Friday, the 13th

 Google is amazing. Well, most of the time. I ask Dr. Google often what's going on with me when I have a certain body part causing me grief and most of the time, it's because I'm an elderly obese female.  He's stupid.  I did ask this morning how many days I've been alive and he said 28,175.  If I figured right, that means I have to hang on for five more years to hit 30,000. I'd be 82 and I kinda thought I might die in my 80s. Yeah, I know, that's morbid but data like this fascinates me.

My phone rang twice in the last hour. Both "scam likely" calls. Sometimes I answer and hang up fast if I don't want to listen to the ringing.  Yesterday's call (when I answered but didn't say hello) I heard "Miss Joyce, are you there?"  Damn those robocallers.

Mother Nature can't seem to figure out what she wants to do this morning. The sky is blue and the sun is shining but it was gray and somber a couple hours ago.  I've got my quilt piece hanging in the window to deflect the glare from the wall across the courtyard.  Had a few errands today so I decided to do them while the weather wasn't nasty.  Went to the pot store to price something a relative down south wants me to send for a Christmas gift. Expensive. $50.

Ran up to the post office and parked in the back so I didn't have to climb all the steps in the wind. It was still not an easy errand. The three steps didn't have a hand rail and it was mighty cold and windy even behind the post office.  Luckily, I had taken my walking stick to lean on and I didn't have to wait much more than three or four minutes.  I had four Christmas gifts to mail and it cost me $29. Whew!  I knew it wouldn't be cheap so I wasn't surprised and I'm glad I've gotten it done and over with. No Christmas cards going out this year, though. And I really like doing cards.  Just too expensive for my budget.

I threw on the steam yesterday and the day before and managed to get all my gifts wrapped. No ribbons, though. Too hard to transport and keep them pretty when you have to throw everything in bags and bins and put in the car.  My Christmas chores have really changed over the years. I imagine a lot of people have different routines too. I won't be doing all the cookie and bread baking I used to do. My kitchen is too small and my oven is defective so I never know what temperature for sure my treasures are being cooked at. 

A neighbor gave me two qts of cranberries so I am going to try and bake some quick breads.  I have a neat recipe for muffins too but it calls for oat bran (the kind of cereal you cook) and I went to both Safeway and QFC looking for it. None to be had.  I'll find another recipe, though as I really like breads with cranberries.  Since I bought all the ingredients already, I'll also whip up a pan of fudge. I can get a lot of little gifts out of one pan.

I sure had a lot of difficulty walking while I was out on errands today. I kind of suspected it was going to be a day like that as I limped real bad trying to get from my bed to the bathroom at 3 a.m.  Wasn't a particular hip pain like I'm used to but general weakness in the legs and hips.  Damn nuisance.  I often have to get to a shopping cart as quickly as possible when I'm going to the supermarket. That walk from car to the carts can be a hard one. I used my walking stick at QFC because the Safeway stop was just too plain miserable on my body.  The stick didn't really help that much and I found myself taking baby steps to get back to the car.  Tomorrow could be completely different. I don't get it.

My calendar is completely blank until Thanksgiving so at least I can stay in and off my feet if need be. I am thankful I have my walker when I'm having these episodes. What a lifesaver.

Had Good Morning America on for a while this morning and they were talking about the halftime show for the SuperBowl and how great it's gonna be.  Course they always say that and it's always an overblown show that doesn't interest me one iota!  JLo shaking her boobs and butt is not my idea of something you want to wait all year to see. And the guy who's performing this year is someone I've never heard of EVER!  Course the SuperBowl entertainment hasn't been geared for my age group in years.

My neighbor, Trish, told me I'm getting a new neighbor this week. She'll be right next to my bathroom and bedroom wall.  Heard that she may have been homeless.  So sad. That's getting to be more and more common in this day and age.

And how sad that besides the virus cases spiking, we now have to worry that the outgoing president might do something rash out of revenge that he lost.  Somebody needs to put that idiot in jail!

And that's about all I have for today. Gonna look over the material I was given last week and see what I can make.