oh damn it anyway

Who breaks a tooth eating a grilled cheese sandwich? 

    I'll give you three guesses.  

    I can't figure out how it happened.  Must have been a cracked tooth to start with, but really, grilled cheese?

    I made a pork roast for supper.  Put in potatoes and carrots, some seasonings, and was really looking forward to supper.

    I ended up chewing on one side of my mouth.  

    On the upside for the day, t he Bears did not lose!

    Other upsides:  I mowed, maybe for the last time.  John and Emily and Camryn came over and moved my patio furniture and grill into the garage.  Hopefully this week will be nice enough weather wise to let me wash the tables and put a little teak oil on them so they are ready to go next year.

    I had a list of six or seven jobs for this week.  Changing he smoke alarm batteries is high on the list, especially with the way I cook.

    I heard the weather forcast kind of goes awry toward the end of the week.....snow flurries, rain, cold, windy....in other words, a pretty typical November day.

    But my main priority will be calling he dentist and seeing if he can figure out what happened, and fix it.

    At least I don't have any pain.  Hope it stays that way.

Peace and Love

what?

 Sometimes, I admit, I just don't get it

    I am still puzzling over a comic in the  Tribune this week.  I know there was a joke there, but I did not get it.

    That happens often lately.  I don't understand the joke.  Maybe it is just too advanced for me, or I don't have the basic knowledge.  Hell, it could even be an age thing.

    Oh well, there are other bigger problems in life.

    I also could not watch what I wanted to watch on my WTTW passport tonight.  I wanted to watch a Poirot, but no matter what I did, I could not find an episode.  So I watched the first All Creatures Great and Small and loved it!  It was light and entertaining and showed a lot of the English countryside.  

    We have too many choices to watch, but for some reason we get stuck on the same old stuff.  Part of the problem is habit.  I do my blog about 8, which means I have to get supper and dishes done  before then, which would be the best time to sit down and watch a show.  But I am busy. 

    So many problems.

    Spent part of the day today cleaning off the dining room table.  After several hours it honestly does not look much better.  

    The table was a mess because all the stuff came out of the den and Julia's room and it had to go somewhere.  Lord knows I know what to do with paper, besides stack it in piles.

    There is always tomorrow.  Or the next day.  Or the next.

    Don't forget to adjujst your clocks.....just in case you are on Mars and did not know the time changes.

    Peace and Love

memories

 I got confused by my Facebook memories today

    According to my memories, 8 years ago today I was enjoying a supper in Tuscany with family and friends.  Accroding to the second memory, 8 years ago today I was in Green Bay for the Packers-Bears game.

    Obviously they are not both right.  I do believe the Packer game was correct, because Tuscany was during the summer.

    I remember the game.  It was a package our park district offered and Jackie got it for me as an anniverary present.  It included box lunch, ticket and transportation to the game.

    There were 6 or 7 of us in a van and we drove 55 the entire way, because if you went over 55 the van shook.  It took forever to get there and forever to get home.  In fact, on the way home we got hungry but it was so late there were no gas stations open!  We ended up stopping and peeing along the road because the GPS directed us through every small town between Rockford and Green Bay and eveery one of them was shut tight.

    But it was a good game.  The Bears won, one of only 5 victories they have had against Aaron (Tell No Lie) Rodgers.  And despite me wearing all the Bear stuff I owned,  Packer fans were friendly and greeted me warmly.  It was a fun time, despite being in the van for what seemed forever.

    Now, a digression.

    The French are going to get a surprise.  The cost of a baguette is going up because of rising fuel costs and higher wheat prices due to a sub par harvest.

    The article I read said there would be a 4-6 cent rise in the cost of a baguette, which averages $1  (I am using dollars but francs are about the same.)

    This is huge because in the past 20 years the price of a baguette has only gone up 28 cents.

    I love baguettes.  The crispy crust, airy middle, the crunch you get when you bite into one.......heaven.  The only problem is they get very hard and almost inedible in a day.

    I got the idea reading the article that baguettes are baked in a steam oven......which creates the crunchy crust.

    I wonder if some day we will have bakeries here that create great baguettes and croissants.

    Until then, I will just have to rely on my faulty memory.

Peace and Love

ooops........

 I hope I did not offend anyone yesterday

    In order to repent from my rather crude vocabulary yesterday, I offer this story.

    This is not mine, by the way.  It's an old one.

    Bunch of old guys sitting on benches in front of a general store way up in the mountains.

    A young girl walks past hem, says hello, and tells them she is the new clerk.

     She is pretty and wearing a short skirt, which peaks the old guys' interest.

    After a few minutes, Ed gets up and goes into the store.  The girl is standing behind the counter.

    "What can I do for ya, mister?"  she sweetly asks.

    Ed looks over the shelves and says, "I'd like a loaf of that there raisin bread."

    The girl looks and sees the bread is on the top shelf.  So she gets a ladder and climbs up to get it.

    Ed is thrilled with the view.  He goes out and tells the others.

    Wayne goes in.

    "How can I help ya, mister?" the sweet young thing asks.

    "I'd like a loaf of raisin bread," Wayne says. 

    Again the girl gets the ladder, climbs up, and Wayne gets a great view.

