Reflections of My Life

Aunt Bea said:
I've been thinking about this and call me lazy but I think that I would just toss a pretty sheet or comforter over the chair to create a sort of slipcover.
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I actually did that since it was all I had. A colorful tablecloth on the back and a purple sheet on the seat. It will work.
 

Sun is shining so far. A sunny fall day, just what I like! My aide did not come yesterday. This is the main problem with aides around here. She called and asked if she could come today and tomorrow. I am not going to replace her because of this. She works when she is here and I am not inconvenienced by her not coming on a certain day, so far. As long as she calls I can handle it. My neighbor's aide does not always call her to say she is not coming and I wouldn't like that.

If the agency she worked for was governed by them instead of the people she works for, I am sure it would be a different story. We (the senior citizens they work for) are just happy to have gotten through the pile of paperwork to hire the aide and don't want to do it any time soon. Plus it was so hard to find one, took me more than 6 months to hire one. It was one of the reasons that in the beginning I wanted an older aide who did not have children at home.

When I did this type of work, the agency took care of everything. I did some private cases but not having the agency made them harder cases for me. I remember one job I had was 40 hours a week, which is rare in this work. The man was a CEO of Lockheed Martin and had suffered from an aneurysm. He had to learn how to do everything all over. My job was more to show and watch him do household chores. He would even make my lunch and clean the house and I just watched. His wife was a school teacher so she wasn't at home.

I have good memories of all the people I ever cared for.........except one. She chased me out of her house with her cane. I had to call her son to tell him. For the most part though, I liked the people I cared for.
 
I’m a sucker for inexpensive i.e. CHEAP lightweight/colorful quilts for tossing over various pieces of furniture to jazz things up and to hide ugly when necessary. I’ve got several of them going on as i speak & dare i suggest they even look good…(says the wayyy old half-blind lady)…LOL
 

I warn you this does not look fashionable but I used a tablecloth for the back of the chair and just draped it over the back and tied it in a knot. The bottom part is a fitted twin sheet I had for my old bed. This will have to do for now. Till the cushion gets broken in a bit. It is kind of thick but I figured it would squish down a bit. The sheet will not flatten out because of the gathers in the corners. It will do.

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Today should be a busy day. This is my quiet time. I overslept today and got up later than expected. Sonny and I have hair appointments at noon today. With the new (to us) hairdresser. As I said before, our regular one who I loved is getting married and moved to Maine. She recommended we use this one in her shop. They have hired two new hairdressers which is good because they have been hard to schedule appointments with due to so many clients. I am looking forward to my appointment.

This morning, Rabbit's morning banana was so soft it was like pudding. I put it in a dish for him and he ate it happily.

banana.jpg
 
Our hair appointment with our new hairdresser was good. I like her and she did a good job on both of us. Then we went to the Chinese buffet for lunch. There was only a handful of people there so it felt like we were having a private meal. Then we went to Walmart since Rabbit needed more food. Once we got back to my apartment, Sonny went to work on "Jazzy" (my mobility chair) to change the tires. Well, that did not work out as planned. Something about the tire not matching up to the wheel, even though he used the numbers that went to my model. Grrr! Just like owning a car.........
 
Does the tire problem mean that you will have have the mobility chair taken to dealer for tires?

Hubby been having a cooling problem with his ATVs.
He & helper have been working on the with no luck..
Our friend's son looked at the one & I think got part of it fixed.
He found another problem.
Will be ordering that part on line.

ATV dealer only interested in selling the new ones.
Think knowledgeable ATV mechanics are few & far between.

Hope that isn't the case with your Jazzy.
 
Sliverfox said:
Does the tire problem mean that you will have have the mobility chair taken to dealer for tires?

Hubby been having a cooling problem with his ATVs.
He & helper have been working on the with no luck..
Our friend's son looked at the one & I think got part of it fixed.
He found another problem.
Will be ordering that part on line.

ATV dealer only interested in selling the new ones.
Think knowledgeable ATV mechanics are few & far between.

Hope that isn't the case with your Jazzy.
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That is the case with all these mobility chairs and scooters. If some enterprising person took it upon their self to learn how to repair and do preventative maintenance on them, could have a good business. I see them all over the streets but to get them fixed, people usually end up throwing them out and buying a new one. My friend paid a repair man to come from Syracuse to put new batteries in her scooter. Paid a lot for it but she had no choice. Next time she needed new batteries a man who lives across the hall from me put them in for her and would not take a dime. She just bought the batteries.

If my father was alive..........he would figure it out how to do the tires for me. He could do anything!

To be fair to Sonny, he could and possibly will figure it out or have his SIL figure it out for him (he is the manager of a local tire shop), but I fear his health is getting worse. He was terribly winded yesterday working on it and I felt bad that he even had to do it.
 
I am up early today but not too early, so I could get back to work on my pantry. I technically do not have a real pantry. I had one before I moved here and I do miss it. Here I call my pantry, my food cupboards and they had become a total disaster the last couple of months for some reason. So yesterday I started working on them. Not easy to do since I can't stand very long. When I went to bed last night, I could not put any weight on my left leg due to my knee hurting so bad when I did. So back to it now.

