2021 Diary: Digging a Hole

1/26/2021: Woke up about 7:30 AM. Prayers, Bible, and dressed. About 8 AM I made some chicken tetrazzini for breakfast. Started “Disenchantment” Season 2. At lunch time I made some sandwiches for lunch. At 3 PM I started supper, sausage, and cabbage fry. Finished and ate at 4:45 PM. Weather warm and clearish.

Finished “Disenchantment” Season 2. Went in a little after 8 PM to wash up and when done finished my rosary. Oh, I’m doing a thing where I say my rosary while I work on stuff, and sometimes do it in shifts. Blogged on NOT, watched Green Acres, then blogged some more. It’s now 9:40 PM, and I’m getting ready to lie down and read and see if I can go to sleep. 

 

1/27/2021: Awake at 3 AM, so said prayers and read Bible, then looked through the Writings folder a bit. Stayed up doing this and that (playing WWF, posting NOT, watching Dragnet, cartoons, Disenchantment Season 3, etc.). Made ramen with eggs and bread then to about a 30-minute nap until about 8:45 AM. Kameron called 9:10 AM and I went in, cleaned up Ginger’s mess, then got him a Nutty Buddy. Now I’m making fried lunch meat sandwiches for second breakfast.

The day went on, watching Netflix and YT. About 12:30 PM I went in at Kam’s behest and looked at some 2-year-old cheese sticks (not good; threw them out) then made him some of my chicken nuggets (had a few myself). Started stew soon thereafter, which eventually had carrots, onions, rice, and potatoes. Later made jalapeno cornbread. Kinda burned the bottom of my pot, so switched it over to another and took mine in to soak. Ate at about 4:30 PM. Yadda yadda yadda shows, cleaning. Rosary. Bed.

 

1/28/2021: Woke up a couple of minutes before 6 AM. Prayers, Bible. Cartoons. Started making beef stroganoff at 7 AM. Went in at 9 AM, made Kame corn dogs and taquitos, and a few chicken nuggets for me. Came back out and spent the morning writing a review of my new copy of “Unfinished Tales” then spent time mooning around my entries on Tolkien books. I had just lay down about 12:30 PM when Andy comes in with MORE mail. He also tells me that Jade got out under the fence, that Kaitlyn is coming over here soon, and that poor Dodger got KILLED by racoons early this morning. We are not putting out cat food anymore, so Ditto is out of luck and the raccoons can no longer snitch any or be drawn by it. Goodbye, Dodgie. He was such a good, affectionate cat, a rescue that Susan and Andie saved from the roadside. He won’t come sit with me on the front porch again.

Continued re-watching Disenchantment Season 3. At 3:30 PM I heard Kaitlyn outside with Jade and Kia. Went out and we visited a while, then at 4 PM I had to start supper (chili, etc.) and she had to leave again for San Antonio. Finished making supper just at 5 PM. Made HEB order. Went in to wash up at 7:30 PM and talked with Susan a bit. Took last of stew in, and they gave me the rest of the pecan ice cream as they are on a diet. I spit the pecans out (no teeth), but it was mighty tasty. Watched GA. Rosary. Bed.

 

1/29/2021: Up at 6:30 AM. Prayers, Bible. Watched the end of cartoons then shower, dress. Wash dishes, take medicine. Catch up diary. It’s now 7:30 AM. Ate the last Zebra cake to take my medicine. 

Went in at 9 AM, just when HEB was delivering at the front door. I moved it in then made Kam some corn dogs and taquitos. Later he came in before noon to start his homework under my supervision. It was making designs for buttons. More or less after he finished (his teacher told him to color them) we found out that weren’t due until Monday, when he would start taking the bus and going to school again. We watched some MYST3K, then I had to start frying taters at 2:30 PM. At first, I couldn’t get the frying pan as it was tucked between two others with the handle facing the back. Watched YT.

I finished cooking (fish and spinach too) by 5 PM. Took my fish in and continued frying the last batch of potatoes. Susan told me Andy wouldn’t be home for a while (working with his dad). Washed up a little after 7 PM. Susan and I talked about taxes and back accounts. Washed my dishes and started rosary. Andy got home about 8 PM and came over and told me to come in at 7:30 AM to make the omelet. Finished the rosary. Watched some GP and GA. Now a little after 9 PM. Bed a little after 11 PM.

