The February Banner validated on the first try.
I absent-mindedly used the word "spoons" in the February Banner. That comes from a story circulating on — I think it was Usenet — about a person with a debilitating disease explaining it to a friend who didn't understand how someone so sick could appear so normal. She gathered up a bunch of spoons to use as counters to show how she had limited ability to do things.
Of course, everyone at once realized that everybody has a finite number of spoons; the difference with the disease was that she had very few, while most of us get to bedtime with spoons to spare.
I don't think it's part of the meme that there are different kinds of spoons. I recall a day when I had a bunch of typing to do and a lawn to mow. I would type until I got tired, then mow until I got tired, and be all rested up to do more typing.
Of course, variety in spoons is part of the general lore: "A change is as good as a rest."
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I have found the left-over copies of "How to Edit Your Club's Newsletter". Now I need to remember why I wanted them.
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I'm bringing down the box of seashells. Because the box is weak and the contents are heavy, I'm offloading it into smaller boxes in the attic.
A 1991 newspaper was used to separate layers. The headlines are horribly familiar — in three decades, nothing has improved.
9:52 PM 3/3/2024
Lovely warm weather. The pastor mentioned it in his sermon.
Yesterday's bike ride was a disappointment. At last I could ride to the new thrift shop and see whether I could dump stuff there, the farmers market was on, and there was a charity bazaar at Lakeview Middle School.
The cookie baker wasn't at the market. I did buy two cookies at the bazaar, but they weren't as good as store-bought cookies. There was a piece of one left on Tuesday!
I bought a piece of white colby at the market even though we have an un-opened half moon of colby, because white colby is quite rare.
Straight from there to Mary Anne's Place to be sure of getting there before they close at two. The only employee had taken the day off.
At least I can buy a doughnut at the nearby Asian Cajun. They close at noon and it was twelve fifteen.
The bazaar was huge, but nothing I hadn't seen before, and the sloppy joe I bought for lunch seriously needed some relish or chopped onions that were not to be had.
But it was a lovely day for a ride.
Don't shake the lint off something you've just taken from the dryer while wearing a black shirt.
On Monday, Steve drove us to Goshen for the procedure. It went well, and Dave had stopped bleeding when he woke up at four this morning. He said "I never thought I'd want to show people my pee."
Sunday night, Dave put the trap up on the benches so the squirrels couldn't get at it. When we got back from Goshen, there was a squirrel with a white edge to its tail in the trap. I strapped the cage to the flatfoot and took it to Rhodheaver. In the evening, there was another squirrel in the trap. I told Dave it was his turn and put the cage in the trunk, then remembered that he wasn't supposed to drive, so I went to the Auditorium again.
I woke up with a sore muscle in my neck on Tuesday. A pain in the neck is a pain in the neck. It was much better today, but I can still feel it.
Yesterday, we went to McGeehan, neurologist, and he gave Dave a sheet of blood tests to take to the Byer Building, which he did today.
I washed a sheet and re-made the bed this morning, and after my nap I went to Kroger for milk and folic acid — I've forgotten which doctor prescribed it — but they didn't have any folic acid. I don't think I could have found it if they had had it. I asked after searching the shelves twice. Dave ordered it from Amazon.
I forgot to look for ready-to-eat yummies, so we had a can of clam chowder for supper.
I thought the bluing in the little dropper bottle had been diluted, and now I have a blue bra.
I rode around Winona Lake counterclockwise today. I dropped two books at the library and a shirt at Mary Ann's Place. Between those two stops, I got to Asian Cajun before they closed at noon, and set foot inside for the first time. I bought a jelly doughnut.
I didn't notice anything asian or cajun, or anything other than Wabash doughnuts and a few beverages to go with them. The grocery that used to be out back is gone.
Apparently, people drop in for a doughnut and a cup of coffee.
I suspect that there used to be a restaurant, and they didn't bother to change the sign. Google Maps says that there are five other Asian Cajun locations, all permanently closed.
DuckDuckGo says that there is an Asian Cajun Crabshack in Denver.
I looked for Dr. Hollar's new house and found it. It appears to be an addition to a smaller, but still large, pre-existing house. I could not be sure without trespassing in a construction zone.
It's very difficult to recognize places on this side of the lake from that side of the lake — most look different on the side away from the street. I spotted Killarney Castle, but there were few places I could place relative to it. It doesn't help that places where one can see between the houses are small and not very close together.
