TheCapeBlog

Wish our visit with Gail could have gone on and on.  What a complete pleasure to meet her!

We stayed put the entire time.

Too hot for me at least to do much of anything outside, so grateful that we didn’t need to “entertain”.  What a house guest: she brought her own food and drink because of a restricted diet following bariatric surgery.  She’s doing very well.

Falmouth Toyota found a problem with a broken rear flange connection.  Bringing it to Midas tomorrow morning.

It started to cool off in the afternoon, so we helped the Conservation Department by spreading some mulch at the Santuit Pond Nature Preserve.  Sat outside for a while and watched the hummers.  Ron’s done a great job keeping their feeders full.

No supper.

Dead-headed the hosta and daylilies along the fence.  Watered the front lawn.  Prepped the pineapple from the service center, but it’s pretty awful, gone to alcohol!

Gave Robert a ride to work.

Picked up ale for Ron at TJ’s and trash barrel liners at Job Lot.  Gave Em a ride home from the mall.  They’re planning to move to Washington State in two months!

Ron and I worked outside in 95 degree heat.  He mowed.  I trimmed the front bushes.

Ron finally gave up on towing to GMC and asked the shop in Falmouth to fix the van.

Meanwhile, I got a check engine light in the truck.  Bringing it in tomorrow.

James goes to college this Sunday!

Gail is coming down tomorrow for a visit.

Leftovers for supper combined with some noodles from the service center.  Good!

We got a call from Battles Auto – in Falmouth.  The van was towed there last Wednesday instead of to Battles in Bourne.

So, instead of being ready, it hasn’t even been looked at.

Ron had a checkup with Dr. Kadermas; his eye looks good.

While he was waiting to be seen, I got some fixtures at Botello which work for the IKEA computer desk.  We finally “got it together”.

Earlier today, we shopped at Walmart, got cones at Dairy Queen, stopped at Eastman’s and the Falmouth Food Pantry.  Got some marvelous groceries, including two veg dinners, a pineapple, oranges, cauliflower, etc.

Kitty came by after dark last night.  Were we ever relieved when he came back this morning!

Super hoe arrived today.

Doing more cleanup downstairs yesterday, I found Ron’s old missing hearing aid on his messy work table.  He thought he’d donated the other one only two weeks ago.

Turns out, he hadn’t!

The Senior Center was open for a private group late yesterday afternoon, so we were able to forage through the Lion’s Club eyeglasses and hearing aid donation box.

Ron found some batteries he’d donated, but no hearing aid.

This morning, he found it in the second bedroom.

He made tofu scramble for breakfast.  It was nice enough to eat outside.

I ordered a wall hanging unit for the extension cord winder.

Realized this morning that the creep I confronted last weekend is an Oath Keeper.  Someone else from the group was photographed with him.

We did a lot of outdoor work today, mostly watering and some weeding.

Also did the transfer station and changed sheets.

My right wrist is killing me.

I hurt: back, shoulders, legs.  Can’t figure out why except that I’ve been going up and down the stairs a lot.

Found a few more recyclables and trash.  Found a better shade for the sailboat lamp.  Filled two boxes with light bulbs!  Balanced the checkbooks.  Paid Eversource.

Watered the corner garden.  Too hot to work outside, but not too bad in the house.

Ron wanted to go swimming!  We tried to get to Popponesset but were turned away, so we wandered through New Seabury until we found the Great Oak entrance.

Enjoyed being at South Cape Beach very much.  Ron had a good time in the surf!

Wine and cheese on the deck afterwards.  Posh.

We, mostly me, made a heavy tomato/vegetable sauce and stir fry zucchini noodles yesterday.

Did the mending.

Ron went to Hyannis to pick up something at Beltone.

Today we retrieved our bottles of Gustare Sicilian Lemon balsamic vinegar at Uncle Bill’s.  I also got some fixtures for the little IKEA computer desk at the No. Falmouth hardware store, which keeps a set exactly for that purpose!

Treated ourselves to a slice of pizza each from Pizza Prima and salad at home for lunch.

Still sorting through boxes in the cellar.  Found more cool buffalo things today.

Huge electric bill.  Solar production has been down this month and we’ve been using the A/Cs a lot.

Ordered a new deck plate/escutcheon for the kitchen sink.  The old one is rotted.

