NO MORE PREMIUM BADASS CARD

This blogger's post (posted at the end of this post) struck a note with me because I have held a Premium Gold Card in the Badass Club since I was knee high to a grasshopper.

And I was married to a gentle giant for 44 years that covered my ass when my badassedness took me to the brink (in other words, when the other badass was ready to make their move, they took a careful look at my gentle giant and backed down because they didn't know he was a teddy bear: I was the wild card, fearless and ready to rumble).

My husband did, at one point in our marriage, show that he, too, had a badass streak when he stood by my side and fought injustice WITH me when the circus monkeys thought they could raise hell over our driveway; and WE WON the case they tried to try in Court (the Judge wasn't having any of that - and Bob showed his teeth to the monkeys!) … but, generally, Bob was just my gentle giant – and I preferred him that way: his character and balanced temperament was a direct answer to prayer when I discussed husband requirements with Elohei ;-) I could never have lived with a man like the one my sister Ramona married; arrogant, mean-tempered, violent, and egotistical. ALL of that human nature was, I am sure, in Bob too: he just chose to rise above it.

I can be even-tempered too; but on occasion, I would go off the rails.  

Specifically, when “on principal” instances would occur.

My daughter always tells people, "My Mom is a handful". She is embarrassed of my “on principal” fearlessness. Oh well … our children have embarrassed us too on occasion.

But since joining the Senior Citizen's Club, I have to constantly assure her that at 62 years of age, I am not up to kicking anyone's ass anymore, and since December 2018, I haven't renewed my Badass Premium Gold Card.

I AM IN RETIREMENT ...

I have officially joined the ZFG/SOABN/SOTOPS Club.

And I LIKE it.

I think Bob was always a card-carrying member of the ZFG Club; he'd be pleased I have finally grown up and "get it".

The world has changed (it changed quite a while ago, but I always had backup until recently).

And I am now a woman alone.

It is time now for this wild card badass to settle down.

https://www.widowbadass.com/2019/05/18/when-badassery-goes-too-far/

PERIOD OF ADJUSTMENT

Now that I find myself suddenly alone, I have been sticking pretty close to home. Bob and I used to day-trip a couple times a month, and occasionally go on mini vacas that could be as short as over-night – or as long as a week on the road before meandering back to our driveway.

But now those days are over.

So, I have some leftover $$$ after bills are paid and incidentals at home are restocked.

Today, while grocery shopping and running all over town to find things that need replaced at home, I stopped at Ross’s (I rarely shop at Ross’s – have only done so twice in the 2 decades the store has been here in Longview) to buy some summer sheet sets … and came home with quite a bit more :-)

I couldn’t believe I actually bought girly sheet sets; but I did … and I like them. Smooth cotton sheets to replace the winter flannel sheets. White cotton with floral print: both sets. I don’t believe we ever had floral sheets on our bed. Ever. Not because Bob would have nixed the idea … but because there was a man in the house, and I wanted things to be neutral. Our marriage was always a 50-50 thing. Now half of that 50-50 thing is no longer present.

So, floral sheets on our bed will be a new experience.

An adjustment.

After I bought the sheet sets, I meandered through the clothing department just to check it out, and bought a pair of summer shorts and 3 blousy tops. They were all reasonably priced at a good deal a piece, so into the cart they went … and to the Fitting Room I went. While I was in there, I spotted a shiny penny in the floor of the cubicle I was in; so, I smiled and pocketed it:

“Don't pass by that penny when you're feeling blue. It may be a ‘found penny’ from heaven that an Angel's tossed to you.” ~C. Mashburn

Leaving the Fitting Rooms department, I passed by the cookware aisle – and had added 2 more items to my cart …

Bought these mini pie pans at Ross's too - they are perfect for my solo eating requirements. They are quality pans, and the price was right.

