fossilfreak

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 602

100.3 miles

80s

266 recordings of 54 types and I finished season 3 of NCIS. 37% clear.

I have never had a roommate before (Rich doesn't count, we were married and busy building a family.) I really thought I liked living alone, can go to bed when I want, get up when I want, leave dishes in the sink, watch the TV *I* like, cook with onions... so, when Steve's friend from 30 years ago needed a home back last summer, I reluctantly told him I would be plan B. And he was able to find another place to stay. Whew!

Unfortunately, that place fell through on the first of September. Bill e-mailed me to ask if the offer still held. My heart sank. I really tried to think of how I could say "no", but there was no way to do that. So, darn it, I said yes. I took all the stuff off the captain's bed in the playroom, made the bed, found some pillows, and prepared it as well as I could, though there are still a gazillion toys in it. If I have the kids, I'll have to take the toys out.

Then, in August, the medical issues came up and I realized there was a silver lining. He'll be here to feed the pets, and when I get back from the hospital he can help with some of the chores.

So, Saturday September 1, he came. I gave him a key, showed him his room, told him that the back bathroom was his. I told him I wouldn't cook for him all the time, but there's plenty of food in the freezer and pantry. I did cook for him this night, a frozen chicken-broccoli pasta dish.

To my surprise, it's working out! I kind of resented sharing the living room (like where else? I had given him a bedside light but there's not much room in the bedroom) but we knock along OK. The TV is mine till I go to bed, and if it's Fox News he disappears, but he likes much of the other things I watch. Then I go to bed about 9 or 10 and it's his, and he goes to the Cartoon Network or some "History" channel show. He's been buying his own food so I don't have to feel guilty about hiding the peanuts or the nachos! He has friends and goes gaming, and he has part-time work (he's applying for more) and I am on the go a lot, so we aren't under each other's feet all the time.

Bernadette and Rob got new kittens. They are, surprise surprise, cute!!

I went to church on the second. Then it was Day 5 with the puzzle, and I hooked up a cookie.

On the 3rd I woke up with tummy pains. I'll be so glad when this operation is over. My whole digestive system is not up to par these days.

I got a lot of goodies in Fishdom.

My computer was not talking to the Internet. Bill figured out how to fix it.

On the puzzle, I hooked two cookies together.

On the 4th, I played lots of games. My ankle bruise (from August 10) is slowly healing. The Senate indulged in Kavanaugh Kabuki. I had breakfast with the ladies, giving Fay the parking pass for the Kingston Trio.

Pagan came over and we went to Koreana. I love this store, but didn't have anything in mind to buy. I'll have to introduce Bernadette to it. I got the screws to hang the scratch-off map and the next day asked the neighbors to help. Carol misunderstood and when she found the right drill bit (actually not, I needed a concrete one) she called and asked if I wanted the drill, too. "Yes, and the husband!" Frank came and got the hangers up (pulling off the adhesive and the paint in one place. I do have patch paint and a couple of places it will go, someday.)

On the 5th, Spooky, who has midlength hair, was really matted. I did find a rake which took care of the mats instantly. Boy, that cat sheds!

I took Padreic to Wee Wednesday, which was fun. It was about primary colors and pretty well over the kids' heads. There was a three-year-old who was all over the place. It's amazing how Padreic ("I FOUR!") has grown!

I cooked an actual meal, tuna noodle casserole and salad.

Fishdom was going well on the 6th.

Oberammergau is on! Including Medjugoric which I know absolutely nothing about.

After the Retreat House I went to the Commissary. It was around here I was begining to resent cooking, but it's gotten better. Bill is really polite and stays out from underfoot.

I took a bag of books to the library.

I was going to relax but then I remembered that this was the day I was going to put the poop bag into the trash, darn it.

Day 7 of puzzle. Slogging today.

I started the Camino 3 years ago on the 7th. The butafumiero is down right now. How lucky I was!

