It has been so long

 I have forgotten the exact order of things. However, we got up on Monday to go the Cullman to Office Max or Depot and the guy I needed to talk with was out of the store for the day. So, we planned to go on Tuesday, and I did not want to go. We went Wednesday and picked up our lunch from a church--grilled chicken with dish of bbq sauce, corn, green beans, little slice of butter bread, and two cookies. We also had the identical thing for dinner.

The guy came out to the car and took the burned laptop inside. He came back with info insurance and numbers for me to call. Then, I gave him laptop we bought two days or so after this one and decided to not even open. That went well. So, Tommy has over $1k back in his account. And, I should be getting a check for this one, actually that will go into his account, too. 

The sale on chairs interested me, but I would have to go inside. No luck with getting a new surge protector. I forgot what else I tried to buy. 

I found Miracle Whip bogo which made it $5.40 or something like that. Used the bathroom, went to PO, and came home.

The laptop had to sleep outdoors the first night. It camped out in the bathtub on a metal baking pan in a tiled showed stall for two nights. I was really afraid it would blaze to life again.

 

Unfortunately, this laptop cannot recharge, so it must stay plugged in at all time in order to use it. Plus, none of my passwords are evident. AND, it has a whine and scream and rat-tat-ing noise all the time. So, I cannot use it when Tommy is asleep. 

I got into my Yahoo account and into my blog, so all is better. 

A fly has been cruising the house, buzzing around me and any food we are trying to eat or cook. He even buzzed my hair. I could feel his wings making a breeze or something.  I resorted to running to Lowe's and getting fly strips. I hate those nasty-looking things. But, I hate the fly more. I even had Tommy stay with me in the kitchen while I was removing the pork loin and vegetables from the cooking bag. It has gotten dark and cool now, so he is sleeping, I suppose. 

My big chores for the day were replacing my electric candles' batteries and going through a tote bag of mail. The batteries in the Red Kiss were replaced and all eight batteries were put in the battery recycling Planter's Peanuts jar. Between Tommy and I, we removed pertinent information from my mail to shred and put rest in two places--paper to recycle or newsprint items to go the Animal Shelter.  

For some reason Belk's sent me a check for $8.98. And, Belk's sent me a coupon for $10 to use instore. 

Finally, I quit coughing. The guaifenesin made it a productive cough. So, it is gone. I only cough when I swallow something the wrong way. I am so relieved to be rid of the cough. 

Finally, I felt like going into Publix and shopping. When Tommy goes in, he comes out with all sorts fo chips and cookies. I have not been in a store for about a month. 

While I was in Lowe's shopping for fly strips, I noticed Christmas is going up. On the way to find the strips, I was horrified by an apparent boneyard. Someone was hanging skeletons and left them on a platform. They looked like a heap of bones, a boneyard.  It was spooky. I want a large skeleton and a stack of three pumpkins, but I will just dream about them. 

Oh, speaking of dreaming, I have been dreaming since I started taking melatonin. I was having an in-depth discussion with someone about the ceiling fans that can be screwed into a light socket in the ceiling. Tommy and I, another night, were having an equally scintillating conversation about something, forgot what. 

The humidity is incredibly low, so days, and especially evenings with low temperatures have been pleasantly not torrid or muggy. I don't rush to start the car as soon as I get into it. 

What fine chores have you accomplished? 

Has the humidity and heat become more tolerable where you live? 

Laptop Fire

 Yesterday, so this may not work for long. I read all comments and posted. I might not be able to comment right now.

I kept smelling something. Laptop was leaning against the floor. Then, I was overcome and could barely breathe to use inhaler. We did check house and outdoors for the problem. 

When I picked up laptop, it burned my nightgown and a finger or two. I yelled for Tommy to take the cord which I unplugged, he tried to grab the very hot tip instead of the cord, so matter how hard I tried to get him not to take that part. So, lots of yelling and cursing on his part. We were both shocked at the heat. I have no idea how this works now. But, will get new laptop since I paid for insurance for the first time ever. 

We were headed out this morning, but tech person not at store. 

It was actually cool out when we went to store at 7 tonight. Temp is 63 degrees. Unbelievable. However, we know heat will go back up. 

I told Tommy to come fast and save me if I yell about this laptop hurting me. Amazing that it works. 

