 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. Contact me at theyoungfamily (at) earthlink (dot) net . . . . . . . . . .
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» Saturday, July 30, 2022
The Grim Reaper is On the Job: Farewell, Nichelle Nichols!
 Well, I shouldn't have complained about a quiet last week. Within a week the Grim Reaper cut a swath through the entertainment (and sports, although I guess pro sports is technically entertainment) industry and we lost Paul Sorvino, David Warner, Tony Dow, Bernard Cribbins, Paul Coker Jr (with "Mad" magazine and Rankin-Bass), basketball great Bill Russell, Pat Carroll, and last because she was the crushing blow: the wonderful Nichelle Nichols. Every day was a one-two punch, especially Nichelle. I didn't think she was ageless, but she seemed timeless. Farewell, Bright Lady, now your trip to the stars has really begun.In the meantime James was in such torment from his back molars he called the oral surgeon back and they got him in on Thursday for a consultation. The result of this was that he will have five teeth (!!!) out on Thursday the 4th, the day after his spinal steroid shots, so he will only have to go off Plavix once for both procedures. In the meantime, he's back to salt rinses and more Ambesol. We also saw Dr. Friedman on Friday and he said the formerly infected toe looks great and the next time he sees podiatry should be for a trim. I had to call the insurance company this week: a tree from our neighbor's yard blew into our yard. It broke right over the fence, gave a minor tap to the deck rail, and is now sitting there like a rolled-over 18-wheeler. Positives: it's not a big tree, but of course that means it won't meet our deductible, whatever that is, so we'll have to pay for it. But someone will have to do it, since the whole honkin' thing is covered with poison ivy. I got itchy just looking it over. In the meantime, James is happy with the new food processor I picked up on Amazon Vine...  » Saturday, July 23, 2022
The Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
Sort of a blah week, mostly chores and nothing much worth writing about, except that James finally got his Medicare card, so that we could fill out his Kaiser papers for Medicare Advantage. Oh, and we ended up going to two different Walmarts to find various little things. So exciting, eh?Friday was a little more exciting because we went to "re-up" the post office box for the HOA and we also watched Encanto, which was colorful and fun, with entertaining characters. I love the aunt who always had the rain cloud following her around, and I felt bad for poor Bruno (who we really should have talked about đŸ˜” ). The other Friday event was a little more exciting in a way I didn't want it to be. When I took Tucker out for his nightly walk, we were accosted almost immediately by a rather...I guess I could say excited...pit bull type dog. He was not vicious or threatening, but Tucker felt intimidated and started growling at him, and this dog wasn't huge, but he was big and could have hurt either of us if "Little Caesar" there started being aggressive back. So I kept shooing him off and we did get back inside. But Tucker did need to get out and pee! So I finally loaded him into the car and went to the front of the complex, figuring maybe the dog belonged to or was visiting someone in the back. While Tucker was sniffing and peeing out front, I saw an SUV slowly coming down the street, and someone calling. When the car came abreast us, the woman driving called to me "Have you seen a blue pittie?" and I said yes, that he was down our street. In fact the dog was just trotting up the street and was about two houses away. The lady drove her SUV up to him and I heard her say "You bad boy!" Soon he was whisked away and we got back in the car and drove the several feet home. That's the most adventure I want in my week, thanks, unless I win the lottery. » Saturday, July 16, 2022
The Medical Cart and Other Tales
This was pretty much a work week: two straight days (Sunday and Monday) of regular housework and then chores that are done irregularly (plus loading the endless maw of the dishwasher). On Monday Peachtree came by to look at the thermostat. The reason the Smart Hub keeps dropping out is something about it being a low voltage line in competition with surrounding high voltage. Yeah, but we never had these problems with the old thermostat, so can't you fix it? He fiddled around and did a few things. It still drops out occasionally, but I guess it's not so frequent as before.Tuesday was the Great Dog Wash and Great Dog Bedding Wash, which pretty much knocks me out for the rest of the day, leaving me to indulge my Law & Order: Criminal Intent habit... James had to take a half-day on Wednesday because he can't see his cardiologist at the end of the week. Dr. Shosh said he looked okay and that it was fine for him to be off Plavix for five days before having any teeth pulled. Alas, after having a toothache for several weeks, the dentist tells him he has to go