COVID 19 # 24 FOOD - STORING IT, KEEPING TRACK OF IT, AND USING IT IN TIME

 Another week, another post.  I had an idea this morning for the post, but by tonight it is gone.  So let me tell you how we are dealing with food right now as we only go out once a month to a month and a half to food shop (and did not shop from mid March to Mid May at all).

Husband, as I have mentioned, is a panicker.  To allay his fears we  now have, since the start of the corona virus, more food, toilet paper, paper towels, soap, dish soap, laundry soap, denture adhesive than we can use in several years.  My dining room table is covered in unopened canned, jarred, and bottled food and packets in gallon sized plastic boxes.  I have two huge plastic boxes that we normally use for food storage under my side of the kitchen table.  We also use these same types of boxes in the house for other storage.  I donated one of my bear figure storage boxes and he donated two of his woven items storage boxes to “the cause” and they are in the dining room filled with food.  

As with anything organizing what is where is important.  In our case we also want to make sure that we do not attract ants or mice – both of which we have had problems with in the past, so any food that is not in sealed glass, hard plastic or metal container is put in a plastic box – whether a large package in the huge boxes or the individual packages in the gallon containers.  

I covered the dining room table with heavy towels to protect it from damage – I want to use it as nice looking table again one day.  Cans, bottles, and jars are arranged in lines by what they are – a line of each type of soup cans (and the different lines of soup are next to each other), a line of canned tomatoes, a line of canned beans... or sometimes small groupings – 4 cans of evaporated milk (was 6 cans originally) sitting in 2 rows of 2 cans, and so on.  There are also gallon sized plastic containers (recycled large ice cream containers) stacked 2 high in a grouping on the far corner of the table.  These have things such as packets of ramen noodles (husband has me has me add half a package to half a can of soup for lunch sometimes) in two of them (ordered online from Walmart – we got a LOT of ramen packages).  One has packages of husband's instant grits (my apologies to anyone from the South) and another has packets of my instant oatmeal.  ½ cup containers of applesauce in another.  Powered milk packets in one container and powdered mash potatoes packets in another.  A quick circle of the table – okay cannot actually fully circle the table as there is stuff from my family home to be sorted through and excess baking pans on the far side of the table on the floor – lets one see how much we have of various items and find what we are looking for.  

The three large boxes on the floor in the dining room (stacked to save room) contain items such as fresh(ish) bread that is currently being used (we buy several loaves, start use one loaf, then usually start the second before it has to frozen and any loaves past two are frozen right away when we bring them home.  This includes white bread, rye bread, hot dog rolls and burger rolls.  There are also some packages of snack cakes that we bought.  Items that come multiple in a package and are individually wrapped are removed from their outer package – so the individual snack cakes are in the box, the boxes that, say 8 of them, came in was tossed and never came into the house – chances are no one has touched the inner packages or at least not just before we bought them are in a plastic bag with the bread.  Cookies are also in this box and some other individual items.  The next box down holds things such as boxes of cake mix, stuffing mixes, dry cereal, and two largeish cardboard containers of raisins.  The bottom box holds macaroni – both the boxes of spaghetti , penne, elbows and bow ties and the packaged macaroni and cheese boxes.  (Husband ordered the first three from Bjs in his big order from them, he told me 4 boxes of each were coming – 8 boxes of each came – so they will take awhile to use up.)

In the pantry closet in the kitchen I keep started macaronis in glass canning jars and other started packages of food in either hard plastic locking boxes, old Chinese soup containers, or other glass canning jars.  (I used to can.)  

We have do not have a huge refrigerator  (18 cubic foot) or freezer.  We have the small freezer on the top of the refrigerator and a dorm fridge sized freezer in the basement (from when we used to grow vegetables in the back yard and froze them for the winter).  

Mostly I can see the items in the refrigerator but I try to deal in a way that makes sense and I can remember.  We got this refrigerator a year ago.  It does not have what is normally called “a snack drawer”.  I kept the bin for ice from the old refrigerator, which went from back to front of the old refrigerator's freezer so it is well sized.  I put it in the right side of the refrigerator's top shelf and we use it for smaller items – currently it is being used to hold cold cuts and cheeses so they are together – and I can take them all out for lunch if husband is not sure what he wants by just pulling the bin out of the refrigerator.  We may have to root through the bin a bit to find which item husband wants, but they are all in there (unless they were hanging around too long had to be frozen).  

Shortly after we bought the refrigerator I bought a largeish plastic bin that looks woven, so it has openings around the four sides, to use to store small items in the freezer.  This works well.  It may be heavy, but I can take it out and see all of the smaller items in it easily to keep track of them.  

So now everything has a home – but how do I remember what is where?  I have been writing up lists of what is in each freezer (don't do so for non- cold items or for refrigerator items, at least not so far).  There are 4 lists.  Two are for the downstairs freezer and two are for the upstairs/refrigerator freezer.  One of each list is called “meat”, but it actually should be entrees – I list what meats, frozen entrees, and things such as frozen ravioli and tortellini or leftovers on these lists.  The other two lists are the upstairs “other” and basement “other” list.  This is where I list foods such as frozen vegetables, breads, and so on.

Of course maintaining the lists is important.  Since we are shopping in large quantities (husband almost passes out when he sees the huge amount on the receipts) I redo the lists when I shop each time and try to make sure to cross off or change the count of used items as I take items out – or move them from up to down list or the reverse if items have to moved.  We shopped last week and I have not yet had a chance to go through the freezers and make new lists so I am still working off the old ones.  This allows me to know what I have downstairs without having to run down the stairs to see what there is and lets me know that somewhere in the refrigerator's freezer is 2 more hot dogs.  

I have two other lists on the refrigerator also.  One is the list of “meals”, sort of a home menu.  If I ask husband what he wants for dinner and he says “what do we have” I can read him the list (my hand writing is not always readable by me, so I won't make him try to read it).  The second one is a shopping list.  Any suggestions we come up with or see we are running out of I add to this list.  (I periodically copy the items into the spreadsheet program file I started in my laptop since being home for Covid-19.)

I should mention that there are sections of food – especially cans, jars, bottles, and packaged items – which we have not used up the items we bought months ago when the pandemic started or soon after it did.  It may be years before we can use up all that we have.  We try even harder than normal to keep track of the dates on packages so food does not go bad.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Buying food that you need to have in the house if you are not food shopping often these days is a good thing, but you have to keep track of what you have to figure out what you need to buy and you need to keep track of dates on packages and also of when you started using a package as food in opened packages often go bad faster than in still sealed packages.  (We learned that we really need to buy mozzerella and ricotta cheeses in smaller packages as they both go bad too quickly when the package is open.)    

COVID 19 #22 STORING AND LISTING FOOD SO YOU CAN FIND IT IN THE FREEZER

 Last week I told you about our food shopping trip.  One thing I have to do at some point not too long after we go food shopping is write up new lists of what we have in the freezers so we use it all up and don't let anything go to waste by lack of memory.  

Everything that had to be was pushed into a freezer when we got home – other than a few items that were not frozen and could stay for a bit in the refrigerator, but needed to be frozen for longer time storage – such as fresh meat that will not be eaten for awhile.  I was not able when we got home to put a number of things in the freezer that makes more sense – meaning I try to keep packages that we pull out the items one or two at time in the upstairs freezer in the refrigerator – such as a package of hamburgers – so I have to run downstairs when we have same and pull out one burger for each of us – or just one for husband if I am eating something else.

Last Friday night I boiled the chicken we had bought.  Half of it was to be used for a Brunswick stew for Sunday night and the other half to be frozen for later use either in another of same or some other dish.  Since it takes quite awhile to cook the stew and the chicken meat has to cool down between being being cooked and being pulled off the bones for the stew, I often boil the chicken in advance so this is not unusual.  My plan was to make the actual stew Sunday afternoon.  I have to keep an eye on the stew while it is cooking so I also planned to do several chores downstairs at the same time so I would be nearby to check the stew and give it a stir every now and then.  

One of the things I planned to so was make new lists of what is in the freezers and see if I could switch anything around between the two so items I need to have in the kitchen are there and not down in the basement.  

I had cut a sheet of paper into 4 list shaped pieces across the width.  I used unused paper for this so there was nothing on the back of the lists to dirty the refrigerator door.  (I normally reuse paper that has been printed on and was an error, was something some website printed multiple pages when I only needed one part, and so forth- the back of the pages and often part of the front have no printing and it makes great scrap paper – full sheets or cut up.)

First I went to the basement to make a list for down there and see if I could juggle anything around to move some larger items (like second container of ice cream) to the basement freezer to have room in the upstairs freezer for the items I would prefer to keep up there for convenience.  This was not to be. I brought 2 pieces of the paper cut to make lists and a pencil – and a large towel that we have using to cover the kitchen table when we bring in new food items to let the alcohol they were rubbed with to kill any Covid 19 on the items.  I had to take things out of the freezer downstairs shelf by shelf to see what was there – there are 3 shelves and I put this on the floor so the food is not sitting on the floor itself.  I mark one list basement (or B) and “meat” on its top.  The second one is also marked on top for the basement and as “other”.  Technically not everything on the “meat” list is meat – it actually means main dish type item.  The “other” list is vegetables, bread, and so on that is not a main dish.  I rearranged the freezer so things fit it into better and listed the items on the papers.  

We have been buying what I call “frozen box meals” - by this I mean those meals intended for a family that are popped into the oven, cook an hour or so and are a main course and often also the vegetables and starch are mixed into the entree – examples of this is a prepared lasagna, turkey bake, and things such as small meatloaves or Salisbury steaks – these latter two need to have the side dishes cooked separately for them. We buy 2 each of a few kinds of each and have them Friday and Sunday nights when we used to go out for dinner in the normal days before the corona virus.  I stacked them so that the same dishes were together with the older ones on top of the newer ones so that when I take one – it is the older one.  

