More Things that Keep Me from Posting

... or "Another Typical Weekend"

On my way home from work on Friday, I called Sam, just as I do most Fridays. Friday night is when I give Sam an option of what he would like to do for dinner. Actually, I give him options just about every night, but every other night, the options involve food I already have at home - and it usually involves leftovers for one or more of the options.

On Fridays though, it’s his choice and his choice usually means going to one of the grocery stores to buy something along the lines of chicken strips and potato wedges. This is a tradition that started long ago when his brother and sisters were little. It gave me a night off from having to think of an idea for dinner and it gave them a night off from having to eat one of my meals.

So we went to the grocery store and after dinner, we prepared to make apple butter.

We still have a ton of apples left over from when we went apple picking and Sam had wanted to make apple butter. This was fine, but t apple butter takes a while to cook, eleven hours, in fact - at least, it does the way we do it. So Sam and I weighed out the right amount of apples. I peeled them and Sam chopped them and then we put them in the crock pot where, along with the other ingredients, they simmered overnight.

Saturday morning, I got Sam his breakfast and while Sam ate, I whisked out the apple butter. When the apple butter had cooled, I put some of it in a container so Sam could have some later. The rest went into some freezer bags, which Sam had labeled for me, and then I somehow managed to fit them into the freezer.

Next, it was time to help Sam with his checkbook. His bank statement had come earlier in the week, and so had another paycheck, so we worked on balancing his checkbook and getting his bank information together. While Sam worked on the math, I entered his information where I needed to enter it, for the ever present SSI issues. When we finished, we worked on making our usual grocery lists - one for him and one for me.

We knew we were going to be doing another cooking project this weekend so, along with checking out the status of our usual necessities, we went through the selected recipe, finding the ingredients we already had and adding those we didn't have to our grocery list. Then, it was off to the bank and off to the grocery store.

Back at home, Sam ate lunch and I worked on cleaning an area of our overstuffed basement. This ordeal consisted of shoveling out several buckets of damp dirt (don’t ask), getting it to the point where I could remove an old, decaying pallet (thanks Helaina) which had sat under several temporarily relocated tubs, each containing God knows what.

Helaina also helped me carry away an old butcher block table. This is a table I had made, I’m guessing, maybe forty years ago and it has sat in my basement, on that broken pallet, for close to thirty years. With that gone and the broken pallet gone, and the floor shoveled off and swept up, I put some patio blocks down on our sometimes damp floor, and then re-stacked the aforementioned mystery tubs, back on top.

Saturday night consisted of me doing another load of laundry, because life wouldn’t be complete without me doing more laundry. It also consisted of me trying to keep my back from locking up, a goal I worked on pretty much right up until bedtime.

Sunday was another crock-pot day - and also, a baking day - perfect for a well-rested back. Sam and I worked on our chicken crock pot recipe and, once that was underway and before we started any more baking, we went onto going over his upcoming schedule.

Sam’s schedule is tied into the school calendar. Earlier in the week, I had printed out a copy of this calendar and my goal was to go through it with Sam, highlight the days when he didn’t have to go to work,and then have him put those days onto his calendar on the computer.

We made it as far as highlighting the days that he didn't have to go to work, but we didn’t get to entering them onto his calendar. Neither of us had the concentration or the desire to do this. We’ll leave this as "Step Two" for some other day.

Instead, it was back to the baking.

Somewhere between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, we decided that, even after making the apple butter, we still had a ton (literally) of apples left - and maybe we could come up with another recipe involving apples. In my unwinding the night before, I had found a recipe for some apple bread.

While this recipe seemed to be fairly unexciting, it seemed like it would go perfectly with the freshly made apple butter. Plus, it had the added advantage of using up another four apples, leaving only about three thousand more to use up.

Since this was a new recipe and of questionable quality, Sam and I decided that, instead of tripling the batch, like usual, we would instead only double the batch - a fairly radical call on our part. Once again, I peeled apples and Sam chopped them - and together we did the math, doubling each of the called-for ingredients in the recipe.

We measured and mixed, then poured into greased pans - and with it done and in the oven, I got Sam some lunch.

After lunch and after the bread was out of the oven (which, by the way, looked better than I had expected) Sam and I decided to head back to the grocery store. We had to return some bad produce bought the day before, and since we were going anyway, we decided to buy a few of the items we were now low on - thanks to our recent baking. This gave us both a well needed opportunity to get out of the house, and gave Sam a bonus visit with the Sample People at the grocery store (not to mention, the bonus samples).

