Writing Wrongs

Watch the whole season of Reacher over the past 2 days. It is not science fiction, but is gratuitously violent. I won't be watching season 2 if there is one. The Equalizer is similar but they leave out the gore. And the acting is better.

Part of my recovery is I brought the garbage bins in from the curb after the garbage was collected. And I hauled the electronic litterbox from Jade's former room to the shed.

Wine glasses were delivered. I tried the red wine with the cat on the label first. Paso Robles winery. The name of the wine is not clear, b ut the label says it is in the Spanish tradition. It tasted like sandpaper. Switched to a Zinfandel, which was better.

American Idol found some talent, and sent home one girl for over-twang.

WebHostingPad fixed my email delivery issues. Their default settings were too low. The for-pay spam analysis is mostly working, it still lets through some sex sites. But dozens are filtered out.

Talked to middle sister for 90 minutes.

Tomorrow:
Continue clearing out Jade's room. Vacuum it.
Re-program the fancy new scanner. Pare the list down to local EMT and fire.
Lots of stuff on Tivo

I posted some videos. Brian from The Animal Foundation, which is the group Jade was adopted from, came this afternoon with a large carrier and gently petted her on her top of the tree perch (I can't reach that high) and after quite a while I handed him a towel an he draped it over her, picked her up and lowered her into the carrier. She hung onto the towel a little, but soon she was zipped in and ready to go.

I will miss sitting with her and Jade's face rubbing against the back of my hand. But that's all. She would not let me pick her up, let alone be a lap cat. She growled at Spook when Spook tried to be friends. But worst of all she cried and sometimes screamed at all hours. The vet said she probably had super-sensitive skin on her back - no other medical ills. 

In a day or six I'll move the litterbox, water fountain and food tower to the shed and plug the piano back in. I think I will leave the cat tree, in case Spook wants to play on it. The room needs a good vacuuming.

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Posted the beige recliner on the neighborhood swap meet FB page. Free to anyone who wants it.

I have been enjoying the motorized recliner. Spook is getting used t it.

Picked up the mail, 4 Amazon items crammed in there. Two USB A-to-A cables which I thought were the right ones to connect the new scanner to the PC. There's a USB A connection in the back. But no, it wanted the old trapezoidal connector plugged into the front. The seller lied about the memory card - it did not have the software on it. But I was able to download it from Uniden's site, and set up a local favorites list. Which I need to edit, because it keeps getting stuck on a Mexican pirate radio station broadcasting over-modulated in the police frequencies. Maybe I'll set up the laptop in the bedroom so I don't have to haul the scanner across the house.

Watched TMZ. Once in a while they show something worth watching.

90 Day teaser had a theme: Why is the old guy dating the young woman?

Graham Norton had Ru Paul and Benedict Cumberbatch on. And two women not as well known. The Big Red Chair had one WIN and one FAIL. But they both got dumped.

Way too much repetition on MSNBC and CNN. And too many clips of Putin and Trump. Please keep those murderers off my TV screen.

Dr. Pol was one rerun and one new episode. Dr. Oakley, Alaska vet spent too much time on musk oxen.

Breakfast was a banana and an avocado, then two waffles.
Lunch was shrimp and sttrawberries
Lime jello snack
Stouffer's tuna noodles, followed by berries

Rotating between cranberry juice and coconut water. Cranberry-Grape is not too bad.

It did not rain as predicted, but the wind was 30 MPH with stronger gusts

Tomorrow:
Sleep in
Think about moving assorted cat things to the shed
Before it gets dark, move the recliner boxes to the curb, and the old recliner too if it has not been claimed






 

Waffles and sugar free syrup for breakfast. First time I've used the toaster oven since I got sick. Also sliced up an avocado.

Morning project, it was a little chilly and windy but I got it done. Took the back door camera off the wall because it was not staying connected to the solar panel. Got the carport cam out of the shed and mounted it to the back door cam holder and then the wall, plugged in the solar panel and it worked. Put the back door camera in the shed to monitor the carport. Had to use the app to swap their names.

Nurse visited at 1 pm, she was actually 15 minutes early! She was prepared to change my catheter, but since my urology appointment is coming up soon we decided to leave it. The less it is fiddled with the less chance of infection. She did fix the connection to the tube, which is good because it was leaking. She said I am doing so well that nurse #2 will visit me next week, and then they are kicking me to the curb.

