Today Was One of THOSE DAYS

Just put Bill to "bed" (he sleeps in a recliner). Make the picture bigger and you can see a ceramic blonde Pomeranian which represents his favorite friend "T" who died many years ago. She keeps him company and is waiting for him in Heaven for a long awaited reunion when Bill dies. Of course I don't believe in such a thing, I think when we die (and we all do die), that there is nothing. Oblivion but it is nice to dream isn't it?

 Ah yes, today was one of THOSE days. 

I began with trying to update my new iPhone 13 Pro Max. To make a long story short I never received my new iPhone back in December. I've been so caught up in caring for Bill that I let weeks slip by by not checking my e-mails until I realized I never received my new iPhone so I couldn't send back my old iPhone. Right before Christmas I notified them of my dilemma and they sent me a replacement iPhone. Therein began my problems. 

Already I'm not making this a "long story, short." I'll try again. I had to make phone calls this morning to get back on the iPhone eligibility list. Then I had to enter all my new passwords in my new iPhone. That alone is a chore to challenge Sisyphus. 

Then I realized I didn't have a SIM card in my new iPhone. In the past the new upgraded iPhone came with a SIM card. I called Apple Support and got a woman with an accent reading from a script. Oh no.

I tried, I really tried to understand her. Almost always when I call Apple Support I get an American whose primary language is English. Not this time. Like I said, I tried but it was useless. I thank her for her time and hung up, intending to call again. I did make another call and this time I got "Phil" who was in Texas. He was great. An anti-vaxer, but hey, no one's perfect. We discussed while he tried to straighten out my situation (which he did.) The only reason we got into that discussion was that I explained to him that Bill hospice nurse couldn't come in today because she has COVID. I was going to say that she is an anti-vaxer but before I did, I asked him if he was vaccinated. He was helping me with my problem and I didn't want to antagonize him. Good thing I asked.  We discussed while he was waiting for the changes to go through. I understand his concerns or at least I tried to. In my old age I think I'm finally making progress in trying to be more understanding of other people's positions although I'll never understand why the majority of Republicans don't think Biden legitimacy won the presidential election but instead think the Criminal Trump, the Traitor Trump, the Great Liar Trump did indeed win the election. That folks is something I will never understand, how many people Trump and his coward Republican enablers continue to bamboozle them with their lies and scam them out of their hard earned money. But I digress.

I just about have all my new iPhone upgrade problems resolved (all those passwords I have to put in my new iPhone, I have too damn man apps on my iPhone) and then it snowed again last night. Yep, I had to shovel the driveway again. Not as much snow as earlier in the week but snow nonetheless. I hate the snow. Pretty to look at but not to live in. Maybe when I was a kid and went sledding but not now as a wise old man who knows I could easily have a heart attack shoveling that f--king snow or fall and tear my quadricep leg muscle, which I actually did five years ago. That leg still isn't right. 

Bill's hospice nurse was scheduled to visit in person today but couldn't of course because she's in lockdown because of her COVID infection. She did a TeleHealth visit instead. She asked the usual question of the protocol she has to follow. Then she asked if there were any problems. I told her Bill couldn't swallow his prostate caplet pills. I told her I was opening them up and putting the powder on his nightly dessert. "NO! NO! NO!" she says. She said opening the pillow destroys the effectiveness of the pill. She said she would send a few pills over that she thought were smaller. When I got up from my afternoon nap I saw on my new iPhone 13 Pro Max that someone was at our front door via my Ring Doorbell app. I checked the video and sure enough, it was a person who delivered the small bag with the pills. Bill opened the door to receive the pills.

I rounded the corner from my bedroom to out kitchen at 5:15 PM, fifteen minutes late for preparing Bill's daily dinner which is a bowl of oatmeal (he has the same thing for breakfast, only thing he can swallow). I told him I was going to check the mail. He said it wasn't necessary because our neighbor "Bob" already brought it over. I told him that "No, that was guy who delivered pills for him." Bill didn't believe me. I tried to explain to him I saw the Ring Doorbell video on my iPhone 13 Pro Max. He didn't understand. Bill's cognitive ability is significantly deteriorating, not getting any better. I made the mistake of insisting (I just got up from my nap, remember?) that "No, it was the guy who delivered the pills." Bill said "Well call Bob and ask him!" I did and of course Bob said he didn't deliver our mail. By the way, why would Bob EVEN deliver our mail? But be that as it may, I finally got through to Bill. Then he was confused. He said "I asked him his name and he said 'Bob'". Why he would have to ask our neighbor his name I don't know, Bill knows Bob well enough that he doesn't have to ask him his name. I told Bill "Maybe his name was 'Bob', lots of people named 'Bob'. Then to top everything else off, those pills were the same size as the other pills that Bill had trouble swallowing. So another dead end of a problem.

