September 6 2008

Sun disappearing on the north side, patio side of the house due to seasons changing. I just have to move it closer to the north wall to cook with the solar oven. Temp are still in mid 100s about where they should be anyway. Cooking house for solar are now 10:30 a.m. to 3-4 p.m.
I just plug the cord that came with the oven into my extensions cord and plug it inside the patio door and voila! I continue cooking electrically instead of solarly! This works well in the shade between 4- 7 p.m. and it cooks quite well.

I’ll just have to try it on the front porch on the south side as the season turns more.
I picked up some small light weight round dark pans at Goodwill again. I bought 3 more and they can be used in the regular oven and solar. I was at goodwill to take a bag of things there so I decided to cruise around inside the store—it was 50% off day, too.

Signs of the times:
--My webspace is going up $1.00 a month. They haven’t raised prices in 3 or so years.
--Our laundry machines have gone up from $.75 to $1.00. This is washing machines and they haven’t gone up in years either. Most Laundromats are more.
--Mom’s residence at Stratford is going to have new management. I hope this avoids any major changes, like price rises, until a few months down the line.
--Gas is down and crude oil is down. Hurricane Gustav didn’t do much damage to oil/gas infrastructure; Ike will be around early next week. We’ll see where it goes. Josephine fizzled out in the middle of the Atlantic.
--FannieMae and FreddieMac are about to become part of the National Debt this weekend.
--11th bank for the year has failed; another rather small bank in Nevada. That’s 2 in Nevada with branches in Arizona.
--My house and car insurance went down 29.00 a month! They’re using credit ratings for criteria and I have decent credit it seems.
-- I don’t know how much my health insurance will go up this fall; enrollment is in mid Oct to Mid Nov. for us retirees.
--and, of course, the Whiskas cat food is going up some . It’s a little over $11.00 for that 18 pound bag; it used to be 10. Something and sometimes was on special for under 10.

also, Mom just seems to be disappearing before my eyes the past 2 weeks. She's also, too aware of the process that she's "going blank" as she calls it. she asks what she should be doing and when she's going to get over "this". "This" being the lack of initiative she can't come up with for herself. It's all part of the Alzheimers' disease. Lots of this process hasn't upset me I just know that it's part of the disease but this remark this past week really made me feel that I'm losing her and how terrible it is she is so aware of the demise of her ability to control her own consciousness.
That’s enough for now,
shamba