And one more time

Looks like I will be doing more laundry again today. Sigh. I hope this is just a phase and that it too will pass.

Yup, I did laundry. And it was a zippy, pleasant experience, all things considered. I washed a second pillow. I guess I will be adding at least one pillow to each laundry experience. Who knew that you could wash pillows to give them a second, puffier life? Probably lots of people, just not me.

Did a little bit of Smith work today. That is a good thing. Wrote a bit of the "So you want to be the technical director at the Smith" manual. And a few other puttery sorts of things.

Mostly, I just didn't do anything - well, made lunch, made dinner, did laundry, played xBox (and did decently), listened to a good bit of Harry Potter, cleaned the kitchen, napped, played on my phone, went to the Smith and filled out my time card and did a little data entry.

Mom can be really cute at times. She always has been able to do that when necessary. Now it just happens on its own occasionally. Recently, she took a book from the Theatre Bookshelf outside of her bedroom. For the next day or two she asked me who Woody Allen was. I answered in the obligatory 637 different ways, mostly with elements of truth in each answer. Then, when I was heading back to my room, she pointed at the book and told me in all seriousness that I should read the book - I would learn a lot. It was the biography of Woody Allen, of course. I don't think I will probably read it.

There are so many books in this house that I have never read. Or have never been read by anyone living in this house. Ever. I wonder just how many. Hmm. I know that at one time there were 15,000 books in the house, at least. But of those, how many have never been read by anyone who has ever lived here. First, the house isn't that old. Maybe the 40s. My father came to the house in the late forties. And he certainly didn't read all the books that existed in the house in his time. And he most definitely did not read any of the books that have come to the house since his demise. My mom, also quite a reader, did not read many of the books here when she was avidly reading them. Me? hahahahahaha. Karl? Juliet? Ernst? Well, maybe Ernst and Juliet have read most of the books that were in the house in their times here - but since their time?

Laundry again

Not much exciting is planned for the day. I hope to get a load of laundry done - we shall see.

There will probably be a bit of Smithing today as well. Isn't there always?

I decided to just head out early in the morning (for me) for a change. First stop, laundry - which I will have to do again tomorrow or the next day too. Sigh. There, someone said, "Are you Karl Schoen-Rene's brother?" Small town life. Gotta love it.

Off to the Smith to pick up stools for tonight's performance at Club 86, which I will drop off later this afternoon. When I walked in, I found the meeting that I thought was supposed to be going on - building new railings for our removable front-of-stage stairs. Nice people and they seemed to have their acts together. Next, Fred and I went over the proposed catwalk for work on the HVAC system in one of my closets. Fred also helped me restart the Kiosk. It isn't difficult in itself, it is just that the ladder is perched a teeny bit precariously and it is good to have someone footing or holding it when I climb up to cycle the power.

Back to the laundromat where the clothes went into the dryers. I might just have to take some more pillows down there because the one I did clean came out all puffy and happy. Yippee! Who knew? Ok, I knew, I think I read it somewhere. On the internet - attributed to Lincoln, so I knew it must be true. I just hung out there a while - trying to use my phone as a wifi hotpoint - but I think because I use ATT and the service is notoriously bad here in Geneva, I couldn't manage it. 

The cycle continues

So, after a couple of good days, we are off to a poo day start. Yippee! Apparently I don't care and won't help and am making mom suffer. My favorite line "Why do you get to sleep when I can't sleep?" Seriously? Sadly, logic doesn't work with mom at this point when she is in this particular state of mind - half asleep and angry. Yippee!

Sleepy. I did do laundry yesterday. I hope it turned out ok. I was otherwise focused. I also branched out and visited a new-to-me place. Interesting. Yay for interesting.

My next chore is to get off my butt and drive down to the car place, drop off my car and ride my bicycle back home. I can do that. I just need to do it. Then I will come back and knock out my list of tasks. Or nap. We shall see.

5 minutes down, 10 minutes back - not too bad. That is one reason I like Geneva, it is bike able. If only there were more bike lanes and places to lock one's bike. Though I would really love to live in a world where people could leave their bike unlocked for a month outside and not have it stolen. Wouldn't that be nifty? Sigh.

