Visitors

My son and his family came to visit me on Saturday to celebrate my birthday a week late. They brought presents and cake and took me to lunch. It was great getting time to visit with them all, especially my grandson. 

Jack seems as if he's come into his own now and seems to have found himself again. He is studying to become a paramedic. He says that it isn't what he wants to do as a lifelong career, it is just something that he is doing to make himself employable. But he talks about his classes and clinicals enthusiastically. and there is a lightness to him that has been missing for a long time. Likewise, Tim seems to be doing well. Married life becomes him. He is healthier than I have seen him in many years. He appears to be younger and less burdened than he has been. His laughter was genuine and not cut with the same cynicism that used to be there. It was good to seen them both thriving. Sadly, I do not know Emily and Nathan well enough to observe any differences, but I hope that Emily's mother is seeing the same difference in them. 

 We ended up eating at IHOP because there was something going on at the university and all the restaurants downtown were very crowded. Actually, IHOP was crowded in it's own right. But we were able to get a table without a wait and the food was very good. I decided to get chicken and waffles. When I remarked that the waffles were so much better than the ones I make, Jack told me that he thought my waffles were very good, He has just earned himself waffles on request. Still, the waffles at IHOP are very good. 

After lunch we came back to my apartment for gifts and cake. They bought me two really nice books full of knitting patterns that are well beyond my ability level. I am going to attempt a few of the simpler  patterns anyway. I am fairly sure that even the most basic ones from either book will be a challenge. I am flattered that they thought that my work is on an equal level to the patterns in the books. 

We had two small cakes; a carrot cake and a red velvet cake. Both were Emily's family's recipes. They are a family of bakers and carrot cake is their go to cake for every occasion. I was glad that they left the remainders with me. I finished them off for lunch today. I do love cake. 

I did not take any pictures of the celebration. Emily's family spend every occasion snapping pictures and it annoys Emily. She says that nobody sits in the moment and just enjoys it. So I feel constrained not to pull out my phone and snap away while we are together. But she is right. It is better to live the moment than to try to create a photo essay of what it should have been. I might snap a photo or two on holidays though, just to have a few for memories sake.

We discussed my upcoming move and I think I have convinced them that it might be worth it to make the trip up to see me every once in a while. I have decided to move to the small north Alabama town I had planned to move to before I came here. I have found an apartment there I think I can be happy with. It is in the historic district of the town and close to everything. The library is across the street. There are shops and restaurants and churches within a few blocks. The town square and the park where festivals are held is around the block. And I have family in the area. Tomorrow I will call my current leasing company to find out if they are open to me terminating my lease now, or if I will have to wait until February to move. I'll see how it goes.

Reality Setting In

 On Monday this sign showed up on the property. A sign like that is never good news. I took a picture of it and went inside to call the number. 

A meeting was held on Thursday, after only four days of notice to the tenants of the property. A developer, who has no connection to the property asked the city planning commission for permission to tear down the apartments in order to build more student housing. There is almost no rental housing in this city that is not designated as student housing. But without allowing input by any of the tenants who attended the meeting, they decided on a 7-2 basis to give the permission. Mind you, the developer does not at this time own the property. Apparently the owners and the management partners of the property were as blindsided as the tenants were. 

But here is the down low. The apartments are very old and not in the best condition. The rents are the lowest in the city that isn't low-income subsidized housing. The land under the apartments is likely worth more than the complex itself.  Our eviction is pending. 

By law they have to give us 60 days notice and pay our moving expenses. But we still have to find affordable housing in a city where that doesn't exist. 

A tenants union has organized. I have my doubts that it will be effective against the mindset that poverty is a criminal offense. Those planning commissioners are up for re-election on Tuesday. We will see how that goes. I do not hold out hope.

The reality is that I will most likely need to move sooner rather than later. My lease is until the end of January. That means that they either have to extend my lease at the end of November, or let me know that they won't be extending it. Even if they extend my lease, with a letter they can cancel it at any time as long as I am give 60 days to vacate. I have not been looking for housing in this town. There are a few towns on the other side of the state line that are reasonably priced. It is about 40 miles from here. I have the income and credit score that renting elsewhere shouldn't be a problem. Or I could go north to the town where I was originally attempting to relocate when I came here. There are several apartment that are well within my reach. But they are farther away from my children. 

Having so much recent experience with moving I feel confident that I can pack everything in my apartment and be out in two weeks. I don't think moving, other than having to pay the expense of it upfront to be re-imbursed should be that much of a problem. But I just don't want to do it

My plan is to stay here until I am told that I must move. Then I will move to be out on the day they tell me is the last day I can be here. 

Damn! I am tired of having to start over because of other peoples stupidity.

Dumbty Trumpty

Another morning I wake up and pray "Please God, just let him have died during the night." Another morning I turn on the television news only to find out that Dumbty Trumpty is still on the wall....

Well Damn!

Long Sleep and Laundry

I turned the air conditioner down. I needed it a little cooler so that I could sleep. And I did sleep. I slept for sixteen hours.  When I woke up it was in the very early hours of the morning and I was starving. 

