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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 4:00:00 PM

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Labels: dogs, DragonCon, dreams, emotions, events, exercise, family, food, friends, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:55:00 PM

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By this week, Oliver had turned into Beth March. He seemed sometimes to gain ground—once, for instance, we uncovered him and found him up on the high perch that both Snowy and Schuyler had favored—but despite the antibiotics and the anti-inflammatory, he never seemed to totally gain. I was losing him little by little as each day went by. I think he's been sick for so long that, like Beth, he just couldn't fight the tide going out any longer. He'll pretty much just sit in my hand and fluff up and sleep.

Tuesday I totally forgot the appointment with the vet wasn't until Thursday and took the poor guy all the way over to Vinings. Dr. Bostick wasn't even in the office, but the nurse tried to cheer me up. On the way home, as we were turning off South Cobb Drive, a big wedge of geese flew overhead, right over our heads, honking loudly. I told Oliver maybe someday he could fly with the geese.

He was so droopy Wednesday morning, plus he had fallen off his perch at one point (I put some hand towels at the bottom of the cage so he had a soft place to land), but after eating some millet and being vaporized he seemed to perk up. And then I took a nap and when I got up to dress to pick up James, he was doing badly again. He bobbled when he sat on his perch, and otherwise he's asleep or sort of out of it.

He was so bad by the time I had to leave I took him with me because I thought he was dying. Cuddled him for the rest of the night. Instead of letting him sleep in the cage, I put food and water in the carry box and covered him with facecloths and he slept on my night table Wednesday night. At six he fell off the perch and I had to cuddle him before putting him back in and going back to bed.

Our appointment was today at eleven and I knew what I had to do. Oliver went flying with the geese at about 11:30 a.m. Dr. Bostick took one look at him—but she didn't have to, I already knew. They were all really sweet once they saw how bad he was.

Fly, little one, second star to the right and straight on til morning.


My dad died on August 1 in 1985. God, I hate summer.

Labels: birds, budgies, death, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 5:46:00 PM

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Well, now I know I'm depressed between James' medical troubles and Oliver being sick: I took about an hour to myself on Monday, since I had to go to Kaiser after dropping James off at dialysis to pick up some meds for him, to go to Barnes & Noble to cheer up. It didn't work. I was totally miserable walking around, even though I did buy Leather and Lark and Ashley Poston's new book. If going to a bookstore can't cheer me up, how will I manage?

Something very odd happened Monday night. We buy snack cakes for desserts; you know, Hostess cupcakes, things like that. We had a box of Ding Dongs which we had already eaten two of the cakes. When I opened one for dessert and took a small bite of it, a terrible chemical smell came out of the cake, like...I don't know, like some kind of floor or counter cleaner. I opened the cake I was about to give to James and it had the same smell! I threw them both away, and Tuesday I was terribly sick, sleepy and nauseated and burping all day, so I just threw the rest of the box away, too. So glad I didn't ignore the smell and eat the whole thing, or let James eat it.

We had leftover turkey and rice for supper on Friday, and a good thing because dialysis caused us to be ready just in time for Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics. Bon spectacle on the Seine for sure, although some stuff was just bizarre, like the decapitated Marie Antoinette projections. We were surprised at all the furor about "the Last Supper" because we watched the whole thing and never interpreted what happened in that manner. Later they explained this was a tribute to pagan gods or whatever? Ah, well, they're French after all. (Just kidding.) Anyway, I loved that they rang the bells of Notre Dame for the first time since the fire! Also the wonderful light show from the Eiffel Tower and the fact that the Olympic torch is actually a balloon in honor of the Montgolfier brothers! Enjoyed the fact that the countries' teams got to ride in boats down the Seine as well, but felt bad for everyone being drenched with rain.

I had no idea why Snoop Dogg was getting all this attention and Lady Gaga performing was okay, but Celine Dion singing was quite beautiful. I looked up the "stiff person" disease that she has and the symptoms sound gruesome, and even loud sounds can trigger an attack. I hope she was okay after the performance.

Saturday James got his new glasses. Finally! Costco was a mess to navigate on a Saturday.

I don't see any improvement in poor Oliver. He's asleep most of the time although he has been eating, and I've been vaporizing him every day. Sometimes I can get him to eat fruit or some oatmeal, but he is letting me cuddle him more and more, not because, I think, that he is getting used to me and likes it, but because he's just too worn out to fight back.

Labels: birds, books, budgies, food, Olympics, shopping, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:18:00 PM

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We are getting into the rhythm of the three-times-a-week dialysis, but still had a horrendous Wednesday.

It looks like Monday will be my day at Kroger, to pick up milk (alas, at a higher price than the Mableton Kroger) and yogurt, and burritos if needed (and of course I could always survey the manager's special meats). Maybe I can do Publix on Wednesdays.

Oliver went back to the vet on Tuesday. She said he's not worse, but not a lot better, but she stopped the medicine and asked me to just keep him warm and vaporized and encourage him to eat, and she'd see him in two weeks.

James has been doing well with José, the physical therapist. He is giving James exercises to take down the back pain and also a way of walking that helps his diaphragm expand properly. We also have Shanté (the occupational therapist), who comes once a week and gives him a different set of exercises.

Thursday we couldn't rest from our long, long Wednesday because we had to go to Costco in the afternoon to order James' new glasses. We also tried out the "new" gas station: they added four pumps so that now there are twelve—that Costco gas is always packed—and they also have lights on the uprights to tell you which pumps are occupied.

Wednesday was the real bear: James had another 7 a.m. chair so we could go to his afternoon eye appointment that it took us three months to get. Up at six again with only three hours sleep; after I dropped him off, I figured, hey, who's going to be at Publix at this hour? and I was right, only two other people were there. Also noticed that milk is cheaper now at Publix; who would have thought it? So I got that done, except they didn't have enough Smart Balance to restock the fridge (I took care of that on Friday after I dropped him off; drove down to the Publix across from Sprouts to get three more tubs—now it should last until the next time Smart Balance is on twofer).

Anyway, when I picked him up at eleven (never having gotten any more sleep) we had to go directly to Kaiser Cumberland for James' followup appointment (from Urgent Care on the 13th). The appointment was at noon, but we didn't see the doctor until 1:30, and it was so cold on the front side of the building that even I was cold, and James, with his anemia, was absolutely freezing. The nurse didn't have a blanket, but she brought him a sheet that we doubled up as a shawl.

When we arrived, I'd had half a stale Poptart and a slice of toast with butter to eat. I mentioned this to the nurse this--I'm terrible with remembering names and I don't remember hers, but she's always so nice--and she gave me her homemade fruit cup! She said I needed it more than she did. She makes them on weekends so she has them for the week: grapes, strawberries, and pineapple. (I shared the pineapple with James.) Very thankful for small kindnesses.