I spent money on Fishdom. I've been playing Albion for 6 months. I hate to think how much I've spent on that.

I went to Renaissance, almost forgetting breakfast. I saw a slide show about Nepal. The western movie film was a documentary, Reel Injuns. Fascinating, about the depiction of Native Americans in movies. We saw "Smoke Signals" being filmed when we were in Spokane at one point.

On Saturday the 8th I went down to Oak Park to take the CASA files to be shredded. I'd never seen the actual park in the area, and it's gorgeous. I've been in the seedier parts of OP, but this area is nice. The volunteers at Wellspring were nice and I'm really glad to have these sensitive files off my hands.

Then I went to where the breakfast was to check on why Fay called. It was to remind me of breakfast!

Marty asked me to dinner to see Mike F., who is in town.

Day 8 on the puzzle.

I was tired of taking pictures off the picture disc so I could take more, and I bought a 32G new one. 3000+ new pictures!

Marty asked me to dinner to see Mike

I've been reading the Driver's Handbook.

Bill returned before I went to bed, darn it.

On the 9th, I finally finished Act One by Moss Hart.

(Reading: I'm still reading Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; Pepys' Diary; Embarrassments by PJ Nel; We Die Standing Up, Dom Hubert van Zeller; The Gates of the Alamo, Stephen Harrigan; Archie Meets Nero Wolfe, Robert Goldsborough; The Halcyon Fairy Book, T. Kingfisher; plus I want to reread Charles Krauthammer's Things that Matter. I must read the Alamo book and the others I got as "homework" for San Antonio and stop getting sidetracked by Miss Read (though Gerrie is catching up!))

I went to Church and helped with Communion at the nursing home. That night I had dinner with Marty and Jim, Alicia and Mike F. We went to Olive Garden. It was so good! Mike actually met Steve when he was at Caterpillar. He also is really impressed with the IT system there, a fact I should share with Steve. Interesting... in his early 40s, he seems to be at the "finding himself" phase.

The cleaners came on Monday but didn't clean up the kitty litter. I will talk to them next time, before complaining to the office.

9-11 was on Tuesday again. I went to the DMV early and was #22 in line. They have it set up well, and I was actually done within an hour so I could go to the ladies' breakfast.

Minor gripes: he uses so many ice cubes! And has peanut butter in the evening and leaves the knives just sitting.

I'm going through old papers and found a letter from Granddaddy's brother, Uncle Frank. It was written in 1976 and was all about his brother Harry and sister-in-law Mary. Interesting letter, but they're all dead without children or grandchildren, nobody but me left who remembers them, and I pitched the letter. Later I found one from Tom, the guy I went to the Air Force Academy ring dance with... I was dating Rich by this time so probably wrote him just to find out what was up. He was madly in love with a girl in Pinedale who didn't return his calls, and he planned to go to flight school and then be an astronaut. Instead, he was shot down in VietNam. Another letter I trashed. Sniff.

And, Tuesday, a nice call from Vince.

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 595

7.6 miles

cold and cloudy

348 recordings of 41 types, 1 old SVU, 74 CPD, and 46 LMS. 24% clear.

This was the weekend of the Schumer shutdown. That didn't work out so well for him. On the 20th I once again (like every day) rejoiced that Hillary isn't the President. There are a lot of things I don't like about Trump, but I do like many of his accomplishments, and I am SO SO SO glad Hillary lost.

I went to the WPAC luncheon at the Old Spaghetti Factory (which used to be a steak house where we went at least once a year wth Rich's former landlady, and which later was sued and I was in the jury, could hardly wait until the trial was over so I could check it out. More recently it was Farrell's Ice Cream. I never made it to that reincarnation.) Anyway, there were 91 people there. I had asked my friend Gary (not the Gary I used to have lunches with in 2015, RIP, or the Gary who fixed my doorknob, who was so distraught over his wife's death but got re-married in under a year, but the Gary who was with Darlene) to join me there so I would know someone. In the event, I was sitting with Stan and Faye, so I'd have been OK, but it was really nice to have a long talk with Gary and find out how Darlene is doing. She's moved to Tallahassee with her son, and has a nice section of the apartment all her own. I need to call her one of these days. (I miss her.) Gary was there for Christmas.

