Things I (we?) should buy in the MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
61

Good morning.

It’s 55F and a bit cloudy outside. The morning clouds will give way to afternoon sun, with a daytime of 73F. Yesterday became warmer than forecasted; it reached 83F.

Pullin, congrats to your son on his promotion!

Mollie, I hope you’re feeling less pain today.

JtC, it’s good to see that you and the hubby are so much happier and calm now.

Nuts, I’m glad your dad has been released from the hospital. I hope his healing continues to go well.

The birthday lunch went well, and we all divvied up duties for the upcoming memorial at the end of this month. I’m sure K felt loved, and I know she was grateful for the assistance.

After lunch, I contacted my son to ask if he wanted me to stop by, and as it turns out, I needed to dog-sit because his dental appointment ran long. He had to leave earlier in the day for a trip to the hardware store and had put Zeus in the garage. He came home to diarrhea and pee everywhere in the garage. So, my being down there came in handy. Zeus was very chill with me; we spent some time cuddling here and there, but most of the time, he was just lying in the shade.

As I was leaving my son’s house to go home, my phone rang. It turned out to be my middle sister, who never calls unless it’s something big. Turns out my mother has been hospitalized and will be having surgery to remove a series of abscesses inside her arm. They are unsure whether the infection has spread beyond her elbow because, by the time she was actually admitted, the doctors had gone home. I’m not sure how long she’ll be in the hospital, and if she’ll have to go to rehab after because she lives alone.

I’ll be heading over there later this morning to see both my mother and sister. My sister and her husband are leaving for an Alaskan cruise this Friday, so I’ll have to arrange care and transport my mother upon her release. I’m not letting my sister miss her cruise/vacation. They’ve had a shit year so far, and need some relaxation.

My sister does a lot for my mother; she runs her to appointments, does her grocery shopping, and much, much more. My mother and I haven’t been in any real contact for about three years due to reasons, and I’m not really looking forward to this. However, I need to do my part, much as it pains me to do so.

I never had a really good relationship with my mother, although I tried for years and years. Three years ago, I reached my limit and decided to cut off most contact. She was always very negative, very demanding, and had become downright mean. Even my kids lost patience with her behavior. She doesn’t have dementia; the doc ruled that out.

Even so, I’ll need to step up here. And, if she goes to rehab, she’ll probably lose her mind thinking she’s going to be dumped there forever, and will put on a loud, noisy fight. Her biggest fear is being dumped in a nursing home. Frankly, if I required nursing home care, I’d expect my kids to put me there because I don’t want to be a burden to them. I’ve already told them this.

Well, I suppose I should get my day going. You all take care of yourselves.

62

I’m late because we got started early today. We went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast since it’s close to the landfill and it was a convenient place for FCD to leave his car while we disposed of the deck debris. After that little adventure, he headed to the marina and I got some gas in the truck ($50 didn’t even half-fill the tank!!!) and ran by Food Lion for some 'nanners and fresh pineapple chunks. Now I’m home and shortly I’ll head back out to the yard to continue the labors I started yesterday. I have a plan in mind - just wish I had a crew to execute it for me. For free, of course. Obviously the local nocturnal gnomes and pixies didn’t do anything - buncha slackers!!!

The day started at 50 Ferrets and we’re promised 80s this afternoon. I need to do as much as I can early because I’m at the stage where manual labor in such temperatures is a bit much of a challenge. So we’ll see how it goes.

Onward! Happy Tuesday!!

63

My ‘new’ (2010) Prius’s check engine light came on Friday. It was off Saturday morning, but re-illuminated near the end of a 50-mile round trip. We dropped it off at the shop Sunday. Yesterday I was told that the 12 volt battery had corrosion, and the EGR valve is clogged. Unfortunately the EGR valve is not readily accessible, and it will be a two-hour job to take it out and clean it. So $785 to get my car back… unless the EGR valve needs to be replaced. I hope it will be done today, and I can pick it up after irk.

64

Good morning. Mrs Magill is headed to Cookville to pack up Spike’s dorm. Unlike his older brother, Spike is helping - she did have to call and wake him up first. Fang’s freshman year, his mother showed up already to load him up to be greeted with, “I’m heading to my final exam, can you finish packing while I take it?” By “finish up” he meant “pack up my entire dorm room.” He’d forgotten about the Angry Italian Woman. He only did that once. Once.

Since she slept in for an hour, so did I, so no walks.

By 9:00 last night, the swelling in my disc was was back to pre-injection levels, as the medicine was absorbed. This morning, it feels like it’s back at pre injury levels. I may have them do the one right above it, to get my right side in shape. Anyhow I am feeling much better this morning.

With the house to myself, it’s a Mollie day[1]. I just sent my sister a text saying that I had made a bit more of effort this morning.

