one from the vault – last october – jackson street
Best ever “Newcomers Meeting” this afternoon. I slept right through it. No, I didn’t actually fall asleep in the meeting. I curled up for a little nap in the OBC – and when I woke up – the Newcomers Meeting was over.
I really am trying to fit in here at the asylum. But, fitting in was never my best trick. Setting the woods on fire. That would be me.
My scariest Halloween trick was setting the Airness up so it can pretend to be my Windows computer at the hospital. Absolutely spooky to hear my beloved Mac make the Windows 7 startup chirp.
Resolved the discontent. Retail therapy. Took a twenty dollar bill into Goodwill and did lots of looking – picked up a “new” scarf and paid for all the stuff the woman behind me in line had in her cart. Donated the change to Goodwill.
Came home by buses. Did laundry and picked up a Neiman Marcus Xmas Catalog. Which I plan to take with me on the plane.
Retail therapy. I don’t have to actually get more stuff. I just have to be able to get more stuff. To know that there is stuff out there just waiting for me.
Mr C used to talk about “unresolved discontent”. Not sure what that is – but from time to time he would tell me that was what was “wrong” with me. I would say that I am just being mopey for no apparent reason.
Mopey started last night when they ran out of salted caramel cheesecake and coffee at dinner. They offered decaf and canned peaches as an alternative. I think I was just looking for something to be grumpy about. Had a fine breakfast on the outside with Carlton’s last tennis opponent. Eggs Benedict with salmon. The ‘Skins eked out a victory. Nevertheless the mopes returned.
I’ll snap out of this. Maybe even tomorrow. If not tomorrow, then when the plane goes wheels up – on Friday. No percentage in moping around.
Looked out my window – and what did I see? My neighbors playing croquet!
Maybe I am getting old. Maybe. 90 minute yoga class and a 2 mile walk leaves me in dire need of a nap. So, I napped.
Note to Carlton: I think you would like it here at the asylum. For one thing, you would have a whole new audience for your stories and jokes. You never liked to eat “out”. I am not too sure how you would have dealt with eating in the dining rooms. I might have had to go get takeout for us every night. Which wouldn’t have been a huge hardship, since in the evenings – one waits for takeout orders in the saloon.
Anyhow, Mr C… all of us widow women are grateful to our men who made it possible for us to live in relative luxury. In fact, there is a little undercurrent of guilt around here. We know that we are very fortunate.
Croquet on the lawn, maid service, happy hour in the saloon, lagniappe soft-serve ice cream 24/7, good enough lagniappe wine with dinner… The coffee leaves much to be desired. It isn’t perfect here. But it is very good.
My old apartment building had a Starbucks on the ground floor. The asylum has a church. Well, maybe it is a “chapel”. What is the difference between a “church” and a “chapel”? I feel sure that one of my chaplain friends will enlighten me. All things considered – Starbucks is better.
Just messing aRoundWaiting for the 25B
Mentally – I am already in Kona. Just gotta get the body over there!
Took the day off from work. Mostly to finish up loose ends from the move. Decided that I don’t want to come back home in March and still have to deal with move stuff. The asylum thrift shop accepts donations for a couple of hours every month. This morning was one of those times. I went down to my storage unit and took everything – except a box of papers – to the thrift shop. I didn’t even look at the stuff.
Then I walked to the post office to get a flat rate box and some envelops. It was about a mile – but without such amenities as sidewalks. I never had to actually walk on the highway – I walked through gas stations, stip malls and weedy fields. It wasn’t all waste land. One of the stip malls had a Trader Joe. I wandered around – admiring all things pumpkin.
Think I have figured out dining at the asylum.
Breakfast is a fine meal – most people don’t eat breakfast – so it isn’t crowded. And most of residents just mind their own business and read their papers and eat their food. However, most days I leave at 6AM for the office – and breakfast starts at 7:30
Lunch is good – if you wait until 1:30 or so.
Dinner is a zoo. There is the dress code issue in the “formal” dining room. I haven’t figured out how to get an acceptable table even when I get in.
The “informal” dining room has the potential for better food. But, it is crowded, noisy and you frequently end up at large table with 7 of your new best friends.
However, the secret seems to be to land in the “informal” dining room between 6:50 and 7:00 – they stop serving at 7. But if you sneak in under the wire – most everyone is finishing up. Of course, they might have run out of what you want – but, it is a chance I am willing to take. Especially on “free wine” nights.
And, $5 gets me room service.
This might all change over the next four months while I am off to the beach. And, if that is so, I’ll just sort things out again.
