A topsy-turvey day

 

Not sure I saw this exact display, 
but something close.
A wonderland of fresh fruit and vegetables,
meat and seafood

This morning, for the first time since the beginning of quarantine, I went to a grocery store. I cannot tell you how much fun that was. Lots of people moan and groan about grocery shopping, but I love it. I am sorely tempted to put about half the store in my basket, and I love browsing the shelves, studying the possibilities. This morning, Mary Dulle took me—it was a belated birthday present—and we went to Whole Foods because I have never been there since the store opened in Fort Worth. Had been once to the downtown Whole Foods in Austin, but it was so big it seemed a jumble. The Fort Worth store was just right.

Because I had a gift certificate, I was determined to splurge—and I did. On a boneless, butterflied leg of lamb. Brought it home and froze it, but some Sunday night when we want to have a special family dinner, I’ll either marinate and ask Christian to grill it or stuff and roll it. Either way sounds wonderful.

Other than that, I bought chicken and pork chops for our dinners this week, vegetables—and buttermilk. Can’t remember now what I plan to cook with it, but I got a quart because I love to drink it.

Bonus was that Mary and I had fun talking groceries and food. I drove one of those handicapped carts and had a ball—been so long since I’d done that, I was afraid I’d lost me skills, but I’m still a good driver.

The downside of the day has to do with printers and computers. My printer has been printing four-color in all yellow. So I called the chat thing at Hewlett Packard and they connected me with a service technician. Obviously outsourced, heavy accent, hard for me to understand. After taking over my computer and doing a bunch of exploring (all of which I was watching most carefully), he announced my printer is fine, but the problem was with my computer. I had a trojan that took control of my computer, and I needed network security—i.e. a firewall, which this guy would install. At that point, I became really wary—I wanted him to fix my printer, not mess with my computer. And I couldn’t ever be sure what he was saying, because of his accent and my poor hearing.

I discontinued the call and called Brandon, the son-in-law who is a software consultant. He said bluntly the computer tech was either a scammer or a moron—the more I told him, the more he leaned toward the latter. I do not need a firewall; I have an active one. There is no way a computer problem would make a printer go yellow.

Big problem, the “moron” had uninstalled the printer with assurances he would re-install, which he didn’t do. So Brandon took control of my computer, and we worked an hour and a half. He finally said, re-boot the computer and see if it works. It didn’t. So tomorrow we start all over again. The printer is obviously functional, it just doesn’t talk to the computer.

By the time we called it quits, Mary and Prudence were here for our regular happy hour, and I was more than ready for a glass of wine. We had a lavish spread—I particulary enjoyed some smoky Swiss Mary brought me and some marinated goat cheese she’d done for a continuing education class on drinks and front-porch snacks.

And then I cooked chicken thighs for supper—a garlicky lime version which took longer to prepare than I thought. It was eight o’clock before we ate supper. Pardon me if I’m worn out tonight.

A good day but a difficult one. Topsy-turvey indeed. Hope yours was right-side-up all day!