We have a few items which take up more room than they should for what they are.  Back in May husband ordered a 5 pound bag of frozen corn and a bag about the same size of french fries from BJs when we ordered from them.  I am maybe halfway through the bag of corn and it takes up a lot of room.  I just finally opened the bag of french fries – we also had 2 normal sized bags of french fries that we had to use up first before opening this one.  Add to that husband bought a bag of meatballs when we went to Walmart back in May and it was almost the size – and he does not like them.  So after one dinner from them, they were sitting in the freezer taking up space – possibly to do so long after the pandemic ends – so I decided I would eat them for dinner when he has something I do not particularly like.  Unfortunately one of the reasons he does not like them is that they have too much garlic.  So when I have them I have to go upstairs and rinse out my mouth with mouth wash after wards.  They are small meatballs and 6 are suppose to be a serving.  It will take at least a month and a half or longer to finish the bag, so last week I upped the serving size to 8 meatballs – every 3 weeks is one week less I will be eating them and one week faster that I get the space from them back in the freezer.  When these 3 items are finished and gone from the freezer and a normal bag of french fries and a normal size bag of corn are there instead the freezer will hold a lot more things.

As I am removing all these things from the freezer and rearranging them – periodically I run upstairs to check and stir the stew.

I then went upstairs and started on the freezer in the refrigerator.  I took out most of the items on the bottom shelf and put them on the kitchen table.  These 2 lists were the labeled the same way as downstairs except they were labeled as “upstairs” instead of “basement”.  I rearranged the items in this freezer as I listed them and then put them back.  Up here are things like leftover gravies and cranberry sauce. (Did you know can freeze these things?  We only use half a can of gravy and I froze ¾ of the can of cranberry sauce in ¼ of the can size in small plastic containers (pudding sized) when I opened the can and we had the first ¼ can with sliced (deli type) turkey.  Also on this shelf is frozen bread (none yet from this purchase) and frozen hot dog and hamburger rolls so they last longer as we are shopping much less often than normal.  I then took out the items on the top shelf and did the same.  Our top shelf is a lot taller than our bottom one and I had bought a good sized plastic “basket” that I put small items into to keep them together and also stand up bags in so it is easier to see them and I can take out the entire “basket” to check what it is in it.  I have frozen eggs in this basket, as well as frozen meats in portions to use.  Husband had ordered from BJs back in May 3 boxes of eggs (3 pounds) but they did not have them and he accepted a 5 pound restaurant pack of eggs instead.  We don't eat eggs early (or breakfast) and needed them to cook things.  We had worked our way through one of the two layers when the good by date came up and we froze the rest.  To freeze an egg one has to crack it open and mix the yolk and white so that the yolk is not intact.  (If left in the shell or the yolk intact they will expand too much and break the shell and/or the yolk.)  In the old days when I did this with maybe four or five eggs I would put them in plastic, lidded pudding cups – but I did not have dozens of cups.  I put a plastic sandwich in each of 5 cups at a time and put in some cups one egg and others two eggs – if we do eat eggs – a bag of 2 is used for each, if we need 3 (say for a cake mix) take a bag of two and a bag of one or 1 for something we take – we take a bag of one egg.  I have the 2 eggs in one plastic zip bag and the 1 eggs in another.  I list of all of the items up here the same way – main dishes on the
“upstairs meat” list and the rest on the “upstairs other” list.  To make dealing with and finding the frozen vegetables easier – when I open a bag of same I put the contents in a labeled quart zip bag which is labeled with the vegetable name and the date it is good until.  I reuse these bags when I use up the contents and change the good until date.  I have them – ready for this?  In alphabetical order in the lower shelf in the kitchen freezer door – easy to find.  

Having finished dealing with the freezers and listing their contents  (while stirring the stew in between) I put all of the lists on the refrigerator door with magnets (no point to having the downstairs freezer list downstairs – then I would have to go downstairs to see what I have – if all the lists are upstairs it I can see everything while upstairs.

These lists would not work as well when we are shopping normally – they would have to updated instead of replaced  - they work now being replaced as there are major changes each time due to the length of time between shopping trips.  

Since the stew was still not finished (it cooks a LONG time), I then stored away my July Lucy and Me  figurines from the living room and put my September ones – the August ones never went out.  Again, I was close to the kitchen to keep checking the stew.  

When the stew was almost finished I made some biscuits from refrigerated biscuit dough (this is not the same as the frozen biscuits, although the same brand) to go with the stew.  Freezer contents listed, frozen food arranged a bit better and easier to use, Lucy and Me bears out for the month and dinner cooked – all at the same time.  A good day of organizing and a bit fun in changing the bears.

THOUGHTS OF THE WEEK -

1 – If you have do something to do that takes awhile, but must be watched – see if there are other things you can do in the same or nearby physical location so time waiting to stir or check on the pot is not wasted.

2 – List what you have in your freezer (and for some people – also what is in your refrigerator – so you know what you have.

COVID 19 #21 - FOOD SHOPPING DURING THE TIME OF CORONA

 We went shopping for food this past Monday.  We almost made it through August without a full food run – just a small run to our local supermarket for Diet Coke (first time we have bought since before the stay at home – we had been drinking it only a half glass with Saturday night dinner, and then only since the start of May.  We also bought some other items which are not sold at the Walmart Neighborhood Market at which we have done our food shopping.  

I have been using a ¼ strip of a page of paper on the refrigerator for a shopping list and then when we start to talk about going shopping I have been copying the list into a spreadsheet file.   I try to sort by where I think the items are located in the store as I don't want to take out my pen and to cross items we have found off of the list and want to avoid having to double back for missed items also. This trip I did two related things – I brought a pencil stub to write with (if I felt it should not come home, I could toss it out when we left the store) and I also used the back of the shopping list (and the pencil stub) to list generally the items in the food aisles, especially those we buy.  I realized my shopping list was pretty close to where the items were located anyway – I did have 2 aisles reversed in the list.  Next trip I will try to list what is in which aisle of the non-food items.  

Before we went I had started making a master list of items we buy or might buy in the supermarket to make sure that when making future lists I don't forget anything.  (List is mostly made by husband saying or my realizing that we just took the last of something or have few enough of the item left to last beyond a week or so or one of us saying something like - “hmmm, wouldn't it be nice to have “Brunswick stew” (or something else) for dinner – do we have what we need to make it?”  After I returned home I resorted the master list by which aisles I had found the items to be in.  The master list is in 3 columns (so more of it can be seen at time while making up the shopping list – in a 4th column) – food, cold food, and non-food.  By looking down the list as I make up our shopping list for the upcoming supermarket trip I can make sure I don't miss anything.  Maybe we will continue to shop for more than a day or two at time, like we used to in the old years when I did the food shopping alone while husband was still working outside the house, it does work very well.

We found most of the items we were looking for – I could swear that supermarkets carry Chinese hard noodles – maybe it is just this store that does not.  It took him 10 minutes to decide which “I think want different cookies this time” he wanted.  He likes nicer than white bread when he has a sandwich, so he bought an Italian loaf baked in the store and wanted to buy rye bread.  The rye bread is small compared to the white bread and the what we call – the store bread so he decided to buy 2 loaves.  (We bought 4 loaves of white bread, use one and part of one fresh and freeze the rest as the expiration date approaches.)  In normal years we maybe buy one loaf of white or store bread and maybe don't have any bread in the house for long periods of time.  He could not decide between the “hard” and the “soft” rye breads from the same company – I told him to buy one of each and then decide which he liked better for next time, we did.

I figured while we were shopping we should buy some ant traps – generally need them on and off.  We could not find the bug spray section.  I asked an employee – he pointed at a rack hanging from the end of an aisle.  None there – I mentioned this and he sent me to Aisle 16 – made sense to me that was dog food and stuff for the house – only another rack hanging from the end cap – guess there is not much of a calling for bug killer stuff in the supermarket?  When/if we go to a regular Walmart I will check there and buy same.  

And now – the big disorganization happens.  In the trips we have taken to this Walmart for groceries – about 3 or 4 times since the stay at home started – there have been no lines at checkout other than at self checkout. This time it seemed there were big lines at all of the registers – and the lines ran up the aisles and people were close together.  Husband picked a line.  I was concerned that it was a small number of items or less checkout and went up to check.  I then saw that where we normally check out seemed now to be empty.  I went and checked and it was – problem – not going to take out cell phone with gloves I have on and he won't check – so I had to run back to him and then back to stand at register while he figured out how to get there.  (Umm, go to back of store and up the big aisle that comes forward – this took a lot of thinking? And he walked there so slowly.)

The system he has developed for food shopping is he wear gloves and pushes the cart. I wear gloves and select the items and put them in the cart.  (To his mind this keeps the cart and food unvirused.)  So I have to take the items out of the cart and put them on the belt for the cashier.  (Before the pandemic we only did self-checkout, now we always go to a cashier.)  I put the heavier cold items first and then the lighter cold items, followed by the heavier not cold items and finally the lighter not cold items.  We want the cold items bagged together so we can deal with them first when we get home before they warm up – both for wiping off with alcohol on paper towel piece and then figuring where to fit the items in the freezers (one is part of refrigerator and the other is a small dorm refrigerator sized one in our basement).  Fitting them in is not easy.  An example – we have been buying what I call frozen box dinners – these are the precooked, heat up, commercial company frozen meals in the freezer cases. I told him we had room for 7 of them (based on what we had used and the room I had for stacking them).  He picked out 6 of them – okay, that's better as more room for something else, right?  He then decides to buy a box of frozen fried chicken (which I reminded him he did not like last time and that there was much less in the box than it looks like it will have) – it almost the size of 2 of the boxed dinners.  I explained to him that we could buy that – but one of the box dinners has to go back due to space limitations.  He found a bag of fried chicken strips instead.  

I started putting the items on the belt to be rung up. It is again a huge order as we are buying for a month and hopefully beyond.  He is standing there watching me – remember, only I can touch the food.  I finally suggest he go to the other end and watch how the cashier is bagging the items.  He comes back.  The cashier is not bagging them – they do not have any bags!!  He starts to panic.  I unpack as quickly as I can and then start reloading the food she has rung up into the cart, thinking all the time what to do.  Oddly I had looked at the two reusable shopping bags we had gotten back at the end of February when the state was going to no disposable plastic bags and thought about about bringing them, but did not.  We had brought one disposable bag as he sprays the cart with Lysol before we start using it and I like to hide in the van as it is in such demand this days.  I figured we must have other bags in the van and told him we would be okay.  When I asked the cashier if this was something permanent – they had run out of bags at 2 pm.  (This was 5-6 pm.)  Not sure if it was a question of people doing extra food shopping as heavy rain was to come for the rest of the week (which is why we were shopping Monday), it was the last day of the month or what, but good to know it was not a change in policy.