Then our multi-colored Christmas lights that I strung around our sun room/living room isn't coming on automatically. Bill has some kind of Rube Goldberg contraption that turns on the lights when it gets dark and they go off when it gets light in the morning. It's not working. It stopped working last week. I've been turning on the lights manually since then. I don't mind. It's actually easier for me but Bill is insisting of "fixing it." He can't "fix it" because he's legally blind. With his macular degeneration he cannot see detail. But he insists. If he dies before I do (and that's a valid question these days), I'm going to have a licensed electrician in here to bring everything up to code but that's a chore for another day. Had to do the same thing when we moved from our house in Pennsylvania. So anyway, he wanted to "check" again to make sure the lights came on automatically. Of course they didn't and thank God he acquiesced and let me turn them on manually, which as I said before I don't mind. But Bill is very stubborn. He wold never survive in a nursing home. They would have him so drugged up, he would be in a head hanging stupor like my late friend Bob McCamley was the last time I visited him in his last residence, a "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" nursing home in Lewes. I don't want Bill to end up like that. 

On top of everything else, this morning I get a call from my longtime friend Lar. He has ALS and we frequently talk on FaceTime in the morning. He's alone most days (his wife is in a rehab facility and his daughter, who lives with him is working during the day). Other than his four times a week health care visitors, he's alone all day. I couldn't' talk to him this morning nor could I talk to him yesterday morning. I feel guilty about that but I only have so many hours in the day and being a full-time caregiver plus taking care of this household pretty much takes up all my waking hours. Maybe tomorrow Lar.

Then there is the icing on the cake. After it snowed again last night, I shoveled all the snow off our driveway and took out our trash. They never came by today to pick it up. 

Oh, and one more thing. I called to arrange to have "Justin" come by and install a driveway indicator to let us know when someone comes up our driveway. Bill used to have an indicator but it stopped working months ago and of course he can't get it working now because of his eyesight and cognitive disability and of course I can't get it working. I'm a good cook (going to make a taco bake as soon as I finish this LONG posting) but I'm not an electrician, that's for sure. Are you kidding me? I woud electrocute myself if I attempted anything like that. So I call to arrange to have Justin, who installed our Ring Doorbell and a range extender for our WiFi (have to have that looked at too because it's not working all the time) come out. He can't because he also is quarantined with COVID. I'm telling you folks, COVID is going to get all of us yet. And to think in previous years I would be preparing for my annual trip with Pat to Palm Springs. What a carefree life I used to have. Perhaps some day it will come back but right now it's looking pretty bleak. 

So that was my day folks. How was yours?

Things Other People Have On Their Bucket List I Have Zero Interest

 Today I was so busy updating my new iPhone that I don't have time for a proper, interesting, thoughtful and erudite blog posting. I will write about my iPhone upgrade travails in a future post but for your amusement today I have this back up blog posting. 

As you can see I do intend to post daily this year. Today is almost over (it is 10:30 PM EST time now) so I still have time. 

Last night I was discussing with Pat my not political correct list of things ARE NOT ON MY BUCKET LIST. 

1. Climb El Capitan (or any mountain)
2. Do the CN Tower Toronto Edge Walk
3. Skydiving
4. Swim With The Sharks
5. Attending a Justin Bieber Concert (or Mariah Carey)
6. Hunting - Big Game Safari - Killing Wildlife
7. Going on a Carnival Cruise or any other cruise
8. Bungee Jumping
9. Attend a bullfight/run with the bulls
10. Get a tattoo/body piercing
11. Visit a vineyard (Tuscany or Napa Valley)
12. Attend a Donald Trump Rally
13. Polar Bear Plunge In Icy Cold Water
14. Attend a Broadway Show ("Hamilton")
15. Attend a amateur poetry reading
16. Race Car Driving
17. White Water Rafting
18. Skiing (snow and water)
19. Ride a bucking horse/wrestle a bull in a rodeo
20. Run a marathon (I can't run, body is not capable)
21. Ride a submarine (too claustrophobic) 
22. Ride a rocket into space (too claustrophobic)
23. Live/retire in Florida (too humid and too red)
24. Vote Republican (this from a former longtime register Republican). 

