Month: September 2024

Monday

Got up around 7 and clicked on the coffee while I chatted with the folks on 2M. I switched over to 40M and checked into the Waterway Net. I didn’t hear my uncle Paul on the net.

I powered up the orange Fender amplifier and I changed the colors of the 2nd Red amplifier to green. I had to use the parking lot service speaker wires since all the Fender speaker wires were not in the amplifier’s compartment. Lisa said that she has them at her home. Both amplifiers are working, and their fans appear to be normal. If I remember right the speaker that dies has no identification tape on it. Trouble is that two of the amplifiers didn’t make it back to storage, so I didn’t have access to them.

We had grandma’s chili for lunch and we built a grocery list for tomorrow.

Checked in with the guys on my HF radio and we went to Wally World to get groceries already. Took a good long nap and had Ham & Pea for dinner.

Tuesday

Paul’s home is without power for at least several more days. He does have a camper with propane powered refrigerator. He’s in Portland Washington until tomorrow. His friend that’s watching over the house won’t have power for a very long time. Power and Gasoline are a difficult thing after a storm, they are both in short supply. Conservation and solar are good choices.

Checked the eight batteries on the refrigerator backup by running the refrigerator for an hour on battery, two were bad. Replacements were on hand and were installed restoring the full run time of about 8 hours.

Paid the AZ land taxes, I need to work this once I have my house in order.

Wednesday

I had an awful night, apparently the salad dressing was a little old or got left out a little too long. I’ve been burping that awful taste all night long. I did manage to get onto the Waterway Net this morning, the propagation is mixed, but I heard madam secretary just fine.

Gwinnett county taxes finally paid. I need to submit the form for that. 3400 is TOOO Much! Charging my EcoFlow power station for Paul, it was down to 60%. Pulled the bed apart and bent the frame so that it would hold the mattress until we got the frame from Wally World.

We didn’t end up going to church tonight, we Zoomed it. My shingles is still at my side, it doesn’t hurt very much this time around.

Thursday

Up about 7AM this morning and listened to the guys on the HAM radio. I checked in with them on the Waterway Net before starting to work on my failing cameras. Two of the cameras on my DVR have just stopped working and they act like they’ve been reset to factory. The interesting thing is the back yard camera that’s always given me trouble is working perfectly!

It’s been solid for days, and that’s unusual.

I’ve not been able to revive the Reolink camera, so I replaced it.

The Amcrest 8M Pixel camera has a good view, but no sound.

Only one Reolink camera with audio on the front side of the home.

After about six hours I finally got all of the cameras working. There are two Reolink DVR cameras that are losing their passwords. I’m wondering if the lithium batteries in them are depleted and need to be replaced. I’ll leave the porch camera unplugged overnight and see if it forgets the programming. Then I can disassemble the camera and find out what kind of battery is used.

The other oddity is the back yard camera is fickle only when all four cameras are working. If there’s just one camera, the back yard camera doesn’t seem to struggle at all. (And the A/C camera is the only other camera on the DVR competing with the back yard camera bandwidth.

Dinner was leftover round steak from the Wednesday crock pot dinner was delicious today. We’ll have to cook one more round steak tomorrow. The trick is to talk about what dinner is tomorrow tonight so that all the details are discussed beforehand. I often walk into the kitchen and realize that she put the leftovers on the stove before she put the frozen veggies on steamer. Even then she didn’t peel the potatoes before pouring the veggies into the steamer. Potatoes, then veggies, then leftovers which only takes about 5 minutes to warm up.

After a long bit of turmoil, I’ve decided that any requirement I make will be on myself to fulfill. Asking her to do anything a certain way is resulting in severe emotional consequences. Her bipolar has come back and rears its ugly head when even a small discourse arises after she’s had a wonderful day. So, I am left with the version of a marriage where hubby and wife are just “Nice” to each other. We stay in our own corner and if any preventable crisis happens, then we just pick up the pieces without discussing prevention measures for next time. (She’ll either forget them or resent them.)

Friday

Day 1 of being nice.

I have not figured out what that bright spot is above the windshield.

Our shooting friend is back, he noticed the additional lights and sped off.

I got onto my HAM radio this morning and checked in with the guys. I’ve not heard from Paul since yesterday, he’s in good shape cept for a leaking shower drain on the 2nd floor.

I had two eggs and breakfast sausages for breakfast. I didn’t get much accomplished this morning other than looking at the Toyota Camry that drove by last night. Lunch was a miss since the round steak would be done about 15:30. We went to Longhorn’s for lunch just because I was hungry for more than a bowl of soup.

