James had dialysis two days in a row this week. Since Christmas fell on a Wednesday this year, and they obviously didn't want to take the dialysis patients away from their own celebrations, they scheduled James for Monday and Tuesday dialysis. Monday went fine. I bought last minute foods at Kroger and made gravy with boneless pork ribs for Christmas Eve dinner. James watched Landman and Battlebots on his tablet.

Tuesday seemed to go as well. James had dialysis. I did some last-minute grocery shopping. We had spaghetti and pork ribs and watched The Homecoming and some of Midnight Mass.

We had plans with friends for Christmas which went down the drain on Wednesday morning. After making and eating breakfast and post gift opening, James suddenly got lightheaded and giddy. It happened twice. His blood pressure was something like 83 over 45. I looked it up and this often happens after consecutive dialysis sessions. So we rustled the emergency turkey out of the freezer, paired it with Yukon Gold potatoes, and a cucumber salad, and had a Christmas dinner on our own after giving James some salt and more liquid, and we both had a nap. Then we watched this year's Call the Midwife special, which was fabulous; there were several intertwined plotlines, including a tense but sweet incident involving Reggie, the young man with Down Syndrome.

Before bed, it was time for The House Without a Christmas Tree. A quiet ending to a quiet day.

Thursday we had a better day: James was feeling much better and we drove out to Books-a-Million and then had lunch at Brooklyn Joe's. We got a large pizza and once again brought half home. [Later: We had it as another meal several days later.] On the way home we stopped at Barnes & Noble.

Early Friday morning we got a call from DaVita. They were shortstaffed and couldn't accommodate James at Bellemeade that day. They had found a seat for James either that afternoon in Hiram at three or Saturday in Douglasville at 10:15. We chose Hiram even though it was a chilly, wet day because Douglasville was just too far to drive. However, getting there at three meant James wouldn't be out any earlier than 6:30. It's only fourteen miles, but it would be in the dark. I wasn't driving back that distance in the dark. Driving the two miles to the one near the house had been bad enough. So I basically packed up the laptop and planned to spend most of my time in the lobby waiting for James.

We got there and they were slammed. Two ambulances delivered patients that they weren't ready for yet. One of the ambulances would have to wait until 3:45 and they were expected in Douglasville at 4 p.m. and the driver was fit to be tied. Anyway, after 45 minutes they finally called James back.

I took the truck back down a mile and gassed up at Sam's Club. I have never seen that Sam's gas station when it wasn't five to eight cars deep at each pump! Today, only ones and twos--maybe the damp, chilly weather? Next I went to the next shopping center over, got some candy and a cool gift at Five Below, then went to Michael's.

If you're not looking for anything on clearance after Christmas, Michael's has to be the most depressing place on earth. I did get James a storage box. Went next door to PetsMart to get cheered up only to find all their budgies gone and one poor little lone conure left; I feel bad that I didn't stay longer and keep him company.

Finally I bit the bullet and went to Walmart because I was out of yogurt soon, then went back to DaVita. The Hiram location is in an area with all doctors' and dentists' offices (except for a gym) and parking was wide open.

The waiting area at the Hiram DaVita had a lot comfier chairs, at least (Bellemeade has nasty bucket chairs). They had a sofa, but there was no electrical plug at either end, and my laptop is old enough that the battery only lasts about an hour. There was a plug at a chair next to the Christmas tree, so I sat there. (No one turned on the Christmas tree, either, so I did that, too!)

James got home way after seven, at which time it was raining lightly. We stopped by Dragon 168 and had Chinese for dinner.

On Saturday we didn't do a blessed thing except I made a meat sauce so we could have spaghetti for dinner and Tucker got his two daily walks. Watched season one of Law & Order on Hulu (this began on December 16 and I've been looking forward to it, because as many times as I've seen the show on USA, WEtv, Pop, BBC America, and Sundance, I've never seen them in order and, indeed, have actually never seen some episodes at all, as first season proved), and then the final three episodes of Bull. I liked this series pretty well; it was enjoyable watching most of the characters grow and change, especially Chunk and Dani and Taylor. Jason Bull himself wasn't the most likeable character, but Michael Weatherly made him fun to watch. My absolute favorite character in the series was Geneva Carr's Marissa Morgan. It was nice to see her get her due in the final episode of the series.

On Sunday we found out that Jimmy Carter had passed away. Of all the presidents, I think he has had the most notable post-presidential career, and was just all around Good Folks. God bless, President Carter. You're back with Rosalynn at last.

Labels: Christmas, errands, events, food, health, outings, sickness, television, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:52:00 PM

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...that we may have to break it into parts.

Might as well get the nastiness out of the way first. Hurricane Helene was in the news a lot starting September 24. Supposedly this monster was due to gather a lot of strength and not lose it after it crossed the Florida/Georgia line. I immediately began gathering every small power supply we had in the house just in case we lost power for more than an hour, as our internet and main computers are already on APC power supplies, as is the television and Roku, but they would be needed for emergencies. On Wednesday it poured and we took the rollator to dialysis because the power chair isn't supposed to get wet. On Thursday we heard that a 15-20 foot storm surge would probably hit Tallahassee when Helene made landfall, and then the damn fool thing was going to come directly up I-75 and hit Atlanta head on with 75 mph winds. These were the conditions predicted when we went to bed on Thursday night. Instead, we slept almost soundlessly until five, when rain lashed at the windows and we could hear the wind raging outside. By the time we got up it was sprinkling, and then partly cloudy, with some very blue sky visible. Just south of us the storm had turned east, so Atlanta and Chattanooga were marked "safe" except for some downed trees around town.

