kappydell

The volatility of our lives now is VERY tiring. I had been feeling kinda down and wondering why, but I just let 'er cook at the back of my mind a few days and BINGO my answer popped out (surprising how well the subconscious problem analyzer works...). I had been mourning the loss of personal spontenaity. You know, that thing where you can just pick up and go do something just because you want to, on the spur of the moment. With my health history though, I cant just scoot out and do something wild and crazy for fun.. I have to consider if I will need to pack meds, CPAP, canes, extra water, food (restaurants are too high sodium and too expensive now). So every trip is now planned, and i missed that spur of the moment spontenaiety and the feeling of freedom it brought. Funny thing, now that I put my finger on what was "bumming me out" it quit bothering me. I just schedule more loosely to allow for some impulse gratification, too. May all troubles be so easily solved....

It started the day the election was 'certified' and has not let up since. Bugged me so much I looked up the lyrics, and wow. I hope that wont be the soundtrack to 2021, but.....

Hello my friends! Today was a typical day....the youngest dog woke me at 4 am....to go to bathroom. He is accustomed to a doggie door so has not learned to hold it, so I am grateful he comes and gets me with enough time for me to get to the door...even at 4AM. I am sleeping in my bed again (hooray!) thanks to physical therapy (I work my buns off). But the body is complaining with aches and pains as it gets accusatomed to being immobile in the prone position again. 2 weeks ago i could have sworn I passed some kidney stones. Pains were in the proper place. Called the insurance nurse and she told me what to watch out for as I am getting pretty tired of the hospital and I figured why sit around the ER all night and then get told it was something else? Next morning the pains went away. This last week the surprise of the week was shingles. ACK! Only 3 weeks ago my doc offered me a shinglesa vaccine and I said no. Silly me. They are nearly cleared up, and I REFUSED to stop going to PT or stop doing anything. So I will be happy when they disappear totally. Chainsaw Marys back is getting quite bad. It pains her considerably to shop at Walmart now. After about 30 min the hard floors make her spine hurt. So she found a mobility scooter online on sale for a ridiculously low price and bought one. Then she went to her eye doc for a prescription for glasses and we ordered off internet again. I had such good luck with Zenni optical that we used that. She found a pair she liked, and bought 2 regular pairs, 2 sunglasses PLUS a clip on yellow lens for night driving. All for $65 (comes to $16 a pair plus the clip ons were $5. She can hardly wait for them to arrive as her old glasses do not work anymore. For my birthday we ordered that 3 wheel bike I might have mentioned for Mary and I to ride on for exercise and for short hops to the local convenience store when she runs out of cigarettes or bait. Come to think of it, it would go nicely down to the nearest fishing hole, too. I am looking for a local gym to go to when my physical therapy ends. I am working my tail off and my therapists are not afraid to ask for my best effort. I keep telling them if something is hard for me it means it is an exercise I NEED to do to get better. But soon the PT will end, so I will go to the gym. I looked at a bodyplex gym today that takes the silver slippers program (free gym membership thru medicare). Not that I necessarily want to do classes, but I want to use the weight machines and cardio machines for working out, as they are safer at this point than free weights at home. I do with they had a pool, but I will make do. I only wish Mary could come along, but the VA does not offer the program. I need to strengthen my bad shoulder as much as I can and start going to the range so I can learn to shoot from the hip as the left arm cant hold a rifle up very long. We did buy a bipod support, I need to learn and practice with that too. Just in case things get rough and we need to start eating wild meat. I have considered contacting local farmers and asking if I can trap out the varmints (their choice...raccoon, possum, beavers, woodchucks, whatever...) to hone my trapping skills. I would not do the fur processing - fur prices very low and quality in our warmer area is not as nice as northern furs - but many of the furbearers are edible, and it is another source of nutrition for hard times. (I read of one little old lady who got her beloved doggie (and her) thru the depression by trappin, cooking up, and canning mushkrats and squirrels. Chickens will eat meat with relish too, so it might be a viable option for feeding both man and beast. Besides, if I can remove some varmints, I am more likely to get hunting permission. So, the working out has an additional reason. I want to face whatever comes, as strong and fit as possible, so I can help Mary when she needs it. For some reason that old Creedence Clearwater Revival song still runs thru my brain...."I see a bad moon rising....I see trouble on the way....." I'd rather prepare for, than fear the future, as I think we all would. Garden is still producing....kale, collards, and the cabbages even made it. Carrots came up too, but they grow with very low rosettes of leaves in the cold, so they need digging rather than pulling. Spring is coming....in march the first transplants will start arriving. I can hardly wait.

