Too scattered to go to the Brien Center food distribution.

Found a possible spray for the mini split, ordered it for delivery from Home Depot along with Miracle Gro to make up the delivery minimum.

Left a voicemail for an HVAC/Plumbing company in Williamstown. Waiting to hear from an out of state person for furnace servicing.

Ordered a half pint of Ben Moore paint from Aubuchon to touch up the bedroom. Ron picked it up on his way back from the credit union. Tried it out.

Made a good lunch of Ron’s choosing: orzo, shredded cabbage in broth with parmesan cheese and lemon. Put a salad together for later.

Office 365 renewed.

Poor Jett threw up in the hallway next to my office door.

Messaged Mountain One for a Safety insurance quote on auto and homeowners.

Watched an episode of The Practice called “Human Rights” and am furious with David E. Kelley for such a poor research job. There were grounds for granting the young girl’s request for amnesty to spare her legal rape in the form of a forced marriage and appeals are in fact available for amnesty requests that are refused. While this episode was not based on a real case, I am still sick about it. That girl could be our great grandchild!

Signed up with Kroll Monitoring following a data breach at an unidentified medical provider or medical data collector.

Ron is off to the transfer station.

Did laundry. Boiled eggs. Transplanted the white geranium. Tried to get a coffee stain out of the living room carpet. Cleaned off the big bureau in our bedroom.

Left a message for Purple Valley about an appointment for the Corolla’s 200,000 mile checkup.

Dropped off Ron’s Pendleton robe to a seamstress at Savvy Hive. She recommended a patch.

Watched several YouTube videos about protecting assets from Medicaid seizure.

Ron and Jett have been in and out all evening. Ron reports that it’s been raining steadily. Found out too late that there was entertainment at the Coffee Shop.

I signed us up for a lecture by Maggie Haberman to be streamed on Sunday at a synagogue in Pittsfield.

I visited two food pantries today, both in Williamstown and both in churches.

As a result, we have a lot of groceries.

Our good friends at Saints Patrick and Raphael provided us with fresh produce, eggs, coffee and homemade bread.

The pantry setup at the Community Bible Church is the same as the one at Christ the King in Mashpee. You get a number, fill out a couple of forms with your food requests and wait your turn. Volunteers take your bags, pack up your food and deliver it to your car.

I got a high number so was in the sanctuary for quite a while. I’d left my phone at home so used the opportunity to do a little Bible reading.

Aside from the rules about stoning and smiting of enemies, I found myself enjoying the poetic aspects of the Old Testament text, especially in the Book of Job.

On a more mundane note, I learned that there are no income requirements for anything that isn’t provided by USDA.

This is the fifth food pantry I’ve visited; four are church-affiliated.

Gotta have respect for that old time religion.

This afternoon I dug up big weeds in the driveway garden, including a couple of small trees. I hope this allows the flowers more water and nutrients. Loaded it all in the truck.

Getting ready for bed, I tripped and fell because Jett was right behind me.

Made a casserole today with squash, white beans, corn, tomato sauce, onion, garlic and spices with a cornbread top crust. Ron loved it.

Except for the spices, it was entirely from food pantry items, even the cornbread.

That, some weeding and a lackluster dusting of the blinds was pretty much what I did today. Meanwhile, Ron vacuumed the living room.

Or was there more?

Turns out some of the things I do in the morning are supposedly helping me avoid a stroke: go outside with Jett, drink water, eat yogurt before carbs.

They are gorgeous and almost untouched by pests this year. Roses as well. May they continue.

We are besieged with fleas right now. One fell in my coffee this morning. I tightened Jett’s Seresto collar and set out a fresh dish of apple cider vinegar, sugar and dish detergent.

Changed sheets.

Warm and muggy, not great for outdoor work but I weeded both sides of the driveway and cleaned up the daylilies. Counted over 30 stems around the light pole.

Confirmed with Apple Support that our phones are not eligible for any kind of AppleCare coverage.

Confirmed with Williamstown Medical that Ron and I are automatically assigned to Dr. Rizwan once she’s onboard in September.

Looked into starting a new hobby. Two quizzes gave me answers that are almost a joke: glass blowing and knitting/crocheting!

Pizza for supper.

I put Jett in the garage to stop his barking, and it worked. He finally ate after skipping breakfast but is restless again. Gave him a bit of a CBD gummie.

