Master Chef and such

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

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

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

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

I type therefore I type...

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

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

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

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

Oddnesses

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

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

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

How the mighty have fallen

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

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

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

Rainy Day!

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

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

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

Less Owie now

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

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

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

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

Anything with an "L" in it hurts

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

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

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

Getting Started Again

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

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

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