Lent, Day 29

Long day at work today, 11 hours. It was a 14-page paper. I still have 6 pages left to proof & finish. We didn't even get the first page out until 1 p.m. Almost 2 hours behind schedule.

Just one little thing & then I'm headed to bed. I got a phone call from someone in Malad wanting to know if it was too late to get an obituary in. The obituary page was done. I said no, because the policy is that we try to get an obituary in. I gave the woman the options, she could do a death notice for free, or she could do a full obituary with picture & it is $4.50 a column inch. She said she would give the woman's daughter the information. A little while later, I got a call from the woman's daughter. She said that the Malad paper doesn't come out until Thursday & her mother's funeral was Wednesday. She decided to do a death notice. That was a relief to me, we were already waiting for Mondell Nash's obituary & picture from Webb Funeral Home. We weren't sure if we were going to have enough room for another obituary.

I finally went to lunch at the Subway. I had debated about going to Stokes grocery store & grabbing a small deli sandwich. But I decided Subway sounded better. I was hungry & thought a 6-inch sandwich with extra toppings sounded better than a 3-inch plain meat & cheese sandwich. But I had also decided I wouldn't do a full meal, cuz I just wanted a soda refill. You have to buy the full meal of 20-ounce drink & either cookies or chips to get cookies at a reduced price. I said I learned another new thing today. The lady that waited on me was new, at least someone I'd never seen before. She asked what the first new thing I learned was. I told her the Malad paper comes out on Thursday. She asked if I was from Malad. I said no, & asked if she was from Malad. She said yes. I said I work for the Preston paper & we had got a death notice from Malad. She wanted to know who died. I told her Rula Thomas. She said she knew her, she'd worked for her. She knew she'd been in the hospital. She wanted to go see her & she didn't want to. So she'd sent her a dozen pink roses for Valentine's Day. I was able to tell her the funeral & viewing information. She said she'd heard she had cancer. I said no, the daughter said they didn't know what it was. I'd asked what the cause of death was because sometimes they put what the person died from in the obituary.

I thought how interesting that was. I usually don't go nattering on about publication dates & spouting information about obituaries to total strangers. But this woman may have got the information too late to pay her respects because our paper doesn't come out until Wednesday. If she works at the Subway during the day, she would have missed the Tuesday evening viewing & Wednesday funeral.

Potato fiasco

Don-Mike had another name for this, it kind of rhymed with potato. I repeated it, tickled with the words, saying I was going to use it as the name of my blog entry tonight. Now, of course, I can't remember it. I hate the short term memory loss. This will bug me for a while, what was that word?

Don & I take turns cooking dinner on Sunday. Don fixes lasagna 0n the first Sunday of the month & it has come to be known as Lasagna Sunday. So, when I was planning menus for March I saw there were 5 Sundays. If we continued to fix dinner every other week, lasagna would no longer be served on the first Sunday. So, I had a scathingly brilliant idea. Don-Mike could fix dinner on the fifth Sunday! I also had an alternate plan. We could have potluck, where everyone would pitch in with something, or we could have a potluck potato bar.

Don-Mike thought about it a while & decided he would take the 5th Sunday challenge. He thought about it, planned it & shopped for it. Funeral potatoes was the main dish of his meal. I went shopping with him & we did not get any potatoes. Why get potatoes? We had a 50 lb. bag of potatoes in the cellar that had never been opened. He went down today to get the potatoes & they were soft & sprouted. They were in 3 feet of water. The sump pump had not been plugged in. None of us had even thought it had been warm enough for the cellar to flood like it does every year.

I suggested dropping back & punting, but he had planned on fixing "funeral potatoes" for dinner today for a month. I told him the closest open grocery store was Logan. I could drive down & get some. He suggested I ride down with him.

Only the big box stores are open in Logan, Wal-Mart, Smith's & Albertson's. We went to Wal-Mart. Don-Mike got potatoes & I got bread, milk & some frozen burritos. The frozen burritos were to appease Nick. He had a huge melt down today after I got home from church. He came to the front room door with 2 cans of tuna that I had bought last night for Don's tuna noodle casserole tomorrow night & asked if he could have them. Don said no, it was for supper tomorrow night.