Instead Helene barrelled into western North Carolina like a gigantic watery freight train. All the beautiful towns and villages there were lashed and pounded. The "Rainbow Bridge," a little tribute place where you could fasten a memory of a beloved pet, was washed away. The gatehouse at Biltmore Estates was 2/3 covered in water. The little town of Chimney Rock was completely washed away. Big chunks of the freeway in eastern Tennessee and western NC are gone, as well as smaller roads. The Blue Ridge Parkway has been chewed up in many places. In fact so many roads are out that they cannot bring in supplies to many places and are resorting to helicopters, small planes, and, in one case, a mule train! Mountain Mule Trackers have been using their mules to get supplies into that part of the state. Fall is the time when much of western NC and eastern TN make money due to leaf peepers. They'll have no business this year. Dolly Parton personally donated a million dollars to recover efforts.

James' sister, in Gaffney, South Carolina, lost power, but they are in the country and have a generator. [They only had power restored on October 6, thanks to tree cutters shipped in all the way from St. Louis, Missouri, followed by the local linemen. Electrical linemen are the GOAT. These folks need to be paid more money, not overstuffed politicians and performers.]

So while Nature was doing her damnest, we were able to carry on: I cleaned out under the bathroom sinks and used shelves to get extra storage space; we stopped at Trader Joe's on the way home from James' surgical followup and found lots of fall goodies; Thursday it was cool enough for me to go for a full walk!; on Saturday after Hair Day we drove out to the Costco in Paulding county, gassed up my car, and found more Belgian chocolate mousse in the handy little glass containers as well as lamb chops for $5.99/pound; and stopped at the local Walmart and finally found some of my yogurt! I bought two weeks' worth and need to check the local Wally Worlds for more.

In James news, Dr. Coyle seemed pleased with his fistula so far, even though he complains he cannot feel what they call "the thrill," the buzzing that a successful fistula makes. I can feel it plain as day, it vibrates like a purring cat. The skin around the surgical area has also swollen up like it's supposed to, which the original fistula did not do. Oddly, his blood pressure was rather low on the visit, but she did not seem concerned. And Friday he got lucky and got an early chair at dialysis!

Sunday he got the nicest surprise of all. His best friend J.P. called ... um, from wherever he and his wife are living now; I've totally forgotten. You should have heard them on the phone exchanging their health challenges. Apparently J.P. also twitches in his sleep and has been diagnosed with narcolepsy.

We had some of the lamb chops tonight, in the air fryer, with mint jelly. So good!

Labels: chores, errands, food, friends, health, local, relatives, sadness, shopping, sickness, storms, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:26:00 PM

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Emotionally, it's been a bummer of a week.

The saddest part was finding out a friend had died. I met Rose Marie Badgett on my first trip to a convention with friends rather than with my mother. There were six of us sharing a room: Rosie (from Kentucky), Alice and Maggi from Georgia, Mary from Massachusetts, and Gail and I from Rhode Island. We had a wilder weekend than we expected than at a Star Trek convention because all of us were supposed to leave on Monday, but Sunday night a big snowstorm blew into New York City, flights were suspended, Amtrak was running about twelve hours behind...and the hotel offered us another night at the con rate. We had a room party and James Doohan showed up, except we missed it because Gail and Rosie had gone out to dinner, and the other four of us were in Holly's room, Mary and Maggi because they wanted some quiet, and Alice and I were watching Backstairs at the White House.

Rosie was one of the Space: 1999 fans in the bunch and I saw her twice a year until she moved to California and then I moved to Georgia. I think I saw her last in person in 1985. But we reconnected on Facebook. Apparently she had been ill for a while and passed away on Sunday.

My consolation is that she and Lin have probably found each other by now and are telling tales to each other.

Less hurtful but still mournful was the fact that we made our monthly trip to Canton on Thursday and Uncle Maddio's Pizza Joint was no more. They must have closed right after we went last month. So we made our monthly pilgrimage to Books-a-Million, then ate at a pizza place called Brooklyn Joe's. It was very good, but they don't make personal pizzas; however, they will make half a pizza one way and half another, so I got my usual bacon/black olive/no cheese and James got all the cheese and onion and mushrooms and burger he wanted on his half. Next time we will get a medium, though; we brought half of it home and had it for a meal a few days later.

Sunday we also sort of "don't care"'d and didn't go to the Yellow Daisy Festival, either. Just not the same for me since the Country Pick'ns folks retired. We already had maple barbecue sauce anyway. I would have liked to have looked at the opal rings again and gotten James a new glass nail file (the one I bought him last year was broken and the "replacement" I got from Amazon is terrible—you have to saw at your nails to file them).

Got some useful things done this week anyway: James had his preop for his new fistula surgery on Tuesday, I backed up the hard drive on the desktop, got gas for my car, picked up a prescription at Kaiser.

Did you know there's a "lost" episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent? There is; fortunately it's a Nichols and Wheeler episode...I do dream about them finding a "lost" Goren and Eames! This one was about favoritism in picking out an Olympic site and apparently the Brazilians didn't like it, so it's neither on the DVD set nor in reruns. Someone recorded it when it was first broadcast, though, and that's what I saw. It was an underwhelming effort anyway. Jeff Goldblum overacted terribly in an interrogation scene with the female suspect. The best parts were insights into the ongoing Major Case storylines at the time: Megan Wheeler being interrogated by the FBI due to her fiance's involvement in money laundering and then throwing out her wedding invitations (very sad scene), Ross and Nichols arguing over the latter's decision to go see Breakfast at Tiffany's for insights into the case, and Nichols learning Wheeler's likes and dislikes.

On Saturday we had fun at Taste of Smyrna; this time we went early (1) when it was cool and (2) James could have a meal before his club meeting afterward. We tasted the usual "drunken pork" and creamy grits, rice balls, elk and bison meatballs (I was disappointed; they were quite bland), and a very sweet bread pudding. No Asian food at all this year.