Back home once more, this time for the final time this weekend, Sam and I did the prerequisite fiddling with the chicken, which was still cooking away in the crock pot and, other than some frustrating and ultimately unsuccessful attempts to instigate some badly needed cleaning (another thing to not ask me about), this was pretty much "it" until dinner - which was now less than an hour away.

After dinner and after the dishes, I dug out the election booklet. We have an election coming up in early November (though actually, we can now go in to vote before then). I had told Sam earlier in the week that I would go through the ballot with him, and I would try to explain the various questions (as best I could) and we could look at who was running for which offices, and he could think about who he might want to vote for. But by this time, it was late. It was time for showers. And after showers, it was almost time for bed.

When Sam came down from his shower, he asked about going through the booklet, concerned if we would be late for the election. I told him we had well over a week to go and promised that we would go through it together tomorrow night. I told him we would aim closer to dinner time - when we both had a little more time and a little more focus. And I promised that, if nothing else came up, we would plan on going to vote together, after I got home on Thursday.

Satisfied, Sam spent the remaining fifteen minutes before bedtime, watching cartoons on the computer. And I, like usual, sat on the couch, and tried to stay awake.

Through the Woods

The path forward (and back again).

Sam and I went on our first and probably only walk at the town forest the other night. We had talked about going there at various times throughout the summer, but it was always either raining, or so hot and muggy that the prospect of attempting it was always put off for another day. That “other day” turned out to be the other night.

We left the house just after dinner and by the time we got there, there wasn’t a whole lot of daylight left, but we chose a path and headed down anyway.

We didn’t walk the hill path. Instead, we walked a path which loops around the outer bounds of the forest, eventually coming to a gate. When you reach the gate, you can either leave the woods by going onto an extremely busy road, which is filled with blind corners and no sidewalk - or you can turn around and head back on the path you just walked on. We chose to walk back on the path.

By this time, it was nearly dark.

I had grabbed a small flashlight before we left the house, just in case. Turns out, it was a good thing. It was pretty tough to see where we were going and while the small penlight wasn't great, it was better than no light at all.

As we made our way back to the car, I was going to make some joking comment about how we better keep our eyes open for any bears - but I decided that, not only was it not very funny, but that actually, it was a very real possibility. Instead, I picked up the pace and we hustled back to the car, arriving safely in what felt like the middle of the night. I think it was closer to about 7:30.

In another couple of weeks, we’ll be setting the clocks back an hour, which means less daylight and therefore, fewer options for going on walks. I have no desire to walk in the woods in the dark, and even if I were so inclined go there, the bike paths we walk along all close at dusk. Time, I guess, to explore other options.

Scenes from My Morning Commute

Part of Our Sunday

Sunday was windy and cold and there was another Pokemon Go event in the afternoon. There was no question that Sam and I were going to go into town for it. The only question was whether we would drive slowly through town for the entire thing, like the last time, or whether we would park somewhere and walk through town, as we normally would on those warmer summer days

It wasn’t a debate between Sam and myself - I had my own opinion, but I kept it to myself. The debate, really, was just within Sam.

Even as we drove into town, Sam was still debating. We made our usual first stop outside of the post office - and he still hadn’t decided. Finally, we rounded the corner and drove into the parking lot and after thinking about it for another minute or two, he decided it would be a good idea for us to walk. I agreed that this was a good idea.

Technically, I don’t view this as a lie. Getting out and getting some exercise IS a good idea. We both need it. It’s just that I didn’t want to. Did I mention it was cold? And windy? But I mustered up a superficial veneer of enthusiasm - and off we went.

I’m glad we went, as it was a pretty good time - especially in hindsight (with the hindsight taking place in the comfort of my warm home). That’s almost always the case with these kinds of things.

I didn’t really do anything except walk along, keep Sam company, ask the occasional question or make the occasional suggestion - and tell him the occasional “great job”.

After forty-five minutes or so, we headed back to the car and then back home. Once inside, we heated up some of the mulled cider we had leftover from apple picking the previous weekend - and we made our plans for what remained of the weekend.

***
Here's a screenshot from my phone, taken of our walking route though town...

And here's a few photos from our walk. All of these are of the "I guess you had to be there" variety, but you get the idea...

Unusual Activity

I got an email from Chase Bank today. The subject line read, "Unusual Activity Detected In Your Online Statment." Although I have a Chase Bank account, I didn't bother to read the email.

It was sent by someone with the return email address of  "hotrod35768@earthlink.net". I think if "hotrod 35768" is going to try and scam me, he or she ought to put a little effort into it.
 ,
First of all, they could pick a more deceptively bank-like email address. And secondly, if you're going to pretend to be a bank, at least learn how to spell "statment" correctly.