I am taking pictures while I do it so I can write about it on my blog. My fakebook page is full of my friends who were also into the "modern homesteading" life, as we call it. Now we have gotten older or disabled and need to change our lifestyle. That is why I had to change my blog. There are many women, even in their nineties, still doing it. Gardening and canning and living that way, but for many life changed as they got older, me included. If not, I would not be living here.

One thing I notice in my pantry is that many products I buy come in bags with a zip closure. It does not close securely and especially if you use it and are in a hurry and don't have the time to play with the zipper. So those things will all go in the large mouth canning jars. I put a label on the front in BIG lettering so I can see it. If it needs the directions or carb count I tape that to the back of the jar.

The other thing is that I am short, 5'2" (if still that) and my shoulders hurt. So if I have to reach up to get something out of the cupboard, 2nd shelf and beyond, is hurts. I now use those plastic trays that different foods come in from the produce and meat departments. Then I can slide them out a bit to get something. Plus my shelves are built with a hidden area where the other cupboard at the corner meets it. I am using that area for my stocked up items that I have more than one of.

I keep a foot stool under my garbage can (it is actually a plastic tote with a lid) so if I need to get something off a shelf that I can't reach I use the stool. The stool is not real high and it has a wide surface. The garbage can is smaller than most but will hold a normal garbage bag. I try to take it out to the dumpster daily and being small, it fits right on the seat of my walker. And I can take it with the lid on so going down in the elevator it does not leak or anything smells in it (though I never let it get to that point).

So now, back to work...........
 
Sliverfox said:
I use a pair of the canning thongs that are used to take hot jars out of a pressure cooker to reach things out of my reach.

Don't over work, it's Sunday take a break.
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Taking a break today.

Today is a pretty autumn day, sunny and cool about 57 degrees, I think. I put a Cajun pork shoulder roast in the Instant Pot earlier today. It should be ready around four. I got up early so was able to get a blog post published. I had to edit the photos before I could do that so it took me a bit.

I am still going through a pile of papers. Takes awhile. I lose interest in the middle of it.....boring, boring, boring! At least that is a job I can do sitting down. And I am working on the calendar for our activities too. Nothing too physical.
 
Katlupe, I'm all for instant pots/pressure cookers, maybe air fryers too, but I don't like crockpots as a rule.

I'm just curious about your stove and why you never seem use it. Is it broken?

I think most things made in the crock pot or slow cooker taste better from the oven.

Do you feel you use less energy when using a countertop appliance? Thanks for your thoughts.:D
 
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RadishRose said:
Katlupe, I'm all for instant pots/pressure cookers, maybe air fryers too, but I don't like crockpots as a rule.

I'm just curious about your stove and why you never seem use it. Is it broken?

I think most things made in the crock pot or slow cooker taste better from the oven.

Do you feel you use less energy when using a countertop appliance? Thanks for your thoughts.:D
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No, my stove is good, nothing wrong with it. It is electric and I just don't like it. When I first moved here I used it and every time I would turn it on there would be that electric smell. I didn't like it.

I probably do use less energy but I am not concerned with that. I am concerned with using an oven and heating up my apartment though. I use the NuWave oven instead of the oven on the stove and I use the Instant Pot or the Duxtop burner for stove top cooking. I think they both cook the food much better and/or faster. I only cook for one so I don't want to have to scrub pans that I baked something in. They don't heat my apartment up at all.

Now I use the oven as a cupboard for all my pots and pans. It works good for that.
 
katlupe said:
No, my stove is good, nothing wrong with it. It is electric and I just don't like it. When I first moved here I used it and every time I would turn it on there would be that electric smell. I didn't like it.

I probably do use less energy but I am not concerned with that. I am concerned with using an oven and heating up my apartment though. I use the NuWave oven instead of the oven on the stove and I use the Instant Pot or the Duxtop burner for stove top cooking. I think they both cook the food much better and/or faster. I only cook for one so I don't want to have to scrub pans that I baked something in. They don't heat my apartment up at all.

Now I use the oven as a cupboard for all my pots and pans. It works good for that.
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Thanks Kat, some things to think about.
 
Sonny was here today because his car needed a new battery and he took it in to get that done. Then he surprised me by bringing Rabbit a package of Spring Mix and blackberries.

My friend from upstairs came down to talk to me. It seems that she cannot get in her bathtub. She is having trouble stepping over the side to get in the tub. She was recently diagnosed with Parkinson and has had 2 strokes in the past few months. She asked the manager about having one of those cut out things put in her tub. One of my neighbors had it done and the apartment management paid for it. Now this manager said she can't have it done because when she moved in she did not say she was disabled. That was thirteen years ago.......no, she was not disabled back then.

Not sure what she can do about it. I think since our apartments are financed through HUD, they may have some type of regulation about that. I found what is called the "Reasonable Accommodation" law but don't know if that means she has to pay for it or the apartment complex owners. I told her to call office for the aging and see if they can help her. I feel sorry for her. It is nice to be able to take a shower. Her doctor wrote out a paper saying she is disabled and needs this. But the manager said she can't help her.
 

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