books

Back in the day

This is the hoof pick I've had for 35+ years.  When I boarded my Poco horse in Golden Gate Park, the guy that put his shoes on (farrier/blacksmith) would be a regular there for a lot of owners.  He did hot shoeing and had a little furnace-like in his truck.  He would heat them, test them for fit, whack on them on an anvil for a subtle change, try again.  Any time, even now, that I smell coal burning, I would think, "shoer is here.." .  He was quite a flamboyant sight.  He had a long queue of hair, and a mustache that he waxed and twirled so it stood out from his face like the cartoon bad guy.  Hammering, heating, dunking in water to cool, the tourists were there catching it all on film.  So, any time he had a pause in doing the horses, he would make these hoof picks out of old horseshoes, half of one, and give them to his clients.  It was considered a mark of approval to have one of Steve's picks.  The usual ones are made in china, now, and are lacking a point that you need to clean dirt, stones, whatever from the sole of their feet.  The form of these are a big improvement and god forbid you lose yours, and have to ask Steve for another.  He also made custom fence gates, for big bucks,  and probably there are still some in San Francisco even now.

I miss the social part of boarding, talking folks and horses, laughing at bad jokes, riding together.  Of course it is a Lot Cheaper to keep your beasts at home, but a lot more work too.  But the past is past...

I will get C to drive me down to the barn so I can find the things I want to keep, but none as special as this pick.

sorrow

I had the vet come and put Maybe down on Tuesday.  I could not get down there, so I watched from the house window.  It was very quick , and C took her to one side of the barn so there were no sight lines to that area.  When Willie went down, it was much closer to the road, but what could we do?  Thus the neighbors had a plain view of the proceedings.  The kids would have been shocked the most,  as they got up to "treat" them all time (against the posted notice to leave the horse alone).

I have had horse(s) since I was twenty-four yrs old.  44 years.  But no more horses anymore.  Big beautiful barn standing empty.  All the horse gear to be passed on to someone else.  There are few things I want to keep, I have one beside me here now.  Picture to follow.  Still have the show saddle to be cleaned and oiled.  This would have been better if N were here, I think, to oversee each step.  Did I do the right thing?

Achoo!

I am fighting off a sore throat and drippy nose, and there is no condition or mending that can be accomplished with Kleenex and throat lozenges.  I can't wait for the aftermath, so I am out of bed now, sniffling and looking forward to being able to get my passwords sorted out.

Beetles, ugh.  I saw one in the bathroom and gritted my teeth and stepped on it.  I have never seen one in the house before, but it looks like one in the Wikipedia for big black bugs.  With the high frequency gadget in there I thought all the bugs would head out away from the source.  Maybe as time goes on they will clear out.

I am finally agreeing that it is time to put Maybe down.  She has steadily gone downhill since her stroke-like episode several  months ago.  The farrier came yesterday and couldn't trim her feet, she can't stand on just three legs, she might well have fallen on him, she is so wobbly.  My usual vet is recuperating from a bad back condition (I have been there too) and the next closest vet is way pushed to do his patients and Jim's as well.  I have the guy with the backhoe and flat bed truck lined up, only have to give him a day before notice and he will come.  This is my last horse, I am getting too old to do this, I can't even manage to get to the barn, because the ground past the yard is so rough with tree roots, etc.  It will be strange to have the nice barn and all the gear, and not have a horse.  I will ask the shoer what he wants of the gear, for a flat price, I think.

I couldn't ride again anyway, my left knee is in bad shape, and mounting and dismounting risks a fall, even a tumble under the horse if my knee gives out.  I never thought my last ride would be the last one, I would have savored it more.  But with all the new homes built past us, 40 at least, and the drivers zoom past, never mind the 20 mph signs,

it is too dangerous to ride.  I wouldn't even let my kids (if mine were young again) out to play in the front yard, it would only take a few seconds to drift into the road.  Ours was supposed to be the last house on the road, but the contractor started a new one before our paint was dry.  I want to move where the road is level, and someone else clears the snow off.