We had a good nap after getting back and I did do some organizing while waiting for Lisa to call me. (Which she didn’t do, what a waste of time.) Supper was ham and a couple eggs.

Saturday

Up at 8AM and listening to my HAM radio this morning. She brought my coffee to my cave, but I think I’ll move to the kitchen table this morning. Dinner plans were not laid out in the Daytimer, so we worked on the timeline. The round steak was cooked yesterday and so were the mashed red potatoes. All we had to was warm up a pot of frozen veggies and the two leftovers in the fridge.

Now that dinner was planned, I grabbed a shower. I looked for the washcloth on the soap tray but could not find one. I found a washcloth across the tub so I used that one. After I was done, she told me that she had brought a clean one and that the one on the tub was dirty. I mentioned that we’ve discussed this in the past that if she takes a washcloth out of the bathroom it should be replaced? It’s not a huge deal to step out of the shower and get one from under the sink, but the floor gets wet and I’m uncomfortable in the cold air. We got into one of those uncomfortable discussions where she is trying to please me when I said that I’ll just get one out of the cabinet every day. Simple solution, I add it to my procedure page in my personal Daytimer and it’s done. She was offended that I would take such a stance and away we went.

We recovered from this morning and the rest of the day was calm. We had canned soup for dinner with whole foods crackers. I bought a care package for my mother in Florida, there’s a hurricane headed directly over her.

Mom’s home in Citra is marked with a red circle. I could not find out how to secure a lithium solar generator if you are evacuated. They have five dogs and Ricky is Nancy’s caretaker. It will be an interesting conversation if they are asked to evacuate with Ricky owning FIVE dogs.

Sunday

Tropical Storm Milton will arrive as an H3 late Wednesday

I’ve sent several care packages to my mom in Florida ahead of the next hurricane headed for Florida. I am hesitant to send too much because she’s on Medicaid.

Checked in with the HF guys on my HAM radio this morning. There’s a little bit of static with the lightning in the gulf. I had two cups of coffee, and I’ll probably jump back into bed until we get close to church services this morning.

Church services went well cept for the lead microphone died. Ricky is not preparing for another power outage. She is waiting until I come down there to rewire the solar trailer. I cannot go to Florida 2 days before a hurricane arrives. She apparently knows that they’ll be fine, and she gets to sit and watch TV. (Even though she’s getting paid to take care of her.) I am waiting until Marion County says to move into hurricane shelters with her five dogs.

Lunch was leftover round steak and fixens.

Worked on my taxes most of the evening, we owe another 3K in capital gains taxes from the sale of my parents’ home. We have the money since we’ve stashed money for the Estate Taxes.

Monday

We’ve both woken up several times during the night. I forgot to take my evening pills last night, took them about eight hours later. Checked in with the guys on the HF radio and had three eggs and sausage for breakfast. I’ve been kind of laying low to hear from Lisa, but crickets would be louder. I’d really like a status of our Estate taxes from Nevada, but nothing from them either.

I got sunburnt Saturday with three hours in the bright sun, and I am really feeling it today. We got into an argument about groceries, she was writing the inventory on the grocery list. The trouble with that is you don’t know how many to buy. (And that’s the whole purpose of a grocery list.) We also found out that she had not done her daily inventory, and a package of ham had to be tossed. It was more than a week past the eat/freeze date. She is supposed to put post-it notes on the cupboard to make it easy to pick out the oldest meat in the fridge.

We ended up having salmon, it had to be eaten today. We had left over veggies and sweet potatoes with the salmon. It ended up being a good lunch.

I put a weatherproof solar charger on both the van and the blue Ford Focus (that we’re not driving). I split the output of the charger to both of the cigarette lighter plugs with small three-amp fuses to protect the cars. (The wires actually connect the two car batteries together) The four solar panels are on the fence in the back yard. It would have been easier to use a panel on the van, but the fence panels were already mounted for another project. Yellow/black is solar… Pink/Blue is batteries.

Dinner was organic chicken noodle soup from Whole Foods. They have an interesting package that unfolds to open. 🙂

Watched a little TV before turning in.

Tuesday (Groceries)

Showered, got onto the HF radio with the guys then got dressed. Wally World wasn’t bad, no round steak and the 1/2 Gallon Borden milks were expired. (Again, that’s two weeks in a row.) I made this mistake of licking my fingers to open the plastic bag After I handled the chicken. (BAD Idea) I put a timer on the front yard light so that I could power the IR illuminators without having the yard light create shadows. It worked pretty well according to the cameras. The timer is off by a couple minutes, but that’s no consequence.

Her heart rate was a little high on her FitBit so she put the O2 sensor on. (There’s no reason her heart rate was almost 100 while sitting in a chair watching TV.)

