random thoughts – Day 1,824 – (Saturday) – grocery delivery

It’s the edge of the anniversary of the remote times of the pandemic, and today I resurrected one of the conveniences enjoyed during that dark time – home delivery of groceries.

The now defunct Amazon Prime Pantry with free delivery on orders of $35 kept me stocked with canned goods and snacks. Whole Foods kept me in produce, dairy, and ice cream. One day I noticed all the items in my “Save for later” Pantry list were discounted, but I didn’t pounce on them because I didn’t need them yet. Big mistake. A few days later, an email arrived announcing that Amazon Pantry was closed. Dang. That’s around the same time the Whole Foods deliveries changed from free for Prime members to having a delivery charge. By then, I was heading back to shop Market Basket in person and stopped the deliveries.

Last week, I went to Market Basket with Mom and Sis, and enjoyed lots of fresh vegetables all week, most of which have been consumed. I could feel the healthy benefits surging through my body with each bite of cauliflower and broccoli.

What was I thinking?

It’s still two weeks before I am medically cleared to drive again, but I wanted more veggies. And also ice cream. The online order and delivery at Hannaford was checked and I learned I had a $10 delivery coupon in my loyalty program account. The order was built, and I was surprised that many prices were a lot lower than I remembered/expected them to be. Then the cart was abandoned because sometimes my attention span is shorter than it should be and I get distracted (squirrel!).

This afternoon, I checked the Hannaford app and my order of 16 items was still queued up and there was a delivery window between 5:00 and 7:00 tonight. Yes, please. The button was pushed. 

At 6:05, five bags of groceries landed at my door. The list was successfully completed with no substitutions needed and I am freshly stocked with fresh spinach, broccoli, Roma tomatoes, and grapes, plus granola bars (forgotten last week), balsamic vinegar, salsa, queso, ice cream, crackers plus a free bar of Colby Jack cheese from a coupon, a few other items, and a question. The question is "Why did I order a two-pound bag of lemons?" Yes, they were on sale, but what will I do with a whole bag? And hasn't life been delivering a few too many lemons recently? There must have been an apron-wearing kitchen fantasy involving lemon squares when I added those.

Provisions!

I immediately dove into the green, large, chilled grapes which definitely won’t last long. The Hannaford “Overloaded Caramel Cup” ice cream was disappointing. “Overloaded” is a huge overstatement. It’s mostly just plain white ice cream and three or four chocolate-covered caramel cups paused long enough to be packaged. A barely perceptible thread of caramel about the width of dental floss ran through some of it.

I don’t mind doing my own grocery shopping. It sure beats some of the other adult domestic chores, such as cleaning the toilet. Once in a blue moon, scrolling through a product list and creating an order for delivery, then eagerly awaiting the delivery isn’t too bad, but I like checking out the discount bakery racks at the Basket, and that is something that can only be done in person. In a couple weeks, when I can drive again, the first road trip might be tour of the local MB discount bakery racks.

random thoughts – Day 1,823 – (Friday) – bread and veggies

It was a week of workdays that felt long, but the week’s project/task list was 99% completed by the end of the workday today, which felt good. The carryover items were pieces currently in outside production and more of a reminder for myself to make sure they arrive.

Grilled veggie sub.

Maybe it’s the closeness to spring, but today, I was hungry like a bear that hadn’t eaten in months. The day began with toast. Lunch was half of Thursday’s night remaining veggies and chicken in a spicy butter chicken curry sauce. It was delicious and seemed filling, but a couple hours later, I was hungry again and for a mid-afternoon snack, ate the rest of it. Then, a mere1.5 hours later, I was hungry again and thinking about dinner. 

After several days of meals heavy on broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, onion, and carrots, it was time for a change of ingredients and free of personal labor. The preferred pizza purveyor was contacted and within 40 minutes, there was a grilled veggie and cheese sub delivered. Yes, it was some of the same veggies eaten all week, but the grilling, tomato, lettuce, mayo, and the loaf of bread it was jammed into, plus the fact I didn’t have to cook it, made it feel special.

The plan was to eat half the sub and save the rest for Saturday lunch. It didn’t work out like that.

After eating half the sub, I still felt hungry like a bear coming out of hibernation. The remainder was unwrapped and in no time at all, was gone. It always amazes me that I would never just sit and chow down on a full loaf of bread, but stuff it with some veggies and cheese, and I can make a foot-long bread loaf disappear in minutes. So weird.

random thoughts – Day 1,822 – (Thursday) – moon, planets, plan

Fuzzy full moon.

There is a blood moon eclipse tonight, but I doubt I’ll be pulling an all-nighter to see it. I tried the sky watching thing when everyone else was getting photos of the aurora borealis, and all I got was chilly sitting alone in a golf course parking lot late at night. I got a stiff neck looking for the various meteor showers and the historic planetary alignment. I’m kind of over the overnight celestial stuff for a while.

The previous failures are one thing, and the other thing is I seem to head to bed earlier every night. Lately, by 8:00 I’m tired, chilly, and mentally preparing to go upstairs with the really good book I’ve been reading (The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon).

