Writing Wrongs

Woke up with the alarm telling myself I really need to keep doing that for my mental health. But truth is, I was fine with 5 hours' sleep last night, was really up an hour before the alarm too. All it did was make the day longer.

Banana & HB egg breakfast, there was some snacking throughout the day. Some lamyay -I took the bunches out of their wet plastic wrapping and the loose ones went into a freezer ziplock bag and the bunches into the veggie drawer in the fridge.

Next door neighbor lady (#6) is OCD crazy. Polishing the white trim on the house, and on her knees with rubber gloves on picking individual leaves off the concrete and putting them in a bucket. The wind is 30mph, it's about to rain, and there will be more leaves to take their place and more dust to smudge the paint job.

After a couple of recruiter texts, phone calls and email messages, took the laptop to Peet's, watched streams on Twitch. There was a very attractive Asian woman  sitting all the way across the room, looked like she was posing. Nice thighs. Expensive boots. After an hour or so she walked past me a few times, finally settling on a seat facing my back at the other end of the place.

Home, no mail. Watched more streams, and baited some friends on FB about the Cohen testimony. One fanatic can't grasp the difference between not believing his testimony and being an ardent Trump supporter. She demonizes her political enemies, clumps them together.

Doorbell rang on the carport, special delivery mail - the $100 gift card from Lowe's. Registered it online, will use it sometime soon.

Ran a game of marbles on stream, had a lot of players for a while, but they bailed pretty quickly.

6 pm drove to the community center, played a lot of bingo. won once, but had to share the prize, so $5 instead of $10. But I won a door prize that I didn't really want - an orchid. Not one of the species I collect, but at least it's purple. Probably a $30 value.

Shoes which were supposed to be delivered today were delayed till tomorrow. Boo hiss.

Got a call from EDD asking why I missed the appointment. Told him I tried to call, but they were closed, and email didn't work either. He offered a make-up appointment tomorrow but I have a doctor's appointment. He said I'd get something in the mail next week asking me to explain. Fine. He really wasn't interested in listening. Sounded like a man who doesn't like his job and had a rough day.

Dinner was baked beans with added turkey dog slices and for dessert the penultimate slice of banana cream pie.

Watched Oak Island, once again they are clutching at straws. And now it looks like they have dug so many cores the ground is caving in under the drill. PTI as usual.

Plans for tomorrow:
Maybe Peet's again.
Cardiologist at 4:45
Try the Blink charger at SC Convention center or the Chargepoint one at Fry's.

Should have been a relaxing day, but once again was up reading till 3 am, Relic by Alan Dean Foster. Usually his writing style pulls me in, but not this time - he is inventing words without always defining them first, and we are discovering what the various space beings look like only a little at a time. The story is the last human has been rescued and rejuvenated somewhat - enough to not fall down dead - by one of three or more races, who all seem to get along well enough. And they want to clone him. But he's not happy about it.

Got up around 11, I think. Hgl was in a good low range, but all day I've had headaches and a high pulse rate and usually a high systolic but low diastolic.

No breakfast. Went to Fry's ISO a cable modem (they mostly had outdated ones and Moto/Arris ones). Also checked out an LG 43" TV which is on sale, very nice picture, true 4K HDR which is rare for a 43" TV. But too close to $300. The story is I have a 55" Samsung in the bedroom which is far too big, it had been in the livingroom, and was replaced by a Samsung 55" with HDR. Since it is so big I rarely use it.

BofA, deposited the $14 check from the Google privacy settlement. Went home instead of to Pete's or the park because my bladder told me to. Expected to do that after, but didn't. Spot escaped, I chased him through the neighbor's back yard and onto the empty lot next to that, where he surrendered. I carried him back home.

That seriously wore me out. I vegged on the porch in the rocker, watched some hummingbirds. Napped too. Spot kept yelling at me through the door.

Delivered was litterbox cartridges and a battery operated cat toy ball with a laser dot. Lots of batteries included, tiny ones. Turn it on and it spins in a wobbly manner. But on the carpet and rug it mostly spun in place, or kept banging against furniture. Spook was interested but Spot beat her to it. Long story short, it's lost, batteries ran out and I can't find it.