Her heart rate dropped some, but a resting heart rate should be around 60.

My heart rate is much lower than hers.

I took some Tylenol and my evening meds and we turned in for the evening.

Wednesday (Midweek Church service)

Woke at 7:30 I have moderate pain and slight itchy across my back and arms this morning. My ears are ringing which usually means I was low O2 at some point.

Hasn’t changed much, should be here in force on Friday.

I checked in with the guys on my HF radio while I downloaded the data from our O2 sensors. She’s changing the bedding and I’m getting my day organized. Her heart rate while cleaning our home is 81 this morning. The car batteries were 12.6V this morning, they were 13.8 when the sun came up and charging them. I put a plastic bag over the timer that turns off the hanging light on the corner of our home. I used to turn off the power, but I use that power for the IR illuminators until I can run another cable. She did not do an inventory of our refrigerators yesterday. It takes a LOT of time walking behind her and checking things?

Burritos was lunch today, we added Taco seasoning, cheese and Salsa to the tortilla. No veggies or starch for dinner today.

Graphic: Byron Manley and Renée Rigdon, CNN

Thursday

Slept in until almost 9AM and I again have moderate pain and slight itchy across my back and arms this morning. My ears are ringing which usually means I was low O2 at some point. I didn’t get onto the HAM radio because I got up so late. All my stored passwords have been erased by Norton Password manager. (I didn’t know getting rid of their storage deleted all the storage.) Uggg

I am trying to get some momentum, but not having much luck. My HF antenna in the back yard had fallen over, with all this rain the stake came up out of the ground. I originally had two stakes, but I never needed the second one until today. The stake that came out tried to poke my eye out as I pulled the rope back down, luckily, I had my eye lid closed when I saw it swung around. The ropes were all loose since some of they are Nylon. (I need to change them out for poly for the winter.)

Burritos for lunch, actually it tasted better on chips than rolled up in a tortilla. Nap time. Checked on the hurricane, it’s going to be 7 hours later to Georgia which pushes weather ever closer to Women’s Retreat.

The tropical force wind probability has been moving north all day.

Updated my two of the three Raspi’s so that I can use them again.

Mom called, they won’t get power back until Sunday Night and the solar power generator battery is down to 20%. They tried to run the TV and the Dish Network Hopper, but that really ran the battery down.

Friday

No damage, just a tremendous amount of rain.

Up at 8:30, so too late to meet up with our HAM guys. She poured me a cup of coffee and I took the garbage can out to the curb. I need to take the recycling out too, but that truck comes later in the day and it is still raining.

Two of the four camera on my DVR stopped working this week.

Camera 2 is now sitting on a car tire facing west to take over the area.

I had to change the configuration of my bed and remove the wedge.

I have an issue with Gurd if I lay flat, so I’ve been using a wedge to keep my upper body elevated. The problem with that is my head falls over and I choke myself several times during the night. (And it can be a couple minutes until my body circulation pools my blood away from my skin.) I am hoping that with the pillow LOWER than my body that my head won’t wonder down to my chest at night! (Her pillow has been in this configuration for months for the same reason. We put an exercise mat under the mattress pad to elevate us slightly long ago.

I sent a message to Nevada asking about our estate taxes. I paid our County Taxes today, $3400.00 YUK She didn’t follow the directions on the frozen fish and put the fillets themselves in cold water (Instead of the sealed pouch). It took three attempts at reading the instructions before she would agree that she did it wrong. I don’t know if my place is to stand alongside her on these simple instructions. I am sure they are trying to prevent bacteria from getting into the fish while it is thawing.

Saturday

Lowering my pillow seems to have helped my breathing at night.

I didn’t sleep very well last night because how involved I’ve gotten with the Women’s Retreat today. I got up early and gathered a tub of cables for the projector. (We hadn’t discussed this, but it was on the program given to the attendees.)

Washing our tubs for the two CPAPs, Vinegar and warm soapy water.

I’ve been trying to get their return check from 2019 for 5 years.

Women’s Retreat happened today. I only got one phone call, and the morning session is about over. The assumption is that it went well, and they didn’t need any help.

Lunch was chicken thighs, veggies and sweet potatoes. I didn’t eat the potatoes because my skin has too much sugar on it from yesterday’s meal at Longhorn.

We went to CVS that was closed yesterday for the Tropical Storm and now they are closed because a tree fell on the building. We’re trying to pick up a narcotic and that cannot be transferred to another CVS.

Filled out a survey on Longhorn at Web Gin Road for JJ, she did a great job yesterday.

Sunday

I am up, took my morning meds and waiting my turn on the HF radio. The payment to the County hasn’t processed yet, which may be because it’s the weekend.