Mary Ann's Place had a sign saying closed for "technical problems" and "we'll open as soon as we can". I thought that meant days or weeks, but stayed to send a text to Dave and found out that it meant minutes.
I also learned that "donations closed" doesn't mean they have no more storage space, but that there is nobody behind the donation door. I asked, and I can bring my six lace bras on my next trip.
I can cut through the BP station from Prairie Street, and come out on Buffalo within walking distance of Mary Ann's and Asian Cajun. It's not *too* hard to cross SR 15. I can keep walking on this side while waiting for overlapping holes.
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I can relate to today's Crankshaft cartoon: https://assets.amuniversal.com/7e608690b715013c3f77005056a9545d
Alice once said that she didn't need to eat breakfast — by the time she got all her pills down, she had drunk enough milk to constitute a meal.
Except for levothyroxin and alendronate, I take all my pills with milk. Dave prefers juice.
12:43 PM 3/8/2024
I put three slices of jalapeño into the potato salad. One would have been ample.
[12:02 PM 3/15/2024 Sample must have had a chunk of jalapeño in it; I can't detect it in the salad. Very good and almost gone.]
I *think* that one o'clock still means one o'clock, and that I'm not taking my pill an hour early. I'm pretty sure the time changes at two.
Dave and I went out for steak on Saturday. We should have waited until two; the place was jammed at one.
Superb food, though.
I had two goals today, and had accomplished both of them before nap time.
Almost. The recycle-bin papers are in piles under heavy weights in the garage, waiting to be tied into bundles tomorrow. I had dilly-dallied until that was an all-morning job.
And I brought the laundry in just before lying down, but folded my briefs and put them into the drawer in the afternoon. My socks and gloves are still on mitten hangers.
I also planted radishes in the strawberry bed, wiped the gaskets of the freezer and refrigerators, and mended a torn pillowcase I noticed while loading the washer. It's torn at the bottom seam, and is longer than needed, so finishing the tear and re-sewing the seam made it as good as new. I wish I knew what sort of fabric it's made of and could get some more — it's much softer than any cotton I've bought recently.
8:07 PM 3/12/2024
I took a Sprawlmart tour today. I meant to come back by way of Kroger, but I was tired and I can buy milk and greens tomorrow, so I came back on Wooster Road.
I didn't buy much, but I came home with an impressive collection of receipts: I bought one little thing at nearly every store I went into. I got two cans of clams, a box of Ritz Crackers (eight sleeves to 11.8 oz; I wish saltines were available that way), and a two-ounce bottle of ethanol hand cleaner at Big Lots.
Then I went into Gabe's and lo and behold, bought a pair of sandals.
The laces were at least a foot more than twice as long as they ought to be, and made of a material that was almost impossible to pull through the lacing loops and so springy that they refused to stay tied. But I found, when I got them home,that it was extremely difficult to untie the shortening knots they had been tied in. They were almost glued together.
A gratuitous strap connecting two of the lacing loops made the toes so tight I couldn't put my foot in, but they are not quite too narrow, and hardly any sole sticks out at the heel and toe, and they were on clearance at twelve dollars, so I figured it was worth my while to do a little surgery.
And I'm wearing them now. Once I stopped trying to put the laces through a gratuitous lacing loop on the heel strap, they fit quite well.
Half an hour getting laces out of little drawer, new box in sewing room.
7:40 PM 3/13/2024
And there I ran out of time. When I put the sandals on over thin socks today, rather a lot of toe sticks out. And the wide part of my foot moved toward the heel, so they aren't any wider. But I don't have to pry a buckle open with a skewer to get them off. I was hoping for default sandals, but I think they are slopping-around sandals except in cold weather.
There is now a box labeled "shoe laces" in the sewing room, and it is easier to find things in the little drawers of the secretary.
I've begun raking leaves out of the garden.
Got the papers and cardboard bundled and in the recycling bin and the bin out by the road. It's level full and very heavy — it's good that the trash men use a machine to pick it up; I don't think anybody could lift it.
Today I picked up the Linux keyboard in search of the notes on Tuesday's ride (which were on the dresser in the bedroom), and there was the missing green pencil!