I also bought this set of 4 ramekins at Ross's: a little under a $1 each. Some recipes are hard to break down in accurate measurements, so these 4 added to my 2 at home, will make baking those difficult-to-break-down recipes easier to manage and enjoy ;-)

And before I reached the cashier, 3 decorative pillows had found their way into my cart too – everything I bought at Ross’s was on sale today:

These lumbar support pillows were on sale at Ross's (half price!) ... so they came home with me. They do not have a memory foam interior pillow, but they will do to support the lumbar region and give some comfortable support.

This big poof pillow was on sale - for third off original price; so – it went into the cart also.

The Blue Rose pillows look 'right at home’ in our home (a girly adjustment in this aging tom-boy's life) – and I am thinking my friends' backs will thank me when they come to visit.

This over-sized poof pillow fit's Bob's chair real good. Now I don’t have to pack my pillow with me every time I want to sit in Bob's chair ;-)

My back pillow can stay put now. No more musical chairs ...

A bit further down the road, I found these campy chair mats at the Dollar Store, and just had to have them ...

I spotted these chairs mats at the $1 Store and they reminded me of Cher in her Laverne skits: I laughed with that skit's decor playing though my head all the way to the cashier aisle. And, I swear, as I was tying them to the chair backs at home, I could almost hear Bob chuckling because he could always read my mind: we were that much atuned to each other. LOL

I can see I will have to crochet matching chair booties ... I can do that by making Alyna's slippers up first and making the matching booties with the leftover Slipper yarn I bought.

I made 2 more shopping stops along the way home.

At JoAnne's, I bought a bag full of yarn to crochet Christmas Slippers with (YES! I AM already thinking that far ahead. LOL). When I spoke with the Spokesperson for the Hospital Donation Foundation yesterday, she said they are pretty well stocked up at the moment and probably won't need anything more until around September sometime; so I will utilize the 'downtime' months to get family handcrafted items taken care of.

While I was paying for the mound of colorful skeins of yarn, I noticed the Butterfly door mat off to the side, and decided to add that to the tally too. The butterflies reminded me of Bob's new status in life:

The butterfly is a symbol for the Resurrection. The butterfly, has for generations since the birth of Christianity, symbolized life after death because of the butterfly’s life cycle from a lowly caterpillar to a soaring, beautiful, almost ethereal creature.

And it was on sale for half off. Good deal all the way around :-D

And last – but not least – I pulled in at Lowe’s to get some 7w nite light bulbs for my nite lights, only to find that they are no longer available and won’t be restocked …

The light bulbs I wanted has been phased out! So I had to get LED nite lights instead.

No longer available - it looks like I am going to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century and forced to come to terms with the adjustments.

In my defense, looking around at everything new in our home, all I can say is that I am currently going through a period of adjustment.

And from the look of most of the things purchased, I seem to be shifting gears and leaning towards creating a more feminine home environment now that my man has permanently vacated (physically, anyway); and I am not looking for a replacement.

It is weird buying girly stuff because I am not, by nature, a girly-girl.

But, for the moment it seems to {fit} this period of adjustment I have been thrust into.

So, I am going with the flow.

The changes don’t diminish Bob’s presence in my life: they are necessary to my moving forward independently towards a life I did not/do not want. And I am not doing anything underhanded – Bob KNEW I would make life changes if he graduated before me: we talked about {it} periodically since he died for the 2^nd time in 1981.

Bob understood that I would need a fresh canvas by which to work through my period of adjustment in order for my heart to heal.

He knew that the changes I would make would never erase him from my life because I love him, and will love him to the day I, too, physically die.

I love you Babe.

Always.

OX

YOU GOT TO PLEASE YOURSELF

The rain stopped for the time being, so I hustled out to my garden area to do what needed to be done before the predicted rain comes again Friday sometime.

First thing I did was stake the corn against the wild river winds that blow through here. We have lived on/near one river or another all of our married life, but we have never had trouble with river winds before moving to Longview. One year, on our little homestead property on Merritt Drive, the brutal river wind tore through my garden and knocked every corn stalk to the ground – 75 count! Refusing to call the crop a bust, I used everything I could lay my hands on that looked sturdy enough to stake the corn back into place (even some discarded metal curtain rods! LOL). The corn not only survived – it thrived.