Okay, going to try and answer comments. Sorry to confuse you, Janet...lol.

Forgot to say, laptop was in my lap and burned my nightgown!

Mug Cake

 Before people advised me what to do, I had already looked at all possibilities to fix my laptop brightness and color.  I tried again. Then, this morning I opened up the old, screaming laptop on the off chance that my vision had failed between laptops, I compared them and had Tommy look at the screen. He agreed about the sharpness and color. The old laptop had better color and sharpness. 

So, I called the guy and will get a new laptop. He said it was something that I forgot. So, that will happen when he gets one in. At least my vision is not the problem!

Thursday night, I slept well and awoke at 10:30 am. We went to The Pig with the express intent of getting an ad and left. I can and do look at them online, but it is so tedious. The electric carts there are left on the sidewalk, so if I can hobble to the cart, I am good. 

Oksana, the woman who cleans, called me today and asked if she could come on Sunday. She is so humble, asking for permission to work for free. And, to think I have had to beg people to come here and work for $18/hr even when they asked for $12/hr. Since I did not want anyone for 8 hours a day, I wanted them to be happy with their pay. 

Today, when we were out, it was drizzly on and off and very cold feeling and gloomy. Today's 50F and drizzle was cold after yesterday's 80F and dry and sunny.

I don't know whose blog I was reading, but the thought was ug cakes. When I first read about those, I was interested. But, when I realized how I would still have to get out all the ingredients for a cake and measure Tablespoons instead of cups, I was less interested. So, one day I had a sale chocolate cake mix. Then, I only had to put about a 1/2 cup of the cake mix in the mug. Then, I added milk, stirred, and microwaved. I don't remember how much milk, but it all worked out to be a hot, edible chocolate treat. Very tasty!

I asked Tommy if he had ever had a mug cake. I expected not. He said he seemed to remember having one. Then, he said, "Oh, yeah! Mississippi Mud Cake." I said, "Mug, mug, MUG until he understood. He is so funny sometimes. We had a good laugh. 

We brought in the Romaine from its daylight excursion. I am going to get grow lights so I can keep it indoors all the time. Keeping it on the front porch will just cause it to bolt sooner. I am looking at this BULB or this CLIP ON.  I am not sure of what I need to get and if there is something I should not get. Any opinions?

Have you ever made a mug cake with cake mix? Is that even a thing?

Another Good Day

 First of all, it was 80F today with higher temperatures in cities nearby. It was unbelievable that no storms and tornado weather followed the heat. Birds are out and about. One sat preening on my shepherd's hook out front. 

I am writing this about 5 pm. and yawning. However, I slept well last night/today. Wednesday night, after little sleep for two nights, I went to bed about 9 pm. I could not sleep, so I got back up for news. I finally went to bed about 2 am, slept three hours, got up and on laptop. I think I went to bed at 7 am and slept until 12:45 pm. I did get over 8 hours sleep. The sleep deficit has not been mitigated, but I am happy.

We went into the bedroom with food and brought things out--Miracle Whip, bbq sauce, jar of Newman's Own spaghetti sauce, canned chicken, freezer and storage bags. These bags were Christmas designs bought on sale after Christmas 2021. I put back the boxes of light bulbs where I replaced bulbs. 

Because I bought so many cans of Campbells cream of soup on sale, we need to use one each month this year in order to consume them before the best by date. When I need two cans for a recipe, I will have Tommy make white sauce and use that instead of the second can. 

We won't need storage and freezer bags for years. This could be a lifetime supply...lol. 

My laundry is ready for Tommy to take it to washing machine. That will happen Friday.

My laptop has color problems that I cannot figure out how to solve.  The screen is too dim and the pink of my blog is a sickening pale color. Other than that, I have figured out the few things different from my last laptop. The screeching sounds are not missed!

Tonight, since we took freezer bags to the kitchen, I will freeze the baked breasts. And, I will shred or chop enough chicken for a casserole of Stovetop Stuffing, chicken, soup. I wish I had dried cranberries to put in it, but I have a can of jellied cranberry sauce. My dried cranberries are better than Craisins. And, they have no sugar or oil. I am going to put the mix in a colander in order to stir it and get the salty seasoning out. 