He put them back & then came looking for a fight. He said we NEVER have food in the house. I told him we have food in the house. He could have the d***d tuna. He was raging by then. He said he didn't like just opening a can of vegetables or fruit or tomatoes. He wants to open something to eat & not have to fix it. All we have in the house is INGREDIENTS. He doesn't want to have to MAKE something to eat, he just wants to get something to eat.

I went out & there was no bread in the bread box. I went to the freezer & almost had heart failure. I couldn't find any bread. Then the box of ramen noodles was empty, but hadn't been thrown away. The last egg had been used last night, but no one had told me there was not another dozen in the extra fridge. All the milk we had was in the fridge in the kitchen, there was not another gallon in the other fridge. He was right, there was no food in the house.

Then I started raging. My usual response is "Your lack of planning is NOT my emergency!" Well, today, it was my emergency. I could have got the milk, bread, potatoes & either more ramen noodles, spaghetti-os (sp-os), frozen pizza or burritos here in town & not have to run clear to Logan. But we knew there were potatoes in the cellar. We just didn't check on them yesterday to find that they had gone bad. I had asked as I left for the grocery store last night, "What do we need?" knowing the closest open grocery store on Sunday is 25 miles away.

Don-Mike's meal turned out delicious. It was nice to have someone else fix the meal & do the planning. He fixed enough for everyone to fill up. They are such hearty eaters, many times there is not enough to fill them up. No one went away hungry. I gorged myself. We have punch every Sunday. Since the diabetes diagnosis, they give me water to drink, instead of punch. Last week Don-Mike suggested I buy some Crystal Lite so I can have punch too. I said the water was great.

I'm still tryng for an 11:30 bedtime. Last night I went to bed at midnight, but was up this morning at 7:15. I have to copy the ward bulletin every month on Fast Sunday

Lent, Day 28

Notice there is a new section on my blog. I put it right at the top so it would be noticeable.

The most exciting entry there is The Preston Citizen. I've worked there for almost 12 years. I've tried to get a website for most of those 12 years. I was browsing through my blogs. Since I changed the layout, I can't see who has updated lately. It had been a while since I checked Preston Idaho Digital News. I love that blog. The latest entry was new website in Preston & had a URL for The Citizen. So, I copied, pasted & entered. There it was!!! I've heard Kelly talking about a web site, but nothing's ever been said.

I need to get dressed, go to the pharmacy before it closes & take the mail basket over to Mother's & sort. I'm still here, wasting time. Can you say I am depressed? I am. I just want to sleep my life away.

I got to bed about midnight last night. This morning I woke up & Don was still in bed. He's always going to bed so late & never gets a chance to sleep in. So, I knew if I got up, he'd get up. So, I laid there & went back to sleep. The next time I woke up, he was still in bed. I laid there some more. Finally he got up, about 9:15, but I went back to sleep. Then Nick came through the hallway. I woke up, or maybe I was awake, anyway, he came in, apologized for waking me up. We talked for a minute & I went back to sleep. I finally got up about 10:30.

Lent, Day 27

Today was a better day, healthwise. I was awake at 9 a.m. I got to work about 11 a.m. There was a memo on our type tray saying that the corporation is tightening their belt & we may be facing some layoffs, telling us that March is "ugly."

I didn't get to bed last night until 12:30. Started trying to get to bed about 11. I told Don this is one of the hardest things I've ever tried to do, get to bed at a certain time. But I've always been very persistent. I had an online friend tell me that I remind her of a dog with a bone. I latch on & won't let go, LOL.

"I will persist until I succeed," Og Mandino, The Greatest Salesman in the World

Lent, Day 26

Must be day 26. Today wasn't a very good day. I have a tooth ache still. I couldn't remember whether I took any ibuprofen, so I didn't take anymore, sigh. I wanted to go take a nap, but I remembered someone said, "People die in bed." Not sure who said it, but I decided not to go take a nap, because I always feel cruddy when I wake up. Besides I needed to go over to Mother's.

