Sunday, May 31, 2020
Sheets And Sense
Changed the sheets and did a wash in the morning. Walked over to Von's after, at which point, Betty called. This time she lost her keys, BUT while we were on the phone, she found her ring, so that was good.
Home and I did yet another puzzle--the family crest:
Home and I did yet another puzzle--the family crest:
I put it on Facebook, but as I still don't know how to copy and save directly, I had to take a picture with my phone, "share" it to my email, then save from there. Went across to Von's for cottage cheese. I was annoyed that their sale on raw shrimp was only on Friday, and I didn't buy any.
Ellen and I connected on Zoom at 2:00. We were on for about two hours, which was such a pleasure. I saw the precious kitties; those shy little things who hid under the bed are now practically bonsai warriors, jumping up on things, rushing around, and attacking anything that isn't nailed down. One of them likes to walk on the laptop keys, which I witnessed yesterday.
My Internet carrier is crappy, I'm afraid, and kept pausing, which has happened before. El remedied that problem by asking me to mute the laptop and just use speaker on my phone. However, it also kept sending the message, "Your (something) connection is (something"), meaning I was just limping along.
As for her being able to connect to a YouTube video to show her class, we're not sure if that's going to work okay or not. I plan to call Yandoo Communications tomorrow to see if I can get my service upgraded.
After, I bused to town. Bought a good hat--cloth, which I wanted, and a neck flap in the back that can be lowered. Also bought two DVDs: The Sixth Sense and Jane Austen's Sense And Sensibility*--very different genres, but I like them both.
When I got back to the Transit Center, I went to Target for blueberries, so I didn't get home until 6:30. For some reason, I wasn't hungry, so just had some of the slow cooker carrots I had made the other day.
At my usual T.V. viewing hour, I watched The Sixth Sense. Enjoyed it as I had years ago at the movies and this time, consciously evaluated the writing, directing, effects,and editing--all good, the last a little choppy. The acting seemed superb, but with that subject matter, what professional wouldn't be in his element?
*It just now occurred to me both titles include the word "sense." Could that mean I'm trying to make sense of the world? Fat chance.
Note: Here's my granddaughter's science team's project. She's 15 and appears at 2:31 on the video:
Saturday, May 30, 2020
Win, Lose, And Weight
Well, you win a few, you lose a few. I finally got confirmation of my $283.15 refund from AirBnB, but I was forced (from the SOB owners of So-Fi Ventura) to get a renters' insurance. That was only $131 for the years, but I resent the fact it isn't my decision. The idea that any of my possessions here would be stolen or somehow destroyed seems very remote. Even it that happened, the things most valuable to me are irreplaceable: the family pictures, writings, and other memorabilia I cherish.
Relevant to which, I spent time continuing the transcription of my father's. I'm now on the February 4 and will keep plugging away.
Betty called to tell me the same things she told me on Thursday night. And Thursday afternoon. But I'm okay with it and when she calls, can usually extricate myself after ten or so.
Before breakfast, I walked Victoria Avenue to the market for blueberries and things. There and back is about three, so I was pleased with that. After lunch, I walked back down Victoria, then caught a bus to the Goodwill. Bought a blouse and bused back.
Oh, and the weight report: I lost 2.6 pounds, so am down to 131.4. That's not quite in my comfort zone of 125 to 130, so I'll keep at it. Wrote my T.O.P.S. email to other members and we shared stories.
Relevant to which, I spent time continuing the transcription of my father's. I'm now on the February 4 and will keep plugging away.
Betty called to tell me the same things she told me on Thursday night. And Thursday afternoon. But I'm okay with it and when she calls, can usually extricate myself after ten or so.
Before breakfast, I walked Victoria Avenue to the market for blueberries and things. There and back is about three, so I was pleased with that. After lunch, I walked back down Victoria, then caught a bus to the Goodwill. Bought a blouse and bused back.