In the car I had about 4 disposable plastic shopping bags, a paper shopping bag (bigger than a supermarket bag from some other store), and clean plastic garbage bags – I am guessing leftover from craft shows we have done and used them to carry woven items or such.  I put the breads in the paper shopping bag – just fit all of them (including a pack each of hot dog and hamburger rolls).  I put cold items into the 4 plastic bags which took most, but not all of them.  I then used one garbage bag for the rest of the cold items and a couple of garbage bags for the non-cold food.  

When we got home we dealt with the cold food in the shopping bags first and then I used the empty shopping bags to bring in the rest of the cold food.  After the cold food was put away, I started on the non-cold food, again using the shopping bags to bring them in – bread came in last.  

After all of this time and work – we came up short a rye bread!  We thought we lost it on the way on home after paying for it, but when we checked the receipt – we had never paid for it – either it fell out of the wagon, did not make it up the belt at the register – or a fairy took it out of the cart – and with how things are lately, I am so not sure it was not the last.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

It pays to make a shopping list before going shopping all the time – better than a trip back for a forgotten item.  Even more so now with the Corona virus about.  It helps one deal with a larger order quicker and with much fewer running back for items not remembered as one went through their aisle.  Today much more so than even before – one wants to go in, shop, and get out as quickly as possible to spend as little time out near people as possible.

A good Labor Day holiday to those in the U.S.

COVID 19 #13 - DEALING WITH LOTS OF FOOD TO STORE AND KEEP FRESH

Sorry – like everyone else – I lost track of the day of the week and did not post yesterday.

Okay – we are all getting tired of the pandemic.  I hope that you and yours have either been lucky enough not to be affected or have survived any illness and are well again.  I thought I would mention some things we have been doing to deal with a variety of things that arise.  This week, one of my favorite subjects – Food!

I recently wrote about finally ordering food and going out to buy food  - http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2020/05/covid-19-11-food-delivery-and-shopping.html

But what the heck does one do with all the extra food!  We have a rather small house, with our kitchen and dining room also being rather small so of course our refrigerator and freezer are small – 18 sq ft fridge with top freezer – which we bought last summer - see -

http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2019/06/replace-refrigerator.html
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-refrigerator-saga-contines.html
 http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2019/07/refrigerator-at-last-and-on-to-next.html

We also have a dorm fridge sized freezer in our basement.  Both are full to the point I could not keep track of what is in them.  I cut scrap sheets of paper (all those papers that get printed out of the computer by mistake or run 4 pages when you thought they were one page or only need one page – I use the backs for scrap paper – good for the environment and cheap scrap paper as it would just be thrown out.  into quarters across the width so I got 4 from a sheet of a paper and made lists.  I have a list of the meats and entrees which are in the basement freezer and how many I have of each.  I also have a list of same for the kitchen freezer.  I have a list of the frozen vegetables, breads and such in the basement freezer.  ( I pack things very well.)  I don't have a matching list for upstairs – but I rebag frozen vegetables into quart zipbags – label each bag with which vegetable is in it and mark the end date (not that vegetables sit that long) and I stand them in alphabetical order in the door shelf of my freezer – empty bags (we have run out of some vegetables) are at the front of the bags.  It is easy to see how much is in each, generally a new bag of vegetables fits into the quart zip bag – if not I am generally using some when I start a new bag from the store anyway – they are in an order so I can find them, hey are at my eye level to make it easier to figure out and since the bags zip closed, they stay fresher than open bags with bag ties on them.  I know that we have a started bag of biscuits, and I know most of the other items in the freezer.  I also have a plastic box that fits on about half of the top shelf in the freezer to hold odd shaped items – like freezer paper wrapped meats, open bags of things like fries and pancakes, meal sized  amounts of stew meat in small zip bags, etc.  the other half of the shelf is boxed and bagged items and the stack of ice cube trays with a bin for ice over them on a wire rack.  We did not want to wast the limited space we have in the freezer with an ice maker as we tend to use ice only for cooking related chores – such as cooling down food quickly to put in the fridge.

We have a small closet in our kitchen which holds a variety of items including 3 shelves being used for can, bottle, jar and other storage.  What husband bought would overwhelm the entire closet.

I have left most of the items which were in the closet in it.  I covered my dining room table with thick towels and stood the cans, bottles and jars in rows sorted by what they are – all of the lentil soup cans together, all of the evaporated milk cans together, both of the soy sauce bottles together (somewhere around 3 years worth or more of same I estimate), etc.  Having had ants and mice over the 31 years we have been in the house I do not have food items which are not in sealed cans, jars or bottles out on their own.  Normally I will put unopened packaged items in two large boxes under the kitchen table.  But this is now too much for that.  Small packages such as individual packages of instant cereal, packages with 4 servings of instant mashed potatoes, and the like have been put into plastic boxes the size of a gallon of ice cream would come in.  These boxes are also on the dining room table.  The two boxes under the kitchen table are fuller than they have ever been.  We also have larger plastic tubs in the house which we use for purposes unrelated to food.  I gave up one of the tubs I used to store my bear village pieces in and husband gave up one of the tubs he uses to store finished items he has woven and they are filled with food items – such as bags of dry cereal (threw out the boxes), boxes of assorted dry pastas, cake mix boxes, mac and cheese mix boxes, and the like.  They are also in our dining room – on the floor.

When one has this much food one has to deal with managing the food and keeping perishable food from going bad.  Anything which could be frozen to keep it longer was frozen.  I am keeping an eye on the end dates of other items.  One problem is eggs.  Husband was buying 3 dozen eggs from BJs on our first try at ordering food delivered.  That is a lot of eggs for us – we don't eat breakfast so they are eaten for dinner some nights and used in things such as the cake mixes.  To make it even worse, BJs did not have the packages of 3 boxes of a dozen eggs each – so he ordered 5 dozen eggs and these eggs came in restaurant style packaging – 2 open sided trays of 30 eggs each stacked on each other – and the expiration date was June 15.  While I know that eggs do last longer than they are dated for (if unsure if an egg is still good – put it in a pot of cold water – if it floats it is not good), how long could they last.  Then I remembered – eggs can be frozen if they are opened and the white and yellow mixed together and will keep much longer that way.  So earlier this week we started freezing eggs.  I put a small plastic sandwich bag in each of several (4-5) pudding sized plastic storage cups that can be frozen.  I then break an egg or two into a one cup measuring cup (husband's idea to use the measuring cup) and mix it together with a fork.  I then pour the egg(s) into a storage cup and repeat.  I put the lids on the cups and put them in the freezer.  By the next day the eggs are frozen.  I take out each eggs – or pair of eggs and knot the bag closed (single egg) or put a bag tie around the bag to close it (two eggs).  I then put them into half gallon zip bags – the single eggs in one and the double eggs in a different one  - and label which is in the bag – and put them back in the freezer. I am down to 14 more eggs to freeze.  Why two and singles?  If we have eggs for dinner we have 2 each – so 2 in each bag is good for that.  But in cooking sometimes I need one egg and cake mixes need 3 eggs, so freezing some eggs as singles allows for odd number of eggs to be used easily while taking up less little plastic bags by having two in a good number of them.  And of course if all the 2 egg bags are used up – 2 singles makes a double. :-)

THOUGHT(S) OF THE WEEK -

Make sure that you keep track of expiration or other end dates on the food in your house – normally also but especially now.  Freeze items that can be frozen before they go bad or use them if their life cannot be extended. 

Also – just because areas are being reopened from stay at home orders – does not mean to run out and about willy nilly.  The corona virus is still here and still dangerous.  How terrible to get so ill and risk one's life to get a hair cut, go to the gym, shop for items which are not crucial or eat out in or outside a restaurant.  The number of cases is rising rapidly in some states which either have reopened too much, too seen or its residents are going out before they should.  Health and life – yours and others – are too important to rush the return to normalcy.  Stay well!  (I have too few followers now – I don't want to lose any.)

CHANGES IN PLANS OCCUR AND ONE HAS TO DEAL WITH THEM

I had plans for tonight's post – but things come up and I almost forgot what I had planned to write about. 

We were suppose to take mom back to her cancer surgeon today for a second follow up visit.  I have spent part of the last two weeks getting the wellness center at mom's assisted living residence to do the blood tests requested by this and also by mom's oncologist and send the results to them.  My sister who sees mom a lot more than we do as mom lives near her, had to go in and talk to the staff to get the results sent.  I checked with this doctor and the blood work results were finally there – great, we could take her there today.  Oh heck, I had not realized that today was Ash Wednesday when I made the appointment.  Why does that matter?  Well husband is Catholic and cannot eat meat today – so for lunch he had to have Wendys fish instead of his usual lunch.  So?  Well, often eating fried foods makes his stomach ill and we were concerned about eating lunch, then having to drive out, pick up mom, take her to the doctor, take her back to her residence and then drive home if his stomach was bad.  But he figured he would be okay, but was not happy about taking mom to the doctor today.