Labels: books, conventions, errands, events, food, friends, loss, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:35:00 PM

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I mentioned James got new glasses earlier this year. Well, he's been a bit discontented with them. The transitional glasses he ordered don't get dark enough, even enough in full sun, and to see the monitor on his computer with the "computer glasses," he has to bend way over the screen. So we went to Costco today, only to be told the transition lenses have to be "trained" by holding them up to the sun! Also that his computer glasses aren't going to work for the distance he is from the screen (31 inches).

Who heard of lenses having to be "trained"?

I ended up buying a new vacuum cleaner, another Dyson, at Costco because the price was so good. I love the old one, because it is so light, but the beater bar quit working and I wager it would cost as much to fix as to get a new one. I like the new one, but it is too darn heavy.

I finally made it to the bank this week to re-work the CD that I was unable to renew when it expired. The bank happily worked with me putting it into another CD with a good interest rate (4.5 instead of .01!). I also cashed out about seven expired savings bonds that were no longer gathering interest and added those to the CD.

The big thing that happened this week is that I bought a Sunday membership to DragonCon. I am really scared about it because it means I'll have to leave James alone for the day. But he really wants me to go; he even bought a tray for his walker so he can manage to make his breakfast and then eat it at his desk.

Labels: cleaning, conventions, errands, financial, problems

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:50:00 PM

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This week we had a new wrinkle: James' pulse has been slow. We called up Kaiser and they got us an appointment on Tuesday with a Dr. Carpenter. We thought for sure he would ship us off to Urgent Care, which was, providentially, empty, but he ordered an X-ray and a blood test, and then took an EKG. He said because we were going to see James' cardiologist the next day, he felt safe just doing that. And so we did; Dr. Shash said that dialysis needs to take more fluid off of James. Both he and Dr. Carpenter think he should be on some kind of diuretic to help him shed fluid, but DaVita doesn't think so. They did take him off his high blood pressure meds, which they thought might have been the cause of the low pulse. He really doesn't need the medication anymore due to the dialysis.

I hate that DaVita and Kaiser don't talk to each other. It's Kaiser I'm paying for medical service and to keep James healthy, and I don't like DaVita sticking their fingers in the pie.

In happier news, we went downtown on Thursday and wandered about, visiting the new Italian grocery and goodies store, the candy store for sugar-free candy, and the Corner Shop (the British store).

The only other notable event was a horrific thunderstorm on Sunday; everything got dark, the wind whipped up and the rain lashed down. But it cleared up in time to reveal a beautiful full moon!

Labels: errands, food, health, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:25:00 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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This was a week of getting tiny things done (like mending), Valentine's Day, and of a short trip that ended in a rather blah manner.

The best news was that I finished the taxes, sent the state their $28, and anticipated the refund. James had them charge him the full tax rate when he cashed out his 401K, but we made so little this year he's getting it all back. We'll do what he did with the 401K money, put it toward his credit card, because those individual physiotherapy/Kaiser bills add up fast.

We don't do much for Valentine's Day anymore. It was a nice day, so after physical therapy we stopped at Walmart. We bought yogurt and sugar-free candy, but most of what I wanted I just had to order. Walmart is nowhere near stocked the way it used to be. We also stopped at an Indian grocery store in the same shopping center (we thought it was the one Jerry recommended, but it wasn't). To my surprise, they had jars of lupini beans. Of course I grabbed some; nice to have them on this side of town. For supper we had the shrimp we got at Publix in a scampi sauce with spaghetti, with caramel-center dark chocolate hearts for dessert. His Valentine gift arrived in the mail that evening just in time: I got him a set of accessories for his air fryer. He bought me Ali Hazelwood's Bride.

On Friday we did something we hadn't done for a while: went to the Barnes & Noble in Buckhead. It was a good bookstore trip, but we ended up eating at IHOP on the way home. I don't want to eat here anymore; any meal I'm interested in gives me heartburn, and I won't eat eggs, and I don't want total carbs (like pancakes or French toast) for dinner.

Did more books on Sunday: 2nd and Charles trip, but didn't buy anything. James also went in Hobbytown while I stayed outside and read--I was in the midst of a rather absorbing story. Sunday was also the day we watched Oppenheimer. Interesting filming technique--but "Oppy" seemed like a weird duck. Glad I saw it, but don't ever see myself watching it again.

Labels: books, chores, errands, food, movies, shopping, taxes

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:46:00 PM

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In many ways it was an ordinary week, so terribly ordinary that it would almost be otherwise forgettable. Monday and Tuesday were the usual chores. We had the usual shopping trips. James had physiotherapy and three doctors' appointments, one which wasn't needed (apparently his hemoglobin is finally in the normal range, so he didn't need this week's Procrit shot; he also had his A1C tested and it came out an amazing 5.9).

There were a couple of blips: one was that I got very worried over the sore on James' toe and we ended up canceling his sleep study partially because I didn't want him walking that much on his right foot till we saw the podiatrist next week. The other reason we canceled was because our petsitter couldn't come to walk Tucker; her mom had been diagnosed with COVID. We would have had to leave at 6 p.m. and wouldn't be home until 8 a.m. or so, and I didn't think it was fair Tucker would have to go 13-14 hours without getting to pee. I was also worried about the person with COVID, because she was already in shock about something else.

So were we, for that matter, and so was anyone who was friends with Lin Butler.