I'm sure there are many more things I could list. These are the ones that first came to my mind. 

"Running with the bulls?" That's like asking "How would you like to be gored in your groin with a sharp bull horn?" No Thanks!

If given a choice between running with the bulls and attending a Broadway show like "Hamilton!", I would choose "Hamilton!, painful as that might be. At the end of that play they would probably have to also carry me out on a stretcher because my mind would be so numbed by boredom, I would probably be in a catatonic state. A least I wouldn't have a bull horn in my groin. Close call though.

A List!

 Hey folks, a list! 

We all love lists. I got this one off my Twitter account.

Check it out. Give yourself 1 point for each thing you HAVE'NT done.

I got a score of NINE (guess which ones). What did you get?

Two of the nine I haven't done are still on my Bucket List. The other seven? NO WAY!

2,6,7,8,9,10,11,14,17

Walloped!

 

Yesterday at 4 PM when the snow ended. The sun came out creating a beautiful sunset

We're snowed in here folks! 

Yesterday's snowstorm made up for last year when we didn't get any snow. 

Here in the Milton/Lewes/Rehoboth Beach area we got from six to twelve inches of snow. That's enough to throw us in a panic.

Watching "Morning Joe" this morning, they reported on the thousands of cars stuck overnight on I-95 outside of Washington D.C. in the snow. Washington is considered the "South", and they panic if only  two inches is forecast.

I remember when I was stationed at Ft. Meade, Maryland (right outside D.C.) and we were informed what the emergency snow routes were. I remember asking a fellow soldier "Didn't they just forecast two to four inches of snow?" I thought I heard wrong. I'm from southeastern Pennsylvania. While not Minnesota or even Tornonto Canada, two to four inches of snow was nothing. Just a slight inconvenience and yet at Ft. Meade, they're acting like it's Snowmageddon. Many of my fellow soldiers were from other parts of the country like Nebraska, Iowa and Maine. They also got a kick out of how the authorities at Ft. Meade always panicked at a forecast of any snow. But we did get a fair amount of snow here yesterday.

Bill wants to go outside and shovel. Of course that's impossible, he can hardly stand on his own two feet here in the house. "NO WAY!" I told him. He's so used to being the Man of the House and shoveling snow. When we lived in Pennsylvania on our almost seven acres of wooded paradise, he would get out the snow blower and clear a Pee Path for our Pomeranians and then clean off the snow from our five hundred hard driveway that wound up through the woods. Those days are long gone.

A bright sun is out this morning. I don't know how much snow will melt because the temperature is only twenty-one degrees. We don't have to go anywhere, I have enough food to last us for a month. Of course I might be a little low on milk, half and half and egg nog (all for Bill's daily two serving of oatmeal) but for feeding moi, I have a freezer chest stuffed. Good time to make some space in that freezer chest. Who knows what goodies are at the bottom? Oh, so that's what happened to that Royal Farms Spicy Chicken. I know I have twelve biscuits from Royal Farms that I froze. Also some taco bake casserole. I'll miss going out today and getting the chicken Parm special at Touch of Italy. That's been providing my sustenance for the past few weeks. Tuesdays is half price special. I can get five meals out of their delicious chicken Parm shaped like a pizza and taken out in a pizza box. I just cut a slice and put on my favorite pasta sauce (Rao's) along with some sliced of French baugette bread and preceded by a simple iceberg lettuce, cucumber and tomato salad with a garden vingarette dressing. I'm good to go.

As for our snow covered driveway. Maybe somebody will take pity on the two old men who live here and clean it for us. If not, I'll keep my ear perked up to listen for one of those Mexican crews that go through neighborhoods offering to clean the snow from driveways of old folks like us for a fee. Bill isn't shoveling NOTHING.  I have the snow shovel up in our garden shed a long ways away from the house. He can hardly make it upstairs in the morning for his breakfast and day let along go the whole length of our back yard to the garden shed, trudging through a food of ice covered snow.

Thinking about all those folks stuck on I-95 outside D.C. now and hoping they can get home soon.

Stay inside folks, warm safe and comfortable in your home.

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

 

Bill checking our the radar weather map showing snow this morning. Bill can see colors and that's about it.

Woke up to a light rain this morning that quickly turned to snow. 

First snow of the year!

Maybe this snow will get rid of the army worms grubs that did such devastation on our lawn last year. By the way, that lawn is slowly recovering but it did take quite a blow.