Yesterday, the day before the appointment, I was called by the doctor's office - though they thought they were calling mom as we gave them my phone number instead – why? - you will see in a later  paragraph.  They wanted to move her appointment an hour earlier.  Big problem.  It takes, from the time we arrive at mom's residence, an hour and a half to get her to an appointment 15-30 minutes from there.  We have to go up to up to her room, take the big wheels off her wheel chair (or it is terribly heavy and does not fit in the back of our car and she cannot deal with getting in out van). Stop at the wellness office for a list of her meds for the doctor (easier than trying to remember).  Get her through the building to the front (only) entrance.  (Mom's apartment is literally the furthest in the building – top floor, end of the hall.) We then have to sign her out of the building – and we have to sign in as we run through the lobby coming in and then again when we leave.  We have found it easier to take mom to our parked car than try to get her in or out of the car in front of the building – curbs and sidewalk cuts are problems.  So we have to push her – uphill – to the parking area – either together or me as too hard for husband to do.  Then we have to get her into the car and stow her wheelchair.  Then the drive.  Then on the other end we have to park – where there is room for mom to get out into her wheelchair (we have to get her a handicapped permit so we can park in those spaces with her) and then get her into the building.  This last can be very easy to do – or hard – one building was on a hill with the building at the bottom of the hill and we had trouble finding the doctor's office – out and down hill, then back up hill – with both of us pushing.  Most of the doctors offices require one to sign in 15 minutes or 30 minutes before the appointment time or they cancel it.  Mom's lunch is at 11:45 am. Her dinner at 4:45 pm. If I make the appointment for 2:30  - it allows us to each lunch, drive out there, pick her at 1 pm and get her to the doctor – after she has eaten lunch.  Other than the “doctor with the office from h*ell”  she will be back at her residence, with the big wheels back on her wheelchair and settled in, in time for her dinner.  So 1:30 pm was a big problem.  We compromised on 2 pm.  

So now mom was going to have a problem with her lunch, husband was going to have a problem with his lunch – so I had a problem in general.  Then I had a thought.  I telephoned the doctor's office back and asked about moving the appointment to a different day.  Doctor would have plenty of time to her surgery and not rush us, husband did not have to worry about his stomach after lunch, and mom would not miss lunch.  First date offered was next Wednesday – my embroidery meeting and my only day out – no way.  We settled on a date in mid March.  Doctor's office happy.  Husband happy.  I had to call mom and let her know of the change.  I had been texting my sister as I went along in case she spoke to mom before I did, she could let mom know.  Mom is hard to reach, at least for me, by telephone.  By the time that generally I can call her in the afternoon – she is at dinner.  I figured that the best time to call was around 7:30 pm as that is when she calls me.  First time I left a message – but knew she would never get it.  I called another 4 times as time passed.  I went down to cook dinner.  Mom called,  “Did you call me?”  I explained.  “No, I never hear that there are messages.”  Huh, hear that there is a message, she has to look at the machine – and has being doing so for over 40 years.  Okay, go on there from there.  She remembered we suppose to go the next day and I explained about the change.  Fine with her.  We discussed it four times.  I also told her that if my sister called and said it was to be earlier tomorrow – that was old news and changed.  We did not get a call from her today asking where we were so apparently all went well with the change.  Mom is 90 and a year ago I would not question that she understood and would remember the appointment and the change,  but a year can make a big difference.

Next wonderfulness was our basement freezer.  We have a small freezer that we bought probably 30 years ago or more (it has out lived at least 2 refrigerators, probably 3).  We used to grow vegetables in our back yard in summer and would freeze the excess in this freezer.  Have not done so in at least a decade and it was being used for backup frozen vegetables and meat since, until about 3 years ago when we somehow switched to buy the food for dinner that day.  So it has mostly sat in the basement with some commercial frozen vegetables in it and a few other items.  Last year we used it when our refrigerator died and we had some items in its freezer.  It had about 4-5 inches of ice on the top coils.  Husband will not let me put frozen items at the back of the freezer in the new refrigerator – he read an article that the back needs lots of space for air to circulate – so I have (somehow) a smaller freezer in this refrigerator than our old and I cannot use about 1/6-1/4 of the space in it.  I figured I would melt the ice in the basement freezer so it could go back to being used – and since there was nothing in it as we used the last item stored in it about a month ago – this was the time to do it. 

I knew it would take a long time and would be messy. I had a plan.  I needed to remember to do this when we come home fairly early from running errands.  Today was the day.  We were home early and I would be making many trips to the basement at night to do laundry and could combine the trips down for both purposes.  When we came home I went to the basement and shut off the freezer.  I put in two large, deep baking pans – one on the right of one shelf and one on the left of the other shelf to catch the dripping water as I knew the bottom drip pan would not hold anywhere near enough and would be a mess to empty.  I grabbed lots of old used for junk purposes towels and spread them in front of the freezer.  I propped the door open, set an alarm for an hour and went upstairs to work.  An hour later – nothing had started – reset the alarm and back upstairs.  An hour later – still no melting, reset again and started to cook dinner.  After dinner while watching TV in the kitchen the alarm went off again. I went back down – goody!!  Two small puddles (dots) of water in one of the baking pans – it was working.  I went back to the kitchen – husband asked what I was doing.  I told him.  He had to inspect the situation.  He decided that what I was doing would never work.  He was going to use his heat gun.  Luckily he decided that was too hot.  We sat there for a couple of hours as he melted the ice with his hairdryer.  Dumping the baking pans and a couple of times the bottom drip pan into a bucket.  (I have done this before – just with a lot less ice – and knew that I would not be able to carry the baking pans or the drip pan to the sink without spilling.  Finally the last big piece of ice was loose and fell free.  After dumping the last of the water and ice into the basement sink he went upstairs and I dried the inside of the freezer. It is sitting with the door ajar to dry out before being plugged back in. 

Sooo, my post on doing your income taxes will be delayed until at least next week. 

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Plans are plans  - until they go awry.  Whether the appointment has to be changed for someone else's convenience or needs or what you plan to do in the house needs to be done differently than you think it will  - and takes more of your time as a result, or have you plans to write something and other items come up which need to be written about first  - they go awry. 

One has to deal with the changes and see what can be done.  If nothing else – the appointment change and the change in how we had to defrost the freezer gave me something to write about and you get out of hearing about income taxes for at least a week!

THE REFRIGERATOR SAGA CONTINES -

Well,, they delivered the new refrigerator on Friday. We had to set up the inside of the fridge “we don’t do that”.  I asked to have it leveled as it was to the eye extremely out of level.  When I put a small jar in it, it rolled quickly to the back of the fridge.  “It cannot be leveled.  The only way to do so is to remove the feet and then it will be sitting only on it’s wheels and when you try to open the door, it will roll instead of opening.  Husband leveled it after the crew left.    I telephoned the store shortly after the delivery crew left - we had found 3 big black lines on the front of it - not the door, the fridge itself.  The delivery manager was not there - apparently he left for the day before 3 pm - and I was told that he would telephone me back - “first thing in the morning”. 

During the evening and overnight we were checking the temperature in the fridge with a remote read thermometer.  It would suddenly jump to 45 degrees Farenheit, then drop to 32 (freezing) in the fridge.  There seemed to be no way to adjust this huge variance in temperature to below what husband’s insulin can be stored at and to over the maximum temperature food can safely be stored at. 

I waited until 9:30 am the next day and then called the manager as he had not called me.  He did not seem to know anything about my call.  He apologized as I explained the original problem, our dissatisfaction with the delivery, and that the temperature varied so greatly - continually.  Husband had checked and this - and most - refrigerators are suppose to have a temperature range of 34 to 44 degrees F.  He also told me that the delivery crew is only suppose to bring in the fridge, put on the doors, plug it in, turn it on - and level it.  Anything else we had to do.  Nice of them to tell us this when we bought it - if my 90 year old mom had it delivered she would not be able to deal with setting up the inside and would not be able to use the fridge until one of us came over and set it up for her - I am sure many other people would have similar problems.  I told him that they refused to level it - and the story about how it could not be leveled.  As to the problems with the refrigerator itself, he would exchange it, but they were out of that model.  I asked why they could not get one from one of the local locations of their store (a major national chain) - “it doesn’t work like that” was his reply.  I could have another one of this model delivered in a week - a week?!  He checked with his appliance manager and she had the other two models (from other companies) in stock and we could get one of those delivered.  Since neither of them had been acceptable - which is how we picked this one - we had to go in and remind ourselves of what we found to be problematic with the others.  We dressed and went in to the store.  After looking at the other 2 models again - neither would work (including that one of them was too tall).  So, we have to deal with this one for a week. We left the RV plugged in and its refrigerator running.  Coincidentally, we were going away this week, so we were only home until Tuesday morning, making dealing with this fridge a little easier.   

Monday night we emptied the RV fridge and unplugged the RV.  Biggest problem was husband’s insulin.  He gets them in what are called pens - they look like big pens.  He puts a new needle on the pen each time he uses it.  The insulin pens cannot go below 36 or above 46 in temperature when they have not yet been used.  Once they are used they do not go back in the fridge and can go to a higher temperature.  They can be at the higher temperature for 42 days maximum.  I figured that 2 pens left in the box plus the one already in use would be used in less than 39 days - so the pens are out of the fridge.  We then packed the RV with everything needed for the trip.


Tuesday we added the last items, turned on the RV battery and started the RV fridge.  Problem was that the light that shows that there is enough electricity in the battery showed that there was not enough.  After debate about canceling the trip - and we would be out the amount paid for the RV park site - I suggested that we go ahead going on the trip.  It was Tuesday and we were going to a farmer’s market during the day and we had planned to go a local major crafts festival that we go to annually on Wednesday. I pointed out to him that we could drive down, stay overnight and if the batteries were still not charging, come home on Wednesday and we would have gone to 2 places we were looking forward.  With the RV battery off we started on our trip.  When we were in NJ we stopped at the first rest area and checked that the batteries were being charged.  They were. 
                                           
Why did we have this problem?  First, the batteries are beyond the normal life - they need to be replaced  - between buying them and having them installed it will cost over $1000 and we keep putting it off.  Second - apparently running the RV’s electrical system on our home electric system at 20 amps does not have enough “juice” to recharge the batteries and to also run the RV fridge. 

We kept the fridge off until after we plugged in to the electricity (30 amp) at the RV park at night - warm soda.  Today when we out we again shut off the fridge to let it keep charging.  On our return tonight we again turned it on after plugging in.  Since tomorrow we will be in and driving around, we will live the fridge on and probably do so again on Friday when we go to a different farmer’s market and then drive home.

Yes, we will get home extremely late Friday night - really extremely early Saturday am - and then have the new fridge for the house delivered on Saturday - with the possibility of a very early am delivery.