I promptly dropped it down among the cables and thought it would never be seen again, but I looked just now and found it under the mousepad stand.
I think I'm ready for the trip to Fort Wayne tomorrow. Clothes laid out, stuff in pants pockets, go bag in car, a "Mini-Mate" of caffeinated soda in the fridge.
Strange sort of thunderstorm. We've got plenty of rain and the lightning detector is going nuts — at night we could see lightning without opening the drapes — but I have to concentrate to feel the wind.
Are you sure we're in Indiana at equinox time?
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Had to get into the car at that point. Some misunderstandings at the pre-op, but those are all cleared up and the appointment for the twentieth is still on. I have to change both sheets on the nineteenth, and Dave has to take a shower before and after sleeping.
On the way home, pretty soon after we got onto the Interstate, it began to rain so hard that we couldn't be sure we were on the road. Dave followed the tail lights of a trucker who appeared to know what he was doing, but he got off the road the exit before ours and we got to US 30 pretty much by feel. The waterfall stopped suddenly as we were approaching the stoplight by Sweetwater. I remarked that I'd never thought I'd think of rain as heavy as it still was as "light". We could see the markings on the pavement!
The first nurse we saw had said that Fort Wayne needed rain, but I'm sure that they didn't want it that *fast*.
The rain had stopped completely by the time we got home, but Dave had to turn on the wipers every time we were overtaken. Weather Underground says zero inches here, but it's plenty wet.
Change of subject:
With asparagus season rapidly approaching, I got the last two packages of asparagus out of the freezer and made creamed eggs for supper. Each package contained enough butter to make a cup of white sauce — the creamed eggs were *good*!
I've begun raking the leaves off the garden, but I don't think I'll work at it today or tomorrow.
12:00 PM 3/15/2024
Back from Grossnickel. Don't blink (speculum in eye) and you still miss it. Well, I did notice the pain, and the medicine in the vitreous. They've practiced this until they are very slick.
Saturday's trip to Walmart was cancelled in favor of corned beef and cabbage at Mad Anthony's. It was too windy to ride very far anyway. I did go to the Farmer's and Artisan's Market and buy a half dozen peanut butter cookies.
I bought needles and other sewing things at an estate sale on the way out, and stopped at Kroger on the way back. I barely got back in time to change and go to Mad Anthony's. We shared a meal, and had enough left-over meat for another meal each.
Dave has taken everything out of the bottom of the "study center" (Ethan Allen desk) and put it on a card table. I set up another card table and took down everything I've shoved between the "barrister" bookcases, because I thought some of the stuff from the study center belonged there.
We have a *lot* of paper! Weather Underground says that the Walmart tour will be feasible on Saturday; I plan to buy a rack that will allow us to keep the reams of odd paper next to the printer, and use them up making shopping lists and the like.
I woke up this morning wishing that I'd put beans on to soak last night, and reflecting that I'm going to be busy tomorrow. Then I realized that I'm going to be busy in the house. Bean soup was *made* for days like that.
So I put smoked turkey wings in the crockpot this morning; they aren't thawed yet. I'll add water and turn the pot on after I wash the beans and put them into my six-quart stockpot. Together with several edible seeds. I think that's just mustard, celery, flax, wild rice, and brown rice.
Dave got a phone call today — his MRI is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.
Steve will pick us up in five or ten minutes.
It's good that Dave is carrying a bag today — I was just barely able to zip mine. This despite spending all afternoon yesterday organizing it. I took notes, printed them out, and put them into the bag. [The bag got looser when I took my coat and hat out and put them on.]
Our new driveway alarm arrived yesterday. Dave got it working, but it's still in the house, notifying us when we walk through the parlor.
I don't think the two ding-dongs are sufficiently different. One is ding-dong and the other is dong ding. I think Dave said there were thirty-six tunes to choose from.
The driveway sensor that is going to be on the south side of the house now plays the William Tell Overture. Plus two inexplicable flourishes.
The one on the driveway is installed and working. It plays a doorbell; the actual doorbell plays brrap on a real bell.
I washed a sheet and the contents of the hot-white bin today. That was two cleaning rags, some sweat-soaking rags, and very little else. I set the washer for "hot" and got slightly above ambient. I set it for "deep water" and got not quite enough to cover the sheet. Perhaps if I'd remembered to set it for "bulky/sheets" instead of "normal" it would have worked better.
