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Lovely day for walking to church. I counted six pontoon boats at half-past four this afternoon.
I just struck "fordhook limas" off my shopping list, many months after I first wrote it. I've no idea why they were so hard to find.
I did a major shopping at Kroger. Redeeming my coupons got a lot easier after I noticed that they expired yesterday. I usually get another batch before the previous batch expires, so I was caught off-guard.
I felt a niggle while walking to the checkout. An hour or so after getting home, I remembered that I'd meant to go back for ice cream after stocking up on frozen dinners. We have more than enough ice cream to last until my next Aldi run.
I couldn't find the chicken bits to fry and top with chinese sauce; everything in the brand I thought they were was pasta, except for fried rice. I distinctly remember rejecting chicken bits on my previous two stock-ups.
Bad news upon returning: the nurse practitioner we were supposed to see tomorrow morning has come down with the highly-contagious horrible awfuls, and the best substitute that could be scheduled is in Syracuse, in the late afternoon. Dave thinks he can drive it, but we may have to call on a niece or nephew. He gets horribly tense when riding with me driving, and scringing for half an hour each way isn't good for someone who is still anemic.
I've packed a cooler with energy drinks.
This morning I finally got around to returning Martha's phone charger. It got Dave through a pinch while he was in the hospital.
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Linda brought us some vegetables this afternoon.
Supper was cube steak, rice, and skillet-steamed green beans.
Oh, man, we just got a call from Parkview saying we had to schedule an appointment for a pre-op consultation.
I don't think I can take *three* trips to Fort Wayne and I'm not even anemic. And it's all to get information that they could mail to us.
Steve drove us to Syracuse yesterday, and said he was able to drive us to Fort Wayne for the pre-op consultation.
I repeated Monday's menu yesterday evening, since the steak was big enough to feed four. I was glad to have something quick to prepare pre-planned. I fry-steamed the beans longer, and Dave liked them better.
Then I drove to Zales to pick up Dave's newly- prescribed iron pills, and another prescription for him and two for me. I left there just before they closed for the day, and the iron-pill prescription appeared on their computer while they were packing the other three prescriptions — I noticed that there was no iron as I was walking out — so my timing was perfect.
I learned something today: When I get into the driver's seat, instead of adjusting the mirror, I should adjust the seat until I'm as tall as Dave.
I have two large tomatoes, so I bought two and four-tenth pounds of hamburger at Aldi and have two flatbuns laid out to thaw. Which was a mistake, because small patties don't fry well, so I make one huge one, cut it in half, and serve it on half a bun.
That was the smallest package they had, but there are lots of things I can make with hamburger. I exchanged complaints at the meat display with another old lady, who was buying for one.
I went shopping today because Aldi's "Finds" included a dress and some pants that I thought might be suitable for slopping around. My current sloppy clothes are *too* sloppy. Got to the display and realized that I haven't the faintest idea what dress-size numbers mean. I guessed "large" for the pants and "medium" for the dress, bought just those, and went to the ladies' room to try them on. I'd guessed correctly, and the garments will do what I bought them for, but one of each is quite enough. Pants that fit me around my bulging belly are loose in the leg — which is all to the good for working in the garden on a hot day. The deep neck of the dress shows off my bra, but that doesn't matter because it's a late-evening gown, to be put on when I take off my bra. I would like it to come below the top of the knee, but it *is* for hot weather indoors.
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The patty was a little more huge than intended, but we liked our three-eighth pounders very much.
Aldi was out of Jamestown irregular bacon yet again, but they haven't closed up the space where it belongs, so it must be temporary.
I made the remaining hamburger into meatloaf this afternoon, fried half a pound for supper, and froze three half pounds. It was very good with cottage cheese.
Yesterday we had hamburger soup, which used up the last of my surfeit of canned tomatoes. It also dented my supply of winter-onion bulbs, so before making the meatloaf I harvested fourteen more. To my surprise, not one was a scallion. But all had begun making roots.
When I sat down to read funnies after supper, Brightspeed was down, so I went out to harvest the rest of the giant garlic with an eye to making sour pickles, if I can get two free times spaced twelve hours apart. I found only eight cloves, none very giant.
