Category: Daily Log

Apex, Publix & the State Farmer’s Market

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I had lunch at “Tacos Mexico” in Apex, NC. Their Lunch #3 included chips & salsa, a Chile Relleno, a Beef Enchilada, Spanish rice and refried beans. I drank water, but think that might be the 16 cents Surcharge on the bill. The basic salsa was bland, but had bits of onion and cilantro. I asked for hot sauce and some packets of sweetener. The waitress brought back the sweetener and two squeeze bottles, one with a green mild sauce, and one that she said was really hot. It was really hot so I just used a little and some sweetener to make my sweet hot salsa.

The Chili Relleno had a lightly breaded crust. They included a whole Poblano pepper that had been deep fried. There was a tomato sauce poured on top of the Poblano pepper. There was a slight “after taste” that I realized I would not like. Once was enough. The meal wasn’t unpleasant, but just a one time event.

I noted the customers, and most seemed to be Hispanic, in work clothing.

I turned on to Hunter Street and rode west. At some point, Hunter Street becomes Olive Chapel Road and after crossing the Toll Road, Publix is on the right.

There were several locations within the store that were in a familiar spot, but it wasn’t exactly like the Publix in Fayetteville. I found the Bread section, and they had some Ciabatta Rolls. The rolls were mislabeled as Ciabatta Loaf and was priced over $4. I asked the clerk about this and she re-labelled the bag as Ciabatta Rolls at a lower price. I checked for lamb and they didn’t have any Round Bone Chops.

Coming back through the Apex Historical Downtown District I noted several groups of both boys and girls that looked to be Middle or High School age, walking down the sidewalks.

I drove up US 1 and made it to the NC State Farmer’s Market. There were still a lot of colorful peppers for sale, and I bought some at two different vendors (one Lee’s Produce for sweet peppers).

The four types of peppers shown below were supposed to be sweet/not hot and they were. The far right were red Poblanos. On the left, the more orange pepper had the sweetest flavor. The long red peppers in the middle had little flavor.

I bought gas in Fuquay Varina.

There is a turn-off just above Bunn Level and there was one car ahead of me that knew all the short cuts until we got back on Ramsey Street.

NOTE [09/03/22]: Awoke after 2 am on Saturday and went to the bathroom. I looked over at the counter where my “empty” pill box should have been. There was none. No pill box, hmmm… I had gone to bed early (don’t remember exactly when) so, it wasn’t likely that I had taken the evening pills. Mild panic. I head to my living room and search under my “recently received” car title, and there is an empty space for one of the blue plastic daily containers… but the empty space is for THUR, and this is early Saturday morning. There nearby is the empty container for THURS. I haven’t taken any of my pills for Friday, and it is Saturday. I rush back to the bathroom and take the morning pills, with no idea at how to fit the FRI evening pills in before the SAT morning pills come due.

I don’t think I’ve ever forgotten a whole day before. I’ve been fairly religious about taking my pills, except I did forget my evening pills once. That is when I determined that you should go ahead and take the pills that you forgot.

I had felt “off” and when I got home, went to bed early. Some of the “offness” might have been because I hadn’t taken any daily medication. Now, early Saturday morning, I don’t think I ate anything for dinner either.

Car into Hendricks & then Goldsboro & Smithfield

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I finally got around to scheduling maintenance on my 2018 Toyota Camry last night. I went online and surprisingly, there were early times listed for this morning (it may have been after 9 am, last night when I went online). I selected the 8:15 am slot and set the clock on my phone to wake me at 7 am.

I went to the Hardees near Cross Creek Mall this morning for breakfast. I ordered a Ham Biscuit Combo, which includes a drink and tater tots. I wasn’t paying close attention when the girl handed me my change but saw two $5 bills and some change. It took a brief time to register, but then I asked her how much the meal had been. *I’m thinking that two 5’s and some change would mean it was a little over $9 for the combo, and it should have been more around $7. I think she was confused also because she said the biscuit by itself was $5+ (which was the price listed for the combo). I later asked the manager and she looked at the ticket and said I had been charged correctly.

It was then that I realized the girl had given me a “bunch of change” and that there were quite a few more quarters, so I surmised that she had given me quarters instead of dollar bills. I had taken a penny and one or two quarters with me as I left my apartment, and now there were maybe a dollar or two worth of quarters.