Oh, and the weight report: I lost 2.6 pounds, so am down to 131.4. That's not quite in my comfort zone of 125 to 130, so I'll keep at it. Wrote my T.O.P.S. email to other members and we shared stories.
Friday, May 29, 2020
Santa Barbara
Spent the day in Santa Barbara and we had a pretty good time.
It is kind of tiring: I leave my place at 9:00 and didn't get back until after 5:00. It entails six buses--three there, three back.
I stopped at Whole Foods and got sandwiches and--for me--a six-bottle pack of Corona. I just like the irony of the name, but I also like the beer. I had one with lunch, than left the rest. Carolyn or anyone else can have it and/or I will the next time I go.
After we ate, we played Sorry!, then Chutes and Ladders, children's games, but I was playing with a child. We talked and laughed, too, but the paranoia came up (the woman who comes in to clean has been taking things) and the memory losses (too many to mention). I went with Betty to get her mail, then she walked me just a short way up to State Street where I get the bus. We hugged goodbye (the hell with the virus) and off I went.
Called Carolyn while I was waiting to tell her what an enjoyable time we had. However, when I was on the Ventura to SB bus, Betty called to ask if I had her ring. No, Betty, you took it off to put on the latex gloves that you said were mandatory when you pick up the mail. I saw her put it on the table, but where it got to after I left, I don't know.
Riding home, I got a text from Carolyn with a picture of a postcard I had written to Betty when we were 18 years ols. Wish I could post it here, but I don't remember how.
Betty called yet again at 8:45 to ask if I had her ring. I hope she doesn't start thinking I, not her cleaner, Dory, took her things. She then read me some things from a kind of diary she wrote in fifteen or twenty years ago. Nothing notable, though.
Note: Finally, at long last, I got a full refund from AirBnB for my aborted trip to Jersey.
It is kind of tiring: I leave my place at 9:00 and didn't get back until after 5:00. It entails six buses--three there, three back.
I stopped at Whole Foods and got sandwiches and--for me--a six-bottle pack of Corona. I just like the irony of the name, but I also like the beer. I had one with lunch, than left the rest. Carolyn or anyone else can have it and/or I will the next time I go.
After we ate, we played Sorry!, then Chutes and Ladders, children's games, but I was playing with a child. We talked and laughed, too, but the paranoia came up (the woman who comes in to clean has been taking things) and the memory losses (too many to mention). I went with Betty to get her mail, then she walked me just a short way up to State Street where I get the bus. We hugged goodbye (the hell with the virus) and off I went.
Called Carolyn while I was waiting to tell her what an enjoyable time we had. However, when I was on the Ventura to SB bus, Betty called to ask if I had her ring. No, Betty, you took it off to put on the latex gloves that you said were mandatory when you pick up the mail. I saw her put it on the table, but where it got to after I left, I don't know.
Riding home, I got a text from Carolyn with a picture of a postcard I had written to Betty when we were 18 years ols. Wish I could post it here, but I don't remember how.
Betty called yet again at 8:45 to ask if I had her ring. I hope she doesn't start thinking I, not her cleaner, Dory, took her things. She then read me some things from a kind of diary she wrote in fifteen or twenty years ago. Nothing notable, though.
Note: Finally, at long last, I got a full refund from AirBnB for my aborted trip to Jersey.
Thursday, May 28, 2020
Wednesday
I'm beginning to wonder why the Internet was ever invented. I think the reason was TO DRIVE ME CRAZY!
Issue 1: Try as I might, I couldn't get Zoom to work correctly. Actually, it worked fine for me--I saw myself, member number 1, but since talking to myself didn't seem like much fun, I wanted to get my friend Nancy on. She couldn't get in and I couldn't get her in.
Issue 2: I got an email from Apple saying I'd be charge $29.95 a month for Pandora Music if I didn't cancel on May 27. Yesterday was May 27. I tried to cancel and got a message saying they needed verification: name, phone number, and birth date. Birth day? Why would they need that? Long, long story I just want to forget, so I'll just mention the upshot was I talked to Apple and I think they resolved that it was a phishing attempt.