Here is my plan:  buy a big mobile home and have it set up in the best park.  Move in over several days, maybe get a moving company or someone to help with the carrying, clear out everything here that I want, and get an auctioneer to sell the rest.  Then, with the house empty and clean (painted?), put it up for sale.  Use the money from that to pay off the mobile home.  I would use the balance to pay the lot rent,  or put it with the investment guy.  This house is 38 years old and needs some TLC to get it sale ready, and  remodeled bathroom and kitchen will increase the asking price.

Med Tech.

When I was still gainfully employed I could explain (briefly) what I did for a living.  Clinical labs, OK, that's where all those tubes of blood, or samples of urine go to be tested for this or that.  I worked in the blood bank, testing bags of blood to get a "match" for a patient who needed a fill-up.  People have seen that, bags of blood hanging on a long pole, on TV if not in real life.  I worked weekends and holidays, and my 40 hour job too, so sometimes I worked 14 days in a row.  After 5 years I gave up the blood bank job, I was so exhausted, although the extra money was nice.

But my regular job was working as a research tech.  I worked jobs in physiology, biochemistry or pathology, for a wide variety of principal investigators.  The problem was that for most of these jobs I got paid from a grant, mostly NIH money, and most grants are for 3 or 4 years.  Once they run out, the investigator would write a new grant for another 3 or 4 years.  The results in fund-ability depended on a lot of things; cancer was the main project for many years, and now the top priority is Alzheimer research.  But if the grant ended and there was no money from a new grant, then POOF! I looked for another job.  Every 3 years.  It got really tiresome, never knowing if that new car was manageable when my salary was zero, and so forth.  And there was probably a bunch of other techs looking too.  As I got older, it got harder; I was a whole generation older than the investigator, who felt more comfortable being the boss of a young person and not someone the age of their parents.  And I had to take classes to keep up to date as science evolved into new techniques.  The last 3 years were heavenly, I was the lab safety specialist, paid on HARD money (not a grant) and I enjoyed telling investigators how to shape up, preferably before the OSHA inspections.  But once the mortgage was paid, and N was doing all kinds of consultant work at home for nice money on top of his annuity, I knew this was the time to get out.  Plus, they were building hundreds of new labs, and the thought of having to do so many inspections made me tired to think of it.  My replacement was a tech laid off too, and she was a great one for doing that kind of work.  So we overlapped a couple of months, and then I retired with 35 years of work.  My retirement wasn't much, but I had a nice nest egg laid back.

And I still haven't said what I was doing all those years, have I?  Think mice and rats, and sometimes rabbits and goats (YEW) that were studied for results that would occur mainly in people.  Consider radioactive compounds, and infectious techniques.  I worked one whole year on trypanosomes, the organism that causes sleeping sickness.  Fortunately we don't have tsetse flies in our part of the world, will that change as global warming increases?  Dunno.  Not my problem now.

And so went many years' work, many techniques, SOB bosses (we won't go there; karma will do it)  papers and grants, and some really nice co-workers, many passed away now.  I miss them, but not the  lab.

That is all for now, I'm sure everyone is bored by now, and time for me to go to therapy.  Bye!

Diet? What diet?

side effects

'scrips and horses

I spent over an hour on the phone with Blue cross, CVS pharmacy, and the physician's assistant for my ortho doctor all because the new script was written "either generic or brand" for the pain killer Ultram.  The nephrologist I saw said, oh no, brand only.  He told me that the generic was not the same as the brand; that the generic is a steroid and hard on the kidneys, where the brand was neither of these things.  So when the ortho doctor was about to write the drug, we explained what the nephrology doctor said, and  so he wrote his script.  And damned he wrote "either", and BC/BS sent me this vague letter about coverage for the brand, since the generic was available.  Therefore, phone calls.  Hopefully the ortho doctor will re-write the order.  Meanwhile, what was used to fill the current  supply?  I dunno.

I have had a very sore pair of knees, after my jaunt at the mall.  I am in terrible shape from my last surgery, and it is hard to do much exercise solely in the bedroom, (no jokes, please)  I do them, but I don't see the progress the physical therapist says is there, in small increments.  So I keep doing the ones he told me to do, as well as the ones from the original therapists.  There are subtle differences, but I just do them all.  And seeing the mall nearly empty, of both customers and stores, was sad, although my daughter had told me how little was surviving there.  I got to admit, I buy everything on Amazon or eBay, instead of chasing around trying to find things.  The only exception is heavy stuff, like furniture.

