[telracs]

afternoon...

my weekend plans had been to sleep in on Saturday then watch some food network stuff. that went well. i'm trying to stick to the similar wake sleep schedule every day, so i stayed up until 3:30 AM.

plan for sunday was up at noon, leave apartment at 1 PM, walk to subway, 20 minute ride to Trader Joe/kat's deli.

woke at 1 PM, which was still fine. since it was sunday, i knew i wouldn't have to rush , because there is no rush hour and the trains don't get riciclously crowed in the early evening.

i wasn't feeling well, so i didn't want to be out for too long. also, the last time i got katz, it hit my stomach like a ton of bricks and i felt sick for 2 days. there was only one item i specifically needed from TJ, but it is also available on amazon, so....
staying local meant a few things.
giving my money to the nice people at the japanese restaurant.
walking more steps than i would if i went to katz/TJ.
probably spending less money.

at the japanese restaurant i ordered
2 sets of Korean short ribs (one for Sunday, one for Monday) with miso soup and white rice
sweet potato tempura roll.
4 pieces of inari.

then i walked to the grocery store and got
tuna packs (sea salt/cracked pepper, olive oil/mild jalapeno, cheesy melt)
brownie brittle
funyuns [should haved checked the price on those, probably would not have bought them if i had realized they were $5.49)
jack daniels pulled beef and honey tenessee chicken.
bob evans mashed potatoes.

so, i ultimately spent about the same amount i would have if i had gone to TJ/katz, but i got more variety then i would and more steps.

 

[Andra]

Oh Happy Day! The gastro cleared me for surgery. Now I just have to make it another week and a half watching what and how I eat and not stressing my abs.
It's Spring Break in Texas, so we have had cooler weather this week. Today was a little damp and a front is blowing through tonight.
DH is cooking burgers on the grill tonight. He is putting chicken breasts on for me.
Have I mentioned that I hate the time change?
Take care and stay safe.

 

[telracs]

Oh Happy Day! The gastro cleared me for surgery. Now I just have to make it another week and a half watching what and how I eat and not stressing my abs.
It's Spring Break in Texas, so we have had cooler weather this week. Today was a little damp and a front is blowing through tonight.
DH is cooking burgers on the grill tonight. He is putting chicken breasts on for me.
Have I mentioned that I hate the time change?
Take care and stay safe.

let me know the date so i can send good thoughts your way. you can just PM me.

I haven't had trouble with the time change in decades. At my old job i worked overnight for a bit, then 1-9, then 11 to 8. so except for a few days, it was always light when i went to work and dark by the time i came home.

then there was the year i was not working. then there was the pandemic year, and my 3 month jury duty in the fall/winter.

then i started working from home, so haven't really had to deal with the change.

I like chicken. I tend to eat beef/red meat only a couple of days a week. the other days are chicken or meatless. not for any particular reason, it's just the way my shopping schedule works out. and i always have tuna packs. i think this week was the most meat in a while. Korean ribs sunday and monday, jack daniels beef on tuesday and friday. chicken yesterday and tonight. saturday will be chicken.

i went out today, because the weather was decent and got chicken noodle soup and egg rolls. staying in on Friday, don't expect things to be bad here , but i was running late today and didn't get to watch the latest Picard episode. if you were an ST/NG fan who disliked the first season of Picard, i say skip season 1 and 2 and just watch 3. It's what the show should have been from the beginning season 1 was good, season 2 was not, but this season is INCREDIBLE. 5 episodes have dropped, but the first 4 are a self contained arc.

i am adjusting my schedule at work starting next week. instead of starting at 10 PM, when there isn't really anything for me to do, I'm going to start. at midnight. for some reason the day supervisor thinks i need her approval. sorry dear, to quote labyrinth, you have no power over me....

i have a show this sunday, and was planning on getting food near the theater, but they no longer have what i want so i'm going to head towards home, and eat in the hibachi restaurant, but at a single table. i am getting wasabi crusted filet, asking them to butterfly it, white rice and hibachi noodles, already planning on taking 1/2 of it home. then il will go to BWW on Monday, if the buy 10 get 6 free is still in effect. if it's not, then will go on Tuesday for BOGO. I can take the train there, which is good, because there is an elevator at that station. then i will take the bus home, and get on at the first stop, so don't have to go really early.