About 4 p.m., I put my fleece jacket on. I sat in the rocking chair to put my snow boots on. I sat there because I really didn't feel like going anywhere. I was playing around with a fleece headband. I thought it would make a really great eye shade for sleeping, but I put it on my head & the next thing I knew, Don was walking through the door. He asked me if I had been out to feed the dog because I had a fleece jacket on, my boots & a fleece headband on. I was confused. No, I hadn't been anywhere. I finally woke up fully about 6 & realized I still had the fleece headband on. I asked him if that's why he was wondering if I'd been out to feed the dog.

I went over to Mother's to get the canned food I had left there. It was too late to do any calling on credit cards or the mortgage.

She said she had been discharged from home health & she was sad. I think it has done her a world of good, not only to have the physical therapy but to have other people coming into the home. Medicare won't pay anymore. I wonder how much it costs out of pocket.

Bedtime last night was midnight, straight up. I woke up this morning at 9:30. Finally crawled out of bed at 10. Looks like tonight will be midnight again.

Lent, Day 25

Don's listening to Three Dog Night's Joy to the World & other songs. He just found out today they are the group that is coming to the Cache Valley Cruise In this year over the 4th of July weekend. I WANT to go this year. He doesn't think the tickets will be as expensive as they were last year for Styx. Tickets go on sale this weekend.

The blog entry on the little boy voted out of class really bothered me. The whole thing bothered me, but I read comments after the news articles. I was up til 2 a.m., trying to work through it. One thing that bothered me was the comment someone made about children being resilient & forgetting it.

I remember an incident that happened to me in 2nd grade. I was playing outside during recess & I got muddy. Mrs. Elnora Magleby made me stand in front of the class & told them what a bad girl I was. She wouldn't let me take my coat off. It was red wool coat & would have needed to be dry cleaned. I had to drink my milk in front of the class & then she sent me home. She also told the class that I shouldn't have been playing with the boys. I recently told Bob Merrill, a co-worker, that teacher is the one that gave me panic disorder. He said I was probably not the only one she had scarred for life.

If children are so resilient, why did it take almost half a century for me to finally work through that incident? Maybe I don't want an answer on that. As Kelly (Mickelsen, publisher) would say, "RaNae, you left yourself wide open."

Anyway, to bed at 2 a.m., Don woke me up at 10 to 7 this morning because I needed to go get Zach Kent for school. I left a little after 7, but had to stop & get gas before I could run clear over to Dayton. I pulled in the driveway, just a little before 7:30. Eddie came out to tell me that Zach just barely woke up, he'd be out in a couple of minutes. I picked him up from school at 1:30. I said I was sure his stomach was imploding because he hadn't had any breakfast. He said his dad hadn't given him any lunch money, so he hadn't had any lunch either. He didn't know what imploding was. I asked him what exploding was & then explained that implode was just the opposite. His stomach was sucking itself inside out. Nick uses that term when he's starved. I think it's pretty clever.

I came home & went right back to bed. The next thing I knew it was 10:30 & Don-Mike was waking me up. We had our visiting teacher coming at 10:30 & he asked if I was going to be there for her. I assured him I was. I got up, but couldn't make the bed because the cats were all around me. The bed never did get totally made today, just part of the covers pulled up.

It snowed most of the day today. It was so heavy & wet that as I sat & watched it come down this evening, I commented if the snow were rain, it would be pouring.

I don't know how many inches it snowed today, but it was several inches. A power pole was smoldering up at the top of our street at the highway. The boys called on their way over to Mother's to tell us to hurry & turn off the computers. So, we turned off all 3 of the computers, plus the 2 network computers & sat here for over a half hour waiting for the power to go out. Nick called at 9:10, finally at 9:47 p.m., the power went off. It was off for about 15 minutes & came back on. They came back about an hour later & said most of the town was without lights, but our side of State Street was back on.

Lent, Day 24

Ok, here it is 11:36 already. I got on BlogSpot to make my update & saw that a blog that I follow, Surviving Crazy, had a new entry. Then I followed a link that bothered her & I've been reading news stories & comments on this. I must say it has really bothered me also as Nick has Asperger's Syndrome. I'll give you the link to the blog entry that upset us both.

I made it to bed by midnight last night, well, not quite midnight, several minutes before & was awake at 8:45 a.m. Even so, I was late to work, sigh. I had a phone call that put me behind. I almost didn't answer it, but was afraid maybe it was bad news.