A Small Repair

 My first reusable shopping bag got a smallish fix this afternoon.  I bought this bag at my then local natural foods store and restaurant, Follow Your Heart in Canoga Park, California.  I bought it just after I moved into my first apartment.  That was so last century, before John and I were even engaged.  Follow Your Heart had the best vegetarian burgers and shakes.  Oh well the whole truth was everything was wonderful and tasty.  Milk free donuts in the 1980’s awesome.  Carob everything to my heart’s content.  I was not allowed chocolate, nitrates or nitrides back then.  I still skip the nitrates and nitrides, they cause so many migraines.  They also have a wonderful cookbook to make things at home.  

But I digress.   I got my first reusable shopping around earth day, I got my second on my next payday.  Yes, I still have both of the bags.  They are a bit faded now.  One is starting to show some age with the beginning of fabric breaking down.  I patched the bottom with a piece of curtain fabric, leftover from dog pillows.  I am not sure if I should quilt the bottom.  My main problem is I forgot how to program the memory on my sewing machine.  I guess I will find the manual to morning.  My handy work is below.  

Food

I have developed a love hate relationship with my food since last Thursday. I really hurts to eat even something as soft as grilled salmon. Yet I can’t get a balanced diet eating only soft food.  I find myself staying up way to late so I can take aspirin right before bed so I can get 4 or 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Have I mentioned that I am the most impatient person when it comes to pain. So forgive me while am am grumpy.

Busier Than Usual

I spent my day recovering from a whirlwind day yesterday. I had one meeting all about Eric, which left me exhausted.  Eric’s aide had an early appointment so he had to leave early.  I missed seeing my Friday friends.

So today was spent spring cleaning. Guess what I found out today? John loves getting rind of bags of junk and will even carry it to the recycle bin.  John also volunteered to drive to Goodwill when I fill up my boxes. I also managed a 2 1/2 hour nap. Did some spot decluttering in Eric’s room. I just have 3 major areas to finish tomorrow.  As long as I sleep tonight that should be possible.

I also finished a visit from my older sister today.  Maybe a little less very rich food will help me feel better. Some how with my family it’s always over sized meals and not enough walking.

At this point it’s hard to call it an early night.  But if Eric let’s me I get to sleep in tomorrow.

My Fall Obsession

Pomegranates are in season. Nothing beats a freshly cracked open pomegranate for a snack. I got these large ones at Costco today. Thanks to my friend Shanna I can now open and empty one this size in about 10 minutes. Now to finish my snack so I can weave a little on my freshly warped loom.  before bed time.

A Surreal Day

I spent the day trying to fix things in my realm. My success rate was about 50%.

On the easy things like John's ink stained shirts I was told that "he needs to stain one more shirt, because the price break is at three shirts." Does this mean that I was suppose to go home and stain one more dress shirt and come back for the better price? I am taking this as a win, the shirts will be ready at 5pm tomorrow.

I got gas for the van before it ran out. Breakfast out at 10:30 am and a lunch of a slice of cheese and some crackers eaten at stop lights at 2:30 pm, I did not mind hitting every red light, at least I got some lunch before I picked up Eric. To make it even better John brought home dinner. So on food I will call it a win.

I thought I had a win on laundry getting three loads finished today. Eric had other plans. He filled his personal laundry basket twice today. So I added a fourth load of laundry tonight. A break even.

On the problem with Eric's formula. The people at Nestle's Ethereal Nutrition were wonderful. At least I found out that there was no recall or plant issues. I even got a case file number to give to the people at Corman.  Corman is an interesting company to say the least. The first person I spoke to swore that Eric had not had a delivery since 2014 and of course the formula went bad after that amount of time. The second person I talked to at least found Eric's file. She would not replace the 8 cases of formula that were mishandled in transit. This resulted in the formula curdling like cheese. Rendering the formula useless for Eric or anyone else. That they would instead send a refund to United Health Care. Insert whatever swear words you want here.  She sent one expedited case so that Eric could eat tonight and the rest of the week. The  rest will be here by Friday. They would also not pick up the bad cases of bad formula, so they sit in the living room. Net loss 8 cases of formula  and no reserves for when things go south with the paperwork snafu's that always happen. This is not even close to break even.

I thought that I had a break even with the issues at Eric's day program. I thought that everything was fairly settled. My personal feeling is that we will never see the program fees that walked away.  So I wrote a check for the missing money and this months fees. Handed the missing paperwork that has been filled out countless times to a reliable person. So I will only write check from now on and have everyone sign for the paperwork they receive for Eric. So I thought that I was good until I opened My email at 5:00 pm only to find a demand for the the money owed,almost like a collection letter. I am sincerely hoping that this was just a lack of communication on their part, I hope that the check I wrote at 9:45am is not lost already. I also doubt that I will see a full accounting of where Eric's fees landed, because he was either sick or stayed back on most of the field trips.  You decide.

No time to make three pairs of earrings for tomorrow. That makes me sad, but I will try to get them made tomorrow for Friday.

Tomorrow will be better.

Sharing is Caring or Is It?

We have always been told sharing is caring. Share your cookies with a friend. Popsicle's used to be made to break in half so that you could share with a friend. We give to charity to share with those in need. We break bread together as a sign of friendship. These and countless other ways are great ways to share.

Now here is where I get on my bandwagon. There are times when sharing is not caring. Sharing tubes of toothpaste, not cool, everyone should have their own tube of toothpaste. The plus side of this is colds will not spread as fast through the house. When you send your child to school sick or conversely go to work sick and share the illness, not cool. When you hug someone who is medically fragile, just because it makes you feel better and then tell the caretaker or person that you are sick, really not cool. What part of medically fragile is so hard to understand? When you go out shopping when you are sick, really!!! The person making close to minimum wage can not afford to get sick, they might not even be able to afford a doctor's office visit.

Lets face it we are living in an age where superbugs are a reality. The miracle drugs of my parents generations are losing their effectiveness do to overuse and bugs being able to evolve faster than scientists can come up with new versions of old drugs. So lets go very old school on this. When you are sick, stay home until you feel better. When your child is sick, keep them  home from school, day programs and afterschool activities. If you need to go shopping, Then go online, they delivery everything from groceries to ready made meals. Heck, you can even do your holiday shopping and they will even wrap and deliver your presents for you.  So let's care for each other by not sharing colds.

If you are wondering why this post now, Eric has been erypy for the last 4 hours. Eric has been exposed to any of those ways of sharing colds this week. I don't have the time to deal with this this week, I have too much on my plate. Most of all I don't want to stay up until the wee hours of the morning, it is not good for my hands recovery form surgery. I can expect a set back tomorrow.

So my request is PLEASE Don't Share Your Colds.

We May Be on the Right Path

There might be an end insight. We are trying some new meds for Eric. We are still waiting for Eric to hold food down. I am beginning to get tired and flary. Dry mouth and eyes are the rule of the day. I am thinking about redoing my spring sechdule. It will all be dependent on Eric's recovery and my stamina.

I am getting a lot of knitting and spinning done in the down time. I knit when Eric is awake and spin when he sleeps. I would like a more comfortable chair to sleep in.

I personally think the hospital food was designed to increase their patient load in the near future. Where is Mrs. Obama when we need her?

Well Eric is asleep and it is time for some shut eye.