Went to home church and that went very well. We had left over chicken thighs for lunch and I took a HUGE nap for hours. I went and retrieved the sound board and two Fenders from storage. The sound board was damaged, apparently it fell off the cart and no one said anything. The wires for the speakers also were not in the amplifiers so I had to put off any testing.

Monday

She did not sleep well last night, and I didn’t do much better. I’m sipping my coffee and trying to get organized. I guess the best thing to do is make a bullet list.

We just are not communicating in a respectful way. We keep tripping over details that she cannot remember and have not been written down. (There’s a thawed turkey breast in the refrigerator that we do not know how long it’s been there.) We had to make some doctor appointments this morning. The difficulty was that I would be talking about the CPAP doctors, and she would respond as though I was talking about the company the provides our supplies.

Lunch was good, we had leftover tenderloin, sweet potatoes and veggies from yesterday. We both took a good long nap and we’re getting along again.

Tuesday

Slept ok, I am up in time to hear the guys on the HF radio. The band is uncooperative today and I cannot hear most of them, so I turned it off. Grocery shopping is the task of the day. We both got dressed and headed out to Wally World to go shopping.

On our way to Wally World.

We’re back, $220 poorer. They didn’t have Egland’s Best eggs and the Borden milk on the shelf had expired two days ago. The “Great Value” milk might be an adulterated product because it freezes in the refrigerator well above Borden milk. We stopped buying it and purchase Borden instead. The cool thing is that the ice can be removed and then the milk tastes better. We can store three cartons of 18 eggs and one carton of 12 eggs in our refrigerator. (We usually store 6 cartons of 12 eggs, but Wally World did not have cartons of 12 eggs for the last two weeks.)

I got my 2nd shipment of pill timers; I still received 1 of the 8 that’s intermittent.
The first shipment was a disaster, I broke one of the LCD displays and made a huge mess. I need four and it looks like I’ll have 7 working timers.

The 2nd $800 sound board arrived today along with four mic holders & some cables.

I cut the child safety rings off the timers, there was a bit of lubricant under the ring.

Watched a bible project video on 2Cor and read a little in Acts before joining her in watching Hudson & Rex on Faith & Family until we retired.

Wednesday

Well, I am up at 01:00 waiting on the next shooting while I work on the church Power Point. Went back to bed until about 5:30 and then started watching Bible project videos while sipping on my coffee. I checked in with the HAM radio guys and continue to pursue getting this power point done. I am down to 6 hours.

We’ve had a difficult day mostly because she hears different things in what I am saying. We had a same thing happen a couple days ago. I was talking about the doctor, and she was hearing me talk about the contractor providing our supplies. Today she didn’t plan out today, and she has a Telehealth appointment at 1:30. We normally go down for a nap after lunch and I didn’t see any preparations for dinner. Two hours later we’re having leftovers that are insufficient for a “Dinner” meal. It’s useless to say anything about the size of the meal, I spent two hours trying to add a starch to the flounder this morning.

The telehealth session was scheduled for 10AM this morning, so she missed her appointment with Neil Jariwala at Virtual Consult for the 2nd time.

Thursday MRI Day

We got up at 5AM and had some breakfast before heading down to Emory at 6AM. We arrived about 06:20 and waited for the imaging department to open. Check-In and the Imaging went very well, and we were out of the hospital an hour later.

When we got home, we both laid down for a good nap and woke a little after 11. The frozen turkey had a significant hole in the bag when we thawed it out. There was also a significant amount of material stuck to the package around the hole. We decided to toss it and it’s the second one we’ve tossed for this reason. Wally World may not sell a lot of them and the customers are tossing it back into the freezer. Damaging the rather thick bag they are in.

We ended up eating pork chops for lunch. There was some drama again with steaming vegetables, she only put 5 oz of water in the bottom of the pan. (She burnt the pan last time she steamed vegetables because it went dry.) I googled it, there’s a YouTube video showing exactly what to do.

I worked on my power point for most of the afternoon, I wanted to finish it by the time Jeff got home at 5. We watched Johnny Carson and then went to bed. I’ve not kicked this round of shingles, it’s still here and I only have a days worth of pills left.

Friday

It’s midnight and I am awake drying out my undercarriage.

I cut up some of the carpet in her sewing room and tossed it in the trash because it was pretty dirty and might have a bit of mold on it. The cement floor and the backing of the carpet were both clean. Most of the carpet against the walls is a little dirty. The A/C guy said it was caused by “Stacking” where the air rises up the inside of the wall. Personally, I think we’re just not reaching it with the vacuum. We’re running a MERV11 filter in the air handler, that will capture mold spores.