And then we had to hotfoot it up to Kaiser Townpark for the eye exam. Pushing James in the rollator at TownPark is So Much Fun. Not. By the time we got home, James could barely make it up the four steps to the foyer and the chair lift. Canned soup was all we could manage for supper.

Saturday we slept in and, after walking the dog, all I did was watch the ChargeTV marathon of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and I fell asleep several times during that!

Sunday we got to do the one fun thing for the week: Juanita's birthday party at Longhorn. Unfortunately they're building an Olive Garden next door, and half the parking lot is gone, so I had to drop James and the rollator off and go park the car elsewhere. It was hot and sticky, so no love. But seeing everyone was so great!

Labels: birds, friends, health, pets, shopping, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:28:00 PM

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This has been an eventful week in many aspects.

Our own particular hell started on Monday evening. At two-thirty, I dropped James off at DaVita, bought a couple of things at Kroger, and went home, sorted meds for the week, cleaned the master bathroom, chatted with a friend, edited a story. At six fifteen I went to pick up James. Out we tooled to the truck. James got into the passenger seat. I rolled the chair on the lift, it started to lift, got about two inches high, and then it dropped back to the ground with a bang.

You guessed it, guys. The lift broke again. This time the hydrolic pole that lifts and lowers the platform broke.

At this point we were stranded, because, while the chair has the range to trundle home, the truck can't get anywhere dragging the ramp behind it. I called AAA, to see if they could get me a rope, because I could (barely) hold the ramp closed and lift it up, and if I could tie it together, the truck could get home. But when I tried to tie it up with a bungie cord, it snapped in half. AAA says they couldn't get me a rope; they could give me a tow, which wouldn't work.

Well, God/fate/someone sent Eduardo, who was doing business a few stores down. He had a ratchet strap in his truck, and he lifted and tied the ramp upright with it, and then we had a couple of shorter bungee cords to keep the folded-up base parallel to the lift pole.

Now I started to worry. What if I drove home and it let go? And James would have to trundle the entire two miles home by himself. What if the chair lost power or he had some medical problem? He's only out of the hospital ten days.

Eventually, I called Alice. To make a long story short, she and Aubrey [her daughter] came to the shopping center, and Alice drove home behind me to watch the ramp (it did drop vertically slightly, to the point I couldn't get the truck in the garage due to the curve in the driveway), but we got it home. And Aubrey walked all the way home with James. She found the easiest route via Google Maps, with the least ups and downs, and after about an hour Alice and I saw them approaching on Life 360 and we walked out to the corner to meet the wayfarers.

There's that saying "God never gives you more than you can handle." God apparently thinks I'm Supergirl or Wonder Woman. If I'm not at the end of my rope, I can see it from here.

For the rest of the week I had to trundle James around in a wheelchair, and later in his big rollator, which I didn't realize that I could push if James tucked his legs up (the rollator is actually easier to maneuver than the big wheelchairs). The rollator is heavy, though, and my back is really feeling it.

Wednesday was really a nightmare: because James had a followup appointment with Dr. Mobley in the afternoon from his sojourn to Urgent Care earlier, we had to be at DaVita at seven in the morning, the only seat they had. We both had four hours sleep. I went to Kroger, then went home to get more sleep, but it doesn't seem to be helping. Friday I did a Lidl/Publix run and made chicken cacciatore for supper.

Tuesday Oliver went back to the vet. He scolded Dr. Bostick the entire time he was in the weighing box. She took him off the medicines! But she wants me to continue vaporizing him and keeping his cage enclosed so he's warmer. I wrapped three sides of his cage in Glad Press'n'Seal so he gets more light; maybe it will perk him up. He looks so sad. I am wondering if he's suffered neurological damage from being sick for so long, because when he's not eating or sleeping, he just sort of sits, sometimes with his head down, looking sad. And she says to make him eat.

Thursday we took the truck to Mobility Works. This new part will cost $1700. Now we're nearly up to the price of a completely new chair lift. Plus Bruno [the manufacturer] apparently can't believe the lift is breaking down like this. They keep asking if the chair isn't heavier than the lift can tolerate. Well, dudes, when the idiot bashed in the previous lift at the Kaiser Glenlake office, we sent the specs on the chair to you, and this is the lift you sent. This is on you, not on Mobility Works or us. The manual says the chair weighs 326 pounds, the scale at DaVita says it's 317, and that's what we told you.

Anyway, someone finally called to make an appointment for a followup about the fistula and why dialysis doesn't want to use it. It would be with another doctor. It also wouldn't be until August 20 and I was very disappointed. I logged on to Kaiser to put all of James' appointments on his phone, and only then realized the fistula appointment was at the Southwood office. No. Just no. That's an hour's drive on a treacherous stretch of highway and every time we have had to go down there we have had our hearts in our mouths because the traffic there is so bad. It's either bumper-to-bumper or racing at 90 mph with cars darting in and out of traffic. There's a reason we quit driving to Warner Robins although we miss seeing Maggie and Clay.

I sent Dr. Austin a terse note that said neither James nor I were in fit health to make a trip to Southwood, and wanted to know why Glenlake was not an option. I also asked straight out for the results of the two ultrasounds of the fistula we had at St. Joe's. (Someone did eventually get back to us with an appointment for Glenlake, and, as a positive note, it's sooner, on August 2. We got no report about the fistula.)

Saturday should have been a fun day, but after we went to Hair Day—James was so tottery that Ron left the driveway clear and we came in through the garage; it was a busy day for Sheri, too, as she had a bumper crop of haircuts—we had to go up to Urgent Care, because since James got out of the hospital, due to the Foley catheter he wore all week, he had another UTI. It wasn't crowded and we weren't there all that long. This time the doctor is trying him on two doses of the powdered stuff, Fosfomax. I don't hold out much hope for it to work, as it's only two doses, and James has had it before, three doses, and it didn't work.

This all paled to what happened in Butler, Pennsylvania, at a rally for Donald Trump. Despite all the Secret Service presence, a shooter was able to get on the roof of a nearby building. Luckily Trump turned his head and all they knicked was his ear, but a man who was at the rally threw himself over his family and was killed. The shooter was some kid—twenty is a kid to me!—who had researched killing both Trump and Joe Biden. Of course now this has made a martyr out of Trump.

Labels: birds, events, friends, health, pets, repairs, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:44:00 PM

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James had his first week of dialysis.

It was ultimately frustrating, at least for me; as I ended up in Kroger every single time (DaVita and Kroger are in the same shopping center, about two miles from our house) and if there's anything I loathe, it's grocery shopping. The temperature was sizzling. And because the shopping center is popular, it's a pain in the neck to find parking. But I picked this location because it's close to the house and, if there was some type of emergency with the cars, James could actually ride the power chair to dialysis and back. Friday night was kind of the last straw; I thought my third visit to Kroger was my last, and then the roll of Glad Press'n'Seal (which enables James to take a shower with the permacath in him until they get this stupid fistula business worked out) fell into the toilet.

