Neil Gaiman: ” If you really can’t figure out which political party or which politician to vote for, just ask if they’re on the side of libraries. Are they voting to fund their libraries? Are they voting to keep them free? Then vote for those guys. They’re probably the good guys. And by the same token, the book burners, the book banners, they’re probably the bad guys.”

This is mine. Right up the street from me. There is a fireplace and nice places to sit and read. Way back when, we lived right next door, and one time my youngest daughter and her friend, both around 3 or 4 years old, went missing, and I found then in the library, sitting at a table looking at books. Librarian said they just walked in, grabbed a couple books and sat themselves down. She knew who they were, of course, and was going to call just as I turned up. My DD is still a reader. So is her older sister. Books and the love of reading them is one of the best gifts you can give your children. Do not let them abolish libraries. They want us to be ignorant and under educated, because the ignorant and under educated are much easier to manipulate. Vote Blue. Please.

Thank goodness. Been sleeping a lot, though. Very, very tired, breathing not great. Allergy pills. Inhaler. These things are your friends. LOLOL Woke to another gray day, with rain this time. After so long drought conditions, we have been inundated with rain. Trees do not seem to be turning in a normal way, making me remember this spring, when there was not even one single blossom on the trees across the street. I have also noticed the past couple of days articles mentioning ‘global heating’, and yes, it is not longer ‘global warming’ as is evidenced by the horrific conditions happening all over the planet. We were warned, and we chose to do nothing. Now it is too late.

That’s another rant I have. How we are told it’s our fault because we use plastic straws and other ridiculousness. When it is the corporations, you know, the ones that are running our country through their paid-for politicians, are the real polluters.

Waiting for the new homemaker. She was meant to be here at 9, her work called to say she was coming at 10, and it is 20 past 10 now. I need her to mail my rent check and get my mail and take out the trash. The essentials. I am pretty much not very mobile right now, or I would attempt going to the post office myself. It is only maybe half a block away, but I am having trouble just walking to the kitchen, which is maybe 10 steps away. Fun time, people. Fun times.

Today I want/need to call the vet, the potential therapist, a cleaner recommended by friend, the dentist, and the physical therapy center down the street from me. How many of these will I actually do?

I cooked yesterday, too. Actually, the day before I roasted some small tomatoes, and yesterday I roasted some cauliflower. Roasting is soooo easy. Toss the veg in olive oil, salt and pepper and roast at around 400 til they look like you want them to. Very done, almost burnt. Try the halved brussels sprouts this way. Like a completely different veg. I did slow-roast the tomatoes on 250 for a few hours, because I forgot about them. But they came out great. Wish I’d known about or tried roasting veg long time ago, because they are so much better than any other cooking methods I’ve done. Except broccoli. Broccoli is better steamed til bright green and still a bit crunchy.

I had blackberries and raspberries, and still have some fresh figs to eat. I like fresh figs. They do not seem to have a very long season. I do try to eat seasonally if at all possible, but some things like berries are imported when not in season and I like berries, so….

I am awake and relatively alert as you can tell by my wordiness. 🙂 Have been watching some French-language programs. There is even a channel with French shows, called, amazingly, The French Channel. There are some really good shows on MHz Choice, too. Not just French language.

Anyway, rambling Jean is done rambling for right now. Wear your masks, people. Covid is still here. I know. My two friends are pretty sick from it. Even with taking the paxlovid.

Homemaker just came. Opened the door and there are boxes. I was totally unaware that anything had been delivered, and way surprised that someone put it outside my door instead of leaving in the lobby. Was it the delivery service, a kind neighbor? IDEK It’s a good thing, though, as it is not really possible for me to go down and bring items up right now. 🙂

Have tested negative twice now. Am going to wait a few days before taking the last one I have. Getting new ones Oct 2 or so. Cancelled new homemaker except hoping she will come Friday for a hand-off of get the mail and take the trash out. Waiting to hear. Do not want to kill any of her other clients if I am infected. I mentioned to her boss that she was not masked, too, and was told it is no longer a requirement. Even without covid, it should be a requirement, and it is in my home from here on in. No mask, no entry. The end. We are living in scary times, but denying it won’t make it go away. Covid, climate, unbelievably stupid politicians and citizenry. I mean, people still worship the orange disgrace and want him to be president again. IDEK Stay safe, people. You only get one life. Don’t lose it from being stupid.

