Black Friday!!!! I’m sure glad that I don’t get tangled up in all of that. I can’t imagine the amount of pulsing and shoving and waiting in line, trying to find a place to park and walking forever. But I know a lot of people that are really into that for their Christmas shopping. But without trying to offend anyone, I don’t know a single man that voluntarily gets involved. None of the men I know that have had to go never have a smile on their face when they talk about it. Actually, I don’t understand why they still declare it a Black Friday sale anymore because the sales have been available already from two weeks, and most of the people that I’m close with get their shopping done on Amazon. I don’t remember the last time Kate and I went shopping in a brick and mortar department store. 

How was your Thanksgiving? Did you over-eat? Of course you did; everybody does. As planned, I did 95% of the prep and cooking and cleanup. I just emptied the second load of dishes this morning out of the dishwasher. Man, I so remember the days before dishwashers. The refrigerators are full of leftovers and I have a pumpkin pie sitting beside my IPad here at the table that I am nibbling on. 

Julie came over on Wednesday evening so she could help me on Thursday morning. I appreciated it although I already had most everything already prepped. The extra “get this and get that” help was definitely appreciated. We had the “typical” Thanksgiving meal that all of America had: turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and sweet potato casserole, brussel sprouts, green bean casserole, gravy, rolls, carrots, deviled eggs, and pumpkin pie. It came out well, but I made a lot of trips to the family room with questions of “how do I” from Ms. Kate. She is still barely getting around with her walker so I decided that I would cook with a lot of supervision. We make a good team. Jules was a big help and Jim was a big help afterwards finding containers and room in the refrigerators to put the stuff. Team work makes delicious dream work. 

The temperature is having a hard time getting above 30 degrees today. Kate had hoped to go decorate the graves today for Christmas but it is too darn cold. I’m hoping that it will get just a bit warmer next week and we can get them dressed up for Christmas. 

That’s it for today. I hope your weekend is blessed. Peace. 

 It is 10:30 pm so I guess this will be a Tuesday/ Wednesday note or two. 

It has been a rather busy day for me and tomorrow will be even busier I think. We did our usual morning routine of sitting around, reading the latest Facebook gossip, and playing a couple of computer games. I have one game that I play and Kate has two or three that she likes. Then we both like to “color our daily pictures” on a site called “Happy Color”. It is actually good mental exercise trying to solve the picture. I recommend it to all senior folks. 

Next I got a call from Walgreens that Kate had a prescription that needed to be picked up. Since I needed to go to Ruler’s any way to get milk and bread, I got ready and went and picked up my groceries and her prescriptions. Ruler’s and Walgreen are across the street from one another. Then I went to Ritzies, in the same shopping complex, and picked us up some lunch. 

I came home and we had our lunch and then it was time to eat started on things that I need to prep for our Thanksgiving meal. It was a whole lot of stuff but doing it ahead of time will really help. I cut up a loaf and a half of bread for the dressing. I’m still debating whether to go to Meijer’s tomorrow and pick up some oysters to make some oyster dressing. I love the stuff but no by else is a fan. Kate would eat a small helping but neither Jim or Julie would touch it. But, I maybe will pick up a small batch of fresh oysters while we are out tomorrow. Kate has a hair appointment and assuming she is mobile enough to get in and out of the car and into the beauty shop, we’ll take her to her appointment, then to our doctor’s office lab for her to ge her blood drawn, and then —- maybe to get some oysters. 

Anyway —- I got the bread all cut up, I got the carrots peeled and sliced up for the meal, and I got the celery cut up really small to go in the dressing. Tomorrow will be the day to get dishes out to cook in and to serve in, and I will make two pumpkin pies. I’m glad that the weather is turning really cold because I have no room in the refrigerator for the pies after I bake them, and Kate says they need to be refrigerated because they are a custard pie. With the cold weather, I can just set them out in the sunroom which will be a bout 40 degrees or less. Or, I can take them out and set them in the grill on the patio. I know they will stay cold there. I’m not sure there will still be two pies left by Thursday morning, in fact I can almost guarantee it. 

I got my winter order of food for my aviary friend today. It gets more expensive all the time. I spent $175.00 for this order and it wasn’t all that big. But, this order will get me through December and maybe half of January. Picking up five gallon pecans from my sister-in-laws yard will help a lot. 

That’s it my friends. I hope and pray you have a blessed Thanksgiving Day. Peace be with you. 

 Happy Monday! How was your weekend? Ours was “housebound” except for a couple of errands I had to do. We did “recliner church again today. It is really hard for Kate to get in and out of the car and down the steps etc. So that should tell you how she is doing. 

Friday Kate called in a Walmart curbside order for pickup on Saturday. As I have said in the past this is a “perk” that I really like, —- on most days. Saturday didn’t go all that well. 