I enjoyed the flavor of the ham biscuit, but later started to get indigestion, which lasted through the rest of the morning and into the afternoon, even after lunch.

I made it to Hendrick’s before 8am and was processed. I slept some in the waiting room, and looked at various stuff on my phone. My car was done in about 2.5 hours, which was relatively quick, but it did cost a little over $600 for everything. I mentioned to the processor that I had just finished paying for my Camry with my last monthly payment, and that I had received my car title just a couple of days ago.

I left the dealership and was just a short distance up the road when I noticed that the air conditioning was putting out hot air. I thought I was going to have to go back to the dealership, but cold air started pouring out and I continued on my trip. *I decided to go to the Longhorn restaurant in Goldsboro, NC for lunch. It was around 11 am.

It was shortly after 12 noon when I arrived at Longhorn.

I eat the bread with butter, and leave the hamburger bun that comes with the hamburger. Cheeseburger, with American cheese. I get the Shrimp & Lobster Chowder. This time I requested no pickles (they are dill) and extra onion. I like their onions (sweet, no bite).

After lunch, I walked outside. I could hear what sounded like a large jet engine revving up. **I looked at Google Maps and it doesn’t look like the air field is close enough to Longhorn for a jet engine to sound that loud. Not sure. I got in my car and drove to the other side of the SJAB airfield. There is a dead end road with soy beans (maybe) growing on either side, so they are low to the ground. I can watch any aircraft taking off or landing from here. There were a couple of small aircraft taking off as I arrived at the Dead End. They didn’t return and I saw no others take off or land.

Google StreetView image capture (no crops growing at the time)

I then headed on to Smithfield, NC and stopped at JR’s to get a couple of packs of RamRod Cigars. Comes to around $13 and there are 5 cigars per package.

Came back home. Watched a little TV and went to bed. Wasn’t feeling well, but am better now.

US Representative / Gerrymandered District #4/ etc.

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I’ve been frustrated by how my US Senator (Richard Burr) has dumbed down his official web site and doesn’t even have an online contact form (he may have never had one). *I checked 30+ Republican US Senators’ web sites and all but Senator Burr’s site were still up and running with all sorts of content, and almost all of them had their online contact/email form prominently displayed on their home page.  The site said two things to me… I don’t want to make it easy for my constituents to contact me, & I want to show you how disruptive this shutdown is by making most of my site content unavailable (even though he didn’t have to — the 30+ other Senator’s sites are proof of that!).

Today, I decided to contact my US Representative and wow, how funny, NOT! I go to the US House web site and start the process of looking for my Representative. I enter my ZIP code, ( http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/ ) and get the following beautifully colored map showing where I live. I go to the Congressman David E. Price web site ( http://price.house.gov/ ) and his Contact form ( https://price.house.gov/contact ) I then go to USPS to get my ZIP+4 number and enter those numbers and click on “Go to Form”.

It’s then that I’m told that they don’t have a record of that ZIP in the area which they represent. I finally find a local office phone number at the bottom of the web page and call it.

An assistant answers the phone and I rehearse my dilemma. She can’t verify me in their system and isn’t sure how to correct the problem, other than have me email her my correspondence to Congressman Price. She is going to check with their tech to see how to correct this problem. I guess there are several hundred of us in the apartment complex who would be in the same predicament if they tried to contact their Representative.

Semi-Annual Checkup

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I had a 1:30 pm doctor’s appointment this afternoon with Dr. Jessica Sloan. A couple of weeks ago, I had come so they could take blood.

I arrived about 5 minutes before my appointment and waited until about 1:45 pm when a nurse came to the door, called my name and directed me into the room where she recorded my weight, height, blood pressure and heart rate. This was a new nurse. It wasn’t Casey, and I don’t think she ever introduced herself. After the initial work, I was directed to the same little corner room where I always wait for the doctor.

