life in the old lane

Sort of a chilly damp late spring day today. But, always trying to keep us amused, management has hired some “professionals” to make an infomercial or something about Life at The Asylum. We are amused. How many old men wear sports coats to breakfast? People have been known to show up for breakfast in their bathrobes. Word is that the actors later moved into the saloon where the ladies put on heels and they all stood around drinking colorful umbrella drinks. 

(I snark at “professional” because I see that the seat cushions are not tied to the chairs. Pretty sloppy.)

This doesn’t look like any breakfast I have ever had at the Asylum. They seem to have placemats. And salt and pepper shakers. For the last 10 days or so, we have been getting salt in little packages because – our salt shakers are infested with ants. Maybe the pepper shakers are infested also. But we couldn’t actually see the ants in the pepper. 

Good news, the naggy Gmail problem with “my” system isn’t fixable but the workaround works.

Note to Carlton: We have a new daughter-in-law! And, their wedding was smaller and cheaper than ours was. I know that you will approve of that. I hope they will be as happy as we were.

I think that my vendor tech support came up with a work-around for our Gmail delivery problems. I am happy with a workaround. I don’t know if the users will be happy. But, that really isn’t my problem. 

Today’s fitness activity. 37-minute 2.26mile walk. Average 16.4-minute mile. Rather a lot uphill.  Seemed like more uphill than downhill. But, I think it was about even. It is giving me a good solid 30 minutes of cardio. 

Summer seems to have arrived. Or maybe it is just testing. The 10-day forecast has some 60s in it. 

Mostly today I rested. I did 2.2 miles in 38 minutes. Lightning-fast 17-minute miles! I walked to the farmers market – where I purchased nothing – and then rode the bus back to The Asylum. No need to overdo it. 

Late this afternoon, I earned a bunch of chocolate chip cookies by editing and packaging a birthday greeting video for a friend. My rate is 5 cookies per hour.

Happy to see the French election seems to be going the correct way.

Worked on my system Gmail problem this morning. Well, let’s just say I ran some scenarios to provide more info to the vendor tech support folks. 

While that was going on, I did laundry. I now have 20 days of clean underdrawers. So, no need to wash again any time soon!

Had a little lunch and went for a 40-minute walk. Covered 2.30 miles.  I need to do this every day so I’ll be ready for Europe. Four weeks from now, I will be in London. Time to consider making a to-do list, a packing list, and finish the where and when list. But, there are still serious blanks on my where and when list. 

Old friend from Kona had a fatal car accident earlier this year. His over-the-top celebration was yesterday. I bet it is still going on today.

The was even a lifesize cutout of Bucky out by the front gate. Glad I saw Bucky last winter. Nobody is promised tomorrow.

Went 10 rounds with my hospital computer system today. At about 4 PM I threw in the towel and retreated to my “bedroom”.  When a big fat noisy crow lands right by my newly vacated desk chair. Too defeated by my system to make it off the bed. But, the trusty phone did a pretty good job. And, at least this one didn’t rip out the screen like one did last summer. Should I be careful about leaving my window open? 

We are supposed to get new windows this summer. I feel very sorry for the company that “won” the contract to put new windows in 300 or so apartments occupied by old people.  Thinking that it might happen in my apartment while I am in Europe. Which is good and bad. 

Hey, how about a little chlorophyll?

So what’s wrong with my hospital computer system? It is having a feud with Gmail. For almost 10 years they played nice together. No more. 

For Earth Day, The Asylum served OK smoothies. In single-use plastic polystyrene #6 cups.

A nice almost “normal” day today. Went to barre class. Then I took as much stuff as I could manage on the bus to the Goodwill. I could manage 2 stuffed shopping bags. Mostly clothes. No longer age-appropriate clothes.  No longer loved clothes. Clothes that don’t fit my lifestyle. And, I had to bring home a few “new” items from Goodwill. It was just good to do something “normal”. 

After lunch, I got an email from the office saying that some of the automated emails were not getting through. I think that I may have been able to recreate the problem with one of my own email accounts. Will have to play around with it tomorrow. 

And, I had dinner with my friends. Wine = “free”, food = “OK”, company = “great”.  

Got back to my walking program today after a two-day break. 

Also made some progress on the quilt repair project.

I really hope that the interior squares are not as damaged as the edges are. I really haven’t looked too carefully. 

Today’s big event is a birthday party. It hasn’t happened yet. Birthdays are as important to old women as they are to 8-year-olds girls. 

Went to 2 count’em 2 committee meetings this afternoon. I was just auditing the meetings. I am old enough to know not to be on any committees. 

All in all, a very mellow day.

“We must all either wear out or rust out, every one of us. My choice is to wear out.” — Theodore Roosevelt

Watching some of the elders tottle around the dining facility this evening, TR’s words rang in my ears. (along with the tinnitus). TR made it to 60 and he packed a whole lot into those years. 

 

Once again, just like in real life, I forgot Mr. C’s birthday. He would have been 87 on April 17. And, I am pretty sure that he would not enjoy being 87. Especially since civilization and civility have taken a huge step backward since he last played on planet earth. 

It’s funny. I really do still think of him as 78 or so. I can not imagine what an 87-year-old Carlton would have been like. But, I can not imagine what an 87-year-old Peg will be like either. But, I doubt that there will be an 87-year-old Peg.  And that is most likely a good thing. Nobody is promised tomorrow. 

Worked on the quilt repair project some today. I have now repaired 7 of 56 squares. Now I am binding the edge that I just finished. Normal process would be to do all the binding after all the repairs are done. But, I am thinking that the binding is going to be very tedious – so – I am doing the edges first as they are the most damaged – and am going to bind them as I finish an edge.

We had a damn good run. 

Still trying to figure out how I got so old. This isn’t what I expected. But, the White Star Line wasn’t expecting icebergs in the major shipping lanes either. 

Trying to whip my old self into shape for my trip to Europe. There is a huge fall-off in stamina in the 70s. At least that is my experience. I am pretty sure that 2 years of Covid exacerbated the decline. But, I am going to try to claw back a little stamina. What do I really want to improve/maintain? Walking like a real person at a moderate pace, not a shuffle. Able to stand without looking for a chair after 15 minutes.  The goal for next week is to get in at least 2 miles of continuous “perky” walking every day. I can walk a mile from The Asylum and come back. Or I can walk 2 miles and catch a bus home. Or I can do two laps around my “regular” one-mile neighborhood loop. I just have to do it. 

Did 2.25 miles today. And I played with the camera along the way. 

We don’t have any real waterfalls around here to try the long exposure stunt.

This long exposure looks rather like ice or jello. Not a good look. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. 

 

On this day, absolutely nothing of consequence happened in my life. Of course, there are 6 hours left in the day.

Nothing of consequence happening is not a bad thing in my world. 

I did get a ticket to fly home from Frankfort on June 16. Why Frankfort? I don’t have a good answer. It’s easy to get to the airport by train. Now I have a 6-day chunk between the garden tour and the canal boat and a 5-day chunk after the canal boat.