Seriously, weren’t we just sweltering? Now it’s sweaters, blankets, heater fan, hot drinks. This is so much better than hot and sticky. This is right now:

New homemaker came Friday, finally. Kind of disappointed, but it was a first day, and not the usual routine since she did not come Tuesday, so it was just shopping (very small list), had her run the vac which did not go well by my standards, which are pretty lax, and trash out. Hope once we establish a good working routine it will work out. It is really hard to get people to do this kind of job because the pay sucks and who wants to clean toilets for a living anyway? It used to be mom’s wanting some extra cash while the kids are in school, but I don’t know what it is now. She says she does food prep (not cooking) though, so that’s a bonus.

I also found out there is (I hope it’s still in business) a sort of taxi service in my town, which means I would be able to get places without relying on a friend or using the dreaded Dial-A-Ride, which takes tons more energy than any other method of getting anywhere. I have been left stranded a few times in the past.

Guess I am feeling kind of down, but it’s gray and cold and I turned my sun on, which should help. Full-spectrum bulbs in the overhead light, which I normally do not use. Makes it seem like a sunny day in here. It’s a good thing.

Just found out my friend has COVID. She does not mask any more, nor does her husband or her peeps, as I call them. Her friends from the Senior Center. Still have a couple of in-date tests so am going to take one. Just in case. She was just here a few days ago. I don’t need to be sick on top of everything else that I have, so am going to institute the ‘no mask, no enter’ rule again. Even the new homemaker was not masked, which I was not having a good day and didn’t even realize til she’d been here awhile, and by then it was too late. I even forgot my own mask that day. I can’t think of everything, especially when I am in pain. It really messes with your brain working, pain does.

But it’s autumn, my favorite season. I love the smell of fallen leaves when you crunch your way through them, and the colors. New England has absolutely astoundingly beautiful fall colors. In Colorado, the leaves turn yellow, then brown, then fall off the trees.

Stay well, everybody, and wear your masks. It matters again. It’s a different world we are living in. I miss the old one.

But happy, happy. Apple pie, stuffed cabbage, so many fall foods I like. Now, if I could only get someone to cook them for me. 🙂

I am getting really bad at this. Either feeling like crap, or a lot going on. Am having a good day so far, after about 4 hours sleep. Woke up before 7, no brain fog, not much pain. What happened? No idea. Beautiful day, again. Today the new homemaker is starting. She’s coming around 9. A.M. In the morning. 9 in the morning is for me like 4am is for normal people. It’s a miracle I am up and functioning at this time (8:15). Not complaining.

I have an Outlook email address and recently I have been getting loads of spam, after hardly ever getting any. Not sure what I did, but it is very annoying. I would dump it, but a lot of Microsoft things have it as my address. Looked it up, fiddled a bit with settings, time will tell.

Have decided to get a computer person to come and see if my old printer is fixable. Miss G murdered it two or three years ago, and it will not take in the paper to print. Tried everything, nothing worked. Bought a cheap Canon from Walmart, which works very well, but the old one is wireless and I’d really like to use it so I can move the laptop back to by the window. Seeing out while working is a good thing. This is the new one.

Hoping to get things done today, hoping the new homemaker is nice and we get along and she does a good job. I’m going to let her do her thing today, and then based on how she does, will talk it over next time. Hope that won’t be necessary. Wish me luck.

I am better. Not spectacular, but better. Actually cooked a couple times. Easy stuff. Chicken soup: box of chicken broth, bag of froz cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, bag of Buitoni chicken prosciutto tortellini. Yum. Grilled cheese. Low and slow, that’s how you make good grilled cheese, I have learned.

Getting a new homemaker. Question if it’s temporary or permanent, old homemaker says temp, her work told me permanent. Will call tomorrow for confirmation of which one. New one may cook. We’ll see.