God this is a poor post, whining on about my ailments.  I will tell a better story.

When I was about 12 years old, my grandfather borrowed a horse from the next neighbor for me to ride while we were there (WV) at the farm, on vacation.  I couldn't have been so happy before then, being a horse crazy girl living in a big city (Miami).  He was fun to watch even when I wasn't riding, and he apparently learned what I carried when I showed up (grain).  But toward the end the owner showed up to claim  him again, to move some of his cattle.  The thing was, he was hard to catch.  After Dan and my grandfather had chased him around a bit, I stepped up to the fence (me on the outside) he ran up to me, and I took hold of his halter (a bad thing to do, really).  And so the men came and claimed him, and were suitably impressed with my skill.  All due to horse food.  And my grandfather, a real tightwad normally, indulged me enough to buy a horse brush, and so I learned the old adage, that the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man (or a girl!).

Grandad borrowed the horse every year for 2 or 3 more visits, I thought of him as mine.  Until he was sold.  And so I learned (from Ben Franklin) the truth of " neither a borrower nor a lender be ".

Come to think of it, that horse was a blue-eyed paint, much like my Blondie horse.  I had her from 4 years old, to 26 years old.  The only equine I ever sold were the little pony and her two foals.  She was a mean pony, until you had a grip on her, when she gave up until the next time.  And neither of my kids could care any less about horses.  My son even told me he would never have horses because they were too much work.  He has a point.

Silence is golden

Our land-line telephone doesn't work.  It has a dial tone, after dialing it rings once, then silence and some pops and buzz, and nothing after that.  I called the phone company (on the cell phone), and described the situation.  The agent checked the line from her end, agreed that there are "issues" with the line and said she would send an email with information about a technician visit.  When the email arrived, it set a visit for this coming Tuesday, but there is therapy scheduled, and C's jury duty may raise its bumpy head, please no.  We won't be able to plan our schedule until we know about the jury call on Monday night.  All those idle citizens that leap at the $40 a day for every day they are on call, not everyone just postpones things and trots off to the courthouse.  Anyway, the lack of robocalls is amazing, no jumping up to catch the phone before the answering machine picks up.  Very quiet.

The damn stink bugs have once again put in an appearance, clinging to the windows (outside! thank god) and making crunch sounds when they are stepped on.  Hopefully I can get in the car and shut the door before they arrive in the car.  I have a horror of them, the only saving thought is that they are very slow and stupid, easily caught in a tissue, and although they fly, it is done very slowly and with much noise.

The old grey cat has still not been seen, I guess for certain she died.  I just wish we knew for sure that she is not suffering.

I am trying to straighten up the room, but not being able to carry much as I use my walker.  I don't need decisions, only someone to carry things from here to there.  So I sort on the bed, trying to avoid "churning", where what is in A goes to B, B things go to C, and C things go back to A.  Net result; zilch progress.

I wonder, if I donate stuffed animals to Goodwill, will they see the ear tag for "Melissa and Doug" and know this isn't a run-of-the-mill toy?  The single 10 inch rabbit cost $25, and I hate the idea that it will be dragged around by one ear.....

So hard to give things you love to someone else.  I should have thought this through when I bought the rabbit.  Maybe I will donate my new winter coat instead, never worn because it is brown.  Just...brown.  Very warm and puffy.  I'm pretty sure there is an unworn blue coat in the coat closet too, but I can't get upstairs to look.  We didn't have much of a winter last year.  At least, I didn't.  I was in rehab and nursing homes from July 2017 until February 28th in 2018.  My only trips out were in an ambulance to doctor visits, if the weather was cold they left the heater in the ambulance running while they packed me up.  I don't remember snow.

Now I will leave you with a more cheerful item:

Touch ID

I have finally (I hope) mastered the use of the touch pad on my MacBook Air.  I am so very tired of tapping my ID every time I move from one app to another, this fingerprint method on identifying myself is one of the main reasons I got this new MacBook.  When I first started working out the how-to for this feature, I messed it up and shut down all access to everything.  C finally got it sorted, but I became leery of trying again.  But I really had no choice, I changed by MacBook password and didn't apparently write it down correctly (sigh) so off to youTube to find a fix.  It was a breeze to do, I really didn't need all the stress I felt, getting myself into the hole.  So I thought I would re-attempt the fingerprint ID, and it seems to be working, so far, fingers crossed (my it is hard to type that way ).