Lin was a very special person with a beautiful spirit, a killer sense of humor, a big heart, and a welcoming smile, smart as all get out—she was a chemist for Coca-Cola for many years—and a tireless fundraiser for the Cystic Fibrosis organization (her younger son was diagnosed with CF). In the last few years she has battled a number of health problems, including cancer and heart problems, and done so with bravery and humor. In October she watched her older son and his girlfriend of several years "tie the knot" with happiness, even though she was ill with bronchitis at the time. (She told her doctor she'd do anything he said, but if she had to go in the hospital again it must be after the wedding.)

The nasty cough she had from the bronchitis hung on into November and the two times we saw her in December, and the last time we saw her, on the morning of January 6. She was talking about a little trip she was planning to take with our friends Alice and Juanita; I didn't catch where it was they were going that day, but it turned out to be in Florida, at a little beach condo. I'm sure she was dreaming about breathing in the wonderful sea air, and she did get to enjoy it for one evening.

Later that evening she had trouble breathing and was taken to the nearest emergency room. It turned out she had double pneumonia and had to be intubated.

She died of heart failure three days later.

So it was a very ordinary week. And a very cold week and a terrible week and an empty week. There is a gap that can never be filled, an empty place at the table, a missing piece of our hearts.

Here in Georgia the day of her death had been very wet, a steady, miserable drizzle all day; even when evening fell, there was a mist of rain droplets casting a bit of a fog, with the streetlights haloed by the rain. At bedtime, just as we were preparing to shower, the lights went off, then on again, with the weather as it was, not much of a surprise since we have pinpoint blackouts on sunny days, too. But then the lights started blinking off and on in the most astonishing way, the bulbs sometimes powered so low that only the filament was lit. It reminded me of some horror movie where that happened, not sure which one.

James snapped on a flashlight before the lights quit doing their carnival thing and went black completely. And that's when I noticed lights were flickering outside. Through the bathroom window there was this weird flickering like heat lightning in the summer, just a constant, rapid flashing like the wings of a fluttering bird.

I thought I was seeing things, so went from the bedroom to the back door on the deck and opened the door, and then had to call James because this spooky light was just flickering on and off all through the air outside. It was eerie. James came stumping out on his cane and watched this, then said, "Try looking out the front window and see if it looks the same," so I ran into the spare bedroom; sure enough, I could still see the flickering light through the curtains, and pulled up the shade.

Flickering, yes, facing west as well, dancing over the roofs of the houses across the street, but now you could see the source in the northwest sky, a point far beyond the trees where the lights were dancing like fireworks seen through a translucent cloud cover, hovering over a central point, yellowish, whitish, and sometimes other pale shades. All at once, it turned bluish, then got intensely bright and then was extinguished.

Martian War Machines? Spaceships over Witch Mountain? We figured a transformer or something similar sparking, and the mist in the air reflecting the flickering light everywhere. (Another source said it was a power station overload.)

By the time I got back in the bedroom and called Cobb EMC, the power was back on, and the lady on duty must have thought I was crazy talking about how the sky flickered.

Being the sentimentalist I am, the thought did flash into my head--maybe it was Lin trying to send us a message. Maybe now she can light up the sky.

Labels: chores, death, errands, events, friends, health

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

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Christmas Day was quite pleasant; we had a leisurely breakfast. We had no gifts to open--James hadn't wrapped mine (the Law & Order monopoly game) and his hadn't arrived from Amazon yet (a new food processor), so we watched The Little Drummer Boy and The House Without a Christmas Tree until it was time to go to the Butlers for dinner, conversation, fuzzy Christmas feelings, and a gift exchange.

The food certainly beat Bay Breeze all hollow: perfectly cooked turkey, ham, and Clair's pot roast, over half a dozen veggie sides, desserts from pie to the little Favorina florentines, and of course Lin's cinnamon-and-sugar piecrust folds. She always makes them and I always hug her for it. I remember when I was a kid and would only eat the pie crusts; the filling didn't interest me at all. One of my aunts used to make the little pastries out of piecrust. too.

Later we had a mad gift opening—I opened everything so fast I'm not sure I know who gave me what—but everything was nice, from cross-stitch kits to dessert treats. We checked out Christmas lights on the way home, but weren't able to go on to check out the lights in Smyrna because we both needed to "hit the head" by the time we got to the house. Ah, the pleasures of being old!

Tuesday was a funny day: usually it's me who has post-holiday gastric distress, but today it was James. He remained close to home while I ran errands: went to Barnes & Noble, only to find this year their post-Christmas hardback sale is only 33 percent off, and there was nothing I wanted that bad for only 33 percent off. Instead I went to Hobby Lobby and got Oliver a new cage cover, as the one I bought at JoAnn was too small (I ordered a yard and they gave me only 30 inches—not cool, JoAnn). Then I got Butch gassed up at Costco and finished up by picking up something at Kaiser for James and then went to Publix. (I was actually heading for Big Lots, but traffic was stopped dead for a big accident; I ran past three accidents in the two hours I was out, and in two cases one car had hit the other car so hard that the wheel was bent. In fact, one of the cars had its left rear wheel broken off with the axle sticking out of it! After seeing the third accident, I just wanted to get home unscathed.)

James was better by Wednesday, so we went to physiotherapy; this is his last until Kaiser gets off their duff and re-ups his referral. On the way home we stopped at Lidl.

Thursday it was James' turn to get gasoline at Costco. This time we went inside to get the rest of the things for our Twelfth Night party. I also did a search-and-destroy through the garage and tossed away a garbage bag full of stuff, plus a bunch of old magazines. And to make it a medical trifecta, James had an iron infusion on Friday. Made the mistake of eating at Whattaburger afterwards. I am so not impressed by this place. The burger tastes of that fake "grillmark" shit and James clearly asked them for my burger as "a bun, the burger, and ketchup only," and they gave me the whole darn salad (thank goodness they remembered to omit the mustard). I burped the crappy thing up the rest of the afternoon.