We had a great lunch with the Berrys at Longhorn then we came home and took a good long nap.

Setup one site of equipment to test the theory of all the connections, I did find a bad cable.

Saturday

Woke up early and loaded the van with all the stuff for the Women’s Retreat. I had three eggs, and some breakfast sausages then drove to the school. There were tons of cars in the parking lot, so we ended up in the lower/lower one. There’s no power down there so we ran off of my solar generator. I was exhausted by the time I got back home and there’s still a bunch in the air. I used sunscreen but still managed to get a sunburn on my neck.

Sunday (Church)

We are up and I am listening to my HAM radio while checking the news. Trying to make a list of things Lisa needs to take from the school for the Women’s Day Retreat.

Need to work on the living room, it’s a disaster.

Removed Norton Password manager, it was more trouble than it was worth. Wells Fargo website didn’t load correctly on both workstations tonight.

Monday

I am up and she’s made coffee for me this morning. N4JQQ called twice on the HF radio this morning, and no one answered, that’s unusual! I checked into the net and listened out.

I am trying to adjust the cameras so that we get a better picture of these passing cars. The noise is pretty high on the camera sensor, it will take a little more adjusting. In the past I would limit the gain of the sensor, that cut the noise out of the video.

We’ve been struggling with her documenting things in the right place in the large shared Daytimer. She gets very confused as to what goes where. Schedule is for things that we have to do at a specific time and Diary & Work record is things we’ve done. She just stares at it in bewilderment and cannot figure out what to put her task.

Daytimer Schedule page, this is great place for appointments and tasks completed.

The bottom of the page is for tasks that don’t have a specific time to do them.
We don’t use the expense list for anything.

I have a smaller version for my documentation.

Drumsticks, Sweet potatoes and Veggies for Lunch today. Mariel sent us a letter today. One egg and breakfast sausages for breakfast this morning along with Dominican Coffee. Melvin is headed to Kenya on Wednesday. My phone is at 27% charge, and I need a nap.

Received a new battery for one of the three Dell laptops, it fit so I bought another one. (Amazon didn’t have genuine DELL batteries anymore.)

We got our “Whole Foods” order, I didn’t like the auto $5 tip though

Dinner turned out pretty terrific. Steamed veggies, two sweet potatoes cooked in the microwave and 5 oven baked chicken legs that we served in the new Crock Pot.

Pacific Tax service called me today, we’re moving forward!

Tuesday

Got up early and adjusted the camera video settings to best capture a moving vehicle.
(I had to turn off the Digital noise reduction as it created unwanted shadows.)

Color camera is much more difficult to capture a fast-moving car.
(Two adjustments were needed, turn off DNR and reduce the “Sharpening” to 0.)

Back home from getting groceries at Wally World, it was pretty cheap today. They were out of Egland’s Best eggs, so we’ll get them next week. Took a good long nap and then I worked on the estate taxes for quite a while.

Checked the cameras tonight, they look terrific!

I tried to watch the debate, it was horrible to watch. Kamala wasn’t answering the questions, she was just provoking Trump into speeches and then laughing about it.

Time to watch Harry Potter! Ok, maybe bedtime?

Wednesday

It’s 3AM and we both had a bowl of cereal with a bit of coffee while reading up on the debate. I tried to go back to sleep and waiting on the estate taxes is bothering me. The amazing moment was when I learned that the final tax return was actually for all three heirs! I still do not know if we’re talking about any money owed.

We drove to storage to look for 2021 Estate taxes and they were not there. We also looked for Fender Conference amplifiers, which we found 3 more. There are no scripts on Express Scripts that can be filled. Sent an E-Mail to the heirs to have them call the tax service in Nevada. We have a reading for tonight’s service, I need to get on that.

Pill timer caps came in today, we now have eight of them.

This is the church’s storage; These huge tubs have got to go!

Watched the bible project videos with the wife until we needed a nap. Soup for dinner then zoom church services.

I have shingles outbreak AGAIN! (Stress triggered.)

All three heirs have put their names in the hat for the final tax return. Hopefully we’ll get that behind us without much fanfare.

Thursday

I did not document much about today. I did not get onto my HF radio with the guys this morning. I did call Gwinnett Clinic and there were no appointments available. They did write me in for 3PM and that turned out to be a godsend. I spent most of the day getting ready for the Air Conditioning repairman to arrive. There was a lot of stuff on the floors and tables that needed to be spruced up. He got here around 10AM and everything checked out ok. We spent a little time working on a locking mechanism for his truck and then we ate lunch. I spent the afternoon running shotgun for getting ready for the Women’s Retreat. We went to Gwinnett clinic about 3 and they confirmed that I had shingles. A prescription was sent to the drugstore, and we picked that up an hour later. I broke my pill bottle timer by trying to remove the safety ring and got Liquid Crystal on my bottles! It took another half hour to clean up the mess. (I am hoping that none of it got onto my pills.)

