Coffee heat rising

Gonna keep shopping at Costco?

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B’bye!

We’re told that Costco’s management, irked that so many non-members are throwing money at them, henceforth will demand two forms of picture ID at checkout. Isn’t that swell?

Y’know….

IMHO, having to haul around a special card to shop at Costco is already quite enough extra hassle. I don’t carry a purse (to easy to steal, in these parts), so I have to schlep the Costco card in the car, then put it in a pocket and haul it out in the store, whenever it’s demanded: at the entry, and at checkout.

This is OK. But…having to juggle ANOTHER card is not OK. I hide my driver’s license in the car — given that I do avoid carrying a purse and given that women’s clothing tends to have no or inadequate pockets. Having to dig out the driver’s license, find a pocket or something to carry that into the store, flash it at checkout, drag it back out to the car, and put it away in the car again…?? That, dear Costco, just ain’t gonna make it.

Truth to tell, I’ve been shopping less and less at Costco. I do like to buy certain clothing items there — their jeans are great, for example, and they do carry cute casual shirts. But most of the stuff I need can be had more conveniently from venues closer to home. Since they closed the Costco that was relatively near my house, getting to one of the stores has become a schlep.

And I do have to ask myself if saving a few bucks here and a few bucks there is worth that schlep.

Lately I’ve been buying A LOT more goods at Sprout’s, AJ’s,. Fry’s, Safeway, and Albertson’s. I really don’t like to shop at the Albertson’s on the fringe of our neighborhood, because I feel unsafe in the parking lot. But…what the other stores don’t carry, that Albertson’s will have. And risking my life in their parking lot means I don’t have to drive halfway across the city through homicidal traffic to reach the nearest Costco.

LOL! Trade one risk of life for the other.

I’ll be sorry to lose Costco.  But the casual clothes, I can get at any Target — and there’s one of those a heckuva lot closer than the nearest Costco. The big Fry’s supermarket on Shea Blvd carries similar loafing clothes, and their grocery and booze selections are as good as Costco’s, or better.

Sooo… Sorry, Costco. I’ll miss ye! But somehow I’ll live without you.

Thank Heaven….

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Highly flammable…

…Dear God, for small favors…

See this amazing fiasco? I could be right in the middle of it, right this minute.

Rio Verde is a moderately upscale housing tract on the far east side, just north of Fountain Hills, another tract adjunct to Scottsdale. Some years ago, while I was enjoying a bug in my bonnet about the crime, the noise, the Tony situation, and all that, I did look at houses in Fountain Hills. In the process, I came across a very nice little house, comparable to the Funny Farm, in Rio Verde. At the time, it was a beautiful place: quiet, clean, tidy.

Not anymore, though: planes flying in and out of Sky Harbor roar right over the place now. They used to fly in over Mesa and Tempe.

That would be passing annoying…mighty glad I didn’t buy.

Even then, they were having water problems out there. For many of the houses, water had to be trucked in. And that is no small task…nor an inexpensive one. I remember thinking at the time…you’ve gotta be kidding! You have a whole subdivision out here that has no reliable water service?  Seriously???

Yep. Evidently so. And that particular vulture is coming home to roost just now. Of late there’s been quite a fine fire crackling away out there: 2500 acres, with 1,145 people evacuated.

Just imagine! Where on earth would you go, with kids and dogs and cats in tow, if they upped and announced you have to leave your home?

Sooooo….one can grouse all one likes about the crime in the slum apartments across Conduit of Blight Blvd or the traffic noise or the laughable light-rail project or Tony the Romanian Landlord’s home for juvenile delinquents…but things could be worse. Lots worse!

Exit the covid bug…

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…well…I hope!

The covid epizootic seems to be easing off. The fever is gone(!!). The cough is mostly gone.

It’s been a long haul, that’s for sure. Some of the symptoms started as early as last February! In my li’l Hypochondriac’s Journal — an Excel spreadsheet used to record what pills I’ve taken and when (since I can’t remember when I last took an aspirin!) — I started to note cognitive issues early in February. The peripheral neuropathy also shows up in February.

