Category: The DayBook

Today I found a mourning dove. They are big and fat and slow-moving.  My kind of target.

Today’s small project was to do a little wardrobe culling. So, I found some clothes that I had lost interest in. Or that I was never interested in.  It was about 1/2 a trashbag’s worth. 

Here at The Asylum, we put our excess clothes in our “Resident Storage Room” and something happens to the clothes. Most likely they end up in some landfill or the other. But, we like to think that the clothes go somewhere where they might be needed. Since my clothes nearly all came from a thrift shop – they will be making the trip for a second time.

“Resident Storage Room” is one of the scariest places in The Asylum. We each have a 4X4X4 foot chicken wire cage/chicken coop. I don’t use mine. There is nothing that I value so little as to leave it down there. 

Back to work tomorrow and back to back days of yoga classes. 

Honestly, how can this happen? For some of our residents, prunes are the most important food group. (I find beer to be an excellent source of dietary fiber!) Surely the kitchen gets prunes in #10 cans. How hard would it be to check the cupboard and say “Gee, we should order prunes.” Or is there some worldwide prune shortage that I haven’t heard about? 

 

. . . 

Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.  Eleanore Roosevelt

Found one flying bug today. Plus some ants. 

Thinking about long-range planning at an old folks asylum. I understand that management should be thinking. planning and even acting long range. And, management pays lip service to resident involvement in the process. But,  reality check: we are old people.  I am not sure I need to buy a Five Year Diary. Or an extended warranty on anything. 

So, management has meetings to “Report on the Strategic Plan”. Where they talk about how good it is going to be when…

Some day when… we implement/install the wonderful “Smart Apartment” hardware/software. Well, by the time management gets the “smart apartment” going it will be obsolete and in the meantime, one of my neighbors really wants an Alexa device but she has no smartphone and no amazon account. Instead of a grand “Smart Apartment” 5 years down the road, management should figure out how to deploy an AWS Enterprise Alexa system and just give the residents a Dot and Echo Connect to plug in and they would be good to go with no setup. And no ability to order a case of condoms. 

After they deploy this stop-gap system – then start working on what might be the next big thing for the smart apartment (senior style). 

But don’t tell me how good it is going to be after I am dead.

OK, it has happened again. We either need a bigger table of the dead or healthier residents. Such is life and death in The Asylum. Most of the pictures are pretty sorry. But, my across the hall neighbor made sure that her memorial picture was of her as a smoking hot stewardess standing in front of a Super Constellation in the early 1950’s. 

Occasionally, very occasionally I have reason to visit the executive suite.   I am always charmed by the oriental carpet in front of the executive water fountain. But, next time I am going to look under the rug. Is it hiding a  disgusting stain?

Today, I wore O’Neill board shorts, an Aloha shirt, and my OluKai slippers to supper in the “Formal” dining room. I view this as the high point in my guerilla campaign against the 1950s country club dress code in the white table cloth venue.  

So, life goes on. And, when I land on the table of the dead, what do I want? Ding Dong the Witch is Dead? 

Skipper and Lantana – sounds a little like a musical group from the 60’s doesn’t it? Sonny and Cher, Captain and Tennille, Simon and Garfunkel, Peaches and Herb,  the list goes on.

Anyhow, Skipper and Lantana. Realized that I hadn’t gone on even the smallest bug quest this summer. It was a lovely afternoon, so, I went in search of interesting bugs. I didn’t find very many. On the other hand, I didn’t look very hard either.

And, it was another busy day. But not too busy to fit in a nap. It’s Aloha Wednesday. Don’t think I’ll go the office until Monday. Got enough to do around here to keep me busy. 

I am a pretty boring old lady today. Sorry. I’ll try to do better.

Summer. Busy Everywhere. Guess that is all good. 

Actually they had arrangements like this in Singapore too. Maybe if I traveled in more upscale circles here I would not be amazed. 

A normal summer day. Freezing cold in my office. Hot outside. 

Good news, I survived today’s yoga class without falling. Will try to repeat the performance at tomorrow’s class.  

Had a really fine salad for dinner. And we ate outside. A fine little old lady evening.

Four years ago, I was locked in getting ready to move to The Asylum Hell. And one of the many things that I hated about the Asylum was the glass top stove. I am sure that I would still hate it if I cooked. But, I don’t cook. I microwave. I make coffee. Even French press coffee. But, I do not cook. 

AND, it turns out that a never used glass top stove is a wonderful work space for cutting paper to size for origami projects. I am currently going crazy making stars. It is almost like making a thousand cranes. But, since each star is made from 5 modules, maybe I’ll only make 200  Actually, I am not counting and I keep giving them away. Making stars is just amusing me right now. 

Another hot day. But, the A/C kept perking along. And, I got a lot done on my service project here at The Asylum. 

Carlton has been dead for almost 5 years. But he still lives in my head. He had been reminding me that our country survived Warren G Harding, Andrew Johnson, and James Buchanan. But lately, he has been reminding me of John Brown and the note that he passed to his jailer on the morning of his hanging.

I John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land: will never be purged away; but with Blood. I had as I now think: vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed; it might be done.

And, Carlton, I miss you. But, you got out in time. You could still do almost everything you wanted to. And, the human race hadn’t gone to hell. I can still do almost everything I want to do. But, I have to watch our country, indeed our world disintegrate. 

And on that cheery note. A couple from Dubai. One up top and the B/W below.

Just a month ago, I was in Edinburgh. Wearing all the clothes that I had with me on my trip. And now I am back in the Old Bat Cave where it is so hot that bugs are sticking on the windows just to cool off. Bugs rarely bother to fly up to the 11th floor. But, not today. Guess that 35-year-old windows leak plenty of cool air. 

Went to a 265th Birthday Party this afternoon. Kind of spooky when it only takes 3 friends to make 265 years. 

The handwriting is on the wall. This isn’t the 2nd half. This is sudden-death overtime. Nobody is promised tomorrow.

So, eat the cake, buy the shoes, take the trip.

Oh, and I managed to exist nicely for an entire week without Facebook. Does FB make my life better? Does social media make us better or happier people?  

Toasty. Very Toasty.

Us old people are huddled around our A/C units. Alternately chanting incantations to the HVAC Gods to keep the cool air coming and remembering way back before home air conditioning. When folk went to the movies to cool off in the summer. Thank you, Willis Carrier. (He frequently called A/C “manufactured weather”.)

The neighbor young people are out and doing things.

My camera is still set to take pictures of the light show that I can not see on the Washington Monument.  So I just pointed it around the ‘hood for all of today’s shots.

 

Carlton got a new crown less than 4 months before he died. I bet that he is still pissed about that.  I am not so sure that I new crown is all that great of an investment for me either. Goodness knows that I don’t do much to take care of myself. And my relatives aren’t especially long-lived and I put a lot of hard miles on the old body. Oh well, if I live 5 more years – then the new crown will end up costing about 75 cents per day. Guess I can afford that.

Heatwave underway here in the east. That is why I have decided to think Celsius. 35° just seems cooler than 95°.

Oh, and the Washington Monument light show. I can see the west and south sides of the monument and the show is on the east side. Not fair.

I was thinking about Dubai and Singapore today. It was well over 90° when I was coming home today. It wasn’t as hot as Dubai – but definitely as hot as Singapore. There is an infinity pool on top of the Sands Hotel. Next time, I might spend the night there just so I can see it.

The trick will be staying awake until 9:30 to see it.  I’ll ask Alexa to remind me to look out the window at 9:30.