Doing Things In Stages in Everyday Ramblings

We had a deeply appreciated break in the rain yesterday morning and I made my first independent run to the grocery since the fall. It felt so good to be back doing the regular things. Those bus seats are hard though, I am just sayin…

When I got home I looked at the walnut cake recipe again and realized it called for Amaretto. It is really a cool cake, it doesn’t have any flour in it; instead it uses crumbled walnuts as the base. I didn’t have any Amaretto and we don’t sell liquor in regular stores here so I needed to go to the liquor store to get some.

After resting for a time I went off to the local one, which is about a half mile away. They changed their hours so they don’t open until 11AM on Saturdays and I was about 20 minutes early. I spent the time wandering around, enjoying the fact ever so much that I could even though I was getting stiff and sore. The picture above is from then. I haven’t been taking many pictures lately.

One of my novels is due back Tuesday and I can’t renew it so I read that with Diego on my lap when I got home for a little while.

Then I had enough energy to finish assembling the sturdy stepladder with rails that was delivered Friday. Getting it out of the box on my own was a challenge as it weighs a not insignificant amount.

Diego was an excellent supervisor for the assembly hanging out on the kitchen counter but Carlo! Carlo wanted to help. There were bolts and nuts and washers, oh my! The operation took forever because the instructions were not exactly clear and I had to go get the big flashlight because little shiny washers kept disappearing when I was doing something else.

With the help of the Internet, perseverance and placing Carlo on the top step to keep and eye on the operation I was able to get it all together.

I have known for at least three years I was taking unnecessary risks when up on a chair or a table, changing a decorative light bulb or getting something onto or off the top shelf in the closet. Oh, I will be fine I would tell myself.

Well, now I am not fine, and I don’t have a grandson to come by, or a handyman, or…

One of the things I have known is when people talk about their elderly parents they mention visiting and cleaning the area where the ceiling meets the wall of dust and spider webs and… as we get older we don’t move as much, we don’t see as well, we…

This stepladder is very sturdy. It has a bar up top to hold onto and you can lean your legs against. There is even a tool pouch you can drape over the bar. I can reach the ceiling with no issues with relative security. That totally cheered me up.

It means I can be clean and independent that much longer.

Later I went out to get the mail and ran into my neighbor who just fully retired a few weeks ago. She is older than me and strong, she’s been lifting weights for years.

She asked me about how I was getting on with the stages of retirement and I told her about the fall and realizing on a deep level how vulnerable I am.

And she told me that a few weeks back she was walking with her partner through an area she has walked on for years that is covered in gravel. She was wearing crocs. For the first time ever she twisted her ankle and fell. And hit almost in exactly the same spot I did on her back hip.

Because she is fit and strong she did not even sprain her ankle but she said her hip hurt for days and days.

Her apartment is almost exactly like mine and it touched me that she admitted she has on a number of occasions gotten up on her counter just like I did.

Afterwards I assembled the newly found big blade on my food processor and ground up the required amount of walnuts. I will be making the cake later today extremely grateful I am here and I can.

Last updated January 26, 2020