Sunday Stealing-Love Me Some Surveys

 

Hi! Our host is Bev Sykes of the blog "Funny the World". . Welcome to Sunday Stealing. This feature originated and published on WTIT: The Blog. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves! 

 

Stolen from LoveMeSomeSurveys

 

 

 

1. Ignoring nutrition, could you live off veggies for the rest of your life? I’m sure many might not believe it, but I went vegetarian for 2 years. I also had a health club membership and went 5-6 days a week. I didn’t have a rigorous routine. I did recumbent bike, treadmill, walked laps, and went swimming. It was part of my getting ready to date. I lost quite a bit of weight. Now I want to get on track and work up to going vegetarian, but vegetables and too expensive and I lost some benefits, so unless they return I am stuck with what I can afford. By the way, I refuse to buy the Beyond Meat products. I’ll eat TVP, Boca Burgers, Morning Star anything…fake riblets, fake chicken. 

2. Elaborate on a way you have volunteered? Geek 🚨. I volunteered for Children’s Memorial Telethon and Muscular Dystrophy Telethon when I lived in Milwaukee. I tabulated the pledges along with a couple of my staff, and some other accountants. We had to work quickly when they were getting ready to go to the tote board, so we could get caught up counting the stacks of pledges. I did the Children’s Memorial Telethon several years. Muscular Dystrophy Telethon just once. We had to take bundles of pledges and use an adding machine and attach the tape totals to each bundle. I’m super fast on the adding machine, so I tabulated a lot of pledges. 

3. Can you walk in heels, or do you feel awkward in them? Me? Heels? Are you kidding? I have 2 pairs of pumps that are basically flats. Did I even get the terminology right? I’m not a girly girl, but when I had to dress up for interviews that’s what I wore. Remember clogs in the ‘70’s? I did a face plant the first and last time I wore them in high school.

4. Any TV shows you sit down weekly to watch? There’s not much on now since just about every show is on hiatus for the summer. I watch SNL, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. I also watch The Connors just to see the train wreck it has become. There are a bunch of series I stream…Flight Attendant, Kim’s Convenience Store, Manifest, Grace & Frankie, and a lot more I can’t think of now.

5. Will you tell someone if there’s something in their teeth? If I notice it I try to discreetly point it out. 

6. Do you ever actually make your bed? Yes.

7. Do you make an effort to eat healthy? I try, but after 9pm I go off the rails. I crave carbs like crazy. I really should eat 3 meals a day with very small portions of carbs, but I’ve been eating 2 meals a day with very little carbs. I think that’s the problem. I’m going overboard at mealtime by severely limiting carbs, which makes me crave them later.

8. What kind of booze did you last take shots of? I really can’t recall because it’s been such a long time ago. I sometimes drink whiskey or bourbon neat, does that count? In my 20’s I’d drink kamikazies, Yukon Jack, schnapps (no longer a fan of ANY schnapps).

9. What’s something you want to purchase next time you’re at the mall? What is a mall? I’d rather shop online…no need for a parking space (my driveway is fine) no need to walk around (bad knees and back and PT 3 times a week for 2.5 hours is plenty), more selection and if I don’t find my size in the store I have to convince the cashier to call other stores and hold what I want, then drive over to the location that has my size. Online I can just try a different store, and on some shopping sites with brick and mortar stores I can check stock before I leave the house. The mall in J Town and OP are scary places.

10. What were you doing at 10:00 this morning? Getting in the car to go to my father-in-law’s to celebrate Father’s Day and my wife did laundry. I didn’t want to go and consequently I kept to myself. My Mom died 37 years ago 06/19. I really wanted to stay home, but my wife vetoed that.

11. What do you miss the most about your past? My parents. 

12. Last time you were really happy? This is a difficult question. I’m not in a good place because of the anniversary of my Mom’s death, and Father’s Day is Sunday. He’s also gone. It’s really hard to ever get to spend time just with my wife because of my adult special needs kids. My son lives with us, so unless we escape for fast food lunch, that’s about it because we don’t like to leave him home alone. It’s not really that I feel he would be unsafe, it’s just that if we go out he gets more depressed when we tell him it’s a date, not a family outing. When we do get to go out, just me and the Mrs, that’s happy time no matter where we go. 

