My day

 I have to show up for dinner at five, but here's a recap. I've spent my day on paperwork. I forget most of it, but some of it included trying to convince AAA I'd paid this year's dues. I hadn't, but figuring it out consumed and hour or two.

The "paper" did get consigned to the mail box, eventually, but I did not get to calling the doctor and the dentist. They are still on my note pad, and I think I'll wait a bit to call. It's colder than ice cubes out there and I don't want to deal with it.

No weaving was done today, sadly. I never get to it after dinner. Most of that time is spent reading blogs, and I still don't have time to get to them all. I have on a nice turquoise which I want to turn into towels, so I must get busy.

I did stop for a bite this afternoon. I have a food container I will be sorry to part with. There are four or five bonafide chefs in the kitchen. Well, one chef, a sous chef, a couple of chefs. After that there is a staff of preparers and servers. These mostly are college students. Three or four are on permanently and the rest are leaving this week.  A lot of turnover right now.

I hope a newby did this. There is ice cream available at every meal and some flavors we would die for. Not this one; it's too sweet. The purchasing chef buys ice cream in those big brown cardboard containers, and a kid or two transfers it by the scoop to these smaller units, then label the lid. I mean scoop that has the thumb lever to empty the contents. They serve potatoes and other things with them, too.

We generally bring our dessert back to our rooms. Mostly the kids on ice cream duty put enough information on the label to let them know the contents. When I saw this, I had to have it. Must be a new kid. I take it from my freezer for a spoonful every day and put it back. It's sweet enough to fly away on.

So, I didn't call the doctor for an appointment, but I did order bread, butter and jelly from Heinans'. That should have been straightforward. It wasn't. The shopper even came to my room to explain some of the items. They were on my order, but not my mental list. The one I keep in my head to shopping day. I must check the list before I click OK. I told the young lady OK. I'll figure out what to do with what I have no use for. 

I am back from dinner for a while now. I've been finishing the blog, getting ready to read the blogs! And go to bed early tonight.

I want you to know I'm much closer to getting a cat. The cat security deposit is only about a hundred dollars short. They do not accept credit cards here at the Atrium. Can you believe that! Cash and checks only.

And, my sister is getting her new knee on Friday. She needs a couple weeks recuperation before she faces a new kitty here.

My world

Hello again. Important things first. I was running short on quarters for bingo. In fact, I was reduced to enough for one more game with two quarters left over. I gave half a jar to Laura, which did not bother me at all, but then I had a couple of dry days; no wins. That's gambling for you.

The morning of the day I could gamble my way to bankruptcy, it occurred to me to call my sister. She was happy to procure a roll of quarters for me, and in fact, two rolls appeared, with a little note, "From the man who cannot follow directions!" They are in the trolley of my walker, back and forth to games. For I have won since that awful moment and my little jar is 3/4 full.

Our weather has been close to abysmal. My car has not been started for a month. Every time it has snowed, a couple of fellows have appeared to shovel the accumulation from the foundations of the construction site and keep on building.

Here's a picture of some of the rest of the operation:

I think next week we'll be looking at the second floor going on.

Last week Caroline helped me get a new warp on the loom. This week I straightened out its couple of small problems (one missing thread, which I will run into shortly), and I need to be back to weaving. Caroline really wants to learn more; enter the skill set part of the craft, not just the grunt work.

Like having the quarters meet up with bingo games, I have just about enough time to empty enough of the loom for it to be comfortable for her to learn. Off to the job!           

Another week

It's been a sad week. You remember Big Marge, my assigned supper mate table partner. She had a chronic cough that she insisted was bronchitis. She would not wear a mask. I quickly caught the cold, was sick for weeks, and wound up at another table.

Big Marge developed leg ulcers, was hospitalized for a while, and had an assistant when she returned. I made a point of speaking to the three remaining table mates. Gloria and Little Marge are the other two. These two are well into their nineties, and Gloria told me her name happened because she was born on a glorious summer day. 

Names are Big Marge's chief problem, or the biggest I deal with. She remembers no name but her own. She asks me mine several time in a conversation. She has other problems with memory that I am aware of, but which don't affect me. Recently an aid let slip a memory issue, and followed by telling us Marge would be moving to assisted living soon. Marge was told Friday afternoon, and Friday evening as tough for her.

Friday afternoon was a cheerful throwback time. Those who wanted to made tie-die shirts. I arrived to watch and found my friend Mary Lou very frustrated. She was late because her physical therapist kept her late. We glanced briefly at the instructions, then went to work on her shirt. She accordion folded it and secured it with rubber bands. 

Several people were already dying shirts folded exactly the same. So I took her shirt and rolled it up into a flat plate. Mary Lou got rubber bands in place in a timely fashion. She went off to dye and I fell in with the ladies cleaning up.

The shirts will steep overnight and be rinsed and rinsed today and returned on Monday. That should be fun.

Then there is the matter of the construction out the window.

One or two men are working on it, daily. I take the older to be the supervisor and the other a younger helper. Well, that's it for the week!

Another week come and gone

Over the weekend I had a room full of helpers to put a new warp on the loom. Technically, the name is "dressing the loom." First to come, my youngest granddaughter, Caroline. Right behind her, Janice, and later in the afternoon, my table mates, Margaret and Rose.

I had everything set up, ready to go, and so were Jan and Caroline.  We put Caroline to turning the crank, Jan switched out empty tubes for ones with thread, and I kept the tension box fairly level. I told Caroline to make 250 turns. Why I said that without consulting my old notes I do not know.  I had Caroline back off fifty turns, which went in the wastebasket. The loom is more full that I've ever dealt with. We'll see.