Delivered:
From Home Depot, the replacement kitchen sink faucet
From Naked Wines: a 6-pack of reds. I don't generally drink wine, and when I do it's rose or white. But apparently reds are good for my current condition.
From Albertson's: more berries, bananas, lots of cranberry juice and coconut water. And another bag of small avocados.

Got tired of seeing Putin and Trump on TV, sat on the porch for a while.

Lunch was a bunch of small California rolls which came with the sashimi. Stouffer's turkey tetrazini for dinner. And strawberries.

Ran out of tuners on Tivo so switched to the TV, which has a YouTube button and a Prime Video button. Watched some live feeds on YT then on Prime the first episode of Reacher. His deduction skills make Sherlock Holmes look like a piker. The fight choreography is brutal. I like the hot policewoman. The actor playing the chief detective is excellent, I hate his character already.

Did two loads of laundry: shirts and jeans shorts. Setup the ironing board and ended up ironing all my Hawaiian shirts, because last time I wasn't up to standing at an ironing board and just hung them all up straight from the dryer.

Miracle email from the woman who had fostered Jade, she will come collect Jade tomorrow.

Tomorrow:
More waffles/avocados?
Shrimp
Re-home Jade
Sit on the porch and watch the rain

The things you learn playing Tivo recordings of early morning Las Vegas newscasts. There is a church which offers drive-through ashings. The minister will give a short talk on the significance of the day, and draw a cross in ashes on your forehead.

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Earbuds from Amazon arrived yesterday but the ones from Best Buy today are better. But neither set stays in my ear no matter the tips I use. The headphones are more comfortable.

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Called the plumber, the nice lady said they can do the work, but I need to buy the parts and call for an estimate after I get them. I'd already identified a garbage disposal on Home Depot, but was overwhelmed by the variety and range of prices of kitchen faucets. Ordered a Delta.

Got a return call from State Farm, turns out they can't quote a price less than a month in advance. But they said they can bundle my homeowner's and auto. They will call me around the last week of April.

Took the CO2 cartridges, a survey from the health care people and a calendar for a FB friend who should have been on my list but wasn't, drove to the PO and mailed them. Thought about getting a car wash but traffic was backed up in that direction. Forgot to stop at CVS for Ghirardelli dark chocolate mint squares (my bedtime treat) so I ordered some on DoorDash, but from Walgreen's since CVS was out of stock.

Shrimp with cocktail sauce, followed by herring in sour cream, then half a pound of strawberries for lunch. Nibbled on Pringles with French onion dip.

The new recliner is wonderful. It has several positions which are good for watching TV with my legs way up, and with them just normally on the leg rest, or feet on the ground for eating off the TV tray, and it will actually tilt forward and tilt the backrest forward to push me out in a standing position. Spook would like to use it as a scratching post, but also has figured put how to climb onto my lap and across to the side table. She also parks herself on the floor to the right of the recliner.

Got tired of looking at the very dirty livingroom rug, and took out the vacuum cleaner. After a minute it sounded like it had burst a vessel, so I opened up the cannister, and spent most of an hour prying dirt clumps out of parts of the input area which have been clogged and compacted. Once that was done it was able to clean the rug. I'll have to remember to empty the cannister regularly. That was a lot of exercise.

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Watching MSNBC, the 11th Hour (formerly Brian Wilson's show) they interviewed Garry Kasperov who is now the chairman of the Human Rights Foundation. No mention was made that he is a chess grand master, world champion from 1985–2000. Wilson probably would have mentioned it, but his newbie replacement may not even know who he was. That was 22 years ago, when he was a bona fide Russian Oligarch.

On CNN Anderson Cooper is in Ukraine. It's been a while but what got him his job was his war zone reporting. Blitzer, OTOH, was a hostage of Saddam for a while - he's staying stateside.

Finished the sashimi for dinner, and the rest of the pound of strawberries.

Delivered: some plants for the aquarium. Unfortunately, except for the Java moss,  they are all rooted, so I went back online and ordered some floating plants. The moss floats on the bottom of the tank.

Tomorrow:
10:30 tele-meeting with the nephrologist from Henderson Hospital. They said they would email me a link shortly before.