Yesterday we went to a nice little gathering at the Spiveys home to celebrate Alice's birthday and watch the UGA vs. Florida State game. The company was great, but Florida State did a crash and burn. Later we learned the final score was 63 to 3!

Today I washed towels and cleaned the bathroom so I didn't have to do it on New Year's Day. Still have to sort meds for the week, but that's a twenty minute thing. For supper James made something he calls "egg roll in a bowl," ground pork cooked up and then blended with diced coleslaw, carrots, and celery. It was yummy. We watched a few Law & Order: Criminal Intent episodes, then Rudolph's Shiny New Year, the Ellery Queen episode "The Adventure of Auld Lang Syne," and finally the M*A*S*H episode "A War for All Seasons."

I put on the live feed from Times Square at 11:30, but the music was dreadful, so I found an old Guy Lombardo special from New Year's Eve 1976 to watch until it was almost time for the real Happy New Year. So we saw 1977 in about 11:55, then switched back to Times Square for the final countdown.

HAPPY 2024, EVERYONE!
Linda
James
Tucker
&
Oliver

Labels: birthday, Christmas, errands, food, gifts, health, illness, New Year, restaurants, videos

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:59:00 PM

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I was so conflicted. I wanted to write. Wanted to put up Christmas decorations. Wanted to do something fun.

Well, I did do some decorating almost every day this week, but was way behind due to procrastination and just plain depression. Monday I did kick myself into action. I had gifts I had not mailed out last year that I definitely wanted to get out this year, and early so I could use media mail. So I wrapped all four gifts and went to the post office. The line wasn't too awful because there were actually (faint!) four cashiers at the Smyrna post office, and the one I got was very jolly. I also mailed all the Christmas cards and went to the Smyrna fire station to drop off Toys for Tots.

(Amazingly, every single person I mailed to—media mail—got their gift before the end of the week! Emma got hers in two days.)

James had to take care of another annoying health problem this week: he has had a dermatitis problem on the tip of his nose for several years now. It bleeds and crusts over and then heals. The last time the dermatologist biopsied it, it wasn't cancerous, but some type of skin irritation. But in the last couple of weeks (ironically since he had the new drug for arthritis—which he quit taking) it has bled and formed a huge scab about a centimeter in diameter. So Tuesday we had to go to Kaiser to get it biopsied again. (The dermatologist said James was clearly reacting to the new drug with all his other symptoms, and he'd heard of those side effects for that drug before.) I did get the laundry done, too.

Wednesday was the usual physiotherapy and Doughnut Day. James also had to get a blood test. That awful methotrexine has really bollixed up his system—his readings were all awful and his iron levels worse than ever, so that he has to have iron infusions scheduled.

Thursdays I inventoried all my gift boxes and prepped for gift wrapping.

Labels: Christmas, conflicts, decorating, errands, health, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:24:00 PM

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You've heard of 1001 Nights? This week was 1/3 dozen doctors. (And, to be honest, 1/4 dozen doctors, since physiotherapy doesn't really count.)

The tally:
Last visit with vascular doctor.
Podiatry.
Pre-sleep study consultation (in Decatur, no less).
Also, physiotherapy.

So doing housework on Monday was actually sort of relaxing. 😉

So James' fistula appears to be healed properly. Not sure if it's ripe yet. The doctor keeps asking "When are you going on dialysis?" Well, not yet, I hope. It's not like anyone's told us. James has no symptoms: he's still urinating fine, the urine looks normal, he has no loss of appetite, edema, nausea or vomiting, or shortness of breath. (Dr. Kongara keeps asking.) On the steroids Dr. Salazar gave him, he lost five pounds.

Since we were at Glenlake anyway, we went to Merchant's Walk and checked out the new Barnes & Noble in the shopping center where the Borders used to be (the B&N is in the old Bed, Bath & Beyond). The new store is...quite trendy. The bookshelves curve and "float" around the store so you are led in a certain path around it; James didn't like it, said they didn't have enough stock. I thought it was kinda cool (but, yeah, all the bookstores can use more books!) In fact, I found a cool book about Josephine Baker's spy work there, and bought James Travis Baldree's new book. I also had to get Victoria Finlay's new book, Fabric. "But, Linda, you hate to sew." Why yes, I do, and I can't tell one type of cotton fabric from another (except flannel). But I love Victoria Finlay's writing, and this book is no different. It starts out with barkcloth and tapa, both made out of the inner bark of palm trees, and she travels to New Guinea and other South Pacific islands to meet the few Polynesian craftswomen who still practice doing the fabric the old way. She also uses the book as a way of assuaging her grief after the deaths of her parents.

We also went to Trader Joe's, where most of the Christmas stuff is out. Where are the Candy-Cane Joe-Joe's? All they had were the chocolate-covered ones.

Wednesday was Doughnut Day Physiotherapy. It was a warm day, like the previous one, and James was still in minimal pain due to the steroid treatment, so we took the rollator instead of the chair so we could use Butch and take him by the cheap ($15) inspection place. Everything was okay, and then we went on to what was a very extensive workout, and yes, the doughnut. On the way home we stopped at Publix to do the weekly shopping.

Thursday we took a box to Goodwill, dropped off our good duds at the cleaners after their appearance at Neil and Emilee's wedding, then James got his feet inspected and a good pedicure at Kaiser before we went on to Lidl and two different Publix stores, since the Scufflegrit store on Wednesday had none of my favorite yogurt flavor (chocolate hazelnut). (They had plenty of that nasty coconut almond, though!)

