random thoughts – Day 1,889 – (Monday) – long day

It’s been very light in the mornings, which wakes me up too early and then I can’t get back to sleep. The next thing I know, I’m up, dressed, and drinking coffee a half hour before the alarm setting.

The early rising allows for more leisure and even chores before work. This morning, I picked up a book I haven't touched since the wrist was freshly broken and the 600 page tome was too hard to hold. The kickplate below the front door was painted and the threshold at the side door got a second coat of paint. It was quick work, barely 15 minutes, and it used up the rest of that can of paint. There was a breakfast of coffee and matzo brie (two eggs scrambled with half of a matzo cracker). The driveway was swept (again) to deal with the annoying helicopter tree thingies that blow in.

Even more x-rays.

The afternoon included another visit to the surgeon’s office for a follow-up for the crunchy wrist. It is stiff and sore in the morning and is still bad whenever I need to grasp and twist or pull (like pulling weeds or opening jars). There were more x-rays and the doctor said the bone looks good and the problem is the tendon rubbing as it passes over the plate, as noted the last time. 

The current thinking is that the plate will need to come out, but it’s still too early to do it. There is a chance I would need a cast after plate removal. We’re in wait and see mode, and I need to go back in six weeks. It seems that the sh*t show known as 2025 is loaded with gifts that keep on giving. 

Food planning was practiced today. After the proper breakfast, lunch was leftover pizza from Saturday. For supper, the minimal hunger level allowed for time to cook the brown rice that requires 45 minutes. Healthier food is time consuming.

While the rice cooked, there was a debate about what to have with it, because the initial plan of rice hadn’t been fully developed. The pantry was ravaged and in the end, the rice was mixed with some spaghetti sauce, canned diced tomatoes with chilis, red pepper flakes, green pepper, onion, and black beans and topped with queso. There is more plain rice left for a cold salad or cheese and broccoli, or some other combination.

After supper, time was spent in the horror show of the guest room that never was. It’s horrifying, because the stuff loaded in there when I first moved in is mostly still there, plus the new junk that has accumulated in the past nearly nine years.

There are costumes from when my sister and I were teenagers dancing ballet. Miles of net and chiffon skirts in an array of colors from when we were dust motes, sun rays, dragonflies, and god only knows what else are stuffed into a bag and a box. For ages, they lived at Mom’s, but somewhere along the line, I became the custodian.

There are binders with years of B&W negatives and more with color slides. There are boxes of loose photos, matted photos, and dozens of matted and framed photos. The darkroom bag, unused since the Tennessee times, is still packed with whatever was needed for whatever process we were working with the last time I took the alternative processes class at Austin Peay State University Community School for the Arts.

There is a big tub of completed jewelry and tie-dyed tops from when I was selling at a farmer’s market and craft fairs. I haven’t done any markets since I moved to Lowell, but does that mean I never will again? I don’t know. Do I want to do an Etsy shop? Probably not. Or maybe. I don’t know. There were several more random vintage clothing items found in the junk room which need to be added to the items gathered on Sunday.

After an hour, the only “progress” was familiarity with the contents of four big tubs, a new pile begun for a charity drop, and consolidation of some Halloween costume elements in a storage bag. I was really hoping to find the dance top and belt I’ve been searching for over the past several weeks in the Halloween stuff, but that didn't happen. I have run out of places to look for the items I held in my hands last fall. 

There was a single brown paper shopping bag filled with gift wrap remnants, some random small boxes, and some very sturdy tubes that I really had to convince myself to discard because they are really good tubes that were saved for potential use in some still unimagined art project. They are much sturdier than the flimsy tubes in the paper towel rolls. And I’m pretty sure I will suddenly urgently need them five minutes after the recycle truck rolls away next Monday, but for now, they are in the bin.

The wind was strong all day, and it was cloudy again. It's been so cloudy the past couple nights that it's been dark at 7:00, which stinks. The sunset was noted as 8:05 for today, but there was no long evening light to enjoy thanks to the cloud cover. It feels like life is playing lots of little pranks.