Dinner--Stove Top Stuffing casserole with chicken, green bean, carrots in it, and either slaw or salad. 

The SS casserole was delicious. I used the white sauce Tommy made instead of a can of soup, along with a can of soup and some of the chicken broth left in the bowl. I added no canned chicken broth. There were carrots that did not get soft enough for me. So, I mashed the carrots roughly with a fork and added that. I think there was as much shredded chicken as there was SS. It was delicious with cranberry sauce and salad. The SS casserole had a less strong taste because I added no spices to the white sauce. And, I added no water to the casserole. 

At 10 pm it is still 72F. Amazing. There was no wind part of the day, thankfully. Only a breeze later in the afternoon even stirred the trees.

Do you have stored food from which you add to kitchen stores? 

Good Day! Hard Day!

 Today, we took my new laptop to Office Max or Depot in Cullman to get everything transferred from old to new. He was not sure he could get it done in the over 4 hours before he went home at 2 pm. I felt nervous when we dropped it off and forced myself not to call and see how he was doing. 

We did a lot in four hours. 

went to bank and cashed a $5 refund check

went to cash in aluminum cans as we got off the interstate--$6

Dropped off bag of small Coke bottles and a friend will put them in her recycling

dropped off small bag of soup/tuna cans for a friend to give to mutual friend

went to PO

sat in my driveway for about three minutes to look at my daffodils on retaining wall, by mail box and in a swath in the backyard--a host of golden daffodils (Wordsworth)

in Publix bought a banana, bowl of watermelon to eat in car, went to bathroom, looked for keto bread

bought gas for $2.93

ate lunch at Chicken Salad Chick

went to Lowe's

I started thinking about how we had money for Chicken Salad Chick. I had to convince him. I reasoned to him--the $5 is free money, the $6 is free money. I have $3 in my purse from a refund at Publix, and the charge was on your card. If we take this $14 and spend it at Chicken Salad Chick, it won't cost much to eat this time. So, he was convinced. 

Really, he wanted money in his wallet. He sounded pitiful about never having cash. So, I told him to keep the cash until I needed it and put it on cc. That is not really good logic, but it worked...lol. 

At CSC he ordered Fruity Fran and chicken and dumplings. I ordered Classic Carol and loaded baked potato soup. We ate in the parking lot at the park nearby. My scoop did not seem right. Well, I had been given Chic Cranberry Kelli. Not happy. 

At lowe's, I realized they had bedding plants. The woman working at Lowe's took a Romaine 6-pack and Tommy's credit card, and bought it and brought it to the car. When we got home, Tommy brought them in. I know he did not mistreat them. However, many of the stems were completely broken! I am annoyed. We may just have to eat the tiny leaves and then plant the broken ones and hope we do get more Romaine. I know the wind was whipping the leaves and the wind had gusts of 38 mph today in Cullman. So, maybe the wind broke off the Romaine. 

I am going to plant two or three plants in one pots. We have to get busy. I have pots and I have soil. So, we can at least get these out and on the porch, but not in this wind. 

My feet were so swollen when we got home that I could barely walk. I needed to take a nap, but did not.

Dinner was already made: chicken breast, potatoes, carrots. I had the rest of the slaw. Tommy had a salad with Romaine, grape tomatoes, carrots sticks I cut, zucchini rounds. It was huge and colorful. 

When I wanted to get out my computer as soon as we got home, I could not get it online. I knew I was doing it right. Well, the internet was down! I will sell the old laptop. So, now it is up and running.  It is much faster than the old one. It took about 30 minutes to get to a blog or email. 

When I dropped it off, I warned him the noise it emitted might drive the whole store crazy. When I picked it up, I asked him if the noise was too loud. He said it was loud and he hated it . 

Today, the high was 83F. This would be an ideal high year-round. The wind was so high that at one point, my hair swirled around my head, over my face, and in my eyes.  We went to the Festhalle to empty the trash. We had it in a styrofoam food container that we wanted to wash and recyle. Tommy took it and dumped it out his window right into a trash barrel less than a foot from the car. As he dumped it, every bit of trash flew out and away from the barrel. It was faster than either of us could move even in our younger days! We both were aghast and felt ashamed, but we could not reach it even if we had tried. 