Watched Hudson & Rex on Faith & Family until we retired.

Friday

The bands were horrible this morning, so I didn’t check in with the HF guys today either. I put the garbage can out for pickup and then walked out when he came by.

I usually meet him and say good morning!

I worked on the Women’s retreat for a while. I also spent a little time working this Blog while eating a few breakfast sausages.

I dug up my old “Time Matrix” and modified it for myself. The hard part in this blog is that the time matrix is a “Picture” that is stored as “Media” and it keeps every copy.

Dinner was a sheet pan dinner with chicken legs, apples and brussels sprouts.

When I was a newbie Christian we were told that we are only caretakers of what we have because at the end of the day everything belongs to God. I believe that we have a modest home.

1Jn 3:17  If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 

Mat 6:19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Luke 3:10-11 – “What should we do, then?” the crowd asked. John (the Baptist) answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.” Proverbs 11:24-25 – One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.

Matthew 6:2-4 – So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. If you’ve not done it, you could try paying for the meal/toll for the car behind you. You might find it very entertaining for the entire family. It’s pretty easy to give a card or to palm a gift to someone in silence that cannot be easily seen by others.

It’s a little more difficult to know how to meet the needs of the people holding their signs on the roadways. Jesus taught us in “Luke 6:30 – Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.” I’ve given cash gifts and had discussions with others about is that helping them or just enabling their self-destructive behavior.  We’re also taught not to judge others in Mat 7:1  “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. Mat 7:2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. I’ve bought many things if the request was specific.

Saturday

It’s been a difficult morning. Our meals are up in the air and her knee is hurting. She is not following the meal schedule for her Invisalign braces.

We’re at Eastside Hospital Xray her knee, it has been getting painful to move after sitting for a while. Degenerative arthritis in her knee, they gave her crutches. That is one more chink in her driving ability.

I am getting very hungry, I’ve not eaten today. We went to Longhorn for dinner, it’s been three weeks since we went there. JJ did a good job, the steak was cooked correctly, and the chicken was tender. They didn’t have Modelo Especial beer though. I am seriously considering boycotting Longhorn and my shot of whisky until they bring it back.

Back home, we both needed a good long nap and to relax watching Hudson & Rex on Faith & Family until we retired.

Sunday

Woke up at 7:30 in time to check in with the guys on my HF radio. Spent a good part of the morning digging up details for the Women’s retreat. I made some drawings and purchased some equipment that will be needed for the training session on Saturday. I picked up one K10 floor monitor, I looked up the monitor on Guitar Center and they no longer sell them. Truth is that they are not very good speakers, but they work. Fidelity is something that has a diminishing return and we use them very infrequently. We do not know how many microphones we have for the Women’s retreat, and I’ve asked.

We drove to CVS and picked up her prescription this afternoon. I spent two hours talk to L about Women’s Retreat, I didn’t get very far. I didn’t much left after that so we watched Hudson & Rex on Faith & Family until we retired.

Monday 37/42 KWH

Shingles and body aches are really keeping me up this morning. Normally I can sit up in the recliner which takes the pressure off my torso and sleep soundly. Not so today with the added discomfort of the shingles. About 2AM I decided to take a hot bath to sooth my irritated skin. Sure enough, about a half hour later I managed to get to sleep. I woke about 5 and went back to bed.

Woke again at 9:30 which is 2Hrs later than I should have taken my Shingles pill.

But alas, I am a little uncomfortable but not in any real pain. I didn’t get onto the Waterway Net with the HAM guys this morning. I did eat a bowl of non-GMO bran flakes this morning about 3AM. It as just as good as the Kellogg’s Bran Flakes with Sun Maid raisins. I finished off the Blueberry Mini Wheats, we have one box of strawberry mini wheats left. *All three of these cereals are so expensive!

She made a good grocery list this morning without my help.

Salmon for din din, 14Oz, $18 each. (We only ate one of them.)

Veggies and quinoa round out our dinner today.

Went over the meals for tomorrow and Wednesday. She had burrito’s for tomorrow and spaghetti for Wednesday. We probably should eat the leftover salmon tomorrow instead. Our coffee basket in the coffee machine was falling apart and we had one spare. I ordered a replacement today from Amazon.

Watched Hudson & Rex on Faith & Family until we retired.

