TheCapeBlog

I saw a Great Pyrenees today. If we had a proper fence, wouldn’t it be nice to offer him a home?

Pancakes for breakfast. Signed us up for lunches at the senior center, veg choices from the regular menu. The place that prepared vegetarian options for Elder Services went out of business.

Made a stop at the food pantry. Brought home two bags worth.

Did a little more yard cleanup, this time in the front corner.

Donated blood. Ron is still anemic, 10.1.

Did a grocery run, so a full day of food shopping.

Ron ran out yesterday, thinks either the pharmacy made a mistake when they refilled his prescription (unlikely) or he dispensed the meds incorrectly. I picked up an OTC version that we hope will work.

Changed sheets, did laundry.

Good news; we have half a tank of oil, hope it’ll last for the rest of the season.

Enjoyed sharing thoughts with Eric on the state of the government.

Continued work on BRC2. Incredible the mistakes I made in the setup.

Finished trimming the big grass by the driveway and did a transfer station run with a full bed and a not quite full trash bag.

Made it to the Robotics Challenge in time to see one of the WES teams make it to the finals.

Leisurely drive back through Dalton, Windsor, Savoy, Cheshire and Adams. Believe I came across the Cheshire reservoir. Admired the many red brick buildings in Dalton.

Drove Ron to the bank and Dwyer’s in Pownal. On the way, we stopped at a young neighbor’s lemonade stand and returned after errands to buy more.

Dropped a pizza in the oven and blueberry muffins from a mix. Ron devoured more than half of both: “I was hungry.”

Did a quick (half hour) sketch of an older person’s hands at the Clark drawing workshop, then visited the museum galleries.

Attended the Log Lunch, enjoyed the speaker.

Picked up two bottles of grapefruit juice, on sale, for Ron.

Did some cleanup of decorative grasses.

It’s been a tough week with Ron’s bad leg, but tonight it seems to be better.

He had an appointment yesterday with his primary and today we went to Walmart to pick up meds, painkiller for him and a salve for my poor eczema-inflicted ears.

I also got a mild cortisone OTC med for my right eye.

We had dinner at Plates – all veg, pretty much fat free. Talk about healthy! We’d gone there intending to join a Chamber of Commerce event but ended up trying out two of their salads and three of their appetizers. Everything was very good.

We drove to Pownal afterwards so I could drop off “Serviceberry” and Ron could get a beer sampler.

Heard from Betsy. She invited us to look at the slideshow and church service video on the funeral home website. I couldn’t understand a word of the service but enjoyed and appreciated the slideshow.

Worse today. He spoke with a nurse on the phone yesterday, hope to be seen today.

Made brownies and roasted cabbage, potatoes and carrots for supper last evening. Ron: “Too much cabbage.”

Chores: put new batteries in the weather station day before yesterday. Rebaited the mouse traps and picked up droppings yesterday. Mouse got caught in one of the traps last night.

Watched the “No Kings” rally on YouTube. Better than being there, could see and hear everyone. Between the crowd at the Colonial and those online, I figure roughly 900 people attended.

Brought Ron to see his Primary today but he didn’t have an appointment and she was too busy. Rather than waiting at the hospital, I did a shop at S&S for staples like bread and Neufchatel and later at CVS for his eye meds.

Gorgeous day. Sat out on the deck for a little while. Old daffs are sprouting in the corner of the yard.

Unloaded and loaded the dishwasher. Otherwise didn’t do anything productive.

Fierce wind gusts yesterday on Spring Street and at the transfer station. Measured 18 here.

We attended the Log Lunch which featured a talk on an area Ron has seen, the Colorado River. I barely made it to the transfer station before closing with recyclables.

Misunderstanding when it was needed, I worked on BRC2 for the MRS in lieu of a book club meeting. That was too bad. Skipped a Berkshire Symphony concert last night.

The sweaters Ron ordered for my birthday were at least a size and maybe two sizes too small so I mailed them back to J. Crew.

Ron’s right knee has been painful and this morning, his right ankle is bothering him, too. A puzzle why. He thinks maybe he overdid it a couple of days ago removing snow which mostly has melted as it turns out.

Installed a new Chrome ad blocker, Pie; it’s working well.

Took care of Ron today, made mac and cheese for lunch. This is the fourth meal I’ve prepared this week from the Food Pantry.

Changed the batteries in the weather station and it seems to be working fine.

We skipped an event at the Clark to attend a pro-Ukraine standout in Adams, and it was a mistake.

Two teeny-tinies were buzzing about, one of which caused me a lot of trouble in the Harper writing group. The rest were “We don’t know you so we’ll ignore you.”

It threw me for a loop and I acted poorly, admittedly.

It was bitter cold and I had some intestinal distress, which didn’t help.

Ron confessed afterwards that he should have backed me up. He never does so it hadn’t even occurred to me that he’d missed an opportunity to be a good husband.

I’m an idiot to think that any progressive clique would be a good social home anyway.

Ron gave me a tip, though, on breaking in to a new group: telling story, something he does all the time.

My problem is that I don’t have a story to tell, at least not an authentic one. I do inform people that both my parents were officers in the Navy, but that doesn’t provoke interest. I don’t have anecdotes to share or reminiscences. Just a blank.

I spent a lot of time yesterday working on the new pages for MRS.

Made blueberry muffins. Ron put together a pot of soup from a package.

We stopped at Walmart on the way home for meds and groceries and got gas at Cumby for the Corolla. The price of Peet’s is out of control. Stop and Shop is out of Major Dick’s, so I’m glad we got it at Walmart, for slightly less than at Big Y as a matter of fact.

I signed up for a subscription to Peet’s. We’ll get a pound of Major Dick’s once every two weeks. We’ll see how it goes.

I also signed up for level electric utility payments. Going to go up with Trump’s stupid war with Canada, which supplies gas and oil to the Northeast.

The dog adoption people chose another family for Sugar.

We are unhappy with, in fact, scared about, the moves the Trump Administration is making to undermine our national security as part of their recent Putin rapprochement.

Cardiology specialist called to go over my results: good, especially for someone my age. I had a question about one measurement; she said she’d follow up.

We did laundry; I changed sheets. Ron can’t stop babbling and it’s driving me nuts.

We cooperated with the February 28 Blackout, which is supposed to show disapproval with Trump’s anti-DEI policy and corporate greed.

We both had good visits at our dental office yesterday. I’d had a rough night but made the appointment on time. Ron followed at 10. I was in a fog for the rest of the day.

I pried myself out of bed this morning for a 9:30 carotid scan at BMC in Pittsfield. Got there on time, out before 10.

Ron hacked at the garage roof yesterday and is doing a great job clearing the deck today. There was at least two inches of ice. He used a sledgehammer to clear it.

Our solar panels are now clear of snow and ice. We let the sun do its job.

I was worried that our home insurance premiums weren’t getting deducted but turns out we are fine.

I may have found us a dog, Sugar, an 8 year old female poodle. I was in a quandary about references, but Alyssa and Butch agreed to vouch for us! I filled out the application, waiting for a response.