I had the chicken marsala and also ice cream for dessert. I know, I know, carbs, but just this once? SO good!

Sunday while I was at Mass, the dog snatched the last three mince tarts Roni gave me off the table. Bad bad dog. (And yesterday I caught him sniffing at the last of the dried fruit.)

Marty stopped by to give me $20 for Joanna's Girl Scout cookies.

I walked to Raley's and got birthday cards for Carol and for Rob, and I found three delightful Valentines for the kids. Then I had to completely clean out my purse including Marty's money, because I thought I had more with me than I actually had. I didn't have to use the credit card, anyway.

My yogurt cups came. Gonna try that next with the Instant Pot.

I've been reading a book a day. Joanna's Boxcar Children set came and I read one of those, plus an Aunt Dimity I ran into, and I'm really chugging through the Nero Wolfes. I'm still reading Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; Pepys' Diary; Embarrassments by PJ Nel; Shattered, Jonathan Allen & Amie Parnes; Little Women, Louisa May Alcott; and Trio for Blunt Instruments, Rex Stout.

(I swear I'll get it. This one would have been completely up to date but I was having so much trouble with Flickr I changed browsers back to Chrome (yay! The black background has disappeared!) and it was sooooo late.)

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 p. 547

162.0 miles

mild, getting warmer

359 recordings of 51 types, 74 old SVU. 15% clear.

Last Monday, the 18th, I went down to Elk Grove to help with Padreic so Bernadette could get some sorting done of all the stuff that's been shoved into the garage. Usually he undoes everything she does, but now that he's immobilized, it's easy. Or at least easier. I played with him and talked to him and occasionally helped Bernadette putting jigsaw puzzles together. She got a box of old toys ready for St. Vincent de Paul and I put it into my car to take in the next day.

I went to get the kids at school. Joanna's daily record was "consequence." "How come?" I asked, and she told me "It's too hard to explain." Then, on the way home, I decided to ask some security questions. "What's your address?" She knew that. "What's your phone number?" She didn't know that, so we started learning that. (She's still having trouble with the last 4 numbers. And because 916 is close to 911, she sometimes gets that mixed up.) "What's your mommy's name?" "Bernadette." "Bernadette what?" "Durbin." Then she and Gareth got into a discussion of middle names and Gareth said the last middle name was Yarnot, but she changed it. "Your name used to be Yarnot, too." "It still is." Joanna was amazed and horrified: "but you're in our family, why didn't you change it to Durbin?" I'm not sure she's forgiven me yet.

Tuesday I went to breakfast with the widows, then hurried home to wait for the screen guy, who was supposed to come between 11 and noon. I waited, waited, waited... about 3 I got a call from a Brandon, who would be out in 25 minutes. 20 or so minutes later, Ron called (the guy I was supposed to see) and he would be out in 25 minutes, and he'd taken over from Brandon. When they did get here, finally, it didn't take them long to actually FIX the screen, but the 5 hour wait was a bit much.

I was able to take the box to St. Vincent de Paul, and got a Hallowe'en costume (a zombie? dementor?) for half price, not badatall. They've completely redone the thrift shop, making it much more upscale.

When Vince called, this time I had a list so I didn't forget anything, for a change!

Wednesday, my day to go to Elk Grove! I took a Clifford the Big Red Dog book for Joanna to read to Padreic, and a couple of things for Bernadette. When I fetched the school kids, it was apparent that Joanna had had a Very Bad Day. Apparently she didn't want to do her workbook in the morning and defied the teacher, and had to call home. Mommy told her to mind, but she didn't. I forget what the second punishment was but the third was a talk to the principal. Bernadette says she is having a hard time adjusting to school where she actually has to WORK... since 1st grade was still pretty lenient. She argued with me "we can play in the park and walk home later". No. Further along I commented that her face was red, was she sunburnt? No. Were you crying? A nod.

