Puzzled at Wal Mart

Here’s Teri all bundled up in January many years ago – I even fastened her hood on tight. Poor kid. I always tried to keep her warm, but I just made her hot and sweaty. She outgrew that. Now that she’s living in New York, she’s out of my clutches. But looking at the picture made me think of my day yesterday on a trip to Wal Mart for cheap prescriptions. As I walked in the door, I saw this woman walking toward me and getting into a motorized shopping cart they have for people who need one. She was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. She was not a typical Wal Mart shopper. She was very thin and had on a long, flimsy blue dress from the 20s and 30s with jewelry all over, and her hair was sort of wild. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d said “All right, Mr. Demille. I’m ready for my close up.” I wish I had had my camera with me and I could have asked if I could take a picture for my Blog. But if I had, I probably would have had to have her sign a release . . . she’d want my name . . . I’d get her name . . . I’d do my Blog . . . someone who knew her would see my Blog and call her. She would then sue me even with the release. I’d lose everything as I have no money to fight. I wonder if her friends even read my Blog.

Now this is where Teri’s picture comes in. She’s looking puzzled – maybe even a little disappointed. That’s exactly the way I felt when I went to open my car door after I left Wal Mart. Now I’m not very observant which is a big understatement, but I noticed the cover on the outside of the car that covers the gas cap was fastened shut with duct tape! I had had my car at the mechanic’s a week ago and had driven it since several times, but I never noticed the tape, but this day the sun was hitting it just right. So I drove to my favorite gas station and asked the attendant what he made of it. He was surprised to see something like that, and I was pissed. Why hadn’t I been told of it? So he peeled off some of the tape, filled it with gas and taped it back up! I called Ken Bartz, the manager of Tom Dwyer Automotive Services this morning where I always take my Volvo, and he was very apologetic. He hadn’t been told by the guy who fixed it so knew nothing about it. He called me later and said he’d gotten a new cover for it. So I just went over and they fixed it all up and didn’t charge me. I appreciated that. I’ve gone to them for years and trust them. So I was happy and satisfied. It made me wonder, are there many people who are happy and satisfied very often? Probably not. So as I sat there, waiting for my car, a customer walked by me . . . and farted!

The Handy Man

The past couple of weeks have not been all that good for me. First of all, some of the tile in my walk-in shower came loose and I had to have the “handy man” visit to see what could be done. He said I needed to fix it; I already knew that. He pulled out a bunch more that were not good and said he’d check around for tile and call me in a few days. In the meantime, I had to shower in the bathtub in my bedroom bathroom. I don’t like getting into that bathtub as I don’t feel safe with just a shower curtain to grab hold of as I fall out of the tub. I like the walk-in shower better obviously. Who wouldn’t? So I managed to shower without breaking a hip or neck in the bathtub with the shower. He came back several days later with some tile he’d found someplace and proceeded to put them in. He was very neat and didn’t make any mess at all. All men should be like that!

So while he was doing that, I decided to harvest the potatoes I’ve been growing on the sidewalk leading to my front deck. They looked nice at first – all green beautiful leaves – but recently they turned yellow and looked like shit. I was afraid the condo association would send me a letter, asking me to vacate the premises. It was really too early to harvest them, but I knew I couldn’t wait any longer. So I dug up the potatoes which were very small – some very tiny. I had two meals out of them and they were good. I’m not going to harvest the potato plant on my back deck until later. When I was done digging, I did a very stupid thing which I do occasionally. I picked up the pot full of dirt and moved it onto my deck and set it on another pot. It was heavy, and when I straightened up, my back hurt terribly, and I knew I was in trouble. So for about a week I’ve been walking very carefully and trying not to sit down or lie down. I can’t sit on anything soft as it hurts when I try to get up. So that lets out my sofa which is soft and comfortable. I can’t sit in soft chairs, only hard chairs. I have been forced to sleep on my bed as it’s hard and I can get up without pain. I try to watch TV at night, sitting on a hard chair in the living room, but even that hurts after a couple of hours. So I’m spending many hours in my bedroom, watching my little TV and reading. I’m wondering if that is going to be my life from now on.