Not my homemaker. LOL

Beautiful day. Especially nice after the really unpleasant September we have been having with 90% humidity and tornadoes and all. Sunny, breezy, 75 F. Windows open. Happy Jean is loving it.

is just weird. Days of 90% humidity, 3 tornado warnings (oh, wait, one was in August), day after day of having the a/c on and the windows closed, and today I have put on a long-sleeved shirt because it is 63, and was in the 50’s overnight. Much more my kind of weather. Tornado warnings were fun. Not. I could not carry Miss G in her hard crate, and DD2 suggested I put it on the seat on my Rollator thing. I changed to a soft crate, which was much more doable, but still hard to carry her, so I did put it there, and poor baby was in the crate on the seat for well over an hour. She did not make a sound the entire time, was very well behaved. It was so long because right after the tornado warning was cancelled, there was almost immediately another one. I discovered I can watch Boston and Providence news of my Firestick, and WBZ, the Boston station, had excellent coverage. Continuos, specific, and reassuring. At one point the anchor was saying things like, ‘If you’re here, you’re safe, if you live near (and mentioned specific businesses up the street from me, seriously) you need to take shelter. It was the best coverage I have ever seen of anything. Unfortunately, the Rhode Island station kept going to the cutsy anchors chatting inanely. Why I stopped watching news even when I had cable

Housing inspection is today. Sometime before 11am, I was told. I was awake all night AGAIN, and fell asleep in daylight. Hoped to get a few hours before the inspector comes, but kept getting woken up. Very noisy street today and I am on the second floor, a sidewalk’s width from the street. Having coffee. Had to put on a long-sleeved shirt because COLD in here. Yay. My new ‘therapist’ agreed with me that I do not need her services and is going to recommend a regular therapist, my doctor sent me a message to say my blood work is good and my A1c number was on the way to being great, but that was before the increased dose of Prednisone, which raises blood sugar, among other damaging side effects. It is a miracle drug, right up until it kills you, it seems. I also found out yesterday that today is my homemaker’s last day. She didn’t come Tuesday, and I ordered a grocery delivery which for once went exceptionally well. No idea why she ‘asked for reduced hours’, which sounds specious to me. She has never mentioned anything like that. I will find out what the story is today, I guess She is not the best cleaner I have had, but we get along really well and laugh a lot and have fun, and I will miss her. Life is change. Adapt or die, is what I always say. Having even one chronic, debilitating illness teaches you to adapt pretty quickly. Having 3 just reinforces that to the nines.

Got to go out with my friend Tess yesterday. We went to Michael’s. Have not been there in some time. I bought some cute little individual flowers in three colors, and a set of six about 2 inch long nutcracker stick-ons. No idea what to stick any of these things on, but hey. I always do that when we got there. Find really nice crafty things, buy some, and never actually use them, because it is eons before I have a day good enough to do crafts, and I have forgotten what I bought them for in the meantime. LOL My life is SOOOO interesting. LOLOL

It appears I did not post at all in August. It was not a great month. So much pain,slept a lot. Rheumatologist recommended upping prednisone from 5 to 7 mg, which I did on Monday. Slowly getting slightly better. This means there is no hope of getting my A1c number any lower so have had to give in and take metformin,which I also started Monday. Unlike the first time I tried it, there are no bad side effects so far. First time was major stomach pain. I have weird body chemistry. Fact. I always get the side effects or have strange reactions to meds. Still pretty non-functional, but hoping it will get better soon.

Meanwhile, weather has gotten really nice. One day and night with the a/c, but otherwise nice days in the 70’s and no hot and sticky. Autumn for the win. Yes. It is September! Fall is my favorite time of the year. Then spring, winter, summer. Summer would be higher on the list except for the aforementioned hot and sticky. Fortunately, it is not all summer long. We have days and even weeks that are decent weather. I could not live where it is just hot and sticky day after day after day.