Friday was our 33rd wedding anniversary. (Rodney pointed out that in March we would now be an LP!) We celebrated by having to get up at a hellacious seven a.m. to drive out to Decatur, as James has not had his C-PAP vetted in a long time. The only way to get this done is have a new sleep study, and when you're on Medicare you have to have a neurological exam before the sleep study. So this was the exam part, at 10:30. At the Emory sleep center. Off North Decatur Road. (What I call the "old neighborhood" since if you drive a few miles and a couple of turns and you're at Clifton Road and CDC headquarters.)

It was cloudy and rained most of the afternoon, which made it a PITA with the power chair, but we managed to have a good time. We found the building in one shot (thanks, Waze) and the exam itself was anticlimactic (James' opinion was "I had to drive all the way out here for that?"). I'd seen there was a Whole Foods across the street, and the last time we ate at the Whole Foods in Kennesaw they had a killer salad bar, so I said, "Let's go there for lunch."

Mistake. It is (or at least at that Whole Foods) no longer killer (no more of the delicious cucumber/tomato salad!) and there wasn't a darn thing on the hot bar I could eat without risk of (1) eating something spicy or (2) eating something that didn't give me massive indigestion even with a Protonix. They had clam chowder, but it was watery. I just had a salad while James found meatloaf, tikka masala, lasagna, and something else. He brought half of it home and the darn lunch cost $34! We could have gone to Tin Drum for less and gotten better food.

We did get some nice chocolate tarts for an anniversary dessert and two chocolate bars for other desserts.

There was a Half-Price Books across the street with a JoAnn next to it, so we took refuge out of the rain there. I got lucky in HPB and found another John Douglas book; also a hardback of Stephen King's On Writing and a "Bottom Line" book for $2 (we already had it, but I wanted to make sure!). James got some cool Lego Christmas sets (polar bears, a snowman, and a train) in JoAnn. I just bought a yard of good flannel...in case we get another bird. I cut off part of Snowy's cage cover for a shroud.

Anyway, James has become addicted to his new air fryer. We went from a 2.5 quart to a 5.something quart, so he's been making everything in it: warming up burritos in it if he has frozen burritos, making egg/cheese/ham/etc. egg dishes, cooking drumsticks and thighs, etc. So instead of putting it back on the dog's crate after using it, he's just left it smack in the middle of the kitchen counter, pre-empting prep space. We have very little kitchen counter as it is.

So Saturday I did a little cleaning in the kitchen pantry closet and cleared a space wide enough to put the two clear containers we have for English muffins and for Toufeyan wraps. If I then moved the tea machine next to the toaster, there was enough room to put the balsamic vinegars, the air fryer, the Magic Bullet, and the two-level lazy susan against the back wall next to the refrigerator. This means the entire counter got clean, and also the other counter. It was a long afternoon's work, but it worked out.

Finally on Sunday we went to Costco, as we were running out of probiotics. We've been taking them for three months and it has really helped my lower GI problems, and I think they've made James more "regular." Bought toilet tissue, almond flour crackers, and a few other things, too, then dumped all the stuff at home and went to IKEA.

I remember when you could get a decent lunch at IKEA; now all they have are the meatballs, veg meatballs, or chicken strips. I had a salad that there was no dressing for, and a kids' meatball dish (four with mashed potatoes). I was famished when I got home. Found a cool light to plug into my desktop that will throw light on anything I'm copying from, a clip-on light for my side of the bed, and a cheap squirt bottle to use when I iron creases in anything. Also got some ginger cookies. IKEA's new self-checkout screens are terrible. They're not sensitive to the touch at all and take you forever.

I'll tell you, though, that I'm so glad we moved into the current house when we did. IKEA has gone back to their "roots," which means plastic bucket chairs, ugly square sofas, lots of blond and white woods, and other junky 60s-looking crap. I'm glad we got all the Leksvik furniture when we did, as there's very little I would buy there now, except for the Billy bookcases. It didn't help that they are remodeling the entire bed/bedding department.

Labels: anniversary, books, cooking, crafts, errands, exercise, food, health, shopping, sickness, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 12:47:00 PM

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Well, we had some Big Events this week (and none of them involved goddamn Urgent Care).

The Friends of the Library book sale was on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and it was the first time that I've gone that I did not go first thing on Friday morning. I still fret about James and I didn't feel like getting up early to boot, plus I know I'm not going to find the stuff on my want list at the sale (it has happened, but not often enough to be a pattern, like when I found Time Out for Happiness). I ended up going on Saturday instead, to kill a little over an hour before Jessie's birthday party at Mellow Mushroom. And, yes, I still did manage to find books, including Michener's Chesapeake and Alaska, a compendium of Agatha Christie's books, a book of British mystery short stories that includes one by the late Christopher Fowler, My American Revolution about the war in the Middle Colonies, and Ronald Kessler's The FBI. Also grabbed four books for James including a P.J. O'Rourke and a first edition Book of the Month club version of Victory Through Air Power (from 1942).

Ironically, James was going to go to his club meeting and only I was attending the birthday party, but he discovered the meeting was next week, so I followed him over there only to find out Jessie had a problem and could not attend her own party. There was a nice crowd anyway and we enjoyed ourselves.

Instead of the book sale on Friday James and I went to Home Depot, which was absolutely filled with Christmas trees! Doesn't anyone make a decent-looking tree under 7 1/2 feet tall? I simply cannot decorate one that big without getting on a stool! The small ones have mixed branches which are absolutely repulsive.

Anyway, we were at HD to get light bulbs. I've discovered I like their "bright white" bulbs (3000K), since they are brighter, but don't mess with my eyes. I got a box of four clear 60-watt equivalents and one of 100-watt equivalents. For the living room I bought two bulbs which you can adjust from "warm white" to "daylight." I have left them on "true white" for now and am crossing fingers they don't irritate my eyes.

We also went to Lowes just for the heck of it, and...more Christmas trees. Same heights, too.

