fossilfreak

 

291 recordings of 53 types (most of them individual NCIS episodes), 23% clear.

 

The 19th of July, the day after the long San Jose trip, I sat on the edge of the bed for a long time talking myself into digging. I did it, finally, though not for long.

 

Ann G., from Sharing God's Bounty, called to invite me to the board dinner in August. I've been on the mailing list forever but the only time I actually went to one was back when it was a couple of blocks from Music Circus the same night as a play we were seeing. Rich went every year, since he was in charge of security. My current contribution is giving them coffee every so often, though at the moment the coffee has been riding around in the back of my car for a couple of months.  Ann doesn't go to Mass at St. Philomene's as often as she used to, as she has issues with Father Martin. (After the really bad start when he shut SGB down, I thought he'd calmed down.)

 

I finally buckled down and finished reading Little Women.

 

The 20th was Moonwalk Day. I remember when North Highlands had a parade every year. 

 

Bernadette and the kids came over. They leave a terrible mess. Joanna in particular... "here, put these blocks away" and she puts one in the bin and gets distracted. They built a nice tower, though, which I left up. 

I showed Gareth how to log onto The Tech to scan his TechTag.

 

Bernadette weighs 20# more than I do! It's not lack of exercise, that's for sure.

 

Saturday I was awake from 1:30 to 4:00, possible because I was nervous about the colonoscopy.

 

Kimberly Guilfoyle is gone from Fox. Darn.

 

I trimmed back some of the mulberry, which is taking off again. It's getting low enough to touch the mandarin and my head, and going towards the peach tree. I'll need a tree guy again, but my old one blew it last year and I'm not having him again.

 

I went to Bernadette's to have a last day with the grandchildren till the end of August, as they are off to Joan's. Joanna and I showed Mommy the sticks and rocks game. We tried to get Gareth's real tech tag up but apparently they'll only take one a day, so we're stuck with my experiment. Oh, well. Next year we'll get it right. Then I read a couple more Grimm tales (in both senses of the word) to them and said goodbye. Sniff!

 

On the 22nd, I didn't sleep that well. I've been spending far too much money on the Mirrors of Albion game, so I've cut back enormously (since I won't get any of the special temporary prizes anyway).

 

You would think the last regular poop before a day of liquid would be normal but apparently my body knows what's coming.

 

I've missed two VIP weekends at LazyBoy, darn it. I hope they don't take me off the list. I never buy anything but it's fun to look and I get nice prizes.

 

Steve has started paying me!

 

I called Pittsburgh and had a nice long talk with both Frank and Carol (who is having her colonoscopy next week). I thanked Frank again for his good cooking and said I'd picked up some ideas.  We discussed our innards quite a bit.

 

I finally caught entirely up with Chicago Police Department. My next project should be to get last season of SVU done. I can use On Demand for the episodes I haven't taped. Meanwhile, I'm still in season 2 of NCIS and as I remembered, Tony is a real dick..

 

I figured out how to set the alarm on my Timex. I was concerned that I would have to figure out how to unset it, because I don't want to get up at 3 AM forever.  (I usually DO, actually, but I wouldn't mind sleeping longer!)

 

And I woke up on my own on the 23rd, so I went online and learned how to unset it. The yucky drink worked (and stayed down) so I was ready. Bernadette, worried about traffic, actually got here at 7 so we were a few minutes early for my appointment.  

 

And then they didn't take me back for a half hour or more and didn't start the procedure till 40 minutes late. The doctor seems nice. I felt the cold in my vein as she put the sedative in, then woke up as he reached the end of the trail, where there is a big polyp growing in my appendix tube that he couldn't remove. I jerked a bit when I woke up but then just lay there enjoying the movie of my insides.

 

This big polyp will need surgery and he said he wanted to see me on the 6th. This has proven to be a lot more difficult than you'd think, and I'm still (the 30th) waiting for a call back on it. The nurses sent a "thank you" card(!) but I'd much more appreciate someone being able to set up an appointment.  I still don't know if I can go to Crater Lake and Ashland, as I've been planning for months! Roni has said she can help (as long as it's not over Labor Day) and I think I would need her for three nights. But nothing is going to happen IF THEY NEVER CALL BACK ABOUT AN APPOINTMENT!!

 

 

On the 24th, I learned Lexi, again, is an All-American cheerleader and this year she'll be going to Rome!

 

Jackhammer noise all day, as the neighbors in back, the ones who took care of Pharaoh, took their pool out.

 

I went to breakfast with the ladies. Afterwards I went to the neighbors to get painter recommendations, but it's been too hot to call anyone.  Because of the hassle of my surgery, I've decided to put the painters off Yet Another Year. This is when I started trying to get hold of the doctor's office to make an appointment.

 

I had the first peach off my tree. The squirrels were quicker, so in the week I only got 3, but they were good while they lasted.

 

And I finished Pere Goriot. Im not surprised that Balzac was on the Index. Not that we ever followed the Index, but the "morals" of this book were really grim and depressing.

 

And Vince called.

 

 

On the 25th I took Spooky in for checkup. The woman who took my call apparently forgot that part after she told me he needed two shots, so I was quite surprised when the tech came out for the carrier with the cat inside it and was starting to take him away. We got the checkup anyway.  Next time I'll have the blood workup, though he's in fine health at the moment. 13#! 

 

 I called Road Scholar to beg for no more neck wallets. I already have seven!

 

On Thursday the 26th I went to Mass at the Retreat House, and then to the State Fair with Bernadette and Padreic.  He wasn't very interested in most of the kiddie things, but loved the corner of the Counties building (only 18 counties? Shameful!) where they have a little store with play food. It was well over 100 degrees and very very tiring.