At least, we are recycling the styrofoam. And, I think the pickel spears did go into the trash barrel. Tomorrow is the day we will take the styrofoam, mostly egg cartons to Publix to recycle. We took in two huge bags of papers last week. Taking it all at once is too much. 

Is it always a wonderful thing to get a new laptop that actually works? 

Was it windy in your neck of the woods? 

All Day Long Every Day

I carry things to their proper home or take extra things to a new home for storage. Let me explain. All day long when I can even walk that far, I have made about 20 extra trips down the hall. I bought a large   Rubbermaid bin about two years ago, and I had not yet found its purpose. Actually, I had bought two bins, stacked them together and dumped stuff in the top one. That made the bottom one inaccessible to me because of the bending and weight. So, I had Oksana free the bottom one for me. 

On the UHC plan I had money to spend. I spent about $75 on OTC. One of the things I bought was Q-Tips, two 500 count boxes in plastic wrapping. I also had three 300 count boxes in the hall closet. Then, I had another box of 500 in a bin under a table in the living room. I took everything but the one 300 count box from the closet. They went into the pink bin. I have been doing this with extra meds. I have a new bottle not used of several items with a few pills in the bottle I have not finished. I have too many bottles of lotion. I will put all but one into the bin, same with all categories of items--prescriptions, otc, and personal care.

For everyday use, I put Q-Tips into tall prescription bottles. Who needs to pick up a box of 500 every day? not me. At my house, the box was in a set of open shelves covered by a lace curtain in the wall next to the bathroom sink. I could reach in and pluck out a Q-Tip. So, I never had this space and arrangement problem in my house.  

This exercise has freed up room everywhere in one day, it seems. I just need to continue and not become a slacker in this effort. Thursday, we are going to fill smallish boxes with books to take to a small, independent, used bookstore. If we don't manage to get any money for his or mine, I have other ploys to get books in the hands of people who want to read. I think the history books might be best put into the hands of hs students who love history. I have other ideas.

Some of you may clean for 15 minutes or for an hour, but one trip to put something or somethings away exhausts me. That is why I usually do a tiny bit at times all day.

We have had a lot of rain for 24 hours, but a respite now. There is a prediction for a possibility of snow  flurries this weekend, mostly a bit north of here. 

We are watching The King and I. Wonderful! 

The CPU fan is going, hence loud noise in laptop.  $300 fix may not work. So, maybe a new computer is in the future.

For dinner tonight, I made Hot Chicken Salad. Tommy is eating something else since he is not a fan of so much celery. Tommy: baked chicken legs, carrots, potatoes, Brussels sprouts. Later: buttered hot roll. 

Maybe some of you can relate to two minute cleaning or straightening sessions. I don't know, but I figure it will take about 147 years to get this done. Understand?

Tommy's Day, Death, Stupid Mum!

 Well, Tommy's birthday is over. He liked the chicken and the zucchini. There were other vegetables I could give him, but he just wanted zucchini and lots of it. 

In the end, I put a small jar of apricot jam, 10 ounces of Italian Zesty Dressing, and a package of Onion Soup mix, cooked together on the stove and poured over the chicken tenders. I should have cooked them at the last uncovered, but they were fine covered and baked in the oven for an hour. I still have half of what I mixed up, so I can do this another day. There are two tenders left for lunch tomorrow. 

The brownies were a hit even though I obviously did not leave them in long enough. So, I scraped his liquid brownie into another pan and baked them again. Same with my portion that had not been removed from the pan. The last time I thought I had forgotten how to bake, the thermostat was broken. This oven bakes 50 degrees hotter. However, it could be fluctuating. 

He never wants anything--pie or brownies or cake--defiled with ice cream. I knew that but thought he might relent since it was his birthday. No go.  He also likes his ice cream plain.

The temperature is rising and will be up to 65F by 6 am. We will pay for this weather with a chance of tornadoes on Saturday. 

I saw in the obituary of another person that a friend died this summer. The obituary said she had predeceased the person who had died (did not know her.) I was beyond shocked! We were not close and never could be. Her daughter committed suicide at fifteen about 15 years ago. Five years ago, her husband committed suicide almost on the same day her daughter died. 