i have a wedding in Cincinnati at the end of May. I plan on taking the train there leaving here on Wednesday and getting there on Thursday, then coming home the following Wednesday. train there is from 6 AM Wednesday to 1 AM Thursday. Bride will pick me up Thursday and drop me at the hotel later in the afternoon. they are planning on leaving on their honey moon on Monday, so i will have the hotel arrange for something to get me near the station Tuesday night. i plan on booking the train as soon as my tax refund comes in.

i'm also planning a trip the end of August/beginning of September. train to Detroit (yes i prefer the train these days) free day in detroit, then a great lakes tour. ends in chicago, i will add extra night in chicago, then train from CHI to NYP. i should have 4 days in my PTO bank by the end of April and will book the tour then, and then the train in May.

edited for typos and to add start time (midnight)
me

 

[The Hooded Claw]

Andra, glad that though things haven’t been good, they have been better than the worst If that makes sense…

I am in the employment endgame! March 31, less than two weeks away, is my last day as an employee. After 33 years with the same employer and 29 years in the same job!! Since I was four years old, I’ve always had school or work or something that I was responsible to a higher authority for. But not any more, starting in less than two weeks!

 

[The Hooded Claw]

Telracs, taking the train! Cool!

 

[loonlover]

Andra, we'll be sending good thoughts your way on surgery day.

Claw, congratulations on the retirement!

Right now, doctor's appointments seem to be on our agenda. Both of us are overdue for eye exams so plan on scheduling them today. II has more crown work scheduled in the next couple of weeks. We certainly seem to spend a lot of time in the dentist's chair. I'm due for my 6 month check-up on Thursday. Haven't been doing well with the walking or the diet so no telling what the nurse practitioner I see will have to say. Oh well, we just try to keep moving forward.

I'm still trying to get leaves cleared from the yard. Maybe it will be dry enough to get some more done the next couple of days. 2 1/4 inches of rain Friday with more on the way this
Friday. Nothing compared to other parts of the country, though.

Hope your week is off to a good start. Take care. Stay safe.

 

[telracs]

Telracs, taking the train! Cool!

back in the day when i had to go to MA for business, i would take the train instead of flying. there were a couple of times where i made it to the meeting and people flying got delayed. for me, it's about the same transit time to the train station or the airport and trains were a lot less hassle even pre-9/11 and definitely post. especially since my only ID at the time was my passport and i didn't need that on the train.

and our kb meets in DC were definitely not worth dealing with the airport, since i had almost missed a connecting flight to South Africa due to weather issues out of Newark. and it was a TERRIBLE flight.

my first long train ride was from Ottumwa to Chicago, and it was great for me (even giving me more time with crebel when the train was delayed)

i have always disliked flying. i'm not afraid of it, but just not comfortable. i had really gotten out of the habit of flying before the pandemic, and my discomfort level went up during it. i couldn't even manage to get myself on a plane to go to a friend's husband's funeral.

i've had intelligent people refer to it being post-pandemic, but personally as someone who works for a lab, i think we're still in an epidemic phase on the east coast. i'm finally able to contemplate travel, but flying is still not the top choice if i have other options. and being in NYC means i do.

my sister thinks i'm crazy for such long train rides, but her only long ride was the "autotrain" to disney decades ago with 2 small children. she's been visiting a cousin in DC recently and admits to enjoying that ride (it's 5 hours) and has agreed to train it if we go to Boston for my birthday this year.

claw, congrats on the retirement. and stop capitalizing my screenname, please....🙂
my sister told me yesterday that she plans to retire at the end of the school year. but she's said the same thing for the last 3 years, so my niece and i aren't holding our breath until june and the paperwork is submitted to her boss.

yesterday was a good day, a slightly less enjoyable evening. it was one of those weekends where MTA track work worked to my advantage, my local train ran express, cutting 20 minuets off my ride. and unusual for weekend work, it was express both ways for part of it and express for longer on the ride home. and the show we went to (Dear World at City Centers Encores!) was fun.