Today was an interesting day. We watched the swearing in and listened dto the speeches. The usual....we must unite, I will represent every body, same old stuff as usual. Baked 1 loaf of bread today. The other loaf is frozen, waiting its turn. Fed the yard cats, petted the friendly onoes and in general made sure everybody got something to eat. Our across the street neighbor, an older lady named Doris, stopped by. Her son in law is making repairs on her place (it is a summer cottage for them, she does not live there full time). She saw our yard cats, and Mary told her they patrolled her yard too, hunting mice, squirrels and keeping snakes away. She liked that, said she had a deep fear of mice so their presence was a good thing. Heck, they even caught one of those pesky squirrels, leaving the tasty bits on the porch for us to sample (the head and tail). We thanked them for their polite offer and declined the snack, LOL. Mary is out tilling the garden in the empty spots. She came in with 4 huge sweet potatoes she discovered - there are always 1 or two we miss when we dig. I told her to let me know when she was ready to till the greens patches, and I would pick all the greens and dehydrate them. She does not eat them, but I have come to like them seasoned in what I am told is "southern style" with ham, a bit of vinegar, a bit of honey, chopped onions, garlic and a dash of hot sauce if I am in that kind of mood for an extra kick. I like them fine without the hot sauce, so I usually omit it. I am saving the canning jars for meats, so dehydrating works fine for me. Just simmer them extra time while they rehydrate and then cook soft. I am a fan of the traditional southern cooking (soul food) and am fortunate to have a soul food restaurant in town for those days I want some collard greens (properly seasoned, of course), cornbread, fried chicken livers, and the like. It was there I finally got to try fried green tomatoes. I never met anybody that considered mac & cheese a vegetable til I moved to the deep south, LOL. That and bacon as an extra food group (I kid you not). Bacon infused EVERYTHING including bourbon. Of ham. I do like the ham flavored bouillon powder though. it really jazzes up a pot of beans when you have no ham or bacon on hand. I am trying to work more vegetables into our diet but Mary is content with just meat and potatoes/mac and cheese/cheesy rice, scalloped potatoes,. Occasionally green beans and peas, but she has terrible gas pains which she has trouble expelling when she eats many of her lifelong favorites now. Creamed cabbage, broccoli, caulilflower and other brassic require copious amounts of Gas-X on stand by. Usually she declines them when they are on the menu. I feel bad but she wont budge, saying the pain is too much for the short time of pleasure involved. Im digging thru my recipes to find the rolled ginger cookie one. I want to make some valentine cookies for friends...I figure I can frost them with pink frosting, stick on a large conversation heart, and voila! a fancy-pants cookie without having to get out the frosting piping tools. Im saving my russian piping tips for easter cupcakes....

A friend of ours born sith spina bifida has modified his electric wheelchair for the outdoors. Uses mountain bike tires on it instead of wheenchair ones. Reinforced wheels again, based on mountain bikes. He goes EVERYWHERE with it!

Sorry for the loss of your little one Ambergris. We lost two long time pets in less than a week just after Christmas. Gone but certainly not forgotten.

