E:/LETTERS/OCTBAN10.TXT 



3 October 2010 

    All the linen sheets are in the linen closet now.  I 
hemmed two tonight instead of one, thanks to a malware 
scanner that took twice as long as it was supposed to.  
    The sheets are three yards wide, but the length is less 
than twice the length of my ironing board.  When I hemmed 
the first side after putting pink false hems on the sheet 
that's been washed a few times, I was very surprised at how 
much difference in tedium the difference in length made. 
    It will be a while before I put pink bands on the new 
sheets because I want them washed several times to be sure 
they won't shrink and pucker, so I wrote down how I put the 
bands on so I wouldn't have to figure it out from scratch 
again.  Then made it into a Web page so that I could find 
it.  Haven't uploaded it yet. 

    Dave went to Kokomo Thursday, to attend a meeting of the 
soaring club that met on Friday, and see other sights about 
town.  I took advantage of his absence to make two batches 
of pickled-garlic rice.  I put twice as much garlic into the 
second batch, and that was overdoing it just a tad. 
    He came back Saturday morning before I'd left for the 
farmer's market.  I ended up not going even though Dave said 
that the roads were dry.  Later I walked downtown to see the 
festival; hoped to have lunch, but only candy and kettle 
corn was available.  Seems to me that food vendors at 
festivals used to be a more common; I wonder whether a 
change in the law has discouraged them?  
    Doud's had a table of fruit, and I bought a bag of asian 
pears to make up for missing the market. 

    This is banned-books week.  Sometimes books really are 
banned, but that's hard to remember when people post so many 
lists that consist of incidents in which somebody chose not 
to buy the book.  If you let that mean "banned", I've banned 
most of the books ever published.  

    Some idiot on Usenet is trying to make "most" mean "more 
than half" when it's plain and obvious that "majority" in 
the dictionary definition refers to a large majority.  When 
I called him on it by asking whether he'd say he got most of 
his money back if he were repaid a dollar more than half, he 
huffed that he wouldn't discuss his finances!  
    Ah, well, there are other idiots who want to make 
"majority" mean "most".  



5 October 2010              

    At naptime today, I learned that it's really, really 
hard to kick off your blankets when you are wearing fuzzy 
socks.  



6 October 2010 

    My spun-silk shirt has moved to the top of my priority 
list, and it's all together but for one sleeve, which I left 
undone this spring so I could use it to test sleeve designs 
for my linen jersey, but I slept until ten this morning 
despite having gone to bed at midnight, and didn't feel like 
doing anything as intellectually challenging as sewing in 
the sleeve I pinned yesterday, so I spent the morning 
working on the table of contents to the "Notions" chapter of 
_Rough Sewing_. 
    Making a Table of Contents is harder than it looks -- 
before you can have an organized table of contents, you have 
to have an organized essay!  But I made significant 
progress, with the aid of the <ul> tag, which I learned 
about on rec.arts.sf.fandom last week.  (Or maybe it was 
r.a.sf.written.)  I don't get little hints like that on 
alt.html -- you have to know enough to ask the right 
questions. 
    Being tired, I took my nap early, so I got up in time to 
set in the sleeve and make a start on flat-felling the side 
seam before it was time to warm up left-overs for supper.  
    We had spanish hamburger on a bagel.  I also had left-
over Italian vegetables, but Dave  wouldn't touch them.  We 
both put away a lot of carrot sticks and radishes, and he 
had the usual bowl of chopped lettuce.  I chopped all that 
was left of the head, and tossed it with a little olive oil, 
thinking that it might keep it fresher.  (I chop lettuce for 
several days at a time so that Dave can choose how much 
lettuce he takes.) 

    Martha had the November banner all planned out, and we 
got it well advanced.  Cora and I got the letters traced 
onto Wonderbond, ready to iron on and cut out, and Martha 
got the background mostly arranged.  
    But I forgot to take the banners home to hem them.  I've 
half a mind to hem them by hand on a Tuesday night. 
    Theoretically we get November off, but if possible we 
are going to make the January banners then, so we can take 
December off. 
    