My site counter just went over 45,000.  I realize there are lots of blogs that get 45,000 in an hour or less,  but I bet there aren't many with a running blog for 15 years.  So if you are just browsing along here, you won't run out of posts to read very soon.  Whether what I write is fun or even OK, give it a trial.  My therapist says this isn't a blog but (jokingly) a memoir.  I re-read them myself, and sometimes correct or add to them too.

Why do I have so much time to devote to this?  Well, back in June of 2017 I made one of the stupidest decisions of my life; I decided to have my knee replaced because it was so painful, I couldn't even completely go around the grocery store without medicating beforehand.  I went home after a week in rehab, and that first night I fell, getting tangled in the wheelchair pedals, and ripped several stitches inside my knee.  So back to the ED to get surgery #2.  With it, I fell at least once a day, and sometimes more; the problem was that my knee buckled, and it moved forward or to one side, while the rest of me headed for the floor.  I had a new physician for surgeries #4, 5, 6.  But here it is 2 years later, still getting therapy twice a week, still falling (tho less than before) and still unable to walk without a walker.  My current goal is to get to using just a cane, that doesn't seem so hard of an accomplishment does it?  Most of the time between surgery #1 and #6  I was in the hospital getting IV antibiotics for the infection I caught.  Number six placed a new knee that works pretty well.  My first physician was caught in a prescription sting, and has more things to worry about than my knee.  My current osteo doctor is terrific, especially having to follow another doctor's mistakes.  Anyway, that is why I have so much time on my hands; I still can't climb stairs without great assistance, and am therefore relegated to the ground floor bedroom.  There is just so much reading, writing, sewing, knitting, and so on, I can do, thus I also sleep a lot.  No pain meds unless I am in dire pain.  If you are considering a knee or other surgery, ask yourself what you will do if you need 2 years of rehab?  And then think again.

Most of the above is detailed in earlier posts, but this is just a paragraph and if you find it boring you can just hop past it.

One of our old old outdoor cats has disappeared, and our guess is that she has gone somewhere private to die.  She must be around 16 years old, ancient for an outdoor cat.  We had made the garage a sanctuary for her and her buddy cat, cool in the summer (not too cool) and warm in the winter, as both of the outdoor cats were drop-offs, just appeared one day at feeding time.  I have only touched them a few times, and no one can pick them up.  We still have 4 indoor cats, all 4 pound kitties, 10 years old now.  When these are gone, and so is the horse (26 now), no more pets.  N used to call the horse a four-legged lawn ornament, which is pretty accurate these days.

Still no calls for C for jury duty, thankfully.  No repair on the Subaru, Monday is the soonest they can work on the brake, so I extended the rental car until Monday (instead of this past Friday).  The logistics of getting all three vehicles where they belong, reminds me of the fox, hen and corn puzzle.

Only more expensive.

Pill catastrophe

We have two cats, unrelated, that have hyperthyroidism that need to be pilled twice a day.  One is not happy with the process, but resigned.  The other cat is a pain to medicate, writhing and struggling, but maybe getting a little better as time passes.  I had a cat several years ago with what I believe is the same diagnosis, but she was impossible to get a pill down at all, never mind twice a day.  In the end, I had her put down, damn it.  It is always the one most loved that goes the first.

We had a car problem.  On Friday, as C was driving home, all of a sudden one of the rear brakes started shrieking.  He called the dealer as soon as we made it home, and they said to bring it in at 3 pm.  They checked it out, and determined that the rear pads, rotors, calipers, drum, is there any other part of a brake system? were in need of replacement.  But, of course, they lacked one of the parts.  C asked if it was OK to drive, and the tech said, "as little as possible".  When C told me, I said "rental".  So we now have a Nissan Rogue 2002 for the week.  Not willing to take a chance with brakes.  It is damned hard for me to get in, as the seat is higher, but getting out is a breeze.  Many visits this week that can't be rescheduled.  Sigh.