Funny story--She believed very much in the Rapture, which I do not. When her husband died, so did her mechanic. (Her joke, not mine.) So, she had to buy a car and bought a new one. When I saw it, I told her at the Rapture, I wanted her car. She became angry and defensive, yelled at me and told me her sister would get it. I laughed and asked her if her sister was going to still be here. She realized what she had said and would not laugh, just was embarrassed. 

For fifteen years, she served as a voluntary phone counselor for people who were considering suicide or who had a loved one commit suicide. My friend had to take sedatives to sleep, something to wake her enough to function, something for depression. I think her continual immersion in suicide could not allow her to heal. I mentioned this to her only once, and she said she had not thought about it that way. I have no idea if she continued with the counseling others because she sort of disappeared, moved away, I think. 

Even though she had diabetes and had to have half of several hammer toes removed, I wonder how she died. Covid? So, now I have to find one of her relatives listed in her relative's obit and see if I can find out what happened. I wonder if the two deaths by suicide by her family, and all the drugs she contributed to her death. ???

There were a group of women bullying me and I had no idea why. When I told her, she knew why and had moved to stop them. One woman had told people I had chased her and tried to hit her. My friend told the other women that she had seen me walk and there was no way I could chase anyone. Plus, she told them I was not like that. So, some of the women came separately and apologized when they saw me. 

I have a stack of obituaries that need a bit of investigation. 

On Tommy's birthday, I did not ask him to do anything to help out. Of course, I didn't do it either. We went to get his oil changed and mail a letter for me. He seemed to be out of sorts at time, but I said, "Okay, let's have an argument, okay?" and he stopped picking a fight. 

I give up on the mum I was going to spray. I refuse to throw good money after bad. I might give it a spritz of the clear glitter spray to see how it works, but I refuse to spray it all over first time. If it looks okay, I might throw a string of fairy lights from last year. It has a remote, so it will be easy to light. 

So, Tommy had a very good day, it seemed. Tomorrow, we will plant our Amaryllis (pink one and red one) for the house since they should have been planted two weeks ago. Maybe Saturday, we will put up the tree. 

Did you have a very good day, too?

Well, I had this post ready and the computer quit. The cord from here to wall died. The last time this happened, I got a warning. On Friday, the laptop just quit. Saturday weather was not conducive to driving to Hoover to get a new one, Or, to Big Box. So, on Sunday we left about 1 pm to search. I found one at Office Max and paid too much. But, laptop now works! 

AND, I am tired. Tommy actually fluffed the tiny tree and did it right. THEN, he said don't you want me to put the ornaments on the tree. He likes it, obviously. Nothing for Christmas was done today. So, I think I will go with red and green. I am going to cook pasta for spaghetti and have salad or just steamed broccoli--red and green. I might get out the ornaments. 

Did you get any tornadoes or bad weather on Sunday or anytime on the weekend

Laptop Problem

 Last week, my laptop screen displayed a message that power was low. So, I found the connection that was loose and pushed it back into place. This happens all the time. Then, three minutes later I got a message that the system was locking. 

Nothing I could do, including waiting, could induce my laptop to respond. So, I left it alone, hoping that if I ignored the laptop, it would get lonely and respond next time. No, not so. The next morning when I awoke, I knew I had to spend money. But, lo and behold, one last disheartened attempt was successful and Pavilion sprang to life. 

Then, the same thing happened Monday night, only it did not come alive like before. I hoped the problem was in the cord, not in the laptop. I had tried everything I knew on Monday night, including multiple attempts to determine that the cord was getting electricity. 

At Office Max their cord worked. So, I needed a new charger cord. That set me back $65 after tax. Since the OM had no HP cords, I bought Targus. It seems to work just fine and I saved money by not holding out for HP. Well, I am told HP would be more expensive.

Okay, I just checked on Amazon and it seems they are a third or less of what I paid. I am insecure about choosing a new cord and just hate to return this one to OM to save money--$40. I am conflicted. 

Computer Problem

 It is solved but I am too tired to post, I think. Later.

Cold! Forcing Flowers

 Today has been a miserable, cold day. It is the sort of cold damp that goes right through clothes and everything. The car was cold inside for at least 30 minutes. We went out, did what we had to do and came home. I had no ambition to do anything else. 