High frequency scanner due to be delivered. 

And maybe size 11-12 slippers to replace the size 13s which are too big now that the edema is reduced.

PT Terri and I went for a walk, no walker, no cane. She is now down to one visit a week.

Booked a pair of college hunks to move the recliners, and it sounds like them may put together the new one as well.

Nurse called wanting to come the same time as the hunks, but had to delay her appointment till Friday. :-(

Nephrology called, they wanted to know if I'd had blood work done (I had) and confirmed my tele-appointment for Thursday. They'll email me a link that morning.

Ate the last of the Mom's meals. I'm back to cooking and also Lean Cuisine. I have an Albertson's deliver scheduled for tomorrow, I wanted to add some items, but it was too late so now I have 2 deliveries tomorrow.

Drove to the mailbox for the first time in forever because Amazon used USPS to deliver a pair of NB sandals. Should have used their own van and left it on my porch.

Tried to transfer my LJ content to Dreamwidth but it failed 3 times. Maybe there's something on YouTube about that.

Snagged this from Twitter:


Tomorrow:
March Fool's Day and Mardi Gras
noon-ish, college hunks to move my recliners
Update my FB banner

I thought it would take an hour to get there, the office is quite a ways past the Strip and then north several main streets. 11:30 appointment, I left home at 10, arrived at 10:30. Waited 15 minutes in the parking lot but then went inside to use the restroom.

Handed in the paperwork, and waited till noon to be called. 12:45 still sitting in the exam room, nobody around outside.

Nurse came in at about 1:30. Doctor was not far behind. They traded off asking me questions I had already answered on the form. Doc finally got into urology questions. He found my description of the two previous urologists disconcerting, and his plan is to re-do the camera-in-the-bladder exam which was botched by the first urologist, and then do another exam which neither of them had done but should have. And the next step depends on the results of the first two.

Found a more direct route home, got here at 3:10 pm.

Lunch was a Mom's meal beef patty & carrots. Berries for dessert. My blood work showed low HDL, so some of the time waiting for the doctor was spent researching that, and adding avocados, edamame and lima beans to my next groc order. Also ordered Samsung earbuds from BestBuy and tried to find a food cart (the seat/tray on the walker is small and low). But now that I can walk again, I may not really need that.

Neighbor brought the mail, and gave me back the key because if I can drive I can get the mail (my idea). In the mail was a programmable scanner, and the latest EKG device. It says I have "Sinus rhythm with wide QRS" which is something similar to atrial fibrillation but more benign, and common among those of us with CHF. I was diagnosed with this in my teens, but then they called it sinus arrhythmia. It is sometimes mistaken for a heart murmur.

The scanner was able to pull in a few local stations, I plugged in the local fire and rescue dispatch frequencies, and will play with it tonight. Broadcastify.com, which I have been using, had not been able to maintain their scanner for those lately.

Dinner started with sheep milk cheese and crackers, then shifted to the last of the cocktail shrimp. Berries for dessert.

Jade was crying loudly, a fresh bowl of canned food calmed her down, but it wont last. Yup there she goes again.

Graham Norton again had a group of guests I have no interest in.

90 Day had two couples get back together who should have failed. And one guy who was being catfished was provided with an actress who pretended to be his One True Love. Twitter followers posted proof she is a California gal, model and actress. People who speak Spanish testified that her accent is not Peruvian. And her English is way too good. But he hasn't seen through her, or else he's an actor too.
 
Tomorrow:
Maybe drive to the PO and drop off the CO2 cartridges for refill
Start making lime soda again. I have limes
Finish the last 2 Mom's Meals
Strawberries for dessert, half a pound at a time
Watch more CNN and MSNBC.

Stan with Ukraine

The New Balance size 13 sandals were just a bit too wide, not quite safe for driving. But the Tevas arrived today and they fit well, and I was able to get in and out of the car with only minimal trouble. So I took the too-small Dockers sandals to the UPS store and returned them. It's an easy drive, about a mile and a half, and the only hard part was the [expletive deleted] woman in the mega urban assault vehicle who parked on my driver's side just as I was about to open my door. There was another space she could have used. :-(

But I was able to open my door wide enough to get out, and the Tevas didn't snag.

Then back home.

