Typical October Autumn

It seems this time last year the weather prophets were telling us all to prepare for the next storm of the century.  Good thing they had so many film titles to inspire their stories.  Perhaps they can just dust off the tapes or DVDs from last time and take the coming week off. 

Here in Land Oh Lincoln we will deal with residual frozen and rainy days for the next week or so.  The Buckeye Brother tells me he is not doing any preparations at all.  He lives on the edge.  This is a guy who continues to blow his fallen leaves into the nearby woods.  I adore his chutzpah.  Baby Sister has already dusted off her generators and stocked up on toilet paper, water and any other essentials.  She has children and a castle to protect; so she takes this seriously.  I adore her practicality.

And of course those Easterners have some serious weather stuff to deal with.

Old folks here at Elder House are scared.  Nobody has money or food at the end of the month.  Most have already had their obligatory visits with relatives.  Hopefully the hired help and charity service people will take up the slack for the seriously needy.  I've made a crock pot of pork roast and defrosted several extra loaves of bread.  Most of us intend to share.  I'm short on candles if it matters.

Meanwhile...mood indigo is another way to ride out a storm.

6:26 PM

Two perfect days here in the Midwest.

Both days had glorious special breezes (required for swell weather).  Leaf breezes.  Grass breezes.  Sifting evergreen into the windows breezes.  Even the ridiculous squirrels were stopping and popping on the sidewalk breezes.

The sky on both days were worth writing home about.  But, less admit it, sky blue in and of itself isn't something special.  There are a jillions blue shades that I prefer.  Cobalt.  Turquoise.  Cerulean.  Beany Malone bed room walls.  My grandchildren's eyes.
But when the sky has the cloudy condiments in the usual blue it is damn well acceptable.

Yesterday was a sweet shopping day.  Found each item:  wooden clothes pins, the blue toilet tank bowl freshener, hot Oke Doke cheese popcorn, votive candles, key lime yoghurt, and the giant coral cactus I've been scouting for two months.  Such a happy girl.

AND... I got to drive myself home in my precious Ancient Vehicle with two new tires!

Today I replanted plants.  Met the PT chap.  Spoke to five (FIVE!) of my favorite peoples.  Watched the Children Parade which I've missed this summer.  Made an almost perfect tuna sandwich.  Realized how lucky I am to have the daughters, friends and grandchildren that I have.  Especially today I am grateful

Oh, it got dark at 6:26 pm.  If it stayed a bit lighter a bit longer....oh, yeah... I'm focusing on gratitude.

Turned Around

Big Box trip today took waaaaaaaay longer than usual; and so I was done IN by the time I got home.  Cranked up the fan and stretched my achin' self down on the shabby bed.  No need for AC for once thank god!  Read some Alther for awhile and then had to doze.

Please note:  I had not freezer-ized of fridge-ized any of those items because my intention was to DOZE (as in 15 minutes of energizing snoozing) and then pop up all refreshed.  OK that didn't quite happen.  I slept for three hours!!!  Which is SO not me.

Luckily everything had been double bagged and was still chilled enough so that I didn't have any unsightly drips to clean up (which is nigh onto impossible for moi') and I felt safe and comfortable that my yoghurt wasn't spoiled.  BB doesn't always have the thick cherry version I crave.  I probably would have eaten it even if I had found it boiling on my kitchen counter.  Nyet!  All was well.

So, I get up and stash almost everythin' and settle down for a smidge of trolling before serious paperwork I should have finished earlier this afternoon.  And on an interior design site I find the following:

Okay, OK even I recognised Amy Winehouse and I know a bit of her back story and all that, but I never really listened to much of her stuff.  Shame on me.  And, OK I admit I can only decipher about a third of the words to this song; but I tells ya' IT DON'T MATTER!!!  Clearly the girl had great musical chops and I apparently missed it.

Now I've got to stay awake and spend the night with the late Ms. Winehouse on YouTube.

Do you realize what this is going to do to my tomorrow???!!!  Sheez.

Ridiculosity

This week I finally decided to purchase a little red rock.  I had saved up sufficient pennies and located the exact item at the Big Box website.  I even called the store itself to ensure the red rock I had in mind was available.  All good.  Go for launch.

What do you think happened?

In the red rock aisle I found box after box of sparkly rocks and battery operated rocks and rocks with all manner of attachments.  None of which I desired or intended to pay for.  When I finally located a Big Box employee she suggested I try the low tech red rock aisle.  So I did.

What do you think happened?

No red rocks at all.  Stretchy rocks.  Bendy rocks.  Rocks with extra long handles.  But nary a plain red rock.  Ah, well.  I chalked it up on the ever growing list of disappointed shopping experiences and went to the grocery departments.

Waited several days.  Armed with a bit more patience and a view of the actual website listing of the desired red rock I phoned the store again.  Spoke to the red rock department manager.  She said:  "We have it on the shelf.  I am looking at it."  I jokingly requested that she save it for me.  Could she put it at the service desk?  No.  Hide it behind some other rock containers?  No.  Okey Dokey.  I saddled up for another trek.

What do you think happened?

In the red rock aisle.  Same snazzy rocks as before.  Not the rock I was promised.  Shanghaied a Big Box employee (a man this time) told him my tale of woe and he ASSURED  me he would personally place the red rock in my hands.  Back to the same aisle where he proudly lifts one of the battery operated rocks and turns to me,  "There you go!"

After I explained yet again that I did not want THAT rock, after I described the rock I was ASSURED was in stock, and after I restrained myself from ripping out his larynx; I listened in astonishment while he explained that they could not order the rock I hoped for unless they already had the actual rock.

What do you think happened?