I FINALLY got the last of the ham canned up. We got 10 quarts from the 2 hams, plus 5 pints of split pea soup with ham with the schnibbles from the ham bone. The little ham left over went into some jars of yellow-eye peas. I had never seen them before but they taste similar to navy beans but cook up nicer. No navy beans around so I canned yellow eyed peas,LOL. I do love me somew legumes....all kinds.. That particular store chain I got them from is a southern chain, so they have many dried southern peas I had never tried before....crowder peas, lady peas, field peas, black eye peas, zipper peas, and the yellow eyes, of course. The speckled butterpeas were tasty too. I am having a bean blowout! We spent our stimulus checks on more preps, of course. We ordered that adult trike (it will be good for getting around if gas prices go bananas). We also purchased an electric dog fence - the kind you bury - because our dogs have taken to leaving the yard while we are outside working because they see something interesting on the other side of the road. So we will teach them the yard borders again, using the fencing for reinforcement. It came today. Our garden was not so hot this winter. I thought the cabbages had been killed by frost but they bounced back. The collards are matutring nicely so it is time to pick and dehydrate those. I'm keeping my canning jars for things that do not dehydrate so well and for meats. The last 2 days I canned that ham, plus dehydrated 12 pounds of hash brown otatoes. So the kitchen has been humming. But I am getting tired, so I am glad to slow down a bit Tomorrow we put up the electronic fence, then, I guess some yard clean up, and after that start on those collards, because we will need to clean up the garden, put in some new compost, and start planting for spring soon. Who said retirement was boring? Aint got time for boring, LOL. Physical therapy is working - my hip and back are getting stronger. In time I hope to be nice and straight again, but I will take improvemewnt of any amount as long as it keeps coming.

Seed saving. Chainsaw Mary gets nice ones with screw on (not child proof) tops that I have forbidden her to throw away, as they are the right size (about 4 ounces) for many things.

I found my prayer/quote in an out of print prayer book written in the days when one never divorced, no matter what. It was a prayer written as a plea for coping with a nasty spouse. But it resonated, not because my hubs was nasty, but because I liked the way it tacked inexcapable hardship. "Grant me Your grace to do what I must, then ask of me what You will." It helps me focus on acceptance of what cannot be changed, and coping with it. One foot in front of the other, ya know?

thank you midnight mom for the muzzle info. We are making progress with Jack, keeping him separated from the dogs he has issues with. Hopefully we can work on his reactivity, but it is hampered by other dogs' jealousy when we pay "too much" attention to Jack. That is part of the issue, so we try to work with him one on one, separately. He is a lover, and that chin rest training is right up his alley. His calming thing is a chest rub - I can feel him just relax into it. Good riddance to 2020. It ended sadly with two of our long time pets passing on the day after Christmas. It was a sad time. Now we are getting ready to take in Christmas lights - we had cars stopping to take pictures, so we consider our yard a success. But I will be glad to be able to use the dishwasher again, with the Christmas lights on using it blew fuses, LOL. We scored some cheap hams and pork loin roasts. With the freezers all full, I am canning up pork loin and ham today. I think I'll try to can up some pints of navy bean & ham soup with the bits from the ham bones. Maybe split pea? Are we still allowed to can that or is it "too dense"? Thats OK, the split peas cook up so quick I usually make that fresh when I want it so canning it is a little redundant. That Navy bean, on the other hand is a very long cooking soup. I found some beautiful yellow eyed peas at my local southern grocery (it even carries hog jowls and chitterlings year around!) they are delicious and are used like navy beans. I'll use those in the soup. Time to go out to the garden to give the cabbage heads a twist to snap some of their roots so they don't split from all the rain we are getting. Besides, my pets are getting quite obnoxious - they are jealous of my computer time - the cats and dogs alike want to climb on the keyboard and MESS THINGS UP!! So I think its time to stops typing and go do something. Outside. while it is still light.....