We had a tornado warning a couple of weeks ago. TAKE SHELTER NOW, said my phone alert. Closed bedroom door, because once Miss G is in there, no hope of grabbing her. So she was right by the door and right by the crate, so I crammed her in. Twice, as she got out the first time. Amazingly, she did not try to bite or scratch during her ordeal. Poor baby. Was going to go to the basement, but I could not carry her. She is heavy, since she will only eat dry food, and that apparently causes fat cats. She only gets 1/4 cup a day, and six treats that I make her chase around for. LOL Anyway, was going to just stay in the hall as it is completely enclosed with fire doors on each end, and apartments on both sides. Well away from glass. But too much pain, needed to sit, so just put her inside the door and sat in the rocker and waited. No tornado, thank goodness. It touched down farther east of me. Poor Miss G whined pitifully for five minutes, tried mightily to get out of the crate, and then was quiet for the rest of the half hour we waited for the warning time to pass. Was not even mad at me when I let her out. It was kind of scary, but I am good at keeping calm. Hope that does not happen again. Tornadoes are so dangerous.

Am having housing inspection next week, because I am on Section 8, subsidized housing, and there is just clutter and more clutter everywhere, and I cannot physically deal with it right now and there is no one to help, unfortunately. Just hope the landlord does not come. He never has before, but you never know. Anyway, I know he wants me out, so this is anxiety-making. Oh, well.

Hoping to go out tomorrow. I can sometimes, but I am very rickety and hobbling with my cane and need to hang off a carriage in the store. It is very painful, but I really like getting out. I am here inside by myself at least 90 per cent of the time, so if I can get out, I am going to. Went out to eat with a friend last week. First time without eating outside since before the pandemic started. Was kind of not happy, but she really wanted to go and I decided to be either really brave or incredibly stupid. So far I am fine, but do not want to do that too often. You cannot eat with a mask on.

Hope any readers are well and staying safe. Enjoy every day. Right now is the only time you are alive, so be in this moment.

Article about refrigerator storage has plastic containers for eggs. I see these all the time. Eggs already come in a box. Why buy a plastic box and put them in that instead? Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Right?

Doing a bit better. The horrible pain episode is over, finally, and I am getting ready to go out with my friend Tess to do some shopping. Target maybe? I like Target now that they have rearranged the aisles so it is not like entering a maze with no way out. 🙂

through my blog, one July at a time. Back in July of 2010, I wrote this:

” I sort of figured out why I don’t cook anymore. Besides the energy each individual step takes, I have to think about each individual step…focus on each step. All the things I used to just do automatically are now individual obstacles to overcome on the way to the completed dish. Getting out each pan/utensil/ingredient. Prepping each pan/ingredient. Washing each veg, peeling each veg, chopping/slicing each veg, getting out the oil, putting the oil in the pan, turning on the burner/oven, remembering to turn OFF the burner/oven. Each step takes energy, thought, focus, concentration, dealing with pain caused by standing, chopping, whatever. Having to take rest breaks in the middle of chopping or stirring or whatever. All the things we take for granted and just DO when we are healthy become monumental hurdles to overcome. Even making toast requires remembering to take the toast out of the toaster when it is ready and not just sitting down at the computer and finding cold toast or tea or whatever next time you go into the kitchen for a drink of water. I eat a lot of yogurt and cereal and frozen dinners.”

Now I can add massive amounts of pain to the why I don’t. This is not me, by the way. LOL

They used to bring orders to my door. Then they would text me when an order was delivered, then they would email me when an order was delivered. But those last two were delivered to the lobby, not to me, and many in my building had orders stolen. They didn’t even bother to buzz and put the order inside the security door. Nope. Dumped in the outer lobby open to the street with no immediate notice. Then they stopped even emailing me, but that has started up again.

