Friday December 30 2016

It is the second to last day of the year 2016.


This morning I went to the Homes of Hope in Nile's street to find the facility closed.

Lucky Alex was taking the bus to a nearby workshop and Melanie was driving behind him.

So I came back with the both of them. I am writing to you from the Old Clinic at Mt Vernon.

I had brought with me  a white chocolate tablet that I gave to Miss Amanda at AAC.

She appreciated my gesture. She has been having her fair share of challenges for this year


In Bakersfield it is a rainy and cool day,

There was no newspaper today. The Bakersfield newspaper distribution lacks regularity and reliability.

I gave back the money for the newspaper to Miss Mary as it always happens whenever there is no newspaper at the kiosk.

At the clinic I had a strong headache throughout my temples.

I got a couple of tablets from the nursing station  and I hope it is going to be good for today.


I have had tough time accessing my Personal Account.

I repeatedly  asked my IPC for money, filled the appropriate form.

I asked once, waited, nothing, asked twice waited nothing at the third time I went at the reception and made a firm request.. so firm that the managers had finally given me what has been agreed. An more important what I am entitled to have.

You see it has been agreed that I shall have extra $40 from my Personal Account together with my Money Management money.

It is written on my phone, I am not pulling the expectation out it out from thin air.


I just talked with my Case Manager Jolanta.

She asked me to talk directly with Anna about the money issue and to give her one more chance of taking care of thinks.

I have understood and I am willing to see the situation resolved starting from a clean slate.

Let's start from a clean slate
Yesterday evening I did not go to the gym.

I came back to the apartment, made a careful Grocery list for this Saturday and then started cooking.

I made some really good chicken broth with a lot of veggie. First I made the soffritto with sliced onions and garlic cloves. Then while it was cooking with Coconut Oil I  added cut carrots, celery potatoes and squash. 

A few minutes into it I added chicken drumsticks and let it brown a bit.

Later I topped with water, adjusted for salt and added a whole bouillon cube.


It cooked for a good hour. On the side I cut into small pieces sliced bread and let it brown in the oven for a while.

Once ready I added to my chicken broth with Parmesan Cheese and raw Olive Olive.

You see cooking healthy and well is a matter of planning ahead about your own meal.

By the time I had cleaned it all it was time for me to take a shower and get to bed.

I washed all the dishes by hand. Eyes hands gross motor skills coordination.
The small motor skills got exercised whenever I am working on my hand writing skills.

Nowadays there is hardly anybody that had write any longer.

As I was cooking I did not go to the gym.

For lunch I had brought today the same chicken broth with bread that I had made yesterday.
Here is a picture of it.

I knew patients were provided with lunch on a Friday. They only have a well limited amount of food. I experienced it before,  I do not trust CNS in making a food I like nor the portion of food for me.

On the other hand when I am going to a restaurant it is a different story.

Well you see different line of business all together.

As a result  I am always carrying lunch with me. No matter what Rehabilitation center I am attending for the day. I  I had with me again the chicken broth soup and toasted  bread from yesterday. A good apple to go as a side.

Others were logging for cookie. However as a matter of fact I am relentless non interested on this time of food. Call it a strong bias against the already made cookies.

At time I am eating a cake which has been done by somebody else, nothing comparable to the commercial supermarket cookies.

Here is a the minestrone soup per today, from my own making.

I was given a picture from Chicco our eldest with a frame.

The frame was broken and needed gluing. I  asked  maintenance to glue it back together and James took care of it. 

In order to keep it together a blue light  tape needed to be used.

So here it is.

This morning I called maintenance at the apartment.

The soap dispenser had run out of soap.

They came to put a new liquid soap bag.

In doing so a plastic part snapped out and the whole encasing had to be replaced.

So right now I have a  brand new soap dispenser for the next year.

Thursday December 29

I am writing to you from the Homes of Hope.

The place I am looking forward to be rather than to be relegated at AAC.
 I frankly can not stand that place. It is called a rehabilitation center,
I called going for a cheap place and under equipped place.
The personages attending it are always the same ones; I could list you all the different patients of AAC, all the good and all the bad ones- the behavioral ones.