Today was a typical on again, off again day. Since my last hospitalization, Mary's back has been quite touchy, so she takes more breaks than usual. I have to sit down a lot due to my hip replacement. Recovery on this one is faster though because they went in from the side, not the rear, so I do not sit on my surgical incision. Much less pain. Much faster healing. All our Christmas decorations are up and attracting the usual attention. We used the same theme as last year, grouoping our display like the north pole factory, with "air freight" "rail freight" divisions, and of course a "naughty department" which is where we put our Grinch out. Everyone laughs at that one. We also are starting to expand into the larger back yard area with the a "resort" theme. That is where the Christmas camper will go, the campfire display with Santa & reindeer roasting marshmallows, Santa in the fishing boat, etc. All the alternative stuff will fit that theme. Our black lab puppy is getting a little wild so he is in "training mode" to teach him some better manners. No jumping on people, for example unless he gets the come-on-up sighal (patting the chest). He likes that one. We are having to teach him what is OK to chew and what is not. That will be aa little harder. But he is bright, just uber-boisterous! Jack the aussie is behaving better as we have determined what works with him and what does not. He does not like changes in routine. He LOVES his "new job: which is to make a perimeter check of our yard in the morning and again at dusk. He loves checking things out, and heels very nicely as we walk. We do, of course, allow him playing time as well. We have discovered his food dish is major conflict source, so nobody eats out of his bowl except him. We listen when he barks...is it a complaining bark or a hostile one? so we can take appropriate action. So I think Mr Jack issues are pretty well handled. We tried putting a muzzle on him, but he ate one (yup) and knows how to get out of the other one in about 1-0 seconds. So we are using strict training with lots of praise for good work, and giving him jobs to keep him interested in being good, not making mischief. A bit of a juggling issue sometimes, but worth the effort. He is very protective of his pack, and worries when someone is missing (he had issues when I had surgery) but responds well to a phone call to talk to him, calming down considerably. We are now in Christmas Cookie Making mode so we can get them made, decorated and sent out to friends by Christmas. Our freezers are full of meats (we have wonderful end of year sales here....January all the prices go up and sales quit untl May) so we are taking advantage of the sales. We have to pack thoughtfully to fit everything in, but it is worth it. The last sale we got steaks, pork loin roasts (we cut up into smaller roasts and thick boneless chops for grilling), ground chuck was half price if bought in bulk (so we did), and the spiral cut hams were so poplar we had to get a rain check. We also got a turkey (69 cents a pound with a $20 purchase....easy with the sale meats....which I promptly roasted, boned, and froze, making stock from the carcass as well. Our garden is growing nicely although we had to tarp it when we had some sub freezing weather. We picked the last of the green bell peppers on Friday. Picked the lettuce already; next upop will be collards and fresh cabbage (the heads are getting nice and big). We also scored 2 for one prices on canned veggies, so we stocked uo on our usual ones (corn, green beans, yellow beans, carrots, and peas. So our pantry is nicely full. Once the Christmas stuff is done I will be setting up a compost area. We are a bit aghast at all the trash (mostly superfluous packaging) we are accumulating, so we now have a three tier system....burnables, which we have a burn pit for now, compostables, which will be composted, and the stuff we will still have to take to the dump. My latest wise crack is that I have no carbon footprint anymore, since all my surgeries my footprint is now titanium. (the medical folks think that is hilarious). We also joke about how I will have to leave all my prosthetic parts to Mary in my will so she can recycle all the metals I now have in my body. My dad, bless him, sent a Christmas present of $15,000 (all he could send tax free) for me to put on the principal of the mortgage. He says maybe we can re-finance while rates are still reasonable, since we are thinking things might get expensive in the future. The bank tellers want him to adopt them as well. At 92 he is still a pretty cool Dad and gives excellent advice when I have a question for him. So covid or not, life is good. I am a hermit at heart so staying home suits me fine, and keeps us busy.

Chainsaw Mary & I are working like crazy ladies to get our christmas lights up on all the high places. I complained to my doc about my left hip and yup it needs replacing - bone on bone - in November. OK, we can handle that, I guess. We also finally figured out what is the issue with our auusie, Jack. He is just super jealous of other dogs paying attention to me. I am HIS person. That explains a lot. And since I have changed my interactions with the other critters to less personal ones, Jack has calmed down and become his usual cheerful self. That and food aggressiveness, can both be dealt with. He loves his obedience training - and his short in-house leash has become his "necktie" and he seems to miss it if we don't put it on. What a difference a few simple changes have made. We do not free-feed anymore nor do the dogs share dishes. That takes care of the food aggressive issues. I make sure I do not pay more attention to other dogs than him. Solves his problems with jealousy. And I train with him often, he absolutely loves routine. I guess there are worse things than having a canine "bodyguard". I am teaching him to wear a muzzle (insurance if we travel or are in a strainge place). If he takes to it as quickly as he took to the short intensive control indoor leash, he will probably dance with glee when I put it on, knowing a field trip is coming. I was sooooo afraid we would have to put him down. I am sooooooo relieved he is responding positively. Welcome back, Whiskey Jack! Good to have you back tp your old self.

