So sorry about my absence. I’ve been down with a severe sinus infection for several weeks, not sure if I even wanted to live through it this time. I’m not suicidal, not at all, but after wearing the bright red nose brought on my constant blowing plus the feeling that my head was the size of a bushel basket, I was beginning to wonder why I fight these infections. Three times in my life I have been close to dying from the infections and continue to fight them. I joke about inventing a sandblaster that will work on sinuses but freely admit here that if such a thing ever comes about I doubt I would want to be the first one to try it. Not much left in the brain area but I think I want to keep what I still have.
On the homefrong, I’m still at the same place but with new hope shining in front of me. The place I have been trying to move into now has an empty room with my name on it! Just one small hitch at the moment. On Christmas morning they all woke to find water in most of the rooms from a water pipe that burst from the sub zero temperatures we were enduring at that time. So I’m biding my time here, helped by the knowledge that I will be moving soon. The floors and ceilings in the flood area have to be replaced, but that’s okay. my room and I await the great day.
I have been busy trying to breathe, but have also made a few changes in my way of living here. I buy my own food and heat it in the microwave in the dining room. I’ve tried to find out how much of my rent goes for food but they don’t have a breakdown to show me and are fussing about my deducting the amount I spend on buying my own supplies from the rent.. AND, since we all received a raise in our Social Security, the rent was raised accordingly. What that means for most people here is the food quality and amount have gone down. The only time I have been to the table since Thanksgiving 9last Thursday of November(, the full meal was a hot dog on a bun, six tater tots, and half a cup of baked beans. They call that a nutritious meal. No real vegetables, just children’s servings of childrens favorite foods. Snacks are usually sweet, breakfast is dry cereal with a pop tart or mini cinnamon roll. There are more than the normal number of overweight diabetics living here but they received the same food the few non-diabetics eat. I’ve heard ome of them wonder why their blood sugar is going up. Duh!
Kentucky statutes call for three nutritious meals and three nutritious snacks each day, but they don’t seem to know or care that the nutritional value of what they serve is nil. Accordint to the FDA, senior citizens need two and a half to three cups of fruit per day (we get four ounces of juice at breakfast), three to four cups of vegetables per day, (does six tater tots amount to a cup of veggies?) I forget how many ounces of protein (beans and hot dog?) but since most of the meat served here is so hard it is fossilized and can’t be eaten without danger of tooth loss. I have managed to avoid most of it by binging in my own food that includes fresh fruit ad canned or frozen veggies that I heat in the community microwave, located in the dining room.
I’ve been waiting until most people are in bed to eat mealsl. The reason for this is that everyone is hungry. Even waiting until midnight doesn’t mean I can heat my food and eat in peace though. it never fails to draw a crowd and I end up doling it out to all who show up, granted in small quantities that don’t fill any of us, but at least I can come back to my room and eat snacks and fruit to complete the meals. It just means I am running out of money very quickly. One of the night staff noticed all the hungry people and has contributed what she can, but administration has come very close to calling me a liar when I told them the food is not adequate or nourishing. One of the people at my table told me one night, after eating what I brought out that it felt wonderful to be able to go to bed with a full stomach for a change. I am wondering if I can move out of here and leave them behind, knowing the situation. I’ve spoken with our Ombudsman who attempted to set up a meeting with administration about the food situation but the meeting hasn’t taken place yet. I’ve spoken with the building owner who denied any problems here before launching into a description of his horse farm. ( have heard since then that he has a few ponies, Not sure how that turned into a horse farm, but…) He told me I can always move out to the street if I don’t like it here. This was before I got the word from the place I have been trying to get into for two years, so I can hang in for a few more weeks/hours/seconds.
Okay, enough complaining for the day. It’s cold here but other places have lower temps than we do. We just don’t have the same weather long enough to get accustomed to it so the constant changes from warm to frigid to a heat wave to monsoons to snow and/or ice keep us all unsettled. I’m eagerly awaiting spring, even if it means more rain, and then some wonderful Autumn weather. I avoided summer on purpose. Here in the Ohio Valley we have high humidity that is sometimes equal to the temperature so for me summer has never been a great season. There are days that are exceptional, humidity lower that normal and a dryer heat but those days are few and far between. (I once heard my brother-in-law, born and raised in Colorado, complaining about the high humidity they were having — 13%! He refuses to visit KY in the summer where our low is more in the area of 65 to 75%.)
These are three of the quilts I am/have made this year. They will go to some foster children in the area. My way of keeping sane!
KYAngel's Reflections On Life 