Coffee heat rising

Dispatches from Hell

Makes the Old Folkerie Look Good…

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Gawd, I never imagined I’d have any such thought!  But here it is, not even 6 in the morning, and I’m being blitzed with hassle after hassle after HASSLE.

Got to take the dog for a walk before it gets hot — which means we’ve gotta get out the door NOW.

The pool is suffocating in dead leaves. WHERE is Pool Dude????  Amazon just delivered a new net for the leaf catcher, the original having plain worn out. 

Put that out back with a note for Pool Dude. No guarantee the guy is gonna show up.

Pool cleaning is one of the “professions” for which the state prison system trains its residents. So…that means chances are good that your pool cleaner is an ex-convict: not exactly the soul of reliability. I should wait here and see if he shows up, but you KNOW that if I do that, the dog will not get out for her walk. Because…

* The guy won’t show up before 10 a.m., by which time outside temps will be pushing 108 degrees; or
* The guy won’t show up at all.

Meanwhile, to get to the grocery store on foot before it gets too hot to walk up there (my son having purloined my car), I need to get started on that errand NOW.

But I can’t do that and take the dog for a walk. And even if I leave for the store right now, by the time I get back it will be too hot to take Ruby out.

My son is probably right: the time draws nigh when I will no longer be able to stay in my home. I’ll either have to move into an apartment (and what am I gonna do with the dog?) or into an old-folks storage bin (and what am I gonna do with the dog?).

Actually, I think some of those places will let you keep your dog. Ducky: how do you keep her from yappiing at every footfall that comes up the hallway?

Speaking of footfalls: better get the dawg out for her walk before the heat comes up: i.e., NOW.

MORE Pool Dude Shenanigans

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So I stagger out to the backyard to be sure Harvey the Hayward Pool Cleaner is working properly…as he should be, after Pool Dude got finished with the job late y’day afternoon.

Should, eh?

Shoulda coulda woulda….

The damn thing isn’t hooked up properly. Nothing is working right. The bottom of the pool is showered in black dead leaves and debris.

Goddammmit!

Hotter….Than…The…Hubs!!!!

Shut down the system. Haul Harvey out. Clean the crap out of him, as best as possible. Disconnect the vacuum hose. Lay it out flat (so it won’t sear itself into a curled-up position like an angry cobra…). Burn feet on pavement. Some guy is outside the east wall. Check on that: apparently just a random workman.

Realize the debris all over the bottom of the pool is going to have to be vacuumed out. But I ain’t doin’ that in 112-degree heat. 

Hm. It’s almost 3:30. Sun blasting away. Sheeee-ut!

Decide to leave Harvey on the deck until sunset, at which time it may be a little cooler out there. At that point, get the hose vacuum, scoop as much debris as possible, and then put Harvey back in the drink.

What fun.

Makes a box in the sky look good, doesn’t it?

Cleaning Lady Day…

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Boyoboy! You wanna talk about a spoiled, lazy ole’ bat? Welp, here she is!

Yes. I am sooooooo lazy that I actually resent and cringe at the fact that today is Cleaning Lady Day. Why?

  • Because I’m too lazy to get up off my duff and shovel out the mess so she can find a few spots to actually clean.
  • Because I’m spectacularly not in the mood to have someone banging around my house for several hours.
  • Because my son is coming over here later today for an online “meeting” (har har!) with our doc at the Mayo, and trying to deal with that while the cleaning lady is roaring and banging around will be a PITA of the first order.
  • Because I’m still mad as Hell at Cleaning Lady for her most recent antic, which caused me a LOT of trouble…and continues to do so.

😀 If that ain’t spoilt rotten, I’d like to know what it is!

Well, in what passes for my own defense, we do hafta say: I’m sick as a dog, have been for days running into weeks, and all I want right now is just to be left alone, dammit.

  • No roaring vacuum cleaners
  • No stinking detergents
  • No wet floors
  • No torn-up beds
  • No kitchen in disarray
  • No…noooooooooo!

Argha.!!!

Isn’t that awful? How spoiled CAN you get?

Well, I do hafta say, one thing I can do without — spoilt or unspoilt — is annoying online meetings…with anyone, but especially with a doctor, one who knows nothing about me and who isn’t gonna believe a damn thing I say.

****

Yes. The idiot cleaning lady…I haven’t gotten around to firing her and tracking down someone to take her place — because I’m too goddamn tired to take on a bothersome project like that.

Get this: A couple weeks ago I was sick as a dawg, felt just AWFUL, and needed more than anything to go back to bed. While WonderCleaningLady was here slamming around the house. 

I’d sat down at the dining-room table for a snack to pass as lunch. This being less than perfectly appealing, I folded my arms on the table and laid my head down, waiting for her to PUHLEEEEZE get done with the job so I could go back to the bed. Shortly, I fell asleep.

She spots me there and arrives at her own tee-totaler’s conclusion: she thinks I’m drunk on the quarter-glass of white wine I’d poured to go with the mediocrity of a lunch I’d set out.

No kidding: she decides I’m passed out blotzed!

