"I'll drink later"

Some good news.  Ron's talking book machine had a bad headphone jack.  It would unplug at various times and relate X-rated stories (when the catalog says "Explicit descriptions of sex" and they're not kidding) until Ron woke up/figured it out and fixed it.  It would wake me up a couple times a night, some nights.  He finally got the box out and packed it up last night, it was waiting for me this morning.  It just needed a note "Bad headphone jack, thank you!" and some tape on the box (I see what they do to packages, at the plant!)

I took my shower and got dressed, took some headache pills, drank 2 diet sodas instead of one, and went to work.  Ron asked the driver about her childbirth experiences (she had 3) and she told him all about each delivery, in detail.  Ron is just fascinated by that. 

I just listen to the stories thanking God he never got me pregnant.  We got to work, mailed the beast (yay!) and off to work. 

Ron wanted to do sodas first.  I am generally OK with that, we had hours scheduled.  But he wanted me to get one machine's worth of drinks, then another on another cart, until each machine had it's own cart full of soda.  He wouldn't "let" me take the big cart and make one supply run.  That meant I had no carts for working with snacks. 

I really wanted to snap when he asked me to bring him a cup full of water and a paper towel, some of the drinks were sticky.  He spent his time polishing each sticky beverage, cleaning off the yuck, until it felt "right' to his sensitive fingers.  Then he would stock it.  He did this with about 6 cans.  As you can imagine, it took a while. 

I have to keep reminding myself not to move my computer chair.  Baby Girl is sleeping underneath, as she is prone to do of late.  I don't want to disturb her so I will just sit here in my chair farther from the computer than I'd like. 

I nearly lost my temper but had one cart left, I took that and started doing what work I could manage.  Ron finally finished with cans, freeing up 2 carts, and asked me to get drinks for the bottled vendor.  The bottled vendor makes most of our money lately.  So we, basically, kiss its butt. 

I went to the fridge and fetched what we had (some, not all).  I gave that to Ron.  He can feel the differences in the bottles so he knows them.  With cans, there are many questions as to what is this drink?  I try not to get impatient, he is blind and has a head injury, of course he will forget.  He knows more than I do about canned sodas. 

But I took what we did have, drink-wise, and put them in the fridge.  The whole time I'm battling a horrible depression and wondering what I am doing with Ron.  Kept at it.  Did soda, then did snacks. 

Ron got into a snack machine while I was stocking it - they have a storage locker in the bottom of the machine and he stores things there.  I got snacks done. 

From a work-only standpoint the only problem I had was a full dumpster.  Some years back, some guy came and shouted at us about throwing out our cardboard, we had to sort and recycle it now, even though we have very little stockroom to store 2 dumpsters. 

So, we cram two dumpsters into the stockroom (cardboard, and plastic), and fill them up.  They fill pretty quickly, especially the cardboard as virtually every vending item you can get wholesale comes in some sort of cardboard.  Mike empties them, but sometimes he doesn't get time to do it (it's a VERY long walk) so I am left with just a little room in the dumpster.  I am not complaining because I sure don't want to walk it down there, but it meant I had to be clever. 

Biscuit just came and begged for his dinner, and I fed him a can of "Chicken Primavera".  He eats better than I do. 

I managed to finish snacks, I put what I had into the machines.  We took the money out of the machines and I gave it to Ron to count.  He worked on that, actually, while I did snacks.  I forgot. 

I am going to the dentist tomorrow.  What remains to be seen is am I paying his "light bill", car payment, or boat payment?  Hopefully it is the same dentist we have had.  But, if it isn't I'm not too worried.  There is a supervising dentist with several practices.  Our dentist was under him.  If he hired our dentist anyone else he hires must be good.  And, to be honest, I have had a terrible thought every time we went to our dentist.  He is diabetic and had a heart attack.  What if something happened while he was working one me? 

So we got that done, everything put away, off we go to the bank.  We had a good trip to the bank.  Someone actually held the door for us.  Say what you will about illegals, at least they don't let the door slam in Ron's face. 

We got in there and it was pretty quiet.  It generally is, unless it is a payday, first of the month, etc.  We had a couple of transactions.  We needed to deposit a check.  We did that.  Ron needed to exchange a stack of $5 bills for some $20's, and we wanted to turn some $1's into $20's.  At the end of it, Ron was given a couple of $10 bills, which he hates.  He later used those to pay the cab.

We took care of all that and made sure we had it all.  I think the tellers have figured out Ron and I are a little "special".  We mean well, and we're nearly always very nice, but sometimes we're just "dim".  Ron drove me nuts by sitting in his wheelchair, holding the $20's in the air, counting them.  That, to me, is the sort of thing you do at home in private.  I stood next to him like a rabid dog. 