I have never heard of anyone else staking their corn, but now I do it every year just in case my garden gets hit again with the brutal force of nature:

Howling winds that blew through here the past few days (https://jeastofeden.blogspot.com/2019/05/gone-with-windgusty-storm.html).

PAINTED MOUNTAIN CORN STAKED.

Sprouting carrots covered with bird netting in the Painted Corn box.

KANDY CORN STAKED. Recycled wire mesh barrier behind Spaghetti
Squash

Corn staked, and moving down the line checking/inspecting plants in every planter box; I used another recycled wire mesh rack (salvaged from an old pop-up greenhouse I had a few years ago before the river winds tore it to ribbons), to place behind the yellow squash plant to keep the sprawling leaves on my side of the border so Ron doesn’t run bitching to Candy about “trespassing leaves”, though I am CLEARLY ON our side of the border – that moron is ridiculous, and I want to honor Bob by keeping the peace as best I can …

Clearly 14" on MY side of the border - that should be far enough to stave off Ron's heartburn, but Ron is not a normal person: what's his, is his ... and whatever is anyone else's he considers 'his' too.

I noticed passing the strawberry jar, that strawberries are making an appearance – and there is abundant showings of spit-bug activity too. I can’t control that until we have a break in the rain pattern because putting Bt on the plant to halt the activity would be a waste of time if it immediately gets rained off the plant:

I am really LIKING the look of Mascara lettuce – it's brilliant burgundy color is intense even from a distance; this picture does not do it justice; it really does ‘pop’ against the wet dark soil and highlighted by Tom Thumb lettuce in the forefront …

The shallots and cilantro are coming up now, too; I have never grown shallots from seed before, so I hope they thrive and make it to harvest – and I haven’t had any luck with cilantro either; maybe this year will be different. I hope so:

Shallot leaves pushing through the soil.

Cilantro coming up.

Something is chewing on my Pepper plant - this is new activity; again, there is nothing I can do until the rain gives me a few days’ break so the Bt can have opportunity work effectively …

While I was in the shed to gather the stakes for the corn plants, I spotted some plastic trellis pieces the previous owners had left behind, and decided to use those pieces to place behind my squashes and melons:

Short trellis piece placed behind Butternut & Zucchini squashes.

All I have to say, is, if Ron goes running to Candy when he sees these, is “you can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself”. Ron is a miserable person and a chronic bitcher. He will ALWAYS FIND SOMETHING to complain about.

I think the trellis’ look okay, put up the way they are; and they are an answer to prayer – I had put the need for some sort of trellis’ on my shopping list and am tickled pink that I found these pieces in the shed; which, until December 14^th, 2018, was my husband’s personal domain. I really have no idea what all is in there: and won’t know until I start to weed through it all at some point. But for right now, today, I spotted the trellis’ and am thankful.

And Ron can learn that he has no say whatsoever in what I decide to do in MY personal space as long as it is not seriously offensive, or dangerous.

I hope his house sells quickly. Please God!

And I hope my new neighbors are not acute pains in the ass with serious fallout, as he has been.

I am satisfied with the staking and trellis’.

And that is all that matters to me.

It was not put up fancy ... held in place with a discarded curtain rods at the ends, a short bamboo stake in the middle, and heavy-duty fishing line securing it against the rampaging winds to flanking shepherd's hooks strategically placed ... and further secured to the property border marker (https://jeastofeden.blogspot.com/2019/01/defining-line-in-rock.html).

It will do.

I am pleased ;-)

CLEANING DERVISH TODAY

Gojo is my {go-to} cleaner for tough stains and shoe skid marks on the floor.

GOJO FOR FLOOR CLEANUP. Bathroom

These skid marks left on the bathroom floor …

GOJO spread on the shoe skid marks.

