Nobody is Promised Tomorrow. . .
It’s 80° this evening. Two weeks from just about now – my train should be pulling into Harpers Ferry, heading to Chicago. Must spring into action about going to Kona someday soon.
But before that I need to plan an adventure to Moloka’i and Lanai for November 10 – 16. Air travel to those islands is infrequent and hotels are almost non-existant.
You might also notice a lack of roads. I may charter a plane and hire a mule.
Damn, for an old woman, I know how to have fun.
Something I never thought I would see.
This email arrived a little after 8 last night. An aurora alert for Arlington, Virginia!
Zipped over to the window. Not once but many times.
But they were definitely visible to some folk in our area. How cool is that?
I needed some downtime today. So, very little was done. That’s OK. Very little actually needed doing. Except some emails are piled up awaiting responses. Maybe tomorrow.
I had I nice walk. Took the longer hillier more “challenging” walk today.
The asylum is having lox, bagels, and chocolate hamantaschen for dinner tonight. In honor of Yom Kippur, I suppose. My gentile brain thinks that maybe tomorrow night would be more appropriate. But, what do I know?
Before lox, bagels, and chocolate hamantaschen – Happy Hour.
Kona. Leaving soon. Two weeks from Saturday.
The good news is I am still alive. According to my doctor’s notes “Pt is quite active, walks 2.5 miles easily”. Guess that means I am OK for an old woman. Active is important for me.
Actually, the old woman walked 4.62 miles today. I enjoy walking to the doctor’s office. It’s a nice walk, and I like telling the doctor that I must be OK because I walked. Today, I had time for coffee and a croissant at Peet’s before wandering over to the doctor’s office.
Grateful for this fine fall day. And for coffee at the end of a walk.
The bad news is: Donald Trump thinks he’s my friend.
Fortunately, GMAIL thinks that Donald Trump is Spam. That’s an insult to Spam.
A lovely lavendery sun rise.
Then it was off to set up for the origami sale.
The 11th Floor Origami Dojo had a very successful sale. I contributed very little to the sale’s success, but I am still as pleased as can be.
Grateful to everyone who made this so special for the 11th Floor Origami Dojo. ありがとうございます
When I returned to the old bat cave all tired and hungry, what do I find? One of my orchids sprawled on the floor. There were no open windows. I don’t have a cat. I don’t believe we had an earthquake. Blame it on gravity. No harm done to the orchid or the floor.
Tomorrow, it’s off to see the doctor. She will tell me I am old.
A rather bleak morning, I had blood work done so no breakfast for me. I was allowed black coffee, thank goodness.
After visiting the hospital lab, I had a coffee and croissant. Then it was in-person yoga time. And that was about it for the day.
Grateful that I can still take part in a yoga class.
Got everything ready for tomorrow’s craft sale.
The craft sale will take up most of tomorrow. I can hardly stand all this excitement!
(Yes, I am reading World War Z by Max Brooks. It’s one of Carlton’s books. I was busy when it came out 20 years ago, Carlton read it somewhere along the line, and I was going to read it in Covid time, but decided not to. Maybe too close to reality.)
My brain is in an interesting place today. I am deeply concerned about the general operation of the Asylum. We are slumping along into mediocracy at best. The elevators. The food. The grounds are so neglected that it hurts look at them. Systems are supposed to be in place to protect the frail residents. Those safeguards have failed too many times. Something is wrong. Something that is completely outside my capacity to fix.
My brain is in an interesting place today. All that angst aside, I am content. Tranquil. Relaxed. Perhaps, my brain knows that I’ll be dead before the Asylum completely collapses due to benign neglect.
It’s hard to get management excited about making anything better. They want to make things BIGGER. Build More Asylums. Management thinks they have 900 potential residents waiting to move in. Management would be happy if current residents moved out. (All residents pay a substantial non-refundable fee for the privilege of living here.)