Dinner time, bye for now...

attic and trash

We (mostly C) have been stripping the attic.  It has taken place beginning with
Christmas of 2018, with the credo of "anything that comes out of the attic doesn't go back in".  So as the boxes and whatever makes it down, it goes in one of three piles:  keep, pitch, donate.  Donate is mostly bound for Goodwill, but nothing that is nasty, which rules out clothing.  The pitch pile is the largest, and three trips to the transfer trash site have already made the pick-up truck handier than the trunk of a dozen cars.  The keep pile is very small, and goes into the storage unit nearby.  Eventually it will end up in the other two piles, but not now.  Here are examples of what went where:

Keep:  microscope, brass weights for a balance in a lovely wooden box, a small
Christmas tree,  a rocking chair, a section of a modular couch; one of my mother-in-law's oil paintings, surprisingly nice; photo albums; tons of yarn; wreaths and wind socks; old functional cameras that have slowly been sold to KEH camera store; my collection of fountain pens; the cross stitch kits; ceramic glazes; sewing machine and fabric, thread, etc.; taxes, computers (at least 5); for now, R's stuff, until they can be winnowed.


Pitch:  all the baby furniture and car seats, that don't conform to modern safety regs; school books, notes, awards; ( and the books cost a fortune too); 8 track tapes; paperback books; ancient sleeping bags; tents in awful shape; all the nasty clothes; my wedding dress (45 years old), an evening dress (was I ever that thin?), all yellow and Krispy; most of the toys and games and stuffed animals; bowling trophies, all my riding ribbons (photo of the pile); bowling shoes; boxes of "stuff" that were never opened when we moved here 35 years ago; film cameras that are broken; do-dads and souvenirs that I don't even recognize; the list goes on and on.


Donate:  stuffed animals that are still in perfect condition (and there aren't very many);  a few (3) collector's dolls, that were my mother's weak spot and I wish I had given them to my aunt, and then it would have been out of my hands; guitar; keyboard; a huge electric oven, used once; a reel-to-reel tape recorder with tapes; a vinyl to CD machine, used once; all the vinyl records (4 boxes) to a collector in town; books and books and books, to the library (hardback only); the other oil paintings, they are in nice frames; bowling balls (eventually); jigsaw puzzles, never opened; it is hard to find stuff that isn't worn, damaged, or not intact.

It makes me tired just looking over this list.

It's not here

And it's not there either.

I hate to look for things more than anything.  When I put things away, or find something that is out of place, I think, "Where would I look for this first?" and that is where I put it.  Sometimes it is great, other times it's "Where else would I look for this?"  These organizing books are everywhere, and so are magazines and TV shows, and each one has a similar outline.  When C took a truck load of good stuff to Goodwill, he said there was a looog line waiting at the drive-up door, he left and came back later.  The Goodwill people said it is all due to the Marie books.  I, at least, am pacing myself (from a distance, as I still can't climb stairs very well.  Or at all. )

My friend P says she looks in two places, and then buys another.  I see her point.

Ever since I took my old and new MacBook Air to the geek squad for them to do a migration, where everything on the old drive goes on the new one, I have been frustrated at how frequently every thing asks for user name and password.  Over and over.  First it will ask for user and PW when the application starts, and again after it has started but not saved.  And my PWs are Long, 10 or more characters, so I don't just whip it up.  Sometimes I have to do it the next time I start the app again too, hence all my PW books are written in pencil.  And all my pencils have arrow erasers, too.  I am glad they did the migration, well worth the $100, but why did they need a pw again and again?  And why won't the new Air ask for it only once?  There must be a setting I am overlooking.  I have a book just for this model of Air, but I haven't read it thru.

I saw the nephrologist on Friday, but he had no new ideas to try to reduce the swelling in my feet and legs.  Again he said I need compression socks that go clear over my knees.  I will have to make some calls tomorrow (Monday) to find some that are large enough.    At least he didn't poke my ankle and say,   "Huh..  They don't feel swollen to me" like the last doctor did.  I mean, with my legs downhill the top of my feet look like the shell of a turtle.  Round.