The other thing. Why oh why did they stop making kindle keyboards? My oldest one died, and the other one is about to, so I bought an Oasis because it has side buttons. Upside down from how they should be, but still. You still have to use the touchscreen, but not to turn each page. BUT, and this is the kicker, it shows every single item in your archive. Every single item. The keyboard has an archive, but you have to select it on purpose. Otherwise, it just shows what you have put on it to read right now. So how do you find what you are trying to read in an archive of thousands. Well, go to ‘manage your content and devices’ on the laptop, and select ‘documents’ and you can delete them. 25 at a time, with four clicks needed for every page of 25. There is no bulk delete. I am deleting several pages every time I get on the laptop, but I still have thousands to go. Definitely unchecking that ‘add to archive’ button from here on out. Just never really thought about it before, because it was not a problem.

I hate touch screens. And I just don’t understand how making things more difficult and inconvenient for users is ‘new and improving’. Delivery used to be great, kindle used to be fantastic, but noooo, let’s make it better. Better for who, I ask you? Not for the user. If I could dump Amazon, I would in a second, but I really cannot shop for myself and even then, you can no longer even find a lot of things locally. They are buying up everything, too, and how is that going to work when there is no competition? They will be able to charge anything they like and we will have no recourse. Humans are seriously not the sharpest tacks in the box. /end rant.

From The Guardian:

“The summer’s heatwaves have been so blistering they have inspired their own names. In Europe, they have been called nightmarish figures from Greek mythology, but one meteorologist in the US has taken a more pointed approach – by naming the country’s heatwaves after the oil and gas companies that have worsened the climate crisis. The heatwave that has baked much of the US south-west in recent weeks, helping bring a record-breaking string of days over (43C) 110F to Phoenix, has been named Heatwave Chevron by Guy Walton, a veteran former Weather Channel meteorologist. The rebadging of heatwaves as being directly the fault of companies like Chevron is “a naming and shaming thing”, according to Walton, who wants weather forecasters and the media to be more explicit between the links between extreme heat and the burning of fossil fuels that has caused the climate crisis.”

And it’s damn scary.

WordPress is not working on Firefox. Firefox is not working at all well on Firefox, so I am using Vivaldi. They have messed with Tumblr and ruined it. Why? New and improved never is.

I had a great day, though. Went out with a friend to do some shopping, and got a butt load of those tiny little cat food thingies, like appetizer size or whatever, Catnip, surge protector, Cheetos Crunchy, which I ate already, but it was not the big bad. I love, love, love those things. Toothpaste. Tom’s of Maine without flouride, the only one I buy. Our water has flouride added, no need to use more. Flouride that is not naturally present in water is really not good for you, but my town voted to add it to the water supply, so there you are. A few other things, too. The local grocery store only had a very limited amount of the cat food things, which is why I stocked up at Walmart. Get them while you can is my motto. Mostly because I rarely get to shop myself, so get it when I do see it, whatever it is, but also because things are getting harder and harder to find. My friend and I played Big Kahuna on the laptop before she had to go home and cook dinner. Fun day. Loads of pain, but fun.

How I feel a lot of the time.

“The bright day is done, and we are for the dark.” Wm. Shakespeare

First, choice. Saw a cartoon where a woman is deciding between a man who attempted a coup and wants to be dictator, and an 80-year-old man. Personally, I completely agree that 80 is too old. We need young people who grew up in the ‘modern’ world, but I would still choose the 80 year old, because he is at least trying to do good for the country, and make life better for the citizens, unlike the buffoon of the other party, who just wants power and control over our daily lives.

Second, what is up with Firefox? Some pages don’t load at all, I keep keep ‘non-responsive’. This is just the past few days. Is it the heat? Has the fox gotten heat stroke or something? Come on, Firefox. Get with it.

A couple more that I have been thinking about for a bit. Well, my brain is drain and I have totally forgotten one of them, but the other is I watched a couple of movies about the Windermere Children, 300 children brought to England when the camps were closed in the Holocaust. They were brought to a facility by Lake Windermere and lived there for four months while they were eased into life without Nazis. It was very uplifting, but also very horrific when it was mentioned how they could see the chimneys glowing and see the smoke 24 hours a day while people, including thousands of children, were cremated. The horrific treatment, the starvation, the hell some of them spent their entire lives in up to that point. Almost all of them had lost their entire families to the Nazis. Here is an article about it:

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/jan/05/windermere-children-arek-hersh-survivor-bbc-drama

I see pictures of people proudly wearing Nazi-themed clothing, giving the Hitler salute, pouring out hate and vitriol, and all I can think is, what if it were your children? Is it okay so long as it’s children of people you hate? What kind of human being are you? It is completely disgusting, appalling, horrific to think that it happened in the first place, but more so that there are people who are happy about it and want more.