  1. At least until lunch ↩︎

65

Metal mouse - the only thing I dislike about my PCP’s new practice is that they do not have the ability to schedule a year in advance, and she’d popular. My next check-up is in September, my last one was last May. On the bright side, my therapist should have The Letter ready, on the down side, I’ll be off the clinical trial, and off Minoxidil for a month, unless I am allowed to keep any left overs, which I doubt.

Boofae - I’ve had similar spreadsheet fails before, that’s how I learned my lesson of backing up. Looks like you were smart enough to already do it. :+1:

Knots - It’s election day in Tennessee, too, at least for the municipal races. Out primaries will be in August. The idea is to sow confusion and reduce turnout. I’ve been doing a bit of canvasing, reminding potential Democrats to only vote for the one D running for County Commission. The top two candidates are elected, and voting for one of the Republicans will cancel out the D vote.

Taters - Sorry about your son’s garage. Zeus must be getting used to the new food. Hopefully, it should pass. Prayers[1] for your mother.

Flyboy - The EGR valve died on my Prius at the same time as the hybrid drive system. A new EGR valve was pricey, but not nearly as expensive as a new hybrid drive system would have been - thanks old Prius for killing your hybrid drive system about a week before the warrantee ran out!

  1. Or a reasonable substitution ↩︎

66

Up in the Mez, it wasn’t too hideous, although a surprising number of companies don’t know what Zip Code they’re in. :thinking:. I stopped at Teeter for a six pack of Negra Modelo for tonight. Spot is sticking with his gin.

Not if you add enough croutons and bacon bits!

I use RTIC, and it does a good job of insulating things.

{{{{Taters}}}}

Yay!

67

Break time - I earned this one. I just spent the last hour filling Otis pits. Which meant digging dirt out of the raised garden bed into the cart, rolling it to the various holes, filling the holes, leveling the dirt, stomping it down, adding more as necessary, lather rinse repeat. We’re expecting rain tomorrow and I’m hoping it’ll help the dirt settle in and I’ll see if more is required. But for now, I think I’ve gotten all the pits - at least the ones at the top of the yard. There may be a few at the bottom of the slope.

After a breather and some preemptive tylenol, I’ll get back to what I was doing yesterday afternoon - creating a gravel barrier between the future garden and the wall outside the basement door. Then I’ll get to defining the garden. I’ve got 80’ of edging lying in the sun getting warmed and flexible. Wonder if I can get it installed without Otis trying to steal it or chew on it.

Speaking of whom - he didn’t eat this morning and he’s not come in for his midday kibbles. That’s so not like Otis. He’s not acting sick, but if he doesn’t eat all day, we may haul him to the vet tomorrow. We shall see.

And still no willing volunteer crew stopping by to do my dirty work. Dammit.

68

Afternoon.

Invigilating all day again, though the student didn’t show this morning. The afternoon’s one did though- if it was the other way round, I could have left early, but I just had to hang around instead.

The temperature has decidedly dropped this afternoon, there seems to be a really chilly wind, so I do not, after all, regret buying fleece for the little tomato plant. The other baby plants will be coming in tonight, to hunker down in the kitchen, if I remember.

I had trouble sleeping last night and it was an early start to get the bus in (hey, I’m a student, I shouldn’t need to get out of bed until the morning’s settled in a bit), so I’m really tired. I should be doing some work, having got back home pretty early, but I think I’d just mess it up. I think an early night will be on the plan.

69

Today’s excitement includes waiting for a Chewy delivery and talking to the estate attorney on Zoom. Whee! Do we know how to have fun or what? I also really need to do something about the tons of cat hair everywhere. I’m pretty sure our air purifier filters are clogged.

The wife’s upper arm pain seems to be subsiding, so I guess the mild exercises the PT recommended are helping.

It’s only 45F at 1045, so a fairly cool day. Sure is nice to see everything greening up and flowers blooming.

70

Bathe the cat in Nair?? I brush Ziva fairly regularly, but I still suck up a metric butt-ton of her fluff (and Otis hair) every time I vacuum. Seems to be an odd way to mark their territory. :rofl:

OK, break over. Back to work.

71

Afternoon all. Bubble wrap was purchased (so far I have resisted the popping urge, but it is inevitable…) and will shortly head off to the post office. Paint was expensive, but I should have enough for the work tomorrow. Need to get to the gym but have a case of the “donwanna’s” so we’ll see if I can overcome that. Need to go, was up to 208.4lbs yesterday on the scales, so need to start moving that downward a bit. Lovely day, it’s 75F now but a few clouds around as precursors to the bad weather coming.

red , happy foot doctorin’.

Taters, glad you could provide Zeus some company; and hope your visit with Mom isn’t too difficult. Great helping out sister, an Alaska cruise can be very relaxing.

