October 10, 2026

Saturday - Warm and sunny

I woke up fairly early this morning, around 7am I think. F was awake in bed already. I went downstairs and used the washroom, then came back upstairs and fell asleep again. I woke up again after 9 when F came back in the room. He had originally planned to go driving this morning so I had set my alarm to get up and go out with him. However, he said that he didn’t want to do that today. He talked about going fishing, but when I asked him, he didn’t mean in the late afternoon, he meant in the middle of the day. Ack. I just can’t be standing out in the sun in the middle of a hot sunny day. Even with sunscreen I’d be burned to a crisp.

F next suggested going for lunch to Atsumi Onsen. I honestly don’t like the restaurant, but I do like the drive to get to the restaurant. Seeing as how it is a long weekend, the Michi-no-eki, or roadside rest area where the restaurant is was packed. We did find parking and were able to get right in to the restaurant. F had the sashimi set and I had their yakiniku set. It was fine. I did think about having fish this time, but didn’t. 

After our meal we walked around a little. I went and looked at the ocean for a few minutes. We had been separated for a few minutes. He was out front and I was out back! We met up and decided to have an ice cream cone. We chose a blueberry mixed with milk cone and it was very nice.

We got back in the car and drove up the coast towards Tsuruoka. Unfortunately, there was a detour at one spot…there’d been a rockfall on the road. When we detoured, F stopped us at Yura and we got out and walked around for a little while. It was a lovely day and the ocean was gorgeous. 

Back in Tsuruoka, F asked if I’d like to go to Gyomu Supa and of course the answer was yes. We did a little shopping. I got some cheese slices and baby cheese, then some cereal and some sunflower seeds. I picked up a packet of tortillas, found out they were made in China which doesn’t sound authentic!

We came back to the house and I put away most of the food. I went upstairs because why not and F stayed downstairs for his mother. We were quite early getting back though. 

F had suggested that he make a nabe for dinner and I was fine with that. However, we hadn’t bought the ingredients, so around 6pm we went over to the grocery store and F picked up his ingredients for the nabe and also for K’s breakfast tomorrow. We came back to the house and I unpacked a lot of the ingredients for him. I asked him if he wanted help and he said no. I went upstairs again!

F called me downstairs and I did help him by getting the glasses out and the tea too. We had to wait a bit as the nabe wasn’t quite finished cooking yet, but when it was ready, it was very nice. F did a good job of the nabe today!

He did the dishes too, so I didn’t have to help there either. Woot. 

F came upstairs around 9 and sometime around 9:45 or 10 pm I decided to go down and make some popcorn. I brought it back up to the room and gave F some. I watched an episode of Shrinking and really enjoyed it. 

At 11pm I watched The Hunting Party and that was okay today. F headed off to bed around 11 but didn’t fall asleep for a while. 

And that’s about it. I had a good day and it was beautiful. With us all being sick last month, we haven’t been able to go out much so it was lovely to be out in the sunshine for a little while. 

I’m not sure what we’ll be doing tomorrow, but please come back later and find out. Until tomorrow….

October 9, 2026

Friday - Sunny and Warm

Last night I thought I’d go to bed after I signed off and posted my blog entry. I hoped that would be all that happened. It was not.

I always make a trip to the washroom before bed, so I put on my robe and went outside the room. I saw lights on downstairs and decided I’d do what I usually do when I see K around, I’d wait until she went to bed. Well, she switched on the stair light from downstairs and then started calling for F. This was at 3 am. F was in bed, asleep. I went downstairs to see what the heck she wanted and I had no idea. I tried to let her know that F was sleeping but she ignored me. She was climbing the stairs on all fours which wasn’t really good for her. I went back up the stairs and closed the door to our room. I had to wake F up…and while I was calling him from the door, K was pushing the door trying to get in. I’m a big person and she was pushing me quite hard on the door. It was difficult to keep the door closed. 

F woke up and got up to talk to his mother. As usual, it didn’t make much sense. She heard him calling and thought he was having a nightmare. Now, I was in the room awake and I didn’t hear him crying out, but she did downstairs, even though she’s very deaf?Strange. 

We all ended up downstairs. F used the washroom, then I did. I went upstairs and F stayed downstairs to yell/communicate with his mother a bit more. 

I got into bed and did some reading. F came back to bed but wasn’t able to go back to sleep. I slept, but woke up around 6 am. I went downstairs. It was dark downstairs, but when I got to the bottom of the stairs, the living room light was back on. K was sitting at the table in the living room. Hmm. 

After a minute or two I went back upstairs. I told F that his mother was up in the living room, then I went back to sleep. When I woke up again later, F was gone. He didn’t get much sleep at all.