Grrrrrrrr May maleeictions pursue it to the uttermost depths of world slime!! So there.

today was a wonderful day. got to my church, went to confession, took communion....I am high risk so I have to watch on live stream on Sundays. I hate it. Cant sing in the choir anymore, no nothing. So being able to do a few church things was a real delight!! There are times when this covid situation bugs me, and no church is one of them. Dont mind the social distancing & not going anywhere because I tend to be a hermit anyway. Our stock reply when someone asks how M and i are doing, is "we are doing fine, staying home, tending the garden and animals..." So I guess you could say I did spiritual preps today. Went to my semi annual cancer check up....the doc says my blood work is phenomenally good, no "cancer markers' and such stuff. She always asks if I am still eating fresh from the garden daily, and when I say "of course, that is what its for" she chuckles. Am I a hopeless rube? Dont know, dont care. I wear comfortable clothes, even if they are hopelessly outdated. My kitchen is 1050s retro. I prefer hand tools to power tools. I prefer to watch the old TV rerun channels rather than the new (and to me banal, stupid and sometimes offensive) new television programs. I have been messing with phone telemarketers, switching to another language when I answer those magic phone numbers that you cant call back. It makes them hang up in a hurry. Spanish they could probably handle, just turn it over to another person, but French or German messes with them. I also like to fill out intrusive and un-asked for surveys with wierd answers....I especially like to tell them I am a quadraplegic recluse...with a six digit income...who speaks mandarin chinese as my primary language. (So far I have never seen a law that requires you to tell the truth on those surveys, just on the census or court paperwork.) Isnt it odd what amuses us old folks? Might as well have a little fun before they get around to taxing or outlawing it. On the plus side, I get some highly interesting junk mail after do that. We have locked outrfreezers ot in the car port, and we have been carring our "little friends" for some time now. We piked up some small game cameras and have set them up so we can tweak their placement & aim to how we want it. We want all in readiness by election day, just in case.

Our aussie, Jack has been undergoing some "respect" training this last week, and it is starting to make a difference in his behavior. Basically he is not allowed to get away with ANYTHING, EVER. We monitor and correct misbehavior at once, calmly and inexorably. Surprisingly, the dog we were wondering about over whether his fits of anger were seizures or not, is changing. His outbursts (temper tantrums?) are fewer and more controlled by a calm but firm "no" and he shuts down the histrionics. The chihuahua we were told had been a bait dog tends to instigate things with Jack, staring at him, making "Snarly faces" and trying to act pushy & dominant. (I had no idea a dog could have "short man syndrome", LOL.) So we are dealing with that too, setting new boundaries for our entire pack-family. Respect for others is the order of the day. Wow what a difference it has made. I guess it is true....strong willed dogs need the stricter structure. Whatever it is, it seems to be working so far. Tomorrow is social security payday so I have to rearrange the freezer tomorrow morning. There is a good sale on t-bone steaks, pork tenderloins, amd ground chuck and I have to make room so we can keep the freezers topped up in case of post election issues.

Thank you for the reviews. Apparently I am not missing much by making my own. I will stick to my own "instant" potato soup mix I learned to make in Girl Scouts years ago: INSTANT POTATO SOUP FOR CAMPING 1 3/4 cups instant mashed potatoes 1 1/2 cups dried milk 2 tablespoons instant chicken bouillon 2 teaspoons dried minced onion 1 teaspoon dried parsley 1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper 1/4 tsp onion powder (if no minced onion used) 1/8 tsp garlic powder Combine all ingredients in a bowl; mix well. Put ingredients in a large zipper-type plastic bag and seal tightly. To serve, place 1/2 cup mix in soup bowl; add 1 cup of boiling water; stir until smooth. It will be quite HOT so let cool before scarfing it down. Play with the seasonings until you get the combintion you like. I add celery leaf flakes (saved & dehydrated) when I hav them (1/2 to 1 tsp). This can be varied all kinds of ways to suit your taste. Best of all I can make it to suit special needs & wants - less salt by using low sodium bouillon; use turmeric (1/4 tsp) instead of the garlic (makes a mellow goldenc color); add bacon bits, or dried cheese. Make as thick or thin as you want by adjusting amount of water & mix. I have not tried with buttermilk powder but that also sounds darn tasty. Who knows, you might discover a new recipe for instant loaded baked potato soup!

good idea; I sure hope they are ok, there is a whole case of them

I have a case of canning lids I ordered back in the olden days.....I presume I still boil those, if only to soften up the glue? You know, the ones made in this country, a couple decades back