Tuesday

We’re up at 3AM having a bowl of cereal and coffee. Getting ready to go to Wally World and get our weekly groceries. It’s windy and overcast, but very nice temperatures. Shopping went quite well, and we got home in record time. I baked two sweet potatoes in the microwave for lunch and then our conversation got lost. There’s Salmon in refrigerator along with vegetables, the sweet potatoes are just the starch for our lunch. She hasn’t started making lunch even though she’s hungry and the sweet potatoes are getting cold.

It was a NICE day today to work on the garage door. The roller for the lift springs was worn out and needed to be replaced. I bought a new one a couple days ago and the weather was too warm to stand in the sun. Replacing it was just one bolt and I could use a step stool to get up there. What I found out later was that the bolt holding up the door at the front of the garage had fallen off. With the additional stress of the spring, it had bent the support brace until it almost fell off. (There was nothing holding up the garage door on that side!) An hour later I had straightened the brace and reattached the garage door. A small adjustment to the spring was necessary and I was done. If the door had gotten stuck closed, there was no access to the garage from the inside to repair the door.

Watched Hudson & Rex on Faith & Family until we retired.

Wednesday

Slept in until 8AM, checked in with the HAMs on Waterway Net and got ready to take her to the dentist for a cleaning. We went to Braces Now to pay our payment and found out that the braces contract only had a small amount left to be paid. That’s a $6K contract behind us, Yea!

Lunch was a spaghetti Mediterranean dish, tasty but it wasn’t very filling.

Took a LONG nap, it was so long that my CPAP ran out of water. Read the scriptures for tonight and I am headed for a shower. It warmed up more than I expected, and I left the dashcam in the car. Oops. No letters from our sponsored children.

Church services went well, and we got home in a reasonable amount of time.

The neighbor put a very bright porch light on the front door today.

Bedtime after putting on my breath right strip and filling my CPAP.

Thursday

Woke up this morning about 7AM and had to make another pot of coffee. She made one very early this morning and the coffee pot had turned itself off by 6AM. Talked to the HAM guys, I was the first one on their log this morning. Spent the next two hours taking care of my Perineum rash.

When things get crazy at my age pills are hard to keep track of. Especially when they are not at specific times. (Like Once a day.) Pills that are every 8 hours are just difficult to take on time.

My son sent me these pill timers long ago and they are perfect for the old people like me. They used to be available on Amazon, the only place I found them was on Patient Sleep Supplies. TimerCap for $6 each and $10 shipping. They come in their own bottles (Left/Red) and they also fit on a standard pill bottle (Right/Green). They start counting time when they are closed so you know the last time you took a pill. Amazon has a similar product for $50 that sounds an alarm to take the pill. (BUT $50!! for something that might cost $1`.00 to make)

Don’t tell anyone, but with all the increases on our bills I have to make a budget! (The house taxes went up $1300 this year alone.)

Our storage for the church’s equipment has doubled since I got it 2 years ago.

The $3,500 tax bill kinda threw a wrench in our budget, it’s due in Oct.

Dinner was difficult, the vegetable was peas and rice was the starch. She forgot to wipe down the kitchen table and the placemats before putting the flatware on it. The chicken was overcooked and cold since the thin slices were put on a large serving platter. The peas were a little warm, but they were in an uninsulated bowl. We have two insulated bowls that she always forgets to use. (Like every time) Dinner was with two disgruntled adults that cannot come to a mutual agreement. We eventually cooled down and took a good long nap.

She’s been super hungry ALL day today. She ate soup two hours early and drank several boost drinks today. *That probably goes along with her being irritable.

Time for supper, a warm bowl of soup and crackers while watching TV. We spent some time working on preparation of our dinner every day. (Trying to remember to use the insulated bowls for one thing.) I found out when asking about the meal for tomorrow that none of the meat made it to the refrigerator after getting groceries. I looked down at the floor and sure enough the grocery bag with all the meat had never been put away on Tuesday. I tossed the meat we bought on Tuesday in the trash can and washed the insulated grocery bag.

We watched TV for a little while and headed to bed.

Friday

Cereal and a cup of coffee at 2AM this morning.

Our neighbor that installed this A/C unit asked to do a service call. It’s not been seen since it was installed in 2020, we’ve been very happy with it.

Off to the gym this morning. I’m driving cuz she hurt her ankle last week and we need to replace all the meat we left on the floor on Tuesday. I went to THD and looked for filters, they had them on sale for 7 dollars each. But I had a washable filter that cost $80, why would I go out and buy four disposable filters. I abandoned that idea and decided to go to Publix to get the replacements for Tuesday’s debacle. I put all the meat in two insulated bags to keep them cold until we got home. Yes, we put these in the refrigerator this time!

