Monday afternoon

We went to Walmart, we had a good ride with a nice driver. 

I was impressed, and told Ron, #6 gets a "gold star".  He came home, driving his pickup.  He often comes home "for lunch" which resulted in at least 4 of his kids.  This time he was pulling a trailer with some construction equipment.  At first he pulled up so it was completely blocking my driveway, but, right as I was about to warn him I would call a tow truck, he pulled forward, with the truck and trailer completely blocking the parking at HIS property. 

When our big van pulled up - the kind where the lift comes off the side - it had plenty of room to load Ron.  We went to the store and immediately went to the pharmacy.  There was a screw up and they had us wait while they filled it.  They have been doing it lately, making us come in and beg for our medication (his, and mine).  It is frustrating and annoying. 

Ron had mentioned wanting Velcro shoes, the laces are too hard, he said.  So we went and looked at shoes.  I found a decent pair of Velcro shoes for less than $20, that should hold him for years.  He also wanted a large amount of Meclizine motion sickness pills.  We got him that as well, paid for it, and the pharmacy called Ron saying his pills were done. 

We got his pills.  I almost put them in the bag on the back of the wheelchair but I thought it would be a bad idea.  I gave them to Ron, who put them somewhere safe.  I took him up front and left him. 

There were quite a few elderly, obese and/or disabled customers loitering up front.  I had to put Ron next to the watermelons. Even then, he said people were rummaging in the bag on the back of the wheelchair (good thing we didn't leave the pain pills!) and bothering him. 

I didn't see the shakes I liked so I went for the Diet Mountain Dew, one of the few things they will not deliver for some reason.  I found 4 six-packs and shoveled them in the cart with glee.  It was pretty busy, a lot of people got paid today, and the line at the bank was horrific!

I did get most of the things on my list.  I was quite disappointed to find they did not have the larger kettlebells.  I moved on to what I could buy. 

By the way, by this time, with all the walking at the store and what I had done at work, I maxed out my points for the day on the fitness app. 

I got in line.  Unfortunately it was a very slow cashier.  She would slowly reach for the item, pick it up, look all over the item, slowly bring up the scanner, scan it, fumble with the bag... it took forever.  The two carts in front of me did not have that much stuff but it took a good 10 minutes for her to check them out.  Ron was blowing up my phone, ready to go. 

Someone standing near Ron moved away when I showed up.  I was glad he had not gone by himself, not that he could.  It took Arturo a little while to get to us but he got there eventually. 

I had to wait with Ron.  It was a very negative, depressing, ambiance with all the disabled people loitering with their crap, waiting to be picked up by someone or other.  Speaking of crap, I told you I took out all those empty plastic storage boxes - they were gone in an hour.  Glad I did that. 

So I got to hang out with the non-drivers, it was more depressing then a bus stop.  People at a bus stop are pretty active, energized, going somewhere.  These guys were all passive victims waiting to be "rescued".  Two of them fought over who'd get the electric shopping cart.  The one contender looked like she could use the walk. 

One of my readers got very upset about 10 years ago when I said I resented obese people using the handicapped carts; that the cart was for someone with bad arthritis, missing an arm or leg, back trouble, walker - not someone who needed to do some fork-put-downs and table-push-aways.  I still feel that way - it is unfair for someone who's obese to take a handicapped cart away from someone with an apparent physical problem.  And, yes, I know if they abuse themselves long enough obese people will develop physical impairments but there's a big window before that where they can do something.   Work in that window, or after, even.  I have a bad knee, I still exercise.  I just found things that work for me and I push through the pain I do experience. 

I get up at 3 in the [censored] morning to work out, I don't have much tolerance for excuses.

My opinion.  You will not get better sitting in the cart, but pushing a shopping cart around can be great exercise. 

Arturo came and we loaded the cab, then left for home.  Nice things about Arturo: never an attitude about putting up the wheelchair, always a good attitude, cab always clean, knows the way to all our places, likes cats and willing to have them in his cab (contained, of course), etc.  That's not all of it but it's a lot of it. 

We got home and Arturo helped put our stuff in the garage while I loaded Ron in the wheelchair.  I took Ron in the garage.  He likes the rack but is terrified it will become home to spiderwebs.  He is terrified of spider webs.  I will have to keep it cleaned off. 

I got Ron in the house and put our stuff away as Biscuit escaped to the garage.  The door to the outside was down so it didn't matter.  He loafed around on the concrete for a while and came back in.  I have an extra dumbbell, I use it to prop the door when a cat is out there.  Baby Girl is clever and will paw the door open from either side, if it is not locked.  Biscuit will cry at the door, even if it is cracked and he just needs to press on it to open.  So easier to prop it so he can "clearly" get through it. 

 It was later, but I still laid down for a nap.  I was pretty tired of all the drama we have around Ron getting his medication.  Plus work and not sleeping well last night.  And the headache today. 

I had a pretty good nap with Torbie and Biscuit.  I find it interesting that Torbie allows Biscuit in the bed but never Baby Girl.  That's not very nice.  Baby Girl is not territorial about Ron. 

Ron asked me to throw out his old shoes so I did.  I cut the tags off his new shoes and put them in the shoe spot.  I put all the Meclizine in the dresser as requested and gave him his bag of smoked almonds.  I used to love those but am now allergic. 

I took out some other trash.

Ron is asleep, I fed the cats, they are good.  I need to clean the litter box but not urgently.  It is going to be "nice" tomorrow (no rain).  It will rain Wednesday.  Ron wants to go to the buffet place tomorrow so I need to decide if I want to go out somewhere tomorrow morning. 

I thought about it and decided I did not want to go to Academy to get my kettlebell.  It is 2 long bus rides and then a cab home.  The one on Amazon was maybe $5 more than I would pay at Academy, and it will be delivered.  My mail lady is going to hate me.  So I went ahead and bought that one.  I keep making really good gains on my kettlebell strength so I will keep increasing the weight. 

We need to do some accounting on Wednesday, and I need to clean the garage some more at some point.  Tonight or tomorrow, not sure. 

I already took my pills with a protein shake so I don't need to worry about that.  I plan to have cereal for dinner. 

I'm pretty tired but should be good for a while so I think I will do the cleaning tonight.  It already looks so much better with all the clothes donated, the racks, purging all those storage boxes, etc.  I don't have a tremendous amount left to do.  It is nice to know I am building a little world out there. 

As I said, there isn't much I can control in my life but I can control that.  Today I got 90 "move minutes" out of 70, 5 cardio points (not bad for a day off), 6,529 steps, and 2.22 miles. 

Good to see it happening.  My pants were looser (I rotate the clothes I wear so I hadn't worn these pants in a while).  I was able to pull them on without unzipping them today.  My face is less jowly.  I don't see any other apparent changes but I am getting healthier if nothing else. 

That's all I care about, getting strong and healthy.  Off I go to tackle the garage.