At least you can rehab cast iron. After all, what does Mom know, when the internet says otherwise, LOL

ok, now I know....ty for alreay having the answer when I got that today on the humor forum today, too. At least i know it is not my 'puter

Got a lot done this week....Monday I mopped floors, for me that is kinda heavy work, but I am proud to have done it anyway. Lots of breaks, and wringing with sweat by the time I got done, but I DID IT! hOORAY! Our AC (central) keeps freezing up - like in 15 min flat - so we put the window ACs back in - better than nothing in our 90-100 degree weather. Afternoon sun bakes us badly. Tues was pension day so groceries and bills were the order of the day. Whew...some good meat sales so we topped up our freezers with pork (boneless roasts, sirloins, steaks) and beef (ribeye steaks). We were going to buy the whole ribye primal cut but Mary noticed they had lots of fat we would have to trim - we would lose about 25% of our outlay - so we went with the pre cut and trimmed which were $1 a pound more, but trimmed very close. Had some for dinner...MMMMM. Gave 8 to our friends who are having financial difficulties. (We buy them groceries now and again). The husband was touched by those beautiful steaks....we told them, if they were going to do Keto diet they might aw well have some steaks on hand for when they needed something to feel spoiled. No sense wasting a good sale, LOL. Wednesday Mary took the new truck in to have the running boards installed. I was carring around a fold step stool just to get inside te truck now I can put it back in the pantry where it belongs. I cant reach those higher shelves anymore without it. I stayed behind, baked bread and made a macaroni-chicken salad for dinner on Thursday, since the weather showed no sign of cooling down anytime soon. Packed up and subdivided all those larger meat packs we bought into meal size units, then lugged 6 plastic bags full out to the freezers (they are in the carport. BTW, the lock hasps I put on them worked perfectly - I just used construction glue no hole drilling (and maybe hit a cooling line) required! We can lock them down when we are going to be away from home. Today I mopped the front living room area, after sweeping, and moving the furniture to get every corner. It took quite a while (but then again I am slow..)but was worth it when Mary came in from working in the yard in the 95 degree heat because I sat her down in a recliner next to the window air conditioner, and servedl her cold chicken-pasta salad and freshly made coffee. Tonight when we let the dogs in from the back yard we saw one of the litter of three kittens that had been outside with their Mom, and he looked pretty miserable. He had got inside the fence to stand by the door and ask to be let in so we brought all three in. Lots of kitty kisses and purring and they hit the watering station immediately. Maybe we will keep them in until the weather cools down as they were suffering pretty badly. They nad only been outside 1 week, so they took to being inside where it is coooler right off. The older cats know how to cope with the heat ,but the littles, not so much. And we finaly figured out how to get out central AC to work without freezing up almost immediately....use the whole house vent switch to clear out the excess condensation and therefore keep the AC from freezing up. We cant believe how nice it is to be really cool again. Altogether it was a tiring but productive day.

does this mean I won't keep getting locked out of the site on my first try to enter it anymore? Last night it would not let me on at all....kept telling me I was locked out and to wait 15 min and try again. Afteer 6 tries I gave up. Today I got the locked out message, then got in right away. Hmmmm.

Our toilet paper and paper towels at Wal-mart are hit and miss - maybe you get some, maybe not. No limits yet. The wipes are all gone. I can still find Palmolive anti-bacterial soap if I look, and try to grab some for hand washing masks. Povidone iodine is in short supply especially since it was on the news as a disinfectant. Odd things we did ot expect to be in short supply: pet food, both canned and dry. Vitamin C. Chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, taco seasoning packets. Frozen vegetables in the 12 oz size are gone, so are the cheap pizzas if you dont get them early in the week. Very grateful for my freezer so I can just get the less scarce larger size packages. Canned ravioli is gone all the time. Ditto canned chili and beef stew. All purpose flour is starting to dwindle again, just house brand on the shelves. Forget bread flour, rye flour or the speciality flours (so glad I have gluten flour put away). The soup aisle is a shanbles, as are the shelf stable side dishes (potatoes, mac & cheese, rice sides). I am SOOOO glad I can cook from scratch, as the rock bottom basics are still around - if you buy big sizes.