Walked home from work today. That would be 3.2 miles. And, I wandered past a fine ginkgo tree. Love ginkgo trees. They turn a splendid yellow in the fall. This one has split lob leaves that look like yellow butterflies. But, most interestingly – the ginkgo is a living fossil, with fossils recognisably related to modern ginkgo dating back 270 million years.
Glad that Joe Biden decided not to run. A good and decent man. Much too nice a man to enter the lists.
Lessons I need to learn. Dementia. I have more than a few neighbors who are heading down the dementia road. These people are still charmingly social. THey still live in their own apartments – not in Alzheimer’s Lock Up. They just have ZERO short term – as in the last 60 seconds – memory. They will ask you the same question over and over again. And, each time you answer – it is all new information to them.
What is it like – inside their brains? We can imagine blind by closing our eyes. We can imagine deaf by stopping up our ears. We can even ride around in a wheelchair and experience physical frailty. But how can we comprehend what it is like to sink into the the abyss of increasing mental frailty?
Living in the asylum – opens up different avenues of wonder.
Busy day. Busy at work, then I hit the buses to get to and from my doctor. My glucose level was a little high in the spring. I think it was caused by having a lot of brown sugar with a little oatmeal before my appointment. We’ll see when the numbers come in tomorrow.
I was glad to toddle into the OBC in the late afternoon. The fitbit was happy. I was tired.
Lots of roses around the asylum. It was 35 degrees this morning – so I imagine the roses will be ending soon. Maybe they will last until I leave of Kona.
Called the hotel this morning and talked to my friend the night auditor. She signed me in from October 30 to March 2.
Feeling a little strange since I dropped my financial stuff off at the CPA’s office. For two years I worried about and took care of Carlton. And, for the last 12 months, I worried about and attended to the widow woman paperwork and I downsized and moved into the Asylum. And now, I don’t have any of those things left to do. Heck, I don’t have to clean, change sheets, grocery shop or cook either.
Now I realize why they have so many activities at the asylum. Don’t want to have 500 old people with nothing to do but look for things to complain about.
Last time I felt like this was waaaay back in the early 90’s when I shuttered my consulting business. I sort of bounced aimlessly around. Then, Carlton and I went on a winter road trip to Key West.
We spend a couple of weeks in a seedy motel in Key Largo on that trip. There was a resident parrot.
Anyhow, something snapped inside of me on that trip – and was able to slide into our strange retirement. I am hoping that I winter in Kona will help me slip into my new old bat life.
Yesterday, I had breakfast with one of the oldest residents. He was born in 1911. Do the math. He lives in “assisted living” but still makes it to the regular dining room for most meals. One day there was a bit of a kerfuffle when he showed up for lunch. Seems like he had already had lunch. Someone said “He is 105 years old – let him eat lunch again if he wants to”. He was a physician. You wouldn’t want him doing brain surgery. But, he can carry on a modest conversation. I am not counting on being here in 2048. Damn, that is f-ing scarey. Still being here in the OBC or the assisted living OBC in 2048. Nobody is promised tomorrow. The trouble is – we think we have time.
El Capitan seems to be doing fine on the Airness. I love the expanding cursor. (I am fairly superficial.) I cleaned out my application folder too. If I didn’t remember what the app did – out it went. Some things like “Garage Band” went out just on general principle.
The clouds were practicing for winter today. Summer clouds are all fuzzy and fluffy puffy. With the occasional thunderhead. Winter clouds are more sinister, stuffed with snow and freezing rain.
At this instant, El Capitan is installing on the airness. Hopefully, it will go nicely.
iOS9 seems to be playing nice with the iPad.
Now, question is, should I leave the airness home and just wing it for 4 months with just an iPad.
El Capitan wants me. Hope to post from the airness tomorrow.
The boss and me: wearing our 10 year anniversary shirts. Now, we just have to make it through the next 14 days – we’ll be trying to get 4,000 employees, contractors, doctors, and volunteers flu shots. My job is record keeping. It used to be just the two of us – boss gave shots and I entered data in the computer. Now we have a host of nurses to give shots and they are all armed with “point of sale” iPads and badge scanners to capture data. I “just” have to keep the technology going these days.
Weather is getting cooler. So, I was out and about today looking for fall colors. Not much yet.
looking for autumn
About this Lamar Odom character… man runs up $75,000 tab in a whore house – and is found unconsious – and people are surprised???
Updated my iPad to iOS9. The Phone is still waiting for Marshmellow. Have to seek out better internet before moving the Airness to El Capitan.
And for your viewing pleasure (weather permitting): On Saturday morning – October 17, 2015 – Mars and Jupiter conjunction. It hasn’t happened since July 22, 2013. The next conjunction of Mars and Jupiter won’t be until January 7, 2018. So, if you are up early. Look up.
