Boy, I don't know if it's just that I'm getting old, (79 isn't old, is it?), or getting forgetful or what, but when I had to write to Texas to ask how to make a new entry in this thing, that's getting pretty bad.

Anway, I went to town today, for the first time in about two weeks. When I say "went to town", I mean the area of town where I CAN go. It is about 1 1/2 miles to the Target, Walgreen's, and the Mall, takes me about 30 minutes in my power chair. It is amazing the changes that can take place in that period of time. We in this area of California, are in what is considered a drought. It is nothing like some places. We do not have severe water rationing, or restricted water use like some people. We just haven't had normal rainfall for about three uears. But, you can sure see the yards where people are not watering like they used to. Yes, some of it is due to the fact that the houses are now vacant (rentals & owned), but there are plenty where it just seems to be that people aren't taking care of their yards like they used to. And, we have a new traffic light. At the corner of Queens Ave., and Gray Ave., they finally have a light working. I have never been able to figure out why there wasn't one there long before this. It is a major intersection, not far from two elementary schools, and in the afternoon, when kids are getting out of school, it is a bad intersection. I think this will help a lot.

The economy has had an indirect affect on a lot of things. More than we realize, I guess. I am beginning to see how it is affecting things here where I live. We are not affected as directly as most of you are - we do not buy groceries, gas for our cars, or things like that. But we are a facility that was designed to house about 70 residents. When I came here three years ago, I had to wait about 3 weeks for an opening. Now, we are about 50 percent capacity. Stop and think about it. That means their monthly income is cut by about l/2 but there expenses are not. Sure, the expenses are cut some, but not in proportion to the income. They still have most of their staff - state law requires certain mamning - they still have to put out three meals a day, seven days a week, they still have to cool/heat the whole building, and they still have to have certain lighting on,etc. We do have one building that has twelve single occupant apartments. None of these are occupied at this time. What I have started to notice is mainly in the meals. I don't believe the food is of the quality it was at first (not sure why this is), and I'm sure the portions are smaller. They supply us with artificial sweetner, and I know there are some residents who use artificial sweetner when they could use regular sugar. They used to use Euqual, now they are using something I have never heard of. I think it is a "store brand" from the wholesale house they get most of their groceries. We were told it was because the Equal was much more expensive. They have trays on each table with the sweetner, tea bags, and sometimes powdered creamer or no-salt. Anyway, there is this one table where the ladies all use large amounts of sweetner - five or six packages at a time. As one of the ladies says, "I like my 'sugar'". Guess what. They have taken the tray off that table and are "rationing" the amount of sweetner they can have. I've seen some other less obvious places where they are trying to cut expenses, but that is the most blatant.

When I was in town today, I was looking for a special "doctor recommended" cough syrup. I normally get it at the Walgreen's. They didn't have any today, so they called the other store which is at the corner of Tharpe & Colusa Hwy (about 3/4 mile further West) and asked them to hold a bottle for me. On my way from one store to the other, I stopped at Target, and at Rite Aid to see if they had what I was looking for. No such luck. But, at RiteAid, there was a very nice man about four feet further down the aisle checking on sleep aids. He started to chuckle and said "Look at this". He had a package of sleep aid medication, and on the outside was the statement, "Non drowsy formula". A sleep aid that is "non drowsy". Now that is really going some.

Looks to me like this is going to become a daily thing. I mentioned before, how I miss human companionship. Well, by writing in this blog, I take care of part of that. I don't know, and don't really care, how many people read this, but it does give me a place to "vent"- to tell little stories like above, to get upset about things, and just to clear my mind and thoughts, even though there is no one to answer me. So, bear with me, cause here it comes.