Yet Another Journal

Nostalgia, DVDs, old movies, television, OTR, fandom, good news and bad, picks, pans,
cute budgie stories, cute terrier stories, and anything else I can think of.


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» Sunday, October 15, 2017
Surviving Nephrology Depression

We have not been in a good mood this week. Despite trying our hardest (except for the stupid hamburger on Saturday afternoon) with salt and severe dietary restrictions last weekend through Wednesday when he had more blood drawn, when James' test results came back Wednesday night his creatitine score had gone up to 4.6. It wasn't long afterward when a nurse called following up, and the doctor called up James the next day. He already has an appointment with a vascular surgeon at the end of the month about inserting a fistula. Once that heals, it's dialysis time unless a miracle occurs. Whether it's temporary or permanent is to be determined.

But it's fucking scary is what it is, and there have been some sorrowful evenings and sleepless nights and terrible dreams.

So we were determined to cheer up a little this weekend, and if no salt doesn't actually help the results, we can go back to low salt and be happy with it. So we had supper at Fried Tomato Buffet on Friday night and filled up on salad and shrimp. (Why everyone has to have their shrimp fried I'll never know; it's extra work. Why not just broil it in butter? But their fried shrimp—for fried shrimp—is quite good; it's not overly salty and very lightly breaded in panko rather than in some heavy, greasy batter.) Then we went to Barnes & Noble, where I found two nice cross-stitch magazines and something for a gift.

We were in bed fairly early Friday night because we were heading out early on Saturday. Since the model contest at Free Time Hobbies was on Saturday, we decided to combine it with the first week of the Georgia Apple Festival. We usually wait until the second weekend when it's cooler to go to the Apple Festival, but we figured if we got there early enough it wouldn't be too bad.

Unfortunately I didn't calculate arising time very well. We should have at least gotten up at 6:30; 6:45 and having to stop for gasoline and breakfast got us stuck in a very long line waiting for the parking lot at the Lions Club where the Apple Festival is held. We also usually go on Sundays, when it's less crowded. Even at 9:10 a.m. it was very crowded. Still, we made our way around the booths, tasting the dips and the jellies—one booth had some really delicious citrus marmalade jam, but we didn't buy it—and admiring the wreaths, alpaca cloaks, and other crafts. We did buy fudge and half a peck of Granny Smith apples and more sweet ginger pickles, and I found a cute little embroidered round scarf, a Hallowe'en motif with owls. (Which tells you it's very cute, as I usually don't buy Hallowe'en things.) Two booths were selling stainless steel rings and jewelry, and in front of one they had some men's rings in different sizes and styles for only five dollars. Well, James has never found his wedding ring; it fell off a second time after we found it the first time and we haven't located it yet, even though he's sure it's in the house. He found a very nice silver ring that alternated with textured black bands. Eventually we got all the way around, and, tired of the crowd, skedaddled up the road to Blue Ridge and the hobby store.

While James was inside enjoying the models I walked across the parking lot to the Amish store to stock up on pot pie noodles. I also wanted what they call "soup mix" and I call "veggie flakes" (their veggie flakes have potatoes), but they had only one package left after a big mail order; I bought tat, along with some cranberry honey mustard which I thought James might enjoy with his turkey sandwiches. It was their customer appreciation day, so I got a discount, munched on free popcorn, and they had a country band playing for the customers. I also walked next door to the country store/feed store. This was a real feed store: they even had horse tack and medicine.

Strolled back to the hobby shop and looked over the models; there were a lot of nice pieces, but nothing really funny or outstanding about any of them, like the Car 45 model in the past, or the Humphrey Bogart figure last year. I do admit there was a great Tusken Raider and a Rancor beast!

We rode home munching on an apple and the clouds parted and by the time we got to the traffic jam at downtown Marietta (it was Chalktoberfest—professional chalk artists drawing on the street along with beer—this weekend) we were both kind of tired. I ended up taking a nap for an hour, then we went to Hibachi Grill for supper, then stopped at Publix for the twofers. Even with the nap, I was so happy to get home and divest myself of outdoor clothing and get into something comfy.

I finished reading my big beautiful Colonial Williamburg book I found for a dollar at the book sale that evening. Really enjoyed the history as well as the gorgeous color photographs.

This morning we could have slept in, but were both awake a little after eight. We took advantage of it by getting to Kroger early (lots of handicapped parking spaces at nine o'clock on a Sunday!) to finish up grocery shopping, and even running by Publix to pick up the paper towels the Macland store didn't have last night. This afternoon we finally replaced the erratic LED bulb in the kitchen fixture (don't tell me that LEDs take "years" to burn out!), I sorted both our pills and made the bed, and then spent the afternoon getting more things off the DVR: "Fox Tales" and a Rick Sebak special, plus nine of my favorite episodes of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (since GetTV showed the episodes uncut, I really wanted to keep them). That afternoon task wandered right into dinnertime—James was looking for comfort food, so he made chicken and dumplings in the pressure cooker (well, the chicken, anyway; the pot pie noodles stood in for dumplings)—and early evening.

Sigh...and now it's time to get ready for work again.

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