The snow is accumulating now. Thank goodness we don't have to go anywhere. I took our Snow Armageddon Run to the store yesterday. Stocked up on milk (and almond milk for me) and other "vitals" because you just never know, we may be snowed in for two weeks. Honest to God folks, when was the last time we had a major Winter Storm Watch and we were snowed in for even three days? The last I can remember was 1954 (I think) when I was a young brash lad of only twelve years old. We lived in downtown Downingtown, second floor apartment at 120 Washington Avenue. We actually lost power for a few days (first and only time). School was closed and I read the MacKinlay Kantor book "Andersonville" about the Confederate prisoner of war camp , Andersonville prison, during the American Civil War. 

I don't recall ever being snowed in ever since but God knows we always make that Milk Run to the store "just in case."

A light rain last night and yes, water is still seeping in our basement wall. I have old towels there to sop it up which I'm drying now. I will be so glad when I get THAT fixed. Of course the guy I hired to do it probably will be further delayed because of the snow. Patience Ron, patience.

Today I'm gong to try and get caught up on some loose ends. One being to call DdirecTV to disconnect the satellite box to Bill's bedroom TV. He can't see it anyway so why continue paying $7.00 a month?

Also, I haven't ordered my personalized photo calendars. Every year it seems I slip further and further behind in ordering those calendars. First I have to chose the photos, usually of moi. Maybe I'll do something different this year, I'm tired of seeing my old face. Probably like a lot of other people, tired of seeing my old face that is. I used to be somewhat nice looking. I've really gone downhill in looks the past few years since my prostate cancer and kidney stones and now full time caregiver. That will age anyone. Oh well, I had a good run. Now I'm on my last run, the Sliding Board Out Of Life.

I have to transfer information from my old iPhone to my new iPhone today. I've been putting that off long enough. I'm in this annual iPhone upgrade program. I like getting a new iPhone every year but I dread the transfer of information. I'm always afraid I'm going to screw something up and LOSE EVERYTHING. Never turns out that way but still. My mind is slipping, I can tell. 

Time now to update my online Scrabble games with Pat. He just texted me that he got up. I usually have those games (eight of them) ready for him when he gets up but today I took some time out to relax and look at the Ohio State Bank ("Best Damn Band In The Land") videos of their ramp entrances and pregame show at the Rose Bowl this year. Being a former marching band member myself, I always find it relaxing to watch a really good marching band. I need these moments as a respite. Blogging isn't my only way of dealing with daily life stress.

By the way, one of my New Year's resolutions is to blog every day. I don't usually make New Year's resolutions but this year (since I don't have that many years left) I'm making that a major goal. Of course much I write about is nonsense and would never win any awards for creative and interesting writing but this is my life folks. Humble as it may be . And I do enjoy writing about it. I often imagine someone five hundred years from now coming across the remnants of my blog posts and saying "WTF?"

Have a great day everyone!

Winter Storm Watch and Other Snowflakes

 

Rains a coming! We're the blue dot here in Rehoboth Beach, DE

What a way to start off the New Year. We here on the Delmarva peninsula (home of the 46th president of the United States - his summer place is only five miles as the sea gull flies from my perch here on my computer typing this blog entry) have a winter storm watch for tomorrow.

The temperature is not sixty degrees but falling to twenty-seven degrees tomorrow. Rain last night and off and on today.

We just got back from Food Lion (our favorite local food market chain store, it's not Wegmans but better than any of the other supermarkets down here in Lower Slower Delaware).  I had to stock up in case we're snowed in (we won't be but habits are hard to break). WE MIGHT BE SNOWED IN FOR WEEKS!

We won't be of course but JUST IN CÅSE

Our food store had plenty of empty shelves. Seems normal now ever since the onslaught of the COVID pandemic. I almost panicked because I couldn't find any half and half. If Bill doesn't have half and half in his morning and evening oatmeal (his main courses of meals since he doesn't have teeth now), there would be Hell to pay. As the Food Lion checking was ringing up my items I saw a carton of half and half on the conveyor belt placed by the lady behind me. I asked her "Where did you get that?" She said "On the shelf to the left in the far back." THEY MOVED THE HALF AND HALF! So I was one of THOSE people who hold up the checkout line while I rushed to the back of the store to the FAR LEFT and viola! There it was behind to really fat shoppers. "Excuse me" I ever so gently mouth my irritation at them without letting them know I'm irritated because they are blocking me. 