This heavy black mark looks like it will be the toughest to erase.

... have been on the floor bugging me ever since Plummer Bob was here in March to remove the old noisy toilet and replace it with a quieter, more up-to-date model (https://jeastofeden.blogspot.com/2019/03/yesterday-was-very-busy-day-here-house.html), but with a steady stream of construction workers in and out of the house, all around the house inside & out – without a set schedule – I have not been able to get to a.n.y.t.h.i.n.g. for actual clean-up until today. I got on it as soon as my eyes opened, before the day could get away from me ;-)

I spread the Gojo on the skid marks with an old toothbrush I keep around for jobs like this one; left it on the floor for about an hour and a half to give it time to go to work; then I grabbed a scrubber and some paper towels and got busy erasing them :-D

CLEAN!

Toughest skid mark erased (YAY!)

Liking to see the floor without the ugly black skid marks, I thought I would tackle the shower too – last time that was done was in July 2018; before the Grim Reaper paid us a visit and home repairs waylaid me: so glad I can get back to cleaning my house again!

I will mop all the floors Thursday when the weather is favorable to open the windows ;-)

I opened the window a bit because all the fumes were starting to wreck havoc on my weak lungs.

After the shower was thoroughly scrubbed with cleaner and a scrubber - and hosed down - I saw that I am going to have to find something that will actually work on getting rid of the hard water stains.

And I needed to deep-clean Bob’s bath-brush too because it looked pretty grubby with Widow’s Fog neglect; so I placed the bath-brush as well as the foot scrubbing pumice chunk in a solution of bleach and water to soak for a few hours …

While they were soaking, I finished up the last of the colorful 12 ct. Preemie Octopus’ I have been working on:

PREEMIE OCTOPUS' (https://jeastofeden.blogspot.com/2019/05/ambitious-day.html)FINISHED. 12 ct.

That done, I rinsed off the bath-brush and pumice and put them both back into the shower before I started Supper. I made ‘Peppers & Steak’ from my Southern Living Cooking Light Recipe Book – I like the strong flavors of the ginger and green peppers in this meal. I froze 2 servings of it for future meals …

Peppers & Steak w- Basmati Rice: divided 3 ways w-leftover. rice for later.

I added cubed Yellow Squash to the Ready-Made Pepper & Steak freezer meals.

Here is the recipe – the recipe is an 2 step, 2 day prep meal:

PEPPERS & STEAK Recipe ~ Makes 8 servings

2 pounds lean Round Steak, cut ½” thick (partially frozen meat makes it easier to cut into strips) * 1 cup Beef Broth * ¼ cup Soy Sauce * ½ teaspoon Garlic Powder * ½ teaspoon ground Ginger * Vegetable cooking Spray * 1 cup Water * 3 large Green Bell Peppers * 1 (2 oz) jar diced Pimentos, drained (opt.) * 3 Tablespoons Cornstarch * ¼ cup water * 4 cups COOKED Rice

Trim excess fat from steak. Slice meat into 2” x ¼” strips.

Combine next 4 ingredients in a shallow container; add meat, toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Drain meat well, reserving ½ cup marinade; set aside.

Coat a large skillet with cooking spray; place over med-high heat until hot – add meat and cook until lightly browned. Add reserved ½ cup marinade and 1 cup water. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer 45 minutes. Add green Bell and pimento, stirring well. Cook 15 minutes or until meat is tender.

Combine cornstarch and ¼ cup water, stirring until blended; add to meat mixture. Cook, stirring constantly, until thickened. Serve over rice. 90 calories per serving over ½ cup rice.

GONE WITH THE WIND/GUSTY STORM

The weather forecast said rain … but nothing was mentioned about high winds.

And man (!), did we get them!

A howling storm blew in around 7:30 p.m. and blew things around pretty good:

Storm blowing in and ripping the ‘For Sale’ Sign off the post next door.