Tonight at 7:40, the sky was clear and the moon was barely visible over the neighboring houses and trees. As usual, the best photo I could get was through a dual pane window in the back upstairs bedroom, with reflections in the glass. The moon looked like a cotton ball hanging in the sky, like some kid’s grammar school shoebox diorama, circa 1970s.

Sportsball planet streetscape.

Meanwhile, out on the street at the front of the house, there was a lineup of various sports balls, looking like another school science project involving planets. Or athletics. Or litter. Who knows. Four basketballs, one orange, two brown, one black, with a small soccer ball in the center and a water bottle at the far end, line the edge of the end of the street. The basketball hoop has laid on its side all winter, toppled over months ago by the wind. 

A Chewy box, liberated from someone’s recycling bin during the recent very windy times, has rested against the across the street neighbor's fence for about a week. I noticed it while staring out the window one day, and several times I thought I’d go get the box and put it into my bin, but then I don’t go outside. Then it’s dark, and the last thing I want to be doing is creeping around someone else’s property. Maybe tomorrow.

In health news, my wrist feels weird at the incision scar. Not pain, not itching, just weird and sensitive in the spot where I think the new hardware is, and I start freaking myself out thinking it’s going to burst through my skin. The steri-strips are beginning to peel off and the vitamin E oil delivers tomorrow, so I’ll likely be obsessing over the incision area all weekend. It’s nice to have plans.

random thoughts – Day 1,821 – (Wednesday) – progress

Wake up, drink coffee, Wordle, Words with Friends, Duolingo, read, review dances. Work, lunch, work. Supper, Netflix, Duolingo, read, Words with Friends, bed. Also, avoid the news. Currently, this is life. Today, the routine was embellished a bit.

After weeks of thinking about the four-inch square art piece for the 4x4 auction fundraiser, the percolation period was completed, and the work was finally started. There had been daily trips walking past the paints on the dining room table and countless hours spent contemplating the treatment of the edges of the canvas block. Pieces I’ve done before had either solid black edges or several colors pulled from the photo and applied with a sponge in a layered abstract fashion. Options for this year included one of the past methods or extending the photo colors to the sides of the canvas to continue the idea of the water and sky.

Initial steps.

This morning, I woke up and just like that (*snaps fingers on fully functional right hand for emphasis*), I knew what I wanted to do. And the broken wrist is mobile enough that I could actually begin the process. Tonight, blue paint was applied to the bottom edges to continue the water and orange went at the top for the sunrise. Then, a light gold layer was added over the colors. 

I had extra canvas blocks bought last year and painted another one for myself. There was also a flat canvas that I tested the paint on. Later, the flat canvas will be stenciled with some design and then it will live in the drawer with all the other stuff I make and have no idea what to do with.

The hard part tonight was toning down the bright turquoise and vivid orange paints. Thank goodness for the Internet, my go-to home-schooling program. Over the years, the Internet helped me learn how to start gas lawnmower, knit chain maille, learn specific belly dance moves, assemble my futon, transplant a Christmas cactus, and countless other things, domestic, artistic, and medical. Tonight’s education was toning down paint colors and a refresher on attaching the photo and the sealing coats that will follow.

Works in process.

The canvases still have a few more steps. The one for the auction has the photo attached, one coat of gloss sealer, and will get several more coats over the next few days. The canvas I’m keeping still needs a photo print, because for some crazy reason, even though I almost always order two prints of everything, I ordered only one of the sunrise in Playa del Carmen. Duh. I wonder what I was thinking that day.

random thoughts – Day 1,820 – (Tuesday) - mixed bag

The time change of the weekend provides for more daylight after work, but the mornings are dark and rough all over again, at least for a while. Ugh. The alarm goes off and I want to toss the phone across the room.

Today's success story.

Part of the usual morning routine includes playing Wordle while waking up with a cup (or two or ten) of coffee. This morning, I got the answer in two guesses for the second day in a row. I have no idea how this happened. There must be something magical happening on this date, because on March 11, 2022, I also got the answer in two guesses. Facebook memories are fun for delightful little tidbits like that. 

Other Facebook post memories are less delightful. Memories from this date five years ago were of two events I was planning to attend being cancelled due to the advancement of COVID-19. And we all got to see how that played out. That's when I learned that the years of antisocial, hermit tendencies were the perfect training for a pandemic lockdown, so it wasn't completely bad.

Scrap piece art cards.

In 2012, the post was about happy fun times at an art party. The hosts had art and craft stations set up around the house and adults and kids had a chance to get creative. At the greeting card table, I chose to use the scraps left from other people’s cards for mine. 

After the art party, I joked that making cards could be my retirement plan, but that might actually have to become the reality. I’ve got lots of art supplies. And wine. Maybe I need to have people over for an art party. We could certainly use the diversion.

Back in 2011, the day's post was “earthquake. tsunami. upcoming “super moon” predicted to affect the world. yikes.” I had to look that up today, because I don’t  remember that event. It was an undersea megathrust earthquake in the Pacific Ocean that caused a tsunami and killed nearly 20,000 people. Holy hell. 