I leaped over the scooter basket and pummeled the guy and his sparkly rock into a bloody pulp and left him to die on the floor.  Well, not really.  But I did choose my words VERY carefully.  "You are the Big Box for god's sake!  You are the KINGS of the department store world!  If you can't sell me a simple red rock then you are a bunch of goddam fakes who should be ashamed of yourselves!"  Then I spun around in the electric cart and drove away.

This is my vow:  I WILL find and purchase the red rock in question.  Then I will bash in the head of each Big Box employee in my path who made this transaction so goddam ridiculously complicated.

Caint

All shampooed and showered and off to the Big Box.  The beets I grew as foliage (and stunning foliage it was!) are finally spent and so I decided to treat myself to some potted herbs.  Rosemary for chicken.  Sage to make fake sausage of ground turkey.  Mint because it has one of the best, cleanest fragrances in the flora kingdom.  And because I think I'm going to add fresh mint to some of my new smoothies

Replenishing yoghurt and cheese when I happen upon tubes of chorizo.  Reasonably priced and within reach of my gimpified self.  When I was a young married, I used to shop at a teeny Mexican grocery.  There was an actual butcher.  He'd hack off a chunk of ground chuck and a half pound lump of chorizo and grind them together before my very eyes.  Made the best grilling burgers I have ever tasted.

Since then I have read Eating Animals and learned how the last edible dregs are literally exploded off a hog's face.  It's a hideous procedure and the men (and it was always men in the book) get sick and die or get killed when the machine, with its many knives, misfires.  I have also learned from Hannibal Rising that cheek meat of any beast is the most tender.

So......in the aisle, at the Big Box, I turned over the chorizo tubes and actually dared to read the ingredient list.  "Pork salivary glands, lymph nodes, and cheek meat."  Uh Oh.

These might be delicacies in other cultures or on other planets, but I very nearly retched.  I replaced the tubes of alleged human food (yes, my perception changed that quickly) and I sped off.  God bless the electric carts.


Cheese and crackers for me tonight, thanks.

Government Math

LINK benefits have been recalculated for the poor here at Elder House.  For you lucky 1%, LINK is the current incarnation of the Food Stamp Program.  Most  benefits were reduced; however one lady told me hers was raised to $106.58 per month.  Her medical expenses went way up and so her food benefit was readjusted.  That's not going to help her cancer get any better, but at least she might not starve.

Anyway, that sounded like a lot of money.  So I tried to calculate just what she could purchase with that amount.  For a breakfast of two slices of toast with cream cheese and jam, one container of yoghurt, and a home brewed coffee: $2.73.  Lunch of a homemade tuna sandwich (no lettuce, pickles, or cheese) and a glass of water (from the tap, not purchased): $1.73.  A dinner meal consisting of one sixth of a pasta, canned salmon, and mayo casserole: $.79.  Total expense: $5.21 for the day.

That sounds really economical.  No fruit or fresh vegetables.  No milk.  Not a whole lot of protein.  No variety.  No treats of any kind. And no leftovers. 

If my friend absolutely, positively sticks to this menu she will spend about $145.88 for the month.  See the problem?  She cannot afford even this austere menu AND she will be malnourished in the bargain.

LINK benefits do not allow an individual any wiggle room.  There is no way to stock up on a bargain; soup at fifty cents a can is a great deal.  What other item could she sacrifice?  She can switch from cream cheese to food pantry peanut butter and hope that she's here the day the guy shows up with free bread.  No brand name products ever.  A one pound bag of rice or pasta can stretch quite a way.  Imagine it with no butter, no sauce, no spices, and nothing 'on the side'.  Food boredom is not allowed for the poor.

This woman worked all her life and now is literally starving most days.  Multiply that by a majority of the other tenants and that's a lot of hungry people.  LINK and food pantries and sharing with each other are the strategies they use to stay marginally nourished.  I know this to be true, even though I am not starving.  What this knowledge has done is made me far less critical.

If I see a woman with a LINK card purchasing sugar sweetened Kool Aid and beef jerky, my bet is that those are the few goodies she and her kids will  taste that month.  I do not begrudge her that small amount splurged on junk food.  And I am ashamed of anyone who would.  Not unless they have also protested the bank bailouts and defense department overspending that is.

Big Box Adventures

I saw a woman in a slinky backed black sweater eating a bowl of cereal.  Not a teeny sample cup.  A regular sized bowl I think she must have brought from home (or maybe not).  She had an opened  carton of milk and one of those giant economy bags of multi-colored cereal (the kind kids are admonished not to eat) wedged in her cart.  She very happily munched and strolled the frozen food section.  When I checked out I spied her at the haircut counter.  No sign of cereal, milk, or bowl. Her purse wasn't that big.  I wonder what she did with the leftovers.

I saw raisin bread that had been marked up $.48 a loaf since the last time.  Seriously?  Is there some kind of shriveled fruit shortage?  Shriveled fruit boycott?  Do I have to switch brands?  But, no, the competitor's brand had the same jacked up price.  I must have discovered a raisin bread cartel!  This should be an election issue.

I saw the cashier with the horrible/pitiful facial disfigurement.  What courage it must have taken to simply apply for a job in the public eye.  I applaud her and defend her right to be there.  However, and this may get me drawn and quartered, she's not a very good cashier.  She is slow, easily distracted, makes mistakes, and is not very polite.

I saw the zebra striped washcloths and FINALLY bought them!

I saw the sweet cart guy, who I'm beginning to believe is deaf.  If he's there he always fetches a cart for me as I hobble into the store.  If he sees me coming out he hands me bags as I load the backseat.  He has a terrific smile and his face is almost always chapped red in the cold.  He wears a really big coat.