    
     
7 October 2010 

    I woke up earlier than I've been waking, but still 
managed to fritter and fiddle until mid-afternoon, when a 
couple of boys came to deliver our new refrigerator.  Seemed 
to be competent and they were very polite -- they even moved 
our old refrigerator out to the garage (where we'd cleared a 
space for it earlier), and wouldn't accept a tip.  
    When the old fridge began to show signs of failing, Dave 
asked whether I wanted the freezer on the top or the bottom; 
I said that I didn't want a freezer at all.  Ended up that 
that's exactly what we bought!  Took some tracking down: 
it's an upright freezer with a rocker switch to put it into 
refrigerator mode.  I was rather pleased to see that there 
are two control panels, and there's a light on the one in 
use, so one can be re-assured that the rocker hasn't gotten 
bumped.  And the rocker is carefully placed so that 
accidental switching is unlikely.  The new fridge is much 
bigger than the old one, even though it sticks out from the 
wall less. 
    Druther have had one with just an ice-cube compartment, 
but those are sooo twentieth-century that I'd be surprised 
if even the Net could track one down.  
    After selecting the fridge on the Web, Dave went to 
Smith Appliances and discovered that they had one in stock.  
Well, the clerk discovered that they had it in stock; at 
first they thought it would be a special order.  
    
    I did manage to pin the side-seam for my new shirt 
somewhere in there.  I hope to have it to wear to church 
next Tuesday. 
    
    When we'd recovered from the excitement, we went out to 
Greek's Pizzaria, which we've been wanting to do ever since 
the grand opening.  I was rather disappointed that there was 
nothing explicitly Greek on the menu, even though I knew 
"Greek" was the owner's name.  On the other hand, I didn't 
read the list of salads; we'd come for pizza, and the server 
took our order as soon as we'd chosen one, so I didn't get 
to the other columns. 
    Excellent crust, I thought.  Too much sugar in the 
tomato sauce, which pleased Dave very much.  (In savory 
dishes, I am to sugar as Dave is to garlic:  if you can 
detect it, it's way too much.)  But there was very little 
sauce, so that didn't spoil it.  
    We took the Greek Special; I think a simpler array of 
toppings would be better.  We'll just have to go back! 



8 October 2010 

    Buckwheat pancakes with maple syrup and turkey sausage 
for breakfast.  We used up all the butter, so I had sour 
cream on mine.  (Awww!)  Dave added "butter" to his shopping 
list even though it isn't corn season.  But I didn't buy a 
pound at the beginning of corn season this year, so I guess 
we are entitled.
    I'm zapping the maple syrup in the hope of dissolving 
the sugar at the bottom; Dave is sorting the warranty-and-
instruction-books drawer.  The papers for the new fridge 
wouldn't quite fit.  
    One booklet he found was for a washing machine his 
mother threw out.  
    If I were to make that one little change to the chapter 
on ripping seams before I start sewing, would that 
constitute fiddling? 

    Got the side seam finished.  Now all I have to do is to 
finish the bottom hem, and put casings and elastic in the 
ends of the sleeves.  
    Dave bought frozen hamburger at Walmart, and is thawing 
some to grill for supper.  Also bought three huge blocks of 
cheese, a basket to put them and the lunch meat in, and a 
replacement for the grungy old rack we'd been keeping the 
sponge and scouring pad on.  

    After Dave went to bed, I read _Dr. Who:  The Two 
Doctors_ by Robert Holmes, which I enjoyed a lot more than 
eavesdropping on Dr. Who fans had led me to expect.
    I wasn't much impressed with the episode of the TV show 
I saw once; perhaps I got a sub-standard sample, perhaps Dr. 
Who is cumulative.  Probably some of each.  