She whips out her camera/phone, takes a photo of me dozing at the table, and ships it off to my son! 

He buys her story that I’m snockered.

Jayzuz!

So now I’m in trouble with him, he’s told my doctors at the Mayo that I’m a lush(!!!), they’ve ordered that my driver’s license be suspended, and he has made off with my car!

To buy groceries, I have to hike through the heat (110 degrees today) and haul stuff home from the Sprouts or from the slum stores to the north of us.

I should have canned the nitwit. But I’m just too sick to clean a four-bedroom shack myself, and the prospect of searching for a new employee is more than I can contemplate.

Without my car in 110-degree heat, there’s not much I can do. Hiking up to the Fry’s or down to the Albertson’s or over to the Sprouts is fine when the weather is moderate, but when it’s a blast furnace: not so much.

Gettin’ Old

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Just climbed out of the tub. Combed the dripping wet hair. Hauled on the jeans and T-shirt. Dog is fed. Thought is devoted to running the laundry…ehhhh…too much like work!

Gorgeous morning. If I weren’t older than the hills and feeling like Methuselah, I’d take Ruby for a walk. Except Míhito is supposed to show up pretty soon to haul me off to the damned Mayo Clinic, there to be poked and punched: subjected to yet another pointless blood test.

That means I can’t have breakfast…and I’m just about to faint from hunger. Don’t suppose the coffee is indicated, either…but fuckkit! Enough is enough.

Or not enough is not enough….

Looks like I need to renew my driver’s license, another fun nuisance to occupy hours of the day.  Nope….that’s wrong! Doesn’t have to be renewed till 2030…and that’ll be long past my driving days!

So…this is what gettin’ old is all about: one petty hassle after another petty hassle after yet another petty hassle. 😀  I guess the reason for that feeling is that after some years you get just plain sick of all the ditz of daily life in modern times. The ditz translates itself, over time, into “hassle,” and the endless hassles become endlessly annoying.

***

And the news becomes endlessly horrifying. Did you see the reports on the latest ungodly plane crash?

Gosh, I used to hate flying on passenger planes when we lived in Arabia. Every two years we had to fly from Dhahran to New York City. My father would buy a new car there (his reward for a two-year stint in Hell) and we would race across the country in that: first to his brother’s place in Texas; then to my mother’s relatives in California. Then straight back to New York as fast as we could sail along in the thing, there to jump on another plane back to the Persian Gulf.

Even after I reached an age to understand that car travel is far, FAR more dangerous than airplane flying, I just hated those hours in Connies and other passenger planes. Crowded. Uncomfortable. Fukkin’ terrifying! And 12 hours across the Atlantic in those good ole’ days.

****

Wish to gawd my son would show up here and let’s get today’s nuisance/horror trip to the Mayo over with!

Can’t complain,, though: it’s only 6:30. Don’t think their lab opens till 7:00.

Naughtily, I’m dasting to swill a cup of coffee. You know what that will do, right? Screw up their damn test results, of course. So then we’ll have to jump through this hoop again.

Uh oh…shoulda looked it up before leaping off that cliff: NO, you’re not allowed to have a cup of coffee before the hateful blood test.

Goddammit! Now we’ll have to go through this hassle again.

waitwait! Here’s a page that says black coffee has no effect on blood tests.

Let’s hope that’s so. I just HATE the medical crapola, and I sure don’t wanna jump through today’s hoop again.

***

Ten to 7:00 and no sign of M’jito. Maybe he forgot?

Awwwww, wouldn’t THAT be a shame!

>:-D

Well, it’s only a ten-minute drive up to the Mayo. So he’s not yet late, quite.

Meanwhile, I’m fukkin’ STARVING and want to get this circus on the road, so we can have something to eat.

Looks like I need to renew my driver’s license, yet another hassle to cope with… Wait wait! The thing says it’s good until 2030!!!

Woo hoo! Now that I contemplate that moment of glory, I recall that yes, I’ve already jumped through the Arizona Department of Transportation hoop.

Thank goodness: One fewer PITA to dodge around just now.

*****

Seven ayem and no Young Dude. He must have forgotten or overslept

Awwwwww! Wouldn’t that be a shame? 😉  not to say 😀

Well. I should call him on the phone and wake him up. But…

But…

Uhm…

Am I going to?

Going to what? I forget….

😀

Okay, let’s wait til 7:30 and then break out the chow.

All this dorking around means the poor li’l dawg hasn’t had her morning doggy walk. Nor has her Human had its morning trek, either. Ohhhhh well….

****

Parked on the front porch, awaiting His Dudeship’s arrival.

If indeed he’s supposed to arrive.

If indeed he remembers.

If indeed he hasn’t overslept.

😀

One can only hope.

****

WHAT a gorgeous morning!!!

More than acceptable…which no doubt will poison the proposed blood test. But we’re now so late (it will take at least 20 minutes to drive up there from here: more at this rush-hour time).

I starve…  Hmmmm…. Will wait till 8 a.m. and then break out the chow. That’s 38 long minutes from now….

Hmmmmm s’more….  Here’s a news flash: Alzheimer’s may be a product of gum disease! 