Tuesday I took Oliver back to Dr. Bostick. She says he is better, but not much, and she prescribed another medicine. As you can imagine, he hates that. It's an anti-inflammatory. And she wants me to have the vaporizer on for him.

James' in house physiotherapy coach came this week: José, a young man originally from Puerto Rico. He has James doing a walk back and forth holding something in his teeth; when he breathes only through his nose it expands his diaphragm and circulates more blood to his lower extremities. We also have an occupational therapist, Shanté, who came on Independence Day.

We had a quiet Fourth. I found the Bristol, Rhode Island, parade online again and had that on, and then we watched 1776 as usual, and then in the evening watched the Boston Pops concert and fireworks from the Esplanade on the Charles River via Bloomberg television. I noticed that the people running the cameras finally got the message and there were no shots of the crowds working the fireworks this year, just the fireworks! It was a good night, not a lot of smoke accumulation.

James finally got to do something fun: I took him to his club meeting on Saturday, then went by Sam's Club to get Press'n'Seal (good deal, two huge rolls). James' meeting ended early when one of the guys passed out from the heat inside the Union Hall—the air conditioning wasn't working—so we picked up some gasoline at Sam's Club. On the way home we got stuck in a gullywasher of a rainstorm, to the point that my clothes were soaked (and still wet on Sunday morning!). By then I was so exhausted all we had for supper was soup.

Labels: events, health, holidays, Independence Day, shopping, sickness, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:56:00 PM

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We prepped for Urgent Care Monday morning, but we never made it. James made it down the stairs okay, but when he got to the door to the garage, he got one foot down, and could not get the other foot out the door. Then his knees began to fail. Luckily we had a shower chair in the garage that we had bought for his sister Candy and never got to give her. I shifted it under him and he was able to sit. Then I called 911.

The paramedics came and his vitals were okay, but he definitely couldn't walk anymore. They called for an ambulance, but there was an hour's wait. Instead they helped me get him in the car and we went to the emergency room at St. Joseph's. He wasn't in triage ten minutes when they said he "was the sickest person in the emergency room" and we went right back.

To sum up, his bloodwork was terrible; his creatitine was sky high, his BUN 175, his GFR down to 8, and he had much too much potassium in his system. Right before I had to leave to get the animals to bed, he was assigned a room, 508.

I woke up about four feeling uneasy. I noticed Kaiser had called me three times and the phone hadn't rung, even though I disabled Do Not Disturb. I called the hospital and James wasn't in 508 anymore; he was in 207, in Intensive Care. I promptly had hysterics. The switchboard at the hospital was very nice and got me in touch with his floor, where the nurse assured me he was fine. His potassium was still high, so they had transferred him into ICU.

This was a grubby little room with the toilet behind a shower curtain and nowhere for me to sit, so I sat on the toilet, and later on a folding chair which I would recommend as a torture device. I had bought Zaxby's wings for lunch/supper and felt guilty because no one would let James eat because "we don't have the doctor's permission." The doctor wandered in about four and said, "But I gave orders that he could eat." Sigh. This became a lietmotif for the week: he would need something, but it would need a doctor's approval, but the nurse never got it, like having his sleeping pill at night. He went 72 hours without sleep because they wouldn't give him one except the first night. He also never got miconozole powder for the fungal infection he had on his lower abdomen, and the skin was all cracked and red.

They had, I learned, stuck a tube in his neck and had to dialyze him in the middle of the night. They took two liters of fluid off him.

So the time had finally come, the thing we have been fighting off for six years. He's on kidney dialysis for good now.

Wednesday I was going to pick up a meal at Tin Drum, but the line was out the door. I grabbed a burger and fries instead and was starving all day. I did check out the cafeteria: they had ... shudder ... fried haddock or something spicy chicken. Gross. They also moved James back to the fifth floor (502), he'd had dialysis, and was dead bored. You know it's dull when there's nothing on but Law & Order: SVU.

I did get my Tin Drum on Thursday, but I wouldn't eat until they took James downstairs (several hours late) to get a permacath put in. Why a permacath, you ask? Didn't James have fistula surgery last August because Dr. Kongara knew the dialysis was coming because his BUN was rising? Yes he did. And the surgeon told James that the fistula was fine. But the hospital wouldn't use it because the port area "wasn't big enough." (They gave him two ultrasounds on the arm. We never did hear how they came out.)

We were so bored we watched, James at the hospital, me at home, the debate tonight. It is pathetic that, in this huge country, these are the best two candidates for President we have. Daniel Webster, Charles Sumner, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois, and other statesmen are turning in their graves.

By Friday, James still hadn't had any sleep. I got Zaxby's again because it was just easier, only to arrive and discover they were sending him home. Of course, that took hours and ... surprise! ... they sent him home at rush hour. They had a whole bunch of plans for at home physical therapy and arranged for us to have dialysis at the DaVita center two miles from our house in the Smyrna Kroger shopping center, and they said he was well enough, but when we got home he didn't have enough strength to get up the four steps to the foyer where the lift chair is.

Oh, Dr. Austin waltzed in before I showed up on Friday. His first words to James were, "I hear you almost died the other night." What the heck??? Yes, his potassium was so high that, if I hadn't taken him to the emergency room on Monday, his heart probably would have stopped by Wednesday!

So, for the second time this week, we called the fire department. God bless them!

With a bunch of sleep James was feeling better next day; he even cooked breakfast. I did chores on Saturday and we were both sick on Sunday (food poisoning?).

Monday I hope he will be strong enough to get down and up those four steps, because he has to go to dialysis.

In other news, I finally found an avian vet for Oliver (who is indeed an Oliver and not an Olivia). I took him to Riverview Animal Hospital where we used to take Leia so long ago. It turns out Oliver has an infection in his air sacs (sort of like bird pneumonia). I think he may have gotten it when he boarded in March. I have to give him medicine twice a day, and he has to stay in a hospital cage (surrounded with a blanket except in front) and I'm to eat with him to make him eat more. I had him in the spare bedroom while James was in the hospital. He hates taking the meds and the fact that I had his wings clipped so he wouldn't get away from me, and I feel like such a heel.

Labels: budgies, food, health, pets, politics, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:57:00 PM

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James' back continued to hurt as the week crept on. We got an interesting little call from Kaiser saying that James' UTI was complicated by several different bacteria and perhaps it would be prudent to change his medication. We were seeing Dr. Jacobs on Tuesday and we said we would discuss that with him.

Dr. Jacobs was an older man who put us at ease. He said he was the one who had hired our doctor, Mobley. We discussed the antibiotic and he wanted to be cautious and let James finish the cephalexin and then be retested to see if he needed further antibiotics rather than "changing horses midstream." We agreed. He also said a short course of high dose steroids might relax his back, so he put him on 60mg for three days, 40 for three days, and then 20 for five days.

