Friday, July 08, 2011

WRONG SIDE OF THE BED

There's a fungus among us.
Fungus of some kind on dead tree trunk
in our front yard.
You know the saying: "I got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning!"
Thursday was one of those of days, except I generally sleep in a lift chair, so there is only one way out of it, the front where it lifts you in a near standing position.

When the electricity fails and the foot/leg portion is in the up position, I have climbed clumsily over an arm, and returned in a similar ungraceful fashion, but it was not that kind of night. Description of my return by alling butt first over the arm of the lift chair fails adequate description.

Thursday, I had several chores and appointments starting with an appointment for Luckie at her favorite local beauty parlor. The appointment was made in late May and I thought it was 10:30 a.m., or so I wrote on my big number calendar. Her last 3-4 appointments have been on rainy days.

How appropriate at 10:30 a.m. it was raining as I arrived at Classy Critters.

Luckie always has to pee before entering any place other than home. And lots of PEE. You would think she had not peed in days! I marvel as she starts in the usual position and sorta waddles leaving quite a stream for several feet. Must be the rain's influence on kidneys, by some unknown method to me.

Finally, we enter only to be told we are two hours early. However, the lovely owner kept her until her time, so I could proceed to another city for a mammogram and bone density test, the latter I know will not be good news. She thinks Luckie is the sweetest dog she ever accepted. I am wondering if her eyesight is failing behavior standards are less than mine. Hope she doesn't have any loaves of bread around her salon!

My drive in light rain to the Imaging Center in Mountain Home went fairly smoothly, except my creaky bones do not like some of the positions required for the bone density test. But my paperwork was completed as were thetests on time and I thought my day might be improving. The rain had stopped.

IBC/Hostess Bread outlet is one block from the Imaging Center, so I popped in to pickup Wonder Sandwich bread and other goodies for husband, and Pizzelles and Hostess (Weight Watcher approved) tiny cakes.

Smouldering debris from front yard renovation.
Smoking in the background is my steam from
Murphy Oil experience--just kidding
The minute I walked in the cashier said, "Do you want Pizzelles today? I said YES . "Well, we only have 5 cartons in vanilla, and won't have any more until Thanksgiving." I rushed over and grabbed 4 containers. [Nice of me not to piggy out and take them all, huh?] Reko Italian Style Pizzelle cookies come in several flavors: vanilla (a favorite), caramel (a favorite). citron and anise are stocked at various times at this store.  Reko Italian Style Pizzelles come in several other flavors including chocolate and dulce de leche (I'd love to try!). Six cookies are 4 Points Plus in WW lingo; however they are huge and thin, so I usually just eat 3 for 2 points dessert with some fruit (free-no points).

I commented their shelves surely were empty and no Moon Pies, not that I needed them, but their Moon Pies are not triple deckers like those a local WalMart store. The cashier said orders were being severely shorted since some time before July 4, maybe a sign of the times. Not the best trip I've made to that store, but only mild disappointment.

Next on my list was Home Depot to pickup some landscape cloth for a friend, peruse solar lights and a container for my lonely 3rd knockout rose I bought for an empty whisky barrel, but the bottom had rotted out. Nothing interesting in solar lights that I had not already seen, so I moved to the garden area and found the landscape cloth. Then I browsed various containers I perceived large enough to the rose for a couple of years.

I found a lovely navy blue glazed clay pot. In fact there were 2 pots same size but one had some chips in the glaze and sitting in the wrong shelf slot, at a slightly less price. I chose the more perfect pot and expected to pay the full price. Military personnel get a small discount on the price so I handed the cashier my card at beginning of checkout; I tried to explain she needed to move the other pot. Remind me to mind my own business. She royally screwed up my ticket and said I had to take my purchase to refund desk and start over. She had given me a markdown on the pot I did not choose and a discount, too. Apparently, that is not kosher.

The truth is she did not know what to do. I told her to push the cart to the refund desk while I walked in the now sweltering, humid sunshine to retrieve my driver's license for ID. She did, and I did, and I finally got the heavy pot loaded with out breaking it.

Then I motored across the highway to fill up with gasoline at Murphy Oil (WalMart). For the 2nd-3rd time my WalMart cards were rejected at the pump. One of the two cards was finally accepted and I filled the tank.

When I topped off the gas at 10.001 gallons I shut off the pump hose. I reached over to retrieve my receipt--OOPS! no receipt, and a message on the pump monitor to re-insert my card or go pay cash at the window. I was not going to do either one, because it accepted my card. By now I was steaming inside and out. I told the office I was not paying twice and I was tired of their cranky, crummy pumps.

Amazingly she produced a receipt for me. I hope the next customer at that pump did not pay again for my gas and whatever they purchased.

So I moved on to WM Super Store. I had a rather short grocery listand a few other items. I usually divide the store into grocery and other. I shop the 'other' first. I thought I was moving right along with my list, eliminating certain items for various reasons, and moved over to the grocery side, after a short rest on a bench.