The thread is to the top of the thread bars, and I even had to use the guides in a couple of places to keep threads from spilling over. I have two and a half bouts left to tie on, and then we'll see how well it comes through the heddles and if I can get the warp to behave until I've use another fifty or more turns.

It took the usual two hours to turn on 250 turns. Caroline had no intention of crying "Uncle!"; she kept steadily at it until done, which turned out to be in the nick of time. Uncle Tom came to drive Jan home, and she took her two towels and left. 

Caroline and I enjoyed a light lunch (ice cream), and then I expected she would be leaving, too. But no, she wanted to stay and help tie on. Never turn down such a good offer. We tied and chatted, tying on is mindless. After another hour my fingers quit and so did we, exactly as you see it in the photo. I have one obligation tomorrow, then I will finish.

I realized on Sunday that Saturday, when all the work was going on, was Caroline's birthday. Furthermore, her twentieth birthday. I straightaway sent a mia culpa text and she answered she had been happy to spend the day with me.

The only other big topic is the construction. I took several pictures, but one is adequate. The weather has been abysmal; I cancelled my dental appointment Friday, not trusting the roads after the overnight snow.

Yes, come Friday afternoon they were back at it, sweeping the snow and water off the foundation and putting up framing. I have a fairly decent understanding, so I'll put it out there and we'll see.

This is a set of two story apartments, as I've previously noted, which will be mated to the two story apartments where I live, The large door facing will allow first floor apartment dwellers to walk over to our atrium and downstairs. Second floor occupants can take a down elevator, or a staircase that cuts across the two windows to reach the ground floor. And in the event of a fire, of course, elevators are inaccessible and stairs must be used. 

Today is Tuesday the 10th

I suppose I'm wild and crazy. It's almost eight o'clock. I just finished posting my new charcoal towels. After a year or so of wishing the edges of the towel pictures I posted were not cropped I learned to keep them intact. Take the picture with "camera" lens. The "portrait" lens produces a slightly larger picture of equal clarity, but with cropped edges or corners in order to fit the given frame. Take lots of pictures and learn!

There still are a fair number of black towels left to pair with the charcoal towels, if so inclined, and all the towels are at the top of the hill, to avoid tripping downhill when packing an order. HaHa.

I thought you might enjoy an update on construction out "my" window. Lumber has arrived in stacks and is being distributed around the site. It makes me happy to see people working and earning money. Now the scuttlebutt is cottages such as surround the north side of the core building, of which I live on the second floor, east, will be forthcoming. They are not two story units, but complete units, up and down,

This configuration is so much more satisfactory. More tenants, more renters, more rent money. I am very pleased with the smiling faces of the new tenants. I don't know how management assesses the overall happiness of the renters, but it seems a good system. I remember when we "walked through", the people we passed were welcoming and friendly, and the conversation ran along the line of "Oh, potential renters. You'll find us happy and friendly!" from the people we encountered. 

Watching the construction of a building and speculating on the outcome is better than bingo! This building outside my window has become a walkway, not an elevator. The entire kitchen facility and all of the dining room remains in my building. Now all these holes have a sensible use.

That "door" at the base is a door and leads into my building to the cafeteria. The upper slots are windows. I've decided parking will be behind the building, back there before the road.

Hello

It's after two in the afternoon and I'm determined to write a blog page. You will think I've slipped away, when all I've really done is become organized, and disorganized. The first I understand well, the last is pissing me off. 

I used to get up, and get on with it. No more. You may remember, the first or second night I lived here I took a header and smashed a tremendous goose egg onto my head. I was so concerned by the amount of blood on the floor (broken nose) that I let my rescuers transport me to the hospital. I was scanned every way to breakfast, and that broken nose was the sum total of damage.

Except--self diagnosis here, although the lump is all but gone, I have a hard time starting in the morning. If I focus closely on each task, I sail on through. But it's a long indoctrination process to get the processes installed. I've mastered the time from getting up through the first thing after breakfast, and that is because it is on my calendar. My Google calendar.

Today I put nothing on the calendar. I decided to make myself responsible for clearing my loom, doing my laundry, fulling my length of fabric, ending about lunch time. Clearing the loom meant getting the length of fabric off and stabilized for the washer. Nothing would be on the computer. No written reference.

I passed with flying colors. I ate lunch, a bowl of soup from the kitchen, beef vegetable. I even spit out a piece of bone. The really good parts involved the very chopped vegetables. Tiny bits of carrots, celery and celery leaves. A couple of nice chunks of beef. Very good. And since then I've been lost. Now it's four and you can see the grand total of words to page.

I did call Jan and we worked out next Saturday for the new warp. I made a mental note to call Caroline, who asked to help with the next warp, before she went back to school.

Caroline, who I enjoy comparing to her namesake Grandmother Lytle, called me there in the lost time period, wondering if I had any news on the loom. What a child! She said it all worked perfectly for her. We did not discuss that it also is her birthday. I think I'll buy some cake to surprise her.

You might like an update on the building beside me. The general consensus is a new set of buildings is going up. Not a hotel, but several two story buildings.

Here is the foundation and all the pipes, back to back with "next door's pipes".

Foundation poured. Now we have given up on the two story building as an elevator. Other than that problem, construction can commence.

Speaking of problems, my credit card was compromised again. No, I did not authorize engaging a package forwarding service on my card. This is becoming a recurring adventure that knocks my attempts at structure galley west.

I should get a new card this week. With luck I will squeak through. I won't need groceries before the weekend. I can visit the dentist on Friday on my checking account.

I perused the computer this morning for hints on not being scammed. Their best solutions are password protection programs. I have one of those that generates fifteen letter/symbol/number combinations. I called the bank to ask a real person the same question.

The answer: Leave your card at home. Don't use your card where it can be compromised, like the gas station or the post office. I was surprised I wasn't told to just carry cash.