I bought two of the InfiniKloud drives that are supposed to back up your computer with a "single click".  For me, it was many steps, and then it did -- nothing.  So I sent it back, fortunately to an address in CA and not in China.  I didn't even unwrap the other drive.  I still don't have a refund, even though it was delivered on the 19th.  An ill-omened date for me it seems.  I have left it all to PayPal to sort out.

XPO to you too

I can't believe the mess this mattress purchase has made.  The one we were due to get on July 25 Was finally listed as Lost.  Amazon said we could get a refund to spend on Amazon.  Order another bed.  I said, no, I wanted this one, and to reorder this one.  I mean, two mattresses couldn't both disappear, right?  So, number two seemed OK; it was scheduled for delivery on Aug 19th.  The truck driver even called and said they were on the way, and that they would give us a call 30 minutes before they arrived.  We were home from midnight to midnight, and never got a call, never mind an actual delivery.  So I called the carrier, XPO, the very same carrier as last time.  First the story was that the item never reached them from Amazon.  This is the same story they used with bed #1.  I explained about the phone call in the morning, and after a great amount of time as my blood pressure rose, she passed me to another agent.  She had the new story that the truck broke down, or the driver got sick, or or or... So I asked for her manager.  I at least got someone I could understand, but the story was the same, except that they had the bed in the warehouse. I suggested they shove it on a truck and zoom it to us... they are only a 40 minute drive.  She said, they only come to our town on Mon Wed Fri so it would have to wait until Wednesday.  I am afraid I completely lost my cool.  I said, now I'm sure you are honest, but someone between your warehouse and my bedroom is enjoying my first bed.  And I don't mean to be crabby, but I have had it.  I suggested they rent a U Haul shove my mattress into it and hit the road.  I will pay for the U Haul.  Oh she said, I don't have the authority to do that, like I'd asked for her bank account number.  She swears it will be delivered Wed, early, so I won't have to cancel my therapy,  ho ho.  I must sound really stupid I guess,  anyway she hung up on me.  My guess that when Wednesday rolls around, we will go to therapy at 1 o'clock, and they will call then.

Gads, I have to finish this later, my blood pressure is rising again as I write this...

OK it is now Thursday and!!!
I have my bed.  They came around 10 am yesterday, whisked the old mattress away, and brought in the new one.  It couldn't have taken them 10 minutes all told.  And yes, they called first, mainly for directions.  The new mattress feels incredibly good, and should be good for 20 years like the last one, though I don't expect to last as long, myself.

I bought a Crane tabletop fan to replace a very small fan that tries its best to blow hard enough to make a tissue flutter, but doesn't.  The new one was inexpensive, whisper quiet, and has three levels of speed.  So far the lowest level is fine.  Made in the USA, too.


                                                                     

Found money

OK, here is the story.
I have been merrily buying this and that, bread maker, mattress, house washing, new MacBook Air, and so on.  I don't check my statement, I just use bill pay for all the bills that aren't on autopay.  And there is a reasonable amount left each month, and so it goes.  But one day last week, I printed out the statement for June 1 to the current date.  And casting an eye, I saw a very large deposit from early June.  There were two deposits for that date, the other one was for less than $50 where C had deposited it.  The huge amount, was not mine.

Now comes the difficult part.  C insisted that I call the bank and tell them of the error.  I demurred, but lay there all night wrestling with my conscience.  In the morning I called the bank, and they were quite blasé about the whole thing, so I asked the teller, would you have found this error if I did not tell you?  She said, no, probably not, unless the customer started a search herself.  She said, the woman (name on the deposit information) must have a big enough balance that this $$$$ shortfall did not show up,  from early June to August.  I asked her, will the teller who mixed these up be fired, whatever.  She laughed and said Oh no, this happens all the time.  Which made me kind of sick to my    stomach.

So the moral is, keep those little slips the teller hands out when depositing money, checks, whatever.  There may be an error in either direction, and that slip is all you have to prove you did (or did not) hand over the money, and that it goes in your account.

And my halo is only a little brighter, but it is there.

Robocalls

I have been mega annoyed at the number of "spam" phone calls we are getting.  I buy stuff on line, but I always use my cell phone number, which I never answer.  I do check the messages.  Anyway, there are some vendors (?) that use real live people.  Here are examples...