13. Did you get a full 8 hours of sleep last night? Since the car accident in 2016 I never sleep that long. I’m lucky to get 5-6 hours sleep. I don’t nap in the daytime like my wife does. She’s got her sleep flipped to up all night and sleep all day. I keep trying to explain how to correct that (1 day you just stay up all night and the next day and the next day go to bed at a reasonable hour). She has yet to try it. It’s worked for me.

14. Have you spoken to your mother or father today? They are both in heaven.

15. Are you good at filling awkward silences? I guess that would depend on the reason for the awkward silence and the people involved. If it’s a homophobic hater, I have better uses of my time. At my most recent job, all but my new supervisor were haters, so I kept to myself unless I had business to discuss.

Lola’s Diner © 2008-2021

Sunday Stealing-League of Extraordinary Penpals

 

Hi! Your host is Bev Sykes of the blog "Funny the World". . Welcome to Sunday Stealing. This feature originated and published on WTIT: The Blog. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves!  

 

Stolen from The League of Extraordinary Penpals

 

 

 

 

 

1. Describe your phone Lock Screen. It is a photo of a field of tulips. I’ve been changing the screen with the seasons. 
 
2. How often do you journal? I don’t really journal. I blog.
 
3. What’s your favorite thing to teach others? Probably how to cook something, or how to draw something.
 
4. How do you like to spend Sundays? Sundays are supposed to be my day of not leaving the house. I get up and watch QVC’s In the Kitchen With David, then read or watch movies with my son. I run around all week with 3 days of PT for 2 1/2 hours each visit, then my doctor appointments or family member doctor appointments, then grocery shopping. Sunday is MY day to chill and I’m lucky if I get it one Sunday a month. This Sunday brunch at a restaurant with my father-in-law and brother-in-law. I’m not too keen on that because of the “at a restaurant” part. Everything is supposed to be full on open as of June 11th, so I expect everywhere to be a zoo. We were in Indiana Saturday and found the roads to be not bad and the restaurant we went to not super busy. But then Indiana has been full on open for several months so I’m sure everyone there is over rushing out to restaurants and places. We came home to 5 parties on our block and the street behind us. We could barely get through with all the cars on our tiny streets. 
 
5. What would you describe as your kryptonite? Carbs? I have been very bad lately. It’s not me jumping on the low carb Keto bandwagon. I’m a diabetic and I need to get back to limiting carbs. Not just sugar, bread, potatoes, rice, pizza with regular crust (the thought of cauliflower made into anything makes me 🤢.)
 
6. A TV show or movie you thought was really bad. This one is easy. All of the “Indiana Jones” movies, any and all reality tv shows, all prime time game shows.
 
7. Do you know your mail carrier? Nope. It always seems to be someone different.
 

8. Which regional foods are your favorite? Mexican, Indian, Chinese, Thai, Italian. I’ve recently gotten some free ebooks cookbooks for other regions and I’m looking forward to making some new dishes.

 
9. What was your life like 20 years ago? Right around that time I came out and was having the time of my life dating. I was also going through a a divorce for 4 years. I wanted full custody, that’s why it dragged on. I ended up with primary custody, but he had the majority of the weekends and I had to provide all transportation. It sucked for me, and it sucked worse for my kids. I ended up using legal means to prevent all contact and stop visitation for quite a few years. It was an absolutely valid reason that I don’t want to get into here.
 
10. Crafting hobbies that you’d like to learn or improve. It would be nice to learn how to use the Cricut machine I got a couple years ago. It’s still new in the box. I’m more intimidated by it than my Instant Pot which stayed in the box for a year, but now I’m comfortable using it. I’d also like to do the garden art I wanted to start doing. For both the Cricut and garden art I have all the supplies, I just need to have the time. I’m at PT so much it feels like a 2nd home.

11. What is your favorite type of YouTube videos? I really liked the talking cat videos, but sadly the guy that made them committed suicide. He was so funny, but he must have had a lot of inner demons. So sad. 

12. Describe your surroundings. Friday I spent the entire day in the master bedroom. A new antibiotic I was taking for a sinus infection made me quite sick.

13. You're making a Time Capsule to be opened in 50 years.  What 3 things would you put in it? Photographs (albums and boxes of loose photos). A box of my son’s poetry notebooks. Masks?