Okay, remembered the second one. Prince Charles at 70. Five years ago. Harry had recently gotten married. He and William were interviewed for this and the difference between that Harry and the one we are seeing now is remarkable. I am wondering has he been brainwashed? Something has gone seriously wrong in those five years. It is kind of disturbing. And sad. Not sure whether to think he is an utter moron, or feel really, really sad for him.

I, my own little (HA!) self, have been struggling even more than usual. So much pain. The other day I could barely move. Awake all night most nights, and then sleeping in bits and pieces all morning. One day I slept for 15 minutes. Fifteen Minutes. Come on, body, what is going on here. My brain is not working at all well, I have gone pretty deaf in the only ear that really worked, my eyesight keeps getting worse. And we have murdered the planet with our gross greed and stupidity. Parasites, willfully destroying the host we need to stay alive.

On the other hand, loving my new toaster oven/air fryer, got a new battery for my kindle keyboard. I replaced it a few years ago. Both keyboards, in fact. My oldest one has bit the dust. The battery does not seem dead, but the screen is just frozen in a very wonky manner. The newer (refurbished) one is just getting so slow, and I may try the battery in the old one, but definitely the newer one. I also bought an Oasis during the Amazon “OMG, we are having a sale. You know, when we raise prices then mark them down to still higher than they were and call it a bargain’. Because it has side buttons. It is still crap, and if you have ever seen or used a kindle keyboard, you will know exactly why I say that.

Anyway, me and Gertrude are plugging along, gone out a few times with my friend to do a bit of shopping (hanging off a carriage so I don’t fall down in pain). I’d say, in spite of all of it, things are going pretty well. I have really good friends, and something to laugh about on a daily basis. And Gertrude, who cracks me up on a daily basis. She is without a doubt, the stupidest cat that ever lived. Highly amusing. LOL It’s all good. Relatively speaking. LOLOL

I say yep. Article about a machine asking for tips. A machine. Not first time I’ve seen this, though. https://www.boredpanda.com/self-checkout-machines-ask-for-tip/

I think they should add an option that says NOT HARDLY!.

https://www.boredpanda.com/self-checkout-machines-ask-for-tip/

So yesterday, I was watching this song on You Tube. Seo Linn – Óró Sé do Bheatha Bhaile

One of my favorite songs. Anyway, thought I might comment, since I have Irish Ancestry. Instead I suddenly had the idea to DuckDuckGo my grandfather. Did his info pop right up, complete with picture? Yes. I was stunned and teared up. My DD called me later to tell me she had just discovered that my brother had died in 2020, in the Phillippines where he has lived since retiring from the Air Force way back when. There’s a place called FindAGrave.com and apparently you can add info if it’s someone you know. It was very interesting. Anyway, she is apparently into this stuff and we wound up finding info about a lot of family members. But tonight I was feeling kind of down and I realize, it was my grandfather. His picture was just right there and I miss him. He died when I was eight. Decades ago, but he was good to me and even though I rarely think of him, he was a big part of my life. He used to go on drinking binges, and would be gone for a few days or whatever. I was only four or five so time had no meaning to me, but once he told me he was going away for a bit, and I asked him to bring me back a pair of red shoes. And he did.

Here he is. Napoleon Bonaparte Gage. Who names their Irish ancestry kid after Napoleon? They called him Poley. He was a good grandfather. I am sad.

Found in my pictures folder

There’s an article from Huffpost that asks that question. Really? Do we even NEED to ask? Of course Americans are that dumb. Trump won. Vaccinations are bad. No such thing as global warming. And so much more. Is there something in the water? What? So discouraging.

It’s a good day to be online, it seems. LOL