Weight and Wheelchair bound.

I never had much of a weight problem. However, for the last 5 years or so since I have been confined to a wheelchair my weight has been creeping up. Now try as hard as I can, I can't get my weight to go down or just stop going up.

Well I guess that isn't quite true. I think what happens a lot is I get bored just sitting here in the den all day long. So in the afternoon I will have a snack of 8 or 9 dry roasted almonds. Sometimes, I also will have a 1/2 cup of sugar free jell-o. Then of course there is the snack I always have before bedtime. It is REALLY hard to change a lifetime of eating habits.

I try to keep breakfast down to two pieces of bread, either toasted with butter and jam, or with butter and cheese. Or I will have a small serving of my homemade granola. Lunch is always a small bowl of soup and a piece of fruit. At supper I never have seconds. I guess I will just have to try to reduce my supper portion and my bedtime snack portion.

However, like I mentioned before, it is extremely difficult to change your eating habits. Before I was confined to the wheelchair, I used to ride my bicycle, workout at the gym, and swim laps. These were activities I liked to do. They made me feel good and also allowed me to eat normal portion sizes and not gain weight.

Now I have a neuromuscular disease that has me confined to a wheelchair and some of the medicine I take for that causes weight gain. I also have an under active thyroid which causes weight gain. I guess I am just frustrated today.

Well now it is time to have another boring lunch of soup and an apple.

I am BORED

Boredom:
My Merriam-Webster dictionary defines boredom as a state of being weary and restless through lack of interest.

Maybe I get bored easily. My parents would always tell me that when I had my first hips surgeries at age 12, they were sitting in the waiting room and heard me from the recovery room saying that I was bored and there was nothing to do. So maybe I do get bored easily.

Anyway I am bored today. Everyone was out of the house by 6:30 this morning. So I haven't had anyone to talk to. I am finished with Sudoku puzzles for the week. Maybe the reason I feel bored is because I have had an active week. This past Monday, I was still tired from the active weekend. Tuesday P. and I visited a friend who has ALS. It was so nice that we sat in his driveway wheelchair facing wheelchair. I guess you could say we were nose to nose. I would talk to my friend until I got tired and then he would talk to me until he got tired. We ended up doing this for over an hour. After we left my friend we stopped at the grocery store and did some shopping. After that I rode along while P. picked up her Market Day order.

Wednesday K. was here all day. In the morning she helped me start some pea soup. In the afternoon we watched the Pride and Prejudice. The version with Keira Knightley.

Yesterday,I made Whole Wheat bread in the bread machine. I also marinated some pork chops and a chicken breast for supper. Also N. the home aid was here to help me shower and get dressed. So I had a little company in the morning.

However, today everyone was gone by 6:30 so I am bored. My parents used to say that boredom was good for us when we were young because it caused us to use our brains. The problem today is that I can't think of anything that is safe for me to. The term "safe for me to do" covers a lot of ground. I can think of a lot of things that aren't safe for me to do. Like cleaning the refrigerator. I am certain that even if I don't drop a number of items, I would get everything out of the refrigerator and then be too exhausted to continue cleaning it and putting all the food back. The same goes for all the other activities I can think of. I could call my aunts, but I've already done that this week. Besides talking tires me out. I am still amazed that I talked to my friend for as long as I did on Tuesday.

OK, that is enough of this rambling. It is almost lunch time. Maybe after lunch I will try to get interested in a movie. Or I might read a book. However, I always read for a couple of hours in the evening so even that gets to be a bit much. So yes it is beginning to look like I will watch the BBC Silent Witness that I taped the other night.

OK, earlier I said enough rambling so this is the end.

Those Delicious Ribs

Last Friday morning, I found out that my son J. had no plans for Saturday. So I asked if he wanted to come to our house and make use of the garage to clean his car of all the winter salt and grime. He said that sounded like a good idea to him. So then I asked him if, as long as he was down here, he felt like doing some ribs in the smoker. He replied saying that was another great idea.

I started looking at all my recipe sites on the Internet searching for a BBQ rib recipe. I settled on a Barbecued Beef Ribs with Molasses Bourbon Sauce from Epicurious. Friday night I made the marinade and let the ribs marinade over night.

On Saturday while J. started the chunk charcoal and got the smoker setup I made the Molasses Bourbon sauce. By 11:00 the ribs were in the smoker and J. was working on his car. He kept the smoker around 200 degees all day. The only time the temp changed was when he added more charcoal or Hickory chips. At 4:00 we started basting the ribs with the sauce. When the 6 of us sat down for supper at 5:00 - 5:15 the meat was falling off the bone. Along with the ribs we had coleslaw and quartered potatoes baked with mushrooms and onions. There was no need for dessert because no one had room for any more. Although I think Pecan pie would have been good.

Making bread, fixing the wheelchair

Well the wheelchair is repaired. It took the service man about 1 1/2 hours to replace everything. I am glad that the chair is back in good order because it might be warm enough next week for a road trip around the neighborhood.

It was time for lunch when the service man left. After my soup and piece of fruit, I had to finish making the sourdough bread. What an adventure. First as I was scraping down the sided of the mixer bowl I dropped the scraper in. It started going round and round in the bowl. After I fished the scraper out and restarted the mixer, I managed to spill flour on the floor. So as I was adding the last bit of flour, I slipped on the flour on the floor and dumped more flour then needed into the mixer bowl, all over the counter, and on the floor. Now because I added too much flour to the bread dough it was way to dry and wasn't coming together. So I add a little more milk.

As I write this the bread is in a bowl doing the first rise. I hope this turns out OK.

Wrong parts

The repairman came Tuesday. He had the correct front wheels. However, he only had one armrest, the wrong rear wheels and no batteries. So I told him to come back when he had everything. I don't want them messing around removing my vent any more than needed. Hopefully today they return.

Wheelchair Overhaul Day

Well today my wheelchair is to get an overhaul. 4 new tires, 2 new batteries, and new armrest cushions. At least that is what is suppose to happen. Last year we were told that the insurance company wouldn't cover these expenses so we put off the repairs. This year we budgeted for the cost of the repairs. About a month ago we called an ordered the items and waited, and waited, and waited. So a couple weeks ago I called the company and was told that they were waiting for my doctor to return the paperwork that the insurance company needed. I got upset and talked them into ordering the parts. Seems that they hadn't even ordered them. Last week they claimed the parts had arrived and they were just waiting for my doctor to return the paper work. When I told them we planned on paying they said they would put me on the schedule for today. I then called Pam who called the insurance company who told her that yes they would cover the cost of the repairs.

Anyway five weeks after ordering the parts they should be installed. Every time I think about the Wheelchair Company my blood pressure goes up. However, that isn't as bad as what happened to a friend of mine with ALS. They decided to go with a "Christian" organization when he needed a wheelchair. When it arrived months after ordering it, the seat was so big that my friend just slides back and forth. They couldn't get the "Christian" organization to do anything. The last I heard a lawyer friend of theirs wrote the "Christian" organization a letter and now they are doing something about the wheelchair.

Sometimes I think when people see you in a wheelchair they feel they can give you BAD service and get away with it.

I hope I get one of the good servicemen today.