I did get up when my alarm went up and then did a bit of snoozing and watching of videos. I slept a bit late though. I got dressed and took my basket of clothes downstairs to wash. I did a couple of loads of laundry today. One was personal stuff, the other was my towelket and a couple of towels.

I had my breakfast.  I also finished cleaning up around the heater, and even got the vacuum out and vacuumed it and part of my room. It was a hot day so I was sweating for a while! While I ate my lunch I watched the British drama Under Salt Marsh. It was quite good today and they found the body of a missing child. It was sad, but probably good. I followed that up with the news.

F called after 5 and said he was tired. I thought he’d visit the grocery store, but when he got back, he hadn’t. He said that the roads were busy. 

While I was waiting for F to come back, K kept opening the front door and looking out for him. She did it about 3 times which is quite unusual. She even went outside which was odd as she was in her light pyjamas. I didn’t say anything to her as I just didn’t care!

F finally came back and I kicked dinner into a higher gear. I was making my usual pasta dinner for Friday and I let F pick the sauce. No, I don’t make my own! We can’t have tomato sauce as I’m allergic, so we get quite a variation of sauces. Tonight was a lemony one from the area of Japan famous for lemons. It was nice.

We had salad, sliced chicken breast and the lemon pasta. Dinner was very nice and everyone seemed to enjoy it. I think while I was preparing the food, F had a little lecture at K that she should not come upstairs and that she can’t hear, so didn’t hear F. 

He wrote her a message on her message board, I hope she remembers it. Since she had the flu last month, I worry that she’s lost a bit of ground with her dementia. She’s so difficult for me to understand that I don’t even want to try most of the time. 

After I did the dishes, I went upstairs. I relaxed with some YouTube and a little after 10pm I went downstairs to take a shower. F was still in the living room, but went up to our room soon afterward. 

He went to bed around 11 or so and is sleeping well I think. I watched another episode of Cardinal and liked it, but it was a bit sad and scary. I have to finish Cardinal before the end of December as my streaming service will let it go then. Sigh. 

Anyway, I’ve just been watching YouTube and doing my end of day things. I’m hoping to go to bed soon. F wants to do some driving tomorrow morning so I’ll have to get up and go with him. Let’s hope that my dear MIL doesn’t have any more weird turns for the next couple of weeks. 

That’s it for me for today, come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

October 8, 2026

Thursday - Warm & Sunny

F woke me up again, but I didn’t get up. I did get up a bit after he left and then came back to bed. I slept for a bit, but dragged myself out of bed earlier than usual. I got dressed and went downstairs.  I got my yogurt ready to take upstairs and then I prepped the meat for tonight. I made a garlic-soy sauce marinade and put it on the pork. I stuck it back into the fridge.

I went upstairs and had my breakfast and then watched a bit of YouTube or Facebook Reels for a while. After a bit, I decided that I’d get stuck in cleaning up around the heater. It’s getting colder at night and we’ll have to start using the kerosene heater again. I did a lot of tossing out of stuff and a little bit of finding things thought lost, so that was good. I still have to vacuum the heater and the area around it, but that’ll wait until tomorrow.

I grabbed my lunch around 3 and brought it upstairs. Today I watched another episode of The Great British Bake-Off. It was quite good and the right person got sent off I think. I followed that up with the news and then some more YouTube.

F called after he finished work and said he was on his way back. I changed clothes and went downstairs. 

Tonight I made a cucumber and tuna salad, sautéd mushrooms, steamed kabocha and fried garlic pork.  We also had some cabbage salad with a few leftover leaves from yesterday’s salad. I even did dessert. It was just a simple thing from the store, adding milk to some fruit juice and it made a grape pudding kind of thing. Dinner was nice.

Doing dishes tonight took a while but I did get it done. I went upstairs to change clothes, but F took a bit longer to change. We ended up at the grocery store quite a bit after 9pm. F did a bit of shopping. He bought more rice and some adult beverage for himself. I got food for tomorrow’s dinner, K’s breakfast and a few other things of course. F paid and then we came back to the house. 

I put the groceries away and came upstairs to the room. We had a quiet evening in. I watched DOC and enjoyed that. It’s quite a different show from Grey’s Anatomy!

Since midnight I’ve been doing my end of day things and watching some YouTube. I’m not completely sure what I’ll be doing tomorrow, but I think laundry will be done, and dinner will be cooked again. We’re coming up on a long weekend here, it’s Thanksgiving here and in Canada. We won’t be doing anything for it as far as I know. 

Anyway, I’m off. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

October 7, 2026

Wednesday - Warm & Sunny

I did hear F this morning, but I managed to stay mostly asleep. I did get up again before my alarm, and went downstairs. When I came back to the room I did have a snooze but I set my alarms for earlier than usual. I managed to drag myself out of bed at a decent time. I dressed and had a breakfast sandwich. I packed my backpack and stuffed my pockets with stuff before I headed downstairs. 