Lunch is done. She told me that she doesn't like crackers with cheese. I am really starting to struggle to find things she does like to eat. Sigh.

I do worry a bit when a day goes smoothly and as planned. Oh, and when it is a "pretty"day. I rode down to the Smith - got my work there done, turned over the show to Terren, went to the bank, and rode to pick up my car. Yes, the muffler needed replacing, and I had forgotten to get the car inspected (in November), got the oil changed, a wiper replaced and the right rear tire ministered to (it wasn't all that expensive - and I just got paid from the Smith, so...). 

Mom has been extra curmudgeonly today. I think I will maybe set up another appointment with a physician's assistant or a nurse practitioner. Mom seems to be in more pain than usual. Maybe it is psychosomatic, maybe it is real. Hard to tell, of course. And what level of pain it is, I have no idea. Maybe some physician sort will be able to get to the bottom of it. 

Anyway, I played some COD AW and did ok. I think I will do one full prestige and maybe a second and then give it up to play other stuff. I am not as attached to this one as I was to the previous ones. Yay.

Ok, time to do a little Smith work and then watch something on Netflix. 

Malificent

For some reason, I added Malificent to my Netflix DVD list. It arrived yesterday. I planned to watch it with mom, but when the time came, she was asleep. And after watching a bit of the movie, I realized that she wouldn't get it, probably. Too fantastic (in the way of magic and fantasy and such). Overall, I enjoyed the movie. Yay. Anyone else seen it?

Yay, laundry is done! Well, the hardest part is done - the washing and drying - ok, not really that hard - just a bunch of lugging. And quarters. (No Mary, I still haven't bought a washer for the house, sigh). And I did some Smith work - mostly working on the slideshow and talking with Kelly about events past and future. Lots of stuff coming up in the summer. Yippee?

Tomorrow it is back to the beginning - March is replete with events. I just hope I can get some help. We shall see.

Puzzle me this

Got some good puzzle work done. But my eyes were starting to cross.

My hate of windows machines continues. Just saying. The second computer I bought is terrible. It seems really slow and has lots of pop-ups and ads and things. I am trying to disable them all, but it is slow and seems really frustrating to get it to do the simplest of things - like download an app. Sigh.

I was in Wendy's this afternoon to get lunch for me and mom. Yes was playing on the music system. When did Yes become main stream enough to be played in a fast food restaurant?

Went into the Smith this morning, after getting a wake up call from the tech support people who took "I'll call you at 10 am" literally. Ooops. Anyway, I went in and built a little test playlist and lo and behold it played correctly. So I tried the playlist that we had been trying last night and it didn't work. Answer to the question: corrupted playlist. Further answer, Augustus corrupted it. Boo. Anyway, all fixed, all better. Started working on getting the TV looking right again. And it doesn't look nearly correct - so I will work on that tomorrow. We shall see if I can get it decent in an hour or so. Should be able to.

Watched Fury the other night. I liked it a lot. Not quite like Inglorious Basterds. Very interesting, about tanks. I thought Brad Pitt and Shia LeBeouf both did a good job. Glad I got it from Netflix!

I am kicking puzzle butt! I figure another day or two at the most. Then it will be time to look at the video I took to see if it can be made into anything interesting. Well, interesting to anyone other than me. I find everything I produce interesting. Sigh.

Tomorrow is another day. And hopefully the last day of a very long, long, long period of non-stop events at the Smith. Maybe next week I will actually be able to do some laundry. That would be nifty.

Four Sweaters Day

I'm I'm I'm just a-washin machine, baby don't work for nobody but me...

Because of the yogurt mishap yesterday, I ended up washing not one, not two, not three, but four, yes four sweaters. Two of mom's, two of mine. Yay clean sweaters. Boo brrr-y cold water on my little hands. And I can't find (ok, I barely looked) the second (I know we have another one, we have at least two of so many things)(like books, we have at least two books)(and I have at least two socks...) sweater/clothes drying rack like thing. One sweater is almost dry, a second is getting there, one doesn't seem to have any interest in being dry and the last is still relaxing in the tub, waiting for final wringing out-age before being stretched (hopefully not actually stretched beyond its original proportions) out to start the drying process. Yippee!