I decided to put the reusable filter back into the air handler even though it is more restrictive. The idea is that the system is a closed loop, it will automatically compensate for the filter. I should not need the 10% cooling that I may lose with the new filter since it’s September.

Turkey chili for dinner, it was pretty good actually. Nap Time.

I woke up to an open sore on my hand and a rash.

I’ve been dealing with an infection of my perineum which has happened a couple of times in my past. (My dad could not wear underwear.) I nicked my hand on the garage door on Monday, it appears that it is infected by the large red area on my hand. We drove to a doc-in-a-box, and they gave me an antibiotic prescription for the hand. They also gave me Clotrimazole and Betamethasone cream that I can apply directly to the Perineum. The doctor thinks it is NOT a Yeast type of infection, which is what the previous medicine targeted. I forgot to take my pills last night, my first indication was my BP was 139/80. The second indication was the upset stomach without the Nexium relief yesterday. I’ll have to start reading my own writing! (I darted out the door this morning to take her to the gym and to replace the meat that was spoiled.)

We had a good day today even with the trips to the gym, groceries and doctor.

Watched Hudson & Rex on Faith & Family until we retired.

Saturday

Watched Starliner return safely to earth on NASA feeds. Had some sweet pickle chips and now headed back to bed, well almost! We had another shooting last night a little after 1AM.

These shootings are continuing on the hill three houses down from us.

I was up at 1AM when this shooting happened, it’s hard to sleep with these idiots shooting on our street. We looked all over for the brass after they arrived. It was actually just in back of the car on the right just outside this picture. (When I looked at the video this morning, the shooting happened just before our neighbor’s garbage cans.) I need to setup a VPN on a Tablet so that we can look at the videos on the DVR with a little bit larger screen.

Gwinnett’s finest arrived and his partner too.

It took two hours to pull the videos off the cameras and upload them to Gwinnett County evidence website. The officer was surprised at the large number of Gwinnett County police business cards from these shootings. I need to take a trip to Gwinnett County police station and get these police reports.

I was still exhausted at 7 this morning when she woke me up complaining about chest pain. That’s happened about three times over the last three weeks. I will chase her to make sure she writes down when these events are happening. (They used to be very infrequent.) A/C camera is down

Paul’s travels to Vancouver on Monday, boat leaves to HI on Tuesday, sails for 6 days, Stays in HI 5 days, sails back for 6 days. Flies to Portland, Chicago then home.

I moved the wires from the side of the home to reduce the number of wires the squirrel can grab to get onto the roof. He/She’s been jumping from the fence onto the roof which yielded a nest of eggs a while back. But there’s nothing to eat on the roof and I could not find an entry into the attic. I may end up putting a camera on that corner of the house so I can get to the bottom of this. The squirrel is damaging the camera wires and moving the IR illuminator.

Our serving pot arrived today, we’ll put the dinner into the pot to keep it warm.

Watched Hudson & Rex on Faith & Family until her back started hurting. She ended up being awake most of the night until she took a Benadryl. I did manage to get some rest in, but I forgot to put water in my CPAP machine. (I woke up with a rapid heartbeat and my ears were ringing like I was low oxygen.)

Sunday

We’re up after a restless night, our CPAP machines were a bit distracting. I let mine run out of water and her mask started to whistle at 4 in the morning. That almost worked out since I had a pill to take at 5AM. We cured the whistle by drawing a fingernail across the vent hole on her mask.

I did manage to check-in with the guys on my HF radio this morning and drink one cup of coffee. Church service was virtual today. Got a call from Steve today about someone needing a car. We’ve got three cars, and we cannot afford to keep all of them. Blue has a problem with the antilock brakes, and we’ve had them completely fail while driving it. But it has a brand-new battery and four good tires. Silver is our everyday vehicle. It gets great gas mileage and is economical to maintain. The van has none of the good things about the silver Focus but, it’s a great vehicle to take on trips. *We can (and have) pull over and take a nap on a mattress in the van. Giving the van away is easiest, but it’s the most expensive vehicle for someone to take over. (It’s also the newest vehicle we have if we decide to drop down to one vehicle.)

Current plan is to repair Blue and shed both Ford Focus vehicles before our insurance renews. Step one is to make sure she can drive the van!

Time wise, we have a LOT of issues that are coming to a head in 4 weeks and our house is in disarray.

The crock pot (Serving Pot) worked great today. It draws a measly 46W on “Keep Warm”, 105W on “Low” and 133W on “High”. The “Lunch Pot” draws about 50W.
The temperature is a perfect 132 degrees on the “Low” setting,

Mowed the lawn today, well 2/3rds of it.