Being indoors with lamps on suited me just fine. It was nice to have my laptop. Two days ago, my laptop screen went black. It warned me first, but the warning was only seconds long. Usually, I just need to plug it in where the cord has slipped from the laptop. Sometimes, the connector in the middle of the cord separates. Once, the cord was unplugged from the power source. 

This time, I checked all connections and nothing helped. The laptop still would not power up. This has never happened. I checked to see if the plug was connected to a reliable power source. So, I unplugged a lamp. Still no power to laptop. 

I went to bed very discouraged, imagining how much a new cord might cost or how much it would cost to buy a new laptop or have this one prepared. The next day, I was not eager to turn it on. Finally, I did and it started right up. It appears that I only have 79% power. I am not sure why it is this low since it has been plugged for hours. 

It is 4:45, but I am going to take a nap. The living room looks so bare without Christmas. I may buy paperwhites to force. Do you ever force flowers? Anything other than paperwhites? I may try to force daffodils. 

The way it Is

Friday, I forgot this was a Monday holiday weekend. The people I needed to talk with were "out of the office today." So that means Monday, too. I will make no progress...sigh. The rest of the week, people were in meetings or would get back to me.


The first day I was here, I mixed canned beef and canned potatoes for dinner. Later, Tommy said in a very irritating and irritated voice, "What about those dishes in there?" I used a skillet and real fork and a large plastic spoon I gave him. I said I would wash them. Then, the next day I told him I would wash dishes when there was a new light bulb over the sink. It is still like a cave in the kitchen. The skillet was Teflon and he said it had not been used in five years or so. Yes, I did wash the pan.


I am not supposed to "get into things." When I asked him if he had something I could cook on in the oven, he directed me to a pan about 9"x 11" with 1/2 " sides. A jelly roll pan? Tiny cookie sheet? So, I bought a larger sheet to cook in the oven. A friend at a church gave me a paring knife I was trying to buy. It is primitive here. He knows how cook bacon and hamburgers.

With his physical condition, I am not going to try to turn him into a sous chef to help him learn.

His electric can opener quit working, at least for me. I got out the can opener another church gave me with a can of tuna when I was in the motel. I do not wat him to cook for me, but it would be good for him if he had survival skills beyond fast food, cans, or going to a restaurant. I prefer a manual can opener anyway. I have not opened another can since I got here.

When I told him and showed him briefly how I cooked in the cooking bag, he was impressed. He commented that we had a good meal and used up lots of food in the refrigerator. I pointed out that if he could stuff food in the bag, close it, and poke six holes in the bag, he could do this without me. He said not a word...lol. He has no flour, so I have been cooking in the bag without flour and the bag does not explode like the directions say it will. He will miss me when I am gone.


He was horrified how I use so much toilet paper. I laughed.

Finally, I got my huge wire chicken from his Rogue. I mentioned I would put it in a place a guy does not mow and killed his grass and would put flowers in the pot holder. He said, "NO." But, he said nothing when I talked sweet to the chicken and put it in place a week later. The chicken was one of the few things I rescued from the yard after the thieves started looting the yard.

Friday night, he told me I could only use my laptop in the bedroom. ??? That would mean I had to plug and unplug the wall plug from behind the sofa/loveseat and then from behind the headboard where he has things plugged up that he does not want removed. ??? I am allowed to use the laptop in the living room if I ask and if he agrees. There was no rhyme or reason to this declaration.

The first night I was here, I slept in his bedroom that he has not used in five or so years. I sat on the bed, got in, went to sleep, got up to go to bathroom, sat on the bed and went back to sleep. When I got up the next morning, I went back in there and sat nearer the head of the bed so I could be near the bed table. Well, the bed collapsed when the slats slipped. So, he took apart the bed and moved a frame from a bed n another room and replaced the broken one. It seemed to take forever. I could hear what sounded like clicking and clacking. I have no idea how he managed to move bed frame, mattress and box springs from one room to another. I was on the love seat, and resting. Apparently, I went to sleep.


Later, he said he was fascinated watching me sleep on the loveseat. I had one foot on the seat with knee up in the air and the other foot crossed over with foot resting on knee or near. He said he had never seen anyone sleep like that. I do it all the time. Does it seem strange to you?

And, I just now sprained my ankle o uneven asphalt in a parking lot!