But, on to my news for Carlton. Today, I just happened to check on the price of my train ticket to Seattle. It had gone down $312. I called up Amtrak and they credited my visa account with $312. It took about half an hour to make happen. I heard Carlton saying that’s $624 an hour you just made!
Still have a wicked cough. My watch advised another “recovery” day. I decided to go for a nice walk. I don’t do what humans tell me to do. Why should I do what a watch tells me to do?
Recently at the grocery store, searching for a can of tomatoes, I was attacked by Old Age. The generic version, a perfectly acceptable choice, was nestled on the bottom shelf, a mere two inches from the floor. The brand-name version, on the other hand, was perched about four feet high. It was a dollar more expensive.
The store’s strategy was clear, get me to buy the expensive version. This time, the floor was just too far away. The thought of squatting down to retrieve the cheaper can was too much. I reached for the brand-name version. It was the first time I’ve ever paid extra for a can of tomatoes simply because I wasn’t sure I could make it back up to my feet in a dignified manner.
Accomplished very little today. Washed the summer blanket and installed the spring/fall blanket on the bed. “Upgraded” the Mac to Sonoma. It’s a big yawn, so far. Which is fine. Wondering a bit about the possibility of a new iPad Mini. Not that I need one.
My watch said that I needed a recovery day. Well. That sounded like a fine idea. Today, I did very little.
Another reason to do very little is our elevators. At least half of our elevators were out of service. And 11 floors are a lot to walk up when your watch has declared today a recovery day.
For several years, I defended Asylum management against claims of elevator maintenance negligence. I am no longer a defender. In the last 12 months, we have received 59 emails about the status of our elevators. 13 emails arrived in the previous 30 days. And 3 so far today.
Now, the optimist says “Isn’t it wonderful how management is keeping us informed about the status of the elevators?” A realist says “WTF is wrong? If management had to ride these elevators 6 or 7 times a day, I bet the elevators would be fixed”
Good soup notwithstanding. I will go eat with my friends tonight because friends are important to my mental health. And it’s free wine night.
Nothing special today. Sort of wrapped up the 11th Floor Origami Dojo’s contribution to the craft sale. The sale will be Wednesday. But, it’s good to have things set and ready early.
I might make a couple more of the huge balls. And, maybe a few more of the “normal” size ones.
My partner in origami made 40 pairs of absolutely exquisite crane earrings. And someone asked us to sell her wonderful origami cards. We made about $750 last year. Hope we do as well this year. We’ll see.
Three weeks from tomorrow, I’ll be on the Capital Limited heading to Chicago and the Empire Builder to Seattle. Then on to Kona on Halloween. I am too old for this. But, I am not stopping.
But watching the Arlington County Police tie a toe tag on your husband would look bad in Kodachrome. Death is a black-and-white event.
All happy memories. Good times we shared. Bad times we survived. He missed COVID and Trump. Lucky bastard!
I am getting over this cold crap. Just hope I don’t have a massive relapse.
Yesterday at this time I felt like I would have to get better to die. I had half a cheese sandwich and was asleep by 8 pm. By 5 am this morning, I felt like I might live. Here it is 5 pm and I am still alive. And, feeling better. Enough about me.
Gratitude
Nothing like a couple of “sick days” to make you appreciate good health. Never mind that good health isn’t as good as it once was.
Today’s “accomplishment” was assembling balls from the Sonobe units I folded on the ship. The craft sale is a week from today. So, it is time to figure out what I have to sell, how to price what I have to sell, and how to get people to buy what I have to sell.
I have the worst cold that anyone ever had. (Maybe that is a little melodramatic.) But, when I took a NOT expired covid test this morning I was happy that “It’s just a cold”.
Well if it had been covid I would be popping Paxloid. And getting better. Not getting sneezier by the hour.
Grateful that this cold waited until I got back to the Asylum before attacking me.
Enough bitching. Went to yoga via Zoom. Polished off 9 days of emails. Did my quarterly accounting.
This started yesterday at about 10 am. It can leave anytime now.