Kate didn’t go with me of course but she did go on the app and tell them “I’m on my way”. I got there at 10:30 and called the posted number to let them know I had arrived, per instruction. Unfortunately I got a recording that said “the party you are tying to reach is not available, please tell us which spot you are in and we’ll get back with you”. So I did that. There were several cars in the curbside area and I sat there as one after another was loaded but I never got a call back. I watched as new cars arrived and their order were brought out and loaded and still nothing. So, after about 20 minutes, I flagged down one of the delivery people and told them I had called in but had heard nothing back. The kid check his phone and says, “yeh, it shows you still arriving, okay”. I waited another 10 minutes and still nothing. The kid that I had talked to even came by my car to make another delivery but said nothing. Finally I went up to the door and knock on it, and a young lady came to the door. I told her what was going on, and other answer was “Okay, we’ll be out in a minute”. There was no apology or anything. They did come out about five minutes later and load me up. Not a good day for curbside. One of the problems was that Kate had called in the order on her phone so I didn’t have an order # or the right phone number for them to call because it would have gone to her phone and not mine. But —— it was redonkulous!!!! 

By the time I left Walmart, it was lunch time and I decided to stop by Ms Donalds and get us something to eat. McRibs are “back in season” so I ordered two of them, a large order of French fries for us to split, and two strawberry/banana smoothies. And of course —— “I’m sorry, we are all out of smoothies”. Grrrrrrrrr!

I was glad to get home. We had ordered most of what we would need for Thanksgiving. The turkey is in the refrigerator thawing. Julie and Jim are coming over so I got a 11.5 lb bird. That will give us a meal and will also have plenty of leftovers to send some home with them and also for me to make turkey noodle soup. Today I will start doing some of the prep work for the meal. 

Sunday was uneventful, we watched tv church, took naps and generally didn’t do much else. Minh, from across the street come over and gave us a bunch of sliced ham. She said she bought too much and wanted to just give it to us. I made of dinner out of that. 

That’s it for today. Have yourself a wonderful Thanksgiving week. May God bring peace to you home. 

 Well here it is Friday and it looks like most of the rest of the days this week. It is raining and raw outside and gloomy. It would be a good day to snuggle up in front of the fireplace and read a good book and listen to some soft classical music. But there are other things to attend to today. 

Ms. Kate isn’t doing a whole lot better and that surprises me. I thought by today she would be getting around better than she is. However, she did make it out to her hair appointment. She cancelled last week so she was going to make it this week come hell or high water. We loaded her and her walker in the car and she made it alright. If she doesn’t feel better physically, I know she feels better mentally having her hair looking good.

Yesterday I had an appointment to get my toenails trimmed. I do that once a month because I can’t bend over to do them myself. The young lady I go to does a good job. I don’t like to go to a nail salon because the women there want to do the whole “pedicure thing”. My feet are extremely sensitive and ticklish so I don’t want all of that rubbing and stuff. I just want the nails trimmed and my lady understands that. The nails on my big toes get ingrown so quickly so it needs to be done once a month. Some would call that an indulgence, I call it a need. 

Since Ms. Kate is still down for the count, I did the laundry yesterday too. Actually, I do the laundry most of the time. I find it so simple to do and I have been doing laundry since I as a child once my mother moved up from a “ringer washer”. When I take the stuff out of the dryer, Kate always says “just put it there and I will fold it.” But, I don’t. That just adds  another step to the process. So I just take it on back to the bedroom and stand there and fold it. Then I put my stuff away and she can put hers away. 

Kate needs to put together the grocery list and do an on-line order from Walmart. That on-line ordering thing is a great benefit. I figure we can get all of our stuff for Thanksgiving ordered and I will pick it up tomorrow. Kate wants to do a turkey so we need to get it while they are on sale and then we can start thawing it on probably Monday evening. Personally I’d rather have pork tenderloin but this way, I’ll end up getting some turkey noodle soup which I love. And maybe we’ll have a turkey sandwich or two also. We don’t a turkey bigger than 10 or 12 pounds. Julie and Jim will be here and I can send some home with them too. Kate doesn’t like leftovers. Me, I could eat them anytime. Her mom used to make a large something like a pot of soup and she would eat on it every day until it was gone. 

It’s lunch time so I better se what my patient wants for lunch. Have a great day. Have a great weekend if I don’t see you again. Peace

 Happy Wednesday. It is a damp 42 degrees today. We had rain on and off through the night but I think we are supposed to stay dry today. If I recall, the weather dude said that we will start having rain again tomorrow afternoon and then more on and off through Friday. It’s southern Indiana fall. As I use my weather app and check on the places that the girls live, It looks like maybe Lisa, down in North Carolina gets the award for best weather today. Heather comes in second out in California. The rest of us all suck. 

