29 October 2023
Yesterday was a good day. I washed clothes, cleaned at the house, got a surprise birthday gift from Jimmie and Stephen, a phone call from my cousin Jo, and a free meal from Holley and Jim. Oh yeah, I also felt pretty good.
Jimmie and Stephen sent two canisters of King Leo soft peppermint sticks (a childhood thing of ours) and I got Jo’s birthday card. It’s usually either early or late. She called to tell me I opened it too soon, but with today’s postal service, timing anything is pretty much impossible, mail wise.
Later, I got a text from Jim that he and Holley would be bringing me over chicken for dinner and what did I want for sides? The choice was collards or salad and I said either was OK. He then told me they were out of collards at Publix and he took the canned collards to his mother-in-law in Orlando. I wisely chose salad. When they arrived, I had a great tasting chicken breast, a Caesar salad, raspberry pastries, a banana and a new dish cloth. Talk about service! I thought they were going to bring me something from a restaurant but Jim cooked the chicken.
To make the day better, both FSU and Ole Miss won their games going away.
This morning I checked out the sprinklers. There are about five heads that need cleaning out. Chris is going to walk over later this morning and give me a hand. I’ve already done two (and it was exhausting) but by the time she gets here, I’ll be rested and ready to go again. Small, baby steps. Work a little and rest a little.
When doing laundry yesterday, I noticed that most of my tee shirts were either getting religious (holy) or stained. I also noticed my briefs were getting briefer. The briefs have lasted a lot longer than the tees. It was time to replace them. I ordered them yesterday on Amazon and at 5:45 am this morning, someone was delivering two packages to my door. They are now in the wash. I always wash new clothes because I can’t stand the sizing agent on my skin.
The next project was to remove a splinter from my left lower arm. It got lodged when I did the trim of the Heliconias. You can never escape the bougainvillea growing next to one patch and the thorn got lodged under the skin. I’m an old hand at splinter removal. Mother taught me well.
I wipe down the area with alcohol, sterilize the needle with a flame, then cool the needle in alcohol, pick away, re-sterilize where the splinter came out and then bandage it. With all the chemo, I didn’t want to chance it getting infected.
Chris came over a little after 9:30 and we worked on the sprinklers. Or she did and I sat down and rested. It’s amazing how little stamina I have. Working together, we got all the sprinkler heads sprinkling. Maybe I won’t have a brown yard after all.
While waiting for the briefs and tees to dry, I was watching reruns of Home Town. It’s based out of Laurel, Mississippi where the husband Ben is the carpenter/woodworker/construction guy and the wife Erin is the designer. Both are Ole Miss graduates. It’s one of the better home improvement shows and it has a Mississippi tie.
In the rerun, one of their parents had to make a trip to Jackson and they stopped in at Primo’s, one of the more famous and longest serving restaurants in the state. They brought back gingerbread men for Ben. His parents always brought him gingerbread men from Primo’s. My grandmother Ruby used to take me to the one on State Street and she would often buy me a gingerbread man after our meal so I could take it home for later. The State Street restaurant is no longer there but they still sell gingerbread men at the other venues!
I took a stab at the Chiles Relleno Casserole today. It was a lot of prep. I could not find the poblano peppers in the can and had to use fresh poblanos which meant roasting them in the oven, steaming them and peeling the skin, then deseeding. It was a process. Otherwise, it went smoothly. Here’s what the final version looks like.
If it is any good, I’ll freeze what I don’t eat tonight or tomorrow. Hopefully, I didn’t waste a lot of time on something that will not taste good to me. Lately, that’s been a fifty-fifty proposition.
From my earlier work with the sprinklers, to washing, drying and folding new underwear, to Chris and I working on the rest of the sprinklers to the effort of cooking, I’m beat. The great thing is I don’t feel terrible, actually, I feel pretty good. I just have to sit down and rest periodically. Not so terrible, I guess.
Stay tuned!