I am a computer god! Ok, not really, but I got to feel like one for an hour yesterday. A friend was having problems with her mac and I, Dudley Do Right (Jr.) rushed in to save the day. At least I hope so. We shall see if her problems persist. And I got cookies! Huzzuh!!

As far as the puzzle goes, I actually did combine a few loose pieces in various ways - too each other and to the bulk of the puzzle. Really, though, not much forward motion was accomplished. The year is young.

Two weeks (plus a day) of doing yoga - some meditation, some swinging, some complete breaths, a couple of sun salutes and a bit of a shoulder stand. Lots better than nothing!

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...

Laundry and so much more accomplished

It was a Saturday that was, weather wise, miserable and weird. It was cold in the morning, then icy in the afternoon and started to get warmer at night. We are supposed to reach a high of 50+ degrees Fahrenheit today. And then plunge down to the teens on Monday. Joy and rapture. Weather is being really weird.

Despite the weather, I was determined to go out and get some things accomplished. A dvd player that I bought for mom at Big Lots is terrible and it needs replacing. Though she says that she is having trouble watching dvds as she can't follow them anymore. This is sad and scary. I don't know what to do about this at all. Just keep moving forward I guess. And in mom's case, a slow spiral downward. Sigh. I was thinking of heading to (ick) walmart to get her another one. Two things stopped me. First, I hate walmart. Second, the weather. I will keep thinking on it. I also wanted to buy a replacement pair of kitchen scissors. The ones we have had for years and years (and years?) broke this afternoon. The plastic just gave up the ghost. Why they were made of plastic is anyone's guess, but there you have it.

I got about a block away and realized that I had forgotten to put the laundry detergent in the car. It doesn't pour well when frozen (liquid detergent that it). I went back and got it and it wasn't until I was almost at the laundromat that I realized that I had left my phone at the house! Oh my god! Panic, panic, panic! What was I going to do without my phone for an hour or two?! What exciting messages might I not be able to respond to instantly? What about my food shopping list? What about playing bridge endlessly while waiting for my clothes to dry? Eeeeeek! But I chose to do my best to survive without the silly thing.

First stop, laundry. I stuffed my clothes into A washing machine (yes, I do not sort), put in some detergent and beat a hasty retreat - or rather an advance to the rear - to Wegman's. I had the realization that they must sell kitchen scissors. And they did! Except they were out. :( Until Friday. Can I live until Friday without kitchen scissors? Time will tell. I got my groceries - mostly my Apple, Beet, Carrot stuff to make juice with. Yes, I am still doing that juice thing, despite not noticing a sleeker coat or more sparkly eyes. I have no external mirror to tell me if there is a change. Which is one reason I seek a life partner. Oops, digression. Sorry, back to the narrative through line. All shopped and no Walmarting - since part of the reason I was going to go there was to get kitchen shears. Still thinking on how to get a DVD player without going to Walmart for it. If I lived nearer an urban center...Anywho...

Here is the mountain of Laundry that will become many mole hills

Back to the laundromat. My clothes were spinning as I arrived. Scoping out the space, I saw that many, many dryers were in use. Sigh. Last time, I was a little underwhelmed with how the lower dryers performed, so I was seeking all upper ones this time. I found three, not contiguous, but that was ok. I have some distinct clothing, so I knew could find them again. Without my phone, I basically people watched (one of my favorite pastimes) for half an hour. Then I tossed all of my laundry into the baskets - saving the joy of folding for mom and home.

Last stop, Lake Drum, the new place that has opened in town. I play a game with myself where I make a rule, and depending on the result, I make a choice. If x, then y sort of thing. In this case, if there was easy parking near Lake Drum, I would stop. As luck (fortune, kismet) would have it, there was a spot almost directly in front. Huzzuh?

Lake Drum is a pleasant place, all things considered. Nice atmosphere, interesting beer options - Victor does his best to pick only NYS beers - and I get to drink out of my Saucer #8 stein. Chatted with nice people and stayed way longer than I had intended. Oh well. Mom survived my absence, which is, I guess, the most important thing.

Dinner and then the coin sorting.