We also got the lift back, my savings account considerably poorer.

Steroids usually make James lose weight. Well, it didn't this time. Taking one torsemide is certainly making him gain. I finally got frightened enough on Friday to give him a second one.

We tried to go out on Friday: ate at the South Cobb diner, which is the sister restaurant of the West Cobb Diner with better parking. Alas, they don't have the cucumber salad anymore, and they have changed the turkey dinner stuffing; it's more cornbready and tastes, frankly, like Stove Top. On the way home we stopped at Ollie's Discount Store.

James continued to deteriorate over the weekend. His back still hurt badly, and now he was complaining of feeling weak, and he is acting distracted. When he took a shower on Saturday night, there were dozens of little bumps on his abdomen that look like he is accumulating fluid there, and his skin is irritated.

We were supposed to be at Libertycon this weekend, but we cancelled the hotel reservation on Wednesday right before the cutoff time, and James talked the Libertycon people into rolling over our membership till next year.

Labels: conventions, food, health, shopping, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:28:00 PM

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This has been a week of shocks.

It started out harmlessly enough: James had an appointment for a Procrit shot. We talked to Dr. Kongara and Bruce, and wondered if James needed a urinalysis. Based on what we told him, he didn't think so. He did say James' BUN number was very high, so to cut back the torsemide (diuretic) to one a day.

Alas, next day James was peeing very red, so we ate a good breakfast, packed a lunch, and went to Urgent Care. Providentially, it wasn't crowded, and we were in almost immediately. He did indeed have a UTI, and they gave him an IV bag of antibiotics and then a 10-day prescription for cephalexin and asked him to come back next week for a followup. They also took a CT scan of his back, which is still killing him—to get out of bed at night to use the bathroom he has to put the head of the bed up to help him—and they did indeed confirm that nothing was broken or torn. No painkillers offered this time; they just told him Tylenol and heat/ice.

On the way home, something frightening happened. You remember that I mentioned a few weeks ago that I had expressed concern about the chair lift on the back of the truck, that it wasn't holding the chair on properly? And then we took it to Mobility Works and paid $165 for a "tune up" in which it was checked out and lubricated and they recalibrated it with the chair and they said it was fine?

When we left Kaiser we put the chair up on the lift and I gave a puzzled little look once it was up because there was still a gap a finger's width wide between the end of the bar and the chair. But we were tired after everything at Urgent Care and just drove home, through the park, downtown Marietta, and about 45 mph at least down South Cobb Drive. James turned down side streets, and we were waiting for the light at Windy Hill when I noticed the little blue flag at the back of the chair was looking awfully low. I figured it was just the angle we were at.

The light changed and when James put the truck into drive we heard a funny little jolting sound. We crossed Windy Hill, finished going down Olive Springs, made the sharp right turn onto Smyrna Powder Springs, stopped at the stop sign, then did the left turn into Trellis Oaks.

As we turned left into the driveway, something scraped the concrete.

James came to a stop, I jumped out of the truck, and nearly had hysterics. The base of the lift was almost at a 45-degree angle and his $8,000 power chair was being held on it by the barely two-inch tall outer rim of the base of the lift and the inner edge of the crossbar that usually extends across the seat!!!!! The two welds that fasten the inner edge of either side of the base to the vertical part of the lift were both cracked completely in half--looked like metal fatigue. At least one of the cracks had rust inside it--which means I was right all along about it not clamping properly when I first noticed it at Costco.

I think I need to go light a candle somewhere to thank God the freaking chair didn't fall off, get damaged, and worst of all, maybe cause an accident with the car behind us. Can you imagine if it had come bouncing off in the middle of South Cobb Drive? Or downtown?????

I left a hysterical message on Mobility Works' message machine and the next day I followed James and the truck to get it examined and drove home.

Mobility Works had that bottom platform in stock and will replace it for a nice fat $1400. Just wondering why it cracked in the first place. It was sold to us as supporting this wheelchair.

So we were in need of a distraction and never got it, as the internet crashed Saturday afternoon and never came back until Sunday night. We watched DVDs for the duration. We will never put our eggs all into that streaming basket; it's too easy to take down.

Labels: accidents, events, health, internet, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:57:00 PM

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James fell again this week.

When he fell because of the plastic boot a few weeks ago, it was an easy slip to the floor, even if we did have to call the fire department to right him, but he bumped the divider next to the toilet and was covered in bruises on his back.

This time he fell flat backward in the living room and only had one bruise on his shoulder, not even as bad as any of the others, and he actually scrunched to the stairway and we got to Hangar to order his new orthopedic shoes. But after that...he has been in terrible pain since then.

If he goes to Urgent Care and nothing is broken—and he can move, so he feels nothing is—they will just take an X-ray and then maybe offer him pain meds. So he doesn't want to go. Instead he is on Tylenol and the heating pad.

The only fun thing we did was go to lunch with Alice and Ken, and James was then even too tired to go anywhere else afterwards.

We also heard that a friend was in the hospital with severe heart problems. He did get out, but it looks like he'll need surgery in the future.

Getting old is not for sissies.

Labels: friends, health, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:43:00 PM

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Was feeling so bad on Sunday that I forgot to put on the National Memorial Day Concert. I figured I could watch it Monday on PBS. Surprise! Not there. However, it was on YouTube. Streaming television is so weird.

We were both out of sorts on Memorial Day. I made ribs, but I wasn't really satisfied with them.

I am trying a new experiment on laundry day. Usually by the time we get up these days, I don't start the laundry until after noon. This week I loaded the first load before bed, put in the detergent, and put the washer on delay. Tuesday morning when I came out for breakfast, the first load was already finished and I could toss it in the dryer and start the second load. I may keep doing this!

My main worry at the beginning of the week was that James might be spoiling for a UTI; however, when we saw Dr. Kongara on Thursday he seemed to think there was no problem. This appointment was supposed to be a video appointment, but Bruce, who's Dr. Kongara's PA, had to give him a Procrit shot anyway, so he changed the video appointment to a real one and we talked to the doctor while Bruce got the shot ready. Bruce is in his fifties, but he is always moving. He makes me tired just listening to him talk, and he practically bounces off walls.

This week to do something different in entertainment, we decided to explore the origins of a character. We have been watching Elsbeth on CBS; Elsbeth Tascioni is an attorney, seemingly scatterbrained who is actually brilliant, who has been sent to New York City as an independent observer in a precinct where corruption has been suspected, specifically with the captain of the precinct. She accompanies a young uniformed officer named Kaya Blanke on cases and of course gets mixed up in the mystery. She also comes to like the captain she's investigating.