Issue 3: I still haven't received the book I ordered on April 21 on Amazon. I contacted them after a few weeks and they said they sent a replacement. That hasn't arrived, either.
Issue 4: For several days now, I have been getting old posts on Facebook, that is, when I go to "Home," what comes up are things I've already seen or a mix of new and old, mostly old. I have no idea how to deal with this.
Issue 5: I know there is one, but I can't remember what it is.
Aside from all that crapola, I did get a good walk in. After lunch, I bused to town, walked again to The Promenade and had a fine time following along the Pacific toward Surfer's Point. I then went past the estuary and all the way to Main, then walked up another mile or so before I caught a bus home. I figured I did about six miles, which I often total in a day, but usually don't do all at once. That felt good.
Betty called; I'll see her about noon today. Ellen also called and we talked on the bus, while I walked from there home, and later, also. The kitties are wonderful and I think their names are now Gwendolyn and Cecily (from The Odd Couple).Happily, Ellen said she'd Zoom me over the weekend to try to teach me what I'm doing wrong.
Oh, one more "issue": I received a communication from So-Fi Apartments to the effect that I had to get renters' insurance by Jun 5. What a drag and I have no fear anything will be stolen from me by anybody aside from So-Fi Apartments, yet they insist I must.
However, all this seemed of no consequence when I remember the mysterious and beautiful place where I walked yesterday by the Ventura estuary:
Issue 1: Try as I might, I couldn't get Zoom to work correctly. Actually, it worked fine for me--I saw myself, member number 1, but since talking to myself didn't seem like much fun, I wanted to get my friend Nancy on. She couldn't get in and I couldn't get her in.
Issue 2: I got an email from Apple saying I'd be charge $29.95 a month for Pandora Music if I didn't cancel on May 27. Yesterday was May 27. I tried to cancel and got a message saying they needed verification: name, phone number, and birth date. Birth day? Why would they need that? Long, long story I just want to forget, so I'll just mention the upshot was I talked to Apple and I think they resolved that it was a phishing attempt.
Issue 3: I still haven't received the book I ordered on April 21 on Amazon. I contacted them after a few weeks and they said they sent a replacement. That hasn't arrived, either.
Issue 4: For several days now, I have been getting old posts on Facebook, that is, when I go to "Home," what comes up are things I've already seen or a mix of new and old, mostly old. I have no idea how to deal with this.
Issue 5: I know there is one, but I can't remember what it is.
Aside from all that crapola, I did get a good walk in. After lunch, I bused to town, walked again to The Promenade and had a fine time following along the Pacific toward Surfer's Point. I then went past the estuary and all the way to Main, then walked up another mile or so before I caught a bus home. I figured I did about six miles, which I often total in a day, but usually don't do all at once. That felt good.
Betty called; I'll see her about noon today. Ellen also called and we talked on the bus, while I walked from there home, and later, also. The kitties are wonderful and I think their names are now Gwendolyn and Cecily (from The Odd Couple).Happily, Ellen said she'd Zoom me over the weekend to try to teach me what I'm doing wrong.
Oh, one more "issue": I received a communication from So-Fi Apartments to the effect that I had to get renters' insurance by Jun 5. What a drag and I have no fear anything will be stolen from me by anybody aside from So-Fi Apartments, yet they insist I must.
However, all this seemed of no consequence when I remember the mysterious and beautiful place where I walked yesterday by the Ventura estuary:
It wasn't as gloomy as this looks, although the mountains toward Ojai were shrouded in mist. It wasn't as deserted, either; people were walking, biking, and being together.
I love this place.
Wednesday, May 27, 2020
Walking, Window Washing, And Well, I Can't Think Of Another "W"
I'm back in my walker mode. Walked to the market after breakfast and got spaghetti and acorn squash, plus a little fence-type thing to hold my big geranium back. I want to get another for the lavender, which is getting huge.