After dinner, I wanted to wrap my coins in their little paper sleeves. I had remembered to remove the coins from the car's center console (one of the things I did while waiting for my clothes to dry at the laundromat). So, I got the coins all together and realized that I had no idea where I had cleverly put all of the coin wrappers. They used to be in with the coins - in the collection box - but the box was too crowded so I moved them. Cleverly. I must admit that I was mildly concerned that I would have to end up cleaning (eeek) my entire room to try and find them. I did look in a few places, overturned piles of papers and such, to no avail. I basically gave up on the idea of accomplishing coin rollage last night.

When I couldn't find the rolling stuff, I just put the coins in these

Over the next couple of hours, I sat and thought - ok, tried to nap, but couldn't. Sitting, thinking, looking around my room - when what did to my wandering eye did appear? A tower fruit cake tins. I don't know where I got them - four of them - all pretty and flowery and such. Hmm, why were they there? What could their function be, now that the fruit cake had been ingested, digested and er, eliminated? Why not get off my butt and see? Yay and ta dah! The coin stuff! Inside each of the cans was the coin sock for the coins and one of the four coin denominations generally in use: pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. Huzzuh!!

Tins o'coins and wrapping materials (and socks)

I guessed that I would roll about $60 worth of coins. Anyone wanna guess? The rolling was made a little more difficult because mom wanted to chat the entire time. Which we did. Though some of my answers took a while until I got to a memorable stopping place.

More than $60! Rich, I tell you, rich!!

 Quite a day!

What day is it?

I know I have a weird schedule, so figuring out what day it is can be something of a challenge, even in "normal" times. But the past two weeks, with two sets of weirdnesses in the middle of the week, I just couldn't really get my head around yesterday being a "Friday" and today being a "Saturday." It feels like Today ought to be Sunday. Hmm.

Yesterday, laundry didn't happen. I got there and someone was sitting in front of the three huge machines stuffing them full of clothes - all three of them! Grrr. Well, I guess she had a lot of laundry. But still. Looks like today is now Laundry day. Huzzuh.

All this time off from The Smith has been weird as well. Sure, a meeting here, a scary filter removal there, but mostly no Smith work. I hope I can get back in the swing if it come Monday.

Our days look like this - Morning time do stuff - mom rests - Lunch (this is a bit of a process but it usually lasts noon-2ish) - Afternoon - do more stuff till about 4 or 4:30. Go to the grocery store - Come home, do a little bit of stuff - get mom situated in the living room (help her down stairs, see that she does her teeny exercise thing, etc.) work on dinner - news (which mom really no longer comprehends) - a couple of Big Bang Theory episodes - then evening stuff - put things on tv that mom enjoys - sometimes I watch things with her, sometimes I putter around and do stuff. Eventually head to bed - around midnight or later - hoping that this will tucker mom enough so that she sleeps for a while. Yay!

Thinking about crushes (what else is new) and how they often really amount to nothing (at least that has been my experience, percentage wise). But they do make me feel which is a good thing. If you want to read more about this - check out my relationship blog.

Why do I not like to have my mom see me doing yoga? Is that weird?

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...

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...

Guess who neatened his room!?!

That's right, this guy. Phase one is complete. I got my room back to a semblance of neatness. Most of the mess was clothing. So it wasn't that hard to clean up. We did laundry yesterday - mom read a book, had a snickers bar and a bottle of water out of the vending machines and watched me put clothes in machines and take them out again. She is, as I type, working away at folding some of the clothes. Go mom!

Sorry for the digression - where was I when I so rudely interrupted myself - oh, right, a neatened room. I wouldn't say clean because, well, it could do with a bit of vacuuming. That isn't going to happen anytime soon. Later today or tomorrow, though, the plan is to clean up my desk like thing - tomorrow - bill paying. Baby steps.

We also went to the library. Mom didn't really know why she wanted to go. Then she decided it was for Gideon books - they were all out of the library. And a book that she saw on the back of the New Yorker - which has four people requesting it before us. Yippee. I am thinking a few months before she will get to have it in her hands. We took out two Rumpole of the Bailey books but she found the one she tried to read not to her liking. Back they will go! I got out two audio books that I picked randomly from the shelves. I hope they are ok. 

Oh, huge-ish news! The pile of newspapers and other things in the corner of the dining room is completely gone. All that remains are some National Geographics which I have a hard time getting rid of for some reason. But they will be moving soon. I think the last time that corner was empty was 2009. Yay!