"Grandma?" I find these really annoying, I have no grandchildren and I would like to shine them on, but it is too much effort.  You'd think they would realize that this ploy has been exposed in magazines and on line.

"click"  The ones that promise an excellent virus protection and a free puppy.  When they pause for a breath, I ask, Have you ever heard of Malwarebytes? "click". Guess they did recognize the name of a great anti-virus program.

This is the best one, and I may have already covered it here before.  I am too lazy to look through hundreds of pages to find out, so if you have heard it before, just pass on by.  I got a phone call, offering all kinds benefits, and when he paused for a breath, I said, "Don't you feel the slightest guilt at working over the confused elderly to take their money because you spun some sort of lie?  Money they may need for groceries, etc."  And the caller shouted, really shouted, "You cannot speak to me this way!  You are NOT my mother!"And then he crashed the phone down.  My ears rang for several minutes after that tirade.  My guess is that his mother DID chastise him.  Regularly.

A friend has caller ID and a really persuasive child's voice.  She answers using that voice, and when she gets tired of acting like a 4 year old, she says, wait, I'll tell my mommy about you"  And then she puts the phone down, screams "Mommy!!" and leaves the phone off the hook until the caller gives up.  Some are really patient.

We used to get 2 or 3 calls like this a day.  Now we get 10 or more every day, sometimes back to back.  For me to answer the phone means I have to grab my walker, hobble over to the phone (it is not far, but I usually have a numb bum) and answer just as the answering machine picks up, and they hang up.  Maybe that was Publisher's Clearing House calling to tell me I'm the big winner?  Or my sister-in-law, we keep each other in stitches?  And they are wasting my time and stealing the use of my phone, which isn't cheap anymore.

Well, I have nothing more to add currently so off I go.  Take care, there are lots of crazy people out there!

computers and bread

I corresponded with Small Dog Electronics about my problems with my MacBook (where I bought my last 2 laptops), and they said it would cost $65 to crack it open for a quick see and then repair might run $200 - 300, he said that was too much to invest in such an "old" computer.  I bought it as a refurbished model and have used only 40 GB of  240 GB, so I will feel no remorse if I broke it.  I will get a new (not refurbished) one.   It is 4 years old for me, but is a 6 year old computer for specs.  I have the latest OS and lots of space - 240 GB, so it is something else wrong.  I need a new 'puter.

Yesterday my poor feet actually fit in my pair of hush puppies, not comfortably mind you, but a significant improvement.  The key is to keep them up as much as possible, and put pressure after the up-on-sitting.  Hence the need for a laptop that doesn't make me want to throw it out the window.

It is 2 am now and I am back to bed.  I will finish this tomorrow.

I got a new MacBook Air at Best Buy 2 days ago.  Right off the bat I crashed it, so all it would do, wherever I went and whatever I did, it would say. 'user name?  Password?' and I was ready to take it back to Best Buy.  But C took a look, and over about 3 hours got it back in shape.  The problem, partly, is due to the Touch ID button, the one that is supposed to keep you from having to lookup these things.  It doesn't work for most of the applications, as far as I can see.  However, I at least don't have that damned rolling ball icon that the old Air had 90% of the time.  Maybe the book I ordered will simplify some of the questions I have.

Meanwhile I am checking out cookbooks for the bread maker that I got on eBay a week or so ago.  I made one loaf of bread that was so solid it could have been used for a polo ball, because the yeast was about one year old.  At least.  So when C went to the grocery store, there was no bread flour, but he did get the yeast, so I will give that a try tomorrow.  The bread maker is far more advanced than the old one, as well as being bigger.  I don't think it will fit in the cabinet where the old one is.

When I first began making bread (manually as well as by machine) my sister, as usual, felt the need to outdo me, and bought a bread maker (Update:(or took my mother's machine, which she used every couple of days)  Of course she never looked at the manual, she just dumped the water, flour and yeast in and pressed "start".  When it began smoking, she realized she put the stuff directly into the baking chamber, never wondering what the pan was for.  So what did she do?  Clean it out?  No, she threw it away.  In a dumpster.  And called me to find out what my "secret" was.  My sister, bright she never was.  She's been gone 15 years now, also due to an act of stupidity.  But that is a long story and I can't see the purpose of dragging it all out now.  But still, how dumb...