I left the house a few minutes early so I did have to wait at the bus stop for a few minutes. It was a nice day, so it wasn’t too bad at all. I rode the bus to the Tsuruoka Station stop and got off there. I walked through Foodever to see if I wanted to eat there. The Indonesian place was open, so I did think about that. I walked through the building and then crossed the street.

I went to the post office near the station and went in. I filled out my forms. First I made a deposit of some of my coins and then I made a payment at the ATM. I just renewed my membership for my women’s group. From there, I walked over to S-Mall. 

I had decided that I’d try the new pizza place near S-Mall for lunch. However, when I got there, it was closed. Oh dear!

I went into the mall and tried out Pizza Hut. I like pizza, but I’m allergic to tomatoes which makes eating it difficult these days. I noticed on their lunch boxes that they had a 4 cheese pizza, and I know that usually they don’t have tomato sauce. I ordered it and the guy said it would be 20 minutes. I used that time to go to the grocery store and buy a drink for myself. While I was there, I noticed some of the fancy hot drinks I like were on sale in the bargain bin, so I picked up a couple of boxes of them too. Yay me.

My pizza was great when it arrived. It had big chunks of camembert on top and came with a honey-maple syrup topping to add. There were some fries and a couple of chicken nuggets too. I was quite pleased with it. 

After lunch, I had to wash my hands as they were covered in that sticky syrup. I took care of that, then went into the bus station. I bought my bus ticket for later this month. 

I went upstairs and checked out the hundred yen shop. I bought a few things there, some snacks and some craft things, as well as some plastic bags for garbage. 

I had some time before my bus back to the house so I went to Doutor and had an iced decaf latte and a chocolate chip cookie. I got to enjoy myself and read a little of one of the books I’m reading. 

I caught the bus and I was surprised how many people got on the bus at the first stop. More got on at the station and the bus was surprisingly full. At the Mihara-Machi stop, which is near the 7-11, more than half of the people on the bus got off! That was unusual. I got off at my stop and walked back to the house.

I came in the house and went upstairs. I realized that it was my normal lunch time, but I didn’t watch anything on TV. When 4pm rolled around, I watched the news with one eye. 

F called me after 5:15 and checked where I was. I had told him if I stayed at the mall I would ask him to pick me up. The mall is really too small to spend extra time there though. 

He came back to the house and I was downstairs about to start getting ready for dinner. Tonight I did a chicken/hijiki (seaweed) dish, plus mini-tomatoes, baby leaf salad, steamed broccoli and cucumber pickle. I was a bit late getting it done, but it was very nice.

After dinner, I did the dishes and then did the garbage up. F had gone upstairs so I didn’t think I’d get all of K’s garbage, but she brought out her own stuff when I was in the washroom! Yay.

I went upstairs and relaxed for a while, but after 10 I went downstairs again and took a quick shower. I came back upstairs in time to watch Grey’s Anatomy. It was an okay episode but the end was a bit sad. They did a little tribute to Eric Dane (McSteamy) at the end of the show as he died earlier this year. It was nice of them to do that. 

And that’s about it. F was supposed to be in bed hours ago, but he’s still up. He may have taken the garbage outside and I know that he set up the rice cooker for our dinner tomorrow night. He’s off to bed now and honestly, I think I’m going to go soon too. I’m quite tired tonight but I got a lot of things done that I needed to do, so yay for that. 

Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

October 6, 2026

Tuesday - Sunny but cooler

I did wake up when F got up this morning, but I didn’t get up so that was good. I did wake up before my alarm and I made a trip downstairs. I came back upstairs to the room and then went back to bed for a while. I watched some videos and fell asleep to them. It’s weird when I watched a few minutes of the video and then wake up a few minutes later at the same point because it has repeated!

I snoozed for a while, then dragged myself out of bed. I dressed and went downstairs. I grabbed my yogurt and brought it upstairs to have breakfast.

I had a quiet afternoon. I went downstairs to get my lunch and discovered that K had actually eaten most of her lunch. That was surprising. Lately, she hasn’t been eating. 

When I ate my lunch I watched another episode of The Great British Sewing Bee and it was good. One of the challenges was to make a pair of running shoes, the ones like basketball shoes. Some of them were really cool.

F called me after 5 when he finished work. I waited a few minutes and then went downstairs to start dinner. I was quite busy again. Tonight we had ginger pork. I got it pre-marinated from the store, I just had to fry it. We also had rice, salad, steamed spicy cabbage, steamed kabocha, and pickled cucumbers. Dinner was pretty good and it was fairly close to being on time. 

I did the dishes afterwards and then went upstairs to change. F and I drove over to the grocery store and I went in. I did the shopping for the next couple of days and then paid and came back to the car. After that, we made a quick stop at the drugstore so I could get some dishwashing liquid. I have really sensitive skin so I have to get a mild detergent and not all of the shops sell it. 

From the drugstore, we just drove back to the house. I put away the groceries and then went upstairs. At 11pm I watched Law & Order. Today the black police officer was roughed up by two white police officers and they wouldn’t believe that he was a police officer. It was rather upsetting, but believable. There was a murder as well. 

Since midnight I’ve been working on my end of day stuff and I’ll go to bed very soon. I’m planning a trip downtown tomorrow. I have to buy a bus ticket and I need to pay my membership in my women’s group for the next year. I’m thinking I’ll probably have lunch downtown too. It all depends if I can get up early enough tomorrow or not. I can go down in the afternoon if I want to, but I’d prefer to do it in the morning. 

So, come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

October 5, 2026

Monday - Warm and sunny

I woke up this morning before 7 am. F was lying in bed beside me playing on his phone. I’m not sure what woke me up, but I had to make a trip downstairs. I came back to the room and went back to bed. I slept a bit late, but did get up around 9, and then snoozed a bit longer. 

When I got up later, I dressed and took my laundry downstairs. This time, I could actually do it! Yay. I did a couple of loads today and have them hanging up in the room to dry.

Today I also backed up my computer as it had been a while and had both lunch and breakfast, but not in that order! When I had lunch I watched another episode of Modern Love. Today’s episode had Andrew Scott in it, as one of a gay couple who adopted a baby from a pregnant homeless woman. It was quite a good episode. 

F called a little after 5:15 and said he was on his way back. I went downstairs before 6 and got started on dinner. Tonight I did toaster oven chicken, roasted potatoes and carrots, salad, cucumber pickles and mini tomatoes. I think everything was nice. Both F and K ate tonight so that was good. 

After dinner I did the dishes and then went upstairs with a can of root beer and enjoyed that. I relaxed for a bit and then I went downstairs and took a shower. When I came back upstairs I watched the second episode of the new Ted Lasso. I enjoyed it for the most part. 

And that’s about it for my day. Since midnight I’ve been watching some YouTube and working on my end of day stuff. 

I’m not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow. I’ll probably stay around the house but I do want to make a trip out sometime this week, or next to run a few errands. Probably earlier is better than later as it is getting colder. 

Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

October 4, 2026

Sunday - Sunny and warmish

I woke up this morning around 10 when F came back to bed. I made my trip downstairs and then went back to bed for a little while. I woke up in the afternoon and got up. F slept on for a while and then got up and suggested going for my lunch. He didn’t want to eat anything so I asked to go to the Indian restaurant that I like.

We got dressed and drove over to the restaurant. We were the only customers as it was about 20 minutes before their lunchtime was over. I did ask if it was okay to come in and the guy said it was. 

I ordered the saag keema curry with naan meal and F ordered Masala chai. He was given a salad and a soup as well. I did say that he wasn’t having food too and the guy said it was service (free) so that was nice! My meal was great, but I ended up wearing a whole bunch of it. My poor shirt, luckily it wasn’t the first stain on it but it turned very green in places!

After our meal, we paid and left. We went over to the PAL shopping area and I did the weekly grocery shopping. I got food for the next couple of days. F stayed in the car as he still isn’t feeling great. He’s dizzy all the time and I’m wondering what is going on with him. 

After the shopping we came back to the house. I put away the groceries and then headed upstairs. I spent time on my computer and F had a snooze for a while.

Around 6:30 he gave his mother the bento I got her and then we decided to go out. He suggested a gyudon shop. I wasn’t terribly happy, but it was fine. We went to the shop near MaxValu. It was quite busy, but we did get a table. F had his usual gyudon with a raw egg and miso soup, I had pork curry with cheese and a caesar salad. Mine was fine and yes, I know that I had curry twice in one day. So what?

We just came back to the house. I thought my movie started at 9pm, but it was actually on at 10pm. So, I got to watch an episode of Widow’s Bay and enjoyed that. At 10pm I finally got to watch Heretic with Hugh Grant. Wow! I enjoyed it and thought that Hugh is much more talented than he gives himself credit for! It was good, a bit weird at the end, but I’m glad I finally got to see it.

Since midnight I’ve been doing my end of day things and getting ready to go to bed. Today, I finally got my quilt out. I’ve been using my summer towelket and a blanket for the last month or so, now I’ll be warm in bed. 

We’ll have to start using the heater soon. It had gotten surprisingly cooler over the last couple of weeks. 

That’s about it for me for today. Come back later if you want and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….