14. Something you learned recently that resonated with you. I can’t think of anything.

15. Songs that get stuck in your head often… Just about any song. If you can’t think of one, let me help…“The Song That Never Ends” or “It’s A Small World After All” You’re welcome! 😁

Lola’s Diner © 2008-2021

Seriously?

It’s after 4pm Friday and we have 1 address for the IN trip and no timetable. My wife’s cousin is having movers coming tomorrow and doesn’t know what time, so she doesn’t know when we could visit and is supposed to let my wife know tonight. So we did not book a hotel. If we go at all, it will be a day trip. Not far from where we live, it just would have been nice to swim, go to our favorite restaurant there, and go to Albanese. We could still do a day trip and just not get to swim. We’ll just do a hotel trip another time. We were all so looking forward to it. We do have a plan B. Hot dogs and s’mores by the fire pit. Weather should be cool.

UPDATE:  We did not get the address until almost 10am. We didn’t get the meet up time until we were about 20 minutes from our destination. We had a good time. I think my wife and I are very happy to have made the trip because her cousin really does not look well. She’s trying to get us to come to Las Vegas for our honeymoon that we have yet to have. She claims to have a hookup with a very fancy hotel and we’d only have to pay for airfare. Sign us up! My daughter has to be moved into her apartment and be allowed to have her brother stay over because we have no one else who would offer to let him stay with them and no way would we allow him to stay home alone for a few days. We’d come home to a lot of burning embers and we’d be homeless. Besides the finding somewhere for him to be, we’d also have to find the money for airfare.

Over a week ago my doctor prescribed an antibiotic for my sinus infection that I’ve never had before. I started last Saturday and was due to finish it tomorrow. I had to stop it this morning because I’ve been sick all day. The usual, plus nausea. Seriously? Canceled PT, had to have my wife pick up my daughter, and go to the grocery store. I’ve been sipping full sugar ginger ale since 9am (that’s what we have, and considering I ate nothing until 1:30pm, probably ok). I’ve had 1 slice of plain Killer Dave’s toast and am having plain brown rice now. I don’t think I want to see brown rice for a long time.😕

Kind of glad my wife is picking up my daughter. Nutjob is taking the lady razors from the bathroom and cutting up her arms and face and accusing my daughter of cutting her. Nutjob also said if she saw my car she was going to damage it (she tried once before and I had a standoff with her, her lunging at me and me lunging at her) so my wife said if Nutjob is outside in the driveway she’s calling the police. Why can’t my daughter move into the apartments already? This is crazy! I’ve watched enough crime shows to know there is a difference in self inflicted razor/knife wounds and being attacked by someone else, but still, all this drama is not needed. I’m hoping my daughter can come for a home visit for Father’s Day weekend so we can meal in honor of my Dad. It will be nice to get my daughter away from Nutjob that weekend too.

Lola’s Diner © 2008-2021

This and that

We may or may not be taking a road trip to IN Saturday. (It was originally to be today.) My wife’s cousin is moving to Las Vegas. She has a lot of health issues and felt that was where to go. She has Lupus which has flared up often over the last year. She also got COVID. Some time after she recovered she spent last week in the hospital because she had a seizure (first one ever), she went into cardiac arrest, was stabilized, then put into a medically induced coma. She was on a ventilator for most of her hospital stay. My wife says her voice is still very raspy and her throat painful from the ventilator.

I say may or may not go because first of all we don’t have the address where we need to pick her up (she can’t drive yet). Nor do we have her Mom’s address because we were going to take her to see her Mom. She’s leaving for Las Vegas Monday. They already have a house and her husband already has a job.

We were planning to make this a mini vacation, get 2 hotel rooms at a nice hotel with an indoor pool. I haven’t booked it yet because the best price on Priceline is non refundable. Of course with the switch from Thursday to Saturday the rates are higher. 

Update:  It’s past 9:45pm and still no contact from my wife’s cousin. I think this is incredibly rude. We have to get permission from the group home for visits, and we’ve had to contact them twice for this trip. I’m not leaving for IN Saturday morning not knowing this is firm plans and not having the 2 addresses we need. 

Lola’s Diner © 2008-2021

Dark Cloud Moving…

I don’t want to jinx it, but it appears the dark cloud has been moving.