9 October 2010 

    The farmers' market is winding down, but I got a bag of 
Golden Delicious and two pimentos.
    I read somewhere that "pimento" means "pepper".  Poor 
fruits just don't have a name of their own, except for 
specific varieties.  I don't know where "mango" got in.  By 
the same stretch that gave us "peppermint" you can say that 
some peppers taste peppery, but mangoes and mangoes have 
nothing in common except being about the same size.  And it 
isn't too much of a stretch to say that they have similar 
shapes. 
    I wonder whether people reading old recipe books wonder 
where midwestern housewives got all those mangos!   I also 
wonder how many of the recipes would give a decent product 
if you substituted mangos for the mangos.  
    I suppose I should tell the younger readers that at one 
time small round sweet peppers were pimentos, large oblong 
sweet peppers were mangos, and peppers were small, pointy, 
and hot. 
    We should follow the Australians and call them all 
"capsicums".   
    Though I think maybe only the sweet ones are capsicums.  
Since I first heard the word in some old story where 
"capsicum ointment" was used to raise blisters, this isn't 
exactly easy to bear in mind. 

    End of an era -- I bought a set of aluminum cookware the 
winter before we were married, and kept the griddle when 
(sometime near the end of the twentieth century) I gave away 
the pots and pans. 
    This morning, when I plugged in the griddle intending to 
use up the left-over pancake batter for breakfast, the light 
in the controller didn't come on.  When I checked to make 
sure the cord was plugged in at both ends, sparks came out 
of the connector.  Inspection showed that a pin had come 
loose.  We dithered most of the day over whether to repair 
or replace, but ended up putting it in the recycling bin and 
planning on making pancakes in a skillet from now on -- we 
don't eat pancakes often enough to get fussed over having to 
bake one at a time, and have no other use for an electric 
griddle. 
    West Bend is still around; I don't know about Miracle 
Maid.   
    By the way, one third buckwheat and two-thirds hard 
white wheat makes pretty good pancake flour.  I've got a 
recipe somewhere for a pure-buckwheat pancake.  Involves 
making the batter the day before, if I recall correctly.  
And one tablespoon of molasses. 
    A quart of molasses lasts a looooooong time.  



10 October 2010    

    Last night I read _Project Pendulum_ by Robert 
Silverberg.  Tour de force, page-turner, and all that, but 
when I finished I did not have the sensation of having read 
something.  

    The water seems to be clean again.  I didn't notice in 
the morning because I got up too late to have breakfast and 
took my pills with milk, but after church Kathy noted that 
it looked like cider.  By the time I got home the cider was 
diluted.  I drank seltzer the rest of the morning!  
    
     
     
12 October 2010     

    Ah!  It was a ball of string.  
    I wanted to take a long ride yesterday, but didn't feel 
like going to Wong's for lunch, decided to go to Walmart -- 
but when I was rolling along Park Avenue headed for the 
hospital, I still couldn't remember what I wanted at Walmart 
and a trip there was sounding like less and less fun, so I 
hung a right at Union Street and went to the library by way 
of Southtown.  Picked up two George McDonald books. 
    Stopped at the hospital on the way back -- only one 
magazine to drop off -- and at Owen's East, so I guess I 
went to the grocery store the long way. 
     
     

13 October 2010 

    One day when I was slamming a bag of Cajun-style 
mirapoix on the counter to break it up, I reflected that 
when I learned how to make spanish hamburger, I had no idea 
that the recipe would one day include "whap frozen 
vegetables".  
     
    Blister still hasn't broken, but it's a lot bigger than 
when I first noticed it.  The first-degree burn around it 
seems to be entirely gone, so I'm getting impatient for it 
to start drying up.  
    I've bumped or rubbed it hard enough to hurt several 
times, so I think that it's been getting bigger instead of 
breaking.  
    I didn't feel like cooking Monday night, so I baked the 
sixteen-inch pie I'd bought at Owen's on the way back from 
the library.  When it was ready, I pulled the iron griddle 
out of the oven and set it on the stovetop, then used a dish 
towel as a potholder to pick the pie up and transfer from 
the griddle to a hot mat on the table.  Halfway there, the 
paper pie plate started to deform and by the time I set the 
pie down, I had boiling gravy on my little finger.  To add 
insult to injury, as I stepped back from the table, I 
slipped in spilled gravy and landed with my seat in the 
gravy, so in addition to being delayed in getting cold water 
on the burn, I had to change clothes.  Luckily, I had not 
yet changed out of my pajamas. 
    It was a good pie, though.  
    