This is not one of my better blog efforts, so I will end here.  Hoping all of my readers are having a calm peaceful weekend, Bye!

Amazon

Well the mattress that was scheduled to be delivered on the 25th of July, after ordering it on July 5th, is apparently missing.  How can a shipment of a king sized mattress be missing?  you ask.  Just what I said to the customer agent at Amazon yesterday, the 30th.  It is not at the carrier XPO so the "out for delivery" is clearly wrong.  So it was reordered, now due Aug 19th.  We had, foolishly, pulled everything that would be in the way out of the way, and now it all has to be put back and then removed on the 19th.  They offered me a refund to select another Amazon bed, but I did all kinds of selecting over days to settle on this one so I reordered.  Lucky me, eh?

I have just finished an hour of grueling therapy, and my legs feel like noodles.  The therapy guide is very encouraging, and that is a big change from the previous place.  Then is was more of the same every session, and no feedback on my progress, if any.  Maybe before snow begins I will be done.

We are having problems about the new neighbor's dog, barking and charging at the old old cats.  If he gets into the field where the horse is, barking and chasing, that will be the end of him, I think.  I remember one other family, this was several years ago, who owned a Doberman, Ernie.  He was friendly and would play fetch until your arm gave out.  But unfortunately he grabbed anything in the yard and tore it up (kids' toys), chase the ball when someone was playing basketball, would chase and knock down the small kids, tear up picnic stuff, plates and food if it was within reach, and on and on.  When he got very pushy, one of the other neighbors would tie him to the owners' front door knob when they were letting him run loose while they were gone.  They did this over and over, the woman would say "Oh, everyone loves him, he wouldn't hurt a flea".  Finally came the day, they got home to find Ernie's collar tied to their front door.  The last time anyone saw him.  Everyone sighed in relief, and no one ever knew who did what with Ernie.

New PT

I started with a new physical therapist last week, and he was very encouraging.  He scrapped some of the exercises I had been doing and added several that will target specific problems.  I am pleased that he will be addressing the swelling in my legs and feet.  Maybe eventually I will be able to wear real shoes again, and not just these slippers.

R joined us for dinner a couple of times last week, and we had a nice confab too.  She uses quarters in the washers, and so last night C and I went through the jar that N had used, which had never been touched since he passed, and sifted out all the quarters.  There are a lot!  Probably several hundred dollars' worth.  She will have to carry it, it is a heavy sucker.  I'm betting she buys a washer/dryer soon.  Update:  She bought a washer and dryer, they delivered it Friday (the 13th) and even hooked it up.  She immediately ran a load of towels!

My new bed is due to be delivered Thursday.  The current one is at least 20 years old, but it is only recently that I noticed all the lumps and bumps in it.  My only fear is that the mattress will be too thick to give access to the bookcase headboard.  It is not an insupportable problem, we have plenty of bookcases to pick up the slack.  I'm betting that the current mattress cover and waterproof cover won't fit, we will see.  I already bought new sheets, that are sized to fit a 16" thickness mattress.  I think the current ones are only able to fit a 14" mattress.

A few months ago I filed for and received "missing money" from WV, the source is just "Google".  So yesterday I looked for my sister-in-law in MI and KY and found $ in both.  I "claimed" them both, filled out some information and printed the forms, and mailed them to her to complete.  Not huge amounts, but still, it will buy some groceries, etc.  She couldn't do them by herself, because she doesn't have a computer or data line.  Heavens!!  I didn't think there was anyone that was without even library access.  And speaking of computers, my MacBook Air is starting to get very unreliable, even just going to my email listing gives me the spinning wheel, and the only cure is to turn WiFi off, then turn it back on.  The same is necessary when I am trying to look at the news, or even if I shut the lid momentarily, and it is irritating the crap out of me.  It is not the router problem, because the other two computers work fine, I even put the MacBook right beside the desktop one, and the result is the same.  The local computer guys went out of business, leaving only Geek guys at Best Buy.  I am not sure that they work on Apples, I may have to send it out.  I would have to delete all my passwords, etc.  Grrr.

Oh yeah, the before and after

I'll leave you to figure out which is before and which is after the power wash.