Had lunch at Hibachi Grill—oh, God, are they now in this oversalted hell, too?—then finally returned the pair of slip-on shoes I got for James at Walmart and bought up sugar-free candy, and picked up some things we hadn't gotten at Lidl during the big shopping trip on Thursday.

On the way up the stairs with the groceries, I whacked my right elbow good on the woodwork of the stair rail. Oh, my God! I bang one of my elbows at least once a week and it's horrible and painful, but goes away in a minute. Today I had to run to the fridge and put ice on it for twenty minutes and it raised a big purple bruise and dear Lord it hurt! I was afraid I'd broken or chipped something. After the ice I wrapped it in an Ace bandage for the rest of the night, and by shower time it was fine.

All I could think of was: if my arm is broken, how will I cath James????

Something nice happened to a friend of mine on Saturday that I was very happy about. Rupert Holmes was signing his book Murder Your Employer at the Deptford, NJ, Barnes & Noble store. Our friend Emma goes there all the time! I was practically jumping up and down in the truck seat as we went to James' physiotherapy I was so excited as I texted Emma the news. She was able to go and have MYE and also her copy of his novel Swing autographed by Rupert, and he told me how nice it was to meet another "friend of WENN" (Remember WENN, that is).

We didn't go to the Apple Festival on Sunday because both of us got too little sleep and it's a 75 minute drive. I did manage to format a new piece of fanfic for upload on Thursday, though.

Something sad did happen on Sunday that was of little consequence, but was still a bummer. I signed up for Twitter a couple of years ago so I could read posts from a few people I liked, including Susan Branch, Sam Neill, J. Michael Straczynski, and Vincent D'Onofrio. The latter, especially, would post neat views from his apartment of the NYC skyline, or his unusual little "poems" which are by turns funny, inspirational, and sometimes downright melancholy. After Elon took over Twitter, D'Onofrio mentioned he might quit, and Sunday afternoon he just pulled the plug. It will be sad not waking up to a funny video (like the one he posted a couple of weeks ago of him and his daughter cleaning the carpet in his apartment!) or a pretty view or a poem).

Labels: books, Christmas, errands, food, friends, injuries, shopping, social media, writing

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:20:00 PM

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We have discovered the best day to go to Costco: Tuesday. Oh, there's still a crowd, but it's a smaller crowd, and parking spaces are more available. In fact, we ran into a friend there: Alex Lucyshyn was there on his lunch hour. We bought toilet paper, which was a relief, because we were down to three rolls. James has been hankering for a new air fryer because ours was so small, so we bought one today. Alas, he made wings in it the first time and burnt the sauce. I ended up throwing up by bedtime. (But the wings themselves were cooked perfectly.)

I am determined to get more junk out of the house, so I made up two boxes of items we don't use (the old rice cooker, a sander I never used and now I don't make furniture any longer, etc.) to go to Goodwill. The box didn't go anywhere this week, though.

On Saturday, we took a few things to electronics recycling—the notice for it popped up unexpectedly on Twitter a few days ago—then went to an event in Acworth called the "Time Traveling Book Sale that had popped up on Facebook Events. This took place at the Acworth Community Center, and while there were a few booksellers, most of the dealers sold other book-related items. James bought a couple of dice from a vendor, and we saw the neatest keyboard at one vendor's table. It really does click like a typewriter keyboard!

We also went to the Crazy Book Lady bookstore. I found a neat book about numbers in literature and science, a book called Indian Time to read next month, and, finally, James Michener's Creatures of the Kingdom, which is all the collected nature and animal shorts from the beginnings of his books like Centennial, Hawaii, etc.

We ate in a spot off state route 41, Capo's Pizza/Ristorante. The service was very good and the "garlic knots" were to die for, but the spaghetti sauce was much too sweet. We didn't need dessert afterward.

Anyway, James has been wanting to see the film Greyhound for ages, but it's only on Apple+. Best Buy had this special offer for new subscribers: three months' free membership, so I got it. We watched Greyhound on Sunday and we both really enjoyed it. Laughed at some of the reviews, which complained there was "no character development." This was basically an action film, a war action film, about American destroyers escorting supply convoys across the Atlantic and being trailed by U-boat wolfpacks. Except for the first five minutes in the hotel, it is nonstop shooting and battle, and it's so well done I enjoyed it immensely. I didn't care if there was "no character development"--it was perfect as it was.

Labels: books, decluttering, errands, events, food, friends, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:05:00 PM

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This week has run the gamut from the sublime to the frustrating.

We had a quiet Memorial Day. I made ribs again, as they were BOGO at Publix this week. They were nice and tender, but I marinated them too early in the cooking process and the barbecue sauce/maple syrup combination burned. I don't like that "grill mark" burned taste and really don't understand why other people do, so I was disappointed. Next time I will not baste them so early.

Dish finally sent me a box, so I packed up the Dish Hopper and the remote to send back to them; they also want you to send the "eye" from the antenna, but that's 30 feet up on the roof! The guy I canceled with said they don't expect you to get it up there, thank goodness. When we went to Hair Day the next day we dropped the box off at the UPS Store with its nice prepaid label. I also finally framed the Scottish print and Rhode Island print we bought at the Yellow Daisy Festival last fall. We couldn't find any 9x9 frames at JoAnn with our coupon, so instead I got 9x12 frames, then bought two sheets of scrapbook paper and backed each print with one. The Scottish one for James has a blue tartan print, and my Rhode Island one has a blue background with sailboats on it.

On Amazon Vine I got six isosceles-triangle-shaped solar powered lights to put on stairways, and I put them out this week. I like them. I put one on each step down to the front sidewalk. They gather "power" through the day, and at night they light up the stairs on low power. When I go out to walk the dog at night, though, they come up to high power as I approach, which is cool. It's not a lot of light, but you can see the front steps, which you can't anymore since they put in the new streetlights.

