Beeson Banner for September, 2018
5 September 2018
I got stabbed in the back today. I presume he was wearing a mask, but I had my face buried in a pillow at the time. My leg hurt from lying on my stomach less than the previous shot, but then, I didn't have to do it as long.
So I dashed into the bedroom and tried lying on my face, and it didn't hurt. But I didn't lie there long, and that leg is giving "I would like to hurt" signals at the moment.
After the shot, we went to Rural King to buy cat litter — Big R has been out of corncob litter for weeks, and we're beginning to think they have discontinued it. Rural King is a huge store, and almost worth the trip. A charming young man loaded the bags into the car for us — getting them out will be a problem. [Later, Dave did it all by himself. He said the heavy sack of pine pellets slid onto the hand truck easily.]
When we got to Columbia City, we stopped at Wings for lunch. I ordered seven wings and ate only five, so for supper we each had one wing and half of a very good mini-sub roll, with assorted dips left over from the wings and my Moe salad, and various other things found in the fridge. And I made some celery sticks.
It's nearly two weeks before my appointment with Dr. Rahn, and there's a chance that he'll say I can cancel the appointment for three weeks from today that I made on my way out of Dr. Bojrab's office.
So I might get some work done. No vigorous activities for a few days, but I have lots of sewing that needs doing. Or I could hang out on Usenet.
Saturday, 8 September 2018
Grump. I didn't get out to "The Farm", my favorite farm stand, this summer — and while leafing through today's paper "Real Estate Auction" caught my eye. "The Farm" is up for sale.
I didn't know the property extended to the river. Google satellite view shows the back of the hoop building about as far from the Tippy as it is from the house.
I think it's a hoop building. I had never seen the term before, but the other two outbuildings (barn and pole building w/loft) have pitched roofs. Only 11.6 tillable acres, so it will probably become a country estate.
I gambled and won today, or at least didn't lose. Weather Underground said that if I got home by noon there was a good chance I wouldn't get rained on. I didn't make it until one, and it started raining as I was leaving Owen's after grabbing a gallon of milk and a pound of butter, but I wasn't wet enough to need to change clothes when I got home. My specs were speckled, though.
9 September 2018
Our pickling projects touched off a general house cleaning.
In search of half-pint jars, we un-sealed the wood box that's part of the fireplace — and what we found in there prompted Dave to call Verne Gross and arrange to have the chimney sealed off.
There weren't any half-pint jars, and most of the ceramics and glass we salvaged from the wet and moldy boxes was stuff we don't want any more, so we are gradually cleaning it up — only coffee mugs are still on the picnic table — and I plan to take a pannier full to Goodwill every Tuesday for a while. I took some last Tuesday, and Weather Underground says next Tuesday will be a good day for a ride.
And that prompted me to look at the stuff in the kitchen cupboards. Making mini-muffins was fun, but I'll never use those baking pans again, so they went last Tuesday. And now I'm in the process of packing up a dozen miniature apothecary jars. I'll refrain from looking into other cupboards until the shelf in the garage clears off a little.
Monday, 10 September 2018
I think that everything we took out of the woodbox has been washed. A box of nine coffee mugs packed in newspaper is bungeed into my right pannier. And the lemon squeezer I bought one July when I couldn't find the antique glass lemon squeezer is in the insulated pannier, waiting to be fitted in with whatever else I find.
There was surprisingly little wash this week. That is lucky, because it's a poor drying day and I put everything on racks or hangers. And I put four towels through the dryer.
12 September 2018
Wednesday, sweet Wednesday, with plenty to do!
Dave is cleaning the hallway and the rooms that open off it, except for the bedroom, which we clean tomorrow.
I have started starching fabric for a major sewing project, I need to cultivate the garden, and I want to make a meatloaf for tonight and brown the ground beef I save out to make lasagna without lasagne for tomorrow. I think I'm re-inventing eggplant parmesan — there is some parmesan in the primarily-mozzarella shredded cheese I plan to use.
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Missed only one of the plans above: I decided that I needed all the meat for the loaf, so I've put a frozen patty in the fridge to brown tomorrow. The loaf was almost too much for my loaf pan, but it was very good. I put some marble-sized fingerling potatoes that I bought at the courthouse market around the edge, and they cooked perfectly.
Dave brought perfect order to his closet today, and gave me more things to take to Goodwill next Tuesday. Right now, he's playing with his electric train.
13 September 2018
Al also likes the train set.