As mentioned you already before  AAC is an overcrowded and under equipped center for CNS

AAC stands for Adult Activity Center, which is a very emphatic title, like many others at CNS.

There are no practical rehabilitation opportunities.

However there are a few activities that are looked forward by patients: Bingo is one of the biggest, reading the newspaper when available, writing cards to whoever is in season. You have the overall uplifting  idea.

The fill in time is implemented by turning on the TV set always bringing in images and sounds from the world outside." They want to watch TV" this is the official justification ... really laughable.

In my humble but professional opinion nothing to be proud of.

My program says Giuseppe will attend AAC from Monday to Friday from 9am to 2:30 pm

As a matter of fact Giuseppe feels the AAC is not a place for himself.

Actually as a matter of fact Giuseppe understands very well how CNS works and uses all the available documentation available to express his points of view and to pass his own judgement upon his environment.

For instance this morning I had money management completed.

It is a recurring event. Every week I am scheduled to have $75 for grocery plus $24 for outing.

The agreement with CNS and Anna Deluna - my IPC - is that I am having an extra $40 every week for grocery from my Personal account.

This is not from the Insurance money but it is an agreement between my family and CNS as it taps into my own Personal Account. Well let's skip the definition of Personal because CNS has to sign off on it anyway. CNS has to always be in the loop about everything.

Of course this morning I was taken back by not finding the money ready to go.

As a result I documented this fact with the proper CNS form for Anna Deluna my IPC.

Of course my IPC Anna Deluna is the subject of this form.

Clearly she has acknowledged  the situation and answered by mail about the extra $40 being available later today.

Now In my professional view the  agreement between two parties is valid as long as the parties are engaging in a fair and open business relationship. 

I an frankly accessing  in a negative way that Anna Deluna is avoiding to implement her job duties. 

As a matter of fact this is her job and not doing it is a big deal for her.

I feel I can not trust her any longer. Trust nobody at CNS.

Of course Anna was quick in responding that changes were made and that my money will be available later today when I am back from AAC.

 She has  acknowledged the lack of action from her side.

Well in my professional opinion it is another negative mark on CNS.

I could not sleep well last night. I did not reach the REM phase at all.

I started hearing all the cacophony of the noises at the apartment. It is a very noisy place, NRSs slamming doors at odd hours, patients screaming at even odder hours.

I was awake at 2;42am

And again at 3:33am

I can not stand it when I am not sleeping well.

I also called the reception to ask for some sleeping aids in order to be able to sleep.

They consulted with Nursing and said sorry... 

It must be the very poor and frustrating experience of yesterday while at the gym.

Naodi was there as a caregiver to Erin. Erin is a patient at CNS

Well as a matter of fact Naondi is an angry African american girl.

She is mean spirited and she is not at all capable of keeping a good attitude on the job.

She barks orders left and right and all she can do is to be lifting her little personality at the top by squeezing down others.

As if she were interacting with a low level person rather than with me.

Perhaps she has no better skills but to be a caregiver at CNS.  

However she should not retaliate on us by reflecting a very poor attitude on her job.

 After all she has chosen to be working at  CNS.  

She might not have any better skills right now.

I find her  being  mean, she is treating Erin and me as little kids and worst she has a very very bad attitude (I am going back to the example of her being an angry African American woman)

Here is my complaints I filed yesterday for the managers.

I do not want to turn it into a discussion of race of gender.

However based on her behavior she has some explicit biases she is taking with her at work.

This morning I had to work on the Panettone that Simona gave me last week

I am not a big fun of this type of food. On the contrary Simona and the kids are used to eat a lot of sweet food. I am forced to eat it because and  only because they gave it to me. However I do not like it. I  never buy it for myself at Trader Joe's.

Case in point I only purchase white chocolate and then give it away to different ladies at CNS or here at Homes of Hope where it can be appreciated. I come to understand that milk chocolate is far more appreciated than dark chocolate.

It is very simple for me as I do  not like any sweet food.