Never buy a computer that doesn't have a monitor and a keyboard.
When I finished hanging the small stuff, the sheet was frozen.
Freezing isn't all that chilly when there is no wind. The hose was frozen, but I *did* remember to release the pressure the last time I used it, so the frostproof faucet had drained and nothing broke. I'd turned the faucet on before realizing that the hose had frozen, so taking off the hose was a bit messy.
I finished organizing the study center this morning. Then I printed out the notes I'd taken, on pink paper I found while organizing, and put the page into one of the vertical slots.
All the printer paper is in a box under the printer. I think the box was made for the power supply of the radio when we were living in The Meadows. Once George got her long-furred tail down into the power supply while napping on the component on top of the box. I happened to have a spray bottle of water in my hand when I noticed that she was on fire. She never forgave me.
That box has had many incarnations; for a while it served as a platform for feeding Al when I couldn't quite reach the floor without violating doctor's orders.
The study center still has three drawers that haven't been touched in decades. Mañana.
There was pellet snow on the ground when we woke up. Happy first day of spring!
Dave woke up first, then called me to change the Tegaderm on his donor site. It was easier than I expected, once we figured out what we were doing. The hardest part was peeling off the old Tegaderm without pulling on the wound, and it didn't stick tight. I just eased around the edges and pulled toward the wound. It looks like a second-degree burn with the blister removed. I think he called it a "split-skin graft".
I was surprised to see that the wound was rectangular; I'd assumed that the rectangle I could see through the plastic was a dressing stuck to the underside. One would think that one wouldn't want corners on a patch.
The fluid that leaks through the skinned skin is thinner than blood, and does not clot, yet it's bright red. I thought red blood cells were the biggest particles in blood, and I don't see either loose hemoglobin or myoglobin being in the blood in such quantities. It was less than half a teaspoon in two days, so it wouldn't take much dye generated right at the site to stain it. The leakage has either slowed or stopped. I'd have to take his pants off to check.
Friday, 22 March 2024 A misplaced hyacinth is in bloom.
So is a hyacinth that I don't need to dig up and move. Others have fat buds.
There's a cartoon in my Facebook feed showing a high wall between church and state, with arrows saying "religion goes here" and "science goes here".
I was tempted to write a reply saying "We also need a wall between government and science".
I think that Dr. Fauci is all the evidence I need to present.
After starting to write, I noticed that there is a building marked "public school" on the state side of the wall.
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My bag is in the car. I took my coat and some of Dave's stuff out of the bag, didn't add anything, and it's still full!
Well, I did add a tube of antibiotic and three sheets of Tegaderm, but that packet is much smaller than the one I took out.
Dave is very annoyed at driving to Fort Wayne and back for a fifteen-minute consultation.
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One of the men's groups is serving breakfast before church next Sunday. At first I was worried as to how I'd deal with having to eat half an hour after I take my Alendronate (which I've been calling "Fosamax" because I can't spell "Alendronate"). Then I realized that I can simply not take it until I'm ready to leave. It will me much easier to dress if I'm allowed to bend over! Eating a little late won't hurt anything, as long as I don't bend over or lie down until after I do, so I'll take it at 8:30 — breakfast is at nine. Which is an hour earlier than I normally start walking.
I made hamburger soup for the first time in ages for tonight's supper. I put in too much salt and Dave liked it very much.
We ate the last of the dinner rolls with it. I must shoehorn shopping into my schedule soon. I meant to do Sprawlmart yesterday, but after renewing my driver's license, all I wanted was to go home and make my own lunch. I did go into Dollar General and Shoe Sensation, but didn't find anything to buy.
Renewing the license was nothing at all; I've been losing interest in being out and about of late.
I did re-discover the path through the Grace College cross-country trails, which cuts off the section of Wooster Road that I don't like. You can see which one on Google Maps: click on "show routes particularly suitable for bicycles" and the unpleasant section will light up green.
Upon checking that it still does, I noticed that the section of Heritage Trail from the athletic fields to the dormitories is still marked "proposed", and the newer section from the fields to Christ's Covenant Church isn't even marked "proposed" even though it was completed years ago. But it does show plainly in the aerial photograph.
Very interesting. While fiddling around with the map, I found a route that's 102 miles by car, and 167 by bicycle. It's from Tecumseh Michigan to Wheatley Provincial Park, if you are curious. I swapped source and destination and it jumped to 271 miles.