I should have made eggs. I have a very lot of them. But I really wanted spaghetti and I had some hamburger meat thawed out. So I made it and ate a good bit of it. While I was eating I marveled at how indulgent I have become. If my children had ever asked for spaghetti for breakfast, they would have been given a lecture on how busy mornings are and handed a glass of carnation instant breakfast and a piece of peanut butter toast. 

When the sun came up I went outside to see the morning and found out that even though the temperatures were still warm, there was a nice breeze. It felt pretty decent. I almost decided to take a walk, but there was a growing mountain of laundry that was crying to be washed. I decided to be responsible and wash the clothes. There were five loads and that didn't include the bedding that I will do on Monday. The laundry room is less busy on Mondays. 

On one of my trips to the laundry room, I met Shequan and offered her one of the cartons of eggs. I was so happy that she  took it. She seemed happy to get it. That is 18 eggs that I'm not going to have to worry about eating or going bad. 

After all the clothes were washed folded and put away I was exhausted. The heat had gotten to me again. I took a cool shower and decided to take a nap. I was shocked when I slept for another six and a half hours. I just don't do well with heat, even with air conditioning. 

When I got up I discovered a couple of packages at my door. They had been there all afternoon. One of them was a birthday present. My middle child sent me an Echo Show. It took me a minute to get it set up but only because I forgot my Alexa password. It turned out that I didn't really need it. I only needed to put in the code that was sent to my email. 

The other package held some charging cords and a new planter for my ginger plants. I replanted them this evening. I'm hoping that I haven't killed them by moving them, but if I did, I will just get another ginger root and try again. I am going to have to get a mat to go under the plant for when I water it. 

The temperature heated up after the coolness of the morning and hasn't let up since. Even in the middle of the night the temperature in in the mid 80's and the humidity is high. I keep hearing that next week the jet stream will move and a polar vortex will reach the deep south. They are saying that it will be the beginning of fall. I am so ready for it. 

Show of Vanity

I have my groceries delivered these days. It seems like such a novel service now, and almost indulgent. Until the last few years the service hasn't been available widely. 

When I was a child, my grandmother would have her groceries delivered as a way to show off her affluence. The neighbors would see that Mrs. Foreman has her groceries delivered and wish they were as well off as she was. She would only have items delivered that she could be sure of the quality, like canned goods, bags of flour and rice and Wonder Bread. But then she'd tie a silk scarf over her curlers and put on her sunglasses to go into the next town over to get meat and produce where she could choose the quality of it for herself. She claimed she preferred the butcher or the green grocer there. We all knew that it was all vanity with her.

For me, it's not a matter of wanting to appear to be rich. Without a car, I have no other means of getting my groceries, especially in the kind of hot weather we have had this summer. When the weather turns cooler, I can walk into town and shop at the grocery stores there. And I am sure I will enjoy doing that. But I am awfully glad that I live in an area where I can have my groceries delivered. 

The grocery store made a mistake when it fulfilled my order. I usually order two, eighteen count cartons of eggs. They sell them in bundles, but I don't order the bundles as the bottom carton usually has broken eggs in it. Instead I chose the single cartons and order two. The store delivered two of the bundles. I already had a partial carton of them, so now I have seven dozen eggs. I like eggs. I use a lot of them, They are a cheap source of protein, and very versatile... but seven dozen eggs is an awful lot for one person. When Jerome and Shequan get home from work today, I will see if they might like some free eggs. Otherwise, I will be eating a lot of egg salad in the coming week. 

I also had my birthday cake delivered with the groceries. It is waiting in the refrigerator with the abundance of eggs. I will enjoy it on Saturday after I get home from whatever outing I decide to treat myself with. The birthday cake and day out is my show of vanity.

Latch Key Kids

It's still hot. There is not relief in sight. The latch key kids made their own relief:

They got off the bus and headed straight for the pool. They dropped their backpacks and kicked off their shoes before jumping, fully dressed into the pool. 

That was over an hour ago. They are still there. Nobody has bothered them. Who can blame them?

Haphazard Gardening

I ordered a few rosemary plants when I first moved in. It was the dead of winter and nobody had them. When I was finally able to get a couple of plants, they died right away. It was disappointing to say the least. In early June I noticed that there were some really healthy plants in the kitchen garden at the coffee shop. I snapped off a couple of sprigs one morning while I was there. Probably not the right thing to do, but it didn't hurt the plants and nobody seemed to care. Rosemary takes a long time to root, several weeks. And when it does you have to wait until there are secondary roots before you plant them. I was finally able to plant them a few days ago. I'm hoping they will thrive. You can root rosemary, it's just not easy. 

I bought some avocados back in February. I have always been told the ones you get from the grocery store won't root, but I proved that theory wrong. I tried with four pits and all of them have produced a tree that is thriving. That really surprised me. I'm just not sure what I'm going to do with four avocado trees in a two bedroom apartment. 

I bought a bunch of green onions from the grocery store, but the ones that came in my delivery were already starting to wilt. I put them in a jar of water and they perked up. They perked up so much that they rooted within a couple of days. I've been eating from those onions since April. 