FCM, need to fill my tank in the next day or so, my car is nagging me about it every time I start it up, but even with my Kroger discount it’s not looking like a lot of fun. And Otis is happy you filled in his holes, now he has new ones he can dig up…and reading further, hope the silly mutt is ok.

flyboy, I hope the EGR is viable. Cars are great until they become expensive to fix…

Mollie, glad your doing better. I usually can get in within a week or two with my place, can do the appointment on-line.

Nut, an early night now and then is a good thing. A late morning, however, is even better…

And onward to the afternoon chores.

72

Don’t make me give you The Look!! He kinda sniffed where I filled them in but showed no interest in digging. I suspect he dug before because he smelled moles. Perhaps his presence convinced them to move on?

Anyway, I filled a couple more holes that I missed earlier - we’ll see how they all look after the rain. I also moved some more gravel - I’ve almost gotten to where I want the edge of the path to go. But I ran out of steam, so I’m done for today.

Supper will be some roast turkey of Thanksgiving vintage, cauliflower parmesan, and I’m not sure what else - maybe boiled itty-bitty spudlets? I’ve got time to ruminate over that. Speaking of food, Otis has eaten a few doggy treats and he drank a little water, but he still didn’t want any kibbles. We’ll continue to monitor him.

I believe I’ve earned a little tablet time.

73

Back from the dermatologist. She had to freeze off a little spot on my forehead. Otherwise it looked good.

GD update: When I get to have “Mollie Time”, I like to take pictures, so I have something to look at if I need to feel better later. Usually, I filter the hell out of them. Since going out in public and Mrs Magill and my sister seeing me, I’d been filtering them less. Today, I used no filters, and you know? I like the way I looked. Of course it helps that I’d gotten my eyeliner right, but still. Also, my sister asked if she could start using my real name in private conversations. No more speaker-phone for a while.

74

This made my shriveled little heart quite happy.

75

Y’all’s acceptance of me has been a big reason I’m getting better with this.

76

Well, the Zoom review of the will went off without any problem. Zoom has improved over the years. A couple of small corrections and we were done in an hour. We’ll go out to sign it in a couple of weeks. It was, however, exhausting, but I find human interaction of any kind exhausting these days.

Then we went downstairs for a margarita and snacks geezer celebration of Cinco de Mayo. Now I need a nap.

77

Taking a break at the gym. Banking and posting have been accomplished and another 600 calories remain to be sweated away. Tonight I’ll move stuff around so the contractors can get to the work areas tomorrow. Otherwise evening will be given to slothing.

OK, back on the cycle to nowhere.

78

{{{Mollie}}}

When I was on my first boat Supply kept sending out long messages – 50+ lines of numbers and spaces, each long enough to fill almost an entire line, left margin to right margin, of teletype paper. (Stock number, quantity requested, and gods, chops and SKs only know what else.) We had a really good SK1 (Storekeeper First Class) in those days; he knew what all those numbers meant, and could therefore type up the message faster than any of us could, so when he brought the message up to Radio he’d sit down at the teletype and type it up for us. (He even knew what radio codes and addresses to use. One day he came up carrying a message that was somewhere around 110-120 lines long, sat down at the teletype, typed it up, saved it, stood up – and lost his balance and hit the ON/OFF switch on the teletype. That model teletype had a volatile memory; turning it off cleared his entire message, so after voicing an assortment of expletives he had to turn it back on and retype the entire message. Ah, such fun we had back in the '80s! :slight_smile:

79

I’d like to sit outside and toss the chuck-it for Ms Peach, but it has become black fly season. Truly awful.

Brain too full with work shit to respond properly, we’ve got one exhibition shipping out tomorrow, a prototyping session on the university campus on Thursday, another exhibition set-up starting Moanday, and a refurb of something I have never seen amongst all that other stuff, so yays, boos, and hugs as needed.

80

Howdy Y’all! Laundry got cleaned, dehydrated and put away. We had some quality cee-mint pond time as well. OYKW went to the burly butcher sto’ and got us a six pack of Coronas to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Sup got fixed and et and fartfest has begun.

Frodo hope you find a suitable thermos. I have never owned one.

Taters sorry about your mom. Hope all goes well and that she doesn’t need rehab. It’s good of you to step in so sis can go on her much needed cruise. Like I always say, you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your family.

MOOOOOOM “conveniently located near the landfill” would be a great advertisement for your Cracker Barrel. Suggest a to them. They will thank you. Hope Otis is not sick.

FlyBoy yikes about the repair work. Hope it got done today.

Mollie maybe I am confused (my normal state of bein’), but I thought Spike still lived at home. Also glad you feel better. Good to know you are gettin’ more comfy with the way Mollie looks.

nuts sometimes an early night is just what’s needed.

Cookie pace yourself! You might need to take to the bed tomorrow to recover from today.

VanGo sounds like irk is irksome right now. I have vague memories of that.