However, Elsbeth is not an original character: she was originally an occasional character on the series The Good Wife, and appeared on a few episodes of the sequel series The Good Fight. So I found out what episodes she was on, and we went on Paramount+ to check out those episodes. To my amusement, Paramount+ already has the Elsbeth episodes of both series linked for immediate viewing.

We enjoyed them, although with both series' serial-type format, we missed big chunks of plot points. If I were to watch the series, I would probably watch The Good Wife, which had a politician's wife taking up her legal career again while her husband was investigated for wrongdoing. I didn't like The Good Fight as much, even though Christine Baranski was excellent as usual. Both series, because of the characters and the clients, relied a lot on political plots, and I hate political maneuvering more than I hate child molesters, and Good Fight got a lot more into politics and infighting. However, we did enjoy the Elsbeth episodes a lot! The one with the potentially banned athlete and Elsbeth in jail was quite funny.

I want to say one thing, though: if this is truly how supersized law firms work, I wouldn't hire one. They seemed to be more obsessed with stabbing each other in the back and competing against each other than in their law practice. I would be concerned they weren't giving my case enough attention! LOL!

Saturday James went to his club meeting and I spent the afternoon fixing the beater bar on the vacuum cleaner. What fun. But on Sunday I got a good book (American Ramble) at Barnes & Noble. So sometimes things balance out.

Labels: books, chores, health, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:06:00 PM

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I finally picked up my new glasses on Tuesday! They were actually ready on the 14th, but no one called. As I said, this is a totally new prescription; usually my eyes change very little in two years, but in one year I've changed from a 4.25 to a 3.50, so I was worried that I wouldn't be able to see. But I can, quite well, which explains why I was having trouble seeing with the old ones; they were now overcompensating.

Tried the computer glasses out when I got home, and they were also a treat. Maybe I can now work on my web pages again.

Thursday was also a good day for James: stitches are out of his toe and he doesn't have to wear that plastic bag on his right leg any longer! This is great because he slipped on the damn thing a couple of days ago and now has a rainbow of bruises on his back because he did kind of a controlled slide to the bathroom floor. Unfortunately we had to call the firemen to get him back up.

We were able to go to Books-a-Million on Sunday (last time I got a bunch of them there, this time none), ate at Uncle Maddio's, and went to BJs for maple syrup and fruit cups.

The week also had its annoyances. I have been fruitlessly looking for a vet for Oliver, because he just doesn't act right. He's used to being here now and he should be more lively, but he isn't. Also, his droppings are very loose and wet, and it looks as if there's a lump behind his legs. I called every "avian vet" I could find on Google. One Google said was in the "Atlanta area" was over an hour's drive. Our own vet said to take him to Athens to the University vet clinic! The place I liked close by, near Douglasville, isn't taking new customers, and they sounded so nice. Riverview, down the road from us, has an avian vet again, but she was gone until the 31st.

I finally called the breeder back and they said they usually take their birds to For Pet's Sake, all the way in Decatur, but, if I wanted, I could take Oliver to see them, to see what they thought. So on Friday we drove out to Norcross to Fancy Feathers. One of the owners, Irene, looked at Oliver...and believes he might be an Olivia, and the lump is an unlaid egg. She gave us some coconut oil to give him, and told me to make sure to keep his bottom clean.

Giving him the coconut has almost restored the droppings. and the wet spots aren't as bad, but now he...or she...is getting fussy about his seed. Sigh.

I need to call Riverside eventually...

Labels: birds, books, food, health, injuries, shopping, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:21:00 PM

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Well, at least the chair lift on the truck is working properly. We had it checked out at Mobility Works on Tuesday—I followed James over there in Butch just in case they needed to keep it—and they gave it a thorough vetting and also some lubrication (you should hear it squeal in the wintertime when it's wet). We stopped by Sam's Club on the way home and gassed up both cars and got some great-looking sirloin steaks.

We had kind of a quirk over at Kaiser on Wednesday; they took James' usual biweekly blood test and came up with the wrong results! Nevertheless, they allowed him to get his Procrit shot on Thursday, and we had an appointment with the podiatrist as well. James' toe looks great, even to me, and I'm hoping the stitches will come out next week because he's going lame in those surgical sandals.

Also annoyed to discover that the Smyrna Publix has ceased to carry my favorite flavor of yogurt.

My largest accomplishment this week was cleaning out in the spare bedroom and finally posting the final chapter in my latest fanfic. The story eventually ran to 43,000 words! I thought when I started it that it would top out at about half that amount, but things just happened...LOL.

Labels: chores, food, health, shopping, writing

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:35:00 PM

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Sometimes nothing happens, and sometimes it's like the seven plagues of Egypt.

James had a good post-op checkup, at least, but it could be until the 29th until he has the stitches out, depending how quickly it heals. The toe looks very nice considering it was operated on only five days ago, no swelling or general ickiness.

Next morning James dropped his medical alert bracelet down his sink in the bathroom. After two fruitless hours of trying to lift it out with my collection of super-strong magnets (if I'd had one inch diameter ones it might have worked), I had to get to my eye appointment. So James called up Superior Plumbing, and they charged us $200 to get the bracelet out of the trap. ::sigh:: The plumber was nice enough, because James wasn't able to bend over, to take all the stuff from under the sink, and then put it back. James gave him a very good rating.

While the plumber was here, I had my eye exam. Man, they whizzed through it, and, surprisingly, my nearsightedness has improved, according to them, and my prescription has changed. I suppose this is why I haven't been seeing quite as well as I used to, so perhaps it's providential that the glasses broke. I was going to go directly to Costco, to order the glasses, but the dilation of my eyes really hurt and my eyes were watering copiously even with sunglasses out in the sun, so I went home to lie down.

Thursday I was perturbed already because Oliver has been pooping very loose out of nowhere, and it makes a wet, sticky mess at the bottom of his cage. Maybe he's getting a draft? I will have to half cover him at night when the A/C kicks in. Then we went to Costco to order my new glasses. I found a frame I had already picked out last week, plus ordered new computer glasses as well, finding a very lightweight frame like my sunglasses have. I thought about ordering sunglasses, too, but even using my own frame they would be almost $200! (I didn't think until afterward to ask how much single vision rather than progressive sunglasses would cost. I just use sunglasses for driving and really don't need progressives to drive.

Well, when we went outside I was perturbed because the chair lift on the truck didn't seem to be working well. I could stick my fingers under the far end of the bar and I don't remember being able to do that before. Scared me so much that I drove home (James still can't drive) with flashers on and very slowly.

Friday Butch got towed to the mechanic and thank goodness, it was only the battery; the AAA guy seemed to think something was wrong with the electrical system. I didn't realize Butch still had the same battery from when I bought him (2018); the battery was actually from 2017! So seven years was a good term for a battery. Wow, batteries are expensive now!