Then I dug up fifteen more winter-onion bulbs. Four have green sprouts. I have found that sprouted winter-onion bulbs are still sound and good to use: just slice from the bottom until you get to where the shell has started to wither, peel that shell off, and slice some more.
I have been wearing my new pants continuously, but the dress is so short that it might as well be a shirt. And there is no hem to let out. It does do for throwing on when I unexpectedly have to go into rooms where the drapes are open.
And I'm short of short-sleeved slopping shirts.
I'm giving thought to adding a bottom tier to match the pocket when I get around to adding a timer pocket, but may not even add a pocket.
I do hope Brightspeed gets its act together in time for me to check the weather before tomorrow's ride. I'm on a tight schedule again: I want to get to the Legion hall before they sell all their chicken, and I want to stop at a church bazaar on the way.
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Thar I stood in a darkened living room, trying to remember where I put the piece of broomstick with a hook on the end. [It was outside, hanging on the hose rack.] While contemplating, I absent-mindedly put my hands into the back pockets of my new pants — and discovered that they are only one centimeter deep. I wonder why they bothered to put in fake pockets.
I overslept just enough: when I got to the legion hall, the crowd was gone and plenty of chicken was left. There were four pieces in the one-meal box; I suspect that there will still be chicken after we have the left-overs for supper. Dave ate all the potato salad. There was an obtrusive amount of sugar in it, so I had only one bite. We each ate beans and there is some left.
Brightspeed will be down until Monday. (!!??!!)
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I just crossed "iron linen dress" off my list of things to do. I've dilly-dallied until I'm not likely to wear it again before summer, so I put it away wrinkled.
Which I did last fall, and one Sunday morning last spring I reached for it and it wasn't wearable, so I created a March 2025 Banner file and put "iron linen dress" on the check list.
We had chicken with our ramen-noodle for supper Sunday night.
We saw Dr. King today, and will soon have yet another appointment in Fort Wayne.
Tomorrow, neither of us is going anywhere, so I've scheduled a much-overdue sheet washing.
I'm also planning to make bean soup and pickled giant garlic, so I put beans on to soak and cut up half a gallon of vegetables. The combination turned out to be inspired: while cutting up the pickles, I put odd-shaped bits into a refrigerator dish for the soup.
I got a surprise when it was time to add "enough ice cubes over to cover pickles when melted". The ice cubes had evaporated, and there were just barely enough.
I've come up with a splendid excuse to postpone pickling: the wash will be ready to hang before I could finish.
An unexpected problem with making soup and pickles on the same day: I need both my big pots to pickle. But our humidifier, an enamel canning kettle, is better for boiling the jars anyway. I've set it on the stove on "keep warm" so it won't take long to bring it to a boil when it's time.
13:51
Oops. I remembered to get a standard-size ring out for the eighth jar (I had only seven wide-mouth half-pint can-or-freeze jars), but I forgot to boil a standard-size lid. I suspect that dipping it for only as long as it took me to fill the eighth jar won't have softened the seal enough.
I just turned off the fire under the soup. I feel like Jimmy-Johns tonight, and bean soup is better warmed over.
Guess what I found in the boiling kettle when I began to clean up the pickling mess? A standard-mouth canning-jar lid!
The standard-mouth jar sealed, and is in the soda fridge with the rest of the batch and the PBL pickles. One of the wide-mouth jars didn't, and is in the kitchen fridge with the other open jars.
We get to stay home again today, but tomorrow we go to Fort Wayne.
Yesterday, I bought corn meal at Kroger on the way to JimmyJohn, so we can have corn bread with our bean soup.
Cornbread in milk for breakfast. Didn't get anything done yesterday except for cleaning up Tuesday's mess. I was hot and lazy.
Air conditioner running today.
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Steve drove us to Fort Wayne for a rather lengthy pre-op consultation.
If I hear clocks chiming over one another tonight, I'll know it isn't me. I just checked my copy of the clock, and it's set for no sounds.
Also, I never plugged the speaker back in after unplugging it so I could plug in the iron.
I drove to Zales after lunch, and picked up Dave's antibiotic. It was five cents. That beats my twenty-cent lisenopril!
I wonder what I meant to say?