    When Mr. Howie asked whether we had an electric heater 
to fill in while he was swapping the furnace, I thought "or 
I could bake bread!" -- that always puts a lot of heat into 
the house.  We expected him yesterday -- he didn't show and 
didn't call; I hope he just got caught up in another 
emergency and forgot.  I wonder how people can have a 
furnace emergency at this time of year.  He said it was old 
folks; perhaps they need to keep the house super hot. 
    So yesterday morning after putting the wash in, I 
started to stir up a batch of bread.  Didn't think until I 
was well into it that if he has the furnace out, he has 
turned off the gas.  Reflected that I could take the bake 
kettle out of storage and went on -- to realize that with 
the blister on my finger, I could knead only with my left 
hand.  The scalded finger is much less obtrusive than most 
kitchen burns, which are apt to occur when one picks up 
something hot, but kneading is done with the knuckles. 
    At least the blister was no impediment when I rolled the 
dough into balls.  We had spanish hamburger on rolls for 
supper, and butter and currant jam on rolls for dessert.   

    Spoke too soon -- I got to the church fifteen minutes 
early, went to the kitchen to help with clean-up, and broke 
the blister when I bumped the corner of a pan handle.  It 
was under hot soapy water at the time, so I'm not worried 
about infection.  Probably should put some triple antibiotic 
and a band-aid on it before I go to bed, though.  (Did, now 
have trouble typing because the blister is on a joint.)  The 
break in the blister seems to be at the end where my body 
was mostly done with it; the other end is re-filling. 
    Macaroni and cheese is hard to get off a plate.  
    Supper here was Wal*Mart hamburgers on Aunt Millie's 
Slimwiches.  I had a couple of rolls as a bedtime snack. 
    With butter.   
    I'm still looking in the wrong places when I want 
something from the refrigerator.  I think I've got over 
saying "Gaack!  We're out of milk!", though.  (There is a 
gallon-bottle shelf in the door.)



14 October 2010        

    The broken skin glued itself down, and the blister seems 
less annoying than before -- if only because I'm no longer 
worried about breaking it.  The speck of exposed injury 
looks like a first-degree burn; I'm coating it with A&D 
ointment now and again; it's hard to get that little out of 
the tube. 
    Fiddled with the computer all morning, then read _The 
Light Princess_; found Al in the Lazyboy with me when I 
finished.  He's still asleep on the foot support, as far as 
I know.  (It's hard to get out of a lazyboy without un-
reclining it!) 


 
15 October 2010 

    I'm getting good at getting a trace amount of A&D out of 
the tube.  The blister has finally flattened; when the 
first-degree burn around it disappeared so quickly and 
completely, I got overblown ideas of how fast I could heal.  
    The whole finger looked boiled right after the accident.  
(Though some of that appearance was gravy!) 
    Looks as though the blister isn't going to leave a 
persistent mark like the first-degree burn on my belly from 
leaving the handle of a fresh-from-the-oven skillet sticking 
out over the edge of the stove -- it's already paler than 
the old burn.  I presume that's because finger skin is 
thicker than belly skin. 

    Another moment of well, duh.  Ever since I got an 
overhead light in the sewing room, I've been complaining 
that I needed a third light, but had no place to put it.  I 
tried putting a Y socket in the overhead light, and I broke 
a true-color bulb -- which I haven't been able to replace, 
thanks to the greenies in Congress -- proving that that idea 
wouldn't work.  
    The problem is that a light that's bright enough for 
sewing is too bright for anything else.  Tonight when I sat 
down to type, grumbling "do I feel around for the keyboard, 
or do I squint" the dime finally dropped, and I snitched a 
clip-on shade from one of the lamps in the parlor. 