Ron received his meds from Humana today and put me through the wringer while I explained the sequence of events.

Stop & Shop received a prescription from the weekend covering doc.   I believe it was ready two days ago, but we didn’t pick it up until yesterday because Ron didn’t call them to see if it was ready.  I happened to be in Stop & Shop and talked with the pharmacist yesterday.  Humana refused to pay, so they hadn’t filled the script until I told them we’d pay for it out of pocket.  They told me that they have a discount program.  Not bad: we got the script for $27.

The meds from Ron’s original prescription with Emerald arrived today from Humana, which was astounding.  They said it would take up to 10 days.  It was mailed “Parcel Select Lightweight” from a facility in Providence yesterday at 11:24 PM (!), was received in Wareham in the wee hours (3:23 AM) and arrived today a little after 1.

He also tormented me about his van, which Portside towed to Battles this afternoon.  I tried to explain to him that a) he didn’t need to go with the AAA tow truck; b) the dealership MIGHT have a shuttle and c) if the dealership didn’t have a shuttle and he wanted to go with the van to the dealership, I’d give him a ride back.

We went through this at least 3 times, and maybe as many as 5.

Turned out, the dealership was expecting the van because he’d made the appointment last week, had it written up and only needed the key.  He didn’t have to go at all.

Portside got here around 1:15.  Battles told us not to expect to see it until the weekend, which is fine.  We didn’t hear from them today; maybe tomorrow.

He was able to start the van, but it stalled shortly thereafter, and he couldn’t get it started again.  I’d found a post online that described the same thing.  Ron thinks it could be a short.

Third torment: his iPhone.  It had a setting that was forcing him to log in to Apple every time he wanted to install an app, even a free app.  He insisted that there was a coordination problem involving his email, that Robert wouldn’t look at it unless he made an appointment, that the Apple store couldn’t solve the problem, blah blah blah.

I was able to install the app on my phone, then found the difference in our settings.  He switched it off, and the app installed fine.

He did make a giant pot of veg chili and hung up the shadow box for his buffalo collection.  I made cornbread.  Hope we aren’t poisoned by the eggs that I left out for two days.  Then again, cooking at over 400 degrees for 20 minutes should kill anything.  So they say.

I did a run to the transfer station, more or less because I needed to move the truck and it annoyed me to waste the gas.  Got rid of our recycling and the junk from the furrows.

We are so, so, so broke.  Have to delay paying one of the mortgages, and borrowed to pay the real estate taxes.  We are owed many thousands of dollars from three different sources.

Meanwhile, Trump is talking about how you have to “gestate” a turkey to prepare it for Thanksgiving.  And his supporters cheer.

Completed the last of the furrow clean-up.  We sifted through the pile and came up with about 3/4 of a bucket of soil.

Did the CSA pickup and a light shop.  Dropped off a small bag of produce to Robert.

We can’t afford to renew our membership for the Fall.

Stop & Shop Pharmacy rescued Ron.  He ran out of Tramadol, called Humana Friday afternoon around 6 for a short-term refill.   He got a prescription from Emerald, but Humana wouldn’t cover it.  The pharmacy gave him a break on the price: $27 for a 10-day supply.  Thank goodness.  I wish there were a better way.

Long conversation with the people at Panda about my subscription.  Waiting for a confirmation email that it’s been extended past October 2019.

Watched two hummers fly through the sprinkler!

We took Peter and James to lunch at NYAJ in Hyannis.

Ron finished mowing the lawn and I raked out the furrow around the herb garden.  Also cleaned most of the paint tray.

One out of four people who live in Barnstable County are of Irish origin.

Forty percent of the people who live in Barnstable County are Catholic.

They grew up believing this, which explains almost everything that’s wrong with this place:

I knew from my catechism book that following the wishes of authority figures was a way of “showing God how much we love him. We show this especially when we obey in something we do not feel like doing.” 

This reader’s comment pretty much covers the rest:

The Catholicism at home, which was based on social justice, was different from that at school, where we were taught obedience through fear and an unearned sense of superiority (as long as we followed the rules).

I agree with this reader’s comment:

Anyone who stays now, after all the truth that has been revealed is an ENABLER and complicit in the catholic church’s crimes against humanity.

There must have been a cataclysmic fold in space/time on November 8, 2016 that brought us back to the fifties.