My camera has manual settings that would allow me to get a good picture of white fur on a black box, but I don't know what they are.
The wheels under the box are a dolly that Dave bought at Harbor Freight yesterday.
I spent the whole morning frying beef, onions, and eggplant to make eggplant lasagna with no lasagne in it. I'd say I'd re-invented eggplant parmesan, but it's eggplant with swiss and mozzarella.
On the other hand, the mozzarella is Aldi's "Italian Style" shredded cheese, which is mozzarella seasoned up with asiago, romano, and parmesan. Pretty good on lasagna.
There are also two mini-sweet peppers and three slices off an anonymous "hot pepper", but I put those in raw.
My mandoline got a workout. It's surprisingly easy to get pepper seeds off it.
17 September 2018
Caloo, calay, oh frabjous day! I told Dr. Rahn that I could live with my current level of pain, and he told me that after I keep my appointment for a third epidural, this incident is *ovah*!
And there is no limit on exercise — I can stand on the pedals and grunt up a hill if I feel like it.
He said my prescribed exercises won't do anything for scoliosis, but building up core strength is a good idea on general principles. And I've finally worked them into my schedule. Instead of setting the timer for five minutes to remind me to come back and make soup out of Al's left-over treat, I lie on the floor for ten or fifteen minutes.
Tomorrow I'll have the energy to to schedule my annual mammogram. On Monday I will, if I'm lucky, make an appointment for cataract surgery. After I heal up from that, no more doctoring until time for my annual check-up in December.
18 September 2018
Ooops, I forgot to make the phone calls. Well, neither is urgent.
Since I was doctoring yesterday, today was washday. When I folded Dave's socks, I found two pairs of anklets and six pairs of the footies he's been wear ing all summer. I have yet to wear winter socks, but I did put my summer Sunday hose away for the winter today.
And Weather Underground says that next Sunday is going to be cool! Not so for tomorrow's reverse dump tour — a high of eighty-six.
I'm planning a fifteen-mile ride, to get strong enough for the twenty miles to Leesburg on our next cool dry Friday. To get the extra miles, I'm going by the animal shelter to drop off some canned food that Al doesn't like, and to be sure that they are open when I get there, I'm riding counter-clockwise.
And taking plenty of switchel.
21 September 2018
I have remembered where I keep the iced-tea spoons!
Now I have to remember why I wanted one.
Both calls have been made.
I have an appointment for a mammogram in October. Then my next appointment, aside from the one I'll make on Monday, is in December and the one after that is in February. Yayyy! I may get to unpack my waiting-room bag.
Wednesday was a lovely day for a ride. When I was eating lunch at McAllister's, I thought that I'd like to put in a few extra miles, but there is nothing I want at Walmart and there aren't many places one can go from where I was, so I came directly home. I did stop for milk at Owen's.
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Dave has traded our red Versa for a white Corolla. I think I'm going to like the back-up camera. It doesn't warn you when the trunk is open, but it doesn't have an "open trunk" button that you are likely to push while turning the key either.
For that matter, it doesn't have a key. If the battery in the fob goes dead, you are stuck where you are. I do *not* like that.
[It turned out that it *does* have an "open trunk" warning when you know what to look for.]
My walker goes into the trunk easily when both back seats are down — I didn't even have to take out the trunk cover. I hope Dave doesn't forget to have the salesman show him how to remove the trunk cover. [Dave removed it permanently, and stashed it in his closet in case we want to hide what's in the trunk someday.]
I'm pretty sure that with the trunk cover removed and both seats down, I can put the bike into the car by myself. Didn't check because I didn't want to dirty a car I didn't own yet, and because I didn't want to unload the bike. So if I can drive thirty miles without irritating my rotator cuff, I can go to Rentown again! I hope they still have that coarse-ground almond butter.
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Dave said the salesman didn't know how to remove the trunk cover either, but will look it up. The car came in yesterday and is going out tomorrow — I'll bet the bookkeeper loves that!
We are going in tomorrow morning to pick up the car and learn how to work its features. I'm planning to throw my bike into the car that we are trading in, and go to the farmer's markets from there. Or just go to Owen's to pick up my Gabapentin, since one market closes at noon and the other at one.
All this started when Dave had the Taco hauled off on a flatbed, and went to the dealer to see how it was doing. Squirrels have chewed through the gas line again. The mechanic thought for a while that he could put in a stainless-steel gas line, but that turned out not to be possible. But the brake lines are steel.
