Upheaval

If everything is pretty much on an even keel, going along as planned, is that a boring rut?  I try not to destroy my life just for some excitement. I’m sure a tornado is exciting, but it’s also destructive. I try to keep that in mind when I’m ready to tear my life to shreds. It’s tough to decide what is important enough to fight for and how destructive should I be. Will there be anything left when I’m finished? Do I care? Not all the time.

All Day

Most of today was spent making the diy laundry detergent. I made a gallon of the dry powder variety. One bar or fels naphtha (grated) one cup of borax, and one cup of washing soda run through the food processor until I had a gallon of the dry powder. It is supposed to dissolve in cold water if run through the food processor. I hope it does because I have a lot of it. One tablespoon for a light load and two to three tablespoons for a large load will last us a while.

DIY Laundry Detergent

I’ve been using the DIY laundry detergent for several years. I’ve used the liquid version. Today I’m out of it and am going to try the dry version. Storage has become an issue for us since we have to deal with a month’s supply of dialysis fluid and all the other paraphernalia associated with it. So not storing five gallons of liquid laundry detergent is what I’m going to try next.

Saturday

We went to the marina for lunch. The temperature was pleasant with a slight breeze and the food was good, as usual.
I spent some time this afternoon putting liquid fertilizer on flowers in the flower beds and watering a Japanese maple with leaves crisping up from lack of water.

Dr. Visit

The test results I got today were good but now I need more tests. Yippee.

Waiting

I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow to discuss the tests the ophthalmologist requested last week. I worry about tests more than I used to. But soon I’ll have a clue.

Volunteering

I used to volunteer two mornings a week, but when Larry was so sick I missed weeks at a time. I’ve been going once a week for about a month. Larry is going to start the overnight peritoneal dialysis next week so I may be able to get back to twice a week. Maybe life is settling down.

Ultrasound

I had an ultrasound today but won’t know the results until Friday. I was looking at it when my head was turned toward the monitor. But I’m pretty sure I don’t know what it means. But they didn’t send me to the operating room so I guess I’ll get the results Friday.

New Neighbors

We’ve had new neighbors for several months. Today they visited. It was nice to meet them but I don’t like people to talk my ear off. I’m pretty sure it’s not polite to tell people it’s time to go home. Too bad.

Abandoned Weed Whacker

It was in the 70’s this morning so I decided to weed whack for a while. I was planning to work until the battery gave out. But I angered bees and had to drop the weed whacker and scurry away. I’ll go back in a while armed with bug spray. Coffee now.

Facebook

When I go on Facebook, I see posts but when I try to find them again, they are gone. If I remember who posted them, I can usually find them now. But I wish people on Facebook were closer to what I see when they are in real life. I also wish they didn’t spell like they are nuts.

First Aid for Plants

It’s been very hot and dry for too long. The flowering bushes and small decorative trees are looking bad so we watered them with buckets, jugs, and hoses. We’ve also spent a couple of hours cutting volunteer trees that have grown in the flower beds.

Fish Tacos

I found a recipe for fish tacos and made them today. They were okay. My favorite thing was the sauce. It was one part mayonnaise, three parts sour cream and 1/2 lime. That sauce would be good on baked fish and maybe everything except ice cream.

Middle Class Mores

I’m hopelessly middle class. I always wanted to be liberal, but only managed to be a social liberal. I saw that woman on the runway nursing her baby and thought it was disgusting. I don’t know why, exactly, because I’m ok with nudist beaches and topless swimming. Maybe it’s because people choose to go to those places. I don’t think people innocently eating dinner should be shown breastfeeding in public. There are discreet shawls that cover functioning mammary glands. I know everyone does not agree, but there it is: I’m hopelessly middle class.

Fish Taco

I had fish tacos at a Mexican restaurant. I like tacos a lot, but fish tacos were a disappointment to me. But today I had corn masa delivered me bought a small cabbage. I thawed a couple of talapia fillets. Tomorrow I’m going to make the taco shells and put it all together. I might not like it anyway, but maybe it’ll be good.

Fried Okra

Today we had our first fried okra from our garden.  It was excellent. Last year we didn’t have okra in our garden because we had some in the freezer. So we only had fried okra from the freezer section of the store except for neighbors sharing.