16 October 2010 

    The only conspicuous part of the burn is the bit exposed 
when I broke the blister -- it's still an angry red, while I 
have to look close to see that there's dead skin over the 
rest of it.  There's a lesson in burn management in that. 
    A guy who advertised on Freecycle took our old riding 
mower away this morning.  
    Now I can get at the shelves to put the bake kettle away 
for the winter.  I need to wash off the ashes and oil it 
first, though. 
    He drove up just after I got back from the Farmers 
Market with three tomatoes and a quart of little potatoes. 

    Yesterday, I finally got around to calling for an 
appointment to have blood drawn.  The voice mail wasn't as 
tedious as I remembered it. 

    Opened the box of duck tenderloins and found out why 
they were seconds -- they are trimmings and small bits that 
fell off.  So I tossed a bag of mixed vegetables and a 
handful of tiny potatoes in olive oil on the jelly-roll 
sheet that fits the toaster oven, scattered duck tenderloins 
on top, and I'm baking them for supper. 



20 October 2010 

    And it turned out very good.  
    
    Usually I consult a map to find out where I am.  When I 
got to the bridge over Eagle Creek on Country Club Road, I 
got out the map to find out how I got there.  
    I went to the library to swap MacDonald for Tolkien -- I 
didn't want to read the copy of _Back of the North Wind_ 
that I had because it has been "specially edited".  I meant 
to compare it to the library's other copy, but that one was 
checked out.  Perhaps both will be in the next time I go.  
    Having gone on a Tuesday instead of a Monday, I finally 
got a tamale at Tom's hot-dog stand.  It was dreadful.  I 
think it was intended to be boiled in salsa; microwaved, it 
was dry, and you couldn't tell the filling from the wrapper.  
Ordinarily, I like my corn coarsely ground, but not served 
this way. 
    Then I blundered my way to Country Club Road and came 
back by way of Southtown. 
     
    My appointment for a blood draw is tomorrow.  Fasting.  

    Have to run out for milk today.  Hope I remember to drop 
off the banners at the church on the way.  No banner meeting 
tonight, because Martha has a higher-priority appointment 
and all the warm-body work is done. 

    When Dave went to Menard's to buy a replacement for the 
lampshade I snitched, he discovered that when Congress 
banned light bulbs, they inadvertently banned clip-on lamp 
shades.  So he bought a harp and a lampshade.  



20 October 2010 

    It's rather annoying of Facebook to send me a "welcome 
to Facebook" message when they won't let me in.  



22 October 2010    

    Last night, as I was trying to fall asleep, I noticed 
that my burned finger has reached the itchy stage.  And A&D 
rubs off easily and completely.  The new skin looks much 
healthier in the part where the blister peeled off on its 
own.  
    Which reminds me that many of my tiger lilies are still 
hanging onto their stalks; I'm getting antsy to dig them.  
I've already selected a box to put the excess bulbs in, so I 
can put them out by the road marked "free".  
    Anybody around who didn't get tiger lilies when Alice 
thinned hers?  Though it must be time to thin that bed too, 
since I started mine from hers.  And mine were planted 
farther apart than she left hers.
     
    Yesterday was pretty much taken up with getting blood 
drawn, even though I was called before I'd taken my hat off, 
and the samples occupied only a few minutes.  I stopped on 
the way back to buy a turkey pie at Owens, on general 
principles.  Then in the afternoon, the office called to 
tell me I'd flunked one of the tests, so I had to drive to 
Owens after supper to pick up a prescription and buy some 
cranberry juice.  Also got some ham and English muffins so 
Dave could try out his new egg rings this morning. 
    Which made three debits on my account in one day.  Which 
was annoying, because the previous day Dave had notified me 
that the fiscal month was almost up and I had only five 
debits -- haven't been going out much, for some reason -- so 
I'd gone to Owens and gone to considerable trouble to get 
three more debits, since interest this month will be a 
hundred dollars more if I have eight debits.  