James did drive me over to pick up the car; he said he's not having any trouble driving with the surgical sandals he has to wear until his toe heals, but they are really a bear to walk in because of no arch supports. His left arch has been paining him fiercely since the surgery.

Labels: birds, cars, expenses, eyeglasses, health, home repair, repairs, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:59:00 PM

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It began with a win: we had to get Disney+/Hulu with the ESPN package because there was no Disney+/Hulu duo at the time. Neither of us likes sports, not the type that ESPN covers, anyway. Now they have the "Disney Duo," so I contacted Disney+ and asked how to change. A very nice person named Ariadna helped me cancel the Trio and then I signed up for the Duo. It was quick and easy.

Wednesday it took James an hour to get a blood test because the suits at Kaiser Town Park decided to have a staff meeting and leave only one person in the lab. Not cool.

And on Thursday James had the tip of his right pinky toe removed. This is the toe that turned up in January with a sore on it. However, the sore had not healed, despite all sorts of different treatments that never worked. He had an X-ray, then an MRI, then he had another X-ray just lately. The last X-ray showed that, although the bone was not yet infected, it was showing signs of becoming infected. So Dr. Conway took the tip of his toe off. It was outpatient and only took a total of ninety minutes. James was even able to go to get his Procrit shot later in the day.

In the meantime, back in March I lost one of the nosepad stalks on my only-year-old eyeglasses. This was my own fault; I should know better to buy glasses with long thin nosepad stalks; the last pair of glasses I had with long stalks one of them broke, too. Well, I had this weird workaround with a Kleenex and superglue to keep the other one from breaking, and I was tired of it. So Friday I jumped in the car to go to Costco to get a new pair of glasses.

The car wouldn't start and the dashboard lights flashed on and off. So I went in the truck, only to find my prescription only lasted a year and I couldn't get a new pair without a prescription. Luckily I called up and I got in next Wednesday.

The stupid car will need to wait so long as we have the truck for transportation; there are other things that need taking care of first.

Labels: cars, health, sickness, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:31:00 PM

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It was a red-letter week: I finally delivered an overdue Hanukkah gift. It's been a comedy of errors for the last four months trying to get Mel and Phyllis their gift. Either they were where we were and the gift wasn't, or it was the other way around. ::sigh:: It's not even valid as a Passover gift now.

The bad news is that James' toe is still not well; we had it checked out at podiatry this week. The doctor said if we were still patient about this we could "stay the course." So we are, but she sent him down for an x-ray to make sure.

The good news of the week was Saturday in (1) going to Hair Day (where the Hanukkah gift finally was reunited with its owners) and talking to everyone, except for Charles, who is in Greece! and (2) going to the Jonquil Festival. We got there just in time for the Ready Go Dog Show. All the dogs are rescues, some from shelters, some from specific breed rescue. Five dogs performed: an Australian shepherd, a Pomeranian, and a chihuahua named Tito all chased frisbees. Then Phobia, a smooth Border Collie, jumped from a box over a hurdle six feet high. The final performer was a Belgian Malinois named "Beano," also a frisbee freak. The handler said the hardest thing to teach Beano was "stay"!

James got himself two sugar-free desserts (I tasted the lemon cake; it reminded me of the lemon squares from Solitro's Bakery!) and also picked up some jambalaya and red-beans-and-rice for lunches. They had a bumper crop of vendors, but didn't see much that we wanted. The honey guy was there, but he had no small bottles of blackberry honey.

On the way out we stopped at the library because they didn't have an outside book sale this year. Their "perpetual book sale" has shrunk from three large bookcases to two smaller ones. I still found three books: Reviving Ophelia, which I've wanted to read; Sisters in Crime, a collection of short mystery stories about women; and Strongheart, an award-winning children's book about the famous dog star. (We did go to Barnes & Noble, and I didn't buy anything. The library books only cost $2.75.)

In other news, dropped more stuff off at Goodwill, posted the first part of a seven-part fanfic and redesigned the graphic for the series, tried out a new grammar-checker called Quillbot, and listened to more Colonial Williamsburg podcasts.

Labels: books, dogs, events, festivals, friends, gifts, health, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:12:00 PM

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Yay! The grass is cut for the next two weeks and the pine pollen seems to be gone, so it's time for me—something I didn't do last year—to get the hose and rinse down the front porch, which is no longer brick colored, but yellowish. Alas, every single gasket on the hose and nozzle is shot, which means I got as wet as the porch in front (my capris were still damp around the waistband two days later).

We started out the week with one doctor's appointment and ended up with three: Wednesday it was James' physiotherapy followed by the rheumatologist. Dr. Salazar upped James' steroids to 7 1/2 milligrams since he's still in a lot of pain. Later we had supper from Tin Drum, which, to my sorrow, was less than sterling for me.

For years now Tin Drum's teriyaki bowl (under different names) has been my go-to treat. I would go there once a month, especially after I retired, and treat myself to lunch and racked up so many points I had lots of free meals. Over those years they made tiny tweaks to the dish (like adding a lime), but it was always okay.

This time it was disappointing. Instead of just adding a meat now, you have several choices. I got the thin-sliced beef. It was greasy, and at the same time there wasn't enough sauce to cover the rice, and they seemed to have put a little bit of pepper in the sauce (either that or it was grilled after something spicy without the grill having been wiped). It was blah instead of rah. Sigh.

Thursday was James' Procrit shot. Bruce, the nurse who practically bounces off walls, was telling us they are remodeling the Cumberland office, and they want to send nephrology, rheumatology, and a few other things, to Glenlake (and move cardiology and optometry to Cumberland), which means we would have to drive to Glenlake every two weeks for Procrit shots! Bruce is going to see if he can get permission for James to give himself the shots; we would just need to stop by Cumberland to pick up the dosage every two weeks (since the dosage is variable depending on his blood test that week). You give the shot the same way you give yourself an insulin shot, so it's something James can do.

Finally Friday James had a urology checkup. We talked with the PA instead of Dr. Jefferson, which was nice.

Saturday I exposed myself to temptation. James wanted to look for an SSD for his laptop. I have been suffering with envy watching people creating art on iPads because their stylus and art programs are so good. MicroCenter had some discount iPads, and I was very tempted. I'm also looking at new phones because I know the batteries give out after a couple of years.

But...we'll see.

Labels: chores, computers, food, health, yard

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 8:00:00 PM

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After we saw the total eclipse in 2017, both our minds turned toward this year's event. Since Evansville, Indiana, would be in the path of totality, and was just a short drive over the Ohio River from Owensboro, Kentucky, where we stayed in 2008 to see the Remember WENN play (and met Jen Payne!), we had toyed with the idea of staying in Owensboro—and hopefully being able to eat at that terrific barbecue buffet again if it was still in business!—then driving over the border early in the morning to see totality.