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I was hoping the phlebotomist would show up, so I fasted, and was headache-hungry by the time it was half an hour past her appointment time. By then Quest had sent my urinalysis results from the PCP blood draw so I figured my PCP canceled the appointment. He does things like that without telling me. He also sent a prescription to Walgreen's knowing I had no way to pick it up. I was able to ask for delivery online, but it's delayed till tomorrow. Meanwhile I cut the pills I had in quarters, and took one quarter (20 mg) before bed last night and it filled my catheter bag. Which was the desired result. My legs are a little less sausage-like today.

No breakfast (fasting) lunch was a Mom's meal of Salisbury steak on potato bits and marinara sauce, with some kind of mixed veggies on the side. Another MM for dinner, turkey meatballs in gravy with veggies on the side. And berries for lunch dessert. And strawberries after dinner.

Watched Married At First Sight, one couple is already divorced after 2 weeks, another is on the rocks. In both cases the matchmakers ignored common sense and went with their gut feelings. In the divorced couple's case they chose a man who met none of the woman's requests as far as looks go. One reason they ignored them is she had her heart set on what her psychic told her she was getting. In the second case they pitted two HUGE personalities against each other, a bull of a man and an unrelenting woman set on training him. It doesn't help that he's a slob and she's an OCD neat freak.

Two couples look like they may make it in the long run, though one of them has short term issues. The final couple is working on communicating, but the husband has done some major things to help, such as get a haircut - he gave up his mohawk.

PTI is less interesting for me as we get into golf, basketball and the politics of baseball.

Nova did some false advertising, making it sound like they were doing a show on bionic augmentations in general, but it was actually all about a couple of phenom rock climbers who lost fingers and legs as teens by being stupid, and how one of them learned how to make specialized prosthetics for himself so he could get back to rock climbing. If he had not had a personality-ectomy I might have watched the whole show.

North Woods Law is also false advertising. It should be called New Hampshire Game Wardens. They *are* law enforcement officers, and a lot of their work is giving tickets to ATV drivers who don't have their registration stickers in the right place. But most of the laws they enforce are hunting and fishing.

And of course CNN and MSNBC have only one story to report on, and all of their information is hearsay. :-(

Got a call from urology reminding me my appointment is this Saturday. WTF? I had it on my calendar 2 weeks later. But I can drive to it! Yay.

Tomorrow:
Maybe I'll start on the great recliner project. I also may take a drive to the PO and mail the CO2 cartridges.
Albertson's delivery & hopefully Walgreen's too
 

After half an hour of waiting for the phlebotomist to arrive I called the service and the nice lady said she only received the order yesterday and it takes 3 days just to get insurance approval. Except the reservation was made more than a week ago and was already approved. I could not alter her altered view of reality. I was counting on those results to give to my PCP at my appointment tomorrow morning, which was mostly about those readings.

On the bright side, the clinic will send a van for me tomorrow at 10:24 for my 11 am appointment.

New blood draw appointment set for Thursday.

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The Bachelor sent home two "actresses", but he also sent home my favorite (the one with the nicest thighs) and kept the most boring one. Home visits are next week. Three blondes and one light skinned person possibly of color from Oklahoma. Boring.

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Veggie scramble meal for breakfast, too mad at the medical foo for lunch, toasted ravioli (baked at 450°) for dinner. It was a party size appetizer bag, about 1/3 went into the fridge. And 1/3 of a pound of strawberries.

Alberson's delivered a bunch of stuff, including two kinds of coconut water. The little paper bottles of organic tasted off. Poured one out will sip the rest later. The big bottles of a name brand tasted fine. Am rotating those with cranberry juice. Channel surfed and found the right one for Nova and Henry Gates and they also have Nevada Week which I liked a lot, the host, Amber Renee Dixon, is stunning and articulate.



Walmart was supposed to deliver a small order this afternoon. but it never arrived. The photo of the delivery location was a parking area somewhere far from my house, it did not show an address or the package. Pretty sure the driver stole it. I called support and they gave a refund and a $20 credit.

So I ordered about twice as much for 8 pm delivery. Got a tracking number and a text that Luis was on his way. And at about 8:30 email that they could not deliver, and canceled the order. WTF? Support page is down. I expect a refund tomorrow. Taking that Walmart off my list.