In America today, it's feeling like a tsunami of financial destruction. Millions of us are being screwed over by the stock market reactions to the events taking place at The White House, the chain-saw approach to government job slashing, and all the other stuff I'm trying really hard to not dwell on.

random thoughts – Day 1,819 – (Monday) – cinnamon toast and longing

Yes, there was a grocery store trip yesterday with a list in hand. And this morning, as I began brewing the coffee, I realized the item that was overlooked. It was the very first item on the list, crunchy oat and honey granola bars, which I eat nearly every morning for breakfast. Un-frigging-believable. Ok, not really. It’s totally-frigging-believable.

Cinnamon toast
and coffee.

The absence of granola bars in the cabinet, a situation in effect since the middle of last week, forced a shift in the menu. Bread was bought during the trip, so the backup was cinnamon toast. As a kid, cinnamon toast was my favorite breakfast, except for maybe Cocoa Crispies, which were a rarity in our cereal cabinet, probably because I would eat them all immediately.

I don’t even know if cinnamon toast was a childhood special treat because we kids had been behaving or if it was the backup because we ran out of cereal or milk or the dreaded and disgusting powered milk that was hauled out when the budget was extra lean. Whatever the reason, it was rare and felt special. 

As a fully grown adult usually in possession of all the ingredients for cinnamon toast, it is still a rare breakfast. Sadly, grown-up cinnamon toast isn’t quite as special as when I was a kid, and oddly, the dry, hard, crunchy granola bars are the current top breakfast choice. 

Souped-up soup.

Today was another of those days where food was the glue holding me together. Lunch was the veggie soup from the other day, souped-up with broccoli, mushrooms, and the last splash of the half-and-half from the opened container. Mint Milano cookies were interspersed throughout the day, with a side of “I can skip supper” to ease the cookie calorie guilt. 

Then, just as work was ending, I saw a headline about the stock market tanking. Here I am, mere months from joblessness, watching the value of my 401k evaporate like the steam rising from my lunchtime soup. 

There are not enough Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrots to express my angst. So, there was some suppertime anger eating. At least it was on the healthy-ish side, with roasted chicken, plus leftover fries from Sunday’s burger, and mayo mixed with Cajun hot sauce. And the rest of the bag of cookies because stress overeating is the go-to lately. Damn, I long for the olden days of my 30s and 40s when stress made me exercise like a maniac and forget to eat. Also the days when I was a kid and didn't read the news. Seriously. WTF.

random thoughts – Day 1,818 – (Sunday) – visit and tasks

Today had a plan, and it was executed flawlessly. This has more to do with my sister than with me, because we know how I love to make plans for myself and then abandon them by the wayside.

Brightness on stems.

Earlier in the week, Sis offered to visit and take me grocery shopping. Sunday was chosen as the day, and when it rolled around, there was a text that Sis was on the way to me, with Mom. I had an hour to try and clean the house to be Mom-ready and I failed. The kitchen sink was emptied and cleaned, along with the bathroom sink and mirror. A small-ish stack of paperback books was set into a box to be donated, and when I tried to move the box, a pain shot up my forearm. Ouch. 

I was using both hands and I don’t think the box weighed more than the maximum ten-pound lifting limit, but dang, that was a stern reminder to be careful. The quick tidy-up was abandoned. The table remained full of boxes, art supplies, and books. Mom and Sis rolled up with a beautiful bunch of colorful flowers and cookies. 

The grocery list had already been drafted and the reusable shopping bags gathered. It wasn’t a very long list and was mostly perishables – fresh vegetables, bread, half-and-half, feta cheese, and olives. We went to the big Market Basket on the Tyngsboro line which Mom said is like the one near her in Athol, then returned to the house to put things away before going out for lunch.

There was a brief conversation and internet search for potential lunch spots. Unfortunately, one of the spots I thought we would all like isn’t open on Sundays. We ended up choosing the dining room at Primo’s, my usual pizza delivery place. Our choices were cheese steak sub (Mom), and rodeo burgers with fries (Sis and me). It was a disappointment when my burger ordered medium rare was delivered well done, exactly the way I hate it. Even when I was a regular meat eater, dry meat was on the top of the list of stuff I don't like.

It’s not the kind of dining room where a worker takes the order, brings the food, and returns to check on things. The place has no visible menu beyond a specials board displaying Monday and Tuesday specials, and everyone who came in snatched a brochure from the rack labeled “take out menu.” The order is placed at the counter where the payment system wants a tip amount, a plastic number tent goes to the table, and after a while, the food is dropped off. I could probably have gone to the counter to complain about the overdone burger but I didn’t feel like waiting for another one. I choked down half of the dry overdone meat and sent the rest home to Sis’s dog.

Back at home, Sis carried in the 18-pound bag of cat litter that has sat in the front porch for at least two weeks. The trash was prepped and set in the barrel which was rolled to the curb for Monday’s pickup. We considered trying to remount the curtain rod fixture, but the more we looked at the situation, the more it started to feel like a more complicated endeavor better left for another day. We had conquered enough chores already.