Burt Lancaster!

Starbuck!

I switched the remote to the TV bedroom and “The Rainmaker” was on. No, Matt Damon, the REAL rainmaker, with Burt Lancaster, Katherine Hepburn and (you remember “Sea Hunt”) Lloyd Bridges,1956. What a wonderful flick!

Burt Lancaster, for four years, he couldn’t speak at all after the stroke, a “speechless invalid,” said Kirk Douglas, in “My Stroke of Luck”. Kirk Douglas had a stroke, too.

Surprise! Me too.

All I want is a tuna sandwich.

I massacred it.

I want a tuna sandwich.  That’s sounds sensible.

Albacore tuna, chopped dill, small clove of minced onion, salt and pepper, soupçon Dijon mustard, all good. Well, wrong.

My left hand does everything, from mouthwash, mail, dinner with the dogs, and blowing my hair with one hand. The right hand is DOA, it just sits there. Actually, there’s movement there; the ball works well, exercise-wise. But, alas, my right arm is stiff.

The StarKist brand takes 12 oz. of tuna. Mighty big. The Hamilton Beach can opener for lefties (or, righties) is hard. “Open cans of all types and sizes effortlessly,” it boasts. Not tuna. Maybe it’s the mechanism, maybe it’s the cut and cutting lever. After all, I’m leftie. Sometimes, my little brain is staticky, short-circuit as it were. I’m livid.

The junk drawer is a can opener, I reason. The knob and grip handles takes two hands.

Much swearing. I rooted around of a G.I. can opener with one hand. Secure the tuna with my left foot and balance the weight with one hand. The cans are sharp. Nada.

Finally, the bottle opener. Little shards of metal shavings are not good. In the garbage can it goes. Perfectly good tuna, too. 

Plan B.

Tomatoes, potatoes, kiwi...Oh my!

https://www.farmboxdirect.com/home/welcome

My caregiver, Anita, shows up once a month for shopping. Case in point, what IS the point? I shop online.

WalMart, Amazon Prime, LL Bean, Indigo Wild (goat’s soap and so much more), Yankee Candle, Wholey Fish Market in Pittsburgh; just a click. I looked online and Farmbox Direct is ideal. Organic produce, fruits and veggies, fresh things; I live myself and threw out stuff, old stuff, rancid stuff in the refrigerator. Yuck.

FD, two times a week, 2 potatoes, two tomatoes, a bunch of kale and carrots, grapefruit, navel oranges and kiwi. Apples, too. The list goes on. It’s pricey, but what’s alternative? It’s garden crisp.

Just so you know, I couldn’t speak and walk, completely aphasic, confined to a wheel chair in five hospitals for seven months,17 years ago. I didn’t know my name in ’99. 

I don’t have a car now. THAT’S ironic. I worked at Volkswagen Manufacturing and Fiat Chrysler Motors.

Mail Order Blues

"Text" is hard!

I filled out the forms (on the internet)for Highmark BS/BC from the mail order and, safe to say, it’s hard. Through the message center at Highmark, I explained the key pads (typewriter) are not working with the screen. Help. Minutes later, the message center explained that the PDF and tools and the dreaded downloading and Preview will now allow you to type your information onto the form directly.

Yeah, right. Three hours later and four pages later (much swearing, too), I did it. The “Text” is difficult, especially on the left hand.

Mail order is fast and easy. I don’t have a car, either. I called the doctor with two scripts, metoprolol and losartan potassium, for high blood pressure. I’m a happy girl.

Seventeen years ago, I couldn’t speak and walk, aphasic to the max. What a difference a day makes.