Ron actually calls me his "pit bull" for occasions like that.  At one point I tried to yank the money out of his hand, to teach him a lesson, but he just looked at me in that blind way of his "What are you doing?" . 

He called Arturo.  He came pretty quick.  I thought the butthead armored car company was going to give us a hard time blocking the wheelchair ramp.  I understand they use a hand cart at times but I think wheelchair > hand cart any day. 

They just sat there, idling, even after they had gotten the bank's money, but they did move when they saw the cab for us.  So they are actually decent human beings, today. 

Ron has a hard time - a really hard time, getting into any vehicle.  I practically have to stuff him into the back of the cab.  He tried the front one day and it was worse. 

I was hungry so he took me through a Wendy's drive-through on the way home.  I got a Baconator combo with a diet coke.  I gave Ron some fries, but he didn't want many because, as he explained to Arturo, eating meant he wouldn't get as drunk.  So he would just wait until he could get drunk, first, then eat. 

And he does that. 

We went home.  I got Ron in the house and he asked for a couple of fries, which I shared.  I reminded Ron he had the kind of wife who would share her fries.  I asked if he wanted any more and he said no, then he said he would "drink later" [Praise God!] and went off to his room to crunch numbers for the report.  He did that and came back ready. 

I had finished my food and taken my pills by this point.  I got to work on the data entry, then making the electronic payment (not much, this time).  Then Ron headed for the vodka bottle. 

I forget who remembered first but I think Ron suddenly remembered he would need to make a trip for me to go to the dentist, who is not on the bus line anymore.  He got the address, forgot it, got it again, called in.  What was the address?  Sometimes I'm not much better.  The trip was made, one-way.  We can take a cab home. 

I have been in the position of not finished at the dentist and the ride was coming soon.  You don't want to rush the dentist, ever.  I would much rather pay the $30 extra (on top of the bill, that's nothing) and go home when I'm DONE. 

We should have enough to cover the dentist, but I may take some out of savings as well.  God knows we have done that plenty for HIS teeth so I don't see a problem with mine.  And I don't think a sober Ron would begrudge me dental care, I take good care of my teeth, this is the first problem I have had in 20 years.  And back then I paid all my own dental bills. 

That finished, I took a non-drowsy allergy pill (I don't want to be congested, tomorrow, at the dentist, with all that crap in my mouth) and laid down for a nap. 

But first I had my visitor.  Torbie came up meowing and wanted her petting.  I have figured out a way to ground her, electrically, when I pet her so I don't shock her.  I put my left hand on her paw and pet her with the right hand.  The charge goes through her body to my hand and dissipates in the bedding.  It works pretty well if she'll let me touch her feet. 

You may remember, some years ago, Torbie had a tumor on her foot which I had removed.  It was very close to the claw tendon.  She had to wear a cone for a couple of weeks, but she healed up fine.  You can't even tell she had surgery.  But her foot hurt, I'm sure, and there was a lot of attention along with the pain, so she doesn't like her feet touched as a result. 

I would still do it again.  It was growing, she was chewing on it, it was bleeding, it looked awful.  I like to address problems before they are big problems. 

Anyway, we had a good visit.  She's a good cat and very reliable with the affection.  She went in her house (haus) purring and I drifted off for a little while.  But I had abused caffeine today so I didn't get what I would call a restful nap. 

I got up after about an hour and did my blog.  I have already set my alarm for tomorrow, and filled my water bottle for tonight.  I need to get out the 12 hour mucus pills so I can take one tonight/tomorrow.  I normally run pretty congested so I want to clear things up as much as possible.  Although I don't think it will take too long tomorrow. 

I woke up with a headache so I took more caffeine, in the form of headache pills.  I am going to have a hard time dropping off tonight.  I have some candy for the dentist's staff (I like to be the fun patient), hanging on the door.  I have found that works very well for remembering things, hang it on the door knob. 

I'm going to go make some lemonade when I finish, and watch some TV.  I have noticed, since I can't really chew right now, that I am much more mindful about my eating.  I didn't weigh myself but I venture to say I must have lost weight because I am not snacking at all.  I will try to remember that even when I am better. 

Happily I have not been in any real pain - I have sensation -throbbing, pressure, shocks, etc. on the one nerve but no real "ow".  Either I have a high tolerance for pain, or it is not that bad.  I am just glad I was able to get my medication every day. 

God knows I have plenty of Advil (works best for dental pain, in my experience) if I need it.