I quickly grab one of the three remaining cartons of half and half and rush back to the cashier, as fast as my eighty year old legs could manage. Just another reminded that I'm an old man. Wow, I used to be able to dash around large supermarkets like this in seconds. Nowadays my arthritic body barely manages and you know what? It's not going to get any better. Ah, the Golden Years.

The lady behind me in the checkout line was waiting with pursed lips. At least she didn't roll her eyes. I thanked her and quickly tapped the WIFI connection device and paid for my bounty with my credit card and I wheeled me way out the automatic doors to the wet parking lot and Bill waiting for me in our car. "Home James" as we always say to each other when we're returning to Casa Tipton-Kelly.

This morning I awoke to the sound of rain. Oh no. As regular readers of this blog know, I have a leak in our basement wall around the sewer pipe. No, not sewage (God forbid) but ground water from the outside. The sealant around the sewer pipe gave out. I've been trying to get it fixed for about two months now. The latest delay is the guy who is going to reseal it has COVID and he and his family is quarantined. COVID, at least I'm not traveling this weekend as are my friends Jack and Judy who traveled to California to visit they children and grandchildren. Twenty-five hundred flights cancelled since Christmas. God, can you imagine declining with THAT?

As you have probably surmised by now I have a new tact in blogging. I'm going to try and blog every day, sometimes about just mundane goings on around here at Casa Tipton-Kelly. Maybe an occasional rant and sometimes lists! I haven't done a list in quite a while. I'm ready for a list and I know you are.

One more thing.  While I was getting Bill ready for his day this morning (I have to change his Depends, massage his lower edema swollen legs, wash him, help to dress him), I noticed dried blood on his bald scalp. I asked him how did he do that. He said he was "pulling hairs out of his head."  Folks, Bill is bald but he has the occasional wayward hair that shoots out like an antenna (I have eyebrows that do that. Pat has them growing out of his ears.) So what does he do, this 93 year old man who is on blood thinner because he almost died last year because of four blood clots that traveled to his brain? He PULLS the hairs out. Oh God. Always something new.  

I have to be very careful when I explain to him NOT TO DO THAT or else he gets upset and starts crying and won't come out of his bedroom all day. Been there done that folks, not good. And just for fun he has some kind of skin condition on the inside of his left buttock (ass cheek). He wants me to  I explained to him that his hospice nurse gave me a special cream to put on it daily, I can't "take it out of there." I know sometimes I perform magic but even my abilities have a limit. 

Time to end this stream of conscientious before someone reports me to the Looney Bin Police. 

Just another day In The Life folks. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get ready for my weekly 10:00 AM Zoom call with my friends Stuart, Larry and Pat. I have a new background (a video I took at Cape Henlopen). I want to show off to my friends.

Have a great day everyone and a fabulous new year

Happy New Year 2022!

Happy New Year folks!

Here we go again, another year. 

God, I hope this year is better than last year. And what a way to end last year with the death of universally beloved Betty White. I'm still sad over her passing although it was not to be unexpected, given her age. Betty was a force of goodness in a world too often divided by strife, anger, hate and violence. Not only man made violence but it seems as if the weather is against us.

I felt it was time to make a personalized video, giving face to the person behind these many blog postings of the past sixteen years. Yes, it HAS BEEN THAT  LONG.  One would think I would have gone viral by now but I doubt if I have even a hundred blog followers. Oh well, I always told myself my blog posting was my poor man's therapy for my mental state. And it has helped me. I writing provides relief for all my insecurities, anxieties, and rage. Over the years I have learned to tamp down my more extreme views lest I totally offend everyone but here I am, venting as usual. 

Next month I will begin my second  year of caregiver status for Bill, my partner/husband of fifty-seven years. We began our relationship where he was the father figure and I was the young, naive kid. Of course those roles have been reversed now. I'm the parent and Bill is the child. The flow of life. I am grateful that I am able to take care of Bill here in his home where he is most comfortable and secure.

This is the second year in a row I will miss my annual Palm Springs holiday with my good friend and buddy Pat of Hamilton, Canada. Pat and I stay in touch everyday via FaceTime and Zoom, which is great but I do sorely miss our quarterly get togethers and adventures in Canada, Philadelphia and Palm Springs. COVID and caregiving has me trapped. That's just the way it is. And again, I am thankful that I am able to take care of Bill here at our home.

It's time for Bill's daily ride now but before I go I want to wish all of you a happy and healthy New Year!