Feels like fall

It really does feel like fall. A few weeks ago I wrote that early September in Colorado just feels like more summer, but that was wrong. Very quickly things start to change, and I always forget that. The mornings are cooler, and because of that, the house never gets as hot as it does during the summer. Also, it's darker. Darker earlier in the evening, but also darker all day, even when the sun is shining brightly. The sun doesn't get as high, or it's further away, or something.

I haven't turned on the fan at night since our bad heat broke, 10 days ago or so. I probably should just put it away in the garage until next year. It's still in the 80s some days, but the house hasn't gotten hot.

***

This was a nice week. As I mentioned last week, I'm dealing with some depression -- not crippling, but there, in the background, all the time. So I planned a lot of simple tasks to keep myself busy, and that was a good strategy. 

The FlyLady was "in the bathroom and one extra room" this week, and my extra room is always our office, which we call the desk room. I wrote down 26 possible tasks for those two rooms, and I got so many of them done! Each day I would choose 4 tasks from the list and work away at them, in addition to laundry, dishes, cooking, etc. The bathroom in particular got very clean (in part because I didn't want to work on the desk room). I mopped the floor and cleaned the baseboards, scrubbed the tub inside and out, washed the shower curtains, decluttered and rearranged the shelves of the medicine cabinets, cleaned the front and sides of the vanity and various spots on the walls, and of course cleaned the mirror, sink, and toilet.

The desk room didn't get that clean, but it looks better. I worked on the tops of the file cabinets, a space that is just a dumping ground, and I also worked on the horrible files. I decided to focus on medical & dental files, and I spent hours going through a huge pile of papers, many from our time in Ridgecrest. I found that a lot of the papers were cover sheets or otherwise unneeded, so getting rid of those cut the pile by about a third. I also made separate files for each family member, because it's pretty stupid and useless to have us all in the same file. If I want to look up what medicine Teen A was prescribed for an ear infection in 2010 when he was 2, I don't want to have to paw through all of Rocket Boy's paperwork for that year. 2010 was really a terrible year for him -- I'd forgotten that. He broke his arm in the spring, and then in the late summer he was hospitalized with Valley Fever (or something like it), in addition to all the usual trouble with his gastrointestinal system and lymphedema. There were endless communications with Blue Cross and the various companies that make all his compression stockings, getting special approval for this and that.

Rocket Boy is a wonderful person, but I wonder if I would have married him if I'd known what a lot of medical problems he had/was going to have. No, I'm kidding. It wouldn't have mattered one bit. I guess that's how you know you love someone.

***

This coming week, the FlyLady is "in the master bedroom," and during those weeks I also focus on the twins' bedroom. I made another list of tasks, based on her suggestions for this area for the last three months. The list only has about 10 items on it, but that's x2, because I have to do each thing in both rooms. So it'll work out to about 4 each day, just like last week. And just like last week, I'll probably work hard in my room, which is easier, and try to think of ways to skip the twins' room, which is a disaster. But it's OK. Some cleaning will get done.

My book group was supposed to meet tomorrow, but one of the members got Covid (like everyone else in the world these days). So I don't really have anything scheduled this week, other than a Zoom call next Saturday. I like that, actually. I like having wide open weeks. I don't get lonely or bored. In a few weeks Rocket Boy will come back, and then I will have his company but I won't have any privacy! Must enjoy the privacy while I can.

I am sorry the hummingbirds are gone, though. I think they really are gone. I thought I heard one buzzing once or twice this week (our hummingbirds, the broad-tailed, buzz), but I haven't seen one at the feeder. And the feeder is still completely full.

I will miss sitting in the living room, reading, and hearing their buzzing sound, and looking up from my book to see a little bird at the feeder. But in the winter we replace the screen door with the storm door, so I wouldn't be able to hear them even if they were here.

***

Maybe I'm depressed, not just because the hummingbirds are gone, but because I don't like what I'm reading. Or maybe I don't like what I'm reading because I'm depressed. I just finished a book about indexes, called Index, a History of the, by Dennis Duncan, and it made me sad. It's an interesting book -- no, really, it is -- very erudite, with references to all sorts of medieval and early modern scholars I'd never heard of, so I enjoyed learning about them. At the same time, I already knew many of the points Duncan was making, because of my background. I used to be a typesetter, so I know a lot about printing and publishing. I've studied Latin and Greek and I have a PhD in linguistics and I've always been interested in writing systems, so I was familiar with many things he said about those. I've even made a couple of indexes -- for real, published books -- so I'm familiar with many indexing issues. As I worked my way through the book, I became more and more aware of how knowledgeable I am about all this stuff -- and I kept thinking, for what? What good is all this knowledge? What have I ever done with it?

