Began the weekend exhausted, but I did get all the Christmas things down and mostly packed away by Thursday afternoon. It just wasn’t all put away into the closet yet as I had to pack the porch things and the divider items back into their plastic storage box. I’d lost a bunch of time from unavoidable delays: Monday was handicapped by my feeling ill, Tuesday by a trip to Kroger (I needed milk!). Wednesday I at least got interrupted by something happy–my new curtains finally came! (I ironed them immediately and put them up! They make the whole dining room look so much more cozy, and I am shut of those boring apple curtains at last.) Thursday’s distractions were the second visit to get the PICC line checked out (with Susan the Wonderfully Cheerful Nurse again) and a visit from the Home Nurse. We’d had a visit last Sunday in which the Home Nurse visits were set up; Thursday were with a different nurse who was originally from California. We’d thought she was coming Tuesday, so I didn’t change James’ bandage then and had to do it on Wednesday.

(I hate to sound so ultra-critical, but I am never satisfied by the way the Home Nurse or the doctor treats James’ leg. They never wrap it tight enough–I know it needs to have good circulation to heal, but he also needs the compression pressure to keep the blisters/leg ulcers from breaking out or getting worse. I wanted the Home Nurse so bad for his foot, and now I feel they are ruining his leg progress.)

Friday we did the Publix shopping first, and then had the podiatrist visit. Once again, we compared last week’s and this week’s photos, and his foot does indeed look better, but I still think James’ leg could look better. The doctor re-wrapped what the nurse wrapped yesterday (nowhere near snug enough, James complained), and we went on to a very late midday dinner at O’Charley’s. A nice little 6-ounce sirloin steak and baked potato, plus a juicy green salad with balsamic vinaigrette on the side, were just what “the doctor ordered” for this girl. Then I exerted myself when we got home by bathing Tucker. I was shameless: I lured the poor animal in the bathroom with a dog biscuit. He looked so betrayed when I shut the door. But the first thing he did when I had him dry was eat that “cookie”! The funny thing is that Tucker feels so good after his bath. He races around and he “smiles,” which he doesn’t do that often ordinarily unless he’s playing. Even when James is petting him he looks very serious and plaintive.

Saturday we took a little detour from our appointed course, which was to do the shopping at the “Floyd Road Grocery Store Mall.” We got our stimulus check last week–even though they direct deposited the first one, we got the second one last week, via check–and it’s been sitting on my desk, making me nervous. I wanted it in the bank, and the last time I tried to deposit a government check via taking a photo of it in the banking app, it didn’t work. So I looked up the closest bank of mine that was open on Saturday after noon and went there and got that check deposited. Then went on to Costco for gasoline, and got to stop and do something fun by going to Barnes & Noble (besides, I needed the rest room by then). It was a wonderfully nice day, mostly cloudy with some breaks in the clouds and bright blue sky, but it was breezy and chilly, and that wind got down your neck and up your sleeves! It was especially chilly out there on B&N’s flat parking lot at the top of a hill! Got a couple of magazines and the history book The Secret Rooms, plus the new volume of “Strange Planet” cartoons, Stranger Planet. I love the little aliens and their commentary on human foibles.

On the way home we stopped at Lidl to stock up on various meats, fresh bread, lots more mandarin oranges, veg, and other things, and I dropped into the Mableton Publix across the street to get the things the Smyrna Publix didn’t have on Friday, including James’ no-salt-added chips. It was a good night to have soup for supper, and that’s what we did: I took the chicken-and-wild-rice we got at Publix Friday, mixed in dried vegetable soup flakes and fresh diced celery, cut it with no-salt beef broth to reduce the sodium content, and simmered it slowly for a half hour, until it was a perfect meal for a chilly night.

(Before bed I re-wrapped James’ leg. See, this is my problem. The doctor cleans the leg, puts medi-honey on the little abrasions that are there, puts non-stick gauze pads on the abrasions, wraps the whole with a little gauze bandaging for padding, then puts the Ace bandage on. But the Ace bandage is too loose and the non-stick gauze pads shift. Now the abrasions have the gauze bandaging on them rather than the non-stick pads, and when I remove all the gauze, it sticks fast to the abrasions, which have oozed and then dried. One looked completely healed at the doctor’s office Friday, but when I removed the gauze sticking to them, even as carefully as I did, it made the abrasion raw once more.)

Sunday once again the usual chores, but I got all Christmas put up in the closet, and set up the winter decorations. Plus I ordered myself some new shoes, as the ones I’m wearing are still the ones I was wearing when I retired three years ago. I had to get them from Kids Foot Locker, as neither Amazon nor Reebok had them in stock this year. I order a boys’ (“big kid”) classic leather shoe in 5.5 US size, which is wider than a woman’s size 6, which is what I’m “supposed” to take in a women’s shoe (when I don’t have to order a 6.5 to get it wide enough), and fits me better (and they’re $20/pair cheaper to boot, for the same shoe design–really, women’s clothing and shoes are such a rip-off pricewise).

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