Ongoing Letter - Allan's Place
Allan's journal to the world. (Sounds important, doesn't it?)
Aizlynn and Caleb bought a new pressure cooker. We were talking about what one can cook in it. I brought up the Rene food (a rather large selection of leftover food when he finished his tenancy) and the fact that I haven’t the foggiest idea what to do with much of it. Here is an accounting of all the dried foods and their quantities in our collection.
The Pile
AVG Antivirus broke my system! Instead of coming to my OGL and posting something, I’ve spent the past 1.5 hours trying to sort through why my computer is broken – specifically, why Explorer Patcher has been quarantined by AVG Antivirus. It actually started last night when my computer couldn’t open a simple .txt file. Then more of it this morning! They claim it contains a trojan virus. I really don’t believe it does! It’s just an add-on program that changes the goofy Microsoft Windows 11 look of a computer back to Windows 10 or 8 or 7 or whatever you like. It takes the stupid context menus out, gets rid of the silly screen one sees when punching the Windows button, etc. An hour and a half! Buggar off, AVG! Stop trying to rule how I live my life!
Breakfast!
On my scooter ride back from a worksite, I took a path that lead behind the Galt Museum and found this old tractor.
I wonder when the last time that tractor ran.
I hate the fact that Walmart has their bicycle racks right next to the smoking booth. Smoke and the stink of old cigarettes and cyclists right next to each other!
Floyd and I were talking about spare time activities. I commented on nobody using the facilities at the hall here at Parkbridge that we all pay for every month. So, I decided to to use them.
There’s a pool table, small library, shuffleboard, little kitchen, exercise equipment, and seating. I played four games of “pool” by myself. Once one ball is sunk, the table must be cleared of those before going on to the other. Okay, so not much fun, but it’s an activity.
And you all thought I was talking about a swimming pool. This isn’t California, you know, where everyone has a pool bigger than their house in the back yard.
This morning at 4:34am, after a night of trying to sleep and waking up from dreams repeatedly, I was wired awake by a noise that got louder and louder. It was a dragging noise, I thought, like someone dragging a large machine along the pavement with a tow vehicle. Then came the smell, a strong burning rubber smell. I pulled open my blind and looked outside to see a vehicle turning left at the intersection outside my window. It was still dark outside, so I couldn’t make out what kind of vehicle it was.
Our new refrigerator came yesterday.
Floyd has a hard time stooping over to see what is crammed into the back, stuffed into a corner, or relegated to the bottom of the old fridge. He can’t get down on his knees to see under the freezer level. Food that gets forgotten gets rotten. But all the freezerless fridges out there are right-hand swing (hinges on the right) and does not fit out kitchen. This Frigidaire was the first and only all-fridge model that had a reversible door that wasn’t six thousand dollars. So, after a few years of looking and thinking and comparing, I found this fridge at Home Depot.
Aizlynn called me, thinking of Glenn’s birthday.
We talked for a bit about dentistry (root canals, extracted teeth, and implants), Glenn (his life, his death, and things between), and pierogies (in England, they don’t have pierogies, but the closest thing they have is filled with strawberry!).
Glenn has been gone 10 years.
Okay, so there was no pain. But…
It took Dr. Strong considerably longer than expected to get this tooth out. It fractured into pieces when the crown was removed, and two roots had to be cut from each other to dig them out. The ventral root had a bulbous shape on the end of it, and it was hanging on! Finally, it all came out, and two dissolving sutures were put in, and the whole thing was packed in gauze.
On the way out, I said to the receptionist, “I hope Dr. Strong recovers well from this.” She laughed.
later
The freezing is coming out, and I still taste blood. It’ll take some time to heal.