Owing to a misunderstanding when the shelves were installed, boxes are piled four deep on my top shelf. Among the boxes that fell off while I was putting the box of unbleached cottons back on the shelf was a box of Grandmother's handkerchiefs. The one on top is clearly meant for blowing your nose; the plurality are printed on fabric so thin that the print is almost as clear on the back, with overlocked edges that follow the flowers. Some handkerchiefs have machine-made lace, many are exquisite handwork.
It's time I replaced the muslin they are wrapped in with freshly-washed muslin.
It would be nice to pass these on to someone who can appreciate them.
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We saw Dave's old cardiologist's nurse-practitioner this morning, to get her blessing on the surgery next Friday.
We have an appointment with a new cardiologist — well, a really-old one; he installed Dave's heart valve — but haven't seen him yet.
Tuesday and Wednesday are clear; I plan to wash sheets tomorrow and hang them in the sun to dry. On Thursday afternoon we go to Fort Wayne for pre-op, and on Friday the lump will be removed.
I've forgotten what we did on Friday.
On Saturday, I rode to the ice-rink market only to find that the smoked-brisket vendors weren't there. I went home, put ice in my insulated pannier, and went to the fairgrounds, the courthouse, and Safety Day.
At Safety Day I picked up a shopping bag and some loot, including a whistle to put on my bicycle-key ring. Most of the events were for children; I was briefly tempted to get my face painted.
Saturday saw two anniversaries of the anniversary party.
At the courthouse, I bought Jody's cookies for the first time since eating a month's ration of sugar in an hour. I tried a new variety, and it isn't nearly as good as her chocolate-chip cookies.
When I got home, I learned that Dave had found a bag of cards that we brought home from the party and forgot to open. In retrospect, we should have opened them at the party, but there was so much going on that I didn't think of it.
Sunday was Missions Sunday at the church, but I didn't stay for the dinner. I did bring a Dunkin Donut home for Dave.
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We had a scare in the evening. Dave wanted to read the instructions for preparing for surgery and couldn't find them. I went through my folders leaf by leaf, and sorted the recycling bin. They finally turned up on his desk.
I started the second watering of the newly-planted grass much too late, and was stumbling around in the dark with a flashlight for most of it.
Everything else on my to-do list got checked off before naptime.
But nap time was late because I couldn't start it until I finished washing the bed linen.
And the clothing I washed is still on the drying rack.
All I've got on tomorrow's list is water the grass twice and buy seltzer etc. at Aldi.
Ready almost half an hour before time to leave.
Brent will be back today, so no grass to water.
Aldi still had a few of the dress I bought on my previous trip. Also a clearance on "fine-spun" shorts that I hadn't noticed when they were current, but it appeared to have worked, so I couldn't see whether they matched the dresses.
Laundry is all put away.
Steve drove us to Fort Wayne yesterday, and will pick us up to do it again in twenty minutes. We spent more time on the road than in the office.
Won't be that way today; we are to arrive two hours before the procedure begins, which covers the round trip right there. I do hope the operation itself doesn't take long, but Dr. Crevecouer may have to cut more than once. Please don't let it be the deep margins if he does!
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The new cut is wider, but no deeper.
Discharge papers said to stay near a responsible person for twenty-four hours, but I think I'm at least as drunk as he is. I got up early and haven't had a nap. The labels on the cans of Dr. K and K Cola I drank said they contained caffeine, but it can't have been much.
They tested the fire alarms while we were there, and each alarm not only stated which department was on fire, it specified north, south, east, or west.
This made me realize that the building is so huge that it could host a major disaster and have the majority of the people who were there learn about it on the news.
When I went out to comb my hair, I saw that yesterday's rain had brought up the grass I've been watering. Green was showing when I was last out there, but now one can see it from the house. Plants know the real thing when they get it. Dad once said that watering didn't appear to do any good, but when it finally rains, you can see where you've been doing it.
I don't think I've explained the grass. For a long time, Brent has been piling beach cleanings and the like in our back yard. A few weeks ago he began smoothing out the pile, then he planted grass and began to water it twice a day because it's sand and we are in a drought. When he learned that he would be gone Tuesday through Thursday, he asked me to take over, and those happened to be the exact days I was available.
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We had some Tegaderm left over from the previous operation, and I put it Someplace Safe.