Jess, the window washer, did a wonderful job on the sliding glass door. It took him only about fifteen minutes and he did both sides, plus cleaned the sliding screen, which I hadn't even thought of. (Of which I hadn't even thought--now, stop it, Mimi!)
He's a very nice guy. We chatted and I learned this was his father's business ("Expert Window Cleaning"), who's now retired. Jess lives a few miles away with his 16-year-old son (nobody stays married in California). He then told me that his other teenaged son was killed last year in an accident. I was so sorry to hear that; such tragedies in the world.
After lunch, I took the footpath to the park and back, which got me a good daily total of about six miles. Talked to NM on the phone.
I met David W. at the fire pit at 4:30 and he proved to be an interesting guy. He's divorced, a retired botanist, and volunteers at the shoreline park, counting birds. I got there first and when he walked up, he was carrying a can of beer. I said, "Gee, if I had known you were bringing beer, I would have, too." He asked if I wanted one, I said yes, and he went back to his apartment and got me an IPA. We stayed there talking for a full hour, which was so enjoyable. He said he was going to send a letter to management protesting the utilities bill and also other complaints. We're both going to write about the situation in Yelp. I'll let the other neighbors know and ask if they'll do the same. Anyway, it was good to meet him and I hope to see him again.
Put a fresh Ahi tuna steak in the oven, along with mushrooms. After, I asked Suzanne to sit out front with me to chat. We did, for about forty-five and it was so good. She said there's a Zoom tutorial on-line and I'm anxious to look it up.
After just sitting and talking with people twice in a day, I felt the full impact of not being able to do that for so long.
Here's my beautifully spotless patio door from both angles:
Jess, the window washer, did a wonderful job on the sliding glass door. It took him only about fifteen minutes and he did both sides, plus cleaned the sliding screen, which I hadn't even thought of. (Of which I hadn't even thought--now, stop it, Mimi!)
He's a very nice guy. We chatted and I learned this was his father's business ("Expert Window Cleaning"), who's now retired. Jess lives a few miles away with his 16-year-old son (nobody stays married in California). He then told me that his other teenaged son was killed last year in an accident. I was so sorry to hear that; such tragedies in the world.
After lunch, I took the footpath to the park and back, which got me a good daily total of about six miles. Talked to NM on the phone.
I met David W. at the fire pit at 4:30 and he proved to be an interesting guy. He's divorced, a retired botanist, and volunteers at the shoreline park, counting birds. I got there first and when he walked up, he was carrying a can of beer. I said, "Gee, if I had known you were bringing beer, I would have, too." He asked if I wanted one, I said yes, and he went back to his apartment and got me an IPA. We stayed there talking for a full hour, which was so enjoyable. He said he was going to send a letter to management protesting the utilities bill and also other complaints. We're both going to write about the situation in Yelp. I'll let the other neighbors know and ask if they'll do the same. Anyway, it was good to meet him and I hope to see him again.
Put a fresh Ahi tuna steak in the oven, along with mushrooms. After, I asked Suzanne to sit out front with me to chat. We did, for about forty-five and it was so good. She said there's a Zoom tutorial on-line and I'm anxious to look it up.
After just sitting and talking with people twice in a day, I felt the full impact of not being able to do that for so long.
Here's my beautifully spotless patio door from both angles:
Tuesday, May 26, 2020
Buses And Byrne'es
Buses don't run on Memorial Day--AAGH! That meant I couldn't go anywhere more than a few miles away, so it was somewhat of a slow pokey day. I called my cousin Kevin's wife, Linda, at 10:00 am and we talked for exactly one hour and thirty minutes!
I like her so much. We filled each other in on backgrounds (the reticence of the Byrne family, into which I was born and the Irish in general); present day doings (not much exciting because of The Situation), and tragedies and other unfortunate happenings of family.