I headed for the "bug and rodent" sprays, traps, etc. looking for moth balls. I guess I am only person in the whole wide world that expects moth balls in the bug department. I thought moths were insects.....hmmm, my biology is very old.

A kindly employee who has worked in this store a very long time told me they were by the ironing boards. At this point the ironing boards were 1/2 a mile across the store. I asked the nice employee if he knew the perimeter of this store [at one time the 2nd largest in the world] was one mile. He smiled and said he had worked on the other side a long time, too. Then I asked him how many miles he had walked; he said he did not want to know.

No kidding the perimeter including the garden area is one mile, and if you also go aisle by aisle it is even more. I count it as WW activity strolling and counts the minutes I spent inside the store which averages 2 hours. After all I am not a daily customer, as I live about 20 mi. from one store and 10 mi. from a smaller store--one way. I consider cost of gas if I only need a very few items as we have a local grocery store, too.

After trekking the 1/2 mi. to retrieve the moth balls that my husband perceives will discourage squirrels from digging and burying their hickory nuts in our new mulch, I ran into a friend with whom I worked 20 years ago in a Mountain Home pharmacy. That was 30 minutes of chatting.

I finished shopping, missed getting Honey Maid Cinnamon Graham Crackers Low Fat, but otherwise I opted for lots of fresh fruit and some Weight Watcher Ice Cream Novelties, checked out and loaded up, putting frozen and cooler items in some insulated bags.

After closing the trunk, I grabbed my purse out of the shopping cart. It was strapped in with the straps normally used for small kids, a trick my husband's sister taught me to deter purse snatching. I forgot to unlatch the strap and the purse was not latched. Papers flew out and landed in water puddles from the rain. Since I am an avid filer of checks with tickets, I retrieved all I could. Just another item to add to the Bad Day List.

AH! the air conditioning in car felt like heaven as I headed for my last stop--KFC at 5 p.m. Timing was the worst with two lines frantically ordered takeouts for evening meal, as was I. Recently KFC introduced grilled chicken (skin on) to its entrees which is slightly, maybe very slightly, more healthy than their crispy or original offerings.

From the orders the grilled variety is taking off like a firecracker on the 4th of July.

I and another lady had to wait 11 minutes for our orders because it is not cooked in large enough quantities for the demand, so it seemed. KFC needs to re-evaluate the success of one tiny effort to make their food a TINY bit more healthy. At home I grill chicken thighs on an indoor counter griller without the skin.

Meanwhile the groceries are getting warmer, yet warmer. I cracked the windows but did not leave AC running as I could not see the car from where I had to place my order.

FINALLY, I was headed home. As I looked in my rear view mirror, and a side window I thought, hmmm!... that looks like a very good thunderstorm building over the direction I was headed. Within 2 mi. of Bull Shoals Dam, a Noah-like rain deluge hit. I was wonder if my Toyota SUV could miraculously become an ark.

Arriving home I parked in my carport, grabbed a cheap umbrella, the KFC bag and the cooler items and headed to the house. I was thankful for thedeck canopy where Ileft the drenched umbrella and dismal day behind. Husband andbackyard neighbor boy unloaded the rest, when the rain subsided.

Days like today increase my appeciation of HOME!

On a sad note today, (Friday) I heard a man, age 39 and firefighter,
attended a Texas Ranger baseball game with his son, fell from the very top row,
catching a fly ball--no doubt for his son. He fell backwards from the top row,
hitting the concrete below, head first. He was alive when place in ambulance,
but went into cardiac arrest and died in area hospital. What a sad event for an
father/son affair.

This man and his son were from my hometown in Texas, Brownwood. I hope the fly ball was retrieved ( if he actually caught it) and given to the son. I have heard tw0 versions of whether the father caught the ball.

PHOTOS have nothing to do with subject of this blog. Maybe it will add some humor???
[Blogger has made a lot of changes and updates. If you are still trying to use OLD EDITOR under settings, you may be creating a multitude of problems. I've had this blog written nearly 48 hours. It would not post. I could not block and link, nor could I cut/copy and paste. The usual menu options of Blogger and Windows were greyed out. It was horrible until I scoured for hours through HELP and found and exact question like mine.}

6 comments:

Rosaria Williams said...

My goodness, all these activities made me tired just reading about them. Hope your KFC was worth the wait.

faye said...

What a busy day for you.
Did you forget to pick up Luckie...
I was afraid at the end of the post you
would mention that you had to go back.

Jinksy said...

Did I miss a mention of collecting dog? Or is she still at Classy Critters? lol

Pat - Arkansas said...

I hope today is a better day! Your list of things accomplished plum wore me out!

Sweet Virginia Breeze said...

Wow, what a day! I would have been an exhausted stressed out mess by the end of day.

Lorna said...

I'm afraid I would have just gone back to my car about halfway through and ordered something decadent from Dairy Queen