i have been ordering take out from the hibachi place for a while, but since i hadn't known exactly what time i'd get there yesterday, i planned on eating there. at a private table, no need for the show, and i wasn't on getting hibachi. when i got there, i asked for a private table, and was pleased to see that they'd reopened their basement which is just regular tables. since i've been having vocal issues, i had typed my order on my iPod. note: this is less helpful when the server's first language is not english.
so he took the iPod and showed it to the bartender, who then questioned my use of the word "butterfly" when asking for my filet. i was able to tell her that the kitchen knew what it meant. actually, i think they automatically do it with their wasabi crusted filet. my meal took forever to come out (and they gave me the wrong dish the first time, someone else's hibachi order) and the filet must have sat in the kitchen for a while because it was only lukewarm by the time i got it.
my habit is to immediately cut it in half to take it home. i ate 1/2 of my noodles and 1/4 of the steak when i realized i need to get into gear if i was going to get home not too long after my 8 PM meet time to watch and text about TOC. took forever to get my check. i decided to take the bus home, it's the same walking distance if i take the train and walk home, or if i walk to the bus and get off near my apartment. ended up waiting about 10 minutes for the bus, but there was minimal traffic, so bus ride itself was okay. but i didn't end up getting home until close to 9 PM.

i watched TOC, but for some reason (still undetermined) my texting partner never answered any of my Sunday texts. need to follow up with her today.

 

[Andra]

Good morning.
Congrats Claw! I am eligible to retire in the next two years and I am seriously thinking about it. I can retire and come back as a contractor for fewer hours and more money (welcome to working for the state).

I am having a Monday here. We have a Commission Meeting this week on Wednesday and Thursday. This morning my projector in the meeting room would not come on. It's the lamp. We got it to come on long enough to check the timer and it's at 3,915 hours. The cutoff on the lamp life is 4,000 hours. It is really dim now and if we don't replace it, the silly thing will go out during the meeting. So we found a place online that says if we order before noon it will be delivered tomorrow. I sure hope so, otherwise this week is going to be even more interesting.

Thanks for all the positive thoughts. I am trying really hard not to think about the surgery this week. Right now I am scheduled for next Tuesday at 10:30am Central time. Any positive thoughts during that time will really be appreciated.

I wish we had more train options here. There is a train station close to me, but it doesn't go all the way to my office. I would have to get off at a hub, then get on a bus, be dropped off about a mile from the office and walk the rest of the way. The last time I checked, a one-way trip is over 2 hours. Even in Austin traffice, it is rare for it to take me more than 40 minutes to get to work and an hour to get home.

Take care and stay safe.

 

[telracs]

morning....

at least it's my morning, since i will be starting work at midnight. got some stuff done online during the day, between sleep breaks. had planned on staying bed till 11:30, but i'm awake and hungry, so going to watch an episode or two of GGG and have some cheesy tuna and rice.

plan for tomorrow is to order soup and pasta for pick up, then stop off at H/R block to see if the tax guy is there with the questions he didn't leave on my VM. i really wish people would leave the questions, instead of just asking me to call back. would make my life easier. i plan on getting chicken at the grocery store, then picking up my soup and pasta. not sure if i want baked ziti or penne in garlic and oil.

a college friend has Mondays off and a good italian restaurant near her, so plan for next Monday is to have lunch. this is the only place where i've been able to get gnocchi in pesto sauce. so that will be my lunch dish, then i'll get lamb chops to go for dinner monday and tuesday.

 

[telracs]

sigh, i need to vent...

on another site, someone said that something was implied.
i said no it was inferred. only the OP could tell us what was meant to be implied.
but of course, the poster is arguing with me that it WAS implied. not responding.
people on that site just like to hear the sound of their own voices. and they don't read through threads, so people keep repeating the same thing. and the site allows people to answer any posts, so my first answer to something is now the 10th. not worth my time, most of the time i just lurk there.

then someone else was complaining about actors missing performances due to "unreliable" PCR testing and saying that asymptomatic transmission isn't real.
Um, I work for the lab that does the testing for broadway (although i don't see those cases, as they are electronically handled), but i know the number of false positives is way low, and that presymtomatic and asymptomatic transmission is still an issue in NYC.

it's like a friend of mine stating we're post-pandemic. because of her job, she was never off work, and because she doesn't really have a lot of friends locally, she did not see a lot Covid cases, although she and both her sons got it at least once.

thanks for letting me vent.