Migawd! That’s five months!

I found that in my dotage — or…possibly as an effect of a “long covid” infection? (this is really a good video, BTW) — I can barely remember my name, to say nothing of when I’ve gulped down what pill. So I created an Excel spreadsheet to show the date and time of each medication dose.

Well, of course that was nowhere near entertaining enough, eh? So while I was at it, I entered notes on what weirdness has been going on. Reports from the covid trenches, as it were:

Back pain continues to improve
Cough also continues to diminish, even without Robitussin
NB: diagnosed w/ covid on 16 May. So this has been going on about a month.
It appears possible that the back pain may also be a covid symptom. Some sites list muscle pain.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/how-long-is-a-person-contagious-with-coronavirus#recovery-times
“Long covid” = any symptoms that persist longer than a month. 10% to 35% of cases are “long”
Apparently it can take from 2 to 14 days to develop symptoms, so I could have been exposed as early as May 1.
Typically seems to be about 14 days; ie., ca May 1.
Luz was here on May 1. So chances are good that I got it from her. She could have been asymptomatic.

(The table has columns on the left for dates & time…)

One thing that’s clear, given the CDC video referenced above, is that I was VERY lucky — and smart — to have snabbed all three covid shots before the bug came my way. If you haven’t had those shots, get them now!

***

Moving on: Pool dude was here this morning, in all his cuteness. The pool is, as usual, sparkling clear. But…yesterday I discovered, to my amazement, that he apparently hasn’t been emptying the pump’s leaf filter! It was packed tight with dead leaves! So I cleaned that out. And now it seems to be running OK. Pretty well, as a matter of fact.

But it does tell you: You’ve gotta ride herd on the flunkies!!  Don’t assume that, just because they say their job is to do that or to do this, that they’re really doing the job.

Which reminds me: Gotta get off the dime and chase down Gerardo. And so, awaaaayyyy!

YOUR DOG IS NOT YOUR KID! The fur-baby syndrome

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Honestly. What IS the matter with people?

This morning’s doggy-walk devolved into another Trip Devoted to Hassles. At this time of year, a day very quickly gets hot. So all the dog-lovers are out by 5:00 or 5:30, traipsing around the park and up and down every street adjacent to the park. This would be charming (as long as you watch your step and don’t have a lawn that invites doggy toiletry), if only people would be just a little smarter about dogs. If only the idiots would keep their dogs under control. If only they wouldn’t assume you’re out there so that your dog can “play” with their dog.

Ruby is poorly leash-trained, because the minute I got her, I landed in the Mayo Hospital getting both boobs lobbed off. So she never has been adequately leash-trained. She’s fine as long as no one else is around, but let someone come trotting up with their “fur-baby” and she has a lunging frenzy,.

If you say something like “please keep your dog under control,” the idiots simper and go ohhhh don’t worry! They just want to pla-a-a-a-y!

Well. No. They don’t just want to pl-a-a-a-a-y. My dog wants to clear the earth of mutts like yours, stupid!

Seriously…what does possess people to come bounding up to a stranger and let their dog have at your dog?

Part of the problem, IMHO, is the idiotic “fur-baby” trope.

Jayzus! Talk about stupid!

Your dog is not your “fur-baby.” It is not your child. It is a highly evolved wolf. It can be regarded as part of your family only if your family is regarded as a pack, like unto a dog pack or a wolf pack.

That latter bit sounds promising, until you consider that dogs are not humans, humans are not dogs, and canine social structure is only superficially similar to human social structure.

The fact that those two social structures are vaguely similar makes it possible for dogs to live with humans, for humans to live with dogs, and for the residents to empathize with each other. But it does NOT make a dog the same as a human child, or a child the same as a dog.

This morning Ruby and I got out the door at exactly the wrong moment: 5:30 a.m. sharp. From the git-go, everywhere we looked, here came some chucklehead with a dog towing them down the street. In several cases, the dogs were off-leash. One guy had three dogs with him, nary a one on the legally mandated lead. At the park itself, people’s dogs were running around loose all over the place.