Doctor's Waiting RoomThe room has a few chairs, and examining table and an extremely loud, but small, clock. I’m not sure how long I waited, but eventually the door opened and a young woman entered. This wasn’t Dr. Sloan, and she introduced herself. I don’t recall her name, but I think I got that she was doing an internship and was involved in some program at Methodist University. She was professional, and personable and did most of what Dr. Sloan normally does. She used her stethoscope to listen to my chest. She eventually had me remove my shoes and used a little prod to test the sensitivity/feeling on the bottom of my feet. *I do have some slight numbness in my right big toe. We talked about my weight gain since my colonoscopy last summer. I probably talked with her about 20 minutes and she left me to wait for Dr. Sloan.

At some point the door opened again and it was the young woman again. I don’t recall what she came back for. It may have been that my foot test had been forgotten and this was when she performed it. She left again.

Dr. Sloan finally came in and sat near me. She was aware of the weight gain and that my A1C was up. She asked what level of medication I was taking and I told her I thought I was cutting in half a 1000 mg tabled of Metformin only once a day. The new nurse and I had gone over that the system said my prescription was for a 500 mg tablet. *When I came home, I checked and I have been halfing 1000 mg tablets. These were under my old prescription, and I checked and my new, and until now unopened tablets are 500 mg tablets.

I don’t recall, but will call tomorrow, if Dr. Sloan told me to start taking 1000 mgs twice a day, or the 500 mgs twice a day.

I doubt if I spent 5 minutes with Dr. Sloan, and she was then directing me out of the examining room. I took my “pink” sheet to the receptionist who scheduled me for my next blood work and appointment with the doctor about 3 months from now, in November. It was about 2:55 pm when I made it to the elevator.

A totally unrewarding visit with the doctor.

ADDENDUM: I’ve said this elsewhere, but at one scheduled visit, I learned that Dr. Sloan was no longer to be my doctor.  No one had told me.  And, at a later visit, no one had told me that her former office had closed and I would have to go to the Med One site.  *They really are slack about this.

At 58, a Home!?

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I have been creating a personal inventory using my WordPress site and marking my posts private, and with special categories & tags.  This is a great way to keep your inventory, and add pictures and commentary regarding your likes & dislikes and satisfaction, or not with the various items.

I have spent a bunch of money in a very short while recently for my apartment.  But, I haven’t spent much money at all for the last 15 years for feathering my nest.  In fact, until now, I’m not sure I have ever had a place that I would be comfortable calling “home”.  Amazing, at 58 years old, but oh, so GOOD, to finally be able to say it, and mean it.

I look forward to going home after work.  My bed is comfortable, and I have a bunch of TV channels to watch, and I can record some of them, to watch later, if I want, and I can put a load of clothes in the washer or dryer and listen to them quietly go through their quiet process of cleaning or drying my shirts, pants, sheets and towels, etc.

When I finally lay down on my new pillows (the Tempurpedic Neck Pillow), I say almost every time, “This feels so good!”  And, they do.   The pillow is shaped like a wave, with the part that goes on under the neck larger than the part that cradles the top of your head.  *I would think about buying one of these even if you don’t have the Tempurpedic mattress to go with it.  I might even take it with me when I go on vacation, but I wouldn’t want to forget and leave it somewhere.

I have stayed in many motels over the last 10 years.  I enjoyed the plush beds, and the air conditioned rooms, and really didn’t think that I should be able to enjoy this “at home” every night.  I guess it wasn’t in the realm of possibility, until recently.

My living room furniture is supposed to arrive tomorrow between 10 am and 1 pm.  Boy, will I be juggling things tomorrow… Bronco Kick-Off Sessions (have to leave early and come in late, depending upon when the furniture arrives), plus have an online CampusEAI Kick Off conference that kept being postponed (this is the 4th date/time and no one seemed to be paying attention before) that is scheduled at 4 pm for an hour.  I can probably attend this from home, if I have to, but I guess will be back at work if the furniture does come in by 1 pm.

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Knives on magnetic holder on kitchen island, from the workside.The kitchen cart was a great success!  It fits well in the small space.  It organizes many and varied items that just weren’t coming together, until the cart (silverware, pots & pans, knives, etc.) and as I’ve said elsewhere, I’m thinking of getting a chair that I can use in the kitchen and eat off the cart cutting board (including a plate).  I’ve found myself standing and “grazing” at the cart already.

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I have so much junk/stuff and I really need to get rid of it because I do not have the storage space that I had previously.  I shouldn’t have kept much of it anyway.  *I’m going to store some of the items (seasonal ones) at my office.