 

[Andra]

You know it is safe to vent with us. Hope it helped.
I also hope you got the penne with garlic and olive oil. That sounds yummy.
My pasta today had a spritz of I can't believe it's not butter... Better than nothing I suppose.

 

[telracs]

it always helps to vent, thanks.

plan for this afternoon/evening was to put something in the mail (colored pages going to my manager for the new born baby), hit the atm, then stop in at h and r block to find out why he'd left me a message, pick up things at the grocery then pick up my chicken rice soup and bowties in garlic sauce at Gino's.

got 3 of those things accomplished, but they were the most important. i order my food online so that i have a set time for pick up. got the coloring in the mail, settled things with the tax man and got my food.

i realized that with my new official schedule, i can just stay up a bit and go to the grocery store and bank in the mornings!

 

[telracs]

overnight realizations

1. there is way too much sweet stuff in the apartment or on order
   1. sweet spreads and bread: greek "easter" bread, cookie butter, chocolate peanut butter, hot honey, cinnamon honey spread.
   2. last week when i got chinese food, i went to the candy store and got way too much choclate (yes, there actually is such a thing_
   3. on sunday my sister gave me some thin mints. and commented, well, complained actually that the vegan GS cookies were not available in NY or NJ. but some stuff i like was, so i went online and ordered 5 boxes from a local group. needed to order 5 to get free shipping. then i checked GS groups in Iowa and Ohio, and they had the vegan ones. so i ordered lemon and peanut butter ones for my sister and french toast and pb for me from the iowa site. and asked my iowan friend that if they went to pella before the cookies arrive to get me something from here.
   4. ordered from amazon: shoo fly pie 2 x 6 inch pies, which just arrived and an assortment of marshmallow peeps arriving in my weekly amazon order on friday
2. band aids only help cushion hang nails while typing if you put them on the correct fingers
3. not everyone has the same relationship with amazon as i do. a friend asked me what i use amazon for. pretty much everything except groceries which i source locally. i don't have a TV, so amazon stream is how i watch everything except PBS. i use amazon for my work music or audible when i want words and not songs. she is not a reader, doesn't have an e-reader, so she doesn't buy books or audiobooks. she works at walmart, so pretty much anything i get from amazon she can get at work.
4. some people just want to argue for arguing's sake, even after not only the horse is dead, but two more generations of horse have grown up and died
5. i really like my new schedule. only 2 days in, but i got the same amount of work done as last week, with a lot less stress.
6. i have a plethora of colored pencils. 100 that i have from when i was on jury duty, now supplemented with a pack someone sent me, a 24 box of "skin" colors. and i have an order coming on friday of neon colors. and glittery gel pens. the plastic bags that the spoons from the italian place make great holders, so each color division is in its own bag.

 

[mlewis78]

I haven't been here for a while. My brother Stan died last Friday morning. Bladder cancer that came back at least twice (the 3rd time seemed like a lot of months). He was in the Emory hospital for 9 days, getting a lot of help and seemed to improve. Was alert and watching TV Tuesday-Thursday and then poof, gone on Friday morning. My nephew had given me some detailed information about what was done for him in texts. The day before he died, they realized he couldn't handle any more chemo. From that information, I thought he might make it at least to his birthday in late April.

I can't travel, so I will miss the memorial service on April 1st. My knee has been worse the past month. I fell almost 5 weeks ago on my back and it still hurts. It would be hard to travel to Atlanta and then get to Dahlonega.

He wasn't telling us much about what he went through, but he was only eating a few things (applesauce, ginger ale) the last months. He'd gotten Covid over the New Year weekend and spent 3 days in a local hospital. He did tell me he could not cook and that was one of the things he had loved doing. I didn't get to say goodbye. Last time he answered texts or emails was Feb. 22nd.