    He goes out and tell Joe.  Joe goes in, asks for raisin bread, she gets the ladder, he gets the view, and goes back out.

    Bill goes in and asks for raisin bread.  The girl goes up on the ladder and as she is up there Homer comes in and stands next to Bill, just enjoying the secenery.

    The girl sees the new old guy and yells down,  "Hey mister, is yours a raisin too?"

    Homer smiles and says, "No...but its a twitchin a mite."

    And with that....good night.

Peace and Love

doctor, doctor gimme the news

 This is doctor week

    We had long scheduled visits today.  I mean long scheduled.  We call and it is sometimes weeks before we can get in.  If it is serious, like a cold or flu, we can usually get "snuck" in, but for a wellness check, it is a long wait.

    Jackie had an appointment for Monday with another medical person.  But that got cancelled because the referral has not come through yet.

    Tomorrow I have an appointment with the man who took my prostate.  It is my one year check up, with my surgery happening one year ago next week.  

    It seems so much longer than that.  I still have the scars, physical and mental, but I am sure they will fade. 

    Anyway, today I brought up a litany of complaints.  My feet itch.  My hands hurt.  My fingers lock.  

    The remedy for the locked fingers, or trigger finger, is : 1, cortisone injections; or 2, minor surgery to cut the tendons.  Both would be done by a hand guy.  

    I guess if I can't adapt, I will have to get a hand job.

    Bodda boom!  Perverts.

    As for the hurting hands, he suggested soaking them in hot water in the morning and rubbing Voltaran or something similiar onto them to reduce the pain.  

    What bugs me the most is how hard it is becoming to open things or grip items, and while it is not imposible, it is hard.

    I know, quit whining.  Or wineing, if that is a word.  Which it must be because I just used it.

    Moisturing my feet should help the itching.  Truthfully, I have been putting a cream on and wearing socks to bed, which really helps.

    I know...TMI but I felt like sharing.

    Did you read about the QAnon gathering in Dallas the other day?  

    Several supporters gathered on "The Knoll" because the ghost of JFK was going to rise and lead the reinstallation of tRump to office.  

    I am not going to say these people are wackos.  I do wonder if any of them were wearing aluminum foil hats though.

    Enough.

Peace and Love

almost.....almost

 This was almost a great day

    First off,  I apologize for any bad typing.

    It is son in law John's fault.

    He was over for,a few  minutes and I asked him to put together my vegetable peeler, which had somehow come apart in the drawer.

    I had been peeling carrots and I knew the broken one was better than the one I was using.  And it is better.  Much sharper.

    I can actually type.  I know the home keys and proper positioning.

    But tonight I can't use the finger that hits the t,f,g,b,v, r keys because since the bleeding funally stopped after 30 minutes, I am not comfortable hitting keys with it just yet.  

    That is hard to do.

    John was over because Jackie could not cut the carrots after I trimmed and skinned them.  So, she wanted t(ouch!  forgot!!)o go to her chair.

    As I lifted her from the  wheelchair, I stepped on her foot, which threw me off balance.  

    She landed between the chair and the wheelchair,  not sitting on either one, and slid slowly to the floor.  

    Thankfully John was home and came right over and got Jackie into her chair.

    No harm.

    But after that I asked him to fix the peeler,  and you know how that ended.

    What also ended was my night of preparing and freezing carrots (which is a hard word to type with out using  the ponter finger).

    I will pick up the task (more carefully. now) tomorrow,   Hopefully.

    So thank you John for picking up my wife and for fixing the peeler.  We do appreciate it.

Peace and Love

opening my eyes

 I have lived here for 50 years, but didn't know

    True, we have been in the Rochelle area for 50 years.  Yes, we lived for a while in DeKalb, but for most f our married life Rochelle has been home.

    Lately I found out some really amazing information.

    Not exactly about Rochelle, but about Flagg Center and Flag.

    Flagg Center  is at the four way stop sign on Flagg Road going into Rochelle.  Not to be confused with Flagg, which may be spelled Flag, a smaller community in Lee County, Flagg Center is not really an incorporated area.  Nor is Flag, or Flagg.

    Friend M is the unofficial mayor in Flagg Center and I always roll down my car window and yell, "Hey, Lady!" when I see her on the front porch or out working in the yard.

    But there really is not much to Flagg Center.  Or Flagg.  Or Flag.

    So I was surprised to see a pop up on my Yahoo page that told me about 8 new doctors operating in Flagg Center!   And the former child movie star who was now working in Flagg!

    Granted, there are no stores in either place, so my mind is imagining the kind of work she is doing.   (Not countng the gun/bait shop as a store.)

    Next time I am out riding around, I am going to look up some of those doctors.  They should not be hard to find.

    Because everyting on the internet is true, right?

    Digressing, what a difference a year makes!

    One year ago I was up to to my elbows in carrots.  This year, not so much.  We put up 5 1-gallon bags last year, but I think we will be lucky to get 3 this year, with 2 a more reasonable goal.

    On a positive note, I still have tomatoes on the plants!  Green, and maybe freeze tinged, but they are still growing.

    And Kathy, FYI....I did toss the green, black and white tomato out, uneaten.

Peace and Love