I heard about hers: older son who died a week after his thirtieth birthday; whether suicide or an accident seems hard to fathom; younger son recently endured an unpleasant divorce; daughter who's gaining a worrisome amount of weight; only grandchild, four years old she rarely sees. I shared some of the difficult experiences we've had, too, although they seem to have been very few, lately, I'm happy to note. We also bonded over other mutual likes and dislikes.
Linda is younger than I am: just turned 70, and Kevin and she are the same years apart as my husband, Pat and I were: seven years. I remember my cuz as a one-year-old, I guess, in diapers, but don't even remember seeing him since. She asked if I wanted to say hello to him. I did, but oh, yeah, he's a Byrne, all right, no spark there.
After, I went back to my "job" of typing out my father's journal. Finally finished January and will continue on. I called Betty to see if she had a better copy of the newspaper about our father's death in 1950. If so, she doesn't know where it is. I messaged the Press of Atlantic City, asking if they had it in the archives. Got a response that digitized copies are kept at the Atlantic City library. I'll try there.
Walked over to Von's for lettuce and carrots--oh, and I picked up some Chardonnay, too. I chose Gallo because my cousin, the aforementioned Kevin, retired from there. He was a senior research scientist for Gallo Winery--has a doctorate, which I guess you need for working at a winery--but why?
Got an email from David W., who had contacted me about the utilities bill. We arranged to "meet in the middle" of the complex today at 4:30. In fact, I'm meeting two men today: "Jesse" is coming to wash my sliding door window at noon.
I've been trying to get my friend, Nancy, on Zoom. We want to have a virtual Happy Hour together, but I just can't seem to do it. What a drag. No real walking yesterday; aside from Von's, I started out after dinner, but just walked around the block.
My new little grandkittens:
I like her so much. We filled each other in on backgrounds (the reticence of the Byrne family, into which I was born and the Irish in general); present day doings (not much exciting because of The Situation), and tragedies and other unfortunate happenings of family.
I heard about hers: older son who died a week after his thirtieth birthday; whether suicide or an accident seems hard to fathom; younger son recently endured an unpleasant divorce; daughter who's gaining a worrisome amount of weight; only grandchild, four years old she rarely sees. I shared some of the difficult experiences we've had, too, although they seem to have been very few, lately, I'm happy to note. We also bonded over other mutual likes and dislikes.
Linda is younger than I am: just turned 70, and Kevin and she are the same years apart as my husband, Pat and I were: seven years. I remember my cuz as a one-year-old, I guess, in diapers, but don't even remember seeing him since. She asked if I wanted to say hello to him. I did, but oh, yeah, he's a Byrne, all right, no spark there.
After, I went back to my "job" of typing out my father's journal. Finally finished January and will continue on. I called Betty to see if she had a better copy of the newspaper about our father's death in 1950. If so, she doesn't know where it is. I messaged the Press of Atlantic City, asking if they had it in the archives. Got a response that digitized copies are kept at the Atlantic City library. I'll try there.
Walked over to Von's for lettuce and carrots--oh, and I picked up some Chardonnay, too. I chose Gallo because my cousin, the aforementioned Kevin, retired from there. He was a senior research scientist for Gallo Winery--has a doctorate, which I guess you need for working at a winery--but why?
Got an email from David W., who had contacted me about the utilities bill. We arranged to "meet in the middle" of the complex today at 4:30. In fact, I'm meeting two men today: "Jesse" is coming to wash my sliding door window at noon.
I've been trying to get my friend, Nancy, on Zoom. We want to have a virtual Happy Hour together, but I just can't seem to do it. What a drag. No real walking yesterday; aside from Von's, I started out after dinner, but just walked around the block.
My new little grandkittens:
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MONDAY
Susan picked me up and off we went to the Stone Fire Grille for the Soaring Spirits bi-monthly lunch. Besides she and I (and Gizmo), Gayle, ...
