Thursday, October 15, 2020

Holiday plans, plants at home

 I really don't do senior activities, too many old fogies...however, I got an email from the township recreation department about a free of charge box lunch for seniors for the holidays, a drive by event in early December. Which, since it's around Thanksgiving, my birthday and Christmas, in that series, seemed like a really nice thing to accept.

So I went to the township website, and tried quite a while to find the event, did so, then had to open an account in order to sign up. Oookay, fine.  Then found that in order to receive texts you had to, get this, tell them who your carrier is.  From a dropdown menu.  On which my carrier is not listed. So I had to forgo texting.

Moving along, filled out several screens of information, including creating password, etc., and was rejected since there is already an account with that email.  I don't have an account with the township, so who knows what that means. Anyway, if I could substitute another email address, I could open my account. Okay.  Except that there's no way to do that. You can't delete and replace. You can't edit. So after quite a while, wondering if this was actually worth doing, I sent an email to the rec. department asking if it had to be this hard.

I heartlessly played the age card, and the birthday card, and the widow card, and the alone since March card, and asked them for help.

then, first thing this morning, an email from the admin, saying, oh sorry, I can sign you up directly, just tell me this and this. She even offered to get the lunch delivered if I were homebound! Which I declined, thanking her profusely, and said I could get there.  Then this:


The squeaky wheel rules.  But there are no answers on why they want all the info, or why the website is so clunky.  Handsome Son, who's a software person when he's not a grocery store person, said, ah, typical of a low budget supplier.  Which, given that its the township, which probably had to accept the lowest bid, may be the whole thing. I wonder how they get participants in their senior programs, though, given that I'm a lot more computer literate than many of my agemates and I couldn't make it work. 

Meanwhile, back at the conservatory (!) the potato plant is growing tall, but not looking all that healthy.  Probably not enough light


And the Vicks' plant, which I looked up to see if it is in fact a coleus, which it isn't, I also found is supposed to have a cascading growth pattern. Which explains why it was lying about on top of the groundcover when it was growing outside.  So I gave it a hanging place and it does indeed cascade nicely, above the other plants on the shelves.


So that's us today.  Beautiful day for walking, low 70s, nice wind, cheerful other people out walking, met a beautiful brindled dog, very muscular and handsome, probably a Staffie. His owner was so happy when I admired the dog.  Dog owners of course, totally agree that theirs is the most handsome dog anyway, and you're just confirming their opinion.

10 comments:

  1. The lunch is something nice to look forward to.
    The weather here today is beautiful, warm and breezey.

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  2. All I can say is that the vegetable lasagna better be pretty damn good to make it worthwhile. Good for you for persisting!

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    1. As a neighbor of mine used to say, it just got under my goat, and I couldn't let it be. It got personal!

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  3. The senior center here is still closed as it is a part of the Junior College. I don't think I'd be interested though as they only seem to play bingo and other games. Not very interesting.

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    1. There's a knitting group, which is all fogies talking about their health. And an exercise group, but I don't like exercising to someone else's pattern. And trips, mostly not my taste. I expect the people who go love it. I think there's cards, too. All in all, I don't think I'm missing much.

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  4. somehow I missed this one. nice that they are providing a meal but apparently they want to make sure you really really want it.

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    1. These obstacles will certainly reduce demand!

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  5. I can't imagine joining a senior's group either - playing cards, complaining about health issues, and gossiping isn't my thing. Funny how so many organizations have web sites that are impossible to navigate. I often fine myself muttering that if only they did it 'this way' it would be so much easier....and I'm so NOT computer literate! I think Handsome Son has the right take on it.

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    1. I really don't like any kind of arrangement that's demarcated by age. That includes schools, retirement places etc. I can see older people needing care once they can't safely live alone. But what on earth would a person have in common with someone just because they're both 37, or 73? I like interest based friendships, where there's no hierarchy of age. A 20 something can be a good artist as much as a 60 something, and they can have great friendship.
      But then I have no patience for cards or board games or anything like that, jigsaw puzzles, not ma thang.
      And my development has all ages living there, it's real life!

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    2. Exactly! A broad range of ages is far more fun (as your recent ball-hunting escape will attest). No patience in me for board games or cards either - can't imagine anything more boring. Jigsaw puzzles will hold my interest for maybe 2 or 3 pieces and that's it. And yet I can sit for hours with needle and threads and be totally enthralled.

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