    Wouldn't have been so much trouble, but on my second 
trip, I went to a regular line instead of the express 
because it had only been a few minutes since I'd gone 
through the express, and got behind a woman with an enormous 
cart of groceries.  
    Which I did on purpose, because most of her groceries 
were back in her cart in bags.  But just before she 
finished, one of the bag boys brought a bottle of -- water, 
I think -- to replace a defective bottle or something.  The 
bottle had no bar code, so the check-out called a more-
experienced clerk to teach her what to do about it -- 
there's a key ring of plastic tags with pictures of products 
and bar codes -- then the inexperienced clerk showed the 
scanner two bar codes at once, was shown how to void the 
entry, tried again holding her hand over all the tags that 
weren't meant and got the bottle checked through, then when 
she tried to total and print, the computer went bananas.  
The more-experienced clerk called over *her* mentor, they 
consulted a while, then sent the inexperienced clerk to man 
the check-out he had abandoned, tried several more things, 
then finally decided that there was nothing for it but to 
void the whole transaction and scan the groceries again.  
The most-experienced clerk went off with the customer and 
her cart, presumably headed for an idle check-out, and the 
more-experienced clerk checked me through.  By this time she 
was so ruffled that she put my stuff in a plastic bag 
instead of the canvas one I had given her and was aghast 
about it; I was quick to say no sweat, of course.  I sure 
hope things went smoothly with the customer behind me!  
    The third time all the regular checkouts had long lines, 
so I went to the express -- which was still being manned by 
the inexperienced clerk.  We said "hi".  
    
    The fridge in the garage is filling up.  I've decided to 
store all the canned and bottled beverages in it to save 
space in the cupboard.  
    It is groovy to have a crisper drawer deep enough to 
take a head of lettuce.  And to just put a bunch of celery 
in, instead of fitting it in.   
     
    
24 October 2010 

    I got a slightly-out-of-focus look at my silk dress 
today, and realized that the maroon ovals with white edges 
and white centers look like cartoon steaks.  
    I don't think I'll ever see the print quite the same way 
again.  
    I was complaining to myself about how even the opaquest 
of my hose turn transparent where they stretch over my 
dirty-looking toenails when I realized that I can wear two 
pairs.  Unfortunately, I realized this while taking them 
off, not while putting them on. 

    I've switched from A&D on the burn to 15 SPF lipstick.  
    
    It is now time to dig the tiger lilies. 

    I am now allowed to drink milk only with full meals.  
Thought I'd have to give up calcium pills too, but the 
antibiotic is taken every twelve hours, you have to wait six 
hours after taking calcium to take the antibiotic, two hours 
after taking the antibiotic to take calcium -- that leaves a 
comfortable four-hour window.  So it's antibiotic at nine 
and nine, and calcium at twelve and twelve.  
    Only ten days, and this is the fourth. 
    Had another run to Owen's yesterday.  When I started to 
refill my pill stick Friday, I realized that I had only 
three Tricor left.  
    And this debit was *also* before we start counting on 
the next cycle.  
    All I got at the Farmer's Market was a bunch of 
radishes.  Next Saturday will be the last market of the 
year. 
    
     
26 October 2010 

    I put some pillowcases on to soak yesterday, then forgot 
to wash them today -- and I plan to be gone tomorrow.
    I'm glad I also forgot to put the Oxyclean in before 
going to bed!