This afternoon I got into the car, moved it even further from the wall, still had to remove one slipper to get out. I think I'll be able to drive by Thursday, which is when I need to drop off a return to UPS.

Tomorrow:
Van to PCP
Get a furosemide prescription from the DO
Van home

The on-call nurse yesterday broke the sad news to me that what I thought was a healthy drink Gatorade Zero, was a major source of sodium, and I needed to find a new home for the three sets of a dozen bottles I'd recently purchased. Luckily a post on the neighborhood garage sale FB site got an immediate response and a neighbor came by to haul them away. I forgot to ask if she wanted the Coca Cola too.

So my order for Albertson's includes some coconut water which I hope is in stock, and more diet cranberry juice than usual. The only other low sodium drinks I see are veggie drinks like V8 which I detest, and flavored water which I can make at home.

When she called and said she would be in my area 2-4 pm, I told my nurse I had a Skype call at 4, so please be early. She didn't show up until 3:30, and she got involved in being on hold for my doctor, who went into a panic from her inaccurate description of my edema. He wanted me to right away go to urgent care for an ultrasound. No way. First of all, no transportation and second of all there's a 3-hour wait at urgent care. He wants me to come to his office Wednesday. I'm being visited tomorrow by a phlebotomist who is doing a blood draw for my nephrologist which should show how not-panic-mode my kidneys are in.

And nurse ignored my please to go away and let me get on my Skype call, so instead of the usual 90 minutes I only got to chat with a friend for half an hour.

The call from the PCP office to confirm the appointment and book transportation came during my Skype call so I sent it to voicemail. I will call them tomorrow.

But the BASFA zoom at 8 helped my mental health.

Breakfast was a banana. Lunch was some sheep milk cheese on nasty tasting crackers. Dinner was a mom's meal of boneless pork ribs & corn followed by berries.

There was supposed to be coconut water coming from Walmart but they decided to ship it instead of delivery it from the store. No idea when that will get here.

90 Day was disappointing. My favorite couple is breaking up and the worst couple is staying together. At least the Muslim man put the brakes on marrying his sex obsessed woman.

Tomorrow:

Call PCP office
Bleed into a vial
Try driving the car

It's been a 4 Tylenol day about to be 6. Stress is some of it.

Changed Spook's litterbox cartridge, and took both and a bag of trash out to the trash bin. Much heavy lifting aided by the walker platform/seat. Still a struggle getting up the steps. Back door cam was not registering the solar panel, it took a couple of battery removals and repositionings to fix that. If they were not  os expensive I'd buy another cam to replace it. Also it's mounted on the wall so a PIA to replace.

Breakfast was a banana

Had lunch out on the porch


With a visitor


When I was done and got up to chat with neighbors. my pants were soaked. The catheter estension tube had pulled loose.

I changed pants but it did it again, so I called for a nurse visit. It took a few phone calls to find the on-call nurse and establish that the backup LPN was away. Sherry did finally arrive in plenty of time (it just needed to be fixed before bedtime). 4:10  pm. She gave me a smaller bag and a leg strap which holds the tubes in place with a clever catch. She also helped me get my legs up at heart level in the recliner, something I cannot do on my own yet.

Put pants on, opened the Mom's Meals package, 14 meals, mostly lunch/dinner and a bunch of small oranges, bread-like objects including one English muffin, too much apple sauce and a fruit cup. I had to take one of the Murray's chocolate strudels out of the fridge to make room for the meals, so a slice of that was dessert after sweet & sour chicken.

Still need to decide what to do with the bread & oranges.

Found a lift recliner for a reasonable price, which also looks easy to put together, and bought it. Will make the LazyBoy the aquarium chair and put the not completely functioning aquarium chair out for bulk garbage maybe in 2 weeks.

Watched a lot of Texas game warden TV. Puzzled, none of them have Nintendo or PS5 or even a virtual reality headset.

I am angered at how many images of #45 are being broadcast on CNN, MSNBC  - this is what got him elected in the first place. P.T. Barnum: “There's no such thing as bad publicity,” “I don't care what the newspapers say about me as long as they spell my name right.”

Tomorrow:
Late - haul the two cold pack boxes down to the curb. May have to push them with the walker. Or may not.
Relax
Watch the Olympics closing ceremonies. It will be good to see that travesty end.
Watch Graham Norton with my feet up