So, early last week we were getting up, going down, and checking the temperature in the RV overnight after going to bed.  Wednesday night I had 3 hours sleep as I woke up early for work.  Thursday night we kept waking up in anticipation of the delivery coming.  Friday night I was up all night checking the temperature of the fridge - I slept an hour and a half in 3 separate half hour naps.  I was up early in the morning waiting for the call from the delivery manager and then making the call to him instead. Saturday night we continued to wake up all night to check the temperature in the fridge.  Sunday night I went to bed and had trouble falling asleep.  Monday night we went to bed after finishing packing and the woke up 3 hours after I fell asleep to go on the trip.  Today, Wednesday, we woke early to go to the crafts festival - so 4 hours sleep for me.  Friday we have to again wake early (for us) as we have to dump the dirty water tanks and be out of the site we are in by 11 am.  Then, anticipating the delivery on Saturday I probably won’t sleep - plus we have to unload at least part of the stuff from the RV when we get home, and possibly need to wake up as early 7 am for the new delivery.  This all works out to about 2 full nights of sleep over the week and a half that this is going on.  I hope husband plans to sleep in a bit tomorrow.

In addition our house is in a state of disarray. In order to clear room for the refrigerator to be brought in and placed in placed, we had to move things in our front hall (into the living room) the dining room, and the kitchen.  Part of this went into our studio behind the kitchen.  I have not been able to find even a pen and paper at times as nothing is where it belongs.         

Oh, and I tripped and turned my foot on my way home from work last Thursday - luckily that was the only injury from the fall and the foot felt better the next day.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

Some matters take much more time to resolve due to the problems that arise in dealing with it - and with life.   If needed a quick cry - and then hopefully a hug from one’s significant other - then same cries and you hug them.  That is life. 

Hopefully the new refrigerator will work properly.

For those in the US  - Happy 4th of July.THE REFIR

REPLACE THE REFRIGERATOR?

Well the ants were resolve as of last week.  I have been very careful - I wash the dishes, etc immediately after we eat, then dry them and put them away, then dry the drying rack, dishpan and sink.  So far, so good.  (Fingers crossed.)

The refrigerator is a different story.  I have spent weeks now watching the thermometer in it - it is a remote read so I don’t have to open the door.  I understand that there is some play in the temperature of the fridge and I sort of know how it works.  For food purposes it has to be kept at 40F or less and for insulin related reasons it has to be kept at 36 F or higher.  It can go as high as 46F, but since the food has a lower top limit, I basically have to keep the fridge (house or RV) between 36 and 40 F.  I try to keep both at 38F and between 37 and 39F to allow some play or in case the thermometer is off. 

I know how to adjust the temperature - turn the knob colder if the temperature is too high until the compressor just clicks on, it if too low then turn the knob just warmer so the compressor clicks off.  I am at good at this.  In the RV I have been known to jump to the back when we stop for gas to make a quick adjustment. 

Recently our house refrigerator has been acting wrong.  I look at the thermometer and it is 37F.  I leave it.  I look again maybe 10-15 minutes later and it is 40F.  It should not jump that much that fast or without seemingly hitting any temperatures between.  It is then hard to get the temperature back down to where it belongs.  I am not adding large amounts of food at all, let alone food that is not already cold.  I thought I was just missing the adjustments and started setting the timer in my mobile phone to go off every 15 or 20 minutes to remind me to check the timer.  Still missed the jumps.  Husband and I have been discussing what to do.  For what a repair would cost, it would not pay. 

So we have been looking refrigerators online and in stores.  Since we have a small house, we have a small kitchen and a relatively small fridge.  When we moved into this house 30 years ago we owned a refrigerator that we had used in our apartment and brought that with us.  Sending the one that came with the house (from the prior owners) to the garage (which did not have electricity) where its main use was to have our, then, Christmas tree stored on top of it.  One July 4th week we were away and came home and found that while we had been away the fridge had died.  As we threw out most of what was in the fridge, we thought to and tried to plug in the fridge in the garage - it no longer worked.  So we bought a new fridge. 

For our apartment we had bought a 15 cu ft refrigerator.  Due to confusion the company that we bought it from took about a week to deliver it to us - and they delivered an 18 cu ft one - with an ice maker and told us to keep both when I called that they were wrong.  (Apparently they kept mixing us up with another customer which led to them claiming that originally they tried to deliver and I was not home - I was home and on the phone, by coincidence, at that time.  We bought the fridge in 1982 for the apartment.  I know this as I was working on a piece of embroidery at the time, worked on it all work while stuck in our apartment waiting, and it is, yes, dated 1982.  I am not sure of when we bought the first one for this house or its size.

When we had our house treated for the bed bugs in 2009 we found afterwards that the refrigerator which we had replaced that one with was no longer working.  Since we found several individual bottles of water in the fridge and its freezer which were not ours, so apparently the bed bug crew had stashed their water bottles in our fridge (it was a major heat treatment) and had been opening the doors all day - so our fridge died. 

At that time we bought the fridge that is currently in our house.  It is 20.9 cu ft.  Like all of our other ones it is white and a top freezer.  I did not particularly like a number of things about it, but we were in a rush and bought it - it has served us well.

Monday night we decided that we had to replace it.  We both looked online and found that there seemed to be 3 possible replacements of about the same size.  Tuesday we went to a major house/hardware chain to look at what they had. None of the 3 excited me.  They had oddly arranged shelves (all were actually from different companies - not just the same company with different nameplates) and such.  Husband had heard about fridges which allow one to set an actual temperature and the fridge will keep that temperature - not the usual turn the dial a little this way or that and stick a thermometer in the fridge to check the temperature.  I found one that was “only” $300 more than what we were looking at - or to look at the extra price another way - it added the equivalent of 50% more of the price to the price.  This was something he REALLY wanted.  He had given me measurements at home before we went out and this one did not seem that much larger in size and we left it in consideration.

We then went to the other major house/hardware chain to see what they had.  Basically the same, but the model that we had seen and husband was interested in, was slightly different - or at least it’s number was. 

We have bought large appliances from both in the past and based on same decided that we wanted to buy from the first company, but decided to go a different store in the chain which was larger and “maybe” would have something different.

They did not.  So I made the decision.  As much as I would hate the fancier fridge - it was side by side and I was not even sure a turkey would fit on the tiny shelves and we had to take it in stainless as white add another 50% to the price, it made sense for the problem we have with keeping the temperature in such a small range.  We bought it.  To be delivered and set up on Friday.

We then went home and measured the front door - it was about an inch too small, but we figured that they could take the fridge doors off as there was a measurement without same and it would fit. 

One thing husband had read about is that the freezer in this type of fridge has a small “door” to the main compartment which opens and closes to take cold air into the freezer and it makes the main fridge section warmer.  We have a small freezer in the basement - from when we used to grow vegetables and I would actually shop at sales to buy food and would store the extra in this freezer.  Now it is mostly empty  - when I went to see what was in it - everything had a date to use by in 2016.  I tossed them out.  I then took all of the items in our fridge’s freezer downstairs to the freezer. Only things I left in the upstairs freezer are some of those liquid filled plastic things that one freezes and puts with food or meds to keep them cold in transit.  I then turned the fridge’s freezer temperature almost all the way to the warmest temperature.  (We would need to move the frozen food to same anyway as it takes a day for the new fridge/freezer to reach temperature.

Overnight the same thought came to each of us - the fridge also had to pass through 2 doorways in the house - and they were narrower.  Then husband went downstairs and laid out the measurements of the fridge we ordered - it was huge!  It would not only block part of the entry into the kitchen from the dining room, it would also block access the (only) light switches in the kitchen.  I measured the old fridge and came in about 3-4 inches smaller front to back then he had measured.  We went back to the store and canceled the order. 

Now what to do?  Well, the fridge had been working okay since yesterday (Tuesday).  Maybe it would keep working - at least until we return from a trip next week.  The sale on the various refrigerators continues to July 10, so we could still get the price when we came back.  We looked at the 3 fridges in the right size and decided which one we would get - but we figured we would buy it after we returned from our trip.

Husband decided he wanted a chicken pie we had in the freezer.  I went down and took it out.  Temperature in the fridge was 37F - great!  I put the pie in to cook and was playing games on my cell phone.  I wanted a glass of soda - in taking out the bottle that was there, I notice we would need more and added a bottle - a room temperature bottle - to the fridge.  When I looked up again the temperature was 45F??!!!  By now we have several thermometers sitting in the fridge - the one we normally use seems to always be the odd one out.  In this case the others all showed the temperature to be 40F - could it be a thermometer problem?  We have spare of the remote read and I set that up and took the first one out - same problem.  Even with the temperature set to the coldest setting  - it was not getting colder, the compressor did not seem to be on.  We unplugged the fridge and then plugged it in again (it seemed to help twice before since the weekend).  No effect. 

Extremely s l o w l y the temperature dropped.  After dinner, we went out and ordered the fridge that we had decided to order next week. I don’t love it - but hopefully it will work and it is better than the huge side by side husband wanted - and it should fit through all the doors it needs to.  It is suppose to be here Friday. 

Now for logistics -

We have an automatic ice maker to old fridge - as we had one before, we had bought it again.  We are not getting one for our new fridge - we rarely use ice and end up tossing out the shrunken cubes that are in the freezer.  We can do it “the old fashioned way” and have frozen trays of ice in the freezer.  But we have to shut off the water to the fridge and get rid of the water in the line.  Husband found it and turned it closed as far it as it went.  I threw out the shrunken, dried cubes in the ice bucket and turned the ice maker on to use the rest of the water in the line up.  We either have much more water in the line than we thought, the ice maker uses much less water than we figure - or the water is not actually off and has a leak in the tap as we keep getting more ice cubes - right now they are just shells of ice, but they keep coming.  Just heard more drop.  We bought a “cap” for the end of the water line - just in case the water is not and cannot be shut off completely. 

Freezer, as mentioned, is basically empty.

That leaves our fridge section.  There is an open package of American cheese slices, an open package of cream cheese, 2 hot dogs, and 6 eggs in it. I have 2 of husband’s insulin pens in it.  If we cannot keep them below 46F, I am not going to worry about it as they will need to be used within 42 days - and they are 20 days worth, plus husband is in the middle of pen - so they should be used up long before the 42 days.  The rest of what is in there does not really need to be in a fridge “to keep” - soda, sealed bottles of ice tea, condiments (no mayo), and similar.  Our RV is currently plugged in to charge the batteries (done twice a month, just happened to be doing it now) and we will turn on the fridge in the RV tomorrow and put the food from the fridge in it until we can move it to the new fridge.  (Hot dogs could just be frozen and put in the basement freezer.)