To avoid confrontation, we had to walk by on the far side of the street. This is a road that has no sidewalks in front of the houses facing the park. So either we climb up onto people’s lawns and tromp on their grass, or we risk life and limb to walk along that stretch of asphalt.

Finally we reach our corner of the ‘Hood and turn up our street. There, what do we encounter but a guy with one dog on a lead AND a guy with THREE dogs romping around off-leash!

Understand:

  • We’re not in the park
  • We’re not in anyone’s yard.
  • We’re on a public sidewalk running along a street where most people drive around 40 mph, out of not-payin’-any-attention habit.

What IS the matter with people?

Another Every-Inch-Along-the-Way Day…

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Ever have those days when every inch along the way is an uphill hassle? Whatever you want to do, whatever you need to do: you can’t do it without a struggle….

5:30 a.m.: Take the dog for a walk.

5:45 a.m.: She drags us over to the park, where every other doggy-lover in the ‘Hood has already arrived and is traipsing around, some with their dogs off-leash. This means…

…yank yank
…jerk jerk
…pull pull
…yank yank
…jerk jerk…

Cross the street to manage some distance from the Milling Horde. This means…

…dodge oncoming cars
…climb up on people’s lawns along stretches that have no sidewalk
…dodge oncoming dogs and their humans
…yank yank
…jerk jerk…

Haul around the park; enter Lower Richistan.

…drag drag drag drag
…dodge oncoming dogs and their humans…

Pass the pile of rubble that is all that remains of the house where some drug-addled transient woman (she was seen!!) got into the garage and set fire to the house. The insurance company FINALLY seems to have gotten around to paying up: just now a bulldozer is inside the fenced lot, apparently there to shovel up the debris.

Pass the outrageously out-of-place pile of plywood and plaster that is rising on the site of the little house where the poor, beleaguered couple with the mentally deficient son lived. They lost the house, having no way to make a living or pay the taxes on the shack, and apparently were evicted. Whatever: they’re gone and now their house is, too. A gawdawaful McMansion is being inserted onto the lot, its walls about 6 or 8 feet from the neighbors’.

This last detail is, I would’ve thought, out of code. But apparently the neighbors there, suspecting the same, have gone to the City and tried to thrash that issue out…to no avail. This is Phoenix, after all, where money talks.

Hot.

Humid.

Drag drag drag draggety drag drag. Human grows more out of sorts.

6:30 a.m.: Dog and Human pause to chat with a much-favored neighbor, out front puttering in the yard and garage. Her husband died of covid, picked up when he was in the hospital for unrelated surgery. Now she owns a very nice house here, and another place in Flagstaff. And I’ll tellya…if it were me, Flag is where I’d be. The Valley’s heat is already crushing, and it’s just starting.

She’s staying in the Valley because her son is starting a restaurant, in a strip shopping mall that houses the favored Safeway store. With the right marketing and the right food and the right service, he does have a shot at success.

A long shot. All small businesses in this area are long shots. Most of them are very long shots. At any rate, she’s here to help out with that.

****

hmmmmmm….

Is there any question why, at 10 after noon, I’m so damn tired I need to take a nap?

Augh.

Not to say awaaaaaayyyyy!

Covidified!

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coughity cough
coughity cough
coffity cough
cough cough COUGH cough cough cough….

The song of the day… 😮

I’ve been living on aspirin and Robitussin for longer than I can remember now. Fortunately, though, I don’t HAVE to remember. In a blinding stroke of foresight (how DID i know i would not be able to remember my name, much less when i took the last dose of pain-killer or cough med?), I set up an Excel spreadsheet to record when I gulp down this med or spray that med into my nose.

Good thing, because this damned covid virus affects your brain. I couldn’t remember my name if it weren’t written down somewhere. (But…where???)  Seriously: there’s no way in Hell I could keep track of the med-gulping without writing it down.