Lunch was chopped liver and onions on rye - to make the chopped liver less grainy I mixed in some melted butter. That worked. Similar to adding peanut oil to dried out PNB. Mango for dessert.

Took the shirts out of the dryer, still need to hang them up.

Broke down a big pile of boxes and made a bundle to recycle. While I went outside to the garbage bins, Spot escaped again. He headed for #6, and both neighbors were out front gardening. Man says his wife says Spot ate her plants, but I don't think so - Spot hasn't been outside in a week.

Spot came back after about an hour, but when I opened the screen door he bolted again. He came back a couple of hours later. Meanwhile. Spook was out and about. I need to think seriously about finding a new home for Spot. Spook needs to have her house back. There has been progress, but not enough.

Watched two episodes of Jackson Galaxy. I've done everything he would have suggested except get a cat wheel. I should look into that. Spot needs more exercise which I don't have time to give him.

FFed through another episode of the 49ers giving away a game, and Baltimore avoiding doing so. May watch the Raiders tomorrow.
Edit add:
I was so tired I turned off the PC and made mac & cheese & turkey hot dog slices for dinner. Mochi for dessert. Got to bed around 9:30.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
Home

Forced myself to get out of bed by 10, got dressed (socks included) and proceeded to haul the huge pan out of the cabinet, pull a bar stool up to the kitchen island, and use my kitchen scissors to cut up about 3 lbs of chicken skin into pieces varying between a 1 and 3 inches. Widths also varied, as this is not an engineering project.

Threw them into the heated, peanut oiled pan, and stirred for about half an hour. Added the three sliced onions and cooked for another hour. The onions rendered down to barely cover the bottom of the pan, but the skins refused to pop until I drained out most of the carbonized onions. The mix is okay, but not like grandma used to make. Instead of a space-eating storage bin I put them in a freezer bag and shoved it into the fridge. Made a filter out of a paper towel and funnel and poured chicken fat into a small preserves jar. That's also in the fridge.

That was exhausting, so I went out onto the porch to sit in the rocker and watch hummingbirds battle around the feeders. Spot could be heard through the closed door, yelling for me. All three screen doors now have separated from the bottom. Not Spot-resistant.

Had several dizzy spells when standing up. They passed in several seconds, but lasted longer than usual. BP was erratic as was pulse rate.

Lunch was a corn dog.

Hgl was low so I had a Klondike bar.

23&me sent a note that 80+ people related to me are in my database, so I took a look. Only one was legit - a cousin who lives in Salinas. His mother used to date my dad - kissing cousins, they shared a grandmother. One other person who only used initials and won't share data had almost the same 4% match. Also a shared great-grandparent, but not the same one. My mother's parents each had more than a dozen siblings, and my dad's father had several as well. And dad's father's first wife died, second wife was her cousin. So there may be hundreds of 4th cousins out there. But none of my 1st cousins have taken the test. One is dead, another was adopted. He's dead too. That only leaves two on Mom's side and two on Dad's side. All of my aunts and uncles are gone. There were only 6.

It's complicated to map out, partly because I don't know much about Dad's aunts & uncles. That's middle sister's job. By accident my older sister, when she moved to Israel, discovered my father's mother's half-sister and some of her relatives. That's a story for another time.

3-ish, drove to MV Costco and collected the poster board prints. Started shopping, but prices were not that great ($110 for a 6 oz Instant Pot which costs $80 on Amazon), and the crowds were out of control. And I was going to Safeway soon. Forgot to bring the empty soda stream cannister to take next door to BB&B for an exchange.

4-ish to Starbucks up the road a piece. Checked out the new Asian fusion place which replaced the Thai bistro. But it was empty & about to close. Almost got my nails done next door but they were booked. Starbucks was sporting the planet's slowest barista, it took 20 minutes to get my drink. I reserved a table outside, but the wind was too fierce so I went around front and made a space for a table out of the wind.

Janice showed up 15 minutes early. Before she broke her arm she was always late. Now that she has to slow down, she's early.

After our chat I went next door to Safeway and bought all the things. $127. None of the fruit was ripe except for limes & grapes, so now I have bananas, nectarines, peaches, mangoes & strawberries which need to ripen. Back when I was a kid, the challenge was to time it so you only bought as much fruit as the family could eat in a couple-three days, because it came to the store ripe, and seasons were short. Bananas were the only items imported from SA. The only reason I know this is one of Mom's cousins was a big wheel at a United Fruit plantation down there.