    I frittered away all of this morning fiddling with the 
table of contents for the Notions chapter of _Rough Sewing_, 
and didn't even finish.  Did get it advanced enough to 
upload to the Web site, though.
    I dug the tiger lilies yesterday, and today Dave saw 
someone stop and pick them up.  I put every bulb I found 
into the FREE box, figuring that I couldn't possibly find 
them all.  Also I didn't dig the area they had spread into 
at all.  I found a lot of daffodil bulbs, and broke up the 
clumps and spread them around.  Only one small bulb -- a 
purple one.  I've forgotten the names of the purple and 
white bulbs that I planted.  Should have written it down 
somewhere.  They don't seem to be flourishing anyhow. 
    I saved one lily bulb to plant by the other telephone 
pole, but when I came back later to plant it, I couldn't 
find it.  So I took another out of the box.   
    Also ran one load of wash yesterday, and picked some 
seam out of the silk-shirt sleeves and hemmed it to make 
openings for the elastic. 



28 October 2010 

    I didn't feel like going to bed until late last night, 
so I slept until after ten this morning, so I won't fall 
asleep until late tonight . . . 
    
    The pillowcases are on the rinse cycle now.  We shall 
see whether soaking for three days, with a few hours in 
Oxyclean yesterday, got out the sweat stains.  [It didn't.] 
 
    The whole point of driving north yesterday was that it 
was the last Shipshewana flea market of the season, and I 
put pillows and blankets in the car so I could have a nap in 
the parking lot before going in, but when I finished my tour 
of Middlebury just at naptime, instead of reading the map to 
see which road led to Shipshewana, I headed south on SR13.  
    Turned on 200N after getting to Koscuisko County, missed 
the turn onto 300E, ended up in Center Center, pulled into a 
parking lot to read the map -- intersection didn't look 
right from this angle -- and discovered that even though the 
intersection of Parker, Center, and Argonne has definitely 
been improved, turning left off Center onto Argonne is even 
more to be avoided than before. 
    And I don't like the street lights they put up on 
Parker.  (You can't see them from Center, but I feel like 
complaining.)  *And* there is a good light of the same style 
along the canal -- why didn't they use those for all of 
them?  It can't be much more expensive, and not lighting up 
the whole universe would allow them to use less electricity.  
Surely that matters when you are putting up hundreds -- they 
put up blinking lamps of eye-searing blue to save 
electricity, putting up lamps that don't glare in your eyes 
to save electricity should be a no-brainer. 

    Got to Bristol with no incidents -- rather surprised 
when I realized I was there already -- turned right, stopped 
at the first parking lot to read the map and make sure it 
was the right road.  This was the Pay n Pakit -- a small-
scale Aldi.  They sell all their own brand, so it must be a 
chain, though I've never seen another.  I'd forgotten to 
bring fruit-and-grain bars, so I went in and bought two 
boxes of granola bars, banana and blueberry.  And some 
pickles and juice and a can of soup.  If I'd brought the 
cooler, I'd have gotten eggs too; we are down to two.  Be 
down to none, but Dave had a breakfast burrito, and because 
I got up so late I'm having lunch -- I found an "organic" 
box of seasoned brown rice in the freezer, and it is 
simmering on the stove.  The seasoning packet smelled quite 
nice when I poured it in.  [But Dave hates basimati rice and 
threatened to spray the house with Ozium, and it turned out 
that there was "evaporated cane juice" in it, so I didn't 
like it either, but I was so hungry I ate it anyway.] 
    I remembered that the road to Bonneyville is hard to 
see, so found it with no trouble -- a moment of hesitation 
at a driveway, but no trouble.  I went straight to the mill 
and bought four five-pound bags of hard white wheat and two 
five-pound bags of hard red wheat; I hope that will last 
until spring.  I must have looked as though I knew what I 
was about, because instead of warning me to keep the flour 
cold, the -- clerk; I don't think he was a miller -- said "I 
suppose you know how to store this" and I assured him that 
I'd put it into the freezer. 
    Then I walked around a bit; no fun with nobody to talk 
to, and the gift shop was closed.  I ate a banana granola 
bar and a blueberry granola bar to tide me over to lunch, 
and set out for Middlebury.  The back roads aren't marked as 
well as it's possible to mark them, but I didn't make any 
wrong turns.  I had trouble finding the Quilt Shop because I 
remembered it as being on the corner, where there was a 
large sign saying something like "Yarn and Craft Hardware"; 
turned out to be a hardware store belonging to Mr. Yarn & 
Mr. Craft.  Were it closer to home, I'd be greatly 
interested in it, but I didn't need any hardware at the 
time.  I did notice a fine assortment of lamp chimneys, 
wicks, etc.  This isn't a tourist store like Yoder's, it's 
the real deal. 
    As is Gohn Bros. next door.  No longer a sign saying 
"quilts", but they still have a full assortment of quilt-
making supplies.  Perhaps I should schedule a field trip 
with Cora!  I think Lowery's duplicates everything they 
have, though. 
    I bought a pair of "merino" socks -- despite knowing 
full well that merino is about as far from sock wool as you 
can get -- a pair of black wool-blend work socks, and a pair 
of "opaque" pantyhose.  Two balls of crochet cotton, 
mercerized but reasonably close to bedspread cotton.  And he 
threw in a mail-order catalog.  I rather wish I'd taken blue 
thread in addition to white and pink.   
    Then I crossed Route 13 for the sole purpose of seeing 
the Middlebury Mercantile, but it was a furniture store.  
Then I had to get back to the side where I'd parked the car.  
    This morning, Google Maps told me that I'd missed all 
kinds of fascinating little shops, but on zooming out I saw 
that it was showing me Middlebury, Vermont.  One of the 
times I modified the search, I failed to notice that 
"Indiana" had vanished from the search field.  