I soooooo hope that this is the last of the stupidity that has been going on.  (Well, I do have to make a 3rd call to an insurance for our reenacting unit - so, still repeating chores over and over.)  I really cannot take any more!


THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

When one thinks that everything is resolved - something isn’t and will need to be dealt with and redone.

Oh, and things always break at the wrong time.

Oh, and when all these things are going on and one goes down to do laundry and pours water out of the dehumidifier all over the basement - the laundry can wait!

 

WHAT SHOULD YOU GET RID OF AND WHAT SHOULD YOU KEEP?

Pardon me - I didn’t post yesterday.  As I think I mentioned the most important annual Jewish holiday was yesterday and when it was over last night it slipped my memory what day of the week it was.  So here I am, a day late and a post short. 

As I was talking about last week, much of what one needs to know about organizing we know.  It is finding the time and pushing ourselves to do it that is the problem - at least for me.  Basically one has to sort through what one has and get rid of what is not being used and will not be used and then set up what is left in an organized manner so that one can find what one is looking for quickly. 

What to get rid of?  A good question.  Some of it is rather obvious - empty boxes of cereal for example.  They are garbage. Almost empty box?  Depends on how much is left - if you can eat it all while continuing to work - eat it and toss the box; if it is enough for a meal or two - use it up at meals and toss the empty box.  In this case I mean for the cereal box to stand for anything which gets used up, but the empty container is still around.  This week and last week I made a chicken stew that my husband loves for dinner.  Problem is that the garbage pickup is on Monday and Thursday and I was making the stew on Monday last week and Tuesday this week and both times had to hold it all both times until Wednesday night when I put it out for Thursday pick up.  The bones, skin and such have to be thrown out, but if I toss them in the kitchen garbage and they don’t go out right away, it will smell terrible.  I can take the kitchen bag out to the can outside, but it really upsets me to put the bag(s) out only about 1/3 full.  So, I put the chicken garbage into one of those plastic shopping bags that one gets at groceries stores, put same in the bowl I had used to hold the cooked chicken overnight (cooked the chicken one day, made the stew the next) before taking it off the bones and left it in the fridge.  When it was time for the garbage to go out I added the shopping bag of chicken icky stuff to it and out it went.  I then washed the bowl the bag had been in.  I actually have left over stew from both nights.  It can’t be frozen as it has potatoes in it and they never freeze well.  I have the stews in two canning jars in the fridge (one from last week and one from this).  I will hold them until the end of the next week - if husband has not eaten it by then (he really LOVES this stew) then it will go out that Sunday night in the garbage - it will not be allowed to sit beyond when it will be safe to eat.

Staying with the kitchen, some items are harder to get rid of.  Husband will decide that he likes something - say a particular canned soup - and buy a lot of it.  Then something will happen and it will not be eaten.  Say, he decides it raises his blood sugar too much and he should only have it once in a while.  The items sit........and sit.........and sit..........and sit.......and sit.  Suddenly they are past their date and one cannot even donate them.  It really kills me to throw out 6 full cans of something because it passed its date a year or two before - but out they must go.  They are taking up needed room and if they are eaten by accident they may make someone ill.  I have to check on some eggs we have in the fridge - wait, I will check right now - an entire dozen dated for June 16, 2018.  Now what do I do?  Normally I would toss the eggs.  But here is a bit of info - when eggs pass their date and are sent back to the producer by the stores they are allowed to be repackaged and sent back out a certain number of times - gross right, but it is true.  Eggs can be tested to see if they are still good and I will have to find the instructions on how to check them.  Okay, per “The Joy of Cooking” if the eggs float in cold water they are no good.  I will test them tomorrow and then throw them out if they float.  We go through periods where we eat eggs or use them in cooking and will buy them - and then the period of eating them ends - see husband deciding he likes something and then deciding not to have it any more, above - I think he was making quiches with them and then stopped doing so - and they sit.  Usually it only part of a dozen, which is left.  In case you are thinking - what about breakfast?  We wake up so late that we have lunch for breakfast, dinner for lunch and then a late night snack for supper, so eggs tend to be more of a dinner food here.  I am going to test them.....  Well, they will going out Sunday night with the garbage for Monday, the 3 I picked at random all floated - but, on the other hand, I was wrong - there are only 10, not a full dozen.  We have a quart of milk in the fridge also.  I know that is fresh, we bought it for a meeting of our reenactment unit last Monday - husband had volunteered to bring snack - oh that reminds me of something else, we are going to return an unopened package of cookies - we bought 2 different kinds for the meeting and apparently it was a chocolate mint cookie crowd, not a chocolate chip crowd.  But no one opened the milk to use in their coffee.  So I have to figure out how to use up a the quart - I guess we will be having diet pudding for snack a few times.  We were lucky to find the quart - mostly it comes in half gallons and more around here, and the quart cost almost as much as the half gallon.

So - when one sorts through stuff one will find stuff to toss, stuff to check and decide if it should be tossed - now or soon after, stuff to return, and stuff to use up.  If only I had some chocolate syrup for the milk, but if I buy same, then I will have a started bottle of chocolate syrup and someday in the future will be deciding if it should be thrown out or not.  (Plus we just plain should not have the extra carbohydrates.)

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

You know that you know what to do.   Go through and toss the floating eggs and the long past date things (whether they are actually dated or not) - and the chicken stuff which has been stored until you can toss it.  Get rid of the empty boxes or finish up what it is in them and get rid of them.  Return items which are in good condition which can be returned.  Use up the items that can still be used - before they have to be tossed because they are floating eggs.   This applies in the rest of the house as well as in the kitchen - paints and makeup can go past their use time also, for example.  The dress you bought for Sally’s wedding a month ago and then bought a different one, that you wore instead - return it if you can or donate it - unless you know that you can wear it for Harry’s wedding next month.  And so on. 

YOU already know what to do

I don’t know about you, but I actually know what needs to be done for to declutter and get organized.  You probably also know what to do.  You have probably read it in book after book -
       
        1- Go through what you have
        2 - Purge anything that you have not used in X years (generally one or two years depending on the book.
        3 - Separate items that don’t belong where they are into one of four boxes - keep, put somewhere else, throw out, donate, sometimes, a fifth box - return to the owner.
        4- Survey what you have left and figure out how to store it, buying storage containers only after knowing what you need and measuring the space and items to go into storage.
        5 - Keep up putting items away every day.

Oh, this reminded me, I am looking to buy plastic storage to organize the freezer compartment of the fridge better.  For some reason lately a lot of food items we buy are in bags - they used to be packages in boxes, they lie on top of each other and I forget what I have.  I want them to stand up so I can see what I have.  Hold on a minute while I measure the freezer section - hmm mmm mmm - sorry, okay, I am back - that’s less than 10.5 inches tall, 14.5 inches deep, and 19 inches across and I plan on 2 containers across - that would be 9.5 inches across each maximum.  I put the measurements in my cell phone in the Walmart section of my “to buy” list.  I will have to see what is available.

Oh wait  - the timer in my cell phone went off - I have to down to the basement and switch loads in the washer and dryer.  Be right back....hmm mmm mmm.  Okay, back again.  I forgot that there was a blanket in the dryer from last week.  We sleep with two in winter, one in summer and I had this one on the bed, but put the other one on the bed last week and washed the one that was there as we both had colds over the past month and thought it best to wash to wash the one we had been breathing on.  It is now sealed in a plastic bag to keep it clean until it is needed again.  It will go in a small storage piece in our bedroom. Back to all of you, cell phone will go off again in 50 minutes to switch loads again.

Okay - while the above is true, I do other things while I am writing my posts, it is also why the common “simple 5 steps” to get uncluttered and organized don’t always work.  Oh, I also updated the browser in my other laptop while I have been writing this.  It is not that I don’t care about all of you - (I do wish there were more of you, but I am glad to have every one you reading my posts - feel free to tell friends to join us) but we all have to multitask these days.  It is not as easy in the real world as it is in organizing books.

Yes, the basic 5 steps are what need to be done, but sometimes they have to be done in small bites - catch as catch can.  When my husband was screaming about his sock drawer - too many socks, too little room.  He has trouble finding socks which are comfortable and the ones he liked are wearing out quicker and quicker so he is searching for new socks - as the ones he like are, of course, discontinued.  Of course he buys MORE socks and then hates them.  It is hard to convince him to let me donate them - “I haven’t even worn some of the pairs yet - and what if I can’t find new socks and neeeeeed these?  So I went through his dresser drawers - yes, more than just that drawer - over a period of 2 days - on and off when I had a chance. 

What did I find, well, his missing “space pen” for one thing.  I found that the bottom drawer was filled with more James Bond toys.  I managed to add them to the boxes we had bought and put in the spare bedroom (aka the teddys room) closet.  Ah, most of an empty drawer to work with. I put some empty shoe boxes in same.  I use them for drawer dividers - two boxes make 3 delineated spaces across - box, space, box.  I put the socks he does not wear in the bottom drawer. I also went through stuff he keeps on the left side of his top drawer (which is where his underwear and socks are also kept).  He has a small jewelry box  - mostly junk, the few nice pieces he has are in my jewelry box, empty eyeglass cases (yes, I keep same also) and other small items - under these I found the space pen.  Those items were sorted through and mostly stored in the bottom drawer.  Why did all of this go to the bottom drawer?  Well, he could not get something out of same unless he was sitting down as he would get dizzy, so it is a good place to put things he will rarely, if ever need.  I then rearranged the space in the top drawer and sorted the socks he wears into the boxes (the beige set in one box, the ivory set - he calls them white) in another box and the new socks behind them in the same boxes - white socks in with the beige socks and black socks in with the ivory ones - so they are easy to tell apart by color looking in.  Underpants are no longer squeezed into a shoe box, but in the space between two shoe boxes, so they have a bit more space.  (His underpants like mine are rolled as this seems to make them fit in the space better and easier to grab out - he needs to buy new ones of same soon - he complains all the time.) He also has some ankle height socks which he finds comfortable to sleep in during the winter as they keep his feet warm but don’t “bother him”. 

