Someday I’ll learn...I hope!

 It’s Thursday, one of Robert’s days off.  Sigh.

Last night we talked about things that needed doing; grocery shopping,  treating ourselves out for lunch at Jimmy Jacks Rib Shack, basically a day of “running”.  Costco, Thiesen’s, etc.

I am not complaining, believe me, but it does get old.

I have absolutely no objection to Robert sleeping as late as he wants to on his days off; today was no exception. It was about 0930 when he got out of bed - I suspect the only reason why he did was because I got in the shower as there was just no other way to make it happen since he was going to want to shower and “wake up”.  Did what I needed to do and then when I came out and said “Good morning” to him, he began telling me all about the show he was watching on TV - I think it was something on the Food Network.

I sat down, went over and finalized my grocery list, checked the overstock shelf. He asked if we had to get groceries today - he gets paid tomorrow so since I had my list made, it could just wait. (WHAT?)

He said he hadn’t had anything to eat yet, he hadn’t taken his supplements and still needed to shower, and he just didn’t want to go anywhere or do anything because it is his day off. “We don’t have anything else we were going to do, did we?” I reminded him that we had talked about going to Costco, getting dog food, vitamins, and going out for lunch at Jimmy Jacks. He seemed annoyed at the thought of going out, but he grumped his way out of his chair and headed to shower.

While he was showering, I began thinking and worrying about all this. I wondered if MY presentation was to blame, and perhaps I should ask him about things differently.

So, when he returned, I said that if he didn’t want to go to the store, I can go get groceries and he said that he figured he should go with me because I am not as familiar with the store as he is and I should just wait until tomorrow, and why did I want to get them today anyway? What was the big deal?

I told him that while it was my fault that I hadn’t gotten the list made and gotten the groceries earlier in the week, I was now out of the food I could eat, was basically eating nothing but carbohydrates and since I’d rather not eat so many carbs, I was basically not eating anything. Out of yogurt, out of cereal, out of oatmeal, etc.  There are four eggs left, and I thought I would try to make those last till the grocery visit.

I guess I’m being foolish to think that he *might* possibly think it would be fun to get out of the house and away from the TV and poke around - he’s the one who has been terribly upset because the pandemic has kept him “inside” for so very long.

I said as much, and also that I thought we would enjoy going out to Jimmy Jacks, have a large meal at noon, and sandwiches for supper. Nope.  Didn’t even remember the conversation from the night before.

He doesn’t want to go to Theisen’s, says we have enough bird food.  We don’t. And he said he didn’t give a shit about whether or not the birds got fed.  (Vent:) This is amazing news, considering he usually spends $20-40 buying bird food every couple of weeks, spent well over $100 bucks on a multi-armed bird station to hang feeders on.

This will be something else I will do tomorrow - another chore of his that I will take over. (/Vent)

He will get excited again when he sees birds at the feeder, I suspect. There has been a male cardinal at the feeder, looking the last couple of mornings; we used to have several pairs.  A goldfinch, back in its yellow coat was spotted yesterday as well.

“What do you want for supper, then, considering we had planned to have a meal out today?”  He wanted me to just get the supplies for one day from the grocery list, had me read the menu.  I asked him what else he wanted. I likely wasn’t fair about it, but damn! I have seven meals planned in such a way that we likely will have two weeks of food with leftovers and such. I wasn’t crazy about the idea of changing things up, asked him if there was anything else that we could do.  I was astounded by he reply.

“Let’s have goulash. It’s quick, it’s simple, and we haven’t had that for a very long long time!”

Yeah. Except for one thing.  We had it last week and he doesn’t remember - this is becoming so normal that I simply don’t even bring it up with him.  So, goulash it will be for tonight.  He was happy!  And he said he’d go to the store, since all that was needed was a pound of hamburger, an onion, plus I asked him if he would please pick up some yogurt for me? “What kind? There are so many kinds and I don’t know what kind you like.”  I have eaten the same kind of yogurt for years. Silk Almond Vanilla yogurt, with very few change ups.  He’s been buying it for me for years. Another thing he no longer remembers.

He came home with the three required items, plus dog food, which I’d also mentioned.  He came home with carmel corn, grape Gatoraid, soda, bread, milk, butter and dog treats, and a newspaper. None of those are bad things, of course, and will save a bit on the ‘big’ grocery shopping.

Before all of this, he took Hannah for a walk. He’s bundled up in a heavy coat because once again he is cold.  I went outside to spray out the birdbath, and see exactly what the ducks have adopted as a pond. Yuck.  It stinks, but I drained as much as I could and refilled it for them.

There also was that big branch in the yard that needed dealing with. While I was filling the bird bath, he and dog got back, and btw...it’s 55 degrees out, and no coat was required IMO.  I hauled the branch back to throw over the back fence so it can be chopped up and burned in the fire pit.

And he began talking to me soto voce about Rose and possibly her family thinking it was okay to throw *their* branches into our yard. He claims the branches clearly show that it is a maple branch, not an ash. He’s mistaken, but again, this is not worth quibbling over.  It doesn’t matter if we take care of it, or she does. Let’s just get it chopped up and dealt with.

My plans for today are to wait a bit, then go into Coralville and make a  Target run; what Target doesn’t have, I’ll order from Amazon.

That’s it for now.