I am frankly not happy with having to eat the Panettone either.

Yesterday I distributed the schedule to all apartments of CNS.

Obviously the patients at CNS are expecting to be served.

Obviously they are aware of the new schedule every Wednesday but they are not doing anything nor move any finger to get to it.

In my opinion they  act as being spoiled brats... yes they are spoiled and they are CNS patients.

Yesterday in the afternoon I went to the 24 fitness gym.

I had Cycle with Misty and then body pump with Sylvia. See above about Naondi Erin and all the related matter.

At the gym I am very very comfortable. I was not feeling like snapping pictures of any body.

I had Cycle with Misty (static cycle to mimic a hill experience). Afterwords I had body pump with Sylvia. Light weight and many repetitions.

Time for lunch beside I am freezing here today

I had a quick lunch in the kitchenette of the Homes of Hope.
At times it is clean most other times it is a dirty place full of food laying around. It is certainly left by the kids that are populating the Homes of Hope.

Today news is that the man's bathroom is out of order.

Everybody is using the same facilities, both man and woman no matter what the pipe distinction is about. There is only a facility available outside where everybody goes. Uplifting experience... I mentioned to the staff not even cover seats available included in the service.

Oh well if your were an airplane company I would cancel my frequent flier account at once.

As we are in a civilized part of the world and highly uncivilized fact can not be overlooked.

In today's information technology world the minimum you should have done is to inform your customer then apologize for the inconvenience and eventually offer a free service as compensation.

This is the way the real world of business works. Perhaps this is not the way Homes of Hope operates... Oh I forgot this is a not profit organization so you are not subject to the enslavement of the profit. Oh yes because Homes of Hope prides itself of being a non profit organization... as if profit in the world is bad. Well you guys have to talk to your President Trump about this matter.

Perhaps you should start making business related choice among yourself, I draw the line to when you are offering third world service and accommodation to first class people (me)

Simona's family has helped with a new TV for the boys. They really like it.

Perhaps the company as I knew is now dead, perhaps it is working underground in stealth mode...
perhaps perhaps...

Wednesday Dec 28

I am writing to you from Homes of Hope in Niles Street.
It is an Agency for Foster Parents.  I came here as much as I can and for several hours during the day.

I like to be here and besides, the staff is very kind with me as everywhere I am going.

This morning I messed up my meds, I took part of my sleeping meds.

Everybody is informed about it. Miss Araceli came to my apartment talked with my doctor and then took with her all the meds to refill the one I inadvertently got already this morning.

I am doing fine..

This morning I called  my mother in Italy.

She sent me this picture of her after washing her hairs.

Early today  I had  the first part of money management completed

Since I was home for the weekend I had the full $24 that I did not spent. The Grocery shopping money had been spent last Saturday. I spent $91.29. All good food, most it is Organic.

I did my usual walk in the park. It is a cold and nice day of late winter.

the park is nice and cold but it is already the end of December.

Yesterday evening I went to the gym

Diego took me to the gym where I had body pump with Ellie.

I had Zumba with Alex - not  new person at the gym.

Finally it was time for me to go back to the apartment with Cassandra.

Over the weekend I was back home in La Canada for the Xmas holidays.

The boys had received a new game. It is Trivial Pursuit.

They were playing among themselves.

The living room where they play looks like this one.

It is a very busy family room where the boys spent a lot of time with their favorites items.

In the picture below you can see our living room. At the right hand side there is Lapo. He likes playing with his Lego set . I had the same passion when I was a child.

At the left hand side there is Chicco the eldest. 

He is very much into electronics. He is a good student.

The large TV in the center of the living room is a 75" smart TV from Samsung.

It can play any movies. It can  stop at will and restart the show resuming it from where it lefts it.

The boys were complaining with Simona that the Internet Bandwidth is not large enough to sustain all their activities. Chicco is consuming all the bandwidth and Lapo is not able to do his games.

Perhaps it is time to upgrade  with an even larger bandwidth.

During the morning Lapo was happy has he managed to make his robot working

The TV is  a  Christmas present from Simona's family for the boys.

It is has a huge screen.

The old TV we had before was still working. It has been given to our Nannie Marina. 

We purchased it many years ago with $500 that I had found on the floor while in Las Vegas attending a trade show.

Marina keeps saying that Lapo is a Terremoto (earthquake)

She has been with us since Lapo was one year old.

 She is part of our family and the boys are enjoying her presence a lot.

On Christmas day we went to church at S.Bede in La Canada.

The church had several mass during the day so the church was not as packed as we feared it would have been.

On Christmas day for lunch we went as guests in Arcadia at Elena's and Tom's house.

There was a large group of Italian people all living in the area.

Here is the view of the table,Tom is at the left hand side and he is wearing glasses. He is sitting in front of Simona.

The boys were happy for finding a lot of toys for them as well.

Lapo had his toys to play

Chicco with his new video game

Lapo showing his new car.

On Christmas day my weight is 81.85kg fully dressed.

For dinner on Christmas day we went as guest to have dinner in Pasadena mid central.

We were invited at home with our usual good friends: Stefano his wife Jen. Their two sons Dario and Renzo are very close in age with our boys.



At dinner the very generous and helping long time friends: Bob his wife Raffaella and their son Luca

During the day all the boys played an instrument together .
Renzo was playing the viola.  Good Christmas music.
Luca was playing piano. Chicco and Lapo were looking themselves around so much music around them.

Last Monday it was December 26, The day after Christmas. In Italy it is S.Stefan day.

We had a coffee at the Intelligentsia coffee in Pasadena. A great place to sip and enjoy a hot coffee.

We had a brief lunch at home and later in the afternoon we went to see Rogue One at the Arch-light movie theater in Pasadena.

It is the latest star war movie.

Simona mentioned she did not like it  as it has become a war movie.

I tend to agree with her, the movie is an action packed was movie.

The boys enjoyed it nevertheless.

For me it was the second time I had seen it.

The first one was here in Bakersfield and the second one was in La Canada.

Well, I am hoping I will not be going to see it for a third time anyway.

At home Simona had purchased some chocolate ad cookies.

She got a set of Marron Glasse for Amanda at AAC. For Jolanta she gave me a box of biscuits.

For Melissa my Nurse a box of Marron Glasse

This morning I have brought it all at AAC.

Before leaving for Xma I did my Grocery Shopping at Trader Joe's

I spent $91.29. Had all Organic food and everything I needed to eat healthy.

As always before leaving I took a picture with Jamie, she is always looking after me regarding my buying spree.

Here are my grocery bags.. Eating healthy and Organic is expensive.

I am eating fine and and making all for me always.

Thursday December 22 2016

I am writing to you from the Homes of Hope in Niles street.


It is a place where I am doing my voluntary placement job.


Yesterday I was not feeling well , my shunt was hurting a lot so I let Jolanta know about it and stayed back at the apartment.

My day went on with a lot of activities.

I wrote a letter of  Merry Xmas (Buon Natale) to my mother in Italy. And sent it to her.
It is written in Italian.

I have also written another letter of Marry Xmas to my mother in law Anna in Rome

I sent it  yesterday as well. 

 I  used four stamps to sent these letters to Italy.

It will get there after Xmas but it is the thought that matters.

 I took the advantage of cooking a lot of good things.

I made a good chicken broth at first.

I cut celery, potatoes and onion.

I peeled and cut a few carrots as well

As always I made a Soffritto using Coconut Oil.

After the Soffritto was ready I added Chicken Drum sticks and let it brown for a few minutes.

Afterward I top it  with water, adjusted the salt and let it boil gently for a long time.

I realized the ground beef had to be used by the day before, so I went ahead and cooked it all yesterday. 

First I cooked Quinoa. While it was cooking I added some chicken  broth to flavor it.

In the turkey group beef I also added the parsley I had. I sliced it beforehand.

Since I had a few open crackers I  used it together with Bread crumbs.

I  broke a couple of eggs and added salt, pepper, oregano.

Finally the Quinoa was ready.