We were supposed to go to the vascular surgeon on Wednesday, but just before we left, as I was cathing James for the afternoon, the nurse called to cancel the appointment! We have rescheduled for July, since July is such a suck-ass month in this household anyway it seems appropriate.

Labels: crafts, errands, food, friends, gadgets, health

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:21:00 PM

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Well, it was an eventful week, and that was in a good way except for one thing.

Tuesday, since we had an early appointment at physiotherapy, we went to Trader Joe's afterward. Since James has been making real oatmeal daily, we are using maple syrup regularly. It's very expensive, especially if you want the robust flavor ($22/quart at Publix), so we have been trying to buy it at one of the clubs (Costco, etc.). Unfortunately the syrup comes in jugs (like old-fashioned moonshine jugs), and the pour tops on them are terrible; they never screw back on properly after you remove the foil tab from the top of the jug so that the spout faces "front" (pour spout is opposite the jug handle), no matter how you screw them on. They always face back toward the handle. So we have been refilling the Trader Joe's maple syrup container, which has a pour top that faces "front" properly. Unfortunately a couple of days ago one of us tossed the Trader Joe's container, so we'd hoped to get another.

Sigh...except Trader Joe's has changed their containers and now use a jug, too. I just gave up and ordered a mason jar type 1-quart pouring container from Amazon. This way we can see how much is left as well.

We'd planned to go up to Canton for pizza and a book fix on Thursday, with a side trip to BJs before the coupons expire; I decided at the last minute that it really wouldn't be good for James at this point to put a big load of sodium in his system, and there are enough books, so we ended up going only to BJs. While I was there I saw a little (11 inch) Chromebook for just a little over $100. I've been looking for something that I can write on for certain situations while we're out (James is at physiotherapy or getting an iron infusion), so I grabbed the last one, only to find out it was out of stock. So I ordered one from BJs.com when I got home.

Glad we watched all the Law & Order iterations that evening, since what happens next week may affect a story I'm working on. (Am I in too deep with this stuff or what?)

Friday I tackled some small clean-up things that had been neglected. I finally finished up scrubbing all the things that had been in the birdcage as well as the cage frame itself. It went very slowly and was emotionally draining. The other thing was dusting/cleaning off the space heater in the master bathroom for the season and covering it in plastic. This came as a figurative shock: the plug for the space heater was fused to the plug for the heavy-duty timer with some brownish-black stuff. Both are now in the electronics recycling bin. It's been fine on that timer for several years, so I can only assume the space heater was to blame. We have to have something in there, because it gets terribly cold in there in the winter.

The last thing I did on Friday was to sign up for Philo. This will replace Dish, and, although we will lose TCM, we will actually gain a lot of channels we lost by going down to the Flex Pack, like Animal Planet, BBC America, Science Channel, Destination America, and Sundance all the time rather than on monthly previews. Best of all it's $25 versus $84.

Saturday the first thing I did was pack up the two blue bags that the mail carrier had left earlier. They do a food drive every year. I pulled a lot of higher-sodium items out of the closet and bookcase downstairs, double-bagged it inside leftover Kroger bags, and hung it on the mailbox post. Seriously, they do the food drive in May and expect you to leave the bags on the ground. Sure, expect the nice people who get the food from the food bank to get stuff with ants in them.

James spent the afternoon in his "Man Cave"; I put on a podcast and posted a short piece on A03/FF.net, then girded my loins and called Dish to cancel. I was very surprised, because I'd heard these horror stories on "The Tech Guy" about people calling Spectrum and Frontier and the cable companies and getting these hard-sell please-stay-with-us people badgering them. The guy offered me three things, including one thing where you "park" your account for five dollars a month! But he was very polite, and never at any time gave me a problem. So, after 27 years we are done with Dish.

In the late afternoon I fished the shutters out of the garage and put them on the sidelights on the front door. It isn't pretty, but I thought it did a good job last year of keeping the electric bill down.

Mother's Day was very lazy. James always buy me a gift on Mother's Day because he says I'm a dog mom (and was a budgie mom), so my gift has been sitting on the back of the sofa for about two weeks. I always get him a Father's Day gift for the same reason. He expressed an interest in a book and movie called First Light, about a flyer during the Battle of Britain, so I found a good used copy of the book online (a new copy was $57!) and it turned out to be delivered today. So we exchanged gifts. (I got Catherine Friend's book Sheepish, a sequel to her Hit by a Farm, about a city girl who trades pavement in for soil.)

Spent a good deal of time rearranging the channels on the Roku box. Since we will now get our "cable channels" through Philo, I have that first on the menu. I also deleted the Dish-only Roku services because I can't sign into them anymore. Plus I looked through the channels to see what interesting things are on which channel. For instance, they did a film of Madeleine L'Engle's book Camilla Dickinson. It's on both TubiTV and on Filmrise. There are also short (about sixty minutes each) films based on about a dozen of the "Dear America" books; those are on Filmrise. Stir of Echoes, a paranormal film with Kathryn Erbe, is available on Tubi. (We keep Tubi around because they carry Jonny Harris' stand up series, Still Standing.) I found the Ion channel (which occasionally shows the early Law & Order: SVU episodes) on several services. And a 1948 film based on the BBC's radio series Paul Temple is on one of the "Cozy Mystery" channels.

I also bought Peacock for the year (cheaper per month), which should cover me through almost all of Law & Order next year.

The sobering thing was finding out a friend was in the hospital again, this time with tachycardia. She won't have any news until Monday.

Labels: electronics, errands, events, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:23:00 PM

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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:

Scared and Scared Some More