In doing this I did find some items which I knew he no longer needed and would not be attached to - especially the socks he won’t wear - and packed them to be donated.  Also in doing this I had pulled out some shoe boxes from the top of my closet - some were empty and set aside for use in situations such as this, others had shoes in them, and I pulled some shoes off my closet door rack, that I don’t wear, to donate also to make room for some of the ones in the boxes - although the door rack is about 1/3 empty after I was done - and I don’t have a lot of shoes.  (If I let him know, his extra shoes will end up there, so I won’t mention it.)

All of this - socks, underwear, James Bond toys, shoes, etc. took about 2 hours spread over 2 evenings.  I believe in doing things as one can.  Oh, I had no boxes for donation, etc. just some shopping bags.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Use the time YOU have available and try using your innate knowledge of what to do.  You know to throw out garbage  - you just have to figure out what is the garbage in what you have.  You know to donate what can be donated - don’t look at it as you are getting rid of something you loved (or hated and regretted), but rather finding the item a new home with someone who needs it. 

Think about what you use and how you use it - and how often you do.  Something - such as underwear and socks that are worn daily should be able to be reached as easily as possible. 

But remember we do things by habit which may not be the best way to do so.  What you do not use as often, can be harder to get to.  Since I was in junior high school I had a sock drawer and an underwear drawer.  In my current dresser these were two small half size drawers, the underwear drawer being the top drawer, the socks, the next one down.  The underwear had my underpants that I daily wear one of, my bras - 3 of them rotated through wear and laundry, and half slips - short white, long white, short black, long black - which I very rarely wear - only if the skirt/dress is a bit sheerer than normal.  My sock drawer had my every day socks, my panty hose (rarely worn - once a month to work and if there was an event to which I had to wear a dress), my knee high stockings (worn even less), and the socks I wear to keep my feet warm.  Husband said to me one day after we had been married for decades “every morning you open the top drawer and take out underpants and close the drawer.  Then you open the next drawer down and take out socks and close the drawer.  Why don’t you put the items you wear daily in the same drawer and put the other items in the second drawer?  Makes sense - why did I not think of this?  Well, I had been doing it the same way for so long, it never occurred to me that there was a better way.  I now have my everyday socks and underwear in the top drawer - panties are 3 pairs across, 3 pairs up and two sets of same deep (the set in the front is not a full 9 pairs) and the sock balls stand next to them filling the rest of the drawer - no separation between the two necessary.  The second drawer holds my bras in front on one side, my sleep socks across the front on the other.  A box of stockings - pantyhose and knee highs behind the sleep sock.  I have wool socks which I have acquired over the recent freezing cold winters we have had in the back of the drawer.  The slips are stacked between the bras and the wool socks.  One drawer to open every day instead of two - labor saved.

So think as you declutter and organize about how you can change where items are stored - even in something as common as your dresser  - to work better.


My thoughts and prayers to those in the path of Florence. 

LISTS FOR REPETITIVE TASKS

Husband has spent the last week and a half with cold - which we are guessing he caught from me.  I had been feeling fine and was doing things he would normally do concerning food - such as when we went to Wendys for lunch I would order, pay and pickup the food instead of him - this intended to keep me from catching back the cold.  Well, it worked for a while.

I had planned to be telling you about our being in our little RV and dealing with the problems of organizing it for the trip.  We had planned on leaving this past Monday and coming home on Friday as the weather was suppose to be nice there all week.  As the trip date came closer, Monday and Tuesday were to have RAIN there.  Wednesday would be okay there, but there might be some rain on the drive down.  Since one cannot cancel RV park reservations this close to a trip, we waited to make same. 

Our idea was that we wake early (for us) today and call and make reservations.  During the night I started having cold symptoms again - bad and heavy ones.  I had trouble sleeping.  When we woke earlier than the alarm, husband was concerned about reaching the RV park to make the reservations as the office opens at 9 am, but it is hard to speak to someone before 11 am usually and we had to be on the road by 9 am to try to avoid the dreaded Belt Parkway and the construction along the entire length.  I was trying to breathe.  We sadly decided to not go today.

As we thought about this during the day - and I started to feel a bit better (amazing what 2 little aspirins can do in getting rid of a headache) and able to breathe again.  We decided that I would call the RV park and make reservations for tomorrow night and Friday night and have a 3 day trip.  We tend try not to be in Lancaster, PA on Saturdays - especially in summer - as there are too many tourists.  (Yes, I know we are tourists also, but we are polite ones who try to blend in, not act rudely as many of our fellow New Yorkers and those from New Jersey do.  We go there not for the novelty of the visit, but because it feels like a second home to us.)  I was only able to get a reservation in a space that we know (and know it will be level) for tomorrow night, so we are going for just 2 days - and will hope that along the way there will a space we like for Friday night also. Oddly the 6 spaces that they had available for the 2 nights in the section we like, were all ones we have had problems with in the past - maybe others know that they are not level?  (For those who have never stayed in an RV or trailer, if the RV or trailer is not level one feels off - walking uphill and down, the cabinet doors either swing shut or swing open, most of the refrigerators for same need to be level to work, etc.  Most units have automatic levelers; ours does not.  So we will go and see what happens as to how long we will stay.

Yesterday I packed the RV.  As I have mentioned before, we keep basic items in it so we don’t need to remember or pack them - toothpaste, soap, dish soap, shampoo, an electric razor for husband, cleaning supplies, office supplies (pens, pencils, paper, stamps, clear tape, stapler...), dishes, pots, tableware, blankets & bedding (bed is still made up from last time as we only used it two nights then - covered the pillows on the bed with the blankets), towels - hand & dish, flashlights, sun hats, rain gear and the like.  It is much easier to buy extras of these items than to have to remember to bring them each time - and then remember to put them away when we get home. We filled the water tanks on Monday - this gives us 25 gallons of water for drinking, cleaning, flushing, etc.  Yesterday I packed clothing for us for 4 days (we always bring an extra days clothing on a short trip, 2 days worth on a longer one) into the shelves in the RV “closet” (a small cabinet).  I packed snacks for us into plastic boxes which snap lock closed and put them into one of the “kitchen cabinets” - two thin shelves one about a foot long and the other about 18 inches long which have doors that snap closed.  When we first got the RV we would fill both of these cabinets. Now I use only one for food as we have learned that we do not need as much as thought we did.  (Heck, there are supermarkets and farmers’ markets everywhere there - including 24 hour Walmarts.) The other cabinet gets used to hold items such as plastic shopping bags, sweaters, whatever.  The refrigerator gets soda - a big bottle to use at night and some cans in case we have lunch at a farmer’s market - which is common - or such, we will not have to buy something to drink.

Shoes were brought in and stored - I bring or wear sneakers and bring leather shoes in case of rain.  We keep slippers in the RV.  I have a pair of slip on sneakers that I keep in it - in colder weather I might be wearing shoe boots and if I need to run outside, it is easier to slip on these sneakers.  We also each keep shower slippers in the RV. 

I put the batteries in the thermometer for the fridge - better to find out I need new batteries then, rather than find out when we are leaving.  I also put the toll reader into place in the front window.  I bring in the store coupons from our car. 
   
How do I keep track of all of this - what needs to be put in the RV when.  I have a list of course.  I have it memorized in my computer in a spreadsheet.  I have a “Do Ahead” section  - put water in the tanks, fill bottles of water to bring in the fridge, fill our travel medication boxes and such.  I also have a “Check Ahead” section - this is for items which get used up on trips - paper plates, cups, bathroom cups, napkins (well, okay generally these don’t run out as we end up picking up some at different places as we travel) is there enough paper towels, toilet paper and tissues; soaps and related items; did the towels go back in after laundering after the last trip; and such.

I then have categories of what to pack -
    What clothing items we need; what snack/food items we need/want.
    Items to take from our car and bring - sunglasses, glasses.
        Electronics - you know, tablets, laptops, extra or old cell phones as backups (we would not forget our current ones of course), camera if it is touring trip.
        Household items - laundry bags (we bring our clothes into the RV in 2 laundry bags to unpack them. One is stored away until the end of the trip and is used to take unworn clothing back into the house.  The other is used as a - well - laundry bag and then the dirty clothing goes back into house in it and tossed down the stairs to the basement. 
        I have some coupons which were picked up on earlier trips or came in the mail related to where we are going and I keep them in an envelope that I bring (it’s on the list of course).  Also for our regular main trips (well they used to be regular and main) I have an envelope for each that labeled on the outside on a edge with the name and approximate date of the trip.  For example - Labor Day trip- September, Fourth of July trip, etc.  I keep them in date order with the next trip in the front of the stack in the same 3 section holder on the wall next to my desk as I keep our unpaid bills (the travel coupon holder is mixed in the same section as these envelopes.  If say we pick up coupons for the Kutztown festival in advance - they are put in the envelope for same and will be there when we need them.  I also have backpack
        Things to do - magazines, my embroidery, etc.  Generally they are not touched while we are away, but I always bring them. Husband gives me whatever he wants of same.
        Finally, our “last minute bag”.  This contains items we might need at home until the   moment we leave.  I have 3 plastic boxes in the bag. One has OTC medications - if we our stomachs feel bad at home, we take the pill out of the box.  If ditto while on a trip, well, ditto.  I don’t like to buy these items special for the RV as we use them so rarely, that even the one bottle is not used up by any stretch of when the expiration date is or beyond that seems safe.  One has a bit more of same and our thermometer - one can get ill even on a trip and again, we did not want to buy 2 of them.  The last box has items we will need on the trip - prescription medications for example - and will taken out of the bag the first night of our trip and stored in the cubby that has our personal items needed for the evening and the morning.  We add other items as we use them for the final time at home before the trip.  Much of what is in the bag will stay in the bag for the trip and it is stored where it can be more or less easily accessed.       

The list also has a section for what we need to on our return to make sure that everything that needs to be is out of the RV and back into the house - and there are always items that we bought on the trip in addition to what we brought.  I have a pattern for taking everything out of the RV - but don’t worry I am not going into that now.  The list for our return reminds me of what needs to come out and that we need to shut off the refrigerator, air conditioning, inside light,  and the RV battery - and put a towel into the refrigerator in case there is any leaking from the small freezer section.  (There is a quick version of what absolutely has to come out/be done in case it is raining.       

