Saturday 7/22/23

5:27a.m. I had a typical night in the nursing home. I got my briefs changed around nine and that was it. I lied in urine all night long. Words fail me about this place. Despite this I slept well. The aides gotchanged my briefs at five then got me in my wheelchair. I am above the dirt.

I wimped out last night and fell asleep. I stayed up past eleven trying to read. I read half of Chapter 8. I couldn’t do any more because I was so tired Oh well I’m not at West Liberty studying for the big test. Those days are long gone But I do have a sixteen day reading streak.

Well I’m up but still half asleep. I sure could use a cup of coffee but that will have to wait until they served breakfast I still miss making my own coffee when I first get up. Sometimes the time between getting out of bed and the time they served coffee is the longest part of the day.

7:36a.m. I feel human after having two cups of coffee and a glass of orange juice. I also had toast and scrambled eggs for breakfast. I talked with Chococolatechip after I ate. She was in good spirits despite the subtle intimidation and sleeping with bed bugs. Somebody rang her buzzer last night. Chococolatechip also said a bed bug tried to crawl into her ear

We both realize there is no point in complaining. Enough words have been spoken about our respective problems. Bitching about them will not make anything better. We need to take action . We both need to move out of our environments. But Chocolatschip feels she is physically unable to move. I’m afraid to move for fear of ending up in another time hell hole. We both have to suck it up Buttercup.

9:27a.m. I was laying in poop and pee since breakfast. Afterninate I had a bm that was extremely painful. I was very uncomfortable while waiting that long for help But my roommate was giving them a hard time. He was yelling about not wanting a shower. Finally,it took three aides, but they got him cleaned up. Then the aides took care of me.

I’m back in bed now.I am glad to be off that hoyer paf. It was hurting my but. I was in a lot of pain a little bit ago. But I’m ok now and all is right with the world. Now I feel I cyan tackle my book America’s Constitution: A Biography by Akhil Reed Amar

I’m still on Chapter 8 I started reading a section on Treaties.Tnis is what Amar wrote:

Perhaps the hardest question raised by the Article VI legal hierarchy concerned the subtle interplay between federal statutes and federal treaties. Consider, for example, the dilemma of a judge confronted by two apparently conflicting federal legal commands and thus forced to decide which of the two he was oath-bound to obey. If one command derived from the Constitution itself and the other came from some other legal source, the supremacy clause and the Constitution’s general structure of popular sovereignty dictated a clear answer: The Constitution would always trump.(Amar,302).

Amar goes on to say that a ratified constitutional amendment would be superior to a federal statute of treaty. Here the author asks a question: What if there was a conflict between a federal statute and treaty? It depends on how a statute was ranked. If a law ranked higher than a greater the law would prevail. If the greater was higher than tne law the treaty trumps.

1:06p.m. I’m not making much progress in my book. I fell asleep k and didn’t wake up until they served lunch. I ate a big plate of spaghetti,r a dinner roll and cup of peaches. That was enough to make me very bloated. I enjoyed the spaghetti but I hate getting sick.

I called Chocolatschip after I ate She was busy doing housework this morning. She did two loads of laundry. Then she started to watch Coal Miner’s Daughter. Chococolatechip said she was doing ok We talked briefly because she wanted to back to her movie

I hope I can finish that damned chapter. I just couldn’t concentrate on it this morning. I read a few pages this morning about Treaties which is mentioned in Article VI,I think. I couldn’t understand what Amar was talking about So my mind started drifting and I fell asleep. But I will finish this book if it’s the last thing I read I’ll start again when my stomach settles.

6:28p.m.I ended up sleeping all afternoon. I would!e up when the nurse brought me my carafate. Then I had supper. They served two fish sandwiches that I didn’t eat. I just didn’t want to get bloated again.

I talked with Chococolatechip. She is fed up with people mooching. She is not answering her door. I felt bad for her but I said that is a good idea.She also said she realizes she must take care of the bed bug problem herself. Chococolatechip has this very strong spray. She is going to use that on her airbed. We talked until 6:30 kthen she went to bed.

I don’t feel all that great. I am still very bloated. My belly hurts like hell. I just want to sleep tonight. The hell with that book.

Ok I can’t help myself. Despite being sick I started a new section on Conventions. I copied this from America’s Constitution A Biography by Akhil Reed Amar:

Article VII, the Philadelphia Constitution’s closing sentence, elaborated its opening words by specifying how “We the People of the United States” would in actual fact ordain and establish the Constitution—namely, via the ratifications of nine or more state “Conventions.” The evident link between the Preamble’s “People” and Article VII’s “Conventions” prompts several basic questions.b In what sense were conventions truly the people themselves? (P, 308).