The tile fixing took about a week, and the handy man also did a few others things for me. He noticed the handle on my screen door had broken off which forced one to push in a button that was not at all easy to do. He said he could fix that, so he went to a hardware store, got a new screen door opener and installed it. But the final thing he did was clip some metal off a new bra I have. I had tried to cut it with a knife but my knife that I was using was very dull, probably because it was my mother’s, and who knows when she got it. I know I should have it sharpened sometime, but will probably leave it like it is for fear of cutting a finger off! But the handy man had something that cuts through metal, and he fixed it in seconds. It was a miracle! I had thought of taking the bra to my hardware store, but didn’t know how receptive they would have been. I wonder if he performs all those chores for other people. I feel very fortunate to have had him here. I hope I didn’t scare him because I’m sure I’ll need him again . . . hopefully not for bra fixing.

The picture I put on my last posting was a beautiful one of Teri and her son, Harry, before they attended a wedding. I wanted to find a comparable one of Cindy and one of her boys, but found nothing new. So I came across this one of a long time ago where Cindy is all dressed up and could be on her way to a wedding. I’m wondering where she got the gloves. I didn’t wear gloves. Whose gloves were they? Anyway, she looked beautiful. I’ll check with her sometime about the gloves. And where did she get the dress?

Teri and Harry attend a wedding

Teri, Harry and I took the train home from Tacoma last Saturday, and it was still hot here. Teri and Harry went out for a walk, but I don’t walk in hot weather and sometimes don’t even walk in nice weather. I don’t know where Teri gets it, but she is totally into exercise and keeping in shape which is a good thing. I admire that about her. But she sure as hell didn’t get it from me. She keeps after me to walk and exercise and I do my best. They were going to a wedding in the evening, so after their walk, they had a lot of getting ready to do. When they were all done, they both looked beautiful and handsome. I took this picture of them on my deck – I even got the pink flamingo in the picture. When I look at pictures of my family, I sometimes wonder how I ended up with such good-looking kids and grandkids – and they’re smart. Spoken like a true mother!

When I was alone, I fried a ground lamb patty just the way I like it – barely cooked and very, very rare! I had it on toast and it was delicious. I know I shouldn’t cook ground meat that rare, but so far I haven’t had any problems. Teri and Harry came home about midnight and we all went to sleep. I had planned on taking them to breakfast in the morning, but I awoke at 5am with the worst diarrhea I’ve ever had. Food poisoning maybe? It kept up for about 4 hours, and after that I was weak and wobbly. So breakfast was out. Teri and Harry spent the day with Rita and her family and I did nothing. I watched TV – surprise, surprise – and watched Craig Ferguson on my DVR. He was talking about the new show on Oxygen, “Dance Your Ass Off!” It’s about fat people dancing and supposedly losing weight. When I first heard about it, I thought it was an extremely disgusting idea, and I think Craig did too. He got quite vocal about it and said it was fat people running around on tiny little feet which is not at all attractive. Who wants to watch something like that? I know I won’t.

But I will be watching “Curb Your Enthusiasm” when it starts in September. Larry David is putting the old Seinfeld cast on his show for several episodes. Larry and Jerry Seinfeld were the creators of the “Seinfeld” show which was my favorite. I have seen all the re-runs so many times and they’re still funny. Now I watch Craig Ferguson as I love his humor which is pretty stupid sometimes, but funny. He has a great laugh and can do next to nothing and still make me laugh. He talks a lot about pooping, farting and cats eating their masters – topics in which I’m quite interested.

But this was about Teri and Harry off to the wedding. I think they looked gorgeous, and I’m proud to be related to them. I feel the same about Cindy. I love my family.