I let it cool down on the side then added it to the ground beef and mix it all.

I covered the mixture and let it rest in the fridge for a while.

Finally it was ready to be used.

I cut some cheese I had already open. 

I will be using it as a heart inside each meatball.

I formed several meatballs with the ingredients I had.

As mentioned above I added inside each meatball a cheese heart.

Because the meatballs were soggy I decided to toll it with a flour coating to dry it out.

I rolled it inside a large bowl with flour.

At the end I made a fifteen  meatballs.

 It was fitting in three cooking pans.

I  let the oven heating up and then once ready I added the meatball and cook for  40 minutes

It cook slowly and  well. I let it cool down on the counter.
I clean it all, put in several plastic containers.
As always I added little stickers with the date and my initials.

Finally I was ready to go to the gym.
Yesterday I had cycle class with Misty.
It is obviously static bike where the instructor is inviting the class to modulate the resistance of the bike in order to mimic a real road scenario. I was able to complete the class without hurting myself.

Afterward I had bodycombah (TM)  with Sylvia.
 Again I focused on light weight and repetitions.
Many people are taking this class to pump their body with a heavy weight.

I learnt I am not in this category of people. I once strained my body and it took me several weeks to start  feeling better.

Right now I am better. I am happy to keep up my fitness level by avoiding any strenuous lifting.
Sylvia  mentioned her daughter Nina  is going to be a senior in high school.

Tomorrow Miss Anna M. leaves CNS she is going back to do office work for her dad.
Today I brought her a milk chocolate that I had purchased at Trader Joe's.

It is a small gesture of gratitude a good luck for her future.

Tomorrow CNS is closed,  it is a pre-Christmas day.

My instructions are quite simple.

Friday  I will need to get ready for my Christmas holiday vacation.
I need to assemble my clothes for three days.

On Saturday morning I will be taking care of cleaning the apartment .
Grocery shopping  and later Simona will be coming to pick me up.

The plan is as following

Pre Christmas dinner with Raffaella at Beverly Glenn in LA.

Her husband Bob is a good friend of us.

Her son Luca is a good and responsible person.

The plan for Christmas day is to go to S. Bede church first.

After church we are going to have lunch with Elena and Tom.

They are good family friends. I do  not remember were they leave.


The day after Christmas is  December the 26th. It is also St. Stevens's  day.

I will be staying home and be back on the next day on the 27 of December.

Enjoy the reading

Merry Xmas

Come si dice in Italiano

  Buon Natale a tutti quanti, cerchiamo di rendere questo Natale pieno di gioia e di buoni ricordi.

Giuseppe

Tuesday December 20 2016

I figure out what was making me feeling sick to  my stomach almost rejecting the food I was having.

I had eaten too many eggs, and the result is that it took me a while to get over it.

Yesterday I had been making an easy to digest soup with a lot of veggy and  I did not go to the gym either.

Right now I am feeling slightly better. After all I do not have to go to the gym... I am a disabled individual, per Jolanta conversation... do not worry about a thing.. you are out of commission for quite a long time.... thank you a bunch..
Oh by the way remember to turn in  the receipt on Wednesday morning and then to collect the money on Thursday morning as the insurance is kind enough to give you $75 for Grocery and $24 for outing.

By the way remember to distribute the new schedule  every Wednesday to all the apartment (serve the other as they expects to be served).

Cue yourself to book for the movie outing on Saturday evening at around  6:30 pm

Because when you are calling at 5pm on Wednesday you are cued behind the ones that have been just ahead of yourself. But they did not distribute the schedule either.... where is the justice.. dear CNS?

Just fulfilling my own  rehabilitation program...

By the way remember to clean your apartment every day, as you are mister independent and are fully capable of cleaning your own apartment unlike other patients with their own.

I am not planning to go to the gym until I will  be feeling better.

After all I am going there whenever I feel like.

Beside my back is improving. It has been hurting a lot,  I strained it once and then kept pounding on the injury.  The result is  a soar and painful right side of my back.  I am used having my body giving me pain, it is a natural state for me as natural as being at CNS.