Autumn Evening

Sam and I managed to squeeze in an after dinner walk last night. Originally, we were going to go on a walk up to the tower, but when we got there, there was no place to park. I suppose we could have parked in the upper lot, but that would have defeated the point of going in the first place. Instead, we continued on.

I asked Sam where he would like to go instead and after thinking for a few minutes, he said, "Maybe the forest." This was another good idea, but the problem was, we had just driven past the road that would have taken us there and with no good place to turn around, it meant that we would have to loop across town and head back. Not impossible, except that daylight was already fading.

We decided we were closest to the train yard, so we headed there instead.

It was a brisk walk down to the iron bridge and back - partly racing against the daylight, partly because it was getting cold.

I was surprised to see that the river was still so high, though I shouldn't have been. It was a wet summer and so far, the rain has continued into the fall.

 On the way back to the car, I snapped this photo of the fields below...

I never did find out what they planted in these fields this year. I was a little disappointed to see that whatever it was, it had all been stripped away.

There's something I find a little lonely about this picture. I guess it fits the mood of this late autumn afternoon - the barren ground and the colors of fall, stretching further and further away, into the shadows of the setting sun.

Weekend Recap Photos

Here's proof of the lovely weekend...

Weekend Recap

It was a lovely, jam-packed weekend. 

It was rainy and chilly when I picked up Rachael at the bus station on Saturday morning. We headed back home to meet up with the rest of the family and we plotted out our annual attack of the apple orchard. 

After we worked out the logistics, we all headed off to the orchard - this year, as in recent years, in two separate cars. We got there first, so Sam fed the animals while we waited for his brother and sisters to show up. Fortunately, they arrived before long - and shortly after that, the cold rain stopped - just in time for us to go apple picking. 

For the last several years - or maybe even longer - we've picked about a bushel of apples. This is about three quarters of a bushel more than what we really need. But by baking apple pancakes and making apple butter and cooking other various apple-based recipes, we almost always manage to use them all up. Almost.

Before we left the orchard, each of the kids got a pumpkin. This was the first time in many, many years that we bought pumpkins.

The night before, Sam and I had shot over to the grocery store for his usual Friday night meal selection. And while we were there, I asked him if he wanted to get a pumpkin carving kit. He thought about it for a while and decided that it might be a good idea - though he was on the fence about buying a pumpkin this year. I guess he changed his mind.

Back home, everyone carved their pumpkins in record time - and did a pretty good job, in my unbiased opinion. Maybe all those years of resting paid off.

Oh! And somewhere in between the orchard and the pumpkin carving, we celebrated my birthday. So, that was pretty nice.

On Sunday morning, we managed to make it down to the flea market. Though with everyone’s different schedules and commitments, it meant that the six of us had to take three separate vehicles to get there.

I haven’t gone to the flea market at all this year, largely because it’s hard to think about looking at other people’s stuff when I have too much of my own. But that's not the main reason I haven't gone.

Like almost anything meaningful, going there is really about spending time together. It's about walking around and talking - maybe critiquing other people's junk, or commenting on how cold it is - or how warm it is. It's about pointing out the early morning fog as it rises over the autumn hills.

Still, needed or not, we managed to buy a few, perhaps unnecessary, memories - or maybe they're reminders of memories. I bought a replica metal toy rocket that I don't need. But I look at it and, for now, at least, I think about this cold Sunday, and about walking around together - and even if it doesn't last, that's worth the dollar I paid for it.

As we finished up at the flea market, Helaina and Jake both took off for prior commitments, while Rachael, Sam and I headed home. 

Back at home, Sam got a bite to eat, Rachael packed - then I brought her to the train station for her ride back to the city. 

Back home once again, I picked up Sam and brought him to the grocery store for a last minute visit with the Sample People - a crucial part of of his (and therefore, my) weekends. Then we returned home one last time, where we made the first of what will likely be many, many baked apple pancakes.

After dinner, I put in one more storm window and did another load of laundry - and then sat back and watched the rainbows on the wall and the fading golden sunshine of the late autumn afternoon - and I listened to all the quiet.

Today's Brief Comment

It's been a long week.

Things That Keep Me From Posting

This is what I do with my spare time...

Below is an email response to a counselor at one of the support services that Sam and I have periodic contact with. A month or so ago she wrote me an email with information on ways to report income to SSI - in this case, a downloadable app and by using an automated, toll-free telephone number.

It was information I appreciated, but I already had. And also, as I mention in my email, it is information that, for whatever reason, doesn't work - at least, not for me.