Now we get hard-as-baseballs fruit delivered almost non-stop year-round, and have to let it sit on a counter to ripen. Then rush it into the fridge to not ripen any further. Still a timing challenge, but a different one.

Bought enough frozen lunches for 2 weeks. Maybe more.

Three steaks on hand, one in the fridge and two in the freezer, so I bought two bottles of cheap Aussie wine to marinate them. Don't want to waste the port or starboard sherry on that. Also bought some cream style horseradish and generic A-1. Generic moosetrack ice cream was a 2-fer so I bought 2. And a huge package of frozen mixed veggies was on sale too.

This Safeway has no bakery, and its baked goods section is small and lame. So no black forest cake.

Home, mostly took back roads to 237. Lots more traffic than usual for a Sunday evening.

Put stuff away, most of the way through, #6 neighbors asked me to help connect their new garden hose, which was leaking profusely at the faucet when they turned off the water. The connector had a piece with air holes, probably to aid water flow out the hose. Once we removed that everything worked as expected. She has planted a beautiful set of gardens all around the house, very orderly and carefully planned. Makes mine look slipshod. Which it mostly is.

I watered the plants on the porch and some of the front and back garden. Cool and cloudy today, so not much needed.

Took out the garbages.

Dinner was macaroni & turkey frank slices with some fresh basil leaves, topped with Swiss & American cheese. Mint moosetrack ice cream for dessert.

No Tivo, so watched live 90-day fiancé. Fat young blonde American girl with a 4-year-old baby has fallen for a Moroccan gold digger who has canceled the wedding twice, and stolen $6k from her, claiming he bought a shop where they will do makeup. She doesn't wear makeup, he has no background in it either. When asked to show her the shop he pulls out his phone but the photos have mysteriously disappeared. Her mother is visiting, tries to get her to understand she is being scammed, but she decides to not take her child and go home with Mom. She stays till her visa runs out then takes the kid and goes home, leaving "fiancé" behind. She still thinks they will open a shop and get married. No way.

Wanted to watch something on the NFL network, but Comcast says I don't get that channel anymore.  I'll have to ask what's up with that, I got it all last year.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work in the morning
Lunchtime, take both BP meters and go to my pacemaker checkup.
May or may not go back to work after
Label my photos

Lazy morning, got showered and dressed around noon. Zero planz.

Lunch was defrosted chopped liver on defrosted rye bread with duck fat instead of butter. That stuff goes a long way. The chopped liver gets crumbly when frozen, but after warming up it spreads just fine and the taste is the same.

Drove out to Baylands Park with my tablet, set up the camp chair and a bottle of water, and read from one of the Hugo noms, but the wind was about 40 mph and steady, so only read one chapter before pulling up stakes and driving to the not too far Whole Foods.

They are woefully thin on ice cream choices, no butterscotch syrup, but 12 brands of caramel, all way too expensive. Meat department had no chicken skin. WF did have a great price on bananas, peaches and grapes. Their advertised 10% off for Prime members is a lie, they give 10% off only on selected sale items. In this case it only covered the strawberries. Mochi was half price for Prime members, but at $1 a unit, that's not really a sale.

Tempted to go to Lucky/Safeway but it was 80+ outside and I wanted to put the frozen stuff away.

Delivered was a huge box with my Prime Pantry items. Paper towels, napkins, TP, Qtips.

Took out the garbages, bundled a lot of cardboard. Spot walked out the open door, but came back after investigating the steps to #6.

Dinner was a pair of steamed and a pair of baked pork buns, but the baked ones didn't fare well in the microwave so I steamed a couple of matzo balls to make up for it. Hgl pre-dinner was 90. Dessert was 4 mochi - two mango, two chocolate covered mint.

Watched Graham Norton which featured most of the cast of Oceans 8, who were a hoot.

FFed through the news, still mostly about fires and weather. And too much national news.

In the background I am having Photoshop batch sign all the model photos. Need to geotag them too. And separate the nudes from the work-safes.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
Safeway (?)
Check on Janice. Have not heard from her.

