Month: October 2016

Grouchy or Cheerful Ron?

He was pleased to find a recording of a Pentangle concert he attended in Berkeley in May 1970.

He was grouchy about having an appointment for a blood test this morning.

He picked up some great produce from the CSA yesterday afternoon, including a gorgeous pumpkin.

Cindy called last evening; we are “on” for breakfast this weekend, Cathy’s generous treat.

The boot is more comfortable than the splint. Maybe that’s progress of a sort. At least most of the stitches are out. Sleeping seems a little easier. The boot comes on and off easily and the plastic “sock” still works great for bathing.

I cleaned up a pile of papers from my “desk” yesterday.

I managed to get the scooter in the truck and drove to Mahoney’s for decorative mums. Arranged them with the pumpkin on the front steps. Once again, I regret not having a pulley on the truck bed. Driving was easy; everything else was hard.

Gave up on the bidet install. Would have cost over $1,000. Look what I saved us.

Chatted with the patient advocate at the hospital and with the doc’s office about pain management. It was the doc’s fault that I didn’t have a self-administered drip.

Made stew with ground turkey, zuke, onion, garlic, rutabaga (or is it turnip?)

Cleaned the vegetable bin and the bottom of the refrigerator.

Organic Pyrethrin

Drip irrigation:  Fedco.  Anchor every 6-7 feet.  Remove at end of season.

Recommended (drought-resistant?) plants:
Background shrub:  Center Glow 9-Bark
Petrennia – Golden Valerian
Stokes aster
Meadow Rue
Variegated Sedum
Frosted Elegance Phlox

Good website for companion planting: Cornell extension

Apply sifted diatomaceous earth after it rains (yeah, right)

Scab-resistant potatoes: Butte Red New Orleans Natasha

Vocabulary
monoecious
parthenocarpic (fruit without fertilization)

Septoria leaf spot (tomato disease)

Pyganic: pyrethrin-based insecticide derived from chrysanthemums

Surround, Serenade: Chemical-free disease control

Neem oil and spinosad – either can be used to control thrips

Yellow leaves: correct with Miracle Gro

Apply biofungicides before mildew; add nutrition

Copper sulfate or hydroxide

pmr = powdery mildew resistant

Still on non-weight bearing.  My bones are great, but not so much the incision, which isn’t healing properly.

Back and forth over why I had PT.  It was, in fact, ordered by Boyle’s office, but they are blaming it for why the incision hasn’t healed.

I lost the splint, have a boot.

On the way home, I was angry, frustrated and feeling sorry for myself, at which point Ron decided to change the subject to his beloved Native Americans in North Dakota.

Boohoo.

Another bad dream about the Cohens last night.  I was carrying a beautiful baby and he fell asleep in my arms.  I put him down in a kind of soft blanket/bed, but adopter-liar rolled him out of it.  The baby stayed asleep, though.

It’s here: the end of 3 weeks of the dubiously named “non weight bearing” period of my recovery from ankle replacement surgery.

Ron made a big (10 cup) pot of coffee.  I vacuumed, and he put carpet tape on the undersides of the living room rug and the rug by the sink.

I made the bed and took a shower.  Ron stopped at the Senior Center and brought Robert to work.

I cancelled Meals on Wheels and got in touch with our insurance agent about a mortgage company request for homeowners coverage info.

Did some work on crutches with Gregg the PTA.  He gave me a few standing exercises for the left leg.  I figured out a way to get into the house with crutches.

 

Right wrist, arm and shoulder hurting this morning.  Icing helped.

Smokey paid an early visit, around 7 and then around 2.  He stayed for a bit, but doesn’t like the scooter.

Fruit salad and bagel for breakfast.  Pizza for Ron and zucchini pie for me for lunch.  No cooking today, we have plenty of leftovers.

Ron did laundry, we both changed bed sheets.  He’s off to the transfer station.

Ron worked today.  Still raining.

We made a nice supper: baked haddock, salad, zucchini/onion pie, roasted kale.

I cleaned up my email accounts, deleted over 2,000 unread emails.

How-To

Yellow Sweet Clover

Extended family can’t relate to an adoptee as freely or as completely as they can “one of their own”.  It’s nature’s way.

Funny how no one acknowledges the place of extended family in adoption, only the Triad.  As if grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins aren’t important.

Up at 5.  Ron stayed home today.  PT this afternoon.

Ron spent the morning squaring away his passwords.  If I had a dollar for every time…..

He did a big shop in the afternoon.  We had pizza for supper to give the kitchen a break.

It rained pretty much all day, so I didn’t go out.  Timid.