Oops. 271 *kilometers*. That puzzle solved, but why do bikes have to circumnavigate Lake St. Clair and cars don't?
I very carefully cleaned my nails this morning, then I ate thawed blueberries with my fingers.
Washing the breakfast dishes got most of it off.
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The trip to Fort Wayne was uneventful. We stopped for a blood draw on the way home, then we each had a nap.
The pressure bandage is no longer sewn to his scalp, but now I'm responsible for keeping the wound covered in cream. He can start showering on Thursday, but must not direct spray directly at his scalp and so forth.
It already looks better than my nose did after more days than this. Dave thinks it freaked out the blood-draw people. Bloody messes don't usually have transparent dressings on them.
That was blood people plural. The first nurse could get only one tube, and the more-experienced nurse she called had to struggle and coax to get the second.
The donor site needs attention only every four or five days, unless the seepage makes its way to the edge of the Tegaderm. I watched while the nurse changed it.
Dave picked up our tax papers today, I had to sign the consent for them to file for us, so I went along. He wanted to drive around a little and asked whether I was in a hurry to get back. I was delighted to say that I have nothing to do all day.
We've been busy the last few days, but I didn't take notes on doing what.
Except for:
"8:50 AM 3/29/2024 We found the do rags!"
As soon as he got his "horn" off, Dave wanted his do rags, and neither of us could remember where we'd put them when we swapped dressers.
Yesterday, I went into full "it's someplace where we've looked fifteen times" mode, and spotted something black at the back of his sock drawer.
On Thursday, I did a stock-up at Aldi, and bought a pair of sandals that actually fit. I wore them on a ride to Walmart on Friday, and regretted it. They catch on my toe straps. But I like them better than my old default sandals for walking.
So I wore them to my appointment with Dr. Leffers today. I got another shot in the tendon, and am done with him, unless something new happens. Before giving the shot, he had me make a fist, and I was surprised to find that I could. The previous shot *almost* cured me.
After leaving Fort Wayne Orthopedics, I took a tour of Runnings — we finally found out that the original store of the chain belonged to Mr. Running — and bought a replacement for the trowel I broke yesterday while trying to dig up a clump of tulips that was coming up in the lawn. I thought that I also bought a box of washing soda, but it turned out to be baking soda. I'm beginning to think that washing soda is extinct. Banned because some gumment officious thought people would be stupid enough to eat it? Wikipedia says that sodium carbonate is a common food additive, so that can't be it.
After lunch, I transplanted the tulip, and have two more clumps to dig up.
Tomorrow we go to Goshen, and the next day we go to Fort Wayne. I don't think I'm going to get at the two other clumps of tulips very soon.
Yesterday, we had Easter lunch with Linda's family.
Expanding on the Walmart tour:
I got fed up with pencil erasers that are already dried up and useless when you buy them, and DuckDucked to see whether pencils without erasers are made. I discovered that they are, and Walmart sells two dozen for ninety-seven cents. So on my Walmart tour, I went to the pencil shelf and found a package of two dozen pencils. It didn't say "no erasers" anywhere, and the package covered up both ends of the pencils, but the price was $0.97, so I bought it.
Opened it at home and found each pencil equipped with an eraser. Which I presume to be dried up. Dave said "keep them" and I put them into the north-end drawer with the other pencils, but I just now got up and put the package on the pile of stuff to be taken to Mary Anne's Place.
I had lunch at Ben's Pretzels in Walmart. I usually buy a four-slice pizza, but the woman ahead of me bought the last one and I didn't want to wait for one to be baked, so I pointed at something wrapped in pizza dough and said I'd take that. Turned out to be excellent, and I ate only half, so I got out of making supper for Dave.
When I went back inside after packing my bike to come home, I asked what it was, and the clerk said "chicken bacon ranch". I didn't want to make a pest of myself, so I just said it was delicious and went on. I Duck-Ducked "calzone" and found a page telling how to distinguish calzone from stromboli. The picture of stromboli looks like what I ate.
I stopped at Goodwill on the way out and bought two pairs of cotton clam diggers for the garden. I'm wearing the brown pair, but I'm going to take the glowing dirty-pink pair back, or to Mary Anne's Place.