go in? The exposition usually happens in the very beginning and I don't like being in the dark (not literally - I don't mind the dark - but figuratively - not knowing what is going on). Fine, call me weird. We are going to try again tonight. Huzzuh!

More teeny epiphanies from my world

Here's the first teeny epiphany - I was lamenting the fact that when I was marinating my hamburger meat in Worcestershire Sauce (French's, not Lee and Perrin - there is a huge price difference and they taste similar enough for government work...) that I had to put it on and then mix up the meat. I had a the great thought I could put some in the bowl before I put the meat in and then put the meat in and put more on top! Yay! Problem mostly solved!

Another - I fixed a problem I was having with my home computer - not a huge one, but annoying. I have a network here in the house. There are five others in the area that show up on my list. By mistake, one day, I clicked on one of the others. For the past many months, my computer would pick that one first and I would have to go into my wifi settings and choose my network. Well, I read about how to fix this on the internet - and the steps helped but didn't solve the problem. Finally, I just deleted both of those networks from my known list and poof, voila even, my network is being automatically picked now. Phew and hurrah!

There was a third, and maybe it will come to me.

Meanwhile, a little about other stuff (and such). I have been remembering more of my dreams lately. Not sure if it is because of the phase of the moon or my practices before bed or what - or maybe what I eat before sleep (not that I eat before sleep because that is generally thought to be less than healthiest) but those cheetos might have something to do with it... I like remembering my dreams - even partially - makes me feel like my sleeping has not been a total waste of time.

Helped David and The Smith with the sound system yesterday - drove out and back to Phelps for speakers - they love the feel of wind in their woofers - and we set up the wireless mic for the first time. How exciting.

Also went to the Boys and Girls Club and looked at the Black Box theatre. I don't know why, but black box theatres in general make me feel sad. Still, one step closer to doing a show. Speaking of which, I still haven't been "thanked" for my work on Hairspray. When was that? Middle of March? Sigh. I was hoping for that money to buy mom (and me) some birthday presents. Glarg even.

Nope, not remembering the third teeny epiphany. Maybe it will come back to me. Probably not.