Unfortunately, the last seven years have been...well, a fat bitch. A TURP, four hospital stays in 2022, UTIs and falls...James was in poor shape physically and mentally I wasn't a barrel of laughs. So we made no plans. And watching ABC's "Eclipse Across America" segment later in the week was depressing as well as thrilling. But, can't be helped. Instead on Monday we watched what Atlanta had of a partial eclipse (about 85 percent) from our driveway. It never got dark, or dusky, but the light, to me, had this silvery cast, and the temperature did noticeably drop and the wind picked up.

My favorite part of the eclipse was past peak: about ten minutes after what we got of totality, the mail lady came by. She said "Can I see? Can I see?" and I said yes and she stopped the mail truck in the middle of the street, jumped out, and I let her use my glasses!

Kept busy this week: Tuesday I shelved books in the library, returned all the fannish things I dragged out of the closet looking for the eclipse glasses to the closet and concatenated all our vacation souvenirs in one drawer in the spare room (where I found the eclipse glasses).

Wednesday James had a stellar workout at PT, and then we went to Barnes & Noble, which I suppose was a bad idea because I bought two books (but...they were history books and one was half off...) and the SVU magazine.

A victory on Thursdays: no more followup trips to the dermatologist! James' nose is now well enough to take the daily Band-Aid off. We also had an appointment with the sleep doctor—he's gonna see if he can get James a new C-PAP unit, but James will probably still need the sleep study first—which I had to leave early because I had my checkup scheduled for late this afternoon. As usual Dr. Mobley was over an hour late; thank goodness I had someone to chat with (thanks, Vanessa!) since James was stuck out in the waiting room.

Friday we went out to the Costco David (therapist) recommended to us, out where Macland Road intersects with Charles Hardy Parkway (which turns out to be the other end of Dallas Highway; it changes name when you hit the Paulding County line). In fact, we went through Dallas Highway and stopped at their Walmart first—nicely kept, but their sugar-free candy assortment isn't much; we did find more mushroom-flavored rice sides (but, horrors, they're on clearance! mushroom rice goes with everything). The Costco was not quite so empty as David described, but we walked around and picked up a couple of things.

Even though I do not "redd up" the house in summer, I did get some lawn decorations this week. There's nothing like neighbors having cookie-cutter bland front yards to inspire you to put up more decorations. I got a butterfly, bird, and blue flower, a rainbow pinwheel, and a tiny bunny to go between two mushrooms (do those garden decorators actually know what those fly agaric mushrooms are? LOL). I put them up on Sunday and trimmed the nandina, which was starting to look like it stuck a root in an electrical socket.

Labels: books, chores, decorations, events, food, health, magazines, nature, science, shopping

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 6:58:00 PM

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The week did not open auspiciously, but instead with pain (James') and tears (mine).

I took Tucker out Monday morning and did our "regular" walk (across the street, down to the stop sign, reverse direction to the day care, and back across the street again). When I got home I called up to James, but he didn't answer. So I figured he was in the bathroom, which I hadn't begun to clean yet, and let the dog upstairs. Then I headed for the hall bathroom to "walk" me.

I looked down in the doorway to see James' shoes. They were attached to James, stretched out on the floor, his right arm bleeding in several places including on the hand, and some cuts on his right leg. He had somehow caught his right foot—we think, he says he doesn't know how he fell—on the doorframe and fallen face down. He did not hit his head, nor hurt his face; he was conscious, annoyed at himself, and uncomfortable.

So first I mopped up the blood and then came the problem of getting him off the floor. He can't roll over onto his knees. So I got him into a sitting position, and he basically crab walked—or actually pulled himself forward on a kitchen chair while I moved it forward incrementally and then held down—to the stairway, where he could stand up. Next I patched up all the bleeding parts and checked him for bruises.

We ended up not going to Urgent Care. He said he was bruised and did hurt, but that he didn't think he'd broken anything, like a friend did last week and who had to go to the emergency room. Instead James took Tylenol and I gave him an extra steroid. Needless to say he was very sore for most of the week, and David had to ease up on him when he finally got to go to PT this week (we hadn't gone the past two weeks due to the allergies making us feel horrible).

Lawn care, alas, is back in season. Alex is going to come on Tuesday this year, he says, so I had to stagger awake on Tuesday and go through a flurry of writing checks.

James was up to Walmart on Wednesday (sugar free candy and other stuff we can only get at WallyWorld) and then grocery shopping on Thursday. On Friday we took it as easy as possible, but did go to Canton for our monthly trip. Came out of Books-a-Million with many books, then we had pizza at Uncle Maddio's, and finally we stopped at BJs for fruit cups, maple syrup, and a few other items.

Saturday afternoon we had great fun at Ken Spivey's birthday party, which was held at Volcano Steak and Sushi, a new place out in Hiram (they also have a Korean BBQ and Hot Pot). This is one of those hibachi places where the guy cooks in front of you, and it was great fun to see little Kassidy (who's elementary-school aged) watch the chef do his tricks for the first time and be startled when he sets the fire on the grill!

James' club meeting was on a Sunday this month because it was the only day available, so he went off while I did some chores and washed some towels and did some writing and listened to the Colonial Williamsburg podcasts.

Labels: accidents, birthdays, errands, excursions, friends, health, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:15:00 PM

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Sort of an interesting Holy Week in making some old progress. Back in 2022, I stopped listening to the Colonial Williamsburg podcasts (I was busy writing, and I can't write and pay attention at the same time). I had caught up on all the Gretchen Rubin podcasts, and need to catch up on "A Way With Words," but wanted to get to the Williamsburg ones, too. This week I started listening to them again and hope to keep up with Rubin and catch up with both the others.

Most of the opening of the week was chores. James did have an MRI on his toe on Wednesday. His right baby toe, the one that showed up with a sore in January, is still not healed. It doesn't look infected, but skin isn't growing on top of it and healing it up, so the doctor wants to make sure the bone isn't infected. (Got the report later in the week; it's not.)

Thursday James' Procrit shot was scheduled early, although we tried to change it. So we went by Lidl on the way home, and I got both chicken drumsticks on sale and some boneless pork ribs, so I made cacciatore for supper and also made gravy for later. And we had a nap, too!

It was a quiet Good Friday: we had to run out to pick up meds, but I did listen to the BBC Lent Talks.

On Saturday while our low-sodium ham was marinating in pineapple, we went to Barnes & Noble and to Hobby Lobby. In the evening I watched the spooky movie Stir of Echoes. Kathryn Erbe is in it, just before she did Criminal Intent. It was pretty creepy, but turned out to be a little of a murder mystery, too.

And Easter was quiet. Unfortunately I had to wash towels since we were out of facecloths. I watched my two Easter favorites, Here Comes Peter Cottontail and The Easter Promise, and we had ham and potatoes for dinner, and then...dark chocolate Lindt bunnies! Yay!

