"Round up the usual suspects!"

Last Friday evening, TCM showed two of my favorite films, "Casablanca" and "Gaslight."

I slept all day Saturday (yesterday). I kept meaning to get up, but then it started raining and put me back to sleep. Then I dreamed Gerald T. and I were trying to put together a Department of Neurology newsletter because its editor, Dr. H., had died. I had been her assistant and knew most of the online procedure, but had to enlist Gerald's help with the button-pushing. As far as I know, the real Dr. H. is still practicing, and the real Gerald T. had never touched a computer when he was a Social Security claims rep. about 30 years ago.

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I love some of the translations on Facebook. This one is typical: Video of a bird and a kitten playing, and the caption is "Tort en Jip lekker aan het spelen. Het blijft bijzonder hoe alle dieren bij ons zo leuk samengaan."

 

The translation:

"Tort and jip good playing. It remains particularly how all the animals at us so cute can coexist."

A Lick and a Promise

That's what I gave my house today. Jennifer is coming to clean tomorrow, and I hate for people to think I never do anything. The place is at least superficially clean. The laundry's all done. The sinks and drains are shiny. But it took nearly all day, just what little I did. Worked half an hour and slumped half an hour, from six a.m. to two p.m.

When I get ambitious like this, I sometimes get the cleaning people (Dave usually comes with her to do the heavy stuff) to do something extra, like scrubbing the basement stairs a few weeks ago. Tomorrow I hope to get them to move some furniture. I'm afraid to do it any more, myself.

All Around the Water Tank, Waiting for a Train

Sometimes I feel like I'm already dead, just hanging around the alley, waiting for The Celestial Omnibus, or this train that's bound for Glory, this train.

Meniere's

Someday I hope I'll drive down a mountain, or get off an airplane, and my ears will pop, and I'll swallow, and the tinnitus will stop, and my ears will no longer feel like they're about to explode. Maybe by then I'll have a walking stick to steady my gait. Or if the tinnitus and vertigo stop, maybe I won't need a stick.

Susan and Pat found a "new" barbecue place (new to us) up in Moody. The three of us, escorted by Mr. Reed Agan, went up there yesterday for lunch. I had barbecue chicken, potato salad and fried green tomatoes. Yum!

Yesterday morning Mr. Ricky Reed's crew mowed the yard and cleaned up the leaves and stuff. And then this morning when I went outside, there's a great limb from one of the oak trees lying on the grass. I always say Mr. Reed, or Mr. Ricky Reed, because that's the way he identifies himself on the phone.

Good Deeds

Lady outside the grocery store said, "Can I help you put your groceries in the car?" I thanked her profusely but said no, I'm good.

If I'd had time to think, I should have accepted the offer. That might have been her good deed for the day. In my opinion, it counts.

It's been a long time since I did a good deed.

The Alabaster Boxes

 

Two of my favorite objets d'art, where I drop my loose change. And if there's enough change in them, I would give $10.00 for a Coke. And another $5.00 for a cigarette. There's seldom more than a dollar in my wallet.

Yellow Dresses

Mama used to say, "Joanne will wear any color as long as it's black or white, or red or blue."

Mama was wild about yellow, which has always made me look red-faced and gray-haired. I wore my old clothes that were not yellow, except when I had to dress up. I'm sure it's not true, but it seems like the only new clothes I ever got were yellow. I wore a yellow "A-line" dress (which means it looked like a tent) for my first day in second grade. At Jones Valley grammar school I was in a pageant, and wore a yellow net long dress. In junior high I had a yellow-and-orange striped feed-sack dress which I really didn't hate. For the class play in my senior year, Mama bought me a yellow pique dress, about 4 sizes too big. At least 2.

But by golly, when I went to D.C. with my senior class, Daddy bought me a black peau-de-soie "cocktail" dress with blue glass flowers on the skirt. The fact that it was also a couple of sizes too big hardly bothered me at all.

I think when Mama grew up, the average dress size was a 12. I know all our grown-up dress patterns were size 12 until I got out of high school. Since then I have owned two "yellow" dresses, but they were mostly white with some yellow print.

August 16

Scrumptious on Rye

Sandwich for Lunch:

Mayo, lettuce/salad mix, jalapeno/Monterey Jack, tomato, all layered with pastrami, salt, black pepper--yum!

I drove to TKC yesterday and actually enjoyed the trip. Driving, that is. Dr. Gruman has just about talked me into quitting my 2-3 cigarettes a day--I have to admit that the count is not always accurate. (What occurs in my car, stays in my car.) After today (or tomorrow), I won't smoke at all any more. Ever.

No friend Jackie to talk to. No dog Gretchen for company. No cigarettes. No Coke. What's left? Eating until I'm unconscious? I weighed 117 pounds this morning. Unless I get busy writing this new book, Cassandra, I predict I'll be back up in the 150's before the end of the year.

I'm really pulling out all the stops for this little novel. Most of the people whom I'll libel or slander are dead. Except me.

This will be my fourth-and-a-half novel. Never mind that I've only made one effort apiece to get the three finished ones (drafts) published. I've even lost the two-and-a-half "romance" novels, have no idea what happened to them. Don't care.

Don't Wanta Go

It's a good thing the Medigap needs to be addressed. Otherwise I would probably back out of this appointment today.

Come September

I called Walmart pharmacy, and they said you don't have to be on Medicare D or any other program to get their $4.00 prescriptions. Then I printed their online list, and at least four of my prescriptions are on it, with I think equivalent drugs for some of the others.

My appointment with Dr. Gruman is for Thursday a.m. at 10:30, so I'll show him the list and ask if he will write new Rx's for my meds.

"RAMEN STEW" - I've already eaten half of it, and put two generous helpings in the freezer, so there's no picture. It's really just beef and vegetable stew, with a package of Ramen noodles broken up in it.

It's hard to believe, but I apparently don't have any medical or dental appointments in the month of September. So my (and Jed's) plans for that month might include one or more of the following:

Oak Mountain State Park

Bankhead National Forest

Moundville, AL

Mentone, AL

 

The Donut Hole

You don't hear much about it until you fall into it. Of course, I've had a lot of prescription drugs this year, and today when I picked up Rx refills, they were very expensive. Then early this evening my home health nurse made her penultimate visit, and told me about Walmart's $4-prescription program, and a similar one that CVS has but that seems to be a bit more complicated and expensive. I'm going to discuss it with Dr. Gruman at my next appointment, and hope I can save a little dough the rest of this year.

Busy Day

I went to the bank, dentist and pharmacist. Drove to the water and power companies to pay bills. Gassed up the Tracker, and bought groceries. Then I felt sort of wiped out, so I slept all afternoon. In the evening I visited a sick friend:

 

Sweet Gretchen, estimated at 15 years old (human years).

The Good, the Better, and the Problematic

Today my heart is with my dear son James DeWitt Cage, as he prepares for some surgery--which doesn't seem "minor" to me.

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This morning I called the Wizard's office and insisted on an appointment with Himself.  Not that I really yearned to see him; but the assistants have done their thing several times, and I still can't eat. So I'll go again at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow. With diagrams.

***


Believe It Or Not!

                            The Wizard looks like this:

Trials

I've tried Pepsi (to replace Coke), but it's too sweet, not sparkly enough, and tastes like root beer only not as good. Just kind of flat. I've drunk gallons of orange, cranberry and pineapple juice, and lemonade made with True lemon. But when you wake up in the morning with your mouth open, you need something that bubbles. Champagne?