to an oral surgeon because his roots have grown sideways or some damnfool thing. In the old days you went to the dentist, and if you had a toothache they just pulled it, no muss, no fuss. Sheesh. So we found out we couldn't get an appointment with the oral surgeon until August 11, and then that was just for them to look at his teeth, so he has to go another month on salt rinses and Ambesol. We've already spent about $30 on Ambesol already and it's not helping a lot of times. Friday was a little bit fun: we had to pick up a scrip at Kaiser and then went to Sonny's for barbecue (nice big portions, so we have another dinner). Hit the nearby Dollar Tree and they must be very shorthanded because it looked like a bomb went off in the store: merchandise on the floor everywhere. So avoid the Dollar Tree near Sam's Club at the Big Chicken. We also went to Book Nook, and I want to applaud the employees for even staying there, because the A/C is on the fritz and it's like an oven inside. I did find another John Douglas book and one about forensics. Anyway, July 12 was Prime Day. This year I bought nothing but a three-tier cart, rather than anything electronic. I'd never seen a cart like this, with little hanging cups and dividers for the trays and hooks. On Saturday I loaded up the cart—not with fun craft things, but with all of James' medical supplies: the gauze, the Coban, the Betadyne, the stretch bandages, etc. out of the box on the floor and up higher, with extra supplies down below. Now I can just roll it out when I need it and put it back in the closet when I don't. Did a bunch of other rearranging on Saturday, too, and felt like I accomplished something. Labels: books, chores, dogs, electronics, health, illness, pets, shopping » Saturday, July 09, 2022
Fireworks Large and Small
The week opened with fireworks! Nothing major, just Independence Day: James had to work as always, but nobody called, so we did our annual watch of 1776, and I put on the first five episodes of Alistair Cooke's America (from the Native Americans to the first westward movement). Used one of the pork loins in the fridge to make barbecue pork in the Instant Pot (pressure cooker settings) and it was quite yummy with sweet corn, plus watermelon chunks for dessert.James went to the podiatrist on Tuesday. The antibiotic was already helping with the infection; the podiatrist cut away the left side of the toenail and then put acid on it to keep it from growing back. He has to soak his foot ten minutes in Epsom salts for a week and then I am to drown it in Betadyne and wrap it up each night. Business as usual, sadly. Labels: books, cars, chores, decorating, food, Independence Day, movies, television » Saturday, July 02, 2022
Toe-ing the Line and Other Tales
It took me a whole day, but I spent all day Monday getting all my fanfiction (that includes the new Law & Order: Criminal Intent post-series stories, Remember WENN, Doctor Simon Locke, Lassie, and my two Addie Mills stories, plus the Doctor Who story "Busman's Holiday" which was actually printed in a fanzine, but which is the only piece of fanzine fanfic I have in electronic form) loaded onto Archive of Our Own. I have to finish loading them on Fanfiction.net, too, but that takes longer because they don't allow you to do them one after the other and they also have to be reformatted.Did a craft project this week: have gotten tired of the sun streaming into our foyer in the afternoon and heating everything up, so I bought some foam board last week, cut it into strips, and covered both side windows bracketing the front door. The sun still comes through the clerestory window at the top, but it seems to have helped. Believe it or not I didn't get Butch back until Friday. Supposedly the employee who does the diagnostics wasn't in until Tuesday, and then he couldn't do it then. They said they couldn't "duplicate the problem," and they didn't charge me for it. We picked the car up after I went with James to Social Security for his interview before final filing of his retirement papers. We also picked up two new fry pans at Bed, Bath & Beyond (good ones this time, and not T-Fal), and had lunch at Cracker Barrel. The most important thing we did this week was to see James' primary care doctor. I noticed his right big toe was red and sore looking on Monday, and immediately dumped Betadyne on it. By Tuesday there was pus, evidence of an ingrown toenail. Well, we know what happened last time he had an ingrown toenail: four nights in the hospital, a fever and a threat of amputation, and forty days of a PICC line! Since he had to see Dr. Mobley on Wednesday for a followup on his UTI anyway, we showed him the toe. He gave James antibiotics at once, told me to keep up with the Betadyne, and to get an appointment with the podiatrist "toot sweet." (We got one for next Wednesday.) And there is light at the end of the tunnel: I saw my first fall magazine on Saturday! Labels: autumn, crafts, errands, events, fanfiction, food, illness |
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