Up at 8:30, but Spot decided to keep me company with his purring as I read from the tablet, so didn't get out of bed till 10. 11 on the dot the nice man came to install the new gas meter and take away the old one. While he did that I plugged in the laptop, partly to charge it up and partly to update it.

Watched some CFL football on Tivo, am impressed by two things: 1. They all tackle like they mean it (basics which the NFL rarely gets right) and 2. They pass almost every down - because the field is too long & wide and they only get 3 downs. 2-and-out.

Went to Lowe's as planned and bought one of those flex hoses. Attached it to the car wash brush and it leaked at the connector. Attached the garden spray attachment and it leaked. Used, I doubt it can be returned. May try another brand, either from OSH, Home Despot or online.

Stopped off at Grocery Outlet and bought a couple of steaks, onions, mushrooms, multi-colored sweet bell peppers and forgot the mochi. Also got tempura shrimp, peeled garlic and strawberries - and two cocoa butter based skin lotions. Trying to smooth out a couple of rough sunburn spots on my face.

Home, lunch was tempura shrimp fried in vegetable shortening from the onion fry. Not very tasty. Nuked the onions for 2 minutes, which made smoke come out of the microwave.

Set up the webcams in the office, guest room and piano room to email me when they detect motion. This includes about 10 snapshots which I set to snap every 3 seconds. One of those messages showed Spook peeing on the new futon cover, which is waterproof sort of. None of it bled through, but it spread out on the surface to make a huge stain. Online, ordered a plastic cover like the one on the sofa. Pisses me off, there's a litterbox right there in the room. I think the problem is Spot has radar, and chases Spook away when she tries to use it.

I think the pheromones are working on Spot a little. He isn't running the length of the house as much, and he does a lot more lying in front of me in the livingroom and office. And bedroom, for that matter.

Indoors, took a short nap because I was falling asleep watching football. BP was way low - 75/41 but pulse was 60. I figured maybe I should get outside and do something active.

I got the rake out of the shed and pulled out a huge amount of dead poppy plants, the last of the dead bee's friend plants, and this liberated a very long and robust lilac which had been fighting to break through. Put the rake back and got the shovel to dig out a well established grassy plant which had also been stealing sunlight and nutrients from the lilac and a rose bush. Found three more smaller ones as well.

Pulled the lawn recycles bin out to the curb and shoved it full of what I'd pulled out. Filled to the brim.

USPS email said there should be several items, including a prescription, in my mailbox, but instead were two letters for #8 next door. Opened #6's mailbox, and my stuff was there. Put #8's in their mailbox. Understandable mistake, as #5 currently is an empty lot.

Dinner was a production. Sauteed in butter & white wine garlic cloves, chopped onion, sliced in the Cuisinart mushrooms. Got out the grill pan, covered the surface with olive oil and after it heated up threw on a steak, which was actually two steaks. Ate both smothered in the sautee, on sourdough rye. The first steak was great the second was small and mostly gristle. Ice cream with cherries and sprinkles for dessert.

Plans for tomorrow:
Replacement replacement hose
Take the camera out to Ulistac Natural Area and shoot bees & butterflies & flowers and maybe play Ingress

Fired up the PC to write this, but got distracted by Facebook. I'm blaming the Barefoot wineries wine spritzer. Almost finished the second little can (will do so before I finish this, I bet).

---

Last night's apple cider did what I wanted it to. Relaxified me, let me get to sleep and stay asleep. The lights going on woke me. Spook was being spooky, meowing but I could not tell from where. Walked to the kitchen to see if she was looking out the window, and she came out from the guest room. I think she had been under the futon.

Took my time getting showered and more time getting dressed. Nothing at all on the agenda for today except minor gardening. It was going to be very hot, so a trip to Baylands park, which is always breezy and usually 10° cooler than home, was a possibility.

Checked the PC, weekend backups were done. Out of curiosity logged into Amazon, and surprise, surprise, they let me send back the Versacheck software. And they now have a drop box in my favorite Safeway, and a slot available. There are two drop boxes closer in 7-11s, but one is in a sleazy location and the other has maybe 3 parking spots.

So I boxed up the software, printed the return label, slapped it on the box and put that and my tablet in the car.

