lively

Partied last night with Sam Buffington in episode "Trojan Horse", then with Angela Stevens in episode "Female Hitchhiker".

I dodged the bullet this time, as we soon headed into town. Felt better on the road. After Mary picked up her watch at the jeweler's, we lunched at Wendy's using coupons that just arrived in the mail. Kid's meal, four tiny chicken nuggets and fries, for me. Cheeseburger and fries for Mary.

George came early with more beans from his garden. Left me with a check from Equi-Tech for Mother. Filling out the deposit slip later, I felt a case of nerves coming on. Mary couldn't understand it, until I explained that it reminded me of the larger problem. It is like when she sees snakes on the TV. They are not real, only images. But, she closes her eyes or leaves the room nevertheless. In my case, I can't close my eyes or leave. And, when Mother's bank statement arrives, I have to stair into the face of the snake for hours.



In Walmart, we ran into nephew Stuart's Tiffany. She was shopping on her break from work at the dentist office. We told how much we missed seeing their Hudson. She agreed to bring him over to our house, though I doubt she follows through. We discussed Stuart's birthday today. She will have a German chocolate cake for him at their place. I didn't manage to wrangle an invitation. That's the way she is.


Back home, Mary and I had coffees, then set up the Samsung C350 Series S24C350HL 23.6-Inch Screen LED-Lit Monitor we bought at Walmart to replace the old glitchy one. Took us a while. Nice wide screen with 1920x1080 resolution makes organizing photos a lot easier. Maybe I'll upgrade my emachines a little later to go with it.


After supper, we had a surprise visit from nephew Joel and his niece Leah. Brought us okra from George's garden.:-) Leah enjoyed one of our peaches.


We had to hold on tight to Leah. She was as lively as ever.

Been a good day.

76.3 °F, clear.

care

Two Advil PMs last night. Slept with a patch. Soreness mostly gone this morning. Googled it up. Called "clenched jaw pain". Caused by stress. No big surprise there.

Stress affects the body in many ways. All bad. I'd always figured on death by gradual suffocation. Now, I wonder if stress won't get me first.

Mary: Treatment in Yellow

Hotdogs and peach wedges for lunch. Taking care of myself. Careful chewing.

We did our Walmart thing. Gas and groceries. The sun came out.

We watched The Last Stand (2013) from Netflix. Spanish language option. Arnold Schwarzenegger delivers. Bad guys. Good guys. Action to improbable extremes. In short, Mary loved it.

Skipped my after supper nuts. May skip the party popcorn. Taking care of myself.

80.1 °F, clear.

Flextor

The sun never showed its face today. But, that's alright.


Poached flounder for lunch, with stewed rutabaga, tomato and steamed asparagus in some kind of phony Szechuan sauce.

Been researching mobility scooters all afternoon on the internet, emailing the results to Ellen Scott of Tennessee Brace in Fayetteville. Looks like what I want is the modern successor to my old Pacesaver Jr. It's called the Pacesaver Plus III Jr. Made in the U.S., so it costs double what the usual made in China scooter does, but it's what fits my needs best.

Yesterday, Mary put one of the Flextor patches on my jaw, just in front of my right ear. Dr. Tidmore had given me samples to use on my lower arm. Bottom line, today the pain has gone away. Woo hoo.

73.4 °F, overcast.

steamy

Partied with Ruta Lee last night. Episode "Armored Car". Immensely likable, Lee stayed busy throughout her career, but never quite attained star status.


I woke up this morning with a rapid pulse. Big belch and it slowed. Strange.

Another steamy day. I couldn't take much sun.


Lunch was George's corn, squash, tomato and beans, together with more pork chops. Mary cooked the corn as per George's instructions: two ears in shuck, five minutes in the microwave. Worked very well.

We watched Jack Reacher (2012) from Netflix. Spanish language option. Tom Cruise supplied us with two hours of adequate action/suspense.

Grandson Johnny has been Skyping me on the iPhone during the day. Wants to get back onto his old Warcraft account. Abuelo would have to pay, of course.

82.9 °F, mostly cloudy.

kisses and hugs

In a fair mood this morning when Deborah brought Mother for her weekly visit. Relief when there was no mention of cds or checks.