I did spend some time at the Smith yesterday, despite wanting to have a full week day away from the place. I did neaten a little there as well. And decided I would like some cross bracing on the light storage unit that Bruce built. It wobbles side to side a little too much for my comfort. I don't think that will present a problem. Not looking forward to working on that project on Monday. Poo even.

I ordered a set of Marx Brothers movies for mom. We shall see if she likes them as much as the Fred Astaire movies. I doubt she will. But at least we will have them for a rainy day. Speaking of which, I think a lot of the Northeast is getting rain today. Yay! And the trees are starting to tunr colors and shed leaves. Before we know it, snow! Erich, one of my nephews, loves winter. Me, I can take it or leave it. I have read somewhere that it is supposed to be a very cold winter. Brrr.

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!)

Sleep Glorious Sleep!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anger word Puzzles

So much is taken for granted, it seems to me. I, for one, take being able to do a crossword (or even a happy word) puzzle as a fairly straightforward sort of task. Not that I can do the tough ones easily (that's why they are considered tough, I would guess) but at least I can figure out the mechanics of the puzzle. Mom can't. I was surprised that she had a hard time figuring out the relationship between the clues and the boxes in the puzzle. And trying to help her do it, well, it didn't help. I came up with the idea of her writing the words for the answers to the clues right beside the clues. Seemed like a good idea. Something to get her using what is left of her noggin's capabilities. She did two words on her own. Not a hugely self-motivated person is my mom. So, yesterday, we played puzzle for half an hour. I sat with the puzzle book and read clues to her, while she would try and guess the answer. This is an easy puzzle book, so the clues are pretty straightforward. When the clues weren't straightforward, I would modify them a bit to make them a little easier. And when possible, gave her letters in the word to help her along if she was having trouble. She was delighted. Kept saying "I am pretty good at this when you are helping me." And "We are having fun, aren't we!?" I guess we will be doing some of this as long as she is able!

I stopped in at the Smith yesterday to ask a quick question and ended up staying half an hour and with several tasks assigned to me. Yay. Note to self - don't go to the Smith unless I want stuff to do. I also went to the bank and saw Hannah who is leaving to go back to college in a week or so. Ok, I didn't go to see her, but she was there and happily gave me a roll of quarters. Which I needed so I could do laundry. Speaking of laundry, I feel a little disloyal because I have been using the downtown laundromat instead of the one nearer us, in the plaza. I just like the different sized washers at the downtown one and the fact that every quarter is worth 8 minutes in their dryers.

While there I stopped in a the medical supply place. Turns out that they were the ones (sort of) calling us about parts for mom's cpap machine. They are going to stop the calling now. Yay!

After laundering, I went to Staples and got an actual white board with which I am much happier than I was with the weird dry erase board I got from Wegman's. I think it will be a good thing for mom to have and hold onto letting her know where I am and such. And I also did some grocery shopping.

Mom can't eat things in tortillas. I just have to face that fact and move on with my life. I thought she could manage it and I was wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. Sigh. So, next time we have tacos, she gets to have taco salad and eat it with a fork - or her fingers if she wants - but no more tribulations with taco skins. I must admit I got slightly exasperated at the mess she was able to make of herself before I realized that it was not, of course, something she was doing on purpose. Double Sigh.

Wild night on the town last evening! Tuesdays are my regular night to go out and hang out. Red Dove was busy but the end seat at the bar was invitingly open and waiting for me. I sat and had a beer and chatted with whomever wandered or sat nearby. Then, just as I was thinking of leaving, a few friends showed up. We went off to play pool - how I do enjoy playing pool! - and hang out next door at Trotta's. They have two pool tables that are rarely in use on Tuesday nights. Yay. Then back to Red Dove for a night cap. I left them there around midnight and headed back home, were I checked in with mom and then played for a while before finally falling into bed around 2 in the morning. Huzzuh!

A day of this, that and the other laundry

Laundry day! Gotta love it. I have not, as yet, ventured down into the depths of the basement to check to see if the dryer is functional. I will be pleasantly surprised should it actually work still. My lack of spelunking being the case, I haven't, as of yet, done more than a brief survey of what the washer world contains in the way of options. So, it was off to the laundromat for me.