Trees being shaken; and our Bird House & Bird Feeder were shaken too.

Hummingbirds braved out the storm.

Wind chimes were blown around – I hope they stay put and don’t get blown into the windows.

A howling wind blew through here like a forlorn banshee. It could be heard very clearly through the closed windows ...

The ‘For Sale’ Sign on the property next door was blown away … gone with the wind.

The door wreath I made 2 decades ago for the 1st house we bought in Longview, was torn off the door hook and blown to the ground – I retrieved it; still in one piece, and it is inside drying out now.

I hope I do not wake up to total chaos tomorrow.

And I hope the hummingbird feeders do not get broken - they are glass feeders.

The houses are pretty tight in this park – things could get dicey for everyone.

OVEN FRIED FISH FILLETS Recipe

I haven’t had fish in a while … Bob would eat fish under protest … and I haven’t really felt like cooking for the past 5 months.

I cooked up a storm the first week after his graduation, mostly for something to do to keep me from flying apart: and I portioned those meals and froze them – taking them out and reheating them when and if I felt like eating a full meal. Usually all I wanted was a fast sandwich, so those frozen meals lasted until last week.

Now, they are gone … and I actually feel like cooking again, and eating more than a quick sandwich.

So.

Nothing fancy … just delicious home cooking ;-)

Tonight, I am baking a fish fillet and a foil-wrapped veggie packet. All but the potato and fish came from my garden – and the breadcrumbs are homemade from start to finish too because they are ground dried homemade bread heels. Maybe next year I can grow my own spuds too. I got a late start with my garden this year due to more home repair and maintenance projects, and the potatoes I ordered had been sold out; maybe better luck next year ;-)

Anyway …

This recipe comes from my ‘Southern Living/Cooking Light’ Cookbook I bought at a garage sale a few years ago. The veggie packets are my own concoction, and I put them in the oven to cook about a half hour before I put the fish in the oven:

OVEN FRIED FISH FILLETS ~serves 4

1 pound Flounder (or Sole) fillets * 1 Tablespoon reduced calorie Mayonnaise * 6 Tablespoons fine, dry Breadcrumbs * 2 Tablespoons minced fresh Parsley * ½ teaspoon Paprika * Vegetable Cooking Spray * lemon wedges (optional)

Coat fillets with mayonnaise. Combine breadcrumbs, parsley, and paprika (I used frozen minced parsley, so I added the parsley to the mayonnaise). Dredge coated fillets in breadcrumb mixture:

Arrange fillets on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray; bake at 450-degrees (425-degree oven for glass cooking dish) for 12 minutes or until fillets flake easily with a fork:

Fish rolled in bread crumbs and ready for oven.

Serve with a lemon wedge. About 140 calories per serving.

==FOIL-WRAPPED VEGGIE PACKET ~serves 1

Cut a large piece of foil and fold it in half to strengthen it. On one half place 1 Potato cut in wedged ‘fingers’ * 4 small baby Carrots * ¼ cup quarted Onion pieces. Drizzle with Olive Oil and herb seasoning of choice:

Carefully fold opposite end of foil over veggie pieces and crimp edges securely so juices to not bubble out and run all over the oven:

Cook in a 425-degree oven for about 40 minutes.

LOW IMPACT WORKOUT FOR SENIORS

As I mentioned yesterday (https://jeastofeden.blogspot.com/2019/05/get-out-and-walkabout-day.html), I am serious about getting into an exercise routine; so this morning I did a search for online low-impact exercises, and found this one – which is really pretty good, and pretty low impact.

I skipped the dance routines because I just can’t concentrate on them right now (widow's brain fog): simple, basic, mindless exercises I can manage … like the weight lifting and the physical movements.

And the LAST THING I want to envision while going through the paces is john travolta! Just hearing his name wants me want to barf. Seriously.

Maybe I will eventually want to do the dance routines, but right now is not that time.

I am definitely feeling the burn – and that is a good thing ;-)