I had so much luck with the onions that when I had some leftover basil from a clamshell that I bought for a recipe, I decided to see what would happen if I put it in a jar. That was just a few weeks ago. I have even used some of what I've been growing for a salad when I friend came to visit. And it's thriving. I'm sure that I will eat a few more meals from it.

I had some ginger root that had started to put out eyes. Since I'd already had some success with the onions and basil, I wondered what would happen if I put it in a pot. To my surprise it has started to grow. Since I planted it without knowing much about it, I have asked Alexa about it. Turns out that ginger is pretty easy to grow, but I'm not doing it right. I'm going to have to replant it in a different shape pot. If I give it a few months I might not  have to buy ginger anymore. 

I have an ivy plant that I snapped off of a tree outside of the fence around a neighboring frat house. It's doing well, but I won't be eating it. And I have some mint that I've grown from seeds that I use in tea. And I have the caladium and a philodendron.  

My apartment garden is taking off. I have a tendency to collect plants. 

Hell is Burning

Another post complaining about the heat. But there is not much else going on. My air conditioner got turned up another notch to try to conserve my income while keeping my apartment livable. I am really appreciating my decision to purchase and hang thermal blackout curtains for the windows. It only takes pushing them open a hair to immediately feel the difference that they make.

The forecast had originally had a cool off starting on Friday. That has now dissipated, and we are expecting temperatures near 100 degrees with high humidity through the end of the month. I wish I could promise that I won't be bitching about the heat until then. 

I have decided that I will spring for an Uber on my birthday and  take myself somewhere that I can get out of my apartment for a few hours. I thought about going to a movie, but I can't find one that I really want to see. The only event that I'm really interested in is the Storytellers Festival in Tuskegee. But it is an outdoor event.   Maybe I will take the shuttle into Atlanta and go to the Aquarium and the Coca Cola museum. That will be a really expensive date though. Maybe I should just find a place where I can paint some pottery or something. 
 

Themes for Today: Food and Sadness...

So I went to the arts center this afternoon to see Spitfire Grill. For amateur theater, it was very good. But I was told by someone in the audience that this performance was by the amateur amateur theater. The university has another group that are the true amateur theater for the city. I really don't understand that. It was a great performance.

Afterward I came home and was feeling sorry for myself. Mostly it was because I had no one to go to the theater with me and I ended up talking to the arrogant nincompoop who decided the performance was second rate. But also because I would have liked to go downtown and enjoyed a hamburger with someone. But it was too hot to walk downtown and I had no one to join me. So I went home and made myself a cheeseburger and tater-tots and was watching Survivor when I got this text from Mollie: 

It made me cry. But I didn't want to tell her that I was feeling sorry for myself, so I just told her I was eating a cheeseburger and tater-tots while watching Survivor. She had no answer for that. 

Apparently watching people starve on television makes me hungry. The women in the group kept talking about chocolate...And of course, a lot of the focus of the show is food, or the lack thereof. So I kept thinking about the box of brownies that I have in the cupboard. I really don't need to bake them because in a few days I'm going to order myself a birthday cake, and that made me sad because I really don't have anyone here to share a pan of brownies or a birthday cake with. And being sad and hearing people talk about the chocolate they want to be eating kept me thinking about the brownies... until I made them...

I put some chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and pecans in them. They are really good. And I'm still watching Survivor...

Heatwave

It's as hot as Hell! I'm sure that everyone is sick and tired of listening to everyone else complain about the heat. It is after all the middle of August and supposed to be hot. But we are all complaining anyway because it is as hot as Hell! We have been under a heat advisory for the better part of a week, and it keeps getting extended. For now, we will be under it until Monday night. But I have no real hope that it will end then. In fact, looking at the forecast, it appears that it is only beginning then and will get worse for the better part of next week when it will be hotter than Hell. 

Heat has always made me sick. It is the one trigger for my heart condition that I am absolutely certain of. I have had cardiac events on at least four occasions that were triggered by it. So I am sitting inside my apartment hiding from it. I have had adjust the temperature on my air conditioner in order to avoid bankruptcy, I had a plan back in February to save money while the electricity bills were small to pay for the larger summer ones. But best laid plans often are often a source of divine derision. It's not really that I'm sweltering under my air conditioning, But my home is warmer than I like it to be. I would really like to see this heatwave move on out and let us start moving into the cooler weather of fall. 

I do this every year. I tire of the heat of summer long before it leaves and in February I will be searching the trees for the first signs of redbuds that will herald the beginning of spring. 

My birthday is next week. I was hoping that the temperatures would be below 90 degrees so I would feel like getting out of the apartment to celebrate. Right now, I don't think that's going to happen. 

Last year at this time I was blogging, complaining about the heat. It was hot then, it's hotter now. A month later I went to a reunion hoping to wear a white shirt and a red sweater that I bought for the event. It was nearly 90 degrees that day. I didn't wear the outfit. I thought I could wear it on Christmas. Christmas day was nearly 80 degrees in north Georgia. I wore the sweater anyway. It's the only time I have worn it. I bought a black sweater at the same time that I bought the red one. I have never worn it. I'm hoping that I will find occasions to wear them both this fall and winter. Maybe it will be a bit cooler. I can only hope.