Busy day

Someone sent me a photo of Tyrico Beach, in Trinidad.  I immediately felt a little homesick, as I’m several thousand kilodometers away from the warmth.  It started off as very cold — last night was -14C — and warmed all the way up to -5!  I have to say that -5 almost felt comfortable after this morning.  It was bright and sunny, which is always lovely except when it’s hitting you directly in the eyes as you’re driving!  Jerry spent the morning, of course, in my lap, and when we got back, he jumped back on me so I can’t move without throwing him off, and he’s using that as his signal to bark at imaginary intruders.  He nearly threw a fit when I got up out of my chair to go to the kitchen, and he’s been running between Don and myself.  Don was up late last night watching the recordings of his games so he was tired this morning understandably, and was sluggish getting started.  He’s perked up since, and managed to do a few things and is now playing with the little dictator who is seeking all the attention that he can find.

I was up really early this morning as I had an appointment with my palliative care doctor, then I did my bloodwork in preparation for Thursday’s chemo session.  Happily my hemoglobin has climbed a little, and my other results look better than the last time, which is great.  I ate the remains of dinner from last night (Guyanese stewed chicken and packaged macaroni and cheese.)  I’m feeling too full for dinner, although I’ll probably make a cup of tea later.  I have some coconut sweet bread, which will go very nicely with it, so I won’t be hungry, don’t worry.  

I watched a bit of Carnival today, and the colours were, as usual, amazing.  Everyone passing the camera looked so happy and the energy was just palpable.  Gorgeous weather to go with it, too, and the heart-pumping, body moving music was as addictive as ever.  As happens every year, I get the urge to listen to the music after the end of Carnival for a few days.  It’s great that we have YouTube so I can participate without having to pay!  The channels are of varying quality, but there are so many that it’s possible to watch almost everything from various angles.  More than the TV channels can cover, too.  I know that in the next few hours there will be some beautiful, high quality glossy magazines with highlights of the last few days.  Those disappear so quickly it’s amazing!  Even in the digital age, those mementos are still sought after with enthusiasm.

Would I be rude and incorrect if I hid paper towels when a certain support worker comes over?  She was here a few days ago, and started a new roll of paper towels.  It’s the Costco pack, so it’s HUGE.  When she left, there were maybe 5 sheets left.  I’m still in shock that she ran through the whole roll in under an hour PLUS used 4 tea towels, 6 cleaning cloths and 2 new sponges to clean 1 counter and wipe the sink.  (Not even particularly well, either.)  When she bathed me, she had pulled out 5 washcloths… I’m honestly stunned at her profligate use of stuff, more so since she put the wet towels, etc in a GARBAGE BAG instead of the laundry basket.  I didn’t realize what she was doing until after she left; but when she came yesterday I ensured that there were no paper towels available in the kitchen (thankfully she didn’t go for the bathroom tissue!) and I only left out 2 cloths and 1 dish towel.  I may be cheap, but I bought the thicker towels as they’re almost like fabric in their usage, so I use less… it felt like watching someone just throw $5 bills in the garbage!  I am nervous about letting her do my laundry, as she’ll probably want to empty the detergent bottle!  On her next visit, I’ll be sure to monitor her more closely, as she seems to create more work (and considerably more waste) when she’s here.  But would it be rude of me to ask that she not waste stuff like that?

OK, that seems petty, and I don’t mean to be.  So at this point I’ll just go turn on the kettle (and skip the reminder of the next games which just popped up on the TV).  Good night!