But first, while it was still relatively cool, I went to the front garden with my wide brimmed hat, clippers, and a pair of big black trash bags. The plan was to replace the ugly wooden stakes with the pretty green plastic ones holding up the Bee's Friend plants. But the plan changed when I noticed that all but one of the plants being held up were dead, gone to seed. So I started removing the ties, pulling up the plants, cutting them into smaller pieces (many branches, most of them more than 4 feet long. Main stems > 6 feet) and bagging them.

Got four of the six done, it was now getting very hot, so I took a break inside, drank some ginger ale and relaxed in the recliner. #6 still had flowers on it and wasn't quite dead yet, so I thought I'd put that one on a pretty stake at the end of round 2 this evening. Meanwhile I rewarded myself with a Coke float, double fudge ice cream.

Drove to Safeway, deposited the amazon box, and since the next part of the plan was Baylands, I bought a sandwich, chips and a diet Coke. Took the long route, which my GPS was not thrilled about. Longer in miles, but shorter in that it only used one street.

Parked in front of the restrooms, because I had this feeling...

Found a nice place in the shade overlooking the field. Planted the camp chair, put the soda bottle in the holder on the arm, took out the sandwich and smeared some of the included mustard on it, and on my hand, and on the wrapper.

Watched people on the field. There was an Asian father and young son, each with a basic boomerang. The son didn't have a clue, and dad didn't share. Dad, however, had the technique down pat. I haven't seen that much skill with a boomerang since I visited Australia.  At one end of the field were two RC planes, the other end were a couple of tiny speed racer drones. Not far from the boomerang was a kite flier.

Ate half the sandwich, and it was time to use the restroom. Glad I wasn't too far from it.

Back to the chair, ate half the chips. Read one of the Hugo nominee short stories on the tablet. After about an hour I packed up because despite the breeze it was still too hot out there. House is air conditioned.

Home, tried to watch an Amazon Prime show but it was lame. Office, PC.

One of my FB friends posted a video on how to make cuttings from my salvia/sage bush into plantable saplings. I'm hoping to replace the Bee's Friends with those, since on my carport garden they thrive in full sun, and both bees and hummingbirds love them. So I put the PC to sleep, rushed to Lowe's to buy root growth hormone (which I'd never heard of before) and potting soil for seedlings.

Got halfway down the driveway before remembering I had my slippers on. Back inside, put on my Tivas,  and out again.

Found what I wanted right away, but thought maybe I could get a couple of flower vases. I only own one. Toured the whole store, they didn't have any. Better to order those online, maybe.

Home, followed the instructions on how to take a cutting and prepare it. Got six cuttings, took them inside. Filled six peat cups with potting soil after putting them in a holder which can take 7, and soaking them a little. After filling them I watered them and poked a hole in the center of each with a pencil. Found an error in the instructions - it forgot to tell me to wash off the pencil afterward.

Dipped each cutting in water, dipped the root end in the hormone powder and planted it in the hole, pushing the soil against it.

Put the holder on the kitchen table, cleaned up the counter and took a picture.

It's going to take a while.

When it started to cool off I went outside for round 2 of the Bee's Friend project. Lots of work. There were a lot of vines behind the staked ones. And there were so few flowers left on #6 that I pulled it too. Two huge trash bags now rest behind the house, all the stakes are now behind the shed. Ended up not using any of the pretty green ones. Part of the task was pulling up some hanks of poppies which were growing past the barrier and into the street. Hosed a lot of small bits out of the culvert and into the barrier.

Took 10 minutes to recover from that, then took out the garbage and recycles. Dinner was reheated green curry beef, on reheated jasmine rice. Very yummy, even if it did give me the sniffles. Ice cream & halvah for dessert. Watched another episode on Netflix of what is turning out to be a pretty interesting sci-fi show, Dark Matter. They have a unique way of fleshing out the characters.

Sunnyvale emailed the cast list for Fiddler. I am suddenly elated I said no, their choice for Tevye was very wrong. For Lazar they picked someone who had directed the last children's production. Interesting, they did not list anyone as playing the rabbi. Not a huge issue since that's a part which traditionally is plucked from the ensemble. Which means they will get someone who can dance.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
Home