Friday! Hurray!!

It was warm, with the threat of showers in Redford on Friday. This time, I only overslept (through the alarm) for 20 minutes or so, so I did make it to work on time. I’ll be glad when I can stop doing all this injection stuff in the morning, not to mention the time it takes to tape a bag around my arm so the PICC line dressing doesn’t get wet when I shower. It all takes too much time!

After 9:00 AM, I called the Township’s “Pride Line” to complain about the trash out back. I explained how I’d put up with it for the last ten years by going out and picking all of it up two or three times a year, but now, because of the spinal fusion (no BLT), I can’t. I asked if they could make the property owners plant some trees (to stop it from blowing in my yard) or put out trash barrels or something. The guy said, “Aren’t you the guy who had the wall knocked down by semis a while back?” I said, “Yes, that happened twice.”

He said he still had the number of the property manager (in New York) and said he’d give him a call and ask if they would sweep the lot more often. But, he said if they put out trash barrels, some kid would just kick them over. And they can’t make people plant trees unless it was when they first applied for a building permit (that’s how the wall got put up in the first place). So, basically, nothing’s going to happen.

I also called that lawn service I occasional use (the one who did my fall cleanup last year) and asked for three quotes. One to cut just the front lawn, another to cut the whole lawn and finally one to mulch the back garden (I don’t think I’ll be hauling around 40 pounds bags of mulch this Spring). They said they’d check it out and call me next week.

I went out at lunch to the Town Peddler (a nearby antique and craft place) and roamed around looking to add to my collection. I decided recently I need a new hobby (that doesn’t involve BLT). And, I heard somebody mention on TV while I was off work about collecting antique apothecary jars.

Now, I had “made” one back on the Palms Road place by taking a brown peroxide bottle and sticking a cork in it. It looked cool and I still have it. So, now I’m slowly adding to the collection. The trouble is, most of them you can find are brown. But, today I found a blue one so I bought it.

Most of them are unidentified, some have the old labels on them and the one I found today had a sticker (that I may take off) that somebody had handwritten on it: “1880’s cobalt blue medical bottle from a Detroit dig.”

Come to think of it, this is probably how my Mother started her collections of angels and birds.

Back home, it still hadn’t rained here (although it looks like it and was sprinkling a little on the ride home).

Jake called to see how my week had gone. I told him I had discovered the reason my back hurt so much Thursday night was I forgot the therapist’s warning and just sat working for hours. So, today (after I remembered what she said) I did consciously get up every hour or so and walked around for a while (sometimes inside, and a couple of times outside). That seemed to help as it didn’t hurt nearly as much today.

I called and talked briefly to both Dave and Melissa. I wanted to let her know that the show we both like, “Who do you think you are?” was pre-empted and coming on at 3:00 AM, for some reason. I suggested she set her recorder as I did. Then I hung up so I could make dinner. I noticed on my way into the kitchen that the pavement was wet and glistening from rain.

Yes, tonight is the night! I am making my Rueben sandwich. So, I cut some of the remaining corned beef into as thin of slices as I could (difficult and this is not the first time I wished I had a real meat slicer like my dad had) and trimmed off some of the fat.

I built the sandwich on a slice of my sourdough bread. I put on some Thousand Island dressing (I hadn’t taken the time to look for Russian dressing, like the original ones were made with) and two slices of Swiss cheese. Then I piled on the corned beef and topped that with lots of sauerkraut (the “bag” kind, not the canned – the canned kind tastes “tinny” to me). I put more dressing on the other slice of bread and topped the sandwich off.

I buttered the top side of the sandwich and put it in a preheated skillet. Then I buttered the other side. When I thought it might be golden brown, I carefully turned it over. Yikes! The “fallout” was now cooking while the sandwich toasted.

But, I got it plated and cut in half. I ate it on the bed, not paying any attention to the TV. It was messy to eat (the best things usually are) but it tasted fantastic. The only thing I would do differently the next time is to preheat the sauerkraut. The cold (straight from the fridge) kraut was strange contrasted with the melted Swiss and warm corned beef.

Well worth the wait!

During a bathroom break from the Friday Night Fights, my Brother Jim called to see how I was doing. So, I called him back and we chatted for a short while. I was tired, so I dozed off a little during the preliminary bout, but I stayed awake for the main event. When it was over, I went to bed.