Cabinet Saga

              After a few days of working Open Diary is back to timing out: Frustrating to say the least.

My age always jumps ahead at OD on the first of the year. I’m reminded that I need to contact my pension plan and Social Security ASAP. My GM pension drops soon as I hit the minimum collecting age of 62 of what my SSI benefit would be. My actual amount stays the same; it is the GM contribution that falls. It can be so confusing. As Glenn once remarked as I tried to explain the in and outs of my retirement, “It is clear as mud!” I have a “post it” hanging to remind me to call Fidelity tomorrow morning.

Friday morning I made the rounds to the Thrift Store, Hell Mart, and Sam’s Club. I had four bags of stuff to drop off at the Thrift Store. The shelves and racks were pretty empty at the thrift store. I always check the racks for sweat pants for lounging around. Winter is peak demand time for these. There were none to be had. I have a surplus of these so it was no real big deal.

To tell the truth I don’t buy that many of my groceries at Hell-mart. Basically it is just peanut butter, orange juice, pepper bacon, Jimmy Dean sausage, and canned cat food for the real staples.

I groaned as I walked into Sam’s realizing I had left my memory stick at home containing the picture files I needed to print. DAMN~!

I finally finished up the last of the XMAS cards I had to send. There is nothing worse than sending out XMAS cards after the New Year. I solved that problem by mounting old post cards from 1960’s trips to New York City and Washington, DC over the Seasons Greetings on the card fronts!

I know I should not be complaining about the cold temperatures in Alabama, but it has been brutal. My old house was not built for these frigid temperatures. It actually was not that cold out Saturday afternoon as I left the “Y”. This man asked if I had been outside lately as I bundled up in my muffler, hat, and winter coat. I told him how much I hated the cold and it was hard to imagine I had grown up and lived 40+ years in WesternNew YorkState!

After my workout I headed to Publix to pick up a few things. I was happy to find a loaf of the multigrain bread I crave on the rack. I needed heavy cream, eggs, and milk.

That heavy cream was so I could make up my favourite supper of Fettuccini Alfredo. I checked around on line and got some ideas to fine tune my sauce. Basically I melt the butter and cream together and then add sharp cheddar and parmesan cheese. Once that starts to melt together, a mess of minced garlic is added along with fresh ground pepper. It is whisked together for a couple minutes to thicken up. Just before taking it off the heat a lemon wedge was squeezed into the sauce.

I savored every mouthful of that supper.  How I wish I could have it more often, but it is not called “heart attack on a plate” for nothing! Once or twice a month is livable for me.

You gotta love Craigslist. I was finally able to get pictures taken of the two cabinets I wanted to sell. It was about 4:00 p.m. I put the listing together for the two cabinets for the one price of $25.00 online. These were still in like new condition; I hate to think of what they would retail

for new. But, I had used these cabinets for 15 years and had no further use for them. Those cabinets were the last links I had to the disastrous meeting with the “carney” Steve back in 1998.

The history behind those cabinets.

·         January 1998 moved from ClevelandOhio to Lockport, NY.

·         Spring of 1998 moved to Tuscaloosa, AL and eventually set up as a computer station.

·         August 2004 moved to Bowling Green, KY and again used as a desk.

·         August 2005 moved back to Tuscaloosa, AL and set up as a workbench.

·         January 2014 sold to a new home in Northport, AL

Within four hours they were sold and picked up by a man who was going to turn them into a computer desk, just as I had done! He was very pleased and so was I. I’m glad to see the stuff get reused. If they had not sold by Monday, I planned on taking them to the Habitat store as a donation.

I don’t have too many pictures to document my stay in Bowling Green, KY. That was such an empty period of my life which was pretty much lived in limbo. I existed for that 13 months to just work at Corvette Assembly to finish out my 30 years with GM before I could continue on living life again.

Here is Stumpy on the “desk” observing life out the window of my “town house”. It would be so welcoming to see Stumpy’s yellow eyes and pointy ears getting out of the truck after a rough day on the line looking at me through that front window.

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Here is the workbench set up from 2006: