Big Day. Really Big!

Today we are celebrating.  (Well, I say, today but I am writing this in advance and will post it on the day...).

This year I have been watching all my classmates turn 70 years old.  Now it is my turn.  When I was a child I was so looking forward to the year 2000 because I was going to turn 50 that year.  I do not know what the thought process was or why I thought that was going to be so great, but I really was looking forward to it.

Now I am looking forward to 70 and it looks like it will happen!

That morning we have to take Dear One to the doctor.  His body scared us for a few days but after an ultrasound and CAT scan (or is it CT Scan?) we learned that his leg just hurts like fury and is very swollen but will get better.  Especially if he moves around and if elevates it as much as possible.  Popliteal cyst, I think it is.

After that appointment we will be having lunch with friends. I will be SO GLAD to see them.  This quarantine has been hard for all of us, though I have had PLENTY of stuff to do.  (You might remember that closet cleaning project I was working on, and stupidly bragged about?  Well, that has been the extent of the cleaning...! Never even finished the other shelf. Too much more fun stuff to do.)

Early on I had thought of making a trip to Whole Foods and an Asian market, if I could find one to celebrate "the day".  I am not so sure about that now. I have just discovered that there is an Asian market not that far away from us.  When I saw it on the web I was souped up to go out immediately.  Sadly, they are closed on Mondays, which is when I was thinking of going.  Maybe we will do that on my birthday.  I still want to go to Whole Foods but that can wait until I have made a menu so I know what to purchase instead of just buying Willy Nilly!  Dear One is not fond of Whole Foods, but he humors me sometimes.  I suppose I could go by myself...

Well, I need to make another face mask before doing any major traveling around.  The one I have works, but only just.  I just found a pattern for a scrub cap which has buttons for the mask elastic.  Great idea.  I have the fabric but...still a lot of things going on out in the garden and in the kitchen....

Good news on the garden front...tall boots are arriving on Monday...something I have never had nor even wanted.  Now, with snakes such a concern, I need protection!  A North Carolina garden blogger wrote me about taking care when working with mulch as snakes love to build houses in mulch.  Yikes!  That is why the tall boots.  So glad I had all those stairs to do every day on the mission so my legs reduced so much!  Being claustrophobic rather has made tall boots a non-starter.  Until now.

Garden 2020: Wax Bean Blossoming!

Dear One LOVES wax beans.  He only eats green string beans under protest...usually picking them out of a frozen mixed vegetables side dish.  Funny guy.

Well, we planted some on the porch a month ago.  When we went out yesterday this is what we saw:

Someone else was checking out the garden!  He had eaten off a few shoots early on but probably decided he wanted green string beans!  Thank goodness. It would have been a real bust if he had sheered them all off.

Here is a close up of the blossoms!  We are so happy.  I asked Dear One if he remembered how long it was from blossom to supper but he could not remember, either.

Whenever it happens, we will be happy.  He asked if I had another packet of seeds so we could replant as soon as these go by.  Didn't I say he was a funny guy?!!

Munchie Monday: Quick and Easy Tortilla Chips

The other day I was edgy for something crunchy.  Dear One had been asking for crunchiness, like Pringles!  I got him some but have since thought better of it.  I won't do that again.  We have that cool microwave potato chip maker we could use. I did use it again and found it preferable to the Pringles...

To fill our crunchiness need I made some quick and easy tortilla chips.

Corn tortillas can easily be cut into triangles with kitchen shears or with a pizza cutter.

Lay them on a baking pan.  Spray with Braggs Liquid Aminos.  You can also make a lime juice and salt mixture to brush on them.  I did not do that this time. 

We baked two batches.  In the air fryer we cooked them for 4 minutes at 375 degrees F.  They were NICE and crispy...!  Perhaps a little on the dark side...but that was no problem for me. I LOVE burned popcorn.  Well, somewhat burned popcorn...

In the oven we baked them at 400 degrees F. for 15 minutes but I started checking them at 10 minutes.  Of course, opening the oven three different times to check lowered the temperature significantly, I am sure.  They could have been browner but they really were fine.

Dear One thought all of these could have had a little more flavor. I really only sprayed on a little of the Braggs since I was uncertain as to how they would be received.  Next time I will spritz with a little bit heavier hand!

Or maybe next time I will give a squirt of Braggs then immediately sprinkle on a little Adobo seasoning.

This is the same stuff I use to spray our air-popped popcorn on Sunday night.  It really lightly salts the popcorn and makes it quite tasty.  I spray on the top, shake up the bowl, spray on some more, shake a second time, then one final spray to the top.  You do NOT miss the butter and salt.  Really.

Wednesday Wonders

Here is a very late picture that I thought I would share.

Here in the South on the days leading up to Easter there are many icons with various colored cloths on them.

The most beautiful one is this one put up by a dear friend in the next town over.

There is a significance to the color of the draped cloth.

On Palm Sunday the drape is purple to signify that Jesus Christ is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

 On Good Friday the drape is black.

On Easter Sunday the cloth is white representing the Resurrection.

These crosses are everywhere in our town and even in our housing complex.

This pictured cross is by far the most beautiful with the palm leaf, the lilies and the purple drape.

It is so wonderful to live in a place where are so many loving Christians.  Not only that, but Christians who constantly talk about their religious lives.  So lovely.

Munchie Monday: Food Fail Again

A dear friend posted a fabulous-sounding brownie recipe on Facebook (Lunch Lady Cake/Brownies) so in a weak moment, I decided to make them.

The mixing up, etc worked very well.  That bad part happened when I decided to portion them batter out into the silicon mini-cupcake pan.  VERY BAD IDEA.

With the brownies such a failure, I did not go on to compound the problem by making the great fudge icing that was called for.

Having showed you this disaster,  I will admit that it only took about 36 hours for the whole mess to disappear down someone's gullet...  They did taste fine, just so unsightly.

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Pancakes

How can you go wrong with pancakes when some of the ingredients include bananas, oatmeal, and dark chocolate chips?  Well, think again!  Dear One said, and I quote, "You can scratch that recipe from our repertoire!"  Well, he was pretty much correct.


Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Pancakes

2 ripe bananas
3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
1 cup oat flour (made by blending 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats into flour)
1/2 cup rolled oats
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch salt
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips


In a medium bowl mash the bananas with a fork then stir in the milk.  In another bowl stir together everything else except the chocolate chips.  Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients then add the chocolate chips and stir well.

Using a portion scoop, scoop 1/2 cup "batter" onto a greased griddle and let cook for at least 2-3 minutes then flip and cook another 2-3 minutes on the second side.

That is how I did it.  This is what they looked like:

• It looks rather nasty but it really did taste pretty good.  At least, to me they tasted good.  Dear One decided I could finish his.  He put some french fries in the air fryer for his main breakfast!  No problem.

So I put the leftovers into the refrigerator.  The next day I ate a piece.  It was really good the next day!  Sort of like chocolate bananas.  

When I looked at the recipe later to see if I could figure out what went wrong, I realized I had put 3/4 cup of chocolate chips in the batter instead of 1/4 cup.  Also, since the batter  was so thick, I think I would add more almond milk another time.  If there is another time...

Garden 2020: Tomato Blossoms

In January I planted tomato seeds.  In March I happened to find Cherokee Purple tomato plants already started at Lowes.  Also Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes.  In the South Carolina growing zone where we live the last frost is expected on Good Friday.  Since I was afraid of killing these good-looking tomato plants in the house, I decided to just go ahead and plant them a month early.

So, I put them in the ground.  When the bug man came for the quarterly bug eradication outside (not coming inside this time because we might be sick inside...which only works for a bit because I have now seen ants inside three days in a row!!!  We pay not to have ants in the house surprisingly so I will be calling the bugs and request inside service) I was sort of complaining about the hard orange clay soil that I could not put the tomato cages or posts into.  The guy said, "Get a four pound hammer and a piece of rebar.  Pound the rebar into the ground where you want the cages to go." What a great idea!  It never occurred to me to do that.  The bug guy also said it was a great time to do this because of all the rain we had just had so the ground would be somewhat soft.

So, off I went, homemade face mask installed, to the Ace Hardware where I found both the hammer and the rebar.  Also a couple more stakes.  The next morning I went down to the place I had planted the tomatoes and went to town on the project.  About the fourth strike on the rebar the hammer slipped. I still have a very impressive black and blue and yellow and purple mark on my lower leg.  BUT I was able to complete the job.  Yes, I could have asked Dear One to help and he would have been happy to do so...however, I prefer to do my own projects since I still can.  If I was physically (or maybe mentally!!) unable to do anything, I would ask.  Otherwise, I will do my own projects.

The cages were successfully installed.  The tomatoes have blossoms but are hard to see in this picture.  I am pretty happy with these tomatoes.

The very next day after this tomato project was the day we saw the water moccasin in the pond for the first time.  The tomatoes are right down pretty near the pond.  R-r-r!  I guess I will have to get over phobias.

The Alligator is For Real!

We had heard there was an alligator in the pond behind our house last Halloween. Despite watching the pond closely every day, we had seen nothing.  Then on Wednesday Dear One came in from the deck to say there definitely was an alligator in the pond.  Yikes!

The next day I was on my walk.  At that point I was walking across the dam at the end of the pond.  As I looked down from one end of the pond to the other all of a sudden I saw a bumpy rough-looking dark place in the pond.  There he was!  Yikes times two!

You can barely see the black spot in the lightest part of the pond.  That is the alligator. 

On the weekend I happened to go to our HOA Facebook page by a fluke. The very first thing I saw was a picture of a very large (probably seven feet long!!!) alligator "sunning" on the bank a few doors down from our home.  Really YIKES!!!  Since I have not gotten permission from the photographer to post his picture, just imagine a large alligator in a field on the bank of a small pond.  That is what the picture shows.

Personally, I prefer to see the alligator in the middle of the pond!  Other people around the pond want the gator gone.  Well, me, too, but I suppose if we are fair, ponds in the south are the actual homes of all kinds of not so friendly folks.  Like the water moccasin.  And now the alligator.  Apparently we have TWO alligators, one quite a bit smaller than this one.  We will have to watch carefully every single time we go out.

To be honest, I have a horrible image in my mind of the big old guy on the deck just outside our slider door...! If that happens, I will take a picture of him, then will call the HOA to GET THAT GUY OUT OF HERE!!!  I don't care if the pond is his natural habitat and that almost everyone around the pond thinks he is great and have even named him Ripples.  Maybe that is a crazy concern, but....

Quarantine Cleaning

Finally I have gotten it together to do a little real organization in the house.  This quarantine has become a bit of a blessing.  Yesterday I decided to start small: with the hall closet.  It is not completed, but the top few shelves are looking SO MUCH BETTER than they did before.

Most of the bins you see are for paper crafting supplies and tools.  Did you know that paper is VERY HEAVY?!  I am hoping that the shelving does not collapse!  I have tried to spread out the weight.

This was one day's work.  There is nearly another day's work there (maybe not today, though. I don't want to really become a cleaning fool.  Well, I would like that, but it is not my nature...)!

Still to go upstairs are the "fiber closet" in the workroom, the file cabinet in the workroom, the workroom itself.  So much to do.  I am tired just thinking about it and I just got out of bed!!  Doing all this makes me think I should stop all my other projects and just hit the organization.  Well, we shall see.

Munchie Monday: King Arthur Flour Hamburger Buns

Those Black Bean and Corn Burgers needed some buns to surround them so I searched for a recipe.  There were several 40-Minute Burger Buns recipes but I saw a Beautiful Burger Buns by King Arthur Flour.  You really cannot go wrong with KAF!


Here are the ingredients so you can decide (if you have the ingredients in your pantry...) if it is worth going to their website for the directions.  These are really yummy rolls.  Too yummy.

Beautiful Burger Buns

3/4 to 1 cup warm water
2 Tablespoons room temperature butter
1 large room temperature egg
3 1/2  cups All- Purpose  Flour
1/4 cup vital wheat gluten (what I added, KAF did not call for this but I did not have KAF flour which is higher protein than regular all-purpose flour.)
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons salt

 

Here they are in the burger bun pan, risen and ready to cook.  The only problem with this pan, or rather, with the amount of dough I put in the pan, is that it was too much so the buns were about twice as much bread as we wanted.  If I make them again, I will cut the amount I put in the pans in half.  Both Dear One and I felt we were eating too much bread, even though it was fabulous bread.

Buns cooled and sliced and ready to apply burgers and toppings.  They really were delicious.  So hard not to eat them all right up.

Happy Easter!

Best wishes to everyone on this glorious Easter morning.

Here is a recording for you.

Low in the grave He lay Jesus my Savior!
Waiting the coming day Jesus my Lord!
Up from the grave He arose
With a mighty triumph o'er His foes
He arose a Victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever with His saints to reign.
He arose!  He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!

 Happy Easter, Everyone!  May your day be filled with joy, and love, and gratitude to Him who paid the price for us that we might all escape the bonds of death and the grave.  I love you all,

Food Friday: Black Bean and Corn Burgers

Here are some burgers I made today.  They are not bad at all.  They hold together, unlike other vegan burgers I have made  before.


Black Bean and Corn Burgers

2 cups cooked black beans
1 can whole kernel corn, drained
1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats, blended into flour in a blender
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon granulated onion
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt

Place all the ingredients into a food processor bowl and process until mostly smooth.  Usually directions call for blending only a little.  That makes the burgers fall apart.  Process until smooth!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. 

Lightly grease a Silpat sheet on a cookie sheet.

Using a portion scoop,  divide burgers into 6 piles on the Silpat sheet.  With dampened fingers, pat down a little bit.  Using a spray bottle of olive oil, spray a little bit on top of each burger.

Bake for 45 minutes.

These were patted out to about 3 inches or so wide.

These are pretty good, as I said before!  I have not run them by Dear One yet, since he had already helped himself to other food while I was reading.  I will make some hamburger buns tomorrow and serve them for lunch. I think they will go over well.

Possible New Knitting Project

Recently I have been enjoying Arne and Carlos and their Daily Quarantine Knitting KAL.  (They also have a great YouTube channel). Some years ago I found their book 55 Christmas Balls.  It is filled with beautiful Christmas balls.  I think I started to knit a ball at one point. Well, now I have thought about that again.  I ordered some white and some red yarn online.

This is the ball I knit this week.  It is ready to duplicate stitch a design in red onto the ball. You can also actually knit in the design, which I would probably do the next time... The ball is way bigger than I imagined. I used worsted weight yarn and US 4 double pointed needles.  I have to say that I will not be making these balls.

 

As you can tell, this is a VERY large ball.  That is one reason I won't be knitting a ton of them.  The  other reason I won't be knitting these balls, or at least, not with this yarn, is I don't like the way the yarn feels on my fingers.  I will need the actual wool that Arne and Carlos recommend.  I have not found the yarn they suggest.  However, I should be able to find a similar yarn. I believe it is a fingering weight.  Well, it seems to be a 4-ply European wool.   

 Maybe someone knows a shop that sells this kind of yarn.  If so, I would like the information.  I expect it will be pricey so I want to see it in person before laying down the cash!

Fun Knitting Project

More than a month ago I started on a fun knitting project for Easter.  Because I have come to believe that too much sugar is bad for bodies, I decided not to send Cadbury eggs to our family for this year's holiday.  This is what I made and sent instead.

They are cute in a silly sort of way. At least I think so.  They are a bit hard to see but...they are bunnies with  goo-goo eyes, a pink or purple tiny pom pom nose, and a larger handmade white or cream colored pom pom.

The bunny is made from a knitted square then a triangle stitched in, pulled up tight and filled with fluff.  After the bunny is ready, eyes, nose, and tail are attached.  I used hot glue. I knitted the bunnies with garter stitch, worsted weight yarn, and US size 11.  (The needle size was ill-advised.  It should have been maybe a size 8 or 7 instead.  Still, they are fairly cute as is.)


These squares can also be knitted in stocking stitch.  They can also be crocheted.  You just need a square.

Invitation To Fast on 10 April 2020

At General Conference the Prophet invited us all, whose health permits, to participate in a World Wide Fast on 10 April 2020.  This would be a day of fasting and prayer for the control of the Covid 19 pandemic.

Fasting includes refraining from food and beverage for 2 meals or 24 hours or as much as you feel is a sacrifice you can provide. 

During a fast we also pray specifically for whatever we feel appropriate in our situation.  For this particular fasting and praying we are asked to pray:

".. that the present pandemic may be controlled, 
..caregivers protected, 
..the economy strengthened and 
..life normalized."

Anyone who would like to is invited to participate.  I mean to add my own sacrifice.

Thank you all.  Heavenly Father listens to all His children.  And we are ALL His children!

Munchie Monday: Not Quick and Easy Cinnamon Buns

This weekend was General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Twice a year General Authorities and General Officers of the Church gather in Salt Lake City and, for two days, give messages of inspiration and encouragement to all the world.  Thousands of people go to Salt Lake City to sit in the Conference Center and listen to these speakers and to the Tabernacle Choir and other choirs.

With this year being so different, the Brethren closed the Conference Center and had an electronic-only Conference. People did not gather together for these vital meetings. People watched General Conference in their own homes. The technology worked so well.  Only the people speaking at a particular session were in the building.  It was truly a wonderful event, as always, even in these trying times.  Everyone is invited to enjoy these messages of hope by going to ChurchofJesusChrist.org and clicking on General Conference.  You will be glad you did.  Every session was worth the time spent listening.

Anyway, many families have food traditions for Conference.  I was speaking with our daughter on the phone and she was planning to make Cinnamon Buns.  Dear One heard her and thought we should have some, too!  Well,  I do like to please him so I gathered the ingredients for the recipe our daughter sent.  I woke up at 5:00 AM and began the buns.  Just after 9:00 AM I spread the cream cheese frosting over the top of the somewhat cooled rolls, ate a small one, and went back to bed!

Below I have listed the ingredients and the website where you can find the recipe.

Cinnamon Buns/Rolls

Dough:

4 cups bread flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 Tbs yeast

2 tsp salt

1/3 cup soft butter

1+ cup warm milk

2 eggs

Filling:

1 cup brown sugar

1-1/2 Tbs cinnamon

1/3 cup soft butter - not melted but spreadable.

1 Tbs flour - maybe try 2 Tbs next time.

Frosting: (this is extremely good!!!)

4 oz. cream cheese room temp

1/2 cup soft butter

1-1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice !!!

1 tsp vanilla

Bake 350 for 20 minutes or to internal temp of 165° F.

THINGS I LEARNED WHILE MAKING THIS RECIPE:

The eggs should be at room temperature.  They were not room temperature when I added them to the rest of the ingredients so they cooled things down tremendously.  After 2 hours the dough had not doubled.  So I refreshed my memory about how to raise dough in the microwave.  (Put it in a  covered greased bowl and put in the microwave with a small bowl of warm water.  Set the microwave temperature to low power. I put it at 10% power.  Set the timer for 3 minutes.  After 3 minutes check to see if the dough is warm and rising.  If not, set the power again to 10% and 3 minutes.  I think I did it 3 times and then the dough was warm. It is important to reset the power each time because the oven goes back to full power.  This would be disaster for the buns. I let the dough rise another few minutes outside the microwave then formed the buns.

When the buns have cooked, (our oven required 35 minutes, not 20 minutes) bring them out of the oven and let them cool at least 10 minutes. I used a timer so I would not ice the buns too soon and have goopy melted icing.

These buns were good but I am positive they are not good for you.  SO...we won't be eating them again any time soon.  I had two and have called it a day!  They did not help the scales nor the glucometer, I can tell you.  Maybe your body will respond differently!

Food Friday: Quick and Easy Chocolate Nice Cream

Some people in our house are missing some to the treats we used to have on a more regular basis.  I have been freezing very ripe bananas over the last few months but have not been using them up.  Today I decided to do use two of them.

Quick and Easy Chocolate Nice Cream

2 bananas, frozen then sliced
1 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
3+ Tablespoons Nutella
1/4-1/2 cup almond milk

Put all the ingredients in a high speed blender and blend for about 45 seconds using the tamper to push the ingredients into the blades.  This makes just enough for two medium bowls.

This slid down our gullets very fast!  Next time I think I will double the recipe to make it easier on the blender. 

It is my feeling that if you don't have a high speed blender you could use a food processor for this.  You might need to double the recipe in the food processor.

Very tasty.  I mean, how can you miss with Nutella?!

Elizabeth Zimmermann Adult Surprise Jacket, Steeked and Ready to Wear!

Years ago I took a class at Country Woolens in Lebanon, New Hampshire.  Debbie, the store owner, taught us how to knit Elizabeth Zimmermann's Adult Surprise Jacket. (You can find the pattern at Schoolhouse Press.) I knitted up a Baby Surprise Jacket on size 8 needles and worsted weight yarn to make a giant "swatch" which I was able to give to a granddaughter as a gift.  That worked up in two evenings and was very successful, so...on with the Adult Surprise Jacket.

There is math involved as you are beginning the jacket.  Once that has been worked out you just knit knit knit!  It is a garter stitch with a few strategic increases then later some decreases.  You end up with a humpy rectangle that you fold up then stitch the shoulders/arms together and that is it depending on what you want for the front closure.

For mine, I decided to put pockets in the fronts and a sturdy zipper closure.  I was very happy with this sweater except for one thing...I had not trusted my math and continued knitting on for a while.  The jacket ended up with 4-5 extra inches on the sleeves.  That meant I had to fold over those inches thereby making a double thickness cuff.  You might have thought that was a good thing, but it was not. At least, not for me.

Extra bulky fold-over cuffs

For quite some time I have been thinking about how I could rectify the problem.  A few months ago I decided the smartest thing was to steek off the cuff and replace it with a ribbed cuff.  This week I did it!

Here is the completed Adult Surprise Jacket post steeking!  I am ever so happy with it.  Of course, I will need to winter somewhere else if I want to wear it...!

Maybe next week I will share the process.  Today I am not up to a longer post. (I have been brushing dead dry skin off my face.  I am grateful it is dead and am hopeful that there will be good new soft healthy skin underneath.  Dear One keeps reminding to stop touching the face.... All this face stuff is taking it out of me.  I look forward to the end of the line on this minor situation.  I am grateful that it has been such a small trial but now I am ready to move on...!)

Skin Issues and a Word of Warning

There is a saying that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction...but that is not really the proverb I want.  I guess what I want to say is the every action brings forth consequences.  Sometimes those consequences are good and sometimes not.  We can choose our actions but we cannot choose the consequences of those actions.

Sometimes consequences are deferred for a very long time, so long, in fact, that you can have forgotten the actions.  There are times when we act with no idea of what the consequences might be.  That is really too bad.  I think that comes from not listening to those around us or not thinking things through.

To get on with the story:  my mother died 33 years ago from malignant melanoma.  Her sisters and grandmother also had various skin cancers.  I, myself, have many moles on my skin and for years have gone to a dermatologist to have a "skin check", a most embarrassing experience, every few years.

When my nurse practitioner learned of the cause of my mother's death she referred me to a dermatologist.  I went over to the office to make the appointment in person, thinking an in-person visit might be more urgent to the office staff.  It turned out that this was not the case.  There appears to be only one dermatology clinic in our town so my appointment was not able to be scheduled until March, six months later.

A little more than three weeks ago I had that appointment.  The physician's assistant who did my "skin check" pointed out that I am "very mole-y".  Duh.  I knew that.  He paid particular attention to my left cheek and said he was unsure if what he was seeing was sun damage, rosacea, or contact dermatitis from my CPAP strap.  SO...his idea was to hit the most scary thing first: and thus chemo cream became part of my life.

That chemo cream was to be used twice a day for two weeks until I saw him again.  He saw me last week and laughed, and told me that chemo cream really did its job.  That kind of got my goat. I am a real baby about discomfort and this stuff had caused  swollen, inflamed, itchy, burning, stabbing, throbbing (every time my heart would beat), oozing, and bleeding. Headaches and nausea accompanied all the skin issues.  It was really no fun.  He told me that because of the dreadful situation with my skin he could say categorically that I really had had sun damage and that he believed the 80% of it had been eradicated. Well, yay.  Isn't that nice.

You can see how swollen the cheek is.

He then gave me a prescription for some antibiotic goo to put on my face twice a day plus some antibiotic pills to take three times a day.  The goo being what it was, I had issues with skin sticking to the CPAP strap and to my pillowcase so I would wake up with blood and other nastiness oozing off my poor broken skin.  Eventually I got some non-stick gauze pads to put on between my skin and the CPAP strap.  That was really fun.  Non stick does not really mean it does not stick!  In the morning I would pull the pad off my face and instantly have blood dripping off onto my chest.  So nasty.  Even more, it was VERY unpleasant.  That skin was raw.  Raw skin is the worst.  I can now empathize even more with people who are tortured in various ways for various reasons.

Skin raw after being washed gently on arising. Sorry...I cannot seem to right the photo.

Last night I thought I would sit up on the couch to sleep instead of lying down in bed and pass on the CPAP.  At 2:00 AM I was still awake so I went back to bed.  I put an feminine pad between my face and the strap.  It was only marginally better.

Today I have been holding ice to my face.  That helped a little.  Another 5 days of the antibiotic goo and I am hopeful that all will begin to be back to normal.  At least I am hoping that the top awful layer of skin with finally dry out and slough off.  Without me yanking it off.

Anyway, with all good fortune, before all the quarantine business is over I will have returned to a normal face so I don't scare people on the street.  It really is a tiny bit amusing to see people's faces when they look at me on those rare occasions when I go to the doctor or pharmacy..  Most of them are too polite to fall over in a dead faint...

Now back to the word of warning I mentioned:  It turns out all this was brought on by decades of running the roads in the car without sun block.  I had no idea this would be a problem.  Well, it was.  SO...once the skin is finally healed and whole and unbroken again, whenever that is,  I will begin using sun screen.  If you are not using it, maybe you should, too.