The person at PT who got into it with me yesterday (I promise I used “my daughter’s Mom’s voice, that is a super polite, even tone, low volume voice) called and left me a message today apologizing profusely saying that the billing has an extra step she wasn’t aware of and will be insuring things are fixed for the past visits and bills going forward will be done properly, and I won’t need to cancel any more visits. Hopefully this does the trick because I’ve called my insurance 4 times this month, and this has really been stressful. 

I also got a voicemail from my son’s new specialist. This doctor has to approve of all new patients himself. Very strange, but then this type of specialist in the entire history of my having to deal with, have always been strange. Not a normal one ever, since 1996. Unfortunately I had already rescheduled with his old doctor, but this way there is no rush to get in with the new doctor. 

Lola’s Diner © 2008-2021

Random thoughts

Why does everything have to be a 💩fest? I got confronted today at PT. They are still insisting they are right. Seriously? I had to cancel PT for Friday. I will have my wife call to cancel Tuesdays appointments. This won’t be settled by then, especially with the holiday. I could probably continue shoulder and back PT if my attorney notifies them the injuries are related to a lawsuit (which they are) and he faxes the appropriate paperwork, but that does nothing about my knee, which is still not right.

I picked up my daughter for a home visit today. It’s going to be a horribly long weekend. I just don’t know what to do anymore. The yelling, arguing, and disrespect are too much. It’s not just her, it’s the rest of the family. My new tactic is to speak more calmly and more quietly the louder they get. If I match their volume, it turns on me ‘oh, it’s ok if you yell.’ There just doesn’t seem to be a way to resolve this. This is going to kill me. 

I bought my wife a 2000 Chevy Blazer. It was to go into the shop this morning, but it’s been delayed until Tuesday. It’s got new tires and a recent brake job. I got it way under market value (I’m an excellent negotiator, too bad it doesn’t work for my other problems), so the repairs won’t be exceeding it like with the Pilot. I’m hoping it won’t rain over the long weekend so we can wash all 3 vehicles, empty the Pilot, snap photos and put it up for sale.

My brother-in-law picked up his GMC Sunday. Now I have only vehicles I own in my driveway, minus my Craftsman rider which my neighbor towed next door to work on for me. My brother-in-law had been asking me for car buying tips. His GMC already has a buyer, when he gets a different vehicle it’s sold. He wants something “newish”, kind of like what I did. He’s coming over Sunday to do yard work, so I’m sure we’ll cars more then.

The dark cloud that’s hanging over me needs to dissolve, or move on. I’m not sure I can handle anymore stress.

Lola’s Diner © 2008-2021

This and That

I spent a 1/2 hour on the phone with my insurance and then got disconnected. A few minutes later my insurance case manager called. I went over the issues I’m having with my PT provider on both calls. Oh, just tell them to call us, they say. The whole point is the provider is trying to do something shifty. I keep getting billed for the amounts over the insurance contracted rates, and now they are insisting I have to pay a copay with every visit. I don’t. Medicaid pays my copay. They must scam a lot of people this way. I wasn’t born yesterday and I’m not paying. Both calls with my insurance today told me that the provider is in network and therefore I am zero pay, I pay nothing for covered services, which this is. I am so tired of the monthly calls and now this month I’ve called twice and will need to call a third time because my insurance needs to call their billing department…again. Anastasia works for them, she says they do this all the time. She expects to lose her job next week, and 2 people are suddenly gone from the location I go to. Monday they had only 2 therapists and 8 or 9 clients besides myself. That’s not what the ratio of therapist to client is supposed to be. They no longer have a receptionist. Both Anastasia and I think they are going bankrupt. 

No word on my daughter’s apartment. My wife and I drove by on the way home from dropping off her Mom’s friend’s Caddy. So happy to get that thing off my property. She is wealthy, but won’t spend the money to properly fix it. All 4 windows are taped shut because they won’t stay up, and many other repairs haven’t been done or are 1/2 way done. My property has been looking like a parking lot. I’ve got the Buick, Pilot, my brother-in-law’s GMC SUV, and now the Caddy is gone. My wife refuses to drive her brother’s GMC because she got stranded for 15 minutes when it wouldn’t start. There is an electrical issue, hence the reason he did not gift it to her. (He’s buying a car when he returns.) I drove it once and had no issues, other than it was incredibly difficult to get into because of my leg and back. We have to keep it until he returns from his bus driving gig in Indy, sometime in June.

                                    Lola’s Diner © 2008-2021