It was quite empty - so, maybe Wednesdays will be laundry day going forward. Or have they already been "the day." I don't know. Once every two weeks do I do laundry? Does that seem about right? Three large loads (or four smaller loads) in two weeks. Too much? Too little? Just enough? While the laundry was, er launderizing, I went for a wander - to get some pills for mom from our lovely Rite-Aid and just a little walkabout of the mall. Such a beautiful day for walking around! Lots of pleasant scenery as well.

After laundry, I did some food shopping at Wegman's - which is always a fun experience. Most of the time. And then a quick trip to the library to pick up two more audio books. I am toying with the idea of heading to the NYC area while mom is in Maine with Juliet. It is a long drive - and I don't really have a place to stay, so I might not. But I am toying with the idea. I was sort of thinking to head down on Tuesday and back to Maine on Thursday. I can't remember if we are supposed to be leaving on Saturday or Sunday. Oh, speaking of which, I really need to remember to stop the mail for a week. And to remember that I can walk to the post office on Hobart's campus to do that! To get back to my original thought - I got the audio books in case I do end up spending a lot of time in the car by myself driving around.

Dinner ended up being chicken thighs with spinach and corn on the cob. Not too bad. I think I mostly have the menus planned for the rest of the week - I need to use up the stuff I have in the fridge so that little will go bad while we are away.

Leaf Kitchen was rocking for beer night! Ok, not really, but I had fun. And I had raspberries in my Brooklyn Chocolate Stout. Good chatting with all and sundry. A nice evening out. And about.

I was hoping to love The Bourne Legacy and, sadly, I did not. It was ok at best. I liked the two lead actors, Jeremy Renner who was in the Ghost Protocol and Rachel Weisz, but there was just nothing oomphie there. Most of the best action sequences were in the trailer for the film. Edward Norton did not instill in me the same excitement that he has in other movies in which he has appeared. Just eh. Well, got lost there for a minute on IMDB. What a great website! Or at least I think it is great. I just wish there were a link to Netflix on it - a one click - add to my list feature. Oh well, can't have everything. Or can we?!

Busy, busy day

Today was a full day and I was running on half my typical sleep - 3 hours instead of at least 6. Sigh. I don't know why exactly I couldn't sleep. But that's ok. More awake time is more time to get things accomplished. I find I accomplish little while I am sleeping...

Got up way too early and stayed up, working on a couple of blog posts. One eventually got posted - the other - about Trust - may never see the light of day. We shall see. After that, the day started in ernest. Lunch for mom and me, then I moved a few boxes and some furniture around. I achieved my major goal for the alcove in the study - I got pa's portrait re-hung. Yay! I also started pulling out boxes that contain only mom stuff that aren't getting sorted this go 'round - mostly boxes filled with mom's teaching stuff - and put them aside for later delivery to the attic.

While brushing my teeth, I had a realization that I really need to do some more cleaning before my house guest arrives on Friday! Eeek! My bathroom has seen cleaner days. And the two bedrooms she gets to choose from could do with some work. Sigh. None of that got done today. But the realization was there - so some of it might get done tomorrow.

After lunch, I headed out to run errands and do the laundry. First stop, Protective Services Office in downtown Geneva. Mom's handicapped parking permit was set to expire at the end of the month. What an easy, no hassle thing to get renewed! Stopped in, the person behind the window asked me a couple of questions and presto! another five years have been added! Huzzuh!

Next stop, the hardware store. My Handy wants to be at it again. A couple of years ago we had the back entryway replastered. The work was never finished - the contractor had another job, left and never returned. The good thing is he never charged us for the work. The bad thing is, well, the work was unfinished. One of the things that didn't get done was the replacement of a hook that allowed a screen door to be secured in an open position. I didn't find the hook easily when I went to look for it and it isn't like we go through that door a bazillion times a day. More like once a month or so. Still, on the occasions we do go through there, and the door needs to remain open, it would be nice to have the hook back. So I decided to bite the bullet and find a hook and fix it. Hence the trip to the hardware store. A hook was easily found and I plan on fixing the dang thing today! Yay!

