2020 Diary: The Second Week of August

8/8/2020: The timelessness continues. Up about 6 AM and on the hunt for book and DVD covers again; I have so many and have as yet only scratched the surface. Went in at 11 AM and got some ramen; just about 20 minutes later Susan brought me a letter about setting up a final appointment to see about SSA and told me I could eat the egg salad and boiled eggs. Charlie Chaplin on all day but can’t settle my mind to it. Took a nap to be woken up about 3 PM with Andy bringing me half a foot-long chilidog and some tots. Will John ever make it? I feel like I can’t do anything substantial until he does. Rosary. Got old bananas for supper.

 

8/9/2020: Up about 6:30 AM from dream about being in a simulation/theme park. I walked into a huge room that contained a walk down a cliffside to a beach. I was walking down without realizing at first how precipitous it was; I was looking at a red sunrise at an island out at sea that made it look like a volcano erupting. I got down to the beach and tried to collect some starfish by walking over them, then I went into the water. It was pretty shallow. I dived under water and saw fish that I tried to grab, just to see if I could. I realized that I was underwater and couldn’t swim, but I thought “A puppet can’t drown” and realized that my avatar was Pinocchio. I got out of the water and then suddenly another patron was there; she was scolding me; I think because she had wanted to be first in this ‘room.’

Shower, prayers, Bible, and then Church on YouTube. Afterwards I posted and collected more covers for Niche of Time. Went on Facebook, collected images. It’s now 9:43 AM.

So. For breakfast I made some tasteless old rice. At lunch I grabbed a ramen with a couple of eggs. Then for supper I got a couple of beef ramens. Made S&A some dips for supper. Kept waiting for John all day. Reading some of my old Morg stories, finding covers for NOT (quite a few DVDs), and watching the last seasons of Adventure Time. Still kind of tense, waiting for something to happen – but nothing does. Moved the couch over so I could watch the TV [a weird little model with a DVD/VCR player; I had no DVD player at the time] on the fridge. Started a rosary late.

 

8/10/2020: Woke up about 6:30 AM. Finished rosary, prayers, Bible. Started getting more covers, especially DVD covers, and that went on all day. After 8 AM called SSA, left message, they’re supposed to get back to me. At 9 AM forgot my keys and locked myself out and had to get Kam to let me in, started wash, boiled eggs, made chicken salad, and my breakfast ramen. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Covers. Finished wash at about 11:40 AM. At 12:30 PM went in and made broccoli salad. At 4 PM started supper, dropped the fish patties [still in package; only broken a little]. Went in afterwards and ate supper. At 5 PM pretty sure call is not happening today. Covers, covers, covers. Went in to wash up at 8 PM and Susan told me that Vader had slipped out the gate. The pool guy’s fault, or mine? I really don’t think mine. Finished DVD covers at about 10 PM; the only one I couldn’t find was the Russian The Magic Fish. Now for a rosary. What an awkward and tense day.

 

8/11/2010: Up at 6:30 AM. Prayers and Bible. Watched the final disc of the final seasons of Adventure Time, so finally rounded that off. Back in 2017-2018 my watching was patchy at best, so it was kind of unresolved, but now it is, and I can see it was more satisfying than I remembered. So that’s that. Decided to wait one more day and then call SSA again.

Brought the recycling bin in and spent a while watching YouTube about the end of Adventure Time, then decided to stop, as the ‘fandom’ is deeply into navel-gazing and ‘basing their life on’ supposedly deep readings of its ‘teachings’. In passing by I noticed the playing of the record of ‘The Hobbit’, and it reminded me of how we used to put it on to pacify our minds and let us get to sleep. It really brought back the ‘toy room’ (aka Susan’s room) and how I developed it into my own refuge. She always slept on the couch; the room was only storage for her clothes. I tidied it all up and began encroaching on it where I could, including my ‘library’ on the dresser top. I guess in a way I’m still encroaching upon her life. >sigh< 

John just came by about 11:30 AM (he was in town for a drug test for his new job) and dropped off some spaghetti and a DVD player and a Ken Burns DVD of Mark Twain. We talked a bit, and he also gave me fifty cents when I asked him, so I can get a lottery ticket now, with the other fitty cents I have. Means a walk tomorrow morning.

Spent most of the day watching Mark Twain, after lunch of – spaghetti. At 3:30 PM began making sausage, cabbage, and taters. Only had the sausage part myself when done. Came in, finished watching MT. Called John sometime after 6 PM. When I went in at 8:30 PM, Andy hadn’t come home; I went in at 9:30 PM and he was just getting home. At 10 PM I finally was able to clean up, and then I had some cabbage and taters. Rosary, then bed.

 

8/12/2020: Up about 6 AM, prayers, Bible. Got dressed and off to TX Cooler at 6:40 AM. Back at 7:30 AM, showered, took medicine. At 8 AM called SSA. Both lines were busy, so try again in a bit. Susan says I should notify the local office too. >sigh<

 

[Oh my Glob. Found out I haven’t written anything from this point until Saturday morning. So that evening SSA did call and are sending me a letter. Thursday and Friday went along as usual, except that I was very distracted most of the time. NOT efforts and blogging went on; I watched Over the Garden Wall all the way through. On Friday I ate much more than usual, mostly leftovers.]

 

Notes

One overarching thing I can realize from these entries is that I tend to do shorter entries in August; probably something to do with the heat. Also, that childhood nostalgia and simple pursuits run strong during the doldrums, as does a tendency to overeat out of a certain torpor. >sigh< I don’t think I ever did find a cover picture for my copy of The Magic Fish (Russian, aka At the Pike’s Behest, The Princess and the Simpleton). Hard to search when the lettering (and hence the title it's listed under) is all in Cyrillic script.