They liked the skeleton marionette I'd brought as a demonstration, and they enjoyed Pinocchio. Then they were a bit surprised when I didn't go home. We were waiting for Rob, who of course was late, so Bernadette and I could take Padreic down to Tracy to meet up with my nephew Dan. (Child #15 of that generation as Padreic is of his generation!) We got down there about 5:35, 5 minutes later than I'd posited, met him, and walked over to the Squeeze Inn* where we spent almost 2 hours. Padreic had a good time, what with french fries and seeing the lights at night. He was really good.

*a Sacramento institution... the original one was on Diners, Driveins, and Dives early on, with its 10 seats and long lines. Rich and I made it to that one before the professional ADA lawyer shut them down, and now I had known about the four local restaurants, but apparently it's expanding quite a bit!

Dan has gotten a promotion within Amazon, which was why he was having training in Tracy. He also caught me up on his family and his aunt and uncle who were in Poland with his sister during the eclipse. I haven't seen him since 2009 when we were visiting in Pittsburgh and he was in school there.

I got home about 10 and Pharaoh was thrilled.

Thursday I walked over to the bank and moved the money I'd gotten from USAA when they closed out a California fund in my mutual funds, into the rolling-over CD. Actually, I didn't put the whole total in, but kept out $119.and some cents. (I actually missed on that $100, but it's not important.) I also found out where my loan is, and then at home did some checking on my accounts. I still have to pay for the windows, but I'm closing in on being where I was before I paid for Africa! And Ashland!

Then in the afternoon I went to the commissary and bought a LOT of groceries. It took pretty much 2 hours to buy it and wrap the freezer stuff and put everything away.

Some GD varmint got away with the squash I had netted up. If they take that pumpkin (about softball size now, the 25th) I will be furious. I have no idea how the pest got past the net.

Renaissance on Friday. My usual parking lot was full. However, I found a good place. The morning documentary was The Sharpe's War about rescuing Jews. I was sorry to learn that they ended up divorced. The discussion afterwards naturally wandered into how awful Trump is. I get really tired of living in California with all the received wisdom.

The movie was Project Almanac and it was thought provoking. The only actor I recognized was a kid from "The Goldbergs" but it was good.

In the evening I saw "The Old Musketeers" written by the Equity actor who founded the Chatauqua theater. I was really happy to see the geocachers, and Bill, with the pancreatic cancer, is looking pretty good, much better than I would have thought. The play was a farce about some old actors trying to re-create their glory days. Quite amusing.

My Saturday activity was unusual. It was a wedding between two WPAC people. I hadn't been all that enthusiastic, as I had heard Bonnie (the bride) about a year ago bemoaning "I'll never get married again." She'd met her second husband at WPAC and took care of him for 12 years. She had a memorial service for him at the WPAC office Then she had a boy friend Gayle, (who I didn't like), and was devastated when he died. She also had a memorial for him at the office. (That was the time I heard her comment.) Almost immediately, she took up with Robin (the groom) and judgmental me, I thought she really should learn to be happy with herself. However, after the wedding and more importantly after the reception, with all their friends, especially his, talking about how happy they were, I've mellowed. Maybe she had to have Anyone, but he in particular had to have HER.

Wow, they pulled out all the stops. It was as elaborate as Monica's wedding. In a Catholic church, with the Baptist preacher having some words as well. Alan (our former music director) was there, and I had a nice talk with him afterwards! Then the reception was huge, with a special path to the head table, a professional photographer, disc jockey, open bar, buffet, THREE cakes! It must have cost a fortune. My gift was a gift card at Trader Joes, on the theory that they probably didn't need anything. Marty (who was there with an astonishing hat) gave them a grill and says she thinks they got two at least.

I hope they'll be very happy.

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fossilfreak

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