Onwards to the library. Mom wanted some books - eeek - that she had been looking for in the house but hadn't found. Big surprise there. The books in the house are getting more and more shuffled around. I really need to get them organized, but it is pretty far down on my list. I also feel a bit of trepidation around books from the library after one went missing for a long time - the library forgave the fine, but it was scary! I don't like losing things in general and I especially don't like losing something that is someone else's. We shall see what happens with these.

Last stop, for the time being, was laundry. I had three baskets full. Lots of sheets. And clothes of course. While laundry was laundering, I took my leave of the laundromat and headed to Staples to turn in recycle printer cartridges! Margaret was there and helped me - and told me she was engaged - nice ring! Sigh. I think she is great. She even took a typewriter ribbon cassette thing and credited me for it!

Laundry done, zipped home, hoping for a little nap of maybe half an hour - at least that is what I imagined. Mom volunteered (ish) to help fold. I was sitting in my room, getting ready to lie down when I heard mom coming down the hall at a rapid (ish) pace and then some weird plopping sounds and then clear vomiting sounds. Poor mom!! She was not a happy camper. I don't know if it was the coleslaw or what - maybe just the heat of the room at the head of the stairs combined with having to do so much twisting to fold the laundry. She just got sick. Luckily, most of it went in the toilet. Still, there went my half hour nap. And I think I need to go back to the laundry again. I really want a washing machine in the house. Maybe that will be my capital investment next time we have a windfall. If there is a next time for a windfall. The dryer has probably died, but I won't know until I get brave enough to walk around the corner in the basement and check. A dreaded (and easy) task for another day.

So, no nap. Instead, it was off to the grocery store to get a chicken and some other necessities - like fiber bars, a sweet potato and soda water. I needed to cook in a shortened manner - as I was heading to Ithaca after dinner. On the way out of Wegman's I ran into Cassie who works at The Leaf. The Leaf is currently on hiatus for a week or so. We chatted for a longish while. Sweet person - very chatty! Got home, cooked up the sweet potato, heated up leftover vegetables and divvied up the chicken. Not a bad dinner - and quick and easy. Watched the rest of the news with mom and then set her up for the evening - she loves NCIS for some reason. And then I headed to Ithaca.

A friend there suggested a waffle place. I don't think it has been open long - at least I don't remember it from my last visit - which was, hmm, last summer perhaps? Yummy waffle, good conversation. Who could want anything more? Well, I could, but...I got to listen to my book - Water for Elephants - while driving in both directions. Yay.

Got home, puttered around on the computer, watched an episode of Doctor Who (with Peter Davison - the most lackluster doctor ever!)(With three of the weirdest companions ever) before closing my eyes and forgetting the world. Yay sleep!

Who did some exploring?

This guy! This guy did some exploring today. First stop, a new beer place that is opening in Geneva. I stopped by and walked in because the doors were open. There were three people there - two women and a man. The man barely said a word. From the women I learned that the place will open in 8-10 days or 3 weeks. That they are waiting for the liquor license which they already have. And that they will have 20 or 24 taps. Yay! I guess I will check back later. No web page or Facebook page apparently...

Next stop was at a place called 2prg -  apparently a fairly wide spread electronics recycling organization. Zero landfill results from things brought there - they don't take air conditioners or humidifiers/dehumidifiers but just about everything else, including floppy disks, CDs and video tapes. Yay! Now I just have to bring myself to let go of some of the useless electronic stuff I have accumulated over the years.

So, how was that for exploring?! Other than that, I had a pleasant time at the laundromat.

Hey, did everyone know that the best way to store carrots is in water? I didn't - I had to look it up on the internet! I am very happy to be living in the internet age. How about you? Now, how to store grapes...ok, basically don't wash them before storing them in ziploc bags in the fridge. I wouldn't have guessed about the not washing part...

Watched Hanna the other night. Not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination. I don't think it figured out what sort of movie it was. Action for sure - but what else? Science Fiction? Suspense? Feel good because the girl sort of makes friends? I don't know. I can't tell if the little girl is a good actress, but I am pretty sure she isn't. Eric Bana was ok at best. And Cate Blanchett was terrible. If you want to see a young girl kill lots of people, watch the movie - otherwise you might let it slide!

Boxes galore!