Delores called, in a state. Marion had insisted this morning on moving his tractor. She was scared of what more he might attempt, as she needed to go to Fayetteville on some legal business. Hinted that I go over and babysit. Eventually accepted my suggestion that I call him and invite him to let her bring him over here.

I called. Marion didn't sound good at all. Certainly in no mood to my house. I didn't press him. Felt bad afterwards. But, if Mary and I left Mother here and drove over to his house, he'd know Delores arranged it. Not good.

Big juicy pork chop for lunch, with sweet potato, tomato and George's snap beans. Yum.


Our scheduled game of rummy was interrupted by a visit from brother George. He had been to Ethridge earlier and brought back tomatoes, yellow squash and corn for us. :-)

After Deborah picked up Mother, they were to go by Marion's to see how he was doing. That was some comfort.

After Mother left, I helped Mary buy grandson Johnny's ticket back home. Jet Blue. Bogota to Orlando for the 25th. $445. She's supposed to reimburse me. I know how that goes. Kisses and hugs.

124 lbs.

82.4 °F, clear.

nice guy

Partied with Rhodes Reason and a 1956 Buick Special last night. Episode "Motel Robbery".

Festivities concluded with Adolf Hitler - The greatest story Never told ! The Truth about WW2 on YouTube, a series of videos portraying Der Führer as actually a right nice guy once you get to know him. Weird, but fascinating. Lights out at 3:15 am.



For lunch today, we each had a chicken drumstick, a spicy cheese tamale and mixed steamer vegetables. Guava juice on the side.

Nephew Todd brought his sister Denise & her Leah over on the golf cart. It took all four of us adults to keep up with Leah Marie. Her specialty nowadays is remote controls and cell phones.

Brother George has been bush hogging Mother's near front field, evicting a family of rabbits from their home in the process. Stopped to chat me up a bit while I was down at the outpost. We avoided heavy topics.

81.3 °F, clear.

dodging

Managed to dodge harsh realties all day.

Antonio was blocked from accessing his account at First National online. The computer would issue a code to Antonio, which he would enter into his cell phone. He had five minutes to do it.

The problem arose from Antonio being in Bogota. It was complicated by the need for Larry Lance at the bank up here to perform the routine using his cell phone that was already in the system. Antonio could not communicate with Lance in a timely fashion. This morning, he asked Mary and me to help by contacting Larry Lance at the bank.

After a frustrating eternity of going back and forth between Antonio and Lance in Spanish and English, I began to understand the crux of the matter. I had Lance enter Mary's phone number into the system and let him go back to his business. Mary and I would use two telephones, Mary's cell phone to communicate with Antonio ready at his computer in Bogota, mine to obtain the code at this end and give it to Antonio on my phone.

The bank security program now had Mary's phone number. Uh oh. Big mistake. Only Mary's cell phone could access Mary's long distance carrier Boss Revolution for calling Colombia. She, therefore, brought me the AT&T land line phone for me to use with her old calling card. That card couldn't be used with my cell phone. Good. Now all we had to do was enter several series of numbers to use the old card. Aaagh!

There I was, with a phone in each hand, talking to and listening to Antonio, in Spanish, on one side, interacting with an automated banking system, in English, on the other side. Two layers of security. Five minutes to get it done.

I did it.

Afterwards, I caught my breath. Mary went to the bathroom. I surprised myself by giving out a little chuckle. From the bathroom came another chuckle. Soon, we were laughing uncontrollably. Felt good.

In the midst of all the confusion, Victor Amaya showed up. He may have been glad when he received a call summoning him back home post-haste.


Mary and I had cod-fish for lunch, with stewed jicama, plantain and a mixed vegetable steamer. guava juice on the side.


Time for a little sun and breeze. First thing was to snap one of the hibiscus flowers. The plant had begun to bloom Tuesday before last, but no good shots.


Mary beckoned me down near the field. There were white objects that had caught her attention from afar. Turned out to be mushrooms. Some rather large.


She did some weeding in the flower beds. I tagged along.


She worked until it was time to cool off with popsicles.

Been a full day.

76.5 °F, clear. (Frankewing)