 

On Friday I was SO TIRED* but went down to Elk Grove to babysit so Bernadette could go to Camp Winton for their final campfire. I took some P.D. Eastman books to the boy (I've been helping to rearrange the books, and Bernadette got rid of a lot of the not-so-popular board books so the other preschool books could leave Joanna's room for the living room. So more of HER books could be shelved (though most of them end up on Gareth's floor anyway.)

*because I changed the bed, did laundry, finished digging, evened out the dirt, added compost and new garden dirt, and planted zinnias.

 

I got home about 5 to calls from the doctor's assistant (argh) and Road Scholar, all of which had to wait till this week to deal with.

 

 

In between I read Old Goriot by Balzac!

 

369 recordings of 72 types, 3 old SVU, 48 old CPD, and 61 Last Man Standing. 21% clear. (I particularly went mad over Christmas movies.)

 

 

Tuesday morning (the 19th) I went to the Widow's Breakfast, and Fay had again crocheted kitchen towels for us, and also did a needlepoint indicator of "clean or dirty" for the dishwasher. It's rather an ugly color, but I believe I'll use it anyway. She also put cookies and trail mix in the bag, but I put them too close to the edge of the table and Pharaoh got them. At least, no temptations for me.

 

In the afternoon Laurie came by. Her car was in the shop so Father Delgado gave her a ride over, and after a couple of hours with wine and cheese and great conversation, I gave her a ride to the shop. I realize I actually LIKE entertaining and I haven't been doing much of it. Or actually, any at all the last 6 years.

 

I got a notice from Social Security, a 2% raise... which somehow comes out to the exact same amount I've been getting the last three years! I may actually write them about this. Meanwhile, it looks like the tax cut will actually be good for me.

 

I asked Frank if he had a drill, because I can't get the hangers into the frame (I really should find Rich's drill and learn to use it. But it's only been 6 years!) He agreed he'll help me, after Christmas.

 

Wednesday I told Bernadette I would stick around so she could go see Lady Bird. First I took Padreic to Wee Wednesday. This was the least successful of the month... they had lots of kids, and they went through the galleries looking for winter pictures. A lot of this was over Padreic's head. The craft was making icicles from glittery pipe cleaners and beads. He very carefully put 4 beads on, was done, didn't want to twirl it, didn't want to make another. When we got home he put it on the tree. I wish Bernadette had displayed Padreic's tree that he made at my house. Heck, I wish she hadn't lost the alphabet board books, which were hard to collect.

 

I read to the kids, and then they played with their iPads, and I read, until Bernadette got back. I'm glad she had this chance, as she's been so excited about this movie. I know why I wasn't all that thrilled... I graduated from a small co-ed high school 40 years before Greta Gerwig and her character graduated from a larger all-girls' Catholic high school. Our experiences were totally different. Meanwhile, my girls were less than 20 years different, and from all-girls' Catholic high school, so they had more points of reference.

 

At home I had boiled that pork shoulder to get the last of the meat off, and used the broth to make 15 bean soup. It was good and I had enough to make two bricks for the freezer as well as this dinner.
 

 

 

 

 

Thursday Pagan came and we went to lunch at Fahrenheit 250. Yum. I had the One Meat lunch with cole slaw, as low-carb as I could manage. As I said, Yum. Then we went thrift shopping. I was looking at stereo slides and horrified to see Hawaiian natives referred to as "bucks." Oh, my goodness. Then, in South Sacramento, we were at a Goodwill dump-off station, all the stuff in bins and you buy by weight. I had seen a little penguin to stick in Gareth's stocking and a horse for Joanna's (I'd already given B. a notepad with a candy-cane pen for Joanna, too) and I saw a Thomas train for Padreic's, but then I saw more trains, all magnetic so they fasten together and don't need a rail, and got 13. So I called Bernadette. I thought they'd give him them from themselves, but at least on Facebook she said it was from me.

 

I was packing up the bean soup for the freezer and noticed the answering machine looked odd. I tried pushing buttons without luck, and thought at first it was broken, but then I picked the phone headset up and discovered the landline was down. I checked all three phones, making sure they were cradled. Nope.

 

Willie said he was homeless starting in mid-January. I dithered about it for awhile, then told him that while I really like living alone, if he needed to, he could stay here as plan B. He says he has a plan A but it's nice to have a backup plan in case. OK then. (I feel like I owe him for his willingness to house-sit while I was in Africa.)

 

I was watching Roots and Ed Asner talked about people making adjustments to maintain an evil... like, say, "body autonomy" to excuse the evil of abortion. I'm sure my great-grandchildren will look back on the likes of Planned Parenthood the way we look at slavery.

 

Friday I got in touch with AT&T and got a repair scheduled. I saw the "Friday at 8 PM" but glossed over the "29th" the first time. I made a quick dash to Raley's for pies. Then I realized I probably wouldn't have a phone for a week. I turned the cell phone on, and got a call... from a telemarketer!

 

In the afternoon I got the rest of the beds covered with leaves out of the bin. I thought the gardeners wouldn't be here the next two weeks (I was wrong. They came on Saturday. Fortunately, I left a note to stay out of the back yard.) Each wagon load took three scoops from the bin, and I moved 8 wagon loads, so I was tired when I was done.

 

My neighbor LaVonne brought over taffy. I've been terrible this year. I learned two things this week, that I've got to be better prepared for my neighbors and that I like entertaining.

 

I watched "Jailhouse Rock" (for the first time) and saw Knott's Berry Farm! The way it was on our honeymoon, before it stopped being a nice little frontier park and turned into a glitzy huge amusement park.