I vacuumed and removed three years of dust from under the bed. Changed the vacuum cleaner bag.

Scraped spatters of paint that have been on the bedroom baseboards for years with alcohol and finger nails.

Reading an online book about a wedding, a non-fiction book that I’m thoroughly enjoying. Finished a bottle of wine and shared the last slices of cheddar cheese with Jett.

Thinking about FarFar’s, Duxbury Beach, French Memories. Amie. Sun, light and sea air. Shipwrecked. Dead Neck Trail. Sandy Neck. State Beach in Winter. No charge after Labor Day, three weeks away.

We did a run to Walmart for a prescription and a few household and grocery items.

Ron did a huge laundry.

Reviewed the over 300 free channels offered through Roku and selected favorites.

Figured out how we will manage with 25% cuts in Social Security in six years.

I made an August bouquet but many flowers have already gone by. Some due to my failure to water enough, no doubt. Some because of this past week’s rainstorm. Still pretty, though.

Made a broccolini/onion/cheddar pot pie. Was going to be a quiche but the crust came out weird when I prebaked it. Also made brownies. Both good.

Jett was being a pest for a good part of the day. He did stop barking at the boys when we called him.

Bartlett’s Orchard Farm in Richmond judged the best in the state.

Beer for Ron and wine for me on the deck after supper until Jett became unruly. Nice. The setting would have fit in anywhere.

I made a casserole for lunch with the zuke from our garden, onion, red pepper, cheese and mushroom soup. Baked potatoes and made a big salad. Helped Ron with cleanup. Even so, it took him quite a while to finish.

Jett decided not to eat today; finally had some food around 8.

Ron loaded the new mouse traps and boy, have they been busy: one snapped within half an hour of placement. Just now Ron saw a mouse run out from under the frig.

I removed one this morning with a live mouse. It was badly injured. I wasn’t sure how to put it out of its misery so just released it. Don’t know what happened to it.

Comments on the state rep debate from last night pretty much reflect my opinion. John Barrett was prepared, Fitch his opponent was not. There is concern that Fitch wants to do the bidding of Beacon Hill, which is the last thing we need.

Observation: the opponent’s crowd was raucous at the end and did not represent him well. They treated a dignified debate like a steel cage match.

We were thinking about going to a concert at the Historical Museum but passed when we learned there was an admission fee. It wasn’t outrageous but we are spending only on essentials these days. Like mouse traps.

I finally got the chart of relief items to render correctly. Took hours but it was worth it. Tested the app on my laptop as well as Andi’s before packing it up and returning it to Dan.

Stop and Shop for peanut butter. Peet’s was on sale. Also picked up long matches and good veg burgers that are sometimes hard to find.

Ron replaced the lightbulb in the pantry by pulling the whole panel to the side. Actually made sense, who knows what we’d have to do to get it off the “right” way.

Nice message from Robert yesterday and today from Em. Nice text session about their classes and my project. They took microeconomics and ace’d the math, got an A for the term. Well done!

Thunderstorm around 3, rain poured into the open bedroom window. Very humid afterwards.

Thought we’d lost Jett! Unbeknownst to me, he’d followed me into the garage. I heard a dog barking but it was so faint, thought it was on TV. Searched the house, relieved when I found him. Guess the garage is better insulated than I thought.

On the way to North Adams, Ron dropped off returnables at BFair.

We had a really nice lunch at the Food Project, then I dropped him off at a new-to-us optical shop on Ashland to order glasses. Fortunately, Ron was pleased with the service, and I’m relieved that it worked out after yesterday’s disappointing performance at our opthalmologist’s office.

While Ron was trying out glasses, I did a run to the food pantry on Eagle Street. Very nice people and they have a variety of produce! I had to park in the back of their building because the street is being closed off for an event this evening. Registered at their church. Brought home cabbage, broccolini, eggplant, tomatoes and one or two other veggies.

Less than great shop at Carr’s. I’d placed an order on their website and got a big pushback from the manager. Turns out the order went to their distributor and I didn’t receive an email until later this afternoon. Ended up calling the distributor myself and cancelling the order. Ron paid for the goods at the store. Snotty, sarcastic cashier. Customer service has really gone downhill there.

Back home Ron put the grill back together. We tested it; it’s fine.

He went to the transfer station with trash and yard clippings. I did a second trip with recyclables then to Stewart’s in Pownal for ice cream.

A driver from Walmart delivered my meds.