nice catch on the wipes, TheCG! I usualy make a couple trips in and out (using different check outs each time) when I have a good find like that. Naughty maybe but I am also sharing with others and with my doctor as well. (She gets soooo excited when I can score her some supplies!) I hope I can keep doing so as things are starting again to be in short supply at odd times. Hand sanitizer was all over the place 2 weeks ago for school supply (small bottles though and pricey). Now it is gone. I will have to start going out for the very early granny hours again soon if this keeps up. Last good score was at Lowe's (of all places) hand sanitizer by the pint pump bottles at a reasonable price....we bought some and have them on stand by when somebody needs some. What I need to do is make more masks...Chainsaw Mary has trouble breathing thru the N95 commercial and medical ones, but can handle the cloth ones for a longer period of time before her asthma gives her trouble. I hand wash them in Palmolive anti-bacterial soap between shopping forays. I had to get some X-rays because I told my doc that my athritis in my left hip was getting bad at night, keeping me from sleeping. X-rays showed severe arthritis degeneration...tell me something I dont know. I cant straighten out the hip and the x-ray techs were pulling on it to try to get a good x-ray shot. More painful than my dislocated shoulder was. Mch as I loathe the idea of yet more surgery I have a feeling that will be their solution. I wonder if they can recycle all those titaniuum parts I have when I die? I could will them to a wprking-mans clinic for someone else to use as I am sure they will outlive me, LOL. Speaking of Chainsaw Mary, when will I ever learn to NOT let her go a car dealership just to look??? She went to our car dealer when one of the sales people she knows called her and offered to make her a really good deal on a new vehicle for less than she is paying for the one she bought a year ago. She went in "just to see". Oh my, now we have a much bigger truck, more bells & wistles, a nice patriot blue color, and her payments only went up a little (under $100). Talk about bells and whistles.....under the back seats are two built-in coolers to keep things cold on the road. She likes all the doo-dads, from the electric sliding back window to the drivers' seat automatic lumbar supports. (I admit I like the bigger tow package) Well, she says its worth it, I guess so, it does not hurt the budget any, but I personally prefer the idea of paying off a vehicle before trading it in. We will benefit from the trading in on the 1 year old truck though, it goes as paid off on our credit reports (that part does not hurt a bit). Thanks for the reminder to go run our generators, too. We want to keep them ready to go, and yes, we too got a huge one with our stimulus payment that will power the fridge, freezers and at least one room of AC. The garden has revived a bit with all the rain we have been getting...the tomatoes are perking up, the peppers are going crazy, and of course the okra and sweet potatoes are eating it up. We are now getting ready to put in fall plantings of snap beans, carrots, and all the cold weather items. I will need the help with fresh produce as I am starting to eat low carb/keto again to pare off some pounds to baby my sore hip. Our aussi Jack is starting to calm down as we figure out what his issues are and address them. We find that a couple nice "sniffy walks" (where he chooses where to go and sniffs to his hearts delight) every day help his mood immensely, and the exercise is slow enough that I can do it even with a cane, so it does nut hurt me either. One of the kittens follows along trying to tackle his leash (and kill the "snake", I guess) the whole ways - so cute - it looks like the kitten is walking the dog. Jack is very gentle with smaller critters, and he loves babies, so he gets a kick out of it, and keeps slowing down to make sure the kitten keeps up, LOL. He is a good shepherd, and considers the whole crowd of critters here his responsibility; but he gets anxiety attacks which seem to trigger misbehavior at times. That is what we are addressing, as he is otherwise very eager to please and and an excellent boy. Thee German Shepherd-Malinis mix now, HE is laid back, but we have noticed he can pull some passive aggressive traits now and again. You know....call him and he comes verrrry slooooly....dawdling to the extreme. He can pout with the best of them, too. Not to mention....."I only want to go out the FRONT door, not the back door" and that kind of thing. His way of looking for attention I imagine. Some days they are as bad as children. (But at least I did not have to put up with morning sickness to get them, LOL).

Ah yes....first time I made that for my late husband and told him the name he laughed his tail feathers off! I have been known to put lumpy saucegravy thru a strainer too with a spatula. I have a stick blender, but I don't keep it readily at hand, it is in the cupboard with the electric knife and the blender. I still like the shaker jar thing though, maybe because I have used it so much I am used to it. We like the fat free aspect too it keeps the doctors content when we have our annual medicare "wellness check".