End of June

I was “kidnapped” today at lunch; my kidnapper is very considerate and gives me some notice so I can change out of my stay-at-home comfy clothes into leave-the-house mostly comfy stuff.  The smell of smoke still pervades everything and there’s reduced visibility — the skies are a dingy November grey, but no rain, just smoke from the wildfires.  Breathing is a challenge, as it’s humid as well as smoky.  Yuck.  Jerry is in high excitement for the day, partly because I was out this afternoon, and partly because my (his) support worker was here later.  He thinks that she’s here for his amusement, and objects to her taking me off to do things like bathe and do stuff in the house.  Don, thankfully, feels better today than he did the last couple of days, and has a little more energy.  I’m hoping that he shaves his beard soon — I should be used to it by now, but I’m not a fan of dense face fungus.  I’m not doing anything overt, just dropping hints about how great he looks when he’s clean-shaven!  We’ll see how my hints work, as well as how uncomfortable he feels with a thick beard in the summer heat.

I tried a new grocery delivery service today.  I still prefer choosing my own fruits and vegetables, and I’m a little obsessive with expiry dates, but what I received today was decent.  A little scrutiny of times and I got the least expensive delivery rate ($6)  Rates can go up to about $15 for 2-hour timeframe.  I timed it so that I had help to unpack and put away the items, and hopefully I’ll have enough energy on the weekend to do some cooking so I’ll have meals into the week.  I must admit that I still have no real appetite, nor do I feel like eating a lot, but I am trying to ensure that food goes in and I don’t starve myself.

Speaking of food, why do restaurants here insist on serving gravy with fries?  If I order chicken and fries, it comes with gravy… or, if they want to seem posh, “chalet sauce.”  Fried chicken, French fries, medium gravy… it’s just so wrong!  The gravy for me always, always just ends up in the garbage.  I’ve tried it, but it’s not at all to my taste.  Swiss Chalet / St. Hubert are some of the worst offenders, IMO, as the heavily salted brown water they serve is just 🤢 unpleasant.  I’ve found a few places that offer good chicken, but any combo includes that sludge.  I don’t understand why!  I guess that’s one of those Canadian things that you have to be brought up here to get?  I know that poutine is a huge deal — something else that I don’t appreciate — but it’s one in which I can’t join because the “gravy” is usually made with beef, and that’s on my list of foods I can’t eat without unpleasant consequences.  I’ve been reliably informed that lobster poutine doesn’t count, since the sauce isn’t authentic gravy.  I bow to the superior knowledge of the poutine brigade on that!  Personally, I’d prefer a cole slaw with fries, or perhaps mashed potatoes and corn as my sides.  No weird brown sauce that tastes like salty sadness!  It’s early in the season, but I’m eager for ripe local strawberries, freshly picked corn on the cob and all the lovely summer fruit!  Perhaps that will jump start my appetite and I’ll have my dietitian telling me to slow down a bit?  Possible!

OK, it’s that time of night when I medicate myself and then have a late night snack before bed.  Happy to report that there are no new side effects, and that’s all to the good.  I’m being eyed by my personal security system, who doesn’t let me get too far away, especially on days when I ran off for an hour.  I’ll try going in a bit early tonight, as I once again had a less than stellar night last night.  Can you imagine that we’re now halfway through 2023?  It doesn’t seem that long since we were getting ready for January, and here’s 6 months done!  Have a good night, and we can get ready for the rest of summer!