 

1/30/2021: Awake about 5:30 AM, from a sort of dream/pre-waking consideration of the Autumn Festival chapter which I saw in a highly visual manner as I seemed to composing it in my head. Prayers, Bible, then wrote a bit. Can of ravioli and medicine. Watched Popeye at 6 AM, then fell asleep some time after 7 AM when Tom and Jerry started. Awake again at 7:40 AM and went in to start the omelet. Morning warm and overcast.

Used whole bag of spinach, half an onion, a red bell pepper, split cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, and 14 eggs. While I waited for it to cook in the microwave, I had a slice of jalapeno cornbread. Heated up a can of beans. Out the door about 8:40 AM with my slice of omelet, which I ate with cheese and Whataburger salsa verde. Caught the last bit of Bugs cartoons. It’s now 9:14 AM. Susan wants to take me to the ATM about 2 PM maybe. I’m thinking about a quick nap then writing until that time.

Finished up 7 pages and sent them to John. Pootled around until Susan came out at about 2:30 PM and said we would go to the bank to make a withdrawal rather than from an ATM, as she needed to make a deposit, and then to Walmart. We scrambled to get ready as the bank closes as 3 PM. We got there under the wire, then Susan realized she had forgotten to bring a mask. She dropped me off at Walmart and went home right quick. I picked out a comforter, a mirror, a frying pan, and some paper towels. As I was headed for the registers, I met up with Susan going the same way. She helped me check out. In the truck she was a little dubious about my comforter; there was a little furry pillow included and it was rather spangly, but it was the best option I could find, but it was basically black and not floral. We dropped by HEB and she got some stuff for supper, including a pulled-pork sandwich for me. Home we went, and as we were getting things in, Ditto showed up for the first time since Dodger passed. So, we’re stuck with him a while yet. Susan set out food for him.

After I ate, I watched YT a while, then before the sun went down (6 PM) used my new mirror to buzz my head. Now I have the Stooges on and soon it will be Svengoolie at 7 AM.

Didn’t watch Sven, but more YT. Bed at 9 PM.

 

1/31/2021: Up at 5:30 AM. Prayers, Bible. Then showered and dressed early. Headed out at 6:55 AM. At church my fogged glasses had me sitting in the wrong pew at first, then my mask snapped apart (luckily, they had some at the entrance), then I dropped my missalette. For the mass we had a substitute priest, though Fr. Stan got back at the end. Went to the restroom before and after. Home about 9:25 AM. Divested myself, then turned on The Flintstones. Time to make breakfast, I guess. Amy’s birthday and one-twelfth of the year is over.

Not much happened over the day. Andy brought me some leftover stuff, Kam came in to watch the “Diggy Diggy Hole” videos, the sky was bright and blue. I watched a six-part documentary on Monty Python. Towards evening John answered my e-mails from yesterday (he’s been busy with Amy and Morgandy birthdays). Ate sandwiches at lunch and Cheese Hamburger Helper for supper.  Bed about 9 PM.

Notes

An abundance of Gomer Pyle and Green Acres at this time, but they had just started up again on MeTV and I was finding them strangely nostalgic. This was also before the cartoon gene-pool had gotten diluted by Woody Woodpecker and Walter Lantz; I considered the MGM Tom and Jerry stuff to be the filler then, with Popeye and Bugs Bunny the meat of the sandwich. You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.

And I’m angry reading about the careless eating I was doing; not only because of the things contra-indicated by my new diet, but jealousy of the abundance. Right now, I’m at the end of the month when I’m wrestling with a skimpy adequacy; if I only had the makings of a good stew right now, especially in this freezing weather -!

Poor old Dodger. He got his name because Susan rescued him when he was a kitten, dodging traffic on the highway. Ditto was a ‘wild’ black cat that turned up a little while before this; you always had to look twice before you were sure which one it was. Now he’s gone, too. We’ve got one semi-wild brindle female left, whom Kameron calls Mamas, and her occasional suitors.

Kameron’s done with school, we don’t have to worry about masks (I still have most of a box), I’ve got yet another comforter (still using the spangly one, though), use the mirror every time I have to shave my head, and I still put on Diggy Diggy Hole (the 10-hour replay, on the phone now) to help get me through stretches of needful chores. The tedium of the last days of January … goes on.