Who’d’ve thunk it?

Fortunately, I inherited my father’s Superman-style teeth and gums.

My mother had terrible teeth — presumably the result of malnutrition, which she enjoyed as a child in Upstate New York. By the time I was…what? about 12 or 14, she’d had every tooth in her mouth yanked out. Poor thing.

My father, a variety of Superman, had perfect teeth all his life. No kidding: never so much as a small cavity.

***

Urk! Here’s a messsage from The Kid: “See you shortly for the Mayo trip.”

Dayum!

Well, I do hope I haven’t negated the purpose of this junket by daring to swill a cup of coffee. Boyoboy, do I ever hate this kind of thing!!!!

Ohhhh gawd. Here he is!

Darn it!

Ah hah! First Thing to Go Right This Morning!

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LOL! Here we are at Funny about Money…After only three tries to get online. 😀 By 5:30 a.m., this morning had already revealed itself as the start of One Of Those Days. Ugh! Whatever you touch goes wrong. Touch it twice, and it goes wrong with a vengeance.

This morning will start with a major misadventure: I have to WALK to the grocery store, way to Hell Gone halfway to frikkin’ Yuma.

Why? Because my son has stolen my car. 

Why? Because my idiot cleaning lady convinced him I was passed out drunk at the dining-room table.

No kidding!

When she was here the other day, banging around from pillar to post, I was feeling very sick. The peripheral neuropathy was driving me nuts; I hadn’t been able to sleep all night; and I hurt from the top of my head to the tips of my toes.

So while she was roaring around the house, I sat down to the dining room table to have a bite to eat with half a glass of white wine. That accomplished, I stayed sat, folded my arms on the tabletop, and laid my weary head down.

She, in all her wisdom, decided this indicated I was passed-out stinko drunk! 

So, the Soul of Concern, she whips out her phone, snaps a photo of me with my head laid down on the table next to a half-empty wine glass, and emails it to my son!

He freaks. Charges over here. Even though I’m clearly not plastered, he thinks I must be — how could a genius cleaning lady like Luz be wrong, eh?  So he decides to confiscate my car! 

No kidding!

It’s now parked at his place, too far away for me to walk, and impossible to retrieve anyway because he no doubt has it locked inside his garage.

So now, the only way I can get groceries is to HIKE to one of the grocery stores around here, dodging drunks and panhandlers every step of the way.

Hey! It’s good exercise: adds an extra mile or two to the mile-long daily doggy-walk. But how am I supposed to haul a week’s worth of groceries two miles through 100-degree heat?

In an old laundry cart, that’s how.

Well, it’s 6 a.m. The Sprouts doesn’t open until 7:00 a.m., but the far less desirable Albertson’s will be open now. Wunderground predicts a temp of 105 degrees today…so I’d better get going before the sun rises any further.

What the fu*k IS the matter with people?????

Dawn of Another Dreadful Day

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So, so, soooooo sick! Is this thing EVER gonna go away?

Just now, I’m about ready for me to go away. Spectacularly tired of stinging and burning and hurting and not being able to walk across the room without the hip shrieking (metaphorically, of course).

Dog is fed. It’s a gorgeous morning. Need — want — to take Ruby for a walk. But migawd! It hurts so much I can barely stumble around the house…much less hike two miles around the park and through Upper Richistan.

Or even one mile.

Gotta get that poor li’l dog walked. Can’t leave her snoozing under the toilet all day.

Learned why the ineffable Luz is a cleaning lady and not a nuclear physicist.

:-D
Get this:

Along about the middle or late morning, I’m sitting at the dining table, soooooo sick I can barely wriggle. EVERYTHING hurts: hands, feet, head, belly, teeth, gums….whatever: if it’s part of my body, it HURTS. The racket from the vacuum cleaner and the toilet scrubbing and the general cleaning-lady carrying-on trumps trying to sleep.

Exhausted, I fold my arms on the table top and lay my head down.

Now the brilliant Dr. Luz wanders into the dining room and sees me with my head and arms flopped down on the table. She whips out her camera, snaps a photo, and sends it off to my son!  With a message that I’m falling-down stinko DRUNK!

For.

The.

LOVE.

of.

God!

He comes flying over here in a freaking state. Apparently no brighter than Luz, he also decides I’m shit-faced drunk.

Understand: I haven’t even had half a glass of white wine, because I’m too, toooo sick to get around it. No kidding: I literally cannot drink a glass of wine with a little food: that’s how sick I am.

Like our honored Medical Cleaning Lady, he also concludes that I’m sh!t-faced.

An amazing fight ensues. Would’ve been more amazing if I’d had the strength to defend myself…but it was quite amazing enough.

He charges through the house, tossing everything in all the closets as he searches for Demon Wine. Finds one (count it: (1) bottle, which he steals.

Jayzuz!

I should can that stupid woman. But frankly, I’m too sick — way too sick — to clean the house myself, nor am I in any condition to conduct a search for a new cleaning lady.

Well. You may be sure that if and when I manage to get well enough to drag myself around the house, dear Luz will be seeking a new job.

What next, Lord?