So, everything but the last minute bag, this laptop, and the rain jackets we might have needed for the trip is packed in our RV.  Tomorrow we will bring these items, turn on the RV batteries, start the refrigerator in the RV, back out of our driveway and be on our way. 

Oh, that sounds so easy. To back out into 2 lanes of traffic on our side of the road involves me standing in the road with a walkie talkie and telling him when he can pull out - talk about needing planning and organization!

I also have a short list, kept on a little clipboard that we use to check off each day of the trip that we have done everything we need to do before pulling out.  We would not want to forget to unplug the RV from the electricity so the system is not broken or to lock a cabinet or the refrigerator door and have everything in it go flying when we drive.  A common thing that we husband forgets is after we disconnect from the camp’s sources he needs to open the curtain at the back of the RV so he can see out same - good thing it is on my list and I turn around see that it is open and if not send him to open it.  Even odd things are on my list.  We have an outside light next to the side door. (Same as the light next to your front/back door at home.)  We don’t turn it on.  One day after driving around much of the day I realized it was on - it must have gotten turned on by accident the night before - I turned it off of course and I added it to the check off list.  This short list has several columns so that on a trip up to 4 days can be marked off on the same form. 

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

If you do something that has many steps or many parts as a repeated thing, make up a list on your computer for what you need to do.  Print it out each time you are doing to do the task and actually cross the items off the list.  If needed I list the items that are going to be done at the last minute on the side as I see them - and circle them on the list.  If I find that there is something that I need to add - I list it on the back of the page and add it when we return home.

ACHOO!

Achoo!  Last week I was feeling fine.  Then it happened.  You know, you wake up with a scratchy throat and wonder - is it a cold or did I just sleep on my back with my mouth open and annoy my throat.  Then the coughing starts - and you still hope it is a just a scratchy throat from sleeping on your back, but you are pretty sure it is not.  Once the sneezing starts and your nose is clogged...  My husband lives in fear of me having a cold.  He is a bit of a hypochondriac so he won’t let me do anything if I might “spread the germs” to him.  But he doesn’t want to do what he is not letting me do either.  Everything takes longer to do as a result and wastes time. Don’t worry - you can’t catch the cold.

He doesn’t want to cook (although he used to love to cook and is the better cook).  He doesn’t want to do the dishes. but he doesn’t want me to do either as I will get him sick.  The first night he made dinner - ham steak that we shared and a packaged macaroni with mushrooms - add to boiling water and let cook - and canned soup.  I did the dishes afterwards with disposable plastic gloves on.  One night he was on the computer with a client and I asked if I should make dinner or wait for him and he told me he was busy - so I made dinner and he ate it, but not happily.  Then the weekend came and cooking was resolved as we eat out Friday through Sunday nights.  This week he cooked dinner on Monday.  Last night as we were trying to figure out what to have for dinner a rain storm hit.  I mean A RAIN STORM HIT.  He received a warning on his cell phone - I did not, although my, no cell service for over a year as it was not working for Internet or phone service and I had to switch,  Blackberry received a notice.  (I keep it charged for it games and camera.)  We had major lightning and thunder for about 2 hours - remember I have fired a reproduction 18th century cannon - the thunder was like cannon fire.  We lost our electricity - one of husband’s other great fears.  We stood/sat with the front door open watching “the show” .  We live on a main road.  A UPS truck went past to the right, then to the left, then two of them passed our house, then another one and so on.  Assorted emergency vehicles passed the house in both directions with lights flashing - police, ambulances, fire trucks, a couple of electric utility trucks...  Cars kept driving in the mess, some would pull over a few minutes and then go on.  I am a pretty fearless driver (scared husband the few times he had to drive with me as the driver) and I would have pulled over.  Sooo, what will we eat?  I was thinking - we have rolls, peanut butter - crunchy and smooth, jelly - strawberry and Ikea ligonberry, American cheese, mozzarella cheese - no problem.  I suggested this to him.  NO!  We cannot open the fridge or his insulin would go bad.  (Well, technically if it got too warm it would still be good for 42 days, but I was not going to argue.)   Luckily the rain let up around 10:30 pm.  We got in the car and drove to a nearby supermarket and bought more rolls and cold cuts for dinner.  On the corner passed a 7-11 shut down do to lack of electricity, employees seemed to be sitting in cars in the parking lot.  We got home and were getting ready to eat and - the lights came back on.  Apparently we were in the largest outage area so we were put back quickly.  I honestly do not remember a thunderstorm with so much or such loud thunder with rain that heavy for so long.

Tonight we took in Chinese food - simple right?  Not really.  The place we took out from for decades (while I was waiting for the gas company to come and turn on the gas in our first apartment I went and took out from this place for lunch - I did not even have tableware, dishes, glasses, etc in the apartment - I did have a borrowed bridge table and 2 borrowed bridge chairs) has changed.  The original owners ran it for a long time - we knew their children, I remember hearing a car stop short in front of our apartment and the father coming running to the corner because his younger daughter had been riding her bicycle and just missed being hit by the car.  When he died his older daughter would come home from college on weekends to help her mom.  Then the son took over for awhile - even though he really wanted to be fishing - and the place often had fresh fish due to same.  Eventually the place was sold - to the son’s sister in law and her husband.  They were also nice and the food was the same and we kept going there.  Earlier this year we went there and the husband was not there and an older woman (I presume one of their moms) was cooking.  The food was not good.  We tried another place and were not happy with them.  We went back to them figuring maybe it was the change in cook.  But the last time we took out the soup was too salty to eat and all the dishes were wrong.  We don’t know what happened.  This is the place we called on our way back from our 5 hour trip in July, 2017 to get dinner made before they closed - http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2017/07/treading-water-5-hour-trip-to-nowhere.html So, we never know where to take out from and as a result we don’t.  We receive an assortment of fliers from take out places and I keep them.  One recently caught husband’s eye and he had been planning to try it - so tonight we did.  Very nice people and food.  Three street parking spaces in front of the 4 stores was the only parking.  Then, since I was sick, husband did not hand me the food to hold on the trip home, he put it in a plastic laundry basket we keep in the back in the car, he did not put anything against the bag to hold it.  Yes, the bag went on an angle and was soaked when he took it out of the car.  After dinner we had to wash the vinyl cover I keep in the car, the basket, and back of the car.  We will go back again - and I will hold the bag.


In the middle of all this I had to go to Manhattan to a client for work - I should have gone last month, but she had a cold (could I have caught this cold over the telephone :-) ).  So I went yesterday.  I packed a zip lock bag with sucking candy, lots of tissues, and an old prescription bottle with one dose of the cough medicine I am taking.  In another zip lock bag I had a small bottle I filled with water.  Did I mention the temperature yesterday was over 90 degrees Fahrenheit?  Luckily I did not need any of the items. 

As a result of this normal housework and keeping things in order are only done if absolutely needed.  Instead of changing the bedding, I changed only my pillowcases.  I suggested he change his, but he said it was okay to just leave them until next week.  I had to talk him through changing the hand towels. We were in the downstairs bathroom - “Where are they?” “In the cabinet under the sink  - see those 2 whiteish towels?  Take them and the green dish towel below them.”  (I put out a green dish towel each week in that bathroom to use for quick clean ups of water around the sink - it matches the bathroom.)  Upstairs?  “Which towels?”  “The yellow ones.” (I figured yellow was bright and he would easily see them.) “You mean these yellow ones?”  They are the only yellow ones we have. 

Last week I had washed and dried the clothes the night before I got the cold.  A load of jeans were in the dryer drying overnight.  So we had clothes for the week.  I did not wash the towels or the bed linens.  Good thing I have 2 weeks of towels plus one extra set for up and down.  I was trying to figure out how to mention to him about the laundry when he brought it up.  I put the clothes in to wash.  He will put them in the dryer - with me talking him through it - and then bring them upstairs afterwards.  He brought up last week jeans load when I put in the load to wash.  He says he will fold the laundry.  I normally pull out his shirts as I put the clean, dry laundry in the basket to take upstairs so that they do not need to be ironed, as I put them over the top of the other clothes and if he does that, and sorts mine from his, I can deal with my clothes and he can deal with his or leave them in the basket and pull them out as he needs them. 

Hopefully either this cold will be definitely over with or he will give up by Monday so life can return to normal.

On the other hand, I had some extra time in the office as we came home quicker in the afternoons.  I managed to shred all of my 2008 records - other than few I kept such as the checks written that year for our income taxes - 3 tall kitchen bags plus, worth of shredding.  I then packed my 2017 records into the same box, relabeled it, and put it back in the closet - ah, room to fit papers in file folders again. 

I also had time to transfer my 2017 computer files to my archive file and make 2 DVD copies of the revised archive files.  I still have to change my back up files so that the old files are gone from them, but that will happen as I make backup files.

I went through an assortment of old computer instruction manuals sitting on a shelf in the office - why?  I needed space for 2 magazine holders.  I pulled a number of the manuals - mostly from programs or hardware that I had - and I will put them out over a couple of weeks with the recycling.  I still have a stack for husband to go through - understand this are DOS or pre Windows XP software and hardware that I cannot figure out what or where it is.  The magazine holders fit nicely in the shelf now with room for the manuals for computer things we are actively using.

The office floor is a mess due to my cheapness in not wanting to waste extra garbage bags when doing shredding and pouring from one to another - as well as throwing handfuls of shreds from one bag to another.  I had planned to vacuum up the shreds - but then caught this cold - maybe tomorrow I will get to vacuuming.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
One gets ill.  It happens.  I am glad that it only a cold so all it has been is inconvenient.  In the larger world it is nothing, just an inconvenience. I am happy that is not serious and by next week either I will be better or he will give up trying to do things for me so he does not catch the cold.  (I have never pointed out to him that I touch the light switches and so does he.) 

Try to do as much as one can without overtaxing one’s self - this will vary based on what is wrong with one.

I leave you with a final achoo!  If I rambled too much - will, hey!  I have a cold! :-)