Siblings

I know two brothers and a sister who are in their seventies who travel together. They have spouses and take vacations with them, but these three pile in a van that one of them fixed up and ramble wherever strikes their fancy. Their kids are grown now and they are retired so the open road calls to them.  I think it’s great that they do things together.

Ten Minutes Cooking Time

I found individuality packed frozen salmon next to the tilapia filets I like. Today I stuck two in the oven with asparagus for ten minutes at 450.  It was delicious and I can have it again tomorrow since Larry doesn’t eat salmon. I also put herbed garlic tiny potatoes in the oven. When the potatoes had been in for thirty minutes, I put the pan with the salmon and asparagus in for the last ten minutes. Larry ate asparagus and potatoes.

Miserable Heat

I like the green trees and colors of summer, but I hate the heat. It wouldn’t be so bad if I liked being inside better.

Spotted Fawn

This morning I saw a spotted fawn walking up to the corner of the house. Fawns are usually with a doe or a group of deer. This one was alone. It crossed the road and bounded for a while. Then it turned around and went the other way.

Buffalo Chicken

The lab tech told me about buffalo chicken at Walmart's deli. I got some and really like it. It’s spicy.

What’s the Date?

I had a doctor's appointment today. Everything was good, but then a young woman came in and asked questions for Medicare. One of them was, “What is today’s date?” My answer was, “Friday is the thirteenth; today is Wednesday, so today is the eleventh." Then she asked if I knew where I was. Then she asked if I knew who was president and who was president before that. I wonder if they have many patients who drive themselves in and don’t know where they are.

Volunteer Meeting

Today was our quarterly meeting for the hospital volunteers. We don’t have many and the hospital liaison suggested that we might want to close down. Everyone said they didn’t mind doing what we do and work harder to bring in more volunteers. I was glad.

Friends

I moved around a lot during my lifetime. I’ve maintained a few friendships through the years, but a lot have slipped away. Today I saw a picture of one with her husband. She has been sick and her husband lost his job as he stayed home to take care of her. Both of them look awful. Another friend from years ago passed away. It’s sad.

Ride in the Woods

Today we rode through the woods to see which trees are marked for harvest. We are having it select cut and I was curious about whether we would have only tiny trees left. But it looked like we’ll have some nice trees among the debris the cut trees leave.

Nice Day

The weather was a pleasant temperature with a slight breeze. We went to the river and ate at the grill that’s on pontoons. I had an appetizer portion of hot wings and Larry had an appetizer of shrimp jammers. We split an order of French fries. Larry slept all afternoon and I lazed on the porch. Nice day.

Smell of Rain

I like how it smells when it rains. It hasn’t rained for a while so it may be that there’s dust in the air because it stops me up immediately but it still smells good.

You’ve Never Learned

You’ve never learned to hand me food when I’m driving. You’ve never learned to say thank you.

Stool

 I want a stool for the back porch. I’ve looked for a while but haven’t found one. So today I taped a couple of dialysis boxes together. I was going to break them down but they were so strong I couldn’t. So after taping them together I sprayed them with flex seal. While waiting for that to dry I started gathering stuff for decoupage. I tore up a lot of flower catalogs. I don’t know if I have enough yet.

Tacos

Tacos are one of the things I like a lot and Larry doesn’t care for.  So today I made tacos just for myself and chowed down. Larry was off on his list of chores so I ran the vacuum and dishwasher. I also dusted and put gas in my car. Not arduous work but finished. I ran cleaning stuff through my jet tub. I only do that every few months so that’s out of the way for a while.

Waffles for Breakfast

I like waffles but they aren’t on a low carb diet. I went for lab work this morning. I stayed while they did my A1c. I decided if my A1c was the same or lower I would get an omelet for breakfast but if it was lower I would get a waffle. It was lower so I got a waffle and sausage with black coffee. If I only have a waffle once a year it is distressing if it isn’t crisp. I may have to have a home waffle.

Ready Roast

Larry got a boneless chuck roast pack that had red potatoes, carrots, and onions with the roast. He put all of it in a pan and cooked it on top of the stove until the meat was fork tender. It was delicious. Well worth buying again.

Not Angry

Larry said he noticed we didn’t argue while we took the shelving unit apart, moved it to the basement, and put it back together. I said it was because he did it all except moving it and he said I was walking too fast. He wanted to take it apart and put it together and wanted me to sweep and vacuum.