Ms. Kate had a great night and woke up feeling better. But that lasted until she got about half way down the hall and the leg and hip started hurting again. Bless her heart. But she is improving, just not to the extent that we would like her too. The muscle relaxer she took last night really did let her rest though. She is on her second day of prednisone so maybe it will all start coming together as she goes through the day. 

I wasn’t writing this past January so you didn’t get the neighborhood gossip and news. We had a neighbor across the street and one house down that lost much of their home due to fire. The fire actually totally destroyed the garage and two cars that were in there. But, of course with smoke damage and fire suppression after, the rest of the home was rendered useless too. So, they have left the brick structure of the rest of the house, gutted everything else and are building a new garage on the house and today they are putting on a new roof on the entire house. Allegedly they will have the house ready to move in on February 26th, 2026. I guess we will see if that happens. They had torn off all of the roof on the house on Monday and then of course it poured down rain yesterday and last night. I’m sure that didn’t help anything at all. The house has a full basement and they are going to have it turned into a living area again so that means for sure all new flooring etc to eliminate any new chances of mold. I really don’t know much about building houses but It seems to me that it might have been cheaper to bulldoze the entire structure and start fresh. But, I’m sure they were limited by whatever their insurance company would pay for. I know the name of their insurance company and have never heard anything positive about them. I also know that they have gone back and forth numerous times between the insurance company and the building contractor. It has been a nightmare for them. The only bright light is that no one was hurt during the fire. For that we give praise and glory to God. 

Our cleaning lady just came by and dropped off a pumpkin roll for us for Thanksgiving. She is so sweet. And, she’s a great baker too. Last winter when Kate was sick, she backed up the only Christmas cookies we had for the season. 

That takes care of my Wednesday gossip. I reckon I will jump off. I may either continue reading my book today or maybe do some writing. It depends on what Ms. Kate needs me to do. Have a great afternoon. Peace. 

 Happy Tuesday. It is 2:00 pm and we have been somewhat busy. Ms. Kate had a doctor’s appointment today with her kidney doctor. I forget her title, (maybe Nephrologist???). But, it’s an every four month visit to see how she is doing. I don’t know what that doctor gets paid but for the length of her appointments, I’m sure the price per hour is outrageous. It takes longer for the nurse  to take Kate’s blood pressure, go over her medications etc than it does for the doctor to walk in, look at the results of her last blood test, ask a couple of questions and be gone. It doesn’t help that neither Kate nor I particularly like this doctor either. She’s “cold” and aloof and frankly rude. But, maybe her once every four month appointments are okay since every visit is less than 10 minutes. 

Kate still is down for the count. The steroid shot hasn’t really seemed to kick in yet and to add to the misery, the injection site is now sore too. I’ve had steroid shots several times. They don’t hurt when you get them but always seem to hurt the next couple of days. I don’t know why, that’s just the way it is. We weren’t able to pick up both of her meds yesterday. We got the prednisone but there is a muscle relaxer that she is supposed to take at night that I have to go to Walgreens shortly to pick up. I’m hoping by tomorrow we see a “feeling much better Ms. Kate.”

We are having rain on and off today and into tomorrow. I’m glad I got my yard totally mowed yesterday afternoon and I also went over and mowed Dan’s yard again. He and his wife just got back from visiting her brother and family in the Washington DC area for four weeks. Dan came home sick with COVID and flu. It happens every trip he takes out there. I understand why they spend such a long time there each visit. Minch is Vietnamese and has no cultural connection here in Evansville. When they go there, their family lives in a larger Thai and Vietnamese area and she can speak her native language, eat all her cultural food etc. Plus, she is the oldest member of the family and that naturally gives her the place of honor. Dan says they cater to her every whim and treat her with the utmost respect. No wonder she wants to not come home. Here, I never see her go any where other than to shop once in awhile. Dan has all of his family here and he and his brothers get together and go golfing either here or out of state for a week. 

It has quite a racing for a bit so I better run to Walgreens and get Kate’s medicine. Have a great rest of your day. Don’t get so busy being busy that you forget to take time for a chat with God. Peace. 

Not a very good weekend around here.I told you Friday that Kate was down with her back. It continued to get worse as the weekend progressed. We got her in to see the Nurse Practitioner this morning. She said Kate for sure is have a Bursitis flare up and there may be more. But, she gave her a steroid injection and had a bunch of X-ray’s taken. Also prescribed Prednisone and something else for hr to take at night to help her sleep. It’s a routine that I have been through numerous times and I think it will help her too. In the meantime though, she is a miserable puppy. 

I finally finished up the front flowerbeds. I’m glad to have that out of the way for the year. I mowed our front yard and Dan’s front yard and had all of the leaves mulched away. I’m sitting here looking at Dan’s yard right now and one could never tell I was ever there. His Maple tree is shedding really good right now. I give it to the end of the week and it should be done. The one ion his back yard has hardly started. 

Okay, that’s it. I’m busy taking care of my lady these days. have a blessed week.