The Mayo’s staff diagnosed me with Covid on May 16. So this has been going on for over a month, with no credible end in sight.

Well. No. That’s not quite true. With mind-boggling genius, I started taking notes in that spreadsheet, recording the state of the Onion and the progress of the Disease. And adding any bits of information I happen to come across. Review those notes,and you see that in fact this thing is getting a LITTLE bit better, very very verrrreeee slowly. At the crack of today’s dawn:

Date Time Temp Meds Ailments
19-Jun 6 a.m. 97.7 Robitussin Mild cough
CBD cream itching hands, feet (milder than y’day)
Tingling about the same as y’day, maybe slightly better
8:00 a.m. aspirin Back pain mild, seems to be going away

WordPress resists any attempts to tidy up Excel’s formatting…sorreee. I’m just too sick to fight with a computer program this morning!

Hmmmm… The fever has gone away: 97.7 is normal for me, being the cold fish that I am. One of the most aggravating symptoms of the Ailment is FRANTIC tingling in your hands, feet, and lips. This is called peripheral neuropathy, and it is truly crazy-making. A little experimentation revealed, however, that over-the-counter CBD nostrums work handsomely on the phenomenon. Unscented CBD balm — comes in a tube that looks like Chapstick on steroids — beats back the lip tingling. And unscented CBD lotion keeps the buzzing in the extremities at bay.

This, of course, means you need to reside in a state where CBD products can be sold legally.

Robitussin and aspirin, though, should be available wherever you are in the US.

Lanacane and Aspercreme, both presumably legal anywhere in the nation, do exactly nothing for the peripheral neuropathy.

Apparently, the reason I’m not in the Mayo’s ICU just now is that I had the good sense to get ALL THREE shots of covid vaccine at the earliest opportunity. Otherwise — given my gruesome susceptibility to respiratory diseases — chances are good that I’d be on a ventilator. Or dead…

So, if you haven’t taken the covid vaccine, GET IT NOW! Do not buy into the superstitious nonsense about the vaccine. It will not kill you. It will not make you sick. It will not turn your hair green. But it will protect you from developing a life-threatening case of this hellacious disease.

Meanwhile, despite repeated evidence of the truth of the old axiom, “Whatever can go wrong WILL go wrong,” things are as under control as they can get. I guess.

* Ruby has apparently not caught the disease (yet), even though dogs are susceptible to it and even though there’s no hope in Hell of keeping her from sleeping on the bed with me.

* Swimming Pool Service and Repair came out last Friday and made off with the pool pump. They said it would take three days or so to fix it. So I hope their guy will resurface (heh) along about Wednesday.

* Pool Dude has disappeared from the scene. Whether he also has The Disease (a strong likelihood) or whether he got peeved when he discovered I’d arranged someone else to fix the equipment is unknown. I hope he comes back — the man has been a godsend. But if he doesn’t, well…I’ll just post a query on the neighborhood Facebook page, asking after some other service.

Don’t think SPS&R does regular weekly maintenance. If they do, they’d be charging some phenomenal rate…don’t even ask!  However, I’ve found a new Leslie’s outlet, and the guy who runs it does NOT behave like a vulture. So if Pool Dude disappears from the scene, I’ll go over there and ask for the name of a customer or two.

* Today is Cleaning Lady Day. Just now Luz should be at WonderAccountant’s house, across the street, though the last time I walked by the front windows I didn’t see her car out there.

Two weeks ago — last C.L. Day — I turned her away, because I surely do NOT want her to catch this thing. The shack really needs to be cleaned now. So…this does not bode well. I hope she hasn’t come down with the the covid horror.

****

Hmmm….  WonderAccountant thinks the Beloved Luz  arrives HERE around 9 and then goes to her place. I think the opposite. Ohhh well…

****
BING BONGGG!
*****

And speak of the Devil…by golly, there she is.

Well, this is good. BUT….  I’m not real comfortable about exposing her to The Disease. Just explained to her that I’m Infected and so she does not have to clean the house today. Offered to pay her for this week’s job and let her go on her way. She declined.