Labels: Easter, food, Good Friday, health, holidays, movies, podcasts, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:59:00 PM

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Woohoo! Got up on Tuesday and our water pressure was back to normal. It has been a horrible two weeks dealing with dribbling faucets; hell, if somebody's house caught fire last week, I doubt if there would have been enough water pressure to put it out!

James had his nose checked again; Dr. Warner says it is healing okay. I wish the dang scab would just fall off.

Saturday we had Hair Day. Washed towels because we needed facecloths. Had a nap.

I am reading Braiding Sweetgrass, which is lovely and lyrical.

Labels: books, chores, friends, health, news

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:51:00 PM

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We had a fairly good Atomicon, despite being utterly exhausted from allergies and coughing. We arrived in Helen Thursday afternoon just about four, when several of our friends were checking in, offloaded our junk, and then lay down until I started texting to find out where we were going to dinner. Spice55, the Thai place, was the choice, and we had the usual yummy dinner. I wait for this every year, as they make the best pad thai.

Something sweet happened after dinner: Jessie and some of the others were enchanted by the black-and-white stray cats hanging outside the shopping center where the restaurant was. A lady was also interested in the cats and she and James started talking; she was ex-Navy and also had been a Marine. Now, we had had an appetizer, so I still a lunch-sized portion of leftovers, and it was supposed to rain on Friday. I suggested we stop at the Dollar General, which has frozen foods, to see if we could find him something for lunch there. We did find some taquitos. The same lady also was in the store, and she was quite disturbed by how cluttered the aisles were and that James could not get around in his power chair. She told us she was going to report the store for ADA violations. And on the way out she paid for his taquitos!

Thursday night I was feeling well enough to play some games, and we played Uno No Mercy, which is fiendish. I got kicked out of the first game almost immediately, and ended up winning the last one.

It did indeed rain almost all day Friday. It was probably good because James and I were both stuffy and miserable, and we stayed in with anyone else who didn't want to go out in the rain, talking, farkling around on the computer. I found Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent available and watched that, and last night's Law & Order as well.

For supper the weather cleared well enough to go to the Nachoochee Tavern and have some pretty good pizza. I had to share with James, so I had to eat cheese [bleah], but it was still okay.

One of the things James and I have begun doing since Atomicon has been held at the Country Inn and Suites is to have a daily walk downtown after breakfast. It's about a half a mile, and then we stroll around the little downtown area, maybe walk down to Hofer's Bakery, and then return to the crossroads of downtown and head toward the parking lots, strolling a road in the back down to the hotel. Total it's about a mile and a half, maybe more.

I was feeling so short of air from the congestion that on Saturday morning we took the truck instead; we haven't done that in years and I felt like I was regressing. But I did manage to totter around downtown. We visited the glassblower's shop, bought our annual candy from Hansel & Gretel, and visited the history museum that we missed last year due to food poisoning. This is in a building that used to be the City Hall. Helen was a tiny little logging town at one time, outside of what became Unicoi Park, and when the logging left, so did a lot of the population. Helen became basically a gas and food stop, so they turned the town into a "Little Bavaria" to attract tourists. We've been going to Helen with our friends for...well, Jessie and Aubrey both turned thirty last year, so...longer than that!

We also bought more white peach balsamic vinegar (love this stuff) and some blackberry ginger as well from the Alpine Olive Tree. I got James a neat gift: someone gave us a little turntable/light gadget: you plug it in and put a statue or something on it and it lights it up and revolves. They had laser-etched lucite items, and I got James a U.S. Navy one, with an aircraft carrier and destroyer and planes flying overhead. (I was going to get him a smaller one, but he said the planes weren't correct!) It looks really pretty on the turntable.

We then drove down to the Mount Yonah Bookstore—the owner always puts out a "Welcome, Atomicon!" poster and gives us a discount—and I found a brand-new copy of the annotated version of The Phantom Tollbooth, one of my favorite books in the whole world (seriously, what my life would have been without the Stadium School and Hugh B. Bain libraries I will never know). I also found a book about a woman FBI agent, a book by Robert Ressler (one of the first FBI profilers), and the book that inspired the series Homicide: Life on the Streets, which introduced Richard Beltzer's John Munch character.

And it was back to Spice55 for supper with Alice and Juanita. I had pad cashew this time, which was exquisite.

Sunday I was feeling strong enough to do the walk downtown, if a bit slowly, and we made it to the Christmas store before I started to be nagged by lower GI problems. It was a good walk, anyway. We spent the afternoon reminiscing about old television series, and had supper at Rib Country in Cleveland, GA. The ribs are so good and half the price of any ribs in the Atlanta metro area.

Alas, neither of us slept well, so we staggered up, ate the hotel breakfast, and packed up and left. Stopped at the outlet mall because I so much needed new socks. We also stopped at a knife shop where James went in; I sat and read. And finally, by the vet—$1300 for exams and boarding! Oliver apparently seems to be okay to them; it looks like they don't have an avian vet again. ::sigh:: Yes, they noticed he's shy.

Labels: Atomicon, books, events, food, friends, games, gifts, history, kindness, shopping, travel, walking

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:47:00 PM

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It's been a week, even though Atomicon was at the end of it.

Sunday night I took the dog out as usual, and the pollen attacked. I've had reactions to pollen in the previous years, especially when the pollen counts were 6000-8000 plus. After ten minutes, I couldn't stop coughing. I coughed for two nights and two days, and even when that abated and I could get some sleep, even though I wasn't very stuffy, the post-nasal drip was horrendous and the mucus smelled terrible. Worse, after going out on Wednesday, James started the same routine. So we were exhausted doing our chores in the early week and exhausted packing for our weekend in Helen.

The one tiny interesting spot for three days, in fact, were the air-for-your-tires units at Costco! They are great, much better than the air at QuikTrip. You know it's a bad week when getting air for your tires is the best thing that happened.

Thursday morning I woke up at six a.m. feeling so horrible I had to take one of the at-home Covid tests, because damned if I was going to give 20 people and the hotel staff in Helen a virus. Happily, it came out negative. Unhappily I didn't get much more sleep because we had to run to Kaiser at ten to get James' Procrit shot.

So this means it was exhausting loading the truck—and we have to take so much f*cking stuff with us now because of the cathing and being prepared in case an ulcer pops up on James leg and taking our pillows because the hotel pillows absolutely suck.

I can report that Oliver rode well in the car, despite the fact that (1) he was right next to Tucker, who, ordinarily he's afraid of; every time Tucker is playing at night, he gets upset and calls out in alarm, and (2) I didn't cover him; he didn't seem scared of the landscape flying by. They let me set him up in his cage in one of the exam rooms, and Elliot just took him back like that. (Tucker, unlike Willow, lets Elliot put a leash on him and just accompanies him in the back with a jaunty trot.)

And then, we were off to Helen...

Labels: chores, friends, pets, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 1:00:00 PM

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