My next goal is to empty the living room of NC clutter. This is totally doable. I mostly need to get the books repacked. Some of the boxes that were packed in NC are just way too huge to lift by a lightweight like myself. Well, I can lift and move them, but I would rather not. My ideal book box is a liquor box. So I went to the liquor store and got some boxes. Baby steps. Oh and I filled two already. Yay!

Yesterday was also laundry day. Huzzuh! Four baskets full. I really need to do laundry more frequently - more smaller loads might be more efficient. It is sad not to have a washer/dryer here in the house. We used to have them, I think we still have a dryer - but the basement is scary, so I haven't spent much time rooting around down there. While laundering, I ran a few errands - like my walk through Staples. Not really an errand, but I like office supplies. Spoke with a nice young woman who works there.

Speaking of speaking with nice young women, it might appear to someone looking in from the outside that I like younger women. Well, that may be the case, but generally, age isn't the first thing that attracts me to someone. Generally, I like someone for other reasons and that person's age often happens to be less than mine. Then again, at 52, many people are younger than I am...

Also went to Tops to buy a couple of things so that I could get a coupon for 10% off wine at Pedulla's Liquor store. Where I went next to buy white wine for tomorrow night's dinner. Tomorrow is mom's birthday - 83 - and I am planning on cooking mussels, salmon, corn on the cob and sweet potato for her. I am going to have something similar, but swapping in a sausage for the salmon. And maybe some artichokes for good measure. We shall see. Today I might go to the dollar store and get some more stuff for her for her birthday. Tomorrow - when I go to the grocery store to get mussels and whatever I am missing for dinner, I will get her some flowers. It is too bad for mom that her birthday is always so close to Mother's Day (sometimes it is Mother's Day).

Oh, Carmella wanted pictures of the completed porch - ask and you get - or something like that.

First View

Second View

So, does this entice anyone to come visit? Please?!

Gotta love the interwebnetsthingy

More scanning must be done to get more stuff up and available on the interwebnetsthingy. As it is, there is a goodly amount of stuff (and such - and nonsense) floating around. Like the manual for the TV. Yay! Once I found the model number, located on the back of the set, it was easy to find a manual for it online. The manual was searchable and had two references to "delete." Click, click, done! Yay! Now mom will have to problems going to channel 8, one hopes. We shall see.

And no, the problem still persists. If someone types in the number, which is what mom does, it still goes to the unwanted, deleted, removed and proscribed channel. Glarg. And I can't get mom to use the channel up/channel down button. Ch apparently has no meaning for her. Poo and double poop on a scoop.

Laundry day! Yay! Four baskets full - true - a lot of bedding was finally washed, but still. Who waits that long to do laundry? This guy, apparently. I went to the laundromat downtown rather than the one in the plaza. I thought I recalled that they had a really, really big washer that might accommodate all four baskets worth of soiled garments. They did, but it didn't. Oh well. Everything did get washed. And then I set mom to folding again. Yippee! She did a great job, all things considered.

After dinner, we tried, for a second time, to go see The Idiot at Hobart & William Smith. The weather tried to prevent us from going, but we persevered through the cold rain (and snow - ok, no snow, just a musical allusion...). It was quite a slog. Mom only stopped fourteen times on the way there - and surprisingly only complained twice! (On the way back, she only stopped once - weird, or what?) I had thought the show was going to be packed - it wasn't. Sadly, I must have been very tired because I kept nodding off through out the performance. Not that the show was bad - I didn't really like the lighting - nor did I grasp the reason behind a lot of the choices - why all of the references and quotes from Alice in Wonderland and what was with the freeze frame that happened 10 times or so. I loved the set - six picture frames suspended from the flies - that were used with great effect. Great costumes, uneven, but ok acting. Now I guess I will have to read The Idiot (again?). Mom liked it overall, which was a pleasant surprise!

There had been tentative plans to get together after the play with a friend downtown. Unfortunately, my email to her vanished into the ether. No wonder repeated checking of my incoming mail revealed no message. To what would she have responded? Sigh. So, late at night, after trying to find the earlier message which apparently got sacrificed to the Flying Spaghetti Monster, I wrote another apologizing for my apparent lack of communication. Generally, I loves technology whole bunches. Last night, grrr'd me a bit. Maybe I will get (be given) a second chance. Doubtful, but life is that way sometimes.