Because of this, and because the nature of her email was to only pass along information, I hadn't responded. But yesterday, it was on my mind because yesterday was another adventure trying to deal with SSI.

My email...

Thanks for your email. Here's an update for you on the SSI reporting...
I had a meeting at SSI a couple of months back with Sam's current caseworker. This was set up by them to make sure that Sam was "still eligible." (Why this was necessary when Sam had only been receiving assistance for about two months when I received the notice, I have no idea. Apparently, no one else did either - or at least, didn't want to bother answering the question - beyond a, "We don't make those decisions in this office.")

Anyway, he gave me an instruction paper for reporting Sam's income info - for both the phone app, as well as the automated call-in (as you mention). Unfortunately, neither one works for us - and no matter how I try the reporting (reporting for Sam or as Sam) it only gives me an error at the end of it all. Both last month and the month before, I had to call and give them the info over the phone. Each time, I explained the problem and the best anyone can come up with is, maybe it's because Sam's still a student.

I tried reporting it again today - with the same results. I called SSI and explained it all over again to the "operator of the day." Despite everyone else taking the info over the phone, he refused and said they aren't allowed to do this. He said I needed to mail it to them (!). When I asked for the address, he said, "Just mail it to our office." When I asked what I should put on the envelope, he had to think for a while, then said something like, "MVI" (or something... my notes are back at the office).

I told him (as politely as I could) that I understood that his hands were tied but could I possibly speak to a supervisor, that this was going counter to everything else I've been told the last three months. He looked around and found someone and said he would switch me over. He gave me this person's extension, in case he cut me off by mistake - but I had to promise to only use this extension just this one time. I promised and naturally, I got cut off. I called back, dialed the forbidden extension, and naturally got the supervisor's voice mail - because by this time, it was lunch time and the office closes at noon on Wednesdays!!!!

So, so far, I haven't reported Sam's income for September. But I still have two more days. I'm sure it'll go smoothly!

Here's the thing, after all of this, I went on the SSA website to look for reporting options for income under SSI. There's this page: https://www.ssa.gov/ssi/spotlights/spot-telephone-wage.htm
This page gives you info on the app and automated reporting (which doesn't work for me) but further down, under "Is There Another Way to Report Wages," it says (the bold is by me):

• sending a fax with the gross wage amount and applicable month;
• mailing a brief letter with the gross wage amount and applicable month;
• telephoning your local field office; or
• going to your local field office to give the report in person

At the bottom of that same web page, there is a link for signing up for reminders. When you click on it, it brings you to this page: https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/ssi/wage-reporting.html
The third paragraph on this pages begins with, "You can report wages by visiting, calling, or writing your local Social Security Office" (again, the "bold" is by me.)

Needless to say, I am beyond frustrated with this process. Every two weeks, it's something else like this.
I'll try again tomorrow.
If I have any energy or sanity left, I'll try and let you know how it went.
Thanks.

What I didn't bother to mention (because I forgot) is that after getting home and getting Sam some dinner, in an attempt to get some clarification, I then tried calling the 800 number on the SSA website. 

After managing to get through the automated menu, I was put on hold, where an automated voice came on and told me that they were looking forward to speaking with me. After a moment or two, another automated voice came on and told me that the "current wait time is approximately fifty-five minutes." 

By this time, it was around 5:30 and I knew that even if I could stick it out, it would likely put me past their business hours and at best, I might be able to leave a voice mail. My experience with voice mail has been that, with one exception, no one ever calls me back. (That one exception? I did indeed get a call back - six weeks later.)

I gave up.

As I said in the email, I'll try again... if I have any energy or sanity left.

And like I said at the beginning of all of this, this is what I spend my free time on - this, and falling asleep on the couch.

Rediscovering the Day

Periodically, I get reminders from my online photos, allowing me the opportunity to “rediscover this day” from a previous year. The photo above is one example of this. It was taken exactly a year ago today, on a walk that Sam and I went on, through the woods at the edge of town.

We haven’t walked those woods at all this year. When it hasn’t been rainy, it’s been too humid. Even under the best of conditions, the place can be pretty buggy. But with the air being as humid as it's been, I expect the preponderance of mosquitoes would carry us away. 

And now, with the declining daylight hours, the thought of going for an evening walk along a buggy, unlit wooded path is even less appealing. Because of this, it's looking like going for a walk in these woods is going to be one more thing that's moved to our “maybe next year” column.

The other thing I want to mention about this photo - which is completely unrelated to the walk in the woods - is that the photo was taken on Dad's birthday. 

I can't remember whether I was thinking about this when I took the photo, but I've been thinking about it today.