Cooler days ahead (finally), taking out the trash & a WHOLE LOT of concrete

When I first came to the Tiffany, the gentleman showing me and my sister the available units commented on this one:  "If you move into 402, you'll have less than fifty steps to the trash room."  Sign me up! 

Actually, that's not why I chose my apt--but for 5 years, it was very convenient.  I like to take out my trash nightly before bed, and it was nice to scamper down the hallway (you know, like a little bunny rabbit) and toss my garbage in that room.

And then a year or so ago, Steiner realized they could save on staffing if we took our trash outside ourselves.  They told us "It's nothing, really.  Just take the elevator to the basement, walk 100 feet thru the underground parking garage to the dumpster directly outside."   So we did, nothing to it.  

Then a few months ago they announced they were replacing the blacktop parking lot behind the building with a concrete one, so the back door, basement & underground garage would be off limits for 6 weeks.  Of course, we're now in our 18th week.

But it does look like they're in the final stages, which is perfect now that the cooler air is here.  See, our so-called central cooling unit sat directly behind the Tiffany--and since May 15, it's been operational a total of 6 days.  With some of the hottest temps on record this summer, it has rarely been below 85F in my apartment.  I don't think I can do this again. 

Anyway, I thought I'd show my route to the dumpster and our fancy new concrete lot behind the building.  It will only fit about 15 cars back there, and with 100 units in the building--ah well!

Walk out the front of the building, head down this path...

Go around the corner and down this alley... at night a young transgender man hangs out back here.  I said hi to him once and he giggled, it was pretty creepy.  

Oh and here's the new concrete parking lot behind the Tiffany--I wonder who will be footing the bill for all this concrete?

Back to taking out the trash--head down these steps to Cherry Alley... (and if you head 65 miles south to my sister's house, she has a Cherry Alley behind her house as well)

You've arrived at your destination--see that green dumpster in the center?  Make sure you don't hurt yourself back there.  And that big silver box between the two white vehicles is our joke of an HVAC unit.  That's all!

Good things are coming, I just gotta get thru one more thing...

Last weekend when I was in the hospital for a blocked bile duct, they gave me a pair of those hospital socks with the nubs on the bottoms (to walk on slick hospital room floors with) and I said "Would you mind if I wore these double-thick tube socks I brought with me?  I have plantar fasciitis and those nubs are too painful on my feet."   They said oh sure, sorry to hear that.

Later that night around 1am when they came in to check my heartrate and temp, the nurse saw my swollen face and said "Douglas, wake up--I alerted the doctor you have a high temperature and one side of your face is swollen, were you stung earlier?  Do you have a food allergy?"  I said no, I've been dealing with a long covid relapse since mid-August and this happens every night.  She later returned with a naproxen to reduce the inflammation and I said "Can I just have some regular aspirin?  Naproxen interferes with the Amlodipine I take at night for my high blood pressure."  Cathy (the nurse) said "You're not doing too well, are you?  Hang in there!"  

Since coming home, I've been dealing with a sore stomach and then a couple nights ago, some pretty severe bloating.  Very painful on the right side (hence the hot water bottle is always with me) plus I am out of breath--constantly.  It's really pushing on my lungs.  

I am still feeling fortunate though--I was supposed to visit my friend Carl at the hardware store on Saturday to get help in retrieving data from my recently croaked laptop, but he called Friday morning and asked if I could come in a day sooner as Mitchell was there, and this was REALLY his thing.  I said of course, and Mitchell was a great guy--I brought along a couple flash drives and we were able to get the rest of my files off my old Toshiba.   

On my way home, I stopped at my barbershop and gave my barber Roe (who is also suffering with plantar fasciitis) a foot roller like the one pictured above.  I then stopped in my dentists office and canceled my next appointment on Oct 13, got back home just in time for my stomach to begin its crazy bloating thing.  I laid in bed Friday night, unable to turn on either side it hurt so bad.  God, what did I ever do to you?

It was no better on Saturday, in fact the pain was worse; at least it kept me from stuffing myself (which I am prone to do every weekend), all I wound up having was a bowl of hot & sour soup and some applesauce.  I had this bloating several years ago (also after a gallstone mishap) and it lasted 3-4 weeks before it fully went away.  

I haven't been to the senior center since mid-August, they've probably forgotten all about me (and I wouldn't blame 'em, I'd forget myself too).  I'm just amazed at this series of unfortunate events.  At the same time, I am liking my new computer and my feet are finally showing some real healing--still too painful to walk about barefoot, but I can stand in the shower longer and they're not in great pain in the mornings.

I've also been doing good at sticking to my healthier eating (you'll see in my next post) and the orofacial pain (from that horrific dental visit 4 weeks ago) is finally dying down too.  Now I just have to get this awful bloating to settle down and pray nothing else goes wrong--for a couple of weeks at least!

One more thing, I know my posts have been a real drag lately, and I'm always surprised when kind folk and online friends show up to offer their friendship & support.  Thank you, and I'm going to try harder to talk about things beside my health in the future.

Crikey, when it rains it pours

This has been a real week.  Spent the weekend in the hospital (and to be honest, still dealing with some belly issues).  Then I came home to no internet and a defective router, which Xfinity did come to my place and got me set up with a new gizmo which works wonderfully.

And then Wednesday morning I get up, make a cup of coffee, get situated on my couch to work on my upcoming blog about fighting fat... and my beloved laptop died.  

My new Asus Vivobook on the top, my 2011 Toshiba below; they have the same size 15.6" screen

It had nothing to do with the new gateway just installed in my home.  The Toshiba has been on it's last legs for a few years now, held together with packing tape, twine and even half-erasers under 3-4 keys that were stuck.  It took forever to start up, and even longer to shut down at night--but I loved it like an old friend.  

I bought the Asus over a year ago, back in Jan 2024, one week before I got covid that became long covid.  It's been hidden away in my bedroom dresser ever since.  Until today, that is.

I feel like I've been uprooted from 2011 and tossed into 2025.  Did you know The Good Wife is no longer on tv?  President Obama is no longer in office and we're under siege by a Fascist party and megalomaniac tyrant?  You don't own Microsoft Office anymore, you SUBSCRIBE to it?  Enough!

This new laptop is lighter on the lap--it weighs 13 ounces.  Not even one pound.  My Toshiba weighs 10 pounds, 5 oz--that thing was a tank.  Anyway,  I can't figure out where anything is on here.  It keeps telling me to stop trying to store files on it, move them to Microsoft's One Drive.  

The mousepad doesn't even have buttons!  

What bothers me most of all, the first thing I did was download "Open Live Writer.  OLW is an editor I've been using for 20 years to write and publish my blogs.  But when I tried to install it, I got a stern warning APP DENIED ACCESS from Google (because it uses your Google credentials to create an offline version of your blog).   

I went looking for answers.  I discovered this has been happening since 2020 for every blogger who uses OLW and gets a new computer.   So after 20 years of blogging, this is my first time writing a post using Blogger's online editor.   It's going to take some time getting used to.  

Well, on Saturday I am meeting with Carl from the hardware store, we're going to use his work station and an ethernet cable to hopefully get access to my Toshiba's hard drive long enough to retrieve my photos folder, financial documents and a couple blog drafts I was working on.  Wish me luck and if you see anything weird going on with my blog--that's just me trying to get a new handle on things here.  Thanks for listening.