Roscoe's Story

personal

A pretty fair Friday... listed and logged

This Friday started well in the Roscoe-verse. The sleep behind me was very acceptable: I count 7 hours of good sleep only barely interrupted. Friday morning's health metrics and financials were all good, too.

As the evening winds down it finds me listening to a good college football being called very well. When this game ends I'll be able to turn to another that started later. And when THAT game ends I should be ready to put head to pillow and call it a night.

Prayers, etc: 06:30 – Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel – Prayer for the Sick, O Blessed St. Roch... – Our Father – Hail Mary – Glory Be 07:20 – Day 6 of the KofC Novena for the Cause of Life, meditation and prayer 09:30 – Lk 11:15-23 15:45 – Prayer to St Michael the Archangel 20:00 – 5 decades of the Rosary, The Sorrowful Mysteries

Diet: 07:25 – chicken salad sandwich, an orange, a muffin 11:30 – steak and mashed potatoes 15:00 – one ice cream bar 16:15 – bowl of vegetable and meat soup

Chores, etc.: 07:30 – began listening to local news, and various news sources 10:15 – published a blog post 11:00 – listening to President Trump on The Rush Limbaugh Show 13:50 – learned today that a Brother Knight in the Philippines died yesterday. Sad news, that. Never met him IRL but he and I had become friends over the Internet over the last several years, exchanging personal messages, etc. We were looking forward to meeting in person, but the pandemic happened and the lockdown... 14:30 – box from Amazon with vitamins was delivered several days earlier than expected – cool 16:00 – turn to favorite news shows 18:00 – tuning into college football on the radio, Georgia Tech vs. Louisville

Chess: 15:15 – moved in many CC games

Exercise: 19:45 – light PM stretching

And the adventure continues.

Published on 09 October 2020, ~20:30 CDT, this is my post number 79/100/365 of the https://100daystooffload.com blogging challenge.

#100DaysToOffload #blog #RoscoeEllis #list #personal

by Roscoe

Saturday morning chore

Barber Shop

This morning found me at my neighborhood barber shop for a sorely needed haircut.

The shop is located almost exactly one mile from my front door, so when I have to walk there and back I get a healthy workout. But when I can catch a ride, like this morning (thank you, Sylvia), it's just a few minutes out of my day.

#SeniorLiving #SevenTwoProject #personal #blog

by Roscoe

Some days I'm surprised at how little it takes to tire me. Friday was one of those days. 

Mid-mornings usually find me napping after a good breakfast but that didn't happen Friday. And that may be one reason that the day fatigued me so. 09:30 found me waiting on my front porch for a friend to pick me up and take me to his home/office where I was to help him with his new computer. He arrived, we went, and we worked for about two hours before I returned home shortly before Noon. 

The work on his computer was stressful and frustrating for me, though we did complete some of the tasks he wanted done. You see, I've been pretty exclusively using Linux Operating Systems for over twenty years, and his new machine runs Windows 10. Two totally different worlds, those: the Gnu/Linux world, and the Microsoft world. And I was trying to help him through territory that was very foreign to me.  

Returning home I was mentally exhausted. And that exhaustion stayed with me through the rest of the day

#SeniorLiving #personal #blog

by Roscoe

Nasty neighbor across the street (not the horrible old man with the dogs I've mentioned in this column on occasion; this is the other one, the Mexican drug dealer) has decided this is a good night to work on some kind of construction project in his front yard. And he's using a variety of power tools. And I'm trying to get to sleep.

In the past I've used late night talk radio on a bedside AM radio as white noise to help me drift off when outside noises bothered. But talk radio these days is filled with passionate ignoramuses of one stripe or another. And their stupid questions, comments, or arguments serve more to infuriate than relax me.

What I've settled on tonight is a YouTube lecturer speaking before an academic audience. His viewpoint is one I largely agree with. The volume is turned low enough to let me sleep, I hope, when and if sleep comes. And the subject matter should be interesting enough to draw my attention away from the noise across the street.

Will this work? Will this lecture be effective white noise? I suppose I'll find out.

#SeniorLiving #personal #blog

by Roscoe

CCwin04Mar2020

... always makes me happy.

The graphic above shows the position of pieces at the end of a Correspondence Chess game I won this morning with a Rook-Bishop combination check mate of the Black King.

This game was played at lichess.org: a server-based chess club where I play all my chess these days.

#SevenTwoProject #SeniorLiving #personal #blog

by Roscoe

One of the first things I found this morning as I walked back toward the front door after seeing her off to work was a fresh pile of dog poop in my yard. No, I don't have a dog. That horrible old man across the street has some however, and he lets them out a few times per day to poop. And sometimes that pooping happens in my front yard. 

To deal with that I have invested in a poop scooper and a supply of those little plastic bags that fit in the device. And at least once a week I need to use it. A search of the front yard this morning found a few other piles I needed to scoop up. Damn.

Later in the day I decided to simplify my Internet life by making this write.as blog my primary... thing.

So, an unpleasant chore followed by a good decision. I've had worse days. 

#SeniorLiving #personal #blog

by Roscoe

In about five and a half months, if things go according to plan, she and I will have relocated 8,500 miles away. 

I've  lived in this city for about twenty of my 70+ years, and she's lived here for about 30 of her 60+ years, and we're ready to move on.

Mileage-wise, the distance from here to where we'll be living is pretty good: literally half-way around the world. But time-wise? The next five and a half months for us will pass very quickly. We're busy now setting up the logistics, making arrangements both at this end and at our destination.

We'll be travelling with round-trip tickets giving us 30 days there until our return flights, just in case we decide not to stay. BUT... we're pretty darned sure that we'll extend that visit for several years at least before coming back to America.

Nothing against America, mind you. We both love this country and intend to keep our citizenship here. But we're needed over there. And for a number of reasons that's where we need to be.

Given the immediacy of communications provided by the Internet these days, half-way around the world really isn't that far away. And five and a half months will be here soon.

#SeniorLiving #personal #blog

by Roscoe

... for tomorrow's arrival of house guests from Germany (daughter and her boyfriend will be with us for a month) I find myself busy doing what cleaning I can while staying out of her way. She and I have different approaches to how we want to get things done, though we share the same ultimate goal.

We muddle through, trying to avoid unnecessary and counter-productive points of contention. So far it's working moderately well.

#SeniorLiving #personal

by Roscoe

... will be reviewing some YouTube videos with Sylvia regarding how to set up our finances so that we maintain a financial footprint here in America while being able to easily and efficiently transfer funds to the Philippines as needed.

It will probably take us some time to fully digest the information we're finding. Then we'll want to talk with some bankers and decide which ones to use, both here and there. We've got about five months to have this all set up. Doable, I think, if we don't waste time.

#SeniorLiving #personal

by Roscoe

My Radios

My early generation Bose Wave Radio is back at my bedside after a six-year absence. And this makes me SO happy:

I've always been a radio listener, preferring that over TV viewing in most instances. And this little unit has been my favorite since first purchased many years ago.

For the last six years I've loaned it to Sylvia to provide background music in her seamstress shop downtown. Now that she's closed that shop, my Bose is back home. And I'm listening to it play the local classical music station as I sit here in my home office typing this post. Sweet!

Oh, that little yellow radio sitting on top of the Bose? That's my Sangean DT-400W, a fine pocket-sized AM-FM portable. Highly recommended.

#SevenTwoProject #photograph #radio #personal

by Roscoe