Most of the time I don't feel bad about not doing anything with what I know. And then sometimes I do. And this was one of those weeks. Which is why I did so much cleaning.

Moving on from the index book, I'm now reading a 450-page biography of Grover Cleveland. I'd like to finish it by the end of September (end of the 3rd quarter of the year), so I have to push myself along, read at least 30 pages a day (50 would be better). I just have to say, when you're depressed, a 450-page biography of Grover Cleveland is probably not the best choice of reading material.

There are other books in my pile, more Japanese-American books and a memoir by someone whose family all died in the Holocaust. Somehow I don't think those are going to be the ticket either. But what would be? I don't like cheerful, mindless stuff. The book I'm reading to the twins right now is perhaps the best. It was Teen B's turn to choose and he didn't like anything in the current pile of choices in their room, so I rummaged through my bookcases and brought out a few mysteries and whatnot. Of them, he chose The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith, and I love that book. The twins, of course, don't like it at all, they totally miss the humor, but we're reading it.

***

I wasn't too successful with meals this past week. Monday I made a pasta dish out of The Savory Way cookbook that was just terrible. I've studied the recipe ("Shells with Spinach and Chickpeas") several times, because I felt as though something was missing, but if there is something, it's still missing -- I didn't forget to add it, in other words. It's just not there. A can of tomatoes might have helped. I made it with navy beans instead of chickpeas, because we don't love chickpeas -- maybe that was the problem. Or maybe it's just a bad recipe. The twins picked at it. I ate my bowl, then put the rest in the fridge -- and two days later, transferred it to the compost bin, because life is too short to eat crummy pasta dishes, even for lunch.

Tuesday was supposed to be Taco Tuesday, but there was a faculty concert at CU that I really wanted to go to, so at the last minute I made "Mozzarella Balls" from the Pillsbury website (which was supposed to be Thursday's dinner) and left them for the twins while I went off to the concert. It was a wonderful show. The faculty member whose concert it was teaches Collaborative Piano, and she had asked a bunch of other musicians to "collaborate" with her. My favorite was the first piece, with a bassoon, a flute, an oboe, a clarinet, and a French horn, plus piano, but all the pieces were amazingly good. It was the highlight of my week. And I had the leftover mozzarella balls for lunch the next day.

Wednesday I made a "Quick Pesto Pizza" from the Vegetarian Classics cookbook, and that was OK, but not great, because I baked the crust too long. Lazy me, I used a Pillsbury pizza crust (it was a Pillsbury kind of week) and it says to pre-bake it for 8 minutes. I've done this before and I should have remembered -- 8 minutes is way too long. Maybe 4 minutes would be good. We chewed away at our rock hard pizza, and a day or two later all the leftovers went in the compost bin along with Monday's pasta.

Thursday we FINALLY had the tacos -- "Spicy Mango, Black Bean & Avocado Tacos" from the Love & Lemons website. I highly recommend these. So yummy. I used a can of Kuner's black beans with jalapeno and lime, and shredded lettuce instead of cabbage, and jack cheese instead of feta because we were out of feta. And regular mayonnaise. It's all good. That was the best meal of the week.

Friday we just had sandwiches and ramen. I was going to make a fancy sandwich recipe and in the end I said screw it. We had sandwiches Saturday night too, because we couldn't decide on a place to go out to eat. So we're supposedly going to eat out tonight, but if we don't, it'll be French toast. Or sandwiches. Teen A has mysteriously developed a craving for tuna melts -- I've made him three so far this weekend. I think it must be the weather. I'm very hungry all of a sudden, too, like a bear in hyperphagia -- of which there are some in our neighborhood today, munching on people's fruit tree bounty.

What do you cook in early fall? I've been craving Middle Eastern food. Also Indian, because the book group would have had Indian food if we had met tomorrow, which we're not going to do. So I'll just have to wait until next week, unless I can sneak some vaguely Indian food into a meal without scaring the twins. They don't love Indian food, weird children. I mean teenagers. Or I might make enchiladas. I told the twins I don't want to have Taco Tuesday EVERY Tuesday. Every other Tuesday we could have some other kind of Mexican-ish food. They disapproved of this idea, but hey, I'm the cook.

***

When you don't do much during a week, there isn't much to write about. The kitties are fine. I'm continuing to be vigilant about Sillers' laxatives, and she's pooping away, mostly in the litter box. This morning before breakfast there was a rather large poop right near her food tray, but I think that was just from excitement (about getting fed soon).

The hole in the kitchen floor has been getting bigger and bigger, and I've started tripping over it. So this week I got the idea to bring a little rug from the living room into the kitchen, covering the hole. The kitties were puzzled by this -- cats don't like change -- and they took turns sitting on it and rolling on it and moving it around. I just say no, no, and put it back. 

OK, I think this is enough for this week. Enjoy September!