Last night I had a good night sleep.  I slept using my retainer and my hear plugs... this is the way it goes in this place anyway.

Life is beautiful because it is plentiful of diversity.

Everybody is different.

Verizon sent me a message  mentioned that I have been charged for the extra data plan...

So let's take advantage of what is has been paid for and  to post a life-size image of the frozen park

It is from this morning, every morning I snap a picture of the park... because I like it and because I can do it. Every morning it gets better, it is steadier and steadier.

In my own  opinion it is very acceptable to be charged for any extra  data usage by a phone company.

After all this is the way they make money: by letting consumers meet their needs and by  slamming  an extra tariffs on  their action..

Good business model, after all, phone companies are in a business environment and have to report to a bottom line to their shareholders.

Just in case you ask, Verizon mentioned they charged the account this morning for extra usage...

Well done Verizon..well done.

Yesterday evening I  did not go to the gym, I did not feel like.

I made a soup with  Quinoa, beans, corn soup instead.

First soffritto with celery, carrots and onion using Coconut Oil.

I used the long stalk carrot I purchased beforehand. I had to peel  the carrots using the hand  peeler before using it. 

A good amount of potatoes was used in my  soup.

Obviously the soup had a vegetable bouillon cube, to season, a bit of pyramid salt,  pepper, Oregano.

At  the end Parmesan Cheese and raw Olive Oil. By the way Pyramid salt is out of fashion at Trader Joe's. People were not using it enough and this items did not sale at all. They pulled it out of the shelf immediately. 

 I had some stale baguette bread from last Saturday.

 I sliced it into small pieces and toasted in the oven.

 It provided some crunchy breads for the soup.

By the way following the instruction I have received I left  the fitbit recharging overnight.

It did not work and it is clearly a dead device...

I also reset it using the paper clip - per the instruction I was given

 Because the reset  does not provide any effect, the instruction I was given is to search for the box and pack everything together. So I followed my instruction.

I have been told it will be sent back to the manufacturer for exchange because  it is under warranty.

In my humble opinion this is failed device.

 It is not water proof so you can not shower with it.

It is supposed to handle the sweat however it has shown it can not handle any water content at all.

It is basically a non starter consumer electronic gadget.

Had I knew in advance about its limitations I would have never been so  much attracted to it and rather discourage anybody from spending any money on it.

Nowadays there are many better activity monitors available in the market.

I am not the only one that enjoys cooking.

My mother in Italy is trying a new food.

She sent me an image of cooked anchovies

I have never seem it at Trader Joe's.

Certainly this type of small fish is not sold in normal store in Bakersfield.

I had a quick lunch downstairs.

It is freezing in this place today, a cold room to eat.. everything is cold. 

My feet are freezing  I do  not like at all to be in a cold place...

By the way let's talk about the rehabilitation program a bit.

Activities at AAC are very very little and innocent indeed. The building is an old building it is over populated and under served. There is absolutely nothing at AAC, other than a large TV to keep patients to watch it. They drawn, they use some type of decorative means to make decoration.. Frankly there is nothing to do

There is absolutely no equipment that is supposed to be used for Rehabilitation.
As a results the place is a really cheap and undeserved place.

Every day I am forced to get there, write the date on a big white board (there are hardly any dry eraser pencil to use), of course I read the newspapers of  the day to all the patients.

While I am reading the cacophony is at its maximum and nobody really understand nor is interested in following the papers... thank you a bunch really.

As soon as available I am taking off, I sign off from AAC. I really can not nor want to be in that place of unpleasant feeling..


You are obviously looking at your bottom line.. who can blame you.

Well bottom line shows on many things.

I like to stay alone and to be left alone...
At CNS Mary at the reception calls me Mr Independent...

Well, after all I am Independent and frankly I am planning to stay independent.

I have just received a Merry Xmas gift.

Although I do not go at this place at all, I accepted the gift on behalf of my wife Simona.

She is used to have her Starbucks in the morning before going to work at Caltech.

So I am accumulating gift for the family,

Time to go