 

[mlewis78]

Andra, good luck with your surgery.

Claw, CONGRATULATIONS!

 

[telracs]

ml, you must have been reading my mind, because i was going to PM if you didn't post today.

my condolences regarding your brother.

i understand your dilemma, i still can't bring myself to fly. getting to the airport, the hassle at the airport, the flight themselves...

I missed a friend's husband's funeral because of it.

I am travelling to ohio at the end of may for a friend's wedding. they have done a civil service, but this will be a religious one and a nice reception. i am taking the train from NY to Cincy. train runs every other day, so i am leaving Wed to get there Thurs and returning on Thursday. wedding is on Sunday. i should have checked if there was a train Tuesday, but i've already book the train on Thursday morning.. silly me...

we are also planning a trip to boston for my birthday in july but that's only 5 hours. i realized that i've been to the boston train station multiple times, but never visited the city.

late august/early september will be a tour leaving from detroit and ending in chicago. i will be taking the train to detroit and hoping someone will meet me there and spend a couple of days with me. at the end, i will add a night in Chi and train it home. i spent a few days in Chi a few years ago, so have no need to spend time there. and even though it is probably easy to get to the airport from the hotel, i don't want to.

the good part about the may and august dates are that they include federal holidays, so one less PTO day to be used. and since i now start at midnight so whatever day we are coming home from boston i don't have to take off.

 

[loonlover]

mlewis, sorry to hear about the loss of your brother.

 

[Andra]

mlewis - please accept my condolences on the loss of your brother

 

[telracs]

i went out this evening and got a chicken roll from the pizzeria and chicken noodle soup and veggie egg rolls from the chinese place. the chinese restaurant is halal, which means i don't have to worry about pork or pork products, but i do need specify veggie egg rolls, because i don't do shell fish.

ate my soup and 1/2 of the chicken roll while watching the latest episode of PIcard. it just keeps getting better this year! the cameos are amazing.

the rest of the soup and the egg rolls will be my overnight food, and the 2nd half of the chicken roll will be dinner tomorrow.

deep breath--after i logged on to the work computer to set my alarm and check emails around 10 PM, i must have slipped on something and ended up on the floor. took me a while to catch my breath and a couple of tries to get my feet under me. i don't know where my ibuprofen is, but i had the best muscle relaxer available, a bit of booze. took a small drink while watching the latest GGG and coloring. i'm not in pain, now, but i think i might ache tomorrow. which is fine, since i plan on sleeping in and don't need to go out.

 

[mlewis78]

My brother's obit was in the Asbury Park Press (our hometown area paper) on Monday, but I haven't seen it anywhere else. I ran across the site echovita.com that had the visitation and memorial service info and it had Stan as age 53, born in 1969! I sent them an edit with the correct date and place of birth, age 75. 1947. Then I found the Dahlonega Funeral Home website that had the same age 53, no photo and no obit. I called them and got an answering service since it was after hours. Then I emailed them and gave them the correct birth date and the text of the Asbury Park Press obit and a photo. I let my niece and nephews know and right away the birth date was corrected on the funeral home site. The Asbury obit had no photo, so I put a photo on the condolences page.

My nephew said the obit should be in the Dahlonega Nugget. I looked there and it's not. I am glad it made it to the Asbury Park paper. They were missing the visitation date and hours the day before the memorial service (March 31 and April 1).

I've been going to the health club at the latest possible time to get a swim in. The pool closes at 9:30. Got there at 8:30 tonight and they'd closed the pool for a medical emergency. They wouldn't say what it was. There was an ambulance waiting outside. I walked home the long way -- a block east on W. 43rd and then up 9th Avenue to stop at Morton Williams. It was humid and 56 degrees and I was dressed warmly. I got some soda and a few other things. I'd been walking so well on the way to the health club, but it was bad carrying the groceries. Now when I go for groceries from my apartment I take a wheeled bag, but I didn't have that. Wednesday night I bought a heavy load from Whole Foods and used the wheeled bag.

I hope you are all right telracs. I fell 5 weeks ago and still feeling it in my back. I am not sure what happened. It happened too quickly.