The meeting after church was a shocker. I might be about to become a Presbyterian.
Our building has been something of a white elephant ever since the Free Methodists moved their headquarters to Indianapolis. Merging with another congregation helped, but expenses continue to exceed income.
The pastor heard that Grace College was short of space, and suggested that they rent some of our classrooms as they did during Covid. Instead, they offered to buy the building.
It happens that the recently-closed Walnut Creek United Methodist church is on the market for significantly less than Grace is offering for our current digs, and is better suited to our needs. "It has no staircases" was frequently mentioned.
The teachers at our pre-school have no objection to moving five miles away. The parents have not yet been consulted, but I'll wager that as many will be delighted as will be inconvenienced.
Since I have no vote, I left while discussion was still going on, and there will be another meeting, but unless there is a devil in the details, they have to accept this opportunity.
They, because five miles is too far to walk. I wonder whether the Church of the Good Shepherd has a kitchen committee.
Grace Church is about as close, and Christ's Covenant is on the Heritage Trail, so I could go by flatfoot — if the Trail is plowed in the winter.
Today's chore is organizing the linen closet, which became extremely untidy after I bought two sets of bed sheets.
Down at the bottom of the bath-towel shelf I found an un-used set of four place mats and four napkins. Any takers?
Two of my four scenery-muslin sheets have been bagged to take to Mary Ann's Place.
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I got two of the four shelves sorted out. Plus the cleaning rags on the floor; I pretty much left those alone, but I shook out the worn-out linen sheets.
Minus the pillow cases that are still all over the love seat and coffee table.
This morning, I went to the garden for onion to put in my breakfast and discovered, to my pleased surprise, that there are still a lot of winter-onion bulbs that haven't sprouted yet. I could also collect scallions, but haven't.
Early in the morning I looked out and saw a heron, a swan, and a flat lake. Later in the day I saw a heron, two swans, and a wrinkled lake.
The second swan was probably behind a cottonwood or willow the first time.
In the afternoon, it was gulls. I was going to say that there is nobody out there now, but just as I was about to turn away from the window, a heron came in for a landing.
Yesterday, nephew Dave drove us to Fort Wayne to get the pressure bandage snipped off. He said that he drives to Fort Wayne frequently.
Now I have the job of putting fresh Adaptic on the wound every day. It turned out that a 3x3 gauze pad is too small, and I had to unfold and refold it. I intend to ask Dave to stop at Walgreens on the way back from his blood draw tomorrow so that I can buy some 4x4. [He did and I did.]
At least six swans on a slightly-wrinkled lake and two gulls on the lawn.
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Cleared off the third shelf. I found two worn-out quilt-lining sheets which had been inexplicably piled up with the flannel sheets and moved them to the rag shelf. There have been times when I could have used pieces of those sheets.
The flannel sheets are quite thin; one of them feels like soft muslin. I didn't unfold them to see what sizes they are. The muslin one is nearly twice as thick as the other two, so I suspect that it's king size.
The top shelf was jammed to the ceiling, no easy feat because of the small opening. I intend to put flannel sheets and cotton blankets up there.
There was a quilted-cotton mattress pad forty-six inches wide, with one spot worn through while the rest seems to be in good condition. I moved it to my fabric stash, next to an old mattress pad I used to cut chair-arm covers from.
Three yards and five inches of 38" terrycloth, a narrow hem at one end and hand-crocheted scallops on the other. The hemmed end appears to have been cut along a stripe intended to be hemmed. I can't imagine what it was for, but it must have been important. That is in the laundry bin.
Heavens to Betsy, there are two of these! The other one is two yards and thirty inches long, and crocheted on both ends. It isn't foxed and doesn't need a bath.
I don't remember ever using a beach towel, except once at a Youth Hostel I bought a beach towel at a tourist shop and used it as a bath towel for the duration of my stay, then left it on a hook for the next person because I didn't want it in my panniers.
There's a fingertip towel embellished with huck embroidery; that should be got into the hands of someone who puts out cloth towels for guests.
Two genuine-filet table runners, a genuine-filet tablecloth, and a machine-lace tablecloth. I don't know anybody who sets that kind of table today.
