Some parts of this weekend have been very, very good.

Thursday was not included in that equation.

James had an appointment with the doctor as a followup from two weeks ago. Unfortunately his regular doctor was out of the office; fortunately he got an appointment with Dr. Julian, who saw the blister on his leg that day. He had finished his antibiotic and Nurse Linda was fairly happy with how the blister was healing up. I thought James might leave it unbandaged in the daytime if it were covered with long pants to let it start drying out.

The doctor was pleased with how it looked, too, and said I'd done a good job.

Except now there was another huge blister on the opposite side of his leg when he pulled his stocking down, and it was dreadful and red and raw because it had stuck to the material, which pulled the loose skin off it. I looked at the back of his legs on Wednesday night! There was no blister then, and his leg wasn't as red as it looked in the doctor's office. So there is another dose of doxycyline, and the doctor wants James to go to the wound clinic, and in the meantime Nurse Linda is back on duty.

We were so disappointed.

It was still hotter than blazes on Thursday; we have set records almost from the first of the month for hottest days ever in October. I would have preferred, and I think what James might have preferred, was to go straight home, stay cool, and metaphorically lick our wounds. But we were driving by there anyway, so we stopped by Publix for the twofers and other necessities, like low-salt ham and yogurt. God sent us an angel and a nice Publix employee took our cart back into the store for us.

We did lay low for the rest of the afternoon.

Friday dawned hot and breathless. Since we hadn't had any success finding more socks for James at the Powder Springs Road Walmart, we tried the one closer to us, at the East-West Connector. We had to search because they are moving the store around, but we did find him more of the Dr. Scholl's stockings. Picked up a few other things, and then just wandered around the store killing time, since it was almost time for lunch. We found a set of Perry Mason DVDs, seasons 7-9, and James bought it for me for our anniversary.

This week's lunch was at O'Charley's. It was so hot that when I tried to open the door to the restaurant, the metal door handle burnt my hand! Luckily an employee opened it from the inside. John Bouler, the Boroses, the Spiveys, and Aubrey were there with us. Alice returned Joe Straczynski's book, which she read twice; she said it didn't make her sad, like it did me—it made her mad. (I was mad, too, that such abuse of kids can still happen in this day and age. His whole family situation was Dickensian, the worst kind of Dickensian, and Dickens would be appalled that in 2019 we still allow such things to happen.) Had a great steak, savory and tender, with a salad and a baked potato. James had a chopped steak (he likes the crispy onions; I don't blame him). Aubrey had a new toy, perfect for her artistic talents: a ReMarkable. I am so drooling!

Once again we went home and holed up. I have lots of magazines to read.

And then it happened: the front came through. We woke up Saturday morning (early, because we wanted to go to the October Hallmark ornament premiere) to find it cool (low 60s), with a nice soft breeze. I can't tell you how wonderful this felt! We drove all the way up to Town Center with the truck windows down. It was better than the ornament premiere, which we nevertheless enjoyed. I had $12 of credit and actually bought a Hallowe'en ornament: the black cat. It will look nice hung up somewhere; I think it's a little large for the Hallowe'en tree. Played with the "Monster Mash" ornaments (monsters playing the song) and the Star Trek transporter, but the only other thing that caught my eye was a Jim Shore fox Christmas figure. Too expensive, though.

I "drove" the power chair across the parking lot to the Barnes & Noble while James got the truck up there (easier than loading it up and lowering it again). We had just a few minutes in the store because we had another lunch engagement; I bought the Christmas issue of "Country Sampler" and the 2019 cross-stitch Christmas ornament magazine. James got a "Cooks Illustrated."

When we got home I got the ladder out to install the new LED floodlights we bought at Walmart. James has to leave for work in the morning when it's dark, so he usually turns the floods in the driveway on so he can see to load the power chair on the truck. Unfortunately my stupid right arm still will not stretch out enough, with this stupid rotator cuff nonsense, to remove the bulb. So James had to get on the ladder while I spotted him. I hated to do it because the arthritis has been giving him such pain. Plus we realize now, with the reappearance of another blister, that the new medication (which he stopped taking because we thought it caused the original blister) probably did not cause the blister as we thought. He is going to get back to the rheumatologist and see if he can try taking the new medication again.

We had a surprise message from my sister-in-law Candy yesterday; they were going to be in Morrow today and she and Mom wondered if they could drive the rest of the way up and join us somewhere for lunch. So we took them to Uncle Maddio's Pizza. I wondered what they were doing in Morrow and it turned out they had to go all the way there—an hour away from us!—just to get the October Hallmark ornaments since there is no Hallmark store anywhere near Warner Robins any longer: not even at Macon Mall or in Macon period! What a fat pain in the neck! So we had a nice chat and a nice meal, and then they headed back south.

After they left we went to Lidl (for milk, bread, juice, cucumbers, and chocolate) and Kroger (I ran in to get no-salt mushrooms), and then came home.

Then it was Saturday night at the Britcoms while James made himself breakfast for Sunday. Also watched a special called I Hate Jane Austen, about a noted British writer who really didn't like reading Austen (this was probably because it was required reading in schools). In the special he talked to Jane Austen fans and other writers and literary critics trying to determine what was so good about her books. At the end he has a new appreciation for all of them, including Mansfield Park.

Labels: books, Christmas, family, food, friends, health, magazines, shopping, sickness, television, weather

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