    The scheme of taking calcium at nine and nine didn't pan 
out.  I forgot that while I'm on the antibiotic, I have to 
take calcium with a full meal.  I often have two half-meals 
at lunch, and at midnight, I have no meal at all. 
    So I took one of Dave's vitamin D pills today. 



29 October 2010 

    I'm wearing the merino socks.  I don't think I'll like 
them as well as the cheaper work socks I hope to buy at Big 
R.  Must go there soon:  we are almost out of dry cat food. 



31 October 2010 

    Went to Big R that evening.  Didn't look at the socks.  
Did pick up a few things at Aldi, including two bags of 
single-meal bags of mixed vegetables to bake with pre-fried 
chicken and duck. 

    Wore my new pantihose today.  Buying them was a mistake:  
if Fashion Collection considers these hose "opaque", then 
their sheer hose must be altogether invisible.  
    And the waistband not only works its way down, down, 
down, it drags my underpants with it.  I was not a happy 
camper while walking home from church.  But the waistband is 
a hem; I'll put cord elastic through it and see whether that 
makes it work.  

    I helped serve a memorial lunch Saturday, and picked up 
the ham and beans I forgot to take home on Wednesday -- and 
forgot to take the gallon of cider that I'd bought at the 
Farmer's Market on my way to the church.  So I had to carry 
a gallon jug home today.  
    I think I'm all square at the church now!  I took the 
second iron out of the parlor and put it with the banner 
stuff, since with any luck we'll have three people working 
next Wednesday. 

    I took my last antibiotic this morning.  I'm planning to 
pig out on milk, cheese, and yogurt this evening. 
     
    Kroger's Christmas dishes include pressed glass this 
year.  When they first appeared, I picked up a small serving 
dish and thought that Al would lick less food out of it than 
the oatmeal dish we had been serving his dry food in, 
because the sides are straighter.  That part worked out -- 
but pressed glass is quite invisible in dim light; makes it 
hard to check the chow level.  And I didn't notice that it 
is a smaller bowl; he runs out more often. 

    I've resumed eating huge bland supermarket peppers, and 
feeling abused about it. 
    My burned knuckle is still pink.   Spun-silk shirt still 
needs a few stitches.  Still haven't washed and oiled my 
cast-iron baking kettle. 
    I'm still impressed every time I open the fridge and see 
all that space.