When I went to International Foods to buy some New Zealand canned beef, I also got a withered ginger root and put it into a quart jar of cold water. For a few days I've been thinking that I won't use up the previous root before the new one spoils, so I should slice the new one thin and boil it in equal parts of sugar and vinegar to make it keep. (I boiled the previous root in left-over bread-and-butter pickle syrup.)
Then today I realized that I prefer honey in my switchel, and that I still have two lemons left from the Fourth of July party. So there is a batch of honey-ginger-lemon marmalade simmering on the stove. Alas, when I went out to stir it just now, I remembered that if you don't boil the lemon peel *before* you put the sugar in, it gets tough and inedible.
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Quotable quote: "I can still finish at or near the front of most club rides, but that's mostly because of my careful choice of club rides." — Frank Krygowski in rec.bicycles.tech
22 September 2018
It says on the key tag that our new car is blizzard pearl. I could have sworn that it is white.
Monday 24 September 2018
Well, this week is fully booked, and Dave is booked for most of it.
Today I rode my bike to Grossnickle's to be evaluated, tomorrow I wash clothes, on Wednesday Dave is driving me to Fort Wayne to get my last shot in the back.
Then on Thursday, he will drive me to Grossnickle for cataract surgery, and I rather suspect that he'll have to drive me to the follow-up on Friday.
Saturday free, but I doubt that I'll be cleared for going to the farmers' markets by then. A pity, as I'm pretty sure that it's crack-candy day at the courthouse, and the fairgrounds market is serving breakfast.
Tuesday 25 September 2018
When filling out the paperwork before evaluation and checking "no" on all the "does it bother you" questions, I wondered what I was doing there.
Today it has sunk in that I'm going to have to have eyedrops twice a day for a month. I never would have started this if I'd known that was involved.
I'm worse about eyedrops than Al is about getting his ears cleaned. And he only gets it once a week!
26 September 2018
All day I've been noticing how well I can see, and wondering why I didn't wait another year to get my cataracts out. They might invent a better lens by then!
It's been about a hundred years since Mom was in nursing school. Do any of you remember her telling how cataract patients were kept in bed for a week, and given paregoric so their bowels wouldn't move? I do hope a low-residue diet went with that!
We got back from Fort Wayne fairly early. I ate lunch and fooled around a little, then slept from one o'clock until three forty-five, when a spammer rang the phone. NoMoRobo stopped it after one ring, but I'd already sat up and reached for my glasses, so I got up.
28 September 2018
I took the water pitcher out of the fridge today.
And started storing the pocket bottles I keep in the garage fridge empty.
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I spent all day yesterday with my right eye closed and marvelling at how much the low-resolution image had been contributing to my sight — even when I'm just reading fixed-distance text on the computer.
By bedtime I was worried that my sight in the right eye still looked as though I were looking through Vaseline, but I got up in the middle of the night and didn't bother to open both eyes — and about halfway to the bathroom, realized that it was my right eye that was open. Today vision in the right eye was almost as good as in the left eye — which is probably why they did my bad eye first — until they put in more drops for the post-surgical exam.
So far I've been good about not rubbing the healing eye, but I caught myself just in time once. The scratchy sensation doesn't bother me when I have something else to think about, but I have to blot tears fairly often. Often both eyes at once; perhaps eyes are cross wired to keep whatever got into one out of the other.
I went for my first proper walk of the season, but only made it as far as the Trailhouse.
Monday 1 October 2018
Oops, I'm out of September. I'll be leaving y'all in mid-cataract. But the operation is almost trivial — what a difference a hundred years can make!
I get to wash clothes on Monday this week. Dave is at Grossnickle's, seeing Dr. Knight, I think. He doesn't think he'll be dilated this time, but he took his shades anyway.
If you think that the doctor dilates your eyes when he wants to peer in through the pupil, try the dilation when he wants to pull a lens out through the pupil! The nurse used at least two kinds, and sloshed them in so lavishly that she had to hold a towel or something against my temple. Come bedtime, my pupils still didn't match.
I'm not looking forward to having my right eye as my only eye on Thursday evening. When I noticed that I can now read large print with it, I thought I could spend the evening on Usenet, but it works much better with reflected light than with dark letters on a glowing background. But I can read this file, which is white on black, if I put my nose about a handspan from the screen.
Cool! I just fiddled around with Agent and found that I can make the letters in post bodies way big.
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