Two items on rolls:
A 13 1/2" x 40" hem-stitched and cross-stitched linen table runner, wrapped around a roll of washed muslin to prevent creases. This may have been a wedding gift.
There is a bunch of stuff on the other roll. A set of six linen dinner napkins, and a yellowed pair of slightly-smaller dinner napkins. I put the yellowed pair into the laundry bin.
One plaid luncheon napkin, fringed. Two handkerchiefs, both printed. Another huck towel and a beautifully-embroidered linen guest towel. A 14 1/2" doily that I knitted out of carpet warp.
And a very special doily. The story that came with it, if I remember correctly, is that a linen sheet came over from the old country, probably Ireland because I recall hearing someone refer to "*real* Irish linen" with respect to it. Wildly and with no evidence at all, I speculate that this was at the time of the potato famine.
When the sheet wore out, the good parts were made into table napkins. One of the napkins came down to four sisters, who cut it into quarters and made linen-center doilies. One of those doilies came down to your Grandmother Bailey. (Jesse nee Lackey, that is. *My* "Grandmother Bailey" is Grandfather's mother. I have Salenda Bailey's scrapbook, if anyone cares to scan it and post it on the Web.)
It was the fashion to display doilies in pairs, so Grandma crocheted a duplicate onto Indian Head muslin, which was the nearest one could come to linen at the time.
What I have is the duplicate; I've no idea who has the original. I hope it wasn't lost.
Pillow cases still all over the love seat and the coffee table.
I added a pinwheel crocheted doily to the pile to be rolled up, and put the gray huck towel in the wash.
I didn't write down my list of things to do today, but I think I've ticked everything but change Dave's Adaptic. Changed the Tegaderm (next due on Sunday), got the sheets washed and back on the bed, some progress on the linen closet, reeled up the hose, pulled a handful of weeds, . . .
Time for a nap.
Swans and ducks on the lake.
Supposed to be a wet day, but the item that wasn't quite dry yesterday, and was hung back out and forgotten, was dry when I took it in this morning.
I'm going to dry the stuff I'm washing now on racks. It's mostly stuff that I found in the linen closet, including some worn-out pillowcases I intend to protect napkins and doilies with. I should have taken the muslin out of the box of grandmother's handkerchiefs and put that in too.
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When I was taking the clothes out of the washer, I thought "Wow! Those brown napkins came clean!"
I'd forgotten that one of the white ones had a spot on it.
I thought I had four old pillowcases, but it turned out to be one pillow case and three pillow ticks — not cotton suitable for wrapping a cardboard roller. Might could put one of them under the cotton wrap.
This is the second time I've made the lights where Market Street crosses the railroad.
When I stop at that set of intersections, I have to get off and walk.
I got rained on on the way to the ice rink, but it cleared up while I was in the pavilion, so I gambled on going to the other markets, and it still hasn't rained an hour after I got back.
Spent about forty minutes in Kroger despite being in a hurry to beat the afternoon showers.
Four o'clock: no sign that it rained during my nap. I could have hung the sheet out to dry.
I impulse-bought a tub of seafood salad at Kroger, and we had that for lunch, so I'll serve the smoked brisket I bought at the ice rink for supper.
The driveway alarm had been streaming false positives, so Dave moved it. Now it frequently goes off for nothing, and never goes off for something. More work is needed.
I'm taking the car in for an oil change, and plan to stop at Aldi on the way back.
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We had left-over smoked brisket for supper. Still some left -- a pound of cooked brisket is a *lot*.
Despite the impending freezer cleaning, I bought a quart and a half of strawberry ice cream at Aldi. I was careful not to look at other frozen food.
I also bought an orange dress left over from the finds when I bought my black one, and intend to make it into a housework shirt.
There's still an empty spot labeled Jamestown bacon.
After Dave drove the car around the block, he complained that I'd left the seat so high that he couldn't get into the car.
A few days ago I asked the town clerk, and the Heritage Trail is plowed in the winter. I'm still dithering between the Church of the Good Shepherd and Christ's Covenant. I've no news on the move because I slept too late at naptime to go to the society meeting yesterday.
We plan to stay home all day tomorrow and the next day. On Thursday, Dave gets his staples out. If I recall correctly, we stop using Adaptic at that time.
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