 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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» Sunday, November 27, 2022
Happy Thanksgiving...Wishing for Happiness
 I was born two weeks before Christmas, and baptized on Christmas Eve, and I've gravitated toward Christmas ever since. I love the color and the lights and giving gifts and the special scents of the season and getting together with friends. But after Christmas I love Thanksgiving best of all. There's no pretension to it. Oh, a lot of people try to turn Thanksgiving into a picture perfect magazine thing, or they go into the same old tiresome Pilgrim and Indian thing, which isn't even really true and isn't the basis for the holiday we celebrate. It's about getting together with special people, whether family or friends, eating together and feeling gratitude for our blessings, even if it's been a rotten year. After October's debacle, I am very thankful for November, even if it wasn't the November I wanted. This Thanksgiving was spent, as it has been for years, at the Lucyshyn home; they have a great big open space kitchen/dining/living room area just perfect for hosting guests. There were two turkeys, Clair's wonderful pot roast, lots of veg, including our carrot/craisin salad, cornbread, and other goodies, and of course homemade pies and other goodies for dessert. James got slightly wobbly heading back out to the car, but we made it okay. It's a pretty long haul out to Lawrenceville and back, but the company is worth it, and Butch did his best, except for a few minutes when I noticed that the car was in low gear. I couldn't figure it out, until James noticed the second time it happened that his portable oxygen bottle had pushed the gearshift down! Thank goodness it isn't something I need to have fixed again. (There's another thanks for today.) I posted a short Thanksgiving fanfic in my series and gave thanks for that, too, for keeping me sane through four hospital stays. I don't really want to be writing any more stories from the hospital, but am thankful I can. On Saturday, like hobbits, we had Second Thanksgiving at Alice and Ken Spivey's house. Yet another yummy turkey and more veg and warm friends. We are both still down from the October hospital stay, and, although this weekend was the first Sunday of Advent, I really had to push myself to put up the lights. I actually did it Saturday night because rain was expected Sunday, but got no joy out of it. However, I was rewarded for my promptness by being able to program the pesky timer with no mistakes the first time! On Sunday I put up the candoliers and the door wreaths, including the front door wreath and the flag.
Labels: Christmas, Christmas decorations, Christmas lights, food, friends, holidays, Thanksgiving, writing  » Sunday, November 20, 2022
Yet Another Week of Chores, But...
Ah, all the weekly stuff, like cleaning the bathrooms, etc.
Plus James and I gave the kitchen a good cleaning, I put a new seat cover (a new twin flannel fitted sheet) on the sofa after vacuuming inside the cushions and spraying them with Lysol, changed the bed...lots of cleaning goodness.We also went to 2nd and Charles, Barnes & Noble's used book outlet, had success at Walmart with yet more yogurt and burritos. Alas, this was also the week James dropped and therefore dumped an entire gallon of skim milk on the carpet near Snowy's house. I immediately mopped it up with old bath towels and then had to wash the towels. Why did he drop the gallon? Yep, the stupid air hose again. All he was trying to do was help me bring the shopping upstairs. Thursday night was the stupidest. James couldn't find his phone to charge it. Well, we looked in all the regular places. It was after midnight, so the phones were on silent mode, so calling and calling did no good. James said he missed it...sigh...after I did the trash. So there I was, in the wee hours of the morning, sifting through the garbage bags in case the phone had fallen in. I was so sleepy that I got mad and poked once more around his chair. The phone had fallen deep into the recesses of the recliner, and after 2 a.m. there I was finally throwing the last bags in the trash can to be collected tomorrow. However, on Thursday we also made the long haul down to Kaiser's Southwood office (near Southlake Mall, after the usual traffic mess in Henry County) to see Dr. Graziano, the very first pulmonologist appointment James could get. The doctor said his lungs sounded good and had James arrange an appointment for a walking test with a respiratory therapist for December. Hopefully he can come off the oxygen. But still too late for RICC. Sigh.
Labels: annoyances, chores, health, shopping » Sunday, November 13, 2022
Thank You, Doc...
It's been a week of mostly chores, and stupid grocery shopping, including Walmart for the yogurt and burritos we can't get at any of the other supermarkets, the usual housecleaning, and I gave Tucker a bath.Three good things: We went to Barnes & Noble twice, once to Buckhead and once to West Cobb. Yes, I committed book, and got the fall "Country Sampler." We saw Dr. Shash, James' cardiologist, today. He says he detects no damage to James' heart from the recent whatever that happened. And we had our anniversary dinner at Longhorn. Thirty two years, yay us!
Labels: anniversary, books, chores, errands, health » Sunday, November 06, 2022
Defeat
We have had to cancel our trip to Rhode Island. I had plane and hotel reservations all made for the two of us, and confirmation that all RIPTA buses have wheelchair lifts. The only thing I had not made were the RI Comic Con memberships themselves, and glad I did not, because they were nonrefundable. Why? Because James would need a portable oxygen generator for the trip and Apria needs a three-week notice to get you one. He was just out of the hospital only two weeks ago (and they did say he could go!). (The "portable" oxygen generator, by the way, was that wretched 20-pound monster I had to struggle up the stairs with two weeks ago!) But I was still willing to get James and our luggage dumped in Kennedy Plaza with the darn thing to try to make it to RICC. I am absolutely heartbroken to not only be missing Vincent D'Onofrio and John Glover, but to be missing William Daniels and Bonnie Bartlett. Daniels is in his 90s and who knows when we will ever get a chance to see them again. The other horrible part of the week was having to drive to the Gwinnett Kaiser office for a followup appointment that basically took ten minutes. A two-hour drive home for a ten-minute visit. The only good thing about it was that the urologist was very cooperative, unlike James' current one, and gave us a scrip so we could try some self-lubricating disposable coude catheters for travel. I don't mind using the rubber ones for at home, but cathing in a hotel bathroom? (Alas, the coude catheters did not work for James; the rubber ones get more fluid out of him. But at least we got to try.) We did go to Conjuration over the weekend and had a good time at the panels we saw, talked to friends...but still not as good as getting to go home and have some decent food in the bargain! (I mean, we had an extra day; we were planning to take Amtrak to Boston, eat at Quincy Market or maybe the North End, and RIPTA does go out to Oakland Beach—we could have had doughboys and clam cakes and a lobster roll...)
Labels: conventions, excursions, food, health, sickness, vacation |
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